First voyage of Christopher Columbus

The first voyage of Christopher Columbus, or the "Voyage of Discovery", was a maritime expedition captained by Columbus in the service of the Catholic Monarchs, Isabella and Ferdinand of Castile and Aragon. It departed on August 3, 1492, from the port of Palos de la Frontera (Huelva, Spain).

Three vessels took part: the caravel Pinta, the caravel Niña and the nao Santa María, commanded by Martín Alonso Pinzón, Vicente Yáñez Pinzón and Christopher Columbus, respectively. The ships left Palos de la Frontera on August 3, 1492, and headed for the Canary Islands, where the rudder of the Pinta had to be repaired. On September 16, the vessels reached the Sargasso Sea, and on October 12 they arrived at the island of "Guanahani", possibly the present-day island of San Salvador, Bahamas. However, according to a study published in 1986 in National Geographic magazine, Columbus may have reached Samana Cay, another small island of the Bahamas Archipelago, although many experts do not accept this. This arrival has traditionally been called the Discovery of America. Columbus continued his journey through the Caribbean, reaching Cuba on October 27 and Hispaniola on December 5. On December 24, the Santa María ran aground on the coast of Hispaniola, and its remains were used to build Fort Navidad.

The expedition began its return on January 16, 1493, and a few days later a storm separated the two ships. The Pinta, commanded by Pinzón, reached Bayona (Galicia) at the end of February and announced the discovery to the Catholic Monarchs. Meanwhile, the Niña, on which Columbus was traveling, called on February 17 at the Portuguese island of Santa María, in the Azores. On March 4 it put in at Lisbon, after seven months and twelve days of voyage. On the 15th, Columbus returned to the port of Palos de la Frontera, and the following month the Catholic Monarchs received him in Barcelona.

Background

Florentine world map from around 1490, on which the American continent does not appear.

Geographic context

The most coveted product of the Asian Silk Road in the West was spices, both for their use in cooking and for their high price. Christopher Columbus owned a copy of The Travels of Marco Polo and had filled it with annotations, above all in the part that deals with the distances, products and riches of Asia. Even so, cartographic knowledge of the East was incomplete, and some maps identified only the Mediterranean area reliably. In the 15th century, European cuisine used saffron, ginger, cinnamon and cloves. These spices fetched very high prices in the markets: during the Renaissance, a pound of these products sold for several pesos of gold.

The Asian islands were rich in valuable spices that Europe needed, such as cloves or nutmeg, which were obtained in the Moluccas, in the South Sea. The route to the Indies ran eastward across the European continent and then through the Middle East to India or China. The Ottoman Turks were growing strong in Constantinople, and the greater their power in the Middle East, the more difficult and expensive it became to bring Eastern products.

Portugal and Castile in the Atlantic

Portugal was carrying out important maritime voyages. Toward the Atlantic it discovered the Azores and Madeira, and toward the south it explored the west coast of Africa. For its part, Castile had begun its seigneurial dominion over the Canary Islands in the 15th century. In 1476, already under the reign of the Catholic Monarchs, Diego García de Herrera, Lord of Lanzarote, led a landing on the African coast and ordered the construction of the fortress of Santa Cruz de la Mar Pequeña.

Columbus's early years in the Iberian Peninsula

Queen Isabella I of Castile was the first monarch to believe in the Columbian plan.

In 1476, corsairs attacked a ship carrying Christopher Columbus, and it sank south of Portugal. Columbus apparently managed to reach the coast by swimming. He sailed with the Portuguese for several years and learned the wind patterns between the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa. In 1478, Columbus moved to Lisbon, a place with a great seafaring tradition as well as a financial and commercial center. There he devoted himself to drawing and selling sea charts. Columbus also made voyages to England, Ireland and Iceland.

He was told that on Flores Island, in the Azores archipelago, the sea had cast up two bodies with broad faces and features different from those of Europeans.

His voyage to the Gold Mine, in Guinea, was particularly important. For centuries Europeans had believed that cities very close to the equator were too hot to be inhabited or productive, but Iberian navigators had proven long before that this was false. Columbus may have visited the Castle of São Jorge, which the Portuguese had built in 1482 to trade in gold and slaves.

Columbus settled on the Madeiran island of Porto Santo and married a daughter of the island's governor, Felipa Moniz, probably in Lisbon, where his son Diego was also born. There he began to observe several things. The vegetation had features that set it apart from that of the European continent. The winds blew frequently from the north, but in summer they sometimes blew strongly from the west and afterward left things on the beach, perhaps including sea beans, which are rare in Madeira but abundant in the Caribbean. There were also stories of carved sticks and strange woods that came from the sea.

Map made by Toscanelli in 1474 that was used by Christopher Columbus

The family of the mathematician Toscanelli had a pharmacy in Florence where they sold spices, and he was greatly interested in the geography of the East. Toscanelli drew maps using the information he gathered from sailors. One of these maps, which he sent to the Canon of Lisbon Fernando Martins, ended up in Columbus's hands. The map showed a world in which China stretched so far east that it might even be close to Europe. By that time, Claudius Ptolemy and other classical authors had already put forward theories stating that the Earth is round. In fact, that was the majority belief in the 15th century, although much later the popular myth that it was not so spread. What educated circles could not determine precisely was the distance involved in a westward voyage by sea from Europe to Asia. To make matters worse, although the ancient Greeks had calculated the sphericity of the Earth by extrapolating the measurement of one degree, Columbus made erroneous calculations that reduced the size of the planet by 25 percent. In any case, he believed he had sufficient grounds to undertake the voyage.

The search for patronage

Main article: Christopher Columbus's search for patronage

Places of significance for Columbus's first voyage in Spain and Portugal. Columbus visited these places between 1484 and 1493, except Bayona, which only the caravel Pinta, of Martín Alonso Pinzón, visited, in 1493. The towns of Palos de la Frontera and Moguer are part of a route of Lugares Colombinos (Columbian Sites), which has been declared a Bien de Interés Cultural of Spain. The Columbian Sites were inscribed on Spain's Tentative List for World Heritage, in the cultural property category (ref. no. 6080), as a proposal to be declared a World Heritage Site.

