INDIAN NARRATIVES.

DISCOVERY OF AMERICA BY CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.

MANKIND owe the discovery of the western world to the gold, the silver, the precious stones, the spices, silks, and costly manufactures of the East; and even those incentives were for a considerable time insufficient to prompt to the undertaking, although the most skilful navigator of the age proffered to risk his life in the attempt.

Christopher Columbus, who was destined to the high honor of revealing a new hemisphere to Europeans, was by birth a Genoese, who had been early trained to a seafaring life, and, having acquired every branch of knowledge connected with that profession, was no less distinguished by his skill and abilities than for his intrepid and persevering spirit. This man, when about forty years of age, had formed the great idea of reaching the East Indies by sailing westward; but as his fortune was very small, and the attempt required very effectual patronage, desirous that his native country should profit by his success, he laid his plan before the senate of Genoa; but the scheme appearing chimerical, it was rejected. He then repaired to the court of Portugal; and although the Portuguese were at that time distinguished for their commercial spirit, and John II., who then reigned, was a discerning and enterprising prince, yet the prepossessions of the great men

in his court, to whom the matter was referred, caused Columbus finally to fail in his attempt there also. He next applied to Ferdinand and Isabella, King and Queen of Arragon and Castile, and at the same time sent his brother Bartholomew (who followed the same profession, and who was well qualified to fill the immediate place under such a leader) to England, to lay the proposal before Henry VII., which likewise, very fortunately for the future well being of the country, met with no success. Many were the years which Christopher Columbus spent in ineffectual attendance at the Castilian court; the impoverished state into which the finances of the united kingdoms were reduced, the war with Grenada, repressing every disposition to attempt to great designs; but the war being at length terminated, the powerful mind of Isabella broke through all obstacles: she declared herself the patroness of Columbus; whilst her husband, Ferdinand, declining to partake as an adventurer in the voyage, only gave it the sanction of his name. Thus did the superior genius of a woman effect the discovery of one half of the globe.

The ships sent on this important search were only three in number, two of them very small; they had ninety men on board. Although the expense of the expedition had long remained the sole obstacle to its being undertaken, yet, when every thing was provided, the cost did not amount to more than seventeen thousand seven hundred and sixty dollars, and there were twelve months' provision put on board.

Columbus set sail from Port Palos, in the Province of Andalusia, on the 2d of August, 1492: he proceeded to the Canary Islands, and from thence directed his course due west, in the latitude of about 28 north. In this course he continued for two months without falling in with any land, which caused such a spirit of discontent and mutiny to arise as the superior address and management of the commander became unequal to suppress, although for these qualities he was eminently distinguished. He was at length reduced to the necessity of

entering into a solemn engagement to abandon the enterprise and return home if land did not appear in three days. Probably he would not have been able to retain his people so long from acts of violence and outrage, in pursuing so untried and dreary a course, had they not been sensible that their safety in returning home depended very much on his skill as a navigator in conducting the vessel.

At length the appearance of land changed their despondency to the most exulting rapture. It was an island abounding with inhabitants, both sexes of which were quite naked, their manners kind, gentle, and unsuspecting. Columbus named it San Salvador; it is one of the cluster which bears the general name of Bahama; it was only 3° 30′ latitude to the south of the Island of Gomora, one of the Canaries, from whence he took his departure. This navigator was still so confirmed in the opinion which he had formed before he undertook the voyage that he believed himself then to be on an island which was situated adjacent to the Indies. Proceeding to the south, he saw three other islands, which he named St. Mary of the Conception, Ferdinand, and Isabella. At length he arrived at a very large island; and as he had taken seven of the natives of San Salvador on board, he learned from them it was called Cuba; but he gave it the name of Juanna. He next proceeded to an island which he called Espagniola, in honor of the kingdom by which he was employed; and it still bears the name of Hispaniola. Here he built a fort and formed a small settlement; he then returned home, having on board some of the natives whom he had taken from the different islands. Steering a more southern course, he fell in with some of the Caribbee Islands, and arrived at the port of Palos on the 15th of March, 1493, having been seven months and eleven days on this most important voyage.

On his arrival letters patent were issued by the king and queen, confirming to Columbus and to his heirs all the privi

leges contained in a capitulation which had been executed before his departure, and his family was ennobled.

Not only the Spaniards, but the other nations of Europe, seem to have adopted the opinion of Columbus, in considering the countries which he had discovered as a part of India— whence Ferdinand and Isabella gave them the name "Indies,” in the ratification of their former agreement with Columbus. Even after the error was detected the name was retained; and the appellation of "West Indies" is now given by all Europe to this country, and that of Indians to the inhabitants.

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Nothing could possibly tend more effectually to rouse every active principle of human nature than the discoveries which Columbus had made; no time was therefore lost, no expense spared, in preparing a fleet of ships with which this great man should revisit the countries he had made known. enteen ships were got ready in six months, and fifteen hundred persons embarked on board them, among whom were many of noble families and who had filled honorable stations. These engaged in the enterprise from the expectation that the new-discovered country was either the Cipango of Marco Paulo, or the Ophir from which Solomon obtained his gold and precious merchandise. Ferdinand, now desirous of securing what he had before been unwilling to venture for the obtaining, applied to the pope to be invested with a right in these new-discovered countries, as well as to all future discoveries in that direction; but as it was necessary that there should be some favor of religion in the business, he founded his plea on a desire of converting the savage natives to the Romish faith, which plan had its desired effect.

Alexander VI., who then filled the Papal chair, it ought to be mentioned, was the most profligate and abandoned of men. Being a native of Arragon, and desirous of conciliating the favor of Ferdinand for the purpose of aggrandizing his family, he readily granted a request which, at no expense or risk,

tended to extend the consequence and authority of the Papacy; he therefore bestowed on Ferdinand and Isabella "all the countries inhabited by infidels which they had discovered." But as it was necessary to prevent this grant from interfering with one not long before made to the crown of Portugal, he appointed that a line, supposed to be drawn from pole to pole, one hundred leagues to the westward of the Azores, should serve as a limit between them; and in the plenitude of his power conferred all to the east of this imaginary line upon the Portuguese, and all to the west of it upon the Spaniards.

Columbus set sail on his voyage from the Port of Cadiz on the 25th of September, 1493: when he arrived at St. Espagniola, he had the affliction to find that all the Spaniards whom he had left there, amounting to thirty-six in number, had been put to death by the natives, in revenge for the insults and outrages which they had committed. After having traced out the plan of a town in a large plain near a spacious bay, and given it the name of Isabella in honor of his patroness the Queen of Castile, and appointed his brother Don Diego to preside as deputy governor in his absence, Columbus, on the 24th of April, 1494, sailed with one ship and two small barks to make further discoveries in those seas. In this voyage he was employed five months, and fell in with many small islands on the coast of Cuba, but with none of any importance except the Island of Jamaica.

Soon after his return to Hispaniola he resolved to make war with the Indians, who, according to the Spanish historians, amounted to one hundred thousand men; these, having experienced every lawless act of violence from their invaders, were rendered extremely inveterate, and thirsted for revenge, a disposition which appears to have been foreign from their natures. Having collected his full force, he attacked them by night whilst they were assembled on a wide plain, and obtained a most decisive victory, without the loss of one man on his part. Besides the effect of cannon and firearms, the noise