"I ought to be judged as a captain who set out from Spain to the Indies
to conquer many warlike peoples of very contrary creed and customs,
where by divine will, I have placed under the sovereignty of the King
and Queen, Our Lords, another world, by which Spain, which was once
called poor, is now the most rich."
-- Christopher Columbus, Letter to Dona Juana de la Torre, 1500
I therefore send to His Majesty a chart drawn by my own hand upon
which is laid out the western coast from Ireland on the north to the
end of Guinea, and the islands which lie on that route, in front of
which directly to the west, is shown the beginning
of the Indies....
