Chapter V: The Search for the Indies (1)

_WESTWARD OR SPANISH ROUTE._

[Sidenote: Sources of information concerning the life of Columbus: Las Casas and Ferdinand Columbus.]

[Sidenote: The Biblioteca Colombina at Seville.]

Our information concerning the life of Columbus before 1492 is far from being as satisfactory as one could wish. Unquestionably he is to be deemed fortunate in having had for his biographers two such men as his friend Las Casas, one of the noblest characters and most faithful historians of that or any age, and his own son Ferdinand Columbus, a most accomplished scholar and bibliographer. The later years of Ferdinand's life were devoted, with loving care, to the preparation of a biography of his father; and his book--which unfortunately survives only in the Italian translation of Alfonso Ulloa,[392] published in Venice in 1571--is of priceless value. As Washington Irving long ago wrote, it is "an invaluable document, entitled to great faith, and is the cornerstone of the history of the American continent."[393] After Ferdinand's death, in 1539, his papers seem to have passed into the hands of Las Casas, who, from 1552 to 1561, in the seclusion of the college of San Gregorio at Valladolid, was engaged in writing his great "History of the Indies."[394] Ferdinand's superb library, one of the finest in Europe, was bequeathed to the cathedral at Seville.[395] It contained some twenty thousand volumes in print and manuscript, four fifths of which, through shameful neglect or vandalism, have perished or been scattered. Four thousand volumes, however, are still preserved, and this library (known as the "Biblioteca Colombina") is full of interest for the historian. Book-buying was to Ferdinand Columbus one of the most important occupations in life. His books were not only carefully numbered, but on the last leaf of each one he wrote a memorandum of the time and place of its purchase and the sum of money paid for it.[396] This habit of Ferdinand's has furnished us with clues to the solution of some interesting questions. Besides this, he was much given to making marginal notes and comments, which are sometimes of immense value, and, more than all, there are still to be seen in this library a few books that belonged to Christopher Columbus himself, with very important notes in his own handwriting and in that of his brother Bartholomew. Las Casas was familiar with this grand collection in the days of its completeness, he was well acquainted with all the members of the Columbus family, and he had evidently read the manuscript sources of Ferdinand's book; for a comparison with Ulloa's version shows that considerable portions of the original Spanish text--or of the documents upon which it rested--are preserved in the work of Las Casas.[397] The citation and adoption of Ferdinand's statements by the latter writer, who was able independently to verify them, is therefore in most cases equivalent to corroboration, and the two writers together form an authority of the weightiest kind, and not lightly to be questioned or set aside.

[Footnote 392: _Historie del S. D. Fernando Colombo; Nelle
quali s' ha particolare, & vera relatione della vita, & de'
fatti dell' Ammiraglio D. Christoforo Colombo, suo padre: Et
dello scoprimento, ch' egli fece dell' Indie Occidentali, dette
Monde-Nuovo, hora possedute dal Sereniss. Re Catolico:
Nuouamente di lingua Spagnuola tradotte nell' Italiana dal S.
Alfonso Vlloa. Con. privilegio._ IN VENETIA, M D LXXI.
_Appresso Francesco de' Franceschi Sanese._ The principal
reprints are those of Milan, 1614; Venice, 1676 and 1678;
London, 1867. I always cite it as _Vita dell' Ammiraglio_.]

[Footnote 393: Irving's _Life of Columbus_, New York, 1868,
vol. iii. p. 375. My references, unless otherwise specified,
are to this, the "Geoffrey Crayon," edition.]

[Footnote 394: Las Casas, _Historia de las Indias, ahora por
primera vez dada á luz por el Marqués de la Fuensanta del Valle
y D. José Sancho Rayon_, Madrid, 1875, 5 vols. 8vo.]

[Footnote 395: "Fu questo D. Ernando di non minor valore del
padre, ma di molte più lettere et scienze dotato che quelle non
fu; et il quale lasciò alla Chiesa maggiore di Siviglia, dove
hoggi si vede honorevolmente sepolto, una, non sola
numerosissima, ma richissima libraria, et piena di molti libri
in ogni facoltà et scienza rarissimi: laquale da coloro che l'
han veduta, vien stimata delle più rare cose di tutta Europa."
Moleto's prefatory letter to _Vita dell' Ammiraglio_, April 25,
1571.]

[Footnote 396: For example, "_Manuel de la Sancta Fe católica_,
Sevilla, 1495, in-4. Costó en Toledo 34 maravedis, año 1511, 9
de Octubre, No. 3004." "_Tragicomedia de Calisto y Melibea_,
Sevilla, 1502, in-4. Muchas figuras. Costó en Roma 25
cuatrines, por Junio de 1515. No. 2417," etc. See Harrisse,
_Fernand Colomb_, Paris, 1872, p. 13.]

[Footnote 397: "L' autorita di Las Casas è d' una suprema e
vitale importanza tanto nella storia di Cristoforo Colombo,
come nell' esame delle _Historie_ di Fernando suo figlio.... E
dal confronto tra questi due scrittori emergerà una omogeneità
si perfetta, che si potrebbe coi termini del frate domenicano
ritrovare o rifare per due terzi il testo originale spagnuolo
delle _Historie_ di Fernando Colombo." Peragallo, _L'
autenticità delle Historie di Fernando Colombo_, Genoa, 1884,
p. 23.]

[Sidenote: Bernaldez and Peter Martyr.]

[Sidenote: Letters of Columbus.]

