Chapter VII: Preface (7)

LETTER OF OUR VERY HOLY FATHER, LEO XIII., POPE BY DIVINE
PROVIDENCE, TO THE ARCHBISHOPS AND BISHOPS OF SPAIN, ITALY, AND OF
THE TWO AMERICAS, UPON CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

_To the Archbishops and Bishops of Spain and Italy, and of the two
Americas. Leo XIII., Pope._

VENERABLE BROTHERS, GREETING AND APOSTOLIC BENEDICTION: From the
end of the fifteenth century, since a man from Liguria first
landed, under the auspices of God, on the transatlantic shores,
humanity has been strongly inclined to celebrate with gratitude the
recollection of this event. It would certainly not be an easy
matter to find a more worthy cause to touch their hearts and to
inflame their zeal. The event, in effect, is such in itself that no
other epoch has seen a grander and more beautiful one accomplished
by man.

As to who accomplished it, there are few who can be compared to him
in greatness of soul and genius. By his work a new world flashed
forth from the unexplored ocean, thousands upon thousands of
mortals were returned to the common society of the human race, led
from their barbarous life to peacefulness and civilization, and,
which is of much more importance, recalled from perdition to
eternal life by the bestowal of the gifts which Jesus Christ
brought to the world.

Europe, astonished alike by the novelty and the prodigiousness of
this unexpected event, understood little by little, in due course
of time, what she owed to Columbus, when, by sending colonies to
America, by frequent communications, by exchange of services, by
the resources confided to the sea and received in return, there was
discovered an accession of the most favorable nature possible to
the knowledge of nature, to the reciprocal abundance of riches,
with the result that the prestige of Europe increased enormously.

Therefore, it would not be fitting, amid these numerous
testimonials on honor, and in these concerts of felicitations, that
the Church should maintain complete silence, since, in accordance
with her character and her institution, she willingly approves and
endeavors to favor all that appears, wherever it is, to be worthy
of honor and praise. Undoubtedly she receives particular and
supreme honors to the virtues pre-eminent in regard to morality,
inasmuch as they are united to the eternal salvation of souls;
nevertheless, she does not despise the rest, neither does she
abstain from esteeming them as they deserve; it is even her habit
to favor with all her power and to always have in honor those who
have well merited of human society and who have passed to
posterity.

Certainly, God is admirable in His saints, but the vestiges of His
divine virtues appear as imprinted in those in whom shines a
superior force of soul and mind, for this elevation of heart and
this spark of genius could only come from God, their author and
protector.

It is in addition an entirely special reason for which we believe
we should commemorate in a grateful spirit this immortal event. It
is that Columbus is one of us. When one considers with what motive
above all he undertook the plan of exploring the dark sea, and with
what object he endeavored to realize this plan, one can not doubt
that the Catholic faith superlatively inspired the enterprise and
its execution, so that by this title, also, humanity is not a
little indebted to the Church.

There are without doubt many men of hardihood and full of
experience who, before Christopher Columbus and after him, explored
with persevering efforts unknown lands across seas still more
unknown. Their memory is celebrated, and will be so by the renown
and the recollection of their good deeds, seeing that they have
extended the frontiers of science and of civilization, and that not
at the price of slight efforts, but with an exalted ardor of
spirit, and often through extreme perils. It is not the less true
that there is a great difference between them and him of whom we
speak.

The eminently distinctive point in Columbus is, that in crossing
the immense expanses of the ocean he followed an object more grand
and more elevated than the others. This does not say, doubtless,
that he was not in any way influenced by the very praiseworthy
desire to be master of science, to well deserve the approval of
society, or that he despised the glory whose stimulant is
ordinarily more sensitive to elevated minds, or that he was not at
all looking to his own personal interests. But above all these
human reasons, that of religion was uppermost by a great deal in
him, and it was this, without any doubt, which sustained his spirit
and his will, and which frequently, in the midst of extreme
difficulties, filled him with consolation. He learned in reality
that his plan, his resolution profoundly carved in his heart, was
to open access to the gospel in new lands and in new seas.

This may seem hardly probable to those who, concentrating all their
care, all their thoughts, in the present nature of things, as it is
perceived by the senses, refuse to look upon greater benefits. But,
on the other hand, it is the characteristic of eminent minds to
prefer to elevate themselves higher, for they are better disposed
than all others to seize the impulses and the inspirations of the
divine faith. Certainly, Columbus had united the study of nature to
the study of religion, and he had conformed his mind to the
precepts intimately drawn from the Catholic faith.

It is thus that, having learned by astronomy and ancient documents
that beyond the limits of the known world there were, in addition,
toward the west, large tracts of territory unexplored up to that
time by anybody, he considered in his mind the immense multitude of
those who were plunged in lamentable darkness, subject to insensate
rites and to the superstitions of senseless divinities. He
considered that they miserably led a savage life, with ferocious
customs; that, more miserably still, they were wanting in all
notion of the most important things, and that they were plunged in
ignorance of the only true God.

Thus, in considering this in himself, he aimed first of all to
propagate the name of Christianity and the benefits of Christian
charity in the West. As a fact, as soon as he presented himself to
the sovereigns of Spain, Ferdinand and Isabella, he explained the
cause for which they were not to fear taking a warm interest in the
enterprise, as their glory would increase to the point of becoming
immortal if they decided to carry the name and the doctrine of
Jesus Christ into such distant regions. And when, not long
afterward, his prayers were granted, he called to witness that he
wished to obtain from God that these sovereigns, sustained by His
help and His mercy, should persevere in causing the gospel to
penetrate upon new shores and in new lands.

