these countries; for now the way was opened up and made plain, and any one might follow out the course, as some had done already who improperly arrogated the title of discoverers; not considering that they had not discovered any new country, but that all which they had done or could do in future was merely to pursue and extend the first discovery, the admiral having already shewn them the route to the islands and to the province of Paria, which was the first discovered land of the new continent.  Yet, having always a great desire to serve their majesties, more especially the queen, he consented to return to his ships and to undertake the proposed voyage to be now related, for he was convinced that great wealth would be discovered, as he formerly had written to their majesties in 1499.  All of which has since been verified by the discovery of Mexico and Peru, though at that time, as generally happens to the conjectures of most men, nobody would give credit to his assertions.

Having been well dispatched by their majesties, the admiral set out from Granada for Seville in the year 1501; and so earnestly solicited the fitting out of his squadron, that in a short time he rigged and provisioned four vessels, the largest of 70 tons and the smallest 50, with a complement of 140 men and boys, of whom I was one.

[1] Certainly alluding to D. Juan de Fonseca, archdeacon of Castile, and
    bishop of Burgos, formerly mentioned as obstructing the equipment of
    the admirals ship, and afterwards as the principal mover of the
    injurious treatment experienced by the admiral.—­E.

[2] This article is nowhere explained, but was said on a former occasion
    to be made of very low or impure gold.—­E.

[3] This reported produce is prodigious, and must have only been temporary
    or accidental.  Forty ounces of gold a-day, allowing but L.4 the ounce,
    as perhaps inferior to standard, amount to L.160.  The piece of gold,
    mentioned in the text was worth about L.88.  These mines, once so rich,
    have been long abandoned.  The original natives of Hispaniola died out,
    and negroes have been found unequal to the hardships of mining. 
    Hispaniola long remained a mere depot of adventurers, whence the great
    conquests of Mexico and Peru were supplied with men and arms.—­E.

[4] The original, or rather the old translation, is most miserably
    defective and confused in its dates about this period, bandying 1499
    and 1500 backwards and forwards most ridiculously.  This error it has
    been anxiously endeavoured to correct in the present version.—­E.

[5] This is a most imperfect account of an insurrection which appears to
    have broke out against the lieutenant, who seems to have been very
    unfit for his situation.—­E.

[6] This obviously means trial after condemnation, a procedure which has
    been long proverbial in Scotland under the name of Jedwarth justice. 
    Some similar expression relative to Spain must have been used in the
    original, which the translator chose to express by an English
    proverbial saying of the same import.—­E.