THE
Discoveries of America
TO THE YEAR 1525

BY
ARTHUR JAMES WEISE, M.A.

G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS
NEW YORK: 27 & 29 WEST 23D STREET
LONDON: 25 HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN
1884

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1883, by
ARTHUR JAMES WEISE
in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Press of
G. P. Putnam’s Sons
New York

THIS WORK IS DEDICATED
BY THE AUTHOR
TO
THE MEMORY OF
HIS DECEASED WIFE
CATHARINE V. UPDEGRAFF WEISE

PREFACE.

It is a fact that America in the early ages was one of the inhabited parts of the earth. The Egyptians, who were among the first of the peoples of the eastern hemisphere to use letters and to write history, furnish the earliest known account of the inhabitants of this continent. It is also a truth that some ancient geographers and philosophers, who had no personal knowledge of the existence of a primitive people in the western hemisphere, regarded the information recorded by the Egyptians as fictitious and incredible. When Columbus proposed to go to this inhabited realm beyond the western ocean almost all the learned men of Portugal and Spain opposed the undertaking as visionary, and not a few of them asserted that the navigator’s opinions were absurd, because, as they argued, no one of all the seamen who had lived since the creation of the world had discovered land beyond Hibernia.

The discovery of the continent and the subsequent explorations of the Spaniards not only confuted the fallacious arguments of the learned men of the middle ages but confirmed the statements of the Egyptian records descriptive of the civilization of the Atlantic country. The tradition of the peopling of the continent by the descendants of Euenor, the good man begotten in the beginning from the ground, and of the residence of celestial beings among the inhabitants peculiarly confirms the account in the Bible of the creation of the first man from the dust of the ground and of his descendants having communications with angels.

The asserted discovery of America by the Northmen rests more upon conjecture than evidence. It appears that Columbus was not the discoverer of the continent, for it was seen in 1497 not only by Giovanni Caboto but by the commander of the Spanish fleet with whom Amerigo Vespucci first sailed to the New World.

The land of Francesca, discovered by Verrazzano in 1524, it will be seen, was early possessed by the French, who built a fort near the Indian village where now is the city of New York, and called the surrounding country La Terre d’Anormée Berge; a geographical designation more significantly expressed in the phraseology, The Land of the Palisades.

The writing of this work required the personal examination of many old and rare books, manuscripts, and maps, besides the perusal of a large number of recent papers and publications relating to its subject. The task further demanded a careful review and comparison of the various statements of historical writers concerning the voyages of the persons whom they believed to have been the discoverers of certain parts of the coast of America, between Baffin’s Bay and Tierra del Fuego.

It seemed to me that some of the information contained in the different works which I had examined should be presented in the language of the writers or in faithful translations so that the intended significance of the information could be perceived by the reader. I therefore have placed these excerpta before the general reader and the critic in the belief that the citations will be appreciated. They will at least show my desire that the judgments of those who examine them should not be biased by any conclusions of my own.

My researches were for the most part made in the General Library of the State of New York, in Albany. The generous personal interest taken by the State’s distinguished librarian, Henry A. Homes, LL.D., in placing before me the large number of works which I desired to examine, was so constant and helpful that it is a great pleasure for me to mention and acknowledge his kind offices. I am also indebted to his assistant, George Rogers Howell, for many official courtesies. I also owe my thanks to George H. Moore, LL.D., the erudite superintendent of the Lenox Library, in the city of New York, to Frederick Saunders, librarian of the Astor Library, to Jacob B. Moore, librarian of the New York Historical Society, and to Leopold Lindau, librarian of the American Geographical Society. The offices of L’Abbé A. N. Ménard, vicar of the parish of St. Roch, Paris, France; of Pádre Antonio Ceriani, prefect of the Ambrosian Library, Milan, Italy; of Jules Godeby, professor of French literature in the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York; and of Dr. Titus Munson Coan, of New York City, place me under many obligations to these gentlemen. It is also a great pleasure for me to acknowledge the generous favors of E. Thompson Gale, of Troy, which permitted me to accomplish the purposes that I had in view when, eight years ago, I undertook my long-protracted task. The kind offices of my friend, William H. Young, of Troy, are also gratefully remembered.

Arthur James Weise.

Troy, N. Y., March 27, 1884.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

COPIES OF RARE MAPS.

Transcriber’s Note: Maps are clickable for larger versions.

DISCOVERIES OF AMERICA.

CHAPTER I.

The oldest scriptures, sacred and profane, attest the antiquity of the red race.[1] As early as the antediluvian period this division of the human family had taken possession of the islands and continent of the western hemisphere, where it founded an empire, the most famous and formidable of primeval times. Great in political power, its commercial, agricultural, and other economical interests were commensurably vast and unparalleled. The skill of its architects and engineers was exhibited in large and imposing edifices and in extraordinary and extensive public works. Aggressively belligerent, its armies overran parts of Europe and Africa, exacting tribute, deposing and substituting rulers.

When the Spaniards, in the sixteenth century, began to explore the interior of the continent of America for gold, silver, and precious stones, they found populated provinces, great cities, temples, palaces, aqueducts, canals, bridges, and causeways. The astonished adventurers also discovered the vestiges of an aboriginal people, among which were many massive tablets of stone covered with columns of strange hieroglyphics and antique images, picturing a past civilization for the rise and growth of which modern archæologists have not yet satisfactorily determined dates.

In the early ages of the world the Egyptians recorded whatever they deemed important and worthy of preservation concerning the principal inhabitants of the globe. These inquisitive chroniclers of antediluvian traditions placed in their archives some remarkable information respecting the original people of the western hemisphere. The historical value of this information is enhanced by the fact that those parts of it which seem to be the most improbable are supported by similar statements in the Bible, while the less astounding are verified by the discovery, on the continent of the so-called New World, of such remains as those which are said to have existed in the country west of the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea.

About five hundred and seventy years before the Christian era, Solon, the celebrated legislator of Greece, visited Egypt, and while there became acquainted with some of the erudite priests of the country.[2] When the latter communicated to him what they had learned from the records concerning the ancient peoples of the earth, the sage of Greece was so deeply impressed with the unquestionable value of this strange information that he committed it to writing, intending to use it in an historical poem which he had undertaken to compose.[3] On his return to Athens he was not permitted the leisure that was needed to complete his agreeable task.[4] After his death, the compilations he had made in Egypt were, for a long time, preserved by his descendants, and at last became the property of Plato, the Greek philosopher.[5] The latter, when a boy, had studiously perused his eminent ancestor’s manuscript, and when he had reached the last years of his scholarly life he could not disengage his thoughts from the conviction that it was his personal duty to publish its rare information.[6] In order, therefore, to give publicity to Solon’s valuable compilations, Plato, a short time before his own death, wrote that part of the unfinished dialogue entitled “Critias, or the Atlantic,” in which appears the earliest known account of the ancient people of the western hemisphere.[7]

“When Solon interrogated the priests, who were the most distinguished for their antiquarian knowledge, he became aware that neither he nor any of the Greeks knew much concerning the history of the first ages of the world. On one occasion, for the purpose of inducing the priests to relate some of their ancient traditions he began to narrate the early history of his own country.... Thereupon one of the eldest priests exclaimed: ‘Solon, Solon, you Greeks are but children, and an aged Greek there is none!’ Solon, hearing this, asked, ‘What do you mean?’ The priest replied: ‘You are all youths in intelligence, for you have no old beliefs transmitted by tradition, nor any science hoary with age.... From the olden time we have chronicled whatever has happened in your country or in ours, or in any other region known to us,—any action, noble or great or in any other way remarkable,—and these records are preserved in our temples, whereas you and other nations have but lately been provided with letters and different things required by states....

“‘Many and great exploits of your state, therefore, are here recorded, and call forth our admiration; nevertheless, there is one in particular, which in magnitude and heroism surpasses them all. For these records relate that your state once checked the advance of a mighty force which threatened all Europe and Asia, moving upon them from the Atlantic Ocean. For at that time this ocean was navigable; and beyond the strait [that of Gibraltar], which you in your language call the Pillars of Hercules, was an island larger than Libya [Africa] and Asia put together.[8] At that time sea-faring men could pass from it to the other islands, and from them to the opposite continent, which extended along the real ocean. For the sea [the Mediterranean] inside the strait, which we have already mentioned, is like a bay with a narrow entrance, but the other sea is rightly called an ocean, and the land, which entirely surrounds it, may truly and correctly be called a continent. In this large Atlantic island a mighty and wonderful confederacy of kings was formed, which subdued the whole island and many other islands and parts of the continent. Besides this it extended its rule, on our side, over Libya as far as Egypt, and over Europe as far as Tyrrhenia.[9] At that time the united forces of this power undertook to crush at one blow both your country and ours, and all the other countries lying within the strait.’”[10]

“‘In the beginning the gods divided the whole earth, here and there, into large and small portions, that they might obtain temples and sacrifices. In this way Poseidon received as his portion the Atlantic island, and begat children by a mortal woman (ἐκ θνητῆς γυναικὸς), and placed them on a part of the island which we are about to describe.’”[11]

Incredible as this information concerning the residence of a person possessing a divine nature on the earth and his matrimonial relationship with a woman seems to be, there are some remarkable statements in the traditions of the ancients respecting celestial beings dwelling among men, and, by marriage with their daughters, being the progenitors of an illustrious offspring. The Hebrew patriarchs, it is said, had personal communications with angels, at different times and places. It is related that three, in human form, partook of food given them by Abraham, under a tree, in the plain of Mamre.[12] Herodotus was told, by certain Egyptians, that “gods had been the rulers of Egypt and had dwelt among men; and that one of them always had the supreme power.”[13] Moses, “who was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians,” describing the people of the antediluvian world, writes:

“It happened, as men began to multiply on the face of the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of the Elohim (‎‏בני האלהים‏‎) [literally, the sons of the eminent or mighty ones] saw the daughters of man (‎‏בנות האדם‏‎) that they were fair; then they took for wives among them all whom they loved.... There were giants (‎‏נפלים‏‎) on the earth in those days, and also after that the sons of the Elohim went in unto the daughters of man and they bare children to them, the same became heroes (‎‏גברים‏‎) who were of old, men of name (‎‏אנשי שם‏‎).”[14]

“‘Toward the sea, in the middle of the island, was a plain,’ the priest continued, ‘which was very attractive and fertile. About fifty stadia from the centre of the plain was a mountain with sloping sides.[15] On this dwelt one of those men begotten from the ground in the beginning (κατὰ ἀρχὰς ἐκ γῆς ἀνδρῶν γεγονότων), Euenor by name.[16] He lived there, with his wife, Leucippe. They had an only daughter named Cleito. When this girl reached womanhood, her father and mother being dead, Poseidon fell in love with her and made her his wife. He encircled the hill on which she lived with alternate girdles of land and water, greater and less, making two of land and three of water, each uniformly distant from the centre of the island, in order to render her habitation inaccessible to men, for at that time ships and sea-faring were unknown. Also by his divine power he beautifully adorned the centre of the island, causing two fountains to shoot upward from beneath the earth, one of cold and the other of hot water, and making all kinds of food to grow abundantly on the earth. He begat and raised ten male children, twins, and divided the Atlantic island into ten parts. He gave to the first-born of the eldest twins, his mother’s habitation and the land surrounding it, this being the largest and the best. He appointed him king over the other children, making the latter princes, and giving to each the control of many people and extensive domains. He likewise gave names to all of his offspring; to the eldest, the king, the name of Atlas, in honor of whom both the island and the ocean were called Atlantic.[17] To the twin born after him (who received for his portion the extreme part of the island toward the Pillars of Hercules as far as the region now called in that country Gadeirica), he gave the appellation, which we Greeks call Eumelus, but the people of that country Gadeira.[18] He called the first of the second-born twins, Ampheres, the second Eudæmon; of the third pair, he called the first-born Mnesis, and the second, Autochthon; of the fourth pair, the first Elasippus, and the younger Mestor; and of the fifth pair, to the first was given the name of Azaës, and to the last, Diaprepes.

“‘For many generations these and their descendants were the rulers and the inhabitants of the islands in the ocean, and, as it has been said, they extended their authority over all the country as far as Egypt and Tyrrhenia. By far the most distinguished was the race of Atlas; and the eldest king belonging to it always handed down in succession the government to his eldest son. All these kings in turn possessed immense wealth, such as was never known to belong to royalty or will be likely hereafter. They were provided with all things which, in a city or elsewhere, are worth having. Large revenues were received by them from foreign countries under their rule, but the greatest resources came from the island. First were such ores as are dug in mines in a crude condition, or need to be smelted, particularly the metal orichalcum,[19] which is now known only by name, but formerly was of great value. This was dug from the earth in many parts of the island, being prized above all the metals then known, except gold. The island also produced an abundance of wood for building purposes, and furnished food for wild and tame animals. Vast numbers of elephants were on the island, for there was abundant subsistence for all animals which feed in marshes and along lakes, on mountains and plains, and likewise for this animal, which by nature is the largest and most voracious of all.[20] And whatever fragrant plants the earth produces, whether roots, or grasses, or woods, or exuding gums, or flowers, or fruits, grew there and were developed to perfection. The island besides produced such cultivated fruits and dry edible fruits as we use for food and call vegetables; also the fruits which trees bear and are used for drinks, meats, and ointments; and those also which have a hard shell, used in sport and pleasure, that are collected with trouble, together with dainty fruits for dessert, which provoke the appetite or please the sick;—all these that once-existing and tropic island, sacred and delightful, produced in surprising and infinite quantities. Obtaining all these from the soil, the inhabitants employed themselves in building temples, royal palaces, harbors, and wharves in all parts of the country, constructing them as follows:

“‘First of all, the people residing in and about that ancient metropolis bridged over those girdles of water, making a causeway to and from the royal palace. In this place, which had been the residence of the gods and their ancestors, they, at the beginning, erected the palace; and each [king] in turn, receiving it from his predecessor, and further embellishing the ornamental parts, continually surpassed the one before him, until they made the building very attractive to the sight, on account of its size and the beauty of its elaborations. They dug a canal, beginning at the sea, three plethra[21] broad, a hundred feet deep, and fifty stadia in length, to the outermost girdle, and thus made a channel to it from the sea as into a harbor, by enlarging its mouth sufficiently to admit the largest vessels. Besides this, they separated by aqueducts the girdles of land which separated those of water, so that a trireme[22] could be taken from one girdle of water to another, arching the girdles of land to allow a water-way beneath them; for the banks of the girdles of land rose to a height considerably above the water. And the greatest of these girdles into which the sea flowed was three stadia in width, and the girdle of land next to it was of the same width. The second girdle of water was two stadia in width and the second girdle of land the same. The last girdle of water, environing the centre of the island, was only one stadium wide, and the island, on which the king’s palace stood, had a diameter of five stadia. This island, as well as the girdles of land, and the bridge (which was a plethron in width), they inclosed on the sides with stone walls, erecting towers and gates at intervals on the aqueducts where the water passed through [the girdles of land]. The stone for the walls they quarried within the limits of the island, both in the centre, and inside and outside the girdles; one kind of it was white, a second black, a third red; and by thus quarrying they made at the same time openings which served for two docks, having likewise a covering of rock. Of the buildings, some were of plain structure, while others they built of a composite style of architecture, using the different kinds of stone as pleased them most, thus realizing a pleasure becoming their natures. And they covered the whole circuit of the wall round the extreme outer girdle with bronze, applying it as they would plaster. The next wall inside of it they covered with melted tin, and the wall round the citadel with orichalcum that has a fiery resplendence.

“‘Further, the royal palace within the citadel was constructed in the following manner: In the centre of it a temple was erected, difficult of access, sacred to Cleito and Poseidon, surrounded by an inclosure of gold; for on this spot they begat and raised the race of the ten kings, and where also their descendants, making annual collections from all the ten allotments, offered seasonable sacrifices to each one.

“‘The temple of Poseidon was a stadium in length, three plethra in breadth, and of a proportionate height, having a somewhat barbaric appearance. All the outside of the temple, except the pinnacles, they lined with silver, but the pinnacles they covered with gold. Respecting the interior, the ceiling was wholly of ivory, variegated with gold and orichalcum, and all the other parts, the walls, the pillars, and the pavements, they covered with orichalcum. They also placed in the temple golden statues. The one of the god stood in a chariot driving with reins six-winged horses. It was of such size that the head of the god touched the ceiling, and surrounding the statue were a hundred nereids on dolphins; for the people of that day thought that this was their number. The temple also contained many other statues dedicated to private persons. On the outside of the temple golden images were also placed of all the men and women that were descended from the ten kings, and many other large statues, both of kings and of private people, both from the metropolis and from the foreign countries over which the kings had dominion. There was also an altar, in size and elaboration corresponding to these ornaments; and there were palaces also whose grandeur was in keeping with the greatness of the empire and also with the splendor of the temple.

“‘They had fountains from cold and hot springs of which there were many, the water being suited in every way to their use on account of its sweetness and purity. Around these springs they made their residences and well-watered plantations, together with their reservoirs, some open to the heavens, but the others, for use in winter, roofed over for warm baths. The kings’ bathing-houses and those of private persons were separated, as well as those of the women. There were others for horses and other draught cattle, each provided with the requisite means of cleanliness. The stream flowing from these they conducted to the grove of Poseidon, where there were all kinds of trees reaching a wonderful height on account of the fertility of the soil, and then led it away by aqueducts to the outer girdles of water. There they also erected a large number of temples, dedicated to many different gods, and many gardens and gymnasia, one for men, and others separately for horses, on the two girdles of land. To test the speed of the horses there was a race-course in the middle of the largest girdle of land, a stadium in width, that extended around its entire circumference. Around it on all sides were barracks for the household troops, corresponding to their number. To the more faithful of these troops quarters were assigned on the smaller girdle of land closer to the citadel, while those who excelled all the others in loyalty had quarters given them within the citadel, near the residences of the kings. The docks were filled with triremes and the equipments for triremes; and the triremes were all adequately provided with them. These were the arrangements for the protection of the palace of the kings. On crossing the three outer harbors one found a wall which extended entirely around the island, beginning at the sea, everywhere fifty stadia distant from the greatest girdle and harbor, and inclosed the entrance to the canal and the entrance to the sea. The whole of this part of the girdle of land was covered with many and densely-built dwellings. The canal and the largest harbor were filled with vessels and traders, coming from all parts, and these, on account of their number, made a babel of voices, a commotion, and a din all through the day and the night.

“‘We have now related from memory a description of the city and its ancient habitations; now we must attempt to describe the nature of the other parts of the country and the employment of the people. First, then, the whole region was said to be exceedingly high and precipitous toward the sea, and the plain, encircling the city, surrounded by mountains sloping down to the sea, being level and smooth, extended in one direction three thousand stadia, and the central part, from the sea, more than two thousand stadia. And this part of the island extended toward the south, in an opposite direction from the north. The mountains around it were, at that time, also celebrated, exceeding in number, size, and attractiveness all those of the present day; having on them many hamlets together with villages, as well as rivers, lakes, and marshes, furnishing ample supplies of food for all cattle, both tame and wild; with timber of different kinds and in great quantity for every special purpose. The plain, by nature, being as described, was improved in the following way by many kings through a long course of time: It was almost square in extent, generally straight and oblong, and where it terminated they bounded it by digging a canal around it. Concerning the depth, breadth, and length of which for a public work, besides other concomitant undertakings, we can scarcely believe what was said, still we must tell what we learned. The canal was excavated to the depth of a plethrum, and the breadth was a stadium in every part, the entire excavation round the plain being ten thousand stadia in length. This canal, receiving the water of the streams coming from the mountains, conducted it all around the plain and near to the city, and finally to the sea. From above, likewise, straight canals were cut about a hundred feet broad along the plain, back into the canal near the sea; distant from one another about one hundred stadia; and it was by these canals that timber from the mountains was brought to the city, and on which the rest of the shipping trade was done; transverse canals of communication being cut into the others and toward the city. Their harvest they gathered twice in a year; in winter availing themselves of the rains, and in summer irrigating the land from the canals.

“‘It was ordered for the men on the plain fit for military service that each individual leader should have an allotment of land; each allotment amounting in extent to a hundred stadia; the whole number of allotments being sixty thousand. It is said that many men from the mountains and other parts of the country were assigned, according to their dwellings and villages, certain tracts by their respective leaders. Each leader was required to furnish for war the sixth part of a war-chariot (to make the number of ten thousand), two riding horses, and a two-horse chariot without a driver’s seat, having a mounted charioteer to guide the horses, with another rider to dismount and fight at the side of them; also two heavy-armed men, two archers, two slingers, three light-armed soldiers, the same number of stone-shooters and javelin-men, besides four seamen to make up the crews of one thousand two hundred vessels. Thus were the military affairs of this city arranged. Respecting those of the nine other allotments, there were different regulations, which it would be too tedious to narrate.

“‘The following were the systems of official services and honors: Each of the ten kings ruled supreme over the people and the laws in his own allotment and over his own city, constraining and punishing whom he pleased.[23] As the law was handed down to them, the government and commonwealth in each allotment were regulated by the injunctions of Poseidon. Inscriptions [of this law] were made by the first [kings] on a column of orichalcum which was placed in the centre of the island, in the temple of Poseidon, where the kings consulted together every fifth year, (which they afterward changed to every sixth year,) each king representing at these meetings the entire kingdom and its subdivisions. The kings, when they were assembled, deliberated on matters respecting the common weal, and inquired what transgressions each had committed, and each respectively rendered his decision. Before they sat in judgment they gave one another pledges, according to the following custom: The ten, when they were assembled in the temple, after invoking the god to receive their sacrifice propitiously, went swordless, with staves and nooses, among the bulls grazing within the temple inclosure, and the bull they took they brought to the column and slaughtered it, the head of the bull being under the inscriptions. Besides the laws on the column, there was a malediction written containing denunciations of evil on the disobedient. When, therefore, in compliance with their laws, they sacrificed and burned all the limbs of the bull, they filled a goblet with the blood of the animal, and threw the remainder into the fire, in order to purify the column. Afterward dipping from the goblet with golden cups, they poured libations of blood on the fire, and swore to do justice according to the laws on the column, to punish any one who had previously transgressed them, besides swearing that they themselves would never afterward willingly transgress the inscribed laws, or rule or obey any ruler governing otherwise than according to his father’s laws. Then after invoking these denunciations on themselves and their descendants, and after drinking from the cup and depositing it in the temple of the god, and sitting the necessary time at supper, they, as soon as it was dark and the fire of the sacrifice had ceased to burn, dressed themselves in beautiful dark-blue robes, and sat down on the ground, near the embers of the sacrifice, over which they had sworn. All the fire in the temple having been extinguished for the night, they then mutually judged one another respecting any accusation of transgressing the laws. After their acts of judgment were ended, and daylight had come, they inscribed their decisions on a golden tablet and deposited it and their dresses in the temple as memorials. There were also many other special laws respecting the privileges of the kings. The principal ones were that they should never wage war upon one another, that all should lend their aid when any attempt was made in their cities to destroy the royal race, that they should consult together as their ancestors had done respecting the right course to be pursued in war and in other matters, and that they should allot the government of the empire to the Atlantic race. They did not allow the king, however, any authority to put to death any of his kinsmen, unless the execution was approved by more than five of the ten.’”[24]

The priest also related that it was “about nine thousand years ago that war was proclaimed between those dwelling outside the Pillars of Hercules and all those within them.”[25] Athens “was the leader of the latter people and directed the operations of the war, and the kings of the Atlantic island were the commanders of the forces of the former.”[26]

“‘But in a later age,’ said the priest, ‘by extraordinary earthquakes and deluges, bringing destruction in a single day and night, the whole of your formidable race was at once sunk under the earth, and the Atlantic island in like manner plunged beneath the sea and concealed from view; therefore that sea is, at present, neither passable nor to be traced out, being blocked up with a great depth of mud made by the sunken island.’”[27]

The history of the Atlantic people as it was known to the ancient Egyptians ends with this catastrophe. The inference of the priest that the mud of the submerged island made the Atlantic impassable is seemingly an assertion without any basis of fact. Had he said that the submergence of some of the islands west of the Pillars of Hercules obliterated the marked sea-path between the continents of the two hemispheres, this statement would have strictly accorded with what he had said before, that “sea-faring men, at that time, could pass from it [the Atlantic island] to the other islands, and from them to the opposite continent.”[28] The disappearance of the islands, in sight of which seamen had steered their galleys, at once isolated the peoples of the two hemispheres. Thus it happened, in the course of centuries, that the aborigines of America passed out of the recollection of the inhabitants of the so-called Old World as an early-known people.

