Columbus's first voyage. Chapter III

Christopher Columbus is the discoverer of South and Central America. Columbus Expeditions.

Christopher Columbus biography

1 expedition. Discovery of America by Columbus in 1492

• The first expedition of Christopher Columbus consisted of three ships - the Santa Maria (a three-masted flagship 25 m long, with a displacement of 120 tons, the captain of the ship Columbus), the Pinta caravels (captain - Martin Alonso Pinzon) and Niña (captain - Vicente Yanez Pinson) with a displacement of 55 tons and 87 expedition personnel.
  The flotilla left Palos on August 3, 1492, turned west from the Canary Islands, crossed the Atlantic Ocean, opening the Sargasso Sea and reached an island in the Bahamas archipelago (Pinta sailor Rodrigo de Triana was the first to see American soil October 12, 1492). Columbus landed on the shore, which the locals call Guanahani, planted a banner on it, declared the open land the property of the Spanish king and formally took possession of the island. He named the island San Salvador.
  For a long time (1940 -1982), Watling Island was considered San Salvador. However, our contemporary American geographer George Judge in 1986 processed all the collected materials on a computer and came to the conclusion: the first American land Columbus saw was the island of Samana (120 km southeast of Watling).
  On October 14-24, Columbus approached several more Bahamian islands, and on October 28 - December 5, he discovered part of the northeastern coast of Cuba. On December 6 he reached the island of Haiti and moved along the northern coast. On the night of December 25, the flagship Santa Maria landed on a reef, but the crew escaped. For the first time in the history of navigation, by order of Columbus, Indian hammocks were adapted for sailor berths.
  Columbus returned to Castile on the Niña on March 15, 1493. From America, Columbus brought seven captive American natives, who in Europe were called Indians, as well as some gold and plants and fruits never seen before in the Old World, including the annual plant corn (in Haiti it is called maize), tomatoes, peppers, tobacco (“ dry leaves, which were especially valued by the locals"), pineapples, cocoa and potatoes (due to its beautiful pink and white flowers). The political resonance of Columbus’s voyage was the “papal meridian”: the head of the Catholic Church established a demarcation line in the Atlantic, indicating different directions for the discovery of new lands for rival Spain and Portugal.

  Christopher Columbus first landed on the shores of the New World: in San Salvador, Wisconsin, October 12, 1492.
  Author of the painting: Spanish artist Tolin Puebla, Theophilus Dioscorus Dioscoro Teofilo Puebla Tolin (1831-1901)
  Publisher: American company Currier and Ives (engravings, lithographs, popular prints), publication 1892.

  
  

2nd expedition of Christopher Columbus (1493 - 1496)

• The second expedition (1493-96), led by Admiral Columbus, as viceroy of the newly discovered lands, consisted of 17 ships with a crew of 1.5-2.5 thousand people. On November 3-15, 1493, Columbus discovered the islands of Dominica, Guadeloupe and about 20 Lesser Antilles, and on November 19, the island of Puerto Rico. In March 1494, in search of gold, he made a military campaign deep into the island of Haiti, and in the summer he discovered the southeastern and southern coasts of Cuba, the islands of Juventud and Jamaica. For 40 days, Columbus explored the southern coast of Haiti, which he continued to conquer in 1495. But in the spring of 1496 he sailed home, completing his second voyage on June 11 in Castile. Columbus announced the opening of a new route to Asia. The colonization of new lands by free settlers that soon began was very costly for the Spanish crown, and Columbus proposed populating the islands with criminals, cutting their sentences in half. With fire and sword, plundering and destroying the country of ancient culture, the military detachments of Cortez passed through the land of the Aztecs - Mexico, and the troops of Pizarro - through the land of the Incas - Peru.

3rd expedition of Christopher Columbus (1498 - 1499)

• The third expedition (1498-99) consisted of six ships, three of which Columbus himself led across the Atlantic. On July 31, 1498, he discovered the island of Trinidad, entered the Gulf of Paria, discovered the mouth of the western branch of the Orinoco delta and the Paria Peninsula, marking the beginning of the discovery of South America. Having entered the Caribbean Sea, he approached the Araya Peninsula, discovered Margarita Island on August 15, and arrived in Haiti on August 31. In 1500, following a denunciation, Christopher Columbus was arrested and, shackled (which he later kept throughout his life), was sent to Castile, where his release awaited him.

4th expedition of Christopher Columbus (1502 - 1504)

Columbus discovered America on October 12, 1492

", BGCOLOR, "#ffffff", FONTCOLOR, "#333333", BORDERCOLOR, "Silver", WIDTH, "100%", FADEIN, 100, FADEOUT, 100)"> So, October 12, 1492 The ships of the expedition approached the new land carefully, so as not to run into reefs. They dropped the anchors. We prepared everything we needed. And with God's help, October 13, 1492 and the leadership of the expedition represented by the Pinson brothers, Juana de la Cosa the notary Rodrigo de Escoveda, the plenipotentiary inspector of the crown Rodrigo Sanchez de Segovia (who were dragged with them across all the seas especially for this occasion) and a group of comrades were the first to go ashore.

October 13, 1492 Columbus first set foot on the shores of the new land

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On behalf of and on behalf of the king and queen, Christopher Columbus took possession of the land he discovered. A notarial deed with all the required formalities was drawn up about this right there on the spot. Actually, it was at this moment that Columbus became the Viceroy, because he had his own territory! Having hoisted the Castilian banner on the shore, the delegation went to explore the local sights. And after a short time, “tour guides” appeared - local residents.

Columbus named the first island he discovered "San Salvador"

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It is interesting that there are no detailed descriptions of the exact place where Columbus landed, from which one could confidently say which of the Bahamas was the first to feel the pleasant weight of Castilian boots. Therefore, several pieces of land from the Bahamas garland are fighting for the right to primacy. For himself, Columbus named the island San - Salvador (Salvation).

After spending several days exploring the island and establishing contacts with local residents Arawaks, as they called themselves, Columbus began to suspect that he had not found exactly what he was looking for. The islanders were in the Stone Age in terms of development - they did not know metals. They didn't know the wheels. They did not use pack or riding animals. Their language was not similar to any of the eastern languages ​​in which the expedition’s interpreter tried to communicate with them. Luis de Torres. However, at first this did not bother Columbus. One could assume that his ships reached some island remote from the mainland. What was more confusing was that no spices grew on the island. And most importantly, there was no gold.

