The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus (Volume II)

writing, why dost thou not write, in this manner, the good things which are happening at present in thy own day, that those who come hereafter may know them, and marvelling at what they read, may render thanks to God?’
    “From that time,” continues he, “I proposed to do so, and as I considered the matter, I said often to myself,’ if God gives me life and health, I will continue to write until I behold the kingdom of Granada gained by the Christians;’ and I always entertained a hope of seeing it, and did see it: great thanks and praises be given to our Saviour Jesus Christ! And because it was impossible to write a complete and connected account of all things that happened in Spain, during the matrimonial union of the king Don Ferdinand, and the queen Doña Isabella, I wrote only about certain of the most striking and remarkable events, of which I had correct information, and of those which I saw or which were public and notorious to all men.” [386]
    The work of the worthy curate, as may be inferred from the foregoing statement, is deficient in regularity of plan; the style is artless and often inelegant, but it abounds in facts not to be met with elsewhere, often given in a very graphical manner, and strongly characteristic of the times. As he was contemporary with the events and familiar with many of the persons of his history, and as he was a man of probity and void of all pretension, his manuscript is a document of high authenticity. He was much respected in the limited sphere in which he moved, “yet,” says one of his admirers, who wrote a short preface to his chronicle, “he had no other reward than that of the curacy of Los Palacios, and the place of chaplain to the archbishop Don Diego Deza.”
    In the possession of O. Rich, Esq., of Madrid, is a very curious manuscript chronicle of the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, already quoted in this work, made up from this history of the curate of Los Palacios, and from various other historians of the times, by some contemporary writer. In his account of the voyage of Columbus, he differs in some trivial particulars from the regular copy of the manuscript of the curate. These variations have been carefully examined by the author of this work, and wherever they appear to be for the better, have been adopted.
    No. XXXII.
    “Navigatione del Re de Castiglia delle Isole e Paese Nuovamente
Ritrovate.”
    “Naviagatio Chrisophori Colombi.”
    The above are the titles, in Italian and in Latin, of the earliest narratives of the first and second voyages of Columbus that appeared in print. It was anonymous; and there are some curious particulars in regard to it. It was originally written in Italian by Montalbodo Fracanzo, or Fracanzano, or by Francapano de Montabaldo, (for writers differ in regard to the name,) and was published in Vicenza, in 1507, in a collection of voyages, entitled “Mondo Novo, e Paese Nuovamente Ritrovate.” The collection was republished at Milan, in 1508, both in Italian, and in a Latin translation made by Archangelo Madrignano, under the title of “Itinerarium Portugallensium;” this title being given, because the work related chiefly to the voyages of Luigi Cadamosto, a Venetian in the service of Portugal.
    The collection was afterwards augmented by Simon Grinæns with other travels, and printed in Latin at Basle, in 1533, [387] by Hervagio, entitled “Novus Orbis Regionum,” &c. The edition of Basle, 1555, and the Italian edition of Milan, in 1508, have been consulted in the course of this work.
    Peter Martyr (Decad. 2, Cap. 7,) alludes to this publication, under the first Latin title of the book, “Itinerarium Portugallensium,” and accuses the author, whom by mistake he terms Cadamosto, of having stolen the materials of his book from the three first chapters of his first Decade of the Ocean, of which, he says, he granted copies in manuscript to several persons, and in particular to certain Venetian ambassadors. Martyr’s Decades were not published until 1516, excepting the first three, which were published in 1511, at Seville.
    This narrative of the voyages of Columbus is referred to by Gio. Batista Spotorno, in his historical memoir of Columbus, as having been written by a companion of Columbus.
    It is manifest, from a perusal of the narrative, that though the author may have helped himself freely from the manuscript of Martyr, he must have had other sources of information. His description of the person of Columbus as a