Evening star., 1940-03-24

OF no less an HiSpanic scholar
than DR.. France V. Scholes, research
associate of Carnegie Institution of
Westinghouse are to have a new
chapter written into our national
history and light thrown upon the
earliest American scene. There will
be presented to the English-speak-
ing world for the first time, with
all force and all his failings, the
intrepid navigator, Christobal Co.
Ion. as seen through the eyes of
those seamen and pilots who with
rash, appealing courage set sail with
him in search of new world and
upset thereby the universal convic-
tion that men moved across a fer
tile plate suspended in a starry will
derness
The recently returned Harvard
Columbus Expedition, captained by
Prof. Samuel E. Morrison. setting
sail on September l of last year
in two barkentine ketches to fol-
low the courses taken by Columbus
on his voyages, did not. by their own
admission, 'eXpect to find anything
new or startling about Columbus"
or to achieve anything beyond a
careful analysis of his work as a
seaman and navigator. They hoped,
mainly, to obtain a better under
standing of the famous admiral and
the most momentous voyages of
modern times, with a view to rewrit-
ing accurately the opening chapters
Of American history. An attempt
was to be made to do for Columbus
what Francis Parkman had done
for the history of France in the
New World
Valuable Records.
Yet at the Archives of the Indies
In Seville they came upon material
OF such value that they started back
for America filled with their dis
covery. They had turned there the
brittle leaves of an extraordinary
and exciting document-the "Pleitos
de Colon constituting verbatim
testimony taken down in that long
series of trials wherein Columbus
son. Don Diego, attempted to re-
cover from the crown fetracted Of
fees and privileges originally be-
slowed upon his illustrious father.
The Pleitos, many of them in the
words of those very seamen and
pilots who trod the decks of the
Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Ma
ria, and Transcribed in that free
flowing script so pleasing to the eye
and so exasperating to deciphering
historians, were, it seemed, verit-
able treasure house of first-hand in
formation.
But had this treasure been tapped
before? Had earlier scholars at
tempted to translate these fresh,
first-hand impressions Tor the Eng
ish-speaking world? Had they ever
been published in Spanish? Just
how valuable a contribution would
they make, in short, if translation
were undertaken by members of the
Harvard expedition?
The conversation they occasioned
on the way home must have been
stimulating, for the crews of the
Capitana and the Mary Otis were
made up of outstanding historians,
noted researchers in the field of
Hispanic archives, and scholars of
reputation.
Prof. Morrison is professor of his
tory in Harvard University, author
Of "The Growth of the American
Republic" Second Voyage of Co.
lumbus," Maritime History Of Mas
sachusetts" and other works.
Among his distinguished crew was
Dwight Morrow, jr., who exhibited
particular interest in this exciting
discovery. Investigation had brought
out the fact that the Pleitos had
never been translated into English,
That there had been issued wholly
inadequate edition in Spanish, badly
printed and covering only from one
NTH to one-third of them, which
we're edited by Fernandez Duro from
1892 to 1894 in two volumes, under
the title "Documentos Ineditos de
Descubrimiento." Duro had pre-
vlously brought out some in his
Colon Pinzon," published in 1885.
and Navarette had printed a few IN
his COLLECTION de Viajes."
However, none of these serve anv
scholarly purpose, as Prof. Morrison
had already determined during his
collation. Of Duro's "Documentos