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LIFE OF COLON, BY HIS SON.

to lie buried in oblivion. For it is my comfort, that if any fault be found in this myundertaking, it will not be that, which molt hiftorians are liable to, viz. that they knownot the truth of what they write ; for I promife to compofe the hiftory of his life offuch matter only as I find in his own papers and letters, and of thofe paffages of whichI myfelf was an eye-witnefs. And whofoever {hall imagine that I add any thing of myown, may be allured I am fatisfied I can reap no benefit thereby in the life to come $and that the reader alone will have the benefit of it, if it be capable of yielding any.

The author having given this account of himfelf I have not much to add, but toinform the reader before he enters upon the work, that in it he will find all the reafonswhich induced the admiral to fuch an undertaking ; he will fee how far he proceededin perfon upon the difcovery in four feveral voyages he made ; how great and honour-able the articles were upon which he entered upon the difcovery, and which were after-wards confirmed to him by thofe two famous Princes, King Ferdinand and QueenIfabel, or Elizabeth ; how bafely they were all violated, and he, after fuch unparalleledfervices, moll inhumanly treated ; how far he fettled the affairs of the ifland Hifpaniola,the fir ft place the Spaniards planted in ; what care he took that the Indians fhould notbe oppreffed, but rather by good ufage and example prevailed upon to embrace theCatholic faith ; alfo the cuftoins and manners of the Indians ; their opinions and prac-tice as to religious worfhip ; and, in a word, all that can be expected in a work of thisnature, the foundation whereof was laid by fo great a man as was the admiral, andfinifhed by his own fon, who had all the education that could contribute to make himcapable of writing fo notable a life.

THE DISCOVERY OF THE WEST INDIES , &c. &c.

CHAP. I. — Of the Country , Original, and Name of Admiral Chriflopher Colon.

I T being a very material point in the hiftory of any man of note to make knownhis country and original, becaufe they are beft looked upon who are born innoble cities and of illuftrious parents; therefore fome would have had me fpent mytime in {hewing that the admiral was honourably defcended, though his parents,through the peevilhnefs of fortune, were fallen into great poverty and want; andthat I fhould have proved they were the offspring of that Junius Colon, of whomTacitus in his 12th book fays, that he brought King Mithridates prifoner to Rome ;for which fervice the people affigned him the confular dignity, the eagle or ftandard,and confular court. And they would have me give a large account of thofe two illqf-trious Coloni his predeceffors, who, Sabellicus tells us, gained a mighty victory over theVenetians , as {hall be mentioned in the 5th chapter ; but I refufed to undertake thattalk, believing he was particularly chofen by Almighty God for fo great an affair asthat was he performed ; and becaufe he was to be fo truly his apoftle as, in effefl; heproved it was his will he fhould in this part be like the others, who were called tomake known his name from the fea and rivers, and not from courts and palaces, andto imitate himfelf, whofe progenitors being of the blood royal of Jerufalem, yet it pleafedhim that his parents fhould not be much known. Therefore as God gave him all theperfonal qualities for fuch an undertaking, fo he would have his country and original

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