The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus (Vol. II)

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Having landed at Taco for a short time, Columbus arrived in the evening of
the 27th at Baracoa, to which he gave the name of Puerto Santo. From Cabo
del Pico to Puerto Santo, a distance of sixty leagues, he had passed no
fewer than nine good ports and five rivers to Cape Campana, and thence to
Puerto Santo eight more rivers, each with a good port; all of which may be
found on the chart between Alto de Juan Daune and Baracoa. By keeping near
the coast he had been assisted to the S.E. by the eddy current of the
Bahama channel. Sailing from Puerto Santo or Baracoa on the 4th of
December, he reached the extremity of Cuba the following day, and striking
off upon a wind to the S.E. in search of Babeque, which lay to the N.E.,
he came in sight of Bohio, to which he gave the name of Hispaniola.

On taking leave of Cuba, Columbus tells us that he had coasted it a
distance of 120 leagues. Allowing twenty leagues of this distance for his
having followed the undulations of the coast, the remaining 100 measured
from Point Maysi fall exactly upon Cabrion Key, which we have supposed the
western boundary of his discoveries.

The astronomical observations of Columbus form no objection to what has
been here advanced; for he tells us that the instrument which he made use
of to measure the meridian altitudes of the heavenly bodies was out of
order and not to be depended upon. He places his first discovery,
Guanahani, in the latitude of Ferro, which is about 27 deg. 30' north. San
Salvador we find in 24 deg. 30', and Turk's Island in 21 deg. 30': both are very
wide of the truth, but it is certainly easier to conceive an error of
three than one of six degrees.

Laying aside geographical demonstration, let us now examine how historical
records agree with the opinion here supported, that the island of San
Salvador was the first point where Columbus came in contact with the New
World. Herrera, who is considered the most faithful and authentic of
Spanish historians, wrote his History of the Indies towards the year 1600.
In describing the voyage of Juan Ponce de Leon, made to Florida in 1512,
he makes the following remarks: [333] "Leaving Agnada in Porto Rico, they
steered to the N. W. by N., and in five days arrived at an island called
El Viejo, in latitude 22 deg. 30' north. The next day they arrived at a small
island of the Lucayos, called Caycos. On the eighth day they anchored at
another island called Yaguna in 24 deg., on the eighth day out from Porto
Kico. Thence they passed to the island of Mannega, in 24 deg. 30', and on the
eleventh day they reached Guanahani, which is in 25 deg. 40' north. This
island of Guanahani was the first discovered by Columbus on his first
voyage, and which he called San Salvador." This is the substance of the
remarks of Herrera, and is entirely conclusive as to the location of San
Salvador. The latitudes, it is true, are all placed higher than we now
know them to be; that of San Salvador being such as to correspond with
no other land than that now known as the Berry Islands, which are seventy
leagues distant from the nearest coast of Cuba: whereas Columbus tells us
that San Salvador was only forty-five leagues from Port Principe. But in
those infant days of navigation, the instruments for measuring the
altitudes of the heavenly bodies, and the tables of declinations for
deducing the latitude, must have been so imperfect as to place the most
scientific navigator of the time below the most mechanical one of the
present.

The second island arrived at by Ponce de Leon, in his northwestern course,
was one of the Caycos; the first one, then, called El Viejo, must have
been Turk's Island, which lies S.E. of the Caycos. The third island they
came to was probably Mariguana; the fourth, Crooked Island; and the fifth,
Isla Larga. Lastly they came to Guanahani, the San Salvador of Columbus.
If this be supposed identical with Turk's Island, where do we find the
succession of islands touched at by Ponce de Leon on his way from Porto
Rico to San Salvador? [334] No stress has been laid, in these
remarks, on the identity of name which has been preserved to San Salvador,
Concepcion, and Port Principe, with those given by Columbus, though
traditional usage is of vast weight in such matters. Geographical proof,
of a conclusive kind it is thought, has been advanced, to enable the world
to remain in its old hereditary belief that the present island of San
Salvador is the spot where Columbus first set foot upon the New World.
Established opinions of the kind should not be lightly molested. It is a
good old rule, that ought to be kept in mind in curious research as well
as territorial dealings, "Do not disturb the ancient landmarks."

