History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce, Volume 1 (of 4)

by W. S. Lindsay

CHAPTER XVI.

Spain and Portugal—Importance of their commerce in ancient times, and its decline during the Middle Ages—Trade with the coasts of Africa—The maritime discoveries of the Portuguese—Expeditions along the west coast of Africa by order of Prince Henry—Discovery of Madeira, A.D. 1418—Capes Boyador and Blanco, A.D. 1441—Cape Verde Islands, A.D. 1446, and Azores, A.D. 1449—Equator crossed, A.D. 1471—John II. of Portugal—First attempt to reach India by the Cape of Good Hope, A.D. 1487—Ancient dread of the Atlantic—Christopher Columbus—His ideas of the form of the earth, and love for maritime discovery—His visit to Lisbon, and treatment by the Portuguese—His formal proposal in 1480 to the crown of Portugal, which is referred to a learned junto who ridicule his idea—He leaves Lisbon, A.D. 1484; and visits Spain, A.D. 1485—His kind reception by the prior of the convent of La Rabida—First interview with the sovereigns of Spain—Its result—The ridicule he endured—Evidences of an inhabited country to the West of Europe—Orders given by Ferdinand to provide Columbus with the vessels and stores necessary for his voyage to the West—Conditions signed 17th April, 1492—Vessels at last provided for the expedition—Their size and character—Smallness of the expedition—Its departure, 3rd August, 1492—Arrival at the Canary Islands—Great fear and discontent among the crews—Matters become serious—Contemplated mutiny—Land discovered 12th October, A.D. 1492—Columbus takes possession of the island of Guanahani in the name of Spain—The first impressions of the natives on Columbus.

Spain and Portugal.

Importance of their commerce in ancient times; and its decline during the Middle Ages.

A.D. 711.

A.D. 1340.

A brief outline has already been furnished of the maritime commerce of Spain during the time of the Phœnicians and Carthaginians, and of her trade with Britain, Western Africa, Asia Minor, and the shores of the Mediterranean. Notice has also been taken of the course adopted by the Romans to secure for themselves the commerce formerly in the hands of the Carthaginians, and of the great value of the trade which Rome ultimately carried on with Spain during the first four centuries of the Christian era. We have also endeavoured to show that when the Vandals wrested Spain from the Romans, the maritime trade of the Peninsula was grievously neglected, and that it did not improve under the semi-barbarous rule of the Visigoths. Three hundred years afterwards, when the Saracens established themselves at Cordova, somewhat more attention was paid to mercantile pursuits; but, throughout the whole period of the Saracenic rule, the sea-borne commerce of Spain was insignificant when compared with that of the leading Italian republics. It is true that the invaders so long as they held Seville kept up some commercial relations with the East; but the native population of the country can hardly be said to have done anything worthy of note in maritime matters, till the alliance by marriage of Ferdinand II. of Aragon with Isabella of Castile brought nearly the whole Christian dominion of Spain under one monarchy, and gave renewed life and energy to its trade with other and distant nations.

Trade with the coasts of Africa.

From the commencement of the fourteenth century,[720] the trade between the kingdom of Aragon and the coast of Africa had been slowly but surely advancing, as, in spite of their religious differences, the Christians of the West and the Muhammedans had throughout all time mutually conceded to each other the same advantages in their commercial conventions. Thus the Tunisians were allowed to trade as freely at Barcelona as the Catalans did at Tunis, and the corsairs of each country found safe refuge in the harbours of both nations. International arrangements of an intimate character enabled the ship-owners of Catalonia and Sardinia to enter into many profitable joint adventures with those of Barbary and Marocco, especially in the coral and other fisheries, and in the trade of corn, of which Spain obtained, at a price fixed by treaty, large supplies from the coasts of Africa.[721] By this time, too, Portugal had become alive to the advantages to be derived from the discovery of other and distant lands.

The maritime discoveries of the Portuguese.

But though the travels of Marco Polo had more than a century before shown to the nations of Europe the vast extent of the continent of Asia, and had furnished the means of obtaining clearer ideas of its unspeakable riches than had hitherto prevailed, the merchants of the Mediterranean were too desirous of retaining in their own hands the monopoly of the Indian trade to encourage expeditions which had for their object merely the extension of geographical knowledge; the merchants and seamen, who were the chief travellers, having been induced to restrict their knowledge and experience to their own classes. Indeed, such commerce as they advocated was essentially practical, and adventurers who proposed novel channels of trade were considered visionaries. It is, however, to an enlightened Portuguese prince that the civilized world is indebted for first setting in motion those expeditions of discovery, which, throughout the greater portion of the fifteenth century, and especially towards its close, afforded so much delight and astonishment to the nations of Europe.

A.D. 1415.

Expeditions along the west coast of Africa, by order of Prince Henry.

