[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.