Christopher Columbus, Letter
This present year of 1492, after Your Highnesses had
brought to an end the war with the Moors who ruled in Europe and had
concluded the war in the very great city of Granada, where this
present year on the second day of the month of January I saw the
Royal Standards of Your Highnesses placed by force of arms on the
towers of the Alhambra, which is the fortress of the said city; and I
saw the Moorish King come out to the gates of the city and kiss the
Royal Hands of Your Highnesses and of the Prince my Lord; and later
in that same month, because of the report that I had given to Your
Highnesses about the lands of India and about a prince who is called
"Grand Khan," which means in our Spanish language "King of Kings";
how, many times, he and his predecessors had sent to Rome to ask for
men learned in our Holy Faith in order that they might instruct him
in it and how the Holy Father had never provided them; and thus so
many peoples were lost, falling into idolatry and accepting false and
harmful religions; and Your Highnesses, as Catholic Christians and
Princes, lovers and promoters of the Holy Christian Faith, and
enemies of the false doctrine of Mahomet and of all idolatries and
heresies, you thought of sending me, Christobal Colon, to the said
regions of India to see the said princes and the peoples and the
lands, and the characteristics of the lands and of everything and to
see how their conversion to our Holy Faith might be undertaken. And
you commanded that I should not go to the East by land, by which way
it is customary to go, but by the route to the West, by which route
we do not know for certain that anyone previously has passed. So,
after having expelled all the Jews from all of your Kingdoms and
Dominions, in the same month of January Your Highnesses commanded me
to go, with a suitable fleet, to the said regions of India. And for
that you granted me great favors and ennobled me so that from then on
I might call myself "Don" and would be Grand Admiral of the Ocean Sea
and Viceroy and perpetual Governor of all the islands and lands that
I might discover and gain and [that] from now on might be discovered
and gained in the Ocean Sea; and likewise my eldest son would succeed
me and his son him, from generation to generation forever. And I left
the city of Granada on the twelfth day of May in the same year of
1492 on Saturday, and I came to the town of Palos, which is a
seaport, where I fitted out three vessels very well suited for such
exploits; and I left the said port, very well provided with supplies
and with many seamen, on the third day of August of the said year, on
a Friday, half an hour before sunrise; and I took the route to Your
Highnesses' Canary Islands, which are in the said Ocean Sea, in order
from there to take my course and sail so far that I
wouldreach the Indies and give Your Highnesses' message to those princes and thus carry out that which you had commanded me to do. And for this purpose I thought
of writing on this whole voyage, very diligently, all that I would do
and see and experience, as will be seen further along....
Thursday I I October
He [sometimes Columbus refers to himself in the third person] steered west-southwest. They took much water aboard, more than they had taken in the whole voyage. They saw
petrels and a green bulrush near the ship. The men of the caravel
Pintasaw a cane and a stick, and took on board another small stick that appeared to have been worked with iron, and
a piece of cane, and other vegetation originating on land, and a
small plank. The men of the caravelNina also saw other signs of land and a small stick loaded with barnacles. With these signs everyone breathed more easily and cheered up. On this day, up to sunset, they made 27 leagues.
After sunset he steered on his
former course to the west. They made about 12 miles each hour and,
until two hours after midnight, made about 90 miles, which is
twenty-two leagues and a half. And because the caravel
Pinta was a better sailor and went ahead of the
Admiral it found land and made the signals that the Admiral had
ordered. A sailor named Rodrigo de Triana saw this land first,
although the Admiral, at the tenth hour of the night, while he was on
the sterncastle saw a light, although it was something so faint that
he did not wish to affirm that it was land. But he called Pero
Gutierrez, the steward of the king's dais, and told him that there
seemed to be a light, and for him to look: and thus he did and saw
it. He also told Rodrigo Sanchez de Segovia, whom the king and queen
were sending as veedorof the fleet, who saw
nothing because he was not in a place where he could see it. After
the Admiral said it, it was seen once or twice; and it was like a
small wax candle that rose and lifted up, which to few seemed to be
an indication of land. But the Admiral was certain that they were
near land, because of which when they recited the salve,which sailors in their own way are accustomed to
recite and sing, all being present, the Admiral entreated and
admonished them to keep a good lookout on the forecastle and to watch
carefully for land; and that to the man who first told him that he
saw land he would later give a silk jacket in addition to the other
rewards that the sovereigns had promised, which were ten thousandmaravedis as an annuity to whoever should see it
first. At two hours after midnight the land appeared, from which they
were about two leagues distant. They hauled down all the sails and
kept only thetreo,which is the mainsail
without bonnets, and jogged on and off, passing time until daylight
Friday, when they reached an islet of the Lucayas, which was called
Guanaham in the language of the Indians. Soon they saw naked people;
and the Admiral went ashore in the armed launch, and Martin Alonso
Pinzon and his brother Vicente Anes, who was captain of the
Nina The Admiral brought out the royal banner
and the captains two flags with the green cross, which the Admiral
carried on all the ships as a standard, with an F and a Y, and over
each letter a crown, one on one side and the other on the other. Thus
put ashore they saw very green trees and many ponds and
fruits of various kinds. The Admiral called to
the two captains and to the others who had jumped ashore and to
Rodrigo Descobedo, the escrivanoof the whole fleet, and to Rodrigo Sanchez de
Segovia; and he said that they should be witnesses that, in the
presence of all, he would take, as in fact he did take, possession of
the said island for the king and for the queen his lords, making the
declarations that were required, and which at more length are
contained in the testimonials made there in writing. Soon many people
of the island gathered there.
