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WORKS ISSUED BY ^aMugt SELECT LETTERS OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, M.UCCf .XLVIX. £ ly ^ ^ SELECT LETTERS OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, WITH OTHER ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS, RELATING TO HIS FOUR VOYAGES TO THE NEW WORLD. TRANSLATED AND EDITED BY R. H. MAJOR, Esq. OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. Tu spiegherai, Colombo, a un novo polo Lontane si le fortunate antenne, Ch’a pena seg-uir^ con gli occH il volo La Fama c’ha mille occM e mille penne. Canti ella Alcide e Bacco, e di te solo Basti ai posteri tuoi ch’alquanto accenne ; Che quel poco dara lunga memoria Bi poema degnissima e d’istoria. Tasso. — Gerusalemme Liberata. LONDON: PRINTED FOR THE HAKLUYT SOCIETY. M.DCCC.XLYII. RICHARDS, 100 , ST. MARTIN S X.ANK. THE HAKLUYT SOCIETY CoUECt!* SIR RODERICK IMPEY MURCHISON, G.C.St.S , F.R.S,, Corr. Mem. Inst. Fr.; Hon. Mem. Imp. Acad. Sc. St. Petersburg, &c. &c., President. Vice-Admiral SIR CHARLES MALCOLM, Kt, The Rev. H. H. MILMAN, M.A. I Vice Presidents. CHARLES T. BEKE. ESQ., PHIL. D., F.S.A. CAPTAIN C. R. DRINKWATER BETHUNE, R.N., C.B. MAJOR-GENERAL J. BRIGGS, F.R.S. CAPTAIN F. BULLOCK, R.N. BOLTON CORNEY, ESQ., M.R.S.L. CHARLES DARWIN, ESQ., F.R.S. SIR HENRY ELLIS, K.H., F.R.S. JOHN FORSTER, ESQ. J. E. GRAY, ESQ., F.R.S. W. R. HAMILTON, ESQ., F.R.S. T. HODGKIN, ESQ., M.D. SIR JAMES M'GRIGOR, BARONET, M.D., F.R.S. R. H. MAJOR, ESQ. R. MONCKTON MILNES, ESQ., M.P. SIR J. RICFIARDSON, M.D., F.R.S. ANDREW SMITH, ESQ., M.D. SIR GEORGE T. STAUNTON, BARONET, M P., F.R.S. WILLIAM DESBOROUGH COOLEY, Esq., F.R.G.S., Secretary. EDITOR’S PREFACE. Should the reader of the following highly interesting letters meet with some passages deficient in that ease of expression, or that connectedness of construction to which his ear and his taste are accustomed, he is requested to bear in mind that the originals are the compositions of men, who, though intelligent observers of the facts they describe, and strongly actuated by the feelings to which they give expression, were yet far from being accomplished masters of the use of the pen. The Spanish scholar will readily perceive that the inaccuracies of the original, both in spelling and grammar, the frequent use of obsolete words, and the disjointed character of the sentences, must have ren- dered it a matter of no inconsiderable difiiculty to avoid a certain harshness of style, in the endeavour to give a correct version of the author’s meaning. In the execution of his task, however, the Editor has EDITOR S PREFACE. never hesitated to sacrifice ease to accuracy, where the two were incompatible with each other. Since writing the following introduction to these letters, the Editor has seen those passages in Kosmos which refer to Columbus and to the antecedent voyages to the New World, and is happy to find the remarks of the illustrious Humboldt in this latter work in no way contradictory to the statements in the Geographie du nouveau Continent^ to which the Editor has been indebted in the progress of the following pages. R. H. M. INTRODUCTION. In introducing these letters for the first time to the English reader, it will perhaps be necessary to fore- warn him that he is not to expect to find in them a detailed history of all the events that occurred in the four important voyages to which they refer. The inducement to translate them has been, that though falling far short of a complete history, they are yet filled with a most interesting series of incidents, described by the pens of those to whom these incidents occurred; while at the same time they present us, from Columbus’s own mouth as it were, with a clear view of his opinions and conjectures upon many remarkable and important subjects; and of the mag- nanimity with which he endured an accumulated burthen of unmerited affliction. The translated documents are seven in number. Five of them are letters from the hand of Columbus him- self, describing respectively his first, third, and fourth voyages. Another, descriptive of the second voyage, is by Dr. Chanca, the physician to the fleet during that expedition ; and the seventh document is an extract h 11 INTRODUCTION. from the will of Diego Mendez, one of Columbus’s officers during the fourth voyage, who gives a de- tailed account of many most interesting adventures undertaken by himself, but left undescribed by Co- lumbus. It will be requisite, however, for the satisfaction of the reader, to enter more minutely into the history of each of these documents individually. The first and by far the most interesting of the let- ters is that addressed by Columbus from Lisbon, under date of the 14th of March, 1493, to Eaphael Sanchez, treasurer to Ferdinand and Isabella, and describes the occurrences of his first great discovery. This letter, the only one of the number now published that has hitherto appeared in the English language, was trans- lated very loosely and without comment in the Edin- burgh Review for 1816. It is not known whether the original, written by Columbus, in Spanish, be now in existence or not, but it is possible that it may still lie, like a dia- mond in the mine, in some unexplored Archive in Spain. On its first appearance, in 1493, the astonishing narrative it contained caused so much excitement as to occasion numerous editions to be issued in the same year from the various great printing cities of Europe. Those at present known are the fol- lowing : — ‘‘Epistola Christofori Colom : cui etas nostra multum debet : de insulis Indie supra Gangem nuper invetis. Ad quas perquirendas octavo antea mense auspiciis et INTRODUCTION. Ill ere invictissimorum Fernandi ac Helisabet Hispaniar Kegu missus fuerat; ad magnificum dfim Gabrielem Sanches; eorundem Serenissimorum Regum Tesaura- riu missa : Qua’ generosus ac litteratus vir Leander de Cosco ab Hispana idiomate in Latinu c5vertit; tertio Kaleh Maii m.c.c.c.c.xc.iii. Pontificatus Alex- andri Sexti anno primo. Impressit Romee Eucharius Argenteus anno dhi m.c.c.c.c.xc.iii.” There are copies of this edition in the Grenville Library, British Museum ; and in the libraries of Mr. James Lenox of New York and Mr. John Carter Brown, of Providence, Rhode Island. “EpistolaChristofori Colom : cui etas nostra multum debet : de Insulis Indie supra Gangem nuper invntis. Ad quas perqrendas octavo antea mense auspiciis et 8ere invictissimorum Fernandi et Helisabet Hispanise Regu missus fuerat, ad magnificum dnm Gabrielem Sanchis eorunde Serenissimorum Regum Tesaurariu missa : qua nobilis ac litteratus vir Leander de Cosco ab Hispano idiomate