Chapter 10

Pietro Martire de Anghiera(usually called Peter Martyr), an Italian scholar, statesman, and historian. Born at Arona, on Lake Maggiore, in 1455; died at Granada, Spain, 1526.

To declare my opinion herein, whatsoever hath heretofore been discovered by the famous travayles of Saturnusand Hercules, with such other whom the antiquitie for their heroical acts honoured as Gods, seemeth but little and obscure if it be compared to the victorious labours of the Spanyards.

—Decad. ii, cap. 4, Lok's Translation.

William Mason, an English poet. Born at Hull, 1725; died in 1797.

Old England's genius turns with scorn away,Ascends his sacred bark, the sails unfurled,And steers his state to the wide Western World.

J. N. Matthews, in ChicagoTribune, 1892.

Sailing before the silver shafts of morn,He bore the White Christ over alien seas—The swart Columbus—into "lands forlorn,"That lay beyond the dim Hesperides.Humbly he gathered up the broken chainOf human knowledge, and, with sails unfurled,He drew it westward from the coast of Spain,And linked it firmly to another world.Tho' blinding tempests drove his ships astray,And on the decks conspiring Spaniards grewMore mutinous and dangerous, day by day,Than did the deadly winds that round him blew,Yet the bluff captain, with his bearded lip,His lordly purpose, and his high disdain,Stood like a master with uplifted whip,And urged his mad sea-horses o'er the main.Onward and onward thro' the blue profound,Into the west a thousand leagues or more,His caravels cut the billows till they groundUpon the shallows of San Salvador.Then, robed in scarlet like a rising morn,He climbed ashore and on the shining sodHe gave to man a continent new-born;Then, kneeling, gave his gratitude to God.And his reward? In all the books of fateThere is no page so pitiful as this—A cruel dungeon, and a monarch's hate,And penury and calumny were his;Robbed of his honors in his feeble age,Despoiled of glory, the old GenoeseWithdrew at length from life's ungrateful stage,To try the waves of other unknown seas.

Letter written by the Duke ofMedina Celito the Grand Cardinal of Spain, Pedro Gonzalez de Mendoza, dated March 19, 1493.

Most Reverend Sir: I am not aware whether your Lordship knows that I had Cristoforo Colon under my roof for a long time when he came from Portugal, and wished to go to the King of France, in order that he might go in search of the Indies with his Majesty's aid and countenance. I myself wished to make the venture, and to dispatch him from my port [Santa Maria], where I had a good equipment of three or four caravels,since he asked no more from me; but as I recognized that this was an undertaking for the Queen, our sovereign, I wrote about the matter to her Highness from Rota, and she replied that I should send him to her. Therefore I sent him, and asked her Highness that, since I did not desire to pursue the enterprise but had arranged it for her service, she should direct that compensation be made to me, and that Imight have a share in it by having the loading and unloading of the commerce done in the port.

Her Highness received him [Colon], and referred him to Alonso de Quintanilla, who, in turn,wrote me that he did not consider this affair to be very certain; but that if it should go through, her Highness would give me a reward and part in it. After having well studied it, she agreed to send him in search of the Indies. Some eight months ago he set out, and now has arrived at Lisbon on his return voyage, and has found all which he sought and very completely; which, as soon as I knew, in order to advise her Highness of such good tidings, I am writing by Inares and sending him to beg that she grant me the privilege of sending out there each year some of my own caravels.

I entreat your Lordship that you may be pleased to assist me in this, and also ask it in my behalf; since on my account, and through my keeping him [Colon]two years in my house, and having placed him at her Majesty's service, so great a thing as this has come to pass; and because Inares will inform your Lordship more in detail, I beg you to hearken to him.

