How did Columbus’s first voyage turn out?

To Begin the World Over Again 2.3 – Christopher Columbus How did Columbus’s first voyage turn out?

On 3 August, 1492, Columbus’s expedition set out. He commanded eighty-seven men—all sailors, no priests, no soldiers, since Columbus only wanted experienced seamen—on three ships: two Portuguese caravels, the Niña and the Pinta, plus a larger ship, a carrack (the precursor to the 17th-century galleon) called the Santa María. After a frustrating month in the Canary Islands undergoing repairs, followed by more than a month on the open sea, land was finally sighted: the white cliffs of a small island in the Bahamas that Columbus would name San Salvador (meaning “Holy Savior”). Wading ashore, the Genoese sailor fell to his knees in the sand, glad to have escaped mutiny and assuming he’d reached Japan.

The natives of the island—the Taino, an Arawak people—were friendly, but they didn’t seem like the inhabitants of a rich and powerful civilization. Columbus noted that they were naked, some with paint on their bodies, with little to offer in terms of material goods, though the women seemed to offer their bodies freely to the European newcomers. Though the island (and surrounding islands) were beautiful, there didn’t seem to be much here of economic importance.

Christopher Columbus’ Departure – An image from 1883

As challenging as communication with the locals was, the Taino were able to indicate to Columbus that bigger islands to the south were filled with gold. The expedition set sail.

To the south, Columbus came upon the island of Colba (later bastardized by the Spanish into “Cuba”), but after a little exploration it was clear that this still wasn’t Japan and there wasn’t much gold here, either (though the natives did smoke a rolled leaf they called tobacos, which the Spanish ultimately introduced to Europe, with world-changing consequence). The locals, also Arawaks, warned the Spaniards that other peoples they might encounter—notably the Caribs—were dangerous cannibals who ate roasted human flesh.

Continuing west, Columbus found a great island that reminded him of Spain—so he named it La Isla Española (“the Spanish island,” later shortened to Hispaniola; this was the future Haiti and Dominican Republic). Here the people wore gold ornaments in abundance, and the presence of a king-like figure—a chief named Guacanagaríx, actually just one of at least five chiefs, or caciques, on Hispaniola—helped convince Columbus that he was getting closer to Japan. The Admiral (as Columbus was called) likely would have kept going, but the Santa Maria was wrecked on a reef, and Columbus took it as a sign that he should establish a colony on Hispaniola. Using wood salvaged from the Santa Maria, construction of Spain’s most distant outpost began. Columbus called it Navidad.

On 4 January, 1493, Columbus began his return voyage to Spain aboard the Niña, leaving 21 volunteers behind to continue developing the colony. By April, he had presented himself to the Catholic Monarchs, six Caribbean natives in tow bearing brightly-colored parrots in cages. He gloried in the discovery of the “Indies,” and together with the Catholic Monarchs made plans for the establishment of regular trade between Asia and Spain. The King of Portugal, meanwhile (whom Columbus had met again while temporarily docked at Lisbon), was horrified—and not a little jealous. It seemed that Spain’s gamble had paid off; Ferdinand and Isabella had outsmarted the Portuguese and reached Asia first! (This, by the way, was the historical context of the aforementioned Treaty of Tordesillas, drawn up and ratified by both parties by 1494).

The Establishment of Navidad – In this 1893 woodcut, Guacanagaríx can be seen arriving in a litter (top right).

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To Begin the World Over Again

How did Columbus’s first voyage turn out?

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