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 I'ORTRAll OF COLUMBUS. 
 
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 ^Fi-^m the ^^ersailles gallefy.' Engraved on steel by Paolo 
 
 Mercuri, from the ancient portrait supposed to have been 
 painted by Jan Van Eyck, »>f Bruges, while Columbus was 
 at the court of Portugal. 
 
 The original- of the portrait is in the "Voyages'" of De Bry, 
 which he says was painted by direction of the King and 
 Queen of Castile, and stolen from the Council of the 
 Indies. De Krv, in the preface to his "Voyages,'" Frank- 
 fort, 1595, says: "Of this portrait I have had the good 
 fortune to obtain a copy, since finishing the fourth book of 
 this work, through a friend who had received it from the 
 artist himself; and it has been my desire, kind reader, to 
 share this pleasure with you, for which purpose 1 have 
 caused it to be engraved in a reduced form on copper by 
 my son with as much care as possible, and now offer it for 
 3-our inspection in this book. And, in truth, the portrait of 
 one possessing such excellence deserves to be seen by all 
 good men, for he was upright and courteous, pure and 
 noble-minded, and an earnest friend of peace and justice." 
 
Columbus 
 flDemodal 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THE JOINT COMMITTEE OF 
 
 (Tbc datboltc Club of mew l^orl^ 
 
 AND 
 
 XLbc TUntteD States Catbolic Ibistorical Society 
 
 tVEVOM^^^^COjM 
 
 NEW YORK, CINCINNATI, CHICAGO 
 
 Benziger Brothers 
 
 PRINTERS TO THE HOLY APOSTOLIC SEE 
 
 1893 
 
 i"i"t(?JV 
 
Em 
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1093, 
 
 BY THE CATHOLIC CLUB OF NEW YORK AND 
 
 THE UNITED STATES CATHOLIC HISTORICAL SOCIETY 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 BY 
 
 PROF. CHARLES GEORGE HERBERMANN, PH.D., LL.D. 
 
 ONG before Pericles pronounced his immortal 
 oration, nations had publicly honored their heroes. 
 The temples and obelisks of Egypt herald the 
 glories of the Pharaohs, the palaces of Nineve 
 the exploits of its mighty conquerors. Since the 
 days of the Athenian statesman, also, peoples, ancient and 
 modern, have had and celebrated their great men. But 
 resplendent as is the fame of Alexander and Caesar, of 
 Napoleon and Wellington, they fought and wrought for 
 their own country, and they were honored chiefly by their 
 own countrymen. The four hundredth anniversary of the 
 discovery of America revealed to the world a spectacle new 
 in history or annals. With one accord the nations of two 
 continents united in doing homage to the great Genoese dis- 
 coverer, and in exalting his deathless achievement. All 
 seemed to feel that Columbus and his fame belong, not to 
 one nation, but to mankind. Italy rejoiced because she gave 
 him birth ; Portugal because she offered him hospitality; 
 Spain because she furnished him a fleet. All Europe felt that 
 she owed him thanks, because his genius and energy opened 
 to the Old World the treasures and resources of the New. 
 We of the New World feel that had there been no Columbus 
 there might have been no Washington. Rightfully, therefore, 
 the four hundredth anniversary of the discovery of America 
 has become an international jubilee, a festival in which the 
 men of two worlds, without distinction of race or country, 
 joined warmly and sincerely in honoring the name of 
 Columbus. 
 
 But the quadricentennial of the discovery of America 
 was no expression of mere sentiment. It was an ac- 
 
knowledgment of the transcendent importance of Columbus' 
 work, a recognition of the greatness of the man and of his 
 representative character in history. Columbus stands on the 
 borderland of the Middle Ages and modern times. His 
 birth, probably, falls a few years before the Turks took 
 Constantinople and Guttenberg invented the art of printing 
 from movable types ; his death; a few years before the un- 
 fortunate schism precipitated by the Monk of Wittenberg 
 shattered the unity of the Christian world. Placed, there- 
 fore, on the confines of these two periods, like the evening 
 star he reflected the radiance of the waning, like the morning 
 star he heralded the coming glories of the dawning day. As 
 the offspring of the one he embodied what was great in the 
 ages of faith ; as the precursor of the other he contributed 
 not a little to stimulate and shape the course of much that 
 is best in modern progress. 
 
 Columbus was the offspring and the representative of medi- 
 aevalism. The spirit which inspired him to face and sur- 
 mount the thousand dangers and difficulties that imperilled 
 the success of his enterprise, was the spirit of chivalry, the 
 spirit of the knight errant. Proud, like the mediaeval lord, 
 he spurned every reward except that which he felt to be 
 worthy of his merits. Unswervingly brave like the knight, 
 he bowed neither to the opposition of courts nor to the 
 mutiny of his followers, but confident in right and truth, 
 conquered success. The science which guided him on his 
 long and weary way was the science of the Middle Ages, 
 the science fostered by the Church and nursed by monas- 
 teries and monks. The heir of Nicholas of Cusa and John 
 Miiller of Konigsberg (Regiomontanus), of Behaim and Tos- 
 canelli, he used the mediaeval science of astronomy and cos- 
 mography as the hand-maidens of the art of navigation. 
 From them he learned the rotundity of the earth, from 
 them and the mediaeval seamen who preceded him he bor- 
 rowed the mariner's compass, the cross-staff and the astrolabe. 
 His exploring instinct, also, the Genoese mariner inherited 
 from the men of the Middle Ages. Long before his days, 
 in the thirteenth century, the Franciscans Piano di Carpine 
 and William Rubruquis had reached Tartary and India, and 
 
Marco Polo had penetrated to China. The zeal and energy 
 of Prince Henry, the navigator, had borne fruit in the Por- 
 tuguese discoveries along the western coast of Africa, and in 
 1487 Bartholomew Dias had discovered the Cape of Good 
 Hope. The conception of reaching India and Japan by sea 
 was appropriated by Columbus from the Portuguese sailors 
 trained in the ideas of Prince Henry and King John H. 
 The religious zeal which animated Columbus was the spirit 
 of Christendom in the days of its unity. Filled with devo- 
 tion to the Church, he never forgot that it was his first 
 duty to spread the Kingdom of Christ. Like those types of 
 mediaeval heroism, Godfrey of Bouillon and Tancred, he was 
 filled with undying enthusiasm to free the Lord's sepulchre 
 from the power of the Moslems. The loyal son of the one 
 undivided Church, he sailed from Palos blessed by her priests, 
 and his first care when, after months of bitter struggles, 
 he set foot on the soil of the New World, was to plant 
 Christ's cross and consecrate the newly found land to His 
 service. Who will deny that the famous Genoese was a 
 true son of the ages of faith and of chivalry ? Who fail to 
 recognize in him the embodiment of all that was best in the 
 Middle Ages ? 
 
 But regard the figure of Columbus from another point of 
 view, and we are struck at once by his many modern traits, 
 and impressed with the close connection between his 
 career and the course of modem science. Convinced of the 
 correctness of his cosmographic views, neither the coldness 
 of patrons nor the opposition of the world shook him in his 
 convictions. Time itself did not dampen his ardor to test by 
 experiment his scientific opinions. Is not this the spirit of 
 the modern investigator? Four times Columbus braved the 
 perils of the sea, and trusted himself to men more treacher- 
 ous than the ocean, to prove the correctness of his theories. 
 Can modern science produce more brilliant examples of courage 
 and perseverance? In his methods Columbus, while true to 
 the mediaeval principle of authority, appealed to observation 
 and fact as arguments of decisive importance. If, to support 
 his theories that the extent of ocean between the west of 
 Africa and the Indies was slight as compared with the 
 
 iu 
 
vastness of the old continent, he cited Aristotle and Averroes, 
 Esdras and Seneca, and if he founded his scheme largely on 
 the authority of Cardinal Pierre d'Ailly, it is also true that, 
 both at Porto Santo and at Lisbon, from his sailor relatives, 
 and the most experienced mariners of the day, he gathered 
 facts, indicating the existence of fertile inhabited lands to 
 the westward. Again and again he dwelt on the fact that 
 carved wood, strange trees, unknown species of reeds, nay, 
 the corpses of two men unlike any race of the Old World, 
 had drifted from the west to the Azores. How could he 
 have anticipated more signally the methods of the modem 
 explorer ? How modern, too, was Columbus' manner of deal- 
 ing with a phenomenon that might well have struck earlier 
 mariners as an ill-boding prodigy — the continuous variation of 
 the magnetic needle on his first voyage. The Genoese sailor 
 sought an explanation in science and made it the starting point 
 of improved navigation. 
 
 To these traits which Columbus has in common with 
 modern men of science, add the restless zeal, the enthusiasm 
 which impelled him from one enterprise to another. Voyage 
 followed voyage ; neither storms nor shipwreck, neither the 
 rebellion of his men, nor the persecution of superiors, nor 
 the base ingratitude that made the man who had given a 
 world to the Spanish Sovereigns a chained prisoner, lessened 
 his fiery ardor. Age itself did not cool it. Though fast ap- 
 proaching the allotted three score and ten, though unjustly 
 stripped of his hard-earned rewards and honors, he could not 
 settle down to a life of inactivity and allow others to complete 
 the discovery he had made. A fourth time he defied the 
 terrors of the ocean, and the treachery of the base adven- 
 turers, into whose hands destiny had thrown him. Why ? To 
 extend his explorations and make new discoveries. What 
 wonder if such enthusiasm should prove infectious ? if the 
 spirit of Columbus should not only incite the men of his 
 own time, but, so to say, appear again and again in the 
 explorers of later centuries ? Review the gallant company 
 that followed in his wake. Pinzon, Vespucci and Solis de- 
 rived from the Admiral himself the inspiration which sent them 
 across the Atlantic to seek the western passage to India. Is 
 
 Iv 
 
it too bold to assume that the success of Columbus was 
 the goad that, in 1497, spurred on Vasco da Gama to find the 
 way to India ? Some twenty years later the spirit of Colum- 
 bus descended on Ferdinand Magellan, that prince of navi- 
 gators, and guided him to success and fame as the first 
 circumnavigator of the world. Sebastian Cabot and Hendiick 
 Hudson we shall mention as the next links in this brilliant 
 chain of the great Admiral's successors. They, too, were 
 stimulated to undertake their voyages by Columbus' idea of 
 finding a westward passage to India; only while Columbus 
 and those who immediately followed him directed their 
 course southward, the Cabots and Hudson sought by a 
 northwest passage to reach that land of gold and of spices, 
 Hudson's name suggests Frobisher's and Baffin's and Davis', 
 and a long series of staunch-hearted seamen, until we come 
 to the great Arctic explorers of the nineteenth century, the 
 Sir John Franklins, the Markhams, the Kanes, and the 
 Pearys. But why go into further detail ? A similar coup- 
 ling of names, a similar tracing of the thoughts that in- 
 spired them, would show that the seed sown by the Genoese 
 discoverer has borne fruit not only in America and India, 
 but likewise in Australia and Africa. Wavelike one explo- 
 ration and discovery follows another, and perhaps it is no 
 exaggeration to say that to the impulse given by Columbus' 
 achievement the wave of discovery that has swept over Cen- 
 tral Africa owed its being. In this way we realize how 
 closely connected with the geographical ideas and discoveries 
 of modern times, nay, of our own days, is the great deed of 
 the Genoese discoverer. 
 
 From another point of view, also, Columbus has been the 
 herald of modern grandeur. We read in history of the com- 
 mercial greatness of Carthage, of Athens, of Venice, of the 
 Hanse towns. Still what are the commercial enterprises of 
 Carthage and Athens and Venice when compared to the 
 gigantic commercial undertakings of the nineteenth century ? 
 Our merchants and capitalists pierce mountains, cut conti- 
 nents in twain, and almost girdle the earth with railroads. 
 Only a few years have passed since the Comte de Lesseps 
 filled the world with his fame. Why ? Because he had es- 
 
tablished a new, a shorter and easier route to the far East ; 
 he had revolutionized the course of trade with China and 
 India. The conception of uniting the Mediterranean with 
 the Red Sea was not de Lesseps' conception. A Pharaoh 
 in hoary antiquity had conceived the plan, if he did not 
 realize it. De Lesseps' merit consisted in successfully digging 
 the Suez Canal. But to Columbus the world of commerce 
 owes one of the most pregnant schemes the human mind 
 has ever conceived. He proposed boldly to break with tra- 
 dition ; to seek a new route to the East, to reduce by 
 thousands of miles the distance between Spain and Cipango, 
 and thus to secure for the Spaniards the commerce of the 
 East. The imperfect geography of his time deceived him as to 
 the distance ; for this error he was not responsible. But 
 his idea from a commercial point of view was not only 
 original, but grand. It was essentially in harmony with the 
 spirit of our own day. Think of it ! By a single stroke he 
 thought to place in the hands of Spain the priceless traffic 
 of the East. And the means? To turn the prows of his 
 ships towards the West instead of towards the East. This 
 original, this brilliant conception was worthy of a great re- 
 ward, and Columbus deserved to be the discoverer of a new 
 world he did not seek. 
 
 Such, too, was the feeling of America and Europe when 
 the four hundredth anniversary of the discovery of America 
 came. With one accord the men of many lands commem- 
 orated the event, and honored the discoverer. Historians, 
 antiquarians rummaged amid the dust of libraries to find 
 new light on the fateful undertaking ; historians told again 
 the thrilling story of the finding of a new world ; mechanics 
 reproduced to a nicety the world-famed caravels that carried 
 the daring mariners to fame and success ; artists immortal- 
 ized on canvas or in marble the discoverer and his achieve- 
 ment. Statues were set up, triumphal arches built, and mon- 
 uments erected. Cities and states vieing with one another 
 organized illuminations, pageants, processions. The poet was 
 inspired by his muse to sing the noble theme, the orator 
 rolled forth noble periods to add to the splendors of the 
 universal jubilee. Lastly, the Church, proud of the faithful 
 
son who had disclosed a new world to thousands of her 
 suffering children, threw open the portals of her minsters, 
 made her organs peal forth anthems in his honor and bade 
 the most eloquent of her ministers announce the true sig- 
 nificance of the hero and of his mission. So it came about 
 that the fourth centennial of the discovery of America be- 
 came a universal holiday, such as the world has never be- 
 fore beheld. 
 
 To describe the details of the festival as it was celebrated 
 in the Old World and the New would require volumes. We 
 can only cast a hasty glance at it. In Europe, Spain and 
 Italy, as was proper, were foremost in doing homage to the 
 great Admiral. Genoa, whose statue of Columbus is perhaps 
 the finest monument erected in his honor, did not forget on 
 this occasion to show how proud she is of her illustrious 
 son. On October 12th cannons, military music, the ringing 
 of bells and impressive religious solemnities inaugurated the 
 jubilee in Madrid. Through streets richly decorated with 
 triumphal arches and gay with colors, the historical proces- 
 sion of the Spanish students wended its way, amid the en- 
 thusiasm of crowds gathered from near and far. Palos had 
 already had its day of jubilee on the 3d of August. Now 
 Huelva, too, showed how she glories in the association of 
 her name with the greatest event of post-Christian times. 
 Most justly, too, Queen Christina recognized the services of 
 Fray Antonio de Marchena, who so nobly befriended Co- 
 lumbus, by restoring to his brethren the Convent of Sta. 
 Maria de la Rabida. In London, Americans, Spaniards, Ger- 
 mans and Frenchmen assembled at the same board with the 
 most distinguished Englishmen to sing the praises of Co- 
 lumbus and his deeds. Similar celebrations, too numerous to 
 refer to, were the order of the day on the Continent of 
 Europe. 
 
 But all the splendors of the European pageant pale into 
 insignificance alongside of the brilliant celebration the great 
 Republic of the Nev/ World organized to commemorate the 
 achievement of Columbus. While Congress had decided that 
 the national festival in honor of the event should take the 
 form of an International Columbian Fair, many of the great 
 
cities of the land resolved to pay their tribute to the Gen- 
 oese mariner by local celebrations. Chicago, Boston, Balti- 
 more, and many other places did themselves honor in hon- 
 oring Columbus. But, as often on such occasions, the 
 Metropolis carried off the palm. For three days New York 
 ceased to be the great commercial bee-hive of the Western 
 Continent, and invited her children and her neighbors to a 
 universal merrymaking. Hearty was the response to this in- 
 vitation. The main thoroughfares of the city were gay with 
 flags and draperies. Everywhere was seen the portrait of 
 Columbus, festooned with the colors of Spain, Genoa and 
 the United States. Catholic and Protestant, Jew and Gen- 
 tile vied with one another to do homage to this son of the 
 undivided Catholic Church. The transcendent importance 
 of the man's service to mankind, and generous recog- 
 nition of his great qualities, overshadowed the national and 
 religious prejudice that so often blind men to the merits of 
 their fellows. Saturday, Oct. gth, and Sunday, the loth, 
 formed, so to say, the prelude of the fete, in the synagogues 
 and the churches. Rabbi and preacher found an inspiring 
 theme in the man and his deed. On Monday, Oct. nth, 
 began the celebration proper. As seems right, the first day 
 was allotted to the yotith of the city. With banners and 
 decorations, the children of the schools, the college youth, as 
 well as the students of the universities, marched in thousands, 
 the hope and pride of the Metropolis. Among these none 
 were more justly and warmly applauded than the children 
 of the Catholic schools. Before the school parade had come 
 to a close, the majestic Hudson became the scene of a great 
 naval display. A formidable fleet of men-of-war, including 
 besides the American squadron visitors from France, Spain 
 and Italy, escorted by hundreds of merchant vessels of 
 varying size and character, all bedecked with a bewildering 
 mass of colors, filled the stream. While salvo followed salvo 
 from the war vessels, the merchant fleet sent forth a wild 
 chorus upon their steam whistles. Nor did the splendors of 
 the celebration cease at nightfall. Fireworks whose brilliancy 
 turned the night into day drew hundreds of thousands to 
 the waterside. Meanwhile other legions filled the great 
 
thoroughfares, eager to see the torchlight parade of the 
 Catholic societies, one of the most notable features of the 
 celebration. Eloquence, too, and poetry and music wove new 
 wreaths for the great Admiral. At Carnegie Hall some of 
 the foremost Catholic orators spoke his praise, while odes 
 set to music by a distinguished composer voiced the 
 warm admiration of the sons of the Catholic Parnas- 
 sus. In two other halls monster choruses and world-famed 
 artists rendered cantatas composed especially to honor the 
 anniversary of Columbus. Tuesday (the 12th) saw the cul- 
 mination of New York's jubilee. Hundreds of thousands 
 poured into the Metropolis from abroad. Up and down the 
 streets surged ever increasing throngs, and the avenue that 
 was to behold the great military parade appeared a sea of 
 humanity. So great was the inpouring of visitors that thou- 
 sands of citizens were unable to see the pageant. The 
 parade was a truly American spectacle. Thousands of citizen 
 soldiers, marching alongside of the small but well-drilled 
 band of regulars, proclaimed that in the land of Columbus 
 and Washington neither internal nor external enemies have 
 enslaved the nation. In the procession were seen not only 
 the militia of the Empire State, but many regiments from 
 Connecticut, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, commanded by 
 the Governors of those states. These were followed by the 
 veterans of the civil war; at their head rode nearly two 
 score Generals, famed for their skill and valor on many a 
 well-fought field. The New York Fire Department and 
 numerous civil societies, representing not only America, but 
 many a European nation, closed the procession. For hours 
 they marched past the Vice-President of the Republic and 
 the Governor of the State, who reviewed the parade. A 
 grand banquet and a night pageant of tableaux representing 
 on huge triumphal cars, brilliant with electric lights, historical 
 scenes connected with the history of this New World, closed 
 the celebration. 
 
 If the celebration of Columbus' discovery enlisted so strongly 
 the sympathies of all Americans, it appealed with special 
 force to the Catholics of the United States. Columbus, as 
 we have seen, was the true offspring of the ages of faith, 
 
of the undivided Church Catholic. Accordingly it was but 
 fit that the children of the Church should honor him as 
 their own representative. Throughout the country, therefore, 
 churchmen and laymen vied with one another to do homage 
 not only to Columbus the discoverer, but to Columbus the 
 Catholic discoverer. To the United States Catholic Histori- 
 cal Society belongs the credit of starting this movement. 
 On December 15th, at a meeting of its council, the first 
 step was taken. On motion of Mr. P. Farrelly, the eloquent 
 Daniel Dougherty was invited to deliver a eulogy of the 
 great Admiral in New York. But soon the plan of the 
 celebration was enlarged. A committee was appointed to 
 wait upon His Grace, Archbishop Corrigan, for the purpose 
 of expressing to him the desire of the Historical Society to 
 forward by every means in its power the Columbian Cele- 
 bration of 1892. The Archbishop not only received the com- 
 mittee most graciously, but forthwith translated his en- 
 couraging words into vigorous action. He communicated 
 with several prelates and distinguished laymen, and espe- 
 cially with His Eminence, Cardinal Gibbons, appealing to them 
 in behalf of a grand Catholic celebration of the fourth cen- 
 tenary of the discovery of the New World. Cardinal Gibbons 
 took up the sviggestion with ardor. He addressed to the 
 bishops of the country a circular letter, which, on account 
 of its importance, is given in full : 
 
 Right Reverend Dear Sir : 
 
 My attention has been called to the suggestion that it 
 would be eminently fitting to celebrate with solemn religious 
 observances the twelfth of October next, commemorative of 
 the discovery of America. 
 
 The Most Reverend Archbishop of New York, and other 
 prelates with distinguished laymen, have made the request 
 that the Archbishops and Bishops be addressed with a view 
 to the taking of some concerted action in the matter, so 
 that on the day mentioned in all the dioceses especial re- 
 ligious services be held. It has also been thought, that 
 these might be supplemented, wherever practicable, by some 
 civil celebration in the evening. 
 
With all deference, I take the liberty of submitting the 
 subject to Your Grace's consideration. A united action on the 
 part of the hierarchy would enhance the glory of the cele- 
 bration and invest the day with especial solemnity. I need 
 not say that I myself am in favor of the proposed cele- 
 bration. 
 
 With profound respect, I remain, 
 
 Your humble servant in Christ, 
 
 James Cardinal Gibbons, 
 Archbishop of Baltimore. 
 
 The result of this appeal to the prelates of the United 
 States was the universal and enthusiastic celebration of the 
 Columbus anniversary throughout the length and breadth of 
 the land. From Boston to New Orleans, from Baltimore to 
 San Francisco, the cathedrals and churches of the great 
 cities shone in their brightest adornments, and all the re- 
 sources of the grand Catholic ritual were exhausted to lend 
 splendor to the memorable jubilee. In almost every 
 cathedral and in many churches was celebrated solemn 
 High Mass, rendered more solemn by choice music and the 
 glowing words of the most eloquent preachers. Nor was the 
 suggested civil celebration forgotten ; processions and ora- 
 tions were the order of the day. To describe in detail these 
 festivities would exceed the scope of this paper. Suffice it 
 to say, that the voice of the Cardinal and the hierarchy 
 met with a warm and general response. 
 
 Meanwhile stimulated by the vigorous action of His Grace, 
 Archbishop Corrigan, and with his advice and co-operation, 
 preparations went on apace in New York. The Catholic 
 Club and the Catholic Historical Society combined their 
 forces to make the celebration worthy of the event com- 
 memorated, of the hero, and of the Metropolis. A joint 
 committee was organized and a progframme mapped out. 
 To others was committed the charge of the outdoor celebra- 
 tion, and how well they acquitted themselves all bear wit- 
 ness who beheld the parade of the parochial school chil- 
 dren and of the Catholic societies. The Catholic Club and 
 the Historical Society took in hand the literary and artistic 
 celebration of the great anniversary. With zeal and energy 
 
 xi 
 
the joint committee devoted themselves to their task, and 
 though the difficulties to be surmounted were far from 
 slight, success crowned their efforts. To the regret of all, 
 Mr. Daniel Dougherty, who had been so ardent an advocate 
 of the celebration from the beginning, and from whose elo- 
 quent lips all expected a thrilling eulogy of Columbus, did 
 not live to see the splendors of the festival. But the com- 
 mittee's labors were lightened by the sympathy they met 
 with on all sides. In Mr. Dougherty's place Mr. Frederic 
 R. Coudert and ex-Governor Carroll of Maryland eloquently 
 set forth the achievements . of the Genoese mariner and its 
 world-embracing significance. Mr. George Parsons Lathrop 
 and Miss Eliza Allen Starr sang his praise in melodious 
 verse, while Prof. Bruno Oscar Klein composed a cantata, 
 the merits of which were recognized on all hands. Nor 
 must the singers be forgotten that made the occasion so 
 great a success. To crown all, the Archbishop himself con- 
 sented to preside on the occasion, and delivered a graceful 
 and scholarly address, the beauties of which speak for them- 
 selves. He was introduced to the assembled hearers in 
 well-chosen words by Judge Daly, the chairman of the Fes- 
 tival Committee. But words, however eloquent, are fleet- 
 ing, and the committee determined that the occasion and the 
 hero deserved a memorial that would go down to the men who 
 will celebrate the fifth centenary, and beyond them to their 
 successors in centuries to come. Accordingly the present vol- 
 ume was planned. It will tell to future generations how 
 the Catholic men of New York, and especially their orators 
 and poets, did homage and honor to the great man who 
 discovered America. As the United States Catholic Histor- 
 ical Society had taken so important a part in starting and 
 furthering the Catholic Columbian celebration, the field of 
 their chosen labor, it was thought, should likewise be repre- 
 sented in this memorial volume. Hence the three important 
 historical papers, which will add to its interest and value. To 
 the Dominican Father Mandonnet, professor at the University 
 of Freiburg, in Switzerland, we owe a most interesting and 
 learned paper on Diego de Deza, the friend and patron of 
 Columbus. He discusses learnedly and at length the part 
 
 xii 
 
this distinguished Dominican scholar, who subsequently be- 
 came Archbishop of Seville, took in furthering the Genoese 
 mariner's projects at the court of the Spanish sovereigns. 
 Father J. F. X. O'Conor contributes an important paper giv- 
 ing a vivid sketch of the labors of the old Jesuit mission- 
 aries in the State of New York, and a condensed record of 
 the missions of the Society of Jesus in the United States 
 to the present day. As Catholic and Protestant writers have 
 alike recognized in glowing terms the importance of their 
 work from a historical and scientific point of view, and the de- 
 votion and heroism of the Fathers, our readers will surely ap- 
 preciate Father O' Conor's contribution. To a learned member 
 of the Order of St. Francis we owe thanks for his com- 
 prehensive picture of the labors of his brethren in the New 
 World ; we cordially thank the Provincial of the Order of 
 St. Francis, the Very Rev. Father Anacletus, for this valuable 
 paper, which he transmitted to us. The Franciscans were 
 the companions of the discoverer and the first messengers 
 of the Church who brought to the Western Continent the 
 glad tidings of Christ's Gospel. Their activity extended over 
 both divisions of the New World from Canada to Patagonia, 
 and the Araucanians in the South revered the heroic sons 
 of St. Francis no less than the Hurons in the North. 
 
 To give additional interest and value to this memorial 
 volume, the Publication Committee has inserted a series of 
 artistic and interesting full-page illustrations. The reader 
 will find among them not only reproductions of all the im- 
 portant portraits of Columbus himself, but also the best 
 authenticated pictures of Isabella and her husband. 
 
 This introduction would be incomplete without a hearty 
 recognition of the zeal and energy displayed and the hard 
 work done by the Joint Committee of the Catholic Club and 
 the Catholic Historical Society who had in charge the cele- 
 bration of the four hundredth anniversary of the discovery 
 of America. To them and to their vigorous chairman, the 
 Hon. Joseph F. Daly, is due the success of the festival; to 
 them also belongs the credit of having compiled this tasteful 
 memorial of an interesting event. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Introduction, i 
 
 Prof. Charles G. Herbermann. 
 
 Programme of Celebration, xix 
 
 Music Hall, October ii, 1892. 
 Joint Committee, ........ xxi 
 
 Address, introducing Chairman, 3 
 
 Chief Judge Joseph F. Daly. 
 
 Address of the Chairman, 7 
 
 Most Rev. Archbishop Corrigan. 
 
 Oration, 11 
 
 Hon. John Lee Carroll. 
 
 Ode, "Christopher Columbus," 19 
 
 Miss Eliza Allen Starr. 
 
 Poem, "Columbus the Christ-Bearer Speaks," . . 21 
 
 George Parsons Lathrop. 
 
 Oration, 25 
 
 Frederic R. Coudert, Esq. 
 The Dominican Paper, 55 
 
 The Jesuit Paper 99 
 
 The Franciscan Paper, 127 
 
 Addenda to Franciscan Paper, 169 
 
 Columbus Centennial Literature, 181 
 
 Portraits of Columbus 185 
 
LIST OF PLATES. 
 
 ^The Versailles or DeBry Portrait, 
 
 The Giovio Portrait, 
 'The Capriolo Portrait, . 
 ^ The Thevet Portrait, 
 ^ The MuNoz Portrait, 
 "^The Parmigiano Portrait, 
 
 Isabella, Royal Palace at Madrid, 
 ' Isabella, from the Tomb in Granada, 
 
 Ferdinand, from the same, 
 
 Ferdinand, "Ritratti" Portrait, 
 /Ferdinand and Isabella, from Mariana' 
 /joHN II. of Castille, 
 
 s history. 
 
 frontispiece 
 129 
 21 
 II 
 3 
 
 19 
 
 7 
 
 57 
 
 lOI 
 
 25 
 181 
 169 
 
P ROGRAMME 
 
 OF THE Celebration, by the Catholic Club 
 OF the City of New York and the United 
 States Catholic Historical Society, of the 
 Quadri-Centennial Anniversary of the 
 Discovery of America, at Music Hall, 
 57"^" Street and y''^" Avenue, New York, 
 October ii, 1892. 
 
J 
 
 PINT COMMITTEE 
 
 ON THE Celebration of the Four-Hundredth 
 Anniversary of the Discovery of America. 
 
 JOSEPH F. DALY, Chairman. 
 THOMAS ADDIS EMMET. 
 JOHN NEWTON. 
 
 morgan J. o'brien. 
 
 JOSEPH THORON. 
 ROBERT J. HOGUET. 
 WILLIAM R. GRACE. 
 CHARLES V. FORNES. 
 LOUIS BENZIGER. 
 HENRY AMY. 
 JOSEPH o'brien. 
 CONRAD BACHEM. 
 JEREMIAH FITZPATRICK. 
 HENRY HEIDE. 
 AUGUSTIN WALSH. 
 PETER DOELGER. 
 RICHARD H. CLARKE. 
 JOSEPH J. o'dONOHUE. 
 FRANK A. OTIS. 
 JAMES H. MCGEAN. 
 PATRICK FARRELLY. 
 CHARLES W. SLOANE. 
 JOHN D. KEILEY, JR. 
 FRANCIS D. HOYT, Secretary. 
 
PROGRAMME. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 OVERTURE, "Euryatithe," . . . .CM. Weber 
 By Cappa's Orchestra. 
 
 INTRODUCTION Hon. Joseph F. Daly 
 
 Chairman of the Joint Committee of the Catholic Club of the 
 City of New York and the U. S. Catholic Historical Society. 
 
 ADDRESS, .... Most Rev. M. A. Corrigan 
 
 Archbishop of New York, Chairman of the meeting. 
 
 W\5^\Q., ''Fest-Klaenge" {Festal Strains), . B.O.Klein 
 Conducted by the Composer. 
 
 ORATION Hon. John Lee Carroll 
 
 Ex-Governor of Maryland. 
 
 ODE, " Christopher Columbus,'' 
 
 Miss Eliza Allen Starr, of Chicago 
 Music by Mr. Bruno Oscar Klein, of New York. 
 
 Baritone Solo, Chorus and Orchestra. Soloist, Sig. Giorgio Narbcrti, 
 of St. Francis Xavier's Church Choir. Chorus, the Choirs of St. Francis 
 Xavier's and St. Lawrence's Church, New York, St. Peter's Church, 
 Jersey City, and gentlemen of the Palestrina Society, of New York. 
 
 Conducted by the Composer. 
 
 part II, 
 
 POEM, ''Columbus, the Christ-Bearer, Speaks," 
 
 George Parsons Lathrop, of Connecticut 
 
 NoiE. — In this poem Columbus is represented as speaking 
 to us of the present time from a point beyond this life. 
 
 MUSIC, a. Dance of the Gypsy ; b. Finale, . Saint Saens 
 ORATION, . Frederic R. Coudert, Esq., of New York 
 MUSIC, National Airs 
 
" PORtRA'IT OF COLllMfifUS. 
 
 in j-ri;,i Painted by Mariano Maella probably a century after the 
 ink,- r>dcath of Columbus, and en^t^raved for the work of Senor 
 citi- Munoz ■ on 'Columbus, published in Madrid in 1793. The 
 T' -.original is in the possession of the- present Duke of Veragua, 
 ing iLthe descendant of Columbus, and Hangs in the Archives of 
 citi-'jithe Indies at Seville. \. A copy was presented to the Phila- 
 ica delphia Academy of Arts by R. W. Meade in 1818. This 
 not portrait was used by Delaplaine f(>r the frontispiece to his 
 ex:- Gallery of Distinguished Americans, and the plate is a repro- 
 that cdiueition.of his engraving. 
 collected n ^- . 
 tinent ■ 
 all who 
 
 Catholic writinvfs, b\ 
 sides of the question. .1.. 
 History. Both are there t 
 and the works against il 
 its shelves. When we ti- 
 the Jcfl]' 
 
 ^-bc^e I-- 
 i kzicrw <. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 BY 
 
 CHIEF JUDGE JOSEPH F. DALY 
 
 lADIES AND Gentlemen : A word of welcome is 
 fitting to this notable assemblage, gathered at 
 the invitation of two Catholic Societies, to cele- 
 brate this memorable anniversary. The Catholic 
 Club and the Catholic Historical Society felt that 
 there was a sentiment which desired expression on such 
 an occasion, and they therefore ventured to take the lead 
 in proposing to invite Catholic orators and poets, represent- 
 ing each section of our country, to address their fellow- 
 citizens in New York. 
 
 There was a special propriety in these two societies tak- 
 ing such action. They aim to represent, the one Catholic 
 citizenship, and the other Catholic study; and both Amer- 
 ican citizenship and American culture. The Catholic Club is 
 not a mere social organization. It has a higher reason for 
 existence than the providing for our young men more of 
 that co-operative luxury which we call "club life." It has 
 collected a library which is perhaps the richest on this con- 
 tinent in books relating to the Faith. This library is open to 
 all who wish to use it, and is not only complete as regards 
 Catholic writings, but gives the views of writers on both 
 sides of the question. Lingard's History stands beside Hume's 
 History. Both are there to study. The works of the Jesuits 
 and the works against the Jesuits stand side by side on 
 its shelves. When we recall that this club was originally 
 founded by the Jesuits — that this library was commenced 
 by them on those lines of free inquiry and investigation — 
 I but state what all Catholics know of the broad and fair 
 system of Jesuit education. 
 
The Catholic Historical Society is designed to collect and 
 perpetuate the records and testimony of all that the Catholic 
 Church has done on this continent, and to trace the history 
 of those of its children who peopled it from the time of its 
 discovery. And the history of the Catholic Church in Amer- 
 ica begins with the history of America. The schoolboy who 
 pictures to himself the ship of Columbus cleaving the seas, 
 sees the cross upon its sail. The discovery of Columbus, 
 which we commemorate to-day, is the greatest incident in 
 the history of human endeavor. The share which the Cath- 
 olic Church had in it was to foster it, to bless it, to make 
 it possible. 
 
 The propriety of the celebration of that event by the 
 Catholics of America is conceded by those who are not of 
 our ancient faith. A journal of high character and of na- 
 tional reputation has suggested the loftiest reason for our 
 commemorating this anniversary. I quote from its editorial 
 utterance last Sunday : 
 
 "There is a peculiar fitness in the participation by the 
 Catholic societies in the Columbian celebration, for the one 
 fact that is most clearly established with reference to the 
 remarkable career of Columbus is that his most cherished 
 hope was to carry the blessings of the Church to the 
 dwellers in darkness on the further side of the globe. To 
 him the fate of human beings who perished before the 
 means of salvation could be offered them, though not so 
 gloomy as more ' enlightened ' theologfians of later years 
 have pictured it, was at once sad and sure, and the 
 prospect that he might bring them succor from their fate 
 was a real and living force in his mind. And in these days 
 of materialism, when the vast population of the continent 
 he brought to the knowledge of Europe is largely absorbed 
 in quite other preoccupations than those of the self-ap- 
 pointed evangelist, it is well to remember what infinite and 
 unforeseen blessings may flow from the high and resolute 
 pursuit of an unselfish aim." 
 
 This is unprejudiced testimony, not only to the high 
 motives of Columbus as a Catholic, but to the lofty mo- 
 tives of every sincere Catholic, and is a recognition of the 
 
infinite blessings which must result to his fellow-citizens by 
 the practical Catholic's devotion to his faith. As Catholics, 
 therefore, the members of the ever-living Church celebrate 
 this anniversary, and what more appropriate, upon such an 
 occasion, than to call the highest ecclesiastical dignitary in 
 the State to preside over their proceedings? Conventional 
 usage requires that I should formally introduce him to you — 
 our Archbishop — whom we all know so well, and who, if a 
 thought of self ever intruded into his mind, would esteem 
 above all dignities and titles that he was first in the affec- 
 tions of his people. I have the honor to introduce the 
 Most Reverend Archbishop Corrigan. 
 
M( 
 
 ^5- rSACft>BliUiA' ThJiH ^iATHuLIC 
 
 .f,.- .);■.;.! P.". 1 ■-""'<(: for a moui.r, : 
 
 From an.. ..engraving ol'i|th^,^^)iqtii^-e MV^thc Royal Palace of 
 MadriQ. ,.,,;, ji;,., t icspondi.'d l" '<'('■• 
 
 Isabella \ir^,s,,borp, ^jAprilj 2a(4,.,,i<4;5^^^. t^' daughter of John 
 At tlA"^-:.:-^!. ^'^^Ml^ And (jf Ifia^eila,, gj?andd.aughte!r of John I. of 
 that jV:ftftijg-a(l. ,,J;^eJ■ 5^-anc^()tli^r was. Catherine of Lancast,e-r, and 
 excustt>yrcfe«*thi Pai-en^!»,..^e,.wfi^(_, descended from John;. ofw-Gaunt, 
 to vcf^9SiMv^4war,d. IIlsfc,ojE, ^^ngland. . Anwmg the suitors for her 
 J^^,1,_,^.han)d, wert^-,,-^%1 l^X)^l^er , of , the . English King Etlward IV. 
 e-/, -<pr<>bably,;,(^louGest^f, afjervy',ard Richard HI.), the. brother of 
 a,, Louis XI., King ; of 1, France, and her own kinsman, Ferdi- 
 ),. nand of Aragon. , IJ,er naarriage with the -latter took place 
 ..,. October 19. 1469.,, Her, youth aftp^i- her father's death was 
 the IR^.'>^'^'^1 in Sjeclusion with her mother, by whom she was " care- 
 y^.\,,, ^viUy inii^fucteql ,i,iv thpse ,, lessons of practical piety 'and in 
 1^, ■ the deep ifevere^pe. for religion, which distinguished her 
 J,, maturer :y,e£|.rs.i',. ."She was exceedingly beautiful : 'the hand- 
 ^y. somest . ladyj;., rsarys .one , of her household, 'whom 1 ever 
 an aJPP'^^W and . the most gracixjus in her manners.' The por- 
 to be^r^it. stiU .existing t of .her in the Royal Palace is conspicuous 
 cor n '''oJV ^» -9pen symiwetry. of features, indicative of the natural 
 thi;. ;iiei:enity of temper and that beautiful harmony of intellectual 
 1 a¥#'lv^Pyi"i;kq"aMtie>'?.vvtiich m,ost distinguished her."—Pre'sccj//. 
 
ADDRESS 
 
 OF 
 
 MOST REVEREND M. A. CORRIGAN, D.D. 
 
 IJEMBERS OF THE Catholic Historical Society 
 AND THE Catholic Club, and Ladies and 
 Gentlemen : I rise for a moment only, to return 
 thanks to you all for the hearty manner in 
 which you have responded to the kind words 
 just uttered by Judge Daly. I appreciate it very highly. 
 At the same time I take advantage of your goodness, now 
 that you call upon me to say a few words, to offer an 
 excuse for the shortness of the time that I am permitted 
 to remain with you. As has been so well explained by 
 Judge Daly, another event of importance also occurs this 
 evening. All the Catholic Societies of the city are to parade, 
 and a representative of the Chief Magistrate of our country 
 has done them the great honor to signify that he will be 
 present to review them. I allude to the Vice-President of 
 the United States. With him, also, will be associated one 
 who has already enjoyed the confidence of the people of this 
 land in filling its highest office, and who is again a candi- 
 date for the same honor — Mr. Cleveland. The Governor of 
 our State, Mr. Flower, will also be present. Therefore, as 
 an act of courtesy, it is required that I should endeavor 
 to be there, to greet them, and thank them for this public 
 compliment which they pay to all the Catholic Societies of 
 this city. 
 
 I am very glad to be able to say to you to-night that 
 there are certain little coincidences which make this cele- 
 bration in New York very appropriate. I need not allude 
 to the fact that at this time, through the dispensation of 
 the Holy See, the Diocese of New York comprises the very 
 
spot of gjound on which Columbus set his foot four hun- 
 dred years ago. The islands of San Salvador, and the 
 other islands of that group, are all at present under the 
 jurisdiction of New York. After making four voyages to this 
 country, Columbus died in Spain, but desired that his mor- 
 tal remains should be carried to the land that he himself 
 had discovered. There they remained for a number of 
 years, and at the close of the last century they were sup- 
 posed to have been brought to the city of Havana, when 
 the Island of Hayti was ceded by Spain to France. How- 
 ever, a few years ago, a most important discovery was an- 
 nounced. It was related by the Delegate Apostolic at that 
 time at San Domingo, that he had found the time remains 
 of the great discoverer. This is a question that historical 
 societies will have to settle : it is still controverted on both 
 sides. There are certainly most powerful arguments adduced 
 to prove that the remains were really those of the immortal 
 Columbus. Be that as it may, I merely mention it so as 
 to say that you are honored to-night by the presence of the 
 Delegate Apostolic who goes in a few days to San Domingo. 
 So that New York happens in a double sense to come near 
 Columbus, both in the place that he landed on this 
 continent and the place where his remains so long rested. 
 In this connection, may I not also urge upon you all 
 devotion and interest in this Historical Society ? You know 
 how many controversies have been waged for years and 
 years over the history of the discovery of this country — how 
 many points in the life of Columbus are still disputed. It 
 is certainly to the great glory of this State of New York 
 that the first impartial history of Columbus that the world 
 has seen was written by one of its sons, the distinguished 
 Washington Irving. But there were not so many historical 
 societies in his time as there are to-day. Had the true 
 facts of Columbus' voyage been committed to writing then, 
 and the other events of his life been cared for in like man- 
 ner, how many controversies and disputes would have been 
 saved to the students of later ages ! In many ways, his- 
 torical societies are a very great advantage to the Church 
 and to the State — an advantage to students at large ; and 
 
 8 
 
I trust that this Historical Society, which has to do with 
 the history of our own country, with interesting facts par- 
 ticularly connected with the establishment and progress of re- 
 ligion therein, may be fostered and developed. 
 
 I have to congratulate the members of the Historical So- 
 ciety and the Catholic Club on their happy choice of the 
 speakers of to-night. They deserve great credit. They 
 first originated here in our midst, as far as we know, the 
 idea of celebrating this anniversary with anything like the 
 pomp which has been given to it. To the Historical Soci- 
 ety of New York — in this diocese at least — is due the credit 
 for taking the first steps towards securing the success of 
 the present celebration. You must remember that the first 
 impulse toward it was given by one whose lips, so full of 
 eloquence, have since been sealed in death — the Hon. Dan- 
 iel Dougherty. He is well represented this evening, and 
 the representation brings in the entire country — North, South, 
 East, and West. From the sunny South comes the honored 
 ex-Governor of Maryland, who will so soon address you ; 
 from the North, the last speaker of this evening, Mr. Cou- 
 dert ; from the East, Mr. Lathrop ; and from the West, the 
 voice of Miss Starr, which will be rendered to you in sweet 
 strains of music. So that North, South, East, and West, all 
 combine to-night to give to Columbus that merit which so 
 rightly belongs to him. I congratulate you in advance on 
 the treat that is in store for you. 
 
evening 
 
 posed to embody lof'i-'KjtM^IJi WJt-\,-.|:t) I- U M B U S. 
 
 cee.:tiv.rsp^„^tbi^^j^r^|b^^.^^^.^ "Portraits et Vies des Hommes 
 
 Illustt-es,^' Paris,' 1584. According to N. D. Clerck, in his 
 
 -"Toheel der ' Beroemder Hertogen, Delft, 1617, the original 
 
 l?^^, P^^"ti"S fro"i which it was engraved wks ' obtained by 
 Thevet from Lisbon, ha\4ng been painted there from life by 
 a Dutch artist. It was engraved for North's 'edition of 
 Plutarch's Li\^es. Cambridge, 1676, and Bullart's Academic des 
 
 ^' Sciences et des Arts, Brussels, 1682. 
 
 en looked 
 
 The inl a and the 
 
 ■■: li liie ' ■ 
 
 est or 
 ; or for oiu 
 rr^al value ' 
 rest o: 
 
 Jing as 
 
 :. the portion of this vast continent knovm as the 
 
ORATION 
 
 OF 
 
 JOHN LEE CARROLL. 
 
 DO not propose in the few remarks I shall make 
 to you this evening to enter upon any historical 
 narrative of the virtues, the courage, the trials 
 and disappointments, nor even of the final triumph 
 of the great Catholic discoverer of the continent 
 of North America. 
 
 This will doubtless be laid before you in all its details by 
 the able papers written upon this subject, and which it is pro- 
 posed to embody in a memorial volume containing the pro- 
 ceedings of this celebration. 
 
 It will be my purpose simply to draw your attention for 
 a few moments to some of the reasons why civilized Eu- 
 rope to-day is so deeply interested in the approaching cel- 
 ebration of this great historic event ; why the event itself 
 appeals so strongly to the patriotic feelings of every Ameri- 
 can who loves his country and appreciates her enormous 
 progress and advantages ; and secondly, what part the Cath- 
 olic Church has taken, not only in the discovery of the con- 
 tinent, but also in maintaining the Christian character of the 
 millions who have sprung from what has aptly been looked 
 upon as almost a second creation. 
 
 The interest which to-day is centred in America and the 
 prospects of the Columbian Exposition is not entirely an un- 
 selfish interest or one which is based upon any sentimental 
 love for us or for our institutions. It springs mainly from 
 the commercial value of these United States in their rela- 
 tions with the rest of the world. To state it in figures, 
 which, astounding as they may appear, are none the less 
 correct, the portion of this vast continent known as the 
 
United States imports and consumes more than eight hun- 
 dred millions of dollars of the products of the European 
 manufacturers and of the tillers of their fertile soil. 
 
 The human imagination can scarcely realize the vast im- 
 portance of that single statement. Who can estimate the 
 arteries of life through which this stream of profit flows, or 
 figure up the comfort and consolation to a people for whom 
 a single market opens such a world of wealth and pros- 
 perity ? And yet this is only one of the many advantages 
 they enjoy. Only last year, when famine stalked abroad 
 and almost decimated the people of all the Russias, when 
 Germany and France and the whole of Central Europe 
 were startled by the fact that the products of their soil 
 could not maintain one-third of their population, and that 
 the usual source of supply from Southern Russia was cut 
 oflE to relieve the home demand, the cable flashed the wel- 
 come news that the Providence of God had highly favored 
 this Western world, and that the plains of America could 
 furnish to their millions of people the necessaries for their 
 daily life. And in fact this is what we did accomplish. 
 
 The exports to Europe last year from our shores, ninety 
 per cent, of which came from the products of the soil, 
 amounted in value to over a thousand millions of dollars 
 poured into the lap of a destitute and suffering people. 
 But even this is only a portion of our pecuniary value to 
 our foreign friends. The tourists from this country spend 
 two hundred millions in their wanderings and their pur- 
 chases in the mighty field of European art, and as the 
 whole of the carrying trade of this gigantic commerce is in 
 their hands, it has been estimated that one hundred mil- 
 lions annually would scarcely pay the benefits which flow 
 from this single source. 
 
 When, therefore, we contemplate these enormous figures, 
 we can readily understand why a practical people should be 
 anxious to retain the most confidential relations with us. 
 
 But let us lay aside for a moment this sordid view, which 
 tells perhaps too strongly of the shop, and see what else we 
 offer to the foreigner which touches the strings of his heart and 
 moves the impulses of his nature. He sees beyond the bil- 
 
lows of the g^eat Atlantic a nation grown to manhood in 
 a hundred years, blessed with a government of freedom 
 without license, of strength without tyranny, of law and 
 order without military despotism, of religious toleration 
 guaranteed by the Constitution, and of absolute equality of 
 political rights for the rich and the poor, the high and the 
 low. 
 
 Who can wonder, then, that he weighs the anchors which 
 have bound him and his people for a thousand years, and 
 sails forth upon that broad ocean which, thanks to the great 
 Columbus, is no longer an unknown sea ? 
 
 Who can wonder that he comes to us at the rate of a mil- 
 lion a year to swell the vast tide of our population, to 
 build our railroads, to cultivate our soil, and to link his 
 destinies forever with those of the great Republic ? It mat- 
 ters little to us what may be his political sentiments when he 
 lands upon this shore — they may even be those of the for- 
 eign anarchist — for he very soon will learn that this is a 
 country of education and of order, in which no man will 
 seek to oppress him; but if he plants himself in opposition 
 to the written law, he will be overwhelmed by its justice 
 and its strength. 
 
 Therefore, I hold that since the finger of Almighty God 
 pointed out to the people of Israel the glories and the 
 profits of the promised land, never has there been opened 
 to the human race so marvelous a prospect of freedom and 
 of happiness as that which sprang from the discovery and 
 founding of this Western world. Hence, as American citi- 
 zens, we are proud of the prospects of our coming Expo- 
 sition, proud of the sentiment which called it forth, and 
 we fully realize that the world anticipates that in grandeur 
 of conception and in beauty of execution it will not be 
 surpassed by any monument which has marked the prog- 
 ress and the civilization of modern times. We will be pre- 
 pared to welcome our guests from every quarter of the 
 globe in whatever numbers they may come, and while we 
 receive them with a hospitality as boundless as the conti- 
 nent itself, we will endeavor to show them, one and all, 
 that four hundred years have not diminished the lustre of 
 
the great explorer nor effaced the gratitude of the mighty 
 nation which has followed his courageous lead. 
 
