The pictorial field-book of the revolution ; or, illustrations, by pen and pencil, of the history, biography, scenery, relics, and traditions of the war for independence

Front matter

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Introduction

Fer o’er yon azure main thy view extend, Where seas:and skies in blue confusion blend : Le, there a mighty realm, by Heaven design’d, Tke last retreat for poor, oppress’d mankind ; Form’d with that pomp which marks the hand divine, And clothes yon vault, where worlds unnumber’d shine.

Here spacious plains in solemn grandeur spread ; Here cloudy forests cast eternal shade ; Rich valleys wind, the sky-tall mountains brave, And inland seas for commerce spread the wave With nobler floods the sea-like rivers roll, And fairer luster purples round the pole.

Timoruy Dwiecur.

VERY nation eminent for its refine ment, displayed in the cultivation of the arts, had its heroic age; a period when its first physical and moral conquests were achieved, and when rude society, with all its impurities, was fused and refined in the crucible of progress.

When civilization first set up its standard as a permanent ensign in the Western hemisphere, north-

, ward of the Bahamas and the great Gulf, and the contests for possession began between the wild

is Aborigines, who thrust no spade

NN \ “into the soil, no sickle into ripe harvests, and those earnest delvers

are from the Old World, who came with the ight of Christianity to plant

a new empire and redeem the wilderness by cultivation, then commenced

the heroic age of America. It ended when she work of the Revolution, in

the eighteenth century, was accomplished ; when the bond of vassalage to ee Great Britain was severed by her colonies, and when the thirteen confed-

Aue : ce § ; \ — erated States ratified a federal Constitution, and upon it laid the broad foundation of our Republic.

Those ancient civilizations, registered by the stylus of history, were mere gleamings of morning compared with the noontide radiance which now lights up the Western World ; and even the more modern nations of Europe, brilliant as they appear, have so many dark spots upon the disk of their enlightenment, that their true glory is really less than that of the waxing Star in the West. These ancient and modern civilizations, now past or at their culminating points, were the results of the slow progress of centuries ; the heroic age xvi INTRODUCTION.

of America, meteor-like, was brilliant and rapid in its course, occupying the space of only a century and a half of time from the permanent implanting of a British colony, weal and

‘ dependent, to the founding of our government, which, hike Pallas Athena, was, at its birth, full panoplied, strong, eminently individual in its character, and full of recuperative energies. The head of Britannia was cleft by the Vulcan of the Revolution, and from its teeming brain leaped the full-grown daughter, sturdy and defiant.

Long anterior to the advent of Europeans in America, a native empire, but little inferior to Old Rome in civilization, flourished in that region of our continent which now forms the southwestern portion of the Republic. The Aztec empire, which reached the acme of its refinement during the reign of Montezuma, and crumbled into fragments when Cortez dethroned

and murdered that monarch, extended over the whole of Central America ; and when

the Spaniards came it was gradually pushing its conquests northward, where all was yet darkness and gloom. ‘To human apprehension, this people, apparently allied by various ties to the wild nations of North America, appeared to be the most efficient instruments in spreading the light of civilization over the whole continent ; yet they were not only denied this glorious privilege, but, by the very race which first attempted to plant the seeds of European refinement in Florida and among the Mobilian tribes, and to shed the illumination of their dim Christianity over the dreary regions of the North, was their own bright light extinguished. The Aztecs and their neighbors were beaten into the dust of debasement by the falchion blows of avarice and bigotry, and they form, apparently, not the most insignificant atom of the chain of events which connects the history of the empires of the Old World with that of our Republic.

It is believed that, two hundred years before the Aztecs subdued the more ancient people of the Mexican valley and founded Tenochtitlan,’ a handful of rough, half-civilized adventurers from the wintery shores of Iceland and the neighboring main, driven by adverse winds they knew not whither, touched upon the bleak shores of Labrador, and traversed the American continent southward as far as Rhode Island, and, it may be, the capes of Virginia.” These supposed firs} modern discoverers of America were the children of the « mighty sea kings” of the Teutonic romances—the Scandinavian reguli, who, scorning ‘to own Gorm the Old of Norway, and Harold Fairhair of Denmark, their conquerors, as masters, forsook their country and colonized Iceland, Greenland, Shetland, and the Orkney Islands, whence they sent forth piratical expeditions, which became a terror to Western Europe. They traded as well as plundered, and by commerce and conquest became potential. Every coast was visited by their squadrons, either for war or traffic. They swept over Denmark and Germany, and by conquest obtained possession of the best portions of Gaul.* They invaded i the British Islands, and placed the renowned Canute upon the throne of Alfred.

