Iberian Conquest : 147 



him to bridge a gap between scientific teaching and religious teach- 

 ing and the practical desire for money and rewards which he sought 

 both for himself and for the crown of Spain. Thus, on his first voy- 

 age he apparently felt no strain at all in keeping a fictitious log which 

 he showed to his crews and a correct log which he kept to himself, 

 and again he was able to accept from the government an order to 

 treat the natives, whom he called Indians, well and lovingly and at 

 the same time to reconcile this with enslaving them in the islands and 

 also with sending shiploads of Indians back to Seville to be sold as 

 slaves in the European market. 



Whatever we may conclude about the mentality and character of 

 Columbus, we must credit him with two important contributions to 

 the definition and history of the Atlantic. Ironically enough, Colum- 

 bus is usually credited with having discovered the western continents 

 whereas this is exactly the thing that he disclaimed. Throughout his 

 voyages and his writings about them, he held to the belief that 

 whereas he had discovered some islands and a considerable coastline 

 he kept advancing the contention that he would presently sail past 

 these and arrive in Asia proper. Apparently he wanted to sustain this 

 belief even though before Columbus died it was clear to others that 

 large new lands lay in the western ocean. 



As we have seen, the Norsemen sailed for hundreds of miles along 

 the North American mainland centuries before Columbus set out 

 and had even attempted colonization there. In any event, Columbus 

 did not sail along the mainland of South America until his third 

 voyage and this almost exactly corresponded with the time when the 

 voyages of Corte-Real and Cabot rediscovered the North American 

 mainland. 



Columbus' solid contributions to American history are these: He 

 discovered and colonized the Bahamas and the West Indies. On his 

 third voyage he sailed along hundreds of miles of the north coast of 

 South America and included in this voyage the Central American 

 coast at Panama. Thus, he helped to define a large and important sec- 

 tor of the western boundaries of the Atlantic. Another equally impor- 

 tant contribution is not often commented upon. Columbus should 

 also be credited with a scientific and thoroughgoing attempt to ex- 

 plore the ocean itself. 



Columbus, during his lifetime, made eight crossings of the Atlantic 

 Ocean. Each one of these going and returning followed a different 

 band of latitude. He never sailed home along the same course that 

 he had employed in the outward voyage and he never repeated a 



