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Page 14
Altho these matters are very wonderful and unheard of, they would have
been much more so if the ships to a reasonable amount had been
furnished me. But what has been accomplished is great and wonderful,
and not at all proportionate to my deserts, but to the sacred
Christian faith, and to the piety and religion of our sovereigns. For
what the mind of man could not compass, the spirit of God has granted
to mortals. For God is wont to listen to his servants who love his
precepts, even in impossibilities, as has happened to me in the
present instance, who have accomplished what human strength has
hitherto never attained. For, if any one has written or told anything
about these islands, all have done so either obscurely or by
guesswork, so that it has almost seemed to be fabulous.
Therefore let king and queen and princes, and their most fortunate
realms, and all other Christian provinces, let us all return thanks to
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who has bestowed so great a victory
and reward upon us; let there be processions and solemn sacrifices
prepared; let the churches be decked with festal boughs; let Christ
rejoice upon earth as he rejoices in heaven, as He foresees that so
many souls of so many people heretofore lost are to be saved; and let
us be glad not only for the exaltation of our faith, but also for the
increase of temporal prosperity, in which not only Spain, but all
Christendom is about to share.
As these things have been accomplished, so have they been briefly
narrated. Farewell.
[1] The first letter of Columbus, descriptive of his first
voyage, was written in February, 1498, when he was off the
Azores, on his return home. It was addrest to Louis de Santangel,
the treasurer of King Ferdinand of Spain. Altho addrest to the
treasurer, it was intended for the eyes of the King himself, and
for those of his queen, Isabella. The letter was first printed in
Barcelona, soon after the arrival of Columbus. Another account,
substantially the same, was written by Columbus in Lisbon in
March of the same year, an--at once translated into Latin and
published in Rome in several editions, one being that of Stephen
Plannck, of which five copies only are now known to be extant. Of
this Plannck edition a translation from the Latin into English
made by Henry W. Haynes has been published by the New York Public
Library. From this translation the passage here given is taken.
[2] The identity of the island on which Columbus made his first
landing was formerly much in controversy. The best opinion now
inclines to accept the conclusions reached by Captain Beecher of
the British Navy some fifty years ago, that the landing was made
on what is known as Watling's Island, one of the Bahamas. This
island is about thirteen miles long, north and south, and six
wide, and is made up of coral, shell and other marine debris. A
monument was erected on it by a Chicago newspaper in 1892, with
this inscription: "On this spot Christopher Columbus first set
foot on the soil of the New World." The monument is said already
to be in a state of decay, having been poorly constructed.
Watling's Island lies about 200 miles southeast of Nassau, and is
nearly on a parallel with Havana, but lies 400 miles east of it.
Its inhabitants number about 700, who are dispersed among fifteen
hamlets. The horses on the island scarcely number 50. There are a
few cows and several flocks of sheep. The people are all poor.
Little is grown on the island, droughts occur, and starvation has
in some years been prevented only by help from outside.
THE BULL OF POPE ALEXANDER VI. PARTITIONING AMERICA[1]
(1493)
The copy of the bull, or donation, by the authority whereof Pope
Alexander, the sixth of that name, gave and granted to the kings of
Castile and their successors the regions and lands found in the west
ocean sea by the navigations of the Spanish.
Alexander, bishop, the servant of the servants of God: To our most
dearly beloved son in Christ, King Ferdinand, and to our dearly
beloved daughter in Christ, Elizabeth, Queen of Castile, Leon, Aragon,
Sicily, and Granada, most noble princes, greeting and apostolic
benediction.
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