Columbus the Navigator?

Extract

1. Journal de bord de Juan de la Cosa, second de Christophe Colomb. Presenté et commenté par Ignacio Olagué. Paris, 1957, 870 frs.

2. The Journal of Christopher Columbus. Translated by Cecil Jane, revised and annotated by L. A. Vigneras with an appendix by R. A. Skelton. Anthony Blond and The Orion Press, London, 1960, 45s.

Writing an Introduction to the Four Voyages of Columbus over thirty years ago, the late Cecil Jane remarked: ‘It might with justice be added that no event of such moment can ever occur again, unless, perhaps the tracts of space be bridged and communication established between the Earth and her sister planets.’ The fact that we are on the very eve of placing a man in the Moon should enable us to appreciate more justly the various ways in which, during the late fifteenth century, different people reacted to the daring proposal of Columbus to sail west to Asia.