Indeed the main purpose of Columbus, like that of Vasco de Gama—though the former was a man of far loftier character than the latter—was to find an opulent and civilized country in the East, with whom he might establish commercial relations, carrying home gold, spices, drugs, and Oriental merchandise. He hoped, too, that he would thus have the means of establishing the Christian religion in heathen lands, and from the profits of the undertaking to rescue the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem from the power of the Infidels. Such an enterprise had been the dream of his early manhood; nor indeed was it forgotten when his own earthly pilgrimage came to a close, for by his will he directs his son to appropriate certain sums of money to that sacred cause.
Wreck of one of the vessels of the expedition.
While cruising among the islands, Columbus had the misfortune to lose one of the three vessels of his expedition. She was swept during a calm by the strong current and through the carelessness of the crew on a sandbank, where she became a total wreck. Fortunately the weather continued calm, so that the lives of the crew, as well as everything on board, were saved. All the stores, with the assistance of the natives, were carefully stowed away in huts on shore. Nor was there the slightest disposition on their part to take the smallest advantage of the strangers who had come among them. Not one article was pilfered; not a “hawk’s bell,” nor a bead—to them objects of envy and delight—was taken away; nor were the most trifling articles appropriated while removing them in their canoes from the wreck to the shore. “So loving, so tractable, so peaceable are these people,” says Columbus in his journal, “that I swear to your Majesties, there is not in the world a better nation, nor a better land. They love their neighbours as themselves.”[756] What an example the uncivilized savage here presents to the civilization of our own age, of which we so often make such vaunted boasts!
A colony established.
As most of the shipwrecked crew, besides some other persons belonging to the expedition, expressed a desire to be left behind, and as the two vessels would have been overcrowded with the three crews, their wishes suggested to Columbus the idea of constituting them the germ of a future colony. The wreck of the caravel provided abundant material for the fortress he had resolved to build. Her guns and ammunition were ready for its protection; and with his crews so reduced in number, he could spare provisions for the year, by the end of which he hoped to return. Having completed his arrangements, Columbus and the remaining caravels set sail for home on the 4th of January, 1493.
Columbus sets sail for Spain 4th Jan., 1493.
Arrives at St. Mary’s 18th Feb., and in the Tagus a few days afterwards.
After suffering severely from a storm, and a long and wearisome struggle with the trade-winds, the nature and character of which was then unknown, Columbus reached the island of St. Mary’s on the 18th of February following, where he was detained for two or three days,[757] and was afterwards obliged, through stress of weather and scarcity of provisions, to put into the Tagus.
When the tidings reached Lisbon that a Spanish barque lay anchored in the Tagus, freighted with the people and productions of a newly discovered world, the effect was electrical. For nearly a century that city had derived its chief glory from its maritime discoveries; but here was an achievement which eclipsed them all. The ship of a neighbouring and friendly, though rival, nation had, by sailing to the West, discovered the fabled land of Cathay, and had come from Zipango (Japan), and the extremity of India, laden with its treasures. Curiosity and envy combined could hardly have been more excited and aroused had Columbus brought with him the produce of another planet. For several days the once active but now lifeless though still beautiful Tagus was covered with boats and barges of every kind, all winding their way to the caravel. Visitors of every kind, from officers of the crown and cavaliers of high distinction down to the humblest of the people, thronged around the ship, eager to go on board and to see the strange human beings, plants, and animals from the new-found world, and to learn from the crew, if not from Columbus himself, the events of this remarkable voyage. Messengers came from King John with professions of congratulation on the great discovery, and an invitation to the palace, which Columbus accepted with reluctance, and only because the weather continued so stormy that he was unable to leave with his vessel for Spain. The king and the principal cavaliers of his household received him with much courtesy and pomp, though with jealous envy of his success and with many expressions of distrust and doubt.
Columbus re-enters, with his ship, the harbour of Palos 15th March.