Monastery of La Rábida, in Palos de la Frontera, where Columbus stayed each time he was in Palos de la Frontera

Columbus needed financing for the voyage, so between 1483 and 1485 he approached the Monarch John II of Portugal, who referred the matter to his advisers on nautical affairs and finally rejected the project. The Portuguese Crown was at that time pursuing a plan to reach India by sailing around the south of Africa. Shortly after Columbus's project was rejected, the Portuguese navigator Bartolomeu Dias discovered the Cape of Good Hope, the southern tip of the African continent. Moreover, John II preferred to authorize the expedition proposed by Ferdinand van Olmen to sail west from the Azores to conquer the Island of the Seven Cities. King John probably preferred van Olmen's option because van Olmen committed to financing the expedition in full. After his failure before the Portuguese King, perhaps compounded by the death of his wife or perhaps also by the campaign John II launched against the House of Braganza, Columbus emigrated from Portugal to the neighboring kingdoms of Castile. The most widely accepted historical version is that Columbus arrived in Palos de la Frontera around early 1485, at the Monastery of La Rábida. There he met Friar Antonio de Marchena and, some time later, Friar Juan Pérez, in whom he confided his plans and who helped him with his project.

Columbus proposed his project to the monarchs of Castile and Aragon, Isabella and Ferdinand, who did not accept it for several reasons. At that time the monarchs were devoting all their resources to the conquest of Granada, the last Muslim kingdom of the Iberian Peninsula. Hernando de Talavera feared that the voyage Columbus proposed would violate the Treaty of Alcáçovas signed with Portugal and lead to the outbreak of another war. In addition, a commission of experts ruled that what Columbus said could not possibly be true.

Columbus then traveled to Portugal again in 1488, for unknown reasons. There he may have witnessed the return of Bartolomeu Dias from the voyage in which Dias had discovered the Cape of Good Hope, the southern tip of Africa, beyond which the sea route to India via the Indian Ocean opened up to the Portuguese. From then on, John II focused on exploiting that route and set aside westward exploration across the Atlantic. Columbus returned to Andalusia and presented his project to the Duke of Medina Sidonia, who rejected it. He then turned to Luis de la Cerda, Duke of Medinaceli, who showed interest and hosted Columbus for two years. However, when the Duke consulted the Queen, she sent for Columbus and promised to take up his plan as soon as the conquest of Granada was finished.

On November 25, 1491, Granada surrendered to the Christians. Columbus left the Monastery of La Rábida, where he had been staying since October, and joined the court at Santa Fe around December 31. Santa Fe was the camp that the Castilian-Aragonese monarchs had established in the Vega of Granada as their headquarters during the siege.

Negotiations began between Columbus and the Crown through two representatives: Juan Pérez, a friar of La Rábida, for Columbus, and the secretary Juan de Coloma, for the Crown. According to the accounts of Hernando Colón and Bartolomé de las Casas, no agreement could be reached because Columbus demanded the titles of Admiral and Viceroy, and so he was dismissed from the court. Then Luis de Santángel, a high official, interceded for Columbus before the Queen and committed to advancing the money that the Crown would have to invest in the expedition. Again according to the version of Hernando Colón and Las Casas, the Queen then changed her mind, sent a courier to bring the Genoese back and ordered Columbus to accept his requests. On April 17, 1492, they finally reached an agreement, and capitulations were drawn up that have since been called the Capitulations of Santa Fe.

Objective

There are contradictory versions of the objective of this expedition. The Capitulations of Santa Fe, dated April 17, 1492, indicate an expansionist objective (to "discover" and "gain" lands), as well as a clear economic motive. The geographic objective is vague: the document says that Columbus was going to sail toward "what he has discovered in the Ocean Seas", which implies that he already knew of territories to the west, but it gives no name or other details about them. In the Carta de Merced (Letter of Grant) of April 30, 1492, the monarchs commissioned Columbus "to discover and gain, with certain fustas of Ours and with Our people, certain islands and Mainland in the Ocean Sea". Neither of the two documents mentions any religious purpose.

By contrast, the Diary of the First Voyage, a manuscript by Bartolomé de las Casas based on now-lost texts attributed to Columbus, gives a completely different version. It mentions a more specific geographic objective located in Asia: the "parts of India" and the lands of the "Great Khan". It also mentions a preeminent religious purpose: to investigate the conversion of those regions to Christianity and to obtain riches to finance the conquest of Jerusalem.

An administrative document of May 1492 states that the destination of Columbus's fleet would be "las Yndias" (the Indies). The Crown also gave Columbus a safe-conduct in Latin after the signing of the Capitulations of Santa Fe, intended to be read by foreign authorities. It states that Columbus has been sent "per maria oçeana ad partes Indie" ("through the ocean seas to the parts of India") for, among other purposes, "fidei ortodoxe aumentum" ("the increase of the orthodox faith"). On the other hand, the texts attributed to Columbus have led to the view that his main objective was the island of Cipango.

Preparations

Financing

The money needed for the expedition, some two million maravedís, was provided as follows:

• The main contribution came from the Crown, with 1,140,000 maravedís. The escribano de ración (ration scribe) Luis de Santángel advanced the cash in Santa Fe and collected the debt barely fifteen days later. This was the time that elapsed between April 17, when the Capitulations were signed and he had to hand over the money, and May 5, the date of the payment order. He was repaid through a payment from the treasury of the Crusade in the bishopric of Badajoz. An entry of May 5 in the account book of the Treasurer of the Crusade in the bishopric of Badajoz records this sum that the Crown spent on the undertaking. The item in question reads as follows: "that the said Alonso de las Cabezas gave and paid… one million one hundred forty thousand maravedís to pay the said ration scribe on account of the same amount that he lent for the payment of the three caravels that Their Highnesses ordered to go as an armada to the Indies, and to pay Christopher Columbus, who goes in the said armada."
• Columbus contributed 500,000 maravedís, capital that he did not personally possess and that someone must have lent him. Bartolomé de las Casas wrote that Martín Alonso Pinzón or one of his brothers lent it to him, while the historian Consuelo Varela has argued that the lender may have been Juanoto Berardi, a Florentine businessman settled in Seville.
• The remaining 360,000 maravedís corresponded to the two fitted-out caravels that the royal provision obliged Palos to place at Columbus's disposal.

