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.

[3] Columbus survived the sinking of a Portuguese ship, worked for a merchant, and began mapping with his brother Bartholomew before his marriage to Dona Filipa Moniz Perestrelo in 1478.

[7] Initially, Columbus presented his potential trade passage to John II of Portugal,[7] who rejected his request for financial accommodations to support his eastward expedition.

[9] Columbus named the first landfall of his voyage San Salvador on 12 October, and described the people residing on the island as naive and naked, but welcoming to the European explorers.

[10] Even though the journal shows Columbus's imperfect knowledge of the Spanish language, he makes comparisons of the New World landscape to that of Spain, such as spring-like in Andalusia, rivers like those in Seville, and hills like those behind Córdoba.

[2] Navarrete reported the discovery of the journal's abstract to his friend, Juan Batista Muñoz, who used it in his Historia del Nuevo Mundo published in 1793.

Kizca asserts that de las Casas's translation is biased due to his own personal opinions of Columbus and the magnitude of his actions in the Americas.

[16] Sale concludes that Columbus was overwhelmed by the pressures of Spain to discover something significant, which led to his materialistic-minded and polarizing perspective of the Native Americans and their home.

[18] Rabasa characterizes Columbus's narrative of his discovery as picturesque and glorified, citing examples from las Casas's transcription like "pretty water," "stones with gold-covered spots," and "a good river.

"[18] Rabasa indicates that Columbus composes his journal with a conqueror approach to exploration in order to convince Queen Isabella of the industrial potential of the new lands.

[18] Elvira Vilches, author and professor of Romance studies at Duke University, approaches Columbus's intentions for his journal in a purely religious light.

[19] Vilches traces Columbus’s mass murder and elimination of Native Americans back to his promise to the Spanish royalty of finding enough gold to fund a Christian crusade in Jerusalem.

[19] Vilches argues that the journal’s documented New World potential directly led to the promise of gold which resulted in the massacre of innocent Taíno.