heaven. Such was the solemn and pious manner in which the brilliant court of Spain celebrated this sublime event; offering up a grateful tribute of melody and praise, and giving glory to God for the discovery of another world.

While the mind of Columbus was excited by this triumph, and teeming with splendid anticipations, his pious scheme for the deliverance of the holy sepulchre was not forgotten. Flushed with the idea of the vast wealth that must accrue to himself from his discoveries, he made a vow to furnish, within seven years, an army of four thousand horse and fifty thousand foot, for a crusade to the holy land, and a similar force within the five following years. It is essential to a full knowledge of the character and motives of this extraordinary man, that this visionary project should be borne in recollection. It shows how much his mind was elevated above selfish and mercenary views, and filled with those devout and heroic schemes which, in the time of the crusades, had inflamed the thoughts and directed the enterprises of the bravest warriors and most illustrious princes.

During his sojourn at Barcelona, the sovereigns took every occasion to bestow on Columbus the highest marks of personal consideration. He was admitted at all times to the royal presence; appeared occasionally with the king on horseback, riding on one side of him, while Prince Juan rode on the other side; and the queen delighted to converse familiarly with him on the subject of his voyage. To perpetuate in his family the glory of his achievement, a coat of arms was given him, in which he was allowed to quarter the royal arms,

the castle and lion, with those more peculiarly assigned him, which were a group of islands surrounded by waves: to these arms were afterwards annexed the motto:

A CASTILLA Y A LEON

NUEVO MUNDO DIO COLON.

(To Castile and Leon

Columbus gave a new world.)

The pension of thirty crowns, which had been decreed by the sovereigns to whomsoever should first discover land, was adjudged to Columbus, for having first seen the light on the shore. It is said that the seaman who first descried the land was so incensed at being disappointed of what he deemed his merited reward, that he renounced his country and his faith, and, crossing into Africa, turned Mussulman ; an anecdote, however, which rests on rather questionable authority.

The favour shown Columbus by the sovereigns ensured him for a time the caresses of the nobility; for in a court every one is eager to lavish attentions upon the man "whom the king delighteth to honour." At one of the banquets which were given him occurred the well-known circumstance of the egg. A shallow courtier present, impatient of the honours paid to Columbus, and meanly jealous of him as a foreigner, abruptly asked him, whether he thought that, in case he had not discovered the Indies, there would have been wanting men in Spain capable of the enterprise. To this Columbus made no direct reply, but, taking an egg, invited the company to make it stand upon one end. Every one attempted it, but in vain; whereupon he struck it

upon the table, broke one end, and left it standing on the broken part; illustrating, in this simple manner, that when he had once shown the way to the new world, nothing was easier than to follow it. The joy occasioned by this great discovery was not confined to Spain; the whole civilized world was filled with wonder and delight. Every one rejoiced in it as an event in which he was more or less interested, and which opened a new and unbounded field for inquiry and enterprise. Men of learning and science shed tears of joy, and those of ardent imaginations indulged in the most extravagant and delightful dreams. Notwithstanding all this triumph, however, no one had an idea of the real importance of the discovery. The opinion of Columbus was universally adopted, that Cuba was the end of the Asiatic continent, and that the adjacent islands were in the Indian seas. They were called, therefore, the West Indies, and as the region thus discovered appeared to be of a vast and indefinite extent, and existing in a state of nature, it re, ceived the comprehensive appellation of " the New World."

CHAPTER XVI.

Papal Bull of Partition-Preparations for a second Voyage of Discovery. [1493.]

In the midst of their rejoicings, the Spanish sovereigns lost no time in taking every measure to secure their new acquisitions. During the crusades, a doctrine had been established among the christian princes, according to which the pope, from his supreme authority over all temporal things, as Christ's vicar on earth, was considered as empowered to dispose of all heathen lands to such christian potentates as would undertake to reduce them to the dominion of the church, and to introduce into them the light of religion.

Alexander VI., a native of Valencia, and born a subject to the crown of Arragon, had recently been elevated to the papal chair. He was a pontiff whom some historians have stigmatized with every vice and crime that could disgrace humanity, but whom all have represented as eminently able and politic. Ferdinand was well aware of his worldly and perfidious character, and endeavoured to manage him accordingly. He despatched ambassadors to him, announcing the new discovery as an extraordinary triumph of the faith, and a vast acquisition of empire to the church. He took care to state, that it

did not in the least interfere with the possessions ceded by the holy chair to Portugal, all which had been sedulously avoided; he supplicated his holiness, therefore, to issue a bull, granting to the crown of Castile dominion over all those lands, and such others as might be discovered in those parts, artfully intimating, at the same time, his determination to maintain possession of them, however his holiness might decide. No difficulty was made in granting what was considered but a reasonable and modest request, though it is probable that the acquiescence of the worldly-minded pontiff was quickened by the insinuation of the politic monarch.

A bull was accordingly issued, dated May 2d, 1493, investing the Spanish sovereigns with similar rights, privileges, and indulgences, in respect to the newly discovered regions, to those granted to the Portuguese with respect to their African discoveries, and under the same condition of propagating the catholic faith. To prevent any conflicting claims, however, between the two powers, the famous line of demarcation was established. This was an ideal line drawn from the north to the south pole, a hundred leagues west of the Azores and the Cape de Verde islands. All land discovered by the Spanish navigators to the west of this line was to belong to the crown of Castile; all land discovered in the contrary direction was to belong to Portugal. It seems never to have occurred to the pontiff, that, by pushing their opposite discoveries, they might some day or other come again in collision, and renew the question of territorial right at the antipodes.

In the meantime, the utmost exertions were made to fit out the second expedition of Columbus. To