The writer of the first book of the Bible relates that when “Yahveh saw the wickedness of man was great upon the earth and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart only evil continually, ... it repented him of having made man on the earth, and he was grieved in his heart. And Yahveh said, ‘I will exterminate man whom I have created from the surface of the ground.’”[29] The information contained in these words of the learned Hebrew so closely correspond to that imparted to Solon by the Egyptian priest concerning the subsequent degeneracy of the primitive people of the earth, that it would seem as if it had been derived from the same source. “‘For many generations,’ said the priest, ‘so long as the god-nature continued in them, they remained obedient to the laws and were happily influenced by it. But when the divine nature became extinct by the dominance and constant ascendency of the human, and the habits of men overpowered them, ... they deported themselves in an unbecoming way.... Therefore, Zeus, the god of gods, who rules justly and searches out such things, perceiving an illustrious people miserably depraved, and intending to inflict punishment on them that they might become better fitted to command their appetites and passions, collected all the gods into their own most holy habitation, which, being in the centre of the universe, commands a view of all things having a part in generation; and having assembled them, he said....’”[30]

An inscription on the interior walls of the tomb of Seti I. of Egypt contains a statement concerning a council of the gods held to consider what punishment should be visited upon the depraved descendants of the god Râ, which is similar to the declaration of the last clause of Plato’s unfinished dialogue.[31] Lenormant, commenting upon the information contained in the inscription, remarks:

“The Egyptians admitted a destruction of the primitive men by the gods on account of their rebellion and sins. This event was recorded in a chapter of the sacred books of Tahout,—certain hermetic books of the Egyptian priesthood,—that had been graven on the walls of one of the most isolated rooms of the burial crypts of King Seti I., at Thebes. The text of it has been published and translated by Edward Naville.[32]

“The scene is placed at the end of the reign of the god Râ.... Incensed by the wickedness and the crimes of the men whom he had begotten, the god summons the other gods to consult with them in the utmost secrecy, ‘in order that mankind might not know it, and that their hearts might not be dismayed.’

“Said Râ to Noun: ‘Thou, the eldest of the gods, of whom I am sprung, and you, ancient gods, behold the men who have been begotten by me. They speak words against me. Tell me what you would do in this crisis. Behold, I have waited, and I have not destroyed them before having heard your counsel.’”[33]

Singular as the fact may seem, the state, polity, and genius of the people of the western hemisphere described in the records of Egypt reappear in the strange features of the civilization of Mexico, and in the vestiges of its aborigines, which amazed the Spaniards who accompanied Hernando Cortes into the interior of the country, in the early part of the sixteenth century. The remarkable accounts given by Bernal Diaz and other contemporary writers respecting the people, the kings, the cities, the palaces, the temples, and the public works seen by the Spanish invaders, verify, in many ways, the declarations of the Egyptian priests concerning the Atlantic race.[34]

For centuries after the disappearance of the islands lying in the ocean west of the Pillars of Hercules, the wide expanse of water, dashing its foaming surges on the shores of the continents of the two hemispheres, was not only unexplored but was deemed impassable. Superstition filled its misty distances with frightful chimeras and geographical absurdities. About the beginning of the Middle Ages the vikings of Northern Europe were venturing across the North Sea in their single-masted, many-oared galleys. Until this time the superstitious seamen of Scandinavia had not attempted to sail beyond the sight of land to any great distance. Their first lessons in navigating the narrow expanse of the North Sea were taken when their boats were unexpectedly carried away from the rugged coast of Norway by tempestuous winds to the Hetland[35] and Fer öe[36] (Far islands). Whatever fears of permanent exile on these unexplored islands may at first have alarmed the deported Northmen, these were dispelled by the cheering suggestion that when the wind blew from the west they could return to their own country. As soon as the wind blew eastwardly they put to sea. Using their sails and oars they safely reached the western shore of Scandinavia. Frequent experiences of this kind in time emboldened the Norwegian seamen to undertake voyages to the westward islands in search of booty. Having no compass to guide their galleys thither, they carried with them hawks or ravens, and when uncertain respecting the course of their vessels, they let loose a cast of these birds, which instinctively flew to the nearest land. Thitherward they steered, and finding that it was their destination or not, they secured whatever plunder they could and departed. Not unfrequently the vessels of the Norse sea-kings were lost in storms on the wild waters of the Atlantic, or wrecked on the inhospitable shores of remote islands. It is said that Naddoddr, a Norwegian pirate, was drifted in his ship by an adverse wind, in 860, to Iceland, which he called Sneeland (Snowland).[37] It is also related that when the famous viking, Floki, was lost in his vessel in stormy weather, between the islands of Faroe and Sneeland, in 865, he let fly three ravens, one of which flew back to the Faroe islands, the second returned to the ship, and the third winged its way toward the more northerly island which the perplexed Northman was seeking. This sturdy seaman described the new country as volcanic and sterile, glacial and cold, and appropriately called it Island (Iceland). His companions, however, reported that they had found it to have a delightful climate and a fertile soil. One, wishing to describe its general fruitfulness in a more attractive way, averred that “milk dropped from every plant and butter from every twig.”[38] In a short time a course to Iceland was marked out by the early rovers of the North Sea, who, before the close of the ninth century, planted a colony on the bleak coast of this icy island, the most westerly land hitherto discovered by the fearless seamen of Scandinavia.[39]

SIGURDI STEPHANII TERRARUM HYPERBOREARUM DELINEATIO, ANNO 1570.

Delineation of the Hyperborean Regions, by Sigurd Stephanus in the year 1570. (Size of the original, 6¾ inches square.)

But Iceland did not long remain the most remote part of the western world known to the people of Europe. Gunnbjörn, a Norwegian, driven westward in his ship beyond Iceland, in a storm, in 876, descried land looming up along the western horizon. In the latter part of the tenth century, Eric the Red, whom the public assembly of Iceland had declared an outlaw, determined to go in search of the land seen by Gunnbjörn. He sailed from Iceland about the year 981, and came in sight of the coast of Greenland, at a place called Midjökul.[40] He then steered southward to see whether the country were habitable. He passed the first winter near the middle of the site of the eastern settlement (eystri bygd).[41] In the following summer he reached the western uninhabited region (vestri ubygd),[42] and gave names to many places. As soon as the ice disappeared, at the close of the second winter, and the sea was again navigable, he returned to Iceland, and called the country which he had explored Graenland (Greenland), “because” he said, “people will be influenced to immigrate to it, if the land bears an attractive name.” Among those whom Eric induced to return with him as colonists to Greenland was a Norwegian, named Herjulf. Thirty-five ships (skipa) filled with emigrants set sail from Iceland for the newly explored country, but only fourteen of the vessels reached the places where the colonists were to dwell. Eric the Red settled at Brattahlid, and Herjulf erected his house on a cape called Herjulfsnes (Herjulf’s nose, or promontory).[43] “This was fifteen winters before Christianity was established by law in Iceland.”[44]

Among the traditions preserved of the voyages of the Northmen in the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries, there are several that have caused considerable controversy respecting the historical and geographical value of the information contained in them; for a number of eminent writers have made use of this information to show that the Northmen were the first discoverers of America and the explorers of a large part of the eastern coast of the continent.[45] Although these sagas or legends of Iceland were unrecorded for several centuries, the manuscripts which now contain them are assumed to have been written in a manner so precise that translations of their text are presented to prove that the Norse vikings not only made frequent voyages to America, but that they have left definite and reliable information respecting the parts of the coast visited by them. Other distinguished writers consider these traditions as too mythical and vague to be deemed valuable, either historically or geographically, and argue that what is thought to describe the physical features and productions of parts of the present territory of the eastern coast of the United States describes the topography and fruits of Greenland. A brief narration of the most important particulars of the voyages of several of the Northmen who have been regarded, as the first discoverers of parts of the continent of America, will suffice to show the grounds upon which rest many of the arguments that have been advanced to support the opinion that these persons had landed upon its shores and explored a great extent of its Atlantic coast.

It is said in the saga of Eric the Red and of the Greenlanders,[46] that when Herjulf sailed, in the spring of 985, from Iceland to Greenland, his son Bjarni was in Norway. When the latter, in the following summer returned to Iceland, and learned that his father had emigrated to the country recently explored by Eric the Red, he determined to sail to it and pass the winter with his father, as had been his custom for many years. He evidently had some misgivings respecting the success of the contemplated voyage, for he said to his companions: “Our going there will be devoid of common-sense, since not one of us has traversed the Greenland Sea.” “Nevertheless,” as the tradition runs, “as soon as they had fitted for the voyage, they intrusted themselves to the ocean, and made sail three days, until the land passed out of their sight from the water. But then the bearing winds ceased to blow, and northern breezes and a fog succeeded. Then they were drifted about for many days and nights, not knowing whither they tended. After this the light of the sun was seen, and they were able to survey the regions of the sky. Now they carried sail, and steered this day before they beheld land.” They sailed near to it, and “soon saw that the country was not mountainous, but covered with trees and diversified with little hills. They left the land on their larboard side, and let the stern turn from the shore. Then they sailed two days before they saw another land [or region].... They then approached it, and saw that it was level and covered with trees. Then, the favorable wind having ceased blowing, the sailors said that it seemed to them that it would be well to land there, but Bjarni was unwilling to do so.... He bade them make sail, which was done. They turned the prow from the land, and sailed out into the open sea, where for three days they had a favorable south-southwest wind. They saw a third land [or region], but it was high and mountainous and covered with glaciers.... They did not lower sail, but holding their course along the shore, they found it to be an island. Again they turned the stern against the land, and made sail for the high sea, having the same wind, which gradually increasing, Bjarni ordered the sails to be shortened, forbidding the use of more canvas than the ship and her outfit could conveniently bear. Thus they sailed for four days, when they saw a fourth land” [or region], which was Greenland, where Bjarni found his father.[47]

Bjarni’s discoveries, it is said, were often the subject of conversation among the Northmen. It is further related that Leif, the son of Eric the Red, purchased Bjarni’s ship and set sail in it with thirty-five men from Brattahlid about the year 1000 to seek new lands. Nothing is told in the tradition concerning the direction in which these Northmen sailed, only that “they first came to the land [or region] last seen by Bjarni. They steered toward the shore, cast anchor, put out the boat, and went on land, where they saw no herbage. The whole country was filled with high icy mountains, and from the sea all the way to the icy mountains was a plain of flat stones.” Leif called the region Helluland.[48]

When Leif and his companions departed from Helluland, it is related that they “put out to sea and found another land [or region]. This was a level country and covered with trees.” Leif named it Markland.[49]

FIELD OF VOYAGES TO AMERICA.

ON MERCATOR’S PROJECTION.

As related in the saga, when they departed from Markland, “they sailed on the high sea, having a northeast wind, and were two days at sea before they saw land. They steered toward it and touched the island lying before the north part of the land. When they went on land they surveyed it, for by good fortune the weather was serene. They found the grass sprinkled with dew, and it happened by chance that they touched the dew with their hands and carried them to their mouths and perceived that it had a sweet taste which they had not before noticed. Then they returned to the ship and sailed through a bay lying between the island and a tongue of land running toward the north. Steering a course to the west shore, they passed the tongue of land. Here when the tide ebbed there were very narrow shoals. When the ship got aground there were shallows of great extent between the vessel and the receded sea. So great was the desire of the men to go on land that they were unwilling to stay on board until the returning tide floated the ship. They went ashore at a place where a river flowed out from a lake. When the tide floated the ship, they took the boat and rowed to the vessel and brought her into the river and then into the lake. Here they anchored, carried the luggage from the ship, and built dwellings. Afterward they held a consultation and resolved to remain at this place during the winter. Then they erected large buildings. There were not only many salmon in the river but also in the lake and of a larger size than they had before seen. So great was the fertility of the soil that they were led to believe that cattle would not be in want of food during winter, or that wintry coldness would prevail, or the grass wither much.”

While the Northmen were passing the winter on the shore of the unnamed lake, it happened one evening that a Southern man, named Tyrker, did not return with those who had been out exploring the country. Those who went to search for the absent man met him returning to the quarters. They were surprised when he told them that he had found wine-wood and wine-berries (vinvid ok vinber). “Is this true, my teacher?” asked Leif. “It is really true,” Tyrker replied, “for where I was brought up there was not wanting either wine-wood or wine-berries.” They passed this night in sleep, but on the following morning Leif said to the men: “Two things are now to be done on alternate days, gathering wine-berries or hewing wine-wood and felling trees, (lesa vinber, edr höggva vinvid ok fella mörkina,) with which my ships should be loaded.” Having loaded the ship and the spring approaching they prepared to depart. To designate the productions of the region, Leif called it Vinland (Wine-land). They then put to sea and had a favorable wind until they came in sight of Greenland.[50]

As a number of writers have assumed that the region of Vinland, where Leif and his companions wintered, was the country adjacent Mount Hope Bay, in Rhode Island, the following description of a part of the east coast of Greenland, given by Captain W. A. Graah, who was sent there, in 1828, by the Danish government to obtain information respecting the site of the eastern settlement (eystri bygd), will likely afford grounds for a more plausible conjecture that Vinland was a region in Greenland: “August 30 [1829].—The place we now were at was the Ekallumiut [between the sixty-third and sixty-fourth parallel of north latitude], so often mentioned. The cove, the length of which is between one and two cable-lengths, has on both sides of it, but particularly on the eastern, fields of considerable extent, covered with dwarf-willows, juniper-berry, black crake-berry, and whortleberry heath, the first-named growing to the height of two feet, and the whole interspersed with a good many patches of a fine species of grass, which, however, was very much burnt by the heat of the sun, except in the immediate vicinity of the brooks and rivulets that, in great number, ran down the sides of the hills, and intersected the level land in every direction. At the the bottom of the cove stretches an extensive valley, through which runs a stream abounding in char, of which several gigantic arms reach down into the valley from the height in the background. On the banks of this brook the grass grew luxuriantly; but it was far from being, at many places, of a height fit for mowing, so that even this spot, where grass was more abundant than anywhere else perhaps along the whole coast, does not seem calculated to furnish winter fodder for any considerable number of cattle. Various flowers, among which the sweet-smelling lychnis, everywhere adorned the fields.... At this really beautiful spot, the natives of the country round assemble for a few days during their brief summer, to feast upon the char that are to be got here in great plenty and of a great size, the black crake-berry and angelica, and to lay in a stock of them for winter use, and give themselves up to mirth and merry-making.”[51]

It is further related, in the saga, concerning Vinland, that “the days are more equal there than in Greenland or Iceland; there the sun sets at eykt time (eyktar-stad, 3:30 P.M.), and rises at day-meal time (dagmála-stad, breakfast-time), on the shortest day.”[52]

As there is no reliable information to indicate that the Northmen of the tenth century had any instruments by which they could accurately measure the changing spaces of day and night, or that their observations of the sun gave them the knowledge of astronomical time, an attempt to elucidate the exact duration of the shortest day in Vinland from the vague signification of the words eyktar-stad and dágmála-stad would consequently be futile and unsatisfactory. Nevertheless a number of scholars have attempted to determine the length of the shortest day at the place where the Northmen built their winter-quarters. Some have given the day a measurement of six hours, others seven, eight, and nine hours.[53] These different lengths of the day involve the inference that Vinland was somewhere between the forty-first and sixty-first parallels of north latitude.

It is related in another saga or legend that Vinland was visited in the eleventh century by other Northmen.[54] Among the number were Thorfinn Karlsefne, Snorro Thorbrandson, Bjarni Grimolfson, and Thorhall Gamlason. It is said that the three ships which departed from the western settlement, in the spring of 1007, had on board one hundred and forty men (40 manna ok hundrad). After sailing two days southward from Bjanneyjar they reached Helluland. “Thence they sailed two days, and turned from the south to the southeast,” and came to Markland.

When the Northmen departed from Markland, it is said in the saga that “they then sailed far to the southward along the coast and came to a promontory. The land lay on the right and had a long sandy beach. They rowed to it and found on a tongue of land the keel of a ship. They called this point of land Kjalarnes (Keel cape), and the beach Furdustrandir (Long Strand), for it took a long time to sail by it. Then the coast became sinuous. They then steered the ship into an inlet. King Olaf Tryggvason had given Leif two Scotch people, a man named Haki and a woman named Hekja. They were swifter than animals. These persons were in the ship with Karlsefne. When they had sailed past Furdustrandir they put these Scots ashore and ordered them to run to the south of the country and explore it, and return within three days.... They were absent the designated time. When they returned, one brought a bunch of wine-berries (vinberja köngul), the other an ear of wheat (hveitiax nysaid).[55] When they were taken on board, the ship sailed farther. They came into a bay, where there was an island around which flowed rapid currents that suggested the name which they gave it, Straumey (Stream island). There were so many eider ducks on the island that one could hardly walk about without stepping on their eggs. They called this place Straumfjörd (Stream inlet). They took the cargo from the ship and made preparations to remain there. They had with them different kinds of cattle. They undertook nothing but the exploration of the land. Without having provided food beforehand they sustained themselves there during the winter. In the summer the fishing was not good and they were in want of provisions. Thorhall the hunter disappeared. They had previously prayed to God to give them food, but they were not supplied as quickly as they thought their hunger demanded. They searched for Thorhall for three days. At last they found him lying on the top of a rock, looking up at the sky, gasping and muttering. They asked him why he was there. He said that his presence there should not trouble them. They prevailed on him to return home with them. A whale was stranded there, and they found it and cut it up. No one knew what kind of a whale it was, and when the cook prepared a part of it for them, they ate it and all were made sick. Then Thorhall said: ‘The red-bearded [Thor, the god of thunder,] was more helpful than your Christ; this [the whale meat] I have received for my hymns which I sing of Thor, my protector; seldom has he deserted me.’ When they heard this assertion, they cast the remainder of the whale into the sea and resigned themselves to the care of God. Then the weather favored them so that they were able to row out to fish, and thereafter they were not in want of food, for wild game was caught on land and fish in the sea, and eggs were collected on the island....

“It is said that Thorhall resolved to go northward along Furdustrandir to explore Vinland, but Karlsefne determined to sail southward along the coast. Thorhall fitted out his vessel under the island, having not more than nine men to join him, for all the others went with Karlsefne. Now when Thorhall carried water to his ship, he sang these verses:

‘People told me when I came

Hither, all would be so fine;

The good Vinland, known to fame,

Rich in fruits and choicest wine;

Now the water-pail they send;

To the fountain I must bend,

Nor from out this land divine

Have I quaffed one drop of wine.’

“When they were about to depart and had hoisted sail, Thorhall again sang:

‘Let our trusty band

Haste to Fatherland;

Let our vessel brave

Plough the angry wave,

While those few who love

Vinland, here may rove,

Or, with idle toil,

Fetid whales may boil,

Here on Furdustrand,

Far from Fatherland.’ ...

“It is now to be told of Karlsefne that he with Snorro and Bjarni and their people sailed southward along the coast. They sailed a long time until they came to a river, which ran out from the land and through a lake into the sea. The river was quite shallow, and no ship could enter it without high water. Karlsefne sailed with his people into its mouth and called the place Hóp (ok kölludu i Hópi).[56] They found fields of wild wheat (sjálfsana hveitiakra) where the ground was low, and wine-wood where it was higher.... There was a great number of all kinds of wild animals in the woods. They remained at this place a half-month and enjoyed themselves, but did not find any thing novel. They had their cattle with them. Early one morning, when they were viewing the country, they saw a great number of skin boats on the sea.... The people in them rowed nearer and with curiosity gazed at them.... These people were swart (svartir) and ugly, and had coarse hair, large eyes, and broad cheeks. They remained a short time and watched Karlsefne’s people. They then rowed away to the southward beyond the cape.

“Karlsefne and his people had erected their dwellings above the lake. Some of the houses were near the water and others were farther away. They remained here during the winter.[57] There was no snow, and their cattle subsisted on the grass.”

It is further related that when spring drew near the natives again visited the Northmen and trafficked with them. “The people preferred red cloth, and for this they gave skins and all kinds of furs. They also wanted to purchase swords and spears, but Karlsefne and Snorro would not sell them any weapons. For a whole skin the Skraelings (Skraelingar) took a piece of red cloth a span long, and bound it around their heads.”[58] In this way they bartered for a time. Then the cloth began to diminish, and Karlsefne and his men cut it into small strips not wider than one’s finger, and still the Skraelings gave as much for these as they had for the larger pieces, and often more. “It happened that a bull, which Karlsefne had with him, ran out from the wood and bellowed loudly. This frightened the Skraelings so much that they rushed to their boats and rowed away to the southward around the coast.”

Three weeks afterward a large number of Skraelings returned in their boats uttering loud cries. “Karlsefne’s men took a red shield and held it toward them. The Skraelings leaped from their boats and attacked them. Many missiles fell among them, for the Skraelings used slings (valslöngur). Karlsefne’s men saw that they had raised on a pole something resembling an air-filled bag of a blue color. They hurled this at Karlsefne’s party, and when it fell to the ground it exploded with a loud noise. This frightened Karlsefne and his men so much that they ran and fell back to the river, for it seemed to them that the Skraelings were inclosing them on all sides. They did not stop until they reached a rocky place where they stoutly resisted their assailants. Freydis [the wife of Thorvard] came out, and seeing Karlsefne’s people retreating, cried out: ‘Why do you run, stout men as you are, before these miserable wretches, whom I thought you could knock down as you do cattle! If I had weapons I know that I could fight better than you!’ They did not heed her words. Freydis then attempted to keep up with them but could not. She followed them to the woods. The Skraelings pursued her. She found a dead man in the way. It was Thorbrand Snorrason. A flat stone was sticking in his head. His sword was by his side. She grasped it and prepared to defend herself. The Skraelings came toward her. She exposed her bosom and struck her breast with the sword. The Skraelings were frightened and ran to their boats and rowed away. Karlsefne and his men then came and praised her courage. Karlsefne lost two men but the Skraelings many more....

