in the Indies. Arranged and illustrated by Don Martin Fernandez de Navarrete, &c. &c.

HESE volumes, which are printed at the Royal Printing

office, and at the king's expense, are dedicated to Ferdinand VII., as a work which conciliates and connects the rights of his august throne with the glories of the Spanish nation;' in which point of view it appears that the king himself regards it. A collection of original and authentic documents relating to the discovery and conquest of America could not, it was thought, be brought forward at a more appropriate time than the present, when it might tend so powerfully' to the reclaiming of what has been usurped,--to the support of truth and justice,—to seal the lips of calumny, and to expose the sophistries of disloyalty and of ambition; in fine, to pluck the mask from certain venal writers, who, under the semblance of philosophism, are contributing to diffuse the corrupt principles and manners of the age.' It might, indeed, be sufficient, Señor Navarrete says, for refuting the impostures and calumnies with which modern writers have sought to disparage the Spanish discoverers and conquerors, if he merely referred them to the Impartial Reflections upon the humanity of the Spaniards in the Indies, which the Abate D. Juan Nuix published in Italian, against the pretended philosophers and politicians, and in illustration of the histories of Raynal and Robertson. But ignorance is obstinate, and venality, corruption of manners, libertinism, and the foulest vices have connected themselves with the principles of a certain false and pernicious philosophy, which has perturbed the whole world, throwing it into revolutions and fearful changes, and sowing hatred and discord among brethren, whom their common origin, religion, manners, language, laws, and interests ought always to have united.' The object had been to deceive and divide them; and he therefore would expose the artifices, falsehood, and malignant intention of these apostles of discord. The Indians, indeed, comparing the present times with the past, are sensible under how merciful and benign a superintendence they had heretofore lived, and therefore, although they are the aboriginals of the country, the legitimate descendants of those who were subjects of the Incas, and of the Mexican kings, they have not endeavoured to throw off the dominion of the kings of Spain, the lawfulness of which is sanctioned by the right of priority in the discovery, by the uninterrupted possession of more than three centuries, and the unanimous consent of all the nations of the universe; they understand that those who raise the standard of rebellion solely for the sake of gratifying their own ambition and rapacity, are preparing for them what will be oppression indeed,

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deed. The Indians, therefore, preserve in their breasts that gratitude and loyalty to their sovereign which belong to the candour and to the nobleness of their character.'

Hopes as flattering, and with just as little foundation, are expressed also concerning the Spanish Americans. A French translator has committed what appears, at Madrid, the extraordinary offence of characterizing as horrible, the melancholy events, (los desastres,) which occurred more than three centuries ago in a remote conquest, and in countries so extensive and remote from each other! Is, then,' exclaims Señor Navarrete, Hernan Cortes to be compared with Robespierre, or Pizarro with Marat? Who, in such a parallel, would be the monsters thirsting for gold and for blood, of whom this French translator speaks? He calls the age of Columbus and of our first discoverers a tissue of ignorance and of superstition, without considering that it was not then, but at the close of the eighteenth century, and in the midst of cultivated Europe, that these ferocious demagogues raised their ambitious heads. And in what, at last, has this fatal revolution ended, which attempted, like Mahommed with his scimetar, to take possession of the world, carrying desolation and misery every where? What have the sparks produced which were sent forth from that destructive volcano, and rapidly spread a lurid light over Spain, and Naples, and Piedmont, and Portugal? All has past away like a shadow, leaving nothing but grief and repentance. These examples ought to operate as a warning upon the Spanish Americans, and make them cautious not to let themselves be led astray and seduced by fantasms and delusions, which are now discredited and abhorred in Europe. Experience is the great undeceiver; and when it tears away the veil which now blinds the inhabitants of those countries, they will curse the people who have so perfidiously endeavoured to impoverish them, and rule over them by their mercantile traffic and their cunning inventions, separating them from their mother-country, and inspiring them with a spirit of hatred and vengeance against their European brethren; concealing or disfiguring the virtues which made their ancestors so respectable, in order that they may no longer serve for examples for their descendants; for they well know that a corrupt and effeminate people may with greater ease be subjected and enslaved. But this they will not effect, if the honour, the integrity, the love for their country, and the loyalty to their sovereign, virtues which constituted the character of the Spaniards in the age of the Catholic kings, are preserved with the same vigour and spirit in their children and descendants.'

It is fitting that this passage should be presented in a reviewal of Señor Navarrete's work, not with any feeling of disrespect or

resentment

resentment towards the author, but because it is undoubtedly that part of the whole work which will be most cordially admired and approved by its royal patron. For the same reason we must notice the following passage:- The Spaniards, notwithstanding the malignant violence with which they are calumniated; the Spaniards are not the people who, in their conquests beyond the sea, have furthest overstept the limits which are prescribed by humanity and by the laws of war. Did the English treat better the Indians of Canada, and of the countries which now constitute what are called the United States, when it conquered them? Has Jamaica experienced more humanity or better treatment? And in Hindostan, have they not, to make themselves masters of that region, exterminated millions of the ancient inhabitants, with gunpowder and with the sword?'-This also must be a rich passage for King Ferdinand, who, very probably, may not know that Canada was conquered by the English, not from the Indians, but from the French, and that its conquest, therefore, did not cost a score of Indian lives; that in the whole occupation and settlement, or, if he pleases, conquest, of British America, not so many of the savages have perished in war, or in captivity, as were consumed during the course of a single year,-nay, of a single month, in Hispaniola, under the system which Columbus introduced; and that when the English obtained possession of Jamaica, they certainly are not liable to the reproach of having treated the Indians with inhumanity,-for none were found there: the whole race had been destroyed. With regard to Hindostan, the history of the British dominion there is before the world; and if ever distant dominion may be considered a blessing to the people who are subjected to it, it is there. But a little of the Prologo Galeato may be excused, as well as expected, in a work which appears under such patronage:-and much more might be excused for the sake of so valuable a work.