_Note to the Revised Edition of 1848_.--The Paron de Humboldt, in his
"Examen critique de l'histoire de la geographie du nouveau continent,"
published in 1837, speaks repeatedly in high terms of the ability
displayed in the above examination of the route of Columbus, and argues at
great length and quite conclusively in support of the opinion contained in
it. Above all, he produces a document hitherto unknown, and the great
importance of which had been discovered by M. Valeknaer and himself in
1832. This is a map made in 1500 by that able mariner Juan de la Cosa, who
accompanied Columbus in his second voyage and sailed with other of the
discoverers. In this map, of which the Baron de Humboldt gives an
engraving, the islands as laid down agree completely with the bearings and
distances given in the journal of Columbus, and establishes the identity
of San Salvador, or Cat Island, and Guanahani.

"I feel happy," says M. de Humboldt, "to be enabled to destroy the
incertitudes (which rested on this subject) by a document as ancient as it
is unknown; a document which confirms irrevocably the arguments which Mr.
Washington Irving has given in his work against the hypotheses of the
Turk's Island." In the present revised edition the author feels at liberty
to give the merit of the very masterly paper on the route of Columbus,
where it is justly due. It was furnished him at Madrid by the late
commander Alexander Slidell Mackenzie, of the United States navy, whose
modesty shrunk from affixing his name to an article so calculated to do
him credit, and which has since challenged the high eulogiums of men of
nautical science.

No. XVIII.

Principles upon which the Sums Mentioned in This Work Have Been Reduced
into Modern Currency.

In the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the mark of silver, which was
equal to 8 ounces or to 50 castellanos, was divided into 65 reals, and
each real into 34 maravedis; so that there were 2210 maravedis in the mark
of silver. Among other silver coins there was the real of 8, which
consisting of 8 reals, was, within a small fraction, the eighth part of a
mark of silver, or one ounce. Of the gold coins then in circulation the
castellano or _dobla de la vanda_ was worth 490 maravedis, and the
ducado 383 maravedis.

If the value of the maravedi had remained unchanged in Spain down to the
present day, it would be easy to reduce a sum of the time of Ferdinand and
Isabella into a correspondent sum of current money; but by the successive
depreciations of the coin of Vellon, or mixed metals, issued since that
period, the _real_ and maravedi of Vellon, which had replaced the
ancient currency, were reduced, towards the year 1700, to about a third of
the old _real_ and maravedi, now known as the _real_ and maravedi
of silver. As, however, the ancient piece of 8 reals was equal
approximately to the ounce of silver, and the duro, or dollar of the
present day, is likewise equal to an ounce, they may be considered
identical. Indeed, in Spanish America, the dollar, instead of being
divided into 20 reals, as in Spain, is divided into only 8 parts called
reals, which evidently represent the real of the time of Ferdinand and
Isabella, as the dollar does the real of 8. But the ounce of silver was
anciently worth 276-1/4 maravedis; the dollar, therefore, is likewise
equal to 276 1/4 maravedis. By converting then the sums mentioned in this
work into maravedis, they have been afterwards reduced into dollars by
dividing by 276 1/4.

There is still, however, another calculation to be made, before we can
arrive at the actual value of any sum of gold and silver mentioned in
former times. It is necessary to notice the variation which has taken
place in the value of the metals themselves. In Europe, previous to the
discovery of the New World, an ounce of gold commanded an amount of food
or labor which would cost three ounces at the present day; hence an ounce
of gold was then estimated at three times its present value. At the same
time an ounce of silver commanded an amount which at present costs 4
ounces of silver. It appears from this, that the value of gold and silver
varied with respect to each other, as well as with respect to all other
commodities. This is owing to there having been much more silver brought
from the New World, with respect to the quantity previously in
circulation, than there has been of gold. In the 15th century one ounce of
gold was equal to about 12 of silver; and now, in the year 1827, it is
exchanged against 16.

Hence giving an idea of the relative value of the sums mentioned in this
work, it has been found necessary to multiply them by three when in gold,
and by four when expressed in silver. [335]

It is expedient to add that the dollar is reckoned in this work at 100
cents of the United States of North America, and four shillings and
sixpence of England.

No. XIX.

