430 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS [voL. 48 
of the expedition; Diego Marquez, the overseer of the flotilla and 
master of one of the caravels; Villacorta, a noted mechanical engi- 
neer; Fermin Zedo, an expert metallurgist ; Francisco de Penalosa ; 
Ginés de Gorbalan; Juan de Rojas; Alonso de Valencia; Sebastian 
de Olano; Juan Aguado; Gaspar Beltram; Juan de la Vega; Pedro 
Navarro, and Melchor Maldonado. Other equally distinguished 
persons who came over in the second voyage of Columbus to 
America, were: Fray Bernal Boil, apostolic delegate of Pope Alex- 
ander VI, accompanied by twelve fathers belonging to different 
religious orders, among whom the most prominent were Fray 
Roman Pane, Fray Juan de Tisin, and Fray Juan de la Duela, 
familiarly called el Bermejo, on account of his red hair. 
As an able practitioner of medicine, Dr. Chanca showed his skill 
by saving the life of Christopher Columbus, who suffered a very 
dangerous attack of typhus fever, on one occasion, and pernicious 
malarial fever, on another occasion, as well as the lives of many 
Spanish hidalgos who were at the point of death, as victims of 
disease, during their stay at the island of Hispaniola, the Santo 
Domingo of to-day, called at that epoch Haiti by the aboriginal in- 
babitants. 
This expedition of the Spaniards was altogether different from 
the one sent out the previous year in quest of a new passage to the 
Indies. Instead of three caravels, carrying only 120 persons, which 
accomplished the discovery of the Western Hemisphere, this flotilla 
was composed of three great galleons or carracks and fourteen 
caravels of different sizes. It was well provided with the requisites 
for the establishment of a permanent settlement in the land that had 
been discovered the year before. Even 20 horses for as many 
soldiers armed with lances, which played a most terrorizing influence 
among the American Indians,—because they had never seen horses 
before, and supposed that both the animal and his rider were a single 
individual—came over also on board those Spanish vessels. 
Besides this excellent description of the first part of the second 
voyage of Columbus to America, which competent authorities con- 
sider the best in existence, Dr. Chanca also supplied information 
to Father Andrés Bernaldez, the celebrated parish priest of the 
town of Los Palacios and chaplain to the archbishop of Seville, 
Don Diego de Deza, which enabled Bernaldez to give many im- 
portant details of this expedition of the Spaniards in his famous 
historical work entitled “Chronicle of the Catholic Kings.” The 
town of Los Palacios is located twelve miles to the south from the 
city of Seville, and has at present a population of about 2,000. | 
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