Exploring American Histories: Printed Page 15
Document 1.2
Christopher Columbus | Reaching the West Indies, 1492
On October 12, 1492, five weeks after heading into the Atlantic Ocean, Christopher Columbus landed on an island in the West Indies that he named San Salvador. The exact location and name of the island where Columbus first made landfall is in dispute, but we do know that it is in the Bahamas, although Columbus believed it to be India. Columbus spent five days exploring the area where he and his men first encountered native people and kept a detailed journal of his experiences. Although the original journal was lost, large parts of it had been copied by the Catholic friar Bartolomé de Las Casas, including the following journal entry.
Explore
Source: The Journal of Christopher Columbus (during His First Voyage, 1492–93) and Documents Relating to the Voyages of John Cabot and Gaspar Corte Real (London: Hakluyt Society, 1893), 37–38
Question
What motivates Columbus to give gifts to the people he meets?
Question
Why does Columbus think the people he encounters are very poor?
Question
Why does Columbus think the people that he meets will be good servants?
Put It in Context
Question
How might Columbus’s journal entry, which was circulated among clerics and officials, have shaped Spanish views about native peoples?