GENERAL COLLECTION

OF

VOYAGES AND TRAVELS.

A M E R I C A .

THE HISTORY

OF THE

LIFE AND ACTIONS OF ADMIRAL CHRISTOPHER COLON,

AND OF HIS

DISCOVERY OF THE WEST INDIES , CALLED THE NEW WORLD,

NOW IN POSSESSION OF HIS CATHOLIC MAJESTY.

Written by his own Son Don FERDINAND COLON*,-

THE AUTHOR’S PREFACE.

I BEING the fon_ of the Admiral Chriftopher Colon, a perfon worthy of eternalmemory, who difcovered the Weft Indies, and having myfelf failed with him fometime, it feemed to me but reafonable, that among other things I have writ, one and thechiefeft Ihould be his life, and wonderful difcovery of the Weft Indies or New World ;becaufe his great and continual fufferings, and the diftempers he laboured under, didnot allow him time to form his notes and obfervations into a method fit for hiftory ;yet knowing there were many others who had attempted this work I forbore, till read-ing their books I found in them, that which is ufual among hiftorians, viz. that theymagnify fome things, leffen others, and fometimes pafs that over in filence which theyought to give a very particular account of. For this reafon I refolved to undergo thelabour of this talk, thinking it better I Ihould lie under the cenfure my Ikill and pre-fumption lhall be fubject to, than to fuffer the truth of what relates to fo noble a perfon

VOL. XII.

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# Churchill’s Coll, vol, ii.

a