The Log Of Christopher Columbus First Voyage To America In The Year 1492

Presents the log of Christopher Columbus as copied out in brief by his companion, Bartholomew Las Casas, relating the day-to-day drama of a long sea voyage into the unknown.

This definitive edition of Columbus's account of the voyage presents the most accurate printed version of his journal available to date. Unfortunately both Columbus's original manuscript, presented to Ferdinand and Isabella along with other evidence of his discoveries, and a single complete copy have been lost for centuries. The primary surviving record of the voyage-part quotation, part summary of the complete copy-is a transcription made by Bartolome de las Casas in the 1530s. This new edition of the Las Casas manuscript presents its entire contents-including notes, insertions, and canceled text-more accurately, completely, and graphically than any other Spanish text published so far. In addition, the new translation, which strives for readability and accuracy, appears on pages facing the Spanish, encouraging on-the- spot comparisons of the translation with the original. Study of the work is further facilitated by extensive notes, documenting differences between the editors' transcription and translation and those of other transcribers and translators and summarizing current research and debates on unanswered current research and debates on unanswered questions concerning the voyage. In addition to being the only edition in which Spanish and English are presented side by side, this edition includes the only concordance ever prepared for the Diario. Awaited by scholars, this new edition will help reduce the guesswork that has long plagued the study of Columbus's voyage. It may shed light on a number of issues related to Columbus's navigational methods and the identity of his landing places, issues whose resolution depend, at least in part, on an accurate transcription of the Diario. Containing day-by-day accounts of the voyage and the first sighting of land, of the first encounters with the native populations and the first appraisals of his islands explored, and of a suspenseful return voyage to Spain, the Diario provides a fascinating and useful account to historians, geographers, anthropologists, sailors, students, and anyone else interested in the discovery-or in a very good sea story. Oliver Dunn received the PH.D. degree from Cornell University. He is Professor Emeritus in Purdue University and a longtime student of Spanish and early history of Spanish America. James E. Kelley, Jr., received the M.A. degree from American University. A mathematician and computer and management consultant by vocation, for the past twenty years he has studied the history of European cartography and navigation in late-medieval times. Both are members of the Society for the History of Discoveries and have written extensively on the history of navigation and on Columbus's first voyage, Although they remain unconvinced of its conclusions, both were consultants to the National geographic Society's 1986 effort to establish Samana Cay as the site of Columbus's first landing.

This is a new release of the original 1938 edition.

The journal or log of Christopher Columbus, dating from August 1492 to March 1493, offers an account of his journey to the New World 500 years ago. Biographical, nautical and navigational information also is included in this commemorative volume. The log of Christopher Columbus is an invaluable asset to those who would know what the explorer was thinking even as he was attempting discovery. His efforts to identify which trees were valuable was clearly influenced by his needs to justify his sovereigns' investment in what, by Spanish standards, was an extremely expensive endeavor. Though his drive, determination, and brilliance caused plenty of human grief to others, by the standards of his own time, Columbus was a hero, and his actions did jump start the European civilizations of the Americas.

An introduction and epilogue give biographical details but the heart of this book is the actual log kept by Columbus from August 1492 to March 1493.