34
CHRISTOPHER
COLUMBUS
1451-1506
Born into a family of wool workers near the once supreme Mediterranean port of
Genoa, Christopher Columbus turned to the sea as a young man; developed a plan
to find a commercially viable Atlantic route to Asia; and in 1492 won the support of
the Spanish monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, for this "enterprise of the Indies." His
series of four voyages between 1492 and 1504 produced a brief moment of wonder
followed by a long series of disasters and disenchantments. Apparently friendly relations with the Taino Indians on the island of Hispaniola in 1492 turned sour as the
settlers Columbus left behind demanded gold and sexual partners from their hosts;
on his return there in 1494, none of the Europeans were alive. A new settlement
established on the island following this discovery fell into such disorder during the
absence of Columbus in Cuba and Jamaica that in 1496 he was forced to return to
Spain to clear his name of politically motivated charges made against him by other
Europeans in the Indies. A third y-oyage,begun in 1498, took him for the first time
to the South American mainland; the lushness of nature there made him believe
himself near Paradise, but that illusion vanished when, on his return to Hispaniola,
he encountered Spanish settlers there in open rebellion against his authority. Able
to reach a truce only at the expense of the Taino Indians, who were to be virtually
enslaved by the rebels, Columbus soon found himself under arrest, sent in chains to
Spain in 1500 to answer yet more charges. His last voyage, intended to recoup his
tarnished reputation, resulted in a long period of suffering in Panama and shipwreck
in Jamaica, and these outer woes were accompanied by nearly delusional periods as
Columbus underwent a virtual breakdown. Rescued at last from this extremity, he
returned to Europe, where soon afterward he died. The West Indies, as his discoveries
were called, remained disordered and bloody.
Several documents regarding the four voyages survive from Columbus's hand. The
supposed Journal of his first voyage is actually a summary prepared by the cleric and
reformer Bartolome de las Casas. A letter sent by Columbus to Luis de Santangel, a
royal official and an early supporter of his venture, provides a more authentic account
and served as the basis for the first printed description of America, issued in 1493 in
Spain and widely translated and reprinted across Europe. A memorandum regarding
the second voyage, intended by Columbus for the Spanish monarchs (whose
responses to each point also survive), offers useful insights into the emerging ambiguities and problems of the colony on Hispaniola. For the third and fourth voyages,
three letters from Columbus, two sent to the Crown and one to a woman of the
Spanish court, detail his deepening worldly and spiritual troubles.
The texts are from Select Documents Illustrating the Four Voyages of Columbus,
translated and edited by Cecil Jane (1930-33).
From Letter to Luis de SantangeP
Regarding the First Voyage
[At sea, February 15, 1493]
Sir,
As I kn6w that you will be pleased at the great victory with which Our
Lord has qowned my voyage, I write this to you, from which you will learn
1. A former·merchant
and a court official since 1478 who had supported
..Spanish C(oWl1 and·had helped secure financing for the first voyage.
Columbus's
proposal
to the
LETTER
TO LUIS
DE>SANTANGEL
/
35
how in thirty-three days, I passed from the Canary Islands fo the Indies with
the fleet which the l1).OStillustrious king an~r
our,scl,'yereign.sgave to
me. And there I found very many islands fiTrM~ith pe?pld l¥qurp,e.rable;.and
of them all I have taken possession for their highiiesses,:;by proclamation
made and with the royal standard unfurled, and no opposition was offered
to me. To the first island which I found I gave the name S(;!n Salvador,2 in
remembrance of the Divine Majesty, Who has marvelously bestowed all this;
the Indians call it "Guanahani."To the~econd I gave the name Isla de Santa
Maria de ConGfPci6n; to the third, Fernandina; to the fourth, Isabella; to the
fifth, Isla Juana,3 and so to each one I gave a new name.
.
