Christopher Columbus's first voyage to the Americas

Christopher Columbus's journal (Diario) is a diary and logbook written by Christopher Columbus about his first voyage. The journal covers events from 3 August 1492, when Columbus departed from Palos de la Frontera, to 15 March 1493 and includes a prologue addressing the sovereigns. Several contemporary references confirm Columbus kept a journal of his voyage as a daily record of events and as evidence for the Catholic Monarchs. Upon his return to Spain in the spring of 1493, Columbus presented the journal to Isabella I of Castile. She had it copied, retained the original, and gave the copy to Columbus before his second voyage. The whereabouts of the original have been unknown since 1504. The copy descended to Columbus's grandson, Luis, who is thought to have sold it in order to fund his dissipated lifestyle. It too is now lost.

The only surviving version of the journal is an abstract written by Bartolomé de las Casas in preparation for his work Historia de las Indias. Since the discovery of the las Casas copy in the late 18th century, scholars have questioned the accuracy of the copy and its fidelity to the original.