Richmond daily times. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1853, 1853-06-07

70 say the east.-B0S AHas
| Extracts from IA Lecture the Discovery and
Colonization OF. Observation-Disclosures before
the New York Historical society by the
Hon. Edward Everett, Of Massachusoti-.
| THE FIRST VOYAGE OF COLUMBUS.
Alter years of fruitless and heartsck ~ lie tia
tion alter offering in effect to tt is monarch aud
| to that monarch the gift of hemisphere, the
| great discoverer touches upon partial success.
| He succeeded, not in enlisting the sympathy of
| his countrymen at Genoa and Venice for brave
brother sailor-not in giving new direction to
| the spirit of maritime adventure which had
SO long prevailed 10 Portusa-not in stimulating
the commercial thrift of Henry the Seventh or
the pious ambition of the Catholic king. His
sorrowful perseverance touched the heart of
| noble princess, worthy the throne which she
adorned. The New World, which was just es-
Gaping the subtle kingcraft of Ferdinand was
saved to Spain by the womanly compassion of
Isabella. Continued appla lse.
Itistruly melancholy, however, to contemplate
the wretched equipment, for which the most
powerful princess in christendom was ready to
pledge her Jewels. Floating castles will soon be
fitted out to convey the miserable native of At
RIGA to the golden shores of misunderstanding
galIeons will be despatched to bring home the
guilty treasures to Spain-but three small ves-
sels one of which was without deck, and ne-
Their of them probably exceeding the capacity of
pilot boat, and even these impressed into the
public service. composed the expedition fitted out
under royal patronage to realise that magnificent
| conception in which the creative mind of Coum-
bus had planted the germs of new world.
No chapter Of romance equals the interest of
this expedition. The most fascinating of the
works of fiction, whicA have issued from the
modern press have, to my taste, no attraction
compared with the pages 10 which the first voy
81, scd had Rota md
still more by our owe Irving and Prescott, the
| last two enjoying the advantage over the great
Scottish historian of possessing the lately dis
covered journals aud letters of Columbus himself.
| The departure from Palut, where few years
before he had begged morsel of bread and
cup of water for his way wern child-his final
farewell to the Old World at the Canaries-his
entrance upon the trade winds, which then, for
the first time, filled European sail-the pres
tentious variation of the needle, before
| observed-the fearful course westward and
westward, day after day and night after night,
| over the unknown ocean-the mutinous and i'll
appeased crew--at length the tokens of land -
the cloud banks the western horiZ ,n-the
logs of drift wood-the fresh shrub floating with
its leaves and berries-the flocks of land birds
the shoals of fish that inhabit shallow water-the
indescribable smell of the shore-the mysterious
presentiment that goes before great event
and, finally, that ever memorable night OF
the 18th of October, 1902, the moving light seen
by the sleepless eye of the great dscoverer him-
self from the deck of the Santa Maria, and in the
! morning the real undoubted land. swelling mp
from the bosom ofthe 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 exces tinsel, or the
sun in the heavens outshines the Pickering ia
pei. (Applause.)
But it is no part of my purpose to dwell upon
this interesting narrative, to follow out this mos
wonderful of histories, sinking it soon did into
tale OF sorrow Tor Columbus himself, and before
long ending 10 one of the most frightful tragedies
in the annals of the world. Such seems to be
the law of humanity, that events the most desi
rable and achievements the most important
should either, in their inception or progress, be
mixed up with disasters, crimes. aud sorrows
which makes the heart sick to record.
Spanish Colonization.
The territorial extension of Portugal and
Spain which resulted from the discovery OF
America, was followed by the most extraordinary
effects upon the commerce, the finances. and
the politics generally of those two countries
and through them of the world. The overland
trade to the East was abandoned. The whole Of
South America and considerable part of North
America were, in the course OF the 10th
century, settled by those Governments who organ
lied in their transatlantic possessions colonial
system of the most rigid and despotic character;
rejecting AZ far as was practicable in distant pro-
vinces beyond the sea, the stern features of the
Mother Country. The precious metals and the
monopoly of the trade to the East were the
great objects. Aliens were forbidden to enter
the American Vice Royalties; none but a con-
traband trade was carried on by foreigners at
the sea ports To prevent this trade, severe
| g a. tad ipa
extent of the coast. 1 have recently had an OPP
portunity, in another place. to advert to the effects
Of this system upon the international relations of
Europe. Native subje could emigrate to
these vast colonial possessions only with the per-
mission of the Government Instead of affording
an asylum to persons dissenting from the religion
of the State, conformity of belief WAS ifpossbe,
enforced more rigidly in the Colonies than in
the Mother Country. No relax alton in this res
spect has taken place in the remaining Colonies
even to the present day. AS for the aborig nal
| tribes, after the first work of determination was
over, remnant was saved from destruct ion by
being reduced to a state of predial servitude.-
The detected and spiritess posterity OF the war
like tribes that offered mean resistance to
( Cortez and Pizarro, are now the hewers OF wood
and drawers of water to Mexico and Peru. Ia
a word from the extreme southern port of Pat~
aeonia to the northernmost limit of New Mexico,
| l am not aware that anything hopeful was done to
human improvement, by either of the Europ can
Crowns which added these vast omans to their
To rritories.
If this great territorial extension was truitless
of beneficial consequences to America, it was net
less SO to the Mother Country. For Spain, it was
the commencement of period, not of prosperity,
but of decline. The rapid influx of the precious
metals, in the absence of civil liberty and OF just
principles and institutions of intercourse and in
dustry, was productive of manifold evils; and
from the reign of Philip III. if not of Charles v,
the Spanish monarchy began to sink from its