What Columbus

"Saw" in 1492
When Christopher Columbus arrived in the New World, he brought
with him a rich lode of cultural preconceptions that strongly
influenced his perceptions of the land and its inhabitants

by I. Bernard Cohen

T
his year, the SOOth anniversary who had a copy of it made for Colum­
of Christopher Columbus's fa­ bus and retained the original for her­
mous voyage, has been the occa­ self. Although both versions have dis­
sion for much reflection on the true appeared, Bartolome de las Casas, a his­
nature of the admiral's achievement. torian and missionary known as the
Many writers have remarked that the Apostle of the Indies, made his own ver­
"New World" found by Columbus was sion of Columbus's text (part transcrip­
actually an old world that had long tion, part sununary) , copies of which
been inhabited by a culturally diverse, still survive. Las Casas, who was the first
native civilization. It was also an old priest to be ordained in the New World,
world in a less obvious sense: Colum­ devoted his later life to the cause of
bus's perceptions of the lands he dis­ Native Americans and preached against
covered were profoundly influenced by their enslavement.
his intellectual and cultural preconcep­ Early in 1493, shortly after his return
tions. In that way, his reactions were to Spain, Columbus wrote a lengthy let­
like those of any person confronting ter, a popular and sununary version of
the unfamiliar, whether an explorer seek­ his log. This letter was addressed to
ing new realms of the earth or a scien­ Luis de Santangel, who had helped
tist trying to fathom the mysteries of Columbus solicit funds for his voyage,
nature. Ideas derived from the Bible, and to several others. The letter was
from the reports of previous adventur­ widely read and was printed a number
ers, from mapmakers and from general of times. It became the primary source
lore all worked their way into Colum­ of information about the first discover­
bus's "discoveries." ies made by Columbus.
Much of the extant information about

M
Columbus's thoughts regarding the New odem readers of the two docu­
World is contained in two documents, ments may be surprised by
a diary and a letter. Unlike most mari­ Columbus's general lack of in­
ners of the time, Columbus kept a reg­ terest in details concerning the lands
ular day-to-day record of his 1492 voy­ he had visited and by the scant atten­
age; he may in fact have been the first tion he paid to the animals and plants
seafarer to keep such a log. On his re­ there. His descriptions of locations are
turn to Spain, Columbus presented the so laconic that additional research is
log to his patroness, Queen Isabella, often required to determine exactly
where Columbus was at the time of writ­
ing. For instance, on October 12, 1492,
after a 36-day journey from the Canary
l. BERNARD COHEN is Victor S. Thom­
Islands, Columbus landed on an island
as Professor (emeritus) of the History of
Science at Harvard University. He has re­
cently completed a new translation of
Newton's Principia, to be published by
NATIVE AMERICANS were initially drawn
the University of California Press; he has
based on ancient expectations and on
also edited a volume of critical and his­
torical studies on the interactions be­
sketchy information relayed by Co­
tween the natural sciences and the so­ lumbus. This single-leaf illustration, pub­
cial sciences. This article on Columbus lished in Augsburg in 1505, shows the
is based on Cohen's long-term study of natives as cannibalistic primitives. The
creativity in science. accompanying text relates that they
have no government or private property.

100 SCIENTITIC AMERICAN December 1992

© 1992 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC
he called Guanahani (now known as San Polo's estimate that the shipping on the were not Europeans or Africans, yet
Salvador), one of the Bahama Islands . Yangtze River exceeded that on all the neither were they Asians. The Native
. His main description is remarkably European waterways put together. Americans attracted Columbus's atten­
brief: "This island is very large and very Columbus's observations were col­ tion all the more so because their natu­
flat and with many green trees and ored by his search for useful goods to ral beauty contradicted the possibili­
much water and a very large lake in the bring back to King Ferdinand and Queen ty that he had reached a forbidden part
middle, without any mountain; and ev­ Isabella, who had financed his trip. His of the earth inhabited by monsters. For
erything [so] green that it is a pleasure reports therefore include mentions of these reasons, Columbus recorded in
to look at it." gold, silver, pearls and gems. But Co­ vivid detail the appearance of the na­
When Columbus did pay attention to lumbus did not recognize the greater tives he encountered without evincing
details of geography, he generally noted Significance of the islands he had dis­ too much concern for the land they
only the outstanding features of the covered. He was seeking the kingdom inhabited.
land. He also indulged in the kind of of the Great Khan, the islands of Japan Columbus's earlier reading reinforced
exaggeration that is the accompani­ and the riches of India. What he found his belief that his ocean voyage had
ment of wonder. He wrote that Guanaha­ was not what he wanted to discover, so brought him most of the way to the Far
ni has "a port large enough for as many the details of the land were, in that East. He made extensive marginal notes
ships as there are in Christendom," an sense, irrelevant. In contrast, he had in his copy of Imago Mundi of Pierre
overstatement comparable to Marco come across a strange new people who d'Ailly, a 15th-century geographer. In

