Chapter V: The Search for the Indies (4)

Columbus had not long to wait for that great event, which came on the 2d of January, 1492, and was hailed with rejoicings throughout Europe as in some sort a compensation for the loss of Constantinople. It must have been with a manifold sense of triumph that Columbus saw the banner of Spain unfurled to the breeze from the highest tower of the Alhambra. But at this critical moment in his fortunes the same obstacle was encountered that long before had broken off his negotiations with the king of Portugal. With pride and self-confidence not an inch abated by all these years of trial, he demanded such honours and substantial rewards as seemed extravagant to the queen, and Talavera advised her not to grant them. Columbus insisted upon being appointed admiral of the ocean and viceroy of such heathen countries as he might discover, besides having for his own use and behoof one eighth part of such revenues and profits as might accrue from the expedition. In principle this sort of remuneration did not differ from that which the crown of Portugal had been wont to award to its eminent discoverers;[505] but in amount it was liable to prove indefinitely great, enough perhaps to raise to princely power and rank this foreign adventurer. Could he not be satisfied with something less? But Columbus was as inexorable as the Sibyl with her books, and would hear of no abatement in his price. For this "great constancy and loftiness of soul,"[506] Las Casas warmly commends his friend Columbus. A querulous critic might call it unreasonable obstinacy. But in truth the good man seems to have entertained another grand scheme of his own, to which he wished to make his maritime venture contribute. It was natural that his feelings toward Turks should have been no more amiable than those of Hannibal toward the Romans. It was the Turks who had ruined the commerce of his native Genoa, in his youth he had more than once crossed swords with their corsairs, and now he looked forward to the time when he might play the part of a second Godfrey de Bouillon and deliver Jerusalem from the miscreant followers of Mahound.[507] Vast resources would be needed for such work, and from Cipango with its gold-roofed temples, and the nameless and numberless isles of spices that crowded the Cathayan seas, he hoped to obtain them. Long brooding over his cherished projects, in which chimeras were thus mixed with anticipations of scientific truth, had imparted to his character a tinge of religious fanaticism. He had come to regard himself as a man with a mission to fulfil, as God's chosen instrument for enlarging the bounds of Christendom and achieving triumphs of untold magnificence for its banners. In this mood he was apt to address kings with an air of equality that ill comported with his humble origin and slender means; and on the present occasion, if Talavera felt his old doubts and suspicions reviving, and was more than half inclined to set Columbus down as a mere vendor of crotchets, one can hardly wonder.

[Footnote 505: Our Scandinavian friends are fond of pointing to
this demand of Columbus as an indication that he secretly
expected to "discover America," and not merely to find the way
to Asia. But how about Ferdinand and Isabella, who finally
granted what was demanded, and their ministers who drew up the
agreement, to say nothing of the clerks who engrossed it? What
did they all understand by "discovering islands and continents
in the ocean"? Were they all in this precious Vinland secret?
If so, it was pretty well kept. But in truth there was nothing
singular in these stipulations. Portugal paid for discovery in
just this way by granting governorships over islands like the
Azores, or long stretches of continent like Guinea, along with
a share of the revenues yielded by such places. See for example
the cases of Gonzalo Cabral, Fernando Gomez, and others in
Major, _Prince Henry the Navigator_, pp. 238, 321, and
elsewhere. In their search for the Indies the Portuguese were
continually finding new lands, and it was likely to be the same
with the western route, which was supposed (see Catalan,
Toscanelli, and Behaim maps) to lead among spice islands
innumerable, and to Asiatic kingdoms whose heathen people had
no rights of sovereignty that Christian monarchs felt bound to
respect.]

[Footnote 506: Las Casas, _op. cit._ tom i. p. 243.]

[Footnote 507: See his letter of February, 1502, to Pope
Alexander VI. in Navarrete, tom. ii. p. 280; and cf. Helps,
_Spanish Conquest in America_, vol. i. p. 96; Roselly de
Lorgues, _Christophe Colomb_, p. 394.]

[Sidenote: Interposition of Luis de Santangel.]

The negotiations were broken off, and the indomitable enthusiast once more prepared to go to France. He had actually started on his mule one fine winter day, when Luis de Santangel rushed into the queen's room and spoke to her with all the passionate and somewhat reproachful energy of one who felt that a golden opportunity was slipping away forever. His arguments were warmly seconded by Quintanilla, who had followed him into the room, as well as by the queen's bosom friend Beatriz de Bobadilla, Marchioness of Moya, who happened to be sitting on the sofa and was a devoted admirer of Columbus. An impulse seized Isabella. A courier was sent on a fleet horse, and overtook Columbus as he was jogging quietly over the bridge of Pinos, about six miles out from Granada. The matter was reconsidered and an arrangement was soon made. It was agreed:--

[Sidenote: Agreement between Columbus and the sovereigns.]

"1. That Columbus should have, for himself, during his life, and for his heirs and successors forever, the office of admiral in all the islands and continents which he might discover or acquire in the ocean, with similar honours and prerogatives to those enjoyed by the high admiral of Castile in his district.

"2. That he should be viceroy and governor-general over all the said lands and continents; with the privilege of nominating three candidates for the government of each island or province, one of whom should be selected by the sovereigns.

"3. That he should be entitled to reserve for himself one tenth of all pearls, precious stones, gold, silver, spices, and all other articles and merchandises, in whatever manner found, bought, bartered, or gained within his admiralty, the costs being first deducted.

"4. That he, or his lieutenant, should be the sole judge in all causes and disputes arising out of traffic between those countries and Spain, provided the high admiral of Castile had similar jurisdiction in his district.

