At least some of it is the principle that you can’t make a man understand something if his job requires him to not understand it. Columbus was, essentially, a capitalist. Anything that matched the maps and descriptions he was working from was evidence that he’d made it to Asia. Anything that didn’t match was proof that they’d landed in a remote, unexplored part of Asia. He was going to exploit it, anyway. He didn’t find any hint of pepper or cloves but by god he was going to wring the gold out of these people one way or another.
Really? Didn’t know that.
At least some of it is the principle that you can’t make a man understand something if his job requires him to not understand it. Columbus was, essentially, a capitalist. Anything that matched the maps and descriptions he was working from was evidence that he’d made it to Asia. Anything that didn’t match was proof that they’d landed in a remote, unexplored part of Asia. He was going to exploit it, anyway. He didn’t find any hint of pepper or cloves but by god he was going to wring the gold out of these people one way or another.