ted, II. 309-313, of the printed edition, gives
an account of the voyage and arrival of the vessels which came to
Espanola directly from the Canaries.

[363-1] Northwest by north.

[363-2] Northeast in the printed text.

[363-3] The circle of the horizon, represented by the compass card, was
conceived of as divided into eight winds and each wind into halves and
quarters, the quarters corresponding to the modern points of the compass,
which are thirty-two in number. The declination observed was two points
of the compass, or 22 deg. 30'.

[363-4] See above, p. 329, note 2.

[364-1] An arroba was twenty-five pounds.

[364-2] _Estoraque_, officinal storax, a gum used for incense.

[364-3] _Cf._ Marco Polo, bk. III., ch. II.

[364-4] Pita, the fibre of the American agave.

[365-1] _Cf._ the letter on the Third Voyage, Major, _Select Letters of
Columbus_, p. 140, for Columbus's reasoning and beliefs about the Earthly
Paradise or Garden of Eden; for Las Casas's discussion of the question,
see _Historia de las Indias_, II. 275-306.

[365-2] High sail.

[366-1] The rack was used to bend the crossbow.

LETTER OF COLUMBUS TO THE NURSE OF PRINCE JOHN

INTRODUCTION

This letter was addressed by Columbus to Dona Juana de Torres, who had
been a nurse of the lately deceased royal prince John, the son of
Ferdinand and Isabella, and who was the sister of Antonio de Torres, who
had accompanied Columbus on his second voyage and was subsequently a
commander in other voyages to the New World. It was probably written on
shipboard when Columbus was sent back to Spain in irons in the autumn of
the year 1500. It is at once a cry of distress and an impassioned
self-defence, and is one of the most important of the Admiral's writings
for the student of his career and character.

In the letter to Santangel the discoverer announces his success in his
long projected undertaking; in the letter to the nurse he is at the
lowest point in the startling reverse of fortune that befell him because
of the troubles in Santo Domingo, and in the letter on the fourth voyage
he appears as one struggling against the most adverse circumstances to
vindicate his career, and to demonstrate the value of what he had
previously accomplished, and to crown those achievements by actually
attaining the coast of Asia. Columbus regarded his defence as set forth
in this letter as of such importance that he included it in the four
codices or collec