Prester John:

Said to be derived from the Persian _Prestegani_ or
_Perestigani_, which signifies apostolique; or _Preschtak-Geham_,
angel of the world. It is the name of a potent Christian monarch of
shadowy renown, whose dominions were placed by writers of the middle ages
sometimes in the remote parts of Asia and sometimes in Africa, and of
whom such contradictory accounts were given by the travelers of those days
that the very existence either of him or his kingdom carne to he
considered doubtful. It now appears to be admitted, that there really
was such a potentate in a remote part of Asia. He was of the Nestorian
Christians, a sect spread throughout Asia, and taking its name and origin
from Nestorius, a Christian patriarch of Constantinople.

The first vague reports of a Christian potentate in the interior of Asia,
or, as it was then called, India, were brought to Europe by the Crusaders,
who it is supposed gathered them from the Syrian merchants who traded to
the very confines of China.

In subsequent ages, when the Portuguese in their travels and voyages
discovered a Christian king among the Abyssinians, called Baleel-Gian,
they confounded him with the potentate already spoken of. Nor was the
blunder extraordinary, since the original Prester John was said to reign
over a remote part of India; and the ancients included in that name
Ethiopia and all the regions of Africa and Asia bordering on the Red Sea
and on the commercial route from Egypt to India.

Of the Prester John of India we have reports furnished by William
Ruysbrook, commonly called Rubruquis, a Franciscan friar sent by Louis IX,
about the middle of the thirteenth century, to convert the Grand Khan.
According to him, Prester John was originally a Nestorian priest, who on
the death of the sovereign made himself king of the Naymans, all Nestorian
Christians. Carpini, a Franciscan friar, sent by pope Innocent in 1245 to
convert the Mongols of Persia, says, that Ocoday, one of the sons of
Ghengis Khan of Tartary, marched with an army against the Christians of
Grand India. The king of that country, who was called Prester John, came
to their succor. Having had figures of men made of bronze, he had them
fastened on the saddles of horses, and put fire within, with a man behind
with a bellows. When they came to battle these horses were put in the
advance, and the men who were seated behind the figures threw something
into the fire, and blowing with their bellows, made such a smoke that the
Tartars were quite covered with it. They then fell on them, dispatched
many with their arrows, and put the rest to flight.

Marco Polo (1271) places Prester John near the great wall of China, to the
north of Chan-si, in Teudich, a populous region full of cities and
castles.

Mandeville (1332) makes Prester sovereign of upper India (Asia), with four
thousand islands tributary to him.

When John II, of Portugal, was pushing his discoveries along the African
coast, he was informed that 350 leagues to the east of the kingdom of
Benin, in the profound depths of Africa, there was a puissant monarch,
called Ogave, who had spiritual and temporal jurisdiction over all the
surrounding kings.

An African prince assured him, also, that to the east of Timbuctoo there
was a sovereign who professed a religion similar to that of the
Christians, and was king of a Mosaic people.

King John now supposed he had found traces of the real Prester John, with
whom he was eager to form an alliance religious as well as commercial. In
1487 he sent envoys by land in quest of him. One was a gentleman of his
household, Pedro de Covilham; the other, Alphonso de Paiva. They went by
Naples to Rhodes, thence to Cairo, thence to Aden on the Arabian Gulf
above the mouth of the Red Sea.

Here they separated with an agreement to rendezvous at Cairo. Alphonso de
Paiva sailed direct for Ethiopia; Pedro de Covilham for the Indies. The
latter passed to Calicut and Goa, where he embarked for Sofala on the
eastern coast of Africa, thence returned to Aden, and made his way back to
Cairo. Here he learned that his coadjutor, Alphonso de Paiva, had died in
that city. He found two Portuguese Jews waiting for him with fresh orders
from king John not to give up his researches after Prester John until he
found him. One of the Jews he sent back with a journal and verbal accounts
of his travels. With the other he set off again for Aden; thence to Ormuz,
at the entrance of the Gulf of Persia, where all the rich merchandise of
the East was brought to be transported thence by Syria and Egypt into
Europe.

Having taken note of every thing here, he embarked on the Red Sea, and
arrived at the court of an Abyssinian prince named Escander, (the Arabic
version of Alexander,) whom he considered the real Prester John. The
prince received him graciously, and manifested a disposition to favor the
object of his embassy, but died suddenly, and his successor Naut refused
to let Covilham depart, but kept him for many years about his person, as
his prime councilor, lavishing on him wealth and honors. After all, this
was not the real Prester John; who, as has been observed, was an Asiatic
potentate.

