The Life Story of Christopher Columbus

1492 and earlier

Written Feb /2013* 9,435 Words

By Howard Yasgar

In researching the life of Christopher Columbus, you find that a lot of the information is controversial.

Many false things have been said about him by Ty historians as an explorer, who was dedicated to discovering new lands for the betterment of mankind.

But it turns out, it was his lust for Gold and fame that was really his driving force to

make the voyages and the discoveries that he did.

In our educational system everyone learns about the exploits of Christopher Columbus.

We are taught that in 1492 Columbus crossed the ocean blue and discovered America.

It becomes a very interesting observation as to how so many historical things are taught in our schools with very little regard given to the facts of what really happened.

Unfortunately, that appears to be the case regarding the story of Christopher Columbus and his “so called” discovery of America.

Now with the advent of the internet, it is possible for anyone wanting to do a little bit of research can put together most of the true story of Christopher Columbus.

Whatever parts are found to be missing from the internet can be filled in by reading a few of the many books that have been written about him.

In this century alone more than 150 books have been written about Christopher Columbus, so there is no shortage of reference material, and some of the books are factual.

Why so many books?

Possibly it’s because the story about Christopher Columbus is so interesting and so controversial.

So not only are the history books we read not accurate, but the more one investigates what happened back in 1492 the more surprising and controversial Columbus and his “voyage of discovery” becomes.

Under a little scrutiny it turns out that Columbus’s motivations become very suspect,

and it appears he is not quite the “Nice Guy” he has been made out to be.

If all the facts about him were widely published, Columbus would not be held in the high esteem that he presently holds in our country’s history.

Had Columbus done what he did back then. He probably would be tried in our courts, charged with a whole litany of crimes including torture and murder.

However, once the historians started distorting all the facts of the true story of Christopher Columbus, it sort of “snow balled” and he became the well-known “nice Guy” figure that we know today.

The persona of Christopher Columbus has been so falsely glorified in the United States that in 1971 we officially made the second Monday in October “ Columbus day”, complete with parades and regattas

We have named cities after him, as well as avenues, streets, universities and parks.

It has become a day beloved by all Italians, because Christopher Columbus was born

Christoforo Colombo, an Italian, born in a country that has now become Italy.

In trying to sort fact from fiction, we need to go by the consensus of opinion.

It is said that Columbus came from Genoa, a “city state” before it became part of Italy.

He was the oldest of three brothers, Giovanni Pelligrino, Bartolomew, Giacomo and a sister Bianchinetta,

As a youngster, the language Christoforo Colombo spoke was Ligurian, a dialect of

Italian.

Although ther name was Colombo, It has been shown that Christoforo and his brother Bartolomew signed their name with the latinized spelling of Colombus de Terra Rubra (Red Earth).

Throughout his life, we find many different spellings of Columbus’s name depending on what country he was in at the time.

As he grew up, Columbus mastered many languages an read books in Latin and Italian as well as Portuguese and Spanish.

Columbus was able to read and write in all of these languages which adds to the controversy over what ever he put in writing.

This multilingualism has always confused interpreters of Columbus’s notes.

What Columbus wrote depended on what language he was thinking in at the time.

No one knows when Columbus first got his interest in sailing, but in his early notes he stated that he entered the sailing and shipping business at an early age. It is believed that he served on various ships as a messenger and later as a common sailor working and sailing on ships belonging to Genoese trading companies.

Columbus eventually moved to Portugal and once there, he entered the Portuguese merchant marines.

In 1476 while on a Genoese commercial expedition made up of of 5 ships, they were attacked by French Privateers, and several ships were sunk including the one Columbus was on.

The ship was sunk just off the coast of Portugal and Columbus survived by swimming 10 km to shore landing near the town of Lagos.

After recovering in Lagos he made his way to Lisbon, where he joined his brother Bartolomew who lived there. Columbus was 25 years old at the time.

Thus in 1476 it was recorded that both Christopher and his brother were both working for a marine chart maker in Lisbon.

In 1477 it is recorded that Columbus is again sailing with the Portuguese merchant marines.

While sailing with the them he traveled to far of places like Ireland and Iceland.

It was while in the merchant marines that he gained the advanced knowledge of the Portuguese navigation systems.

He learned how to use the “Atlantic westerlies” which were later called the “trade winds”.

Columbus’s experience in the Portuguese Merchant Marines not only taught him the winds, but the Atlantic ocean currents as well.

He now became proficient in the use if the “Astrolabe” a tool that allowed mariners to determine their latitude and the time of day by utilizing the sun and the stars.

Now sailing with professional mariners Columbus was exposed to the stories they told of finding strange carved object floating in the ocean, and some telling him of actual bodies found that appeared to be from some uncharted lands. It was the opinion at the time that uncharted lands existed beyond the horizon.

By the year 1478, Columbus was now in business for himself, while still living in Portugal, he was now engaged in buying and selling sugar for several Genoese trading companies.

Christopher Columbus was building up a reputation as a skilled sailing captain.

In that year he married Felipa Perestrello e Moniz the daughter of a poor but noble family.

In 1479 is first Son Diego was born, and his wife Felipa died soon after.

It was at this point in time that a very controversial and intriguing thing happened

In Columbus’s life. He met Alonso Sanchez.

Alonso Sanchez was at the time a well known ships pilot and business man from Huelva Portugal.

Alonso had his own ship and did business trading between the island of madiera, Portugal and England.

In the year 1458 during a very bad storm Alonso Sanchez’s ship was blown way off course.

His ship was badly damaged, but still sailable.

