Comparing Columbus' Letters

Christopher Columbus is one of the most well-known explorers in history. Christopher Columbus had many voyages that he had done throughout the years but there was several letters that he had written and one regarding his first voyage was to Luis de Santangel that explained what he had found and the way he felt during his voyages of the new lands he had discovered, "his series of four voyages between 1492 and 1504 produced a brief moment of wonder following by a longs series of disasters and disappointments." (Columbus, 2008, pp. 24) In the letters that Christopher Columbus had written his tones was very different in each letter.

The letter that Christopher Columbus had written to Luis de Santangel was regarding his first voyage and his tone in this letter can be described as very eager, passionate, and anxious for his upcoming voyages. When reading the first letter you can tell that he is excited just by the way he describes the way the island looks for instance "Its lands are high, and there are in it many sierras and very lofty mountains, beyond comparison with the island of Tenerife. All are most beautiful, of a thousand shapes, and all are accessible and filled with trees of a thousand kinds and tall, and they seem to touch the sky. (Columbus, 2008, pp. 26) In Christopher Columbus description of the island in his first voyage by him using words to describe the land in such a great fashion it's obvious that he was very happy to be where he was at that moment in time and at awe of his surroundings.

Christopher Columbus other letter that was to Ferdinand and Isabella regarding his fourth voyage has quite an interesting tone to it and a whole different point of view that Columbus once had during his first letter in 1493; it's a little over ten years later in this letter regarding his voyage and it is full of sadness and sorrow of the way he feels for the land and the longing he has of somewhere else versus where he happens to be. Columbus writes in the letter "I did not sail upon this voyage to gain honor or wealth; this is certain, for already all hope of that was dead. I came to your highness with true devotion and with ready zeal, and I do not lie. I humbly pray your highness that if it please God to bring me forth from this place, that you will be please to permit me to go to Rome and to other places of pilgrimage. May the Holy trinity preserve your life and high estate, and grant you increase of prosperity." (Columbus, 2008, pp. 28) In the description of this excerpt that Christopher Columbus had written in this voyage he is describing a longing for somewhere else not where he is currently at in Jamaica. Now that Columbus has aged over the years and is losing his youth he is reflecting on what he could and should of done with the way he would have done things differently while he was there on the land regarding his religious path with god and feels like in a way he is being punished for