Christopher Columbus’s Letter to Raphael Sanxis on the Discovery of America (1493)
Audience
The nominal audience of Columbus's letter was Gabriel Sanxis, King Ferdinand II's treasurer. The true audience, however, comprised the king and his consort, Queen Isabella I, who had funded the expedition and could be counted on to fund further expeditions if Columbus reported a successful first journey. It is unknown whether Columbus anticipated that his letter would be published, but he likely knew that its contents, if not the letter itself, would be disseminated to others who might finance future expeditions. Surely, he realized that his broader audience was the Spanish people, who would take pride in Columbus's accomplishment and be gratified to know that the people he had encountered in the New World could potentially be the source of wealth and become Christian converts. Yet another member of the letter's audience was the pope, Alexander VI, who must have read the letter either in Spanish or the Latin translation, or perhaps its contents were reported to him....
