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[Helde <sta...@te...>]

Dmiral of the Ocean Seas. Diaz then moderated his requests, and merely
asked Columbus to show him his letter of authority, which Columbus did;
and then Diaz went away and brought back with him the captain of the
Portuguese royal yacht, who came in great state on board the shabby
little Nina, with kettle-drums and trumpets and pipes, and placed
himself at the disposal of Columbus. It is a curious moment, this, in
which the two great discoverers of their time, Diaz and Columbus, meet
for an hour on the deck of a forty-ton caravel; a curious thing to
consider that they who had performed such great feats of skill and
bravery, one to discover the southernmost point of the old world and the
other to voyage across an uncharted ocean to the discovery of an
entirely new world, could find nothing better to talk about than their
respective ranks and glories; and found no more interesting subject of
discussion than the exact amount of state and privilege which should be
accorded to each. During the day or two in which Columbus waited in the
port crowds of people came down from Lisbon to see the little Nina,
which was an object of much admiration and astonishment; to see the
Indians also, at whom they greatly marvelled. It was probably at this
time that the letter addressed to Luis de Santangel, containing the
first official account of the voyage, was despatched. * ***** * * "Sir:
As I am sure you will be pleased at the great victory which the Lord has
given me in my voyage, I write this to inform you that in twenty' days I
arrived in the Indies with the squadron which their Majesties had placed
under my command. There I discovered many islands, inhabited by a
numerous population, and took possession of them for their Highnesses,
with public ceremony and the royal flag displayed, without molestation.
"The first that I discovered I named San Salvador, in remembrance of tha