/ 
 
 Book, E31-3_£^ 
 CopightN" iHZ- 
 
 COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 
 
By the same Author 
 
 "THE DOUBLE LOVE " 
 
 A Drama of American Life 
 
 THE JOHN C. WINSTON CO. 
 Philadelphia 
 
COLUMBUS 
 
 A DRAMA 
 
 WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES 
 
 BY 
 
 ARTHUR DOUGHERTY REES 
 
 THE JOHN C. WINSTON CO. 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 
LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
 Two Csoy Received 
 
 NOV 14 1907 
 
 Copyricht Entry 
 COPY B. 
 
 
 Copyright 1907 
 
 BY 
 
 A. D. REES 
 
A Castile y a Leon, 
 Nuevo Mundo 
 dio Colon." 
 
INTRODUCTION, 
 
 It is a truism in our time to say that History is not 
 merely the biography of "Great Men"; — the result of 
 impulses and deeds of their exclusive making, leadership 
 or ideals. It is the resultant of human and non-human 
 forces. For example: the Dnieper River in Russia had 
 much to do with the introduction of Greek Christianity 
 and Byzantine culture into the Muscovite Empire. The 
 human leadership of Vladimir the Holy alone could not 
 produce such transplantations. 
 
 The ''Hero" or ''Great Man" of any particular epoch 
 is the lever on which the Age Forces press. He repre- 
 sents the Past or the Future; rarely the present, for 
 social conditions are not static long enough, nor are they 
 ever sufficiently ideal to any high type of doer or thinker. 
 Columbus represented the Future and his life was pro- 
 ductive of great deeds because he came just at the inter- 
 section of conflicting ages and conditions. He was in 
 servitude to his environment ; to the "Zeitgeist" and such 
 willing slavery as his, vastly increased the possibilities 
 of his life. Tho the economic conditions of Europe 
 determined the discovery of new lands in the time of 
 Columbus, yet he was not so conscious of them as of 
 forces that touched his personality more directly, namely : 
 his geographical knowledge and maritime experience, his 
 conviction of a religious inspiration in his quest, and the 
 
 (7) 
 
8 COLUMBUS 
 
 Sea-call in his soul. His stated objects were: the attain- 
 ment of new and safer ways to India; the discovery of 
 new islands and a study of their people; the improve- 
 ment of trade ; the conversion of the "Heathen" and the 
 acquisition of wealth to be devoted to the recovery of 
 Jerusalem from the Turks. 
 
 Columbus had, as Socrates, his "Daemon"; not one. 
 however, that prompted his conscience, so much as it 
 spurred him to his quest and gave a holy enthusiasm to 
 his life. His religious inspiration had an economic sanc- 
 tion and the economic need — European expansion, — had 
 a religious ally. 
 
 The reason the Northmen did not discover America 
 as we credit Columbus with so doing, is that they were 
 prompted merely by the Spirit of adventure. The new 
 home they found was better than Iceland, but thither 
 they returned. There was no economic pressure behind 
 them to lead others to exploit the discoveries, as there 
 was in the time of Columbus. The Northmen's coming, 
 — a mere isolated biographical fact, — made very little 
 history, whereas if there had been a wide-spread neces- 
 sity of it, American life would have been much different, 
 
 Columbus, however, is given the credit of discovering 
 America, because he was three-fold more fortunate than 
 the Northmen. He had not only the Spirit of adven- 
 ture, but a religious inspiration, and at his back, the 
 pressure of the Renaissance life; of Europe's expanding 
 industry, art and learning, and of her inquisitive people, 
 ready to follow his pioneering across the Great Deep, to 
 establish colonies and secure wealth. 
 
COLUMBUS 9 
 
 Economic forces peopled America in the early days, but 
 not for two hundred years thereafter, — or until the 
 pioneers had stronger religious motives than economic 
 ones, — did anything like real civilization begin. 
 
 Columbus himself, was a composite of a religious, 
 poetic, visionary, adventuresome and commercial spirit. 
 There was no priest with the three caravels on the first 
 voyage. This is significant of other things than the truth 
 that the Great Mariner was priest enough himself. 
 
 America, no doubt, would have been discovered in his 
 time, even if he had not led the way, but the Age-forces 
 put their hands upon the best man for the work and 
 thundered in his soul: "Cross the Western sea to other 
 lands." Columbus obeyed their bidding; converted the 
 voice into his own "Daemon" and thereby developed his 
 own character; his almost unrivalled bravery, his iron 
 will, his boundless faith and made for himself an im- 
 mortal place in human history. 
 
 There is exceeding grandeur in his untameable per- 
 sistence in his quest and great justice in his demands for 
 its rewards, titles of achievement and compensations. His 
 humble origin probably led him to exaggerate the dig- 
 nities, and, no doubt, to risk everything he had in the 
 pursuit of his aims. He received, for a little while, the 
 great prizes of success. 
 
 It matters but a wee that the detractors of Columbus 
 say that he was "greedy, boastful and lying." He was 
 not perfect and needs not be defended in a mood of great 
 anxiety. His tremendous orbit had its aberrations, but 
 it will not do to forget that his pride, his indomitableness 
 
10 COLUMBUS 
 
 and buoyancy of spirit, were essentials in his work. It 
 was inevitable that a man of such a temperament would 
 meet with rebuff, scorn and, at times, defeat. 
 
 The requisites of his survival and success as an 
 initiator and discoverer did not serve him so well as an 
 administrator in Hispaniola and in his later years led 
 him into some vagaries. I think, however, that he would 
 ultimately have done much better in the island than his 
 immediate successors, — Bobadilla and then Ovando, — 
 who were not men of such principle or strength as Co- 
 lumbus, and performed no better service. In fact, the 
 regime of oppression and cruelty began with the depar- 
 ture of the Admiral. Spanish Administration had a long 
 trial and failed. In general it began in 1500 and ended 
 in 1900. Did not its almost unbelievable cruelties, greed 
 and mismanagement at last result in the expulsion of its 
 power from the Western Hemisphere? The ''Mills of 
 the gods," etc. Retribution came in four hundred years 
 and Eternal Principles triumphed over the artificial 
 Lordship of Spain. 
 
 3fC 3fC «)C 3(C 3J* 5|C 
 
 The original impulse of this play was a desire to 
 depict the greater emotional periods in the life of Co- 
 lumbus and to picture the incessant conflict that beset 
 his days. 
 
 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 
 May, 1907. 
 
PERSONS REPRESENTED, 
 
 Christofal Colon^ a Genoese Mariner; later ''Admiral 
 
 of the Ocean" 
 Juan Perez^ Prior of the Franciscan Convent, ''Santa 
 
 Maria de Rahida" ; Sometime confessor to the 
 
 Queen, 
 Diego de Deza, a Dominican friar; also professor of 
 
 Theology at St. Stephens Convent, Salamanca; later 
 
 Bishop of Palencia, then Archbishop of Seville, 
 Dona Isabella, Queen of Spain, 
 Don Ferdinand, King of Spain. 
 
 Ferdinand de Talevera, Bishop of Avila; later Arch- 
 bishop of Granada. 
 Pedro Gonzales, Archbishop of Toledo, Grand Cardinal 
 
 of Spain, 
 Gonzales de Mendoza, Most Reverend Cardinal of 
 
 Spain. 
 Juan Rodriguez de Fonseca, Archdeacon of Seville; 
 
 later Bishop of Palencia. 
 Alonso de Cardenas, Commendador Mayor of Castile. 
 Garcia Fernandez, a physician of Palos. 
 Pedro de Velasco, a mariner of Palos. 
 Vincente Yanez Pinzon, Captain of the ca/ravel 
 
 "Nina." 
 
 (II) 
 
12 COLUMBUS 
 
 Martin Alonzo Pinzon, Captain of the caravel "Pinta" 
 
 Juan de la Cosa, Master and owner of the caravel 
 
 "Santa Maria." 
 
 Prince Juan. 
 
 The Alcalde of Cadiz. 
 
 Bartholomew Colon, ) „ , . , ., , . , 
 
 v Brothers of the AdmiraL 
 Diego Colon,, J 
 
 Diego Colon, eldest son of Christofal Colon, 
 
 Ferdinand Colon, natural son of Christofal Colon, 
 
 Beatrice Enriquez, mother of Ferdinand Colon. 
 
 Courtiers, mariners, friars, sailors, steward, boatswain; 
 
 village youths and maidens, court ladies and attendants. 
 
 An astronomer, a cosmographer, members of the Royal 
 
 Choir, populace and natives of the West Indies. 
 Time: 1488-1506. 
 Scenes in or near Palos, Salamanca, Granada, At Sra, 
 
 San Salvador, Barcelona, Cadis and Valladolid. 
 
COLUMBUS 
 
 ACT I. 
 
 Scene i. 
 
 On an open road-side, near Palos, Spain, leading to the 
 Convent Santa Maria de Rahida, whose white walls 
 can he seen in the distance, standing on a low head- 
 land about three miles from the sea. Parts of the 
 village and of the sea itself, are visible dimly in the 
 distance of the opposite direction. Four youths and 
 two maidens are conversing and lounging on the 
 grass. 
 
 Juan. Look; here he comes! {Pointing.) It's he who 
 says the Earth is round ! 
 {Enter Col., dusty and downcast; leading his son Diego 
 by the hand.) 
 
 Alvaro. He? Aha, the Earth is as flat as his dull wit. 
 
 Sancho. Nay : his wit being in a round head must be 
 round too and hollow like an old tree. 
 
 Alv. Right you are. Such wit has no more base 
 than a rolling stone. One gathers no moss, the 
 other no gold. (They laugh; Col. stops. Looks at 
 them.) 
 
 Pero. He'd have the Earth as round as a plum from 
 Cadiz. 
 
 Juan. Aha, like a comma with its tail off. 
 
 (13) 
 
14 COLUMBUS 
 
 Pero. I'll go one finer than that. Round as Anita's 
 eye! 
 
 Alv. Better still : round as Giotto's O, ha ! ha ! 
 tie finer than that. 
 
 {The girls laugh.) 
 Anita. Lovely ! 
 Juan. He does great courtesy to our mariners by his 
 
 contradictions. 
 Alv. Ha! that's like a Genoese. 
 Col. Young men, give up your slurring words. Do 
 
 not breed your faults by casting slights on me. 
 Juan. The Earth is round, Sir ; it is round ! 
 Col. Ah, what aptness is in ignorance to jest with 
 
 truth and make it seem a folly. 
 
 (He and his son pass onward.) 
 Pero. Why, the Earth must be haltered in the air 
 
 without a tether if it's round. 
 Juan. Ah, it is hitched properly below us somewhere. 
 
 Every thing has its halter but that man's roving wit. 
 Alv. Put a halter on him then ; every ass needs one. 
 San. They did that in Lisbon ; I overheard him tell a 
 
 mariner as much. 
 Pero. Aha! An ass to be sure. Now if his head 
 
 were only as big as his ears ! 
 Alv. Nay, nay, for it would but wag the more then. 
 San. (Pointing.) See, he's going to the white door. 
 Juan. Tis true ; there he knocks. Well, when wit is 
 
 wanting, the tongue goes begging and the cheeks 
 
 get quickly brazed to it. 
 San. His wit knows this: that his foot won't slip 
 
 there. 
 
COLUMBUS 
 
 15 
 
 Juan. {To Alv.) Ah well, his feet pulled him out of 
 
 here, so let him be. 
 Alv. Let him be? No: we must watch him. When 
 
 he gets in on the ground floor of his air-castle, he'l 
 
 find it quicksands, and will need double aid. 
 Juan. Oh, you're as bad as a tea-kettle Jew. Simmer 
 
 down ; girls, a song ! 
 Alv. I'd chafe him with little strokes and some time 
 
 blast his folly. 
 Juan. You are worse than the waves that fret the 
 
 pebbles. Come; let your tide ebb a while. 
 Alv. Yes, if Anita will go out with it. We'l sail 
 
 together. 
 Pero. Anita's the pilot of my caravel, and we going 
 
 to rest on the Pillows of Hercules. 
 Alv. Aha, Pillows of Hercules ! You mean Pillars 
 
 of Hercules. 
 Juan. PI play Samson and overthrow them. But lets 
 
 have a song first. Anita, warble some melody of 
 
 love. (Anita sings.) 
 
 Re - ward my song with him who sails thy 
 
i6 
 
 COLUMBUS 
 
 =g=p 
 
 ±=t 
 
 :*^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 S* 
 
 I court the main With this re 
 
 fraia! 
 
 ■A R- 
 
 ^Z±± 
 
 Yield, O yield the heart 
 
 crave; 
 
 -^im 
 
 Waft 
 
 him home - ward o'er 
 
 thy 
 
 O chas-ten bil- lows, storms, and calm thy plain! 
 
 $ 
 
 m 
 
 Ke - turn, O 
 
 love, My breast heaves for thee! 
 
 m 
 
 ^t 
 
 i 
 
 Hear me a - bove the mur - mur - ing sea! 
 
 Pero. Pretty song, Anita, but it does no felicitation 
 
 to me. 
 Anita. It was not sung to you. 
 Juan. If I were sailing now, Aha ! I'd put about to 
 
 port for the Siren of Palos. 
 Pero. If I had hoofed over the sea in seven-league 
 
 boots for a week, Anita, I'd sprint back in a day for 
 
 hearing that song. 
 Anita. Oh, lovely! (Sings again.) 
 
COLUMBUS 17 
 
 Return O love, 
 My breast heaves for thee; 
 
 Hear me above 
 The murmuring — sea ! 
 
 Maria. Oh, what foppery in the breach of adventure 
 
 on the seas to pursue love for a song that can't soar 
 
 as far as an imfledged sea-gull ! 
 Pero. Maria, Maria, can't you sing something for us ? 
 Maria. No ; for you would only make a joke of it. 
 Pero. Maria, you are talking falsetto and singing 
 
 nothing. Give us a song. 
 Maria. I'm not keyed for the ballad-makers just now. 
 Juan. Aha, your spirits must be bolted down very 
 
 well. 
 Pero. Maria, how long since your soul's been so 
 
 riveted to Earth? 
 Maria. Anita ; come, let's run off ! 
 Anita. Yes, let's. Now that the poor mariner's gone 
 
 they tease us. 
 
 (Maria and Anita hurry out toward Palos.) 
 Juan. After them, fellows ! 
 Pero. Back to the town! 
 Sancho. Ho ! for the lassies ! 
 
 (They jump up and run after the girls,) 
 
i8 COLUMBUS 
 
 Scene 2. 
 
 (a) EvMng at the Convent Santa Maria de Rabida; 
 in a large room, sparsely furnished with a plain table 
 and a few chairs. Doors to the right and left. 
 Rafters stretch across from above the windows of 
 the outer wall to the inner; a few religious pictures 
 are hanging around. Colon and his son Diego are 
 seated near the table partaking of bread and wine. 
 Two of his maps lie open upon it. Seated around 
 about and looking upon them are Juan Perez^ Prior 
 of the Convent; three friars, Garcia Fernandez, 
 a physician of Palos and Pedro de Velasco, a pilot. 
 Colon has been telling them of his projects and his 
 reasons therefor. He resumes. 
 Col. I almost begged my way from place to place 
 To offer princes gold from other lands, 
 And poise my steps upon the westernmost 
 Horizons of the sea, — thus reaches the isles 
 Beyond. But no ! They thrust me forth, alas ! 
 And many of my maps were seized for debt. 
 My friends? Ah, where are they! To them am I 
 Whole dreamer and half-ass; untamed, unproved. 
 I fled betimes across the border lines 
 For being maligned, misunderstood and scoffed, — 
 Yes, ev'n by the ruffians on that road, — (Pointing) 
 Just as a lean and uncouth dog, my friends, 
 In loneliness I sought another place. 
 Juan. As He who had nowhere to lay His head. 
 Col. Friendly Franciscan, twelve years of misery 
 In my endeavors lie before thy door. 
 
COLUMBUS 19 
 
 My dream arises with the sun which lures 
 Me to the Magnet-Deep, yet goeth down 
 Alone each day, whilst I but gaze at it. 
 Ah! Shall my project ever be fulfilled? 
 
 Juan. My son, I verily believe it will. 
 
 Col. I have a niche within the world's affairs. 
 For I am justly born; a need of life 
 Hath giv'n me being; the economy 
 Of facile forces, knitting law and love. 
 Doth drift into the spiritual and make 
 Security and Faith but natural things, 
 Which give anon acquittance from the doubt 
 That tries approach on intermittent tides. 
 
 Juan. My son, thy faith shall harbour thee in time. 
 It is the herald of Man's every gain, 
 Whereby the spirit, tho it has suffered much 
 Rebuilds the crumbled pillars of its quest. 
 
 Col. I have no stammering faith, but look on those 
 In power in the world, — in Portugal, — 
 See their occulted cringe to status quo 
 With eyes upon the land and not the sea, 
 Eclipsing my expectancy of gain 
 And scattering my brood of hopes. 
 
 Juan. Have peace 
 
 For God revokes not nor commutes his charge 
 And that which sometimes seems His tardiness 
 Is man's impatient vanity itself. 
 
 Col. Ah, how, they amble in their ignorance, 
 And chew the cud of fear until the pith 
 Of little right is ground well out of it ! 
 
30 COLUMBUS 
 
 But when I sail yon sea to India's land 
 Their timid spirits will disown such food. 
 
 Fern. 'Tis then, Colon, that their antipathies 
 Will reach their own antipodes ! 
 
 Col. {Smiling sadly.) Perhaps! 
 
 So you believe me then ? 
 
 Fern. I do, Colon, 
 
 And have considered the rotundity 
 Of this, our world, a reasonable thing. 
 
 CoL. Praise God ! And you, my pilot friend ? 
 
 Vel. Good Sir, I have suspicions of its truth 
 In a sufficient strength to make a try. 
 
 CoL. O blessed Penury that led me here ! 
 Thou art a pensioner of Providence 
 Whose leisure plagues our human haste ! 
 
 Juan. My son 
 
 The sympathy I bear thee prompts my help, 
 ri give thee letters to the Spanish Court ; 
 To Talevera who'l speak to the King 
 And Queen in thy behalf. I would do more 
 If I had power. 
 
 Fern. I'l speak for thee in Palos 
 And give thy story and its truth 'mongst us 
 A better current than it's had before ; 
 Much better than the rude, scant chivalry 
 Of road side mockers can afford. 
 
 Col. I am among my own at last ! Good friends 
 Ye do infect me with mine earlier hope. 
 I dream again ; I hitch my spirit to 
 The traces of the Sun, — its slanted shafts 
 
COLUMBUS 21 
 
 Which pour from Heaven upon the darkening sea ; — 
 Then grasp the waving mane of Phoebus steeds 
 And point their panting nostrils to the West 
 Where Hes Cipango's isle! Ah, what a flight! 
 Matchless Hegira of our modern world, 
 Whereby our epoch flees the sepulchre 
 That prematurely would confine its spirit! 
 
 Juan. {Pouring out more zvine into his cup.) Well 
 done, my son, well done. I love thee well. 
 
 Fern. I love thee too and for thy cause, my words 
 Shall soon re-issue into deeds of worth. 
 
 CoL. And ye I love well, and do thank my God 
 He has delivered me unto this place. 
 O Joy, that clears my vista unto Heaven, 
 Make solid and secure for heavier steps 
 This airy path my soul doth wander in ! 
 
 Juan. Ah, we shall trust our God for that, my son. 
 
 1ST Fr. {Arising.) Ah, 'tis all blasphemy, blasphemy, 
 
 Col. No, no! 
 
 2ND Fr. Thou makest God a trickster. 
 
 Juan. That is not so. 
 
 Col. {To Juan.) Show them my maps again; 'tis 
 all so plain 
 
 1ST Fr. {Moving to the door.) Do maps disprove 
 the Holy Writ? 
 
 {Goes out.) 
 
 2ND Fr. {Arising.) 
 Nor will I stay to hear such wicked words. 
 
 {Goes out.) 
 
 Juan. Do not be troubled. I believe thee, son. 
 
22 COLUMBUS 
 
 Col. There is a peacefulness within these walls 
 That palace-sides do not envelop, nor 
 The scope of courtiers hearts enshrine; a peace 
 That doth re-energize my soul 
 
 Juan. Colon, 
 
 Remain. with us until thy rest is taken 
 And with the letters I shall write for thee 
 Thou shalt be welcomed at the Court. 
 
 Col. And then 
 
 ri cast my apparitions into deeds 
 Whose impress on our epoch shall remould 
 Its gibbering tongue unto a valorous spech ; 
 Its fears unto such royal works, the world 
 Will say, my spirit hath God's armor on; 
 My soul's indentured to divine employ, 
 And my successes, — like Promethean fire, — 
 Have true resemblance unto Heavenly things! 
 
