christopher columbus first voyage to the new world

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Columbus reports on his first voyage, 1493

A spotlight on a primary source by christopher columbus.

On August 3, 1492, Columbus set sail from Spain to find an all-water route to Asia. On October 12, more than two months later, Columbus landed on an island in the Bahamas that he called San Salvador; the natives called it Guanahani.

For nearly five months, Columbus explored the Caribbean, particularly the islands of Juana (Cuba) and Hispaniola (Santo Domingo), before returning to Spain. He left thirty-nine men to build a settlement called La Navidad in present-day Haiti. He also kidnapped several Native Americans (between ten and twenty-five) to take back to Spain—only eight survived. Columbus brought back small amounts of gold as well as native birds and plants to show the richness of the continent he believed to be Asia.

When Columbus arrived back in Spain on March 15, 1493, he immediately wrote a letter announcing his discoveries to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, who had helped finance his trip. The letter was written in Spanish and sent to Rome, where it was printed in Latin by Stephan Plannck. Plannck mistakenly left Queen Isabella’s name out of the pamphlet’s introduction but quickly realized his error and reprinted the pamphlet a few days later. The copy shown here is the second, corrected edition of the pamphlet.

The Latin printing of this letter announced the existence of the American continent throughout Europe. “I discovered many islands inhabited by numerous people. I took possession of all of them for our most fortunate King by making public proclamation and unfurling his standard, no one making any resistance,” Columbus wrote.

In addition to announcing his momentous discovery, Columbus’s letter also provides observations of the native people’s culture and lack of weapons, noting that “they are destitute of arms, which are entirely unknown to them, and for which they are not adapted; not on account of any bodily deformity, for they are well made, but because they are timid and full of terror.” Writing that the natives are “fearful and timid . . . guileless and honest,” Columbus declares that the land could easily be conquered by Spain, and the natives “might become Christians and inclined to love our King and Queen and Princes and all the people of Spain.”

An English translation of this document is available.

I have determined to write you this letter to inform you of everything that has been done and discovered in this voyage of mine.

On the thirty-third day after leaving Cadiz I came into the Indian Sea, where I discovered many islands inhabited by numerous people. I took possession of all of them for our most fortunate King by making public proclamation and unfurling his standard, no one making any resistance. The island called Juana, as well as the others in its neighborhood, is exceedingly fertile. It has numerous harbors on all sides, very safe and wide, above comparison with any I have ever seen. Through it flow many very broad and health-giving rivers; and there are in it numerous very lofty mountains. All these island are very beautiful, and of quite different shapes; easy to be traversed, and full of the greatest variety of trees reaching to the stars. . . .

In the island, which I have said before was called Hispana , there are very lofty and beautiful mountains, great farms, groves and fields, most fertile both for cultivation and for pasturage, and well adapted for constructing buildings. The convenience of the harbors in this island, and the excellence of the rivers, in volume and salubrity, surpass human belief, unless on should see them. In it the trees, pasture-lands and fruits different much from those of Juana. Besides, this Hispana abounds in various kinds of species, gold and metals. The inhabitants . . . are all, as I said before, unprovided with any sort of iron, and they are destitute of arms, which are entirely unknown to them, and for which they are not adapted; not on account of any bodily deformity, for they are well made, but because they are timid and full of terror. . . . But when they see that they are safe, and all fear is banished, they are very guileless and honest, and very liberal of all they have. No one refuses the asker anything that he possesses; on the contrary they themselves invite us to ask for it. They manifest the greatest affection towards all of us, exchanging valuable things for trifles, content with the very least thing or nothing at all. . . . I gave them many beautiful and pleasing things, which I had brought with me, for no return whatever, in order to win their affection, and that they might become Christians and inclined to love our King and Queen and Princes and all the people of Spain; and that they might be eager to search for and gather and give to us what they abound in and we greatly need.

Questions for Discussion

Read the document introduction and transcript in order to answer these questions.

• Columbus described the Natives he first encountered as “timid and full of fear.” Why did he then capture some Natives and bring them aboard his ships?
• Imagine the thoughts of the Europeans as they first saw land in the “New World.” What do you think would have been their most immediate impression? Explain your answer.
• Which of the items Columbus described would have been of most interest to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella? Why?
• Why did Columbus describe the islands and their inhabitants in great detail?
• It is said that this voyage opened the period of the “Columbian Exchange.” Why do you think that term has been attached to this period of time?

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This Day In History : October 12

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Columbus reaches the “New World”

After sailing across the Atlantic Ocean, Italian explorer Christopher Columbus sights a Bahamian island on October 12, 1492, believing he has reached East Asia. His expedition went ashore the same day and claimed the land for Isabella and Ferdinand of Spain , who sponsored his attempt to find a western ocean route to China, India, and the fabled gold and spice islands of Asia.

Columbus was born in Genoa, Italy, in 1451. Little is known of his early life, but he worked as a seaman and then a maritime entrepreneur. He became obsessed with the possibility of pioneering a western sea route to Cathay (China), India, and the gold and spice islands of Asia. At the time, Europeans knew no direct sea route to southern Asia, and the route via Egypt and the Red Sea was closed to Europeans by the Ottoman Empire , as were many land routes.

Contrary to popular legend, educated Europeans of Columbus’ day did believe that the world was round, as argued by St. Isidore in the seventh century. However, Columbus, and most others, underestimated the world’s size, calculating that East Asia must lie approximately where North America sits on the globe (they did not yet know that the Pacific Ocean existed).

With only the Atlantic Ocean, he thought, lying between Europe and the riches of the East Indies, Columbus met with King John II of Portugal and tried to persuade him to back his “Enterprise of the Indies,” as he called his plan. He was rebuffed and went to Spain, where he was also rejected at least twice by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. However, after the Spanish conquest of the Moorish kingdom of Granada in January 1492, the Spanish monarchs, flush with victory, agreed to support his voyage.

On August 3, 1492, Columbus set sail from Palos, Spain, with three small ships, the Santa Maria, the Pinta  and the Nina . On October 12, the expedition reached land, probably Watling Island in the Bahamas. Later that month, Columbus sighted Cuba, which he thought was mainland China, and in December the expedition landed on Hispaniola, which Columbus thought might be Japan. He established a small colony there with 39 of his men. The explorer returned to Spain with gold, spices, and “Indian” captives in March 1493 and was received with the highest honors by the Spanish court. He was the first European to explore the Americas since the Vikings set up colonies in Greenland and Newfoundland in the 10th century.

During his lifetime, Columbus led a total of four expeditions to the "New World," exploring various Caribbean islands, the Gulf of Mexico, and the South and Central American mainlands, but he never accomplished his original goal—a western ocean route to the great cities of Asia. Columbus died in Spain in 1506 without realizing the scope of what he did achieve: He had discovered for Europe the New World, whose riches over the next century would help make Spain the wealthiest and most powerful nation on earth. He also unleashed centuries of brutal colonization, the transatlantic slave trade and the deaths of millions of Native Americans from murder and disease.

Columbus was honored with a U.S. federal holiday in 1937. Since 1991, many cities, universities and a growing number of states have adopted Indigenous Peoples’ Day , a holiday that celebrates the history and contributions of Native Americans. Not by coincidence, the occasion usually falls on Columbus Day , the second Monday in October, or replaces the holiday entirely. Why replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples’ Day? Some argue that the holiday overlooks Columbus' enslavement of Native Americans—while giving him credit for “discovering” a place where people already lived.

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The Ages of Exploration

Christopher columbus, age of discovery.

Quick Facts:

He is credited for discovering the Americas in 1492, although we know today people were there long before him; his real achievement was that he opened the door for more exploration to a New World.

Name : Christopher Columbus [Kri-stə-fər] [Kə-luhm-bəs]

Birth/Death : 1451 - 1506

Nationality : Italian

Birthplace : Genoa, Italy

Christopher Columbus leaving Palos, Spain

Christopher Columbus aboard the "Santa Maria" leaving Palos, Spain on his first voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. The Mariners' Museum 1933.0746.000001

Introduction We know that In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue. But what did he actually discover? Christopher Columbus (also known as (Cristoforo Colombo [Italian]; Cristóbal Colón [Spanish]) was an Italian explorer credited with the “discovery” of the America’s. The purpose for his voyages was to find a passage to Asia by sailing west. Never actually accomplishing this mission, his explorations mostly included the Caribbean and parts of Central and South America, all of which were already inhabited by Native groups.

Biography Early Life Christopher Columbus was born in Genoa, part of present-day Italy, in 1451. His parents’ names were Dominico Colombo and Susanna Fontanarossa. He had three brothers: Bartholomew, Giovanni, and Giacomo; and a sister named Bianchinetta. Christopher became an apprentice in his father’s wool weaving business, but he also studied mapmaking and sailing as well. He eventually left his father’s business to join the Genoese fleet and sail on the Mediterranean Sea. 1 After one of his ships wrecked off the coast of Portugal, he decided to remain there with his younger brother Bartholomew where he worked as a cartographer (mapmaker) and bookseller. Here, he married Doña Felipa Perestrello e Moniz and had two sons Diego and Fernando.

Christopher Columbus owned a copy of Marco Polo’s famous book, and it gave him a love for exploration. In the mid 15th century, Portugal was desperately trying to find a faster trade route to Asia. Exotic goods such as spices, ivory, silk, and gems were popular items of trade. However, Europeans often had to travel through the Middle East to reach Asia. At this time, Muslim nations imposed high taxes on European travels crossing through. 2 This made it both difficult and expensive to reach Asia. There were rumors from other sailors that Asia could be reached by sailing west. Hearing this, Christopher Columbus decided to try and make this revolutionary journey himself. First, he needed ships and supplies, which required money that he did not have. He went to King John of Portugal who turned him down. He then went to the rulers of England, and France. Each declined his request for funding. After seven years of trying, he was finally sponsored by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain.

Voyages Principal Voyage Columbus’ voyage departed in August of 1492 with 87 men sailing on three ships: the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa María. Columbus commanded the Santa María, while the Niña was led by Vicente Yanez Pinzon and the Pinta by Martin Pinzon. 3 This was the first of his four trips. He headed west from Spain across the Atlantic Ocean. On October 12 land was sighted. He gave the first island he landed on the name San Salvador, although the native population called it Guanahani. 4 Columbus believed that he was in Asia, but was actually in the Caribbean. He even proposed that the island of Cuba was a part of China. Since he thought he was in the Indies, he called the native people “Indians.” In several letters he wrote back to Spain, he described the landscape and his encounters with the natives. He continued sailing throughout the Caribbean and named many islands he encountered after his ship, king, and queen: La Isla de Santa María de Concepción, Fernandina, and Isabella.

It is hard to determine specifically which islands Columbus visited on this voyage. His descriptions of the native peoples, geography, and plant life do give us some clues though. One place we do know he stopped was in present-day Haiti. He named the island Hispaniola. Hispaniola today includes both Haiti and the Dominican Republic. In January of 1493, Columbus sailed back to Europe to report what he found. Due to rough seas, he was forced to land in Portugal, an unfortunate event for Columbus. With relations between Spain and Portugal strained during this time, Ferdinand and Isabella suspected that Columbus was taking valuable information or maybe goods to Portugal, the country he had lived in for several years. Those who stood against Columbus would later use this as an argument against him. Eventually, Columbus was allowed to return to Spain bringing with him tobacco, turkey, and some new spices. He also brought with him several natives of the islands, of whom Queen Isabella grew very fond.

Subsequent Voyages Columbus took three other similar trips to this region. His second voyage in 1493 carried a large fleet with the intention of conquering the native populations and establishing colonies. At one point, the natives attacked and killed the settlers left at Fort Navidad. Over time the colonists enslaved many of the natives, sending some to Europe and using many to mine gold for the Spanish settlers in the Caribbean. The third trip was to explore more of the islands and mainland South America further. Columbus was appointed the governor of Hispaniola, but the colonists, upset with Columbus’ leadership appealed to the rulers of Spain, who sent a new governor: Francisco de Bobadilla. Columbus was taken prisoner on board a ship and sent back to Spain.

On his fourth and final journey west in 1502 Columbus’s goal was to find the “Strait of Malacca,” to try to find India. But a hurricane, then being denied entrance to Hispaniola, and then another storm made this an unfortunate trip. His ship was so badly damaged that he and his crew were stranded on Jamaica for two years until help from Hispaniola finally arrived. In 1504, Columbus and his men were taken back to Spain .

Later Years and Death Columbus reached Spain in November 1504. He was not in good health. He spent much of the last of his life writing letters to obtain the percentage of wealth overdue to be paid to him, and trying to re-attain his governorship status, but was continually denied both. Columbus died at Valladolid on May 20, 1506, due to illness and old age. Even until death, he still firmly believing that he had traveled to the eastern part of Asia.

Legacy Columbus never made it to Asia, nor did he truly discover America. His “re-discovery,” however, inspired a new era of exploration of the American continents by Europeans. Perhaps his greatest contribution was that his voyages opened an exchange of goods between Europe and the Americas both during and long after his journeys. 5 Despite modern criticism of his treatment of the native peoples there is no denying that his expeditions changed both Europe and America. Columbus day was made a federal holiday in 1971. It is recognized on the second Monday of October.

• Fergus Fleming, Off the Map: Tales of Endurance and Exploration (New York: Grove Press, 2004), 30.
• Fleming, Off the Map, 30
• William D. Phillips and Carla Rahn Phillips, The Worlds of Christopher Columbus (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993), 142-143.
• Phillips and Phillips, The Worlds of Christopher Columbus, 155.
• Robin S. Doak, Christopher Columbus: Explorer of the New World (Minneapolis: Compass Point Books, 2005), 92.

Bibliography

Doak, Robin. Christopher Columbus: Explorer of the New World. Minneapolis: Compass Point Books, 2005.

Fleming, Fergus. Off the Map: Tales of Endurance and Exploration. New York: Grove Press, 2004.

Phillips, William D., and Carla Rahn Phillips. The Worlds of Christopher Columbus. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1993.

Map of Voyages

Click below to view an example of the explorer’s voyages. Use the tabs on the left to view either 1 or multiple journeys at a time, and click on the icons to learn more about the stops, sites, and activities along the way.