No. XX.

Marco Polo.

[336]

The travels of Marco Polo, or Paolo, furnish a key to many parts of the
voyages and speculations of Columbus, which without it would hardly be
comprehensible.

Marco Polo was a native of Venice, who, in the thirteenth century, made a
journey into the remote, and, at that time, unknown regions of the East,
and filled all Christendom with curiosity by his account of the countries
he had visited. He was preceded in his travels by his father Nicholas and
his uncle Maffeo Polo. These two brothers were of an illustrious family in
Venice, and embarked, about the year 1255, on a commercial voyage to the
East. Having traversed the Mediterranean and through the Bosphorus, they
stopped for a short time at Constantinople, which city had recently been
wrested from the Greeks by the joint arms of France and Venice. Here they
disposed of their Italian merchandise, and, having purchased a stock of
jewelry, departed on an adventurous expedition to trade with the western
Tartars, who, having overrun many parts of Asia and Europe, were settling
and forming cities in the vicinity of the Wolga. After traversing the
Euxine to Soldaia, (at present Sudak,) a port in the Crimea, they
continued on, by land and water, until they reached the military court, or
rather camp, of a Tartar prince, named Barkah, a descendant of Ghengis
Khan, into whose hands they confided all their merchandise. The barbaric
chieftain, while he was dazzled by their precious commodities, was
flattered by the entire confidence in his justice manifested by these
strangers. He repaid them with princely munificence, and loaded them with
favors during a year that they remained at his court. A war breaking out
between their patron and his cousin Hulagu, chief of the eastern Tartars,
and Barkah being defeated, the Polos were embarrassed how to extricate
themselves from the country and return home in safety. The road to
Constantinople being cut off by the enemy, they took a circuitous route,
round the head of the Caspian Sea, and through the deserts of Transoxiana,
until they arrived in the city of Bokhara, where they resided for three
years.

While here there arrived a Tartar nobleman who was on an embassy from the
victorious Hulagu to his brother the Grand Khan. The ambassador became
aquainted with the Venetians, and finding them to be versed in the Tartar
tongue and possessed of curious and valuable knowledge, he prevailed upon
them to accompany him to the court of the emperor, situated, as they
supposed, at the very extremity of the East.

After a march of several months, being delayed by snow-storms and
inundations, they arrived at the court of Cublai, otherwise called the
Great Khan, which signifies King of Kings, being the sovereign potentate
of the Tartars. This magnificent prince received them with great
distinction; he made inquiries about the countries and princes of the
West, their civil and military government, and the manners and customs of
the Latin nation. Above all, he was curious on the subject of the
Christian religion. He was so much struck by their replies, that after
holding a council with the chief persons of his kingdom, he entreated the
two brothers to go on his part as ambassadors to the pope, to entreat him
to send a hundred learned men well instructed in the Christian faith, to
impart a knowledge of it to the sages of his empire. He also entreated
them to bring him a little oil from the lamp of our Saviour, in Jerusalem,
which he concluded must have marvelous virtues. It has been supposed, and
with great reason, that under this covert of religion, the shrewd Tartar
sovereign veiled motives of a political nature. The influence of the pope
in promoting the crusades had caused his power to be known and respected
throughout the East; it was of some moment, therefore, to conciliate his
good-will. Cublai Khan had no bigotry nor devotion to any particular
faith, and probably hoped, by adopting Christianity, to make it a common
cause between himself and the warlike princes of Christendom, against his
and their inveterate enemies, the soldan of Egypt and the Saracens.

Having written letters to the pope in the Tartar language, he delivered
them to the Polos, and appointed one of the principal noblemen of his
court to accompany them in their mission. On their taking leave he
furnished them with a tablet of gold on which was engraved the royal arms;
this was to serve as a passport, at sight of which the governors of the
various provinces were to entertain them, to furnish them with escorts
through dangerous places, and render them all other necessary services at
the expense of the Great Khan.

