In the following work, the reader will find a faithful record of all the reasons which induced the admiral to enter upon his great and glorious and successful enterprize, and will learn how far he personally proceeded in his _four_ several voyages to the New World. He will see what great and honourable articles were conceded to him, before going upon his great discovery, by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, how basely all these were violated, and he most unworthily and inhumanly treated, after performing such unparalleled services; how far he established the affairs of Hispaniola, the first settlement of the Spaniards in the New World; and what care he took that the _Indians_ should not be oppressed, but rather prevailed on by kind usage and good example, to embrace the Catholic faith. In this work, likewise, will be found a faithful picture of the manners and customs of the Indians, an account of their opinions and practices respecting religion, and every thing that can reasonably be looked for in a work like the present: The foundation for which was laid by the great discoverer, and the superstructure raised by me his own son, who possessed every advantage derivable from a liberal education and the possession of authentic original documents, to fit me for executing a work of such importance. SECTION I. _Of the Country, Original, and Name of Admiral Christopher Columbus; with other particulars of his Life previous to his arrival in Portugal._ It is a material circumstance in the history of a great man to make known his country and original, as those are best esteemed in the world who are derived from noble cities and born of illustrious parents. Wherefore some would have engaged me to prove that the admiral my father was honourably descended, although his parents, through the fickleness of fortune, had fallen into great poverty. Those persons required me to prove that his ancestors descended from _Junius Colomus_, who, as Tacitus relates, brought Mithridates a prisoner to Rome, for which service he was raised by the Roman people to the consulate. They would likewise have induced me to give an account at large of the two illustrious _Colomi_ his predecessors, who gained a great victory over the Venetians, as recorded by Sabellius, and which shall be mentioned in this work. But considering that my father seemed to have been peculiarly chosen by the Almighty for the great work which he performed, and may be considered in some measure as an apostle of the Lord by carrying the gospel among the heathen; and that the other apostles were called upon from the sea and the rivers, and not from courts and palaces, by him whose progenitors were of the royal blood of the Jews, yet who was pleased that they should be in a low and unknown estate: And seeing that God had gifted my father with those personal qualities which so well fitted him for so great an undertaking, he was himself inclined that his country and original might remain hidden