The motivations of Christopher Columbus and other figures in The Four Voyages of Christopher Columbus, edited by J.M. Cohen, are varied and contradictory. Certainly, those motivations were not purely the result of high religious principles, for the lure of gold, land, slaves, power and prestige also played a major role in driving these men to seek, reach and exploit the New World. The reader must keep in mind that the book is written by men who were likely presenting what they saw as a positive portrait of their activities and intentions. Nevertheless, the full range of their motives comes through. One passage from the account of Columbus's son demonstrates the jumble of motives at work in the hearts and minds of these Europeans in their relations with the natives:
On receiving such kindnesses and such samples of gold from these people the Admiral almost forgot his grief for the loss of the ship, for he considered that God had allowed it to be wrecked in order that he should make a settlement and leave some Christians behind to trade and gather information about the country and its inhabitants, learning their language and entering into relations with the people. Thus, when the Admiral returned with reinforcements, he would have people to advise him in all matters respecting the occupation and conquest of the country.
In that single passage, the gamut of these men's motives is expressed (gold, adventure, danger, God's will and Christianity, destiny, land, trade, knowledge, and military conquest). In addition, the suggestion that they were first and foremost driven by the need to save the natives' souls for Christ is put to rest. Columbus and the others saw the New World as a smorgasbord of opportunities from the earthly to the divine. However, from the beginning of the enterprise in the New World, the earthly seems to have clearly outranked the divine, as Cohen notes:
Columbus . . . conceived and tirelessly advocated from ...