Great Inventions and Discoveries Part 5

As we stand in the doorway of the twentieth century, there is scarcely one eleventh of the land area of the whole earth that remains unexplored. Lewis and Clark pushed their way through the unknown vastness of the American Northwest; Livingstone and Stanley penetrated the dark continent of Africa; and in September, 1909, Lieut. Robert E.

Peary of the United States Navy startled civilization by announcing his discovery of the North Pole. With the exception of a few interior tracts to-day, the only portions of the earth unknown and unmapped lie around the poles, and these are being rapidly sought out and brought to knowledge.

Of all geographical conquests, by far the greatest is the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus in 1492 A.D. The story of Columbus is one of the most interesting and pathetic in history. It is a story of toil, hards.h.i.+p, perseverance, and great success, requited with disappointment and disgrace.

Christophoro Colombo was born in Genoa, Italy, about 1435 or 1436 A.D.

Following the custom of those times in giving names Latin forms, his name became Christopher Columbus. In Latin the word _columba_ means "dove." His father was a wool-comber who was wealthy enough to send his son to a university, where he studied mathematics and astronomy.

On leaving the university, he worked a few months at his father's trade, but when he was fifteen years old he determined to be a sailor.

Of the late boyhood and early manhood of Columbus little is known. He seems to have traveled much, and it is certain that he studied much. It was popularly supposed in the time of Columbus that the earth was flat; that it was surrounded by a great world-river called "Ocea.n.u.s" or the ocean, and that if one should come to the edge he would plunge down into illimitable s.p.a.ce. From the time of Eratosthenes and Aristotle, Greek thinkers and scholars who lived several hundreds of years before the birth of Christ had known that the earth was round, and Columbus believed this fact too. He mastered the books, both ancient and contemporary, on geography and navigation, learned to draw charts and to construct spheres, and fitted himself to be a practical seaman and navigator.

In 1470 he arrived at Lisbon, Portugal, after he had been s.h.i.+pwrecked in a sea fight and had escaped to land on a plank. In Portugal he married the daughter of an old sea captain. He pored over the logs and papers of his father-in-law, and talked with old seamen of their voyages and of the mysteries of the western sea. About this time he seems to have arrived at the conclusion that much of the world remained undiscovered. There were strange rumors about the western sea.

Navigators had seen queer pieces of wood and some canes in the ocean, and the bodies of two strange men had been washed ash.o.r.e, "very broad-faced, and differing in aspect from Christians." European commerce was in need of a shorter route to Asia than the overland route then in use. Columbus hoped that he could reach the eastern coast of Asia by sailing west. He did not believe the earth as large as it really is, and he over-estimated the size of Asia, so that he did not realize the breadth of the Atlantic or the magnitude of the task before him.

Columbus was poor, and money was required for so huge an undertaking as a voyage to Asia. It was necessary, therefore, for him to seek aid in the enterprise. He asked help first from the senate of his native town, Genoa; but Genoa turned to him an unhearing ear. He applied next to King John of Portugal. The king referred the matter to a council of geographers, who reported against it. With the lurking hope that there might be something in the plan, the king was dishonorable enough to send out an expedition secretly to test it. The sailors who made the attempt soon lost heart and returned without having accomplished anything. When Columbus learned of the king's secret attempt, he was so outraged that he left Portugal for Spain. At about the same time he sent his brother Bartholomew to England to enlist the a.s.sistance of the British sovereign, King Henry VII. After much waiting and much vexation, Columbus at last gained the interest of the Spanish king, Ferdinand, who referred the proposition to a council of his astronomers and geographers. They finally decided that the project was vain and visionary and that they could have nothing more to do with it.

In great discouragement Columbus began preparations to go to France. At the door of a monastery in the little maritime town of Palos, he knocked and asked for bread and water for his son, Diego, who was accompanying him. He was received at the monastery, and there he met some persons of influence who interceded for him with the Spanish queen, Isabella. He went to the Court again, his plan was once more investigated, and once more Columbus was refused the aid he was seeking. He set out for France and had journeyed some distance on the way. In the meantime an official won the queen's consent to the enterprise, and there is a story that in her enthusiasm she offered to pledge her jewels to raise money for the expedition. A messenger who was sent to overtake Columbus brought him back, and on the seventeenth of April, 1492, the formal agreement between him and the king and queen of Spain was entered into, signed, and sealed.

Columbus's aim was to find the east coast of Asia. For the accomplishment of this he had a number of motives. He wanted to win wealth and fame for himself, to provide a shorter and cheaper route for commerce with the East, and to convert to Christianity the Grand Khan, a great Asiatic ruler, to whom he bore a letter of introduction from the rulers of Spain.

