The Discovery of America Part 26

[Footnote 413: "Traido en disputas," Navarrete, _Coleccion_, tom. ii. p. 254.]

[Footnote 414: "Muy altos Reyes, de muy pequena edad entre en la mar navegando, e lo he continuado fasta hoy.... Ya pasan de cuarenta anos que yo voy en este uso: todo lo que hoy se navega, todo lo he andado." Navarrete, _Coleccion_, tom. ii. p.

262. Observe the lame phrase "pasan de cuarenta;" what business has that "de" in such a place without "mas" before it? "Pasan mas de cuarenta," i. e. "more than forty;" writing in haste and excitement, Columbus left out a little word; or shall we blame the proof-reader? Avezac himself translates it "il y a plus de quarante ans," and so does Eugene Muller, in his French version of Ferdinand's book, _Histoire de la vie de Christophe Colomb_, Paris, 1879, p. 15.]

[Footnote 415: That was the golden age of sumptuary laws.

Because Alfonso XI. of Castile (1312-1350), when he tried to impress horses for the army, found it hard to get as many as he wanted, he took it into his head that his subjects were raising too many mules and not enough horses. So he tried to remedy the evil by a wholesale decree prohibiting all Castilians from riding upon mules! In practice this precious decree, like other villainous prohibitory laws that try to prevent honest people from doing what they have a perfect right to do, proved so vexatious and ineffective withal that it had to be perpetually fussed with and tinkered. One year you could ride a mule and the next year you couldn't. In 1492, as we shall see, Columbus immortalized one of these patient beasts by riding it a few miles from Granada. But in 1494 Ferdinand and Isabella decreed that n.o.body except women, children, and clergymen could ride on mules,--"dont la marche est beaucoup plus douce que celle des chevaux" (Humboldt, _Examen critique_, tom. iii. p. 338). This edict remained in force in 1505, so that the Discoverer of the New World, the inaugurator of the greatest historic event since the birth of Christ, could not choose an easygoing animal for the comfort of his weary old weather-shaken bones without the bother of getting a special edict to fit his case. _Eheu, quam parva sapientia regitur mundus!_]

[Sidenote: The family of Domenico Colombo, and its changes of residence.]

With regard to the place where the great discoverer was born there ought to be no dispute, since we have his own most explicit and unmistakable word for it, as I shall presently show. Nevertheless there has been no end of dispute. He has been claimed by as many places as Homer,[416] but the only real question is whether he was born in the city of Genoa or in some neighbouring village within the boundaries of the Genoese republic.

It is easy to understand how doubt has arisen on this point, if we trace the changes of residence of his family. The grandfather of Columbus seems to have been Giovanni Colombo, of Terrarossa, an inland hamlet some twenty miles east by north from Genoa. Giovanni's son, Domenico Colombo, was probably born at Terrarossa, and moved thence with his father, somewhere between 1430 and 1445, to Quinto al Mare, four miles east of Genoa on the coast. All the family seem to have been weavers.

Before 1445, but how many years before is not known, Domenico married Susanna Fontanarossa, who belonged to a family of weavers, probably of Quezzi, four miles northeast of Genoa. Between 1448 and 1451 Domenico, with his wife and three children, moved into the city of Genoa, where he became the owner of a house and was duly qualified as a citizen. In 1471 Domenico moved to Savona, thirty miles west on the Corniche road, where he set up a weaving establishment and also kept a tavern. He had then five children, Cristoforo, Giovanni, Bartolommeo, Giacomo, and a daughter. Domenico lived in Savona till 1484. At that time his wife and his son Giovanni were dead, Giacomo was an apprentice, learning the weaver's trade, Christopher and Bartholomew had long been domiciled in Portugal, the daughter had married a cheese merchant in Genoa, and to that city Domenico returned in the autumn of 1484, and lived there until his death, at a great age, in 1499 or 1500. He was always in pecuniary difficulties, and died poor and in debt, though his sons seem to have sent him from Portugal and Spain such money as they could spare.[417]

[Footnote 416: "Nous avons demontre l'inanite des theories qui le font naitre a Pradello, a Cuccaro, a Cogoleto, a Savona, a Nervi, a Albissola, a Bogliasco, a Cosseria, a Finale, a Oneglia, voire meme en Angleterre ou dans l'isle de Corse."