• Original "EXPLORATION through the AGES" site
• The Mariners' Educational Programs

Christopher Columbus

Italian explorer Christopher Columbus discovered the “New World” of the Americas on an expedition sponsored by King Ferdinand of Spain in 1492.

c. 1451-1506

Quick Facts

Where was columbus born, first voyages, columbus’ 1492 route and ships, where did columbus land in 1492, later voyages across the atlantic, how did columbus die, santa maria discovery claim, columbian exchange: a complex legacy, columbus day: an evolving holiday, who was christopher columbus.

Christopher Columbus was an Italian explorer and navigator. In 1492, he sailed across the Atlantic Ocean from Spain in the Santa Maria , with the Pinta and the Niña ships alongside, hoping to find a new route to Asia. Instead, he and his crew landed on an island in present-day Bahamas—claiming it for Spain and mistakenly “discovering” the Americas. Between 1493 and 1504, he made three more voyages to the Caribbean and South America, believing until his death that he had found a shorter route to Asia. Columbus has been credited—and blamed—for opening up the Americas to European colonization.

FULL NAME: Cristoforo Colombo BORN: c. 1451 DIED: May 20, 1506 BIRTHPLACE: Genoa, Italy SPOUSE: Filipa Perestrelo (c. 1479-1484) CHILDREN: Diego and Fernando

Christopher Columbus, whose real name was Cristoforo Colombo, was born in 1451 in the Republic of Genoa, part of what is now Italy. He is believed to have been the son of Dominico Colombo and Susanna Fontanarossa and had four siblings: brothers Bartholomew, Giovanni, and Giacomo, and a sister named Bianchinetta. He was an apprentice in his father’s wool weaving business and studied sailing and mapmaking.

In his 20s, Columbus moved to Lisbon, Portugal, and later resettled in Spain, which remained his home base for the duration of his life.

Columbus first went to sea as a teenager, participating in several trading voyages in the Mediterranean and Aegean seas. One such voyage, to the island of Khios, in modern-day Greece, brought him the closest he would ever come to Asia.

His first voyage into the Atlantic Ocean in 1476 nearly cost him his life, as the commercial fleet he was sailing with was attacked by French privateers off the coast of Portugal. His ship was burned, and Columbus had to swim to the Portuguese shore.

He made his way to Lisbon, where he eventually settled and married Filipa Perestrelo. The couple had one son, Diego, around 1480. His wife died when Diego was a young boy, and Columbus moved to Spain. He had a second son, Fernando, who was born out of wedlock in 1488 with Beatriz Enriquez de Arana.

After participating in several other expeditions to Africa, Columbus learned about the Atlantic currents that flow east and west from the Canary Islands.

The Asian islands near China and India were fabled for their spices and gold, making them an attractive destination for Europeans—but Muslim domination of the trade routes through the Middle East made travel eastward difficult.

Columbus devised a route to sail west across the Atlantic to reach Asia, believing it would be quicker and safer. He estimated the earth to be a sphere and the distance between the Canary Islands and Japan to be about 2,300 miles.

Many of Columbus’ contemporary nautical experts disagreed. They adhered to the (now known to be accurate) second-century BCE estimate of the Earth’s circumference at 25,000 miles, which made the actual distance between the Canary Islands and Japan about 12,200 statute miles. Despite their disagreement with Columbus on matters of distance, they concurred that a westward voyage from Europe would be an uninterrupted water route.

Columbus proposed a three-ship voyage of discovery across the Atlantic first to the Portuguese king, then to Genoa, and finally to Venice. He was rejected each time. In 1486, he went to the Spanish monarchy of Queen Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon. Their focus was on a war with the Muslims, and their nautical experts were skeptical, so they initially rejected Columbus.

The idea, however, must have intrigued the monarchs, because they kept Columbus on a retainer. Columbus continued to lobby the royal court, and soon, the Spanish army captured the last Muslim stronghold in Granada in January 1492. Shortly thereafter, the monarchs agreed to finance his expedition.

In late August 1492, Columbus left Spain from the port of Palos de la Frontera. He was sailing with three ships: Columbus in the larger Santa Maria (a type of ship known as a carrack), with the Pinta and the Niña (both Portuguese-style caravels) alongside.

On October 12, 1492, after 36 days of sailing westward across the Atlantic, Columbus and several crewmen set foot on an island in present-day Bahamas, claiming it for Spain.

There, his crew encountered a timid but friendly group of natives who were open to trade with the sailors. They exchanged glass beads, cotton balls, parrots, and spears. The Europeans also noticed bits of gold the natives wore for adornment.

Columbus and his men continued their journey, visiting the islands of Cuba (which he thought was mainland China) and Hispaniola (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic, which Columbus thought might be Japan) and meeting with the leaders of the native population.

During this time, the Santa Maria was wrecked on a reef off the coast of Hispaniola. With the help of some islanders, Columbus’ men salvaged what they could and built the settlement Villa de la Navidad (“Christmas Town”) with lumber from the ship.

Thirty-nine men stayed behind to occupy the settlement. Convinced his exploration had reached Asia, he set sail for home with the two remaining ships. Returning to Spain in 1493, Columbus gave a glowing but somewhat exaggerated report and was warmly received by the royal court.

In 1493, Columbus took to the seas on his second expedition and explored more islands in the Caribbean Ocean. Upon arrival at Hispaniola, Columbus and his crew discovered the Navidad settlement had been destroyed with all the sailors massacred.

Spurning the wishes of the local queen, Columbus established a forced labor policy upon the native population to rebuild the settlement and explore for gold, believing it would be profitable. His efforts produced small amounts of gold and great hatred among the native population.

Before returning to Spain, Columbus left his brothers Bartholomew and Giacomo to govern the settlement on Hispaniola and sailed briefly around the larger Caribbean islands, further convincing himself he had discovered the outer islands of China.

It wasn’t until his third voyage that Columbus actually reached the South American mainland, exploring the Orinoco River in present-day Venezuela. By this time, conditions at the Hispaniola settlement had deteriorated to the point of near-mutiny, with settlers claiming they had been misled by Columbus’ claims of riches and complaining about the poor management of his brothers.

The Spanish Crown sent a royal official who arrested Columbus and stripped him of his authority. He returned to Spain in chains to face the royal court. The charges were later dropped, but Columbus lost his titles as governor of the Indies and, for a time, much of the riches made during his voyages.

After convincing King Ferdinand that one more voyage would bring the abundant riches promised, Columbus went on his fourth and final voyage across the Atlantic Ocean in 1502. This time he traveled along the eastern coast of Central America in an unsuccessful search for a route to the Indian Ocean.

A storm wrecked one of his ships, stranding the captain and his sailors on the island of Cuba. During this time, local islanders, tired of the Spaniards’ poor treatment and obsession with gold, refused to give them food.

In a spark of inspiration, Columbus consulted an almanac and devised a plan to “punish” the islanders by taking away the moon. On February 29, 1504, a lunar eclipse alarmed the natives enough to re-establish trade with the Spaniards. A rescue party finally arrived, sent by the royal governor of Hispaniola in July, and Columbus and his men were taken back to Spain in November 1504.

In the two remaining years of his life, Columbus struggled to recover his reputation. Although he did regain some of his riches in May 1505, his titles were never returned.

Columbus probably died of severe arthritis following an infection on May 20, 1506, in Valladolid, Spain. At the time of his death, he still believed he had discovered a shorter route to Asia.

There are questions about the location of his burial site. According to the BBC , Columbus’ remains moved at least three or four times over the course of 400 years—including from Valladolid to Seville, Spain, in 1509; then to Santo Domingo, in what is now the Dominican Republic, in 1537; then to Havana, Cuba, in 1795; and back to Seville in 1898. As a result, Seville and Santo Domingo have both laid claim to being Columbus’ true burial site. It is also possible his bones were mixed up with another person’s amid all of their travels.

In May 2014, Columbus made headlines as news broke that a team of archaeologists might have found the Santa Maria off the north coast of Haiti. Barry Clifford, the leader of this expedition, told the Independent newspaper that “all geographical, underwater topography and archaeological evidence strongly suggests this wreck is Columbus’ famous flagship the Santa Maria.”

After a thorough investigation by the U.N. agency UNESCO, it was determined the wreck dates from a later period and was located too far from shore to be the famed ship.

Columbus has been credited for opening up the Americas to European colonization—as well as blamed for the destruction of the native peoples of the islands he explored. Ultimately, he failed to find that what he set out for: a new route to Asia and the riches it promised.

In what is known as the Columbian Exchange, Columbus’ expeditions set in motion the widespread transfer of people, plants, animals, diseases, and cultures that greatly affected nearly every society on the planet.

The horse from Europe allowed Native American tribes in the Great Plains of North America to shift from a nomadic to a hunting lifestyle. Wheat from the Old World fast became a main food source for people in the Americas. Coffee from Africa and sugar cane from Asia became major cash crops for Latin American countries. And foods from the Americas, such as potatoes, tomatoes and corn, became staples for Europeans and helped increase their populations.

The Columbian Exchange also brought new diseases to both hemispheres, though the effects were greatest in the Americas. Smallpox from the Old World killed millions, decimating the Native American populations to mere fractions of their original numbers. This more than any other factor allowed for European domination of the Americas.

The overwhelming benefits of the Columbian Exchange went to the Europeans initially and eventually to the rest of the world. The Americas were forever altered, and the once vibrant cultures of the Indigenous civilizations were changed and lost, denying the world any complete understanding of their existence.

As more Italians began to immigrate to the United States and settle in major cities during the 19 th century, they were subject to religious and ethnic discrimination. This included a mass lynching of 11 Sicilian immigrants in 1891 in New Orleans.

Just one year after this horrific event, President Benjamin Harrison called for the first national observance of Columbus Day on October 12, 1892, to mark the 400 th anniversary of his arrival in the Americas. Italian-Americans saw this honorary act for Columbus as a way of gaining acceptance.

Colorado became the first state to officially observe Columbus Day in 1906 and, within five years, 14 other states followed. Thanks to a joint resolution of Congress, the day officially became a federal holiday in 1934 during the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt . In 1970, Congress declared the holiday would fall on the second Monday in October each year.

But as Columbus’ legacy—specifically, his exploration’s impacts on Indigenous civilizations—began to draw more criticism, more people chose not to take part. As of 2023, approximately 29 states no longer celebrate Columbus Day , and around 195 cities have renamed it or replaced with the alternative Indigenous Peoples Day. The latter isn’t an official holiday, but the federal government recognized its observance in 2022 and 2023. President Joe Biden called it “a day in honor of our diverse history and the Indigenous peoples who contribute to shaping this nation.”

One of the most notable cities to move away from celebrating Columbus Day in recent years is the state capital of Columbus, Ohio, which is named after the explorer. In 2018, Mayor Andrew Ginther announced the city would remain open on Columbus Day and instead celebrate a holiday on Veterans Day. In July 2020, the city also removed a 20-plus-foot metal statue of Columbus from the front of City Hall.

• I went to sea from the most tender age and have continued in a sea life to this day. Whoever gives himself up to this art wants to know the secrets of Nature here below. It is more than forty years that I have been thus engaged. Wherever any one has sailed, there I have sailed.
• Speaking of myself, little profit had I won from twenty years of service, during which I have served with so great labors and perils, for today I have no roof over my head in Castile; if I wish to sleep or eat, I have no place to which to go, save an inn or tavern, and most often, I lack the wherewithal to pay the score.
• They say that there is in that land an infinite amount of gold; and that the people wear corals on their heads and very large bracelets of coral on their feet and arms; and that with coral they adorn and inlay chairs and chests and tables.
• This island and all the others are very fertile to a limitless degree, and this island is extremely so. In it there are many harbors on the coast of the sea, beyond comparison with others that I know in Christendom, and many rivers, good and large, which is marvelous.
• Our Almighty God has shown me the highest favor, which, since David, he has not shown to anybody.
• Already the road is opened to gold and pearls, and it may surely be hoped that precious stones, spices, and a thousand other things, will also be found.
• I have now seen so much irregularity, that I have come to another conclusion respecting the earth, namely, that it is not round as they describe, but of the form of a pear.
• In all the countries visited by your Highnesses’ ships, I have caused a high cross to be fixed upon every headland and have proclaimed, to every nation that I have discovered, the lofty estate of your Highnesses and of your court in Spain.
• I ought to be judged as a captain sent from Spain to the Indies, to conquer a nation numerous and warlike, with customs and religions altogether different to ours.

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The First Voyage of Christopher Columbus to the New World

August 3, 1492. Christopher Columbus sets out on his first voyage to what will come to be known as the New World.

This refurbished episode of History Daily originally aired on August 3rd, 2022.

It’s early morning on August 3rd, 1492.

Off the southern coast of Spain, a convoy of three ships carves through the sparkling waters of the Gulf of Cadiz, heading south. Aboard the biggest ship, the stout, triple-masted  Santa Maria … 41-year-old Christopher Columbus crosses the deck. He stops at the edge of his ship and stares out across the waves. He’s the admiral of this small, but important fleet.

Darting out ahead is the  Pinta , while off to port, keeping pace with the  Santa Maria , is the smallest of the three ships, the  Niña.

In the distance beyond, Columbus can still make out the Spanish coast, a brown smudge of earth low on the horizon. But soon, Columbus knows the last trace of Europe will disappear in his wake. But if all goes well, Columbus and his crew will return here in a few months’ time laden with treasures. If fortune is less kind, this may be the last time any of them see dry land. Nobody has attempted a journey like this before. Columbus and his crew know full well the dangers that lie ahead.

For now, though, Columbus feels certain that God is with him and his crew.

Columbus beams as a strong gust of wind fills the sails of his ship and sprays his hair and red beard with browny. Confident, he barks out an order.

And without hesitation, his crew gets to work. They run a flag up the mast, a signal to the rest of the fleet. And then, in tandem, all three ships turn southwest, away from the Spanish mainland, and head out toward the open sea. 

On his long voyage across the ocean, Columbus will happen upon lands unknown to the powers that be in Europe; and he will behold wonders beyond his wildest imagination. In the end, his so-called “discovery” of what will come to be called ‘The New World’ will alter the course of world history, but it will also have tragic consequences for the indigenous people who already inhabit these lands; a devastating outcome of a journey that began on August 3rd, 1492.