Great difficulty was experienced in finding sailors for so uncertain and terrifying a trip. Freedom was offered to convicts and bankrupts if they would accompany the expedition. At last seamen were secured to man three small s.h.i.+ps, stores were provided, and everything was made ready for the voyage. The adventurers numbered, all told, one hundred and twenty. The sh.o.r.e presented a strange spectacle on the morning of departure. The friends of the sailors stood on sh.o.r.e weeping and wringing their hands, confident in the belief that their loved ones would be swallowed up by some fabulous monster of the western deep, or in some way be forever lost to them. On the morning of Friday, August 3, 1492, at eight o'clock, the little fleet of three s.h.i.+ps weighed anchor at the port of Palos, Spain, and set out on the most uncertain and the greatest of all ocean voyages.

The s.h.i.+ps had been on the sea three weeks, and no land had yet been sighted. The compa.s.s no longer pointed due north. A meteor fell into the ocean not far from the s.h.i.+ps. The sailors lost courage. They declared that they must perish if they went on, and that their commander ought to be compelled to return. Some of them proposed to throw him into the sea. Columbus kept two reckonings; a correct one for himself, and an incorrect one to appease the sailors. He pleaded with his men to be courageous, as long as mild methods availed. He then grew harsh and commanded them. Through all the uncertainty and the mutterings of the sailors, he clung unwaveringly to his purpose--to push forward. He had no thought of going back.

Flying birds and floating objects promised land, but time went on and no land appeared. The sailors grew more and more violent. On the night of the eleventh of October, Columbus himself saw a light in the distance, which sometimes flickered and sometimes disappeared, as if it might be a torch borne by some one walking. All were now in eager expectancy. At two o'clock on the morning of Friday, October twelfth, a cannon fired from one of the vessels announced that a sailor had actually discovered land.

When daylight came, Columbus landed. The first thing he did upon reaching the sh.o.r.e was to fall upon his knees, kiss the earth, and with tears of joy thank G.o.d for deliverance from the perils of such a voyage. His men, ashamed of their mutiny and distrust, threw themselves at his feet, imploring his forgiveness. Columbus next drew his sword, planted the royal banner, and in the name of the Spanish sovereigns took possession of the country. In honor of his deliverance he named the place San Salvador, which means Saint Savior, or Holy Savior.

One of his three vessels was wrecked by a storm near the island of Santo Domingo, called also Hayti and Hispaniola. Columbus built a fort on this island from the wrecked s.h.i.+p, and left in it a colony of about forty of the crew. Desirous of returning to Spain with an account of his voyage, he set sail in January, 1493, on the return trip. A terrific storm was encountered. Columbus, fearing that his s.h.i.+ps might sink, and wis.h.i.+ng to preserve a record of what he had done, wrote an account of the voyage on a piece of parchment and placed it in a cask, which he threw overboard in the hope that it might be carried to sh.o.r.e and found. The storm abated, however, and on the fifteenth of March he sailed with two of his vessels into the port of Palos.

[Ill.u.s.tration: COLUMBUS ON THE DECK OF THE SANTA MARIA. From the painting by von Piloty]

He entered the city amid the shouts of the people, the booming of cannons, and the ringing of bells. Hastening to Barcelona, where the king and queen were then holding court, he was received with a triumphal procession. Seated next to the throne, he gave an account of his discoveries and exhibited the new country's products which he had brought back--gold, cotton, parrots, curious weapons, strange plants, unknown birds and beasts, and the nine Indians whom he had brought with him for baptism. Great honors were poured upon him. The king and queen could scarcely do enough for him.

In September, 1493, Columbus sailed westward on his second voyage. The fort which he had built on Santo Domingo was found burned, and the colony was scattered. He decided to build a second fort, and coasting forty miles east of Cape Haytien he selected a site where he founded the town of Isabella, named in honor of the Spanish queen. He discovered and explored a number of the islands of the West Indies, including Porto Rico, which has belonged to the United States since the recent war with Spain. The second voyage closed with his return to Spain in June, 1496.

On next to the last day of May, 1498, with six s.h.i.+ps Columbus set out on his third voyage. On the first day of August he discovered the Continent of South America. He thought it was only an island. Sailing along the sh.o.r.e, he believed that the various capes which he pa.s.sed were islands, and not until he reached the mouth of the great Orinoco River did he conclude that what he had discovered was not an island but a great continent.

