Introduction

1. Opening the New World to Renaissance Europe, Christopher Columbus, was of , but his despotic and capricious administration of the West Indies, which he claimed for Spain, eventually resulted in his recall.

2. After spending of his life in pitiable attempts to regain the splendour and vast possessions that had eluded him, he died in obscurity.

3. The evidence concerning the early life of Columbus is sparse and admits of .

4. is that he at first followed his father's business and resided at Genoa and Savona, but in Columbus says that he went to sea when he was 14.

5. In any event, he was a pirate in the service of René d'Anjou early in the 1470s, and later he went to the Greek island of Chios.

6. He never wrote in of Italian--not even to his brothers or to Genoese persons and institutions--but always in Spanish.

7. Columbus signed himself Colombo, Colomo, Colom, and Colon. He never took the traditional form Columbus ... is that Columbus came from a Spanish-Jewish family settled in Genoa.

Columbus' plan.

8. Columbus discovered America by prophecy rather than by astronomy. "In the carrying out of this enterprise of the Indies," he wrote to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella in 1502, "neither reason nor mathematics nor maps were to me.

9. Nor is it that he felt sure of having been divinely selected for a mission, an assurance that he often sets forth in his writings and that is the source of both his pride and his humility, for his was a life rich in dramatic scenes.

10. From this base he acquired a considerable sailing experience of the South Atlantic, making to the Portuguese trading post of Mina on the Gold Coast, the southernmost extremity of the then known world.

11. During these voyages he also received (big canes, pine-tree trunks, pieces of wrought wood) of the probable existence of lands beyond the western horizon.

12. The outcome of was that "India" would be about 3,900 mile (6,275 kilometres) from the Canaries--i.e., more or less where America happens to be.

13. Though the Conde conceived the idea of letting him have , he decided in the end that the enterprise was too big for even as big a subject as he was and sent the would-be discoverer to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella.

14. For he went from city to city, following the court.

15. Thanks to Deza, who throughout his life was to be his main standby, Columbus received of money from the royal treasury in 1487, and on May 12, 1489, he was granted the privilege of being lodged and fed at public expense on his travels to court.

16. The price (he wanted) was exorbitant. He was to be knighted, appointed grand admiral and viceroy (these titles to remain in his family forever), and he was to receive within his admiralty.

17. The King and Queen were stunned by his audacity. He held his ground so firmly that was possible, and he was dismissed.

18. He left Santa Fé (near Granada) early in January 1492, possibly for France and England, but friends at court persuaded the King and Queen to recall him, and were met.

First voyage.

19. Thanks to his own and Pinzón's initiative, and the customary inertia enveloping official enterprises were swept away, and soon Columbus beheld at quay, ready to sail,--the decked ship "Marigalante" (officially renamed "Santa María") and, "Pinta" and "Niña."

20. The first was about (36 metres) long, about 50 feet (15 metres); had castles fore and aft, the "Niña," only aft.

21. He loaded his ships with cheap merchandise to relieve aboriginals of their gold but also took on board one Luis de Torres--"who had been a Jew and knew Hebrew and Chaldean and "--in case he met the "grand khan."

22. The "Santa María" sailed under Columbus; the "Pinta" under Martín Alonso Pinzón with his brother Francisco Martín Pinzón as his pilot; and the "Niña" under Vicente Yáñez Pinzón, another brother, later to prove of the era.

23. On August 3, 1492, before sunrise, the small fleet sailed out of Palos.

24. Once finally lost sight of land (September 9) the greatness of Columbus began to reveal itself, for it was at this moment that he conquered by faith and willpower the resistance of the unbelieving and faint-hearted members of his crew.

25. "There will be to come back," the unbelievers sighed; and a strong contrary wind came to the rescue of their leader.

26. after midnight (October 12) a sailor named Rodrigo de Triana or Juan Rodríguez Bermejo saw land from the prow of the "Pinta."

27. At dawn, a land of virginal beauty and fresh colour revealed itself to the delighted Spaniards. With and the officials accompanying the expedition, Columbus went ashore carrying the royal banner.

28. He praised the natives for their intelligence, industry, and handsomeness and thought that "they are good to be ordered and made to work, sow and do that is necessary and to adopt our ways."

29. The "Pinta" was not available, and Columbus lost persuading himself that God meant him to leave behind an establishment with he could not carry back in the "Niña."

30. He named his establishment Villa de la Navidad and chose to remain there under Diego de Arana, a relative of his mistress Beatriz Enríquez.

31. The Portuguese king received him on March 9 with full honours (though , it appears, would gladly have killed him then and there) and suggested he go to Castile by land; but Columbus preferred his less unsafe element and on March 15 the "Niña" was welcomed enthusiastically as it entered Palos.

Second voyage.

