Columbus, Christopher

Columbus, Christopher (1451-1506), explorer, b. Genoa, Italy.

Columbus was the son of a wool-weaver but he went to sea at an early age and settled in Portugal in 1478.

He believed that Asia could be reached by sailing westwards and at length obtained support for such a voyage from King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain.

On 3 August, 1492, he set sail from Palos, Spain, with three small vessels, Nina, Pinta and his flagship, Santa Maria.

Sixty-nine days later, on 12 October, he reached the island of San Salvador which was probably present-day Watling Island in the Bahamas.

He sailed on to discover Cuba and Hispaniola (Haiti), and returned to Spain in March 1493.

That same year he set sail again and between 1493 and 1496 he discovered Trinidad and sighted the mainland of South America for the first time. But he returned to Spain in chains after a quarrel with the governor of Haiti.

The King and Queen pardoned Columbus and sent him on a fourth voyage from 1502-4 and he explored the coast of central America trying to find a waterway through to the east.

Columbus had rediscovered for Spain the rich 'New World' of America. (Leif Ericson discovered America in about 1001AD.) Yet he never knew the size of the 'New World' and he died poor.

See Samuel Eliot Morison Admiral of the Ocean Sea: A Life of Christopher Columbus