© 1992 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC

chapter 1 1, Columbus writes (partly continents, did explorers begin to pay encountered might have been men and
quoting and partly paraphrasing the full attention to the flora and fauna of women of some other familiar type (Eu­
text): "The limit of the habitable earth the New World. ropeans, perhaps, or Africans), in which
toward the east and the limit of the hab­ In marked contrast to his lack of case he would have reached not the In­
itable earth toward the west are quite concern regarding the natural aspects dies but some unknown pocket of the
close, and in between is a small sea." of the islands he viSited, Columbus world. Columbus's log clearly dispels
This passage encouraged Columbus in showed acute interest in his encoun­ such a thought. Equally unpleasant was
his plan to sail westward from Europe ters with the people who came to be the third, opposite possibility that he
to China or to the region of India. mistakenly known as Indians. As Leo­ would confront a previously unrecog­
A disregard for geographic details nardo Olschki, the Italian historian of nized race of men and women-that is,
was common among other explorers of science, observed, Columbus was "me­ he might have reached some terra in­
Columbus's time. Amerigo Vespucci, for ticulous and exhaustive" in reporting cognita. Columbus's unwillingness to
instance, wrote exquisitely detailed ac­ the appearance of the natives, their cus­ admit that potentiality is well docu­
counts of the natives of South America toms and peculiarities, "even depicting mented in his log.
but gave only cursory information about their life and habits with a keen and ex­ A fourth prospect was that the newly
the land itself. Not until well into the pressive realism." discovered peoples would be inhabi­
16th century, when the Americas came tants of an earthly paradise. One of the

C
to be recognized as previously unknown olumbus's perceptions of the Na­ most enduring images associated with
tive Americans were guided by the Bible is the Garden of Eden, where
the tales of his seafaring prede­ a human couple, sublime in their naked­
cessors, by Judeo-Christian mythology ness, inhabited an idyllic wilderness.
and by his own expectations. The books Columbus may well have been thinking
that survive from the library of Colum­ of that image when he commented re­
bus include annotated copies of works peatedly on the surprising nakedness
by Pliny, Aeneas Sylvius (Pope Pius II) , of the native people he confronted.
Pierre d'Ailly and Marco Polo. Polo re­ Subsequent writers went much further
peatedly told of strange sights in strange in drawing parallels between Eden and
lands. Nevertheless, readers of his Mil­ the New World.
ione cannot help but be struck by his The final possibility that Columbus
constant comparison of what he wit­ faced was that he might have reached
nessed on his travels with similar be­ one of the distant, forbidden parts of
ings or objects at home. He thus sought the world where monsters dwell. Tales
to render the unfamiliar acceptable to of humanoid monsters were a common
the mind by relating bizarre features component of the travel literature and
and exotic experiences to the ordinary legends with which Columbus was fa­
life of the writer and the prospective miliar. They became an important part
readers. Columbus behaved in much the of Columbus's writings as well.
same way. The mythical monsters known to
Based on his intellectual and cultural Columbus included giants, one-eyed
background, Columbus might have an­ cyclopes and hairy men and women, as
ticipated meeting five distinct kinds of well as more exotic creatures. Ama­
people in the course of his 1492 jour­ zon fighting women cut off the right
ney. First, if he had indeed reached the
Far East, as he expected and desired,
the natives would have had to be Asians.
HUMANOID MONSTERS had been asso­
The first natives he met, the Tainu on
ciated with remote parts of the world
San Salvador, were obviously not the
since at least the time of ancient Greece.
highly Civilized denizens of India, Chi­
The 1493 edition of Hartmann Schedel's
na or Japan. Columbus tried to console
Nuremberg Chronicle recorded many
himself by searching for hints that he such monsters, including sciopods (top
might have reached islands off the left), cynocephali (middle left), blem­
coast of Asia. myae (bottom left), cyclopes (bottom
Second, the natives whom Columbus center) and panotii (bottom right).