 And now let us briefly see what share the grand old 
 Catholic Church has had in this overshadowing benefit be- 
 stowed on man. This is, I take it, essentially a Catholic 
 celebration, sanctified by the suggestions of the Holy Father 
 himself, and confirmed by the mandates of his Eminence 
 the Cardinal, and his Grace the Archbishop of New York. 
 
 It is a Catholic celebration, because at the time of the 
 great discovery, and for nearly a hundred years afterwards, 
 the service of the Catholic Church was the only form of 
 Christian worship known within the borders of the Western 
 World. It is a Catholic celebration, because in landing on 
 the Island of San Salvador the first act of Catholic Colum- 
 bus was to unfurl the banner of the cross, and to offer 
 up in thanksgiving the holy sacrifice of the Mass. It is a 
 Catholic celebration, because every step which advanced the 
 civilization of this continent, north or south, east or west, 
 was preceded by the emblem of our religion, borne by will- 
 ing hands and hearts who in many instances sealed with 
 their blood the sincerity of their devotion. We all well know 
 that when the great explorer turned his fleet towards the 
 south he abandoned forever the northern portion of our conti- 
 nent, and that the colonists who undertook the settlement 
 of our own country were for the most part made up of the 
 French, the Dutch, and the English races. But we also know 
 that with them came the Jesuit missions, and that through all 
 the long and dreary years, when every foot of the land we 
 now inhabit was firmly held by roving tribes of savages, to 
 whom Christianity was an unknown name and the white man 
 an enemy to be destroyed on sight, the silent laborers of the 
 Catholic Church were sowing the seed of that religion which 
 now has taken root in the hearts of millions of our country- 
 men. 
 
 The history of the Jesuit missionaries of Canada and North 
 America, filled with the record of their daring deeds and 
 their heroic martyrdom, outstrips in romance the fabled won- 
 ders of the old world, and stands in its truth as a beacon 
 light for the admiration of all posterity. If we take the story 
 
of the Ark and the Dove, and follow the fortunes of the 
 Jesuit Thomas Copley, himself of noble lineage and of rich in- 
 heritance, we can trace him as he administers the sacraments 
 to the dying colonists in the swamps of Maryland, until we 
 find him at last in the assembly of St. Mary's urging by his 
 voice and presence the adoption of that great act of religious 
 toleration which has ever been the pride and glory of our 
 State ; that act which declared that upon the soil of Mary- 
 land, at least, religion should be forever free, and that loyalty 
 to our country's government should be confined to no class or 
 to no religious sect of our citizens. And this was one hun- 
 dred and fifty years before the Constitution of the United 
 States was made ! 
 
 Let me say to you, there can be no more thrilling episode 
 in history than that of the Jesuit Indian missionaries of Can- 
 ada and the Northern States ; no such ferocity on record as 
 that shown by the savage tribes of "Mohawks," " Algon- 
 quins," and the " Hurons," and no martyrs at any stage of 
 the Christian era ever underwent more tragic sufferings than 
 the saintly names of Lallemant and Brebceuf. 
 
 When we think of the trials of these men, far from the 
 haunts of civilization, with no cause to urge them on but 
 that of high morality and religion, with no hope of personal 
 gain, but every promise of untold torture and of death, do 
 we not stop in amazement to recognize the divinity of that 
 religion which nerved their hearts and gave strength and 
 power to their arms ? And so it is to-day. Amid all the 
 corruption which at times has stained the management of 
 our Indian frontier, it has been admitted by all, and openly 
 proclaimed in the Senate of the United States, that the 
 Catholic missionary priest, uncommissioned by the Govern- 
 ment, with no arms but his rosary, with no companion but 
 the sincerity of his faith, with no salary but the conscious- 
 ness of duty well performed, is the only man whose influence 
 over the savage mind gives the promise of peace and se- 
 curity to the settlers of the distant West. 
 
 I have thus briefly referred to the history of our early 
 Catholic days for the purpose of showing you that there is 
 no stain upon our record, that we can look with pride upon 
 
every page of that story and realize what those have done 
 who have gone before us. And now the small seed which 
 was planted in those early days, and nurtured by the mis- 
 sionaries and martyrs of the Church, has grown into a mighty 
 tree and has spread its branches over every portion of our 
 favored land. 
 
 Protected by the power of our free institutions, we have 
 grown in numbers from forty thousand to nearly ten mil- 
 lions of people, united to a man in the profession of our 
 faith, standing firmly by our Church in the war she has 
 always waged against socialists and communistic men, and 
 yielding to none in our readiness to defend forever the im- 
 mortal principles of the American Revolution. 
 
 Who therefore can justly say that the influences which 
 have brought about these great results are not equally nec- 
 essary in the future to cheer us onward in the days of our 
 prosperity, and to strengthen us in the hour of our trials ? For 
 who can doubt we will have trials, ay, even greater, per- 
 haps, than those through which we have already passed ? 
 Do we not remember that in the very noon-day of our success 
 we were suddenly stricken by the greatest calamity that can 
 befall a people — that for four long years the land was rent 
 from end to end with civil feud, and the wild element of war 
 wasted our substance, desolated our homes, and hurried a 
 million of our people to untimely graves ? 
 
 Who then shall say what the future has in store for us of 
 good or evil ? How are we to determine the many grave and 
 serious controversies which must arise in the coming adminis- 
 trations of the government ? 
 
 Who will bring to a happy issue the varied questions of 
 capital and labor, of poverty and wealth, of trade and finance, 
 of crimes and punishments, of local jealousies and of sectional 
 animosities ? Who will stem the great tide of political cor- 
 niption, which is sure to follow in the wake of enormous ex- 
 penditure and of mountains of taxation heaped upon the 
 people ? Who will guide us through the various disputes, 
 which even religious dissensions may bring upon us ? 
 
 Is it too much for me to say that these may be the rocks, 
 the hidden rocks, which lie deep beneath the surface of our 
 
 i6 
 
prosperity ? And if ever the day should come, which God 
 forbid, when men are goaded on to madness, and convulsion 
 threatens to destroy the temple of government we have 
 reared, it will be a dark hour for the future of this great 
 land if we discard the counsels of the Catholic Church, and 
 are not guided by her principles of charity and moderation. 
 
Pt)RTRAIT OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 I'-rom the Ruyal Museo Borbonaico in Naples; said to have 
 been painted by Francesco Mazzioli, who assumed the name 
 Parmigiano, from his native city Parma. It was executed 
 in 1527 by the order of Cardinal x'Mexander Farnese, twenty- 
 one years after the death of Columbus, and mi:st be purely 
 fanciful, notwithstanding that the English publishers of 
 Prescott's works selected it to illustrate his Ferdinand and 
 Isabella. A copy of it was presented to the Antiquarian 
 Society of Worcester, Mass., in 1853, by Mr. Ira M. Burton. 
 The original was removed from the Farnese estates to the 
 Royal Mttseiim by the King of Naples. 
 
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, 
 
 ODE BY ELIZA ALLEN STARR, 
 
 INVOCATION. 
 
 O Thou whose way is on the sea, 
 
 Make known to me 
 The path Thy dread Archangels keep 
 
 Across the awful deep ; 
 Flash o'er the shadowy main 
 Light from those stars that wane 
 Beyond our welkin's space, 
 That I, a man, may trace. 
 Upon adoring knees, 
 God's highway o'er mysterious seas. 
 
 Christ, on these shoulders rest, 
 While I the billows breast ; 
 
 My only care, 
 Christ and His truth to bear 
 To shores unknown ; 
 Where God is not ; 
 In His own works forgot ! 
 Queen, on thy starry throne. 
 Cheer, with thine eyes benign, 
 This lonely quest of mine ! 
 
 Glory to God on high ! 
 Thine be the praise 
 Through length of days ! 
 Fly, royal banner, fly ! 
 
Christ to His own is nigh, 
 For on this flowery strand 
 The cross doth now victorious stand ! 
 Sovereigns of mighty Spain, 
 
 Joy to your reign ! 
 Castile's most gracious Queen, 
 Await, serene, 
 Thy futiu-e's double crown 
 Of just renown ! 
 
 Hush ! o'er that bed of death. 
 Swayed by the failing breath, 
 
 A clank of chains ! 
 "Peace to the noble dead !" 
 With tears, by men is said ; 
 "While Angels sigh, " God reigns.' 
 
 FOURTH CENTENARY. 
 
 To-day, what paeans sound 
 The glad earth round ! 
 "Colombo!" chime the bells; 
 Each breeze "Colombo" swells; 
 
 O'er land, o'er sea, 
 One burst of melody — 
 "A New World found." 
 
™r»n[i[ i riii1|illlteJ 
 
 CHRISTOPHORO COLOMBO 
 
tap lartnes! . . 
 PC;R IRAl I' J^f COLUMBUS. 
 
 Frum Alipraiicio";^kp^VA6"s '''^'RitratH'^de di Cento Capitani 
 
 lUustri," Romeir '1591^,' and' the ■■'''' Ritratti di Capitani Illustri," 
 
 • Rcrnie,^,, 16.3s- ,. Reproduced .by Carderera and Navarrete in 
 
 l-tj^eli; worlds on Columbus. TlieTloyal Academy of Hist<M-y 
 
 ( oi. Madrid., ,to, which the city, of, Genoa applied in 1S62 for 
 
 a model for a likeness of Columtus' ' for a public naonument, 
 
 reported that this portrait was equally authentic with the 
 
 vtiioiNiouporirait, find a, bettesr .pigcg of engraving. 
 
 Ana 
 And . 
 And beaT 
 
 the sp' 
 
 iJut, over ail, trof' i^a me on. 
 
COLUMBUS THE CHRIST-BEARER SPEAKS. 
 
 BY 
 
 GEORGE PARSONS LATHROP. 
 
 O clouds ! far clouds like languages that rise, 
 Blown breath made visible from lips all-wise, 
 Tracing dim characters of mystic form. 
 And signs of wonder in the distant heaven; 
 What speak ye to me ? Not of rolling storm. 
 Unrest or tremulous calm, to this life given : 
 Nay ! But a message from the farthest skies, 
 
 God's living air. 
 That strangely calls: "Arise, 
 
 Go forth, and bear ! " 
 
 So spoke the heaven. And I, Columbus, heard ; 
 
 Columbus the gray Admiral, known to you. 
 
 I, from the twilight hollows of the past 
 
 That then were thrilled with dawn, the Word recall. 
 
 Wind-buffeted and worn, and steeped in grief ; 
 
 Salt spray and bitter tears upon my face ; 
 
 So now you see me. But I, then, was young ; 
 
 And there at Genoa on the quay I dreamed 
 
 And saw the future. Yea: "Arise, go forth. 
 
 And bear ! " By day the moving shapes of cloud. 
 
 Solemn or bright, that message mutely spelled ; 
 
 As though the speech of nations age-long dead 
 
 Were writ in shadowy lines upon the sky. 
 
 Bidding me do God's will ! At night, in fire 
 
 That high command blazed out through all the stars. 
 
 Whence gleamed the gaze of wise men in the past, 
 
 But, over all, God's light that led me on. 
 
A boy ! Yet through the awful stress of years, 
 Of storm and conflagration, wreck and war, 
 Of men's wild strife and murder, I kept the faith, 
 A child's faith, pure. 
 
 Not mine the race to change, 
 Or make new men who better should disclose 
 God's likeness ; but to take the men I found, 
 And mould them, rude, to servants of His word. 
 I, rude myself, a sailor, full of faults, 
 Yet bending still to Him my thoughts, my will, 
 My learning and my act, — what could I hope 
 More than to win them, that they, too, should bear 
 The sacred burden, and help carry Christ 
 Unto the far new land o'er seas unknown ? 
 
 High was that mission, to me unworthy given. 
 
 But hardship trained my hands. Firm hope made whole 
 
 My weakness ; lending to my spirit wings 
 
 Across the deep to fly. When hope grew frail, 
 
 Sad poverty came, and with her slow calm smile 
 
 Gave me the kiss of peace, and made me strong. 
 
 So — dowered with patience, hope, faith, charity — 
 
 A beggar at the gates of that New World 
 
 I stood, whose key I held, and I alone. 
 
 O key of gold, unlocking wealth of dreams ! 
 / dreamed of wealth ; yet chiefly to unlock 
 The Holy Sepulchre from heathen hold. 
 More have I suffered from the lies of men. 
 Than all the gain to me my service brought; 
 Save gain in heaven. Oh ! gladly I went forth. 
 Toil-worn and tried, yet joyous even then 
 To bear to realms unfound the name of Christ, 
 And set His cross there, sign of life in death. 
 So where the first mark of the New World shone, 
 A twinkling light upon a shore unseen. 
 We raised the cross — there on San Salvador. 
 
And all along Cipango and Cathay 
 
 And fertile Ornofay we showed the cross ; 
 
 Then later by that three-hilled isle that rose 
 
 From out the waves, type of the Trinity ; 
 
 And on Paria, called the coast of pearls, 
 
 Where the sweet stream from Eden's Tree of Life 
 
 Flowed down and mingled with the bitter gulf. 
 
 "What matter if ye now by other names 
 Have called these lands ; or if my name be swept 
 Far from their verge, and drowned in rumor false ? 
 The cross I planted there : the cross remains ! 
 
 I, for my part, disdain at last received ; 
 Sent home in chains, dishonored, outcast, poor. 
 Sweet poverty then, who first to this great work 
 Had consecrated me, gave me her crown 
 Of lowly blessing at the hour of death. 
 Yet, lost in grief, "O Heaven, pity me !" 
 I cried. "I, who have wept for others long, — 
 Weep, earth, for me ! All ye who justice love 
 And truth — for me, Columbus, weep and pray !" 
 
 But on my sorrow sudden radiance burst. 
 The broken chain, hung on my death-room's wall, 
 Was token of earth's bondman now set free. 
 And lo ! I saw that I who bore the Christ 
 Unto the New World's border — I, the same, — 
 God in His mercy granted me to bear 
 His Holy Cross of grief through all my life. 
 
 Ye who inherit the New World I found, 
 With riches yet untold to touch or sight. 
 Beware lest poverty of soul should blast 
 Your earthly splendor. This New World is yours ; 
 Yet dream not it is all. Still speak the clouds. 
 Though dumbly, of the future and the past. 
 Still shine the stars, with unforgetting gleam ; 
 And God remembers. Yours is this New World ; 
 
But the great world of faith all still must seek 
 
 With trustful sail borne by a dauntless mast 
 
 Like mine. Nor wreck nor shoal, nor hate nor fear, 
 
 Nor foul ingratitude shall stay your course ; 
 
 Nor chains unjust. Sail bravely forth, and find 
 
 The New World here of Christ's truth realized ! 
 
 So I, Columbus, the gray Admiral, speak 
 From out the furrows of unmeasured seas 
 That spread a seeming waste 'twixt you and God. 
 For still I voyage on, with perfect hope. 
 To that pure world of heaven, for ever new. 
 Where Time reigns not, but God for ever reigns. 
 

 
 nil ' 
 
 {Ilk 
 
 FERRANDORE CATHOLICO 
 
^ R E b K R I ' 
 
 FliRDINAND THK C ATM (.) l.IC. 
 
 Kroin the Ritratti et Elogii di Capitani lllustri, published at 
 Rome, 1635. 
 
 Ferdinand was born March' lO; 1452, at Sos, in Aragon, 
 
 the son of John II. and his second wife Joan Henriquez, of 
 
 has fh^'' blood' rbysl of Castile, daughter of Don Frederick 
 
 '"'^ii^'Hienrvque^j' AdmiFal of that kingdom. He succeeded to the 
 
 ' tlifone'lii i479/'married Isabella^ <if' Castile in 1469, aJrid died 
 
 Janxlary' 22, 1516.'" 
 
 By the will of Isabella, his wife, whom he survived, he 
 was made Regent of her Kingdom of Castile, as she writes, " on 
 *' account of his magnanimity and illustrious qualities, as well as 
 O' his large experience, and the great profit which will redound 
 ■"■' to the state from his wise and beneficent rule." The his- 
 torian Prescott records his impartial justice ; his watchful 
 solicitude to shield the weak from the strong; his wise 
 '' economy, sobriety, and moderation ; his decorum and respect 
 fol* religio'n'; thte industry promoted by his wise laws and 
 his ' OT*'^! " example, a^id the consummate sagacity which 
 ma^^ Hftil th'e- *oiracle 6f the princes of the age. 
 
ORATION 
 
 OF 
 
 FREDERIC R. COUDERT. 
 
 |HE early life of Columbus offers a most alluring 
 field to the historian of a speculative and imagi- 
 native turn of mind. The story abounds in doubts 
 and rests upon a nice calculation of probabilities. 
 The writer must make a free use of the poten- 
 tial mode, and may only indulge in positive statements 
 with misgivings as to his own accuracy. While Homer 
 has been claimed by seven different cities, all of them 
 anxious to secure the fame of having given him birth, 
 Columbus may boast even more. Genoa seems to be the 
 first in the race ; to make her claims sure, a noble Mar- 
 quis, a few years ago, pointed out a venerable structure in 
 which he asserts that the great discoverer was born. As 
 nothing can be plainer than the fact that the Marquis speaks 
 only upon information and belief, no imputation upon his 
 veracity is cast by those who name other claimants as en- 
 titled to the much coveted honor. Unless the Genoese 
 champion may emulate Pythagoras, who assured his hearers 
 that he had been present, in the flesh, centuries before, at 
 the siege of Troy, in the person of Euphorbus, and proved 
 the assertion by pointing out the shield which he then wore, 
 we require other evidence to sustain the Marquis's assertion. 
 If, however, Columbus was not born in Genoa, who knows 
 whether his eyes did not first open to the light in Corsica ? 
 At least a learned Abbe so states, and the town of Calvi 
 has given earnest of its convictions by erecting a monu- 
 ment to assure posterity of the fact and to place it beyond 
 the shadowy regions of historical controversy. 
 
If we may without discourtesy venture to dispute the 
 Abb6 and the monument and turn our back on Corsica, we 
 shall find Cucaro, Cugureo, Piacenza and other towns, rap- 
 idly increasing in number as time rolls on, to vindicate 
 their claims. It is not here necessary, fortunately for us, 
 to settle the dispute. The part of wisdom is rather to fol- 
 low the example of the Chicago Fair, and to photograph all 
 the rival sites, with generous impartiality and unreserved 
 confidence in the judgment of the citizen who shall under- 
 take to decide the question for himself. It is enough to 
 say here that Columbus, more fortunate than Homer, was 
 certainly born and lived and died — so far as such men as 
 Homer and Columbus ever die. 
 
 So, too, it may be said by hasty and reckless writers 
 that Columbus was of Italian descent, but even here doubt 
 throttles assertion and bids it pause. Is it quite sure that 
 Columbus did not owe part, at least, of his daring and cour- 
 age and tenacity to the French blood which, it is stated by 
 some authorities, flowed in his veins ? Not a mean and 
 plebeian blood, but a bluish and gentle fluid, that had run 
 in bright channels through the bodies of gallant men and 
 fair women. An Admiral in the French navy would, ac- 
 cording to some, be responsible in the far past for the pro- 
 pensity, invincible and enduring in Columbus, to scour the 
 seas. A clear case of atavism, even if the French ances- 
 tor was a bold pirate as well as a noble Admiral. Again 
 it is our good fortune to-night that we need not decide the 
 question. But I deem it my duty to warn you that no 
 inference unfavorable to this theory is to be drawn from 
 the fact that French writers lay no stress upon the possible 
 circumstance that Columbus may have been warmed and 
 invigorated by the same blood as themselves. They exhibit 
 a curious apathy and indifference in this respect. Do they 
 not pass without notice and without a proper exhibition of 
 exultation the well-ascertained truth that Washington him- 
 self was one of their kinsmen? Is it not probable that 
 his strong, cold nature was occasionally warmed up to its 
 boiling point by an ebullition wholly French? If the great, 
 strange oaths that he swore at Lee on the plains of Mon- 
 
mouth had been accurately preserved they might throw 
 some light upon the subject. What shall we say of a 
 nation that allows Scotland to capture St. Patrick and claim 
 him as her own, without regard to the truth of history or 
 the probable preferences of the good Saint himself ? It is 
 idle to pursue this digression ; it was only intended to ex- 
 plain why the possible right of Columbus to claim a 
 French ancestry was not diminished by the negligence of 
 French writers of history to uphold it. 
 
 Wherever born and from whatever parent root he sprang, 
 Columbus was, for the time, a well-educated man. I am 
 tempted to say a well-educated gentleman, and upon the 
 whole conclude that this term may be safely adopted, 
 although it is a matter of doubt whether his parents were 
 of noble rank or simply carders of wool. This subject is 
 not one of great importance, however, if we adopt the sug- 
 gestion made by an ingenious writer that wool-carding was 
 a very reputable business, in which persons of birth and edu- 
 cation not infrequently engaged, so that the two theories may 
 be happily reconciled by the conclusion that neither excludes 
 the truth of the other. 
 
 To decide where Columbus received his early education is 
 comparatively easy. There are but two cities seriously 
 claiming the title of pedagogue to the future discoverer. 
 These are Genoa and Padua. The strongest argument thus 
 far advanced in favor of the latter is to the effect that 
 Genoa, being imperfectly equipped with educational appli- 
 ances, he must have imbibed his learning at Paduan foun- 
 tains. This is very much as though one were to say, of 
 any learned native of Brooklyn or Philadelphia whose Alma 
 Mater was unknown, that he must have studied at Colum- 
 bia College. 
 
 Having thus settled that Columbus was born in Italy or 
 Corsica, that he was a descendant of French or Italian an- 
 cestors, that he was born of noble though wool-carding par- 
 ents and educated at Genoa or Padua, and without 
 attempting to fix the date of his birth as utterly beyond 
 our ability to establish, the remaining work before the 
 student of the great man's life is comparatively easy. The 
 
doubts and difficulties that beset us are no greater than 
 those that arise when we deal with others of the world's 
 great children. We may trace his struggles and trials, 
 sympathize with him in the bitterness of his disappointments, 
 marvel at the unflinching courage and tenacity of his pur- 
 pose, and follow him, almost day by day, from the moment 
 when he stepped on his puny caravel to the hour of his 
 death. 
 
 It has been the fashion of many admirers of Columbus 
 to look for the elements of a special inspiration in his life, 
 labors and successes. It has been assumed by them that 
 his fame would be magnified, if he were shown to be the 
 special object of a Divine selection for the accomplishment 
 of great ends. That he was prompted, guided, directed and 
 protected by Divine Providence, and that without this aid 
 he would have failed in the accomplishment of his purpose, 
 is merely to state a proposition in which all believers in the 
 ever-present influence of a divine will may acquiesce. But 
 there is nothing to justify the contention that Columbus, 
 like Joan of Arc, was called by an irresistible command 
 to perform a task which he was not in every way, by 
 nature and education, fitted to perform. The little Maid 
 of Orleans, who left her peaceful home to save her coun- 
 try, with no knowledge of war, no skill in arms, no taste 
 for shedding human blood, may well stand before posterity 
 and challenge universal homage and tender admiration for 
 deeds that exhibit the luminous traces of special inspiration. 
 It is quite as easy to believe her own pathetic story as to 
 account in any other way for the development of the plain, 
 modest, pious, peasant girl into a skillful, brave and suc- 
 cessful warrior. The two cases, of Joan and of Columbus, 
 may serve as illustrations of the dividing line between that 
 impetus which derives its sole force and origin from an un- 
 seen and providential cause and the natural, logical and 
 expected result of genius and courage, working under God's 
 Providence to a definite and well-conceived end. Columbus 
 had received the gift of genius, which is of itself a sort of 
 inspiration, to accomplish great things. Genius is not the 
 result nor creation of education, nor the fruit of toil, nor the 
 
gift of ancestry ; it is a spark that is blown into a flame, 
 without the consciousness of its possessor, and which then 
 lights up the world, for good or for evil. Alexander, Han- 
 nibal, Caesar, Mahomet and Napoleon stand apart from the 
 rest of the world as men thus gifted. Many would add 
 Columbus to the list, although his title to be ranked m such 
 company is not universally conceded. 
 
 We are naturally disposed, after these 400 years, looking 
 through the dim veil of commingled History and Romance, 
 to treat the discovery of America by Columbus as a mar- 
 velous and unequaled event, which only a rare combination 
 of circumstances could produce. It is assumed that there 
 was little in the past history of the world, or in the knowl- 
 edge then held by learned men, to justify the belief that 
 the extremities of the world had not been reached. But 
 such delusions cannot withstand a moment's scrutiny. The 
 marvel is, not that the discovery was made, but that it had 
 not been made long before. It was as inevitable that it 
 should be effected at an early date as the discovery of print- 
 ing was sure to follow the invention of paper. To use a 
 common but expressive form of speech — it was in the air. 
 Proof abounded that there was an undiscovered land far to 
 the West, and that a continent, supposed to be the conti- 
 nent of Asia, might be directly reached by sailing in a west- 
 erly direction from Europe over the Atlantic. Evidence 
 sufficient to convict the strange land of being a reality had 
 been repeatedly furnished, in almost conclusive form. Navi- 
 gators driven by storm beyond the Azores had found curi- 
 ously carved woods, manifestly of some other than European 
 origin ; a large canoe, capacious enough to hold twenty rowers, 
 had been picked up at sea, and also strange trees of a 
 kind unknown to Europeans ; more striking than all, perhaps, 
 the bodies of men, of a dark color, had been thrown up by 
 the sea, and had shown that somewhere in the West a race 
 of human beings would be found, differing in appearance 
 from any then known, whether of European, Asiatic or 
 African origin. Marco Polo, the great traveler, had returned 
 from his explorations and told strange tales of the coun- 
 tries that he had visited, Tartary, India, China ; these were 
 
supposed to extend as far as the continent now known as 
 the continent of America. 
 
 But neither the physical proofs thus furnished by flood 
 and tide and storm nor the narratives of travelers could ex- 
 tirpate the deeply-rooted prejudices of men and overcome the 
 invincible ignorance of the great mass of mankind. 
 
 Men had eyes to see, but the lessons taught by the bodies 
 of dead men and strange plants and beasts they could not 
 read. They had ears, but they would not listen to the 
 tales of travelers, preferring, as sluggish indolence always does, 
 to call them lies and thus end the debate. 
 
 We must remember, however, that the world was not 
 plunged in absolute ignorance as to the conformation of the 
 earth. The idea that its form was spherical was old and 
 accepted by learned men. Ptolemy and the geographers of 
 Arabia had long taught that the earth was in the form of a 
 globe and might be circumnavigated. The loadstone and as- 
 trolabe had been invented and had made navigation compar- 
 atively easy and safe. 
 
 Nor was this all. The fact must have been known to 
 many that there was a new land to the west of Greenland. 
 The hardy Norsemen had put their foot upon it five hun- 
 dred years before Columbus turned his back on Palos. They 
 had made repeated voyages between Greenland and Iceland. 
 Even were we not assured by positive proof that such was 
 the fact, we must have drawn the conclusion from irresistible 
 evidence. The dauntless sailors who left Norway to settle 
 in Iceland, and from Iceland reached Greenland, were not 
 the men to permit the narrow seas to separate them from 
 the continent that was within easy reach. Even had they 
 been willing to leave the neighboring ocean unexplored, some 
 beneficent storm from the northeast must have forced them 
 into a reluctant knowledge of their neighbors. The distance 
 between Iceland and Greenland is 750 miles ; America is 
 but 250 miles from Greenland. The old Vikings, who were 
 never so thoroughly at home as when they trod the deck of 
 a stout ship in a storm, are not open to the reproach of 
 having feared to test the mysteries of these unknown waters. 
 The record of northern voyages is too well known to leave 
 
a doubt as to their having been made and having resulted 
 in the discovery of America. In the year 986, Bjorne Herj- 
 wissen saw the land which we now call New England. It 
 was originally called Vinland, on account of the grapes that 
 were discovered there and said to produce good wine. So 
 satisfactory and complete was the evidence of the existence 
 of this remote land, that Pope Paschal II., as early as the 
 year 11 12, appointed Eric Upsi Bishop of Iceland, Greenland 
 and Vinland, and the Bishop, it is said, actually visited Vin- 
 land in person during the year 1121. While we have no ac- 
 curate data as to the spiritual condition of the new diocese, 
 we know that it was extensive enough in point of area. It 
 certainly is interesting to read that nearly four hundred 
 years before Columbus and his people undertook to evangel- 
 ize the peaceful inhabitants of the West, the Church was 
 solicitous enough to send out one of her servants to teach 
 the natives the truths of the Gospel, and to bring them 
 within the fold. Unfortunately, the great plague that well- 
 nigh depopulated Norway put an end for many years to 
 schemes of distant philanthropy and foreign adventure. 
 
 Nor was Vinland the only section of America on which 
 the European had set his foot. "Great Ireland" antedates 
 even these early attempts and had long been discovered by 
 men from Ireland when Are Marsen visited that region in 
 983. They occupied the country south of the Chesapeake Bay, 
 including North and South Carolina, Georgia, and East Florida. 
 When in 999, Gudlief Gudlangson and his sailors were driven 
 by storms to America, they landed in an unknown region, 
 where they were at once met by several hundred natives 
 whose language was apparently Irish. The methods of these 
 natives were not as courteous and civilized as those of 
 their modern descendants, for they at once seized the for- 
 eigners and bound them, thus forcibly signifying their doc- 
 trine of home rule and their determination to retain the 
 country for themselves as the rightful owners thereof. They 
 did not harm the unwilling invaders of their territory, how- 
 ever, but allowed them to depart unmolested, after signifying 
 with marked emphasis that it would not be safe to remain — 
 a piece of wise conduct that might have been emulated with 
 
advantage by the natives who afterwards received some of 
 the followers of Columbus with open arms. 
 
 From the historical fragments left us it is almost certain that 
 Columbus knew of the existence of a continent in the far 
 West. He was by profession a geographer and earned his 
 living by drawing and selling charts that were highly es- 
 teemed for their accuracy. The study of the physical world 
 was his favorite pursuit. It is to be presumed that he knew 
 of these subjects all that the learned men of his day had 
 acquired ; with these elements of fact to work upon his in- 
 genious mind could reach but one conclusion. A strong ad- 
 ditional circumstance lends weight to these considerations. 
 There is no doubt that in or about 1427 Columbus visited 
 Iceland, which has been termed the hinge upon which the 
 discovery of America turned. There he must necessarily have 
 learned something of the traditions which preserved the old 
 Norse discoveries from oblivion. Can it be supposed that he, 
 filled as he was with the ambition of making his way to 
 India through undiscovered seas, never heard of Vinland nor 
 of the Bishop appointed by Paschal ? Then, too, Adam von 
 Bremen's account had been published in 1073, if we may 
 speak of publication before the invention of printing, and 
 perpetuated the brave deeds of the Norse navigators. No 
 wonder, then, that Coltmibus spoke and acted as though he 
 knew rather than conjectured, calculated or imagined. 
 "When he had formed his theory," says Washington Irving, 
 "it became fixed in his mind with singular firmness. He 
 never spoke in doubt or hesitation, but with as much cer- 
 tainty as if his eyes had already seen the promised land." 
 A very probable statement and a very natural condition of 
 mind if he had read of the Norse discoveries, the Irish set- 
 tlement, the Papal appointment of a Bishop to Vinland, and 
 was familiar with the household traditions of the Norsemen. 
 
 We may, then, assume the truth of the proposition that the 
 condition of the public mind was such that an attempt to 
 penetrate the mystery of the Western seas was inevitable, 
 and the further proposition that of all men fitted for the task 
 none was more competent than Columbus. That he should 
 have become possessed of this one fixed, absorbing thought 
 
was not strange. He was ambitious of honors, title, wealth, 
 power and fame; all these lay on the route to India, the 
 land of Solomon's Mines, the Ophir of boundless promise, the 
 undiscovered country which held in its bosom treasures 
 vast enough to challenge the wildest imagination, to realize 
 the wildest dream. 
 
 Why the effort was so long delayed, why Columbus him- 
 self, eloquent, learned, enthusiastic as he was, wore away 
 twenty long years in the vain attempt to enlist royal sym- 
 pathy in favor of his scheme, seems difficult to account for, 
 but some reasons for the strange lethargy may be ad- 
 vanced. 
 
 The natural fear of the Unknown has always fed upon a 
 superstitious fear of Providence. The Roman poet strongly 
 and beautifully expressed it when he condemned the rest- 
 less spirit of men who leaped over the natural boundaries 
 created by Jove — who dared to sail over the waters which 
 the Deity had interposed as a barrier between dissociated 
 continents, and who, by their impious disregard of Divine 
 laws, challenged Jove's wrath and never permitted his thun- 
 ders to intermit their destructive bolts. A feeling somewhat 
 akin to this still survived and was only beginning to yield 
 before a more general diffusion of enlightened views. 
 
 The proposed attempt to brave the horrors of the un- 
 known ocean was looked upon by many as impious and 
 dangerous, at one and the same time. The anger of the 
 sea was less to be dreaded than the wrath of its Master. 
 Men had been warned by Divine lips that they should not 
 tempt the Lord their God ; what was this bold venture into 
 the very jaws of death btit a challenge and a defiance to 
 the Almighty ? Scientific reasons were often brushed aside 
 even by learned men. Some of these, while admitting the 
 rotundity of the earth, still urged the rashness of the at- 
 tempt. Grant that the world was round, grant that a hardy 
 na\'igator might sail far into unknown regions, the moment 
 would come when, the Antipodes being reached, the doomed 
 ship must drop from the sea that has thus far sustained 
 her weight, and, plunging helplessly into infinite space, meet 
 a fate as dreadful as it was deserved. And if by some 
 
strange and hitherto unknown physical law, the fated bark 
 still clung to the slippery waters, how could it be expected 
 that, in defiance of all principles and all rules of physics, 
 she would climb back, upon the -liquid and treacherous hill, 
 to the point whence she had started ? Thus, a little knowl- 
 edge proved a dangerous thing ; it gave the objector the 
 prestige of scientific acquirements in dealing with the mat- 
 ter, and he was only the more dangerous because he was 
 somewhat less ignorant than his followers. 
 
 The arguments from Scripture were especially dangerous, 
 and were perhaps the most difiicult to answer. They came 
 from pious and good men, who placed their own narrow 
 interpretation upon isolated passages, and gave them a mean- 
 ing which condemned such attempts as blasphemous. The 
 prophets and the fathers of the Church were frequently 
 quoted as being conclusively opposed to the plans of Colum- 
 bus. Lactantius was cited as saying that it was the height 
 of absurdity to pretend that there was such a part of the 
 world as the Antipodes were supposed to represent, where 
 men walked about with their heels in the air and their 
 heads down ; where human beings had their feet directly 
 opposite to ours ; where everything was reversed, the trees 
 growing with their roots in the air and the branches in the 
 ground. No one could deny that such propositions were very 
 absurd, and in fact incredible, if faith in the Antipodes 
 obliged belief in such an upheaval and reversal of physical 
 laws. Then, too, it had been said that all men came from 
 Adam, which was surely not the case if there was another 
 race of men in that fabulous country. Finally, some learned 
 doctors, applying a figurative test to the exigencies of the 
 discussion, cited the passages of the Scriptures wherein it is 
 stated that the Lord stretched the skies over the land like 
 unto a tent, which was clearly impossible if the earth was 
 round. At least so they argued, and with no small success. 
 
 Against these and other such adversaries Columbus waged 
 his battle. He was himself a pious man, deeply imbued 
 with the doctrines of the Church. His reply was, therefore, 
 such as a devout Christian would venture to offer ; it was 
 not the sneer of a scoflEer, nor the challenge of an infidel. 
 
 34 
 
He sought to reconcile the truths of Scripture with those 
 which he gathered from science and experience, and to deal 
 gently and patiently with ignorance and prejudice, whatever 
 their origin and whatever the garb in which they were 
 clothed. He was eloquent, enthusiastic, learned and skillful 
 in debate ; but with all these qualities he might have failed 
 in his purpose but for the timely aid of churchmen whose 
 orthodoxy was beyond dispute. Diego de Deza, in partic- 
 ular, a Dominican, subsequently Bishop of Toledo, gave him 
 his warm support, and lent the color of religious regularity 
 to the advocacy of the new cause. Other religious men 
 joined him to overcome the opposition that had so bitterly 
 assailed Columbus and his strange theories ; but even with 
 this valuable aid, it was a long and weary contest, that 
 wore out the great adventurer's best days. Portugal, Genoa, 
 Spain, were each in turn appealed to. The confident hope of 
 a result that would startle the world and enrich the pro- 
 moters of his cause beyond their dreams was urged in vain 
 to incredulous ears. Inconceivable as was this stubborn re- 
 sistance to his appeals, it baffled him for years, and he 
 would probably have ended his days without sight of the 
 promised land but for the friend whom a kind Providence 
 placed upon his path, when hope was well-nigh dead. 
 The prior of the humble convent of La Rabida received 
 the weary traveler when his fortunes were at their lowest 
 ebb ; his charity revived the wanderer when with his young 
 son he turned his back upon great visions to seek for food 
 and shelter. These, with gentle sympathy, the good prior 
 gave from his heart to the baffled and dispirited chart- 
 maker. He filled him with new courage, started him afresh 
 upon his journey, put money in his purse, furnished him 
 with letters of commendation to the Queen, with fitting 
 garments for one who aspired to enter and ask the favor of 
 a Court ; and, more than all, with the assurance that, be 
 the treatment of that Court what it might, the door of La 
 Rabida was ever open and ready to receive its one-time 
 guest with unfailing love. Wherever the story of Columbus 
 is told, the name of Juan Perez should be named with rev- 
 erence. Amid all the vanities and petty ambitions of the 
 
time and occasion, he stands out almost alone as the em- 
 bodiment of all that is best in human nature. No selfish 
 motives tainted his action. As has been well and truly- 
 said, the prior gave Columbus his heart, and, strange to 
 tell, he never took it back. 
 
 Thanks to Juan Perez, Columbus had audience of the 
 King and Queen, an admirably assorted couple for the func- 
 tions in which they were engaged. Ferdinand contributed 
 the caution, Isabella the liberal qualities necessary to govern 
 the country over which they ruled. Isabella was ready to 
 pawn her jewels for a worthy cause, if funds could not 
 otherwise be secured. Ferdinand would be sure to enquire 
 whether the venture was likely to pay expenses and a profit. 
 Isabella alone would have wrecked the treasury with a 
 glorious disregard of financial results. Ferdinand would have 
 conducted the royal business by strict rules of arithmetic, 
 unrelieved by generous diversions or sentimental deflections, 
 even if these were calculated to secure popular applause 
 and sympathy. He would never go to war for an idea, 
 unless the expulsion of the Moors be deemed such a one ; 
 but there was, even in that attempt to drive out the unbe- 
 liever, a practical side. In their dealing Avith Columbus, 
 the dual nature of the royal association was manifested. 
 Isabella was anxious to plunge into the adventure, without 
 reference to the terms proposed by Columbus ; Ferdinand 
 declined to invest his money except upon such conditions as 
 would make the risk a reasonable one. It must be admitted 
 here that the settlement of the bargain, for such it was, in- 
 volved no deception or undue advantage on either side. 
 Columbus was quite equal to the occasion, and quite a match 
 for his kingly patron. He was bent on carrying the faith 
 to the Infidel, of bringing unnumbered heathen wretches 
 within the pale of the Church ; he was eager to push the 
 glory of the Empire of Spain to the remotest ends of the 
 earth. This was the argument ad hominem, or rather ad 
 foeinitiam, with which he mastered the enthusiastic and pious 
 temperament of Isabella ; but Ferdinand was made of harder 
 and more practical material. No doubt his feelings toward 
 his unknown brethren of the remote West were kind enough, 
 
 36 
 
but then these people were far away and mysterious, and it 
 was not possible to say in advance how lovable or valuable 
 they would turn out to be. Then the greatness of Spain 
 and her glory, though dear to the King of Aragon, were 
 expensive luxuries to sustain and required a surplus in the 
 treasury ; glory and a deficit were incompatible and incon- 
 sistent adjuncts to his crown. But when Columbus told him 
 of the treasures that he might secure while he saved the 
 soul of the heathen, and put his finger, as it were, on Sol- 
 omon's Mines, while he extended the Castilian Empire, Fer- 
 dinand's desire for profit was quickened into something like 
 sympathy. The parties of the first part and of the second 
 part being agreed as to the expediency of entering into the 
 operation, the party of the third part stated his terms. 
 They indicated in clear language the determination of the 
 explorer to realize a full share of the financial benefits likely 
 to accrue from the union of the capital to be contributed 
 by his associates and the labor to be contributed by him- 
 self. He did not betray any undue modesty in the state- 
 ment of his expectations. He required the title and privi- 
 leges of an Admiral, the powers and prerogatives of a Vice- 
 roy, and ten per cent, in perpetuity of the income to be 
 derived from the new possessions, this income to be paid to 
 him and his heirs forever. 
 
 These conditions startled the King, who refused to accept 
 them. The titles, no doubt, were well enough, and he might 
 consent to ennoble the successful adventurer and his remotest 
 posterity with lavish profusion, provided the commission on 
 the possible revenues were reduced to a reasonable percent- 
 age. But ten per cent, forever ! The royal conscience re- 
 belled at such demands ; they far exceeded the limits which 
 any subject had a right to touch in negotiating with his 
 sovereign. The King was firm and Columbus obstinate. 
 Isabella was indifferent to the business aspect of the affair. 
 Her motives were of a higher order, and to carry them 
 out she was willing to subscribe to any terms that her in- 
 tended associate saw fit to exact. Her consort was strong 
 enough for the time being, however, to carry the day, and 
 Columbus, firmly rooted in the commercial instincts of his 
 
Genoese ancestors — if they were Genoese — once more turned 
 his back on the Court and once more sought the society 
 and counsel of his old friend and helper, the monk of La 
 Rabida. 
 
 But once more, as in the past, the ready hand and heart 
 of Juan Perez did their work, and Columbus, with renewed 
 courage and hope, started to interest the French monarch 
 in his plans. Would the latter have been more generous 
 than his brother King ? Would he have added the percentage 
 in cash to the payment in honors and heritable titles ? That 
 question cannot be solved. The influence of the good Queen 
 prevailed, the King relented and signified his assent to the 
 demands which he had thus far rejected. What influenced 
 him to this change of spirit we may only conjecture. Perhaps 
 it was a natural inclination to please his gentle wife ; per- 
 haps the fear that in striving to save ten per cent, he 
 might lose ninety ; perhaps he knew (and he remembered 
 in after days) that agreements between King and subject 
 are always open to Royal revision and may be read in the 
 right spirit, that is, as the Royal pleasure may suggest. 
 Like the Lion in the fable, the share of the Monarch is 
 what he chooses to claim: "I take this," says the Lion, 
 ''quia noini7ior Leo, because my name is Lion" — an un- 
 answerable argument, from time immemorial. 
 
 Even at this stage of the proceedings the current did not 
 flow smoothly. The money, although promised, shrank tim- 
 idly from the risks which it was to run. Isabella had 
 threatened to pawn her jewels, but this sacrifice was not 
 exacted from her. The brothers Piuzon had become inter- 
 ested through Juan Perez in the proposed trip to an unknown 
 world, and, thanks to them, the paltry sum was found which 
 made the voyage practicable. By virtue of a slight modifi- 
 cation in the agreement, Columbus was to furnish one-eighth 
 of the funds, but this he was able to do through his new 
 friends. The contract, when finally reduced to writing, was 
 executed on the 17th of April, 1492 ; it was really the con- 
 tract of Isabella of Castile, though signed by both monarchs ; 
 her subjects alone were permitted to settle in the new coun- 
 try so long as she lived. 
 
 38 
 
Columbus was not compelled to wait until success tad 
 placed the seal on his work to receive some of his reward. 
 His name was changed from Columbus to Colon ; he was 
 graciously permitted to use the prefix Don, and his son 
 was allowed to serve as a page to the Queen, a privilege 
 which gave him access to the society of young people whose 
 blood was blue. Thus, to some extent at least, was he paid 
 in advance. Ferdinand was a munificent king in the distri- 
 bution of all those rewards the giving of which in no wise 
 diminished the supply at his command. 
 
 When Columbus went back to the small monastery and to 
 the faithful friend who loved him still, the good prior re- 
 joiced as though the victory were his and he were to receive 
 large profits and brilliant titles. He lent a willing hand to 
 the preparations for the great voyage ; he helped to smooth 
 over the countless impediments that still grew, like rank 
 weeds, in the discoverer's path. Three poor caravels had 
 been found, the Santa Maria, the Nina and the Pinta ; they 
 had been made, thanks to the Pinzon advances, fairly sea- 
 worthy, but when the time came to man them, the old ter- 
 ror and superstition threatened destruction to everything. 
 Men would not embark on the ill-fated ships, rigged with 
 curses dark as those that brought young Lycidas to grief. 
 Sailors were plenty enough and daring enough, but they all 
 wanted to return from any voyage on which they started, 
 and how were they ever to get back to their own world 
 after they had dropped into infinite ether, or sailed rap- 
 idly down the liquid hill ? This difficulty, too, was van- 
 quished. The scum of the seafaring population of the coun- 
 try was forced into the ships, and with a motley crew of 
 bankrupts fleeing from their creditors, of criminals fleeing 
 from justice, and of adventurers eager to feast their eyes 
 upon and to fill their hands with the promised gold, the 
 three ships sailed. 
 
 They left Palos on Friday, the third day of August, 1492, 
 the good prior watching from the shore to the last, and 
 praying for the friend he had served so well. Then com- 
 menced the weary journey, with its dangers and its doubts. 
 A sullen crew, animated by sordid motives, and ever ready 
 
 39 
 
to visit disappointment on its master, mutiny in a chronic 
 state, and a strong, brave chief, as well fitted to cope with 
 the rebellion of men as he was able to meet the hostile 
 fury of the waves. Of him, indeed, it might be said, that 
 his heart was cased in oak and triple brass, as the poet 
 describes the fearless man who first entrusted his life, in a 
 frail bark, to the cruel sea. From the first day to the last 
 he was undaunted. His assurance of ultimate success was 
 such that the belief grows upon us when we contemplate 
 it, that he knew that the land lay before him, and approxi- 
 mately calculated the distance that he would have to sail. 
 That he was wrong, in one respect, no one doubts ; he ex- 
 pected to find the continent of Asia, and found America 
 blocking his way. But his confidence can only be explained 
 on the theory that he had mastered the facts and was 
 serene in consequence of the assurance they gave. As 
 to his discontented and mutinous followers, he dealt with 
 them as men of his stamp alone can deal. He awed them 
 by his majestic bearing ; he encouraged them by his unfail- 
 ing confidence ; he drew upon his vivid imagination to 
 depict in glowing words the incalculable wealth of the new 
 countries they were about to reach. He used the only argu- 
 ment potential with them. They wanted gold, gold in 
 abundance, without stint, without labor, without hindrance ; 
 he promised that they should have it to their heart's desire. 
 With these promises and some deception as to the course that 
 they were daily running, he succeeded in keeping them from 
 open violence, until they entered upon the pleasant waters 
 of the South and met unmistakable evidences that they were 
 nearing land. Carved woods, branches of fresh flowers, the 
 limb of a tree, which bore upon its fragile structure a bird's 
 nest, with the mother bird guarding her young covey — these 
 and other signs left no doubt in reasonable minds that the 
 land was at hand. The balmy sweetness of the air was like 
 their own Andalusian spring-time ; they only lacked the 
 nightingale, said Columbus. But a new panic seized upon 
 the men as confidence was beginning to overcome unreason- 
 ing fear. The wind died out, and days passed wdth nothing 
 to relieve the anxious monotony that suggested danger in a 
 
new form. What if this were a region of endless calm and 
 they were fated to die one by one in their motionless ships, 
 the victim of one man's folly and reckless ambition ? He, 
 at least, was a scape-goat, and might be offered up as a 
 sacrifice or be punished for his crime. But he waited and 
 compelled their patience until the sluggish winds once more 
 filled their sails, and once more the men forgot to compass 
 their leader's death, in the hope that they would reach land 
 and fortune together. 
 
 Who first sighted that land is yet a question. Columbus, 
 whether he felt himself unable further to resist the threats 
 and importunities of his crew, or because he had calculated 
 to his own satisfaction that he was about to reach his goal, 
 solemnly promised that he would turn back and sail homeward 
 if land were not seen within three days. The mutineers 
 consented to this delay, and their murmurs were quieted for 
 a while. On the second day the signs were so favorable that 
 the seditious sailors fell upon their knees ; they besought 
 their leader for pardon, and sang hymns of praise to the kind- 
 ness of the Creator who had brought them so near the end 
 of their labors and dangers. A reward had been promised 
 to the man who would first sight the land. As Columbus, 
 sleepless and vigilant, was pacing the deck of the Santa 
 Maria, he saw, or thought he saw, a light ; but previous dis- 
 appointments had made him wary. He called the attention 
 of two of his fellow-watchers to the light that rose and fell ; 
 one of them saw it, or thought he saw it, but fearing a new 
 disappointment, they all remained silent. In the early morn- 
 ing, however, the Pinta's cannon announced and truly that 
 land was in view ; this was the concerted signal by which 
 the joyful news might be loudly proclaimed to all. 
 
 And now we have the culminating point of the great ex- 
 plorer's life. His triumph was without alloy. It was even 
 greater in appearance than in fact. He believed that he had 
 at last found the land of promise and of untold wealth, and 
 as he left his ship and stepped ashore, clad in purple and 
 bearing the insignia of his newly-won honors, he might well 
 exult in the fulfillment of his prophecies and the realization 
 of his dreams. He was now entitled, under his contract, to 
 
the rewards which he coveted ; he might now bring the sim- 
 ple and harmless men, women and children who met him 
 on the shore within the fold of the Church. No misgivings 
 entered his mind. The island on which he first set his foot 
 must be at the very door of the Indies, and with becoming 
 reverence he baptized it in the Saviour's name, San Sal- 
 vador. 
 
