The European Discovery of America, Vol 2: The Southern Voyages 1492-1616

The European Discovery of America #2

by Samuel Eliot Morison

The late Samuel Eliot Morison, a former U.S. Navy admiral, was also one of America's premier historians. Combining a first-hand knowledge of the sea and transatlantic travel with a brilliantly readable narrative style, he produced what has become nothing less than the definitive account of the great age of European exploration. In his riveting and richly illustrated saga, Morison offers a comprehensive account of all the known voyages by Europeans to the New World from 500 A.D. to the seventeenth century. Together, the two volumes of The European Discovery of America tell the compelling stories of the many intrepid explorers who made what was then a journey frought with danger-figures as diverse as Leif Ericsson, Columbus, John Cabot, Jacques Cartier, Martin Frobisher, Magellan, Sir Walter Raleigh, and Sir Francis Drake to name but a few. They also follow the adventures of lesser-known but no less interesting mariners and offer a detailed look at those who set them forth on their travels. In the first volume, The Northern Voyages-winner of the prestigious Bancroft Prize for History-Morison re-creates the lives and perilous times of those who claimed to have seen the shores of North America in the 600 years after the Norsemen first landed. He brings to his account a rare immediacy, making the drama and unpredictability of their voyages as significant in relation to the people of their era as the astronauts' journeys have been for our own times. Morison also offers a fascinating look at the imaginary lands reported by early travelers (such mythical places as Antilia and the Seven Cities, the glorious Kingdoms of Norumbega and Saguenay, and Hy-Brasil the Isle of the Blest) and examines as well the alleged discoverers of these lands. With warmth and wit he distinguishes fact from fiction, and imaginary explorers and their exploits from actual men and events. In the second volume, Morison turns his attention to the naviga

Genres: History, American History, Nonfiction, American, World History, European History, Adventure

758 pages, paper

First published October 14, 1974

About the author

Samuel Eliot Morison, son of John H. and Emily Marshall (Eliot) Morison, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on 9 July 1887. He attended Noble’s School at Boston, and St. Paul’s at Concord, New Hampshire, before entering Harvard University, from which he was graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in 1908. He studied at the Ecole Libre des Sciences Politiques, Paris, France, in 1908-1909, and returned to Harvard for postgraduate work, receiving the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in 1912. Thereafter he became Instructor, first at the University of California in Berkeley, and in 1915 at Harvard. Except for three years (1922-1925) when he was Harmsworth Professor of American History at Oxford, England, and his periods of active duty during both World Wars, he remained continuously at Harvard University as lecturer and professor until his retirement in 1955.

He had World War I service as a private in the US Army, but not overseas. As he had done some preliminary studies on Finland for Colonel House’s Inquiry, he was detailed from the Army in January 1919 and attached to the Russian Division of the American Commission to Negotiate Peace, at Paris, his specialty being Finland and the Baltic States. He served as the American Delegate on the Baltic Commission of the Peace Conference until 17 June 1919, and shortly after returned to the United States. He became a full Professor at Harvard in 1925, and was appointed to the Jonathan Trumbull Chair in 1940. He also taught American History at Johns Hopkins University in 1941-1942.

Living up to his sea-going background – he has sailed in small boats and coastal craft all his life. In 1939-1940, he organized and commanded the Harvard Columbus Expedition which retraced the voyages of Columbus in sailing ships, barkentine Capitana and ketch Mary Otis. After crossing the Atlantic under sail to Spain and back, and examining all the shores visited by Columbus in the Caribbean, he wrote Admiral of the Ocean Sea, an outstanding biography of Columbus, which won a Pulitzer Prize in 1943. He also wrote a shorter biography, Christopher Columbus, Mariner. With Maurico Obregon of Bogota, he surveyed and photographed the shores of the Caribbean by air and published an illustrated book The Caribbean as Columbus Saw It (1964).

Shortly after the United States entered World War II, Dr. Morison proposed to his friend President Roosevelt, to write the operational history of the US Navy from the inside, by taking part in operations and writing them up afterwards. The idea appealed to the President and Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox, and on 5 May 1942, Dr. Morison was commissioned Lieutenant Commander, US Naval Reserve, and was called at once to active duty. He subsequently advanced to the rank of Captain on 15 December 1945. His transfer to the Honorary Retired List of the Naval Reserve became effective on 1 August 1951, when he was promoted to Rear Admiral on the basis of combat awards.