When I reached Juana I followed its coast to the westward, and I found it
to be so extensive that I thought that it must be the mainland, the province
of Catayo.4 And since there were neither towns nor villages on the seashore,
but only small hamlets, with the people of which I could not have speech
because they all fled immediately, I went forward on the same course, thinking that I should not fail to find great cities and towns. And at the end of
many leagues, seeing that there was no change and that the coast was bearing
me northwards, which I wished to avoid since winterwas already beginning
and I proposed to make from it to the south, and as moreover the wind was
carrying me forward, I determined not to wait for a change in the weather
and retraced my path as far as a certain narbor known to me. And from that
point I sent two men inland to learn if there were a king or great cities. They
traveled three days' journey and found an infinity of small hamlets and people
without number, but nothing of importance. For this reason they returned.
I understood sufficiently from other Indians, whom I had already taken,
that this land was nothing but an island. And therefore I followed its coast
eastwards for one hundred and seven leagues to the point where it ended.
And from that cape I saw another island distant eighteen leagues from the
former, to the east, to which I at once gave the name "Espanola."5 And I
went there and followed its northern coast, as I had in the case of Juana, to
the eastward for one hundred and eighty-eight great leagues in a straight
linerrhis island and all the others are very §;@e to a limitless degree, and
this island is extremely so. In it there are many h
rs on the c st of the
sea, beyond comparison with others which I know i Christendom, nd many
rivers, goo an arge,
I ISmarve ous. Its an s are Ig ,an there are
in it very many sierras and very lofty mountains, beyond comparison with
the island of Tenerife. 6 All are most beautiful, of a thousand shapes, and all
are accessible and filled with trees of a thousand kinds and tall, and they
seem to touch the sky. And I am told that they never lose thei folia e, as I
can understand, for I saw them as green and as ovely as they are in pain
in May, and some of them were flowering, some bearing fruit ~nd some'
anot er
,cor
III
a eIr nature.
t e nig tingale was singing
an ot er ir s a a thousand kinds in t e month of November there where
I went. There are SIXor eIgntkinds of palm, which are a wonder to behold
on account of their beautiful variety, but so are the other trees and fruits
qJiee~
2. The precise identity of the Bahamian island
Columbus named San Salvador is not known
today, although many theories have been put forward.
3. Of these four islands, only the identity ofJuana
(Cuba)
4. I.e.,
5. I.e"
and the
6. The
is today certain.
China (or "Cathay").
Hispaniola, where the countries of Haiti
Dgminican Republic are located.
llirgest of the Canary Islands.
I
36
/
CHRISTOPHER
COLUMBUS
and plants. In it are marvelous pine groves, and there are very large tracts of
cultivatable lands,
is honey,7 and there are birds .of many kinds
.~
diversity.
'theinterior
are mines of metals, and the
population is without num er. Espanola is a marvel.
1493
From Letter to Ferdinand
and Isabella Regarding
the Fourth Voyagel
Uamaica, July 7, 1503]
*
l}c
*
Of Espanola, Paria,2 and the other lands, I never think without weeping.
I believed that their example would have been to the profit of others; on the
contrary, they are in an exhausted state; although they are not dead, the
infirmity is incurable or very extensive; let him who brought them to this
state come now with the remedy if he can or if he lmows it; in destruction,
everyone is an adept. It was always the custom to givethanks andpromotion
to him who imperiled his person. It is not just that he who has been so hostile
to this undertaking should enjoy its fruits or that his children should. Those
who left the Indies, flying from toils and speaking evil of the matter and of
me, have returned with official employment.3 So it has now been ordained
in the case ofVeragua.4 It is an ill example and without profit for the business
and for justice in the world. ,
The fear of this, with other sufficient reasons, which I saw clearly, led me
to pray your highnesses before I went to discover these islands and Terra
Firma, that you would leave them to me to govern in your royal name. It
pleased you; it was a privilege and agreement, and under seal and oath;land
you granted me the'title of Viceroy and admiral and governor general of all.
And you (fixed the bounCl(ary,a hundred leagues beyond the Azores and the
Cape Vercle"1s1ands"by.fl"line~'passin§f.r'om.,pol~4Q•.p01e, ..aRd·you~;gave me
wide power over this and over all that I might further discover. The document
states this very fully.
.
