Aaron

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=**__MY AMAZING DISCOVERY AND TREASURE OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS__**=

My amazing discovery started when I was on a plane going to Chicago for a nice summer vacation at my aunt’s house. As I was flying a random thought popped into my head. I thought of creating something like a treasure chest and I was going to fill it with information my Great Aunt Phyllis told me, she is a very smart person. I knew right then and there I was going to talk with her about Christopher Columbus. For some reason my family hand a lot to do with him. Now I just couldn’t wait to arrive and start my research on Columbus.

Once I arrived at her house she pulled out a treasure chest full of Christopher Columbus artifacts. She told me that these are very important to our family. While she told me this I knew I had to be extremly careful no matter how intense my reasearch became.

The first primary source I found in my collection is a letter from Columbus. This letter is about the so called island recently discovered in the Indian Sea. My Great Aunt Phyllis passed this down to me from generation to generation. She told me this is called [|The Columbus Letter.] //As soon as we had arrived at that island which I have just now said was called Juana, I proceeded along its coast towards the west for some distance; I found it so large and without perceptible end, that I believed it to be not an island, but the continental country of Cathay; seeing, however, no towns or cities situated on the sea-coast, but only some villages and rude farms, with whose inhabitants I was unable to converse, because as soon as they saw us they took flight.//

My Great Aunt Phyllis can't remember who she acquired this letter from but all she knows that this letter wasn't easy to get back in the 1400's. Now the Next thing in my amazing collection wasn't so hard to get. [|This journal of Columbus] was given to my ancestors many many years ago by Christopher Columbus himself. My family decided we would pass this down the family line until someone had a better idea of what to do with it. I know this excerpt of this journal is pretty long, but it needs to be this long to explain what is going on in the trip ahead. In this part of the journal Columbus explains his reasons, other side purposes and actual the whole main point of the trip.

//Whereas, Most Christian, High, Excellent, and Powerful Princes, King and Queen of Spain and of the Islands of the Sea, our Sovereigns, this present year 1492, after your Highnesses had terminated the war with the Moors reigning in Europe, the same having been brought to an end in the great city of Granada, where on the second day of January, this present year, I saw the royal banners of your Highnesses planted by force of arms upon the towers of the Alhambra, which is the fortress of that city, and saw the Moorish king come out at the gate of the city and kiss the hands of your Highnesses, and of the Prince my Sovereign; and in the present month, in consequence of the information which I had given your Highnesses respecting the countries of India and of a Prince, called Great Can, which in our language signifies King of Kings, how, at many times he, and his predecessors had sent to Rome soliciting instructors who might teach him our holy faith, and the holy Father had never granted his request, whereby great numbers of people were lost, believing in idolatry and doctrines of perdition. I should not proceed by land to the East, as is customary, but by a Westerly route, in which direction we have hitherto no certain evidence that any one has gone.//

Now that you read that long but meaningful part of his journal and maybe even the rest of it, you can hear what happened next. I asked my Aunt Phyllis if she had anything about laws or rules Columbus made when he got to the island. She told me that she had this letter on the 13 [|rules and laws] of the island. She said this letter was going to the queen. I was so excited to hear how my family received this letter. My Aunt said that long ago someone in our family had stolen the letter from the queen after she had read it. In a way that was mean but I’m glad we have it.

//In obedience to your Highnesses' commands, and with submission to superior judgment, I will say whatever occurs to me in reference to the colonization and commerce of the Island of Espanola, and of the other islands, both those already discovered and those that may be discovered hereafter.// //In the first place, as regards the Island of Espanola: Inasmuch as the number of colonists who desire to go thither amounts to two thousand, owing to the land being safer and better for farming and trading, and because it will serve as a place to which they can return and from which they can carry on trade with the neighboring islands://

In this journal entry Columbus talks about the queen ending the war with the Moors who ruled in Europe. These were people with a different religion and a different way of life that was not fair to the parts of Europe, like Spain, who people obeyed them. Later in this letter he talks more about his [|voyage.]

//This present year of 1492, after Your Highnesses had brought to an end the war with the Moors who ruled in Europe and had concluded the war in the very great city of Granada, where this present year on the second day of the month of January I saw the Royal Standards of Your Highnesses placed by force of arms on the towers of the Alhambra, which is the fortress of the said city; and I saw the Moorish King come out to the gates of the city and kiss the Royal Hands of Your Highnesses and of the Prince my Lord; and later in that same month, because of the report that I had given to Your Highnesses about the lands of India and about a prince who is called "Grand Khan," which means in our Spanish language "King of Kings"; how, many times, he and his predecessors had sent to Rome to ask for men learned in our Holy Faith in order that they might instruct him in it and how the Holy Father had never provided them; and thus so many peoples were lost, falling into idolatry and accepting false and harmful religions; and Your Highnesses, as Catholic Christians and Princes, lovers and promoters of the Holy Christian Faith, and enemies of the false doctrine of Mahomet and of all idolatries and heresies, you thought of sending me, Christobal Colon, to the said regions of India to see the said princes and the peoples and the lands, and the characteristics of the lands and of everything and to see how their conversion to our Holy Faith might be undertaken.//

I think this is enough information for people to understand Christopher Columbus a little better. The only thing I wish I had was a portrait of Columbus but the first portrait of Columbus was painted after he died which is too bad. I learned much more than I thought I could have. I always thought Christopher Columbus as just a guy who discovered the "new world". He had to go through many hardships to get the words from the king and queen to make this expidition possible. Just think of how much time he spent writing those letters. He had to be very specific in every journal entry he wrote so people that read it know what he is talkig about. Christopher didn't have to do do this exploration but he did because he was a corageous man. In this porject i learned how orimary sources can really help you understand more about a person from the past.

This is a picture of a mermaid Cloumbus talks about in information of The Columbus Journal that I don't have. This is a brief report Columbus wrote concerning his discoveries of "Islands of India beyond the Ganges"

Christopher Columbus sketched this when he reached the America's on his expedition.