A
Man Moved Upon by the Spirit
Christopher
Columbus was fulfilling prophecy.
Chosen
Instrument
Christopher
Columbus once wrote to Amerigo Vespucci (the explorer for
whom America is named): "I feel persuaded by the many
and wonderful manifestations of Divine Providence in my especial
favor, that I am the chosen instrument of God in bringing
to pass a great event-no less than the conversion of millions
who are now existing in the darkness of ism."
(1) Columbus was not just out to find a direct passage
to India by sailing to the west, he felt a commission to take
the word of the Lord to those who were without the gospel
of Jesus Christ as he understood it.
Brigham
Young said: "The Almighty...moved upon Columbus to launch
forth upon the trackless deep to discover the American Continent."
(2) Elder George Q. Cannon said: "Columbus was inspired
to penetrate the ocean and discover the Western continent,
for the set time for its discovery had come; and the consequences
which God desired to follow its discovery have taken place."
(3)
Nephi
had seen Columbus in vision: "And I looked and beheld a man
among the Gentiles, who was separated from the seed of my
brethren by the many waters; and I beheld the Spirit of God,
that it came down and wrought upon the man; and he went forth
upon the many waters, even unto the seed of my brethren, who
were in the promised land." (1 Nephi 13:12) Columbus himself
said: "With a hand that could be felt, the Lord opened
my mind to the fact that it would be possible to sail from
here to the Indies...This was the fire that burned within
me...Who can doubt that this fire was not merely mine, but
also of the Holy Spirit." (4)
Christopher Columbus was an instrument in laying the initial
foundations for others to follow, also led by the Spirit of
the Lord, to bring about the setting for the Restoration of
the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and, as Columbus had desired,
"the conversion of millions" to Christ who were then in darkness.
Excerpts
from Columbus' Writings
It is not
known whether Christopher Columbus was formally educated but
he was learned and brilliant by some accounts and his favorite
book was the Bible. He was drawn to the sea and had an undying
curiosity and drive. His desire to set out on what was then
considered an impossible voyage and a mission of madness was
unconquerable. For years he worked to see his dream come true.
He wrote to Ferdinand and Isabelle: "The Lord purposed
that there should be something clearly miraculous in this
matter of the voyage to the Indies...I spent seven years here
in your royal court discussing this subject with the leading
persons in all learned arts, and their conclusion was that
it was vain....But afterwards it all turned out just as our
redeemer Jesus Christ has said, and as he had spoken earlier
by the mouth of his holy prophets."
(5)
Columbus
began his personal journal with these words. "IN THE
NAME OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST." His faith in God
and his undying trust in the Lord were hallmarks of his personality.
He often referred to the Lord in his writings and gave Him
credit for his achievements.
As he
left the known world he wrote the following to the King and
Queen of Spain: "I set sail from the port, on Friday,
the third of August, half an hour before sunrise, and steered
for the Canary Islands of your Highnesses which are in the
said ocean, thence to take my departure and proceed till I
arrived at the Indies...For this purpose I determined to keep
an account of the voyage, and to write down punctually every
thing we performed or saw from day to day, as will hereafter
appear...I intend to draw up a nautical chart, which shall
contain the several parts of the ocean and land in their proper
situations; and also to compose a book to represent the whole
by picture with latitudes and longitudes, on all which accounts
it behooves me to abstain from my sleep, and make many trials
in navigation, which things will demand much labor."
Further
into the voyage he wrote: Monday, 17 September: "The
Admiral [Columbus] here says that these signs were from the
west, 'where I hope that high God in whose hand is all victory
will speedily direct us to land.' This morning he says he
saw a white bird called a water- wagtail, or tropic bird,
which does not sleep at sea."
A heart-stopping
event took place on Tuesday, September 25th: "At
sunset Martin Alonzo called out with great joy from his vessel
that he saw land, and demanded of the Admiral a reward for
his intelligence. The Admiral says, when he heard him declare
this, he fell on his knees and returned thanks to God, and
Martin Alonzo with his crew repeated Gloria in excelsis Deo,
as did the crew of the Admiral. Those on board the Nina ascended
the rigging, and all declared they saw land." Such
was not the case, the reports were false, the men grew more
uneasy as they had been sailing now for more than fifty days.
The men grew scared. False traditions and legends could swallow
them up faster than the sea itself. Columbus kept pressing
forward into the unknown.