Capitulations and royal orders

Capitulations of Santa Fe

Main article: Capitulations of Santa Fe

They were signed on April 17, 1492, in the town of Santa Fe, in the Province of Granada. The Capitulations of Santa Fe were the agreements that Christopher Columbus reached with the Catholic Monarchs to carry out the voyage. Under their terms, Columbus was granted:

• the lifelong and hereditary title of "Admiral of the Ocean Sea";
• the title of "Viceroy and Governor" of the lands he discovered in the name of the Kingdom;
• the right to receive one tenth of the riches and merchandise;
• the authority to adjudicate disputes arising over riches;
• the right to contribute one eighth of the cost of the expedition in exchange for one eighth of the profits obtained.

Royal provisions ordering caravels to be placed at Columbus's service

Church of San Jorge Mártir in Palos de la Frontera.

Among the various royal provisions and decrees granted to Columbus for carrying out his project, one was addressed to some of the residents of the town of Palos on account of a penalty that the royal council had imposed on them. The royal provision was read on May 23, 1492, at the doors of the Church of San Jorge in Palos de la Frontera, in the presence of Christopher Columbus, Friar Juan Pérez and the local authorities. This royal provision ordered those residents to place two fully armed and rigged caravels at Columbus's disposal.

Royal Provision of the Catholic Monarchs
Addressed to certain residents of Palos so that they deliver two caravels to Christopher Columbus
... You well know how, because of certain things done and committed by you in disservice to us, you were sentenced by those of our Council to be obliged to serve us for two months with two armed caravels at your own cost and expense, whenever and wherever you should be ordered by us, under certain penalties, as is more fully contained in the said sentence that was given against you. And now, inasmuch as we have ordered Christopher Columbus to go with three armed caravels, as our captain of the said three caravels, to certain parts of the Ocean Sea on certain matters that concern our service, and we wish that he take with him the said two caravels with which you are thus to serve us...

— Granada, April 30, 1492.
General Archive of the Indies. Reference: PATRONATO, 295, N.3.

Archaeological remains of the historic Port of Palos de la Frontera, the place from which Columbus's first voyage departed.

The residents to whom this provision refers replied:

... that they were ready to comply with it in all and for all as Their Highnesses command...

— Back of the Royal Provision.

Port of Moguer and shipyards of the Niña.

Another, general, royal provision that the Catholic Monarchs granted to Columbus placed obligations on the towns of the Andalusian coast:

...the cities and towns and places of the coast of the sea of Andalusia as well as of all our kingdoms and Lordships (...) You know that we have ordered Christopher Columbus to go with three caravels to certain parts of the Ocean Sea as our captain (...) therefore we order all and each one of you in your places and jurisdictions that whenever the said Christopher Columbus should need....

— Granada, April 30, 1492.
General Archive of the Indies. Reference: PATRONATO, 295, N.4.

With this last provision, Columbus seized two ships in Moguer in the presence of the Moguer notary Alonso Pardo; these vessels were later discarded. According to the testimony of Hernández Colmenero, Columbus also seized ships in Palos de la Frontera using the same provision. Apparently, he also attempted it in the nearby town of Huelva, judging from the testimony of Pedro Ortiz. But he still could not manage to enlist the crew the enterprise required. On June 20, in Guadalupe, the monarchs then issued a power addressed to the town of Palos and a commission to the town of Moguer. These were intended to enforce the previous royal provisions: the one addressed to the town of Palos and the general one that Columbus had used in Moguer.

Ships

Models of the Niña, the Pinta and the Santa María.

By virtue of the royal provision mentioned above, Palos de la Frontera was obliged to supply two fully equipped caravels. These were in the end the Pinta and the Niña, chosen by Martín Alonso Pinzón, as many testimonies in the Columbian lawsuits indicate. The Santa María would be the flagship nao (the vessel that led the expedition). The Santa María was a ship owned by Juan de la Cosa, a native, possibly, of Santoña, in Cantabria, but a resident of El Puerto de Santa María.

But the seamen of the area, who were not bound by the royal provision, were not willing to join an expedition with a stranger, which is what Columbus was to those men. Regardless of how credible the Columbian ideas were, the men of Palos and its surroundings would hardly follow the Genoese unless a navigator respected in the town accompanied him. Faced with the opposition of the residents and the sailors, Columbus resorted to one of the provisions issued by the monarchs, which gave him permission to recruit sailors from among prisoners. He recruited only four convicts: a murderer and the three friends who had helped him escape from jail.

In these circumstances, and thanks to the help of the Franciscans of the Monastery of La Rábida and of Pero Vázquez de la Frontera, an old and respected sailor of the area, Columbus met Martín Alonso Pinzón. Pinzón was a rich shipowner and the natural leader of the area, thanks to his many voyages in both the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, through which he had amassed fortune and fame. Besides the encouragement and influence of these friends, the eldest of the Pinzón brothers may also have been won over by the proposal that, according to the testimony of Alonso Gallego, Columbus made to Martín Alonso:

...Señor Martín Alonso, let us go on this voyage, for if we succeed in it and God reveals the land to us, I promise you by the royal crown to share with you as with a brother of mine...

— Columbian lawsuits.

