sclosed some other unknown ones towards the Indies
which may be considered among the most precious things on earth; and it
is believed that they will be gained over to Christ by the emissaries
of the king."[538] Outside of the Romance countries we find one German
version of the first letter of Columbus, published at Strasburg, in
1497,[539] and a brief allusion to the discovery in Sebastian Brandt's
famous allegorical poem, "Das Narrenschiff," the first edition of which
appeared in 1494.[540] The earliest distinct reference to Columbus in
the English language is to be found in a translation of this poem, "The
Shyppe of Fooles," by Henry Watson, published in London by Wynkyn de
Worde in 1509. The purpose of Brandt's allegory was to satirize the
follies committed by all sorts and conditions of men. In the chapter,
"Of hym that wyll wryte and enquere of all regyons," it is said: "There
was one that knewe that in y^{e} ysles of Spayne was enhabitantes.
Wherefore he asked men of Kynge Ferdynandus & wente & founde them, the
whiche lyved as beestes."[541] Until after the middle of the sixteenth
century no English chronicler mentions either Columbus or the Cabots,
nor is there anywhere an indication that the significance of the
discoveries in the western ocean was at all understood.[542]

[Footnote 538: Harrisse, _Bibliotheca Americana Vetustissima_,
p. 35.]

[Footnote 539: Id. p. 50.]

[Footnote 540:
Auch hat man sydt in Portigall
Und in Hyspanyen uberall
Golt-inseln funden, und nacket l[ deg.u]t
Von den man vor wust sagen n[ deg.u]t.
Harrisse, _Bibl. Amer. Vet._; _Additions_, p. 4.

Or, in more modern German:--

Wie man auch juengst von Portugal
Und Hispanien aus schier ueberall
Goldinseln fand und nakte Leute,
Von denen man erst weiss seit heute.
_Das Narrenschiff_, ed. Simrock, Berlin, 1872, p. 161.

In the Latin version of 1497, now in the National Library at
Paris, it goes somewhat differently:--

Antea que fuerat priscis incognita tellus:
Exposita est oculis & manifesta patet.
Hesperie occidue rex Ferdinandus: in alto
Aequore nunc gentes repperit innumeras.
Harrisse, _op. cit._; _Additions_, p. 7.

It will be observed that these foreign