He conceived in the same manner the plan of asking Alexander VI.
for apostolic men, by a letter in which these words are found: "I
hope that it will some day be given to me with the help of God to
propagate afar the very holy name of Jesus Christ and his gospel."
Also can one imagine him all filled with joy when he wrote to
Raphael Sanchez, the first who from the Indies had returned to
Lisbon, that immortal actions of grace must be rendered to God in
that he had deigned to cause to prosper the enterprise so well, and
that Jesus Christ could rejoice and triumph upon earth and in
heaven for the coming salvation of innumerable people who
previously had been going to their ruin. That, if Columbus also
asks of Ferdinand and Isabella to permit only Catholic Christians
to go to the New World, there to accelerate trade with the natives,
he supports this motive by the fact that by his enterprise and
efforts he has not sought for anything else than the glory and the
development of the Christian religion.

This was what was perfectly known to Isabella, who, better than any
other person, had penetrated the mind of such a great man; much
more, it appears that this same plan was fully adopted by this very
pious woman of great heart and manly mind. She bore witness, in
effect, of Columbus, that in courageously giving himself up to the
vast ocean, he realized, for the divine glory, a most signal
enterprise; and to Columbus himself, when he had happily returned,
she wrote that she esteemed as having been highly employed the
resources which she had consecrated and which she would still
consecrate to the expeditions in the Indies, in view of the fact
that the propagation of Catholicism would result from them.

Also, if he had not inspired himself from a cause superior to human
interests, where then would he have drawn the constancy and the
strength of soul to support what he was obliged to the end to
endure and to submit to; that is to say, the unpropitious advice of
the learned people, the repulses of princes, the tempests of the
furious ocean, the continual watches, during which he more than
once risked losing his sight.

To that add the combats sustained against the barbarians; the
infidelities of his friends, of his companions; the villainous
conspiracies, the perfidiousness of the envious, the calumnies of
the traducers, the chains with which, after all, though innocent,
he was loaded. It was inevitable that a man overwhelmed with a
burden of trials so great and so intense would have succumbed had
he not sustained himself by the consciousness of fulfilling a very
noble enterprise, which he conjectured would be glorious for the
Christian name and salutary for an infinite multitude.

And the enterprise so carried out is admirably illustrated by the
events of that time. In effect, Columbus discovered America at
about the period when a great tempest was going to unchain itself
against the Church. Inasmuch as it is permitted by the course of
events to appreciate the ways of divine Providence, it really seems
that the man for whom the Liguria honors herself was destined by
special plan of God to compensate Catholicism for the injury which
it was going to suffer in Europe.

To call the Indian race to Christianity, this was, without doubt,
the mission and the work of the Church in this mission. From the
beginning, she continued to fulfill it with an uninterrupted course
of charity, and she still continues it, having advanced herself
recently so far as the extremities of Patagonia.

Thus, when compelled by the Portuguese, by the Genoese, to leave
without having obtained any result, he went to Spain. He matured
the grand plan of the projected discovery in the midst of the walls
of a convent, with the knowledge of and with the advice of a monk
of the Order of St. Francis d'Assisi, after seven years had
revolved. When at last he goes to dare the ocean, he takes care
that the expedition shall comply with the acts of spiritual
expiation; he prays to the Queen of Heaven to assist the enterprise
and to direct its course, and before giving the order to make sail
he invokes the august divine Trinity. Then, once fairly at sea,
while the waters agitate themselves, while the crew murmurs, he
maintains, under God's care, a calm constancy of mind.

His plan manifests itself in the very names which he imposes on the
new islands, and each time that he is called upon to land upon one
of them he worships the Almighty God, and only takes possession of
it in the name of Jesus Christ. At whatever coast he approaches he
has nothing more as his first idea than the planting on the shore
of the sacred sign of the cross; and the divine name of the
Redeemer, which he had sung so frequently on the open sea to the
sound of the murmuring waves--he is the first to make it
reverberate in the new islands in the same way. When he institutes
the Spanish colony he causes it to be commenced by the construction
of a temple, where he first provides that the popular fêtes shall
be celebrated by august ceremonies.

Here, then, is what Columbus aimed at and what he accomplished when
he went in search, over so great an expanse of sea and of land, of
regions up to that time unexplored and uncultivated, but whose
civilization, renown, and riches were to rapidly attain that
immense development which we see to-day.

In all this, the magnitude of the event, the efficacy and the
variety of the benefits which have resulted from it, tend assuredly
to celebrate he, who was the author of it, by a grateful
remembrance and by all sorts of testimonials of honor; but, in the
first place, we must recognize and venerate particularly the divine
project, to which the discoverer of the New World was subservient
and which he knowingly obeyed.

In order to celebrate worthily and in a manner suitable to the
truth of the facts the solemn anniversary of Columbus, the
sacredness of religion must be united to the splendor of the civil
pomp. This is why, as previously, at the first announcement of the
event, public actions of grace were rendered to the providence of
the immortal God, upon the example which the Supreme Pontiff gave;
the same also now, in celebrating the recollection of the
auspicious event, we esteem that we must do as much.