The Columbus monument, in the Paseo de la Reforma, in the City of Mexico, was erected at the charges of Don Antonio Escandon, to whose public spirit and enterprise the building of the Vera Cruz & Mexico Railway was due. The monument is the work of the French sculptor Cordier. The base is a large platform of basalt, surrounded by a balustrade of iron, above which are five lanterns. From this base rises a square mass of red marble, ornamented with fourbasso-relievos; the arms of Columbus, surrounded with garlands of laurels; the rebuilding of the monastery of Santa Maria de la Rábida; the discovery of the Islandof San Salvador; a fragment of a letter from Columbus to Raphael Sanchez, beneath which is the dedication of the monument by Señor Escandon. Above thebasso-relievos, surrounding the pedestals, are four life-size figures in bronze; in front and to the right of the statue of Columbus (that stands upon a still higher plane), Padre Juan Perez de la Marchena, prior of the Monastery of Santa Maria de la Rábida, at Huelva, Spain; in front and to the left, Padre Fray Diego de Deza, friar of the Order of Saint Dominic, professor of theology at the Convent of St. Stephen, and afterward archbishop of Seville. He was also confessor of King Ferdinand, to the support of which two men Columbus owed the royal favor; in the rear, to the right, Fray Pedro de Gante; in the rear, to the left, Fray Bartolomé de las Casas—the two missionaries who most earnestly gave their protection to the Indians, and the latter the historian of Columbus. Crowning the whole, upon a pedestal of red marble, is the figure of Columbus, in the act of drawing aside the veil that hides the New World. In conception and in treatment this work is admirable; charming in sentiment, and technically good. The monument stands in a little garden inclosed by iron chains hung upon posts of stone, around which extends a largeglorieta.

Joaquin (Cincinnatus Heine) Miller, "the Poet of the Sierras." Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, November 10, 1842. From a poem in the New YorkIndependent.

Behind him lay the gray Azores,Behind the gates of Hercules;Before him not the ghost of shores,Before him only shoreless seas.The good mate said, "Now must we pray,For lo! the very stars are gone.Brave Adm'ral, speak; what shall I say?""Why say, 'Sail on! sail on! and on!'""My men grow mutinous day by day;My men grow ghastly, wan and weak."The stout mate thought of home; a sprayOf salt wave washed his swarthy cheek."What shall I say, brave Adm'ral, say,If we sight naught but seas at dawn?""Why, you shall say, at break of day,'Sail on! sail on! sail on! and on!'"They sailed and sailed, as winds might blow,Until at last the blanched mate said,"Why, now not even God would knowShould I and all my men fall dead.These very winds forget their way,For God from these dread seas is gone.Now speak, brave Adm'ral, speak and say—"He said, "Sail on! sail on! and on!"They sailed. They sailed. Then spoke the mate,"This mad sea shows its teeth to-night.He curls his lip, he lies in wait,With lifted teeth as if to bite.Brave Adm'ral, say but one good word;What shall we do when hope is gone?"The words leapt as a leaping sword,"Sail on! sail on! sail on! and on!"Then, pale and worn, he kept his deck,And peered through darkness. Ah, that nightOf all dark nights! And then a speck—A light! A light! A light! A light!It grew, a starlit flag unfurled,It grew to be Time's burst of dawn.He gained a world; he gave that worldIts grandest lesson—"On! and on!"

D. H. Montgomery, author of "The Leading Facts of American History."

Loud was the outcry against Columbus. The rabble nicknamed him the "Admiral of Mosquito Land." They pointed at him as the man who had promised everything, and ended by discovering nothing but "a wilderness peopled with naked savages."

Gen.Thomas J. Morgan, Commissioner of Indian Affairs. In an article, "Columbus and the Indians," in the New YorkIndependent, June 2, 1892.

Columbus, when he landed, was confronted with an Indian problem, which he handed down to others, and they to us. Four hundred years have rolled by, and it is still unsolved. Who were the strange people who met him at the end of his long and perilous voyage? He guessed at it and missed it by the diameter of the globe. He called them Indians—people of India—and thus registered the fifteenth century attainments in geography and anthropology. How many were there of them? Alas! there was no census bureau here then, and no record has come down to us of any count or enumeration. Would they have lived any longer if they had been counted? Would a census have strengthened them to resist the threatened tide of invaders that the coming of Columbus heralded? If instead of corn they had presented census rolls to their strange visitors, and exhibited maps to show that the continent was already occupied, would that have changed the wholecourse of history and left us without any Mayflower or Plymouth Rock, Bunker Hill or Appomattox?

Charles Morris, an American writer of the present day. In "Half Hours with American History."

The land was clearly seen about two leagues distant, whereupon they took in sail and waited impatiently for the dawn. The thoughts and feelings of Columbus in this little space of time must have been tumultuous and intense. At length, in spite of every difficulty and danger, he had accomplished his object. The great mystery of the ocean was revealed; his theory, which had been the scoff of sages, was triumphantly established; he secured to himself a glory durable as the world itself.

