First voyage (1492–1493) of Columbus's ships For his westward voyage to find a shorter route to the
Orient, Columbus and his crew took three medium-sized ships, the largest of which was a
carrack (Spanish:
nao), the
Santa María, which was owned and captained by
Juan de la Cosa, and under Columbus's direct command. The other two were smaller
caravels; the name of one is lost, but it is known by the Castilian nickname
Pinta ("painted one"). The other, the
Santa Clara, was nicknamed the
Niña ("girl"), perhaps in reference to her owner, Juan Niño of Moguer. The
Pinta and the
Niña were piloted by the
Pinzón brothers (
Martín Alonso and
Vicente Yáñez, respectively). On the morning of 3 August 1492, Columbus departed from the
Port of Palos, going down the
Rio Tinto and into the Atlantic. Three days into the journey, on 6 August 1492, the rudder of the
Pinta broke. Martín Alonso Pinzón suspected the owners of the ship of sabotage, as they were afraid to go on the journey. The crew was able to secure the rudder with ropes until they could reach the Canary Islands, where they arrived on 9 August. The
Pinta had its rudder replaced on the island of
Gran Canaria, and by 2 September the ships rendezvoused at La Gomera, where the
Niñas
lateen sails were re-rigged to standard square sails. Final provisions were secured, and on 6 September the ships departed
San Sebastián de La Gomera for what turned out to be a five-week-long westward voyage across the Atlantic. As described in the abstract of
his journal made by
Bartolomé de las Casas, on the outward-bound voyage Columbus recorded two sets of distances: one was in measurements he normally used, the other in the Portuguese maritime leagues used by his crew. Las Casas originally interpreted that he reported the shorter distances to his crew so they would not worry about sailing too far from Spain, but Oliver Dunn and James Kelley state that this was a misunderstanding. On 13 September 1492, Columbus observed that the needle of his compass no longer pointed to the
North Star. It was once believed that Columbus had discovered
magnetic declination, but it was later shown that the phenomenon was already known, both in Europe and in China.
First landing in the Americas After 29 days out of sight of land, on 7 October 1492, the crew spotted "[i]mmense flocks of birds", some of which his sailors trapped and determined to be "field" birds (probably
Eskimo curlews and
American golden plovers). Columbus changed course to follow their flight. On 10 October, Columbus quelled a mutiny by sailors who wanted to abandon the search and return to Spain. On the next day, they saw several artefacts floating up the sea, which caused them to believe that land was nearby. Columbus changed the fleet's course to due west, and sailed through the night, with many sailors looking for land. At around 10:00 pm on 11 October, Columbus thought he saw a light "like a little wax candle rising and falling". Four hours later, land was sighted by a sailor named
Rodrigo de Triana (also known as Juan Rodríguez Bermejo) aboard the
Pinta. Triana immediately alerted the rest of the crew with a shout, and the ship's captain, Martín Alonso Pinzón, verified the land sighting and alerted Columbus by firing a
lombard. Columbus would later assert that he had first seen land, thus earning the promised annual reward of 10,000
maravedís. They landed on the morning of 12 October. Columbus went ashore with the crew carrying a royal flag. The account of the voyage does not specify the image further and Columbus is often depicted with the royal banner of Castile. However, the royal flag was the flag of the Catholic Monarchs, which shows the heraldry of Castile and Aragon, and from the
capture of Granada onward it would also display a
pomegranate in its lower part. His two captains accompanied him with two flags bearing a green cross and the letters F and Y, as a sign of Ferdinand and Ysabel (Isabel), the
Catholic Monarchs of Spain. Columbus thought that he was in islands of the Indies, but in reality he was in the archipelago of a new continent. There they made contact with the Indigenous people, who were impressed to see white men with beards, metal weapons, and enormous ships, even asking them if they came from heaven. Columbus exchanged objects of little value with the Indigenous people and showed interest in the small quantities of gold that some of them wore. One of the things that attracted Columbus's attention on the island of San Salvador was that the Indians had scar marks on their bodies. Columbus pointed at them and asked what that was, and they said that Indians from other nearby islands came to take them and they defended themselves, although Columbus interpreted that those who came to take them actually came from the mainland. Columbus called this island San Salvador; its
Indigenous name was
Guanahani. The modern
San Salvador Island in
the Bahamas is considered to be the most likely candidate for this island. Columbus wrote of the Natives he first encountered in his journal entry of 12 October 1492:Many of the men I have seen have scars on their bodies, and when I made signs to them to find out how this happened, they indicated that people from other nearby islands come to San Salvador to capture them; they defend themselves the best they can. I believe that people from the mainland come here to take them as
slaves. They ought to make good and skilled servants, for they repeat very quickly whatever we say to them. I think they can very easily be made Christians, for they seem to have no religion. If it pleases our Lord, I will take six of them to Your Highnesses when I depart, in order that they may learn our language.
by John Vanderlyn, 1847. A depiction of Columbus claiming possession of the land in caravels (the Niña
and the Pinta'') Columbus called the Indigenous Americans in the mistaken belief that he had reached the East Indies; the islands of the
Caribbean are termed the
West Indies because of this error. Columbus initially encountered the
Lucayan,
Taíno, and
Arawak peoples. Noting their gold ear ornaments, Columbus took some of the Arawaks prisoners and insisted that they guide him to the source of the gold. Columbus noted that their primitive weapons and military tactics made the Natives susceptible to easy conquest. Columbus observed the people and their cultural lifestyle.
