Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. II.djvu/190

166 166 RETURN OF COLUMBUS. PART I. Sensations caused by the discov- ery. up the perspective with the gorgeous coloring of their own fancies, as ambition, or avarice, or devo- tional feeling predominated in their bosoms. When Columbus ceased, the king and queen, together with all present, prostrated themselves on their knees in grateful thanksgivings, while the solemn strains of the Te Deum were poured forth by the choir of the royal chapel, as in commemoration of some glorious victory. ^^ The discoveries of Columbus excited a sensation, particularly among men of science, in the most dis- tant parts of Europe, strongly contrasting with the apathy which had preceded them. They congrat- ulated one another on being reserved for an age, which had witnessed the consummation of so grand an event. The learned Martyr, who, in his mul- tifarious correspondence, had not even deigned to notice the preparations for the voyage of discovery, now lavished the most unbounded panegyric on its results ; which he contemplated with the eye of a philosopher, having far less reference to considera- tions of profit or policy, than to the prospect which they unfolded of enlarging the boundaries of knowl- edge.^^ Most of the scholars of the day, however, 12 Herrera, Indias Occidental., torn. i. dec. 1, lib. 2, cap. 3. — Mu- iioz, Hist, del Niievo-Mundo, lib. 4, sec. 15, 16, 17. — Fernando Colon, Hist, del Almirante, ubi supra. 1^ In a letter, written soon after the admiral's return. Martyr an- nounces the discovery to his cor- respondent, cardinal Sforza, in the following manner. " Mira res ex eo terrarum orbe, quem sol hora- rum quatuor et viginti spatio cir- cuit, ad nostra usque tempora, quod minime te latet, trita cognitaque dimidia tantum pars, ab Aurea ut- pote Chersoneso, ad Gades nostras Hispanas, reliqua vero a cosmog- rapliis pro incognita relicta est. Et si quae meiitio facta, ea tenuis et incerta. Nunc autcm, o beatum facinus! meorum regum auspiciis, quod latuit hactenus a rerum pri- mordio, inteiligi coeptum est." In a subsequent epistle to the learned