some sixty or seventy miles, meeting with many pleasing incidents of the same general character which we have previously related, he turned to the south, and had sailed but a few leagues when the blue mountains of another majestic island seemed to emerge from the sea. This was his first sight of Jamaica. Fortunately the island has retained its original name. The natives, a bold and warlike race, opposed the landing. The Spaniards, with cross-bows and a blood-hound, put them all to flight. This was probably the first time that this animal, of execrable notoriety, was employed in such services. But Columbus could find here no gold. He returned to Cuba, and sailed along its southern coast many days, and for so many leagues as to satisfy every one on board the ships that Cuba could not be an island, but that it was the main land. After continuing his tour for nearly five months, and having discovered many new islands, Columbus returned to his colony at Isabella. Here he again found that the arrogance and oppression of those he had left behind had so exasperated the natives that a coalition was formed of all the tribes for the extermination of the Spaniards. The wildest adventures of Indian warfare now ensued, a faithful narrative of which would fill volumes. The flame of war swept over doomed Hayti, and the island at length being entirely subjugated, the wretched inhabitants were enslaved. But the victors were compelled to drink deeply of the cup of misery which they had mingled. The most envenomed complaints were preferred against Columbus before the Spanish Sovereigns. A commission was sent out to investigate his conduct. These commissioners treated the Admiral with such contumely and insult that his VOL. XXXVIII.-No. 228.-47 situation became absolutely unendurable, and on the 10th of March, 1496, he again set sail for Spain to seek the redress of his wrongs. After a long and stormy passage of three months he landed at Cadiz. Ferdinand and Isabella received him with kindness. But all the plans and wishes of Columbus were thwarted by a series of incessant and mortifying annoyances. He found his popularity greatly on the wane. Many of the nobles, indulging in unworthy jealousy of him as a foreigner, did every thing in their power to embarrass his movements. More than two years passed away before Columbus could obtain another squadron. But on the 30th of May, 1498, he again sailed on his third voyage with six vessels. Pursuing a more southerly course, the first land he made was a large island on the coast of South America, which he named La Trinidad, "The Trinity," from three lofty peaks united at their bases, which first hove in sight.. He also coasted for many leagues along the shore of South America, supposing it to be an island. The natives he found almost white, and frank, bold, and friendly. At length, turning his prows toward the north, he made sail for Hayti, where he arrived the 30th of August. Though his mind remained vigorous as ever, his physical system was shattered by care, toil, and suffering. Beautiful Hayti, which he had originally found so populous, peaceful, and happy, was now war-scathed and desolate. The Spaniards had converted a blooming Eden into a howling wilderness. Sickness and famine brooded over the island, and the conquered and the conquerors were alike wretched. The colony was in a state of anarchy, and the Span By their authority he has put these chains upon me. I will wear them till they shall order them to be taken off. And I will preserve them ever afterward as relics and memorials of the rewards of my services." iards were intensely exasperated against each | whatever Bobadilla should order in their name. other. Columbus met with nothing but trouble. He was emaciate, haggard, and almost blind. Conscious that with his broken constitution he could not long sustain such cares and toils, he decided to seek for a successor in the government, and to return to Spain. It is affecting to record that Columbus ever kept these shackles suspended in his room, and requested that they might be deposited at his side in the grave. The complaints in the Court of Ferdinand and Isabella against Columbus were now so loud and bitter that another commission was sent out to Hayti, with authority to supersede him in command should he be found guilty. An officer of the royal household named Bobadilla was intrusted with this important commission. This official, who proved to be totally unfit for the delicate duty intrusted to him, immediately upon his arrival assumed the supreme command, and the venerable Admiral, to his utter amazement, was summoned to appear as a criminal before him. Bobadilla, whose name should be handed down to infamy, had the brutality to seize Columbus, aged and infirm as he was, and to put his helpless victim in chains. Columbus, too proud to make unavailing re-pathy and affection, the great heart of this mamonstrances, in dignified silence submitted to his fate. The iron had entered his soul. The arrival of Columbus at Cadiz in chains excited amazement, which was followed by universal indignation. The whole current of popular sentiment, in all its resistless strength, suddenly turned in his favor. The King and Queen were influenced by the general sentiment. They ordered his chains to be stricken off, directed