the first voyage purpose

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History Resources

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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The First New World Voyage of Christopher Columbus (1492)

European Exploration of the Americas

Spencer Arnold/Getty Images

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

How was the first voyage of Columbus to the New World undertaken, and what was its legacy? Having convinced the King and Queen of Spain to finance his voyage, Christopher Columbus departed mainland Spain on August 3, 1492. He quickly made port in the Canary Islands for a final restocking and left there on September 6. He was in command of three ships: the Pinta, the Niña, and the Santa María. Although Columbus was in overall command, the Pinta was captained by Martín Alonso Pinzón and the Niña by Vicente Yañez Pinzón.

First Landfall: San Salvador

On October 12, Rodrigo de Triana, a sailor aboard the Pinta, first sighted land. Columbus himself later claimed that he had seen a sort of light or aura before Triana did, allowing him to keep the reward he had promised to give to whoever spotted land first. The land turned out to be a small island in the present-day Bahamas. Columbus named the island San Salvador, although he remarked in his journal that the natives referred to it as Guanahani. There is some debate over which island was Columbus’ first stop; most experts believe it to be San Salvador, Samana Cay, Plana Cays or Grand Turk Island.

Second Landfall: Cuba

Columbus explored five islands in the modern-day Bahamas before he made it to Cuba. He reached Cuba on October 28, making landfall at Bariay, a harbor near the eastern tip of the island. Thinking he had found China, he sent two men to investigate. They were Rodrigo de Jerez and Luis de Torres, a converted Jew who spoke Hebrew, Aramaic, and Arabic in addition to Spanish. Columbus had brought him as an interpreter. The two men failed in their mission to find the Emperor of China but did visit a native Taíno village. There they were the first to observe the smoking of tobacco, a habit which they promptly picked up.

Third Landfall: Hispaniola

Leaving Cuba, Columbus made landfall on the Island of Hispaniola on December 5. Indigenous people called it Haití but Columbus referred to it as La Española, a name which was later changed to Hispaniola when Latin texts were written about the discovery. On December 25, the Santa María ran aground and had to be abandoned. Columbus himself took over as captain of the Niña, as the Pinta had become separated from the other two ships. Negotiating with the local chieftain Guacanagari, Columbus arranged to leave 39 of his men behind in a small settlement, named La Navidad .

Return to Spain

On January 6, the Pinta arrived, and the ships were reunited: they set out for Spain on January 16. The ships arrived in Lisbon, Portugal, on March 4, returning to Spain shortly after that.

Historical Importance of Columbus' First Voyage

In retrospect, it is somewhat surprising that what is today considered one of the most important voyages in history was something of a failure at the time. Columbus had promised to find a new, quicker route to the lucrative Chinese trade markets and he failed miserably. Instead of holds full of Chinese silks and spices, he returned with some trinkets and a few bedraggled Indigenous people from Hispaniola. Some 10 more had perished on the voyage. Also, he had lost the largest of the three ships entrusted to him.

Columbus actually considered the Indigenous people his greatest find. He thought that a new trade of enslaved people could make his discoveries lucrative. Columbus was hugely disappointed a few years later when Queen Isabela, after careful thought, decided not to open the New World to the trading of enslaved people.

Columbus never believed that he had found something new. He maintained, to his dying day, that the lands he discovered were indeed part of the known Far East. In spite of the failure of the first expedition to find spices or gold, a much larger second expedition was approved, perhaps in part due to Columbus’ skills as a salesman.

Herring, Hubert. A History of Latin America From the Beginnings to the Present. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1962

Thomas, Hugh. "Rivers of Gold: The Rise of the Spanish Empire, from Columbus to Magellan." 1st edition, Random House, June 1, 2004.

• Biography of Christopher Columbus
• La Navidad: First European Settlement in the Americas
• Biography of Christopher Columbus, Italian Explorer
• The Third Voyage of Christopher Columbus
• The Second Voyage of Christopher Columbus
• 10 Facts About Christopher Columbus
• The Truth About Christopher Columbus
• The Fourth Voyage of Christopher Columbus
• Biography of Juan Ponce de León, Conquistador
• Amerigo Vespucci, Explorer and Navigator
• Where Are the Remains of Christopher Columbus?
• Biography of Diego Velazquez de Cuellar, Conquistador
• The Florida Expeditions of Ponce de Leon
• A Brief History of the Age of Exploration
• Did Christopher Columbus Actually Discover America?

• Corrections

Ferdinand Magellan & The First Voyage Around the World

During the Age of Exploration, one task was particularly noteworthy: the circumnavigation of Earth. Discover the life of Ferdinand Magellan and the first voyage around the world.

The Age of Exploration saw the achievement of incredible feats with the voyages of European expeditions. Perhaps the most famous of them all is the arrival of Christopher Columbus to the Americas, but many other expeditions are equally groundbreaking. Besides making contact with a “new continent,” the circumnavigation of the Earth was seen as an enormous feat. With Columbus’ travels and following expeditions by other explorers, the circumnavigation of the world was believed possible, but who would be first? Europe’s major powers put their efforts into completing the task, but one expedition, led by Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese explorer serving the Spanish crown, would ultimately be successful: the Magellan expedition.

Magellan’s Early Life & First Travels

Magellan was born in the north of Portugal in 1480. His family was of noble origin and enjoyed a minor presence yet sufficient status among the higher classes of the Kingdom of Portugal. His father, Rui Magellan, was the mayor of a small town. Ferdinand served as a page to Queen Eleanor, consort of John II of the Portuguese crown. After the death of John, Magellan served under Manuel I. When Magellan was 25, he joined a Portuguese expedition to India, where they would establish Francisco de Almeida as the first viceroy of Portuguese India. Magellan stayed in India for almost a decade; then, he traveled to Malacca, where, in 1511, the Portuguese conquered the city under the governor Alfonso de Albuquerque.

Magellan received great riches and promotions from his participation in the conquest of Malacca. He received a slave, baptized under the name Enrique of Malacca, who would join Magellan through many of his travels and endeavors. Magellan’s behavior became increasingly rebellious and not in tune with the Portuguese authorities’ expectations. He took leave without permission, was accused of illegally trading in Morocco, and even quarreled with the Portuguese King Manuel I.

Magellan dedicated himself to studying the most recent nautical charts available to him. He investigated, alongside cosmographer Rui Faleiro, the possibility of reaching the Moluccas through a gateway from the Atlantic to the South Pacific in the Americas. While in Malacca, Magellan befriended the navigator Francisco Serrao, who reached and stayed in the Spice Islands (the Moluccas). His letters to Magellan would prove very useful for his consequent travels to the Islands.

Magellan the Spanish Explorer: Pledging Loyalty to the Opposing Crown

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When Magellan fell out of favor with the Portuguese King, he turned to the Spanish crown. Magellan had been refused time and time again an expedition made possible by the Portuguese crown. King Manuel I disapproved of Magellan’s planned expedition. Thus, Magellan renounced his Portuguese nationality and proposed his travel expedition to King Charles I of Spain (Charles V as Holy Roman Emperor ).

At the time of Magellan’s proposed expedition, Spain was at the start of its expansion into other continents, mainly the Americas, which would be decisive for the Spanish to consolidate their empire.

Portugal had a similar situation. The Portuguese Empire had explored most of the coasts of Africa, reached the Indies through said passage, and established colonies all throughout Africa and Asia.

However, both Iberian empires had become rivals whose differences were often solved only through external intervention. The Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494 established a division of lands outside of Europe between Spain and Portugal. The treaty was largely left unsettled, but in 1529, the Treaty of Zaragoza clarified and formalized the divisions. Before its formalization, however, Magellan and his fleet would achieve the first circumnavigation of the Earth, arguably abusing the agreement set in the Tordesillas treaty.

