of the new world, the conversion of the gentiles, and the recovery of the holy sepulchre; three great events which he considered as destined to succeed each other, and to be accomplished through his agency. He prepared, at the same time, a long letter to the sovereigns, written with his usual fervour of spirit and simplicity of heart, urging them to set on foot a crusade for the conquest of Jerusalem. It is a singular composition, which lays open the visionary part of his character, and shows the mystic and speculative reading with which he was accustomed to nurture his solemn and soaring imagination*.

It must be recollected that this was a scheme meditated in melancholy and enthusiastic moods, in the courts of the alhambra, among the splendid remains of Moorish grandeur, where, but a few years before, he had beheld the standard of the faith elevated in triumph above the symbols of infidelity. It was in unison with the temper of the times, when the cross and sword frequently went together, and religion was made the pretext for the most desolating wars. Whether Columbus ever presented this book to the sovereigns is uncertain; it is probable that he did not, as his thoughts suddenly returned, with renewed ardour, to their wonted channels, and he conceived a leading object for another enterprise of discovery.

Vasco de Gama had recently accomplished the long attempted navigation to India by the Cape of Good Hope, and Pedro Alvarez Cabral, following in his track, had returned with his vessels laden

The manuscript volume, including the letter, still exists in the Columbian library of the cathedral of Seville, and has been inspected with great interest by the writer of this history.

with the precious merchandise of the east. The riches of Calicut were now the theme of every tongue. The discoveries of the savage regions of the new world had as yet brought but little revenue to Spain, but this route to the East Indies was pouring in immediate wealth upon Portugal.

Columbus was roused to emulation, and trusted he could discover a route to those oriental regions more easy and direct than that of Vasco de Gama. According to his own observations, and the reports of other navigators, the coast of Terra Firma stretched far to the westward. The southern coast of Cuba, which he considered a part of the Asiatic continent, stretched onward towards the same point. The currents of the Caribbean sea must pass between these lands. He was persuaded, therefore, that a strait must exist somewhere thereabout, opening into the Indian sea. The situation in which he placed his conjectural strait was somewhere about what is at present called the Isthmus of Darien, Could he but discover such a passage, and thus link the new world he had discovered with the opulent oriental countries of the old, he felt that he should make a magnificent close to his labours.

He unfolded his plan to the sovereigns, and, though it met with some narrow-minded opposition on the part of certain of the royal councillors, it was promptly adopted, and he was empowered to fit out an armament to carry it into effect. He accordingly departed for Seville in the autumn of 1501, to make the necessary preparations; but such were the delays caused by the artifices of Fonseca and his agents, that it was not until the following month of May that he was able to put to sea.

Before sailing, he took measures to provide against any misfortune that might happen to himself in so distant and perilous an expedition. He caused copies to be made and authenticated, of all the royal letters patent of his dignities and privileges; of his letter to the nurse of Prince Juan, containing a vindication of his conduct; and of two letters assigning to the bank of St. George, at Genoa, a tenth of his revenues, to be employed in diminishing the duties on provisions in his native city. These two sets of documents he sent by different hands to his friend, Doctor Nicolo Odorigo, who had been Genoese ambassador to the court of Spain, requesting him to deposit them in some safe place at Genoa, and to apprize his son Diego of the same.

He wrote also to Pope Alexander VII. mentioning his vow to furnish an army for a crusade, but informing him of his being prevented from fulfilling it by being divested of his government. He promised his holiness, however, on his return from his present voyage, to repair immediately to Rome, and render him an account of all his expeditions.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

Columbus sails on his fourth Voyage-Events at the Islands of Hispaniola-His Search after an imaginary Strait.

[1502.]

AGE was rapidly making its advances upon Columbus, when he undertook his fourth voyage of discovery. He was now about sixty-six years old. His constitution, originally vigorous in the extreme, had been impaired by hardships and exposures in every clime, and by the mental sufferings he had undergone. His intellectual powers alone retained their wonted energy, prompting him, at a period of life when most men seek repose, to sally forth, with youthful ardour, on the most toilsome and adventurous of enterprises. In this arduous voyage he was accompanied by his brother Don Bartholomew, who commanded one of the vessels, and by his son Fernando, then in his fourteenth year.

Columbus sailed from Cadiz on the 9th of May, 1502. His squadron consisted of four caravals, the largest of but seventy tons burthen, the smallest of fifty; the crews amounted in all to one hundred and fifty men. With this little armament, and

these slender barks, he undertook the search after a strait, which, if found, must conduct him into the most remote seas, and lead to a complete circum

navigation of the globe. After touching at the Canaries, he had a prosperous voyage to the Caribbee islands, arriving on the 15th of June at Mantinino, at present called Martinique. He had originally intended to steer to Jamaica, and from thence for the continent in search of the supposed strait; but one of his vessels proving a dull sailer, he bore away for Hispaniola, to exchange it for one of the fleet which had recently taken out Ovando. This was contrary to his orders, which had expressly forbade him to touch at Hispaniola, until his return homewards, lest his presence should cause some agitation in the island; he trusted, however, the circumstances of the case would plead his excuse.

Columbus arrived off the harbour of San Do

mingo at an unpropitious moment. The place was filled with the most virulent of his enemies, many of whom were in a high state of exasperation from recent proceedings which had taken place against them. The fleet which had brought out Ovando lay in the harbour ready to put to sea, and was to take out Roldan, and many of his late adherents, some of whom were under arrest, and to be tried in Spain. Bobadilla was to embark in the principal ship, on board of which he had put an immense amount of gold, the revenue collected for the government during his administration, and which he confidently expected would atone for all his faults. Among the presents he intended for the sovereigns was one mass of virgin gold, which is famous in the old Spanish chronicles. It was said to weigh three thousand six hundred castillanos. Large quantities of gold had also been shipped in the fleet by the followers of Roldan, and other adventurers; the