Exploration through the Antilles From San Salvador they continued the voyage through the Bahamas and discovered a small island that Columbus called Santa María de la Concepción (present-day
Rum Cay according to
Samuel Morison, or present-day
Samana Cay according to more recent studies) and another small island which he called Fernandina (present-day
Long Island) in honor of King
Ferdinand. A few days later he discovered another island which he called Isabela (present-day
Crooked Island) in honor of Queen
Isabella. Subsequently they headed toward the eastern coast of a large island which they called Juana (present-day
Cuba), landing there on 28 October 1492. Columbus explored the northeast coast of
Cuba. In 1515 the name Juana would be replaced by Fernandina, because it was not considered appropriate for King Ferdinand to have dedicated to him only such a small island as that of the Bahamas. They coasted Cuba slowly, without the possibility of trading due to the express prohibition of Columbus. On 2 November Columbus sent four men to explore the interior, two Europeans and two Indians. While waiting, Columbus measured the latitude with his
quadrant and, according to Las Casas, obtained a value of 42° north, which in reality is impossible to observe from Cuba. On 12 November the explorers returned and Columbus hesitated for a week about which direction to take next, also disoriented by another measurement of latitude that again yielded 42°. . Painting by
Dióscoro Puebla On 21 November, Martín Alonso Pinzón, with the
Pinta, separated from Columbus and headed east toward an island that the Indians called Babeque. The reason for the separation is unknown. The Columbian sources (Las Casas and Hernando Colón) say that Pinzón left "out of greed", however,
Fernández Duro states that it was a natural incident of navigation, while Jesús Varela Marcos believes that it was due to the frustration of Pinzón and his men with Columbus's authoritarianism and lack of nautical professionalism; according to this author, Pinzón simply followed the previously marked route to go to Babeque. The route followed by Pinzón is also not known with certainty. Las Casas's
Diario states that he obtained much
gold. Hernando Colón, who tries to minimize Pinzón's discoveries because they would harm his father's rights, wrote that he merely went to Babeque and from there to Hispaniola. According to Varela Marcos, several indications suggest that, after passing through Babeque, Pinzón sailed to
Jamaica and from there rounded Hispaniola to the east. Columbus continued sailing along the coast of Cuba to the east and on 5 or 6 December sighted the western end of a large island which he named
Hispaniola. That same day Columbus explored the north-western coast of
Hispaniola, present-day
Haiti. He named a small gulf shaped like a harbor San Nicolás, because it was discovered on the day of that saint. Columbus established contact through various envoys with one of the indigenous
caciques (chieftains) of Hispaniola,
Guacanagari. There, the
Santa María ran aground on a sandbank and was shipwrecked on
Christmas Day, 25 December 1492; it had to be abandoned. Columbus was helped by the cacique to rescue the crew and the cargo. Columbus met with Guacanagari personally; the cacique gave him gifts including a box with gold, and they both agreed that the Spaniards would protect the cacicazgo of Maraná of Guacanagari from the cannibal cacique of the island called
Caonabo, of the cacicazgo of Maguana; and, for this, before leaving he would establish a settlement on the island with 39 men in a palisade:
Fort Navidad, built with the remains of the Santa María in works that began on 26 December 1492. He left 39 men there, including the interpreter
Luis de Torres. Columbus kept sailing along the northern coast of Hispaniola with a single ship, until he encountered Pinzón and the
Pinta on 6 January. Meanwhile, the
Pinta had also arrived on the north coast of Hispaniola, further east from where Columbus was. They discovered a harbor at the mouth of a river which they called
de Martín Alonso (later renamed
Río de Gracia by Columbus; present-day
Luperón Bay). There he encountered the
Ciguayos, the only Natives who offered violent resistance during this first voyage. The Ciguayos refused to trade the number of bows and arrows that Columbus desired; in the ensuing clash one Ciguayo was stabbed in the buttocks and another wounded with an arrow in his chest. Because of the Ciguayos' use of arrows, Columbus named the inlet the
Bay of Arrows (or Gulf of Arrows). Four Natives who boarded the
Niña at
Samaná Peninsula told Columbus of what was possibly the Isla de Carib, which was supposed to be populated by cannibalistic
Caribs, as well as
Matinino, an island populated only by women, which Columbus associated with an island in the Indian Ocean described by
Marco Polo. Relations with the indigenous people were predominantly peaceful, characterized by curiosity, mutual gifts, and cooperation. However, on 13 January 1493, a skirmish occurred in the Gulf of Arrows, in Hispaniola. About seven Spaniards went ashore from the boats and began buying arrows, bows, and other weapons from the Indians, but there came a moment when the Indians did not want to give any more and ran to the place where they had set aside their bows and returned with cords to tie up the Christians. Because of this the Spaniards attacked them and stabbed one Indian in the buttocks and shot another with an arrow in the chest; and the Indians, although they were fifty-some and the Christians seven, saw that the Spaniards' weapons were more effective and ran away, while the sailors returned aboard the boats to the ship and told the Admiral what had happened, who had already warned them that this could occur.