Harrisse, tom. i. p. 217. In Cogoleto, about sixteen miles west of Genoa on the Corniche road, the visitor is shown a house where Columbus is said first to have seen the light. Upon its front is a quaint inscription in which the discoverer is compared to the dove (_Colomba_) which, when sent by Noah from the ark, discovered dry land amid the waters:--

Con generoso ardir dall' Arca all' onde Ubbidiente il vol Colomba prende, Corre, s' aggira, terren scopre, e fronde D' olivo in segno, al gran Noe ne rende.

L' imita in ci Colombo, ne' s' asconde, E da sua patria il mar solcando fende; Terreno al fin scoprendo diede fondo, Offerendo all' Ispano un Nuovo Mondo.

This house is or has been mentioned in Baedeker's _Northern Italy_ as the probable birthplace, along with Peschel's absurd date 1456. It is pretty certain that Columbus was _not_ born in that house or in Cogoleto. See Harrisse, tom. i. pp. 148-155.]

[Footnote 417: Harrisse, tom. i. pp. 166-216.]

[Sidenote: Christopher tells us that he was born in the city of Genoa.]

The reader will observe that Christopher and his two next brothers were born before the family went to live in the city of Genoa. It has hence been plausibly inferred that they were born either in Quinto or in Terrarossa; more likely the latter, since both Christopher and Bartholomew, as well as their father, were called, and sometimes signed themselves, Columbus of Terrarossa.[418] In this opinion the most indefatigable modern investigator, Harrisse, agrees with Las Casas.[419]

Nevertheless, in a solemn legal instrument executed February 22, 1498, establis.h.i.+ng a _mayorazgo_, or right of succession to his estates and emoluments in the Indies, Columbus expressly declares that he was born in the city of Genoa: "I enjoin it upon my son, the said Don Diego, or whoever may inherit the said _mayorazgo_, always to keep and maintain in the City of Genoa one person of our lineage, because from thence I came and in it I was born."[420] I do not see how such a definite and positive statement, occurring in such a doc.u.ment, can be doubted or explained away. It seems clear that the son was born while the parents were dwelling either at Terrarossa or at Quinto, but what is to hinder our supposing that the event might have happened when the mother was in the city on some errand or visit? The fact that Christopher and his brother were often styled "of Terrarossa" does not prove that they were born in that hamlet. A family moving thence to Quinto and to Genoa would stand in much need of some such distinctive epithet, because the name Colombo was extremely common in that part of Italy; insomuch that the modern historian, who prowls among the archives of those towns, must have a care lest he get hold of the wrong person, and thus open a fresh and prolific source of confusion. This has happened more than once.

[Footnote 418: Harrisse, tom. i. p. 188; _Vita dell'

Ammiraglio_, cap. xi.]

[Footnote 419: "Fue este varon escogido de nacion genoves, de algun lugar de la provincia de Genova; cual fuese, donde nacio o que nombre tuvo el tal lugar, no consta la verdad dello mas de que se solia llamar antes que llegase al estado que llego, Cristobal Colombo de Terra-rubia y lo mismo su hermano Bartolome Colon." Las Casas, _Historia de las Indias_, tom. i.

p. 42; cf. Harrisse, tom. i. pp. 217-222.]

[Footnote 420: "Mando al dicho D. Diego, mi hijo, o a la persona que heredare el dicho mayorazgo, que tenga y sostenga siempre en la _Ciudad de Genova_ una persona de nuestro linage ... pues que della sali _y en ella naci_" [italics mine].