The Lithennost-impmtant matter; which calls aloud for redress, remains
inexplicabk"wthts"moment;"'Seven'years'l-was
at your royal court, where all
to whom'''fhiS'unclettaki'Iig'was mentioned, unanimously declared it to be a
detusibh':Now-ali;" down to the very tailors, seek permission to make discov·edes:·"It:'cafibehelievedthatthey~o.forth,topluncleFf
..andjLis.granted"to
them to',do sq, so that they greatly'prejudice"my'h6noranddo'very-great
damage'to th~enterprise. It is well to give·toGodthatwhiGhcis His due, and
.~
~
7. The honeybee, presumably the source of the
honey found on ~fei"island, is not nfltive to the
Western Hemisphere. Nor is the nightingale, mentioned above.
1. Written on Jal11aica in 1503, this letter was
hand-cflrried from tFiere to Hispaniola by Diego
Mendez.
.,:
,.
2. Paria was the"f!1ai)1land region of what is now
Venezuela, near the island of Trinidad. Columbus,
..
who had first landed in South America ("Terra
Firma," as he terms it later) in 1498, argued that
the terrestrial paradise lay nearby.
3. Although it appears that Columbus has specific
personal enemies in mind, it is not clear who he
means.
4. I.e., Panama, where Columbus was ship~
wrecked earlier in this voyage.
LETTER
TO F!2RDINAND
AND
r~kBELLA
37
/
to Caesar that which belongs to him. This'is a just sentiment and based on
justice.
"
The lands which here obeyryour Highnesses are more exten~,iveand richer
than all other Christian lands. After I, by the divine will, ~ac1:placed them
under your royal and exalted lordship, and was on the poiµt"of securing a
very great revenue, suddenly, while I was waiting for ships lpcome to your
high presence with victory and with great hews of gold, being very secure
and joyful, I was made a prisoner and w.iJ:hmy two brothers was thrown into
a ship, laden with fetters, stripped to the skin, very ill-treated, and without
being tried or condemned. Who will believe that a poor foreigner could in
such a place rise against Your Highnesses, without cause, and without the
support of some other prince, and being alone among your vassals and natural subjects, and having all my children at your royal court?
I came to serve at the age of twenty-eight years, and now I have not a hair
on my body that is not gray, and my body is infirm, and whatever remained
to me from those-years of service has been spent and taken away from me
and sold, and from my brothers, down to my very coat, without my being
heard or seen, to my great dishonor. It must be believed that this was not
done by your royal command. The restitution of my honor, the reparation of
my losses, and the punishment of him who did this, will spread abroad the
fame of your royal nobility. The same punishment is due to him who robbed
me of the pearls, and to him who infringed my rights as admiral.s Very great
will be your merit, fame without parallel will be yours, if you do this, and
there will remain in Spain a glorious memory of Your Highnesses, as grateful
and just princes.
The pure devotion which I have ever borne to the service of Your Highnesses, and the unmerited wrong that I have suffered, will not permit me to
remain silent, although I would fain do"so; I pray Your Highnesses to pardon
me. I am so ruined as I have said; hitherto I have wept for others; now,
Heaven have mercy upon me, and may the earth weep for me. Of worldly
goods, I have not even a blanca6 for an offering in spiritual things. Here in
the Indies I have become careless of the prescribed forms of religion. Alone
in my trouble, sick, in daily expectation of death, and encompassed about by
a million savages, full of cruelty. and our foes, and so separated from the holy
Sacraments of Holy Church, my soul will be forgotten if it here leaves my
body. Weep for me, whoever has charity,' truth, and justice.
I did not sail upon this voyage to gain honor or wealth; this is certain, for·
already all hope of that was dead. I came to Your Highnesses with true
devotion and with ready zeal, and I do not lie. I humbly pray Your Highnesses
that if it please God to bring me forth from this place, that you will be pleased
to permit me to go to Rome and to other places of pilgrimage. May the Holy
Trinity preserve your life and high estate, and grant you increase of prosperity.
Done in the Indies in the island of Jamaica, on the seventh of July, in the
year one thousand five hundred and three.
1505
5. The reference is to Alonso de Ojeda (c. 1468c. 1516), who had taken pearls (part of what was
reserved to Columbus under his agreement with
the Spanish Crown) from Paria to Espanola.
6. A small Spanish coin.