 Juan. Thy spirit's so elastic, that in its 
 Swift rise upon the scale of Hope 
 I am transported with it. 
 
 Col. Ah, my hope, 
 
 God-given, is the prompter in my soul. 
 
 Juan. Preserve it well ; thou'l need it long time yet 
 The sea will not extinguish its pure fire 
 So soon as such long droughts of sympathy 
 That thou hast had ; as thou, perhaps, shalt have. 
 
 CoL. 'Tis true, good friar, so let the ocean pour 
 As fuel in the fissure of my heart; 
 It would rekindle hope! Its flood would seethe 
 In contact with the latent heat therein. 
 
COLUMBUS 23 
 
 Ye fathoms ; — see, my heart is big, so drench 
 The cleavage there, the sea-change shall confer 
 An endless hope. O beat no more upon 
 Unriven rocks ; they will not ope ! Look ; here's 
 My heart, dying for want of ye^ pour in ! 
 The fixed land will not outcrowd ye there; 
 'Tis jealous of your mobile forms ; 'twould wilt 
 My hope. O! I have loved thee ever; come! 
 
 Juan. The sea hath long been in thy heart, my son : 
 Thy heart was bedded in the waves at birth. 
 Its beatings are's unfailing as the sea's; 
 Each one prophetic, seeking too, its shore, — 
 The consummation of thy soul's desire, — 
 Whither they carry, tho retarded now. 
 True tokens from the Deep, from Infinite God. 
 And like the compass needle, pointing ever 
 Unto the North, thy true hopes lead thee well, 
 And fluctuate but little after all. 
 
 Col. They now point to the Spanish Court, my friend 
 
 Juan. Ah, let them point to God, my son ; believe 
 Life's greatest triumphs, truest pleasures are 
 Not in sweet gambols, but in growths to God; 
 In charging sin and counter-charming sense, 
 For strength and husbandry of soul. 
 
 Col. I do believe that God hath sent me here. 
 
 3RD Fr. I will not listen to such sinful talk. 
 
 [Goes out hurriedly.] 
 
 Juan. {After a pause.) But I shall send thee hence 
 to those who have 
 Great power in Spain. 
 
24 COLUMBUS 
 
 Col. This cup of wine, this bread 
 
 Sustains me till the morn; thy words, thy love. 
 Thy faith, good friar, will always bless. 
 
 Juan. May God 
 
 Bless thee, my son ; now go to rest. 
 
 Col. I shall. 
 
 Diego, come with me ; let us retire. 
 
 {To the others.) 
 Good friends, my slumber shall be much more sound 
 To night, and my heart thanks you for your words. 
 (CoL. and Juan arise. At this moment two other friars 
 of the Convent enter.) 
 
 Fern. Good night. I'l help thee as I can. 
 
 Vel. And I; 
 
 Good night. 
 
 Juan {To the Friars.) Brothers, this is Colon, a 
 mariner 
 Whom I have sheltered from the world awhile 
 He hath told us that he believes our Earth 
 Is round, not flat; a globe. He wants to sail 
 The sea due west unto the Indian shore. 
 
 1ST Fr. {Amazed.) The world is round? 
 
 2ND Fr. Round? 'Tis quite preposterous. 
 
 (CoL. merely gazes at them.) 
 
 Juan. Be not alarmed. God still is God withal. 
 We may be oft surprised or vexed with truth. 
 But He is calm and sure. 
 
 1ST Friar. The world is round? 
 'Twas flat five thousand years, but now despite 
 
COLUMBUS 25 
 
 God's word, man's lore, it shifts into a globe 
 Because a mariner deems it so? 
 
 Juan. Have care. 
 
 2ND Fr. Round? Round? Our Earth a globe you say? 
 What props it then. Sir? This appals my sense. 
 
 Col. Good night; good night. {Moving away,) 
 
 Juan. This way. {Leads Col. and Diego to the 
 door at the right.) 
 
 CoL. God bless us all ! 
 
 {The three go out together.) 
 1ST Fr. I can not understand this. 
 2ND Fr. Nor I. 
 
 Fern. The Prior 
 
 Will soon explain it to you. Good night. 
 Pedro, let us go. 
 Velas. Good night. (Fern and Velas. approach 
 
 the door at the left.) 
 1ST Fr. Good night. 
 2ND Fr. Good night. 
 
 {They go out.) 
 1ST Fr. Let us go seek the Prior and that man 
 To hear his story fuller. Come. 
 
 {Re-enter Juan.) 
 
 Juan. Brothers, 
 
 Now let me tell you this : you know him not ; 
 Grudge nought. Give him an open mind and love 
 For they alone can understand; they bring 
 The upland sunlight in the vales. Now go. 
 I wish to be alone. 
 
26 COLUMBUS 
 
 1ST Fr. We shall. 
 
 2ND Friar. Good night, 
 
 {They go out; Juan remains alone ^ in meditation.) 
 
 ACT II. 
 Scene i. 
 
 At the court of Ferdinand and Isabella in Salamanca. 
 In a hall of Hispano-Moresque design and decorative 
 
 description. Doors of horse-shoe arches at the hack; 
 
 perforated work above them. Moorish detail about; 
 
 colors very pronounced. Ferdinand and Isabella, 
 
 Bishop Talevera, Cardinal Mendoza, courtiers^ 
 
 ladies and attendants are in their respective places, 
 
 azuaiting the arrival of Colon, (b) 
 IsAB. Let us not hurt the good man's heart, altho 
 We may prescribe his judgment better guides 
 Than maps and guesses of geographers. 
 
 Ferd. Whatever pricks his dream, will scratch his 
 
 heart. 
 For proud Ambition's huge expansiveness 
 Doth clothe it closer as the vision mounts, 
 Whose prejudged comliness or truth prepares 
 His Hope's ascent with it, — and then — the fall ! 
 
 IsAB. O such alternate rise and set of dreams 
 Fill me with pity for collapsing souls ! 
 I know the rythm of my hopes and fears 
 O'er yon Granada's conquest. But where is 
 This dreamer, bold and strange? Let's see his face 
 
COLUMBUS 27 
 
 It may be lighted with some truth just as 
 The sea that he would sail is sunlit now. 
 (CoLON^ dressed plainly, holding several charts in his 
 hand and attended by Archbishop Gonzalez, 
 enters. They approach the King and Queen.) 
 
 GoNz. Your Majesties, this is Cristofal Colon, 
 Who would relate all his desires to you. 
 
 IsAB. Good man, come forward; tell us of your 
 dream. 
 Unlatch the door of candor and dissolve 
 All reticence. 
 
 Col. (After homing to them.) Your Majesty, I 
 thank you. 
 Ferd. You're welcome here to tell us of your quest. 
 Pursue it to the end ; we'l yield the grace 
 Of listening ears ; th'intake of heart and head 
 Shall be perenially equal. Now proceed. 
 
 Col. (With great dignity.) I'm he who hath an 
 errand o'er the main ; 
 The Deep doth call me; I have heard its voice. 
 My name is Christo-ferens, Christ-bearer, 
 By God's command over the restless waves. 
 In Genoa born ; an alien to your realm ; 
 My family humble, but my birthright high. 
 I am a mar'ner; maker of maps and charts, 
 Perusing which and adding thereto, all 
 The nautical knowledge of our age, I have 
 Conceived our Earth to be rotund, not flat. 
 (Twitterings and murmurs of surprise among all. Col. 
 looks about silently.) 
 
28 COLUMBUS 
 
 Ferd. 'Tis well such visions can not tamper with 
 Reality. 
 
 IsAB. You do astonish me. 
 
 Col. For twelve long years my soul's white heat 
 Has tried to weld the world unto my prophecy. 
 It has not knit, and now my heart more tempered, 
 By this ill-foddered flame, — my misprized zeal, — 
 Would flood your Majesties with all its power. 
 
 IsAB. Speak on! 
 
 Col. I fear enthusiasm is too great 
 To let the tactful craft of sweet persuasion 
 Dwell on my tongue and balance heart and head. 
 Most gracious Sovereigns, this our rotund world 
 By Ptolemy hath been divided 
 In four and twenty hours for each day; 
 And thus from Thinae, there in Asia, — west 
 Unto Gibralter's straits, mark fifteen hours 
 Of such diurnal time, and from that point 
 Yet westward to the Cape Verd Isles and to 
 The Azores have the Portuguese ships sailed. 
 Thus, by those reclamations from the sea 
 Have marked another hour; thence, westward to 
 The eastward jutting Asian Capes, and then 
 Beyond them unto Thinae, — that would add 
 Eight more such hours and make our rounded world 
 Complete. O mark, one seventh of the globe {c) 
 Yet to traverse; but a short passage in 
 A well provided, well built caravel 
 Upon the over-apprehended sea 
 That washes hither o'er its kind wilderness. 
 
COLUMBUS ap 
 
 True signs of rich and scented lands: carved woods, 
 And reeds like those of India's realm; strange flowers; 
 Trunks of exotic pines and dead men who have 
 Strange features. All these evidences are 
 Corroborative of the learned men who taught 
 That Neptune's salt domain doth bathe all shores. 
 
 Ferd. O what imaginations these Italians have! 
 He out-dreams Dante! 
 
 IsAB. My good man, proceed. 
 
 CoL. Pressure of economic circumstance 
 Bids us find better paths and safer ways 
 Unto the East or else our trade will die. 
 And Europe bend the knee unto the Turk. 
 With but your Majesties' approving aid, — 
 By well-stored caravels, — with hope and faith, 
 I'l circumscribe the seas and sail into 
 The gaping West; find famed Cipango isle. 
 And freight therefrom my galleys with its gold; 
 Its precious stones and pearls ; reach India's land ; 
 Bring riches unto Spain to thwart Mohammed's sword; 
 Increase the opulent trade with Asia's realm; 
 Behind me root the Cross ; sail hither home 
 With an auroral glory from new deeds 
 That will out-lustre the fresh gilded dawn 
 Of ev'n the new-born world's most primal day! 
 
 Ferd. Ah, man, what are you thinking of? 
 
 IsAB. Proceed. 
 
 Col. 'Tis Heaven that bends above my reveries 
 And shadows them from superstitions of the age, 
 That I may sweep across th'unconquered main 
 
30 COLUMBUS 
 
 T'unbind the girder of our ignorance! 
 No satyrs of the sea can thwart my will, 
 Nor can a land born snare allure its power, 
 For God, who plights a measure of Himself 
 Doth hold collateral upon my soul 
 For our joint contract's sake. My heart, my faith, 
 Entwined within the network of His law, 
 Are fixed and sure as swelling and tides and winds! 
 Balefires of destiny illume my soul 
 To show the watery paths of pilgrimage ! 
 O Light, be nigh ! When I shall follow thee, 
 I'l fear no deepness of the midnight sea! 
 {All are affected by him. They relax by changing their 
 positions, etc.) 
 
 IsAB. Imagination will be martyred, Sir; 
 Its fabulous clues are not, indeed, the proof 
 Of things it dreams on. O ! it can not be. 
 
 Ferd. Good man, what heresy to truth and lore 
 Prompts such design, so lank in sinew ? Oh I 
 So lax in commonsense! Sail west to India? 
 The globe rotund? Aha, how many rims 
 And fellies then must hitch the underworld 
 To ours that looks on Heaven ! Do those below 
 Walk with down-hanging heads? Absurd. Do they 
 Tread thru the thin air with ungrounded limbs 
 And find propulsion on their crowns? Aha! 
 A most miraculous race. 
 
 GoNZ. Would not our God 
 
 Have long ago revealed these things to us 
 Had they been true? 
 
COLUMBUS 31 
 
 Col. All truth abides In Him 
 
 Until a need or a desire of man 
 Delving within his general being, mines 
 From virgin seams, nuggets of truth, wrapped in 
 The crude and angular ore ; which, well obliqued, 
 By many uncouth slants, has hardened edges 
 For the rough traffic of this unkind world. 
 
 IsAB. You have not proved as unkind yet, good man 
 
 Col. If listening be a portent of thy will 
 And kindliness of aspect, gracious Queen, 
 Bear sympathy of spirit unto my quest 
 Thy Court will then retrieve the colder world. 
 
 Ferd. Strange Mariner, what wouldst thou have it 
 do? 
 
 Col. Prepare me galists for a test of truth, 
 For action is a proof of law ; make me 
 By thine own seal-signed will an Admiral 
 O'er all discovered seas, viceroy o'er lands 
 That lie therein ; one tenth of gold and pearls 
 Be given to me; the rest be thine and Spain's. 
 My honors and my dignities for service 
 To be perpetual in my family by thy will. 
 
 (Murnmrs of surprise among all.) 
 
 Ferd. Sir self-plumed Mariner, what bold conceit 
 Makes thee to arrogate such high rewards? 
 Thou art a foreigner too; our courtesy 
 Unto the airy figment of thy quest 
 Admits thee here, but not to claim such rank 
 Upon unproved delusions, truthless dreams. 
 
 Col. Sovereigns of Spain, abettors had I none 
 
32 COLUMBUS 
 
 In my concept and resolution told, — 
 
 And yet my thought is not so parentless 
 
 Nor so unlineaged as my lone appeal 
 
 Would prompt within your minds. — Despite of this 
 
 The residence of such rewards and power 
 
 Must be in him who's tenant of its risk; 
 
 Whose will is conqueror; his, who has dived 
 
 Into the breaking surge of circumstance, 
 
 And hath bestridden the blast of contrary fate. 
 
 Ferd. All such appropriations to thy self 
 Are quite unfounded and too previous. Sir. 
 Thy visions are the vogue of this queer age; — 
 Mere gipsy-dreams that wander where they will. — 
 Others have seen with most excited eyes 
 New lands upon the distant seas ; they flee ! 
 These fabulous stations in the mere, St. Brandons, 
 Sev'n Cities, Brazil Isles, delusions all 
 Of many damp deceiving airs. 
 
 GoNz. They are. 
 
 (Low and derisive laughs among the listeners.) 
 
 Col. O God, rain power upon my tongue and grant 
 My logic, lyric-speech, so there may be 
 Inviolate sanctuary for my dream! 
 The eager implorator hath with Thee 
 An audience ungaudied by these laughs. 
 So grant thereof transference to this Court. 
 Ye Majesties of Spain, Most Sovereign Lords, 
 I have heroic promptings in my heart! 
 My visions brandish a compelling sword 
 Which smites my soul; makes its impetuous being 
 
COLUMBUS 33 
 
 Strain for the conquest of the crystal sea. 
 
 Could I convene such visitings for you; 
 
 Array and marshall them — the phalanx of 
 
 My dreams of truth; — bid them do battle here, 
 
 Their steadfastness would conjure your assent 
 
 And their avouch of this, — our globular earth — 
 
 Be yours as well. O lap your listening 
 
 In natural favor; make affirmative 
 
 Address unto the spirit that leads me forth 
 
 To follow up all such persistent clues 
 
 That soon would yield to Spain much wealth and power. 
 
 O give me means to sail! Strong caravels; 
 
 Not argosies with silken wings, but these: 
 
 Well timbered hulks to cleave pugnacious waves 
 
 That fain would beat their bold and jutting prows 
 
 And crush their sides. 
 
 Ferd. What! Give thee caravels 
 
 While war so frays the fisc and Moors go free? 
 Build thee a bivouac for the Deep that thou 
 Might watch in vain for dream-land's shore, 
 Whereas the enemy's the fearful wave 
 That will devour thee and thy caravels? 
 Doth not the prospect of the yawning gulf. 
 So spaded by the winds; the piled-up crest 
 Of waters, shovelled by some airy palm 
 As broad as bending skies, urgent as iron. 
 Dissuade thee from thy useless quest? Doth not 
 Sepulture in the grim and ravenous seas 
 Dissolve the siren power of thy dream? 
 
 Col. The sea is sovereign o'er its own, good King; 
 
34 COLUMBUS 
 
 I am not liege to it nor do I fear 
 
 Its wind dug pits that ope and close to feed 
 
 The hungry fathoms 'tween their ravenous jaws. 
 
 I can not ground a truncheon in the Deep 
 
 To punt my caravels across the main ; 
 
 I sail by faith in God, and astrolabes 
 
 Which look upon the stars; yea, also in 
 
 My compass steel that bends its searching eye 
 
 In kindly constancy upon the North. 
 
 IsAB. Fancy's staccato steps lead thee away 
 To lure thee to the ocean's dreaded flume, 
 And if, thru it, thou dost attempt to sail, 
 Thou'l chute the waves unto the underworld. 
 
 Ferd. Imagination's repertoire's unstocked 
 By this man's words, more strange than any yet. 
 
 Col. Ye Sovereigns of this proud and glorious Spam 
 Queen of Cordova's fruitful vale ! Thou King 
 Of rocky uplands clad with pendent vines; 
 Ye heirs of chivalry, extend its plume 
 Across the seas ; add land to land and yield 
 Me honors asked for recompense and risk! 
 
 Ferd. Give o'er! The chivalry of Spain leaps not 
 Upon thy beck to bale ! When crescents wane 
 And wars are done, — perhaps, — but not till then 
 Lend we again our probity and grace 
 Or pinnacle thy vision in our Court. 
 Meanwhile be in our service, and, — as well, — 
 Condense thy swelling dream that, like a blast. 
 Wide spreading thru the Heavens, needs contraction. 
 And the eventual remnants may lead to gain 
 
COLUMBUS 35 
 
 Whereby our realms, conjoined, may bolt the van 
 
 Of nations ; leap to opulence and power 
 
 Greater than heretofore. Talevera, 
 
 We leave this man with you ; examine him. 
 
 Assemble clerics and cosmographers 
 
 That Holy Writ and Science may sift the chaff 
 
 And find what kernels there may be. 
 
 (Ferd. and Isab._, courtiers, ladies, Gkdnzalez and most 
 of the attendants retire. Talevera gives orders to 
 one of them to call the councilors. He retires to 
 do so.) 
 Tal. {to Col.) Good man, remain here at the 
 King's behest 
 
 While councilors will clear thy dream of fog 
 
 And scan its truer sky-line. Hast thou maps? 
 CoL. Yes ; one of Toscanelli's, whereon seas 
 
 And isles are marked between the threaded lines 
 
 That, in imaginary file pace o'er 
 
 Our globe. 
 
 {He unrolls a map; holds it ready for explanation. 
 Enter Diego de Deza^ Alonso de Cardenas; an 
 astronomer, a cosmographer and two friars, who 
 carry several volumes of the ''Church Fathers." 
 They confer among themselves as they come in. 
 An instant after they enter. Cardinal Mendoza 
 re-enters. They take their places about a table, and 
 in arranging themselves in their seats, cast furtive 
 glances at Colon,, zvho now is left standing alone. 
 Talevera is seated next to Mendoza.) 
 Deza. {Seated near Col.) Explain your thought, 
 then tell us of your maps. 
 
36 COLUMBUS 
 
 Col. I plan to sail upon the western seas direct to 
 India's shore. 
 
 Mendoza. Across the main 
 
 Whose yonder shore line is the seam betwixt 
 Our continent and the skirting sea? 
 
 CoL. O'er it 
 
 To famed Cipango isle; to riches, lands, — 
 
 Deza. Ah! that can never be! 
 
 Mendz. Atlanta's isle 
 
 Hath gone its way w^ith other ocean myths, 
 Or sunk of yore beneath the ravenous waves. 
 
 1ST Fr. As this bold mariner shall sink, dare he 
 To cope with treacherous seas. 
 
 Col. Such ominous speech 
 
 Was clouded o'er the dreams of Portuguese 
 Who sought to beard the seagod on the waves 
 By doubling Cape Non's grim and rocky prow, — 
 Where keels of caravels had never sailed. — 
 But thru the torrid fervour of the sun 
 By whose down flaming fire, as we believed, 
 The south was walled forever from our ships, 
 They sped to vindicate the humble sea 
 Of ill report. 
 
 Deza. {Pointing.) That map, explain it now. 
 
 CoL. My friends, look on this map ; here's my plan 
 From Palos harbour straight unto these isles 
 
 {Points to them.) 
 Around our globular earth; this 
 
 2ND Fr. Our globular Earth? 
 
 What heresy and foolishness is that? 
 
COLUMBUS 37 
 
 Col. Ah, Sir; must I reargue all my proofs 
 And file my evidences one by one 
 From Plato, Pliny, Strabo, Seneca 
 Thus on to Toscanelli? 
 
 2ND Fr. Toscanelli? 
 
 Hath not Job said of yore: — God hath described 
 Upon the water's face a boundary? 
 And Clement too, hath writ, "the ocean is 
 Impassable." 
 