First return upon his first return (1874) On 16 January 1493, the homeward journey was begun. While returning to Spain, the
Niña and
Pinta encountered the roughest storm of their journey, and on the night of 13 February, lost contact with each other. All hands on the
Niña vowed, if they were spared, to make a pilgrimage to the nearest church of
Our Lady wherever they first made land. On the morning of 15 February, land was spotted. Columbus believed they were approaching the Portuguese
Azores Islands, but others felt that they were considerably north of the islands. Columbus turned out to be right. On the night of 17 February, the
Niña laid anchor at
Santa Maria Island, but the cable broke on sharp rocks, forcing Columbus to stay offshore until morning when a safer location was found nearby. A few sailors took a boat to the island, where they were told by several islanders of a still safer place to land, so the
Niña moved once again. At this spot, Columbus took aboard several islanders with food. When told of the vow to Our Lady, the islanders directed the crew to a small shrine nearby. Leaving the island of Santa Maria in the Azores on 23 February, Columbus headed for Castilian Spain, but another storm forced him into
Lisbon. He anchored next to a king's harbor patrol ship on 4 March 1493, where he was told a fleet of 100 caravels had been lost in the storm. Astoundingly, both the
Niña and the
Pinta had been spared. Not finding King John II of Portugal in Lisbon, Columbus wrote to him and waited for a reply. The king agreed to meet Columbus at Vale do Paraíso, despite the poor relations between Portugal and Castile at the time. Upon learning of Columbus's discoveries, the Portuguese king informed him that he believed the voyage to be in violation of the 1479
Treaty of Alcáçovas. After spending more than a week in Portugal, Columbus set sail for Spain. He arrived back in Palos on 15 March 1493 and later met with Ferdinand and Isabella in
Barcelona to report his findings. Columbus showed off what he had brought back from his voyage to the monarchs, including a few small samples of gold,
pearls, gold jewelry from the Natives, a few Taíno he had kidnapped, flowers, and a hammock. He also brought the previously unknown tobacco plant, the pineapple fruit, and the turkey. He did not bring any of the precious East Indies spices such as black pepper, ginger or cloves. In his log, he wrote "there is also plenty of 'ají', which is their pepper, which is more valuable than black pepper, and all the people eat nothing else, it being very wholesome". Columbus brought captured Taínos to present to the sovereigns, never having met the infamous Caribs. In
Columbus's letter on the first voyage, addressed to the Spanish court, he insisted he had reached Asia, describing the island of Hispaniola as being off the coast of China. He emphasized the potential riches of the land, exaggerating the abundance of gold, and that the Natives seemed ready to convert to Christianity. The letter was translated into multiple languages and widely distributed, creating a sensation: Hispaniola is a miracle. Mountains and hills, plains and pastures, are both fertile and beautiful ... the harbors are unbelievably good and there are many wide rivers of which the majority contain gold. ... There are many spices, and great mines of gold and other metals... Upon Columbus's return, most people initially accepted that he had reached the East Indies, including the sovereigns and
Pope Alexander VI, though in a letter to the Vatican dated 1 November 1493, the historian
Peter Martyr described Columbus as the discoverer of a
Novi Orbis ("
New Globe"). The pope issued four bulls (the first three of which are collectively known as the
Bulls of Donation), to determine how
Spain and
Portugal would colonize and divide the spoils of the new lands.
Inter caetera, issued 4 May 1493, divided the world outside Europe between Spain and Portugal along a north–south meridian 100 leagues west of either the Azores or
Cape Verde Islands in the mid-Atlantic, thus granting Spain all the land discovered by Columbus. The 1494
Treaty of Tordesillas, ratified in the next decade by
Pope Julius II, moved the dividing line to 370 leagues west of the Azores or Cape Verde.
Second voyage (1493–1496) The stated purpose of the second voyage was to convert the Indigenous Americans to Christianity. Before Columbus left Spain, he was directed by Ferdinand and Isabella to maintain friendly, even loving, relations with the Natives. He set sail from
Cádiz, Spain, on 25 September 1493. The fleet for the second voyage was much larger: two
carracks (
naos) and 15 caravels. The two
carracks were the flagship
Marigalante ("Gallant Mary") and the
Gallega; the caravels were the
Fraila ('the nun'),
San Juan,
Colina ('the hill'),
Gallarda ('the gallant'),
Gutierre,
Bonial,
Rodriga,
Triana,
Vieja ('the old'),
Prieta ('the brown'),
Gorda ('the fat'),
Cardera, and
Quintera. The
Niña returned for this expedition, which also included a ship named
Pinta probably identical to that from the first expedition. In addition, the expedition saw the construction of the first ship in the Americas, the
Santa Cruz or
India.