However, as sources say, local residents had some pieces of gold, and Columbus began asking where it came from and where they supposedly got it? What the savages pointed to in the direction of the southwest - there, they say, there is a big land, other people live there and here they have... ", BGCOLOR, "#ffffff", FONTCOLOR, "#333333", BORDERCOLOR, "Silver", WIDTH, "100%", FADEIN, 100, FADEOUT, 100)"> All this nonsense that wanders from book to book, from site to site, with the addition of fictitious details, is not worth a penny eaten by a banana. If the natives San - Salvadora and there was gold, why would they need it? What is its value to them? Is it processed or in nugget form? The Columbusers, of course, could show the natives their gold products. But what could the natives compare them to? Some questions...

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Having searched for gold in the ground on the island and not finding it, the forwarders decided to continue searching - depending on their luck. After stumbling around the Bahamas for two weeks, the Admiral's expedition landed on the northeastern coast of Cuba on October 28, 1492. They equipped the landing party, scoured the coast for quite a long time, and sent reconnaissance deep into the territory. But even here there was not what he was looking for. No gold. No spices. No palaces. Neither the Great Khan.

I think it is no coincidence that the Admiral was unlucky with all this. After all, he came to the new land to take away, take away, plunder, and not in order to do something good on it. And the ending of his fate in this regard is quite natural. Columbus's crew were the usual invaders, bandits, slave traders and murderers. And Christian morality did not condemn all this. However, there are other places on the Internet for philosophical discussions, and we will return to our travelers.

", BGCOLOR, "#ffffff", FONTCOLOR, "#333333", BORDERCOLOR, "Silver", WIDTH, "100%", FADEIN, 100, FADEOUT, 100)"> Believing that he is in the poorest part of China, Columbus decides to turn east, where, according to one version, the rich country of Sipangu /Japan/ could be located, according to another (at the suggestion of local residents) - it was precisely to the east of Cuba that there was a large island on which there was a lot of gold in the pile. The ships headed east along the northern coast of Cuba.

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It is impossible to say exactly how and when exactly the members of the expedition first tried tobacco, but a record of this historical event appears in Columbus's logbook on November 15. There is a version that in a word tobacco It was not the plant itself that was called, but the tube through which the Indians inhaled the smoke. But it was precisely this that became a household name for the potion itself.

Where did Pinta go?

On November 20, 1492, the Pinta suddenly disappeared. She simply disappeared from sight, apparently leaving at night. The most current version is that its captain, Martin Alonso Pinzon, the second man in the expedition, who seemed to be burning with delusions of grandeur and thirst for profit, broke away from his comrades to be the first to find gold. Or other values. And be the first to rush back, because he also knew something about navigation. Most likely, this was the case.

On December 6, 1492, Columbus discovered the island of Haiti - Hispaniola

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The remaining two ships continued their journey east and two weeks later, on December 6, 1492, the travelers discovered the present island of Haiti, which Columbus called Hispaniola /little Spain/, although the island was three times the size of Sicily!

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Columbus discovered an island off the northern coast of Hispaniola, which he named Tortuga/Turtle/. This island later became the most famous nest in the Caribbean, was repeatedly described in novels and has retained the name given by Columbus to this day.

For another two weeks, Niña and Santa Maria slowly moved along the winding coast of Haiti, all the while trying to establish contacts with the local population for the presence of precious metals.", BGCOLOR, "#ffffff", FONTCOLOR, "#333333", BORDERCOLOR, "Silver", WIDTH, "100%", FADEIN, 100, FADEOUT, 100)">In one of the bays where the ships stopped, they managed to find out from the local population that further to the east there was the territory of a powerful leader Guacanagari, and in the depths of the island lies an area called Cibao, where there is a lot of this gold as shoe polish at the shoe polish factory. The admiral, of course, immediately thought that Cibao this is it Sipango, decided to reach the leader’s territory by sea and then penetrate deep into the country. But then the unexpected happened. On the night of December 25, 1492, the Santa Maria landed on a reef.

The mystery of death ""

The crash of the Santa Maria still causes ambiguous assessments among Columbus scholars, because the circumstances of the disaster inspired and continue to inspire suspicion. Why did we walk along the coast at night, where there could always be pitfalls? Why was there a cabin boy at the helm?Maybe it was beneficial for someone to run the expedition’s flagship aground? But to whom?

1. To the owner of the ship Juan de la Cosa? Perhaps he expected to get insurance for it? So he actually later received compensation from the kings for lost property, which indirectly confirms this guess.

2. To the Admiral himself. It is possible that he does too. Let's try to reason. Realizing that he had not discovered what he was looking for, Columbus felt the futility of further searches for Japan and China. If they were somewhere close, there would be indirect signs of their proximity - goods exchanged with local tribes, perhaps a wheel, metal products. But none of this happened. But Columbus had already become the Viceroy of all these lands. And the land turned out to be considerable! It was necessary to return here with exploration expeditions. Leaving some people here is an additional argument for equipping the next expedition. In addition, Columbus could well suspect that Martin A. Pinson disappeared on the Pinta for a reason. He could rush back to be the first to report to the kings about the new lands and receive all the preferences. Santa Maria would be a liability for Columbus in this race. And there was a reason for refusing further searches for Japan and the Great Khan - they say, with one ship somewhere... This, of course, is all speculation...

The third and most likely version is that the team simply got too drunk on Christmas. Valiant conquistadors started pouring down their throats the night before and were simply not able to get behind the wheel or take the helm. Catholic Christmas is celebrated on the night of December 24-25. It gets dark early in southern latitudes. And breaking the fast after fasting is allowed with the appearance of the first star in the sky. That's the whole truth about the crash of the Santa Maria.

Fort "Navidad" - pFirst Spanish settlement in America

From the wreckage of the flagship, it was decided to build a fortified settlement on the shore and leave a significant part of the crew there - 39 souls in total. This colonists involuntarily The admiral promised to definitely return next year. ", BGCOLOR, "#ffffff", FONTCOLOR, "#333333", BORDERCOLOR, "Silver", WIDTH, "100%", FADEIN, 100, FADEOUT, 100)">
On the third day of Christmas, travelers began building a fortress. It was decided to call it “ Navidad" (Navidad in Spanish - Christmas), and the remains of “Santa Maria” were used to build this stronghold. The colonists were left with a significant supply of food, wine, firearms and a boat. The admiral said a touching farewell to those who remained to spend the winter on the new land, and told them not to remember him in a dashing way and to live amicably among themselves and with their neighbors. Alas, this was the last time he saw them alive. 2 January 1493 The last remaining caravel of Christopher Columbus's first expedition, the Niña, set off on its return journey.

