Letter on the First Voyage
The letter Columbus wrote on his way home in February 1493 to Luis de Santángel, an official of the Spanish crown, announcing what he had found. Printed at Barcelona in April 1493, it was the first published account of the voyage.
Columbus dated the letter on board his caravel on 15 February 1493 and added a postscript on reaching Lisbon. It was addressed to Luis de Santángel, a royal official who had advanced money for the voyage, and it was in print at Barcelona by April. It describes the islands, their harbours and their gold in the most favourable terms and says that with “very little aid” he can bring back gold, spices, cotton and slaves.
What it says about the islanders’ religion is brief and is one man’s impression after a few weeks without a common language: that they had “no sect, nor idolatry”, believed power and goodness to be in the sky, and would readily become Christians. The same letter offers the sovereigns slaves, to be taken from among “idolaters”. See Christianity Crosses the Atlantic.
Cited in
- 1493, firm date