Soon after the conquest of Ceuta by Dom John I., king of Portugal, his fifth son Prince Henry, who had been appointed governor of the conquered Moorish province, directed his attention to an exploration of the western coast of Africa. Imbued with a spirit for maritime discovery, this intelligent and accomplished prince was incessant in his efforts to increase the geographical knowledge of the time. From his boyhood he had made mathematics and navigation a continual study. To facilitate his long-meditated voyages of discovery he had fixed his abode in the kingdom of Algarve on the most elevated point of Cape St. Vincent, a spot he considered more favourable than any other on the coast of Spain for his astronomical observations, and where he founded the town of Sagres.[722] The first expedition undertaken in 1417 with two very indifferent vessels proved unsuccessful, having only proceeded five degrees south from its point of departure, the currents at the mouth of the Mediterranean being alleged as unsurmountable obstacles. In the following year, however, João Gonçalvez Zarco, and Tristão Vaz, two gentlemen of rank, annoyed at the difficulties which the Portuguese mariners raised against any further progress southward, and anxious to forward the views of their enlightened prince, volunteered to double Cape Boyador, and to prosecute their voyage to the south. A gale of wind drove them far away from the coast, and by this accident they became acquainted with the position of the island of Madeira, of which they took possession in the name of their sovereign. According to a well-known tradition this island had, however, been previously discovered by an Englishman named Machin, moreover had probably been seen by Hanno or by some of the earlier Phœnician voyagers. Mr. Major has quite recently shown[723] that there is good reason to believe in the truth of the story of Machin. The merit, however, of this important discovery is for all practical purposes due to the Portuguese, who, thus encouraged, renewed their exertions and obtained a grant from Martin V. of the dominion over all territories which might thenceforward be discovered from Cape Boyador to the Indies; but it was only in 1441 that Cape Blanco was reached. The discovery of gold dust and the capture of some slaves still further stimulated a spirit for adventure which had been originally roused by loftier motives. Various Portuguese merchants of Lagos combined and equipped six caravels, with which they sailed to the coast of Guinea. By them the Cape Verde Islands were discovered in 1446; and another somewhat similar expedition discovered the Azores in 1449. In 1471 the Equator was first passed, and ten years afterwards the Portuguese founded a fort and established a trading station on the coast of Guinea for the purpose of maintaining a permanent commercial intercourse with the natives.

Discovery of Madeira, A.D. 1418.

Capes Boyador and Blanco, A.D. 1441.

Cape Verde Islands, A.D. 1446, and Azores, A.D. 1449.

Equator crossed, A.D. 1471.

From this commercial alliance the Portuguese derived large profits, while the crown received a considerable revenue from the ivory and gold the natives offered in abundance in exchange for trinkets and baubles of European manufacture. The greatest precautions were necessary to preserve in their own hands the valuable trade they had discovered, as other nations had indistinctly heard of the enormous profits the Portuguese were deriving from their commercial intercourse with some distant and hitherto unknown lands. They were, however, successful in keeping this secret for a good many years.[724]

John II. of Portugal.

First attempt to reach India by the Cape of Good Hope, A.D. 1487.

The reign of Dom John II.[725] was likewise conspicuous for the still wider extension of this spirit of maritime enterprise. Second only to Prince Henry, this monarch displayed the greatest anxiety to foster discoveries by sea. He had been taught to believe that, by coasting along the African continent, a passage to the East Indies might be discovered; and he not only equipped two small squadrons expressly for this purpose, but despatched two of his subjects into India and Abyssinia to find out the route to and between these vast regions, and to ascertain what advantages the trade of his country might derive from the knowledge thus acquired. These researches ultimately led to the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope, in 1487, by Bartholomew Dias. The rude winds and mountainous waves which assailed that now well-known promontory led Dias to call it the Cape of Storms; but the king, sanguine that beyond its rugged shores there would be found the rich lands of India, gave it the name it now bears. Dias ventured only a short distance beyond the promontory,[726] and ten years more elapsed before it was doubled by Vasco de Gama, another still more celebrated Portuguese navigator.

Ancient dread of the Atlantic.

While the Portuguese were striving to reach India by the eastern route, another navigator, greater than any the world had hitherto produced, was maturing his plans for endeavouring to reach that cherished land by a voyage to the West. Hitherto the Atlantic Ocean had been regarded with wonder and awe. It seemed to bound the then known world with an impenetrable chaos, a chaos into which the most daring adventurers had feared to penetrate. “No one,” says Edrisi, an Arabian writer, whose countrymen for many ages had been the boldest of navigators, “has been able to verify anything concerning it (the Atlantic Ocean), on account of its difficult and perilous navigation, its great obscurity, its profound depth, and frequent tempests; through fear of its mighty fishes and its haughty winds; yet there are many islands in it, some peopled, others uninhabited. There is no mariner who dares to enter into its deep waters; or if any have done so, they have merely kept along its coasts, fearful of departing from them. The waves of this ocean, although they roll as high as mountains, yet maintain themselves without breaking, for if they broke, it would be impossible for ship to plough them.”[727]

Christopher Columbus.

One man was, however, at last found bold enough to brave the dangers of the broad Atlantic and to force a passage across its troubled waters. Only a few years before Vasco de Gama started on his voyage of discovery in the East, a greater and better man had set sail to the West, in the hopes of thus reaching the fabled land of “Cathay.” Christopher Columbus, a Genoese, who had been trained from boyhood to the sea, had long cherished the idea that if he could only penetrate the mysterious waters of the Atlantic, he would find beyond them and at less distance than was then supposed, the shores of India, whence Europe had been so long supplied with its spices and numerous luxuries. From the translations of the works of Ptolemy, Pliny, and Strabo, then but recently made known, Columbus obtained all the knowledge the ancients possessed of geography, a knowledge which, though happily preserved, had lain buried amid the darkness and tumults of the Middle Ages, and had been only brought again to light on the revival of science and letters during the fifteenth century.

His ideas of the form of the earth;

Columbus had formed a crude idea of the extent of the waters which covered the earth; and their presumed limited extent and the shortness of the distance westward, as he supposed, between Spain and the Indies, had, no doubt, exercised considerable influence over him in his determination to fathom the mystery of the Atlantic Ocean.[728]

and love for maritime discovery.

