Log of the First American Voyage (Excerpt)
○Christopher Columbus
This log begins on the ninth day after Columbus landed on San Salvador Island .
1492, October 21, Sunday. At ten o'clock we reached a promontory of the island, and the other ships of the fleet also anchored. After a quick meal I went ashore and found no sign of human habitation except an empty house. We believe that the owner of the house was so frightened by our arrival that he abandoned his home and fled, because the house was fully equipped with all daily necessities. I ordered that nothing in the house should be touched, and then took my captains and some of the crew to inspect the whole island. This island is more beautiful and richer than other islands. There are tall and lush groves everywhere, as well as a large lake surrounded by green trees and covered with thick shade. The scenery is beautiful and charming. The whole world is as green as Antalucia in April. The songs of the birds are so beautiful that people can’t bear to leave, and the flocks of parrots can even cover the sky. The birds here look very different from those in our country, and there are thousands of different kinds of trees, covered with fruits whose fragrance makes people salivate. To my great regret I did not know the names of these trees, but I recognized that they were all valuable, so I preserved specimens of these trees and plants. While inspecting around the lake, we found a snake that escaped into the water. We followed it because the water was not deep, and finally caught it with a spear. This snake is seven fingers long. I guess there are many more like this in this area. I also discovered an aloe vera tree, and decided to take ten kundos on board tomorrow, because I was told that the tree was very valuable. In the process of looking for drinking water, we came across a local village half a league (old time unit, 1 league is about 4.8 kilometers - Translator's Note) from where the boat stopped. He abandoned his home and fled, taking all his valuables with him into the mountains. I ordered our men not to take anything they left behind, not even a needle. Soon we saw several locals coming towards us. One of them approached us and we gave him some eagle bells and glass beads. He was very happy. In exchange, we asked him for some water. When I got back to the boat, the natives had come to the shore with gourds filled with water and appeared very happy. I ordered them some more glass beads, and they promised to come back the next day. I hope to fill the boat's buckets with water at this point, and, weather permitting, set off immediately and sail around the island until I find the king here. Because I heard he had a lot of gold, I wanted to see if I could get some. After that, I plan to head to another large island. According to the information provided by the Indians on the boat, I believe this island is Sipango Island. The Indians called the island Coba Island and said there were many big ships and sailors there. There is also an island they call Portia, which is also said to be very large. As for the other islands on our route, I would also explore them as I passed and decide my actions based on whether I found large amounts of gold or spices. Whatever may happen, I am determined to sail to the mainland, visit that city, present His Majesty's letter to the Khan, and return with his answer.
Under the direct leadership and organization of the Spanish royal family, the second expedition began. The scale of this expedition was much larger than the first. There were "* sailing ships, including % large cargo ships, which were the largest sailing ships at that time, with about ")## people. Cavalry, farmers, various craftsmen, doctors, priests, gentlemen. Columbus also took his little brother Don Diego with him on the ship. Columbus went to sea in a luxurious setting, with a group of guards, a group of attendants and a group of knights following him. Who now dares to doubt that he is a de facto admiral? His fantasy had become a living fact. He has stood at the pinnacle of power and honor. No one was above him except the kings and the Spanish cardinals. He had rescued his soul from a situation in which he had suffered personally for many years. "&(%Year (month!), Columbus led a huge fleet and set off from the port of Cadiz in a mighty manner.
