for the King and Queen our Lords, and in the presence of me Martin Rodrigues, public scrivener of this said city of Seville, and of the undermentioned witnesses, did appear there present the very magnificent Lord Don Christopher Columbus, High Admiral of the Ocean, Viceroy and Governor of the Islands and Main Land, and laid before the said Alcaldes certain patents and privileges and warrants of the said King and Queen our Lords, written on paper and parchment, and signed with their royal names, and sealed with their seals of lead hanging by threads of coloured silk, and with coloured wax on the back, and countersigned by certain officers of their royal household, as appeared in all and each of them. The tenor whereof, one after the other, is as follows.

The introductory certification of the circumstances under which the Veragua codex was compiled, is followed by documents 2 to 25, entered in the same order as in the three later codexes. With the twenty-fifth document the codex was, temporarily, completed. The passage given below, which is not in the other codexes, comes immediately after the twenty-fifth document and is the conclusion. of the certification, the beginning of which preceded document 2.

[Folio 33v.] Este traslado fue corregido é conçertado conlas dichas dos cartas de previlegios é conlas dichas cartas patentes é con todas las otras cedulas de suso encorporadas, originales onde fue sacado ante los escrivanos publicos de Sevilla que lo firmaron é signaron de sus nonbres en testimonio que fue fecho é sacado enla dicha çibdad de Sevilla enel dicho dia é mes é año suso dicho ...

11

Yo Diego dela Bastida escrivano de Sevilla so testigo deste traslado. [ ]"

Yo Johan Fernandes escrivano de Sevilla so testigo deste treslado. [ ]12

É yo Martin Rodriques escrivano publico de Sevilla fis escrivir este treslado é fis aqui mi sig[ ]"no é so testigo.

This transcript was corrected and collated with the said two letters of privileges, and with the said letters patent, and with all the other cedulas incorporated above, (the originals from which it was derived), before the public scriveners of Seville, who signed and rubricated it with their names in testimony that it was made and copied in the said city of Seville, on the day and month and year aforesaid . . .

I, Diego de la Bastida, scrivener of Seville, am witness of this transcript.

I, Johan Fernandes, scrivener of Seville, am witness of this transcript.

And I, Martin Rodrigues, public scrivener of Seville, have caused this transcript to be written, and have made here my sign, and am witness.

This first stage in the compilation of the codex must have been finished before Columbus sailed on his third voyage, May 30, 1498;

Some corrections follow.

12 The notarial sign is made here.

AM. HIST. REV., VOL. XIV. -50.

for, as will be shown, Columbus must have taken the manuscript with him.

The compilation of the codex shortly before the third voyage, instead of before the fourth voyage, as has heretofore been supposed, explains the selection of the documents contained therein. All the documents date from the year 1497. Documents 1 to 5, inclusive, confirm or confer the admiral's most important rights, document 6 consists of the instructions given to Columbus for his third voyage, and nearly all of the subsequent documents are orders, authorizations, licenses, etc., directly relating to the third voyage. Some are of a comparatively trivial nature, or are important only in relation to the coming voyage, and would scarcely have been included. in a volume compiled de novo in 1502.13

The second stage in the growth of the codex was reached in Hispaniola, as is shown by the following passage, not in the other codexes, which immediately succeeds that last quoted, but begins a new folio, and is in a different hand.

[Folio 34r.] Enla villa de Santo Domingo que es enlas Yndias enla ysla Española martes quatro dias del mes de Disienbre año del nascimiento de nuestro Señor Jhesu Christo de mill é quatrocientos é noventa é ocho años estando dentro enlas casas donde posa el muy manifico Señor Don Christoval Colon almirante mayor del mar oceano viso rey é governador delas yslas delas Yndias é tierra firme por el Rey é la Reyña nuestros Señores é su capitan general dela mar que son en esta dicha villa de Santo Domingo estando ay presente el dicho señor almirante é en presencia de mi Diego de Alvarado escrivano publico del Rey é dela Reyna nuestros señores. É luego el dicho señor almirante presento ante mi el dicho escrivano algunas cartas patentes del Rey é dela Reyna nuestros señores escritas en papel é selladas con su sello de cera colorada enlas espaldas é otras cedulas de sus altesas firmadas de sus reales nonbres las quales dichas cartas é cedulas seran de yuso escriptas é nonbradas é por que dixo que sy ellas oviese de llevar o cubrar por la mar a los reygnos de Castilla o a otras partes que se reçelava que por fuego o por agua o por otros casos fortituytos o llevandolas gelas fortarian de que su derecho perecería y sus altesas serian deservidos por que las dichas cartas é cedulas relevanan al servicio de sus altesas, porende dixo que pedia é pedio a mi el dicho escrivano que sacase un treslado o dos o mas delas dichas cartas é cedulas corregie [ndolas] con las dichas oreginales byen é fielmente [en maña] que fesiese fe para guarda de su derecho del [suso] dicho señor Almirante las quales dichas cartas [é] çedulas uno en pos de otra son estas que se siguen.