that he should be treated with every consideration, and invited him to repair immediately to Court, sending him a purse of about eight thousand dollars to defray his expenses. As he entered the presence of Ferdinand and Isabella, and was greeted by them with the utmost sym jestic man was overcome, and, falling upon his knees, he wept, sobbing like a child. Columbus was now far advanced in years. Still, being fully restored to the royal favor, he made preparations for a fourth voyage. Early in May, 1502, he being then about sixty-six The renowned discoverer, worthy of the gratitude of the world, was plunged into a prison until a ship could be got ready to transport him across the ocean. He was then taken from his prison, shackled like the vilest culprit, and, sur-years of age, he again embarked, with four rounded by the jeers of an infamous rabble, was placed on board the vessel and sent to Spain. The commander of the ship, moved with grief and indignation in view of such indignities heaped upon so noble a man, wished, during the voyage, to strike off his chains. "No!" exclaimed Columbus; "their Majesties commanded me, by letter, to submit to small vessels and a crew of one hundred and fifty men, for an enterprise no less than the circumnavigation of the globe. The largest of these vessels did not exceed seventy tons, and the smallest was of but fifty. Riding safely through many severe tempests, he passed the islands of the Caribbean Sea, and touched the continent at Yucatan. Sailing by a prominent fined to his berth. His men, despairing of ever again seeing their homes, broke away from all restraints, bade defiance to the authority of the Admiral, and in armed bands ranged the island, visiting upon the poor natives every species of lawless violence. The natives, exasperated beyond endurance, secretly united in a plan for the destruction of the Spaniards. Columbus, helpless upon his bed of weakness and pain, saw indications of the rising storm. But in this dark hour the firmness of his character shone forth with renewed lustre. headland, which he named Cape Gracios a Dios, he cruised southerly along the coast for many leagues, hoping to find a passage through the Isthmus. Not succeeding, he attempted to establish a colony at the mouth of a river called Belem; but the natives were aroused by the licentiousness and the oppression of his men, and the whole country was soon in arms against the Spaniards. The natives attacked the colony most fiercely, and drove the inhabitants from the country. This voyage was also but a series of bitter disappointments. "My people," he writes, are dismayed and downhearted, almost all my anchors are lost, and my vessels By his knowledge of astronomy he ascerare bored by worms as full of holes as a honey-tained that a total eclipse of the moon was to comb." One of his ships was left a wreck upon the Isthmus. The other ships, being in a sinking condition, he was compelled to run ashore upon the island of Jamaica. He converted the wrecks into a fortress to protect himself from the natives. 66 The situation of Columbus was now as deplorable as can well be imagined. He was, as it were, imprisoned in his two wrecked vessels, which he had drawn side by side and fortified. He was confined to his bed by severe sickness, and was suffering excruciating pangs from the gout. The natives were manifesting hostility. He was on a distant and unfrequented island one hundred and twenty miles from Hayti, with apparently no possible means of sending intelligence of his condition. The position of affairs was so alarming that a bold mariner undertook the desperate enterprise of crossing the ocean in a canoe to Hayti. He left the shore, and his fragile boat soon disappeared in the boundless expanse of the ocean. Month after month lingered away, and there were no signs of relief. Columbus, tortured with bodily pain, was con occur in a few days. He summoned the principal caciques, informed them that the deity he worshiped was in the skies, that this deity was offended with the Indians for their unfriendly feelings, and for withholding supplies, and that in token of the fearful punishment which awaited them they would soon see the moon fade away. Some scoffed, some were frightened, and all felt secret solicitude. The night came, brilliant in tropical splendor. The moon rose effulgent over the waves. All eyes were fixed upon it. Soon some dark destruction seemed to be consuming it. The beautiful luminary was rapidly wasting away. The terror of the natives became intense; and when at last the whole moon had disappeared, and portentous gloom shrouded the face of nature, the natives actually shrieked in their dismay. They ran to and fro, and implored Colum-. bus to intercede in their behalf. Columbus said that he would retire and commune with the deity. When the eclipse was about to cease he informed them that God would par don them upon condition that they would ful fill their promises and furnish supplies. The shadow passed away, and the moon, with apparently renovated brilliance, shone forth in the serene sky. The natives were completely vanquished. They regarded Columbus with unspeakable awe, and were henceforth ready to do his bidding. In this imprisonment, with but little hope of ever being rescued, Columbus, with a few men who were