Note 273-1 — LETTER FROM COLUMBUS TO FERDINAND AND ISABELLA CONCERNING THE COLONIZATION AND COMMERCE OF ESPAÑOLA273-1
Reading edition
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.