Note 312-2 — LETTER OF DR. CHANCA ON THE SECOND VOYAGE OF COLUMBUS

The Admiral, “having described the country at length and the condition in which he was and where he had settled for the Catholic sovereigns and sending them the specimen of gold which Guacanagari had given him and that which Hojeda had brought, and informing them of all that he saw to be needed, despatched the twelve ships before mentioned, placing in command of them all Antonio de Torres, brother of the nurse of the prince Don Juan, to whom he intrusted the gold and all his despatches. They made sail the 2d of February, 1494.” Las Casas, Historia de las Indias, II. 25-26. Columbus’s letter to Ferdinand and Isabella mentioned here has not been preserved. That part of it which related to future needs was apparently duplicated in the “memorial” which he gave to Torres. This document is given in English in Thacher, Christopher Columbus, II. 297-308, and Major, Select Letters of Christopher Columbus, ed. 1870, pp. 72-107. See p. 73, ibid., for a reference to letters of the Admiral no longer extant.