with our own hemisphere, demand of us as Americans and as admirers of the noblest qualities of human genius. If so, they will justly appreciate the value of the documents, which we have briefly analyzed. It should not be supposed, however, that this work contains a complete life of Columbus, or all the requisite materials for the composition of one. The pious labors of his son had anticipated much of the contents of the volumes before; and furnished many things, which will not be found in their pages. And to procure a perfect knowledge of his biography, recourse must be had to the writings of Oviedo, Peter Martyr, Las Casas, Herrera, and Muñoz, and to several books published in Italy, as well as to Señor Navarrete's Collection. Still, as our readers will have perceived, it contains many curious and original documents, indispensably necessary to the full understanding of Columbus' history.

Ere we quit the subject, it is due to historic truth, it is due to the memory of Columbus, it is due to the sensibility of the successive ages, which have cried shame on his wrongs and sufferings, to protest against the attempt, which Señor Navarrete makes, to divert the indignation of posterity from the selfish conduct of Ferdinand. It is much to be lamented that so many of the most important facts in history should be capable of being obscured or discolored by the arts of interested sophistry. Apparently there is no limit to the excursiveness of ingenuity, or the scepticism of historical inquiry. In these times of jealous scrutiny into the opinions of our predecessors, we are told, and it may be rightly, to doubt, nay to disbelieve, the glorious lessons of heroism and patriotic devotion, which signalized the annals of ancient Rome, and inspired our schoolboy musings with enthusiasm. We relinquish our hold on these pleasing illusions, with an unwillingness like that with which we awake from slumber, filled with the enchanting creations of grateful fancy, to the dull realities of life. But what shall we say of those hardier speculators in the page of history, who labor to gloss over the infirmities of tyranny; who seek to palliate the criminal enormities of power with all the artificial address of an advocate; who outrage the settled convictions of mankind, by making the worse to seem the better cause? Of this kind was the attempt of a noble writer of the last century to purify the reputation of Richard the Third, and persuade us that he was neither usurper nor murderer. More strange still is the recent elaborate attack of Mitford upon all that is high, and admirable,

and splendid in ancient Greece; who fain would deny that Aristides was just or Demosthenes eloquent, but can readily believe that Philip of Macedon was unambitious, honest, upright, a lover of liberty, and driven, against his will, to sequester the privileges of all the Greeks, out of disinterested regard for their welfare. Akin to these two quixotic enterprises, in our estimation, is the attempted vindication of king Ferdinand from the charge of injustice towards Columbus. We are equally disposed to think Ferdinand just, and to esteem Richard and Philip as truehearted patriots. And as Señor Navarrete makes a show of proving the Spanish king to deserve better of the public opinion, we will shortly examine the arguments, by which he strives to turn aside the current of universal tradition and authority upon this point.

Columbus entered the Spanish service in 1486, and continued in it for twenty years, until his decease in 1506. Of this period, six years were employed in solicitations to be sent to the Indies; the twelve succeeding were occupied in his voyages of discovery; and for the residue, he was a humble suppliant in Spain, awaiting justice to redress, or death to terminate his sufferings. His treatment during this whole period was such as to give his biographers occasion to declare that Spain did no more than to yield tardy assistance to the great undertaking, and afterwards to persecute him who had replenished her provinces with wealth. But, if Señor Navarrete is to be credited, he was treated throughout this time with generority, nay, with most princely munificence.

What are the proofs alleged in regard to the years preceding his first voyage? Why, forsooth, the future discoverer of worlds was graciously permitted to glean a scanty subsistence by selling charts in the seaports of Andalusia; he was uniformly befriended, with the truest constancy and affection by Don Diego de Deza, afterwards archbishop of Seville; he was protected two years by the duke of Medinaceli; more than this, he was actually preserved from starvation by Juan Perez, the prior of Rabida, and the alms of his religious house. But where, in the mean time, was the bounty of his 'kindhearted and liberal king? Did Ferdinand ever lend a candid ear to the representations of Columbus, or hospitably entertain him in the extremity of his want? No; the loyal Navarrete has ransacked every record in Spain, from the royal repositories of Simancas and the Escurial to the more humble

collections of his literary friends; and no vestige remains of the patronage of the government at this period, but a simple passport granted him in 1489. It is addressed to councils, justices, regidors, knights, esquires, officials, and good men of whatsoever cities, towns, and places,' setting forth that Cristobal Colomo was to come to the court on public service, and ordering them to give him good lodgings without money, he paying for his provisions, &c. at the current price with his money (Tom. II. p. 6.); and this Señor Navarrete would magnify into a mighty favor. Such a document proves nothing but the illregulated and disorderly state of the kingdom, where it was necessary for a stranger's protection. And in truth, so far was Columbus from being well received, that his proposal was long ridiculed as visionary and extravagant, and he treated as an idle schemer. Nor did Isabella engage in his plans until she found that a subject was about to defray the charge and reap the benefit of an expedition whose magnitude and interest deserved the countenance of kings alone; and then it was that she stepped in, and gave him a petty armament, hardly suited to creep along the shore to the Canaries or Cape de Verd.

