The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1892-04-06
The Columbus of History.

The Columbus of History.
The Columbus Of history is one Of il:
least pleasing Characters He was evi
IDENTIFY a sea-rover and bueeaneer. He
sold his services 10 Rene Of Anjou or
Charles Of France eindifferently. A rude,
uneducated seaman, he joined in the
barbarous sea-6ght of St. Vincent, and
aided in the massacre Of honest traders
and useful men Tine somewhat soften
ed his harsher traits, but his early i'm
pulses never left him. He became famil-
lar with the slave trade in Portugal, and
introduced It to the New World. He
treated the natives Of the new land with
pitiless severity. He threw them into
chains, cut of their hands and feet, or
sold them as cannibals to misery and
death. He probably invented the &c
ton the Csribs only to destroy them
Las Casas thought that the Judgments OF
heaven had fallen upon the merciless
discoyerer.
In almost every trait Of moral excel
lence Columbus seems equally wanting.
To the Spanish settlers in Hispaniola he
was hated tyrant, & cruel Esurper. He
threw Mexico over the walls OF his fort
with his own hands and spu-ned him as
he fell. His victims, hung by the neck,
shocked the humanity Of BObsdilla- 1t
was believed that Columbus and his
brothers planned new empire in the
Indies and hoped to tkroE of the yoke
of Spain. In later years Columbus en-
gagged in a reasonable correspondents
with Genoa. His ingratiiude 10 the Pin
IONS, his betrayal Of Bestrix Enriquez,
his falsehOOds, his fierce bursts Of rage,
bis ayariee, his revenge, his wild am BIZ
ton, his pioas frauds, his fanatical faith,
can never be forgotten, they may lie Ior-
given. Harsh, fierce, severe, the features
Of Columbus look down upon Us over
the flight OF four centuries, the symbol
OF his cruel age.
Columbus found the natives Of Ameri-
ca fall Of the passion for gold. The gilt
tering particles had for them an irresi.ti-
bic attraction, as to 50 many as what are
called the educated races. They search
ed in the rivers and sands for gold, and
when they had found il hung it in their
ears and noses. Sometimes the more
highly cultivated beat it into plates.
which they fastened around their necks.
Il was their chief and almost only orna-
ment, almost their only dress; they
used, too, paint, feathers and strings Of
pearls The uniyersllity Of this strange !
passion for the ductile metal in civilized |
and savage man IS without an explana-
lion; It Is natural. We are told that |
there are ants that heap together glitter
ing particles ofprecious OF e0lored stones ; /
il is their instinct. In Columbus the pas
sion ragged with a violence seldom known.
lie dreamed Of golden palaces, heaps Of 1
treasure and mines teeming with end
less wealth. His cry was everywhere
for gold. Every moment in his fierce
lvarice, he would fancy himself on the
brink OF boundless opulenee; he was
always about to seize the East painted
by Marco Polo and Vaudeville. Sold
he wrote to the King and Queen, els the
most valuable thing in the world it res
cues souls from puFgatOry and restores
hem to the joys Of paradiee."
It vas somethi Of his early pirate
life that stirred him in his plans Of dis
covery. He was always the buccaneer;
he was always slave-trader. He select
ed the port Of NAvidad because it SEEM
sd a convenient hsrbor for slave ships. /
He made slaves wherever he went In 4
his fierce ayarice, when be found the na-
ked Indian had little gold, be proposed /
to sell them and thus establish a wise
source of profit. Gold be must make by /
some means he urged upon the King
and Queen his infamous project. They |
seered at frst to disapprove and after
ward countenanced it. TheJ could /
scarcely fail to see that hunting the help !
less natives through the islands and the |
continent to sell them into slavery was
not Christlike trade. They gently re-
buked the discoverer, but soon after We
find them lending him their approval.
"Let him be informed" they wrote, "Of
what has transpired respecting the can
nibals that came to Spain He has done
well" ;" etc. Soon every Spaniard who
sliled to America became q slave-trader.
Ojeda and Americas Nespucius filed
their ships With "cannibals," and the
brothers of Columbus followed the ex-
ample Of the admiral. A boundless hor-
TOR settled upon the new-discoyered
lands. Las C4sas thought the sickness
and pains that fell upon Columbus the
judgment for the woes he had inflicted
upon the helpless Indians--Harpsr's
Maga-iue.