Authentic Letters of Columpus, 179 



XXVIII. 



Translation of the contract between Columbus and the Sov- 

 ereigns. First voyage. Original in the collection of the 

 Duke of Veragua, Madrid. 



In the name of the Holy Trinity and Eternal Unity, Father, Son 

 and Holy Ghost, three persons really distinct and one divine essence, 

 who lives and reigns forever without end ; and of the most Blessed 

 Virgin, glorious Holy Mary, our Lady, His Mother, whom we hold 

 as Lady and Advocate in all our undertakings ; and to the honor and 

 reverence of her, and of the most blessed Apostle St. James, light 

 and mirror of the Spains, patron and guide of the Kings of Castile 

 and of Leon ; and likewise to the honor and reverence of all the other 

 Saints of the Celestial Court; as man, by whatever knowledge he mat 

 have of the world, cannot, according to nature, completely know 

 what God is, but may know Him by seeing and contemplating His 

 wonders and the works and deeds which He performed and per- 

 forms every day, because all the works are the effect of His power 

 and are governed by his wisdom and maintained by His goodness; 

 and so, man may understand that God is the beginning, the middle 

 and the end of all things; and that they are included in Him and He 

 maintains each one in that state in which He placed it in the order 

 (of the world), and all stand in need of Him and He of none, and He 

 can change them whenever it may be agreeable to His will, and He 

 can not be subjected to change, nor be changed in anything; and He 

 is called the King of Kings, because from Him they derive their 

 name and reign through Him, and He governs and preserves them, 

 who are Vicars (each one in His own kingdom), placed by Him over 

 the people to maintain them temporarily in justice and in truth, 

 which is fully demonstrated in two ways — the one spiritual, accord- 

 ing as the prophets and saints demonstrated, upon whom our Lord 

 conferred the grace of understanding those things certainly and 

 made them to be understood by others ; the other natural, as the phi- 



