The Last Voyage Of Columbus
(MARTIN DUGARD)
While the main events of history paint the picture of our past in broad
strokes, it is often the lesser known stories that fill in the details and
enrich our understanding of events. The Last Voyage of Columbus, a new
book by Martin Dugard, is of the latter variety, and in it we find a figure
who, while familiar, is more human and thus more interesting than the
Christopher Columbus we know from history textbooks.
Columbus is,
in many ways, one of the most complex and enigmatic figures in human history.
While certainly a man of vision, he was also stubborn to the point of
absurdity; he was a superb navigator and sailor who often had trouble with the
sailors he led; he was handsome and charming, so much so that if Queen Isabella
had been other than the devout Catholic she was, he could have been her lover.
Dugard''s portrait of Columbus has its origins
in the discovery of an ancient shipwreck at the mouth of a river in Panama. While
the evidence is inconclusive, it is possible that the wreckage is that of the La
Vizcaina, one of four ships Columbus took on his
fourth trip to the New World. This journey was
more than Columbus''
last voyage?it was his last shot. While Columbus
fancied himself the administrator of all the lands he discovered, in truth
there was nothing he could do to stop the flood of humanity to the New World. His only chance at everlasting glory (he
thought) was to find China,
or at least discover a way to get there. In pursuit of that goal, Columbus endured becalmed
seas, hostile natives, a horrific hurricane and eventually a devastating
shipwreck before finally making his way home to die two years later.
As Dugard shows us in this remarkable book, while Columbus may have thought
himself a failure, and while he remained virtually unremembered for a couple of
centuries thereafter (Amerigo Vespucci was mistakenly credited with the
discovery), the truth finally resurfaced. And amazingly, the wrecked ship in Panama tells us that Columbus
may have come within 38 miles of seeing his goal, the Pacific
Ocean.
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