MOST serene, exalted and mighty king and Queen our sovereigns: I crossed from Cadiz to the Canary Islands in four days, and thence to the Indies in sixteen, where I wrote that my intention was to hasten my voyage while I had good ships, crews and provisions, and that my course was for the island of Jamaica, and at the island of Dominica I wrote this. Till I reached there I had as good weather as I could have wished for, but the night of my arrival there was a great storm, and I have been dogged by bad weather ever since.
On reaching Hispaniola I sent the bundle of letters and asked as a favour to be provided with a ship at my own cost, since one of those that I had with me was unseaworthy and could not carry sail. The letters were taken and your Highnesses will know if they were delivered to you. I was commanded from Spain not to touch or land there.
[In sending Columbus on his fourth voyage, their Majesties, in a letter written from Valencia on 14 March 1502, reiterated their assurances that they regretted his imprisonment, asked him to leave the matter of his estates to he settled with his son Don Diego, and requested him on the outward journey not to put in at Hispaniola hut to press on with his exploration. They gave him permission to put in briefly on his return, but not to delay there long. They also warned him on no account to get embroiled with the Portuguese. In his dealings with his crew he must think of them as royal servants and he must on no account bring back slaves. See Las Casas, Bk II, Chap. 4.]
My crew was disheartened by the fear that I was taking them further. They said that if any danger occurred there would be no help in these distant places and they would rather meet with disaster now than sail on. Moreover, anyone who pleased could say that the comendador* would receive control of any lands that I might gain.
The storm was terrible, and on that night my fleet was broken up. Everyone lost hope and was quite certain that all the rest were drowned. What mortal man, even Job himself, would not have died of despair? Even for the safety of myself, my son, brother and friends, I was forbidden in such weather to put into land or enter harbours that I had gained for Spain by my own blood and sweat.
But, to return to the ships, which the storm had taken from me, leaving me alone, the Lord sent them back when it pleased Him. The unseaworthy vessel had put out to sea for safety. Near the island the Gallega lost her boat and all lost great part of their provisions. The ship in which I was travelling, though amazingly storm-tossed, was saved by Our Lord and was completely unharmed. My brother was in the unseaworthy vessel and he (after God) was her salvation.
In this storm I struggled on painfully till I reached Jamaica. There the high seas fell to a calm and there was a strong current which carried me as far as the Jardin de la Reina without sighting land. From there I sailed as soon as I could to the mainland and on the way the wind and a terrible current were against me. I struggled with them for sixty days and in the end had not made more than seventy leagues. For all that time I did not put into harbour nor could I have done, since the storm did not let up at all. Rain, thunder and lightning was so continuous that it seemed the end of the world. Finally I reached Cape Gracias a Dios* and from there the Lord gave me good winds and currents. This was on 12 September. This terrible storm had lasted for eighty-eight days and all this time I had never seen the sun or the stars on account of the high seas. My ships were stripped, the sails torn, anchors, rigging and cables were lost, and also the boats and many stores. The crew were very sick and all repented their sins, in turning to God. Everyone made vows and promised pilgrimages, and very often men went so far as to confess to one another. Other storms have been seen but none has ever lasted so long or been so terrifying. Many whom we thought very-brave were reduced to terror on more than one occasion. The distress of my son,† who was with me, racked my soul, for he was only thirteen and he was not only exhausted but remained so for a long time. But the Lord gave him such courage that he cheered the others and he worked as hard in the ship as if he had been a sailor for eighty years. He comforted me, for I had fallen ill and was many times at the point of death. I directed the course from a little shelter which I had erected on the deck. My brother was in the worst ship, which was in the greatest danger, and this distressed me greatly, especially as I had brought him against his will. As for myself I had won little profit in twenty years of toilful and dangerous service, for today in Castile I have no roof to shelter me. When I want a meal or a bed I must go to an inn or tavern, and more often than not I have not the money to pay the bill. Another sorrow tore at my very heart and that was grief for my son Don Diego, whom I had left an orphan in Spain, stripped of the honours and estates that should have been mine. But I certainly trusted that, as just and grateful princes, your Majesties would restore everything to him with increase.