It is difficult to conceive the feelings of such a man at such a moment, or the conjectures which must have thronged upon his mind as to the land before him, covered with darkness. A thousand speculations must have swarmed upon him, as with his anxious crews he waited for the night to pass away, wondering whether the morning light would reveal a savage wilderness, or dawn upon spicy groves and glittering fanes and gilded cities, and all the splendor of oriental civilization.

Emma Huntington Nason.A poem inSt. Nicholas, July, 1892, founded upon the incident of Columbus' finding a red thorn bush floating in the water a few days before sighting Watling's Island.

When the feast is spread in our country's name,When the nations are gathered from far and near,When East and West send up the sameGlad shout, and call to the lands, "Good cheer!"When North and South shall give their bloom,The fairest and best of the century born.Oh, then for the king of the feast make room!Make room, we pray, for the scarlet thorn!Not the golden-rod from the hillsides blest,Not the pale arbutus from pastures rare,Nor the waving wheat from the mighty West,Nor the proud magnolia, tall and fair,Shall Columbia unto the banquet bring.They, willing of heart, shall stand and wait,For the thorn, with his scarlet crown, is king.Make room for him at the splendid fête!Do we not remember the olden tale?And that terrible day of dark despair,When Columbus, under the lowering sail,Sent out to the hidden lands his prayer?And was it not he of the scarlet boughWho first went forth from the shore to greetThat lone grand soul at the vessel's prow,Defying fate with his tiny fleet?Grim treachery threatened, above, below,And death stood close at the captain's side,When he saw—Oh, joy!—in the sunset glow,The thorn-tree's branch o'er the waters glide."Land! Land ahead!" was the joyful shout;The vesper hymn o'er the ocean swept;The mutinous sailors faced about;Together they fell on their knees and wept.At dawn they landed with pennons white;They kissed the sod of San Salvador;But dearer than gems on his doublet brightWere the scarlet berries their leader bore;Thorny and sharp, like his future crown,Blood-red, like the wounds in his great heart made,Yet an emblem true of his proud renownWhose glorious colors shall never fade.

New OrleansMorning Star and Catholic Messenger, August 13, 1892.

The poet says that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, but there is no doubt that certain names are invested with a peculiar significance. It would appear also that this significance is not always a mere chance coincidence, but is intended, sometimes, to carry the evidence of an overruling prevision. Christopher Columbus was not so namedafterhis achievements, like Scipio Africanus. The name was his from infancy, though human ingenuity could not have conceived one more wonderfully suggestive of his after career.

Columba means a dove. Was there anything dove-like about Columbus? Perhaps not, originally, but his many years of disappointment and humiliation, of poverty and contempt, of failure and hopelessness, were the best school in which to learn patience and sweetness under the guiding hand of such teachers as faith and piety. Was anything wanting to perfect him in the unresisting gentleness of the dove? If so, his guardian angel saw to it when he sent him back in chains from the scenes of his triumph. He then and there, by his meekness, established his indefeasible right to the nameColumbus—the right of conquest.

THE WEST INDIES.THE WEST INDIES.View larger image

And Christopher—Christum-ferens—the Christ-bearer? A saint of old was so called because one day he carried the child Christ on his shoulders across a dangerous ford. People called himChristo-pher. But what shall we say of the man who carried Christ across the stormy terrors of theunknown sea? Wherever the modern Christopher landed, there he planted the cross; his first act was always one of devout worship. And now that cross and that worship are triumphant from end to end, and from border to border, of that New World. The very fairest flower of untrammeled freedom in the diadem of the Christian church is to-day blooming within the mighty domain which this instrument of Providence wrested from the malign sway of error. Shall not that New World greet him as the Christ-bearer? Indeed, there must have been more than an accidental coincidence when, half a century in advance of events, the priest, in pouring the sacred waters of baptism, proclaimed the presence of one who was to be truly a Christopher—one who should carry Christ on the wings of a dove.

From theMorning Star and Catholic Messenger, New Orleans, August 13, 1892.

Reverend and Dear Father: The fourth centenary of the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus is at hand. It is an event of the greatest importance. It added a new continent to the world for civilization and Christianity; it gave our citizens a home of liberty and freedom, a country of plenty and prosperity, a fatherland which has a right to our deepest and best feelings of attachment and affection. Christopher Columbus was a sincere and devout Catholic; his remarkable voyage was made possible by the intercession of a holy monk; and by the patronage and liberality of the pious Queen Isabella, the cross of Christ, the emblem of our holy religion, was planted on America's virgin soil, and theTe Deumand the holy mass were the first religious services held on the same; it is therefore just and proper that thisgreat event and festival should be celebrated in a religious as well as in a civil manner.