"5. That he might then, and at all after times, contribute an eighth part of the expense in fitting out vessels to sail on this enterprise, and receive an eighth part of the profits."[508]

[Footnote 508: I cite this version from Irving's _Columbus_,
vol. i. p. 142, making a slight amendment in the rendering; the
original text is in Navarrete, tom. ii. p. 7. A few days later
the title of "Don" was granted to Columbus and made hereditary
in his family along with the offices of viceroy and
governor-general.]

Columbus was not long in finding friends to advance or promise on his account an eighth part of the sum immediately required. A considerable amount was assessed upon the town of Palos in punishment for certain misdeeds or delinquencies on the part of its people or some of them. Castile assumed the rest of the burden, though Santangel may have advanced a million maravedis out of the treasury of Aragon, or out of the funds of the _Hermandad_,[509] or perhaps more likely on his own account.[510] In any case it was a loan to the treasury of Castile simply. It was always distinctly understood that Ferdinand as king of Aragon had no share in the enterprise, and that the Spanish Indies were an appurtenance to the crown of Castile. The agreement was signed April 17, 1492, and with tears of joy Columbus vowed to devote every maravedi that should come to him to the rescue of the Holy Sepulchre.

[Footnote 509: A police organization formed in 1476 for
suppressing highway robbery.]

[Footnote 510: It is not easy to give an accurate account of
the cost of this most epoch-making voyage in all history.
Conflicting statements by different authorities combine with
the fluctuating values of different kinds of money to puzzle
and mislead us. According to M. Harrisse 1,000,000 maravedis
would be equivalent to 295,175 francs, or about 59,000 gold
dollars of United States money at present values. Las Casas
(tom. i. p. 256) says that the eighth part, raised by Columbus,
was 500,000 maravedis (29,500 dollars). Account-books preserved
in the archives of Simancas show that the sums paid from the
treasury of Castile amounted to 1,140,000 maravedis (67,500
dollars). Assuming the statement of Las Casas to be correct,
the amounts contributed would perhaps have been as follows:--

Queen Isabella, from Castile treasury $67,500
" loan from Santangel 59,000
Columbus 29,500
Other sources, including contribution levied
upon the town of Palos 80,000
--------
Total $236,000

This total seems to me altogether too large for probability,
and so does the last item, which is simply put at the figure
necessary to make the total eight times 29,500. I am inclined
to suspect that Las Casas (with whom arithmetic was not always
a strong point) may have got his figures wrong. The amount of
Santangel's loan also depends upon the statement of Las Casas,
and we do not know whether he took it from a document or from
hearsay. Nor do we know whether it should be added to, or
included in, the first item. More likely, I think, the latter.
The only item that we know with documentary certainty is the
first, so that our statement becomes modified as follows:--

Queen Isabella, from Castile treasury $67,500
" loan from Santangel ?
Columbus ?
{ rent of two fully
Town of Palos { equipped caravels
{ for two months, etc.
----------------------
Total ?

(Cf. Harrisse, tom. i. pp. 391-404.) Unsatisfactory, but
certain as far as it goes. Alas, how often historical
statements are thus reduced to meagreness, after the
hypothetical or ill-supported part has been sifted out! The
story that the Pinzon brothers advanced to Columbus his portion
is told by Las Casas, but he very shrewdly doubts it. The
famous story that Isabella pledged her crown jewels (_Vita
dell' Ammiraglio_, cap. xiv.) has also been doubted, but
perhaps on insufficient grounds, by M. Harrisse. It is
confirmed by Las Casas (tom. i. p. 249). According to one
account she pledged them to Santangel in security for his
loan,--which seems not altogether improbable. See Pizarro y
Orellana, _Varones ilustres del Nuevo Mundo_, Madrid, 1639, p.
16.]

[Sidenote: Dismay at Palos.]

[Sidenote: The three famous caravels; the Santa Maria.]

[Sidenote: The Pinta.]

[Sidenote: The Niña.]

When he reached Palos in May, with royal orders for ships and men, there had like to have been a riot. Terrible dismay was felt at the prospect of launching out for such a voyage upon the Sea of Darkness. Groans and curses greeted the announcement of the forced contribution. But Martin Pinzon and his brothers were active in supporting the crown officials, and the work went on. To induce men to enlist, debts were forgiven and civil actions suspended. Criminals were released from jail on condition of serving. Three caravels were impressed into the service of the crown for a time unlimited; and the rent and maintenance of two of these vessels for two months was to be paid by the town. The largest caravel, called the Santa Maria or Capitana, belonged to Juan de La Cosa, a Biscayan mariner whose name was soon to become famous.[511] He now commanded her, with another consummate sailor, Sancho Ruiz, for his pilot. This single-decked craft, about ninety feet in length by twenty feet breadth of beam, was the Admiral's flag-ship. The second caravel, called the Pinta, a much swifter vessel, was commanded by Martin Pinzon. She belonged to two citizens of Palos, Gomez Rascon and Cristobal Quintero, who were now in her crew, sulky and ready for mischief. The third and smallest caravel, the Niña ("Baby"), had for her commander Vicente Yañez Pinzon, the youngest of the brothers, now about thirty years of age. Neither the Pinta nor the Niña were decked amidships. On board the three caravels were just ninety persons.[512] And so they set sail from Palos on Friday, August 3, 1492, half an hour before sunrise, and by sunset had run due south five and forty geographical miles, when they shifted their course a couple of points to starboard and stood for the Canaries.

[Footnote 511: Navarrete, _Biblioteca maritima_, tom. ii. pp.
208, 209.]

[Footnote 512: The accounts of the armament are well summed up
and discussed in Harrisse, tom. i. pp. 405-408. Eighty-seven
names, out of the ninety, have been recovered, and the list is
given below, Appendix C.]

[Sidenote: They go to the Canaries and are delayed there.]

