The Newtown bee., 1892-10-21
COLUMBUS.
ASSAULTS ON HIS CHARACTERISTIC AT
GENoA.--APPEALINGT TO THE COURTS
OF EURoPE.--yoYAGE AND Dis
ERTg PORTRAITS.


COyERY.- IN row
ERTY.-PORTRAITs
This is not the age Of heroes, but the
age in which heroes are deprecated and
endorsed, and are in fact shown to be
but very common clay. In this way
Christopher Columbus, the discoverer of
| America, has been attacked during a
good many years, and we have been in
vited to regard him as humbug in what
ever light he is viewed. Sundry writers
have proved--it was easy enough-that
the Norwegian outlaws from Iceland had
| landed on American shores and even
made settlements thereon nearly 500
years before Columbus sailed from Pa
of st. Brandan, the inevitable Irishman !;
and of Madoc, the Welsh prince, and his
colonists whose traces of occupancy are
still said to be discoverable in ancient
legend. There are others who are given
the credit of finding out America. But
while all such narratives of adventure
are full of interest, they do not detract
from the
GREAT DISTINCTION OF COLUMBUS,
nor from the personal merit attaching
to his act. Surprising that Left Erikson
did sail into Massachusetts bay and up
the Charles river and established col
ony for commercial purposes at Water
town, and begin the cutting down Of for
ests and ship burl maple over to Europe,
nothing resulted from it unless we ex-
cept Longfellow's ballad, ssThe Skeleton
in Armor," which, to be sure, was we'll
worth while, eight centuries after Mo-
doc and his Welshmen, if they ever got
this side of the ocean, blended with the
Virginia Indians and were as copper col
ored as PoWhatan when the real conquer
ors of the continent appeared. Let us
not waste our time on these interesting
but futile bits of pioneering, because ev-
erything really dates from Columbus.
There were, of course, good reasons
why these adventures should have failed
to have continuous and lasting results.
They were in the first place mainly acct
dental in their character, not deliberate
explorations. Navigation in the fabu-
lous days of Madoc and Brandan and the
legendary ones of Thorfinn, Eric and Left
and much later, was not so great an en-
terprise as the colonizing of the strange
lands across the seas, nor was the atten-
ton of Europe turned that way. But
this thing the legends and the actual rec
ords of voyages like these did-they
gave
BOLD AND EXPERIENCED SAILOR,
who in long voyages north and south had
grown to be an enthusiast, material for
his Imagination to work upon, and to
convince him that across the unknown
ocean, ''the sea of darkness" of old ge-
ographers, lay new way to the Indies.
And such way was needed, because
now the way overland through the Asian
peninsula across the straits of Bosphorus
was closed by ''the malignant and the
turbaned Turk" who, when Columbus
was yet youth, had captured Constan-
tinople, the capital of the Eastern empire,
and whom Europe was only too glad to
let alone there, even at the loss of its
growing eastern commence.
For Notwithstanding the assaults now
making on the character of Columbus,
we fancy that the large view of his work
will survive them all, since no inferior
soul, no mere adventurer and pirate,
could have entertained his idea and so
persistently, against such obstacles and
with such poor instruments, carried it
out. His character was not a simple one,
assuredly, and the hundreds of books
that have been written about him have
not helped to make his life and his mo-
tives clear. Justin Winsor has recently
published big book whose purpose is to
show that the "admiral of the ocean" was
very poor creature indeed, of the most
sordid nature, grasping for power and
gold, cruel and oppressive, the enslayer
and slaughterer of the poor savages of
the West Indies; and as for his scientific
attainments, not great original genius,
but
A BLUNDERER FROM FIRST TO LAST.
Another American writer, leaving out
of consideration all of the older history
(Which is indeed largely discredited)
makes out by sheer assumption that Co.
known corsair, and sharer in his voy-
ages. Now while it must be admitted
that Columbus was man ofhis age, par
taker of its faults and its sins, and not a
gentle philanthropist of the 10Th century,
it must also be admitted that it is unjust
to judge him by the standards of the 10th
century even as regards his moral char
acter; his achievements, also seen in the |
light of his own day, proclaim him a
master among men. Certainly it is too
late to deny that he was one of the epoch
making leaders of the world.
But much less is known about Column |
bus than was once thought; the roman
tic accounts of his youth and early wan
behring's are no longer held to be true.
Some few facts are sure, and these may |
speedily be recited. The place of his
birth remains unsettled, but in view of |
the fact that theresis no more evidence |
for any other place than there is for &C.
noa, he should in all fairness be allowed |
the casting vote, and Columbus himself |
asserted that he was born in Genoa, and |
of course the very house is shown there,
and bears on its front bronze tab
let inscribed with the statement, plac-
ed thereon by the city authorities. 1t is
in poor quarter, such as Domenico Co
lombo, weaver of rather shiftless ways |
and very little money. would be likely