32. Trouble began soon enough with the man the King and Queen had put in charge of "Indian" affairs, Juan de Fonseca, afterward bishop of Burgos but far more gifted as a soldier than as either an administrator or an ecclesiastic. Royal letters urged both Columbus and Fonseca to make haste; but the plan for the second expedition was ambitious: in all, manned by 1,000 to 1,500 persons.

33. The material obstacles must therefore have been formidable enough, but came from personal differences between Columbus, Fonseca, and , Juan de Soria and Francisco Pinelo.

34. Soria was reluctant to treat an upstart like Columbus as a magnificent lord and had to be reprimanded for it by his royal masters, while Columbus himself was impatient of .

35. were sent, a doctor, a surgeon, peasants, hidalgos, and Columbus' own brother Giacomo, who became known as Don Diego.

36. From Isabella, Columbus sent to Spain his first messenger, Antonio de Torres, of the royal household, with , as well as proposals, all of which were eventually approved except his scheme for a regular exchange of Spanish cattle for cannibal slaves.

37. Bernardo Buil, a Catalan friar who had come in charge of spiritual affairs, objected to his harsh ways (Columbus had hanged), and a conflict arose between the secular and the spiritual powers.

38. Although the situation in Isabella and Santo Tomás was by good, Columbus sailed away again (April 24, 1494), taking with him of that remained after Antonio de Torres' departure for Spain with ; and he again left Isabella in the care of his brother, though now assisted by a council of men all of whom were better qualified than their chairman.

39. , however, could not lure him away from his westward urge, and within he sailed back toward Cuba, determined to find out whether or not it was the mainland.

40. Margarite and Buil had left for Spain with against Columbus and his brothers.

41. On June 11 his ships -- to arrive in Europe--cast anchor at Cádiz.

Third voyage.

42. Columbus chose to arrive in Franciscan habit as a protection against .

43. He won over his adversaries, had confirmed and substantially increased, and was authorized to populate Española with convicts.

44. On June 19 Columbus arrived in Gomera in the Canary Islands, where he rescued from a French corsair.

45. He then decided to send three of his ships directly to his brother and sail southwest with .

46. With and he left Gomera on June 21, 1498, and called at the Cape Verde Islands.

47. Columbus had, however, time to observe that the gulf received huge and powerful currents of fresh water from what were, in fact, of the Orinoco River.

48. On this observation he built up his fantastic theory that he was at the mouth of of paradise, situated at the top of the Earth, the Earth being not round but pear-shaped.

49. , Alonso de Ojeda, while in Seville had heard of Columbus' discovery of pearls in Paria.

50. Columbus had to consider him a poacher.

51. A special letter addressed to Columbus and his brothers enjoined them to obey and deliver to Bobadilla , castles, arms, and stores.

52. Bobadilla arrived at Santo Domingo in Española on August 23, 1500. Before the wind allowed him to land he was informed by a messenger sent out by Diego that had been hanged that week and were waiting for the gallows.

53. He was also told that Christopher Columbus was in Concepción and Bartolomé in Xaraguá, with a confessor to dispatch guilty prisoners by the same method.

54. On August 24, Bobadilla, after mass, had his first dispatch read aloud--that appointing him inquirer into the rebellion -- and asked for to be handed over.

55. Obstructed again, he had unmasked and revealed the royal letter enjoining him to pay of salaries, if need be, on Columbus' account.

56. Though legally bound by their agreement with Columbus, they had to consider that the land already discovered far exceeded their expectations and that he was to be entrusted with a government.

57. Meanwhile, a crowd of discoverers was sailing his seas, landing in his islands, and stealing his future discoveries; everybody seemed to be entering the business to a point that made Columbus write bitterly: " made fun of my plan then; now even tailors wish to discover."

58. That was very well, but how was he going to liberate Jerusalem if he were not allowed to find in that New World where gold was born?

Last voyage.

59. earlier, in October 1501, Columbus had felt confident enough to go to Seville to prepare his fourth expedition.

60. later he sailed straight for Santo Domingo (now the capital city of the Dominican Republic).

61. only remained in the same state, boatless, empty of supplies, to cross of sea with a son, a brother and .

62. After , he found himself derelict in a small cove in Jamaica (June 23, 1503), whence he wrote to the King and Queen a truly magnificent letter telling of his perils, wanderings, dreams, and voices he heard from on high.

63. For a whole year, Columbus struggled against : indiscipline, native restlessness, ill health, lack of shelter and food, doubt and disillusionment.

64. After the funeral ceremonies at Valladolid, Columbus' remains were in 1513 transferred to the Carthusian monastery of Santa María de las Cuevas in Seville, where the bones of his son Diego were also laid. Exhumed in 1542, the bodies of were taken to Hispaniola and interred in the cathedral of Santo Domingo.

Ann Salzmann
Intensive English Institute
University of Illinois