We decree to this effect, that the day of October 12th, or the
following Sunday, if the respective diocesan bishops judge it to be
opportune, that, after the office of the day, the solemn mass of
the very Holy Trinity shall be celebrated in the cathedral and
collegial churches of Spain, Italy, and the two Americas. In
addition to these countries, we hope that, upon the initiative of
the bishops, as much may be done in the others, for it is fitting
that all should concur in celebrating with piety and gratitude an
event which has been profitable to all.

In the meanwhile, as a pledge of the celestial favors and in
testimony of our fraternal good-will, we affectionately accord in
the Lord the Apostolic benediction to you, venerable brothers, to
your clergy, and to your people.

Given at Rome, near St. Peter's, July 16th of the year 1892, the
fifteenth of our Pontificate.

LEO XIII., _Pope_.

TO SPAIN.

CAPEL LOFFT.

O generous nation! to whose noble boast,
Illustrious Spain, the providence of Heaven
A radiant sky of vivid power hath given,
A land of flowers, of fruits, profuse; an host
Of ardent spirits; when deprest the most,
By great, enthusiastic impulse driven
To deeds of highest daring.

WRAPPED IN A VISION GLORIOUS.

The Rev. JOHN LORD, LL. D., a popular American lecturer and
Congregational minister. Born in Portsmouth, N. H., December 27,
1810.

Wrapped up in those glorious visions which come only to a man of superlative genius, and which make him insensible to heat and cold and scanty fare, even to reproach and scorn, this intrepid soul, inspired by a great and original idea, wandered from city to city, and country to country, and court to court, to present the certain greatness and wealth of any state that would embark in his enterprise. But all were alike cynical, cold, unbelieving, and even insulting. He opposes overwhelming universal and overpowering ideas. To have surmounted these amid such protracted opposition and discouragment constitutes his greatness; and finally to prove his position by absolute experiment and hazardous enterprise makes him one of the greatest of human benefactors, whose fame will last through all the generations of men. And as I survey that lonely, abstracted, disappointed, and derided man--poor and unimportant; so harassed by debt that his creditors seized even his maps and charts; obliged to fly from one country to another to escape imprisonment; without even listeners and still less friends, and yet with ever-increasing faith in his cause; utterly unconquerable; alone in opposition to all the world--I think I see the most persistent man of enterprise that I have read of in history. Critics ambitious to say something new may rake out slanders from the archives of enemies and discover faults which derogate from the character we have been taught to admire and venerate; they may even point out spots, which we can not disprove, in that sun of glorious brightness which shed its beneficent rays over a century of darkness--but this we know, that whatever may be the force of detraction, his fame has been steadily increasing, even on the admission of his slanderers, for three centuries, and that he now shines as a fixed star in the constellation of the great lights of modern times, not only because he succeeded in crossing the ocean when once embarked on it, but for surmounting the moral difficulties which lay in his way before he could embark upon it, and for being finally instrumental in conferring the greatest boon that our world has received from any mortal man since Noah entered into the ark.

BY THE GRACE OF GOD HE WAS WHAT HE WAS.

ROSSELY DE LORGUES, a Catholic biographer.

Columbus did not owe his great celebrity to his genius or conscience, but only to his vocation, to his faith, and to the Divine grace.

IN HONOR OF COLUMBUS.

Archbishop Janssens of New Orleans has issued a letter to his diocese directing a general observance of the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America. The opening paragraph reads:

"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 the _Te Deum_ and the holy mass were the first religious services held on the same. It is, therefore, just and proper that this great event and festival should be celebrated in a religious as well as a civil manner."

The Pope having set the Julian date of October 12th for the celebration, and the President October 21st, the archbishop directs that exercises be held on both these days--the first of a religious character, the second civic. October 12th a solemn votive mass will be sung in all the churches of the diocese, with an exhortation, and October 21st in the city of New Orleans the clergy will assemble at the archiepiscopal residence early in the morning and march to the cathedral, where services will be held at 7.30 o'clock. Sermons of ten minutes each are to be preached in English, French, Spanish, German, and Italian.

THE IMPREGNABLE WILL OF COLUMBUS.

JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL, an American poet. Born in Boston, 1819; died
in Cambridge, 1891. From "W. L. Garrison." Houghton, Mifflin & Co.,
Boston.

Such earnest natures are the fiery pith,
The compact nucleus, round which systems grow.
Mass after mass becomes inspired therewith,
And whirls impregnate with the central glow.

O Truth! O Freedom! how are ye still born
In the rude stable, in the manger nursed.
What humble hands unbar those gates of morn
Through which the splendors of the new day burst.

Whatever can be known of earth we know,
Sneered Europe's wise men, in their snail-shells curled;
No! said one man in Genoa, and that no
Out of the dark created this New World.

Men of a thousand shifts and wiles, look here;
See one straightforward conscience put in pawn
To win a world; see the obedient sphere
By bravery's simple gravitation drawn.

Shall we not heed the lesson taught of old,
And by the Present's lips repeated still,
In our own single manhood to be bold,
Fortressed in conscience and impregnable will?

COLUMBUS THE KING OF DISCOVERERS.

He in the palace-aisles of untrod woods
Doth walk a king; for him the pent-up cell
Widens beyond the circles of the stars,
And all the sceptered spirits of the past
Come thronging in to greet him as their peer;
While, like an heir new-crowned, his heart o'erleaps
The blazing steps of his ancestral throne.--_Ibid._

Columbus, seeking the back door of Asia, found himself knocking at the front door of America.--_Ibid._

THE PATIENCE OF COLUMBUS.