Return of the prodigal "Pint". Back home with full sails!

On Sunday, 6 January 1493 year, the Pinta was spotted from the mainmast of the Niña. It’s a very strange accident... Soon the Admiral met with the captain of the missing caravel M.A. Pinson, who stated that he had separated from the flotilla against his will (?!?). No one can establish what actually happened there, but both commanders understood that in their situation a bad peace was better than a good quarrel and did not begin to sort things out until the end. The ships rummaged around a little more in Haiti in the last hope of finding something, replenished supplies and16 January 1493 in full sail, heading steeply to the northnor-north-east(or in our opinion to the north-northeast). Columbus's return journey to Castile began.

Travelers of the Age of Great Geographical Discovery

Russian travelers and pioneers

Christopher Columbus had the unshakable belief that it was possible to sail to East Asia and India by heading west from Europe. It was based not on dark, semi-fabulous news about the discovery of Vinland by the Normans, but on considerations of the brilliant mind of Columbus. A warm sea current from the Gulf of Mexico to the western coast of Europe provided evidence that there was a large landmass to the west. The Portuguese helmsman (skipper) Vincente caught in the sea at the height of the Azores a block of wood on which figures were carved. The carving was skillful, but it was clear that it was made not with an iron cutter, but with some other tool. Christopher Columbus saw the same piece of carved wood from Pedro Carrei, his relative by wife, who was the ruler of the island of Porto Santo. King John II of Portugal showed Columbus pieces of reed brought by the western sea current so thick and tall that the sections from one node to another contained three azumbras (more than half a bucket) of water. They reminded Columbus of the words of Ptolemy about the enormous size of Indian plants. The inhabitants of the islands of Faial and Graciosa told Columbus that the sea brings to them from the west pine trees of a species that is not found in Europe or on their islands. There were several cases where the western current brought boats with dead people of a race to the shores of the Azores, which was not found either in Europe or in Africa.

Portrait of Christopher Columbus. Artist S. del Piombo, 1519

Treaty of Columbus with Queen Isabella

After living for some time in Portugal, Columbus left it to propose a plan to sail to India by the western route. Castilian government. The Andalusian nobleman Luis de la Cerda, Duke of Medina Seli, became interested in Columbus's project, which promised enormous benefits to the state, and recommended it Queen Isabella. She accepted Christopher Columbus into her service, assigned him a salary and submitted his project to the University of Salamanca for consideration. The commission to which the queen entrusted the final decision of the matter consisted almost exclusively of clergy; The most influential person in it was Isabella's confessor, Fernando Talavera. After much deliberation, she came to the conclusion that the foundations of the project about sailing to the west were weak and that it was unlikely to be implemented. But not everyone was of this opinion. Cardinal Mendoza, a very intelligent man, and the Dominican Diego Desa, who was later the Archbishop of Seville and the Grand Inquisitor, became the patrons of Christopher Columbus; at their request, Isabella retained him in her service.

In 1487, Columbus lived in Cordoba. It seems that he settled in this city precisely because Doña Beatriz Enriquez Avana lived there, with whom he had a relationship. She had a son, Fernando, with him. The war with the Muslims of Granada absorbed all of Isabella's attention. Columbus lost hope of receiving funds from the queen to sail to the west and decided to go to France to propose his project to the French government. He and his son Diego came to Palos to sail from there to France and stopped at the Franciscan monastery of Ravid. The monk Juan Perez Marchena, Isabella’s confessor, who lived there at the time, got into conversation with the visitor. Columbus began to tell him his project; he invited the doctor Garcia Hernandez, who knew astronomy and geography, to his conversation with Columbus. The confidence with which Columbus spoke made a strong impression on Marchena and Hernandez. Marchena persuaded Columbus to postpone his departure and immediately went to Santa Fe (to the camp near Granada) to talk with Isabella about Christopher Columbus's project. Some courtiers supported Marchena.

Isabella sent Columbus money and invited him to come to Santa Fe. He arrived shortly before the capture of Granada. Isabella listened attentively to Columbus, who eloquently outlined to her his plan to sail to East Asia by the Western route and explained what glory she would gain by conquering rich pagan lands and spreading Christianity in them. Isabella promised to equip a squadron for Columbus's voyage, and said that if there was no money for this in the treasury, depleted by military expenses, then she would pawn her diamonds. But when it came to determining the terms of the contract, difficulties presented themselves. Columbus demanded that he be given the nobility, the rank of admiral, the rank of viceroy of all lands and islands that he would discover on his voyage, a tenth of the income that the government would receive from them, so that he would have the right to appoint to some positions there and were certain trading privileges were granted, so that the power granted to him would remain hereditary in his posterity. The Castilian dignitaries who negotiated with Christopher Columbus considered these demands too great and urged him to reduce them; but he remained adamant. The negotiations were interrupted, and he again got ready to go to France. The State Treasurer of Castile, Luis de San Angel, ardently urged the queen to agree to Columbus's demands; some other courtiers told her in the same spirit, and she agreed. On April 17, 1492, an agreement was concluded in Santa Fe by the Castilian government with Christopher Columbus on the conditions that he demanded. The treasury was depleted by the war. San Angel said that he would give his money to equip three ships, and Columbus went to the Andalusian coast to prepare for his first voyage to America.

The beginning of Columbus's first voyage

The small port city of Palos had recently incurred the wrath of the government, and for this reason it was obliged to maintain two ships for a year for public service. Isabella ordered Palos to place these ships at the disposal of Christopher Columbus; He equipped the third ship himself with money given to him by friends. In Palos, the Pinson family, engaged in maritime trade, enjoyed great influence. With the assistance of the Pinsons, Columbus dispelled the sailors' fear of setting off on a long voyage to the west and recruited about a hundred good sailors. Three months later, the squadron's equipment was completed, and on August 3, 1492, two caravels, the Pinta and the Niña, captained by Alonso Pinzón and his brother Vincente Yañez, and a third slightly larger ship, the Santa Maria, sailed from Palos harbor. ", the captain of which was Christopher Columbus himself.

