Based off of what you read, describe the misconceptions Christopher Columbus had of the people he called "Indians," and the misconceptions the Aztecs had of the Spanish.
Your essay should contain 5 paragraphs and follow the standard 3 point enumeration essay.
COLUMBUS'S DESCRIPTION OF THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA (1492} The passage below is taken from a version of Columbus's journals edited by Bartolomeo de Las Casas. As you read thepassage, imagine the thrill of discovery that would have been eanerienced by the sailors on board Columbus's ships. Forthem this was truly a venture into the unknown. For many years Columbus's landing was judged to have been made onSan Salvador Wading Island). A recent study retracing the voyage suggests that Columbus landed on the island ofSamana Cay, more than sixty miles to the southeast of San Salvador. Many scholars will not agree with this newassertion, and the exact location of the island does not change the nature of the reaction shown in this journal. If youwish to examine the new evidence, see the National Geographic 170, no. 5 (November 1986): 566—605. . . . the Admiral requested and admonished them to keep a sharp lookout at the castle of the bow, and to look well for land, and saidthat he would give to him who first saw land a silk doublet, besides the other rewards which the King and Queen had promised,namely and annual pension of ten thousand maravedis to him who should see it first. Two hours after midnight, the land appearedab0ut two leagues off. They lowered all the sails, leaving only a storm square sail, which is the mainsail without bonnets, and lay tountil Friday when they reached a small island of the Lucayos, called Guanahani by the natives. They soon saw people naked, and theAdmiral went on shore in the armed boat. . . . As soon as they had landed they saw trees of a brilliant green abundance of water andfruits of various kinds. The Admiral called the two captains and the rest who had come on shore . . . and he called them as witnessesto certify that he in the presence of them all, was taking, as he in fact took possession of said island for the king and Queen hismasters, making the declarations that were required as they will be found more fully in the attestations then taken down in writing.Soon after a large crowd of natives congregated there. What follows are the Admiral's own words in his book on the first voyage anddiscovery of these Indies. "In order to win the friendship and affection of that people, and because I am convinced that their conversion to our Holy Faith wouldbe better promoted through love than through force; I presented some of them with red caps and some strings of glass beads whichthey placed around their necks, and with other trifles of insignificant worth that delighted them and by which we have got awonderful hold on their affections. They afterwards came to the boats of the vessels swimming, bringing us parrots, cotton thread inballs, and spears, and many other things which they bartered for others we gave them, as glass beads and little bells. . . . I saw but onevery young girl, all the rest being very young men, none of them being over thirty years of age; their forms being very wellproportioned; their bodies graceful and their features handsome: their hair is as course as the hair of a horse‘s tail and cut short: theywear their hair over their eyebrows except a little behind which they wear long, and which they never cut: some of them paintthemselves black, and they are of the color of the Canary islanders, neither black nor white, and some paint themselves white, andsome red, and some with whatever they find, and some paint their faces and some the whole body, and some their eyes only, andsome their noses only. They do not carry arms and have no knowledge of them, for when I showed them our swords they took themby the edge, and through ignorance, cut themselves. They have no iron; their spears consist of staffs without iron, some of themhaving a fish's tooth at the end, and others other things. As a body they are of good size, good demeanor, and well formed. . . . They must be very good servants and very intelligent, because I see that they repeat very quickly what I told them, and it is myconviction that they would easily become Christians, for they seem not [to] have any sect. . . ." [From Christopher Columbus, Journals, Thursday, October 11, and Friday Octobver 12, 1492.]