in Latinum covertit tertio kal’s Maii. M.cccc.xciii. Pontificatus Alexandri Sexti Anno primo. Sine loco et anno.” Four leaves and thirty- three lines in a full page. Copies of this edition exist in the Grenville Library, British Museum; in the Royal Library, Munich; and in the libraries of Mr. James Lenox of New York, and Mr., John Carter Brown of Providence. “ Epistola Christofori Colum ; cui etas nostra multu debet : de Insulis Indie supra Gangem nuper inventis. Ad quas perquirendas octavo antea mense auspiciis et ere invictissimi Fernandi Hispaniarum Regis missus IV INTRODUCTION. fuerat: ad Magnificum dfim Kaphaelem Sanxis: ejus- dem serenissimi Kegis Tesaurariu missa: quam no- bilis ac litteratus vir Aliander de Cosco ab Hispano ideomate in latinum convertit : tertio kal’s Maii. M.cccc.xciii. Pontificatiis Alexandri Sexti anno Pri- mo. Sine loco et anno et typ. n.” Four leaves, thirty- four lines in a full page. Copies of this edition are in the Grenville Library, British Museum ; the Eoyal Library of Munich ; and in the libraries of Colonel Thomas Aspinwall, United States, Consul-General at London, and Mr. John Carter of Providence. De Insulis nuper inventis. Epistola Cristoferi Colom (cui etas nostra multu debet: de Insulis in Mari Indico nup’ invetis. Ad quas perquirendas octavo antea mense: auspiciis et ere Invictissimi Fernandi Hispaniarum Eegis missus fuerat) ad Magnificum dnm Eaphalez Sanxis: ejusde seremissimi Eegis Thesau- rariu missa. Quam nobilis ac litterat’ vir Aliander d’ Cosco: ab Hispano Ydeomate in latinu convertit: tercio kfs Maii. m.cccc.xciii. Pontificatus Alexandri Sexti anno primo. 8vo. s. 1. 1493.” Six wood-cuts, one of them (the Oceanica Classis) repeated; nine leaves, twenty- seven words in a full page. Copies of this edition are in the Grenville Li- brary, British Museum ; and in the library of Pro- fessor Libri. Another edition, 4to., was printed at Paris (1493), the only known copy of which is in the library of Mr. J. C. Brown of Providence. There was likewise another edition printed in Paris INTRODUCTION. V (1493), with a wood-cut on the title, one copy of which is in the Bodleian Library, and another in the University Library of Gottingen. “ Eyn schorl hiibsch lesen von etlichen insslen die do in kurtzen zyten funden synd durch de’ klinig von Hispania, und sagt v5 grossen wunderlichen dingen die in de selbe insslen synd. Getruckt zu Strassburg utf gruneek v5 meister Bartlomess Fiistler ym jar M.cccc.xcvii. uff sant Jeronymus tag.” 4to. Seven leaves, thirty lines in a full page. The only known copy is in the Grenville Library, British Museum. “De insulis nuper inventis. Epistola Christoferi Colom (cui etas nostra multum debet: de insulis in mari Indico nuper inventis ad quas perquirendas octavo antea mense: auspiciis et ere invictissimi Fer- nandi Hispaniaru Regis missus fuerat) ad magnificu dominu’ Raphaelem Sanxis : ejusdem serenissimi Re- gis Thesaurarium missa: quam nobilis ac litteratus vir Aliander de Cosco : ab Hispano ideomate : in lati- num convertit : tercio Kalendas Maii. m.cccc.xciii. Pontificatus Alexandri Sexti anno primo.” Seven leaves, twenty-eight lines in a full page. Four wood-cuts. This book forms the sequel to “Yerardus in laudem Ferdinandi Regis.” There are copies of this edition in the Grenville library, British Museum ; and in the libraries of Mr. John Carter Brown, Mr. James Lenox, Mr. Henry Stevens, and Mr. 0. Rich. It is less rare than the others. VI INTRODUCTION. Copies of another edition of the letter forming a sequel to Verardus^ folio, printed in Basle, 1533, are in the British Museum, and in the libraries of Messrs. Brown and Lenox ; but are of no remarkable rarity. No sooner did this letter make its appearance in print, in the year 1493, than the narrative it contained was put forth in Italian ottava rima by Giuliano Dati, one of the most popular poets of the day, and there is reason to believe that it was sung about the streets to announce to the Italians the astounding news of the discovery of a new world. The only known copy of this curious and valuable poem has recently come into the possession of the British Museum. Whether regarded with reference to the bibliography of early works relating to America, or of the early poetry of Italy, this little work must be acknowledged to possess the highest interest. It consists of four leaves, comprising a title page and sixty-eight stanzas. The title runs thus : “ La lettera, dell’ isole che ha trovato nuovamente il re dis- pagna.’^ End of the volume. — Finita la Storia della inventione delle nuove isole dicanaria indiane tracte duna pistola di Christofano Colombo et per... Giu- liano Dati tradocta. A di 26 doctubre 1493. Flo- rentie.” On the title-page is an engraving repre- senting the arrival of Columbus with his fleet at one of the newly discovered islands in the West Indies, with the king of Spain sitting enthroned in the fore- ground. A copy of the poem is given as an appendix to this introduction. INTRODUCTION. Vll All the remaining documents are taken from Navar- rete’s “ Coleccion de los viages y descubrimientos que hicieron por mar los Espafioles desde fines del siglo 15.” The second letter, which is written by Dr. Chanca, was copied by Navarrete (as he himself says at the end of the letter in his work) from a manu- script, in the possession of the Royal Academy of His- tory at Madrid, written in the middle of the sixteenth century, and was amongst the collection of papers referring to the West Indies, collected by Father An- tonio de Aspa, a monk of the order of St. Jerome, of the monastery of the Mejorada, near Olmedo. — This document was unpublished previous to Navarrete’s compilation. A copy was taken from the original by Don Manuel Avella, and deposited in the col- lection of Don Juan Bautista Mufioz, and from that copy, after collation with the original manuscript, the transfer was made by Navarrete into his valuable work. This letter is followed by a Memorial respecting the second voyage, addressed to the sovereigns by Colum- bus, through the intervention of Antonio de Torres, governor of the city of Isabella. At the close of each chapter or item is afiixed their higlinesses’ reply. The document was taken by Navarrete from the Archives of Seville. The two letters next in order in the present trans- lation, are from the hand of Columbus himself, and are descriptive of the events of the third voyage. The first, addressed to the sovereigns, was taken by Navar- rete, under careful collation by himself and Munoz, from a manuscript in the handwriting of the bishop Bartholomew de las Casas, found in the archives of Vlll INTRODUCTION. the