The credulous prince clofed eagerly with the propofai, and thought himself already fafe under the patronage of beings fprung from Heaven, and fuperior in power to mortal man. The ground was marked out for a fmall fort, which Columbus called Navidad,because he had landed there on Chriftmas day. A deep ditch was drawn around it. The ramparts were fortified with pallifades. and the great guns, faved out of the admiral's fhip, were planted upon them. In ten days the work was finished; that fimple race of men labouring with inconfiderate affiduity in erecting this first monument of their own fervitude. During this time Columbus, by his careffes and liberality, laboured to increase the high opinion which the natives entertained of the Spaniards. But while he endeavoured to infpire them with confidence in their difpofition to do good, he wifhed likewife to give them some striking idea, of their power to punish and destroy such as were the objects of their indignation. With this view, in presence of a vast assembly, he drew up his men in order of battle, and made an oftentatious but innocent display of the fharpness of the Spanish fwords, of the force of their spears, and the operation of their cross-bows. rude people, strangers to the use of iron, and unacquainted with any hoftile weapons, but arrows of reeds pointed with the bones of fishes, wooden fwords, and javelins hardened in the fire, wondered and trembled. Before this surprise or fear had time to abate, he ordered the great guns to be fired. The fudden explosion ftruck them with such terror, that they fell flat to the ground, covering their faces with their hands; and when they beheld the aftonishing effect of the bullets among the trees, towards which the cannon had been pointed, they concluded that it was impoffible to refift men, who had the command of fuch deftructive inftruments, and who came armed with thunder and lightning against their enemies.

These

After giving fuch impreffions both of the beneficence and power of the Spaniards, as might have rendered it easy to preferve an afcendant over the minds of the natives, Columbus appointed thirtyeight of his people to remain in the island. He entrusted the command of thefe to Diego de Arada, a gentleman of Cordova, invefting him with the fame powers which he himself had received from Ferdinand and Ifabella; and furnished him with every thing requifite for the fubfiftence or defence of this infant colony. He strictly enjoined them to maintain concord among themselves, to yield an unreferved obedience to their commander, to avoid giving offence to the natives by any violence or exaction, to cultivate the friendfhip of Guacanahari, but not to put themfelves in his power by ftraggling in fmall parties, or marching too far from the fort. He promised to revifit them foon, with fuch a reinforcement of

Arength as might enable them to take full poffeffion of the country, and to reap all the fruits of their discoveries. In the mean time, he engaged to mention their names to the King and Queen' and to place their merit and fervices in the most advantageous light.

Having thus taken every precaution for the fecurity of the Colony, he left Navidad on the fourth of January, one thousand four hundred and ninety-three, and steering towards the east, difcovered, and gave names to most of the harbours on the northern coaft of the island. On the fixth, he defcried the Pinta, and foon came up with her, after a separation of more than fix weeks. Pinzon endeavoured to juftify his conduct, by pretending that he had been driven from his courfe by ftrefs of weather, and prevented from returning by contrary winds. The admiral, though he ftill fufpected his perfidious intentions, and knew well what he urged in his own defence to be frivolous as well as false, was fo fenfible that it was not a proper time for venturing upon any high ftrain of authority, and felt fuch fatisfaction in this junction with his confort, which delivered him from many dif quieting apprehenfions, that, lame as Pinzon's apology was, he admitted of it without difficulty, and restored him to favour. During his abfence from the admiral, Pinzon had vifited feveral harbours in the island, and acquired fome gold by trafficking with the natives, but had made no difcovery of any importance. From the condition of his fhips, as well as the temper of his men, Columbus now found it neceflary to haften his return to Europe. The former, having fuffered much during a voyage of fuch an unusual length, were extremely leaky. The latter expreffed the utmost impatience to revifit their native country, from which they had been so long abfent, and where they had things fo wonderful and un-heard of to relate. Accordingly, on the fixteenth of January, he directed his courfe towards the north-eaft, and foon loft fight of land. He had on board fome of the natives, whom he had taken from the different iflands which he discovered; and befides the gold, which was the chief object of research, he had collected fpecimens of all the productions. which were likely to become subjects of commerce in the several countries, as well as many unknown birds, and other natural curiofities, which might attract the attention of the learned, or excite the wonder of the people. The voyage was profperous to the fourteenth of February, and he had advanced near five hundred leagues across the Atlantic Ocean, when the wind b to rife, and continue to blow with increasing r nated in a furious hurricane. Every exped.

