to make the intended discovery. Want of skill and perseverance in the pilot rendered the plot unfuccesstul: And Columbus, on discovering the treachery, retired with an ingenuous indignation from a court capable of fuch duplicity.

23. Having now performed what was due to the country that gave him bitth, and to the one that adopted him as a fubject, he was at liberty to court the patronage of any prince who should have the wisdom and justice to accept his proposals.

24. He had communicated his ideas to his brother Bartholomew, whom he fent to England to negociate with Henry the seventh; at the fame time that he went himfelf into Spain, to apply in person to Ferdinand and Ifabella, who governed the united kingdoms of Arragon and Caftile.

25. The circumstances of his brother's application in England, which appears to have been unsuccessful, it is not to my purpose to relate; and the limits prescribed to this sketch, will prevent the detail of all the particulars relating to his own negociation in Spain.

26. In this negociation Columbus spent eight years in the various agitations of fufpence, expectation, and disappointment; till, at length, his scheme was adopted by Ifabella, who undertook, as queen of Castile, to defray the expences of the expedition; and declared herself, ever after, the friend and patron of the hero who projected it.

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27. Columbus, who during all his ill fuccess in the negociation, never abated any thing of the honors and emoluments which he expected to acquire in his expedition; tained from Ferdinand and Isabella a full ftipulation of every article contai ned in his first proposals.

28. He was constituted high Admiral and Viceroy of all the Seas, Islands and Continents which he should discover, with power to receive one tenth of the profits arifing from their productions and commerce. These offices and emoluments were to be hereditary in his family.

29. These articles being adjusted, the preparations for the voyage were brought forward with rapidity, but they were by no means adequate to the importance of the expedition. Three fmail vessels, scarcely fufficient in fize to be employed in the coasting bufiness, were appointed

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to traverse the vast Atlantic; and to encounter the forms and currents that might be expected in so lengthy a voyage through diftant and unknown feas.

30. These vessels, as might be expected in the infancy of navigation, were ill constructed, in a poor condition, and manned by seamen unaccustomed to diftant voyages. But the tedious length of time which Columbus had spent in folicitation and fufpenfe, and the profpect of being able foen to obtain the object of his wishes, induced him to overlook what he could not easily remedy, and led him to difregard those circumstances which would have intimidated any other mind...

31. He accordingly equipped his small squadron with as much expedition as poffible, manned with ninety men, and victualled for one year. With these, on the third of August, 1492, amidst a vast croud of anxious spectators, he fet fail on an enterprise, which, if we consider the ill condition of his ships, the inexperience of his failors, the length and uncertainty of his voyage, and the consequences that flowed from it, was the most daring and important that ever was undertaken.

32. He touched at fome of the Portuguese settlements in the Canary Iftes, where, although he had but a few days run, he found his vessels needed refitting. He foon made the necessary repairs, and took his departure from the weftermoft Islands that had hitherto been discovered. Here he left the former tract of navigation and steered his course due west.

33. Not many days after he had been at sea, he began to experience a new scene of difficulty. The failers now began to contemplate the dangers and uncertain issue of voyage, the nature and length of which was left entirely to conjecture.

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34. Befides fickleness and timidity, natural to men unaccustomed to the difcipline of a feafaringlife, several circumstances contributed to inspire an obstinate and mutinous difpofition, which required the most confummate art as well as fortitude in the admiral to control.

**35. Having been three weeks at fea, and experienced the uniform course of the trade winds, which always blew in a western direction, they contended, that should they continue the fame course for a longer period, the same wind would never permit them to return to Spain.

36. The magnetic needle began to vary its direction.

This being the first time that phenomenon was ever difcovered, it was viewed by the failors with aftonishment, and confidered as an indication that nature itself had changed her course, and that Providence was determined to punish their audazity, in venturing fo far beyond the ordinary bounds of man.

37. They declared that the commands of their fovereign had been fully obeyed in their proceeding so many days in the fame direction, and fo far furpaffing the attempts of all former navigators, in quest of new discoveries. Every talent, requifite for governing, foothing and tempering the pallions of men, is confpicious in the conduct of Columbus on this occafion.

38. The dignity and affability of his manners, his furprifing knowledge and experience in naval affairs, his unwearied and minute attention to the duties of his command, gave him a complete afcendency over the minds of his men; and inspired that degree of confidence which would have maintained his authority in almost any possible circum---stances.