 Then commenced a series of adventures in Dreamland by- 
 daylight ; at least such it must have seemed to the trav- 
 elers. The loveliness of the skies, the gentleness of the in- 
 habitants, the songs of the birds; the pure and balmy atmos- 
 phere — above all, the confident hope of forthcoming gold — were 
 indeed such as to fill their hearts with joy, and almost to 
 justify the belief that the Earthly Paradise had been found. 
 If that hope could only be realized, their happiness would be 
 complete ; for we cannot close our eyes to the fact that 
 whatever Columbus personally may have felt, the gentle 
 heathen and his salvation were the accessory and not the 
 principal subject of the general solicitude. The feverish anx- 
 iety to secure the yellow metal of which the trinkets were 
 made that adorned the persons of the inhabitants, the nu- 
 merous inquiries as to the source whence that metal had 
 been procured, the interest exhibited for its acquisition, could 
 not but impress the astonished native, who believed that 
 Gold was the God of his new visitors. Columbus himself 
 allowed his great and noble purposes to be deferred to 
 satisfying the greed of his crew, and with earnest appeals 
 to the Almighty, he prayed for instructions that might lead 
 him to fortune. "Our Lord, in whose hands are all things, 
 be my help," he cries. "Our Lord, in His mercy, direct 
 me where I may find the gold mine." They wandered from 
 island to island — kidnapping a dozen or two of the natives 
 who had never been taught resistance, greed or cruelty — m 
 quest of the undiscovered treasures. Every point that he 
 touched was, according to Columbus' narrative, more beauti- 
 ful than all the rest ; in fact, he indulges in such wild and 
 extravagant expressions of delight, that a suspicion is raised 
 (as Prescott has it) that a temporary alienation of mind is 
 shown in the letters which he wrote from Jamaica to the 
 
sovereigns. "Sober narrative and sound reasoning were 
 strangely blended with crazy dreams and doleful lamenta- 
 tions. Vagaries like these," adds Prescott, "which came 
 occasionally like clotids over his soul to shut out the light 
 of reason, cannot fail to fill the mind of the reader, as they 
 doubtless did those of the sovereigns, with mingled senti- 
 ments of wonder and compassion." Our lamented friend. 
 Dr. Gilmary Shea, has pointed out in his work on Columbus, 
 that "he seems to have succeeded in attaching to himself 
 but few men who adhered loyally to his cause. Those under 
 him were constantly rebellious and mutinous ; those over him 
 found him impracticable. To arraign all these enemies, as in- 
 spired by a Satanic hostility to a great servant of God, is to 
 ask too much of our belief." 
 
 It would extend this paper far beyond any reasonable limit 
 if I sought to enter into anything more than a rapid and 
 cursory narrative of the four voyages that Columbus made to 
 America and thence back to Spain. 
 
 The first was the only one which gave him unmixed glory 
 and happiness. He then touched the pinnacle of his fame, 
 and the descent after that to ruin and disgrace was as dis- 
 tressing as it was rapid. Up to the moment of his death 
 he believed that when he set his foot on the soil of Cuba 
 he stood on the Continent of Asia. With that delusion firm 
 and fixed, he died. At least we may assume that it was 
 really entertained by him, although the dramatic conditions 
 that accompanied his first declaration of the fact might shake 
 our belief in his good faith. One of his first acts on taking 
 possession of the island was to impose an oath upon his 
 men, making them declare that they had reached the coast 
 of Asia. Such an exaction seems hardly consistent with 
 entire sanity. 
 
 Perhaps nothing can give a better idea of the effect pro- 
 duced by these strange sights upon so strong an intellect as 
 that of Columbus than the fact he was quite assured that 
 he had seen mermaids in these southern waters. The pro- 
 saic explanation given is that they were probably sea calves, ' 
 and that their heads, when slightly lifted above the water, 
 bore a general resemblance to the human face. The truth is 
 
 43 
 
that everything around him was new and mysterious ; there 
 was no difficulty in believing that such romantic persons 
 lived in the sea. 
 
 Columbus received a right royal reception on his return. 
 Both sovereigns rose to receive him standing ; and when he 
 stooped to kiss their hands, they gently and graciously lifted 
 him and bade him sit. Then he told his story, and from 
 time to time produced the evidences of his veracity. He 
 showed the Indians that he had captured, the birds, the 
 skins, the barbaric ornaments and the samples of gold which 
 he had brought with him, and when the Te Deum had 
 been chanted, he was treated as a royal guest and assigned 
 lodgings under the royal roof. This period of a few weeks 
 was really the only time of unalloyed happiness that Colum- 
 bus ever enjoyed. He was not averse to public scenes nor 
 disposed to shrink from the plaudits of an admiring multi- 
 tude ; when he passed among the excited throngs his face 
 beamed with content. There was no trouble then to find 
 volunteers for another transatlantic voyage ; the specimens of 
 hard and yellow gold were more eloquent than any dis- 
 course that had ever been spoken by Columbus. The curb 
 became more necessary than the spur when the new ex- 
 pedition was fitted out. Capital had lost its shrinking and 
 sensitive modesty, in view of assured success. All the ships 
 in the ports of Andalusia were placed at Columbus' disposal, 
 and he was authorized to compel service from those whom 
 he chose to carry with him on his expedition. Military stores 
 were abundantly provided ; able and intelligent supervisors 
 aided him ; among these we find the name of Americus Ves- 
 pucius. 
 
 The conversion of the heathens to Christianity was formally 
 declared to be one of the most important objects of the 
 enterprise. The King and Queen showed their good faith 
 by designating twelve learned priests to accompany the ex- 
 pedition ; one of them was the apostolical vicar. Isabella's 
 kind heart had been moved by the accounts of the gentle- 
 ness and simplicity of the natives to consider them with 
 tender compassion, and to her credit be it said that she 
 strictly enjoined that they should be treated with the utmost 
 
kindness. Columbus was ordered to inflict signal punishment 
 on all Spaniards who should be guilty of outrage and in- 
 justice toward them. 
 
 About fifteen hundred men started upon the second expe- 
 dition. They carried with them goats, sheep, cows and 
 domestic fowls. Once more the fleet entered the beautiful 
 regions of the South. Porto Rico and other islands were 
 visited and taken possession of in the name of Spain. The 
 adventurers met the Caribs, who were said by Columbus 
 to be very fierce and given to eating human flesh. 
 Whether it be true that these barbarous people were 
 actually addicted to such revolting practices may well be 
 doubted. Even Mr. Irving, one of the most earnest defend- 
 ers of Columbus' fame, ventures to question the reliability 
 of these statements. There is but little to support and 
 much to contradict the charge. Hayti was reached and 
 visited for the second time. The natives had heard of 
 Columbus on his first voyage and still entertained a 
 friendly disposition toward him. They came on board the 
 ship without hesitation or fear. The Admiral had left 
 behind him a colony of men on the former trip, and the 
 fortress that he had built was found and visited ; nothing 
 remained except vestiges of ruin to show where it had 
 stood. It had been sacked, burned and utterly destroyed. 
 The story was soon told, and there is no reason to doubt 
 its substantial truth. While Columbus was present he was 
 able to exercise some restraint upon the fierce passions of his 
 men, but no sooner had his ship disappeared in the dis- 
 tance than the new colonists abandoned themselves to all 
 their brutal instincts. They wandered uncontrolled among 
 the Indians ; they robbed them of their gold, of their homes, 
 of everything that was sacred in their domestic relations. 
 If the Indians did suppose, as has been said, that the 
 white men had come down from heaven to visit them, that 
 illusion was soon dispelled in the wild debauch of unmer- 
 ciful brutality. Even after these four centuries, it is pleas- 
 ant to draw a veil upon that scene and many others 
 that accompanied the first settlement of America. 
 
 We may turn with comfort from this picture and con- 
 
template the good and holy men, members of the same 
 old faith, who were among the first to explore the wilder- 
 ness of America for the heathen's sake ; the noble martyrs 
 who with the staff and cross, with no hope of reward 
 except the saving of souls, hungry, worn, persecuted and 
 tortured, walked, alone and unguarded, the wilderness of 
 the lake country, pushed their way to the Father of Rivers, 
 preached the gospel to the savage whom they startled by 
 their audacity, shed no blood but their own, permitted no 
 torture but of their own bodies, pitied all men except them- 
 selves, and thought every danger and torment a gain if it 
 promised honor and glory to their God. If we feel at any 
 time disposed unduly to honor Columbus the Catholic, let 
 us evoke the picture of the Jesuit pioneers of the country 
 that he discovered. The testimony of these martyrs will 
 silence History if she exalts him beyond his merits. 
 
 The third voyage was another step on the downward 
 plane. The machinations of unrelenting enemies produced 
 their bitter fruit. But for the faithful brothers Bartholomew 
 and Diego, it is not likely that Columbus would have sur- 
 vived to see his home once more. The era of bloodshed 
 had been opened ; so-called battles had been fought, and 
 the natives, by thousands upon thousands, were destroyed. 
 Resistance to the steel-clad horsemen was out of the ques- 
 tion. We need not wonder that the stranger, with two 
 hundred infantry and twenty horsemen, flanked by twenty 
 bloodhounds as fierce as tigers, were able to meet and con- 
 quer one hundred thousand men, nor that the victory of the 
 Spaniards was complete, and that the natives were crushed 
 beyond hope of redemption ! 
 
 It is pleasing, again, to turn to Isabella, who continued 
 to regard these gentle and unoffending natives as intrusted 
 by God to her peculiar protection. Her disinterested love 
 was not turned into avarice, even by a cargo of five hun- 
 dred slaves that were sent her. An order was issued for 
 their sale, but she countermanded it, and directed that the 
 captives should be returned to their own land. Again she 
 sent a special order that the natives should be treated 
 with the utmost kindness. But great wrongs had been per- 
 
 46 
 
petrated before this ineffectual evidence of a loving heart 
 reached its destination. 
 
 Meanwhile public sentiment was changing as to the value 
 of the discovery. The ship-loads of gold had not come in ; 
 a few cargoes of slaves were but a small realization of the 
 brilliant expectations that had charmed the imagination of 
 sovereigns and subjects. Men had come back from these 
 transatlantic voyages worn, disabled, broken in health and 
 spirit. Extreme measures were again necessary to secure 
 crews. Convicted malefactors were offered pardon if they 
 would embark for the colonies. The enthusiasm had died 
 out ; discouragement and distress had set in ; the star of 
 Columbus had grown pale, it was soon to emit its last fitful 
 gleam of intermittent light. 
 
 It was on this third voyage that Columbus, for the first 
 time, had a glimpse of the Continent which was to be 
 called America. But Sebastian Cabot the year before had 
 already discovered the continent ; so had Americus Ves- 
 pucius. The trip was one of great suffering and disap- 
 pointment. To the mental distress which well-nigh over- 
 whelmed him were added the tortures of gout and fail- 
 ing sight ; still he did not surrender to changing fortune, 
 and with unshaken fortitude he revisited the scenes of his 
 first discoveries and touched from time to time at new 
 islands. 
 
 While Columbus was absent on his unpromising, ill- 
 omened voyage, the clamors against him swelled into a 
 chorus loud enough to reach the Court. Complaints were 
 many, some of them perhaps not without foundation. One 
 of his chief lieutenants rebelled and entered into open con- 
 flict with him. In an unguarded moment, Columbus re- 
 quested that an umpire might be sent out to decide the 
 question. This was the signal for his downfall. Ferdinand 
 sent out an umpire in the person of Bobadilla, and the 
 result was that Columbus returned home in chains. 
 
 The Queen greeted her old friend with tears, while he, 
 moved by her compassion and sympathy, fell upon his knees, 
 weeping convulsively. He was old and worn and broken 
 physically ; nothing but his lofty spirit had stood the cruel 
 
tests to which he had been subjected. The accusations 
 made by Bobadilla were disregarded. Favor and affection 
 were once more lavished upon Columbus, and abundant 
 promises made, which were never kept. If the account of 
 Las Casas be true of the condition of the natives under 
 Bobadilla, the estate of those unfortunate people was made 
 worse by the change of masters. 
 
 And now preparations were made for a fourth voyage. 
 Other courts had been gained by the contagion and inocu- 
 lated with the ambition of great adventures. Da Gama 
 had doubled the Cape of Good Hope, and was enriching 
 Portugal with the products of the East. Columbus was to 
 start in quest of a strait, supposed to be somewhere near 
 the Isthmus of Darien and connecting the two great oceans. 
 After many delays, the fleet of four vessels was ready 
 to sail. The largest of the caravels was but seventy tons 
 burden and his whole company amounted to one hun- 
 dred and fifty men. He turned his back for the last time 
 upon Spain, an old man, exhausted with anxiety and 
 trouble, and racked with physical sickness. Time and 
 adversity had subdued all but the unconquerable will, and 
 once more his faithful brother Bartholomew accompanied him 
 to guard, protect and defend him. 
 
 Columbus now visited Honduras and Costa Rica. He ex- 
 plored bays on the Isthmus of Panama, and found evi- 
 dence that gold in large quantities was to be had in these 
 regions, but his shattered health paralj'zed all physical exer- 
 tion, while his leaking ships warned him that he should 
 hasten to return. He attempted to establish a colony on 
 the river Belden, where he intended to leave his brother in 
 command while he returned to Spain for supplies. 
 
 The fourth voyage ended almost in total disaster. It was 
 full of disappointment and suffering. Cyclones, insurrections, 
 hunger and the fear of starvation caused Columbus the 
 deepest anxiety. His ships could not be repaired, nor 
 could he build new ones. The situation at Jamaica became 
 so critical that Columbus was constrained to send one of 
 his followers to Hispaniola, in a canoe, a distance of one 
 hundred and twenty miles, to procure relief, for destruction 
 
 48 
 
waited upon inaction. They dared not start upon their 
 return with their decayed and broken ships ; the dreary 
 weeks ran into months, every day bringing its new weight 
 of woe to the desperate situation. Mutiny was added to 
 the other elements of dissolution. Finally, the Indians could 
 no longer be forced to bring food from a distance, and con- 
 tinued to resist until Columbus, working upon their super- 
 stitious fears, called them together and predicted a total 
 eclipse of the moon, a sign, he declared, of the Divine 
 wrath, which would soon be directed against the disobedient 
 natives if they did not at once procure supplies. The 
 eclipse came, and the terrified Indians, in trembling submis- 
 sion, helped their persecutors to live. 
 
 Finally, after new mutinies and a pitched battle between 
 contending factions of angry Spaniards, Columbus left the 
 new world to return to Spain. He reached his country a 
 weak and tottering old man. His faithftil friend, the 
 Queen, was herself upon her death-bed ; no greeting from 
 her, as formerly, warmed the drooping spirits of the Ad- 
 miral. He found his financial affairs in the utmost con- 
 fusion. His great expectations of brilliant rewards had 
 never borne fruit. Poor as he was when he left Spain in 
 August 1492, he was actually poorer when he returned 
 home to die. The royal contract which he had been at 
 such pains to secure, gave him no rights that he could 
 enforce. Ferdinand's conscience was no longer quickened, 
 his generosity no longer stimulated by the presence and 
 kindness of his Queen. The pressure upon his treasury 
 was great, and the relief which he had expected from the 
 promises of Columbus had never come. Gold from America 
 he had seen, but only in such quantities as to sharpen 
 desire, not to satisfy greed. He could not read the future, 
 and he did not, therefore, know that royal revenues were 
 to flow into the coffers of his successors, not so much 
 from the gold mines that time would uncover as from the 
 marvelous tobacco plant that Columbus had found in Cuba. 
 He may have felt that the exactions which he had been 
 coerced to accept when the agreement was made, had been 
 imposed upon him by a sort of duress. At all events, he 
 
turned a deaf ear to the supplications of his one-time asso- 
 ciate, and postponed the manifestation of his gratitude until 
 Columbus was beyond the reach either of his favor or his 
 anger. The discoverer was not suffering alone from cruel 
 disease, but for lack of the actual necessaries of life. "I 
 live by borrowing," he said ; "little have I profited by 
 twenty years' service, with such toils and perils, since at 
 present I do not own a roof in Spain, and for the most 
 time I have not the wherewithal to pay my bill." This 
 came from a man who had actually sat in the presence of 
 royalty, and who had been decorated with the titles of 
 Don, of Admiral, and of Viceroy ! These poor honors were 
 all he had to leave his children. He earnestly besought 
 the king to appoint his son Diego to the viceroyalty, of 
 which he had been so cruelly deprived. "This," he wrote, 
 "is a matter which concerns my honor. Give or withhold, 
 as may be most for your interest, and I shall be content. 
 I believe the anxiety created by the delay of this affair is 
 the principal cause of my sickness." But in spite of this 
 care for earthly honors, distinction and titles for himself 
 and those that v-ere to foUovv^ him, his thoughts were 
 turned to greater things. Be his weaknesses what they 
 may, an ardent love for the Church had been a conspicu- 
 ous feature in his life, in his thoughts, and in his acts. 
 The sense of responsibility for all that he had done was 
 before him to the end, lightened and brightened by a con- 
 fident hope, frequently expressed, that his shortcomings 
 would be mercifully condoned. His mind turned with pa- 
 thetic affection to the small town of Concepcion, in His- 
 paniola, which he himself had founded, and there, on the 
 new land, which could never be mentioned except in con- 
 nection with his own fame, he desired that a chapel should 
 be raised, where Divine service should be celebrated for his 
 benefit and that of all whom he loved. 
 
 Death did not take him unawares or unprovided ; he saw 
 its approach without dismay. Indeed, in his straitened and 
 distressed condition. Death was the only friend upon whose 
 face he could look with anything like hope. Life had and 
 could have nothing in store for him but sickness and 
 
heavier sorrow. His fortunes were broken, his glory on the 
 wane, his family poor, his bodj'- racked by pain. What 
 wonder that he should have longed for the hour of depart- 
 ure ? When the message came, he welcomed it with joy. 
 His last words were uttered in Latin : " /« manus tuas, 
 Domz'ne, cojmncndo spiritum meum," "Into thy hands, O 
 Lord, I commend my spirit." 
 
 Then being dead and no longer an obstruction in the 
 royal path, or an unpleasant reminder to the royal con- 
 science, royalty once more smiled upon him. A gorgeous 
 funeral atoned, so far as it could, for neglect and injustice. 
 Great honors followed his corpse to the church of Santa 
 Maria de la Antigua. His enemies were silenced and com- 
 forted by the reflection that he could no longer interfere 
 with their fortunes. The King was relieved and promptly 
 placed a glorious seal upon the greatest episode of his 
 reign. He was able to balance, by posthumous and inex- 
 pensive tributes, the open account pending between himself 
 and his late partner. Isabella gone and Columbus in his 
 grave, the only one of the firm then left was Ferdinand. 
 He could wind up the business to suit himself. 
 
 But the remains of Columbus were not permitted to rest 
 in Spain. Once more, but this time in unaccustomed peace, 
 he crossed the Atlantic to find a resting place. It is said 
 that his body still sleeps in the Cathedral of Havana, on 
 that island which he had solemnly declared to be part of 
 the continent of Asia. The claim of Havana to this honor 
 is disputed, but the evidence seems to be conclusive, and 
 we may state with something like certainty that the great 
 Discoverer is now resting in the Cathedral of that city. 
 
 Columbus, like all conspicuous actors in the history of 
 the world, has had his critics and his panegyrists. Some 
 have gone to the verge of extreme laudation, and others 
 have condemned him with unsparing severity. History will 
 side with neither of these extremists. We may fairlj'- judge 
 him by what he did and what he failed to do. There 
 is no recorded instance of more admirable tenacity of 
 purpose nor of more unflinching devotion to one single 
 idea ; none of courage more steadfast in the face of 
 
perils of every kind. But if we should measure him by 
 the standard of to-day, nothing that his modern accusers 
 have said in condemnation of many acts alleged against him 
 would be too severe; but the standard of to-day may not 
 with justice be applied to the man who lived four centuries 
 ago. 
 
 The accusation against Columbus is the traffic of slaves, 
 but this had been and continued to be the practice of 
 every nation for centuries after him, and of our own coun- 
 try almost to our own generation. It may only be said, 
 and this means much, that he was better than the men 
 who were with him. We may not compare him to the 
 venerable and humane Las Casas, but his name, when 
 placed beside those of others who shared or marred his for- 
 tunes, will shine with a lustre rendered brilliant by com- 
 parison. It is much to say of any man that he was bet- 
 ter than his day. This can be asserted of Columbus. Per- 
 sonally, he appears to have been, in the ordinary relations 
 of life, humane and just ; his pursuit of gold was certainly, 
 in a great degree, the result of his anxiety to satisfy the 
 King. Gold he had promised ; gold he was bound to fur- 
 nish, and it was the failure to perform this promise that 
 poisoned his life, cost him his popularity and hastened his 
 death. 
 
 Although the real merit to be attached to his discovery 
 is subject to question because he started to reach Asia and 
 stumbled upon America, yet he is entitled to ovir gratitude 
 for the splendid service which he rendered, and to be 
 placed on the roll of humanity's great servants. The ob- 
 stacles in his way would have daunted any man not of 
 heroic mould. If he showed an indifference to human life 
 in dealing with the natives, we may not forget that life 
 was cheap in the fifteenth century. Tenderness and hesitancy 
 to shed a brother's blood were not in the morals and prac- 
 tices of the times ; indeed they are not now, when Nations 
 undertake for their own purposes to impress their civiliza- 
 tion on an inferior people. That one of the motives which 
 impelled and sustained him throughout was the desire to 
 spread the Gospel through new lands can scarcely be dis- 
 
puted. Whether, after weighing these motives in the scales 
 of infallible and eternal Justice, it will be found that this 
 was in truth the mainspring of his action and the pure 
 fountain of his unflinching purpose, or merely incident to 
 a personal end, none can decide. I prefer to accept and 
 to close with the wise and prudent words of the Sovereign 
 Pontiff : 
 
 "The eminently distinctive point in Columbus is that 
 in crossing the immense expanses of the ocean, he fol- 
 lowed an object more grand and more elevated than did 
 the others. Not that he failed to be influenced by the 
 very legitimate ambition to earn and to merit the approval 
 of society, not that he despised the attributes of glory, 
 that concomitant of success, whose spurs often cut more 
 deeply those greatest among men, nor did he disdain en- 
 tirely the pursuit of personal advantages; but above all 
 those human considerations soared the leading motive in the 
 religion of his forefathers. 
 
 "Where, indeed, would he have supplied himself with the 
 necessary constancy and strength of soul to endure what 
 he had to suffer and submit to, had he not drawn 
 upon a motive superior to human interests ? Contra- 
 dicted by the learned ; repulsed by princes ; tossed b}' 
 the tempest on the furious ocean ; more than once deprived 
 of the use of his eyes by the strain of the long and weary 
 watches ; to these must be added the combats sustained 
 against the barbarians ; the infidelities of his friends and his 
 companions ; the villainous plots and conspiracies ; the per- 
 fidy of the envious ; the calumnies of the traducers, and 
 the traps set against his innocence — this man must inevi- 
 tably have succumbed under the weight of such great 
 trials, and such numerous assaults, had he not been upheld 
 by the conscience of his admirable enterprise, in the suc- 
 cess of which he foresaw the greater glory of the Christian 
 name, and the salvation of an endless multitude." 
 
 S3 
 
THE DOMINICAN PAPER. 
 
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 ^^5 
 
ISABHLLA THt- CATHOLIC, y 
 
 From the recumbent statue upor\.|,^h^j^taf,el)^.j45ia(:^o]^ewn in 
 the cathedral church of Granada,, Sc^ie • •■ -i- i r ■ 
 
 After an eventful re^n uf thirty .years, during \yhich she 
 had personally taken an ..heroic part ,%n the war for the 
 deliverance of the kingdopi from the ,>Ioors; defended the 
 borders of Spain from ;foreign, enemies; quelled , internal 
 revolts and seditions ; introduced reforms of every kind in 
 the state; made her court .a nursery of ,yirt;ie and generous 
 ambition; extended to .. Columbus the aid and encourage- 
 ment which has linked her name with his forever, and 
 remained his steadfast friend while life lasted, she 
 expired of a lingering malady on November 216, 1504, in 
 the tifty-fourth year of her age. The engraving is fj-om 
 Gavard's Galeries Historiques de Versailles, Paris, 1S43,, 
 
 recognition cci 
 on the . 
 
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS 
 
 AND 
 
 THE DOMINICAN DIEGO DE DEZA. 
 
 HE part of the Order of St. Dominic, in the 
 series of events relative to the discovery of 
 America, was not to have its term in mere intel- 
 lectual collaboration. It had its great doctors, 
 and fruitful was the action of their genius. They 
 had largely ripened the scientific ideas which were carried 
 through to the grand achievement of the end of the fifteenth 
 century. But that was not enough. Some minds do not 
 always see how remarkably near events often are to the 
 ideas which begot them ; these may find the preoccupations 
 of Christopher Columbus but remotely dependent on the 
 cosmographical science of B. Albert the Great and of St. 
 Thomas Aquinas. But, in the order of facts, it was again, 
 and certainly, a Friar Preacher who was to have the glory 
 of being the most constant and staunch supporter of the 
 discoverer of the New World. 
 
 Diego de Deza, the Dominican, was the great protector of 
 Christopher Columbus. No other patronage is comparable to 
 his, either as to duration or as to importance. It extended 
 over a period of twenty years, from the arrival of Columbus 
 in Spain down to the time of his death ; and its character 
 was such as to bring about a practical realization of the 
 celebrated navigator's projects. By singular good fortune 
 there is in existence the authentic formula, subscribed by the 
 illustrious protege's own hand, of his grateful recognition to 
 Diego de Deza. 
 
 Historical vulgarizations, ever prone to feed on the ampli- 
 fied and imaginary, although they have not quite ignored 
 Deza, have yet so relegated him to the background that it 
 
would be flagrant injustice, if productions of the kind had 
 any serious claims to the attention of science. On another 
 hand, no historian has yet undertaken to present a full view 
 of Deza's influence and action during those two obscure 
 periods of the life of Columbus — that which preceded and that 
 which followed the discovery of America.* 
 
 It is therefore our design clearly and precisely to point out 
 the role of the celebrated Dominican as protector of Columbus 
 to show the characteristic traits of his patronage, and to offer 
 some critical observations touching certain presumed protectors 
 whose titles are open to the charge of suspicious appearance. 
 
 As we have already intimated, the chief and fundamental 
 authority upon which the historic rights of Deza rest is in 
 every way incontestable. It is no other than the written 
 testimony of Christopher Columbus himself. In that penury 
 of contemporary documents capable of precisely determining 
 the numerous points of the history of the discoverer of the 
 New World, it is evident how valuable are the positive data, 
 such as those furnished by the Admiral's own letters and 
 writings. This remark is of yet further range, if it is taken 
 into account that the Admiral of the Indies, in the report 
 of one of his voyages, does not permit himself to recognize 
 more than two protectors, who, he says, are both monks. 
 Finally, even after the critical labors of M. Harrisse on the 
 histories of Christopher Columbus, attributed to the Admiral's 
 son, Ferdinand, it yet remains the historian's charge to revise 
 numerous affirmations introduced by that forger's work; above 
 all, when one sees the lamentable influence wrought by his 
 statement of the case upon even the writers who, like Las 
 Casas, are held to be the fathers of the New World's history. 
 
 Everybody knows the dragging difficulties and the rebuffs 
 that Columbus met with, when, towards the year 1485, he 
 presented his schemes of discovery and the offer of his ser- 
 vices to their Catholic majesties, Ferdinand and Isabella. A 
 detailed history of the Genoese navigator's struggles against 
 
 * Readers of the Rosary Magazine^ June and July, i8q2, undoubtedly appre- 
 ciated the excellent articles on Columbus and Deza by r.lr. John A. Mooney, LL.D., 
 the scholarly and learned American writer, of whose services in the cause of 
 Columbus we take pleasure in recording our grateful recognition. 
 
ill fortune during some six years is difficult, or rather say 
 impossible, securely to be drawn up in the face of the con- 
 tradictory data which history, in its actual state, offers to the 
 historian. 
 
 Happily, Deza's role is well characterized and independent 
 of all collateral questions. 
 
 No sooner does Christopher Columbus set foot on the 
 territory of the sovereigns of Castille, than he finds a friend 
 who meets him with favor and upholds him. It is the pro- 
 tector of the first day. Columbus assures us it is so. On 
 his return from his fourth voyage he writes to his son, Diego, 
 and recommends him to rely upon Deza (who had become 
 Bishop of Palencia) to look after his affairs at Court. As if 
 to show what kind of reception and what assistance the son 
 of the Admiral of the Indies would receive at his hands, 
 Columbus adds : " The Lord Bishop of Palencia, ever since I 
 came to Castille, has always favored me and desired my 
 honor" — "El Sr. Obispo de Palencia, siempre desde que yo 
 vine d Castilla, me ha favorecido y deseado mi honra."* 
 
 It was twenty years since Columbus had first come into 
 Castille, and it will readily be understood how much that 
 word siempre means, written, as it was, only a few months 
 before the illustrious navigator's death. It is a warranted 
 assurance of Deza's most constant fidelity, vouchsafed him by 
 the Admiral for his faithful patronage and protection. 
 
 Just where and when did Columbus and Deza first meet ? 
 It is probable that history will never know. We should like 
 to have seen those two together, face to face — the poor 
 Genoese genius, who was animated by a great and grand idea, 
 and the first professor of Salamanca ; to hear them discuss 
 those ideas which were soon to revolutionize the whole world. 
 Deza, issued from a noble family of Toro, had entered the 
 Dominican order young. He had studied at Salamanca, and 
 at the time of his meeting Columbus had just quitted the 
 first chair of the university. The merits and reputation of 
 the celebrated master had, at the time, won for him the 
 confidence of the Catholic sovereigns, and he was appointed 
 
 * M. Fernandez de Navarrete, Coleccion de los viajes y descubrimientos que 
 hicieron por mar los £spaAoles, Madrid, 1825, t. i. p. 334. 
 
preceptor to the heir of the throne, the young Infante Don 
 Juan.* 
 
 Did the relations between Columbus and Deza precede the 
 latter's elevation to the office of the royal preceptorship, when 
 he was as yet only the titular of the first chair at Sala- 
 manca ? We are inclined to believe so, however difficult it 
 may be to determine it vigorously. Deza was nominated 
 preceptor towards 1486,! perhaps later, but not sooner, for 
 the Infante was but eight years of age at the time. On 
 another hand, there is some uncertainty as to the precise time 
 of Columbus' arrival in Spain. According to M. Harrisse, 
 he came directly from Portugal, between the fall of 1484 and 
 the month of January, 1486,:]: but the common tendency is to 
 assign a date somewhat later than this last. The presumptions, 
 then, go to put the arrival of Columbus later and the nomi- 
 nation of Deza earlier, so that, in all probability, they met 
 before Deza had finished his professorial career, since he had 
 always favored Columbus and desired his honor ever since 
 the latter's coming into Castille.g 
 
 Whatever may have been Deza's position when he first met 
 Columbus, whether it was at the University of Salamanca or 
 at the Court of the Sovereigns of Spain, the reception the 
 Dominican friar extended to the Genoese mariner remains an 
 indisputable fact. Fellowship of ideas had already been estab- 
 lished between them regarding the existence of the antipodes 
 and the possibility of reaching the Indies by navigation towards 
 
 * On Deza, see Echard, Scriptcres O. P., Paris, 1721, t. i. p. 51 ; also A. 
 Touron, Histoire des Hommes lUustres de Vordre de St. Dominique, Paris, 1746, 
 t. iii. pp. 722-742 ; and an excellent biographical notice by Hundhausen in the 
 Kirchenlexicon, Freiburg im Breisgau, 1884, t. iii. pp. 1657-1660. 
 
 t Echard, loc. cit. p. 51. 
 
 X Christophe Colomb, son origine, sa vie, ses voyages, sa fatnille et ses descend- 
 ants, Paris, 1884, 2 vols., t. i. p. 354. 
 
 § M. Harrisse, led into error by Echard, thought that Deza was nominated 
 to the Bishopric of Zamora at the same time as to the preceptorship of the 
 Prince Don Juan, and he wrote : " Ce savant ecclesiastique (Deza) ne connut 
 pas Colomb lorsqu'il ne fut que simple fraile" (loc. cit. i. 371). Just the contrary 
 is true. Deza was nominated Bishop of Zamora, April 14, 1494. The Bulls may 
 be found in the Bultariutn Ord. Pmd., t. iv. p. 197. Hence it follows that 
 before the discovery of America, Columbus knew Deza only as a simple fraile. 
 
the West. At the end of the fifteenth century Deza was one of 
 the most authoritative masters of the Dominican school, with 
 Albert the Great and St. Thomas Aquinas, the master minds 
 of the order, and the theories upon which Columbus based 
 his projects had already come to be taught and generally 
 accepted throughout the order's schools.* It is, moreover, the 
 disposition of great minds and great souls readily to under- 
 stand each other, and that by reason of their common great- 
 ness. 
 
 Contemporary with the first relations of Columbus and 
 Diego de Deza is the celebrated Junta of Salamanca. It is 
 a Dominican writer who gives us the most circumstantial 
 account of the conferences which Columbus had with the 
 savants of this university. We quote the testimony itself 
 of Antonio de R6mesal, O.P., in his History of the Domin- 
 ican Province of St. Vincent de Chiapa and Guatemala : 
 ' ' When God had put into the heart of Columbus the de- 
 sign of passing into that part of the world which up to 
 that time had remained unknown, he did not find welcome 
 before certain kings, and he was treated as a chimerical 
 man of little judgment. To win over the sovereigns of 
 Castille, Ferdinand and Isabella, to his project, he came to 
 Salamanca for the purpose of presenting his reasons to the 
 masters in astrology and cosmography, who taught those 
 matters at the university. He began by proposing his 
 theories and arguments to them, but he found no attention 
 or support except among the religious of St. Stephen's. 
 The reason of this was that, at that time, not only the 
 arts and theology were taught in that convent, but also all 
 the other matters that were professed in the schools. It 
 was at the convent that the reunions of the astrologers and 
 mathematicians took place. Columbus proposed his conclu- 
 sions and defended them. Thanks to the assistance of the 
 religious, he won the first savants of the school over to his 
 
 * It may interest some readers to note the following places wherein St. Thomas 
 speaks of the demonstration of the earth's sphericity : Sttmma^ la. p., Q. i, A. i, 
 ad zm. ; 1-2 p., Q. 54, A. 2, ad 2m.; 2 Sent.., d. 24, Q. 2, Art. 2, ad 5m.; Phy. 2, 
 Lect. 3, in fine; Poster., Lect. 41, in fine. We cite these as being perhaps the 
 most readily at hand. 
 
 61 
 
opinions. Among all, it was Friar Diego de Deza, Professor 
 of the first chair and Master of the Prince Don Juan, who 
 took it upon himself to accredit him and to favor him 
 before the Catholic sovereigns. All the time that Columbus 
 lived at Salamanca the convent gave him shelter and lodg- 
 ing and paid the expenses of his travels. Master Diego 
 de Deza did the same at the Court. Moreover, on account 
 of the largesses of this latter, and of the measures he took 
 with the sovereigns to inspire them with faith in Columbus 
 and to get them to come to his aid, he was regarded as 
 the instrument of the discovery of the Indies. The Bishop 
 of Chiapa, Don Bartholomew de Las Casas, relates all 
 this at length in his 'General History of the Indies' (book 
 I, middle of chap, xxix.)." * 
 
 The reference of Rem^sal to the History of Las Casas 
 relates to the protection of Deza and not to the holding 
 of the Junta at Salamanca, which was unknown to this 
 historian, f 
 
 M. Harrisse, rendered distrustful in consequence of the 
 grave errors introduced into the biographies of Columbus 
 from the pseudo-histories ascribed to Don Fernando, has 
 given a severely critical sifting to a great part of the data 
 of the Columbian records. As may easily be conceived, the 
 Salamanca Junta was not spared and had to present its 
 titles. 
 
 What strikes M. Harrisse is the lateness of Remesal's ac- 
 count, "posterior to the events by at least one hundred and 
 twenty years." On another hand, he knows no one before 
 him "who spoke either about the Junta at Salamanca or 
 about the monks of St. Stephen's." | 
 
 The objection is formal and demands an examination. 
 For the fact that early historians of America, like Oviedo 
 and Las Casas, or the author of a local history like Gil 
 Gonzales Davila, make no mention of a commission at 
 
 * Historia de la Provincia de San Vincente de Chiapa y Guatemala, de la Orden 
 de San Domingo, Madrid, 1619, col. 52. 
 
 t Bartolomd de Las Casas, Historia de las Indias, Madrid, 1875-1876, 5 vols, 
 t. i. p. 228. 
 
 X Christophe Colotnb, etc., t. i. p. 358 and following. 
 
 62 
 
Salamanca, we see no other plausible reason than that the 
 Junta and Columbus' residence at Salamanca created little 
 or no stir outside of that city. The event of the first 
 hour was forgotten with the rise of the events otherwise 
 grave and manifold, which came surging to notice with the 
 discovery of the New World. One can understand that it 
 was kept in remembrance in a great agglomeration such as 
 was St. Stephen's, let alone other places, at least suffi- 
 ciently to find one historian. As for Las Casas in particular, 
 although he studied at Salamanca, yet it was after the 
 holding of the commissions, and the young jurist, who had 
 then no connection with the Order, may easily have been 
 in ignorance of the conferences held by some savants ten 
 years earlier.* Whatever may be the causes of his silence, 
 the objection still remains ; but since it is a purely nega- 
 tive argument which M. Harrisse proposes, it remains to be 
 seen if there are no positive data to invalidate it. 
 
 That after the arrival of Columbus in Castille there was 
 a meeting of scientific celebrities to examine the schemes 
 of the Genoese mariner is a fact absolutely certain. M. 
 Harrisse admits it and proves it by appeal to the deposi- 
 tion of Doctor Rodriguez de Maldonado, an eye-witness, 
 present at the assembly. "In company," says he, "with 
 him who was then Prior of Prado, and who subsequent!}^ 
 became Archbishop of Granada, as well as with other 
 savants, men of letters and mariners, we conferred 
 with the Admiral on his project of going to the Isles ; and 
 we all fell in accord that it was impossible that what he 
 said was true. Notwithstanding the opinion of the majority, 
 the Admiral obstinately persisted in his project of under- 
 taking the voyage. It is as one of the council of their 
 Highnesses that I know all these things."f The Prior of 
 Prado, of whom mention is here made, is Hernando de 
 Talavera, a Jeronjrmite religious, who rose to high positions, 
 and who, at the time of the commission, was simply Prior of 
 
 * Echard, ScriJ>tores O. P., t. ii. p. iq2. 
 
 t Navarrete, Coleccion, t. iii. p. 589. It is not quite exact to translate, 
 with M. Harrisse, ''^ con los -nids de ellos'" by "the majority." It should 
 be rendered, " the chief, the most learned of the commission." 
 
 63 
 
the Convent of Notre Dame of Prado, near Valladolid.* M. 
 Harrisse, following Navarrete,f takes the positive fact that 
 Talavera was Prior of Prado at the time of the commission 
 to prove that " it was between 14S6 and 1487, before the month 
 of August of this latter year, that these commissions were held. 
 For, after that date, Hernando de Talavera, having become 
 bishop, must have left off bearing the title of Prior of Prado4 
 The continuation of Maldonado's deposition could have 
 furnished M. Harrisse a second argument to prove that the 
 junta took place not only before the month of August, 
 1487, but even before May 5th of the same year ; for the 
 witness adds that it was subsequent to this commission that 
 their Highnesses caused certain sums of money to be paid 
 to Columbus. But the first grant of the Catholic sov- 
 ereigns was on May 5, 1487. § Hence it is before this date 
 and not much earlier — for the grant was a result of the 
 holding of the commission — that we must put the first public 
 discussion. So far, then, the fundamental fact of the existence 
 of a junta, as affirmed by Reraesal, is settled beyond dispute. 
 As to the character of the commission, Remesal tells us 
 that it was made up of astronomers, cosmographers, and 
 mathematicians. Maldouado, on his part, fully confirms this. 
 According to him, the commission was formed by savants, 
 men of letters, and mariners. We do not therefore believe, 
 we must say, with M. Harrisse, that "men of the Court 
 
 * Josd de Siguenza, Tercera parte de la Historia de la Ordeji de San 
 GeronimOy Madrid, 1605, t. iii. p. 387. 
 
 t Coleccion, t. iii. p. 416 and following. 
 
 X Christophe ColomL\ t. i. p. 361. Even when he would have continued 
 to bear the title, he was certainly no longer prior. But Maldonado says 
 that, at the time of the commission, he was actually prior, which is suffi- 
 cient for the force of the demonstration. 
 
 §"E contra el parecer de los mis de ellos porfio el dicho Almirante de ir 
 el dicho viaje, e SS. AA. lo mandaron librar cierta cantidad de maravedis 
 para ello, i. asentaron ciertas capitulaciones con el ; lo qual todo supo este 
 testigo como uno de los del consejo de SS. AA." — Navarrete, Coleccion^ t. 
 iii. p. 589. 
 
 " En dicho dia (5 de Mayo de 1487) di i. Cristobal Colomo, e.xtrangero, 
 tres mil maravedis que estd aqui faciendo algunas cosas complideras al ser- 
 vicio de sus Altezas." — Navarrete, Coleccion, t. ii. p. 4. 
 
 64 
 
were consulted, and that a contradictory debate took place 
 between them and Columbus." * 
 
 True, Maldonado assisted at the meetmg as a mem- 
 ber of the royal council, and perhaps others with him; but 
 he also tells us that the commission was composed of sa- 
 vants, of men of letters, and of mariners, which puts us in 
 the presence of an assemblage of clever men rather than 
 of courtiers, and the assistance at the commission of a 
 simple convent-prior like Talavera shows that it was 
 sought to form a commission of examination, composed of 
 men competent to study and expedite the affair. 
 
 But the consultors thus convened were most likely assem- 
 bled at the same place where a reunion of learned men had 
 already taken place, and it is known that the University of 
 Salamanca was at that time the intellectual centre of the 
 peninsula. We likewise see the Catholic sovereigns, several 
 years later, applying to this university, making an appeal 
 to its astronomers and cosmographers to resolve certain 
 questions of navigation.! 
 
 The single fact, moreover, of the presence of the Prior of 
 Prado excludes the probability that the junta was held in 
 the south of Spain, for it is not very likely that a religious 
 of the neighborhood of Valladolid would have been sum- 
 moned to a council held at Seville, or, indeed, even at 
 Toledo. 
 
 But what does away with all doubt is the presence of 
 the Court itself at Salamanca during the winter of 1486-1487. 
 '^ L' Itmerarw de Galindez de Carbajal," writes M. 
 Harrisse,:]: proves that the Catholic sovereigns ended 
 the year i486 and began that of 1487 at Salamanca. § 
 
 * Christophe Colo7nb, t. i. p. 359. 
 
 t"Nos habemos menester alg^nas personas que supiesen i tuviesen ex- 
 periencia de astrolog^a 6 cosmografia para que platicasen con otros que aqui 
 estan sobre algunas cosas de la mar," etc.— Navarrete, Coleccion, t. iii. 
 p. 489. 
 
 X Christophe Colomb, t. i. p. 362. 
 
 § Memorial 6 Registro breve de los lugares donde el Rey y Reyna Caiolicos, estu- 
 vieron cada ana desde el MDCLXVIII. MS. of the National Library at 
 Paris, No. 6964 — Collection Legrand, fol. 121, and printed in the collection 
 Ribadeneyra, t. Ixx. 
 
 65 
 
On another hand, since, after May 5th, Columbus received 
 a grant in consequence of the holding of the junta, and 
 since, according to the testimony of the witness Maldonado, 
 he treated with the sovereigns, the reunion cannot have taken 
 place except at Salamanca, where Maldonado himself must 
 have been in attendance at the Court as member of the council.* 
 In this way we see that various data, different indeed, but 
 very positive, confirm the testimony of Remesal and guar- 
 antee its worth. M. Harrisse himself concludes that the 
 first conference, that of the winter of 1486-1487, "was very 
 probably held at Salamanca, after the return of the Court." f 
 We do not believe that we go beyond the lines of prudent 
 and legitimate criticism when we conclude, from the discus- 
 sion just given, that the fact is morally certain. 
 
 We may add, and it is but just to do so, that the histor- 
 ical authority of Remesal is itself of no inconsiderable weight. 
 A precise, well-informed historian, having made many 
 researches in the American archives, he is not at all given 
 to legend or fiction. Sir Arthur Helps, who, in his American 
 researches, often found that Remesal had already gone over 
 the same ground, was pleased to pay him a high encomium, 
 besides turning his words to good account. "I do not feel 
 at all disposed," he says, "to throw over the authority of 
 Remesal. He had access to the archives of Guatemala early 
 in the seventeenth century, and he is one of those excellent 
 writers, so dear to the student of history, who is not prone 
 to declamation or rhetoric or picturesque writing, but 
 indulges us largely by the introduction everywhere of most 
 important historical documents copied boldly into the text."$ 
 
 A final doubt raised by the recital of Remesal relates to 
 the presence of Deza at the Salamanca Commission. We 
 know of no authority other than that of this author directly 
 confirming this fact. But although there is no record to 
 assure us of it, still the conjuncture of circumstances and of 
 
 * Maldonado belonged to Salamanca and was rigidor of the city. — Navar- 
 rete, Coleccion, t. iii. p. 614. 
 
 t Ckristophe Colomb, t. i. p. 363. 
 
 X " The Life 0/ Las Casas," London, 1883, 4th ed., p. 185. 
 
 66 
 
events establishes it with the greatest likelihood. Given the 
 presence of the Court at Salamanca, and the assembly of an 
 official commission during the winter of 14S6-1487, it can 
 scarcely be doubted that Deza took part therein. He was 
 in Salamanca just at the time, either as professor of the 
 university or as preceptor of the Infante Don Juan. Remesal 
 says both, for it is the very time when he passed from the 
 chair of theology to the preceptorial charge of the young 
 prince. Knowing his friendship for Columbus and considering 
 his scientific authority as first in rank on the professorial 
 staff, we doubt not that he participated in the discussions, 
 which had long since been in preparation. 
 
 It is quite inconceivable that he who was simply Prior of 
 Prado, and a former professor of Salamanca, should have 
 been invited, and that the master who held the first position 
 of the university, and who enjoyed the highest confidence of 
 the Court, should not have taken part in the conferences 
 which concerned a man and an idea both alike dear to him. 
 If Diego de Deza remained a stranger to that most important 
 act, the only important one, indeed, of the first years of the 
 sojourn of Columbus in Spain, we fail to see where, when, 
 or how he could have acquired those so formal titles of 
 patronage which Columbus conferred upon him by saying that 
 he (Deza) had always favored him and desired his glory ever 
 since his first coming into Castille. In further confirmation 
 of these inductions is what may be called the latest interpo- 
 sition of Deza, by obtainment of pecuniary aid furnished to 
 Columbus subsequently to the Salamanca conferences. We 
 know that the consultors in general had rejected the theories 
 of the tenacious navigator. The Court, which had convoked 
 the junta to arrive at a motived determination, could not 
 have dreamt of binding itself to the interests of Columbus. 
 Nevertheless, from that time on we find the latter's name 
 entering upon the royal account books, and it is important 
 to know the intermediary agent of those favors. 
 
 The learned Navarrete, whose critical works form the solid 
 bases of the history of Columbus and of early American 
 history, believed that Diego de Deza was the direct inter- 
 mediary by whose order the first sums were drawn from the 
 
 67 
 
royal treasury by Christopher Columbus.* The importance of 
 Deza's patronage, above all after the last voyage of the 
 Admiral of the Indies, when Deza was really Bishop of 
 Palencia, seems to have led Navarrete into error. This writer, 
 moreover, did not know the date of the elevation of the 
 Infante's preceptor to the episcopal dignity. It is henceforth 
 certain that in 1487 Deza was neither Bishop of Palencia 
 nor even simply a bishop. His elevation to the episcopate, 
 with the title of Bishop of Zamora, was on the 17th of April, 
 1494. f It is, therefore, not he who gave the official order to 
 pay Columbus several important sums during the years 1487 
 and 1488. 
 
 But who was then Bishop of Palencia ? It was a colleague 
 and friend of Deza, Alonzo de Burgos. :J: 
 
 A simple Dominican religious, his merits had gained him 
 promotion to the highest dignities from the beginning of the 
 reign of Ferdinand and Isabella. At the time with which we 
 have to do, he was one of those high ecclesiastical personages 
 whom we see the Catholic sovereigns constantly gathering 
 around themselves for the government of their states and for 
 the direction of their conscience. § 
 
 The predilection of Ferdinand and Isabella for the Domini- 
 cans was most marked. At the time of the Salamanca 
 Commission Alonzo de Burgos was Grand Chaplain and Presi- 
 dent of the Council of Castille. Thomas de Torquemada held 
 in his hands all the powers of the Inquisition, and Diego de 
 Deza superintended the education of the young prince, in 
 
 * Coleccion, t. ii. p. 92. 
 
 + Ripoll, Bull. Ord. Prad., t. iv. p. 197. 
 
 X Gams, Series Episcoporutn Ecclesiie Catholicce^ Ratisbonne, 1873, p. 63, 
 assigns the year i486 for Burgos' nomination ; Touron, loc. cii., t. iii. p. 694, 
 assigns the year 1484. 
 
 §For an account of Alonzo de Burgos, consult Touron, Hisi. dcs Homines 
 Illustres, etc., t. iii. pp. 693-697. It was he who conceived the happy idea of 
 founding a school of higher studies for the Dominican professors — the College 
 of St. Gregory, at Valladolid. He thereby laid the foundation of the doctrinal 
 supremacy of the order in Spain during the sixteenth century. That college 
 sent out such men as Victoria, Melchior Cano, the two Sotos, Caranza, Banez, 
 Medina, Granada, and others. Deza founded a like college at Seville, under the 
 patronage of St. Thomas. 
 
 68 
 
whom were centred the hopes of all the people. In their 
 affection for the Dominicans, the sovereigns went so far as 
 to occupy their Convent of St. Thomas, at Avila, making it their 
 favorite residence. It is there that reposes to this day, a 
 pledge of their friendship, the young prince whom Deza had 
 initiated into knowledge and virtue, not far from another 
 tomb, abandoned by a strange irony of time and of revolu- 
 tions to tranquillity without parallel, where nevertheless there 
 rests a man who raised such great storms of implacable 
 anger — Thomas de Torquemada, O. P. 
 
 It was not, then, a meaningless protection, the Dominican pro- 
 tection at the Court of Ferdinand and Isabella. In that hour, 
 when Columbus had need of it, it came to him incontestably 
 through Diego de Deza. The Salamanca Commission had 
 universally rebuffed the projects of Columbus, but it was by 
 private interposition with the sovereigns that the preceptor 
 of the Infante saved the hopes of the future discoverer of the 
 Indies from their first shipwreck. 
 
 Alonzo de Burgos, as President of the Council, carried 
 the orders of their Majesties into execution and delivered 
 the official certificates of the royal grants to Columbus. In 
 the account books of the royal treasurer, Francisco Gonzales 
 of Seville, we find entries of various sums paid by the 
 order, or by the schedule, of the Bishop of Palencia. 
 When their Highnesses are present, the order is given by 
 them, and the Bishop makes out the schedule, or bill, 
 which is presented to the treasury. In the absence of the 
 sovereigns, the Bishop of Palencia, President of the council, 
 gives the order, and another member draws up, or at least 
 signs, the schedule. 
 
 Thus: "On May 5, 1487, by order of the Bishop of Pa- 
 lencia, the treasurer pays 3,000 tnaravedis to Christopher 
 Columbus, a stranger, who is working at certain things in 
 the service of their Highnesses." 
 
 " On August 27, of the same year, payment of 4,000 
 maravedis, by order of their Highnesses and by schedule 
 of the Bishop." 
 
