The Life of Christopher Columbus from his own Letters and Journals

E >> Edward Everett Hale >> The Life of Christopher Columbus from his own Letters and Journals


Third. The second island, Santa Maria, is described as having two sides
which made a right angle, and the length of each is given. This points
directly to Crooked and Acklin. Both form one island, so fitted to
the words of the journal as cannot be done with any other land of the
Bahamas.

Fourth. The course and distance from Crooked to Long Island is that
which the Admiral gives from Santa Maria to Fernandina.

Fifth. Long Island, the third, is accurately described. The trend of the
shores, "north-northwest and south-southeast;" the "marvelous port" and
the "coast which runs east (and) west," can nowhere be found except at
the southeast part of Long Island.

Sixth. The journal is obscure in regard to the fourth island. The best
way to find it is to "plot" the courses FORWARD from the third island
and the courses and distances BACKWARD from the fifth. These lead to
Fortune for the fourth.

Seventh. The Ragged Islands are the fifth. These he named las islas de
Arena--Sand Islands.

They lie west-southwest from the fourth, and this is the course the
Admiral adhered to. He did not "log" all the run made between these
islands; in consequence the "log" falls short of the true distance, as
it ought to. These "seven or eight islands, all extending from north to
south," and having shoal water "six leagues to the south" of them, are
seen on the chart at a glance.

Eighth. The course and distance from these to Port Padre, in Cuba, is
reasonable. The westerly current, the depth of water at the entrance of
Padre, and the general description, are free of difficulties. The true
distance is greater than the "logged," because Columbus again omits part
of his run. It would be awkward if the true distances from the fourth to
the fifth islands, and from the latter to Padre, had fallen short of the
"log," since it would make the unexplainable situation which occurs in
Irving's course and distance from Mucaras Reef to Boca de Caravela.

From end to end of the Samana track there are but three discrepancies.
At the third island, two leagues ought to be two miles. At the fourth
island twelve leagues ought to be twelve miles. The bearing between the
third and fourth islands is not quite as the chart has it, nor does it
agree with the courses he steered. These three are fairly explained, and
I think that no others can be mustered to disturb the concord between
this track and the journal.

Rev. Mr. Cronan, in his recent voyage, discovered a cave at Watling's
island, where were many skeletons of the natives. It is thought that a
study of the bones in these skeletons will give some new ethnological
information as to the race which Columbus found, which is now, thanks to
Spanish cruelty, entirely extinct.



APPENDIX B.

The letter to the Lady Juana, which gives Columbus's own statement of
the indignities put upon him in San Domingo, is written in his most
crabbed Spanish. He never wrote the Spanish language accurately, and
the letter, as printed from his own manuscript, is even curious in its
infelicities. It is so striking an illustration of the character of the
man that we print here an abstract of it, with some passages translated
directly from his own language.

Columbus writes, towards the end of the year 1500, to the former
nurse of Don Juan, an account of the treatment he has received. "If
my complaint of the world is new, its method of abuse is very old," he
says. "God has made me a messenger of the new heaven and the new earth
which is spoken of in the Apocalypse by the mouth of St. John, after
having been spoken of by Isaiah, and he showed me the place where it
was." Everybody was incredulous, but the queen alone gave the spirit
of intelligence and zeal to the undertaking. Then the people talked of
obstacles and expense. Columbus says "seven years passed in talk, and
nine in executing some noted acts which are worthy of remembrance," but
he returned reviled by all.

"If I had stolen the Indies and had given them to the Moors I could not
have had greater enmity shown to me in Spain." Columbus would have liked
then to give up the business if he could have come before the queen.
However he persisted, and he says he "undertook a new voyage to the new
heaven and the new earth which before had been hidden, and if it is not
appreciated in Spain as much as the other countries of India it is not
surprising, because it is all owing to my industry." He "had believed
that the voyage to Paria would reconcile all because of the pearls and
gold in the islands of Espanola." He says, "I caused those of our people
whom I had left there to come together and fish for pearls, and arranged
that I should return and take from them what had been collected, as I
understood, in measure a fanega (about a bushel). If I have not written
this to their Highnesses it is because I wished also to have as much
of gold. But that fled before me, as all other things; I would not have
lost them and with them my honor, if I could have busied myself with my
own affairs.

"When I went to San Domingo I found almost half of the colony uprising,
and they made war upon me as a Moor, and the Indians on the other side
were no less cruel.

"Hojida came and he tried to make order, and he said that their
Highnesses had sent him with promises of gifts and grants and money. He
made up a large company, for in all Espanola there were few men who were
not vagabonds, and no one lived there who had wife or children." Hojida
retired with threats.

"Then Vincente Ganez came with four ships. There were outbreaks and
suspicions but no damage." He reported that six other ships under a
brother of the Alcalde would arrive, and also the death of the queen,
but these were rumors without foundation.

"Adrian (Mogica) attempted to go away as before, but our Lord did not
permit him to carry out his bad plan." Here Columbus regrets that he was
obliged to use force or ill-treat Adrian, but says he would have done
the same had his brother wished to kill him or wrest from him the
government which the king and queen had given him to guard.

"For six months I was ready to leave to take to their Highnesses the
good news of the gold and to stop governing a dissolute people who
feared neither king nor queen, full of meanness and malice. I would have
been able to pay all the people with six hundred thousand maravedis and
for that there were more than four millions of tithes without counting
the third part of the gold."

