“Whereas the most Christian, high, excellent, and powerful rulers, the king and the queen of Spain and of the islands of the sea, our sovereigns, this present year, 1492, after your highnesses had ended the war with the Moors ruling in Europe, the same having terminated in the great city of Granada, where, on the second day of January, this present year, I saw the royal banners of your highnesses planted by force of arms upon the towers of the Alhambra, the fortress of that city, and beheld the Moorish king come out at the gate of the city and kiss the hands of your highnesses and of the prince, my sovereign, and in the present month, on account of the information which I had given your highnesses respecting the countries of India and of a sovereign called the Grand Khan, signifying, in our language, king of kings; how, at different times, he and his predecessors had sent to Rome soliciting instructors to teach him our holy religion, and how the holy father had never granted his request, whereby great numbers of people were lost, believing in idolatry and doctrines of perdition; therefore your highnesses, as catholic Christians and sovereigns, who love and promote the holy Christian religion, and are enemies of the sect of Mahomet, and of all idolatry and heresy, determined to send me, Christopher Columbus, (Cristóbal Colon,) to the previously mentioned countries of India, to see the said sovereigns, people, and territories, and to learn their disposition and the proper way of converting them to our holy religion; and furthermore, directed that I should not go by land to the East, as is customary, but by a westerly route, in which direction we have hitherto no certain evidence that any one has gone. Therefore, after having expelled the Jews from your dominions, your highnesses, in the same month of January, ordered me to proceed with a sufficient armament to the said regions of India, and for that purpose granted me great favors and ennobled me, that thereafter I might call myself Don and be high admiral (_almirante mayor_) of the sea, and perpetual viceroy and governor of all the islands and continent which I might discover and acquire, or which may hereafter be discovered and acquired in the ocean; and that this title should be inherited by my eldest son, and thus descend from generation to generation forever. Thereupon I left the city of Granada, on Saturday, the twelfth day of May, 1492, and proceeded to Palos, a seaport, where I armed three vessels very fit for such an expedition, and having provided myself with an abundance of stores and seamen, I set sail from this port on Friday, the third of August, half an hour before sunrise, and steered for the Canary Islands of your highnesses, which are in the said ocean, thence to take my departure and proceed till I arrived at the Indies, and perform the embassy of your highnesses to the sovereigns there, and discharge the orders given. Consequently, I have