 "On July 3, Columbus receives 3,000 maravedis towards 
 expenses of removal." 
 
"On October isth, by order of their Highnesses and by 
 schedule of the Bishop, again 4,000 wzarav^^/i'."* 
 
 From his first arrival in Spain, therefore, the hands of 
 two Dominicans were proffered to Columbus. These Domi- 
 nicans were Diego de Deza and Alonzo de Burgos, but 
 they were both moved by one heart, by that of Deza, the 
 staunch protector of Columbus, whom the royal books in 
 that hour of trial call a stranger the first time they record 
 his name. 
 
 Finally, to bring the question of the Salamanca Junta to 
 a close, we shall take up a statement of the learned M. 
 Harrisse. We are by no means inclined to believe with him 
 that the conference, of which we have spoken, was "di- 
 rected by Talavera." f Not only is there nothing to prove 
 such a role on the part of Talavera, but the circumstances 
 themselves render it improbable. Maldonado, indeed, assures 
 us that, in company with the Prior of Prado, he assisted at 
 the junta; but he does not at all point out what part was 
 there taken by Talavera; and if Maldonado mentions this 
 personage alone, it is by reason of his relations with him 
 and on account of the high dignities to which he subse- 
 quently attained. On another hand, there is a strong un- 
 likelihood that a simple religious, coming into the midst of a 
 body of savants, many of whom preceded him in rank by their 
 scientific titles, or by their official dignity, would be called 
 to take the direction of the commission. If any function of 
 this nature is to be attributed to Talavera, it ought to be 
 
 * " En dicho dia (5 Mayo de 1487) di i Cristobal Colomo, extrangero, tres 
 mil Maravedis, que esta aqui faciendo alg^nas cosas complideras al servicio 
 de Sus Altezas, por c^dula de Alonza de Quintanilla, con mandamiento del 
 Obispo (de Palencia)." 
 
 "En 27 de dicho mes (Agosto de 1487) di d Crist6bal Colomo quatro mil 
 Maravedis para ir al Real por mandado de Sus Altezas por cddula del 
 Obispo." 
 
 " Son siete mil Maravedis con tres mil que se le mandaron dar para ayuda 
 de su costa por otra partida de 3 de Julio." 
 
 "En dicho dia (15 de Octubre de 1487) di a Cristobal Colomo cuatro mil 
 Maravedis que Sus Altezas le mandaron dar para ayuda d su corta por c^dula 
 del Obispo." — Navarrete, Coleccion, t. ii. p. 4. 
 
 t Christophe Colotnb, t. i. p. 363. 
 
at the commission of the end of 1491, for the Histories of 
 Ferdinand Columbus then positively assign such a role to 
 him.* 
 
 But it is known with what mistrust the data of this work 
 should be accepted, and we shall show farther on that, in 
 regard to the rSles of the pretended protectors of Columbus, 
 it has no more authority than on many other points wherein 
 it is fairly crammed with gross and impudent errors. If Deza 
 assisted at the Salamanca conferences — and everything in- 
 duces us to believe that he did — he must have been found 
 there in the first rank. The junta was an assembly of 
 savants, and it was as one of them that he must have taken 
 part in their deliberations. But he was also preceptor of 
 the Infante, and he had occupied the first chair of the uni- 
 versity ; it is therefore readily conceivable that, in these de- 
 bates, with his twofold title, he must have had the prece- 
 dence, at once, of honor and of scientific attainment. 
 
 It may appear fastidious to our readers to behold us thus 
 laboriously threading a path hedged in with many difficulties, 
 with the sole object of placing beyond doubt a fact which 
 writers have long since accepted without hesitation, which 
 the arts have popularized, and which legend has largely ex- 
 ploited. But historical criticism nowadays makes urgent de- 
 mands, which must be taken into consideration. Far from 
 complaining of its severity and mistrust, we laud its char- 
 acter ; for there, whither its jealous sceptre has passed, 
 history has been raised up, renewed and more beautiful, 
 upon a pedestal henceforth indestructible and alone worthy of 
 the truth. The vulgar will always abandon rigorous history 
 
 * " Le altezze loro la commisero al Prior di Prado, che poi fu Archi- 
 vescovo di Granata," etc. — Historie del Fernando Colombo, etc., Venetia, 1571. 
 p. f. 32, verso. In this passage the writer of the Histories had the deposi- 
 tion of Maldonado under his eyes, but, since it bears no express date, he 
 absurdly put the fact down as having taken place in 1491, not suspecting 
 that Talavera was then no longer Prior of Prado and that he had already 
 become Archbishop of Granada. He has materially preserved Maldonado's 
 formula, true of the junta of 1486-1487, but erroneous of 1491. As to the 
 chief role attributed to Talavera, the Histories have simply imagined it, 
 arbitrarily glossing the data of Maldonado under that necessity of amplifica- 
 tion which they exhibit throughout. 
 
for the amplifications of romance and of legend ; but the think- 
 ing man will find more joy and honor in holding the 
 golden, labor-conquered grain of truth in the palm of his 
 hand than in the possession of puerile or imaginary treas- 
 ures. 
 
 Be it now permitted us rapidly to sketch the general aspect of 
 what we believe the Salamanca Junta to have been, sepa- 
 rating the great lines of this event from the fundamental 
 criticisms established in the preceding pages. 
 
 When Christopher Columbus came to the Court of Castille 
 with the offer of his services, promising the discovery, not 
 of a New World, but of a shorter route to the Indies, the 
 Catholic sovereigns must have been moved by the solicitations 
 of a twofold impulse : one of distrust of an adventurer, 
 and of a project perhaps a mere chimera ; another of de- 
 sire and of hope for the advantages which the recent dis- 
 coveries of the Portuguese and the progress of navigation 
 had made possible. It was of the wisdom of the Sovereigns 
 of Castille and Leon not likely to embark in an enterprise 
 of this nature. They must needs reflect, and, above all, con- 
 sult. In the impossibility of rapidly treating about the 
 affair, by reason of the grave undertakings which Ferdinand 
 and Isabella then had on their hands, and also by reason 
 of the lack of competent men among their immediate re- 
 tainers, Columbus was given the hope and the prospect of a 
 serious examination of his schemes as soon as circumstances 
 would make it possible. From the year i486 there must 
 have been under consideration a plan for the consultation of 
 savants and specialists, and that, to all appearances, at Sal- 
 amanca, where the most competent and skillful in the mat- 
 ter seemed already assembled. When the project took 
 shape, Columbus came to the front, and, with that resolu- 
 tion and tenacity of purpose which were at the bottom of 
 his character, he prepared the way for an official examina- 
 tion of his ideas. The capital importance which such a 
 measure must have been to him would not permit him to 
 leave anything to chance. 
 
 At Salamanca he found Diego de Deza, a professor the 
 most in evidence at the university. The ideas of Deza, 
 
which were not other than those of his school, touching the 
 problems raised by Columbus, at once put him in accord 
 with a man who felt in himself the energy of practically 
 demonstrating the truth of theories hitherto confined to the 
 halls of academies and schools. Pending the arrival of the 
 Catholic sovereigns and awaiting their appointment of his 
 judges, Columbus, through Deza, entered into friendly rela- 
 tions with the Dominicans of St. Stephen's, the most im- 
 portant and most lettered convent of the city. Deza's ideas, 
 which were also those of the learned monks of this house, 
 assured Columbus a friendly reception. He was lodged, fed, 
 entertained, as Remesal says, by the monks of St. Stephen's. 
 To this day, in the environs of the city, there is pointed 
 out a sort of villa to which tradition has attached the name 
 of Columbus, and which is regarded as having been placed 
 at the disposition of the Genoese mariner by the convent of 
 Dominicans, of which it was a dependency. In Deza and 
 in his colleagues Columbus found convinced and devoted 
 auxiliaries. Many a time, awaiting the official examination 
 projected by the Cotirt, the solicitor must have discussed 
 with the religious of St, Stephen's the theories and the 
 visions that beset his mind ; and so it was that, provided 
 with the double hospitality of body and of ideas, the cou- 
 rageous stranger awaited the coming of the sovereigns. 
 
 The winter of 1486-87 witnessed the sequel to their design 
 of forming a scientific commission to examine Columbus' 
 schemes of discovery. The chief consultors would naturally 
 be taken from the personnel of the university. With these 
 were associated various scientific notabilities, such as they 
 were to be had in those days, and in this way it was that 
 Hernando de Talavera was summoned from his convent. To 
 the men of letters were also joined certain specialists or sea- 
 faring men, as well as some delegates of the Royal Council, 
 like Maldonado, whose deposition has rendered us such impor- 
 tant service in this discussion. 
 
 Several sessions must have been devoted to the schemes of 
 the discovery of the Indies as they were proposed by Colum- 
 bus. The debates, for the most part, assuredly turned on the 
 discussion of the scientific authorities of the school, and of 
 
 73 
 
the practical difficulties of putting them into execution. At 
 the time a double trend of ideas unequally divided the minds 
 of Spain. One, scientific, handed down from Aristotle, and 
 deeply imbedded in the classical teaching of the Dominican 
 school by the labors of Albert the Great and of St. Thomas 
 Aquinas ; another from St. Augustine and Lactantius, aug- 
 mented by the adherence of Nicholas de Lyra, denying the 
 existence of the antipodes, and defending its position with 
 arguments drawn from scriptural texts, superficially under- 
 stood, and with the current popular and unscientific objections. 
 Unfortunately, these last views had a strong hold on the 
 greater part of the minds of the entire peninsula. The 
 episcopacy, as an eye-witness of the junta of 1491, where 
 the same discussions were renewed, will inform us, united in 
 an almost solid opposition against the cosmographical ideas 
 of Aristotle, and the testimony of Maldonado further assures 
 us that the universality of the consulters of the Salamanca 
 conferences repudiated the views of Columbus. The inspired 
 navigator, along with the most learned of the company, vainly 
 argued down their objections, and finally he was almost alone 
 to persevere in his ideas and in his resolutions. 
 
 These memorable conferences were held at St. Stephen's 
 Convent, the then intellectual centre of Salamanca, and the 
 hall where Columbus so boldly defended the inspirations of 
 his genius is shown even to this day. This first commission 
 brought nothing to light. Its savants, for a time, yet closed 
 the gates of the New World to their discoverer. 
 
 The conferences of 1487 having resulted in a pure negation 
 of the practicability of the schemes proposed, logic required 
 the sovereigns of Spain to give Columbus conge ; but it was 
 not so. There was a private influence somehow exercised on 
 Ferdinand and Isabella, and Columbus was enabled to follow 
 up his plans, aided and sustained by royal grants. No doubt 
 that Deza was the agent of these benefactions. Living at 
 the Court, in consequence of his office of preceptor of the 
 Infante, he found, over and above his personal credit with 
 the princes, the support of his colleague and friend, Alonzo 
 de Burgos, President of the Royal Council and chief mover 
 of the administrative resolutions. In the danger that threat- 
 
ened Columbus at that moment, he himself assures us that 
 it was Deza who saved all and preserved America for Spain. 
 There is no doubt that Deza from the first assumed the 
 attitude which we have ascribed to him, and persevered in 
 it to the end. This is apparent from the very words of the 
 Admiral, affirming that Deza had always favored him and 
 desired his honor ever since his arrival in Spain — words 
 amply commented by the authority of Remesal and by the 
 conjuncture of events during the years i486 and 1487. 
 
 The six years, or thereabouts, spent by Columbus in effecting 
 the acceptance of his projects by the Court of Castille, em- 
 brace the period between two juntas, or scientific conferences — 
 that of Salamanca, of which we have already spoken, and 
 that of Granada, or, to give its new name to that city, 
 which had passed from the hands of the Moors into those of 
 Ferdinand and Isabella, Santa Fe. Neither of these commis- 
 sions favored Columbus. Of the latter we should have nothing 
 or almost nothing to say, if, after its sessions and negative 
 results, we did not once more find Diego de Deza saving 
 the projects of Columbus from final wreck, and if it were 
 not here necessary to undertake a task of historical justice. 
 
 It was toward the latter part of the year 1491, that Columbus 
 casually stopped at the Franciscan Monastery of La Rabida,* 
 and there received hospitality from the Guardian, Father Antonio 
 de Marchena, who encouraged him in his designs. The personal 
 mediation of this religious with Isabella, and his journey to the 
 Court in company with Columbus, resulted in the formation of a 
 new scientific tribunal, with a view to a final examination of the 
 propositions of the tenacious navigator. The existence of these 
 conferences of Santa Fe is placed beyond doubt, and that inde- 
 pendently of the empoisoned source of the Histories.\ 
 
 According to Las Casas, the sequel of these conferences 
 was precisely the same as that of the Salamanca commis- 
 sion. Columbus was not at all understood there. Las Casas 
 relates the story in terms of rare energy : ' ' Again they 
 
 * " En se rendant i Huelva il s'arrete fortuitement au Monastere de La Rabida, 
 en Octobre ou Novembre, 1491." — Harrisse, Christophe Colomb, i. p. 357. 
 
 t " L'autre (conference) se tint i Santa Fd, pendant les derniferes mois de 1491." — 
 Harrisse, loc. cit., i. p. 363. The report of an eye-witness, Geraldini, is cited later. 
 
 75 
 
busied themselves to the utmost. A great number of per- 
 sons were assembled together. Philosophers were consulted, 
 and astrologers and cosmographers (if there were then any in 
 Castille deserving the name), and mariners and pilots. All, 
 as with one voice, declared that the schemes of Columbus 
 were folly and vanity. They ridiculed him and tore him at 
 every turn. The Admiral himself bears witness to these 
 facts, and narrates them several times in his letters to the 
 Sovereigns." * 
 
 Contemning the testimony of the Histories and neglecting 
 that of Las Casas, M. Harrisse believes that, from certain 
 data, which we shall examine, he can infer that the Granada 
 commission was favorable to Columbus, thanks to the power- 
 ful protection of Mendoza, ' ' who there played a decisive 
 role."f 
 
 We believe either part of the proposition to be absolutely 
 untenable. The Commission was not favorable to Columbus, 
 nor was Mendoza his protector, at least on the grounds given. 
 The historical basis upon which M. Harrisse rests his asser- 
 tion is constituted exclusively by the authority of Oviedo, who 
 recognizes Mendoza as protector of Columbus, and by the 
 testimony of Alessandro Geraldini, who assisted at the meet- 
 ing, and confirms the fact of Mendoza' s presence there. 
 This process, we believe, is to seek, with data of little 
 surety, to solve a problem of which we may have a solu- 
 tion from documents very authoritative and otherwise posi- 
 tive. 
 
 First, as to the information given by Geraldini, it is of 
 absolute value to prove the fact of the Granada commission 
 at which he assisted; but beyond that, it does not in any 
 way support the assertion that the conference was favorable 
 to Columbus; on the contrary, it goes directly to confirm 
 the recital of Las Casas. 
 
 *"Hici^rouse de nuevo muchas diligencias, juntaus muchas personas, hu- 
 bi^rouse informaciones de filosofos, y astrologos, y cosmlgrafos (si con todo 
 entonces habfa algunos perfectos en Castilla), de marineros y pilotos, y 
 todos, d una voz decian que era todo locura y vanidao, y d cada paso 
 burlaban y escarnecian de ello, segun que el Almirante muchas veces d los 
 Reyes en sus cartas, lo refiere y certifica." — Hist, de las Indias, i. p. 243. 
 
 t Christophe Colomb, t. i. p. 363. 
 
 76 
 
"There was," says Geraldini, "a diversity of opinion in 
 the council, because many Spanish bishops regarded the be- 
 lief in the existence of the antipodes as heretical, by reason 
 of the authority of Nicholas de Lyra and of St. Augustine. 
 I, who was behind Diego de Mendoza, perhaps because I 
 was young, objected that St. Augustine and Lactantius 
 could have been very great theologians, but decidedly poor 
 cosmographers." * 
 
 From the testimony of this eye-witness one can easily 
 gather that the junta was far from being favorable, since 
 the bishops quite generally held that the ideas of Columbus 
 were heretical, and since it attributed to a young man's 
 presumption the observation which we to-day find a very 
 sensible one, but which, in the sages of Granada, perhaps 
 stirred up no other sentiment than that of pity. 
 
 As to the part attributed to Mendoza, the words of Ger- 
 aldini cannot be taken to establish anything else than the 
 presence of the great Cardinal at the conference. 
 
 We have now to consider the authority of Oviedo. "In 
 nearly all the histories and chronicles," writes M. Harrisse, 
 "where there is question of the discovery of the New 
 World and of the tribulations which Columbus suffered, it 
 is neither to Deza, nor to Quintanilla, nor to Cabrero that 
 the merit of the enterprise is attributed, but to Pedro Gon- 
 zalez de Mendoza, grand Cardinal of Spain." f This obser- 
 vation made, M. Harrisse himself goes on to reduce it to 
 its just value. Closely examining these recitals and these 
 histories, "one remains convinced that their only source of 
 
 * " Cum coadunato primariorum consilio variae sententiae essent, eo quod 
 multi antistites patriae Hispanse manifestum reum haereseos esse plane as- 
 serebant, eo quod Nicolaus a Lyra totam terrse humanae compaginem ab 
 Insulis, Fortunatis Orientem usque supra mare extentam nulla latera habere 
 per inferiorem partem spherae obtorta dicit. Et Divus Aurelius Augustinus 
 nullos esse Antipodas affirmat. Tunc ego qui forte juvenis, retro eram 
 Didacum Mendozam, sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae Cardinalem, hominem genera, 
 integritatd, prudentia, rerum notitia, et omnibus praeclarae naturae ornamentis 
 illustrem petii. Cui cum referrem Nicolaum a Lyra, virum sacrae theologiae 
 exponendae egregium fuisse, et Aurelium Augustinum doctrina et sanctitate 
 magnum, tamen cosmographia caruisse," eKc.—ltinerariiin:, Romae, 1631, p. 
 204 ; Harrisse, /. c, i. p. 380. 
 
 + Christopke Colomb, i. p. 378. 
 
 77 
 
information is Oviedo or Gomara." No doubt the text of 
 Oviedo is formal. Mendoza recommended Columbus to their 
 Catholic Majesties, and through Mendoza and Quintanilla, 
 who had presented him to the Cardinal, he was able to 
 obtain a hearing from their Highnesses. 
 
 There is nothing to hinder the admission that Mendoza 
 presented Columbus to Ferdinand and Isabella, and that he 
 testified interest in and good-will towards the poor, great, 
 misunderstood man. Geraldiui also expressly mentions that 
 " on the recommendation of an illustrious man (viz. Men- 
 doza) the Sovereigns were moved by the distress of Columbus."* 
 
 But that the assistance and mediation of Mendoza were 
 continued through the Santa Fe Conference, above all so far 
 as to render it favorable to Columbus, it is impossible to 
 admit. There is nothing more natural than that Mendoza, 
 by reason of his high position, took part in carrying the 
 royal orders into execution, after it was finally resolved to 
 attempt to realize the projects of Columbus ; and it was 
 just as natural that Oviedo therefore attributed the honor 
 of the enterprise to the great Cardinal as to a primary agent, 
 who, without having carried on the negotiations, nevertheless 
 coupled his name therewith. But that Mendoza entered into 
 the views and interests of Columbus so far as to have the 
 right of being regarded as the efficacious cause of the dis- 
 covery and to reap the honor of having given America to 
 Spain is erroneous, and it is Columbus himself who rectifies 
 the error. 
 
 We have already seen the formal opinion of Las Casas, 
 who asserts that the junta of Granada had treated the pro- 
 positions of Columbus with utter contempt, and Las Casas 
 appeals to the writings of the unhappy navigator to support 
 his assertion. Columbus expressed himself on this question 
 very clearly, indeed, and it is he whom we must hear be- 
 fore all others. In the beginning of the account of his third 
 
 * " Is Illiberim urbem, quam nostro saculo Granatam vocant, ad Ferdi- 
 nandum regem et Elisabetam reginam perexit, qui auctoritate clari hominis 
 moti pro Colono misero. Quo intra paucos dies veniente, cum coadunato 
 primariorum homininum," etc., as in the note cited above. — Geraldini, Iti- 
 nerariiim^ p. 204. 
 
 78 
 
voyage, Columbus addresses himself to the Sovereigns and 
 briefly sums up the aspect and state of that period, during 
 which he had fought so hard against all to get his projects 
 accepted by the Sovereigns of Spain : 
 
 "Most serene, most high and powerful Princes, the King 
 and the Queen, our Seigniors: It is the Holy Trinity who 
 formerly moved your Highnesses to the enterprise of the 
 Indies. In its iniinite goodness it made me its messenger, 
 and it was as its ambassador that I came into your royal 
 presence, as to the greatest Christian princes and also as 
 to the most devoted to the defense and propagation of the 
 faith. The persons who then had knowledge of my projects 
 held them as impossible. They did not imagine any other 
 means of increasing your riches than the ordinary goods of 
 fortune, and they were prepossessed by that idea. In that 
 affair I spent six or seven years of hard labor, showing, as 
 best I knew, how much it would serve Our Lord to propa- 
 gate His Holy Name and His Faith among many peoples, and 
 how much that work was worthy of great princes, as much 
 by reason of its own excellence as by reason of the high 
 fame and imperishable memory which would be connected 
 therewith. There was also need of treating the human side 
 of the project. I then showed what numerous and credible 
 savants had written in their histories ; how they related that 
 there were great riches in those countries. It was even my 
 duty to report for my purpose the opinion of those who 
 had treated of the position of the world. Finally, your High- 
 nesses determined to put the project into execution, thereby 
 proving the great heart which your Majesties always had 
 for great enterprises, because those who had known that 
 affair or assisted at the discussion, all, in a body, regarded 
 the project as a burlesque, save two friars who were always 
 constant."* 
 
 The words of Columbus, as is evident, are most clear 
 and most explicit. When he first came to Spain, those per- 
 sons who learned about his projects declared them to be 
 
 * Navarrete, Coleccion, i., Beginning of Third Voyage: "Vine con la emba- 
 jada d su Real conspectu, movido como d los mas altos Principes de cris- 
 tianos . . . las personas que entendieron en ello lo tuvieron por impo- 
 
 79 
 
impossible: ''Las personas que entendieron en ello lo 
 tuvieron por imposibiley That was at the Salamanca Com- 
 mission of 1486-1487. Later, after six or seven years of 
 painful struggle, the propositions of Columbus were again 
 submitted to a board of examination. All who assisted at 
 this rehearing and who heard the exposition of his ideas, 
 all unanimously held the affair to be a farce: " Todos los 
 que habian entetidido en ello y oido esta platica todos d una 
 mano lo tenian a burla." It cannot be doubted that Colum- 
 bus here refers to the last negotiations and to the Com- 
 mission of Granada. The word platica is very applicable 
 to that discussion where he gave an exposition of the ideas 
 which he described above. Finally, the text formally and 
 decisively excludes all concourse and support other than that 
 of the two religious who so constantly defended him: '■'■Salvo 
 dos frailes que siempre fueron constantes." 
 
 Who, then, are those two men to whom is due the honor 
 of having been so resolute in their adherence to Columbus ? 
 Navarrete, whose opinion has found general acceptation, 
 says they were the preceptor of the Infante Don Juan, 
 Diego de Deza, and the Guardian of the convent of La 
 Rabida, Antonio de Marchena. M. Harrisse, to whom the 
 early history of America is beholden for many new and 
 critical views, would exclude Deza from the glory of having 
 been one of the two monks. Preoccupied with the task of 
 separating the traditional personality of the Guardian of La 
 Rabida into two Franciscan monks, viz., Juan Perez and 
 Antonio de Marchena, M. Harrisse, the learned author of 
 the Vze de Christophe Colo7nb, has endeavored to make the 
 text quoted above do service in support of his position. 
 If Deza is not one of the two friars referred to by Colum- 
 bus, it is likely that they are the two Franciscans at whom 
 he points. Whatever there may be in the probable duality de- 
 
 sibile. . . . Puse eu esto seis 6 siete afios de grave pena, demostrando lo 
 mejor que yo sabia cuanto servicio se podia hacer d nuestro Seflor en 
 esto ... en fin Vuestras Altezas determinaron que esto se pusiese en 
 obra. Aqui mostraron el grande corazi6n que siempre hicieron en toda cosa 
 grande, porque todos los que habian entendido en ello y oido esta platica 
 todos d una mano lo tenian a burla, salvo dos frailes que siempre fueron 
 constantes." 
 
 80 
 
fended by M. Harrisse, his reasoning does not bear him out, for 
 he has unwittingly started out on an erroneous line of argument. 
 
 M. Harrisse thinks that Columbus would not have used the 
 word fraile to designate Deza after his elevation to the 
 dignity of bishop, and Columbus could not have known him 
 when he was yet a simple friar. 
 
 " Columbus speaks of two monks who aided him. Antonio de 
 Marchena was certainly one of them, but who was the other ? 
 All the historians name Diego de Deza. Deza, it is true, 
 early took the (monk's) frock, and was all his life affiliated 
 to the Order of St. Dominic ; but this learned ecclesiastic 
 did not know Columbus when he was only a simple fraile. 
 ' A monk' — is that the expression the Admiral would have 
 used in speaking of a prelate who, after having been a 
 professor of theology at the University of Salamanca, and 
 preceptor of the heir to the crown, was already Bishop of 
 Zamora, when he met him for the first time in 1486-148 7, 
 and who, at the time he speaks of him, had already occu- 
 pied the important sees of Salamanca, of Jaen, and of Pa- 
 lencia, and was titular confessor of the Catholic Sovereigns? 
 "We think, on the contrary, that the two monks alluded to 
 by Columbus were Fr. Antonio de Marchena and Fr. Juan 
 Perez, whom, after the example of Las Casas, we must 
 regard as two perfectly distinct personalities."* 
 
 Even if Columbus had not known Deza except after his 
 nomination to the episcopal dignity, there is, nevertheless, 
 nothing to prove that the word fraile could not be used to 
 
 *"Colonib parle de deux moines qui I'aidferent. Antonio de Marchena ^tait 
 I'un certainement ; mais qui fut I'autre ? 
 
 "Tous les historians d^signent Di^go de D^za. D^za prit le froc de bonne 
 heure, il est vrai, et resta toute sa vie affili^ i I'ordre de Saint Dominique ; 
 mais ce savant eccl^siastique ne connut pas Colomb lorsqu'il ne fut que simple 
 fraile. ' Un moine,' est-ce I'expression dont I'amiral se serait servi pour 
 parler d'un pr^lat qui, apres avoir ^te professeur de th^ologie i I'Uni- 
 versit^ de Salamanque et prdcepteur de I'h^ritier de la couronne, dtait d^ji 
 ^veque de Zamora quand il le rencontra pour la premifere fois en 1486-1487, 
 et qui, i r^poque oil il en parle, avait d^ji pass^ par les importants 
 ^vech^s de Salamanque, de Jaen, de Palencia, et ^tait le confesseur en litre 
 des Rois Catholiques. 
 
 " Nous pensons, au contraire, que le deux moines auxquels Colomb fait 
 allusion ^taient le Fr. Antonio de Marchena et le Fr. Juan Perez, dont il 
 
 81 
 
designate a monk who had become bishop, especially if referred 
 to in connection with another simple friar. 
 
 In point of fact, in Spain, about the sixteenth century, 
 bishops taken from monastic orders retained their appellation 
 of fraile, and to be convinced of it we have but to turn to 
 the first pages of the " History of the Indies," by Las Casas, 
 where the aged missionary places his titles of fraile and 
 bishop side by side: '■'Don Fray Bartdlomd de Las Casas, 
 fraile de Santo Domingo, obispo de Chiapa."* 
 
 But, however that may be, M. Harrisse started out on a 
 wrong hypothesis. Deza was not bishop when Columbus knew 
 him at Salamanca, nor, furthermore, was he bishop at the 
 time of the Santa Fe commission. It was two years and a 
 half later, on April 14th, 1494, that he was nominated to the 
 see of Zamora.f Therefore, before the discovery of America, 
 Columbus knew Deza only as a simple religious, that is, as a 
 fraile. Diego de Deza, consequently, is, beyond all dispute, 
 one of the two sole personages who were favorable to 
 Columbus at Santa Fe, and we shall later adduce further 
 testimony of the Admiral — testimony otherwise most explicit — 
 which will leave room for no doubt whatever. 
 
 As to that which would tend to admit one or several 
 other protectors besides the two monks which Columbus 
 recognizes, his own authority makes the thing impossible. 
 
 Can it really be conceived that Columbus would have made 
 the like assertions to the Catholic Sovereigns with so much 
 
 faut faire, k I'exemple de Las Casas, deux personnalitds parfaitement dis- 
 tinctcs. " — Christophe Colomb, i. 371. 
 
 M. Harrisse takes all this information about Deza from Echard, Scriptores, 
 O. P., t. ii. p. 51. 
 
 According to the Bullarium Ord. Prced., t. iv., and Gams, Series Episc. 
 Eccles. Cath., the following are the sees occupied by Deza: Zamora (Bull. 
 April 14, 1494, no date given by Gams) ; Salamanca (Bull. 1497, Gams, 1496) ; 
 Jaen (Bull. 1498 circiter ; Gams, 1497); Palcficia (Bull. 1500; Gams, 1500); Seville 
 (Bull. 1504 ; Gams, 1505). The letters of nomination arrived on Dec. 21, 1504. 
 Deza took possession by proxy early in 1505, and only made his solemn entry 
 on Oct. 24 of the same year. (Ortiz de Zufiiga, Anales, lib. xii. et xiii. ); 
 Toledo (Bull. 1523 ; Gams, 1523.) He died on June 9, 1523, at the age of eighty 
 years. 
 
 * T. i. p. 34. 
 
 t Bull. Ord. Freed., t. iv. p. 197. 
 
 82 
 
insistence, about facts well known to them, if those assertions 
 had not been well founded and notorious ? Can any one 
 imagine Christopher Columbus, patronized by the great 
 Cardinal of Spain, the third Majesty, as he was then 
 popularly called, declaring to the Sovereigns that he had 
 received no concourse except from two monks ? Questions 
 of the kind scarcely call for consideration. 
 
 After the junta of Santa Fe, all seemed to be hopelessly 
 lost ; but, nevertheless, the prospects of the unfortunate 
 solicitor were never brighter. 
 
 The guardian of La Rabida had accomplished his mission 
 with the conference of Santa Fe, whither he had conducted 
 his illustrious protigd. After that, he could succor Columbus 
 in no other way than by extending him that sympathy 
 which the noble hearted are ever ready to give to genius 
 overtaken by ill fortune. 
 
 As for Diego de Deza, he lived at the Court, w^here his 
 preceptorial charge kept him near to the person of the 
 young prince, the heir. It was his mediation which saved 
 all. "After the sessions of the commission," says Las Casas, 
 "Columbus was entirely abandoned, the sovereigns giving 
 him to understand that there was nothing for him to do 
 but to withdraw. On receiving the Queen's order to depart, 
 he took leave of those who had befriended and favored 
 him, and set out for Cordova, with the firm intention of 
 proceeding to France, to present his schemes there and once 
 more to try his fortune."* 
 
 But in that hour, some one stopped the discoverer, sad 
 but not discouraged. That person did not discover the 
 Indies, but he assuredly saved them for Spain. That man 
 was Diego de Deza. For this fact we have the warranty, 
 not of suspected chroniclers, but once more of Christopher 
 Columbus himself. He surely had discernment enough, and 
 was sufficiently acquainted with the Court not to confound 
 
 * " Vino en total despedimiento, mandando los Reyes que le dijesen que 
 se fuese en hora buena. ... El cual, despedido por mandado de la 
 Reina, despidi6se ^1 de los que alii le favorecian ; tom6 el camino para 
 C6rdoba con determinada voluntad de pasarse S, Francia y hacer lo que 
 arriba se dijo." — Hist, de las Indias^ i. p. 243. 
 
 83' 
 
Deza with Cardinal Mendoza, as does Oviedo, and still less 
 with Louis de Santangel, as do the Histories. 
 
 On Dec. 21, 1504, Columbus wrote to his son and successor, 
 Don Diego, telling him to take steps to learn if Queen 
 Isabella had mentioned him in her will; and he furthermore 
 exhorts Diego to urge Deza, who was then bishop of 
 Palencia, to take the matter in hand. Then he adds the 
 following memorable words: "It is he (Deza) who was the 
 cause of their Highnesses possessing the Indies, and of my 
 remaining in Castille after I had already set out for foreign 
 parts."* 
 
 Against this testimony, no allegation, no historical sub- 
 tlety will prevail. If any one knew who stopped and de- 
 tained Columbus at the time he left Castille and disuaded 
 him from going to France and finally put him on the way 
 to the Indies, it is Columbus himself. And Columbus tells us, 
 without the possibility of doubt or of equivocation, that that 
 man was he who had been his protector from the first, his 
 friend at Salamanca, the almoner of his first maravedis, 
 Diego de Deza: " // is he who is the cause of their High- 
 nesses possessing the Indies, and of my retnaining in Cas- 
 tille after I was already on the road for foreign parts.'' 
 Far be it from us to wrong any one, but history has its 
 rights. We believe that the united claims of all the protect- 
 ors of Columbus, real and pretended, do not, in the eyes of 
 an impartial mind, overpoise the weight of this immortal phrase. 
 
 Immense was the glory that awaited Columbus on his re- 
 turn from the discovery of the Indies. He was universally 
 extolled. History knows the great triumph and rejoicing 
 with which he was welcomed back after his perilous voyage ; 
 but, alas, it also knows that his good fortune was not to 
 endure. After his second voyage, he became the object of 
 the envy and slander of enemies. He returned from his 
 third voyage, loaded with chains like a criminal and divested 
 
 * " Es de trabajar de saber si la Reina, que Dios tiene, dejo dicho 
 algo en su testamento de mi, y es de dar priesa al Sr. Obispo de Palen- 
 cia, el que fud causa que Sus Altezas hubiesen las Indias, y que yo quedase 
 en Castilla, que ya estaba yo de camino para fuera." — Navarrete, Coleccion, 
 i. p. 356. 
 
 84 
 
of the government of the Indies and of his titles. Although 
 the sovereigns did something to redress his grievances, still 
 they did not render him full justice. From the loth of 
 April, 1495, Ferdinand, contrary to his agreement, had de- 
 clared the navigation of the Indies free.* 
 
 Thenceforth Columbus had to suffer the mistrust and ill- 
 will of the King and of his administration. It was with 
 exceeding difficulty that he prepared for his last voyage and 
 armed four poor caravels. 
 
 The Admiral's expedition of 1502, begun under such 
 unfavorable auspices, resulted in a downright failure. He 
 returned and landed at San Lucar de Barrameda, Nov. 7, 
 1504, and re-entered Spain never again to leave it. This 
 last voyage to the Indies not only failed to better the 
 position of Columbus, but it even notably made it worse. 
 The expedition failed to accomplish its object. The Admiral 
 did not find the straits he had gone to seek off the coasts 
 of Darien. He brought back no gold, although he had 
 caught a glimpse of wealth at Veragua. His ships had 
 encountered fierce gales. Sky and sea seemed united to 
 thwart him. His crew had mutinied woefully, and the 
 dangers he thus ran surpassed even those of tempests. 
 Sufferings and desperate struggling had brought him down 
 and confined him to his bed, and had forever broken his 
 health and energy. The trip to Santo Domingo fairly failed 
 to recover him his revenues and to regain his rights, and, 
 finally, he returned having accomplished nothing, without 
 resources, his crew almost starved, his vessels wrecks, 
 himself almost on the brink of death. 
 
 Disembarking at San Lucar, Columbus' first thought was to 
 proceed to the Court, to give an account of his voyage to 
 the Catholic sovereigns, and to urge them to satisfy his 
 legitimate claims. But sickness detained him at Seville, and 
 all the winter he was unable to set out for the Court. In 
 the meantime, with the design of better securing his rights, 
 he sent his son and successor, Don Diego, to Segovia, to 
 present himself to the sovereigns. The correspondence 
 
 ♦Navarrete, Coleccion, ii. i86, 187. 
 8S 
 
between the father and son during these months of their 
 separation reveals how constant and importunate the Admiral 
 was in pressing his claims upon Ferdinand and Isabella. It 
 is also these letters, written by the failing hand of the 
 Admiral, which have proved of invaluable assistance in this 
 recital of the relations between Columbus and Diego de 
 Deza. They have furnished us the surest and the most 
 important data, which we have so far utilized in this paper. 
 They shall further inform us of the firm reliance which 
 Columbus placed in his protector of Salamanca and Santa Fe 
 down to his last day. 
 
 When Columbus returned from his fourth voyage, Diego de 
 Deza was still at the Court. The young prince, whose preceptor 
 he was, had died (Oct. 4, 1497), at the age of nineteen years. He 
 bore with him to the tomb the regrets of the whole nation, 
 and with him departed the hopes of the aged sovereigns.* 
 
 Ferdinand and Isabella were unwilling to lose the ser\nces 
 of Deza, and they accordingly retained him, raising him to 
 the highest ecclesiastical dignities of the kingdom. In 1497, 
 Deza was transferred from Zamora to the See of Salamanca, 
 and, in the following year, to that of Jaen. It was just 
 at the time that the Inquisitor General, Thomas de Torque- 
 mada, died (Sept. 16, 1498). The sovereigns appointed Deza 
 to succeed him in his oifice, and he was confirmed by a 
 pontifical brief of Dec. ist of the same year. The 
 following year (Dec. 8, 1499), Alonzo de Burgos, the old and 
 faithful friend of Deza, also passed away. Deza replaced 
 him in the See of Palencia (1500), and was honored with 
 the additional titles of first royal confessor and chancellor 
 of Castille. After the Sovereigns, he became the chief 
 personage of the Court, f 
 
 * Don Juan, Prince of Asturias, was born at Seville, June 30, 1479. He 
 died at Salamanca. (M. Lafuente, Historia Generale de EspaHa, Madrid, 1853, 
 torn. X. pp. 62, 75.) At the National Library of Madrid, in the MS. Dd., 
 149. pa&s 1581 there was a letter of Deza to the sovereigns on the death of 
 the prince. Some vandal hand tore out the leaves from page 136 to page 162. 
 We do not know if this valuable document was published, or if there are 
 copies of it extant. The letter very likely contained an account of the last 
 moments of the young prince whom Deza had assisted. 
 
 + " Deinde in Pastorale album admissus quatuor Episcopalium sedium 
 
It was in Deza that Columbus centred his hopes of ob- 
 taining justice and protection from Ferdinand and Isabella. 
 Certainly he could not have desired a patron at once more 
 powerful and more devoted. In his first letter to his son, 
 nay, in the first few lines of his letter, he bears witness 
 to all he owes Deza. " My dear son," writes Columbus, on 
 Nov. 21, 1504, "I received your letter by the courier. You 
 have done well in remaining there, in order to better the 
 state of our affairs and to put them in order. The Lord 
 Bishop of Palencia has always favored me and desired my 
 honor ever since I came to Castille." These words of the 
 Admiral were surely designed to remind the son of all that 
 Deza had done for his father, and to give him to under- 
 stand that in all his business at the Court he should count 
 on the Chancellor of Castille and trust to his unfailing sup- 
 port. Columbus rightly believed that this patronage, already 
 so long exercised, and amidst such solemn circumstances, 
 could not now fail of succoring him in his latest ill-fortune. 
 To this assurance of the signal part Deza had taken in the 
 past, Columbus adds what he further expects to obtain 
 through his mediation : ' ' You should beg him to endeavor 
 to find a remedy for my ills so many. Let him see to it 
 that their Highnesses keep the compact and carry out the 
 letters of favor which they granted to me, in order that I 
 may be indemnified for my many injuries. He may be sure 
 that, if their Highnesses acquit themselves of their obliga- 
 tions, it will prove of incredible advantage to them in for- 
 tune and in glory."* 
 
 Antistites, Zamorensis nempe, Salmanticensis, et Palentinae (quam dum 
 regeret summum etiam Fidei causarum in his regnis arbitrium tutelam 
 suscepit) Gienennensisque una cum honoribus Regxim Protomystae, Castellseque 
 Cancellarum ; atque inde Hispalensis archiepiscopus." — Nic. Antonio, Bibl. 
 Nov. Hispan., t. i. 215, col. 2. This writer erroneously places Jaen after 
 Palencia. It was as Bishop of Palencia that Deza received his appointment 
 to the chancellorship of Castille. Some writers give Nov. 7th as the date of 
 the death of Alonzo de Burgos. See Gams, Series Episcop., p. 64. In 
 Touron, correct the date of his death, t. iii. p. 697, by that of p. 727. 
 The chronology of the sees occupied by Deza has already been given in the 
 preceding pages. For the date of his appointment as Inquisitor : Llorente, 
 Histoire de P Inquisition d''Espagne, Paris, 1817, t. i. p. 289. 
 
 ♦ " El Sr. Obispo de Palencia, siempre desque yo vine i Castilla me ha 
 
 87 
 
Columbus, detained at Seville by fatigue and attacks of 
 gout, announces his near departure for the Court, but he 
 fears that sickness will hold him back on the way. His fears 
 were, indeed, realized. Sickness and the severity of the 
 winter delayed his journey until spring. 
 
 Meanwhile, among the recommendations which the Admiral 
 makes to his son, be that one noted in which he asks him to 
 endeavor to have the wages paid to those sailors who had 
 accompanied him on his last voyage and who were now 
 reduced to very straitened circumstances. This matter is 
 also referred to the Bishop of Palencia.* 
 
 In his letter of Dec. i, Columbus congratulates his son on 
 having remained at the Court in the interest of their affairs. 
 He directs him to procure a copy of the articles which 
 recognize his rights in the royal privileges, so that he may 
 act in his own name in the absence of his father. He exhorts 
 him to endeavor to secure the revenues accruing to them 
 on the exports of the Indies, and he adds: "You should 
 apprise the Bishop of this matter, and also of the great 
 confidence I have in him."f 
 
 About this time the question of establishing several 
 bishoprics in the Indies was first discussed, and Deza was 
 charged to negotiate the matter. Columbus expressed a 
 wish to be heard on the subject before it came to be de- 
 finitely arranged: "It is said here that measures are being 
 taken to send three or four bishops to the Indies, and 
 that the matter has been entrusted to the Lord Bishop of 
 Palencia. After having recommended me to his kindness, tell 
 him that I believe it would be of service to their Highnesses 
 if I could consult with him before anything is concluded."^: 
 
 favorecido y deseado mi honra. Agora es de le suplicar que les plega de 
 entender en el remedio de tantos agravfos mi'os ; y que el asiento y cartas 
 de merced que sus altezas me hicieron, que las manden cumplir y satisfacer 
 tantos daiios ; y sea cierto que sf esto hacen Sus Altezas que les multi- 
 plicard la hacienda y grandeza in increible g^ado. "— Navarrete, Coleccion, t. i. 
 P- 334- 
 
 * Postscript to the same letter. 
 
 + " Al Sr. Obispo de Palencia es de dar parte desto con de la tanta 
 confianza que ru su merced tengo."— Navarrete, Coleccion, i. p. 339. 
 
 X " Ac4 se diz que se ordena de enviar 6 facer tres 6 quatro Obispos de las 
 
 88 
 
Columbus likewise announces the departure of his brother, 
 Bartholomew, and of his j'oungest son, Ferdinand, for the 
 Court. They are to join Diego and aid him in pushing his 
 affairs. They set out on Dec. 5, taking with them the sum 
 of 150 ducats and a memorial wherein Columbus sets forth 
 the object of his claims. 
 
 Meanwhile Isabella had died, Nov. 27, at Medina del 
 Campo. She it was, of the two Sovereigns of Castille, who 
 had testified a real interest in Columbus, and who had 
 treated him with kindness. She was taken from this life 
 just when her protection was more than ever necessary to 
 Columbus to clear up the difficulties of his position. One of 
 the first cares of the Admiral, after the regretted loss of his 
 royal friend, was to learn if Isabella had made any provi- 
 sion for him in her will. Again it is to Deza that he ap- 
 plies for the desired information. Writing to his son Diego, 
 on Dec. 21, he says: "You should try to learn if the Queen, 
 who is before God, has mentioned me in her testament. 
 Urge the Lord Bishop of Palencia to take this matter in 
 hand. It is he who is the cause of their Highnesses pos- 
 sessing the Indies, and who detained me in Castille after I 
 was already on the way for foreign parts."* 
 
 No one could better advise Columbus of this point than 
 Diego de Deza. As confessor of Isabella and Chancellor of 
 Castille, it was for him to witness the last moments of the 
 Queen, and to be concerned in the question of the succes- 
 sion. He was at Medina del Campo during Isabella's ill- 
 ness, f to assist his royal and Christian penitent, and 
 she, in her affection for Deza, chose him to be one of her 
 
 Indias, y que al Sr. Obispo de Palencia estd remitido esto. Despues de 
 me encomendado en su merced dile que creo que serd servicio de Sus Alte- 
 zas que yo fable con el primero que concluya esto."— Navarrete, Coleccion, i. 
 p. 340. 
 
 *"Es de trabajar de saber si la Reina, que Dios tiene, dej6 dicho algo 
 en su testamento de mi, y es de dar priesa al Sr. Obispo Palencia, el que 
 pue causa que Sus Altezas hubiesen las Indias, y que yo quedase en Cas- 
 tilla, que ya estaba yo de camino para fuera." — Navarrete, Coleccion, i. p. 346. 
 
 + On November 15, 1504, Deza published a regulation relative to the In- 
 quisition (Llorente, Hist. Criti. de I'/ng. Esp., i. p. 331), and it was dated 
 from Medino del Campo (Touron, /. c, p. 727). 
 
 89 
 
executors, placing his name immediately after those of the King 
 and of the Archbishop, the primate of Toledo. * 
 
 Unfortunately, the Queen had not mentioned the viceroy 
 of the Indies in her will. The deep respect and the entire 
 deference which she professed for her associate on the 
 throne had undoubtedly made her fearful of marking out a 
 line of conduct for Ferdinand, and she was unwilling to in- 
 commode or displease him. By the death of Isabella, 
 Columbus must have realized that the best of his hopes 
 were shattered. 
 
 In the same letter of Dec. i, Columbvis transmits a 
 copy of the writing which he had prepared for the Pope, 
 at his express wish. Before his communication is forwarded 
 to the Sovereign Pontiff, the Admiral wishes it to be sub- 
 mitted to the inspection of the King or of the Bishop of 
 Palencia, in order, as he says, to avoid false reports, f 
 
 It may here be pointed out that the correspondence of 
 Columbus thus far cited, along with that to which we shall 
 further have recourse, of itself clearly proves that the Bishop 
 of Palencia was then holding one of the first offieial posi- 
 tions in the administration of the kingdom. There is no 
 explaining Columbus' course in designating Deza to examine 
 his document in the event of the King's omission or failure 
 to do so, if, in a matter of this character, Deza had not 
 some other right to intermediate than that of a mere benev- 
 olent patron. Even the position of confessor of the Sove- 
 reigns is insufficient to explain the part taken by the 
 Bishop of Palencia in the highly important business of state 
 and government questions. However, we know from other 
 sources that, when Columbus was prosecuting his case at 
 the Court, his protector of old had then for some years 
 been Chancellor of Castille ; and it is in that capacity that 
 
 * " Nombro por testamentarios al Rey y al Arzobispo de Toledo, y 4 don 
 Diego de Deza, Obispo de Palencia Antonio de Fonseca y Juan Veldsquez 
 sus contadores mayores, y d su secretario, Juan Lopez de Lezarraga Mariana." 
 — Hist. General de EspaAa, lib. xxviii. cap. xi. 
 
 t " El traslado de la carta te envio. Querria que le viese el Rey nuestro 
 Seiior, 6 el Sr. Obispo de Palencia, primero que yo envie la cartA por 
 evitar testimonios falsos." — Navarrete, Coieccion, i. p. 346. 
 
he enters into the negotiations of Diego Columbus, and that 
 his name appears in the greater part of the Admiral's let- 
 ters. 
 
 In a letter of Dec. 29, Columbus again alludes to the sub- 
 ject : "The King or the Bishop of Palencia should see the 
 copy of the letter for the Pope, in order to avoid false re- 
 ports." * 
 
 The Admiral then directs the attention of his son to a 
 letter for Deza. He and his brother and his uncle are to 
 take cognizance of it.f 
 
 One of the objects of this letter, which is unfortunately lost, 
 was to recommend the case of the sailors who had accompanied 
 him on his voyage. These unfortunates had not yet got their 
 pay and were in sore need. 
 
 On January 18, 1505, Columbus for the last time reverts to the 
 examination which he desired the King or Deza to make of his 
 letter to the Pope. J 
 
 This new instance deserves attention, for it is of some im- 
 portance for the chronology of the various episcopal sees occupied 
 by Deza. This time the Bishop of Palencia is mentioned as the 
 Archbishop of Seville. Ortiz de Zuniga informs us that the 
 btdls of Deza's nomination to this new see arrived at Seville 
 December 21, 1504. § 
 
 After that, Columbus, being in that city, had knowledge of the 
 appointment, and it is most likely that his letter, which he sent 
 to Deza, by courier, on the 29th of December, was a letter of 
 congratulation to his old friend and protector on his elevation to 
 that high ecclesiastical position, which ranked first in the peninsula 
 after that of Toledo. || 
 
 * " Este translado envio para que le vea Su Alteza, 6 el Sr. Obispo de 
 Palencia por evitar testimonios falsos." — Navarrete, ibid.^ p. 347. 
 
 t " Yo le di una carta para le Sr. Obispo de Palencia : vedla y veala tu tio y 
 hermano y Carvajal." — Navarrete, ibid., p. 348. 
 
 t " La Carta del Santo Padre dije que era para que su merced la viese si alii estaba, 
 y el Senor Arzobispo de Sevilla que el Rey non ternd lugar para ella." — Navarrete, 
 CoUccion, t. i. p. 350. 
 
 § It is to be observed, however, that, in his letter of December 29, Columbus 
 still calls Deza Bishop of Palencia. 
 
 \Anales, note by Navarrete, ibid., p. 350. 
 
In the meantime the measures of the son and of the 
 brother of the Admiral, together with the efforts of Deza, 
 did not avail much to hasten the Admiral's affairs to a 
 close, at least as far as the principal question was concerned — 
 his restoration to his titles and the recovery of his pecuniary 
 rights in the New World. The resistance of the King was 
 not to be overcome. Ferdinand had never had any regard 
 for Columbus, and, since the discovery of the Indies had 
 given a realty to the titles and quasi-royal privileges 
 conceded by him, he, as it seemed, looked with regret upon 
 the possibility of a greatness and power which would 
 perhaps overshadow a part of his own majesty. Ferdinand 
 suffered the proceedings of Columbus and his mandataries 
 to drag on interminably. Apparently kindly disposed, he 
 was at heart resolute not to permit the rise of Columbus 
 and the establishment of his fortune. Fearing that his own 
 person was the obstacle to the King's good will, Columbus 
 offered to relinquish his titles and rights in favor of his 
 son and heir, Diego; but it was all in vain. Ferdinand did 
 not even give answer to the propositions of Columbus. 
 