I reached the land of Cariay,* where I stayed to repair the ships, replenish the stores and rest the crews, who had become very weak. I had myself, as I have said, several times come near to death. Here I received news of the goldfields in the province of Ciamba which I was seeking. Two Indians brought me to Carambaru, where the people go naked, wearing shining gold discs round their necks, but they would not sell or barter them.
They gave me the names of many places on the sea-coast where they said there was gold and goldfields too. The last of these was Veragua, about twenty leagues away. I set out with the intention of inspecting them all, but when I was half-way there I learnt that there were other goldfields only two days’ journey away, and decided to send and inspect these. The expedition was to have left on the Eve of St Simon and St Jude, but such seas and winds arose that night that we had to run before it and the Indian who was to have guided us to the goldfields remained on board.
In all these places I had visited, I had found the information given me true, and this assured me that the same would be so of the province of Ciguare.† which, as they told me, lies inland nine days’ journey westward. They say that there is a vast quantity of gold there and that the people wear coral ornaments on their heads and stout bracelets of the same material on their wrists and ankles. They also embellish and inlay stools, chests and tables with it. I was told too that the women wore circlets on their heads that hung down to their shoulders. All the people of these parts agree about this and from all that they say I should be glad of a tenth of those riches. According to reports they are all acquainted with red pepper.
In Ciguare the custom is to trade in fairs and markets, and I was shown this people’s method of trading. It was also said that their ships carry cannon, bows and arrows, swords and shields, and that they wear clothes and that there are horses in that country. It was said that these people wage war, wear rich clothing and have good houses.* They say also that Ciguare is surrounded by water, and that ten days’ journey away is the river Ganges. These lands seem to lie in the same relation to Veragua as Tortosa to Fuentarabia† or Pisa to Venice.‡
When I left Carambaru and reached these places I have mentioned, I found the customs of the people to be the same, except that anyone who had a gold disc would barter it for three hawks’ bells, even if it weighed as much as ten or fifteen ducats. In their general manners they are like the people of Hispaniola but have different ways of collecting gold, all incomparably poorer than the Christians’ methods. These reports are from hearsay, however. All that I know for certain is that in the year ‘94 I sailed to longitude 135, which is 24 degrees westward or nine hours of the sun’s course. There can be no mistake about this, because there was an eclipse; the sun was in Libra and the moon in Aries. All this that I learnt by report I knew in greater detail from books.
Ptolemy believed that he had thoroughly corrected Marinus, who is now seen to be very near the truth. Ptolemy places Catigara twelve ‘lines’ from his meridian, which he fixed 2⅓ degrees from Cape St Vincent, in Portugal. Marinus includes the full extent of the earth in fifteen lines. In Ethiopia this same Marinus draws more than 24 degrees on the further side of the equinoctial line, and now that the Portuguese have made their voyages they find this to be correct. Ptolemy says that the most southerly land is the first place and that it does not He more than 15⅓ degrees south. The world is small and six parts of it are land, the seventh part being entirely covered by water. Experience has already shown this and I have already written in other letters with illustrations drawn from Holy Scripture concerning the site of the earthly Paradise accepted by Holy Church. I say that the world is not as great as is commonly believed and that one degree on the Equator is 56⅔ miles, which may be exactly proved.*
But I will leave this subject, since it is not my intention to speak of these matters but to give an account of my long and arduous voyage, which was however both noble and profitable.
As I said, on the Eve of St Simon and St Jude, I ran where the wind carried me, and could not resist it. I sheltered in a harbour from the great violence of sea and storm and decided there not to turn back to the goldfields, but left them, considering them gained already. I set out to continue my voyage in rain and reach the harbour of Bastimentos,* into which I was driven against my will. Storm and the strong current held me there for fourteen days and when I finally left it was in bad weather. Having with difficulty made fifteen leagues, I was driven back by the furious wind and current to the port which I had just left. I found ‘El Retrete,† where I entered in great danger and distress, the ships being in bad condition and both the crews and myself greatly fatigued. I stayed there fifteen days, compelled to do so by the cruel weather, and when I thought that it was ending I found it was only beginning. So I decided not to go to the goldfields or do anything else until the weather should be favourable for me to set out and put to sea.