Our Holy Father the Pope has appointed the 12th of October, and His Excellency the President of the United States has assigned the 21st of October, as the day of commemoration. The discrepancy of dates is based on the difference of the two calendars. When Columbus discovered this country, the old Julian calendar was in vogue, and the date of discovery was marked the 12th; but Pope Gregory XIII. introduced the Gregorian calendar, according to which the 21st would now be the date. We will avail ourselves of both dates—the first date to be of a religious, the second of a civil, character. We therefore order that on the 12th of October a solemn votive mass (pro gratiarum actione dicendo Missam votivam de S. S. Trinitate), in honor of the Blessed Trinity, be sung in all the churches of the diocese, at an hour convenient to the parish, with an exhortation to the people, as thanksgiving to God for all his favors and blessings, and as a supplication to Him for the continuance of the same, and that all the citizens of this vast country may ever dwell in peace and union.

Let the 21st be a public holiday. We desire that the children of our schools assemble in their Sunday clothes at their school-rooms or halls, and that after a few appropriate prayers some exercises be organized to commemorate the great event, and at the same time to fire their young hearts with love of country, and with love for the religion of the cross of Christ, which Columbus planted on the American shore. We further desire that the different Catholic organizations and societies arrange some programme by which the day may be spent in an agreeable and instructive manner.

For our archiepiscopal city we make these special arrangements: On the 12th, at half-past 7 o'clockP. M.,the cathedral will be open to the public; the clergy of the city is invited to assemble at 7 o'clock, at the archbishopric, to march in procession to the cathedral, where short sermons of ten minutes each will be preached in five different languages—Spanish, French, English, German, and Italian. The ceremony will close with Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament and the solemn singing of theTe Deum. In order to celebrate the civil solemnity of the 21st, we desire that a preliminary meeting be held at St. Alphonsus' Hall, on Monday evening, the 22d of August, at 8 o'clock. The meeting will be composed of the pastors of the city, of two members of each congregation—to be appointed by them—and of the presidents of the various Catholic societies. This body shall arrange the plan how to celebrate the 21st of October.

May God, who has been kind and merciful to our people in the past, continue his favors in the future and lead us unto life everlasting.

The pastors will read this letter to their congregations.

Given from our archiepiscopal residence, Feast of St. Dominic, August the 4th, 1892.

Francis Janssens,Archbishop of New Orleans.

By order of His Grace:J. Bogaerts,Vicar-general.

Stands at the Eighth Avenue and Fifty-ninth Street entrance to Central Park, and was erected October 12, 1892, by subscription among the Italian citizens of the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Central America. From a base forty-six feet square springs a beautiful shaft of great height, the severity of outline being broken by alternating lines of figures, in relief, of the prows, or rostra,of the three ships of Columbus, and medallions composed of an anchor and a coil of rope. In July, 1889, Chevalier Charles Barsotti, proprietor of theProgresso Italo-Americano, published in New York City, started a subscription to defray the cost, which was liberally added to by the Italian government. On December 10, 1890, a number of models were placed on exhibition at the rooms of the Palace of the Exposition of Arts in Rome, and the commission finally chose that of Prof. Gaetano Russo.

The monument is seventy-five feet high, including the three great blocks, or steps, which form the foundation; and, aside from the historical interest it may have, as a work of art alone its possession might well be envied by any city or nation. The base, of Baveno granite, has two beautiful bas-relief pictures in bronze, representing on one side the moment when Columbus first saw land, and on the other the actual landing of the party on the soil. Two inscriptions, higher up on the monument, one in English and one in Italian, contain the dedication. The column is also of Baveno granite, while the figure of the Genius of Geography and the statue proper of Columbus are of white Carrara marble, the former being ten feet high and the latter fourteen. There is also a bronze eagle, six feet high, on the side opposite the figure of Genius of Geography, holding in its claws the shields of the United States and of Genoa. The rostra and the inscription on the column are in bronze.

This great work was designed by Prof. Gaetano Russo, who was born in Messina, Sicily, fifty-seven years ago. Craving opportunities for study and improvement, he made his way to Rome when a mere lad but ten years old. In this great art center his genius developed early, and his later years have been filled with success. Senator Monteverde of Italy, one of the best sculptors of modern times,says that this is one of the finest monuments made during the last twenty-five years. On accepting the finished monument from the artist, the commission tendered him the following: "The monument of Columbus made by you will keep great in America the name of Italian art. It is very pleasant to convey to the United States—a strong, free, and independent people—the venerated resemblance of the man who made the civilization of America possible."

