The Four Voyages: Being His Own Log-Book, Letters and Dispatches with Connecting Narratives.. (Penguin Classics) (edition 1992)

by Christopher Columbus (Author), J. M. Cohen (Translator)

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No gamble in history has been more momentous than the landfall of Columbus's ship the Santa Maria in the Americas in 1492 - an event that paved the way for the conquest of a 'New World'. The accounts collected here provide a vivid narrative of his voyages throughout the Caribbean and finally to the mainland of Central America, although he still believed he had reached Asia. Columbus himself is revealed as a fascinating and contradictory figure, fluctuating from awed enthusiasm to paranoia and eccentric geographical speculation. Prey to petty quarrels with his officers, his pious desire to bring Christian civilization to 'savages' matched by his rapacity for gold, Columbus was nonetheless an explorer and seaman of staggering vision and achievement.… (more)

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Member:	South_River_Reader
Title:	The Four Voyages: Being His Own Log-Book, Letters and Dispatches with Connecting Narratives.. (Penguin Classics)
Authors:	Christopher Columbus (Author)
Other authors:	J. M. Cohen (Translator)
Info:	Penguin Classics (1992), Edition: Revised ed., 320 pages
Collections:	Your library
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The Four Voyages: Being His Own Log-Book, Letters and Dispatches with Connecting Narratives.. (Penguin Classics) by Christopher Columbus

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As to the Spanish in this book, I cannot comment. The English worked fine for me though. This contains letters and selected documents by Columbus or to him during each of his four voyages. It was nice to have alongside the biography I was reading to fill in some gaps and get an idea of the terminology and phrasing used in the 1400s. From his comments, it seems that Columbus was well read for his day. He seemed to be an eternal optimist until the weight of perceived and real injustices done to him crushed his spirit. That, along with his poor health. His family and friends were loyal though and he always had good words to say for them and for those who sailed under him, even seeming to forgive most of the mutineers. (

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MrsLee | Feb 24, 2009 |

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Author name	Role	Type of author	Work?	Status
Christopher Columbus	—	primary author	all editions	calculated
Cohen, J. M.	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Wapenaar, Lex	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed

▾Series and work relationships

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Cresset Library

Dover Books on Travel, Adventure

Penguin Classics (L217)

Penguin Literature

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Diario de a bordo by Cristóbal Colón

Is abridged in

Introducción a la literatura hispanoamericana : de la conquista al siglo XX by Gladys M. Varona-Lacey

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The Essential Man's Library: 50 Non-Fiction Adventure Books

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Christopher Columbus

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Atlantic Ocean

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Some say that these lands were first known many centuries ago, and that their situation was written down and the exact latitudes noted in which they lay, but their geography and the sea routes by which they were to be reached were forgotten, and that Christopher Columbus, a learned man well read in the science of cosmography, set out to make a fresh discovery of these islands.

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No gamble in history has been more momentous than the landfall of Columbus's ship the Santa Maria in the Americas in 1492 - an event that paved the way for the conquest of a 'New World'. The accounts collected here provide a vivid narrative of his voyages throughout the Caribbean and finally to the mainland of Central America, although he still believed he had reached Asia. Columbus himself is revealed as a fascinating and contradictory figure, fluctuating from awed enthusiasm to paranoia and eccentric geographical speculation. Prey to petty quarrels with his officers, his pious desire to bring Christian civilization to 'savages' matched by his rapacity for gold, Columbus was nonetheless an explorer and seaman of staggering vision and achievement.

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