Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-05-20
Motives Not Sordid.

cess has been admirably characterized as
a conquest of reflection.
Motives Not Sordid.
at has been said that mercenary views
mingled with the ambition of Columbus.
=, and that his stipulations with the Spanish
court were selfish and avaricious. The
charge Is inconsderate and unjust. He
aimed at dignity and wealth in the same
lofty spirit In which he sought renown;
they were to be part and parcel of his
achievement and palpable evidence of his
success; they were to arise from the ter
ritories he should discover, and be com
mensurate in Importance. No condition
could be more just. He as ed nothing or
the sovereigns but n command of the coun-
tries he hoped to give them, and snare OF
the profits to support the dignity OF his
command If there Snould DE no country
discovered his stipulated vice-royalty would
be of no avail; and II no revenues should
be produced, his labor and peril would
produce no gain. l. mis- command and rev
enues ultimately proved magnificent, it was
from the magnificence of the regions he had
attached to the Cdstilian crown. What
monarch would not rejoice to gain empire
on such conditions? But he did not risk
merely a loss of labor, and disappoint-
ment of ambition in the enterprise-on his
motives being questioned he voluntarily
undertook. and, with the assistance or ms
coadjutors actually betrayed one-eighth OF
the whole charge of the first expedition.
1T was. in fact, his rare union already
noticed.
with the poetical protector which enabled
him to carry his grand enterprises into
effect through so many difficulties: but the
pecuniary calculations and cares whlch
gave feasibility to his schemes, were never
suffered to chill the glowing aspirations or
his soul The gains that promised 10
arise from his discoveries he intended TO
appropriate in the same princely and plous
shirt In which they weres demanded He
contemplated works and achievements OF
benevolence and religion; vast contributions
for the relief of the poor of his native
city: the foundation OF churches, where
masses should be said for the souls of the
deuarted and armies for the recovery or
the holy sepulcher in Pales,ine; mus ins, n,s
with high thought and prone TO generous
deed "
Pure Aims Thwarted-
In the discharge of his Office he main
tanned the state and ceremonial of a vice.
roy and was tenacious of his rank ana
privileges: not from mere vulgar love or
titles bur because he priced them as tes-
timonials and trophies OF his achievements;
these he jealousy cherished his great
rewards In his repeated applications to
the king he insisted merely on the restttu-
ton of his dignities. AS to his pecuniary
dues and all questions relative 10 mere
revenue, he offered to leave them to arbi-
tration even the absolute disposition of
the monarch; but not so his official digni-
ties These things" said he nobly. 'af-
feet my honor In his testament he en-
Joined on his son Diego. and whoever after
him should inherit his estates. whatever
tignities and titles might afterward be
granted by the king, always TO sign him
self simply the admiral by way of per-
petuating IN the family its real source OF
greatness.
His conduct was characterized by the
grandeur OF his Views and the magnanim-
fly OF his spirit. Instead of securing the
newly found countries, like grasping ad-
venturer eager only for immediate GAIN as
was too generally the case with contempt
rary discoveries. he sought to ascertain
their soil and productions, their rivers and
harbors. He was DESTROYS OF coioniZing and
cuitivating them; of coneiliating and CIV
liking the natives; of building cities: In
Producing the useful arts; subjecting every
thing to the control of law. order and rel-
gion and thus of founding regular and
prosperous empires. In his glorious plan
he was constantly defeated by the disso-
lutte rabble which IL was his misfortune TO
command: with whom all law was tyran-
ny and all order restraint. They interrupt
ed all useful works by their seditions; pro-
voked the peaceful Indians to hostility, and
after they had thus drawn down misery
and warfare upon their own heads and
overwhelmed Columbus with the ruins OF
the edifice he was building, they charged
him with being the cause of the confusion.
An Ideal Visionary.
He was devoutly pious. Religion mingled
with the whole corsse of his thoughts and
actions, and shown forth in his most pri-
vate and unstudled writings Whenever he
made any great discovery he celebrated It
by solemn thanks to God. The voice of
prayer and melody OF praise rose from his
ships when they first beheld the new world.
and his first action on landing was to pros
trate himself upon the earth and return