has sailed,” Columbus writes, “there have I journeyed.” We know that he was for a time engaged in selling books in Genoa, and that at a later date he was wrecked in an engagement begun off Cape St. Vincent, and, before his ship sank, escaped on a plank and reached the shores of Portugal. This was about 1470. He made his way to Lisbon, where he supported himself by making maps and charts and by occasional voyages. A few years later he met and married Donna Felipa, daughter of an Italian named Parestrello, who had been governor of Porto Santo. Columbus resided for some time on this island, where his wife — would that we knew something of her — had inherited a small property, and where their son Diego was born. Here he studied the papers and maps left by his father-in-law, a distinguished navigator under Prince Henry, of Portugal, and here he was constantly brought into association with persons interested in maritime discovery. The precise date when Columbus conceived the design of discovering, not a new continent, but a western route to Asia, cannot be determined — probably about 1474. During the ensuing ten years he made proposals of discovery to Genoa, Portugal, Venice, France, and England, which were deemed by some of those governments the extravagant demands of a mere adventurer. The king of Portugal, after having referred the project to a maritime junto and to his council, both of whom regarded it as visionary, nevertheless sent a caravel, under the pretext of taking provisions to the Cape de Verde islands, but with secret instructions to try the route proposed by Columbus. After sailing several days, the pilots, losing courage, returned with the report that no indications of land had been seen. King John was not yet inclined to give up the scheme, although it had been most unmercifully ridiculed by his council and other unbelievers. But Columbus, who had lost his wife and property, as well as all hope of aid in that quarter, determined to abandon Portugal and seek elsewhere for patronage. Accordingly he left Lisbon toward the end of 1484 secretly, lest his departure should be prevented, and set out for Spain. Meeting with Marchena, the Superior of La Rabida, an Andalusian monastery, now preserved by the government of Spain as anational monument, that good man became so deeply interested in his glorious project that he detained him as a guest, and sent for the learned physician of Palos, Garcia Fernandez, to discuss the scheme. Now it was for the first time listened to with admiration. Marchena, assuming charge of the maintenance and education of the young son of Columbus, gave the father a letter of introduction to the confessor of Isabella, Fernando de Talavera. After seven years of weary attendance on the Spanish court, Columbus was on the point of departure for France when stipulations were at last signed by Ferdinand and Isabella at the camp of Santa Fé, on 17 April, 1492. On Friday, 3 Aug., Columbus, as admiral of the seas and lands which he expected to discover, set sail from the bar of Saltes, near Palos, with 120 men in three small ships, as seen in the illustration — the “Santa Maria,” a decked vessel of ninety feet keel, and two caravels or undecked boats, the “Pinta” and “Nina,” much smaller than the “Santa Maria.”
On Friday, 12 Oct., 1492, the outposts of the New World were seen. One of the Bahama group is the land first discovered, but as to which particular island there is great difference of opinion. Humboldt thinks it was Cat island, called by the natives Guanahavi and by the Spaniards San Salvador. Some writers have claimed that it was on that beautiful spot where Columbus wished to be buried and where he slept for centuries — the island of Santo Domingo. According to the latest investigations, Columbus certainly landed on Cat, Samana, or Watlings islands. These investigations, pursued chiefly in the explorer's log-book, would seem to indicate that the admiral's landing-place was the last-mentioned island, now (1886) believed to be the true San Salvador. This is perhaps as near as the world will ever come to a certain knowledge of the “landfall” of Columbus on the American continent. In the spring of the following year news of the startling event burst upon the astonished ears of Europe. Columbus returned to Europe, landing triumphantly at Palos on Friday, 15 March, 1493, and in his journey through Spain to Barcelona he received princely honors all the way. There his entrance with some of the natives, and with the arms and utensils of the discovered islands, was a long-delayed triumph, as striking and more glorious than that of a Roman conqueror.
With seventeen ships and 1,700 men Columbus sailed on his second voyage from Cadiz, 25 Sept., 1493, discovered the Windward islands, Jamaica, and Porto Rico, and founded a colony in Hispaniola, of which he left his brother Bartholomew lieutenant-governor, reaching Cadiz 11 June, 1496. He succeeded in clearing himself of the charges preferred against him by the adventurers who had accompanied him, and on 30 May, 1498, sailed with six ships on his third voyage. Columbus discovered the Orinoco and then visited Hispaniola, only to again become the victim of malice and misrepresentation. A commissioner sent by the Spanish king to inquire into the charges placed him and his brother in chains and sent them to Spain. When the captain of the ship offered to free him from his fetters, Columbus proudly replied: “No, I will wear them as a memento of the gratitude of princes.” The indignation expressed throughout Spain at this outrage caused the king to disclaim