Lesser Antilles and Puerto Rico On 3 November 1493, Christopher Columbus landed on a rugged shore on an island that he named
Dominica. On the same day, he landed at
Marie-Galante, which he named
Santa María la Galante. After sailing past
Les Saintes (
Todos los Santos), he arrived at
Guadeloupe (
Santa María de Guadalupe), which he explored between 4 November and 10 November 1493. The exact course of his voyage through the
Lesser Antilles is debated, but it seems likely that he turned north, sighting and naming many islands including
Santa María de Montserrat (
Montserrat),
Santa María la Antigua (
Antigua),
Santa María la Redonda (
Redonda), and
Santa Cruz (
Saint Croix, on 14 November). He also sighted and named the island chain of
Santa Úrsula y las Once Mil Vírgenes (the
Virgin Islands), and named the island of
Virgin Gorda. On
Santa Cruz, the Europeans saw a canoe with a few Carib men and two women. They had two male captives, and had recently castrated them. The Europeans pursued them, and were met with arrows from both the men and women, fatally wounding at least one man, who perished about a week later. The Europeans either killed or captured all aboard the canoe, thereafter beheading them. Another was thrown overboard, and when he was spotted crawling away holding his entrails, the Arawaks recommended he be recaptured so he would not alert his tribe; he was thrown overboard again, and then had to be shot down with arrows. Columbus's childhood friend Michele da Cuneo—according to his own account—took one of the women in the skirmish, whom Columbus let him keep as a slave; Cuneo subsequently beat and raped her. The fleet continued to the
Greater Antilles, first sighting the eastern coast of the island of
Puerto Rico, known to its native
Taino people as
Borinquen, on the afternoon of 17 November 1493. The fleet sailed along the island's southern coast for a whole day, before making landfall on its northwestern coast at the Bay of
Añasco, between the towns of
Mayagüez and
Aguadilla, early on 19 November 1493. Upon landing, Columbus christened the island
San Juan Bautista after
Saint John the Baptist, preacher and prophet who baptized
Jesus Christ, and remained anchored there for two days, 20 and 21 November 1493. Fleet member
Diego Álvarez Chanca recounts that as they sailed along the southern coast of
Puerto Rico, a
Taino woman and boy, who had volunteered to join them on board in
Guadeloupe, after having been rescued together with a group of at least 20 women the
Caribs had been keeping as
sex slaves, swam ashore, having recognized their homeland. The women rescued in
Guadeloupe explained that any male captives were eaten, and that their own male offspring were castrated and made to serve the Caribs until they were old enough to be considered good to eat. The Europeans rescued three of these boys.
Hispaniola and Jamaica On 22 November, Columbus sailed from
San Juan Bautista (present-day
Puerto Rico) to
Hispaniola. The next morning, a native taken during the first voyage was returned to
Samaná Bay. The fleet sailed about over two days and discovered, at
Monte Cristi, decomposing bodies of four men; one had a beard implying he had been a Spaniard. On the night of 27 November, cannons and flares were ignited in an attempt to signal La Navidad, but there was no response. A canoe party led by a cousin of Guacanagari presented Columbus with two golden masks and told him that Guacanagari had been injured by another chief,
Caonabo, and that except for some Spanish casualties resulting from sickness and quarrel, the rest of his men were well. The next day, the Spanish fleet discovered the burnt remains of the Navidad fortress, and Guacanagari's cousin admitted that the Europeans had been wiped out by Caonabo. Other Natives showed the Spaniards some of the bodies, and said that they had "taken three or four women apiece". While some suspicion was placed on Guacanagari, it gradually emerged that two of the Spaniards had formed a murderous gang in search of gold and women, prompting Caonabo's wrath. The fleet then fought the winds, traveling only over 25 days, and arriving at a plain on the north coast of Hispaniola on 2 January 1494. There, they established the settlement of
La Isabela. Columbus spent some time exploring the interior of the island for gold. Finding some, he established a small fort in the interior. Columbus left Hispaniola on 24 April 1494, and arrived at the island of Cuba (which he had named Juana during his first voyage) on 30 April and
Discovery Bay, Jamaica, on 5 May. He explored the south coast of Cuba, which he believed to be a peninsula of China rather than an island, and several nearby islands including La Evangelista (
Isla de la Juventud), before returning to Hispaniola on 20 August.