duke del Infantado. The second, addressed to the nurse of Prince John, is taken from a collection of manuscripts, relating to the West Indies, made by Muhoz, and deposited in the Real Academia de la Historia at Madrid. The text was collated by Navar- rete, with a copy inserted in the Codice Colombo Americano, said to have been taken in the monastery of Santa Maria de las Cuevas in Seville. The letter by Columbus, descriptive of his fourth voyage, was taken by Navarrete, from a manuscript in the king's private library at Madrid, written in the handwriting of the middle of the sixteenth century, and probably the same copy as that which Pinelo, at page 61 of his Biblioteca Occidental^ 4to., 1629, describes as having been made by Don Lorenzo Ramirez de Prado, from an edition in 4to., which does not appear to be now in existence. It was translated into Italian, by Constanzo Baymera of Brescia, and published at Venice, in 1505, and had become extremely scarce, until republished, with some learned comments, by Morelli, the librarian of St. Mark's at Venice, in 1810. That it had been printed in Spanish is asserted both by Pinelo and by Fernando Columbus. It is presumed that the manuscript from which Navarrete made his copy was that made by Ramirez de Prado, because it had been removed to the king’s library, from the Colegio Mayor de Cuenca, in Sala- manca, where the papers of Ramirez had been depo- sited. It is impossible to read, without the deepest sym- pathy, the occasional murmurings and half suppressed INTRODUCTION. IX complaints which are uttered in the course of this touching letter. These murmurings and complaints were wrung from the manly spirit of Columbus by sickness and sorrow, and though reduced almost to the brink of despair by the injustice of the king, yet do we find nothing harsh or disrespectful in his lan- guage to the sovereign. A curious contrast is pre- sented to us. The gift of a world could not move the monarch to gratitude; the infliction of chains, as a recompense for that gift, could not provoke the sub- ject to disloyalty. The same great heart which through more than twenty wearisome years of disap- pointment and chagrin, gave him strength to beg and to buflet his way to glory, still taught him to bear with majestic meekness the conversion of that glory into unmerited shame. Our list of translated documents concludes with an extract from the will of the brave and faithful Diego Mendez, without the aid of whose devoted and un- flinching fidelity, Columbus must have inevitably perished, under the overwhelming disasters of his fourth voyage. The will itself is deposited in the archives of the Duke of Yeragua, the lineal descendant of Columbus; and the extract was made for Navarrete, by the canonigo Tomas Gonzalez, on the 25th March, 1825. A series of documents so highly interesting both for originality and importance as those that have been here enumerated, might appear to need but few words either of introduction or recommendation, since the entire history of civilization presents us with no event, c X INTRODUCTION. with the exception perhaps of the art of printing, so momentous as the discovery of the western world; and, independently of the lustre which the intrinsic importance of that event confers upon the discoverer, there is no individual who has rendered himself, on the score of personal character and conduct, more illustrious than Christopher Columbus. There have, nevertheless, not been wanting those, who, from various motives, and on grounds of various trustwor- thiness, have endeavoured to lessen his glory, by impeaching his claim to the priority of discovery, or by arguing that the discovery itself has proved a mis- fortune rather than advantage to the world at large. In order, therefore, to vindicate the value of the original documents here translated, it will not per- haps be deemed superfluous that allusion be made as briefly as possible to such pretensions to prior discovery as have been at different times put forth, that thus a fair estimate may be formed of the relative merits of each. Various have been the absurdities set forth by spe- culative writers respecting the original colonization of the western hemisphere. Athanasius Kircher, in his Prodromus Coptus and (Edipus jEgyptiacus^ gives the Egyptians the credit of colonizing America, as well as India, China, and Japan, grounding his argu- ment upon the religious worship of the sun, moon, stars, and animals. Edward Brerewood, at pages 96 and 97 of his Enquiries touching the Diversity of Languages^ contends that the Americans are the progeny of the Tartars. Marc Lescarbot, in his INTRODUCTION. XI Histoire de la Nouvelle France^ maintains that the Canaanites, when routed by Joshua, were driven into America by storms, and that Noah was born in America, and after the flood showed his descendants the way into their paternal country, and assigned to some of them their places of abode there. But Hor- nius, in his treatise De originibus Americanis^ after touching upon the various conjectures here quoted, conceives that Paracelsus has reached the height of presumption and folly, when he states, that a second Adam and Eve were created for the peopling of the western world. The first specific statement, however, of a supposed migration from the shores of the old world to those of the new, is that which the learned De Guignes pre- sumes to be demonstrable, from the relation given by a Chinese historian, Li- Yen, who lived at the com- mencement of the seventh century. The said histo- rian speaks of a country, named Fou-sang, more than forty thousand to the east of China. He says that they who went thither started from the province of Lea-tong, situated to the north of Peking; that after having made twelve thousand li, they came to J apan ; that travelling seven thousand li northward from that place, they arrived at the country of Yen-chin, and at five thousand li eastward of the latter, they found the country of Tahan, whence they journeyed to Fou- sang, which was twenty thousand li distant from Tahan. From this account De Guignes endeavours, by a long chain of argument, to prove that the Chinese * The li is about one-tenth of the common league. XU INTRODUCTION. had pushed their investigations into J eso, Kamtschatka, and into that part of America which is situated oppo- site the most eastern coast of Asia. This surmise of De Guignes has been answered by Klaproth, in a paper which appeared in the Nouvelles Annates des Voyages. His arguments go to show that the country named Fousang is Japan; and that the country of Tahan, situated to the west of Asiatic Yinland, can only be the island of Saghalian. Hum- boldt observes upon this subject that the number of horses, the practice of writing, and the manufacture of paper from the Fousang tree, mentioned in the ac- count given by the Chinese historian, ought to have shown De Guignes that the country of which he spoke was not America. The presumed discovery of America, which comes next in chronological rotation, is that by the Scandi- navians, the earliest printed allusion to which occurs in Adam of Bremen’s Historia Ecclesiastica Ecclesi- arum Hamhurgensis et Bremensis.