Replica of Columbus's ship "Santa Maria"

Sailing from Palos, Columbus constantly headed west under the latitude of the Canary Islands. The route along these degrees was longer than through latitudes more northern or more southern, but it had the advantage that the wind was always favorable. The squadron stopped at one of the Azores islands to repair the damaged Pinta; it took a month. Then Columbus's first voyage continued further west. In order not to arouse anxiety among the sailors, Columbus hid from them the true extent of the distance traveled. In the tables that he showed to his companions, he put numbers less than the actual ones, and noted the real numbers only in his journal, which he did not show to anyone. The weather was good, the wind was fair; the air temperature was reminiscent of the fresh and warm morning hours of April days in Andalusia. The squadron sailed for 34 days, seeing nothing but sea and sky. The sailors began to worry. The magnetic needle changed its direction and began to deviate from the pole further to the west than in the parts of the sea not far from Europe and Africa. This increased the fear of the sailors; it seemed that the voyage was leading them to places where influences unknown to them dominated. Columbus tried to calm them down, explaining that the change in the direction of the magnetic needle is created by a change in the position of the ships relative to the polar star.

A fair east wind carried the ships in the second half of September along a calm sea, in some places covered with green sea plants. The constancy in the direction of the wind increased the anxiety of the sailors: they began to think that in those places there was never any other wind, and that they would not be able to sail in the opposite direction, but these fears also disappeared when strong sea currents from the southwest became noticeable: they given the opportunity to return to Europe. Christopher Columbus's squadron sailed through that part of the ocean that later became known as the Sea of ​​Grass; this continuous vegetative shell of water seemed to be a sign of the proximity of earth. A flock of birds circling over the ships increased the hope that land was close. Seeing a cloud on the edge of the horizon in the northwest direction at sunset on September 25, the participants in Columbus’s first voyage mistook it for an island; but the next morning it turned out that they were mistaken. Previous historians have stories that the sailors plotted to force Columbus to return, that they even threatened his life, that they made him promise to turn back if land did not appear in the next three days. But now it has been proven that these stories are fictions that arose several decades after the time of Christopher Columbus. The fears of the sailors, very natural, were transformed by the imagination of the next generation into mutiny. Columbus reassured his sailors with promises, threats, reminders of the power given to him by the queen, and behaved firmly and calmly; this was enough for the sailors not to disobey him. He promised a lifelong pension of 30 gold coins to the first person to see the land. Therefore, the sailors who were on the mars several times gave signals that the earth was visible, and when it turned out that the signals were erroneous, the crews of the ships were overcome by despondency. To stop these disappointments, Columbus said that anyone who gives an erroneous signal about land on the horizon loses the right to receive a pension, even after actually seeing the first land.

Discovery of America by Columbus

At the beginning of October, signs of the proximity of land intensified. Flocks of small colorful birds circled over the ships and flew to the southwest; plants floated on the water, clearly not sea, but terrestrial, but still retaining freshness, showing that they had recently been washed away from the earth by the waves; a tablet and a carved stick were caught. The sailors took a direction somewhat south; the air was fragrant, like spring in Andalusia. On a clear night on October 11, Columbus noticed a moving light in the distance, so he ordered the sailors to look carefully and promised, in addition to the previous reward, a silk camisole to the one who saw the land first. At 2 o'clock in the morning on October 12, Pinta sailor Juan Rodriguez Vermejo, a native of the town of Molinos, neighboring Seville, saw the outline of the cape in the moonlight and with a joyful cry: “Earth! Earth!" rushed to the cannon to fire a signal shot. But then the award for the discovery was awarded to Columbus himself, who had previously seen the light. At dawn, the ships sailed to the shore, and Christopher Columbus, in the scarlet garb of an admiral, with the Castilian banner in his hand, entered the land he had discovered. It was an island that the natives called Guanagani, and Columbus named it San Salvador in honor of the Savior (later it was called Watling). The island was covered with beautiful meadows and forests, and its inhabitants were naked and dark copper in color; their hair was straight, not curly; their body was painted in bright colors. They greeted the foreigners timidly, respectfully, imagining that they were children of the sun who had descended from the sky, and, not understanding anything, they watched and listened to the ceremony by which Columbus took their island into possession of the Castilian crown. They gave away expensive things for beads, bells, and foil. Thus began the discovery of America.

In the next days of his voyage, Christopher Columbus discovered several more small islands belonging to the Bahamas archipelago. He named one of them the Island of the Immaculate Conception (Santa Maria de la Concepcion), another Fernandina (this is the current island of Echuma), the third Isabella; gave others new names of this kind. He believed that the archipelago he discovered on this first voyage lies in front of the eastern coast of Asia, and that from there it is not far to Jipangu (Japan) and Cathay (China), described Marco Polo and drawn on the map by Paolo Toscanelli. He took several natives onto his ships so that they could learn Spanish and serve as translators. Traveling further to the southwest, Columbus discovered the large island of Cuba on October 26, and on December 6, a beautiful island that resembled Andalusia with its forests, mountains and fertile plains. Because of this similarity, Columbus named it Hispaniola (or, in the Latin form of the word, Hispaniola). The natives called it Haiti. The luxurious vegetation of Cuba and Haiti confirmed the Spaniards' belief that this is an archipelago neighboring India. No one then suspected the existence of the great continent of America. Participants in the first voyage of Christopher Columbus admired the beauty of the meadows and forests on these islands, their excellent climate, the bright feathers and sonorous singing of birds in the forests, the aroma of herbs and flowers, which was so strong that it was felt far from the shore; admired the brightness of the stars in the tropical sky.

The vegetation of the islands was then, after the autumn rains, in the full freshness of its splendor. Columbus, gifted with a keen love of nature, describes the beauty of the islands and the sky above them with graceful simplicity in the ship's log of his first voyage. Humboldt says: “On his voyage along the coast of Cuba between the small islands of the Bahamas archipelago and the Hardinel group, Christopher Columbus admired the density of the forests, in which the branches of the trees were intertwined so that it was difficult to distinguish which flowers belonged to which tree. He admired the luxurious meadows of the wet coast, the pink flamingos standing along the banks of the rivers; each new land seems to Columbus even more beautiful than the one described before it; he complains that he does not have enough words to convey the pleasure he experiences.” - Peschel says: “Enchanted by his success, Columbus imagines that mastic trees grow in these forests, that the sea abounds in pearl shells, that there is a lot of gold in the sand of the rivers; he sees the fulfillment of all the stories about rich India.”

