The letters and diaries of Columbus are a chronicle of the turbulent era of primitive accumulation, written in heavy Castilian prose and sounding with truly biblical pathos when it comes to gold, when the riches of newly discovered lands are described. It is in this irrepressible desire for gold that features typical of all Columbus’s contemporaries - participants in distant ocean enterprises - appear. State Publishing House of Geographical Literature Moscow-1952 Translation from Spanish and comments by Y. M. Svet Edited and with an introductory article by I. P. MagidovichEditor S. N. Kumkes. Map editor G. N. Malchevsky. Artist editor V.V. Osokin. Technical editor D. A. Gleich. Cover and initials of the artist Yu. G. Makarov. Second edition