From "Columbus," a poem by the same author. Published by Houghton,
Mifflin & Co.

Chances have laws as fixed as planets have;
And disappointment's dry and bitter root,
Envy's harsh berries, and the choking pool
Of the world's scorn are the right mother-milk
To the tough hearts that pioneer their kind,
And break a pathway to those unknown realms
That in the earth's broad shadow lie enthralled;
Endurance is the crowning quality,
And patience all the passion of great hearts;
These are their stay, and when the leaden world
Sets its hard face against their fateful thought,
And brute strength, like a scornful conqueror,
Clangs his huge mace down in the other scale,
The inspired soul but flings his patience in,
And slowly that outweighs the ponderous globe--
One faith against a whole world's unbelief,
One soul against the flesh of all mankind.

* * * * *

I know not when this hope enthralled me first,
But from my boyhood up I loved to hear
The tall pine forests of the Apennine
Murmur their hoary legends of the sea;
Which hearing, I in vision clear beheld
The sudden dark of tropic night shut down
O'er the huge whisper of great watery wastes.

* * * * *

I brooded on the wise Athenian's tale
Of happy Atlantis, and heard Björne's keel
Crunch the gray pebbles of the Vinland shore.

Thus ever seems it when my soul can hear
The voice that errs not; then my triumph gleams,
O'er the blank ocean beckoning, and all night
My heart flies on before me as I sail;
Far on I see my life-long enterprise!

* * * * *

LYTTON (Lord). See _post_, "Schiller."

* * * * *

VESPUCCI AN ADVENTURER.

THOMAS BABINGTON, Baron MACAULAY, one of England's most celebrated
historians. Born at Rothley Temple, Leicestershire, October 25,
1800; died, December 28, 1859.

Vespucci, an adventurer who accidentally landed in a rich and unknown island, and who, though he only set up an ill-shaped cross upon the shore, acquired possession of its treasures and gave his name to a continent which should have derived its appellation from Columbus.

COLUMBUS NEITHER A VISIONARY NOR AN IMBECILE.

CHARLES P. MACKIE, an American author. From his "With the Admiral
of the Ocean Sea." Published by Messrs. A. C. McClurg & Co.,
Chicago.

Whatever were his mistakes and shortcomings, Colon was neither a visionary nor an imbecile. Had he been perfect in all things and wise to the point of infallibility, we could not have claimed him as the glorious credit he was to the common humanity to which we all belong. His greatness was sufficient to cover with its mantle far more of the weaknesses of frail mortality than he had to draw under its protection; and it becomes us who attempt to analyze his life in these later days, to bear in mind that, had his lot befallen ourselves, the natives of the western world would still, beyond a peradventure, be wandering in undraped peace through their tangled woods, and remain forever ignorant of the art of eating meat. In his trials and distresses the Admiral encountered only the portion of the sons of Adam; but to him was also given, as to few before or since, to say with the nameless shepherd of Tempe's classic vale, "I, too, have lived in Arcady."

Colon did not merely discover the New World. He spent seven years and one month among the islands and on the coasts of the hemisphere now called after the ship-chandler who helped to outfit his later expeditions. For the greater part of that time he was under the constant burden of knowing that venomous intrigue and misrepresentation were doing their deadly work at home while he did what he believed was his Heaven-imposed duty on this side the Atlantic.

THE COLUMBUS MONUMENT IN MADRID.

At the top of the Paseo de Recoletos is a monument to Columbus in the debased Gothic style of Ferdinand and Isabella. It was unveiled in 1885. The sides are ornamented with reliefs and the whole surmounted by a white marble statue. Among the sculptures are a ship and a globe, with the inscription:

_Á Castilla y á Leon
Nuevo mundo dió Colon._

(_Translation._)

To Castille and Leon
Columbus gave a new world.

VISIT OF COLUMBUS TO ICELAND.

FINN MAGNUSEN, an Icelandic historian and antiquary. Born at
Skalholt, 1781; died, 1847.

The English trade with Iceland certainly merits the consideration of historians, if it furnished Columbus with the opportunity of visiting that island, there to be informed of the historical evidence respecting the existence of important lands and a large continent in the west. If Columbus should have acquired a knowledge of the accounts transmitted to us of the discoveries of the Northmen in conversations held in Latin with the Bishop of Skalholt and the learned men of Iceland, we may the more readily conceive his firm belief in the possibility of rediscovering a western continent, and his unwearied zeal in putting his plans in execution. The discovery of America, so momentous in its results, may therefore be regarded as the mediate consequence of its previous discovery by the Scandinavians, which may be thus placed among the most important events of former ages.

SYMPATHY FOR COLUMBUS.

RICHARD HENRY MAJOR, F. S. A., late keeper of the printed books in
the British Museum; a learned antiquary. Born in London, 1810; died
June 25, 1891.