 Col. {Letting the map fall.) Indeed? Then it is so. 
 
 Deza. {Picking up the map.) Let him explain his 
 map; 
 Colon, explain. {Gives it to him.) 
 
 CoL. Sev'n hundred leagues across this western sea 
 Lies rich Cipango Isle; 'tis marked thereon; — 
 Look there. {Holds up map and points.) 
 
 Cardn. How dost thou know thou'l not be swept 
 Within the sweeping waters fell descent? 
 
 CoL. The orbic earth's too covetous of its seas 
 To let them slide from off its rotund sides 
 And thus expose and drain our eastern shores. 
 
 AsTRON. Our mariners dare not sail into the South 
 Beyond the circular pale the North Star casts 
 To dye the sunless sea in silver by 
 Its conic glow at night. 
 
 CoL. Nay; thou art wrong. 
 
 Pilots have dashed beyond the provender 
 The North Star yields to nourish timid eyes. 
 
 CosMOG. Have they returned to port? 
 
 CoL. They have. 
 
38 COLUMBUS 
 
 Deza. The map I 
 
 Col. {Holding it up and pointing.) Where'er I be 
 upon the curving seas, 
 I'l have no fear; my astrolabe shall guide. 
 Between our own coast and the eastern capes 
 Of Asia's wealthy realm, doth lie one seventh 
 
 Our globe 
 
 Mendz. Then India's opposite us? 
 Col. It is. 
 
 1ST Fr. Ah, cite Lactantius to him now! 
 2ND Fr. {Opens the volume, Vol. II; p. 122; chap. 
 39.) "Of various philosophers and of the antip- 
 odes." "About the antipodes, also, one can neither 
 hear nor speak without laughter. It is asserted as 
 something serious that we should believe that there 
 are men who have their feet opposite to ours. The 
 ravings of Anaxagoras, who said that snow was 
 black, are more tolerable." 
 1ST Fr. There, dost thou wish more? 
 Col. Clement and Lactantius! 
 
 They did not know what I know of this globe. 
 
 Deza. Colon, that is true. Knowledge of lands and 
 seas 
 Has grown upon itself since those men wrote. 
 
 Cardn. O Deza, what if there be men beneath 
 How can Christ see them when he descends 
 From Heaven again upon the Earth? 
 
 Deza Ask not ; 
 
 I cannot tell. O, it is very strange. 
 2ND Fr. Colon, you said those curving seas. Hear 
 
COLUMBUS 39 
 
 this: From the works of St. Augustine, Book 13, 
 Chapter 32. "Of the particular works of God, we 
 behold the waters gathered together thru the plains 
 of the sea and the dry land formed so as to be 
 visible and compact." 
 You understand ? Plains of the sea ; the land 
 So formed as to be seen entire; yet you 
 In contradiction to authority 
 Declare that it is round and if it's so 
 St. Augustine doth make a false report? 
 The Fathers gainsaid by a mariner! 
 
 1ST Fr. The Scriptures challenged by a Genoese! 
 Mendz. Hath not King David said, inspired by 
 God, — 
 That Heaven stretcheth out just as a skin. 
 Over the Earth beneath ? Thus, were the world, 
 As you have said, a sphere, the other side 
 Having no Heaven above, would surely be 
 Without a soul upon its face. There would 
 Be but a dreary waste of waters there. 
 
 Col. King David spoke in a poetic term 
 The soul employs for all its needs, but I 
 For other wants speak in another tongue. 
 And both of us are right. 
 
 1ST Fr. Both of you right? 
 
 Telev. Hath not the Prophet John in> vision, said: 
 "I saw four angels standing on the four corners of 
 the Earth"? 
 Are there four corners in a round Earth, Sir? 
 
40 COLUMBUS 
 
 Col. O answer me in mine own language, do! 
 Refute these maps, these charts, the evidences — 
 
 Talev. Do you deny our Faith and Holy Church? 
 
 Col. My Faith sustains me and I love the Church. 
 With me shall go its power o'er the sea 
 And Christ be better known ; and with me shall return 
 The riches of new lands that will redeem 
 The Holy Sepulchre. 
 
 Card. Riches, Colon! 
 
 Knowest thou Isaiah's words, when he hath cried: 
 "The burden of the desert of the sea ?" 
 
 Col. Isaiah hath also cried as I exclaim: 
 "The burden in the valley of Vision." 
 
 Deza. Colon, my son, give all thy maps and charts 
 Unto those men ; they will examine them. 
 {He joints to the cosmographer and astronomer. ColOiN 
 passes them; they pore over them.) 
 
 2ND Fr. Hast thou no evidences else than these 
 Old theories of the pagan and profane? 
 
 Col. As I have told the King, the sea's confessed 
 A little of its treasure; flowers and strange woods, 
 Some reeds and other hints the waves have gleaned 
 To cast upon our shore, impatient as they are 
 Of our too-timorous keels, which faintly woo 
 The ocean's yearning heart. 
 
 2ND Fr. These things are from 
 
 The desert of the sea? 
 
 CoL. They are. 
 
 CosMOG. Such things 
 
 Are flimsy proofs of lands beyond. 
 
COLUMBUS 41 
 
 Talev. Colon, 
 
 The Holy Writ, the Fathers, the Church and Science 
 Can give no sanction to thy dreams at all. 
 
 {To the cosmographer and astronomer.) 
 Do you find any truth upon those charts? 
 
 CosMOG. Indeed, we doubt them all exceedingly. 
 
 Colon. Ye do not know ! Ah, none of you can know, 
 Tho I would thresh my logic o'er and o'er! 
 To me the Deep hath opened as a scroll 
 And I have read its words with mind and heart. 
 
 Deza. Colon, Colon, abate thy heated words. 
 I sympathize with thee and with thy quest. 
 
 Mendz. Deza! Folly infatuated with 
 A baseless dream! 
 
 Talev. May God forgive you both! 
 
 Col. Why need He who hath led forgive me ought? 
 The Spirit of God again hath moved upon 
 The face of yon vast Deep and it hath said : 
 Follow my pathway in the sea, the waves, 
 Like rocking hills are crouched around to crush 
 Thy yawing hulls ! 
 
 2ND Fr. Thou dost pervert the Holy Writ ! 
 
 Col. Scripture but flames, it does note bate my zeal. 
 
 Talev. Thou dost distort words of Eternal Truth. 
 
 Col. What myriads of miracles God works 
 On that which we conceive awhile as truth ! 
 
 1ST Fr. The truth was fixed before these mariners 
 came 
 With senseless and with most unscriptural thoughts. 
 
 Col. My logic is annulled ; my vision gleams ! 
 
42 COLUMBUS 
 
 Without command of artfulness or fraud, 
 And with a mastered license, let me speak! 
 My soul, be fetterless ! Thrice-fold thy power ! 
 
 in a prophet's tongue, my pleas resound ! 
 1ST Fr. What! art thou a prophet? 
 
 2ND Fr. a prophet. Sir? 
 
 Col. In vain you house your clamors in mine ears ! 
 They scarce are denizens therein. God's power 
 And law are tabernacled in my flesh. 
 A galist in a gale could easier ride 
 Mid-ocean blasts and furrow snowy surf, 
 Than all your petulant whims survive the fray 
 My furied and inspired soul could launch ! 
 Subscribe to my endeavors, O my God, 
 And Thy high-piled additions will overturn 
 Upon our foes, like thunder ruddered by 
 An earthly coadjutor to the ground. 
 
 2ND Fr. Thou call'st on God despite the Church? 
 
 Talev. Dost thou ? 
 
 Col. I shall unite earth's ends; make them join 
 hands ; 
 My transit o'er the sea will tame your tongues 
 For it is certain as in any star's. 
 
 1 am in bondage to a mighty voice 
 
 That rises with the rushing winds ; with seas 
 Where Wildness is afoot and Tumult tilts! 
 My prows shall lance the waves in tournament 
 The chivalry of Spain doth forfeit here. — 
 Adventure's realm shall not escheat to God, 
 For I'm an heir to it, and on the backs 
 
COLUMBUS 43 
 
 Of strong sea-chargers, I, a knight, pledged for 
 Defense of Truth, shall ride, nor be unhorsed 
 By Fear, Defeat or Storm! No playful joust 
 Wiirt be; no mocking thrust with blunted swords; 
 No tragic risk or caracoling whirl 
 Into the sable depths ! What trophies rich. 
 What guerdons that will gyve my heart to joy ! 
 The Tomb recovered and the Turks driven forth; 
 Land, riches, gold; an Admiral of the sea! 
 Thou Giver and Protector, O my God, 
 I hear thy voice and am within the vale." 
 
 Deza. My brethren this man hath a fire that comes 
 In some mysterious way we should respect. 
 
 Card. God's truth is born of peace and not of fire. 
 
 1ST Fr. He would consume the teaching of our 
 Church. 
 
 Talev. He doth not move me; there's no reason in 
 him. 
 
 Col. Ye stand on cross ways of this doubted truth 
 And useless lore. Suspension may bear fruit 
 If ye but listen further. 
 
 Talev. There's no use. 
 
 Col. No use, good sir? Indeed! Thy ignorance 
 shall 
 Sometimes make its obeisance to my quest. 
 Ruffles of silk ; mere musk of chivalry ; 
 Dusty festoons of hoarded lore and friars 
 Who badger what they can not balk, these are 
 But outposts in the scale of strife that I 
 Shall pass, then bivouac beyond ! The keys 
 
44 COLUMBUS 
 
 Of yon vast Ocean's gates are mine and 1 
 Shall soon unbind its captive Wild from chains 
 Of Darkness, Fear and Ignorance ! 
 
 Deza. Thout shalt! 
 
 Talev. Deza, thou playest the fool with him. 
 
 2ND Fr. {To Colon.) Thou'rt mad. 
 
 Card. Colon, thy flaming speech doth yield no light 
 Withiwthy Reason's void. 
 
 Col. O Sirs, my spir't 
 
 Is now on wing; it is coterminous 
 With that vast revelation God hath sent 
 My soul ! My very buttresses of Being 
 Now shake! O, in my soul's-core, — hark! — a voice, — 
 Whose incarnation hath renaissance now! 
 It speaks ! Do ye not hear ? It thrills my frame 
 From ground-work to the dome of Being! O God 
 I reproduce thy thunders as I can! 
 My spirit treads its confine ; it may soar 
 Thru yet a wider arc; be tamed alone 
 By yonder sweet and soul assuaging sea ! 
 My climbing will shall yet attain the stars ; 
 M}^ sword be bathed in Heaven and recompense 
 For controversy over Truth shall gild 
 Our globe as the auroral star in May. 
 The ocean sinks in hollows, — not my heart; 
 The sea-gulch is more friendly than these flats 
 And the green-waves ravine a better couch ! 
 The sea-brine, companion of the coldest gale, 
 Ah ! it will never sting my heart as ye ! 
 Your onslaughts 'gainst my life, my truth, — they burn. 
 
COLUMBUS 45 
 
 The rythm of the billow's blast's more sweet ; 
 Their strength is not of rancour ; the soft waves 
 That are bisected by our prows, embrace 
 Their very cheeks until they pass and then, 
 Coalescing in the rear with turbulent joy, 
 White foam flowers spring from such re-marriage there. 
 Farewell to Spanish Courts, Fl go elsewhere. 
 (Colon, regarded by all with great suspense, moves 
 slowly out in the silence. Deza picks up his maps 
 and follows after him. They pass out together. 
 Silence for a moment thereafter.) 
 
 Talev. An idle dream, but a redoubtable 
 And agile dreamer for a mariner. 
 Give me his nimble parts for other works 
 And then Canada would 
 
 Mend, Their Majesties! 
 
 (Enter Ferd. and Isab. with a couple of attendants.) 
 
 Ferd. What ! is the man gone ? 
 
 (They seat themselves on the throne.) 
 
 Talev. Yes, your Majesty; just now, with Deza 
 Who gives his sympathy to Colon's scheme. 
 
 Isab. He favors it? O tell us quickly all 
 The council hath determined. 
 
 Ferd. Bishop, speak. 
 
 Talev. We have concluded that his dream is vain ; 
 That Scripture and some other witnessings 
 Do not sustain it and our common sense 
 On which we much relied, condemns it, too. 
 
 Ferd. There is nothing in it then? 
 
 Talev. Nothing. 
 
46 COLUMBUS 
 
 IsAB. O sir 
 
 Such a decisive terminous of bold 
 And daring projects, grieves me much. 
 What did he say in its support? 
 
 Talev. Kind Queen, 
 
 What he hath said hath been well-judged and then 
 Refuted with as much of fairness as with ease. 
 His previous reasons made to thee, he gave 
 And being unable to impress their worth 
 He brawled his invocations unto God. — 
 Just think, — for aid and partnership with him. 
 These royal airs are yet quite warm, for he 
 Hath poured in them his nympholeptic fire 
 With an ill-balanced frenzy that a poet 
 Would scarce enkindle on his mistress' death. 
 Wordy emotion robbed his saner self 
 Of logical detractions we would make. 
 
 IsAB. Cardenas, what is thy thought? 
 
 Ferd. Yes; tell us. 
 
 Card. He bosomed his wild project like a child, 
 And would not be advised, nor let be altered 
 By all our learning, his still mounting dream. 
 
 ISAB. Mendoza, what have you to say? 
 
 Mend. My Queen 
 
 His ignorance is a fertile aid to zeal; 
 His prophet like discourse is self-deceit, 
 But still a kind of rich commodity 
 That may yet help his spirit to some goal. 
 
 IsAB. Ah me! {To the Friars.) You agree? 
 
COLUMBUS 47 
 
 1ST Fr. We do, your Majesty. 
 
 Ferd. 'Tis as I thought, but might be better, as 
 I hoped for some small increment of wealth 
 Thereby. 
 
 IsAB. I hoped the man's dream might be true. 
 
 Ferd. Well now; that business done, Talevera, 
 What of this matter with the Moors? 
 
 (All except the King, Queen, Talevera and attendants 
 retire. ) 
 
 Talev. Your Majesty, I would advise the Court 
 To move toward Granda. 
 
 Ferd. It shall be done, 
 
 And if this mariner beseeches us 
 Still more, he'l follow there. Let us arise 
 And now prepare for our departure hence. 
 {The King and Queen arise and move forth with Ta- 
 levera. Enter in front of them Deza and Juan 
 Perez. All stop.) 
 
 Deza. Your Majesties, we come to sustain a plea. 
 
 Ferd. State it. 
 
 Deza. We do believe this mariner, 
 
 And supplicate your royal aid for him. 
 
 Ferd. I left that to my council ; Talevera 
 Hath just pronounced its will. I can not hear 
 Of mariners now. We make a move against 
 The Moors — 
 
 ISAB. Ah, you do believe him then ? 
 
 Talev. Your Majesties, the wars call for your 
 thought. 
 
48 COLUMBUS 
 
 Why ponder on that dream? The mad man may 
 
 Be but an emissary of the Moor 
 
 To help the Cross to sea and thus assist 
 
 The Crescent's waning but its sharpening horns 
 
 To plough the deeper in our Spanish soil, 
 
 And then harpoon its heart. 
 
 IsAB. It can not be 
 
 That plain and forward man, whom I have seen. 
 Hath not deception's mask in eye or speech. 
 I, therefore, shall still listen to his plea. 
 
 Ferd. I shall not use my time in vain debate; 
 Come Talevera, let us leave. 
 
 {The King, Talevera and one attendant go out. The 
 Queen returns to her throne.) 
 
 Juan. Most gracious Queen, we thank thee'n Colon's 
 name. 
 I know the handsel of thy heart is his ; 
 He hath no evil artifice at all. 
 His hopes do lie in Heaven, his wonderous will 
 Hath conquered us and can outfrown his fate. 
 He seems, in truth, to have miraculous fire 
 That burns the fiercer in distress. Since he 
 First entered in our Convent I believed. 
 A mariner and a physician with us there 
 Have likewise been as steadfast in belief. 
 It grew in me; and being startled at the sight 
 Of the departure of a man so great 
 And of such use to Spain, I hastened here, 
 My Queen, in suppliance for his quest. 
 
COLUMBUS 49 
 
 IsAB. {To Deza.) Art thou, 
 
 Who hast attended Talevera's court, 
 As firmly for this man, Colon? 
 
 Deza. I am; 
 
 And in that court my voice was lost amid 
 The general disdain; the wages of 
 His soul will yet be paid, here or elsewhere. 
 
 Juan. I am a simple friar, as thou knowest, 
 And Colon came a stranger unto me; 
 Athirst, a'hungering for sympathy and bread. 
 I took him in ; I loved his radiant soul 
 And seek thy royal alms, O Queen, for him. 
 
 Isab. ri aid him if I have the King's consent. 
 
 Juan. O royal woman, do not more defer, 
 For tardiness enflames his ill-used spir't 
 And in the plague of it he's burned too long. 
 A woman's heart is more conceptions to 
 The spirit's seed and power; the Holy Ghost 
 Hath sent its child to her; the heart of Queens 
 More than of Kings, beats with allegiance to 
 The sorrowed and the passionate souls that dream. 
 A woman's heart saved Rome. In early times 
 Women hath given to Christ almost the half 
 Of Europe ; as Clotilda, Olga, — Ah ! 
 There're many more. What other worlds or lands 
 Thy sweet and generous potency may glean ! 
 
 Isab. Yes, yes ; it may be true. I hope it may. 
 
 Deza. My Queen, hadst thou but heard his words 
 as I! 
 The composition of his truth and fire; 
 
so COLUMBUS 
 
 His giant-soul, out soaring formulas, 
 
 Gave friars logic handicap and won. 
 
 And if Pretension had a thousand hands 
 
 They could not clap their tentacles on him. 
 
 Badgered and lone; his maps flung down, but God 
 
 Who made compact his soul's stability 
 
 That it might stand uncracked; ah, He was there! 
 
 Hadst thou seen this; — the man's dimensions grow 
 
 Upon the spurs of conflict and astride assault; 
 
 With such a brace of wings that none could clip. 
 
 By which his raptured spirit scaled the Earth, 
 
 And riding in the clouds, hurled Heaven's fire 
 
 To devastate our Ignorance and our Fear; 
 
 Thou wouldst have oped thy heart to him and cried: 
 
 O Col'n, thou wast appointed to this task ! 
 
 IsAB. Thou speakest strange and yet convincing 
 things. 
 Thy words, good men, secure him my assent. 
 
 Juan. O Queen, this is a destined and most blest 
 Result of God's love in your heart. 
 
 IsAB. I will aid him alone, if such must be. 
 
 Deza. O Queen, 
 
 Now thou hast banished doubt, banish delay, 
 And benisons shall snap the tether of 
 The woe to which he's chained. Brave heart ! So brave 
 He's now afoot for France's Court. Recall 
 Him ere too late. Good Queen, heal amity ! 
 His soul doth menace Spain ; relieve our land. 
 And then he will dissolve the sea of dread 
 And riches shall come forth thence unto us. 
 
COLUMBUS 51 
 
 IsAB. I act without my King; I will — 
 
 Juan. O Thou 
 
 Most generous Queen! 
 
 Deza. We love thee, Gracious Queen. 
 
 IsAB. I now shall undertake this enterprise 
 For my own Crown Castile, and furthermore 
 I pledge my private jewels for the cost, {d) 
 Recall him quickly and send messengers, 
 To say the Queen will aid ; that she agrees 
 To his own stipulations. Quickly now! 
 
 Juan. I thank our Gk)d and thee for this. Thy love 
 Could not proscribe his dream and still protract 
 Th' impatience of his noble aims for truth. 
 
 Deza. O Queen, all will be well; I thank thee too, 
 And Colon will be grateful evermore; 
 His heart on Earth, his soul in Heaven, the same; — 
 O noble monarch, worthy of our Spain! 
 
 ISAB. Enough ! Now haste ; dispatch a messenger 
 And n go forth to tell the king of this. 
 
 {She arises; steps forth.) 
 Deza. Your Majesty, I shall. 
 {They go out together. Enter an instant later the King, 
 Talevera and an attendant.) 
 
 Ferd. We'l move into the valley of Granada, 
 And camp before the city; nevermore 
 Retract our banner's challenge from the vale 
 Reduce our ardor; draw our lances back 
 Until our emblems watch above its towers. 
 And we with Christ's peace in our souls, can sleep 
 
52 COLUMBUS 
 
 Beneath the folds that signal our success 
 
 Unto high Heaven, which guides and prompts our war. 
 
 Talev. We'l cleave the cuirass of the Moor; then 
 bend 
 The silver crescent to the Cross's form 
 xA.fter eight hundred years of shame! The Moors 
 Must now be driven forth and Spain be freed, 
 No more part-Christian, yet part Saracen. 
 
