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Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus Books

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“I went to sea from the most tender age and have continued in a sea life to this day. Whoever gives himself up to this art wants to know the secrets of Nature here below. It is more than forty years that I have been thus engaged. Wherever any one has sailed, there I have sailed.”

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Book:The Life of Christopher Columbus – Discover The True Story of the Great Voyage & All the Adventures of the Infamous Explorer
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“The crew of the caravel "Nina" also saw signs of land, and a small branch covered with berries. Everyone breathed afresh and rejoiced at these signs.”

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Book:Journal of Christopher Columbus (During His First Voyage, 1492-93): And Documents Relating the Voyages of John Cabot and Gaspar Corte Real
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“Dynamic, rapidly expanding European monarchy seeks a can-do visionary to head up its South American divisions.Our ideal candidate will have at least five years' experience in New World colonization and be willing to accept shift work. Fluency in Spanish an asset.Some travel involved”

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Author:Christopher Columbus
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“Weep for me, whoever has charity, truth and justice! I did not come on this voyage for gain, honor or wealth, that is certain; for then the hope of all such things was dead. I came to Your Highnesses with honest purpose and sincere zeal; and I do not lie. I humbly beseech Your Highnesses that, if it please God to remove me hence, you will help me to go to Rome and on other pilgrimages.”

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Author:Christopher Columbus
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“Stood off and on during the night, determining not to come to anchor till morning, fearing to meet with shoals; continued our course in the morning; and as the island was found to be six or seven leagues distant, and the tide was against us, it was noon when we arrived there.”

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Book:Personal Narrative of the First Voyage of Columbus to America: From a Manuscript Recently Discovered in Spain
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“After having dispatched a meal, I went ashore, and found no habitation save a single house, and that without an occupant; we had no doubt that the people had fled in terror at our approach, as the house was completely furnished.”

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Book:Personal Narrative of the First Voyage of Columbus to America: From a Manuscript Recently Discovered in Spain
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“But in truth, should I meet with gold or spices in great quantity, I shall remain till I collect as much as possible, and for this purpose I am proceeding solely in quest of them.”

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Book:Personal Narrative of the First Voyage of Columbus to America: From a Manuscript Recently Discovered in Spain
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“For this purpose I determined to keep an account of the voyage, and to write down punctually every thing we performed or saw from day to day, as will hereafter appear.”

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Book:Personal Narrative of the First Voyage of Columbus to America: From a Manuscript Recently Discovered in Spain
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“I am not solicitous to examine particularly everything here, which indeed could not be done in fifty years, because my desire is to make all possible discoveries, and return to your Highnesses, if it please our Lord, in April.”

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Book:Personal Narrative of the First Voyage of Columbus to America: From a Manuscript Recently Discovered in Spain
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“I ordered each man to be presented with something, as strings of ten or a dozen glass beads apiece, and thongs of leather, all which they estimated highly; those which came on board I directed should be fed with molasses.”

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Book:Personal Narrative of the First Voyage of Columbus to America: From a Manuscript Recently Discovered in Spain
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“Sailed this day nineteen leagues, and determined to count less than the true number, that the crew might not be dismayed if the voyage should prove long.”

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Book:Personal Narrative of the First Voyage of Columbus to America: From a Manuscript Recently Discovered in Spain
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“And they know neither sect nor idolatry, with the exception that all believe that the source of all power and goodness is in the sky, and they believe very firmly that I, with these ships and people, came from the sky, and in this belief they everywhere received me, after they had overcome their fear.”

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Book:A new and fresh English translation of the letter of Columbus announcing the discovery of America
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“I should be judged as a captain who went from Spain to the Indies to conquer a people numerous and warlike, whose manners and religion are very different from ours, who live in sierras and mountains, without fixed settlements, and where by divine will I have placed under the sovereignty of the King and Queen our Lords, an Other World, whereby Spain, which was reckoned poor, is become the richest of countries. Columbus is coming from the Indies as a prisoner to Cadiz.”

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Author:Christopher Columbus
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“It is true that after they have been reassured and have lost this fear, they are so artless and so free with all they possess, that no one would believe it without having seen it. Of anything they have, if you ask them for it, they never say no; rather they invite the person to share it, and show as much love as if they were giving their hearts.”

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Author:Christopher Columbus
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“I have always read that the world, both land and water, was spherical, as the authority and researches of Ptolemy and all the others who have written on this subject demonstrate and prove, as do the eclipses of the moon and other experiments that are made from east to west, and the elevation of the North Star from north to south.”

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Author:Christopher Columbus
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“The tempest was terrible and separated me from my [other] vessels that night, putting every one of them in desperate straits, with nothing to look forward to but death. Each was certain the others had been destroyed. What man ever born, not excepting Job, who would not have died of despair, when in such weather seeking safety for my son, my brother, shipmates, and myself, we were forbidden [access to] the land and the harbors which I, by God's will and sweating blood, had won for Spain?”

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Author:Christopher Columbus
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“And I say that Your Highnesses ought not to consent that any foreigner does business or sets foot here, except Christian Catholics, since this was the end and the beginning of the enterprise, that it should be for the enhancement and glory of the Christian religion, nor should anyone who is not a good Christian come to these parts.”

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Author:Christopher Columbus
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“Of this voyage, I observe, that it has miraculously been shown, as may be understood by this writing, by the many signal miracles that He has shown on the voyage, and for me, who for so great a time was in the court of Your Highnesses with the opposition and against the opinion of so many high personages of your household, who were all against me, alleging this undertaking to be folly, which I hope in Our Lord will be to the greater glory of Christianity, which to some slight extent already has happened.”

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Author:Christopher Columbus
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