He was eventually blown towards an uncharted island.

Once on shore, captain Sanchez wrote that he found many friendly natives.

Sanchez and his 17 men were treated like gods. They were freely given refuge, food, women and Gold.

Eventually all of Sanchez’s men, including Sanchez himself became very ill, possibly from syphilis.

Sanchez knew he needed to return to civilization or they would die.

He meticulously drew maps and charts of the area as well as a route to return to Portugal taking into consideration the direction the storm had taken him.

It was 30 days before Sanchez and 4 of his seamen finally arrives at Porto Sant in Madiera. 13 of his men had died on the voyage both from the disease and lack of food.

Having heard all about Christopher Columbus the Genoese ship captain, Alonso Sanchez contacted him.

Columbus invited and his men to his home in Portugal and it is recorded by witnesses that he entertained them lavishly.

It was also reported that Columbus was constantly questioning Sanchez and his men

about their voyage.

They eventually showed Columbus all their charts and maps.

Mysteriously all five men including Captain Sanchez died while in Columbus’s home, leaving Columbus sole heir to their maps and charts.

To give a little bit of background to this very controversial subject, Alonso Sanchez

was a famous sea captain from the city of Huelva in Portugal, and his name is still highly regarded there.

But the story regarding his transferring information to Columbus was considered by some historians as a rumor started by the family of Alonso Pinzon.

Alonso Pinzon was the eldest brother of the Pinzon family. They were the owners of the ships Nina and the Pinta.

Alonzo Pinzon also was one of the financiers of the 1492 voyage. He and his brothers sailed with Columbus, and his troubled relationship with Columbus, has led many to believe was the source of the Alonso Sanchez rumor. It may have been made up to discredit Columbus as a mariner. There will be more on this as we go on.

If the Alonso Sanchez story is true, it would explain how Columbus as early as 1487, first got the idea of how he, a ships captain and business man, could become rich and famous.

Even reading the original translations of Columbus’s own daily records of his first voyage, we find the translations were subject to interpretation by various translators.

To this day there is no agreement on exactly what many of Columbus’s words meant.

We find that even the very best Spanish historians like “ Bartolome de Las Casas”, had their own agenda when writing about what Columbus had done.

It’s very possible that the historians like de Las Casas didn’t care for many of the things Columbus did.

Even to this day we can not be sure of what anyone has written is actually factual.

It’s quite possible they wrote what was rumored or believed to be factual at the time.

Many of the early writers, wrote what may have been the politically correct thing to say at the time at the time.

The events that unfolded took place during the time of the “Inquisition” when all Jews, Moslems and other non Christians were being expelled from the Iberian Peninsula.

Those that remained were either converted to the Christian faith or killed.

It was not exactly a time where freedom of speech was very acceptable.

To write or say something that could be considered non Christian could lead to being tried by the official “Inquisitors”, and being burned at the stake.

Christopher Columbus set sail that evening from the city “Palos de La Frontera” in Spain on what was later to be called his “Voyage of Discovery”.

However, upon studying all of the events as they happened, it appears that it was about 15 years earlier, probably in the year 1487, when Christopher Columbus first got the idea of how he, a ships captain and commercial business man living in Portugal, could be come rich and famous.

Reading this introduction will tell you why Columbus did what he did, and how he did it, as well as where all his Gold came from.

It will also explain the confluence of events that allowed Isabella, the Queen of Castille to sponsor him in 1492, and possibly why she did it.

The purpose of relating all of these things are necessary to explain how the hidden Gold on “Hispanola remained there for over 500 years.

Getting to the point of actually making the first voyage was no easy task for the Columbus brothers Christopher and Bartomew, it required a lot of perseverance on their part, and to this day leaves a lot of unanswered questions as to how they did it.

How a person in the 15th century that was not born into the upper class of society could request an audience with Kings and a Queen is an interesting question?

Perhaps his reputation as a mariner and ships captain had something to do with it.

We know that according to historians, Columbus supposedly born to a middle class family in Liguria Italy, later moving to Genoa.

When he was in Portugal, he did marry into an upper class family and it could have been this factor that allowed him to petition the royal courts. It’s an interesting question.

Petitioning the King of Portugal and Spain and England for an audience would be like trying to have a meeting with the President of the United States. What would your chances be?

As far as Columbus’s discovery of new lands in the “Indies” for Spain, that’s another subject that raises more than a few questions that need answering.

For one thing, Columbus already knew the Island of “Hispanola” was there as he had that information from the papers and charts of Alonso Sanchez. We will get to that story as we go.

To complicate matters even worse, it is said that King Ferdinand of Aragon and Queen Isabella of Castille also knew the land was there, it was no secret.

The reason they didn’t try to claim the lands Prior to 1492, was because the Pope was not a Spaniard and Spain would have had a hard time claiming any new lands without the approval of the church, so they didn’t do it.

Spain would have had opposition from Portugal, France and England, as king Ferdinand was at war with them.

But then in 1492 a Spanish Pope was elected.

This opened the possibility of Spain claiming new lands with the assured approval of the church.

When Columbus did finally reach land, his daily notes indicate that it was his thirst for finding the source of the Gold the natives had, and that’s what drove him from island to island, claiming each one for Spain as he went along.

You will see that Columbus eventually did find his Gold.

How he did it, as well as what happened to it, is what this story is all about.

You will note from this introduction and what follows, that many of the ways that Columbus and his fellow Spaniards got their gold was by our standards morally wrong.

However that was not the case in the 15th century.