Magellan convinced the Spanish king that his expedition would not be opposed to the agreement between Spain and Portugal; thus, he was allowed to sail. King Manuel I was greatly insulted by Magellan’s expedition and work under the Spanish crown. The preparations of the Spanish fleet were disrupted by the Portuguese, and a fleet was sent after Magellan, though it failed to capture him.

Expedition through the Atlantic & Reaching the Americas

Magellan and his fleet left Spain from the port of Seville in 1519. The fleet traveled through the Guadalquivir River until they reached the Atlantic through the port of Sanlucar de Barrameda. The fleet remained in place for weeks, going back and forth from Seville to solve unforeseen difficulties. More than a month later, they departed. The fleet reached the Canary Islands, then passed next to Cape Verde and the coasts of Sierra Leone. Four months went by before the fleet reached the coasts of the Americas.

In December 1519, Magellan and his fleet touched land in what is now Rio de Janeiro. They traveled through the estuary of the Rio de la Plata River, then reached and named the region of Patagonia . In Patagonia, the Spaniards met local Indigenous people for the first time. After making contact and trading with them, the Spanish kidnapped some to bring them back for the king. Unfortunately, the kidnapped Indigenous people didn’t survive.

In March 1520, the fleet found itself in harsh conditions. They took refuge in the port of San Julian, but after considering the expedition had failed, some of the crew attempted to overthrow Magellan as their leader. The insurrection ultimately failed; the leaders of the unsatisfied crew were killed or banished, and Magellan forgave the rest as he needed them to continue. Later, the crew of one of the five ships, San Antonio , once again rose against Magellan and turned back for Spain.

The Strait of Magellan & the Voyage in the Pacific

After facing difficulties finding a passage to the Pacific Ocean (known to them as Mar del Sur ), the fleet reached the Strait of Magellan. Magellan originally named it the Strait of All Saints ( estrecho de Todos los Santos ), but the strait gained its name in honor of Magellan and his expedition, having been the first European explorer to find the strait.

Known to be a harsh place, the Strait of Magellan was challenging to pass through. The Spaniards saw bonfires lit by the natives and thus named the territory “ Tierra del Fuego ” (Land of Fire). Indigenous people lived or had reached as far down as Antarctica . The ocean known to them as Mar del Sur was then baptized the Pacific Ocean for its tranquil waters. For three months, after passing through the strait, the fleet was unable to reach land and disembark. The conditions aboard were challenging, to say the least.

The difficulties during the voyage in the Pacific decreased once the fleet reached the Mariana Islands . The state of the fleet was in tatters, having barely survived over three months without touching land. They then reached the Philippines, becoming the first Europeans to do so. Magellan and his fleet carried out the conversion of the local islanders to Catholicism. Magellan won over the locals by proving his strength and urging them to convert so that they could become like them. Thus, the fleet remained in the region before continuing to the Moluccas.

The Battle of Mactan, Magellan’s Death, & the First Circumnavigation of the World

In the Philippines, the locals were manipulated into converting to Catholicism, but when attempting to form an alliance with one chieftain, Magellan proposed to battle an opposing leader to win over his potential ally. Magellan and his fleet went to the Island of Mactan to fight, convert, and make the chieftain Lapulapu submit to the Spanish crown. The battle was a decisive defeat for the Spanish, who were unprepared and outnumbered. Magellan himself was killed during combat. After Magellan’s death, the expedition under his command had to choose a new leader.

The expedition chose Magellan’s brother-in-law and Juan Serrano as co-commanders, but their leadership would be short-lived. On the first of May, the Spanish disembarked to join the Cebuanos for a feast, yet once the meal was finished, they were surprised and murdered by the Cebuanos. The Spaniards had been betrayed by Magellan’s slave Enrique, who was supposed to be freed after his master’s death but was forced to continue working as an interpreter for them. Enrique made a deal with the island’s leader, Humabon, in order to regain his freedom.

With both co-commanders murdered, Juan Lopez de Carvalho was named captain. The fleet chose to continue with just two ships: Trinidad and Victoria . Carvalho was deemed unable to command, and Gonzalo Gomez de Espinosa was chosen as the new captain, leading the ship Trinidad . Meanwhile, Juan Sebastian Elcano was to captain the ship Victoria . When the fleet reached the Moluccas, it was decided that they should leave for Spain at once, yet the Trinidad was in no shape for that sort of travel, so only the Victoria would continue, and the Trinidad would follow later. Elcano and his ship circumnavigated the African continent for their return, and in September 1522, they reached Spain, completing the first circumnavigation of the world .

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By Francisco Perpuli BA History (in progress) Francisco is completing a History degree at the University of Guadalajara. He has a keen interest in the study of culture and the arts. In his spare time, he tries to explore and develop other interests while saving up to travel the world.

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Ferdinand magellan, age of discovery.

Quick Facts:

He led the first circumnavigation of the world, and is considered the first European to cross the Pacific Ocean

Name : Ferdinand Magellan [fur-dn-and] [muh-jel-uhn]

Birth/Death : 1480-1521

Nationality : Portuguese

Birthplace : Porto or Sabrosa, Portugal

Portrait of Ferdinand Magellan

Half-length portrait of Ferdinand Magellan (circa 1580-1521), first European to circle the globe. The Mariners Museum 1949.0619.000001

Introduction Ferdinand Magellan is known for circumnavigating – sailing around – the world. From Spain he sailed around South America, discovering the Strait of Magellan, and across the Pacific. Though he was killed in the Philippines, his ship the Victoria continued westward to Spain, accomplishing the first circumnavigation of the globe. But in some cases, his journey was filled with more than he would bargain for. Magellan’s story is filled with war, storms, mutiny, and hostile native encounters.

Biography Early Life Ferdinand Magellan was born in 1480 in Portugal; the exact city is unknown. Many believe it was either Porto or Sabrosa. Ferdinand Magellan is the English version of his name. In Portuguese, his name is Fernão de Magalhães. He came from a noble family. His father was Rui de Magalhães and Alda de Mesquita. Young Magellan was a page in the royal court for the queen of Portugal. Here, he would learn helpful skills such as hunting, fighting, and he would have learned about the stars. 1 His father often traveled to a town called Oporto (also spelled Porto). The harbor here was crowded with shipping and seafaring travelers with tales of adventure. It is possible that Oporto is where Magellan found a love for the sea and exploration. 2 But Ferdinand Magellan was not always an explorer. He began his career as a soldier in the Portuguese navy. He left Portugal in 1505 and sailed to India under the command of Francisco de Almeida. They were sent by King Manuel I to break Muslim sea power in India and Africa. 3 Magellan left Lisbon on March 25, 1505. He would travel and fight in several battles over the next few years.

In 1506, Magellan traveled to the East Indies (modern day Indonesia) and joined expeditions to Spice Islands (also called the Molucca Islands). In February 1509, he took part in the naval Battle of Diu, which marked the decline of Ottoman (modern day Turkey) influence in the area. The Portuguese now had dominance over most of the Indian Ocean. He returned to Lisbon in 1512. A year later, he went to Morocco in Northern Africa where he fought in another battle. During the battle, Magellan received a serious wound that would cause him to walk with a limp for the rest of his life. 4 Also while in Morocco, Magellan was accused of stealing. He was proven innocent, but the incident ruined his reputation with the Portuguese king. Magellan wanted to command a voyage to the Spice Islands. He believed he could reach them by sailing west. When he returned to Portugal, he petitioned King Manuel I three times to let him go. The King refused each time. Ferdinand Magellan then went to King Charles I of Spain. The Spanish King agreed to sponsor what would become Magellan’s great voyage around the world.