 It was only in May that the Admiral was able to under- 
 take the journey to the Court at Segovia. He thought 
 that his presence would hasten the concession of his just 
 and equitable claims. But therein he deceived himself 
 again. 
 
 Las Casas appears to be the historian who best knew 
 the King's disposition at this time, and he is the most 
 independent in his judgment of him. He tells us that his 
 information came from persons who stood high in Ferdinand's 
 favor. The historian of the Indies thus describes the first 
 interview of the sovereign and of Columbus: " The Admiral 
 left Seville for the Court in May, 1505. The Court was 
 then at Segovia. Upon his arrival, his brother and he 
 went to kiss the hands of the King, and he received them 
 with some semblance of pleasure."* 
 
 * " El Almirante partisse para la corte por el mes de Mayo, afio de 1505, 
 la qual estaba en Segovia ; y llegando el y su hermano el Adelantado, d 
 besar las manos la Rey, ricibi61es con algun semblante alegre," etc.— /fz'si. de 
 las Indias, t. iii. p. 187. 
 
Columbus recounted the labors he had undertaken in the 
 King's service, and asked him to fulfill the promises he had 
 made. "The King replied," continues Las Casas, "that he 
 acknowledged that he owed the Indies to Columbus, and 
 that the latter had merited the recompense granted to him ; 
 but that, the better to arrange his affairs, he designed to ap- 
 point a person to represent him (the Admiral). Columbus 
 replied, ' It shall be whomsoever your Highness deputes ; ' 
 then he added, ' Who could do it better than the Archbishop 
 of Seville, since he is the cause of your Highness's possess- 
 ing the Indies?' The Admiral spoke thus, because the Arch- 
 bishop of Seville, Don Diego de Deza, prior of the order 
 of St. Dominic, when he was preceptor of the prince Don 
 Juan, had strongly urged the Queen to accept the under- 
 taking."* 
 
 This recital shows us what confidence Columbus always 
 placed in Diego de Deza. The protector did not fail his 
 client. They both strove to overcome the resolution of the 
 King to accord nothing. The Sovereign's pretext of an in- 
 termediary agent was but a temporizing shift and a means 
 of avoiding direct personal relations with the Admiral, 
 whose presence would not permit him to be hard when 
 Columbus demanded the acknowledgment and adjustment 
 of his lawful claims. But it was written to the misfortune 
 and to the glory of the discoverer of the Indies that his 
 cause was a lost cause. 
 
 Las Casas severely judged the conduct of Ferdinand, but, 
 as it appears, without partiality. " One would believe," he 
 says, ' ' that, if Ferdinand could have done it with a safe 
 conscience and without dishonor to his name, he would have 
 respected none of the privileges which he and the Queen 
 
 * " El Rey le respondio que bien via ^1 que le habia dado las Indias, 
 y habia merecido las mercedes que le habia hecho, y que para que su nego- 
 cio se determinase seria bien senalar una persona; dijo el Almirante, 'sea 
 la que Vuestra Alteza mandare,' y aiiido ; 'quien lo puedo mejor hacer que 
 el Arzobispo de Sevilla, pues habia sido causa, con el camarero, que Su 
 Alteza hobiesse las Indias?' Esto dijo, porque, este Arzobispo de Sevilla 
 que era D. Diego de Deza, fraile de Santo Domingo, siendo maestro del 
 Principe D. Juan, insistio mucho con la reina que aceptase aquesta em- 
 presa."— /i5z(^., p. i88. 
 
 93 
 
had accorded to the Admiral, and which the latter had so 
 well deserved." "I know not," he continues, "what could 
 cause that coldness and aversion to a man who had rendered 
 him so great service, if it was not that his mind was 
 misled by the false imputations lodged against the Admiral, 
 as I have learned from persons enjoying the favor of the 
 Sovereign." * 
 
 As a matter of fact, the King not only failed to grant 
 any favor to Columbus, but he even put all possible 
 difficulties in his way, without, however, ceasing to shower 
 compliments upon him.f 
 
 Columbus spent a whole year in the disagreeable position 
 of an importunate solicitor. To tell the truth, important 
 sums were paid to the Admiral's brother to cover the 
 expenses of the fourth voyage, and to Diego Columbus, 
 who had a title at the Court, | but the principal 
 question was left unheeded. Once, indeed, the King, 
 yielding to his political preoccupations, went so far as to 
 offer Columbus the fief of Carrion de las Condes in 
 Castille, in exchange for the renunciation of his title of 
 Viceroy of the Indies and for the surrender of his other 
 privileges. But Columbus indignantly repelled this royal 
 affront. When he saw that all was over, at least as far as 
 the King was concerned, and that he could no longer 
 expect anything from him, not even justice, he turned to 
 his constant protector, no less powerless than himself, 
 though ever remaining the same to him. It was into the 
 heart of Deza that he poured his last plaints. He was the 
 most worthy of receiving them, and the most capable of 
 sharing his last sorrows. " It seems," wrote Columbus to 
 the Archbishop of Seville, " it seems that his Highness 
 does not judge fit to fulfill the promises which I received 
 from him and from the Queen, who is now in the abode of 
 blessedness, notwithstanding their word and their seal. To 
 
 ♦This judgment is confirmed by the importunate requests of Columbus to 
 have his letter to the Pope inspected by the King or Deza, so as to avoid 
 the false reports. 
 
 i Historia de las Indias, cap. xxxvii. 
 
 tThe title of "Contino" was given to him on Nov. 15, 1503. 
 
fight against the King's will would be to fight against the 
 wind. I have done all that I should. The rest I leave to 
 God, who has never forsaken me in my needs."* 
 
 This, then, was the incomparable glory of Deza, twenty 
 years earlier, to give Columbus the first words of encou- 
 ragement, and, in the end, to receive the last confidences 
 of that bruised and broken heart. In the interval, Deza 
 had had credit enough to prevail upon the sovereigns to 
 accept the undertaking of the discovery. Who will not 
 henceforth admit, in the very words of the illustrious dis- 
 coverer himself, that it was indeed Diego de Deza who 
 always favored Columbus, and desired his honor ever since 
 his coming into Castille ? That he furthermore was the 
 cause of their Highnesses possessing the Indies, and for 
 having detained Columbus when he was already on the 
 road for foreign parts ? 
 
 The Admiral had followed the Court to Valladolid. It is 
 there that he died, May 20, 1506. Spain knew not of his 
 death. It was scarcely known around his very bier, and the 
 chronicles of the city forgot to mention the event. 
 
 Deza had made his solemn entry into Seville, Oct. 24, 
 1505. f He seems shortly after to have quitted the Court, 
 from which the Queen's death, the misfortunes of Columbus, 
 and the policy of Ferdinand had alienated him. At Seville, 
 Deza did not cease to cherish the remembrance of the events 
 which had so long linked his life to the destiny of Columbus. 
 His archiepiscopal city was the centre, as it were, whither 
 all the stir and bustling excitement of the New World found 
 its way and was echoed from across the ocean. Thither 
 Ferdinand, the second son of Columbus, also repaired to 
 devote himself to the peaceful pursuit and cult of letters 
 and of the sciences. Who would doubt that he entered into 
 friendly relations with the benefactor of his father? Every- 
 thing at Seville turned Deza's thoughts back upon a cher- 
 ished past. We know that he loved to recall his close and 
 
 *Navarrete, Coleccion, iii., cited by M. F. Tarducci, Vita di Cristoforo 
 Colombo, Milano, 1885, t. ii. p. 629, and P. Gaffarel, Hist, de la D^couverte 
 de rAm^rigue, Paris, 1892, t. ii. p. 383. 
 
 t Ortiz de Zufiiga, Anales, loc. cit. 
 
 95 
 
intimate relations with the discoverer of the Indies and the 
 support which he had constantly lent him. Las Casas re- 
 lates that it was of notoriety that the Archbishop was proud 
 to tell how his interpositions had brought about the deci- 
 sion of the sovereigns to accept the projects of Columbus. 
 " In a letter written by his own hand," says Las Casas, "I 
 saw that Columbus told the King, that the master of the 
 prince, the Archbishop of Seville, Don Friar Diego de Deza, 
 was the cause of the sovereigns becoming possessed of the 
 Indies. Long before I had seen that written testimony, in 
 the Admiral's own hand, I learned that the Archbishop of 
 Seville gloried in having caused the sovereigns to accept the 
 enterprise of the discovery of the Indies."* 
 
 There is scarcely call to conclude. It is sufficiently seen 
 if, at the end of our study, we have reason to write that 
 Diego de Deza was the great protector of Columbus. Whilst 
 there are many clear testimonials in the celebrated naviga- 
 tor's own hand, in favor of Deza, there is, besides that one 
 sentence which at once limits the number of those who 
 aided him and excludes all vain pretensions, not a word to 
 substantiate the claims of any other patronage. All the world 
 ridiculed Columbus, save two monks, who were always faith- 
 ful. Those two religious — we know it beyond all dispute — 
 were Diego de Deza and Antonio de Marchena. Both alike 
 sympathized with the Genoese mariner ; both were equally 
 devoted to him ; and, if, in view of the ultimate results of 
 their protector, there was a marked difference between their 
 influence and action, yet there was none in their noble wish 
 to serve Columbus. 
 
 The venerable guardian of La Rabida knew Columbus 
 
 * " En carta escrita de su mano, de Cristobal Colon, vide que decia al 
 rey (?) que el suso dicho maestro del principe, Arzobispo de Seville, D. Fray 
 Diego de Deza, y el dicho camarero, Juan Cabrero, habian sido causa que 
 los reyes tuvierssen las Indias. E muchos afios antes que lo viese yo escrito 
 de la letra del Almirante Colon, habia vido decir, que el dicho Arzobispo 
 de Sevilla por si, y lo mismo el camarero, Juan Cabrero, se gloriaban que 
 habian sido la causa de que los reyes aceptasen la dicha empresa y 
 discubrimiento de las Indias." — Hist, de las Indias, t. i. p. 228. The title of 
 Cabrero in this affair rests upon a countersense in the reading of Columbus' 
 letter, bearing date Dec. 21, 1504.— Navarrete, Qolecdon, t. i. p. 346. 
 
 96 
 
during some six months preceding the departure of his 
 client for the Indies. He was unable to sway the Com- 
 mission of Santa F6 in a decision favorable to Columbus.* 
 Deza, on the contrary, was on most intimate terms with the 
 Admiral for twenty years. His high position at the Court 
 enabled him, at various times, to render Columbus most 
 signal assistance, and, above all, to gain the acceptance of his 
 schemes of discovery. The patronages of Columbus are, then, 
 strictly limited to two — those of Diego de Deza and Antonio 
 de Marchena. We shall not here task the reader with further 
 examinations of the alleged claims of some pretended protectors. 
 It will for the time suffice us to lay down the assertion that, 
 besides the principal iniluence and action of Deza, the study 
 of which we have pursued to some length, and that of 
 Antonio de Marchena, less important and more secondary, 
 which we have barely mentioned, in order to maintain what is 
 due to him, there is no other which can be verified as real. 
 These, we believe, are the limits of the domain of history in 
 this case, and we decline to overstep them and to commit 
 ourselves to those of the arbitrary and of legend. f 
 
 * ■' It was not then, at the end of the year 1484, but seven years later, 
 in the beginning of the winter of 1491-1492, that Columbus for the first 
 time repaired to the Monastery of La Rabida." 
 
 " It can no longer be said that he went there twice : once on arriving 
 from Portugal in 1484 ; a second time when he was making preparations to 
 leave Spain, in 1492." — Harrisse, Christophe Colombo t. i. p. 348. These 
 conclusions of M. Harrisse, based on the deposition of an eye-witness, 
 appear to us to be certain. 
 
 tThis paper is from the French MS. of the Rev. P. Mandonnet, O. P., 
 Professor of History at the University of Friburg, Switzerland, who has in 
 preparation several studies on the part taken by the Dominicans in the events 
 relative to the discovery of America. 
 
 97 
 
THE JESUIT PAPER. 
 
^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ \\i( 
 
 
 I 
 
 ^;s 
 
 'r^ 
 
 1 I / 
 
 I; 
 
 If V 
 
THE JESUIT MlSSi' 
 
 fmimUT^ this n< 
 
 1-' H,^ IMW- A N,|?l,eTiH'^iti,AT H U 1 I C . 
 
 I-'roni the recumbent statue upon the mausoleum in the 
 Cathedral of Granada.^ 
 
 Ferdinand survived Tsa^bella nearly ten years. The tomb 
 in which his remains repose by the side of Isabella was 
 erected by their grandson, Charles V. It is of white marble 
 and adorned -witli richly sculptured figures of angels and 
 saints, and is said to be the work of the celebrated artist, 
 Philip of Burgundy. The effigies of the illustrious pair 
 repose on the top, and their achievements are inscribed 
 upon the tomb. A cast of the mausoleum will be found in 
 the Gallery of Sculptures in the palace of Versailles. This 
 engraN-ing is from Gavard's Galeries Historiques de Versailles, 
 Har?«i'tS4V 
 ■^^-vlth 
 
 'exas, Ivie: 
 ^hio, Lotii 
 
 .quent centur 
 
 Anzona, Dakota, ^ 
 said, therefore, that Liieix 
 
THE JESUIT MISSIONS IN THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 Rev. J. F. X. O'CONOR, S.J. 
 
 |N this necessarily brief account of the Jesuit Mis- 
 sions in the United States, it is intended to 
 recall the fact that the Fathers of the Society 
 of Jesus during the past two hundred and fifty 
 years have visited or established missions in nearly every 
 state of the Union. In almost every one of these states 
 the Jesuit Fathers were the pioneer missionaries, explorers 
 or settlers. 
 
 In the first hundred years from 1613, when Father Biard 
 entered Maine, to 1776, they had traversed the states on 
 the Atlantic Coast, from Maine to Florida, as well as those 
 on the slope of the Pacific, while from 1776 to 1893 their 
 missions have embraced every state of the interior, com- 
 prising the missions of Fr. De Smet in the Rocky Moun- 
 tains, the Indian Territories, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and 
 beyond, even to the remote regions of Alaska. 
 
 In the century before the Declaration of Independence 
 they had visited the following states : Maine, and the region 
 then under the jurisdiction of that State, Massachusetts, 
 Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Mary- 
 land, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, 
 Florida, Texas, Mexico, California, Michigan, Wisconsin, Mis- 
 sissippi, Ohio, Louisiana, Illinois, and Missouri. 
 
 In the subsequent century from 1776 to 1892 the missions 
 of the Society of Jesus under De Smet, Weninger, and 
 Cataldo included the Pacific Slope and the states of the in- 
 terior, Washington Territory and Oregon, Idaho, Colorado and 
 Arizona, Dakota, Nebraska, Montana, and Alaska. It may be 
 said, therefore, that there is not an extended portion of these 
 
United States on the Atlantic Coast or the territories of the 
 Pacific, whether among the recesses of the Rocky Mountains, 
 in the region of the Mexican Gulf, the frozen plains of 
 Alaska or the great Northern Lakes, that has not been a 
 witness to the labors and sufferings of the missionaries of 
 the Society of Jesus. 
 
 The first missions of which we have a record in those in- 
 valuable documents of early American history, the "Jesuit 
 Relations"* and the " Lettres Edifiantes,"-|- are the missions 
 of Maine. The missions in the North of the United States 
 besides those in Maine among the Abnakis, were in Michi- 
 gan and Ohio, as well as in Canada among the Hurons, in 
 New York among the Iroquois, in Wisconsin and Michigan 
 among the Ottawas, in Illinois among the Illinois Indians, 
 and in the South, the missions of Louisiana. 
 
 * The chief source of Information in regard to the earlier days of the 
 Jesuit Missions in America is the series of detailed reports written by the 
 Fathers to their Superiors, and are Icnown as the "Jesuit Relations." "In 
 regard to the condition and primitive character of the inhabitants of North 
 America it is impossible," says Parkman, "to exaggerate their value as an 
 authority. The 'Relations' hold a high place as authentic and trust- 
 worthy historical documents." These invaluable documents of the early his- 
 tory of North America, reports sent by the Jesuit missionaries each year to 
 their superiors, comprise the years 1632 to ^(i^^-^^2. in the volumes in this 
 country. In that period 1632-1671, there are 45 volumes. Harvard Library 
 has 40 ; 1632, 1654, 1658, 1659, 1665 are missing. J. C. Brown, Providence, 
 R. I., has 38 vols.-. Hon. H. C. Murphy, Brooklyn, has 29; Hon. N. C 
 Gallatin, N. C, has 22 ; Rev. M. Plante, Quebec, has 20 ; State Library, 
 Albany, has 8. Other volumes are found in various institutions and private 
 libraries. The new series published in 1858 in Quebec under the auspices of 
 the Canadian Government and at its expense, besides the period beginning 
 1632, includes the "Relations" of 1611-1626 (Quebec, 1858), 1672-1679 cParis, 1891). 
 
 t Lockman, the Protestant writer, in his extracts from the " Lettres Edi- 
 fiantes et Curieuses," written by the Jesuit Missionaries, says : " I believe it 
 will be granted that no men are better qualified to describe nations and 
 countries than the Jesuits. Their education, their extensive learning, the 
 pains they take to acquire the languages of the several nations they visit, 
 the opportunities they have by their skill in the arts and sciences, . . . 
 the familiarity with the inhabitants, their mixing with and very often long 
 abode amongst them— these, I say, must necessarily give our Jesuits a much 
 more perfect insight into the genius and character of a nation than others 
 who visit coasts only and that merely on account of traffic or other lucra- 
 tive motives." ("Jesuit Travels," Introd.) 
 
The first missionaries on American soil were those sent to 
 Port Royal, the present Annapolis of Nova Scotia.* They 
 were Father Peter Biard and Fr. Enemond Mass6, who 
 founded in the year 1612 the mission of St. Saviour on 
 Mt. Desert Island, within the jurisdiction of Maine. To ac- 
 complish their mission they were furnished with a share in 
 the cargo and vessel, the only conditions by which they 
 could make their way to the colony. The gift of the ves- 
 sel and the means was made by Madame Guercheville. 
 During their stay they met with violent and unjust treatment 
 from Biencourt, the commander of the Colony. 
 
 This colony at St. Saviour was surprised and broken up 
 by Argal.f an Englishman, famous for fraud and injustice in 
 Virginia. The two missionaries were carried to Virginia and 
 finally sent back to France, where Fr. Biard died, while Fr. 
 Masse returned and died in the Canadian missions of the 
 Algonquins, on May 12th, 1646. The first Abnaki mission in 
 Maine was thus destroyed through the malice of men who 
 called themselves Christians. In the same year, 1646, Fr. 
 Druillets:}: was sent to the Kennebec, while Fr. Jogues went 
 to the Mohawk mission. 
 
 The Abnakis received the missionary with joy. They 
 mourned his departure when upon the order of his superiors 
 in the following May he returned to Quebec. In 1650 Fr, 
 Jogues again returned as the envoy of the Governor of 
 Canada. At Roxbury he met Elliot,§ who had devoted him- 
 self to the conversion of the Indians, and who invited him 
 to pass the winter under his hospitable roof ; but rest was 
 not part of the Jesuit's life. In February he was again 
 with his Indians. 
 
 After the first year's labor among the Indians, Fr. Druil- 
 lets died in Quebec, at the age of eighty-eight, on April 8th, 1681. 
 
 The work of Fr. Druillets was carried on chiefly by 
 Fathers Bigot and Rale. || 
 
 ♦"Relation" of Fr. Biard, 1611. 
 
 + Charlevoix, "Hist. Canada," vol. i. p. 214. 
 
 t" Relation" of 1646, p. 19. 
 
 § Letter of Fr. Druillets, " Hist. Canada," Ferland, i. 393. 
 
 I "Relation" of Fr. James Bigot, 1684, p. 28. 
 
 103 
 
In 1703 the later missions of Maine were transferred to 
 the Jestdts, having been under the Fathers of Foreign Mis- 
 sions, Frs. Henry GauHn and Rageot. New England had 
 condemned the Catholic Missionaries to imprisonment for life, 
 and yet sought their aid with the Abnakis to obtain neu- 
 trality in the war of 1703 between England and France. 
 The Governor, wishing to gain over the Abnakis, offered to 
 build them a church if they would send away the mission- 
 aries. The indignant Indian chief replied : ' ' When you first 
 came here, you saw me, long before the French Governors, 
 but neither you, nor your ministers ever spoke to me of 
 prayer or of the Great Spirit. They saw my furs, my 
 beaver skins, and about these alone they were anxious, 
 these alone they sought, and so eagerly that I have not 
 been able to supply them enough. Though I were loaded 
 with furs, the black gown of France disdained to look at 
 them. He spoke to me of the Great Spirit, of heaven, of 
 hell, of prayer, which is the only way to reach heaven. 
 Keep your gold and your minister," he concluded, " I will 
 go to my French Father." And the Indian asked the black 
 gown for baptism. 
 
 The English had determined on the death of Fr. Rale.* 
 In August, 1724, English and Mohawks burst upon his mis- 
 sion. The missionary was the first to appear at the sound 
 of the alarm. He had been warned of the enemy's design 
 — but now came forward to sacrifice his own life to save 
 his flock. No sooner had he reached the mission cross than 
 a shout arose, and a volley of bullets laid him dead at the 
 foot of the symbol of Redemption.! His Abnakis buried 
 the body of their beloved missionary amid the ruins of the 
 church where he had so often stood at the altar. 
 
 Among the missionaries, Fr. Rale will rank as one of the 
 greatest. He was learned, zealous, laborious, careful of his 
 flock, desirous of martyrdom. His Abnakij: dictionary, written 
 
 ♦Bancroft, "Hist. U. S.," ii. 941. 
 
 t Bancroft, "Hist. U. S.," ii. 944. 
 
 t Bancroft, " Hist. U. S.," ii. 940. Fr. Rale died at the village of Nor- 
 ridgewock (Charlevoix, "Hist, of Canada," iv. 120, 121). He was sixty-seven 
 
in 1 69 1, is preserved as a treasure at Harvard Library, and 
 was published in the memoirs of the American Academy in 
 
 1833- 
 
 It was the faith and zeal of the Marchioness of Guerche- 
 ville, as we have seen, that aided the Jesuits in founding 
 their mission in 1612 at St. Saviour on Mt. Desert Island 
 off the coast of Maine. At the same period other missions 
 were founded in the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, 
 Michigan, and Wisconsin. 
 
 Bancroft, speaking of the magnificent labors of the 
 Fathers, says: "Thus did the religious zeal of the French 
 bear the cross to the banks of the St. Mary and the 
 confines of Lake Superior, and look wistfully towards the 
 homes of the Sioux in the valley of the Mississippi, five 
 years before the New England Elliot had addressed the 
 tribe of Indians that dwelt within six miles of Boston 
 Harbor." 
 
 The organizing of missionary work among the Indians of 
 Maine had not been unnoticed by the authorities of 
 Massachusetts, who claimed jurisdiction over Maine. In 
 1698 the commissioners of the Bay Colony wished the 
 Indians of Norridgewock and Androscoggin to dismiss the 
 missionaries, but the Indians replied: "The good missionaries 
 must not be driven away." 
 
 In 1699 Fr. Vincent Bigot, who had been stationed in 
 Maine on the Kennebec at Narantsouac,* through illness, 
 was obliged to go to Quebec, but his brother, James, 
 immediately took his place. The Chapel at Narantsouac 
 had been erected in 1698 at Indian Old Point. 
 
 The New England authorities treating with the Abnakis, 
 ordered them to send away the three Jesuit Fathers 
 and receive Protestant ministers from New England. 
 The Indians would not listen to such a proposal, and said 
 to the English envoy: "You are too late in undertaking 
 to instruct us in prayer after all the years we have been 
 
 years of age ; he spent thirty-seven years among the Indians, and of these twenty- 
 eight were passed at Norridgewock. QBonial, Charlevoix, vol. iv. 122.) 
 
 * " Jesuit Relations," 1652, p. 54. 
 
known to you. The Frenchman was wiser than you. As 
 soon as we knew him he taught us to pray to God properly, 
 and now we pray better than you." 
 
 Massachusetts claimed all Maine as English territory, but 
 the settlement of New England on Indian ground without 
 regard to the claims of the Abnakis was resented by the 
 Indians, who were encouraged by the French government 
 to prevent English settlement on their lands. In 1704-5 
 Massachusetts sent out two expeditions. One devastated the 
 Penobscot. The other, under Colonel Hilton, destroyed the 
 Indian wigwams, burnt the church, vestry, and residence 
 of the missionary, pillaged and profaned everything that 
 Catholics revere. 
 
 Father Lauverjat was in charge of the Indians at 
 Panawamske in 1727. After a time Frs. Lauverjat and 
 Syresme retired from the mission, but Fr. Charles Germain, 
 whose mission was on the St. John's River, still said mass 
 for the Indians on the Kennebec and Penobscot, and he 
 may be considered the last of the missionaries who planted 
 the faith so firmly in the hearts of the Algonquins that the 
 privations of priest and altar as well as the enticements 
 of prosperity and error could not lure them from it. 
 
 The first missions in Maine began in 1613, and were 
 carried on at every sacrifice until 1727. 
 
 Fr. Gabriel Druillets, who had already founded a mission 
 among the Abnakis, returned to them in 1650. He was 
 sent thence in a new character with letters from the 
 Canadian Governor to the authorities in New England, 
 to offer free intercolonial trade and to insure mutual 
 protection against the Iroquois. 
 
 At Norridgewock he was received with rapture by the 
 Indians. The chief cried out: "I see well that the Great 
 Spirit who rules in the heavens vouchsafes to look on 
 us with favor, since he sends our patriarch back to us." 
 Forwarding letters from the English port to announce the 
 nature of his commission, in November he set out for Bos- 
 ton with Noel Negataurat, chief of Sillery, and John Wins- 
 low, whom the missionary calls his Pereira, alluding to the 
 friend of St. Francis Xavier. 
 
 X06 
 
At Boston Major-General Gibbons received him with 
 courtesy. Fr. Druillets says: "He gave me the key of a 
 room in his house where I could, in all liberty, say my 
 prayers and perform the exercises of my religion."* As 
 he naturally had his chapel service, it may reasonably be 
 inferred that Fr. Druillets said mass in Boston in Decem- 
 ber, 1650. After a reply from the Governor, and present- 
 ing his case to the leading men, he returned to his labors. 
 
 The commissioners of New England met at New Haven, f 
 Conn., and Fr. Druillets was sent formally as an envoy 
 from Canada with Mr. Godfrey. It is a curious episode 
 that a priest should visit New England in an official capa- 
 city where Christian civilization had made a law expelling 
 every Jesuit, and dooming him to the gallows if he re- 
 turned. After his diplomatic functions at Boston and New 
 Haven, Fr. Druillets returned to his flock on the Kenne- 
 bec, and some time later went to Quebec. 
 
 From Connecticut we follow the work of the missionaries 
 to New York. 
 
 The first priest to enter the borders of the State of New 
 York, and the first priest that came to the Island of Man- 
 hattan, was Father Isaac Jogues. In 1642 he was taken 
 prisoner by the Iroquois. In his captivity he was beaten 
 with clubs and stones, his finger nails were pulled out, and 
 the index finger of both hands eaten off. He was forced 
 to carry heavy burdens in a march of five weeks, and then 
 his right thumb was cut off by an Algonquin woman, a 
 Christian, at the order of the Iroquois, and Rene Goupil, 
 a lay brother, who accompanied Father Jogues, was killed 
 by a blow from a hatchet. 
 
 Arendt Van Cuyder aided Father Jogues to escape from 
 the enraged Mohawks, and the Dutch protected him. 
 
 After a long and terrible captivity Father Jogues escaped 
 and was taken to the foot of Manhattan Island, where 
 there were a few cabins, the beginning of the great city 
 of New York. In New Amsterdam he met with the 
 
 * " Hist. Canada," Ferland, i. p. 392. 
 
 t Connecticut is called "Kunateguk." (Le.cer of Fr. Druillets, "Hist. 
 Canada," Ferland, i. 393.) 
 
 107 
 
greatest sympathy for his sufferings from the Director, 
 William Kuyf, and from the minister, Dominie Megapolensis. 
 His passage was secured by Hoyt to Holland, but trials 
 were in store for him. In the storm the vessel met with 
 on the way, it was driven on the English coast. Father 
 Jogues arrived home in time to celebrate Christmas. The 
 future State of New York had been traversed by a great 
 and heroic priest, and another was soon to follow the same 
 line of suffering. 
 
 Father Jogues, after his tortures, arrived in France, where 
 he was honored as a martyr. On asking permission of the 
 Sovereign Pontiff to say Mass with his mutilated hands, it 
 was given in words ever to be remembered: ''Indignuj/i 
 esset Christi martyrem, Chris tt non bibere sangumetn" 
 (It were not fitting that Christ's martyr should not drink 
 the blood of Christ). 
 
 Queen Anne of Austria wished to see him, and when 
 conducted to her presence she kissed his mutilated hands, 
 while the ladies of the court crowded around to do him 
 homage. 
 
 He returned to Montreal in the spring of 1644, and in 
 1646, passing through the Mohawk country, came to Lake 
 George, which he named Lac du St. Sacrament, because he 
 reached it on the eve of Corpus Christi. In the same 
 year, 1644, Fr. Bressani was taken captive. His hands 
 were cut open, he was stabbed and burned no fewer than 
 eighteen times. A stake was driven through his foot, and 
 his hair and beard torn out by the roots. He escaped, 
 and reached Europe November 16, 1644. 
 
 In his mission of peace to the Mohawks, Father Jogues, who 
 once more renewed his labors among his loved Indians, 
 in company with John De Lande, fell into the hands of 
 a band of warriors, and they were led as prisoners to 
 Ossernenon in October, 1646. An Indian summoned him to 
 a session of the Council. As he entered a cabin he was struck 
 lifeless by a blow from a tomahawk. His body was thrown 
 into the Mohawk, and his head set on one of the palisades 
 of Ossernenon. The next morning the river bore away the 
 bodies of his companions, De Lande and the Huron guide. 
 
 108 
 
This was the first attempt to evangelize in the State of 
 New York, In the minds of all Father Jogues was honored 
 as a martyr. In the devotion to him that has become 
 general, the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore petitioned 
 that the cause of his canonization should be introduced. 
 There is now a chapel at Auriesville, the site of Osser- 
 nenon, and this shrine has already become a place of 
 pilgrimage. 
 
 From the year 1632 to 1642 the Huron Missions were 
 evangelized by Frs. Le Jeune, Breboeuf, Daniel, and Daust. 
 Chief among them was Breboeuf. "He was," as Parkman 
 pictures him, "the masculine apostle of the faith — the Ajax 
 of the mission. Nature had given him all the passions of a 
 vigorous manhood, and religion had crushed them, curbed 
 them or tamed them to do her work — liked a dammed up 
 torrent sluiced and guided to grind and saw and weave for 
 the good of man." Fr. Breboeuf visited the Neutral nation, 
 whose settlement was in the western part of New York.* 
 
 On the i6th of March, being captured by the Iroquois, 
 Fr. Breboeuf and his companions were led to torture. Fr. 
 Breboeuf was bound to a stake, but seemed more anxious 
 for the captive converts than for himself, and exhorted them 
 in a loud voice to suffer patiently for heaven. 
 
 The enraged Iroquois burned him with fire from head 
 to foot, cut away his lower lip and jaw, and thrust a red- 
 hot iron down his throat. He gave no sign or sound of 
 pain. 
 
 They placed Father Lalemant where Breboeuf could see 
 him, with a strip of bark around his naked body. When 
 Lalemantf saw the condition of his superior, he cried out. 
 "We are made a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to 
 men," and threw himself at Breboeuf's feet. The Indians 
 
 * "Jesuit Relation," 1641, p. 71. Breboeuf visits the Neuter nation east of the 
 Niagara River, N. Y. State, with Father Chaumonot. Founding of the mission 
 of the Angels. — Relation of Father Jerome Lalemant, who was sent from the 
 residence of St. Mary among the Hurons, May 19, 1641, to Son- 
 nontouon. The nation of the Iroquois was one day's journey from the last 
 village of the Neuter nation in the East named Onguiaohra (Niagara), 
 the same name as the river. — "Relation," 1641, p. 75. 
 
 + " Relation," 1648, p. 49. Bressani, "Abridged Relation." 
 
 109 
 
then seized him, fastened him to a stake and set fire to the 
 bark. On Father Breboeuf they placed a collar of red-hot 
 hatchets, but he moved not an inch. They baptized him 
 with hot water in mockery, and cut strips of flesh from 
 his limbs and devoured them before his eyes. They said 
 in mockery: "You told us that sufferings on earth make 
 one happy in heaven; we wish to make you happy; we 
 torment you because we love you; you ought to thank us 
 for it." After revolting tortures they laid open his breast, 
 drank his blood, and the chief tore out his heart and 
 devoured it. Thus died Jean De Breboeuf, the founder of 
 the Huron mission. Lalemant was tortured all night, and 
 the Indians, weary of their cruel sport, in the morning 
 killed him with a blow of their hatchet. Breboeuf had 
 lived four hours under torture; Lalemant seventeen. 
 
 New York had been visited by the French Jesuits in 1642. 
 About forty years later it was again visited by the English 
 Jesuits, in 1683, who bravely followed in the footsteps of 
 their French brethren. Father Thomas Hervey, one of the 
 English Fathers, embarked with Governor Dongan in the 
 gunboat Warrick, and arrived at Nantasket in August, 
 1683, and journeying overland with the Governor, reached 
 New York before the end of Augfust. There is good ground 
 for believing that Father Forster Gulick, Superior of the 
 Maryland Jesuits, was then ready to receive him, as a 
 baptism at Woodbridge, N. J., in 1683, is recorded, showing 
 the presence of a priest. Concerning this mission of the 
 English Fathers we have an interesting record. 
 
 The English Provincial, Fr, Warner, writing to the Gene- 
 ral of the Order, says, Feb. 26th, 1683: "Father Thomas 
 Hervey,* the missionary passes to New York by consent of 
 the Governor of the colony. In that colony is a respect- 
 able city (i.e., N. Y.) fit for the foundation of a college, 
 if faculties are given, to which college those who are scat- 
 tered throughout Maryland may betake themselves and make 
 excursions thence into Maryland. The Duke of York, the 
 lord of that colony, greatly encourages the undertaking of a 
 
 ♦'Foley Records of the English Province," vii. p. 343. 
 
new mission. He did not consent to Father Thomas Her- 
 vey's sailing, until he had advised with the provincial, the 
 consultors and other grave Fathers." Father Henry Harrison 
 and Father Charles Gage, with two lay brothers, joined Fr. 
 Hervey in New York. Father Henry Harrison, although of 
 an English family, was born in the Netherlands, and it was 
 considered on that account he would be able to do more 
 good among the Dutch. The Catholic chapel was in Fort 
 James, south of Bowling Green, and this may be considered 
 the place where Mass was first regularly said in New York. 
 The first Latin school in New York was established by the 
 Jesuit Fathers in 1683 on the property leased by Governor 
 Fletcher to Trinity Church.* 
 
 In 1683 the Latin school was attended by the sons of 
 Judges Palmer and Graham, Captain Tudor and others. 
 The bell that summoned the pupils to the Jesuit school was 
 the bell of the Dutch Churchf in the Fort. Another school, 
 called the " New York Literary Institute," was founded in 1809 
 on the ground where the New York Cathedral now stands. 
 
 The first legislative assembly convened in New York was 
 that called by the Catholic Governor Dongan on October 
 17th, 1683. The Bill of Rights was passed on the 30th. The 
 spirit of this bill was probably suggested by the spiritual 
 adviser of the Governor, the Jesuit Father Henry Harrison. 
 Like the bill of Religious Rights and Freedom under Lord 
 Baltimore, in Maryland, when the Jesuit Fr. Andrew White 
 was one of his counsellors, it declared that religious freedom 
 is recognized, and "no person or persons who profess faith 
 in God by Jesus Christ, shall at any time be any ways 
 molested, punished, disquieted or called in question for any 
 difference of opinion or matter of religious concernment, 
 who do not actually disturb the civil peace of the province." 
 " The Christian churches of the province (the Catholic 
 Church was one) are held and reputed as privileged churches 
 and enjoy all their former freedom of their religion in 
 divine worship and church discipline." These paragraphs 
 
 * " New York Colonial Documents," iv. p. 490. 
 t Brodhead, ii. p. 487. 
 
embodied in the United States Constitution are indirectly- 
 traceable to the Fathers. 
 
 During the brief reign of James II. no favorable move- 
 ment for the Church took place. The fanatic Governor 
 Leisler persecuted the Catholics, and in particular the 
 Jesuits Hervey and Harrison. Fr. Hervey was obliged to 
 abandon the mission of New York for a time. He returned 
 to New York on foot with another Father and remained in 
 the New York mission for some years, and died in Mary- 
 land. Fr. Harrison returned to Ireland by way of France. 
 
 The first Vicar General of the Church of the United 
 States was the Jesuit Father Jerome Lalemant. In 1647 Fr, 
 Jerome Lalemant, S.J., the Jesuit Missionary, was made 
 Vicar General to the Most Rev. Francis De Harlay, Arch- 
 bishop of Rouen, who had jurisdiction over the French 
 Missions, which starting in Canada spread through the 
 United States. As the Church increased throughout Maine, 
 New York, Michigan and Wisconsin, the see of Rouen was 
 recognized until the formation of a colony into a Vicariate.* 
 
 About this time the Iroquois were making negotiations 
 for peace. The Onondagas proposed conditions which were 
 received by the Oneidas, Cayugas, and Mohawks, so that 
 all but the Senecas were in accord. When the treaty was 
 concluded it was necessary to have it ratified, according to 
 the Iroquois custom. The envoy was to undertake the task 
 which cost Fr. Jogues his life. A Jesuit was ready for 
 the post of danger, and Fr. Simon Le Moyne, who had 
 succeeded to the Indian name of Isaac Jogues, set out in 
 July, 1654, and, sailing along the southern shore of Lake 
 Ontario, baptized several Hurons, heard many confessions, 
 and reached the Onondaga fort, where he was warmly 
 welcomed. Fr. Le Moyne opened the solemn council with 
 prayer in the Huron tongue, intelligfible to the Iroquois. 
 He delivered nineteen presents, symbolic of so many propo- 
 sitions. 
 
 In reply, the Onondaga sachems urged him to settle on 
 the banks of the lake, and they confirmed the peace. Fr. 
 
 * Faillon, " Hist, de la Colonie Fgse.," i. p. 280, 
 
Le Moyne returned with two precious relics, the New Tes- 
 tament that had belonged to Fr. Breboeuf and the prayer- 
 book of Fr. Charles Gamier, both put to death by the 
 Iroquois. His favorable report filled the colony with joy. 
 
 The next step was to plant Christianity and civilization at 
 Onondaga, and Frs. Joseph Chaumonot and Claude Dablon 
 were received in pomp on the 5th of November by the 
 sachems of the Onondagas and conducted to the cabin pre- 
 pared for them. As it was Friday, they would not eat meat, 
 but it was replaced by beaver and fish. The Indians told Fr, 
 Chaumonot that the most pleasing news they could send to 
 the Governor of Canada was, that they would provide as 
 soon as possible for the chapel of the believers. The Fathers 
 remained for some time caring for the sick, and they also 
 visited the salt springs near Lake Ganentaa, near the pres- 
 ent city of Syracuse, which had been selected as the site 
 of the settlement. 
 
 St. Mary's of Ganentaa was on the north side of Lake 
 Onondaga in Onondaga County. The Onondaga village, 
 where the chapel was erected, was twelve miles distant, 
 two miles south of the present village of Manlius, south of 
 Oneida Lake and east of Syracuse, Fr. Le Moyne' s account 
 of the discovery of the salt springs was dubbed by the 
 colonists a "Jesuit's lie." The profitable salt mines of 
 Syracuse to-day prove the absolute truth of that Jesuit lie.''* 
 
 Fr. Chaumonot's eloquent address on faith was the first 
 presentation of the Christian religion to the Five Nations at 
 their council fire. It was listened to with great attention, 
 interrupted only by the applauding cries of the sachems and 
 chiefs. How favorably it impressed them is seen by the 
 fact that the very wampum belt of Fr. Chaumonot is still 
 preserved among the treasures of the Iroquois League at 
 Onondaga. In its picture writing, it symbolizes in wampum 
 — man, led to the cross of Christ. 
 
 On the 17th of March, 1656, Fr. Le Moynef established 
 peace with the Mohawks, conferred baptism on captive 
 
 ♦Dablon, "Circular Letter, 1693"; Creuxis, "Relations," 1639-1697. 
 + 1656-7, " Journal des Jesuites." 
 
 "3 
 
Christians and visited the Dutch settlement, and although 
 received with courtesy, his account of the Salt Springs was 
 doubted by the minister. When the church was dedicating 
 the grand Temple of St. Peter's at Rome a bark chapel 
 arose in the wilderness of Onondaga, consecrated to the 
 patron of the missions, doubtless St. John the Baptist, the 
 first chapel on the soil of New York. The chapel was too 
 small. Reinforcements came with fifty Frenchmen under 
 Mr. Dupuis with Fr. Dablon, Frs. Rene Menard and James 
 Fremin, priests of the Society of Jesus, and two lay brothers. 
 Setting out on the nth of July, by the end of August they 
 had reared a regular chapel in the village of Onondaga 
 more solid and larger than the chapel built the year before. 
 In August, 1656, Frs. Chaumonot and Menard visited Cayuga, 
 Gandagan, a Seneca town, and in spite of the foretold 
 danger, preached to the people at Oneida. 
 
 The Onondaga mission was so flourishing that they had 
 three Sodalities of the Blessed Virgin, one Onondaga, one 
 Huron and one of the Neutral Nation. 
 
 All this time the lives of the missionaries hung by a 
 thread. While Fr. Chaumonot was coming from Canada to 
 Onondaga with a party of Hurons, nearly all were slain by 
 the Onondagas, and although the missionary and lay brother 
 reached Onondaga alive, they felt they were prisoners. The 
 Mohawks and Oneidas roused the Onondagas to hostility 
 against the French, and while Fr. Le Moyne was on the 
 Mohawk, and the French and missionaries at Onondaga, the 
 Oneidas slew and scalped three of the colony near Mont- 
 real. The French settlers now thought only of escaping 
 from their perilous position. They gave a great banquet, 
 and when the sated Indians were asleep made their way 
 down the Oswego to the lake and finally reached Quebec. 
 This was the first Catholic settlement in New York, lasting 
 from 1655 to 1658, which had built chapels in the Onondaga 
 towns and among the Cayugas. In 1661 there were Catho- 
 lics in Maine, on the Kennebec and Penobscot, by the shore 
 of Lake Onondaga in New York, and in wigwams of the 
 Senecas, south of Lake Ontario and east of Lake Erie. 
 
 At the Synod of the clergy of New York held at Onon- 
 
daga August 26th, 1670, were assembled Frs. Fremin from 
 Seneca, Carheil from Cayuga, Fr. Bruyas from Oneida, and 
 Fr. Pierron from the Mohawk. 
 
 It was Father James de Lamberville* who had the con- 
 solation of finding at Gandagan the flower of Indian sanc- 
 tity, Catherine Tega Kouita, niece of an hostile chieftain, 
 and daughter of a Christian Algonquin woman. She was a 
 lily of purity, and longed to be a Christian, but her shy- 
 ness prevented her from addressing the missionary. But he, 
 seeing the gifts with which she was endowed, invited her 
 to the instructions at the chapel. Learning the catechism 
 and attending faithfully to the exercise she was solemnly 
 baptized on Easter, 1675, receiving the name of Catherine. 
 "The Holy Ghost," says Fr. Chauchetiere, "directed her 
 interiorly in all things, so that she pleased God and man, 
 for the most wicked admired her, and the good found 
 matter for imitation in her." 
 
 In the years from 1668 to 1678 the labors of the Fathers 
 among the Five Nations resulted in 2,221 baptisms. 
 
 The most important missions besides those in Maine and 
 New York State were those in the State of Maryland. It 
 was in 1634 that the Jesuits began their first mission in 
 Maryland when the Ark and the Dovef with the memorable 
 colony of Lord Baltimore, accompanied by Father Andrew 
 White, entered the Chesapeake, and where on the Feast of 
 the Annunciation, 1634, Mass was said at St. Clement's Island, 
 Maryland. At the town of St. Mary's an Indian village 
 was taken possession of and one of the houses of bark was 
 transferred into a Jesuit chapel. 
 
 Thus began the city of St. Mary's, March 27th, 1634. 
 "St. Mary's," says Davis, "was the home, the chosen home 
 of the disciples of the Roman Church. The fact has been 
 generally received. It has been sustained by the traditions 
 of two hundred years and by volumes of written testimony, 
 by the records of the courts, by the proceedings of the 
 privy council, by the trial of law cases, by the wills and 
 
 ♦Chauchetiere, "Vie de Catherine Tega Kouita," N. Y., 1886. 
 f'Relatio Itineris" of Father Andrew White. 
 
 "5 
 
inventories, by the land records and rent rolls, and by 
 the very names originally given to the towns and hamlets, 
 to the creeks and rivulets, to the tracts and manors of the 
 country. We mention St. Mary's City, St. Gregory's Point, 
 St. Michael's Point, St. Thomas's, St. Inigoes." 
 
 In 1632, Cecil, Lord Baltimore, having received a charter 
 for the colonization of Maryland, began to gather round 
 him those who were to form the new province. As the 
 colonists were both Catholics and Protestants, each was left 
 free to take its own clergymen. The Protestant colonists 
 took no minister with them for several years after the 
 colonies began. Lord Baltimore applied to the Jesuit 
 General for Fathers for the English Catholics, but could 
 oflEer the clergy no support, either from the non-Catholics, 
 or from the Catholics or from the savages. 
 
 The Jesuits did not shrink from a mission that presented 
 such hardships. Other missionaries continued their labors, 
 Fr. John Brock at St. Inigoes, Fr. Altham at Kent Island 
 and Fr. PhiHp Fisher at the chapel of St. Mary's. Fr. 
 Andrew White after his first labors moved to the new field 
 one hundred and twenty miles from St. Mary's, and planted 
 the cross at Kittamigundi, about fifteen miles south of 
 Washington. Father Altham died of fever in 1640, and 
 Father Brock followed him, after teaching the faith to the 
 tribe of Indians destined to be brought into the true fold 
 by the heroic trials of his life. A letter written by him 
 shortly before his death shows the spirit of these mission- 
 aries. When there was question of their recall, or of not 
 receiving new help on the missions, he said : "In whatever 
 manner it may seem good to his Divine Majesty to dispose 
 of us, may His holy will be done. But as far as in me 
 lies, I would rather labor in the conversion of the Indians, 
 expiring on the bare ground deprived of all human succor 
 and perishing with hunger, than think of abandoning this 
 holy work of God from the fear of want. May God grant 
 me the grace to render Him some service, and all the rest 
 I leave to Divine Providence." 
 
 Ingle, a pirate, having become a zealous Puritan, began 
 the persecution of the Catholics, and Fathers White and 
 
 116 
 
Copley were sent loaded with irons as criminals to England. 
 Fr. Hartwell escaped the persecutors, and Fr. Roger Rigby 
 and John Cooper escaped to Virginia. This was the first 
 period of the Maryland mission. Catholicity had been 
 planted in the colony, they had cared for the Indians along 
 the Potomac, so that nearly all the Indians of these two 
 peninsulas from the Potomac to the Piscataway, and from 
 the Patuxent to the Mattapony were thoroughly instructed 
 in the fundamental doctrines of Christianity. Five of the 
 priests had laid down their lives in the short space of two 
 years, and two were sent to trial in chains. These splendid 
 missions of Maryland have been so frequently written about 
 that it would be needless to recount the details of the works 
 that have given material for volumes. It will be sufficient here to 
 refer to one more fact, that the first bishops of the United States 
 were Jesuit Fathers. Father Carroll's friendship with the fra- 
 mers of the Declaration of Independence as well as his dip- 
 lomatic mission to Canada with Franklin and Chase in the 
 interest of the colonies are worth noting in the history of the 
 Church in connection with the Government of our country. 
 
 From New York and Maryland, the course of events 
 brings us to the States of New Jersey and Pennsylvania. 
 
 In 1743 Fr. Schneider crossed into New Jersey and ad- 
 ministered baptism there near Salem. Before the end of 
 the summer of that year he was giving missions near 
 Bound Brook. 
 
 It is probable that some Jesuit visited Pennsylvania in the 
 early days of the colony. This visit would explain the absurd 
 report that "William Penn was dead and died a Jesuit." 
 In August, 1683, Penn writes: "I find some persons have 
 had so little wisdom and so much malice as to report my 
 death, and to mend the matter, dead, and a Jesuit, too. 
 I am still alive, and no Jesuit." The visit of a reputed 
 priest to Penn when ill, would give rise to such stories. 
 
 During the last part of the reign of Charles II., Fr. 
 Michael Forster continued the work of the mission. He 
 had with him Fr. Francis Pennington. The first permanent 
 mission was in 1733, when Rev. Mr. Crayton, a priest of 
 the Order of Jesuits, purchased lots near Fourth Street, 
 
Philadelphia, between Walnut and Willing' s Alley, and erected 
 thereon a small chapel dedicated to St. Joseph, which has 
 since been enlarged, the now famous St. Joseph's Church 
 of Willing's Alley. In 1757, under the care of four Fathers, 
 Robert Harding, Theodore Schneider, Ferdinand Farmer and 
 Matthias Manners, there were in all 1365 Catholics. The 
 mission stations attended from this centre were several 
 stations in Maryland, among them Frederick, and St. Joseph's, 
 Philadelphia ; Goshenhoppen, Lancaster, and Conewago in 
 the state itself. 
 
 After glancing at the three great periods of the missions 
 in Maine, New York, and Maryland, we resume our tracing 
 of the progress of the missions in Virginia, down the coast 
 to Georgia, South Carolina, and Florida. 
 
 Although the French missionary, Fr. Pierron, had visited 
 Virginia in 1674, missionaries to Virginia had been sent 
 from the Spanish mission of Florida as early as 1568. 
 Philip II. had asked St. Francis Borgia, the general of the 
 Jesuits, to send twenty-four of his religious to found this 
 Florida mission. He chose Fr. Peter Martinez, Fr, John 
 Rogel, and Brother Francis de Vilareal. On the way to 
 Havana Fr. Martinez landed, and while journeying to the 
 Spanish port was slain by the Indians at Tacatacurn, New 
 Cumberland, not far from the mouth of the St. John's 
 River. Fr. Rogel* remained at Havana and studied the 
 language of the Indians of Southern Florida. He remained 
 as Chaplain until 1568, when Fr. John Baptist Segura, 
 S.J.,t came with nine missionaries to Florida. Fr. Ledeno 
 with Brother Baez went to Guale, now Amelia Island, and 
 he may be regarded as the pioneer priest of Georgia. Here 
 Fr. Baez prepared a grammar and a catechism for the in- 
 struction of Indian neophytes. Fr. Rogel in 1569 repaired 
 to the port of St. Helena, or Port Royal Harbor, and 
 thus became the first resident priest in South Carolina. 
 