When I had gone four leagues the storm returned and so exhausted me that I did not know what to do. There my wound reopened‡
For nine days I was lost with no hope of life. Eyes never saw the sea so rough, so ugly or so seething with foam. The wind did not allow us to go ahead or give us a chance of running, nor did it allow us to shelter under any headland. There I was held in those seas turned to blood, boiling like a cauldron on a mighty fire. The skies had never looked more threatening. For a day and a night they blazed like a furnace and the lightning burnt in such flashes that every moment I looked to see whether my masts and sails had not been struck. They came with such terrifying fury that we believed the ships would be utterly destroyed. All this time water fell unceasingly from the sky. One cannot say that it rained, for it was like a repetition of the deluge. The crews were now so broken that they longed for death to release them from their martyrdom. The ships had already twice lost their boats, anchors and rigging and were stripped bare of their sails.
When it pleased our Lord I returned to Puerto Gordo, where I made the best repairs I could. I then set course for Veragua, but although I was bent on continuing my voyage the winds and currents were still against me. I arrived at about the same place as before, and here again I was prevented by winds and currents. So I returned once more to port so battered by the tempestuous seas that I did not dare to await the opposition of Saturn with Mars, which generally brings storms or bad weather. At ten o’clock on Christmas morning I was back at the spot from which I had departed so laboriously. At the beginning of the New Year I resumed my efforts. But even though I had struck good weather for my voyage, the ships had become unseaworthy, and the crews sick or dying.
On the day of Epiphany (6 January) I reached Veragua, completely broken in spirit. Here Our Lord gave me a river and a safe harbour, although it was less than eight feet deep. I got in with difficulty and next day the storm returned. If it had found me outside I should not have been able to get in because of the bar. It rained without stopping until 14 February, so I never had an opportunity of exploring the country or of repairing my condition in any way. On 24 January, when I was lying there in safety, the river suddenly became very high and violent. The cables and bollards were broken and the ships were almost swept away. I had never seen them in greater danger, but Our Lord saved us as ever. I know of no one who has suffered greater trials.
On 6 February, when it was still raining, I sent seventy men inland and at five leagues away they found many goldfields. The Indians whom they had with them led them to a very high hill and from there showed them all the surrounding country as far as the eye could reach, saying that there was gold everywhere and that there were goldfields twenty days’ journey to the west. They named the towns and villages and showed where they lay thickest or thinnest. I afterwards learned that the Quibian* who had given us these Indians had told them to point to distant goldfields which belonged to a rival chieftain, though within his own territory a man could collect a full load of gold in ten days whenever he wished.
I have with me these Indians who were his servants, and they will bear witness to this. The boats went to the place where his township lay, and my brother returned with his men all carrying the gold they had gathered in the four hours they had been ashore. The quantity must be great, since none of them had ever seen goldfields and most of them had never seen unrefined gold before.†
The majority of them were sailors and almost all of them only lads. Having plenty of building materials and stores I established a settlement. I gave many gifts to the Quibian, as the chief of the country is called, but I knew that friendly relations would not continue for long, since they were very uncivilized and our men very peremptory and I had taken possession of land in his territory. When he saw the houses built and trade increasing, he decided to burn them down and put us all to death, but his plan went wrong and he was himself taken prisoner, with his wives, children and servants, though his imprisonment did not last long. He had been entrusted to a reliable man and a small guard but succeeded in making his escape. His sons escaped also from a shipmaster to whose care they had been entrusted.