Voyages Principal Voyage By the end of October 1517, Magellan was in Seville, becoming a Spanish citizen. King Charles I funded Magellan and he set sail September 20, 1519 with a fleet of five ships and roughly 200 men. The five ships were: the Trinidad , captained by Magellan; San Antonio , captained by Juan de Cartagena; Concepción , captained by Gaspar de Quesada; Victoria , captained by Luis de Mendoza; and the Santiago , captained by Juan Serrano. They stopped at the Canary Islands to pick up some supplies, and then continued into the Atlantic Ocean. Magellan received a letter that the Spanish officers planned to kill him after leaving the Canaries. Magellan remained on guard for his life throughout much of the trip. They sailed for several weeks, and by November 20, they crossed the equator into the southern hemisphere. 5 In December, they stopped at Guanabara Bay in southeastern Brazil to resupply once again.

Magellan’s fleet continued on down the coast of South America. He was searching for a passage that connected one ocean to the other. As their journey went on, life at sea became difficult. Food and water became rationed, and the crew was not happy. On April 1, 1520, while at Port St. Julian, the three captains Cartagena, Mendoza, and Quesada called their crews to mutiny. 6 The mutiny was crushed by Magellan. Mendoza had been killed during the mutiny. Quesada and Cartagena were found guilty of murder and treason. Quesada was beheaded for his crime, while Cartagena was left marooned – or stranded – on land when the fleet left. 7 The fleet traveled onward. While near Santa Cruz, the Santiago wrecked while on a scouting mission. They continued south and on October 21, 1520 he finally found the passage they were searching for. Shortly after entering the passage, the San Antonio deserted the mission. On November 8, 1520 the Trinidad , Concepción , and Victoria reached the “Sea of the South.” 8 Today we know it as the Pacific Ocean. This passage at the tip of South America that Ferdinand Magellan had found would later be renamed the Strait of Magellan.

Subsequent Voyages Ferdinand Magellan had problems along the way, but he had finally reached the Pacific Ocean. Once through the strait, Magellan continued northward up the coast of Chile. In March the reached the island we now know as Guam. Here, they found and ate fresh food for the first time in 99 days. 9 Having found a route through South America, Magellan was still determined to reach the Spice Islands. He and his fleet continued west. Along their course, they noticed a constant flow of wind. This air provided steady winds to their back which was very helpful to their sailing. Magellan and his crew had unknowingly discovered “trade winds.” The name would come from the important role they would later play in transoceanic trade. Their journey continued until they reached the Philippines in March of 1521. By this point, Magellan had endured a somewhat difficult yet successful journey. But his luck would not last much longer.

Later Years and Death Throughout the Philippine Islands, Magellan and his men regularly interacted with the natives. At Cebú, The native chief, his wife, and several of the natives were baptized and converted to Christianity. Because of this, Magellan thought he could convince other native tribes to convert. But not all interactions with the natives were friendly. Chief Datu Lapu Lapu of the Mactan Island rejected conversion. So Magellan took a group of about 60 men to attack Mactan. The Mactan’s had about 1500 men. On April 27, 1521, Ferdinand Magellan was killed during battle on the Philippine Islands. The Trinidad and Victoria soon made it to the Spice Islands. The Trinidad needed much repair. So the Victoria , captained by Juan Sebastian Elcano continued on.On December 21,1521, the Victoria sailed across the Indian Ocean to Spain. September 6, 1522, they arrived with only 18 men at Sanlúcar de Barrameda on the coast of Spain.

Legacy Although he died in the Philippines, we recognize Ferdinand Magellan as the first European to circumnavigate the globe. He fearlessly commanded a fleet of ships, one that completed the journey in his name and honor. Several discoveries were made along the way. The Strait of Magellan, off the southern coast of South America, became an important navigational route. His discovery of the trade winds ranks among his most useful and major findings. 10 The expedition gave Europeans a much better understanding of the extent of the Earth’s size. Much of what we know of Magellan’s journey came from Antonio Pigafetta. A crew member of the famed voyage, Pigafetta kept a first hand account of the voyage. He and his story survived the journey around the globe, and his account later was translated. Magellan had set out with a goal to discover a Western sea route to the Spice Islands. What he helped prove, however, is that the world is indeed round, and much bigger than Europeans previously imagined.

• Mervyn D. Kaufman, Ferdinand Magellan (Mankato: Capstone Press, 2004), 6.
• Frederick Albion Ober, Ferdinand Magellan (New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1907), 5 – 6.
• Britannica Educational Publishing, The Britannica Guide to Explorers and Explorations That Changed the Modern World (New York: Britannica Educational Publishing, 2010), 77.
• Michael Burgan, Magellan: Ferdinand Magellan and the First Trip Around the World (Mankato: Capstone Publishers, 2001), 11.
• Nancy Smiler Levinson, Magellan and the First Voyage Around the World (New York: Clarion Books, 2001), 55.
• Ober, Ferdinand Magellan , 143 – 148.
• Ober, Ferdinand Magellan , 151 – 153.
• Britannica Educational Publishing, The Britannica Guide , 81.
• Laurence Bergreen, Magellan: Over the Edge of the World (New York: Roaring Brook Press, 2017), 89.

Bibliography

Bergreen, Laurence. Magellan: Over the Edge of the World . New York: Roaring Brook Press, 2017.

Britannica Educational Publishing. The Britannica Guide to Explorers and Explorations That Changed the Modern World . New York: Britannica Educational Publishing, 2010.

Burgan, Michael. Magellan: Ferdinand Magellan and the First Trip Around the World . Mankato: Capstone Publishers, 2001.

Kaufman, Mervyn D. Ferdinand Magellan . Mankato: Capstone Press, 2004.

Levinson, Nancy Smiler. Magellan and the First Voyage Around the World . New York: Clarion Books, 2001.

Ober, Frederick Albion. Ferdinand Magellan . New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1907.

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Ferdinand Magellan

By: History.com Editors

Updated: October 4, 2023 | Original: October 29, 2009

In search of fame and fortune, Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan (c. 1480-1521) set out from Spain in 1519 with a fleet of five ships to discover a western sea route to the Spice Islands. En route he discovered what is now known as the Strait of Magellan and became the first European to cross the Pacific Ocean. The voyage was long and dangerous, and only one ship returned home three years later. Although it was laden with valuable spices from the East, only 18 of the fleet’s original crew of 270 returned with the ship. Magellan himself was killed in battle on the voyage, but his ambitious expedition proved that the globe could be circled by sea and that the world was much larger than had previously been imagined.

Ferdinand Magellan’s Early Years

Ferdinand Magellan (c. 1480–1521) was born in Sabrosa, Portugal, to a family of minor Portuguese nobility. At age 12 Ferdinand Magellan ( Fernão de Magalhães in Portuguese and Fernando de Magallanes in Spanish) and his brother Diogo traveled to Lisbon to serve as pages at Queen Leonora’s court. While at the court Magellan was exposed to stories of the great Portuguese and Spanish rivalry for sea exploration and dominance over the spice trade in the East Indies, especially the Spice Islands, or Moluccas, in modern Indonesia. Intrigued by the promise of fame and riches, Magellan developed an interest in maritime discovery in those early years.

Did you know? Clove was the most valuable spice in Europe during Magellan's day. It was used to flavor food, but Europeans also believed that its essence could improve vision, its powder could relieve fevers and that it could enhance intercourse when mixed with milk.

