Chapter 26

Likewise, that no settler be allowed to go and gather gold unless with a permit from the governor or mayor of the town in which he lives, to be given only upon his promising under oath to return to the place of his residence and faithfully report all the gold which he may have gathered, this to be done once a month, or once a week, as the time may be assigned to him, the said report to be entered on the proper registry by the clerk of the town in the presence of the mayor, and if so deemed advisable, in the presence of a friar or priest selected for the purpose.

Likewise, that all the gold so gathered be melted forthwith, and stamped with such a stamp as the town may have devised and selected, and that it be weighed and that the share of that gold which belongs to your Highnesses be given and delivered to the mayor of the town, the proper record thereof being made by the clerk and by the priest or friar, so that it may not pass through only one hand and may so render the concealing of the truth impossible.

Likewise, that all the gold which may be found without the mark or seal aforesaid in the possession of any one who formerly had reported once as aforesaid, be forfeited and divided by halves, one for the informer and the other for your Highnesses.

Likewise, that one per cent. of all the gold gathered be set apart and appropriated for building churches, and providing for their proper furnishing and ornamentation, and to the support of the priests or friars having them in their charge, and, if so deemed advisable, for the payment of some compensation to the mayors and clerks of the respective towns, so as to cause them to fulfil their duties faithfully, and that the balance be delivered to the governor and treasurer sent there by your Highnesses.

Likewise, in regard to the division of the gold and of the share which belongs to your Highnesses, I am of the opinion that it should be entrusted to the said governor and treasurer, because the amount of the gold found may sometimes be large and sometimes small, and, if so deemed advisable, that the share of your Highnesses be established for one year to be one-half, the other half going to the gatherers, reserving for a future time to make some other and better provision, if necessary.

Likewise, that if the mayors and clerks commit any fraud or consent to it, the proper punishment be inflicted upon them, and that a penalty be likewise imposed upon those settlers who do not report in full the whole amount of the gold which is in their possession.

Likewise, that there be a treasurer[275-1] in the said island, who shall receive all the gold belonging to your Highnesses, and shall have a clerk to make and keep the proper record of the receipts, and that the mayors and clerks of the respective towns be given the proper vouchers for everything which they may deliver to the said treasurer.

Likewise, that whereas the extreme anxiety of the colonists to gather gold may induce them to neglect all other business and occupations, it seems to me that prohibition should be made to them to engage in the search of gold during some season of the year, so as to give all other business, profitable to the island, an opportunity to be established and carried on.

Likewise, that as far as the business of discovering other lands is concerned,[276-1] it is my opinion that permission to do so should be given to everyone who desires to embark in it, and that some liberality should be shown in reducing the fifth to be given away, so as to encourage as many as possible for entering into such undertakings.

And now I shall set forth my opinion as to the manner of sending vessels to the said Spanish Island, and the regulation of this subject which must be made, which is as follows: That no vessels should be allowed to unload their cargoes except at one or two ports designated for that purpose, and that a record should be made of all that they carry and unload; and that no vessels should be allowed either to leave the island except from the same ports, after a record has been made also of all that they have taken on board, so that nothing can be concealed.

Likewise, in regard to the gold to be brought from the island to Castile, that the whole of it, whether belonging to your Highnesses or to some private individual, must be kept in a chest, with two keys, one to be kept by the master of the vessel and the other by some person chosen by the governor and the treasurer, and that an official record must be made of everything put in the said chest, in order that each one may have what is his, and that any other gold, much or little, found outside of the said chest in any manner be forfeited to the benefit of your Highnesses, so as to cause the transaction to be made faithfully.

Likewise, that all vessels coming from the said island must come to unload to the port of Cadiz, and that no person shall be allowed to leave the vessels or get in them until such person or persons of the said city as may be appointed for this purpose by your Highnesses go on board the same vessels, to whom the masters must declare all that they have brought, and show the statement of everything they have in the cargoes, so that it may be seen and proved whether the said ships have brought anything hidden and not declared in the manifests at the time of shipment.

