navigating the pleasant seas of the Old World. After various delays at the Canary Islands. they passed and lost sight of Ferro, the most westerly one of the group, on Sunday, the ninth of September. Now Europe was left behind, and the broad Atlantic, mysterious and unknown, was before them. As the space widened between them and their homes, the hearts September, 1492. of the mariners failed; and when, on the thirteenth, the commander and his pilots discovered the variations of the magnetic needle, misgivings arose in the stout hearts of the explorer and his friends, the Pinzons. They were now six hundred miles westward of the Canaries, in an unknown sea. It was a phenomenon unknown to the world of science, and Columbus tried in vain to satisfy himself respecting the cause. He could not long conceal the fact from his seamen. It filled them with consternation and awe; for they believed they were entering another world, subject to the influence of laws unknown and dreadful. Columbus quieted their apprehensions by telling them that the needle did not point to the north star, but to an invisible point around which that star revolved daily. Thus he explained a phenomenon now well known; and his companions, relying upon his astronomical knowledge, received his theory as truth, and their alarm subsided. September 25. For several days after this event they were wafted pleasantly by the trade winds, which blow continually from east to west. The air was balmy, and soon vast fields of sea-weeds, and an occasional petrel upon the wing, heralded an approach to land; but head winds and days of profound calm deferred the joyful consummation of their hopes; and the seamen, wearied and home-sick, resolved to retrace their path, and seek the shores of Spain. Even the little land birds that came upon the spars, and sung merrily their welcome to the New World, and then left at evening for their distant perches in the orange groves, failed to inspire the mariners with confidence in the truth of their commander's reasonings, and open mutiny manifested itself. With gentle words, promises of rewards, and threats of punishment against the most refractory, Columbus kept them from actual violence for several days. One evening, just at sunset, Martin Alonzo Pinzon, mounted on the stern of the Pinta, shouted, "Land! land! Señor, I claim the reward!"" Along the southwestern horizon was stretched an apparent island. Columbus, throwing himself his knees, with all the crews, chanted Gloria in Excelsis! In the morning the island had vanished, for it was nothing but a cloud. For a fortnight longer they floated upon an almost unruffled sea, when land birds came singing again, and green herbage floated by; but days passed on, and the sun, each evening, set in the waves. Again the seamen mutinied, and Columbus was in open defiance with his crew; for he told them that the expedition had been sent by their sovereigns, and, come what might, he was determined to accomplish his purpose. They were on the point of casting him into the sea, when, just at sunset, a coast-fish glided by; a branch of thorn, with berries upon it, floated near; and a staff, artificially carved, came upon the waters to tell them of human habitations not far off. The vesper hymn to the Virgin was now sung, and Columbus, after recounting the blessings of God thus far manifested on the voyage, assured the crews that he confidently expected to see land in the morning. On the high poop of his vessel he sat watching until upon avels. They were under this penalty when Columbus made his arrangement with Isabella, and they were ordered to fit out the two caravels for the expedition. In the porch of the old Church of St. George, Columbus first proclaimed this order to the inhabitants of Palos. Mr. Irving, who visited Palos in 1828, says of this edifice, "It has lately been thoroughly repaired, and, being of solid mason-work, promises to stand for ages, a monument of the discoverers. It stands outside of the village, on the brow of a hill, looking along a little valley to the river. The remains of a Moorish arch prove it to have been a mosque in former times. Just above it, on the crest of the hill, is the ruin of a Moorish castle." 1 Columbus agreed to give a silk waistcoat, besides the royal pension of thirty dollars, to the person who first discovered land.-Muñoz. near midnight, when he saw the glimmer of moving lights upon the verge of the horizon Fearing his hopes might have deceived his vision, he called Pedro Gutierrez, gentleman of the king's bed-chamber, and also Rodrigo 1492. BANNER OF THE EXPEDI upon their knees, chanted the Te Deum mus. Lauda LANDING OF COLUMBUS.3 Rising from the ground, Columbus displayed the royal standard, drew his sword, and took possession of the land in the name of the Spanish sovereigns, giving the island the title of San Salvador.' With the most extravagant demonstrations of joy, his followers crowded around him. The most insolent in the mutinous displays were the most abject in making vows of service and faithfulness. All present took an oath of obedience to him as admiral and viceroy, and representative of Ferdinand and Isabella. The triumph of Columbus was complete. The natives had beheld the approaching ships at dawn with fear This was a white banner, emblazoned with a green cross, having on each side the letters F. and Y., the Spanish initials of Ferdinand and Ysabel, surmounted by golden crowns. The island on which Columbus first set his foot in the New World is one of the Lucayas or Bahama group, and was called by the natives Guanahana. The Spaniards and others still call it San Salvador; the English have given it the vulgar name of Cat Island. It lies between the twenty-fourth and twentyfifth degrees of north latitude, and the second and third degrees of longitude east of the meridian of Washington city, eighty or ninety miles northeast of Havana, Cuba. Muñoz, a learned Spanish writer, thinks Watling's Island, and not the one called San Salvador on our maps, was the first landing-place. 