Simon Mattacks
speaker
2,981 appearances
17 recordings
3 series
first heard Dec 2024
last heard 13 Sep
Simon Mattacks’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 14 in all, peaking in Aug 2026 with 3.
Appearances
I know that my errors have not been committed with the intention of doing evil.
Looking at this letter now, it's hard to tell exactly what Columbus was thinking.
Was he simply rehearsing arguments for his self-defense?
Or did he truly believe what he wrote?
Either way, the Spanish crown decided to give Columbus another chance.
They ordered his release and would soon send him on another voyage.
However, Columbus didn't come out of the experience unscathed.
Humiliatingly, he was removed as governor of Hispaniola.
His health was also in decline.
He suffered from numerous conditions, which may have included reactive arthritis.
Columbus's travels were beginning to take a toll.
To add insult to injury, a major breakthrough had occurred during Columbus's third voyage.
The Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama had successfully completed a voyage of his own.
He had traveled from Europe to India by sailing around the southern tip of Africa.
In other words, de Gama had achieved what Columbus and other explorers had been trying to do.
He had found a direct maritime route between Europe and Asia.
This made it increasingly difficult for Columbus to claim that he had also reached Asia.
In his writings, Columbus attempted to explain what he had seen in South America, the yet-to-be-explored continent.
If it wasn't China, perhaps it was something even better.
Perhaps he had glimpsed the earthly paradise, the Garden of Eden.
Showing 1961–1980 of 2,981 · page 99 of 150
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