“Karlsefne and his men now perceived that notwithstanding the country was fruitful they would be exposed to many dangerous incursions of its inhabitants if they should remain in it. They therefore determined to depart and return to their own land. They sailed northward along the coast and found five Skraelings clothed in skins sleeping on the sea-shore. They had with them vessels containing marrow mixed with blood. Karlsefne’s men believed that they had been banished from the country and they killed them. After that they came to a cape and there were many wild animals on it.... Then they reached Straum fjörd, where there was an abundance of every thing which they desired. It is said by some that Bjarni and Gudrid remained behind with one hundred men, and did not go farther, but that Karlsefne and Snorro went southward and forty men with them, and that they were not longer in Hóp than two months, and that they returned from there the same summer.... They inspected the mountains at Hóp, which they thought belonged to a range which extended in two directions to the same distance from Straum fjörd. The third winter they were in Straum fjörd.... Snorro, the son of Karlsefne, was born here the first autumn, and he was three years old when they went away from Vinland. When they sailed from Vinland they had a south wind and came to Markland.”[59]

The Northmen it seems continued their visits to Vinland as late as the fourteenth century. In the geographical treatise of Adam of Bremen, written in 1073, the author says that it was told him by Sveyn Estrithson, King of Denmark, that Vinland was an island: “Moreover he said that an island had been discovered by many in that ocean, which is called Vinland, because vines grow spontaneously there, producing excellent wine. For that fruits abound there not having been sown, we are assured not by any vague rumor but by the trustworthy report of the Danes.”[60]

The island of Vinland is described in an old geographical document as lying on the opposite side of a channel, between it and Greenland: “Now is to be told what lies opposite Greenland, out from the bay already mentioned. Furdustrandir is the name of a land. There are such hard frosts there that it is not habitable as far as is known. South of it is Helluland, which is called Skraeling’s land. From there it is not far to Vinland the good, which some think goes out from Africa. Between Vinland and Greenland is Ginnungagap which flows from the sea called Mare Oceanum that encompasses the whole earth.”[61] On a map made by Sigurd Stephanius, an Icelander, in 1570, Helluland, Markland, Skraeling’s land, and the promontory of Vinland are represented as parts of the country now called Greenland.[62]

No geographical information contained in the sagas of Iceland and Greenland verifies the statement that the Northmen discovered America and explored the coast of a part of the present territory of the United States. What tradition relates respecting the Northmen finding wine-berries in Vinland does not make it indubitably evident that they were the fruit now called grapes.[63] The wine-wood that was cut and carried on board of Leif’s ship indicates that there was no large timber in Vinland, and that the trees that were felled were of a stunted growth as those that are now found on the coast of Greenland. The statements respecting the great number of eider ducks, the natives who were frightened by the bellowing of a bull, the skin-boats used by them, the want of food by the Northmen, their eating the flesh of a stranded whale to escape starvation, and the sarcastic language of the song sung by Thorhall concerning Vinland being a land of wine, clearly establish the fact that this country or region was very near the Arctic circle. Further, all the early maps of Greenland show Helluland, Markland, and Vinland to be regions of that country.

The questionable interpretation of the characters on the rock, lying in the water, on the east side of the Taunton River, opposite Dighton, Massachusetts, by a number of foreign antiquaries, is a notable exemplification of the fictitious nature of the so-called evidence that the Northmen discovered America and explored a part of the eastern coast of the present territory of the United States.[64] The remarkable statement that the round, stone-tower, at Newport, Rhode Island, mentioned by Governor Benedict Arnold in his will, made in 1677, as “my stone-built windmill,” was erected by the Northmen, is also an instance of the infatuation of the learned men who believed it to be a Norse monument.[65]

The supposition that the Welsh adventurer, Madoc Guyneth, planted a colony on the Atlantic coast of North America, in the twelfth century, rests on some traditionary information in a history of Wales, published in 1584.[66] In this rare work it is related that the sons of Owen Guyneth, King of North Wales, on the death of their father, had many contentions respecting the heirship to his estates and who should rule after him. This strife mortified Madoc. In order to separate himself from his quarrelling brothers he fitted out a number of ships and sailed west, “leaving the coast of Ireland so far north, that he came to an unknown land, where he saw many strange things.” He then returned home and gave an account of the attractive and fertile countries “he had seen without inhabitants.” He induced a number of men and women, who desired to live peaceably, to emigrate to the western land. The second voyage was safely made to the colony in the “fair and large country.” He returned again to Wales for more colonists. Ten ships filled with emigrants shortly afterward set sail for the new settlement. It is further related that many fictions were current thereafter respecting Madoc’s discoveries in the unnamed country.[67] Meredith ap Rhees, a Welsh bard, who died in 1477, has rehearsed in a number of verses a part of the unsatisfactory tradition concerning Madoc’s voyage.[68] As said by Baron von Humboldt: “The deepest obscurity still shrouds every thing connected with the voyage of the Gaelic chief, Madoc.”[69]

The story of a Frisland fisherman, in the history of the discoveries of the Zeni brothers, published in 1558, is thought by some writers to be a true narrative of this man’s adventures on a part of the continent of America, in the fourteenth century.[70] It is related that Nicolò Zeno, a wealthy man, had a ship built, equipped, and manned at his own expense, and sailed in it from Venice, “with the intention of visiting England and Flanders.” But in a storm his vessel was cast upon an island called Frisland.[71] “The crew were saved together with most of the ship’s cargo. This occurred in the year 1380. The inhabitants of the island, having collected in considerable numbers, attacked the chevalier and his men, who, being exhausted by the hardships they had endured, and not knowing in what part of the world they had been thrown, were unable to resist them, much less to defend themselves with the spirit that the emergency demanded. They would have been treated, without doubt, in a most barbarous manner, had it not fortunately happened that a powerful chieftain, with an armed force, was in their neighborhood, who, learning that a large ship had been cast upon the island, and hearing the noise and shouts of the inhabitants as they rushed upon our poor mariners, hastened forward, and putting the islanders to flight, inquired of the Venetians, in Latin, of what nation they were, and whence they had come. When informed that they were from Italy, and natives of that country, he was filled with joy and amazement.... He was a great lord and possessed certain islands called Porland, about a half-day’s sail from Frisland, the richest and most populous of all the islands of those parts. This chieftain’s name was Zichmni.”

Nicolò Zeno then entered the service of this distinguished man. Some time afterward he wrote to his brother Antonio, and related these incidents. The latter visited Frisland, where he lived fourteen years. On the death of Nicolò, which occurred four years after Antonio’s arrival, he was appointed to take command of Zichmni’s fleet. From letters written by Antonio to his brother Carlo, the remarkable particulars of the following narrative are said to have been compiled:

“Six and twenty years ago four fishing-boats put out to sea from Frisland, and being overtaken by a storm were drifted about for many days in a helpless condition. When, at last, the tempest abated, they descried an island called Estotiland,[72] lying more than a thousand miles westward from Frisland. One of the boats was cast upon its coast, and the six men in it were taken by the inhabitants and conducted to a fair and populous city, where the king sent for many interpreters, but none could be found who understood the language of the fishermen except one man who spoke Latin, and who likewise had been cast by accident upon the same island. Ordered by the king, he asked them who they were, and where they came from, and when he reported their answer, the king desired that they should remain in that country. Accordingly, as they could not do otherwise, they obeyed his order, and remained five years on the island, and learned the language. One of them in particular visited different parts of the island, and reports that it is a very rich country, abounding in all good things. It is a little smaller than Iceland but more fertile. In the middle of it is a very high mountain, in which rise four rivers which water the whole country.

“The inhabitants are a very intelligent people and possess all the arts as we do; and it is believed that in time past they have had intercourse with our people, for he said that he saw Latin books in the king’s library, which they at the present time do not understand. They have their own language and letters. They have all kinds of metals, especially gold. Their foreign intercourse is with Greenland, where they import furs, brimstone, and pitch. He says that toward the south there is a great and populous country, very rich in gold. They sow corn and make beer, which is a kind of drink which northern people take as we do wine. They have woods of vast extent. They construct their buildings with walls, and there are many towns and villages. They make small boats and sail them, but they have not the loadstone, nor do they know the north by the compass. For this reason these fishermen were held in great esteem, insomuch that the king sent them with twelve boats to the southward to a country which they call Drogio; but in their voyage they had such stormy weather that they were in fear for themselves. Although they escaped a miserable death they afterward met a more painful one, for they were taken into the country and the greater number of them were eaten by the savages, who are cannibals and consider human flesh very savory meat. But as this fisherman and his remaining companions were able to show them the way to catch fish with nets, their lives were spared. Every day he would go fishing in the sea and in the fresh waters, and take a great number of fish, which he gave to the chiefs, and thereby ingratiated himself so much into their favor that he was greatly liked and held in high esteem by all.

“As this man’s fame spread among the different tribes, there was a neighboring chief who was very anxious to have him with him and to see how he practised his wonderful art of catching fish. With this object in view he made war on the other chief with whom the fisherman was, and being more powerful and a better warrior, he, at last, overcame him, and so the fisherman was sent to him with the rest of his companions. During the space of thirteen years that he dwelt in those parts, he says, he was sent in this manner to more than five-and-twenty chiefs, for they were continually fighting among themselves, this chief with that one, and solely for the purpose of having the fisherman to dwell with them, so that wandering up and down the country without any fixed abode, he became acquainted with almost all those regions. He says that it is a very great country, and, as it were, a new world. The people are very rude and uncultivated, for they all go naked, and suffer bitterly from the cold, nor have they the sense to clothe themselves with skins of the animals which they take in hunting. They have no kind of metal. They live by hunting, and carry lances of wood, sharpened at the point. They have bows, the strings of which are made of beasts’ skins. They are very fierce, and have deadly wars with one another, and eat the flesh of their captives. They have chiefs and certain laws, but differing in different tribes. The farther you go southwestward, however, the more refinement you meet with, because the climate is more temperate, but there they have cities and temples dedicated to their idols, in which they sacrifice men and afterward eat them. In those parts they have some knowledge and use of gold and silver.

“This fisherman after dwelling so many years in those parts resolved to return home if possible to his own country, but his companions, despairing of ever seeing it again, gave him Godspeed, and remained where they were. Accordingly he bade them farewell and made his escape through the woods in the direction of Drogio, where he was welcomed and kindly received by the chief of the place, who knew him and was a great enemy of the neighboring chief. Thus passing from one chief to another, being the same with whom he had been before, he, at last, reached, after a long time and many hardships, Drogio, where he remained three years. Here by good fortune he learned from the natives that some boats had appeared off the coast, and hopeful of being able to carry out his intention, he went to the beach, and found to his great delight that the men on board the boats had come from Estotiland. He immediately begged them to take him back with them, which they willingly consented to do. He understood the language of the country which none of them could speak, and they employed him as an interpreter. Afterward he traded in company with them to such good purpose that he became very rich, and having fitted out a vessel of his own he returned to Frisland.”[73]

When Zichmni heard the story of the returned fisherman, it is said that he prepared a fleet to go to the countries described by him. The fisherman dying about the time that the vessels were ready to sail, some of the seamen who had come from Estotiland in his ship were taken to pilot them. An island called Icaria was discovered, but no exploration of it could be made on account of the hostility of its inhabitants. The fleet afterward proceeded to the coast of Greenland, from which it sailed to Frisland.

The compiler of the history of the discoveries of the Zeni brothers says: “This discovery [made by the Frisland fisherman] Messere Antonio, in a letter to his brother Messere Carlo, related, ... saying that we have changed some old words and the antiquated style, but have left the substance entire.... Of these northern places, I [the compiler] have thought it good to draw a copy of the sailing chart, which I find I have among our family heirlooms, and, although it is rotten with age, I have succeeded with it tolerably well; and to those who take pleasure in such things, it will serve to throw light on the comprehension of that which without it could not be understood so easily.”

Inasmuch as it is difficult to disprove that the names Frislanda, Engronelanda, and Estotilanda were not early designations for Iceland, Greenland, and Scotland, the supposition that the unnamed Frisland fisherman passed thirteen years of his life on the continent of America solely rests upon the particulars of the story of his famous adventures as a maker of fishing-nets.

CHAPTER II.
1295-1487.

In the opulent and insular city of Venice, there arrived, a few years before the close of the thirteenth century, three strangely clad sun-embrowned men. If any notice had been taken of them when they disembarked from the Mediterranean galley in which they had come from Negropont, this attention had, it is likely, been bestowed upon their odd garb and imperfect pronunciation of the Italian words which they used while obtaining a boatman to convey them to that part of the city known as the confine of S. Giovanni Crisostomo.

The unique story respecting the return of these famous travellers to Venice will always be deemed the prologue that introduces the notable acts of the explorers of the Atlantic coast territory of America in the fifteenth century. It is therefore properly entitled to a conspicuous place on the first pages of the history of the discovery of America. Five centuries ago it charmed the Venetians with its vivid colorings, and gave to the Orient an entrancing vision that made the name of Cathay for a time a synonym for an earthly paradise. It pictured to them a far-off El Dorado, abounding with gold, gems, and spicery, a country naturally delightful and artificially magnificent. America lay in some of the navigable ways which were sought by acquisitive Europeans to go to it, and thus the return of Nicolò, Maffeo, and Marco Polo, in 1295, to Venice, after an absence of twenty-four years, is inseparably linked to the great chain of events connecting it with the discovery of the new continent of the western hemisphere.[74] Ramusio, the distinguished Italian collector of information relating to voyages and travels, has preserved the account of the strange revelations made by the three travellers on their return from Cathay.[75]

“When they arrived here the same fate befell them which happened to Ulysses, who, when he returned after his twenty years’ wanderings to his native Ithaca, was recognized by none of his people. In like manner these three gentlemen, who had been absent so many years from their native city, were not identified by any of their kinsfolk, who believed that they had been dead for many years, as had been reported. They were quite changed in appearance by the prolongation and hardships of their journeys and by the trouble and anxieties they had experienced; and they had a certain indescribable smack of the Tartar both in demeanor and accent, having indeed almost forgotten their Venetian tongue. Their clothes, too, were coarse and shabby, and of a Tartar cut. They proceeded on their arrival to their house, in this city, in the confine of S. Giovanni Crisostomo, where you may see it to this day. The house, which in those days was a lofty and handsome palace, is now known by the name of the Court of the Millions, for a reason which I will tell you presently.

“When they reached the palace, they found it occupied by some of their relatives, and they had the utmost difficulty in making the latter understand who they were. For these good people seeing them to be in appearance so unlike what they were formerly, and in dress so shabby, flatly refused to believe that they were those very gentlemen of the Polo family whom they thought had been dead many years. So these three gentlemen,—this is a story I have often heard when I was a boy from the illustrious Messere Gasparo Malpiero, a gentleman of very great age and a senator of eminent virtue and integrity, whose house was on the canal of Santa Marianna, at the corner, over the mouth of the brook of S. Giovanni Crisostomo, and just midway among the buildings of the aforesaid Court of the Millions, and he said he had heard the story from his own father and grandfather, and from other old men among the neighbors,—the three gentlemen, I say, devised a scheme by which they should obtain at once from their kinsfolk the recognition they desired, and secure the honorable notice of the whole city; and this was it:

“They invited a number of their kindred to an entertainment, which they purposely prepared with great state and splendor in their house. When the hour arrived for sitting down to table all three came from their chambers clothed in crimson satin, fashioned in long robes reaching to the ground, such as people in those days wore within doors. And when water for the hands had been served, and the guests were seated, they took off these robes and put on others of crimson damask, while the first suits were by their orders cut and divided among the servants. Then after partaking of some of the dishes they went out again and came back in robes of crimson velvet, and when they had again taken their seats, the second suits were divided as the first. When dinner was over they did the like with the robes of velvet, after they had put on dresses of the ordinary fashion worn by their guests. These proceedings caused much wonder and amazement among their relatives. But when the cloth had been drawn, and all the servants had been ordered to retire from the dining-hall, Messere Marco, the youngest of the three, rose from the table, and going into another chamber brought forth the three shabby dresses of coarse stuff which they had worn when they first arrived. Straightway they took sharp knives and began to rip open some of the seams and welts, and to take out of them many gems of the greatest value, such as rubies, sapphires, carbuncles, diamonds, and emeralds, all of which had been stitched up in these dresses in a manner so artful that nobody could have suspected the fact. For when they took leave of the Grand Khan they changed all the wealth which he had bestowed upon them for these rubies, emeralds, and other gems, being well aware of the impossibility of carrying with them so great an amount of gold on a journey so long and so difficult.

“Now the exhibition of this large number of gems and precious stones, all scattered over the table, threw the guests into fresh amazement, insomuch that they seemed quite bewildered and speechless. They now saw that in spite of all their former doubts these were really the honored and worthy gentlemen of the Polo family as they had claimed to be, and they therefore paid them the greatest honor and reverence. And when the story became current in Venice, straightway the whole city, gentle and simple, flocked to the house to embrace them, and to make much of them, with every conceivable demonstration of affection and respect.

“On Messere Maffeo, who was the eldest, the Venetians conferred the honors of an office which was of great dignity in those days; while the young men came daily to visit and converse with the ever-polite and gracious Messere Marco, and to ask him questions about Cathay[76] and the Grand Khan, all of which he answered with such kindly courtesy that every man felt himself in a manner his debtor. And as it happened that in the story, which he was constantly called on to repeat, of the magnificence of the Grand Khan, he would speak of his revenues as amounting to ten or fifteen millions of gold; and in like manner, when recounting other instances of great wealth in those parts, he would always make use of the term millions, so they gave him the nickname of Messere Marco Millioni, an appellation which I have seen in the public records of this republic where mention is made of him. The court of his house, in the confine of S. Giovanni Crisostomo, has always from that time been known as the Corte del Millioni.”[77]

These conversational descriptions respecting the remote dominions of the Grand Khan, with which Marco Polo often interested the imaginative Venetians, were to have a much wider field of influence in another form,—one which was a most potent element among the leading agencies which opened to the people of Western Europe great pathways of discovery and of commerce around the earth. In order to perceive how these descriptions of Cathay led to the exploration of the Atlantic Ocean and the discovery of the continent of America, the fortunes of Marco Polo must be followed farther. It appears that shortly after his return to Venice he was placed in command of a fleet, which subsequently was captured by the Genoese in a naval engagement. While confined in Genoa as a prisoner of war, his remarkable adventures as an explorer of remote eastern countries became known, and he was often visited and questioned by inquisitive people. Wearied by the frequent repetition of the story of his wanderings in Cathay, he at last applied himself to writing an account of his extensive journeys by the aid of such notes and memoranda as he had taken while in the East. Assisted by a Genoese gentleman, he completed his curious and instructive narrative, which was soon copied, translated into different languages, and distributed among the people of Europe.[78]

As justly claimed by Yule, Marco Polo was the first traveller “to trace a route across the longitude of Asia, naming and describing kingdom after kingdom which he had seen with his own eyes; the deserts of Persia, the flowering plateaux and wild gorges of Badakhshan, the jade-bearing rivers of Khotan, the Mongolian steppes, ... the new and brilliant court that had been established at Cambaluc; the first traveller to reveal China in all its wealth and vastness, its mighty rivers, its huge cities, its rich manufactures, its swarming population, the inconceivably vast fleets that quickened its seas and its inland waters; to tell us of the nations on its borders with all their eccentricities of manners and worship; of Tibet with its sordid devotees; of Burma, with its golden pagodas and their tinkling crowns; of Laos, of Siam, of Cochin China, of Japan, the Eastern Thule, with its rosy pearls and golden-roofed palaces; the first to speak of that museum of beauty and wonder, still so imperfectly ransacked, the Indian archipelago, source of aromatics then so highly prized and whose origin was so dark; of Java, the pearl of islands; of Sumatra with its many kings, its strange costly products, and its cannibal races; of the naked savages of Nicobar and Andaman; of Ceylon, the isle of gems, with its sacred mountain and its tomb of Adam; of India the great, not as a dreamland of Alexandrian fables but as a country seen and partially explored, with its virtuous Brahmans, its obscene ascetics, its diamonds and the strange tales of their acquisition, its sea-beds of pearl, and its powerful sun; the first in medieval times to give any distinct account of the secluded Christian empire of Abyssinia and the semi-Christian island of Socotra; to speak, though indeed dimly, of Zanzibar with its negroes and its ivory, and of the vast and distant Madagascar, bordering on the dark ocean of the South, with its ruc and other monstrocities; and, in a remotely opposite region, of Siberia and the Arctic Ocean, of dog-sledges, white bears, and reindeer-riding Tunguses.”[79]

Never before had the people of Europe heard of such extraordinary wealth and unlimited resources as existed in the far-off countries visited by Marco Polo. His novel descriptions of stately, gold-covered palaces, of the royal magnificence of the entertainments of the Grand Khan, of the intoxicating fragrance of an endless profusion of rare flowers, of luscious fruits and sweet spicery, of heavily laden argosies of valuable merchandise floating on noble rivers, and of vast collections of gold, silver, and precious stones, were read with the most exaggerated conceptions of their reality. These enchanting details respecting Cathay and the adjacent countries were fully confirmed in the fourteenth century by Sir John Mandeville, who, in 1322, departed from England, and after an absence of thirty-four years in different countries returned to write, in Latin, in French, and in English, a narrative of his extended travels.[80]

Dazzled by the splendor of the Orient the people of Western Europe were eager to enter into commercial intercourse with the inhabitants of Cathay. But there were innumerable barriers, both natural and political, obstructing all the overland ways to the East. Chief among the obstacles classed as political was the selfish exclusiveness of the different governments possessing the intervening territory. Had there been no national opposition to the establishment of a protected system of overland commerce between Western Europe and Eastern Asia, the distance was too great to be travelled over by slowly moving caravans.