Columbus says that he begged before his departure that they would send
some one at his expense to take command, and yet again a subject with
letters, for he says bitterly that he has such a singular reputation
that if he "were building churches and hospitals they would say they
were cells for stolen goods."

Then Bobadilla came to Santo Domingo while Columbus was at La Vega and
the Adelantado at Jaragua. "The second day of his arrival he declared
himself governor, created magistrates, made offices, published grants
for gold and tithes, and everything else for a term of twenty years." He
said he had come to pay the people, and declared he would send Columbus
home in irons. Columbus was away. Letters with favors were sent to
others, but none to him. Columbus resorted to methods to gain time so
that their Highnesses could understand the state of things. But he was
constantly maligned and persecuted by those who were jealous of him. He
says:

"I think that you will remember that when the tempest threw me into the
port of Lisbon, after having lost my sails, I was accused of having the
intention to give India to that country. Afterwards their Highnesses
knew to the contrary. Although I know but little, I cannot conceive
that any one would suppose me so stupid as not to know that though
India might belong to me, yet I could not keep it without the help of a
prince."

Columbus complains that he has been judged as a governor who has been
sent to a peaceful, well-regulated province. He says, "I ought to be
judged as a captain sent from Spain to the Indies to conquer a warlike
people, whose custom and religion are all opposed to ours, where the
people live in the mountains without regular houses for themselves, and
where, by the will of God, I have placed under the rule of the king and
queen another world, and by which Spain, which calls itself poor, is
today the richest empire. I ought to be judged as a captain who for many
years bears arms incessantly.

"I know well that the errors that I have committed have not been with
bad intentions, and I think that their Highnesses will believe what I
say; but I know and see that they use pity for those who work against
them."

"If, nevertheless, their Highnesses order that another shall judge me,
which I hope will not be, and this ought to be on an examination made
in India, I humbly beg of them to send there two conscientious and
respectable people, at my expense, which may know easily that one
finds five marcs of gold in four hours. However that may be, it is very
necessary that they should go there."


APPENDIX C.

It would have been so natural to give the name of Columbus to the new
world which he gave to Castile and Leon, that much wonder has been
expressed that America was not called Columbia, and many efforts have
been made to give to the continent this name. The District of Columbia
was so named at a time when American writers of poetry, were determined
that "Columbia" should be the name of the continent. The ship Columbia,
from which the great river of the West takes that name, had received
this name under the same circumstances about the same time. The city
of Columbia, which is the capital of South Carolina, was named with the
same wish to do justice to the great navigator.

Side by side with the discussion as to the name, and sometimes making
a part of it, is the question whether Columbus himself was really the
first discoverer of the mainland. The reader has seen that he first saw
the mainland of South America in the beginning of August, 1498. It was
on the fifth, sixth or seventh day, according to Mr. Harrisse's accurate
study of the letters. Was this the first discovery by a European of the
mainland?

It is known that Ojeda, with whom the reader is familiar, also saw this
coast. With him, as passenger on his vessel, was Alberico Vespucci, and
at one time it was supposed that Vespucci had made some claim to be the
discoverer of the continent, on account of this voyage. But in truth
Ojeda himself says that before he sailed he had seen the map of the Gulf
of Paria which Columbus had sent home to the sovereigns after he made
that discovery. It also seems to be proved that Alberico Vespucci, as
he was then called, never made for himself any claim to the great
discovery.

Another question, of a certain interest to people proud of English
maritime science, is the question whether the Cabots did not see the
mainland before Columbus. It is admitted on all hands that they did not
make their first voyage till they knew of Columbus's first discoveries;
but it is supposed that in the first or second voyage of the Cabots,
they saw the mainland of North America. The dates of the Cabots' voyages
are unfortunately badly entangled. One of them is as early as 1494, but
this is generally rejected. It is more probable that the king's letters
patent, authorizing John Cabot and his three sons to go, with five
vessels, under the English flag, for the discovery of islands and
countries yet unknown, was dated the fifth of March, 1496. Whether,
however, they sailed in that year or in the next year is a question. The
first record of a discovery is in the account-book of the privy purse of
Henry VII, in the words, "August 10th, 1497. To him who discovered
the new island, ten pounds." This is clearly not a claim on which the
discovery of the mainland can be based.

A manuscript known as the Cotton Manuscript says that John Cabot had
sailed, but had not returned, at the moment when the manuscript was
written. This period was "the thirteenth year of Henry VII." The
thirteenth year of Henry began on the twenty-second of August, 1497,
and ended in 1498. On the third of February, 1498, Henry VII granted
permission to Cabot to take six English ships "to the lands and islands
recently found by the said Cabot, in the name of the king and by his
orders." Strictly speaking, this would mean that the mainland had then
been discovered; but it is impossible to establish the claim of England
on these terms.

What is, however, more to the point, is a letter from Pasqualigo, a
Venetian merchant, who says, writing to Venice, on the twenty-third of
August, 1497, that Cabot had discovered the mainland at seven hundred
leagues to the west, and had sailed along it for a coast of three
hundred leagues. He says the voyage was three months in length. It was
made, then, between May and August, 1497. The evidence of this letter
seems to show that the mainland of North America was really first
discovered by Cabot. The discussion, however, does not in the least
detract from the merit due to Columbus for the great discovery. Whether
he saw an island or whether he saw the mainland, was a mere matter of
what has been called landfall by the seamen. It is admitted on all hands
that he was the leader in all these enterprises, and that it was on his
success in the first voyage that all such enterprises followed.