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
Washington, 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.
[Illustration (handwritten in the illustration): These are my authentic
portraits! Ch. Columbus, Esq. mp]
[Illustration: 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."
I sez to Josiah, "I guess if Mr. Carvugal was sot down here to-day, and
see what he would see here, he would be apt to think indeed they wuz
Fortunate Islands."
But as I said that I heard a voice a-sayin'--
"Who is Mr. Carvugal, Samantha?"
I recognized the voice, and I sez, "Why, Irena Flanders, is it you? I
have been to see you; I hearn you wuz sick."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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