102 SCIENTIFIC AMEruCAN December 1992

© 1992 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC
MAP OF THE NEW WORLD made by the Turkish cartographer home to monsters such as cynocephali (detail, top right) and
Piri Re'is in 1513 (left) incorporates information from Colum­ blemmyae (detail, bottom right). He did so in defiance of an
bus's charts of America. Re'is identified South America as the Islamic injunction against creating images of living beings.

breast so they could use bows and ar­ neas Sylvius, both of which were read by are savage." And in his marginalia to
rows more efficiently. Anthropophagi Columbus. chapter 16, entitled "The Wonders of
devoured human flesh and drank from Medieval maps gave graphic expres­ India," Columbus notes what he might
human skulls. Blemmyae had heads lo­ sion to the ideas concerning the strange expect to see in that land: pygmies, tall
cated in their chests. Panotii were en­ beings that appeared in the literature. Macrobians, barbarians who kill and
dowed with gigantic ears that they used Jhe earth of the medieval cartogra­ eat their elderly relatives, women who
as blankets or as wings for flying. Cy­ phers included terrifying boundaries of give birth only once and produce off­
nocephali had human bodies but dogs' haunted seas inhabited by loathsome spring with white hair that grows dark
heads. Sciopods possessed a single leg creatures. The Hereford map of the as they age, as well as the river Ganges,
and a huge foot; they would stretch on world, made in the late 13th century, near which d'Ailly locates people who
their backs and hold the foot above depicted sciopods, blemmyae and oth­ live on the smell of a certain fruit.
themselves to act as parasols. er monsters dwelling in far-off lands.

W
Information about those beings ap­ Other maps, both earlier and later, of­ hen Columbus reached the
peared in many written accounts and fered similar visual representations. New World, he inquired again
literary works. The alleged correspon­ Monsters were both a source of fear and again about the presence
dence of Alexander the Great, for exam­ and of expectations for sailors. of humanoid monsters. Perhaps his in­
ple, and Pliny the Elder's Natural Histo­ Columbus transcribed and summa­ formants did not understand what he
ry contain early mentions of humanoid rized the information about monsters was asking, or perhaps they attempted
monsters. Marco Polo's Milione included that he found in Imago Mundi, indicat­ to please him by telling him what he
descriptions of monstrous races. Any­ ing the passages that he found most seemingly wanted to hear. Columbus
one who had read about distant places significant. In a postil to chapter 12, Col­ recounts in his letter that he received in­
could have expected that such crea­ umbus writes that "at these two ex­ formation about people with tails, peo­
tures would dwell there. References to tremities [toward the north and south] ple having no hair and women living
monsters were still very much in evi­ there are savages who eat human flesh; and fighting on an island devoid of
dence in 15th-century scholarly books they have vile and horrible faces. The men, for example.
such as d'Ailly's Imago Mundi and the cause is the intemperate climate; be­ The tales to which Columbus paid at­
Historia Rerum Ubique Gestarum of Ae- cause of this they have bad habits and tention and the manner in which he in-
'

SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN December 1992 103

© 1992 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC
 three [armed Spaniards]." He concluded
that "they are fit to be ordered about
and made to work, to sow and do aught
else that may be needed."
Such sentiments distressed Las Cas­
as, who later wrote that "the natural,
simple and kind gentleness and hum­
ble condition of the Indians, and want
of protection, gave the Spaniards the
insolence to hold them of little ac­
count, and to impose on them the hard­
est tasks they could, and to become
glutted with oppression and destruction
.. .the Admiral enlarged himself in
speech more than he should, and what
he here conceived and set forth from
his lips was the beginning of the ill
usage he afterwards inflicted upon
them." Clearly, the ability to lead a suc­
cessful expedition does not necessarily
imply nobility of character. Or, as Sig­
mund Freud commented of Columbus,
"great discoverers are not necessarily
great men."

