haughtily, come in all humility with fifes and drums to receive him. The people of Portugal rejoice with exceeding great joy that their rival Spain has acquired new territory, and, according to this admiral, endless riches. They might indeed have envied, but it was not in human nature to rejoice. The whole of this enthusiasm was evidently invented by Columbus and his son, and but too greedily caught up and exaggerated by subsequent writers.

Irving, after the brilliant account he gives of the reception of Columbus in Portugal, and of the honors paid him there, somewhat inconsistently adds:

"His rational exultation was construed into an insulting. triumph, and they accused him of assuming a boastful tone when talking with the king of his discoveries, as if he would revenge himself upon the monarch for having rejected his proposition...

"The Portuguese historians, in general, charge Columbus with having conducted himself loftily with the king.... Faria y Souza, in Europa Portuguesa,' goes so far as to say that Columbus entered into the port of Rastello merely to make Portugal sensible, by the sight of the trophies of his discovery, how much she had lost by not accepting his propositions.'

Knowing what we do of the character of Columbus, far from considering this view of the case exaggerated, we should have been surprised had he not so conducted himself. What surprises us is, that historians should represent the King of Portugal as humbling himself to the utmost, notwithstanding all this flaunting arrogance. He invited (we read) Columbus to see him; the latter (always magnifying his own importance, and always a coward) feared that his assassination was intended, but finally condescended so far as to visit the monarch. The latter (according to the universally-repeated story) bade him sit in his presence, don his cap, and, of course, that the importance of the affair may be complete, insinuated that this great conquest belonged by right to Portugal, etc., etc. The most prominent man of the kingdom was assigned as the host of Columbus; the queen earnestly entreats him not to pass her by without visiting her; in short, this ci-devant pirate. (should we believe his son. and other biographers) is, at the court of the monarch who had refused his services on account of his exorbitant claims, and

HIS CONDUCT CENSURABLE.

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from whose dominions he had ignominiously fled, a second Mordecai, the man "whom the king delighteth to honor!"

Allowing this extremely improbable relation to be true, and Columbus to have received these honors, it was wanting in good taste and delicacy for him to accept them; his reporting his discoveries to another and rival monarch, before doing so to the sovereigns who had employed him, was itself an act deserving the severest censure, and which no desire to excite the envy and regret of Portugal can justify or palliate.

CHAPTER XIV.

ARRIVAL IN SPAIN, AND RECEPTION AT BARCELONA.

COLUMBUS remained in Lisbon ten days; and finally, on Friday, the 15th of March, 1493, arrived at the port of Palos, seven months and eleven days having elapsed since his departure therefrom, August 3, 1492.

Here, on the same day, Martin Alonzo Pinzon anchored before his native town. He had sent the sovereigns word of his return, but they had already received a dispatch from Columbus, at Lisbon, in which he had basely enlarged upon what he termed the "insubordination of Pinzon." The latter, therefore, received a prohibition to appear at court, which so deeply wounded his pride, and so bitterly reminded him of the ingratitude of men, that he returned to his home, sick at heart and in body. He shortly after died, it is said, of a broken heart, caused by the manner in which the sovereigns rewarded him for having bravely embarked in the enterprise at its unpromising outset, and at the return Columbus gave him for having protected him in adversity, supplied him with the funds without which he was powerless to carry out his scheme, and finally accompanied him to encourage an unwilling crew. Thus died a man both good and brave, a victim to the ingratitude of one who possessed neither of these qualities.

Time and history will each year show the name of Pinzon in a fairer light, while, should justice and truth obtain, that of Columbus will each year lose more and more of its borrowed lustre.

Leaving his broken-hearted benefactor to die, "the admiral" started from Palos to present himself to the sovereigns at Barcelona. He was a month in reaching his destination; "being

JOURNEY TO BARCELONA.

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obliged," says his son, "to stay some little, by the way, though but never so little," to gratify the curiosity of the people in the cities through which he passed. We presume it required little persuasion to induce the admiral to make all the parade in his power.

1

Fernando, in his life of his father," would have his readers believe that there was much joy in Barcelona upon the arrival of the latter. His statement is indorsed by Herrera, but Mr. Irving gives a still more glowing account of the transaction.

For various reasons we believe, however, that no such demonstration took place as that described by Fernando. These reasons are obvious.

We will follow the gradual growth in the description of this pageant, as it passes from pen to pen, of the authors who vie with each other in covering Columbus with glory.

99"Historia del Amirante," chapter xlii.

The first account seems to have been written by Peter Martyr, a contemporary, who, in his correspondence with many distinguished persons of the day, noted most of the passing incidents and events of the Spanish court.

He thus relates the affair to Fernando de Talavera, Archbishop of Granada, under date of February 1, 1494:

"The king and queen, on the return of Columbus to Barcelona, from his honorable enterprise, appointed him admiral of the ocean sea, and caused him, on account of his illustrious deeds, to be seated in their presence; an honor and a favor, as you know, the highest with our sovereigns. They have dispatched him again to those regions, furnished with a fleet of eighteen ships. There is a prospect of great discoveries in the antarctic antipodes."

This is all that Peter Martyr, the distinguished letter-writer, says of a reception which Irving leads us to believe was the talk of every tongue, the admiration of a world.

The next writer in chronological order, who speaks of the arrival of Columbus in Barcelona, is his son Fernando. With him the account given by Peter Martyr grows somewhat; he says: "Thus holding on his way, he got to Barcelona about the middle of April, having before sent their Highnesses an account of the happy success of his voyage, which was extraordinary pleasing to them, and they ordered him a most solemn reception, as to a man who had done them such singular service. All the court and city went out to meet him; and their Catholic Majesties sat in public with great state, on rich chairs, under a canopy of cloth-of-gold, and, when he went to kiss their hands, they stood up to him as to a great lord, made a difficulty to give him. their hands, and caused him to sit down.".

Herrera copies substantially from the above, but enlarges in his turn; and, passing over numerous other authors, we come to Mr. Irving's admirably-written but delusive history of Columbus, and find the following:

"The fame of his discovery had resounded throughout the nation, and, as his route lay through several of the finest and most populous provinces of Spain, his journey appeared like the progress of a sovereign. Wherever he passed, the surrounding country poured forth its inhabitants, who lined the road and villages. In the large towns, the streets, windows, and balco