Professional Documents
Culture Documents
overtaken by preconceptions and stubborn faith. Rather than describing simply what he sees,
Columbus appears to embellish his accounts, turning the Indies into a new Earthly Paradise, or
Garden of Eden. It was common for artists and writers to represent the Indies as a new and
unfallen world. Columbus sometimes evokes romantic images of Spain to describe the Indies, and
there is an unreal, dreamlike quality to his vision of the Indies within the context of Spanish
empire. Columbus seems quite capable of self-delusion as his search for Cathay and the Kublai
Khan (and his gold) becomes an increasingly hopeless quest. Although he will always be
associated with the discovery of America, his actual achievements were limited to a few landings
in the West Indies and South America. He never set foot in North America, and although he
names places in his Journal, these names were superseded by later explorers who produced more
accurate charts, and little practical information was ever derived from his voyages.
Columbus's accomplishments are principally those of discovery and conveying wonder then, and
his language and style tend towards this narrative mode (note that the more matter-of-fact parts of
the log are not written by Columbus, whose narrative begins when land is finally discovered). We
can think of Columbus as a medieval traveller more than a modern explorer, because although he
may have stumbled into America, he seems incapable of translating his findings into a modern
modern worldview. He didnt so much discover America as fulfill his dream of reaching the halfimagined world of Cathay.
Exploration and Knowledge.
Columbus never has the chance to capitalise on his discoveries as did later explorers and
opportunists such as Sir Walter Ralegh who presses on into the interior of South America,
describing and quantifying the land and its peoples. Ralegh's description of his journey up the
Orinoco seems well-informed and life-like. Where Columbus seems overawed by the beauty of
the landscape and overwhelmed emotionally by what he has achieved, Ralegh enters the
landscape, heroically but with a level head, rowing up the Orinoco river, communicating with the
natives (compare with Columbus who tries to 'read' the signs of the natives, but in a kind of dumb
show, open to mistranslation and misunderstanding) and gaining practical knowledge about the
place and its people. Ralegh's exploration is not, however, innocent, nor is it written in plain
scientific language. Ralegh uses his considerable literary skills to impress the court of Elizabeth I,
where literary prowess could still be the mark of a Soldier/Knight. Literariness is turned to
propaganda here to incite British colonisation of the Indies. (e.g. p. 163)
Science and Surveying.
Cook is a prime example of the modern scientific explorer. Of course, his voyages come nearly
three hundred years after Columbus, and his motives are not primarily political or financial gain,
but the accumulation of scientific knowledge. Such knowledge is still part of imperialist thinking,
and the Royal Society and the Admiralty in England, sponsored many scientific expeditions, at
least in part for political and military reasons. Given the geopolitics of the time, (American War
of Independence and war with France), it is difficult to separate Cooks explorations with
England's imperialist ambitions. The maps, charts and other scientific data on currents, weather
systems as well as flora and fauna would provide invaluable practical information for
colonization. Even the project of mapping, charting and classifying the world, its people, and
wildlife, can be construed as essentially that of an imperialist mindset and worldview. The first
British settlement in Australia was called Botany Bay, indicating how important was the business
of 'botanising'. Note Cook's great disappointment when the goats and sheep he has brought all the
way from England die almost immediately from eating poisoned plants, so dashing his attempts
to bring English farming to the South Seas.
Christopher Columbus
Who was Christopher Columbus? Most scholars believe that Columbus was originally from
Genoa (in present day Italy), probably the son of a weaver. His family background is sketchy,
however, and he never revealed much information about his origins, possibly because of some
scandal, possibly he did not really know. Like Venice, Genoa was a major commercial centre for
trade with the East and North Africa. Columbus took part in several trading expeditions across the
Mediterranean, and later, when he moved to Portugal, Columbus sailed with the Portuguese down
the African coast, and later sailed to Britain and Iceland. He spent ten years studying the problem
of getting to the Indies (the East via the Western passage). After much effort, he persuaded Queen
Isabella of Spain to sponsor him.
What was Columbus searching for? - Cathay. He was convinced of a Western Route to the
Indies and China. The main goal of Columbus's expedition was to discover, and then presumably
to claim by force, the East for his Spanish sponsors. The main prizes were gold (Europe needed
more gold currency) and spices (highly lucrative trade) also silks, pearls, jewels etc. The
commodities were known to exist in the East as they had been traded for some time overland
(along the Silk Route) and via sea routes between Arabia and India.
