University of Virginia Library

NOTE A.

On a bust in the Capitol at Rome is this inscription:

Christopher Columbus was the eldest son of Domenico Colombo, a
wool comber, and Susanna Fontanarossa Colombo, and was born in
Genoa, Italy, 1442. He early evinced an inclination for the sea, and his
education was mainly directed to fit him for maritime pursuits. Besides
ordinary branches, he studied Latin and Drawing, and for a time devoted
himself to Geometry, Geography, Astronomy and Navigation, at the University
of Pavia. When about fourteen years old he began his nautical
career, and spent many years at sea, but of his experiences at this period
history is silent. About 1470 he went to Lisbon, and supported himself
by making maps and charts. Here he married Doña Felipa, daughter of
Bartolommeo Moñis de Perestrello, an Italian Cavalier and distinguished
Navigator, who had colonized and governed the Island of Porto Santo.
On this island Columbus now resided, where his wife had inherited some
property, and here his son Diego was born. At this time Columbus
devoted his life to study, and the papers, charts and journals which had
been left by his father-in-law, were his daily companions. He also was
brought into constant contact with persons interested in maritime discovery,
and upon the Island of Porto Santo, he determined upon sailing
West, hoping to reach India by a new passage. We will pass over his
long period of discipline in waiting, until we see him under the auspices
of Spain setting sail from the roads of Saltez, near Palos, on Friday
morning, August 3, 1492, in the Santa Maria, carrying with him also the
Pinta and the Nina. On Friday, October 12, 1492, the New World was
discovered.

Columbus made three voyages to the New World, and on the last
went to Hispaniola to recruit his enfeebled health. His great distinction
had excited the jealousy of many enemies, and his pathway ever since
"The Discovery" had been strewn with thorns. Now, at Hispaniola, in his
efforts to re-organize the unsettled Colony which he had previously planted,
he was actively misrepresented by envy and malice.

A commissioner sent by Spain to inquire into the difficulties, put

Columbus in chains and sent him to his sovereign a manacled, insulted
invalid. "Are you taking me to death?" inquired Columbus, when they
led him from his cell to put him on the ship which was to carry him to
Spain; saying further:

"If twelve years' hardship and fatigue; if continued dangers and
frequent famine; if the ocean first opened, and five times passed and
repassed to add a New World abounding: with wealth to the Spanish
monarchy; and if an infirm and premature old age brought on by those
services, deserve these chains as a reward, it is very fit I should wear them
to Spain and keep them by me as memorials to the end of my life."

"I always saw those irons in his room," says his son Ferdinand,
"which he ordered to be buried with his body."

Columbus is described as of good figure, of tall, commanding stature;
of a long visage and majestic aspect. He was greatly skilled in Navigation,
was a man of undaunted courage and fond of hazardous undertakings. A
distinguished Spanish historian says that "if in ancient times he had performed
such an enterprise as the discovery of a New World, not only
would temples and statues have been erected in his honor, but some star
would have been dedicated to him as there was to Hercules."

Exhausted by age, fatigues and disappointments, Columbus died at
Valladolid in the sixty-fifth year of his age, on Ascension Day, May 20th,
1506, saying with his last breath, "Lord, into Thy hands I commend my
spirit." His corpse was removed to Seville and buried in the Cathedral of
that city with great funeral pomp, and by order of King Ferdinand,
"whose jealousy his death had extinguished," he was honored with a marble
monument upon which was engraven the following:

"To Castille and to Leon Columbus gave a New World."

But, death did not end the voyages of the great Navigator. It is said
that he had requested to have his remains taken to Santo Domingo, and
accordingly in 1536, they were deposited in the Cathedral of that island;
thence they were conveyed with great ceremony in 1796 to the Cathedral
of Havana, where they now repose.