May your Highnesses keep me in their minds, while I, on my part, shall ever pray to God our Lord to preserve the lives of your Highnesses and enlarge their dominions.
S.
S.A.S.
X.M.Y.
Xpo Ferens.[277-2]
Sent by the admiral.
[273-1] The original text of this letter will be most accessible in Thacher, Christopher Columbus, III. 100-113. It is there accompanied by a facsimile of the original manuscript and an English translation. The translation here given is a revision of that made by Dr. José Ignacio Rodriguez of Washington and printed in the Report of the American Historical Association, 1894, pp. 452-455, as part of a paper by W. E. Curtis on Autographs of Christopher Columbus. The text was first printed by Justo Zaragoza in his Cartas de Indias, etc. (Madrid, 1877). It was first translated by George Dexter in the Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, Vol. XVI. This translation, which contains some errors which seriously affect the meaning, is also to be found in P. L. Ford, Writings of Christopher Columbus, pp. 67-74. Zaragoza placed the date of this letter in 1497. It is the opinion of the present editor that it should be placed between the first and the second voyage. The arguments advanced by Lollis in favor of 1493 are conclusive. See Raccolta Colombiana, parte I., tomo I., pp. lxxv-lxxx.
The letter is of great importance as the first draft of a systematic colonial policy for the newly discovered islands. Several of its suggestions were incorporated in the letter of instructions which the Sovereigns gave Columbus May 29, 1493, for the second voyage. See Navarrete, Viages, II. 66-72. It was supplemented in 1494 by the memorandum which the Admiral sent back to the sovereigns by Antonio de Torres and the two together entitle Columbus to be considered the pioneer lawgiver as well as the discoverer of the New World. Cf. Bourne, Spain in America, pp. 204-206.
[273-2] La ysla Española. So translated, for so it would sound to the Sovereigns. There had not been time for Española to sound like a proper name.
[274-1] See Bourne, Spain in America, pp. 34-35, for the actual equipment of the second voyage.
[274-2] Alcalde.
[274-3] Escribano del pueblo.
[275-1] As the King and Queen on May 7, 1493, 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.