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Christopher Columbus

Christopher Columbus

Posthumous portrait of Christopher Columbus byRidolfo Ghirlandaio. There are no known

authentic portraits of Columbus.

Born c.1451Maybe Genoa, Liguria

Died 20 May 1506 (aged c. 55)Valladolid, Castile

Nationality Probably Italian (though disputed)

Othernames

Genoese: Christoffa CoromboItalian: Cristoforo ColomboCatalan: Cristòfor ColomSpanish: Cristóbal ColónPortuguese: Cristóvão ColomboLatin: Christophorus Columbus

Occupation Maritime explorer for the Crown ofCastile

Title Admiral of the Ocean Sea; Viceroyand Governor of the Indies

Religion Roman Catholic

Spouse(s) Filipa Moniz (c. 1476-1485)

Children DiegoFernando

Relatives Giovanni Pellegrino, Giacomo andBartolomeo Columbus (brothers)

Signature

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Christopher Columbus (c. 1451 – 20 May 1506) was anavigator, colonizer, and explorer whose voyages acrossthe Atlantic Ocean led to general European awareness ofthe American continents in the Western Hemisphere.With his four voyages of exploration and several attemptsat establishing a settlement on the island of Hispaniola,all funded by Isabella I of Castile, he initiated the processof Spanish colonization which foreshadowed generalEuropean colonization of the "New World".

Although not the first to reach the Americas fromEurope—he was preceded by at least one other group, theNorse, led by Leif Ericson, who built a temporarysettlement 500 years earlier at L'Anse aux Meadows[1]—Columbus initiated widespread contact betweenEuropeans and indigenous Americans.

The term "pre-Columbian" is usually used to refer to thepeoples and cultures of the Americas before the arrival ofColumbus and his European successors.

The name Christopher Columbus is the Anglicisation ofthe Latin Christophorus Columbus. The original name in15th century Genoese language was Christoffa[2]

Corombo[3] (pronounced [kriˈʃtɔffa kuˈɹuŋbu]). Thename is rendered in modern Italian as CristoforoColombo, in Portuguese as Cristóvão Colombo (formerlyChristovam Colom), in Catalan as Cristòfor Colom, andin Spanish as Cristóbal Colón.

Columbus's initial 1492 voyage came at a critical time ofgrowing national imperialism and economic competitionbetween developing nation states seeking wealth from theestablishment of trade routes and colonies. In thissociopolitical climate, Columbus's far-fetched schemewon the attention of Isabella I of Castile. Severelyunderestimating the circumference of the Earth, heestimated that a westward route from Iberia to the Indieswould be shorter than the overland trade route throughArabia. If true, this would allow Spain entry into thelucrative spice trade — heretofore commanded by theArabs and Italians. Following his plotted course, heinstead landed within the Bahamas Archipelago at alocale he named San Salvador. Mistaking North Americafor the East Asian mainland, he referred to its inhabitantsas "Indios".

The anniversary of Columbus's 1492 landing in theAmericas is usually observed as Columbus Day onOctober 12 in Spain and throughout the Americas, except Canada. In the United States it is observedannually on the second Monday in October.

Contents1 Early life2 Voyages

2.1 Navigation plans2.2 Funding campaign2.3 First voyage2.4 Second voyage2.5 Third voyage2.6 Fourth voyage

3 Governorship and arrest4 Later life5 Legacy6 Physical appearance7 Popular culture8 See also9 Notes10 References

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Voyages of ChristopherColumbus

"Columbus map", drawn ca.1490 in Lisbon workshop ofBartolomeo and Christopher

Columbus[7]

Columbus's geographicalconcepts

11 External links

Early lifeMain article: Origin theories of Christopher Columbus

It is commonly, although not universally, believed that Christopher Columbus was born between 25 Augustand 31 October 1451 in Genoa, part of modern Italy.[4] His father was Domenico Colombo, a middle-classwool weaver, who later also had a cheese stand where Christopher was a helper, working both in Genoaand Savona. His mother was Susanna Fontanarossa. Bartolomeo, Giovanni Pellegrino and Giacomo werehis brothers. Bartolomeo worked in a cartography workshop in Lisbon for at least part of his adulthood.[5]

Columbus never wrote in his native language, but it may be assumed this was the Genoese variety ofLigurian. In one of his writings, Columbus claims to have gone to the sea at the age of 10. In 1470 theColumbus family moved to Savona, where Domenico took over a tavern. In the same year, Columbus wason a Genoese ship hired in the service of René I of Anjou to support his attempt to conquer the Kingdom ofNaples.

In 1473 Columbus began his apprenticeship as business agent for the important Centurione, Di Negro andSpinola families of Genoa. Later he allegedly made a trip to Chios, a Genoese colony in the Aegean Sea. InMay 1476, he took part in an armed convoy sent by Genoa to carry a valuable cargo to northern Europe.He docked in Bristol, England; Galway, Ireland and was possibly in Iceland in 1477. In 1479 Columbusreached his brother Bartolomeo in Lisbon, keeping on trading for the Centurione family. He married FilipaMoniz Perestrello, daughter of the Porto Santo governor, the Portuguese nobleman of Genoese originBartolomeu Perestrello. In 1479 or 1480, his son Diego was born. Some records report that Felipa died in1485. It is also speculated that Columbus may have simply left his first wife. In either case Columbus founda mistress in Spain in 1487, a 20-year-old orphan named Beatriz Enriquez de Arana.[6]

VoyagesMain article: Voyages of Christopher Columbus

Navigation plans

Europe had long enjoyed a safe land passage to China and India— sourcesof valued goods such as silk, spices, and opiates— under the hegemony ofthe Mongol Empire (the Pax Mongolica, or Mongol peace). With the Fallof Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, the land route to Asiabecame more difficult. In response to this the Columbus brothers had, bythe 1480s, developed a plan to travel to the Indies, then construed roughlyas all of south and east Asia, by sailing directly west across the "OceanSea," i.e., the Atlantic.