Introduction

From Noiser and Airship, I’m Lindsay Graham and this is  History Daily .

History is made every day. On this podcast—every day—we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world.

Today is August 3rd, 1492:  The First Voyage of Christopher Columbus to the New World.

Act One: The New World

It’s August 13th, 1476, sixteen years before Christopher Columbus sets off on his journey to the New World.

Six miles off the coast of Portugal, a sea battle is underway. Cannon fire echoes across the water as a fleet of French warships clashes with a convoy of lightly armed merchant ships.

There’s a creaking groan as one of the merchant ships suddenly lurches over and capsizes sinking beneath the waves. Sailors leap from the deck into the water. It’s every man for himself.

Among the sailors fleeing for their lives is Christopher Columbus. The 25-year-old grabs a floating piece of wreckage. And gasping for breath, he kicks wildly away from the sinking ship as the battle rages on all around him.

Hours later, he drags himself ashore on a Portuguese beach, exhausted and injured; but alive.

After his accident, Columbus becomes convinced that God has spared him for a reason. He doesn’t feel it was coincidence that he washed up on the shores of Portugal, a country at the far west of the European continent; and one that represents the edge of the known world.

Columbus came of age, and learned his trade, in an age of exploration. The Portuguese had reached the Canary Islands in the mid-14th Century. From there, they began to map the western coast of Africa and voyaged out some nine hundred miles into the Atlantic Ocean to the Azores Islands. But nobody’s gone further than that.

In Columbus’ day, some commoners believe there’s nothing else out there. Only the edge of the world. But most educated people in Europe know the world is round. Still, not everyone is certain what lies beyond the west coast of Africa. There is a theory that if a ship sails even further west, it will eventually reach China and India in the East.

For a long time, Europe traded with those rich nations through a network known as the Silk Road. But the Muslim Ottoman Empire conquered Turkey and the Middle East and closed the Silk Road to Christians. So, if Europe wants to renew its lucrative trade with China and India, another route has to be found.

And after washing up on the shores of Portugal, Columbus becomes obsessed with the idea of finding it. Soon, he settles in the Portuguese capital of Lisbon. There, he marries into a local family of nobles. In the late 1480s, he uses their connections to secure an audience with the King of Portugal.

Columbus hopes the king will fund an expedition across the ocean to reopen the trade route to China. But the king’s advisers feel a journey into the unknown like this is too risky. Additionally, they find Columbus’ personal demands a bit extraordinary. He wants the title of  ‘Admiral of the Ocean Sea’, as well as governorship of any new lands found on his journey, plus 10% of the profits. To many in Lisbon, Columbus’ proposal smacks of arrogance. And the King of Portugal agrees. He turns Columbus down.

Undeterred, Columbus takes his idea to the great rivals of the Portuguese – the King and Queen of neighboring Spain. Eventually, after years of negotiation, delays, and disappointment, they agree to Columbus’ demands. And on August 3rd, 1492, Columbus set sail from Spain with a small fleet of ships, heading into the unknown on a quest to find a new route to the riches of the Far East.

Two months later, in the early hours of October 12th, 1492, Columbus sits in his cabin, on board his flagship, enjoying a moment’s rest. But the peace is soon shattered by the blast of a cannon.

Immediately, Columbus pulls on his boots and hat and hurries out onto deck. He peers out over the bows of the Santa Maria. He can just see the lights of the other ships in the darkness ahead.

The shot came from the Pinta, the fastest ship in their little fleet. But Columbus is not afraid. He knows they’re not under attack. The cannon fire was a signal, a message for the rest of the fleet: after many long weeks at sea, the Pinta has spotted land. Columbus is jubilant. This is the moment he’s been working for his entire life.

Through the night, they sail closer and closer. And as the sun rises behind the fleet, Columbus and his men see that they’ve arrived at a low, tree-covered island, ringed by white-sand beaches.

Columbus thinks they must be somewhere off the mainland of China. He climbs down into a boat and goes ashore.

His crew row him across a churning reef toward a beach. As the little boat plows into the white sand, Columbus leaps out, boots splashing in ankle-deep waters. After wading ashore, he sinks to his knees and gives thanks to God. At last, he’s here. And he takes in the glorious sight.

Slender palm trees arc overhead. Brightly colored birds swoop and sing among their rustling branches. The air smells smoky and sweet.

Behind Columbus, his men come ashore carrying the royal standard, the flag of the King and Queen of Spain. They unfurl it and, with practiced solemnity, Columbus claims the land on behalf of Spain. But Columbus and his men are not alone.

They are watched from the forest by a growing crowd of curious locals. And soon, they emerge from the trees.

Seeing them, Columbus is surprised. They’re not what he was expecting. The Chinese are famed for their handsome and expensive clothes. But the people emerging from the forest are almost naked.

Columbus has not discovered a route to the Far East, he’s reached an island in what is now called the Bahamas. Though the Europeans of Columbus’ time will soon call it ‘The New World’.

The historical impact of Columbus’ arrival there will be immense. But the consequence to those already living on these islands will be catastrophic.

Act Two: The Old World

It’s the morning of October 12th, 1492. Two months since Columbus set sail from Europe, his fleet has just dropped anchor off an island in the Bahamas.

Deep in its rainforest, a young man creeps through the dense foliage. He’s a hunter, armed with a bow and arrow. His body is painted black. And he moves as silently as a panther.

He’s closing in on his prey, a stout rodent. The animal clings to the branch of a tree, gnawing on its bark.

The hunter’s eyes flick up to a red feather pinned to the tip of his bow. It’s there to tell him how strong the wind is and which direction it’s blowing. But the feather is still; there’s not a hint of a breeze.

So the young hunter raises his bow. He’s just about to lose his arrow when there’s a noise behind him. And the rodent bolts away. With a scowl, the hunter turns. Standing on the path behind him is his 10-year-old brother. The young man is about to chastise him, but the strange look on the boy’s face stops him.

The older brother asks: “What’s happened?”

And the young boy replies: “Men from the sky have come.”

The two brothers are Taino. Which in their language means ‘good men’. Their people have lived on the many islands of the Caribbean Sea for more than fifteen hundred years.

And on these lush islands, where food is plentiful and the climate is warm, the Taino live in small villages by the coast or inland rivers. The men fish and hunt. The women harvest corn, nuts, and root vegetables. Everyone in the community works, even the leaders, and all share in the fruits of their labor.

They need no clothes to keep them warm and have no shame in their bodies. So, they remain naked most of the time.

It’s a peaceful life, broken only by occasional raids by the native people who live further south, who the Taino call cannibals. They’ve had no contact with white Europeans; until now.

The young hunter and his brother run down the forest path, branches whipping at their legs.

Their village is just ahead. Large round huts made of wooden poles and roofed with palm leaves surrounding a central plaza, where a gaggle of tamed ducks waddle about.

It’s one of the first days of the harvest and the full baskets of precious roots are lined up, ready to be pressed, grated, and ground into flour to make bread.

But today, all work is forgotten. The villagers, talking excitedly have hurried away toward the sea. The two brothers race to catch up, joining the throng already heading to the beach to see a strange sight that’s been reported.

Offshore, squatting beyond the island’s reef, are what look to the hunter like three enormous and ugly canoes that have sprouted tree trunks. They’re nothing like the villagers’ own sleek vessels, which slip through the water as quick as fish. In fact, they’re nothing like anything the young man has seen before in his life; the people who arrived in these strange ships are even stranger.

There’s a small group of them on the beach already. The men from the sky cover their pale skin in cloth or shining metal. Their hair sticks with sweat to their foreheads and comes in many shades - some as black as night, others almost white like the beach at their feet.

One of the skymen clings, with great importance, to a large colorful piece of cloth on a stick.

Their leader, though, if he is in charge is the strangest of them all. His skin is pink and peeling, his hair and beard almost red. Loudly, in an unfamiliar language, this red-haired man makes a declaration and gestures to the island around him.

Most of the Taino villagers hang back, staring at these odd creatures and whispering to one another – wondering whether they are men, gods, or spirits. But the young hunter’s determined not to show any fear. He steps forward to meet the red-haired man.

Seeing him, the red-haired man pulls out a long silver stick with a pointed end. It looks to be a weapon but he offers it to the hunter. When the young man goes to take it, the sharp edge slices into his finger. The hunter gasps and pulls his hand away, blood dripping onto the white sand.

The red-haired man barks some sort of joke, and see other strangers all laugh. The hunter sucks on his bleeding finger as other Taino tribesmen pluck up the courage to also come closer. The men from the sky offer them gifts, odd treasures from little pouches - beads that sparkle in the sun and bits of metal that ring when shaken.

Soon, the men from the sky will climb back into their strange canoes and disappear up the coast. But Christopher Columbus and his men won’t be the last white Europeans the Taino will meet. Indeed, the lives of these indigenous people, and those of millions more on both sides of the Atlantic will never be the same.

Act Three: One World

It’s February 15th, 1493, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

In a cabin on the Spanish ship  Niña , Christopher Columbus sits at a desk, writing a letter.

Since leaving Europe six months ago, Columbus has kept a diary of scribbled notes. He consults it now as he writes a summary of events for the King and Queen of Spain describing the achievements of his expedition.

Fighting to keep his handwriting neat amid the roll of the ship, he writes: “I know you will be pleased at the great success with which the Lord has crowned my voyage…” Columbus continues, writing “I found many islands filled with countless people, and I have taken possession of them all by proclamation and with the royal standard flying. Nobody objected.”

But Columbus is already rewriting history. The admiral is returning to Spain disappointed.

He found places of paradise on his voyage west. And he and his men were the first Europeans to taste papayas, mango, and passionfruit. They were the first to puzzle over the thick bark of the pineapple and enjoy the sharply sweet flesh within. But a tropical paradise was not what Columbus was looking for.

After making first contact with the Taino, Columbus and his fleet skimmed island coasts around the Caribbean. They occasionally went ashore, at places like Cuba and Hispaniola, where his flagship - the  Santa Maria  - ran aground and had to be abandoned.

Everywhere Columbus went, he searched for two things: gold and information about the Chinese mainland, which Columbus was still sure lay just a little further to the west.

But after three months of searching, he found neither gold nor China. In January 1493, he set off back home with the two surviving ships of his fleet.

In Columbus’ mind, his voyage ends in a failure; but it is the most momentous failure in history.

Because until this point, the cultures and people of Europe and the Americas have remained separate. From now on, the fates of the two continents are bound together.

Columbus will return to the New World three more times over the next decade. Though he’ll never find a route to China, he will unlock the lands he discovered to all the powers of Europe. Columbus was born into an age of exploration. But his voyage will lead to an age of colonialism, empire; an era that will have a devastating impact on the indigenous people of this so-called New World. Within three decades of first contact with Columbus, as many as 90% of the Taino will be dead. They will be ravaged by European diseases like smallpox to which they have no immunity. Or they will die working in the thousands of mines and farms established by their new foreign rulers.

Despite the friendliness of that first meeting on the island shores, from the very beginning, Columbus’ thoughts turned to exploitation. In his diary entry of that day, he wrote that the Taino would make excellent slaves. Still, Columbus’ voyage across the sea remains arguably the most consequential journey ever made in history. And it began on this day, August 3rd, in 1492.

Next on History Daily.  August 4th, 1704. During the War of the Spanish Succession, Britain seizes Gibraltar, turning the peninsula into a symbol of British naval strength.

From Noiser and Airship, this is  History Daily , hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham.

Audio editing and sound design by Mollie Baack

Music by Lindsay Graham.

This episode is written and researched by William Simpson.

Executive Producers are Steven Walters for Airship and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.

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Early Modern Spain

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Introduction to Christopher Columbus, Journal of the first voyage

There was a time when the inclusion of a historical document such as Columbus's Journal in a series dedicated to Spanish Golden-Age prose fiction and drama might have required some comment. To put Columbus alongside Cervantes, Quevedo and Calderón might have been taken to imply that the contents of the Journal were just so much fiction or, conversely, that the editors were taking an essentially documentary view of the other works included in the series. Nowadays we have a much less compartmentalised approach to the notion of `text' - one which is more in tune with the expectations of Renaissance writers and readers -, and much has been gained by bringing the techniques of literary textual analysis and criticism to bear on a wide variety of texts, whether written, spoken or non-verbal forms of cultural expression.

The purpose of this new edition of the Spanish text of Columbus's Journal of the 1492 voyage, published together with a new translation, is to make available to the general reader as well as the specialist historiographer one of the most important texts ever written in Spanish. Columbus's 1492 Journal, even in the truncated and partially summarised form in which it has survived, gives an unrivalled insight into the events of the voyage, Columbus's first impressions of a people and a culture which failed in so many ways to live up to his expectations, and the creation of many of the myths surrounding the New World which have coloured its view of itself down to the present day.

Columbus's Spanish is not that of a native-speaker. Even after several transcriptions at the hands of Spanish-speaking copyists, it retains many features which have an important bearing on our understanding of Columbus's cultural and linguistic formation, and on such issues as the reliability of the Journal in the form in which we have it. I am grateful to my colleague Ralph Penny for agreeing to contribute a short study of the most important features of Columbus's language. Some of the material of the Introduction derives from my Inaugural Lecture, Writing and Conquest , given at King's College London on 1 May 1990.

This edition and translation is dedicated to Henry Maxwell.

Introduction

by B.W. Ife

Text history

When Columbus set sail for the Far East in August 1492 he decided, in view of the significance of what he was about to attempt, to make a documentary record of the voyage in the form of charts and a log book:

... I decided to write down the whole of this voyage in detail, day by day, everything that I should do and see and undergo, as will be seen in due course. (Prologue) 1

Keeping such a Journal was by no means routine at the time and did not become a legal requirement for captains of vessels flying the Spanish flag until 1575. The importance which Columbus attached to the accurate day-to-day recording of the events of the first voyage cannot be underestimated. By setting the voyage down in writing he ensured a place for himself in history which others have disputed but from which no one has succeeded in displacing him. The written record has become the touchstone of his achievement.