Slavery, settlers, and tribute Columbus had planned for Queen Isabella to set up trading posts with the cities of the Far East made famous by Marco Polo, but whose Silk Road and eastern maritime routes had been blockaded to her crown's trade. However, Columbus would never find
Cathay (China) or
Zipangu (
Japan), and there was no longer any Great
Khan for trade treaties. In 1494, Columbus sent
Alonso de Ojeda (whom a contemporary described as "always the first to draw blood wherever there was a war or quarrel") to
Cibao (where gold was being mined), which resulted in Ojeda's capturing several Natives on an accusation of theft. Columbus had the native chief set free. Ojeda cut the ears off of one Native, and sent the others to La Isabela in chains, where Columbus ordered them to be
decapitated. During his brief reign, Columbus executed Spanish colonists for minor crimes, and used
dismemberment as another form of punishment. By the end of 1494, disease and famine had claimed two-thirds of the Spanish settlers. A native Nahuatl account depicts the social breakdown that accompanied the
pandemic: "A great many died from this plague, and many others died of hunger. They could not get up to search for food, and everyone else was too sick to care for them, so they starved to death in their beds." By 1494, Columbus had shared his viceroyship with one of his military officers named Margarit, ordering him to prioritize Christianizing the Natives. Margarit's men exploited the Natives by beating, raping and enslaving them, but Columbus caught up with them and though outnumbered, defeated them,. After arriving in Spain in late 1494, Buil falsely complained to the Spanish court of the Columbus brothers and that there was no gold. Groups of Margarit's soldiers who remained in the west continued brutalizing the Natives, Columbus sought them out and slew them. In February 1495, he took over 1,500 Arawaks, some of whom had rebelled against the oppression of the colonists, which was a likely death sentence.. According to Hans Koning, "Whoever was caught without a token was killed by having his or her hands cut off." The Indians' only choice was to labor in the island's streams, sifting gold dust from the gravel in the stream beds. Because there was no abundance of gold on the island, the Natives had no chance of meeting Columbus's quota. Koning writes, "[T]hose Indians who tried to flee into the mountains were systematically hunted down with dogs and killed, to set an example for the others to keep trying." By 1497, the tribute system had all but collapsed. Columbus became ill in 1495, and when he recovered, he led men and dogs to hunt down Natives who fled their forced duties, killing them or cutting off their hands as a warning to others. The Spanish fleet departed La Isabela on 10 March 1496. Again set back by unfavorable trade winds, supplies began to run low; on 10 April, Columbus requested food from the Natives of Guadeloupe. Upon going ashore, the Spaniards were ambushed by arrows; in response, they destroyed some huts. They then held a group of 13 native women and children hostage to force a sale of
cassava. The
Niña and
India left Guadeloupe on 20 April. On 8 June, the fleet landed at Portugal, near
Odemira, and returned to Spain via the Bay of Cádiz on 11 June.
Third voyage (1498–1500) , the starting point for Columbus's third journey According to the abstract of Columbus's journal made by Bartolomé de Las Casas, the objective of the third voyage was to verify the existence of a continent that King John II of Portugal suggested was located to the southwest of the Cape Verde Islands. King John reportedly knew of the existence of such a mainland because "canoes had been found which set out from the coast of Guinea [West Africa] and sailed to the west with merchandise." Italian explorer
John Cabot probably reached the mainland of the American continent in June 1497, although his landing site is disputed. On 30 May 1498, Columbus left with six ships from
Sanlúcar, Spain, for his third trip to the Americas. Three of the ships headed directly for Hispaniola with much-needed supplies, while Columbus took the other three in an exploration of what might lie to the south of the Caribbean islands he had already visited, including a hoped-for passage to continental Asia. Columbus led his fleet to the Portuguese island of
Porto Santo, his wife's native land. He then sailed to
Madeira and spent some time there with the Portuguese captain João Gonçalves da Camara, before sailing to the Canary Islands and Cape Verde. On 13 July, Columbus's fleet entered the
doldrums of the mid-Atlantic, where they were becalmed for several days, the heat doing damage to their ships, food, and water supply. An easterly wind finally propelled them westwards, which was maintained until 22 July, when birds flying from southwest to northeast were sighted, and the fleet turned north in the direction of Dominica. The men sighted the land of
Trinidad on 31 July, approaching from the southeast. The fleet sailed along the southern coast and entered
Dragon's Mouth, anchoring near
Soldado Rock (west of
Icacos Point, Trinidad's southwesternmost point) where they made contact with a group of Amerindians in canoes. On 1 August, Columbus and his men arrived at a landmass near the mouth of
South America's
Orinoco river, in the region of modern-day
Venezuela. Columbus recognized from the topography that it must be the continent's mainland, but while describing it as an
otro mundo ('other world'), retained the belief that it was Asia—and perhaps an
Earthly Paradise. On 2 August, they landed at Icacos Point (which Columbus named Punta de Arenal) in modern
Trinidad, narrowly avoiding a violent encounter with the Natives. Early on 4 August, a
tsunami nearly capsized Columbus's ship. The men sailed across the
Gulf of Paria, and on 5 August, landed on the mainland of South America at the