^ published at Co- penhagen, 1579, 4to. The Baron von Humboldt has asserted that the merit of first recognizing the disco- very of America, by the northmen, belongs indis- putably to Ortelius, who, in his Theatrum Orbis Terr arum with unjust severity says, that Christopher Columbus had done nothing more than to place the new world in a permanently useful and commercial relationship with Europe. The ground upon which the priority is claimed for Ortelius, is that the first edition of his work came out in 1570, although the reference which Humboldt himself gives is to an INTRODUCTION. Xlll edition of 1601, which was after the death of Ortelius, and the earlier editions do not contain the chapter on the Pacific Ocean, in which the passage occurs. It is true that in the Bibliotheca Hulthemiana the edition of 1601 is said to have been revised and augmented by Ortelius before his death in 1598, but, even if the assertion were made by Ortelius, and not by the editor of his work after his death, it still leaves per- fectly unimpeached the claim of Adam of Bremen to having first mentioned the discovery in 1579. Abra- ham Mylius, in his Treatise de Antiquitate Lingucs BelgiccB^ Leyden, 1611, makes all Americans to be sprung from Celts; stating that many Celtic words were to be found in use there ; and with more reason- able showing afiirms that the coast of Labrador was visited by wanderers from Iceland. Hugo Grotius, in his Dissertatio de Origine Gentium Americanarum^ (Paris, 1642, 8vo.), follows Mylius, and states that America was colonized by a Norwegian race, who came thither from Iceland, through Greenland, and passed through North America down to the Isthmus. The earliest printed detail of these discoveries is given by the Norwegian historian, Thor modus Tor- faeus, in a work Hist or iaVinlandicB Antiques^ ex Antiquit atihus Islandicis in lucem producta, (Hanniae, 1705, 12mo.) But in the invaluable work by Professor Eafn, published in 1837 by the Danish Eoyal Society of Antiquaries, under the title of Anti- quitates Americance^ the manuscripts which record these discoveries are given at length in the original, accompanied by a Latin translation, and careful and XIV INTRODUCTION. learned geographical illustrations. The following is a summary of the principal events recorded, in this highly interesting volume, and the geographical infer- ences are those supplied by the professor himself. One Eric Kauda, or Eric the Red, son of Thorwald, a Norwegian noble, having been condemned to a banishment of three years, for killing Eyolf his neigh- bour, emigrated in the spring of the year 986, to a country to the west of Iceland, which had been disco- vered a short time previously by a man named Gunbjorn. After two years absence, he returned to Ice- land, and in order to hold out an inducement to colo- nization, named the newly discovered country, Green- land, intending by that name to express the richness of the woods and meadows with which it abounded. Amongst those who had accompanied Eric was a man named Heriulf Bard son, who established himself at Heriulfsnes. Biarne, the son of the latter, finding, on his return home from a trading voyage to Norway, that his father had quitted Iceland, resolved upon following him, though he, as well as those who had accompanied him, were quite unacquainted with the Greenland sea. Soon after leaving Iceland they met with northerly winds and fogs, and were carried they knew not whither: the weather clearing they found themselves near a flat woody country, which, not corresponding with the descriptions of Greenland, they left to larboard. After five days sailing with a south-west wind, they came to a mountainous country, covered with glaciers, which they found to be an island; but as its appearance was not inviting, they INTRODUCTION. XV bore away from the island, and standing out to sea with the same wind, after four days sailing with fresh gales, they reached Heriulfsnes in Greenland. Some time after this, in the year 1000, Lief, son of Eric the Eed, equipped a ship with thirty-five men to make a voyage of discovery, with the view of exam- ining the new found lands more accurately. They came to a land where no grass was to be seen, but everywhere there were vast glaciers, while the space intervening between these ice mountains and the shore appeared as one uninterrupted plain of slate. This country they named Helluland (^. e. Slate-land.) Thence they stood out to sea again, and reached a level wooded country, with cliffs of white sand. They called this country Markland (^. e. Woodland.) Again they put to sea, and after two days sail reached an island, to the eastward of the mainland, and passed through the strait between this island and the main- land. They sailed westward, and landed at a place where a river, issuing from a lake, fell into the sea. Here they wintered and built houses, which were afterwards called Leifsbuder (Leifsbooths.) During their stay, one of their number, named Tyrker, a German, happened to wander some distance from the settlement, and on his return reported that he had found vines and grapes. These proving to be plenti- ful, Lief named the country Yinland (Vineland), and in the ensuing spring returned to Greenland. In the year 1002, Thorwald, Lief’s brother, being of opinion that the country had been too little explored, bor- rowed his brother’s ship, and with the assistance of his XVI INTRODUCTION. advice and instructions, set out on a new voyage. They arrived at Leifsbooths, in Yinland, remained there for the winter, and, in the spring of 1003, Thorwald sent a party in the ship’s long-boat on a voyage of discovery southwards. They found a beau- tiful and well- wooded country, with extensive ranges of white sand; but no traces of men, except a wooden shed which they found on an island lying to the westward. They returned to Leifsbooths in the autumn. In the summer of 1004, Thorwald sailed eastward and then northward, past a remarkable headland enclosing a bay, and which was opposite to another headland. They called it Kialarnes (Keel- Cape.) Continuing along the east coast, they