SECTION VI.

Second Voyage of Columbus to the West Indies.

Orders were issued from Barcelona to prepare with all care and expedition for the return of the admiral to Hispaniola, as well to relieve those Christians who had been left there as to enlarge the colony and subdue the island, with the rest that were and should be discovered. To strengthen and confirm their title to the newly discovered regions, their Catholic majesties by the advice of the admiral, procured the approbation and consent of the pope for the conquest of the Indies, which was readily granted by Alexander VI, who then governed the church; and the bull to this effect was not only for what was already discovered, but for all that might be discovered westwards, until they should come to the East, where any Christian prince was then actually in possession, and forbidding all persons whomsoever to intrude within these bounds. And this concession and exclusive right was again confirmed in the year following in the most ample terms. Sensible that all this favourable grant from the pope was due to the admiral, by whose discovery they had become entitled to the possession of all these parts, their majesties were pleased, on the twenty-eighth of May, at Barcelona, to ratify, renew, confirm, and explain the privileges and prerogatives which they had granted him before, by granting them of new, so as explicitly to define how far the bounds of his admiralty and viceroyalty extended, being over all which had been granted to them by his holiness, of which grant the tenor follows:

Original Grant to Columbus in 1492, before the Discovery.

"FERDINAND and ISABELLA, by the grace of God, King and Queen of Castile, Leon, Arragon, Sicily, Granada, Toledo, Valencia, Galicia, Majorca, Minorca, Seville, Sardinia, Jaen, Algarve, Algezira, Gibraltar, and the Canary islands, Lord and Lady of Biscay and Molina, Duke and Duchess of Athens and Neopatria, Count and Countess of Boussillon and Cerdagne, Marquis and Marchioness of Oristan and Gociano, &c."

"Forasmuch as you CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS are going by our command, and with some of our ships and men to discover and subdue certain islands and continents in the ocean, and it is hoped by Gods assistance that some of those islands and continents will be discovered by your means and conduct, it is therefore just and reasonable, since you expose yourself to such dangers in our service, that you be suitably rewarded. And willing to honour and favour you for the reasons aforesaid, our will is that you Christopher Columbus, after discovering and conquering the said islands and continent, in the said ocean, or any of them, shall be our admiral of all such islands and continent as you shall so discover and conquer, and that you be our admiral, viceroy, and governor in them: that for the future you may call and style yourself Don Christopher Columbus; and that your sons and successors in the said employment may call themselves dons, admirals, viceroys, and governors, in the same: That you may exercise the charge of admiral, viceroy, and governor of the said islands and continent which you or your lieutenants shall conquer, and shall freely decide all causes, civil and criminal, appertaining to the said employments of admiral, viceroy, and governor, as you think fit according to justice, and as the admirals of our kingdom are in use to do: That you shall have power to punish all offenders: That you and your lieutenants may exercise the employments of admiral, viceroy, and governor, in all things belonging to the said offices, or any of them, and that you shall enjoy the perquisites and salaries belonging to the said employments and to each of them, in the same manner that the high admiral of our kingdom does at present."

"By this our letter, or by a copy thereof signed by a public notary, We command prince John, our dearly beloved son the Infante, dukes, prelates, marquisses, great masters, and military orders, priors, commanderies, or councillors, judges, and others our officers of justice whomsoever, belonging to our household, courts, and chancery, and constables of castles, commanders of forts and others, and all corporations, mayors, bailiffs, and magistrates, governors, judges, commanders, and sea officers; the aldermen, common councillors, officers, and good people, of all cities, towns, lands, and places in our kingdoms and dominions, and in those which you shall discover and subdue; and the captains, masters, mates, and all other officers and sailors, our natural subjects at present, or who shall so become hereafter, all or any of them, that when you shall have so discovered the said islands and continent in the ocean, and you or any that have your commission shall have taken the oaths usual in such cases, that they shall look upon you for the future so long as you live, and after you your son and heir, and so on from one heir to another for ever, as our admiral, viceroy, and governor of the said islands and continent by you Christopher Columbus to be discovered and conquered; and that they treat you, and your lieutenants by you appointed for executing the employments of admiral, viceroy, and governor, as such in all respects; and shall give you all the perquisites and other things belonging and appertaining to the said offices; and shall allow and cause to be allowed you, all honours, graces, concessions, preeminences, prerogatives, immunities, and other things, or any of them, which are due to you by virtue of your commands of admiral, viceroy, and governor, all to be observed completely, so that nothing shall be diminished: That they shall raise no objection to this or any part of it, nor suffer any such to be made; forasmuch as we by this our letter bestow on you the employments of admiral, viceroy and governor forever, and have put you in possession of the said offices and all of them, with full power to use and exercise them, and to receive the perquisites and salaries belonging to them, or any of them, as above said."

"Concerning all which things if it be requisite and you shall desire it, We command our chancellors, notaries, and other officers, to pass, seal, and deliver to you our letter of privilege, in such firm and legal manner as you shall require and stand in need of. And that none presume to do any thing to the contrary upon pain of our displeasure, and the forfeiture of thirty ducats for each offence. And we command him who shall shew them this our letter, that he shall summon them to appear before us at our court wherever we shall then be, within fifteen days after such summons under the foresaid penalty. Under which same penalty we also command any public notary whomsoever, that he give to him that shews it to him a certificate under his seal, that we may know how our command is obeyed."

"Given at Granada on the thirtieth of April in the year of our Lord 1492." "I the King. I the Queen."

Confirmation in 1493.