Letters    

OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS

Dear J. Z.                                                                                                            July 27, 1991

     Your recent issue of S. T. has left me in the pale of grief. I feel like the Psalmist whose face was wet with tears. Your comments concerning history were certainly not becoming of you. They were unworthy of your intellect and scholarship. You selected sources that fit your perspective of history. Had you taken this same philosophical stance with your theology, I would call you a Neo-Orthodox.

      The writers with whom you seem so enamored are historical heretics whose quest is not for truth, but to alter it. They have no love for accuracy. Certainly, you must know this. The only reason I can think why you have lapped up the vomit of these dogs is because you must think it is scholarly to do so.

      In our day when the children of the Destroyer are busy rewriting our heritage, I feel in some respects like William Farel who cursed Calvin if he chose to ignore the Church in her hour of need. Truth ought to be more precious to us than our very lives. In another day, people were willing to suffer torture rather than to deny truth by telling lies.

     The single most article that saddened me was the article in which you slandered Christopher Columbus. I pray no one will treat you when you are dead as you have treated him. You quote outright prevarications to malign his character. J., in the name of all that is honest, please go to the primary sources. If I want to find out about you, should I read only what people have written about you? or should I read what you have written? You can order The Log of Christopher Columbus— Thatchers' 1903 translation from the Spanish, in hardcover at $16.95, or softcover at $9.95; or you can order Dr. Fuson's 1988 translation in hardcover at $26.50. These can be ordered from William Roy, Jr.; P.O. Box 337, Clifton Park, New Jersey 12063. Postage is 15 percent.

     You can order Columbus' autobiography which he called Book of Prophecies by writing INCQA, P.O. Box 1492, Columbus, New Jersey 08022. In this book, Columbus confesses, "I am a most unworthy sinner, but I have cried out to the Lord for grace and mercy: they have covered me completely. I have found the sweetest consolation since I made it my whole purpose to enjoy His marvellous presence." J., is this the theology of a papist?

     Samuel Smiles records that Christopher Columbus was a poor, wool-carder's son in Genoa. He went from state to state urging kings and emperors to undertake an expedition. He tried Genoa, then Portugal; but when he submitted the project to John II, the king laid it before his council and sought to steal the idea by sending a fleet in the direction that Columbus had indicated. They were soon frustrated by storms and winds, and returned to Lisbon after only 4 days.

     He went to Genoa renewing his proposition to the Republic. He went to Spain, and landed at Palos in Andalusia. He went to the Franciscan convent and asked for bread and water. The Prior graciously welcomed him and encouraged him, and furnished him admission to the Spanish court then at Cordova. Although King Ferdinand was gracious, and laid the project before the council of the wisest men at Salamanca, Columbus was questioned concerning scientific arguments as well as quotations from the Bible. The Spanish clergy declared the theory of antipodes hostile to the faith, and that if a new earth lay beyond the ocean, then all men could not have descended from Adam. Columbus was dismissed as a fool.

    He wrote to the king of England; then to the king of France —all without results. But in 1492, he was introduced to Queen Isabella by Louis de Saint Angel. Friends who accompanied him pleaded the cause with such conviction, the Queen promised to take charge of the enterprise; and on August 3, 1492, he embarked from the port of Palos with 3 small caravelles.

     On his 3rd expedition, he led 6 large ships, and discovered the mainland of America as well as other Caribbean islands. But natives in San Domingo rebelled against the cruelty of the Spanish. Factions spread among the Spaniards. Columbus petitioned the king for a magistrate and a judge. Through jealousy at the court, the king sent Don Francisco de Bobadilla with absolute power and as the designated Governor of the New World. The first thing he did was to throw Columbus and his two brothers into prison. He then commissioned Alonzo de Villego to convey the three to Spain with Columbus laden with chains. On the voyage, Villego, feeling some compassion, offered to relieve him of his irons. "No," Columbus declared, "I will preserve them as a memorial of the recompense due to my services."

    His son, Fernand, said, "These irons I have often seen suspended on the cabinet of my father; and he ordered that at his death they be buried with him in his grave."

     The King and Queen expressed shame at the conduct of Bobadilla and released the prisoners. Columbus was disgusted. On his fourth voyage, mutineers threatened his life. None came to his aid. He was unable to resist—but suddenly land was spotted. He entered San Domingo sick, old, and worn.

      When he was about 70 years of age, he set sail for Spain. He hoped for some reward to keep soul and body together, but his appeals were fruitless. Within a few months after his return, when he was poor, lonely and stricken with disease, he was scarcely tolerated as a beggar. His frock was taken and sold. He did not have a roof of his own. He was unable to pay his tavern bill. He muttered, "I, a native of Genoa, discovered in the distant west, the continent and isles of India."

     On May 20, 1506 he died at Valladolid. His last words were, "Lord, I deliver my soul into Thy hands."

J., on November 27, 1492, Columbus entered into his Journal "Your Highnesses ought not to consent that any stranger should trade or put his foot in this country, except Christians, for this was the beginning and end of the undertaking; namely, the increase and glory of the Christian religion: and that no one should come to these parts who was not a good Christian."

    Again, he wrote, "Henceforth, with the permission of our Lord, I shall use my exertions and have the language taught to some of our people, ...and shall endeavor to convert to Christianity these people, which may be easily done, as they are not idolaters, but are without any religion."

     On his fourth voyage, he asked for clergy to help him "in the name of the Lord Jesus, to spread His name and Gospel everywhere." He asked permission to choose these men.

     When he alighted from his ship on a Caribbean island yet unknown, he named it "San Salvador," or "Holy Saviour." He was not a vain, glory-seeker.

     J., does this sound like a crazed murderer of the inhabitants? Must go.

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