Christopher Columbus Extracts from His Journal

1. When Christopher Columbus was sailing across the seas, seeing birds was their clue of

being close to land. I thought it was very interesting because I had no knowledge of how

sailors notice that they are close to land, other than seeing the land itself.
2. Christopher Columbus had a mission to go around the world to spread the word of Jesus.
3. Sunday, October 14th was the day that Columbus and his crew had landed on an island-

like place but he assured that it was not an island. He went around to discover what was

around and discovered houses, along with noticing that the people are war-like matters.
4. On November 6th, Columbus journaled that people walk around naked. Even the women

were naked but they had a tiny piece of clothing that covered their private parts. That is

interesting to know because it shows how their culture is in clothing.

5. They actually started to build a good connection for trading that they dont have.

Columbus Letter to King Ferdinand - First Voyage

1. Columbus named the first island that he had discovered, San Salvador which was in

honor of the Divine Majesty. The second island, he named it Santa Maria de

Concepcion, the third Fernandina, the fourth Isabella and the fifth Juana, and

more. He had named those islands with names of Spanish Kings and Queens.
2. He soon discovered an island that he had named Espafiola. He noticed that it was much

more fertilized. The island had many big rivers, tall mountains, many trees, flowers, and

many more things. This island was just beautiful in Columbus eyes.
3. All the islands he had discovered, men and women walk around with no clothing on,

except women have a little piece of leaf to cover their private parts. They also do not

have any steeled weapons, besides only a spears that are made for seed cutting.
 4. When Columbus had met the Indies, they believed that him and his men were from

Heaven and began telling the whole town. Everyone praised Columbus and his men with

food and drinks.

5. When Columbus went from island to island, he took some people with him as evidence.

On another island, the people there had no hair. The different islands that he had

discovered, the gold was priceless.

The Devastation of the Indies by Bartolomea de Las Casas

1. On Island Hispaniola, the Spaniards claim themselves as Christians but not the type of

Christians we know today. They take women and children away from Indians to put them

to use.
2. With the Spaniards forcing women and children to do as they pleased, the Indians

changed their minds about their belief of the Spaniards were men from Heaven.

Christians used bullets and beatings to force things to happen how they would like.
3. Island Hispaniola had five rules that are ruled by five Kings. Most people did not know

that these islands had royalty, because it was to believed that it was different tribes that

were part of the land instead.

4. Women were always seen to only be used to dig for gold but there was actually a Queen

that was able to be the ruler of the island.

5. The Spaniards flies across San Juan and Jamaica many times with a reason to make those

islands a part of the Hispaniola.

Columbus Contract with Ferdinand and Isabella

1. Many people appreciated the Columbus discovery of these new islands and new places

of the world.
 2. The Royalty were not greedy people and did not take the discovered land for themselves

to have power over.

3. The King and Queen was so grateful of his voyage so they rewarded him with the right to

govern the islands.

4. Columbus was well respected by many people even till this day.
5. Michele de Cuneo forced a woman to his room and have his way with her even though

she did not desire so. The woman dug her nails on his back to rebel against his actions but

he whipped her for defying.

Take Away Summary

Before reading these documents, I had no knowledge of what happened during Christopher

Columbus voyage besides that he discovered land. Christianity was not the same as it is today

because of the brutality that they believed were acceptable unlike today where Christianitys

main focus is spreading Gods love. It was nice to read about how there were islands that had

many resources surrounding them which made the islands very healthy. However, I did not

expect the Spaniards to use such brutality to women and children. Especially not to know about a

woman being raped and abused for standing up for herself. Overall, because of Christopher

Columbus research, many cultures and land were discovered and studied.