His visit to Lisbon, and treatment by the Portuguese.

From his earliest youth he had evinced a strong inclination for the study of geography as well as geometry and astronomy, of which he had gained a superficial knowledge long before he resolved to push his fortune from the ports of Spain. Trained to the sea at a period when its followers were exposed to more than usual dangers by the piratical habits then prevalent, he had become daring and adventurous, which, combined with his love for geographical discoveries, rendered him peculiarly well adapted for the exploration of unknown seas. Genoa, his native city, was not then, however, in a position to aid his cherished design, for this republic, once so powerful, had been languishing for some time under the embarrassment of a foreign and a foolish war. Falling slowly but surely from her once high estate, her spirit fell with her fortunes, and she had not the inclination, even if she had had the means, to enter upon extensive but doubtful adventures. Columbus had, therefore, to seek aid in other lands. He repaired to Lisbon, where many of his countrymen had settled; and there, in the full vigour of his manhood, he took up his residence about the year 1470, and soon afterwards married a daughter of Bartolomeo de Palestrello, who had been one of the most distinguished navigators under Prince Henry of Portugal and the colonizer and governor of Porto Santo.

By this marriage he obtained access to his father-in-law’s journals and charts, while living with his widowed mother-in-law at Porto Santo,[729] and these were treasures to Columbus. From these and other sources he soon made himself conversant with the various distant sea routes then known to the Portuguese, and learnt also their plans and conceptions for other voyages still more distant, having been allowed to sail occasionally with them in their expeditions to the coast of Guinea. On shore he maintained himself and family by the construction of maps and charts, an occupation which brought him into communication with many men of learning and influence, and notably with Pedro Correa, his wife’s brother-in-law and a famous navigator, and also with Paulo Toscanelli of Florence, the most learned cosmographer of the period.[730] The times, too, were favourable to his views. The discoveries of the Cape Verde Islands and of the Azores, with the explorations along the coasts of Africa, as far as the Cape of Good Hope, had inflamed the imaginations of men with visions of other lands of greater wealth and beauty yet to be discovered, and had again revived the speculation of the ancients, the imaginary Atlantis of Plato, and the great oceanic island which the Carthaginians were said to have found. Columbus, therefore, applied himself with redoubled zeal to the study of every writer on geography ancient or modern, being himself firmly convinced that the earth was a sphere or globe, which might be travelled round from east to west, and that men stood foot to foot when on its opposite points.

Strabo had already expressed his opinion (following the judgments of Homer and of Poseidonius) that an ocean surrounded the earth;[731] and Marco Polo,[732] and perhaps also Sir John Maundeville, had in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries visited parts of Asia far beyond the regions laid down by Ptolemy: from the narratives of these travellers, Columbus judged that it would not be difficult to sail from Spain to India on the same parallel, and that a voyage to the West of no long duration would bring him to that far-famed but mysterious land. The most eastern part of Asia known to the ancients, he thought, could not be separated from the Azores by more than a third of the circumference of the globe, the intervening space being in all probability filled up by the unknown residue of Asia.[733]

“It is singular,” remarks Washington Irving in his interesting history of the Life and Correspondence of Columbus,[734] “how much the success of this great undertaking depended upon two happy errors, the imaginary extent of Asia to the East, and the supposed smallness of the earth, both errors of the most learned and profound philosophers, but without which Columbus would hardly have ventured upon his enterprise. As to the idea of finding land by sailing directly to the West, it is at present so familiar to our minds, as in some measure to diminish the merits of the first conception, and the hardihood of the first attempt; but in those days, as has been well observed, the circumference of the earth was yet unknown; no one could tell whether the ocean was not of immense extent, impossible to be traversed; nor were the laws of specific gravity, and of central gravitation, ascertained, by which, granting the rotundity of the earth, the possibility of making the tour of it would be manifest.”

Several years, however, elapsed before Columbus could make any progress towards carrying into effect his favourite project. He was himself too poor to render any pecuniary assistance towards the fitting out of the requisite expedition; and the government of Portugal was then too much engrossed in a war with Spain to engage the services of a foreigner in any peaceful enterprise of an expensive nature. The public mind, also, though elated by the discoveries which had already been made, was not then prepared for so doubtful and perilous an undertaking, while the sailors, who had rarely ventured far out of sight of land, considered the project of a voyage directly westward into a boundless waste of ocean as dangerous as it was extravagant and visionary. But when John II., who had imbibed the passion for discovery from his grand-uncle, Prince Henry, ascended the throne, a fresh impetus was given to voyages of discovery. These, as we have seen, were prosecuted with increased vigour to the south of the Equator and along the shores of Africa, and soon afterwards preparations were made for extending these voyages round the Cape of Good Hope, till at last India was reached by Vasco de Gama, whose celebrated expedition we shall hereafter attempt to describe.

His formal proposal in 1480 to the crown of Portugal is referred to a learned junto, who ridicule his idea.

