Fourth Diary Entry

It wasn't until my third voyage that I actually reached the mainland exploring the Orinoco River in present-day Venezuela. Unfortunately, conditions at the Hispaniola settlement had deteriorated to the point of near-mutiny with settlers claiming they had been misled by my claims of riches and complaining about the poor management of my brothers. The Spanish Crown sent a royal official who arrested me and stripped me of my authority. I returned to Spain in chains to face the royal court. The charges were later dropped but I lost my titles as governor of the Indies and for a time, much of the riches made during my voyages. Convincing King Ferdinand that one more voyage would bring the abundant riches promised, I went on what would be my last voyage in 1502, traveling along the eastern coast of Central America in an unsuccessful search for a route to the Indian Ocean. A storm wrecked one of my ships stranding the captain and my sailors on the island of Cuba. During this time, local islanders, tired of the Spaniards poor treatment and obsession with gold, refused to give them food. In a spark of inspiration, I consulted an almanac and devised a plan "punish" the islanders by taking away the moon. On February 29, 1504, a lunar eclipse alarmed the natives enough to re-established trade with the Spaniards. A rescue party finally arrived, sent by the royal governor of Hispaniola in July and my men and I were taken back to Spain in November of 1504.

Third Diary Entry

Returning to Spain in 1493, I gave a glowing, somewhat exaggerated report and was warmly received by the royal court. That same year I took to the seas on my second expedition and explored more islands in the Caribbean Ocean. Upon arrival at Hispaniola, my crew and I discovered the Navidad settlement had been destroyed with all the sailors massacred. Spurning the wishes of the queen, who found slavery offensive, I established a forced labor policy over the native population to rebuild the settlement and explore for gold, believing it would prove to be profitable. My efforts produced small amounts of gold and great hatred among the native population. Before returning to Spain, I left my brothers Bartholomew and Diego to govern the settlement on Hispaniola and sailed briefly around the larger Caribbean islands further convincing myself I had discovered the outer islands of China.

Second Diary Entry

I continued to lobby the royal court and fortunately, soon after the Spanish army captured the last Muslim stronghold in Granada in January of 1492, the monarchs agreed to finance my expedition. In August of 1492, I left Spain in the Santa Maria, with the Pinta and the Niña along side. After thirty-six days of sailing, I and several crewmen set foot on an island in the present day Bahamas, claiming it for Spain. There I encountered a timid but friendly group of natives who were open to trade with the sailors exchanging glass beads, cotton balls, parrots, and spears.

My men and I continued our journey, visiting the islands of Cuba and Hispaniola (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic) and meeting with the leaders of the native population. During this time, the Santa Maria was wrecked on a reef off the coast of Hispaniola. With the help of some islanders, my men salvaged what they could and built the settlement Villa de la Navidad ("Christmas Town") with lumber from the ship. Thirty-nine men stayed behind to occupy the settlement. Convinced my exploration had reached Asia, I set sail for home with the two remaining ships.

First Diary Entry

My first voyage into the Atlantic Ocean in 1476 nearly cost me my life as the commercial fleet I was sailing with was attacked by French privateers off the coast of Portugal. My ship was burned and I had to swim to the Portuguese shore and make my way to Lisbon, Portugal. There, I eventually settled and married Felipa Perestrello. We had a son, Diego in about 1480. My wife died soon after and I moved to Spain.

I participated in several other expeditions to Africa gaining knowledge of the Atlantic currents flowing east and west from the Canary Islands. Muslim domination of the trade routes through the Middle East makes travel to India and China difficult. Believing a route sailing west across the Atlantic would be quicker and safer, I devised a plan to sail west to get reach the East. I believed the earth to be a sphere approximately 63% its actual size and the distance between the Canary Islands and Japan to be about 2,300 miles.

Rejected by the Portuguese king for a three-ship voyage of discovery, I took my plan first to Genoa and then to Venice but was rejected there too. I then went to the Spanish monarchy of Isabella of Castille and Ferdinand of Aragon, in 1486. Their nautical experts too were skeptical and initially, I was being rejected. The idea however, must have intrigued the monarchs, for they kept me on a retainer. But their focus was on a war with the Muslims and I would have to wait.