 Ferd. Yes; 'tis our duty. We have work on hand 
 And can not trouble with the sea. 
 
 Talev. There are 
 
 Some seventy-thousand men on march. 
 
 Ferd. 'Tis well. 
 
 {Enter Isabella.) 
 
 Talev. {To the Queen.) Your Majesty. 
 
 IsAB. I come to tell the King I've promised aid 
 For Col'n's adventure and designs and hopes. 
 
 Ferd. What? Oh Isabella, is your reason gone? 
 Your tenderness prevailed upon for thir.? 
 
 IsAB. My King, my reason and my heart are here 
 
 Ferd. Good Queen, O why hath your opinion 
 changed ? 
 And that strange man's refracted aims so lodged 
 Within your understanding that you bend 
 Its wonted straightness for his dream? 
 
 Talev. O my good Queen, the Moors come first. 
 
 IsAB. I have 
 
 Pledged him my jewels, my support, my love. 
 Messengers are on their way for his recall. 
 
 Ferd. Thy jewels for this crusade upon the sea, 
 Condemned by councillors of Church and State? 
 
COLUMBUS 53 
 
 Jewels for the ravenous waves; pearls for the maw 
 
 Of the abyss ; thy silver and thy gold 
 
 For the insatiate fathoms of the main ? 
 
 Thy chrysophase for this strange mariner's hope? 
 
 To cross the endless seas, whereas our wars 
 
 Should so inspire a levy on thy wealth, 
 
 That thou wouldst hurl them 'gainst the Moor? O 
 
 Queen, 
 Why this declension to a mariner's myth? 
 Knowest thou that we are now preparing here 
 For an attack upon the Moor's last camp, 
 Granada? O rescind thy promise! 
 
 IsAB. Stop ! 
 
 I am the Queen of Castile ; my trusted word 
 Is giv'n. I can not argue. I believe, 
 ri aid him as I promised, for he has 
 Conceptions of a truth unknown to thee. 
 
 Talev. Good Queen, await until Granada falls; 
 Until our realm is scoured of the Moor. 
 
 yield this much. 
 
 Ferd. Oh ! I can not understand you. 
 
 IsAB. I shall yield that on promise of the King 
 That he deter me not thereafter. 
 
 Ferd. I promise it. 
 
 IsAB. Then haste Granada's fall. 
 
 My spirit is a wing on his sea-dream. 
 And prays for his success upon the main. 
 
 1 leave you to your councils ; fare you well. 
 
 (Isabella goes out hastily.) 
 Ferd. O stay! remain awhile. (She does not heed.) 
 
54 COLUMBUS 
 
 Ah! well — we Kings 
 Must rule, tho women dream. 
 
 Talev. And mariners. 
 
 Ferd. The Court will move to-morrow? 
 Ferd. Yes if — eh, — 
 
 Let us take further council with the Queen. 
 
 (Ferd. moves to the door; Talevera follows.) 
 Talev. As you will, your Majesty. 
 (They go out together.) 
 
 Scene 2. 
 By a roadside bridge, two leagues from Granada. Colon 
 is bidding adieu to Beatrice Enriquez^ in prepa- 
 ration for his departure for Paris. 
 Time: Just after the capture of Granada from the 
 Moors. 
 Col. Regard that Court, maddened for Moorish 
 blood ; 
 Its wars outsovereign my exalted hopes. 
 E'en hooded clerics seek the warrior's camp; 
 While crosiers tarnish all the lances gleam. 
 
 Beat. Too well I know it, but what can you do? 
 CoL. Fm going to France, to urge my quest before 
 Her King; leave Spain wherein I have but served 
 To scent the trail of royal bivouacs. 
 
 Beat. Our Court, of late, has moved in many parts 
 CoL. The jejune jubilee over Granada's fall 
 Was general as the air, indifference girt me round; 
 Contempt and laughter, so I leave. No more 
 
COLUMBUS 55 
 
 Beg I of Spanish sovereigns now ; 
 My spirit shall never condescend to them. 
 I am embayed within this orient shore, 
 But only man doth keep me from the trail 
 Of yon descending smi, not God. 
 
 Beat. 'Tis true. 
 
 Col. My spirit's ambience, pressing as the tide 
 Into each inlet of a crannied coast, 
 Shall find its entre to success and then 
 'Twill purge the western sea of solitude. 
 
 Beat. O soul of iron and amber, votary 
 Of truth amidst the callid and defiled. 
 What tho these princes capriole, press on! 
 The babel-tower of all their whinnying tongues 
 Careens in sand and sludge ; thine upright soul 
 Is like a battle galley in its pose ! 
 Compassed unto its water line within 
 The wild and challenged seas, it hath not yet 
 Been slanted on the tideless shoals 
 Of fear or of defeat. The winds of Fate 
 Are not yet stagnant, O press on ! press on ! 
 
 Col. Dear heart, I love thee for thy spir't and words. 
 I've been a peripatetic puppet here. 
 Wriggling among the coils of courts, but now, — 
 O God, strengthen my will, — I will press on, 
 And rid myself of muddied minds, lax spirits; 
 All those exotic to my quest, and the 
 Confined and static calibre of soul 
 Who have with satire, jests and unmasked scorn 
 Thus measured, pecked my heart, my birth, my name ! 
 
56 COLUMBUS 
 
 But the more maddened pulses of my dream 
 Urging their power against these sheathing yokes, 
 Do therefore chase more frantic thru my soul. 
 
 Beat. They will beat down the portals of this hate 
 And burst the pillars that sustain thy woe. 
 
 my beloved, press thou on, press on ! 
 
 Col. Thou urgent soul, I will, I will, I will! 
 
 1 wished to see thee ere I left and now 
 
 I have well seen and better heard. God, Thou, 
 And I, few else agree, but that is well. 
 And will be better soon. 
 
 Beat. O Thy great strength 
 
 Colon, doth magnetize my soul with thine. 
 Thou hast my love, my prayers. No scurrile gibe 
 Or shouted scoff can desolate thy fane. 
 Cathedral-soul, pillared with living fire, 
 Whose heavy heart my own would levitate. 
 
 Col. Thy woman's heart in my vicissitudes 
 Hath been most sweet to think of; so't will be 
 In days to come. Farewell ! I am upon 
 My destined way, — this land-road, then the sea. 
 God casts my shadow o'er the ocean's dial, 
 And tho my time hath not yet come, 'tis near, 
 For my penumbra thickens on the wave, 
 Despite the fogs, and, like the striding sun, 
 Sets seaward now ; it over-rides the rocks ; 
 Plunges thru billows that would halt its limbs ; 
 Inspired by God and by our age, — by thee, — 
 It touches Heaven and Earth and spans the sea ! 
 
 Beat. Thy soul is quickened with a fire divine — 
 
COLUMBUS 57 
 
 O let it glow ! Thou'l need it ; quench it not. 
 These cadent woes are born in Heaven; by them 
 A wider scope is tendered to thy will, 
 Premonitory of thy rule upon 
 The sea's more tameless and more rude estate, 
 Whose burning salt-blasts will assay the ore 
 Of faith. 
 
 Col. Who overcometh, findeth life. 
 Farewell again ; I'm poor ; — I trudge to France 
 Over these roads of earthly woe. 
 
 Beat. Farewell ! 
 
 Thy God will blast away their rocks ! May He 
 Be ever at thy side. 
 
 Col. Good soul, adieu! 
 
 {Takes her hand.) 
 Beat. Bravest of hearts, farewell! 
 (Col. begins his departure very slowly as if hesitating. 
 Beatrice, seated upon the bridge wall, watches him 
 pass out. A moment thereafter a courier enters on 
 horseback; he leaps down and speaks to her.) 
 CouR. Good woman, have you seen a mariner pass 
 
 this way? 
 Beat. A mariner? Colon? 
 CouR. Yes ; 'tis he I wish. 
 
 Beat. You wish him? Why? 
 CouR. I am sent by the Queen 
 
 To bid him to return to Court — 
 
 Beat. O Joy ! 
 
 But Sir, why bid him thus ? 
 
58 COLUMBUS 
 
 CouR. For she has pledged 
 
 Her jewels for his quest; has promised that 
 She will prepare two caravels and men 
 To test his enterprise across the seas. 
 
 Beat. O Heaven be praised! He is my friend. O 
 haste ! 
 He has just gone; run; (pointing) see, — ^he turns the 
 
 road! 
 O hasten quickly; tell him this good news. 
 
 (The courier mounts and gallops in the direction Col. 
 
 took.) 
 
 Beat. O how his soul will shout its jubilee, 
 And Heaven and Earth resound in unison! 
 O Thou most gracious Queen ! O glorious God, 
 Thine eye hath kept its vigil on his quest 
 And flamed the embers of his faith which had 
 Been ashes else, and long ago interred 
 Within Despair's dull tomb, all lichened o'er; 
 Hedged in by coarse weeds of the sneering world, 
 And bound by bind- weeds to Oblivion! 
 But now, — O joy, — such urn will not be oped. 
 Thou blessed Queen ; — , but hush, — they come ! 
 
 (Enter Col. and the courier, both afoot; the courier 
 leads the horse.) 
 
 O Colon, 
 What splendid news! What — dost not believe? 
 
 Col. (Shommg no great joy.) I am recalled, but 
 what it that? The Court 
 Has called me back before ; too oft, indeed, 
 
COLUMBUS 59 
 
 To give my cheated spirit respite now 
 From doubt; yes, ev'n in this apparent hope. 
 
 CouR. Believe me Sir; my word is from the Queen. 
 
 Beat. O Col'n, leave lethargy to duller souls 
 And let thy will now lend its power to Hope 
 In this — thy best recall. 
 
 Col. Well, — I shall go, 
 
 But I will not reduce my just demands. 
 
 Beat. That is not asked. 
 
 CouR. Good Sir, have you forgot 
 That those good friars, Deza, Juan Perez, have 
 So interceded for you with the Queen 
 She is enthused as they; she's promised wealth, 
 Ships, men. Her spirit, on self-reliant power 
 Hath risen with their words and hopes, and she 
 Is boldened to assume alone the risk 
 Involved within thy quest. 
 
 Beat. O Col'n, believe. 
 
 CouR. Good Sir, she will not falter now. 
 
 Col. If this 
 
 Be so, I shall return with lighter heart, 
 And then I'l put a bridle on the winds, 
 And, saddling caravels upon the back 
 Of yonder sea, I'l ride the galloping surge 
 To other lands ! I'l rein the cantering gales 
 To do the will of Heaven and e'en the dregs 
 Of it, will find their office and completion then. 
 Come, let us go. (Falteringly.) O dost thou mean it, 
 •Good Oueen? 
 
6o COLUMBUS 
 
 Beat. I'l go part way with thee, and send my heart 
 Unto thy journey's end. 
 
 CouR. ri mount my horse 
 
 And thus with hastier steps Fl reach the town 
 And tell the good Queen of thy coming back. 
 
 Col. Come then, Beatrice. {They pass out towards 
 Granada. The courier nwunts and follows.) 
 
 ACT III. 
 
 Scene i. 
 
 At sea late afternoon and evening of October ii, 1492; 
 on the caravel ''Santa Maria.'' Seven sailors and 
 Admiral Colon are on deck. The wind blows hard. 
 
 1ST Sl. These powerful blasts about our sails, halloo 
 Their screaming challenge to our caravels. 
 
 2ND Sl. We are tobogganing the fearful slope 
 Of this wide sea and never shall we sail 
 Uphill to Spain again. 
 
 1ST Sl. Ah me ! 
 
 CoL. {Who, tho not looking at the speakers has heard 
 them, turns to them.) O men, 
 We are the comrades of the waves and must 
 Reside with them awhile ; our lives are sport. 
 Diverting gambols with the tempting sea. 
 Be not afraid! And with self-given best 
 Harden your spongy grit and wash your spirits 
 
COLUMBUS 6i 
 
 With the encircling brine; thus stiffen them 
 
 To brace your nerveless hearts and prop your chins. 
 
 The winds blow harder; furl the topsail there! 
 
 {Several sailors do as hid. Col. resumes his gaze west- 
 ward. ) 
 
 3RD Sl. Upon the sunken Atalantis' Isle 
 Our tender growing hulls may yet be driven, 
 And so be moored upon the unseen flats 
 And tangled in the thick and sedgy sea. 
 Ah, they shall rot there, then — we'l perish all ! ' 
 
 CoL. Survival of old Plato's myth; be strong. 
 
 {Paces the deck.) 
 
 4TH Sl. O fie on my consent! Sweet Maria 
 Whom I have left on shore, you caught my kiss ; 
 Would I could hurl myself so to thine arms ! 
 
 5TH Sl. O give me yon sweet Andalusia's 
 Vineyards and flowery fields and yellow bees ! 
 The ocean's ominous roar outdrones their song. 
 
 CoL. {Coming toward them.) We are consigned by 
 God unto the sea, 
 And being Adventure's conscripts too, we must 
 Combat infectious fear or in contempt 
 Of all the greater powers of life we'l be. 
 Dissolve your dread ! How gallantly we cut 
 The fluid waves ! They fly in pallor from 
 Our plunging prow, that, scattering their hosts, 
 Cleaves then their following arms in twain and leaps 
 Their watery phalanxes unto the sun! 
 
62 COLUMBUS 
 
 1ST Sl. {Returning ztnth others from duty.) Let us 
 return upon the swelling tide 
 Unto the east; we fear the landless west. 
 
 Col. O let your courage mock the gloomy sea 
 That bends its watery vistas on your eyes, 
 And bid your trust look ever on its face. 
 The pendulous winds, that swing from Heaven's dome, 
 Rocking now east, now west, shall waft our ships 
 Both back and forth with them, so have no fear. 
 
 2ND Sl. These are the promised seas, alas, nowhere 
 Do we yet see the promised land! 
 
 1ST Sl. Nowhere! 
 
 Col. O keep your faith my men. Never before 
 Hath a ship's shadow flecked the sun's sea path, 
 And tho the waters think it strange, they will 
 Yet bear us onward to our goal. 
 
 (Goes to the railing; peers seaward.) 
 
 2ND Sl. All these 
 
 vSwift changes of the widening sea bode ill. 
 Thrice have the clouds feigned land; the mirage flees 
 Like hope; the sea-birds shriek and fly away 
 And sly-winds slue our little caravels 
 Into the sea's abyss. 
 
 1ST. Sl. Let us return. 
 
 CoL. (Turns to the men on hearing the last sailor.) 
 Yet once again, O men, I speak my faith. 
 We're circled with the sea about our ships. 
 And with God's love and law about our lives. 
 Your imprecations can not alter Him. 
 
COLUMBUS 63 
 
 These serried waves that westward move, show us 
 The destiny of Hope and chronicle 
 Upon our eyes Adventure's path. 
 
 {Catching sight of some birds.) 
 
 Those field-birds trailing west south-west. Pilot 
 We'l follow them; turn thither the ship's prow. 
 
 (Colon retires into the cabin.) 
 
 4TH Sl. Adventure is abused with fruitless work 
 And suffrance for a folly needs redress. 
 O let us turn about our prows and seek 
 The land wherefrom we came; there is none else. 
 
 5TH Sl. This shuffling in the sea, west by south-west ; 
 Then west by north-west or due west, is not 
 True enterprise and only hacks our spir'ts 
 Without repair, reward or cheer. Let us 
 Demand of him due east again to Spain. 
 
 1ST Sl. I shouted that within his very ears. 
 What useless, drear, dismemberment we make 
 Of these earth-shunning waves, — the barren food 
 Of one man's hope. 
 
 5TH Sl. He alone can stomach them. 
 
 4TH Sl. Let us command the caravel if he 
 Persists and then direct its bobbing steps 
 Unto the east. 
 
 5TH Sl. If he falls o'er the side 
 
 To-night within his watch — 
 
 1ST Sl. The ship is ours! 
 
 Ah! why should an Italian, with such speech. 
 So soften'd in pious tones for crazy hopes, 
 
64 COLUMBUS 
 
 Rule over us, who're Spaniards born, and we, 
 For sake of his illusions of the sea. 
 That soon will fade as phantom isles have done, 
 Be made but galley-slaves and partners in 
 This useless and malicious quest? Seek him. 
 And say we break our bonds ; we sail no more 
 But to the East. 
 
 4TH Sl. Ah, nine long weeks at sea 
 
 And yet no land ! 
 
 1ST Sl. ri not touch another rope 
 
 Until that rudder's reversed. 
 
 2ND Sl. Nor I; 
 
 And my sun-trailing's done ; the orb's as small 
 As 'twas at Palos; we are no nearer it 
 Than we are to land. 
 
 3RD Sl. Same here; those splashing wavei^ 
 
 Beat on my brain, annulling the natural throbs 
 My heart would make. 
 
 1ST Sl. Courage! We'l man this deck, 
 
 And hunt no more for phantoms in the sea. 
 
 4TH Sl. No more, by God! 
 
 5TH Sl. My dagger tells me yea. 
 
 2ND Sl. You would not kill the Admiral? 
 
 4TH Sl. Coward! 
 
 Shall we deliver all unto the grave 
 For one man's senseless whim? Speak, tell me that. 
 
 2ND Sl. Jesu Maria! I don't know. 
 
 4TH Sl. Then hush. 
 
 Lie low ; wait till he comes upon the deck. 
 Then we'l present our several demands 
 
COLUMBUS 65 
 
 And answers shall be made to suit our wills 
 Or else — 
 
 5TH Sl. Stop ; he comes again. 
 
 (Col. comes on deck; calls out quickly to the pilot.) 
 
 Col. Pilot! west south-west. 
 
 4TH Sl. Try east, Sir, east. 
 
 Col. (Drazus himself up angrily.) What! you order 
 the pilot? 
 What does this mean? 
 
 5TH Sl. {Approaching.) Order him east, Sir, east. 
 We shall sail west no more. 
 
 Col. {Moving his hand to his sword.) You know 
 not what 
 You say; you shall be put in irons; now go 
 Below, {^th sailor does as bid.) 
 
 4TH Sl. Nay, Sir ; we shall stay here until 
 Our prow is turned unto the east. 
 
 3RD Sl. {Approaching.) There is no land within 
 the sea! 
 
 1ST Sl. East, eastl 
 
 We touch no sail or rope that helps us west. 
 We have avowed it so. 
 
 CoL. Hold! Speak not that to me. 
 
 We shall not turn our pointed prows until 
 I give commands thereto. 
 
 {The sailors approach him closer; clamoring: turn back! 
 We' I go no further! Would you have us die? 
 East! East!) 
 CoL. {Drawing his sword; the men fall back a little.) 
 
66 COLUMBUS 
 
 O men, hold back; cease mutiny and purge 
 Your timid breasts, enfeoffed with feebleness! 
 Suppress the throbs that are indicative 
 Of such a low estate, — the breeding-ground 
 Of your congested fears and mutinies! 
 
 4TH Sl. We've had too much of words and of the sea, 
 And now demand return to Spain. Where are 
 The promised lands, the mounts of gold, and pearls 
 Clustered together as the silver sands? 
 
 {Others recede; 4th sailor starts forward more boldly.) 
 
 4TH Sl. To Spain ! 
 
 1ST Sl. Yes; back to Spain! 
 
 Col. Again I say, have peace ! 
 
 Peace, peace, my men; believe ye in my words. 
 We have not tracked the lonely sea, nor watched 
 In vain the fiery monitor of life, 
 Whose light shall yet show us the lands we seek. 
 Unthrottle my worn soul of these new threats ! 
 Ye have been more contentious than the waves 
 That knock our wooden hulls; worse than the winds 
 That gently flap our sails. O ! far more hard 
 Your mutiny doth strike my heart. Be strung! 
 Oh! drive this rank rebellion from your breasts 
 And you shall then be weaponed for the sea 
 And cudgel from its keep its richest prize. 
 
 4TH Sl. Sea weed! 
 
 3RD Sl. Salt water! (Mutterings among the 
 
 others. ) 
 
 Col. Oh, men, expel these fears; the sea awaits 
 
COLUMBUS 67 
 
 Pursuit; 'tis safe; leave rillets for the weak! 
 Ah, seek the hollows of the bended waves 
 Whilst the magnetic waters tighten us 
 In their embrace ! O God, give us the blood 
 That makes its deed the counterpart of trust; 
 The spir't, that molded in unfailing clasp, 
 Allows no mutual dalliance twixt it. 
 And hazards in the husbandry of seas ! 
 You are now but apprenticed for the Deep, 
 But follow me and you shall masters be! 
 (All but the 4th sailor have fallen back still further.) 
 4TH Sl. (Turning about, discovering their spirits 
 cowed.) Yes westward to our graves! (Goes to 
 the other sailors.) 
 Col. West to our goal; 
 
 Unto Cipango's isle and all its gold ! 
 