No thought of Vinland is betrayed in these proceedings. Columbus was aiming at the northern end of Cipango (Japan). Upon Toscanelli's map, which he carried with him, the great island of Cipango extends from 5° to about 28° north latitude. He evidently aimed at the northern end of Cipango as being directly on the route to Zaiton (Chang-chow) and other Chinese cities mentioned by Marco Polo. Accordingly he began by running down to the Canaries, in order that he might sail thence due west on the 28th parallel without shifting his course by a single point until he should see the coast of Japan looming up before him.[513] On this preliminary run signs of mischief began already to show themselves. The Pinta's rudder was broken and unshipped, and Columbus suspected her two angry and chafing owners of having done it on purpose, in order that they and their vessel might be left behind. The Canaries at this juncture merited the name of Fortunate Islands; fortunately they, alone among African islands, were Spanish, so that Columbus could stop there and make repairs. While this was going on the sailors were scared out of their wits by an eruption of Teneriffe, which they deemed an omen of evil, and it was also reported that some Portuguese caravels were hovering in those waters, with intent to capture Columbus and carry him off to Lisbon.

[Footnote 513: "Para de allí tomar mi derrota, y navegar tanto
que yo llegase á las Indias," he says in his journal,
Navarrete, _Coleccion de viages_, tom. i.p. 3.]

[514]

[Footnote 514: Martin Behaim was born at Nuremberg in 1436, and
is said to have been a pupil of the celebrated astronomer,
Regiomontanus, author of the first almanac published in Europe,
and of Ephemerides, of priceless value to navigators. He
visited Portugal about 1480, invented a new kind of astrolabe,
and sailed with it in 1484 as cosmographer in Diego Cam's
voyage to the Congo. On his return to Lisbon he was knighted,
and presently went to live on the island of Fayal, of which his
wife's father was governor. He was a friend of Columbus. Toward
1492 he visited Nuremberg, to look after some family affairs,
and while there "he gratified some of his townspeople by
embodying in a globe the geographical views which prevailed in
the maritime countries; and the globe was finished before
Columbus had yet accomplished his voyage. The next year (1493)
Behaim returned to Portugal; and after having been sent to the
Low Countries on a diplomatic mission, he was captured by
English cruisers and carried to England. Escaping finally, and
reaching the Continent, he passes from our view in 1494, and is
scarcely heard of again." (Winsor, _Narr. and Crit. Hist._, ii.
104.) He died in May, 1506. A ridiculous story that he
anticipated Columbus in the discovery of America originated in
the misunderstanding of an interpolated passage in the Latin
text of Schedel's _Registrum_, Nuremberg, 1498, p. 290 (the
so-called _Nuremberg Chronicle_). See Winsor, _op. cit._ ii.
34; Major's _Prince Henry_, p. 326; Humboldt, _Examen
critique_, tom. i.p. 256; Murr, _Diplomatische Geschichte des
Ritters Behaim_, Nuremberg, 1778; Cladera, _Investigaciones
históricas_, Madrid, 1794; Harrisse, _Bibliotheca Americana
Vetustissima_, pp. 37-43.--The globe made by Behaim may now be
seen in the city hall at Nuremberg. It "is made of
_papier-maché_, covered with gypsum, and over this a parchment
surface received the drawing; it is twenty inches in diameter."
(Winsor, _op. cit._ ii. 105.) The portion west of the 330th
meridian is evidently copied from Toscanelli's map. I give
below (p. 429) a sketch (from Winsor, after Ruge's _Geschichte
des Zeitalters der Entdeckungen_, p. 230) of Behaim's ocean,
with the outline of the American continent superimposed in the
proper place.]

[Sidenote: Columbus starts for Japan, Sept. 6, 1492.]

At length, on the 6th of September, they set sail from Gomera, but were becalmed and had made only thirty miles by the night of the 8th. The breeze then freshened, and when next day the shores of Ferro, the last of the Canaries, sank from sight on the eastern horizon, many of the sailors loudly lamented their unseemly fate, and cried and sobbed like children. Columbus well understood the difficulty of dealing with these men. He provided against one chief source of discontent by keeping two different reckonings, a true one for himself and a false one for his officers and crews. He was shrewd enough not to overdo it and awaken distrust. Thus after a twenty-four hours' run of 180 miles on September 10, he reported it as 144 miles; next day the run was 120 miles and he announced it as 108, and so on. But for this prudent if somewhat questionable device, it is not unlikely that the first week of October would have witnessed a mutiny in which Columbus would have been either thrown overboard or forced to turn back.

[Sidenote: Deflection of the needle.]

The weather was delicious, and but for the bug-a-boos that worried those poor sailors it would have been a most pleasant voyage. Chief among the imaginary terrors were three which deserve especial mention. At nightfall on September 13 the ships had crossed the magnetic line of no variation, and Columbus was astonished to see that the compass-needle, instead of pointing a little to the right of the pole-star, began to sway toward the left, and next day this deviation increased. It was impossible to hide such a fact from the sharp eyes of the pilots, and all were seized with alarm at the suspicion that this witch instrument was beginning to play them some foul trick in punishment of their temerity; but Columbus was ready with an ingenious astronomical explanation, and their faith in the profundity of his knowledge prevailed over their terrors.

[Sidenote: The Sargasso Sea.]

The second alarm came on September 16, when they struck into vast meadows of floating seaweeds and grasses, abounding in tunny fish and crabs. They had now come more than 800 miles from Ferro and were entering the wonderful Sargasso Sea, that region of the Atlantic six times as large as France, where vast tangles of vegetation grow upon the surface of water that is more than 2,000 fathoms deep, and furnish sustenance for an untold wealth of fishy life.[515] To the eye of the mariner the Sargasso Sea presents somewhat the appearance of an endless green prairie, but modern ships plough through it with ease and so did the caravels of Columbus at first. After two or three days, however, the wind being light, their progress was somewhat impeded. It was not strange that the crews were frightened at such a sight. It seemed uncanny and weird, and revived ancient fancies about mysterious impassable seas and overbold mariners whose ships had been stuck fast in them. The more practical spirits were afraid of running aground upon submerged shoals, but all were somewhat reassured on this point when it was found that their longest plummet-lines failed to find bottom.

