The Discovery of America Part 34

[Sidenote: The letter to Sanchez.]

At the same time with his letter to Santangel, the Admiral had despatched another account, substantially the same,[532] to Gabriel Sanchez,[533] another officer of the royal treasury. Several copies of a Latin translation of this letter were published at Rome, at Paris, and elsewhere, in the course of the year 1493.[534] The story which it contained was at once paraphrased in Italian verse by Giuliano Dati, one of the most popular poets of the age, and perhaps in the autumn of 1493 the amazing news that the Indies had been found by sailing west[535] was sung by street urchins in Florence. We are also informed, in an ill-vouched but not improbable clause in Ramusio, that not far from that same time the news was heard with admiration in London, where it was p.r.o.nounced "a thing more divine than human to sail by the West unto the East, where spices grow, by a way that was never known before;"[536] and it seems altogether likely that it was this news that prompted the expedition of John Cabot hereafter to be mentioned.[537]

[Footnote 532: "Un duplicata de cette relation," Harrisse, _Christophe Colomb_, tom i. p. 419.]

[Footnote 533: Often called Raphael Sanchez.]

[Footnote 534: The following epigram was added to the first Latin edition of the latter by Corbaria, Bishop of Monte-Peloso:--

_Ad Invictissimum Regem Hispaniarum_:

Iam nulla Hispanis tellus addenda triumphis, Atque parum tantis viribus...o...b..s erat.

Nunc longe eois regio deprensa sub undis, Auctura est t.i.tulos Betice magne tuos.

Unde repertori inerita referenda Columbo Gratia, sed summo est maior habenda deo, Qui vincenda parat noua regna tibique sibique Teque simul fortem prestat et esse pium.

These lines are thus paraphrased by M. Harrisse:--

_To the Invincible King of the Spains_:

Less wide the world than the renown of Spain, To swell her triumphs no new lands remain.

Rejoice, Iberia! see thy fame increased!

Another world Columbus from the East And the mid-ocean summons to thy sway!

Give thanks to him--but loftier homage pay To G.o.d Supreme, who gives its realms to thee!

Greatest of monarchs, first of servants be!

_Bibliotheca Americana Vetustissima_, p. 13.

The following is a literal version:--"Already there is no land to be added to the triumphs of Spain, and the earth was too small for such great deeds. Now a far country under the eastern waves has been discovered, and will be an addition to thy t.i.tles, O great Baetica! wherefore thanks are due to the ill.u.s.trious discover Columbus; but greater thanks to the supreme G.o.d, who is making ready new realms to be conquered for thee and for Himself, and vouchsafes to thee to be at once strong and pious." It will be observed that nothing is said about "another world."

An elaborate account of these earliest and excessively rare editions is given by M. Harrisse, _loc. cit._]

[Footnote 535: Or, as Mr. Major carelessly puts it, "the astounding news of the discovery of a new world." (_Select Letters of Columbus_, p. vi.) Mr. Major knows very well that no such "news" was possible for many a year after 1493; his remark is, of course, a mere slip of the pen, but if we are ever going to straighten out the tangle of misconceptions with which this subject is commonly surrounded, we must be careful in our choice of words.--As a fair specimen, of the chap-book style of Dati's stanzas, we may cite the fourteenth:--

Hor vo tornar almio primo tractato dellisole trovate incognite a te in [~q]sto anno presente [~q]sto e stato nel millequatrocento nov[=a]tatre, uno che x[~p]ofan col[=o]bo chiamato, che e stato in corte der prefecto Re ha molte volte questa stimolato, el Re ch'cerchi acrescere il suo stato.

M. Harrisse gives the following version:--

Back to my theme, O Listener, turn with me And hear of islands all unknown to thee!

Islands whereof the grand discovery Chanced in this year of fourteen ninety-three.

One Christopher Colombo, whose resort Was ever in the King Fernando's court, Bent himself still to rouse and stimulate The King to swell the borders of his State.

_Bibliotheca Americana Vetustissima_, p. 29.

The entire poem of sixty-eight stanzas is given in Major, _op.

cit._ pp. lxxiii.-xc. It was published at Florence, Oct. 26, 1493, and was called "the story of the discovery [not of a new world, but] of the new Indian islands of Canary!" (_Storia della inventione delle nuove isole dicanaria indiane._)]

[Footnote 536: _Raccolta di Navigazioni_, etc., Venice, 1550, tom. i. fol. 414.]

[Footnote 537: See below, vol. ii. pp. 2-15.]

[Sidenote: Earliest references to the discovery.]

[Sidenote: Earliest reference in English.]

The references to the discovery are very scanty, however, until after the year 1500, and extremely vague withal. For example, Bernardino de Carvajal, the Spanish amba.s.sador at the papal court, delivered an oration in Rome on June 19, 1493, in which he said: "And Christ placed under their [Ferdinand and Isabella's] rule the Fortunate [Canary]

islands, the fertility of which has been ascertained to be wonderful.