 3RD Sl. Ah ! we have thrown our dice with Death 
 and lost. 
 (Low murmurings among the rest. The sun sets over 
 the sea; and darkness grows.) 
 Col. 'Tis growing dark, so let your mutinous plot 
 Fade with this day forever. It is now 
 The vesper hour, — the sweetest hour at sea; 
 So, let your hearts exult in peace and song; 
 Forget rebellious strife and chant our hymn, 
 Salve Regina, with accustomed love. 
 
 (Bell rings the hour.) 
 (Juan de la Cosa, boatswain and steward appear on 
 deck during the chimes. All doff their hats; bow 
 their heads and join with Colon, who leads.) 
 
68 COLUMBUS 
 
 Hail, Heavenly Queen, Mother of Pity, Hail! 
 
 We exiled children of Eve cry unto Thee, — our Life, 
 
 Our Joy and Hope. 
 Weeping and groaning in this valley of tears, we aspire 
 
 to thee. 
 Thou glorious Advocate, turn thy pitying eyes upon us! 
 And after our exile, O sweet and pious, O merciful maid. 
 Show us Jesus, thy blessed son. 
 
 (^Silence a moment. The wind decreases to a breeze.^ 
 
 Col. Now men, still keep your faith, for in the night 
 Our God is nigh to us; the firmament 
 Accented with his power, arrayed with stars 
 Doth show His love; as valleys round the hills 
 So circle His great arms around our lives. 
 His vesper music is the cadent of wave 
 That sings above the eve's sweet silentness. 
 O now suppress your sorrows and your woes 
 And from your windy temper's cavern, fling 
 The litters of your Fear, that plot and roar 
 And make these peaceful hours an ominous eve, 
 Sullied with stigma of a broken faith. 
 Now go below; Tl watch awhile for land 
 The signs whereof float all around. 
 
 (Col. points to the door; sailors go first. The boatswain 
 goes to look after the sails and rigging. It grozvs 
 darker. Lights are made in the boat.) 
 
 CoL. (To Juan.) As I suspected, they now begin 
 to mutiny. 
 
COLUMBUS 69 
 
 CosA. I'l go and talk with them. {He goes below.) 
 
 (Col. paces the deck a moment in silence; the skip is 
 quiet; pitches a little. He peers westward, then 
 speaks.) 
 
 Col. How full of peace this evening is, for it 
 Doth not know of our mutinies. Ah, see 
 The damask sky fades into grey; O God, 
 How many sun-downs must I watch? And must 
 The flushing, too, of my faith pale and pass? 
 We glide forever in the ocean's hub; 
 The sky-line, — that keen edge that threatens now 
 To cleave my hope, — it doth not yet grow dull; 
 It thickens not with any coveted coast. 
 The sea-rim doth not narrow any day; 
 The felly of suspense contracts the more 
 And makes my westward gaze intenser far; 
 My ear more keen for clamorous mutiny ; 
 My heart perhaps contagious unto dread; 
 My soul more suppliant before my God 
 That this adventure may not now be fouled 
 \A^ith failure or the sin of Cain, 
 
 (Enter Cosa. Boatswain reappears and goes below.) 
 
 CosA. Admiral, 
 
 Entreat those sailors without so much blame. 
 And with much less of menace, Sir; they said 
 You smote one of their comrades with your sword 
 And made dire threats against their very lives 
 For asking but a simple thing. 
 
70 COLUMBUS 
 
 Col. Knaves and liars I 
 
 I made no threat, nor used my sword on any, 
 But merely drew it from its sheath and waved it thus. 
 
 (Waves it.) 
 Ah, villains, let them spend their fears in lies 
 To purchase vindication from my scolding words! 
 The recourse to such bargains buys the chain. 
 Who made that charge? Send him to me at once. 
 
 CosA. Nay, nay, it will not be best to do that, 
 Nor menace them in any way; they were 
 Much too excited to relate the truth. 
 
 Col. And do I menace them? Ah, am I not 
 Myself e'en menaced by a double power — 
 This wizard sea-wold and commanding God, — 
 Who keeps a vigil on its dread domain 
 And with his truncheon wind propels my ships, 
 Stinging my spirit with Adventure's lash? 
 Had He but goaded them and whipped their lean 
 And flacgid spirits to such deeds, as He 
 Hath spurred my soul with hope without surcease 
 To grow thus scorned, weary and old in but 
 The prologue of my quest. Ah, then they could 
 Whimper and rant about their fates and fears! 
 Ah, bah ! let me alone ; I'l deal with them, 
 And if my first and gentler stimulus 
 Be not enough, — but hark! — what noises now? 
 (Loud and dissentient voices heard; they grozir louder; 
 sailors appear by the hatchway and shout to Col. 
 a7td CosA.) 
 
 1ST Sl. Cap'n, will he do it? 
 
COLUMBUS 71 
 
 2ND Sl. What says he, East? 
 
 CosA. Go back men, back! 
 
 3RD Sl. Yes, back east, back east! 
 
 Col. {Approaches them with drawn szvord, they re- 
 cede slowly.) Villains and knaves, depart and hold 
 your peace, 
 Or now ri cleave your mutinous tide in twain, 
 Just as our prows there plough the thwarting sea, 
 And links and irons shall then bind your limbs. 
 
 CosA. O men, is this your promise kept ? Have peace ! 
 
 Col. {Approaching nearer them.) Men, cease these 
 mutinous riots; keep your faith; 
 Believe my words, — the sea's in league with us, 
 Adventure's spirit is not orphaned yet. 
 Remember that we must be near to land. 
 Of it, so many signs the waters hold, 
 We may discover it to-morrow morn. 
 Depart in peace. {With mutterings and spirits cowed, 
 they slink below.) 
 
 CoSA. They are a scrubby lot! 
 
 Col. Well, — is your faith's own ripeness wizened too. 
 That you were conjuring appeal for them 
 Altho it was not given? 
 
 CosA. No, Admiral, no; 
 
 I had a mere suggestion that we sail 
 A little more southwest. 
 
 CoL. We have done that 
 
 For several hours now. I'l watch for its results: 
 So leave me; let me be alone. 
 
 CosA. Aye, aye, Sir. {Goes below.) 
 
72 COLUMBUS 
 
 Col. {After pacing the deck a moment.) O God! 
 why should one man have all the faith? 
 The same world hails their eyes as mine ; same stars, 
 Same sun, same sea, and my perceptions are 
 Perceived by each. Ah ! it was always so ! 
 The world doth ever shift to shun exchange 
 Of virtues planted in our several hearts, 
 And what one has, another lacks, and thus 
 Rebellious discord doth begin as here. 
 
 (Looks over the sea; listens a moment; nothing is heard 
 hut the sound of waves.) 
 
 Thou endless waters ! lap, lap, lap, these hulls ! 
 
 O ! would I heard your beating on some shore 
 
 Or that your tongues a moment now were mute, 
 
 That I might snare a land-sound in mine ear! 
 
 Ye endless ocean-plains, O be transformed 
 
 To earthly hills ; change to solidity ! 
 
 O tire with thy continuous being and flee ! 
 
 O God, remove the main! Cry o'er the Deep: 
 
 "Let the dry land appear." — Ye ceaseless waves, 
 
 Have ye no bourne? Then my faith finds its end. 
 
 Thou wide, wide sea! I did not think thee so. 
 
 O grant, out of thy fertile amplitude 
 
 The parturition of the land, the land ! 
 
 (CosA enters suddenly; the boatswain and two sailor, 
 are behind him. They go to spread the topsail) 
 
 CosA. Land? land? O v/here? what land? 
 CoL. Nay, Juan, only in my heart's desire 
 
COLUMBUS 73 
 
 Which breaks into imploring speech, woo'd by 
 The silent night unto its ear. 
 
 CosA. Alas ! 
 
 Is there no more of land than that? 
 
 Col. Not yet. 
 
 CosA. The men are quiet and reposed; I stilled 
 Their troubled minds, but how long they'l remain 
 In such a state, I can not say. 
 
 Col. That much is well ; 
 
 Stay by them all you can. 
 
 (CosA goes below; a moment later the boatswain and 
 the two sailors do likewise.) 
 
 Col. ( When all is quiet; gazing zvestward at the edge 
 of the caravel upon the sea and sky.) The silver 
 eyes of yonder firmament 
 Have never been so mirrored in the sea ! 
 The zodiac that girds its very girth 
 Hath loosed its ambient belt of stars to bind 
 Earth's waters in the blessed peace of Heaven! 
 Ye flaxen fringes, pendent from the sky, 
 
 ye have been much more to me than stars ! 
 Guides of my ship and tutors of my soul ! 
 Thy lineage is mine. Celestial orb! 
 
 Thou silver pledge of God's triumphant love 
 
 1 celebrate epiphanies to thee. — 
 
 Ah! see; a wave so softly gurghng, swol'n, 
 Is upward borne against the ship. Oh God, 
 The shining orbs of Heaven kiss mine eyes ; 
 They light my soul ; they give my faith their fire ; 
 
74 COLUMBUS 
 
 They charge my hope with power to front the sea, 
 And fill my heart with love, my spirit with Thee! 
 (Col. hows his head; paces the deck silently in that 
 manner a moment; raises his eyes and sees a Ugh* 
 oif on the port side.) 
 A light, a light! Ho, Cosa, land! 'tis land! 
 {Rushes to the side of the ship.) 
 O God, it must be so ! See how it moves ! 
 
 {The light disappears.) 
 x\las ! 'tis gone, — 'tis gone ! The ravenous sea 
 That eateth even fire, hath swallowed it. 
 God! — gild this blackness with another flash! 
 Night! — raise thy black lids from that fiery eye! 
 Departed light,— whate'er thou wast,— thou fallen star; 
 Thou demon; O! thou anything, return! 
 Flame o'er the wave again! {The light re-appears.) 
 
 Ah ! there it shines ! 
 (Cosa rushes on deck toward him.) 
 Cosa. What's that you say? 
 
 CoL. Look there ;— that light, that light ! 
 
 It must mean land ; go quickly ; call the men ! 
 Take soundings ; slacken sail ! Pilot, pilot, 
 O quickly, veer to port! 
 Cosa. Praise God, 'tis land ! 
 
 (Cosa runs below to give orders and call the men.) 
 Col. Praise God! 'Tis land! 'tis land, 'tis land, 'tis 
 land! 
 O thou blest balefire of Adventure's end 
 
COLUMBUS 75 
 
 And Faith's success! Thou holy flame; thou flash 
 From God to show us truth and smite our fears! 
 Thou star from Heaven, transfigured in Earthly fire, 
 Widen thy flaming crevice in the dark 
 That we may see the land ! Descended Prophet 
 Of solid earth, extend thy fiery wings ! 
 Mine eyes can not deceive; the light's still there; 
 It moves again; it trembles, sends its flame 
 Aloft to Heaven wherefrom it fell, and where 
 My own thanksgiving goes unto my God ! 
 {During the last two lines, all the crew crowd upon the 
 deck; all are excited; they peer at the light thru the 
 darkness. Murmurs and gesticulations among them, 
 one drops a plummet for soundings; others prepare 
 to furl the sails.) 
 CosA. Look, that light. 
 1ST Sl. a light! The land! 
 
 2ND Sl. O ! the land. 
 
 3RD Sl. O God ! we're safe ; 'tis land. 
 4TH Sl. We're saved, 'tis land! 
 
 CosA. (To the boatswain.) Go; fire the cannon, as 
 
 a voice of joy! 
 (He goes to do it. The light of day dawns a little.) 
 Col. Blest gleam ! Thy light's infectious ; day springs 
 from Thee! 
 The blessed morn, our hearts, our joys, our praise 
 Are all awakened by this flash from Heaven ! 
 See ! In the dawning light the solid ground 
 Yet dimly loom above the ended seas, 
 That have been partners in our search! Ah now. 
 
76 COLUMBUS 
 
 Where are their gibes, lampoons and sneers, their scoffs. 
 Their ^'nameless stranger," "Genoese," "'Upstart"? 
 Their vaunted lore; their judgments, finger points 
 Upon their brows in scorn of mine? Ah, what 
 Is man that I should mindful be of him? 
 I have dissolved the mystery of the sea; 
 Spanned waves, whose very fringe for ages past 
 Hath made men tremble to behold their power; 
 Frighted the boldest billows; coralled all fears 
 And chained them by my will ; focussed, indeed, 
 The very elements, so that their herded powers 
 Drove on our ships the faster to this land! 
 It doth not purge my soul of fear ; it is 
 The apex of my faith, whereto I clomb, 
 And ministers alone to faithless hearts. 
 
 {Cannon sounds.) 
 
 hear the booming echo of our joy! 
 May its reverberation reach to Heaven! 
 
 1ST Sl. {Kneeling before Col.). O Admiral, forgive 
 my faithless words! 
 
 1 have maligned thee and the sea for naught, 
 Aud cursed Adventure thru whose opulent gate 
 This land and all its riches come. 
 
 2ND Sl. {Kneeling.) Forgive me, also. Admiral. 
 3RD Sl. {Kneeling.) My fears and conspiracy for- 
 give! 
 Col. Up ! up ! And let your faith rise with the sun 
 That gilds the happiest morning of oui lives. 
 
 {Morning dawns brightly.) 
 
COLUMBUS 77 
 
 4TH. Sl. Ah, see that green and flowery land! 
 
 We're saved ! 
 O Admiral, we thank and follow thee! 
 
 CosA. O men, there is the land, and there is he 
 Who brought us here; whom you whilom for fear 
 Have bayed like curs; cursed with your ominous 
 
 tongues. 
 And would have quartered and thrown to the waves, 
 Abandoning this prize. Now you rejoice 
 With hearts at double pace, whereat keep love 
 And fill the gaps within your souls with faith 
 That we have learned from him. Yield gratitude 
 And homage in return and when we touch 
 That welcome shore, obedience to him 
 Whose spir't hath furrowed the virgin sea for us 
 And cleaved the' dreaded main in trench so deep 
 An empire's hosts shall sail in safety thru. 
 {All except the main-sail being furled, the caravel glides 
 along slowly.) 
 
 4TH Sl. Aye, aye, we will ! 
 
 5TH Sl. O noble Admiral! 
 
 1ST Sl. Aye, Sir; we shall not doubt or fear again. 
 
 Col. I thank you men ; now sustain your trust. 
 
 CosA. O Admiral, thou hast their full-fledged confi- 
 dence ; 
 These proofs of strength and faith in thee have won it. 
 Thou guide, chosen by God thou art, for who 
 Is there 'mongst us can say he lives by faith 
 Till each rebuflf; the risk of death, storms, wrecks, 
 The unhulled seas, the long night-watches and 
 
78 COLUMBUS 
 
 Thousand tongued mutiny have tugged at it 
 To prove its tensile strength? O mighty faith, 
 Strong as well carboned steel ! Thou true Dreadnaught, 
 Adventure is the seneschal of thee ! 
 
 Col. Enough, enough, for see, the ample morn 
 Arrays the land in sheen and festive beams. 
 Let us give thanks to God for these, his works. 
 Then we shall launch our skiffs to reach the shore. 
 
 CosA. Look ! look ! Those natives prance among the 
 trees ! 
 
 (All look at them.) 
 
 Col. Yes; see them. Ah, these fertile lands are 
 blessed 
 With beings like ourselves. Men, gather here. 
 Uncover whilst our joyous hearts launch forth 
 To God, our growing, but too cabined praise. 
 
 (All do as he bids; facing the west.) 
 Col. O God, who hath made the Deep of the Sea 
 A way for thy ransomed to pass over. 
 These words in praise; thanksgiving for the faith 
 That made and kept us; for the mystic sea 
 We courted; for the dangers that we risked; 
 For Death, with whom we gambolled, knowing Thou 
 Art e'er our Guide and Law: for these, our praise. 
 For all the serried and the choppy waves; 
 The cavernous waters, conflicts and mutinies; 
 Strong winds betimes that made our fragile ship 
 Slue in the sea ; for this sweet land as well ; 
 For labors; watching, waiting, trouble, — all; — 
 
COLUMBUS 79 
 
 For triumphs now, we praise Thee from our hearts ! 
 We thank Thee this is not a pageant world, 
 And that Thy law is never prostrate here; — 
 Thy cogent hands do nothing .slovenly. 
 Oh, for all things we praise Thee and henceforth 
 We gainsay nought. Thou hast in safety led 
 Us to our goal. 
 
 {A momentary silence.) 
 
 {Energetically.) Now: men, furl the main-sail. 
 Drop anchors; man the skiJffs and we shall tread 
 The land with marvelous joy. 
 
 (Shouts: ''Aye, aye, Sir," among the sailors.) 
 
 Scene 2. 
 
 On the Island of San Salvador. 
 
 The Admiral and the crews approach the shore in the 
 early morning. All is calm without; the sun shines, 
 the dew sparkles; natives are seen hiding among 
 the trees in the background, fearing to approach 
 ''these strange white men, come from Heaven.'' 
 
 Colon, with a crimson robe thrown over his armor, 
 holding in his hand the royal standard, stepped on 
 the land first. The ship-captains and the crew fol- 
 lowed, some carrying a banner of the Green Cross 
 which bore the initials of the Spanish sovereigns- 
 the cross between and a crown above each letter: 
 others with guns on their shoulders. When all are 
 
8o COLUMBUS 
 
 on shore Colon raises his head and arms to Heaven, 
 then speaks and kisses the ground three times. 
 Col. Thou blessed land ! God hath removed the sea ! 
 O Thou most solid earth, so full of dew 
 And fragrant sweetness; Ah! I love thee well. 
 My tongue shall not restrain my song for thee, 
 Nor my lips hold back from thy dewy cheeks. 
 
 (Kisses the ground once.) 
 My breath must be as myrrh to speak of thee; 
 My voice as silver as thy shiny mere; 
 My words like flowers in thy verdent fields ! 
 Thou beauteous ground! Thou broad and stretching 
 
 shore ! 
 Corporeal apocalypse of Truth! 
 Thou dost indeed make my faith seem so small! 
 Thou wilt not flee from our oft cheated gaze 
 As many a mirage that has flecked our eyes 
 With semblance of the earth upon the sea. 
 These waters will not wear thy coasts away, 
 Thou shalt remain, planted as if in stocks; 
 Again I mix thy dust upon my lips. (Kisses the ground.) 
 Must not contending foes capitulate? 
 A multitude of fields be praised? O God, 
 Thou who hast put a bourne upon our prows. 
 And raised this land beneath our brackish hulls 
 To bring Adventure's end, — we praise thee well, 
 And thus once more embrace this cherished groimd. 
 
 (Kisses it.) 
 And now let prayer be said. (All kneel.) 
 
COLUMBUS 8i 
 
 Col. "O Lord, (/) eternal and mighty God, who by 
 thy holy word hast created the Heavens, the land 
 and the sea, hallowed and glorified by thy name; 
 praised by thy Majesty, which vouchsafed to suffer 
 thy holy name, by the work of thy humble servant 
 to be made known and proclaimed in this part of 
 the world." 
 
 (They arise.) 
 
 Col. (After the ship-captains gather around him.) 
 God hath removed the sea; Earth's pillars rise; 
 Their friezes jut with many palms and flowers. 
 The waters hath an end; tho many waves 
 Spoke their unceasing word of farther seas, 
 Each lapped the margin of this hidden isle, 
 With which we rightfully possess ourselves 
 In Ferdinand and Isabella's name. 
 The Sovereigns of Castile, and evermore 
 Let its own name be this, — San Salvador. 
 
 CosA. Aye, Sir; you speak truly. 
 
 M. PiNzoN. Praised be the Monarchs of Spain. 
 
 V. PiNzoN. And this new land, San Salvador. 
 
 Col. Let all, to show allegiance unto me 
 As Admiral o'er these seas ; as viceroy o'er 
 This coast, speak now their ayes and raise a hand, 
 For I do represent the Crowns of Spain. 
 
 (Sailors, etc., shout "Aye, aye," and raise their hands.) 
 
 CosA. Aye, Admiral and Viceroy! 
 
82 COLUMBUS 
 
 M. PiNZ. Aye, Sir; Admiral and Viceroy. 
 V. PiNZ. Colon, Admiral and Viceroy. 
 
 {Each raises his hand as bid.) 
 Col. Very good; now — ha! what is this? 
 (A sailor bows at his feet, another seizes his robe and 
 kisses it; others crowd around him, showing great 
 joy and signs of allegiance to the Admiral.) 
 1ST Sl. Forgiveness, Admiral ! 
 2ND Sl. Ah, let me kiss thy hand! 
 
