Columbus

Final Quotations

Columbus

“On the seashore there were some small villages, and at the sight of our sails all the people fled. When we had gone two leagues and it was quite late, we found a harbour. That night the Admiral decided that some men should land early next morning and hold conversation with the natives, to find out what people there were, though he already suspected that they were Caribs and the people whom he had seen running away were naked, like those he had seen on his previous voyage.” P. 134
“These people seemed to us more civilized than those elsewhere. All have straw houses, but these people build them much better and have larger stocks of provisions and show more signs of industry practiced by both men and women. They have much cotton, spun and ready for spinning, and much cotton cloth so well woven that it is no way inferior to the cloth of our own country” (second voyage, 135).
"...and as for the men they are ably to capture, they bring those who are alive home to be slaughtered and eat those who are dead on the spot. They say that human flesh is so good that there is nothing like it in the world;" pg. 136
They all say they wish to be Christians, although actually they are idolaters. There are idols of all kinds in their houses.
Here by God’s will I have brought under dominion of our sovereigns a new world, whereby Spain, which was called poor, has now become rich.pg. 217 - 218
"Now as I said, I have found such great irregularities that I have come to the following conclusions concerning the world: that it is not round as they describe it, but the shape of a pear, which is round everywhere except at the stalk, where it juts out a long way; or that it is like a round ball, on part of which is something like a woman's nipple. This point on which the protuberance stands is the highest and nearest to the sky. It lies below the Equator, and in this ocean, at the farthest point of the east, I mean by the farthest point of the east the place where all land and islands end."pg 320
“Not that I believe it possible to sail to the extreme summit or that it is covered by water, or that it is even possible to go there. For I believe that the earthly Paradise lies here, which on can enter except by God's leave.”page 304
“But they will give all that they do possess for anything that is given to them, exchanging things even for bits of broken crockery or broken glass cups.” pp57
Now even tailors are asking for licenses of exploration. Probably they intend only to come out and plunder, but the licenses granted are greatly to the detriment of my honour and to the prejudice of the undertaking itself. The lands that here obey your Highness are greater and richer than all the rest of Christendom. I had by God’s will, placed them under your royal and exalted rule P303
“They spoke with him and asked about the Christians, and he answered, telling the same story as the others, the it was Caoabo and Mayreni who had killed them, and that they had wounded him in the thigh, which he showed them bandaged” (Cohen. Penguin. 149).

Gullivers Travels:

“Flimnap, the Treasurer, is allowed to cut a caper on the strait rope, at least an inch higher than any other lord in the whole Empire. I have seen him do the summerset several times together upon a trencher fixed on the rope...” GT p.74
“Difference in opinions hath cost many millions of lives: for instance, whether flesh be bread, or bread be flesh; whether the juice of a certain berry be blood or wine...” GT p.292
"When a great office is vacant either by death or disgrace (which often happens) five or six of those candidates petition the Emperor to entertain his Majesty and the Court with a dance on the rope, and whoever jumps the highest without falling, succeeds in the office. Very often the chief Ministers themselves are commanded to show their skill, and to convince the Emperor that they have not lost their faculty." pg. 74
"...there have been two struggling parties in this Empire, under the names of Tramecksan and Slamecksan, from the high and low heels on their shoes, by which they distinguish themselves. It is alleged indeed, that the high heels are most agreeable to our ancient constitution: but however this be, his Majesty hath determined to make use of only low heels in the administration of the government..." pg. 84
My principal Endeavour was to learn the Language, which my Master and his Children, and every Servant of his House were desirous to teach me. For they looked upon it as a Prodigy, that a brute Animal should discover such Marks of a rational Creature. (beginning of chapter 3, book 4) pg. 54
"By the luckiest Chance in the World, I had not discharged myself of any part of it. The Heat I had contracted by coming very near the Flames, and by my labouring to quench them, make the Wine begin to operate by Urine; which I voided in such a Quantity, and applied so well to the proper Places, that in three Minutes the Fire was wholly extinguished, and the rest of that noble Pile, which had cost so many Ages in erecting, preserved from Destruction."pg. 266
"The first Money I laid out was to buy two young Stone-Horses, which I keep in a good Stable, and next to them the Groom is my greatest Favourite; for I feel my Spirits revived by the Smell he contracts in the Stable. My Horses understand me tolerably well; I converse with them at least four Hours every Day. They are Strangers to Bridle or Saddle, they live in great Amity with me, and Friendship to each other."
(Book 1) He is taller by almost the breadth of my nail, than any of his court; which alone is enough to strike an awe into the beholders.
[1] “But I endeavoured to divert him from this design, by many arguments drawn from the topics of policy as well as justice; and I plainly protested, "that I would never be an instrument of bringing a free and brave people into slavery."” page 92

Oroonoko:

“Then they hacked off one of his arms, and still he bore up, and held his pipe; but at the cutting off of the other arm, his head sunk and his pipe dropped, and he gave up the ghost without a groan or a reproach” (Behn. Oxford World Classics. 34.).
“...he told her his design, first of killing her, and then his enemies, and next himself, and the impossibility of escaping and therefore he told her the necessity of dying.” Oro. p.67
“His face was not of that brown, rusty black which most of that nation are, but a perfect ebony, or polished jet. His eyes were the most aweful that could be seen and very piercing, the white of ‘em being like snow, as were his teeth.
“As for the rashness and inconsiderateness of his action, he would confess the governor is in the right, and that he was ashamed of what he had done, in endeavouring to make those free who were by nature slaves, poor wretched rogues, fit to be used as Christian’s tools, dogs treacherous and cowardly fit for such masters, and they wanted only but to be whipped into the knowledge of the Christian gods to be the vilest of all creeping things, to learn to worship such deities as had not power to make ‘em just, brave, or honest.” P. 62-63
“This was delivered to the still doubting captain, who could not resolve to trust a heathen, he said, upon his parole, a man that had no sense or notion of the God that he worshipped.”
“…men that had the courage and bravery to attempt, at least, for liberty; and if they died in the attempt it would be more brave than to live in perpetual slavery.”
(Pg 8) And these people represented to me an absolute idea of the first state of innocence, before Man knew how to sin, and tis most evident and plain that simple Nature is the most harmless, inoffensive, and virtuous mistress.
I was my self an Eye-Witness to a great part, of what you will find here set down; and what I cou’d not be Witness of, I receiv’d from the Mouth of the chief Actor in this History, the Hero himself, 1
[2] “He was pretty tall, but of a shape the most exact that can be fancied: the most famous statuary could not form the figure of a man more admirably turned from head to foot. His face was not of that brown rusty black which most of that nation are, but of perfect ebony, or polished jet. His eyes were the most awful that could be seen, and very piercing; the white of 'em being like snow, as were his teeth. His nose was rising and Roman, instead of African and flat. His mouth the finest shaped that could be seen; far from those great turned lips which are so natural to the rest of the negroes.”
[3] “...he led her up into a wood, where (after with a thousand sighs, and long gazing silently on her face, while tears gushed, in spite of him, from his eyes) he told her his design, first of killing her, and then his enemies, and next himself, and the impossibility of escaping, and therefore he told her the necessity of dying. He found the heroic wife faster pleading for death that he was to propose it, when she found his fixed resolution; and, on her knees, besought him not to leave her a prey to his enemies. He (grieved to death, yet pleased at her noble resolution) took her up, and embracing of her with all the passion and languishment of a dying lover, drew his knife to kill this treasure of his soul, this pleasure of his eyes; while tears trickled down his cheeks, hers were smiling with joy she should die by so noble a hand”

Utopia

“...most princes apply themselves to the arts of war, in which I have neither ability nor interest, instead of to the good arts of peace. They are generally more set on acquiring new kingdoms by hook or by crook than on governing well those that they already have. Moreover, the counsellors of kings are all so wise already that they need no other knowledge...” Uto. p. 8
“But everybody knows how absurd and even harmful to the public welfare it is to punish theft and murder alike. I theft carries the same penalty as murder, the thief will be encouraged to kill the victim whom otherwise he would only have robbed.” Uto. p.15
"Now in a court composed of people who envy everyone else and admire only themselves, if a man should suggest something he had read of in other ages or seen in far places, the other counselors would think their reputation for wisdom was endangered, and they would look like simpletons, unless they could find fault with his proposal. (p. 8)
"Every house has a door to the street and another to the garden. The doors, which are made with two leaves, open easily and swing shut automatically, letting anyone enter who wants to-and so there is no private property. Every ten years, they change houses by lot. (p 34)
“In this matter not only you in England but a good part of the world seem to imitate bad schoolmasters, who would rather whip their pupils than teach them. Severe and terrible punishments are enacted against theft, when it would be much better to enable every man to earn his own living, instead of being driven to the awful necessity of stealing and then dying for it” (10).
“Though no one owns anything, everyone is rich” (82).
“Whether she is a widow or a virgin, the bride-to-be is shown naked to the groom by a responsible and respectable matron; and , similarly, some respectable man presents the groom naked to his future bride” (61).
"While he told us of many ill-considered usages in these new-found nations, he also described quite a few other customs from which our own cities, nations, races, and kingdoms might take example in order to correct their errors. These I shall discuss in another place, as I said. Now I intend only to relate what he told us about the manners and laws..." pg. 7
"They are surprised that gold, a useless commodity in itself, is everywhere valued so highly that man himself, who for his own purposes conferred this value on it, is far less valuable." pg. 48
“They fight with great courage and incorruptible loyalty for the people who pay them, but they will not bind themselves to serve for any fixed period of time. If someone, even the enemy, offers them more money tomorrow, if a trifle more is offered to bring them back, they’ll return to their first employees.” P.69
“Generally, the gravest crimes are punished by slavery, for they think this deters offenders just as much as instant capital punishment, and is more beneficial to the state.” P. 62
(Pg 51) Nothing is more humane (and humanity is the virtue most proper to human beings) than to relieve the misery of others, assuage their griefs, and by removing all sadness from their life, to restore them to enjoyment, that is, pleasure.
pg. 8"I don't have the capacity you ascribe to me, and if I had it in the highest degree, the public would not be any better off through the sacrifice of my peace. In the first place, most princes apply themselves to the arts of war, in which I have neither ability nor interest, instead of to the good arts of peace. They are generally more set on acquiring new kingdoms by hook or by crook than on governing well those that they already have. Moreover, the counsellors of kings are all so wise already that they need no other knowledge (or at least that's the way they see it). At the same time, they approve and even flatter the most absurd statements of favorites through whose influence they seek to stand well with the prince. It is only natural, of course, that each man should think his own opinions best: the old crow loves his fledglings, and the ape his cubs."
pg. 47"They find pearls by the seashore, diamonds and rubies in certain cliffs but never go out of set purpose to look for them. If they happen to find some, they polish them, and give them to the children who, when they are small, feel proud and pleased with such gaudy decorations. But after when they grow a bit older, and notice that only babies like such toys, they lay them aside. Their parents don't have to say anything, they simply put these trifles away out of a shamefaced sense that they're no longer suitable, just as our children when they grow up put away their rattles, marbles, and dolls."

Castaways:

“On the same night that we arrived, some Indians came to Castillo and told him that they had dreadful pains in their heads, imploring him to cure them; and after he had signed them with the cross and commended them to God, the Indians said that all the pains had left them at that very moment...” CDV p. 68
“From this fact appears how often men’s thoughts are frustrated, for we wanted only to seek freedom for the Indians, and when we thought we had done so the exact opposite occurred, for the Spaniards had agreed to fall upon those whom we had sent away reassured and in peace” (115).
“I could se how ill equipped they were for starting inland, and that I preferred to run the risks that they were running and endure what he and they were enduring, rather than take charge of the ships and let it be said that, because I had objected to the expedition inland, I had stayed behind out of fear, and that my honor would be impugned; and that I preferred to risk my life rather than place my honor in that position.” P. 16
"if they wished to be Christians and serve God in the way we commanded, that the Christians would consider them as brothers and would treat them very well, and that we would give orders that the Christians should do no harm to them or take them away from their lands but rather be great friends of theirs; but if they did not wish to do this the Christians would treat them very badly and would carry them off to other lands as slaves. (p 117)
"On the following day the governor raised banners for your majesty and took possession of the land in your loyal name, and presented his credentials and was received as governor, as Your Majesty commanded. We also presented our credentials to him, and he accepted them as their contents instructed him to do." pg. 11
"We stayed there that night, and at daybreak the Indians who had left us on the previous day descended upon their houses. And since they caught them unawares, and confident, they stole everything they owned, not giving them a chance to hide anything; and they bewailed this very much..." pg. 91
On that island that I have described they tried to make us into medicine men, without examining us or asking for credentials, for they cure illnesses by blowing on the sick person, and by blowing and using their hands they cast the illness out of him; and they ordered us to the same and to be of some use. 49
Throughout the land are large and beautiful pastures and very good grazing for livestock, and it seems to me that it would be a very fruitful land if it were cultivated and peopled by civilized folk. 5
(Pg 42) When the Indians saw the disaster that had come upon us and the disaster we were in, with so much ill luck and misery, they sat down among us and, with great grief and pity they felt on seeing us in such a desperate plight, all of them began to weep loudly, and so sincerely that they could be heard a long way off, and this lasted more than half an hour; and certainly, to see that those uncivilized and savage men, like brutes, were so sorry for us, caused me and the others in our company to feel still more grief and full realization of our misfortune.
"And the Indians who used bows did not appear before us; rather, they drew apart into the mountains to hunt deer, and when they came at night they brought five or six deer for each of us and birds and quail and other game; in short, everything that those people found and killed they placed before us, not daring to take any of it, even if they were dying of hunger, without our first making the sign of the cross over it, for that had been their custom ever since they traveled with us; and the women would bring many mats of the sort they use to make their houses, to make for each of us his own separate house with all his own people around him; and when this was done we would give orders to roast those deer and hares and everything that they had caught, and this also was done very quickly in ovens that they make for the purpose; and we would take a little of everything and give the rest to the chief of the people who had come with us, telling him to distribute it among them all."

Robinson Crusoe

“But, says he again, if God much strong, much might as the Devil, why God no kill the Devil, so make him no more do wicked?” RC p.172
“I...was now to be made an instrument under Providence to save the life, and for ought I knew, the soul of a poor savage, and bring him to the true knowledge of religion, and of the Christian doctrine, that he might know Christ Jesus, to know whom is life eternal.” RC p.174
“’You do much good there,’ says he, ‘you teach wild mans be good sober tame mans; you tell them know God, pray God, and live new life…Yes yes,’ says he, ‘you teachee me good, you teachee them good.’” (178).
“My island was now peopled, and I thought myself very rich in subjects; and it was a merry reflection, which I frequently made, how like a king I looked. First of all, the whole country was my own mere property, so that I had an undoubted right of dominion. Secondly, my people were perfectly well subjected. I was absolute lord and lawgiver, they all owed their lives to me, and were ready to lay down their lives, if there had been occasion of it, for me” (190).
“Young man, says he, you ought never to go to sea any more, you ought to take this for a plain and visible token that you are not to be a seafaring man” (Defoe. Crusoe. 14.).
"What authority or call I had, to pretend to be judge and executioner upon these men as criminals, whom Heaven had thought fit for so many ages to suffer unpunish'd, to go on, and to be, as it were, the executioners of judgments one upon another." pg. 135
"Tho' my mother refused to move it to my father, yet as I have heard afterwards, she reported all the discourse to him, and that my father after shewing a great concern at it, said to her with a sigh, That boy might be happy if he would stay at home, but if he goes abroad, he will be the miserablest wretch that was ever born: I can give no consent to it." pg. 74 - 75
"Why has God done this to me? What have I done to be thus us'd? My conscience presently check'd me in that enquiry, as if I had blasphem'd, and methought it spoke to me like a voice; WRETCH ! dost thou ask what thou hast done! look back upon a dreadful mis-spent life, and ask thy self what thou hast not done? ask Why is it that thou wert not long ago destroy'd? Why wert thou not drown'd in Yarmouth Roads? Kill'd in the fight when the ship was taken by the Sallee man of war? Devour'd by the wild beasts on the coast of Africa? Or drown'd HERE, when all the crew perish'd but thy self? Dost thou ask What have I done?"
But I, that was born to be my own destroyer, could no more resist the offer than I could restrain my first rambling designs when my father good counsel was lost upon me.
(Pg 199) So little do we see before us in the world, and so much reason have we to depend cheerfully upon the great Maker of the world, that He does not leave His creatures so abruptly destitute, but that in the worst circumstances they have always something to be thankful for, and sometimes are nearer deliverance than they imagine; nay, are even brought to their deliverance by means by which they seem to be brought to their destruction.

Candide

“...saw his benefactor reappear on the surface and then sink without trace, and wanted to jump in after him. Pangloss the philosopher prevented him, arguing that Lisbon harbour had been created expressly so that the Anabaptist would be drowned in it.” Can. p. 12
“I have but twenty acres, replied the Turk. I cultivate them with my children. Work keeps us from three great evils: boredom, vice, and need.” Can. p.98
" 'You insolent man'[â€¦] 'You would have the audacity to marry my sister who has seventy-two quarterlings! I consider it great effrontery on your part to dear speak to me of so rash an intention!'" (p. 38)
" 'That is well put,'[â€¦] 'but we must cultivate our garden,'" (p. 100)
"We are given one pair of short denim breeches twice a year, and that's all we have to wear. When we're working at the sugar-mill and catch our finger in the grinding-wheel, they cut off our hand. When we try to run away, they cut off a leg. I have been in both these situations. this is the price you pay for the sugar you eat in Europe." pg. 53
pg10"'Not at all,' replied the great man. 'It was an indispensable part of the best of all worlds, a necessary ingredient. For if Columbus, on an island in the Americas, had not caught this disease which poisons the spring of procreation, which often even prevents procreation, and which is evidently the opposite of what nature intended, we would have neither chocolate nor cochineal. Moreover one must remember that up till now this disease has been unique to the inhabitants of our contintent, like controversy. The Turks, the Indians, the Persians, the Chinese, the Siamese, the Japanese, they have all yet to know it. But there is sufficient reason for them to know it in their turn a few centuries hence. In the mean time it is making spectacular progress among our population, and especially among those great armies of fine, upstanding, well-bred mercenaries who decide the destiny of nations. One can be sure that when thirty thousand soldiers are fighting against a similar number in pitched battle, there are about twenty thousand cases of the pox on either side."
pg. 46 "When the meal was over, ________ thought, as _________ did, that he could more than cover the cost of their meal by tossing two of the large pieces of gold he had picked up on to the table. The landlord and his wife burst out laughing and held their sides for a long time. Finally they recovered themselves:'Gentlemen,' said the host, 'we can see you're strangers. We've not used to them here. Forgive us if we started laughing when you offered to pay with the stones off our roads. Presumably you don't have any of the local currency, but you don't need any to dine here. All inns set up for the convenience of those engaged in commerce are paid for by the government. The meal wasn't very good here because this is a poor village, but anywhere else you'll get the kind of reception you deserve."
I have taken you from the galleys and paid your ransom, and I have paid your sister's too. I found her washing dishes, and she's as ugly as a witch. Yet when I have the decency to make her my wife, you still pretend to raise objections. I should kill you again, if my anger get the better of me.(138)
"…crime is sometimes punished. That scoundrel of a Dutch skipper got the fate he deserved.—Yes said --------, but did the passengers on his ship have to perish also? God punished the rogue, the devil drowned the rest" (tr. Pearson, Oxford Classics. 60)
"Observe that noses were made to wear spectacles; and so we have spectacles. Legs were visibly instituted to be breeched, and we have breeches. Stones were formed to be quarried and to build castles; and My Lord has a very noble castle; the greatest Baron in the province should have the best house; and as pigs were made to be eaten, we eat pork all year round; consequently, those who have asserted all is well talk nonsense; they ought to have said that all is for the best."

Mungo Park

The fact was clearly proved against him; and he was sentenced to be sold into slavery, or to find two slaves for his redemption, according to the pleasure of the complainant. The injured husband, however, was unwilling to proceed against his friend to such extremity, and desired rather to have him publicly flogged before Tiggity Sego's gate…The surrounding multitude, by their hooting and laughing, manifested how much they enjoyed the punishment of this old gallant; and it is worthy of remark, that the number of stripes was precisely the same as are enjoined by Mosaic law, forty, save one. (MP 117)
They rallied me with a good deal of gaiety on different subjects; particularly upon the whiteness of my skin, and the prominency of my nose. They insisted that both were artificial. The first, they said, was produced when I was an infant, by dipping me in milk; and they insisted that my nose had been pinched every day, till it had acquired its present unsightly and unnatural conformation. On my part, without disputing my own deformity, I paid them many compliments on African beauty. I praised the glossy jet of their skins, and the lovely depression of their noses; but they said that flattery, or honey-mouth, was not esteemed in Bondou.(103)
The surrounding attendants, especially the ladies, were abundantly more inquisitive: they asked a thousand questions, inspected every part of my apparel, searched my pockets, and obliged me to unbutton my waistcoat, and display the whiteness of my skin: they even counted my toes and fingers, as if they doubted whether I was in truth a human being. (147)
Some said that they intended to put me to death; others that I was only to lose my right hand; but the most probable account was that which I received from Ali's own son, a boy about nine years of age, who came to me in the evening, and, with much concern, informed me that his uncle had persuaded his father to put out my eyes, which they said resembled those of a cat, and that all the Bushreens had approved of this measure.His father, however, he said, would not put the sentence into execution until [the queen], who was at present in the north, had seen me. (152)
I have observed that Moors, in their complexion, resemble the Mulattoes of the West Indies; but they have something unpleasant in their aspect, which the Mulattoes have not. I fancied that I discovered in the features of most of them, a disposition towards cruelty, and low cunning; and I could never contemplate their physiognomy, without feeling sensible uneasiness. From the staring wildness of their eyes, a stranger would immediately set them down as a nation of lunatics. The treachery and malevolence of their character, are manifested in their plundering excursions against the Negro villages. (171)
After they were gone, I sat for some time, looking around me with amazement and terror. Which ever way I turned, nothing appeared but danger and difficulty. I saw myself in the midst of a vast wilderness, in the depth of the rainy season; naked and alone; surrounded by savage animals, and men still more savage. I was five hundred miles from the nearest European settlement. …my spirits began to fail me. I considered my fate as certain, and that I had no alternative, but to lie down and perish. The influence of religion, however, aided and supported me….I was indeed a stranger in a strange land, yet I was still under the protecting eye of that Providence who has condescended to call himself the stranger's friend. (226)
…before we pronounce them a more depraved people than any other, it were well to consider whether the lower order of people in any part of Europe, would have acted, under similar circumstances, with greater honesty towards a stranger, than the Negroes acted towards me. It must not be forgotten, that the laws of the country afforded me no protection; that every one was at liberty to rob me with impunity; and finally, that some part of my effects were of great value, in the estimation of the Negroes, as pearls and diamonds would have been in the eyes of a European. (239)