Navarrete, _Coleccion_, tom. ii. p. 232.]

[Sidenote: Christopher's early years.]

[Sidenote: Christopher and Bartholomew at Lisbon.]

On the whole, then, it seems most probable that the Discoverer of America was born in the city of Genoa in 1436, or not much later. Of his childhood we know next to nothing. Las Casas tells us that he studied at the University of Pavia and acquired a good knowledge of Latin.[421]

This has been doubted, as incompatible with the statement of Columbus that he began a seafaring life at the age of fourteen. It is clear, however, that the earlier years of Columbus, before his departure for Portugal, were not all spent in seafaring. Somewhere, if not at Pavia, he not only learned Latin, but found time to study geography, with a little astronomy and mathematics, and to become an expert draughtsman.

He seems to have gone to and fro upon the Mediterranean in merchant voyages, now and then taking a hand in sharp scrimmages with Mussulman pirates.[422] In the intervals of this adventurous life he was probably to be found in Genoa, earning his bread by making maps and charts, for which there was a great and growing demand. About 1470, having become noted for his skill in such work, he followed his younger brother Bartholomew to Lisbon,[423] whither Prince Henry's undertakings had attracted able navigators and learned geographers until that city had come to be the chief centre of nautical science in Europe. Las Casas a.s.sures us that Bartholomew was quite equal to Christopher as a sailor, and surpa.s.sed him in the art of making maps and globes, as well as in the beauty of his handwriting.[424] In Portugal, as before in Italy, the work of the brothers Columbus was an alternation of map-making on land and adventure on the sea. We have Christopher's own word for it that he sailed with more than one of those Portuguese expeditions down the African coast;[425] and I think it not altogether unlikely that he may have been with Santarem and Escobar in their famous voyage of 1471.

[Footnote 421: Las Casas, _Historia_, tom. i. p. 46.]

[Footnote 422: The reader must beware, however, of some of the stories of adventure attaching to this part of his life, even where they are confirmed by Las Casas. They evidently rest upon hearsay, and the incidents are so confused that it is almost impossible to extract the kernel of truth.]

[Footnote 423: The date 1470 rests upon a letter of Columbus to King Ferdinand of Aragon in May, 1505. He says that G.o.d must have directed him into the service of Spain by a kind of miracle, since he had already been in Portugal, whose king was more interested than any other sovereign in making discoveries, and yet G.o.d closed his eyes, his ears, and all his senses to such a degree that _in fourteen years_ Columbus could not prevail upon him to lend aid to his scheme. "Dije milagrosamente porque fui a aportar a Portugal, adonde el Rey de alli entendia en el descubrir mas que otro: el le atajo la vista, oido y todos los sentidos, que en catorce anos no le pude hacer entender lo que yo dije." Las Casas, _op. cit._ tom.

iii. p. 187; Navarrete, tom. iii. p. 528. Now it is known that Columbus finally left Portugal late in 1484, or very early in 1485, so that fourteen years would carry us back to before 1471 for the first arrival of Columbus in that country. M. Harrisse (_op. cit._ tom. i. p. 263) is unnecessarily troubled by the fact that the same person was not king of Portugal during the whole of that period. Alfonso V. (brother of Henry the Navigator) died in 1481, and was succeeded by his son John II.; but during a considerable part of the time between 1475 and 1481 the royal authority was exercised by the latter. Both kings were more interested in making discoveries than any other European sovereigns. Which king did Columbus mean? Obviously his words were used loosely; he was too much preoccupied to be careful about trifles; he probably had John in his mind, and did not bother himself about Alfonso; King Ferdinand, to whom he was writing, did not need to have such points minutely specified, and could understand an elliptical statement; and the fact stated by Columbus was simply that during a residence of fourteen years in Portugal he had not been able to enlist even that enterprising government in behalf of his novel scheme.

