Part 15 (1/2)
JOHN FOSTER, a noted English essayist and moralist. Born at Halifax, September 17, 1770; died at Stapleton, October, 1843.
The _hour_ just now begun may be exactly the period for finis.h.i.+ng _some great plan_, or concluding _some great dispensation_, which thousands of years or ages have been advancing to its accomplishment. _This_ may be the _very hour_ in which a new world shall originate or an ancient one sink in ruins.
RANGE OF ENTERPRISE.
EDWARD AUGUSTUS FREEMAN, a celebrated English historian. Born at Harborne, Staffords.h.i.+re, 1823; died at Alicante, Spain, March 16, 1892. From an article on ”The Intellectual Development of the English People,” in the _Chautauquan Magazine_, May, 1891.
The discovery of a new world was something so startling as to help very powerfully in the general enlargement of men's minds. And the phrase of a new world is fully justified. The discovery of a western continent, which followed on the voyage of Columbus, was an event differing in kind from any discovery that had ever been made before. And this though there is little reason to doubt that the western continent itself had been discovered before. The Northmen had certainly found their way to the real continent of North America ages before Columbus found his way to the West India Islands. But the same results did not come of it, and the discovery itself was not of the same kind. The Old World had grown a good deal before the discovery of the New. The range of men's thoughts and enterprise had gradually spread from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic, the Baltic, and the northern seas. To advance from Norway to the islands north of Britain, thence to Iceland, Greenland, and the American continent, was a gradual process. The great feature in the lasting discovery of America, which began at the end of the fifteenth century, was its suddenness. Nothing led to it; it was made by an accident; men were seeking one thing and then found another. Nothing like it has happened before or since.
FRIDAY.
Of evil omen for the ancients. For America the day of glad tidings and glorious deeds.
Friday, the sixth day of the week, has for ages borne the obloquy of odium and ill-luck. Friday, October 5th, B. C. 105, was marked _nefastus_ in the Roman calendar because on that day Marcus Mallius and Caepio the Consul were slain and their whole army annihilated in Gallia Narbonensis by the Cimbrians. It was considered a very unlucky day in Spain and Italy; it is still deemed an ill-starred day among the Buddhists and Brahmins. The reason given by Christians for its ill-luck is, of course, because it was the day of Christ's crucifixion, though one would hardly term that an ”unlucky event” for Christians. A Friday moon is considered unlucky for weather. It is the Mohammedan Sabbath and was the day on which Adam was created. The Sabeans consecrated it to Venus or Astarte. According to mediaeval romance, on this day fairies and all the tribes of elves of every description were converted into hideous animals and remained so until Monday. In Scotland it is a great day for weddings. In England it is not. Sir William Churchill says, ”Friday is my lucky day. I was born, christened, married, and knighted on that day, and all my best accidents have befallen me on a Friday.”
Aurungzebe considered Friday a lucky day and used to say in prayer, ”Oh, that I may die on a Friday, for blessed is he that dies on that day.”
British popular saying terms a trial, misfortune, or cross a ”Friday tree,” from the ”accursed tree” on which the Savior was crucified on that day. Stow, the historian of London, states that ”Friday Street” was so called because it was the street of fish merchants who served the Friday markets. In the Roman Catholic church Friday is a fast day, and is considered an unlucky day because it was the day of Christ's crucifixion. Soames (”Anglo-Saxon Church,” page 255) says of it, ”Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit on Friday and died on Friday.” Shakspere refers to the ill-omened nature of the day as follows: ”The duke, I say to thee again, would eat mutton Friday” (”Measure for Measure,” Act 3, Scene 2).