Paria Peninsula. Columbus, suffering from a monthlong bout of insomnia and impaired vision from his bloodshot eyes, authorized the other fleet captains to go ashore first: one planted a cross, and the other recorded that Columbus subsequently landed to formally take the province for Spain. They sailed further west, where the sight of pearls compelled Columbus to send men to obtain some, if not gold. The Natives provided nourishment including a
maize wine, new to Columbus. Compelled to reach Hispaniola before the food aboard his ship spoiled, Columbus was disappointed to discover that they had sailed into a gulf, and while they had obtained fresh water, they had to go back east to reach open waters again. Making observations with a
quadrant at sea, Columbus inaccurately measured the
polar radius of the North Star's
diurnal motion to be five degrees, double the value of another erroneous reading he had made from further north. This led him to describe the
figure of the Earth as pear-shaped, with the "stalk" portion ascending towards Heaven. (In fact, the Earth ever so slightly is pear-shaped, with its "stalk" pointing north.) He then sailed to the islands of
Chacachacare and
Margarita (reaching the latter on 14 August), and sighted
Tobago (which he named Bella Forma) and
Grenada (which he named Concepción). In poor health, Columbus returned to Hispaniola on 19 August, only to find that many of the Spanish settlers of the new colony were in rebellion against his rule, claiming that Columbus had misled them about the supposedly bountiful riches they expected to find. A number of returning settlers and sailors lobbied against Columbus at the Spanish court, accusing him and his brothers of gross mismanagement. Columbus had some of his crew hanged for disobedience. He had an economic interest in the enslavement of the Hispaniola Natives and for that reason was not eager to baptize them, which attracted criticism from some churchmen. An entry in his journal from September 1498 reads: "From here one might send, in the name of the Holy Trinity, as many slaves as could be sold ..." Columbus was eventually forced to make peace with the rebellious colonists on humiliating terms. In 1500, the Crown had him removed as governor, arrested, and transported in chains to Spain. He was eventually freed and allowed to return to the Americas, but not as governor. As an added insult, in 1499, the Portuguese explorer
Vasco da Gama returned from his first voyage to India, having sailed east around the southern tip of Africa—unlocking a sea route to Asia.
Governorship Colonist rebellions After his second journey, Columbus had requested that 330 people be sent to stay permanently (though voluntarily) on Hispaniola, all on the king's pay. Specifically, he asked for 100 men to work as wood men, soldiers, and laborers; 50 farmers, 40 squires, 30 sailors, 30 cabin boys, 20 goldsmiths, 10 gardeners, 20 handymen, and 30 women. In addition to this, plans were made to maintain friars and clergymen, a physician, a pharmacist, an herbalist, and musicians for entertaining the colonists. Fearing that the king was going to restrict money allotted for wages, Columbus suggested that Spanish criminals be pardoned in exchange for a few years unpaid service in Hispaniola, and the king agreed to this. A pardon for the death penalty would require two years of service, and one year of service was required for lesser crimes. They also instructed that those who had been sentenced to exile would also be redirected to be exiled in Hispaniola. These new colonists were sent directly to Hispaniola in three ships with supplies, while Columbus was taking an alternate route with the other three ships to explore. As these new Colonists arrived on Hispaniola, a rebellion was brewing under Francisco Roldán (a man Columbus had left as chief mayor, under his brothers Diego and Bartolomew). By the time Columbus arrived on Hispaniola, Roldán held the territory of Xaraguá, and some of the new colonists had joined his rebellion. Over months, Columbus tried negotiating with the rebels. At his behest, Roldán tried the other rebels, ordering his former partner, Adrián de Mújica, to be hanged. Columbus was physically and mentally exhausted; his body was wracked by
arthritis and his eyes by
ophthalmia. In October 1499, he sent two ships to Spain, asking the Court of Castile to appoint a royal commissioner to help him govern. On 3 February 1500, he returned to Santo Domingo with plans to sail back to Spain to defend himself from the accounts of the rebels.
Bobadilla's inquiry , (
Columbus murals at the
University of Notre Dame) The sovereigns gave
Francisco de Bobadilla, a knight commander the
Order of Calatrava, complete control as governor in the Americas. Bobadilla arrived in Santo Domingo in August 1500, where Diego was overseeing the execution of rebels, while Columbus was suppressing a revolt at Grenada. Bobadilla immediately received many serious complaints about all three Columbus brothers, including that "seven Spanish men had been hanged that week," with another five awaiting execution. Bobadilla had orders to find out "which persons were the ones who rose up against the admiral and our justice and for what cause and reason, and what ... damage they have done," then "detain those whom you find guilty ... and confiscate their goods." The crown's command regarding Columbus dictated that the admiral must relinquish all control of the colonies, keeping only his personal wealth. Bobadilla used force to prevent the execution of several prisoners, and subsequently took charge of Columbus's possessions, including papers that he would have used to defend himself in Spain. Bobadilla suspended the tribute system for a twenty-year period, then summoned the admiral. In early October 1500, Columbus and Diego presented themselves to Bobadilla, and were put in chains aboard
La Gorda, Columbus's own ship. Only the ship's cook was willing to put the shamed admiral in chains. Bobadilla took much of Columbus's gold and other treasures.
