CHAPTER III. 



CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 



Having completed the chapter on the discoveries 

 of America — including Trinidad — and the various 

 facts connected therewith, I find that I have said 

 very little about Columbus as the chief character in 

 the incidents related ; and it struck me that some of 

 my readers might think that I have tried to belittle 

 him, by assigning to others that credit which had 

 hitherto been claimed for the great discoverer. I 

 can assure such that nothing was further from my 

 thoughts ; for were I to attempt to do so, I should 

 certainly be laughed at. My object in writing 

 these sketches, has been to give the reader bare facts, 

 and to attempt either to belittle the doings of certain 

 persons or to belaud them would have been contrary 

 to that design. 



When I mapped out the course for writing this 

 book, I intended to confine myself to matters relating 

 to Trinidad alone ; but as I read certain authorities I 

 came across many interesting incidents bearing on 

 the subject under consideration, some directly, but 

 others, it is true, indirectly, so that it was hard to 

 separate them and therefore — if I may use the term — 

 amalgamated them. 



