The Life of Columbus From His Own Letters and Journals and Other Documents of His Time
- Pages
- about 205
- Category
- History
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 3.8 h at 250 wpm
From the opening
This book contains a life of Columbus, written with the hope of
interesting all classes of readers.
His life has often been written, and it has sometimes been well written.
The great book of our countryman, Washington Irving, is a noble model
of diligent work given to a very difficult subject. And I think every
person who has dealt with the life of Columbus since Irving’s time, has
expressed his gratitude and respect for the author.
According to the custom of biographers, in that time and since, he
includes in those volumes the whole history of the West India islands,
for the period after Columbus discovered them till his death. He also
thinks it his duty to include much of the history of Spain and of the
Spanish court. I do not myself believe that it is wise to attempt, in a
book of biography, so considerable a study of the history of the time.
Whether it be wise or not, I have not attempted it in this book. I have
rather attempted to follow closely the personal fortunes of Christopher
Columbus, and, to the history around him, I have given only such space
as seemed absolutely necessary for the illustration of those fortunes.
I have followed on the lines of his own personal narrative wherever we
have it. And where this is lost I have used the absolutely contemporary
authorities. I have also consulted the later writers, those of the
next generation and the generation which followed it. But the more one
studies the life of Columbus the more one feels sure that, after the
greatness of his discovery was really known, the accounts of the time
were overlaid by what modern criticism calls myths, which had grown up
in the enthusiasm of those who honored him, and which form no part of
real history.
A short sample. Read the whole book
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