340
APPENDIX.
N o w it is well known that Ojeda passed some time on the western end of the island victualing his ships ; and that serious dissensions took place between him and the Spaniards in those parts, and the party sent by Co lumbus under Roldan to keep a watch upon his movements.
If then
Vespucci, as is stated upon oath, really accompanied Ojeda in this voyage, the inference appears almost irresistible, that he had not made the previous voyage of 1497, for the fact would have been well known to Ojeda ; he would have considered Vespucci as the original discoverer, and would have had no motive for depriving him of the merit of it, to give it to Co lumbus, with whom Ojeda was not upon friendly terms. Ojeda, however, expressly declares that the coast had been discovered by Columbus.
O n being asked how he knew the fact, he replied, because
he saw the chart of the country discovered, which Columbus sent at the time to the king and queen, and that he came off immediately on a voyage of discovery, and found what was therein set down as discovered by the admiral was correct.* Another witness, Bernaldo de Haro, states that he had been with the admiral, and had written (or rather copied) a letter for the admiral to the king and queen, designating, in an accompanying sea-chart, the courses and steerings and winds by which he had arrived at Paria ; and that this witness had heard that from this chart others had been made, and that Pedro Alonzo N i n o and Ojeda, and others, who had since visited these countries, had been guided by the same.f Francisco de Molares, one of the best and most credible of all the
travagli con li medesimi christiani que in questa isola stavanno col Colombo (credo per invidia.)
Letter of Vespucci—Edit, of Canovai.
* Preguntado como lo sabe ; dijo—que lo sabe porque viô este testigo la figura que el dicho Almirante al dicho tiempo embid â Castilla al Rey e Reyna, nuestros Senores, de lo que habia descubierto, y porque este testigo Iuego vino â descubrir y hallrS que era verdad lo que dicho tiene que el dicho Almirante deseubrid.
MS.
Process of D. Diego Colon, pregunta 2.
t Este testigo escrivid una carta que el Almirante escriviera al Rey a Reyna N. N . S. S. haciendo les saber las perlas e cosas que habia hallado, y le embid senalado con la dicha carta, en una carta de marear, los rumbos y vientos por donde habia llegado â la Paria, e que este testigo oyd decir como pr. aquella carte se habian hecho otras e por ellas habian venido Pedro Alonzo Merino [Nifio] e Ojeda e otros que despues han ido à aquellas partes. pregunta 9.
Idem,