In July-August 1942 he sailed with Commander Destroyer Squadron Thirteen (Captain John B. Heffernan, USN), on USS Buck, flagship, on convoy duty in the Atlantic. In October of that year, on USS Brooklyn with Captain Francis D. Denebrink, he participated in Operation TORCH (Allied landings in North and Northwestern Africa - 8 November 1942). In March 1943, while attached to Pacific Fleet Forces, he visited Noumea, Guadalcanal, Australia, and on Washington made a cruise with Vice Admiral W. A. Lee, Jr., USN. He also patrolled around Papua in motor torpedo boats, made three trips up “the Slot” on Honolulu, flagship of Commander Cruisers, Pacific Fleet (Rear Admiral W.W. Ainsworth, USN), and took part in the Battle of Kolombangara before returning to the mainland. Again in the Pacific War Area in September 1943, he participated in the Gilbert Islands operation on board USS Baltimore, under command of Captain Walter C. Calhoun, USN. For the remainder of the Winter he worked at Pearl Harbor, and in the Spring

Reviews

[Michael P. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a wonderful book telling you everything you may wish to know about early European explorers to the Americas as they searched for shorter trade routes to Asia. I find the organization odd, grouping the English expeditions together, the Spanish, and so on, giving readers no sense of linear history and saving Spanish exploration until near the end, so Columbus comes later in the book. Then Morrison saves Drake for the very end. I do not doubt there are advantages to this approach and Morison certainly does a good job of supplying readers with context that will be fully told later, but I am not sure I am comfortable with the choice. Given that choice, however, the book can hardly be better written, compellingly narrated, or informative.

I must warn people off this "unabridged" Blackstone audio version. There are several places where Morison refers readers to a chart, map, or illustration that naturally cannot be included in an audio book. I'd be shocked if there were not footnotes that are also missing. While the book is well read by Frederick Davidson, you really should experience this book in print.

Because the audio book is published in two volumes, I share this review in both parts.

[Rob Roy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second volume of Samuel Eliot Morison’s history of the voyages of discovery. The author, being a sailor as well as a historian, is well equipped to write about these voyages. He has one other quirk, rare among historians, he can write, and write well. If you are interested in these voyages, this is the book for you.

[Michael Reilly · Rating 5 out of 5]

The History Book Club used to run full page ads in magazines. You could get three of four books for $1.99 by agreeing to buy four more books over the next two years. I was sold. In my senior year in college, I signed up. I selected the two volumes of Morrison's "The European Discovery of America" as part of my introductory volumes.

This Volume 2 is a masterpiece of historical writing. Volume 1, published in 1971, dealt with the Northern voyages from Georgia to the Artic Circle. This volume, published in 1974, deals with the Southern voyages from the Cape Horn to Florida.

Morrison was uniquely qualified to write these books. He was a brilliant historian who had published multiple brilliant works of history. He was an accomplished sailor who sailed most of the areas covered in this book. He was one of the leading biographers of Christopher Columbus. He was a brilliant stylist. He was also fluent in 16th and 17th Spanish and Latin, which most of the source material was published in.

Three explorers dominant this story. Columbus, whose wrong-headed beliefs lead to the discovery of the Americas. Magellan, whose circumvention proved that America was a separate continent and that the Pacific Ocean was huge and Francis Drake, who opened up the west coast of North America. Morrison gives us complete and detailed recreations of those voyages.

He also describes the "faceless navigators" who slowly uncovered the vast South American.
continent.

These were brutal men. Many of the voyages ended in mutinies and many failed mutineers were hung and even beheaded. Columbus came back to Spain in chains after his third voyage, before clearing his name and getting sent on a disastrous fourth voyage. Balboa was beheaded for being falsely accused of treason four years after discovering the Pacific Ocean

Morrison also describes the viscous treatment of the native Americans. Friendly natives meet Columbus. Within weeks of his arrival the natives realized that these men were not to be trusted. The Spanish systematically slaughtered and enslaved the native people. They wiped out many of the native societies within fifty years of arriving there. Morrison does not hide the horror. He says that in Hispaniola, the island currently occupied by Haiti and the Dominican Republic, the Spanish committed "genocide". He says, "Of the estimated native population of 250,000 in 1492, not 500 remained alive in 1538."