It is impossible to read without the deepest sympathy the occasional murmurings and half-suppressed complaints which are uttered in the course of his letter to Ferdinand and Isabella describing his fourth voyage. These murmurings and complaints were rung from his manly spirit by sickness and sorrow, and though reduced almost to the brink of despair by the injustice of the King, yet do we find nothing harsh or disrespectful in his language to the sovereign. A curious contrast is presented to us. The gift of a world could not move the monarch to gratitude; the infliction of chains, as a recompense for that gift, could not provoke the subject to disloyalty. The same great heart which through more than twenty wearisome years of disappointment and chagrin gave him strength to beg and buffet his way to glory, still taught him to bear with majestic meekness the conversion of that glory into unmerited shame.

* * * * *

We look back with astonishment and admiration at the stupendous achievement effected a whole lifetime later by the immortal Columbus--an achievement which formed the connecting link between the Old World and the New; yet the explorations instituted by Prince Henry of Portugal were in truth the anvil upon which that link was forged.

* * * * *

He arrived in a vessel as shattered as his own broken and careworn frame.

COLUMBUS HEARD OF NORSE DISCOVERIES.

CONRAD MALTE-BRUN, a Danish author and geographer of great merit.
Born at Thister in Jutland, 1775; died, December, 1826.

Columbus, when in Italy, had heard of the Norse discoveries beyond Iceland, for Rome was then the world's center, and all information of importance was sent there.

COLUMBUS AND COPERNICUS.

HELEN P. MARGESSON, in an article entitled "Marco Polo's
Explorations, and their Influence upon Columbus" (being the Old
South First Prize Essay, 1891), published in the _New England
Magazine_, August, 1892.

Columbus performed his vast undertaking in an age of great deeds and great men, when Ficino taught the philosophy of Plato, when Florence was thrilled by the luring words and martyrdom of Savonarola, when Michael Angelo wrought his everlasting marvels of art. While Columbus, in his frail craft, was making his way to "worlds unknown, and isles beyond the deep," on the shores of the Baltic a young novitiate, amid the rigors of a monastic life, was tracing the course of the planets, and solving the problem in which Virgil delighted[47]--problems which had baffled Chaldean and Persian, Egyptian and Saracen. Columbus explained the earth, Copernicus explained the heavens. Neither of the great discoverers lived to see the result of his labors, for the Prussian astronomer died on the day that his work was published. But the centuries that have come and gone have only increased the fame of Columbus and Copernicus, and proven the greatness of their genius.

COLUMBUS AND THE FOURTH CENTENARY OF HIS DISCOVERY.

Commander CLEMENTS ROBERT MARKHAM, R. N., C. B., F. R. S., a noted
explorer and talented English author. Midshipman in H. M. S.
Assistance in the Franklin Search Expedition, 1850-51. Born July
20, 1830, at Stillingfleet, near York. From a paper read before the
Royal Geographical Society of England, June 20, 1892.

In the present year the fourth centenary of the discovery of America by Columbus will be celebrated with great enthusiasm in Spain, in Italy, and in America. That discovery was, without any doubt, the most momentous event since the fall of the Roman Empire in its effect on the world's history. In its bearings on our science, the light thrown across the sea of darkness by the great Genoese was nothing less than the creation of modern geography. It seems fitting, therefore, that this society should take some share in the commemoration, and that we should devote one evening in this session to a consideration of some leading points in the life of the foremost of all geographers. * * *

Much new light has been thrown upon the birth and early life of Columbus, of late years, by the careful examination of monastic and notarial records at Genoa and Savona. At Genoa the original documents are still preserved. At Savona they no longer exist, and we are dependent on copies made two centuries ago by Salinerius. But both the Genoa and Savona records may be safely accepted, and we are thus furnished with a new and more interesting view of the early life of Columbus. Our thanks for this new light are mainly due to the laborious and scholarly researches of the Marchese Marcello Staglieno of Genoa, and to the work of Mr. Harrisse. We may take it as fully established that the original home of Giovanni Colombo, the grandfather of the great discoverer, was at Terrarossa, a small stone house, the massive walls of which are still standing on a hillside forming the northern slope of the beautiful valley of Fontanabuona. Here, no doubt, the father of Columbus was born; but the family moved to Quinto-al-Mare, then a fishing village about five miles east of Genoa. Next we find the father, Domenico Colombo, owning a house at Quinto, but established at Genoa as a wool weaver, with an apprentice. This was in 1439. A few years afterward Domenico found a wife in the family of a silk weaver who lived up a tributary valley of the Bisagno, within an easy walk of Genoa. Quezzi is a little village high up on the west side of a ravine, with slopes clothed to their summits in olive and chestnut foliage, whence there is a glorious view of the east end of Genoa, including the church of Carignano and the Mediterranean. On the opposite slope are the scattered houses of the hamlet of Ginestrato. From this village of Quezzi Domenico brought his wife, Susanna Fontanarossa, to Genoa, her dowry consisting of a small property, a house or a field, at Ginestrato.

About the home of Domenico and his wife at Genoa during at least twenty years there is absolute certainty. The old gate of San Andrea is still standing, with its lofty arch across the street, and its high flanking towers. A street with a rapid downward slope, called the Vico Dritto di Ponticelli, leads from the gate of San Andrea to the Church of S. Stefano; and the house of Domenico Colombo was in this street, a few doors from the gate. It was the weavers' quarter, and S. Stefano was their parish church, where they had a special altar. Domenico's house had two stories besides the ground floor; and there was a back garden, with a well between it and the city wall. It was battered down during the bombardment of Genoa in the time of Louis XIV., was rebuilt with two additional stories, and is now the property of the city of Genoa.