But the Spaniards did not find as much gold, expensive stones and pearls as they wanted on the islands they discovered. The natives wore small jewelry made of gold and willingly exchanged them for beads and other trinkets. But this gold did not satisfy the greed of the Spaniards, but only kindled their hope of the proximity of lands in which there was a lot of gold; they questioned the natives who came to their ships in shuttles. Columbus treated these savages kindly; They stopped being afraid of foreigners and when asked about gold they answered that further south there was a land in which there was a lot of it. But on his first voyage, Christopher Columbus did not reach the American mainland; he did not sail further than Hispaniola, whose inhabitants accepted the Spaniards trustingly. The most important of their princes, the cacique Guacanagari, showed Columbus sincere friendship and filial piety. Columbus considered it necessary to stop sailing and return from the shores of Cuba to Europe, because Alonso Pinzon, the head of one of the caravels, secretly sailed away from the admiral's ship. He was a proud and hot-tempered man, he was burdened by his subordination to Christopher Columbus, he wanted to gain the merit of discovering a land rich in gold, and to take advantage of its treasures alone. His caravel sailed away from Columbus's ship on November 20 and never returned. Columbus assumed that he sailed to Spain to take credit for the discovery.

A month later (December 24), the ship Santa Maria, through the negligence of a young helmsman, landed on a sandbank and was broken by the waves. Columbus had only one caravel left; he saw himself in a hurry to return to Spain. The cacique and all the inhabitants of Hispaniola showed the most friendly disposition towards the Spaniards and tried to do everything they could for them. But Columbus was afraid that his only ship might crash on unfamiliar shores, and did not dare to continue his discoveries. He decided to leave some of his companions on Hispaniola so that they would continue to acquire gold from the natives for trinkets that the savages liked. With the help of the natives, the participants in Columbus's first voyage built a fortification from the wreckage of the crashed ship, surrounded it with a ditch, transferred part of the food supplies into it, and placed several cannons there; The sailors vying with one another volunteered to stay in this fortification. Columbus selected 40 of them, among whom were several carpenters and other craftsmen, and left them in Hispaniola under the command of Diego Arana, Pedro Gutierrez and Rodrigo Escovedo. The fortification was named after the Christmas holiday La Navidad.

Before Christopher Columbus sailed to Europe, Alonso Pinzon returned to him. Sailing away from Columbus, he headed further along the coast of Hispaniola, came to land, received from the natives in exchange for trinkets several pieces of gold two fingers thick, walked inland, heard about the island of Jamaica (Jamaica), on which there is a lot of gold and from which It takes ten days to sail to the mainland, where people who wear clothes live. Pinzon had strong kinship and powerful friends in Spain, so Columbus hid his displeasure with him and pretended to believe the fabrications with which he explained his action. Together they sailed along the coast of Hispaniola and in the Gulf of Samana they found the warlike Siguayo tribe, which entered into battle with them. This was the first hostile encounter between the Spaniards and the natives. From the shores of Hispaniola, Columbus and Pinson sailed to Europe on January 16, 1493.

Return of Columbus from his first voyage

On the way back from the first voyage, happiness was less favorable to Christopher Columbus and his companions than on the way to America. In mid-February they were subjected to a strong storm, which their ships, already quite badly damaged, could hardly withstand. The Pint was blown north by the storm. Columbus and other travelers sailing on the Niña lost sight of her. Columbus felt great anxiety at the thought that the Pinta had sunk; his ship could also easily have perished, and in that case, information about his discoveries would not have reached Europe. He made a promise to God that if his ship survived, pilgrimage trips would be made to three of Spain's most famous holy places. He and his companions cast lots to see which of them would go to these holy places. Of the three trips, two fell to the lot of Christopher Columbus himself; he assumed the costs of the third. The storm still continued, and Columbus came up with a means for information about his discovery to reach Europe in the event of the loss of the Niña. He wrote on parchment a short story about his voyage and the lands he found, rolled up the parchment, covered it with a wax coating to protect it from water, put the package in a barrel, made an inscription on the barrel that whoever finds it and delivers it to the Queen of Castile will receive 1000 ducats reward, and threw him into the sea.

A few days later, when the storm stopped and the sea calmed, the sailor saw land from the top of the mainmast; the joy of Columbus and his companions was as great as when they discovered the first island in the west during their voyage. But no one except Columbus could figure out which shore was in front of them. Only he conducted observations and calculations correctly; all the others were confused in them, partly because he deliberately led them into mistakes, wanting alone to have the information necessary for the second voyage to America. He realized that the land in front of the ship was one of the Azores. But the waves were still so great and the wind so strong that Christopher Columbus's caravel cruised for three days in sight of land before it could land at Santa Maria (the southernmost island of the Azores archipelago).

The Spaniards came ashore on February 17, 1493. The Portuguese, who owned the Azores Islands, met them unfriendly. Castangeda, the ruler of the island, a treacherous man, wanted to capture Columbus and his ship out of fear that these Spaniards were rivals of the Portuguese in trade with Guinea, or out of desire to find out about the discoveries they made during the voyage, Columbus sent half of his sailors to the chapel to thank God for their salvation from the storm. The Portuguese arrested them; They then wanted to take possession of the ship, but this failed because Columbus was careful. Having failed, the Portuguese ruler of the island released those arrested, excusing his hostile actions by saying that he did not know whether Columbus’s ship was really in the service of the Queen of Castilia. Columbus sailed to Spain; but off the Portuguese coast it was subjected to a new storm; she was very dangerous. Columbus and his companions promised a fourth pilgrimage; by lot it fell to Columbus himself. The residents of Cascaes, who saw from the shore the danger that the ship was in, went to church to pray for its salvation. Finally, on March 4, 1493, Christopher Columbus's ship reached Cape Sintra and entered the mouth of the Tagus River. The sailors of the Belem harbor, where Columbus landed, said that his salvation was a miracle, that in the memory of people there had never been such a strong storm that it sank 25 large merchant ships sailing from Flanders.

