The good friar, Juan Perez, was exceedingly moved at Columbus's return, and sent, as he had done before, for his friend, Garcia Fernandez, the physician, and Martin Alonzo Pinzon, a wealthy and distinguished navigator of Palos, (whose subsequent destiny no one can fail to regret,) by whom a council was held. The latter offered to engage in the expedition, and to defray Columbus's expenses to court, for the purpose of renewing, under the auspices of Juan Perez, an application which had just been rejected. This was the first, and at that time, the only pecuniary assistance received by the latter in aid of his great and glorious undertaking. Juan Perez hastened himself to Grenada, whither the royal court had then removed, and had an interview with the queen. The latter, after several years' solicitations, bethinking herself, for the first time, of Columbus's poverty, sent him twenty thousand maravedis, in florins, (equal to seventy-two silver dollars,) to bear his travelling expenses to Grenada, to provide him with a mule for his journey, and decent apparel to appear at court.

Animated by hope, he set out at once to meet his patron, and arrived at Grenada just in time to witness its surrender. "He saw the last of the Moorish kings sally forth from the Alhambra, and yield up to his conqueror the keys of that favorite residence of Moslem power." The war which had now raged for seven hundred years between the Christian and the Moor, had ceased; the crescent was prostrate, the cross was exalted, and the standard of Spain floating on its ramparts.

A negotiation was thereupon immediately opened. Unexpected difficulties, however, arose ; Columbus would listen to none but princely conditions, and these were inadmissible. Others were proposed, and being rejected by the latter, the negotiation was, of course, terminated, and to all appearance, for ever.

The loftiness of spirit displayed by Columbus on this occasion, cannot be sufficiently admired. Eighteen years had elapsed since he first published to the world his theory, and announced his intention, by some voy. age of discovery, to test its correctness; that period had been spent in painful but ineffectual efforts, and nothing but necessity could for moment shake his purpose, or induce him to accept of terms beneath his dignity. He seemed to forget his own obscurity, to overtook his present indigence, and to negotiate, as it were, for empire.

These negotiations, however, being closed, he took leave of his friends. at Grenada, early in February, 1492, and mouating his mule, started for Cordova, intending to abandon a country which had made him her sport, and in which he thought he had been treated with indignity. Having pursued his lonely way across the Vega, and passed the bridge of Pinos, about two leagues frain Grenada, and begun to ascend the mountain of Elvira, a pass famous in Moorish story, he was overtaken by a messenger from the queen, who informed him that Isabella had espoused his cause, and pledged her jewels to raise the necessary funds.

After hesitating for a moment, he turned the reins of his mule, and

sought her presence. Articles of agreement were immediately drawn up by the royal secretary, and signed on the 17th of April, 1492. The sum of seventeen thousand florins, or about three thousand dollars, was afterward advanced, to defray its expenses.

Columbus was now in the fifty-sixth year of his age; disappointments that would have reduced an ordinary man to despair, had hitherto been his lot. His wishes, however, were now attained, and, on the 12th of May, 1492, he set out joyfully for Palos.

The difficulties attending his expedition were now about to commence. The little town of Palos, on the announcement of his mission thither, was filled with consternation; the ships demanded by the royal edict, were regarded in the light of sacrifices, and their crews as so many victims. The order of the sovereign was, therefore, ineffectual; a more absolute mandate, sent thither by an officer of the royal household, fared no better; and, but for the exertions of Martin Alonzo Pinzon, the whole expedition at that time, unquestionably would have failed. The example of the latter was, however, contagious; and in less than four weeks after he had tendered his services and agreed to accompany it, the whole armament was equipped and ready for sea.

It consisted of three small vessels; two of them light barques, or caravals, open and without decks in the centre, high at the prow and stern, with forecastles and cabins for the crew-the other was entirely decked. The largest vessel was of less than a hundred tons burden, and would compare, though imperfectly, with one of the second-rate schooners that navigate our inland seas-the other two would suffer in comparison with the humble craft that bring lumber to Chicago. They were manned with ninety men, and victualled for a year.

Such was the armament provided by a once powerful nation and the most accomplished princess in Europe, for the discovery of a world.

Columbus, having confessed himself and partaken of the sacrament, in which his officers and crew participated, on Friday the 13th day of August, 1492, about half an hour before sunrise, committed himself and his little armament, under the guidance and direction of Heaven, to the open

sea.

On arriving at the Canaries, three weeks and upward were consumed in repairs. From thence he embarked, on the 6th of September, when the voyage of discovery in fact was commenced.

On the 9th, the heights of Farro vanished from their view, and everything dear to them on earth was left behind-friends, country, and home. Chaos, mystery, and peril, were alone before them.