Washington Irving's 1828 biography of Columbus popularized the ideathat Columbus had difficulty obtaining support for his plan becauseEuropeans thought the Earth was flat.[8] In fact, the primitive maritimenavigation of the time relied on the stars and the curvature of the sphericalEarth. The knowledge that the Earth was spherical was widespread, and themeans of calculating its diameter using an astrolabe was known to bothscholars and navigators.[9] A spherical Earth had been the general opinionof Ancient Greek science, and this view continued through the MiddleAges (for example, Bede mentions it in The Reckoning of Time). In factEratosthenes had measured the diameter of the Earth with good precisionin the second century BC.[10] Where Columbus did differ from thegenerally accepted view of his time is his (incorrect) arguments thatassumed a significantly smaller diameter for the Earth, claiming that Asiacould be easily reached by sailing west across the Atlantic. Most scholarsaccepted Ptolemy's correct assessment that the terrestrial landmass (forEuropeans of the time, comprising Eurasia and Africa) occupied 180degrees of the terrestrial sphere, and dismissed Columbus's claim that theEarth was much smaller, and that Asia was only a few thousand nauticalmiles to the west of Europe. Columbus's error was put down to his lack ofexperience in navigation at sea.[11]

Columbus believed the (incorrect) calculations of Marinus of Tyre, puttingthe landmass at 225 degrees, leaving only 135 degrees of water. Moreover, Columbus believed that onedegree represented a shorter distance on the Earth's surface than was actually the case. Finally, he readmaps as if the distances were calculated in Italian miles (1,238 meters). Accepting the length of a degree tobe 56⅔ miles, from the writings of Alfraganus, he therefore calculated the circumference of the Earth as25,255 kilometers at most, and the distance from the Canary Islands to Japan as 3,000 Italian miles(3,700 km, or 2,300 statute miles). Columbus did not realize Alfraganus used the much longer Arabic mile(about 1,830 m).

The true circumference of the Earth is about 40,000 km (25,000 mi), afigure established by Eratosthenes in the second century BC,[10] and thedistance from the Canary Islands to Japan 19,600 km (12,200 mi). No ship

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Columbus's notes in Latinedition of The Travels of

Marco Polo

Arms of Columbus

Columbus and Queen Isabella.Detail of the Columbus

monument in Madrid (1885).

distance from the Canary Islands to Japan 19,600 km (12,200 mi). No shipthat was readily available in the 15th century could carry enough food andfresh water for such a journey. Most European sailors and navigatorsconcluded, probably correctly, that sailors undertaking a westward voyagefrom Europe to Asia non-stop would die of thirst or starvation long beforereaching their destination. Catholic Monarchs, however, having completedan expensive war in the Iberian Peninsula, were desperate for acompetitive edge over other European countries in trade with the EastIndies. Columbus promised such an advantage.

While Columbus's calculations underestimated the circumference of the Earth and the distance from theCanary Islands to Japan by the standards of his peers as well as in fact, Europeans generally assumed thatthe aquatic expanse between Europe and Asia was uninterrupted.[citation needed]

There was a further element of key importance in the plans of Columbus, a closely held fact discovered, orotherwise learned, by Columbus: the trade winds. A brisk wind from the east, commonly called an"easterly", propelled Santa María, La Niña, and La Pinta for five weeks from the Canaries. To return toSpain eastward against this prevailing wind would have required several months of an arduous sailingtechnique, called beating, during which food and drinkable water would have been utterly exhausted.Columbus returned home by following prevailing winds northeastward from the southern zone of the NorthAtlantic to the middle latitudes of the North Atlantic, where prevailing winds are eastward (westerly) to thecoastlines of Western Europe, where the winds curve southward towards the Iberian Peninsula.[12] In fact,Columbus was wrong about degrees of longitude to be traversed and wrong about distance per degree, buthe was right about a more vital fact: how to use the North Atlantic's great circular wind pattern, clockwisein direction, to get home.[13][14]

Funding campaign

In 1485, Columbus presented his plans to John II, King of Portugal. He proposed the king equip threesturdy ships and grant Columbus one year's time to sail out into the Atlantic, search for a western route tothe Orient, and return. Columbus also requested he be made "Great Admiral of the Ocean", appointedgovernor of any and all lands he discovered, and given one-tenth of all revenue from those lands. The kingsubmitted the proposal to his experts, who rejected it. It was their considered opinion that Columbus'sestimation of a travel distance of 2,400 miles (3,860 km) was, in fact, far too short.[11]

In 1488 Columbus appealed to the court of Portugal once again, and onceagain John invited him to an audience. It also proved unsuccessful, in partbecause not long afterwards Bartholomeu Dias returned to Portugalfollowing a successful rounding of the southern tip of Africa. With aneastern sea route now under its control, Portugal was no longer interestedin trailblazing a western route to Asia.

Columbus travelled from Portugal to both Genoa and Venice, but hereceived encouragement from neither. Previously he had his brother soundout Henry VII of England, to see if the English monarch might not bemore amenable to Columbus's proposal. After much carefully consideredhesitation Henry's invitation came, too late. Columbus had alreadycommitted himself to Spain.

He had sought an audience from the monarchs Ferdinand II of Aragon andIsabella I of Castile, who had united many kingdoms in the IberianPeninsula by marrying, and were ruling together. On 1 May 1486,permission having been granted, Columbus presented his plans to QueenIsabella, who, in turn, referred it to a committee. After the passing of muchtime, these savants of Spain, like their counterparts in Portugal, reportedback that Columbus had judged the distance to Asia much too short. Theypronounced the idea impractical, and advised their Royal Highnesses topass on the proposed venture.

However, to keep Columbus from taking his ideas elsewhere, and perhapsto keep their options open, the Catholic Monarchs gave him an annualallowance of 12,000 maravedis and in 1489 furnished him with a letterordering all cities and towns under their domain to provide him food and lodging at no cost.[15]

After continually lobbying at the Spanish court and two years of negotiations, he finally had success in1492. Ferdinand and Isabella had just conquered Granada, the last Muslim stronghold on the Iberianpeninsula, and they received Columbus in Córdoba, in the Alcázar castle. Isabella turned Columbus downon the advice of her confessor, and he was leaving town by mule in despair, when Ferdinand intervened.Isabella then sent a royal guard to fetch him and Ferdinand later claimed credit for being "the principalcause why those islands were discovered".

About half of the financing was to come from private Italian investors, whom Columbus had already linedup. Financially broke after the Granada campaign, the monarchs left it to the royal treasurer to shift fundsamong various royal accounts on behalf of the enterprise. Columbus was to be made "Admiral of the Seas"and would receive a portion of all profits. The terms were unusually generous, but as his son later wrote,the monarchs did not really expect him to return.

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First voyage

Departure of the firstvoyage from the port ofPalos, by EvaristoDominguez, in themunicipality of Palos dela Frontera.

Replica of Santa Maria

Columbus claims theNew World in achromolithograph by thePrang EducationCompany, 1893

Captain's Ensign ofColumbus's Ships

First voyage

According to the contract that Columbus made with King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, if Columbusdiscovered any new islands or mainland, he would receive many high rewards. In terms of power, he wouldbe given the rank of Admiral of the Ocean Sea and appointed Viceroy and Governor of all the new lands.He had the right to nominate three persons, from whom the sovereigns would choose one, for any office inthe new lands. He would be entitled to 10% of all the revenues from the new lands in perpetuity; this partwas denied to him in the contract, although it was one of his demands. Additionally, he would also have theoption of buying one-eighth interest in any commercial venture with the new lands and receive one-eighthof the profits.

