THE ANNALS OF JAMAICA INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. THE genuine journals of Columbus, the Pinçons, Ojeda, Ovando, Balboa, and others of the first navigators who successively discovered the different regions of the New World, have unfortunately been lost, or never published; and if the originals be extant amongst the archives of Lisbon, or Goa, they are still beyond our reach. The sources, therefore, from whence we principally derive our acquaintance with this hemisphere, are little better than compilations from these authors, made by various collectors, some of whom have never quitted Europe, and many of them been biassed by national prejudices, or blinded by credulous ignorance; thus transmitting accumulated errors through every successive work. As the testimony of such historians will not weigh equally in the scale of criticism, it becomes important to make some observations on the character of the several authors, on whose faith rest many of the facts recorded in the following pages. VOL. I. B The most celebrated historians of the New World are, Amongst the Italians and Spaniards, Oviedo, Cortez, Las Casas, Gomera, Peter Martyr, Herrera, Benzo, Diaz del Castillo, Solis, Acosta, Bernard de Vergas, Pedro de Cieca, Garcilasso de la Vega, Diego Fernandez, Mendez Pinto, Texeira, Jean de Laet, Antonio de Remosal. Amongst the French, Lescarbot, Champelain, Jean de Leri, Vincent le Blanc, Moquet, Cluvier, Oexmelin, Rochefort, L'Abbé Raynal, La Borde, M. de Pauw, Labat. Amongst the English and Scotch, Gage, Hickeringill, Brown, Oldmixon, Blome, Sir Hans Sloane, Lionnel Waffer, Long, Edwards, Trapham, Dallas, and Robertson. The following writers I would particularly notice, as their works are very important, and their observations often quoted : I. The author of The Decades of the Ocean, PETER MARTYR, was born at Arona on the Lake Major, in the year 1455: his family, one of the most illustrious in Milan, took the name of Anghiera, or Anglerius, from a small town in that neighbourhood; which distinguishes this historian from another contemporary, Peter Martyr, who was born at Florence, and whose work on Magellan's expedition was destroyed in the sack of Rome by the Constable de Bourbon. In 1477 he went to Rome, and entered the service of Cardinal Ascanio Sforza; and afterwards that of the Archbishop of Milan. During a residence there of ten years, he formed an acquaintance with the most eminent literary men of his time, and amongst others with Pomponio Leto. In 1487 he went to Spain, in the suite of the Spanish ambassador, who was returning home, and by whom he was presented to Ferdinand and Isabella. He served in two campaigns, and then changed his profession of arms for that of the church-being appointed by the Queen to the situation of teacher of belles-lettres to the young men of the court, and afterwards preferred to the office of state-counsellor. In 1501 he was sent on an embassy to the Sultan of Egypt; and, returning in the following year, was named a member of the memorable Council of the Indies-upon which occasion the Pope, at the King's request, made him his Apostolical Prothonotary, and Prior of the church of Grenada, After the death of Ferdinand, he continued in favour with the Emperor 1 Charles, who presented him with the honours and emoluments of the abbey of Jamaica. He never visited his distant cure; but died at Grenada in 1526, leaving several historical works unpublished. The work which is quoted in the following pages, was compiled from the manuscripts and despatches of Columbus himself, and, therefore, ranks highest in the scale of authority: it comprises thirty letters, divided into three parts, under the title of "De Rebus Oceanicis, et Orbe Novo, decades." These letters were, at first, published separately-the first of them, which, with the second, is dedicated to his early friend the Cardinal Sforza, is dated in 1493, the year in which Columbus brought home the news of his discoveries; and being written from the court by which that navigator was employed, it doubtless contains the recital of the great discoverer himself. The succeeding letters, of which some are addressed to Cardinal Louis d'Arragon, and others to Pope Leo X., correspond with the progress of the discoveries, and are all written in good Latin. Long and Edwards are undoubtedly wrong in assuming that Peter Martyr was ever personally in Jamaica; they have done so upon the mere authority of a sculptured stone found in the ruined abbey at New Seville, which bore his name and titles. It is certain, however, that he merely enjoyed the honourable, but sinecure, appointment of abbot of that newly-founded monastery, and never crossed the Atlantic. Yet his merit as an author, his excellent |