The story of Columbus

Front matter

Shell'.'

DELIdHMflliPRY

EDITED- BY EDWARD-EGGLE5PN'

Contents

CHAPTER

I. — Marco Polo .

II. — Henry the navigator .

Introduction

By Edward Eggleston.

The purpose of tlie writer of this book lias been to relate tlie life of the greatest of discoverers in a manner interesting and delightful to the general reader, while producing a narrative strictly conformed to the facts as given by the best ancient authorities and developed by the latest researches of scholars. There is here no attempt to discuss the pros and cons of debated points in Columbian history. Such investigators as IN'avarrete, Mr. Harrisse, Signor Staglieno, and our own learned I Mr. Justin Winsor, have wrought abundantly and with large results upon these problems. It is the purpose of the present work to tell the story as understood through the labors of these scholars, leaving aside ponderous discussions which in a book intended for general reading would tire without enlightening.

Though disclaiming original investigation beyond the careful use of the leading authorities, Mrs. Seelye has been at much pains not to give the reader the discredited myths used by the old school of biographers.

xii INTRODUCTION.

It is a poor service to relate as history an interesting story that is not true, or to lift an historical figure into a heroism far from his real character. To give the facts as we know them, and to show Columbus as he really was, has been the sincere endeavor of the writer of this book. The story is wonderful enough without the embellishment of fiction ; the man is interesting enough when painted in his real colors.

The curious researches of Mr. Henry Harrisse into the personal life of Columbus, the results of which have been given to the w^orld in monographs in several languages, have assisted the author to give it a personal coloring which is always a legitimate source of interest, especially to the young reader. One can hardly speak too highly of the patient ingenuity by which the antiquary Sign or Staglieno has managed to find and identify beyond doubt the house in which Columbus lived as a boy. Such investigations dissipate error, and make us know the real man and his environment.

It was the fashion of the older modern biographers of Columbus, of whom Irving was the chief, to see all the Christian virtues in their subject. The school of romantic history and biography was as characteristic of the first half of the present century as the school of romantic fiction and poetry. Both sought at all costs to find a hero, and, whenever possible, to set over against this central figure a heroine. When the dis-

INTRODUCTION. xiii

covery of America was the theme, Cokmibus became a knight-errant with an admixture of saintliness^ while Isabella played the counterpart of heroine, to maintain the symmetry of the narrative. Such a method belonged to a poetic age and had its uses, but it was fatal to sound historical conclusions. It reached its extreme of folly in the movement set on foot to have Columbus canonized by the Church for a saint.

We have now swung to another extreme in our literary methods. Producing fiction much of which is quite too sordid to be justly called realistic, we are possessed at the same time with a sort of rage to debase the great figures of history. I^ot content with robbing them of the false laurels with which our imaginative predecessors have crowned them, we give way to a pessimistic passion for denying them any virtue at all. Because they have been praised for qualities they have not, we scorn them for false pretenders. One of the worst sufferers from this reaction is the great Genoese sailor whose achievement of four hundred years ago gave to civilization a world unknown before. There seems to be an emulation of detraction among the most recent investigators and learned biographers. To paint the discoverer in the darkest colors is accounted nowadays an evidence of scholarship. But the pessimistic and destructive mode of judgment is as far from being scientific as the now discarded romantic treatment, while it is xiv INTRODUCTION.

mucli less agreeable. Historic justice remembers the wisdom expressed in the motto which was Lord Bacon's device, and settles itself in a secure moderation.

Let us grant, then, that this great navigator was not a saint. Like other great men, he had faults even when judged by the light of his own time ; and we have no right to censure him by the standards of our age. But he was a great lifteenth-century man. He could hardly have won his battle had he not had some of the faults of his ao^e. He has been blamed for not havino^ the quahties of Copernicus or Las Casas. We must not expect too much for our shilling. Columbus had in a degree rarely equaled the power to consecrate himself to one great achievement. He had courage, fortitude, and a mastery of navigation as then understood. In a word, he only had all that was needed to produce a man capable of crossing the Sea of Darkness. 'No other navigator of his time had conceptions so bold or a pertinacity of pursuit so unflagging. Men of aptitudes so special are usually one-sided. History will not lay it up against General Grant that he was a weak statesman, nor will posterity insist on remembering that Turner, the painter, wrote bad poetry. It is enough that Columbus alone of the men of the fifteenth century had the imagination to plan and the boldness to carry out a voyage in search of land to the westward. No one can make him less than what his own merit has made

INTRODUCTION. XV

him, the most conspicuous figure in the history of his age — the man wlio rendered the world the greatest service possible at that moment.

He was not in advance of his age in other respects. He was superstitious ; he was ambitious ; he sought wealth, which was the prize that spurred other Genoese adventurers to hard tasks. He lacked the enthusiasm of disinterested research which possessed Copernicus and the reformatory spirit of Las Casas. But neither Copernicus nor Las Casas ever dreamed of setting out to find land by the untried water way to the westward, nor could either of them have set on foot so bold an undertaking. Nature does not give everything to one man. And the very faults charged against Columbus — his pursuit of wealth and his belief in his own divine mission — propelled and su]>ported him in his arduous and perilous enterprise. Let us judge him fairly and by the standards of his age, and honor him for what he was and did, without censuring him that he was not something else. To rob the doers of great deeds of their hard-earned glory, is to deprive the race of one of the mainsprings of notable actions.

In the laborious task of gathering material for authentic pictures, the illustrator has been placed under obligation by the kindness of several gentlemen. Mr. Nathan Appleton, of Boston, generously put at her disposal a valuable collection of photographs, and several xvi rNTRODUCTION.

drawings made under his own supervision in tlie island of Santo Domingo. Mr. E. C. Perry, of Honduras, also placed his collection in her hands. Acknowledgments are also due to Mr. Henry Marquand, of Kew York, Prof. Otis T. Mason, of the National Museum, and to others.

It remains only to say that the present book is^ the first of a series intended to introduce the young reader and the general reader to wdiat is most interesting and delightful in American history. It is the result of the co-operation of two sisters already known to the public by work in their several departments. I have taken a lively interest in this labor of my daughters from the beginning, giving it whatever benefit I could of any knowledge of mine and of my experience in bookmaking, but my function has been merely editorial.

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GATE OF PEKIN.

THE STORY OF COLUMBUS.