In the town of Santo Domingo, which is in the Indies, in the island

13 For example, document 20, an order to the royal accountants to reimburse Columbus for sums lent by him to certain persons in the Indies; and document 25, a joint letter to the Bishop of Badajos and Columbus regarding the purchase of provisions for the third voyage.

of Hispaniola, on Tuesday, the fourth day of the month of December in the year of the nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ, one thousand four hundred and ninety-eight, being within the house where dwells the very magnificent Lord Don Christopher Columbus, high admiral of the ocean, viceroy and governor of the islands and mainland of the Indies, for the King and Queen our Lords, and their captain general of the sea, which [house] is in this said town of Santo Domingo, being there present the said Lord Admiral, and in the presence of me, Diego de Alvarado, public scrivener of the King and Queen our lords, thereupon the said Lord Admiral laid before me, the said scrivener, some letters patent of the King and of the Queen, our Lords, written on paper and sealed on the back with their seal of colored wax, and other cedulas of their highnesses, signed with their royal names, which said letters and cedulas will be written and named below, and because he said that if he should have to carry or transmit [?] them, by sea to the kingdoms of Castile, or to other parts, that it was feared that by fire or by water or by other mischances, or by carrying them, they might be lost, whereby his right might be destroyed and their highnesses might be disserved, because the said letters and cedulas concern the service of their highnesses, wherefore he said that he asked me the said scrivener to make a transcript of two or more of the said letters and cedulas, correcting them with the said originals, well and faithfully, so that it should obtain credence for the protection of the right of the above-mentioned Lord admiral, which said letters and cedulas, one after the other, are as follows.

Immediately after this introduction come documents 26-29, which are also entered in the same order in the later codexes. Next follows the conclusion of the certification in these words:

[Folio 36v.] Fecho é sacado fue este treslado delas dichas cartas é cedulas originales de sus Altezas enla dicha villa de Santo Domingo martis quatro dias del mes de desienbre año del nasçimiento de nuestro señor Jhesu Christo de mill é quatro cientos é noventa é ocho años. Testigos que fueron presentes a ver ler é conçertar las dichas cartas é çedulas oreginales con los dichos treslados, Pedro de Terreros é Diego de Salamanca é Lope Minos, las quales van çiertas é conçertadas.

É yo el dicho Diego de Alvarado escrivano é notario publico suso dicho presente fuy a todo lo que dicho es en uno con los dichos testigos é por mandado del dicho Señor Almirante estos treslados saque delas estas cartas é cedulas oreginales, las quales van çiertas é conçertadas é porende fis aqui este mio syg[ ]"no atal, en testimonio de verdad. Diego de Alvarado notario publico.

This transcript of the said original letters and cedulas of their Highnesses, was made and extracted in the said town of Santo Domingo on Tuesday, the fourth day of the month of December, in the year of the nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ one thousand four hundred and ninety eight. Witnesses who were present to see, read and collate the said original letters and cedulas with the said transcripts:

Pedro de Terreros and Diego de Salamanca and Lope Minos. Which are genuine and in agreement.

"The notarial sign is made here.

And I, the said Diego de Alvarado, scrivener and notary public, aforesaid, was present at all that which is aforesaid together with the said witnesses, and by command of the said Lord Admiral I copied these transcripts of these original letters and cedulas, which are genuine and in agreement; and therefore I have made here this sign in testimony of the truth.

Diego de Alvarado, notary public.

