English 110.01 TTh 3:55-5:00
Instructor: Cathy Ryan
Assignment: Christopher Columbus Research
October 3, 2017
Note: “YOUR Highnesses, as Catholic Christians and Princes who love the holy Christian faith, and the propagation of it, and who are enemies to the sect of Mahoma and to all idolatries and heresies, resolved to send me, Cristobal Colon, to the said parts of India to see the said princes, and the cities and lands, and their disposition, with a view that they might be converted to our holy faith ; and ordered that I should not go by land to the eastward, as had been customary, but that I should go by way of the west, whither up to this day, we do not know for certain that any one has gone.”
Abstract: Christopher Columbus seemed very fixed on converting anyone to the beliefs and customs of his own heritage.
2. Adams, Charles Kimball. Christopher Columbus: his life and his work. Dodd, Mead and Co., 1892.
Note: “Columbus in his journal admits that land was first seen and announced by Rodrigo de Triana of the ” Pinta ” at two o’clock on the morning of October 12th; and it would be a pleasure to record that he subsequently had sufficient magnanimity to waive his own very absurd claim in favour of the poor sailor to whom it was so justly due. But after his return he set up the demand for himself; and to him it was promptly adjudged and paid by the king and queen.”
Abstract: The man seems very self serving and unwilling to see from others perspectives.
Notes: “he had reduced the Indians to subjection, the mines were prospering, the Indians were brought together in the villages, so that they might better be taught the Christian faith, and serve as vassals to the Crown, and the royal revenues would, he thought, in three years, amount to $7,500,000.”
Abstract: He simply seemed to believe that all people were for the servitude of the queen and Christianity.
4. Abbott, John S. C. Christopher Columbus. University Society, 1905.
Note: ” Columbus found at Lisbon many mariners — ^ intelligent, observing men—who had explored all known seas. From them he heard of drift-wood which had been found, different from any vegetable growth known in Europe. Rude carvings had been picked from the waves, evidently cut by some savage implements. And, most strange of all, two corpses had been washed upon the Azores, presenting an appearance very unlike any of the known races of / Europe or Africa. Gradually the idea seems to have dawned and expanded in the mind of Columbus, that there must STRUGGLES OF llIS EARLY LIFE. 1 5 be other and vast realms on this globe, not yet discovered by Europeans. But a small portion of ouf globe had then been visited by civilized men. The mind of Columbus became greatly excited, as alone in his room he examined the meagre maps of those days. With pencil in hand he sketched the familiar shores of the Mediterranean, and the less known coast of Africa, from Cape Blanco to Cape Verde. He then, in imagination, pushed out boldly into the Atlantic Ocean, as fiftr as the Azores. Here he had to stop. All beyond was unknown and unexplored.”
Abstract: Columbus was also at heart an adventurous soul.