Columbus was later arrested in 1500 and supplanted from these posts. After his death, Columbus's sons,Diego and Fernando, took legal action to enforce their father's contract. Many of the smears againstColumbus were initiated by the Castilian crown during these lengthy court cases, known as the pleitoscolombinos. The family had some success in their first litigation, as a judgment of 1511 confirmed Diego'sposition as Viceroy, but reduced his powers. Diego resumed litigation in 1512, which lasted until 1536, andfurther disputes continued until 1790.[16]

First voyage

Onthe

evening of 3 August 1492, Columbus departed fromPalos de la Frontera with three ships; one largercarrack, Santa María, nicknamed Gallega (theGalician), and two smaller caravels, Pinta (thePainted) and Santa Clara, nicknamed Niña after herowner Juan Niño of Moguer.[17] They were propertyof Juan de la Cosa and the Pinzón brothers (MartínAlonso and Vicente Yáñez), but the monarchs forcedthe Palos inhabitants to contribute to the expedition.Columbus first sailed to the Canary Islands, whichwere owned by Castile, where he restocked theprovisions and made repairs. On 6 September hedeparted San Sebastián de la Gomera for what turnedout to be a five-week voyage across the ocean.

Land was sighted at 2 a.m. on 12 October 1492, by asailor named Rodrigo de Triana (also known as JuanRodríguez Bermejo) aboard Pinta.[18] Columbuscalled the island (in what is now The Bahamas) SanSalvador; the natives called it Guanahani. Exactlywhich island in the Bahamas this corresponds to is anunresolved topic; prime candidates are Samana Cay,Plana Cays, or San Salvador Island (so named in 1925in the belief that it was Columbus's San Salvador). The indigenous people he encountered, the Lucayan,Taíno or Arawak, were peaceful and friendly. From the 12 October 1492 entry in his journal he wrote ofthem, "Many of the men I have seen have scars on their bodies, and when I made signs to them to find outhow this happened, they indicated that people from other nearby islands come to San Salvador to capturethem; they defend themselves the best they can. I believe that people from the mainland come here to takethem as slaves. They ought to make good and skilled servants, for they repeat very quickly whatever wesay to them. I think they can very easily be made Christians, for they seem to have no religion. If it pleasesour Lord, I will take six of them to Your Highnesses when I depart, in order that they may learn ourlanguage."[19] He remarked that their lack of modern weaponry and even metal-forged swords or pikes wasa tactical vulnerability, writing, "I could conquer the whole of them with 50 men, and govern them as Ipleased."[20] Columbus also explored the northeast coast of Cuba (landed on 28 October) and the northerncoast of Hispaniola, by 5 December. Here, the Santa Maria ran aground on Christmas morning 1492 andhad to be abandoned. He was received by the native cacique Guacanagari, who gave him permission toleave some of his men behind. Columbus left 39 men and founded the settlement of La Navidad in what isnow present-day Haiti.[21] Before returning to Spain, Columbus also kidnapped some ten to twenty-fivenatives and took them back with him. Only seven or eight of the native Indians arrived in Spain alive, butthey made quite an impression on Seville.[18]

Columbus headed for Spain, but another storm forced him into Lisbon. He anchored next to the King'sharbor patrol ship on 4 March 1493 in Portugal. After spending more than one week in Portugal, he set sailfor Spain. He crossed the bar of Saltes and entered the harbour of Palos on 15 March 1493. Word of hisfinding new lands rapidly spread throughout Europe.

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Second voyage

Third voyageLocation of city of Sanlúcarde Barrameda, the starting

There is increasing modern scientific evidence that this voyage also brought syphilis back from the NewWorld. Many of the crew members who served on this voyage later joined the army of King Charles VIII inhis invasion of Italy in 1495 resulting in the spreading of the disease across Europe and as many as 5million deaths.[22][23]

Second voyage

Columbus left Cádiz (modern Spain), on 24 September1493 to find new territories, with 17 ships carryingsupplies, and about 1,200 men to colonize the region.On 13 October the ships left the Canary Islands as theyhad on the first voyage, following a more southerlycourse.

On 3 November 1493, Columbus sighted a ruggedisland that he named Dominica (Latin for Sunday); laterthat day, he landed at Marie-Galante, which he namedSanta Maria la Galante. After sailing past Les Saintes(Los Santos, The Saints), he arrived at GuadeloupeSanta María de Guadalupe de Extremadura, after the

image of the Virgin Mary venerated at the Spanish monastery of Villuercas, in Guadalupe (Spain), whichhe explored between 4 November and 10 November 1493.

Michele da Cuneo, Columbus’s childhood friend from Savona, sailed with Columbus during the secondvoyage and wrote: "In my opinion, since Genoa was Genoa, there was never born a man so well equippedand expert in the art of navigation as the said lord Admiral."[24] Columbus named the small island of"Saona ... to honor Michele da Cuneo, his friend from Savona."[25]

The exact course of his voyage through the Lesser Antilles is debated, but it seems likely that he turnednorth, sighting and naming several islands, including Montserrat (for Santa Maria de Montserrate, after theBlessed Virgin of the Monastery of Montserrat, which is located on the Mountain of Montserrat, inCatalonia, Spain), Antigua (after a church in Seville, Spain, called Santa Maria la Antigua, meaning "OldSt. Mary's"), Redonda (for Santa Maria la Redonda, Spanish for "round", owing to the island's shape),Nevis (derived from the Spanish, Nuestra Señora de las Nieves, meaning "Our Lady of the Snows",because Columbus thought the clouds over Nevis Peak made the island resemble a snow-capped mountain),Saint Kitts (for St. Christopher, patron of sailors and travelers), Sint Eustatius (for the early Roman martyr,St. Eustachius), Saba (also for St. Christopher?), Saint Martin (San Martin), and Saint Croix (from theSpanish Santa Cruz, meaning "Holy Cross"). He also sighted the island chain of the Virgin Islands (andnamed them Islas de Santa Ursula y las Once Mil Virgenes, Saint Ursula and the 11,000 Virgins, acumbersome name that was usually shortened, both on maps of the time and in common parlance, to IslasVirgenes), and he also named the islands of Virgin Gorda (the fat virgin), Tortola, and Peter Island (SanPedro).

He continued to the Greater Antilles, and landed at Puerto Rico (originally San Juan Bautista, in honor ofSaint John the Baptist, a name that was later supplanted by Puerto Rico (English: Rich Port) while thecapital retained the name, San Juan) on 19 November 1493. One of the first skirmishes between nativeAmericans and Europeans since the time of the Vikings[26] took place when Columbus's men rescued twoboys who had just been castrated by their captors.

