Monday, March 18, AD 2024 9:28pm

Quotes Suitable for Framing: Samuel Eliot Morison

 

Christopher Columbus belonged to an age that was past, yet he became the sign and symbol of this new age of hope, glory and accomplishment. His medieval faith impelled him to a modern solution: expansion. If the Turk could not be pried loose from the Holy Sepulcher by ordinary means, let Europe seek new means overseas; and he, Christopher the Christ-bearer, would be the humble yet proud instrument of Europe’s regeneration. So it turned out, although not as he anticipated. The First Voyage to America that he accomplished with a maximum of faith and a minimum of technique, a bare sufficiency of equipment and a superabundance of stout-heartedness, gave Europe new confidence in herself, more than doubled the area of Christianity, enlarged indefinitely the scope for human thought and speculation, and “led the way to those fields of freedom which, planted with great seed, have now sprung up to the fructification of the world.”…

In his faith, his deductive methods of reasoning, his unquestioning acceptance of the current ethics, Columbus was a man of the Middle Ages, and in the best sense. In his readiness to translate thought into action, in lively curiosity and accurate observation of natural phenomena, in his joyous sense of adventure and desire to win wealth and recognition, he was a modern man.

Samuel Eliot Morison:  historian, Harvard professor of history, biographer of Christopher Columbus, Rear Admiral, United States Navy

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Barbara Gordon
Barbara Gordon
Sunday, October 11, AD 2015 8:45am

I have been to the spot on which Columbus first landed. It is at the Port of Cortez on the coast of Honduras. The castle the Spanish began building is still there in exellent condition. The well they dug for fresh water is still usuable. The mote was begun but never completed. You can see, by the materials in the walls, when the builders ran out of building supplies carried across the ocean and began using native supplies s.a. coral for the second story of the castle walls. The church was distinguished by its windows which had metal bars for crosses in them. There are rooms that are still storing the metal cannons that were carried across the ocean in Spanish ships.

T. Shaw
T. Shaw
Sunday, October 11, AD 2015 9:44am

I recommend Admiral Morison’s book, Admiral of the Ocean Sea, A Life of Christopher Columbus, which I read years ago. You will note the simple, true faith of Columbus and the seamen, who continually said prayers while doing various tasks, at the bells, etc.
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I also highly recommend Admiral Morison’s book on WWII, The Two Ocean War. You will be struck by the very harsh (severe losses of men and ships) times of the first two years of the Atlantic war and the later skillful, victorious years in both oceans.
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Of course, America-hating imbeciles’ heads explode each Columbus Day. Seems as if the idiots would prefer undeveloped America solely inhabited by unredeemed, stone-age savages.

Penguins Fan
Penguins Fan
Sunday, October 11, AD 2015 9:44am

Barbra, from what I have read, nobody is absolutely sure where Columbus first landed, but it is thought to be in the Bahamas. Subsequently, Columbus sailed on to Hispaniola (the Dominican Republic) and Cuba, and on another voyage to Venezuela.

Columbus was not a capable administrator at all. The Black Legend that pertains to Columbus finds its roots in his time as Governor of the lands he found, along with the hyperbole of the book by Fray Bartolome de las Casas. Notice the yearly protests of American Indians and other groups who seek to disparage Columbus’ notable navigation achievements. Always overlooked in the annual Columbus Day catharsis were the Aztec customs of human sacrifice and cannibalism.

October 11 is a significant day for another reason. General Casimir Pulaski is honored on this day as he died on October 9, 1779 as a result of injuries incurred in the French & American assault on British held Savannah, Georgia.

Pulaski was forced into exile when the Bar Confederation’s uprising against Russia failed. Pulaski saved George Washington’s life and reformed the American Cavalry.

Patricia
Patricia
Sunday, October 11, AD 2015 10:08am

Penguins Fan! The river edge of this city has Pulaski Park (fondly called Count Casimir) as a place where turn of the century Polish immigrants settled and built the now closed church, but the parish school still serves as a border – in winter horse drawn sleighs have gone around the park for the delight of the schoolchildren. The next town north, Northampton, has a common named after him.

Barbara Gordon
Barbara Gordon
Sunday, October 11, AD 2015 6:09pm

“Barbra, from what I have read, nobody is absolutely sure where Columbus first landed, but it is thought to be in the Bahamas. Subsequently, Columbus sailed on to Hispaniola (the Dominican Republic) and Cuba, and on another voyage to Venezuela.”

Uhhhh. He may not have landed on the exact “spot.”. However, the castle is very hard to explain away, along with the undiluted, local Garifuna population, who have kept their original African culture and language, after being brought to that coastal area by subsequent trips across the ocean by the Spanish.

Barbara Gordon
Barbara Gordon
Sunday, October 11, AD 2015 6:11pm

“Barbra, from what I have read, nobody is absolutely sure where Columbus first landed, but it is thought to be in the Bahamas. Subsequently, Columbus sailed on to Hispaniola (the Dominican Republic) and Cuba, and on another voyage to Venezuela.”

And there is no doubt that they traveled around some. Maybe my wording was too exact. Kind of like the argument about WHICH rock is ACTUALLY Plymouth Rock that the Pilgrims landed on.

Barbara Gordon
Barbara Gordon
Sunday, October 11, AD 2015 6:31pm

““Barbra, from what I have read, nobody is absolutely sure where Columbus first landed, but it is thought to be in the Bahamas. Subsequently, Columbus sailed on to Hispaniola (the Dominican Republic) and Cuba, and on another voyage to Venezuela.”

Well, the 1st site I found just now said Columbus actually landed in modern day Honduras during his 4th journey to the Americas. This site also indicates there is some controversy over whether or not Columbus named the country of Honduras.

Forgive me if I have given out inaccurate info. I hate doing that with a passion.

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