Besides these books of most fundamental importance, we have valuable accounts of some parts of the life of Columbus by his friend Andres Bernaldez, the curate of Los Palacios near Seville.[398] Peter Martyr, of Anghiera, by Lago Maggiore, was an intimate friend of Columbus, and gives a good account of his voyages, besides mentioning him in sundry epistles.[399] Columbus himself, moreover, was such a voluminous writer that his contemporaries laughed about it. "God grant," says Zuñiga in a letter to the Marquis de Pescara, "God grant that Gutierrez may never come short for paper, for he writes more than Ptolemy, more than Columbus, the man who discovered the Indies."[400] These writings are in great part lost, though doubtless a good many things will yet be brought to light in Spain by persistent rummaging. We have, however, from sixty to seventy letters and reports by Columbus, of which twenty-three at least are in his own handwriting; and all these have been published.[401]

[Footnote 398: _Historia de los Reyes Católicos D. Fernando y
D^a Isabel. Crónica inédita del siglo XV, escrita por el
Bachiller Andrés Bernaldez, cura que fué de Los Palacios_,
Granada, 1856, 2 vols. small 4to. It is a book of very high
authority.]

[Footnote 399: _De orbe novo Decades_, Alcalá, 1516; _Opus
epistolarum_, Compluti (Alcalá), 1530; Harrisse, _Bibliotheca
Americana Vetustissima_, Nos. 88, 160.]

[Footnote 400: "A Gutierrez vuestro solicitador, ruego à Dios
que nunca le falte papel, porque escribe mas que Tolomeo y que
Colon, el que halló las Indias." Rivadeneyra, _Curiosidades
bibliográficas_, p. 59, apud Harrisse, _Christophe Colomb_,
tom. i. p. 1.]

[Footnote 401: Harrisse, _loc. cit._, in 1884, gives the number
at sixty-four.]

[Sidenote: Defects in Ferdinand's information.]

Nevertheless, while these contemporary materials give us abundant information concerning the great discoverer, from the year 1492 until his death, it is quite otherwise with his earlier years, especially before his arrival in Spain in 1484. His own allusions to these earlier years are sometimes hard to interpret;[402] and as for his son Ferdinand, that writer confesses, with characteristic and winning frankness, that his information is imperfect, inasmuch as filial respect had deterred him from closely interrogating his father on such points, or, to tell the plain truth, being still very young when his father died, he had not then come to recognize their importance.[403] This does not seem strange when we reflect that Ferdinand must have seen very little of his father until in 1502, at the age of fourteen, he accompanied him on that last difficult and disastrous voyage, in which the sick and harassed old man could have had but little time or strength for aught but the work in hand. It is not strange that when, a quarter of a century later, the son set about his literary task, he should now and then have got a date wrong, or have narrated some incidents in a confused manner, or have admitted some gossiping stories, the falsehood of which can now plainly be detected. Such blemishes, which occur chiefly in the earlier part of Ferdinand's book, do not essentially detract from its high authority.[404] The limits which bounded the son's accurate knowledge seem also to have bounded that of such friends as Bernaldez, who did not become acquainted with Columbus until after his arrival in Spain.

[Footnote 402: Sometimes from a slip of memory or carelessness
of phrasing, on Columbus's part, sometimes from our lacking the
clue, sometimes from an error in numerals, common enough at all
times.]

[Footnote 403: "Ora, l' Ammiraglio avendo cognizione delle
dette scienze, cominciò ad attendere al mare, e a fare alcuni
viaggi in levante e in ponente; de' quali, e di molte altre
cose di quei primi dì io non ho piena notizia; perciocchè egli
venne a morte a tempo che io non aveva tanto ardire, o pratica,
per la riverenza filiale, che io ardissi di richiederlo di
cotali cose; o, per parlare più veramente, allora mi ritrovava
io, come giovane, molto lontano da cotal pensiero." _Vita dell'
Ammiraglio_, cap. iv.]

[Footnote 404: Twenty years ago M. Harrisse published in
Spanish and French a critical essay maintaining that the _Vita
dell' Ammiraglio_ was not written by Ferdinand Columbus, but
probably by the famous scholar Perez de Oliva, professor in the
university of Salamanca, who died in 1530 (_D. Fernando Colon,
historiador de su padre_, Seville, 1871; _Fernand Colomb: sa
vie, ses oeuvres_, Paris, 1872). The Spanish manuscript of the
book had quite a career. As already observed, it is clear that
Las Casas used it, probably between 1552 and 1561. From
Ferdinand's nephew, Luis Columbus, it seems to have passed in
1568 into the hands of Baliano di Fornari, a prominent citizen
of Genoa, who sent it to Venice with the intention of having it
edited and published with Latin and Italian versions. All that
ever appeared, however, was the Italian version made by Ulloa
and published in 1571. Harrisse supposes that the Spanish
manuscript, written by Oliva, was taken to Genoa by some
adventurer and palmed off upon Baliano di Fornari as the work
of Ferdinand Columbus. But inasmuch as Harrisse also supposes
that Oliva probably wrote the book (about 1525) at Seville,
under Ferdinand's eyes and with documents furnished by him, it
becomes a question, in such case, how far was Oliva anything
more than an amanuensis to Ferdinand? and there seems really to
be precious little wool after so much loud crying. If the
manuscript was actually written "sous les yeux de Fernand et
avec documents fournis par lui," most of the arguments alleged
to prove that it could not have emanated from the son of
Columbus fall to the ground. It becomes simply a question
whether Ulloa may have here and there tampered with the text,
or made additions of his own. To some extent he seems to have
done so, but wherever the Italian version is corroborated by
the Spanish extracts in Las Casas, we are on solid ground, for
Las Casas died five years before the Italian version was
published. M. Harrisse does not seem as yet to have convinced
many scholars. His arguments have been justly, if somewhat
severely, characterized by my old friend, the lamented Henry
Stevens (_Historical Collections_, London, 1881, vol. i. No.
1379), and have been elaborately refuted by M. d'Avezac, _Le
livre de Ferdinand Colomb: revue critique des allegations
proposées contre son authenticité_, Paris, 1873; and by
Prospero Peragallo, _L' autenticità delle Historie di Fernando
Colombo_, Genoa, 1884. See also Fabié, _Vida de Fray Bartolomé
de Las Casas_, Madrid, 1869, tom. i. pp. 360-372.]