Amerigo Vespucci was a conman according to Morrison. He claimed credit for voyages he did not go on. He was a master at spreading misinformation about his accomplishments. He convinced Martin Waldseemuller, one of the most influential map makers in Europe, to name the newly discovered lands "America". The name stuck and the continents were named after a conman. (I will make no wisecracks)

Morrison has done the research and visited the land. He is opinionated. Panfilo Navez was ""the most incompetent of all those who sailed for Spain in this era." He says of the English Captain John Cavendish., "there was a screw lose somewhere in Cavendish". On the other hand, he is free with praise when it is deserved. "No man alive, limited to the instruments and means at Columbus' disposal, could obtain anything near the accuracy of his results."

Each chapter ends with several pages of appendix on Morrison's sources. These sections are fun. Morrison praises his predecessor who published great historical works, but he also is not afraid to criticize. The maps in one source are "illegible". He says about another scholar, "His scholarship was impeccable (every statement annotated); his style, unfortunately, is rather dull."

At times Morrison gets very deep into nautical talk. "She stood out to sea close-hauled on the port tack and every evening, sailing close hauled on the starboard tack." I did some skimming.

This is a grand masterpiece of historical narrative. It is personal and opinionated but fair and as accurate as it can be, and it is a pleasure to read an author who cares deeply about telling his story clearly.

[Julio The Fox · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some people are never satisfied unless they can lay claim to everything. No, I'm not thinking of the French here but my Spanish ancestors. The Spanish government maintains that Columbus Circle in New York City, that point of pride to Italian-Americans, is "an affront to Spain. Everyone knows that while born in Genoa Columbus lived his entire adult life in Spain, wrote and spoke only in Spanish, and is buried in Spain. Calling Columbus an Italian is like calling Dwight Eisenhower a German." The late, great Admiral Samuel Eliot Morison, navigator and historian, set out to encompass the full story of the European encounters with America from Columbus in 1492 to 1616 when the English had definitely established themselves in North America. (For that long, strange trip you can turn to THE EUROPEAN DISCOVERY OF AMERICA: THE NORTHERN VOYAGES.) Published originally in 1974, when the words "European" and "discovery" could still be used without irony in the same sentence, this landmark volume still holds up as a shining example of inexhaustible research and elegant prose. This is the kind of history book where the footnotes are a pleasure to read; for instance, to settle the question of the ethnicity of Columbus Adm. Morison mentions in citation the fact that as late as 1900 the testimony of a Genoese had to be translated into Italian in a courtroom. Being "Italian" is a twentieth century notion, unknown in Columbus's day. Where is Columbus buried? Morison takes up this ghoulish question, for both Spain (yes, I've been to the church where his bones supposedly lie in state) and the Dominican Republic claim his dead bod. The Admiral swings in the direction of the D.R. but not 100%. The good Admiral also grants us an extensive view of the man this hemisphere was named for, Amerigo Vespucci. Vespucci was the first European to sail and trace the northern coast of South America, thus proving it was a continent and not a large island land mass, something Columbus died believing. The Portuguese explorers are given their due. There is substantial evidence to show the naval authorities back in Lisbon knew full well of a huge chunk of land south of where Vespucci had sailed before 1500, in other words Brazil, and kept it a secret, lest the Spaniards claim it first. (Incidentally, the Spanish government a few years ago asked the United Nations to strip Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese, of his title as the first man to circumnavigate the globe, on the grounds that Magellan having been killed by natives in the Philippines, the honor should go to his Spanish second-in-command, Juan Sebastian ElCano. I told you the Spanish are jealous.) Admiral Morison is not without his faults. He swallows the Spanish conquerors white whale of a lie that "the Carib Indians not only practiced cannibalism but served babies for hors d'ouvres ." Oh, well, the Admiral was getting on in years. This is splendid, old-fashioned, non-academic history of the first rank. Highly recommended.

[Kaelen Kinnaman · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Columbus section is almost worth skipping over in favor of Morison's two volume treatment of him. The chapters on Magellan in particular are extraordinary. It's an immense subject to write about given the amount of voyages, people and nations involved over a time span of centuries. It's still considered one of, if not the best books on the subject for a reason. Fantastic work of scholarship that's very entertaining to read.

[David R. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Morison wrote this masterpiece in 1973, covering European voyages both well known and obscure from Florida to South American. His material on Columbus and Magellan is absolutely authoritative.