In 1505, Magellan and his brother were assigned to a Portuguese fleet headed for India. Over the next seven years, Magellan participated in several expeditions in India, Southeast Asia, and Africa and was wounded in several battles. In 1513 he joined the enormous 500-ship, 15,000-soldier force sent by King Manuel to Morocco to challenge the Moroccan governor who refused to pay its yearly tribute to the Portuguese empire. The Portuguese easily overwhelmed the Moroccan forces, and Magellan stayed on in Morocco. While there he was seriously wounded in a skirmish, which left him with a limp for the rest of his life.

Magellan: From Portugal to Spain

In the 15th century, spices were at the epicenter of the world economy, much like oil is today. Highly valued for flavoring and preserving food as well as masking the taste of meat gone bad, spices like cinnamon, clove, nutmeg and especially black pepper were extremely valuable. Since spices could not be cultivated in cold and arid Europe, no effort was spared to discover the quickest sea route to the Spice Islands. Portugal and Spain led the competition for early control over this critical commodity. Europeans had reached the Spice Islands by sailing east, but none had yet to sail west from Europe to reach the other side of the globe. Magellan was determined to be the first to do so.

By now an experienced seaman, Magellan approached King Manuel of Portugal to seek his support for a westward voyage to the Spice Islands. The king refused his petition repeatedly. In 1517, a frustrated Magellan renounced his Portuguese nationality and relocated to Spain to seek royal support for his venture.

When Magellan arrived in Seville in October 1517, he had no connections and spoke little Spanish. He soon met another transplanted Portuguese named Diogo Barbosa, and within a year he had married Barbosa’s daughter Beatriz, who gave birth to their son Rodrigo a year later. The well-connected Barbosa family introduced Magellan to officers responsible for Spain’s maritime exploration, and soon Magellan secured an appointment to meet the king of Spain.

The grandson of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, who had funded Christopher Columbus ’s expedition to the New World in 1492, received Magellan’s petition with the same favor shown by his grandparents. Just 18 years old at the time, King Charles I granted his support to Magellan, who in turn promised the young king that his westward sea voyage would bring immeasurable riches to Spain.

Strait of Magellan

On August 10, 1519 Magellan bade farewell to his wife and young son, neither of whom he would ever see again, and the Armada De Moluccas set sail. Magellan commanded the lead ship Trinidad and was accompanied by four other ships: the San Antonio , the Conception , the Victoria and the Santiago . The expedition would prove long and arduous, and only one ship, the Victoria , would return three years later across the Pacific, carrying a mere 18 of the fleet’s original crew of 270.

In September 1519 Magellan’s fleet sailed from Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Spain, and crossed the Atlantic Ocean, which was then known simply as the Ocean Sea. The fleet reached South America a little more than one month later. There the ships sailed southward, hugging the coast in search of the fabled strait that would allow passage through South America. The fleet stopped at Port San Julian where the crew mutinied on Easter Day in 1520. Magellan quickly quelled the uprising, executing one of the captains and leaving another mutinous captain behind. Meanwhile Magellan had sent the Santiago to explore the route ahead, where it was shipwrecked during a terrible storm. The ship’s crew members were rescued and assigned out among the remaining ships. With those disastrous events behind them, the fleet left Port San Julian five months later when fierce seasonal storms abated.

On October 21, 1520 Magellan finally entered the strait that he had been seeking and that came to bear his name. The voyage through the Strait of Magellan was treacherous and cold, and many sailors continued to mistrust their leader and grumble about the dangers of the journey ahead. In the early days of the navigation of the strait, the crew of the San Antonio forced its captain to desert, and the ship turned and fled across the Atlantic Ocean back to Spain. At this point, only three of the original five ships remained in Magellan’s fleet.

The Magellan Expedition: Circumnavigation the Glob e

After more than a month spent traversing the strait, Magellan’s remaining armada emerged in November 1520 to behold a vast ocean before them. They were the first known Europeans to see the great ocean, which Magellan named Mar Pacifico, the Pacific Ocean, for its apparent peacefulness, a stark contrast to the dangerous waters of the strait from which he had just emerged. In fact, extremely rough waters are not uncommon in the Pacific Ocean, where tsunamis, typhoons and hurricanes have done serious damage to the Pacific Islands and Pacific Rim nations throughout history.

Little was known about the geography beyond South America at that time, and Magellan optimistically estimated that the trip across the Pacific would be rapid. In fact, it took three months for the fleet to make its way slowly across the vast Mar Pacifico. The days dragged on as Magellan’s crew anxiously waited to utter the magic words “Land, ho!” At last, the fleet reached the Pacific island of Guam in March 1521, where they finally replenished their food stores.

Magellan’s fleet then sailed on to the Philippine archipelago landing on the island of Cebu, where Magellan befriended the locals and, struck with a sudden religious zeal, sought to convert them to Christianity . Magellan was now closer than ever to reaching the Spice Islands, but when the Cebu asked for his help in fighting their neighbors on the island of Mactan, Magellan agreed. He assumed he would command a swift victory with his superior European weapons, and against the advice of his men, Magellan himself led the attack. The Mactanese fought fiercely, and Magellan fell when he was shot with a poison arrow. Ferdinand Magellan died on April 27, 1521.

Magellan would never make it to the Spice Islands, but after the loss of yet another of his fleet’s vessels, the two remaining ships finally reached the Moluccas on November 5, 1521. In the end, only the Victoria completed the voyage around the world and arrived back in Seville, Spain, in September 1522 with a heavy cargo of spices but with only 18 men from the original crew, including Italian scholar and explorer Antonio Pigafetta. The journal Pigafaetta kept on the voyage is a key record of what the crew encountered on their journey home.

Impact of Ferdinand Magellan

Seeking riches and personal glory, Magellan’s daring and ambitious voyage around the world provided the Europeans with far more than just spices. Although the trip westward from Europe to the east via the Strait of Magellan had been discovered and mapped, the journey was too long and dangerous to become a practical route to the Spice Islands. Nevertheless, European geographic knowledge was expanded immeasurably by Magellan’s expedition. He found not only a massive ocean, hitherto unknown to Europeans, but he also discovered that the earth was much larger than previously thought. Finally, although it was no longer believed that the earth was flat at this stage in history, Magellan’s circumnavigation of the globe empirically discredited the medieval theory conclusively.

Though Magellan is often credited with the first circumnavigation of the globe, he did so on a technicality: He first made a trip from Europe to present-day Malaysia, eastward via the Indian Ocean, and may have continued further east to the Spice Islands. He then later made his famous westward voyage that brought him to the Philippines. So he did cover the entire terrain, but it was not a strict point A to point A, round-the-world trip, and it was made in two different directions. His enslaved servant Enrique was born in the region, possibly near Malacca or Cebu, and had come to Europe with Magellan by ship. Enrique reached Cebu (and possibly Mallaca) on the expedition’s westward voyage, meaning he may have been the first person to circumnavigate the world in one direction to return to the same starting point.

HISTORY Vault: Columbus the Lost Voyage

Ten years after his 1492 voyage, Columbus, awaiting the gallows on criminal charges in a Caribbean prison, plotted a treacherous final voyage to restore his reputation.

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Columbus’s Letter on the First Voyage: Analysis

This essay is about Christopher Columbus’ letter in which he reports on his first voyage. Here, you’ll find “Letter from the New Land” summary and analysis.

Introduction

Letter of christopher columbus: summary, analysis of columbus’s letter on the first voyage.

Christopher Columbus is arguably the world’s most renowned explorer. His discovery of the New World was of epic significance to the European nations. In his voyages, Columbus wrote letters detailing his discoveries and other items of interest. In this paper, I shall review a letter written by Columbus on his return journey from his first voyage. By reviewing this letter, I shall highlight Columbus’s intentions, his attitudes, and the various arguments that he raises in the letter. His prospective audience shall also be deduced from the contents of the letter.

