Summary

This essay consists of the journals and letters of Christopher Columbus with some commentary by the author. Williams begins the essay by personifying the New World as a force that Columbus must reckon with because he has destroyed its seclusion from the relentless onslaught of the Europeans. Williams describes Columbus’s first discovery as a “pure, white, wax-like and fragrant” flower, followed by an “acrid and poisonous apple.” In making this contrast he refers not only to the difference in weather Columbus experiences on his subsequent voyages, but also to what happens to the paradise Columbus reveals when Europeans come to claim it – the destruction and enslavement of indigenous cultures, and their enforced turn to Christianity.

Columbus’ journal entries begin with his return to Spain after his first triumphant voyage of discovery. Nothing goes well for Columbus ever again. Terrible...