[Sidenote: Researches of Henry Harrisse.]

In recent years elaborate researches have been made, by Henry Harrisse and others, in the archives of Genoa, Savona, Seville, and other places with which Columbus was connected, in the hope of supplementing this imperfect information concerning his earlier years.[405] A number of data have thus been obtained, which, while clearing up the subject most remarkably in some directions, have been made to mystify and embroil it in others. There is scarcely a date or a fact relating to Columbus before 1492 but has been made the subject of hot dispute; and some pretty wholesale reconstructions of his biography have been attempted.[406] The general impression, however, which the discussions of the past twenty years have left upon my mind, is that the more violent hypotheses are not likely to be sustained, and that the newly-ascertained facts do not call for any very radical interference with the traditional lines upon which the life of Columbus has heretofore been written.[407] At any rate there seems to be no likelihood of such interference as to modify our views of the causal sequence of events that led to the westward search for the Indies; and it is this relation of cause and effect that chiefly concerns us in a history of the Discovery of America.

[Footnote 405: See Harrisse, _Christophe Colomb_, Paris, 1884,
2 vols., a work of immense research, absolutely indispensable
to every student of the subject, though here and there somewhat
over-ingenious and hypercritical, and in general unduly biased
by the author's private crotchet about the work of Ferdinand.]

[Footnote 406: One of the most radical of these reconstructions
may be found in the essay by M. d'Avezac, "Canevas
chronologique de la vie de Christophe Colomb," in _Bulletin de
la Société de Géographie_, Paris, 1872, 6e série, tom. iv. pp.
5-59.]

[Footnote 407: Washington Irving's _Life of Columbus_, says
Harrisse, "is a history written with judgment and impartiality,
which leaves far behind it all descriptions of the discovery of
the New World published before or since." _Christophe Colomb_,
tom. i. p. 136. Irving was the first to make use of the superb
work of Navarrete, _Coleccion de los viages y descubrimientos
que hicieron por mar los Españoles desde fines del siglo XV._,
Madrid, 1825-37, 5 vols. 4to. Next followed Alexander von
Humboldt, with his _Examen critique de l'histoire de la
géographie de Nouveau Continent_, Paris, 1836-39, 5 vols. 8vo.
This monument of gigantic erudition (which, unfortunately, was
never completed) will always remain indispensable to the
historian.]

* * * * *

[Sidenote: Date of the birth of Columbus: archives of Savona.]

[Sidenote: Statement of Bernaldez.]

[Sidenote: Columbus's letter of September, 1501.]

[Sidenote: The balance of probability is in favour of 1436.]

The date of the birth of Columbus is easy to determine approximately, but hard to determine with precision. In the voluminous discussion upon this subject the extreme limits assigned have been 1430 and 1456, but neither of these extremes is admissible, and our choice really lies somewhere between 1436 and 1446. Among the town archives of Savona is a deed of sale executed August 7, 1473, by the father of Christopher Columbus, and ratified by Christopher and his next brother Giovanni.[408] Both brothers must then have attained their majority, which in the republic of Genoa was fixed at the age of twenty-five. Christopher, therefore, can hardly have been less than seven and twenty, so that the latest probable date for his birth is 1446, and this is the date accepted by Muñoz, Major, Harrisse, and Avezac. There is no documentary proof, however, to prevent our taking an earlier date; and the curate of Los Palacios--strong authority on such a point--says expressly that at the time of his death, in 1506, Columbus was "in a good old age, seventy years a little more or less."[409] Upon this statement Navarrete and Humboldt have accepted 1436 as the probable date of birth.[410] The most plausible objection to this is a statement made by Columbus himself in a letter to Ferdinand and Isabella, written in 1501. In this letter, as first given in the biography by his son, Columbus says that he was of "very tender age" when he began to sail the seas, an occupation which he has kept up until the present moment; and in the next sentence but one he adds that "now for forty years I have been in this business and have gone to every place where there is any navigation up to the present time."[411] The expression "very tender age" agrees with Ferdinand's statement that his father was fourteen years old when he first took to the sea.[412] Since 1446 + 14-40 = 1500, it is argued that Columbus was probably born about 1446; some sticklers for extreme precision say 1447. But now there were eight years spent by Columbus in Spain, from 1484 to 1492, without any voyages at all; they were years, as he forcibly says, "dragged out in disputations."[413] Did he mean to include those eight years in his forty spent upon the sea? Navarrete thinks he did not. When he wrote under excitement, as in this letter, his language was apt to be loose, and it is fair to construe it according to the general probabilities of the case. This addition of eight years brings his statement substantially into harmony with that of Bernaldez, which it really will not do to set aside lightly. Moreover, in the original text of the letter, since published by Navarrete, Columbus appears to say, "now for _more than_ forty years," so that the agreement with Bernaldez becomes practically complete.[414] The good curate spoke from direct personal acquaintance, and his phrases "seventy years" and "a good old age" are borne out by the royal decree of February 23, 1505, permitting Columbus to ride on a mule, instead of a horse, by reason of his old age (_ancianidad_) and infirmities.[415] Such a phrase applies much better to a man of sixty-nine than to a man of fifty-nine. On the whole, I think that Washington Irving showed good sense in accepting the statement of the curate of Los Palacios as decisive, dating as it does the birth of Columbus at 1436, "a little more or less."

[Footnote 408: Harrisse, _op. cit._ tom. i. p. 196.]

[Footnote 409: "In _senectute bona_, de edad de setenta años
poco mas o menos." Bernaldez, _Reyes Católicos_, tom. i. p.
334.]

[Footnote 410: M. d'Avezac (_Canevas chronologique_, etc.)
objects to this date that we have positive documentary evidence
of the birth of Christopher's youngest brother Giacomo
(afterwards spanished into Diego) in 1468, which makes an
interval of 32 years; so that if the mother were (say) 18 in
1436 she must have borne a child at the age of 50. That would
be unusual, but not unprecedented. But M. Harrisse (tom. ii. p.
214), from a more thorough sifting of this documentary
evidence, seems to have proved that while Giacomo cannot have
been born later than 1468 he may have been born as early as
1460; so that whatever is left of M. d'Avezac's objection falls
to the ground.]