As early as the year 1343 the aggressive enterprise of the Venetians had obtained from the sultan of Egypt the exclusive privilege of sending ships to trade in the ports of that country and of Syria. The merchants of Venice thereupon established commercial agencies at Alexandria and Damascus. Their factors penetrated Central and Southern Asia, and became active participants in the remunerative traffic of those regions. The prized productions of the islands in the Indian Ocean, such as pepper, cinnamon, cloves, and other spices, were transported by them to Venice and distributed through Europe. Although the ocean along the western and southern coast of Africa to the East was believed to be navigable, no attempt was made in the fourteenth century to sail by it to the Moluccas or Spice Islands. Concerning the early navigation of the sea-path along the coast of Africa, from the Pillars of Hercules to the Arabian Sea, Herodotus says that when Necho, king of Egypt, “had ceased digging the canal leading from the Nile to the Arabian Gulf, he sent certain Phœnicians in ships, with orders to sail between the Pillars of Hercules into the Northern Sea [the Mediterranean], and so to return to Egypt. These Phœnicians, taking their course from the Red Sea, entered the Southern Ocean. On the approach of autumn they landed in Libya [Africa], and planted some corn in the place where they happened to find themselves. When this was ripe, and they had cut it down, they again departed. Having thus consumed two years, they in the third doubled the Pillars of Hercules, and returned to Egypt. Their account may obtain attention from others, but to me it seems incredible, for they affirmed, that having sailed around Libya, they had the sun on their right hand. Thus was Libya for the first time known.”[81]

Pliny, the celebrated encyclopedist of ancient times, says that “while the power of Carthage was at its height, Hanno published an account of a voyage which he made from Gades [Cadiz, Spain], to the extremity of Arabia.[82] ... Besides, we learn from Cornelius Nepos, that one Eudoxus, a contemporary of his, when he was fleeing from King Lathyrus, set out from the Arabian Gulf, and was carried as far as Gades.[83] And long before him, Cælius Antipater informs us that he had seen a person who had sailed from Spain to Æthiopia for the purpose of trade. The same Cornelius Nepos, when speaking of the northern circumnavigation, tells us that Q. Metellus Celer, the colleague of L. Afranius in the consulship, but then a proconsul in Gaul,[84] had a present made to him by the king of the Suevi,[85] of certain Indians, who, sailing from India for the purpose of commerce, had been driven by tempests to Germany.”[86]

These statements were quoted in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries to support the growing belief that India could be reached in a short time by sailing round the coast of Africa. But the want of nautical instruments restrained seamen from undertaking a voyage which carried them beyond the sight of familiar coasts and beneath new constellations. It was extremely perilous for European navigators to attempt to sail to India before they had acquired a knowledge of the use of the mariner’s compass and of the astrolabe. The polarity of the magnet was known among oriental nations several centuries before the Christian era. The use of the magnetic needle for the guidance of vessels, however, did not become popular in Europe until as late as the fourteenth century.[87] The slowness with which its use grew into favor with European seamen is ascribable to the prevailing superstition which hung like a darkening cloud over the minds of the people. The strange conservatism of the age is well described in a letter written, as it seems, in the year 1258, by Brunetto Latini, a learned Italian, Dante’s tutor, to Guido Cavalcanti of Florence. Speaking of his visit to Roger Bacon, the English philosopher and monk, at Oxford, England, he says:

“The Parliament being summoned to assemble at Oxford, I did not fail to see Friar Bacon as soon as I arrived, and [among other things] he showed me a black ugly stone, called a magnet, which has the surprising property of drawing iron to it; and upon which, if a needle be rubbed, and afterwards fastened to a straw, so that it shall swim upon water, the needle will instantly turn toward the pole-star; therefore, be the night ever so dark, so that neither moon nor star be visible, yet shall the mariner be able, by the help of the needle, to steer his vessel aright.[88]

“This discovery, which appears useful in so great a degree to all who travel by sea, must remain concealed until other times, because no master-mariner dares to use it lest he should fall under a supposition of his being a magician; nor would even the sailors venture themselves out to sea under his command if he took with him an instrument which carries so great an appearance of being constructed under the influence of some infernal spirit. A time may come when these prejudices, which are of such great hindrance to researches into the secrets of nature, will probably be no more; and then it will be that mankind shall reap the benefit of the labors of such learned men as Friar Bacon, and do justice to that industry and intelligence for which he and they now meet with no other return than obloquy and reproach.”[89]

About the beginning of the fourteenth century, Flavia Gioja of Amalfi, in Naples, devised what were then known as the eight points of the superficies—the four cardinal and the four intermediate points of the compass-card.[90] From this time forward the use of the magnet gradually found favor with European seamen.

The most enthusiastic projector of voyages of discovery undertaken to ascertain the character of the land and water divisions of the earth, in the early part of the fifteenth century, was Prince Henry, the son of King John I. of Portugal.[91] When twenty-one years of age, he witnessed, in 1415, the taking of Ceuta, on the northern coast of Africa, opposite the southern extremity of Portugal. While at this opulent city, he learned from its merchants and traders that the continent extended far southward and was inhabited by many strange people. Fixing his residence on the promontory of Sagres, at the southwestern extremity of Portugal, he began to send the most experienced seamen in the service of Portugal to explore the western coast of Africa. For a time Cape de Não, in north latitude, 28° 45´ was considered the limit of safe navigation. It was a common saying among Portuguese seamen, that “He who should pass Cabo de Não, either will return or not.”[92] Beyond it was Cape Bojador, in 26° 12´ north latitude. This rocky headland, for a time, was also deemed perilous and impassable. “Beyond this cape” it was said, “there is no people whatever; the ground is as barren as that of Libya,—no water, no trees, no grass in it; the sea is so shallow that at a league from the land it is only a fathom deep; the currents are so strong that a ship passing the cape cannot return.”[93] The attempts made by Prince Henry’s mariners to double the two capes are thus commented upon by Antonio Galvano, the Portuguese historian,[94] in his treatise respecting the routes by which spices came from India to the year 1550: “In those days none of the Portuguese had yet passed Cabo de Não in 29 degrees of latitude.” But after it was doubled, “when they came to another cape named Bojador, there was not one of them that dared to risk his life beyond it. The prince was exceedingly displeased with their want of confidence and unmanly timidity.”[95] Of the number of seamen that had made unsuccessful attempts to pass the cape was Gil Eannes. Disappointed as Prince Henry was by these failures to accomplish that which he had ordered them to do, he nevertheless gave his timorous navigators all the encouragement he could to induce them to make other and more persistent efforts to double the formidable headland. In 1434, he again sent Gil Eannes to explore the coast beyond Cape Bojador. Before the latter departed the prince endeavored to dispel the terrifying fancies that might deter him from attempting to prosecute the undertaking for which he was commissioned. “You cannot incur such peril” said the prince, “that the promised reward shall not be commensurate thereto. It is very strange to me that you should be governed by a fear of something of which you are ignorant, for if the things reported had any authentication, I should not find fault with you for believing them. The stories of the four seamen driven out of their course to Flanders or to the ports to which they were sailing are not to be credited, for they had not and could not have used the needle and the chart. But do you go notwithstanding, and make your voyage without being influenced by their opinions, and, by the grace of God, you will not fail to secure, by your enterprise, both honor and compensation.”[96] Gil Eannes followed the advice of his sanguine patron, and succeeded the same year in doubling Cape Bojador and in exploring a part of the coast beyond it.

South of Cape Bojador it was believed that a zone of scorching heat would be entered by vessels sailing toward the equator. Pliny adverts to it in these words: “The middle of the earth, over which is the path of the sun, is parched and set on fire by the luminary, and is consumed by being so near the heat. There are only two of the zones which are temperate—those which lie between the torrid and the frigid zones—and these are separated from each other, in consequence of the scorching heat of the heavenly bodies.”[97] Conceiving this statement to be as fallacious as many other declarations of the early geographers had been, Prince Henry, in 1454, sent Luigi da Cadamosto, a Venetian navigator, to explore the coast beyond Cape Bojador so long invested with so many imaginary terrors. In 1462 Pedro de Cintra sailed three hundred miles beyond Sierre Leone.

As it was necessary for seamen to know the latitude and longitude of the places to which they desired to sail, another nautical instrument besides the mariner’s compass was needed by them.[98] The adaptation of an instrument called the astrolabe, by which the latitudes of places could be determined, apparently originated with King John II. of Portugal.[99]

It is said that “when Prince Henry began the discovery of Guinea that all mariners were accustomed to sail along the coasts, and that they always steered their courses by observing the physical features of the land, which are still used as guides.”

“This method of navigating permitted them to make voyages from place to place; but when they wished to sail in the open sea, losing sight of the coast and standing out on the wide ocean, they perceived the numerous errors they had made in calculating and judging the day’s run, for they had been accustomed to allow so much way to the ship in the twenty-four hours on account of the currents and the other mysteries of the sea, the facts of which are clearly demonstrated by navigating by altitude. But as necessity is the teacher of all arts, in the time of King John II., the matter of navigation was assigned by him to Master Roderic, and Master Joseph, a Jew, (who were his physicians,) and to one Martin of Bohemia, a native of those parts, who boasted of being a pupil of John of Monteregius, a famous astronomer among the professors of that science,[100] and these devised the way of navigating by the sun’s altitude, and they made tables of his declination such as are now used by navigators, now more complete than they were at the beginning when the great wooden astrolabes were first used.”[101]

This novel and serviceable nautical instrument, first made of wood and of a triangular shape, was soon in general use on Portuguese vessels. The astrolabe was improved from time to time. At the beginning of the seventeenth century, when the French seaman, Samuel de Champlain, was exploring the St. Lawrence River and its tributaries, it was a disk of brass, having one of its faces marked with degrees and minutes. A brass rule, called a label, with sight-holes, turning upon a pivot at the centre of the instrument, moved over the marked circumference of the disk. At the zenith part of the instrument there was a small ring by which it could be suspended from the thumb of the person taking an observation. When used the astrolabe was turned to the sun, so that his rays could freely pass through the two sight-holes of the label. In this position the altitude of the sun was indicated on the divided limb of the instrument. Opposite the zenith point was a small eyelet from which a weight could be suspended to keep the instrument from shaking when used.

A representation of the astrolabe found in 1867 in the county of North Renfrew, province of Ontario, Canada, supposed to have been lost by Champlain on his way to Ottawa in 1613. The diameter of the instrument is “five inches and five-eights.” Vide “Champlain’s astrolabe.” By A. J. Russell. Montreal, 1879.

In the fifteenth century the day’s run of a ship was commonly reckoned by the pilot. In an old nautical work it is said: “In order to know the speed of the ship over the length of the course the pilot must set down in his journal the progress the vessel has made according to hours; and to do this he must know that the greatest distance that a ship advances in an hour is four miles, and with feebler breezes, three or only two.”[102] Time was measured by sand-glasses, or ampolletas, as they were called by the Spaniards. Forty-eight changes of these half-hour glasses equalled the space of a day.[103]

In 1487 the persistent enterprise of the Portuguese in exploring a commercial route to India along the west and south coasts of Africa was notably signalized by the success attending the expedition commanded by the adventurous seaman, Bartolomeu Dias. The indomitable zeal of this Portuguese mariner enabled him to reach the southern extremity of Africa, where he found a bold promontory to which he gave the name of Cabo Tormentoso, (the Stormy Cape,) commemorative of the adverse winds and bad weather encountered there. King John II., personally appreciating the good fortune attending the explorations of the navigators of Portugal in this direction during the previous seventy years, in which time more than six thousand miles of coast-line had been inspected by them, called the promontory discovered by Dias, Cabo de Boa Esperança (the Cape of Good Hope).[104]

CHAPTER III.
1474-1492.

The success attending the voyages of the Portuguese along the coast of Africa suggested to Cristoforo Colombo[105] (or Christopher Columbus, as he is more commonly called by those speaking English), the possibility of sailing by a shorter way to India in another direction. Ferdinand Columbus, in his history of the life and achievements of his father,[106] makes no attempt to conceal this fact from publicity. With an apparent intention to give all the information which might be desired concerning the great discoverer’s first thoughts respecting the practicability of reaching Asia by sailing in a westerly direction, he frankly tells what originated them in the mind of the admiral. “As one thing leads to another, and one thought to another, in this way, while the admiral was in Portugal, he began to infer that as the Portuguese sailed so far southward, it was also feasible to steer westward, and that land might likely be found in this direction. In order to be more assured and satisfied in this matter, he began to review the cosmographies which he had read, and to note what astronomical reasons would support this theory.[107] That he might be more enlightened concerning his assumption, he paid attention to what was said by people respecting it, especially by seamen. His diligent investigations soon led him to conclude that there were many lands west of the Canaries and the Cape Verd Islands, and that it was practicable to sail to and discover them.”[108]

The remarkable aptitude displayed by Columbus in forming his conclusions that the Atlantic Ocean was navigable, and that ships might pass across its unexplored expanse to Cathay, was the natural expression of his peculiar passion for geographical knowledge. In a letter written to their Spanish majesties, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, in 1501, he says: “I went to sea when quite young, and have continued my sea-faring until now; and this profession makes those who follow it eager to discover the secrets of this globe. It is now forty years that I have been sailing to all those places which are at present visited, and I have dealt and talked with learned people, ecclesiastics as well as laymen, Latins, Greeks, Indians, Moors, and many other people of different nations, and our Lord has favored this inclination, and I have received from him the spirit of understanding. He has made me very skillful in navigation, and to know much in astronomy, in geometry, and mathematics. God has given me the knowledge and the ability to portray the globe, and also to delineate cities, rivers, islands, and ports in their proper situation. During my life I have examined and endeavored to see all books of cosmography, history, and philosophy, and of the other sciences, so that our Lord has sensibly opened my mind in order that I may sail from here to the Indies, and has made me extremely anxious to do it.”[109]

Columbus’s irrepressible desire to possess all the information he could acquire respecting the navigable water-ways of the Atlantic also led him to sail over the sea-path to Iceland and to the south coast of Africa, at the equator. In his geographical work, written “to show that all the five zones are habitable,” he says: “‘In February, 1467, I sailed myself a hundred leagues beyond Thule, the northern part of which is seventy degrees distant from the equator, and not sixty-three degrees as some will have it to be; nor does it lie upon the line where Ptolemy’s West begins, but much more to the westward, and to this island, which is as large as England, the English trade, especially those from Bristol.[110] At the time I was there the sea was not frozen, but the tides were so great that in some places it swelled twenty-six fathoms and fell as much.’ The truth is, that the Thule of which Ptolemy speaks lies where he says, and this is called by the moderns Frizeland.” Again he says: “I have followed sea-faring for twenty-three years without being on shore any space of time worth mentioning, and I have seen all the East and all the West, and have been to the North where England is situated, and even to Guinea.” He also says that he went to sea when fourteen years old, and ever after that led a sea-faring life.[111]

Among the motives influencing him to think that he could sail to Cathay by the way of the Atlantic Ocean were the statements of geographical writers. By them it was said “that a great part of the globe had already been travelled over, and there only remained to be discovered and made known the space lying between the eastern limits of India, known to Ptolemy and Marinus, and the West, where are the islands Azores[112] and those of Cape Verd,[113] the most western lands yet discovered.[114] ... He considered that this space, lying between the eastern limits [of India] known to Marinus and the islands of the Cape Verd group, could not be more than a third part of the great circumference of the globe, since Marinus had gone toward the East fifteen hours of the twenty-four into which the circumference of the earth is divided, and therefore to go [still farther eastwardly] to reach the Cape Verd Islands there were nine hours, [of the circumference to be passed over], as it is said that Marinus began his investigations in the West.... He conceived that since Marinus had given in his cosmography an account of fifteen hours or parts of the globe eastwardly, and had not reached the limits of the East, it followed that its bounds must be much beyond, and consequently the farther the land of the East extended eastwardly, the nearer this land was to the Cape Verd Islands in the West, and that if the space were chiefly water it might easily be sailed in a few days, and if it were mainly land it would sooner be discovered by sailing westward, because it would be nearer to the Cape Verd Islands.[115] ... The fifth reason, which induced him to believe that the distance this way was short, was the opinion of Alfragranus and his followers, who make the circumference of the globe much less than all other writers and cosmographers, allowing fifty-six miles and two-thirds to a degree.[116] Whence he inferred that as the entire circumference of the globe was of such an extent, the third part was small, which Marinus left unknown.... And Seneca, in his first book of nature, who considers the knowledge of this world as nothing when compared with that which is acquired in the next life, says a ship may sail in a few days with a fair wind from the coast of Spain to that of India. And if it be true, as some believe, that Seneca wrote tragedies, we may infer that he speaks of the same thing in the chorus of his Medea:

‘Venient annis

Saecula seris, quibus Oceanus

Vincula rerum laxet, et ingens

Pateat tellus, Typhysque novos

Detegat orbes, nec sit terris

Ultima Thule.’

“‘In the last years there will come an age in which Ocean shall loosen the bonds of things; and a great land will be accessible; and another Tiphys shall discover new worlds, and Thule shall no longer be the extremity of the earth.’[117] This prediction may be considered really fulfilled in the person of the admiral.... Marco Polo, the Venetian, and John Mandeville, in their travels say that they went much farther eastward than Ptolemy and Marinus mention, who, although they do not speak of the Eastern Sea, yet by the account they give of the East it may be assumed that India is not far distant from Africa and Spain.”[118]

Ferdinand Columbus further says that his father expected to find, “before he came to India, a very convenient island or continent, from which he might pursue with more advantage his main design. This hope was grounded upon the statements of many wise men and philosophers, who believed that the greatest part of this terraqueous globe was land, or that there was more land than water, which, if true, he assumed that between the coast of Spain and the limits of India then known, there were many islands and a considerable extent of main-land.... A pilot of the king of Portugal, named Martin Vicente, told him that, being at one time four hundred and fifty leagues westward of Cape St. Vincent, he found and picked up in the sea a piece of wood ingeniously carved, but not with iron, which led him to believe, as the wind had been blowing from the west for several days, that the piece of wood had drifted from some island lying toward the west. Then one Pedro Correa, who had married the sister of the admiral’s wife, told him that at the island of Porto Santo[119] he had seen another piece of wood, brought by the same winds, as nicely carved as the piece already mentioned, and that canes had been found there so thick that each joint would hold more than four quarts of wine, which reports he said he communicated to the king of Portugal while talking to him about these matters. The pieces of cane were shown to him. There being no place in our parts where such cane grew, he inferred it to be true that the wind had brought the cane from some neighboring islands or else from India. For Ptolemy, in the first book of his geography, in the seventeenth chapter, says there is such cane in the eastern parts of India. And some of the people living on the islands, particularly on the Azores, told him that when the west wind blew for a long time the sea drifted some pieces of pine-wood upon those islands, particularly on the islands Gratiosa and Fayal, there being no pine-wood in all those parts, and that the sea cast upon the island of Flores, another of the Azores, the bodies of two dead men, who were very broad-faced and different in appearance from Christians. At Cape Verd and thereabouts they said that they once saw some covered canoes or boats which the people believed were driven there by stress of weather while the persons in them were going from one island to another. Nor were these the only grounds he then had which seemed reasonable, for there were those who told him that they had seen some islands in the western ocean.... These persons he did not believe, because he discovered from their own words and statements that they had not sailed one hundred leagues to the westward, and that they had been deceived by some rocks, thinking them to be islands; or else, perhaps, they were some of those floating islands which are drifted about by the waves, and which the sailors call aguados....

“He says, moreover, that in the year 1484, a man came to Portugal from the island of Madera[120] to beg a caraval of the king to discover a country which he affirmed he saw every year, and always after the same manner, he agreeing with others who said they had seen the island from the Azores. On this account the Portuguese placed some islands thereabouts on the charts and maps made at that time; and also because Aristotle, in his book of wonderful things, affirms that it was reported that some Carthaginian merchants had sailed over the Atlantic Ocean to a most fruitful island.... This island the Portuguese inserted in their maps, calling it Antilla, and though they did not give it the same situation designated by Aristotle, yet none placed it more than two hundred leagues due west from the Canaries and the Azores. Some believe it to be the island of the Seven Cities peopled by the Portuguese at the time that Spain was conquered by the Moors, in 714, at which time, they say, seven bishops with their people embarked and sailed to this island, where each of them built a city; and in order that none of their people might think of returning to Spain, they burnt the ships, tackle, and all things necessary for sailing.[121] ... It was also said that in the time of Prince Henry of Portugal, a Portuguese ship was driven by stress of weather to this island of Antilla, where the men went on shore, and were conducted by the islanders to their church to learn whether or not they were Christians and acquainted with the Roman ceremonies. After perceiving that they were, the people of the island importuned them to remain till their king came, who was then absent, and who would be delighted to see them and would give them many presents.... But the master and the seamen were afraid of being detained, suspecting these people did not wish to be discovered and might for this reason burn their ship.

“On this account they returned to Portugal, hoping to be rewarded by the prince for what they had done. He reproved them severely and bid them return at once to the island, but the master through fear ran away from Portugal with the ship and men. It is reported that while the seamen were at church on the island the ship-boys gathered sand for the cook-room, the third part of which they found to be pure gold.... Seneca, in his fourth book, tells us that Thucydides[122] speaks of an island called Atlantica, which in the time of the Peloponnesian war was entirely, or the greater part of it, submerged; whereof Plato also makes mention in his Timæus.”[123]

While Columbus resided at Lisbon obtaining information from geographers and seamen respecting the feasibility of sailing westward to Cathay, he entered into correspondence with Paolo Toscanelli, a Florentine physician and astronomer.[124] The latter sent him a copy of a letter which he had written in Latin to Ferdinand Martinez, a prebendary of Lisbon. The communication addressed to Columbus, is dated Florence, June 25, 1474. As translated the letter is as follows:

“To Christopher Colon, Paul, the physician, wishes health.

“I apprehend your noble and earnest desire to sail to those parts where spices grow, and therefore, in answer to your letter, I send another, which some time ago I wrote to a friend of mine, in the service of the king of Portugal, before the wars of Castile, in answer to one he wrote me by his highness’s command, upon the same subject. I also send you a sea-chart similar to the one I sent him, which may satisfy your inquiries. The copy of that letter is the following:

“To Ferdinand Martinez, canon of Lisbon, Paul, the physician, wishes health.

“I am gratified to hear of your intimacy with the most serene and magnificent king. Although I have often spoken of the short distance by water from here to the Indies where spices grow, which way, in my opinion, is shorter than that taken along the coast of Guinea, yet you inform me that his highness would have me explain and demonstrate it in order that it may be comprehended and tested. Although I could better elucidate the configuration of the earth with a globe in my hand, nevertheless, I will make the matter more easy and intelligible by exhibiting the route on such a chart as is used in navigation. I therefore send one to his majesty, made and drawn with my own hand, on which are delineated the extreme limits of the West, from Iceland, in the north, to the farthest part of Guinea, in the south, with all the intermediate islands. Opposite, in the West, the beginning of the Indies is delineated, with the islands and places to which you may go, representing how far you may steer from the north pole toward the equator, and for how long a time, that is, how many leagues you may sail before you come to those places where are to be found all kinds of spices and precious stones. Do not think it strange if I call the country where spices grow West, since they are generally known to be produced in the East, because those who shall sail westward will always find those places in the west, and they who travel by land eastward, will always find those places in the east. The straight lines which are drawn lengthwise on the chart show the distance from west to east, and those which cross the former show the distance from north to south. I have also marked down on the chart several places in the Indies where ships might put in during a storm or contrary winds, or any other unlooked-for accident. Moreover, to give you ample information concerning all the places of which you desire to know something, you must understand that only traders live or reside on these islands, and that you will find there as large a number of ships and sea-faring people engaged in merchandizing as in any other part of the world, particularly in the famous port of the city called Zacton, where, every year, a hundred large ships carrying pepper, are loaded and unloaded, besides many other vessels freighted with different kinds of spices.[125] This country is an exceedingly populous one, and there are many provinces, kingdoms, and innumerable cities in it under the rule of a sovereign called the Grand Khan, signifying king of kings, who generally resides in the province of Cathay. His predecessors greatly desired to have the commerce and the friendship of Christians, and two hundred years ago they sent embassadors to the pope, to ask him to send them many learned men and doctors to teach them our religion, but on account of some obstacles the embassadors met with, they returned without coming to Rome. Besides, there came an embassador to Pope Eugene IV., who informed him of the great affection which their princes and people bore toward the Christians. I talked with him a long time concerning the magnificence of the royal palaces, the greatness of the country, the length and breadth of the rivers. He told me many wonderful things respecting a great number of towns and cities built on the banks of the rivers, and that there were two hundred cities on a single river, with marble bridges over it of great length and breadth, and sustained by many pillars. This country deserves to be made known as well as any other, and there may not only be great profits realized and many things of value obtained, but also gold, silver, all kinds of precious stones, and spices in abundance, which are not brought into our parts. And it is certain that many wise men, philosophers, astronomers, and other persons skilled in the arts, and very ingenious men govern this vast country and command its armies. On the chart, from Lisbon directly westward to the great and famous city of Quisay, are twenty-six spaces, each measuring two hundred and fifty miles. The city is one hundred miles, or thirty-five leagues in circuit, and within its limits are ten marble bridges. The name Quisay signifies city of heaven.[126] Wonderful things are reported of the ingenuity of its inhabitants, its buildings and revenues. The space previously mentioned is almost a third part of the circumference of the globe.[127] The city is in the province of Mango, bordering on that of Cathay, where the king usually resides. From the island Antilla (which you call the Seven Cities, and of which you have some knowledge), to the great island of Cipango,[128] are ten spaces, which include two thousand five hundred miles, or two hundred and twenty-five leagues.[129] The island abounds with gold, pearls, and precious stones; and you should know that they cover their temples and palaces with plates of pure gold. All these things are hidden and concealed, because the way to them is unknown, and yet it may be sailed with safety.