The land route to the East, via present day Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan was closed by a curtain
drawn between East and West by the Ottoman Turks (1345), and China closed its borders as the
Mongol Empire retracted after Chinese nationalism expelled the descendants of the Grand Khan
in 1368 (rise of Ming dynasty). Sea routes to India and the East were still used, but there was no
direct sea passage for Europeans - goods had to be carried overland between the Mediterranean
and the Arabian port of Hormuz. The direct sea route via Africa was forged by the Portuguese
(see above), while Columbus was still floundering in the West Indies and the coast of South
America.
So there were a number of reasons that made taking a western sea route to China attractive.
Columbus became obsessed with the idea, persuading himself and others, against the weight of
contemporary geographical evidence that such a voyage was feasible.
Columbus and Geography Columbus believed in the spherical earth (as did most geographers,
since the Greeks (Aristotle noticed the earth made a circular shadow on the moon - Pythagoreans
believed that only a perfect spherical figure could encompass the world - Ptolemy first attempts to
map the globe, but without accurate longitudes, with insufficient trig points, and too small a
spheroid).
Columbus took an incorrect measurement of the circumference of the earth (18,000 miles instead
of the 25,000 plus miles that Eratosthenes (276-194 BC) had calculated. He also over-estimated
the land mass of Asia as it extended eastwards, calculating that there were only 3,500 miles
between the Canaries and Kinsai (Hang chow) (6-8 weeks journey?).
Columbus and the Pull of the East Columbus was so determined to prove his theory that he
seems to have deliberately overlooked or ignored contemporary science. His estimate of the
distance from Spain to China was hopelessly inaccurate, depending on a false estimate of the size
of the earth, a false estimate of the land mass of Asia, PLUS some further reductions. It is just
possible that Columbus knew that it was not possible to sail to China, but guessed (rightly) that
there was another land mass before China. But in order to sell the expedition, Columbus had to
capture the imagination of his sponsors with promises of grabbing the treasures of the East. It is
also just possible that Isabella knew that Columbus was wrong, but was nevertheless prepared to
back the possibility of finding new lands to colonise. The Spanish expelled the Moors (Muslims)
from Granada (in southern Spain) in 1492, the last stronghold in their own land, and were seeking
to emulate the Portuguese who had taken the fight against the Muslims to North Africa and had
already begun to expand their territories abroad.
There can be little doubt that the pictures of the East presented by Polo and Mandeville had some
impact on the imagination of explorers and sea adventurers like Columbus. The prize of
eventually finding the legendary Cathay exerted a considerable pull.
The Journeys
First expedition:
Columbus set off with three boats from Spain on 3
August 1492. These were the Nina, Pinta and Santa
Maria. Pintas rudder broke after three days. Stopped
at Canaries for three weeks. Left on Sept. 6th - saw
land on Oct. 12th. The land was probably San
Salvador (Watling Island) in the Bahamas. He
explored several islands and moved on to Cuba,
thinking he had reached an island off China. He sent messengers to the Grand Khan. Santa Maria
was wrecked off Hispaniola and the captain of the Pinta went off on his own, leaving the small
Nina this forced Columbus to leave 39 of the crew behind to form the first Spanish colony,
which was later wiped out by Indians. He later caught up with the Pinta, was attacked by hostile
Indians and set off with leaky boats to Spain.
Second expedition: 25 Sept 1493 - 17 ships 1500 men.
Third expedition: 1 Aug 1498, Columbus reached Trinidad and the shores of Venezuela - still
apparently convinced he had discovered the East, Columbus wrote that he believed the Orinoco to
be the river that flows from the Earthly Paradise.
Clinging desperately to his original theory that the islands he had discovered were part of Marco
Polos world, Columbus set off on a fourth voyage.
The High Voyage (1502-04):
The king and queen of Spain made it clear this time that Columbus was to search for gold and
silver, precious stones, spices and other riches. Columbus fleet set sail from Cadiz on 9 May
1502 in what was to be Another voyage in the name of the Holy Trinity, as he stated in a letter
to the Pope. His son Fernando, age 14, and brother Bartolomeo accompanied Columbus on this
fourth and final voyage. Because of ill health and poor eyesight, Columbus could not captain his
fleet. What began with exhilaration over the fastest crossing yet, just 20 days, ended with the loss
direct witnessing of events as they happen. The sea log is intended as a scientific document
supplementing maps and charts.
The journal of Columbus offers a fairly matter of fact day-to-day account until the momentous
discovery of land. This moment has been retrospectively built into the 'beginnings' of America - a
myth of origins (a myth, because the land America was already there of course, so were its people
- 1492 marked the beginning of the European settlement of the Americas and the virtual
annihilation of its indigenous people. It has now been appropriated as the defining moment in the
creation of America (note Columbus day on 8th October). Given the controversy surrounding the
subsequent genocide of the Indians (see Las Casas below), American history might have chosen a
more auspicious starting point.
