Note 55 — Chapter I

There is great uncertainty about this English venture. Benzoni says Columbus’s ideas were ridiculed; Bacon (Life of Henry VII.) says the acceptance of them was delayed by accident; Purchas says they were accepted too late. F. Cradock, in the Dedication of his Wealth Discovered, London, 1661, regrets the loss of honor which Henry VII. incurred in not listening to the project. (Sabin, v. 55.) There is much confusion of statement in the early writers. Cf. Las Casas, lib. i. cap. 29; Barcia, Hist. del Almirante, cap. 10; Herrera, dec. i. lib. 2; Oviedo, lib. i. cap. 4; Gomara, cap. 15; Harrisse, Bibl. Amer. Vet., p. 4.