Christopher
Columbus was born in the busy Italian seaport of Genoa and would have made
many shorter sea voyages during his youth.
His brother, Bartholomew Columbus, was a
cartographer in Lisbon, and the 25 year-old Cristóbal joined him in 1476.
In 1484 the Portuguese were already working on
a way to Asia by going around the coast of Africa, and rejected Christopher's theories that the Indies
could be reached by sailing west around the world.
Columbus moved to Spain, and initially met similar rejections from a
Spanish royal commission. In April 1492 his persistence finally paid off as Ferdinand V,
king of Castile, and Queen Isabella agreed to sponsor his expedition with promises of
riches and nobility for the navigator if his theories were right.
Christopher
Columbus made a total of four voyages from Spain to what he called the New World,
between 1492 and 1504.
The first voyage
set sail from Palos, Spain, on August 3, 1492, with Christopher Columbus in the Santa
María; accompanied by the Niña and the Pinta, and less than one hundred men.
The mast of the Pinta was damaged after three
days and they were forced to drop anchor in the Canaries to repair it. The three vessels
weighed anchor again on September 6 and sailed west.
After more than a month at sea, the crew could
have been forgiven for thinking that their commander had lost his way and perhaps his
marbles too. Columbus altered course to the south-west and the men soon saw signs that
they were approaching land.
Early on the
morning of October 12th land was indeed sighted, and a landing party
arrived on an island in the Bahamas and named it
San Salvador. The natives must have been surprised to hear that their island now belonged
to Spain.
Over the next few weeks landings were also
made on Cuba, named Juana by Columbus, and
Española, now known as Hispaniola and shared by the Dominican Republic and Haiti. Columbus believed that they had arrived in the
Indies.
The Santa María was wrecked off the coast of
Española in December, and a temporary fort, La Navidad, was built of materials
salvaged from the vessel. Columbus returned to Spain in the Niña, accompanied by the
Pinta.
Columbus' fleet on the second voyage was made
up of 17 ships and one and a half thousand men. They left Spain in September 1493 and made
landings on the islands of Dominica, Guadeloupe, and Antigua.
When the fleet arrived at La Navidad, on
November 27th, Columbus found that the fort had been destroyed and its men killed. The
colony of Isabella was then founded as the first settlement of Europeans in the New World.
Columbus went on to explore the coast of Cuba again, and was adamant that they had
found a part of the Asian mainland. Jamaica was
also added to the new map.
Enough about Columbus, his day is past and he
treated the natives poorly. He even tried to introduce them as slaves to Spain.
The continent that celebrates Columbus Day is
actually named after Amerigo Vespucci, another Italian navigator who explored the northern
coast of South America between 1499 and 1500, and told the world that they had discovered
a new continent.
Columbus might have beaten you to the Americas, but there is still scope to be adventurous,
and to feel afloat in the sea of chance; with luck the compass and faith the sextant.
Featured Sites:
Columbus
Homepage:
Briefly examines the history, navigation, and landfall of Christopher Columbus in what he
thought was the Indies. An excellent links pages takes you further on the trail of
discovery.
Volcanoes
in South and Central America:
Volcano World should be a bookmark in any classroom. This site erupts with information.
Latin
America @ Travel Notes:
All about Latin America and the Caribbean.
Essential Travel
Guide:
 South American Handbook:
In print since 1924, and known as the bible to South America, Footprint's revered flagship
title is the longest running travel guide in the English language. Covering the whole of
the continent, from Colombia to the tip of Argentina, this guide provides the adventurous
traveller with invaluable information.
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