The Press. SATURDAY, MAY 19, 1906. THE QUATERCENTENARY OF COLUMBUS.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 12506, 19 May 1906, Page 8

The Press. SATURDAY, MAY 19, 1906. THE QUATERCENTENARY OF COLUMBUS.

. Christopher Columbus—or, to give him his real name, Chratoforo Colombo — died exactly four hundred years ago to-morrOTT, that is on May 20th, 1606. It would have been happier for him if ho had • died a dozen yeare sooner. Never did the doer of a great deed enjoy less satisfaction, or recognition for it, during his own life time. No doubt this was partly due to his own -weakne-ees and limitations; but it was due still more to the circumstances of the time: to the feverksh rush of discovery, and to the incapacity of an excited world to weigh in a judicial balance the significance and 1 value of each incident of the race. History has succeeded in placing in a truer perspective the individual achievements of that marvellous time. The first requisite is to understand clearly that Columbu6's voyage was only a part of a great movement of discovery, I which spread over about a hundred years; the next is to grasp in t'neir - initiation and later developments, tfio ideas which sent men voyaging into I unknown oceans and along unknown • coasts. Geographical discovery by sea - did not begin in the fifteenth century. * During preceding centuries there had been stray, spasmodic movements wost--3 ward by Northmen, Genoese, and . others; while the Indian and Eastern Oceans had become fairly familiar to the Arab traders from the Red Sen and the Persian Gulf. But the credit of initiating a systematic policy cf exp'oration belongs to the Portuguese, in their movement down the west coast of t Africa; a movement which reached its 1 culmination after sixty yeans of pros grees, when Vasco da Gama succeeded in reaching India by the Capo of Good Hope. By Vasco da Gama'e time the ruling impulse of Portuguese discovery had become wholly commercial; wheroae at the beginning it hod not even been partly commercial, but wholly religious. The exploration of the NorthWest coast of Africa was a belateu f cnifiade, the leading idea being to get behind the Mohammedan power, and secure tho natives for Christianity, or. more strictly speaking, for tJie aggrandisement of the " Order of Jesus Christ." Tho methods by which ttus object was pursued will not bear investigation., But we nre not now concerned with the Portuguese except so far as to understand *hat before Columbia's first voyage they had I olready rounded the Cape, and were I governed entirely in their policy by the prospect of sea-borne trade with India and the Far East. ■ I But tho problem of the Atlantic was * ! still unsolved. "What lay to the west j i of the ooean? The established convictions on the subject were twofold:— » j First, that tho first mainland that I would be reached by sailing westward wan the East coa*>t of Aβ i a; eecond. that out in the middle of the ocean lay a great island. The existence of this j island roeted solely on tradition; but tho tradition had acquired the sanctity of ascertained fact. Had not Plato ' i described it, and gone so far as to evolve out of hie own Divine intuition tho manners and customs of ifca inhabi- ?, taiits? Had not the great Italian 1 geographers believed in it, and glv«u it

a place on their maps? There were many other traditions about the un- • known Atlantic, equally vague, and equally convincing; and it wae under the guidance of those traditions that all early exploration of that ocean had proceeded. It is the glory of Columbue that he discarded these mysterious islands altogether, and eet his heart on reaching the mainland of Asia by sailing persistently westward. But, of the intervention of a huge oontinent and a second ocean neither he nor any European geographer had least conception. This great final act in the drama was to be worked out thirty years later, when Magalhaes (Magellan), a more resolute mariner than he, would double Cape Horn, and, after joining hands with the Portuguese traders in the East Indies, would return to Europe by the Cape of Good Hope.

The various pointe of view of the European States at this time are well illustrated by the refusals and final acceptance of Columb lie's overtures. Portugal refused because she foresaw already a monopoly of the Eastern trade by Good Hope, and had no desire to play into the hands of stronger Powers by diverting that trade into another channel. Genoa and Venice refused because they foresaw that the discovery of an ocean route to Eastern Asia would give tho death-blow to the overland trade by Suez and the Persian Gulf, on the maintenance of which a good deal of their prosperity depended. England temporised, having plans of her own in riew, or perhaps having a presentiment that the gains would ultimately fall into her hands anyhow. The Catholic Sovereigns, Ferdinand and Isabella, alone were unhampered by ulterior policies, and thought of supplementing the holy work of expelling the Moons from Spain by acquiring distant lands for tho Church, and for the Gastilian crown. So the contract was signed.

and six months later Columbus

was on one of Bnhama islands. He made four voyages altogether, the last in 1502. Apart from the momentous fact of his having been the first to reach these waters, the really remarkable thing is the paitriness of his actual achievement. Hβ had everything in his favour; and yet he, the first soaman in Europe, only added to the map the West Indian Archipelago, and what were afterwards the small republics of Central America. How cramped it appears compared to the comprehensive and daring programme of a Diaz, a do Gama, a Magellan, or a Cook, carried out to the bitter end! But Columbus was a sentimental and impulsive man, without staying power or the capacity for command. For his troubles with his Government he was himsolf largely to blame; and if ho felt himself aggrieved, it was always opon to him to do as Magellan afterwards dfd, viz., throwup the service, and strike out for himself northward or southward along the American coast. The one absorbing idea of his life had been the discovery of a mainland by sailing to the westward. It had haunted him like a dream or a Divine inspiration; and when it was turned into reality, his rcsourcefulne.se and enterprise seemed to come to an end. How evanescent his fame was among his own contemporaries may be inferred from the fact that the New World (when it was ascertained to be such) was not named after him, but after Amerigo Vespucci, who was not an explorer at all, bu.. made a subsequent voyage to South America under Pinzon, and had the good sense to write a narrative of his experiences, and the good fortune to find a publisher for it.