1499. _Ojeda_ was sent from Spain to interfere with the great privileges granted to COLUMBUS; but did very little more than retrace some of his previous discoveries. In this voyage, as already mentioned, Ojeda was accompanied by _Americus Vespucius_, who usurped the right of giving the _New World_ his own name _America_, which still continues universal. 1500. _Cabral_, a Portuguese admiral, while on a voyage to India, accidentally discovered Brazil. In this year likewise, _Corte de Real_, a Portuguese navigator, discovered Labradore, while in search of a _north-west_ passage to India. 1502. _Fourth_, voyage of COLUMBUS, in which he discovered the continental coast, from _Honduras_ to near the Isthmus of _Darien_. 1513. _Vasco Nunez de Balboa_, descried the _Pacific Ocean_, or great _South Sea_, and waded into the waves, taking formal possession for the crown of Spain; and even embarked on that ocean in a canoe, as a more formal act of conquest. In the same year, _Florida_ was first discovered by _Ponce de Leon_, a Spanish officer. 1515. The continent of _South America_ was explored down to the _Rio de la Plata_. 1519. _Cortez_ began the conquest of _Mexico_, which he accomplished in 1521. About the same time, _Magalhaens_, usually named Magellan, explored the _Pacific Ocean_. 1526. _Pizarro_ visited the coast of _Peru_, which he invaded in 1530, and _afterwards conquered_. [1] Churchills Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. II. 479. [2] From Pinkertons Modern Geography. * * * * * THE AUTHORS PREFACE. Because admiral DON CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, my father, was a person most worthy to be held in eternal remembrance, it seems reasonable that _I his son_, who sailed some time along with him, should to my other performances add this my chiefest work: _The history of his life, and of his wonderful discovery of the West Indies_. In consequence of his great and continual sufferings, and the diseases he long laboured under, my father had not time to reduce his own notes and observations into historical order; and these having fallen to me, enable me to execute the present undertaking. Knowing that many others had undertaken to execute this task, I long delayed its performance. But, having read those other narratives, I found that they exaggerated many circumstances, had passed lightly over other matters of importance, and had even entirely omitted much that was deserving of particular notice. From these considerations I have been induced to publish this work; thinking it more becoming that I should undergo the censure of wanting skill, rather than to permit the truth respecting my noble father to remain in oblivion. Whatever may be the faults in this performance, these will not be owing to my ignorance of the truth; for I pledge myself to set down nothing which I do not find in his own papers or letters, or of which I have not actually been a witness.