The arrival of Columbus at Cadiz, a prisoner, and in chains, produced almost as great a sensation as his triumphant return from his first voyage.  It was one of those striking and obvious facts, which speak to the feelings of the multitude, and preclude the necessity of reflection.  No one stopped to inquire into the case.  It was sufficient to be told that Columbus was brought home in irons from the world he had discovered.  A general burst of indignation arose in Cadiz, and its neighboring city, Seville, which was immediately echoed throughout all Spain....  However Ferdinand might have secretly felt disposed towards Columbus, the momentary tide of public feeling was not to be resisted.  He joined with his generous queen in her reprobation of the treatment of the admiral, and both sovereigns hastened to give evidence to the world, that his imprisonment had been without their authority, and contrary to their wishes.

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=_182._= HIS ARRIVAL AT COURT.

He appeared at court in Granada, on the 17th of December, not as a man ruined and disgraced, but richly dressed, and attended by an honorable retinue.  He was received by their majesties with unqualified favor and distinction.  When the queen beheld this venerable man approach, and thought on all that he had deserved, and all that he had suffered, she was moved to tears.  Columbus had borne up firmly against the rude conflicts of the world; he had endured with lofty scorn the injuries and insults of ignoble men; but he possessed strong and quick sensibility.  When he found himself thus kindly received by his sovereigns, and beheld tears in the benign eyes of Isabella, his long-suppressed feelings burst forth.  He threw himself upon his knees, and for some time could not utter a word for the violence of his tears and sobbings.

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From Wolfert’s Roost.

=_183._= “A TIME OF UNEXAMPLED PROSPERITY.”

Every now and then the world is visited by one of these delusive seasons, when “the credit system,” as it is called, expands to full luxuriance; every body trusts every body; a bad debt is a thing unheard of; the broad way to certain and sudden wealth lies plain and open, and men are tempted to dash forward boldly, from the facility of borrowing.

Promissory notes, interchanged between scheming individuals, are liberally discounted at the banks, which become so many mints to coin words into cash; and as the supply of words is inexhaustible, it may readily be supposed what a vast amount of promissory capital is soon in circulation.  Every one now talks in thousands; nothing is heard but gigantic operations in trade, great purchases and sales of real property, and immense sums made at every transfer.  All, to be sure, as yet exists in promise; but the believer in promises calculates the aggregate as solid capital, and falls back in amazement at the amount of public wealth, “the unexampled state of public prosperity!”