As on his first voyage, Columbus's fleet first docked in the Canary Islands, restocked with food and fresh water, and loaded livestock and poultry, such as cows, sows, hens, sheep, Horses and birds, in addition, they also brought crops, such as grape vines, sugar cane, wheat, sweet oranges, lemons, melons, and vegetable seeds. This time, Columbus was not only an explorer but a colonizer. On "#月"%, Columbus began his second crossing of the Atlantic Ocean. He chose a southwesterly voyage aimed at reaching the New World proper. Along this route, he sailed into a more favorable tailwind than on his first trip. In this way, after !# days' voyage, an island was discovered on Sunday, ""month %, and the island was named after Sunday. This is Dominica Island. Then they named the islands they discovered one after another, Marigalante Island and Guadeloupe Island. Both islands are volcanic and covered with a lush vegetation. The fleet sailed along the semicircular belt of islands from Trinidad to Hispaniola, watching the natives as they went, admiring the beauty of the autumn green, taking note of the harbors and capes, keeping an eye on everything An object that shines like gold or like gold. Then they discovered the island of Puerto Rico. Although the island is beautiful and large, it cannot rule out Columbus's disappointment in not finding the mainland. The continent remains stubbornly shrouded in mystery. So with a disappointed mood, Columbus came to Hispaniola. If Columbus hadn't slowly changed his voyage to the northwest because he was thinking about Christmas City, Columbus would have discovered the South American continent. Columbus was constantly worried that the Christmas city he had founded had been attacked and destroyed. As he approached the location of Christmas City, his worries grew bigger and stronger. ""At midnight on the first day of the month, Columbus came to Christmas City Bay. He has been away from here for months. For months, his companions have not only lived in another country, but also in another world. The next day, Columbus sailed into the port and arrived at Christmas City. What comes into view is a ruins, the remaining %$ people have been wiped out, the castle has been destroyed and razed to the ground. Columbus decided to find a safer base on the island. After wandering around for a month, the first European city on the American continent was finally established on the northern coast of today's Dominican Republic. In order to show special respect for the queen, Columbus named the city Isabel City. Then, a munitions warehouse, a church, a hospital, and Columbus's fortified residence were built. Columbus sent Ojeda to take ") people with him and spent ") days to inspect Sibao. Columbus was excited to hear there was gold there. He drafted a report to the king and asked Torres to take it with him on the ship. In his report, he explained why he had not succeeded in obtaining spices and gold, and suggested developing a compensation trade, so that ships coming to the Indies would be loaded with livestock and returned with Indian slaves. Torres brought the sad news of Christmas City to the royal family. People finally understood that Columbus was unable to transport all the people back to Spain because he lost his flagship, rather than leaving them there to become the first inhabitants, as he himself said. Reports to the king indicated that Columbus had begun to understand that Sipango and the Indies did not contain as much gold as Marco Polo had said, and began to consider that it would be better to find another source of income. The court therefore had great doubts about Columbus' words: his gold was not much; his aloe was not aloe; his musk was not musk; his cinnamon was not cinnamon. All this shook the crown's trust in Columbus and prompted it to reassess the value of the "Indian enterprise": What did the discovery bring to the king? Torres brought them a tragic past, a depressing reality, and an uneasy future. The knights and gentlemen who went to discover El Dorado pitifully demanded payment of their salaries; Spain's depleted treasury had to bear the costs. But as )"" compensation, what did Columbus contribute? Use Indians as slaves! At the same time, Columbus' prestige in the New World declined sharply. Cracks appeared between him and others. The accountant, steward, and priest in charge of religious affairs of the fleet rose up against him one after another, and another mutiny broke out. This time Columbus took violent measures to resist, imprisoning many people, and one person was killed. Despite this, Columbus continued with his expeditions. On the day of "&(&% month"!, he led % boats to Sibao. This place has nothing to do with Sipango. Sibao is a "stone city" because "Siba" means "Siba" in the indigenous language. Stone.
