ter to Gabriel Sanchez appears here in a careful edition, one
of the treasured possessions of the New York Public Library--Lenox
Library--through the courtesy of whose officers it is presented in this
work. It is the first letter of Columbus, giving the earliest information
of his discovery, and is here rendered in a new translation, as contained
in the little volume published in 1892 by the trustees of the Lenox
Library, as a "tribute to the memory of the great discoverer."

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS

[Letter of Christopher Columbus, to whom our age owes much, concerning
the islands recently discovered in the Indian sea[1], for the search of
which, eight months before, he was sent under the auspices and at the
cost of the most invincible Ferdinand, King of Spain[2]; addressed to
the magnificent lord Raphael Sanxis[3], treasurer of the same most
illustrious King, and which the noble and learned man Leander de Cosco
has translated from the Spanish language into Latin, on the third of the
calends of May[4], 1493, the first year of the pontificate of Alexander
VI.]

Because my undertakings have attained success, I know that it will be
pleasing to you; these I have determined to relate, so that you may be
made acquainted with everything done and discovered in this our voyage.
On the thirty-third day after I departed from Cadiz,[5] I came to the
Indian sea, where I found many islands inhabited by men without number,
of all which I took possession for our most fortunate King, with
proclaiming heralds and flying standards, no one objecting. To the first
of these I gave the name of the blessed Saviour,[6] on whose aid relying
I had reached this as well as the other islands. But the Indians call
it Guanahani. I also called each one of the others by a new name. For I
ordered one island to be called Santa Maria of the Conception,[7] another
Fernandina,[8] another Isabella,[9] another Juana,[10] and so on with the
rest.

As soon as we had arrived at that island which I have just now said
was called Juana, I proceeded along its coast toward the west for some
distance. I found it so large and without perceptible end, that I
believed it to be not an island, but the continental country of
Cathay;[11] seeing, however, no towns or cities situated on the
sea-coast, but only some villages and rude farms, with whose inhabitants
I was unable to converse, because as soon as they saw us they took
flight, I proceeded farther, thinking that I w