emptied. He immediately placed a guard of armed men, who watched during the whole night, and thofe on fhore lamented as if they had been much interested in our lofs. The people are fo affectionate, so tractable, and fo peaceable, that I fwear to your highneffes. that there is not a better race of men, nor a better country in the world. They love their neighbour as themselves; their converfation is the fweeteft and mildeft in the world, cheerful, and always accompanied with a fmile.

And

although it is true that they go naked, yet your highnesses may be affured that they have many very commendable cuftoms; the king is ferved with great ftate, and his behaviour is fo decent, that it is pleasant to fee him, as it is likewife to obferve the wonderful memory which these people have, and their defire of knowing every thing, which leads them to inquire into its caufes and effects. " Life of Columbus, c. 32. It is probable that the Spaniards were indebted for this officious attention, to the opinion which the Indians entertained of them as a fuperior order of beings.

NOTE XVI. p. 140.

Every monument of fuch a man as Columbus is valuable. A letter which he wrote to Ferdinand and Ifabella, defcribing what paffed on this occafion, exhibits a moft ftriking

picture of his intrepidity, his humanity, his prudence, his publick fpirit, and courtly addrefs. ,,I would have been lefs concerned for this misfortune, had I alone been in danger, both becaufe my life is a debt that I owe to the Supreme Creator, and becaufe I have at other times been expofed to the most imminent hazard. But what gave me infinite grief and vexation was, that after it had pleased our Lord to give me faith to undertake this enterprize, in which I had now been fo fuccefsful, that my opponents would have been convinced, and the glory of your highneffes, and the extent of your territory increased by me; it fhould please the Divine Majefty to ftop all by my death. All this would have been more tolerable, had it not been attended with the lofs of thofe men whom I had carried with me, upon promife of the greatest profperity, who seeing themselves in fuch diftrefs, curfed not only their coming along with me, but that fear and awe of me, which prevented them from returning as they often had refolved to have done. But befides all this, my forrow was greatly increased, by recollecting that I had left my two fons at fchool at Cordova, deftitute of friends, in a foreign country, when it could not in all probability be known that I had done fuch fervices as might induce your highniffes to remember them. And though I comforted myfelf with the faith that our Lord would not permit

that, which tended fo much to the glory of his church, and which I had brought about with fo much trouble, to remain imperfect, yet I confidered that, on account of my fins, it was his will to deprive me of that glory, which I might have attained in this world. While in this confufed ftate, I thought on the good fortune which accompanies your highneffes, and imagined, that although I should perifh, and the veffel be loft, it was poffible that you might fomehow come to the knowledge of my voyage, and the fuccefs with which it was attended. For that reafon I wrote upon parchment with the brevity which the fituation required, that I had difcovered the lands which I promised, in how many days I had done it, and what courfe I had followed. mentioned the goodness of the country, the character of the inhabitants, and that your highneffes fubjects were left in poffeffion of all that I had discovered. Having fealed this writing, I addreffed it to your highneffes, and promised a thousand ducats to any perfon who fhould deliver it fealed, fo that if any foreigners found it, the promised reward might prevail on them not to give the information to another, I then caused a great cafk to be brought to me, and wrapping up the parchment in an oiled cloth, and afterwards in a cake of wax, I put it into the cafk, and having ftopt it well, I caft it into the fea. All the men believed that

I

it was fome act of devotion. Imagining that this might never change to be taken up, as the fhips approached nearer to Spain, I made another packet like the firft, and placed it at the top of the poop, fo that if the fhip funk, the cafk remaining above water might be committed to the guidance of fortune. "

NOTE XVII. p. 145.

Some Spanish authors, with the meanness of national jealoufy, have endeavoured to detract from the glory of Columbus, by infinuating that he was led to the discovery of the New World, not by his own inventive or enterprifing genius, but by information which he had received. According to their account, a vefiel having been driven from its courfe by eafterly winds, was carried before them far to the weft, and landed on the coaft of an unknown country, from which it returned with difficulty; the pilot, and three failors, being the only perfons who furvived the diftreffes which the crew fuffered, from want of provifions, and fatigue in this long voyage. In a few days after their arrival, all the four diet; but the pilot having been received into the houfe of Columbus, his intimate friend, difclofed to him, before his death, the fecret of the difcovery which he had accidentally made, and left him his papers containing a journal of the voyage, which ferved as a guide

nea.

Gomara', as

to Columbus in his undertaking. far as I know, is the firft author who published this ftory, Hift. c. 13. Every circumftance is deftitute of evidence to fupport it. Neither the name of the veffel nor its deftination is known. Some pretend that it belonged to one of the feaport towns in Andalufia, and was failing either to the Canaries, or to Madeira; others, that it was a Biscayner in its way to England; others, a Portuguese fhip trading on the coaft of GuiThe name of the pilot is alike unknown, as well as that of the port in which he landed on his return. According to fome, it was in Portugal; according to others, in Madeira, or the Azores. The year in which this voyage was made is no lefs uncertain. Monfon's Nav. Tracts. Churchill, iii. 371. No mention is made of this pilot, or his difcoveries, by And. Bernaldes, or Pet. Martyr, the contemporaries of Columbus. Herrera, with his ufual judgment, paffes over it in filence. Oviedo takes notice of this report, but con- ' fiders it as a tale fit only to amuse the vulgar. Hift. lib. ii. c. 2. As Columbus held his courfe directly weft from the Canaries, and never varied it, fome later authors have fuppofed, that this uniformity is a proof of his being guided by fome previous information. But they do not recollect the principles on which he founded all his hopes of fuccefs, that by holding a wefterly course he must certainly arrive at those