They had scarce proceeded twenty miles, when the nobleman who accompanied
them fell ill, and they were obliged to leave him, and continue on their
route. Their golden passport procured them every attention and facility
throughout the dominions of the Great Khan. They arrived safely at Acre,
in April, 1269. Here they received news of the recent death of Pope
Clement IV, at which they were, much grieved, fearing it would cause delay
in their mission. There was at that time in Acre a legate of the holy
chair, Tebaldo di Vesconti, of Placentia, to whom they gave an account of
their embassy. He heard them with great attention and interest, and
advised them to await the election of a new pope, which must soon take
place, before they proceeded to Rome on their mission. They determined in
the interim to make a visit to their families, and accordingly departed
for Negropont, and thence to Venice, where great changes had taken place
in their domestic concerns, during their long absence. The wife of
Nicholas, whom he had left pregnant, had died, in giving birth to a son,
who had been named Marco.

As the contested election for the new pontiff remained pending for two
years, they were uneasy, lest the emperor of Tartary should grow impatient
at so long a postponement of the conversion of himself and his people;
they determined, therefore, not to wait the election of a pope, but to
proceed to Acre, and get such dispatches and such ghostly ministry for the
Grand Khan, as the legate could furnish. On the second journey, Nicholas
Polo took with him his son Marco, who afterwards wrote an account of these
travels.

They were again received with great favor by the legate Tebaldo, who,
anxious for the success of their mission, furnished them with letters to
the Grand Khan, in which the doctrines of the Christian faith were fully
expounded. With these, and with a supply of the holy oil from the
sepulchre, they once more set out in September, 1271, for the remote parts
of Tartary. They had not long departed, when missives arrived from Rome,
informing the legate of his own election to the holy chair. He took the
name of Gregory X, and decreed that in future, on the death of a pope, the
cardinals should be shut up in conclave until they elected a successor; a
wise regulation, which has since continued, enforcing a prompt decision,
and preventing intrigue.

Immediately on receiving intelligence of his election, he dispatched a
courier to the king of Armenia, requesting that the two Venetians might be
sent back to him, if they had not departed. They joyfully returned, and
were furnished with new letters to the Khan. Two eloquent friars, also,
Nicholas Vincenti and Gilbert de Tripoli, were sent with them, with powers
to ordain priests and bishops and to grant absolution. They had presents
of crystal vases, and other costly articles, to deliver to the Grand Khan;
and thus well provided, they once more set forth on their journey.
[337]

Arriving in Armenia, they ran great risk of their lives from the war which
was raging, the soldan of Babylon having invaded the country. They took
refuge for some time with the superior of a monastery. Here the two
reverend fathers, losing all courage to prosecute so perilous an
enterprise, determined to remain, and the Venetians continued their
journey. They were a long time on the way, and exposed to great hardships
and sufferings from floods and snow-storms, it being the winter season. At
length they reached a town in the dominions of the Khan. That potentate
sent officers to meet them at forty days' distance from the court, and to
provide quarters for them during their journey. [338] He received them
with great kindness, was highly gratified with the result of their
mission and with the letters of the pope, and having received from them
some oil from the lamp of the holy sepulchre, he had it locked up, and
guarded it as a precious treasure.

The three Venetians, father, brother and son, were treated with such
distinction by the Khan, that the courtiers were filled with jealousy.
Marco soon, however, made himself popular, and was particularly esteemed
by the emperor. He acquired the four principal languages of the country,
and was of such remarkable capacity, that, notwithstanding his youth, the
Khan employed him in missions and services of importance, in various parts
of his dominions, some to the distance of even six months' journey. On
these expeditions he was industrious in gathering all kinds of information
respecting that vast empire; and from notes and minutes made for the
satisfaction of the Grand Khan, he afterwards composed the history of his
travels.

After about seventeen years' residence in the Tartar court the Venetians
felt a longing to return to their native country. Their patron was
advanced in age and could not survive much longer, and after his death,
their return might be difficult, if not impossible. They applied to the
Grand Khan for permission to depart, but for a time met with a refusal,
accompanied by friendly upbraidings. At length a singular train of events
operated in their favor; an embassy arrived from a Mogul Tartar prince,
who ruled in Persia, and who was grand-nephew to the emperor. The object
was to entreat, as a spouse, a princess of the imperial lineage. A
granddaughter of Cublai Klian, seventeen years of age, and of great beauty
and accomplishments, was granted to the prayer of the prince, and departed
for Persia with the ambassadors, and with a splendid retinue, but after
traveling for some months, was obliged to return on account of the
distracted state of the country.