"From 'Letter to Fernand and Isabella Regarding the Fourth Voyage'"

This post is comprised of my notes and thoughts on "Letter to Fernand and Isabella Regarding the Fourth Voyage" as presented in the 7th edition of The Norton Anthology of American Literature Volume A. 

Text Notes:

• Written by Columbus on Jamaica on July 7, 1503
• Columbus opens his letter by stating that he weeps for his great and beautiful discoveries that he sees are "in an exhausted state" with infirmity that is "incurable or very extensive" (33).  He goes on to assert that people who were originally against his exploration should not be able to currently benefit from it.
• Columbus next indicates that he was originally given leave by the Spanish monarchs to rule all that he discovered in the West Indies, and says that he wanted this at the time as a means to avoid other people benefiting from his vision and his work unfairly.  
• Columbus describes the length of his service to the Spanish crown next, stating that he began his work when he was twenty-eight years old and that presently he has grown so old that he only has grey hair over his body.  He claims that all that he possesses has been stolen from him and puts forth a plea for the "restitution of [his] honor, the reparation of [his] losses, and the punishment of him who did this" (34).  He asserts that the monarchs doing this will spread word/fame of their nobility.
• The final argument that Columbus puts forth is one for his soul.  He asserts that his service to the crown has resulted in a lapse of proper religious devotion and offerings in his life.  He begs the crown to return him to Europe and allow him to perform various pilgrimages to Rome and other places in order to save his soul.

My Thoughts:

As much as Columbus gets a bad rep as someone who came in and totally ran over the native population on the islands he discovered, I can't help but feel bad for him.  By this point, the reader knows that he has been shipwrecked in Panama and is now shipwrecked again on Jamaica.  The way the letter is written is much more difficult to connect with and understand than his letter to Santangel about his first voyage, and one must wonder whether this letter was written before or after he had his mental breakdown.  

Though he is often not seen as sympathetic, I think that some of his arguments that he puts forth are ones that are sympathetic.  He is saddened by what is happening to his discovered islands and by who is benefiting from them.  I believe that this is not a sentiment that is unknown to the common reader.  In general, a person does not want Naysayer-X to benefit after all his nay saying in the first place.  Columbus is putting forth that exact sentiment.  He would probably not mind of people like Santangel were benefitting in the way Mister Naysayer-X over there was.  After all, supporters believed in his vision and supported his discoveries rather than saying that he was silly for believing in the endeavor.

The religious ending to the letter also strikes me as something with which I can sympathize.  I do not believe that it is Columbus claiming a sudden, inexplicable desire for religion.  Rather, it is a realization that he has strayed away from the religious fervor he had before his began his voyages.  I think this for two primary reasons.  First of all, he did not name any of his original islands after himself.  Instead, he named the first land he found San Salvador, after the saint he credited with his success.  The second island he named was after the Virgin Mary.  Only then did he begin naming after the monarchs and country of Spain itself.  Thus, it is my belief that Columbus did fervently adhere to the Catholic religion in his early career.  It does not seem unlikely to me that he wanted to reestablish that religious connection later in his life when he realized his religion had suffered during his voyages.