The Structure and 'narration' of 'The Journal of Christopher Columbus'
The supposedly objective day-by-day form here looks very constructed. (Note that the extract we
are using has missing days marked by asterisks - there should usually be an entry for each day). It
was common for ship's logs to be 'polished up' for publication, but this one seems to have been
greatly altered and embellished. The journal begins with a foreword by the Admiral addressed to
his sponsors the King and Queen of Spain. The foreword anticipates the voyage, but it is almost
certainly written after the voyage, and so it maintains a fiction (that the voyage is yet to come).
There are then short entries from the beginning of the voyage to first (real) sight of land. These
entries record the distance covered and the direction sailed, but even here there are discrepancies,
as the 'narrator' sometimes seems to assume the voice of the Admiral and at other times refers to
him in the third person. (see for example, 30 Sept. to 8 Oct).
When land is discovered (11 Oct) long narrative passages are introduced 'in the words of the
Admiral' himself. The journal then opens out into what we can describe as 'discovery narrative' or
'first encounter narrative'. Such narratives were to become extremely popular among European
audiences who were captivated by stories of island paradises, exotic fruits and birds, naked or
near naked Indians, and thrilled by tales of cannibals.
Discovery Narratives
In common with all 'first encounter' or discovery narratives, the encounter or discovery is all
one-way - i.e. it is entirely as seen by the Europeans. There is little evidence that the Europeans
concerned themselves with what the Indians might want or expect from the encounter. The
Indians were regarded as curiosities first and then as providers of food, gold and labour.
For Columbus, the 'discovery' narrative is complicated by the fact that he desperately wants to 'rediscover' Cathay and meet the Great Khan. The justification for the voyage was to return with
riches from the East. His 'bag' of a few Indians, and a little gold and cotton from America must
have been a great disappointment.
Although the journal is important as the first story of European beginnings in America, for
Columbus this is not America, it is the Indies (Spain continued to call the New World the West
Indies until the 18th century). His eyes see America, but his mind sees the East of Mandeville
and Polo.
literature). The literary referents as well as mention of the countryside of Spain shift the imagery
to Europe and suggest an aesthetic appropriation of the New World. This shift in register is
sometimes read as a kind of romanticism in which Columbuss own state of mind, (the euphoria
of arrival) is projected onto the natural scenery.
Apart from actually being the first European to sail directly from the European mainland to the
Americas and record the voyage (and repeat it), Columbus has little to do with the 'reality' that the
New World was to become. It was another explorer, Amerigo Vespucci, who can be said to have
discovered America as an actuality. It was his name (feminised) - Amerigo/America - that was
chosen by European geographers for the New World (although the Spanish continued to refer to
the West Indies, a name now reserved for the islands that were indeed the first to be explored by
Columbus and his contemporaries). Vespucci re-captured the imagination in his writings by
describing the New World as a new beginning, a real and visitable Earthly Paradise, not the
mythical paradise of the East described by Mandeville (although of course in a sense it is the
same idea, re-mythologised and re-located).
New World Reality
In this New World of Vespuccis, the natives are problematic. The New World seems to be a
place for new beginnings almost entirely of a monetary nature, backed by official religion. It is
not in the first instance a place for new beginnings of a moral or humanist nature (although this
would come in time as various persecuted religious groups and utopians would try to establish
communities in America). Mandevilles veiled critique of the West through his representations of
the East as a plural and religiously tolerant realm, and his delight in the variety and difference
within the human race, entirely devoid of racism and prejudice is blown away in the European,
militaristic Christian grab for land. Almost immediately the natives of the West Indies and South
America, who, for Columbus were the same natives Mandeville describes so affectionately, were
represented as savage cannibals and subject to systematic genocide.
In the New World, the European imagination is freed to wander at will, redefining nature and
people in terms of their use-value first, and their monetary value second. Travel writing of the
time is generally imperialist in that it erases existing native places, projects new geographies on
them, and incorporates them into European-centred History and systems of knowledge. In the
Americas, more so than in other colonies, the imperial project is followed up by the brutal reality
of imperial genocide. So the 'fabulous reality' of diverse peoples reported by Mandeville is
incorporated into this imperialist singularity.