On returning to Spain in the spring of 1493 Columbus presented his record of the voyage to Queen Isabel. She had it copied, retained the original, and gave the copy to Columbus before he set out on the second voyage in the autumn of 1493. The original has not been seen since 1504, the year in which the Queen died.

In 1506, on the Admiral's death, the copy passed to Columbus's eldest son Diego, and then in 1526 to Diego's son, Luis, the Third Admiral of the Indies. Luis was granted permission to publish the Journal in 1554, though it did not in fact appear. This is thought to indicate that he sold the manuscript, as he did that of his uncle Ferdinand's biography of the Admiral, in order to subsidise his legendary debauchery. Whatever the explanation, it is clear that both the original Journal, and the only copy known to have been made of it, have both disappeared.

The role of Bartolomé de las Casas

We should have very little knowledge indeed about the conduct and events of the 1492 voyage had it not been for the intervention of the historian Bartolomé de las Casas. Las Casas, whose father and uncle had accompanied Columbus on the second voyage in 1493, began collecting material for a history of the Indies as early as 1502. After his conversion in 1514 he dedicated himself to exposing in writing and by personal advocacy the oppression of the Indians and the illegitimacy of the Spanish presence in the New World. In 1527 he began his great Historia de las Indias . Chapters 35 to 75 of the Historia rely heavily on the evidence of Columbus's Journal. It is not clear when Las Casas consulted it, 2 though from remarks made in the Historia about scribal errors and confusions, we may be sure that what he consulted was a copy, possibly Columbus's own copy, and not the original. The access which Las Casas had to the Journal was evidently restricted. However he came by it, he was evidently not able to take it away with him or to keep it over a period of time. He therefore made an extensive digest for his own use, summarising the majority of the text, but copying out word-for-word those parts of the original which he thought were particularly interesting or worthy of quotation in full. Failing the discovery of the full text, Las Casas's summary, preserved in the National Library in Madrid, is the closest we are likely to get to Columbus's original.

The major textual and historiographical problem surrounding the Journal is therefore easily stated: how much of what we have is Columbus and how much Las Casas? On the face of it, the evidence is not encouraging. At best, the manuscript is at two removes from the original: a digest of a copy of the original, which may itself have been a fair copy rather than the actual log-book which Columbus wrote up from day to day on board ship. We can only assume that the copy from which Las Casas worked was reasonably faithful, although he was himself aware of inaccuracies and mistranscriptions. In the entry for 13 January, concerning Columbus's astrological observations, Las Casas writes in the margin:

... here it seems that the Admiral knew something about astrology, although these planets do not seem to be in their proper positions, due to bad transcription by the copyist ... (13.1) 3

Other remarks made both in the text and in the margin suggest that Las Casas was less than confident in the accuracy of what he was reading:

He steered WSW and they made about 11 and a half or 12 leagues during the day and night and it seems that at times during the night they were making 15 miles an hour, if the text is to believed. (8.10)

The major doubts, however, must concern Las Casas's own working methods. Las Casas was a tendentious historian and the Historia de las Indias is a work of extreme political and moral commitment. Cecil Jane, for one, has accused Las Casas of `deliberate misstatement of fact' and reliance on `a memory which was either curiously defective or singularly convenient'. 4 Can an avowed champion of the Indians' cause be relied upon to summarize accurately, without distortion and editorialising, the work of a pioneer colonist like Columbus?

Since virtually everything we know about the 1492 voyage has come down to us from Columbus via Las Casas's digest, it is perhaps surprising that a serious answer to such a fundamental question appears not so far to have been sought. Historians have not always shown a proper circumspection in their treatment of the text, and, until recently, successive generations of editors have failed to improve significantly on the text first published by Martín Fernández de Navarrete in 1825.

A more serious failing among scholars, however, has been the lack of any systematic attempt to evaluate the role of Las Casas as intermediary or to use the physical and linguistic evidence of the manuscript to establish how much of Columbus's original has survived the process of being copied and then summarized. Such a study is beyond the scope of this Introduction, but it is worthwhile to give some indication of the issues involved because they help to illuminate the nature of the Journal itself as well as the textual and interpretative problems which it poses. Broadly speaking, there are two main areas of interest: the evidence of Las Casas's working methods derived from the manuscript itself; and comparative analysis of linguistic and descriptive evidence in the summary and verbatim sections of the Journal.

Las Casas's working methods

One of the most impressive features of Las Casas's digest is its length. The manuscript consists of 67 folios (133 pages) with a total text length of nearly 54,000 words. It is abstracted on a day-to-day basis and covers the period 3 August 1492 to 15 March 1493, that is, the full extent of the outward voyage, including the preparations, the progress through the Bahamas, to the north coast of Cuba and Hispaniola and the return voyage. There is an entry in the digest for the majority of the days covered by the period of the voyage. The main omissions are the period 9 August to 6 September while the fleet was fitting out and provisioning in the Canaries, but the intervening period is summarized. There is another omission for the period 6-12 November when Columbus was unable to sail through bad weather. 17 February also has no entry in the digest. Otherwise, there are only a couple of small lacunae in the text, probably attributable to damage to or the illegibility of the original. The day-to-day structure of the Journal imposed a similar constraint on the digest and seems to have prevented significant loss of coverage. This perhaps is an encouraging sign.

Also encouraging is the fact that the manuscript we have is clearly not a fair copy of a ready-made digest; Las Casas was making the summary as he wrote. There are many corrections in the text, and in the margins. Sometimes errors were detected immediately, sometimes later, when they had to be squeezed in between the lines or put in the margin. In all, there are just over 1,000 corrected errors in the manuscript, most of them quite legible, and a full analysis of them gives a vivid picture of Las Casas struggling to capture the essence of the original text as fully and as succinctly as possible, going back and correcting often quite trivial details where he senses that he has misrepresented the emphasis of the original text. Occasionally, however, as in the case of the correction of `dezía' to `fingía' on 25 September, 5 Las Casas betrays some misunderstanding or misinterpretation of what he is reading.

Las Casas is also careful, as far as is possible, to separate fact from opinion. Overt comment is restricted to the margins of the text, and takes various forms:

• Notes or short summaries to assist in locating the more important events, such as the marginal note marking the first landfall on 12 October.
• Clarifications or explanations made with the benefit of hindsight. Las Casas had lived in the Caribbean for several years before he began abstracting the text of the Journal and is often able to correct Columbus's first impressions. When, on 17 October, Columbus describes the straw crowns on the roofs of the native houses as chimneys, Las Casas records the mistake in the text and notes the correct explanation in the margin (see Note 56, p. 247).
• Criticism of the Admiral's actions and praise of the Indians. When Columbus says that 1,000 Indians live together in fifty huts, Las Casas comments in the margin that this is a sign that they are amicable (6.11), and when Columbus records that an Indian who had been released from captivity on the understanding that he would return the next day had failed to come back, Las Casas observes in the margin `What a fool!' (6.11)
• The word `no[ta]', used to indicate a point of interest or one which will require explanation at some later date. Many of these instances are precisely those which Las Casas later expanded when writing up the digest into the finished version of the Historia de las Indias .

Las Casas's use of the margin of the manuscript as he proceeds seems, then, to indicate in general a feeling for the distinction between fact and comment and a willingness to keep the two apart as far as is possible.

Verbatim transcription and summary

Las Casas began the digest by assuming that he would make a summary of the entire Journal. He writes at the top of the first page:

... This is the first voyage with the courses and route which the Admiral don Christopher Columbus took when he discovered the Indies, set down in an abbreviated form, except for the prologue to the Monarchs which is given in full and begins ...

That is, everything will be summarized, except the prologue, which will be given verbatim. Las Casas promptly forgot this distinction. The first entry immediately following the prologue, 3 August, is also written in the first person, and thereafter a substantial portion of the Journal is transcribed verbatim, or at least, in the first person. Usually this is indicated by words which introduce direct speech (`he says', `says the Admiral at this point') or which refer back (`those are his own words'). Very often small stretches of verbatim text are not introduced as such and are detectable only by changes in point of view and in the person of the verb. There are also many cases where the text is a mixture of direct and indirect speech:

Here the Admiral says that those indications came from the west, where I hope that Almighty God, in whose hands all victories are found, will soon grant us land . (17.9)

On arrival in the New World, whole entries are written in the first person. All the entries from 11-24 October are in what are ostensibly the Admiral's own words, as are the entries for 6, 12, 27 November, and several of the December entries, when Columbus was in Hispaniola, contain extensive verbatim sections. In all, about 20% of the digest is in the first person and appears to record the Admiral's own words.

The two parts of the Journal, first-person verbatim text and third-person summary, therefore provide a means of contrasting Columbus's contribution with that of Las Casas, and of judging how much of Columbus's original input is still detectable in the summary. Here the linguistic evidence, summarised by Ralph Penny at the end of this Introduction, is very important. There are many indications both in the summary and verbatim sections of non-standard usage in lexis, morphology and syntax which have survived at least two stages of transcription. As we might expect, the errors are those commonly committed by foreign learners of Spanish: pronouns, relatives, subjunctives. One of Columbus's most endearing errors is his mangling of the phrase `desnudos como sus madres los parió' (`naked as their mothers bore them') which he consistently uses with a singular verb, and which Las Casas respects in the digest but corrects in his own Historia to `como su madre los parió' or `como sus madres los parieron'.

It is also important to bear in mind that not only was Columbus's Spanish that of a non-native speaker, but there was also a lapse of anything up to 30 years between the time when Columbus wrote and the time when Las Casas summarized and transcribed him. If the transcription is accurate, features of the language which were undergoing change at this time should be reflected differentially in the verbatim and summary sections of the text. An investigation of initial f- against initial h- , for example, shows this to be the case. 6

One particular feature of Columbus's written style which survives in Las Casas's summary is his use of repetitive and what one might call formulaic description. One of the striking features of the digest is the way it repeatedly supplies information which Las Casas certainly knew, and which he in any case did not need to repeat because at the time he was writing for his own eyes alone. Ten times, for example, he tells himself that a `canoa' is a boat made from a single piece of wood. Five times he reminds us that Martín Alonso Pinzón is the captain of the Pinta; indeed, the phrase becomes something of an epic epithet. Other small and relatively trivial examples of repetitive and formulaic description include his frequent comparison of the calm sea on the outward journey with the river at Seville:

All those days he had a very calm sea, like the river at Seville. (18.9)

They had a sea like the river at Seville, thanks be to God , the Admiral says; the sweetest of breezes, like April in Seville, such that it is a pleasure to be in them, so fragrant are they . (8.10)

He says that it seems to him that the whole of that sea must always be calm like the river at Seville ... (29.10)

... the breezes he says are very gentle and sweet, as in Seville in April and May, and the sea , he says, is always calm, thanks be to God . (20.1)

The allusion to the pleasant climate of Andalusia in April and May is also a formula which appears several times:

Here the Admiral says that today and thenceforth they always encountered the most gentle breezes, that the enjoyment of the morning was a great pleasure, that all they needed was to hear nightingales, he says; and the weather was like April in Andalusia. (16.9)

During this time I wandered among those trees which were more beautiful to look at than anything else that has ever been seen; I saw as much greenery as in May in Andalusia ... (17.10)

Here and in all the island everything is green and the vegetation is like April in Andalusia. (21.10)

And there are many other examples. Compare, too, his account of the `niames', the sweet potatoes which were an important part of the Indians' diet, which on three separate occasions (4.11, 13.12, 16.12) he says look like carrots and taste like chestnuts. If Las Casas were not summarizing fairly closely, he would have undoubtedly spared himself the effort of writing out the same thing several times.

As for Columbus himself, there are many reasons why the ways in which he describes places, events and impressions tend to be stereotyped. Undoubtedly he suffered from the limitations of vocabulary or range of expression which someone writing in a foreign language might be excused. But Columbus was not naive where language was concerned; for all his imperfect command of Spanish, Columbus understood what any writer understands - the power of language to constitute reality. Many times in the Journal Columbus comments on the importance of language in conquest, and the disadvantages under which he labours because he cannot understand the Indians and they cannot understand him. Columbus's initial impression of the docility of the Indians is like a closed door which requires only to be unlocked by the power of language for them to carry out the designs of the Spanish Crown:

... he says that the only thing needed is to know the language and give them orders ... (21.12)

This task would, he says, be much easier in the Caribbean than in Guinea, for example, because here ` the language is one and the same in all these islands ' whereas in Guinea `... there are a thousand different languages, with one not understanding the other .' (12.11)

Columbus understands, too, the power of naming. He gives the islands, the headlands, the bays `Christian' names, and he does so in the full knowledge of what the islands are `really' called in the language of the inhabitants. When he baptises them he `names' them, he does not `re-name' them.

This is not a picture of a linguistic novice, not least when he admits that language - or his poor command of it - cannot do justice to his achievement: `... a thousand tongues would not suffice to give the Monarchs an account of what they had seen, and his hand could not write it ...' (27.11) Rather, what it suggests is that the repetitive, somewhat formulaic language of the Journal is not just of use in evaluating the accuracy or otherwise of Las Casas's summary, but also gives us an important clue to the nature of Columbus's descriptive language and the way that he uses it. It also returns us to the key question of what Columbus's purpose was in writing his Journal.

The aim of the Journal

We are used to thinking of Columbus and the later generations of conquistadores as free agents, pioneers, driven by ideals and lusts of their own devising beyond the margins of the society they left behind. But this was almost never the case. Wherever they went, the conquistadores were constrained by a far-reaching network of controls administered with varying degrees of success by the Crown and the Church. Although they were always in conflict with that bureaucracy, they could not ignore it. When Columbus went ashore on the morning of Friday 12 October 1492 he had with him four individuals who embodied these forces in tension. On the one hand he had the brothers Martín Alonso and Vicente Yáñez Pinzón, captains of the Pinta and the Niña, archetypal adventurers, fractious and disobedient, always on the lookout for private gain. On the other, he had two Crown officials, the secretary of the expedition, Rodrigo de Escobedo, and the accountant, Rodrigo Sánchez de Segovia.

