Exploration Period and Its Literature

Literature in Exploration
Christopher Columbus with his three ships landing in the West Indies and declaring them to
be the possessions of the Spanish monarchy.
American Literature as it is known today began to be recorded at the end of the 15 th century
mand beginning of the 16th. These early writings consisted largely of explorers taking note of
their discoveries and explorations for European readers back home. Many of these writers,
which included the likes of Christopher Columbus, Bartolomé de las Casas, and Álvar Núñez
Cabeza de Vaca, came from a variety of different backgrounds, roles in exploration, and
viewpoints. This would lead their writings to understandably have very different attitudes
towards what they would find, and give an in-depth look into the complex relationship that
the Spaniards (or servants of Spain in Columbus’ case) had with the land they were tasked
with exploring.
One prominent writer of note from this period was Columbus, the Italian navigator who
through a navigation error while on a mission for the monarchy of Spain accidentally
brought about first contact of Spain with the New World. His expedition being the first to
reach the Americas, his writings come from the very early years of exploration and consist
mainly of information about the new lands that had as of yet been unseen by European
eyes. Significant writings of his include letters to notable dignitaries such as court official
Luis de Santangel in his first voyage and Ferdinand and Isabella, the monarchs of Spain, in
his fourth. These letters read very much like he is trying to sell to them his new discoveries,
in the hope of recognition for his accomplishments and further investment in his voyages.
He describes lush and beautiful landscapes filled with abundant resources and timid,
peaceful people. His true motives lie in taking advantage of these discoveries, declaring “of
them all I have taken possession for [the king and queen], by proclamation made and with
royal standard unfurled, and no opposition was offered to me” (Columbus 35). These letters
reveal Columbus to be exploitative, thinking only of his own agenda, and leading Europe on
the path it would take for the next few centuries of invading and imprinting into the
Americas and throwing the natives aside.
Another writer of this period whose writings provide a stark contrast to those of Columbus
was Bartolomé de las Casas. A Spanish priest who first visited the New World in 1502, about
a decade after Columbus’ first landing, he would go on to spend much of his life in the
Americas, taking part in early colonization efforts and observing the interactions between
the Spanish and the natives. These observations would lead him to be a vocal critic of the
barbaric treatment of the natives by the Spanish, decrying the atrocities as counter-intuitive
to the Christian beliefs the Spanish claimed to be spreading. He recognized the effort begun
by Columbus under the pretences of converting the native population as the genocide it had
become, saying of Hispaniola “This was the first land in the New World to be destroyed and
depopulated by the Christians, and here they began their subjection of the women and
children, taking them away from the Indians to use them and ill-use them, eating the food
they provided with their sweat and toil” (De Las Casas 39). His descriptions, like Columbus’,
paint the natives as being very different and “other”, yet he strives to reach out for their
protection and the end of the tyranny forced onto them. De las Casas uses his accounts to
further the sensationalism of America as an exotic and beautiful land, but strives to make
apparent the injustices currently being committed in the exploration of it.
Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca presented an account that differed greatly from those of
Columbus and de las Casas. He first arrived in the New World in 1527, decades after these
two first arrived and at a time in which the Spanish were now well into exploration of lands
beyond the West Indies. In his travels, he would visit Hispaniola as well as the lands that
would become Florida, Mexico, and the American Southwest. At a certain point he would
become separated from his Spanish compatriots and live at times as prisoner and at others
as guest to the various native people groups he would encounter. His accounts of the
natives were very anthropological, observing the natives’ customs and reporting on what he
saw. De Vaca viewed natives in a very similar light as he did Europeans, viewing them all as
simply human beings, a view furthered by experiences with the natives in which they shared
suffering. When finally reuniting with the Spanish, he no longer viewed his people in the
same light, recognizing the evils they were capable of. Following his introducing a number of
the natives to the Spanish, he would come to a revelation that “we often misjudge the
motives of men; we thought we had effected the Indian’s liberty, when the Christians were
but poising the pounce” (De Vaca 51). De Vaca finally gives us an account that is no longer
Eurocentric, and gives the natives the recognition they deserve as made up of many diverse
peoples, and having just as much of a society as the Europeans.
These writers provide us with a complex view of the Americas, giving us a deeper look into
the events and attitudes surrounding this new land as exploration by the people who would
eventually come to dominate it started to commence.

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Literature in Exploration

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