Ferdinand Columbus recorded that the governor took "testimony from their open enemies, the rebels, and even showing open favour," and auctioned off some of his father's possessions "for one third of their value." Bobadilla's inquiry produced false testimony that Columbus forced priests not to baptize Natives without his express permission, so he could first decide whether or not they should be sold into slavery. He allegedly captured a tribe of 300 under Roldán's protection to be sold into slavery, and informed other Christians that half of the Indigenous servants should be yielded to him. Further, he allegedly ordered at least 12 Spaniards to be whipped and tied by the neck and feet for trading gold for something to eat without his permission. Other allegations include that he: ordered a woman to be whipped naked on the back of a donkey for lying that she was pregnant, had a woman's tongue cut out for seeming to insult him and his brothers, cut a Spaniard's throat for being homosexual, ordered Christians to be hanged for stealing bread, ordered a cabin boy's hand cut off and posted publicly for using a trap to catch a fish, and ordered for a man to have his nose and ears cut off, as well as to be whipped, shackled, and banished. Multiple culprits were given a potentially fatal 100 lashes, sometimes while naked. Some fifty men starved to death on La Isabela because of tight control over the ship's rations, despite there being an abundance.
Trial in Spain , 1843 (probably after an earlier work,
Brooklyn Museum of Art) A number of returned settlers and friars lobbied against Columbus at the Spanish court, accusing him of mismanagement. By his own request, Columbus remained in chains during the entire voyage home. Once in Cádiz, a grieving Columbus wrote to a friend at court: It is now seventeen years since I came to serve these princes with the Enterprise of the Indies. They made me pass eight of them in discussion, and at the end rejected it as a thing of jest. Nevertheless I persisted therein... Over there I have placed under their sovereignty more land than there is in Africa and Europe, and more than 1,700 islands... In seven years I, by the divine will, made that conquest. At a time when I was entitled to expect rewards and retirement, I was incontinently arrested and sent home loaded with chains... The accusation was brought out of malice on the basis of charges made by civilians who had revolted and wished to take possession on the land... I beg your graces, with the zeal of faithful Christians in whom their Highnesses have confidence, to read all my papers, and to consider how I, who came from so far to serve these princes... now at the end of my days have been despoiled of my honor and my property without cause, wherein is neither justice nor mercy. Columbus and his brothers were jailed for six weeks before the busy King Ferdinand ordered them released. On 12 December 1500, the king and queen summoned the Columbus brothers to their presence at the
Alhambra palace in
Granada. With his chains at last removed, Columbus wore shortened sleeves so the marks on his skin would be visible. At the palace, the royal couple heard the brothers' pleas; Columbus was brought to tears as he admitted his faults and begged for forgiveness. Their freedom was restored. On 3 September 1501, the door was firmly shut on Columbus's role as governor. From that point forward,
Nicolás de Ovando y Cáceres was to be the new governor of the Indies, although Columbus retained the titles of admiral and viceroy. A royal mandate dated 27 September ordered Bobadilla to return Columbus's possessions.
Fourth voyage (1502–1504) After much persuasion, the sovereigns agreed to fund Columbus's fourth voyage. It would be his final chance to prove himself and become the first man ever to
circumnavigate the world. Columbus's goal was to find the
Strait of Malacca to the Indian Ocean. On 14 March 1502, Columbus started his fourth voyage with 147 men and with strict orders from the king and queen not to stop at Hispaniola, but only to search for a westward passage to the Indian Ocean mainland. Before he left, Columbus wrote a letter to the Governors of the
Bank of Saint George, Genoa, dated at Seville, 2 April 1502. He wrote "Although my body is here my heart is always near you." Accompanied by his stepbrother
Bartolomeo, Diego Mendez, and his 13-year-old son Ferdinand, he left Cádiz on 9 May 1502, with his flagship,
Capitana, as well as the
Gallega,
Vizcaína, and
Santiago de Palos. They first sailed to
Arzila on the Moroccan coast to rescue the Portuguese soldiers who he heard were under siege by the Moors. After using the trade winds to cross the Atlantic in a brisk twenty days, on 15 June, they landed at Carbet on the island of
Martinique (Martinica). Columbus anticipated that a
hurricane was brewing and had a ship that needed to be replaced, so he headed to Hispaniola, despite being forbidden to land there. He arrived at Santo Domingo on June 29, but was denied port, and the new governor refused to listen to his warning of a storm. While Columbus's ships sheltered at the mouth of the
Haina River, Governor Bobadilla departed, with Roldán and Columbus's gold aboard his ship, accompanied by a convoy of 30 other vessels. Columbus's personal gold and other belongings were put on the fragile