The presence of the two officials hardly seems to fit the popular image of the 1492 voyage as a do-or-die mission led by a hare-brained visionary. But they were there because when Columbus sailed he did so under the auspices of what was fast becoming a very efficient, modern, bureaucratic state. The system of conciliar government which Ferdinand and Isabel were in the process of setting up would provide the newly-unified Spain with a powerful mechanism for administering a huge empire with a high degree of centralised control. The delegation of much of the work of discovery and conquest to private individuals like Columbus was not done without strict contractual obligations which were, in theory at least, closely monitored. The secretary and the accountant were there to keep tabs on progress, look after the Crown's interests and see that all the proper formalities were carried out. And when the first landing was made, it was they who officially witnessed the documents which formally constituted the act of possession.

The rate at which the central administration in Spain kept pace with territorial expansion in the New World is impressive indeed. By 1503, the enterprise of the Indies was being run by its own administrative unit in Seville, the Casa de Contratación. The head of this unit, Juan Rodríguez de Fonseca, Isabel's chaplain and later Bishop of Burgos, kept a remarkable degree of control over activities which were going on at the furthest edge of the known world. In 1524, as the network of governorships and tribunals grew in the Caribbean and the mainland, the Empire of the Indies acquired its own Council of State.

As the extent of the newly-discovered territories grew ever greater, there sprang up alongside the conquistadores a shadowy army of clerks and secretaries, recording the events for posterity and maintaining a discreet surveillance in the process. There was, it seems, no conquest without writing. As John Elliott has put it, `Royal officials in the Indies, theoretically at large in the great open spaces of a great New World, in practice found themselves bound by chains of paper to the central government in Spain. Pen, ink and paper were the instruments with which the Spanish crown responded to the unprecedented challenges of distance implicit in the possession of a world-wide empire.' 7

But the written records were not always created by civil servants and Crown officials. The conquistadores themselves often turned their own hands to writing, and between them they built up a huge volume of accounts of discovery and conquest which constitute an important chapter in Spanish and Latin-American literary history. In this they were following Columbus's own example. During the homeward journey, on Thursday 14 February, he records how, at the height of a terrible storm, fearing that if he were to perish Their Majesties would have no news of his voyage, he took a piece of parchment and wrote on it everything he could about everything he had found, beseeching whomsoever might find it to take it to the Monarchs. He then wrapped the parchment tightly in a waxed cloth and cast it afloat in a large wooden barrel.

Columbus's despair at the thought that everything he had achieved could easily go to the bottom of the ocean brought home to him how, in the end, words are much more important than deeds when one is working at the edge of the known world and the rewards are to be found at the centre. His writing, then, is characterised by two characteristic qualities which are often in tension in the Journal: the need to be accountable and the need to communicate effectively with the powerful people back in Spain. At times one feels a strong sense of the writer looking over his shoulder, fending off criticism and justifying his actions and decisions. At others he is desperately trying to get the people who hold the keys to reward and recognition to understand and re-live the problems he faces, the terrain, the culture, the sheer size of everything. And all this had to be done when the writer himself was often at a loss to understand the reality he was describing. Before attempting a comprehensive account of the city of Tenochtitlan, Cortés voices a characteristic complaint about the difficulties he faces as a narrator:

Most powerful Lord, in order to give an account to Your Royal Excellency of the magnificence, the strange and marvellous things of this great city of Temixtitan and of the dominion and wealth of this Mutezuma, its ruler, and of the rites and customs of the people, and of the order there is in the government of the capital as well as in the other cities of Mutezuma's dominions, I would need much time and many expert narrators. I cannot describe one hundreth part of all the things which could be mentioned, but, as best I can, I will describe some of those I have seen which, although badly described, will, I well know, be so remarkable as not to be believed, for we who saw them with our own eyes could not grasp them with our understanding. 8

Columbus was the first of a line of shrewd conquerors who learned not just to live with but to harness the power of the document and the written record, and to turn it to their advantage. They learned quickly and effectively how to set the record straight, using the written word to gain political and financial support in the pursuit of their aims. And they used writing to try to stamp political, linguistic and conceptual authority on the unknown. But the reality all too often rebelled.

The objectives of the 1492 voyage

In order to understand the problems Columbus faced in writing his Journal, it is important to understand his objectives. What was he trying to do, and to what extent did that first landfall confirm or confound his expectations? There are three main statements about Columbus's objectives in three different documents, and as one might expect, they all say different things. First there is the contract made between Columbus and the Crown and signed on 17 April 1492. This document, known as the Capitulaciones , is written in Spanish and sets out the terms of the agreement by which Columbus was to become viceroy and governor-general of any islands and mainland he might discover, the appointment to be hereditary in perpetuity; and, in exchange, the Crown would take 90% of all income from the territories under his jurisdiction. 9

The second document is the passport issued to Columbus to ensure that he received maximum cooperation from any King, Prince, Duke, Marquis, Count, Viscount, Baron, Lord or Lady he might meet on his travels. This document, so that it might more readily be understood in the Far East, was written in Latin, and speaks of Columbus as engaged on matters concerning the service of God and the Catholic religion, `necnon benefficium et utilitatem nostram'. 10

The third statement about objectives comes from the prologue to the Journal itself. This is the longest and most detailed statement and it aims to put the 1492 voyage into a broad religious and diplomatic context. With the ending of the Reconquest in Spain, and the expulsion of the Moors and the Jews, the time was ripe, it suggests, for a diplomatic mission to the lands of the Great Khan to promote the Catholic faith:

Your Highnesses, as Catholic Christians and princes devoted to the holy Christian faith and the furtherance of its cause, and enemies of the sect of Mohammed and of all idolatry and heresy, resolved to send me, Christopher Columbus, to the said regions of India to see the said princes and the peoples and lands and determine the nature of them and of all other things, and the measures to be taken to convert them to our holy faith; and you ordered that I should not go by land to the East, which is the customary route, but by way of the West, a route which to this day we cannot be certain has been taken by anyone else.

The idea of a religious alliance with the Far East directed against Islam was a very long-standing one in the European mind; so long-standing, in fact, that the last Mongol Emperor of China, the Great Khan to which Columbus refers, had been deposed in 1368.

Clearly, if we take each of these documents at face value and assume that Columbus was trying to do all of those things, we get a mishmash of strategic objectives - scientific, economic, diplomatic and religious - which is so diffuse as to guarantee disaster. Columbus's objectives undoubtedly were unclear, but there was also, I believe, a firm sense of priorities underlying them. While the Capitulations speak entirely in terms of discovery and conquest, the terms used - `descubrir' and `ganar' (literally `discover' and `gain' or `win') - are formulae which appear frequently in comparable documents licensing expeditions in the Atlantic. To that extent, the Capitulations need to be seen more as a pro-forma agreement drafted in very general terms to cover any eventuality than as a specific set of commands. For that reason, the more detailed statements of objectives which appear in the passport and the Journal appear to take priority. Columbus, then, was not primarily trying to discover anything at all. He was simply trying to get somewhere he had never been before, by a route no one had ever used, to make contact with a ruler who had been deposed 124 years earlier.

Now there is nothing inherently contradictory about each of the objectives as they have been stated - it is quite possible to be aiming for a known port of call, and to come across some previously unknown territory in the process; the Atlantic, everyone knew, was peppered with islands which Spain and Portugal had been busily identifying and colonising throughout the fifteenth century. But if one is prepared for both the expected and the unexpected there will come a point in the voyage when the commander will have to decide: is this new phenomenon something he knows about and is expecting, or is it something unforeseen?

No one can blame Columbus for failing in his main objective; in failing to reach China he was wholly the victim of circumstance. But Columbus went on to compound his failure. At the first landfall and in the weeks that followed, he was apparently unable to make that crucial distinction between something foreseen and something unforeseen. In this, he was also a victim, but this time, perhaps, he was a victim of his preparation.

The preparations for the 1492 voyage

In terms of navigation, the preparation for the 1492 voyage was extraordinarily thorough. It had to be, for in aiming to reach a known destination by an unknown route, the very success of the enterprise depended on reducing unknown factors to a minimum. Planning was everything, not just because his life and those of his crews were at stake, but because Columbus had no means of his own, and if he was to obtain the funding for the expedition he had to convince his sponsors that there was a good chance of success, and a return on their investment. This was a particularly important consideration when the Portuguese voyages to Guinea were consistently self-financing and a much safer bet. The Catholic Monarchs were not in the business of funding disinterested research.

In planning his project Columbus did what anyone would do in the circumstances, that is, he tried to limit the number of unknown factors by thorough research. He made an extensive search of the available geographical literature, he consulted all the leading European geographers, and made sure that he got access to the best available maps, charts and guidebooks. His research told him what all the best geographers knew: that of course a western route to the east was a theoretical possibility and always had been. The difficulty was knowing if it was a practical proposition. There was a strong and growing body of opinion that the distances involved were not impossibly great, and as the true size of Africa became apparent throughout the 1480s, many were saying that the time had come to take a serious look at the western route. Columbus's reading and interpretation of the evidence of classical geographers was confirmed by a family of maps drawn by Henricus Martellus and Francesco Roselli in Florence, by Martin Behaim's globe made in Nuremberg, and by his own calculations based on first-hand observations made during extensive sailing experience in the Atlantic. All the evidence pointed to a transatlantic voyage from the Canaries to Japan of around 2,400 miles.

Columbus's presentation of his plan to the Portuguese coincided unhappily with the news of Bartolomeu Dias's rounding of Cape of Good Hope in 1488, a success which revived faith in the viability of the southern route to the East. When Columbus turned to Spain, he was met by a cool response from a government which was still too preoccupied by the Reconquest to show any great interest in the rather remote possibility of scoring a point off their long-standing rivals. Nevertheless, Columbus lobbied with great vigour, his Genoese friends in Seville came up with some financial backing and the Crown contributed two caravels, the Pinta and the Niña, whose participation came as the result of a fine imposed on the town of Palos. The expedition left Palos on 3 August 1492, and on the morning of 12 October, 2,400 miles out into the Atlantic, just where he said it would be, he found land.

The landfall and its aftermath

The reality that confronted Columbus in the days following the landfall was, in some ways, a great disappointment, and the conflict between his expectations and the evidence of his eyes has been the object of a great deal of comment. Where he expected to find the sophisticated subjects of the Great Khan and the bustling ports of the Orient, he found naked innocents and little else. In a sense he was the victim of a cruel coincidence, but he was also unduly fixated by the written authority of charts and books, and for that he must take some of the blame. The days immediately following the landfall were therefore a period of crisis in Columbus's thinking, but he managed that crisis remarkably well. He was very resourceful, and he devised a number of strategies for coping with the mismatch between reality and expectation.

The most obvious one was closely tied in with his operational decision-making: what should he do now, where should he go next? While he could not admit that he was not in the Orient - to admit that was to admit the failed objective of the whole voyage - he could properly admit that he was not quite where he wanted to be. This strategy is a very effective one in terms of keeping spirits up, keeping the expedition going and giving it a sense of purpose. In explanatory terms it is even more effective because the real objective is always constituted elsewhere, and writing is the perfect medium for doing just that, giving the products of the imagination substance in the text. Large parts of the Journal are designed to construct an alternative reality beyond the horizon. So while the characteristic gesture of the voyage is an out-stretched arm and a pointing finger - what we seek is on the next island - that gesture has a number of rhetorical equivalents in the Journal. One of the most commonly-used nouns in the Journal is `gold' although no gold worth speaking of was found on the first voyage; and what was found is always referred to as `samples'. Simply talking about gold often enough helps to create a strong impression of substance, or holds out the strong likelihood of substance.

By the same token, one of the most commonly-used groups of words in the Journal used to describe Columbus's impressions is that related to `marvellous'. Columbus's use of this and related words is closely tied to another rhetorical strategy which also has a counterpart in operational terms. Operationally, if what he is looking for is not here, and is therefore somewhere else, he needs a means of deciding which way to go and whether he is making any progress. The first one is easy - just follow the signs marked `gold' - but the second one involves finding a substitute for gold to which an incremental rhetoric can reasonably be applied. The substitute he uses most often is landscape, and Columbus's growing sense of the marvellous is an important element in the success of this strategy.

In the early pages of the Journal, Columbus is very keen to make everything seem familiar. There are constant references back to the Spanish experience; everything is just like Spain, like spring in Andalusia, like the river in Seville, like the hills behind Córdoba. But as the voyage progresses, and particularly off the coasts of Cuba and Hispaniola, Columbus shows a much greater willingness to concede difference, to make things exotic. One can appreciate why he might want to refer back to common experience with the absent addressee in mind, and why on the outward voyage especially, he might want to give a strong sense of predictability almost, of a sense that everything is just as he expected. But once arrived, and in view of his limited success, he has to adopt a different posture. No one, having sailed to the other end of the earth wants to have to write back that `it's just like Spain'.

Columbus's response to the natural beauty of the islands is undoubtedly genuine, but it is also strategic. Each island is the most beautiful that eyes have ever seen. The trees are green, straight and tall, fragrant, and full of singing birds. The rivers are deep, and the harbours wide, wide enough to embrace all the ships of Christendom. His eyes never tired of looking nor his ears of listening. `He praises all this very highly', Las Casas sums up at one point (25.11), evidently lacking Columbus's own stamina for hyperbole. On 25 November, Columbus assures Their Majesties that the reality is a hundred times greater than his description. By 5 January inflation had taken that to a thousand. And all the time Columbus's incremental rhetoric - this bay is more commodious than that, these people more intelligent than those, this island richer and more marvellous than that - is skilfully deployed to encourage the sense that he is getting warmer and warmer.

Morison has argued that Columbus's descriptions are not extravagant for the 1490s. 11 Undoubtedly the islands were heavily wooded and rich in exotic flora and fauna. But what we have in the Journal is not really a description, and to judge it in those terms is to misunderstand the genre to which this text belongs. For all Columbus's empiricism in the execution of the voyage, his account of it has more in common with travellers' tales than with a ship's log. Travellers' tales are supposed to be marvellous, and what Columbus describes is not so much what he saw, as the sense of wonder with which he saw it.

