Selected quotes from Christopher Columbus
To finish off the series on the Latin American chronicles, we return to where it all began, Columbus's letters from 1492-93. These extracts come from the letters and documents penned by Colombus (all originals were lost save the first one, which was published in Castilian in 1493) or collected and published by other authors (in our case Bartolomé de las Casas). All of texts include some obscure vocabulary, like some Portuguese loan words (he learned Portuguese before Castilian), like «faxones» for―I presume― feijao from the Portuguese. Consequently, there is good cause on linguistic grounds to assume that the texts did originate with Columbus even when we read him through de las Casas.
I will present the texts without commenting much; these quotes were compiled during my readings of them. Europe was still in medieval mode when Columbus penned these documents, and they are contaminated with European supremacism from start to finish. In any event, it is fascinating to contemplate Latin America as seen by Columbus in what was still the 15th century.
I hope you enjoyed this petit journey through the chronicles of Latin America. If you discovered this minute islet of the internet, please stay and look around and savour some of the other entries. Vale.
From the first voyage (1493). (Letter to Luis de Santángel).
[Columbus believes they understood what was being said without speaking a common tongue]
“And then after I arrived at The Indies, on the first island that I encountered, I took some of them by force so that they might understand [me] and give me notice of what existed in those parts, and thus it transpired that they later understood us and us them, through words or signs; and these [natives] have served [us] greatly”.
[texto original]
[Cuando Colón hace su primera
comunicación con los nativos, está convencido de que se entendieron sólo por señas
y gestos]
«Y luego que legé a las Indias,
en la primera isla que hallé, tomé per forza algunos d'ellos para que
deprendiesen y me diesen noticia de lo que avía en aquellas partes e así fue
que luego entendiron y nos a ellos cuando por lengua o señas; y éstos han
aprovechado mucho».
From the first voyage (1492-93) according to the documents published by Bartolomé de las Casas.
(Words which were collected and/or edited by Bartolomé de las Casas, but probably represent Columbus's words with a certain degree of fidelity).
[Columbus praises the physiques of the natives]
They walk around without clothes on, like the day their mother gave birth to them, the women included, although I didn’t see more than a single girl, and all of whom I saw were youths, I saw no one older than 30 years of age, well proportioned, with beautiful bodies and faces, thick hair almost like a horse’s tail and short. They wear their hair over their eyebrows, except for a few who wore it long, which they never cut. Some paint themselves with dark [colours], others canary [yellow], neither black or white, and some paint themselves in white, others in red or [in any of] the colours that they stumble upon; some paint their faces, others their entire body, some just their eyes, other just the nose. They do not bear arms nor do they know of them, because I showed them [some] swords and they took them by the sharp end and cut themselves ignorantly”.
[texto original]
[Colón alaba los cuerpos de los nativos]
Ellos andan todos desnudos como
su madre los parió, y también las mugeres, aunque no vide más de una farto
moça, y todos los que yo vi eran todos mançebos, que ninguno vide de edad de
más de XXX años, muy bien hechos, de muy fermosos cuerpos y muy buenas caras,
los cabellos gruessos cuasi como sedas de cola de cavallos e cortos. Los
cabellos traen por ençima de las çejas, salvo unos pocos detrás que traen
largos, que jamás cortan. D'ellos se
pintan de prieto, y d'ellos son de la
color de los canarios, ni negros ni blancos, y d' ellos se pintan de blanco y
d' ellos de coloradoy
d' ellos de lo que fallan; y d' ellos se pintan las caras, y d' ellos todo el
cuerpo, y d' ellos solos los ojos, y d' ellos solo el nariz. Ellos no traen
armas ni las cognosçen, porque les amostré espadas y las tomavan por el filo y
se cortavan con ignorancia».
[He speaks of indigenous peoples with pale complexions, similar to Europeans]
“This king and everyone else walk around without clothes, like the day their mother gave birth to them, without any shame. And (as they say) they were the most beautiful men and women encountered up to that point, very pale; such that if they walked around clothed (says the Admiral) and protected themselves from the sun and air, they’d be almost as white as those in Spain. For this land, (he says) is very cold, and better than words can describe”.
