Show COLUMBUS Facts In the History of the Great World Finder Our Contributor Will Lccuro on This Interesting Inter-esting Stl > ject In the Future A morning contemporary of THE HERALD has said under the head of When Columbus Colum-bus Was Tried by this time of day 400 years aero Columbus know he was out to sea farther than any navigator he bad heard of had been v The trials of the man began about 400 years ago today I want to say somewhat about this It shows a misapprehension of the subject About 14S2B Columous laid his plan of reaching the Indies before the king of Portugal Por-tugal The king referred it i to a body of learned men They said it was visionary The king convoked his own council of prelates pre-lates and other learned men They all discouraged dis-couraged the attempt but they raised anew the old scheme of reaching tho Indies by sailing around Africa Tho king favored Columbus but was prevailed upon to send out a vessel secretly to test the theory Columbus was asked for a plan of his voyage and charts Suspecting nettling I be gave them The vessel sailed to tbo Azores and several days west of them saw no land and returned deriding the project I Then Columbus refusing to renew negotiations negotia-tions with the king left Portugal ao poor that ho bagged his bread In 1485 he went to Spain and endeavored to interest some of her nobility in his plan For seven years he was kept waiting on the Spanish sovereigns Ho was regarded as a dreamer and by many as a lunatic In 1400 ho started to leave Spain and stopped at the Convent de Rebida for a drink of water The prior saw the man beneath be-neath tho garb of the tramp He obtained Columbus story and called in friends They prevailed upon Columbus to wait for one more attempt It was made and failed and in February 1493 the disheartened man I started again to leave Spain Then came a last and successful effort A messenger I was sent to recall Columbus tp court and I Isabella said he should sail if she had to pledge her jewels On Af rll 17 1492 papers were signed assuring as-suring the attempt to solve Columbus problem He had been working and waiting wait-ing eighteen years for that hour and those were the most trying years of his life Certain Cer-tain of success in tile great conviction of his soul he had grown old waiting for men to give him an opportunity to demonstrate the faith that was in him But new trials arose When it was learned that he proposed pro-posed to cross the unknown ocean neither vessels nor men could bi had Orders were given to press vessels ves-sels and compel seamen When vessels ves-sels and men were thus obtained the latter rebelled Workmen who repairea the boats for boats theywere two of them not even decked tho workmen botcuud the job and ran away aeainen deserted But at length thaexpoditioo sailed with the dawn of August 3 1492 When three days out one boat was found to have broken its rudder Columbus supposed it was I done purposely In six days they reached the Canary isiauds There they remained tbree weeks searching for another boat i or trying to repair the half wrecked one Then came a fleet of Portuguese boats and I Columbus fearing an attempt to capture I i his lleet sailed away > n tbo darkuess When his men saw the islands disappear I behind them they wept aloud filled with fear that they should never more see home It Was therefore not I until about September 1 that Columbus found himself further I out in tbe Atlantic ocean than had been any other navigator of whom ho had I knowledge He was doubtless the best navigator of Instinio and know of tbo discoveries I dis-coveries that had been made It was his I skill as a navigator that kept him i cool and self possessed u hen his men were for days on the verge of I mutiny He bud made his calculations so i well although based on a misconception I of the real lands that bo should reach that he found the Balsams islands as we Know I them within a few leagues of the distance he had laid down for tbe island of Cipango I To him there was no America Asia 1 stretched away to the east and beyond it were islands mar out in the ocean Basing his calculations on the reports of Marco Polo and Mandovllle he had constructed con-structed a chart that fixed those islands where later be supposed hoI ho-I had found them He died believing he had but reached the eastern shores of Asia I Altogether there is notning in history more wonderful than tho suo imp faith of Christopher Columbus nnji nothing superior I super-ior to tho heroic persistence wiLts which ho I clung to his faith in spite of trowns I and sneers until at last the whole world was compelled to doff hats and do him homage even kings and queens being I foremost among those who sought to honor him But his great trials were at an end when he sailed from Palos With tho rolling waves beneath him the gloaming stars above and corroding courts behind his dear head knew that he had tbo situation in his own control All tho trials that came I after were due to the meanness of the nation and the people for whose glory ho toiled It is my intention to give a lecture on Columbus In the Salt Lake theater Sunday Sun-day evening Oct 23 CHAIILES ELLIS |