“Much more might be said, but having told you that which is most important, and as you are learned and have good judgment, I am satisfied that you will understand what I have written without my adding any thing further to these statements. This may satisfy your curiosity, it being as much as my time and business permit me now to write. However, I remain ever ready to satisfy and serve his highness to the utmost in all the commands that he shall lay upon me.”[130]

“The admiral, now believing that his opinion was excellently well grounded,” says Ferdinand Columbus, “resolved to be governed by it, and to sail across the western ocean in quest of those countries. But being aware that such an undertaking was only becoming a monarch to espouse and to accomplish, he determined to propose it to the king of Portugal, because he was the latter’s subject. And though King John, then reigning, gave ear to the admiral’s proposals, yet he hesitated to accept them on account of the great burden and expense attending the exploration and conquest of the western coast of Africa, called Guinea. Little success had thus far rewarded this undertaking, nor had he been able to double the Cape of Good Hope, which name, some say, was given it instead of Agesingue, its proper designation, because that was the farthest they hoped to extend their explorations and conquests, or, as others will have it, because this cape gave them the expectation of better countries and navigation. However, the king had but little inclination to invest any more money in discoveries; and if he gave any attention to the admiral, it was in consequence of the excellent reasons he advanced to support his opinion, which arguments so far convinced the king that he had nothing else to do but to accept or to reject the terms which the admiral proposed. For the admiral, being a noble and magnanimous man, wished to make an agreement that would be of some personal benefit and honor to himself, so that he would leave behind him a notable reputation and a respected family, such as became his achievements and memory. For this reason the king, by the advice of one Doctor Cazadilla,[131] whom he greatly esteemed, determined to send a caravel secretly to attempt that which the admiral had proposed to him; for if those countries were in this way discovered, he thought that he would not be obliged to bestow any great reward which might be demanded. Having quickly equipped a caravel, he sent it the way the admiral had proposed to go, for the vessel was carrying supplies to the islands of the Cape Verd group. But those he sent had not the knowledge, perseverance, and energy of the admiral. After wandering many days on the sea, they turned back to the islands of Cape Verd, laughing at the undertaking, and saying that it was unreasonable to think there should be any land in those waters. This being told to the admiral, ... he determined to go to Castile [Spain].... But fearing that, if the king of Castile should not favor his undertaking, he would be forced to propose it to some other monarch, thereby consuming much time, he sent his brother Bartolomé Columbus, who was with him, to England.... On his way to England, Bartolomé happened to fall into the hands of pirates, who stripped him and his companions. For this reason, and being sick and poor in that country, it was a long time before he could deliver his message. It was not until he had obtained some money by making sea-charts that he began to make certain proposals to King Henry VII., then reigning, to whom he presented a map of the world.... The king of England, having seen the map and heard what the admiral offered to do for him, readily accepted the overture and ordered him to be sent for....

“I will not now relate how Bartolomé Columbus conducted himself in England, but will return to the admiral, who, about the end of the year 1484, stole secretly out of Portugal with his son Diego for fear of being detained by the king; for the king having seen how unsuited they were whom he had sent with the caravel, was inclined to restore the admiral to his favor, and desired that he should renew his proposals; but the king was not as eager to undertake their consideration as the admiral was to get away; therefore the king lost that good opportunity and the admiral entered Castile to try his fortune which was there to favor him. Leaving his son in a monastery, called La Rabida, near Palos, he went at once to the court of the catholic king, which was then at Cordova, where, being affable and an entertaining talker, he made friends of such persons as were most favorably inclined to his undertaking and fitted to persuade the king to espouse it. Among these was Luis de Santángel, an Aragonian gentleman, clerk of the allowances in the king’s household, a man of great prudence and reputation. As the undertaking demanded an examination by enlightened men, and not meaningless words and favor, their highnesses intrusted the matter to the prior of Prado, afterward archbishop of Granada, and ordered him, together with some cosmographers, to make a thorough investigation of the project and to report their opinions respecting it.[132] But there was only a small number of cosmographers at that time, and those who were called together were not as enlightened as they should have been, nor would the admiral wholly explain his plans, for fear he might be served as he had been in Portugal and be deprived of his reward. For this reason the answers they gave their highnesses were as different as their judgments and opinions. Some said that inasmuch as no information concerning those countries had been obtained by the great number of experienced sailors living since the creation, which was many thousand years ago, it was not likely that the admiral should know more than all the seamen that were living or that had lived before that time. Others, who were more influenced by cosmographical reasons, said the world was so prodigiously great that it was incredible that a voyage of three years would carry him to the end of the East, where he proposed to go, and to substantiate this opinion they brought forward the statement of Seneca, who, in one of his works, by way of argument, asserts that many wise men disagreed about this question, whether or not the ocean were boundless, and doubted if it could be traversed; and if it were navigable, whether habitable lands would be found on the other side of the globe, and whether they could be reached. They added that only a small part of this terraqueous globe was inhabited, and that this was in our hemisphere, and that all the remainder was sea, and only navigable near the coasts and rivers.

“Some admitted that learned men said it was possible to sail from the coast of Spain to the farthest part of the West. Others argued, as the Portuguese had done, about sailing to Guinea, saying that if any man should sail directly westward, as the admiral proposed, that he would not be able to return to Spain on account of the roundness of the globe, confidently believing that whosoever should go out of the hemisphere known to Ptolemy would go downward, and that then it would be impossible to return, affirming that it would be like climbing a hill, which ships could not accomplish in the stiffest gale. Although the admiral properly answered all these objections, yet the more cogent his explanations were the less they comprehended him on account of their ignorance, for when a man grows familiar with false principles in mathematics for a long time he cannot perceive the true, because of the erroneous impressions which were first imprinted on his mind. In short, all of these men were governed by the Spanish saying, St. Augustine doubts it; for this holy man, in his twenty-first book, chapter ninth, on the city of God, asserts and considers that it is unreasonable to believe that there are antipodes, or any passage from one hemisphere to another.[133]

“They further opposed the arguments of the admiral by quoting those current fables respecting the five zones, and other fictions, which they believed were true. They therefore determined to condemn the enterprise as foolish and impracticable, and to declare that it did not become the state and dignity of such great sovereigns to be misled by such weak information. Therefore, after much time had been spent in considering the project, their highnesses answered the admiral that they were then engaged in too many wars and conquests, and especially in the conquest of Granada, which was then occupying their attention, and therefore it was not convenient for them to espouse this new enterprise at that time; nevertheless, another opportunity might be given them when they could more satisfactorily examine and accomplish that which he proposed.”[134]

Chagrined as he may have been by this second disappointment, Columbus, with that noble enthusiasm which the personal consciousness of being in the right begets, “determined to apply to the king of France, to whom he had already written concerning the project, intending, if he were not admitted to an audience there, to go to England afterward to search for his brother, from whom he had not yet received any intelligence. With this resolution he set out for the monastery of La Rabida, to send his son Diego, whom he had left there, to Cordova, and then proceed on his journey. But in order that the thing which God had decreed should come to pass, it was put in the heart of Friar Juan Perez, guardian of that house, to befriend the admiral, and to be so captivated with his project that he became deeply concerned respecting his resolution and the loss Spain would sustain by his departure. Therefore he entreated the admiral not to proceed any farther, for he would himself go to the queen, hoping that, as he was her father-confessor, she would be governed by what he should say to her. Although the admiral was disappointed and disgusted with the discreditable action and judgment of the counsellors of their highnesses, yet, being on the other hand very desirous that Spain should reap the benefits of his undertaking, he complied with the friar’s desire and request, for he considered himself a Spaniard, as he had long resided in Spain prosecuting his undertaking and had begotten children there, which was the reason for his rejection of the offers made him by other sovereigns, as he declares in a letter written to their highnesses [of Spain] in these words: “That I might serve your highnesses, I have refused to undertake with France, England, and Portugal; the letters from the sovereigns of which your highnesses may see in the hands of Doctor Villalan.”

“The admiral departed with Friar Juan Perez from the monastery of La Rabida, near Palos, and went to the camp of Santa Fé, where their catholic majesties were carrying on the siege of Granada. The friar then had an interview with the queen and so entreated her, that she consented that the conferences respecting the discovery should be renewed. But the opinions of the prior of Prado and those of his followers were discouraging, besides Columbus desired to be made admiral and viceroy, and to have other compensations deemed too considerable to be granted, because if he succeeded in doing what he proposed, they thought his demands were too exorbitant, and in case he did not accomplish any thing, they considered it foolish to bestow such titles; consequently the matter received no favorable decision.... These things being of such importance, and their highnesses refusing to grant them, the admiral took leave of his friends, and proceeded toward Cordova to make preparations for his journey to France, for he had determined not to return to Portugal, although the king had written to him....

“It was in the month of January, in the year 1492, when the admiral departed from the camp of Santa Fé. On that same day also Luis de Santángel, previously mentioned, who did not approve of his going away, but was very desirous to prevent it, went to the queen, and using such words as his thoughts suggested to persuade and enlighten her, said, he was surprised that her highness, who had always a great fondness for all matters of moment and consequence should now be timid in favoring this undertaking, where so little was hazarded that might contribute in many ways to the glory of God and the propagation of religion.... The queen, knowing the sincerity of Santángel’s words, answered, thanking him for his good advice and saying she was willing to accept the proposals upon the condition that the undertaking should be delayed until she had more leisure after the war, and yet, if he thought differently, she was satisfied that as much money as was required to fit out a fleet, should be borrowed on her jewels. But Santángel, perceiving that the queen had condescended upon his advice to do what she had refused all other persons, replied that there was no need of pawning her jewels, for he would do her highness that small service by lending his money. Thereupon the queen at once sent an officer post-haste to bring the admiral back, who found him upon the bridge of Pinos, two leagues from Granada. Although the admiral was much disheartened by the disappointments and delays he had met with in this undertaking, nevertheless, being informed of the queen’s wish and intention, he returned to the camp of Santa Fé, where he was graciously entertained by their catholic majesties, and his commission and stipulations were intrusted to their secretary, Juan de Coloma, who, by the command of their highnesses, under their hand and seal, granted him all the conditions and provisions which, as already mentioned, he had demanded, without altering or subtracting any thing in them.”[135]

CHAPTER IV.
1492-1493.

Sensibly impressed with the importance of his undertaking, Columbus determined to keep a journal of such observations and incidents as were most noteworthy during the voyage. Governed by this intention, he made the following entry in his log-book, when he set sail for the remote shores of Cathay:

“In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

“Whereas the most Christian, high, excellent, and powerful rulers, the king and the queen of Spain and of the islands of the sea, our sovereigns, this present year, 1492, after your highnesses had ended the war with the Moors ruling in Europe, the same having terminated in the great city of Granada, where, on the second day of January, this present year, I saw the royal banners of your highnesses planted by force of arms upon the towers of the Alhambra, the fortress of that city, and beheld the Moorish king come out at the gate of the city and kiss the hands of your highnesses and of the prince, my sovereign, and in the present month, on account of the information which I had given your highnesses respecting the countries of India and of a sovereign called the Grand Khan, signifying, in our language, king of kings; how, at different times, he and his predecessors had sent to Rome soliciting instructors to teach him our holy religion, and how the holy father had never granted his request, whereby great numbers of people were lost, believing in idolatry and doctrines of perdition; therefore your highnesses, as catholic Christians and sovereigns, who love and promote the holy Christian religion, and are enemies of the sect of Mahomet, and of all idolatry and heresy, determined to send me, Christopher Columbus, (Cristóbal Colon,) to the previously mentioned countries of India, to see the said sovereigns, people, and territories, and to learn their disposition and the proper way of converting them to our holy religion; and furthermore, directed that I should not go by land to the East, as is customary, but by a westerly route, in which direction we have hitherto no certain evidence that any one has gone. Therefore, after having expelled the Jews from your dominions, your highnesses, in the same month of January, ordered me to proceed with a sufficient armament to the said regions of India, and for that purpose granted me great favors and ennobled me, that thereafter I might call myself Don and be high admiral (almirante mayor) of the sea, and perpetual viceroy and governor of all the islands and continent which I might discover and acquire, or which may hereafter be discovered and acquired in the ocean; and that this title should be inherited by my eldest son, and thus descend from generation to generation forever. Thereupon I left the city of Granada, on Saturday, the twelfth day of May, 1492, and proceeded to Palos, a seaport, where I armed three vessels very fit for such an expedition, and having provided myself with an abundance of stores and seamen, I set sail from this port on Friday, the third of August, half an hour before sunrise, and steered for the Canary Islands of your highnesses, which are in the said ocean, thence to take my departure and proceed till I arrived at the Indies, and perform the embassy of your highnesses to the sovereigns there, and discharge the orders given. Consequently, I have determined to write out daily a minute account of the voyage respecting what I do and see, and the passage, as hereafter will appear. Moreover, sovereign princes, besides recording each night my progress during the day and the run made during the night, I intend to make a new nautical chart (carta nueva de navegar), in which I shall delineate all the sea and the lands of the Ocean in their proper places under their wind; and, moreover, I shall compose a book and represent the whole like a picture by latitude, from the equator, and by longitude, from the West, wherefore it will cause me to abstain from sleep and to make many experiments in navigation, for these things will require no little labor.”[136]

FIELD OF VOYAGES TO AMERICA.

ON MERCATOR’S PROJECTION.

The vessels of the fleet were the ship (la nao), Santa Maria,[137] commanded by Columbus, and two caravels, (carabelas,) La Pinta, commanded by Martin Alonso Pinzon, and La Nina, by Vicente Yañes Pinzon, his brother, both being natives and seamen of Palos. “Being furnished with all necessaries and ninety men,”[138] says Ferdinand Columbus, “they set sail on the third of August directly toward the Canaries, and from that time forward the admiral was very careful to keep an accurate journal of all that happened to him during the voyage, specifying the wind that blew, how far he sailed with it, the currents he found, and what he saw by the way, whether birds or fishes, or other things....

“The next day after the admiral’s departure for the Canary Islands, it being Saturday, the fourth of August, the rudder of one of the caravels, of the one called La Pinta, broke loose, and the caravel being compelled to lie to, the admiral soon reached her side, but the wind blowing hard he could render no assistance, as commanders at sea are obliged to do to encourage those that are in distress. This he did more promptly, as he conceived that the unshipping of the rudder had been brought about by the contrivance of the master to avoid going on the voyage, as he had attempted to do before they set sail.”[139]

At the Canary Islands, Columbus altered the sails of the caravel La Nina, and made a new rudder for the Pinta. On Thursday morning, the sixth of September, the three vessels set sail from the island Gomera, of the Canary group, “and stood away to the west.” On the following Sunday, at day-break, when the fleet was nine leagues west of the island of Ferro,[140] the sailors “lost sight of land, and many, fearing that it would be long before they should see it again, sighed and wept, but the admiral, after comforting them with large promises of land and of wealth, to raise their hopes and lessen their fears respecting the length of the voyage, pretended that by his computation they had sailed only fifteen leagues that day when they had really run eighteen, he having determined to keep, during the voyage, his reckoning short, in order that the men might not think that they were so far from Spain as they were, should he openly set down the progress made which he privately recorded.[141]

“Continuing his voyage in this way, on Wednesday, the twelfth of September, about sun-setting, being about one hundred and fifty leagues west of the island of Ferro, he discovered a large piece of the trunk of a tree of one hundred and twenty tons, which seemed to have been a long time in the water. There and somewhat farther the current set strongly toward the northeast. When he had run fifty leagues farther westward, on the thirteenth of September he found at night-fall that the needle varied half a point toward the northeast, and, at day-break, half a point more, by which he understood that the needle did not point at the north star, but at some other fixed and visible point. This variation no man had observed before, and therefore he had occasion to be surprised at it; but he was more amazed on the third day after this, when he was almost one hundred leagues farther, for at night the needles varied about a point to the northeast, and in the morning they pointed upon the star.”[142]

As they sailed on this westward course, they found “more weeds than they had hitherto toward the north as far as they could see, which weeds were sometimes a solace to them, believing that they might come from some land that was near, and sometimes they caused dread, because they were so thick that in some measure they impeded the ships, and fear making things worse than they are, they apprehended that that might happen to them which is fictitiously reported of Saint Amaro in the Frozen Sea, which it is said does not suffer ships to stir backward or forward, and therefore they steered away from the shoals of weeds as far as possible.[143]

“The wind at this time blew at southwest, sometimes more and sometimes less west, which, though contrary to their voyage, the admiral said he considered a very good wind and a help to them, because the men, continually grumbling, said that among the things which increased their fears this was one, for the wind being always astern, they should never have a gale in those seas to carry them back; and though sometimes they found the contrary, they alleged that it was no settled wind, and that not being strong enough to swell the sea, it would never carry them back as far as they had to sail. Although the admiral did whatever he could to make them cheerful, telling them that the land being now so near did not permit the waves to rise, and using the best argument he could, nevertheless he affirms that he stood in need of God’s special help, as Moses did when he led the Israelites out of Egypt, who forbore laying violent hands upon him, because of the wonders God wrought through him. The admiral said that he was similarly protected in this voyage. On the following Sunday the wind began to blow from the west-northwest, with a rolling sea as the men wished, and three hours before noon they saw a turtle-dove fly over the ship, and in the evening they saw a pelican, a river fowl, and other wild birds, and some crabs among the weeds; and the next day they espied another pelican, and several small birds which came from the west, and small fishes, some of which the men of the other vessels stuck with harpoons, because they would not bite at the hook.”[144]

“As often as the men were deceived by these signs of land, so often had they occasion to be suspicious and to grumble and conspire together. They said the admiral, for a foolish whim, intended to make himself a great lord at the hazard of their lives, and since they had done their duty in trying their fortune, and had gone farther from land and any succor than others had done, that they ought not to destroy themselves, nor proceed farther on the voyage, because if they did, they should have reason to repent, for their provisions would fall short and the sails of the ships would not last, which they knew were already so impaired that it would be difficult to retrace their course from where they were; and that none would condemn them for returning, but that they would be regarded as very brave men for going upon such an expedition and venturing so far, and that the admiral being a foreigner, and having nothing at stake, and as many wise and learned men had condemned his opinion, there would be nobody now to favor and defend him, and that they should get more credit than he if they accused him of ignorance and mismanagement, whatever he should say for himself. And there were some who said that to end all dispute, in case he would not consent to return, that they could make short work of it and throw him overboard, and report that while he was making his observations he fell into the sea, and that no man would trouble himself to inquire into the truth of the matter; which deed would hasten their return home and preserve their lives. Thus they conducted themselves from day to day, grumbling, complaining, and conspiring together. The admiral was not without apprehensions of their inconstancy and evil intentions toward him. Therefore, sometimes with fair words and sometimes with a strong determination to expose his life, putting them in mind of the punishment due them if they hindered the voyage, he, in some measure, quelled their fears and suppressed their evil designs. To confirm the hope with which he had inspired them, he reminded them of the previous signs and indications, assuring them that they would soon find land, which they were so eager to see that they thought every hour a year until they beheld it....

“On Sunday morning [the thirtieth of September], four rush-tails came to the ship, and as they flew there together, it was thought that land was near, especially when, not long afterward, four pelicans flew by, and an abundance of weeds was seen, lying in a line west-northwest and east-southeast, and also a great number of those fishes they call emperadores, which have a very hard skin and are not fit to eat. However much the admiral regarded these signs, still he never forgot those in the heavens and the course of the stars. He therefore observed in this place, to his great astonishment, that the stars of Charles’s wain, at night, appeared in the west, and in the morning they were directly northeast, from which he inferred that their whole night’s course was but three lines or nine hours—that is, so many parts of twenty-four,—and this he did every night. He also perceived that at night-fall the compass-needle varied a whole point to the northwest, and at day-break it came right with the star. These things confounded the pilots until he told them that the cause of it was the circuit the star took about the pole, which was some satisfaction to them, for this variation made them apprehend some danger at such an unknown distance from home, and in such strange regions....

“On Monday, the first of October, at sunrise, a pelican came to the ship, and two more about ten in the morning, and long beds of weeds extended from east to west. That day, in the morning, the pilot of the admiral’s ship said that they were five hundred and seventy-eight leagues west of the island of Ferro. The admiral said, by his reckoning, they were five hundred and eighty-four leagues; but in secret he concluded it was seven hundred and seven, which is one hundred and twenty-nine leagues more than the pilot reckoned. The other two vessels differed much in their computations, for the pilot of the caravel Nina, on the following Wednesday afternoon, said they had sailed five hundred and forty leagues, and the other of the caravel Pinta said six hundred and thirty-four....

“On Thursday afternoon, the fourth of October, a flock of more than forty sparrows and two pelicans flew so near the ship that a seaman killed one of them with a stone; and before this they had seen another bird like a rush-tail, and another like a swallow, and a great many flying-fish fell into the vessels. The next day there came a rush-tail and a pelican from the west, and great numbers of sparrows were seen.

“On Sunday, the seventh of October, about sunrise, some signs of land appeared westward, but being undefined, no one said any thing, for fear of the consequence of asserting what did not exist, and also for fear of losing the thirty crowns which their catholic majesties had promised as an annuity during the life of him who should first discover land. In order to prevent the men from crying land, land, at every turn, as they would likely have done without cause to secure the gift, it was ordered that whoever said he saw land, if it were not ascertained to exist in three days from that time, should lose the reward, even if afterward he should be declared to be the first discoverer of land. All on board of the admiral’s ship being thus forewarned, none dared to cry out land, but those in the caravel Nina, which was a better sailer, and kept ahead, once believing that they actually saw land, fired a gun, and displayed their colors to indicate land. But the farther they sailed the more their joyous expectations diminished and the indication of land disappeared. However, it pleased God to give them soon after some comforting assurances, for they saw great flocks of large fowl and others of small birds flying from the west toward the southwest. Therefore, the admiral, being now so far from Spain, and sure that such small birds would not go far from land, altered his course, which until that time had been westward, and stood to the southwest, saying, that his reason for changing his course was that he would deviate but a little from his first intention and that he would be following the example of the Portuguese, who had discovered the greater number of their islands by means of such birds, and more especially as the birds he saw flew generally in the same direction. He also had always proposed to himself to find land according to the place they were in; since, as they well knew, he had often told them that he never expected to find land until he was seven hundred and fifty leagues westward of the Canary Islands, within which distance, he had further said, he should discover Española, which, at this time, he called Cipango....