Unlike medieval pilgrims, merchants and missionaries, Columbus took heavily armed soldiers on
his voyages. His main intent might have been the challenge of crossing the ocean, and proving his
theory that China could be reached by a Western route (a theory which was rather flawed) - he
may have been primarily an ambitious and professional sailor, but he also acted for and on behalf
of the Spanish King and Queen who sponsored him, and as such, he worked to their orders and
design, which were expansionist and imperialist. Columbus acts for and helps realise the
imperialist ambitions of Spain, and his main concern after finding land is to assess the
possibilities for exploiting it and imposing colonial power over the native population. This
interpretation is supported by the letters and journals, although we have to recognize that these
may not be altogether authentic or reliable (but then what is?).
The Texts:
The Letter to Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of Spain (c. 1494)
The letter shows Columbus's intent to claim the island of 'Espanola' (Hispaniola, Cuba) as a
Spanish colony. He outlines how the colony might be administered and how arrangements should
be made for exploitation of the island, specifically the handling of gold. Convinced he has
reached China, he mentions travelling on to 'Guisay' (Kinsai - Hang Chau), and sending letters to
the 'Great Can'.
The Journal
Note the form of this travel writing - the ship's log, a daily account of events which suggests
accurate observation and recording of events, as they occur. Actually these logs were always
rewritten afterwards to reflect what happened (or what the captain wanted us to think happened)
rather then events as they unfolded.
Columbus uses scientific observation and reads and interprets nature as it presents itself (e.g. 1617 Sep), but in 'reading' the signs of land, the captain is perhaps turning empirical evidence into
what he wishes to see. In fact, when land is first sighted, the ships are still two weeks away from
landfall.
Some examples to consider in class:
Columbus as the 'hero' of the journey (23 Sept). Columbus sees himself as the biblical character
Moses, leading Europeans to a new promised land. Note the sinister undertones: naked as
subjugation (sexual and imperial?). The representation of the natives shows an intent to dominate
them. Natives are firstly naked and childlike, lacking authority and (patriarchal) command. But
later they are represented as savages and cannibals, so 'justifying' the genocide that is to come
when they refuse to cooperate with the colonialist invaders.
Possession (11 Oct) - Columbus renames local places, so incorporating them into European space
and time. Local places, culture and history are swept aside as European history appropriates them.
Self-delusion (9 Sept) - Columbus deliberately falsifies scientific measurements.
Aesthetics and profit (19 Oct) - beauty in nature, but also in exploitation
To find Cathay (China) (21 Oct) - Columbus still expects to find the world of the Great Khan that
he has read about in Polo and Mandeville.
Further Reading:
For the full texts of the letters and journals check the internet these are widely available.
See also Mary B Campbell, The Witness and the Other World.
Published in Spain in 1552, Las Casas's account of the Spanish mistreatment of American Indians
provides evidence of the brutal facts of colonization, and this makes a sobering postscript to
Columbus's triumphalist and imperialist accounts of discovery.
Las Casas was born in 1484. His father accompanied Columbus on his second voyage in 1493,
and in 1502 he went to the West Indies himself where he was initially involved in the Spanish
conquests there. But by 1514, he had become so disillusioned with colonialism and so concerned
for the well-being of the native population that he began to preach against slavery, and released
those slaves formerly given to him. By questioning Christian morality in the Spanish colonies, he
introduces a counter discourse against imperialism, and in 1520 he explained his views to Charles
I of Spain. Although he persuaded the king that mistreatment of the native population was not
ultimately in the interests of Spain, and that the devastation of the Indies was lessening humanity
rather than promoting Christian and humane values, the process of devastation continued.
Publication of The Devastation of the Indies caused controversy in Spain. Its accounts of
genocide portray an evil empire intent on greed, masked by the signs of Christian faith, but
without the fundamental principles of Christianity. This is a criticism that echoes Mandeville.
According to Las Casas, some fifteen million of the native population of South America and the
West Indies were killed by the Spaniards in the forty nine years following Columbus's voyage.
Note the language used by Las Casas - the natives are like sheep, humble, patient, most devoid of
wickedness and have no desire to possess worldly goods - they are indeed, perfect candidates for
conversion to the Christian faith, Las Casas suggests. The Spaniards, on the other hand, behave
like "ravening wild beasts, wolves, tigers, or lions ... killing, terrorizing, afflicting and destroying
native peoples" (29). And the reason for this behaviour among the Spanish Christians? - greed for
gold. For this, the Spanish slaughtered and enslaved the native peoples.
James Cook (1728 - 1779) - The Journals of Captain Cook (extract from the 2nd voyage 17721775)
James Cook led three famous expeditions to the Pacific Ocean: the first
from 1768 to 1771 (around the world, Tahiti, New Zealand and Botany
Bay and up the Eastern Australian coast), the second from 1772 to
1775 and the third from 1776 to his death in Hawaii in 1779. These
three voyages capped centuries of European exploration in the Pacific.