But along the many small rivers that flowed through that dry and stony land, Columbus and his party found much gold. Although this did not prove Columbus's dream of Sipango, it at least allowed him to build a good fortress there and station a Spanish guard. This fort, situated on the banks of a very pleasant little river, was erected as a token of the certainty of the discovery of gold, and to dispel so many suspicions formerly entertained in Spain. Columbus named the fort after the patron saint of skeptics, calling it the City of St. Thomas. Mar Garrit was appointed commander of the fortress and commanded)# troops. "On the day of &(&年&月!&, Columbus led three sailing ships to leave Hispaniola. He wanted to inspect Cuba and find out whether it was the Asian continent.) A few days later, the fleet saw the last part of the island. Cape Bayatiquili in the East. During his first voyage, Columbus named this place Alpha and Omega, which means the beginning and end of the East and the West. This place name may have inspired him to pursue his destination. - Mainland. But on the way to Cuba, he heard that Jamaica was a place worth visiting because it was rich in gold. So he turned the ship around and arrived in Jamaica on July 1, 2017. He took the island there. Named Santiago. A few years later, this island brought him the saddest and most painful moment in his life. It was on this island that he wrote those unforgettable pages with pain. Columbus did not stay in Jamaica. After seeing the beautiful scenery, he just walked along the coast and had a fierce battle with some aggressive indigenous people. After that, the voice of the West rang in his ears again, and he sailed to Cuba again to explore what was going on in Cuba. Is it mainland China until the mystery of China is revealed? The ocean seems to have kept this secret very closely. Columbus encountered the "Queen's Garden" island maze and dangerous shoals that he named "The Queen's Garden", and it blew out from the afternoon until the moon came out many times. The storm stranded the fleet, so Columbus changed his mind and mysteriously decided to return to Port Isabel. He freely assumed that Cuba was a continent and forced everyone on the three sailing ships to swear an oath to admit that Cuba was a continent. If he reneged, he would be fined. "Wanmalawidi, or whip"##, or even tear off the tongue. At that time, Columbus reached a place ")# sea away from the west corner of the island. If he had mastered the basic data before conducting the investigation, he would most likely have reached the island and even touched the coast of Yucatan, thereby opening up the magnificent picture of the Aztec Empire to the Spaniards in front of his long-term critics. . However, fate - the luck left to others to complete this feat, just like a person's toothache when he drinks cold water when he is unlucky, caused Columbus to return to his voyage by mistake. With his back to Yangguan Road, he turned around and sailed to Port Isabel on the 1st of the year. On the way back, Columbus "suddenly suffered from severe sickness and completely lost consciousness. He had no strength at all and could not breathe." He was so weak that people thought he would not survive a day. "On the day of the year (month!), the fleet arrived in the city of Isabel. It had been more than a month since it left the city. Columbus lay in bed for a long time, Suffering from illness for months. At this time, the colony fell into a complete mental breakdown. Columbus appointed his eldest brother Bartolome to rule the Isabel colony with the title of "Colonial Advance Officer". The differences of opinion with the colonies became even greater, and the colonies' disgust became more and more extreme, not only against Columbus himself, but also against the Columbus brothers in general; in addition, when the royal family learned of this, they also considered it an infringement of the royal power. Violation is an intolerable act. After Columbus recovered, he led his troops to conquer the Indians in March of &(). The war of conquest lasted for # months. Then, Columbus sent ## Indian prisoners of war as slaves. His younger brother was sent back to Spain. At the same time, Columbus forced the Indians to pay gold in order to prepare the necessary materials for his speech in the court. The sailing ship, carrying!!# disappointed residents and %# Indians, left Port Isabel and set off back to Spain. According to his own habits, Columbus did not go all the way through Spain, but wandered among "his islands". Strolling around, just like a collector who likes to play with his treasures in the sun. He stayed on several Caribbean islands for several weeks, and finally began his journey across the Atlantic on May!#.
