Part 35 (1/2)

[378-4] Bobadilla was a knight commander of the military order of Calatrava.

[379-1] Diego Columbus had been appointed a page to Prince John in 1492.

Navarrete, _Viages_, II. 17. At this time, 1500, both Diego and Ferdinand were pages in the Queen's household. _Historie_, ed. 1867, p. 276.

[380-1] The younger brother of the Admiral.

[381-1] _Un otro mundo._ See note, p. 352 above.

[381-2] _Caballeros de conquistas y del uso, y no de letras._ This should be: ”Knights of Conquests and by profession and not of letters.” _I.e._, by n.o.bles that have actually been conquerors and had conquered territory awarded to them and who are knights by practice or profession and not gentlemen of letters.

[381-3] What this means is not altogether clear. Apparently Columbus means that men of letters or lawyers in Greece and Rome, great conquering nations, would know what standards to apply in his case, and that there were some such men of breadth in Spain.

LETTER OF COLUMBUS ON THE FOURTH VOYAGE

INTRODUCTION

The letter on Columbus's last voyage when he explored the coast of Central America and of the Isthmus of Panama was written when he was s.h.i.+pwrecked on the island of Jamaica, 1503. It is his last important writing and one of great significance in understanding his geographical conceptions.

The Spanish text of this letter is not older than the sixteenth century and perhaps not older than the seventeenth. The Spanish text was first published by Navarrete in his _Coleccion de los Viages y Descubrimientos_, 1825. An Italian translation, however, was published in 1505 and is commonly known as the _Lettera Rarissima_. Mr. John Boyd Thacher has reproduced this early Italian translation in facsimile in his _Christopher Columbus_, accompanied by a translation into English. Cesare de Lollis prepared a critical edition of the Spanish text for the _Raccolta Colombiana_, which was carefully collated with and in some instances corrected by this contemporary translation. Most of his changes in punctuation and textual emendations have been adopted in the present edition, and attention is called to them in the notes.

The translation is that of R.H. Major as published in the revised edition of his _Select Letters of Columbus_. It has been carefully revised by the present editor, and some important changes have been made. As. .h.i.therto published in English a good many pa.s.sages in this letter have been so confused and obscure and some so absolutely unintelligible, that the late Justin Winsor characterized this last of the important writings of Columbus as ”a sorrowful index of his wandering reason.”[388-1] Almost every one of these pa.s.sages has yielded up the secret of its meaning either through a more exact translation or in the light of the textual emendations suggested by de Lollis or proposed by the present editor.

Among such revisions and textual emendations attention may be called to those discussed on pp. 392, 396, 397. As here published this letter of Columbus is as coherent and intelligible as his other writings.

The editor wishes here to acknowledge his obligations to Professor Henry R. Lang of Yale University, whom he has consulted in regard to perplexing pa.s.sages or possible emendations, and from whom he has received valuable a.s.sistance.

The other important accounts of this voyage, or of the part of it covered by this letter, are the brief report by Diego de Porras, of which a translation is given in Thacher's _Columbus_, and those by Ferdinand Columbus in the _Historie_ and Peter Martyr in his _De Rebus Oceanicis_.

On this voyage Las Casas's source was the account of Ferdinand Columbus.

Lollis presents some striking evidence to show that the accounts of Ferdinand Columbus and Peter Martyr were based upon the same original, a lost narrative of the Admiral. It will be remembered, however, that Ferdinand accompanied his father on this voyage, and although only a boy of thirteen his narrative contains several pa.s.sages of vivid personal recollection. The editor has carefully compared Ferdinand's narrative with the account in this letter and noted the important differences.

E.G.B.

FOOTNOTES:

[388-1] _Christopher Columbus_, p 459; _cf._ also the pa.s.sages quoted on p. 460.

