Based on: Christopher Columbus by Sebastiano del Piombo.
In early 1493, Christopher Columbus wrote an enthusiastic report to Luis de Santángel, the Treasurer of Aragon, describing what he believed to be his successful arrival in “the Indies”. In just thirty-three days at sea, he claims to have reached a chain of islands populated by “numberless people,” all of which he immediately claimed for the Spanish Crown.
Columbus lists each island he named — San Salvador, Santa Maria de Concepción, Fernandina, Isabella, Juana (Cuba), and finally Hispaniola — and describes them in near-mythic terms: lush forests, mountains “seeming to touch the sky”, fertile valleys, and rivers that “bear gold”. Hispaniola, in particular, is presented as a marvel filled with rich soil, abundant resources, and vast potential for settlement.
He describes the Indigenous peoples as timid, generous, and quick to believe that the newcomers came from heaven. Columbus explains how easily they traded gold and cotton for trinkets, and how he forbade his men from exploiting them too brazenly. He also recounts their customs, their canoes “faster than any galley,” and the shared language he encountered across the islands.
He emphasizes the strategic value of the territory. On Hispaniola he founded La Navidad, leaving behind a fortified settlement supplied for a year. He insists the lands are ripe for Spanish control, conversion to Christianity, and profitable trade — promising gold, spices, cotton, resins, and even enslaved people.
Columbus dismisses tales of monsters but repeats stories about cannibals and neighboring islands full of gold, repeating the rumors brought to him by the people he had taken on board. He reassures the Crown that these lands will bring glory to God, wealth to Spain, and a limitless field for evangelization.
He closes by attributing the entire voyage to divine intervention — a triumph that should, he writes, fill all Christendom with celebration.
Based on the letter of Christopher Columbus on his first voyage to America to Luis de Santángel (1498).