Christopher Columbus and His Monument Columbia Part 24

I brooded on the wise Athenian's tale Of happy Atlantis, and heard Bjorne's keel Crunch the gray pebbles of the Vinland sh.o.r.e.

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

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

VESPUCCI AN ADVENTURER.

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

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

COLUMBUS NEITHER A VISIONARY NOR AN IMBECILE.

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

Whatever were his mistakes and shortcomings, Colon was neither a visionary nor an imbecile. Had he been perfect in all things and wise to the point of infallibility, we could not have claimed him as the glorious credit he was to the common humanity to which we all belong.

His greatness was sufficient to cover with its mantle far more of the weaknesses of frail mortality than he had to draw under its protection; and it becomes us who attempt to a.n.a.lyze his life in these later days, to bear in mind that, had his lot befallen ourselves, the natives of the western world would still, beyond a peradventure, be wandering in undraped peace through their tangled woods, and remain forever ignorant of the art of eating meat. In his trials and distresses the Admiral encountered only the portion of the sons of Adam; but to him was also given, as to few before or since, to say with the nameless shepherd of Tempe's cla.s.sic vale, "I, too, have lived in Arcady."

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

THE COLUMBUS MONUMENT IN MADRID.

At the top of the Paseo de Recoletos is a monument to Columbus in the debased Gothic style of Ferdinand and Isabella. It was unveiled in 1885.

The sides are ornamented with reliefs and the whole surmounted by a white marble statue. Among the sculptures are a s.h.i.+p and a globe, with the inscription:

_a Castilla y a Leon Nuevo mundo dio Colon._

(_Translation._)

To Castille and Leon Columbus gave a new world.

VISIT OF COLUMBUS TO ICELAND.

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

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

[Ill.u.s.tration: STATUE OF COLUMBUS, BY SENOR G. SUnOL, ON THE MONUMENT IN THE PASEO DE RECOLETOS (DEVOTEES' PROMENADE), MADRID, SPAIN. Erected, 1885. (See page 208.)]

SYMPATHY FOR COLUMBUS.

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

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

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

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

COLUMBUS HEARD OF NORSE DISCOVERIES.

CONRAD MALTE-BRUN, a Danish author and geographer of great merit.

Born at Thister in Jutland, 1775; died, December, 1826.

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

COLUMBUS AND COPERNICUS.

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

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

COLUMBUS AND THE FOURTH CENTENARY OF HIS DISCOVERY.

Commander CLEMENTS ROBERT MARKHAM, R. N., C. B., F. R. S., a noted explorer and talented English author. Mids.h.i.+pman in H. M. S.

a.s.sistance in the Franklin Search Expedition, 1850-51. Born July 20, 1830, at Stillingfleet, near York. From a paper read before the Royal Geographical Society of England, June 20, 1892.

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

Much new light has been thrown upon the birth and early life of Columbus, of late years, by the careful examination of monastic and notarial records at Genoa and Savona. At Genoa the original doc.u.ments are still preserved. At Savona they no longer exist, and we are dependent on copies made two centuries ago by Salinerius. But both the Genoa and Savona records may be safely accepted, and we are thus furnished with a new and more interesting view of the early life of Columbus. Our thanks for this new light are mainly due to the laborious and scholarly researches of the Marchese Marcello Staglieno of Genoa, and to the work of Mr. Harrisse. We may take it as fully established that the original home of Giovanni Colombo, the grandfather of the great discoverer, was at Terrarossa, a small stone house, the ma.s.sive walls of which are still standing on a hillside forming the northern slope of the beautiful valley of Fontanabuona. Here, no doubt, the father of Columbus was born; but the family moved to Quinto-al-Mare, then a fis.h.i.+ng village about five miles east of Genoa. Next we find the father, Domenico Colombo, owning a house at Quinto, but established at Genoa as a wool weaver, with an apprentice. This was in 1439. A few years afterward Domenico found a wife in the family of a silk weaver who lived up a tributary valley of the Bisagno, within an easy walk of Genoa.

Quezzi is a little village high up on the west side of a ravine, with slopes clothed to their summits in olive and chestnut foliage, whence there is a glorious view of the east end of Genoa, including the church of Carignano and the Mediterranean. On the opposite slope are the scattered houses of the hamlet of Ginestrato. From this village of Quezzi Domenico brought his wife, Susanna Fontanarossa, to Genoa, her dowry consisting of a small property, a house or a field, at Ginestrato.

About the home of Domenico and his wife at Genoa during at least twenty years there is absolute certainty. The old gate of San Andrea is still standing, with its lofty arch across the street, and its high flanking towers. A street with a rapid downward slope, called the Vico Dritto di Ponticelli, leads from the gate of San Andrea to the Church of S.

Stefano; and the house of Domenico Colombo was in this street, a few doors from the gate. It was the weavers' quarter, and S. Stefano was their parish church, where they had a special altar. Domenico's house had two stories besides the ground floor; and there was a back garden, with a well between it and the city wall. It was battered down during the bombardment of Genoa in the time of Louis XIV., was rebuilt with two additional stories, and is now the property of the city of Genoa.

This was the house of the parents of Columbus, and at a solemn moment, shortly before his death, Columbus stated that he was born in the city of Genoa. No. 39 Vico Dritto di Ponticelli was therefore, in all probability, the house where the great discoverer was born, and the old Church of San Stefano, with its facade of alternate black and white courses of marble, and its quaint old campanile, was the place of his baptism. The date of his birth is fixed by three statements of his own, and by a justifiable inference from the notarial records. He said that he went to sea at the age of fourteen, and that when he came to Spain in 1485 he had led a sailor's life for twenty-three years. He was, therefore, born in 1447. In 1501 he again said that it was forty years since he first went to sea when he was fourteen; the same result--1447.

In 1503 he wrote that he first came to serve for the discovery of the Indies--that is, that he left his home at the age of twenty-eight. This was in 1474, and the result is again 1447. The supporting notarial evidence is contained in two doc.u.ments, in which the mother of Columbus consented to the sale of property by her husband. For the first deed, in May, 1471, the notary summoned her brothers to consent to the execution of the deed, as the nearest relations of full age. The second deed is witnessed by her son Cristoforo in August, 1473. He must have attained the legal age of twenty-five in the interval. This again makes 1447 the year of his birth.

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

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