 In spite of meagre results from their labors, the mission- 
 aries continued their toil in Florida. In 1570 Fr. Segura 
 
 ♦Tanner, "Societas militans, " p. 445. 
 
 t Tanner, "Societas militans," p. 447. 
 
 X18 
 
resolved to found a new mission with Fr. Luis de Quiros 
 and Brothers Solis, Mendez, Redorido, Linares, Gabriel 
 Gomez and Sanchez Zerallos. They sailed from St. Helena 
 August 5th, 1570, to St. Mary's Bay, and ascended the 
 Potomac. On the 12th of August they were on the Rap- 
 pahannock and settled there until February. Deserted by 
 the vessel and by the Indian guide, Don Luis de Velasco, 
 Fr. Quiros with Solis and Mendez set out to urge Velasco 
 to return. Instead of returning according to their wishes, 
 Velasco with a number of Indians attacked the party and 
 slew them with arrows. The traitors then attacked the 
 settlement and slew Fr. Segura with the implements that 
 had been surrendered. The first martyrs on the soil of 
 Virginia were the Jesuit missionaries. 
 
 In 1743, other Spanish missionaries, among them the 
 Jesuit Fathers Joseph Mary Umaco and Joseph Xavier de 
 Mana, sailed from Havana to found a mission in Southern 
 Florida. A Catholic mission was founded, and the Indians 
 kept their faith till the Seminole War, when they were 
 transported to Indian territory. 
 
 While the tide of time was carrying his Jesuit brethren 
 along the shores of the Atlantic, by the Gulf of Mexico, 
 and along the Pacific Ocean, the tide of the great inland 
 rivers brought the illustrious Father Marquette out on the 
 broad bosom of the Mississippi, and crowned him with the 
 glory of being its discoverer. 
 
 In the "Jesuit Relations" sent by Fr. Dablon, Superior 
 of the missions of the Jesuits, from Quebec in 1673-1674, we 
 read the following account of the discovery : 
 
 "At Ouatouiais,* M. JoUiet joined Fr. Marquette, f who was 
 awaiting him there, and who had contemplated the enter- 
 prise for some time, as they had planned together about it. 
 They started with five other Frenchmen in June, 161 3, to 
 enter a country where no other Europeans had ever set foot. 
 Starting from the Bay of "Puants," 43° 40', they sailed 
 one hundred and eighty miles on a little river, very 
 sweet and very pleasant towards the west and southwest. 
 
 * Ouatouiais = Ottawa. 
 
 t " Jesuit Relations," 1673-1674 ; " Relations Inddites," i. pp. 193-204, ii. p. S39-339. 
 
They found the portage they wished, about a mile and a 
 half in width, by which they passed to another river coming 
 from the northwest, and having travelled one hundred and 
 twenty miles to the southwest, on the 15th of June they 
 found themselves at latitude forty-two degrees and a half, 
 and entered happily the famous river which the Iroquois 
 called the Mississippi, which means "great river." It comes, 
 according to the Iroquois, from the very far north. It is 
 beautiful, and for the most part a quarter of a league wide. 
 It is much larger in those places where it is cut by islands, 
 which, however, are rare." 
 
 The dream of Fr. Marquette's life was accomplished. He 
 had reached the greatest of the western rivers, and named 
 it the Immaculate Conception. He sailed down it for one 
 week, until he came upon Indian trails, which along the 
 shore he followed till he came to the village. Fr. Mar- 
 quette greeted the inhabitants, and asked who they were. 
 "We are the Illinois," they replied. He was escorted to a 
 cabin where an aged Indian welcomed them, saying, "How 
 beautiful is the sun, O Frenchmen, when thou comest to 
 visit us ! All our town awaits thee, and thou shalt enter 
 all our cabins in peace." 
 
 Warned of the danger of going on in their perilous jour- 
 ney, they were not deterred. On they sailed, passing the 
 Ohio River, the Missouri, on into the land of the Senecas. 
 Near the Arkansas River they were surrounded by the Me- 
 tchigenicas. When their mission was made known, they 
 were kindly received, and referred to the Arkansas Indians. 
 The great question was here solved, and it was made cer- 
 tain that the Mississippi emptied into the Gulf of Mexico. 
 
 On the 17th of July they paddled back to the Illinois 
 River, and, ascending it, they reached Lake Michigan, and 
 arrived at Green Bay in September. 
 
 In 1674 Fr. Marquette started for a mission among the 
 Kaskaskias, and founded a mission among the Illinois in 
 1675. Here, growing seriously ill, he started for Lake 
 Michigan, but perceiving that he could not reach the mis- 
 sion, he landed and prepared for death. Calling around him 
 his attendants, with the names of Jesus and Mary on his 
 
lips, he expired about midnight, May 19th, 1675. His re- 
 mains, which had been placed in the church at Michili 
 Mackinac, were discovered by Fr. Edward Jacker, in 1877, 
 at Point St. Ignace. 
 
 Not only in the Northwest and Central States, but in the 
 far western plains of Arizona we find the great work of 
 the missions flourishing. And extraordinary as were the 
 labors of Frs. Marquette, White, Fremin, Bruyas and Druil- 
 lets, those of Fr. Eusebius Kuhn or Kino stand with the 
 Franciscan missionary, Ven. Anthony Margil, as the greatest 
 who have labored in this country.* 
 
 Clavigero, in his history, tells us that Father Kino 
 travelled more than twenty thousand miles, and baptized 
 more than forty-eight thousand infants and adults. He 
 learned the Indian languages, translated their catechisms, 
 formed vocabularies for his successors, built houses and 
 chapels, founded missions and towns, and reconciled natives. 
 In Upper Pimeria he had 176 houses. After untold labors, 
 he died in 171 1. In 1731, three Jesuit Fathers came to the 
 mission of San Xavier del Bac, Ignatius X. Keler, Fr. John 
 Bap. Grashofer and Fr. Philip Segener. In 1744, Fr. Keler 
 had baptized more than two thousand, and had one thou- 
 sand brave, industrious Pimas, who possessed well-tilled fields 
 with herds and flocks. 
 
 It was the revival in the territory of the United States 
 of the great achievements of the Reductions of Paraguay 
 in South America. 
 
 These missions of Arizona and lower California were 
 begun by the Spanish Jesuit Fathers, and only when they 
 were recalled by the Spanish government did they leave 
 their work to be carried on by Father Junipero Serra, 
 O.S.F., in upper California, who, by the systematic provi- 
 sion of the Fathers, was enabled to continue with marvel- 
 lous success those great missions that have been productive 
 of such glory to God. 
 
 Ascending the Pacific Slope from the Spanish missions we 
 reach the territory that is now lower California. The Jesuits 
 
 * Verregas, " Hist. California," i. 188 ; Clavigero, " Hist, of California," 
 ii. 176. 
 
first entered California on February 5th, 1697. There Fr. 
 John Maria Salvatierra began the famous missions of lower 
 California, and with the co-operation of the glorious co- 
 workers, Fathers Kino, Ugarte, and Brau, pushed their work 
 northward to the southern boundary of the present State of 
 California. 
 
 Nearly one hundred years later, in 1768, Fr. Junipero 
 Serra, the great Franciscan missionary, celebrated for his 
 heroic labors in California, succeeded to the work, when the 
 Society of Jesus, extinguished in the Spanish Dominions, 
 was forced to withdraw from the fields of their labors 
 which they had undertaken with such hardships and toil, 
 and carried forward with such marvellous success. 
 
 The missions in California were again resumed by the 
 Jesuit Fathers in 1850. The founders of this new mission 
 were Frs. Accolti and Nobili, who had been Indian mis- 
 sionaries with Fr. De Smedt in the Rocky Mountains and 
 in Oregon and among the Indians on the Columbia River. 
 
 The first council of Baltimore in 1829 in its fifth decree 
 asked the Holy See that the Indians dwelling beyond the 
 limits of fixed dioceses in the United States should be con- 
 fided to the care of the Society of Jesus. 
 
 The Propaganda solemnly approved this decree, and this 
 homage of the American hierarchy to the Society of Jesus 
 was a new tribute to their zeal, and a testimony that the 
 work of the Jesuits was not confined to the glorious mis- 
 sions of China, Japan, India, and South America, but that their 
 zeal had borne fruit worthy of their ancestors among the 
 native tribes of the United States. It would take too long 
 to follow these Indian missions of the interior of the United 
 States. The memory of the Apostolic work of Fr. De 
 Smedt among the Indians on the reservations, his travels 
 through the whole of the interior, his dwelling among the 
 red-men, his influence in peace and war ; their veneration and 
 love for the black gown — these details have filled volumes, and 
 are fresh in the minds of all. The testimony of travellers 
 and statesmen alike unite in giving evidence of the un- 
 paralleled work of the Jesuits among the Indians. The 
 work of Fr. De Smedt in the interior has been nobly imita- 
 
ted by the Rocky Mountain missionaries as well as by the 
 newly founded mission of Alaska. All these works carried 
 on up to our own days, and going back more than two 
 centuries, show the untiring zeal that has been exercised on 
 these missions. 
 
 To take at random some of the work of recent years we 
 need only mention that in 1842 in Montana, there were 
 among the Indians 16,500 confessions, 15,000 communions, 
 125 baptisms ; and in Idaho and Washington Territory, 
 15,500 confessions, 12,800 communions, and 166 baptisms. 
 
 During this period of two centuries of the Jesuit missions, 
 the history of which reads as a page of thrilling interest, 
 many laid down their lives for their work. The Jesuits 
 who were put to death within the present limits of the 
 United States were nineteen in number. 
 
 The list is as follows : 
 
 Fr. Peter Martinez, who was killed by the Indians near 
 St. Augustine, Fla., on Sept. 28, 1566. He was born at 
 Calda in Spain, on Oct. 15, 1533. 
 
 Father Louis de Quiros, a Spaniard, Bros, Gabriel de 
 Solis, John Baptist Mendez, an Indian novice, were massacred 
 by the Indians near the Rappahannock, Virginia, February 
 
 3, 1571- 
 
 Fr. John Baptist de Segura, of Toledo, Bros. Gabriel 
 Gomez, Peter de Linares, Sancho Zevallos, Spaniards, and 
 Christopher Rodundo, an Indian novice, were massacred 
 by the Indians on the banks of the Rappahannock, Virginia, 
 February 8, 15 71. 
 
 Brother Gilbert du Thet, killed by the English, who were 
 making an attack on Fort St. Saviour, Mt. Desert Island, 
 Maine, December, 1613. 
 
 Bro. Rene Goupil, born in Augin, put to death by the 
 Iroquois in the Mohawk Valley near Albany, N. Y., Sept. 
 29, 1642. 
 
 Fr. Isaac Jogues, put to death by the Iroquois near 
 Auriesville station, on the West Shore Railroad, not far 
 from Albany, N. Y., October 16, 1646. 
 
 Fr. Sebastian Rale, put to death by the English colonists 
 at Norridgewock, Maine, August 23, 1724. 
 
 1S3 
 
Fr. Paul du Poisson, of Champagfne, killed by the Natchez 
 tribe, Mississippi, November 28, 1729, at Natchez. 
 
 Fr. John De Smedt, Province of Champagne, killed by the 
 Yazoo tribe, Mississippi, not far from Vicksburg, December 
 II, 1729. 
 
 Fr. Peter Aulneau, Province of France, killed by the 
 Sioux, at Lake of the Woods, Minnesota, June 6, 1763. 
 
 Fr. Anthony Henat, Province of France, put to death by 
 the Chicksaws, Mississippi, Pentotoc County, March 26, 1736. 
 
 Fr. John Deguerre, killed by the Illinois Indians, date 
 unknown. 
 
 Fr. Claude Virot, killed by the Iroquois in the Genesee 
 Valley, New York, July, 1759. 
 
 Thus by their blood have the members of the Society of 
 Jesus proved their love for their country, that for nearly 
 two centuries and a half has been the witness of their 
 noble lives, their unceasing labors and their heroic deaths. 
 Not only by toil in the forest and by the sea, on the river 
 and on the prairie, but in the heart of our great cities, where 
 disease and misery and woe have found a dwelling, there 
 will be found the Jesuit missionary leading a life scarcely 
 less heroic than his historic brethren. The Insane Asylum 
 on Blackwell's Island, New York, the Penitentiary, the Charity 
 Hospital, Ward's Island, Randall's Island, North Brother Island, 
 the hospital for infectious diseases, each of these is the 
 chosen place of labor for the Jesuit Father of to-day, no 
 less than the city prisons, with which the name of the Jesuit 
 Fr. Duranquet, as the friend of the friendless criminal at 
 the gallows, will ever be inseparably linked. 
 
 The work of the Society of Jesus in the United States 
 has not been confined to the Indian missions. In nearly every 
 chief city in the United States there is a church or college 
 of the Fathers of the Society of Jesus that wields an in- 
 fluence on higher education, and whose spiritual life is felt 
 pulsating through the whole city. These colleges and 
 churches we find in Boston, Worcester, New York and Phila- 
 delphia, in Baltimore, Washington and Cincinnati, m Cleve- 
 land, St. Louis, Chicago and Milwaukee, in Omaha, Kansas 
 City and Denver, in Mobile, New Orleans and Galveston, 
 
in Spokane, Santa Clara, and San Francisco, as well as in 
 the northeast in Detroit and Buffalo. 
 
 The number of students in the Jesuit colleges of the 
 United States in 1882-3 was 5,794, and may safely average 
 now some two thousand more, with a standard of scholarship 
 inferior to no college or university in the country. 
 
 To complete the picture already drawn in outline of the 
 missionary labors, we have to refer to the new missionary 
 fields of the Fathers of the Society of Jesus in Alaska. 
 The missions in Alaska cover an immense field. The area 
 is one-sixth of the whole United States. Over this district 
 are scattered a number of devoted missionaries, assisted by 
 lay brothers of the Society of Jesus under the care of Rev. 
 Fr. Tosi, S.J., recently appointed Vicar Apostolic. They 
 have taken up the work for which the devoted Bishop Se- 
 ghers, who had intended to join the Society of Jesus, had laid 
 down his life. Their missions do not lie merely along the route 
 of tourists, but are in the remote solitude of the desolate, 
 untravelled interior. Communication with the civilized world 
 is had but once a year, and the life of the missionary is 
 almost one unbroken journey. 
 
 Their courage, amid terrible hardships, with frozen fish 
 and seal oil for food, intense cold, and many privations, is 
 kept alive by the remembrance of the tireless labors of their 
 heroic brethren : Jogues, Breboeuf, Lalemant, Segura, White, 
 and De Smedt, who lived and toiled that their fellow men 
 in the missions of America might learn the knowledge and 
 love of Jesus Christ. 
 
 Even from a utilitarian point of view, the only one that 
 sends out its convictions to the minds of many men, the 
 United States is not without its debt of gratitude. For, as 
 in the missions of South America, the Jesuits made known 
 the medical properties of quinine, discovered the properties 
 of India rubber and vanilla; brought from Tartary to 
 Europe the rhubarb plant, and from China the turkey ; in- 
 troducing into Europe the camelia flower and the art of 
 dyeing and printing cotton, not less remarkable in North 
 America and the United States were their contributions to 
 science and civilization. They were the first to call atten- 
 
 las 
 
tion to the great Falls of Niagara as far back as 1647. 
 The first exptorers of the northern lakes and rivers, they 
 prepared the way for subsequent discoveries, and Fr. Alba- 
 nel succeeded in accomplishing what soldiers and explorers 
 had not the courage to undertake — the making of a road 
 from Quebec to Hudson Bay. They were the first to make 
 candles from the wild laurel, wine from the native grape, 
 incense from the gum tree. They drew attention to the 
 cotton plant and mulberry tree of the Mississippi. They 
 brought the sugar cane from New Orleans ; first planted the 
 peach in Illinois and the wheat upon the prairies. They 
 were the first to open the copper mines, as well as to 
 make New York acquainted with her valuable salt springs. 
 But all these things were but on their way to bring to the 
 souls of men the knowledge of the greater glory of God. 
 
 We have been able to take only a brief glance at a work 
 of heroism that is coeval with the infancy of our Republic. 
 But the remembrance of these names, and the briefest idea 
 of some of their labors, sufferings and achievements, which 
 it would take volumes to worthily relate, will be sufficient 
 to arouse a thrill of enthusiasm and gratitude that our land has 
 been blessed by the presence of men of such noble courage. 
 
 We have but to recall New York, and the Jesuit names 
 Jogues and Le Moyne are indelibly written, in martyrs' 
 blood, upon the pages of her early history. Michigan sends 
 out the name of Marquette, the waters of Lake Superior 
 will ever murmur the name of AUouez, and those of the 
 Illinois River that of Charles Garnier. Wisconsin speaks of 
 Fr. Seigus, while the Miami Indians, the Choctaws, the Ala- 
 bamas, the Susquehannas, the Abnakis and the Hurons have 
 treasured up with the history of their tribes, the memory of 
 the black gown, Fathers Stradis, BouUanger, de Syresme, 
 White, Rale and Lalemant, the heroes of the early missions. 
 
 While we recall the memory of Columbus at this centen- 
 nial celebration, as we turn over the pages of history of the 
 last two hundred and fifty years, we find on almost every 
 page the names of the Fathers of the Society of Jesus, as mis- 
 sionaries, martyrs, explorers and educators, impressed indelibly 
 upon the annals of the History of the United States of America, 
 
 126 
 
THE FRANCISCAN PAPER, 
 
th; 
 
 ■be woPl) K r R A 11 (»K 'CO-I.-UMBUS. 
 
 ^ iM-uni t,ht; \Ytx.deui published at Basle in 1.575.111 the work 
 
 now V •'' J*^"^?'^^^^'^^"' -^it^hbishop of Nocera, "Elogia Viroruni 
 
 the n'.^^\®-^f*?^i;^'^^^"^^- ^llustrium," containing the portraits of i2(^ 
 , ,.^ celebrated, persons, with biographies. 
 
 „.... .ju- /^.v- P"'"^^^*^^.'^^,'^^ engraved from paintings in the gallery 
 i...r.r;iie'^'".f??*:\ Af^hbisjiop. in,,h^s villa, 01^ the banks of Lake Coni(i. 
 taciific^" which in 1552 and 1579 artists were sent respectivelv bv 
 
 The ^--cf ;^W*- *?'■ ^^efli^' and Ferdinand of Austria to copy the 
 jjj,^,^^-.,portjrai1f^ .of Columbus. Five pictures now existing are su])- 
 thk- .Pt)sed , to . ,be the originals and copies, viz.; the Altissinio, 
 th; . ,I^lofeuce,,, the Yanez in the National Library, Madrid, the 
 si T'uriJ^^"'^^-^:.,^" .*^^ Queen's library, Madrid, the portrait in the 
 ^^ town hail, jCogoleto, and that recently discovered and in the 
 
 th possession of . Dr. Orchi of Como. The Royal Academy of 
 
 J)!-.-.. ^ f^i^tory a,t Macl^ri^ (1862) held this to be the most ancient 
 Aij! ri '^"^ ii.uthentic,,, likenesis of Columbus in existence. It is 
 
 The ^"l-^P'^^'^4 to, h^ve , been painted from life after Columbus 
 ,j,. :,,,,r.eturnQd from hi« second voyage (1496). as the costume 
 :.' ii^re^^wifh. the description of Andrea Bernaldez, the curate 
 
 in tae"lpkkl^fe!?.'^',: "T^^ admiral arrived at Castile.. His dress 
 and A^'l?ic,f^oi!^%iV:^^'P'^. ^^-^^^ ^^ ^^^t worn by monks of St. 
 CO'- - ''Ff"9**^'i ^P4. i" shape somewhat similar to the robes of that 
 til!. . />^^er, and with the rope of .St. Francis around his waist 
 "he F ''"^ '■^^*" sake of devotion." 
 
THE ORDER OF ST. FRANCIS IN AMERICA. 
 
 }]HE limits of Christianity and civilization are iden- 
 tical. Without Christianity we have no civiliza- 
 tion, and the Christian religion has been the 
 chief factor in producing the stupendous spectacle 
 presented to the world to-day in the exuberant growth, 
 vitality, and grandeur of the continent disclosed by the 
 discoveries of Columbus. The whole of the New World 
 now worships the name of Christ, and this, together with 
 the material prosperity arising from that fact, is due to the 
 labors of the missionaries who made their appearance simul- 
 taneously with the conquerors, but, unlike them, were 
 impelled only by the unselfish spirit of labor, charity, and 
 sacrifice. 
 
 The desire to carry the treasure of Faith to unknown 
 nations actuated Columbus and those who aided him, and 
 this zeal, with the additional desire to be the promoters of 
 the splendid advantages of civilization, inspired the mis- 
 sionaries. While the conquerors, for their own advantage, 
 sought the subjugation of the tribes, the missionaries taught 
 them the dignity and equality of the human race, and thus 
 prepared them for the freedom and development with which 
 America impresses the world to-day. 
 
 The Order of St. Francis took an important part in these 
 beginnings of the moral and religious regeneration of the 
 New World, and the acknowledgment of this fact is found 
 in the special congratulations sent to the Order by Spain 
 and America on this occasion of the centenary of the dis- 
 covery of Columbus. Spain has willed the restoration of 
 the Convent of La Rabida, near Palos, to the custody of 
 the Franciscans, who had been banished by the revolution. 
 It was here that Columbus, poor and an exile, found shelter 
 and the most liberal hospitality at the hands of the Fran- 
 
ciscan Fathers, and it was Father Giovanni Perez and Father 
 Antonio di Marchena who took his cause up to the Court 
 of Spain, and overcame all obstacles to the acceptance of 
 his proposals. 
 
 It appears also from authentic documents that on his first 
 voyage he was accompanied by his spiritual director, Father 
 Bernardo Monticastri, of Todi, of the Osservanti of St. 
 Francis. The histories of the Order are almost unanimous 
 in stating that, upon his second voyage, he was accom- 
 panied by Father Giovanni Perez, to whom, with all the 
 other priests who took part in that expedition, must be 
 conceded the honor of having first celebrated Mass in the 
 New World. 
 
 But whatever the fact may be with respect to those mis- 
 sionaries, history proclaims the labors of the Franciscan 
 Fathers Giovanni Borgagnone and Giovanni de Tisni, who 
 mastered, in less than a year, the Macroix language, the 
 most diflScult in the Island of Spain, preached to those 
 tribes, and gave them the precious gift of the Christian 
 religion. Treated with consideration by Caonabo, the fierce 
 savage chief of Magua, they converted a number of natives, 
 and when the friendly relations between him and the 
 Spaniards terminated, they passed into the kingdom of 
 Guariones and succeeded in maintaining his good will to 
 Spain. The last voyage of Columbus cost the life of a 
 Franciscan friar, named Alexander, who died at sea, and, 
 had he not been preceded by Father Monticastri, would 
 have been the first to sacrifice his Hfe for the redemption 
 of the New World. 
 
 In the expedition of Ovando (1500) seventeen Franciscan 
 missionaries (thirteen priests and four lay-brothers) started 
 for America. They were : Alonzo di Espinar, Bartolomeo 
 di Turnegano, Antonio di Carrion, Francesco di Portogallo, 
 Antonio de Martyribus, Masseo da Gatra, Pietro di Orna- 
 cinelo, Bartolomeo di Siviglia, Giovanni di lunocosa, Alonso 
 di Ornacimelos, Giovanni di Escalante, Giovanni and Pietro 
 (Frenchmen), priests, and Giovanni Martin, Luca Sanchez, 
 Pietro Martinez, and another, whose name is not known, 
 the lay-brothers. Many others besides set out for America, 
 
so that at the Council of the Osservanti, m 1506, the Fran- 
 ciscan province of the Holy Cross was constituted in the 
 Island of Spain, with the very notable remark, ''Ad qiiain 
 Fratres qjiotidie navigant, ubi fidem et religionein non 
 cessant propagare ;" and we also know that three French 
 brothers were sent in 1511, and twenty-two more in Decem- 
 ber of the same year, under the personal conduct of the 
 renowned Father Domenico Torres, General Commissary of 
 the Order. Eight more followed in 151 3, and the province 
 of the Holy Cross had convents in St. Domingo, Concep- 
 tion, and Darien. 
 
 The unselfish and civilizing labor of the missionaries con- 
 trasted strongly with the cruelty of the conquerors and 
 gold hunters, who treated the natives like beasts of burden 
 and made them instrumental to the gratification of the 
 most brutal passions. An inextinguishable hatred sprang 
 up between Spaniards and Indians in spite of the concili- 
 atory efforts of the missionaries, who, however, met with 
 the fiercest obstacles, and, while fearlessly defending the 
 cause of the latter against the Europeans, were often put 
 to death by those whom they sought to protect. 
 
 In 1 516 the Franciscans went from the islands to the 
 mainland, and founded a convent on the coast of Paria, 
 near the island of Cubagna, of which Friar Giovanni Garces 
 became vicar. Here they gathered the native children, 
 teaching them to read and write, and all went on pros- 
 perously until the inhumanity of the conquerors ruined 
 the civilizing work of the missionaries, causing sanguinary 
 revolts and still more sanguinary reprisals. But this is the 
 unvarying history of the American missions: on the one 
 hand the priests sacrificing themselves to raise the tribes 
 to the highest moral and intellectual level of the Europeans, 
 and on the other, the conquerors striving only to gratify 
 their greed for gold, ambition and glory, at the expense of 
 their fellow-men, whom they enslaved and degraded to tools 
 and instruments. But the religious and civilizing work of 
 the missionaries prevailed, and to that fact, and to the 
 efforts which originated in the labor of the Franciscans, 
 who sowed the first seed and set the example of self- 
 
denial and martyrdom, is due the Christianity of the Ameri- 
 can people and their first claim to a larger share of manly 
 dignity than most nations of the globe can boast to-day. 
 
 After the first missions in the Isle of Spain and the 
 islands successively discovered until the continent was 
 reached, the first place where the apostolate of the Fran- 
 ciscans was established, afterwards followed by other 
 religious Orders, with a truly prodigious success, was Mexico, 
 discovered and conquered by Cortez between 1518 and 1524. 
 It was the scene of the missions of Giovanni di Testo, Giovanni 
 d'Aora, Pietro of Ghent (from Flanders), and afterwards of the 
 venerable Martino da Valenza — a man of extraordinary 
 virtue, commander of a numerous phalanx of Franciscan 
 missionaries. 
 
 Cortez himself received them and presented them to the 
 Mexicans with the following words: "The almighty God of 
 heaven and earth sends us these holy men as apostles from 
 the Only God. They are the objects of my veneration and 
 that of the monarch obeyed by all Spain. Believe me, 
 they have no desire for your riches — they only wish to save 
 your souls. They had lands and treasures, but renounced 
 them, wishing only to obtain those heavenly treasures which 
 last forever. They come to open your eyes to the vanity 
 of your idols and to teach you the true religion. The 
 perils of a long voyage did not deter them, and they are 
 ready to endure a thousand deaths in order to gain the 
 salvation of your immortal souls. Yes, it is Christian charity 
 which induced them to leave their country to come and 
 deliver you from the awful slavery of the demons, to give 
 you true freedom — the inheritance of God's children — and to 
 teach you no longer to offer to your Creator abominable sac- 
 rifices, but the Immaculate Victim, the Lamb of God, sacri- 
 ficed for the salvation of the world. We have sent for 
 these venerable men so that they might become your healers 
 with the true faith, instructors of your children, protectors 
 of your country, and a guaranty of our good will towards 
 you." 
 
 Subsequent events more than justified these words. The 
 missionaries established four principal stations in the immense 
 
Mexican territory, viz. : Mexico, Tezcuco, Tlaxcala, and 
 Guaxoringo, founding churches, hospitals, convents and 
 missions, laboring for the regeneration of the country, which 
 in truth they obtained as soon as their ministry was un- 
 fettered. Their voices were heard in every comer of the 
 land, and numerous communities were founded. Missions 
 were established in the province of Mexico, evangelizing the 
 whole valley of Toluca during the reign of Michoacan, 
 Guatilan, Tula and Xilotepec as far as Meztitlan ; in the 
 provinces of Tezcuco, Otumba, Tepepulco, Tulancingo, and 
 as far as the ocean; in the province of Tlaxcala, Tacatlan, 
 and in all the mountains which on that side extended to 
 the ocean, besides the extensive territories of Zarape and all 
 the country bounded by the Alvarado ; and in the provinces 
 of Guaxoringo, Tholula, Tepiaca, Tecamacalco, the whole of 
 Mixtecu, Guacachla and Quietla — in short among a multitude 
 of people presenting an endless variety of nature, custom 
 and language. 
 
 Expeditions followed each other like the waves of the 
 sea, and soon a network was stretched out covering every 
 inch of ground. Seventy convents (the centres of their work) 
 and almost countless missions, besides two custodies, were 
 erected together with the independent provinces of Michoacan, 
 Guatemala and Yucatan. In sixteen years, from 1524 to 
 1540, six million souls were saved for Christ. 
 
 With the venerable Martino da Valenza, the first pastor 
 of Mexico, who left behind him the name of Saint and 
 wonder-worker, may be mentioned his fellow-missionary, the 
 celebrated Father Giovanni di Zumarraga, who was the 
 first bishop of Mexico, and who held the flattering though 
 difficult rank of protector of the Indies. For sixteen years 
 his life was that of an apostle; of eminent virtues, not only 
 as bishop, but as a religious ; humble, poor, affectionate, untir- 
 ing as in the first years of his cloistral life. 
 
 Within a few years the last vestiges of the Teocalli (the 
 towers upon which human beings were sacrificed) disap- 
 peared, and with them the monstrous idols of the Aztecs, 
 and, unfortunately, the hieroglyphic manuscripts kept with 
 them; but the missionaries and new converts helped to 
 
repair the loss of the latter by the precious and abundant 
 notes on the Aztec institutions collected and transmitted to 
 us from the most authentic sources. Father Satragim, more 
 than all his fellow-workers, rendered large services to history. 
 But their labors so prospered in all directions that they 
 could rejoice at the conversion of nine million natives 
 before twenty years of their mission had passed. 
 
 From Mexico they crossed into Michoacan, where in 1535 
 they established a regular Custody, erected into a Province in 
 1575, with more than fifty convents, extending over the 
 kingdom of Xatisco and New Gallizia. The first missionary 
 to those territories was Father Martino of Jesus, a man of 
 extraordinary virtue. He was followed by many others 
 whose names alone wotdd fill a volume. 
 
 In 1534 Father Jacopo da Testera, with four companions, 
 inaugurated the missions of Yucatan, reaping a splendid 
 harvest of converts. Other prominent missionaries were: 
 Father Louis of Villalpando, a friar of great literary ability 
 and profound learning, who was the first to learn the 
 language of the country, and who compiled a grammar 
 and vocabulary of it; friar Lorenzo da Bienvenida, Francisco 
 da Bustamante, Diego di Landa and CogoUudo, the two 
 latter being the first historians of the territory. All these 
 followed the tracks of the Indians to inhospitable retreats 
 where they were dispersed, and taught them the advantages 
 of living a civilized life in communities; gaining their 
 hearts by loving solicitude to such a degree that they 
 became inseparable, the Indians following them as a shep- 
 herd is followed by his flock, and refusing to be consoled 
 when robbed by death of their pastors. 
 
 The first dioceses were established in Yucatan (as in 
 Mexico) by the Franciscan Fathers Giovanni di Porto, Fran- 
 cisco Toral and Father Landa, whose names were perpet- 
 ually blessed. Father Landa, a man of austere and severe 
 character, acquired incomparable distinction by the hardships 
 he endured travelling through the whole province like an 
 apostle, preaching, catechising, baptizing, collecting the 
 Indians from the mountains into civilized settlements, and 
 finally defending them with iron resolution against the 
 
extortions of the barbarous conquerors. It was a struggle 
 for life against the conquerors on the one hand and against 
 the natives on the other, whom he reproved for their 
 idolatry, breaking up their pagan worship, and venturing 
 for that purpose into the thickest forests where he knew they 
 resorted for that purpose. 
 
 With all his austerity he was tender of heart, and with 
 God's help easily overcame the most terrible obstacles. 
 One day presenting himself, cross in hand, to the Ganduli 
 in Yokvitz, he proclaimed that the reign of Satan must 
 end. The Indians at first were resentful and laid their 
 hands upon their bows, but his voice, his look and some- 
 thing supernatural which seemed to hover about his face 
 and his whole person conquered them, and they threw 
 themselves at his feet. 
 
 His death was touching and saintlike. Always robed in 
 accordance with the strict rule of the Franciscans, he 
 presented, during his last illness, a spectacle which for 
 edification has never been surpassed. He wished to be 
 surrounded by his fellow-workers — of whom he styled him- 
 self the lowest and most unworthy — clothed to the end in 
 the sacred tunic which he had never taken off and holding 
 the crucifix in his hands. The chief people from all parts 
 came to see him, and marvelled to see the famous apostle 
 and pastor in such an attitude of penitence. No one was 
 able to restrain his tears. In dying, his face, which through 
 hardships, journeys and fasting had become hollow and 
 attenuated, took on the rosy hue of health. Hardly able to 
 speak above a whisper, an enormous assemblage crowded to 
 ask his blessing and to kiss his feet. The desolate Indians 
 ran here and there crying out: " Our father is dead! 
 Who will be our comforter ? Oh, beloved father, with thee 
 we have lost every consolation ! " 
 
 In 1539 tt^6 Franciscans had established flourishing missions 
 in Guatemala. Father Alonso of Casa-Seca and his com- 
 panions were the first missionaries. Wonders were wrought 
 by the renowned Father Torribio Motolinin and by Pietro 
 da Belanzos, who mastered the difficult and almost unpro- 
 nounceable language of the natives, compiling a grammar 
 
 13s 
 
and dictionary which were afterwards perfected by Father 
 Francesco della Parra. This made it possible to establish 
 the regular province of the Holy Name of Jesus, which 
 is considered, for its missionary work, one of the most glorious 
 of the Order. 
 
 The expedition of Narvaez to Florida in 1528, to take 
 possession of that country in the name of the Spanish 
 crown, cost unnumbered sufferings and many victims, among 
 them the glorious friar Giovanni Juarez, and yielded appar- 
 ently but a meagre harvest of baptisms and transient im- 
 pressions. But good seed is never lost, and the four 
 missionaries who escaped death in this unfortunate campaign 
 and returned looking less like men than skeletons from the 
 grave, roused universal admiration and stimulated other 
 priests to the task. The Italian Marco of Nice, taking for 
 guide a negro, one of the survivors of the Narvaez band, 
 ventured to explore the fateful country. Acting upon his 
 instructions, the expedition of Coronado was undertaken. In 
 it Father Giovanni of Padilla fell a victim to the savages, 
 for love of whom he had confronted so many hardships. He 
 was not the only victim, but finally, after repeated efforts, 
 what the combined efforts of so many had failed to accom- 
 plish was effected in the year 1547 by a single servant of 
 God, Father Andrew of Olmos. 
 
 He had already labored in the New World with splendid 
 results. With the help of other companions he established 
 missions in Tampico and crossed over into the territory of 
 the ferocious Chichimechi (the present Texas), where he first 
 familiarized himself with the language, of which he compiled 
 the first grammar and dictionary, and, being sustained by 
 extraordinary virtues, subdued the savages, who were more 
 like beasts than men, initiated them into the true Faith and 
 civilized practices, and founded a flourishing mission. 
 
 Thus the Franciscan missionaries in less than half a 
 century had spread, not only over all the islands of the 
 Atlantic, but over the continent, taking part in all the 
 famous adventures in which the discovery and conquest of 
 those territories abounded. From the Antilles to the 
 Mississippi there were everywhere converted nations, religious 
 
 136 
 
houses founded, and missions, the soil of which was ferti- 
 lized by their blood; and of this work the greater part 
 remained and yet remains unknown to the world. History 
 records only the names of those who reaped the mere 
 human glory of the conquest ; those engaged in the 
 propaganda of the Faith are barely noticed or known only 
 to heaven. 
 
 It is quite certain that the first Franciscan missionaries 
 to New Spain proposed to penetrate that vast country, and 
 by crossing other seas, if any were encountered, to explore 
 other countries and make the journey around the globe. 
 The idea of Columbus, which the Franciscans had encouraged, 
 of reaching the east by way of the west, which was unex- 
 pectedly crowned by the immense discovery of America, 
 was imbibed by the later Franciscans who generously fol- 
 lowed in his footsteps, and they succeeded in accomplishing 
 his purpose ; for it is a fact that, after crossing from 
 Europe to America, they ultimately reached the Philippines, 
 China, and Japan — those empires towards which Columbus 
 steered the course that brought him to America. 
 
 Other missionaries penetrated to the southern continent 
 from the Antilles, while their brethren were crossing to the 
 north and to the east. At the conquest of Peru and 
 Quito was present a Franciscan friar, a notable missionary 
 and author, who mitigated the cruelty of the conquerors 
 with the balm of faith and Christian charity, and who 
 would have achieved the distinction of historian of America 
 had not all his writings unfortunately been lost. 
 
 Friar Marco of Nice, whom we have already found sug- 
 gesting the expedition of Coronado, went from Nicaragua 
 into Peru with several companions to exercise his sacred 
 ministry. He was the first chronicler of the conquest, 
 especially of Quito, and an intelligent gatherer of important 
 accounts concerning the authentic history of that empire ; 
 accounts which have been laid under contribution by all 
 subsequent writers upon Peru. He and his eleven companions 
 will always be remembered as seeking with sweet charity to 
 try and make the wretched sufferers forget what they had 
 endured in the blood-stained and cruel conquest, and to 
 
 »37 
 
inaugurate an era of justice, prosperity, and peace. Gio- 
 vanni of Neoncon, Francisco of the Angels, Francisco of 
 the Cross. Francisco of St. Anne, Peter of Portugal, Alonzo 
 of Eparcena, Francisco of Marchena, Francisco of Aragon, 
 Jodoco Ricke, priests, and the friars Martino of Junilla and 
 Alonso of Ucanice, lay-brothers, disembarked barefooted at 
 Payta with Marco, and proceeded at once to Cuzco, a dis- 
 tance of 300 leagues, preaching the gospel on their way. 
 From there they journeyed the enormous distance to the 
 province of Charcas, repeating the miracles of the twelve 
 disciples of Christ. Their voices stirred those peoples in 
 their darkness, and they destroyed their idols and bowed 
 their heads to adore the true Creator whom they then 
 knew for the first time. 
 
 A convent was founded in Quito in 1534 which became 
 one of the principal centres whence the missionaries spread 
 to preach Christ to countless tribes. Later on thirty-nine 
 more convents were founded through their instrumentality, 
 composing the regular Province of Quito. Neither was 
 their teaching restricted to faith and morals, though these 
 be the highest and most important to which the human 
 intellect can aspire ; but through that tie which, in its true 
 comprehension, joins reason to faith and religion to civiliza- 
 tion, they dedicated themselves largely to civil and economi- 
 cal instriiction. Jodoco of Flanders, assisted by the friars, 
 taught how to plow with oxen, to construct plows, yokes, 
 and wagons. He taught to read, write, count, play upon 
 musical instruments — stringed and with keys — organs, flutes, 
 trumpets, and horns. Being an expert naturalist, he pre- 
 dicted the growth and prosperity of the provinces, and 
 trained the natives in useful mechanical arts in order to 
 render them independent of the Spaniards, and they soon 
 became experts. 
 
 He opened a school of painting, bookkeeping, and callig- 
 raphy, and was the originator and promoter of the arts, 
 and the teacher of authors, singers, musicians, painters (of 
 miniatures, also), hatmakers, and weavers of cloth and hemp. 
 He imported the most useful grain from Europe, including 
 wheat, and showed how to cultivate it. There still exists 
 
 138 
 
in Quito the earthenware vase in which he preserved the 
 precious seed brought by him from Spain. A nun of the 
 Poor Clares, a lady of Retez, introduced the culture of 
 flax in Cuzco. To appreciate these labors, which at first 
 sight may seem of little moment, it must be borne in mind 
 that no sudden and radical change from barbarism to civili- 
 zation can be effected, but that it is to be attained by 
 the destruction of the vices of savage tribes and the 
 gradual softening of their natures, preserving all their 
 native good and natural aspect. 
 
 To form a summary idea of what the Franciscan Fathers 
 accomplished in a very short time, we need only learn what 
 were the first convents founded by them, each convent 
 being the centre of very extensive missions whence they 
 set out among the endless multitude of tribes and nations 
 which peopled the country. The Franciscan convents are 
 sure proof of the fruitfulness of the labors of the missionaries ; 
 and as they are maintained by the charity of the faithful, 
 are proof of the sympathy and gratitude with which their 
 labors were received by the surrounding peoples. 
 
 The first convents were those of Lima, Cuzco, Quito, 
 Chuqudabo, Truxillo, Chuquisaca, Xausca, Guamanga, Arequipa, 
 Caxamarca, Potosi, Chachapogad, Collaguas and della Paz — 
 which augmented to such an extent that the Custody 
 preached in a country of more than a thousand leagpaes in 
 length, and when in 1553 it was declared a Province, it 
 was necessary to constitute several other Custodies depend- 
 ent upon it, viz. : those of St. Antonio, of Los Charcas, of 
 the new empire of Granada, of San Paul, of Quito, and of 
 the Holy Trinity in Chili, afterwards constituted as regular 
 Provinces. 
 
 A description of the limits of Charcas will give an idea 
 of the extent of their jurisdictions. To it were assigned 
 the convents of Cuzco, founded by Friar Pietro, a Portu- 
 guese, in 1537; Chuquisaca and Potosi, founded in 1540; 
 della Paz, founded in 1 549 ; to which were subsequently added 
 that of Cochabamba in 1581, Mitzque in 1600, Oruro and 
 Tarija in 1606, besides the convents of Collagua, Los Reyes 
 di Achorna, the Assumption of Chibay, Calletti, founded in 
 
 139 
 
the same year, and the same province with the missions of 
 the Holy Cross of Tute, St. Peter of Tisco, St. John of 
 Tibayo, of the valley of Yucay, five leagues from Cuzco, 
 founded in 1570, with the missions of Huayllabamba ; 
 Pocona, founded in 1577, St. Francis of Pocxi, five leagues 
 from Arequipa, and St. Sebastian at Mitzque, which ex- 
 tended over the entire valley of Ayquila and Holoy. 
 
 Continuing to advance along the southern continent, in the 
 year 1538, five missionaries under Father Bernardo di 
 Armenta were the first to arrive in Paraguay and the river 
 Plate. Shortly after they compiled a grammar of the 
 Guarani language, into which they translated the catechism 
 and many prayers. The most illustrious of the missionaries 
 was Father Louis of Bolanos, a companion of St. Francis 
 of Solano. Aided by several fellow-workers, he erected 
 many chapels and churches in Guayra, founding six 
 " Riduzioni," or, rather, large settlements, along the banks 
 of the Ibaxiba, Paranepane and Pirano, which, subsequently 
 passing into the hands of the Jesuits, became most beauti- 
 ful illustrations of the glory of missionary work. 
 
 At this time the Portuguese rivals of the Spaniards, 
 navigating towards India, discovered and took possession of 
 Brazil, where they disembarked the first Catholic mission- 
 aries — Franciscan friars — who began at once to zealously 
 preach the Faith. They were affectionately received by the 
 natives, and built a house with an altar dedicated to their 
 Seraphic Patriarch — the first temple devoted to the true God in 
 Brazil. They had the happiness to seal their mission with 
 their blood, being massacred by some savage fanatics who were 
 full of wrath at the favor with which they were received and at 
 the expansion of the Christian faith. Thus the churches of 
 Bahia had the privilege of inscribing in the list of martyrs 
 its first apostles. 
 
 Other missionaries accompanied expeditions of discovery 
 in the southern ocean to teach faith and civilization; but 
 when the Portuguese departed from Brazil the Franciscans 
 remained behind. The ministration of Friar Pietro di 
 Palacios was as beautiful as memorable. Withdrawing to a 
 high and wooded mountain on one side of the port of Villa 
 
Velha, he built two chapels, dedicating one to St. Francis 
 and the other to Our Lady of Sorrows, which afterwards 
 became holy sanctuaries. He led a life of prayer, contem- 
 plation and mortification in conjunction with his missionary 
 work in the outside world. Every Sunday he descended the 
 mountain to visit the principal churches. Traversing the 
 streets of the city, cross in hand, he instructed the children 
 in the Faith, and, surrounded everywhere by a multitude 
 to listen to his sermons and receive his blessing, he preached 
 the gospel in Vittoria and in Villa Velha with seraphic sim- 
 plicity. He visited the savage tribes surrounding the cities 
 of Capitania and the Holy Ghost, remaining for days among 
 them, instructing, baptizing, and doing his utmost to instil 
 the sweet spirit of the gospel. He died in his beloved 
 grotto, near the chapel of Our Lady of Sorrows, in the 
 year 1570. His memory survived, and the veneration for 
 him has steadily increased. 
 
 When the first Franciscan convent was founded in Olinda, 
 missions were established along the coast, from north of 
 Capitania as far as Rio Janeiro, gradually expanding to 
 Custodies and Provinces. The first Custody, afterwards a 
 Province, was St. Antonio, which began with the Convent 
 of Olinda, and was followed by others — Bahia in 1587, 
 Iguaracu in 15 38, Paraiba in 1590, Vittoria in 1591, Rio 
 Janeiro, Reciffe and Pojuca in 1606, Seregipe del Conde in 
 1629, Villa Formosa and Serenhanheu in 1630, Villa dos 
 Santos and San Paolo in 1639, Casserebu and Paraguacu in 
 1649, Cayru of the Grand Island and Pena dello Spirito 
 Santo in 1650, Itanhanheu in 1655, Seregipe del Rey in 
 1658, St. Sebastian dell' Ampara in 1659, and Penedo and 
 Alagoas in 1660. These convents were still laboring in 1750 
 in the territories of Paraiba, Soanne, Mauque, Brazo del 
 Peixe, St. Augustin, Assumption, Jacoca, St. Michele di 
 Goayana, Ponta das Pedras, Itapespina d' Iguaracu, and two 
 in Fernambuco ; all the savage tribes of these parts having 
 been civilized through the efforts of the missionaries. 
 
 The next regular Province, called Conception, was organized 
 in 1 60 1. In 1740 it included thirteen convents and labored 
 besides in St. Michel, of the district of St. Paul, among 
 
Indians of the Carijos tribe ; in St. John in the territories 
 of the Cities of Itanhanheu ; St. Antonio in the lands of 
 the Cities of San Salvador los Campos Guaytacases among 
 Indians of the Garulha tribe, and finally Our Lady of 
 Escada, in the district of the town of Sacaratri, among 
 Indians belonging to the same tribe. Many neophytes of 
 the Order were made in these missions, first among settlers 
 from Portugal settled in Brazil, and then among the natives, 
 who, to this day, have been distinguished for virtue, and 
 in science and literature, and as bright examples of the 
 holiness, activity and decorum of the Order. 
 
 Among the first-fruits of that abundant harvest we have 
 Father Paul of St. Catherine, bom in 1577, and who, after 
 entering the Order of St. Francis, excelled in erudition as 
 well as in zeal for the missions, continuous and fruitful 
 preachings, persuasive reasoning, and holy example. Among 
 recent naturalists, Vellojo, called the Linnaeus of America, 
 another of a series of more than thirty-two highly esteemed 
 monks, illustrating the fauna and flora of Brazil, is thus 
 spoken of by the quarterly review Institudo Brasileiro de 
 Rio Janeiro : "If the glory of nations springs from the 
 graves of their sons, gratitude demands that their names 
 be transmitted to posterity with admiration and reverence. 
 Sweden justly exalts the name of its illustrious Linnseus, 
 Switzerland is proud of the genius of De CandoUe, Great 
 Britain has given to the world the admirable genius of 
 Brown and Hooker, who gathered all that the schools of 
 France and Germany, represented by Jussieu, Adanson, 
 Brongniart, Baillon, Endlicher, Humboldt and Martin had 
 accomplished : and Brazil has the proud distinction of 
 seeing all those schools and nations recur to the gifted 
 works of the Franciscan Friar Mariano Vellojo. Respect Bra- 
 zilian philology and render homage to his illustrious name." 
 
 In his explorations he had for companions Friar Anastasio 
 of St. Ignes, author of the Herbaceous definitions, and 
 Friar Francisco Solano, the designer and miniature painter 
 of the plants which Vellojo discovered and classified. He 
 died June 13th, 1811, and was a contemporary of the 
 equally notable naturalist Father Giuseppe da Costa 
 
Azevedo of the Franciscan Order, who was especially noted 
 for his mineralogical studies. Greatly honored in Brazilian 
 history and renowned for sacred eloquence were Francisco 
 da Moutalverne, Father Sampaio and Francis of St. Charles; 
 the last named, with Father Manuel da Santa Maria 
 Hapatarica, have given Brazil the finest poetical productions 
 of which it boasts. 
 
 The establishment of the Franciscan Provinces in Brazil 
 did not cause the Provinces of Europe, and especially those 
 of Portugal where they originated, to cease to send other 
 apostles into that harvest of the Lord. On the contrary, 
 full of joy at having instituted those missions, they con- 
 tinued to share their hardships. The Province of San An- 
 tonio of Portugal had the following missions in Gran Para : 
 that of Our Lady of the Rosary, among the Indians of the 
 Saracas tribe ; of St. Joseph, in the same island, among the 
 Indians of the Aruaa and Marunus tribes; of Our Lady of 
 the Conception of Para; of the Amazon river, among the 
 Indians of the Aracaju tribe; of St. Antonio of Anajatiba, 
 among Indians of the Aruaa tribes; of the Holy Christ of 
 the River Mapahu; of Our Lady of Grace, of the Amazon 
 river; of Our Lady of the Conception of Guarapiranga, 
 frontier of the city of Gran Para, all among Indians of 
 different tribes. At the same time the Province of Concep- 
 tion and of Piety had numerous missions there. 
 
 At the present date the holy work continues. In 1853 
 the Franciscans Gesnaldo Machetti, Vincenzo Rocchi, Sam- 
 uele Mancini and Luigi Zaccagni, who went as missionaries 
 to Bolivia, were invited by the Brazilian Minister Plenipo- 
 tentiary at Bolivia to establish missions in Northern Brazil. 
 They accepted the invitation and have been joined by 
 other Franciscan missionaries from Germany. 
 
