432
LIFE
A N D
VOYAGES
OF
[BOOK V I I .
explained to Columbus, and he beheld the wife, the sons and daughters of the cacique, and thought upon the snares to which their ignorance and simplicity would be exposed, he was touched with compassion, and determined not to take them from their native land.
He replied to the cacique, therefore, that he received
him under his protection as a vassal of his sovereigns, but having many lands yet to visit before he returned to his country, he would at some future time fulfill his desire.
Then taking leave
with many expressions of amity, the cacique, with his wife and daughters, and all his retinue, re-embarked in the canoes, return ing reluctantly to their island, and the ships continued on their course.* * Hitherto, in narrating the voyage of Columbus along the coast of Cuba, I have been guided principally by the manuscript history of the curate de los Palacios.
His account is the most clear and satisfactory as to names, dates,
and routes, and contains many characteristic particulars not inserted in any other history.
His sources of information were of the highest kind:
Co
lumbus was his guest after his return to Spain in 1496, and left with him manu scripts, journals, and memorandums; from these he made extracts, collating them with the letters of Doctor Chanca, and other persons of note who had ac companied the admiral. I have examined two copies of the M S . of the curate de los Palacios, both in the possession of O. Rich, Esq.
One written in an ancient handwriting, in
the early part of the sixteenth century, varies from the other, but only in a few '.rivial particulars.