Long before Christianity had shed its genial rays over their frozen territory of the North, and banished the barbarous rites of Pagan worship, the lamp of learning had been

’ This city was founded about the year 1210, and was afterward called Mexico, which signifies the place of Mexitli, the Aztec god of war. The present capital of Mexico is upon the site of that ancient city. The Aztecs, at that time, were settled in Lower California, They were divided into six tribes. The Mexican tribe wandered off southward, subdued the Toltecs, and founded the city around which the whole Aztec nation subsequently gathered. The Toltecs were far more refined than their conquerors, and from members of that dispersed nation the Aztecs were first made acquainted with painting, sculpture, astronomy and many of the useful arts, such as working in metals, building bridges and aqueducts, agriculture, &c

* See note on page 633. : Mae

* Charles III, calied the Simple, the eighth of the Carlovingian kings of France, ceded to Rolf or Rollo one of the Northmen chiefs, the large province called by them Normandy. This event occurred in the

+? 91 im . - Re . . . . year 8 Rollo and his subjects embraced Christianity, and became the guardians of France against further invasion from the Northmen. ;

INTRODUCTION. xvii taken from the cloisters of the South and placed within their temples, and upon dreary and desolate Iceland and Norway civilization erected its humanizing altars. Ardent, imaginative, and devotional, they eagerly accepted Christianity, and it became to them really a «Star in the East,” leading to where ‘the infant Jesus laid.” It was not to them sc much a personal treasure to be valued for its immortal blessings, as a glorious idea full of temporal advantage. It became an intense passion, not a sober belief, and its warmth gen erated mighty events. Among them the spirit of chivalry had its birth and early nurture , and in those unholy wars against the possessors of the land of Palestine and of the sepulcher of Christ, called the Crusades, which shook the nations during three consecutive centuries, these Northmen furnished the bravest leaders.

From such a people, possessed of every attribute necessary to the successful founding of new empires, having the ocean pathway to a broad and fertile continent made clear before them, what great results might not be expected? But, with the prize just within their grasp, they, too, were denied the honor of first peopling our land; yet their mixed descendants, the Anglo-Saxons, now possess it. It is supposed that they attempted settlements, but failed, and in the lapse of centuries their voyages were forgotten, or only remembered in the songs of their bards or the sagas of their romancers. For more than five hundred years after the voyages of those navigators, America was an unknown region; it had no place upon maps, unless as an imaginary island without a name, nor in the most acute geographical theories of the learned.1. It was reserved for the son of an humble wool-carder of Genoa to make it known to the world.

During the first half of the fifteenth century, maritime discoveries were prosecuted with untiring zeal by the people inhabiting the great peninsula of Southwestern Europe. The incentives to make these discoveries grew out of the political condition of Europe and the promises of great commercial advantages. The rich commerce of the Hast centered in Rome, when that empire overshadowed the known world ; when it fell into fragments, the Italian cities continued their monopoly of the trade of the Indies. Provinces which had become independent kingdoms became jealous of these cities, so rapidly outstripping them in power and opulence; and Castile and Portugal, in particular, engaged in efforts to open a direct trade with the East. The ocean was the only highway for such commerce toward which they could look with a hope of success. The errors of geographical science interposed their obstacles; the belief that a belt of impassable heat girdled the earth at the equator intimidated mariners, and none were willing to double Cape Bojador, beyond which was the fancied region of fire.