The main purpose of this letter by Columbus is to shed light on discoveries in the New World. It is possible that by outlining the successes of his voyage, Columbus aims to encourage future expeditions to the New World as well as encourage the ruling class in Spain to finance future voyages. The voyage is deemed to be a great success and Columbus records that he has found many islands with a significant population. More importantly, Columbus aims to demonstrate that he has taken possession of these new lands for his King. This is highlighted by the subsequent renaming of various islands. Columbus also intends to reassure all that the lands are fertile and rich with gold.

Columbus argues that the inhabitants of the islands that he comes across are inherently timid people. To support his claims, he illustrates how fathers flee without waiting for their sons when Columbus’s scouts appear in the village. This is despite Columbus and his team showing nothing but hospitality to the natives. In addition to this, Columbus observes that his crew members and other sailors take advantage of the natives’ naivety and kind-heartedness. In his opinion this taking advantage is wrong and he goes on to forbid his men from dealing unfairly with the natives.

While the people of the islands are intelligent and have knowledge of weapons, Columbus proposes that they would be no match for his men whom he has left at a fort. While the king of the land is an agreeable character and indeed treats him as a brother, Columbus argues that even if the king changes his attitude and decides to attack the fort, the arms and artillery held by his men will ensure their safety. Furthermore, Columbus restates that the people are the timidest in the world and his few men could easily destroy the whole land if they so wished.

This letter is addressed to the monarchs in Spain. The chief recipient of this letter is probably the King himself who is throughout the letter referred to as “his highness”. Columbus’s voyage had been financed by the monarchy and as such he was enthusiastic to report his findings. From the statements made by Columbus, it can safely be assumed that there were other voyages to the Indies before his. These voyages brought home tales of violent tribes and inhospitable lands. Columbus refutes these claims and says that his voyage was a victory. He also insists that the stories told about the lands were baseless and mostly lies.

Some of Columbus’s ideologies and attitudes can be deduced from the letter. For example, it can be observed that Columbus was a staunch believer of the Christian faith. He gives thanks to the Lord for a successful voyage. He also names one of the islands for his Lord and Savior. Throughout his expedition, Columbus seeks to convert the natives to his Christian faith demonstrating that he regards the natives’ religion as inferior and based on error.

This paper set out to analyze the letter by Columbus To discover Columbus’s intentions in drafting the letter. It has been identified from the various arguments that the letter was mainly aimed at highlighting the success of his voyage to the new world. Columbus envisions another voyage and asserts that the newfound land contains treasures for Spain and a lot of people to be converted to the holy faith of Christianity.

Columbus, C. (2019). Select Letters of Christopher Columbus: With Other Original Documents, Relating to His Four Voyages . Wentworth Press.

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Big History Project

Course: big history project   >   unit 8.

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READ: Zheng He

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Chinese Admiral in the Indian Ocean

The seven voyages, inscribing his adventures.

[We have] traversed over a hundred thousand li of vast ocean [and have] beheld great ocean waves, rising as high as the sky and swelling and swelling endlessly. Whether in dense fog and drizzling rain or in wind-driven waves rising like mountains, no matter what the sudden changes in sea conditions, we spread our cloudlike sails aloft and sailed by the stars day and night. [Had we] not trusted her [Heavenly Princess’s] divine merit, how could we have done this in peace and safety? When we met danger, once we invoked the divine name, her answer to our prayer was like an echo; suddenly there was a divine lamp which illuminated the masts and sails, and once this miraculous light appeared, then apprehension turned to calm. The personnel of the fleet were then at rest, and all trusted they had nothing to fear. This is the general outline of the goddess’s merit... When we arrived at the foreign countries, barbarian kings who resisted transformation and were not respectful we captured alive, and bandit soldiers who looted and plundered recklessly we exterminated. Because of this the sea routes became pure and peaceful and the foreign peoples could rely upon them and pursue their occupations in safety. All of this was due to the aid of the goddess.

If men serve their prince with utmost loyalty, there is nothing they cannot do, and if they worship the gods with utmost sincerity there is no prayer that will not be answered... We, [Zheng] He and the rest, have been favored with a gracious commission from our Sacred Prince to convey to the distant barbarians the favor [earned by their] respectfulness and good faith. While in command of the personnel of the fleet, and [responsible for the great] amount of money and valuables [our] one concern while facing the violence of the winds and the dangers of the nights was that we would not succeed. Would we then have served the nation with utmost loyalty and worshipped the divine intelligence with utmost sincerity? None of us could doubt that this was the source of aid and safety for the fleet in its comings and goings. Therefore we have made manifest the virtue of the goddess with this inscription on stone, which records the years and months of our going to and returning from the foreign [countries] so that they may be remembered forever.

The Legacy of Zheng He’s Adventures

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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.

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How Did The Second Voyage Of Columbus Differ From The First?

Published: December 14, 2023

Modified: December 28, 2023

by Meade Kinder

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Introduction

Christopher Columbus, a renowned Italian explorer, embarked on a series of voyages during the late 15th century that would forever change the course of history. His expeditions to the New World opened up vast opportunities for exploration, colonization, and trade, shaping the future of European powers and leaving a lasting impact on the indigenous civilizations he encountered.

In this article, we will examine the differences between Columbus’s first and second voyages, focusing on how the second voyage differed from the initial one. These voyages were not only remarkable for their historical significance but also for the profound impact they had on the world as we know it today.

To understand the nuances of the second voyage, it is important to provide a brief background on Christopher Columbus himself. Born in Genoa, Italy in 1451, Columbus displayed a keen interest in navigation from a young age. Inspired by the desire to find a faster route to Asia, he sought support from various monarchs until Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain agreed to finance his ambitious voyages.

Columbus’s first voyage, which began on August 3, 1492, aimed to find a westward route to Asia. Departing from Palos de la Frontera, Spain, he sailed across the Atlantic Ocean with three ships: the Santa Maria, the Pinta, and the Niña. After a long and arduous journey, Columbus and his crew finally made landfall in the present-day Bahamas on October 12, 1492, believing they had reached the East Indies.

The first voyage was marked by a sense of uncertainty and discovery. Columbus explored various islands in the Caribbean, including Cuba and Hispaniola, establishing temporary settlements and interacting with the indigenous Taino people. Although the expedition did not achieve its original objective of reaching Asia, it laid the foundation for subsequent voyages and the eventual colonization of the Americas.

Background on Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus, born in 1451 in Genoa, Italy, was a skilled navigator and explorer with a burning desire to find a new route to Asia. He grew up in a family of merchants and sailors, which exposed him to the world of navigation and exploration from a young age. Inspired by the tales of Marco Polo and other explorers, Columbus developed a fascination for reaching the lucrative Asian markets by bypassing the traditional land routes.

With a thirst for knowledge and adventure, Columbus honed his navigational skills and gained valuable experience on various voyages across the Mediterranean Sea and along the coasts of Africa. He was deeply influenced by the advancements in technology and cartography of the time, particularly the invention of the compass and astrolabe, which greatly improved navigation accuracy.

Columbus’s ambitious quest to find a westward route to Asia faced countless rejections and setbacks from European monarchs who were skeptical of his audacious proposal. However, his persistence paid off when he secured funding from Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain in 1492.

Although Columbus’s intentions were driven by visions of wealth and glory, his voyage had far-reaching consequences that he could not have foreseen. His explorations and subsequent discoveries ultimately led to the permanent European colonization of the Americas and the subsequent clash of civilizations.

