The Life of Christopher Columbus

THE INSTRUCTIONS GIVEN FOR THE VOYAGE -- HE IS TO GO TO THE MAINLAND OF THE INDIES -- A SHORT PASSAGE -- OVANDO FORBIDS THE ENTRANCE OF COLUMBUS INTO HARBOR -- BOBADILLA'S SQUADRON AND ITS FATE -- COLUMBUS SAILS WESTWARD -- DISCOVERS HONDURAS, AND COASTS ALONG ITS SHORES -- THE SEARCH FOR GOLD -- COLONY ATTEMPTED AND ABANDONED -- THE VESSELS BECOME UNSEAWORTHY -- REFUGE AT JAMAICA -- MUTINY LED BY THE BROTHERS PORRAS -- MESSAGES TO SAN DOMINGO -- THE ECLIPSE -- ARRIVAL OF RELIEF -- COLUMBUS RETURNS TO SAN DOMINGO, AND TO SPAIN.

It seems a pity now that, after his third voyage, Columbus did not remain in Spain and enjoy, as an old man could, the honors which he had earned and the respect which now waited upon him. Had this been so, the world would have been spared the mortification which attends the thought that the old man to whom it owes so much suffered almost everything in one last effort, failed in that effort, and died with the mortification of failure. But it is to be remembered that Columbus was not a man to cultivate the love of leisure. He had no love of leisure to cultivate. His life had been an active one. He had attempted the solution of a certain problem which he had not solved, and every day of leisure, even every occasion of effort and every word of flattery, must have quickened in him new wishes to take the prize which seemed so near, and to achieve the possibility which had thus far eluded him.