Columbus, Christopher 1451-1506 creator Major, Richard Henry 1818-1891 text utu 2026 monographic en 1 online resource : multiple file formats "Select letters of Christopher Columbus" by Christopher Columbus is a collection of historical letters written in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. Presented in translation with supporting editorial material, it gathers firsthand accounts of his four voyages to the New World alongside related contemporary documents, illuminating routes, encounters, and the hardships of exploration. The opening of this volume begins with a transcriber’s note and an editor’s preface in which R. H. Major defends his earlier work and the Hakluyt Society against J. A. Froude’s public criticisms. It then launches into a broad introduction surveying real and supposed pre-Columbian discoveries—from classical hints and the Atlantis legend to Chinese, Norse, Arab, Welsh, Venetian (Zeno), Portuguese, and Danish claims—before affirming Columbus’s singular achievement in vision, method, and impact. The introduction proceeds to sketch his background and studies, influences such as Toscanelli and Pierre d’Ailly, his years in Portugal and marriage at Porto Santo, the failed appeal to King John II and departure for Spain, the support won at La Rábida and at court amid theological scrutiny in Salamanca, and the delays preceding the 1492 voyage. It closes this opening stretch by noting debates over his first landfall in the Bahamas and weighing competing identifications proposed by later scholars and navigators. (This is an automatically generated summary.) Release date is 2026-01-30 The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) Originally published: London: The Hakluyt Society, 1870 America -- Discovery and exploration -- Spanish -- Early works to 1800 Columbus, Christopher, 1451-1506 -- Correspondence E011 London: The Hakluyt Society, 1870 https://archive.org/details/selectlettersofc00colu/page/n15/mode/2up https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77820 https://archive.org/details/selectlettersofc00colu/page/n15/mode/2up https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77820 UtSlPG 260607 20260610134813.0 77820