What follows are the very words of the Admiral in his book about his first voyage to, and discovery of, these Indies. 1, he says, in order that they would be friendly to
us -- because I recognized that they were people who would be better
freed and converted to our Holy Faith by love than by force -- to
some of them I gave red caps, and glass beads which they put on their
chests, and many other things of small value, in which they took so
much pleasure and became so much our friends that it was a marvel.
Later they came swimming to the ships' launches where we were and
brought us parrots and cotton thread in balls and javelins and many
other things, and they traded them to us for other things which we
gave them, such as small glass beads and bells. In sum, they took
everything and gave of what they had very willingly. But it seemed to
me that they were a people very poor in everything. All of them go
around as naked as their mothers bore them; and the women also,
although I did not see more than one quite young girl. And all those
that I saw were young people, for none did I see of more than 30
years of age. They are very well formed, with handsome bodies and
good faces. Their hair coarse -- almost like the tail of a horse-and
short. They wear their hair down over their eyebrows except for a
little in the back which they wear long and never cut. Some of them
paint themselves with black, and they are of the color of the
Canarians, neither black nor white; and some of them paint themselves
with white, and some of them with red, and some of them with whatever
they find. And some of them paint their faces, and some of them the
whole body, and some of them only the eyes, and some of them only the
nose. They do not carry arms nor are they acquainted with them,
because I showed them swords and they took them by the edge and
through ignorance cut themselves. They have no iron.
Their javelins are shafts without
iron and some of them have at the end a fish tooth.... All of them
alike are of good-sized stature and carry themselves well. I saw some
who had marks of wounds on their bodies and I made signs to them
asking what they were; and they showed me how people from other
islands nearby came there and tried to take them, and how they
defended themselves; and I believed and believe that -- they come
here from tierrafirme to take them captive.
They should be good and intelligent servants, for I see that they say
very quickly everything that is said to them; and I believe that they
would become Christians very easily, for it seemed to me that they
had no religion. Our Lord pleasing, at the time of my departure I
will take six of them from here to Your Highnesses in order that they
may learn to speak...
. . . They came to the ship
withdugouts that are made from the trunk of
one tree, like a long boat, and all of one piece,
and worked marvelously in the fashion of the land, and so big that in some of them 40 and 45 men came.
And others smaller, down to some in
which came one man alone. They row with a paddle like that of a baker
and go marvelously. And if it capsizes on them they then throw
themselves in the water, and they right and
empty it with calabashes that they carry. They brought balls of spun
cotton and parrots and javelins and other little
things that it would be tiresome to write down, and they gave everything for anything that was given to
them. I was attentive and labored to find
out if there was any gold; and I saw that some of them wore a little
piece hung in a hole that they have in
their noses. And by signs I was able to understand that, going to
the south or rounding the island to the south,
there was there a king who had large vessels of it and had very much gold.... This island is quite
big and very flat and with very green trees a
I and much water and a very large lake in the middle and without any
mountains; and all of it so green that
it is a pleasure to look at it. And these people are very gentle,
and because of their desire to have some of
our things and believing that nothing will be given to them without their giving something, and not
having anything, they take what they can and
then throw themselves into the water to swim....
