Still we find Columbus, as late as the 3rd of October, faying, " that he did not choose to stop "beating about laft week during those days that "they had fuch figns of land, although he had

knowledge of there being certain islands in that "neighbourhood, because he would not suffer any detention, since his object was to go to the "Indies: and if he should stop on the way, he fays it would fhow a want of brains."*

in

Meanwhile he had a hard task to keep his men

any order. Peter Martyr, who knew Columbus well, and probably had had a special account from him of these perilous days, describes his way of dealing with the refractory mariners, and how he contrived to get them on from day to day; now foothing them with foft words, now carrying their minds from thought of the present danger by spreading out large hopes before them, not forgetting to let them know what their princes would fay to them if they attempted aught against him, or would not obey his orders.† With this

* Navarrete, Col. v, 1, p. 16.

+ Poft trigefimum jam diem furore perciti, proclamabant, ut reducerentur: nè ulteriùs procederet, ftimulabant hominem: ipfe verò, blandis modò verbis, amplâ fpe modò, diem ex die protrahens, iratos mulcebat, depofcebat: proditionis quoquè taxandos effe à regibus, fi adverfi quicquam in eum molirentur, et si parere recufarent, predicabat.—Peter Martyr, dec. 1, l. 1.

Babel of wild, frightened men around him, with mocking hopes, not knowing what each day would bring to him, on went Columbus. At laft comes the 11th of October, and with it indubitable figns of land. The diary mentions their finding on that day a table board and a carved stick, the carving apparently wrought by fome iron inftrument. Herrera mentions also that the men in one of the vessels faw a branch of a haw tree with fruit on it. Now, indeed, they must be close to

round of waters which for fo long a time their eyes had ached to fee beyond, when at ten o'clock, Columbus, ftanding on the poop of his vessel, faw a light, and called to him, privately, Pedro Columbus Gutierrez, who saw it also. Then they called fees a light on land. Rodrigo Sanchez, who had been fent by their Highneffes as overlooker; I fancy him the fort of dry little man fent by Dutch or Venetian states to accompany and curb great generals, and who are generally anything but loved by them. Sanchez did not fee the light at first, because, as Columbus fays, he did not ftand in the place where it could be feen, but at last even he sees it: and it may now be confidered to have been feen officially. "It appeared like a candle that "went up and down, and Don Christopher did

"not doubt that it was true light, (no will-ofthe-wifp) and was on land: and so it was, as it "came from people paffing with lights from one cc cottage to another."*

We cannot but be forry for a poor common failor, Rodrigo de Triana, who saw the light just a little too late, got no reward, and of whom they tell a story, that in sadness and despite, after his return to Spain, he paffed into Africa, and became a Mahometan. The award was adjudged to the Admiral: it was charged on the fhambles (carnicerias) of Seville, and was always paid to the Admiral to the day of his death: for, fays the hiftorian Herrera,

"he faw light in the midst of darkness, fignifying the cc spiritual light which was introduced amongst these "barbarous people, God permitting that the war being "finished with the Moors, feven hundred and twenty

years after they had set foot in Spain, this work (the "converfion of the Indians) should commence, so that "the princes of Caftile and Leon should always be oc"cupied in bringing infidels to the knowledge of the "Holy Catholic Faith."+

These last words are notable. It is the very

account that Columbus himself would probably have given of the matter. In the preface to his diary, which is an address to Ferdinand and Isabella, he speaks at large (and Las Casas gives the Admiral's own words) of the motives of their Highneffes. He fays how the Grand Can had sent ambaffadors to the pope, praying for doctors to inftruct him in the faith. He speaks of the expulfion of the Jews, probably intimating that that was also a proof of the devout intentions of their Highneffes. And, indeed, he ascribes no motive to the monarchs but religious ones.

"Your highnesses as Catholic Christians and princes, "lovers and furtherers of the Christian faith, and ene"mies of the fect of Mahomet, and of all idolatries and "herefies, thought to send me, Christopher Columbus, "to the aforefaid provinces of India to see the afore"faid princes, the cities and lands, and the difpofition of "them and of every thing about them, and the way "that should be taken to convert them to the facred "faith."*

* Vueftras Altezas, como católicos criftianos y Príncipes amadores de la fanta fé cristiana y acrecentadores della, y enemigos de la fecta de Mahoma y de todas idolatrías y heregías, penfaron de enviarme á mi Cristóbal Colon á las dichas partidas de India para ver los dichos príncipes, y los pueblos y tierras, y la difpoficion dellas y de todo, y la manera que fe pudiera tener para la converfion dellas á nueftra fanta fé.-Navarrete, v. 1, p. 2.

The diary to which this address was prefixed is probably one of the books which their highnesses allude to in a letter to Columbus, as in their poffeffion, and which they fay they have shown to nobody. I fee no reason to doubt the good faith of the words of Columbus in this matter: and it is well to dwell upon them, because we shall never come to a right understanding of these times and of the question of flavery as connected with them, unless we fully appreciate the good as well as the bad motives which guided the first and most important perfons of the time.

As for Ifabella, there can be no doubt about her motives. Even in the lamentably unjust things in which she was too often concerned, fhe had what to her mind was compelling reason to act as fhe did. Perhaps there is no one who ever lived to whom so much evil may be traced, all done, or rather permitted, upon the highest and pureft motives. Whether we refer to the expulfion of the Jews, the treatment of the Moorish converts, or the establishment of the Inquifition; all her proceedings in these matters were entirely fincere and noble-minded. Methinks I can still see her beautiful, majestic face, (with broad brow and clear, honest, loving eye,) as it looks upon us from one of the chapels in the cathedral