reached a beautiful promontory, where they landed. Thorwald was so pleased with the place that he exclaimed, Here is a beautiful spot, and here I should like well to fix my dwelling.” He had scarcely spoken before they encountered some Skrellings (Esquimaux) with whom they fell to blows, and a sharp conflict ensuing, Thor- wald received a mortal wound in his arm from an arrow. He died and was buried by his own instructions on the spot which had excited his admiring remark, the lan- guage of which appeared prophetic of a longer stay there than he had at first contemplated. In the summer of 1006 two ships arrived in Green- land from Iceland, one commanded by Thorfinn Karlsfore and Snorre Thorbrandson, both men of illustrious lineage; the other by Biarne Grimolfson of Breidefiord, and Thorhall Gamlason of Austfiord ; and in the spring of 1007 these two ships, together raTEODUCTION. XVll with a third (in which Thorbiorn, a relative of Eric’s family, had formerly come to Greenland) set sail for Yinland. They had in all one hundred and sixty men, and as they went with the intention of colonizing, they took with them a great variety and quantity of live stock. They sailed, first, to the Tresterbygd, and afterwards to Biarney (Disco); then to Helluland, where they found an abundance of foxes ; and thence to Mark- land, which was overgrown with wood, and plentifully stocked with a variety of animals. Proceeding still in a south-westerly direction, with the land on the right, they came to a place where a frith penetrated far into the country ; off the mouth of it was an island, on which they found an immense number of eyder-ducks, so that it was scarcely possible to walk without treading on their eggs. They called the island Straumey (Stream- Isle) from the strong current which ran past it, and the frith they called Straumfiordr (Stream-Firth). Here Thorhall and eight others left the party in quest of Yinland, but were driven by westerly gales to the coast of Iceland, where some say that they were beaten, and put into servitude. Karlsefne, however, with the remaining one hundred and fifty men, sailed southwards, and reached a place where a river falls into the sea from a lake ; large islands were situated opposite the mouth of the river; passing these, they steered into the lake, and called the place H6p. The low grounds were covered with wheat growing wild ; and the rising ground with vines. Here they stayed till the beginning of the year 1008, when finding d XVlll INTRODUCTION. their lives "in constant jeopardy from the hostile attacks of the natives, they quitted the place, and returned to Eric’s fiord. In 1011 a ship arrived in Greenland, from Norway, commanded by two Ice- landic brothers named Helge and Einnboge ; to these men, Ereydisa, a natural daughter of Eric the Ked, proposed a voyage to Yinland, stipulating that they should share equally with her the profits of the voy- age. To this they assented, and it was agreed that each party should have thirty able-bodied men on board the ship, besides women; but Ereydisa secretly took with her five men in addition to that number. They reached Liefsbooths in 1012, and wintered there; when a discussion arising, Ereydisa had the subtlety to prevail on her husband to massacre the brothers and their followers ; after the perpetration of which base deed they returned to Greenland in the spring of 1013. . A numerous and illustrious race descended from Karlsefne, among whom may be mentioned the learned Bishop Thorlak Runolfson, to whom we are prin- cipally indebted for the oldest ecclesiastical code of Iceland, written in the year 1123. It is also probable that the accounts of the voyages were originally com- piled by him. It is fortunate that in these ancient accounts they have preserved the statement of the course steered and the distance sailed in a day. From various ancient Icelandic geographical works, it may be gathered that the distance of a day’s sailing was esti- mated at from twenty-seven to thirty geographical INTRODUCTION. XIX miles— German or Danish — of which fifteen are equal to a degree, and are consequently equivalent to four English miles. From the island of Helluland, after- wards called Little Helluland, Biarne sailed to Herjul- fdnes (Ikigeit), in Greenland, with strong south- westerly winds, in four days. The distance between that cape and Newfoundland is about one hundred and fifty miles, which, if we allow for the strong south- westerly gales, will correspond with Biarne’s voyage ; while the well-known barrenness of the flats of New- foundland corresponds with the Hellur, or slates which suggested the name the northmen gave to the island. Markland being described as three days sail south- west of Helluland, appears to be Nova Scotia ; and the low and level character of the country, covered with woods, tallies precisely with the descriptions of later writers. Yinland was stated to be two days sail to the south-west of Markland, which would be from fifty- four to sixty miles. The distance from Cape Sable to Cape Cod is repkoned at about two hundred and ten English miles, which answers to about fifty-two Danish miles; and in the account given by Biarne of their finding many shallows off the island to the eastward, we recognize an accurate description of Nantucket, and Kialarnes must consequently be Cape Cod. The Straumfiordr of the northmen is supposed to be Buz- zard^s Bay, and Straumey, Martha’s Vineyard, though the account of the many eggs found there, would seem to correspond more correctly with Egg Island, which lies ofl* the entrance of Vineyard Sound. XX INTEODUCTION. Krossanes is probably Gurnet Point. The Hop answers to Mount Hope’s Bay, through which the Taunton river flows, and it was here that the Leifs- booths were situated. ' The ancient documents likewise make mention of a country called Huitramannaland (Whiteman’s Land), otherwise Irland it Mikla (Great Ireland) supposed to be that part of the coast of North America, including North and South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. There is a tradition among the Shawanese Indians, who emigrated some years ago from Florida, and set- tled in Ohio, that Florida was once inhabited by white people, who possesseH^iron instruments. The powerful chieftain, Are Marson of Eeykianes, in Iceland, — ac- cording to the account given by his contemporary Rafn, surnamed the Limerick-trader,— was driven to Huitramannaland by storms in 983, and was baptized there. Are Frode likewise (the first compiler of the Landnama, and a descendant in the fourth degree from Are Marson), states that his uncle, Thorkell Gellerson, had been informed by