The friendship of the Portuguese was now courted by the Samorin, Idalcan, and all the most formidable Indian princes, who offered to permit fortresses to be built, and factories to be established in any part of their dominions. Albu querque did not fail to profit by these offers; and judging that the season was now arrived for giving the final blow to the Arabian commerce in the East, he embarked in his original projects, the conquest of Aden and Ormus. A. D. 1513. In his attempt upon Aden, which was then the key of Egypt, Albuquerque miscarried: but he committed so many ravages on the coasts of the Red Sea, and in the straits of Babelmandel, as entirely ruined the commerce of the Arabs and Egyptians. He was more successful in his expedition against Ormus, at that time the most opulent and splendid city in the East. It appears to have been nothing inferior to what we are told of ancient Tyre, either in wealth or in splendour, in industry or in pleasure: and, like Tyre, it was seated in a barren isle. Like Tyre, it seemed only to have been disjoined from the land, that it might become queen of the sea. It was one of the greatest marts in the universe. But its voluptuous inhabitants were little able to withstand the impetuous and hardy A. D. 1515. valour of the Portuguese. Albuquerque soon made himself master of the place, and had the honour of there receiving an embassy from the king of Persia3. The reduction of Ormus, which was the last enterprize of this truly great man, together with the possession of Goa and Malacca, gave perfect security to the Portuguese commerce in India. His successors afterwards extended it into China and Japan; but it was never more respectable than under Albuquerque. Yet this founder of his country's greatness died in disgrace, and of a broken heart, if ever any man may be said to have done so. That dauntless spirit which had encountered so many enemies, and surmounted so many dangers, could not support the frown of his prince. Ema S. Guyon, Hist. des Ind. Orient. tom. i. Hist. Gen. des Voyages. tom. i. nuel, nuel, become jealous of his glory, had listened to the insi nuations of his enemies; had appointed another governor in his stead, and promoted those whom he sent home as criminals. When Albuquerque received this intelligence, he sighed and said, "Can these things be so?—I incurred "the hatred of men by my love for the king, and am dis"graced by him through his prepossession for other men: "to the grave, unhappy old man! to the grave!-thy actions "will speak for themselves and for thee." While the Portuguese, my dear Philip, were thus employed in making acquisitions in the East, and appropriating to themselves the most lucrative commerce in the known world, the Spaniards had discovered a new continent toward the West. They had called into existence, as it were, another world; had opened new sources of trade, expanded new theatres of dominion, and displayed new scenes of ambition, of avarice, and of blood. Christopher Columbus, a Genoese navigator, who resided at Lisbon, and who had devoted himself to the study of astronomy, first conceived the idea of this new continent. Perfectly acquainted with the figure of the earth, the notion of the Antipodes, considered by reason as a chimera, and by religion as impiety, appeared to him an incontestible fact. But if Columbus had not added the stout heart of a hero to the enlightened mind and persevering spirit of a philosopher, the world might still have been ignorant of his discoveries. The Genoese, his countrymen, whom he proposed to put in possession of another hemisphere, treated him as a visionary. He also unfolded his project, the grandest that human genius ever formed, in 1484, to the court of Portugal without success. He next laid it before the court of Spain; where he long suffered all that supercilious neglect which unsupported merit so often meets with from men in office, who are too apt to despise what they do not understand. 9. Id. Ibid. Ferdinand Ferdinand and Isabella were then engaged in the conquest of Granada. The Spanish treasury was exhausted. But no sooner were the Moors subdued, than the ambitious mind of Isabella seemed to sympathise with the bold spirit of Columbus. She offered to pledge her jewels, in order to furnish him with a fleet. Three small vessels were fitted out by other means; and Columbus set sail from the port of Palos, in Andalusia, on the third of August, in the year 1492, in quest of a Western continent, with the title of Admiral and Viceroy of the isles and lands which he should dis cover1o. Transcendant genius, and superlative courage, experience almost equal difficulty in carrying their designs into execution, when they depend on the assistance of others. Columbus possessed both, he exerted both; and the concurrence of other heads and other hearts were necessary to give success to either: he had indolence and cowardice to