On the sides of the base, between the massive posts which form the corners, are found the inscriptions in Italian and English, composed by Prof. Ugo Fleres of Rome, and being as follows:

TOCHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS,THE ITALIANS RESIDENT IN AMERICA.

SCOFFED AT BEFORE;DURING THE VOYAGE, MENACED;AFTER IT, CHAINED;AS GENEROUS AS OPPRESSED,TO THE WORLD HE GAVE A WORLD.

JOY AND GLORYNEVER UTTERED A MORE THRILLING CALLTHAN THAT WHICH RESOUNDEDFROM THE CONQUERED OCEANIN SIGHT OF THE FIRST AMERICAN ISLAND,LAND! LAND!

ON THE XII. OF OCTOBER, MDCCCXCIITHE FOURTH CENTENARYOF THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA,IN IMPERISHABLE REMEMBRANCE.

Near the base of the monument, on the front of the pedestal, is a representation of the Genius of Geography in white Carrara marble. It is a little over eleven feet high, and is represented as a winged angel bending over the globe, which it is intently studying while held beneath the open hand.

On the front and back of the base the corresponding spaces are filled with two magnificent allegorical pictures in bas-relief representing the departure from Spain and the landing in America of Columbus. The latter one is particularly impressive, and the story is most graphically told by the strongly drawn group, of which he is the principal figure, standing in at attitude of prayer upon the soil of the New World he has just discovered. To the left are his sailors drawing the keel of a boat upon the sand, and on the right the Indians peep cautiously out from a thicket of maize at the strange creatures whom they mistake for the messengers of the Great Spirit. Towering over all, at the apex of the column, stands the figure of the First Admiral himself, nobly portrayed in snowiest marble. The figure is fourteen feet in height and represents the bold navigator wearing the dress of the period, the richly embroidered doublet, or waistcoat, thrown back, revealing a kilt that falls in easy folds from a bodice drawn tightly over the broad chest beneath. Not only the attitude of the figure but the expression of the face is commanding, and as you look upon the clearly cut features you seem to feel instinctively the presence of the man of genius and power, which the artist has forcibly chiseled.

The Italian government decided to send the monument here in the royal transport Garigliano. Also, as a token of their good-will to the United States, they ordered their first-class cruiser, Giovanni Bausan, to be in New York in time to take part in the ceremonies attending the unveiling and also the ceremonies by the city and State of New York.

All the work on the foundation was directed gratuitously by the architect V. Del Genoese and Italian laborers. The materials were furnished free by Messrs. Crimmins, Navarro, Smith & Sons, and others.

The executive committee in New York was composed of Chevalier C. Barsotti, president; C. A. Barattoni and E. Spinetti, vice-presidents; G. Starace, treasurer; E. Tealdi and G. N. Malferrari, secretaries; of the presidents of the Italian societies of New York, Brooklyn, Jersey City, and Hoboken; and of sixty-five members chosen from the subscribers as trustees.

Richard M. Hunt, John Lafarge, Augustus St. Gaudens, L. P. di Cesnola, and Robert J. Hoguet of the Sub-Committee on Art of the New York Columbian Celebration, awarded on September 1, 1892, the prizes offered for designs for an arch to be erected at the entrance to Central Park at Fifty-ninth Street and Fifth Avenue.

The committee chose, from the numerous designs submitted, four which were of special excellence. That which was unanimously acknowledged to be the best was submitted with the identification mark, "Columbia," and proved to be the work of Henry B. Hertz of 22 West Forty-third Street. Mr. Hertz will receive a gold medal, and the arch which he has designed will be erected in temporary form for the Columbian celebration in October, 1892, and will be constructed as a permanent monument of marble and bronze to the Genius of Discovery if $350,000 can be secured to build it. The temporary structure is estimated to cost $7,500.

The design which the committee decided should receive the second prize was offered by Franklin Crosby Butler and Paul Emil Dubois of 80 Washington Square, East, and was entitled, "The Santa Maria." A silver medal will be given to the architects. The designs selected for honorable mention were one of Moorish character, submitted by Albert Wahle of 320 East Nineteenth Street, and one entitled "Liberty," by J. C. Beeckman of 160 Fifth Avenue.

