The letter on Columbus's last voyage when he explored the coast of
Central America and of the Isthmus of Panama was written when he was
shipwrecked on the island of Jamaica, 1503. It is his last important
writing and one of great significance in understanding his geographical
conceptions.
The Spanish text of this letter is not older than the sixteenth century
and perhaps not older than the seventeenth. The Spanish text was first
published by Navarrete in his _Coleccion de los Viages y
Descubrimientos_, 1825. An Italian translation, however, was published in
1505 and is commonly known as the _Lettera Rarissima_. Mr. John Boyd
Thacher has reproduced this early Italian translation in facsimile in his
_Christopher Columbus_, accompanied by a translation into English. Cesare
de Lollis prepared a critical edition of the Spanish text for the
_Raccolta Colombiana_, which was carefully collated with and in some
instances corrected by this contemporary translation. Most of his changes
in punctuation and textual emendations have been adopted in the present
edition, and attention is called to them in the notes.
The translation is that of R.H. Major as published in the revised edition
of his _Select Letters of Columbus_. It has been carefully revised by the
present editor, and some important changes have been made. As hitherto
published in English a good many passages in this letter have been so
confused and obscure and some so absolutely unintelligible, that the late
Justin Winsor characterized this last of the important writings of
Columbus as "a sorrowful index of his wandering reason."[388-1] Almost
every one of these passages has yielded up the secret of its meaning
either through a more exact translation or in the light of the textual
emendations suggested by de Lollis or proposed by the present editor.
Among such revisions and textual emendations attention may be called to
those discussed on pp. 392, 396, 397. As here published this letter of
Columbus is as coherent and intelligible as his other writings.
The editor wishes here to acknowledge his obligations to Professor Henry
R. Lang of Yale University, whom he has consulted in regard to perplexing
passages or possible emendations, and from whom he has received valuable
assistance.
The other important accounts of this voyage, or of the part of it covered
by this letter, are the brief report by Diego de Porras, of which a
translation is given in Thacher's _Columbus_, and those by Ferdinand
Columbus in the _Historie_ and Peter Martyr in his _De Rebus Oceanicis_.
On this voyage Las Casas's source was the account of Ferdinand Columbus.
Lollis presents some striking evidence to show that the accounts of
Ferdinand Columbus and Peter Martyr were based upon the same original, a
lost narrative of the Admiral. It will be remembered, however, that
Ferdinand accompanied his father on this voyage, and although only a boy
of thirteen his narrative contains several passages of vivid personal
recollection. The editor has carefully compared Ferdinand's narrative
with the account in this letter and noted the important differences.