Well that seems to be Bergreen's conclusion. He paints a somewhat unflattering portrait of Columbus but does consider him to be a brilliant sailor, given the technology of his time. Basically nothing. What he does seem to say is that Columbus did indeed to a certain extent, intentionally mislead people as to what he had discovered and also was intentionally vague about how to get there. Course he didn't want anybody else to get the credit or the perceived riches that he was sure were just over the horizon. In the end Columbus died without being exactly aware of what or where the lands were that he discovered. He had no idea about the size of South America, the existence of North America and that a huge ocean had to be crossed to get to China.