LETTER OF COLUMBUS TO THE NURSE OF PRINCE JOHN
INTRODUCTION
This letter was addressed by Columbus to Doña 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 collections of documents and papers prepared in duplicate before his last voyage to authenticate his titles and honors and to secure their inheritance by his son. The text of the letter from which the present translation was made is that of the Paris Codex of the Book of Privileges, as it is called. This is regarded by Harrisse as the best. The translation is by George F. Barwick of the British Museum, and was originally published in Christopher Columbus, Facsimile of his Own Book of Privileges, 1502, edited by B. F. Stevens (London, 1903). The letter remained unpublished until it was printed in Spotorno’s Codice Diplomatico in 1822. In 1825 it appeared again in Navarrete’s Viages, in a slightly varying text. It was first published in English in the translation of the Codice Diplomatico issued in London in 1823 under the title of Memorials of Columbus, etc.
E. G. B.