Happiness favored Christopher Columbus on his first voyage and saved him from danger. They threatened him in Portugal. Its king, John II, was jealous of the amazing discovery, which eclipsed all the discoveries of the Portuguese and, as it seemed then, robbed them of the benefits of trade with India, which they wanted to achieve thanks to the discovery Vasco da Gama ways to get there around Africa. The king received Columbus in his western palace of Valparaiso and listened to his story about his discoveries. Some nobles wanted to irritate Columbus, provoke him to some insolence and, taking advantage of it, kill him. But John II rejected this shameful thought, and Columbus remained alive. John showed him respect and took care to ensure his safety on the way back. On March 15, Christopher Columbus sailed to Palos; the residents of the city greeted him with delight. His first voyage lasted seven and a half months.

In the evening of the same day, Alonso Pinzon sailed to Palos. He went ashore in Galicia, sent a notice of his discoveries to Isabella and Ferdinand, who were then in Barcelona, ​​and asked for an audience with them. They replied that he should come to them in Columbus's retinue. This disfavor of the queen and king saddened him; He was also saddened by the coldness with which he was received in his hometown of Palos. He grieved so much that he died a few weeks later. With his treachery towards Columbus, he brought upon himself contempt, so that his contemporaries did not want to appreciate the services he rendered to the discovery of the New World. Only descendants did justice to his courageous participation in the first voyage of Christopher Columbus.

Reception of Columbus in Spain

In Seville, Columbus received an invitation from the queen and king of Spain to come to them in Barcelona; he went, taking with him several savages brought from the islands discovered during the voyage, and the products found there. People gathered in huge crowds to see him enter Barcelona. Queen Isabella and the King Ferdinand They received him with such honors as were given only to the most noble people. The king met Columbus in the square, sat him down next to him, and then rode alongside him on horseback several times around the city. The most distinguished Spanish nobles gave feasts in honor of Columbus and, as they say, at the feast given in his honor by Cardinal Mendoza, the famous joke about the “Columbus egg” occurred.

Columbus in front of Kings Ferdinand and Isabella. Painting by E. Leutze, 1843

Columbus remained firmly convinced that the islands he discovered during his voyage lie off the eastern coast of Asia, not far from the rich lands of Jipangu and Cathay; almost everyone shared his opinion; only a few doubted its validity.

To be continued - see the article

Just as historians are debating where Homer was born, heated discussions constantly flare up about the place where the great navigator who discovered America, Christopher Columbus, found his final resting place. Among the many versions on this topic, there is one that belongs to the category of sensational and is directly related to one of the districts of Moscow.
In Zelenograd, near Moscow, on the outskirts of the 9th microdistrict, there is Columbus Square. Nearby there is an abandoned wasteland on one side and a ravine, along the bottom of which the Skhodnya River flows, on the other. Once upon a time, Skhodnya was a completely navigable river, part of the system of the great waterway “from the Varangians to the Greeks.” And its very name suggests that people once “went down” or “went down” along this water artery to the Moscow River. One of these navigators could have been Christopher Columbus.

SECRET MISSION

The great navigator died in May 1506, and returned from his fourth voyage to America in November 1504. But Columbus’s biographers know nothing about a period of time of one and a half years. According to one version, he was hiding from disgrace in one of the Spanish monasteries, according to another, he eked out a miserable existence in his homeland, Seville. However, there is another version according to which Columbus set out on his last, fifth voyage during these years.

The navigator, in addition to the idea of ​​​​the eastern route to India, was obsessed with another thought - to find the missing ten tribes of Israel, which disappeared without a trace after the capture of the Northern Kingdom of Israel by the Assyrian king in 722 BC. Historical information about the Lost Tribes is sketchy, and for centuries the whereabouts of their descendants remained a mystery. Descendants of the lost tribes were sought among the peoples of Asia, Africa, the Volga region, and even among the American Indians. It is believed that Columbus died in poverty, leaving his heirs nothing but huge debts. The reason is that in 1504 Columbus sold all his considerable property, equipped two galleys with this money, and in May 1505 secretly left Spain.

THE LAST VOYAGE

How Columbus's galleys managed to pass through the Bosporus and Dardanelles, controlled by the Turks, is unknown. However, they ended up in the Black Sea, and then in the Azov Sea. Then the ships went up the Don, repeating in the opposite direction the ancient route “from the Varangians to the Greeks.” After this, the galleys were apparently dragged to the Volga, and Columbus continued moving north. There are suggestions that the Spaniards spent the winter of 1506 in Kazan.

But references to this in Tatar sources are extremely unclear, since most of the documents were lost during the capture of the city by Ivan the Terrible in 1552.

In the end, Columbus managed to reach the Moscow River along the Volga, and then turn to Skhodnya, which at that time was a large navigable river. At the site of present-day Zelenograd, his journey suddenly ended.

One of the versions is the death of Columbus, who, unable to withstand the tests of the harsh climate, became seriously ill. Or the expedition could have been attacked by local residents, mistaking the Spaniards for Tatars.

Portrait of Christopher Columbus. 16th century lithograph

SPANISH VILLAGE IN THE HEART OF RUSSIA

All theories, even if they are fantastic, require historical foundations. These appeared when urban construction began in Zelenograd in the 70s of the twentieth century and workers discovered the remains of an ancient settlement, and scientists were amazed to note that it belonged to Spanish life. The second evidence was 23 graves in which people were buried who, according to anthropological characteristics, belonged to Mediterranean peoples. And they were all adult men - not a single woman or child could be found. Also, among the artifacts found near Zelenograd, archaeologists discovered two bronze cannons, Spanish helmets - cabassets, and fragments of navigation instruments, one of which (an astrolabe) is marked with the letters ≪S.S.≫.

It is noteworthy that the initials of Christopher Columbus, which were marked with his personal belongings, looked exactly like ≪С.С.≫, that is, Cristobal Colon in Spanish.

Sign on Columbus Square in Zelenograd

GIFT TO REAGAN

Among the residents of Zelenograd, the conspiracy theory associated with the further history of the “Spanish treasure” is especially popular. Obviously, this archaeological discovery would cause a huge scandal in both Spain and America. Therefore, the information was classified, and the Soviet government began informal negotiations with Spain and the United States. The end was reached in 1989 - at a meeting between Gorbachev and Reagan in Reykjavik, where Mikhail Sergeevich, as a “gesture of goodwill,” agreed to transfer all the items found to the Spanish government, whose interests as a NATO ally were defended by Reagan. And the “Russian affair” of Christopher Columbus was hushed up so as not to complicate relations with Europe and the USA. However, in 1992, during the celebration of the 500th anniversary of the discovery of America, the Spanish ambassador, without much fanfare, came to Zelenograd to lay flowers at the site of Columbus's death. He asked the then mayor of the city to take advantage of the opportunity and somehow perpetuate this secret place.