Likewise, that in the presence of the Justice of the said city of Cadiz and of whosoever may be deputed for the purpose by your Highnesses, the said chest shall be opened in which the gold is to be brought and that to each one be given what belongs to him.[277-1]

May your Highnesses keep me in their minds, while I, on my part, shall ever pray to God our Lord to preserve the lives of your Highnesses and enlarge their dominions.

S. S.A.S. X.M.Y. XPO FERENS.[277-2]

Sent by the admiral.

FOOTNOTES:

[273-1] The original text of this letter will be most accessible in Thacher, _Christopher Columbus_, III. 100-113. It is there accompanied by a facsimile of the original manuscript and an English translation. The translation here given is a revision of that made by Dr. Jose Ignacio Rodriguez of Washington and printed in the _Report of the American Historical Association_, 1894, pp. 452-455, as part of a paper by W.E. Curtis on _Autographs of Christopher Columbus_. The text was first printed by Justo Zaragoza in his _Cartas de Indias_, etc. (Madrid, 1877). It was first translated by George Dexter in the _Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society_, Vol. XVI. This translation, which contains some errors which seriously affect the meaning, is also to be found in P.L. Ford, _Writings of Christopher Columbus_, pp. 67-74. Zaragoza placed the date of this letter in 1497. It is the opinion of the present editor that it should be placed between the first and the second voyage. The arguments advanced by Lollis in favor of 1493 are conclusive. See _Raccolta Colombiana_, parte I., tomo I., pp. lxxv-lxxx.

The letter is of great importance as the first draft of a systematic colonial policy for the newly discovered islands. Several of its suggestions were incorporated in the letter of instructions which the Sovereigns gave Columbus May 29, 1493, for the second voyage. See Navarrete, _Viages_, II. 66-72. It was supplemented in 1494 by the memorandum which the Admiral sent back to the sovereigns by Antonio de Torres and the two together entitle Columbus to be considered the pioneer lawgiver as well as the discoverer of the New World. _Cf._ Bourne, _Spain in America_, pp. 204-206.

[273-2] _La ysla Espanola._ So translated, for so it would sound to the Sovereigns. There had not been time for Espanola to sound like a proper name.

[274-1] See Bourne, _Spain in America_, pp. 34-35, for the actual equipment of the second voyage.

[274-2] Alcalde.

[274-3] _Escribano del pueblo._

[275-1] As the King and Queen on May 7, 1493, appointed Gomez Tello to go with Columbus on the second voyage to act as receiver of the royal dues, Thacher argues strongly, on the ground that this recommendation presumably antedates the appointment of a treasurer, that this letter of Columbus's was written earlier than May 7, 1493.

[276-1] Such an authorization was given by the sovereigns, April 10, 1495, reserving Columbus's rights to one-eighth of the trade. Navarrete, II. 166-167. The Admiral protested that this authorization led to infringement of his rights and it was in so far revoked, June 2, 1497.

[277-1] On the development of the fiscal and commercial regulations of the Spanish colonial administration, see Bourne, _Spain in America_, pp. 282-301 and 337; Moses, _Establishment of Spanish Rule in America_, pp. 27-67.

[277-2] The formal signature of Columbus which he enjoined upon his heir in his deed of entail, February 28, 1498. See P.L. Ford, _Writings of Christopher Columbus_, p. 90. If this letter was written, as is supposed, in 1493, this is the earliest use of this monogram. Its meaning has never been determined. The various conjectures are presented by Thacher, _Christopher Columbus_, III. 454-458.

LETTER OF DR. CHANCA ON THE SECOND VOYAGE OF COLUMBUS

INTRODUCTION

Dr. Chanca of Seville volunteered to go to the Indies, and on May 23, 1493, the King and Queen appointed him surgeon (Navarrete, _Viages_, II. 54). This letter was written to the cabildo or town council of Seville and is the first narrative of one of Columbus's voyages that we have exactly as it was written by a private observer. It is also the first description of the natives that we have from an observer of scientific training. The original text was first printed by Navarrete in his _Viages_ in 1825. The original manuscript or a copy came into the possession of the historian Bernaldez, who embodied it with a few trifling changes and omissions in his _Historia de Los Reyes Catolicos_, chs. CXIX., CXX. (Seville ed., 1870), Vol. II., pp. 5-36.

