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In order to delve deeper into Cristóbal Colón’s first voyage and the degree to which his disheartening experience contributed to the formulation of an alternate rationale for his seafaring enterprise, this essay begins by examining select passages from Colón’s Diario. It is a richly dramatic narrative of the confrontation between Colón’s exuberant expectations and the jarringly contrastive reality that he encountered as he explored islands of the Caribbean. The disjunctive nature of this discourse infuses the text with a dramatic tension that propels Colón’s digression into increasingly delusional thoughts and statements. The essay then reviews the genesis of Colón’s Libro de las profecías, a text written between his ignominious return to Spain in chains in the fall of 1500 and his fourth and final voyage to the New World. It is a collection of biblical passages that Colón wished to present to his sovereign sponsors as evidence that his enterprise was preordained by God. This startling assertion will be examined for indications of influence and purpose. The essay then turns to select writings by Luis de León (Fray Luis), known to literary scholars as an intellectually exquisite Renaissance poet, but who also wrote in Latin on the subject of theology and biblical interpretation nearly one hundred years after Colón’s first voyage. The analysis of Fray Luis’s writings will reveal how he molded biblical prophesies into a presaging of Colón’s voyages to America and the Christian conversion of its native peoples. In other words, an affirmation that Colón’s seafaring enterprise was preordained by God. Finally, the essay examines select scriptural references made by Colón and their exegesis by Fray Luis in order to better understand their distinct methodologies and purposes.