It is important to acknowledge that Columbus’s expeditions were not without controversy. The arrival of Europeans in the Americas brought about devastating consequences for the indigenous populations, including disease, enslavement, and violence. The Columbus narrative, once celebrated, has been reevaluated and reinterpreted in recent years, highlighting the complex and troubling aspects of his legacy.

Today, Columbus’s voyages serve as a testament to the enduring human spirit of exploration and discovery. They represent a pivotal moment in world history, marking the point of contact between different cultures and the beginning of a new era of international exchange, both beneficial and detrimental.

First Voyage of Christopher Columbus

The first voyage of Christopher Columbus, which commenced on August 3, 1492, is considered a monumental event that would change the course of history. Equipped with three ships – the Santa Maria, the Pinta, and the Niña – Columbus set sail from the Spanish port of Palos de la Frontera in search of a new route to Asia.

Initially, Columbus’s plan was met with skepticism by European monarchs, as many believed he would encounter insurmountable obstacles and fail in his endeavor. However, the Spanish crown decided to take a chance on Columbus’s proposal and provided him with the necessary funding and resources.

The journey across the Atlantic Ocean was arduous and filled with uncertainty. The sailors faced adverse weather conditions, the constant threat of mutiny, and the fear of sailing into uncharted waters. However, Columbus managed to maintain the morale of his crew through his leadership skills and unwavering determination.

After weeks of sailing, on October 12, 1492, land was finally sighted. Columbus and his crew believed they had arrived in the East Indies, unaware that they had actually reached an island in the present-day Bahamas. This discovery marked the first direct contact between Europeans and the indigenous people of the Americas.

As Columbus continued his journey, he explored several islands in the Caribbean, including Cuba and Hispaniola (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic). He encountered various indigenous tribes, such as the Taino people, and established temporary settlements during his exploration.

The first voyage of Columbus was crucial in challenging the prevailing belief in a flat Earth, as he successfully sailed westward across the Atlantic and returned to Spain. His voyage demonstrated that it was indeed possible to reach Asia by sailing west, although he had accidentally stumbled upon the vast continents of the Americas.

While the first voyage did not accomplish its original objective of finding a new trade route to Asia, it paved the way for further exploration and colonization of the Americas by European powers. Columbus had unknowingly opened the door to a new world, forever changing the course of history and reshaping the geopolitical landscape.

Objectives and Results of the First Voyage

The first voyage of Christopher Columbus had specific objectives in mind, rooted in his desire to find a new route to Asia and bring back wealth and prestige to Spain. However, the results of the expedition differed from the initial goals, ultimately setting the stage for a new era of exploration and colonization.

The primary objective of Columbus’s first voyage was to find a westward route to the wealthy markets of Asia, particularly India and China. At the time, the prevailing routes to Asia were lengthy and perilous, often requiring travel through the Mediterranean Sea and the overland Silk Road. Columbus believed that by sailing west, he could bypass these arduous journeys and establish direct trade links with Asia, thereby making Spain a dominant player in global commerce.

However, the first voyage did not achieve its intended goal of reaching Asia. Instead, Columbus and his crew arrived in the Caribbean islands, particularly the Bahamas, which they mistakenly believed were part of Asia. This discovery would have far-reaching consequences, as it marked the beginning of European exploration and colonization in the Western Hemisphere.

The results of the first voyage were significant. Columbus’s arrival in the Americas initiated a process of cultural exchange, both positive and negative. The encounter between Europeans and indigenous peoples led to exchanges of goods, ideas, and diseases, profoundly impacting both sides.

From a European perspective, the discovery of new lands brought excitement and the potential for immense wealth. Although Columbus did not find gold or spices during his first voyage, he returned to Spain with captivating stories of the exotic lands he had encountered. This sparked the interest of other explorers and monarchs, leading to subsequent expeditions aimed at uncovering the riches of the New World.

However, the impact on the indigenous populations of the Americas was devastating. The arrival of Europeans led to the forced labor, enslavement, and disease that decimated native communities. This dark aspect of Columbus’s legacy cannot be overlooked, as it forever altered the demographic and cultural landscape of the Americas.

Despite falling short of its original objectives, the first voyage of Christopher Columbus was a crucial milestone in the exploration of the New World. It set the stage for further voyages and ultimately transformed the balance of power among European nations vying for control and dominance over these newly discovered lands.

Preparations for the Second Voyage

Following the success and mixed results of his first voyage, Christopher Columbus set his sights on a second expedition, eager to continue exploring the newly discovered lands and further his ambitions. Preparations for the second voyage involved careful planning, securing funding, and addressing the challenges encountered during the initial journey.

One of the key challenges Columbus faced was obtaining support and resources for the second voyage. Despite the enthusiasm generated by his initial discoveries, he encountered opposition from rivals and skeptics who questioned the value of his expeditions. However, through his persistence and the patronage of the Spanish monarchs, Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand, Columbus was able to secure funding and gather a crew for the second voyage.

Preparations for the second voyage involved organizing a larger fleet of ships compared to the first voyage. Columbus assembled a fleet of seventeen ships, which included both caravels and carracks. The choice of a larger fleet was strategic, as it allowed for greater exploration and colonization efforts in the newly discovered territories.

In addition to ships, the second voyage required provisioning for the long journey across the Atlantic. Supplies such as food, water, and essential equipment were carefully selected and stowed on board the ships. Columbus also took measures to address the health and well-being of the crew, ensuring that proper medical supplies were available to combat diseases and maintain the crew’s overall health during the voyage.

Another crucial aspect of the preparations was the selection of the crew. For the second voyage, Columbus sought experienced sailors and navigators who could handle the challenges of exploration and manage the larger fleet of ships. Additionally, he enlisted the services of interpreters who had knowledge of indigenous languages, allowing for better communication and interaction with the native populations.

Preparations also extended to diplomatic efforts and negotiations with other European powers. Columbus aimed to secure alliances and support from influential kingdoms to solidify Spain’s dominance in the newly discovered territories. These diplomatic efforts were crucial not only to maintain favorable relations with other nations but also to establish trade networks and secure resources for future expeditions.

Overall, the preparations for the second voyage of Christopher Columbus were more extensive and comprehensive compared to the first. With a larger fleet, carefully selected crew, and provisions for an extended journey, Columbus set out to continue his exploration and solidify Spain’s presence in the New World.

Departure and Route of the Second Voyage

After meticulous preparations, the second voyage of Christopher Columbus finally set sail, aiming to expand upon the discoveries made during the first expedition and further explore the newfound lands. On September 25, 1493, Columbus and his fleet of seventeen ships departed from the Spanish port of Cádiz, marking the beginning of their second transatlantic journey.

The route chosen for the second voyage differed from the first, as Columbus aimed to explore different areas and establish more permanent settlements in the Caribbean. He initially sailed southwest from Spain, heading towards the Canary Islands, where he made a brief stop to restock supplies and make any necessary repairs to the fleet.

From the Canary Islands, Columbus continued westward, setting a course for the Caribbean. The fleet sailed across the Atlantic, braving the vast open waters and encountering challenges such as storms and unpredictable weather conditions. Despite these obstacles, Columbus managed to maintain the cohesion of the fleet and ensure progress towards the intended destination.

As the fleet approached the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean, Columbus faced a difficult decision regarding the route to take. He ultimately decided to navigate through the Windward Islands, passing by Dominica, Martinique, and Saint Lucia. This route offered a more direct path towards Hispaniola, the same island he had visited during the first voyage.