To most of the Spaniards, the native inhabitants of the newly acquired lands were not exactly considered human, as they had no god.

The church mandated that all natives must become Christians or be sold into slavery or be killed. This was explained to the natives in Spanish, which none of them spoke.

The Spaniards were relentless in their quest for the natives Gold and you will learn that many of them came to the new lands for no other reason other than the purpose of killing natives and obtaining it.

Gold in the 15th century, like today, was considered a precious and highly desired commodity that everyone wanted.

It is important to point out that those Spaniards that obtained Gold in the new lands, had to be very concerned about keeping it safe from theft by others.

In the 15 century there were no easy ways of keeping safe any Gold you owned.

It was especially difficult for the Spaniards to safe guard it when they were in a new colony like “Isabella” on the island of “Hispanola”.

Depositories, banks and vaults simply didn’t exist, and methods of safeguarding anything you owned depended on the ingenuity of the person that had it.

In “Hispanola”, the only method of safeguarding your Gold was to bury it.

The trick, of course, was to bury it where you keep an eye on it, and that’s the way every one at the time did it, and that included Christopher Columbus.

Unfortunately, as time went on, many of the original Spanish colonists as well as adventurers that came with them died off

Many of the adventurers, who were called the “Los Hidalgos” were never able to retrieve all their buried Gold that they had killed so many natives to obtain.

Documents show that a large portion of the original Spanish colonists perished due to changes in their diet, and many died from diseases they were unable to effectively cure like syphilis.

Thus the mortality rate of the Gold seeking Spaniards in the new lands was pretty high.

Their death was one of the main reasons their treasures of Gold never left

“Hispanola”.

The second reason was because of the harsh living conditions in the colonies, many of the Spaniards that came, soon despaired, and then they desired to return to Spain.

Unfortunately for them, it was extremely difficult to return to Spain with their Gold that they had now accumulated.

Some wealthy colonists were able to buy passage on ships that were heading back to Spain, but they needed the collaboration and assistance of someone aboard the ship, that was willing to help them smuggle their Gold out of the colonies.

This type of Gold smuggling became a big business among those in control of the ships cargo and manifests.

Once a colonist found a collaborator, they were able to smuggle their Gold out, and

many of the wealthiest Spaniards were able to do it.

This smuggling business accounts for why large amounts of excess Gold is always found on Spanish ship wrecks.

It is the Gold that was being smuggled back to Spain and not listed on the ships cargo manifest.

This smuggling of Gold was difficult and it was for these reasons as well as others, that much of the Gold the Spaniards had stolen or extorted from the natives, ended up left behind, buried, where it has remained.

In the case of Christopher Columbus himself, he was left in this very difficult position of having amassed a fortune in Gold but unable to remove it due to circumstances that were beyond his control.

The particular Gold that Christopher Columbus had amassed was mostly collected by extorting it from the local natives.

He hid it well, and like the Gold of many of the “Los Hidalgos”, it never left where he had hidden it.

Columbus, after his first voyage, returned to Spain, leaving Navidad in present day Haiti on January 15 1493.

He was rewarded with all of the titles that he had originally demanded from the King and Queen.

He was given the title of “Great Admiral of the Ocean Sea”, and he was also appointed Governor of the Indies which included all lands he discovered making him the first Governor of the new colony of “Isabella”, which he was to establish on his second voyage.

As Governor of the first official colony of Isabella, Columbus proved himself to be a very poor leader and administrator, and he created a lot of enemies.

There were many complaints about nepotism as well as other infractions made by Columbus.

Columbus had instituted a policy of extorting Gold from the natives.

Each native was required to fill a small brass “Hawks Bell” with Gold every 3 months.

With each full “Hawks Bell” full of Gold that they turned in, they were given a copper token to wear around their neck.

If a native was caught without copper tokens, Columbus had their hands cut off, and they bled to death.

This may explain why historians like de Las Casas didn’t see Columbus as being mister “Nice Guy”.

Many of the colonists that arrived at the colony of “Isabella” in 1492 were the sons of wealthy families in Spain. They all came to the colony for excitement and Gold.

They were the one’s given the title of “Los Hidalgos” by the historians which means “The gentlemen” in Spanish.

These “Gentlemen” never had any intentions of listening to Columbus, and right from the very beginning, their only desire was to hunt down and kill as many natives as they could for their Gold.

The “Los Hidalgos” argued at every attempt Columbus made upon them to help build a colony, and many of them moved out into the countryside to be out of the Control of the Columbus’s.

With the intentions of trying to stop this dissention, Columbus ended up hanging several of the Spaniards, leaving their bodies exposed as a warning to others.

The hangings offended many people, especially those who knew Columbus himself was probably just as bad, and he was possibly worse than the men he was hanging.

Some of the colonists that returned to Spain, then petitioned the King and Queen to remove Columbus as Governor.

In August of the year 1500, Francisco de Bobadilla was sent to replace Columbus

as Governor.

Columbus was now arrested by Bobadilla and returned to Spain in chains, along with his brother.

Columbus had not expected this and he was forced to leave his cache of Gold behind.

Some of the Gold Columbus left behind was legally his, but most of the hidden Gold, was what Columbus had extorted from the natives.

Even while in prison in Spain, Columbus didn’t give up, he was relentless in his petitioning of the King and Queen from his cell.

He wrote letter after letter, playing on their sympathies, and eventually he was pardoned and released from prison, his many titles were taken away.

Columbus then returned to “Hispanola”, but not as Governor

In 1502 a convoy of 31 ships was setting sail for Spain. Now Governor “Bobadilla” was on one of the ships. Columbus warned them of the impending bad weather.