In the town archives of Savona we find Christopher Columbus witnessing a doc.u.ment March 20, 1472, endorsing a kind of promissory note for his father August 26, 1472, and joining with his mother and his next brother Giovanni, August 7, 1473, in relinquis.h.i.+ng all claims to the house in Genoa sold by his father Domenico by deed of that date. It will be remembered that Domenico had moved from Genoa to Savona in 1471. From these doc.u.ments (which are all printed in his _Christophe Colomb_, tom. ii. pp. 419, 420, 424-426) M. Harrisse concludes that Christopher cannot have gone to Portugal until after August 7, 1473. Probably not, so far as to be domiciled there; but inasmuch as he had long been a sailor, why should he not have been in Portugal, or upon the African coast in a Portuguese s.h.i.+p, in 1470 and 1471, and nevertheless have been with his parents in Savona in 1472 and part of 1473? His own statement "fourteen years" is not to be set aside on such slight grounds as this. Furthermore, from the fact that Bartholomew's name is not signed to the deed of August 7, 1473, M. Harrisse infers that he was then a minor; i. e. under five and twenty. But it seems to me more likely that Bartholomew was already domiciled at Lisbon, since we are expressly told by two good contemporary authorities--both of them Genoese writers withal--that he moved to Lisbon and began making maps there at an earlier date than Christopher. See Antonio Gallo, _De navigatione Columbi per inaccessum antea Oceanum Commentariolus_, apud Muratori, tom. xxiii. col. 301-304; Giustiniani, _Psalterium_, Milan, 1516 (annotation to Psalm xix.); Harrisse, _Bibliotheca Americana Vetustissima_, No. 88.

To these statements M. Harrisse objects that he finds (in Belloro, _Notizie_, p. 8) mention of a doc.u.ment dated Savona, June 16, 1480, in which Domenico Colombo gives a power of attorney to his son Bartholomew to act for him in some matter.

The doc.u.ment itself, however, is not forthcoming, and the notice cited by M. Harrisse really affords no ground for the a.s.sumption that Bartholomew was in 1480 domiciled at Savona or at Genoa.]

[Footnote 424: Las Casas, _op. cit._ tom. i. p. 224; tom. ii.

p. 80. He possessed many maps and doc.u.ments by both the brothers.]

[Footnote 425: "Spesse volte navigando da Lisbona a Guinea,"

etc. _Vita dell' Ammiraglio_, cap. iv. The original authority is Columbus's marginal note in his copy of the _Imago Mundi_ of Alliacus, now preserved in the Colombina at Seville: "Nota quod sepius navigando ex Ulixbona ad austrum in Guineam, notavi c.u.m diligentia viam, etc." Compare the allusions to Guinea in his letters, Navarrete, _Coleccion_, tom. i. pp. 55, 71, 101.]

[Sidenote: Philippa Moniz de Perestrelo.]

[Sidenote: Personal appearance of Columbus.]

He had not been long in Portugal before he found a wife. We have already met the able Italian navigator, Bartholomew Perestrelo, who was sent by Prince Henry to the island of Porto Santo with Zarco and Vaz, about 1425. In recognition of eminent services Prince Henry afterwards, in 1446, appointed him governor of Porto Santo. Perestrelo died in 1457, leaving a widow (his second wife, Isabella Moniz) and a charming daughter Philippa,[426] whom Columbus is said to have first met at a religious service in the chapel of the convent of All Saints at Lisbon.

From the accounts of his personal appearance, given by Las Casas and others who knew him, we can well understand how Columbus should have won the heart of this lady, so far above him at that time in social position. He was a man of n.o.ble and commanding presence, tall and powerfully built, with fair ruddy complexion and keen blue-gray eyes that easily kindled; while his waving white hair must have been quite picturesque. His manner was at once courteous and cordial and his conversation charming, so that strangers were quickly won, and in friends who knew him well he inspired strong affection and respect.[427]

There was an indefinable air of authority about him, as befitted a man of great heart and lofty thoughts.[428] Out of those kindling eyes looked a grand and poetic soul, touched with that divine spark of religious enthusiasm which makes true genius.

