Christopher Columbus's letter to the King and Queen of Spain
Storyboard Text
- "I, Christopher Columbus, am going to write a letter to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, Sovereigns of Spain, giving an account of my voyage from Spain to Asia and my discoveries there."
- I am sailing west to India, I arrived in the Sea of India where I discovered many islands - San Salvador, Santa Maria de la Concepcion, Fernandina, Isabella, Juana, and Espanola
- These islands are beautiful with many tall trees, palm trees, pine trees, fruits, birds, many kinds of metal except iron, beautiful mountains, fertile fields, cattle, and good for agriculture, precious gold, metals, and drugs
- The inhabitants of the islands are Indians. The males are naked, a few females wear green leaves or a bit of cotton or silk at the waist, they have no weapons or iron, they only carry canes with a sharpened piece of wood at the end and they are very timid.
- The Native Indians are naturally timid, mild, not violent, and when they are no longer fearful and feel safe, they are friendly, generous, honest, and are willing to barter their precious gold and cotton with us, for worthless articles such as bits of earthenware, fragments of platters, broken glass, valuing these worthless things as the most precious things in the world.
- On my arrival, I took some of the Indians by force so that we could get to know one another's language and learn about their country. We learned to understand each other with the help of words and signs. These native are not idolators but believe that all power and goodness are in heaven and believe that I and my men were "celestial" and had come from heaven. They are not stupid and lazy, but wise. Some of them navigate the seas but have never seen people wear clothes or sail ships like ours. "I want to convert these natives to the Holy Christian Faith."
- On everyone of these islands, there are a great number of canoes, narrow in shape, very swift, made of a solid log, navigated only by oars, with seats for 18 rowers.
- I took possession of the large island of Espanola in the name of my king and decided upon a spot for a large city here. I called it Navidad and ordered a fortress to be built there.
- At the fortress in Navidad, I left a sufficient number of men with weapons and provisions for more than a year. The king and the people of Navidad are friendly. The people are naked, timid, and don't have any weapons so I don't fear them attacking us. Each of the natives has one wife except for the king and the princes who permitted to have as many as 20 wives and the women appeared to work harder than the men. They are not ferocious people in Navidad.
- "On the island of Caris, which is second on the course from Espanola to India, the Natives here are very ferocious and feed upon human flesh. These Natives have many sorts of canoes, and they go robbing and plundering all the isles of "India". The men wear long hair like that of the women and use bows and arrows of cane with sharpened wood at the larger end. These Natives are feared by the other Indians. These Natives go to visit the females who are the sole inhabitants of another island called Matenin. These women use the bow and dart and wear armor made of plates of copper. There is another island larger than Espanola whose Natives are without hair and who possess a great quantity of gold."
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