3 This is copied, by permission of the author, from Irving's Life of Columbus. It is a fac-simile of a sketch supposed to have been made by Columbus, in a letter written by him to Don Raphael Xansis, treasurer of the King of Spain. and awe, regarding them as monsters of the deep. By degrees their alarm subsided, and they approached the Europeans. Each party was a wonder to the other. The glittering armor, shining lace, and many-colored dresses of the Spaniards filled the natives with admiration and delight; while they, entirely naked, with skins of a dark copper hue, painted with a variety of colors and devices, without beards and with straight hair, were objects of great curiosity to the Spaniards. They were unlike any people of whom they had knowledge. Not doubting that he was upon an island near the coast of Farther India, Columbus called these wild inhabitants Indians, a name which all the native tribes of America still retain. It is not within the scope of my design to relate, in detail, the subsequent career of Columbus in the path of discovery, nor of those navigators who succeeded him, and share with him the honor of making known our continent to the Old World. He was the bold pioneer who led the way to the New World, and as such, deserves the first and highest reward; yet he was not truly the first discoverer of the continent of North America. Eager in his search for Cathay, he coasted almost every island composing the groups now known as the West Indies, during his several voyages, but he never saw the shores of the Northern August, 1498. Continent. He did, indeed, touch the soil of South America, near the mouth of the Oronoco, but he supposed it to be an island, and died in the belief that the lands he had discovered were portions of Farther India.' Intelligence of the great discovery of Columbus, though kept concealed as much as possible by the Spanish court, for reasons of state policy, nevertheless went abroad, and aroused the ambition of other maritime powers. The story that Columbus had found vast and populous gold-producing regions in the Western Ocean excited the cupidity of individuals, and 1 Columbus returned to Europe in March, 1493. Ferdinand and Isabella bestowed upon him every mark of honor and distinction, and the nobles were obsequious in their attentions to the favorite of royalty. On the 25th of September, 1493, he left Cadiz, on a second voyage of discovery. He had three large ships and fourteen caravels under his command. His discoveries were principally among the West India Islands, where he founded settlements. He returned to Spain in June, 1496. Misfortunes had attended him, yet the sovereigns treated him with distinguished favor. On the 30th of May, 1498, Columbus sailed from San Lucar de Barrameda, with a squadron of six vessels, on a third voyage of discovery. He found the settlements which had been planted in great confusion, and civil war among the Spaniards and natives was rife in Hispaniola. In the mean while, intrigues against him were having due weight in the Spanish court. It was alleged that Columbus designed to found an empire in the New World, cast off all allegiance to Spain, and assume the title and pomp of king. He had already offended the conscientious Isabella by persisting in making slaves of the natives, and she readily gave her consent to send out a commissioner to investigate the conduct of the navigator. Bobadilla, a tool of Columbus's enemies, was intrusted with that momentous duty; and, as might have been expected, he found Columbus guilty of every charge made against him. Bobadilla seized Columbus, and sent him in chains to Spain. His appearance excited the indignation of the sovereigns, and they declared to the world that Bobadilla had exceeded his instructions; yet justice was withheld, through the influence of Ferdinand, and Columbus was not reinstated as viceroy of Hispaniola. While these events were occurring, Vasco de Gama, a Portuguese navigator, had reached Calicut, in the East Indies, by doubling the Cape of Good Hope, and traversing the Indian Ocean. But Columbus still persevered in his determination to reach Asia by a western route. He induced Isabella to fit out a fourth expedition for him, and on the 9th of May, 1502, he sailed for Hispaniola. After many troubles and hardships, he returned to Spain in 1504. His patron and best friend, the queen, died that same year. Old age had made its deep furrows, and, in the midst of disappointment and neglect, the great discoverer died on the 20th of May, 1506, at the age of seventy. He never realized his grand idea of reaching India by a western route. The honor of that achievement was reserved for the expedition of Magellan, fourteen years after the death of Columbus. That navigator passed through the straits which bear his name, at the southern extremity of our continent, and launched boldly out upon the broad Pacific. ocean, but his vessels reached the Philippine Islands, near the coast of India, in safety. name of PACIFIC to the pleasant ocean over which he was sailing. He died on the Magellan gave the Almost simulta many adventurers offered their services to sovereigns and men of wealth. neously, John Cabot, a Venetian by birth, and Amerigo Vespucci, a Florentine, sailed for the lands discovered by Columbus; the former under the auspices of Henry the Seventh of England, and the latter in the employment of Spanish merchants, with the sanction of Ferdinand. Although Cabot was an Italian, he had been long a resident of Bristol, then the chief commercial mart of England. The Northwestern seas were often traversed as far as Iceland by the Bristol mariners, and they had probably extended their voyages westward to Greenland in their fishing enterprises. Cabot seems to have been familiar with those seas, and the English merchants had great confidence in his abilities. He obtained a commission from Henry the Seventh, similar, in its general outline, to that given to Columbus by Ferdinand and Isabella. It empowered him and his three sons, their heirs or deputies, to discover and settle unknown lands in the Eastern, Northern, or Western seas, such