 (Seizes it; does so.) 
 
 3RD Sl. ri obey thee evermore. 
 
 CoL. You devotees of mishap, I forgive you all. 
 Arise ! 
 
 4TH Sl. Oh, Admiral, I'l love and follow thee ! 
 
 5TH Sl. (Seizes Col.'s robe.) Oh let me touch 
 some part of thee, thou 
 Messenger of God! 
 
 Col. Thy myths were fabulous; let not thy praise 
 Be as extremely made; forbear and test 
 Thy words by sober loyalty, for soon 
 We must explore this land and build our homes. 
 
 (Sailors retire; group together and gaze around.) 
 
 M. PiNZ. Ah, what if this indeed be some new world 
 Unmapped, untrod by all except those men? 
 
 (Pointing to the nativ^es.) 
 
 CoL. New world? (g) Ah no, but your suggestive 
 words 
 Embolden my imagination here. 
 
COLUMBUS 83 
 
 Uncautiously it treads the path that lures. 
 
 A vision gleams before me, — worlds, new worlds! 
 
 A vestal continent oped to the old! 
 
 Thou maiden land, retiring in these seas. 
 
 Concealed in safety by the sable night 
 
 And blushing silver in the redd'ning dawn, 
 
 Thus garmented in God's unchanging way. 
 
 Adventure pays its court to thee and wins. 
 
 Now thou art to be wedded to the old ! 
 
 What we thus join together, tho the sea 
 
 Hath stemmed the yearning lips of continents, 
 
 And thus restrained their kiss, let never part! 
 
 Thy dowry from the old, Young land, be Christ, 
 
 And gold thy gift unto the elder realm. 
 
 Oh, from thy steadfast soil, let nations spring 
 
 And peoples flourish and outpeer our own. 
 
 Then my adventure shall be glory crowned; 
 
 A coronet of continents be wov'n 
 
 To rest upon the Heaven-high brow of Faith. 
 
 Ah, let my words so overpaint my dream 
 
 That it outclimb the gilded frame of speech 
 
 And then, to match these solid shores, expand 
 
 Into a true identity with them. 
 
 O dreamy fabric! Child of profuse joy! 
 
 Thou thrilling denizen of Fancy's realm, 
 
 Whose steps e'en falter on such fostering ground. 
 
 And must thou die at birth ? Then I'l allay 
 
 My rapture and my mourning here to-day. 
 
 M. PiNZ. Ah! Colon, what strange words fly forth 
 from thee 
 Upon a passing thought of mine! 
 
84 COLUMBUS 
 
 Col. O well, they're gone, so let them speed and be 
 But an expended dream that yields no gain. 
 Ah see, these red-men! Since their fright recedes 
 They now advance to greet us. Pinzon, wave 
 Your hand to show we welcome them. 
 (CoL. and Pinz. wave their hands, bidding the natives 
 approach. They come nearer, talking among them- 
 selves; some carry zvooden lances; all have orna- 
 ments of teeth and hones on them. Pinzon holds 
 out a little hell to them; rings it. Natives come and 
 look at it in heivilderment.) 
 CoL. Give them your bells, Pinzon, and I shall let 
 them have these beads. 
 
 (Pinzon distributes some hawks-bells; Col. gives them 
 
 beads. ) 
 CosA. Let them have these colored caps. 
 {Gives out caps. Natives show great joy with them. 
 Put beads about their necks; ring the bells; put 
 caps on their heads after they are shown how, then 
 take them off again.) 
 CoL. Ah, Cosa, see ! This red-man feels my sword. 
 {A native handles Col.'s sword blade; feels its sharp- 
 ness, then draws his hand away quickly and han- 
 dles his armor and robe.) 
 V. Pinzon. Here's one pulling my beard. Admiral. 
 {A native touches his beard. Others crowd around and 
 feel their clothes and armor. The sailors give them 
 beads and bells, in exchange for Hints, polished 
 teeth and other ornaments.) 
 
COLUMBUS 85 
 
 V. PiNZ. Look, look! Here are some with golden 
 
 ornaments upon them. 
 Col. Where ? 
 M. PiNZ. This way. 
 {Moves a few steps toward tivo natives, — talking to the 
 
 sailors, — who have small gold trinklets hanging from 
 
 their noses.) 
 Gold, Admiral, gold! 
 
 CoL. {Following him.) Ah now, we have found the 
 
 gold 
 M. Pin;. Think of these red-men with such fine gold. 
 
 {The sailors move aivay to the natives whom Col. has 
 just left.) 
 Col. Red-men adorned with gold need better names. 
 Let us call them Indians, for we must be 
 Near to India's shore. 
 
 M. PiNZ. Indians! We'l call them Indians. 
 CosA. {Approaching.) Indians! Indians! 
 CoL. {Showing the natives more hells and heads and 
 indicating his desire to exchange them for gold.) 
 I wonder where this gold is found. 
 {The natives eagerly make the exchange; they regard 
 the heads and hells as gifted with supernatural 
 pozvers. They play with them; compare them with 
 each other's. 
 M. PiNZON^ holding up one of their golden ornaments 
 hefore their eyes, indicates hy motions his desire to 
 know where the gold is found. The natives do not 
 understand immediately. He motions again. They 
 
86 COLUMBUS 
 
 smile and glance hack and forth at each other. 
 Then one of them points southward, inland, indi- 
 cating by his gestures a high mountain,^ 
 
 M. PiNZ. They mean in some hill, Admiral. 
 
 Col. Can it be far? 
 
 M. PiNz. We must go in search of it. 
 
 Col. Yes; we must be off immediately. Take this 
 man as our guide. Collect our men; we can return 
 by nightfall and then retreat to our ships. 
 
 {He motions to the native that he wishes him as a guide. 
 The man understands and remains near to the Ad- 
 miral ) 
 
 M. PiNz. (To the others,) Fall in line, men; we 
 are to march inland. 
 
 (The natives, with the exception of the guide, startled 
 at the imperative tones, withdraw somewhat to- 
 gether. The sailors follow them a few steps.) 
 
 CoL. Men, fall in line ! 
 
 (All are ready to march hut the sailors; they hesitate 
 and show slight signs of disohedience, and indif- 
 ference. ) 
 
 M. PiNZON. Come, men; we're off to search for gold. 
 Col. (Approaching them.) Men, obey me Follow 
 us; we are on the trail of gold. 
 
 (The sailors move toward Pinzon and make themselves 
 ready to march.) 
 Col. (Placing himself at their front.) Now, men; 
 we begin our exploration. We have found the land 
 
COLUMBUS ' 87 
 
 and shall next discover gold. Give me obedience in 
 every command. Now let us march. 
 (All march away to the South; the natives, wonder- 
 struck at the unknown words and actions, draw 
 hack to watch them disappear. Then they, too, 
 slink away.) 
 
 Scene 3. 
 
 Time: About seven months later than the last scene. 
 
 At the Court of Ferdinand and Isabella in a large hall 
 in Barcelona. Present: The King, Queen, Prince 
 JuAN^ seated under a richly decorated canopy; 
 Talevera, Mendoza, Gonzalez, Juan Perez, 
 courtiers, ladies, attendants, and the Royal Choir. 
 Ferd. And so his dream was true ; he found the land. 
 Isab. Plow much we owe to him! Those gorgeous 
 isles 
 
 Are even more majestical than his 
 
 Own soul's desire painted for him. 
 
 Ferd. Yes. 
 
 I now rejoice that we so gave him aid. 
 
 Tho kings, more cautious than such mariners, 
 
 Must keep their throne beneath the pole star's rays, 
 
 Yet they may venture too, when dreams are prov'n 
 
 Cross-tissued with much gold and pearl as his. 
 Isab. He's coming now! Oh, see! 
 
 (Col., accompanied by Deza and several courtiers; with 
 attendants carrying specimens of plumed birds, 
 
88 COLUMBUS 
 
 lisards and conies; palms and lowers; gold ore, 
 pearls, trinkets of the natives and with six natives 
 themselves, enters and moves forward to the royal 
 dais. The Court shows great enthusiasm over him 
 and his train.) 
 
 Ferd. What wealth he brings! 
 
 Deza. Your Majesties, I pleaded once for Colon 
 But his imperial works now speak his worth, 
 And none in this world, in all Time, need sound 
 A sceptre word for him! He is a king 
 O'er seas and isles by right of mighty deeds. 
 
 IsAB. (Arising.) Our Admiral of the sea! 
 
 Ferd. (Arising.) Our Viceroy o'er its isles! 
 
 IsAB. O Colon, not Orpheus with his music sweet 
 Could so compel a train as thou! Beasts, birds. 
 Palms, flowers, men, — these show thy surfeit of success. 
 No Orpheun retinue tramped o'er the sea 
 As thine. 
 
 Ferd. We welcome thee and thy trophies too. 
 
 ISAB. Stand near to us and tell thy wonderous tale. 
 (Ferd. and Isab. seat themselves.) 
 
 Col. O Gracious Majesties, my King, my Queen, 
 Behind me is the evidence of Truth 
 Revealed, defended, proven by my deeds. 
 Yet how were it done ? By God's help and thine. 
 O Queen, thy jewels cast into the sea. 
 Have been transfigured to a hundred isles; 
 Great King, thy banners have spread their rippling 
 
 cheeks 
 To the sweet kissing winds of other lands. 
 
COLUMBUS 89 
 
 Thy caravels, once charged with growing hopes, 
 Have made exchange for treasures from those cHmes. 
 Your Majesties, that which I promised to do 
 I have performed. {Raising his right arm and pointing 
 to the dignitaries of the Church.) 
 
 O Sirs, the Earth is round; 
 No deserts in the sea ; the oceans are 
 Not plains. 
 
 Talev. Admiral, you do misunderstand 
 Our true interpretations of God's word. 
 With this additional light, we have surmised 
 Our true beliefs were always as they are; 
 That is, much as you say. 
 
 IsAB. Leave that, Colon, 
 
 Depict the travelled sea-scape ; give our ears 
 The echoes of thy hearings and our eyes 
 Re-visions thou canst conjure. Oh! I yearn 
 To hear of conquests, frays, sea-sieges,— all,— 
 Both risks and winnings ; losses, for my heart 
 Doth love adventure, tho I am a Queen. 
 
 Ferd. Yes; Admiral, relate thy travels whereby 
 Spain's 
 Present glory is enhanced; the future's won 
 Before its ripened years. 
 
 Col. Your Majesties, 
 
 During our voyage hence, our only lack 
 Was sailor's trust, good faith; the elements 
 For our assistance with each other vied 
 T' outdo the kindly powers of each. 
 The waves, impatient with a tardy breeze 
 
90 COLUMBUS 
 
 Whom they would chasten to alacrity, 
 
 Moved unreluctant past our hulls. The winds, — 
 
 The tireless steeds of Providence, — would fain 
 
 Have changed some current of the sea that drove 
 
 Our helm betimes somewhat awry; the stars 
 
 Fixed for our fortune, of use to mind and heart, 
 
 Uneasy at the Earth's mere natural powers, 
 
 Declared our progress tedious and cast 
 
 Their shining proxies in the waves to show 
 
 Our prows the sea-roads with more light; — they were 
 
 The glow-worms of our ocean path. — At eve, 
 
 The sun spread out, as arching wings from Heaven, 
 
 A yellow gloaming o'er the rounded sea. 
 
 As if the sky would mirror the mounts of gold 
 
 There in the west. O ! as it sank within 
 
 The flaming waves, it magnetized my heart 
 
 With an impatient hope and passionate zeal 
 
 To follow where it fled. At morn it rose 
 
 To gild anew our quest, — paled by our sleep, — 
 
 And warm the sea's heart to a fever pulse 
 
 That its quick throbbing waves might drive our ships 
 
 At better pace. Sweet Heaven smiled benign 
 
 Upon our hopes, God's powers in unison 
 
 Jewelled our crown and o'er plateaus of love, 
 
 Far from all danger's level, we sailed. Birds, weeds, 
 
 Tree branches, reconnoitering in the Deep, 
 
 Hailed our arrival. On a freshening morn, 
 
 Whose dew drops with prismatic power, increased 
 
 Seven-fold the natural colors of the isles, 
 
 We saw the beauteous lands and made it yourt. 
 
COLUMBUS 91 
 
 IsAB. O wonderful! Wonderful! We praise thee. 
 
 Ferd. Thou surely hast fulfilled thy dreams. 
 
 Talev. Well done, 
 
 O Admiral! 
 
 Col. But listen further, yet. 
 
 In those fair climes the sea's abysm is 
 Not clouded with Plutonian darkness, — no; — 
 Tis opalled with fair rays ; its fathoms are 
 Chromatic steps unto its treasure groves 
 Whose glistening shells and colored waves reflect 
 The dazzling wealth within the lands they girt. 
 
 IsAB. We must thank God for such domains. 
 
 Col. But hear ! 
 
 In those discovered isles, there're human souls, — 
 Such as those red-men whom you see in Court. 
 
 {All gaze upon the Indians.) 
 Behold some parcels of their wealth ; rare birds, 
 {Pointing to them and the other things.) 
 That sing and hum, of plumage beautiful ; 
 New fruits and many colored fish; maize, pulse; 
 Spices and yuca roots; dogs, Hzards, plants 
 Of aromatic power; great trees, palms, flowers; 
 Transparent rivers, sweetening salt seas, 
 And many amber mountain streams which must 
 Arise in Paradise; marine shells hued 
 In sunset's colors, more beautiful than ours. 
 Blue skies and balmy airs ; houses of palms 
 And groves of growing wealth. 
 
 IsAB, 'Tis Paradise 
 
 Itself! More sweet than sunny April in 
 Our Andalusia! 
 
9i COLUMBUS 
 
 Col. Tis not Cipango, 
 
 My good Queen, but it is just as rich 
 And full of gold and gems. We cruised about 
 Found many isles ; the first we named for Christ, 
 San Salvador; others for your Majesties. 
 
 Ferd. O Admiral, thou hast won great gratitude. 
 My best imaginings can scarcely cope 
 With thy reports. 
 
 CoL. O King, I have but touched 
 Some surface seam of wealth. What glories there! 
 My words are only gloss to them; the trophies here 
 Are scarcely twigs from mammoth trees; the isles 
 But crystal grains to tempt us to satiety 
 And lure our prows to further quest. O Queen, 
 Vast lands and tribes await Christ's benison. 
 New seas will roar with joy at cleaving keels, 
 And many ruffian waves that heretofore 
 Have bullied our unburdened hulls, will sink beneath 
 Our heavy treasure laden caravels. 
 That, mount-like'l crush their foes. Great wealth awaits 
 Thy land since I have oped the ocean's gates! 
 
 ISAB. My well-deserving Admiral, would I 
 Could sail the Deep as thou, to see those realms! 
 
 Ferd. Thou hast indeed flung wide the ocean's gates 
 And shalt be well repaid therefor by Spain. 
 
 CoL. The coronal seas that girt those kingly isles 
 Roll their blue billows now before mine eyes! 
 The sweet lands bow their crested tops to me; 
 The opaque ceilings of the earth can't hide 
 
COLUMBUS 93 
 
 Its treasures from my knowing sight and now 
 It shall surrender them to Spain. 
 
 IsAB. Praise God! 
 
 Ferd. O let us sink upon our knees in praise. 
 
 {All present do as the king bids; natives imitate those 
 around them.) 
 
 (The choir of the Royal Chapel chant the Te Denm, 
 accompanied by instrumental music. All arise when 
 the music ceases.) 
 
 IsAB. (Seated; to Colon.) My tongue is barren of 
 expressive words 
 By whose capacity my joy would be 
 Transported, Admiral, to thy ears again. 
 But in so open a confessional 
 My heart unburdens more than if alone 
 And shall not be insolvent in its speech. 
 Spain thanks thee; we, her Monarchs also give 
 Great praise and great reward. Old conquerors 
 Caesar or Hannibal, have tracked the Alps ; 
 Have roped with roads the Heaven climbing peaks. 
 They're on the solid earth, but in the sea ; — 
 Whose treachery and most unstable floors; 
 Whose awful terrors halt the bravest hearts; 
 Whose watery peaks, dashing for Heaven first, 
 So lose their virtues, they dive down to Hell, — 
 Midst such, thou hast cleaved highways for the world 
 That never need repair; that Time can not destroy 
 Nor avalanches from a water}" mount 
 E'er bury from our gaze or power. 
 
94 COLUMBUS 
 
 Ferd. Great Spain 
 
 Doth thank thee, so the World. Now lead us forth. 
 
 Be at our head ; let each follow us in rank. 
 
 Thou must be now beholden by the City, 
 
 Col. {Kneeling.) My gratitude, Great King and 
 Queen accept. 
 
 I am God's humble servant and thine own. 
 
 {He arises; proceeds slowly to the door at the other 
 end of the hall, follozved by his own attendants and 
 natives, then by Ferdinand and Isabella, Prince 
 Juan, the Ecclesiastics, courtiers, ladies and their 
 attendants. 
 
 During the processional the choir sings a national 
 melody; the voices dying away as the procession 
 passes from sight. A moment later shouts of the 
 populace in the street, are heard. Cries of "Hail, 
 Admiral,'' etc. They grow fainter as the procession 
 moves farther from the hall.) 
 
 ACT IV. 
 
 Scene i. 
 
 Time: Seven years later; at end of Colon's third voy- 
 age, November, 1500; the day he landed in Cadi:; 
 in chains. 
 
 A street in the same city which leads from the wharves, 
 seen at the extreme right, to the house of the 
 Alcalde of the city, seen a little in the background, 
 
COLUMBUS 95 
 
 at the extreme left. The street, in the foreground, 
 leads to the house, curving toward it at the left, and 
 lies at the edge of a park, whose benches and sum- 
 mer houses are along its pathway. Some trees and 
 vines grow in the foreground at the extreme left. 
 
 {Enter two courtiers at the left, a third one at the right.) 
 
 1ST Ctr. Here is some one coming who can tell us. 
 2ND Ctr. Yes; very likely. 
 
 {They approach each other.) 
 
 1ST Ctr. Good morning, Sefior. 
 
 3RD Ctr. Good morning, Seiiores. {They stop.) 
 
 1ST Ctr. Do you know any news of the Admiral 
 Colon ? 
 
 3RD Ctr. I do indeed. Have you not heard any? 
 
 2ND Ctr. But little; tell us what you know. 
 
 3RD Ctr. Why, he was brought here in chains this 
 very morning over the sea, from Hispaniola. 
 
 1ST Ctr. In chains? 
 
 2ND Ctr. The Admiral in chains? 
 
 3RD Ctr. Yes; nor were they chains of gold either, 
 and he is probably bellowing in them like an ox. I 
 saw him come ashore and burst in tears and cries 
 when the populace gathered round him. He is 
 being escorted to the Alcalde's house yonder, and 
 may be coming this way. 
 
 2ND Ctr. This way? Then we'l see him. But why 
 in chains, man? 
 
 2RD Ctr. What, have you not learned how Bobadilla 
 
5 COLUMBUS 
 
 caught him? His victims were still on the gibbets 
 when the King's messenger arrived. 
 
 1ST Ctr. What victims? 
 
 3RD Ctr. Why, Spaniards, man, of course. 
 
 2ND Ctr. Spaniards hanged by an Italian! Tell us 
 more. 
 
 3RD Ctr. He has been charged with thieving pearls; 
 with punishing his men cruelly and doling out short 
 rations to them, so he deserves his chains. He had 
 even refused to baptize the native children. 
 
 1ST Ctr. Why? 
 
 3RD Ctr. I don't know exactly, but I judge to make 
 slaves of them easier. 
 
 2ND Ctr. The Queen gave him money to embark, 
 and he's been thieving his men's wages out of it, 
 but now is caught in the very act. Ha! these 
 Italians will dupe us no more. 
 
 3RD Ctr. Why, he misruled his people and 'tis said 
 that he would throw off his allegiance to Spain 
 and make himself sovereign of the isles. He got 
 the chains where he needed them right enough. 
 
 1ST Ctr. Did he bring any gold or treasures from 
 his new world? 
 
 3RD Ctr. Treasures? Yes, they came with him; 
 those hawk-eyed red-men, with yellow palms; his 
 own sick sailors with jaundiced cheeks, mocking 
 our hope of gold. 
 
 2ND Ctr. I thought so ; much cost and little gain. 
 
 3RD Ctr. He'l want to sail again too, when his cry 
 is over. 
 