Of Columbus's difficulties with his crew-the means to which he had recourse, in order to allay their fears, and his numerous perplexities on the voyage, and afterward, by sea and land, we forbear to speak. They have all been frequently told, and are, or ought to be, familiar to our readers. Suffice it then, to remark, that on the evening of the 11th of October,

1492, thirty-five days only after leaving the Canaries, when the mariners had sung their usual hymn to the Virgin, indications of land were so apparent, that Columbus ordered his sails to be furled, and a strict watch to be kept-and when the shades of evening had set in, he took his station on the top of the forecastle or cabin, from whence, at about 10 o'clock, he thought he beheld a light. His suspicions were afterward confirmed, and continuing on his course until about two in the morning, a gun from the Pinta (one of the vessels in his little fleet) announced the signal of land.

In spite of every obstacle, he had now accomplished his object. The mystery of the ocean was at once revealed. The truth of his theory, which had been the sport even of sages, was confirmed, and he was im mortal.

As the morning dawned, an island of surpassing beauty,* verdant with forests, and loaded with fruits of a tempting hue, spread its treasures before him. Its inhabitants, issuing from the woods and running to all parts of the shore, were seen gazing on his fleet, and from their attitudes and gestures, appeared to be amazed. They had seen his vessels with their sails spread, hovering on their coast, and advancing in solemn majesty to their shores, and "had an army of Milton's celestial angels, robed in light, sporting in the bright beams of the sun, redoubling their splendor, and making divine harmony with their golden harps," issued from the deep, it would have excited no other or greater surprise.

On the 11th of October, 1492-a day ever memorable in the annals of our race Columbus landed, with a drawn sword in his hand, (the fit emblem, though at that time undesigned, of what succeeded,) and took possession of the country in the names of Ferdinand and Isabella. Supposing he had landed on an island at the extremity of India, he called the inhabitants by the appellation of Indians, which has since universally been adopted, and extended to the aboriginal inhabitants of the whole Western Continent.

In contemplating the effects of this discovery, the human imagination is perfectly bewildered. The emotions it created, no language can express. The consequences which followed, no pen can describe. Its original inhabitants have not been the only parties in interest. The inhabitants of other realms, and of other continents, sometimes with, and sometimes without their consent, have participated therein, either for weal or for wo.

The character and habits, origin and destination, of the aborigines, being at all times subjects of interest, and especially at the present time, demand, and of course will next receive, our attention.

NOTE.

Mr. Irving, in his biography of Columbus, having taken him up in boyhood, or as soon as he could find him-having sailed with him to the uttermost parts of the earth-having watched over him at sea, and messed with him on shore-having stood by him through

*St. Salvador, one of the Bahama islands.

all his crosses and losses, perplexities and achievements, great and small, even to his dying day-having also witnessed his last will and testament, and attended to all the ceremonies of his funeral, like an affectionate brother, or, as Grattan once said of Ireland, having "gat by its cradle, and followed its hearse :"The American reader who has perused Mr. Irving's admirable work, who feels, or ought to feel a deep interest in all that appertains to Columbus's buffeting, toiling, and begging his way to success and glory, may desire, perhaps, to know something further in relation to the family and descendants of the great "Discoverer."

Columbus, broken down by age and infirmity, worn out by toil and hardship, and having, as he says himself, "no place to resort to but an inn, and frequently, not wherewithal to pay his bill," died a "broken down and shipwrecked man," at Valladolid, in Spain, on the 20th of May, 1506, in the seventieth year of his age, ignorant of the real grandeur of his discovery.

His body was deposited in the convent of Saint Francisco, and his obsequies celebrated with funeral pomp, at Valladolid, in the parochial church of Santa Maria de la Antiqua. His remains were afterward, in 1513, conveyed to the Carthusian monastery of La Cuevas of Seville; and in 1536, they were removed from thence to Hispaniola, and interred in the principal chapel of the Cathedral, of the city of St. Domingo.

The island of Hispaniola having been ceded to France in 1795, the Duke of Veragua, the lineal successor of Columbus, on the 20th of December, in that year, caused his remains to be removed from thence, with military pomp, to the Island of Cuba, and deposited with reverence in the wall, on the right side of the grand altar in the Cathedral church, at Havana.

"When we reflect," says Mr. Irving, "that it was from this very port, Columbus was carried off in his life-time, loaded with ignominious chains, blasted apparently in fame and fortune, and followed by the revilings and hootings of a fickle populace, we cannot fail to perceive, how triumphantly merit outlives detraction, and to observe that the removal of his remains, as national relics, after an interval of more than two hundred years, with civil and military pomp, (the most dignified and illustrious men, vieing with each other in manifestations of reverence,) speaks comfort to the illustrious, yet slandered and persecuted living."

The latter part of his life was full of peril. His last voyage, in particular, had shattered a frame, worn out by hardships in the service of an ungrateful king. The suspension of his honors-the violation of the articles of agreement between him and his sovereign-the enmity of his adversaries-the envy to which he was exposed, and the defamation which followed him at every turn, threw a dark and impenetrable shadow over that glory which had for years been the object of his ambition. Well might the most illustrious man of the age,

"Ask from a thankless world a peaceful tomb."