[Footnote 515: The situation of this Sargasso region in
mid-ocean seems to be determined by its character as a quiet
neutral ground between the great ocean-currents that flow past
it on every side. Sargasso plants are found elsewhere upon the
surface of the waves, but nowhere else do they congregate as
here. There are reasons for supposing that in ancient times
this region extended nearer to the African coast. Skylax
(_Periplus_, cap. 109) says that beyond Kerne, at the mouth of
Rio d' Ouro the sea cannot be navigated on account of the mud
and seaweed. Sataspes, on his return to Persia, B. C. 470, told
King Xerxes that his voyage failed because his ship stopped or
was stuck fast. (Herodotus, iv. 43.) Festus Avienus mentions
vast quantities of seaweed in the ocean west of the Pillars of
Hercules:--

Exsuperat autem gurgitem fucus frequens
Atque impeditur æstus ex uligine....
Sic nulla late flabra propellunt ratem,
Sic segnis humor æquoris pigri stupet.
Adjicit et illud, plurimum inter gurgites
Exstare fucum, et sæpe virgulti vice
Retinere puppim, etc.
Avienus, _Ora Maritima_, 108, 117.

See also Aristotle, _Meteorol._, ii. 1, 14; Pseudo-Aristotle,
_De Mirab. Auscult._, p. 106; Theophrastus, _Historia
plantarum_, iv. 7 Jornandes, _De rebus Geticis_, apud Muratori,
tom. i.p. 191; according to Strabo (iii. 2, § 7) tunny fish
were caught in abundance in the ocean west of Spain, and were
highly valued for the table on account of their fatness which
was due to submarine vegetables on which they fed. Possibly the
reports of these Sargasso meadows may have had some share in
suggesting to Plato his notion of a huge submerged island
Atlantis (_Timæus_, 25; _Kritias_, 108; cf. the notion of a
viscous sea in Plutarch, _De facie in Orbe Luna_, 26), Plato's
fancy has furnished a theme for much wild speculation. See, for
example, Bailly, _Lettres sur l'Atlantide de Platon_, Paris,
1779. The belief that there can ever have been such an island
in that part of the Atlantic is disposed of by the fact that
the ocean there is nowhere less than two miles in depth. See
the beautiful map of the Atlantic sea-bottom in Alexander
Agassiz's _Three Cruises of the Blake_, Boston, 1888, vol. i.p.
108, and compare chap. vi. of that noble work, on "The
Permanence of Continents and of Oceanic Basins;" see also
Wallace's _Island Life_, chap. vi. It was formerly supposed
that the Sargasso plants grow on the sea-bottom, and becoming
detached rise to the surface (Peter Martyr, _De rebus
oceanicis_, dec. iii. lib. v. p. 53; Humboldt, _Personal
Narrative_, book i. chap, i.); but it is now known that they
are simply rooted in the surface water itself. "L'accumulation
de ces plantes marines est l'exemple le plus frappant de
plantes congénères réunies sur le même point. Ni les forêts
colossales de l'Himalaya, ni les graminées qui s'étendent à
perte de vue dans les savanes américaines ou les steppes
sibériens ne rivalisent avec ces prairies océaniques. Jamais
sur un espace aussi étendu, ne se rencontrent de telles masses
de plantes semblables. Quand on a vu la mer des Sargasses, on
n'oublie point un pareil spectacle." Paul Gaffarel, "La Mer des
Sargasses," _Bulletin de Géographie_, Paris, 1872, 6e série,
tom. iv. p. 622.]

[Sidenote: The trade wind.]

On September 22 the journal reports "no more grass." They were in clear water again, and more than 1,400 geographical miles from the Canaries. A third source of alarm had already begun to disturb the sailors. They were discovering much more than they had bargained for. They were in the belt of the trade winds, and as the gentle but unfailing breeze wafted them steadily westward, doubts began to arise as to whether it would ever be possible to return. Fortunately soon after this question began to be discussed, the wind, jealous of its character for capriciousness even there, veered into the southwest.

[Sidenote: Impatience of the crews.]

By September 25 the Admiral's chief difficulty had come to be the impatience of his crews at not finding land. On that day there was a mirage, or some such illusion, which Columbus and all hands supposed to be a coast in front of them, and hymns of praise were sung, but at dawn next day they were cruelly undeceived. Flights of strange birds and other signs of land kept raising hopes which were presently dashed again, and the men passed through alternately hot and cold fits of exultation and dejection. Such mockery seemed to show that they were entering a realm of enchantment. Somebody, perhaps one of the released jail-birds, hinted that if a stealthy thrust should happen some night to push the Admiral overboard, it could be plausibly said that he had slipped and fallen while star-gazing. His situation grew daily more perilous, and the fact that he was an Italian commanding Spaniards did not help him. Perhaps what saved him was their vague belief in his superior knowledge; they may have felt that they should need him in going back.

[Sidenote: Change of course from W. to W. S. W.]

[Sidenote: Land ahead! Oct. 12 (N. S. 21), 1492.]