This was the house of the parents of Columbus, and at a solemn moment, shortly before his death, Columbus stated that he was born in the city of Genoa. No. 39 Vico Dritto di Ponticelli was therefore, in all probability, the house where the great discoverer was born, and the old Church of San Stefano, with its façade of alternate black and white courses of marble, and its quaint old campanile, was the place of his baptism. The date of his birth is fixed by three statements of his own, and by a justifiable inference from the notarial records. He said that he went to sea at the age of fourteen, and that when he came to Spain in 1485 he had led a sailor's life for twenty-three years. He was, therefore, born in 1447. In 1501 he again said that it was forty years since he first went to sea when he was fourteen; the same result--1447. In 1503 he wrote that he first came to serve for the discovery of the Indies--that is, that he left his home at the age of twenty-eight. This was in 1474, and the result is again 1447. The supporting notarial evidence is contained in two documents, in which the mother of Columbus consented to the sale of property by her husband. For the first deed, in May, 1471, the notary summoned her brothers to consent to the execution of the deed, as the nearest relations of full age. The second deed is witnessed by her son Cristoforo in August, 1473. He must have attained the legal age of twenty-five in the interval. This again makes 1447 the year of his birth.

The authorities who assign 1436 as the year of his birth rely exclusively on the guess of a Spanish priest, Dr. Bernaldez, Cura of Palacios, who made the great discoverer's acquaintance toward the end of his career. Bernaldez, judging from his aged appearance, thought that he might be seventy years of age, more or less, when he died. The use of the phrase "more or less" proves that Bernaldez had no information from Columbus himself, and that he merely guessed the years of the prematurely aged hero. This is not evidence. The three different statements of Columbus, supported by the corroborative testimony of the deeds of sale, form positive evidence, and fix the date of the birth at 1447.

We know the place and date of the great discoverer's birth, thanks to the researches of the Marchese Staglieno. The notarial records, combined with incidental statements of Columbus himself, also tell us that he was brought up, with his brothers and sister, in the Vico Dritto at Genoa; that he worked at his father's trade and became a "lanerio," or wool weaver; that he moved with his father and mother to Savona in 1472; and that the last document connecting Cristoforo Colombo with Italy is dated on August 7, 1473. After that date--doubtless very soon after that date, when he is described as a wool weaver of Genoa--Columbus went to Portugal, at the age of twenty-eight. But we also know that, in spite of his regular business as a weaver, he first went to sea in 1461, at the age of fourteen, and that he continued to make frequent voyages in the Mediterranean and the Archipelago--certainly as far as Chios--although his regular trade was that of a weaver.

This is not a mere question of places and dates. These facts enable us to form an idea of the circumstances surrounding the youth and early manhood of the future discoverer, of his training, of the fuel which lighted the fire of his genius, and of the difficulties which surrounded him. Moreover, a knowledge of the real facts serves to clear away all the misleading fables about student life at Pavia, about service with imaginary uncles who were corsairs or admirals, and about galleys commanded for King Réné. Some of these fables are due to the mistaken piety of the great discoverer's son Hernando, and to others, who seem to have thought that they were doing honor to the memory of the Admiral by surrounding his youth with romantic stories. But the simple truth is far more honorable, and, indeed, far more romantic. It shows us the young weaver loving his home and serving his parents with filial devotion, but at the same time preparing, with zeal and industry, to become an expert in the profession for which he was best fitted, and even in his earliest youth making ready to fulfill his high destiny.

I believe that Columbus had conceived the idea of sailing westward to the Indies even before he left his home at Savona. My reason is, that his correspondence with Toscanelli on the subject took place in the very year of his arrival in Portugal. That fact alone involves the position that the young weaver had not only become a practical seaman--well versed in all the astronomical knowledge necessary for his profession--a cosmographer, and a draughtsman, but also that he had carefully digested what he had learned, and had formed original conceptions. It seems wonderful that a humble weaver's apprentice could have done all this in the intervals of his regular work. Assuredly it is most wonderful; but I submit that his correspondence with Toscanelli in 1474 proves it to be a fact. We know that there were the means of acquiring such knowledge at Genoa in those days; that city was indeed the center of the nautical science of the day. Benincasa, whose beautiful _Portolani_ may still be seen at the British Museum, and in other collections, was in the height of his fame as a draughtsman at Genoa during the youth of Columbus; so was Pareto. In the workrooms of these famous cartographers the young aspirant would see the most accurate charts that could then be produced, very beautifully executed; and his imagination would be excited by the appearance of all the fabulous islands on the verge of the unknown ocean.

When the time arrived for Columbus to leave his home, he naturally chose Lisbon as the point from whence he could best enlarge his experience and mature his plans. Ever since he could remember he had seen the inscriptions respecting members of the Pasagni family, as we may see them now, carved on the white courses of the west front of San Stefano, his parish church. These Genoese Pasagni had been hereditary Admirals of Portugal; they had brought many Genoese seamen to Lisbon; the Cross of St. George marked their exploits on the _Portolani_, and Portugal was thus closely connected with the tradition of Genoese enterprise. So it was to Lisbon that Columbus and his brother made their way, and it was during the ten years of his connection with Portugal that his cosmographical studies, and his ocean voyages from the equator to the arctic circle, _combined with his genius to make Columbus the greatest seaman of his age_.