Replicas of the caravels at La Rábida (Palos de la Frontera)

Be that as it may, from that moment Martín Alonso began an energetic campaign in favor of the enterprise. He discarded the ships that Columbus had seized and hired new ones, the Pinta and the Niña. It is said that he knew they were very fast sailers and "fit for the business of sailing" because he had once leased one of them. According to Bartolomé de las Casas, Pinzón also lent Columbus half a million maravedís from his personal estate, one third of the enterprise's cash expenses. Martín Alonso persuaded his brothers Francisco and Vicente, as well as the Niño brothers, a prominent seafaring family of Moguer and owners of the caravel Niña. With their help it was possible to encourage and enlist all the seamen the enterprise needed: men from Palos, from neighboring Moguer, from Huelva, from the rest of the region and even from outside Andalusia. These seamen were now willing to risk the voyage, because the fact that Martín Alonso Pinzón, with his brothers and the Niños, was at the head of the armada was a guarantee for the men of the Tinto-Odiel area.

Thanks to this, on June 23 the enlistment roll was opened peacefully in Palos de la Frontera, and the necessary seamen enlisted freely. As Father Ortega states in his work, it is likely that the monarchs' writ of execution (the power and the commission addressed to Palos and to neighboring Moguer) could not have arrived within three days, given the distance from Guadalupe to Palos de la Frontera. In light of what had already happened, these documents would have become unnecessary.

Crew

The list of crew members of the first voyage of discovery of 1492 is a subject of debate, since the full crew that took part is not known exactly, apart from the best-known names. Besides Christopher Columbus himself, there were the Pinzón brothers: Martín Alonso Pinzón was captain of the Pinta, Vicente Yáñez Pinzón was captain of the Niña, and Francisco Martín was master of the Pinta. There were also the Niño brothers: Pedro Alonso Niño went as pilot and Juan Niño as master and owner of the Niña.

Around the time of the IV Centenary celebrations in 1892, various historians published crew lists, among them Fernández Duro, Tenorio and Henry Vignaud. In 1902 the Duchess of Alba also published the 1498 copy of the embarkation "Rol", which added 40 new names. However, it was the American historian Alice Bache Gould who compiled the list that is still considered the most authoritative, thanks to her exhaustive study of the original documentary sources held in the various Spanish state archives. Her list consists of 87 certain crew members and 19 doubtful ones. Father Ángel Ortega, a Franciscan of the Monastery of La Rábida whom Alice B. Gould herself cited several times in her work, also carried out an exhaustive study of the crew of this voyage, although it focused on the sailors of the Tinto-Odiel area.

The following list of confirmed crew members has been compiled mainly from the data of Alice B. Gould, checked against the other authors, especially Ángel Ortega.

Santa María	Pinta	Niña	Caravel unknown
Officers Christopher Columbus, Admiral, captain general. (Genoa?). Juan de la Cosa, master and owner. (Santoña? / El Puerto de Santa María?). Pedro Alonso Niño, pilot. (Moguer). Chanchu, boatswain. (Lekeitio). Diego de Arana, constable of the fleet. (Córdoba). Pero Gutiérrez, royal steward (repostero de estrados) of the King. Rodrigo de Escobedo, notary of the armada. (Segovia). Rodrigo Sánchez de Segovia, inspector (veedor). Sailors Antonio de Cuéllar. (Cuéllar). Domingo de Lequeitio. (Lekeitio). Gonzalo Franco. (Seville?). Jácome el Rico. (Genoa). Juan de Jerez (Xerez). (Moguer). Pedro Izquierdo, criminal. (Lepe). Pedro de Villa. (Santoña). Rodrigo de Jerez (Xerez). (Ayamonte). Ruy García. (Santoña). Ship's boys Martín de Urtubia. Santa María de Anchitua. Pedro de Lepe. (La Redondela). Other trades Diego Pérez, painter. (Murcia). Domingo (Pérez?), cooper. (Lekeitio). Juan Portugués. Black man, servant of Columbus. Lope, caulker. (Biscayan?). Luis de Torres, interpreter. (Moguer). Maestre Juan, surgeon. Pero de Salcedo, page of Columbus. Pedro de Terreros, steward (maestresala) of Columbus.	Officers Martín Alonso Pinzón, captain. (Palos). Francisco Martín Pinzón, master. (Palos). Cristóbal García Sarmiento, pilot. (Palos?). Juan Quintero de Algruta (or Argueta), boatswain. (Palos). Juan Reynal, constable?. (Huelva). Sailors Álvaro. (Huelva?). Antón Calabrés. Servant of Martín A. Pinzón. (Calabria?) (Palos?). Cristóbal Quintero, co-owner. (Palos). Francisco García Vallejos. (Moguer). Gil Pérez, (Huelva?). Gómez Rascón, co-owner. (Palos?). Juan Rodríguez Bermejo. (Molinos, Seville). (Rodrigo de Triana). (Lepe?) Juan Verde de Triana. (Moguer?). Juan Veçano. (Palos?). Pedro de Arcos. (Palos?). Sancho de Rama. (Palos). Ship's boys Alonso de Palos. (Palos). Bernal. (Palos?). Diego Bermúdez. (Palos). Fernando Medel (Méndez?). (Palos?) (Huelva?). Francisco Medel (Méndez?). (Huelva). Juan Arias. (Tavira). Juan Quadrado. (Palos?). Other trades Maestre Diego, apothecary / surgeon?. García Fernández, steward (despensero). (Huelva).	Officers Vicente Yáñez Pinzón, captain. (Palos). Juan Niño, master and owner. (Moguer). Sancho Ruiz de Gama, pilot. Bartolomé García, boatswain. (Palos?). Diego Lorenzo, constable. (Huelva). Sailors Alonso de Morales. (Moguer). Bartolomé Roldán. (Moguer). Juan Arráez. (Palos?). Juan Martínez de Azoque. (Deva). Juan Romero. (Palos?) (Huelva?). Juan Ruiz de la Peña. (Biscayan). Pedro Arráez. (Palos?). Ship's boys Andrés de Huelva. Fernando de Triana. Francisco de Huelva. (Huelva). Other trades Maestre Alonso, physician. (Moguer). Juan de Medina, tailor. (Palos).	Sailors Alonso Clavijo, criminal. (Veguer. Vejer de la Frontera?). Santa María? Bartolomé Bives. (Palos). Bartolomé de Torres, criminal. (Palos). Diego Martín Pinzón. (Palos). Francisco Niño. (Moguer). García Alonso. (Palos?). Juan de Moguer, criminal. (Palos). Juan de la Plaza. (Palos). Pedro Sánchez de Montilla. (Huelva?) Pinta or Niña? Ship's boys Alonso (Chocero?). (Palos?). Andrés de Yevenes. (Huelva?). Cristóbal Caro, silversmith. (Santa María de Anchitua?). Diego Leal. (Moguer). Juan (Ortiz?). (Palos?). Miguel de Soria. (Palos?). Pedro Tegero.(Palos?) Pinta or Niña? Rodrigo Gallego. (Palos?). Rodrigo Monge. (Moguer?).(Palos?).