And he has lately disclosed some other unknown ones towards the Indies which may be considered among the most precious things on earth; and it is believed that they will be gained over to Christ by the emissaries of the king."[538] Outside of the Romance countries we find one German version of the first letter of Columbus, published at Strasburg, in 1497,[539] and a brief allusion to the discovery in Sebastian Brandt's famous allegorical poem, "Das Narrenschiff," the first edition of which appeared in 1494.[540] The earliest distinct reference to Columbus in the English language is to be found in a translation of this poem, "The Shyppe of Fooles," by Henry Watson, published in London by Wynkyn de Worde in 1509. The purpose of Brandt's allegory was to satirize the follies committed by all sorts and conditions of men. In the chapter, "Of hym that wyll wryte and enquere of all regyons," it is said: "There was one that knewe that in y^{e} ysles of Spayne was enhabitantes.

Wherefore he asked men of Kynge Ferdynandus & wente & founde them, the whiche lyved as beestes."[541] Until after the middle of the sixteenth century no English chronicler mentions either Columbus or the Cabots, nor is there anywhere an indication that the significance of the discoveries in the western ocean was at all understood.[542]

[Footnote 538: Harrisse, _Bibliotheca Americana Vetustissima_, p. 35.]

[Footnote 539: Id. p. 50.]

[Footnote 540: Auch hat man sydt in Portigall Und in Hyspanyen uberall Golt-inseln funden, und nacket l[u]t Von den man vor wust sagen n[u]t.

Harrisse, _Bibl. Amer. Vet._; _Additions_, p. 4.

Or, in more modern German:--

Wie man auch jungst von Portugal Und Hispanien aus schier uberall Goldinseln fand und nakte Leute, Von denen man erst weiss seit heute.

_Das Narrenschiff_, ed. Simrock, Berlin, 1872, p. 161.

In the Latin version of 1497, now in the National Library at Paris, it goes somewhat differently:--

Antea que fuerat priscis incognita tellus: Exposita est oculis & manifesta patet.

Hesperie occidue rex Ferdinandus: in alto Aequore nunc gentes repperit innumeras.

Harrisse, _op. cit._; _Additions_, p. 7.

It will be observed that these foreign references are so ungallant, and so incorrect, as to give all the credit to Ferdinand, while poor Isabella is not mentioned!]

[Footnote 541: Harrisse, _op. cit._; _Additions_, p. 45.]

[Footnote 542: Harrisse, _Jean et Sebastien Cabot_, Paris, 1882, p. 15.]

[Sidenote: Portuguese claim to the Indies.]

North of the Alps and Pyrenees the interest in what was going on at the Spanish court in 1493 was probably confined to very few people. As for Venice and Genoa we have no adequate means of knowing how they felt about the matter,--a fact which in itself is significant. The interest was centred in Spain and Portugal. There it was intense and awakened fierce heart-burnings. Though John II. had not given his consent to the proposal for murdering Columbus, he appears to have seriously entertained the thought of sending a small fleet across the Atlantic as soon as possible, to take possession of some point in Cathay or c.i.p.ango and then dispute the claims of the Spaniards.[543] Such a summary proceeding might perhaps be defended on the ground that the grant from Pope Eugenius V. to the crown of Portugal expressly included "the Indies." In the treaty of 1479, moreover, Spain had promised not to interfere with the discoveries and possessions of the Portuguese.

[Footnote 543: Vasconcellos, _Vida del Rey Don Juan II._, Madrid, 1639, lib. vi.]

[Sidenote: Bulls of Pope Alexander VI.]

But whatever King John may have intended, Ferdinand and Isabella were too quick for him. No sooner had Columbus arrived at Barcelona than an emba.s.sy was despatched to Rome, asking for a grant of the Indies just discovered by that navigator in the service of Castile. The notorious Rodrigo Borgia, who had lately been placed in the apostolic chair as Alexander VI., was a native of Valencia in the kingdom of Aragon, and would not be likely to refuse such a request through any excess of regard for Portugal. As between the two rival powers the pontiff's arrangement was made in a spirit of even-handed justice. On the 3d of May, 1493, he issued a bull conferring upon the Spanish sovereigns all lands already discovered or thereafter to be discovered in the western ocean, with jurisdiction and privileges in all respects similar to those formerly bestowed upon the crown of Portugal. This grant was made by the pope "out of our pure liberality, certain knowledge, and plenitude of apostolic power," and by virtue of "the authority of omnipotent G.o.d granted to us in St. Peter, and of the Vicars.h.i.+p of Jesus Christ which we administer upon the earth."[544] It was a substantial reward for the monarchs who had completed the overthrow of Mahometan rule in Spain, and it afforded them opportunities for further good work in converting the heathen inhabitants of the islands and mainland of Asia.[545]

[Footnote 544: "De nostra mera liberalitate, et ex certa scientia, ac de apostolicae potestatis plenitudine." ...

"auctoritate omnipotentis Dei n.o.bis in beato Petro concessa, ac vicariatus Jesu Christi qua fungimur in terris." The same language is used in the second bull. Mr. Prescott (_Ferdinand and Isabella_, part i. chap, vii.) translates _certa scientia_ "infallible knowledge," but in order to avoid any complications with modern theories concerning papal infallibility, I prefer to use a less technical word.]

[Footnote 545: A year or two later the sovereigns were further rewarded with the decorative t.i.tle of "Most Catholic." See Zurita, _Historia del Rey Hernando_, Saragossa, 1580, lib. ii.

cap. xl.; Peter Martyr, _Epist._ clvii.]

[Sidenote: Treaty of Tordesillas.]