APPENDIX.
351
sufficient time for the vague rumors to become arranged into a regular narrative, and thus we have not only the name, country, and destination of the pilot, but also the name of the unknown land to which his vessel was driven. This account given by Garcilaso de la V e g a , has been adopted by many old historians, who have felt a confidence in the peremptory manner in which he relates it, and in the authorities to whom he refers.*
These
have been echoed by others of more recent date ; and thus a weighty charge of fraud and imposture has been accumulated against Columbus, apparently supported by a crowd of respectable accusers.
T h e whole
charge is to be traced to Gomara, who loosely repeated a vague rumor, without noticing the pointed contradiction given to it seventeen years be fore, by Oviedo, an ear-witness, from whose book he appears to have actu ally gathered the report. It is to be remarked that Gomara bears the character, among historians, of inaccuracy, and of great credulity in adopting unfounded stories, f
* Names of historians who either adopted this story in detail, or the charge against Columbus, drawn from it : Bernardo Aldrete, Antiguedad de Espana, lib. iv. cap. 17, p. 567. Roderigo Caro, Antiguedad, lib. iii. cap. 76. Juan de Solorzano, Ind. Jure, torn. i. lib. i. cap. 5. Fernando Pizarro, Varones Illust. del Nuevo Mundo, cap. 2 . Agostino Torniel, Annal. Sacr., torn. i. ann. Mund., 1931, No. 48. Pet. Damarez or De Mariz, Dial. iv. de Var. Hist., cap. 4. Gregorio Garcia, Orig. de los Indios, lib. i. cap. 4, § 1. Juan de Torquemanda, Monarch. Ind., lib. xviii. cap. 1. John Baptiste Riccioli, Geograf. Reform., lib. iii. T o this list of old authors may be added many others of more recent date. t " Francisco Lopez de Gomara, Presbitero, Sevillano, escribio con elegante estilo acerca de las cosas de las Indies, pero dexandose llevar de falsas narraciones."
Hijos de Sevilla, Numéro ii. p. 4 2 , Let. F.
The same is stated in
Bibliotheca Hispana Nova, lib. i. p. 437. " El Francisco Lopez de Gomara escrivio tautos borrones é cosas que no son verdaderas, de que ha hecho mucho dano a muchos escritores e coronistas, que despues del Gomara han escrito en las cosas de la Nueva Espana * * * es porque les ha hecho errar el Gomara."
Bemal Diaz del Castillo, Hist, de la
Conquest de la Nueva Espana, Fin de cap. 18. " Tenia Gomara doctrina y estilo * * * pero empleose en ordinar sin dis-