Columbus's Voyages

First Voyage
Columbus departed from Palos de la Frontera, Spain and first sailed to the Canary Islands, where he made repairs and restocked the provisions. He then started his voyage and a land was sighted. He called the island "San Salvador" (in what it is now The Bahamas). He also explored the northeast coast of Cuba and the northern coast of Hispaniola. He found the settlement of La Navidad (in what it is now present-day Haiti). Columbus headed for Spain, but another storm forced him into Lisbon, Portugal. After spending more than one week in Portugal, he set sail for Spain. This was his first voyage out of the Mediterranean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean.

Second Voyage
Columbus left Cádiz, Spain to find new territories to colonize the region. He sighted a rugged island that he named "Dominica". Later, he landed at Marie-Galante, which he named Santa Maria la Galante. After sailing past Les Saintes (The Saints), he arrived at Guadeloupe where he explored. He also sighted the island chain of the Virgin Islands and he also named the islands of Virgin Gorda, Tortola, and Peter Island. He continued to the Greater Antilles, and landed at Puerto Rico. Columbus then returned to Hispaniola, where he intended to visit Fuerte de la Navidad, built during his first voyage, and located on the northern coast of Haiti; Fuerte de la Navidad was found in ruins, destroyed by the native Taino people. He moved more than 100 kilometers eastwards, establishing a new settlement, which he called La Isabela, likewise on the northern coast of Hispaniola, in the present-day Dominican Republic. However, La Isabela proved to be a poorly-chosen location, and the settlement was short-lived. He left Hispaniola & arrived at Cuba, exploring the southern coast of it and several nearby islands like the Isle of Pines. He reached Jamaica and retraced his route to Hispaniola, before finally returning to Spain.

Third Voyage
Columbus left for his trip to New World. He went to the Portuguese islands of Porto Santo. He then sailed to Madeira before sailing to the Canary Islands and Cape Verde. He landed on the south coast of the island Trinidad. He also explored the Gulf of Paria (a shallow inland sea) which separates Trinidad from Venezuela. Next, he explored the mainland of South America, including the Orinoco River. He also sailed to the islands of Chacachacare and Margarita Island and sighted and named Tobago and Grenada.

Fourth Voyage
Columbus made a fourth voyage nominally in search of the Strait of Malacca to the Indian Ocean. He sailed to Arzila on the Moroccan coast to rescue Portuguese soldiers. They landed at Carbet on the island of Martinique (Martinica). After a brief stop at Jamaica, Columbus sailed to Central America, arriving at Guanaja (Isla de Pinos) in the Bay Islands off the coast of Honduras. Then, he landed on the American mainland at Puerto Castilla, near Trujillo, Honduras. He spent two months exploring the coasts of Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, before arriving in Almirante Bay, Panama. He sighted the Cayman Islands, naming them "Las Tortugas". He His ships next sustained more damage in a storm off the coast of Cuba. Unable to travel farther, they were beached in St. Ann's Bay, Jamaica. For a year Columbus and his men remained stranded on Jamaica.

Introduction on Christopher Columbus

Explorer, navigator, colonizer, Columbus, was born in 1451 between August and October, in the Republic of Genoa (Italy) to the son of a weaver, Domenico Colombo. Columbus first went to sea as a teenager, participating in several trading voyages in the Mediterranean and Aegean seas. One such voyage, to the island of Khios, in modern day Greece, brought him the closest he would come to Asia. He had two sons, Diego, from his marriage with Felipa Perestrello, and Fernando, who was born out of wedlock in 1488 with Beatriz Enriquez de Arana.

Europe had long enjoyed a safe land passage to China and India— sources of valued goods such as silk and spices. However, in 1453, the land route to Asia became more difficult. The Columbus brothers had a different idea. By the 1480s, they had developed a plan to travel to the Indies, then construed roughly as all of south and east Asia, by sailing directly west across the Atlantic Ocean.