Samantha at the World's Fair Part 43

He yielded instantly, and sez he, "It hain't hardly fair, when Christopher is the cause of all these doin's, that he should be slighted so by us."

And I sez, "No, indeed!" so we went directly there by the nearest way, which wuz partly by land and partly by water; and as our boat sailed on through the waves under the brilliant suns.h.i.+ne and the grandeur of eighteen ninety-three, did it not make me think of Him, weary, despairin', misunderstood, with his soul all hemmed in by envious and malicious foes, so that there wuz but one open path for him to soar in, and that wuz upward, as his boat crept and felt its way along through the night, and storm, and oncertainty of 1492.

Wall, anon or about that time, we drew near the place where I wanted to be.

The Convent of La Rabida is a little to the east of Agricultural Hall, a sort of a inlet lake that feeds a long portion of the grand ca.n.a.l.

A promontory is formed by the meetin' of the two waters, and all round this point of land, risin' to a height of twenty-two feet, is a rough stun wall.

This wall is a reproduction of the dangerous coast of Spain, and back on this rise of ground can be seen the Convent of La Rabida, a fac-simile, or, as you might say, a similer fact, a exact reproduction of the convent where Columbus planned out his voyage to the new world.

Yes, within these walls wuz born the great and darin' scheme of Columbus--a great birth indeed; only next to us in eternal consequences to the birth in the manger.

It stands jest as it ort to, a-facin' the risin' sun.

A low, eight-sided cupalo surmounts the choir s.p.a.ce inside the chapel, and above the nave rises the balcony.

On three sides of a broad, open court are the lonesome cloisters in which the Monks knelt in their ceaseless prayers.

The chapel floor is a little higher than the court and cloisters, and is paved with bricks.

It wuz at this very convent door that Columbus arrived heart-sore and weary after seven years' fruitless labor in the cause he held so clost to his heart.

Seven long years that he had spent beggin' and importunin' for help to carry out his Heaven-sent visions.

A livin' light s.h.i.+nin' in his sad eyes, and he couldn't git anybody else to see it.

The constant was.h.i.+n' of new seas on new sh.o.r.es, and he couldn't git anybody to hear 'em.

A constant glow, prophetic and ardent, longin' to carry the religion of Christ into a new land that he knew wuz a-waitin' him, but everybody else deaf and dumb to his heart-sick longin's.

Oh, I thought to myself as I stood there, if that poor creeter could only had a few of the gorgeous banners that wuz waved out to the air, enough to clothe an army; if he could have only had enough of 'em to made him a hull s.h.i.+rt; if he could have had enough of the banquets spread to his memory, enough to feed all the armies of the earth; if he could have a slice of bread and a good cup of tea out of 'em, how glad I would be, and how glad he would have been!

But it wuzn't to be, it wuzn't to be.

Hungry and in rags, almost naked, foot-sore, heart-sore, he arrived at the convent gate, to ask food and shelter for himself and child.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Almost naked, foot-sore, heart-sore, he arrived at the convent gate.]

It wuz here that he found an asylum for a few years, carryin' on his plans, makin' out new arguments, stronger, mebby, than he had argued with for seven stiddy years, and I should a thought them old arguments must have been wore out.

It wuz in one of the rooms of the convent that he met the Monks in debate, and also argued back and forth with Garcia Fernandez and Alonzo Penzen, gettin' the better of Alonzo every time, but makin' it up to him afterwards by lettin' him command one of the vessels of his fleet. It wuz from here the superior of the convent, won over by Columbuses eloquence, went for audience with the Queen, and from it Columbus wuz summoned to appear at court.

In this very convent he made his preparations for his voyage, and on the mornin' he sailed from Palos he wors.h.i.+pped G.o.d in this little chapel.

What visions riz up before his eyes as he knelt on the brick floor of that little chapel, jest ready to leave the certainty and sail out into the oncertainty, leavin' the oncertainty and goin' out into the certainty!

A curious prayer that must have been, and a riz up one.

In that prayer, in the confidence and aspiration of that one man, lay the hull new world. The hope, the freedom, the liberty, the enlightenment of a globe, jest riz up on the breath of that one prayer.

A momentious prayer as wuz ever riz up on earth.

But the stun walls didn't give no heed to it, and I dare say that Alonzo and the rest wuz sick a-waitin' for him, and wanted to cut it short.

