Select letters of Christopher Columbus

Transcriber’s Note: In keeping with the author’s note that “Such misspellings as a Spanish scholar will readily recognize as the blunders of the Spanish printer I have not thoug...

The presumed discovery of America which comes next in chronological rotation, is that by the Scandinavians, the earliest _printed allusion_ to which occurs in Adam of Bremen’s _...

Another pretension to an early discovery of America has been founded upon an account given in a work published in Venice by Francesco Marcolini in 1558, entitled “_Dello scoprim...

Toinard’s correction went to shew that Leibnitz had confounded the name of Guillaume de Caseneuve, surnamed Coulomp, Coulon, or Colon, as the Spaniards called him, with that of...

Shortly after this invaluable invention Columbus submitted to the king of Portugal his proposition of a voyage of discovery, and succeeded in obtaining an audience to advocate h...

Very shortly after his arrival the papal bull was obtained, which fixed the famous line of demarcation, determining the right of the Spanish and Portuguese to discovered lands....

It would be out of place here to enter into the complicated arguments in which this question is involved; but I have elsewhere shown[20] on how frail a tenure the claim in quest...

Et comādo de poi che gli sia dato danari & roba q̃l che fa mestiero, & poi dimolta gēte acompagnato divotamente & cō buō pensiero, al sommo dio che fu racomandato, & alla madre...

4to. Printed in gothic characters, in double columns, and, without doubt, at Florence. A complete copy should contain four leaves. The copy in the British Museum, the only one o...

His Excellency says: “We hold it for certain that the said _primitive_ edition (the Ambrosian) which we have had the opportunity of seeing in Milan, _must have given origin_ to...

Transcriber’s Note: In the original, the English text was printed at the top of each page with the Spanish text below. This is not practical to reproduce in an e-text, so the En...

Señor, por que se que aureis[43] plazer de la grand victoria que nuestro señor me ha dado en mi vyaie, vos escriuo esta por la qual sabreys commo en xxxiij dias pase a las jndia...

The joy of the people was so great, that it was wonderful to hear their cries and exclamations of pleasure; and they had good reason to be delighted, for they had become so wear...

The island being large, is divided into provinces; the part which we first touched at, is called Hayti; another province adjoining it, they call Xamaná; and the next province is...

The land is very rich for all purposes. Near the harbour there are two rivers; one large,[141] and another of moderate breadth somewhat near it: the water is of a very remarkabl...

Muy magnífico Señor: Porque las cosas que yo particularmente escribo á otros en otras cartas no son igualmente comunicables como las que en esta escritura van, acordé de escribi...

Hasta aquí es el treslado de lo que conviene á nuevas de aquellas partes é Indias. Lo demas que venia en la carta no hace al caso, porque son cosas particulares que el dicho Dot...

Item. You will tell their Highnesses, that the welfare of the souls of the said cannibals, and of the inhabitants of this island also, has suggested the thought that the greater...

Item: Como quiera que por las cartas que á sus altezas escribo y aun el Padre Fray Buil y el Tesorero, podrán comprender todo lo que acá despues de nuestra llegada se fizo, y es...

Item: Direis á sus Altezas como los escuderos de caballo que vinieron de Granada, en el alarde que ficieron en Sevilla mostraron buenos caballos, é despues al embarcar, yo no lo...

I recollect, that in sailing towards the Indies, as soon as I passed a hundred leagues to the westward of the Azores, I found the temperature change: and this is so all along fr...

When I sailed from Spain to the Indies, I found, that as soon as I had passed a hundred leagues westward of the Azores, there was a very great change in the sky and the stars, i...

Serenísimos é muy altos é muy poderosos Príncipes Rey é Reina nuestros Señores: La Santa Trinidad movió á vuestras Altezas á esta empresa de las Indias, y por su infinita bondad...

La suavelidad de la mar fallé conforme, mas no en la yerba: en esto de la estrella del Norte tomé grande admiracion, y por esto muchas noches con mucha diligencia tornaba yo á r...

I have now reached that point, that there is no man so vile but thinks it his right to insult me. The day will come when the world will reckon it a virtue to him who has not giv...

The tidings of the gold which I said I would give, are, that on Christmas-day, being greatly afflicted and tormented by the wicked Spaniards and the Indians, when I was at the p...

[190] This is related by his son Don Ferdinand, in cap. 84 of his history, and is more amply described in the letter addressed by Columbus to the sovereigns, describing his four...

I heard all this, as it were, in a trance; but I had no answer to give in definite words, and could but weep for my errors. He who spoke to me, whoever he was, concluded by sayi...

Serenísimos y muy altos y poderosos Príncipes Rey é Reina, nuestros Señores: De Caliz pasé á Canaria en cuatro dias, y dende á las Indias en diez y seis dias, donde escribia. Mi...

Cuando yo andaba por aquella mar en fatiga en algunos se puso heregía que estabamos enfechizados, que hoy dia estan en ello. Otra gente fallé que comian hombres: la desformidad...

The Admiral had scarcely got to sea (while I stayed on shore with about twenty men, for the others had gone to assist the Admiral), when suddenly more than four hundred natives,...

My dear and beloved sons, children of my very dear and beloved wife Doña Francisca de Ribera,—may the blessing of God Almighty, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, descend upon you, to...

El dia siguiente yo puse mi canoa á monte, y le eché una quilla postiza, y le dí su brea y sebo, y en la popa y proa clavéle algunas tablas para defensa de la mar que no se me e...

Columbus (Christopher) derives the idea of explorations to the West from Prince Henry’s researches into the Atlantic, i; the importance of his original letters, ii; the pathos a...

Varnhagen (Señor de), his opinion on the landfall of Columbus, lx; proved to be mistaken, lxii; referred to on the subject of the earliest edition of the first letter, cxxv, cxxvii