M
OSt of the time, however, Col­
umbus's observations of the
AMAZON WARRIORS were anticipated by many explorers of the New World. In his
natives were connected to his
Universal Cosmography of 1575, Andre Thevet illustrates the barbaric nature of
effort to understand what part of the
such native warriors in an imaginary battle scene set on the American mainland.
world he had reached. He described in
Thevet writes that, unlike other races, the American Indians never make peace.
detail the physical characteristics of
the local inhabitants in order to prove
terpreted them, undoubtedly reflected In his letter to Santangel, Columbus that they were not deformed and that
both his expectations and his hopes. felt compelled to discuss the reports of they differed in appearance from the
The poor communication between Col­ monsters, if only to dismiss them as known European or African peoples.
umbus and the Indians (often based on mere rumor. "In these islands I have so After his first meeting with the natives
just a few words and on sign language) far found no human monstrosities, as of Guanahani, on October 12, Colum­
gave him considerable leeway in im­ many expected, but on the contrary the bus again wrote that they "are very
posing his own meanings on the Indi­ whole population is very well-formed," well-formed, with handsome bodies and
ans' stories. His wavering attitudes to­ he wrote. He added that "as I have very fine faces." He noted that their
ward those stories expressed both his found no monsters, so I have had no "hair is not kinky but straight, and
need to consider seriously the exis­ report of any, except in an island Qua­ coarse like horsehair." They "wear their
tence of monsters and his desire, for ris, which is inhabited by people who hair short over their eyebrows, but they
various practical reasons, to deny their are regarded in all the islands as very have a long hank in the back that they
existence. fierce and who eat human flesh." To never cut."
While in Cuba, on November 4, one prove to Ferdinand and Isabella, and to Columbus remarked that all the peo­
of the Indians who had been taken on the people of Europe in general, that he ple of Guanahani were "tall people and
board described a place where "there had not traveled to lands inhabited by their legs, with no exceptions, are quite
were one-eyed men, and others, with monsters, Columbus brought home to straight"; none was seen to have a
snouts of dogs, who ate men." Colum­ Spain some captive Indians who could paunch. Their eyes, he found, "are large
bus later noted that the captive Indians display their well-formed bodies. and very pretty." He did judge, however,
feared the people living on Bohio (His­ Columbus also specified in his log that "their appearance is marred some­
paniola) "who had one eye in their fore­ that some of the inhabitants of the is­ what by very broad heads and fore­
heads, and others whom they called lands he visited were quite submissive. heads, more so than I have ever seen in
cannibals." The word "cannibal" was I cannot help but take note of this as­ any other race." He later learned that
thus introduced into Western language. pect of Columbus's character. Of course this feature of their appearance came
Columbus judged his informants were he lived in an age when there was as from the pressure of a board on the
lying; he believed the people whom yet no general belief in human freedom forehead of infants. Columbus also re­
they dreaded and who had captured and dignity. But Columbus did more corded that some of the natives had
some of them "must have been un­ than acquiesce in the standards of his painted their faces, others their whole
der the rule of the Great Khan." His de­ age; his first thought on encountering bodies.
sire to believe he was near Asia out­ a group of simple people was of en­ During the same leg of his journey,
weighed his inclination to accept the slaving them. Columbus referred again Columbus observed that the natives'
reality of the monsters. In this instance, to the docility of the Tainu. "They bear "skin is the color of Canary Islanders
Columbus manifested a fascinating no arms, and are all unprotected," he or of sunburned peasants, not at all
mix of what he actually heard, what he recorded for the information of the black." This last attribute, like many of
expected to find, and what he feared to king and queen, and are "so very cow­ the others he had entered in his log,
encounter. ardly that a thousand could not face struck him as important in establish-