The convoy left “Hispanola” anyway and 20 of the 31 ships sank, including the ship carrying “Bobadilla”, and he was drowned.

Of the 20 surviving ships, one was named “Aguha” and it was carrying some of the

legal Gold belonging to Columbus.

Immediately the rumor started that Columbus has mystically brought on the hurricane to get back at Bobadilla

By the time Columbus was pardoned, the Crown had made it a serious crime for anyone to possess Gold in the colonies, and now it had been decreed that all Gold from the Colony belonged to the Spanish treasury.

But even with the decree, the continued theft of Gold from the colonies continued.

To try and control the theft of their Gold, the Monarchs now put in place an army of guards that watched every grain of Gold produced.

It was then carefully monitored from the moment it was mined to watching it smelted into ingots and then loaded aboard ships that were returning to Spain.

As much as Columbus wanted to retrieve his own hidden Gold fortune, he dared not go to touch it, and he never had the opportunity to do anything, for fear of being caught.

Columbus’s original colony of Isabella had been destroyed by hurricanes and was abandoned.

A new colony called Santo Domingo now had been built in a more practical location by deep water port on the Osama river.

This part of the story explains why quite a bit of the Gold treasure hidden by Columbus, as well as many others like the “Los Hidalgos” was to remain buried as long as it did.

In the United States education system, everyone has learned about the exploits of Christopher Columbus.

We are told that in 1492 Columbus crossed the ocean blue and discovered America.

It’s a very interesting observation about how many things in our history are recorded and taught in our schools with very little regard given to actual facts of what really happened.

Columbus himself left many personal daily notes regarding his original 1492 voyage. How they were translated leaves a lot to be desired.

By reading his daily record, as well as what was written by others that traveled with him. We are able to put together pretty much what actually happened.

After the 1492 voyage, many of Columbus’s original letters still remain. But many are also missing, possibly destroyed by family members.

Thus we find that just as much has been written that was based on what others have said, who all seem to have their own agendas.

The famed historian Bartolomeo De La Casas, who’s own father sailed with Columbus on his second voyage, has written his interpretations of Columbus’s notes all from his point of view.

He became the most famous Spaniard for advocating the rights of the indigenous people in the West Indies and later in the Americas.

De La Casas early works regarding Columbus’s motivations are certainly open to debate.

Even the Biography of Columbus written by his own half son Ferdinand is sheds a completely new light on Columbus, Ferdinand claims Columbus came from royalty.

It’s not likely, but who knows?

The conclusion we can get by putting all of the recorded information together leads one to the fact Christopher Columbus wasn’t just a regular guy.

First we discover that foremost he was a confidence man, and then he was also a fairly good mariner. He was an explorer, a Gold hunter, a business man and a slave trader. He was also a thief, a liar as well as a murderer, and a few other things as well.

Even though much of the above was known by known by early historians, his name still has been glorified throughout Spanish and American history.

This fact can be easily seen as there are presently over 30 U.S. Cities and towns in America named after Columbus.

After reviewing the facts regarding the life of Christopher Columbus, one will come to the conclusion that he certainly was extraordinary.

Unfortunately we now learn that most of what he did to make him extraordinary, was at the expense of a whole lot of other people.

But on the positive side, this particular story of searching for his Gold has little to dispute regarding everything that has been written about Columbus.

We are more concerned with physical evidence he and fellow Spaniards left behind, which was the Gold.

The history of Christopher Columbus and his voyage are related here only so one can draw some conclusions as to what were Columbus’s motivations.

These motivations became the clues we needed to find any treasures left behind.

By making his voyages, Columbus opened up the way for the discovery of the Americas by many other explorers that followed after him.

But upon close examination, it appears Columbus’s 1492 voyage had less to do with exploration for the betterment of man, than it did for the desire for riches and fame for Columbus himself personally.

There is no denying that due to Columbus’s 1492 voyage, the history of the world was changed, as an entire population of many hundreds of thousands of indigenous native peoples were enslaved and killed off in only a matter of few years due to him..

Christopher Columbus on his first voyage in 1492, first landed on an Island in the Caribbean that he named “San Salvador”. He was convinced that he had landed on Japan.

No one is 100% really sure which island it was that Columbus land on, but he named it “San Salvador. The indigenous natives called the island “Guanahana”.

But that Island and many others all around it we now called the “West Indies”.

It was because Columbus actually thought he had reached the “Indies”.

Once Columbus encountered the peaceful natives, he saw they were all wearing small Gold ornaments, and Columbus had several thoughts.

One thought was how easy it would be to enslave the native population, and the other thought was to find the source of their Gold ornaments.

He did kidnap several natives and followed their directions, sailing from island to island. It was under their direction that he found the Islands and he named each one, claiming them for the Crown of Spain.

Once he reached the very long coastline of Cuba, he claimed the island for Spain under the name “Juana” He was sure he was following the coastline of “Cathay” which was to him “China”.

Columbus was so sure that he was in “China” that he sent envoys inland to find the “Great Kahn”.

Not finding the “Great Kahn” Columbus sailed on from Cuba, reaching the island of

“Hispanola” which is now the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

It was while sailing to “Juana” or “Cuba” that captain Alonzo Pinzon and the ship “La Pinta” took off with our Columbus’s permission to find Gold.

Columbus was certain that it was “Alonzo Pinzon’s intention” to find the Gold before Columbus did and race back to Spain claiming the glory for himself.

