he whole surmounted by a
white marble statue. Among the sculptures are a ship and a globe, with
the inscription:

_A Castilla y a Leon
Nuevo mundo dio Colon._

(_Translation._)

To Castille and Leon
Columbus gave a new world.

VISIT OF COLUMBUS TO ICELAND.

FINN MAGNUSEN, an Icelandic historian and antiquary. Born at
Skalholt, 1781; died, 1847.

The English trade with Iceland certainly merits the consideration of
historians, if it furnished Columbus with the opportunity of visiting
that island, there to be informed of the historical evidence respecting
the existence of important lands and a large continent in the west. If
Columbus should have acquired a knowledge of the accounts transmitted to
us of the discoveries of the Northmen in conversations held in Latin
with the Bishop of Skalholt and the learned men of Iceland, we may the
more readily conceive his firm belief in the possibility of
rediscovering a western continent, and his unwearied zeal in putting his
plans in execution. The discovery of America, so momentous in its
results, may therefore be regarded as the mediate consequence of its
previous discovery by the Scandinavians, which may be thus placed among
the most important events of former ages.

[Illustration: STATUE OF COLUMBUS, BY SENOR G. SUNOL, ON THE MONUMENT IN
THE PASEO DE RECOLETOS (DEVOTEES' PROMENADE), MADRID, SPAIN. Erected,
1885. (See page 208.)]

SYMPATHY FOR COLUMBUS.

RICHARD HENRY MAJOR, F. S. A., late keeper of the printed books in
the British Museum; a learned antiquary. Born in London, 1810; died
June 25, 1891.

It is impossible to read without the deepest sympathy the occasional
murmurings and half-suppressed complaints which are uttered in the
course of his letter to Ferdinand and Isabella describing his fourth
voyage. These murmurings and complaints were rung from his manly spirit
by sickness and sorrow, and though reduced almost to the brink of
despair by the injustice of the King, yet do we find nothing harsh or
disrespectful in his language to the sovereign. A curious contrast is
presented to us. The gift of a world could not move the monarch to
gratitude; the infliction of chains, as a recompense for that gift,
could not provoke the subject to disloyalty. The same great heart which
through more than twenty wearisome years of disappointment and chagrin
gave him strength to beg and buffet his way to glory, still taught him
to bear