By October 4 there were ominous symptoms of mutiny, and the anxiety of Columbus was evinced in the extent of his bold understatement of that day's run,--138 miles instead of the true figure 189. For some days his pilots had been begging him to change his course; perhaps they had passed between islands. Anything for a change! On the 7th at sunrise, they had come 2,724 geographical miles from the Canaries, which was farther than the Admiral's estimate of the distance to Cipango; but according to his false statement of the runs, it appeared that they had come scarcely 2,200 miles. This leads one to suspect that in stating the length of the voyage, as he had so often done, at 700 leagues, he may have purposely made it out somewhat shorter than he really believed it to be. But now after coming more than 2,500 miles he began to fear that he might be sailing past Cipango on the north, and so he shifted his course two points to larboard, or west-southwest. If a secret knowledge of Vinland had been his guiding-star he surely would not have turned his helm that way; but a glance at the Toscanelli map shows what was in his mind. Numerous flights of small birds confirmed his belief that land at the southwest was not far off. The change of direction was probably fortunate. If he had persisted in keeping on the parallel, 720 miles would have brought him to the coast of Florida, a little south of Cape Malabar. After the change he had but 505 miles of water before him, and the temper of the sailors was growing more dangerous with every mile,[516]--until October 11, when the signs of land became unmistakable, and the wildest excitement prevailed. A reward of 10,000 maravedis had been promised to the person who should first discover land, and ninety pair of eyes were strained that night with looking. About ten o'clock the Admiral, standing on the tower-like poop of his vessel, saw a distant light moving as if somebody were running along the shore with a torch. This interpretation was doubted, but a few hours later a sailor on the Pinta saw land distinctly, and soon it was visible to all, a long low coast about five miles distant. This was at two in the morning of Friday, October 12,[517]--just ten weeks since they had sailed from Palos, just thirty-three days since they had lost sight of the coast of Ferro. The sails were now taken in, and the ships lay to, awaiting the dawn.

[Footnote 516: The often-repeated story that a day or two
before the end of the voyage Columbus capitulated with his
crew, promising to turn back if land were not seen within three
days, rests upon the single and relatively inferior authority
of Oviedo. It is not mentioned by Las Casas or Bernaldez or
Peter Martyr or Ferdinand Columbus, and it is discredited by
the tone of the Admiral's journal, which shows as unconquerable
determination on the last day of the voyage as on any previous
day. Cf. Irving, vol. i. p. 187.]

[Footnote 517: Applying the Gregorian Calendar, or "new style,"
it becomes the 21st. The four hundredth anniversary will
properly fall on October 21, 1892.]

* * * * *

[Sidenote: The crews go ashore.]

At daybreak the boats were lowered and Columbus, with a large part of his company, went ashore. Upon every side were trees of unknown kinds, and the landscape seemed exceedingly beautiful. Confident that they must have attained the object for which they had set sail, the crews were wild with exultation. Their heads were dazed with fancies of princely fortunes close at hand. The officers embraced Columbus or kissed his hands, while the sailors threw themselves at his feet, craving pardon and favour.

[Sidenote: The astonished natives.]

[Sidenote: Guanahani: where was it?]

These proceedings were watched with unutterable amazement and awe by a multitude of men, women, and children of cinnamon hue, different from any kind of people the Spaniards had ever seen. All were stark naked and most of them were more or less greased and painted. They thought that the ships were sea-monsters and the white men supernatural creatures descended from the sky.[518] At first they fled in terror as these formidable beings came ashore, but presently, as they found themselves unmolested, curiosity began to overcome fear, and they slowly approached the Spaniards, stopping at every few paces to prostrate themselves in adoration. After a time, as the Spaniards received them with encouraging nods and smiles, they waxed bold enough to come close to the visitors and pass their hands over them, doubtless to make sure that all this marvel was a reality and not a mere vision. Experiences in Africa had revealed the eagerness of barbarians to trade off their possessions for trinkets, and now the Spaniards began exchanging glass beads and hawks' bells for cotton yarn, tame parrots, and small gold ornaments. Some sort of conversation in dumb show went on, and Columbus naturally interpreted everything in such wise as to fit his theories. Whether the natives understood him or not when he asked them where they got their gold, at any rate they pointed to the south, and thus confirmed Columbus in his suspicion that he had come to some island a little to the north of the opulent Cipango. He soon found that it was a small island, and he understood the name of it to be Guanahani. He took formal possession of it for Castile, just as the discoverers of the Cape Verde islands and the Guinea coasts had taken possession of those places for Portugal; and he gave it a Christian name, San Salvador. That name has since the seventeenth century been given to Cat island, but perhaps in pursuance of a false theory of map-makers; it is not proved that Cat island is the Guanahani of Columbus. All that can positively be asserted of Guanahani is that it was one of the Bahamas: there has been endless discussion as to which one, and the question is not easy to settle. Perhaps the theory of Captain Gustavus Fox, of the United States navy, is on the whole best supported. Captain Fox maintains that the true Guanahani was the little island now known as Samana or Atwood's Cay.[519] The problem well illustrates the difficulty in identifying any route from even a good description of landmarks, without the help of persistent proper names, especially after the lapse of time has somewhat altered the landmarks. From this point of view it is a very interesting problem and has its lessons for us; otherwise it is of no importance.

[Footnote 518: This is a common notion among barbarians. "The
Polynesians imagine that the sky descends at the horizon and
encloses the earth. Hence they call foreigners _papalangi_, or
'heaven-bursters,' as having broken in from another world
outside." Max Müller, _Chips from a German Workshop_, vol. ii.
p. 268.]

[Footnote 519: "An Attempt to solve the Problem of the First
Landing Place of Columbus in the New World," in _United States
Coast and Geodetic Survey--Report for 1880--Appendix 18_,
Washington, 1882.]

[Sidenote: Groping for Cipango and the route to Quinsay.]