It was in “Hispanola” on the coast that is now Haiti, where the ship Santa Maria went aground on Christmas eve.

It was there that he had to leave 39 men and build a fort called “La Navidad” and it was there on “Hispanola” where Columbus eventually returned on the following voyage to establish the first Spanish colony of “Isabella”.

But now having stated all of the above, the question arises, was it Christopher Columbus that actually was the first to arrive at the island of “Hispanola” in the new world?

The answer may be a resounding “no”.

It has now come to light that the first person was actually a well known Portuguese ship captain named Alonzo Sanchez.

Sanchez claimed to have arrived in “Hispanola” by accident, fully 20 years before

Columbus arrived there.

This question may never be fully answered, as most of the true facts surrounding it are supposedly locked up in the archives of the Indies in Seville Spain.

In the 15 century the term “Indies” was used to encompass all of the lands that produced the spices and medicines used in Europe, It included China and Japan.

To reach the “Indies” by the overland route required traveling through many lands that were controlled by Islamists.

At the time the Christian church was fighting Islam everywhere, and the Islamists controlled all the overland routes to the “Indies”, making travel there perilous.

Then with the fall of Constantinople, the overland routs to the “Indies” now became nearly impossible.

To obtain the goods they needed, countries like Spain were now forced to deal with their arch enemies Portugal, France and England.

Those countries were still able to obtain needed goods from their colonies in Africa and elsewhere.

Spain and all of Europe badly needed a reliable and economical supply of all of the things that they used for medicines, cooking and the preserving of foods.

This factor explains Spain’s motivation to look for a better route to the” Indies”, or the possibility of obtaining the goods they needed from their own colonies. Colonies that they didn’t have.

A new shorter route to the “Indies” was on their mind constantly.

But reaching the “Indies” by ocean, at the time was considered impossible due to the tremendous distances involved by any ocean route.

So now enter Christopher Columbus and his brother.

They proposed that they had a plan to reach the “Indies” by a westerly ocean route.

At the time they felt this plan would be of interest to one of the countries.

Considering that they already knew there was new lands to be claimed and Gold to be had. They felt they had an excellent chance to get someone to finance the voyage.

To make this type of voyage required good ships, sailors, and money

It would require the backing of a powerful country as well as the confirmation of the Pope, and the church , all things that the Columbus’s didn’t have.

The Columbus’s now knowing very well that there was land was out there, just needed the authority and legitimacy of a power greater than themselves to make any discoveries they found official.

Columbus also wanted to insure that any voyage would be financially rewarding for himself and his family.

Many historians that have written about the 1492 voyage have intimated that it was common belief at the time that the world was flat.

These authors have made it sound as if Christopher Columbus had just sailed off onto the ocean, and into the unknown, possibly sailing off the edge of the planet.

Did Christopher Columbus think he could have sailed off the edge of the planet?

Not at all.

He knew that the earth was round, and so did everyone else that navigated.

Actually everyone knew it. Books had been written on the subject, even measurements of the earths circumference was known and published.

That’s not to say there weren’t a few crazy people that thought the world was flat, just as there are today.

At first it was not generally known by historians that Columbus was in possession of Alonzo Sanchez’s maps and charts.

They already showed Columbus the locations of some of the islands of the Caribbean which included the island of “Hispanola”.

How Columbus had obtained this information was recorded by witnesses, but their story was never told.

Mysteriously all 5 men later died in Christopher Columbus’s home, and they conveniently left Columbus as sole heir to all their maps and charts of the lands Sanchez had recorded.

. It is said that now that he was armed with the Sanchez maps and charts, Columbus came up with the idea to petition the King of Portugal to finance a voyage of discovery.

Now that Columbus already knew there was land there, and had Sanchez’s charts, he and Bartolomew started formulating a plan. They could claim to discover the land and the

Gold that they now knew existed.

***From 1482 to1485 Columbus continued sailing and trading all along the coast of West Africa, doing business in buying sugar and other commodities.

Court records show he was still working mostly for companies out of Genoa.

Not only was Columbus a ship captain, and chart maker, but he was also an avid reader. He read every book he could get his hands on, pertaining to exploration and navigation.

By now he could read in several languages and he maintained a large library of books written in several languages.

Not only was Columbus well read, but he was also well versed on the travels of the Italian explorer Marco Polo and all of his adventures in the Orient.

Many of Columbus’s books are still in existence today with over 2500 of his own personal notes written in the borders.

Eventually Christoforo Colombo changed the spelling of his name to the Latinized version of Colombo which was “Columbus”.

It is said he did it in an effort to play down what he felt were his humble beginnings in Genoa.

When he went to Spain as well as later in the new world, Christoforo Colombo was known in by his Spanish name which was Christobal Colon.

In many later accounts about his 1492 voyage proposals to the kings of Portugal, and later to the King and Queen of Spain, he was harshly criticized by their advisors as having understated his calculations of the circumference of the Globe, and it is true, he did.

Some historians have suggested Columbus didn’t know any better.

Other historians have said he may have done it on purpose.

I believe that as the true “Con Man” that he was, he did it on purpose.

There is no question that Columbus’s object in understating his calculation of the distance to the “Indies” was to make the proposed voyage to appear much shorter than it actually was.

In his daily records on his first 1492 voyage, he wrote down that he did tell his crew that they had traveled less than they actually had.

It was all part of his scheme to keep them calm.

Columbus knew that if he stated the true length of the voyage, he would never get any financial backing by anyone, nor would he have found a crew willing to go on such a long trip with him.

In the 15 century , if any sailor knew the true length of the voyage Columbus was contemplating on. Everyone would have been afraid to go.