[texto original]
[Hay indígenas más pálidos que
tienen piel blanca parecida a la europea]
«Este rey e todos los otros
andaban desnudos como sus madres los parieron, y así las mujeres sin algún
empacho. Y
eran dizque
los más hermosos hombres y mujeres que hasta allí habían hallado, harto blancos;
que, si vestidos anduviesen (dice el Almirante) y se guardasen del sol y del
aire, cuasi serían tan blancos como en España. Porque esta tierra, ―dice él― es
harto fría y la mejor que lengua pueda decir».
[he praises the manner in which they speak]
“They love their fellow man as they do themselves, and they have a manner of speaking which is the sweetest and most docile in the world, and always smiling”.
[texto original]
[alaba como hablan los nativos]
«Ellos aman a sus próximos como a sí mismos, y tienen una habla
la más dulce del mundo y mansa, y siempre con risa».
From the third voyage (as documented by Bartolomé de las Casas)
[brands the natives as cowards, suggests they be used as slaves]
“They don’t have [heavy] weaponry, and they’re all naked without any ingenuity with arms and very cowardly; a thousand [of them] wouldn’t stand up to three [of our men], and thus would they be suitable to order around to work and do whatever be necessary, and that they build villas and learn to wear clothing and [learn] of our customs”.
[texto original]
[dice Colón que son cobardes los nativos, cree en la
esclavitud]
«Ellos no tienen armas, y son
todos desnudos y de ningún ingenio en las armas y muy cobardes, que mil no
aguardarían tres, y así son buenos para les mandar les hacer trabajar y hacer
todo lo otro que fuere menester, y que hagan villas y se enseñan a andar
vestidos y a nuestras costumbres».
[a brief tip of the hat to Portugal]
“And that’s without observing the great heart of the princes of Portugal, who for so long a time have persevered with their enterprise in Guinea and continue with one in Africa, where they have spent half of the people of their kingdom, and with which the king is now more determined than ever”.
[texto original]
[hace un breve ensalzamiento a Portugal]
«y sin mirar el gran corazón de
los prínçipes de Portugal, que a tanto tiempo que prosiguen la enpresa de
Guinea y prosiguen aquélla de Africa, adonde an gastado la mitad de la gente de
su reino, y agora está el rey más determinado a ello que nunca».
[a refrain from Colombus]
“constant dropping wears away a stone”. Oxford Reference say it originates in the 13th century but unfortunately don’t mention the source text. It was already a common topos in the Greco-Roman world, compare Ovidius, Epistulae ex Ponto: «Gutta cavat lapidem, non vi, sed saepe cadendo». The drop hollows the stone, not through force, but by falling often. “La gota cava la piedra, no con fuerza, sino al caer constantemente”.
[texto original]
[un refrán de Colón]
«tanto da una gotera de agua en
una piedra que le faze un agujero».
Interesantemente, hoy día en la
República Dominicana, existe el refrán: “tanto
da la gotera en la piedra hasta que se da el hoyo”.
Cf. también, La Celestina (VIII, 14), dice: «una
continua gotera horaca una piedra».
From the fourth voyage
[Columbus informs us that not all Spaniards made a fortune in the Americas, and some of them returned embittered.
“Those who left the Indies, running away from the work and speaking unfavourably towards them and me, returned with posts. Thus is Veraguas now governed; a poor example and no good for [either] the enterprise or for the justice in the world”.
[texto original]
[Colón nos informa que no todos los españoles encontraron
riquezas, y algunos volvieron a España amargados]
«Los que se fueron de las Yndias,
fuyendo los trabajos y diziendo mal d'ellas y de mí, bolvieron con cargos. Así
se hordenava agora en Biragua;
malo exemplo y sin probecho del negoçio y por la justiçia del mundo».
