ovalle's historical relation of chile. t^$ 



be owned that the ufe of this fea-needle has been the thing that has facilitated 

 the navigation, fo as the firil difcoverers, trufting to this, durft venture into vafl 

 feas, and pafs the gulph which leads to that remote and unknown world, fo as to 

 land in it ; which was a performance worthy of immortal memory to the man who 

 undertook and executed it. 



This man was the moft famous Captain Don Chriftopher Columbus, a Genoefe, 

 whom the Spaniards in their language call Colon, who, though he were not, as he 

 was, nobly defcended, might have given by himfelf nobility and fame to his defcen- 

 dants, and to his noble and illuftrious country ; for if this commonwealth had had 

 only this fon, it might draw fame enough from him alone, fmce his generous and bold 

 mind was capable of overcoming all the difficulties which he met with in the projeQ; 

 and execution of this enterprize, the more to be efteemed by the great advantages 

 procured by it to both worlds ; to this, by that vaft increafe of riches, of which a 

 great deal is confecrated upon the altars in churches, befides what is employed in 

 the furniture of princes and great men : and to the other world, the benefit of the 

 light of the gofpel, by which it is fo much more polifhed and meliorated in all 

 fenfes. 



Neither does that which GarcilafTo de la Vega, and others, do relate, any ways 

 affeft the glory of this great man, when they fay, that he undertook this defign upon ^^^Ui^^^ 

 the knowledge communicated to him by a man whom he entertained, and who died in 

 his houfe as his guell ; for we mufl own that his chief praife does not come from 

 what he knew of this new world before he undertook to find and conquer it, but from 

 his generous mind and conflancy in purfuing his enterprize ; and this is all his own, 

 which puts juftly the laurels upon his head, and makes his memory immortal in fpite 

 of time and envy, though one would think no body fhould have any for the common 

 benefactor of two worlds. That which thefe authors relate about this hiflory is, that 

 a pilot, an inhabitant and native of the town of Guelva, in the county of Niebla, in 

 Andalufia, called Alonfo Sanches de Hualva, or as others fay, Buxula, ufed to trade 

 with a fmali veffel to the Canaries ; and that one time, in his return to Spain, he met 

 with a mighty flrong Levant, which was fo powerful, that in twenty days he found 

 himfelf in one of the iflands of the Weft Indies, one of thofe which we call the iHands 

 of Barlovento, or the Windward Iflands, and it is judged it was Hifpaniola ; from 

 whence, fearing to perifh for want of provifion, he returned to the ifland of Madeira, 

 having endured fo much, that almoft all his company died, and himfelf came in fuch a 

 condition, that though Columbus, who loved fea-faring men, and for that reafon had 

 chofen that ifland to live in, received him into his houfe, and took great care of him, 

 yet he died ; but before he died, being willing to make fome return for the kindnefs 

 received, he called Columbus to him, and left him, as an inheritance, the journal he 

 had made, with the rhumbs of wind both going and coming, and all other his obferva- 

 tions in the voyage, and about the place where he landed. 



This is thus related by GarcilafTo de la Vega, and Father Jofeph d' Acofta, who fays, he 

 does not know the name of this pilot who left this legacy to Columbus : and this he 

 attributes to the particular providence of God, who would not have the honour of 

 this difcovery be owing to any human induftry, but immediately and intirely to the 

 Divine Majefty, to whofe difpofition we ought to attribute fo much as appears con- 

 tingent and cafual in this fhip's mifcarriage, from its courfe, and all the other accidents 

 attending that ftorm, till the pilot was brought to die in the houfe of him whom God 

 had chofen for a fecond caufe and chief inftrument of this enterprize ; who being of 

 himfelf a great philofopher and cofmographer, compared thefe notions which he had 



from 



