A 
lap. in. C H R 1 S T O P I-I E R C O L U M BUS. ' 1 5 
Honour, bid him fit, and after having exprefled much 
Satisfadion for the Succefs of his Voyage, and afced fome 
Particulars about it ; he faid he was of Opinion, that ac- 
cording to the Articles ftipulated with the Kings of Cafiile^ 
the Conquefl; rather belonged to the Kings of Portugal^ 
than to thofe of Caftile. Pie anfwered he had not feen 
thofe Articles, nor knew any more than that their High- 
nefes had commanded him not to go to Del Mina or 
to Guinea^ and that the fame had been proclaimed in all 
the Ports of Andalwzia before he fet out upon his Voy- 
age. 
The King gradoiify anfv/ered, he believed he would 
not Hand in need of Vouchers in that Particular j he then 
ordered the Prior of Grata to entertain him, he being the 
principal Perfon prefent. P'he next Day the King told 
him that if he wanted any thing he fhould have it j and 
making him ft, aflced him many Queftions concerning 
the Voyage, the new Countries, the Latitudes, and the 
People, and other things relating to thofe Parts, being 
much concerned for having miffed of that good Fortune *, 
and there wanted not fome who offered the King to kill 
the Admiral, that what he had difcovered might not be 
known, but he would not confent to it. At length, on 
the I ith of March ^ the Admiral took his leave of the 
King, and all the Gentlemen of the Court attended him. 
He paffed through where the Queen was in the 
Monaftery of St, Anthony j he kiffed her Hands, and having 
given her an Account of his Voyage, departed j and a 
Servant of the King’s overtook him, and told him from 
his Majefty, that if he would go into Caftile by Land, 
he would order him to be attended, find him Carriage, 
and all that he had occaf on for. 
On the 1 3 th he failed with his Caravel for Seville and 
found himfelf the i6th off Saltes-^ and, at Noon, he 
paffed over the Bar with the Flood into the Port from 
whence he atfirft departed, on Friday the 3d oiAuguft^ the 
Year before ; fo that he fpent fix Months and an Half in the 
Voyage. Being informed their Catholic Majefties were at 
Barcelona, he had Thoughts of going to them by Sea in 
his Caravel. He landed at Palos •, was received with a 
folemn Proceffion and much rejoicing of the whole 
Town, all admiring fo great an Adlion, which they never 
imagined the Admiral could have performed. The Ad- 
miral having refolved not to go by Sea to Barcelona, fent 
Advices of his Arrival to their Catholic Majefties, with a 
Summary of what had befallen him, refervingamore ample 
Relation to be delivered by Word of Mouth. The Anfwer 
found him at Seville : The Superfeription of the Letter was, 
Po Don Chriftopher Columbus, our Admiral of the Ocean ; 
Viceroy and Governor of the Iftands that have been dij- 
covered in the Indies. In his Anfwer he fent a Memorial 
of the Ships, Men, Ammunition, and Provifion that were 
proper to return to Indues, and then fet out himfelf for 
Barcelona with feven Indians, for the reft died by theWay : 
He carried with him green and red Parrots, and other 
Things never before feen in Spain. He fet out from 
Seville, and the Fam.e of this Novelty being fpread abroad, 
the People flocked to the Roads to fee the Indians and the 
Admiral. 
Their Majefties having received the Memorial, ordered 
John Roderiguez de Fonceca, Arch-deacon of Seville, to 
furmfh what the Admiral thought fit for the fecond Voy- 
age he was to make to the Indies. P’he Admiral arrived 
at Barcelona about the Middle of April, where the whole 
Court and City flocking out, the Streets could not hold 
them, admiring to fee' the Admiral, the Indians, and the 
Things he brought, which were carried uncovered ; and 
the more to honour the Admiral, their Majefties ordered 
their royal Throne to be placed in public, v/here they fat, 
and with them Printe John. ' The Admiral c^me in at- 
tended by many Gentlemen ; when he came near, the 
King ftood up, gave him his Hand to kifs, bid him rife, 
ordered a Chair to be brought him, and to fit down in 
the Royal Prefence, where he gave an Account in a very 
. fedate and difereet manner, of the Mercy God had Ihewn 
him in favour of their Highneffes, of his Voyage and 
Difeoveries, and the Hopes he had conceived of difeover- 
ing greater Countries ; and fliev/ed him the Indians as 
they went in their own native Countries, and the other 
I 
Things he liad brought. Their Majefties rofe, and kneel- 
ing down, with their Hands lifted up, and Tears in their 
Eyes, returned Thanks to God j and then the Choirifters 
of the Chapel began the Fe Deum. 