Prince Henry of Portugal, son of John the First and Philippa of Lancaster (sister of Henry the Fourth of England), having accompanied his father into Africa, in an expedition against the Moors, received much information concerning the mineral riches and fertility of Guinea and other portions of the coast. The idea of making discoveries along the African shores filled his mind, and on his return to Portugal he abandoned the court, retired to_ a secluded spot near Cape St. Vincent, in full view of the ocean, and drawing around him the most eminent scientific men in the kingdom, pursued geographical and nautical inquiries with untiring zeal. He became convinced that Africa was circumnavigable, and that the cee nee 1 “ The [Atlantic] Ocean,” observes Xerif al Edrisi, an eminent Arabian writer, quoted by Irving, “ encircles the ultimate bounds of the inhabited earth, and all beyond is unknown. No one has been able to verify any thing concerning it, on account of its difficult and perilous navigation, its great obscurity, its profound depth, and frequent tempests ; through fear of its mighty fishes and its haughty winds; yet there are many islands in it, some of which are peopled and others uninhabited. There is no mariner who dares to enter into its deep waters; or, if any have done so, they have merely kept along its coasts, fearful of departing from them. The waves of this ocean, although they roll as high as mountains, yet maintaiy themselves without breaking, for if they broke, it would be impossible for a ship to plow through them.”

ai INTRODUCTION.

Indies might be reached by doubling its most southerly headlands. Expeditions were fitted out ; the Cape de Verd and the Azore Islands were discovered ; Cape Bojador was passed ; the tropical region was penetrated, and divested of its terfors ; and at length the lofty promontory which terminates Africa on the south, was descried. It was hailed as a harbinger of the coveted passage to the Indian Seas, and on that account King John gave it the appellation of the Cape of Good Hope

The Spaniards were also making maritime discoveries at the same time, but Lisbon was the point of great attraction to the learned, the curious, and the adventurous, who were desirous to engage in the expeditions then continually fitting out there. Among them came Christopher Columbus, or

Colombo, a native of Genoa, then in the vigor of maturity.’. Already he had made many a perilous voyage upon’ the ocean, having engaged in the life of a mariner at the age of fourteen years. The bent of his mind | for such pursuits was early discovered by his father, and in the University of Pavia he was allowed, by a short course of study, to obtain sufficient elementary knowledge of geometry, astronomy, geography, and navigation,

and of the Latin language, to enable = J him to make those sciences afterward

' xk G FE REWN S subservient to his genius. From the

PP commencement of his nautical career to his landing in Portugal, his history is very obscure.

1 There is some obscurity and doubt respecting the precise year in which Columbus was born. Mufioz, in his History of the New World, places it in 1446. Mr. Irving, relying upon the authority of Bernaldez, who says that “‘he died in 1506, in a good old age, at the age of seventy, a little more or less,”? in 1436, which would make him about forty-eight years old when he landed in Portugal.

* This peculiar signature of Columbus is attached to various documents written by him subsequent to his first voyage. It was customary, in his time, to precede a signature with the initials (and sometimes with

' - the words in full) of some pious ejaculation. We accordingly find the signature of Columbus with initial prefixes, thus :

places it

Ss S A § ee nen VG : xpo FERENS

The interpretation is supposed to be “ Sancta! Sancta, Ave, Sancta! Christo, Maria, Yoseph;” id est, Christ, Mary, Joseph. The ypo are Greek letters; the word FERENS Roman capitals. is the sign for Christo or Christ, and ypo is an abbreviation of xptoros, anointed, and expressed the first and chief portion of the Christian name of Columbus. The Latin word Jerens (bearing, carrying, or enduring) expressed not only the latter portion of his name, but also his character, according to his own lofty conceptions of his mission. He believed himself to be Christo Jerens, Christ-bearer or Gospel-bearer, to the heathen inhabitants of an unknown world. It may be added, that Colombo (Columbus), a dove or

