FOOTNOTES
[1] "Inter has Italiae procellas magis indies ac magis alas protendit Hispania, imperium auget, gloriam nomenque suum ad Antipodes porriget." Peter Martyr, Opus Epist., epist. 146.
[2] See, among others, a letter of Dr. Chanca, who accompanied Columbus on his second voyage. It is addressed to the authorities of Seville. After noticing the evidences of gold in Hispaniola, he says; "Ansi que de cierto los Reyes nuestros Señores desde agora se pueden tener por los mas prosperos e mas ricos Principes del mundo, porque tal cosa hasta agora no se ha visto ni leido de ningnno en el mundo, porque verdaderamente a otro camino que los navios vuelvan puedan llevar tanta cantidad de oro que se pueden maravillar cualesquiera que lo supieren." In another part of the letter, the Doctor is equally sanguine in regard to the fruitfulness of the soil and climate. Letra de Dr. Chanca, apud Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. i. pp. 198-224.
[3] Fernando Colon, Hist. de Almirante, cap. 60, 62.—Muñoz, Hist. del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 5, sec. 25.—Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 1, lib. 2, cap. 9.—Benzoni, Novi Orbis Hist., lib. 1, cap. 9.
[4] The Indians had some grounds for relying on the efficacy of starvation, if, as Las Casas gravely asserts, "one Spaniard consumed in a single day as much as would suffice three families!" Llorente, Oeuvres de Don Barthélemi de las Casas, precedées de sa Vie, (Paris, 1822,) tom. i. p. 11.
[5] Martyr, De Rebus Oceanicis, dec. 1, lib. 4.—Goinara, Hist. de las Indias, cap. 20, tom. ii.—Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 1, lib. 2, cap. 12.
[6] Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. ii., Doc. Dipl., no. 101.— Fernando Colon, Hist. del Almirante, cap. 64.—Muñoz, Hist. del Nuevo- Mundo, lib. 5, sec. 31.
[7] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 131.—Herrera expresses the same charitable opinion. "Muy claramente se conocio que el demonio estava, apoderado de aquella gente, y la traia ciega y engañada, hablandoles, y mostrandoles en diversas figuras." Indias Occidentales, lib. 3, cap. 4.
[8] Bernaldez, Reyes Católicos, MS., cap. 131.—Muñoz, Hist. del Nuevo- Mundo, lib. 6, sec. 1.
[9] Columbus, in his letter to Prince John's nurse, dated 1500, makes the following ample acknowledgment of the queen's early protection of him. "En todos hobo incredulidad, y a la Reina mi Señora dio Nuestro Señor el espiritu de inteligencia y esfuerzo grande, y la hizo de todo heredera como a cara y muy amada hija." "Su Alteza lo aprobaba al contrario, y lo sostuvo fasta que pudo." Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. i. p. 266.
[10] See the letters to Columbus, dated May 14th, 1493, August, 1494, apud Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. ii. pp. 66, 154, et mult. al.
[11] The salaries alone, annually disbursed by the crown to persons resident in the colony, amounted to six million maravedies. Muñoz, Hist. del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 5, sec. 33.
[12] Idem, lib. 6, sec. 2.—Fernando Colon, Hist. del Almirante, cap. 64. —Herrera, Indias Occidentales, lib. 3, cap. 1.
[13] Such, for example, was the grant of an immense tract of land in Hispaniola, with the title of count or duke, as the admiral might prefer. Muñoz, Hist. del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 6, sec. 17.
[14] The instrument establishing the mayorazgo, or perpetual entail of Columbus's estates, contains an injunction, that "his heirs shall never use any other signature than that of 'the Admiral, el Almirante, whatever other titles and honors may belong to them." That title indicated his peculiar achievements, and it was an honest pride which led him by this simple expedient to perpetuate the remembrance of them in his posterity. See the original document, apud Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. ii. pp. 221-235.