Upon their arrival in Hispaniola, Columbus and his crew encountered a drastically changed landscape. The settlement he had established during the first voyage had been destroyed, and tensions with the local indigenous peoples escalated. Nonetheless, Columbus resolved to rebuild and establish a new settlement, laying the foundation for ongoing European presence in the region.

From Hispaniola, the fleet continued its exploration of the Caribbean, visiting various islands such as Puerto Rico and Jamaica. Columbus sought to expand Spain’s influence and establish trading relationships with the indigenous populations. During this time, the fleet faced both friendly encounters and conflicts with the native inhabitants, shaping the course of future colonization efforts.

After months of exploration, Columbus and his fleet began their return journey to Spain in March 1496. The exact route of their return voyage varied, as different ships in the fleet may have taken different paths based on their individual circumstances and conditions. However, the return route generally followed a similar path to the first voyage, crossing the Atlantic Ocean and arriving back in Spain, albeit with the knowledge of a new world.

The second voyage of Christopher Columbus expanded upon the discoveries of the first, further exploring the Caribbean and establishing a continued European presence in the region. Despite the challenges faced during the journey, the determination and navigational skills of Columbus allowed for the successful completion of the second expedition, solidifying Spain’s claim to the newly discovered lands and setting the stage for further exploration and colonization in the Americas.

Differences in Ships and Crew

The second voyage of Christopher Columbus differed from the first in terms of both the composition of the fleet and the crew members chosen to accompany him. These differences played a significant role in shaping the outcome of the expedition and influencing the interactions with the indigenous populations encountered along the way.

For the second voyage, Columbus assembled a larger fleet comprised of seventeen ships, a notable increase from the three ships used in the first voyage. This expansion allowed for a greater capacity to transport supplies, provisions, and crew members. The larger fleet also provided Columbus with more flexibility in terms of exploration and the establishment of settlements in the newly discovered lands.

The composition of the fleet included a mix of caravels and carracks. Caravels, known for their maneuverability and ability to sail close to the wind, were ideal for exploration and coastal navigation. Carracks, on the other hand, were larger ships capable of transporting heavier cargo and facilitating longer voyages. The inclusion of these different types of vessels allowed for improved logistics and facilitated the establishment of more permanent settlements in the Caribbean.

In terms of the crew, the second voyage of Columbus saw some changes in personnel. The crew members selected for the second expedition were often more experienced in maritime activities and had a better understanding of the challenges that awaited them. Their prior experience provided them with valuable insights into navigation, ship maintenance, and handling various situations that arose during the voyage.

Columbus paid particular attention to recruiting individuals with expertise in various fields that would be beneficial for the expedition. He sought out skilled sailors, navigators, and interpreters who were proficient in languages spoken by indigenous peoples. The inclusion of interpreters was crucial in facilitating communication and establishing trade relationships with the native populations.

In addition to navigators and interpreters, craftsmen and artisans were also included in the crew. These individuals were skilled in trades such as shipbuilding, carpentry, and blacksmithing, providing crucial support for maintaining and repairing the fleet during the voyage. Their expertise ensured that the ships remained seaworthy and capable of withstanding the challenges of prolonged exploration.

With a larger and more experienced crew, Columbus could delegate responsibilities more efficiently, allowing for smoother operations and improved coordination among the ships. The presence of specialists also enabled the crew to make necessary repairs, construct temporary settlements, and interact with the indigenous peoples more effectively.

The differences in the ships and crew for the second voyage of Christopher Columbus were instrumental in expanding the scope of exploration and establishing a more significant European presence in the Caribbean. The larger fleet provided logistical advantages, and the experienced crew members brought valuable skills and knowledge to navigate the challenges encountered during the expedition.

Encounters and Discoveries During the Second Voyage

The second voyage of Christopher Columbus brought about a series of new encounters and discoveries as the expedition delved deeper into the uncharted territories of the Americas. These encounters with both the native populations and the natural environment yielded significant findings that expanded European knowledge of the New World.

As Columbus and his fleet ventured further into the Caribbean, they encountered various indigenous tribes and civilizations. One notable encounter was with the Caribs, a warlike tribe known for their fierce resistance against European colonization. The interactions with the native populations during the second voyage revealed cultural, linguistic, and technological differences, offering valuable insights into the diversity of the indigenous peoples of the Americas.

During the course of the expedition, Columbus and his crew made several important discoveries. One of the significant findings was the island of Dominica, which they encountered while sailing through the Windward Islands. This discovery not only expanded European knowledge of the Caribbean but also prompted further exploration of the surrounding islands.

Another noteworthy discovery during the second voyage was the sighting of Puerto Rico, which Columbus believed to be one of the “most beautiful lands that human eyes have ever seen.” The encounter with Puerto Rico marked the first European contact with the island and opened the door to future exploration, settlement, and colonization.

Additionally, Columbus and his crew re-visited Hispaniola, the island previously encountered during the first voyage. They established a new settlement named Isabella, aiming to secure a stronger foothold in the region. However, conflicts with the indigenous populations and internal disputes within the crew hindered the success of the settlement, prompting Columbus to seek further exploration opportunities.

Continuing their voyage, Columbus’s fleet reached the island of Jamaica, which he called “Santiago.” Although no permanent settlement was established, the encounter with Jamaica provided information about its resources, geography, and the native inhabitants.

Throughout the expedition, the crew also made observations and discoveries related to flora, fauna, and natural resources. They encountered various plants and animals previously unknown to Europeans, documenting their findings and collecting specimens for further exploration and study.

In summary, the second voyage of Christopher Columbus brought about significant encounters and discoveries in the Caribbean and the surrounding islands. These encounters deepened European understanding of the indigenous peoples and their cultures, while the discoveries of new lands expanded the knowledge of the region’s geography, resources, and potential for future colonization and navigation.

Interaction with Indigenous People

The second voyage of Christopher Columbus marked a significant continuation of European interactions with indigenous peoples in the Americas. These interactions were complex, shaped by a combination of curiosity, cultural misunderstandings, and the pursuit of dominance and resources. The encounters between Columbus and the native populations had profound impacts on both sides, forever altering the course of history.

During the second voyage, Columbus and his crew encountered several indigenous tribes and civilizations in the Caribbean. The interactions varied, ranging from initial curiosity and exchanges of goods to conflicts and misunderstandings that resulted in violence.

One of the main objectives of Columbus’s interactions with the indigenous peoples was to establish friendly relationships and establish trade networks. However, the cultural differences and the language barrier often created challenges. Columbus relied on interpreters to communicate, but misinterpretations and miscommunications were common.

The indigenous populations, who had no prior knowledge of Europeans, had their own customs, traditions, and social structures. They were curious about the newcomers, but also wary of their intentions. Some indigenous populations initially greeted Columbus and his crew with hospitality and curiosity, offering gifts and assistance.

However, as tensions increased and conflicts arose over issues such as territory and resources, the interactions deteriorated. The lack of understanding and cultural divides led to acts of violence from both sides. Columbus and his crew were sometimes forced to defend themselves against attacks from indigenous populations, which contributed to a breakdown in trust and cooperation.

Furthermore, Columbus’s pursuits for gold and native labor to support Spain’s colonization efforts strained the relationships with the indigenous populations. His demands for tribute and labor from the locals caused resentment and resistance.

The consequences of these interactions were devastating for the indigenous peoples. The arrival of Europeans brought diseases such as smallpox, measles, and influenza, to which the native populations had no immunity. This led to widespread epidemics and significant population declines. Additionally, the arrival of European colonizers disrupted the social fabric of indigenous communities, leading to forced labor, enslavement, and the loss of land and resources.

