The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1874-11-14

IN ms age ana country. ana as ne Is repre-
scented as a robust, healthy, and very hand
some Prince, Il of a most genial social dispo-
sition, we may wonder at his denial 10 him.
self of the Joys of a family.22 He certainly
could not be a woman hater, after his wor-
ship of his mother. Perhaps it was this
worship and undying hlial love for the bless
ed Phiilipa, the inspIrer OF his genius, that
caused him ever to preserve the memory OF
the character of the exalted mother as a
standard in his mind, to which the ladies OF
the Court of Portugal could not approach.
He was noted for his lively humor. fine con-
versational powers, and enjoyment of So
ciety. The ladies of his little eourt,-the
wives and daughters of his officers and fol-
lowers, enjoyed much of his company, and
shared socially in the Vivacity of his spirit,
which was animated and graced by poetIcal
taste and refinement; but he ever maintain
ed a certain reserve, and did not mark any
of the fair sex with a preference. No doubt
a man so ardent and SO generous must have
loved a woman as the necessary complement
and companion of his life this love must
have been lost and hidden away somewhere
in his life,-and such a loss.-a great and
delicate soul like his would never reveal.
His purity of life, coupled with his ardent
enterprising nature, was the wonder of his
country and of all Europe, for where was
the Prince or man IN those or in these days
of whom it could be said as it is said of
him, she had not one bad habit ?"
HENRY NOT APPRECIATED BY HIS PEERS.
This Anglo-C eltiberlan Prince lived pre-
eminently for his country and to do good
unto mankind. He, a direct descendant of
William the Conqueror, kinsman of all the
princely warriors of Europe of his day, and
an eminent approved warrior himself, gave
up his life to works of peace and enlighten-
ed progress. His genius was despised by
his peers in Europe, and although private
adventures hocked unto his standard, as to
that of a glorious captain yet the princes
of England, of Spain, and even OF his own
Portugal considered his schemes as the re-
suit of an i'll regulated imagination, and as
destructive of true chivalric adventure, and
of feudal princely consequence. His broth
ers and other kinsmen on the throne of Por-
tugal accorded him only a grudging assist
ance. as in the case of his father, who was
forced into the successful expedition Of
Ceuta. And it was so, that when Columbus
sought enterprise and fortune in Portugal in
1470, the king who then reigned at Lisbon,
though a capable and polite prince, did not
appreciate the truth of the enlightened views
of his late deceased great Kinsman, as the
~ AhS CICN AAa III dl0g oh0 oO
Portugal lost the larger part Of the great
glory that her lllustriOus Prince had devised
for her.
THE FOUNDER OF DISCOVERY AND THE DIS
CoVERER.
One is tempted again and again to reflect
upon and regret all the possibilities that
would have attended an earlier visit of Col
umbus to Portugal. Had he come at the
eo 10 @,p,o ,y,tb NIL Dorostrolo or1 othar
able italians, he would no doubt have be-
come one of Prince Henry's captains, and
have discovered America much earlier than
he did. Or perhaps he would not have
sought a new world by pursuing an occiden-
tai ocean course, because this purpose was
conceived after long residence in Portugal
and at Puerto Santo. His whole idea, even
when he decided upon a western course, and
when he sailed from Palos in 1892, was TO
reach India by a direct sea way, which
Henry conceived and planned and tried to
have carried out, as far back as 14l6, when
like an inspired youthful apostle, he sent his
first missionaries of discovery to sail along
the coast of Africa in order to pass round
its southern bounds unto Eastern Asia. And
so had Columbus joined the Prince at Lagos,
the ardent, enterprising, and persevering
nature of this Italian acknowledgements
IMAM tLAoL vi OuOoliAOSNOf ANOit
Gilianez or other captains of Henry, would
have been readily employed, and he would
in accordance with the Princes plans have
pushed on the route TO India, by way of the
African coast; and have anticipated de
Cana in doubling the Cape of Good Hope /;
and if he ever discovered America. it would
have been most likely by voyages eastward
of India, and so after first finding America
by a Pacific route would most reasonably in
following up his career of discovery have an
ticipated Magellan by the decentralization
of the globe.
WHY CoLUMBU SAILED WEST.
1t may be asked, if the Discoverer of
America entertained only Prince Henry's
idea of reaching India, and Marco Polo's
Cathay and CiPangu, by a direct sea route,
why did he not continue 10 confine the ac-
complishment of his purpose and enterprise
to the African line of coast 1t must be
borne in mind that when the Genoese adj
venturer arrived in Portugal, the govern
ment and the private enterprise of this coun-
try, stimulated by her great Prince, had
been actively engaged for about seventy
wears i'm the quest of the African-Indian