[15] Muñoz, Hist. del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 6, sec. 20.—Fernando Colon, Hist. del Almirante, cap. 64.—Zuñiga, Annales de Sevilla, año 1496.
[16] Peter Martyr, De Rebus Oceanicis, dec. 1, lib. e.—Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. ii., Doc. Dipl., nos. 116, 120.—Tercer Viage de Colon, apud Navarrete, tom. i. p. 245.—Benzoni, Novi Orbis Hist., lib. 1, cap. 10, ll.—Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 1, lib. 3, cap. 10, ll.— Muñoz, Hist. del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 6, sec. 19.
[17] Gomara, Hist. de las Indias, cap. 20.—Benzoni, Novi Orbis Hist., lib. 1, cap. 10, ll.—Garibay, Compendio, tom. ii. lib. 19, cap. 7.— Fernando Colon, Hist. del Almirante, cap. 73-82.—Peter Martyr, De Rebus Oceanicis, dec. 1, lib. 5.—Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 1, lib. 3, cap. 16.—Muñoz, Hist. del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 6, sec. 40-42.
[18] Garibay, Compendio, tom. ii. lib. 19, cap. 7.—Peter Martyr, De Rebus Oceanicis, dec. 1, lib. 7.—Gomara, Hist. de las Indias, cap. 23.— Benzoni, Novi Orbis Hist., cap. 11.
Ferdinand Columbus mentions that he and his brother, who were then pages to the queen, could not stir out into the courtyard of the Alhambra, without being followed by fifty of these vagabonds, who insulted them in the grossest manner, "as the sons of the adventurer, who had led so many brave Spanish hidalgos to seek their graves in the land of vanity and delusion which he had found out." Hist. del Almirante, cap. 85.
[19] Benzoni, Novi Orbis Hist., lib. 1, cap. 12.—National feeling operated, no doubt, as well as avarice to sharpen the tooth of slander against the admiral. "Aegre multi patiuntur," says Columbus's countryman, with honest warmth, "peregrinum hominem, et quidem e nostrâ Italia ortum, tantum honoris ac gloriae consequutum, ut non tantum Hispanicae gentis, sed et cujusvis alterius homines superaverit." Benzoni, lib. 1, cap. 5.
[20] Herrera, Indias Occidentales, lib. 4, cap. 7, 10, and more especially lib. 6, cap. 13.—Las Casas, Oeuvres, ed. de Llorente, tom. i. p. 306.
[21] "La qualité de Catholique Romain," says the philosophic Villers, "avait tout-à-fait remplacé celle d'homme, et même de Chrétien. Qui n'était pas Catholique Romain, n'était pas homme, était moins qu'homme; et eût-il été un souverain, c'était une bonne action que de lui ôter la vie." (Essai sur la Réformation, p. 56. ed. 1820.) Las Casas rests the title of the Spanish crown to its American possessions on the original papal grant, made on condition of converting the natives to Christianity. The pope, as vicar of Jesns Christ, possesses plenary authority over all men for the safety of their souls. He might, therefore, in furtherance of this, confer on the Spanish sovereigns imperial supremacy over all lands discovered by them,—not, however, to the prejudice of authorities already existing there, and over such nations only as voluntarily embraced Christianity. Such is the sum of his thirty propositions, submitted to the council of the Indies for the inspection of Charles V. (Oeuvres, ed. De Llorente, tom. i. pp. 286-311.) One may see in these arbitrary and whimsical limitations, the good bishop's desire to reconcile what reason told him were the natural rights of man, with what faith prescribed as the legitimate prerogative of the pope. Few Roman Catholics at the present day will be found sturdy enough to maintain this lofty prerogative, however carefully limited. Still fewer in the sixteenth century would have challenged it. Indeed, it is but just to Las Casas, to admit, that the general scope of his arguments, here and elsewhere, is very far in advance of his age.
[22] A Spanish casuist founds the right of his nation to enslave the Indians, among other things, on their smoking tobacco, and not trimming their beards à l'Espagnole. At least, this is Montesquieu's interpretation of it. (Esprit des Loix, lib. 15, chap. 3.) The doctors of the Inquisition could hardly have found a better reason.
