COLUMBUS 129 sought, but afterward concluded it was the mainland of India. He also discovered Hayti, which he thought was the Ophir of Solomon, but which he called Hispaniola, or Little Spain. On the bay, since called bay of Caracola, of this island, he built a fort with the timbers of the Santa Maria, and leaving in it 39 men, sailed on Jan 4, 1493, for Spain, taking with him several natives in the Nina, Martin Pinzon having already gone in search of gold on his own account in the Pinta. During the voyage a storm threatened the Nina with destruction. Columbus, fearful lest the knowledge of his discovery should perish, prepared a written statement of it, and heading it up in a cask committed it to the deep. On March 15, 1493, the ship reached the port of Palos, having a few days before been driven by storm into the Tagus, where he was favorably entertained by King John. The Spanish sovereigns, then at Barcelona, received him with great relaxation of court etiquette, ordered him to relate his adventures seated in their presence, confirmed all the dignities previously bestowed, and placed him in command of a fleet of IV ships and 1,500 men, to prosecute the discovery. With this fleet he sailed from Cadiz, Sept. 25, 1493. From this day his good fortune forsook him. Many of those who sailed with him were adventurers in search of gold. Mutinies and quarrels broke out, and many of those who expected to find fortunes, but met nothing but disappointment, threw the blame on the admiral. Having discovered the Windward islands, Jamaica, and Porto Eico, and founded a colony in Hispaniola, of which he left his brother Bartolommeo adelantado^ or lieutenant governor, he returned home against the trade winds, and reached Cadiz June 11, 1496. He was successful in clearing himself of the clamor against him. On some courtiers depreciating the value of his discovery, he invited them to make an egg stand on end. When they had exhausted their efforts to accomplish the feat, Columbus struck the egg on the table, break- ing the shell, and thus left it upright. " Any one can do that !" cried the courtiers. " When I have shown you the way," replied Columbus, leaving them to make the application. Colum- bus sailed on his third voyage to the new world, May 30, 1498, from San Lucar de Bar- rameda, with six ships. On this occasion he kept further to the south, discovering the mouth of the Orinoco, which he imagined was the great river Gihon, having its rise in the garden of Eden ; also the coast of Para, and the islands of Trinidad, Margarita, and Cubaqua; then he bore away to Hispaniola, there to recruit his enfeebled health. He found the colony disorganized, and in his efforts to re- store it became again the victim of malice and misrepresentation. A commissioner, Francisco de Bobadilla, was sent from Spain ostensibly to inquire into the difficulties. His -first act was to put Columbus and his brother in chains, and send them to Spain. The account given of this indignity is touching. " Are you taking me to death, Vallejo?" inquired Columbus sadly, when that officer came to lead him from his cell. " Your excellency is to be conducted to Spain," replied the officer, whereupon the admiral relapsed into silence. The officers of the ship offering to liberate him from his fet- ters, he replied proudly that the chains had been put upon him by authority of their ma- jesties, and he added, "I will wear them until they shall order them to be taken off, and I will preserve them afterward as relics and me- morials of the reward of my services." The indignation expressed throughout Spain at this outrage caused the king to disclaim having au- thorized it ; but it is evident that the nobles were jealous of the superior rank of the ad- miral, and the king dissatisfied with the un- productiveness of the new countries. After nine months' polite evasion of his entreaties for redress, Ferdinand appointed Nicolas Ovando governor of Hispaniola in his stead. Bobadilla had meantime been recalled, and was drowned on the way. The only subsequent employment of Columbus, now old, was the command of four caravels with 150 men, to search for a passage through the sea now known as the gulf of Mexico to the East Indies. He sailed from Cadiz, May 9, 1502 ; was refused permis- sion to refit at his own colony, tHispaniola; coasted the south side of the gulf of Mexico ; and after much suffering from famine and hardship returned home, reaching San Lncar Nov. 7, 1504. He lay sick some months at Seville, and recovered only to have his claims for redress finally rejected by the king, Queen Isabella being now dead. An old man, broken in body, although in full possession of his men- tal faculties, having, in his own words, "no place to repair to except an inn, and often with nothing to pay for his sustenance," the dis- coverer of the new world died, in the act of repeating the words, in Latin : " Lord, into thy hands I commit my spirit." Seven years af- terward a marble tomb was placed over his re- mains, with an inscription ordered by the king: A Castillo, y A Leon Nu&co mundo did Colon. ("To Castile and Leon a new world gave Colon.") Death did not end his voyages. His remains, first deposited in the convent of St. Francis, were transferred in 1513 to the Car- thusian monastery of Las Cuevas ; were taken in 1536 to Santo Domingo, and deposited in the cathedral of that city ; thence were con- veyed with great pomp in 1796 to the cathe- dral of Havana, where they now repose. The character of Columbus is impressed on his life : lofty, daring, and ambitious in design, indomi- table in conduct, moderate in success, unde- pressed in adversity, and in all imbued with a spirit of devotion. In person he was above the middle height, his countenance oval, with aquiline nose, bluish gray eyes, and fresh com- plexion. His hair had been auburn in youth,
