Christopher Columbus and His Monument Columbia Part 37

Erected by The Chicago _Herald_, June 15, 1891.

COLUMBUS.

FOR THE FESTIVAL AT HUELVA.

_a Castillo, y a Leon Nuevo Mundo dio Colon._

THEODORE WATTS, in the _Athenaeum_ (England).

To Christ he cried to quell Death's deafening measure, Sung by the storm to Death's own chartless sea; To Christ he cried for glimpse of gra.s.s or tree When, hovering o'er the calm, Death watch'd at leisure; And when he showed the men, now dazed with pleasure, Faith's new world glittering star-like on the lee, "I trust that by the help of Christ," said he, "I presently shall light on golden treasure."

What treasure found he? Chains and pains and sorrow.

Yea, all the wealth those n.o.ble seekers find Whose footfalls mark the music of mankind.

'Twas his to lend a life; 'twas man's to borrow; 'Twas his to make, but not to share, the morrow, Who in love's memory lives this morn enshrined.

WEST INDIAN STATUES.

CARDENAS, CUBA.--At Cardenas, Cuba, a statue by Piguer of Madrid has been erected by a Cuban lady, an auth.o.r.ess, and wife of a former governor.

[Ill.u.s.tration: STATUE OF COLUMBUS In the Courtyard of the Captain-General's Palace, Havana, Cuba (See page 313.)]

CATHEDRAL OF HAVANA, CUBA.--In the Cathedral of Havana there is a plain marble bas-relief, about four feet high, representing in a medallion a very apocryphal portrait of Columbus, with an inscription as follows:

_O restos e Ymajen del grande Colon!

Mil siglos durad guardados en la urna Y en la remembranza de nuestra Nacion._

(O remains and image of the great Columbus!

For a thousand ages endure guarded within this urn And in the remembrance of our nation.)

PROPOSED TOMB--HAVANA CATHEDRAL.--In February, 1891, by royal decree, all Spanish artists were invited to compete for a design for a sepulcher in which to preserve the Havana remains of Columbus; several were submitted to a jury, who awarded the first prize to Arthur Melida, with a premium of $5,000.

The sepulcher is now being erected in the cathedral. The design represents a bier covered with a heavily embroidered pall, borne upon the shoulders of four heralds, in garments richly carved to resemble lace and embroidered work. The two front figures bear scepters surmounted by images of the Madonna and St. James, the patron saint of Spain. On the front of their garments are the arms of Castille and Leon.

The two bearers represent Aragon and Navarre, the former being indicated by four red staffs on a gold field, and the fourth has gold-linked chains on a red field. The group is supported on a pedestal ornamented about its edge with a Greek fret.

HAVANA, CUBA.--In the court-yard of the Captain-General's palace, in Havana, is a full-length figure of Columbus, the face modeled after accepted portraits at Madrid.

HAVANA, CUBA.--In the inclosure of the "Templete," the little chapel on the site of which the first ma.s.s was celebrated in Cuba, there is a bust of Columbus which has the solitary merit of being totally unlike all others.

Na.s.sAU.--At Na.s.sau, in the Bahamas, a statue of Christopher Columbus stands in front of Government House. The statue, which is nine feet high, is placed upon a pedestal six feet in alt.i.tude, on the north or seaward face of which is inscribed:

COLUMBUS, 1492.

It was presented to the colony by Sir James Carmichael Smyth, Governor of the Bahamas, 1829-1833, was modeled in London in 1831, is made of metal and painted white, and was erected May, 1832.

SANTO DOMINGO CATHEDRAL.--Above the _boveda_, or vault, in the Cathedral of Santo Domingo, from which the remains of Columbus were taken in 1877, is a marble slab with the following:

_Reposaron en este sitio los restos de Don Cristobal Colon el celebre descrubridor del Nuevo Mundo, desde el ano de 1536, en que fueron trasladados de Espana, hasta el 10 de Setiembre 1877, en que se desenterraron para constatar su autenticidad. Y a posteridad la dedica el Presbitero Billini._

(There reposed in this place the remains of Christopher Columbus, the celebrated discoverer of the New World, from the year 1536, in which they were transferred from Spain, until the 10th September, 1877, in which year they were disinterred for the purpose of identification.

Dedicated to posterity by Padre Billini) (curate in charge when the vault was opened.)

In the cathedral there is also preserved a large cross of mahogany, rough and uneven, as though hewn with an adze out of a log, and then left in the rough. This, it is claimed, is the cross made by Columbus and erected on the opposite bank of the Ozama River, where the first settlement in the West Indies was made. In a little room by itself they keep a leaden casket, which Santo Domingoans claim contains the bones of Christopher Columbus, and, in another, those of his brother.

PLAZA OF SANTO DOMINGO.--Humboldt once wrote that America could boast of no worthy monument to its discoverer, but since his time many memorials have been erected, not only in the New World, but the Old. In the plaza in front of the cathedral, in the city of Santo Domingo, stands a statue, heroic, in bronze, representing Columbus pointing to the westward. Crouched at his feet is the figure of a female Indian, supposed to be the unfortunate Anacaona, the caciquess of Xaragua, tracing an inscription:

_Yll.u.s.tre y Esclarecido Varon Don Cristoval Colon._

The statue was cast in France, a few years ago, and stands in the center of the plaza, in front of the cathedral.

COLUMBUS LORD NORTH'S "BeTE NOIR."

EDWIN PERCY WHIPPLE, a distinguished American critic and essayist.

Born at Gloucester, Ma.s.s., 1819; died, June 16, 1886.

Lord North more than once humorously execrated the memory of Columbus for discovering a continent which gave him and his ministry so much trouble.

HARDY MARINERS HAVE BECOME GREAT HEROES.

DANIEL APPLETON WHITE, a distinguished American jurist and scholar.

Born at Lawrence, Ma.s.s., June 7, 1776; died, March 30, 1861.

Hardy seamen, too, who have spent their days in conflict with the storms of the ocean, have found means to make themselves distinguished in science and literature, as well as by achievements in their profession.

The life of Columbus gloriously attests this fact.

Ta.s.sO'S TRIBUTE IN ENGLISH SPENSERIAN STANZA.

JEREMIAH HOLMES WIFFEN, an English writer and translator. Born at Woburn, 1792. Many years librarian and private secretary to the Duke of Bedford. Died, 1836. From his translation of Ta.s.so's "Jerusalem Delivered" (1830). (See _ante_, Ta.s.sO.)

CANTO XV.

x.x.x.

The time shall come when s.h.i.+p-boys e'en shall scorn To have Alcides' fable on their lips, Seas yet unnamed and realms unknown adorn Your charts, and with their fame your pride eclipse; Then the bold Argo of all future s.h.i.+ps Shall circ.u.mnavigate and circle sheer Whate'er blue Tethys in her girdle clips, Victorious rival of the sun's career, And measure e'en of earth the whole stupendous sphere.

x.x.xI.

A Genoese knight shall first the idea seize And, full of faith, the untracked abyss explore.

No raving winds, inhospitable seas, Thwart planets, dubious calms, or billows' roar, Nor whatso'er of risk or toil may more Terrific show or furiously a.s.sail, Shall make that mighty mind of his give o'er The wonderful adventure, or avail In close Abyla's bounds his spirit to impale.