But to be candid, we do not esteem it anywise extraordinary that the Spanish government was slow to appreciate the merits of Columbus. He, a necessitous Genoese pilot, advanced doctrines in geography adverse to all the received opinions of his contemporaries. Neither the quality of the individual nor the nature of his object, was calculated to produce a ready impression upon the Spanish people. To have realized immediately the important consequences of his system, and to have acted promptly in obedience thereto, would, indeed, have redounded to the everlasting honor of Isabella and Ferdinand, by showing them to have been above the vulgar prejudices of their age and country. But this they did not do. On the contrary, they tardily and reluctantly granted him an humble equipment for his noble enterprise. They acted like common persons, in the ordinary level of mediocrity in understanding, and of narrowmindedness in policy. Thus far, if they are obnoxious to no censure, they are certainly in like degree undeserving of applause.

Señor Navarrete next proceeds to recount the honors lavished upon Columbus and his family, when he returned to Spain with the brilliant news of his discoveries. It is superfluous to contend with him on this point. The Spanish princes VOL. XXIV.-NO. 55.

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were carried away by the popular torrent of admiration and astonishment. They fancied the golden realms of Ormus and of Ind' to be now spread out before them, accessible, unoccupied, fascinating the imagination with gorgeous dreams of 'barbaric pearl and gold,' and welcoming the footprint of the conqueror. In the warmth of their enthusiasm, they gave to Columbus, the heroic navigator, who had unveiled these splendid regions to their sight, a reception which wore the aspect of a triumph. But after all, they did him no more than mere justice. A successful general, who had gained a few battles in Europe, would have speedily outstripped Columbus in favor and honors, and in the affections of his master. Indeed the gratuities, the unbought gifts either of privilege or power, bestowed upon the Admiral, were of really trifling magnitude. The government of the Indies, the title and authority of viceroy, the right to a certain share of revenue,all these were his by solemn treaty, by express compact, deliberately stipulated as the consideration of his undertaking the discoveries in the Spanish service; they were the pay secured to him by contract, the price of his talents and skill, bargained for and promised before his departure. But we cannot suffer Ferdinand's apologist to arrogate to him any praise for simple justice, and for justice displayed upon parchment only. Although these rewards were actually earned and righteously due, although confirmed to him in 1493 and again in 1497, by charters of the highest obligation, yet in spite of his rank, services, character, age, and legal rights, we find him in 1499, forcibly deposed from his authority, despoiled even of his private effects, dragged on shipboard and sent in chains to Spain, unhonored by the bare formality of a judicial investigation; and at last suffered to die in penury and despair, without ever being restored to his rightful command in the Indies. Posterity have agreed to consider this a hard measure to be dealt out to such a man as Columbus, whose achievements were unexampled, and whose offence, if offence he committed ever, remains undisclosed to the present day.

In his zeal to vindicate the character of a Spanish king, Señor Navarrete seems to have lost sight of the truly monstrous injuries, which Columbus was doomed to suffer. He ostenta

tiously recounts the various honors bestowed on him, but omits to contrast therewith the indignities, by which they were again and again outweighed. Columbus returned from his second

voyage in 1496; and was compelled by the intrigues of Don Juan de Fonseca to wait in attendance two whole years, before he could obtain another armament. Could the bishop of Badajos have indulged his enmity so openly and grossly, had he not been encouraged by Ferdinand's injustice, equally gross and open ? During the Admiral's residence in Hispaniola, upon this third expedition, the colony became overflowed with the scum of Spain, the mere offal of the gallies and gaols, men of desperate fortunes and turbulent spirits, who threw the whole island into confusion by their unbridled licentiousness. Columbus saw that the very existence of the colony was at stake. With admirable firmness, conduct, and address, he quelled the dissolute crew which surrounded him, and preserved the settlement from destruction. But in the mean time many of these abandoned men, pardoned convicts, who had gone to the Indies inflamed with avarice, and expecting to revel in riches, came home disappointed and enraged against the Admiral, for attempting to hold them in obedience to the laws. Order they denounced as tyranny; and their Spanish pride could not brook submission to the commands of an untitled alien. Their false accusation obtained a ready credence from Ferdinand, who despatched Bobadilla to the Indies to supersede Columbus. This misguided instrument of power arrived in the colony just at the moment when perfect tranquillity was restored, and all the original pretence for his interposition had ceased to exist. Strange to relate, he bore letters from the king, signed in blank, for him to fill up at pleasure; and he did not spare to exert the unlimited, unqualified discretion which his instructions imparted. The very second day after his landing, without even so much as giving Columbus the slightest intimation of his arrival or of his commission, he ordered him and his two brothers to be seized and transported to Spain in irons. Columbus solemnly declared to his friends, when he returned to Spain, loaded with chains, that he had never been apprized, nor could he then conceive, for what offence he was apprehended.* It is ample proof of the enormity of these proceedings, that Bobadilla took possession of all the Admiral's papers, and appropriated his money, house, and other private property to his own use.

*Ni le fablé mas á el ni consintió que hasta hoy nadie me haya fablado, y fago juramento que no puedo pensar por qué sea yo preso.' Carta del Almirante al Ama del Príncipe D. Juan.-Navarrete, Tom. I. p. 272, and Spotorno, p. 312.