DISCOVERY OF AMERICA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20779, 23 January 1931, Page 14

DISCOVERY OF AMERICA.

QUESTION OF THE DATE. CLAIM BY ..A PROFESSOR. [FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] NEW YORK. Dec. 2G. That Columbus discovered America in 1477, not 1492, as is believed by historians, is claimed by Professor Luis Ulloa, member of the Historical Instituto of Peru, in a statement beforo tho recent Congress of Americanists. As far back as tho sixteenth century, says Professor Ulloa, the claim that 1477 was the date of discovery was made in Spain. Many of tho documents were carelessly buried in Spanish archives; Professor Ulloa says ho had tho good fortune, only this year, to discover some of them. "The first and principal document," he says, in an article in the New \ork limes, "which confirms tho pre-discovery of America by Columbus, is precisely the authentic text of the capitulations which Columbus signed with King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of April 17, 1492, for the voyage of that year. The authentic text was not known to Humboldt or Irving, the authors who inspired most of the other modern historians. A Spanish scholar, Fernandez do Navarrete, published tho text of tho capitulations in 1825, asserting that ho took them from the original document preserved in the archives of the Duke of Veragua. It is this text of Navarrete which Humboldt and his successors followed. *

"Navarrete arbitrarily changed an essential phrase of the text to adapt it to the false official tradition to which I have referred. While the authentic text shows that the concessions granted to Columbus were made "in recompense for what ho has discovered (ha descubierto) in the seas of the ocean and of the voyage that he is now, with the help of God, to make upon theni," Navarrete has it : " In recompense for what he is to discover (ha do clescubrir) and of the voyage that lie is now, with the help of God, to make upon them." Thus the Spanish scholar puts in the future what was in the pfist, a grammatical alteration, although of only two words, which changes the history of th» discovery from top to bottom."