It was not, however, till 1480, when the successful application of the astrolabe[735] to the purposes of navigation removed from the contemplated expedition of Columbus much of its hazardous character, that he formally proposed his great voyage of discovery to the crown of Portugal. He had always felt it to be an enterprise only to be undertaken in the service of some sovereign state which could assume dominion over whatever territories he might discover, and which, with the means of conquest and colonisation at its disposal, would be also able to spread the Christian religion, a desire which seems to have been at all times present in his meditations. In this year Columbus obtained an audience with the king, and, being graciously received, revealed his plans fully to the monarch. Though the king was at the time discouraged from entering upon any new scheme of discovery, by the cost and trouble already incurred in the as yet unsuccessful exploration of the route along the African coast, he nevertheless gave a favourable consideration to the scheme of Columbus, and referred it to a learned junto, who were charged with all questions of maritime enterprise. This scientific body, however, treated the project as extravagant, an opinion confirmed by a council composed of the prelates and persons of the greatest learning in the kingdom. But the junto, though unwilling to accept the proposal of Columbus, were not slow to profit by the information he had given to them; and while pretending to afford him their best attention, despatched a vessel on their own account to test some of his views. The whole plan failed; the mariners after sailing for some days to the west of the Cape Verde Islands came back in terror at the rough weather they had experienced, and the seemingly vast extent of ocean to be sailed over; and Columbus, justly indignant at the contemptible treatment he had received, at once took his departure from such a court and country, to seek elsewhere a patron surrounded by more honest counsellors.[736]

He leaves Lisbon, A.D. 1484, and visits Spain, A.D. 1485.

Broken-hearted, friendless, and almost penniless, he left Lisbon with his son Diego, then a little boy, towards the close of 1484, and is supposed to have retraced his steps to Genoa, and thence carried his proposal to Venice. Receiving no encouragement at either of these places, he found his way to Spain, in the winter of 1485, and there had the good fortune to make friends at the ancient convent of La Rabida, situated not far from the small seaport of Palos in Andalusia.

His kind reception by the prior of the convent of La Rabida.

At the gate of this convent the discoverer of a new world stopped to ask a little bread and water for his famishing boy, and the prior, Juan Perez de Marchena, happening to pass at the time, was struck with the dignified, careworn, and poverty-stricken appearance of the stranger, and, entering into conversation with him, soon ascertained the leading incidents of his life, and the object of his visit to Spain. The prior himself, a man of extensive information, who had already paid some attention to geographical and nautical science, detained Columbus as his guest, at the same time sending for a scientific friend, Garcia Fernandez (to whom we are indebted for this account), to converse with him; and, in the end, the prior’s first impressions were in some measure confirmed by the ancient mariners of Palos, for they, too, had heard of strange and rich lands beyond the setting sun. The earnest manner of Columbus, and his extensive knowledge made, day by day, an increasing impression on the prior and his friends, till at length in the spring of 1485, when the Spanish court had reached the ancient city of Cordova with the view of prosecuting the war against the Moorish kingdom of Granada, Columbus, furnished with letters of introduction from the worthy prior, determined to lay his grand scheme before Ferdinand and Isabella.

First interview with the sovereigns of Spain.

Its result.

Nearly a year elapsed, however, before Columbus was enabled to obtain an audience with the sovereigns, and even then his troubles were not overcome. The king referred his project for consideration to a body of “learned men,” who met in the Dominican convent of St. Stephen in Salamanca; and although at this convent Columbus was hospitably entertained during the course of the inquiry, his theory was received with incredulity. Nor, indeed, was this surprising. An obscure mariner and a member of no learned institution could hardly hope to convert at once to his theory an erudite assembly, most of whom entertained the impression that he was at the best a mere visionary. “Was it likely,” exclaimed one of his learned examiners, in a burst of indignant unbelief, “that there was a part of the world where the feet of the people who inhabited it were opposite to ours; where they walk with their heels upward, and their heads hanging down; where the trees grow with their branches downward; where it rains, hails, and snows upward, and where all things are topsy-turvy?” “Even ‘admitting’ the earth to be spherical, it was only,” they said, “inhabitable in the northern hemisphere, and in that section only was canopied by the heavens, the opposite half being, in their opinion, a chaos, a gulph, or a mere waste of water.” One of their objections was indeed amusing: “Should a ship succeed in reaching,” they argued, “the extremity of India, she could never get back again, for the rotundity of the globe would present a kind of mountain, up which it would be impossible for her to sail with the most favourable wind.”[737]

The ridicule he endured.

The sound reasoning, however, of Columbus made a deep impression on the minds of some of the members of the conference (as especially on Diego De Deza, afterwards Archbishop of Seville), and the seed thus sown grew and in time prospered. In the meanwhile, however, he had much to endure. The affairs of war hurried the court from place to place, so that any question of less importance than the campaign was disregarded. His plans, too, when known, were generally scoffed at and ridiculed as the dreams of one of the wildest of schemers. The very children of the towns were taught to regard him as a visionary madman, and pointed to their foreheads as he passed them; though, amid the sufferings hope long deferred creates, he was, on the whole, generously treated by the court and his expenses paid while attending on it.

Evidences of an inhabited country to the West of Europe.

But while the learned scoffers at his theory had no valid answer to give to arguments based on facts they could neither refute nor deny, men of more enlightened views were open to conviction, and saw with Columbus that as the gales from the West brought to Madeira trees and canes of an unknown species, there must be some land, and that too not very far distant, where these trees and canes had grown; and further, that as other productions were found, evidently the work of man, the unknown land must be the abode of human beings. Years, however, elapsed before the sovereigns of Spain could be induced to adopt means for solving the great problem of a new world in the West; till, at length, Columbus, wearied with these continued delays, sent his brother Bartholomew to England to endeavour to persuade Henry VII. to afford him the means of carrying out his expedition of discovery. Misfortunes befell Bartholomew on the way. The vessel in which he had taken his passage having been boarded by pirates, who stripped him of everything he possessed, he was compelled to live for a considerable time after he arrived in London in poverty and obscurity, earning a scanty existence by the construction and sale of sailing charts.[738] When his circumstances were somewhat improved he obtained an audience with Henry VII., and presented to his majesty a map of the world, which bears the date of London, February 13, 1488.[739] He was well received, and the English monarch appears to have expressed an interest in the proposals of his brother Christopher, whom he invited to London. But Columbus could not be induced to leave Spain, perhaps from the still-cherished hope that he would at last succeed with Queen Isabella, or from an attachment he had formed with a lady, with whom he had become acquainted at Cordova.