Somewhat more than thirty years ago, the plan for a history of the Spanish marine, upon a most extensive scale and complicated scheme, was laid before the ministry by D. Josef de Vargas y Ponci, who held the rank of lieutenant in the sea service. It was referred to General D. Josef Varela, by the king's orders; and his opinion was, that the projector should confine himself to the military and political part of the subject; that the scientific part, relating to navigation, naval architecture, and other collateral subjects, should be treated in separate dissertations by other persons whom he proposes as competent to the task; and that another officer should be appointed to publish a collection of the early voyages of the Spaniards; the present editor being in

tended

In

tended for this part of the undertaking. But the first thing necessary was to collect the materials. Señor Navarrete was commissioned to examine the archives and libraries, private as well as public, for the purpose of forming a nautical library at Cadiz, for which transcripts were to be made from whatever papers might seem necessary or useful in such an establishment. this work he was employed till the war, first with revolutionary France, and then with England, brought with it other cares for the government, and other employments for these military and naval men of letters. Then came the great national struggle against the most insolent usurpation that ever was attempted in the wantonness of power. In that war many and fatal proofs are given of the insecurity to which archives are exposed, and the danger of delaying those national collections, in which alone the materials for authentic history can be preserved. Among the many deplorable losses of the kind, Señor Navarrete notices, as especially to be regretted, that of the archives of Arragon, which were in the most perfect order, and were destroyed by the bombardment during the second siege of Zaragoza; and that of the two great libraries at Valencia, (the university's and the archbishop's,) containing the collections and papers of Bayer and Muñoz, which were in like manner destroyed when that city was destroyed by Marshal Suchet. Other collections suffered under the predatory spirit of the French government, and the predatory hands of Bonaparte's generals. The immense collection of archives at Simancas had been removed to Seville, where Señor Caen Bermudez had made great progress in the laborious task of arranging and cataloguing them; and Navarrete was employed in researches among these papers, when he was called away in the year 1793, como militar y marino, to perform the martial part of his duties. One of Ferdinand's first measures after his restoration (and this should be remembered for the honour of those persons who were then his advisers) was to give orders for preserving the wreck of those most important manuscripts, which the French had pillaged and left in the utmost disorder. This task has been performed by D. Tomas Gonzalez, one of those estimable men who, devoting themselves to the patient and meritorious pursuits of literature in the evil days of Spain, have kept themselves free from the madness of contending factions, and thereby attained all the exemption that is possible from the miseries of these most miserable times.

Here then, and at Barcelona, where a labour of the same kind had been performed by D. Prospero Bafarral, Navarrete, when, after the restoration, he resumed his researches, found all

the

the facilities which could be afforded him, by men of similar habits and pursuits. Every where, indeed, in the public libraries, he met with ready and cordial assistance from the persons employed in them, who felt a national interest in the subject of his inquiries. But his most successful search was among the papers of the Duque de Veragua, the present representative of Columbus; where, among other important documents, he found original papers in the writing of Columbus himself, and of his son D. Fernando. The present volumes comprize these papers, and relate solely to the voyages of Columbus, and the circumstances connected with his history and that of these earliest discoveries. The third volume will contain the discoveries of the Terra Firma and of Florida; and the fourth the Relations of Cortez, including some which have not before been published. These are to be followed by the expedition to the Plata, the Straits of Magellan, the coasts of Chili, Peru, and California; and the voyages of discovery to Polynesia, the Moluccas, and the Philippines. Thus,' says the editor, the genuine history of the New World will be known; truth will appear in all its splendour, and will disperse the shades of error, of interest, of the passions, and of a false policy, which affects, on one hand, principles of concord and legitimacy; on the other, tramples upon those sacred rights, those high considerations of peace, of union, and of fraternity, which ought to bind together the inhabitants of the whole universe.'

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The historical part of the preface contains much curious information relating to the commercial and maritime affairs of Spain in those times when the King of England complained that the Spaniards threatened to destroy his navy, and were aspiring at the dominion* of the seas. The claim, indeed, was openly asserted in an earlier age by the Arragonese admiral, Roger de Luria, when, being informed that the French were preparing to come against him with a fleet of three hundred gallies, he made this memorable reply: Let them come! I will equip only one hundred in the name of the King of Arragon and Sicily, my master: let them then come, with three hundred, or with ten thousand, if they will! But they will not dare wait for us! Neither fleet, nor galley, shall move upon the seas without a safe-conduct from the King of Arragon; nor shall a fish lift his head above water, unless he show a shield with the arms of Arragon in his mouth!' If a derivation for the word arrogant were wanted, who would not suppose it to be derived from the national spirit that is indicated in such a speech?

Sic se supra mare hostiliter tenentes, fines regni nostri Angliæ, ac aliorum dominiorum nostrorum invadere, et navigium nostrum destruere publice sunt comminuti, et sie dominium maris ad se attrahere.-Letter of Edward III., Sept. 8, 1350.

But