[Footnote 426: There are some vexed questions concerning this lady and the connections between the Moniz and Perestrelo families, for which see Harrisse, tom. i. pp. 267-292.]

[Footnote 427: Las Casas, _Historia_, tom. i. p. 43. He describes Bartholomew as not unlike his brother, but not so tall, less affable in manner, and more stern in disposition, _id._ tom. ii. p. 80.]

[Footnote 428: "Christoval Colon ... persona de gran corazon y altos pensamientos." Mariana, _Historia de Espana_, tom. viii.

p. 341.]

[Sidenote: His marriage, and life upon the island of Porto Santo.]

The acquaintance between Columbus and Philippa Moniz de Perestrelo was not long in ripening into affection, for they were married in 1473. As there was a small estate at Porto Santo, Columbus went home thither with his bride to live for a while in quiet and seclusion. Such repose we may believe to have been favourable to meditation, and on that little island, three hundred miles out on the mysterious ocean, we are told that the great scheme of sailing westward to the Indies first took shape in the mind of Columbus.[429] His father-in-law Perestrelo had left a quant.i.ty of sailing charts and nautical notes, and these Columbus diligently studied, while s.h.i.+ps on their way to and from Guinea every now and then stopped at the island, and one can easily imagine the eager discussions that must have been held over the great commercial problem of the age,--how far south that African coast extended and whether there was any likelihood of ever finding an end to it.

[Footnote 429: Upon that island his eldest son Diego was born.

This whole story of the life upon Porto Santo and its relation to the genesis of Columbus's scheme is told very explicitly by Las Casas, who says that it was told to him by Diego Columbus at Barcelona in 1519, when they were waiting upon Charles V., just elected Emperor and about to start for Aachen to be crowned. And yet there are modern critics who are disposed to deny the whole story. (See Harrisse, tom. i. p. 298.) The grounds for doubt are, however, extremely trivial when confronted with Las Casas, _Historia_, tom. i. p. 54.]

[Sidenote: Alfonso V. asks advice of the great astronomer Toscanelli.]

How long Columbus lived upon Porto Santo is not known, but he seems to have gone from time to time back to Lisbon, and at length to have made his home--or in the case of such a rover we might better say his headquarters--in that city. We come now to a doc.u.ment of supreme importance for our narrative. Paolo del Pozzo dei Toscanelli, born at Florence in 1397, was one of the most famous astronomers and cosmographers of his time, a man to whom it was natural that questions involving the size and shape of the earth should be referred. To him Alfonso V. of Portugal made application, through a gentleman of the royal household, Fernando Martinez, who happened to be an old friend of Toscanelli. What Alfonso wanted to know was whether there could be a shorter oceanic route to the Indies than that which his captains were seeking by following the African coast; if so, he begged that Toscanelli would explain the nature and direction of such a route. The Florentine astronomer replied with the letter presently to be quoted in full, dated June 25, 1474; and along with the letter he sent to the king a sailing chart, exhibiting his conception of the Atlantic ocean, with Europe on the east and Cathay on the west. The date of this letter is eloquent. It was early in 1472 that Santarem and Escobar brought back to Lisbon the news that beyond the Gold Coast the African sh.o.r.e turned southwards and stretched away in that direction beyond the equator. As I have already observed, this was the moment when the question as to the possibility of a shorter route was likely to arise;[430] and this is precisely the question we find the king of Portugal putting to Toscanelli some time before the middle of 1474. Now about this same time, or not long afterwards, we find Columbus himself appealing to Toscanelli. An aged Florentine merchant, Lorenzo Giraldi, then settled in Lisbon, was going back to his native city for a visit, and to him Columbus entrusted a letter for the eminent astronomer. He received the following answer:

[Sidenote: Toscanelli's first letter to Columbus.]