“On Monday, the eighth of October, there came to the ship twelve singing-birds of several colors, and after flying about the vessel, they held on their way. They also saw from the vessels many other birds flying toward the southwest, and that same night great numbers of large fowls were seen, and flocks of small birds coming from the north, and flying after the others. Besides they saw a good number of tunny-fish. In the morning they saw a jay, a pelican, some ducks, and small birds, flying the same way as the others had done, and they perceived that the air was fresh and odoriferous, as it is at Seville in April. But they were now so eager to see land, that they had no faith in any signs; so that, on Wednesday, the tenth of October, although they saw a great many birds pass by during the day and at night, the men did not cease to complain, or the admiral to censure them for their want of confidence, declaring to them, that right or wrong they must go farther to discover the Indies for which purpose their catholic majesties had sent them.

“The admiral being no longer able to withstand the number that opposed him, it pleased God that on Thursday afternoon, the eleventh of October, the men took heart and rejoiced, because they had unquestionable signs that they were near land. Those on board the admiral’s ship saw a green rush float by the ship, and then a large green fish of that class which go not far from the rocks. Those on board the caravel Pinta saw a cane and a staff, and picked up another staff curiously wrought, and a small board, and an abundance of fresh weeds washed from the shore. Those in the caravel Nina saw similar things, and a branch of a thorn full of red berries, which seemed to be recently broken off. By these signs and by his own consciousness, the admiral, being assured that he was near land, made a speech to all the men in the evening, after prayers, reminding them how merciful God had been in bringing them on so long a voyage with such fair weather, and comforting them with indications which every day were plainer and plainer. He begged them to be very watchful that night, for they were aware that in the first article of the instructions he had given each ship at the Canary Islands, that he had ordered that when they had sailed seven hundred leagues to the west, without discovering land, that they should lie to from midnight until daylight. Therefore, since they had not yet obtained their desires in discovering land, they should at least manifest their zeal by being watchful. And inasmuch as he had the strongest assurances of finding land that night, each should watch in his place; for besides the annuity of thirty crowns which their highnesses had promised for a life-time to the one that first saw land, to the same person he would give a velvet doublet.

“After this, about ten at night, as the admiral was in the great cabin, he saw a light on shore, but said it was so obscure that he could not affirm it to be land, though he called Pedro Gutierrez, and bid him observe whether he saw the light, who said he did. Shortly afterward they called Rodrigo Sanchez, of Segovia, to look that way, but he could not see it, because he did not come in time to the place where it might have been seen. They did not see it more than once or twice, which induced them to think that it might have been a candle or a torch belonging to some fisherman or traveller, who lifted it up and down; or, perhaps, that it was in the hands of people going from one house to another, as the light vanished and suddenly appeared again.... Being now very watchful, they still held on their course, until about two in the morning, when the caravel Pinta, which, being an excellent sailer, was far ahead, gave the signal of land, which was first discovered by a sailor named Rodrigo de Triana, when two leagues from the shore. But the annuity of thirty crowns was not given to him by their catholic majesties, but to the admiral, who had seen the light in the darkness, signifying the spiritual light that he was then spreading in those dark regions. Being now near land, all the ships lay to, those on board thinking it was a long time until morning, when they might see what they had so long desired.”[145]

This island, says Bartolomé de las Casas, the Spanish historian,[146] was “one of the Lucayos, called by the Indians Guanahani.[147] Presently they descried people, naked, and the admiral landed in the boat, which was armed, along with Martin Alonso Pinzon and Vicente Yañez, his brother, captain of the Nina. The admiral bore the royal standard, and the two captains each a banner of the green cross, which all the vessels had carried. The banner was emblazoned with the initials of the names of the king and queen[148] on each side of the cross, with a crown over each letter. When they came on the beach, they saw trees very green, an abundance of water, and fruit of different kinds. The admiral called the two captains and the other men who had come on land, and Rodrigo de Escovedo, notary of the fleet, and Rodrigo Sanchez de Segovia, and said that he had summoned them to bear witness that he, before all other men, took possession (as in act he did) of that island for the king and the queen, his sovereigns, making the requisite declarations which are more at large set down in the instrument which they made there in writing.”

The natives who collected around the Spaniards at their landing are thus described by Columbus: “I perceived that if they should have much friendship for us that it was a people that could be emancipated and converted to our holy religion better by love than by force. I gave a number of them some red caps and some beads of glass, which they placed around their necks, and many other things of little value, with which they were much pleased, and they became so friendly that their attachment seemed strange to us. Afterward they came swimming to the boats of the ships, where we were, bringing parrots and thread of cotton in hanks, javelins, and many other things, which they exchanged for other articles we gave them, such as glass beads and little bells. Finally they took every thing and gave whatever they had with good-will. But to me they seemed to be a very poor people. They were all naked, just as they were born, and even the women, although I did not see but one young girl. All the rest I saw were youths, but none more than thirty years of age; very well made, of good shape, and very attractive faces; their hair coarse as that of the tail of a horse, and short, brought over the forehead to the eyebrows, except a little on the back of the head, which is longer and never cut. Some paint themselves black, for they are of the color of those of the Canary Islands—neither black nor white; others paint themselves white or red, or with any color they find. Some paint their faces, and some their bodies; others only their eyes or their noses. They carry no weapons and they have no knowledge of them; for when I showed them swords they took them by the edge and they cut themselves through ignorance. They have no iron. Their javelins are rods without iron, and some of these have at the end a fish-tooth, and others have other things. All of them, as a class, are of a commanding stature, and are good-looking, well formed. I saw some marks of wounds on their bodies, and I asked by signs what had caused them. They answered me in the same way, that people came from the other islands thereabout to capture them, and they defended themselves. I thought then, and still believe, that those people came from the continent, (tierra firme,) to take them prisoners. They ought to be good servants and very capable, because I perceived that they repeated very readily all that I told them, and I believe that they would easily become Christians, for they seemed to me as if they had no religion. If pleasing to our Lord, I shall carry from this place, at the time of my departure, six of them to your highnesses, in order that they may learn to talk in our language. I did not see any animals of any kind on the island, except parrots....

“Soon after day-break [on Saturday, the thirteenth of October,] many of these people came to the beach, as I have said, all youths and of good stature, a very handsome people; their hair not curled, but straight and coarse, like horse-hair, and all with faces and heads much broader than any other race that I have seen; their eyes very beautiful and not small; they were not black, but the color of those of the Canaries, nor ought it to be expected otherwise, for it is east-west (Lesteoueste) with the island Ferro of the Canary group, on the same parallel.[149] ... They came to the ship in canoes, log-boats, made of the trunks of trees, all of one piece, and fashioned in a wonderful manner, considering the country. In some of the large ones were as many as forty or forty-five men, and in others that were smaller there was only one person. They rowed with an oar resembling the wooden shovel used by bakers, and went wonderfully fast, and if the canoe upset, all swam and set it right again, bailing it out with calabashes which they carried with them. They brought balls of spun cotton, and parrots, and javelins, and other things which it would be tedious to describe, and which they parted with for any thing that was given them. And I was inquisitive and endeavored to ascertain if they had gold, and I saw some who wore small pieces hanging from holes in their noses, and I learned by signs that, by going to the south, or by going around the island to the south, I would find a king who had large vessels made of gold, and great quantities of the precious metal.”[150]

Columbus describing this island, which he named San Salvador (the Holy Saviour), under whose protection he had made the discovery, continues: “This is a large and level island, with extremely flourishing trees, and streams of water. There is a large lake in the middle of the island, but no mountains. It is entirely covered with verdure and it is delightful to behold. The natives are an inoffensive people, and so desirous to possess any thing they saw with us that they kept swimming off to the ships with whatever they could find, and readily bartered for any article we saw fit to give them in return, even such things as broken platters and pieces of glass. I saw in this manner sixteen balls of cotton thread, which weighed about twenty-five pounds, exchanged for three Portuguese ceutis.[151] This traffic I forbade, and permitted no one to take their cotton from them, unless I should order it to be procured for your highnesses, if sufficient quantities could be obtained. It grows on this island, but from my short stay here I could not inform myself fully respecting it. The gold they wear in their noses is also found here. But not to lose time, I am determined to proceed and ascertain whether I can reach Cipango (Japan)....

“In the morning, [Sunday, the fourteenth of October,] I ordered the boats to be manned and furnished, and coasted along the island toward the north-northeast, to examine that part of it, for we had landed first on the eastern part. We soon discovered two or three villages, and the people all came down to the shore, calling to us, and giving thanks to God. Some brought us water, and others food. Others seeing that I was not disposed to land plunged into the sea and swam to us, and we observed that they interrogated us to know if we had come from heaven. An old man came on board my boat. The others, both men and women, cried with loud voices: ‘Come and see the men who have come from heaven! Bring them food and drink!’ Thereupon many of both sexes came to the beach, every one bringing something, giving thanks to God, prostrating themselves on the ground, and lifting their hands to heaven. They called to us loudly to come on land, but I was apprehensive on account of a reef of rocks, which, except where there is a narrow entrance, surrounds the whole island, although within there is depth of water and space sufficient for all the ships of Christendom....

“After I had taken a survey of these parts, I returned to the ship. Setting sail, I discovered so many islands that I knew not which to visit first. The natives whom I had taken on board informed me by signs that there were so many of them that they could not be numbered. They repeated the names of more than a hundred. I determined to steer for the largest, which is about five leagues from San Salvador; the others were at a greater or less distance from this island....

“We stood off and on during the night [of Monday, the fifteenth of October], determining not to come to anchor till morning, fearing to meet with shoals. We continued our course in the morning, and as the island was found to be six or seven leagues distant, and the tide was against us, it was noon before we arrived there. I found that part of it, toward San Salvador, extending from north to south to be five leagues, and the other side, along which we coasted, running from east to west, to be more than ten leagues. From this island, espying a still larger one to the west, I set sail in that direction and kept on till night without reaching the western extremity of the island, where I gave it the name of Santa Maria de la Concepcion.... I now set sail for another large island to the west.... This island is nine leagues distant from Santa Maria, in a westerly direction. This part of it extends from northwest to southeast, and it appears to be twenty-eight leagues long, very level, without any mountains, as were San Salvador and Santa Maria, having a good shore which was not rocky, except a few ledges under the water, where it is necessary to anchor at some distance out, although the water is clear and the bottom can be seen....” This island he called Fernandina, in honor of the king of Spain.

On Friday, the nineteenth of October, he descried an island, “toward which,” he remarks, “we directed our course, and before noon all three of the vessels arrived at the northern extremity, where a rocky islet and reef extend toward the north, with another between them and the main island. The Indians on board the ships called this island Saomete. I named it Isabela [in honor of the queen]. It lies westerly from the island of Fernandina, and the coast extends from the islet twelve leagues west to a cape I called Cabo Hermoso, for it was a beautiful, round headland, with a bold shore free from shoals. Part of the shore is rocky, but the remainder of it, like most of the coast here, a sandy beach.... This island is the most beautiful that I have yet seen, the trees in great numbers, flourishing and tall; the land is higher than the other islands, and exhibits an eminence, which, though it cannot be called a mountain, yet it adds a charm to the appearance of the island, and indicates the existence of streams of water in the interior. From this part toward the northeast is an extensive bay, with many large and dense groves.... I am not solicitous to examine particularly every thing here, which, indeed, could not be done in fifty years, for it is my desire to make all possible discoveries, and return to your highnesses, if it please our Lord, in April. However, should I meet with gold or spices in great quantity, I shall remain till I collect as much as possible, and for this purpose I am only proceeding in search of them.” ...

Under the date of Sunday, the twenty-first of October, while at anchor off the island of Isabela, Columbus writes: “I shall depart immediately, if the weather serve, and sail round the island till I succeed in meeting with the king, in order to see if I can acquire any of the gold which, I hear, he possesses. Afterward I shall set sail for another very large island, which I believe to be Cipango, according to the signs I receive from the Indians on board. They call the island Colba [Cuba], and say there are many large ships and sailors there. Another island they call Bosio, and inform me that it is very large. The others that are on the course I shall examine on the way, and accordingly as I find gold or spices in abundance, I shall determine what to do. Nevertheless, I am determined to proceed to the continent, and visit the city of Guisay [the city of heaven, the residence of the Grand Khan], where I shall deliver the letters of your highnesses to the Grand Khan, and demand an answer, with which I shall return....

“Tuesday, the twenty-third of October.... It is now my determination to depart for the island of Cuba, which I believe to be Cipango from the accounts I have received here of the great number and riches of the people. I have abandoned the intention of staying here and sailing round the island in search of the king, as it would be a waste of time, and I perceive there are no gold mines to be found.... And as we are going to places where there is great commerce, I judge it inexpedient to linger on the way, but to proceed and survey the countries we meet with, till we arrive at that one most favorable for our business. It is my opinion that we shall find much profit there in spices, but my want of knowledge in these articles occasions me extreme regret, inasmuch as I see a thousand kinds of trees, each kind with its particular fruit, and as flourishing at this time as the fields in Spain during the months of May and June. Likewise a thousand kinds of herbs and flowers, of the properties of which I remain in ignorance, with the exception of the aloe, which I have directed to-day to be taken on board in large quantities for the use of your highnesses....

“Wednesday, the twenty-fourth of October.... At midnight weighed anchor and set sail from Cabo del Isles of the island of Isabela, being in the north part, where I had remained preparing to depart for the island of Cuba, in which place the Indians tell me I shall find great commerce, with abundance of gold and spices, and large ships, and merchants. They direct me to steer toward the west-southwest, which is the course I am holding. If the accounts which the natives of the islands and those on board the ships have communicated to me by signs (for their language I do not understand) are credible, this must be the island of Cipango, of which we have heard so many wonderful things. According to my geographical knowledge it must be somewhere in this neighborhood.”

On Sunday, the twenty-eighth of October, Columbus’s ships arrived off the coast of Cuba and “entered an attractive river, free from shallows and all other obstructions.... The mouth of the river had a depth of twelve fathoms of water, and a breadth sufficient for ships to beat in. They anchored within the river, and the admiral remarks that the scenery here exceeded in beauty any thing he had ever seen, the river being bordered with trees of the most beautiful and luxuriant foliage of a peculiar appearance, and its banks covered with flowers and fruits of different kinds. Birds were here in great number singing most charmingly. Numerous palm trees were seen, different from those of Guinea and Spain, not having the same kind of bark. They were of a moderate height and bore very large leaves, which the natives used to cover their houses. The land appeared quite level. The admiral went ashore in a boat, and found two dwellings, which he supposed to be those of fishermen, and that the owners had fled. He found in one of them a dog unable to bark. Both houses contained nets of palm, lines, horn fish-hooks, harpoons of bone, and other implements for fishing, as also many fire-places, and each house seemed sufficiently large to shelter a great number of people. The admiral gave orders that nothing should be touched.... They returned on board the boat and ascended the river some distance.... The admiral declares this to be the most beautiful island ever seen, abounding in good harbors and deep rivers, with a shore upon which it appears the sea never breaks high, as the grass grows down to the water’s edge, a thing that never happens where the sea is rough. Indeed, a high sea they had not yet had among these islands. This island, he says, is full of attractive mountains, which are lofty, although not of great range. The rest of the country is high, similar to Sicily, abounding in streams, as they understood from the Indians of Guanahani that were on board the ships, who informed them by signs that it contained ten large rivers, and that the island was so large that with their canoes they could not sail round it in twenty days.... The Indians told them there were mines of gold here and pearls.... They further informed him that large vessels came there from the Grand Khan, and that the main-land was distant a voyage of ten days. The admiral named the river and port San Salvador.” Farther westward, along the northern side of the island, Columbus discovered the rivers which he called Rio de la Luna (River of the Moon), and the Rio de Mares (River of Seas). The houses which were built on the shores of the latter river, he says, were “the finest he had yet seen, and thinks, the nearer he approaches the continent, they will continue to improve. They were of a large size, built in the shape of a tent, and each collection of them appeared like a camp, without any order of streets, the houses scattered here and there. Their interiors were found very clean and neat, well furnished and set in order. The houses were all built of fine palm branches. They found here many statues shaped like women, and numerous heads somewhat like masks, well made; whether these were used as ornaments, or objects of worship, did not appear. Here, about the houses, were small fowl originally wild, but now tame.”

On Tuesday, the thirtieth of October, “they sailed from the river which they had named Rio de Mares, and standing to the northwest, discovered a cape covered with palm trees, which the admiral called Cabo de Palmas; it is fifteen leagues distant from the place of their departure. The Indians on board the Pinta signified to the Spaniards, that beyond this cape was a river, and from this river to Cuba was a distance of a voyage or a journey of four days. The captain of the Pinta declared that he understood Cuba to be a city, and that the land here was a continent of great extent which stretched far to the north; also that the king of this country was at war with the Grand Khan, whom the Indians called Cami, and his country or city, Fava and other names. The admiral determined to steer for this river, and to send a present and the letter of the Spanish sovereigns to the king.... Seemingly the admiral was forty-two degrees distant from the equator toward the north, if the manuscript is not corrupted from which I [Las Casas] have taken this [information], and he says that he had undertaken to go to the Grand Khan, who, he thinks, was near there or in the city of Cathay of the Grand Khan, which city is very large according to what was told before he departed from Spain.”

The vessels having returned on Wednesday to the Rio de Mares from a short exploration of the coast, the admiral at sunrise, on Thursday, sent some of his men ashore “to visit the houses they saw there. They found the inhabitants had all fled, but after some time they espied a man. The admiral then sent one of his Indians ashore, who called to him from a distance and bade him not to fear any harm as the Spaniards were a friendly people, not injuring any one nor belonging to the Grand Khan, but on the contrary had made many presents of their goods to the inhabitants of the islands. The natives, having ascertained that no ill treatment was intended them, regained confidence, and came in more than sixteen canoes to the vessels, bringing cotton yarn and other things, which the admiral ordered should not be taken from them, as he wished them to understand that he was in search of nothing but gold, which they called nucay. All day the canoes passed between the ships and the shore. The admiral saw no gold among them, but remarks that, having observed an Indian with a piece of wrought silver in his nose, he conceived it to be an indication of the existence of that metal in the country. The Indians informed them by signs that within three days many traders would come there from the interior to purchase the goods of the Spaniards to whom the traders would communicate news of the king, who, as far as could be learned from the signs of the natives, resided at a place that was a journey of four days from there. They informed the Spaniards also that many persons had been sent to tell the king respecting the admiral. These people were found to be of the same race and manners as those already seen, without any religion that could be discovered. The Spaniards never saw the Indians who were kept on board the vessels engaged in any act of worship, but they would, when directed, make the sign of the cross, and repeat the Salve and Ave Maria, with their hands extended toward heaven. The language is the same throughout these islands and the people friendly toward one another, which the admiral says he believes to be the case in all the neighboring parts, and that they are at war with the Grand Khan, whom they call Cavila, and his country Bafan. These people go naked as the others.... It is certain, says the admiral, that this is the continent, and that we are in the neighborhood of Zayto and Guinsay, a hundred leagues more or less distant from the one or the other.”[152]

With his thoughts all aglow with his seeming power to prove the correctness of his geographical conjecture that he had reached the eastern coast of Asia, Columbus sent from this place, on the second of November, Rodrigo de Jerez of Ayamonte, and Luis de Torres, a Jew, (the latter having lived with the adelantado of Murcia, and who knew Hebrew, Chaldaic, and some Arabic,) and two Indians, into the interior of the island, with letters to the Grand Khan of Cathay. “He gave them strings of beads to purchase provisions, and directed them to return within six days. Specimens of spicery were intrusted to them that they might know if any thing similar existed in the country. He took care to instruct them how they should inquire for the king, and what they were to say to inform him that the king and queen of Castile had dispatched him with letters and a present for his majesty. Furthermore, the envoys were instructed to obtain some knowledge of the country, and observe the ports and rivers, with their distances from the place where the ships lay. Here the admiral took this night the altitude with a quadrant, and found that he was forty-two degrees from the equator, and by his calculation eleven hundred and forty-two leagues from Ferro, and he was confident that it was the continent.”[153]

Among the noticeable things which the embassadors observed while journeying into the interior of Cuba was the common use of tobacco by the natives. “The two Spaniards,” says Las Casas, “met upon their journey great numbers of people of both sexes: the men always with a firebrand in their hands and certain herbs for smoking. These were dry and were placed in a dry leaf, after the manner of those paper tubes which the boys in Spain use at Whitsuntide. Lighting one end, they drew the smoke by sucking at the other. This causes drowsiness and a kind of intoxication, and according to the statement of the natives relieves them from the feeling of fatigue. These tubes they call by the name of tabacos.”[154]

While waiting the return of the embassadors to the Grand Khan, Columbus acquired some knowledge of the productions of Cuba. “The soil is very fertile, producing mames, a root like a carrot, tasting like chestnuts. Beans are also found here but very dissimilar to ours; also cotton, growing spontaneously among the mountains. I am of the opinion that it is gathered at all seasons of the year, for I observed upon a single plant blossoms, buds, and open pods. A thousand other productions I have also observed, which doubtless are of great value, but it is impossible for me to describe them.”

On the fifth of November, the party sent to the Grand Khan returned, and gave these particulars of their journey: “After having travelled a dozen leagues they came to a town containing about fifty houses, where there were probably a thousand inhabitants; each house containing a large number of people. The houses were built after the manner of large tents. The inhabitants received them, after their fashion, with great ceremony. The men and women flocked to behold them, and they were lodged in their best houses. They showed their admiration and reverence by touching the strangers, kissing their hands and feet, and manifesting astonishment. They imagined them to be from heaven, and signified as much to them. They were feasted with such food as the natives had to offer. Upon their arrival at the town the chief men of the place led them by the arms to the principal building; here they gave them seats, and the Indians sat upon the ground in a circle round them. The Indians who had accompanied the Spaniards explained to the natives the manner in which their strange guests lived, and gave a favorable account of their character. The men then left the building, and the women entered, and sat around the Spaniards as the men had done. They kissed their hands and feet and examined them to see whether they were flesh and bone like their own.... No village was seen upon the road of a larger size than five houses.... Great numbers of birds were observed, all different from those of Spain except the nightingales, which delighted them with their songs. Partridges and geese were also found in great number. Of quadrupeds they saw none except dogs that could not bark. The soil appeared fertile and under good cultivation, producing the mames already mentioned and beans very dissimilar to ours, as well as the grain called panic. They saw large quantities of cotton, spun and manufactured. A single house contained more than five hundred arrobas[155] of it. Four thousand quintals might be collected here yearly.... These people are inoffensive and peaceable. They are unclothed, but the women wear a slight covering about their loins. Their manners are very decent, and their complexion not very dark, but lighter than the inhabitants of the Canary Islands. ‘I have no doubt, most serene sovereigns,’ says the admiral, ‘that were some proper, devout, and religious persons to come among them and learn their language, it would be an easy matter to convert them all to Christianity, and I hope in our Lord that your highnesses will devote yourselves with much diligence to this object, and bring as great a multitude into the church, inasmuch as you have exterminated those who refused to confess the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.’