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fkill and experience of Columbus could devife was employed, in order to fave the fhips. But it was impoffible to withstand the violence of the ftorm, and as they were ftill far from any land, destruction feemed inevitable. The failors had recourse to prayers to Almighty God, to the invocation of faints, to vows and charms, to every thing that religion dictates, or fuperftition fuggefts, to the affrighted mind of man. No prospect of deliverance appearing, they abandoned themfelves to defpair, and expected every moment to be fwallowed up in the waves. Befides the paifions which naturally agitate and alarm the human mind in fuch awful fituations, when certain death, in one of his most terrible forms, is before it, Columbus had to endure feelings of diftrefs peculiar to himfelf. He dreaded that all knowledge of the amazing discoveries which he had made was now to perish; mankind were to be deprived of every benefit that might have been derived from the happy fuccefs of his fchemes, and his own name would defcend to pofterity as that of a rash deluded adventurer, inftead of being tranfmitted with the honor due to the author and conductor of the most noble enterprise that had ever been undertaken. These reflections extinguished all sense of his own perfonal danger. Lefs affected with the lofs of life, than folicitous to preferve the memory of what he had attempted and achieved, he retired to his cabin, and wrote, upon parchment, a short account of the voyage which he had made, of the course which he had taken, of the fituation and riches of the countries which he had discovered, and of the colony that he had left there. Having wrapt up this in an oiled cloth, which he inclosed in a cake of wax, he put it into a cask carefully stopped up, and threw it into the fea, in hopes that fome fortunate accident might preserve a deposit of fo much importance to the world.*

* Every monument of fuch a man as Columbus is valuable. A letter which he wrote to Ferdinand and Isabella, defcribing what paffed on this occafion, exhibits a most striking picture of his intrepidity, his humanity, his prudence, his public fpirit, and courtly addrefs. "I would have been lefs concerned for this, misfortune, had I alone been in danger, both because my life is a debt that I owe to the Supreme Creator, and because I have at other times been exposed to the most imminent hazard.. But what gave me infinite grief and vexation was, that after it had pleafed our Lord to give me faith to undertake this enterprize, in which I had now been fo fuccefsful, that my opponents would have been convinced, and the glory of your highneffes, and the extent of your territory increased by me; it should pleafe the Divine Majesty to stop all by my death. All this would have been more tolerable, had it not been attended with the lofs of those men whom I had carried with me, upon promife of the greatest profperity, who feeing themselves in fuch diftrefs, curfed not only their coming along with me, but that fear and awe of me, which prevented them from returning as they had often refolved to have done. But befides all this, my forrow was greatly increafed, by recollecting that I had

At length Providence interpofed, to fave a life referved for other fervices. The wind abated, the fea became calm, and on the evening of the fifteenth, Columbus and his companions difcovered land; and though uncertain what it was, they made towards it. They foon knew it to be St. Mary, one of the Azores or western isles, subject to the crown of Portugal. There, after a violent contest with the governor, in which Columbus difplayed no lefs fpirit than prudence, he obtained a fupply of fresh provifions, and whatever elfe he needed. One circumftance, however, greatly difquieted him. The Pinta, of which he had loft fight on the first day of the hurricane, did not appear; he dreaded for fome time that he had foundered at tea, and that all her crew had perifhed: afterwards, his former fufpicions recurred, and he became apprehenfive that Pinzon had borne away for Spain, that he might reach it before him, and, by giving the Arft account of his difcoveries, might obtain fome fhare of his fame.