lands to be taken possession of in the name of the King of England. He fitted out two vessels at his own expense, which were freighted by merchants of London and Bristol; and it was stipulated that, in lieu of all customs and imposts, Cabot was to pay to the King one fifth part of all the gains. With his son Sebastian, a talented young man of only twenty years, and about three hundred men, John Cabot sailed from Bristol in May, 1497. He directed his course to the northwest, until he reached the fifty-eighth degree of north latitude, when floating ice and intense cold induced him to steer to the southwest. Fair winds produced a rapid voyage, and he discovered land on the twenty-fourth of June, which he called PRIMA VISTA, because it was his first view of a new region. The exact point of this first discovery is not certainly known; some supposing it to have been on the coast of Labrador, and others the Island of Newfoundland or the peninsula of Nova Scotia. He touched at other points, but did not attempt a settlement; the climate seemed too rigorous, the people too fierce, and he returned to Bristol. Cabot was authorized to make a February, 1498. second voyage. He did not SEBASTIAN CABOT. vessels for the purpose. His son, Sebastian, was placed at the head of the expedition, and in May, 1498, the month in which De Gama reached Calicut, in the East Indies, by way of the Cape of Good Hope, he sailed for the New World with several ships. He visited the region first discovered by his father and himself, and called it NEWFOUNDLAND. It was not rich in gold and spices, but its shoals abounded with vast schools of codfish; and within a few years after his return to England a permanent fishery was established there. sailed along the whole coast of the present United States, beginning at latitude fifty-six degrees, and terminating at about thirty-six degrees, or Albemarle Sound. His provisions filing, he returned to England. He made another voyage in 1517, as far south as the Cabot Brazils; but failing to discover a western passage to the East Indies, he again returned to England.' May, 1497. In the same month when John Cabot sailed from Bristol, Amerigo Vespucci departed from Cadiz on his first voyage to the New World. In that voyage he appears to have held a subordinate station. The expedition under Ojeda, which Amerigo calls his second voyage, was not undertaken until 1499. Whether any vessel in that expedition was under his command is questionable. Spanish writers assert to the contrary, and say that he was first a captain when in the service of Emanuel of Portugal; but it is not my province to inquire into this disputed matter. Spanish historians, jealous of the fame of Columbus, charge Vespucci with falsehood and fraud; but early Spanish authors were not always scrupulous in regard to truth when national pride demanded prevarication, or even absolute falsehood. It was AMERIGO VESPUCCI.2 1 After his second voyage, Sebastian Cabot was invited to Spain, and sailed on a voyage of discovery, in the service of the Spanish monarch, in 1525. He visited Brazil, and, coasting southward to the thirtyfifth degree, he entered a large river, which he called Rio de la Plata. Up this river he sailed one hundred and twenty leagues. After an absence of six years, he returned to Spain, but seems not to have been well received by the sovereign. He made other, but less conspicuous voyages, and in his old age retired to Bristol, where he died about the year 1557, at the age of eighty years. He received a pension from Edward the Sixth, and was appointed governor of a company of merchants associated for the purpose of making discoveries. 2 The name of the Florentine is variously spelled, Amerigo Vespucci, Americus Vespucius, Amerigo Vespuche. The latter orthography is according to the entry in an account-book containing the expenditure of the treasurer of the royal mercantile house of Seville, quoted by Muñoz, tome i., page xix of the Introduction. It appears by that account, that on the 24th of February, 1512, was paid to Manuel Catano, executor of the will of Amerigo, "10937 and a half maravedis," which was due to him for services as chief steersman to his majesty. Amerigo was appointed to that office in March, 1508, with a salary of 50,000 maravedis a year. Whether he ever commanded an expedition in the Spanish service is a disputed question. He made several voyages to the New World between 1497 and 1512, the year of his death. With an expedition under the command of Ojeda, in 1499, he visited the Antilles and the coast of Guiana and Venezuela. On his return, Emanuel, king of Portugal, invited him to his capital, and gave him the command of three ships for a voyage of discovery. He left Lisbon May 10th, 1501, visited Brazil, and traversed the coast of South America as far as Patagonia, but failed to discover the straits through which Magellan passed at a later day. He returned to Lisbon in 1502. He made a fourth voyage, and returned to Portugal in 1504. Soon after this he wrote an account of his voyage. The book was dedicated to Rene II., duke of Lorraine. He again entered the service of the King of Spain, who appointed him to draw sea-charts, and gave him the title and salary of chief steersman or pilot, which commission he held until his death. According to some accounts, he died in the Island of Terceria, one of the Azores, in 1514; others affirm that his death occurred at Seville. The portrait of the navigator, here given, was copied, by permission, from the original picture by Bronzino, now in possession of C. Edwards Lester, Esq., late United States consul at Genoa. It was committed to his care by the Vespucci family, to be placed in the possession of our government. No arrangement for its purchase has yet been made, I believe. An Italian woman named Elena Vespucci, bearing proofs of her lineal descent from the famous navigator, came to America a few years ago, and made application to our Congress for a grant of land, on account of her relationship to the Florentine from whom our continent derived its name. Subsequently, her |