[Footnote 411: "Serenissimi principi, di età molto tenera io
entrai in mare navigando, et vi ho continovato fin' hoggi: ...
et hoggimai passano quaranta anni che io uso per tutte quelle
parti che fin hoggi si navigano." _Vita dell' Ammiraglio_, cap.
iv.]

[Footnote 412: _Op. cit._ cap. iv. _ad fin_.]

[Footnote 413: "Traido en disputas," Navarrete, _Coleccion_,
tom. ii. p. 254.]

[Footnote 414: "Muy altos Reyes, de muy pequeña edad entré en
la mar navegando, é lo he continuado fasta hoy.... Yá pasan de
cuarenta años que yo voy en este uso: todo lo que hoy se
navega, todo lo he andado." Navarrete, _Coleccion_, tom. ii. p.
262. Observe the lame phrase "pasan de cuarenta;" what business
has that "de" in such a place without "mas" before it? "Pasan
mas de cuarenta," i. e. "more than forty;" writing in haste and
excitement, Columbus left out a little word; or shall we blame
the proof-reader? Avezac himself translates it "il y a plus de
quarante ans," and so does Eugène Müller, in his French version
of Ferdinand's book, _Histoire de la vie de Christophe Colomb_,
Paris, 1879, p. 15.]

[Footnote 415: That was the golden age of sumptuary laws.
Because Alfonso XI. of Castile (1312-1350), when he tried to
impress horses for the army, found it hard to get as many as he
wanted, he took it into his head that his subjects were raising
too many mules and not enough horses. So he tried to remedy the
evil by a wholesale decree prohibiting all Castilians from
riding upon mules! In practice this precious decree, like other
villainous prohibitory laws that try to prevent honest people
from doing what they have a perfect right to do, proved so
vexatious and ineffective withal that it had to be perpetually
fussed with and tinkered. One year you could ride a mule and
the next year you couldn't. In 1492, as we shall see, Columbus
immortalized one of these patient beasts by riding it a few
miles from Granada. But in 1494 Ferdinand and Isabella decreed
that nobody except women, children, and clergymen could ride on
mules,--"dont la marche est beaucoup plus douce que celle des
chevaux" (Humboldt, _Examen critique_, tom. iii. p. 338). This
edict remained in force in 1505, so that the Discoverer of the
New World, the inaugurator of the greatest historic event since
the birth of Christ, could not choose an easygoing animal for
the comfort of his weary old weather-shaken bones without the
bother of getting a special edict to fit his case. _Eheu, quam
parva sapientia regitur mundus!_]

[Sidenote: The family of Domenico Colombo, and its changes of residence.]

With regard to the place where the great discoverer was born there ought to be no dispute, since we have his own most explicit and unmistakable word for it, as I shall presently show. Nevertheless there has been no end of dispute. He has been claimed by as many places as Homer,[416] but the only real question is whether he was born in the city of Genoa or in some neighbouring village within the boundaries of the Genoese republic. It is easy to understand how doubt has arisen on this point, if we trace the changes of residence of his family. The grandfather of Columbus seems to have been Giovanni Colombo, of Terrarossa, an inland hamlet some twenty miles east by north from Genoa. Giovanni's son, Domenico Colombo, was probably born at Terrarossa, and moved thence with his father, somewhere between 1430 and 1445, to Quinto al Mare, four miles east of Genoa on the coast. All the family seem to have been weavers. Before 1445, but how many years before is not known, Domenico married Susanna Fontanarossa, who belonged to a family of weavers, probably of Quezzi, four miles northeast of Genoa. Between 1448 and 1451 Domenico, with his wife and three children, moved into the city of Genoa, where he became the owner of a house and was duly qualified as a citizen. In 1471 Domenico moved to Savona, thirty miles west on the Corniche road, where he set up a weaving establishment and also kept a tavern. He had then five children, Cristoforo, Giovanni, Bartolommeo, Giacomo, and a daughter. Domenico lived in Savona till 1484. At that time his wife and his son Giovanni were dead, Giacomo was an apprentice, learning the weaver's trade, Christopher and Bartholomew had long been domiciled in Portugal, the daughter had married a cheese merchant in Genoa, and to that city Domenico returned in the autumn of 1484, and lived there until his death, at a great age, in 1499 or 1500. He was always in pecuniary difficulties, and died poor and in debt, though his sons seem to have sent him from Portugal and Spain such money as they could spare.[417]

[Footnote 416: "Nous avons démontré l'inanité des théories qui
le font naître à Pradello, à Cuccaro, à Cogoleto, à Savona, à
Nervi, à Albissola, à Bogliasco, à Cosseria, à Finale, à
Oneglia, voire même en Angleterre ou dans l'isle de Corse."
Harrisse, tom. i. p. 217. In Cogoleto, about sixteen miles west
of Genoa on the Corniche road, the visitor is shown a house
where Columbus is said first to have seen the light. Upon its
front is a quaint inscription in which the discoverer is
compared to the dove (_Colomba_) which, when sent by Noah from
the ark, discovered dry land amid the waters:--

Con generoso ardir dall' Arca all' onde
Ubbidiente il vol Colomba prende,
Corre, s' aggira, terren scopre, e fronde
D' olivo in segno, al gran Noè ne rende.
L' imita in ciò Colombo, ne' s' asconde,
E da sua patria il mar solcando fende;
Terreno al fin scoprendo diede fondo,
Offerendo all' Ispano un Nuovo Mondo.

This house is or has been mentioned in Baedeker's _Northern
Italy_ as the probable birthplace, along with Peschel's absurd
date 1456. It is pretty certain that Columbus was _not_ born in
that house or in Cogoleto. See Harrisse, tom. i. pp. 148-155.]