A cruise of ten days among the Bahamas, with visits to four of the islands, satisfied Columbus that he was in the ocean just east of Cathay, for Marco Polo had described it as studded with thousands of spice-bearing islands, and the Catalan map shows that some of these were supposed to be inhabited by naked savages. To be sure, he could not find any spices or valuable drugs, but the air was full of fragrance and the trees and herbs were strange in aspect and might mean anything; so for a while he was ready to take the spices on trust. Upon inquiries about gold the natives always pointed to the south, apparently meaning Cipango; and in that direction Columbus steered on the 25th of October, intending to stay in that wealthy island long enough to obtain all needful information concerning its arts and commerce. Thence a sail of less than ten days would bring him to the Chinese coast, along which he might comfortably cruise northwesterly as far as Quinsay and deliver to the Great Khan a friendly letter with which Ferdinand and Isabella had provided him. Alas, poor Columbus--unconscious prince of discoverers--groping here in Cuban waters for the way to a city on the other side of the globe and to a sovereign whose race had more than a century since been driven from the throne and expelled from the very soil of Cathay! Could anything be more pathetic, or better illustrate the profound irony with which our universe seems to be governed?

[Sidenote: Columbus reaches Cuba, and sends envoys to find a certain Asiatic prince.]

On reaching Cuba the Admiral was charmed with the marvellous beauty of the landscape,--a point in which he seems to have been unusually sensitive. He found pearl oysters along the shore, and although no splendid cities as yet appeared, he did not doubt that he had reached Cipango. But his attempts at talking with the amazed natives only served to darken counsel. He understood them to say that Cuba was part of the Asiatic continent, and that there was a king in the neighbourhood who was at war with the Great Khan! So he sent two messengers to seek this refractory potentate,--one of them a converted Jew acquainted with Arabic, a language sometimes heard far eastward in Asia, as Columbus must have known. These envoys found pleasant villages, with large houses, surrounded with fields of such unknown vegetables as maize, potatoes, and tobacco; they saw men and women smoking cigars,[520] and little dreamed that in that fragrant and soothing herb there was a richer source of revenue than the spices of the East. They passed acres of growing cotton and saw in the houses piles of yarn waiting to be woven into rude cloth or twisted into nets for hammocks. But they found neither cities nor kings, neither gold nor spices, and after a tedious quest returned, somewhat disappointed, to the coast.

[Footnote 520: The first recorded mention of tobacco is in
Columbus's diary for November 20, 1492:--"Hallaron los dos
cristianos por el camino mucha gente que atravesaba á sus
pueblos, mugeres y hombres con un tizon en la mano, yerbas para
tomar sus sahumerios que acostumbraban," i. e. "the two
Christians met on the road a great many people going to their
villages, men and women with brands in their hands, made of
herbs for taking their customary smoke." Navarrete, tom. i. p.
51.]

[Sidenote: Columbus turns eastward; Pinzon deserts him.]

Columbus seems now to have become perplexed, and to have vacillated somewhat in his purposes. If this was the continent of Asia it was nearer than he had supposed, and how far mistaken he had been in his calculations no one could tell. But where was Cipango? He gathered from the natives that there was a great island to the southeast, abounding in gold, and so he turned his prows in that direction. On the 20th of November he was deserted by Martin Pinzon, whose ship could always outsail the others. It seems to have been Pinzon's design to get home in advance with such a story as would enable him to claim for himself an undue share of credit for the discovery of the Indies. This was the earliest instance of a kind of treachery such as too often marred the story of Spanish exploration and conquest in the New World.

[Sidenote: Columbus arrives at Hayti and thinks it must be Japan.]

[Sidenote: Wreck of the Santa Maria, Dec. 25, 1492.]

For a fortnight after Pinzon's desertion Columbus crept slowly eastward along the coast of Cuba, now and then landing to examine the country and its products; and it seemed to him that besides pearls and mastic and aloes he found in the rivers indications of gold. When he reached the cape at the end of the island he named it Alpha and Omega, as being the extremity of Asia,--Omega from the Portuguese point of view, Alpha from his own. On the 6th of December he landed upon the northwestern coast of the island of Hayti, which he called Española, Hispaniola, or "Spanish land."[521] Here, as the natives seemed to tell him of a region to the southward and quite inland which abounded in gold, and which they called Cibao, the Admiral at once caught upon the apparent similarity of sounds and fancied that Cibao must be Cipango, and that at length he had arrived upon that island of marvels. It was much nearer the Asiatic mainland (i. e. Cuba) than he had supposed, but then, it was beginning to appear that in any case somebody's geography must be wrong. Columbus was enchanted with the scenery. "The land is elevated," he says, "with many mountains and peaks ... most beautiful, of a thousand varied forms, accessible, and full of trees of endless varieties, so tall that they seem to touch the sky; and I have been told that they never lose their foliage. The nightingale [i. e. some kind of thrush] and other small birds of a thousand kinds were singing in the month of November [December] when I was there."[522] Before he had done much toward exploring this paradise, a sudden and grave mishap quite altered his plans. On Christmas morning, between midnight and dawn, owing to careless disobedience of orders on the part of the helmsman, the flag-ship struck upon a sand-bank near the present site of Port au Paix. All attempts to get her afloat were unavailing, and the waves soon beat her to pieces.

[Footnote 521: Not "Little Spain," as the form of the word, so
much like a diminutive, might seem to indicate. It is simply
the feminine of _Español_, "Spanish," sc. _tierra_ or _isla_.
Columbus believed that the island was larger than Spain. See
his letter to Gabriel Sanchez, in Harrisse, tom. i. p. 428.]

[Footnote 522: Columbus to Santangel, February 15, 1493
(Navarrete, tom. i. p. 168).]

[Sidenote: Columbus decides to go back to Spain.]

