come to be recognised as veracious and exact narratives, erring here and there only from natural misconceptions. Their descriptions of the Great Khan's Court, of the Kubla Khan. magnificence of his retinue, and the resources and extent of his Empire, might well excite Western curiosity and stimulate the efforts of voyagers. It was not without reason that Hakluyt included in his compilation the stories of some of these Eastern travellers; without them his epic would lack its true beginning. The travels of Marco Polo were too well known to be inserted, but they are essential to the completeness of the book.

The quest of Cathay, then, is the main theme of this long poem of adventure; it is the purpose and soul of centuries of travel. But the theme is diversified with episodes and digressions and underplots. The singleness of an enterprise is not necessarily reflected in the minds and hearts of all who take part in it. Men who left their homes, and sailed to an unknown world, were influenced by the most diverse motives, political or religious, commercial or scientific. In not a few cases the 'good unsought discoveries' made by the way caused the original purpose to be forgotten. The Letters of Columbus, at the outset of the history, foreshadow some later developments. developments. Columbus him- The aims of self was full of zeal for the spread of Christianity, and the increase of knowledge. But it was necessary to show that his expedition would pay its promoters in temporal coin. 'I gave to the subject,' he says in the account of his Third Voyage, 'six or seven years of great anxiety, explaining, to the best of my ability, how great service might be done to our Lord, by this undertaking,

Columbus.

in promulgating His sacred name and our holy faith among so many nations ;-an enterprise so exalted in itself, and so calculated to enhance the glory and immortalize the renown of the greatest sovereigns. It was also requisite to refer to the temporal prosperity, which was foretold in the writings of so many trustworthy and wise historians, who related that great riches were to be found in those parts. And at the same time I thought it desirable to bring to bear upon the subject, the sayings and opinions of those who have written upon the geography of the world. And finally, your Highnesses came to the determination that the underThe spread of taking should be entered upon.' To add a whole realm Christianity. to Christendom was in the opinion of Columbus a sufficient object and reward. The people of the West Indian islands, he says, 'all clearly understand each other's speech, a circumstance very propitious for the realization of what I conceive to be the principal wish of our most serene King, namely, the conversion of these people to the holy faith of Christ.' And again,

Let the King and Queen, our Princes and their most happy Kingdoms, and all the other provinces of Christendom, render thanks to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who has granted us so great a victory and such prosperity. Let processions be made, and sacred feasts be held, and the temples be adorned with festive boughs. Let Christ rejoice on earth, as he rejoices in heaven in the prospect of the salvation of the souls of so many nations hitherto lost. Let us also rejoice, as well on account of the exaltation of our faith, as on account of the increase of our temporal prosperity, of which not only Spain, but all Christendom will be partakers.'

To reinforce this magnanimous and generous motive The increase of Columbus quotes instances of what great princes Knowledge. throughout the world have done to increase their fame: as, for example, Solomon, who sent from Jerusalem to the uttermost parts of the East, to see Mount Sopora, in which expedition his ships were detained three years; and which mountain your Highnesses now possess in the island of Hispaniola ; .. Alexander, who sent to observe the mode of Government in the island of Taprobana, in India; and Cæsar Nero, to explore the sources of the Nile, and to learn the causes of its increase in the Spring, when water is needed; and many other mighty deeds which princes have done, and which it is allotted to princes to achieve.' Lastly, there is the recent noble example of the Kings of The example of Portugal. Portugal, who have had the courage to explore as far as Guinea, and to make the discovery of it, expending so much gold and so many lives in the undertaking, that a calculation of the population of the kingdom would show that one half of them have died in Guinea; and though it is now a long time since they commenced these great exertions, the return for their labour and expense has hitherto been but trifling; this people has also dared to make conquests in Africa, and to carry on their exploits to Ceuta, Tangier, Algiers, and Alcazar, repeatedly giving battle to the Moors; and all this at great expense; simply because it was an exploit worthy of a prince, undertaken for the service of God, and to advance the enlargement of His Kingdom.' In

consonance with these aims, the behaviour of Columbus Columbus and to the natives of Hispaniola was ordered by the loftiest the Indians. code of a Spanish gentleman. 'I gave,' he says, 'to

Indian virtues.

all I approached whatever articles I had about me, such as cloth and many other things, taking nothing of theirs in return but they are naturally timid and fearful. As soon however as they see that they are safe, and have laid aside all fear, they are very simple and honest, and exceedingly liberal with all they have; none of them refusing anything he may possess when he is asked for it, but on the contrary inviting us to ask them. They exhibit great love towards all others in preference to themselves; they also give objects of great value for trifles, and content themselves with very little or nothing in return. I however forbade that these trifles and articles of no value (such as pieces of dishes, plates, and glass, keys, and leather straps) should be given to them, although if they could obtain them, they imagined themselves to be possessed of the most beautiful trinkets in the world. . They bartered, like idiots, cotton and gold for fragments of bows, glasses, bottles and jars; which I forbade, as being unjust, and myself gave them many beautiful and acceptable articles which I had brought with me, taking nothing from them in return; I did this in order that I might the more easily conciliate them, that they might be led to become Christians, and be inclined to entertain a regard for the King and Queen, our Princes, and The fate of all Spaniards.' With this fair dawn of mutual courtesy, Hispaniola. sincerity, and the traffic of honourable men, began a

day of pillage and cruelty and devastation such as the world has seldom seen. Twelve years after the first landing of Columbus the five great tribes of Hispaniola were all but exterminated. Many of the Indians perished by the sword, many under the lash of the

Spanish task-master; others died of hunger in the mountains, or took their own and their children's lives, to escape from the cruelty of Spain. The successive names of the island—Hispaniola, San Domingo, Hayti— embody its miserable history. The generous and gentle designs of Queen Isabella gave way to a persecution worthy of the fierce St. Dominic, and when the Indians were dead, by sundry kinds of death,' the island was peopled with imported negroes, under whose government at last it fell. In the full Nineteenth Century, the gold-laced officials of the Black Republic have been known to retire by night to the mountains, to celebrate their magic rites, attended by human sacrifice.

Presages and omens of this tragedy are to be found even in the Letters of Columbus. There are oft-repeated The search for gold. mentions of gold. You will say to their Highnesses,' he writes to Antonio de Torres, 'that I should have ardently desired to send them a larger quantity of gold, ... but that the greater part of the people we employed fell suddenly ill.' Again, I think it will be impossible to go this year to make discoveries until arrangements have been made to work the two rivers, in which the gold has been found, in the most profitable manner for their Highnesses' interest.' Again,— 'We hope, with the aid of God and with the washers Providence and the goldthat we have here with us, when they shall be restored to health, to send a good quantity of gold by the first caravels that shall leave for Spain.' And later,'Though we have not sent home ships laden with gold, we have, nevertheless, sent satisfactory samples, both of gold and of other valuable commodities, by which it may be judged that in a short time large profit may be

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washers.