He Remained There And At Gran Canaria, Refitting And
Replenishing His Stores, Till The Sixth Of September, When He Began
His Passage Due West Across The Atlantic; And The First Land Of
America Was Discovered On Friday The Twelfth Of October At Two In The
Morning:
Thirty-six days after leaving Gran Canaria, and seventy days
after leaving Palos in Spain.
- E.
[4] This would seem to be a great exaggeration, perhaps an error of the
press; but now impossible to be rectified. - E
[5] Nothing can be more ambiguous than the interpretation of signs between
people who are utterly ignorant of each others language: But the signs
on this occasion seem rather to imply that the cacique requested the
Spaniards to declare themselves his friends, by participating in
hostile demonstrations against the people from Tortuga. - E.
[6] This term evidently expresses a person unused to the sea, as
contradistinguished from an experienced seaman. - E.
[7] Cazabi seems to have been what is now called casada in the British
West Indies, or prepared manioc root; and axi in some other parts of
this voyage is mentioned as the spice of the West Indies; probably
either pimento or capsicum, and used as a condiment to relish the
insipidity of the casada. - E.
[8] The meaning of this term is nowhere explained in this voyage: but in
the account of the discovery of America by Herrera, it is said to
signify pale gold. From its application in the text, it is probably
the Indian name of gold, the perpetual object of inquiry by the
Spaniards. - E.
[9] Such absurd fables have in all ages been the consequence of credulous
intercourse of ill-informed men, ignorant of the languages of newly
discovered nations. The Amazons of antiquity are here supposed to be
rediscovered; but were afterwards transferred to the interior marshy
plains of South America. - E.
[10] The author probably alludes here to the various-shaped pods of
different species or varieties of capsicum. - E.
SECTION VI.
Second Voyage of Columbus to the West Indies.
Orders were issued from Barcelona to prepare with all care and expedition
for the return of the admiral to Hispaniola, as well to relieve those
Christians who had been left there as to enlarge the colony and subdue the
island, with the rest that were and should be discovered. To strengthen
and confirm their title to the newly discovered regions, their Catholic
majesties by the advice of the admiral, procured the approbation and
consent of the pope for the conquest of the Indies, which was readily
granted by Alexander VI, who then governed the church; and the bull to
this effect was not only for what was already discovered, but for all that
might be discovered westwards, until they should come to the East, where
any Christian prince was then actually in possession, and forbidding all
persons whomsoever to intrude within these bounds. And this concession and
exclusive right was again confirmed in the year following in the most
ample terms. Sensible that all this favourable grant from the pope was due
to the admiral, by whose discovery they had become entitled to the
possession of all these parts, their majesties were pleased, on the
twenty-eighth of May, at Barcelona, to ratify, renew, confirm, and explain
the privileges and prerogatives which they had granted him before, by
granting them of new, so as explicitly to define how far the bounds of his
admiralty and viceroyalty extended, being over all which had been granted
to them by his holiness, of which grant the tenor follows:
Original Grant to Columbus in 1492, before the Discovery.
"FERDINAND and ISABELLA, by the grace of God, King and Queen of Castile,
Leon, Arragon, Sicily, Granada, Toledo, Valencia, Galicia, Majorca,
Minorca, Seville, Sardinia, Jaen, Algarve, Algezira, Gibraltar, and the
Canary islands, Lord and Lady of Biscay and Molina, Duke and Duchess of
Athens and Neopatria, Count and Countess of Boussillon and Cerdagne,
Marquis and Marchioness of Oristan and Gociano, &c."
"Forasmuch as you CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS are going by our command, and with
some of our ships and men to discover and subdue certain islands and
continents in the ocean, and it is hoped by Gods assistance that some of
those islands and continents will be discovered by your means and conduct,
it is therefore just and reasonable, since you expose yourself to such
dangers in our service, that you be suitably rewarded. And willing to
honour and favour you for the reasons aforesaid, our will is that you
Christopher Columbus, after discovering and conquering the said islands
and continent, in the said ocean, or any of them, shall be our admiral
of all such islands and continent as you shall so discover and conquer,
and that you be our admiral, viceroy, and governor in them: that for the
future you may call and style yourself Don Christopher Columbus; and that
your sons and successors in the said employment may call themselves dons,
admirals, viceroys, and governors, in the same: That you may exercise the
charge of admiral, viceroy, and governor of the said islands and continent
which you or your lieutenants shall conquer, and shall freely decide all
causes, civil and criminal, appertaining to the said employments of
admiral, viceroy, and governor, as you think fit according to justice, and
as the admirals of our kingdom are in use to do: That you shall have power
to punish all offenders: That you and your lieutenants may exercise the
employments of admiral, viceroy, and governor, in all things belonging to
the said offices, or any of them, and that you shall enjoy the perquisites
and salaries belonging to the said employments and to each of them, in the
same manner that the high admiral of our kingdom does at present."
"By this our letter, or by a copy thereof signed by a public notary, We
command prince John, our dearly beloved son the Infante, dukes, prelates,
marquisses, great masters, and military orders, priors, commanderies, or
councillors, judges, and others our officers of justice whomsoever,
belonging to our household, courts, and chancery, and constables of
castles, commanders of forts and others, and all corporations, mayors,
bailiffs, and magistrates, governors, judges, commanders, and sea officers;
the aldermen, common councillors, officers, and good people, of all
cities, towns, lands, and places in our kingdoms and dominions, and in
those which you shall discover and subdue; and the captains, masters,
mates, and all other officers and sailors, our natural subjects at present,
or who shall so become hereafter, all or any of them, that when you shall
have so discovered the said islands and continent in the ocean, and you or
any that have your commission shall have taken the oaths usual in such
cases, that they shall look upon you for the future so long as you live,
and after you your son and heir, and so on from one heir to another for
ever, as our admiral, viceroy, and governor of the said islands and
continent by you Christopher Columbus to be discovered and conquered; and
that they treat you, and your lieutenants by you appointed for executing
the employments of admiral, viceroy, and governor, as such in all respects;
and shall give you all the perquisites and other things belonging and
appertaining to the said offices; and shall allow and cause to be allowed
you, all honours, graces, concessions, preeminences, prerogatives,
immunities, and other things, or any of them, which are due to you by
virtue of your commands of admiral, viceroy, and governor, all to be
observed completely, so that nothing shall be diminished:
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