This catastrophe brought home, with startling force, to the mind of Columbus, the fact that the news of his discovery of land was not yet known in Europe. As for the Pinta and her insubordinate commander, none could say whether they would ever be seen again or whether their speedy arrival in Spain might not portend more harm than good to Columbus. His armament was now reduced to the little undecked Niña alone, such a craft as we should deem about fit for a summer excursion on Long Island Sound. What if his party should all perish, or be stranded helpless on these strange coasts, before any news of their success should reach the ears of friends in Europe! Then the name of Columbus would serve as a by-word for foolhardiness, and his mysterious fate would simply deter other expeditions from following in the same course. Obviously the first necessity of the situation was to return to Spain immediately and report what had already been done. Then it would be easy enough to get ships and men for a second voyage.

[Sidenote: Building of the blockhouse, La Navidad.]

[Sidenote: Meeting with Pinzon.]

This decision led to the founding of an embryo colony upon Hispaniola. There was not room enough for all the party to go in the Nina, and quite a number begged to be left behind, because they found life upon the island lazy and the natives, especially the women, seemed well-disposed toward them. So a blockhouse was built out of the wrecked ship's timbers and armed with her guns, and in commemoration of that eventful Christmas it was called Fort Nativity (_La Navidad_). Here forty men were left behind, with provisions enough for a whole year, and on January 4, 1493, the rest of the party went on board the Niña and set sail for Spain. Two days later in following the northern coast of Hispaniola they encountered the Pinta, whose commander had been delayed by trading with the natives and by finding some gold. Pinzon tried to explain his sudden disappearance by alleging that stress of weather had parted him from his comrades, but his excuses were felt to be lame and improbable. However it may have been with his excuses, there was no doubt as to the lameness of his foremast; it had been too badly sprung to carry much sail, so that the Pinta could not again run away from her consort.

[Sidenote: Terrible storm in mid-ocean, Feb., 1493.]

On this return voyage the Admiral, finding the trade winds dead against him, took a northeasterly course until he had passed the thirty-seventh parallel and then headed straight toward Spain. On the 12th of February a storm was brewing, and during the next four days it raged with such terrific violence that it is a wonder how those two frail caravels ever came out of it. They were separated this time not to meet again upon the sea. Expecting in all likelihood to be engulfed in the waves with his tiny craft, Columbus sealed and directed to Ferdinand and Isabella two brief reports of his discovery, written upon parchment. Each of these he wrapped in a cloth and inclosed in the middle of a large cake of wax, which was then securely shut up in a barrel. One of the barrels was flung into the sea, the other remained standing on the little quarter-deck to await the fate of the caravel. The anxiety was not lessened by the sight of land on the 15th, for it was impossible to approach it so as to go ashore, and there was much danger of being dashed to pieces.

[Sidenote: Cold reception at the Azores.]

At length on the 18th, the storm having abated, the ship's boat went ashore and found that it was the island of St. Mary, one of the Azores. It is worthy of note that such skilful sailors as the Nina's captain, Vicente Yañez Pinzon, and the pilot Ruiz were so confused in their reckoning as to suppose themselves near the Madeiras, whereas Columbus had correctly maintained that they were approaching the Azores,--a good instance of his consummate judgment in nautical questions.[523] From the Portuguese governor of the island this Spanish company met with a very ungracious reception. A party of sailors whom Columbus sent ashore to a small chapel of the Virgin, to give thanks for their deliverance from shipwreck, were seized and held as prisoners for five days. It afterwards appeared that this was done in pursuance of general instructions from the king of Portugal to the governors of his various islands. If Columbus had gone ashore he would probably have been arrested himself. As it was, he took such a high tone and threatened to such good purpose that the governor of St. Mary was fain to give up his prisoners for fear of bringing on another war between Portugal and Castile.

[Footnote 523: Las Casas, tom. i. pp. 443, 449.]

[Sidenote: Columbus is driven ashore in Portugal, where the king is advised to have him assassinated;]

[Sidenote: but to offend Spain so grossly would be dangerous.]

Having at length got away from this unfriendly island, as the Niña was making her way toward Cape St. Vincent and within 400 miles of it, she was seized by another fierce tempest and driven upon the coast of Portugal, where Columbus and his crew were glad of a chance to run into the river Tagus for shelter. The news of his voyage and his discoveries aroused intense excitement in Lisbon. Astonishment was mingled with chagrin at the thought that the opportunity for all this glory and profit had first been offered to Portugal and foolishly lost. The king even now tried to persuade himself that Columbus had somehow or other been trespassing upon the vast and vague undiscovered dominions granted to the Crown of Portugal by Pope Eugenius IV. Some of the king's counsellors are said to have urged him to have Columbus assassinated; it would be easy enough to provoke such a high-spirited man into a quarrel and then run him through the body.[524] To clearer heads, however, the imprudence of such a course was manifest. It was already impossible to keep the news of the discovery from reaching Spain, and Portugal could not afford to go to war with her stronger neighbour. In fact even had John II. been base enough to resort to assassination, which seems quite incompatible with the general character of Lope de Vega's "perfect prince," Columbus was now too important a personage to be safely interfered with. So he was invited to court and made much of. On the 13th of March he set sail again and arrived in the harbour of Palos at noon of the 15th. His little caravel was promptly recognized by the people, and as her story flew from mouth to mouth all the business of the town was at an end for that day.[525]

[Footnote 524: This story rests upon the explicit statement of
a contemporary Portuguese historian of high authority, Garcia
de Resende, _Chronica del Rey Dom João II._, Lisbon, 1622, cap.
clxiv. (written about 1516); see also Vasconcellos, _Vida del
Rey Don Juan II._, Madrid, 1639, lib. vi.]

