CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS
His Life and His Work
THE LOTTO PORTRAIT OF COLUMBUS.
“MAKERS OF AMERICA”
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS
His Life and His Work
BY
CHARLES KENDALL ADAMS, LL.D.
PRESIDENT OF CORNELL UNIVERSITY
NEW YORK
DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY
1892
Copyright, 1892,
By Dodd, Mead and Co.
All rights reserved.
University Press:
John Wilson and Son, Cambridge.
TO
J. J. HAGERMAN,
Nobleman and Friend,
THIS VOLUME IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED
By the Author.
In this little volume I have made an attempt topresent in popular form the results of the latest researchesin regard to the life and work of Columbus.
While constant use has been made of the originalauthorities, it has been my effort to interpret the conflictingstatements with which these sources abound,in the spirit of modern criticism. The principalauthorities used have been the Letters and the Journalof Columbus, the History of the Admiral purportingto be by his son Fernando, the histories of thetime by Las Casas, Bernaldez, Oviedo, Peter Martyr,and Herrera, and the invaluable collection of documentsby Navarrete. Of the greatest importance arethe writings of Columbus and Las Casas.
As will appear in the course of the volume, thewritings of the Admiral abound in passages that arecontradictory or irreconcilable. In the interpretationof conflicting statements, assistance has been receivedviiifrom the numerous writings of Henry Harrisse. Theresearches of this acute critic in the manuscript records,as well as in the published writings of Italy andSpain, make his works indispensable to a correct understandingof the age of Columbus.
I have not, however, been able to adopt withoutreservation his views in regard to the work attributedto the son of the Admiral. The force of Harrisse’sreasoning is unquestionable; but, as it seems to me,there is internal evidence that the author of the book,whether Fernando or not, had unusual opportunitiesfor knowledge in regard to the matters about whichhe wrote. While, therefore, I have used the work withgreat caution, I have not felt justified in rejecting itas altogether spurious.
The reader will not go far in the perusal of thisvolume without perceiving that I have endeavoured toemancipate myself from the thraldom of that uncriticaladmiration in which it has been fashionable tohold the Discoverer, ever since Washington Irvingthrew over the subject the romantic and bewitchingcharm of his literary skill. Irving revealed the spiritwith which he wrote when he decried what he waspleased to call “that pernicious erudition which busiesitself with undermining the pedestals of our nationalmonuments.” Irving’s was not the spirit of modern...