Washington Irving - The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus (Volume II)

Destitute of the means of accomplishing his pious intentions, he considered it his duty to incite the sovereigns to the enterprise; and he felt emboldened to do so, from having originally proposed it as the great object to which the profits of his discoveries should be dedicated. He set to work, therefore, with his accustomed zeal, to prepare arguments for the purpose. During the intervals of business, he sought into the prophecies of the holy Scriptures, the writings of the fathers, and all kinds of sacred and speculative sources, for mystic portents and revelations which might be construed to bear upon the discovery of the New World, the conversion of the Gentiles, and the recovery of the holy sepulchre: three great events which he supposed to be predestined to succeed each other. These passages, with the assistance of a Carthusian friar, he arranged in order, illustrated by poetry, and collected into a manuscript volume, to be delivered to the sovereigns. He prepared, at the same time, a long letter, written with his usual fervor of spirit and simplicity of heart. It is one of those singular compositions which lay open the visionary part of his character, and show the mystic and speculative reading with which he was accustomed to nurture his solemn and soaring imagination.

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Peter Martyr, decad. i. lib. iv.

Ibid., lib. v.

Peter Martyr, decad. i. lib. v.

Charlevoix, Hist. St. Domingo, lib. ii. p. 147. Muñoz, Hist. N. Mundo, lib. vi. § 6.

Peter Martyr, decad. i. lib. v.

"These serpentes are lyke unto crocodiles, saving in bygness; they call them guanas. Unto that day none of owre men durste adventure to taste of them, by reason of theyre horrible deformitie and lothsomnes. Yet the Adelantado being entysed by the pleasantnes of the king's sister, Anacaona, determined to taste the serpentes. But when he felte the flesh thereof to be so delycate to his tongue, he fel to amayne without al feare. The which thyng his companions perceiving, were not behynde hym in greedynesse: insomuche that they had now none other talke than of the sweetnesse of these serpentes, which, they affirm to be of more pleasant taste, than eyther our phesantes or partriches." Peter Martyr, decad. i. book v. Eden's Eng. Trans.

Las Casas, Hist. Ind., tom. i. cap. 113.

Ibid, lib. i. cap. 114.

P. Martyr, decad. i. lib. v. Of the residence of Guarionex, which must have been a considerable town, not the least vestige can be discovered at present. Vol. II. – 2.

Escritura de Fr. Roman, Hist. del Almirante.

Peter Martyr, decad. i. lib. ix.

Las Casas, Hist. Ind., lib. i. cap. 121.

Herrera, decad. i. lib. iii. cap. 65. Peter Martyr, decad. vi. lib. v.

Herrera, Hist. Ind., decad. i. lib. iii. cap. 7.

Peter Martyr, decad. i. lib. v. Herrera, Hist. Ind., decad. i. lib. iii. cap. 6.

Peter Martyr, decad. i. lib. v. Herrera, decad. i. lib. iii. cap. 6.

Ramusio, vol. iii. p. 9.

Herrera, decad. i. lib. iii. cap. 1.

Las Casas, Hist. Ind., lib. i. cap. 118.

Hist. del Almirante, cap. 73.

Hist. del Almirante, cap. 73.

Herrera, decad. i. lib. iii. cap. 7. Hist, del Almirante, cap. 74.

Extract of a letter from T. S. Heneken, Esq., 1847. – Fort Conception is situated at the foot of a hill now called Santo Cerro. It is constructed of bricks, and is almost as entire at the present day as when just finished. It stands in the gloom of an exuberant forest which has invaded the scene of former bustle and activity; a spot once considered of great importance and surrounded by swarms of intelligent beings.

What has become of the countless multitudes this fortress was intended to awe? Not a trace of them remains excepting in the records of history. The silence of the tomb prevails where their habitations responded to their songs and dances. A few indigent Spaniards, living in miserable hovels, scattered widely apart in the bosom of the forest, are now the sole occupants of this once fruitful and beautiful region.

A Spanish town gradually grew up round the fortress; the ruins of which extend to a considerable distance. It was destroyed by an earthquake, at nine o'clock of the morning of Saturday, 20th April, 1564, during the celebration of mass. Part of the massive walls of a handsome church still remain, as well as those of a very large convent or hospital, supposed to have been constructed in pursuance of the testamentary dispositions of Columbus. The inhabitants who survived the catastrophe retired to a small chapel, on the banks of a river, about a league distant, where the new town of La Vega was afterwards built.

Herrera, decad. i. lib. iii. cap. 7. Hist. del Almirante, cap. 74.

Hist. del Almirante, cap. 74. Herrera, decad. i. lib. iii. cap. 7.

Las Casas, Hist. Ind., lib. i. cap. 118.

Ibid., cap. 119.

Las Casas. Herrera. Hist. del Almirante.

Herrera, decad. i. lib. iii. cap. 8.

Las Casas, Hist. Ind., cap. 121, MS. Peter Martyr, decad. i. cap. 5.

The particulars of this chapter are chiefly from P. Martyr, decad. i. lib. vi.; the manuscript history of Las Casas, lib. i. cap. 121; and Herrera, Hist. Ind., decad. i. lib. iii. cap. 8, 9.

Las Casas, lib. i. cap. 149,150. Herrera, decad. i. lib. iii. cap. 12. Hist, del Almirante, cap. 77.

Las Casas, Hist. Ind., lib. i. cap. 153.

Hist, del Almirante, cap. 78.

In one of these ships sailed the father of the venerable historian Las Casas, from whom he derived many of the facts of his history. Las Casas, lib. i. cap. 153.

Las Casas, Hist. Ind., lib. i. cap. 157.

Hist. del Almirante, cap. 78.

Ibid., cap. 79. Herrera, decad. i. lib. iii. cap 13.

Las Casas, Hist. Ind., lib. i. cap. 153.