In February, 1489, Ferdinand and Isabella received an embassy from Henry VII., with whom they had formed an alliance. It does not, however, appear that at that time Columbus was in possession of any reply to the application he had made through his brother Bartholomew to the English court. When the Spanish sovereigns returned to Cordova, in May of that year, the proposals of Columbus received their attention, and steps were at once taken to have the long-adjourned investigation resumed.[740] But war and other matters again intervened, so that it was not till the winter of 1491 that Columbus was enabled to obtain another hearing of his case. This time he was successful. Notwithstanding the unfavourable report of the learned junto of Salamanca, an opinion favourable to his enterprise had gradually sprung up at court, and the sovereigns of Spain were unwilling to close the door upon a project which might prove highly advantageous to the nation under their rule. Yet even then no definite orders were given to provide the necessary means for the expedition, and Columbus had to submit to another year’s delay.

Orders given by Ferdinand to provide Columbus with the vessels and stores necessary for his voyage to the West.

At length, after ten years’ waste of time in Portugal, and seven weary years of solicitations at the court of Spain, the conditions on which the voyage of discovery was to be undertaken were drawn out and executed. In virtue of these Columbus was nominated admiral, viceroy, governor and judge of all islands and mainlands he might discover. He was also constituted admiral of the ocean, with many of the prerogatives enjoyed by the admiral of Castile; and these honours were to pass to his heirs and successors for ever. He was further entitled to reserve for himself one-tenth of all pearls, precious stones, gold, silver, spices, and of every other article of merchandise, in whatever manner found, bought, bartered, or gained within his admiralty, less the cost of production. While he was allowed to contribute one-eighth part of the expenses in fitting out these vessels, and of all vessels which might hereafter engage in trade with any country he might discover, he was also permitted to receive in return an eighth of their profits.[741]

Conditions signed April 17, 1492

These conditions, liberal in themselves, but nothing more than the Portuguese had granted to their discoverers, were signed by Ferdinand and Isabella at the city of Santa Fé, in the plain of Granada, on the 17th of April, 1492, and proclaimed throughout Spain, with the announcement that Columbus and his heirs were authorized to prefix Don to their names. Palos was fixed on as the place where the ships were to be equipped and commissioned, the inhabitants of that place having, for some reason, been condemned by the royal council to serve the crown, for one year, with a certain number of armed caravels.

When the royal decree was issued, requiring the Andalusian shipowners to provide three vessels ready for sea within ten days from the 30th of April, and to sail in whatever direction Columbus might command, they refused to furnish them for what they conceived to be a desperate service; while the boldest of the Andalusian seamen shrunk from a wild and chimerical cruise into the mysterious regions of an unknown and stormy ocean; hence many weeks elapsed ere the royal commands could be carried into effect, nor could the influence of the prior of La Rabida induce the ship-owners and seamen of Palos to comply with the decree of their sovereigns. It was only when absolute and threatening mandates were issued on the 20th of June, ordering the magistrates of the coast of Andalusia to press into the service any Spanish ships or seamen they pleased, backed by the offer of Martin Alonzo Pinzon, a rich and enterprising navigator, to take a large personal share in the expedition, that the requisite vessels and crews were obtained. His example, and that of his brother, likewise a navigator of great courage and ability, and their combined determination to sail with Columbus, induced many of their relations and friends to embark, so that the equipment was completed within a month after they had resolved to risk their lives and fortunes in the expedition.

Vessels at last provided for the expedition.

Three vessels were apparently all that Columbus had requested. Two of them were light barques, called caravels, described, or rather, from the drawings of the period, delineated as open and without deck in the centre, rising to a considerable height at the bow and stern, with forecastles and cabins for the accommodation of the crew. The third vessel, according to the testimony of Peter Martyr, the learned contemporary of Columbus, was decked throughout. The only reason alleged for employing vessels without decks, or open in the waist, on so hazardous a voyage, was, that from their smallness, Columbus might be enabled to run close to the shore, and to enter shallow waters and harbours, advantages which, he thought, overweighed the danger of an ocean navigation, about which he was comparatively careless. More likely they were really chosen because larger vessels could not readily be obtained at Palos.

Their size and character.

But though the size and construction of her vessels were thus accommodated to the short and easy voyages along the coast which they were accustomed to perform, Spain possessed many larger. One hundred and fifty years before the time of Columbus, mention is made in an edict issued by Pedro IV. (1354) of Catalonian merchant ships of two and three decks, and from 8,000 to 12,000 quintals burden.[742] Again, in 1419, Alphonso of Aragon hired several merchant ships to transport artillery and horses, &c., from Barcelona to Italy, two of which carried one hundred and twenty horses each. Mention is also made of a Venetian vessel of 700 tons arriving, in 1463, at Barcelona, from England, laden with wheat, and of a Castilian ship which, in 1497, conveyed to that port a cargo of 12,000 quintals burden. In fact, then as now, all the great maritime nations possessed vessels of large dimensions, although the smaller were comparatively far more numerous than in modern times, being better adapted to the nature of the voyages undertaken and the limited extent of maritime commerce.

