CHAP. VI.-Arrival of Ojeda with a Squadron at the Western part of the Island.-Roldan sent to meet him, CHAP. VII.-Manoeuvres of Roldan and Ojeda, 243 259 CHAP. III.-Columbus summoned to appear before Bobadilla, CHAP. IV.-Columbus and his Brothers arrested and sent to Spain in CHAP. III.-Nicholas de Ovando appointed to supersede Bobadilla, 303 CHAP. IV.-Proposition of Columbus relative to the Recovery of the CHAP. I.-Departure of Columbus on his Fourth Voyage.—Refused Admission to the Harbor of San Domingo.-Exposed to a violent CHAP. VII. Commencement of a Settlement on the river Belen.- CHAP. I.-Arrangement of Diego Mendez with the Caciques for Sup- plies of Provisions.-Sent to San Domingo by Columbus in quest CHAP. IV. Mission of Diego de Escobar to the Admiral, 435 CHAP. II.—Illness of Columbus at Seville.-Application to the Crown for a Restitution of his Honors.-Death of Isabella, CHAP. III.-Columbus arrives at Court.-Fruitless Application to the THE LIFE AND VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS. BOOK VIII. CHAPTER 1. ARRIVAL OF THE ADMIRAL AT ISABELLA.-CHARACTER OF BARTHOLOMEW COLUMBUS. [1494. Sept. 4.] HE sight of the little squadron of Columbus standing THE once more into the harbor, was hailed with joy by such of the inhabitants of Isabella as remained faithful to him. The long time that had elapsed since his departure on this adventurous voyage, without any tidings arriving from him, had given rise to the most serious apprehensions for his safety; and it began to be feared that he had fallen a victim to his enterprising spirit in some remote part of these unknown seas. A joyful and heartfelt surprise awaited the admiral on his arrival, in finding at his bedside his brother Bartholomew, VOL. II.-1* the companion of his youth, his confidential coadjutor, and in a manner his second self, from whom he had been separated for several years. It will be recollected, that about the time of the admiral's departure from Portugal, he had commissioned Bartholomew to repair to England, and propose his project of discovery to King Henry VII. Of this application to the English court no precise particulars are known. Fernando Columbus states that his uncle, in the course of his voyage, was captured and plundered by a corsair, and reduced to such poverty, that he had for a long time to struggle for a mere subsistence by making sea-charts; so that some years elapsed before he made his application to the English monarch. Las Casas thinks that he did not immediately proceed to England, having found a memorandum in his handwriting, by which it would appear that he accompanied Bartholomew Diaz in 1486, in his voyage along the coast of Africa, in the service of the king of Portugal, in the course of which voyage was discovered the Cape of Good Hope.* * The memorandum cited by Las Casas (Hist. Ind. lib. i. cap. 7) is curious, though not conclusive. He says that he found it in an old book belonging to Christopher Columbus, containing the works of Pedro de Aliaco. It was written in the margin of a treatise on the form of the globe, in the handwriting of Bartholomew Columbus, which was well known to Las Casas, as he had many of his letters in his possession. The memorandum was in a barbarous mixture of Latin and Spanish, and to the following effect. In the year 1488, in December, arrived at Lisbon Bartholomew Diaz, captain of three caravels, which the king of Portugal sent to discover Guinea, and brought accounts that he had discovered six hundred leagues of territory, four hundred and fifty to the south and one hundred and fifty north, to a cape, named by him the Cape of Good Hope; and that by the astrolabe he found the cape 45 degrees beyond the equinoctial line. This cape was 3100 leagues distant from Lisbon; It is but justice to the memory of Henry VII. to say, that when the proposition was eventually made to him, it met with a more ready attention than from any other sovereign. An agreement was actually made with Bartholomew for the the which the said captain says he set down, league by league, in a chart of navigation presented by him to the king of Portugal; in all which, adds the writer, I was present (in quibus omnibus interfui). Las Casas expresses a doubt whether Bartholomew wrote this note for himself, or on the part of his brother, but infers that one, or both, were in this expedition. The inference may be correct with respect to Bartholomew, but Christopher, at the time specified, was at the Spanish court. Las Casas accounts for a difference in date between the foregoing memorandum and the chronicles of the voyage; the former making the return of Diaz in the year '88, the latter '87. This he observes might be because some begin to count the year after Christmas, others at the first of January: and the expedition sailed about the end of August '86, and returned in December '87, after an absence of seventeen months. NOTE. Since publishing the first edition of this work, the author being in Seville, and making researches in the Bibliotheca Columbina, the library given by Fernando Columbus to the cathedral of that city, he came accidentally upon the above-mentioned copy of the work of Pedro Aliaco. He ascertained it to be the same by finding the above-cited memorandum written on the margin, at the eighth chapter of the tract called "Imago Mundi." It is an old volume in folio, bound in parchment, published soon after the invention of printing, containing a collection in Latin of astronomical and cosmographical tracts of Pedro (or Peter) de Aliaco, archbishop of Cambray and cardinal, and of his disciple, John Gerson. Pedro de Aliaco was born in 1840, and died, according to some in 1416, according to others in 1425. He was the author of many works, and one of the most learned and scientific men of his day. Las Casas is of opinion that his writings had more effect in stimulating Columbus to his enterprise than those of any other author. "His work was so familiar to Columbus, that he had filled its whole margin with Latin notes in his handwriting; citing many things which he had read and gathered elsewhere. This book, which was very old," continues Las Casas, “I had many times in my hands; and I drew some |