That is all very well, say the Crown officials, but beautiful views cannot be turned into cash. Columbus's answer appears to be: cut the trees down and turn them into ships, develop the natural resources for economic ends, and, of course, where there are such wonderful things, who can doubt that there are many more things of value yet to be discovered? Columbus anticipates in the Journal many of the forms of exploitation of both human and natural resources which will lead in a very short time to the total destruction of a whole way of life in the Caribbean. But, in privileging the landscape, even if for want of anything of more tangible value, Columbus inevitably calls up associations in the European mind with rural worth versus urban decadence, and in doing so he raises important questions about the nature of the inhabitants which point to a fundamental contradiction in Columbus's mind. Underlying what appears to be a systematic search for the epicentre of this oriental civilisation there is a network of contradictory behaviour and discourse which allows us to glimpse his sense of failure which is never explicitly articulated.

Native inhabitants

In an important and influential study of the origins of the cannibal mythology in the Journal, Peter Hulme has argued that it contains two conflicting discourses, of civilisation and savagery. 12 As the absence of cities, and therefore of gold, becomes more apparent, an alternative discourse emerges in which gold in the form of artifacts, to be traded for or plundered, is replaced with the idea of gold as an element to be dug from the earth. Marco Polo gives way to Herodotus. At the same time the docility of the natives - on which Columbus frequently comments, particularly in the early stages - is superceded by a growing fascination with the possibility that there may be another more aggressive and therefore more civilised tribe on a neighbouring island who prey on the inhabitants of Hispaniola. However, this conflict, between the native as a thing of value and a thing of no value, is there from the outset and is maintained throughout the first and subsequent voyages.

I have suggested that Columbus evolved some effective strategies for making the best of the reality which presented itself to him, and that he implemented these in the writing of the Journal with considerable skill. Although the landscape presented him with many opportunities to write up reality, the native inhabitants of the islands were more difficult. The Indians wore no clothes, in contrast to the rich robes described by Marco Polo, and this was a truth which was too naked to be covered up. But Columbus did his best. On 18 December he was visited on board the Santa María by a young chieftain and his entourage of 200 men, of whom four carried him on a litter. `Your Highnesses would no doubt approve of the ceremony and respect with which they all treat him, although they all go naked', writes Columbus, and there follows a set-piece of savage nobility, an acting out by these two leaders of the kind of elaborate ceremonial which would be expected of men of their status in a sophisticated society.

When the cacique comes aboard, Columbus is at table in the sterncastle. The Indian will not allow him to interrupt his meal or rise to greet him. Some food is brought for the visitor and the entourage is ordered outside, with the exception of two men whom Columbus judged to be his advisers and who sat at his feet. Of the food and the drink which are brought, the cacique takes just enough to taste, sending the rest to his men `and all with an amazing gravity and with few words, and those he did speak, as far as I could understand, were very wise and considered, and those two men watched his mouth and spoke for him and with him and with great respect.'

Gifts and pleasantries are exchanged:

After he had eaten, a page brought a belt just like those from Castile in manufacture although the workmanship is different, which he took and gave to me, and two pieces of worked gold which were very thin, because I believe that they get very little of it here, although I hold that they are very close to its source and there is a great deal of it. I saw that he liked a tapestry which I had over my bed. I gave it to him with some very good amber beads which I had around my neck, and some red slippers, and a flask of orange-flower water with which he was so pleased that it was amazing. He and his advisers are very sad because they could not understand me nor I them. Nevertheless, I understood him to say that if I wanted anything from there, the whole island was at my disposal. (18.12)

It takes very little to see in this awesome, well-mannered, softly-spoken and above all generous Indian a not too distant reflection of the Great Khan himself, attended by 12,000 liegemen in token of his power, surrounded by elaborate ritual and held in universal fear.

But though Columbus must find his Great Khan, one way or another, so much of what he says and does on the first voyage gainsays his praise of the land and its people, and that contradiction is evident from the very moment Columbus first goes ashore. If this is a diplomatic mission, why is Columbus's first act one of possession? He has a Latin passport and men aboard who speak Hebrew and Arabic and Chaldean so that he can present his credentials to one of the greatest princes and richest men in the world. Why, then, does he take twopenny trinkets - glass beads and hawks' bells - instead of something to impress the man who has everything? And if he is intent on conquering the lands of the Great Khan, why does he take such a small expedition, no soldiers and minimal weapons?

The answer to this question may well lie in the ceremony which took place on Guanahaní at the first landfall on 12 October. The Journal reads:

... they saw some naked people and the Admiral went ashore in the armed boat with Martín Alonso Pinzón and Vicente Yáñez, his brother, who was the captain of the Niña. The Admiral brought out the royal standard, and the captains unfurled two banners of the green cross, which the Admiral flew as his standard on all the ships, with an F and a Y, and a crown over each letter, one on one side of the + and one on the other. When they landed they saw trees, very green, many streams and a large variety of fruits. The Admiral called the two captains and the others who landed, and Rodrigo de Escobedo, secretary of the expedition, and Rodrigo Sánchez de Segovia, and made them bear witness and testimony that he, in their presence, took possession, as in fact he did take possession, of the said island in the names of the King and Queen, His Sovereigns, making the requisite declarations, as is more fully recorded in the statutory instruments which were set down in writing. (12.10)

The ceremony they enacted had many precedents in Roman and Germanic law and had been often used during the reconquest and the colonisation of the Canaries. 13 The act of possession always took a physical, symbolic form. Columbus would have taken a handful of earth, cut off the branch of a tree, drunk some water or eaten some fruit, or simply imprinted his footsteps on the soil. The mention of trees, water and fruit in the Journal may be an indication of the precise form the ceremony took. But that itself was not enough. Other elements had to be present for the act to be valid in law. There had to be witnesses (the Pinzón brothers); there had to be Crown representatives (the secretary and the accountant); and there had to be someone to give possession. Columbus knew about these formalities, because at the beginning of the prologue of the Journal he describes the handing over of the keys of the Alhambra to Their Majesties by the defeated Boabdil in a ceremony at which Columbus claims to have been present.

Now there were circumstances under which the third element could be dispensed with, that is when the lands being annexed were considered `res nullius', when they belonged to no one. But these, surely, were the lands of the Great Khan; how could they be considered `res nullius'? Clearly, the legal precedents put Columbus in some difficulty; either these lands belonged to someone, or they did not. Evidently, Columbus decided they did not. And if they did not, who were all these people who inhabited them?

Columbus's judgement in this legal matter clearly indicates that he had formed a view at a very early stage about the Taino inhabitants of the Caribbean. They were, it seems, nothing, a tabula rasa on which the Catholic faith and European civilisation had still to be inscribed. His chosen stylus was language, and the book in which this inscription would take place is the Journal. There is, however, an irony underlying Columbus's attempt at linguistic and cultural colonisation through language. We know that he made his first landfall on an island called Guanahaní, an island which he then (re)named `San Salvador'. But to this day no-one knows for certain which island Guanahaní was. In suppressing the Indian name, Columbus has erased the site of his greatest triumph.

Editorial note

The purpose of this new edition of the Journal is to provide a clear, accurate and readable Spanish text which keeps faith as far as possible with the features of the original manuscript. Original orthography has been maintained, but all contractions have been resolved. Las Casas made over 1,000 corrections to the text as he was making the summary and no attempt has been made to document these, but all his marginal notes are retained, as footnotes tied to the nearest appropriate place in the Spanish text.

The punctuation of the original differs considerably from modern usage. Las Casas used three main punctuation marks, a slash and a point (/.), a colon (:), and a slash alone (/), in descending order of importance. An equivalent hierarchy has been used in the edition: a point (.), a semi-colon (;), and a comma (,). Very occasionally some punctuation has had to be added, but this is kept to a minimum.

Verbatim text is printed in italic on both the Spanish and the English pages. Explanatory notes are tied to the English text and follow it.

The language of Christopher Columbus

by R.J. Penny

Columbus was born in Genoa in 1451, and lived there until 1473, when he was 22. Despite some opinions to the contrary, his family was in all probability Genoese, 14 and it is therefore reasonable to assume that his native language was the Genoese vernacular. Through his involvement in the wool trade, he may have become familiar with the commercial Latin of the time, and it is possible that he came into contact with Spanish and/or Portuguese speakers in the busy port (although this is a notion for which there is no direct evidence). What familiarity Columbus had with Tuscan is unknown; the idea that he was a student at Pavia has been discarded as a myth, created by Columbus, and the little that Columbus later wrote in Italian is heavily contaminated by Spanish.

Between the ages of 22 and 25 (1473-6), Columbus was employed as a commercial agent by the great Genoese shipping houses of Paolo di Negro and Ludovico Centurione, for one of whom he undertook a journey to the Greek-speaking island of Chios. The house of Centurione maintained agencies in Seville, Cádiz, and other Spanish ports, but there is no evidence that Columbus worked in or visited such offices.

At the age of 25, Columbus was shipwrecked off the coast of Portugal, and for the next nine years (1476 to the end of 1485) he made his home in Lisbon. During this time, he made voyages to England and Iceland, and to West Africa, as well as visits to Genoa and other Mediterranean ports, but for most of the period Columbus found himself in a Portuguese-speaking environment. Even before marrying a Portuguese wife in 1480, it can be assumed that he learned to speak Portuguese; after his marriage, it is a near certainty. At least from 1480, Columbus became involved in the social and intellectual life of Portugal, and it is probable that at the same time as he was formulating his projects for discovery he was also learning to write Spanish, in accordance with the practice of many educated Portuguese of the time. 15 In all probability, Spanish was the first language Columbus learned to write; there is no evidence that he ever learned to write Portuguese, and he could barely write Italian.

At the age of 34, Columbus moved to Spain and had his home there until his death. For most of this period (1485-1506) he was in the service of the Catholic Monarchs, and his various writings are almost exclusively in Spanish, even in the case of letters addressed to Italians. The few notes made by Columbus in Italian are, as we noted above, full of hispanisms.

Columbus's written Spanish

The evidence summarized in the previous section suggests that the only language Columbus learned to write was Spanish. He was at least 25 when he began this learning process, and it would be natural to assume that, as in the case of all adult language-learners, his native speech (i.e., Genoese, not Italian) would have interfered with and distorted his written Spanish. Furthermore, because of the fact that he was learning to write Spanish after learning to speak Portuguese and in a milieu where the native language was Portuguese, it would be unsurprising to find that the language he learned to speak in Portugal should have influenced the way he wrote Spanish. There are some instances where these two outside influences (Genoese and Portuguese) can be expected to conspire; that is, there are features of development which are common to Genoese and Portuguese which are not shared by Spanish. On other occasions, namely where Genoese and Portuguese differ in their development both from each other and from Spanish, it is in theory possible to identify which of the two vernaculars concerned is responsible for a given non-native feature in Columbus's Spanish.

The language of the 1492 Journal

It should be noted at the outset that, since the journal only survives in Las Casas's summary (although with extensive verbatim quotation), it is to be expected that at least some non-native features of Columbus's Spanish would have been filtered out by copyists of the Journal and by Las Casas himself. Such modifications are most likely at the level of spelling, possible at the level of morphology and syntax, and perhaps least likely in the case of lexis and semantics.In order to minimize the effect of such standardization, the following discussion is based entirely on those sections of Las Casas's text in which it is evident that he is directly quoting Columbus's words.

Influence exercised jointly by Genoese and Portuguese

• . The absence of diphthong /ue/, /ie/ in cases like al longo de (20.10; vs. luengo [13.10]), aviamento (26.12), pagamento (16.10), may be a case of joint Genoese-Portuguese influence on Columbus's Spanish. This is certainly claimed by Milani. 16 However, Rohlfs claims that the graphs e , o are used in 13th-century Genoese texts to represent diphthongs, which have today receded to remoter parts of Liguria. 17 It is possible (but not proven) that such diphthongs had already been lost from the Genoese vernacular of the 1450s, so that their occasional absence from Columbus's Spanish may indeed be due to Genoese as well as Portuguese influence.
• . The form gavilano (22.10) (for gavilán ) may be due to awareness on Columbus's part that Genoese -ª , -an, Portuguese -ªo often corresponded to Spanish -ano (e.g., Genoese mª , 18 Portuguese mªo , Spanish mano ), although such cross-linguistic comparisons, if they are at work here, have led in this case to an erroneous result.
• . Use of the form non with final /n/ (20.10: una de limpio y otra de non ), unusual at this stage in Spanish, may argue for combined Genoese and Portuguese influence, since in these varieties the negative particle ended in a nasal (e.g., Old Portuguese nom ).
• . Columbus's preference for /r/ in the forms temperada (17.10, 12.11), temperadas (23.10), temperançia (27.11), rather than templar and its derivatives, which were becoming normal in Spanish at the end of the 15th century, perhaps reveals both Genoese and Portuguese influence, since both these varieties continued (and continue) to use forms with /r/. Additionally, absence of syncope may be due to Genoese, where syncope is less frequent than in Hispano-Romance. 19
• . Columbus's use of monosyllabic nos , rare in late 15th-century Spanish, to the exclusion of nosotros (e.g. porque dé buenas nuevas de nos [15.10, 16.10]; vinieron a nos [17.10]) is perhaps due to the fact that contemporary Genoese and Portuguese used monosyllabic forms of the corresponding pronoun.
• . The sense `steal, seize' for the verb prender was probably obsolete in Spanish by the end of the 15th century. Its use by Columbus in this sense (12.11) is arguably due to the fact that in both Genoese and Portuguese, the verb prender continued to be used with this value.

Influence exercised by Genoese alone

Such evidence is hard to come by, owing to the scarcity of sources of information on 15th-century Genoese, so that the following cases must be viewed with caution. Evidence is often available from medieval Italian (i.e., Tuscan) sources, but it goes without saying that such data by no means necessarily imply that a given form was used in contemporary Genoese. Caution is all the more necessary in that we have seen that it cannot be established that Columbus was a fluent user of `standard' Italian.