On 22 November Columbus returned to Hispaniola, where he intended to visit Fuerte de la Navidad(Christmas Fort), built during his first voyage, and located on the northern coast of Haiti. Columbus foundFuerte de la Navidad in ruins, destroyed by the native Taino people. Among the ruins were the corpses ofeleven of the first thirty-nine Spanish to have attempted New World colonization. Columbus then movedmore than 100 kilometers eastwards, establishing a new settlement, which he called La Isabela, likewise onthe northern coast of Hispaniola, in the present-day Dominican Republic. However, La Isabela proved tobe a poorly chosen location, and the settlement was short-lived.

He left Hispaniola on 24 April 1494, arrived at Cuba (naming it Juana) on 30 April. He explored thesouthern coast of Cuba, which he believed to be a peninsula rather than an island, and several nearbyislands, including the Isle of Pines (Isla de las Pinas, later known as La Evangelista, The Evangelist). Hereached Jamaica on May 5. He retraced his route to Hispaniola, arriving on August 20, before he finallyreturned to Spain.

Third voyage

On 30 May 1498,Columbus left with sixships from Sanlúcar,Spain, for his third tripto the New World. Hewas accompanied bythe father of Bartoloméde Las Casas.

Columbus led the fleetto the Portugueseisland of Porto Santo,his wife's native land.

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de Barrameda, the startingpoint for Columbus's third

journey.

Fourth voyage

Columbus intimidatesnatives by predicting

lunar eclipse

his wife's native land.He then sailed to Madeira and spent some time there with the Portuguesecaptain João Gonçalves da Camara before sailing to the Canary Islandsand Cape Verde. Columbus landed on the south coast of the island of

Trinidad on 31 July. From 4 August through 12 August he explored the Gulf of Paria which separatesTrinidad from Venezuela. He explored the mainland of South America, including the Orinoco River. Healso sailed to the islands of Chacachacare and Margarita Island and sighted and named Tobago (BellaForma) and Grenada (Concepcion).

Columbus returned to Hispaniola on 19 August to find that many of the Spanish settlers of the new colonywere discontented, having been misled by Columbus about the supposedly bountiful riches of the newworld. An entry in his journal from September 1498 reads, "From here one might send, in the name of theHoly Trinity, as many slaves as could be sold..." Since Columbus supported the enslavement of theHispaniola natives for economic reasons, he ultimately refused to baptize them, as Catholic law forbade theenslavement of Christians.[27]

He had some of his crew hanged for disobeying him. A number of returning settlers and sailors lobbiedagainst Columbus at the Spanish court, accusing him and his brothers of gross mismanagement. On hisreturn he was arrested for a period (see Governorship and arrest section below).

Fourth voyage

Before leaving for his fourth voyage, Columbus wrote aletter to the Governors of the Bank of St. George,Genoa, dated at Seville, April 2, 1502.[28] He wrote"Although my body is here my heart is always nearyou."[29]

Columbus made a fourth voyage nominally in search ofthe Strait of Malacca to the Indian Ocean. Accompaniedby his brother Bartolomeo and his 13-year-old sonFernando, he left Cádiz, (modern Spain), on 11 May1502, with the ships Capitana, Gallega, Vizcaína andSantiago de Palos. He sailed to Arzila on the Moroccancoast to rescue Portuguese soldiers whom he had heard were under siege by the Moors. On June 15, theylanded at Carbet on the island of Martinique (Martinica). A hurricane was brewing, so he continued on,hoping to find shelter on Hispaniola. He arrived at Santo Domingo on 29 June but was denied port, and thenew governor refused to listen to his storm prediction. Instead, while Columbus's ships sheltered at themouth of the Rio Jaina, the first Spanish treasure fleet sailed into the hurricane. Columbus's ships survivedwith only minor damage, while twenty-nine of the thirty ships in the governor's fleet were lost to the 1 Julystorm. In addition to the ships, 500 lives (including that of the governor, Francisco de Bobadilla) and animmense cargo of gold were surrendered to the sea.

After a brief stop at Jamaica, Columbus sailed to Central America, arriving at Guanaja (Isla de Pinos) inthe Bay Islands off the coast of Honduras on 30 July. Here Bartolomeo found native merchants and a largecanoe, which was described as "long as a galley" and was filled with cargo. On 14 August he landed on theAmerican mainland at Puerto Castilla, near Trujillo, Honduras. He spent two months exploring the coastsof Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, before arriving in Almirante Bay, Panama on 16 October.

On 5 December 1502, Columbus and his crew found themselves in a stormunlike any they had ever experienced. In his journal Columbus writes,

For nine days I was as one lost, without hope of life. Eyes never beheld the seaso angry, so high, so covered with foam. The wind not only prevented ourprogress, but offered no opportunity to run behind any headland for shelter;hence we were forced to keep out in this bloody ocean, seething like a pot on ahot fire. Never did the sky look more terrible; for one whole day and night itblazed like a furnace, and the lightning broke with such violence that each timeI wondered if it had carried off my spars and sails; the flashes came with suchfury and frightfulness that we all thought that the ship would be blasted. All thistime the water never ceased to fall from the sky; I do not say it rained, for itwas like another deluge. The men were so worn out that they longed for deathto end their dreadful suffering.[30]

In Panama, Columbus learned from the natives of gold and a strait to another ocean. After muchexploration, in January 1503 he established a garrison at the mouth of the Rio Belen. On 6 April one of theships became stranded in the river. At the same time, the garrison was attacked, and the other ships weredamaged (Shipworms also damaged the ships in tropical waters.[31]). Columbus left for Hispaniola on 16April heading north. On 10 May he sighted the Cayman Islands, naming them "Las Tortugas" after thenumerous sea turtles there. His ships next sustained more damage in a storm off the coast of Cuba. Unableto travel farther, on 25 June 1503, they were beached in St. Ann's Bay, Jamaica.

For a year Columbus and his men remained stranded on Jamaica. A Spaniard, Diego Mendez, and somenatives paddled a canoe to get help from Hispaniola. That island's governor, Nicolás de Ovando y Cáceres,detested Columbus and obstructed all efforts to rescue him and his men. In the meantime Columbus, in adesperate effort to induce the natives to continue provisioning him and his hungry men, successfullyintimidated the natives by correctly predicting a lunar eclipse for 29 February 1504, using the Ephemeris ofthe German astronomer Regiomontanus.[32] Help finally arrived, no thanks to the governor, on 29 June1504, and Columbus and his men arrived in Sanlúcar, Spain, on 7 November.

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Columbus before the Queen,imagined[35] by Emanuel Gottlieb

Leutze, 1843

Santa María, Columbus'flagship in first voyage,at his Valladolid house

Tomb in SevilleCathedral. The remainsare borne by kings ofCastile, Leon, Aragon

and Navarre.

1504, and Columbus and his men arrived in Sanlúcar, Spain, on 7 November.

Governorship and arrestDuring Columbus's stint as governor and viceroy, he had been accused of governing tyrannically.Columbus was physically and mentally exhausted; his body was wracked by arthritis and his eyes byophthalmia. In October 1499, he sent two ships to Spain, asking the Court of Spain to appoint a royalcommissioner to help him govern.

