The Journal of Christopher Columbus

 I have always found Columbus to be a character of intrigue, so I decided to focus on his accounts of his voyage. Sir Walter Raleigh is an incredible explorer in his own right, however, I did not find his accounts to be incredibly captivating. I found the way in which Columbus described his accounts to be fascinating. Not only does he do a great job going in depth as to what happened each day, he also uses a short hand type of speech. I would venture a guess that he did not want his accounts to be too wordy or long while also making sure that everything that had happened was recorded. I strongly propose that it was not only Columbus who was responsible for this accomplishment of finding new land, but rather his crew should have gotten much more recognition than they eventually got. The admiral was stern in his beliefs and did not want to turn back. Columbus recalls, "The Admiral thought from this that Martin Alonzo did not wish to proceed onward to Cipango; but he considered it best to keep on his course, as he should probably reach the land sooner in that direction". From this, it is clear that the crew worked diligently to decide which direction was best to steer towards, and this discussion was crucial to the discovery in the Caribbean.

    Also, Columbus' use of nature and weather to determine how close he was getting to discovering land was incredible and crucial to his discovery. He vividly describes how many birds were seen per day and he uses this as an indicator of his relativity to new land. He says, "Four tropic birds came to the ship, which is a very clear sign of land, for so many birds of one sort together show that they are not straying about, having lost themselves. Twice, saw two pelicans; many weeds". He uses nature to show that they are a clear sign of land, and then he identifies the type of birds he saw. In addition, Columbus then follows the flight of the birds to find his way to land. I find it incredible that through nature and flight patterns, it led to new discoveries that would alter the course of history.