Mr. Hertz' design was selected by the committee not alone for its artistic beauty, but because of its peculiar fitness. The main body of the arch is to be built of white marble, and with its fountains, its polished monolithic columns of pigeon-blood marble, its mosaic and gold inlaying, and the bas-relief work and surmounting group of bronze, the committee say it will be a monument to American architecture of which the city will be proud.

From the ground to the top of the bronze caravel in the center of the allegorical group with which the arch will be surmounted the distance will be 160 feet, and the entire width of the arch will be 120 feet. The opening from the ground to the keystone will be eighty feet high and forty feet wide. On the front of each pier will be two columns of pigeon-blood-red marble. Between each pair of columns and at the base of each pier will be large marble fountains, the water playing about figures representing Victory and Immortality. These fountains will be lighted at night with electric lights. The surface of the piers between the columns will be richly decorated in bas-relief with gold and mosaic. Above each fountain will be a panel, one representing Columbus at the court of Spain, and the other the great discoverer at the Convent of Rábida, just before his departure on the voyage which resulted in the discovery of America. In the spaces on either side of thecrown of the arch will be colossal reclining figures of Victory in bas-relief.

The highly decorated frieze will be of polished red marble, and surmounting the projecting keystone of the arch will be a bronze representation of an American eagle. On the central panel of the attic will be the inscription: "The United States of America, in Memorial Glorious to Christopher Columbus, Discoverer of America." The ornamentation of the attic consists of representations of Columbus' entrance into Madrid. Crowning all is to be a group in bronze symbolical of Discovery. In this group there will be twelve figures of heroic size, with a gigantic figure representing the Genius of Discovery heralding to the world the achievements of her children.

Mr. Hertz, the designer, is only twenty-one years old, and is a student in the department of architecture of Columbia College.

The Spanish-American citizens also wish to present a monument to the city in honor of the discovery. It is proposed to have a Columbus fountain, to be located on the Grand Central Park plaza, at Fifth Avenue and Fifty-ninth Street, in the near future. The statuary group of the fountain represents Columbus standing on an immense globe, and on either side of him is one of the Pinzon brothers, who commanded the Pinta and Niña. Land has been discovered, and on the face of Columbus is an expression of prayerful thanksgiving. The brother Pinzon who discovered the land is pointing to it, while the other, with hand shading his eyes, anxiously seeks some sign of the new continent.

It is proposed to cast the statuary group in New York of cannon donated by Spain and Spanish-American countries. The first of the cannon has already arrived, the gift of the republic of Spanish Honduras.

The proposed inscription reads:

ACOLONy LosPINZONESLos EspañolesE Hispaño-AmericanosDeNueva York.ToColumbusand thePinzons, the Spaniardsand Spanish-Americans of New York.

One of the features of the New York celebration of the Columbus Quadro-Centennial is to be the production, October 10th, in the Metropolitan Opera House, of "The Triumph of Columbus," a festival allegory, by S. G. Pratt.

The work is written for orchestra, chorus, and solo voices, and is in six scenes or parts, the first of which is described as being "in the nature of a prologue, wherein a dream of Columbus is pictured. Evil spirits and sirens hover about the sleeping mariner threatening and taunting him. The Spirit of Light appears, the tormentors vanish, and a chorus of angels join the Spirit of Light in a song of 'Hope and Faith.'"

Part II. shows "the historical council at Salamanca; Dominican monks support Columbus, but Cardinal Talavera and other priests ridicule him." Columbus, to disprove their accusations of heresy on his part, quotes "sentence after sentence of the Bible in defense of his theory."

Part III. represents Columbus and his boy Diego inpoverty before the Convent La Rábida. They pray for aid, and are succored by Father Juan Perez and his monks.

Part IV. contains a Spanish dance by the courtiers and ladies of Queen Isabella's court; a song by the Queen, wherein she tells of her admiration for Columbus; the appearance of Father Juan, who pleads for the navigator and his cause; the discouraging arguments of Talavera; the hesitation of the Queen; her final decision to help Columbus in his undertaking, and her prayer for the success of the voyage.