The Court appointed Francisco de Bobadilla, a member of the Order of Calatrava; however, his authoritystretched far beyond what Columbus had requested. Bobadilla was given total control as governor from1500 until his death in 1502. Arriving in Santo Domingo while Columbus was away, Bobadilla wasimmediately peppered with complaints about all three Columbus brothers: Christopher, Bartolomé, andDiego. Consuelo Varela, a Spanish historian, states: "Even those who loved him [Columbus] had to admitthe atrocities that had taken place."[33][34]

As a result of these testimonies and without being allowed a word in hisown defense, Columbus, upon his return, had manacles placed on hisarms and chains on his feet and was cast into prison to await return toSpain. He was 53 years old.

On 1 October 1500, Columbus and his two brothers, likewise in chains,were sent back to Spain. Once in Cádiz, a grieving Columbus wrote toa friend at court:

It is now seventeen years since I came to serve these princes with theEnterprise of the Indies. They made me pass eight of them indiscussion, and at the end rejected it as a thing of jest. Nevertheless Ipersisted therein... Over there I have placed under their sovereigntymore land than there is in Africa and Europe, and more than 1,700islands... In seven years I, by the divine will, made that conquest. At a time when I was entitled to expectrewards and retirement, I was incontinently arrested and sent home loaded with chains... The accusationwas brought out of malice on the basis of charges made by civilians who had revolted and wished to takepossession on the land.... I beg your graces, with the zeal of faithful Christians in whom their Highnesseshave confidence, to read all my papers, and to consider how I, who came from so far to serve theseprinces... now at the end of my days have been despoiled of my honor and my property without cause,wherein is neither justice nor mercy.[36]

According to testimony of 23 witnesses during his trial, Columbus regularly used barbaric acts of torture togovern Hispaniola.[27]

Columbus and his brothers lingered in jail for six weeks before busy King Ferdinand ordered their release.Not long after, the king and queen summoned the Columbus brothers to the Alhambra palace in Granada.There the royal couple heard the brothers' pleas; restored their freedom and wealth; and, after muchpersuasion, agreed to fund Columbus's fourth voyage. But the door was firmly shut on Columbus's role asgovernor. Henceforth Nicolás de Ovando y Cáceres was to be the new governor of the West Indies.

Later lifeWhile Columbus had always given the conversionof non-believers as one reason for his explorations,he grew increasingly religious in his later years.

In his later years, Columbus demanded that theSpanish Crown give him 10% of all profits made inthe new lands, pursuant to earlier agreements.Because he had been relieved of his duties asgovernor, the crown did not feel bound by thesecontracts, and his demands were rejected. After hisdeath, his family sued in the pleitos colombinos forpart of the profits from trade with America.

On 20 May 1506, at about age 55, Columbus diedin Valladolid, fairly wealthy from the gold his menhad accumulated in Hispaniola. At his death, he

was still convinced that his journeys had been along the east coast of Asia.According to a study, published in February 2007, by Antonio RodriguezCuartero, Department of Internal Medicine of the University of Granada, he died of a heart attack causedby Reiter's Syndrome (also called reactive arthritis). According to his personal diaries and notes bycontemporaries, the symptoms of this illness (burning pain during urination, pain and swelling of the knees,and conjunctivitis) were clearly evident in his last three years.[37]

Columbus's remains were first interred at Valladolid, then at the monastery of La Cartuja in Seville(southern Spain) by the will of his son Diego, who had been governor of Hispaniola. In 1542 the remainswere transferred to Santo Domingo, in eastern Hispaniola. In 1795 the French took over Hispaniola, andthe remains were moved to Havana, Cuba. After Cuba became independent following the Spanish-American War in 1898, the remains were moved back to Spain, to the Cathedral of Seville,[38] where theywere placed on an elaborate catafalque.

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Columbus Lighthouse (Faro aColón), Santo Domingo

Replicas of Niña, Pinta andSanta Maria sailed from Spain

to the Chicago ColumbianExposition.

Portrait of ChristopherColumbus together with

portrait of his three SpaniardShips across the Atlantic

Ocean

However, a lead box bearing an inscription identifying "Don Christopher Columbus" and containing bonefragments and a bullet was discovered at Santo Domingo in 1877.

To lay to rest claims that the wrong relics had been moved to Havana and that Columbus's remains hadbeen left buried in the cathedral at Santo Domingo, DNA samples were taken in June 2003 (History TodayAugust 2003). The results are not conclusive. Initial observations suggested that the bones did not appear tobelong to somebody with the physique or age at death associated with Columbus.[39] DNA extractionproved difficult; only a few limited fragments of mitochondrial DNA could be isolated. However, such asthey are, these do appear to match corresponding DNA from Columbus's brother, giving support to the ideathat the two had the same mother and that the body therefore may be that of Columbus.[40][41] Theauthorities in Santo Domingo have not allowed the remains there to be exhumed, so it is unknown if any ofthose remains could be from Columbus's body. The location of the Dominican remains is in "the ColombusLighthouse" or Faro a Colón which is in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

LegacyAlthough among non-Native Americans Christopher Columbus istraditionally considered the discoverer of America, Columbus waspreceded by the various cultures and civilizations of the indigenouspeoples of the Americas, as well as the Western world's Vikings at L'Anseaux Meadows. He is regarded more accurately as the person who broughtthe Americas into the forefront of Western attention. "Columbus's claim tofame isn't that he got there first," explains historian Martin Dugard, "it'sthat he stayed."[42] The popular idea that he was first person to envision arounded earth is false. The rounded shape of the earth has already beenknown in ancient times. Jeffrey Burton Russell states that the modern viewthat people of the Middle Ages believed that the Earth was flat is said to

have entered the popular imagination in the 19th century, thanks largely to the publication of WashingtonIrving's fantasy The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus in 1828.[43] By Columbus's time, educatedmen were in agreement as to its spherical shape, even if many people believed otherwise. More contentiouswas the size of the earth, and whether it was possible in practical terms to cross such a vast body of water.

Amerigo Vespucci's travel journals, published 1502-4, convinced MartinWaldseemüller that the discovered place was not India, as Columbusalways believed, but a new continent, and in 1507, a year after Columbus'sdeath, Waldseemüller published a world map calling the new continentAmerica from Vespucci's Latinized name "Americus".

