It wasn’t just Columbus, you know. It was Cortez and DeSoto and Ponce de Leon and some French fop named Ribault and any number of other explorers and conquistadors. They sailed across the Atlantic fueled by lust for gold and their own obsessive convictions, landed on the North American continent, and proceeded to make life hell for anyone that was already there. Sometimes they started out okay, but instead of diplomacy and community building, they opted to steal food and supplies from the natives when their own imported supplies ran thin. In general, the lead up time to Columbus’s (equally messy) arrival in the “New World” was bad news for the locals.
You knew that, of course, but probably not in the exquisite detail that’s currently knocking around in my head. I’m reading “A Voyage Long and Strange” – a refresher course in pre-Columbus North American history. Yeesh, what a disastrous period for aboriginal populations. Yeesh.
The book is a combination road trip/history lesson.Tony Horowitz traces the route of the legendary explorers and retells the story of their adventures – from both sides. It didn’t go particularly well for the explorers, they were often short on food and resources and they did not know how to make the most of what was available to them from the land. They chased lies because they promised cities of gold that did not exist. They returned home in ships commandeered from other unfortunate explorers. As for the natives, well, disease, slavery, slaughter, you know the story.
Tony Horowitz seems to have done exhaustive research, so the accounts seem trustworthy. There are some amusing tales about current day interactions with those involved in reviving and preserving history, wacky evangelicals, earnest park rangers with an abiding love for history, reenactment crackpots in heavy attire… the usual colorful individuals that make for great road trip stories. The book winds between the history of, oh, I’ll call in “conquest” and what’s happening on those sites today that references that history. Or not, as the case may be.
There are other book like this – “I’m going to follow in the footsteps of a)Lewis and Clark b)Shackleton c)Elvis and tell the story.” Horowitz has written a few of them himself. They make for good reads when you’re traveling in those places, providing context and entertainment, a sort of Dharma Bums for history nerds. Sitting at home reading a little history every night is a good exercise, but sometimes feels too much like homework. It’s not a difficult read, it’s just not engaging enough for me to tackle more than a few pages in a sitting. I’m still reading – I’m tenacious and I do want to see how it ends, but a page turner this isn’t.
Full disclosure: My copy of the book came from the publisher.
On Amazon: A Voyage Long and Strange
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