After two days and nights of wandering at sea, the two first American ships, which had never been to Europe, appeared in the port of Cadiz on January 1. Columbus's arrival in Cadiz evoked a variety of reactions: hope, surprise, dissatisfaction, worry. After a short rest, Columbus set off for Seville. He leads a unique team: there are parrots and Indians, foreign art and gold, especially a gold necklace weighing '##casiano and worth!'9" million maravedi. But, The leader of this magnificent team of foreigners was no longer an outstanding admiral obsessed with silk and gold, but a poor man with a beard, a thin face, sunken eyes, and gray hair. , “The clothes on his body are the same color, style and way of wearing as Franciscan monks are accustomed to wear, and they are tied with a Franciscan adoration shoulder strap. "Columbus came to the royal court and prepared a memorandum full of colonial ambitions for the future institutions of "India", winning the appreciation of the monarch with his passionate and eloquent presentation. Therefore, he defeated his opponents and obtained all the confirmed privilege, and was authorized to relocate the convicts to Hispaniola. On March %#, Columbus set out from the port of San Luca on his third expedition to America. The scale of this expedition was much smaller than the second one, with only a ship and about %## people. The fleet passed through Porto Santo Island, passed through Madeira Islands, and arrived at La Gomera Island in the Canary Islands, preparing to cross the Atlantic Ocean. Columbus split the fleet into two and sent three ships directly to Santo Domingo; he himself led the three ships to sail slowly south and west in order to make new discoveries. After replenishing drinking water, firewood and other supplies in La Gomera, Columbus led the fleet to sail directly to the Cape Verde Islands on the day of "&($'month!". Cape Verde means Green Horn in Spanish. According to According to Columbus, this place is really not worthy of its name, "because everything there is dry, I have not seen anything green, everyone is sick, and I dare not stay there." Columbus made a speech on "Hope Island" Stay. This island is even more misnamed than Cape Verde because it is very desolate and there is a small island nearby that is home to all the lepers of Portugal, where they cure the disease by eating turtles and scrubbing them with their blood . Columbus was heading south in the hope of crossing the equator, because he had heard that more gold and treasures could be found after crossing the equator. On May !$, Columbus was struck by gout and could not sleep at night. There was no drinking water, so he ordered to change his voyage and go north to Dominica. But at this time, he saw a land with three peaks standing side by side in the west, and named it Trinidad, which means the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Trinity Island, "Thus complete agreement was achieved between the discovered land, its discoverer, and God, and the island has always been called Trinidad." Columbus bypassed the island and entered Paria Bay, where a "# kilometers wide strait was discovered, which is an almost closed sea between Trinidad and the South American continent. Columbus saw the continent in the distance, but he thought it was an island, and Named it Santa Island, later called Gracias Island (i.e. Venezuela). After the Spaniards landed on the Paria Peninsula, they saw indigenous women wearing gold necklaces around their necks and pearls on their wrists. He received them in the land and gave them a kind of wine brewed from corn. Columbus was drunk and drunk. There was no doubt that Columbus had reached the coast of the South American continent opposite Trinidad. At this time, the coast was covered with bays and tidal areas, which made Columbus think that each cape was an island. At this moment when Columbus could finally set foot on the continent he dreamed of, he took a boat and left, missing the real continent. The irony and irony of this is best demonstrated ultimately by the words Columbus wrote as he explained why he left the real continent instead of going ashore, once again mistakenly believing that the continent was the one he had visited on his second visit. The coast of Cuba discovered during the voyage. Although Columbus turned a blind eye to the real continent of South America, his visionary eyes were still open and did not close for a moment when he entered the Gulf of Paria. A sea area surrounded by land, and then thinking of the gold necklaces and pearls worn by the indigenous people on the Paria Peninsula, his imagination entered a fairyland. He thought that he was indeed in the rich East, and found a place located in the Far East. Paradise on earth at the end.
