The Letters of Amerigo Vespucci by Bartolomé de las Casas

Here Americo is convicted of a palpable falsehood, for he says that he went to Castille from that island where he perpetrated such atrocities, making no mention of having first gone to Espanola, as he did. He refers the visit to Espanola to his second voyage, but this is not true, as has already been proved in chap. 162. It is not the fact that they went to Castille from the island where they made war and ill-treated the people: as can be proved from the witnesses examined before the Royal Fiscal, in the lawsuit between Don Diego Colon and the King respecting the granting and observance of his privileges, of which I have often made mention before. They deposed that Alonso de Hojeda, with whom Americo sailed in his first voyage, went along the coast to Cuquibacoa, which is Venezuela, and the Cabo de la Vela, and that thence they went to Espanola. Thus a witness named Andres de Morales made oath, whom I knew well, a principal pilot and a veteran of these Indies, citizen of Santo Domingo. He said in his deposition, in answer to the fifth question, as follows: "that he knew what happened during that voyage." Asked how he knew, he said: "that he knew because he had often been with Juan de la Cosa and with Alonso de Hojeda, and talked over this voyage, and that they went from the island of Roquemes in the Canaries, and arrived at the mainland near the province of Paria, passing on to the island of Margarita, thence to Maracapana, discovering the coast as far as the Cacique Ayarayte, and thence, from port to port, to the Island of the Giants, the province of Cuquibacoa, and the Cabo de la Vela, which name was given to it by the said Hojeda and Juan de la Cosa, and thence they went to the island of Espanola." These are his words. Now they could not go from a place so far to leeward, to the island where they committed their depredations, because it must have been one of those towards the east, such as Guadalupe, and the islands near it. It would be very difficult to work to windward against wind and current, which are continuous. This is confirmed by the fact that they reached Brazil in Espanola, which is the port of Yaquimo,[151] and the proper and natural landfall from Cabo de la Vela. If they had repaired the ships and taken in provisions in that port of the mainland, how was it that it was found necessary to repair and take in provisions again at Espanola? How was it that the witnesses, and especially the pilot, Andres de Morales, who seems to intimate that he went with them, do not mention that Hojeda had built a brigantine and repaired his ships in some port of the mainland, that being a remarkable event. It would strengthen the veracity of his statements with reference to the discovery of that mainland having been made by him, which was the object of the suit presided over by the Fiscal against the Admiral. It is clear that Americo transferred things which happened in the first voyage to the second, while events of the second are referred to the first voyage, as we have demonstrated already in chap. 142, being silent respecting many things, and adding others which never happened. For example, the building of the brigantine and repairing of the ships on the mainland certainly happened, and I know that it was so, being notorious at that time; but it was during the second voyage, and not the first; while the coming to the island Espanola, where certain scandals were caused by Hojeda, to which I shall presently refer, took place in the first voyage, and not in the second, as Americo represents. I further say that Hojeda never came to discover, trade, or settle on the mainland, without visiting Espanola. But his coming in the first voyage is denied or concealed by Americo by silence. From the time that Hojeda left Spain until he arrived at Espanola there was an interval of five months, which does not leave time for all that he is said to have done during that first voyage.