The sort of whom the ancients made gods': a 16th-century engraving plays up to the image of Columbus as providential agent. A Latin inscription accompanying the picture describes him dedicating the ocean he has discovered to the terrifying gods', and the land to the kings of Spain. COLUMBUS – HERO OR for taming their own wilderness Washington Irving's perniciously in- fluential History of the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus of 1828 - which spread a lot of nonsense including the ever-popular folly that Columbus was derided for claiming that the world was round - appealed unashamedly to Americans' self-image as promoters of civilisation. Yet aspects of the myth are much older - traceable to Columbus' own times and, to a large extent, to his own efforts. He was a loquacious and in- defatigable self-publicist, who bored adversaries into submission and Felipe Fernández-Armesto weighs up the case for and against the man of the hour and finds a Columbus for all seasons. his year, his statue in Barcelona exchanged symbolic rings with the Statue of Liberty in New York; meanwhile, the descendants of slaves and peons will burn his effigy. In a dream-painting by Salvador Dali, Columbus takes a great step for man- kind, toga-clad and cross-bearing - while a sail in the middle distance drips with blood. The Columbus of tradition to stimulate enough educational work and research to destroy them. Instead, the polemical atmosphere seems to be reinforcing à parti pris positions It is commonly said that the tradi- tional Columbus myth - which awards him personal credit for anything good that ever came out of America since T shares a single canvas with the Col- umbus of fashion, the culture-hero of the western world with the bogey who exploited his fellow-man and despoiled his environment. Both versions are false and, if historians had their way, the quincentennial celebrations ought 1492 - originated in the War of Inde- pendence, when the founding fathers, in search of an American hero, pitched on the Genoese weaver as the improb- able progenitor of all-American virtues. Joel Barlow's poem, The Vision of Col- umbus, appeared in 1787. Columbus remained a model for nineteenth-cen- tury Americans, engaged in a project parts which other explorers could not acquired a proverbial reputation for using more paper than Ptolemy. The image he projected was that of a provi- dential agent, the divinely-elected 'messenger of a new heaven', chosen to bear the light of the gospel to un- evangelised recesses of the earth - the MAY 1992 contumely and neglect, unrewarded by the standard of his deserts, in a renew- ed trial of faith. These passages of autobiography cannot be confirmed by the facts. The documented length of his quest for patronage was less than five years. Throughout that time he built up a powerful lobby of moral supporters at reach. His plan for an Atlantic crossing "God revealed to me by His manifest hand'. Playing on his christian name, he called himself Christo ferens' and com- piled a book of what he said were biblical prophecies of his own dis- coveries. Enough contemporaries were convinced by his gigantic self-esteem for him to become literally a legend in his own lifetime. To a leading astro- logical guru at the court of Spain, he was 'like a new apostle'. To a humanist from Italy who taught the would-be Renaissance men of Castile, he was 'the sort of whom the ancients made gods From his last years, his reputation dipped: writers were obliged to belittle him in the service of monarchs who were locked in legal conflict with Col- umbus' family over the level of reward he had earned. Yet his own self-percep- tion was passed on to posterity by influential early books. Bartolomé de Las Casas - Columbus' editor and his to a cause; unwavering fidelity in adversity. The most successful promotional li- terature is believed by its own propaga- tors. To judge from his consistency, Columbus believed in his own image of himself. It is not surprising that most readers of his works, from Las Casas onwards, have been equally convinced. Columbus seems to have been pre- disposed to self-persuasion by satura- tion in the right literary models: saints, prophets and heroes of romance. Despite his astonishing record of achievement, and his impressive ac- cumulation of earthly rewards, he had an implacable temperament which could never be satisfied, and an un- remitting ambition which could never be assuaged. Such men always think themselves hard done by. His extra- ordinary powers of persuasion - his communicator's skills which won back- for an impossible project in his the Castilian court and financial back- ers in the business community of Sevil- le. His own protestations of loneliness are usually qualified by an admission that he was unsupported 'save for' one or two individuals. When added together, these form an impressive cohort, which includes at least two archbishops, one court astrologer, two royal confessors, one royal treasurer and the queen herself. In his second supposed period of persecution, he was an honoured figure, loaded with titles, received at court, consulted by MAY 1992 to a cause; unwavering fidelity in adversity The most successful promotional li- terature is believed by its own propaga- tors. To judge from his consistency, Columbus believed in his own image of himself. It is not surprising that most readers of his works, from Las Casas onwards, have been equally convinced. Columbus seems to have been pre- disposed to self-persuasion by satura- tion in the right literary models: saints, prophets and heroes of romance. Despite his astonishing record of achievement, and his impressive ac- cumulation of earthly rewards, he had an implacable temperament which could never be satisfied, and an un- remitting ambition which could never be assuaged. Such men always think themselves hard done by. His extra- ordinary