It is essential to acknowledge that these interactions were not homogenous. While some indigenous populations faced violence and oppression, others managed to maintain a degree of autonomy and resist European control. The varying responses of the indigenous populations to European colonization highlight the complexity and diversity of their experiences.

The interactions between Columbus and the indigenous people during the second voyage were marked by cultural clashes, miscommunications, and the pursuit of power and resources. These encounters left a lasting impact on the indigenous populations, forever changing their way of life and laying the foundation for centuries of European colonization and the resulting tragic consequences.

Return and Reception of the Second Voyage

Upon the completion of his second voyage, Christopher Columbus and his fleet returned to Spain, where their arrival evoked a mixture of anticipation and curiosity. The return and reception of the second voyage were marked by both triumph and disappointment, as the outcomes of the expedition did not fully meet the initial expectations.

The return journey, which commenced in March 1496, was challenging and fraught with difficulties. Columbus and his crew had to navigate rough seas, endure treacherous weather conditions, and contend with the wear and tear on the ships. However, eventually, they managed to safely arrive back in Spain, having successfully completed a significant exploration of the Caribbean and surrounding islands.

The reception of the second voyage was noticeably different from the euphoria that greeted Columbus after his first voyage. While the initial expedition had brought back tales of exotic lands, potential riches, and encounters with indigenous peoples, the results of the second voyage were perceived as falling short of expectations.

Columbus’s failure to find the highly sought-after gold and spices in considerable quantities disappointed the Spanish crown and other sponsors. The lack of substantial material gain raised doubts about the lucrative nature of the newly discovered lands and the feasibility of establishing profitable trade routes.

Despite these disappointments, Columbus did return with significant discoveries and valuable knowledge. The detailed accounts, maps, and descriptions of the lands and peoples he encountered during the second voyage expanded European understanding of the New World and enriched geographical knowledge.

The reaction of the Spanish public to the second voyage was mixed. Some celebrated Columbus’s achievements and the expansion of Spain’s influence in the Americas, recognizing the potential for further colonization and exploration. Others doubted the significance of the discoveries and questioned the value of continued investment in Columbus’s voyages.

Columbus himself faced criticism and scrutiny upon his return. Accusations of mismanagement, harsh treatment of the indigenous populations, and misrepresentation of the expedition’s results began to circulate. Some detractors saw the expedition as an unsuccessful endeavor and called for an end to Columbus’s explorations.

However, despite the criticism, Columbus was eventually able to secure support for subsequent voyages. His tenacity and persuasive skills allowed him to convince the Spanish crown to finance further explorations, leading to additional voyages that expanded European knowledge of the lands discovered during the second voyage.

In summary, the return and reception of the second voyage of Christopher Columbus were marked by a more tempered response compared to the initial enthusiasm surrounding the first voyage. While the financial gains were not as significant as anticipated, the expedition did yield valuable geographic knowledge and paved the way for future explorations. The mixed reception reflects the complexities surrounding the understanding and appreciation of Columbus’s voyages and their impact on the New World.

Impact and Significance of the Second Voyage

The second voyage of Christopher Columbus left a lasting impact on both the Old World and the New World. It expanded European knowledge of the Americas, solidified Spain’s presence in the region, and set the stage for further exploration and colonization. The significance of the second voyage can be seen in various aspects, ranging from geographic discoveries to cultural and historical implications.

One of the key impacts of the second voyage was the expansion of European knowledge about the New World. Columbus’s detailed accounts, maps, and descriptions of the lands and peoples he encountered during the expedition enriched Europe’s understanding of the geography, flora, and fauna of the Americas. This knowledge provided a foundation for future explorations and paved the way for the mapping and colonization of the region.

The second voyage also had a profound cultural impact. The encounters between Columbus’s crew and the indigenous peoples of the Americas resulted in the exchange of goods, ideas, languages, and knowledge. This cultural exchange, while complex and often marked by misunderstandings and conflicts, contributed to the blending of different cultures and the formation of new identities in the Americas.

The establishment of settlements during the second voyage, such as Isabella in Hispaniola, laid the groundwork for permanent European colonization of the region. Columbus’s voyages opened the door for subsequent waves of European settlers, leading to the transformation of the Americas and the establishment of enduring European colonies.

The second voyage also had far-reaching consequences for the indigenous populations of the Americas. The arrival of Europeans brought devastating effects, including diseases to which the native populations had no immunity, leading to widespread epidemics and significant population declines. The colonization efforts that followed the second voyage resulted in the displacement, enslavement, and exploitation of indigenous peoples, forever altering their societies and way of life.

The significance of the second voyage extends beyond its immediate impact. It set a precedent for continued exploration, colonization, and exploitation of the New World by European powers. The voyages of Columbus opened up a new era of global interconnectedness, initiating the Columbian Exchange – the transfer of plants, animals, diseases, and ideas between Europe, Africa, and the Americas.

The study of Columbus’s second voyage serves as a reminder of the complexities of exploration and colonization. It prompts us to critically examine the interactions and legacies of European colonization, acknowledging the devastating effects on indigenous populations and the lasting imprint on the cultural, social, and political landscapes of the Americas.

In summary, the second voyage of Christopher Columbus had a profound impact on multiple levels. It expanded European knowledge, solidified Spain’s presence, initiated colonization efforts, and forever changed the course of history. The consequences of the second voyage, both positive and negative, continue to shape our understanding of the Americas and the lasting effects of European exploration and colonization.

The second voyage of Christopher Columbus marked a significant chapter in the history of exploration and colonization. Despite not achieving its original objectives, this expedition had far-reaching consequences for the Old World and the New World, reshaping global dynamics and cultural landscapes in profound ways.

Through the second voyage, European knowledge of the Americas expanded significantly. Columbus’s explorations provided detailed accounts, maps, and descriptions that enriched Europe’s understanding of the geography, resources, and peoples of the New World. This knowledge laid the foundation for future explorations, colonization, and the establishment of trade networks.

The encounters with indigenous populations during the second voyage brought about a complex and tumultuous period of cultural exchange. While filled with misunderstandings, conflicts, and devastating consequences for native populations, the interactions between Europeans and indigenous peoples marked the beginning of a new era of intercultural contact, shaping the development of societies in the Americas.

The second voyage also had a lasting impact on the geopolitical landscape. The establishment of settlements and subsequent colonization efforts initiated by Columbus paved the way for European dominance in the Americas. It set the stage for further exploration and colonization by other European powers, forever altering the demographics, economies, and political structures of the region.

However, it is crucial to acknowledge the dark legacies of the second voyage. The arrival of Europeans brought about disease, violence, and enslavement that had devastating consequences for the indigenous populations of the Americas. The exploitation and marginalization of these populations cannot be overlooked in assessing the impact of Columbus’s voyages.

In the larger context of history, the second voyage of Christopher Columbus represents a pivotal moment in the interconnectedness of global civilizations. It sparked the Columbian Exchange, which forever changed the flow of goods, ideas, and diseases between Europe, Africa, and the Americas. The consequences of this exchange continue to shape the world we live in today.

Reflecting on the second voyage of Columbus prompts a critical examination of the complexities surrounding exploration, colonization, and their consequences. It serves as a reminder of the need to understand history from multiple perspectives, acknowledging both the achievements and the human suffering that accompanied these transformative voyages.

In conclusion, the second voyage of Christopher Columbus was a defining moment in human history, with wide-ranging implications for both the Old World and the New World. It expanded knowledge, facilitated cultural exchange, initiated colonization efforts, and ultimately shaped the course of world events. Through its achievements and controversies, this historical episode holds valuable lessons for present and future generations to navigate the complex dynamics of exploration, colonization, and the pursuit of a more equitable and inclusive world.

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