X, or a cross,

INTRODUCTION. "oxy

In person, Columbus was tall and commanding ; in manners, exceedingly winning and graceful for one unaccustomed to the polish of courts or the higher orders in society. He was a strict observer of the rituals of his religion. His piety was not a mere form, but an elevated and solemn enthusiasm, born of a deep conviction of the vital truths of Christianity. While in Lisbon, he never omitted religious duties in the sanctuary. . At the chapel of the Convent of All Saints, where he was accustomed to worship, he became acquainted with a young lady of rank named Donna Felipa, the daughter of Mojtis de Palestrello, an Italian cavalier, who had been one of the most distinguished navigators in the service of Prince Henry. They loved, and were married. His wife's sister was married to Pedro Correo, a navigator of note. In the family of his mother-in-law he learned all the incidents of the voyages of her husband ; and the charts, journals, and other manuscripts of that navigator she delivered to Columbus. These possessions awakened new aspirations in his mind. He had made himself familiar, by study and large experience, with all the nautical knowledge of the day, and, in common with the most enlightened men of his time, he was disposed to eredit the narratives of Plato and other ancient writers respecting the existence of a continent beyond a glorious island called Atlantis,’ in the waste of waters westward of Europe. Such a continent was necessary to make his own geographical theory perfect. The gorgeous pictures of Zipango or Cipangi and Cathay, on the eastern coast of Asia, drawn by Marco Polo and Mandeville, also excited his warm imagination; and the alleged apparitions of land seen to the westward by the people of the Canary Isles were treasured in his mind as great realities? His comprehensive genius constructed a new and magnificent theory, and his bold spirit stood ready to act in unison with his genius. He based his whole theory upon the fundamental principle that the earth was a terraqueous globe, which might be traveled round from east to west, and that men stood foot to foot at opposite points.

pigeon, was doubtless associated, in his imagination, with the carrier-bird, and had its due weight, not only in his conceptions of his destiny, but in forming his sign-manual. The signature to his will is EL ALMI- RANTE (the Admiral), with the above letters, instead of yoo FERENS.

1 Ancient writers speak of an island which existed at a very early period in the Atlantic Ocean, and said to have been eventually sunk beneath its waves. Plato, who gave the first account of it, says he obtained his information from the priests of Egypt. The island was represented to be larger than Asia and Africa, as they were then known, and beyond it was a large continent. Nine thousand years before Plato’s time, this island was thickly inhabited and very powerful, its sway extending over all Africa, including Egypt, and also a large portion of Europe. A violent earthquake, which lasted for the space of a day and a night, and was accompanied by inundations of the sea, caused the island to sink, and, for a long period subsequent to this, the sea in this quarter was impassable by reason of slime and shoals. Learned men of modern times have been disposed to believe in the ancient existence of such an island, and suppose the West India Islands to be the higher portions of the sunken land. If this belief is correct, then the continent beyond was America.

According to the account given to Plato, Atlantis was the most productive region upon the earth. It produced wine, grain, and delicious fruits in abundance. It had wide-spread forests, extensive pasturegrounds, mines of gold and silver, hot springs, and every luxury for human enjoyment. It was divided into ten kingdoms, governed by as many kings, all descendants of Neptune, and living in perfect harmony with each other. It had splendid cities, rich and populous villages, vast fortifications, arsenals, and equipments for navies. There was a temple in the island a stadium (six hundred and six feet nine inches) in length, dedicated to Neptune. It was ornamented with gold, silver, orichalcium, and ivory. It contained a golden statue of Neptune, representing the god as standing in his chariot, and holding the reins of his winged steeds. Such was the ancient vision. 2 So confident were the people of the Canaries that land lay to the westward of them, that they sought and obtained permission from the King of Portugal to fit out various expeditions in search of it. A belief was so prevalent that a Scottish priest named Brandon discovered ‘an island westward of the Canaries, in the sixth century, that maps, in the time of Columbus, had the Island of St. Brandon upon them. It wa placed under the equator. ‘

= INTRODUCTION.

This was seventy years before Copernicus announced his theory of the form and motion of the planets,@ and one hundred and sixty years before Galileo was obliged, before the court of the Inquisition at Rome, to renounce his belief in the diurnal revolution of the earth.

