A Journey With Christopher Columbus

Uses primary source documents to follow Christopher Columbus on his journeys to the New World.

Christopher Columbus and his crew had been sailing for five weeks into uncharted waters before finally reaching land one blazing hot day in 1492. It was a difficult journey that many predicted would be impossible, but Columbus proved them wrong and his voyage changed the world. Columbus had done it: he was the first man to reach the East by sailing west, and he was heralded as the Father of the New World. Columbus would take three more voyages to different places, but he remains best known as the pioneer who opened routes to the exploration and settlement of the Americas. Book jacket.

No gamble in history has been more momentous than the landfall of Columbus's ship the Santa Maria in the Americas in 1492 - an event that paved the way for the conquest of a 'New World'. The accounts collected here provide a vivid narrative of his voyages throughout the Caribbean and finally to the mainland of Central America, although he still believed he had reached Asia. Columbus himself is revealed as a fascinating and contradictory figure, fluctuating from awed enthusiasm to paranoia and eccentric geographical speculation. Prey to petty quarrels with his officers, his pious desire to bring Christian civilization to 'savages' matched by his rapacity for gold, Columbus was nonetheless an explorer and seaman of staggering vision and achievement.

Four times Christopher Columbus crossed the Atlantic Ocean. Along the way, he lived through storms and shipwrecks. He visited many islands and met native peoples. He started colonies for Spain. Once he was sent home in chains. Columbus always believed he had reached the East, or Asia. One of the most famous explorers of all times never knew where he had been!

To these days, the best authorities agree that the children and the grown people of the world have never been mistaken when they have said: “America was discovered in 1492 by Christopher Columbus, a native of Genoa". But what do we really know about the man behind this name, the life behind the myth? Discover the man that experienced incredible adventures, the man with ferocious drive, but still a man of flesh and blood whose life story, spirit and destiny will move you in a way you didn't expect. Contents: Early Life of Columbus: Birth and Birth Place Early Education Experience at Sea Marriage and Residence in Lisbon Plans for the Discovery of a Westward Passage to the Indies Columbus Leaves Lisbon, and Visits Genoa Visits Great Spanish Dukes Six Years at the Court of Ferdinand and Isabella The Council of Salamanca Petition at Last Granted—squadron The Great Voyage: The Squadron Sails Refits at Canary Islands Hopes and Fears of the Voyage The Doubts of the Crew Land Discovered The Landing on the Twelfth of October The Natives and Their Neighbors Search for Gold Cuba Discovered Columbus Coasts Along Its Shores Landing on Cuba The Cigar and Tobacco Cipango and the Great Khan Cuba to Haiti Shores and Harbors Discovery of Haiti or Hispaniola Hospitality and Intelligence of the Natives A Shipwreck Colony to Be Founded Columbus Sails East and Meets Martin Pinzon The Two Vessels Return to Europe The Azores and Portugal Columbus Is Called to Meet the King and Queen His Magnificent Reception Negotiations With the Pope and With the King of Portugal The Second Expedition Sails From Cadiz Touches at Canary Islands Discovery of Dominica and Guadeloupe Skirmishes With the Caribs Porto Rico Discovered Hispaniola The Fate of the Colony at La Navidad The New Colony Guacanagari Mutiny in the Colony Collection of Gold Fortress of St. Thomas A New Voyage of Discovery Jamaica Visited The South Shore of Cuba Explored Letter to the King and Queen Discovery of Trinidad ...

This definitive edition of Columbus's account of the voyage presents the most accurate printed version of his journal available to date. Unfortunately both Columbus's original manuscript, presented to Ferdinand and Isabella along with other evidence of his discoveries, and a single complete copy have been lost for centuries. The primary surviving record of the voyage-part quotation, part summary of the complete copy-is a transcription made by Bartolome de las Casas in the 1530s. This new edition of the Las Casas manuscript presents its entire contents-including notes, insertions, and canceled text-more accurately, completely, and graphically than any other Spanish text published so far. In addition, the new translation, which strives for readability and accuracy, appears on pages facing the Spanish, encouraging on-the- spot comparisons of the translation with the original. Study of the work is further facilitated by extensive notes, documenting differences between the editors' transcription and translation and those of other transcribers and translators and summarizing current research and debates on unanswered current research and debates on unanswered questions concerning the voyage. In addition to being the only edition in which Spanish and English are presented side by side, this edition includes the only concordance ever prepared for the Diario. Awaited by scholars, this new edition will help reduce the guesswork that has long plagued the study of Columbus's voyage. It may shed light on a number of issues related to Columbus's navigational methods and the identity of his landing places, issues whose resolution depend, at least in part, on an accurate transcription of the Diario. Containing day-by-day accounts of the voyage and the first sighting of land, of the first encounters with the native populations and the first appraisals of his islands explored, and of a suspenseful return voyage to Spain, the Diario provides a fascinating and useful account to historians, geographers, anthropologists, sailors, students, and anyone else interested in the discovery-or in a very good sea story. Oliver Dunn received the PH.D. degree from Cornell University. He is Professor Emeritus in Purdue University and a longtime student of Spanish and early history of Spanish America. James E. Kelley, Jr., received the M.A. degree from American University. A mathematician and computer and management consultant by vocation, for the past twenty years he has studied the history of European cartography and navigation in late-medieval times. Both are members of the Society for the History of Discoveries and have written extensively on the history of navigation and on Columbus's first voyage, Although they remain unconvinced of its conclusions, both were consultants to the National geographic Society's 1986 effort to establish Samana Cay as the site of Columbus's first landing.