New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1892-08-02
COLTMBTS At PdLOS.

naturally in Spain, whence the discoverer OF
the New World started four hundred years
ago on the first of his four chief voyages. \
caravel, modelled closely after the famous santa
Maria left Cadiz on Sunday under escort of a
fleet of modern warships under various flags,
for the old port Of PalOS. where tomorrow the
sailing of Columbus will be cOmmemorated. The
festivities in Spain are religious as well as civic
and naval and this is eminently fitting. Mod
ern research has dispeled many of the romantic
myths which Irving and the earlier spanish
biographers embalmed in their imaginative
works but it has not made Columbus anything
less than devOut and sincere catholic. Al
most the last act which the discoverer and his
100 followers performed on shore was one OF
religious devotion. They attended mass IN
body, confessed themselves and committed
themselves to Divine protection. The names
of nearly all the islands discovered by Column
bus and named by him in his four voyages are
religious so that a traveller to-day in the An
TILES repeats ltany TO the saints. Leo NIL, III
his letter on the Columbus celebration, assigns
a distinct reason for religious cOmmemoation
of the events of 1892 in all Catholic communl-
ties. at is" he says, that Columbus is one
of u.s." One of the direct results of his voyages
was the conversion of large portion of the
New World with its Indian races TO Latin
Christianity.
The crowds thrOnging the wharveS at Cadz
are reported to have been greatly impressed
hy the contrast between the quaint little Santa
Maria and the modern fleet of warships and
steamers which accompanied it ont Of the
harbor. Perhaps there is nothing that is more
-, ,bo, no ~ hntvv0oD tho
employed by the great Italian navigator and
the results which were accomplished. In these
days. when waThips of 10000 tons are
launched such fleet as he commanded seems
as insignificant as handful of cookie shells
floating ashore with the tide. The largest of
his three ships. the Santa Maria. was Go feet
long and the only one that was decked in the
middle. Each ship was less than 100 tons, and
the Pinta and the Nina were open boats, built
high at each end Small as were the craft, ten
weeks were occupied IN recruiting the crews
and provisioning for the mysterious voyage in
unknown waters. Modern Investigators have
ransacked the records of the Spanish court. and
discovered the cost Of this first voyage. II was
about 80 $40 of which Columbus and his de-
voted friends, the Pinzons, provided little
less than one-third. The discovery of the New
World was very cheaply made when adjudgcd
by modern standards but in courage. faith
and genius ii was costly indeed.
For years before the tiny vessels cut loose
from their moorings off Palos Columbus had
vainly importuned merchants. princes and
courts to aid him in carrying ont the idea which
had gained complete possession OF him and
converted him into an orator and courtier.
When Ferdinand and Isabella finally lent him
assistance it was in beggarly way. His crew
was recruited mainly from jailS and debtors
prisons and was hardly at sea before it began
to revolt against him and to disable his ships.
The voyage ending on October II by the old
reckoning was protracted by detention at the
Canaries for twenty -fve days and this was
caused by repairs to the ships rendered neceS-
sary by ntrgues among the diSafectcd men.
Palos had been against the adventure from the
start 1t had looked upon Columbus a mad
man and upon his shipmates rs jailbirds. When
ne sailed it expected his speedy return TO port
10 be the laughing stock Of the town; and 1t
was not through any virtue of his companions
that its judgment was finally reversed. The
genius, patience and inhexible will of the Adj
miral overcame the hostility, cowardce and
ignorance OF MS SlilOT>. SOHltilHl'S p'biinS
with them. oftener bullying them and imposing
upon their creduity, he perScvered in his west
ern cruise until San Salvador was sighted hav
ing in it the promise Of a new world to be
added to Christianity and civilization.
Columbus may have been an Italian from
Genoa, pirate in his youth, Spanish Admiral
in the supreme hour of his triumph, and good
Catholic at Palos and at San Salvador, but he
remains for all time the worlds greatest type
of the man of action swayed by noble ideaism.
1t matters little whore he was born, what court
he served or where he was buried whether in
San Domingo or Havana The fame Of Column
bus is at once the heritage and the inspiration
of Chrstendom. While Prince Henry's Portu-
guese voyagers were hugging the African shore
he headed for the open sea, convinced by rca-
son that the world was round, and that q con
tinent lay behind the western horizon. Phil
osophcrS had dreamed and poets had sung OF
those western islands the boldcst of medieval
photographers with crude fancy had even sought
to map them ont but Columbus sailed the
seas with his rebeiouS crews because he had
the courage to prove his faith in tho idea that
had mastered him. As Palos witnessed with
scorn and derision the departure Of his cara
vels, so ValladOlid heard fourteen years after
ward with Indifference the tidingS of his death
in obscurity and neglect. But his genius had
trumphed, and won for him an unrivalled place
in history.
UPHILL YORK FOR THE DEMOCRATIC