In order to prevent this, he left the Azores on the twentyfourth of February, as foon as the weather would permit. At no great diftance from the coaft of Spain, when near the end of his voyage, and feemingly beyond the reach of any difafter, another storm arofe, little inferior to the former in violence; and after driving before it during two days and two nights, he was forced to take shelter in the river Tagus. Upon application deft my two fons at school at Cordova, deftitute of friends, in a foreign country, when it could not in all probability be known that I had done fuch fervices as might induce your highnesses to remember them. And though I comforted myfelf with the faith that our Lord would not permit that, which tended fo much to the glory of his church, and which I had brought about with fo much trouble, to remain imperfect, yet I confidered, that on account of my fins, it was his will to deprive me of that glory, which I might have attained in this world. While in this confufed state, I thought on the good fortune which accompanies your highneffes, and imagined, that although I should perish, and the vessel be loft, it was poffible that you might fomehow come to the knowledge of my voyage, and the faccefs with which it was attended. For that reafon I wrote upon parchment with the brevity which the fituation required, that I had discovered the lands which I promifed, in how many days I had done it, and what courfe I had followed. I mentioned the goodness of the country, the character of the inhabitants, and that your highneffes fubjects were left in poffeflion of all that I had discovered. Having fealed this writing, I addreffed it to your highneffes, and promised a thousand ducats to any perfon who fhould deliver it fealed, fo that if any foreigners found it, the promifed reward might prevail on them not to give the information to another. I then caufed a great cafk to be brought to me, and wrapping up the parchment in an oiled cloth, and afterwards in a cake of wax, I put it into the cask, and having stopt it well, I caft it into the fea. All the men believed that it was fome act of devotion. Imagining that this might never chance to be taken up, as the fhips approached nearer to Spain, I made another packet like the first, and placed it at the top of the poop, fo that if the fhip funk, the cafk remaining above water might be committed to the guidance of fortune."

to the King of Portugal, on the fourth of March, one thoufand four hundred and ninety-three he was allowed to come up to Lifbon; and, notwithstanding the envy which it was natural for the Portuguese to feel, when they beheld another nation entering upon that province of difcovery which they had hitherto deemed peculiarly their own, and in its first effay, not only rivalling but eclipfing their fame, Columbus was received with all the marks of diftinction due to a man who had performed things fo extraordinary and unexpected. The King admitted him into his prefence, treated him with the highest respect, and listened to the account which he gave of his voyage with admiration mingled with regret. While Columbus, on his part, enjoyed the fatisfaction of describing the importance of his diicoveries, and of being now able to prove the folidity of his schemes to thofe very perfons, who with an ignorance disgraceful to themselves, and fatal to their country, had lately rejected them as the projects of a visionary or designing adventurer.

Columbus was fo impatient to return to Spain, that he remained only five days in Lisbon. On the fifteenth of March he arrived in the port of Palos, feven months and eleven days from the time when he fet out thence upon his voyage. As foon as his ship was dilcovered approaching the port, all the inhabitants of Palos ran eagerly to the thore, in order to welcome their relations and fellow-citizens, and to hear tidings of their voyage. When the profperous iffae of it was known, when they beheld the strange people, the unknown animals, and fingular productions brought from the countries which had been discovered, the effufion of joy was general and unbounded. The bells were rung, the cannon fired; Columbus was received at landing with royal honours, and all the people, in folemn proceffion, accompanied him and his crew to the church, where they returned thanks to Heaven, which had fo wonderfully conducted and crowned with fuccess, a voyage of greater length and of more importance, than had been attempted in any former age. On the evening of the fame day, he had the fatisfaction of feeing the Pinta, which the violence of the tempeft had driven far to the north, enter the harbour.

The first care of Columbus was to inform the King and Queen, who were then at Barcelona, of his arrival and fuccefs. Ferdinand and Ifabella, no lefs aftonifhed than delighted with this unexpected event, defired Columbus, in terms the most respectful and flattering to repair immediately to court, that from his own mouth they might receive a full detail of his extraordinary fervices and difcoveries. During his journey to Barcelona, the people crowded from the adjacent country, following him every