Sunday 14 October
As soon as it dawned I ordered
the ship's boat and the launches of the caravels made ready and went
north-northeast along the island in order to see what there was in
the other part, which was the eastern part. And also to see the
villages, and I soon saw two or three, as well as people, who all
came to the beach calling to us and giving thanks to God. Some of
them brought us water; others, other things to eat; others, when they
saw that I did not care to go ashore, threw themselves into the sea
swimming and came to us, and we understood that they were asking us
if we had come from the heavens. And one old man got into the ship's
boat, and others in loud voices called to all the men and women: Come
see the men who came from the heavens. Bring them something to eat
and drink. Many men came, and many women, each one with something,
giving thanks to God, throwing themselves on the ground; and they
raised their hands to heaven, and afterward they called to us in loud
voices to come ashore. ... And I saw a piece of land formed like an
island, although it was not one, on which there were six houses. This
piece of land might in two days be cut off to make an island,
although I do not see this to be necessary since these people are
very naive about weapons, as Your Highnesses will see from seven that
I caused to be taken in order to carry them away to you and to learn
our language and to return them. Except that, whenever Your
Highnesses may command, all of them can be taken to Castile or held
captive in this same island; because with 50 men all of them could be
held in subjection and can be made to do whatever one might wish. And
later [I noticed], near the said islet, groves of trees, the most
beautiful that I saw and with their leaves as green as those of
Castile in the months of April and May, and lots of water. I looked
over the whole of that harbor and afterward returned to the ship and
set sail, and I saw so many islands that I did not know how to decide
which one I would go to first. And those men whom I had taken told me
by signs that they were so very many that they were numberless. And
they named by their names more than a hundred. Finally I looked for
the largest and to that one I decided to go and so I am doing. It is
about five leagues distant from this island of San Salvador, and tile
others of them some more, some less. All are very flat without
mountains and very fertile and all populated and they make war on one
another, even though these men are very simple and very handsome in
body...
Sunday 4 November
... The Admiral showed cinnamon
and pepper to a few of the Indians of that place (it seems from the
samples that he was bringing from Castile) and he says that they
recognized it; and they said by signs that nearby to the southeast
there was a lot of it. He showed them gold and pearls, and certain
old men answered that in a place that they called Bohio there was a
vast amount and that they wore it on neck and in ears and on arms and
legs; and also pearls. Moreover, he understood that they said that
there were big ships and much trade and that all of this was to the
southeast. He understood also that, far from there, there were
one-eyed men, and others, with snouts of dogs, who ate men, and that
as soon as one was taken they cut his throat and drank his blood and
cut off his genitals. The Admiral decided to return to the ship to
wait for the two men whom he had sent and to decide whether to leave
and seek those lands, unless the two men brought good news of that
which they desired....
Tuesday 6 November
... They saw many kinds of trees
and plants and fragrant flowers; they saw birds of many kinds,
different from those of Spain, except partridges and nightingales,
which sang, and geese, for of these there are a great many there.
Four-footed beasts they did not see, except dogs that did not bark.
The earth was very fertile and planted with those manes and bean varieties very different from ours, and
with that same millet. And they saw a large quantity of cotton
collected and spun and worked; and in a single house they had seen
more than five hundred arrobas; and that one might get there each year four thousand
quintales . The Admiral says that it seemed to him
that they did not sow it and that it produces fruit [i.e., cotton]
all year. It is very fine and has a large boll. Everything that those
people have, he says, they would give for a very paltry price, and
that they would give a large basket of cotton for the tip of a lacing
or anything else given to them. They are people, says the Admiral,
quite lacking in evil and not warlike; all of them, men and women
naked as their mothers bore them. It is true that the women wear a
thing of cotton only so big as to cover their genitals and no more.
And they are very respectful and not very black, less so than
Canarians. I truly believe, most Serene Princes (the Admiral says
here), that, given devout religious persons knowing thoroughly the
language that they use, soon all of them would become Christian. And
so I hope in Our Lord that Your Highnesses, with much diligence, will
decide to send such persons in order to bring to the Church such
great nations and to convert them, just as you have destroyed those
that (lid not want to confess the Father and the Son and the Holy
Spirit, and that after your days (for all of us are mortal) you will
leave your kingdoms in a tranquil state, free of heresy and evil, and
will be well received before the Eternal Creator, may it please Whom
to give you long life and great increase of your kingdoms and
dominions and the will and disposition to increase the Holy Christian
Religion, as up to now you have done, amen. Today I pulled the ship
off the beach and made ready to leave on Thursday, in the name of
God, and to go to the southeast to seek gold and spices and to
explore land. All these are the Admiral's words. He intended to leave
on Thursday, but because a contrary wind came up he could not leave
until the twelfth of November...