But to turn to the more pleasing side, great has been the good fortune of the land of freedom on this ill-starred day. On Friday, August 3, 1492, Christopher Columbus set sail from the port of Palos on his great voyage of discovery. On Friday, October 12, 1492, he discovered land; on Friday, January 4, 1493, he sailed on his return voyage to Spain. On Friday, March 14, 1493, he arrived at Palos, Spain, in safety. On Friday, November 22, 1493, he arrived at Espanola on his second voyage to America. On Friday, June 12, 1494, he discovered the mainland of America. On Friday, March 5, 1496, Henry VIII. gave John Cabot his commission to pursue the discovery of America. On Friday, September 7, 1565, Melendez founded St. Augustine, Florida, the oldest town in the United States. On Friday, November 10, 1620, the Mayflower, with the Pilgrim Fathers, reached the harbor of Provincetown. On Friday, December 22, 1620, the Pilgrim Fathers landed at Plymouth Rock. On Friday, February 22, 1732, George Was.h.i.+ngton was born. On Friday, June 16, 1755, Bunker Hill was seized and fortified. On Friday, October 17, 1777, Burgoyne surrendered at Saratoga. On Friday, September 22, 1780, Benedict Arnold's treason was discovered. On Friday, September 19, 1791, Lord Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown. On Friday, July 7, 1776, a motion was made by John Adams that ”the United States are and ought to be independent.” On Friday, July 13, 1866, the Great Eastern steams.h.i.+p sailed from Valentia, Ireland, with the second and successful Atlantic cable, and completed the laying of this link of our civilization at Heart's Content, Newfoundland, on Friday, July 27, 1866. In Spanish history it is noteworthy that on Friday the Christians under Ferdinand and Isabella had won Granada from the Moors. On a Friday, also, the First Crusaders, under Geoffrey de Bouillon, took Jerusalem.
A PREVIOUS DISCOVERY.
PAUL GAFFAREL. Summarized from ”Les Decouvreurs Francais du XIVme au XVIme Siecle,” published at Paris in 1888.
Jean Cousin, in 1488, sailed from Dieppe, then the great commercial and naval port of France, and bore out to sea, to avoid the storms so prevalent in the Bay of Biscay. Arrived at the lat.i.tude of the Azores, he was carried westward by a current, and came to an unknown country near the mouth of an immense river. He took possession of the continent, but, as he had not sufficient crew nor material resources adequate for founding a settlement, he re-embarked. Instead of returning directly to Dieppe, he took a southeasterly direction--that is, toward South Africa--discovered the cape which has since retained the name of Cap des Aiguilles (Cape Agulhas, the southern point of Africa), went north by the Congo and Guinea, and returned to Dieppe in 1489. Cousin's lieutenant was a Castilian, Pinzon by name, who was jealous of his captain, and caused him considerable trouble on the Gold Coast. On Cousin's complaint, the admiralty declared him unfit to serve in the marine of Dieppe. Pinzon then retired to Genoa, and afterward to Castille. Every circ.u.mstance tends toward the belief that this is the same Pinzon to whom Columbus afterward intrusted the command of the Pinta.
GENIUS TRAVELS EAST TO WEST.
The Abbe FERNANDO GALIANI, an Italian political economist. Born at Chieti, on the Abruzzi, 1728; died at Naples, 1787.
For five thousand years genius has turned opposite to the diurnal motion, and traveled from east to west.
OBSERVATION LIKE COLUMBUS.
The Rev. CUNNINGHAM GEIKIE, D. D., a noted English clergyman. Born at Edinborough, October 26, 1826.
Reading should be a Columbus voyage, in which nothing pa.s.ses without note and speculation; the Sarga.s.so Sea, mistaken for the New Indies; the branch with the fresh berries; the carved pole; the currents; the color of the water; the birds; the odor of the land; the b.u.t.terflies; the moving light on the sh.o.r.e.
THE GENOA INSCRIPTION.
The following inscription is placed upon Columbus' house, No. 37, in the Vico Dritto Ponticello, Genoa, Italy:
_NVLLA. DOMVS. t.i.tVLO. DIGNIOR.
HAEIC.
PATERNIS. IN. AEDIBVS.
CHRISTOPHVS. COLVMBVS.