Be that as it may, the story that somewhere on the banks of the Skhodnya River in the Zelenograd region is the grave of the great navigator continues to excite the minds of local residents. When VM correspondents turned to the city administration for comments, they heard the following from an official: “I won’t invent anything, but I don’t want to lie.” But I know for sure from local antiquity lovers and local historians that Columbus was here and met with Russian boyars.”

The Skhodnya River near Zelenograd was once navigable

Surely every schoolchild can easily answer the question of what Christopher Columbus discovered. Well, of course, America! However, let's think about whether this knowledge is not too scanty, because most of us have no idea where this famous discoverer came from, what his life path was like and in what era he lived.

This article is aimed at telling in detail about the discoveries of Christopher Columbus. In addition, the reader will have a unique opportunity to get acquainted with interesting data and the chronology of events that took place several centuries ago.

What did the great navigator discover?

Christopher Columbus, a traveler now known to the entire planet, was originally an ordinary Spanish navigator who worked both on the ship and in the port and, in fact, was practically no different from the same always busy hard workers.

It was later, in 1492, that he would become a celebrity - the man who discovered America, the first European to cross the Atlantic Ocean, and visit the Caribbean Sea.

By the way, not everyone knows that it was Christopher Columbus who laid the foundation for a detailed study of not only America itself, but also almost all nearby archipelagos.

Although here I would like to make an amendment. The Spanish navigator was far from the only traveler who set off to conquer unknown worlds. In fact, back in the Middle Ages, inquisitive Icelandic Vikings already visited America. But at that time, this information was not so widely disseminated, so the whole world believes that it was the expedition of Christopher Columbus that was able to popularize information about American lands and mark the beginning of European colonization of the entire continent.

The story of Christopher Columbus. Secrets and mysteries of his biography

This man was and remains one of the most mysterious historical figures on the planet. Unfortunately, not many facts have survived that tell about his origin and occupation before the first expedition. In those days, Christopher Columbus, let us briefly note, was practically a nobody, that is, he did not differ significantly from the ordinary average sailor, and therefore it is practically impossible to single him out from the crowd.

By the way, this is precisely why, lost in conjecture and trying to surprise the readership, historians have written hundreds of books about him. Almost all such manuscripts are filled with assumptions and unverified statements. But in fact, not even the original ship's log of Columbus's first expedition has survived.

It is believed that Christopher Columbus was born in 1451 (according to another, unverified version - in 1446), between August 25 and October 31, in the Italian city of Genoa.

Today, a number of Spanish and Italian cities attribute to themselves the honor of being called the small homeland of the discoverer. As for his social status, all that is known is that Columbus’s family was not of noble origin at all; none of his ancestors were navigators.

Modern researchers believe that Columbus the Elder earned his living by hard work and was either a weaver or a wool carder. Although there is also a version that the navigator’s father served as the senior guard of the city gates.

Of course, the journey of Christopher Columbus did not begin immediately. Probably from early childhood the boy began to earn extra money, helping his elders support their family. Perhaps he was a cabin boy on ships and that’s why he loved the sea so much. Unfortunately, more detailed records of how this famous person spent his childhood and youth have not been preserved.

Regarding education, there is a version that H. Columbus studied at the University of Pavia, but there is no documentary evidence of this fact. Therefore, it is quite possible that he was educated at home. Be that as it may, this man had excellent knowledge in the field of navigation, which includes far from superficial knowledge of mathematics, geometry, cosmography and geography.

It is also known that as an adult, Christopher Columbus worked as a cartographer, and then went to work in a local printing house. He spoke not only his native Portuguese, but also Italian and Spanish. A good command of Latin helped him in deciphering maps and chronicles. There is evidence that the navigator knew how to write a little in Hebrew.

It is also known that Columbus was a prominent man, whom ladies constantly looked at. Thus, while serving in Portugal in some Genoese trading house, the future discoverer of America met his future wife, Dona Felipe Moniz de Palestrello. They married in 1478. Soon the couple had a son, Diego. His wife’s family was also not rich, but it was the noble origin of his wife that allowed Christopher to establish contacts and establish useful connections in the circles of the nobility of Portugal

As for the nationality of the traveler, there are even more mysteries. Some researchers argue that Columbus was of Jewish origin, but there are also versions of Spanish, German and Portuguese roots.

Christopher's official religion was Catholic. Why can you say this? The fact is that, according to the rules of that era, otherwise he simply would not have been allowed into Spain. Although, it is quite possible that he hid his true religion.

Apparently, many mysteries of the navigator’s biography will remain unsolved for all of us.

Pre-Columbian America or what the discoverer saw when he arrived on the mainland

America, until the moment of its discovery, was a land where certain groups of people lived, who for centuries remained in a kind of natural isolation. All of them, by the will of fate, found themselves cut off from the rest of the planet. However, despite all this, they were able to create a high culture, demonstrating unlimited capabilities and skill.

The uniqueness of these civilizations lies in the fact that they are considered natural-ecological in nature, and not man-made, like ours. The local aborigines, the Indians, did not seek to transform the environment; on the contrary, their settlements fit into nature as harmoniously as possible.

Experts say that all civilizations that arose in North Africa, Asia, and Europe developed approximately the same way. In pre-Columbian America, this development took a different path, therefore, for example, the contrast between the population of the city and the village was minimal. The cities of the ancient Indians also contained extensive agricultural land. The only significant difference between the city and the village was the area occupied.

At the same time, the civilization of pre-Columbian America did not make much progress on what Europe and Asia were able to achieve. For example, the Indians were not very keen to improve metal processing technologies. If in the Old World bronze was considered the main metal and new lands were conquered for its sake, then in pre-Columbian America this material was used exclusively as decoration.

But the civilizations of the New World are interesting for their unique structures, sculptures and paintings, which were characterized by a completely different style.