TheArticles formerly concluded v/ith the Admiral were' 
only in form of a Coiitraff ; and as he had performed 
what he promifed, their Majefties alfo, in the iifiial 
Form, paffed Grants, making good what they had of- 
fered him in the Town of Santa Fee^ on the 1 7th oi April 
of the foregoing Year : And the Charter's were paffed at 
Barcelona on the 30th of the fame Month in the fucceeding 
Year 1493, and figned by their Highneffes on the 2 8th of 
May. They alfo gave him the Royal Arms of Caftile 
and Leon, to -bear with thofe of his Family^ with other 
Additions expreffing his difficult and wonderful Difeovery . 
And their Majefties conferred fome Honours on his Bro- 
thers, Don Bartholomew and DoFJames^ tho’ they vrere not 
then at Court. The King took the Admiral by his Side, 
when he went through the City of Barcelona, and did him 
much Honour other ways, and therefore all the Grandees 
and other Noblemen honoured and invited him to Dinner, 
and the Cardinal of Spain, Don Pedro Gonzalez de 
Mendoza, a Prince of much Virtue, and a noble Spirit, 
was the firft Grandee that, as they w^ere going one Day 
from the Palace, carried the Admiral to dine with him^ 
and placed him at the Head of the Table, and caufed his 
Meat to be ferved up covered, and the Effay to be taken, 
and from that time forward he v/’as ferved in that 
manner. 
17. We have given the Hiftory of this Voyage largely,^ 
and in a manner literally, from one of the beft Spanifh 
Hiftorians, the rather becaufe we efteem it Angle in its 
kind, both with refpeft to the Matter and the Manner of 
it, for the Difeoveries hitherto made by the Portuguefe 
were chiefly by creeping along Shore, and rather the 
Effeeffs of Labour and Induftry than of great Conduct, or an 
enterprizing Genius ; and the Difeoveries that were made 
afterwards, had not only this Example but the Advantage 
alfo of all the Improvements which the great Skill, con- 
ftant Affedlion, and wonderful Penetration of Columbus, 
enabled him to make in his own Art ; fo that Naviga- 
tion grew in his Time quite another thing than he found 
it. In this Voyage the Reader will perceive that abund- 
ance of very trivial Accidents are very carefully recorded, 
which we have preferved, becaufe taken from Columbus’’^ 
own Journal, and becaufe they fliew how much he at- 
tended to, and what excellent Ufes he made even of the 
moft minute Circumftances, in order to keep up the 
Spirits of his Men, and to direft himfelf in the Profe- 
cution of fo hardy an Attempt, in which his Succefs de- 
pended intirely upon the Sagacity he ffiewed in thofe 
Obfervations, which therefore, however light an,d trivial 
they may feem to us, were of great Importance to him, 
and ferve to ffiew by what light Helps Men of true Ge- 
nius are able to execute the moft difficult Enterprizes. 
But there is one Obfervation of his which deferves to be 
particularly confidered, and that is, as to the Variation of 
the Compafs, which I find exprefly fet down by ail the 
Spanifh Writers of note, but more efpedally by Herrera, 
a very careful and judicious Author, and one who rarely 
took things uponTruft ; as well as by Don' Ferdinand Co 
the Admiral’s Son, who profeffes that he wrote from 
his Father’s Papers. Upon thefe Grounds I make no 
Scruple of believing the Fa6t, and very much vmnder 
that fo knowing a Man as Sir Thomas Browne, in his Vul- 
gar Errors, flrould pofitively affert, that Columbus was ig- 
norant of the Variation, and that if he had obferved it in- 
his firft Voyage, it imift have confirmed him in his Hopes 
of finding a new Vforld ; becaufe, fmee it turned towards 
the Weft, it manifeftly proved, that there was a great 
Body of Land on that Side. This fliews the great Danger 
of Theories \ for, without doubt, if Columbus had de- 
pended upon this, he might have been miftaken, fince 
failing along the Coaft of BrajU th&. Needle declines from 
the Land towards the Sea, v/hich is a Fa6t that fully 
overturns that Hypothefis which Sir Thomas Browne looked 
upon as certain : But the Truth of the IVIatter is, that 
not only Columbus BoiexYA the Variation, but his Pilots- 
alfo and from thence they argued, not that they were 
near 
1 