“I have observed that these people have no religion, neither are they idolaters, but are a very gentle race, without the knowledge of any iniquity. They neither kill, steal, nor carry weapons, and are so timid that one of our men can put a hundred of them to flight, although they readily sport and play tricks with them. They have the knowledge that there is a God above, and are firmly persuaded that we have come from heaven. They quickly learn such prayers as we repeat to them, and also to make the sign of the cross.’ ...

“Along the Rio de Mares, which I left last evening, [Sunday, the eleventh of November,] there is undoubtedly considerable mastic, and the quantity might be increased, for the trees when transplanted easily take root. They are of a lofty size, bearing leaves and fruit like the lentisk. The tree, however, is taller and has a larger leaf than the lentisk, as is mentioned by Pliny, and as I have myself observed in the island of Scio, in the Archipelago. I ordered many of these trees to be tapped in order to extract the resin, but as the weather was rainy all the time I was on the river, I was unable to procure more than a very small quantity, which I have preserved for your highnesses.... Great quantities of cotton might be raised here, and sold profitably, as I think, without being carried to Spain, but to the cities of the Grand Khan, which we shall doubtless discover, as well as many others belonging to other sovereigns. These may become a source of profit to your highnesses by trading there with the productions of Spain and of the other countries of Europe. Here also is to be found plenty of aloe, which, however, is not of very great value, but the mastic assuredly is, as it is found nowhere else than in the previously mentioned island of Scio, where, if I rightly remember, it is produced to the amount of fifty thousand ducats annually.”

Columbus further remarks, that at this point, near the river which he had called Rio del Sol, “he found the weather somewhat cold, and, as it was in the winter, he thought it not prudent to prosecute his discoveries any farther toward the north.”[156]

A copy of a part of the map of the New World (tabvla terre nove) contained in the edition of Ptolemy’s Geography printed at Strasburg in 1513. (This part of the original is 9½ inches long.)

Speaking of his explorations along the coast of Cuba, in his letter to Rafael Sanchez, the admiral says: “I sailed along its coast toward the west, discovering so great an extent of territory that I could not imagine it to be an island, but the continent of Cathay.... I continued on my course, still expecting to meet with some town or city, but after having gone a great distance, and not arriving at any, and finding myself proceeding toward the north, which I was desirous to avoid on account of the cold, and, moreover, meeting with a contrary wind, I determined to return to the south, and therefore put about and sailed back to a harbor that I had observed.”[157]

On Monday, the twelfth of November, they had sailed by sunset eighteen leagues, east by south, to a cape which Columbus called Cabo de Cuba. “On the following Wednesday he entered a spacious and deep harbor,” containing so many islands that they could not be counted.... He declares that it is his opinion these islands are the innumerable ones which, on the maps, are placed at the extreme part of the East, and says that he believes they contain great riches, precious stones, and spicery, and extend far to the south, spreading out on each side. He named this place La Mar de Nuestra Senora, and the port, near the strait that extends to these islands, Puerto del Principe.

On Wednesday, the twenty-first of November, when the vessels were about eighty miles southeast of Puerto del Principe, “the admiral” says Las Casas, “found they were forty-two degrees north of the equator as at Puerto de Mares,[158] but he says here that he has stopped using the quadrant until he should go on land that he might mend it. From this statement it would seem that he doubted that he was so far from the equator, and he had reason, for it was not likely since these islands are in ⸺ degrees.[159] To know whether the quadrant was in good working order, it is said that he took an observation to see if he was north as high as Castile; and if this be true, and he was as high as Florida, what is the situation of the islands already mentioned?[160] Moreover, it is said that the heat was great. It is evident that if he were along the coast of Florida, it should not have been hot, but cold.[161] And it is also manifest that in no part of the world in the latitude of forty-two degrees is great heat experienced except by some accidental cause, and even this exception I [Las Casas] believe has never been known.”

A number of other places were sailed to by the inquisitive navigator, which, in the chronological order of their discovery, he named Puerto de Santa Catalina, Cabo del Pico, Cabo de Campana, and Puerto Santo. At this last-named harbor, on Saturday, the first of December, “they planted a cross in the solid rock.” Thence he sailed to Cabo Lindo, and thence to Cabo del Monte. On Wednesday, the fifth of December, “he determined to leave Cuba or Juana,[162] which hitherto he had taken for a continent on account of its size, having sailed along the coast a hundred and twenty leagues. He therefore left the shore and steered southeast by east, as the land last discovered appeared in that direction. He took this course because the wind always came round from the north to northeast, and from there to east and southeast. It blew hard and they carried all sail, having a smooth sea and a current favoring them, so that from morning to one in the afternoon they had sailed eight miles an hour for nearly six hours. The nights here are said to be nearly fifteen hours long. After this they went ten miles an hour, and by sunset had sailed toward the southeast eighty-eight miles, which are twenty-two leagues.”

On Thursday, the sixth of December, Columbus “found himself four leagues from the harbor named Puerto Maria.” From this place he descried several headlands to which he respectively gave the names of Cabo del Estrella, Cabo del Elefante, and Cabo de Cinquin. “There appeared to be between the two last-mentioned capes a very wide channel, which the sailors said separated an island from the mainland. This island he named Tortuga. The land here appeared high, and not mountainous, but even and level, like the finest arable tracts. The whole or the great part of it seemed to be cultivated, and the plantations resembled the wheat fields in the plain of Cordova in the month of May.”

In the evening the ships entered the harbor “which he named Puerto de San Nicolas, for it was the day of that saint.” On Friday he found the harbor which he named Puerto de la Concepcion. This harbor “is about a thousand paces or a quarter of a league wide at the mouth, without a bank or a shoal, but exceedingly deep to the edge of the beach. It extends almost three thousand paces, with a fine clear bottom. Any ship may enter it and anchor without the least hazard. Here are two small streams, and opposite the mouth of the harbor several plains, the most beautiful in the world, resembling those of Castile, except that they surpass them. On this account the admiral named the island Española.”[163]

On Wednesday, the twelfth of December, “a large cross was set up at the entrance of the harbor upon a beautiful spot upon the western side, ‘as an indication,’ in the words of the admiral, ‘that your highnesses possess the country, and particularly for a memorial of Jesus Christ, our Lord, and the mark of Christianity.’ ... The admiral here ascertained the length of the day and night, and found that from sunrise to sunset there passed twenty glasses of half an hour each, although he says there may be some error in the calculation, as the glass may not have been turned quickly enough, or the contrary. He states further, that he took an observation with the astrolabe and found the latitude to be seventeen degrees....

“The people here were all naked, king as well as subjects, the females showing no evidences of bashfulness. Both sexes were more handsome than those they had hitherto seen. Their color was light, and if they were clothed and protected from the sun and air they would almost be as fair as the inhabitants of Spain. The temperature of the air was cool and exceedingly pleasant. The land is high, covered with plains and valleys, and the highest mountains are arable. No part of Castile could produce a territory comparable to this in beauty and fertility. The whole island and that of Tortuga are covered with cultivated fields, like the plain of Cordova. In these they raise ajes, which are slips set in the ground, at the end of which roots grow like carrots. They grate these to powder, knead it, and make it into bread of a very pleasant taste, like that of chestnuts. The stalk is set out anew and produces another root, and this is repeated four or five times. The largest and most excellent that had been met with anywhere (the admiral says they are also found in Guinea) were those of this island, being of the size of a man’s leg. The natives here, according to the statement of the admiral, were stoutly built and courageous, very different from the timid islanders of the other parts; agreeable in their intercourse and without any religion.... They saw a native whom the admiral took to be the governor of the district, and whom the Indians called the cacique. He had a plate of gold as large as one’s hand, with which he seemed desirous of bartering. He carried it to his house and had it cut into pieces, which he traded away one by one.”

One of the caciques of the island sent a messenger to Columbus bearing as a present to him “a girdle, to which was attached, instead of a pouch, a mask having the nose, tongue, and ears of beaten gold.”

“I think,” Columbus writes, “no one who has seen these parts can say less in their praise than I have said. I repeat that it is a matter of wonder to see the things we have beheld, and the multitudes of people in this island, which I call Española, and the Indians Bohio. The natives are singularly agreeable in their intercourse and conversation with us, and are not like the others, who, when they speak, appear to be uttering menaces. The figures of the men and women are fine, and their color is not black, although they paint themselves. The most of them paint themselves red, others a dark hue, and others different colors, which, I understand, is done to keep the sun from injuring them. The houses and towns are very attractive, and the inhabitants live in each settlement under the rule of a sovereign or judge, to whom they pay implicit obedience. These magistrates are persons of excellent manners and great reserve, and give their orders by a sign with the hand, which is understood by all the people with surprising quickness.”

On Monday, the twenty-fourth of December, as Columbus’s ship, the Santa Maria, was running along the north side of Española, off the headland named Punta Santa, “at the end of the first watch, about eleven at night, when the vessel was about a league distant from the point of land, the admiral lay down to sleep, having taken no rest for two days and a night. As the sea was calm, the man at the helm left his post to a boy, and also went off to sleep, contrary to the explicit orders of the admiral, who had throughout the voyage forbidden, in calm or storm, the helm to be intrusted to a boy. The admiral was free from any dread of rocks or shoals, for the Sunday before, when he sent the sailors in boats to the king who had invited him to visit him, they had passed three and a half leagues to the east of Punta Santa, and had surveyed the whole coast for three leagues beyond that point, and ascertained where the vessels might pass, a thing never done before in the whole voyage. But as it pleased our Lord, at midnight there being a dead calm and the sea perfectly motionless, as in a cup, the whole crew, seeing the admiral had retired, went off to sleep, leaving the ship in the care of the boy already mentioned. The current carried her imperceptibly toward the shoals in the neighborhood, upon which she struck with a noise that could have been heard a league off.”

Although every thing was done to keep the damaged vessel afloat by Columbus and the few men who remained on board, “she opened between her ribs and slowly settled down on the shoal.” On the morning of Christmas the ship was unloaded with the assistance of the natives, who with their canoes conveyed the goods in her to the beach. These were afterward stowed in some houses which the cacique of the region had offered to Columbus for that purpose. The same ruler afterward gave the admiral a large mask, with pieces of gold at the ears, eyes, and other parts of it, and also some jewels of the same metal. “All these things had a great effect upon the admiral in assuaging his grief for the loss of his ship, and he became convinced that our Lord had permitted the shipwreck in order that he might select this place for a settlement.

“‘And to this end,’ he says, ‘so many favorable things conspired, that it cannot be called a disaster, but a great turn of good fortune, for if we had not run aground, we should have kept off without anchoring here, the place being in a large bay inside of two or three shoals. Neither should I otherwise have been induced to leave any men in these parts during the voyage; even if I had, I could not have spared them the needful provisions and materials for their fortification. Many of my crew have solicited me for permission to remain, and I have to-day [Wednesday, the twenty-sixth of December] ordered the construction of a fort, with a tower and a ditch, all to be well built, not that I think such a fortification necessary as a defence against the inhabitants, for I have already stated that with my present crew I could subjugate the whole island, which I believe to be larger than the kingdom of Portugal, and twice as populous, but that I think it prudent, since the territory is at such a distance from our country, and that the natives may understand the genius of the people of your highnesses and what they are able to perform, so that they may be held in obedience by fear as well as by love. For this purpose I have directed that a quantity of timber for the construction of the fort shall be provided, also bread and wine be left to suffice for more than a year, seed for planting, the long-boat of the ship, a calker, a carpenter, a gunner, a cooper, and many other persons of the number of those who have earnestly desired to serve your highnesses, and oblige me by remaining here and searching for the gold mine.’”

The admiral further remarks “that every piece of the ship was saved, for not even so much as a thong, board, or nail was lost, for she was as complete as when she first sailed, except that which was lost by cutting her to get out the casks and merchandise. These were carried on shore and well secured, as has already been mentioned. He adds that he hopes to find, on his return from Castile, a ton of gold collected by those who remained, by trading with the natives, and that they will have succeeded in discovering the mine and the spices, and all these in such quantities that before three years the king and queen may undertake the recovery of the holy sepulchre. ‘For I have before proposed to your highnesses,’ he writes, ‘that the profits of this undertaking should be employed in the conquest of Jerusalem, at which your highnesses smiled and said you were pleased, and had the same inclination.’”

“He left on the island of Española, which the Indians called Bohio, a fort and thirty-nine men, whom he states to have been great friends of King Guacanagari. Over these he placed Diego de Arana, a native of Cordova, Pedro Gutierrez, groom of the king’s wardrobe, and Rodrigo de Escovedo, a native of Seville and nephew of Fray Rodrigo Perez, with all the powers the king and queen had delegated to him. He left them all the goods which had been sent for trafficking, a great quantity, and every thing belonging to the ship which had been wrecked. The goods he directed should be traded away for gold.”

In commemoration of the day of Christ’s nativity, on which his ship was wrecked at this place, he called the settlement Villa de la Navidad (city of the Nativity). He further writes in his journal that “he had heard of another island behind that of Juana, toward the south, in which there was a still greater quantity of gold, and where it was found in grains of the size of a bean.... This island was called by the Indians Yamaye.”[164]

“It was the admiral’s intention to coast farther along the island of Española, which he might have done upon his homeward course, but as he considered that the captains of the two caravels were brothers, namely, Martin Alonso Pinzon and Vicente Yañez, and that they had a party attached to them, and that they and their partisans had manifested considerable haughtiness and avarice, disobeying his commands regardless of the honors he had conferred upon them, which misdemeanors, as well as the treachery of Martin Alonso, in deserting him,[165] he had winked at, without complaining, in order not to throw impediments in the way of the voyage—he thought it best to return home as quickly as possible. He adds that he had many faithful men among his crews, but resolved to overlook for the time the behavior of the refractory ones, and not at such an unfavorable season undertake to punish them.”

On Tuesday, the fifteenth of January, while the caravels were anchored in the bay which he called the Golfo de las Flechas (the Gulf of Arrows), he describes the weapons of the natives. “The bows,” he says, “are equal in size to those of France and England, and the arrows like the javelins used by the inhabitants of the other islands, which are made of the stalks of the cane while it is in seed. They are very straight, about a yard and a half in length, and doubled, with a sharp piece of wood, a span and a half long, at the end. At the point of this some attach a fish’s tooth, but the most of them grass.... The bows of the Indians appear to be made of yew.” The quantity of sea-weed which he found growing in this bay led Columbus to infer that the Indies were near the Canary Islands, not more than four hundred leagues distant.

On Wednesday morning, the sixteenth of January, they set sail from the Golfo de las Flechas, to go to the island of Carib. “After sailing sixty-four miles, as they estimated, the Indians on board signified that the island was to the southeast, when they altered their course, and proceeded in that direction, and after sailing several leagues the wind freshened and blew very favorably for their return to Spain. The crews began to grow despondent at leaving their homeward course, on account of the leaky condition of the vessels, (for there was no remedy for it but the help of God,) and the admiral found himself constrained to change his course again, and steer directly for Spain.”[166]

Columbus, afterward writing to Rafael Sanchez respecting his explorations along the coast of Española, remarks that the island of Española is “greater in circuit than all of Spain, from Colibre in Catalonia, near Perpignan, round the coast of the sea of Spain, along Granada, Portugal, Galicia, and Biscay, to Fuenterabia, at the cape of Biscay.... Each native, as far as I can understand, has one wife, with the exception of the king and princes, who are permitted to have as many as twenty. The women appear to do more work than the men. Whether there exist any such thing here as private property, I have not been able to ascertain. I have seen an individual appointed to distribute to the others, especially food and such things.

“People of an extraordinary description I did not see, neither did I hear of any, except those of the island Caris, which is the second island on the way from Española to India. This island is inhabited by a people who are regarded by their neighbors as exceedingly ferocious. They feed upon human flesh. These people have many kinds of canoes with which they make incursions upon all the islands of India, robbing and plundering wherever they go. Their difference from the others consists in their wearing long hair like that of women, and in using bows and arrows of cane; these last constructed, as I have already related, by fixing a piece of sharpened wood at the larger end. On this account they are considered very ferocious by the other Indians, and are much feared by them.”[167]

Speaking of the pecuniary profits of the voyage Columbus wrote: “I am enabled to promise the acquisition, by a trifling assistance from their majesties, of any quantity of gold, drugs, cotton, and mastic, which last article is found in the island of Scio; also, any quantity of aloe, and as many slaves for the service of the marine as their majesties may need. The same may be said of rhubarb and a great variety of other things which, I have no doubt, will be discovered by those I have left at the fort, as I did not stop at any single place, unless obliged to do so by the weather with the exception of Villa de la Navidad, where we remained some time to build the fort and provide the necessary means for the defence of the place.

“Although the discoveries actually accomplished appear great and surprising, yet I should have achieved much more had I been furnished with a suitable fleet. Nevertheless the great success of this undertaking is not to be ascribed to my own merits, but to the holy catholic faith and to the piety of our sovereigns, the Lord often granting to men what they never imagine themselves capable of accomplishing, even that which appears impracticable, for he is accustomed to hear the prayers of his servants and those who love his commandments. In this way has it happened to me that I have succeeded in an undertaking never before accomplished by man.”[168]

On Thursday night, the fourteenth of February, a violent tempest arose, “the waves crossing and dashing against one another so that the vessel [the Nina] was overwhelmed, and not able to get out from between them. The foresail was set very low, in order to carry her somewhat out of her dangerous situation. They stood under it for three hours, going twenty miles, when the wind and sea increasing, they began to drive before it, not having any other deliverance. At the same time the Pinta, in which was Martin Alonso Pinzon, began to scud likewise, and they soon lost sight of her, although the two caravels made signals to each other with lights, until from the fury of the storm they were no longer visible.” The fear of being lost now overcame Columbus and his men. They prayed and made many vows. “The admiral ordered that lots should be cast for one of them [if they safely reached land] to go on a pilgrimage to Santa Maria of Guadalupe and carry a wax taper of five pounds’ weight. He made them all to take an oath that the one on whom the lot fell should perform the pilgrimage. For this purpose as many peas were selected as there were persons on board. One of the peas was marked with a cross, and all were shaken together in a cap. The first who put his hand into the cap was the admiral, and he drew out the crossed pea. So the lot fell on him, and he considered himself as bound to accomplish the pilgrimage. Another lot was taken for a pilgrimage to Santa Maria of Loretto, in the province of Ancona, the territory of the pope, where is the house in which Our Lady has performed so many miracles. This lot fell on a sailor of Puerto de Santa Maria, called Pedro de Villa. The admiral promised to furnish him with the money for his expenses. A third lot was determined upon for the selection of a person who should watch a whole night in Santa Clara de Moguer, and have a mass said there. This lot fell on the admiral. After this he and all the crew made a vow to go in procession, clothed in penitential garments, to the first church dedicated to Our Lady which they should meet with on arriving on land, and there pay their devotions. Besides these general vows, every individual made a private one, all expecting to be lost, so terrible was the violence of the hurricane. Their danger was increased by the want of ballast in the vessel, ... which the admiral had neglected to supply among the islands, because he wished to husband his time in making discoveries, and expected to take in ballast at the island of Matinino, which he intended to visit. The only thing that they could do in this emergency was to fill with sea-water such empty casks as they could find, and by doing this they obtained some relief.

“Here the admiral speaks of the circumstances which caused him to fear that our Lord would suffer them to perish, and of some which made him hope that he would bring them safe to land, and not allow the important information they were carrying to the king and queen to be lost. He seems to have felt the greatest anxiety to have his wonderful discovery known, so that the world might be convinced that his assertions had been correct and that he had accomplished what he had professed himself able to do. The thought of this not being done gave him the greatest disquietude, and he was constantly apprehending that the most trifling thing might defeat his whole intention. He ascribes this to his want of faith and confidence in a divine providence, but comforts himself by reflecting upon the many mercies God had shown him in having enabled him to succeed in his project, when so many adversities and hindrances opposed him in Castile, and afterward to accomplish his great discovery. And as he had made the service of God the aim and business of his undertaking, and as he had hitherto favored him by granting all his desires, he indulges in the hope that he will continue to favor him, and will give him a safe return. He also remembered that God had delivered him on the outward voyage, when he had much greater reason to fear; that the eternal God gave him resolution and courage to withstand his men when they conspired against him and with a unanimous and menacing determination resolved to turn back. With these thoughts, and the consideration of other wonderful favors he had enjoyed, he says he ought not to be in fear of the tempest; but he adds that his apprehensions and the anguish of his mind would not allow him to rest. Besides, he continues, his anxiety was increased by reflecting upon the condition of his two sons whom he had left at their studies in Cordova,—these would be left orphans in a foreign land, and the king and queen being ignorant of the services he had rendered them by the voyage, would not feel any inclination to provide for them. On this account, and that their highnesses might be informed that our Lord had granted success to the undertaking in the discovery of the Indies, and might know that storms did not prevail in those regions (which was apparent from the plants and trees growing down to the brink of the sea), he devised the means of acquainting them with the circumstances of the voyage in case they should perish in the storm. This he did by writing an account of it on parchment, as full as possible, and earnestly entreated the finder to carry it to the king and queen of Spain. The parchment was rolled up in a waxed cloth and well tied. A large wooden cask being brought, he placed the roll inside of it, and threw the cask into the sea, none of the crew knowing what it was, but all thinking that it was some act of devotion.”[169]

On the sixteenth of February the Nina reached the Azores, and two days afterward was riding at anchor at the island of Santa Maria. Departing from the Azores on the twenty-fourth of February, the Nina again encountered another storm, which caused Columbus to take refuge in the mouth of the river Tagus, on the fourth of March. From this roadstead he sent a courier overland to Spain bearing the intelligence of his arrival at this haven on the coast of Portugal, and another to the king of Portugal to ask permission to anchor in the harbor of Lisbon.

When, on the sixth of March, it became known in Lisbon, says Ferdinand Columbus, “that the ship came from the Indies, such throngs of people went aboard to see the Indians and to hear the news, that the vessel could not contain them, and the water was covered with boats, some of the people praising God for the success of so great an undertaking, and others storming because the Portuguese had lost the discovery through the king’s incredulity.... The next day the king wrote to the admiral congratulating him on his safe return, and expressing the desire, since the admiral was in his dominions, that he would visit him [at Valparaiso, nine leagues from Lisbon].... The king ordered all the nobility of his court to go out to meet him, and when the admiral came into the presence of the king, he honored him by commanding him to put on his cap and to sit down. The king, having heard the particulars of his fortunate voyage, offered him all he stood in need of for the service of their catholic majesties, although he thought that as the admiral had been a captain in the service of Portugal, that the discovery belonged to him. To which the admiral answered that he knew of no agreement by which he could obtain it, and that he had strictly obeyed his orders, which were that he should not go to the mines of Portugal or to Guinea. The king said that it was all well, and he did not doubt but justice would be done. Having spent considerable time in this conversation, the king commanded the prior of Crato, the greatest man then about him, to entertain the admiral, and show him all civility and respect, which was done accordingly. Having remained there all Sunday, and all Monday until after mass, the admiral took leave of the king.... As he was on his way to Lisbon, he passed a monastery, where the queen was, who sent him an earnest entreaty that he would not pass by without seeing her. She was much pleased to see him, and bestowed upon him all the favor and honor that were due to the greatest lord. That night a messenger came from the king to the admiral, to inform him that if he wished to go by land to Spain he would attend him, provide lodgings on the way, and furnish him all that he might require, as far as the borders of Portugal.

