NEW DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1776, 29 October 1879, Page 2

NEW DOCUMENTS RELATING TO THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA.

A very important publication, says "La Nature," has recently been made in Spain under the supervision of the Minister of Public Instruction. It is a collection of letters of Christopher Columbus and his contemporaries, and reports made during the sixteenth century by the governors of the American provinces, The originals of these letters and reports are now in the State archives at Seville. The work, entitled " Cartas de India" (Letters from the Indies), forms a large folio volume of 1754 pages, and contains the following documents of great interest: — 1. Two autographs of Columbus addressed in 1502 to Ferdinand and Isabella, the first urging the necessity of suitable measures for increasing the population of the Is"e of Espanola (St. Domingo), the second containing a dissertation on the art of navigation. 2. A letter from Amerigo Nespucci to Cardinal Ximenes di Cuneroß, Archbishop of Toledo, dated at Seville, 1608, regarding some merchandise to be sent to the Antilles. 3. Two letters from Fra Bartholomeo de Las Oasas, Archbishop of Nicaragua, to the Infante Don Filippo, dated at Gracias a Dios, in Guatemala.

4. Two letters from Bernaldo Diaz del Castillo, one of the warriors of the Bmall army of Oortez and the author of a histoiy of Mexico. These two letters are addressed to Charles V., 1552, and to Philip 11., 1558. 5. Letters from the bachelors, Don Pedro de Gasca and Don Christopher Vaca, of Casca, dated at Quito, 1541, and Cusco, 1542, announcing to Charles V. the death of the Marquis Don Pizaro, and the insurrection of Don Diego de Almagro. All these letters are very interesting, being written by eye-wit-nesses of the occurrences which they narrate. 6. A very curious letter from Dona Isabella Quivara, relating to the remarkable courage exhibited by the women during the expedition of Oortez, while all the men were prostrated by sickness. The work contains 652 pagea of text, and an appendix of 225 pages, in which we find 29 autograph letters and reports of different historic persons j 28 autograph pages from Oolnmbus, Vespucci, La Oasas, Diss de Castillo, Ximeneß, &c.; a map of the fortress in which the precious stones of the Incas were found ; and, finally, maps of the Amazonß, the Archipelago of the Antilles, and the Straits of Magellan, executed in the sixteenth century. /