The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus Part 48

[106]: Munoz, H. N. Mundo, part inedit.

[107]: Las Casas, Hist. Ind., lib. ii. cap. 3, MS.

[108]: Garibay, Hist. Espana, lib. xix. cap. 6. Among the collections existing in the library of the late Prince Sebastian, there is a folio which, among other things, contains a paper or letter, in which is a calculation of the probable expenses of an army of twenty thousand men, for the conquest of the Holy Land. It is dated in 1509 or 1510, and the handwriting appears to be of the same time.

[109]: Columbus was not singular in his belief; it was entertained by many of his zealous and learned admirers. The erudite lapidary, Jayme Ferrer, in the letter written to Columbus in 1495, at the command of the sovereigns, observes: "I see in this a great mystery: the divine and infallible Providence sent the great St. Thomas from the west into the east, to manifest in India our holy and Catholic faith; and you, Senor, he sent in an opposite direction, from the east into the west, until you have arrived in the Orient, into the extreme part of Upper India, that the people may hear that which their ancestors neglected of the preaching of St. Thomas. Thus shall be accomplished what was written, _in omnem terram exibit sonus eorum_." ... And again, "The office which you hold, Senor, places you in the light of an apostle and amba.s.sador of G.o.d, sent by his divine judgment, to make known his holy name in unknown lands."--Letra de Mossen, Jayme Ferrer, Navarrete, Coleccion, tom. ii.

decad. 68. See also the opinion expressed by Agostino Giustiniani, his contemporary, in his Polyglot Psalter.

[110]: Las Casas, lib. ii. cap. 4. Las Casas specifics the vicinity of Nombre de Dios as the place.

[111]: Navarrete, Colec. Viag., tom. ii. p. 145.

[112]: A ma.n.u.script volume containing a copy of this letter and of the collection of prophecies is in the Columbian Library, in the Cathedral of Seville, where the author of this work has seen and examined it since publis.h.i.+ng the first edition. The t.i.tle and some of the early pages of the work are in the handwriting of Fernando Columbus; the main body of the work is by a strange hand, probably by the Friar Gaspar Gorricio, or some brother of his Convent. There are trifling marginal notes or corrections, and one or two trivial additions in the handwriting of Columbus, especially a pa.s.sage added after his return from his fourth voyage, and shortly before his death, alluding to an eclipse of the moon which took place during his sojourn in the island of Jamaica. The handwriting of this last pa.s.sage, like most of the ma.n.u.script of Columbus which the author has seen, is small and delicate, but wants the firmness and distinctness of his earlier writing, his hand having doubtless become unsteady by age and infirmity.

This doc.u.ment is extremely curious as containing all the pa.s.sages of Scripture and of the works of the fathers which had so powerful an influence on the enthusiastic mind of Columbus, and were construed by him into mysterious prophecies and revelations. The volume is in good preservation, excepting that a few pages have been cut out. The writing, though of the beginning of the fifteenth century, is very distinct and legible. The library-mark of the book is Estante Z. Tab. 138, No. 25.

[113]: Las Casas, Hist. Ind., lib. ii. cap. 4.

[114]: These doc.u.ments lay unknown in the Oderigo family until 1670, when Lorenzo Oderigo presented them to the government of Genoa, and they were deposited in the archives. In the disturbances and revolutions of after times, one of these copies was taken to Paris, and the other disappeared.

In 1816 the latter was discovered in the library of the deceased Count Michel Angelo Cambiaso, a senator of Genoa. It was procured by the king of Sardinia, then sovereign of Genoa, and given up by him to the city of Genoa in 1821. A custodia, or monument, was erected in that city for its preservation, consisting of a marble column supporting an urn, surmounted by a bust of Columbus. The doc.u.ments were deposited in the urn. These papers have been published, together with an historical memoir of Columbus, by D. Gio. Battista Spotorno, Professor of Eloquence, etc. in the University of Genoa.