Yes, Columbus must have had emotions in this convent as hefty and as soarin' as they make, and truly they must have been immense to gone ahead of mine, as I stood there and thought on him, what he had done and what he had suffered.

Why, I had more'n a hundred and twenty-five or thirty a minute right along, and I don't know but more.

When I see them relics of that n.o.ble creeter, paper that he had had his own hand on, that his own eyes had looked at, his own brain had dictated, every one of 'em full of the ardentcy and earnestness of his religion--why, they increased the number and frequency of my emotions to a almost alarmin' extent.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Ma.n.u.scripts]

Here are twenty-nine ma.n.u.scripts all in his own hand.

They are truly worth more than their weight in gold--they are worth their weight in diamonds.

Amongst the most priceless ma.n.u.scripts and doc.u.ments is the original of the contract made with the Soverigns of Spain before his first voyage, under which Columbus made his first voyage to America.

The most remarkable contract that wuz ever drawn, in which the Soverigns of Spain guaranteed to Columbus and his heirs forever one eighth of all that might be produced of any character whatever in any land he might discover, and appinted him and his descendants perpetual rulers over such lands, with the t.i.tle of Viceroy.

I looked at the contract, and then thought of how Columbus died in poverty and disgrace, and now, four hundred years after his death, the world a-spendin' twenty million to honor his memory.

A sense of the folly and the strangeness of all things come over me like a flood, and I bent my head in shame to think I belonged to a race of bein's so ongrateful, and so lyin', and everything else.

I thought of that humble grave where a broken heart hid itself four hundred years ago, and then I looked out towards that matchless White City of gorgeous palaces riz up to his honor four hundred years too late; and a sense of the futility of all things, the pity of it, the vanity of all things here below, swept over me, and instinctively I lay holt of my pardner's arm, and thought for a minute I must leave the buildin'; but I thought better on't, and he thought I laid holt of his arm as a mark of affection. And I didn't ondeceive him in it.

Then there is Columbuses commission as Admiral of the Ocean Seas.

His correspondence with Ferdinand and Isabella before and after his discovery, and a host of other invaluable papers loaned by the Spanish Goverment and the living descendants of Columbus in Spain. And there is pieces of the house his father-in-law built for him--a cane made from one of the jistes, and the shutters of one of the windows. Columbuses own hand may have opened them shutters! O my heart! think on't.

And then there wuz the original copy of the first books relatin' to America, over one hundred of 'em, obtained from the Vatican at Rome, and museums, and libraries, in London, and Paris, and Madrid, and Was.h.i.+ngton, D.C. They are writ by Lords, and Cardinals, and Bishops, way back as fur as fourteen hundred and ninety-three.

Then there wuz quaint maps and charts of the newly discovered country, lookin' some as our first maps would of Mars, if the United States had made up its mind to annex that planet, and Uncle Sam had jest begun to lay it out into countries.

Then there are the portraits of Columbus. Good creeter! it seemed a pity to see so many of 'em--his enemies might keep right on abusin' him, and say that he wuz double-faced, or sixty or eighty faced, when I know, and they all ort to know, that he wuz straightforward and stiddy as the sun.

Poor creeter! it wuz too bad that there should be so many of 'em.

[Ill.u.s.tration (handwritten in the ill.u.s.tration): These are my authentic portraits! Ch. Columbus, Esq. mp]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Poor creeter! it wuz too bad that there should be so many of 'em.]

Then there are models and photographs of statutes and monuments of him, and the very stun and clay that them tall monuments is made of, mebby they are the very stuns that hurt his bare feet, and the clay the very same his tears had fell on, as he'd throw himself down heart-weary on his lonesome pilgrimages. I dare presoom to say that he would lay his head down under some wayside tree and cry--I hain't a doubt on't.

When I thought it over, how much had been said about Columbus even durin' the last year in Jonesville and Chicago, to say nothin' about the rest of the world, it wuz a treat indeed to see the first printed allusion that wuz ever made to Columbus, about three months after Columbus arrived in Portugal, March fifteenth, fourteen hundred and ninety-three. It was writ by Mr. Carvugal, Spanish Cardinal.

In it Mr. Carvugal says--

"And Christ placed under their rule (Ferdinand and Isabella) the Fortunate Islands."