Columbus divided the circumference of the earth at the equator, according to Ptolemy’s system, into twenty-four hours of fifteen degrees each, making three hundred and sixty degrees. Of these he imagined that fifteen hours had been known to the ancients, extending from the Fortunate or Canary Islands to the city of Thine in Asia, the western and eastern boundaries of the known world. By the discovery of the Cape de Verd and the Azore Islands, the Portuguese had advanced the western frontier one hour, leaving about one eighth of the circumference of the globe yet to be explored. The extent of the eastern region of Asia was yet unknown, although the travels of Polo in the fourteenth century had extended far beyond the Oriental boundary of Ptolemy’s map. Columbus imagined that the unexplored part of Asia might occupy a large portion of the yet undefined circumference of the earth, and that its eastern headlands might approach quite near to those of Western Europe and Africa. He therefore concluded that a navigator, pursuing a direct course from east to west, must arrive at the extremity of Asia by a far easier and shorter route than following the coast of Africa around the Cape of Good Hope. Fortunately, he adopted the opinions of Aristotle, Pliny, and other writers, who considered the ocean as but of moderate breadth, so that it might be crossed from Europe in the space of a few days. A knowledge or suspicion of its actual extent would have deterred even the bold enterprise of Columbus from attempting an exploration of its waters in the small ships of that day. Reports of strange trees, reeds of immense size, curiously-carved pieces of wood, and the bodies of two men—unlike, in color and visage, any of the known races extant—having drifted ashore upon the Canary and Azore Islands by westerly winds, confirmed him in his belief, and a desire and determination to undertake a demonstration of his theory by an exploring voyage absorbed his whole attention. «“ He never spoke in doubt or hesitation,” says Irving, « but with as much certainty as if his eyes had beheld the Promised Land. A deep religious sentiment mingled with his thoughts, and gave them at times a tinge of superstition, but of a sublime and lofty kind. He looked upon himself as standing in the hand of Heaven, chosen from among men for the accomplishment of its high purpose. He read, as he supposed, his contemplated discovery foretold in Holy Writ, and shadowed forth darkly in the prophecies. The ends of the earth were to be brought together, and all nations, and tongues, and lan- - guages united under the banner of the Redeemer.” The prophetic passage in Pulci’s « Morgante Maggiore” was to him full of promise :

» 1633.

“Know that this theory is false; his bark The daring mariner shall urge far o’er The Western wave, a smooth and level plain, Albeit the earth is fashion’d like a wheel.

Man was in ancient days of grosser mold, And Hercules might blush to learn how far Beyond the limits he had vainly set?

The dullest sea-boat soon shall wing her way.

Men shall desery another hemisphere, Since to one common center all things tend.

So earth, by curious mystery divine

1 Life and Voyages of Columbus.

. Calpe and Abila, or Gibraltar, on the Spanish, and Cape Serra, on the African shore of the Straits of Gibraltar, were called the Pillars of Heroules; it being said, in ancient fable, that Hercules placed them there as monuments of his progress westward, and beyond which no mortal could pass.

INTRODUCTION, xxl

Well balanced, hangs amid the starry spheres.

At our antipodes are cities, states, J : And thronged empires, ne’er divined of yore.

But see, the sun speeds on his western path To glad the nations with expected light.”

PRESCOTT’S TRANSLATION OF STANZA 229, 230, CANTO XXV.

While maturing his plans, Columbus extended the bounds of his observation and study by a voyage to Thule, or Iceland, from which remote point he says he advanced one hundred leagues northward, penetrated the polar circle, and convinced himself of the fallacy of the popular belief that the frozen zone was uninhabitable.t Whether he saw, in Iceland, written accounts of the voyages of the Northmen to America, or heard of them as related by tradition or chanted in songs, we have no means of determining. If he did, it is singular, as Prescott remarks, that they were not cited by him in support of his hypothesis, while earnestly pressing his suit for aid before the courts of Portugal and Spain ; and it is equally surprising that he did not, in his first voyage to America, pursue the route traversed by those early navigators. He probably heard little more than vague rumors of their voyages, such as presented insufficient data even for a plausible opinion. His magnificent idea was all his own, sustained by the opinions of a few learned men, and confirmed by his observations while on this northern voyage.

Filled with his noble resolutions and lofty anticipations, Columbus submitted the theory on which rested his-belief in a practicable western route to Asia, to King John the Second of Portugal. That monarch’s sagacity perceived the promised advantages to be derived from such an enterprise, and he eagerly sought the counsel of his ministers and wise men. But his court and the college of scientific sages could not comprehend the sublime project ; and after a long and fruitless negotiation, during which the Portuguese meanly attempted to avail themselves clandestinely of his information, Columbus quitted Lisbon in disgust, determined to submit his proposals to Ferdinand and Isabella, the Spanish sovereigns, whose wisdom and liberal views were the admiration of men of science and learning. His wife was dead ; his feelings had no hold upon Portugal, and he quitted it forever.

