GONSALVO,

THE GREAT CAPTAIN,

was a man of great prefence of mind. When in fome mutiny amongst his troops, one of the foldiers prefented his halberd to his breaft, he gently turned it afide with his hand. "Com"rade," faid he, "take care that in playing with "that weapon, you do not wound your General." On fome other mutiny for want of pay, on Gonfalvo's expreffing his inability to give it to them, one of the foldiers advanced to him, and faid in a menacing tone, "General, deliver up your "daughter to us, and then we can pay ourselves." The General affecting not to hear him amidst the clamour of the troops, took no notice of it at the time, but in the night he took care to have him apprehended, and had him hung from a window from which all the army might fee the body.

Gonfalvo took Naples by ftorm in the year 1503; and when fome of his foldiers expreffed their difapprobation at not having had a fufficient fhare in the fpoil of that rich city, Gonfalvo nobly replied, "I will repair your bad fortune; go to

<< my

ci my apartments, take there all you can find, I "give it all into your hands."

Gonfalvo, for fome time before he died, retired to a convent; giving as a reason for his conduct, that there should be fome time for ferious reflection between the life of a foldier and his death.

COLUMBUS.

THE will of this great man is still extant in the Archives of Genoa, in which city he was born. The moft early life of him is to be met with in a book printed at Genoa in 1516, entitled Pfalterium Hebræum Græcum, &c. cum tribus Interpretationibus," by Agoftino Giuftiniani. It occurs in a note on this verfe of the Pfalmş, Cæli enarrant gloriam Dei.",

In one of the letters which Columbus wrote to the King of Spain, from his fleet then lying before Jamaica, he has this remarkable paffage: "The "wealth that I have discovered, will rouse mankind to pillage and to violence, and will reC. venge the wrongs which I have fuffered. The Spanish nation itfelf will perhaps fuffer one day

" for

«for the crimes that its malignity, its ingratitude, "and its envy, is now committing."

One of Columbus's immediate defcendants is faid to have married into an English family. A Genoefe Gentleman of the Durazzo family published, fome years ago, an eulogium upon this excellent and extraordinary man, in which there are feveral particulars relative to him not generally known. Columbus addressed four letters to his Sovereign, three of which were tranflated into French fome years ago by the Chevalier Flavigny ; the fourth is loft.

Peter Martyr, in his very curious account of Columbus's voyages, tells us, that on his landing on the Island of Jamaica, he immediately caused mass to be faid on account of the fafe landing of himself and of his followers, and that during the performance of that facred mystery, an old Carib, eighty years of age, attended by feveral of his countrymen, obferved the fervice with great attention. After it was over, the old man approached Columbus with a basket of fruit in his hand, which he in a very courteous manner prefented to him, and by means of an Interpreter thus addreffed him:

"We have been told, that you have in a very "powerful and furprizing manner run over "feveral countries which were before unknown

" to

"to you, and that you have filled the inhabitants "of them with fear and difmay. Wherefore I "exhort and defire you to remember, that the "fouls of men, when they are feparated from "their bodies, have two paffages; the one horrid "and dark, prepared for those who have been troublesome and inimical to the human race; the other pleafant and delightful, appointed "for those who, whilft they were alive, delighted "in the peace and quiet of mankind. There"fore you will do no hurt to any one, if you bear "in mind that you are mortal, and that every "one will be rewarded or punished in a future ftate according to his actions in the prefent ❝ one."

Columbus, by the Interpreter, anfwered the old man, "that what he had told him refpecting the

paflage or fouls after the death of the body had "been long known to him and to his countrymen, "and that he was much furprised those notions "prevailed amongst them, who feemed to be

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living quite in a flate of nature. That he (Columbus) and his followers were fent by the (6 King and Queen of Spain to difcover all thofe parts of the world that had been hitherto unknown, that they might civilize the Cannibals "and other wild men who lived in thefe countries, and infli& proper punishments upon them, and

that

"that they might defend and honour those perfons "who were virtuous and innocent: that therefore, "neither himself nor any other Carib, who had "no intention of hurting them, had the leaft "reason to fear any violence; and that he, with "his followers, would avenge any injury that "fhould be offered to him or to any other worthy "perfons of the Inland by any of their neigh"bours."

The Carib was fo pleafed with the fpeech and the manner of Columbus, that though he was extremely old, he offered to follow Columbus, and would have done fo, had not his wife and children prevented him. He appeared with difficulty to understand how a man of Columbus's dignity and appearance should be under the controul of another perfon; and became much more aftonished when the Interpreter explained to him the honour, the pomp, the wealth, of the feveral Sovereigns of Europe, the extent of the country, and the greatnefs and beauty of the various objects over which they reigned. He became penfive, melancholy, and in a flood of tears afked the Interpreter repeatedly, whether it were the heavens or the earth which had produced men fo fuperior to themselves as Columbus and his followers.