“Observations”
by: Donald S. Conkey
Date:
16 October 2008 - # 8842 - Columbus Day 2008 (810)
How many noticed that Monday was another national holiday – Columbus Day?
Few, I suspect. Perhaps we wondered why the mail wasn’t delivered Monday. It was because it was the 516th
anniversary of October 12, 1492, the day Columbus landed on Watling Island in the Bahamas - discovering America.
Other explorers had visited America prior to 1492 but it was left to Columbus to be the one who would prepare the Europeans to colonize
America beginning
in 1607 at Jamestown. The other explorers have faded into history leaving Columbus to be immortalized as the great discoverer of America. History records many stories about Columbus. Some are true,
many are myth, but all are interesting.
In 1792 New York City celebrated the 300th anniversary of
Columbus’
landing. In 1892 President Benjamin Harrison called upon the people of the United States to celebrate Columbus Day on the 400th
anniversary of his landing. Columbus Day has been celebrated annually since 1920 in some form or fashion, and in 1971 Congress
declared the second Monday of October a legal holiday to honor Columbus and his discovery of America. Columbus Day had become a part of America’s culture.
One of the myths
circulated about Columbus is that he believed the world was flat. Dr. Samuel Elliott Morison, a Harvard professor, in his book “Admiral
of the Ocean Sea,” clarified this myth with these words: “... of all the vulgar errors connected with Columbus,
the most persistent and the most absurd is that he had to convince people ‘the world was round.’ Every educated
man in his day believed the world to be a sphere...” Morison further states that around 200 B.C.
Eratosthenes, a Greek, had guessed, rather accurately, the distance around the earth. Columbus, however, felt his distance was over estimated.
There is little doubt Columbus felt he had a divine commission to accomplish his mission and felt he could not fail.
Jacob Wasserman, in his ‘Don Quixote of the Seas.’ quotes from Columbus’ letter to Spain’s King Ferdinand these words: “I
came to your Majesty as the Emissary of the Holy Ghost.” Later he wrote: “The Lord was well disposed to my desire,
and he bestowed upon me courage and understanding. ... Our Lord with provident hand unlocked my mind, sent me upon the sea,
and gave me fire for the deed. Those who heard of my emprise called it foolish, mocked me, and laughed, but who can doubt
but that the Holy Ghost inspired me?” His feat was seen as his faith in action, sustained by the Holy Ghost.
Ancient archaeological records sustain Columbus’ belief that his mission was divine with these words: “And it came
to pass that I looked and beheld many waters; and they divided the Gentiles (Europeans) from the seed of my brethren (Native
Americans). And it came to pass that the angel said unto me: Behold the wrath of God is upon the seed of thy brethren. And
I looked and beheld a man (suggesting Columbus) among the Gentiles, who was separated from the seed of my brethren by the
many waters; and I beheld the Spirit of God, that it came down and wrought upon the man; and he went forth upon the many waters,
even unto the seed of my brethren, who were in the promised land.”
Note the timing of Columbus’ discovery
— Europe’s
Renaissance was about to end; the Reformation was about to begin, and 115 years later, in 1607, the first European colony
took root at Jamestown. Thirteen years later the persecuted Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. The flood gates to America for Europe’s religiously persecuted people
had been opened. By 1776, with three million feisty God fearing and freedom loving Scots, Welsh, and English in the colonies,
it was time for the Lord to raise up 56 free spirited men, men He had endowed with a strong spirit of freedom, to declare
their independence from an oppressive English king.