Icelanders that Are Marson had been recognized in Huitramannaland, and was held in high respect there. This statement there- fore shows that there was an occasional intercourse in those days between the Orkneys and Iceland, and this part of America. It is further recorded in the ancient MSS. that the Greenland bishop Eric went over to Yinland in the year 1121 ; but nothing more than the fact is stated, and it simply corroborates the supposition of inter- course between the countries. Again, in the year INTRODUCTIOI^. Xxl 1266, a voyage of discovery to the Arctic regions of America, is said to have been performed, under the auspices of some clergymen of the bishopric of Gardar in Greenland; and from the recorded observations made by the explorers, would seem to have been car- ried to regions whose geographical position has been more accurately determined by our own navigators. Parry and the two Rosses. The next recorded disco- very was made by Adalbrand and Thorwald Helgason, two Icelandic clergymen, in the year 1285. Contem- poraneous accounts state that they discovered a new land to the westward of Iceland, supposed to have been Newfoundland. The last record preserved in the an- cient Icelandic MSS. relates a voyage from Greenland to Markland, performed by a crew of seventeen men, in the year 1347. The account written by a contempo- rary, nine years after the event, induces the belief that intercourse between Greenland and America had been maintained as late as the period here mentioned, for it speaks of Markland as a country still known and visited in those days. The obscurity of many portions of these narratives leaves much to be cleared up, with reference to this interesting subject; but their general truthfulness being corroborated by the traces of the residence and settlement of the ancient northmen exhibited in the inscriptions discovered in Kinkigtorsoak, Greenland, ^nd Massachusetts, no room is left for disputing the main fact of the discovery. Between this period and the date of the first voyage of Columbus, the coast of America is reported to have XXII INTEODUCTION. been visited by the Arabians of the Spanish Peninsula, the Welsh, the Venetians, the Portuguese, and also by a Pole in the service of Denmark. The Arabian expedition is described both by Edrisi and by Ebn-al-ouardi. It appears to have been un- dertaken by eight persons of the same family, called the Almagrurins or the Wandering Brothers, who having provided , themselves with everything requisite for a long voyage, swore they would not return till they had penetrated to the extreme limits of the Dark Sea. They sailed from the port of Aschbona or Lisbon, and steered towards the south-west, and at the end of thirty-five days arrived at the island of Gana or Sheep Island. The flesh of the sheep of this island being too bitter for them to eat, they put to sea again, and after sailing twelve days in a southerly direction, reached an island inhabited by people of a red skin, lofty stature, and with hair of thin growth, but long and flowing over their shoulders. The inhabitants of this island told them that persons had sailed twenty days to the west without discovering land, and the Arabian brothers, diverted from the pursuit of their hardy enterprise by this discouraging account, retraced their course, and returned safely to Lisbon. From this description the elder de Guignes inferred that the Arabs had either reached the eastern coast of America, or at least one of the American islands ; an opinion, however, which appears to have as little to sanction it, as his above mentioned conjecture that the Chinese had discovered the west coast of America in the fifth century. The Baron von Humboldt concurs with the INTRODUCTION. Xxiii opinion expressed by the learned orientalist Tychsen, in his Neue oriental und exegetische Bibliotlieh^ repeated by Malte Brun, that the island reached by the Arab wanderers was one of the African islands. This conclusion is drawn from the circumstance that the Guanches, the original people of the Canary group, were a pastoral race, and also possessed the same external characteristics as the islanders here described. Moreover, the fact that the king of the island had an interpreter who spoke Arabic, toge- ther with the circumstance that the red men had sailed westward for a month without seeing land, strongly corroborates the opinion advanced. The precise date of this voyage is unknown, but Humboldt presumes that it must have been con- siderably anterior to the expulsion of the Arabs from Lisbon in 1147; because Edrisi, whose work was finished in 1153, speaks of the occurrence as if it were by no means recent. It is but upon a slight foundation, that the Welsh have pretended tb raise a claim to the discovery; but slight as it is, there is certainly enough to render a decidedly negative assertion on the subject, to the full as presumptuous, as one decidedly affirmative would be. But as we have no concern with mere con- jectures, we must in candour narrate, as succinctly as possible, the grounds upon which these pretensions have been founded. The first account of this discovery is found in Hum- phrey Llwyd’s translation of the History of Wales^ by Caradoc of Llancarvan, published by Hr. Powell in XXIV INTRODUCTION. 1584. According to him the occurrence took place as follows : — On the death of Owen Gwynedd, prince of North Wales, in 1169, a contention arose amongst his numerous sons, respecting the succession to the crown, when Madawe, or Madoc, one of their number, seeing his native country was likely to be embroiled in a civil war, deemed it more prudent to try his fortune abroad. In pursuance of this object, he sailed with a small fleet of ships to the westward, and leaving Iceland on the north, came at length to an unknown country, where everything appeared new and uncom- mon, and the manner of the natives different from all that he had ever seen. The country appearing to him, from its fertility and beauty, to be very desirable for a settlement, he left most of his own men behind him, (amounting, according to Sir Thomas Herbert, to a hundred and twenty), and returning to Wales, per- suaded a considerable number of the Welsh to go out with him to the newly discovered country, and so with ten ships he again departed, and bade a final adieu to his native soil. This account of the historian Caradoc of Llancarvan is the only affirmative written document the story has upon which to ground its claim to authenticity, with the exception of an ode, written by a Welsh bard, Meredyth ab Rhys, who died in 1477, fifteen years before Columbus’s first ex- pedition, in which an allusion is made to the event.’