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Modern views of Columbus are overshadowed by guilt about past conquests. Credit for discovering the New World, we are told, belongs to its original inhabitants rather than any European, and Columbus gave those inhabitants nothing apart from death, disease and destruction. Yet for the Old World of Europe the four voyages of Columbus brought revelation where before there had been only myths and guesswork. People had thought it was only the great distance that made it impossible to reach Asia sailing west from Spain. No one had predicted that a vast continent stood in the way. And indeed, for Columbus himself, the revolution of understanding was too much to comprehend. He had counted on a new route to Asia that would bring him glory, riches and titles, and the thought of an unknown and undeveloped continent held no attractions. The trials and disappointments of the great explorer are graphically detailed in this biography first published in 1828, when Washington Irving was America's most famous writer.

华盛顿·欧文是19世纪美国传奇作家，牛津大学名誉博士。欧文于1783年4月3日出生在纽约一个富商家庭，《纽约》是他的第一部重要作品。 1819年，欧文的《见闻札记》出版，引起欧洲和美国文学界的重视，他使美国文学逐步脱离了英国文学传统的影响，被称为“美国文学之父”。