The Newtown bee., 1892-10-21

Skrelligs at first hand. He knew all the
legends and he was acquainted with the
doctrine of the rotundity of the earth,
which, however the common people
scorned it, was held by the scholars of
that day. And when in 1873 he appeared
in Lisbon, his mind was firmly made up
to sail across the dread ''Mare Tenebro-
sum- and gain for the world a new road
to Cipango and Cathay.
Christopher Columbus was not 30
years old when he went to Portugal, then
one of the chief centers of marine enter
prise in all Europe, that is to say in the
world. He was by all accounts man of
EXTRAORDINARY PERSONAL APPEAR
ANCE.
Tall and strongly built, his once auburn
hair had turned snowy white, and was
worn long; his blue eyes were marked by
peculiar fire, his complexion was rude
DIV, and he bore himself with an air of
authority. He had now become map
maker. He married in Lisbon Felipa,
daughter of Bartollommeo Monis de Per
estrello, a noted Italian navigator, and
took up his abode in the island of Porto
Santo, one of the Madeiras, which had
been discovered, coloniZed and governed
for the Portuguese by Perestrello him
self. He studied the maps and charts of
his tather-in-law, with all the records of
ocean currents and winds, and came forth
from year of this study fully resolved
upon his great design,-which had been
nurtured upon many things, but chiefly
assured, perhaps, by Paolo Toscanelli's
letter, received that year in answer to
one of inquiry from Columbus, in which
the old astronomer not only asserted his
faith in the feasibility of reaching Cath
ay by ocean, but elaborated a set of sail
ing directions and a conjectural chart of
the route which made Asia fill up the
whole space of the Pacific ocean. This
chart, by the way, he took with him on
his voyage, and it served his purpose,
too, notwithstanding that he ran up
against America where he expected to
find Asia. For Is years after this Co
lumbus presented his scheme first at the
court of Portugal. then at that of Spain,
and at one time thought of applying to
that of France. In the course of this
time of hope deferred, banged from pill
lar to post, his
PRETENTIONs REGARDED AS PREPoSTER-
Gus, -
he made many voyages for the Portu-
guese and fought for while against the
Moors in Spain.
There is one incident of the old Column
bus romance the destroyers let US keep.
1t was in 1854, after 10 years of vain en-
deavor with John III, and after the Por-
tuguese had stolen his plans and charts
and tried to make the adventure on their
own account, that Columbus shook off
the dust of Portugal from his feet and
went afoot back to Spain. One day a
seafaring man of notable dignity, afoot,
leading his son by the hand, stopped at
the portal of the Franciscan monastery
of Santa Maria de la Rabida, near the At
lantic seaport of Palos in Andalusia, to
ask for bread and water for the weary
boy. The prior, Juan Perez, was man
of discrimination, and also, one infels, of
learning, for he wrote such letter to
Queen Isabella of CASTLE which he
thought would gain Columbus audience
while he offered to keep Diego at the
monastery. We shall not follow the
story of the efforts of Columbus at the
court of Spain, where, supported though
he was in his arguments by several learn
ed prelates, he met with the incredulity
of ignorant mobiles and the parsimony of
the sovereigns. The
OLD STORY ABOUT IsABELLA's JEWELS
we shall have to give up. In point of
fact, king nor queen, nor mobiles, bore
the whole expense of even the very mean
expedition he set forth with, and had it
not been for the enlightened generosity
of the Pinzons, navigators, of Palos, he
could not then have got off. He did pro-
cure the royal contract that he should be
high-admiral, goyernor-general and vice.
roy over the lands he should discover,
anu Ouc-bGHbu III Lie WCditn Ill WildOCfCt
shape it came, that wealth being devot-
ed in advance to crusade against the
Turks.
The story of that voyage need not be
re-told it is familiar enough. On three
little vessels, mere cookie shells, as it
were, only one of them, the Santa Maria,
having deck, the intrepid Pinzons and
the high admiral faced the unknown and
stormy Atlantic. From the Sd of August
to the memorable 18th of October, 1892,
they tossed about; the sailors, who were
mostly desperadoes, grew mntinous. and
weaker soul might have yielded in de-
spair, and turned back, as the Portuguese
who stole Columbus's charts had turned
back, eight or nine years before. But
everything was justified when in that
dead Of night Columbus saw
THE GL1ndMER OF LIGHT ON THE SHORE
of Guanahani, and when on the next day
the Pinta fired her cannon, the first to
send its horrid echoes flying over the new
world. 1t is now pretty well settled that