• . The otherwise unprecedented form símplice(s) `simple', used by Columbus in 14.10, may owe its form to interference from a Genoese cognate of Italian sémplice . Likewise, the final vowel of doblo (26.12) may be accounted for in similar manner (cf. Italian doppio ). Doblo does not elsewhere appear in Spanish until 1640, and then only as a legal term. 20
• . Columbus uses the words diforme and disforme in the sense `different' ( muy diformes de los nuestros [16.10], disformes de los nuestros [16.10, 17.10], with the same meaning as in tan diversas de las nuestras [19.10]). Such a meaning is associated with late medieval and Renaissance Italian disforme 21 and may conceivably have been attached to a cognate Genoese term, introduced unconsciously by Columbus into his Spanish. Similar arguments can be applied to Columbus's use of estimulados `excited, worried' (22.9), infra ( infra la tierra `inland' [27.11]), and to temporejar `to delay, stand off (a coast)' (15.10, 20.10). For the latter verb Milani (pp. 155-6) quotes cases of late medieval and Renaissance Italian temporeggiare , `id.', a Genoese cognate of which Columbus may have introduced into his Spanish; the Spanish verb does not otherwise appear until the late 19th century, when it is borrowed from Catalan or Portuguese.
• . Columbus uses the verb ser in impersonal constructions, as the equivalent of impersonal haber . Thus: es [= hay ] en estas tierras grandíssima suma de oro (12.11); adonde es [= hay ] mill maneras de lenguas (12.11); es [= hay ] tanto (29.12); que más mejor gente ni tierra puede ser [= haber ] (24.12). Since such a construction does not occur in Spanish or Portuguese, we may be dealing with a case of interference from Genoese, if it can be shown that 15th-century Genoese was like Tuscan in using the verb `to be' in this way. It should be noted that Columbus also uses aver (modern haber ) in this role.

Influence exercised by Portuguese alone

Evidence of such interference in Columbus's Spanish is abundant and, in some instances, has long been known. 22

• . The verb sufrir `suffer' appears spelt with ç- ( çufriré [9.1]). It is not inconceivable that this spelling reveals that the Portuguese Columbus learned was subject to incipient merger of /s/ and /ts/ (since seseo had begun in Southern Portuguese in the 13th century, even if it did not become fully acceptable in educated usage until the mid-16th century. 23 However, such a hypothesis is weakened by the fact that this verb is also spelt with ç- (five instances) in the non-verbatim sections of Las Casas's summary.
• . Raising of atonic /o/ to /u/, not unknown in non-standard varieties of Castilian, is regular in Portuguese, and may account for Columbus's use of cudiçia `greed' (25.12, 26.12).
• . The form convertería (11.10; vs. convertirán [6.11, 27.11]), as well as reflecting vocalic uncertainty similar to the preceding case, may reveal interference in Columbus's Spanish of the Portuguese infinitive converter .
• . Cogujos `buds (?)' (4.11) is conceivably a falsely castilianized form of a Portuguese word. Latin CUCULLIO, -ONIS `hood' might be expected to provide Portuguese * cogulhªo , or conceivably by back-formation * cogulho . The latter form may have been the one learned by Columbus, for which he invented a non-existent Castilian cognate.
• . Multidumbre `multitude' (12.11) appears to be a blend created by Columbus from separate components of Spanish muchedumbre and Portuguese multidªo `id.'.
• . Columbus confuses the pronouns el and lo , using lo as a masculine ( lexos de lo uno y de lo otro [= del uno y del otro ], with reference to geographical locations [1.11]). This confusion is likely to be due to the dual masculine and neuter function of the Portuguese pronoun o .
• . The masculine gender of nariz (11.10, 15.10 17.10 22.10; vs. fem. twice at 13.10) and of señal 18.12 (vs. fem. at 1.11 and 12.11) probably reveals Portuguese influence, since the Portuguese cognates of these words are masculine. However, in the second case, Genoese may have conspired with Portuguese, if the Genoese cognate was masc., as is the Italian segnale .
• . The verb tener is used as an auxiliary to form the perfect and other compound tenses with some frequency in Golden-Age Spanish. However, the consistency with which Columbus uses this auxiliary (rather than haber ) argues for considerable Portuguese influence on his Spanish. E.g., aquellos hombres que yo tenía tomado (14.10), como tenía determinado (23.10); tengo determinado de la rodear (16.10); desnuda como dicho tengo (4.11); como hasta aquí tienen fecho (6.11); tengo hablado del sitio (27.11); menos de lo que yo tengo dicho (24.12).

It has long been known that Columbus's Spanish contains items of Portuguese vocabulary not elsewhere attested in Spanish, or not attested there until later. Among such items we find: angla `inlet of the sea' (19.10; probably Portuguese angra `id.', castilianised by Columbus; Castilian angra is attested only from 1573, 24 arambel `bed-cover' (18.12) (< Portuguese alambel `id.', otherwise attested only from 1527, corredíos `straight, smooth (hair)' (13.10), fugir `to flee' ( fugir , fugió , fugeron , se avía fugido [15.10], se avían fugido [21.10], fugir [21.10, 27.11]; vs. fuyen [12.11], huyr [16.12]).

Other evidence of Columbus's imperfect learning of Spanish

In the following cases it can be argued that we are witnessing errors typical of those made by an adult learner of a second or subsequent language. In the absence of detailed information on 15th-century Genoese, these departures from the Castilian norm are not here assigned to interference from Columbus's native language (or from any previously learned language), although subsequent investigation may reveal that they are interference errors.

• . Columbus twice uses ningúnd (27.11), perhaps modifying ningún in imitation of según , which genuinely alternated with segúnd in medieval and early modern Spanish. 25 Columbus uses the form segúnd at 12.12.
• . The verb-form andássemos (19.10), for standard andoviéssemos or anduviéssemos , although not totally unprecedented in the history of Spanish, is likely to be an adult language-learner's error, perhaps ultimately due to the regular nature (if this is indeed the case) of the cognate verb in Genoese.
• . The relative pronoun qui was ousted by quien in the 13th century. 26 Columbus nevertheless uses this pronoun ( un cabo a qui yo llamé el Cabo Hermoso [19.10]; este, a qui yo digo Cabo Fermoso [19.10]; uno se llegó a qui yo di unos cascaveles [21.10]); he must either have picked up this archaism from his reading of Spanish, or it is due to some (unidentified) outside interference.
• . Columbus's use of the Spanish personal pronouns is notoriously confused. Like some speakers (but few writers) of Spanish, he uses le with plural value (additionally confusing direct with indirect object function): y si se le [= los ] trastorna, luego se echan todos a nadar (13.10); de siete que yo hize tomar para le [= los / les ] llevar y deprender nuestra lengua (14.10); muchas vezes le [= les ] entiendo una cosa por otra (27.11); porque ... le [= les ] obedezcan (26.12); yo no le [= les ] dexé tocar (21.10); como le [= les ] amuestran (1.11). He also uses le (for standard lo ) in reference to non-animate (including mass) nouns: yo no le falle [sc. oro ] (15.10); sin le [sc. algodón ] llevar a España (12.11); que todos le [sc. acatamiento ] tienen (18.12). In the following case, le is used as a feminine direct object form (i.e., for standard la ): nos le [sc. a la sierpe ] seguimos dentro (21.10). Similarly, as in some of the phrases listed first in this paragraph, Columbus confuses plural los with les : los pareçe a ellos (19.10). Finally, his use of tonic ello to refer to mass nouns, although non-standard, is similar to the present-day usage of northern and north-western dialect areas: 27 tenía grandes vasos de ello [sc. de oro ] (13.10), topar en ello [sc. oro ] (19.10). However, él and ella also appear in this role: aquí alcançan poco de él [sc. oro ] (18.12), no e podido aver de ella [sc. resina ], salvo muy poquita ( sic ) (12.11), while ello on one occasion has a count-noun as its referent: la entrada de ello [sc. del puerto ] (14.10).
• . Like many non-standard speakers of Spanish today, Columbus sometimes pluralizes finite forms of the verb haber when they are used with impersonal value: an en ella 5 leguas (15.10), an en ella más de diez leguas (15.10). However, both ay and ( h ) a are also found with plural complements.
• . Unless we are dealing with an error of transcription by Las Casas, Columbus confuses indicative and subjunctive mood in the following case: no me pareçe que las puede aver (27.11).

One or two items of Columbus's vocabulary may be due to imperfect learning. I find no corroborative trace of the verb asensar ( asensar la ánima [14.2]), which is conceivably an error for assentar `to calm'. Oppósito `(personal) opposition' (15.3) likewise appears to lack documentation in Spanish as a noun; on its rare appearances, it functions as a participle, alternating with opuesto . In the realm between lexis and syntax, Columbus entirely conflates Spanish salvo and sino , using only salvo (e.g., 23.10, 30.10 12.11, no falta salvo assiento [16.12]). Although other writers occasionally use salvo where the modern language prefers sino , Columbus stands out from his contemporaries by never using sino .

Aspects of Columbus's language which are in keeping with late 15th-century practice

The language of Columbus's Journal is, in a majority of its features, typical, unsurprisingly, of the language used by other late 15th-century writers. Among such features, there are of course a good number which differ from those of the modern standard, and it is worthwhile to note here the most important.

We have noted above that the spelling used by Columbus is very likely to have been `standardized' either by the copyists of the original Journal or by Las Casas himself. However, it is interesting to observe one aspect of Spanish spelling which underwent substantial change between the time of the composition of the journal and its publication in summary form. In 1492, the letter f was still used with two values, that of /f/ (as in favor , fortaleza ) and that of the aspirate /h/, then the normal educated pronunciation appropriate to words like fablar , fazer , fijo , etc. However, some writers, led by Antonio de Nebrija 28 were beginning to use h to indicate /h/ ( hablar , hazer , hijo , etc.). In those parts of Las Casas's text which are evidently verbatim quotations of Columbus's words, we find 88 cases in which f arguably represents Castilian /h/, and 144 cases in which this phoneme is written h . By contrast, in those parts of Las Casas's summary where he is not directly quoting, use of the letter f for the phoneme /h/ is rare. It is likely that Columbus used f spellings in all cases like fablar , fazer , etc., and that in the majority of cases his spelling was replaced by hablar , hazer , etc., but leaving a substantial number of original spellings intact.

Within the word, cases of /h/ were relatively rare in 15th-century Castilian. Columbus spells with f the verb refe [ r ] tar ( rehertar `to dispute, haggle over' [16.10]), and we find both the spellings bofío and bohío for a word, borrowed from Arawak with sense `hut', which almost certainly contained /h/ in that language and therefore also in the receptor language, Castilian.

That these spellings cannot tell us is how Columbus pronounced such words. Had he learned the Castilian pronunciation /h-/, or, having learned his Spanish in Portugal, where the Portuguese words cognate with Spanish fazer / hazer , etc., were pronounced with /f/, did he pronounce some or all of the Spanish words with /f/? The latter pronunciation would have been foreign in his period, but cannot be entirely excluded, since we have independent testimony that Columbus spoke Spanish with a foreign accent.

The morphology of certain words (for verbs, see below) differs from that of their modern counterparts. As mentioned above, we find segúnd (12.12); similarly, one notes vidro `glass' (11.10, etc.), still common in the Golden Age beside vidrio , and peçe `fish' (11.10), the only form used by Nebrija. 29

Verbal morphology still allowed considerable free variation in Columbus's time. In the stem of -ir verbs, variation between /o/ and /u/ continued to be common, irrespective of the structure of the verbal ending; thus Columbus uses forms like sorgí beside surgí , descobrir beside descubrir , descubrí , descubrirán , etc. Similarly, in the 1st pers. sing. pres. ind. and throughout the pres. subj. of inceptive verbs, forms in -sc- compete with those in -zc (e.g., cognosco [15.3], aclaresca [17.10], by contrast with five cases of cognozco and one each of cognozca and cognozcan ), and the corresponding forms of the verbs caer, oír, traer may still lack analogical /g/ (thus oyo `I hear' [21.10], vs. traygo `I take' [21.10] and 14 other cases with /g/).

In the preterite of the verb ver `to see', the 1st and 3rd pers. sing. forms may appear with or without /d/. On 11 occasions Columbus uses vi , against 29 cases of vide ; for the 3rd pers., he uses only vido (two cases). In the case of the verbs ser and ir , the 1st pers. sing. preterite form hesitated between fue (the only form recommended for both verbs by Nebrija 30 and fui / fuy . However, in Columbus's use of these forms, he appears to use fue as the preterite of ser (e.g., 15.10, 17.10) and fui / fuy as that of ir (e.g., 17.10, 18.10). In the case of the verb traer , Columbus uses the commonest medieval preterite form, one which was still frequent in the Golden Age: truxeron (15.10, 12.12).

The imperfect of ver `to see' is given its more usual Golden Age form vía (15.10, 18.12), while, more unusually, the participle of ser appears in its medieval guise of seydo (14.1), rather than the by then usual form sido (Nebrija, Gramática , pp. 238-45).

The verb llevar `to take, carry' could, in the 15th century, appear with initial /l/ in those forms in which the word-stress did not fall on the first syllable. Thus Columbus is able to use levar (23.10), levaré (11.10) (against six cases with ll- : llevar , llevamos , llevasen , llevava , llevávamos , llevé ).

In the field of syntax, it should be noted that until about the middle of the 16th century the auxiliary used to form the compound tenses of intransitive verbs (especially verbs of motion) was frequently ser , although haber was becoming dominant in this role. Columbus uses both constructions: si éramos venido ( sic ) del çielo (14.10), éramos venidos del çielo (22.10), todo es venido mucho a pelo (26.12), against nosotros avemos venido del çielo (12.11).

In normal medieval and frequent Golden Age usage, the `personal a' construction is only required where it is otherwise unclear whether a given noun functioned as the subject or object of its clause. Columbus can therefore write, in accordance with contemporary syntactical usage, así truxeron la muger (12.12).

Medieval partitive expressions, based on de + noun or pronoun, continued in use in the early Golden Age. We find cases like buscar del oro `search for some gold' (6.11) which exemplify this usage.

In the late 15th century, the semantic range of words was naturally sometimes different from their present range. Thus the verb ser could still indicate location, as in the following cases: que en ella era (15.10); adonde es el oro (17.10); fue acerca `I was nearby' (17.10); por ser en ella más presto `in order to arrive there' (17.10); aquí ... no es la poblaçión (19.10); adonde entendí ... que era la poblaçión (20.10); es ella en esta comarca (24.10); las otras que son entremedio (21.10). The same verb can be used to indicate non-permanent attributes, fulfilling a role currently fulfilled by the verb estar : [ sus casas ] eran de dentro muy barridas y limpias (17.10).

