Customer Reviews

The Last Voyage of Columbus: Being the Epic Tale of the Great Captain's Fourth Expedition, Including Accounts of Swordfight, Mutiny, Shipwreck, Gold, War, Hurricane, and Discovery

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

Dugard has a very easy and entertaining style. The information can be a little muddled at times (just look at the book's full title as an example), but overall a good read.

I've read Martin Dugard before. His "Into Africa" traces Henry Morgan Stanley's search for British Explorer David Livingstone deep in the African jungle. "Farther Than Any Man" follows the career of Explorer James Cook. He wrote "The Murder of King Tut" with perennial fiction bestselling author James Patterson. While "Tut" is a bit of a mess and misses whatever target at which it's aiming, "Into Africa" is a thrilling ride, that's exhilarating to read and fulfilling to finish. "Farther Than Any Man" is somewhere in between...both enlightening and a little hard to follow at times. "The Last Voyage of Columbus" is both a historical survey, and at times a detailed narrative. It's not as strong as "Into Africa", and yet I'm finding it more lasting than the Cook bio.

The book outlines Columbus' first three expeditions to the New World, and about half way through delves deeply into his last journey. Columbus' final journey, in the very early 1500s, is successful with the benefit of historical hindsight. Columbus cruises the Central America isthumus and the northern peak of the South American continent. Columbus is still seeking his western water-based route to India, and as Dugard points out, comes tantilizingly close - less than 100 miles from the Pacific as he makes landfall on modern-day Panama. Columbus finds gold, but he's never able to fully bask in his ultimate validation of finding the New World. His expedition of about 150 men barely survives hurricanes, horrific wind storms, angry natives, a mutinous crew, and aggressively jealous Spaniards doing all they can to discredit the great captain.

Columbus comes across as a bit of a sad old man. He's clearly past his prime having failed at leading the Spanish colony at Santo Domingo in Hispanola (modern day Dominican Republic). Dugard portrays King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella's final approval of a fourth journey as a way to get rid of, and appease, the annoying and persistent explorer.

I'd rank this book three stars without a second thought if it weren't for the fact that I read it very quickly and, a few days after I've put it down, have found myself thinking about Columbus' horrid hardships, fierce loyalties he was able to instill, and polarizing effect he had on two different continents. Both of these indicate that the book was probably more than "good" at only 3 starts. If there was a "half" rating, I'd go with 3 and a half, but instead I'll just have to give Dugard and Columbus the benefit of the doubt.