The contents of Columbus's Journal of his first voyage were first made
known to the public in the epitome incorporated in Ferdinand Columbus's
life of the Admiral, which has come down to us only in the Italian
translation of Alfonso Ulloa, the _Historie del S.D. Fernando Colombo
nelle quali s'ha particolare e vera relazione della vita e de' fatti
dell' Ammiraglio D. Christoforo Colombo suo padre_, etc. (Venice, 1571).
This account is accessible in English in Churchill's _Voyages_, Vol. II.,
and in Pinkerton's _Voyages_, Vol. XII.
Another epitome was prepared by Bartolome de Las Casas and inserted in
his _Historia de las Indias_. This account was embodied in the main by
Antonio de Herrera in his _Historia General de las Indias Occidentales_
(Madrid, 1601). It is accessible in English in John Stevens's translation
of Herrera (London, 1725-1726).
These independent epitomes of the original were supplemented in 1825 by
the publication by the Spanish archivist Martin Fernandez de Navarrete in
his _Coleccion de los Viages y Descubrimientos que hicieron por mar los
Espanoles desde fines del siglo XV._ of a considerably more detailed
narrative (likewise independently abridged from the original) which
existed in two copies in the archives of the Duke del Infantado.
Navarrete says that the handwriting of the older copy is that of Las
Casas and that Las Casas had written some explanatory notes in the
margin. This longer narrative, here reprinted, was first translated by
Samuel Kettell of Boston and published in 1827 under the title _Personal
Narrative of the First Voyage of Columbus_. The next translation was
that of Clements R. Markham for the Hakluyt Society in 1893. A third and
very exact rendering appeared in 1903 in John Boyd Thacher's _Christopher
Columbus_, Vol. I.
The translation given here is that of Sir Clements R. Markham with some
slight revisions. When we recall the very scanty and fragmentary
knowledge which we have of the Cabot voyages, and how few in fact of the
great discoverers of this era left personal narratives of their
achievements, we realize our singular good fortune in possessing so full
a daily record from the hand of Columbus himself which admits us as it
were "into the very presence of the Admiral to share his thoughts and
impressions as the strange panorama of his experiences unfolded before
him."[88-1] Sir Clements R. Markham declares the Journal "the most
important document in the whole range of the history of geographical
discovery, because it is a record of the enterprise which changed the
whole face, not only of that history, but of the history of
mankind."[88-2]