Harold

Harold  Christopher Columbus

Many have heard of the famous explorer Christopher Columbus. He is best known for “discovering” America. Cristiforo Colombo was his original name. Columbus was born in Genoa, Italy on October 31,1451. When he was about 14 years old, he became a cabin boy on ships and listened in on the sailors’ stories about their voyages. These stories inspired him and interested him in sailing. Columbus has been described as adventurous and someone who had good navigational skills.

On Columbus’ first expedition his goal was to find a faster and safer route to the Indies. He went to the King of Portugal and asked him to help pay for his trip. That King said, “No.” Columbus then asked the King and Queen of Spain, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. At first they too rejected him because the Spaniards thought he was crazy. But then Columbus convinced them by promising them that he would convert whomever he found to Christianity. When they agreed,they supplied him with three ships, the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. He was the captain of the Santa Maria. After thirty three days at sea they came across a small island in the Bahamas.The natives living on the island where the Arawak people. Columbus took some of the natives back to Isabella to prove that he had gone to another land. While he was gone, he left some of his men on the island. They were suppose to work with the natives to find gold, but when he returned, Columbus’ sailors had been horrible and nasty to the natives. The natives were cross about this, so they killed all of the sailors. Columbus was mad about this.

On Christopher Columbus's second voyage he was provided with seventeen ships. Over one thousand men were working on those ships. On the ships where kept pigs, horses, and cattle. Columbus was sent on this expedition to find gold and capture Indians and keep them as slaves. Columbus set up base in Hispaniola then sailed around Hispaniola then along to southern Cuba. He named the island of Hispaniola - Dominica, which today is the Dominican Republic. Columbus also left his two brothers in charge while he returned to Spain.

On his third voyage, Columbus explored farther south to Trinidad and to the mouth of the Orinoco River in Venezuela. It was actually the first time that Columbus was on the mainland. He then returned to Dominica where he found his brothers doing a bad job of governing. Because of this, the Spanish Government sent some officials to go and arrest Columbus and bring him back to Spain in handcuffs. On Columbus' fourth exploration (May 9,1502-November 7,1504),he sailed to Mexico, then Honduras, then Panama, all in central America. Then he went to Santiago in Jamaica. During this last trip the natives refused to continue to help find gold. So Columbus said “ I will take away the moon”, but it just so happens that there was a solar eclipse and Columbus knew that the moon would disapper. After this he went back to Spain and the Spainish gouverment found out about this and didn’t send him on any other voyages.

Columbus spent the next two years of his life trying to gain back his titles and riches ,he did gain some of his riches, but not his titles. Columbus died in Valladolid, Spain on May 20,1506 at the age of 54. His body was moved to Hispaniola where he is now buried.

I thought Columbus was a great explorer. However I did not think that the way he treated the natives was very nice. He never really disovered what he set out to find wich was a faster route to the Indies. Over all I thought he was fun to reasearch.

Harold media type="custom" key="17539108"