The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus Part 46

v.

[14]: Herrera, Hist. Ind., decad. i. lib. iii. cap. 7.

[15]: Peter Martyr, decad. i. lib. v. Herrera, Hist. Ind., decad. i. lib.

iii. cap. 6.

[16]: Peter Martyr, decad. i. lib. v. Herrera, decad. i. lib. iii. cap. 6.

[17]: Ramusio, vol. iii. p. 9.

[18]: Herrera, decad. i. lib. iii. cap. 1.

[19]: Las Casas, Hist. Ind., lib. i. cap. 118.

[20]: Hist. del Almirante, cap. 73.

[21]: Hist. del Almirante, cap. 73.

[22]: Herrera, decad. i. lib. iii. cap. 7. Hist, del Almirante, cap. 74.

_Extract of a letter from T. S. Heneken, Esq.,_ 1847.--Fort Conception is situated at the foot of a hill now called Santo Cerro. It is constructed of bricks, and is almost as entire at the present day as when just finished. It stands in the gloom of an exuberant forest which has invaded the scene of former bustle and activity; a spot once considered of great importance and surrounded by swarms of intelligent beings.

What has become of the countless mult.i.tudes this fortress was intended to awe? Not a trace of them remains excepting in the records of history. The silence of the tomb prevails where their habitations responded to their songs and dances. A few indigent Spaniards, living in miserable hovels, scattered widely apart in the bosom of the forest, are now the sole occupants of this once fruitful and beautiful region.

A Spanish town gradually grew up round the fortress; the ruins of which extend to a considerable distance. It was destroyed by an earthquake, at nine o'clock of the morning of Sat.u.r.day, 20th April, 1564, during the celebration of ma.s.s. Part of the ma.s.sive walls of a handsome church still remain, as well as those of a very large convent or hospital, supposed to have been constructed in pursuance of the testamentary dispositions of Columbus. The inhabitants who survived the catastrophe retired to a small chapel, on the banks of a river, about a league distant, where the new town of La Vega was afterwards built.

[23]: Herrera, decad. i. lib. iii. cap. 7. Hist. del Almirante, cap. 74.

[24]: Hist. del Almirante, cap. 74. Herrera, decad. i. lib. iii. cap. 7.

[25]: Las Casas, Hist. Ind., lib. i. cap. 118.

[26]: Ibid., cap. 119.

[27]: Las Casas. Herrera. Hist. del Almirante.

[28]: Herrera, decad. i. lib. iii. cap. 8.

[29]: Las Casas, Hist. Ind., cap. 121, MS. Peter Martyr, decad. i. cap. 5.

[30]: The particulars of this chapter are chiefly from P. Martyr, decad. i.

lib. vi.; the ma.n.u.script history of Las Casas, lib. i. cap. 121; and Herrera, Hist. Ind., decad. i. lib. iii. cap. 8, 9.

[31]: Las Casas, lib. i. cap. 149,150. Herrera, decad. i. lib. iii. cap.

12. Hist, del Almirante, cap. 77.

[32]: Las Casas, Hist. Ind., lib. i. cap. 153.

[33]: Hist, del Almirante, cap. 78.

[34]: In one of these s.h.i.+ps sailed the father of the venerable historian Las Casas, from whom he derived many of the facts of his history. Las Casas, lib. i. cap. 153.

[35]: Las Casas, Hist. Ind., lib. i. cap. 157.

[36]: Hist. del Almirante, cap. 78.

[37]: Ibid., cap. 79. Herrera, decad. i. lib. iii. cap 13.

[38]: Las Casas, Hist. Ind., lib. i. cap. 153.

[39]: Ibid., cap. 158.

[40]: Hist. del Almirante, cap. 79.

[41]: Hist. del Almirante, cap. 80.

[42]: Herrera, Hist. Ind., decad. i. lib. iii. cap. 16.

[43]: Herrera, decad. i. lib. iii. cap. 16.

[44]: Herrera, decad. I. lib. iii. cap. 16.

[45]: Idem. Hist. del Almirante, cap. 38.

[46]: Herrera, Hist. Ind., decad. i. lib. iii. cap. 16.

[47]: Herrera, Hist. Ind., decad. i. lib. iii cap. 16.

[48]: Herrera, decad. i. lib. iii. cap. 16.

[49]: Munoz, Hist. N. Mundo, lib. vi. -- 50.

[50]: Hist. del Almirante, cap. 84.

[51]: Herrera, decad. i. lib. iii. cap. 16.

[52]: Herrera, decad. i. lib. iii. cap. 16. Hist. del Almirante, cap. 83, 84.

[53]: Herrera, decad. i. lib. iii. cap. 16.

[54]: Herrera, decad. i. lib. iii. cap. 16.

[55]: Herrera, decad. i. lib. iv. cap. 3.

[56]: Las Casas.

[57]: Herrera, Hist. Ind., decad. i. lib. iv. cap. 4. Munoz, Hist. N.

Mundo, part in MS. unpublished.