On the death of Columbus, his son Diego succeeded, nominally, to his rights as viceroy and governor of the New World. Don Diego urged the restitution of the family offices and privileges which, during the latter part of his father's life, had been suspended. Ferdinand, however, turned a deaf ear to his solicitations. The young admiral, finding all appeals to equity and generosity unavailing, sought permission to pursue his claims in a court of law. This, the king could not reasonably deny. A suit was therefore commenced by Diego Columbus, against the king, before the council for the Indies. This memorable action was brought in 1508, and continued for several years. A unanimous decision of the court was at length obtained in favor of Columbus; still, the wily monarch sought and found a pretext for refusing to carry it into execution, and the young admiral was finally indebted for success in this suit, to success in another suit of a different charDonna Maria de Toledo, a young lady of rank and fortune, niece of the celebrated Duke of Alva, afterward so distinguished in the reim of Charles V., and cousin german of

acter.

8

the king, was at that time a favorite at the Spanish court. The glory which Columbus The claims of Don Diego, confirmed by the the elder, had acquired, rested upon his son. council of the Indies, raised him to a level with the proudest aristocracy in the land-he sought and obtained this lady in marriage, and the family of Columbus was thus ingrafted on one of the oldest and most respectable families in Spain. Diego, having in this manner secured that magical power, called connections," the imperial favor withheld from In 1509, the the son of Columbus, fell in showers upon a relative of the Duke of Alva. young admiral embarked with his bride and a numerous retinue of cavaliers, for Hispaniola. The vice-queen, who was a lady of extraordinary intelligence, on her arrival thither, established a sort of court, which threw a degree of lustre over this then, semibarbarous island, and contributed materially to soften the rude manners which had grown up in a state of society destitute of those salutary restraints which are produced by female influence.

Don Diego, however, inherited not only the rank, but the troubles of his father. Involved in difficulties with the fiscal, he repaired to court in 1515, and was received with great honor by the king. On the 23rd of January, 1516, Ferdinand died, and was succeeded by his grandson, the celebrated Charles V. The emperor, after considerable delay, acknowledged Don Diego's right to exercise the office of viceroy and governor of Hispaniola, and in 1520 he returned thither, found its affairs in confusion, and in 1523, was informed that his presence was necessary in Spain. He repaired again to court, and plead his cause so well, that the sovereign and council acknowledged at once his innoThe dispute, however, between the admiral and the fiscal, was protracted to such a length, that he, like his father, died in the pursuit. He left Toledo in a litter on the 21st of Feb. 1526, for Seville, and on the 23rd died at Montalvan, " worn out by following up his claims, and defending himself from the calumnies of his competitors, who, with stratagems and devices, sought to obscure the glory of the father, and the virtue of the son." At the time of his death, his wife and family were at St. Domingo. He left two sons, Louis and Christopher, and three daughters.

cence.

After the death of Diego, his noble-spirited vice-queen, left with a number of young children, determined to assert and maintain the rights of the family. She demanded a licence from the royal audience of Hispaniola, to recruit men and fit out an armada to colonize the province of Veragua, which she alleged had been discovered by Columbus. Being refused in this request, she appealed to the Emperor, (Charles V.) He directed the vice-queen to be kept in suspense, until the justice of her pretensions could be ascertained. She therefore embarked for Spain, in order to protect the claims of her eldest son, Don Louis, then a child six years old. Charles V. himself was absent, but she was graciously received by the empress, and the title of Admiral of the Indies immediately conferred on her son. Charles could not, however, be prevailed upon to give Don Louis the title of viceroy, although that dignity had been decreed to his father as a hereditary right. The young admiral, Don Louis, therefore instituted proceedings for its recovery, which were afterward settled by arbitration, and Don Louis, finding all his dignities and privileges sources of mere vexation, finally entered into a compromise. By this compromise he gave up all his pretensions to the viceroyalty of the New World, and received in its stead the titles of Duke of Veragua, and Marquis of Jamaica, and a pension of 1000 doubloons in gold. Don Louis soon after died, leaving two daughters, Philippa and Maria. He was succeeded by Diego his nephew, a son of his brother Christopher. His daughter, however, laid claim to his titles, and a law-suit took place between the nephew and daughter, which threatening to prove tedious and expensive, was compromised by their intermar. riage. Their union, though happy, was not fruitful; and on Diego's death in 1578, the legitimate male line of Columbus became extinct.

great Another law-suit now arose, for the estates and dignities descended from the " discoverer," which was finally decided by the council of the Indies, on the 2nd of December, 1608, in favor of Don Nuno Gelves de Portugallo, who became Duke of Veragua. He was grandson of Isabella, third daughter of Don Diego, son of the discoverer, by his