On his return to the new town of Isabella, he found that matters had not gone well there while he was away. The natives had risen in revolt against the tyranny of the governor whom Columbus left to rule the island in his absence. For some time Columbus's enemies, who had become jealous of him, had been trying to poison the minds of the Spanish king and queen against him. Finally the Spanish rulers sent an officer to inquire into the affairs of the new colony. When this officer arrived, he took possession of Columbus's house, put Columbus in chains, and sent him back to Spain. These chains Columbus kept to the day of his death, and his son Hernando says his father requested that they might be buried with him. After he arrived in Spain, he was restored to the good will of the king and queen who soon sent him on another voyage.

In May, 1502, Columbus set sail on his fourth and last voyage, during which he endured very great dangers. Two of his vessels were destroyed by a storm and the other two were wrecked off the coast of Jamaica.

Separated from all the rest of the world, a number of his companions revolted, threatened his life, deserted him, and settled on another part of the island. The natives ceased to bring him food, and death seemed imminent. In this extremity he took advantage of an approaching eclipse of the moon. He told the natives that his G.o.d would destroy the moon as a token of the punishment to be inflicted upon them, if they did not bring the white men food. When the eclipse came, the natives implored Columbus to intercede for them with his G.o.d, and they brought him food in abundance. After the s.h.i.+pwreck, the navigator sent some of his boldest men in canoes to ask relief of the governor of the colony in Hispaniola. The messengers reached the colony in safety, but the governor would not undertake the rescue of Columbus. They bought a vessel, took it to Jamaica, and after a year of danger and anxiety on the island, in June, 1504, Columbus started on his homeward voyage. In September of this year he landed on Spanish soil for the last time.

This final voyage was not productive of any important results.

Soon after his return Queen Isabella died, and about two years later, on May 12, 1506, Columbus himself died at Valladolid, Spain. He was buried first at Valladolid, but his remains were soon transferred to a monastery in Seville, Spain. They were exhumed in 1536 and taken across the sea to the city of Santo Domingo, on the island of Hayti, which he had discovered. In 1796 the remains were taken to Havana, Cuba, where they remained until the close of the Spanish-American war. In 1898, after the island of Cuba had pa.s.sed from Spain to the United States, the body of the great admiral was taken across the Atlantic again to Spain, where it now rests.

In person Columbus was tall and well formed. Early in life he had auburn hair, but by the time he was thirty years old his hair had been turned white with care, hards.h.i.+p, and trouble. His face was long, and he had gray eyes and an aquiline nose. He was moderate in all his habits, and was one of the most religious of men. He was of a poetic temperament and thus lacked some of the essential qualities of great leaders.h.i.+p. He was broad in his outlook, n.o.ble in his aspirations, and benevolent in spirit.

Columbus died ignorant of the fact that he had discovered a new world.

He believed that the great continent which he gave to civilization was Asia, and that he had only found a new way to that country. He called the natives whom he found "Indians," thinking that they were inhabitants of India. When it was known that a new country had actually been discovered, it was named "America" in honor of Amerigo Vespucci, an Italian geographer and navigator, who visited, it seems, the mainland of this country in 1497. The land discovered by Columbus on the night of October 12, 1492, is believed to have been Watling's island, one of the groups of the West Indies.

Eighteen years elapsed between the time when Christopher Columbus conceived his enterprise and that August morning in 1492 when he set sail on his first voyage of discovery. He had gone about from place to place seeking aid, but spurned everywhere. These years were spent in almost hopeless anxiety, in poverty, and in neglect. The people of his day thought him crazy. When he pa.s.sed by, they pointed to their foreheads and smiled. He braved the dangers of unknown waters, of mutinous crews, of hostile natives, and of starvation. What is worse, he endured the arrows of jealousy, slander, and misrepresentation. He had a contract with the Spanish crown whereby he was to receive certain honors and wealth as a result of his discoveries. He could not get King Ferdinand to fulfill the contract. He was sent home in chains from the great hemisphere he had discovered, and even the honor of its name went to another who had no claim to it.

Through the career of every successful man there runs a grim determination to do the thing in hand. Columbus had this determination and with it he triumphed. The stars hid themselves behind storms; the compa.s.s refused to act normally; a strange and terrible ocean roared; mutiny howled and jealousy hissed, but on one thing he was determined--he would do his best to accomplish the thing he had set himself to accomplish; and he did it.

One of the most inspiring poems in American literature is Joaquin Miller's "Columbus:"--

Behind him lay the gray Azores, Behind the Gate of Hercules; Before him not the ghost of sh.o.r.es, Before him only sh.o.r.eless seas.