Course of the voyage

Reconstruction of the itinerary of the first of the four voyages that Columbus made to America, since the Indies lay to the right but Columbus went the other way, based on the data in the Diario attributed to Columbus.

Royal banner of the Catholic Monarchs from the capture of Granada onward.

Outbound voyage

Christopher Columbus set out with three caravels: the Niña, the Pinta, and a larger one, the Santa María. It is called a nao several times in the Diario del primer viaje, a term similar to ship or vessel, which does not necessarily mean that it was a carrack rather than a caravel. They sailed from the Atlantic Port of Palos (in the present-day Province of Huelva, Spain). According to the Diario compiled by Bartolomé de las Casas, they put to sea on August 3, 1492, whereas the chronicle of Andrés Bernáldez states that they left Palos "in September" and Peter Martyr wrote that they left the Hispanic coast at the beginning of September.

The three ships headed for the Canary Islands, where they remained taking on provisions until September 6, specifically on La Gomera. There, according to the Historia del Almirante (a version not corroborated by other sources), Columbus visited the governor of the island, Beatriz de Bobadilla y Ulloa. On Gran Canaria he repaired the rudder of the Pinta and replaced its original triangular sails with square ones, making it the fastest caravel of the small fleet. Once their stay in the islands was over, they began the crossing of the Atlantic Ocean, heading west.

Columbus thought that the distance between Spain and Japan would be between 750 and 800 leagues from the Canaries (around 4000 km). The actual distance is some 19,000 kilometers, with a continent in between located at 6500 kilometers. The caravels on this voyage covered between 80 and 220 kilometers per day, reaching almost 340 on one of the days, which was a remarkable speed for the Middle Ages.

On September 14, those aboard the Niña said they had seen a pair of two species of birds. On September 16, the expedition reached the Sargasso Sea, filled with a great quantity of seaweed. By October 6 they had covered some 800 leagues according to the pilots' reckoning, or more than 950 according to Columbus's. The crew began to grow impatient, and Martín Alonso Pinzón then asked Columbus to change course to the southwest. Columbus refused, but two days later he agreed. On October 10 the sailors were voicing many complaints, but Columbus persuaded them to wait, telling them that his purpose was to reach the Indies. They had already seen vegetation in the water and birds, which indicated that there might be land nearby. On October 12, 1492, according to the Diario, a sailor of the Pinta named Rodrigo de Triana at last sighted land. It was a Caribbean island that the Indians called Guanahani, and which Columbus named San Salvador.

Exploration of the Antilles

Romantic vision of Columbus's landing on the island of Guanahani. Painting by Dióscoro Puebla

Guanahani, Samana, Yumay and Someto on the map of Juan de la Cosa, who took part in this expedition.

Columbus went ashore with the crew, carrying a royal banner. The account of the voyage does not describe the image further, and Columbus is often depicted with the royal standard of Castile. However, the royal banner was the banner of the Catholic Monarchs, which showed the heraldry of Castile and of Aragon and, from the capture of Granada onward, would also show a pomegranate in its lower part. His two captains accompanied him with two banners bearing a green cross and the letters F and Y, standing for Fernando and Ysabel (Isabel), the Catholic Monarchs of Spain. Columbus thought he was on islands of the Indies, but in reality he was in the archipelago of a new continent.

There they made contact with the natives, who were impressed at seeing white men with beards, metal weapons and enormous ships, and even asked them whether they had come from heaven. Columbus exchanged objects of little value with the natives and showed interest in the small amounts of gold that some of them wore. One of the things that caught Columbus's attention on the island of San Salvador was that the Indians had scars on their bodies. Columbus pointed to them and asked what they were, and they said that Indians from other nearby islands came to take them and they defended themselves. Columbus, however, interpreted that those who came to carry them off really came from the mainland.

From San Salvador they continued the voyage through the Bahamas. They 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). They also discovered another small one that he called Fernandina (present-day Long Island) in honor of King Ferdinand. A few days later he discovered another island that he called Isabela (present-day Crooked), in honor of Queen Isabella. Afterwards they headed for the eastern coast of a large island that they called Juana (present-day Cuba). In 1515 the name Juana would be replaced by Fernandina, because it was not considered appropriate for King Ferdinand to have only an island as small as the one in the Bahamas dedicated to him.

They coasted Cuba slowly, without being able to trade, because Columbus had expressly forbidden it. On November 2 Columbus sent four men to explore the interior, two Europeans and two Indians. While they waited, Columbus measured the latitude with his quadrant and, according to Las Casas, obtained a value of 42° north, which is in fact impossible to observe from Cuba. The explorers returned on November 12. For a week Columbus was undecided about which course to take next, further disoriented by another latitude measurement that again gave 42°.

On November 21, Martín Alonso Pinzón, with the Pinta, separated from Columbus and set course to the 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 holds 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 course laid out beforehand of going to Babeque. The route followed by Pinzón is not known with certainty either. 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 Pinzón merely went to Babeque and from there to Hispaniola. According to Varela Marcos, several indications suggest that, after passing Babeque, Pinzón sailed to Jamaica and from there went around Hispaniola by the east. According to Gregory McIntosh, Pinzón discovered seven islands of the present-day Bahamas and Turks and Caicos, as well as the Babueca shoals. There they found reddish pearls and then set course to the south.