What circumstances led Columbus to enter these documents, 26– 29, into the codex at this time? When he arrived at Santo Domingo at the end of August, 1498, a large party of the colonists under the leadership of Francisco Roldán were in rebellion against his brother the Adelantado. Negotiations with the rebels finally resulted in the signing of an agreement on November 17 and 21, after which the rebels left the neighborhood of Santo Domingo. Thereupon Columbus resolved to go on a tour of the island to settle affairs, which were in a very disturbed condition. For this purpose he left Santo Domingo towards the end of January, 1499, leaving the Adelantado to look after that place.15 It seems very likely that the preparation of an attested copy of his original charters was made in anticipation of this tour. Perhaps one set of documents was to be carried with him, while the other was to be left with his brother.

The documents 26-29, all date from 1493 or 1494, and bear directly upon the rights of the admiral in the Indies. The first is a mandamus addressed to all men in the Indies to obey Columbus as viceroy and governor of the same. With document 29, the Veragua codex ends, and the next additions to the codex were doubtless made in 1502.

It has long been known that four copies of Columbus's Book of Privileges were in existence in the year 1502; for this is stated in a unique passage at the very end of the Genoese codex. That passage is as follows:

Los originales destos privilegios, y cartas y cedulas y otras muchas cartas de Sus Altezas é otras escripturas tocantes al señor almirante, están enel monesterio de Sancta María delas Cuevas de Sevilla.

Otrosi esta en el dicho monesterio un libro traslado delos previllegios é cartas suso dichos, semejante que este.

Otro traslado levo este año de .MD.II. y tiene Alonso Sanches de Carvajal á las Yndias escripto en papel é abtorizado.

Otro treslado en pergamino tal como este.

The originals of these privileges, letters and grants, and many other papers of their Highnesses, and other writings respecting the said Admiral, are preserved in the monastery of Sancta Maria de las Cuevas in Seville.

15 F. Colombo, Historia, cap. 81; and Las Casas, Historia de las Indias, I., cap. 158.

In the said monastery there is also a book of transcripts of the foresaid privileges and letters, similar to this. Another copy was carried to the Indies in this year (1502) by Alonso Sanchez de Carvajal, written on paper and authorized. Another copy on parchment, the same as this.

The "other copy on parchment the same as this", has long been identified with the Paris codex.

It is no doubt true, as has been conjectured by Harrisse, that the Everett, now Washington codex, is to be identified with the copy deposited in the monastery of Las Cuevas. We have already seen. that this copy differs from the other three in its lack of authentic signatures and notarial rubrics. But if this codex were to be kept together with the originals in the monastery of Las Cuevas, there was no need of these evidences of its authenticity.16

The copy taken by Carvajal to the Indies in 1502, is doubtless the same as the Veragua codex, likewise on paper1 and authorized. Carvajal sailed in February, 1502, before the other codexes were completed; but the Veragua codex was completed in 1498. The editors of the latest editions of both the Genoese and Paris codexes, published respectively in 1893 and 1894, state that only two of the four codexes are known to exist-that the other two are lost.18 It is strange that within so few years both these others should have come to light.

Still more surprising is it to find in the Library of Congress, in the collection of photographs already referred to as including the Veragua codex, photographs of the front and dorse of the original manuscript of the bull Inter Caetera, of May 3, 1493, issued from the papal chancery. Presumably, the document itself is in the archives of the Duke of Veragua, at Madrid. It has been supposed hitherto that none of the four bulls of 1493 connected with the discoveries of Columbus (Eximiae Devotionis, May 3, Inter Caetera, May 3 and 4, and Dudum Siquidem, September 26), was extant in its original, promulgated form. It has even been doubted whether the bull Inter Caetera, of May 3, was promulgated at all. Its existence was unsuspected until Muñoz discovered a copy of the text at Simancas, in 1797. Subsequently it was found entered on the secret register of Alexander VI., in the Vatican archives. But, in a paper

This and some other arguments for the identity of this codex with that preserved at Las Cuevas are given in Mr. Putnam's article and in Stevens's work. "The photograph clearly shows this.

18 Thus Harrisse writes (p. XVI), “Carvajal sailed from Spain on the 13th of February, 1502, taking with him the codex on paper. No traces of it have ever been found. The probability is that, on account of its texture, it was destroyed in the course of time by the worms and ants in St. Domingo."