142 ARTISTS AND AUTHORS mined to enlarge his sphere of observation by a journey on the Continent. Aftei a long course of travel he settled down at Madrid, in the house of the American consul, Rich. His intention at the time was to translate Navarrete's recently published work on Columbus. Finding, however, that this was rather a collec- tion of valuable materials than a systematic biography, he determined to com- pose a biography of his own by its assistance, supplemented by independent re- searches in the Spanish archives. His work appeared in 1828 and obtained a merited success. It is a finished representation of Columbus from the point of view of the nineteenth century, affecting neither brilliancy nor originality, but a model of tasteful elegance, felicitous in every detail and adequate in every respect. "The Companions of Columbus" followed; and a prolonged residence in the south of Spain gave Irving materials for two highly picturesque books, " The Conquest of Granada," professedly derived from the MSS. of an imaginary Fray Antonio Agapida, and " The Alhambra." Previous to their appearance he had been appointed secretary to the embassy at London, an office as purely compli- mentary to his literary ability as the legal degree which he about the same time received from the University of Oxford. Returning to the United States in 1832, after seventeen years' absence, he found his name a household word, and himself universally honored as the first American who had won for his country recognition on equal terms in the literary republic. After the rush of fites and public compliments had subsided, he undertook a tour in the Western prairies, and returning to the neighborhood of New York built for himself a delightful retreat on the Hudson, to which he gave the name of Sunnyside. His acquaint- ance with the New York millionaire, John Jacob Astor, prompted his next im- portant work, " Astoria," a history of the fur-trading settlement founded by Astor in Oregon, deduced with singular literary ability from dry commercial records, and, without labored attempts at word-painting, evincing a remarkable faculty for bringing scenes and incidents vividly before the eye. " Captain Bonneville," based upon the unpublished memoirs of a veteran hunter, was another work of the same class In 1842 Irving was appointed ambassador to Spain. He spent four years in the country, without this time turning his residence to literary ac- count ; and it was not until two years after his return that Forster's " Life of Goldsmith," by reminding him of a slight essay of his own which he now thought too imperfect by comparison to be included among his collected writings, stimu- lated him to the production of his own biography of his favorite author. With- out pretensions to original research, the book displays an admirable talent for employing existing material to the best effect. The same may be said of " The Lives of Mahomet and his Successors," published two years subsequently Here, as elsewhere, Irving has correctly discriminated the biographer's province from the historian's, and leaving the philosophical investigation of cause and effect to writers of Gibbon's calibre, has applied himself to represent the picturesque features of the age as embodied in the actions and utterances of its most charac- teristic representatives. His last days were devoted to a biography of Washing- ton, undertaken in an enthusiastic spirit, but which the author found exhausting
