Columbus letter goes on display

One of the earliest printed copies of the letter that Christopher Columbus wrote King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain when he returned from the Americas goes on display today at the Library of Congress in Washington.

“There I found very many islands,” Columbus wrote, describing the Bahamas and the Caribbean, “filled with innumerable people, and I have taken possession of them all for their Highnesses, done by proclamation and with the royal standard unfurled, and no opposition was offered to me.”

The letter comes from a collection of early Americana given to the library by Jay I. Kislak, a Florida real estate investor. Kislak assembled more than 4,000 rare books, maps, documents, paintings, prints and artifacts that go to the library. The exhibit includes a sampling of 50 objects.