Aguya, considered the fleet's least seaworthy vessel. The onset of a hurricane drove some ships ashore, with some sinking in the harbor of Santo Domingo; Bobadilla's ship is thought to have reached the eastern end of Hispaniola before sinking. About 20 other vessels sank in the Atlantic, with a total of some 500 people drowning. Three damaged ships made it back to Santo Domingo; one of these had Juan de la Cosa and
Rodrigo de Bastidas on board. Only the
Aguya made it to Spain, causing some of Columbus's enemies to accuse him of conjuring the storm. After the hurricane, Columbus regrouped with his men, and after a brief stop at
Jamaica and off the coast of Cuba to replenish, he sailed to modern
Central America, arriving at
Guanaja (Isla de los Pinos) in the
Bay Islands off the coast of
Honduras on 30 July 1502. Here Bartolomeo found native merchants—possibly (but not conclusively)
Mayans—and a large canoe, which was described as "long as a galley" and was filled with cargo. The Natives introduced Columbus and his entourage to
cacao. Columbus spoke with an elder, and thought he described having seen people with swords and
horses (possibly the Spaniards), and that they were "only ten days' journey to the river
Ganges". On 14 August, Columbus landed on the mainland of the Americas at Puerto Castilla, near
Trujillo, Honduras. He spent two months exploring the coasts of Honduras,
Nicaragua, and
Costa Rica looking for the passage, before arriving in Almirante Bay,
Panama, on 16 October. In mid-November, Columbus was told by some of the Natives that a province called Ciguare "lie just nine days' journey by land to the west", or some from his location in
Veragua. Here was supposed to be found "gold without limit", "people who wear coral on their heads" who "know of pepper", "do business in fairs and markets", and who were "accustomed to warfare". Columbus would later write to the sovereigns that, according to the Natives, "the sea encompasses Ciguare and ... it is a journey of ten days to the Ganges River." This could suggest that Columbus knew he had found an unknown continent distinct from Asia. On 5 December 1502, Columbus and his crew found themselves in a storm unlike any they had ever experienced. In his journal Columbus writes,For nine days I was as one lost, without hope of life. Eyes never beheld the sea so angry, so high, so covered with foam. The wind not only prevented our progress, but offered no opportunity to run behind any headland for shelter; hence we were forced to keep out in this bloody ocean, seething like a pot on a hot fire. Never did the sky look more terrible; for one whole day and night it blazed like a furnace, and the lightning broke with such violence that each time I wondered if it had carried off my spars and sails; the flashes came with such fury and frightfulness that we all thought that the ship would be blasted. All this time the water never ceased to fall from the sky; I do not say it rained, for it was like another deluge. The men were so worn out that they longed for death to end their dreadful suffering. In Panamá, he learned from the
Ngobe of gold and a strait to another ocean. After some exploration, he established a garrison at the mouth of
Belén River in January 1503. By 6 April, the garrison he had established captured the local tribe leader
El Quibían, who had demanded they not go down the Belén River. El Quibían escaped, and returned with an army to attack and repel the Spanish, damaging some of the ships so that one vessel had to be abandoned. Columbus left for Hispaniola on 16 April; on 10 May, he sighted the
Cayman Islands, naming them Las Tortugas after the numerous
sea turtles there. His ships next sustained more damage in a storm off the coast of Cuba. Unable to travel any farther, the ships were beached in
St. Ann's Bay, Jamaica, on 25 June. (1879) For a year Columbus and his men remained stranded on Jamaica. A Spaniard, Diego Mendez, and some Natives paddled a canoe to get help from Hispaniola. The island's governor,
Nicolás de Ovando y Cáceres, detested Columbus and obstructed all efforts to rescue him and his men. In the meantime, Columbus had to mesmerize the Natives in order to prevent being attacked by them and gain their goodwill. He did so by correctly predicting a
lunar eclipse for 29 February 1504, using the
Ephemeris of the German astronomer
Regiomontanus. In May 1504 a battle took place between men loyal to Columbus and those loyal to the Porras brothers, in which there was a sword fight between Bartholomew Columbus and Francisco de Porras. Bartholomew won against Francisco but he spared his life. In this way, the mutiny ended. Help finally arrived from the governor Ovando, on 29 June, when a caravel sent by Diego Méndez finally appeared on the island. At this time there were 110 members of the expedition alive out of the 147 who sailed from Spain with Columbus. Due to the strong winds, it took the caravel 45 days to reach La Hispaniola. This was a trip that Diego Méndez had previously made in four days in a canoe. About 38 of the 110 men who survived decided not to board again and stayed in Hispaniola instead of returning to Spain. On 11 September 1504, Christopher Columbus and his son Fernando embarked in a caravel to travel from Hispaniola to Spain, paying their corresponding tickets. They arrived in Sanlúcar de Barrameda on 7 November and from there they traveled to Seville. ==Legacy==