The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1898-10-19

Philadelphia Ledger.


Columbus starts out to cross the Attain
tic, to make his fifth round voyage,
aud, by curious coincidence, seek his
fifth burial place. Unhappy mariner,
doomed to sail the seas, denied repose
either in life or death, the Wandering
Jew himself furnishes no such illustra-
ton of Testlessness. In the story OF his
life, success and disaster, honor and
dissensi1n, are Invariably linked to-
gether, and If his last wishes were
obeyed, and the irons In which he
made one Of his voyages were buried
with him, they symbolic bis life grim
ly enough.
Every child knows how Columbus
went from court to court asking for
ship. trying TO convince kings, priests,
noblemen that a new world was not a
mere fancy, and how, finally, almost
two leagues from Granada, at the
Bridge of Pines, messenger overlook
him and told him to turn and go back
to the queen how he did return, and
how in the thick of the war which
drove the Moors back to Africa and
gave Spain again to the Spaniards, Isa-
bella granted Columbus his commits
sion and expenses and sent him upon
the most fateful journey in the worlds
history.
The Sd of August, 1892, he set sail
with three ships, ll9 men and a letter
of introduction to the Khan of Cipan-
go, whom he intended to convert to
Christianity, should he find him. 1t
was on this voyage that he discovered
Cuba. In the early spring Of 1893 he
was back in Spain, and so ended his
first voyage. But il would have been
impossible for him now TO rest at home,
and in the following September he
again set sail with quite little fleet,
carrying 800 men, and, after voyage
of less than a month, he sighted land,
and few days after went ashore at
Porto Rico, which he explored and
named San Juan. For over three years
Columbus remained in the West In-
dies, exploring, eolonizing, trying to
settle disputes, sending traitorous mes
sengers back to Spain be was III with
fever, worried and tormented, and f.
naIIy, early in June, 1896, he returned
TO Cadiz, low.spirited and weak, clad
in the robe Of a franciscan. But hon
ors and fresh supplies and promises OF
liberal share in ali good fortune gave
him fresh courage and hope, 50 that he
started off in fine spirits on his third
voyage in May, 149s, in which he was
fated to discover the continent Of South
America, and u mistake 1t for a group
OF islands. When he returned from
this voyage he was in irons. But again
the skies cleared, and he made his
fourth voyage in May, l50s, with four
caravels, $50 men, and, as the old bal
lad has ii, ''trouble gang alaug, and
plenty of it,"
In 1904 he was home again, tired out,
but not yet through with his travelling.
In 1906 he died, and was buried at Val
ladolid. When his son Diego died
few years later, this Government took
Columbus out of his grave and carried
him to Seville, where the two w-re
buried in the Carthusian monastery.
Here they rested but few years. when
Latin sentiment demanded that Column
bus grave should be in the New World
which he had discovered. So he was
taken up again, and made his fifth voy
age to San Domingo. The years passed
on, and Spain ceded the island to
France, and Columbus, being very en-
phaticslly movable property" was
taken to Havana, where, with great
pOmp and many promises Of a gorgeous
tomb ''to- morrow be was for the
fourth time buried, and on his tomb
was placed an inscription which hoped
he might remain where he was for one
thousand centuries. This was in l796,
a little more than one hundred years
ago, and now his tomb is opened and
he is 10 cross the seas for the tenth time.
When, in October, 1892, he drew near
to land, and saw floating weeds and
sticks wrought with irOn," he wss
about to give Spain the most splendid
gift nation ever received. When, in
October, 1898, he is carried away from
fba Nauy World he discovered ont of
all her great possessions on the great
continent and the adjacent islands, she
will not have kept enough to give even
his poor ashes grave in Spanish sill.
The story is eurlously complete begin
ming with the arrival of the great nsvi-
gator 400 years ago, and closing with
the departure of his ashes from Ha-
vana this week