The verb aver (= modern Spanish haber ) could still in the 15th century indicate `possession': aya lengua con este rey (19.10, 21.10), para aver lengua con este rey (23.10); y ver si puedo aver de él el oro (21.10); aquí se avría grande suma de algodón (12.11); avrán en dicha servir `they will consider themselves fortunate to serve' (12.11); aviendo mugeres (12.11); el benefiçio de que aquí se pueda aver (27.11). However, tener is already found with this value: teniendo sus mugeres (12.11).

The expression después que can mean `since', as in después que en estas Yndias estoy (17.10).

Some of the vocabulary used by Columbus represents the earliest attestation in Spanish of the words concerned. Corominas-Pascual list only later examples of restinga / restringa `(underwater) rock' (14.10, 19.10, 26.12), and the noun tomo ( de tanto tomo `of such importance' [31.12]). Other words no longer current (or current only in modified form) were normal in Columbus's time: alfilel (21.10; cf. Nebrija: alhilel / alfilel ), aviamento (for aviamiento ) `supplies (of food, etc.)' (26.12), enxeridos (now injertados ) `grafted' (16.10), estima `esteem' (15.10), mareantes `sailors' (21.10), refe [ r ] tar `to dispute, haggle over' (16.10, whence the noun refierta / rehierta , now spelt reyerta `quarrel'), roquedos (15.10, 24.10), now replaced by the infrequent roqueda `rocky ground', hazer la salva `to taste food, in case of poison (before a king, etc., eats)' (18.12), ventar (e.g., no ventavan... vientos [22.9], vienta [23.10], ventar muy amoroso [24.10]) `to blow', now ventear .

Amerindian words borrowed by Columbus

It is hardly surprising that Columbus uses few amerindianisms, since his Journal is only intermittently concerned with description of the life and customs of the territories he discovered. He does make attempts at verbal communication with the islands' inhabitants (usually in an effort to gain information on the availability of gold and other commodities), but it appears from his account that such attempts had only limited success. Novel concepts are therefore labelled, for the most part, with the Spanish vocabulary available to Columbus. Thus, the dug-out canoes of the islanders are generally (on 16 occasions) referred to as almadías , while the borrowing canoa appears only four times (all at 17.12). The only other amerindianisms used by Columbus are cacique `Indian chieftain' (17.12), and the disputed ajes `yam' (21.12), which is described by Corominas-Pascual as a `voz de origen antillano', but which may be an arabism. 31 The same plants are referred to as mames (4.11), a variant of (or perhaps a misreading of) niames , a form found in the non-verbatim part of Las Casas's digest of the Journal, later ñames , a word which is possibly of W. African origin. 32

Idiosyncrasies of Columbus's language

Columbus's Spanish sometimes suffers from overcomplexity of syntax, seen in its most opaque form in the prologue of the Journal. On other occasions, one identifies less acute infelicities of style, as in the entry where Columbus is describing the bargaining abilities of different groups of natives: cositas que saben mejor refe [ r ] tar el pagamento que no hazían los otros (16.10). Elsewhere it is difficult to distinguish clumsiness from imperfect learning of Spanish: es en esto mucho de aver gran diligencia (16.10), para otra isla grande mucho (21.10), en todos tres los navíos (27.11), yo he visto solos tres de estos marineros (16.12), más gente al doblo `twice the population' (26.12), no pudiera errar de ver alguna `I could not have failed to see one' (16.10), para pujar a rodear toda la ysla (16.10). The last case is a strange instance of the use of the verb pujar , which usually means `to raise'; the sentence is still odd even if pujar is an error for puxar `to push', since the writer's intended meaning seems to be `to try to sail around the whole island'.

This study of Columbus's language has been based exclusively upon the sections of Las Casas's summary of the Journal in which he explicitly quotes Columbus's words. However, there is no reason to think that the observations made on this portion of Columbus's output are not relevant to his other writings. We have seen that Columbus's native language, Genoese, probably influenced the Spanish he later learned, but that it is easier to identify interference from Portuguese, the language he learned to speak in adulthood before learning to write (and speak) Castilian. Other non-standard features of his language can be put down to inadequate learning of Spanish, while in other ways his language does not depart from the late 15th-century norm. There are few cases of borrowing of Amerindian terms and we have noted certain infelicities of Columbus's style.

Bibliography

There is a vast bibliography relating to Columbus and his age. The following list is restricted to important editions and translations of the Journal, and a small number of major studies of Columbus. The text of Las Casas's digest was unknown until 1790, when Martín Fernández de Navarrete discovered it in the library of the Duque del Infantado. Robert H. Fuson discusses the history of the Journal and its reliability in `The Diario de Colón : A legacy of poor transcription, translation, and interpretation', de Vorsey and Parker, 51-75.

• Manuel Alvar, Cristóbal Colón, Diario del descubrimiento , 2 vols., Madrid: La Muralla, 1976.
• Joaquín Arce and Manuel Gil Esteve, Diario de a bordo de Cristóbal Colón , Turin, 1971.
• Luis Arranz Márquez, Cristóbal Colón, Diario de a bordo , Madrid, 1985.
• Oliver Dunn [partial], `The Diario, or Journal, of Columbus's First Voyage: A New Transcription of the Las Casas Manuscript for the Period October 10 through December 6, 1492', in de Vorsey and Parker, 173-231.
• Oliver Dunn and James E. Kelley, Jr., The `Diario' of Christopher Columbus's First Voyage to America 1492-1493 , Norman and London: University of Oklahoma Press, 1989.
• Martín Fernández de Navarrete, Colección de los viajes y descubrimientos que hicieron por mar los españoles desde fines del siglo quince con varios documentos inéditos , 5 vols., (Madrid, 1825-37), 2, 1-197. [Edited by Carlos Seco Serrano in Obras de D. Martín Fernández de Navarrete , Biblioteca de Autores Españoles, Madrid, 1954, vol. 75.]
• Julio F. Guillén y Tato, El primer viaje de Cristóbal Colón , Madrid, 1943.
• Cesare de Lollis, Raccolta di documenti et studi , 14 vols., Rome, 1892-96.
• Vicente Muñoz Puelles, ed., Cristóbal Colón, Diario de a bordo , Madrid: Anaya, 1985.
• Carlos Sanz, Diario de Colón: Libro de la primera navegación y descubrimiento de las Indias , 2 vols., Madrid, 1962.
• Consuelo Varela, Cristóbal Colón, Textos y documentos completos , Madrid: Alianza, 1982, 2nd edition, 1984.
• Consuelo Varela, Diario del primer y tercer viaje de Cristóbal Colón , Madrid: Alianza, 1989 [vol. 14 of the Obras completas of Fray Bartolomé de las Casas].

Translations

• J.M. Cohen, The Four Voyages of Christopher Columbus , Harmondsworth, 1952.
• Robert H. Fuson, The Log of Christopher Columbus , Southampton: Ashford Press, 1987.
• Cecil Jane, The Voyages of Christopher Columbus , London, 1930. [Revised and annotated by L.A. Vigneras with an appendix by R.A. Skelton, Hakluyt Society, Extra series, 38, London, 1960.]
• Clements R. Markham, The Journal of Christopher Columbus (during his first voyage, 1492-93), and Documents Relating to the Voyages of John Cabot and Gaspar Corte Real , Hakluyt Society, London, 1893.
• Samuel Eliot Morison, Journals and Other Documents on the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus , New York, 1963.
• R.H. Major, trans. and ed., Select Letters of Christopher Columbus, with other Original Documents, Relating to his Four Voyages to the New World , 1st ed. Hakluyt Society 1st series, 2, London 1847; 2nd ed. Hakluyt Society, 1st series, 43, London, 1870. [Re-edited with additional material by Cecil Jane, 2 vols., Hakluyt Society, 2nd series, 65, 70, London, 1930, 1933; reprinted by Kraus Reprint Co., 1967]
• Alain Milhou, Colón y su mentalidad mesiánica en el ambiente franciscanista español , Valladolid: Casa-Museo de Colón, 1983.
• Samuel Eliot Morison, Admiral of the Ocean Sea: A Life of Christopher Columbus , 2 vols, Boston, 1942.
• John Boyd Thacher, Christopher Columbus: His Life, His Work, His Remains , 3 vols., New York, 1903-04, reprinted Kraus, 1962.
• Tzvetan Todorov, La conquête de l'Amérique. La question de l'autre , Paris: Seuil, 1982.
• Henry Vignaud, Toscanelli and Columbus , New York, 1902.
• Louis de Vorsey, Jr. and John Parker, In the Wake of Columbus. Islands and Controversy , Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1985.

The Fourth Voyage of Christopher Columbus

The Famous Explorer's Final Voyage to the New World

• History Before Columbus
• Colonialism and Imperialism
• Caribbean History
• Central American History
• South American History
• Mexican History
• American History
• African American History
• African History
• Ancient History and Culture
• Asian History
• European History
• Medieval & Renaissance History
• Military History
• The 20th Century
• Women's History

Before the Journey

• Hispaniola & the Hurricane

Across the Caribbean

Native encounters, central america to jamaica, a year on jamaica, importance of the fourth voyage.

• Ph.D., Spanish, Ohio State University
• M.A., Spanish, University of Montana
• B.A., Spanish, Penn State University

On May 11, 1502, Christopher Columbus set out on his fourth and final voyage to the New World with a fleet of four ships. His mission was to explore uncharted areas to the west of the Caribbean in hopes of finding a passage to the Orient. While Columbus did explore parts of southern Central America, his ships disintegrated during the voyage, leaving Columbus and his men stranded for nearly a year.

Much had happened since Columbus’ daring 1492 voyage of discovery . After that historic trip, Columbus was sent back to the New World to establish a colony. While a gifted sailor, Columbus was a terrible administrator, and the colony he founded on Hispaniola turned against him. After his third trip , ​Columbus was arrested and sent back to Spain in chains. Although he was quickly freed by the king and queen, his reputation was in shambles.

At 51, Columbus was increasingly being viewed as an eccentric by the members of the royal court, perhaps due to his belief that when Spain united the world under Christianity (which they would quickly accomplish with gold and wealth from the New World) that the world would end. He also tended to dress like a simple barefoot friar, rather than the wealthy man he had become.

Even so, the crown agreed to finance one last voyage of discovery. With royal backing, Columbus soon found four seaworthy vessels: the Capitana , Gallega , Vizcaína , and Santiago de Palos . His brothers, Diego and Bartholomew, and his son Fernando signed on as crew, as did some veterans of his earlier voyages.

Hispaniola & the Hurricane

Columbus was not welcome when he returned to the island of Hispaniola. Too many settlers remembered his cruel and ineffective administration . Nevertheless, after first visiting Martinique and Puerto Rico, he made Hispaniola his destination because had hopes of being able to swap the Santiago de Palos for a quicker ship while there. As he awaited an answer, Columbus realized a storm was approaching and sent word to the current governor, Nicolás de Ovando, that he should consider delaying the fleet that was set to depart for Spain.

Governor Ovando, resenting the interference, forced Columbus to anchor his ships in a nearby estuary. Ignoring the explorer's advice, he sent the fleet of 28 ships to Spain. A tremendous hurricane sank 24 of them: three returned and only one (Ironically, the one containing Columbus’ personal effects that he'd wished to send to Spain) arrived safely. Columbus’ own ships, all badly battered, nevertheless remained afloat.

After the hurricane passed, Columbus’ small fleet set out in search of a passage west, however, the storms did not abate and the journey became a living hell. The ships, already damaged by the forces of the hurricane, suffered substantially more abuse. Eventually, Columbus and his ships reached Central America, anchoring off the coast of Honduras on an island that many believe to be Guanaja, where they made what repairs they could and took on supplies.

While exploring Central America, Columbus had an encounter many consider to be the first with one of the major inland civilizations. Columbus’ fleet came in contact with a trading vessel, a very long, wide canoe full of goods and traders believed to be Mayan from the Yucatan. The traders carried copper tools and weapons, swords made of wood and flint, textiles, and a beerlike beverage made from fermented corn. Columbus, oddly enough, decided not to investigate the interesting trading civilization, and instead of turning north when he reached Central America, he went south.

Columbus continued exploring to the south along the coasts of present-day Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama. While there, Columbus and his crew traded for food and gold whenever possible. They encountered several native cultures and observed stone structures as well as maize being cultivated on terraces.

By early 1503, the structure of the ships began to fail. In addition to the storm damage the vessels had endured, it was discovered they were also infested with termites. Columbus reluctantly set sail for Santo Domingo looking for aid—but the ships only made it as far as Santa Gloria (St. Ann’s Bay), Jamaica before they were incapacitated.

Columbus and his men did what they could, breaking the ships apart to make shelters and fortifications. They formed a relationship with the local natives who brought them food. Columbus was able to get word to Ovando of his predicament, but Ovando had neither the resources nor the inclination to help. Columbus and his men languished on Jamaica for a year, surviving storms, mutinies, and an uneasy peace with the natives. (With the help of one of his books, Columbus was able to impress the natives by correctly predicting an eclipse .)

In June 1504, two ships finally arrived to retrieve Columbus and his crew. Columbus returned to Spain only to learn that his beloved Queen Isabella was dying. Without her support, he would never again return to the New World.

Columbus’ final voyage is remarkable primarily for new exploration, mostly along the coast of Central America. It's also of interest to historians, who value the descriptions of the native cultures encountered by Columbus’ small fleet, particularly those sections concerning the Mayan traders. Some of the fourth voyage crew would go on to greater things: Cabin boy Antonio de Alaminos eventually piloted and explored much of the western Caribbean. Columbus’ son Fernando wrote a biography of his famous father.

Still, for the most part, the fourth voyage was a failure by almost any standard. Many of Columbus’ men died, his ships were lost, and no passage to the west was ever found. Columbus never sailed again and when he died in 1506, he was convinced that he'd found Asia—even if most of Europe already accepted the fact that the Americas were an unknown “New World." That said, the fourth voyage showcased more profoundly than any other Columbus’ sailing skills, his fortitude, and his resilience—the very attributes that allowed him to journey to the Americas in the first place.

• Thomas, Hugh. "Rivers of Gold: The Rise of the Spanish Empire, from Columbus to Magellan." Random House. New York. 2005.
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