One reason being that the ships of the time had no way of carrying enough provisions of food to make a long extended journey of more than a few weeks.

Sailors just wouldn’t go on a voyage knowing there were no landings available.

On such a voyage the sailors knew that they would all perish.

By telling his crew that they had traveled less than they actually had, Columbus attempted to avert the possibility of mutiny.

He knew that the sailors became more nervous the further away they sailed from Spain.

But to think for a moment that Christopher Columbus didn’t have any idea of what he was getting into is foolish he knew very well what he was doing, and he knew how he intended to do it, but he may have under estimated the difficulty of doing it.

After several weeks of sailing, his crew did want to turn back, Columbus himself was losing confidence.

He called over to Alonzo Pinzon the captain of the ship the Pinta.

Columbus was afraid his crew was going to mutiny, and he thought he might have

made a mistake in his navigation.

The captain of the Pinta was also a very experienced and respected sea captain and he told Columbus to hang several of his troublesome crewmembers.

Columbus then suggested that they turn back to Spain

Columbus assumed that they had not found signs of land due to his miscalculations.

A rope was thrown between ships and the charts of Alonzo Sanchez were sent over to Alonzo Pinzon, Captain of the Pinta.

After reviewing Sanchez’s charts, Pinzon sent them back to Columbus with his advice.

Columbus then re calculated his course, and they continued.

But now Captain Pinzon knew Columbus was a weak leader and he took the lead with his ship the Pinta.

This gave Columbus great cause for concern as he felt Pinzon would now usurp his authority, and try to beat Columbus out of any discoveries made.

Most of the sea captains of the time were a pretty smart people.

They probably knew more about reading the ocean and the winds more than present day mariners.

Why Columbus chose do things the way he did will never be understood by historians, as they never look at Columbus as an early confidence man with an agenda of self enrichment, they all think about Columbus as being an “explorer”.

Other than Columbus’s original notes from the first voyage of 1492, there are no other daily personal records of his voyages.

He wrote a daily log , but they have been lost.

So everything written the history books was from information from others, and therefore subject to their interpretation.

Because Christopher Columbus spoke so many languages, many of the words he wrote in his daily log could have several meanings It all depended on the language Columbus was thinking in at the time he wrote them.

Even after reading Columbus’s original notes from the 1492 voyage, one can see that they have been translated by too many different people and there is still disagreement about the meanings of many of his words.

Also on Columbus’s first voyage in 1492, it was very important for him to embellish the facts regarding everything he found.

Once he realized that he might not be bringing back to Spain the vast amount of riches he would need to cover the costs of the voyage. He felt that by exaggerating what he had found, would appease the Spanish Monarchs and his investors.

While Columbus did trade for Gold every opportunity, it was not the vast quantities that had been anticipated.

Thinking that he might not be able to return with what he had expected he then started to think about shipping natives back to Spain as slaves.

After reading many of Columbus’s letters to the King and Queen of Spain, it is pretty obvious that Columbus’s motivation to make the 1492 journey was money and fame.

It would, he hoped it would get him the financing he needed and the legitimacy he

would need from the Pope.

Columbus already knew he would find some uncharted new lands along the way, and hopefully he would find Gold.

He knew there would be Gold because Alonzo Sanchez had told him about it.

In his proposal to the various countries, Columbus demanded to be named “Admiral of the Ocean Sea” and he wanted to be Governor of any lands discovered, and he wanted 10 percent of any profits made from trade from these lands, and he wanted it extended to his family in perpetuity.

Not quite the type of demands made by a person that didn’t expect to find something.

He knew that his voyage of discovery and claim of being able to reach the “Indies” would eventually get attention from someone, and he wanted to make sure he profited from it in a big way.

Columbus was well aware that many important items being used in Europe came from China, Japan and the lands that were then called the “Indies”.

There were spices, like cinnamon and pepper. There was also aloe, and mastic, as well as many other items, all expensive and all in demand, and in short supply.

By making an ocean route to the “Indies” Columbus hoped to profit from the trade.

This profitable trading business as well as finding a source for Gold, was basically Christopher Columbus’s true motivation.

Christopher Columbus propositioned Portugal and Spain personally, and he also went to Genoa and Venice to try as well.

Both Portugal and Spain turned him down, and he could never get an audience with the ruler’s in Genoa and Venice.

Columbus then sent his brother Bartolomew to try to get King Henry VII of England interested in financing his voyage.

Everyone the Columbus brothers approached turned them down.

But Columbus kept trying.

It was 1484 when Columbus first approached King John II of Portugal.

Portugal was busy developing trade routes to their colonies in Africa.

This was trade that Portugal held a tight lock on.

King John’s advisors told him not to get involved, and he didn’t.

Columbus then took his proposition to the Monarchs of Aragon and Castile, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella.

While the advisers to Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand turned Columbus down, Isabella was worried that someone might take Columbus up on his proposition.

Wisely she put Columbus on a small royal retainer and she issued a decree that Columbus could eat and sleep anywhere in Spain for free.

Her intentions were to keep him in Spain.

. The Christian kingdoms of Aragon and Castile as Spain was known as at the time, was embroiled in the inquisitions.

The Christian church had commanded that all Moslems, Jews and others in the land be converted to Christianity or killed.

The rules and laws of the highly religeous Castille and Aragon were ultimately ruled by the Pope.

At the time the Moslems, or Islamists, which were known as the “Moors” controlled several major cities on the Iberian Peninsula, The most major one being Granada.

