Around 5th Grade, I was young kid in my old Allen
Elementary School from Wichita, Kansas. I remember
about my Homeroom with Mr. Randall. He was with
me and my classmates to learn and read on the
History Book about Christopher Columbus was a
famous Explorer. We were reading on the book
in our table together.
Christopher was young.
Born: Unknown, but before October 31, 1451
Genoa, Republic of Genoa, in present-day
Italy
He was older.
Died: May 20, 1506 (aged c. 54)
Valladolid, Spain
Burial shared in Seville, Spain and Santo Domingo,
Dominican Republic for few parts of bones of
deceased Christopher.
Seville, Spain
Columbus’s remains were first interred at Valladolid,
then at the monastery of La Cartuja in Seville
(southern Spain) by the will of his son Diego, who
had been governor of Hispaniola.
In 1542 the remains were transferred to Colonial
Santo Domingo, in the present-day Dominican
Republic.
In 1795, when France took over the entire island of
Hispaniola, Columbus’s remains were moved to Havana,
Cuba. After Cuba became independent following the
Spanish-American War in 1898, the remains were moved
back to Spain, to the Cathedral of Seville, where
they were placed on an elaborate catafalque.
However, a lead bearing an inscription identifying
“Don Christopher Columbus” and containing bone
fragments and a bullet was discovered at Santo
Domingo in 1877.
To lay to rest claims that the wrong relics had
been moved to Havana and the Columbus’s remains
had been left buried in the cathedral at Santo
Domingo, DNA samples of the corpse resting in
Seville were taken in June 2003 (History Today
August 2003) as well as other DNA samples from
remains of his brother Diego and younger son
Fernando Colon. Initial observations suggested
that the bones did not appear to belong to
somebody with the physique or age at death
associated with Columbus. DNA extraction proved
difficult; only short fragments of miotochondrial
DNA could be isolated. The mtDNA fragments matched
corresponding DNA from Columbus’s brother, giving
support that both individuals had shared the same
mother. Such evidence, together with anthropologic
and historic analyses led the researchers to remains
there to be exhumed, so it is unknown if any of those
remains could be from Columbus’s body as well.
The location of the Dominican remains is in
“The Columbus Lighthouse” (Faro a Colon), in
Santo Domingo.
We honor Christopher Columbus Day on Monday,
October 8, 2012. I saw some statues of the
Christopher in few places and cities, Union Station,
Washington, DC, Columbus Circle, New York City,
NY and Old Town, Old San Juan, PR.
First Voyage
On the evening of August 3, 1492, Columbus departed
from Palos de la Frontera with three ships:
a larger carrack, the Santa Maria ex-Gallega
(“Galician”), and two smaller caravels, the Pinta
(“Painted”) and the Santa Clara, nicknamed the Nina
(lit. “Girl”) after her owner Juan Nino of captained
by Columbus. The Pinta and the Nina were piloted by
the Pinzon brothers (Martin Alonso and Vicente
Yanez).
Columbus first sailed to the Canary Islands, which
belonged to the Castile, where he restocked the
provisions and made repairs. After stopping over
in Gran Canaria, he finally departed from San
Sebastin de La Gomera on 6 September, for what
turned out to be a five-week voyage across the
ocean. A lookout on the Pinta, Rodrigo de Triana
(also known as Juan Rodriguez Bermeo), spotted
land about 2:00 on the morning of October 12, and
immediately alerted the rest of the crew with a
shout. Thereupon, the captain of the Pinta,
Martin Alonso Pinzon, verified the discovery and
alerted Columbus by firing a lombard. Columbus
later maintained that he himself had already seen
a light on the land a few hours earlier, thereby
claiming for himself the lifetime pension promised
by Ferdinand and Isabella to the first person to
sight land.
Columbus called the island (in what is now
The Bahamas) San Salvador, the natives called it
Guanahani. Exactly which island in the Bahamas
this corresponds to is an unresolved topic;
prime candidates are Samana Cay, Plana Cays, or
San Salvador Island (so named in 1925 in the
belief that it was Columbus’s San Salvador).
The indigenous people he encountered, the Lucayan,
Taino or Arawak, were peaceful and friendly. From
the October 12, 1491 entry in his journal he wrote
of them, “Many of the men I have seen have scars on
their bodies, and when I made signs to them to find
out how this happened, they indicated that people
from the mainland come here to take them as slaves.
They ought to make good and skilled servants, for
they repeat very whatever we say to them. I think
they can very easily be made Christians, for they
seem to have no religion. If it pleases our Lord,
I will take six of them to Your Highnesses when I
depart, in order that they may learn our language.”
He remarked that their lack of modern weaponry and
even metal-forged swords or pikes was a tactical
vulnerability, writing, “I could conquer the whole
of them with 50 men, and govern them as I pleased.”
Columbus also explored the northeast coast of Cuba,
where he landed on October 28. On November 22,
Martin Alonso Pinzon took the Pinta on an
unauthorized expedition in search of an island
called “Babeque” or “Baneque”, which the natives
had told him was rich in gold. Columbus, for his
part, continued to the northern coast of Hisponiola,
where he landed on December 5.
There, the Santa Maria ran aground on Christmas Day
1492 and had to be abandoned. Columbus was received
by the native cacique Guacanagari, who gave him
permission to leave some of his men behind. Columbus
left 39 men, including Luis de Torres, the Converso
interpreter, who spoke Hebrew and Arabic, and founded
the settlement of La Navidad at the site of present-
day Mole-Saint-Nicolas, Haiti. He kept sailing along
the northern coast of Hispaniola with a single ship,
until he encountered Pinzon and the Pinta on
January 6.
On January 13, 1493 Columbus made his last stop in
the new World. He landed on the Samana Peninsula
where he met the hostile Ciguayos who presented
him and his only violent resistance during his first
voyage to the Americas. Because of this, and the
Ciguayos’ use of arrows, he called the inlet where
he met them the Bay of Arrows (or Gulf of Arrows).
Today the place is called the Bay of Rincon, in
Samana, the Dominican Republic. Columbus kidnapped
about 10 or 25 natives and took them back with him
(only seven or eight of the natives Indians arrived
in Spain alive, they made quite an impression on
Seville).
Columbus headed for Spain, but another storm forced
him into Lisbon. He anchored next to the King’s
harbor patrol ship on March 4, 1493 in Portugal.
After spending more than one week in Portugal, he
set sail for Spain. He crossed the bar of Saltes
and entered the harbor of Palos on March 15, 1493.
World of his finding new lands rapidly spread
throughout Europe.
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