Dr. Hugh
Nibley wrote: "All are agreed that Columbus
was an imaginative and a visionary man, often carried away
by his own enthusiasm. But on one thing he was clear and specific--he
was called for a definite mission...And [then Dr. Nibley quoting
from] Samuel Eliot Morison: For he was not, like a Washington,
a Cromwell or a Bolivar, an instrument chosen by multitudes
to express their wills and lead a cause; Columbus was a Man
with a Mission. . . . He was Man alone with God against human
stupidity and depravity, against greedy conquistadors, cowardly
seamen, even against nature and the sea. Always with God,
though. . . . Men may doubt this, but there can be no doubt
that the faith of Columbus was genuine and sincere, and that
his frequent communion with forces unseen was a vital element
in his achievement." (6)
Dr. Nibley
continued: "Sailing into a perfect blank on the map, Columbus
infallibly did the right thing: 'He did not make a single
false move in the entire voyage!' says the geographer Professor
Nunn. He maintains that Columbus must have been the discoverer
of the Trade and prevailing Westerly Winds since it was only
by taking fullest advantage of both that his journey was possible--yet
his subsequent voyages show that Columbus knew nothing about
the wind system. This was not Columbus' doing. Neither was
the flight of birds that appeared just in time to keep the
ships from turning back, nor the sudden rising of the sea
that at another time inspired the expedition to continue.
Call it what you will, Columbus was convinced he was being
helped." (7)
From
Columbus' journal we read: "Wednesday, 10 October.
Steered west-southwest and sailed at times ten miles an hour,
at others twelve, and at others, seven; day and night made
fifty-nine leagues' progress; reckoned to the crew but forty-four.
Here the men lost all patience, and complained of the length
of the voyage, but the Admiral encouraged them in the best
manner he could, representing the profits they were about
to acquire, and adding that it was to no purpose to complain,
having come so far, they had nothing to do but continue on
to the Indies, till with the help of our Lord, they should
arrive there. Thursday, 11 October. Steered west-southwest;
and encountered a heavier sea than they had met with before
in the whole voyage. Saw pardelas and a green rush near the
vessel. The crew of the Pinta saw a cane and a log; they also
picked up a stick which appeared to have been carved with
an iron tool, a piece of cane, a plant which grows on land,
and a board. The crew of the Nina saw other signs of land,
and a stalk loaded with rose berries. These signs encouraged
them, and they all grew cheerful. Sailed this day till sunset,
twenty-seven leagues. After sunset steered their original
course west and sailed twelve miles an hour till two hours
after midnight, going ninety miles..."
(8)
Nibley
explains: "Finally a day came when he was forced to give the
whole fleet his solemn word that he would turn back within
two days if land was not discovered--and on the morning of
the second day land was discovered. About eight or nine hours
before the discovery, at sunset on October 11, Columbus gave
a strange and sudden order for a marked change of course.
'Why he did this, nobody explained,' writes Professor Morison,
a very sober historian and a nautical expert. But he assures
us that if he had not done it, the great discovery of October
12, 1492, would have been a tragic discovery of deadly reefs
that lay but a short distance dead ahead of the little fleet
on its original course." (9)
Let
All Rejoice
Columbus
himself summarized his gratitude and joy of his journey in
a letter dated 1493: "Therefore let the king and queen,
the princes and their most fortunate kingdoms, and all other
countries of Christendom give thanks to our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ, who has bestowed upon us so great a victory
and gift. Let religious processions be solemnized; let sacred
festivals be given; let the churches be covered with festive
garlands. Let Christ rejoice on earth, as he rejoices in heaven,
when he foresees coming to salvation so many souls of people
hitherto lost. Let us be glad also, as well on account of
the exaltation of our faith, as on account of the increase
of our temporal affairs, of which not only Spain, but universal
Christendom will be partaker. These things that have been
done are thus briefly related. Farewell."
(10)
Notes
1.
Garr, Arnold K. Christopher Columbus: A Latter-day Saint
Perspective. Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University,
Provo, Utah, 1992, p. 30. (Throughout this article the words
of Columbus will be bold and italicized.)
2.
Journal of Discourses, 7:13.
3.
Ibid, 14:55.
4.
Garr, Christopher Columbus, p. 3.
5.
Ibid, p. 29.
6.
Nibley, Hugh. The Prophetic Book of Mormon. Deseret Book
Company, Salt Lake City, Utah and Foundation for Ancient Research
and Mormon Studies, Provo, Utah, 1989, pp. 50, 51.
7.
Ibid, p. 52.
8.
Medieval Sourcebook: Christopher Columbus: Extracts from
Journal (emphasis added)
9.
Nibley, p. 52.
10.
Letter from Christopher Columbus to Ferdinand and Isabelle,
King and Queen of Spain, dated 1493.