If therefore Columbus set sail on his expedition with ships the largest of which, as some writers have imagined, was only from 150 to 200 tons burden, this must have been from choice, or for the reason just named; it could not have arisen from ignorance on his part of the kind of vessels best adapted for his purpose, or of the roughness of the sea about to be explored, for he had made various voyages on the Atlantic, had studied with care the logs of the Portuguese navigators in their discoveries, and had himself visited Iceland,[743] and made a voyage to the 73rd degree of north latitude, then a region of the ocean all but unknown. But unfortunately history furnishes no definite account of the vessels placed under his charge, and no authentic delineation of their form. In the abridged edition[744] of Washington Irving’s interesting work, there is, indeed, the representation of a Spanish galley from the tomb of Fernando Columbus in the cathedral of Seville. But there is no reason to suppose that this galley is an actual drawing of any one of the three vessels in which Columbus made his ever memorable voyage, though it probably represents the ordinary coasting vessel of the period, or one of those occasionally employed in the trade between Spain and the smaller Mediterranean ports.

In a small volume consisting only of ten leaves,[745] preserved in the Grenville library, there are two drawings of vessels said to be copies of the caravels of Columbus, but unfortunately no description whatever is given of them; of these, one is given in the edition of Washington Irving’s work just referred to,[746] with the statement that it is “the sketch of a galley coasting the island of Hispaniola, from an illustration contained in a letter written by Columbus to Don Gabriel Sanchez, treasurer of the king of Spain;” and that “the original sketch is supposed to have been made with a pen by Columbus.” But the sketch does not represent the kind of vessel which an experienced navigator, like Columbus, would have chosen for an Atlantic voyage, when he must have had more suitable vessels at his disposal.

Though the word “caravel” was generally used to designate vessels of a small size, in the Mediterranean it was occasionally given to the largest class of ships of war among the Mussulmans. Thus, in a naval classification made by King Alphonzo, in the middle of the thirteenth century, large ships propelled only by sails are described as Naos;[747] the second class, or smaller vessel, were known as Caraccas, Fustas, Ballenares, Pinazas, and Carabelas; while boats of the smallest size, with sails and oars, were called Galleys, Galliots, Tardantes, and Sactias. To the latter class the vessel said to have been sketched with a pen by Columbus, and inclosed in his letter[748] to Don Gabriel Sanchez, evidently belongs. The following delineation from a picture of the fifteenth century, in S. Giovanni e Paolo at Venice, fairly represents the ordinary merchant vessel which might, at the time, have been lying in the harbour of Palos; and her form, not unlike that of a modern Dutch galliot, is well adapted to encounter in safety the large rolling waves of the Atlantic.

Smallness of the expedition.

It is surprising how inconsiderable was the equipment for so important an expedition, but Columbus had evidently reduced his requisitions to the narrowest limits, lest the expense should create further impediments in the way of a voyage which had already caused him so much anxious solicitude. Even until the last moment of his departure he had numerous difficulties to overcome. The owners of one of the smaller vessels impressed into the service showed throughout the greatest repugnance to the voyage, and took an active part in creating quarrels and contentions among the people employed in her equipment. Caulkers performed their work in a careless and imperfect manner; the stores were delayed, and when they arrived were either of the wrong description, or improperly packed; the sails did not fit; the masts were not properly rigged; and, in fact, everything had to be effected by the most harsh and arbitrary measures, and in defiance of bitter popular prejudice.

Its departure, 3rd Aug., 1492.

At length when seamen were found to supply the place of those who, having enlisted willingly, had been persuaded by their friends to desert, this ever memorable expedition took its departure on Friday, the 3rd of August, 1492, Columbus hoisting his flag in the Santa Maria, the largest vessel of the three; while the second, called the Pinta, was commanded by Martin Alonzo Pinzon, accompanied by his brother, Francisco Martin, as pilot; and the third, the Nina, by the third of the brothers, Vicente Yañez Pinzon. There was besides an officer of the crown, a notary, usually sent on government expeditions to keep an official record of all transactions. A physician, Garcia Fernandez, also accompanied the expedition, together with various private adventurers, several servants, and ninety mariners, making in all one hundred and twenty persons.

No pomp and display marked their departure. On the contrary, when Columbus set sail, he and his crew were so impressed with the solemnity of the occasion, that they confessed before their priests, as if they had been doomed men, partook of the communion, and committed themselves to the especial guidance and protection of heaven, while a deep gloom spread over the whole community of Palos.

Arrival at the Canary Islands.

Columbus is supposed to have taken with him for his guidance a conjectural chart prepared by Toscanelli of what he presumed to be the position of the continent of which he was in search. On this map the coasts of Europe and Africa, from the south of Ireland to the end of Guinea; and opposite to them, on the other side of the Atlantic, the supposed extremity of Asia, or, as it was termed, India, are believed to have been delineated. Marco Polo had, as we have stated, placed the island of Japan (Zipango) fifteen hundred miles distant from the Asiatic coast; and Columbus had somehow advanced this island a thousand leagues further to the East, supposing it to lie in nearly the same position as Florida.[749] With this view he shaped his course from the Canary Islands, where he had called for fresh supplies and remained for three weeks, refitting the Pinta, which had lost her rudder and was otherwise disabled.