Since Magellan's voyage round South America to the Phillipines
(1519-21), the Great South Land (Terra Australis Incognita) was the
focus of attention. The continent was originally thought to extend from
South Africa to South America. The Dutch were probably the first to
reach Australia in the early 17th century. They reached Tasmania and
the south island of New Zealand.
Cook is perhaps remembered most for his 'discovery' of New Zealand and his exploration of the
east coast of Australia, which led to the founding of a British settlement at Botany Bay. But his
claim to fame lies not so much in his 'discoveries' as in his brilliant scientific mapping of the
South Seas. His sponsors were not kings and queens, or even merchants, eager for gold, but rather
the Royal Society and the Admiralty, who issued Cook with instructions to make astronomical
measurements in Tahiti and to find, if it existed, the Great Southern Continent. Cook was a
thoroughly 'modern' explorer - rational, scientific and (on the surface at least) humanist. However,
the history of modernity is not only one of science and enlightenment, it is also one of
colonisation and imperialism, and looking back at Cook's writing through the glass of
postcolonial criticism we are bound to see imperialist intent in Cook's seemingly objective and
scientific reports.
Cook was killed by natives on his return to Hawaii on his third voyage. On his first voyage, he
was treated as a God, arriving at a time and in a manner which appeared to fit the predictions of
the island's priests who proclaimed him the deity 'Lono' they had been expecting. Although Cook
was a celebrated figure at home and in the South Seas, he appears from his journals to be a rather
serious, detached and down-to-earth character. Historians have usually regarded him as a
humanist and a tolerant man who took good care of his men and treated the natives fairly. But as
with Columbus, when characters are involved in such epic voyages, which seem to stand for so
much more than the journey itself, the main character is to some extent shaped by the ensuing
legend. There is some evidence to suggest that the story of Captain James Cook is not quite as
straightforward as the historical caricature usually presented.
The Journals
Cook wrote up his journals for the first two voyages in England in the year or so between
voyages, which also gave him opportunity to extend his family before setting off again. The
journals for the first and second voyages were written up by Cook himself in England, taking
advice from his editors. But to Cooks chagrin, other journals and part-fictionalised accounts of
the voyages were written up and published by other officers on the voyages and by professional
authors. These proved highly popular, but Cook was incensed by their inaccuracies.
But even Cooks journals, which we are examining here, were written after the event, and the
original manuscripts show much editing, erasing and rewriting. For the journal of the first voyage,
Cook appears to have borrowed from the log of Joseph Banks, a scientist on the voyage, whose
own account was also published (and rather better received by the public). In the journals of the
first two voyages, Cook appears to have taken care to preserve the day-to-day accuracy of his log
books from which they derive. On the third voyage on which he was killed, the log breaks off
abruptly on 17th January 1779 where Cook begins to describe the ceremony during, or after
which, he was probably killed. The journal of this third voyage is more novelistic in form,
describing episodes stretching across several days at a time. It appears that Cook was attempting
to turn this voyage into a book.
But there is a sense in which Cook's accounts are frustratingly incomplete. His contact with the
native people is so often in passing. Time and again, the natives disappear into the interior,
perhaps to appear later in another place (e.g. p. 262). For Cook, the contact zone is a narrow strip
at the foreshore where the Europeans come to repair and supply their ships and to take away
scientific samples (pp. 262-3). Even when Cook does have the natives in his company, he seems
rather incurious about their lives, politics and customs, and rarely refers to them by name. He
discusses the natives 'on reflection' rather than in direct conversation (pp. 274-5), as though he is
for some reason holding off direct contact with them. Perhaps this is in part due to Cook's nature,
as a rather serious, detached, professional seaman. Perhaps it is partly due to the fact that he was
censoring what he wrote, for his audience, firstly, the Admiralty, and then the members of the
Royal Society, and the public, among whom there was a growing market for stories of all kinds
about the South Seas. It appears that Cook did not wish to sensationalise his accounts (his reports
are in some respects a response to the many travel fictions of the South Seas, and may have
deliberately under-reported what really went on between himself, his men and the native people.
It appears he wanted to give the impression of being a highly moral, correct and disciplined
officer.
Further Reading:
'The Journals of Captain James Cook' - three (rather old editions in the library). We are using
the modern Penguin Edition.
For background on the representation of the South Seas in travel writing and literature, see:
Neil Rennie, Far-fetched facts: the literature of travel and the idea of the South, (1995) in HKU
library.
Bernard Smith, European Vision and the South Pacific (1985)
Nicholas Thomas, The Extraordinary Voyages of Captain James Cook (2003)