Christopher Columbus - Great Voyager | FOLKSDEN
Columbus was poor and his only hope of having a ship big enough to sail the stormy Atlantic Ocean was by getting the help of a rich and powerful person. But nobody would listen to his idea of sailing westwards to China. They though it is foolish. In the end he persuaded the king and queen of Spain to give him three small ships. The largest of them was the Santa Maria of only 100 tons which carried 52 men and the smallest was of 40 tons and had a crew of 18 members.
Columbus’s biggest ship was less than the length of a cricket pitch. He set sail from Spain in August 1492, and sailed for 2 months, westwards across the Atlantic, without sign of land. Columbus’s men began to get frightened, they had seen stars falling into the sea (meteors), and they came to the place where the sea was thickly covered with sea-weed (the Sargasso Sea). The men wanted to turn back home, and began to threaten their captain. But in October some green branches and piece of wood we seen floating on the sea. They knew that the land must be near. During the night Columbus himself saw a light in the distance, and next morning the land was in sight. Was it India, China or Japan?
They landed carrying the land of Spain. It was not, of course, India, China or Japan. It was an island of the Bahama group. But the Columbus thought that he had arrived at India. The inhabitants were reddish-brown color, so he called them ‘Red Indians’. When it was proved that the Indies were not part of India they were called the ‘West Indies’.
After staying for a few months, and finding some neighboring islands (but not the mainland of America), Columbus set sail for Spain again. He arrived safely in February 1493, bringing as presents to the King of Spain – gold, cotton, some birds and animals to Europe and two Indians to prove that he had reached goal.
The Spanish king was now willing to give him ships and men for other such voyages. He sailed the very same year with 17 ships and more than 1,500 men, with animals and materials for setting up a colony in the new land. This time the voyage was made in less than 6 weeks. Columbus landed his colonists on Hispaniola (Little Spain) island, now called Haiti. He himself went on to discover more places. He never reached the mainland of North America but he explored most of the islands now called the greater Antillers. When he got back to Hispaniola after nearly a year, he found a colony in a bad condition. The people chosen for it were ignorant and greedy, and had begun to behave very badly to the Indians so that there was a rebellion. It was put down by force. And a very bad thing was done, five shiploads of Indians were sent to spain as slaves.
Meanwhile Columbus sailed back to Spain, and in 1498 set out on his third voyage. On this occasion he went farther to the south-west. He discovered the island which he named Trinidad, and then sailed along the cost of South America to the mouth of the great river Orinoco. The great quantity of water poured out showed clearly that it must be a big river, not just an island stream. Columbus began to understand that he had discovered a new continent.
The great explorer was now over 50 years old but he could not rest. In 1502 he set out on the voyage which was to be his last. He reached the West Indies, then went on to Jamaica, and finally touched the shores of Central America where Honduras now is. He thought that he had reached the country of the Great Khan (China). But he was to see no more of it, for storms drove his ships from land, and after much disappointment and difficulty he got back to Spain in 1504, worn out. Two years later he died.