From the Canaries, Columbus set sail early on the morning of the 6th of September, bidding farewell to these frontier islands of the Old World, and striking out into unknown seas to discover a New World which seems destined to eclipse every other nation of ancient or of modern times. For three days he lay becalmed, and it was not until Tuesday, the 9th of September, that he lost sight of land. Then the hearts of the sailors failed them; behind them lay everything dear to them on earth; before them all was mystery, chaos, and peril.

Great fear and discontent amongst the crews.

The cheering hopes held out by Columbus, with the certainty of great rewards when they reached the land of Cathay, where gold and precious stones were said to be found in vast abundance, had no effect on these disconsolate men, many of whom shed tears, while others broke into loud lamentations, refusing to be comforted. Two days after, they had lost sight of the Canaries, and when, about one hundred and fifty leagues to the westward of Ferro, they fell in with the part of a mast, covered with shells and seaweed, the fears of the trembling crew were increased; till at length, when, on the 13th of September, Columbus, for the first time, noticed that the variation of the needle increased as he advanced to the westward, the great navigator himself became really alarmed, though he did not make known his doubts and fears. But the variation of the compass soon attracted the attention of the pilots and filled them with consternation. The very laws of nature they thought were changing as they proceeded westward. That instrument they felt was about to lose its mysterious virtues, and without it they would, on such a vast and trackless ocean, be lost for ever. Though Columbus was able to give a plausible if not the correct reason for the variation, it sufficed to satisfy the pilots and masters, who had great confidence in his skill and genius, but the ordinary seamen were not so easily pacified, and it was only when they reached the favourable trade winds that their fears were somewhat allayed.

Day by day they became more resigned, and as the fine weather and fair winds continued until they reached the course of the Gulf stream, their spirits rose almost exultingly, under the impression that the numerous weeds floating about betokened a near approach to the rich lands of Cathay. Pilot and seamen alike vied with each other as to who should catch the first sight of land; and though Columbus felt that they must still be a great distance from the Florida of which he was in search, he kept his own counsel. Frequently deceived by the dark clouds which just before the rising or setting sun in these latitudes often exhibit the appearance of distant land, the spirits of the seamen began again to droop. They had advanced farther West than ever man had done before; still they continued leaving home far away, and pressing onwards into an apparently boundless abyss of ocean, through which they felt they should never be able to retrace their course, till at last the fair wind became in itself a source of the greatest alarm, from a notion that it always blew from east to west, and that if they attempted to return, they would never be able to reach the coast of Spain. At last the seaweed, from being a source of joy and hope, became an object of alarm. They considered these weeds as proof that the sea was growing shallower, and then they talked of unseen rocks and shoals or quicksands, on to which they might be drifted, and be for ever lost far from any habitable land and beyond the reach of human aid. Then when Columbus took soundings to appease their fears, and found no bottom with a deep sea lead, the fact of no depth being found in water where the surface was covered with weeds, which they supposed grew only on shore or near land, increased their vague terrors and superstitious fancies; everything differed, they said, in these strange regions from the world to which they had been accustomed, and nothing but a return to their fatherland would abate their terror and discontent.

Matters become serious.

Contemplated mutiny.

Matters now became very serious. In proportion as they approached the regions where land should have been found, their impatience and their fears increased. An open mutiny was feared, and plans were even arranged that if Columbus should not meet their demands to return to Spain, they should throw him overboard, and on their arrival at home spread the report that he had fallen into the sea while engaged in surveying the stars and signs of heaven with his astronomical instruments. Though Columbus was not ignorant of these mutinous intentions, he kept perfectly composed, but consulted seriously with his pilots as to their position. In the midst of these consultations they were aroused by a cheering shout from the Pinta of land to the south-west. Every eye was stretched in that direction, and every voice confirmed the sight of land. So impressed was Columbus with the fact, that he threw himself on his knees, and devoutly thanked God for guiding him in safety to the long-hoped-for shores. But alas, the morning sun soon put an end to all their hopes. The Cathay of their dreams was but another evening cloud.

The weather continued delightful; dolphins were now seen in great numbers, and flying fish in every quarter; these for a time diverted the attention, and amused the crew, but only for a time; loud murmurs and menaces were again too frequently heard, until at last Columbus and his crew were at open defiance and his situation became really desperate. Matters could not remain much longer as they were; but fortunately, ere a mutiny actually broke out, the vicinity to land became so manifest as no longer to admit of doubt. Quantities of fresh weeds, such as grow in rivers, made their appearance; a few green fish, found only in the neighbourhood of rocks, were caught; then a branch of thorn, with berries on it, floated past the ship; and at last a staff, artificially carved, was picked up, which more than anything else suggested their vicinity to some inhabited country.[750] The spirits of the crew revived. Columbus felt certain that land must now be close at hand. Appearances now authorized the precaution that they should not sail after midnight. At sunset of the day on which he had issued this precautionary order, the ships were running rapidly before a strong easterly wind. When night approached, Columbus took his station on the highest portion of the castle or poop of his own vessel; hardly an eye in either vessel closed that night. About ten o’clock he thought he saw a light glimmering in the distance, but it soon disappeared. Again it appeared in a sudden and passing gleam. Others saw it as well as himself; it looked like the torch of some fishing boat, rising and falling with the roll of the ocean. Steadily they proceeded on their course till midnight. Soon afterwards the loom of land could be faintly traced. With feelings of the most intense anxiety they waited for the dawn. As the first rays of the morning light broke slowly through the clouds and haze which hung. about the horizon, the land became clearly visible. The life-inspiring cry of “Land” now rang from ship to ship, till at last there was no deception: the land lay not more than two leagues distant. On the morning of Friday, 12th of October, 1492, the great navigator first beheld one of the many islands which lie contiguous to a new and now mighty world.