[Footnote 417: Harrisse, tom. i. pp. 166-216.]

[Sidenote: Christopher tells us that he was born in the city of Genoa.]

The reader will observe that Christopher and his two next brothers were born before the family went to live in the city of Genoa. It has hence been plausibly inferred that they were born either in Quinto or in Terrarossa; more likely the latter, since both Christopher and Bartholomew, as well as their father, were called, and sometimes signed themselves, Columbus of Terrarossa.[418] In this opinion the most indefatigable modern investigator, Harrisse, agrees with Las Casas.[419] Nevertheless, in a solemn legal instrument executed February 22, 1498, establishing a _mayorazgo_, or right of succession to his estates and emoluments in the Indies, Columbus expressly declares that he was born in the city of Genoa: "I enjoin it upon my son, the said Don Diego, or whoever may inherit the said _mayorazgo_, always to keep and maintain in the City of Genoa one person of our lineage, because from thence I came and in it I was born."[420] I do not see how such a definite and positive statement, occurring in such a document, can be doubted or explained away. It seems clear that the son was born while the parents were dwelling either at Terrarossa or at Quinto, but what is to hinder our supposing that the event might have happened when the mother was in the city on some errand or visit? The fact that Christopher and his brother were often styled "of Terrarossa" does not prove that they were born in that hamlet. A family moving thence to Quinto and to Genoa would stand in much need of some such distinctive epithet, because the name Colombo was extremely common in that part of Italy; insomuch that the modern historian, who prowls among the archives of those towns, must have a care lest he get hold of the wrong person, and thus open a fresh and prolific source of confusion. This has happened more than once.

[Footnote 418: Harrisse, tom. i. p. 188; _Vita dell'
Ammiraglio_, cap. xi.]

[Footnote 419: "Fué este varon escogido de nacion genovés, de
algun lugar de la provincia de Génova; cual fuese, donde nació
ó qué nombre tuvo el tal lugar, no consta la verdad dello más
de que se solia llamar ántes que llegase al estado que llegó,
Cristobal Colombo de Terra-rubia y lo mismo su hermano
Bartolomé Colon." Las Casas, _Historia de las Indias_, tom. i.
p. 42; cf. Harrisse, tom. i. pp. 217-222.]

[Footnote 420: "Mando al dicho D. Diego, mi hijo, ó á la
persona que heredare el dicho mayorazgo, que tenga y sostenga
siempre en la _Ciudad de Génova_ una persona de nuestro linage
... pues que della salí _y en ella naci_" [italics mine].
Navarrete, _Coleccion_, tom. ii. p. 232.]

[Sidenote: Christopher's early years.]

[Sidenote: Christopher and Bartholomew at Lisbon.]

On the whole, then, it seems most probable that the Discoverer of America was born in the city of Genoa in 1436, or not much later. Of his childhood we know next to nothing. Las Casas tells us that he studied at the University of Pavia and acquired a good knowledge of Latin.[421] This has been doubted, as incompatible with the statement of Columbus that he began a seafaring life at the age of fourteen. It is clear, however, that the earlier years of Columbus, before his departure for Portugal, were not all spent in seafaring. Somewhere, if not at Pavia, he not only learned Latin, but found time to study geography, with a little astronomy and mathematics, and to become an expert draughtsman. He seems to have gone to and fro upon the Mediterranean in merchant voyages, now and then taking a hand in sharp scrimmages with Mussulman pirates.[422] In the intervals of this adventurous life he was probably to be found in Genoa, earning his bread by making maps and charts, for which there was a great and growing demand. About 1470, having become noted for his skill in such work, he followed his younger brother Bartholomew to Lisbon,[423] whither Prince Henry's undertakings had attracted able navigators and learned geographers until that city had come to be the chief centre of nautical science in Europe. Las Casas assures us that Bartholomew was quite equal to Christopher as a sailor, and surpassed him in the art of making maps and globes, as well as in the beauty of his handwriting.[424] In Portugal, as before in Italy, the work of the brothers Columbus was an alternation of map-making on land and adventure on the sea. We have Christopher's own word for it that he sailed with more than one of those Portuguese expeditions down the African coast;[425] and I think it not altogether unlikely that he may have been with Santarem and Escobar in their famous voyage of 1471.

[Footnote 421: Las Casas, _Historia_, tom. i. p. 46.]

[Footnote 422: The reader must beware, however, of some of the
stories of adventure attaching to this part of his life, even
where they are confirmed by Las Casas. They evidently rest upon
hearsay, and the incidents are so confused that it is almost
impossible to extract the kernel of truth.]

[Footnote 423: The date 1470 rests upon a letter of Columbus to
King Ferdinand of Aragon in May, 1505. He says that God must
have directed him into the service of Spain by a kind of
miracle, since he had already been in Portugal, whose king was
more interested than any other sovereign in making discoveries,
and yet God closed his eyes, his ears, and all his senses to
such a degree that _in fourteen years_ Columbus could not
prevail upon him to lend aid to his scheme. "Dije
milagrosamente porque fui á aportar á Portugal, adonde el Rey
de allí entendia en el descubrir mas que otro: él le atajó la
vista, oido y todos los sentidos, que en catorce años no le
pude hacer entender lo que yo dije." Las Casas, _op. cit._ tom.
iii. p. 187; Navarrete, tom. iii. p. 528. Now it is known that
Columbus finally left Portugal late in 1484, or very early in
1485, so that fourteen years would carry us back to before 1471
for the first arrival of Columbus in that country. M. Harrisse
(_op. cit._ tom. i. p. 263) is unnecessarily troubled by the
fact that the same person was not king of Portugal during the
whole of that period. Alfonso V. (brother of Henry the
Navigator) died in 1481, and was succeeded by his son John II.;
but during a considerable part of the time between 1475 and
1481 the royal authority was exercised by the latter. Both
kings were more interested in making discoveries than any other
European sovereigns. Which king did Columbus mean? Obviously
his words were used loosely; he was too much preoccupied to be
careful about trifles; he probably had John in his mind, and
did not bother himself about Alfonso; King Ferdinand, to whom
he was writing, did not need to have such points minutely
specified, and could understand an elliptical statement; and
the fact stated by Columbus was simply that during a residence
of fourteen years in Portugal he had not been able to enlist
even that enterprising government in behalf of his novel
scheme.