The beginning of the journey

In 1485, after the categorical refusal of the King of Portugal to invest in a project to find the shortest sea route to India, Columbus moved to Castile for permanent residence. There, with the help of Andalusian merchants and bankers, he was still able to organize a government naval expedition.

The first time Christopher Columbus's ship set off on a year-long voyage was in 1492. 90 people took part in the expedition.

By the way, contrary to a fairly common misconception, there were three ships, and they were called “Santa Maria”, “Pinta” and “Nina”.

The expedition left Palos at the very beginning of the hot August of 1492. From the Canary Islands, the flotilla headed west, where it crossed the Atlantic Ocean without any problems.

Along the way, the navigator's team discovered the Sargasso Sea and successfully reached the Bahamas archipelago, where they landed on land on October 12, 1492. Since then, this very date has become the official day of the discovery of America.

In 1986, a geographer from the United States, J. Judge, carefully processed all the available materials about this expedition on a computer and came to the conclusion that the first land that Christopher saw was Fr. Samana. From about October 14, for ten days, the expedition approached several more Bahamian islands, and by December 5, it discovered part of the coast of Cuba. On December 6, the team reached about. Haiti.

Then the ships moved along the northern coast, and then the luck changed for the pioneers. On the night of December 25, the Santa Maria suddenly landed on a reef. True, this time the crew was lucky - all the sailors survived.

Columbus's second voyage

The second expedition took place in 1493-1496, it was led by Columbus in the official position of viceroy of the lands he discovered.

It is worth noting that the team has increased significantly - the expedition already consisted of 17 ships. According to various sources, 1.5-2.5 thousand people took part in the expedition.

At the beginning of November 1493, the islands of Dominica, Guadeloupe and twenty Lesser Antilles were discovered, and on November 19 - about. Puerto Rico. In March 1494, Columbus, in search of gold, decided to make a military campaign on the island. Haiti, then opened Fr. Huventud and Fr. Jamaica.

For 40 days, the famous navigator carefully examined the south of Haiti, but in the spring of 1496 he nevertheless sailed home, completing his second voyage on June 11 in Castile.

By the way, it was then that H. Columbus notified the public about the opening of a new route to Asia.

Third expedition

The third trip took place in 1498-1500 and was not as numerous as the previous one. Only 6 ships took part in it, and the navigator himself led three of them across the Atlantic.

On July 31, in the first year of the trip, Fr. Trinidad, the ships entered the Gulf of Paria, as a result the peninsula of the same name was discovered. This is how South America was discovered.

Having entered the Caribbean Sea, Columbus landed in Haiti on August 31. Already in 1499, Christopher Columbus's monopoly on new lands was abolished; the royal couple sent their representative F. Bobadilla to the destination, who in 1500 arrested Columbus and his brothers following a denunciation.

The navigator, shackled, was sent to Castile, where local financiers persuaded the royal family to release him.

Fourth voyage to American shores

What continued to worry such a restless man as Columbus? Christopher, for whom America was already an almost completed stage, wanted to find a new route from there to South Asia. The traveler believed that such a route existed, because he observed it off the coast of Fr. Cuba was a strong current that flowed west across the Caribbean Sea. As a result, he was able to convince the king to give permission for a new expedition.

Columbus went on his fourth trip with his brother Bartolomeo and his 13-year-old son Hernando. He was lucky enough to discover the mainland south of the island. Cuba is the coast of Central America. And Columbus was the first to inform Spain about the Indian peoples inhabiting the coast of the South Sea.

But, unfortunately, he never found the strait into the South Sea. I had to return home with practically nothing.

Unclear facts, the study of which continues

The distance from Palos to the Canaries is 1600 km, the ships participating in Columbus's expedition covered this distance in 6 days, i.e. they covered 250-270 km per day. The route to the Canary Islands was well known and did not present any difficulties. But it was in this area that on August 6 (possibly 7) a strange breakdown occurred on the Pinta ship. According to some information, the steering wheel broke, according to others, there was a leak. This circumstance aroused suspicion, because then the Pinta crossed the Atlantic twice. Before that, she quite successfully covered about 13 thousand km, experienced terrible storms and arrived in Palos without damage. Therefore, there is a version that the accident was rigged by crew members at the request of the ship’s co-owner K. Quintero. Perhaps the sailors received part of their salary and spent it. They saw no more sense in risking their lives, and the owner himself had also already received a lot of money for renting the Pinta. So it was logical to fake a breakdown and stay safe in the Canary Islands. It seems that the captain of the Pinta, Martin Pinson, finally saw through the conspirators and stopped them.

Already on Columbus's second trip, the intended colonists set sail with him; they loaded the ships with livestock, equipment, seeds, etc. The colonists founded their city somewhere in the vicinity of the modern city of Santo Domingo. The same expedition discovered Fr. Lesser Antilles, Virginia, Puerto Rico, Jamaica. But until the last, Christopher Columbus remained of the opinion that he had discovered western India, and not a new land.

Interesting data from the life of the discoverer

Of course, there is a lot of unique and very informative information. But in this article we would like to give examples of the most interesting facts.

• When Christopher lived in Seville, he was friends with the brilliant Amerigo Vespucci.
• King John II at first refused to allow Columbus to organize an expedition, but then sent his sailors to sail along the route proposed by Christopher. True, due to a strong storm, the Portuguese had to return home with nothing.
• After Columbus was shackled on his third expedition, he decided to keep the chains as a talisman for the rest of his life.
• By order of Christopher Columbus, for the first time in the history of navigation, Indian hammocks were used as sailor berths.
• It was Columbus who suggested that the Spanish king should populate new lands with criminals to save money.

Historical significance of the expeditions

Everything that Christopher Columbus discovered was appreciated only half a century later. Why is it so late? The thing is that only after this period, entire galleons filled with gold and silver began to be delivered from colonized Mexico and Peru to the Old World.

The Spanish royal treasury spent only 10 kg of gold on preparing the expedition, and in three hundred years Spain managed to export precious metals from America, the value of which was at least 3 million kg of pure gold.

Alas, stray gold did not benefit Spain; it did not stimulate the development of industry or the economy. And as a result, the country still fell hopelessly behind many European countries.

Today, not only numerous ships and vessels, cities, rivers and mountains are named in honor of Christopher Columbus, but also, for example, the monetary unit of El Salvador, the state of Colombia, located in South America, as well as a famous state in the USA.