Historically the British had downplayed Columbus and emphasized therole of the Venetian John Cabot as a pioneer explorer; but for theemerging United States, Cabot made a poor national hero. Veneration ofColumbus in America dates back to colonial times. The name Columbiafor "America" first appeared in a 1738 weekly publication of the debatesof the British Parliament.[44] The use of Columbus as a founding figure ofNew World nations and the use of the word 'Columbia', or simply the name 'Columbus', spread rapidlyafter the American Revolution. In 1812, the name 'Columbus' was given to the newly founded capitol ofOhio. During the last two decades of the 18th century the name "Columbia" was given to the federal capitalDistrict of Columbia, South Carolina's new capital city Columbia, the Columbia River, and numerous otherplaces. Outside the United States the name was used in 1819 for the Gran Colombia, a precursor of themodern Republic of Colombia. The main plaza in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico is called Plaza Colón in honor ofthe Admiral.[45][46]

A candidate for sainthood in the Catholic Church in 1866, Celebration ofColumbus's legacy perhaps reached a zenith in 1892 when the 400thanniversary of his first arrival in the Americas occurred. Monuments toColumbus like the Columbian Exposition in Chicago were erectedthroughout the United States and Latin America extolling him. Numerouscities, towns, counties, and streets have been named after him, includingthe capital cities of two U.S. states, Ohio and South Carolina.

In 1909, descendants of Columbus undertook to dismantle the Columbusfamily chapel in Spain and move it to a site near State College,Pennsylvania, where it may now be visited by the public. At the museumassociated with the chapel, there are a number of Columbus relics worthyof note, including the armchair which the "Admiral of the Ocean Sea" usedat his chart table.

More recent views of Columbus, particularly those of Native Americans, have tended to be much morecritical.[47][48][49] This is because the native Taino of Hispaniola, where Columbus began a rudimentarytribute system for gold and cotton, disappeared so rapidly after contact with the Spanish, due to overworkand especially, after 1519, when the first pandemic struck Hispaniola,[50] due to European diseases. Thenative Taino people of the island were systematically enslaved via the encomienda system. The pre-Columbian population is estimated to have been perhaps 250,000-300,000. According to the historianGonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo y Valdes by 1548, 56 years after Columbus landed, less than five hundredTaino were left on the island.[51] In another hundred years, perhaps only a handful remained. However,some analyses of the question of Columbus's legacy for Native Americans do not clearly distinguish

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In The Virgin of theNavigators, 1531–36

Isabella and Columbus underdome of California State

Capitol

some analyses of the question of Columbus's legacy for Native Americans do not clearly distinguishbetween the actions of Columbus himself, who died well before the first pandemic to hit Hispaniola or theheight of the encomienda system, and those of later European governors and colonists on Hispaniola.

Physical appearanceAlthough an abundance of artwork involving Christopher Columbus exists, noauthentic contemporary portrait has been found.[52] James W. Loewen, author ofLies My Teacher Told Me, said that the various posthumous portraits have nohistorical value.[53]

Sometime between 1505 and 1536, Alejo Fernández painted an altarpiece, TheVirgin of the Navigators, that includes a depiction of Columbus. The paintingwas commissioned for a chapel in Seville's Casa de Contratación (House ofTrade) and remains there to this day, as the earliest known painting about thediscovery of the Americas.[54][55]

At the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, 71 alleged portraits of Columbuswere displayed, most did not match contemporary descriptions.[56] Thesewritings describe him as having reddish hair, which turned to white early in hislife, light colored eyes,[57] as well as being a lighter skinned person with too much sun exposure turninghis face red.

In keeping with descriptions of Columbus having had auburn hair or (later) white hair, some textbooks usethe Sebastiano del Piombo painting (which in its normal-sized resolution shows Columbus's hair as auburn)so often that it has become the iconic image of Columbus accepted by popular culture. Accountsconsistently describe Columbus as a large and physically strong man of some six feet or more in height,easily taller than the average European of his day.[58]

Popular cultureColumbus, an important historical figure, has been depicted in fiction andin popular films and television.

In 1958, the Italian playwright Dario Fo wrote a satirical play aboutColumbus titled Isabella, tre caravelle e un cacciaballe (Isabella, three tallships and a con man). In 1997 Fo was awarded the Nobel Prize inLiterature. The play was translated into English in 1988 by Ed Emery andis downloadable on the internet.[59]

In 1991, author Salman Rushdie published a fictional representation ofColumbus in The New Yorker, "Christopher Columbus and Queen Isabellaof Spain Consummate Their Relationship, Santa Fe, January, 1492".[60]

In Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus (1996) sciencefiction novelist Orson Scott Card focuses on Columbus' life and activities,but the novel's action also deals with a group of scientists from the futurewho travel back to the 15th century with the goal of changing the patternof European contact with the Americas.

British author Stephen Baxter includes Columbus' quest for royalsponsorship as a crucial historical event in his 2007 science fiction novel Navigator (ISBN 978-0-441-01559-7), the third entry in the author's Time's Tapestry Series.

American author Mark Twain based the time traveler's trick in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur'sCourt on Columbus' successful prediction of a lunar eclipse during his fourth voyage to the New World.

Columbus has also been portrayed in cinema and television, including mini-series, films and cartoons.Most notably, he was portrayed by Gérard Depardieu in the 1992 film by Ridley Scott, 1492: Conquest ofParadise. Scott presented Columbus as a forward-thinking idealist, as opposed to the view that he wasruthless and responsible for the misfortune of Native Americans.

Other productions include the TV mini-series Christopher Columbus (1985) with Gabriel Byrne asColumbus; Christopher Columbus: The Discovery, a 1992 biopic film by Alexander Salkind; ChristopherColumbus, a 1949 film starring Fredric March as Columbus; and the comedy, Carry On Columbus (1992).

Christopher Columbus appears as a Great Explorer in the 2008 strategy video game, CivilizationRevolution.[61]

See alsoList of Viceroys of New SpainViceroyalty of New SpainBartolomeo ColumbusFernando ColónGuanahani (a discussion of candidates for site of first landing)

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List of places named for Christopher ColumbusPaolo dal Pozzo ToscanelliPre-Columbian trans-oceanic contactRafael PerestrelloSpanish colonization of the AmericasEgg of ColumbusLugares colombinos

Notes1. ^ "Parks Canada — L'Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site of Canada" (http://www.pc.gc.ca/lhn-

nhs/nl/meadows/index_e.asp) . Pc.gc.ca. 2009-04-24. http://www.pc.gc.ca/lhn-nhs/nl/meadows/index_e.asp.Retrieved 2009-07-29.

2. ^ Rime diverse, Pavia, 1595, p.1173. ^ Ra Gerusalemme deliverâ, Genoa, 1755, XV-324. ^ Phillips, William D., and Carla Rahn Phillips. The Worlds of Christopher Columbus. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press, 1992. Page 9."Even with less than a complete record, however, scholars can state with assurance that Columbus was born inthe republic of Genoa in northern Italy, although perhaps not in the city itself, and that his family made a living inthe wool business as weavers and merchants...The two main early biographies of Columbus have been taken asliteral truth by hundreds of writers, in large part because they were written by individual closely connected toColumbus or his writings. ...Both biographies have serious shortcomings as evidence."

