se new nations are as a
_tabula rasa_; they easily accept the beliefs of our religion and
discard their barbarous and primitive rusticity after contact with our
compatriots. I have deemed it well to yield to the insistence of
wise men who enjoyed the favour of Your Holiness; indeed, had I not
immediately obeyed an invitation in the name of Your Beatitude, I
should have committed an inexpiable crime. I shall now summarise in
a few words the discoveries by the Spaniards of unknown coasts, the
authors of the chief expeditions, the places they landed, the hopes
raised, and the promises held out by these new countries.

[Note 1: Giovanni de' Medici, elected in 1513, assumed the title
of Leo X. He was keenly interested in the exploration and discoveries
in America, and unceasingly urged his nuncios to keep him supplied
with everything written on these subjects.]

The discovery of these lands I have mentioned, by the Genoese,
Christopher Columbus, was related in my Ocean Decade, which
was printed without my permission[2] and circulated throughout
Christendom. Columbus afterwards explored immense seas and countries
to the south-west, approaching within fifteen degrees of the
equinoctial line. In those parts he saw great rivers, lofty
snow-capped mountains along the coasts, and also secure harbours.
After his death the sovereigns took steps to assume possession of
those countries and to colonise them with Christians, in order that
our religion might be propagated. The royal notaries afforded every
facility to every one who wished to engage in these honourable
enterprises among whom two were notable: Diego Nicuesa de Baecca, an
Andalusian, and Alonzo Hojeda de Concha.

[Note 2: Peter Martyr's friend, Lucio Marineo Siculo, was
responsible for this premature Spanish edition published in 1511.
An Italian edition of the First Decade was printed by Albertino
Vercellese at Venice in 1504.]

Both these men were living in Hispaniola where, as we have already
said, the Spaniards had founded a town and colonies, when Alonzo
Hojeda first set out, about the ides of December, with about three
hundred soldiers under his command. His course was almost directly
south, until he reached one of those ports previously discovered and
which Columbus had named Carthagena, because its island breakwater,
its extent, and its coast shaped like a scythe reminded him of
Carthagena. The island lying across the mouth of the port is called by
the natives