He carried with him a letter from Ferdinand and Isabella to any chance sovereign whom he might meet, which ran to this effect: 

“Ferdinand and Isabella to King ...  The Sovereigns having heard that he and his subjects entertain great love for them and for Spain.  They are, moreover, informed that he and his subjects very much wish to hear news from Spain, and send therefore their Admiral, Christopher Columbus, who will tell them that they are in good health and perfect prosperity.”

Prester John, who was still considered to be ruling in some mystical fashion over an imaginary country, might have welcomed this species of circular communication.  It was certainly wasted on the inhabitants of Hispaniola, who were considerably more concerned with their own health and prosperity than with that of Ferdinand and Isabella, and who certainly had more reason when the adventurers had once landed.

So to a certain extent armed and prepared against any chance that he might encounter, Columbus set sail from Spain on August 3, 1492.

Much has been said concerning the character of the crews with which he had been provided.  It is true the American natives were destined in the first instance, by some peculiarly hard stroke of fortune, to make their acquaintance with Europeans largely through the intermediary of criminals.  It is often held to have been one of the greatest hardships of Columbus that his ships should have been manned so largely by desperadoes and malefactors pardoned especially in order to take part in the expedition.  In the peculiar circumstances of his first and exceptionally daring adventure the nature of his crew became of great and even of vital importance.  It is certain, however, that Columbus himself obviously suffered no permanent discouragement on account of the men of his first crew, for he subsequently advocated the transportation of criminals to the Indies, and, further, urged that any person having committed a crime (with the exception of those of heresy, lese majeste, and treason) should have the option of ordinary imprisonment, or of going out at his own expense to Hispaniola to serve under the orders of the Admiral.

These edicts were actually brought into force, and although Columbus some years afterwards bitterly complained of the type of European whom he found at Hispaniola, there is no doubt that he himself was largely responsible for their presence.  Nevertheless, speaking generally, Columbus was not alone in being served by this species of retainer, for the custom, borrowed from the Portuguese, was a general one, and where volunteers failed, their places were supplied by the dregs of the prisons.  One of the principal charges brought against Columbus was that, in addition to his alleged maltreatment of his own men, he had refrained from baptizing Indians, and this because he had desired slaves rather than Christians.  He was accused, moreover, of having