The good mate said: "Now must we pray, For lo! the very stars are gone.

Brave Adm'r'l, speak, what shall I say?"

"Why, say: 'Sail on! sail on! and on!'"

"My men grow mutinous day by day; My men grow ghastly wan and weak."

The stout mate thought of home; a spray Of salt wave washed his swarthy cheek.

"What shall I say, brave Adm'r'l, say, If we sight naught but seas at dawn?"

"Why, you shall say at break of day: 'Sail on! sail on! sail on! and on!'"

They sailed and sailed, as winds might blow, Until at last the blanched mate said: "Why, now not even G.o.d would know Should I and all my men fall dead.

These very winds forget their way, For G.o.d from these dread seas is gone.

Now speak, brave Adm'r'l, speak and say"-- He said: "Sail on! sail on! and on!"

They sailed. They sailed. Then spake the mate: "This mad sea shows his teeth to-night.

He curls his lips, he lies in wait, With lifted teeth as if to bite!

Brave Adm'r'l, say but one good word: What shall we do when hope is gone?"

The word leapt like a leaping sword: "Sail on! sail on! sail on! and on!"

Then, pale and worn he kept his deck And peered through darkness. Ah, that night Of all dark nights! And then a speck-- A light! a light! a light! a light!

It grew, a starlit flag unfurled!

It grew to be time's burst of dawn.

He gained a world; he gave that world Its grandest lesson: "Oh! sail on!"

CHAPTER VII

WEAPONS AND GUNPOWDER

Man's weapons of warfare, offensive and defensive, have been many and curious. David slew Goliath with a stone from a sling. The Scriptures tell us that Samson, the mighty man of the Bible, killed a thousand Philistines at one time with the jaw-bone of an a.s.s. The study of the development of arms makes one of the most significant chapters in the history of civilization.

The use of stone weapons seems to have been universally characteristic of the earlier races of mankind, as it still is distinctive of the ruder races. The weapons made from stone were necessarily few and simple. The most common was an ax, made from various kinds of stone and with varying degrees of skill. Spear-points and arrow-heads were made of flint. These show a comparatively high type of workmans.h.i.+p. The highest efforts of the ancient stone-workers culminated in a leaf-shaped dagger or knife of flint, various in form but uniform in type. These flint daggers differed also in size, but seldom exceeded a foot in length. They were never ground or polished, but delicately chipped to a fine, straight edge, and were often beautiful.

[Ill.u.s.tration: STATUES SHOWING KNIGHTS IN ARMOR]

In the Bronze Age several kinds of bronze daggers were made. The characteristic weapon of this period, however, was the leaf-shaped bronze sword. "No warlike weapon of any period is more graceful in form or more beautifully finished." This sword had a very thin edge on both sides running from hilt to point, and the handle was of bone, horn, or wood. The thinness of the edge seems to have been produced without the aid of hammer or file. The weapon was better fitted for stabbing and thrusting than for cutting with the edge. Bronze spear-points have been found, but throughout the Bronze Age arrow-heads were made of flint.

There were also s.h.i.+elds of bronze, held in the hand by a handle fastened to the center. The period of transition between the Bronze Age and the Iron Age is marked by an iron sword, which was similar in form to the leaf-shaped bronze sword.

Homer, the great Greek bard who is supposed to have lived about a thousand years before the birth of Christ, in speaking of the wars of the Greeks, describes their weapons somewhat fully. They used a double-edged, bronze-bladed sword, the hilt and scabbard of which were adorned with gold and silver. In the combats of the Homeric age, however, the spear, lance, or javelin played the princ.i.p.al part; swords were used only for fighting at close range. Bows and arrows also were used. The only iron weapon specifically mentioned is the arrow-head.

This was inserted in a split shaft, precisely like the flint arrow-heads of the early North American Indians and other modern savages. The defensive armor of the heroic age of Greece was entirely of bronze. It consisted of a helmet for the head, cuira.s.s for the chest, greaves for the legs, and a s.h.i.+eld. The bronze cuira.s.s was often ornamented with gold. The s.h.i.+eld was round or oval in shape, very large, and covered with hide. The Greeks of the later or historic age fought chiefly with long, heavy spears. Later the s.h.i.+eld was reduced in size and the sword increased in length. The light-armed troops were furnished with a light javelin having a strap or thong fastened to the middle to a.s.sist in hurling. A linen corselet came into use instead of the heavy metal cuira.s.s. The mounted troops were supplied with a longer sword, a javelin, and a short dagger.