Columbus’s Account of 1492 Voyage

Exploring the Early Americas The Jay I. Kislak Collection

Pre-Contact America | Explorations and Encounters | Aftermath of the Encounter

Christopher Columbus (1451–1506).
Epistola Christofori Colom [Letters of Christopher Columbus].
Rome: Stephan Plannck, after April 29, 1493.
Jay I. Kislak Collection, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (48)

After his first transatlantic voyage, Christopher Columbus sent an account of his encounters in the Americas to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain. Several copies of his manuscript were made for court officials, and a transcription was published in April 1493. This Latin translation was published the same year. In reporting on his trip to his sovereigns, Columbus wrote:

There I found very many islands, filled with innumerable people, and I have taken possession of them all for their Highnesses, done by proclamation and with the royal standard unfurled, and no opposition was offered to me.