The weekly tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1891-1894, 1892-10-28
COLUM EUs IN HISTORY.

Because l know the grand success Gu
Lord has granted me on this voyage. will
be pleasing to you. | write to say that il
thirty-three days l crossed to the IndieI
with the fleet which the illustrious Kin.
and Queen, our Sovereigns, gave me.
found there very many islands. with in
Vulnerable inhabitants. OF all | tool
possession for their Highnesses, b.
proclamation, and by unfurling TIT
Royal Standard.
Such is the opening of a letter writer
by Columbus in February, 1493, on hi
return to the Canary islands after hi
discovery of the West Indies the previou.
autumn. 1t was addressed to his ole
friend, Luis de Santangel, the man who
secured him recognition at the hands o.
the crown, and through whose interces
sion he was enabled to fit out his expedi
ton. He tells the names he gave the
islands, most of which have beer
changed, and ne described the scenery
and general appearance of the new
world he had discovered, with. such &C.
curacy hat his descriptions would tit al.
most as we'll today except for the changes
made by civilization. He found the peo-
pie entirely naked and learned that they
had never known the use of clothing.
They were extremely timid and fed in
terror from their white visitors whom
they believed had come from heaven.
OF the mildness of their manners and
disposition Columbus says: They
possess no iron. steel or arms, nor are
they fit to use them, not but they are
well built and of handsome stature, but
that they are curiously timid. Their
only weapons are the flower stalks of
reeds to which they fasten small bits of
wood" They fled in dismay from the
presence Of the strangers, but when re-
assured they were willing to share all
they possessed. They had ornaments of
gold which they gladly exchanged for
worthless bits of colored glass.
Columbus says that the common peo-
pie seemed to he content with but one
wife. while their kings were allowed to
have twenty, and so far as he could
make out property was shared in com
mon. He saw no inhabitants that were
not of the gentle type he described, but
as soon as he could hold communica-
ton by signs and by catching the mean
ing of a few words, he was told terrible
of cannibais and monsters of
human shape who were supposed to
people islands farther west. He speaks
of n large island inhabited only by
wonlen who seem to have been a species
of .Amazons with some talent for war
fare.
Finally. and referring to this voyage
alone. hasty as 1t has been. says the
navigator near the close of his letter.
lilghnesses IAN see that ] shall be
able to give them all the gold they want
with but trliiing help: spices also. and
as much cotton MS they shall order
shipped: mastic, as much as they wish
for. which at present is only found in the
island OF Chios. and is sold by the Gle
noese senate at their " price.
At that writing it is evident that CO.
lumbus had no conception of the i'm
portance of his discovery. lie had no
idea that he vas the pioneer of Il new
world. and the gold and other triiles he
mentions no doubt embody his own
opinion of the value Of his voyage. 1t
was not his fortune ever to have a clearer
realization of the significance of his ex-
plot, But history has done him justice
and today the world is at his feet. in
Chicago men of every nation, the most
able. brilliant, and learned. are doing
homage to his name. and half the civ
ilized world is thinking, talking, and
writing OF the poor sailor mar who had
to beg help 400 years ago for IA voyage
that was destined to revolutionize the
world.
If there were no other great historical
event that clearly proves the rule on this
earth Of ii power above and beyond man
this u alone should be sufficient to
convince the most caIlous sceptic.
Throughout his enterprise Columbus
was moved and inspired by a religious
impulse. lie firmly believed that God
put into his mind the entire conception
the earth being d sphere. and of the
presence Of rich lands beyond the west
ern seas, To his contemporaries he was
d crank" ii visionary: but in the hands
Of Providence he was Il genius among
men come to fulfill the Divine will. a
prophet greater than all who had gone
before him.
For a thousand years Columbus will
the central, pivotal figure Of the
civilization of the Western hemisphere.
and ever if the time should ever come
the story Of his fame is lost or re-
duced to a fable like that of Jason AMI
the golden fleece, the laurel cannot be
entirely plucked from his brow while the
human family remains and possesses
any kind of records of the past.
HAD the American republic ever a