493, appointed Gomez Tello to go
with Columbus on the second voyage to act as receiver of the royal dues,
Thacher argues strongly, on the ground that this recommendation
presumably antedates the appointment of a treasurer, that this letter of
Columbus's was written earlier than May 7, 1493.

[276-1] Such an authorization was given by the sovereigns, April 10,
1495, reserving Columbus's rights to one-eighth of the trade. Navarrete,
II. 166-167. The Admiral protested that this authorization led to
infringement of his rights and it was in so far revoked, June 2, 1497.

[277-1] On the development of the fiscal and commercial regulations of
the Spanish colonial administration, see Bourne, _Spain in America_, pp.
282-301 and 337; Moses, _Establishment of Spanish Rule in America_, pp.
27-67.

[277-2] The formal signature of Columbus which he enjoined upon his heir
in his deed of entail, February 28, 1498. See P.L. Ford, _Writings of
Christopher Columbus_, p. 90. If this letter was written, as is supposed,
in 1493, this is the earliest use of this monogram. Its meaning has never
been determined. The various conjectures are presented by Thacher,
_Christopher Columbus_, III. 454-458.

LETTER OF DR. CHANCA ON THE SECOND VOYAGE OF COLUMBUS

INTRODUCTION

Dr. Chanca of Seville volunteered to go to the Indies, and on May 23,
1493, the King and Queen appointed him surgeon (Navarrete, _Viages_, II.
54). This letter was written to the cabildo or town council of Seville
and is the first narrative of one of Columbus's voyages that we have
exactly as it was written by a private observer. It is also the first
description of the natives that we have from an observer of scientific
training. The original text was first printed by Navarrete in his
_Viages_ in 1825. The original manuscript or a copy came into the
possession of the historian Bernaldez, who embodied it with a few
trifling changes and omissions in his _Historia de Los Reyes Catolicos_,
chs. CXIX., CXX. (Seville ed., 1870), Vol. II., pp. 5-36.

Columbus kept a journal on this voyage which is no longer extant.
Abridgments of it are preserved to us in the _Historie_ of Ferdinand
Columbus and in the _Historia de las Indias_ of Las Casas. There are
other contemporary narratives of the voyage from private hands, but they
are either made up from conversations with those who went on the voyage,
like the letters of Simone Verde, printed in Harrisse, _Christophe
Colomb_