In the town archives of Savona we find Christopher Columbus
witnessing a document March 20, 1472, endorsing a kind of
promissory note for his father August 26, 1472, and joining
with his mother and his next brother Giovanni, August 7, 1473,
in relinquishing all claims to the house in Genoa sold by his
father Domenico by deed of that date. It will be remembered
that Domenico had moved from Genoa to Savona in 1471. From
these documents (which are all printed in his _Christophe
Colomb_, tom. ii. pp. 419, 420, 424-426) M. Harrisse concludes
that Christopher cannot have gone to Portugal until after
August 7, 1473. Probably not, so far as to be domiciled there;
but inasmuch as he had long been a sailor, why should he not
have been in Portugal, or upon the African coast in a
Portuguese ship, in 1470 and 1471, and nevertheless have been
with his parents in Savona in 1472 and part of 1473? His own
statement "fourteen years" is not to be set aside on such
slight grounds as this. Furthermore, from the fact that
Bartholomew's name is not signed to the deed of August 7, 1473,
M. Harrisse infers that he was then a minor; i. e. under five
and twenty. But it seems to me more likely that Bartholomew was
already domiciled at Lisbon, since we are expressly told by two
good contemporary authorities--both of them Genoese writers
withal--that he moved to Lisbon and began making maps there at
an earlier date than Christopher. See Antonio Gallo, _De
navigatione Columbi per inaccessum antea Oceanum
Commentariolus_, apud Muratori, tom. xxiii. col. 301-304;
Giustiniani, _Psalterium_, Milan, 1516 (annotation to Psalm
xix.); Harrisse, _Bibliotheca Americana Vetustissima_, No. 88.
To these statements M. Harrisse objects that he finds (in
Belloro, _Notizie_, p. 8) mention of a document dated Savona,
June 16, 1480, in which Domenico Colombo gives a power of
attorney to his son Bartholomew to act for him in some matter.
The document itself, however, is not forthcoming, and the
notice cited by M. Harrisse really affords no ground for the
assumption that Bartholomew was in 1480 domiciled at Savona or
at Genoa.]

[Footnote 424: Las Casas, _op. cit._ tom. i. p. 224; tom. ii.
p. 80. He possessed many maps and documents by both the
brothers.]

[Footnote 425: "Spesse volte navigando da Lisbona a Guinea,"
etc. _Vita dell' Ammiraglio_, cap. iv. The original authority
is Columbus's marginal note in his copy of the _Imago Mundi_ of
Alliacus, now preserved in the Colombina at Seville: "Nota quod
sepius navigando ex Ulixbona ad austrum in Guineam, notavi cum
diligentia viam, etc." Compare the allusions to Guinea in his
letters, Navarrete, _Coleccion_, tom. i. pp. 55, 71, 101.]

[Sidenote: Philippa Moñiz de Perestrelo.]

[Sidenote: Personal appearance of Columbus.]

He had not been long in Portugal before he found a wife. We have already met the able Italian navigator, Bartholomew Perestrelo, who was sent by Prince Henry to the island of Porto Santo with Zarco and Vaz, about 1425. In recognition of eminent services Prince Henry afterwards, in 1446, appointed him governor of Porto Santo. Perestrelo died in 1457, leaving a widow (his second wife, Isabella Moñiz) and a charming daughter Philippa,[426] whom Columbus is said to have first met at a religious service in the chapel of the convent of All Saints at Lisbon. From the accounts of his personal appearance, given by Las Casas and others who knew him, we can well understand how Columbus should have won the heart of this lady, so far above him at that time in social position. He was a man of noble and commanding presence, tall and powerfully built, with fair ruddy complexion and keen blue-gray eyes that easily kindled; while his waving white hair must have been quite picturesque. His manner was at once courteous and cordial and his conversation charming, so that strangers were quickly won, and in friends who knew him well he inspired strong affection and respect.[427] There was an indefinable air of authority about him, as befitted a man of great heart and lofty thoughts.[428] Out of those kindling eyes looked a grand and poetic soul, touched with that divine spark of religious enthusiasm which makes true genius.

[Footnote 426: There are some vexed questions concerning this
lady and the connections between the Moñiz and Perestrelo
families, for which see Harrisse, tom. i. pp. 267-292.]

[Footnote 427: Las Casas, _Historia_, tom. i. p. 43. He
describes Bartholomew as not unlike his brother, but not so
tall, less affable in manner, and more stern in disposition,
_id._ tom. ii. p. 80.]

[Footnote 428: "Christoval Colon ... persona de gran corazon y
altos pensamientos." Mariana, _Historia de España_, tom. viii.
p. 341.]

[Sidenote: His marriage, and life upon the island of Porto Santo.]

The acquaintance between Columbus and Philippa Moñiz de Perestrelo was not long in ripening into affection, for they were married in 1473. As there was a small estate at Porto Santo, Columbus went home thither with his bride to live for a while in quiet and seclusion. Such repose we may believe to have been favourable to meditation, and on that little island, three hundred miles out on the mysterious ocean, we are told that the great scheme of sailing westward to the Indies first took shape in the mind of Columbus.[429] His father-in-law Perestrelo had left a quantity of sailing charts and nautical notes, and these Columbus diligently studied, while ships on their way to and from Guinea every now and then stopped at the island, and one can easily imagine the eager discussions that must have been held over the great commercial problem of the age,--how far south that African coast extended and whether there was any likelihood of ever finding an end to it.