Part V. is devoted to the voyage. Mr. Pratt has here endeavored to picture in a symphonic prelude "the peaceful progress upon the waters, the jubilant feeling of Columbus, and a flight of birds"—subjects dissimilar enough certainly to lend variety to any orchestral composition. The part, in addition to this prelude, contains the recitation by a sailor of "The Legend of St. Brandon's Isle"; a song by Columbus; the mutiny of the sailors, and Columbus' vain attempts to quell it; his appeal to Christ and the holy cross for aid, following which "the miraculous appearance takes place and the sailors are awed into submission"; the chanting of evening vespers; the firing of the signal gun which announces the discovery of land, and the singing of aGloria in Excelsisby Columbus, the sailors, and a chorus of angels.

Part VI. is the "grand pageantry of Columbus' reception at Barcelona. A triumphal march by chorus, band, and orchestra forms an accompaniment to a procession and the final reception."

From an introduction to "The Story of Columbus," in the New YorkHerald, 1892.

What manner of man was this Columbus, this admiral of the seas and lord of the Indies, who gave to Castille and Leon a new world?

Was he the ill-tempered and crack-brained adventurer of the skeptic biographer, who weighed all men by the sum of ages and not by the age in which they lived, or the religious hero who carried a flaming cross into the darkness of the unknown West, as his reverential historians have painted him?

There have been over six hundred biographers of this strange and colossal man, advancing all degrees of criticism, from filial affection to religious and fanatical hate, yet those who dwell in the lands he discovered know him only by his achievements, caring nothing about the trivial weaknesses of his private life.

One of his fairest critics has said he was the conspicuous developer of a great world movement, the embodiment of the ripened aspirations of his time.

His life is enveloped in an almost impenetrable veil of obscurity; in fact, the date and the place of his birth are in dispute. There are no authentic portraits of him, though hundreds have been printed.

There are in existence many documents written by Columbus about his discoveries. When he set sail on his first voyage he endeavored to keep a log similar to the commentaries of Cæsar. It is from this log that much of our present knowledge has been obtained, but it is a lamentable fact that, while Columbus was an extraordinary executive officer, his administrative ability was particularly poor, and in all matters of detail he was so careless as to be untrustworthy. Therefore, there are many statements in the log open to violent controversy.

It is probable that the letters of Toscanelli made a greater impression on the mind of Columbus than any other information he possessed. The aged Florentine entertained the brightest vision of the marvelous worth of the Asiatic region. He spoke of two hundred towns whosebridges spanned a single river, and whose commerce would excite the cupidity of the world.

These were tales to stir circles of listeners wherever wandering mongers of caravels came and went. All sorts of visionary discoveries were made in those days. Islands were placed in the Atlantic that never existed, and wonderful tales were told of the great Island of Antilla, or the Seven Cities.

The sphericity of the earth was becoming a favorite belief, though it must be borne in mind that education in those days was confined to the cloister, and any departure from old founded tenets was regarded as heresy. It was this peculiar doctrine that caused Columbus much embarrassment in subsequent years. His greatest enemies were the narrow minds that regarded religion as theUltima Thuleof intellectual endeavor. In spite of these facts, however, it was becoming more and more the popular belief that the world was not flat. One of the arguments used against Columbus was, that if the earth was not flat, and was round, he might sail down to the Indies, but he could certainly not sail up. Thus it was that fallacy after fallacy was thrown in argumentative form in his way, and the character of the man grows more wonderful as we see the obstacles over which he fought.

From utter obscurity, from poverty, derision, and treachery, this unflinching spirit fought his way to a most courageous end, and in all the vicissitudes of his wonderful life he never compromised one iota of that dignity which he regarded as consonant with his lofty aspirations.—Ibid.

New YorkTribune, 1892.

The voyage of Columbus was a protest against the ignorance of the mediæval age. The discovery of the NewWorld was the first sign of the real renaissance of the Old World. It created new heavens and a new earth, broadened immeasurably the horizon of men and nations, and transformed the whole order of European thought. Columbus was the greatest educator who ever lived, for he emancipated mankind from the narrowness of its own ignorance, and taught the great lesson that human destiny, like divine mercy, arches over the whole world. If a perspective of four centuries of progress could have floated like a mirage before the eyes of the great discoverer as he was sighting San Salvador, the American school-house would have loomed up as the greatest institution of the New World's future. Behind him he had left mediæval ignorance, encumbered with superstition, and paralyzed by an ecclesiastical pedantry which passed for learning. Before him lay a new world with the promise of the potency of civil and religious liberty, free education, and popular enlightenment. Because the school-house, like his own voyage, has been a protest against popular ignorance, and has done more than anything else to make our free America what it is, it would have towered above everything else in the mirage-like vision of the world's progress.

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