*' * The most strenuous advocate for the truth of the tradition, that America was discovered by Prince Madoc, was Dr. John Williams, of Sydenham, who wrote two tracts on the subject, in the year 1791 and 1792, which, if betraying a little of the bias of prejudice, yet manifest a degree of research that does great cre- dit to his industry and zeal. INTRODUCTION. XXV A circumstance which would appear to confirm the truth of Madoc’s voyages, is a peculiar resemblance that has been found between some of the American dialects and the Welsh language ; but, as Dr. Kobertson reasonably remarks, the affinity has been observed in so few instances, and in some of these is so obscure or so fanciful, that no conclusion can be drawn from the casual resemblance of a small number of words. Dr. Williams adduces in confirmation of his favourite idea the authorities of Lopez de Gomera, Hornius, and Peter Martyr, pretending that they assert that traces of Christianity were found among the Ame- ricans by the Spaniards, as well as that there was a tradition among the Mexicans, that many years before a strange nation came amongst them, and taught them the knowledge of God. His references however appear entirely incorrect. Another pretension to an early discovery of America has been founded upon an account given in a work published at Venice, in 1558, entitled Dello scopri- mento delV Isdle Frislanda^ Eslanda Engrovelanda^ Estotilanda^ ed Icaria^ fatto sotto il Polo Arctico da duefratelli Zeni^ M, Nicolo il K. e M, AntonioP The substance of the account is, that in 1380, Nicolo Zeno, a Venetian noble, fitted out a vessel at his own cost, and made a voyage to the north, with the intention of visiting England and Flanders, but was driven by a storm to Friseland, supposed to be the Foeroe Archi- pelago. Being rescued from an attack of the natives, by Zichmni, a neighbouring prince, Zeno entered into the service of the latter, and assisted him in conquer- e XXVI INTRODUCTION. ing Friseland, and other northern islands. He shortly after dispatched a letter to his brother Antonio, requesting him to find means to join him ; whereupon the latter purchased a vessel, and succeeded in reach- ing Friseland, where he remained fourteen years. During his residence there he wrote to his brother Carlo, in Venice, and gave an account of a report brought by a certain fisherman, about a land to the westward. This account stated, that about twenty- six years before, the fisherman was overtaken at sea, when out with four fishing boats, by a tempest, which drove them about for many days, and at length cast them on an island, called Estotiland, about a thousand miles from Friseland. The inhabitants conveyed them to a fair and populous city, where the king sent for many interpreters to converse with them, but none that they could understand, until a man was found, who had likewise been cast away upon the coast, and who spoke Latin. They remained several days upon the island, which was rich and fruitful, abounding with all kinds of metals, and especially gold. Though much given to navigation, they were ignorant of the use of the compass, and finding the Friselanders acquainted with it, the king of the place sent them with twelve barques to visit a country to the south, called Drogeo. They had nearly perished in a storm, but were cast away upon the coast of Drogeo. The fisherman described this Drogeo as a country of vast extent, and that the inhabitants were naked and eaters of human flesh. He remained many years in the country, and became rich with tratfi eking between INTRODUCTION. XXvU Estoliland and the main land, and subsequently fitted out a vessel of his own, and made his way back to Friseland. His narrative induced Zichmni to under- take a voyage thither, in which he was accompanied by Antonio Zeno. It was unsuccessful : landing on an island called Icaria, they were roughly treated by the inhabitants, and a storm afterwards drove them on the coast of Greenland. This account is stated by its compiler, Francisco Marcolini, a descendant of the Zeni, to have been compiled from the fragments of letters written by Antonio Zeno to Carlo, his brother. Malte Brun supposes the island of Estotiland to be Newfoundland, and Drogeo to be Nova Scotia and New England. In the library of St. Mark there is a map,"^ by Andrea Bianco, bearing the date of 1436, on which is laid down a large extent of land, five or six hundred leagues west of Gibraltar, above which is written the word “Antillia.” With reference to this subject, Malte Brun says, “ M. Pinkerton croit que cette Antiilia, qui se trouve aussi sur d’anciennes cartes Venitiennes, n’est qu’une creation systematique des geographes, qui s’imaginaient qu’il devait y avoir un continent oppose a celui de I’ancien monde, et des- tine k contra-balancer celui-ci. Mais je ne vois pas que M. Pinkerton donne aucune raison de son opinion.^’ The following passage occurs in Sir John Barrow’s Chronological History of Voyages in the Arctic Regions^ which, if it stated a defensible truth, would * A copy of this map is given in the second vol. of Sastre’s Mercurio Italico, Lend. 1789, 8vo. XXVlll INTRODUCTION. present another claim, anterior to that of Colomhus, to the discovery of America* The passage is headed ‘‘Cortereals, 1500”: — “ The Portuguese, not content with having dis- covered a route to India, by sailing round the tem- pestuous extremity of Africa, soon after engaged in an equally dangerous enterprise: that of finding a route to India and the Spice Islands, by sailing west- ward round the northern extremity of America. This bold undertaking was reserved for the Cor- TEREALS, the enlightened disciples of the school of Sagres. The first navigator of the name of Cortereal, who engaged in this enterprise, was John Yaz Costa Cortereal, a gentleman of the household of the infanta Don Fernando, who, accompanied by Alvaro Martens Homem, explored the northern seas, by order of king Alfonso the Fifth, and discovered the Terra de Bacealhaos (the land of cod fish), afterwards called Newfoundland. ‘‘ This voyage is mentioned by Cordeiro,* but he does not state the exact date, which however is ascer- tained to have been in 1463 or 1464; for, in their return from the discovery of Newfoundland, or Terra Nova, they touched at the island of Terceira, the cap- taincy of which island having become vacant, by the death of Jacomo Bruges, they solicited the appoint- ment, and in reward for their services the request was granted, their patent commission being dated in Evora, 2nd April, 1464.” * The work quoted is Cordeyro’s Historia Insulana das Ilhas a Portugal sugeytas