In January the mouth of the river had silted up. In April, the ships were all worm-eaten and could not be kept afloat. At this time the river formed a channel by which I brought three of them out empty, and with great difficulty. The boats then went back into the river for salt and water and the Indians who had gathered together in great numbers attacked their crews, killing them all. My brother and the rest of the company were all aboard one ship which was left in the river and I was completely alone outside on this dangerous coast in a high fever and a state of great exhaustion. All hope of escape was dead.
I clambered up to the highest point of the ship, crying in a trembling voice, with tears in my eyes, to all your Highnesses’ war captains at every point of the compass to save me, but there was no reply. Tired out and sobbing I fell asleep and heard a very compassionate voice saying: ‘O fool, slow to believe and serve thy God, the God of all! What more did he do for Moses or David his servant than he has done for thee? … He gave thee the Indies, which are so rich a part of the world, for thine own and thou hast divided them at thy pleasure, and He has enabled thee to do this. He gave thee the keys of the barriers of the ocean seas which were closed with such such mighty chains. Thou hast been obeyed in many lands and gained an honourable fame throughout Christendom. … His mercy is infinite. Thine old age will not prevent thee from attaining all thy great objects. He has many mighty heritages to bestow. Now He has shown thee the reward for the anguish and danger thou has endured in the service of others.’
I heard all this as if in a swoon, but I could find no answer to words of such assurance: I could only weep for my transgressions. Whoever it was ended with the words: ‘Fear not, have trust, all these tribulations are inscribed on marble and are not purposeless.’
I got up as soon as I could, and nine days later the weather improved, but not sufficiently to get the ships out of the river. I collected the men who were on land and as many more as I could, for there were not enough both for a settlement and to man the ships. I would have remained with all of them to hold the settlement if your Highnesses had known of it: but the fear that ships would never reach there, and the thought that if help were to be sent it should find us all together, decided me to abandon it.
I sailed in the name of the Holy Trinity on the night of Easter Monday in ships that were rotten, leaky and worm-eaten, leaving one of them (the Gallega) at Belen with a number of objects and another (the Viscaina) at Belpuerto. I had only two left, which were in as bad a state as the others and without boats and stores. In these I must sail seven thousand miles of sea or die on the way with my son and brother and all these men. Let the habitual critics and fault-finders sitting safely at home ask me now: ‘Why did you not do this in those circumstances?’ I should like to have had them there on that voyage. But I truly believe that another journey of a different character is in store for them if there is any reliance to be placed upon our Faith.
I arrived on 13 May at the province of Mago,* which borders on Cathay, and from there set out to Hispaniola. I sailed for two days with good weather, but after that it turned against us. I was steering a course which would avoid the great number of islands in order to keep clear of the adjoining shoals. The stormy sea compelled me to turn back without sail: I anchored at an island where at one blow I lost three anchors and at midnight it seemed as if the world were coming to an end. The other ship broke its cables and bore down on me, so it was a wonder we were not dashed to pieces. It was my one remaining anchor that (after Our Lord) saved me.
Six days later when good weather returned I had lost all my tackle but resumed course. The ship was as riddled with holes as a honeycomb and the crew exhausted and dispirited, but I sailed a little beyond the point I had reached before, when the storm had driven me back and put into a safer port in the same island.
Eight days later I resumed my voyage and reached Jamaica at the end of June with the wind always against me and the ships in a worse state than ever. With three pumps, pots and cauldrons and all hands at work, I still could not keep down the water that entered the ship, and there was nothing we could do to meet the damage done by the shipworm. I steered the course that would bring me nearest to Hispaniola, which was twenty-eight leagues away, but afterwards I wished I had not done so. The other ship, which was half awash, was obliged to run for port, but I struggled to keep at sea in spite of the weather. My ship was almost sinking when by a miracle Our Lord brought us to land. Who would believe what I have just written? Yet I swear that I have not told a hundredth part of the story in this letter. Those who sailed with the Admiral can testify to this.