[Footnote 525: "When they learnt that she returned in triumph
from the discovery of a world, the whole community broke forth
into transports of joy." Irving's _Columbus_, vol. i. p. 318.
This is projecting our present knowledge into the past. We now
know that Columbus had discovered a new world. He did not so
much as suspect that he had done anything of the sort; neither
did the people of Palos.]

[Sidenote: Columbus and Pinzon at Palos; death of Pinzon.]

Towards evening, while the bells were ringing and the streets brilliant with torches, another vessel entered the harbour and dropped anchor. She was none other than the Pinta! The storm had driven her to Bayonne, whence Martin Pinzon instantly despatched a message to Ferdinand and Isabella, making great claims for himself and asking permission to wait upon them with a full account of the discovery. As soon as practicable he made his way to Palos, but when on arriving he saw the Niña already anchored in the harbour his guilty heart failed him. He took advantage of the general hub-bub to slink ashore as quickly and quietly as possible, and did not dare to show himself until after the Admiral had left for Seville. The news from Columbus reached the sovereigns before they had time to reply to the message of Pinzon; so when their answer came to him it was cold and stern and forbade him to appear in their presence. Pinzon was worn out with the hardships of the homeward voyage, and this crushing reproof was more than he could bear. His sudden death, a few days afterward, was generally attributed to chagrin.[526]

[Sidenote: Columbus is received by the sovereigns at Barcelona, April, 1493.]

[Sidenote: General excitement at the news that a way to the Indies had been found.]

From Seville the Admiral was summoned to attend court at Barcelona, where he was received with triumphal honours. He was directed to seat himself in the presence of the sovereigns, a courtesy usually reserved for royal personages.[527] Intense interest was felt in his specimens of stuffed birds and small mammals, his live parrots, his collection of herbs which he supposed to have medicinal virtues, his few pearls and trinkets of gold, and especially his six painted and bedizened barbarians, the survivors of ten with whom he had started from Hispaniola. Since in the vague terminology of that time the remote and scarcely known parts of Asia were called the Indies, and since the islands and coasts just discovered were Indies, of course these red men must be Indians. So Columbus had already named them in his first letter written from the Niña, off the Azores, sent by special messenger from Palos, and now in April, 1493, printed at Barcelona, containing the particulars of his discovery,--a letter appropriately addressed to the worthy Santangel but for whose timely intervention he might have ridden many a weary league on that mule of his to no good purpose.[528] It was generally assumed without question that the Admiral's theory of his discovery must be correct, that the coast of Cuba must be the eastern extremity of China, that the coast of Hispaniola must be the northern extremity of Cipango, and that a direct route--much shorter than that which Portugal had so long been seeking--had now been found to those lands of illimitable wealth described by Marco Polo.[529] To be sure Columbus had not as yet seen the evidences of this Oriental splendour, and had been puzzled at not finding them, but he felt confident that he had come very near them and would come full upon them in a second voyage. There was nobody who knew enough to refute these opinions,[530] and really why should not this great geographer, who had accomplished so much already which people had scouted as impossible,--why should he not know what he was about? It was easy enough now to get men and money for the second voyage. When the Admiral sailed from Cadiz on September 25, 1493, it was with seventeen ships carrying 1,500 men. Their dreams were of the marble palaces of Quinsay, of isles of spices, and the treasures of Prester John. The sovereigns wept for joy as they thought that such untold riches were vouchsafed them by the special decree of Heaven, as a reward for having overcome the Moor at Granada and banished the Jews from Spain.[531] Columbus shared these views and regarded himself as a special instrument for executing the divine decrees. He renewed his vow to rescue the Holy Sepulchre, promising within the next seven years to equip at his own expense a crusading army of 50,000 foot and 4,000 horse; within five years thereafter he would follow this with a second army of like dimensions.

[Footnote 526: Charlevoix, _Histoire de l'isle Espagnole, ou de
St. Domingue_, Paris, 1730, liv. ii.; Muñoz, _Historia de las
Indias ó Nuevo Mundo_, Madrid, 1793, lib. iv. § 14.]

[Footnote 527: He was also allowed to quarter the royal arms
with his own, "which consisted of a group of golden islands
amid azure billows. To these were afterwards added five
anchors, with the celebrated motto, well known as being carved
on his sepulchre." Prescott's _Ferdinand and Isabella_, pt. i.
chap. vii. This statement about the motto is erroneous. See
below, p. 514. Considering the splendour of the reception given
to Columbus, and the great interest felt in his achievement,
Mr. Prescott is surprised at finding no mention of this
occasion in the local annals of Barcelona, or in the royal
archives of Aragon. He conjectures, with some probability, that
the cause of the omission may have been what an American would
call "sectional" jealousy. This Cathay and Cipango business was
an affair of Castile's, and, as such, quite beneath the notice
of patriotic Aragonese archivists! That is the way history has
too often been treated. With most people it is only a kind of
ancestor worship.]

[Footnote 528: The unique copy of this first edition of this
Spanish letter is a small folio of two leaves, or four pages.
It was announced for sale in Quaritch's Catalogue, April 16,
1891, No. 111, p. 47, for £1,750. Evidently most book-lovers
will have to content themselves with the facsimile published in
London, 1891, price two guineas. A unique copy of a Spanish
reprint in small quarto, made in 1493, is preserved in the
Ambrosian library at Milan. In 1889 Messrs. Ellis & Elvey, of
London, published a facsimile _alleged_ to have been made from
an edition of about the same date as the Ambrosian quarto; but
there are good reasons for believing that these highly
respectable publishers have been imposed upon. It is a time
just now when fictitious literary discoveries of this sort may
command a high price, and the dealer in early Americana must
keep his eyes open. See Quaritch's note, _op. cit._ p. 49; and
Justin Winsor's letter in _The Nation_, April 9, 1891, vol.
lii. p. 298.]