So Spain driven by the wishes of the church went to war with the Islamists to drive them out of the country.

The last Moorish stronghold to fall was Granada in June of 1492.

By the time Spain had won the final war at Grenada in 1492 they were almost bankrupt, the Spanish treasury was out of money.

Now along came Columbus with the idea of reaching the “Indies” by sea, as well as finding new sources of Gold.

The fall of Grenada had given Spain and the church a hope of triumph over the Islamic world.

Also now access to the Indies was being hampered by the Ottoman Empire and other Islamic states. For Europeans to try and do business there was hopeless.

It was a way Spain could regain its power from trade with the Indies, as well as replenish their treasury.

But the first proposal Columbus made to the Monarchs was considered “not practical due to the distances involved” and the advisors to the crown told them not to pay attention to him.

They said Columbus had way underestimated the distances to the “Indies”.

However, Spain’s need for Gold was overwhelming, and the King and Queen felt that the worst that could happen was that Columbus would make the voyage and die while doing it.

If he failed, he would never return and that would be the last of him.

Also in 1492 there was the rumor that another explorer named John Cabot, financed by England, might make a similar voyage.

John Cabot was actually another Geonese explorer named Giovanni, an Italian born Englishman.

If there were new lands to be found, the Monarchs wanted Columbus there first.

Portugal was the chief rival to Spain and they controlled the African trade. Spain needed to do something to regain its world prominence.

The politics of religion had much to do with the decisions that were to be made by

the Christian countries of Castille and Aragon which were to become Spain.

If Spain were to actually find and claim new lands, it had to be approved by the

Pope, and prior to 1492 the Pope would have been unfavorable to Spain.

Any claims to new lands would certainly be contested by their enemies Portugal and France, as well as the Pope.

But in 1492 Alexander VI a Spaniard was elected Pope.

This insured that the Pope would side with Spain regarding any lands claimed.

When Columbus was finally given the go ahead to make the voyage of 1492, Spain didn’t have enough money in the treasury to finance him.

However once Columbus had a formal agreement from Spain, he was able to seek other funding which he did.

There were 7 noble Genoese Bankers residing in Seville, and they contributed additional funding to Columbus.

He was also able to obtain some funding from other Spanish investors.

The Monarchs were able to come up with only 1 million Marvides and they issued a decree allowing Columbus to confiscate two ships at the Port of Palos, and they offered to issue a pardon to any criminals in jail that would sail with him.

When Columbus arrived in Palos with his charts and maps he was broke.

The Monarchs appointed a Franciscan monk at the monestary of La Rabida to act as their agent in assisting Columbus, and Columbus was allowed to stay at the monestary.

The monarchs had decreed that all the residents of Palos were to assist in funding the voyage.

Columbus did confiscate two ships at the Port of Palos, but had a lot of difficulty signing up convicts as crew.

Most convicts would not sign up due to the fact that they didn’t know Columbus and they had no faith in the voyage.

Without sufficient funding to hire an experienced crew, Columbus had resigned to making the voyage by all by hisself with whatever crew he could obtain.

Two ships Columbus had confiscated were sabotaged. Either by the owners or the prisoners.

Interestingly enough, Columbus received word that King Henry VII of England was also now interested in having Columbus appear in the English court, but by then Columbus had already committed to Spain.

Columbus was now disheartened by the lack of funds, ship or crew.

It was at this point when the monk at the monastery put Columbus in touch with Martin Alonso Pinzon.

Martin Alonso Pinzon was a well known Spanish sailor and ship builder and came from a family of ship owners and merchants.

He and his family were well known in the area as being, wealthy highly successful and intelligent.

To get the attention and support of Martin Pinzon, Columbus shared with him the maps and charts he had taken from Alonso Sanchez.

It is said by witnesses that Columbus offered Martin Pinzon 50% of any profit, as well as equal credit for any discoveries. He told Martin Pinzon that he would treat him as a brother.

Once Martin Pinzon saw the maps and charts of Alonso Sanchez, he committed to Columbus.

Martin Pinzon also an explorer and navigator, was the captain of his ship the Pinta and he was co owner with his brother Vincente in the Nina. His other brother Francisco was the Pilot or first mate of the Pinta.

Martin Alonso Pinzon committed ½ million Marvedis in coin, which was half the amount put up by the King and Queen.

Because of Pinzon’s prestige as a ship owner and expert sailor, he was able to enlist a crew of family members and expert seamen from surrounding towns.

Martin Pinzon put up his two caravals, the Nina and the Pinta. And lent money to Columbus to lease the Santa Maria which was a rental vessel owned by Juan De La Cosa.

Juan De La Cosa sailed with Columbus as his first officer.

Columbus was heard several times to have said “Mr. Martin Alonso Pinzon, If god reveals new lands to us, I will treat you as a brother”

However it was also said that once Martin Alonso Pinzon saw the map and charts from Alonzo Sanchez, he realized he didn’t need Columbus anymore.

Martin Pinzon then dismissed the two ships Columbus had confiscated and he dismissed all the convicts Columbus had signed up, with the exception of 4 of them.

One was a murderer and the other three were imprisoned for helping the murderer escape.

As one can see, there was a lot of pressure on Columbus to make the trip pay off financially.

Now greed for the potential fame as “Admiral of the Ocean Sea” and greed for Gold were foremost on Columbus’s mind, and possibly in Martin Alonso Pinzon’s mind.

After his 4th and final Journey, Christopher Columbus sent a letter to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella.

The letter is important as it summed up Columbus’s inner feelings about having Gold.

