Word: morisons
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...Alone. What was the Admiral himself like? Author Morison mentions his "physical courage . . . and untiring persistence and unbreakable will." There were also "certain defects," lack of appreciation of subordinates, unwillingness to admit shortcomings, a tendency to complain and be sorry for himself. But "these were the defects of the qualities that made him a great historical figure. For he was not, like a Washington, a Cromwell or a Bolivar, an instrument chosen by multitudes to express their wills. . . . He was Man alone with God against human stupidity and depravity, against greedy conquistadors, cowardly seamen, even against nature...
...also pious. In his journal, he usually timed events by "tierce, vespers and compline, three of the canonical hours of prayer." Whenever possible he said his prayers in his cabin at these hours. Says Morison: "A decent formality has always been observed aboard ships at sea, even to our own day . . . any departure from the settled custom is resented by mariners. In Columbus' ships these formalities were observed with a quasi-religious ritual, which lent them a certain beauty...
...raping Indians before they had been a month in the new world. Columbus returned to Spain triumphant in the belief that he had discovered the outer island of Japan. This was the high point of his career. The eleven years and three voyages that occupy most of Author Morison's second volume are like the thickening tragedy of blood in which there are too many acts. The perpetual, sterile hunt for gold; the extermination or enslavement of the Indians; the bitter intrigues of Columbus' rivals; his failure as a colonizer and governor; his return to Spain in irons...
...Author. Historian Samuel Eliot Morison (The Maritime History of Massachusetts) has been described as a Boston Brahmin with a bite. Outwardly he is a tweedy, dignified, humorous patrician who at 54 is highly enthusiastic about sailing, skiing, horseback riding, wanes, U.S. history before 1760 and Christopher Columbus. His office in Harvard's Widener Library is scattered with books, maps, charts and pictures about the discoverer. He also has a photograph of Franklin Roosevelt which is autographed: "To my friend Sam Morison-Columbus...
...Professor Morison's favorite stories concerns the yessing habits of Latin American Indians, which, he believes, account for some of the strange misinformation Columbus picked up. One day in the Gulf of Darien, Morison and friends took on a San Bias Indian as a pilot. They asked him: "Can we carry three fathoms of water through this passage?" "Yes," said the Indian. "Is there a good anchorage in there and can we get water?" "Yes," said the Indian. Then a mate who had had some experience with Indians took a hand. "Does the pink, pot-bellied ostrich live...