 Thus slowly but progressively the Christian and civil re- 
 generation of Brazil has been effected; and here, before 
 taking leave of Brazil, is the proper moment to relate that 
 the Franciscans who were preaching in Peru met by won- 
 derful chance their fellow-workers from Brazil who were 
 exploring the course of the great Amazon river. Father 
 Laureano of the Cross has left a detailed narrative of this 
 
meeting, recounting in all its particulars with beautiful 
 grace how two lay-brothers of the Province of the Twelve 
 Apostles, with endless good fortune, managed to discover 
 the whole course of the Maragnon, an undertaking vainly 
 attempted before that time on account of its innumerable 
 difficulties. 
 
 The best idea of the diffusion of the Franciscans in 
 America will be obtained from an enumeration of their 
 Provinces in the order of their foundation. Holy Cross of 
 Caracas, 1505; Holy Gospel in Mexico, 1534; Twelve Apos- 
 tles in Peru, 1553; St. Joseph in Yucatan, 1559; St. Peter 
 and Paul of Michoachan, 1565; Most Holy Name of Jesus 
 in Guatemala, 1565; Santa Fede in New Granada, 1565; 
 St. Francis of Quito, 1565; Most Holy Trinity in Chili, 
 1565; St. Antonio de las Charcas, 1565; St. Gregorio of 
 Nicaragua, 1577; St. Francisco among the Zacatecas, 1603; 
 St. Diego in Mexico, 1603; St. Diego in Mexico, 1606; St. 
 Francis of Xalisco, 1606; St. Helena in Florida, 161 2; the 
 Assumption in Paraguay, 1612; St. Antonio in Brazil, 1657; 
 the Immaculate Conception in Brazil, 1675 ; and in later 
 years the Custody of the Immaculate Conception of Mary 
 in Buffalo, of St. John Baptist in Cincinnati and the Prov- 
 ince of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary, besides nu- 
 merous missionary colleges spread over the eastern and 
 southern parts of America. 
 
 The limits of this paper do not permit us to do more 
 than name the principal personages and prominent points 
 of the glorious apostolate of the Franciscans not already 
 touched upon. In 1595 a new search for El Dorado, or 
 the fabulous land where the rocks, trees and mountains 
 were all fine gold, tempted the fitting out of an expedition 
 to the basin of the Orinoco. Twelve missionaries accom- 
 panied it, and the fruit of their hardships and fatigues is 
 found in thirteen large missions established there from the 
 middle of the seventeenth century. Their historian is 
 Father Conlin, who had a large share in them. They cov- 
 ered the territory from the river Crunana or Manzanares to 
 the Unare — twenty-five leagues from east to west, and fifty 
 miles north and south, along the coast as far as the Ori- 
 
noco, where, in 1799, they had already gathered and sub- 
 jected to the civil government of these Provinces sixteen 
 tribes. This union was consecrated with the blood of three 
 Franciscan friars, who died after ferocious tortures by the 
 savage tribes, whose cruel disposition presented the great- 
 est difficulties to the missionaries. But this was the story 
 in nearly all the missions of America. In Peru, the Indian 
 neighbors to the Panataguas tribe slew with arrows two 
 venerable Fathers and Franciscan missionaries, Cristoforo 
 Larios and Girolamo Ximenes. 
 
 Father Francisco di Morales and Father Francisco di 
 Aliozer preached in the immense and populous valley of the 
 CoUao, in the centre of which is Lake Titicaca, and soon 
 administered ten thousand baptisms. Father Girolamo of 
 Villa Carillo, explored the thinly populated valley of Col- 
 laguas, and with the help of several fellow-workers, 
 among whom was Father Gasparo di Vanos, a Portuguese, 
 a saint and a very gifted apostle, made over thirty thousand 
 converts. The province of Caxamalco was the scene of the 
 labors of a poor converted lay-brother, Matteo of Jumilla, 
 whose voice shook those idolatrous hearts so strongly that 
 they came crowding in throngs to receive faith through 
 baptism. Thus step by step from Panataguas to the Ama- 
 zon and as far as the Cordilleras, without pausing for 
 hindrance or obstacle, the missionaries held their way. 
 
 On the other side the Cordilleras was a world in itself, 
 and here the mission work was continued from the middle 
 of the seventeenth century to this day. They yet labor in 
 Peru, Mexico, Paraguay, Chili and Brazil among tribes 
 which still remain in barbarism. Of the work we possess 
 accounts by Arnich, Unizzani, Vernazza Revello, Mossi, 
 Compte, Sabate, Cardus Sans and Armentia, besides the 
 publications of Bustamente and Icazbalceta. Of the Diaries 
 of Armentia, a very competent judge. Carlo Bravo speaks 
 in very flattering terms as deserving of admiration (apart 
 from its religious side) for its scientific features, which are 
 valuable no less for the extent and difficulty of the ex- 
 plored region than for the exactness of the information col- 
 lected and preserved. 
 
Much more could be added, but it would require volumes 
 to detail the names of the Franciscan Fathers who preached 
 the gospel in America and gave impulse to its civilization, 
 the countries they explored, the centres of missionary work 
 they founded, the languages they mastered, the colonies they 
 established and the accounts which they wrote. In the 
 empire of Quito alone there were thirty-two principal centres 
 of missions from which hundreds of apostles went forth in 
 every direction, and which, after becoming convents of Reg- 
 ular Observance, continue their missionary work to this 
 day. Suarez in his ecclesiastical narrative wrote : ' ' The 
 Franciscan Order is the most ancient in the equator and the 
 one which labors most for the conversion of nations." Many 
 of the colonies which constitute the present republic of 
 Quito were founded by the Order, and its glorious traditions 
 are happily continued by Father Macia (since 1876 Bishop of 
 Loja), who has created great and small missions where more 
 than two hundred young men have been educated; who has 
 renewed the ancient convent of St. Francis of the Observ- 
 ance and also a numerous community of the Third Order ; 
 is, moreover, now restoring the convent of the Dominicans, 
 has called to his diocese the daughters of St. Vincent de 
 Paul to nurse in the hospital and to open a house of the 
 Good Shepherd, and with the Fathers of his Order is con- 
 stantly about mission work in his large flock, indefatigable 
 in spreading the Divine word. 
 
 The first bishop of Tucuman was the Franciscan Father 
 Francisco Belmonte, nominated by Pius V., who instituted 
 the Episcopal hierarchy there in May loth, 1570. Another 
 Franciscan, Father Girolamo Albornoz, succeeded him, fol- 
 lowed by Father Ferdinand of Trejo. The mission of 
 Tucuman extended to the Cumana, to the river Plate and 
 to the Ciaco; so that in 1587 the Order was established 
 there in five convents or central missions — San Michel, 
 Eatero, Rioga, Cordova and Corriente. These, like those in 
 Paraguay, were united into a Custody dependent upon the 
 Province of Peru down to the year 1612, when they were 
 united with Paraguay into a great missionary Province 
 called ' ' Assumption. ' ' 
 
 146 
 
One cannot name Tucuman without recalling that prodigy 
 San Francesco Solano, whose life was an uninterrupted 
 apostleship. Churches, monasteries, convents, hospitals, 
 theatres, the public streets, squares and gambling houses 
 resounded with his apostolic voice. Evil doers were 
 affrighted, profane spectacles were banished from the 
 theatres, primitive virtues beamed again in the cloisters and 
 among the virgins consecrated to God, and the great 
 crimes of the nobility were expiated publicly and solemnly. 
 He died 12th July, 1610, lamented by the whole of America. 
 He was declared holy and a worker of miracles of the 
 New World by Clement X,, and by Benedict XHI., in the 
 year 1726, he was solemnly enrolled among the saints. 
 
 The flourishing condition of the Franciscan missions in 
 Paraguay is attested by the numerous prelates whom the 
 Pontiff nominated to the diocese: John Barrios in 1547, 
 Peter de la Torre in 1554, John de Campo in 1570, Martin 
 Ignacio de Loyola in 1601, Bernardino Cardenas in 1640, 
 and many others. Father Alonzo di Bonaventura and Louis 
 di Bolanos labored converting and erecting crosses every- 
 where. Along the Picer and the Buay alone, they estab- 
 lished fifteen churches, and, with their fellow-laborers from 
 Buenos Ayres, converted thousands of Indians along the 
 river as far as Quiros. Father Luiz di Bolanos preached 
 the gospel for sixty years, and died 8th October, 1629. 
 
 In 1612 the Franciscan Order had a very flourishing 
 Province in the region comprising Paraguay and Tucuman, 
 as well as eleven convents: St. George in Cordova, San 
 Michel in Tucuman, Assumption in Paraguay, the Eleven 
 Thousand Virgins in Puerto, St. Francis in Salta, St. 
 Francis in Cucin, St. James in Estero, San Martin in 
 Eatero, St. Ann in Santa Fede, San Francis in Rocha, 
 and St. Francis in Corrientes — all with missions and con- 
 vents depending on them, such as Ytabi, Calapa, Yutig, 
 Oclies, and others. Illustrious among the numerous active 
 and holy missionaries, in the first century of the discovery 
 of America, were Father Francis di Aroca, Diego di Lagunas, 
 Alfonso de la Torre, Andrea Rodriguez, John de San 
 Bernardo, John de Vergura and Martin Ignacio de Loyola ; 
 
 147 
 
not omitting the saintly Bishop Cordenas, called the Father 
 of the Poor Indians. 
 
 As constant and vigorous defenders of the poor Indians, 
 the Franciscans incessantly despatched eloquent memorials 
 to the Court of Spain ; that of the celebrated missionary 
 and historian Father Bonaventure Cordova Salinas, covering 
 150 printed folio pages, is most affecting, and so is the 
 earnest account of Father John da Silva, in 1621. Peter 
 of Maldivia, who compiled the "Conquest of Chili" for the 
 Court of Spain, was among the first missionaries in 1541, 
 together with the Franciscan brother, Ferdinand Barrionueve, 
 of noble birth, and they were followed by many other fellow- 
 workers, such as Father Bernardino Aguero, who on entering 
 Coquimbo and Copimpo, obtained, but not without much 
 resistance, numerous conversions. Others joined them in 
 1552, including Brother Francis Turingia and John Gallegos. 
 But not being sufficient for all the work, three more 
 were brought from Lima in the next year, 1553, by Father 
 John de Toralba ; viz., Christopher di Ravaneda, John de la 
 Torre, called the Saint, and the converted brother, Jacinto 
 di Frenegal, who subsequently opened a house which was 
 the beginning of the foundation of the Franciscan Missionary 
 Province of Chili, under the name of the "Holy Trinity." 
 
 To soften the naturally ferocious spirit of the Araucani, 
 the missionaries founded convents in Araucania, around 
 which those wild people spread their camps, and thus ob- 
 tained the immediate protection and defence of the pastors. 
 Such were the convents founded by Father Torralba, in 
 Augol, in Imperiale, in Valdivia, in 1558, from whence he pene- 
 trated the territory of the Cunci and arrived as far as 
 Osorno, where he founded another convent, under the pro- 
 tection of the martyr saints, Cosmas and Damian, and still 
 another in Villa Rica, named " Our Lady delle Nevi," 
 1568. An episcopal see being erected in Imperiale, the first 
 bishop was the Franciscan brother Antonio of San Michel, 
 guardian of the City of Cuzco, in Peru, who very soon 
 opened up new missions in Budi, Ragilhue and Hualpi, a 
 seminary for young men who felt a call to ecclesiastical 
 orders, and establishments for the education of girls. 
 
Among the most noted missionaries was Father Ferdinand 
 Barrionueve, who afterwards became bishop of Santiago ; 
 Father Diego of Medellin, his successor to the same see 
 in 1574, and the bishops of Santiago, Brother Peter of 
 Azuaga, John Perez de Espinoza and Luis Girolamo D'Ore, 
 illustrious prelates worthy of being venerated in every 
 respect, who by example, work and word regenerated the 
 country. Their labors were not restricted to religious 
 teaching, but included the establishment of civil institutions, 
 according to the needs of the undeveloped natures and the 
 complex relations among which they labored. 
 
 Father Turingia (says Eyzaguirre) in the sixteenth cen- 
 tury was the pride of Chili. Gifted by heaven with a 
 remarkable aptitude for preaching the gospel, he never 
 spoke but to pour forth a torrent of pious and consoling 
 words. At the sound of his voice, the most hardened 
 hearts were softened, the vicious reformed their lives, and 
 pious souls were wrapt as in an atmosphere from Paradise. 
 His companion in hardships and not inferior in merit, was 
 Father Francis Gallegos ; and after them must be named Father 
 Francis Frenegal, John della Torre, Cristopher Ravaneda, 
 John di Tobar, Michel Bocillo, Melchior Arteaga, Thomas Toro, 
 John of St. Bonaventura, Father Peter Arteca, a native of 
 Santiago, who died with the reputation of a saint, on May 3d, 
 1647, and the glorious wonder-worker. Father Andrew Corzo, 
 the inseparable companion of St. Francis Solano. 
 
 Not less brightly than the sons of the First Order of St. 
 Francis shone the daughters of the Second Order of the 
 Sisters of St. Clare in Chili, who were summoned by the 
 two Franciscan prelates Medellin and Solier. All the his- 
 torians of that country agree in recognizing the conspicuous 
 services rendered by those generous ladies to religion and to 
 the state. The two monasteries of Osorno and Imperiale 
 especially distinguished themselves by the heroism they dis- 
 played during the siege to which those cities were subjected 
 by the Araucanians. The religious behaved so admirably as 
 to inspire respect in the savages, flushed by victory and 
 ready for the worst excesses, and it is almost a miracle 
 that they escaped unharmed. 
 
 »49 
 
The spiritual conquest of Canada, of which ingenious and 
 fine descriptions have been left us by the Franciscans Le 
 Clercq, Pagard, Hennepin and Crespel (men who shine as 
 so many lights in the annals of the Order and the Biblio- 
 graphie Universelle) is a most edifying history. In 1614 
 Father Dionisio Jamay started for Canada, as commissary, 
 with John d'Olbeau, Joseph Le Caron and the lay -brother 
 Pacifico Duplessis. The natives were ferocious, without 
 fixed abodes, transporting their huts here and there, wher- 
 ever they could fish and hunt. The missionaries, after 
 selecting Quebec as a centre, extended the network of their 
 missions, John d'Olbeau going among the Montagneses and 
 Father Joseph Le Caron among the Hurons. In 1620, being 
 strengthened by a new band of missionaries, they opened a 
 regular convent in Quebec, and the following year, on the 
 25th of May, the church was blessed under the patronage 
 of Our Lady of the Angels. 
 
 The war, which broke out shortly afterwards between the 
 French and the Iroquois, made the diffusion of the holy 
 gospel amongst those tribes more difficult, the missionaries 
 being exposed every moment to capture and death at the 
 hands of the savages. Father PouUin, who accompanied his 
 countrymen to the assault of St. Louis, fell into the hands 
 of the Indians, who, according to their custom, prepared to 
 burn him. The French, being informed of the meditated 
 cruelty, quickly offered their prisoners as ransom and were 
 successful. The missionary was found covered with wounds 
 and bound to the stake for sacrifice. Two prisoners, who 
 refused to go back to their tribe, were taught the gospel 
 by him, and subsequently rendered valuable service, in the 
 cause of Jesus Christ, to their own people. 
 
 Having finished their convent, the Franciscans founded a 
 Novitiate in Quebec in 1622 ; and in 1623 a new band of 
 missionaries came from the Province of St. Dionisio, in 
 France ; amongst whom were the venerable Father Nicholas 
 Viel, with the lay-brothers Teodato Pagard and Gervasio 
 Moyer. 
 
 They sailed up the St. Lawrence, established themselves 
 amongst the Hurons, who received them with festivities, and 
 
besought the Fathers to remain with them in their huts. 
 It was with difficulty they could be made to understand 
 that it would produce better results for the liberty and ex- 
 tension of the Apostolic ministry to let the missionaries 
 have separate houses. Notwithstanding this kindly reception, 
 the mission had to overcome many difficulties, owing to the 
 lack of intelligence of the tribe, who could only very slowly 
 be subdued to Christianity. But all difficulties were over- 
 come by the mild disposition of the natives and the untir- 
 ing efforts of the missionaries, who were implicitly obeyed. 
 
 Anoindaon, chief of Quieunonascaran, felt such affection for 
 the Franciscans, that he insisted upon assuming the office of 
 their major-domo, and was constantly with them. Finding 
 them sometimes kneeling in prayer in the chapel, he also 
 knelt by their side, joining, as they did, his hands, and not 
 being able to do more, attempted to imitate their gestures, 
 moving his lips and raising his eyes to heaven. Here he 
 remained until the service, sometimes a long one, was over, 
 although he was 75 years of age. When one of the Fathers 
 was left alone, the others being absent, he wished to sleep 
 in the missionary's hut, in order to protect him from danger, 
 and only with difficulty and to his great sorrow could be 
 dissuaded from doing so. 
 
 It was found necessary that Father Pagard and Father 
 Joseph should return to Quebec to provide the necessaries 
 to establish the Mission on a better and more solid footing 
 since they were now assured of the affection of the tribes, 
 and they travelled in two canoes with different guides, arriv- 
 ing at Quebec eight days apart. The journey as described by 
 Pagard was very painful, but yet was a continual mission 
 among the natives of the country they passed through, and 
 very touching was their separation from the tribe of the 
 Hurons, who, flocking around them, wept in their desola- 
 tion. Having arrived at Quebec, after many hardships, they 
 found an order from the Provincial of Paris, recalling them 
 without delay to France. 
 
 "My poor Canada!" concludes the loving narrative of 
 Father Pagard, "dear land of the Hurons, I had chosen 
 thee for the abode of my last days, working for thy conver- 
 
sion, but this has not been granted me. None will ever 
 know what grief I suffered in leaving those tribes envel- 
 oped in dark superstition ! But other, holy, missionaries will 
 take my place, and I know for certain that their full con- 
 version will be accomplished some day, to be the condem- 
 nation of so many Christians, who, surrounded by God with 
 so many blessings, are so ungrateful and insensible to 
 His kindness." His prediction was fulfilled, in respect to the 
 efforts of the Franciscans to convert the tribes ; for they had 
 conceived so much affection for the Indians that they were 
 never able to abandon them. 
 
 The Fathers of the Province of Aquitania sent some of 
 their fellow missionaries to Acadia, and one of them, called 
 Bernardino or Sebastian, started from Miscou, intending to 
 go as far as the River St. John, where the principal station 
 of the Mission was located ; in the wilderness between Mis- 
 cou and Porto Real he perished with all his companions. 
 He had preached the Gospel amongst the savages for three 
 years, so writes Father Le Tac, was thoroughly acquainted 
 with their language and had fully gained their love and 
 esteem. 
 
 The Franciscans Pagard, Hennepin, Le Clercq, and Cres- 
 pel have earned their reputation, not only for their mission- 
 ary work, but for their writings, which constitute a treasury 
 of information. The work of Pagard, writes Le Chevalier, 
 comprises a period of about fifteen years, and furnishes, 
 whether as regards details or as a whole, an important 
 part of the history of North America. The letter of 
 Father Dionisio Jamay is a vivid description of the first 
 Franciscan Convent on the borders of the St. Lawrence, 
 and explains very clearly the state of the Canadian Colony 
 at the beginning of the seventeenth century. We owe to 
 Pagard very valuable and exact accounts of the Hurons, the 
 Montaneti, the Trocheti, and different other Indian tribes. 
 He studied them carefully and patiently, and knew their 
 language, their customs, habits and manners, which are all 
 described with wonderftd accuracy, and sometimes with an 
 elegance of language to which the historians of the seven- 
 teenth century were not accustomed. The topography also 
 
 15a 
 
is exact. Having left France bearing to the savages the 
 standard of the Roman faith, he and his fellow-workers 
 planted Catholicism in New France, and endowed the country 
 with vigoroiis Catholic power, which was maintained down 
 to the capture of Quebec by the English in 1759. Pagard 
 was one of the most devoted Apostles of the Roman 
 Catholic Church. He declares it, he repeats it, he reveals it in 
 every word, he boasts of it and glories in it. Whoever 
 takes up his books, finds him an original, instructive, clever 
 and first rate author, with a heart full of faith, love, and 
 rectitude. The same can be said of the other writers, fel- 
 low-workers of Pagard, Le Clercq, Hennepin and Cres- 
 pel. Le Tac's works, which are very scarce, are of 
 great value, and contain the choicest information. His 
 name among the Franciscans who first entered Canada to 
 preach the Gospel, and made it abound with Apostolic 
 labor, is still a benediction. 
 
 A Father of the Society of Jesus, Father Huygens, writes 
 in 1876 to Father Van Loo, a Belgian Franciscan, "The 
 name of the Franciscan Fathers is still blessed in Lower 
 Canada. The holy Bishop of Montreal, Mgr. Bourget, would 
 receive you with open arms. The Third Order is still nu- 
 merous among both sexes ; they still hold regular meetings 
 in IMontreal. Being chaplain at the Monastery of the Ladies 
 of the Sacred Heart at the Falls of RecoUetto (where there 
 is one of our novitiates, eight miles from Montreal), on 
 Sundays and other feast days a Dominican of the Third 
 Order waits on me at the table, wearing the Franciscan 
 tunic and waist cord. The Belgian Fathers of Charity do 
 much good there. The material is not lacking. The citizens 
 of Montreal are bviilding a fine convent for the Carmelites, 
 who are very glad of this. The good Franciscan Fathers 
 were those who caused the Jesuits to come to Canada. We 
 should be happy if we could induce them to return, and in 
 truth a few years ago they returned — being called and ex 
 pected with the greatest enthusiasm." 
 
 In 1880 the vicar-custodian of Jerusalem (from whence he 
 was called) was appointed commissioner of the Terra Santa 
 in Canada, his coming exciting enthusiasm of which few 
 
 X53 
 
examples are found in history. Seeing how warmly he was 
 welcomed, he conceived the idea of re-establishing in Can- 
 ada the Franciscan Order, beginning with the foundation of 
 the commissaryship of the Terra Santa, which started under 
 the happiest auspices. In June, 1888, his purpose was ef- 
 fected. He went with three companions to establish the 
 house projected eight years before ; and thus the restora- 
 tion of our Order in that country was inaugurated, and 
 very soon their labors flourished, extending to religious and 
 other institutions. The outlook is good, and we hope by 
 the grace of God the holy work may be fruitfvd : of which 
 the seed was sown by the sons of the patriarch of Assisi 
 in a nation that adores them. 
 
 Retracing a few steps, we have to point out how the apos- 
 tolic work of the Franciscans continued to develop in other 
 territories of North and South America. The ill-success of 
 the expeditions of Coronado, and afterwards of Soto, some- 
 what damped, but did not extinguish, the ardor for new 
 discoveries. A Franciscan called Augustin, full of zeal for 
 the salvation of souls, being told that in the interior there 
 were large populations composed of very fierce peoples, ob- 
 tained permission to go to them with two Fathers, Francis 
 Lopez and John de Santa Maria. Arriving in 1581, they 
 established a mission among the Tizuas, and then going 
 further into the interior about 400 Mexican leagues, in various 
 disguises, they were ultimately betrayed by the natives and 
 killed, being lamented sorely by the new converts. 
 
 In this way New Mexico was discovered. In 1596 a new 
 and more numerous expedition was sent out under the leader- 
 ship of Oiiate, with eight Franciscans, accompanied by Father 
 Rodrigo Duran, as Commissary. After the subjugation of 
 the natives almost without resistance, they showing willing- 
 ness to be taught the Christian faith and to be baptized, 
 they were intrusted to the Franciscans in the following 
 order : to Father Francis of St. Michael, the Province of 
 Pecos, with eleven tribes of the Laguna, which is in the 
 East, besides the shepherds of the Cordilleras of the Sierra 
 Nevada, and the tribes of Zuanquiz and Hohota, Yonalins, 
 Zatoe, Xaimela, Aggey, Cuza, Cizentetpi, Acoli, Abbo, 
 
Apena, Axanti, Amaxa, Couna, in Alle Atuyama, and 
 Chein, and finally the four other large ones of Xumanas, 
 which are called Atripuy, Genobey, Zuelotetrey, and Patao- 
 trey. 
 
 To Father Francis of Zamora, the tribes of the Province 
 of the Picuries; all the Apaches of the Sierra Nevada to the 
 north and east, and all those of the province of Taos. To 
 Father John de Reixas, the tribes of the province of the 
 Cheres, together with those of Castixes, of Comitre, of San 
 Domingo, of Alipoti Chochiti of the Lake of Carabajed, of 
 San Marco, San Cristoforo, Sant Anna, Ojana, Guipana, 
 Puerto and Popolo Bruciato. To Father Alonzo di Lugo, the 
 tribes of the province of Euimes, with those of Yjar, 
 Guayoguia, Mecastria, Quinsta, Ceca, Potre, Trea, Guatitritti, 
 Catroo, and Apedes. To Father Andrew Corchado, the tribes of 
 the province of Trias, with those of Ramaya, Yaco, Toyagua, 
 and Pelchin. To Father Giovanni Claros, the tribes of the prov- 
 ince of Tigfuas, with those of Mapeya, Tuchimas, and Para, 
 besides those south of the North River. To Father Cristo- 
 foro of Salazar, the tribes of the province of Tepuas, be- 
 sides the City of San Francisco of the Spaniards, which 
 was building. 
 
 Among the Pecos, two miles from the village of Ojke, the 
 first colony was established: building there a wooden church, 
 which was the first one erected in New Mexico. And from 
 this colony, which became the centre of the apostolic labor 
 of the Franciscans, they spread out, preaching the gospel 
 with great success throughout that great country, building 
 numerous churches, to each of which they gave a Saint as 
 patron; as in the village of Puaray, San Antonio of 
 Padua ; to that in the village of San Domingo, ' ' The Virgin 
 Assunta nel Cielo;" to that in the town of Picuries, the 
 seraphic doctor, San Bonaventura; to that in the town of 
 Gallisteo, St. Ann, the mother of the Blessed Virgin. The 
 Fathers were subsequently re-enforced by six more mission- 
 aries, with a new commissary in the place of Escalona, who 
 had resigned. This was Father Francis Escobar, who en- 
 couraged the mission so much that the most marvellous prog- 
 ress was obtained. The soul of the work and the example 
 
for the newcomers were the Fathers who already knew the 
 character, language, and manners of the natives, viz. : 
 Father Escalona, Father Francis of St. Michael, Father Fran- 
 cis Taumone, Father Lopez Isquierdo, and Father Gastona 
 Peralta, who had become like natives of the country. 
 
 In 1608, when Escobar resigned his office, the converted 
 amounted to 8,000. In 1630 Father Alfonso Benavides, 
 Custodian of New Mexico, sent to King Philip IV. by the 
 General Commissary of India, Father John of Santander, a 
 stupendous account, handed down to us, and which only 
 lack of space prevents our quoting. Suffice it to say, the 
 whole Apache nation was converted, three churches and 
 convents being founded among them: one in the borough 
 of Pilaho dedicated to the Blessed Virgin ; one in the town 
 of Seneca dedicated to San Antonio; the third in the town 
 of Sevilletta dedicated to San Lodovic, Archbishop of 
 Toulouse. In the tribe of the Ruas, in 1626, the Fathers 
 of the convents of Sandia and Yoletta, who ministered to 
 their spiritual wants, baptized 7,000, the whole of the tribe; also 
 4,000 Queres, 10,000 Tompiros, 4,000 Tanos, and 2,000 Pecos, 
 and many more were brought to the Christian faith and 
 trained to an almost civilized and regular way of living. 
 Those missions went on steadily increasing and flourishing. 
 
 Father Girolamo de Zarate Salmeron, a native of the 
 province of the "Santo Evangelio" in Mexico, after many 
 years of apostolical hardships among those barbarians, gives 
 a complete history of all the expeditions undertaken for 
 that conquest, with ample notices of the geography and 
 natural history of the entire country. He relates the expe- 
 ditions of Captain Espejo with Father Bernardino Beltran, 
 and two subsequent ones with a certain Nemarcete and a 
 certain Humana in 1594, under the leadership of Sebastiano 
 Vizcayno. and in which the Franciscan Fathers Francis 
 Balta, a commissary, Diego Perdomo, Bernardino of Zamudia, 
 Nicolas Zarabiere and Christopher Lopez, a lay-brother, took 
 part. 
 
 In 1599 Father Francis Velasco, who was then commissary 
 of New Mexico, with Peter Vergara, a lay-brother, advanced 
 more than two hundred leagues into the immense plains 
 
 156 
 
of Cibola, traversing the tribes of the Vaqueros and Ex- 
 causaquex. Finally in 1604 another expedition from San 
 Gabriel to reach the south sea was accompanied by the 
 commissary Father Francis Escobar, famous for his piety 
 and knowledge of languages, and by the lay -brother John 
 of San Bonaventura. The voyages of discovery in which 
 the Franciscans took part were continued without interrup- 
 tion, as shown by the accounts still existing, and brought 
 to light from the archives. Such, for instance, as that of 
 Father Freytas, lately published in New York by Shea. 
 
 While the Franciscan Fathers thus assisted in new discoveries, 
 they zealously improved the condition of the natives whose 
 territory had been already explored, by founding churches 
 and convents, which multiplied in a marvellous way, and 
 which in Mexico alone numbered over fifty besides those in 
 Michoacan and Yucatan. In Florida they penetrated in 
 1577, and Father Alonzo Regnosi founded two small missions 
 in Madre de Dios and in San Sebastian. Finding the 
 ground well disposed, others were sent for and came, viz.. 
 Father Francis Morrone, superior, Baltasar Lopez, Peter of 
 Corpa and Antonio Badajos, with two lay-brothers. Twelve 
 more arrived in 1593, under the guidance of Father John of 
 Silva. They were Father Michael of Anon, Peter Ferdinand 
 of Chosas, Peter Anon, Biagio of Montes, Peter Bermejo and 
 Francis Pare j a (the first to write a catechism in the lan- 
 guage of the natives, which was afterwards published), 
 Peter of San Gregorio, Francis of Velascola, Francis of Avila, 
 Francis of Bonilla, Peter Ruiz, and the lay-brother Peter 
 Vinegra, who afterwards, for his numerous services, was also 
 ordained a priest and excelled as a missionary. 
 
 The missions prospered and gave promise of the best 
 results, when an Indian chief arose against them with a 
 number of savages, and surprised the missionaries, putting 
 them to torture. Father Francis of Avila and a few others 
 were miraculously saved. Father Avila, after a long im- 
 prisonment, obtained his liberty, being exchanged for a 
 savage who had fallen into the Spaniards' hands. As soon 
 as the storm had passed, the mission recovered, and being 
 re-enforced by new workers, had in a short time such success 
 
in conversions that in 1603, at the general gathering of the 
 Order in Toledo, it was constituted a regular Custody, to- 
 gether with that of Habana, Cuba and Bayamo, presided 
 over by Father Peter Ruiz, another who had escaped the 
 slaughter. 
 
 The number of conversions, as well as the Fathers, 
 gradually increasing, it was formally declared a Province 
 under the name of St. Helena at the general chapter of the 
 Order held in Rome in 161 2, which ordained that Father 
 John from Castille should govern it, and it was fortified by 
 thirty-two additional missionaries. Philip III. strove by all 
 means to strengthen it. The houses which composed it 
 were: the Conception in San Augustin, the Conception in 
 Cuba, St. Peter in Atulateca, St. Anthony in Enecape, San 
 Dominico in Talatsi, St. Luce in Quera, the Holy Cross in 
 Trari Chica, St. Ildefonso in Carnilo, St. Lodovic in 
 Himahica, the Conception in Havana, Holy Mary of the 
 Angels in Bayamo, St. Catarin in Guale, St. Francis in 
 Potamo, St. Bonaventura in Guadalquivir, St. Martin in 
 Ayacuto, St. Peter in Potoiriba, St. Lawrence in Hibitica- 
 chuco, St. Ann in Port au Prince. 
 
 Such was the apostolate of the Franciscans in the three 
 large divisions of America, known by the names of Florida, 
 California and New Mexico, of which the Province of St. 
 Evangelio in Mexico (from which the great movement was 
 kept going) was the centre. In nearly all the expeditions 
 the missionaries protected the leaders and soldiers who, not- 
 withstanding their European firearms, would have perished, 
 if it had not been for the authority and reverence which 
 the Franciscans had acquired among all the tribes. The 
 exploring parties generally started from Mexico, and were 
 either preceded or accompanied by the missionaries, who were 
 always their preservers, through Michoacan, Yucatan, 
 Jalisco, Guatemala, Vizcaya, California and New Mexico. 
 They passed from one territory to another, from one nation 
 to another, going and coming, not once, but repeatedly, as 
 each of them was a missionary, not for one territory only, 
 but for all those territories and tribes. 
 
 In Yucatan — where the first missions were established by 
 
 158 
 
the venerable Father James Testera and his four compan- 
 ions, and which was traversed by five other Franciscans 
 guided by Father Louis of Villalpando, in 1537, who estab- 
 lished good residences in 1546 for the purpose of forming a 
 regular missionary Province — new expeditions were formed 
 without interruption, such as the 'Six Fathers' in 1548, of 
 Father John della Porta; the 'Six Fathers,' of Brother John 
 Abalate ; the ' Twelve Fathers,' of Brother Lorenzo of Bien- 
 venida, in 1561 ; the 'Twelve Fathers' in 1566. 
 
 In 1573 the expedition of Father Cardete, and in 1576 that 
 of the ' Eighteen Fathers,' under Father James of Padilla, 
 was followed by that of the 'Sixteen Fathers' in 1578, 
 under Peter Cardete ; the 'Twelve Fathers' in 1587, under 
 Father Paul of Padilla ; another of Twelve Fathers in 1584, 
 under Brother Caspi of Naxara ; another of twelve in 1593, 
 under Brother Paul Maldonado ; another of twelve in 1601, 
 under Brother Alonzo Perez Guzman, and so on, without 
 any noticeable interruption, and it was the same in all other 
 parts of America. 
 
 It would be too long a task to give the history of all 
 the missionary Fathers who consecrated intellect and life to 
 the regeneration of the American Indians. It must suffice 
 to name only the more prominent. Father James of Testera 
 had the merit of kindling the ardor of his fellow-workers, 
 who in numbers exceeding one hundred and fifty went from 
 Europe to America to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. 
 Louis of Villalpando was the first to master the language of 
 the natives, in which he preached with such success that 
 his memory will always be indelible. Lorenzo of Bienvenida 
 was one of the principal founders of the missionary Province 
 of St. George, with numerous converts. Father Bartolomeo 
 of Torquemada lived for forty years among the savages, 
 who loved him like a father, and were inconsolable at his 
 death. Father Alonzo of Alvarado, who arrived at Yucatan 
 in 1549, showed by his saintly life the loving zeal he had for 
 the conversion of the Indians. Father Francis Navarro, a 
 man of letters, and notable for his knowledge of the Maya 
 language, built the convents of Mani, Ytzmal and San Ber- 
 nardino of Zizal ; Father John Velasquez founded and or- 
 
dained in all those missions special hospitals for the Indians. 
 Father Thomas of Arenas, one of the first to enter the coun 
 try, presided over the missions as a superior, efficaciously- 
 promoting their growth. Brother Luiz of Caldera achieved 
 splendid results in the conversion of the natives by repre- 
 senting in paintings, executed by himself, the mysteries and 
 principal facts of our divine religion, a method of instruc- 
 tion which marvellously contributed to develop the intelli- 
 gence of those people. Father John Ayora, of noble Spanish 
 family, and formerly of the University of Alcala, in Hen- 
 ares, is noted for his travels, always performed on foot, 
 and the hardships which he sustained therein, besides the 
 conversions which he obtained, and his various works in the 
 Mexican language, which he understood perfectly. 
 
 Father Francis Lorenzo in trying to restrain the Indians 
 from their excesses was assaulted and died of his injuries. 
 So with the lay-brother John Calero, who perished among 
 the Chichimechi in the mountain of Tequila. So with 
 Father Andrea Ayala and Francis Gil, who, living amongst 
 the Guainamotecas, a most ferocious tribe, had already suc- 
 ceeded in converting many of them, patiently teaching them 
 the catechism and baptizing them, when the idolaters, en- 
 raged at the success of the mission, conspired to slay them. 
 One Sunday after Mass they fell upon the Fathers, killed 
 them with clubs, cut off their heads, and paraded them in 
 triumph. 
 
 Who can narrate in full the terrible sufferings of our 
 Franciscans in Zacatecas and the adjoining territories? In 
 no other part of the New World was their blood shed so 
 freely. Many were killed, many were wounded, others were 
 tortured in a thousand different ways. They were betrayed 
 and persecuted, fulfilling what the Apostles wrote of the first 
 followers of Christ. They were put in irons, beaten, chained, 
 pierced and thrown into dungeons. They were cut to pieces, 
 sawn asunder, quartered, and died by the sword, in deserts, 
 on the mountains, in the ravines and caverns of the earth. 
 
 Father Mendieta's Ecclesiastical Indian History, a large 
 volume of 700 pages quarto, is a work without which it 
 would be impossible to write the history of the Indian- 
 
American Church. Mendieta was followed by John Torque 
 mada, the author of three folio volumes of the history of 
 the Indian Monarchy, giving a full account of the tribes 
 which from the beginning populated the country ; the suc- 
 cession of their chiefs and kings ; the details as to each and 
 all that concerns the religion, laws and customs of the tribes ; 
 with a notice also of the people which preceded them. He 
 is named by Beristain the Titus Livius of New Spain. 
 Prescott affirms also that the student "will find few better 
 guides than Torquemada in tracing the stream of historic 
 truth up to the fountain head ; such is his manifest integ- 
 rity, and so great were his facilities for information on 
 most curious points of Mexican antiquity." 
 
 Torquemada was preceded by Father Bernardino Sahagun fifty 
 years. The latter was contemporaneous with the conquest, 
 and his great work, " The Universal History of New 
 Spain" is considered by Prescott to be the best authority 
 on all that refers to the religion of the Aztecs. M. 
 Jourdanet, who translated it into French, says: "I found it 
 indispensable to refer to the works of Sahagun, being per- 
 suaded that there is no other which eqtials it. The method 
 which he follows in treating his subject, rivets in a special 
 way the attention of the readers who wish to be informed 
 thereon." The same critic writes of Father Torribio Moto- 
 linin : ' ' He was a never to be forgotten missionary, who 
 studied the language as well as the customs and natural 
 products of the whole country as well as its topography, of 
 which he left a complete history. Truly it must be said 
 that the details which it contains are most important; not 
 only as regards the results of the missionary work of his 
 fellow workers, but above all as regards the customs and 
 habits of the natives, the products of the country and the dif- 
 ferent nature and aspects of the field, being profitable and 
 instructive to the new owners of those regions. It is a 
 precious book which should not be ignored by those who 
 are interested in the study of American lore." 
 
 Of Father Torribio Motolinin, Prescott says: "The History 
 of the Indians of New Spain written by Bro. Torribio is 
 divided in three parts, viz. : First, the religion, rites and 
 
 i6i 
 
sacrifices of the Aztecs. Second, their conversion to Chris- 
 tianity, and the way in which they celebrated the Church 
 feasts. Third, habits and characters of the nation, its 
 chronology and astronomy, with an account of the principal 
 cities and the most marketable products of the country. 
 The investigator of Aztec antiquities will find there many 
 curious and important notices, since the author, on account 
 of his intimate connection with the natives, could become 
 acquainted with their theology and science. His style is so 
 easy and natural that it requires no effort to understand 
 him. In brief, his authority is of the first order for the 
 study of the antiquities of the country and for information 
 of the state in which it was found at the time of the Con- 
 quest." 
 
 The most genuine and authentic information as to the lan- 
 guages of the tribes also comes to us from the Franciscan 
 missionaries; for instance, Father Antonio of Cittareale, amidst 
 all the hardships of the apostolate, compiled a complete dic- 
 tionary of the Maya language. Father Solano wrote a ser- 
 mon for every Sunday in the year, and for all the saints' 
 days, in the same language, and composed a portable dic- 
 tionary for beginners. Father Torralva did the same. Father 
 Coronel published a book of instruction as a summary of 
 Christian doctrine and a short grammar. These publications, 
 as well as those of Landa and Villalpando, were used and 
 are still in use, writes Cogolludo in his "History of Yuca- 
 tan," by the priests and lay-brothers. 
 
 Humboldt drew attention to the importance of the accounts 
 in his compendium of Hanahuac, which were gathered by 
 his brother, Andrew of Olmos, and were transmitted by his 
 fellow-worker Mendieta, who, moreover, gives abridged notices 
 of several other coUaborateurs. First, Brother Peter Ximenes 
 prepared a treatise and vocabulary of the Mexican language. 
 He was followed by Brother Torribio Motolinin, who compiled 
 a Brief Christiati Doctrine. After Motolinin, Father John 
 Ribas wrote in the same language a catechism and a series 
 of Sunday conferences for the whole year, then a Flos 
 Sanctorum and a Christian Life, in questions and answers, 
 while Brother Luis Cisneros published a course of sermons. 
 
All four belonged to the first twelve who brought the Gos- 
 pel to this continent. 
 
 Brother Peter of Ghent wrote a Greater Doctrine in 
 Mexican, which was afterwards published, and a book of 
 sermons, as well as a course of conferences, with edifying 
 examples, suitable for the natives. Brother John St. Francis 
 published a similar book of sermons for the same purpose, 
 treating of the life and virtues of the saints. Brother Alonzo 
 of Herrere, published a grammar and book of sermons for the 
 whole year, by Brother Alonzo Rengel, besides a treatise on 
 the Otomi language and a catechism. Brother Andrew Olmos, 
 who was greatly gifted in languages, compiled dictionaries 
 and other books, not only in the Mexican language, but in 
 the Totanaca, Guaztec, and other languages of the Chichi- 
 mechi, among whom he preached the gospel for a long time, 
 exercising over them, as we have said, an extraordinary 
 influence. 
 
 Brother Arnold of Basaccio, a Frenchman and a profound 
 theologian, left a large number of good sermons in different 
 languages, and translated the Epistles and Gospels which are 
 read regularly in the Church. His works are much esteemed 
 by persons of literary tastes. Brother John of Gaona, who was 
 well versed in the Mexican language, was highly gifted and 
 wrote extensive treatises, unfortunately lost, with the excep- 
 tion of his dialogues, which have been published, and of 
 which the language and style surpass in purity and ele- 
 gance anything written in that language. He left besides a 
 book. Passion of the Saviour. His precious manuscripts 
 have nearly all been destroyed by fire. 
 
 What can we say of Brother Bernardino Sahagun ? Besides 
 a treatise in the Mexican language and a collection of ser- 
 mons for the whole year, as well as a commentary on the 
 Gospel, and many other treatises, he wrote a Calapino, so 
 called by him, in thirteen folio volumes, in which are to be 
 found all the kinds of speech of which the Mexicans made 
 use in their communications; and a description of religion, 
 education, domestic and social life among them. On account 
 of its extent, no translation of it has been undertaken. 
 One of the Viceroys took it from him to send it to a cer- 
 
 163 
 
tain chronicler who had been asking for accounts of the cus- 
 toms of the Indians. Father Sahagun never published any 
 of his writings, except a collection of airs for the Indians 
 to sing at their festivals, having substituted for their heath- 
 enish songs the life of Christ and the saints. 
 
 Brother Alonzo Escalona, who was also a ready writer in 
 Mexican, left a large number of sermons which are still 
 used, and several Commentaries on the Decalogue. Brother 
 Alonzo of Molina published a Vocabulary, a detailed Christian 
 Doctrine, a Compendium, a Double Confession, a Preparation 
 for the Eucharist, and the Life of our Patriarch. He 
 translated the Gospels for the Whole Year, the Hours with 
 the Saviour, and a large number of prayers and exercises, 
 for the use of the natives. Father Luis Rodriguez trans- 
 lated with purity and elegance the Proverbs of Solomon and 
 the four books of the Conteniptiis Mu7idi; omitting the last 
 twenty chapters of the third book, which were afterward 
 added by Brother Battista, the guardian of Tezcoco, who 
 also corrected the mistakes of the coppst for publication. 
 
 Brother John Romanones wrote a large number of sermons, 
 many treatises, and translated many parts of the Bible. 
 Brother Maturino Gilberti, a Frenchman, compiled and pub- 
 lished a folio volume of the Christian doctrine in the Tar- 
 rascan language of Michoacan. This book contains all that a 
 Christian needs to know to gain salvation. The first to sim- 
 ilarly distinguish himself in the Popolaca of Tecamachalco 
 was Brother Francis of Toral, afterwards bishop of Yucatan, 
 who wrote a Treatise, a Vocabulary, and other works bear- 
 ing on Christian doctrine. A Vocabulary, a Doctrine, and 
 many sermons were compiled in the same language by 
 Brother Andrew of Castro, the first apostle to the Province of 
 Metlazinco, and a Treatise and a Catechism in the Tarras- 
 can language were prepared by Brother John Battista of La- 
 g^na, who was minister of Michoachan. 
 
 Finally, in the Otomi language. Father Peter Palacios, who 
 knew it thoroughly, especially distinguished himself. He 
 wrote a Grammar, a Catechism, or Christian Doctrine, for 
 the use of the natives. These works were corrected and en- 
 larged by Brother Peter Oraz, a distinguished Father of the 
 
 164 
 
province, to whom we owe much gratitude for other works 
 which he left in the Otomi and Mexican languages, of 
 which a voluminous Book of Sermons will be published. The 
 Mexican language is the most generally spoken in the prov- 
 inces of New Spain, but there are many other languages 
 differing in every territorj^ and town ; indeed, they are al- 
 most numberless, but there are everywhere persons versed 
 in the Mexican, which here serves the purpose of Latin in 
 Europe. And one need not hesitate to avow the opinion 
 that the former language is not less noteworthy than the 
 latter, which it even surpasses in the art of word-formation 
 by means of its own radicals and expressions by metaphors. 
 
 To say the truth, the perfection of the Mexican language 
 has been threatened by familiar and popular use, and each 
 day it becomes more corrupt. The Spaniards speak it just 
 as the Negroes and ignorant speak Castillian. The Indians 
 adopt the Spaniards' manner of speech, forgetting that of 
 their forefathers. In a way, Spanish has been partly cor- 
 rupted with the words which the conquerors learned here, 
 and by the use of the Mexican language. The mingling produces 
 a result which renders most difficult the introduction of the 
 Christian faith to the natives. 
 
 The story of the later Franciscan missions in America, 
 which were as fruitful and efficacious as those of the first 
 century, is found in the chronicles of Father Peter Simon, 
 a Spaniard, the notable missionary of New Granada, who 
 minutely and faithfully describes all the territories, giving a 
 history of the advance of Christianity and transformation of 
 the country; in the work of Cordova Salinas, another Fran- 
 ciscan, who, in 1630, wrote very ample and faithful accounts 
 in the "Chronicle" of the Province of San Antonio de los 
 Charcas, published in Madrid, 1664, written by Father Diego 
 of Mendoza, in which the glowing descriptions of the mis- 
 sions to the savages caused a sensation. He took part in 
 them, and described in vivid colors the fertile countries and 
 their inhabitants, who lived without order or laws, in idle- 
 ness in the midst of their luxuriant vegetation. Note must 
 be made of the Primaria Seraphica of Brother Apolinare 
 of the Conception, who went from Lisbon to Brazil when quite 
 
 i6s 
 
young, and the Brazilian New Seraphic World, a classical 
 work of Brother Antonio of Santa Maria Taboatao, of which 
 the Historical and Geographical Institute of Rio Janeiro pub- 
 lished the first volume at its own expense, the second being 
 printed for the first time in 1858. Among the latest expe- 
 ditions in which the Order took part we find the important 
 voyage of discover^'- made to the island of Amat, or Tahiti, 
 in 1870 and 1S74, by Order of Don Manuel, Viceroy of Peru 
 and Chili, accompanied by two Franciscans, Brother Giro- 
 lamo Clota and Brother Narcissus Gonzalez, who sailed in 
 the ships "Aquila" and "Jupiter," and greatly furthered the 
 enterprise by their work and counsel. 
 
 In 1778 Brother Benedict Marin and Juliano Real went 
 to reconnoitre the Islands of Guaitecas and Guaineco, to 
 which two years afterwards Brothers Francis Menandez and 
 Ignacio Bargas made a journey, leaving us a very impor- 
 tant diary of their experiences. Brother Menandez in 1791 
 took part in an expedition to Nahuelhuapi, of which his ac- 
 count is still preserved. In 1790 Brother Narcisso Girbal 
 Barcelo at first alone set out exploring the course of 
 the Marayaon and Ucayali as far as Manda, from whence, 
 with Brother Bonaventura Marquez, he continued his voyage 
 to Cumbata. About t8oo some Franciscans ventured to the 
 mouth of the Sciguire, and the immortal Humboldt going 
 there for scientific exploits found them on the borders of the 
 Orinoco and profited by their observations. In our days 
 Brother Gesualdo Machetti published notes of the geography 
 and natural history of the northern part of Brazil. Brother 
 Emmanuel Castrucci, a missionary and traveller in Peru, 
 left a description of his trip from Callao to the native 
 tribes of Zapari and Givaro. Brother Peter Pellici, mission- 
 ary and traveller in China and Bolivia, published important 
 accounts of the latter; and Brother Joseph Arnich discov- 
 ered the Caroline Islands in the Pacific. There is besides 
 an excellent history left us of the Franciscan missions in 
 the Andes. 
 
 As in South America, so in North America, the fruitful 
 work of the Franciscans is preserved for reference. It 
 suffices to cite Father Diego Urtiaga, a companion of the 
 
venerable Antonio Margil in the missions of Choi, whose 
 diary of his travels with four of his fellow-workers from 
 Queretaro to Guatemala was published in 1694. Father John 
 Dias, who traversed the Gila and Colorado with Captain 
 John Battista Ansa about 1773 to California and thence to 
 Sonora, wrote a diary of his journey, one of the most im- 
 portant undertaken in these regions. Father John Crespi in 
 1774 took part in the expedition of the frigate "Santiago" 
 along the Pacific coast towards Northern California, and 
 gave an interesting and explicit account of it ; and in the 
 same year, accompanied by Father Peter Font and Francis 
 Garces, he went to the harbor of San Francisco and Monte- 
 rey, returning in 1779. Of all these travels we possess 
 diaries which are most serviceable in geographical research. 
 
 Equally important are the diaries left by Father Garces, 
 who was an accurate observer, not the least important be- 
 ing the account of his excursions in the Province of Mopir, 
 a plan of which he designed and drew on paper. Father 
 Peter Font, who, as we have said, took part in the expedi- 
 tion to the port of San Francisco, and who had been 
 chiefly charged with the duty of preserving an account of 
 the places visited, drew a map of the journey, which with 
 his diary proved to be most interesting. He was the last 
 one, says Humboldt, who visited Casas Grandes. Shortly 
 after this expedition Father Velez Escalante and Francis 
 Atanasio Dominguez started out to explore new districts in 
 the northeast of Mexico, and of the roads they travelled 
 they wrote an ample and descriptive account. They began 
 their journey on the 29th of July, 1776, finishing it on the 
 3d of January of the following year. At that time Father 
 Augustin Morfi made a geographical map of the district of 
 Zacatecas. 
 
