We’ve talked a lot in class about Columbus being a bumbling liar, but I wanted to specifically explore the way in which he uses metaphor and comparison to describe the islands he “discovers.”  For example, to describe new trees, he often says something like, “This tree is beautiful.  It is similar to tree X from Spain but is different because Y.”  The assumptions he makes about flora, fauna, and natives from these observations (They’re spices!  It’s edible! They don’t practice religion!) are obviously often questionable, and in the case of the natives, inexcusable.

And now, a perplexing aside that invalidates all of our vicious judgments about poor Columbus: it’s impossible to really know how he felt and what he thought during these moments of discovery.  Because of the historical distance and subjective nature of his writings, it’s very hard for us to identify with any of his experiences.  Can you really imagine not being able to find out what something is?  These days, instead of “identifying” a tree  through comparison and metaphor, we simply plug its characteristics into a Google search.  Does this excuse his treatment of the natives?  Subjectively, NO. Theoretically… grumble grumble.

Another specific example of metaphor that intrigued me was Columbus’s reference to the weather.  He’d often say that the Caribbean’s climate was as warm as Sevilla in spring and that he’d never seen a more beautiful place.  Let’s a do a little proof: from this quote we can deduce that Sevilla is one of the warmest and most beautiful places in Spain, but it is only really beautiful in the spring.  However, Columbus has found a place that is Sevilla all the time!   This leads me to my question: are there objectively better/more beautiful/more comfortable places in which to spend one’s time, or is it all purely subjective?  Do we all have a “Sevilla” on which we judge all other locations?  Or do some of us just love living in the arctic tundra year-round?  It can’t be denied that the Caribbean has become one of the most popular vacation destinations in the world due to people wanting to escape from the weather…  Just some thoughts.

Also, I thought it would be fun to post a pic from my Cuba trip to show some of the lush green landscape that Columbus stumbled upon during his travels.  This photo is from my hike up Pico Turquino, the highest mountain in Cuba.  All in all it was a 2-day jungle trek with lots of beautiful vistas and, yup, you guessed it… birds!  If you look at page 168 of The Four Voyages, this mountain is just to the left of Santiago Bay on the southern coast.