still faithful to him, remained in the wrecked and shattered ships for twelve long and dismal months. Day after day they scanned the horizon till their straining eyes ached, but no sail appeared. There was hardly a possibility that the frail canoe could have reached its destined port; and as the months lingered away, bringing no relief, despair, to which the seamen had long since resigned themselves, began to settle gloomily over the mind even of Columbus. In one of those dismal hours he wrote in the following strain in his journal: "Hitherto I have wept for others; but now have pity upon me, oh Heaven, and weep for me, oh earth! In my temporal concerns without a farthing to offer for a mass, cast away here in the Indies, surrounded by cruel and hostile savages, isolated, infirm, expecting each day will be my last! Weep for me whoever has charity, truth, and justice!" At length, after a year had passed away, two vessels were seen approaching the island. Despair was succeeded by a delirious joy. The mutineers, weary of license and crime, hastened from their dispersion and implored the forgiveness of the kind-hearted Admiral. He pardoned the wretches, and all who had survived the dissipation and the hardships of the year were transferred to Hayti. Here an appalling spectacle of oppression and of wretchedness met the eye of Columbus. New rulers were in command. The offscouring of Spain had flocked as adventurers to the doomed island. The natives, who had received Columbus with almost celestial kindness, were converted into slaves, and were driven by the lash to the fields and the mines. If, in irrepressible yearnings for liberty, they attempted to escape and fled to the mountains, their brutal taskmasters with guns and blood-hounds pursued them, and hunted them down as if they were beasts of prey. Las Casas describes these outrages in terms which flood the eye of every humane reader with grief and indignation. Many of the natives in despair killed themselves; and mothers destroyed their own children to save them from the doom of slavery. In less than twelve years, under these atrocities, several hundred thousands of the natives had perished, and before one short half-century had passed the whole native population had sunk in misery into the grave. Columbus was by nature eminently a humane man. These awful calamities, which he had been instrumental in bringing upon the island, lacerated his soul. His whole life had been a sublime tragedy, hardly enlivened by a single gleam of joy. Again he embarked for Spain. Disasters seemed to pursue him every step of his way. Storm after storm beat fiercely upon his crazy bark. When he arrived he was so exhausted by pain and mental suffering that he could not sit upon a horse. He was removed to Seville, where he hoped to find a little repose. But poverty now stared him in the face. Isabella was dead. Ferdinand was heartless. In a letter to his son he sadly writes: "I live by borrowing. Little have I profite l by twenty years of service with such toils and perils, since at present I do not own a roof in | San Domingo, on the island of Hayti. Spain. If I desire to eat or sleep I have no resort but an inn, and, for the most times, have not wherewithal to pay my bill." But still the fire of heroic enterprise glowed in the veins of this indomitable man. While helpless upon his bed at Seville, and having already passed his threescore years and ten, with undying enthusiasm he was still planning new and gigantic enterprises, when death came to him with that summons which all must heed. Upon the cession of this island to the French in 1795 the remains of Columbus were transferred with great pomp, by the Spanish authorities, to the cathedral of Havana in Cuba. In this brief sketch of the career of Columbus, a career more full of wonderful adventure than that of almost any other man, we have, of course, been under the necessity of omitting many occurrences of great interest. The intelligent reader who would become acquainted with the immediate results of the conquest of the New World, with the nature of the colonial govern It was the 20th of May, 1506. With pious resignation he surrendered himself to the king of terrors. He was perfectly willing to departments which were established, with the system "beyond the cares of this rough and weary world." Uttering devoutly the words "Into thy hands, O Lord, I commit my spirit," he breathed his last. His remains were deposited in the convent of St. Francisco at Seville. Thirty years afterward they were removed to of slavery introduced, with the awful drama of the extirpation of the native inhabitants, and the gradual introduction of new races, will find this whole subject philosophically and admirably treated in the work upon the Spanish Conquest, by ARTHur Helps. MAGDALEN. IF any woman of us all, If any woman of the street, He whom with yearning hearts we love, And underneath our daily skies The Maker of the heavens and earth, The Lord of life, the Lord of death, In whom the universe had birth, But breathing of our breath one breath If any woman of the street Should kneel, and with the lifted mesh Of her long tresses wipe his feet, And with her kisses kiss their flesh How round that woman would we throng, How eagerly with her would change Could we but also claim that deed! |