It was toward the close of 1484 when Columbus appeared at the Spanish court.’ It was an unpropitious hour, for the whole resources of the nation were then employed in prosecuting a war with the Moors. For a long time he awaited the decision of the sovereigns, employing his leisure in the alternate pursuits of science, and engagements in some of the military campaigns. He was treated with great deference, and, after much delay, a council of learned men were convened at Salamanca to consider his plans and propositions. After mature deliberation, they pronounced his scheme “vain, impracticable, and resting on erounds too weak to merit the support of government.” A minority of the council were far from acquiescing in this decision, and, with the Cardinal Mendoza and other officers of government, and Fray Juan Perez de Marchena, guardian of the ancient monastery of La Rabida, ee ee SS a

1 In the age of Columbus, Greenland was laid down upon the maps as a continuation or projection westward of Scandinavia. Columbus discovered this error in his northern voyage, which discovery was a new fact in support of his theory of a continent lying westward from Europe, or at least a proximity of the eastern coast of Asia. At that time the climate of Iceland and Greenland was far more genial than at present, and there is reason to believe that those portions of the latter country which for two or three hundred years have been ice-bound and uninhabitable, were then tillable. Philosophers of our day, who have studied the phenomena of terrestrial magnetism with care, have advanced a plausible theory whereby to explain this fact.

2 It is asserted, but without positive proof, that Columbus, before going to Spain, made application to the authorities of his native city, Genoa, for aid in his enterprise ; but failing in this he went to Venice, and also sent his brother Bartholomew to England, to lay his plans before Henry the Seventh. If these statements are true, they exhibit his perseverance in a still stronger light than truthful history presents it.

Xxli INTRODUCTION.

they induced the sovereigns to soften the decisions of the council by a promise to give the proposition a fair audience when their pressing state engagements should he ended. Columbus, wearied by procrastination, at length lost all hope of effecting any thing with the Spanish court. He turned from it with disgust, and made application to two wealthy and enlightened Southern dukes, who had ample means at command. He was unsuccessful, and with a heavy heart he left Spain, to carry his proposals to the King of France. Isabella of Castile and Leon, sister of the profligate Henry the Fourth, was the successor of that monarch to the throne. She married Ferdinand, the son of old John the Second of Aragon, and, associating him with herself in the government, united the two monarchies into one great kingdom, the renowned modern Spain. Isabella was eminently virtuous, and her piety and daily goodness were the fruit of a deep religious feeling.

Ferdinand was ambitious, and, in the midst of his perplexity with the Moors, he felt a strong desire to advance the interests and glory of the new kingdom, by maritime discoveries ; yet he could not comprehend the vast plans of Columbus, and he looked coldly upon the project. ‘To the pious sentiments of the queen, Father Perez, a former confessor of Isabella and a friend of Columbus, appealed with success ; and before the navigator had entered the dominions of France, he was summoned back to the court, then in the camp at Santa Fé. He arrived in time to witness the sur- _ vender of Grenada. Joy and exultation per- ISABELLA OF CASTILE,! vaded all classes. Columbus took advantage of this state of things, and while he excited the acquisitiveness of the nobles by reciting wonderful talesof the riches of Cipangi and Cathay, he eloquently portrayed to the queen the glorious prospect of extending the influence of the Gospel over benighted heathens, promising to devote the profits of the enterprise to the recovery of the Holy Sepulcher at Jerusalem from the hands of the Paynim. His eloquence was seconded by that of Louis de St. Angel, a favorite officer of the crown. The religious zeal of Isabella was fired, and, notwithstanding the extravagant. demands of Columbus,’ she resolved, in opposition to the wishes of Ferdinand, to aid him in fitting out an ex-

Qotober 19,

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‘Isabella was of middle size, and well formed, with a fair complexion, auburn hair, and clear, blue eyes. There was a mingled gravity and sweetness in her countenance, and a singular modesty, gracing, as it did, great firmness of purpose and earnestness of spirit. Though strongly attached to her husband, and studious of his fame, yet she always maintained her distinct rights as an allied prince. She exceeded him in beauty, personal dignity, acuteness of genius, and grandeur of soul. Combining the active and resolute qualities of man with the softer charities of woman, she mingled in the warlike councils of her husband, and, being inspired with a truer idea of glory, infused a more lofty and generous temper into his subtile and calculating policy— Washington Irving.