Columbus continued sailing east along the coast of Cuba, and on December 6 he sighted the western end of a large island, which he named La Española. He called a small harbor-shaped gulf San Nicolás, because it was discovered on that saint's day. He sailed east along the northern coast of the island, where he found Tortuga Island, and throughout his voyage he investigated, with the help of native guides, where the gold came from. Sailing toward the east of the island he found a cape that he called Cabo Santo and, farther east, on January 4, 1493, he sighted a large mountain jutting into the sea, resembling an island, which he called Monte Cristi and which now gives its name to that whole region of the island.

Columbus established contact, through various envoys, with one of the native caciques of Hispaniola, Guacanagari. On Christmas Eve 1492, on the island of Hispaniola, the nao Santa María ran aground on a sandbank and was wrecked. Columbus received help from the native cacique to rescue the crew and the cargo. Columbus then met the cacique in person, who gave him gifts, among them a box of gold. The two agreed that the Spaniards would protect Guacanagari's cacicazgo of Maraná from the island's cannibal cacique called Caonabo, of the cacicazgo of Maguana. For this purpose, before leaving, Columbus would leave a settlement on the island with 39 men in a stockade: Fort Navidad, built with the remains of the Santa María in works that began on December 26, 1492.

Meanwhile, the Pinta had also reached the northern coast of Hispaniola, farther east from where Columbus was. They discovered a harbor at the mouth of a river that they called de Martín Alonso (later renamed Río de Gracia by Columbus; present-day Luperón Bay). According to Las Casas, they obtained much gold there through barter with the natives. News of Pinzón's arrival reached Guacanagari on December 27, and he passed it on to Columbus. The cacique sent a canoe to investigate, on which Columbus embarked one of his men, but they did not locate the Pinta. Pinzón, for his part, also learned from the natives of Columbus's shipwreck a few days earlier and decided to sail there. On January 6 he finally arrived where Columbus's Niña was. The two captains talked, and it seems that Columbus forgave Pinzón's separation with his ship; although, according to the Diario, this forgiveness was only apparent. In any case, the news of the gold pleased Columbus, who would later remark to the Monarchs how timely it was of God to have made the Santa María run aground in that place. One of the most interesting things of the voyage for the Admiral was discovering that on the island there was a region that the natives called Cibao, which to Columbus sounded similar to Cipango, the name by which Japan was known.

Relations with the natives were eminently peaceful, marked by curiosity, mutual gifts and collaboration. However, on January 13, 1493, a skirmish took place in the Gulf of Las Flechas, on Hispaniola. Some seven Spaniards went ashore from the boats and began buying arrows, bows and other weapons from the Indians. At one point the Indians did not want to give any more and ran to the place where they had set aside their bows, returning with ropes to tie up the Christians. Because of this the Spaniards fell upon them, stabbing one Indian in the buttocks and shooting another with an arrow in the chest. The Indians, although there were fifty-odd of them and only seven Christians, saw that the Spaniards' weapons were more effective and ran off. The sailors returned in the boats to the ship and told what had happened to the Admiral, who had already warned them that this could happen.

Map of the northern coast of the island of Hispaniola attributed to Columbus. It is preserved in the archive of the Palacio de Liria, Madrid.

Return voyage

On January 15, 1493, Columbus decided to depart, and on the 16th the caravels Pinta and Niña left Hispaniola bound for Spain. According to Las Casas, Columbus ordered the Castilians who stayed on the island to abide by whatever the cacique Guacanagari said and not to leave his domains. Several objects collected during the expedition were loaded onto the Niña, along with 10 Indians, two of them sons of Guacanagari.

On February 14, 1493, on the return voyage, they ran into a strong storm that nearly sank the vessels. In this difficult situation, Christopher Columbus decided to draw lots for the promise to make pilgrimages to several churches in thanksgiving for overcoming such a difficult situation. The storms caused the caravels of Columbus and Martín Alonso Pinzón to become separated once again.

The Pinta was the first to return to the Iberian Peninsula, arriving at Bayona, in Galicia, probably toward the end of February 1493. Martín Alonso Pinzón wrote several letters about the discovery to various places in Spain and, of course, to the Court, which was in Barcelona; this news reached the Court on March 4. After this, Martín Alonso set out with the Pinta for Palos.

For its part, Columbus's Niña had an encounter, apparently involuntary, with Portugal. Because of the storm, Columbus was forced to put in at the Azores, islands 850 miles from Portugal and controlled by that country. There Columbus was arrested and later released. Because of another storm, he ended up putting in at Lisbon on March 4, where he met King John II of Portugal and informed him of his discovery. On the 4th Columbus wrote a letter to the Catholic Monarchs, which reached the Court on March 20, 16 days after Pinzón's.

After his meeting with the King of Portugal, Columbus weighed anchor with the Niña at Alhandra (near Lisbon) on March 13. He sailed along the coast of Portugal and then along the coast of Huelva to the port of Palos, where he arrived on March 15 according to the Diario, or on March 23 according to Bernáldez. According to the testimony of Juan Rodríguez Cabezudo, the caravel Niña remained anchored in the vicinity of La Rábida, where Columbus stayed until at least the visit of the inquisitors. He must then have gone to Moguer to fulfill the vow he had made at the Monastery of Santa Clara. The Pinta arrived in Palos on the same day as the Niña, but Martín Alonso de Pinzón, gravely ill, died at La Rábida around March 31.