powers of persuasion - his communicator's skills which won back- ing for an impossible project in his lifetime - have continued to win fol- reach. His plan for an Atlantic crossing "God revealed to me by His manifest hand'. Playing on his christian name, he contumely and neglect, unrewarded by the standard of his deserts, in a renew- ed trial of faith. These passages of autobiography cannot be confirmed by the facts. The documented length of his quest for patronage was less than five years. Throughout that time he built up a powerful lobby of moral supporters at the Castilian court and financial back- called himself Christo ferens' and com- piled a book of what he said were biblical prophecies of his own dis- coveries. Enough contemporaries were convinced by his gigantic self-esteem for him to become literally a legend in his own lifetime. To a leading astro- logical guru at the court of Spain, he was 'like a new apostle'. To a humanist from Italy who taught the would-be Renaissance men of Castile, he was 'the ers in the business community of Sevil- le. His own protestations of loneliness are usually qualified by an admission that he was unsupported 'save for' one or two individuals. When added together, these form an impressive cohort, which includes at least two archbishops, one court astrologer, two royal confessors, one royal treasurer and the queen herself. In his second supposed period of persecution, he was an honoured figure, loaded with titles, received at court, consulted by the crown and - depite his woe begone protestations of poverty - amply moneyed. The explanation of the image of Col- umbus-as-victim must be sought in his character, not in his career. He was what would now be called a whinger, who relished his own misfortunes as good copy and good theatre. When he appeared at court in chains, or in a friar's habit, he was playing the role of victim for all it was worth. His written lamentations - which cover many folios of memoranda, supplications and personal letters - are thick with allu- sions to Jeremiah and Job. The notions of patience under suffering and of persecution for righteousness' sake fit- ted the hagiographical model on which much of his self-promotional writing was based: a flash of divine enlighten- ment; a life transformed; consecration sort of whom the ancients made gods'. From his last years, his reputation dipped: writers were obliged to belittle him in the service of monarchs who were locked in legal conflict with Col- umbus' family over the level of reward he had earned. Yet his own self-percep- tion was passed on to posterity by influential early books. Bartolomé de Las Casas - Columbus' editor and his- torian - professed a major role for himself in the apostolate of the New World and heartily endorsed Columbus self-evaluation as an agent of God's purpose. Almost as important was the Historie dell'Ammiraglio, which claimed to be a work of filial piety and therefore presented Columbus as an unblemished hero, with an imputed pedigree to match his noble soul. Claims to having access to a divine hot-line are by their nature unverifi- lowers of his legend ever since his death. Like Columbus-the-hero, Columbus- the-villain is also an old character in a long literary tradition. Most of the denunications of him written in his day have not survived but we can judge their tenor from surviving scraps. The usual complaints against servants of the Castilian crown in the period are made: he acted arbitrarily in the administra- tion of justice; he exceeded his powers in enforcing his authority; he usurped royal rights by denying appeal to con- demned rebels; he alienated crown property without authorisation; he deprived privileged colonists of offices or perquisites; he favoured his own family or friends; he lined his pockets at public expense. In the course of VILLAIN? able. Demonstrably false was the second element in Columbus' self- made myth: his image of tenacity in adversity - a sort of Mein Kampf ver- sion of his life, in which he waged a long, lone and unremitting struggle against the ignorance and derision of contemporaries. This theme has echoed through the historical tradi- tion. That they all laughed at Christ- opher Columbus' has been confirmed by modern doggerel. Vast books have been wasted in an attempt to explain his mythical perseverance by ascribing to him secret foreknowledge of the BERMUDA BAHAMAS MEXICO ATLANTIC CUBA OCEAN ISLE OF PINES Sa Domn JAMAICA PUERTO RICO CAYMAN * GUADELOUPE is VIRGIN Is. HISPANIOLA DOMINICA existence of America. Yet almost all the evidence which underlies it comes HONDURAS CARIBBEAN SEA MARTINIQUE NICARAGUA straight out of Columbus' own prop- aganda, according to which he was isolated, ignored, victimised and perse- cuted, usually for the numinous span of "seven' years; then, after fulfilling his destiny, to the great profit of his detrac- tors he was returned to a wilderness of Gut of Par VENEZUELA COSTA RICA PANAMA Fest Voyage (14-14 . Third voyage (14 Secend voyage (14 Foum vayage (150 PACIFIC OCEAN The four voyages of Columbus. HISTORY TODAY what seems to have been a general campaign against Genoese employees of the crown in the late 1490s, he was "blamed as a foreigner' and accused of 'plotting to give the island of Hispani- ola to the Genoese'. Other allegations attacked his com- petence rather than his good faith, gen- erally with justice. It was true, for instance, that he had selected an un- Good PR?A woodcut showing natives fleeing as Columbus approaches the New World is careful to include King Ferdinand watching from across the occan. This is one of several illustrations healthy and inconvenient site for the settlement of Hispaniola; that he had disastrously misjudged the natives' in- tentions in supposing them to be peaceful; and that his proceedings had so far alienated so many colonists th to a letter sent by Columbus to the 1193and ranidIY