Columbus kept a journal on this voyage which is no longer extant. Abridgments of it are preserved to us in the _Historie_ of Ferdinand Columbus and in the _Historia de las Indias_ of Las Casas. There are other contemporary narratives of the voyage from private hands, but they are either made up from conversations with those who went on the voyage, like the letters of Simone Verde, printed in Harrisse, _Christophe Colomb_, II. 68-78, or the account in Books II. and III. of the first decade of Peter Martyr's _De Rebus Oceanicis_, or a literary embellishment of some private letters like the translation into Latin by Nicolo Syllacio of some letters he received from Guillelmo Coma who went on the voyage. The Syllacio-Coma letter and Peter Martyr's account in its earliest published form, the Venetian _Libretto de tutta la Navigatione de Re de Spagna de le Isole et Terreni novamente Trovati_, are accessible in English in Thacher, _Christopher Columbus_, II. 243-262, 489-502. These two narratives gave the European public its first knowledge of the second voyage. The Syllacio-Coma letter was published late in 1494 or early in 1495, and the _Libretto_ in Venice in 1504.

The translation of Dr. Chanca's letter given here is that of R.H. Major. It has been carefully revised to bring it into closer conformity to the original. Any noteworthy changes will be indicated. Attention may be called to a somewhat important correction of the text on p. 304.

Of Dr. Chanca personally little or nothing is known beyond what has been mentioned except that he devoted himself with zeal and self-sacrifice to his duties. In the report of the Second Voyage which Columbus prepared January 30, 1494, and sent off by Antonio de Torres February 2, he charged Torres as follows in regard to Dr. Chanca. "You will inform their Highnesses of the labor that Dr. Chanca is performing on account of the many that are ill and the lack of supplies and that with all this he is conducting himself with great diligence and kindness in everything that concerns his duties," etc. Major, _Select Letters of Columbus_, pp. 93, 94.

E.G.B.

LETTER OF DR. CHANCA ON THE SECOND VOYAGE OF COLUMBUS

_A letter addressed to the Town Council of Seville by Dr. Chanca, a native of that city, and physician to the fleet of Columbus, on his second voyage to the Indies, describing the principal events which occurred during that voyage_

_Most noble Lord_:--

Since the occurrences which I relate in private letters to other persons are not of such general interest as those which are contained in this epistle, I have resolved to give you a distinct narrative of the events of our voyage, as well as to treat of the other matters which form the subject of my petition to your Lordship. The news I have to communicate are as follows: The expedition which their Catholic Majesties sent, by Divine permission, from Spain to the Indies, under the command of Christopher Columbus, Admiral of the Ocean, left Cadiz on the twenty-fifth of September, of the year [1493, with seventeen ships well equipped and with 1200 fighting men or a little less,][283-1] with wind and weather favorable for the voyage. This weather lasted two days, during which time we managed to make nearly fifty leagues; the weather then changing, we made little or no progress for the next two days; it pleased God, however, after this, to restore us fine weather, so that in two days more we reached the Great Canary. Here we put into harbor, which we were obliged to do, to repair one of the ships which made a great deal of water; we remained all that day, and on the following set sail again, but were several times becalmed, so that we were four or five days before we reached Gomera. We had to remain at Gomera some days[284-1] to lay in our stores of meat, wood, and as much water as we could stow, preparatory to the long voyage which we expected to make without seeing land: thus through the delay at these two ports, and being calmed one day after leaving Gomera, we were nineteen or twenty days before we arrived at the island of Ferro. After this we had, by the goodness of God, a return of fine weather, more continuous than any fleet ever enjoyed during so long a voyage, so that leaving Ferro on the thirteenth of October, within twenty days we came in sight of land; and we should have seen it in fourteen or fifteen days, if the ship _Capitana_[284-2] had been as good a sailer as the other vessels; for many times the others had to shorten sail, because they were leaving us much behind. During all this time we had great good fortune, for throughout the voyage we encountered no storm, with the exception of one on St. Simon's eve,[284-3] which for four hours put us in considerable jeopardy.

On the first Sunday after All Saints, namely the third of November, about dawn, a pilot of the flagship cried out, "The reward, I see the land!"