He firmly believes in the vague legends of ancient Westerners, believing that God created the paradise on earth, the Garden of Eden, which is located in a very high location, high enough to touch the "moon sky". God planted the tree of life in the paradise on earth, which was drawn from the paradise on earth. A source from which the four great rivers in the world today arise: the Nile, the Euphrates, the Tigris and the Ganges, all of which flow into the Ocean River. When Columbus was bathing in the sea, he realized that the Gulf of Paria was fresh water, and saw a large amount of fresh water pouring into the Gulf of Paria, causing the salt water to retreat for many Spanish miles. Columbus concluded that this was the mouth of a river, and that he was in the Garden of Eden on the top of the earth. The mouth of one of the four rivers. He further speculated that the earth is not a sphere as people say, but should be pear-shaped. The protruding pear handle is the paradise in the East, closest to the sky. But using the pear handle as a metaphor is still too vulgar. It is better to compare it to a woman's nipples which is more elegant. He wrote in a report to the king: Here, there is a high bulge like a woman's nipple. This nipple-like place is the highest and closest to the sky; below is the bisecting line, which is located in this sea area at the end of the Eastern Hemisphere. I call it the Eastern End because all the lands and islands end here. I sincerely believe that those nipples are where paradise will be on earth. The fresh water in the bay he discovered now should be flowing from the paradise at the highest point of the nipple. For Columbus, this was the most beautiful dream in his life. However, before landing, Columbus's dream was quickly shattered. The men came to report that the food on the ship was rotten. The delicacies of the imaginary Garden of Eden could not fill the impending famine. In order not to starve at sea, he had no choice but to order a quick trip to Haiti. When Columbus arrived in Hispaniola, the Spanish colonists on the island were divided, divided, and in chaos. Roldan and his followers separated and set up camp in Saragua, forming an independent kingdom. These Spaniards originally crossed the ocean with great interest to plunder gold. After arriving here, they did not salvage much gold. They had to be wary of Indian attacks all the time, so they all complained that Columbus had deceived and harmed them. Some people secretly fled back to Spain by boat and sued Columbus. Not long after, the news that Vasco da Gama led the Portuguese expedition to India spread throughout Europe, and major newspapers wrote with eye-catching headlines on their front pages: "Gama the Portuguese Discovers the Real India." Suddenly, the whole of Europe was shocked. In the eyes of some people, the so-called "Indian Islands" discovered by Columbus is a big lie. Columbus's image suddenly changed from a hero to a "liar". In addition, there were rumors and reports that Columbus was disloyal, saying that he was preparing to give Hispaniola to a certain country, and that he had a secret agreement with the Genoese; there were also rumors that there was going to be a rebellion in Haiti, and that Columbus had embezzled public funds. In this case, the royal family believed that Columbus was a competent commander of the expedition, but far from a competent governor. Therefore, the king appointed Bobadilla, a veteran of the palace, as governor and chief governor of Hispaniola, replacing Columbus. ")##, because Columbus and his brothers refused to recognize the appointment, Bobadilla ordered the arrest of the three Columbus brothers, shackled them and escorted them back to Spain. The three Columbus brothers suffered humiliation on the ship. Sympathy When the captain of Columbus's unfortunate encounter wanted to remove his handcuffs and shackles, Columbus firmly objected: "No! There is no need to remove these iron blocks! Bobadilla put them on me in the name of the royal family. I want the royal family." Take them off for me. I will treasure these handcuffs and shackles as cultural relics and souvenirs, and bury them with my remains in the future, so that people will know how the people around me treated me when I was alive!" Along the way! Columbus lay awake in agony. He was the discoverer of Hispaniola, and now he was driven away from the land that belonged to him; he had dedicated it to the Crown, and now the Crown was taking it It was given to another who wanted it; it was he who had opened the chain of the Atlantic, but now he was crossing the ocean that he had opened! ""At the end of the month, the three Columbus brothers arrived in Cadiz. The queen was in Granada at the time. When she learned that Columbus had been arrested, Longyan was furious and ordered Columbus to be released immediately. In order to show that what Bobadilla had done was not approved by them, they sent Columbus a prisoner. He wrote a warm letter and attached a large sum of money so that he and his brother could meet the king and queen with dignity. One historian described the scene as follows: The king and queen saw Columbus approaching their throne. They stood up and held out their hands to him.
Isabel's eyes filled with tears, and Fernando concealed his excitement. After Columbus was treated inhumanely, and now he is being treated with such courtesy, I can't help but burst into tears. Even though the king and queen spared him from kneeling, he had to kneel down. Columbus burst into tears and was speechless for a long time. His first few words were to express his gratitude to the king and queen and his sincerity in loyalty to the royal family. He also said that the reason why the results he achieved in several expeditions were far from what he expected was mainly due to the various troubles caused by those who opposed him. The king and queen denounced Bobadilla's treatment of Columbus, then favored Columbus on various public occasions, reinstating him in office and returning his property.
From the above, the impression is that it is beautiful, rich but deserted, and a primitive jungle that they have never seen before.