104 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN December 1992

© 1992 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC
ing that the island on which he had a verse adaptation of Columbus's letter, orate headdresses for women and there­
landed was not a part of Africa. He then a very popular work that rapidly went fore for Amazons.
added, "Nor should anything else be ex­ through four editions. Dati then wrote Although Columbus did not find mon­
pected since this island is on an east­ two poems that may be considered se­ sters, he did bring back news of living
west line with the island of Hierro quels, the second of which described beings even more unexpected: the "In­
[Ferro] in the Canaries," a reference to monsters supposedly found in the East dians," who were unlike any known hu­
Aristotle's theory that all forms of life at Indies. The second book even present­ man race in their appearance and cus­
the same latitude should be identical. ed woodcuts depicting eight of the hu­ toms. The reaction of European society
Some days later, when Columbus ar­ manoid creatures. illustrates the human tendency to search
rived in Cuba, he observed that "the peo­ for familiar elements in unfamiliar in­

T
ple are meek and shy" and "go naked he force of popular tradition also formation; in the words of physicist j.
like the others"; he found them to be is seen in a famous map of the Robert Oppenheimer, "We cannot, com­
"without weapons and without govern­ Americas made in 15 13 by Piri ing into something new, deal with it ex­
ment." He may well have been making Re'is, a Turkish cartographer who wrote cept on the basis of the familiar and
an implicit comparison to the Garden about the discoveries of Columbus. The the old-fashioned."
of Eden. Just before his departure from map delineated the east coast of South The Bible offered one source of in­
Cuba, on November 6, Columbus made America with an impressive degree of spiration for understanding the Native
a final entry about the natives. "These accuracy. On the land, the map portrays Americans. Letter-writers of the time
people are free from evil and war," he various real creatures such as parrots commenting on Columbus's expedition
wrote, adding that they are "not as dark and monkeys. But he also included a frequently cited the nakedness of the
as the people of the Canaries." Some unicorn, a dog-headed man and even a Indians, sometimes adding details about
observations were discreetly omitted version of a man with a head beneath the use of a leaf or a swath of cloth to
from Columbus's log. Samuel Eliot Mori­ his shoulders. hide the genitals. Morison remarked that
son, one of the foremost biographers Other explorers continued to entertain the "one touch of nature that made all
of Columbus, pointed out that Colum­ serious thoughts that monsters might newsmongers kin was the naked na­
bus refrained from mentioning "any reside in the New World. In 15 18 Diego tives, especially the women who wore
sporting between the seamen and the Velasquez de Cuellar, the governor of nothing but a leaf." He observed that
Indian girls," whose habits were "com­ Cuba, specifically told Hernan Cortes the "points in Columbus's discovery
pletely promiscuous," no doubt be­ to watch for people with gigantic ears that chiefly interested people were the
cause "his Journal was intended for the and dogs' faces. In 1522 Cortes sent new things that recalled something very
eyes of a modest Queen." back to King Charles V huge fossil bones old, like Adam and Eve in the Garden
Despite Columbus's numerous state­ supposed to have come from the skele­ of Eden." Morison noted that "the lack
ments in his log and letter about the tons of giants. The Amazon River was of religion among the natives, their tim­
true nature of the natives he encoun­ given its name by Frandsco de Orellana, id and generous nature, and ignorance
tered, other writers continued to en­ who believed it flowed through a region of lethal weapons" were characteristics
dow the New World with the kind of of warrior women lacking breasts and that, "combined with their prelapsarian
monsters that for centuries people had therefore resembling those described by innocence, suggested to anyone with a
come to regard as inhabiting such re­ ancient chroniclers. I suspect he mis­ classical education that the Golden Age
mote lands. In 1493 Giuliano Dati made took male Indian warriors wearing elab- still existed in far-off corners of the

CANNmAUSM figured prominently in

Western tales of remote parts of the
globe. Hans Staden's 1557 woodcut
(above) illustrates his alleged experi­
ences in the Americas. In 1592 Theo­
dore de Bry reworked Staden's drawing
into a more refined image (right); in the
process, he gave the figures an incon­
gruous, classical European look.