[Footnote 429: Upon that island his eldest son Diego was born.
This whole story of the life upon Porto Santo and its relation
to the genesis of Columbus's scheme is told very explicitly by
Las Casas, who says that it was told to him by Diego Columbus
at Barcelona in 1519, when they were waiting upon Charles V.,
just elected Emperor and about to start for Aachen to be
crowned. And yet there are modern critics who are disposed to
deny the whole story. (See Harrisse, tom. i. p. 298.) The
grounds for doubt are, however, extremely trivial when
confronted with Las Casas, _Historia_, tom. i. p. 54.]

[Sidenote: Alfonso V. asks advice of the great astronomer Toscanelli.]

How long Columbus lived upon Porto Santo is not known, but he seems to have gone from time to time back to Lisbon, and at length to have made his home--or in the case of such a rover we might better say his headquarters--in that city. We come now to a document of supreme importance for our narrative. Paolo del Pozzo dei Toscanelli, born at Florence in 1397, was one of the most famous astronomers and cosmographers of his time, a man to whom it was natural that questions involving the size and shape of the earth should be referred. To him Alfonso V. of Portugal made application, through a gentleman of the royal household, Fernando Martinez, who happened to be an old friend of Toscanelli. What Alfonso wanted to know was whether there could be a shorter oceanic route to the Indies than that which his captains were seeking by following the African coast; if so, he begged that Toscanelli would explain the nature and direction of such a route. The Florentine astronomer replied with the letter presently to be quoted in full, dated June 25, 1474; and along with the letter he sent to the king a sailing chart, exhibiting his conception of the Atlantic ocean, with Europe on the east and Cathay on the west. The date of this letter is eloquent. It was early in 1472 that Santarem and Escobar brought back to Lisbon the news that beyond the Gold Coast the African shore turned southwards and stretched away in that direction beyond the equator. As I have already observed, this was the moment when the question as to the possibility of a shorter route was likely to arise;[430] and this is precisely the question we find the king of Portugal putting to Toscanelli some time before the middle of 1474. Now about this same time, or not long afterwards, we find Columbus himself appealing to Toscanelli. An aged Florentine merchant, Lorenzo Giraldi, then settled in Lisbon, was going back to his native city for a visit, and to him Columbus entrusted a letter for the eminent astronomer. He received the following answer:

[Sidenote: Toscanelli's first letter to Columbus.]

"Paul, the physicist, to Christopher Columbus greeting.[431] I perceive your great and noble desire to go to the place where the spices grow; wherefore in reply to a letter of yours, I send you a copy of another letter, which I wrote a few days ago [or some time ago] to a friend of mine, a gentleman of the household of the most gracious king of Portugal before the wars of Castile,[432] in reply to another, which by command of His Highness he wrote me concerning that matter: and I send you another sailing chart, similar to the one I sent him, by which your demands will be satisfied. The copy of that letter of mine is as follows:--

[Sidenote: Toscanelli's copy of his former letter to Martinez--enclosed in his first letter to Columbus.]

"'Paul, the physicist, to Fernando Martinez, canon, at Lisbon, greeting.[433] I was glad to hear of your intimacy and favour with your most noble and illustrious king. I have formerly spoken with you about a shorter route to the places of Spices by ocean navigation than that which you are pursuing by Guinea. The most gracious king now desires from me some statement, or rather an exhibition to the eye, so that even slightly educated persons can grasp and comprehend that route. Although I am well aware that this can be proved from the spherical shape of the earth, nevertheless, in order to make the point clearer and to facilitate the enterprise, I have decided to exhibit that route by means of a sailing chart. I therefore send to his majesty a chart made by my own hands,[434] upon which are laid down your coasts, and the islands from which you must begin to shape your course steadily westward, and the places at which you are bound to arrive, and how far from the pole or from the equator you ought to keep away, and through how much space or through how many miles you are to arrive at places most fertile in all sorts of spices and gems; and do not wonder at my calling _west_ the parts where the spices are, whereas they are commonly called _east_, because to persons sailing persistently westward those parts will be found by courses on the under side of the earth. For if [you go] by land and by routes on this upper side, they will always be found in the east. The straight lines drawn lengthwise upon the map indicate distance from east to west, while the transverse lines show distances from south to north. I have drawn upon the map various places upon which you may come, for the better information of the navigators in case of their arriving, whether through accident of wind or what not, at some different place from what they had expected; but partly in order that they may show the inhabitants that they have some knowledge of their country, which is sure to be a pleasant thing. It is said that none but merchants dwell in the islands.[435] For so great there is the number of navigators with their merchandise that in all the rest of the world there are not so many as in one very splendid port called Zaiton.[436] For they say that a hundred great ships of pepper unload in that port every year, besides other ships bringing other spices. That country is very populous and very rich, with a multitude of provinces and kingdoms and cities without number, under one sovereign who is called the Great Khan, which name signifies King of Kings, whose residence is for the most part in the province of Cathay. His predecessors two hundred years ago desired an alliance with Christendom; they sent to the pope and asked for a number of persons learned in the faith, that they might be enlightened; but those who were sent, having encountered obstacles on the way, returned.[437] Even in the time of Eugenius[438] there came one to Eugenius and made a declaration concerning their great goodwill toward Christians, and I had a long talk with him about many things, about the great size of their royal palaces and the remarkable length and breadth of their rivers, and the multitude of cities on the banks of the rivers, such that on one river there are about two hundred cities, with marble bridges very long and wide and everywhere adorned with columns. This country is worth seeking by the Latins, not only because great treasures may be obtained from it,--gold, silver, and all sorts of jewels and spices,--but on account of its learned men, philosophers, and skilled astrologers, and [in order that we may see] with what arts and devices so powerful and splendid a province is governed, and also [how] they conduct their wars. This for some sort of answer to his request, so far as haste and my occupations have allowed, ready in future to make further response to his royal majesty as much as he may wish. Given at Florence 25th June, 1474.'

[Footnote 430: See above, p. 330.]

[Footnote 431: I translate this prologue from the Italian text
of the _Vita dell' Ammiraglio_, cap. viii. The original Latin
has nowhere been found. A Spanish version of the whole may be
found in Las Casas, _Historia_, tom. i. pp. 92-96. Las Casas,
by a mere slip of the pen, calls "Paul, the physicist," _Marco
Paulo_, and fifty years later Mariana calls him _Marco Polo,
physician_: "por aviso que le dió un cierto Marco Polo médico
Florentin," etc. _Historia de España_, tom. viii. p. 343. Thus
step by step doth error grow.]

[Footnote 432: He means that his friend Martinez has been a
member of King Alfonso's household ever since the time before
the civil wars that began with the attempted deposition of
Henry IV. in 1465 and can hardly be said to have come to an end
before the death of that prince in December, 1474. See
Humboldt, _Examen critique_, tom. i. p. 225.]

[Footnote 433: I translate this enclosed letter from the
original Latin text, as found, a few years ago, in the
handwriting of Columbus upon the fly-leaves of his copy of the
_Historia rerum ubique gestarum_ of Æneas Sylvius Piccolomini
(Pope Pius II.), published at Venice in 1477, in folio, and now
preserved in the Colombina at Seville. This Latin text is given
by Harrisse, in his _Fernand Colomb_, pp. 178-180, and also
(with more strict regard to the abbreviations of the original)
in his _Bibliotheca Americana Vetustissima--Additions_, Paris,
1872, pp. xvi.-xviii. Very likely Columbus had occasion to let
the original MS. go out of his hands, and so preserved a copy
of it upon the fly-leaves of one of his books. These same
fly-leaves contain extracts from Josephus and Saint Augustine.
The reader will rightly infer from my translation that the
astronomer's Latin was somewhat rugged and lacking in literary
grace. Apparently he was anxious to jot down quickly what he
had to say, and get back to his work.]

[Footnote 434: A sketch of this most memorable of maps is given
opposite. Columbus carried it with him upon his first voyage,
and shaped his course in accordance with it. Las Casas
afterwards had it in his possession (_Hist. de las Indias_,
tom. i. pp. 96, 279). It has since been lost, that is to say,
it may still be in existence, but nobody knows where. But it
has been so well described that the work of restoring its
general outlines is not difficult and has several times been
done. The sketch here given is taken from Winsor (_Narr. and
Crit. Hist._, ii. 103), who takes it from _Das Ausland_, 1867,
p. 5. Another restoration may be found in St. Martin's _Atlas_,
pl. ix. This map was the source of the western part of Martin
Behaim's globe, as given below, p. 422.]

[Footnote 435: All the description that follows is taken by
Toscanelli from the book of Marco Polo.]

[Footnote 436: On modern maps usually called Chang-chow, about
100 miles S. W. from Fou-chow.]

[Footnote 437: I have given an account of this mission, above,
p. 281.]

[Footnote 438: Eugenius IV., pope from 1431 to 1447.]

[Sidenote: Conclusion of Toscanelli's first letter to Columbus.]

"From[439] the city of Lisbon due west there are 26 spaces marked on the map, each of which contains 250 miles, as far as the very great and splendid city of Quinsay.[440] For it is a hundred miles in circumference and has ten bridges, and its name means City of Heaven, and many wonderful things are told about it and about the multitude of its arts and revenues. This space is almost a third part of the whole sphere. That city is in the province of Mangi, or near the province of Cathay in which land is the royal residence. But from the island of Antilia, which you know, to the very splendid island of Cipango[441] there are ten spaces. For that island abounds in gold, pearls, and precious stones, and they cover the temples and palaces with solid gold. So through the unknown parts of the route the stretches of sea to be traversed are not great. Many things might perhaps have been stated more clearly, but one who duly considers what I have said will be able to work out the rest for himself. Farewell, most esteemed one."

[Footnote 439: This paragraph is evidently the conclusion of
the letter to Columbus, and not a part of the letter to
Martinez, which has just ended with the date. In _Vita dell'
Ammiraglio_ the two letters are mixed together.]

[Footnote 440: On modern maps Hang-chow. After 1127 that city
was for some time the capital of China, and Marco Polo's name
_Quinsay_ represents the Chinese word _King-sse_ or "capital,"
now generally applied to Peking. Marco Polo calls it the finest
and noblest city in the world. It appears that he does not
overstate the circumference of its walls at 100 Chinese miles
or _li_, equivalent to about 30 English miles. It has greatly
diminished since Polo's time, while other cities have grown.
Toscanelli was perhaps afraid to repeat Polo's figure as to the
number of stone bridges; Polo says there were 12,000 of them,
high enough for ships to pass under! We thus see how his
Venetian fellow-citizens came to nickname him "Messer Marco
Milione." As Colonel Yule says, "I believe we must not bring
Marco to book for the literal accuracy of his statements as to
the bridges; but all travellers have noticed the number and
elegance of the bridges of cut stone in this part of China."
_Marco Polo_, vol. ii, p. 144.]

[Footnote 441: For Cipango, or Japan, see Yule's _Marco Polo_,
vol. ii. pp. 195-207. The venerable astronomer's style of
composition is amusing. He sets out to demonstrate to Columbus
that the part of the voyage to be accomplished through new and
unfamiliar stretches of the Atlantic is not great; but he is so
full of the glories of Cathay and Cipango that he keeps
reverting to that subject, to the manifest detriment of his
exposition. His argument, however, is perfectly clear.]

Some time after the receipt of this letter Columbus wrote again to Toscanelli, apparently sending him either some charts of his own, or some notes, or something bearing upon the subject in hand. No such letter is preserved, but Toscanelli replied as follows:--

[Sidenote: Toscanelli's second letter to Columbus.]