To declare my opinion herein, whatsoever hath heretofore been discovered by the famous tra- Philadelphia: CAREY, LEA & BLANCHARD-CHESTNUT STREET. 1835. Southern District of New York, 88. BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the 31st day of December, L. S. A. D. 1830, in the fifty-fifth year of the Independence of the United States of America, WASHINGTON IRVING, of the said district, hath deposited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof he claims as author, in the words following, to wit: "VOYAGES AND DISCOVERIES OF THE COMPANIONS OF COLUMBUS. By Washington Irving. To declare my opinion herein, whatsoever hath heretofore been discovered by the famous travayles of Saturnus and Hercules, with such other whom the Antiquitie for their heroical acts honoured as gods, seemeth but little and obscure, if it be compared to the victorious labours of the Spanyards. P. Martyr, Decad. III. c. 4. Lock's translation." " In conformity to the Act of the Congress of the United States, intitled "An act for the Encouragement of Learning, by securing the copies of maps, charts, and books, to the Authors and proprietors of such copies, during the time therein mentioned."-And also to an act, entitled, "An act supplementary to an act, entitled, An act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of maps charts, and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times therein mentioned,' and extending the benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints." FRED. J. BETTS, Clerk of the Southern District of New York. INTRODUCTION. THE first discovery of the western hemisphere has already been related by the author in his History of Columbus. It is proposed by him, in the present work, to narrate the enterprises of certain of the companions and disciples of the admiral, who, enkindled by his zeal, and instructed by his example, sallied forth separately in the vast region of adventure to which he had led the way. Many of them sought merely to skirt the continent which he had partially visited, and to secure the first fruits of the pearl fisheries of Paria and Cubaga, or to explore the coast of Veragua, which he had represented as the Aurea Chersonesus of the Ancients. Others aspired to accomplish a grand discovery which he had meditated toward the close of his career. In the course of his expeditions along the coast of Terra Firma, Columbus had repeatedly received information of the existence of a vast sea to the south. He supposed it to be the great Indian Ocean, the region of the Oriental spice islands, and that it must communicate by a strait with the Caribbean Sea. His last and most disastrous voyage was made for the express purpose of discovering that imaginary strait, and making 137025 |