THE FOURTH VOYAGE OF COLUMBUS

_A Letter written by Don Christobal Colon, Viceroy and Admiral of the Indies, to the most Christian and mighty King and Queen of Spain, our Sovereigns, in which are described the events of his voyage, and the countries, provinces, cities, rivers and other marvellous matters therein discovered, as well as the places where gold and other substances of great richness and value are to be found_

_Most Serene, and very high and mighty Princes, the King and Queen our Sovereigns_:--

My pa.s.sage from Cadiz to the Canary occupied four days, and thence to the Indies sixteen days. From which I wrote, that my intention was to expedite my voyage as much as possible while I had good vessels, good crews and stores, and that Jamaica was the place to which I was bound. I wrote this in Dominica:[389-1]--

Up to the period of my reaching these sh.o.r.es I experienced most excellent weather, but the night of my arrival came on with a dreadful tempest, and the same bad weather has continued ever since. On reaching the island of Espanola[389-2] I despatched a packet of letters, by which I begged as a favor that a s.h.i.+p should be supplied me at my own cost in lieu of one of those that I had brought with me, which had become unseaworthy, and could no longer carry sail. The letters were taken, and your Highnesses will know if a reply has been given to them. For my part I was forbidden to go on sh.o.r.e;[390-1] the hearts of my people failed them lest I should take them further, and they said that if any danger were to befall them, they should receive no succor, but, on the contrary, in all probability have some great affront offered them. Moreover every man had it in his power to tell me that the new Governor would have the superintendence of the countries that I might acquire.[390-2]

The tempest was terrible throughout the night, all the s.h.i.+ps were separated, and each one driven to the last extremity, without hope of anything but death; each of them also looked upon the loss of the rest as a matter of certainty. What man was ever born, not even excepting Job, who would not have been ready to die of despair at finding himself as I then was, in anxious fear for my own safety, and that of my son, my brother[390-3] and my friends, and yet refused permission either to land or to put into harbor on the sh.o.r.es which by G.o.d's mercy I had gained for Spain sweating blood?

But to return to the s.h.i.+ps: although the tempest had so completely separated them from me as to leave me single, yet the Lord restored them to me in His own good time. The s.h.i.+p which we had the greatest fear for, had put out to sea to escape [being blown] toward the island. The _Gallega_[390-4] lost her boat and a great part of her provisions, which latter loss indeed all the s.h.i.+ps suffered. The vessel in which I was, though dreadfully buffeted, was saved by our Lord's mercy from any injury whatever; my brother went in the s.h.i.+p that was unsound, and he under G.o.d was the cause of its being saved. With this tempest I struggled on till I reached Jamaica, and there the sea became calm, but there was a strong current which carried me as far as the Queen's Garden[391-1] without seeing land. Hence as opportunity afforded I pushed on for the mainland, in spite of the wind and a fearful contrary current, against which I contended for sixty days, and after all only made seventy leagues. All this time I was unable to get into harbor, nor was there any cessation of the tempest, which was one continuation of rain, thunder and lightning; indeed it seemed as if it were the end of the world. I at length reached the Cape of Gracias a Dios, and after that the Lord granted me fair wind and tide; this was on the twelfth of September.[391-2] Eighty-eight days did this fearful tempest continue, during which I was at sea, and saw neither sun nor stars; my s.h.i.+ps lay exposed, with sails torn, and anchors, rigging, cables, boats and a great quant.i.ty of provisions lost; my people were very weak and humbled in spirit, many of them promising to lead a religious life, and all making vows and promising to perform pilgrimages, while some of them would frequently go to their messmates to make confession.[392-1] Other tempests have been experienced, but never of so long a duration or so fearful as this: many whom we looked upon as brave men, on several occasions showed considerable trepidation; but the distress of my son who was with me grieved me to the soul, and the more when I considered his tender age, for he was but thirteen years old, and he enduring so much toil for so long a time. Our Lord, however, gave him strength even to enable him to encourage the rest, and he worked as if he had been eighty years at sea, and all this was a consolation to me. I myself had fallen sick, and was many times at the point of death, but from a little cabin that I had caused to be constructed on deck, I directed our course. My brother was in the s.h.i.+p that was in the worst condition and the most exposed to danger; and my grief on this account was the greater that I brought him with me against his will.