CONQUISTADOR VOICES (VOL I)

Conquistador Voices, a two-volume work by Kevin H. Siepel, is intended for the general reader. The book presents the history of the Spanish Conquest of the Americas principally through the voices of those who participated in that signal ,event. Its goal is to make this story engaging by substantial use of first-person narrative&mdash,much of it newly translated from Spanish and Italian sources. The overall story is told in five parts, each part featuring a principal actor of the Spanish Conquest&mdash,an explorer or conquistador. Volume I is devoted to the four voyages of Christopher Columbus, and to the subsequent conquest of Mexico by Hernan Cortes. Volume I opens with a scene-setting narrative and introduction to Christopher Columbus, a man with an unshakable belief in an idea and a dogged determination to carry out that idea. Columbus&rsquo,s budding relationship with the Spanish monarchs is covered, as are the four Columbus voyages&mdash,preparations for his first voyage, his landing and initial encounter with the peoples of the Americas, his worsening relationship with the colonists, his arrest and removal to Spain, his rehabilitation, and his subsequent year-long, mutiny-ridden isolation on a Jamaican beach. , Equally well covered are the many aspects of his complex personality