Columbus Day
Christopher Columbus “discovered” America when he sighted the Bahamas on October 12, 1492. He had sailed west from the Canary Islands, financed by Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand, searching for a new trade route to Asia.
His three ships were the Santa Maria, Nina, and Pinta. His journal entry on October 12th notes:
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.
Another entry during this voyage:
…these people are very simple in war-like matters … I could conquer the whole of them with 50 men, and govern them as I pleased.
He made a total of four voyages to the Americas. On the first, he encountered Cuba and Hispanola. He founded a small settlement in Haiti and took some natives captive.
On the second journey, he sailed with 17 ships. He noted Guadeloupe, Montserrat, Antigua, Saint Martin, the Virgin Islands, Hispanola (the Dominican Republic and Haiti), Cuba, and Jamaica in a much broader exploration.
He found his original settlement in ruins in response to the Spanish colonizers’ pursuit of gold and women. He bought and sold slaves; natives were beaten, raped, and tortured in an attempt to locate gold. He even shipped slaves to Spain.
The third journey only took six ships. They sighted Trinidad, Chacachacare, Margarita, Tobago, and Grenada and landed on the South American mainland. He returned to Hispanola, where accounts of native brutality are recorded.
Columbus’s fourth and final journey employed four ships with stops in Martinique, Jamaica, Central America, and the Cayman Islands.
Although Columbus thought he had reached Asia, later claims marked him as finding the “New World”. Historic discoveries place that honor with the Norse and the Vikings Erik the Red and his son Leif Erikson.
Despite his injurious impacts, Christopher Columbus must be recognized for his extensive explorations in the New World, and as such, still holds a place in history for those findings.
