christoper columbus response

Christopher Columbus
Upon beginning the text it became evident, that it was not written by Christopher
Columbus, the man whom which the text is speaking. Automatically the author lost my
sense of trust in his facts. Toward the end of the opening paragraph it was stated, “The
supposed Journal of his first voyage is actually a summary prepared by the cleric and
reformer Bartolom’e Casas. A letter sent by Columbus to Luis de Santangel, a royal
official and an early supporter of his venture, provides a more authentic account and
served as the basis for the first printed description of America, issued in 1493
in Spain and served widely translated and reprinted across Europe.” If his voyagers were
constantly being translated and the facts were not coming directly from the source
(Columbus), why should the author be creditable? However the opening text is very
knowledgeable and informative, which leads me to infer that although the facts may not
be exactly legit, a lot of time and effort went into making sure that it was historically
correct as possible. The purpose of the text is to inform the audience about a young
explorer engaging on voyages, while documenting his events.

The second paragraph was a letter regarding the first voyage from Columbus to Luis
de Santangel. Santangel was a merchant and court official who supported Columbus’ first
voyage. I was more lenient into trusting the author’s credibility, because Columbus
wrote the letter versus an author publishing the letter. Meaning that the letter contained
his thoughts, feelings, and opinions. All of which cannot be proved as wrong simply
because they are not facts. When an author publishes a text instead of writing it, makes it
harder to validate the true source. His appeal to exigence is appropriate, because he wrote
what he truly experienced. When writing the letter he was only writing to one person in
particular, which was a man who highly supported his journey. Had he written to a man
who completely went against and disregarded what he was trying to do would be a faulty
appeal to exigence. In the end you must appeal to your audience, and by being very
Descriptive, making his reader feel as if he were on the boat was a wise and thoughtful
tactic. Columbus gives us reason to believe that what he has written is not faulty, because
he includes the facts to reimburse his statements. It’s more likely to believe that someone
is on a voyage when they can identify where they have been, and life on the journey. This
makes him all the more credible, despite the fact, that these events occurred many years
ago which would allow multiple opportunities for the text to be manipulated.