no Oceano Occidental^ Lisbon, I7l7. INTRODUCTION. XXIX It will be seen by the wording of this passage, that Sir John Barrow has fallen into the inaccuracy of as- serting, that in 1463 or 1464, Cortereal was engaged in the enterprise of finding a route to India and the Spice Islands, by sailing westward round the northern extremities of America. We must presume that the Portuguese were aware of the existence of the Ameri- can continent, before they could conceive the idea of sailing westward round its northern extremity. Mr. Biddle (in his Memoir of Sebastian Cabot^ London, 1831, folio 288), charges Sir John Barrow with not having even looked into the work which he professes to cite as his authority. It is just possible, from Sir John’s doubtful expression, “ if the patent should spe- cify^ that he had not consulted Cordeiro ; but should that be the case, he is nevertheless to be vindi- cated from the imputation of having made any state- ment not borne out by the work itself. Mr. Biddle is, however, correct in saying the patent commission of the appointment of Cortereal and Homem to the government of Terceira, does not specify that the ser- vice for which it was granted, was the discovery of Newfoundland ; and, moreover, at the end of Faria y Sousa’s Asia Portuguesa^ there is a list of all the armadas which sailed from Lisbon, on voyages of dis- covery, between 1412 and 1640, and this expedition is passed by in silence ; so that the validity of the whole statement hangs on the authority of Cordeiro. Bar- bosa makes honourable mention of this writer, but the account is altogether so extremely improbable, from the very silence of the Portuguese, at the time, on so XXX INTRODUCTION. important a subject, as to leave Cortereal but small chance of a successful rivalry with Sebastian Cabot. The last on the list of those who have been said to precede Columbus, in the discovery of America, is a Polish pilot, named John Szkolny, whose name has been erroneously Latinized by Hornius, Zurla, Malte Brun, Wytfliet, and Pontanus, Scolvus,” or Sciol- vus.” He was in the service of Christian II of Den- mark, in the year 1476. He is said to have landed on the coast of Labrador, after having passed along Nor- way, Greenland, and the Priseland of the Zeni. Upon this subject the great Humboldt thus expresses him- self : ‘‘I cannot hazard any opinion upon the state- ment made to this effect by Wytfliet, Pontanus, and Horn. A country seen after Greenland may, from the direction indicated, have been Labrador. I am, how- ever, surprised to find that Gomara, who published his Historia de las Indias at Saragossa, in 1553, was cognizant even at that time of this Polish pilot. It is possible that when the codfishery began to bring the seamen of southern Europe into more frequent con- nexion with those of the north, a suspicion may have arisen, that the land seen by Szkolny must have been the same as that visited by John Sebastian Cabot in 1497, and by Caspar Cortereal in 1500. Gomara says what is in other respects not quite correct, that the English took much pleasure in frequenting the coast of Labrador^ for they found the latitude and climate the same as that of their native land^ and the men of Norway have been there with the pilots John ScolvOj as well as the English with Sebastian Cabot. INTRODUCTION. XXXI Let us not forget that Gomara makes no mention of the Polish pilot, with reference to the question of the predecessors of Colombus, though he is malignant enough to assert, that it is in fact impossible to say to whom the discovery of the New Indies is due.’^* In the American Philosophical Transactions for 1786, is a letter addressed to Dr. Franklin, by Mr. Otto of New York, in which he not only asserts that the illustrious cosmographer Martin Behaim discovered the Azores, but quotes a passage, from what he calls an authentic record, preserved in the archives of Nu- remberg, the tenor of which is as follows: — “Martin Behem, traversing the Atlantic Ocean for several years, examined the American Islands, and discovered the strait which bears the name of Magellan, before either Christopher Columbus or Magellan navigated those seas ; and even mathematically delineated, on a geographical chart for the king of Lusitania, the situ- ation of the coast around every part of that famous and renowned strait.” He also quotes passages from Hartman Schedl, and from Cellarius, in confirmation of this statement. Don Christobal Cladera, in his Investigaciones Historicas^ says that, in order to refute these statements, he procured from Nuremberg a description of Behaim’s globe, together with his- torical notes on the life and family of that geographer, * Humboldt has fallen into an error in saying that Joachim Lelewel, in his Pisma pomniejsze geogr. history czne, 1814, haa recently called up fresh attention to this Polish pilot. The editor has examined the work carefully from beginning to end, and does not find the name even once mentioned, although the page to which reference is made contains allusions to early discoveries. XXXll INTRODUCTION. and upon examining these, and the unpublished works of the Academia de las Ciencias de Lisboa, he became convinced that the observations of Mr. Otto were totally unfounded ; and De Murr, who has well inves- tigated the question, assures us that the passage quoted by Mr. Otto from Schedl was not to be found in the German translation of that work by George Alt, in 1493. Moreover, the real globe of Behaim, made in 1492, does not contain any of the islands or shores of the New World; a fact which sets at rest the two questions of Behaim’s earlier discovery, or of Colom- bus gaining his information from Behaim.’^ From the series of evidences contained in the pre- ceding accounts, the fact that America had been visited by European adventurers before the time of Columbus, is rendered too probable to admit of con- tradiction, even from the most sanguine advocate of the glory of the great discoverer. But, oh the other side, it cannot be denied that the discovery of Columbus, however much later in date, deserves the meed of highest honour, as being the result of saga- city and judgment, and as having been carried on with an energetic endeavour to bring into active operation the incalculable advantages which it opened up to the world at large. To vindicate the correct- ness of this statement, it will be well to give a brief sketch of his eventful life, and to pourtray as briefly as we may the high qualities to which, far more than to accidental circumstances, the glory of this great * A copy of part of this globe is given in Cladera’s Lives- tigaciones. INTR0DUCTI01