The late Sir Arthur Helps wrote his _Spanish Conquest of America_ with the aim of developing the results—political, ethnological, and economic—of the conquest, rather than the day-by-day progress of events, and with a primary regard to the rise of slavery. His _Life of Columbus_ is simply certain chapters of this larger work excerpted and fitted in order.[275] Mr. Aaron Goodrich, in _A History of the so-called Christopher Columbus_, New York, 1874, makes a labored and somewhat inconsiderate effort, characterized by a certain peevish air, to prove Columbus the mere borrower of others’ glories.[276] In French, mention may be made of the Baron de Bonnefoux’s _Vie de Christophe Colomb_, Paris, 1853,[277] and the Marquis de Belloy’s _Christophe Colomb et la découverte du Nouveau Monde_, Paris, 1864.[278] In German, under the impulse given by Humboldt, some fruitful labors have been given to Columbus and the early history of American discovery; but it is only necessary to mention the names of Forster,[279] Peschel,[280] and Ruge.[281] =H.= PORTRAITS OF COLUMBUS.—Of Columbus there is no likeness whose claim to consideration is indisputable. We have descriptions of his person from two who knew him,—Oviedo and his own son Ferdinand; we have other accounts from two who certainly knew his contemporaries,—Gomara and Benzoni; and in addition we possess the description given by Herrera, who had the best sources of information. From these we learn that his face was long, neither full nor thin; his cheek-bones rather high; his nose aquiline; his eyes light gray; his complexion fair, and high colored. His hair, which was of light color before thirty, became gray after that age. In the _Paesi novamente retrovati_ of 1507 he is described as having a ruddy, elongated visage, and as possessing a lofty and noble stature.[282] [Illustration: PAULUS JOVIUS. Fac-simile of cut in Reusner’s _Icones_, Basle, 1589. There is another cut in _Pauli Jovii elogia virorum bellica virtute illustrium_, Basle, 1575 (copy in Harvard College Library).] These are the test with which to challenge the very numerous so-called likenesses of Columbus; and it must be confessed not a single one, when you take into consideration the accessories and costume, warrants us in believing beyond dispute that we can bring before us the figure of the discoverer as he lived. Such is the opinion of Feuillet de Conches, who has produced the best critical essay on the subject yet written.[283] [Illustration: COLUMBUS (after Giovio). Fac-simile of the woodcut in Paolo Giovio’s _Elogia virorum bellica virtute illustrium_ (Basle, 1596), p. 124. There are copies in the Boston Athenæum and Boston Public Library. It is also copied in Charton’s _Voyageurs_, iii. 81, from whom Hazard (_Santo Domingo_, New York, 1873, p. 7) takes it. The 1575 edition is in Harvard College Library, and the same portrait is on p. 191. This cut is also re-engraved in Jules Verne’s _La découverte de la terre_, p. 113.]