From Newsgroup: soc.history.medieval

It is best to go to the citation: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/30/original-letter-from-columbus-announcing-discovery-of-america-goes-on-sale-for-first-time

Original letter from Columbus announcing rCydiscoveryrCO of America goes on sale for first time
The explorer is widely thought of as an exploiter today, and didnrCOt know east from west. But a version of his boastful missive is expected to
fetch up to -u1.2m at auction

Donna Ferguson
Sat 30 Sep 2023 09.00 EDT
In 1493, Christopher Columbus wrote a letter that would change the
landscape of the modern world. rCLI sailed to the Indies with the fleet
that the illustrious King and Queen, our sovereigns, gave me, where I discovered a great many islands, inhabited by numberless people,rCY he
wrote after his return to Europe to royal treasurer Luis de Sant|ingel.
rCLOf all, I have taken possession for their Highnesses.rCY

The events relayed in the letter were rCLthe first report of a voyage that really did change the worldrCY, says Columbus biographer Professor Felipe Fern|indez-Armesto.

Now a rare 1493 Latin translation of this letter, printed on an early
printing press to swiftly convey news of ColumbusrCOs rCLdiscoveriesrCY to elite Europeans, is expected to fetch up to -u1.2m ($1.5m) at a
ChristierCOs auction this month.

rCL[In current times] Columbus has lost his former status as an honorary all-American hero and quasi-founding father, but notoriety rarely hurts onerCOs market value, especially in the US. Witness Donald Trump,rCY says Fern|indez-Armesto.

Columbus had no idea that, at the time, he was the first European since
the Vikings to encounter North America rCo he thought he had travelled to islands near Japan. But his voyage created, for the first time, rCLa
viable, commercially exploitable routerCY across the Atlantic and opened
up communications between long-sundered cultures on either side of the
ocean, Fern|indez-Armesto says.

The letter praises the rich natural assets of the islands Columbus encountered, and he portrays the rCLextraordinarily timidrCY native people
he met there as rCLso unsuspicious and so generousrCY they are rCLlike foolsrCY.
It is now seen by historians as a piece of propaganda that heralds the
start of the European colonisation of the New World.

By exploiting the resources of this apparently rCLnewrCY hemisphere,
European countries would finally start to catch up with China, Islamic
nations and India in power and wealth rCo while also enslaving and
exploiting people all over the globe. rCLLike him or not, you canrCOt deny ColumbusrCOs importance,rCY Fern|indez-Armesto says.

Columbus depicted by the artist Emile Lassalle in 1839.
A master of rCyself-promotion and propagandarCO: Columbus depicted by the artist Emile Lassalle in 1839. Photograph: Famoso/Alamy
The document has been in a private Swiss collection for nearly a century
and is described by ChristierCOs as rCLthe earliest obtainable edition of ColumbusrCOs letterrCY, whose international publication triggered one of the first rCLmedia frenziesrCY for the printed word.

rCLThe significance of the letter is its wide diffusion, thanks to the printing press,rCY says Professor Geoffrey Symcox from the University of California, Los Angeles. Using what was then cutting-edge technology,
the Spanish crown sent copies to the courts of Europe to stake SpainrCOs claim,says Symcox. rCLThe news circulated rapidly, not just through
diplomatic channels but mercantile channels as well.rCY

The impact of the text demonstrates just how good Columbus was at public relations, according to the Cuban-American medieval historian Professor
Teo Ruiz: rCLHe made sure everybody knew what he had done: that he had
reached the islands of the Indies [a collective term for India and the
Far East] by sailing westwards. Which, of course, was not true.rCY

Earlier explorers had been unwilling to sail west because they didnrCOt
dare risk being unable to return home. But Columbus, who was the son of
a weaver and self-taught as an explorer, had made a series of wild calculations without standardising measurements, and concluded the world
was 25% smaller than it is. He then convinced the Spanish monarchs, King Ferdinand II and Isabella I, to provide him with a fleet of ships so he
could sail west and find a new sea route to Asia, which would prevent
Portugal from having a monopoly on the spice trade.

He just bumped into these islands. He did not know and could not even
imagine they were there
Professor Teo Ruiz
In a classic case of confirmation bias, as soon as he reached land, he
claimed to be in the far east. In fact, he had arrived in the West
Indies. Then he visited Cuba, Haiti and San Domingo. rCLHe just bumped
into these islands. He did not know and could not even imagine they were there,rCY says Ruiz.

An intrepid sailor, Columbus had managed to capitalise on the EarthrCOs prevailing winds by charting a south-western course to the American
continent via the Canary Islands. In doing so, he unwittingly
demonstrated how following winds offered new opportunities for
long-range navigation and trade, initiating what became known as rCLthe Columbian ExchangerCY: the irreversible transfer of people, flora, fauna, diseases, ideas and commodities across the Atlantic.

rCLWhat he did achieve, he didnrCOt recognise herCOd done,rCY says Professor William Phillips, a Columbus expert at the University of Minnesota. As
for ColumbusrCOs letter, rCLit was self-promotion and propagandarCY rCo a 15th-century example of fake news.

It also marks one of the earliest appearances of the rCLnoble savagerCY archetype. ColumbusrCOs letter, Symcox says, portrays the naked Indigenous people he meets as rCLguileless innocents living a simple life in the
forest rCo and thus ripe for the civilising mission that Europeans took
upon themselves in their dealings with peoples in the Americas and AfricarCY.


Later, as a brutal colonial governor and viceroy, Columbus would systematically exploit the Ta|!no people of the Caribbean, forcing them
to mine gold and deliver quotas on pain of harsh punishment. Hundreds
were enslaved by Columbus and shipped to Spain to be sold, and others
were massacred or subjected to extreme violence and cruelty.

Some also caught deadly diseases such as smallpox and measles, brought
by the Spaniards. It is estimated that, within a few decades of
ColumbusrCO arrival, most of the Ta|!no had died from enslavement, massacre
or disease.

Now the darker side of the European intrusion into the Americas is
better known, Phillips says, Columbus has come to be seen by historians
as rCLthe first of the exploiters rather than the first of the explorersrCY.

In the US, Columbus statues and monuments have been torn down and
vandalised, and many states no longer recognise Columbus Day, a federal holiday, choosing instead to celebrate Indigenous PeoplesrCO Day.



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