If it please your Highnesses to aid me with a ship of about sixty-four tons with 200 bushels of biscuit and some other provisions, this will be enough to bring me and my crew back to Spain. As I have said it is no more than twenty-eight leagues from Jamaica to Hispaniola, but I should not have gone there even if the ships had been fit to do so, since I had received orders from your Highnesses not to do so. God knows whether these orders have served a good purpose. I am sending this letter by way of Indian messengers* and it will be a great miracle if it reaches its destination.
To resume, I had with me on this voyage 150 men, among whom there were some very capable pilots and fine sailors. But none of them can give a certain account of where I went or from where I came, and the reason is very obvious. I set out from above Puerto del Brasil in Hispaniola and a storm prevented me from following the course I wished. I was forced to go where the wind drove me, and at the same time I fell very sick. No one had ever sailed in that direction before. After a few days the winds and high sea abated and the storm yielded to calm with strong currents. I put in at an island named ‘de las Pozas’* and from there went to the mainland. No one can give an accurate account of this, for there are no sufficient records, since we had to follow the current out of sight of land for so many days. I followed the mainland coast, relying on my own skill and the compass. No one could make observations by the heavens and when I left there for Hispaniola the pilots believed we should strike the island of St Juan,† but we actually struck the land of Mango, 400 leagues further west than they said. Let them state if they can the position of Veragua. I declare that the best account they can give is that they went to a land where there is much gold and this they will swear to. But they do not know by what route they could return to it. In order to return they would have to make a new voyage of discovery. There is a method of calculation based on astronomy which is reliable and a sufficient guide for anyone who understands it. This resembles a prophetic vision.
In the Indies, ships only sail with a following wind. This is not because they are badly built or clumsy. The strong currents that flow there and the winds together make pilots distrustful of the bow-line,* for in a day they may lose as much way as they have gained in seven and on this account I do not bring out caravels, or even Portuguese lateens.
Because of those winds and currents, ships only sail with a regular breeze and sometimes lie in port waiting for it for six or eight months, and this is not remarkable, because the same very often happens in Spain.
The people of whom Pope Pius LT writes in describing the region and its characteristics have been found, but not the horses with saddles, breast-plates and bridles of gold,† which is not surprising, for the lands along the seaboard are only suitable for fishermen. I did not stay there because I was in haste. In Cariay and in the adjoining districts there are great and very terrifying magicians who would have done anything to prevent my remaining there an hour. On my arrival they sent me two magnificently attired girls, the elder of whom could not have been more than eleven and the other seven. Both were so shameless that they might have been whores, and had magic powders concealed about them. On their arrival I ordered that they should be given some of our trinkets and sent them back to land immediately.
Here I saw on a mountain a sculptured tomb as big as a house, on top of which a corpse lay embalmed.‡ I was also told of other excellent works of art. There are many kinds of animals both small and large and very different from ours. I took aboard two hogs* and the Irish wolfhound was always afraid of them. A crossbowman wounded a creature that was like an ape, only much larger and with a human face. He had pierced him with an arrow from the breast to the tail but had to cut off a fore and hind paw because he was so fierce. When one of the hogs saw this ape-like creature it brisded and fled, and when I saw this I ordered the begare, as the natives call this animal, to be thrown to the hog. Though he was dying with the arrow still through his body he coiled his tail round the hog’s snout as soon as he got within reach of him, gripped him very tight and with his remaining forepaw struck him hard on the head as if he were his enemy. The hunting of this animal was so strange and splendid that I have had to describe it.
They have many kinds of animals, all of which die of barra † I saw a great number of large fowl, with feathers like wool, pumas, deer, also fallow-deer and birds. During our arduous voyage through these seas some got the pagan notion that we had been bewitched and still persist in the belief. I found other tribes who ate human flesh, as their brutal appearance showed.
It is said that there are large mines of copper, of which they make axes and other objects, worked or cast and soldered; also forges, goldsmith’s tools and crucibles. The people here are clothed, and in that district I saw large cotton sheets worked with very fine embroidery, and also cloths finely painted with designs of various colours. It is said that inland in the country lying towards Cathay they have gold embroidered materials. However, we were not able to get very exact information about these lands and what they contained, owing to the lack of an interpreter.
