Gallipolis journal. [volume] (Gallipolis, Ohio) 1837-1919, 1853-06-23


heart of noble Princess, worthy the
throne which she adorned. The New
World, which was Just escaping the
subtle king-craft of Ferdinand, wai
saved to Spain by the womanly compass
sion of Isabella. CONTINUED applause.
1t is truly melancholy, however, tC
contemplate the wretched equipment fol
which the most powerful Princess ii
Christendom was ready to pledge hel
Jewels. Floating castles will soon be fit
ted out to convey the miserable natives
of Africa to the golden shores of Amer
lea; towering galleons will be dispatched
to bring home the guilty treasures tc
Spain; but three small vessels, one o.
which was without deck, and neither
of them probably exceeding the capacity
of pilot boat, and even those impressed
into the public service, composed the
expedition fitted out under royal patron
age, to realize that magnificent concep-
ton in which the creative mind of Co
lumbus had planted the germs of new
world.
Nechapter of romance equals the in
terest of this expedition. The most fas-
|cinating of the works of fiction which
have issued from the modern press have,
to my taste, no attraction compared
With the pages in which the first voyage
Of Columbus is described by Robertson,
and still more by our own Irving and
Prescott, the last two enjoying the ad-
vantage over the great Scottish historian
of possessing the lately discovered jour
mails and letters of Columbus himself
The departure from Palos, where few
years before he had begged a morsel Of
bread and cup of water for his way
worn child; his final farewell to the Old
World at the Canaries; his Htrance up
on the trade winds, which then, for the
first time, filed European sail; the por-
tentous variation of the needle, never be-
fore observed; the fearful course west
ward and westward, day after day and
night after night, over the unknown
ocean; the mutinous and ill-appeased
crew; at length, when hope had turned
to despair in every heart but one, the to-
kens of land; the cloud-banks on the
western horizon; the logs of drift-wood;
the fresh shrub floating with its leaves
and berries; the fiocks of land birds; the
shoals of fish that inhabit shallow wa
ter; the indescribable smell of the shore;
the mysterious presentiment that ever
goes before a great event; and finally, on
that ever memorable night of the 18th
of October, 1899, the moving light seen
by the sleepless eye of the great discov-
erer himself from the deck of the Santa
Maria, and in the morning the real un-
doubted land, swelling up from the bos-
ON of the deep, with its plains, and
hills, and forests, and rocks, and streams,
and strange new races of men; these are
incidents in which the authentic history
of the discovery of our continent excels
the specious wonders of romance, as
much as gold excels tinsel, or the sun in
the heavens outshines that Pickering ta-
per. Applause.
But it is no part of my purpose tc
dwell upon this interesting narrative, OIL
to follow out this most wonderful of his
tories, sinking as it soon did into tale
of sorrow for Columbus himself, and be-
fore long ending in one of the mos
frightful tragedies in the annals of the
world. Such seems to be the law o
humanity, that events the most desirable
and achievements the most important
should, either in their conception or pro
gress, be mixed up with disaster, crimes
and sorrows which it makes the hear
sick to record.
The discovery of America 1 neeC
hardly say produced a vast extension o
the territory of the Power under whose
auspices the discovery was made. II
contemplating this point, we encountel
one of the most terrible mysteries in thu
history of our race. Extension of ter
ritory," you are ready to exclaim, "hoV
could Spain acquire any territory by thu
fact that a navigator, sailing under he
patronage, had landed upon one or TIVE
islands near the continent of America
and coasted for hundred miles along
its shores? These shores and island
are not desert on which Columbus, lik,
a Robinson Crusoe of higher order
had landed and taken possession. They
are occupied and settled, crowded ever
with inhabitants, subject to the govern
ment of their native chiefs; and, neithe
by inheritance. colonization, nor as ye
by conquest, has any human being i
Europe right to rule over them or t
possess a square foot of their territory.
Such are the facts of the case, and such
one would say, ought to be the law AM
equity of the case. But alas for tn
native chiefs and native racesl Befor
he sailed from Spain, Columbus was fur
nished with a piece of parchment foe
and half square, by Ferdinand an
Isabella, creating him their Viceroy an
High Admiral in all the seas, islands
and continents which ne should discove
l-his heirs forever to enjoy the same Of
, hce-the Viceroy of the absolute mon
archs of Aragon and CASTLE.
n Thus was America conquered befor
it was discovered. By the law of na
tons, as then understood, land l fea
5 there is less change in its doctrines q
/ the present day than we are ready /
r think, sovereign right to the territor
: and government of all newly discoyere
f regions inhabited by heather tribes wa