expectation of
death, surrounded by a million of hostile savages full of cruelty, and
thus separated from the blessed sacraments of our holy Church, how will
my soul be forgotten if it be separated from the body in this foreign
land? Weep for me, whoever has charity, truth, and justice! I did not
come out on this voyage to gain to myself honor or wealth; this is a
certain fact, for at that time all hope of such a thing was dead. I do
not lie when I say, that I went to your Highnesses with honest purpose of
heart, and sincere zeal in your cause. I humbly beseech your Highnesses,
that if it please God to rescue me from this place, you will graciously
sanction my pilgrimage to Rome and other holy places. May the Holy
Trinity protect your Highnesses' lives, and add to the prosperity of your
exalted position.

Done in the Indies, in the island of Jamaica, on the seventh of July, in
the year one thousand five hundred and three.

FOOTNOTES:

[389-1] The punctuation of this first paragraph has been changed in the
light of the contemporary Italian translation known as the _Lettera
Rarissima_, which is given in facsimile and English translation in
Thacher's _Christopher Columbus_, II. 671 _et seqq._

[389-2] June 29. Las Casas, III. 29.

[390-1] By the letter of the King and Queen, March 14, 1502, Columbus had
been forbidden to call at Espanola on the outward voyage. Las Casas,
_Historia de las Indias_, III. 26.

[390-2] The new governor, Ovando, who had been sent out to supersede
Bobadilla, had reached Santo Domingo in April of this year, 1502.

[390-3] Columbus was accompanied by his younger son Ferdinand and his
elder brother Bartholomew. Las Casas, III. 25.

[390-4] The translation here follows Lollis's emendation of the text
which changed the printed text, "_habia, echado a la mar, por escapar,
fasta la isola la Gallega; perdio la barca_," etc., to "_habia echado a
la mar, por escapar fasta la isla; la Gallega perdio la barca_." One of
the ships was named _La Gallega_, and there is no island of that name in
that region.

[391-1] Columbus set forth from the harbor of Santo Domingo in the storm,
Friday, July 1. The ships found refuge in the harbor of Azua on the
following Sunday, July 3. (Ferdinand Columbus in the _Historie_, ed.
1867, pp. 286-287.) Azua is about 50 miles west of Santo Domingo in a
straight line, but much farther by water. After a rest and repairs the
Admiral sailed to Yaquimo, the present Jacmel i