Christopher Columbus and His Monument Columbia Part 9

THE SCARLET THORN.

JOHN BURROUGHS, an American essayist and naturalist. Born at Roxbury, New York, April 3, 1837. From a letter in the _St.

Nicholas Magazine_ of July, 1892. (See _post_, NASON.)

There are a great many species of the thorn distributed throughout the United States. All the Northern species, so far as I know, have white flowers. In the South they are more inclined to be pink or roseate. If Columbus picked up at sea a spray of the thorn, it was doubtless some Southern species. Let us believe it was the Was.h.i.+ngton thorn, which grows on the banks of streams from Virginia to the Gulf, and loads heavily with small red fruit.

The thorn belongs to the great family of trees that includes the apple, peach, pear, raspberry, strawberry, etc., namely, the rose family, or _Rosaceae_. Hence the apple, pear, and plum are often grafted on the white thorn.

A curious thing about the thorns is that they are suppressed or abortive branches. The ancestor of this tree must have been terribly abused sometime to have its branches turn to thorns.

I have an idea that persistent cultivation and good treatment would greatly mollify the sharp temper of the thorn, if not change it completely.

The flower of the thorn would become us well as a National flower. It belongs to such a hardy, s.p.u.n.ky, unconquerable tree, and to such a numerous and useful family. Certainly, it would be vastly better than the merely delicate and pretty wild flowers that have been so generally named.

CAPTAIN AND SEAMEN.

RICHARD E. BURTON, in the Denver (Colo.) _Times_, 1892.

I see a galleon of Spanish make, That westward like a winged creature flies, Above a sea dawn-bright, and arched with skies Expectant of the sun and morning-break.

The sailors from the deck their land-thirst slake With peering o'er the waves, until their eyes Discern a coast that faint and dream-like lies, The while they pray, weep, laugh, or madly take Their s.h.i.+pmates in their arms and speak no word.

And then I see a figure, tall, removed A little from the others, as behooved, That since the dawn has neither spoke nor stirred; A n.o.ble form, the looming mast beside, Columbus, calm, his prescience verified.

THE BEAUTIES OF THE BAHAMA SEA.

HEZEKIAH b.u.t.tERWORTH, American author. Born in Rhode Island, 1839.

From an article, "The Sea of Discovery," in _The Youth's Companion_, June 9, 1892.

The Bahama Sea is perhaps the most beautiful of all waters. Columbus beheld it and its islands with a poet's eye.

"It only needed the singing of the nightingale," said the joyful mariner, "to make it like Andalusia in April;" and to his mind Andalusia was the loveliest place on earth. In sailing among these gardens of the seas in the serene and transparent autumn days after the great discovery, the soul of Columbus was at times overwhelmed and entranced by a sense of the beauty of everything in it and about it. Life seemed, as it were, a spiritual vision.

"I know not," said the discoverer, "where first to go; nor are my eyes ever weary of gazing on the beautiful verdure. The singing of the birds is such that it seems as if one would never desire to depart hence."

He speaks in a poet's phrases of the odorous trees, and of the clouds of parrots whose bright wings obscured the sun. His descriptions of the sea and its gardens are full of glowing and sympathetic colorings, and all things to him had a spiritual meaning.

"G.o.d," he said, on reviewing his first voyage over these western waters, "G.o.d made me the messenger of the new heavens and earth, and told me where to find them. Charts, maps, and mathematical knowledge had nothing to do with the case."

On announcing his discovery on his return, he breaks forth into the following highly poetic exhortation: "Let processions be formed, let festivals be held, let lauds be sung. Let Christ rejoice on earth."

Columbus was a student of the Greek and Latin poets, and of the poetry of the Hebrew Scriptures. The visions of Isaiah were familiar to him, and he thought that Isaiah himself at one time appeared to him in a vision. He loved nature. To him the outer world was a garment of the Invisible; and it was before his great soul had suffered disappointment that he saw the sun-flooded waters of the Bahama Sea and the purple splendors of the Antilles.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE PASEO COLON (COLUMBUS PROMENADE), BARCELONA, SPAIN.

With the Columbus Monument in the background.

See page 81]

There is scarcely an adjective in the picturesque report of Columbus in regard to this sea and these islands that is not now as appropriate and fitting as in the days when its glowing words delighted Isabella 400 years ago.

WHEN HISTORY DOES THEE WRONG.

GEORGE GORDON NOEL, LORD BYRON, one of England's famous poets. Born in London, January 22, 1788; died at Missolonghi, Greece, April 19, 1824.

Teems not each ditty with the glorious tale?

Ah! such, alas, the hero's amplest fate.

When granite molders and when records fail,

Pride! bend thine eye from heaven to thine estate, See how the mighty shrink into a song.

Can volume, pillar, pile, preserve thee great?

Or must thou trust Tradition's simple tongue, When Flattery sleeps with thee, and History does thee wrong.

CABOT'S CONTEMPORANEOUS UTTERANCE.

SEBASTIAN CABOT, a navigator of great eminence. Born at Bristol, England, about 1477. Discovered the mainland of North America. Died about 1557.

When newes were brought that Don Christopher Colonus, the Genoese, had discovered the coasts of India, whereof was great talke in all the Court of King Henry the VII. who then raigned, * * * all men with great admiration affirmed it to be a thing more divine than humane to saile by the West into the Easte, where the spices growe, by a chart that was never before knowen.

THE CAPITULATIONS OF SANTA Fe--AGREEMENT OF COLUMBUS WITH FERDINAND AND ISABELLA.

Sir ARTHUR HELPS. From "The Life of Columbus." [See other extracts, _post_, _sub nomine_ HELPS.]

1. Christopher Columbus wishes to be made Admiral of the seas and countries which he is about to discover. He desires to hold this dignity during his life, and that it should descend to his heirs.

_This request is granted by the King and Queen._

2. Christopher Columbus wishes to be made Viceroy of all the continents and islands.

_Granted by the King and Queen._

3. He wishes to have a share amounting to a tenth part of the profits of all merchandise--be it pearls, jewels, or any other thing--that may be found, gained, bought, or exported from the countries which he is to discover.

_Granted by the King and Queen._

4. He wishes, in his quality of Admiral, to be made sole judge of all mercantile matters that may be the occasion of dispute in the countries which he is to discover.

_Granted by the King and Queen, on condition that this jurisdiction should belong to the office of Admiral, as held by Don Enriques and other Admirals._

5. Christopher Columbus wishes to have the right to contribute the eighth part of the expenses of all s.h.i.+ps which traffic with the new countries, and in return to earn the eighth part of the profits.