COLUMBUS ^ 
 
 1ST Ctr. Ah! He'd butt the walls of Heaven with 
 
 his prows to see if the sun is gold. 
 2ND Ctr. That he would. How many voyages has 
 
 he made now? 
 3RD Ctr. This is the end of his third and who's the 
 
 richer for it? 
 1ST Ctr. Nobody. 
 3RD Ctr. This exotic upstart is doing naught but 
 
 ruining the chivalry of Spain, and he is as stubborn 
 
 as wire grass. 
 2ND Ctr. Well, even the Queen, will cast an arctic 
 
 eye on him now, to be sure. 
 1ST Ctr. And think that the King rescinded grants 
 
 to other mariners to maintain this man's monopoly! 
 
 Ah, it's awful ! 
 3RD Ctr. He is a maker of graves for Spanish hidal- 
 gos. 
 1ST Ctr. Yes; Castilian pride is much depleted by 
 
 his folly. 
 3RD Ctr. Why, he compelled our gentlemen to labor 
 
 on some emergency constructions and other things. 
 1ST Ctr. Well, his peascod is shelled forever. 
 3RD Ctr. Yes, but I would that some one could chain 
 
 his will. Earthquake, sun-burst or star-fall he'l 
 
 have his way and sail again. 
 2ND Ctr. So you think he's still standing pat on his 
 
 folly? 
 3RD Ctr. Pat as the barnacles on the hull that hauled 
 
 him here. 
 1ST Ctr. He'l get nobody to sail with him, for he 
 
98 COLUMBUS 
 
 could scarcely get men or ships when he last em- 
 barked. 
 
 3RD Ctr. I know he had to take a lot of jail-birds 
 and malefactors, but the people shouted out such 
 a deal of sympathy for the disgraced man a bit ago 
 that he would probably get all Cadiz to sail with 
 him to-morrow and quite a sufficiency in even half 
 a year. 
 
 1ST Ctr. Ah, the rabble's heart has no such long 
 holdover as that, especially for a foreigner. 
 
 3RD Ctr. I suppose that's so, for they rebelled against 
 him even in Hispaniola. The Court knows of all 
 his arrogance there. That's why Bobadilla was sent 
 to assume command, and he did his business well 
 too. He seized the Admiral's house and all belong- 
 ings, cuffed him with iron chains, dispatched him 
 east and here he is. 
 
 2ND Ctr. He did the business very well. 
 
 3RD Ctr. And now it is the sovereign's turn to fol- 
 low suit. Their judgment will never preserve the 
 remnants of his exploded ambitions, in spite of hi> 
 self-vindictive words. 
 
 1ST Ctr. His mountains of gold, where are they? 
 
 2ND Ctr. What a clever dupe, he was ! 
 
 1ST Ctr. Well, I'm glad to be informed about him.' 
 
 2ND Ctr. Yes, and now that I know the facts, Fl 
 pass them on. (Starts to go; stops.) Eh, by the 
 way, what has become of his friend, Sefior En- 
 riquez ? 
 
COLUMBUS 
 
 99 
 
 3RD Ctr. I think she is in the crowd around him; I 
 
 passed her a moment ago. 
 2ND Ctr. What will she say now? 
 3RD Ctr. Oh, a lot of gush, probably ! 
 1ST Ctr. Well, good day,, Senor. Spanish honor 
 
 always falls plumb on its feet, if it ever take a 
 
 tumble at all. 
 2ND Ctr. Thank you, Senor, for the information. 
 
 I'm sorry to have kept you waiting, but I wanted 
 
 to know about the man's affairs. (Sounds of an 
 
 approaching crowd; voices and exclamations are 
 
 heard. They become louder.) 
 1ST Ctr. What is that? Why, the man must be 
 
 coming this way already. (Peering to the right.) 
 3RD Ctr. It is he, with the crowd; hasten. Let us 
 
 hide behind the corner. 
 
 (The voices are now audible. Women and men are 
 heard crying: "Poor man" "O the pity of it"; "the 
 Admiral in chains.") 
 
 2ND Ctr. Come ! (Darts to the left behind the vines, 
 follozved by the other two.) 
 (Enter at the right the Admiral and his two brothers, 
 carrying their chains. The Alcalde of Cadiz walks 
 next to Colon ; the Admiral's son Diego by his side. 
 Behind them is a crowd of men, women and children 
 crying out as indicated. After walking a few steps. 
 Colon stops; turns to the people; bursts into tears; 
 then speaks. The people stop.) 
 
 Col. O ye good people, leave me. Go ye home ! 
 
100 COLUMBUS 
 
 1ST MAN. Nay, Admiral, we'l see thee safely stowed. 
 2ND MAN. Why art thou so ill-treated? 
 1ST WOM. Christ's mother have mercy on thee! 
 2ND WOM. We'l follow thee to prevent more harm 
 falling on thee. 
 
 {Many cries: "Poor man'; ''What awful chains"; "God 
 a' mercy on thee.") 
 
 CoL. O send them away ! 
 Alc. ri do so, Sir. 
 
 {The Alcalde approaches the crowd of followers and 
 commands them to retire. Colon turns to look on 
 them as they slowly move backward, and then, as if 
 exhausted by his emotions, sinks down on one of 
 the benches near the roadside. After a few more 
 cries from the people: "Christ's mother protect 
 thee," etc., they retire at the right. Colon's broth- 
 ers sit down near to him-.) 
 
 Alcalde. {Returning from the right.) Ah, that is 
 
 good; sit here and rest awhile. 
 CoL. Yes, I must stop a moment. 
 Alc. {Peering toward the left.) I see some friends 
 
 coming. Let me go and greet them. 
 
 {Passes out at the left.) 
 
 CoL. Those good people were not like Bobadilla's 
 rabble who shouted their jeers as we stepped aboard 
 at Hispaniola. 
 
 Don D. Bobadilla's friends were taken from jail to 
 see us embark as exiles from the West. 
 
COLUMBUS loi 
 
 Bart. Why, we were prisoned in the sweaty hull 
 Of yonder caravel, as common slaves. 
 
 Col. And think that he has stolen and concealed 
 My papers that would exculpate me now. 
 O thou just and honest inquisitor! 
 Why, when I reached the isle, such turmoil; ah. 
 Such revolt was on, as would, I do avow. 
 Have caused the land to founder in the sea. 
 My brothers, would I now build hospitals 
 And churches, — they'd be called but dens of thieves. 
 Yet all I've done has been of good intent. 
 
 Bart. But judged by slanders, and by your enemies. 
 
 Don D. {To Col.) Your letter's sent to Doiia Juafia. 
 
 CoL. Yes. 
 
 {Enter at the left the Alcalde, Juan Perez and Beatrice 
 
 Enriouez. They approach Colon.) 
 
 CoL. {With great emotion.) Beatrice, you come to 
 see me in these chains ! ( Takes her hand; looks 
 into her face.) 
 
 Beat. Colon, I had to come when I heard of them. 
 
 Col. Sit down. {She does so near to Bartholomew ; 
 converses with him.) 
 
 Juan. Colon, my son, these chains from the west. 
 
 Col. Ah, Juan, yes ; from the west ? 
 
 Juan. May God release you. 
 
 CoL. God will in some way, I believe and yet 
 Had any link an eye to see me thus 
 It would undo its cleavage to the rest 
 And its coherence be self-paralyzed 
 So it could never bind again. 
 
102 COLUMBUS 
 
 Juan. My heart is grieved ! This, thy reward ; these 
 chains. 
 The Admiral of the ocean fettered thus ! 
 Yet Colon, thou art free; I know thy spir't. 
 O what a fire God's eye enkindles, when. 
 With gaze persistent, He doth flame the soul, 
 And it arises on a master flash 
 Above its flesh and foals its freedom there, 
 As thine can do and will. 
 
 Col. Just as of old, 
 
 Juan, thou dost promote my spirit. Thy words 
 Are incense on my smouldering ire. 
 
 Juan. My son 
 
 The Queen will order thy release, be still. 
 
 Col. I can't ; my heart is fired up again. 
 O God, wherefore these chains, these chains, these 
 chains ? 
 
 {He grasps them in his hand,) 
 Ye scourging links that bind my blameless limbs, 
 Melt and dissolve away ! O ye black hands 
 Unloose your unrelaxing grasp! Avaunt! 
 Ye innocent profaners of my flesh 
 That spur my passions most consuming ire, 
 Deflowering all my calm without avail, 
 How dare ye thus confine the scopeless tread 
 That hath o'er-arched the billows; defied their depths 
 With foot-falls that have shattered fear and charted 
 
 paths 
 On pathless seas ; dispelled their spirits too ; a step ; 
 Which hath so measured leagues upon the Main 
 
COLUMBUS 103 
 
 That Time shall be new dated from my quest ; 
 
 All Europe richer by my bateless zeal, 
 
 And His'try with unwonted words and pride 
 
 Shall call me Colon, Prince of Pioneers? 
 
 Had I as many sins as ye have links. 
 
 And each as black, still ye would scant my worth. 
 
 speak ! Ope your cold lips and pardon ask 
 For your aspersion on my limbs and life. 
 Speak! Speak! ye mute extortioners of peace! 
 
 (Lets chains falls; silence an instant,) 
 Beat. O Colon, beloved, waste thou no words on 
 them. 
 Save your appeal for the sweet and tender Queen. 
 
 Juan. Colon, my son; extend this pause in peace. 
 And let your anger be appeased ; 'tis best. 
 
 (Col. with his head hozved, does not heed; raises it, and 
 
 stretches his arm seazvard.) 
 
 Col. Hear ye ! From yon Oblivion's Empire there 
 
 Within the sea, — Th'unruly, th 'ambition-thwarting sea, — 
 
 1 snatched those fair and fertile isles. 
 
 Behold! My rewards; from the Heathen, — gold; 
 From Christians, — iron chains ; from yonder West, 
 Lands, love; but from the East, — a prison ship. 
 O God were ever man's reward and praise 
 Fastened so rudely to him as I to iron ? 
 The sea, whose countenance is ever frank 
 Tho rough, hath never ambushed me, but lo ! 
 Mine enemies, with over blooded pride — 
 That for the moment only is aplomb, — 
 
104 COLUMBUS 
 
 Have made me welter with accursed weights. 
 Ah ! how this subjugation shames my will ! 
 My very friends; — the throng here in the street, 
 Have gazed on me in this degrading garb! 
 Sink me with plummets ! Let me die in the sea 
 That I have loved ! 'Twill rust these chains away ! 
 An Admiral iron-bound! Ye bitter manacles, 
 Thine every link seems Hydra-headed now, 
 Gnawing my soul with twice ten thousand fangs ! 
 Juan. O Colon, stop; rest now. 
 Beat. O Col'n, beloved — 
 
 Col. Must he who trespassed Neptune's virgin floods : 
 Whose will was as a plough-share in the Deep ; 
 Who bruited to the blinded gender this: — 
 The roundness of our Earth ; — linked land with land ; 
 Must he who hath peerlessly hath raced with Risk, 
 Danger, Privation, Toil ; who proved and lived his Faith, 
 Undaunted and unstained in soul, be badgered thus 
 By Jealousy, by Pride, and Enmity? 
 Jove chained Prometheus, but no god chained me. 
 O what rank offal mine accusers are ! 
 The wanderings of Ulysses, what were they 
 Compared to mine over those seas, and yet — 
 O God, these brutish links that bind amain 
 The very limbs that twice times thrice have paced 
 The' unfreighted seas between their terminal roars, 
 Strike fire upon my spirit! Go, — take this gem 
 Of reckless passion, born in woe ; conceived 
 By Envy's cruel assault upon my life, 
 And give it to my foes ; then say it is 
 
COLUMBUS los 
 
 A new-world stone, base-blooded, polished, cut, 
 For setting in the crown of Flunkeydom ! 
 Now may I rest. My ire is framed in speech. 
 Diego, my son, come hither ; stand by me. 
 Give me your hand. 
 
 DiEG. My father, what you will. 
 
 {Moves to him; takes his hand. The Alcalde goes out 
 at the left.) 
 
 Juan. Colon, allow no vindication of thyself 
 So given in hatred to besmirch thy soul. 
 Let God be judge; He will reward thee all. 
 And cast these symbols of rude insolence 
 Far and forever from thy limbs. Have faith 
 As thou hast had it in thy quest; have peace 
 As thou hast had in former trial and woe. 
 
 Col. 'Tis hard to keep my peace and hold my faith : 
 More hard than ever in my life. Ah, see! 
 My services have brought me what? Nothing; 
 No roof in Spain ; I live by borrowing ; 
 Perils and toils; age and infirmities; 
 Thieves and enemies in East and West; 
 The insolence of masters ; minions too. 
 Wearisome days and nights. O what a world! 
 And I gave more of it to Spain! 
 
 Juan. This life is but a transient test, despite 
 The glory or the contumely that man 
 Bestows or flings. Such fabrics fritter soon. 
 Struggles and stress are rife; rewards are rare. 
 Curses and pageantries dissolve on Earth ; 
 The unstained soul is piloted to sea, — ■■ 
 Another sea that thou art vet to cross. — 
 
io6 COLUMBUS 
 
 Col. My dreams of Ophir-mounts, well stocked witit 
 gold, 
 Have waned; my unsubstantial promises 
 To turn the Indes wealth against the Turk, — 
 As mirages upon the ocean's verge, 
 Have passed. But O I thank God ; the land was there ; 
 The Earth a sphere ; the sea, no demon's lair ! 
 
 Juan. Thou dost speak truth; for it thou shalt be 
 praised. 
 Men will forgive thee much and God, for thou 
 Hast done His will and given our age its boon, 
 Altho thou art awarded chains and grief. 
 
 CoL. Speak not of chains; I had forgotten them 
 In other thoughts, but now their hammer blows 
 Begin again upon the anvil of 
 My soul. O give me peace, Dumb Rings; give peace! 
 
 {Picks them up again.) 
 Ye chains. Synod of other's sins; congealed. 
 Well forged and linked, — thus to contract the scope 
 Of limbs that hath bestridden the western sea 
 Before the van of those that vaunt their pride! 
 Let Justice thaw out your tenacity, 
 For tears, however salt, would never wear 
 Your crusted thews away! Ye manacles. 
 Parterre of iron plagues that basely bloom 
 Under the sable sun of Calumny, 
 Ye would annul mine honor and my worth. 
 Ye chains! Mute choir from some Plutonian mine! 
 Base mintage of my quest that yields me but 
 Tempestuous ire, the sepulchre of Peace ! 
 
COLUMBUS 107 
 
 Each link a cumber, riven upon my spirit 
 That erstwhile all of Europe could not hold; 
 Each link a shoal of Glory, on whose flats 
 Malevolent winds have blown me ! Ye Dumb Rings, 
 Mute moorings of my flesh ; O ye mean Manacles 
 That measure the Grand Chivalry of Spain, 
 My spirit, tho worn with yearning so, at last 
 Outreaches ye afar ! Then may your cold 
 And clutching hands confine my limbs ! My soul's 
 Unmastered yet, so may the petty world 
 Complain, for I, an Admiral of the sea 
 Am not unkinged my chains or calumny. 
 (During the latter part of this speech, Queen Isabella.. 
 ushered by the Alcalde, accompanied by Ferdinand 
 Colon, her page, Bishop Fonesca, and a small 
 retinue of court attendants, enters at the left. See- 
 ing Colon enthralled in his own emotion, she sig- 
 nals to her escorts for silence, and hears to the end, 
 from the line beginning ''Base mintage," etc. Colon 
 with his back partly turned to them, does not notice 
 their entrance,) 
 Beat. The Queen! 
 Alcal. Colon, Her Majesty Isabella. 
 (Colon turns suddenly.) 
 Col. My Queen, thou too dost see me in these chains I 
 
 {Prostrates himself before her and weeps.) 
 Isab, Colon, arise. Thou are not unkinged yet. 
 
 {To a servant.) 
 Strike off those iron links from him and from 
 
io8 COLUMBUS 
 
 His brothers too. Whilst Isabella lives, 
 Such chains shall not measure her chivalry. 
 My spirit too, outreaches them afar 
 And frowns on fetters by whoever given 
 To him who hath bestowed a world on Spaia, 
 {Servant does as bid while she speaks.) 
 
 Col. Ye fallen chains, your iron citadels 
 Are vanquished by a word of love ! O ye Dumb Rings, 
 Ye are not dumb to me! Ye speak of lies, 
 Hate, torture, trials; triumphs too, at last. 
 My limbs are now released and that is all; 
 My spirit was ever free. Beloved Queen, 
 My heart is thine ; thy word with gracious power 
 Has rived the dumb coherence of those links. 
 Your Majesty, a world of gratitude 
 I give unto thee now and may it be 
 A gift for thine own soul, wherein the wealth 
 Of India's realm can never penetrate. 
 
 Don D. Beloved Queen, I give my weak words now 
 For stronger gratitude than tongue can voice. 
 
 Bart. O Queen, I add my simple heart-felt thanks. 
 
 IsAB. I heard of these, thy chains, — Colon ; thy letters 
 And thy pleas have moved my heart ; the complaints 
 That Bobadilla makes shall not receive 
 A formal notice at our hands. 
 
 Col. Good Queen 
 
 Out of my honest heart I thank thee well, 
 For I've been loyal always unto thee 
 And to His Majesty; to Spain and have 
 Bestowed my life for her ; her pride, her wealth, 
 
COLUMBUS 109 
 
 And what is done amiss, is not amiss by will. 
 But now my chains are prostrate, I am free; 
 My limbs can tread the Main again, but first 
 Restore my office and my dignities 
 For they are justly earned and coveted. 
 As trophies of Adventure and of Faith. 
 
 IsAB. It shall be done and for all wrongs to thee 
 Just recompense be made; thy eager prows, 
 That scent the luring brine be bid unfold 
 Their sails unto the servile winds and flee. 
 
 Col. Again I give thee thanks. O triple Joy! 
 Chains loosed, titles restored and now my ships 
 Will trace once more an arc upon the sea 
 And by't complete my stormy round of life. 
 As in the morning of my quest, so now 
 At eve, it glimmers yet with an auroral light, — 
 Thy love, O Queen! These chains that symbolize 
 Man's hate, shall go with me into my grave. 
 Diego, keep them for me 'till the end. 
 
 (Passes the chains to him.) 
 (To the Queen.) 
 
 My heart shall hold the memory of thy love 
 While here on Earth and while in Heaven above. 
 
 ISAB. Thy words are full of grief. 
 
 Col. My happiness 
 
 Has been corrupted by the buzzard world. 
 And only God re-dowers a crippled heart 
 With unadulterate joy. 
 
 Juan. Then may God do't. 
 
 IsAB. Thine unhorizoned joy of former years 
 
no COLUMBUS 
 
 Now narrowed to such scope, 
 
 Hath it been shrunken by my deeds? 
 
 Col. Nay, nay, 
 
 Good Queen; it hath not, and for thee, my spirit 
 Tho it be wearied, will soon sail again. 
 
 IsAB. A little sleep will mitigate thy heart. 
 Go, take a peaceful rest, of which those chains 
 For many weeks have robbed thy soul, and when 
 Thou canst, haste to Granada's Court. The King 
 And I, will give thee welcome there. 
 
 CoL. {Takes his son, Ferdinand, by the hand; kisses 
 him on the forehead.) My son! Come, brothers. 
 Your Majesty, farewell. 
 (CoL., Don Diego, and Bart, bow themselves out at the 
 left. Diego, Isabella's other page, remains. The 
 Alcalde draws Beatrice aside; converses with her.) 
 
 IsAB. Father Juan, didst thou comfort? 
 
 Juan. I did, my Queen. 
 
 FoNESCA. Your Majesty, I'd have you think of this. 
 
 IsAB. What is it. Bishop? 
 
 FoNS. You will not allow 
 
 Colon to sail again? 
 
 IsAB. Would you have me lie? 
 
 FoNS. Will you permit that isle, Hispaniola, 
 To be twice ravaged by his hands? 
 
 Juan. O Bishop, 
 
 Thou dost spur the good man's honest heart! 
 My Queen — 
 
 IsAB. Pray cease ; my will shall not be changed. 
 
 Upon your urgence, Fonesca, we sent 
 
COLUMBUS 111 
 
 Bobadilla, but with no charge to seize 
 The Admiral's property and curse his limbs 
 With chains. Behold the wrongs upon his life! 
 
 FoNS. Thou hast redressed those slights. 
 
 Juan. Those slights? 
 
 FoNS. Mere slights. How easily he doth retrieve 
 The title Admiral, Viceroy, what not; ha! 
 His brain storm was pent up; cloud wrapt until 
 We came and then it burst. Why, his eye-fire, 
 That burned more fierce than meteors glare, would soon 
 Have fused the innocent chains themselves, had we 
 Not poised their flash in some restraint by our 
 Arrival. When his wrath had ceased, he poured 
 His specious pleas of service and good will 
 Into— 
 
 IsAB. O Bishop, hold thy peace, for thou 
 Dost speak unjustly. 
 