Although the villages are very close together, each has a different language and consequently the people of one do not understand those of another, any more than we understand the Arabs. I think this is true of the uncivilized people on the sea-coast but not of those in the interior.
When I discovered the Indies I said that they were the richest domain in the whole world in respect of gold, pearls, precious stones, spices, and trade and markets, and because all these things were not produced at once I was subjected to abuse. Because of this ill-treatment I now report nothing except that which I learnt from the natives of the land. One thing I dare say, since there are so many witnesses to it, and this is that in the land of Veragua I saw more evidences of gold in the first two days than in four years in Hispaniola, that the lands hereabouts could not be more beautiful or better cultivated, that the people could not be more timid, and that there is a fine harbour, a lovely river, which could be defended against the world. All this makes for the safety of the Christians, and their security of possession, and also offers great hopes of honour and expansion to the Christian faith. The voyage there will be as short as that to Hispaniola, since it can be made with a following wind. Your Highnesses are as much lords of this country as you are of Jerez or Toledo. Your ships can come here as safely as if they still lay at home. They will bring back gold from here, whereas if they wish to take the products of other lands they would have to take it by force or come back empty-handed, and inland they must entrust themselves to savages.
Concerning the other things of which I have refrained from speaking I have given the reasons for my reticence. I have not stated the sixth part of what I have learnt in all that I have said and written, nor do I swear to it, nor do I claim to have reached the fountainhead. The Genoese, Venetians and all other people who have pearls, precious stones and other valuables take them to the ends of the world to sell and turn into gold. Gold is most excellent. Gold constitutes treasure, and anyone who has it can do whatever he likes in the world. With it he can succeed in bringing souls to Paradise. When the people of these lands in the district of Veragua die, their gold is buried with their bodies, or so it is said.
Solomon was brought 666 talents of gold from a single expedition, in addition to what he received from merchants and sailors and his payments from Arabia. With this gold he made 200 lances and 300 shields, and the overlay of his throne, which was of solid gold adorned with precious stones; also many other objects and great vessels inlaid with jewels.* Josephus writes of this in his chronicle of Antiquities, and it is also mentioned in the Book of Chronicles and in the Book of Kings. Josephus believes that this gold came from Aurea. If this is so, the goldfields of Aurea are in my opinion the same as these of Veragua, which, as I have said, extend twenty days’ journey westwards, and are everywhere the same distance from the Pole and the Equator. Solomon bought all this gold, precious stones and silver, but your Majesties may send orders for them to be collected at your pleasure. David, in his will, left 3,000 talents of gold from the Indies to Solomon to help in the building of the Temple, and according to Josephus it came from these same lands.
Jerusalem and Mount Sion shall be rebuilt by Christian hands; whose they are to be is said by David in Psalm 14. Abbot Joachin said that this builder would come from Spain,† St Jerome showed the holy woman how it was to be done. Some time ago the Emperor of Cathay sent for some scholars to instruct him in the Christian faith.‡
Who will offer himself for this task? If Our Lord will bring me back to Spain, I pledge myself in God’s name to convey that man here in safety. These men who have accompanied me have undergone incredible toils and danger. I entreat your Highnesses, since they are poor, to have them paid immediately, and to grant favours to each one of them according to his merits, for in my belief they are bringing the best news that ever came to Spain.
Although I have information that the gold belonging to the Quibian of Veragua and the chiefs of the surrounding districts is very abundant, I do not think it would be well, or to your Highnesses’ advantage, for it to be seized by way of plunder. Fair dealing will prevent scandal and disrepute, and bring this gold into the treasury down to the last grain.