encounter, as well as ignorance and prejudice. He had formerly been ridiculed as a visionary, he was now pitied as a desperado. The Portuguese navigators, in accomplishing their first discoveries, had always some reference to the coast: cape had pointed them to cape; but Columbus, with no landmark but the heavens, nor any guide but the compass, boldly launched into the ocean, without knowing what shore should receive him, or where he could find rest for the sole of his foot. His crew murmured, they mutinied; they proposed to commit him to those waves with which he so wantonly sported, and return to Spain". This was a severe trial to the courage of Columbus, and Columbus only perhaps, could have supported it. The enthusiasm of genius added strength to his natural fortitude. Cool and unconcerned himself about every thing but his great object, he had recourse to the softest language. He encou 10. Life of Columbus, written by his son, chap. xv. raged raged his men by fair promises, he deceived his officers by false reckonings. But all these expedients proved at last ineffectual, he demanded three days indulgence; at the end of which, if he did not discover land, he promised to abandon his project. His request was granted; and on the morning of the second day, being the 12th of October, to his inexpressible joy, he got sight of one of the Bahama islands, to which he gave the name of San Salvador. He took possession of it in the name of their Catholic Majesties, and proceeded on his course12. After leaving San Salvador, now better known by the name of Guanahani, given to it by the natives, Columbus fell in with several other small islands: to one of which he gave the name of Isabella, in honour of his patroness, and to another that of Ferdinand, in compliment to the Catholic king. These he rightly judged to belong to that Western continent which he sought, and which he conjectured must reach to the Portuguese settlements in India; hence the name of West-Indies. At length he arrived at the island of Cuba, where he entered into some correspondence with the natives, and particularly with the women, from whom he learned, that the gold ornaments which they wore, came from Bohio, a large island to the south-east. Thither Columbus steered: what heart does not pant after gold! he soon reached Bohio, or Hayti, as it was called by the natives, to which he gave the name of Espagnola, altered by us into Hispaniola. Here Columbus built a fort, and planted a little colony; after which, having taken a general survey of the island, and settled a friendly intercourse with the natives, he set out on his return to Spain, carrying along with him a sufficient quantity of gold to evince the importance of his discoveries, and some of those new people to complete the astonishment of Europe. The natives of Hispaniola, and indeed of all the islands which Columbus had visited, were an easy, indolent, harm 12. Life of Columbus, chap. xxiii. less, less race. They were of a copper colour. The men and the girls went entirely naked; the women had a mat of cotton wrapt about their loins. They had no hair on any part of the body but the head; a distinction which also is common to the natives of the American continent. They con sidered the Spaniards as divinities, and the discharge of the artillery as their thunder: they fell on their faces at the sound. The women however, seem very early to have had less awful apprehensions of their new guests: for they no sooner saw them, than they offered their favours, and courted their embraces as men13. Some wicked wit may indeed say, that women from the beginning have been fond of superior beings; and if we credit ancient story, they have often good reason for such fondness. But be that as it may, it is certain that the women of Hispaniola were fonder of the Spaniards than of their husbands. Their husbands were not jealous of them. And in the arms of those wantons the companions of Columbus are said to have caught that fatal malady which has strewed with new thorns the paths of love, and which, if human happiness is to be computed by the balance of pain and pleasure, will be found to be more than a counterpoise to all the gold of Mexico, the silver of Peru, and the diamonds of Brazil. But let not this misfortune be brought as a charge against the great navigator. He could not know that the new hemisphere contained new maladies: he could not foresee, that he should import into Europe a distemper that would poison the springs of life; which would propagate disease from generation to generation, emasculate the vigour of nations, and multiply a thousand ways the miseries of mankind! and happily for him, his enemies were ignorant of it at his return. He again entered the port of Palos on the 15th of March, 1493, after a voyage of seven months and eleven days, and was received with universal acclamations of joy, VOL. II. 13. Herrera, dec. i. Those |