Land discovered, 12th Oct. 1492.

The land thus discovered proved to be Guanahani, one of the south-eastern of the great cluster of the Lucayos or Bahama Islands,[751] which stretch south-east and north-west from the coast of Florida to Hispaniola, covering the northern coast of Cuba. There are few islands more naturally rich or beautiful. The verdure everywhere is green and luxuriant, and the whole island from the sea looks like a highly cultivated garden. Well might every one on board of the expedition feel grateful to Columbus. After all their trials and dangers, they had at last reached, they thought, the fabled land of Cathay. We well know how pleasing are our sensations when we again see green fields and luxuriant trees after a long sea voyage, and therefore we can conceive the exquisite sense of enjoyment and delight of Columbus and his crew, when they cast anchor in the roadstead and surveyed the island they had, at length, reached. It was thickly inhabited. The natives knew not what to make of the strangers who had come among them, richly attired, while they were in a state of perfect nudity. From their attitudes and gestures, as they timidly issued from the woods, and approached the shore, they were apparently lost in wonder. The ships they had intently watched from the earliest dawn of day were supposed to be huge monsters of the sea and their crews supernatural beings. When the boats landed, they fled in great trepidation; but by means of friendly signs, and other tokens of goodwill, a few of the boldest of them were induced to draw near Columbus and his captains when he unfurled the standard of Spain, and took formal and solemn possession of the island in the name of the Castilian sovereigns.

Columbus takes possession of the island of Guanahani, in the name of Spain.

Columbus, from his commanding height, authoritative manner, and splendid dress, attracted more especially the admiration of the natives, who frequently prostrated themselves on the earth before him with signs of adoration. Nor were his men who, only a few days before, had concocted schemes for massacring him, less subservient. They thronged around him before he left the ship in their overflowing zeal, some embracing him, others kissing his hands. Abject spirits, who had outraged him by their insolence, now crouched at his feet; and those who had been the most mutinous during the voyage were now as humble and as ready to lick the dust from his feet as the most terrified of the natives. The natives soon recovered from their terror, as no attempt was made to pursue or molest them. Extremely artless and simple in themselves, the slightest acts of kindness were received with gratitude, and the toys and trinkets presented for their acceptance were accepted as gifts from heaven. Beyond cotton yarn, which they possessed in abundance, and parrots, which were domesticated in great numbers among them, they had little or nothing to give in return. Their boats consisted entirely of canoes, formed and hollowed, like those of the earliest on record, from a single tree, and capable of carrying from one to fifty persons. Columbus mentions that he saw one which could have contained one hundred and fifty persons, yet made from the trunk of a single tree.[752]

The first impressions of the natives on Columbus.

The state in which Columbus found the natives is nowhere so well described as in his own language. Writing to the treasurer of Ferdinand and Isabella an account of his first voyage[753]—“As soon,” says he, “as they saw our near approach, they would flee with such precipitation, that a father would not even stop to protect his son; and this not because any harm had been done to any of them, for, from the first, wherever I went and got speech with them, I gave them of all that I had, such as cloth, and many other things, without receiving anything in return; but they are, as I have described, incurably timid. It is true that when they are reassured, and have thrown off this fear, they are guileless, and so liberal of all they have, that no one would believe it who had not seen it. They never refuse anything that they possess when it is asked of them; on the contrary, they offer it themselves, and they exhibit so much loving-kindness that they would even give their hearts; and, whether it be something of value or of little worth that is offered to them, they are satisfied.

“I forbade that worthless things, such as pieces of broken glass, and ends of straps, should be given to them; although, when they succeeded in obtaining them, they thought they possessed the finest jewel in the world.... They took even bits of the broken hoops of the wine barrels, and gave, like fools, all that they possessed in exchange, insomuch that I thought it was wrong, and forbade it. I gave away a thousand good and pretty articles which I had brought with me, in order to win their affections, and that they might be led to become Christians and be well inclined to love and serve their Highnesses and the whole Spanish nation, and that they might aid us by giving us things of which we stand in need, and which they possess in abundance.

“They are not acquainted with any form of worship, and are not idolaters, but believe that all power and, indeed, all good things, are in heaven; and they are firmly convinced that I, with my vessels and crews, came from heaven, and with this belief received me at every place at which I touched, after they had overcome their apprehension. And this does not spring from ignorance, for they are very intelligent, and navigate all these seas, and relate everything to us, so that it is astonishing what a good account they are able to give of everything; but they have never seen men with clothes on, nor vessels like ours.”

Such was the character of the natives whom Columbus found in the islands of the numerous Archipelago off the south coast of Cuba, and in those of St. Catharine and Hispaniola, all of which he visited in his first great voyage of discovery, and claimed as the property of his sovereigns. In these formal proclamations and in the erection of the fort, which was afterwards raised on the island of Hispaniola, the innocent natives took an active part, rendering every assistance in their power, little dreaming that these acts were the forerunners of bondage, and of that horrible system of slavery which so long prevailed in those islands, and still contaminates the soil of the largest of them all, the only one that now remains in the possession of the crown of Spain.