5. ^ Encyclopedia Britannica, 1993 ed., Vol. 16, pp. 605ff / Morison, Christopher Columbus, 1955 ed., pp. 14ff6. ^ "Christopher Columbus Biography Page 2" (http://columbus-day.123holiday.net/christopher_columbus_2.html) .

Columbus-day.123holiday.net. http://columbus-day.123holiday.net/christopher_columbus_2.html. Retrieved 2009-07-29.

7. ^ "Marco Polo et le Livre des Merveilles", ISBN 9782354040079 p.378. ^ Boller, Paul F (1995). Not So!:Popular Myths about America from Columbus to Clinton. New York: Oxford

University Press. ISBN 9780195091861.9. ^ Russell, Jeffrey Burton 1991. Inventing the Flat Earth. Columbus and modern historians, Praeger, New York,

Westport, London 1991;Zinn, Howard 1980. A People's History of the United States, HarperCollins 2001. p.2

10. ^ a b Sagan, Carl. Cosmos; the mean circumference of the Earth is 40,041.47 km.11. ^ a b Morison, Samuel Eliot, Admiral of the Ocean Sea: The Life of Christopher Columbus Boston, 194212. ^ "The First Voyage Log" (http://www.columbusnavigation.com/v1a.shtml) .

http://www.columbusnavigation.com/v1a.shtml. Retrieved 2008-04-18.13. ^ "Christopher Columbus and the Spanish Empire"

(http://www.ucalgary.ca/applied_history/tutor/eurvoya/columbus.html) .http://www.ucalgary.ca/applied_history/tutor/eurvoya/columbus.html. Retrieved 2008-04-18.

14. ^ "Trade Winds and the Hadley Cell" (http://earthguide.ucsd.edu/virtualmuseum/climatechange1/08_1.shtml) .http://earthguide.ucsd.edu/virtualmuseum/climatechange1/08_1.shtml. Retrieved 2008-04-18.

15. ^ Durant, Will "The Story of Civilization" vol. vi, "The Reformation". Chapter XIII, page 260.16. ^ Mark McDonald, "Ferdinand Columbus, Renaissance Collector (1488-1539)", 2005, British Museum Press,

ISBN 978071412644917. ^ The Columbus Foundation: Santa Clara (http://www.thenina.com/nina2.html)18. ^ a b Clements R. Markham, ed. The Journal of Christopher Columbus (During His First Voyage). ASIN

B000I1OMXM (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000I1OMXM) .19. ^ Robert H. Fuson, ed The Log of Christopher Columbus, Tab Books, 1992, International Marine Publishing,

ISBN 0-87742-316-420. ^ "Columbus Day sparks debate over explorer's legacy"

(http://media.www.michigandaily.com/media/storage/paper851/news/2004/10/12/News/Columbus.Day.Sparks.Debate.Over.Explorers.Legacy-1425748.shtml) .http://media.www.michigandaily.com/media/storage/paper851/news/2004/10/12/News/Columbus.Day.Sparks.Debate.Over.Explorers.Legacy-1425748.shtml.

21. ^ Maclean, Frances (January 2008). "The Lost Fort of Columbus" (http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/fort-of-columbus-200801.html) . Smithsonian Magazine. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/fort-of-columbus-200801.html. Retrieved 2008-01-24.

22. ^ CBC News Staff (January 2008). "Study traces origins of syphilis in Europe to New World"(http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2008/01/14/syphilis-columbus.html) .http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2008/01/14/syphilis-columbus.html. Retrieved 2008-01-15.

23. ^ Harper, Kristin, et al. (January 2008). "On the Origin of the Treponematoses: A Phylogenetic Approach"(http://www.plosntds.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pntd.0000148) .http://www.plosntds.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pntd.0000148. Retrieved 2008-01-21.

24. ^ Felipe Fernández-Armesto, Columbus, Oxford Univ. Press, (1991) pp. 103-10425. ^ Paolo Emilio Taviani, Columbus the Great Adventure, Orion Books, New York (1991) p. 18526. ^ Phillips, Jr., William D. & Carla Rahn Phillips (1992). The Worlds of Christopher Columbus. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521350976.27. ^ a b Who really sailed the ocean blue in 1492? (http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/1017/p05s01-woeu.html) ,

Christian Science Monitor, 17 October 200628. ^ 'Letter from Christopher Columbus to the Governors of the Bank of St. George, Genoa. Dated at Seville, April

2nd, 1502' (http://books.google.com/books?id=TKgKAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA128)29. ^ [1] (http://books.google.com/books?id=TKgKAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA129)30. ^ Morison, Samuel Eliot,Admiral of the Ocean Sea: A Life of Christopher Columbus, Boston, 1942, page 617.31. ^ The History Channel. Columbus: The Lost Voyage.32. ^ Samuel Eliot Morison, Admiral of the Ocean Sea: A Life of Christopher Columbus, 1942, pp. 653–54. Samuel

Eliot Morison, Christopher Columbus, Mariner, 1955, pp. 184-92.33. ^ Giles Tremlett (2006-08-07). "Lost document reveals Columbus as tyrant of the Caribbean"

(http://www.guardian.co.uk/spain/article/0,,1838823,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=12) . The Guardian.http://www.guardian.co.uk/spain/article/0,,1838823,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=12. Retrieved 2006-10-10.

34. ^ Bobadilla's 48-page report—derived from the testimonies of 23 people who had seen or heard about thetreatment meted out by Columbus and his brothers—had originally been lost for centuries, but was rediscovered in2005 in the Spanish archives in Valladolid. It contained an account of Columbus's seven-year reign as the firstGovernor of the Indies.

35. ^ The Brooklyn Museum catalogue notes that the most likely source for Leutze's trio of Columbus paintings is

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Washington Irving’s best-selling Life and Voyages of Columbus (1828).36. ^ Samuel Eliot Morison, Admiral of the Ocean Sea: A Life of Christopher Columbus, p. 576.37. ^ "Cause of the death of Columbus (in Spanish)" (http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/408828.html) .

Eluniversal.com.mx. http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/notas/408828.html. Retrieved 2009-07-29.38. ^ "''Cristóbal Colón: traslación de sus restos mortales a la ciudad de Sevilla'' at Fundación Biblioteca Virtual

Miguel de Cervantes"(http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/servlet/SirveObras/12368307610158273876213/p0000001.htm) .Cervantesvirtual.com.http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/servlet/SirveObras/12368307610158273876213/p0000001.htm. Retrieved 2009-07-29.

39. ^ Giles Tremlett, Young bones lay Columbus myth to rest(http://www.guardian.co.uk/spain/article/0,2763,1280590,00.html) , The Guardian, August 11, 2004

40. ^ Lorenzi, Rossella (October 6, 2004). "DNA Suggests Columbus Remains in Spain"(http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20041004/columbus.html) . Discovery News.http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20041004/columbus.html. Retrieved 2006-10-11.

