Christopher Columbus and His Monument Columbia / being a concordance of choice tributes to the great Genoese, his grand discovery, and his greatness of mind and purpose

by Unknown

PASSION FOR GOLD.

Eugene Lawrence, an American historical writer. Born in New York, 1823. From "The Mystery of Columbus," in Harper's Magazine, May, 1892.[46]

In Columbus the passion for gold raged with a violence seldom known. He dreamed of golden palaces, heaps of treasure, and mines teeming with endless wealth. His cry was everywhere for gold. Every moment, in his fierce avarice, he would fancy himself on the brink of boundless opulence; he was always about to seize the treasures of the East, painted by Marco Polo and Mandeville. "Gold," he wrote to the King and Queen, "is the most valuable thing in the world; it rescues souls from purgatory and restores them to the joys of paradise."

STATUE OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS IN THE MARIÑOL (MINISTRY OF THE COLONIES), MADRID, SPAIN.
Sculptor, Señor J. Samartin.