Capt. Duro, of the Spanish navy, has investigated all questions relating to the ships of the Columbian period and their equipment with great care; and the learning he has brought to bear on the subject has produced very interesting results. The two small caravels provided for the voyage of Columbus by the town of Palos were only partially decked. The Pinta was strongly built, and was originally lateen-rigged on all three masts, and she was the fastest sailer in the expedition; but she was only fifty tons burden, with a complement of eighteen men. The Niña, so-called after the Niño family of Palos, who owned her, was still smaller, being only forty tons. These two vessels were commanded by the Pinzons, and entirely manned by natives of the province of Huelva. The third vessel was much larger, and did not belong to Palos. She was called a "nao," or ship, and was of about one hundred tons burden, completely decked, with a high poop and forecastle. Her length has been variously estimated. Two of her masts had square sails, the mizzen being lateen-rigged. The foremast had a square foresail, the mainmast a mainsail and maintopsail, and there was a spritsail on the bowsprit. The courses were enlarged, in fair weather, by lacing strips of canvas to their leeches, called _bonetas_. There appear to have been two boats, one with a sail, and the ship was armed with lombards. The rigs of these vessels were admirably adapted for their purpose. The large courses of the caravels enabled their commanders to lay their courses nearer to the wind than any clipper ship of modern times. The crew of the ship Santa Maria numbered fifty-two men all told, including the Admiral. She was owned by the renowned pilot Juan de la Cosa of Santoña, who sailed with Columbus on both his first and second voyages, and was the best draughtsman in Spain. Mr. Harrisse, and even earlier writers, such as Vianello, call him a Basque pilot, apparently because he came from the north of Spain; but Santoña, his birthplace, although on the coast of the Bay of Biscay, is not in the Basque provinces; and if Juan de la Cosa was a native of Santoña he was not a Basque. While the crews of the two caravels all came from Palos or its neighborhood, the men of the Santa Maria were recruited from all parts of Spain, two from Santoña besides Juan de la Cosa, which was natural enough, and several others from northern ports, likewise attracted, in all probability, by the fame of the Santoña pilot. Among these it is very interesting to find an Englishman, who came from the little town of Lajes, near Coruña.

Our countryman is called in the list, "Tallarte de Lajes" (Inglés). It is not unlikely that an English sailor, making voyages from Bristol or from one of the Cinque Ports to Coruña, may have married and settled at Lajes. But what can we make of "Tallarte"? Spaniards would be likely enough to prefix a "T" to any English name beginning with a vowel, and they would be pretty sure to give the word a vowel termination. So, getting rid of these initial and terminal superfluities, there remains Allart, or Alard. This was a famous name among the sailors of the Cinque Ports. Gervaise Alard of Winchelsea in 1306 was the first English admiral; and there were Alards of Winchelsea for several generations, who were renowned as expert and daring sailors. One of them, I believe, sailed with Columbus on his first voyage, and perished at Navidad.

Columbus took with him the map furnished by Toscanelli. It is unfortunately lost. But the globe of Martin Behaim, drawn in 1492--the very year of the sailing of Columbus--shows the state of knowledge on the eve of the discovery of America. The lost map of Toscanelli must have been very like it, with its islands in mid-Atlantic, and its archipelago grouped round Cipango, near the coast of Cathay. This globe deserves close attention, for its details must be impressed on the minds of all who would understand what were the ideas and hopes of Columbus when he sailed from Palos.

Friday, August 3, 1492, when the three little vessels sailed over the bar of Saltes, was a memorable day in the world's history. It had been prepared for by many years of study and labor, by long years of disappointment and anxiety, rewarded at length by success. The proof was to be made at last. To the incidents of that famous voyage nothing can be added. But we may, at least, settle the long-disputed question of the landfall of Columbus. It is certainly an important question. There are the materials for a final decision, and we ought to know for certain on what spot of land it was that the Admiral knelt when he sprang from the boat on that famous 12th of October, 1492.

The learned have disputed over the matter for a century, and no less than five islands of the Bahama group have had their advocates. This is not the fault of Columbus, albeit we only have an abstract of his journal. The island is there fully and clearly described, and courses and distances are given thence to Cuba, which furnish data for fixing the landfall with precision. Here it is not a case for the learning and erudition of Navarretes, Humboldts, and Varnhagens. It is a sailor's question. If the materials from the journal were placed in the hands of any midshipman in her Majesty's navy, he would put his finger on the true landfall within half an hour. When sailors took the matter in hand, such as Admiral Becher, of the Hydrographic Office, and Lieut. Murdoch, of the United States navy, they did so.

Our lamented associate, Mr. R. H. Major, read a paper on this interesting subject on May 8, 1871, in which he proved that Watling's Island was the Guanahani, or San Salvador, of Columbus. He did so by two lines of argument--the first being the exact agreement between the description of Guanahani, in the journal of Columbus, and Watling's Island, a description which can not be referred to any other island in the Bahama group; and the second being a comparison of the maps of Juan de la Cosa and of Herrera with modern charts. He showed that out of twenty-four islands on the Herrera map of 1600, ten retain the same names as they then had, thus affording stations for comparison; and the relative bearings of these ten islands lead us to the accurate identification of the rest. The shapes are not correct, but the relative bearings are, and the Guanahani of the Herrera map is thus identified with the present Watling's Island. Mr. Major, by careful and minute attention to the words of the journal of Columbus, also established the exact position of the first anchorage as having been a little to the west of the southeast point of Watling's Island.

