INTRODUCTION.
T H E first discovery o f the Western Hemisphere already been related Columbus.
b y the
has
Author in his History o f
It is proposed b y him, in the present work,
to narrate the enterprises o f certain o f the companions and disciples o f the admiral, w h o , enkindled by his zeal, and instructed by his example, sallied forth separately in the vast region o f adventure to which he had led the w a y . M a n y o f them sought merely to skirt the continent w h i c h he had partially visited ; to secure the first-fruits o f the pearl fisheries o f Paria and Cubaga ; or to explore the coast of Veragua, which he had represented as the Aurea Chersonesus o f the ancients.
Others aspired to accomplish a
grand discovery which he had meditated toward the close of his career.
In the course o f his expeditions along the
coast o f Terra Firma, Columbus had repeatedly received information o f the existence of a vast sea to the south. H e supposed it to be the great Indian Ocean, the region of the oriental spice islands, and that it must communicate b y a strait with the Caribbean sea.
His last and most
disastrous voyage was made for the express purpose o f dis-