1492: discovering Columbus' legacy.(The Last Word)

On the 11th of October, 511 years ago, on board the small, but sturdy, caravel Nina, a sailor peered down into the heaving ocean and saw a branch, its stalks and twigs loaded with berries. Aboard the two ships accompanying the Nina other sailors had noticed a log and were cheered to find a piece of wood that looked as if it had been worked by human hands. It seemed that the long voyage might finally be coming to an end. Of his crew this day, the commander of the expedition, Cristoforo Colombo--Christopher Columbus wrote, "These signs encouraged them, and they all grew cheerful."

Two hours after midnight on Friday, October 12, 1492, Columbus' tiny fleet hove to in sight of an island, the first land seen by the expedition in weeks. They hadn't reached the then near mythic land of Cipangu (Japan) as they had hoped, nor had they found India, but they had discovered for Europe the existence of the West Indies. At daylight they saw people on the island, and Columbus went ashore. Touching land in the New World for the first time, he was greeted by a crowd of curious island natives. Columbus recorded what happened next:

As I saw that they were very friendly to us, and perceived that they could be much more easily converted to our holy faith by gentle means than by force, I presented them with some red caps, and strings of beads to wear upon the neck, and many other trifles of small value, wherewith they were much delighted, and became wonderfully attached to us. Afterwards they came swimming to the boats, bringing parrots, balls of cotton thread, javelins, and many other things which they exchanged for articles we gave them, such as glass beads, and hawk's bells; which trade was carried on with the utmost good will.

Campaign of Condemnation

In recent years, there has been very little good will remaining for Columbus. He is seen by the radical Left as the vanguard of an invasion of hateful Europeans who in their greed and racism couldn't wait to wipe out or subjugate the noble savages of the New World.

During the 1992 quincentennial celebration of his arrival in the Americas, the campaign of stinging invective reached its peak. Russell Means, of the radical leftist American Indian Movement, went so far at the time as to claim that Columbus "makes Hitler look like a juvenile delinquent" by comparison. The campaign against Columbus has continued ever since. This year, Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's version of Fidel Castro, announced that "Christopher Columbus was ...