[23] 23 Muñoz, Hist. del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 5, sec. 34.—Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. ii., Doc. Dipl., no. 92.—Herrera, Indias Occidentales, lib. 3, cap. 4.
[24] "Among other things that the holy fathers carried out," says Robles, "was a little organ and several bells, which greatly delighted the simple people, so that from one to two thousand persons were baptized every day." (Vida de Ximenez, p. 120.)
Ferdinand Columbus remarks with some naïveté, that "the Indians were so obedient from their fear of the admiral, and at the same time so desirous to oblige him, that they voluntarily became Christians!" Hist. del Almirante, cap. 84.
[25] Herrera, Indias Occidentales, lib. 4, cap. 7.—Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. ii., Doc. Dipl., no. 134.
Las Casas observes, that "so great was the queen's indignation at the admiral's misconduct in this particular, that nothing but the consideration of his great public services saved him from immediate disgrace." Oeuvres, ed. de Llorente, tom. i. p. 306.
[26] Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. ii., Doc. Dipl., nos. 127-130. The original commission to Bobadilla was dated March 21st, and May 21st, 1499; the execution of it, however, was delayed until July, 1500, in the hope, doubtless, of obtaining such tidings from Hispaniola as should obviate the necessity of a measure so prejudicial to the admiral.
[27] Fernando Colon, Hist. del Almirante, cap. 86.—Garibay, Compendio, tom. ii. lib. 19, cap. 7.—Peter Martyr, De Rebus Oceanicis, dec. 1, lib. 7.—Gomara, Hist. de las Indias, cap. 23.—Herrera, Indias Occidentales, lib. 4, cap. 10.—Benzoni, Novi Orbis Hist., lib. 1, cap. 12.
[28] Benzoni, Novi Orbis Hist., lib. 1, cap. 12.—Herrera, Indias Occidentales, lib. 6, cap. 15.
Ferdinand Columbus tells us, that his father kept the fetters in which he was brought home, hanging up in an apartment of his house, as a perpetual memorial of national ingratitude, and, when he died, ordered them to be buried in the same grave with himself. Hist. del Almirante, cap. 86.
[29] Garibay, Compendio, tom. ii. lib. 19, cap. 7.—Peter Martyr, De Rebus Oceanicis, dec. 1, lib. 7.—Fernando Colon, Hist. del Almirante, cap. 86, 87.—Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. I, lib. 4, cap. 8-10.—Benzoni, Novi Orbis Hist., lib. 1, cap. 12.
[30] Oviedo, Hist. Gen. de las Ind., p. 1, lib. 3, cap. 6.—Las Casas, lib. 2, cap. 6, apud Navarrete, tom. i., introd., p. 99.
[31] Fernando Colon, Hist. del Almirante, cap. 86.
[32] Herrera, Indias Occidentales, dec. 1, lib. 4, cap. 11.—Fernando Colon, Hist. del Almirante, cap. 87.—Benzoni, Novi Orbis Hist., lib. 1, cap. 12.—Mem. de la Acad. de Hist., tom. vi. p. 385.
[33] Herrera, Indias Occidentales, lib. 4, cap. 11-13.—Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. ii., Doc. Dipl., nos. 138,144.—Fernando Colon, Hist. del Almirante, cap. 87.
[34] Herrera, Indias Occidentales, lib. 5, cap. 1.
[35] The high devotional feeling of Columbus led him to trace out allusions in Scripture to the various circumstances and scenes of his adventurous life. Thus he believed his great discovery announced in the Apocalypse, and in Isaiah; he identified, as I have before stated, the mines of Hispaniola with those which furnished Solomon with materials for his temple; he fancied that he had determined the actual locality of the garden of Eden in the newly discovered region of Paria. But his greatest extravagance was his project of a crusade for the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre. This he cherished from the first hour of his discovery, pressing it in the most urgent manner on the sovereigns, and making actual provision for it in his testament. This was a flight, however, beyond the spirit even of this romantic age, and probably received as little serious attention from the queen, as from her more cool and calculating husband. Peter Martyr, De Rebus Oceanicis, dec. 1, lib. 6.—Tercer, Viage de Colon, apud Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. i. p. 259.—tom. ii., Doc. Dipl., no. 140.—Herrera, Indias Occidentales, lib. 6, cap. 15.