 Juan. May God bless thee, O Queen ! 
 
 ISAB. We will forbid that Colon touch upon 
 The isle Hispaniola, when he sails. 
 
 FoNS Why let him sail at all, for are there not 
 More useful mariners of Spain, who hope 
 To flourish their limp canvas 'fore the wind, 
 And thus outstrip the Portuguese, who are 
 Already profiting by India's wealth? 
 
 IsAB. Thou can'st not move me more. 
 
 FoNS. So then thou wilt 
 
 Add to the realm's expense and let him make 
 His fourth, — a useless voyage — ? 
 
112 COLUMBUS 
 
 IsAB. His path's 
 
 The best to India's mines, and he shall sail ; 
 It is my will. {To the Alcalde.) I thank you for your 
 
 love 
 To Colon. 
 
 Alcal. Your Majesty, you honor me. 
 
 (Juan and Fonseca how to the Queen, who, an instant 
 later, accompanied by the Alcalde and her retinue, 
 goes out at the left. Beatrice follows after.) 
 FoNS. What favors to a dog, a Genoese, 
 
 To dredge our coffers with Ambition's scoop 
 
 And lose our gold over its brim-full sides 
 
 In buying riot and misgovernment. 
 
 Why he demanded pardon of our thieves 
 
 To sail with him for other crimes ! The dog, 
 
 He kicked my servant, Breviesca, but now 
 
 n kick him to the earth as well. 
 Juan. O Bishop, 
 
 He suffered long and bore much silently. 
 
 Until his righteous temper burst; forgive him. 
 
 {Re-enter the Alcalde.) 
 
 FoNS. I hope the Ocean, when he's next upon it. 
 May swell in just contention with his pride, 
 And then, distempered by his stinging curse 
 Upon its waves, it will imprison him 
 Within its gruesome depths ! Shipwrecks and storms 
 Be his ! Then let his gallant limbs outrace 
 Wave-ridiijg Death or loose its chains with words! 
 Ah, dog, I kick you. {Kicks at the air.) 
 
COLUMBUS 113 
 
 Alcal. Bishop, — not in my presence. 
 
 That dog's my friend. No curses shall resound 
 Upon him here. 
 
 Juan. Brave man; I too, protest. 
 
 Against this insolence. 
 
 FoNS. {Moving to the right.) And if his frame, 
 Grown lean in flesh, but heavier with his pride, 
 Doth reach the shore, let it refuse his tread, 
 And ocean's end be quicksand for his own. 
 {He hurries out.) 
 
 Juan. Ah, Hate is basest in a prelate's heart, 
 And damns a soul, even before it has 
 Been worded by the tongue, but when released, 
 It ravages the fields of gentle peace. 
 
 Alcal. 'Tis true, good friar. 
 
 Juan. My God forgive him, tho. 
 
 Alcal. Come, let us go see if the Admiral 
 Is quartered well and resting. 
 
 Juan. Good man, we will. 
 
 {Both go out at the left.) 
 
 ACTV. 
 Scene i. 
 Place: Same as in last act. 
 Time: Five and one-half years later than previous 
 
 scene, or about May 1st, 1506. 
 {Enter at the right two mariners and a courtier, who 
 converse as they slowly pass by.) 
 
114 COLUMBUS 
 
 Ctr. Is it so? 
 
 1ST Mar. Quite plainly so. I have just landed from 
 Lisbon and saw there three of the prettiest caravels 
 that ever sailed, unload their pearls and amber; 
 their woods from Hindoo forests and their silver 
 from its mines. 
 
 Ctr. Ah, but Portugal is growing rich by these new 
 voyages, and Spain has nothing yet. 
 
 2ND Mar. Ever since Vasco de Gama doubled Afric's 
 southern cape and found the Indies that way, the 
 Portuguese coffers have been waxing fat. 
 
 Ctr. Where are our Spanish captains? Where's 
 Ojeda and Pedro Nina? 
 
 1ST Mar. Since last August, when they arrived here 
 with some carriage of pearl and gold, they have 
 been at sea. 
 
 Ctr. Spain must do better than that. Our power 
 depends upon our import of gold. (/) My, how 
 those Portuguese furrow the sea. 
 
 2ND Mar. Yes; there was Pedro Cabral who fol- 
 lowed Gama, and others too; selling their knick- 
 knacks to the ignorant heathen for ivory and gold. 
 
 1ST Mar. Still, Spain has some intrepid sea-dogs 
 hounding the main. Look at the Pinzons, Diego 
 Lepe, and Bastides. 'Twill not be long now before 
 the waves push many richly laden prows into our 
 ports. These are mariners for you. 
 
 Ctr. And they would not have been so dilatory about 
 that golden tide, if the late Queen had not restored 
 half the monopoly of that Genoese, Colon. 
 
COLUMBUS US 
 
 1ST Mar. Colon, Colon, ha ! I had not thought of him 
 
 for months. What's become of him now? 
 Ctr. I can't say with certainty, but I think he's at 
 
 Valladolid, still supplicating the court for lost 
 
 honors. 
 2ND Mar. Since Isabella died {h) he's lost his hold 
 
 there, no doubt. 
 Ctr. O well, it won't do him much ill. You knew he 
 
 was shipwrecked a year on the Jamaica sands 
 
 did'ent you ? 
 1ST Mar. I did not know it was for so long. A whole 
 
 year! Poor man; who rescued him? 
 Ctr. 'Twas not far from Hispanioia, and Ovando, 
 
 out of sheer pity, sent a caravel to his aid. 
 1ST Mar. He was long enough about it, to be sure. 
 
 I can't see much pity in that. 
 Ctr. But Ovando had other work. He was very 
 
 busy suppressing the warlike natives, and needed 
 
 his ships. 
 1ST Mar. Very likely ; but Colon gave us the islands, 
 
 and he needed rescue. 
 Ctr. There's not much that he gave us, and in the 
 
 glut of mariners, his singleness has slumped in 
 
 power. Our own captains have made the real gains. 
 
 sir. 
 1ST Mar. As you please, sir. I was only speaking 
 
 my mind. 
 2ND Mar. These are new times. 'Tis fourteen year 
 
 since Colon put out from Palos harbor. He belongs 
 
 to the old days. 
 
ii6 COLUMBUS 
 
 Ctr. Yes, and the old always think that the new 
 
 times chide them, as he does no doubt. 
 1ST Mar. I judge he's been chided well in his day 
 
 by salty winds and human tongues. Peace to him. 
 
 He was a brave soul. 
 Ctr. Tho very intemperate with his flinty claims and 
 
 his many promises, always more lavish than his 
 
 deeds. 
 1ST Mar. Ah, sir, that's a part of nature. How else 
 
 could he get anything done ? 
 Ctr. Stop; here come Bishop Deza and Friar Juan 
 
 Perez, and they look so sad. 
 {Enter Deza and Perez from the opposite direction.) 
 Ctr. Thy good face. Father Perez, is a pattern of 
 
 woe this morning. What weighs upon thy heart? 
 Juan. The loneliness of a great man, my son, who is 
 
 dying in poverty and distress. 
 Ctr. Ah, who is that? 
 Juan. Colon the navigator, whom our people have 
 
 forgotten. 
 1ST Mar, In poverty and distress? God help him. 
 Ctr. Why, we were just now speaking of him. 
 Deza. And we are on our way to his bedside. 
 Ctr. Where is he? 
 Deza. At Valladolid. 
 Ctr. Ah, so far away. 
 
 Juan. His soul will soon be farther, poor man. 
 Deza. We must hurry on. We have not many days 
 
 for preparation and travel; perhaps fewer than he 
 
 has on Earth. 
 
COLUMBUS 117 
 
 1ST Mar. Father, tell him two humble mariners love 
 
 his soul and have not forgotten him. 
 Deza. Yes, my son. 
 
 Juan. We must be going. May God be v^^ith you. 
 Deza. {Turning away.) Good bye. 
 
 {They pass on hurriedly and go out at the right,) 
 
 Ctr. Well Fm sorry for him. Good day. 
 
 {He moves out in the opposite direction.) 
 
 1ST Mar. So Colon's about to embark again. 
 
 {As they slowly pass on in their original direction.) 
 
 2ND Mar. And every one's forgotten him except 
 those good men. 
 
 1ST Mar. His loneliness must be very bitter. Ah, I 
 remember the day he returned and told us of his 
 discovery. Oh, what rejoicing there was, and how 
 the people clamored around him in their love. 
 
 2ND Mar. {As they pass out together.) But see him 
 now. 
 
 {Enter an instant later from the opposite direction 
 Bishop Fonseca, followed by Bishop Deza and 
 Friar Juan Perez.) 
 
 FoNS. No, I say no, urge it on me no more. 
 
 Deza. O Bishop, thou hast power with the King; 
 Go ; beseech him now ; Colon is dying. 
 Those promises long unfilled, will soothe 
 His passing soul and give him peace. 
 
 FoNS. Dying is he? Well, we'l all do that no doubt. 
 Besides he can not take his honors with him. 
 
ii8 COLUMBUS 
 
 Juan. Bishop, Bishop how can you speak so? 
 
 Deza. He craves such worldly solace 'ere he dies 
 *Tis for himself now; when he's dead, his son. 
 
 Juan. Make us no longer fellows in his woe. 
 O Bishop, beseech the King; bid him restore 
 Col'n's properties, arrears of revenues; 
 Pay of his men; his titles, dignities 
 Bestowed upon him with the royal seal. 
 And let him be as he has been, viceroy 
 Over the isles, an Admiral o'er the sea. 
 The well beloved Queen gave him her word 
 For these just dues, but she is dead and he 
 Is scorned. 
 
 FoNS. You are the index of his claims? 
 Well; show me first the chapters of his worth. 
 To rule again where he hath failed and such; 
 The index follow after. The King agreed 
 To arbitrate — 
 
 Deza. Yes, Colon named me as judge 
 ,And thus consented to the King's demand 
 In all except a judgment on his honors. 
 
 FoNS. Well ; he brought no gold on his last voyage. 
 
 Deza. But he discovered mines and then postponed 
 Their tillage 'till a settlement were made^ 
 And thus secure the gold without a war. 
 
 FoNS. Your tongues may flourish all woes, his claims 
 And boasts, thus overprove his worth, but it's 
 Contentions are contrivances of air 
 So filtered as they pass my ears, my mind 
 Can find no reasoning sounds in them. 
 
COLUMBUS 119 
 
 Deza. The doors of thy two ears are dosed, as are 
 Those of thy heart. But open its and then 
 Shalt hear, altho thy ears be ever stopped. 
 
 Juan. O Bishop, the Admiral is dying, 
 Neglected, lone, forgotten, spurned. My heart 
 Which holds two visions of his life, his triumph 
 And his oblivion's no more peace than he. 
 O intercede ! The King will smile more true 
 Upon thy words. 
 
 FoNS. I tell thee no, no, no. 
 
 Juan. O wouldst thou wanton with his bruised heart 
 When thou couldst heal his sore and give him peace, 
 Peace as he dies? 
 
 FoNS. I would. 
 
 Juan. Art thou of God? 
 
 Deza. Bishop, once more I ask thee, — plead with the 
 King 
 To solace that great heart that palpitates 
 When all its fears and angers should be spent. 
 
 FoNS. Once more I say it no. {Moving on,) I will 
 not plead 
 For Haughtiness wide as the sea he crossed. 
 So let it bruise him 'till he dies and then 
 Be recompensed hereafter with his soul. 
 
 {He goes out at the left.) 
 
 Juan. Merciful God, forgive him, forgive him. 
 Deza. We must resume our way; there's no more 
 chance 
 Of gaining anything by words. 
 
120 COLUMBUS 
 
 Juan. No more. 
 
 Since Isabella's death his bitter wounds 
 Lie unavenged. Now they grow rash and burn 
 In these cold airs of public hate and scorn, but let 
 Us haste to him to soothe his hours of death. 
 
 {They pass out at the right.) 
 
 Scene 2. 
 
 Place: Valladolid, Spain, whither Colon had gone 
 
 with the Court in his ineffectual endeavor to obtain 
 
 his demands. 
 Time: May 20th, 1506. 
 In a sparsely furnished room; Colon lies on the bed; 
 
 the chains he wore hang to the left above his head; 
 
 some documents, maps and letters are scattered 
 
 about. 
 Diego and Ferdinand^ his two sons, stand near his 
 
 right side; Beatrice Enriquez kneels at his left, 
 
 and clasps his hand. (I) 
 Col. My voyages are done ; I tramped the sea 
 And was a shadow on the Deep, but now 
 My days have slipped so fast, those passages 
 Seem as a weaver's shuttle in its flight. 
 My foot prints were in water, — they have passed — 
 As I am passing now to sail a sea 
 Whereon I have not yet embarked. 
 
 Beat. Thou goest 
 
 With furrows on thy brow; hollows in cheeks 
 
COLUMBUS 121 
 
 Which prove that thou hast ploughed Earth's cavernous 
 
 waves. 
 God sees their imprints there and cries: Well done. 
 Thou goest: I remain to prove my love 
 For thee with a vindictive grace, brave heart. 
 I weep to see thee thus deserted here; — 
 Thou, who hast once so gathered all the world 
 About the dais of thy conquering quest! 
 O soul of iron and amber, — hold thy faith. 
 As I have urged before, — press on, press on, 
 And God shall judge. 
 
 Col. I love thee; for thee my soul 
 
 Doth bear a burden as I go. Thou shalt 
 Be cared for while thou livest here. 
 
 {Enter Juan Perez and Bishop Deza. Beatrice 
 arises; draws hack from the bed.) 
 
 Col. O ye good m.en, ye come to see me die ! 
 But quick, what news ? Is ought to be restored to me ? 
 
 Deza. My son, bad news. 
 
 Juan. We could accomplish nothing. 
 
 Col. O God help me to bear these bruises yet! 
 My twenty years of toil for Spain doth end 
 With this reward, — Ingratitude! How all 
 Dishonor whom the King delights to spurn! 
 Thou pompous world, each of thy glories has 
 Its grating hinge, which lends the glis'ning page 
 The means to turn its bare ungilded leaf 
 Unto the eye that is not drossed by sin. 
 How oft doth Life, attacked by fantasy, 
 Her numbers change and tread another measure! 
 
122 COLUMBUS 
 
 Deza. Triumph man, thou art most basely thrust 
 From thy heaven high reward, and now we find 
 Thine island-grief amidst a native sea 
 Of scoffs and cares ; girt by the waves of cold 
 Ingratitude. 
 
 Col. Mine sinks within the Deep. 
 
 Juan. My son, I blessed thee as thou didst embark 
 Upon the Earthly sea, I bless thee now 
 As thou dost venture on the Heavenly one 
 With braver faith. 
 
 Col. O nevermore shall I 
 
 Cleave furrows in the ocean-meads nor mold 
 Upon the plastic Deep a glassy path 
 Behind my ships, nor from watch-towers behold 
 The morning sun pave the' orient main with fire. — 
 Thou eloquent Orb of gold, beloved Oriflamme, 
 Thou constant lightning of my quest, I see 
 Thee yet, arise with glorious pace above 
 The East, and now, sublimity indolent. 
 Descend into the West! God calls me; so 
 The sea. I falter? No; great Lord, I come. 
 Thou dear old Ocean, comrade, helper, bride 
 Of my departing soul ; longwooed and loved ; 
 Thou blessed partner in my quest; thou Heav'n 
 Crowned power of inspiration, fare thee well! 
 Thy wilderness wherein I plunged; upon 
 Whose pliant and whose changing page, I penned 
 With sturdy hulls a triple wake: of faith, 
 Of will, of enterprise, shall nevermore 
 Retrieve its pristine wild ; its virgin myster>r. 
 
COLUMBUS 123 
 
 Nor be again the prehistoric lair 
 Of boisterous ill, of demons, omens ; nor 
 Shall it dissuade Adventure's bounding heart. 
 Deny my conquest as those scoffers do ! 
 
 Juan. My son, 'twill not; have peace and hold thy 
 faith. 
 Thy soul shall voyage ever and when thou 
 Dost double this new cape — of death— thou shalt 
 Then find more capes to pass, more seas to cross 
 And suns of wond'rous light and glorious gold, 
 For thy pursuit.— O push thy soul's prow there ! 
 
 Col. Yea, Juan, I shall do so soon, but now 
 This bed, — resistless hermitage of age, — 
 Cabins my limbs, yet not in penance ; no ! 
 For they have walked the waters by command; 
 Obeyed God's own injunction, done his will. 
 Heaven's commissary gazes on my soul. 
 And it awaits the charge for other quests. 
 
 {Last Sacraments are administered.) 
 Col. I am at peace with God, but not with man. 
 
 My tillage, twenty years ; oceans well ploughed ; 
 
 Lands found. Spring crops ? O no ; I die too soon. 
 
 The harvest moon will wax when I am gone 
 
 And others carol in the sheathing hour. 
 
 My chains are there yet? Yes; links now unloosed. 
 
 My life's links too, are loosening, God does that. 
 
 But their long anchorage is dragging some. 
 Juan. Peace, peace, God waiteth nigh. 
 ^EZA. God! take his souL 
 
124 COLUMBUS 
 
 Col. O Death, Death, thou art faltering, not I! 
 Unreel thy cords ; there — my cold feet are twined. 
 
 Beat. {Leaping to his side.) Beloved soul, adieu! 
 
 Col. Farewell Beatrice. 
 
 My sons. Good bye! 
 
 (Diego and Ferd. come closer; Diego holds his hand; 
 Ferd rests his on Col.'s forehead,) 
 
 Diego. Father, I'l cherish thy cause forever. 
 
 Ferd. Good bye. Father, Fl honor thee all my days. 
 
 Deza. My son, Farewell. 
 
 Juan. Farewell and now may God pilot thee. 
 
 {Momentary silence.) 
 
 CoL. Haste, O Death ! Be not relentless in slowth ; 
 Cross out my earthly memory; let me 
 Recall no more! My services, twenty years! 
 Such zeal, such diligence as if to gain 
 Sweet Paradise thereby! — Take me, O Death. 
 Divorce me from these earthly miseries. 
 O bear me on thy tide ! Let me thus pace 
 No more the frontiers of thy mystic Deep ! 
 Unguessed leagues ; calm waves ; other lands ! 
 O welcome sea, — thy brine, — it will not smart my bruise. 
 
 Juan. Peace! Christ's peace be thine. 
 
 {Momentary silence.) 
 
 Col. O hasten, sluggish Death, be not indifferent. 
 Descend, O sun, into this untried sea; 
 n follow; God is there, I know; and Christ. 
 ri meet them soon. 
 
COLUMBUS 125 
 
 Deza. Let not your heart be troubled. 
 
 {A pause,) 
 Col. O sweet Death, thy ductile cords are creeping! 
 {Another pause.) 
 Now, — there — God, take my arm, (Raises his right arm 
 
 a little.) lead me forth; thus — (Pause.) 
 Into thy hands my spirit I commend. 
 (His arm falls; his head sinks to one side and he expires. 
 All but Juan and Deza kneel about his bed; they 
 stand near the foot; silence a moment.) 
 
 The End. 
 
SIGNATURE OF COLUMBUS 
 
 ». A. ». 
 
 X. m. f. 
 
 The upper letters represent a " pious ejaculation." 
 
 The lower ones, are a combination of the Greek 
 
 anJ Latin, meaning, literally, Christ-hearing. 
 
NOTES. 
 
 (a) I have arranged that Colon go to the Convent 
 before his reception at the Spanish Court, tho this may 
 not be correct. Writers on Columbus differ on this 
 point. The first visit, according to the theory adopted, 
 occurred about 1484. The second, in 1491, after seven 
 years of dreary and unsuccessful efforts in his ambition. 
 Justin Winsor declares that it is almost hopeless to settle 
 Columbus' movements with accuracy before he embarked 
 on his first voyage. 
 
 (b) Columbus had his interview at Court, then his 
 examination by the council in St. Stephen's Convent. 
 Salamanca. The latter had no official connection with 
 the University of Salamanca. For dramatic purposes 
 these occasions are included in one scene. 
 
 (c) These were the errors of Columbus' computa- 
 tion: he underestimated the circumference of the globe 
 by about 4,000 miles; considered that Asia extended 
 eastward much farther than it does and consequently 
 thought that his sea voyage would be only 2,571 geo- 
 graphical miles or about one-seventh of the globe He 
 sailed a total of 3,230 geographical miles before reaching 
 America. He relied upon the Apocryphal book Esdras 
 in which it is stated that the Earth is one-seventh water. 
 
 His excusable ignorance, (shared by the wise men 
 of his time,) was very providential. 
 
 (127) 
 
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