41. ^ DNA verifies Columbus’ remains in Spain (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12871458/) , Associated Press, May19, 2006

42. ^ Dugard, Martin. The Last Voyage of Columbus. Little, Brown and Company: New York, 2005.43. ^ Russell, Jeffrey B.. "The Myth of the Flat Earth" (http://www.asa3.org/ASA/topics/history/1997Russell.html) .

American Scientific Affiliation. http://www.asa3.org/ASA/topics/history/1997Russell.html. Retrieved 2007-03-14.44. ^ The Gentleman's Magazine, Vol. 8, June 1738, p. 285 (http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/ilej/image1.pl?

item=page&seq=5&size=1&id=gm.1738.6.x.8.x.x.285a)45. ^ "Plaza Colón" (http://www.mayaguezpr.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=191&Itemid=163)

(in Spanish). http://www.mayaguezpr.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=191&Itemid=163.Retrieved 2009-07-27.

46. ^ Rigau, Jorge (2009). Puerto Rico Then and Now. San Diego, California: Thunder Bay Press. pp. 74–75.47. ^ "Christopher Columbus and the Indians by Howard Zinn" (http://www.newhumanist.com/md2.html) .

Newhumanist.com. http://www.newhumanist.com/md2.html. Retrieved 2008-09-05.48. ^ "Jack Weatherford, Examining the reputation of Christopher Columbus" (http://www.hartford-

hwp.com/Taino/docs/columbus.html) . Hartford-hwp.com. 2001-04-20. http://www.hartford-hwp.com/Taino/docs/columbus.html. Retrieved 2009-07-29.

49. ^ "Pre-Columbian Hispaniola — Arawak/Taino Indians" (http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/43a/100.html) .Hartford-hwp.com. 2001-09-15. http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/43a/100.html. Retrieved 2009-07-29.

50. ^ Alfred W. Crosby, The Columbian Exchange, Westport,1972, p. 39, 47.51. ^ Alfred Crosby, The Columbian Exchange (Westport, 1972) p. 45.52. ^ Alden, Henry Mills. Harper's New Monthly Magazine. Volume 84, Issues 499-504. Published by Harper &

Brothers, 1892. Originally from Harvard University. Digitized on December 16, 2008. 732(http://books.google.com/books?id=Mk49AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA732&lpg=PA732&dq=Columbus+no+authentic+portraits&source=bl&ots=GAiNksM6jF&sig=KZPEpoj1mCeBa2vWR3W3_5OUC2U&hl=en&ei=gt6mSu6UFZCNtgeXsOCnCA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5#v=onepage&q=Columbus%20no%20authentic%20portraits&f=false). Retrieved on September 8, 2009. 'Major, Int. Letters of Columbus, ixxxviii., says "Not one of the so-calledportraits of Columbus is unquestionably authentic." They differ from each other, and cannot represent the sameperson.'

53. ^ Loewen, James W. Lies My Teacher Told Me. 1st Touchstone ed, Simon & Schuster, 1996(http://library.plymouth.edu/read/212134) . ISBN 0684818868. 55.

54. ^ John Noble, Susan Forsyth, Vesna Maric, Paula Hardy. Andalucía. Lonely Planet, 2007, p. 10055. ^ Linda Biesele Hall, Teresa Eckmann. Mary, mother and warrior, University of Texas Press, 2004, p. 4656. ^ Morison, Samuel Eliot Admiral of the Ocean Sea: A Life of Christopher Columbus, pg. 47-48, Boston 1942.57. ^ Bartolomé de Las Casas, Historia de las Indias, ed. Agustín Millares Carlo, 3 vols. (Mexico City, 1951), book

1, chapter 2, 1:29. The Spanish word garzos is now usually translated as "light blue," but it seems to haveconnoted light grey-green or hazel eyes to Columbus's contemporaries. The word rubio can mean "blonde,""fair," or "ruddy." The Worlds of Christopher Columbus by William D. & Carla Rahn Phillips, pg. 282.

58. ^ "DNA Tests on the bones of Christopher Columbus's bones, on his relatives and on Genoese and Catalinclaimaints" (http://www.christopher-columbus.eu/dna-tests.htm) . http://www.christopher-columbus.eu/dna-tests.htm. Retrieved 2009-02-09.

59. ^ "Dario Fo Archives online" (http://www.oocities.com/dariofoarchive/isabella.html) .http://www.oocities.com/dariofoarchive/isabella.html. Retrieved 2009-10-12.

60. ^ The New Yorker, 17 June 1991, p. 32.61. ^ Civilization Revolution: Great People (http://www.civfanatics.com/civrev/great_people) "CivFanatics" Retrieved

on 4th September 2009

ReferencesCohen, J.M. (1969) The Four Voyages of Christopher Columbus: Being His Own Log-Book, Lettersand Dispatches with Connecting Narrative Drawn from the Life of the Admiral by His Son HernandoColon and Others. London UK: Penguin Classics.Cook, Sherburn and Woodrow Borah (1971) Essays in Population History, Volume I. Berkeley CA:University of California PressCrosby, A. W. (1987) The Columbian Voyages: the Columbian Exchange, and their Historians.Washington, DC: American Historical Association.Davidson, Miles H. (1997) Columbus Then and Now: A Life Reexamined, Norman and London,University of Oklahoma Press.Fuson, Robert H. (1992) The Log of Christopher Columbus. International Marine PublishingKeen, Benjamin (1978) The Life of the Admiral Christopher Columbus by his Son Ferdinand,Westport CT: Greenwood Press.Loewen, James. Lies My Teacher Told MeMorison, Samuel Eliot, Admiral of the Ocean Sea: A Life of Christopher Columbus, Boston, Little,Brown and Company, 1942.Morison, Samuel Eliot, Christopher Columbus, Mariner, Boston, Little, Brown and Company, 1955.Phillips, W. D. and C. R. Phillips (1992) The Worlds of Christopher Columbus. Cambridge UK:Cambridge University Press.Turner, Jack (2004) Spice: The History of a Temptation. New York: Random House.Wilford, John Noble (1991) The Mysterious History of Columbus: An Exploration of the Man, theMyth, the Legacy. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

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External linksThe Letter of Columbus to Luis de Sant Angel Announcing His Discovery(http://www.bartleby.com/43/2.html)Podcasts and audio about Columbus (http://historicalpodcasts.googlepages.com/columbus)Columbus Navigation (http://www.columbusnavigation.com/)Christopher Columbus (http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=1988) at Find aGraveImages of Christopher Columbus and His Voyages(http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/list/080_columbus.html) Selections from the Collections of the Libraryof Congress.The Eclipse That Saved Columbus (http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20061007/mathtrek.asp)Science News October 7, 2006

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