Reception of Columbus by the Monarchs of Spain

Columbus arrived in Seville on March 20, 1493, according to Las Casas, or, according to Andrés Bernáldez, on March 31, Palm Sunday. There he began to prepare a second voyage to the Indies and dispatched a series of letters about the discovery. The Catholic Monarchs wrote Columbus a letter on March 30, 1493, from Barcelona, in which they asked him to hasten to come and see them and to begin preparing the second voyage to the Indies:

Columbus is received by the Monarchs of Spain

Don Cristóbal Colón, our Admiral of the Ocean Sea, and Viceroy and Governor of the islands that have been discovered in the Indies [...] and because we wish that what you have begun with the help of God be continued and carried forward, and we desire that your coming be at once: therefore, for our service, make the greatest haste you can in your coming, so that everything that is needed may be provided in time; and because, as you see, summer has begun, and so that the time for going there not pass, see whether something can be prepared in Seville or in other places for your return to the land you have found: and write to us at once with this courier, who is to return promptly, so that it may be provided at once how it is to be done, while you come here and return: so that when you go back from here, everything will be ready.

Columbus must have remained in Seville until April 9 or 10. It has been speculated that he spent these days as guest of honor at the house of the city's chief magistrate (asistente mayor) or of Archbishop Diego Hurtado de Mendoza. The priest Andrés Bernáldez asserted that Columbus was his guest, and since Bernáldez was then priest in the Sevillian municipality of Los Palacios, he may have stayed at his house there. There are no specific references to Columbus's reception in the City of Seville, although the historian Henry Harrise states that a celebration similar to that of Corpus Christi was held.

Columbus dressed in his finery and set off for Barcelona with Juan Niño and six of the ten Indians he had brought from the Indies, with whom he had walked about Seville and who, it is said, were placed at the Arch of the Images (arco de las Imágenes), near the Church of San Nicolás, in the Barrio de Santa Cruz. He also brought green and red parrots, guaizas made by the Indians from precious stones and fish bones, and elaborate gold belts. According to Las Casas, he made the journey overland, stopping, though only briefly, so that the inhabitants of the towns could see the procession. However, no testimony survives of the supposed retinue passing through any Spanish town, so many historians doubt that it took place.

He was received by the Catholic Monarchs, with all this baggage, at the Monastery of San Jerónimo de la Murtra, in Badalona, near Barcelona, in April. Members of the nobility were also present. Columbus knelt before the Monarchs and asked to take their hands, and, when they had offered them, he kissed them. Then the Monarchs, in a gesture of honor, made him rise and offered him a chair to sit on. In the Cathedral of Barcelona six Indians were baptized in the presence of the Catholic Monarchs. One of them, from the island of San Salvador, was given the name Diego Colón in honor of the younger brother of his godfather, Christopher Columbus, and stood out for his capacity to learn. The Admiral remained in Barcelona until May 28 and again set out overland, returning to Seville on June 20.

Results and consequences

The immediate consequences of this voyage were:

• First, the immediate prohibition by the Catholic Monarchs on their subjects going "to the Indies" without authorization.
• From Columbus's arrival in Lisbon onward, diplomatic tension between Portugal and the Catholic Monarchs. King John II went so far as to threaten to send a squadron under the command of Francisco de Almeida to take possession of the islands discovered by Columbus.
• Rapid spread throughout Europe of the news of Columbus's arrival in the Indies by means of a series of printed letters.
• The obtaining, by the ambassadors of the Catholic Monarchs and churchmen in Rome, of bulls, known as the "Alexandrine Bulls", by which Pope Alexander VI granted Castile and León the monopoly over the lands discovered west of a certain meridian.
• In parallel with the diplomatic negotiations, Columbus's preparation of a second expedition to the Indies, much larger in ships and men, which departed from Cádiz on September 25, 1493.
• A final agreement between Portugal and Castile and Aragon with the signing of the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494), which delimited the territories of both powers in the Atlantic by means of a meridian different from that of the Alexandrine Bulls.

Historical sources

Main article: Sources on the first voyage of Columbus

The so-called Diario de a bordo de Colón (Columbus's logbook), a manuscript by an unknown author generally attributed to Bartolomé de las Casas, is the best-known source on Columbus's first voyage. There is, however, a long list of contemporary texts, private or official, that provide different versions of the events or additional details. Among them are the letters announcing the Discovery, which circulated in various printed versions throughout Europe; the Historia del Almirante written by Hernando Colón and published in the mid-16th century; and the statements of participants in the voyage called to testify during the so-called Columbian lawsuits, which pitted Columbus's descendants against the Crown.

See also

• Category:Participants in the first voyage of Columbus
• Pinzón brothers
• Niño brothers
• Second voyage of Columbus
• Third voyage of Columbus
• Fourth voyage of Columbus
• Columbian Sites

