On the seventeenth of April, 1492, the agreement between Ferdinand and Isabella, proud sovereigns of

A SHIP OF COLUMBUS FROM A DRAWING ATTRIBUTED TO HIM.

Castile and Arragon on the one part, and Christopher Columbus, mariner, on the other, were signed at Granada; and on Friday, the third of August, 1492,

MOTIVES OF COLUMBUS.

15

Columbus set sail from the port of Palos on his momentous quest, bearing letters to the Grand Khan of Tartary, whose subjects he expected to convert to the Christian religion. Though this was one of the chief ends aimed at by Columbus, in which the gracious Isabella sympathized with him, it is probably true that Ferdinand was actuated by a desire to further the limits of his power, for all heathen peoples were then considered fair spoil by the Christians, and Ferdinand was familiar with the stories of the fabulous wealth of Ormus and of Ind, which had fired the mediæval imagination for ages.

The motives of Columbus are best stated in the words that he recorded in his diary, as he started on the voyage. They are the impressive words of a man. deeply in earnest. It begins thus:

IN NOMINE D. N. JESU CHRISTI. Whereas, most Christian, most high, most excellent, and most powerful princes, king and queen of the Spains, and of the islands of the sea, our sovereigns, in the present year of 1492, after your highnesses had put an end to the war with the Moors who ruled in Europe, and had concluded that warfare in the great city of Granada, where, on the second of January, of this present year, I saw the royal banners of your highnesses placed by force of arms on the towers of the Alhambra, which is the fortress of that city, and beheld the Moorish king sally forth from the gates of the city, and kiss the royal hands of your highnesses and of my lord the prince; and immediately in that same month, in consequence of the information which I had given to your highnesses of the lands of India, and of a prince who is called the Grand Khan, which is to say, in our language, 'King of Kings'; how that many times he and his predecessors had sent to Rome, to entreat for doctors of our holy faith to instruct him in the same; and that the holy father had never provided him with them, and thus so many people were lost, believing in idolatries, and imbibing doctrines of perdition; therefore your highnesses, as Catholic Christians and princes, lovers and promoters of the holy Christian faith, and enemies of the sect of Mahomet, and of all idolatries and heresies, determined to send me, Christopher Columbus, to

the said parts of India, to see the said princes and the people and lands, and discover the nature and disposition of them all, and the means to be taken for the conversion of them to our holy faith; and ordered that I should not go by land to the East, by which it is the custom to go, but by a voyage to the West, by which course, unto the present time, we do not know for certain that any one hath passed. Your highnesses, therefore, having expelled all the Jews from your kingdoms and territories, commanded me, in the same month of January, to proceed with a sufficient armament to the said parts of India; and for this purpose bestowed great favors upon me, ennobling me, that thenceforward I might style myself Don, appointing me high admiral of the Ocean sea, and perpetual viceroy and governor of all the islands and continents I should discover and gain, and which henceforward may be discovered and gained in the Ocean sea, and that my eldest son should succeed me, and so on from generation to generation forever. I departed, therefore, from the city of Granada, on Saturday, the twelfth of May, of the same year, 1492, to Palos, a seaport, where I armed three ships, well calculated for such service, and sailed from that port well furnished with provisions and with many seamen, on Friday, the third of August, of the same year, half an hour before sunrise and took the route for the Canary Islands of your highnesses, to steer my course thence, and navigate until I should arrive at the Indies and deliver the embassy of your highnesses to those princes, and accomplish that which you had commanded.

In these words we have set before us the lofty motives with which Columbus started on his voyage. They convey no intimation of the conflicting feelings which were at work in his heart. They do not express the exultation with which he was filled, nor the danger in which he stood from his own men. We can scarcely appreciate the loneliness of the admiral on this voyage. His fellow-voyagers had little sympathy with his faith in the possibilities of the enterprise. One of the Pinzons, the commander of the Pinta, one of the three vessels which set sail with the Santa Maria, on which Columbus hoisted his flag as admiral, deserted off the coast of Cuba and hastened home, apparently to anticipate Columbus in giving to the

EXULTANT JOY AT PALOS.

17

sovereigns the startling intelligence of the discovery of a new world.

We are to think of this man of faith standing on the deck of his frail vessel day after day, surrounded by men whose minds, clouded by superstition, were ready to accept every appearance as portentous with some omen, ready to unite against their commander, to cast him into the sea and to turn their backs on his prophetic visions.

Seventy times the sun rose and went down in the shoreless ocean. Often were efforts made to turn the leader from his determination to steer straight westward. Often did hope rise, but to be followed by despair, as the signs of land melted away in the waste of waters; but the hero was not to be deterred. He pressed forward, and, on the evening of the eleventh of October, had the satisfaction of catching a glimpse of lights. Scarce able to believe that his hopes were already fulfilled, Columbus called others to look in the distance. They supported his testimony; and on the morning of the twelfth, the gun of the Pinta gave the signal that Rodrigo de Triana had actually descried land. On that Friday morning, with appropriate insignia of authority, the admiral set foot on the Western Hemisphere, taking possession of the country with religious ceremonies, in the name of Ferdinand and Isabella.

On the thirteenth of the following March, Columbus landed again at Palos and was received with that agitation and exultant joy with which a superstitious people in that age would be expected to greet the return of those long mourned as lost, who at last had come back in triumph. It is said that as the bells of

Palos were sounding out the peals of welcome to Columbus, the deserter Pinzon entered the port. His heart sank within him as he understood the cause of the sounds with which his ears were greeted; and he soon after died, a victim of chagrin.

We cannot give an account of the princely honors that were showered upon Columbus. He was received by the sovereigns, seated in state, and, as a special mark of honor, was ordered to be himself seated in their presence. Isabella listened with interest to his story of adventure, and the people hailed him with the same applause that would have been awarded to a great conqueror.

It was an island upon which Columbus had landed in 1492, and he did not touch upon our continent until August, 1498, when he visited Paria, in South America. He had been anticipated in discovering the mainland by Sebastian Cabot, who had seen the shores of Labrador, in June, 1497. We have nothing to do here with the expeditions of the Northmen, who are said to have visited America in the eleventh century, for, admitting that the records found in the sagas are true statements of historic facts, their visits did not lead to settlements of lasting importance. To Columbus belongs the undivided honor of first making real the grand idea of the Western World. His discovery led to all that has since been achieved on our continent. He experienced to the utmost the solitude of greatness, and he will be forever honored in the annals of men as the foremost among dis

coverers.

He was alone, however, only in the indefatigable pursuit of the great idea that he had made his own.