“On Wednesday, the thirteenth of March, two hours after daylight, the admiral set sail for Seville, and, on Friday following, at noon, arrived at Saltes, and came to anchor in the port of Palos,[170] from which he had departed on the third of August, the previous year, 1492, seven months and eleven days preceding his return.”[171]

Desiring as early as possible to make known his return and his remarkable discoveries, Columbus, as soon as his vessel came to anchor, sent letters to several of his friends, in which he gave brief descriptions of the people and of the islands which he had found, as he believed, in the eastern part of Asia. One of these letters, that addressed on the fourteenth of March to Rafael or Gabriel Sanchez, treasurer of Spain, was shortly afterward translated into Latin and printed at Rome. The title given to the letter expresses the popular belief respecting the situation of the discovered islands: “A letter of Christopher Columbus, to whom our age is greatly indebted, respecting the islands of India lately found beyond the Ganges.”[172]

Conscious of the greatness of his discovery, Columbus enthusiastically closes his letter with these words: “And now the king, the queen, the princes, and all their dominions, as well as the whole of Christendom, ought to give thanks to our Saviour, Jesus Christ, who has granted us such an achievement and success. Let processions be ordered, let solemn festivals be celebrated, let the churches be filled with boughs and flowers.”

When his father landed at Palos, “he was received there,” says Ferdinand Columbus, “by all the people in procession, giving thanks to God for his fortunate success, which, it was hoped, would contribute greatly to propagate the Christian religion and enlarge their majesties’ dominions. All the inhabitants of the place considered it a matter of no little fame that the admiral had sailed from that port, and that most of the men he had with him belonged to it, though many of them, through [Martin Alonso] Pinzon’s fault, had been mutinous and disobedient.... The admiral then proceeded toward Seville, intending to go from there to Barcelona where their catholic majesties were. He was compelled to tarry a little along the way thither, though it were ever so little, to satisfy the curiosity of the people where he went, who came from the neighboring towns to the road along which he journeyed to see him, the Indians, and the other things he brought. Proceeding in this manner, he reached Barcelona about the middle of April, having previously sent their highnesses an account of the good fortune attending his voyage, which exceedingly pleased them, and they appointed him a most impressive reception as a man that had performed for them an extraordinary commission. All the court and city went out to meet him. Their catholic majesties sat in public in great state, on costly chairs, under a canopy of gold-cloth; and when he approached to kiss their hands they arose as to a great lord, and were unwilling to give him their hands, and caused him to sit down by them. When he had given them a brief account of his voyage, they permitted him to retire to his apartment, to which he was attended by all the court. And he was so highly honored and favored by their highnesses, that when the king rode about Barcelona, the admiral was on one side of him, and the Infante Fortuna on the other, for before this, no one rode by the side of his majesty but the Infante, who was his near kinsman.”[173]

Galvano, speaking of the enthusiasm created by Columbus’s return, says: “Hereupon there arose so extraordinary a desire to travel among the Spaniards that they were ready to leap into the sea to swim, if it had been possible, unto these new lands.”[174]

CHAPTER V.
1493-1506.

The Spanish sovereigns, in order to obtain the privilege of extending their sway over the islands discovered by Columbus, immediately sent embassadors to Rome to request Pope Alexander VI. to confirm the title of Spain to the recently found lands, for it was then believed that the pope had sole and absolute authority to dispose of all countries inhabited by heathen peoples. Pope Martin V. and his successors had already granted to the crown of Portugal the possession of all the lands it might acquire by right of discovery beyond Cape Bojador toward the East. Pope Alexander VI., to reward the Spaniards for wresting Spain from the Moors, issued a bull, on the fourth of May, 1493, establishing a line of limitation, running from the north to the south pole, distant one hundred leagues west of the Azores and the Cape Verd Islands, giving to Spain all the lands she had discovered or might discover west of it, which had not been acquired by any Christian power before the preceding Christmas, and to Portugal all the territory, on the same conditions, which lay east of it. These territorial concessions of the pope caused the possessions of Spain, in the western hemisphere, to be called the West Indies, and those of Portugal, in the eastern hemisphere, the East Indies. The position of the line of demarkation displeased the Portuguese. To settle the dispute which it caused, the two countries sent commissioners to Tordesillas, Spain, who agreed, on the seventh of June, 1494, that the position of the line should be changed so that it should pass, north and south, three hundred and seventy leagues west of the Cape Verd Islands.

Meanwhile in Spain a fleet of seventeen ships had been fitted out to sail to the Indies in the West. About fifteen hundred Spanish adventurers took passage on the different vessels, which were freighted with agricultural and mining implements, horses, cattle, and stores of various kinds, necessary for planting colonies on the newly-discovered islands. Commanded by Columbus, the fleet weighed anchor in the roadstead of Cadiz, on Wednesday, the twenty-fifth of September, 1493, and thence sailed toward the West India archipelago.

After a voyage of thirty-eight days the fleet reached the island of Dominica. The approach of Columbus to the field of his former explorations is thus described: “On Saturday night, the second of November, the admiral perceiving a great change in the sky and winds, and having observed the heavy rains, and believing that he was near land, ordered most of the sails to be furled, and commanded all to be upon the watch, and not without cause for that same night, at daybreak, land was descried seven leagues to the westward, a high mountainous island, which he called Dominica (Sunday), because it was discovered on Sunday morning. Shortly afterward he saw another island, northeast of Dominica, and then another, and another after that, more northward. For this blessing which God had been pleased to bestow on them, all the men assembled on deck and sang the Salve Regina and other prayers and hymns very devoutly, giving thanks to God, because in twenty days after departing from Gomera, [one of the Canary Islands,] they had made that land, estimating the distance between them to be between seven hundred and fifty and eight hundred leagues. Finding no convenient harbor in which to anchor on the east side of Dominica, they stood for another island, which the admiral called Marigalante, which was the name of his ship.”[175] Thence he proceeded northward “to a large island which he called Santa Maria de Guadalupe, to honor her and the request of the friars of the house of that name, to whom he had made promise to call some island by the name of their monastery.... Going ashore in the boat to view a village which they had observed, they found none of the inhabitants in it, the people having fled to the woods, except some children to whose arms they tied some baubles to allure their fathers when they returned. In the houses they found geese like ours, a great number of parrots, with red, green, blue, and white feathers, as large as common cocks. They also found pumpkins, and a kind of fruit which looked like our green pine-apples, but much larger, and inside full of solid substance like a melon, and much sweeter both in taste and smell, that grew on long stalks like lilies or aloes, wild about the fields.... They also saw other kinds of fruit and herbs different from ours; beds of cotton nets (hamacas), bows and arrows, and other things....

“The next day, which was Tuesday, the fifth of November, the admiral sent two boats ashore to capture some natives who might give him a description of the country, and tell him how far off and in what direction Española lay. Each boat brought back a youth. The youths agreed in saying that they were not of that island, but of another called Borriquen, and that the inhabitants of that island of Guadalupe were Caribbees or cannibals, and had taken them prisoners from their own island. Soon after the boats returning to shore, to take up some Christians they had left there, six women were found with them, who had fled from the Caribbees, and came of their own accord aboard the ships.... One of the women told them that toward the south there were many islands, some inhabited, others not, which both she and the other women, severally called Giamachi, Cairvaco, Huino, Buriari, Arubeira, Sixibei. But the continent, which they said was very great, both they and the people of Española called Zuanta [Yucatan?], because in former times canoes had come from that land to barter.... The same women gave them information where the island of Española lay; for though the admiral had inserted it in his sea-chart, yet for his further information he desired to hear what the people of that country said of it.... Then the admiral landed and went to some houses, where he saw ... a great deal of cotton, spun and unspun, looms to weave, a great number of men’s skulls hung up, and baskets filled with men’s bones.”[176]

On his way to the island of Española, Columbus discovered an island which he called San Juan Baptista, but the Indians, Borriquen. On the twelfth of November he arrived off the north coast of Española. On Thursday, the twenty-eighth of the same month, the discoverer with his fleet entered the harbor of the Villa de la Navidad, and found the place burnt and deserted. The next morning “the admiral landed, much concerned to see the houses and fort in ashes and nothing left belonging to the Christians except some ragged clothing and similar things as are found in a place plundered and destroyed. Seeing no one to question, the admiral went up a river that was near with some boats.... Having found nothing but some of the clothing of the Christians, he returned to Navidad, where he saw the bodies of eight Christians, and of three other persons in the fields, whom they recognized by their clothing, and they seemed to have been dead about a month. While the Christians were searching for some other tokens or writings of the dead, a brother of the cacique, Guacanagari, came with some Indians to talk with the admiral. These could speak some words of Spanish, and knew the names of all the Christians that had been left there. They related that the latter soon began to quarrel among themselves, and each to take as much gold and as many women as they could obtain. Pedro Gutierrez and Escovedo thereupon killed a person named Diego, and then they and nine others went away with their women to a cacique, whose name was Caunaboa, who was lord of the mines, and he killed them all. Then many days afterward he came with a great number of men to Navidad, where there was only Diego de Arana with ten men, who had remained with him to guard the fort, all the others being dispersed about the island. The cacique, Caunaboa, coming there at night, set fire to the houses where the Christians lived with their women, and the Christians, being frightened, fled to the sea, where eight were drowned, and three died ashore, whose bodies they showed to them. Guacanagari undertook to defend the Christians, but he and his men were wounded and were compelled to flee for their lives.”[177]

About the ninth of December Columbus sailed eastwardly from the site of the Villa de la Navidad, and anchored before an Indian town, where he determined to plant a colony. “He landed with all his men, provisions and implements, which he had brought in the ships of the fleet, at a plain, near a rock, on which a fort could easily be built. Here he erected a town, and called it Isabela, in honor of Queen Isabella. This place was deemed very suitable, inasmuch as the harbor was very large, though exposed to the northwest, and had an attractive river a bow-shot from it, from which canals of water might be cut to run through the middle of the town, and beyond was an extensive plain, from which the Indians said the mines of Cibao were not very distant. For these reasons the admiral was eager to settle the colony. On account of the fatigue of the voyage and that caused by his labor here, he did not have time to write in his journal, from day to day, what happened, as had been his habit. He also fell sick, which interrupted his writing from the eleventh of December to the twelfth of March, 1494. Meanwhile he administered the affairs of the town according to his ability. He intrusted Alonso de Hojeda with fifteen men to discover the mines of Cibao. Afterward, on the second of February, twelve ships of the fleet set sail for Castile, under the command of Antonio de Torres.”[178]

In March Columbus with a body of armed men explored the country of Cibao. “It is rough and stony,” writes Ferdinand Columbus, “full of gravel, grassy, and watered by several rivers in which gold is found. The farther they went into the country the more rugged and mountainous they found it. On the tops of the mountains were grains of gold-sand, for, as the admiral said, the great rains carry it down from the summits of the mountains to the rivers in small sand.... The admiral, perceiving that he was now eighteen leagues from Isabela, and the country he had left behind him very craggy, ordered a fort to be built in a very pleasant and defensible place, which he called the castle of San Tomas, to command the country about the mines, and to be a place of safety for the Christians who went there. The command of this new fort he gave to Don Pedro Margarita, a person of some importance, with fifty-six men, among whom were men of all trades to erect the fort, which was built with clay and timber, which made it strong enough to resist the attack of any number of Indians that might come against it.... On Sunday, the twenty-ninth of March, Columbus arrived at Isabela, where melons were already grown fit to eat, although it was not more than two months after the seed had been put into the ground. Cucumbers came up in twenty days, and a wild vine of that country, having been pruned, had produced grapes which were good and large. The next day, being the thirtieth of March, a farmer gathered ears of wheat, the seed of which he had sown at the latter end of January. There were also pease, but much larger than those they sowed. All they sowed came up above the ground in three days, and on the twenty-fifth day they were eating them. The stones of fruit set in the ground sprouted in seven days, and vine branches shot out in the same time, and in twenty-five days thereafter they gathered green grapes....

“The admiral, having determined to go to discover the continent, appointed a council to govern the island in his absence. The persons composing it were Don Diego Colon, the admiral’s brother, with the title of president; F. Boyl [Friar Buil] and Pedro Fernandez Coronel, regents; Alonzo Sanchez de Carvajal, rector of Bacca, and Juan de Luxan, gentlemen of their catholic majesties.... On Tuesday, the twenty-ninth of April, the wind being favorable, Columbus arrived at Cabo de San Nicolas, and thence crossed over to the island of Cuba, running along the south coast of it, and having sailed a league beyond Cabo Fuerte, he put into a large bay which he called Puerto Grande....

“On Saturday, the third of May, the admiral resolved to sail from Cuba over to Jamaica, that he might not leave it behind without knowing whether the report of the abundance of gold there were true. The wind being favorable, he discovered it on Sunday, when he was less than half the distance to it. On Monday he came to anchor, and thought it was the most attractive of all the islands which he had seen in the Indies. So many people, in large and small canoes, came aboard his vessels that it was quite astonishing. The next day he ran along the coast to search for harbors. When the boats went to examine the havens, there came out so many canoes and armed men to defend the country, that the men in the boats were forced to return to the ships, not through fear, but to avoid making enemies of them.... On Tuesday, the thirteenth of May, Columbus determined to stand over again for Cuba to coast along it, intending not to return until he had sailed five or six hundred leagues, and was satisfied whether it were a continent or an island.... On Friday, the thirteenth of June, the admiral perceiving that the coast of Cuba ran far to the west, and that it was a matter of the greatest difficulty to sail that way on account of the infinite number of islands and sand-bars that were on all sides of them, and he also beginning to be in want of provisions, for which reason he could not continue his voyage as he had intended, he determined to return to the town he had begun to build in Española. To supply himself with wood and water, he anchored at the island Evangelista, which is thirty leagues in circuit, and seven hundred from Dominica.”[179]

While Columbus was exploring the coast of Cuba, near the island of Evangelista, on the twelfth of June, it is said that he, for the purpose of furnishing indisputable evidence that he had reached the dominions of the Grand Khan, sent Fernando Perez de Luna, his notary, with four attesting witnesses, to the vessels, and had each person on board to make a declaration under oath that he was convinced that the land he saw was a part of the continent of Asia, and that he believed any one could go from it by land to Spain.[180] The notary, when taking the depositions, it is said, informed each person giving this testimony, that should he for any malicious purpose afterward assert a different opinion, he would, if an officer, be made to pay a penalty of ten thousand maravedis for such an offence, and if a person of lower rank, he would receive a hundred lashes and have his tongue cut out.[181] Strange as it seems, it was Columbus’s belief that this watery expanse was really the gulf of the Ganges.[182]

Departing from the island of Evangelista, Columbus returned along the coast of Cuba to Cabo de Santa Cruz, from which he steered to the island of Jamaica. After leaving it, he discovered the two islands lying off the east coast of Española, called respectively by the Indians Adamanai and Mona. On the twenty-ninth of September, 1494, he returned to Isabela.

The people of the island of Española having acquired some knowledge of the Spanish language, were able at this time to give Columbus considerable information respecting their religion. From his conversations with them he was enabled to write the following account of their peculiar image-worship: “I could discover neither idolatry nor any sect among them, though each one of their kings, who are very many, as well in Española as on all the other islands and continent, has a house apart from the town, in which there is nothing but some carved, wooden images that are called cemies. There is nothing done in these houses but what is for the service of the cemies, to which they repair to perform certain ceremonies, and pray there, as we do in our churches. In these houses they have a handsome, round table, made like a dish, on which is some powder, which they lay on the heads of the cemies with a certain ceremony. Then through a cane, that has two branches, held to their own nostrils they snuff up this powder. The words they use none of our people understand. The powder intoxicates them, and they act as if they were drunk. They also give the image a name, and I believe it is that of their father or grandfather, or both; for they have more than one, and some more than ten, all in memory of their forefathers, as I have already said. I have heard them praise one more than another, and have observed them to have more devotion, and show more respect to one than another, as we do in processions in time of want; and the people and the caciques boast among themselves of having the best cemies. When they go to these cemies they shun the Christians, and will not permit them to enter these houses. If they suspect that they will come, they take their cemies and hide them in the woods for fear that they should be deprived of them. What is most ridiculous, they have the habit of stealing one another’s cemies. It happened once that the Christians suddenly rushed into a house with them, and the cemi cried out, speaking in their language, which showed that it was artificially made. The cemi being hollow, they had attached a tube to it, which tube extended to a dark corner of the house, where a man was concealed with boughs and leaves who had spoken through the tube the words which the cacique had commanded him. The Spaniards, suspecting something of the kind, kicked down the cemi, and discovered that which has been related. The cacique seeing that his deception was known to the Spaniards, earnestly begged them not to speak of it to his subjects or to the other Indians, because he made them obedient by this artifice.... Three large stones are also in the possession of almost all the caciques, which are highly venerated by them and their people. The one they say makes the corn and the grain to grow, the second helps women in travail, and the third procures rain or fair weather, whenever they desire to be benefited in any one of these ways. I sent your highnesses three of these stones by Antonio de Torres, and have three more to bring with me.

“When these Indians die, they have several ways of performing their obsequies. The manner in which they bury their caciques is as follows: They open his body and dry it at a fire in order to preserve it. Of other persons they only take the head. They bury some in caves or caverns, and place gourds of water and bread at their heads. Others they burn in the house where they die, and they do not permit them to die naturally, but strangle them at their last gasp. This is done to the caciques. Others are turned out of the house, and are put in a hamac, which is their bed, with bread and water at their heads, and they are never visited again. Some who become dangerously ill are carried to the cacique, who tells whether they are to be strangled or not, and what he commands is done. I have taken pains to learn what they believe, and whether they know what becomes of them after they are dead. This I inquired of Caunaboa, who was the principal king of Española, an aged man, intelligent and of much discernment. He and the rest answered that they go to a certain valley, which every great cacique supposes to be his country, where, they affirm, they find their parents and all their ancestors; that they eat, have women, and enjoy themselves in pleasures and pastimes.

“The admiral, having brought the island into a peaceable condition, and built the town of Isabela, besides three forts in different parts of the country, determined to return to Spain.... He went on board, on Thursday, the tenth of March, 1496, with two hundred and twenty-five Spaniards and thirty Indians, and sailed from Isabela, at daybreak, and steered along the coast with two caravels, one called Santa Cruz, the other La Nina, the same in which he went to discover the island of Cuba.... Having supplied himself with bread, wood, and water, he set sail on Wednesday, the twentieth of April, from the island of Guadalupe, with the wind very scant, keeping near the latitude of twenty-two degrees, for at that time they had not found out the way of running away north to catch the southwest winds.”[183]

After sailing a month in the direction of Spain, “although there were eight or nine pilots on board the two vessels, yet none of them knew where they were; but the admiral was confident that they were only a little west of the Azores.”

Columbus, speaking of the movements of his compasses at this time, observes: “This morning the Dutch compasses varied, as they formerly did, a point; and those of Geneva, which previously agreed with them, varied only a little, but after sailing east varied more, which is a sign that we are one hundred leagues or more west of the Azores, for when we were just one hundred there were only a few weeds scattered in the sea, and the Dutch needles varied a point, those of Geneva cutting the north point, and when we are a little farther east-northeast they will alter again.”[184] These noticeable differences in the variations of the needles, Ferdinand Columbus says, the admiral assigned to “the different kinds of loadstones used in making them.” ... “In this way,” he remarks, “they continued their voyage, though all the pilots went like blind men.” Columbus, when near Spain, confidently asserted that they would be in sight of the coast on the following morning, which proved to be true, “for which reason he was looked upon by the seamen as very expert and almost prophetic in sea affairs.”[185] On Saturday, the eleventh of June, 1496, the caravels arrived in the port of Cadiz.

“The admiral,” as soon as he had landed, “began to prepare for his journey to Burgos, where he was favorably received by their catholic majesties, who were there celebrating the nuptials of Prince Juan, their son, who married Margarita of Austria.”

FIELD OF VOYAGES TO AMERICA.

ON MERCATOR’S PROJECTION.

While Columbus was in Española, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella abrogated in part the concessions granted him, and issued letters-patent on the tenth of April, 1495, permitting any of their subjects to make voyages of discovery to the Indies.[186] Commissioned by their highnesses, Amerigo Vespucci[187] went with a fleet of four vessels, in 1497, to make discoveries. The account of the voyage is contained in a letter written by him, in Lisbon, on the fourth of September, 1504. The publication of it made him famous as the discoverer of the continent of America. Singular as it is true, the palpable discrepancies found in the subsequent versions of Vespucci’s letter have led many scholars to discredit the statements of the intelligent and enterprising Italian.[188] Vespucci thus writes respecting his first voyage:

“The king, Don Ferdinand of Castile, having ordered four ships to discover new lands toward the west, I was selected by his highness to go in the fleet to aid in the discoveries.[189] We departed from the port of Cadiz on the tenth day of May, 1497, and took our course across the great gulf of the ocean-sea.[190] We spent eighteen months on the voyage, and discovered much main-land and an endless number of islands, which were in great part inhabited. As these are not spoken of by ancient writers, I think that they had no knowledge of them....

“We reached a land which we judged to be firm land, distant from the Canary Islands about a thousand leagues more to the west, within the torrid zone, because we found the north pole at an elevation of sixteen degrees above the horizon,[191] and that we were more than seventy-five degrees west of the Canary Islands as our instruments showed.[192] We anchored our ships a league and a half from the coast. We got out our boats, and, having manned and armed them, we went on land.

“Before we went ashore we were greatly delighted in seeing many people wandering along the beach. We saw that they were naked and that they seemed to be frightened when they beheld us, likely, as I supposed, by seeing us clothed, and of a different stature from their own. They retired to a mountain, and we could not entice them to hold any intercourse with us, notwithstanding we endeavored to induce them by signs of peace and friendship....

“We sailed to the northwest[193] in which direction the coast extended, always in sight of land, seeing continually, during the voyage, people on the shore. After sailing two days, we found a secure place for the ships, and anchored half a league from the land.... The natives were somewhat timid, and it was a long time before we were able to dispel their fear and induce them to come and talk to us.... Giving them such things as looking-glasses, bells, beads, and other trifles, we enticed a number of them to approach and enter into friendly relations with us....

“These people go entirely naked and wear not a particle of clothing. They are of a medium size and very well proportioned. Their skin is reddish like the color of a lion’s skin.... They do not allow any hair to grow on their eyelids and eyebrows, nor on any part of their bodies; only on their heads, for they think it very unbecoming. The men and women are exceedingly quick in their movements, and are unconstrained in their deportment. They walk and run rapidly. The women do not think it a difficult thing to run a league or two.... These people are excellent swimmers. The women surpass the men, for we have observed them many times swimming unaided, fully two leagues out from land.

“The weapons of these people are bows and arrows. These are curiously made. They have no iron or any other hard metal on them. They use instead the teeth of animals or fish.... They are expert bowmen, and hit with their arrows whatever they shoot at. The women in some parts of the country handle the bow with considerable skill. Their other weapons are lances and clubs with elaborately carved heads. When they go to make war their wives accompany them, not to fight, but to carry provision on their backs. Sometimes a woman will convey a burden in this manner thirty or forty leagues, which the strongest men there cannot do as we have frequently observed....