[36] Another example was the injudicious punishment of delinquents by diminishing their regular allowance of food, a measure so obnoxious as to call for the interference of the sovereigns, who prohibited it altogether. (Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. ii., Doc. Dipl., 97.) Herrera, who must be admitted to have been in no degree insensible to the merits of Columbus, closes his account of the various accusations urged against him and his brothers, with the remark, that, "with every allowance for calumny, they must be confessed not to have governed the Castilians with the moderation that they ought to have done." Indias Occidentales, lib. 4, cap. 9.
[37] Garibay, Compendio, tom. ii. lib. 19, cap. 14.—Fernando Colon, Hist. del Almirante, cap. 88.—Herrera, Indias Occidentales, lib. 5, cap. 1.— Benzoni, Novi Orbis Hist., cap. 14.
[38] It would be going out of our way to investigate the pretensions of Amerigo Vespucci to the honor of first discovering the South American continent. The reader will find them displayed with perspicuity and candor by Mr. Irving, in his "Life of Columbus." (Appendix, No. 9.) Few will be disposed to contest the author's conclusion respecting their fallacy, though all may not have the same charity as he, in tracing its possible origin to an editorial blunder, instead of wilful fabrication on the part of Vespucci; in which light, indeed, it seems to have been regarded by the two most ancient and honest historians of the event, Las Casas and Herrera.
Mr. Irving's conclusions, however, have since been confirmed, in the fullest manner, by M. de Humboldt, in the fifth volume of his "Géographie du Nouveau Continent," published in 1839, a year after the preceding portion of this note was first printed; in which he has assembled a mass of testimony, suggesting the most favorable impressions of Vespucci's innocence of the various charges brought against him.
Since the appearance of Mr. Irving's work, Señor Navarrete has published the third volume of his "Coleccion de Viages y Descubrimientos," etc., containing, among other things, the original letters recording Vespucci's American voyages, illustrated by all the authorities and facts, that could come within the scope of his indefatigable researches. The whole weight of evidence leads irresistibly to the conviction, that Columbus is entitled to the glory of being the original discoverer of the southern continent, as well as islands, of the western hemisphere. (Coleccion de Viages, tom. iii. pp. 183-334.)
In addition to the preceding writers, the American reader will find the claims of Vespucci discussed, with much ingenuity and careful examination of authorities, by Mr. Cushing, in his "Reminiscences of Spain," vol. ii. pp. 210 et seq.
[39] Fernando Colon, Hist. del Almirante, cap. 87.—Herrera notices this letter, written, he says, "con tanta humanidad, que parecia extraordinaria de lo que usavan con otros, y no sin razon, pues jamas nadie les hizo tal servicio," Indias Occidentales, lib. 5, cap. 1.
Among other instances of the queen's personal regard for Columbus, may be noticed her receiving his two sons, Diego and Fernando, as her own pages, on the death of Prince John, in whose service they had formerly been. (Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. ii., Doc. Dipl., 125.)
By an ordinance of 1593, we find Diego Colon made contino of the royal household, with an annual salary of 50,000 maravedies. Ibid., Doc. Dipl., no. 150.
[40] Peter Martyr, De Rebus Oceanicis, dec. 1, lib. 10.—Garibay,
Compendio, tom. ii. lib. 19, cap. 14.—Fernando Colon, Hist. del
Almirante, cap. 88.—Benzoni, Novi Orbis Hist., cap. 12.—Herrera, Indias
Occidentals, lib. 5, cap. 2.