Letter on the Second Voyage of Columbus
The report of the fleet’s physician on Columbus’s second voyage, sent to the town council of Seville from the new settlement on Hispaniola early in 1494. It is a private observer’s account of the crossing and of the founding of the town.
Dr Chanca of Seville was appointed surgeon to the fleet in May 1493 and wrote to the council of his city from the settlement that became La Isabela. He describes the voyage out, the discovery that the men left at Navidad the year before were dead, the choice of a new site, and the islanders.
He is the eyewitness for the first weeks of the settlement. He calls the town “Marta”, a name found nowhere else, as the editor notes. He says that the islanders copied the Spaniards at prayer and said they wished to be Christians, and that they kept figures in their houses, which he took for idols. See Christianity Crosses the Atlantic.
Cited in
- 1493, firm date