 As the Franciscans were associated with the immortal 
 Columbus in the efforts that led to the discovery of 
 America, so have they been equally zealous in continviing 
 discoveries and laboring for the regeneration of the New 
 World after his death. How they have performed this re- 
 ligious and civil apostolate appears to-day in all its re- 
 splendent light, from the extensive collection of documents 
 
 167 
 
recovered and collected day by day, some of which are in 
 course of publication in Spain and America, but to make 
 all of them public will require much time, there being such 
 an abundance of precious documents that a large library 
 would not suffice to hold them all. And as the discovery 
 of the New World stamps the name of the intrepid navi- 
 gator, Columbus, indelibly in the memory of nations, so 
 the names of the sons of the patriarch of Assisi are writ- 
 ten indelibly in the names and histories of the oceans, 
 islands, rivers, villages, mountains, cities, towns, and all the 
 yet savage parts of the Western Continent. 
 
 i68 
 
AD! 
 
 ^o, has 
 
 .; , .-iUM.^,,, i<j Fathe* • 
 respect for a saintly man v 
 
 ^ ! %)«WM>r. op'^:a'stilh. kathhr of Isabella. 
 
 ijL, From , Joannis Mariana's Historia de Rebus Hispaniae, pub- 
 
 j,^ , lished at the Hague in 1733. 
 
 f John was the son of Henry HI. of Castile and Catherine 
 
 Vl.i^'^^ Lancaster, succeeded to the throne in 1406 and died 
 town J^^y 21, 1454, after a reign of forty-eight years which was 
 the rfUstinguished as the golden age in Castilian literature. He 
 Serra 1^^'""®'! first Maria, of Aragon and afterward Isabella of 
 Portugal, who became the mother of Isabella. 
 
 Jay, and he ga-. 
 
 ■■■■-'■ . The :- .- . 
 and is 
 
 wee Urcat 
 
ADDENDA TO THE FRANCISCAN PAPER. 
 
 piE history of the work of the Order of St. Francis 
 on the Pacific Coast, particularly in Upper Cali- 
 fornia, properly belongs to the age succeeding 
 the Columbus discoveries and the early religious 
 missions to America ; but the recent honors 
 paid by citizens of the United States, not of the Catholic 
 faith, to the founder of the California missions, craves 
 attention in connection with the preceding paper. From 
 a late publication,* we learn that Mrs. Leland Stanford, 
 of San Francisco, has presented to the city of Monterey 
 a monument to Father Junipero Serra as a mark of her 
 respect for a saintly man who, through toil and suffering, 
 carried the saving grace of faith to thousands of benighted 
 Indians. The monument was unveiled on June 3, 1891, 
 in the presence of fully five thousand people. It stands on 
 a commanding height on the military reservation, not far 
 from the old fort which Fremont held at the time the 
 United States flag was unfurled and the Spanish-California 
 town became American. It is scarcely a stone-throw from 
 the old wooden cross which marks the spot where Father 
 Serra landed in 1770. It is picturesquely located, the sight 
 commanding a fine view of Monterey Bay and city and the 
 exquisite country back of it. With a consideration which 
 deserves special mention, a Franciscan Father, the Very 
 Rev. Clementine Deymann, was selected as the orator of the 
 day, and he gave an eloquent account of Father Junipero and his 
 work. The monument represents the landing of the 
 missionary, and is crowned with an imposing statue of the 
 priest clad in the robes of his Order and the stole, one hand 
 clasping his book and the other lifted in the act of benediction. 
 
 * Catholic Home Almanac for 1892, "In Memory of Three Great 
 Catholics." 
 
 169 
 
To understand the great esteem in which Father Junipero 
 and his work are held on the Pacific Coast, we may recur 
 to a series of interesting papers by a distinguished Ameri- 
 can author.* The writer acknowledges her indebtedness to 
 the celebrated historian H. H. Brancroft, of San Francisco, 
 who placed at her disposal all the resources of his invalu- 
 able library, and also to the superior of the Franciscan 
 College in Santa Barbara for the loan of important books 
 and manuscripts. The missionary was born in the island of 
 Majorca, and entered the Franciscan Order at the age of 
 sixteen, taking his final vows two years later, in 1730. 
 His baptismal name, Michael Joseph, was laid aside, and he 
 assumed the name of Junipero, after an early companion of St. 
 Francis of Assisi. In 1749 he received permission to join 
 the band of missionaries assembled in Cadiz and destined 
 for Mexico. He landed in Vera Cruz, and for nineteen 
 years labored in Mexico, and in 1767 was sent to Lower 
 California, being put in charge and appointed president 
 of all the California missions. From there expeditions 
 were sent to Upper California, and the first halted at a 
 place they named Espiritu Santo, very near the ridge 
 where now runs the boundary line between the United 
 States and Mexico. This was on JMay 14th, 1769, and the 
 pilgrims there sang the first Christian hymn heard on 
 California's shores. The mission of San Diego was founded 
 there on July i6th, 1769, and the corner-stone thus laid 
 of the civilization of California. 
 
 Incalculable hardships, well depicted by the author, at- 
 tended the expedition from San Diego to Monterey and the 
 return, which occupied six months and ten days. Sickness and 
 disappointment so affected the spirits of the Spanish comman- 
 der of the expedition that he resolved to abandon it, in spite 
 of Father Junipero's entreaties, and fixed the 20th of March 
 
 * " H. H.," Mrs. Helen Hunt Jackson, in The CetiUiry Magazine for May, June, 
 and August, 1883. 
 
as the day of departure, should no supplies arrive from 
 Mexico by that time. The day was the Feast of St. Joseph, 
 and in the morning Father Junipero, who had been praying 
 night and day for weeks, celebrated High Mass with spe- 
 cial supplications for relief. Before noon a sail was seen 
 on the horizon, appearing for a few minutes and then 
 vanishing from sight. It was believed to be an apparition, 
 but four days afterwards the San Antonio came in, bringing 
 bountiful stores of all that was needed. The sea and land 
 expeditions to Monterey were then undertaken and success 
 crowned their efforts on June ist. Before his death, in 
 1784, he had founded nine missions : San Diego in 1769, Mon- 
 terey 1770, San Antonio 1771, San Gabriel 1771, San Luis 
 Obispo 1772, San B'rancisco 1776, San Juan Capistrano 1776, 
 Santa Clara 1777, Buena Ventura 1782. Many interesting 
 incidents are recorded in connection with the establishment 
 of these first missions. At San Gabriel the Indians gathered 
 in great force, and were about to attack the little band of 
 ten soldiers and two friars who had begun to plant their 
 cross ; but on the unfurling of a banner with a life-size 
 picture of the Virgin painted on it they flung away their 
 bows and arrows, came running towards the banner with 
 gestures of reverence and delight, and threw their bows 
 and other ornaments on the ground before it as at the feet 
 of a suddenly recognized queen. The San Carlos Mission 
 at Monterey was Father Junipero's particular charge. There 
 he spent all his time when not called away by his duties 
 as president of the missions ; there he died and there he 
 was buried. There also his beloved friend and brother 
 Father Crespi labored by his side for thirteen years, a san- 
 guine, joyous man, sometimes called El Beato from his 
 happy temperament. 
 
 Father Crespi died at the age of sixty years, having spent 
 half of them in laboring for the Indian. Father Serro lived 
 only two years longer. For many years he had been a 
 great sufferer from an affection of the heart aggravated by 
 his excessive zeal. When he preached he was carried out 
 
 171 
 
of himself by the fervor of his desire to impress his hearers. 
 Baring his breast he would beat it violently with a stone 
 or burn the flesh with a lighted torch to enhance the effect 
 of his descriptions of the tortures of hell. There is in his 
 memoirs a curious engraving showing him lifted high above 
 a group of listeners, holding in his hands the blazing torch 
 and the stone. Like all the missionaries he presented an 
 indomitable front to the military authorities in protecting 
 the missions and the Indian converts, whose deepest affec- 
 tions and confidence he won by his untiring labors. It was 
 his habit to spend all the time with them not required for 
 the offices of the Church, laboring by their side in the 
 fields, making adobe, digging and sharing, in short, all the 
 labors required of them. 
 
 After his death the founding of missions continued until 
 in 1804 the occupation of the sea-coast line from San Fran- 
 cisco to San Diego was complete, there being nineteen mis- 
 sion establishments only a day's journey apart. That of 
 Santa Barbara was founded in 1786, La Purissima 1787, 
 Santa Cruz 1791, Soledad 1791, San Jose 1797, San Juan 
 Bautista 1797, San Miguel 1797, San Fernando Rey, 1797, 
 San Luis Rey 1797, San Luis Rey de Francia 1798, Santa 
 Inez 1804. 
 
 All the missions comprised buildings on a large scale pro- 
 viding for hundreds of occupants, for all the necessary trades 
 and manufactures, and for many of the ornamental arts of 
 civilized life. Enormous tracts of land were under high cul- 
 tivation, the grape and fruits of the temperate zone flour- 
 ishing in the marvellous California air side by side with the 
 grape, fig, orange and pomegranate. Vast flocks of sheep 
 and herds of cattle and horses were gathered everywhere, 
 and in the nineteen missions were twenty thousand Indians 
 leading regular and industrious lives, and conforming to the 
 usages of the Catholic religion. A description of the San 
 Luis Rey mission written by De Mofras, an attachee of the 
 French Legation in Mexico, in 1842, gives some idea of the 
 form and methods of the mission establishments. " The 
 
building is a quadrilateral, 450 feet square ; the church oc- 
 cupies one of its wings ; the fa9ade is ornamented with a 
 gallery. The building is two stories in height. The inte- 
 rior is formed by a court ornamented with fountains and 
 decorated with trees. Upon the gallery which runs around 
 it open the dormitories of the monks, of the major-domos 
 and of travellers, small work-shops, school-rooms and store- 
 rooms. The hospitals are situated in the most quiet parts of 
 the mission, where also the schools are kept. The young Indian 
 girls dwell in halls called monasteries, and are called nuns. 
 Placed under the care of Indian matrons who are worthy 
 of confidence, they learn to make cloth of wool, cotton and 
 flax, and do not leave the monastery until they are old 
 enough to be married. The Indian children mingle in schools 
 with those of the white colonists. A certain number, chosen 
 among the pupils who display the most intelligence, learn 
 music, chanting, the violin, flute, horn, violoncello or other 
 instruments. Those who distinguish themselves in the car- 
 penter shop, at the forge, or in agricultural labors are ap- 
 pointed alcaldes or overseers, and charged with the direc- 
 tion of the laborers." Stirrounding these buildings, or arranged 
 in regular streets upon one side of them, were the homes 
 of the Indian families. At every mission were walled gar- 
 dens with waving palms and sparkling fountains, groves of 
 olive trees, broad vineyards, and orchards of all manner of 
 fruits. 
 
 The revolutions in Mexico at last destroyed the California 
 missions. In 1834, the edict for their sequestration was 
 issued, making the mission establishments state property, 
 and fastening upon them Administrators under whom the 
 wealth of the missions disappeared, as dew vanishes in the 
 sun. It was under pretence of caring for the Indians that 
 this sequestration was enforced, but the Administrators be- 
 came merciless task-masters, under whom the poor mission 
 Indians were compelled to work harder than before, and were 
 ill-fed and ill-treated, being hired out in gangs to work in 
 towns or on farms, itnder masters who simply regarded 
 
them as beasts of burden. A more pitiable sight has not 
 often been seen on earth than the great body of these help- 
 less dependent creatures suddenly deprived of their teachers 
 and protectors, thrown on their own resources, and at the 
 mercy of rapacious and unscrupulous communities in times 
 of revolution. The Administrators soon ran all the missions 
 hopelessly into debt ; they were made subject to the laws of 
 bankruptcy, and the property was put up for sale. When 
 the war between the United States and Mexico broke out, 
 the Mexican government authorized the sale of the missions 
 to raise money to defend the country against the United 
 States, and, under this authorization, the property was sold 
 right and left for insignificant sums, or abandoned without 
 care. Most of the mission churches and establishments are 
 now but heaps of ruins. 
 
 Turning from the melancholy picture of the forcible dis- 
 persion of the Franciscans and the consequent destruction 
 of the California missions, we may conclude with the cheer- 
 ing account of an occurrence which gives a gleam of hope 
 for the future. At the time when the world prepared to 
 celebrate in the great city of the west the Discovery of 
 Columbus, the denizens of the still farther west, the Pacific 
 Coast, were celebrating the rededication of one of the 
 greatest of the Californian missions — that of San Luis Rey, 
 the description of which by De Mofras, as he saw it in 1840, 
 has been quoted above. We are indebted to Mr. Henry 
 G. Spaulding for a spirited account of ' ' The San Luis Rey 
 Mission ; its past history and its rededication."* 
 
 " The rededication of the old Franciscan Mission of San 
 Luis Rey, which took place on the 12th of the present 
 month, was an event of peculiar interest. Ninety-five years 
 ago, in the presence of a large number of Indians, this 
 establishment, the seventeenth of the twenty-one missions 
 founded in California by the Franciscan Fathers, was for- 
 mally dedicated to St. Louis, King of France, San Luis 
 
 * Correspondence of the New York Evening Post, from Oceanside, Cal., 
 May 15, 1893. 
 
Rey de Francia. Within two years it received over 300 
 Indians into the Church, and hundreds of horses, cattle, 
 and sheep roamed its extensive pastures. In a decade more 
 the number of its duskj^ neophytes had increased to 3,000 ; 
 the average annual yield of its grain fields amounted to over 
 20,000 bushels, while its sales of hides and tallow brought 
 an ever-increasing income. This material wealth was fully 
 matched by the spiritual prosperity of the mission. Under 
 the care of the wise and benevolent Superior, Padre Antonio 
 Peyri, the Indians were not only ' converted,' they were also 
 taught every variety of industry. The admirably constructed 
 buildings of the mission itself still testify to the skill of 
 the Indian masons and carpenters. The period during which 
 these Franciscan friars were colonizing California and Chris- 
 tianizing thousands of its aboi-igines was in a very real 
 sense a pastoral age. The type of civilization was that of 
 a patriarchal communism, and under no other system prac- 
 tised on this continent was so much accomplished towards 
 lifting a race of savages to the heights of stable character. 
 
 "All this and much besides in the way of reminiscence 
 was suggested by the recent ceremony at San Luis Rey, 
 whereby a new order succeeds, while it also in part re- 
 stores, the old. Once more, as in the later decades of the 
 last century, the Franciscan Fathers have come hither from 
 Mexico ; not now, as formerly, to colonize a terra incognita 
 and convert unknown heathen tribes, but to carry on, under 
 conditions denied them in the Mexican Republic, the work 
 of training novices for their Order. Incidental to this educa- 
 tional aim is the purpose of the founders of the novitiate to 
 resume some of the home missionary labors which the padres 
 engaged in a century ago. 
 
 " The modern visitor to the ancient mission leaves the 
 railroad at Oceanside, a thriving village in San Diego 
 County, eighty-five miles south of Los Angeles. At this 
 season the six miles' drive over the rolling hills is a most 
 delightful journey. The whole country, refreshed by the 
 abundant rains, is clothed in living green, save where the 
 late spring flowers bestrew the meadows or the rich yellow 
 bloom of the wild mustard lying in irregular patches on the 
 
 17s 
 
hillsides suggests fields of ' the cloth of gold.' Mocking- 
 birds and meadow larks fill the air with their matin-songs, 
 and the widening view as we ascend takes in more 
 and more of the ocean and of the billowy mountain 
 ranges. At length we come in sight of the old mission 
 church with its single Spanish tower and the long roofless 
 corridors of round Roman arches. Beautifully situated, in 
 'a basin of sierras,' on a little knoll above the broad valley 
 of the San Luis Rey River, the walls of the mission retain 
 enough of the warm tints once laid upon them to make 
 them thoroughly in harmony with the surrounding land- 
 scape. 
 
 "Architecturally considered, a California mission is a unique 
 structure. If we call its style Spanish, we give little clue 
 to its appearance, as most Spanish architecture is an un- 
 certain mixture of Roman and Moorish elements. Besides, 
 in California a century ago these elements were variously 
 modified by the taste of the priestly architects and the 
 peculiar nature of the building materials. The piers of the 
 arches were made of heavy bricks, but the walls were all of 
 adobe. Over their rough surfaces the masons laid a thick 
 coat of stucco, which was painted along the corridors in 
 bright colors and on the fagade in a warm buff tint. Of 
 the original appearance of this particular mission we are 
 fortunate in having a graphic pen-picture in the interesting 
 work of the French traveller, De Mofras. Unfortunately the 
 fine engraving which accompanies De Mofras's text gives 
 the structure a greater regularity than could ever have 
 belonged to it. De Mofras visited San Luis Rey in 1840; but 
 Don Antonio F. Coronel, who is now living in Los Angeles, 
 was there before that date and spent much time at this 
 mission. The two bell-towers which De Mofras's artist places 
 on the front of the church belong to an ideal construction. 
 Don Coronel assures me that there was never but the single 
 tower which rose on the east front of the building, an 
 architectural feature which is characteristic of nearly all the 
 other mission churches in California. 
 
 "The roof of the church was made of coarse red tiles 
 laid upon a network of tule reeds tied to the rafters by bits 
 
 176 
 
of rawhide. The huge cross-beams which the Indians brought 
 from the mountain forests, forty miles away, remain in 
 position, but in many places the roof has fallen in. Within 
 the ruined mortuary chapel — once a handsome dome-crowned 
 structure — lizards have crawled and owls have screeched in 
 undisturbed seclusion. Of the corridors that once surrounded 
 the court of three acres, long lines of the Roman arches still 
 remain on the inner sides, giving a picturesque grandeur 
 to the scene hardly to be found anywhere else outside of 
 Italy. On the front the arches have nearly all disappeared. 
 A small fragment of brick latticework may still be seen 
 where the ancient colonnade joined the fagade of the church, 
 a reminder of the balustrade that formerly extended around 
 the entire gallery from which in the days of old the 
 Spaniards 
 
 ' . . . . and their dames 
 Viewed the games,' 
 
 when the bull-fights were carried on in the spacious quad- 
 rangle below. These corridors originally opened to the 
 dormitories of the monks and major-domos, the workshops, 
 storehouses, schoolrooms, and hospitals. Here were also the 
 guest-chambers for travellers, who were always most 
 hospitably entertained by the good padres. A large and 
 accurate model of the entire mission was recently made in 
 Los Angeles by Don Coronel, and Senora Coronel, and is 
 now on exhibition at the World's Fair in Chicago. 
 
 " The ceremonials at the rededication could hardly be called 
 imposing, but they were highly picturesque, and to all con- 
 versant with the history of the Mission they were most im- 
 pressive. The old church, or rather its long nave (the fine 
 apse and the transepts being unfit for occupation), had been 
 put in order for the occasion. A temporary ceiling of thick 
 board hid the rents in the roof where the heavy red tiles 
 are pressing through. On the newly-swept uneven adobe 
 floor a few rude benches and chairs had been placed for the 
 comfort of the better class of the expected visitors. For the 
 celebrants, a plain altar had been erected at the further end 
 of the nave, the extemporized sanctuary was neatly carpeted, 
 and on the west side near the ancient pulpit was placed 
 
the Bishop's throne overhung with crimson drapery. Vases 
 of flowers, including some of the rosas de Castillas, which 
 so rejoiced the heart of Father Palou when he entered Cali- 
 fornia in the eventful days of 1769, were placed among the 
 lighted candles on the altar, and through the open doors and 
 windows streamed the sunlight of the bright May morning. 
 
 "Slowly a motley congregation gathered within the walls. 
 American residents of Los Angeles, Oceanside, and San Diego 
 mingled with Eastern tourists eager to witness the unusual 
 ceremony. Members of the old Castilian families of Bandini and 
 Del Valle and other wealthy Spaniards came, bringing their 
 satin prayer-cushions and richly-colored rugs, while the 
 humbler Mexicans from the neighborhood knelt by their side 
 on the coarse blankets which they had brought. A few In- 
 dians from the rancheria across the river, wearing red ker- 
 chiefs and shawls, gave a dash of bright color to the scene; 
 while, standing at one of the side doors, cap in hand, was 
 the inevitable beggar, a veteran ' native ' with wooden leg, 
 ragged garments, and wrinkled visage. Nearer the entrance, 
 squat like toads on the cold adobe, were three aged squaws 
 whose childhood had been spent at the ^Mission in the good 
 times when Father Peyri ruled the place. The witches in 
 Macbeth could not have looked worse than these hideous 
 hags ; one of whom, reputed to be a centenarian, faintly 
 remembered the good padre, who, she said, was ever kind 
 to the poor Indians. Moving about among the throng, the 
 pushing photographer brought his camera close to the very 
 sanctuary, while newspaper reporters, with note-books rest- 
 ing on their kodaks, kept up a whispered conversation and 
 took snap-shots at every object which attracted their notice. 
 
 "At length Father O'Keefe, from the Santa Barbara Mis- 
 sion, clad in his coarse brown cowl and stole, enters the 
 church and in his capacity as master of ceremonies makes 
 a path through the crowd for the procession of the clergy. 
 Preceded by three novices. Bishop Mora, of Los Angeles, 
 in his purple robe leads the way, followed by Fathers 
 Adam, Meyer, and Dye of the same city. Then come 
 the Franciscan padres from Guadalupe, in Mexico, dressed 
 in the sombre gray gowns and cowls of their Order, Father 
 
 178 
 
Alva, Commissary-General ; Father Tiscareiio, his secretary ; 
 the aged Father Alverez (with a countenance as mild and 
 benignant as that of St. Francis himself) ; Father Martinez 
 and Ocegueda, and Father Ambrose Malabeher, the Supe- 
 rior of the new college, a monk whose features and man- 
 ner bespoke the ardent and self-sacrificing devotee. High 
 Mass was at once begun, many of the congregation kneel- 
 ing on the blankets and rugs they had brought with them. 
 In the old choir just over the entrance, reached by a flight 
 of broken steps on the outside of the church, an excellent 
 orchestra and quartet from San Diego rendered the music 
 of Farmer's Mass in B flat, and an Agnus Dei by Haydn. 
 The sermon was preached in Spanish by the Father Supe- 
 rior, who took for his text a passage from Ezekiel, describ- 
 ing the return of the Jews from their long exile. Father 
 Malabeher dwelt pathetically on the poverty of the Fran- 
 ciscans in Mexico, and on the persecutions they had suffered, 
 and expressed his joy and gratitude that here in California 
 the friars were permitted to teach and labor under such 
 pleasant conditions. This permission, he said, they had re- 
 ceived through the gracious favor of his Holiness the Pope, 
 and Bishop Mora, of the diocese of Monterey and Los An- 
 geles. Father Tiscareno then read in Latin the canonical in- 
 stitution of the new mission. The interesting services were 
 concluded by the formal investment of three youthful pos- 
 tulants with the robes of the Order, and the proclamation 
 of the patron saints, San Luis Rey, patron of the Mission, 
 and Nuestra Seiiora de Guadelupe, patroness of the novi- 
 tiate. Then, to the strains of Mendelssohn's ' March of the 
 Priests,' from ' Athalie,' the assembly dispersed, and the an- 
 cient mission was dedicated to its new uses." 
 
r>] HMP.ii' 
 
 publican " 
 by hip 
 
 AV- KHRDINANI) AND ISABHLLA. 
 
 or. 
 
 ;. j. .^Fiuiu Jt>anuis Marian^! s jiistoria de Rebus Hispauiac, pnb- 
 
 of tife*^'''^ ^t ^^^ Hague,, Ml ,1,733. 
 
 also pnT^^y ■^'^'^'^ married October 19, 1469, when she was nine- 
 sus t^Xi axid^.hev husbsLnd eighteen years of age. She ascend - 
 ole(. ed the thjone of Castile in 1474 and he that of Aragon in 
 3p.: 1479, when, they thus became monarchs of united Spain. 
 While their reign was marked by the most splendid vic- 
 tories and successes in every imdertaking, the queen was 
 ' noted for her unfeigned humility, the most striking proof 
 brati.Q^ her constant piety ; for her magnanimity and justice and 
 TeviGYiefr endo^^''ment of hospitals, churches and convents. Ferdi- 
 ^*^'^ iVahH'^wks wise, prudent and sagacious and indefatigable in 
 ordtirg^j,|^.^j,jv ■■ ^^(^ j.(, j^^jj.^ g^jjfl equitable to the subjects from 
 ^^^-"•whom he derived his revenues that he amassed no treasure, 
 ^P°' and though practising the strictest frugality, died so poor 
 Coiun^^, his c6ffers 'scarciely suflliced to pay his funeral expenses, 
 quarior? -■. •■ -'■ a" ■ ' ' . • • •■- ■ a..' 
 
 upon 1 y\ti 
 
 Pinta. 
 
 The 
 Cobo t,- 
 Fi y Cnile, by iJifv 
 
COLUMBUS CENTENNIAL LITERATURE. 
 
 [OR some account of publications abroad, induced 
 
 by the general disposition to fittingly celebrate the 
 
 four hundredth anniversary of the discovery of 
 
 America, we are indebted to Mr. Juan F. Riaiio, 
 
 in the London Athenceutn* He mentions the 
 
 publication at Seville, in Spanish, of the " Life of Columbus," 
 
 by his son Ferdinand, of which an Italian translation by 
 
 Alfonso de Ulloa was printed at Venice in 1571. As the 
 
 original manuscript of the history has wholly disappeared, 
 
 it is assumed that the new Spanish edition is a translation 
 
 of the Italian. A barrister of Seville, Jose Maria Asensio, 
 
 also published in 1892 Crist oval Colon, sii Vida, sus Vz'ajos, 
 
 sus Descubrtniientos, in two volumes folio, illustrated with 
 
 oleographs after Balaca, Madrazo, Munoz, Degrain, Rosales 
 
 and other distinguished artists. 
 
 * 
 * * 
 
 The Spanish committee for organizing the Centennial Cele- 
 bration of 1892 {Junta Directiva) issued an illustrated 
 review, the Centenario, dealing with all subjects connected 
 with Columbus and the discovery, and containing the royal 
 orders and official documents relating to the present Cente- 
 nary. This publication has done most for the cause. Essays 
 upon the vexed question as to which of the Lucayas 
 Columbus named San Salvador, have appeared in different 
 quarters, as well as a number of works upon Columbus and 
 upon Pinzon, the owner and commander of the caraval La 
 Pinta, one of the fleet of the discoverer. 
 
 * 
 * * 
 
 The piiblication of the Historia del Nuevo Mundo, by 
 
 Cobo (1645); Origin de los Indios del Peru, Mexico, Santa 
 
 Fd y Chile, by Diego Andr6s Rocha; De las Gentes del 
 
 * July, 1892. July, 1893. 
 181 
 
Peru, by Las Casas ; Noticias Authentic as del famoso Rio 
 Maranon, by the Royal Geographical Society of Spain in 
 their periodical Boletin ; and the appearance of the second 
 edition, revised, of Colon y la Rabida, by Father Jose 
 Coll, have marked the Centennial year ; and the Spanish 
 ardor for information concerning all the national discoveries 
 and settlements has produced a remarkable number of works 
 upon those subjects. 
 
 The Duchess of Berwick and Alba (Countess of Siruela in 
 her own right) has published, in folio, Autografos de 
 Cristobal Colon y Papeles de America, containing several 
 original letters of the great navigator and of his sons 
 Diego and Fernando. They were discovered in the archives of 
 her family, which the duchess has thrown open to historical 
 students of all nations. The appearance of a poem, Cristobal 
 Colon, by Lamarque de Novoa (Juan), with a preface by Jose 
 Maria Asensio, y Toledo, is worthy of mention, together with 
 Colon y los Reyes Catolicos, by the Marquis de Hoyos; 
 Colon y Bovadilla y la Ingratitud de Espana, by Louis 
 Vidart; La P atria de Colon segun los documentos de 
 las Ordernes Militares, by F. R. Vhagon (the official 
 document quoted by him states the birthplace of Columbus 
 to be Savona); Pinzon eti el Descubrimieiito de las Indias, 
 by Cesares Fernandez Duro ; Martin Alonso Pinzon, 
 Estudio historico, by Jose Maria Asensio ; and Fuentes 
 historicas sobre Colon y Afnerica, by Joaquin Torres 
 Asensio, who intends giving in subsequent volumes a 
 Spanish translation of all the works in which Columbus and 
 his voyages are first mentioned. He begins with that of 
 Peter Martyr of Anghiera (a town on the south bank of 
 Lake Maggiore), published in 1510; but all passages of this 
 writer referring to Columbus have been reproduced in 
 almost every European language. The treatises of 
 Palacios Rubios, however, are yet unpublished, and the 
 Latin letters of Lucius Marinseus Siculus have never been 
 translated. 
 
 183 
 
The Congress of Americanists assembled at Huelva and 
 La Rabida in October, 1492, produced essays contributing 
 powerfully to the eulogies of Columbus, but their papers 
 were not limited to his discovery and covered a wide range. 
 A few of the more remarkable were : an ethnographical 
 and archaeological account of one of the provinces of New 
 Granada ; the Tribute Rolls of Montezuma (part i) and Fur- 
 ther Notes on the Fuegian Language, both by Dr. D. G. 
 Brinton of the United States ; Pdginas histdricas de la Re- 
 publica Oriental del Uruguay, by Matias Alonso Criado ; 
 Diccionario biografico nacional 6 Historia de la Literatura 
 Chilena, by Pedro Pablo Figueroa ; and several more. The 
 Indian languages were :iot forgotten at the congress. Na- 
 hitatlismos de Costa Rica, by Juan Fernandez Ferraz, is a 
 dictionary of the Mexican words introduced into the vernac- 
 ular language of Costa Rica. The Lenguas indigenas de 
 Ainerica, or bibliographical dictionary of works relating to 
 the various languages or dialects spoken in North and South 
 America, gained for its author, Count de la Viiiaza, the 
 annual prize of the National Library of Madrid. D. Fran- 
 cisco Fernandez y Gonzalez, well known by his translations 
 from the Arabic and Hebrew and noted for an interesting 
 lecture on the languages of Northern and Central America, 
 has published his researches on Los Lengttages iftdlgettos 
 del Norte y Centra de America in a small folio volume of 
 112 closely printed pages. 
 
 * 
 * * 
 
 Mention is made by Mr. Riaiio of the important discovery, 
 by accident, of three large quarto volumes of manuscript 
 entirely in the writing of Las Casas, the venerated mis- 
 sionary and Bishop of Chiapa, who deposited them in the 
 library of San Gregorio in Valladolid, where he passed his 
 declining years. There they remained until the suppression 
 of the monasteries in 1836, when the books of the convent 
 were dispersed and these volumes fell into the hands of a 
 private collector. They contain the well-known Historia 
 apologetica de las Indias, of which at least three other 
 
 X83 
 
copies are known to exist, and which were published some years 
 ago in the Documentos indditos para la Historia de Espaiia. 
 
 * 
 
 * * 
 
 To a critical review in the Athenceum we are indebted 
 for a discussion of three important English publications, a 
 monograph on "The Discovery of North America" by Mr. 
 Henry Harrisse ; a volume of "The World's Great Explorers," 
 by Clements R. Markham, devoted to Christopher Columbus; 
 and "The Career of Columbus," by Charles J. Elton ; as well 
 as of the Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society 
 devoted to the voyages of Amerigo Vespucci. The fact is 
 recalled that an alleged letter of Vespucci printed in Dutch 
 at Antwerp in 1508 (12 leaves) by Jan Van Doesborch has 
 been brought to light. It is addressed to "Mijn vrient 
 Lauerenti Ick Albericus" — supposed to be Lorenzo di Pier 
 Francisco de Medici — and a fac-simile with English transla- 
 tion is announced. It is interesting to note here the editor's 
 statement that Vespucci is now generally acquitted of any 
 thought of giving his own name to the new continent re- 
 vealed by the discoveries of Columbus ; but that the fault 
 is due to those who drew the first charts of the New World. 
 A letter from M. J. E. Hamy, keeper of the Ethnographical 
 Museum of Paris, to the eighth Congress of Americans at 
 Huelva and published in the 21st volume of the Boletin of 
 the Royal Academy of History, contains proof of the fact. 
 
 * 
 
 * * 
 
 Note is made by Mr. Markham in his history of the difference 
 between the filial regard which animated the son of Columbus 
 in preserving all that could elevate his father's fame, and the 
 manner in which the son of John Cabot, in the history of his 
 discoveries, ignored the position and services of his father ; 
 and that all the confusion which, according to Dr. Charles 
 Deane in his "Narrative and Critical History of America," ex- 
 ists concerning the respective achievements of the Cabots is to 
 be ascribed to the failure of biographers to observe that the 
 honors usually awarded to Sebastian belong to his father. The 
 editor of the Aihencstivi, however, very properly observes that 
 the fault may lie, not with Sebastian, but the biographers. 
 
 184 
 
THE PORTRAITS OF COLUMBUS. 
 
 T is said that there is no authentic portrait of 
 Columbus, and the opinion of the best judges upon 
 the conflicting claims made for the many reputed 
 pictures of the great explorer will be found in 
 the remarks accompanying the plates in this vol- 
 ume. The reader perhaps may not iind uninteresting the 
 contemporary descriptions of the Admiral referred to by the 
 latest writer on the subject of Columbus portraits.* His son, 
 Fernando, says : "The Admiral was a well made man, of a 
 height above the medium, with a long face, and cheek-bones 
 somewhat prominent ; neither too fat nor too lean. He had 
 an aquiline nose, light-colored eyes, and a ruddy complexion. 
 In his youth he had been fair, and his hair was of a light 
 color, but after he was thirty years old it turned white." 
 
 The author of the " History of the Indies," Gonzales Fer- 
 nandez de Oviedo y Valdes, who was fifteen years old, and 
 serving as page to Queen Isabella when Columbus returned 
 from his first voyage, writes of the navigator: "He had a 
 noble bearing, good looks, and a height above the medium, 
 which was well carried. He had sharp eyes, and the other 
 parts of his visage were well proportioned. His hair was 
 a bright red, his complexion flushed and marked with 
 freckles. His language was easy, prudent, showing a great 
 genius, and he was gracious in manner." 
 
 The author of Historia de los Reyes Catholicos, Andrea 
 Bemaldez, with whom Columbus made his home for months 
 at a time, wrote : " Columbus was a man of fine stature, 
 strong of limb, with an elongated visage, fresh and ruddy, 
 of complexion marked with freckles. He had a noble bear- 
 ing, was dignified of speech, and bore a kindly manner." 
 
 * Mr. William E. Curtis, United States Commissioner in charge of the 
 Latin-American Department of the World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago. 
 See his papers in The Cosmopolitan magazine, January and February, 1892. 
 
 18s 
 
Las Casas, " the apostle to the Indies," an intimate friend 
 of Columbus, states that the Admiral had red hair and 
 freckles, keen, gray eyes, an aquiline nose, a large mouth, 
 and a sad expression of countenance, which was the result 
 of much mental suffering. That he was unusually reticent, 
 but spoke with great fei-vor and fluency when so inclined. 
 
 A rude vignette drawing, on the first chart made of the 
 West Indies, representing St. Christopher bearing the Christ- 
 child across a stream as in the legend, is supposed to sym- 
 bolize Columbus carrying Christianity to the New World. 
 It was drawn by La Cosa, the pilot of Columbus, in 1500, 
 and possibly the artist intended to give the saint the feat- 
 ures of Columbus. So far as known, this is the first por- 
 trait of the Admiral, and represents a bearded man not at 
 all resembling any existing painting claimed to be a portrait 
 of Columbus. 
 
 The Paolo Giovio and the Capriolo engravings (reproduced 
 in this volume), and acknowledged by American and Spanish 
 authorities to be the most reliable pictures of the great 
 man, can be traced in many supposed originals. Among 
 them is the Yafiez portrait, copied for Governor Fairchild, 
 U. S. Minister at Madrid in 1882, and presented to the 
 Wisconsin State Historical Society, and the Medici or 
 Altissitno portrait, copied for President Jefferson when 
 American Minister in Paris, and recently found in the 
 Massachusetts Historical Society. Both are probably copies 
 of the Giovio portrait. A copy of the Giovio portrait — if not 
 the original itself — is in the possession of Dr. Alexander de 
 Orchi, of Como, and of this picture the New York State 
 Librarian, Dr. George R. Howell, says: "At all events, 
 this portrait fills out our expectations of an ideal Columbus, 
 and expresses a man who could do all that Columbus did 
 in divining the existence of a new world, and persuading 
 others to his convictions, and in surmounting all the ob- 
 stacles he encountered, moral and physical, from Genoa to 
 Cuba. It is a portrait that grows on one. The upper half 
 of the face bears a remarkable resemblance to our own 
 Washington. It shows the repose of strength and reserve 
 power, and, take it all in all, is by far the best ideal 
 
 x86 
 
presentation of the face we expect to see in a genuine 
 portrait of Columbus." The history of the Giovio portrait is 
 given in the letter-press accompanying it. 
 
 The Italian copper-plate called the Capriolo portrait 
 is thought to be from the Giovio portrait, and ranks, as has 
 been said, with the latter engraving in the estimation of good 
 judges. The Hon. Charles P. Daly, President of the 
 American Geographical Society, has examined the claims 
 with respect to the alleged portraits of Columbus, and speak- 
 ing of the committee appointed by the Madrid Geographical 
 Society at the request of the Spanish Government to ascer- 
 tain if there were any reliable portrait of Columbus in 
 Spain, and what was known upon the subject, he states* 
 that the result of their labors was "the general endorse- 
 ment on the sheriff's writ, 'nothing found';" and that little 
 of value has been added since in the way of historical in- 
 quiry or commentary; that the committee brought the Paul 
 Jovius woodcut to light, or rather the Paul Jovius inquiry, 
 and were of the opinion that the Italian steel-engraving in 
 the Ritratti Cento Capitani Illtistri (Capriolo portrait) is 
 the most satisfactory of all, in which opinion he concurs. 
 
 An alleged portrait of Columbus hangs in the New York 
 Senate chamber at Albany. It was presented to the State 
 in 1784 by Mrs. Maria Farmer, a granddaughter of Jacob 
 Leisler, Governor of New York in 1689. Professor James T. 
 Butler, author of an exhaustive paper on the portraits of 
 Columbus, states that this picture is not now generally 
 deemed authentic. The same criticism applies to the portrait 
 by Parmzgzano (reproduced in this volume), of which a copy 
 was presented by Judge Barton to the American Antiquarian 
 Society in Worcester, Mass. The Spanish painter and art critic, 
 Carderera, in giving the g^-ound of his doubt that this was 
 intended as a portrait of Columbus, notes " the contrast between 
 the garb and austere aspect of our hero, and the exquisite and 
 effeminate decorations of a personage whose physiognomy, very 
 long and lean, differs most widely from the oval and strongly 
 marked face of the Admiral — an aspect noble, clear, and lit up 
 
 187 
 
by genius. Neither the hair which adorns the temples of 
 the Neapolitan figure with symmetrical and elegant locks, 
 nor the whiskers and long beard, nor the curls smoothly 
 arranged, were seen, save in rarest exceptions, in the age of 
 Ferdinand and Isabella, either in Spain or in Italy, or in 
 other civilized regions of Europe; much less up to the first 
 years of Charles V. could any one meet with a slashed 
 German red cap with plume and gold studs. The same may 
 be said concerning other parts of the attire — as the silk sleeves 
 hooked by fillets, lace about the hands, gloves, a finger ring 
 and other refinements which characterize a finished gallant 
 of the sixteenth century." 
 
 A copy of the Muhoz portrait (reproduced in this volume) 
 was presented to the Pennsylvania Academy of Arts by R. 
 W. Mead in 1818. The original is in the possession of the 
 Duke of Veragua. Professor Butler quotes an eminent 
 Spanish artist as saying: "Its date cannot be earlier than 
 the end of the seventeenth century ; it has whiskers and 
 ruffles which were unknown for more than one generation 
 after Columbus." The same avithor points out the differences 
 in the physiognomy of the De Bry portrait (frontispiece) and 
 the descriptions of the Admiral, and states that the preten- 
 sions of this portrait to be a life likeness have been ex- 
 ploded by Navarrete. But Feuillet de Conches, the famous 
 French savant, observes that it is entirely probable that 
 Columbus sat to a Flemish painter, one of the numerous 
 students of the school of Van Eyck who were widely scat- 
 tered over Spain and Portugal. It has been engraved thir- 
 teen times between 1595 and 1862. 
 
 The portrait by Thevet engraved in 1585 (reproduced in 
 this volume) differs from the Giovio, which preceded it but 
 ten years, and from the Capriolo and De Bry, which fol- 
 lowed it ten years later, in so many essential particulars as 
 to raise many doubts as to its authenticity. It is character- 
 ized by a writer in the Aihencrum (July, 1892) as the miss- 
 ing link in the chain of Columbus portraits. Mr. Curtis thinks 
 it more like an astrologer of the Middle Ages than a sea- 
 man. Thevet does not give the source from which it was 
 obtained. It was adopted by Bullart for his collection pub- 
 
 188 
 
lished at Brussels in 1682. The reader has the opportunity 
 of comparing the two portraits esteemed most likely to be 
 portraits of the discoverer and to have had a common 
 origin, viz., the Giovio (1575) and the Capriolo (1596), with 
 the De Bry (1595), alleged by that author to have been 
 painted from life ; the Thevet (1584), the source of which 
 has not been traced, and which differs greatly from them 
 all ; and finally with the Parmigiano and the Mufioz, which 
 represent persons who did not resemble each other, nor the 
 originals of the early engraved pictures. 
 
 189 
 
LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS. 
 
 Frank Abbott. 
 
 Rev. Madam Alden. 
 
 Henry Amy. 
 
 Conrad Bachem. 
 
 Thomas Barrett. 
 
 Louis Benziger. 
 
 Nicholas C. Benziger. 
 
 John Bolen. 
 
 John J Brady. 
 
 George Brown. 
 
 Jas. Buckley, M.D., Roch. 
 
 Rev. J. E. Burke. 
 
 Rt. Rev. M. F. Burke, Wy. 
 
 J. N. Butler, M.D. 
 
 Very Rev. Wm. Byrne, V.G. 
 
 Cornelius Callahan. 
 
 Rev. M. Callaghan. 
 
 L. J. Callanan. 
 
 Very Rev. T. J. Campbell, S.J. 
 
 Hon. John Lee Carroll. 
 
 Thomas M. Clancy. 
 
 Wm. F. Clare. 
 
 Richard H. Clarke, LL.D. 
 
 P. E. Clarke, Pa. 
 
 Jas. W. Cole. 
 
 Geo. B. Coleman. 
 
 Hon. James S. Coleman. 
 
 d. c. connell. 
 
 Wm. T. Connolly, Mass. 
 
 Rt. Rev. John J. Conroy. 
 
 Most Rev. M. A. Corrigan. 
 
 Hon. Frederic R. Coudert. 
 
 Terence F. Curley. 
 
 Hon. John D. Crimmins. 
 
 Augustin Daly. 
 
 James Daly, Ga. 
 
 Hon. Joseph F. Daly. 
 
 Jas. a. Deering. 
 
 Joseph Dillon. 
 
 Peter Doelger. 
 
 C. W, Doherty. 
 
 Dominican Fathers, N. Y. 
 
 f. x. donaghuk. 
 
 Andrew Dougherty. 
 
 Victor J. Dowling. 
 
 R. F. Downing. 
 
 Michael Doyle, Roch. 
 
 Cornelius T. Driscoll, Conn. 
 
 James J. Duffy. 
 
 Rev. T. a. Dyson, O.P., Cal. 
 
 Frank A. Ehret. 
 
 Most Rev. Wm. Henry Elder. 
 
 Thos, A. Emmet, M.D. 
 
 Wm. J. Fanning. 
 
 Edward D. Farrell. 
 
 John H. Farrell. 
 
 Patrick Farrelly. 
 
 Rev. Thos. A. Field, O.S.A. 
 
 Wm. Hildreth Field. 
 
 Rt. Rev. L. M. Fink, Kan. 
 
 Rt. Rev. E. Fitzgerald, Ark. 
 
 Jeremiah Fitzpatrick. 
 
 Jas. J. Fitzpatrick. 
 
 Rev. Edward L. Fladung, O. 
 
 Rev. Jas. J. Flood. 
 
 John R. Foley. 
 
 C. V. Fornes. 
 
 Franciscan Fathers, N. Y. 
 
J. FuREY, P.M., U. S. Navy. 
 
 Rev. Mother M. Gabriel, Tex. 
 
 Rt. Rev. H. Gabriels. 
 
 Thos. p. Galligan, Jr. 
 
 Rev. James M. Galligan. 
 
 Rev. T. J. Gannon, S.J. 
 
 Michael Giblin. 
 
 Hon. Wm. R. Grace. 
 
 J. H. Haaren. 
 
 M. H. Hagerty. 
 
 J. Henry Haggerty. 
 
 Frank Hall, N. J. 
 
 M. J. Harson, R. I. 
 
 Very Rev. J. A. Hartnett. 
 
 John W. Healy. 
 
 Rt. Rev. Jas. Aug. Healy, Me. 
 
 Henry Heide. 
 
 Henry J. Heidenis. 
 
 Most Rev. John Hennessy. 
 
 Francis Higgins. 
 
 Robert J. Hoguet. 
 
 Rt. Rev. Ign. F. Horstmann,0. 
 
 John Howley. 
 
 Francis D. Hoyt. 
 
 Rev. N. J. Hughes. 
 
 Geo. C. Hurlbut, 
 
 Laurence Hutton. 
 
 T. W. Hynes. 
 
 Michael Jenkins, Md. 
 
 James G. Johnson. 
 
 John P. Kane. 
 
 Rt. Rev. J. J. Keane, D.C. 
 
 Thos. J. Kearney. 
 
 John D. Keiley, Jr. 
 
 Eugene Kelly. 
 
 Anthony Kelly, Minn. 
 
 Wm. J. K. Kenny. 
 
 John J. Kennedy. 
 
 J. A. Kernan. 
 
 Patrick Kiernan. 
 
 F. Kleeckner. 
 
 Frank S. Lannon. 
 
 George Parsons Lathrop. 
 
 F. Leary, N. J. 
 
 Thomas B. Lee. 
 
 Very Rev. M. D. Lilly, O.P. 
 
 R. J. Lyons. 
 
 Francis J. Markham. 
 
 Simon J. Martin, Pa. 
 
 Rt. Rev. M. Marty, O.S.B. 
 
 Edward J. Meegan. 
 
 Mercantile Library, N. Y. 
 
 John McAnerney. 
 
 John McAtamney. 
 
 John McCann. 
 
 Rev. F. J. McCarthy, S.J. 
 
 John H. McCarthy. 
 
 David McClure. 
 
 Rev. Chas. McCready, D.D. 
 
 Rt. Rev. C. E. McDonnell. 
 
 Rev. J. H. McGean, M.R. 
 
 Joseph McGuire. 
 
 Joseph P. McHugh. 
 
 Rev. J. P. MclNCROV^f. 
 
 Joseph I. McKeon. 
 
 Jas. McMahon. 
 
 Rev. Jos. H. McMahon. 
 
 Very Rev. P. J. McNamara. 
 
 Rt. Rev. B. J. McQuaid, Roch. 
 
 Rt. Rev. S. G. Messmer, Wis. 
 
 Rev. J. H. Mitchell. 
 
 John J. Mitchell. 
 
 Rev. John Molitor, 111. 
 
 E. Aloysius Moore. 
 
 Rt. Rev. Francis Mora, Cal. 
 
 Juan F. Morales. 
 
 Dr. James Moran. 
 
 Joseph F. Mosher. 
 
m. g. mullowney. 
 
 James B. Mulry. 
 
 John Murphy. 
 
 Charles S . Murray, Ont. 
 
 Thos. a. Murray. 
 
 Henry Murray. 
 
 General John Newton. 
 
 Rev. B. M. O'Boylan, O. 
 
 Joseph O'Brien. 
 
 Hon. Morgan J. O'Brien. 
 
 Rev. John O'Brien, Mass. 
 
 Hon. Miles M. O'Brien. 
 
 John H. O'Connor, M.D. 
 
 L. J. O'Connor. 
 
 Hon. Joseph J. O'Donohue. 
 
 Louis V. O'Donohue. 
 
 Francis O'Neil. 
 
 F. C. O'Reilly, N. J. 
 
 John O'Sullivan. 
 
 Frank A. Otis. 
 
 A. M. Palmer. 
 
 Very Rev.W. O'B. Pardow, S.J. 
 
 C. H. Pennell. 
 
 James H. Phelan. 
 
 James J. Phelan. 
 
 A. K. Quinn, R. I. 
 
 Very Rev. Mgr. H. De Regge. 
 
 Antonio Reynes. 
 
 Rev. J. H. Richards, S.J., D.C. 
 
 Henry Ridder. 
 
 Herman Ridder. 
 
 Hon. Geo. F. Roesch. 
 
 John J. Rooney. 
 
 Rev. Mother M. Rosina. 
 
 Rt. Rev. S. V. Ryan, CM. 
 
 Thomas F. Ryan. 
 
 Isadore H. Sampers. 
 
 Robert A. Sassen. 
 
 Rev. p. M. Schaefer, O.S.P., O. 
 
 Rev. J. Scully, S.J., Pa. 
 
 Rt. Rev. R. Seidenbush, O.S.B. 
 
 Mortimer F. Shea. 
 
 Andrew J. Shipman. 
 
 Sisters of Charity, E. B'way. 
 
 Sisters ofCharity, St. Gabriel's. 
 
 James Slattery. 
 
 Chas. W. Sloane. 
 
 Edward Smith. 
 
 John R. Smith. 
 
 James Smith. 
 
 John H. Spellman. 
 
 John Streetman. 
 
 C. Sullivan. 
 
 J. V. Sweeney, M.D. 
 
 Rev. J. Taafe. 
 
 Rev. M. a. Taylor. 
 
 The Lotos Club, 
 
 A. Thiery. 
 
 Joseph Thoron. 
 
 P. S. Trainer. 
 
 Jas. F. Trant, M.D. 
 
 Francis C. Travers. 
 
 Richard S. Treacy. 
 
 James J. Traynor. 
 
 Jas. J. Treanor. 
 
 T. Wolfe Tone. 
 
 Rt. Rev. P. Verdaguer, Tex. 
 
 Rev. H. Victor, Minn. 
 
 W. E. Wagerman, D. C. 
 
 Rev. F. H. Wall. 
 
 Augustine Walsh. 
 
 A. Walsh. 
 
 Michael Walsh, LL.D. 
 
 John Whalen. 
 
 Most Rev. J. J. Williams, Mass. 
 
 Thos. Willis. 
 
 Very Rev. T. WOcher, S.P.M. 
 
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