Columbus' Voyages.........Conitinued
After the success of the first voyage, plans were made immediately for a second one. On September 25, 1493, a fleet of 17 ships and approximately 1500 men left Cádiz, Spain. The fleet took a more southerly course than on the first voyage and reached Dominica on Nov. 3, 1493. During the next two weeks, the fleet moved north from Dominica, discovering the Leeward Islands, Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico before arriving at Hispaniola on November 23.
On January 2, he established the colony of La Isabela, named after the queen,which became the first settlement of Europeans in the New World. Then in late April, three ships, led by Columbus in the Niña, explored the Cuban coastline and searched for gold in Jamaica. After not making any more progress in the treacherous conditions, Columbus gave up his quest on June 13. But unwilling to admit his faliure, he ordered his entire crew to sign a document and swear that Cuba was so large that it really must be the mainland of Cathay. On March 10, 1496, the admiral left La Isabela for Spain. He reached Cádiz on June 11 and immediately pressed his plans for a third voyage.
Depictions of the replicas of Pinta,Santa Maria
The Third Voyage
Six ships left the port Sanlúcar de Barrameda, in Southern Spain on May 30, 1498, three filled with explorers led by Columbus and three with supplies for the colonists in Hispaniola. The three ships led by Columbus headed to Dominica, the island discovered in the second voyage, when the fleet sighted an island with three hills. Columbus named it Trinidad, after the Holy Trinity. They then spotted what is now Venezuela. They were the first Europeans to see South America.
After stopping at Trinidad, Columbus entered the Gulf of Paria and planted the Spanish flag on the Paria Peninsula in Venezuela. He went ashore the mouth of the Rio Grande (the northern branch of the River Orinoco) and then knew that he had discovered a "New World" unknown to the Europeans. On August 13, Columbus set sail again, encountering several additional islands, including Margarita, and then laid a course for Hispaniola, arriving at the city of Santo Domingo on August 31, 1498, where he found a revolt against his rule. Eventually Ferdinand and Isabela appointed a new governer of Hispaniola named Francisco de Bobadilla. When Bobadilla arrived in Santo Domingo, he immediately had Columbus arrested, and in October of 1500 the Admiral was sent home to Spain in shackles.
An early stamp of the great voyager
The Fourth Voyage
On May 9, 1502, Columbus left for his fourth and what was to be his final voyage with four worm eaten old ships from Cádiz, Spain with a crew of 140 people. Columbus's brother Bartholomew, and his 13 year old younger son Fernando, were part of them. He was forbidden to stop at Hispaniola. Instead he was to complete his exploration of the "New World" (S.America)and to look most particularly for gold and the strait to India. On June 29, 1502, Columbus requested shelter from an approaching hurricane at Santo Domingo (in Hispaniola), but his request was rebuked and he found shelter at a nearby estaury.
In the period of July 1502 - September 1502, looking for the elusive westward strait, he coasted at Jamaica, the southern shore of Cuba, Honduras, and the Mosquito Coast of Nicaragua. In January 1503 he landed in Santa María de Belén on the bank of the Belén (Bethlehem) River in Panama and established a settlement there, but mutiny in the crew and trouble with the islanders led to its abandonment.
The expedition reduced to two ailing ships left for Hispaniola but they too were unable to make the distance and were stranded at the Jamaican coast. The captains of the two ships traversed the 450 mile journey by canoe to get help for the castaways on July 17, the then governor Nicolás de Ovando, delibarately delayed the help which arrived almost a year later in June, 1504 and they finally reached Hispaniola on August 13 and finally reaching Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Spain on November 7. Cristopher Columbus would never sail again.
However , although his career was marked with it's share of problems Columbus is undoubtedly the most respected explorer of his time.
Biography................Cristopher Columbus
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