"Heaven Inspired,
To Love Of Useful Glory Roused Mankind
And In Unbounded Commerce Mixed The World."
Isabella of Castile did not finance Columbus purely for the glory of
discovery.
Luis de Santangel and Alonso de Quintanilla, who prevailed
upon her to befriend the daring Genoese, not only used the argument that
the voyage would present an opportunity of "spreading her holy religion,"
but also that it would "replenish her treasury chests."* (* Justin
Winsor, Christopher Columbus page 178.) It is as natural for the
statesman to hope for political advantage as for the man of science to
look for scientific rewards, the geographer for geographical results, the
merchant for extended scope for commerce, from any enterprise of the kind
in which the State concerns itself. It would have been a perfectly proper
aspiration on the part of French statesmen to seek for opportunities of
development in a region as yet scarcely touched by European energy. But
there is no more reason for attributing this motive to Bonaparte in 1800,
than to the Ministers of Louis XV and Louis XVI, or to the Government of
France during the Revolution: and that is the point.
It is to misinterpret the character of the Napoleon Bonaparte who ruled
the Republic in the early period of the Consulate, to suppose him
incapable of wishing to promote research for its own sake. He desired the
glory of his era to depend upon other achievements than those of war. "My
intention certainly is," he said to Thibaudeau, "to multiply the works of
peace.
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