"Paul, the physicist, to Christopher Columbus greeting.[431] I perceive your great and n.o.ble desire to go to the place where the spices grow; wherefore in reply to a letter of yours, I send you a copy of another letter, which I wrote a few days ago [or some time ago] to a friend of mine, a gentleman of the household of the most gracious king of Portugal before the wars of Castile,[432] in reply to another, which by command of His Highness he wrote me concerning that matter: and I send you another sailing chart, similar to the one I sent him, by which your demands will be satisfied. The copy of that letter of mine is as follows:--

[Sidenote: Toscanelli's copy of his former letter to Martinez--enclosed in his first letter to Columbus.]

"'Paul, the physicist, to Fernando Martinez, canon, at Lisbon, greeting.[433] I was glad to hear of your intimacy and favour with your most n.o.ble and ill.u.s.trious king. I have formerly spoken with you about a shorter route to the places of Spices by ocean navigation than that which you are pursuing by Guinea. The most gracious king now desires from me some statement, or rather an exhibition to the eye, so that even slightly educated persons can grasp and comprehend that route. Although I am well aware that this can be proved from the spherical shape of the earth, nevertheless, in order to make the point clearer and to facilitate the enterprise, I have decided to exhibit that route by means of a sailing chart. I therefore send to his majesty a chart made by my own hands,[434] upon which are laid down your coasts, and the islands from which you must begin to shape your course steadily westward, and the places at which you are bound to arrive, and how far from the pole or from the equator you ought to keep away, and through how much s.p.a.ce or through how many miles you are to arrive at places most fertile in all sorts of spices and gems; and do not wonder at my calling _west_ the parts where the spices are, whereas they are commonly called _east_, because to persons sailing persistently westward those parts will be found by courses on the under side of the earth. For if [you go] by land and by routes on this upper side, they will always be found in the east.

The straight lines drawn lengthwise upon the map indicate distance from east to west, while the transverse lines show distances from south to north. I have drawn upon the map various places upon which you may come, for the better information of the navigators in case of their arriving, whether through accident of wind or what not, at some different place from what they had expected; but partly in order that they may show the inhabitants that they have some knowledge of their country, which is sure to be a pleasant thing. It is said that none but merchants dwell in the islands.[435] For so great there is the number of navigators with their merchandise that in all the rest of the world there are not so many as in one very splendid port called Zaiton.[436] For they say that a hundred great s.h.i.+ps of pepper unload in that port every year, besides other s.h.i.+ps bringing other spices. That country is very populous and very rich, with a mult.i.tude of provinces and kingdoms and cities without number, under one sovereign who is called the Great Khan, which name signifies King of Kings, whose residence is for the most part in the province of Cathay. His predecessors two hundred years ago desired an alliance with Christendom; they sent to the pope and asked for a number of persons learned in the faith, that they might be enlightened; but those who were sent, having encountered obstacles on the way, returned.[437] Even in the time of Eugenius[438] there came one to Eugenius and made a declaration concerning their great goodwill toward Christians, and I had a long talk with him about many things, about the great size of their royal palaces and the remarkable length and breadth of their rivers, and the mult.i.tude of cities on the banks of the rivers, such that on one river there are about two hundred cities, with marble bridges very long and wide and everywhere adorned with columns. This country is worth seeking by the Latins, not only because great treasures may be obtained from it,--gold, silver, and all sorts of jewels and spices,--but on account of its learned men, philosophers, and skilled astrologers, and [in order that we may see] with what arts and devices so powerful and splendid a province is governed, and also [how] they conduct their wars. This for some sort of answer to his request, so far as haste and my occupations have allowed, ready in future to make further response to his royal majesty as much as he may wish. Given at Florence 25th June, 1474.'

[Footnote 430: See above, p. 330.]