Christopher Columbus

source The First Ocean Decade of Peter Martyr of Anghiera and Milan, 1511. From Geoffrey Eatough, Editor and Translator, Selections from Peter Martyr in Repetorium Columbianum, Volume V (Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 1998), pp. 43-44.

introductionThis account of Christopher Columbus's first voyage to the New World in 1492 appeared in The First Ocean Decade of Peter Martyr of Anghiera and Milan (1511) by Peter Martyr, an Italian-born historian at the Spanish court. Martyr's goal, like other Spanish historians of the period, was to emphasize the glory of Spain. As such, Martyr cast Columbus's voyage as a great adventure that would lead to "an unimaginable abundance of pearls, spices, and gold." As Martyr foresaw, Columbus's discoveries of new lands, mineral wealth, and new people and animals launched a new era of European exploration, expansion, and colonialism.

The ancients, to show their gratitude, used to respect as gods men whose vision and toil revealed lands which had been unknown to their ancestors. We, however, who hold that beneath his three persons there is only one God to be worshipped, can nonetheless feel wonder at men such as these, even if we have not worshipped them. Let us revere the sovereigns under whose leadership and auspices it was granted these men to fulfill their plans; let us praise to heaven sovereigns and discoverers; and let us use all our powers to make their glory seen as is right and proper. Here then what is reported about the islands recently discovered in the western seas and about the authors of this event. Since in your letter you seem most eager to know, I intend to start my account from the beginning of the event to avoid doing harm to anyone.

A certain Christopher Columbus, a man from Genoa, made a proposal to Ferdinand and Isabela, our Catholic majesties, and persuaded them that he would find to the west of us the islands neighboring on India, if they would equip him with ships and items required for the voyage. By these means the Christian religion could increase and an unimaginable abundance of pearls, spices and gold be easily had. He persisted and it was arranged that he should have three ships paid out of the royal treasury: one a cargo ship, with a crow's nest; the other two light merchant ships, without crow's nests, which the Spaniards call caravels. When he had taken possession of them Columbus began his proposed voyage around the first of September in the 1492nd year of our salvation with about two hundred twenty Spaniards.

Out in the deep ocean are islands which in many people's opinion are the Fortunate Islands, named the Canaries by the Spaniards, discovered Sometime ago, 1200 miles from Cádiz by their reckoning, for they say that the distance is three hundred leagues, while the experts in navigation say that on their calculations each league contains four miles. Antiquity called them the Fortunate Isles on account of the mildness of their climate: for the inhabitants are not oppressed by intolerable winters or fierce summers, because they are situated in the south beyond Europe's climate. Some, however, would like those which the Portuguese call the Cape Verde to be the Fortunate Islands. The Canaries have, right up to the Present day, been inhabited by men who are naked and who exist without any religion. Columbus made for there in order to take on water and refurbish the ships, before committing himself to hard toils ahead.

From these islands Columbus sailed for thirty-three continuous days, Always following the westerning sun, though for a little while towards the left of it, happy with just the sea and sky. His Spanish companions began first to mutter in secret, then to harass him with open abuse and to think about murdering him; indeed in the end they deliberated on hurling him into the sea: they had been deceived by a fellow from Genoa; the were being dragged headlong into an abyss from where they would never be able to return. After what was not the thirtieth day, roused to fury, they shouted out to be taken back and urged the man to go no further; but he tried to soothe their anger and restrain their excesses, coaxing them, giving large grounds for hope, protracting the issue from one day to the next. He also stated that their majesties would change them with treason, if they made a hostile move against him, of if they refused to obey. In the end to their delight they gained sight of the land for which they had longed.

On this first voyage he revealed just six islands, and two of these were of Unprecedented magnitude. He called one of these Hispaniola, the other Juana, but he was not sure that Juana was an island. As they were shaved the shores of some of them, they heard, in the month of November, the song of the nightingale in the dense groves. They also found huge rivers of fresh water and natural harbors with room for large fleets. Licking the coast of Juana, north west on a straight line, they ran out not much less than eight hundred miles, for they say it was one hundred and eighty leagues. Thinking it was mainland, because there was no apparent end nor sign of any end on the island, for as far as their eyes commanded a view, they decided to retreat. The sea surge also forced them to turn back, for the shore of Juana with its twists and turns eventually bends and curves so far to the north that the ships were assailed by severe gales from the north, for the storms of winter were beginning.