[7] Columbus seems to have taken exceptions at the license for private voyages, as an infringement of his own prerogatives. It is difficult, however, to understand in what way. There is nothing in his original capitulations with the government having reference to the matter, (see Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, Doc. Dipl., no. 5,) while, in the letters patent made out previously to his second voyage, the right of granting licenses is expressly reserved to the crown, and to the superintendent, Fonseca, equally with the admiral. (Doc. Dipl., no. 35.) The only legal claim which he could make in all such expeditions as were not conducted under him, was to one-eighth of the tonnage, and this was regularly provided for in the general license. (Doc. Dipl., no. 86.) The sovereigns, indeed, in consequence of his remonstrances, published an ordinance, June 2d, 1497, in which, after expressing their unabated respect for all the rights and privileges of the admiral, they declared, that whatever shall be found in their previous license repugnant to these shall be null and void. (Doc. Dipl., 113.) The hypothetical form in which this is stated shows that the sovereigns, with an honest desire of keeping their engagements with Columbus, had not a very clear perception in what manner they had been violated.
Peter Martyr, De Rebus Oceanicis, Dec. 1, lib. 9.—Herrera, Indias
Occidentales, lib. 4, cap. 11.—Benzoni, Novi Orbis Hist., cap. 13.
[8] Part I. Chap. 18, of this History.
[9] Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. ii., Doc. Dipl., no. 148.— Solorzano y Pereyra, Política Indiana, (Madrid, 1776,) lib. 6, cap. 17.— Linage de Veitia, Norte de la Contratacion de las Indias Occidentales, (Sevilla, 1672,) lib. 1, cap. 1.—Zuñiga, Annales de Sevilla, año 1503.— Herrera, Indias Occidentales, lib. 5, cap. 12.—Navagiero, Viaggio, fol. 15.
[10] See the original bull, apud Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. ii. apend. 14, and a Spanish version of it, in Solorzano, Política Indiana, lib. 4, cap. 1, sec. 7.
[11] Solorzano, Política Indiana, tom. ii. lib. 4, cap. 2, sec. 9—Riol, Informe, apud Semanario Erudite, tom. iii. pp. 160, 161.
[12] Among others see Raynal, History of the East and West Indies, translated by Justamond, (London, 1788,) vol. iv. p. 277.—Robertson, History of America, (London, 1796,) vol. iii. p. 283.
[13] Muñoz, Hist. del Nuevo-Mundo, lib. 5, sec. 32, 33.—Herrera, Indias Occidentales, lib. 4, cap. 11, 12.—Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. ii., Doc. Dipl., no. 86.
[14] The historian of Seville mentions that it was the resort especially of the merchants of Flanders, with whom a more intimate intercourse had been opened by the intermarriages of the royal family with the house of Burgundy. See Zuñiga, Annales de Sevilla, p. 415.
[15] Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom. ii., Doc. Dipl., no. 45, et loc. al.—Las Casas, amidst his unsparing condemnation of the guilty, does ample justice to the pure and generous, though, alas! unavailing efforts of the queen. See Oeuvres, ed. de Llorente, tom. i. pp. 21, 307, 395, et alibi.