“Gold is most excellent, Gold is treasure, and he who possesses it does all he wishes to in this world” Christopher Columbus July 4 1503.

They departed the Port of Palos on Aug 3, 1492. With the 3 ships, the Nina, the Pina

And Columbus’s flag ship the Santa Maria.

They provisioned at the Canary Islands and departed there September 6 1492.

Even with Columbus lying every day regarding the distance they had sailed, the crew became increasingly anxious and Columbus also became disheartened.

After traveling 800 or 900 leagues, or about 2200 miles Columbus’s crew was about

to commit mutney

Columbus requested help from Martin Alonso Pinzon on the Pinta.

Pinzon’ advise was “hang 6 of them and if you don’t do it I will come over and do it myself”.

At that point columbus’s crew shut up. But it was due to Pinzon’s intervention.

When they hadn’t sighted land, eventually even Columbus became disheartened and

suggested to Pinzon that they return to Spain.

According to witnesses, Columbus called to him and said, “We are lost, what shall we do, we will never return to Palos”.

It was Martin Pinzon who replied that he would not return to Palos until he had reached land.

With that, Martin Alonso Pinzon took the lead with the ship Pinta, and Columbus had no alternative but to follow.

When Christopher Columbus reached the island of San Salvador in the Caribbean, he was very disappointed that he couldn’t find the source of the spices, and opiates, that came from the Indies.

However what he did find were very peaceful and timid inhabitants, and they were wearing Gold nose ornaments.

The Natives were very anxious to trade their Gold for anything the Spaniards had, and the Spaniards happily traded everything they had, which included glass beads, hawks bells, even bits of broken dishes.

The natives were happy to trade their pieces of Gold for any items the Spaniards gave them.

Columbus’s focus now became finding the source of the Gold that the Natives had.

Soon Columbus realized that his voyage would not pay for itself, in the ways he had originally anticipated.

He was still under the pressure of producing a profit for his investors, as well as for the Monarchs of Spain.

To find the source of the Gold, Columbus needed to be able to communicate with the natives, so he took several captives to try and teach them Spanish.

Using the captured natives as guides he sailed from island to island always looking for the source of the Gold.

The natives claimed to know the source, and Columbus was anxious to follow their directions.

Columbus stopped a 5 islands before finding the coast of Cuba, but no source of Gold was found.

At this point Martin Alonso Pinzon and the ship La Pinta disappeared.

Columbus was sure Pinzon had purposely disobeyed him to look fot Gold on his own.

Columbus now himself, not finding the source of Gold, he started to think of other ways to produce a profit from the voyage.

His first thoughts now, were of capturing and shipping the natives back to Spain to be sold as slaves.

Columbus kept a daily diary, and wrote down all his thoughts, most were exaggerated.

In the notes he made grand claims of the Gold to be found in the new territories that he had discovered, as well as the money that could be earned from the slavery trade.

At the time, the Portuguese were the leaders in the slave trade kidnapping thousands of people from the Portuguese territories in Africa and selling them.

One must remember that in the 1500’s slavery was a common business and produced a lot of profit for the countries involved in it.

Columbus thus felt he could also profit from it.

Knowing that the Church would also be overseeing all his discoveries, Columbus wrote of how easy it would be to convert the entire population to Christianity as the natives appeared to have no god.

Eventually after sailing along the coast of “Cuba”, Columbus discovered another large island, which he called “Hispanola”.

On the island of “ Hispanola” he finally found the source of the Gold.

It was on the island of Hispanola that Columbus went aground with the ship “Santa Maria”.

And it was on “Hispanola” that Columbus decided to build the first colony in the new world.

It was on Hispanola that Gold could be found in the rivers and mined on land.

It was on Hispanola that Columbus was able to find the Gold he sought after.

The Natives were all required to give a tribute in Gold to the Spaniards.

Every 3 months each Native was required to produce 1 hawk’s bell full of Gold.

They were given a copper token to wear.

If a native was found with no copper token, their hands were cut off and they bled to death.

While Isabella, the Queen of Spain was against slavery, it didn’t stop the Spaniards in the new colony from using them.

Slowly but surely the native population died from diseases, and mistreatment by the Spaniards.

The Spaniards including Columbus were ruthless in their quest for Gold.

From 1492 when Columbus arrived in what we now call the Bahamas, or the West Indies, there was estimated to be 2.5 million native residents on Hispanola.

By the year 1516 the native population was estimated to be only 12,000.

And by 1542 only a few hundred of them, remained alive.

By 1555 not one had survived on Hispanola

The slave shortage was so critical that Natives were kidnapped from other islands in the Caribbean.

Eventually, very few Caribbean natives survived the onslaught of the Spaniards, and today only a few can be found.

With the largest population of “Caribs” still living on the Island of Dominica.

Black slaves were now imported from Africa to do the work and mine the Gold.

By the year 1520, all the Gold mines that Columbus had developed on the island of Hispanola started to produce disappointing yields.

Much of the Gold mined in Hispanola was supposed to go to the Crown in Spain.

But much of it was diverted and stolen.

Columbus had found his Gold and he and later Spanish Colonists stole a lot of it.

The theft was so great that eventually the Spanish Crown sent overseers to watch the Gold from the moment it was mined until it arrived in Spain.

This story about Columbus’s hidden Gold is true story, but some names have been changed for the usual reasons.

The events all took place as described.

Some events are related in an order that make the story more understandable

Some events may have been deemed illegal in Haiti, the Dominican republic and in the United States.

By reading this prolog, it sets the stage for the events that followed.