The log of
Christopher Columbus's first voyage to the
New World. Translated in
1903 by
John Boyd Thacher. Meticulously scanned to text and proofed by me in
1998. Unfortunately,
footnotes and
commentary,
italics, and
accents were all lost.
IN NOMINE D. N. JESU CHRISTI
(Literally Translated)
Because, Most Christian and very exalted and very excellent and very
powerful Princes, King and Queen of the Spains and of the Islands of
the Sea, our Lords, in this present year of 1492 after your
Highnesses had made an end to the war of the Moors, who were
reigning in Europe, and having finished the war in the very great
city of Granada, where in this present year on the 2nd day of the
month of January, I saw the Royal banners of your Highnesses placed
by force of arms on the towers of the Alhambra, which is the
fortress of the said City: and I saw the Moorish King come out to
the gates of the City and kiss the Royal hands of your Highnesses,
and the hands of the Prince, my Lord: and then in that present
month, because of the information which I had given your Highnesses
about the lands of India, and about a Prince who is called Great Khan, which means in our Romance language, King of Kings,--how he
and his predecessors had many times sent to Rome to beg for men
learned in our Holy Faith that they might be instructed therein, and
that the Holy Father had never furnished them, and so, many peoples
believing in idolatries and receiving among themselves sects of
perdition, were lost;--your Highnesses, as Catholic Christians and
Princes, loving the Holy Christian faith and the spreading of it,
and enemies of the sect of Mahomet and of all idolatries and
heresies, decided to send me, Christopher Columbus, to the said
regions of India, to see the said Princes and the peoples and lands,
and learn of their disposition, and of everything, and the measures
which could be taken for their conversion to our Holy Faith: and you
ordered that I should not go to the east by land, by which it is
customary to go, but by way of the west, whence until to-day we do
not know certainly that any one has gone. So that, after having
banished all the Jews from all your Kingdoms and realms, in the same
month of January, your Highnesses ordered me to go with a sufficient
fleet to the said regions of India: and for that purpose granted me
great favours and ennobled me, that from then henceforward I might
entitle myself Don and should be High Admiral of the Ocean-Sea and
Viceroy and perpetual Governor of all the islands and continental
land which I might discover and acquire, and which from now
henceforward might be discovered and acquired in the Ocean-Sea, and
that my eldest son should succeed in the same manner, and thus from
generation to generation for ever after: and I started from the city
of Granada on Saturday, the 12th day of the month of May in the same
year 1492: I came to the village of Palos, which is a sea-port,
where I fitted out three vessels, very suitable for a similar
undertaking: and I left the said port, well supplied with a large
quantity of provisions and with many seamen, on the 3rd day of the
month of August in the said year on a Friday 3 at the half hour
before sunrise, and took my way to the Canary Islands of your
Highnesses, which are in the said Ocean-Sea, in order to set out on
my voyage from there and sail until I arrived at the Indies, and
make known the message of your Highnesses to those Princes, and
fulfil the commands which had thus been given me: and for this
purpose, I decided to write everything I might do and see and which
might take place on this voyage, very punctually from day to day, as
will be seen henceforth. Also, Lords and Princes, besides describing
each night what takes place during the day, and during the day, the
sailings of the night, I propose to make a new chart for navigation,
on which I will locate all the sea and the lands of the Ocean-Sea,
in their proper places, under their winds; and further, to compose a
book and show everything by means of drawing, by the latitude from
the equator and by longitude from the west, and above all, it is
fitting that I forget sleep, and study the navigation diligently, in
order to thus fulfil these duties, which will be a great labour.--
August, 1492
September 1492
October 1-15, 1492
October 15-23, 1492
October 24-31, 1492
November 1-16, 1492
November 17-30, 1492
December 1-12, 1492
December 13-20, 1492
December 21-25, 1492
December 26-31, 1492
January 1-12, 1493
January 12-31, 1493
February 1-24, 1493
February 25-28, 1493
March, 1493