[115]: Hist. del Almirante, cap. 88.

[116]: Senor Navarrete supposes this island to be the same at present called Santa Lucia. From the distance between it and Dominica, as stated by Fernando Columbus, it was more probably the present Martinica.

[117]: Hist. del Almirante, cap. 88.

[118]: Letter of Columbus from Jamaica. Journal of Porras, Navarrete, tom.

i.

[119]: Hist. del Almirante, cap. 88. Las Casas, lib. ii. cap. 5.

[120]: Las Casas, Hist. Ind., lib. ii. cap. 3.

[121]: Las Casas, cap. 5.

[122]: Las Casas, cap. 5.

[123]: Las Casas ubi sup.

[124]: Las Casas, Hist. Ind., lib. ii. cap. 5. Hist. del Almirante, cap.

88.

[125]: Supposed to be the Morant Keys.

[126]: Called in some of the English maps Bonacca.

[127]: Journal of Porras, Navarrete, tom. i.

[128]: Las Casas, lib. ii. cap. 20. Letter of Columbus from Jamaica.

[129]: Journal of Porras, Navarrete, Colec., tom. i.

[130]: Las Casas, lib. ii. cap. 21. Hist. del Almirante, cap. 90.

[131]: Hist. del Almirante, cap. 80.

[132]: Letter from Jamaica. Navarrete, Colec., tom. i.

[133]: Las Casas, lib ii. cap. 21. Hist. del Almirante, cap. 91.

[134]: P. Martyr, decad. iii. lib. iv. These may have been the lime, a small and extremely acid species of the lemon.

[135]: Las Casas, lib. ii. cap. 21. Hist. del Almirante, cap. 91. Journal of Porras.

[136]: Hist. del Almirante, cap. 91.

[137]: Letter from Jamaica.

[138]: Note.--We find instances of the same kind of superst.i.tion in the work of Marco Polo, and as Columbus considered himself in the vicinity of the countries described by that traveler, he may have been influenced in this respect by his narrations. Speaking of the island of Soccotera (Socotra), Marco Polo observes: "The inhabitants deal more in sorcery and witchcraft than any other people, although forbidden by their archbishop, who excommunicates and anathematizes them for the sin. Of this, however, they make little account, and if any vessel belong to a pirate should injure one of theirs, they do not fail to lay him under a spell, so that he cannot proceed on his cruise until he has made satisfaction for the damage; and even although he should have a fair and leading wind, they have the power of causing it to change, and thereby obliging him, in spite of himself, to return to the island. They can, in like manner, cause the sea to become calm, and at their will can raise tempests, occasion s.h.i.+p-wrecks, and produce many other extraordinary effects that need not be particularized."--Marco Polo, Book iii. cap. 35, Eng. translation by W.

Marsden.

[139]: Las Casas, lib. ii. cap. 21. Hist. del Almirante cap. 91.

[140]: Las Casas, lib. ii. cap. 21. Hist. del Almirante, cap. 91. Letter of Columbus from Jamaica.

[141]: In some English maps this bay is called Almirante, or Carnabaco Bay.

The channel by which Columbus entered is still called Boca del Almirante, or the mouth of the Admiral.

[142]: Journal of Porras, Navarrete, tom. i.

[143]: P. Martyr, decad. iii. lib. v.

[144]: Columbus' Letter from Jamaica.

[145]: Hist. del Almirante, cap. 92.

[146]: Idem.

[147]: Letter of Columbus from Jamaica. Navarrete, Colec., tom. i. Vol.

II.--12.

[148]: Las Casas, lib. ii. cap. 23. Hist. del Almirante.

[149]: Peter Martyr, decad. iii. lib. iv.

[150]: Las Casas, lib. ii. cap. 23. Hist. del Almirante, cap. 92.

[151]: Las Casas. lib. ii. cap. 23. Hist. del Almirante, cap. 92.