Bibliography

Primary sources

• Bernáldez, Andrés. "Chapter 118". Historia de los reyes católicos D. Fernando y Doña Isabel (in español). Seville: Imprenta que fue de D. José María Geofrin, 1870.
• De las Casas, Bartolomé. Diario de la primera navegación (in español). Biblioteca Nacional de España: (manuscript).
• De las Casas, Bartolomé (1875). Historia de las Indias (in español) (Edition of the Marqués de la Fuensanta del Valle and José Sancho Rayón ed.). Madrid: Imprenta de Miguel Ginesta.
• Diario de Colón (1892). Relaciones y cartas de Cristóbal Colón (in español). Madrid: Librería de la viuda de Hernando y Cª. pp. 1–183.
• Colón, Hernando (1892). "Chapters XIV–XLI". Historia del almirante Don Cristóbal Colón. Primer volumen (in español). Madrid: Tomás Minuesa. Retrieved April 14, 2021.
• Fernández de Oviedo, Gonzalo. "Chapters V and VI". Historia general y natural de las Indias, islas y tierra-firme del mar océano (in español). Madrid: Published by the Real Academia de la Historia, 1851.
• López de Gómara, Francisco. "Chapters XV, XVI and XVII". Historia general de las Indias (in español). Madrid: Calpe, 1922.
• Mártir de Anglería, Pedro. "Chapters I, II, III and IV". Décadas de Orbe Novo. Libro I (in español). Madrid: Imp. de la S. E. de San Francisco de Sales, 1892.
• Muro Orejón, Antonio, ed. (1967). Pleitos Colombinos (in español). Vol. Tomo I. Proceso hasta la sentencia de Sevilla (1511). Seville: CSIC - Escuela de Estudios Hispano-Americanos (EEHA). ISBN 9788400020378.
• Muro Orejón, Antonio, ed. (1983). Pleitos Colombinos (in español). Vol. Tomo II. Pleito sobre el Darien (1512-1519). Seville: CSIC - Escuela de Estudios Hispano-Americanos (EEHA). ISBN 9788400052478.
• Muro Orejón, Antonio, ed. (1984). Pleitos Colombinos (in español). Vol. Tomo III. Probanzas del Almirante de las Indias (1512-1515). Seville: CSIC - Escuela de Estudios Hispano-Americanos (EEHA). ISBN 9788400057985.
• Muro Orejón, Antonio, ed. (1989). Pleitos Colombinos (in español). Vol. Tomo IV. Probanzas del fiscal (1512-1515). Seville: CSIC - Escuela de Estudios Hispano-Americanos (EEHA). ISBN 9788400069605.
• Muro Orejón, Antonio, ed. (1964). Pleitos Colombinos (in español). Vol. Tomo VIII. Rollo sobre la apelación de la sentencia de Dueñas (1534-1536). Seville: CSIC - Escuela de Estudios Hispano-Americanos (EEHA). ISBN 9788400002985. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)

Secondary sources

• Fernández Duro, Cesáreo (1883). Colón y Pinzón (in español). Real Academia de la Historia.
• Fernández Duro, Cesáreo (1892). Pinzón en el descubrimiento de las Indias: con noticias críticas de algunas obras recientes relacionadas con el mismo descubrimiento (in español). Est. tip. "Sucesores de Rivadeneyra".
• Ortega, Ángel (1925). La Rábida. Historia documental crítica. 4 vols. (Ed. facsímil) (in español). Diputación Provincial de Huelva. Servicio de Publicaciones. ISBN 9788450038606. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
• Verlinden, Charles; Pérez-Embid, Florentino (1967). Cristóbal Colón y el descubrimiento de América (in español). Ediciones Rialp. ISBN 9788432114199.
• Morales Padrón, Francisco (1981). Historia del descubrimiento y conquista de América (in español). Madrid: Editora Nacional. ISBN 9788427602915.
• Bache Gould, Alice (1984). Nueva lista documentada de los tripulantes de Colón en 1492 (in español). Madrid: Real Academia de la Historia. ISBN 9788460038290.
• Rumeu de Armas, Antonio (1985). Nueva luz sobre las capitulaciones de Santa Fe de 1492 concertadas entre los Reyes Católicos y Cristóbal Colón: estudio institucional y diplomático (in español). Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. ISBN 9788400059613.
• Manzano y Manzano, Juan; Manzano Fernández-Heredia, Ana María (1988). Los Pinzones y el Descubrimiento de América. 3 vols (in español). Madrid: Ediciones de Cultura Hispánica. ISBN 9788472324428.
• Varela, Consuelo (1988). Colón y los florentinos (in español). Madrid: Alianza Editorial. ISBN 978842064222-2.
• Serra Pickman, Carlos (1992). Cristóbal Colón: sus estancias y enterramiento en la Cartuja de Sevilla (in español). ISBN 9788471170514.
• Varela Marcos, Jesús; León Guerrero, Montserrat (2003). El Itinerario de Cristóbal Colón (1451-1506) (in español). Valladolid: Diputación de Valladolid. ISBN 8478522298.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Ropero Regidor, Diego (2003). Moguer y América en la era de los descubrimientos (in español). Huelva: Fundación Municipal de Cultura. ISBN 9788460789321.
• Varela Marcos, Jesús (2005). Colón y Pinzón, descubridores de América (in español). Valladolid: Universidad de Valladolid. I.E.I.P. ISBN 9788493393809.
• Venzke, Andreas (2005). Cristóbal Colón (in español). Translated by VALERO MARTÍN, Alicia. Madrid: Edaf S.A. ISBN 9788441416918.
• Arranz Márquez, Luis (2006). Cristóbal Colón: misterio y grandeza (in español). Madrid: Marcial Pons. Ediciones de Historia. ISBN 9788496467231.
• Díaz-Trechuelo Spínola, María Lourdes (2006). Cristóbal Colón (in español) (Second ed.). Ediciones Palabra. ISBN 9788498400205.
• Varela, Consuelo (2010). Cristóbal Colón y la construcción de un mundo nuevo. Estudios, 1983-2008 (in español). Santo Domingo, D.N. (Dominican Republic): Archivo General de la Nación. ISBN 9789945020984.
• González Cruz, David (coord.) (2012). Descubridores de América, Colón, los marinos y los puertos (in español). Madrid: Sílex ediciones. ISBN 9788477377399.

External links

• "Colón y la era del Descubrimiento". www.rtve.es (Documentary) (in español). Produced by WGBH, TVE and the Sociedad Estatal Quinto Centenario, in collaboration with the BBC, RAI, RTP, NDR and NHK. Broadcast dubbed on TVE. Directed and written by Thomas Friedman, with advice from historians such as Mauricio Obregón, William McNeil, Consuelo Varela, Juan Gil and Román Gubern. RTVE. 1992. Retrieved November 5, 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
• Colón y el viaje del descubrimiento (in Spanish)
• Escuela de Estudios Hispanoamericanos (in Spanish)
• Muelle de las Carabelas. Palos de la Frontera (Huelva). Diputación de Huelva. (in Spanish)
• Decree 553/1967, of March 2, of the Government of Spain, declaring the area known as the «Columbian Sites» (Lugares Colombinos), in the Province of Huelva, a historic-artistic ensemble.
• Decree 167/2016, of October 18, entering the Columbian Sites in the General Catalog of Andalusian Historical Heritage as Assets of Cultural Interest