Christopher Columbus’s Letter to Raphael Sanxis on the Discovery of America (1493)
About the Author
Christopher Columbus (Cristoforo Colombo being the Italian form of his name and Cristóbal Colón the Spanish) was born in 1451 in Genoa, Italy, the son of a wool weaver. He apparently acquired a good education, for he spoke several languages and had read the works of such early scientists as Ptolemy. At the age of fourteen he took his first sea voyage, and in his twenties he worked on trading ships that took him to northern Europe, the Aegean Sea, and perhaps as far west as Iceland.
After having married and become a father, Columbus settled in Lisbon, Portugal, where he and his brother, Bartholomeo (Spanish form, Bartolomé), ran a shop that sold maps and charts. In 1485 he moved to Spain and began the process of seeking a patron to fund his search for a western trade route. It was not until 1492, after King Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella I had expelled the Moors from Spain, that they were prepared to listen seriously to his proposals, which included the...