39. But here, from the nature of the undertaking, every man had leifure to feed his imagination with all the gloominefs and uncertainty of the profpect. They found every day that the fame steady gales carried them with great rapidity from their native country, and indeed from all countries of which they had any knowledge.

40. Notwithstanding all the variety of management with which Columbus addressed himself to their paffions fometimes by foothing them with the prognostics of dif covering land fometimes by flattering their ambition and feafting, their avarice with the glory and wealth they would acquire from discovering those rich countries beyond the Atlantic, and foinetimes by threatening them with the difpleafure of their fovereign, should timidity and difobedience defeat so great an object, their uneafiness still increafed.

41. From fecret whispering it arose to open mutiny and dangerous confpiracy. At length they determined to rid themselves of the remonftrances of Columbus by throwing him into the fea. The infection spread from ship to ship, and involved officers as well as common failors.

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42. They finally loft all sense of fubordination, and addrefsed their commander in an infolent manner, demanding to be conducted immediately back to Spain; or, they affured him they would feek their own fafety by taking away his life. Columbus, whose sagacity and penetration had difcovered every fympton of the disorder, was prepared for the laft flage of it, and was fufficiently apprised of the danger that awaited him. He found it vain to contend with paffions he could no longer controul.

43. He therefore proposed that they thould obey his orders for three days longer; and, should they not difcover land in that time he would then direct his course for Spain.

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44. They complied with this proposal; and happily for mankind, in three days they discovered land. This was a Small Island, to which Columbus gave the name of San Salvador. Their first interview with the natives was a scene of amusement and compaffion on the one part, and of afronitument and adoration on the other.

45. The natives were entirely naked, simple and timorous: and they viewed the Spaniards as a superior order of beings, defcended from the Sun, which, in that Island, and in most parts of America, was worshipped as a Deity. By this it was easy for Columbus to perceive the line of conduct proper to be observed toward that simple and inoftenfive people.

46. Had his companions and fucceffors, of the Spanish nation poffefsed the wisdom and humanity of that difcoverer, the benevolent mind would feel no sensations of regret, in contemplating the extensive advantages arifing to mankind from the discovery of America.

47. In this voyage, Columbus discovered the Islands of Cuba and Hifpaniola; on the latter of which, he erected a small fort, and having left a garrifon of thirty eight men, under the command of an officer by the name of Araba, he fet fail for Spain, returning across the Atlantic, he was Overtaken by a violent storm, which lasted several days, and increased to fuch a degree, as baffled all his naval fkill, and threatened immediate destruction.

48. In this fituation, when all were in a state of def pair, and it was expected that every fea would fwallow

up the crazy vessel, he manifested a ferenity and prefence of mind perhaps never equalled in cafes of like extremity. He wrote a short account of his voyage, and of the difcoveries he had made, wrapped it an oiled cloth, enclosed it in a cake of wax, put it into an empty cafk, and threw it overboard, in hopes that fome accident might preferve a depofit of fo much importance to the world.

49. The storm however abated, and he at length arrived in Spain; after having been driven, by stress of weather, into the port of Lifton, where he had an opportunity, in an interview with the King of Portugal, to prove the truth of his system, by arguments more convincing than those he had before advanced, in the character of an hemble and unfuccefsful fuitor.

50. He was received every where in Spain with royal Honors; his family was ennobled, and his former stipulation, refpecting his offices and emolaments, was ratified in the most folemn manner by Ferdinand and Habella: while all Europe refounded his praifes and reciprocated their joy and congratulations on the discovery of a new world.

51. The immediate consequence of this was a fecond voyage: in which Columbus teok charge of a squadron of seventeen ships of confiderable burthen. Volunteers of all ranks and conditions folicited to be employed in this 'expedition. He carried over 1500 perfons, together with all the neceffaries for establishing a colony, and extending the difcoveries.

52. In this voyage he explored most of the West India flands; but, on his arrival at Hifpaniola, he found the garrifon he had left there had been totally deftroyed by the natives, and the fort demolished. He however proceeded in the planting of his colony; and by his prudent and humane conduct towards the natives, he effectually established the Spanish authority in that ifland.

53. But while he was thus laying the foundation of their future grandeur in South America, fome difcontented per'fons, who had returned from the colony to Spain, together with his former enemies in that kingdom, confpired to ac complish his ruir.

54. They reprefented his conduct in fich a light at