SCIENTITIC AMERICAN December 1992 105

© 1992 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC
 temperance, humanity and religion"­
qualities that seem rather ironic, espe­
cially given the history of the treatment
of the Native Americans by the Spanish
conquistadors.
Attitudes toward the culture of the
Indians also varied considerably. The
16th-century Spanish explorers Jose
de Acosta and Gonzalo Fernandez de
Oviedo y Valdes attempted to record,
in a relatively sympathetic manner, the
beliefs, practices and social organiza­
tion of the Native Americans. At the
same time, Bishop Diego de Landa of
Mexico considered some of the habits
and customs of the Mayans so savage
and repulsive that he systematically
destroyed documents recording their
civilization.
These divergent interpretations of the
people of the New World should come
as no surprise. A succession of philoso­
phers of science-most recently Thom­
as S. Kuhn-have convincingly demon­
strated that even the ostensibly objec­
tive facts of science are to a large degree
laden with theory. The history of sci­
ence shows that the force of theory in
interpreting experiments and observa­
tions is much like the power of precon­
ception so abundantly evident in Col­
umbus's accounts of the natives of the
New World and in those produced by
his contemporaries.
Columbus hoped to discover the
realm of the Great Khan, and to his
death he fervently believed he had done
so. He knew that he might encounter
monsters and heard stories that exact­
SYMPATHETIC PORTRAYALS of life in America began to appear late in the 16th
ly fitted his concerns. Even as he began
century. Theodore de Bry based this 1590 illustration on a watercolor of native Vir­
to learn something about the beliefs
ginians by John White. In addition to capturing details of the natives' peaceful ev­
and customs of the Native Americans,
eryday existence, de Bry evinces a level of interest in the local flora and fauna ab­
sent from earlier depictions of the New World. Columbus imposed his expectations
and pragmatic goals on his perceptions
of them. In a real sense, the root of his
globe." He thus stated explicitly a theme gued that the Indians were fellow hu­ achievement may have resided in the
implicit in Columbus's log. mans and that they should accordingly way he combined his fears and his be­
Columbus's insistence that the peo­ be treated with tolerance and kindness, liefs so that, both in spite of and be­
ple of the New World were perfectly leading up to their peaceful conversion cause of them, he not only committed
formed, beautiful human beings had an to Christianity. Juan Gines de SepUlveda, grave errors but also achieved mar­
interesting by-product. Artistic repre­ canon of Salamanca and royal histori­ velous discoveries.
sentations of Native Americans made an of Spain, responded that even if
by the next generation of explorers those creatures were "more men than
highlighted that perfection of form, beasts" -of which he was by no means RJRTHER READING
transforming it into a positive statement certain-they were without question of ADMIRAL OF THE OCEAN SEA: A LIFE OF
rather than a mere denial. A result is an inferior sort. Their natural condition CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. Samuel Eliot

that 16th- and 17th-century artists de­ was servitude toward their Spanish con­ Morison. Uttle, Brown, 1942.
THE MONSTROUS RACES IN MEDIEVAL
picted Native Americans as if each one querors, and their conversion should
ART AND THOUGHT. John Block Fried­
were a Greek athlete posing for the be effected by force, he believed.
man. Harvard University Press, 1981.
sculptor Phidias. In this sense, the earth­ The superior virtue of the Spaniards THE LOG OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.
ly paradise had indeed been found. made them fit to rule over the Indians, Translated by Robert H. Fuson. Interna­
SepUlveda continued, just as was the tional Marine Publishing, 1987.

T
he nature of kinship between Eu­ case for the Greeks ruling over the bar­ THE FOUR VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS.

ropeans-that is, Spaniards-and barians. He characterized the Indians Translated and edited by Cecil Jane.

the people of the New World be­ as showing "every kind of intemper­ Dover Publications, 1988.
MARVELOUS POSSESSIONS: THE WONDER
came a central issue in the debate over ance and wicked lust," including canni­
OF THE NEW WORLD. Stephen Green­
how to introduce the Native Americans balism. Among the Spanish virtues blatt. University of Chicago Press, 1991.
to Christianity. In 1550 Las Casas ar- were "prudence, talent, magnanimity,

106 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN December 1992

© 1992 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC
© 1992 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC