Arnold K. Garr, “Christopher Columbus: Man of Destiny,” in Window of Faith: Latter-day Saint Perspectives on World History, ed. Roy A. Prete (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2005), 291–310.
Though some historians portray Columbus as a villain who started the process of displacing the rightful inhabitants of the Americas,  Latter-day Saint scriptures affirm that he was an instrument in the Lord’s hands in preparing the way for a work that would ultimately bless the lives of the native inhabitants of the Americas (see 1 Nephi 13:10–41).  The following concise overview of Columbus’s life is intended primarily for Latter-day Saint readers—people who believe in the Book of Mormon and the teachings of modern-day apostles and prophets.  Throughout this article seven important themes will be emphasized: (1) Columbus fulfilled Book of Mormon prophecy in his discovery of the Western world; (2) he was a forerunner to the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ in these latter days; (3) he had the spreading of Christianity as one of his major motivations for exploration; (4) he was guided by the Spirit of God, especially on his first voyage; (5) he believed he was guided by the Spirit; (6) he believed many of his achievements were a fulfillment of prophecy; and (7) he has been held in high regard by many Latter-day Saint apostles and prophets.
At the 1854 Fourth of July celebration in Salt Lake City, President Brigham Young spoke of the Lord’s direction of the events that led to the modern discovery of America: “The Almighty . . . moved upon Columbus to launch forth upon the trackless deep to discover the American Continent.”  Elder Orson Hyde, speaking at the same celebration, made perhaps the most intriguing reference to this theme, connecting Columbus’s voyage and discoveries with the ministry of Moroni, the ancient American prophet and divine messenger and caretaker of the Book of Mormon records. Referring to him as the “Prince of America,” Elder Hyde noted that Moroni “presides over the destinies of America, and feels a lively interest in all our doings. . . . This same angel was with Columbus, and gave him deep impressions, by dreams and by visions, respecting this New World.” He continued, “The angel of God helped him—was with him on the stormy deep, calmed the troubled elements, and guided his frail vessel to the desired haven.”  It is clear from these and other statements by Church leaders that the Lord was very interested in the success of Columbus’s voyages to and from the Americas.
When he was about fifty years old, Christopher Columbus wrote a letter to the Spanish monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, which contained the following brief sketch of his youth and preparation for life: “At a very early age I began to navigate upon the seas, which I have continued to this day. . . . Such has been my interest for more than forty years. . . . I prayed to the most merciful Lord concerning my desire, and he gave me the spirit and the intelligence for it.”  Other than this, Columbus wrote very little about his youth in his personal writings; consequently he left to his biographers the task of piecing together the events of his early years. Fortunately, several historians have done admirable work.
Columbus was born in Genoa (now part of Italy), probably between August 25, and October 31, 1451.  He was the oldest of five children born to Domenico Columbo and Susanna Fotanarossa. He had three brothers: Giovanni Pellegrino, who died when he was a young man; Bartholomew, who helped Columbus plan his “Enterprise of the Indies”; and Giacomo, better known as Diego (the Spanish equivalent), whom the Admiral took with him on his second voyage to the New World. Columbus had only one sister, Bianchinetta, about whom we know very little.
In the mid-fifteenth century, two important events significantly altered the political, economic, and cultural structure of Europe and had a great impact on Columbus. First, the Ottoman Empire attacked and captured Constantinople in 1453. The siege lasted six weeks and is regarded by many historians as one of the most dramatic events in world history. Constantinople had been a Christian stronghold, and its fall to the Muslims signaled a major defeat for Christianity.
In short, the Ottoman aggression in the eastern Mediterranean significantly restricted European sea expeditions. It should not surprise anyone that Columbus began to visualize a western course to the Indies; such a route would give access to the very profitable eastern markets without having to cross Ottoman territory.
The second development in fifteenth-century Europe that affected Columbus and the rest of the world was the invention of the printing press around 1455. Johannes Gutenberg, probably with the help of Johann Fust and Peter Schoffer, made this breakthrough that would dramatically cut the cost of books. By the mid-1400s, paper was widely available in Europe, and printing stimulated literacy among lay people, which in turn deeply affected their private lives.  The Gutenberg Bible was printed in 1456, and many other texts appeared soon after.
The invention of the printing press was a key to promoting individual freedom and thought, paving the way for religious freedom and promoting the faith and devotion of lay people like Columbus. With a Bible of his own, Columbus now had instant access to the scriptures, and his personal study of them increased the influence of the Holy Ghost in his life. With this newfound source of freedom and independence in place, it is no wonder that other events that changed the course of history began to take place, including the beginning of the Protestant Reformation only twenty-five years after Columbus’s first voyage.
The fact that Christopher Columbus was an accomplished and skillful sailor is well documented. The beginnings of his affair with the sea, however, are not so clear. Still, historians generally agree that his exposure to the maritime world began early, somewhere between the ages of ten and eighteen.  Situated conveniently between surrounding hills and the shore, Genoa had a bustling harbor that was the center of attention.
By age twenty-five Columbus had had substantial experience at sea. Historic documents indicate that he was actively involved in Mediterranean trade in his young adult years. These experiences at sea prepared him for the more significant voyages he undertook in later years.
A major turning point in Christopher Columbus’s life happened when he relocated from Genoa to Portugal in 1476 under less than auspicious circumstances. In May of that year he signed on to sail with a Genoese merchant fleet bound for England. While on this voyage, near the coast of Portugal, a French war fleet of at least thirteen ships launched a surprise attack against the Genoese convoy. Columbus’s ship caught fire, and the crew was forced overboard. Though Columbus was six miles from shore, he was able to reach land. He eventually found his way to Lisbon, Portugal, where he took up residence in a colony of Genoese merchants. He established a map-making business, which was his occupation when he was not at sea. It seems, indeed, providential that Columbus would choose to live in Lisbon, because at the time it was the world center for oceanic sailing and discovery.
The end of the habitable earth toward the Orient [east] and the end of the habitable earth toward the Occident [west] are near enough, and between them is a small sea.
Between the end of Spain and the beginning of India is not great width.
An arm of the sea extends between India and Spain.
The beginnings of the Orient and of the Occident are close.
From the end of the Occident to the end of India by land is much greater than half the globe. . . .
Aristotle [says] between the end of Spain and the beginning of India is a small sea navigable in a few days. . . . Esdras [says] six parts [of the globe] are habitable and the seventh is covered with water. . . .
Columbus was now prepared to seek royal sponsorship for his enterprise. Inasmuch as he had lived in Portugal for the last eight years and married into the nobility of that country, Columbus chose, first, to present his plan to the Portuguese crown. In 1484 he gained an audience with John II, king of Portugal.  King John referred Columbus’s enterprise to a maritime commission, headed by Diogo Ortiz. Unfortunately, the members of the commission recommended that the plan be rejected. This denial, coupled with the recent death of his wife, Felipa, was most disheartening to Columbus. He therefore decided that he and his five-year-old son, Diego, would move to Spain in search of a better life. It was in Spain that this visionary man from Genoa would finally obtain the royal support he needed to fulfill his divine mission.
In 1485 Christopher Columbus, in company with his young son, took passage on a ship from Lisbon to Palos, Spain. As their ship neared its destination, it passed by a beautiful monastery located on a bluff overlooking the sea. This monastery, named La Rabida, soon became an extremely important sanctuary for Columbus, and it served as a home for Diego while Columbus was away promoting his plan.  It was here that Columbus was also befriended by influential and learned churchmen such as Antonio de Marchena and Juan Perez, who were sympathetic and helpful to him in his inspired cause.  And equally important, La Rabida became a spiritual refuge for Columbus himself.
While Columbus did not have access to the fulness of the restored gospel, his efforts nevertheless would result in the reintroduction of Christianity to the descendants of Lehi living in the Americas. This missionary effort, as we know, helped prepare the way for eventual acceptance of the fulness of the gospel after it was restored in the latter days. In this way, Columbus’s proselyting ambitions helped accomplish the Lord’s purposes.
Elder B. H. Roberts wrote of the role played by people of other faiths in the accomplishment of the Lord’s designs, making it clear that he believed contributors from outside the Church assist in divine purposes: “God raises up wise men and prophets here and there among all the children of men, . . . speaking to them through means that they can comprehend; not always giving a fulness of truth such as may be found in the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ; but always giving that measure of truth that the people are prepared to receive.” He also noted that “wherever God finds a soul sufficiently enlightened and pure; one with whom his Spirit can communicate, lo! he makes of him a teacher of men.”  An official statement of the First Presidency in 1978 further validates this view. Issued during the administration of President Spencer W. Kimball, this declaration clearly states that great men and women in the history of the world have “received a portion of God’s light. Moral truths were given to them by God to enlighten whole nations and to bring a higher level of understanding to individuals.”  Given his desires to spread the message of Christ and his part as the initiator of Christian missionary work in the New World, Columbus surely fits into this classification of inspired individuals who have helped lay the foundation for the fulness of the restored gospel.
Over the next six years Columbus made two more proposals to Spain and one more to Portugal. Simultaneously, Columbus sent his brother, Bartholomew, to King Henry VII of England and then to King Charles VIII of France in hopes of persuading one of them to sponsor the enterprise. Portugal, England, and France all turned them down, but in January 1492 Spain finally offered its support.
Columbus then journeyed to the port of Palos, where he would assemble his fleet. The crown had ordered the city of Palos, as a punishment for smuggling, to provide two ships for the voyage, which it did. However, recruiting seamen to man the ships proved to be an arduous task. The local Spanish mariners were not enthusiastic to sign on with a foreigner from Genoa, especially for such a high-risk enterprise. Fortunately, Columbus soon gained the support of a respected sea captain from Palos, Martín Alonzo Pinzón, and his brothers. They, in turn, became vitally important in the effort to recruit a sufficient number of crewmen for the voyage.  Christopher was now ready to embark upon the most celebrated sea voyage theretofore attempted in the history of the world, his Enterprise of the Indies.
Historians have written about Columbus’s first voyage to America from many points of view. Some secular historians, however, have placed little emphasis on the most important theme of all—the fact that Columbus was guided by the Spirit of God.  Beginning with the decision Columbus made concerning his point of departure and continuing all the way through to his return voyage to Spain, we can find numerous junctures at which the Lord manifested His hand in Columbus’s key decisions.
On the way to America, Columbus made only two major course changes during the entire thirty-three days at sea. The first alteration was on October 7. Until that time, Columbus had sailed due west for twenty-eight days. Then he noted in his journal that a great multitude of birds passed over, going from north to southwest. Bartolome de Las Casas, the man who transcribed Columbus’s journal, wrote that from this observation, the Admiral “decided to alter course and turn the prow to the WSW [west southwest].”  Professor Morison claimed that if Columbus had not changed course, “the voyage would have taken at least a day longer.”  That extra day could have been critical, since two days before the eventual sighting of land, the crew threatened mutiny. Every extra day at sea heightened their anxiety; the Admiral’s timesaving change of course on October 7, therefore, may have saved the expedition.
The story of the threatened mutiny is one of the most dramatic episodes of the first voyage. The incident took place on Wednesday, October 10, 1492, after they had been at sea for over thirty-one days without seeing land. The sailors who had been concealing their discontent now openly threatened insurrection. They had come to believe that Columbus, the foreigner from Genoa, had deceived them; they supposed he was leading them on a journey from which they would never return. According to one account, the sailors even conspired to do away with their leader, whom they “planned to throw into the sea.”  Yet “Columbus, by using gentle words, holding out promises and flattering their hopes, sought to gain time, and he succeeded in calming their fears.”  Others have stated, after the fact, that at this juncture, Columbus promised the men that they would return if they did not sight land within two or three days.  Although Columbus did not record this oft-repeated assertion in his journal, he did report that “I also told the men that it was useless to complain, for I had started out to find the Indies and would continue until I had accomplished that mission, with the help of Our Lord.”  This incident serves as an excellent example of Columbus’s determination and faith in God.
About 10 o’clock that night, Columbus saw a light in the distant dark, but it was so faint that he did not publicly announce it. He did, however, bring it to the attention of Pedro Gutierrez, who also acknowledged seeing the flickering light. Rodrigo Sanchez was also called on to observe the light, but he claimed he could see nothing from where he was.  Notwithstanding Columbus’s glimpse of the light, it was some four hours later, at about two in the morning on October 12, that the fleet sighted land for certain. Rodrigo de Triana, a sailor on the Pinta, shouted, “Tierra! tierra!” while the fleet was still two leagues offshore.  Martín Pinzón, the captain of the Pinta, quickly verified Triana’s claim and then fired a cannon shot, which was the prearranged signal for sighting land.
One can only imagine the gratitude and relief they all must have felt, after more than a month of anxious days at sea, when their eyes first saw this obscure little island in the middle of the tropical Caribbean Sea. The crews were ecstatic, and their respect and admiration for the Admiral soared overnight.
Impatient and anxious to explore their new discovery, the crew waited through the night and sailed excitedly to shore at daybreak. Upon reaching dry ground, the landing party knelt, kissed the sand with tears of joy, and offered prayers of thanks to God. Rising from his knees, the Admiral named the island San Salvador (Holy Savior), thus beginning a personal tradition of giving names of religious significance to many newly discovered lands.  In deference to the crown, Columbus dedicated San Salvador, which lies off the northern coast of Cuba, to the Spanish monarchs.
The Admiral’s faithful motive for making the voyage is quickly revealed by his impressions on meeting the island people. He confided, “I recognized that they were people who would be better freed [from error] and converted to our Holy Faith by love than by force.”  Later in his journal, Columbus noted: “I believe that they would become Christians very easily, for it seemed to me that they had no religion.”  He determined to take six of the islanders with him back to Europe in order to baptize them and educate them in the ways of European life.
After three days of exploring on San Salvador, the Admiral set sail southward, passing various islands en route to an eventual landing at Cuba on October 28. It was here that Columbus was so impressed with the spiritual potential of the Indians that he made an immediate plea on their behalf in his journal that day. “I truly believe, most Serene Princes . . . that, given devout religious persons knowing thoroughly the language that they use, soon all of them would become Christian.” Continuing his petition to the monarchs, he pleaded, “I hope in Our Lord that Your Highnesses, with much diligence, will decide to send such persons in order to bring to the Church such great nations and to convert them.”  These requests, made at a time of such personal accomplishment, further illuminate Columbus’s great devotion to things spiritual; the informed reader cannot doubt that he was truly motivated by his desire to serve God.
The Admiral also hoped to discover gold. However, many historians have completely overlooked the fact that his motivation for seeking riches was to sponsor a Christian army for the purpose of redeeming Jerusalem from the Muslims. On December 26, 1492, Columbus wrote: “I urged Your Highnesses to spend all the profits of this my enterprise on the conquest of Jerusalem, and Your Highnesses laughed and said that it would please them and that even without this profit they had that desire.”  These are hardly the words of a selfish fortune seeker. The Admiral’s ambition relative to the Holy Land will be explained later, during the discussion on his Book of Prophecies.
Columbus spent the entire month of November exploring the northeast coast of Cuba; then, on December 5, 1492, he sailed across the Windward Passage and safely made his way to the island of Hispaniola. Haiti and the Dominican Republic are the two countries currently on the island. This island would soon become home of the first Spanish colony in the New World.
The Admiral’s encounter with America opened a floodgate to explorers, colonizers, fortune seekers, and missionaries. Many of these people would accomplish honorable purposes, while others would, unfortunately, bring harm. Whatever the final outcome, the world would most certainly never be the same.
Christopher Columbus was surely at a high point in his life when he returned from his first voyage to the Americas and was honored by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. He remained with the royal court at Barcelona for several weeks thereafter.  One of the most significant and memorable events that the Admiral attended during this time was the baptism of the six Native Americans he had brought back with him from the Indies. Ferdinand, Isabella, and their son, the Infante Don Juan, acted as godparents to the new converts. They named one Indian after the king, another after Don Juan, and a third, the Admiral’s interpreter, they christened Don Diego Colon. Don Juan became a part of the royal household, where he was “well behaved and circumspect” according to Oviedo.  Sadly, Don Juan died just two years later. The other five natives returned to the Americas with Columbus on his second voyage.
From 1493 to 1504 Columbus made three more voyages to the New World. Unfortunately these journeys were filled with poor decisions, sadness, disappointment, tragedy, and embarrassment. On the second trip (1493–96) the Admiral found that the natives had slaughtered the men he had left at La Navidad. Saddened but undaunted, he established another colony on Hispaniola called Isabella. He left it in the care of his brother, Don Diego, while he went exploring for the next five months. When Columbus returned he found the island in a state of turmoil. The Admiral may have been the greatest navigator in the world, but he was not a successful governor. He and his brothers could control neither internal rebellion among the settlers nor external fighting with the natives. Las Casas once said that “the Archangel Gabriel would have been hard put to govern those first colonists of Hispaniola.”  One of the problems was that the Europeans never found enough gold to satisfy their unrealistic expectations. As a result, in order to appease the discontented Europeans, the Admiral reluctantly consented to the enslavement of Native Americans for the purpose of trade and profit.  This decision seems to be a turning point in Columbus’s career. There is very little evidence in the few years following that he received the same kind of divine guidance and inspiration that he had been so blessed with earlier in his life. During the years he served as governor, he appeared to be walking by his own light and stumbling along the way. This may have happened because he was in violation of an eternal principle taught in latter-day scripture. The Doctrine and Covenants states that “the heavens withdraw themselves” when men “exercise unrighteous dominion” over others (D&C 121:37, 39).
On the third voyage (1498–1500) he lost control of another rebellion in a new colony called Santo Domingo. Conditions degenerated so badly that his opponents had him arrested and sent back to Spain in chains. Upon his arrival, the king and queen were shocked at how he had been treated and ordered him released. However, they appointed Nicolas de Ovando to replace him as governor.
Christopher Columbus used the time he had in Spain between his third and fourth voyages to meditate on the events of his life. He set about searching the scriptures and the writings of great philosophers for evidence of his role in the fulfillment of divine destiny. Columbus never put a title on his manuscript, but its introductory statement outlined two interrelated purposes for preparing the work. First, it contained prophecies concerning the final recovery of Jerusalem from Muslim rule and the restoration of the ancient temple.  Second, it contained passages that prophesied of the discovery and conversion of all “peoples and nations” to Christianity. Other statements in the manuscript make it clear that Columbus believed his own achievements were also a fulfillment of prophecy, and he attempted to place those accomplishments within the framework of divine history, which he believed had a predetermined, unchanging timetable.
The section of the book that gives the most insight into Columbus’s thoughts and feelings on these subjects is his introductory letter written for the Spanish sovereigns. In this letter the Admiral tried to convince the monarchs to sponsor a crusade to reclaim the Holy Land for Christianity and to restore the temple, an event he believed was divinely destined to take place.
Columbus’s understanding of a divine timetable for the earth’s history gave him a sense of urgency in fulfilling these prophecies. As a result of his studies of Saint Augustine and Pierre d’Ailly, Columbus believed that the earth had a predetermined life span of seven thousand years, that all the prophecies in the Bible had to be fulfilled before that time expired, and that “only one hundred and fifty years [remained] for the completion of the seven thousand years which would be the end of the world.”  In short, Columbus believed not only that Jerusalem would be redeemed and that Christianity would be preached to all nations but also that these two great events had to be completed in a short period of time.
Even though some historians have overemphasized the flaws of Columbus’s character, he was also a man of vision, conviction and perseverance. He desired to spread Christianity throughout the world and believed that he was guided by the Spirit in his discovery of the Americas. His encounter with this new land was in fulfillment of Book of Mormon prophecy, and latter-day apostles and prophets affirm that his discovery helped prepare the way for the Restoration of the gospel.
For Latter-day Saints, the story of Christopher Columbus does not begin with his birth in 1451; nor does it end with his death in 1506. Because they believe that life continues after death, they believe he is now in the spirit world awaiting the resurrection with millions of other spirits who have passed from this life.
 Gordon B. Hinckley, in Conference Report, October 1992, 73–74.
 Delno C. West and August Kling, The Libro de las profecias of Christopher Columbus (Gainesville, FL: University of Florida Press, 1991), 74.
 See Kirkpatrick Sale, The Conquest of Paradise (New York: Plume, 1991), 92–94, 281. Two excellent discussions about negative literature concerning Columbus are De Lamar Jensen, “Columbus and the Hand of God,” Ensign, October 1992, 7; and William D. Phillips Jr. and Carla Rahn Phillips, The Worlds of Christopher Columbus (Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press, 1992), 3–8.
 Some of the most reputable books about Columbus are Samuel Eliot Morison, Admiral of the Ocean Sea, 2 vols. (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1942); Paolo Emilio Taviani, Columbus: The Great Adventure: His Life, His Times, and His Voyages, trans. Luciano F. Farina and Marc A. Beckwith (New York: Orion Books, 1991); Paolo Emilio Taviania, Christopher Columbus: The Grand Design (London: Orbis, 1985); Phillips and Phillips, Worlds of Christopher Columbus; Oliver Dunn and James E. Kelley Jr., The Diario of Christopher Columbus’s First Voyage to America, 1492–1493 (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1989); and West and Kling, Libro de las Profecias.
 This article is based on a book by the author, Christopher Columbus: A Latter-day Saint Perspective (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1992).
 Mark E. Petersen, The Great Prologue (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1975), 3.
 Hinckley, in Conference Report, October 1992, 73.
 Ezra Taft Benson, The Teachings of Ezra Taft Benson (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1988), 577.
 Spencer W. Kimball, The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, ed. Edward L. Kimball (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1982), 427.
 George Q. Cannon, in Journal of Discourses, 14:55; hereafter cited as JD.
 Brigham Young, in JD, 7:13.
 Orson Hyde, in JD, 6:368.
 Joseph Fielding Smith, The Progress of Man (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1964), 258.
 Petersen, The Great Prologue, 4.
 Peterson, The Great Prologue, 3; emphasis added.
 George Q. Cannon, in JD, 14:55.
 West and Kling, Libro de las profecias, 105.
 For a discussion on the documents that validate Columbus’s birth, see Morison, Admiral of the Ocean Sea, 1:10, 23 n. 17.
 Morison, Admiral of the Ocean Sea, 1:12–14.
 For more information on Columbus’s education, see Morison, Admiral of the Ocean Sea, 1:17–18; Ferdinand Columbus, The Life of the Admiral Christopher Coumbus by His Son Ferdinand, trans. Benjamin Keen (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1959), 9; Eugene Lyon, “Search for Columbus” National Geographic, January 1992, 12; Helen Nader, “Columbus, Christopher: Adolescence and Youth,” The Christopher Columbus Encyclopedia, ed. Silvio A. Bedini (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1992), 1:164.
 Morison, Admiral of the Ocean Sea, 1:18–19.
 Morison, Admiral of the Ocean Sea, 1:62.
 Morison, Admiral of the Ocean Sea, 1:62–63.
 Columbus, Life of the Admiral, 9.
 Morison, Admiral of the Ocean Sea, 1:63.
 John P. McKay, Bennett D. Hill, and John Buckler, A History of World Societies (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1988), 724.
 McKay, Hill, and Buckler, World Societies, 506.
 The exact starting date when Christopher began his sailing experience is not known. For more information concerning Columbus’s age when he began sailing, see Columbus, Life of the Admiral, 10, 12. Dunn and Kelley, Diario, 253.
 Morison, Admiral of the Ocean Sea, 1:26, 29; Nader, “Adolescence and Youth,” 169–70.
 Columbus, Life of the Admiral, 11.
 Dunn and Kelley, Diario, 145.
 See Columbus, Life of the Admiral, 11, 14; Phillips and Phillips, Worlds of Christopher Columbus, 105.
 Bartolome de Las Casas, History of the Indies, trans. Andree Collard (New York: Harper and Row, 1971), 17.
 Taviani, The Great Adventure, 32–33.
 Morison, Admiral of the Ocean Sea, 1:120.
 Morison, Admiral of the Ocean Sea, 1:122–23, 128 n. 33, n. 35; emphasis added.
 Morison, Admiral of the Ocean Sea, 1:90–91.
 West and Kling, Libro de las profecias,105; emphasis added.
 Theresa Earenfight, “Joao II,” in The Christopher Columbus Encyclopedia, 1:396.
 Columbus, Life of the Admiral, 37.
 Morison, Admiral of the Ocean Sea, 1:108.
 Sale, Conquest of Paradise, 67.
 Dan Carlinsky, “Christopher Confusion,” Modern Maturity, February–March 1992, 52.
 C. Edwards Lester, The Life and Voyages of Americus Vespucius (NewYork: New Amsterdam, 1903), 79.
 W. R. Jones, “Polo, Marco,” in The Christopher Columbus Encyclopedia, 2:556–57.
 Dunn and Kelley, Diario, 17, 19; emphasis added.
 Morison, Admiral of the Ocean Sea, 1:63–64.
 Morison, Admiral of the Ocean Sea, 2:14.
 Morison, Admiral of the Ocean Sea, 2:51, 56–57.
 B. H. Roberts, Defense of the Faith and the Saints (Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1907), 512–13.
 Spencer J. Palmer, Mormons and Muslims (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1983), 208.
 Morison, Admiral of the Ocean Sea, 1:116–18.
 West and Kling, Libro de las profecias, 107.
 See De Lamar Jensen, “Christopher Columbus and the Pinzons of Palos,” BYU Today, November 1992, 23–25.
 George E. Nunn, The Geographical Conceptions of Columbus (New York: American Geographical Society, 1924), 43.
 It is interesting to observe how some secular scholars react to the spiritual experiences of Columbus. One example of this took place while he was slumbering on his ship. On this occasion he had perhaps his most remarkable spiritual experience when he heard a “compassionate voice” calling him to repentance. Despite Columbus’s written account of the occurrence, Samuel Eliot Morison says that the admiral was “rendered delirious” (see Admiral of the Ocean Sea, 2:373). Phillips and Phillips attribute the experience to “delusions of grandeur” (see Worlds of Christopher Columbus, 237). Kirkpatrick Sale claimed Columbus “imagined a voice from heaven” and that his mind had become a “miasma” (see The Conquest of Paradise, 207–8). Paolo Emilio Taviani does not even acknowledge the experience.
 Morison, Admiral of the Ocean Sea, 1:96–98.
 Nunn, Geographical Conceptions, 37, 42.
 Dunn and Kelley, Diario, 41.
 Robert H. Fuson, The Log of Christopher Columbus (Camden, ME: International Marine, 1992), 71.
 Morison, Admiral of the Ocean Sea, 1:283.
 Peter Martyr d’Anghera, De Orbe Novo, trans. Francis Augustus MacNutt (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, Knickerbocker Press, 1912), 1:59–60.
 d’Anghera, De Orbe Novo, 1:59–60.
 Morison, Admiral of the Ocean Sea, 1:286, 290–91, 292 n. 6.
 Fuson, Log of Christopher Columbus, 72; emphasis added.
 Dunn and Kelley, Diario, 59.
 Morison, Admiral of the Ocean Sea, 1:295.
 Las Casas, History of the Indies, 35.
 Columbus, Life of the Admiral, 58.
 Morison, Admiral of the Ocean Sea, 1:294.
 Dunn and Kelley, Diario, 63.
 Phillips and Phillips, Worlds of Christopher Columbus, 153.
 Morison, Admiral of the Ocean Sea, 1:298.
 Hugh Nibley, “Columbus and Revelation,” Instructor 88, October 1953, 320.
 Columbus, Life of the Admiral, 59.
 Dunn and Kelley, Diario, 65.
 Dunn and Kelley, Diario, 69.
 Dunn and Kelley, Diario, 141.
 Dunn and Kelley, Diario, 291.
 Taviani, The Great Adventure, 130–31.
 Morison, Admiral of the Ocean Sea, 1:393–94.
 Fuson, Log of Christopher Columbus, 174.
 Morison, Admiral of the Ocean Sea, 1:65.
 Kay Brigham, Christopher Columbus: His Life and Discovery in the Light of His Prophecies (Barcelona: CLIE, 1990), 50, 57 n. 5.
 Brigham, Life and Discovery, 31.
 Morison, Admiral of the Ocean Sea, 2:168–69.
 Samuel Eliot Morison, Journals and Other Documents on the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus (New York: Heritage, 1963), 378.
 Morison, Journals and Other Documents, 378.
 West and Kling, Libro de las profecias, 101, 261 n. 10.
 West and Kling, Libro de las profecias, 173.
 West and Kling, Libro de las profecias, 217.
 West and Kling, Libro de las profecias, 153.
 West and Kling, Libro de las profecias, 229.
 West and Kling, Libro de las profecias, 109.
 West and Kling, Libro de las profecias, 111.
 West and Kling, Libro de las profecias, 171.
 West and Kling, Libro de las profecias, 169.
 Kay Brigham, Christopher Columbus’s Book of Prophecies (Barcelona: CLIE, 1991), 184–85.
 West and Kling, Libro de las profecias, 227.
 Columbus, Life of the Admiral, 18.
 West and Kling, Libro de las profecias, 111; emphasis added.
 Taviani, The Great Adventure, 248.
 Wilford Woodruff, in JD, 19:229.