I can not leave the subject of Mr. Major's admirable paper without expressing my sense of the loss sustained by comparative geography when his well-known face, so genial and sympathetic, disappeared from among us. The biographer of Prince Henry the Navigator, Major did more than any other Englishman of this century to bring the authentic history of Columbus within the reach of his countrymen. His translations of the letters of the illustrious Genoese, and the excellent critical essay which preceded them, are indispensable to every English student of the history of geographical discovery who is not familiar with the Spanish language, and most useful even to Spanish scholars. His knowledge of the history of cartography, his extensive and accurate scholarship, and his readiness to impart his knowledge to others, made him a most valuable member of the council of this society, and one whose place is not easy to fill; while there are not a few among the Fellows who, like myself, sincerely mourn the loss of a true and warmhearted friend.

When we warmly applauded the close reasoning and the unassailable conclusions of Major's paper, we supposed that the question was at length settled; but as time went on, arguments in favor of other islands continued to appear, and an American in a high official position even started a new island, contending that Samana was the landfall. But Fox's Samana and Varnhagen's Mayaguana must be ruled out of court without further discussion, for they both occur on the maps of Juan de la Cosa and Herrera, on which Guanahani also appears. It is obvious that they can not be Guanahani and themselves at the same time; and it is perhaps needless to add that they do not answer to the description of Guanahani by Columbus, and meet none of the other requirements.

On this occasion it may be well to identify the landfall by another method, and thus furnish some further strength to the arguments which ought to put an end to the controversy. Major established the landfall by showing the identity between the Guanahani of Columbus and Watling's Island, and by the evidence of early maps. There is still another method, which was adopted by Lieut. Murdoch, of the United States navy, in his very able paper. Columbus left Guanahani and sailed to his second island, which he called Santa Maria de la Concepcion; and he gives the bearing and distance. He gives the bearing and distance from this second island to the north end of a third, which he called Fernandina. He gives the length of Fernandina. He gives the bearing and distance from the south end of Fernandina to a fourth island named Isabella, from Isabella to some rocks called Islas de Arena, and from Islas de Arena to Cuba.

It is obvious that if we trace these bearings and distances backward from Cuba, they will bring us to an island which must necessarily be the Guanahani, or San Salvador, of Columbus. This is the sailor's method: On October 27th, when Columbus sighted Cuba at a distance of 20 miles, the bearing of his anchorage at sunrise of the same day, off the Islas de Arena, was N. E. 58 miles, and from the point reached in Cuba it was N. E. 75 miles. The Ragged Islands are 75 miles from Cuba, therefore the Islas de Arena of Columbus are identified with the Ragged Islands of modern charts. The Islas de Arena were sighted when Columbus was 56 miles from the south end of Fernandina, and E.N.E. from Isabella. These bearings show that Fernandina was Long Island, and that Isabella was Crooked Island, of modern charts. Fernandina was 20 leagues long N. N. W. and S. S. E.; Long Island is 20 leagues long N. N. W. and S. S. E. Santa Maria de la Concepcion was several miles east of the north end of Fernandina, but in sight. Rum Cay is several miles east of the north end of Long Island, but in sight. Rum Cay is, therefore, the Santa Maria of Columbus. San Salvador, or Guanahani, was 21 miles N. W. from Santa Maria de la Concepcion. Watling's Island is 21 miles N. W. from Rum Cay; Watling's Island is, therefore, proved to be the San Salvador, or Guanahani, of Columbus.

The spot where Columbus first landed in the New World is the eastern end of the south side of Watling's Island. This has been established by the arguments of Major, and by the calculations of Murdoch, beyond all controversy. The evidence is overwhelming. Watling's Island answers to every requirement and every test, whether based on the Admiral's description of the island itself, on the courses and distances thence to Cuba, or on the evidence of early maps. We have thus reached a final and satisfactory conclusion, and we can look back on that momentous event in the world's history with the certainty that we know the exact spot on which it occurred--on which Columbus touched the land when he sprang from his boat with the standard waving over his head.[48]

The discoveries of Columbus during his first voyage, as recorded in his journal, included part of the north coast of Cuba, and the whole of the north coast of Española. The journal shows the care with which the navigation was conducted, how observations for latitude were taken, how the coasts were laid down--every promontory and bay receiving a name--and with what diligence each new feature of the land and its inhabitants was examined and recorded. The genius of Columbus would not have been of the same service to mankind if it had not been combined with great capacity for taking trouble, and with habits of order and accuracy. In considering the qualities of the great Genoese as a seaman and an explorer, we can not fail to be impressed with this accuracy, the result of incessant watchfulness and of orderly habits. Yet it is his accuracy which has been called in question by some modern writers, on the ground of passages in his letters which they have misinterpreted, or failed to understand. In every instance the blunder has not been committed by Columbus, but by his critics.

The Admiral's letters do not show him to be either careless or inaccurate. On the contrary, they bear witness to his watchfulness, to his methodical habits, and to his attention to details; although at the same time they are full of speculations, and of the thoughts which followed each other so rapidly in his imaginative brain. It was, indeed, the combination of these two qualities, of practical and methodical habits of thought with a vivid imagination, which constituted his genius--a combination as rare as it is valuable. It created the thoughts which conceived the great discovery, as well as the skill and ability which achieved it.