Christopher Columbus

Faith McCullough
September 7, 2008
Period 11
AP English III- Ms. Brown

Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus had a series of four voyages between 1492 and 1504. He had developed good, sound relations with the Taino Indians on the island of Hispaniola. However, the settlers went wild after Columbus departure. He met with so much controversy and lies, he found himself trying to clear his name. He was clearly devoted to the queen, yet his heart was heavy with the wrong he had suffered.
In writing the letters to his confidants, he clearly wants them to know he is very compassionate about his voyage; however he realizes that he went through a lot of turmoil and hardships. In his first voyage, he travels from coast to coast in search for new land. Columbus goes through terrible weather. Though he had to go through that dreadful process, he did find an island called Espanola. “All are most beautiful, of a thousand shapes, and all are accessible and filled with trees of a thousand kinds and tall, and they seen so touch the sky” (Paragraph 3). Those kinds of discoveries made his findings all worth while.
The writer was very descriptive about Espanola. He wants us to feel the beauty and the warmth of the island. I feel that he wants to share the loveliness of this awesome place with us. He allows us to do this with his magnificent description. “All are most beautiful, of a thousand shapes and all are accessible and filled with trees of a thousand kinds, and tall and they seem to touch the sky. Am I told that they never lose their foliage, as I can understand, for I saw them as green, and as lovely as they are in Spain in May, and some of them were flowering, some bearing fruit, and some in another stage, according to their nature. And the nightingale was singing and other birds of a thousand kinds in the month of November there where I went. There are six or eight kinds of palms, which are a wonder to behold on account of their beautiful variety, but so are the other trees and fruits and plants. In it is marvelous pine groves, and there are very large tracts of cultivatable lands, and there is honey, and there are birds of many kinds and fruits in great diversity. In the interior are mines of metals and the population is without number. Espanola is a marvel.” (Paragraph 3)
Based on the text from the fourth voyage Columbus writes to Ferdinand and Isabella, the king and queen of Spain. I feel the author really wants the reader to feel the pain and intensity that Columbus endured. “I came to serve at the age of twenty-eight and now I have not a hair on my body that is not gray, and my body is infirm” (Paragraph 4). “I was made a prisoner and with my two brothers was thrown into a ship, laden with fetter skin stripped to the skin, very ill-treated, and without being tried or condemned” (Paragraph 3). My heart really goes out to Columbus because we see so much of this type of brutality in our society today. Young men and women are beaten, shot or even killed before given the right to due process. I feel Columbus’ pain.
Columbus wanted greatly to please his leaders. He wanted to ensure that the wealth was put in the hands of the rulers. But, this did not happen. The joy and victory was stolen from him with great force and violence. He explains how he became a prisoner with two of his other brothers and now is a servant to his captures. “Who will believe that a poor foreigner could in such a place rise against Your Highnesses, without cause, and without the support of some other prince, and being alone among your vassals and natural subjects, and having all my children at your royal court” (Paragraph 4). He says even though he has gone through that whole process, they will now be glorified for his works instead of talked down upon. Columbus was determined to make his country proud.