On This He And His Queen Isabella Sent Word Of The Recent Discovery To Pope Alexander VI, At Which Information He And All The Italians Were Much Astonished, As They Marvelled That There Should Be Any Land Besides What Had Been Known To The Romans.

Alexander made a grant of all these countries to the crowns of Castile and Leon, under condition that they should labour to extirpate idolatry, and establish the holy faith of Christ among the natives.

On the report of this discovery, so universal a desire of travelling arose among the Spaniards, that they were ready as it were to leap into the sea, that they might swim if possible to the newly discovered islands. After receiving the authority of the Pope, King Ferdinando sent Columbus a second time to the newly-discovered country, of which he made him admiral, giving him many other honours, and a particular coat of arms, having this motto,

For Castile and for Leon A new world discovered Colon[A].

[A] Gomara, I. 1. c. 15.

Columbus set out on his second voyage to the Antilles on the 25th October 1493, taking his course from Cadiz, with seventeen ships and fifteen hundred men, accompanied by his brothers Bartholomew and Diego Columbus, with many other knights, gentlemen of the law, and priests; having chalices, crosses, and other rich religious ornaments, and with great power and dignity from the Pope. The tenth day after commencing their voyage, they reached the Canaries; and from thence, in twenty-five or thirty days, they sailed to the Antilles, the first island they saw being in 14 deg.

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