Page:The life of Christopher Columbus.djvu/40

16 But, previously, iu order to show how lively an interest there is attached to the memory of Columbus, let us take a look at the sympathies of our age for that grandeur which has not yet been wholly revealed to it.

In the beginning of this century, a Frenchman whom we have known personally, M. de Pons, wrote an account of his voyage to the part of the continent discovered by Columbus, and came to Paris to print his book, in which he made manifest his admiration for the discoverer of the New World. Towards the same time, the Academy of Turin listened to communications relative to Columbus.

In 1805, a Piedmontese Count, Galeani Napione, published a dissertation on the country of Columbus, who he pretended was born at Cuccaro, in Montferrat.

In 1809, the Abbé Francois Cancellieri published in Rome some epistolary dissertations on Columbus. Encouraged by the success that attended it, Galeani Napione gave, on the same subject, a dissertation, entitled, Of the First Discoverer of the New Continent. A year after, Morelli published at Venice, and republished at Bassano, under the name of Lettera rarissima, a letter by Columbus, written from Jamaica. This document, for a long time forgotten, made great noise among learned societies. Savona became concerned about the pretensions of Cuccaro, and wrote to reclaim its rights. Genoa stood up for its own; its Academy of Sciences, Letters and Arts, named among its members a commission charged with examining the question of the birthplace of Columbus, and in 1812 their report excited a lively interest.