The Fire Kindles -1

The Fire Kindles -1

The next step in Columbus's career was a move to Porto Santo, which probably took
place very soon after his marriage—that is to say, in the year 1479. It is likely that he had
the chance of making a voyage there; perhaps even of commanding a ship, for his
experience of the sea and skill as a navigator must by this time have raised him above the
rank of an ordinary seaman; and in that case nothing would be more natural than that he
should take his young wife with him to visit her brother Bartolomeo, and to see the
family property. It is one of the charms of the seaman's profession that he travels free all
over the world; and if he has no house or other fixed possessions that need to be looked
after he has the freedom of the world, and can go where he likes free of cost. Porto Santo
and Madeira, lying in the track of the busiest trade on the Atlantic coast, would provide
Columbus with an excellent base from which to make other voyages; so it was probably
with a heart full of eager anticipation for the future, and sense of quiet happiness in the
present, that in the year 1479 Signor Cristoforo Colombo (for he did not yet call himself
Senor Cristoval Colon) set out for Porto Santo—a lonely rock some miles north of
Madeira. Its southern shore is a long sweeping bay of white sand, with a huddle of sandhills
beyond, and cliffs and peaks of basalt streaked with lava fringing the other shores.
When Columbus and his bride arrived there the place was almost as bare as it is to-day.
There were the governor's house; the settlement of Portuguese who worked in the mills
and sugar-fields; the mills themselves, with the cultivated sugar-fields behind them; and
the vineyards, with the dwarf Malmsey vines pegged down to the ground, which Prince
Henry had imported from Candia fifty years before. The forest of dragon-trees that had
once covered the island was nearly all gone. The wood had all been used either for
building, making boats, or for fuel; and on the fruit of the few trees that were left a herd
of pigs was fattened. There was frequent communication by boat with Madeira, which
was the chief of all the Atlantic islands, and the headquarters of the sugar trade; and Porto
Santo itself was a favourite place of call for passing ships. So that it was by no means
lonely for Christopher Columbus and his wife, even if they had not had the society of the
governor and his settlement.
We can allow him about three years in Porto Santo, although for a part of this time at
least he must have been at sea. I think it not unlikely that it was the happiest time of his
life. He was removed from the uncomfortable environment of people who looked down
upon him because of his obscure birth; he was in an exquisite climate; and living by the
sea-shore, as a sailor loves to do; he got on well with Bartolomeo, who was no doubt glad
enough of the company of this grave sailor who had seen so much and had visited so
many countries; above all he had his wife there, his beautiful, dear, proud Philippa, all to
himself, and out of reach of those abominable Portuguese noblemen who paid so much
attention to her and so little to him, and made him so jealous; and there was a whispered
promise of some one who was coming to make him happier still. It is a splendid setting,
this, for the sea adventurer; a charming picture that one has of him there so long ago,
walking on the white shores of the great sweeping bay, with the glorious purple Atlantic
sparkling and thundering on the sands, as it sparkles and thunders to-day. A place empty
and vivid, swept by the mellow winds; silent, but for the continuous roar of the sea; still,
but for the scuttling of the rabbits among the sand-hills and the occasional passage of a
figure from the mills up to the sugar-fields; but brilliant with sunshine and colour and the
bright environment of the sea. It was upon such scenes that he looked during this happy
pause in his life; they were the setting of Philippa's dreams and anxieties as the time of
motherhood drew near; and it was upon them that their little son first opened his eyes,
and with the boom of the Atlantic breakers that he first mingled his small. voice.
It is but a moment of rest and happiness; for Christopher the scene is soon changed, and
he must set forth upon a voyage again, while Philippa is left, with a new light in her eyes,
to watch over the atom that wakes and weeps and twists and struggles and mews, and
sleeps again, in her charge. Sleep well, little son! Yet a little while, and you too shall
make voyages and conquests; new worlds lie waiting for you, who are so greatly
astonished at this Old World; far journeys by land and sea, and the company of courtiers
and kings; and much honour from the name and deeds of him who looked into your eyes
with a laugh and, a sob, and was so very large and overshadowing! But with her who
quietly sings to you, whose hands soothe and caress you, in whose eyes shines that
wonderful light of mother's love—only a little while longer.
While Diego, as this son was christened, was yet only a baby in his cradle, Columbus
made an important voyage to the, coast of Guinea as all the western part of the African
continent was then called. His solid and practical qualities were by this time beginning to
be recognised even by Philippa's haughty family, and it was possibly through the interest
of her uncle, Pedro Noronhas, a distinguished minister of the King of Portugal, that he
got the command of a caravel in the expedition which set out for Guinea in December
1481. A few miles from Cape Coast Castle, and on the borders of the Dutch colony, there
are to-day the ruined remains of a fort; and it is this fort, the fortress of St. George, that
the expedition was sent out to erect. On the 11th of December the little fleet set sail for
[from? D.W.] Lisbon—ten caravels, and two barges or lighters laden with the necessary
masonry and timber-work for the fort. Columbus was in command of one of the caravels,
and the whole fleet was commanded by the Portuguese Admiral Azumbaga. They would
certainly see Porto Santo and Madeira on their way south, although they did not call
there; and Philippa was no doubt looking out for them, and watching from the sand-hills
the fleet of twelve ships going by in the offing. They called at Cape Verde, where the
Admiral was commissioned to present one of the negro kings with some horses and
hawks, and incidentally to obtain his assent to a treaty. On the 19th of January 1482,
having made a very good voyage, they, landed just beyond the Cape of the Three Points,
and immediately set about the business of the expedition.