Given a month of good weather, I could complete my whole voyage. Being short of ships I have not delayed any longer but resumed my journey. I trust in my Creator that I shall be of service to your Highnesses in every respect, so long as my health lasts. I hope that your Highnesses will remember that I wished to have ships constructed in a new way.* Lack of time did not allow this, and I certainly foresaw what the result would be. I rate this trade and the possession of these extensive goldfields more highly than anything else we have achieved in the Indies. This is no child to be entrusted to a stepmother, and I never think of Hispaniola or Paria or these other countries without tears in my eyes. I thought that our settlements there would be an example to others. But on the contrary they are in a state of exhaustion. Although they are not dead their sickness is incurable or at least very extensive. Let him who brought them to this state produce the remedy if he knows it. Everyone is a master of disorder. It was always the custom to give thanks and rewards to those who exposed themselves to danger. It would not be right that one who has so opposed this business should enjoy the profits from it and bequeath them to his children. Those who left the Indies to avoid hardships, and spoke evil both of them and of me, have returned with official employment,* and the same thing will surely take place in respect of Veragua. This is a bad example, detrimental both to trade and justice in the world. Fear for all this, and other serious reasons which I saw clearly, caused me to beg your Highnesses, before I discovered these islands and the mainland, to let me govern them in your royal name. It pleased you, and the privilege and agreement was granted under the royal seal and oath. You gave me the title of Viceroy Admiral and Governor-General of all these lands, fixing the boundaries of my governorship a hundred leagues west of the Azores and the Cape Verde Islands on a line passing from one pole to the other. It was to comprise everything which should be discovered and you granted me wide powers, as is stated in the document at greater length.
But there is another very important matter, inexplicable to this day, which cries loudly for redress. I spent seven years at your royal court, where everyone to whom I spoke of this undertaking said that it was ridiculous. Now even tailors are asking for licences of exploration. Probably they intend only to come out and plunder, but the licences granted are greatly to the detriment of my honour and to the prejudice of the undertaking itself. It is right to render unto God the things that are His, and unto Caesar what belongs to Caesar. This is a just sentiment and based on justice. The lands that here obey your Highnesses are greater and richer than all the rest of Christendom. I had, by God’s will, placed them under your royal and exalted rule, and was on the point of securing very great revenues. I was happy and I was secure. Then, when I was waiting for ships to carry me into your royal presence, a victor bearing great news of gold, I and my two brothers were suddenly arrested and put aboard a ship, naked, ill-treated and loaded with chains; and this without trial or sentence. Who will believe that a poor foreigner could without cause rebel in such a place and without the support of another prince, alone among your vassals and subjects and with all his children at your royal court?
I came to serve at the age of twenty-eight and today I have not a hair on my head that is not grey. My body is sick and wasted. All that I and my brothers had has been taken from us, down to our very coats, without my being heard or seen, and I have suffered great dishonour. It is incredible that this could have been done by your royal command. The restoration of my honour and of what has been taken from me and the punishment of the man who inflicted this damage on me will redound to your Highnesses’ good name. The man who robbed me of the pearls* and infringed my privileges as Admiral should be punished also. It would be a most virtuous deed and a famous example if you were to do this, and would leave to Spain a glorious memory of your Highnesses as grateful and just princes.
The honest devotion which I have always paid to your Highnesses’ service and the unparalleled wrong that I have suffered will not let me keep silence, although I would gladly do so. I beg your Highnesses’ pardon. I am ruined, as I have said; till now I have wept for others. May Heaven now have pity on me and earth weep for me. Of worldly possessions I have not even a farthing to offer for my spirit’s good.† Here in the Indies I am cut off from the prescribed forms of religion, alone in my troubles, sick, in daily expectation of death and surrounded by a million hostile savages full of cruelty, and so far from the Holy Sacraments of the Blessed Church that my soul will be forgotten if it leaves my body. Weep for me whoever has charity, truth and justice!
I did not sail on this voyage to gain honour or wealth. This is certain for by that time all hope of this was dead. I came to your Highnesses with sincere devotion and true zeal, and this is no lie. I beg your Highnesses’ leave if it please God to bring me back from this place, to go to Rome and other places of pilgrimage. May the Holy Trinity preserve your lives and high estate and grant you increased prosperity.
Written in the Indies on the island of Jamaica, 7 July 1503.