Editing Christopher Columbus (section)

=== First voyage (1492–1493) ===
[[File:Columbus first voyage.jpg|thumb|upright=1.6|First voyage (conjectural).{{Efn|This map is based on the premise that Columbus first landed at [[Plana Cays]].<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://www.dioi.org/vols/w41.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://www.dioi.org/vols/w41.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2022 |url-status=live |first=Keith A. |last=Pickering |title=Columbus's Plana landfall: Evidence for the Plana Cays as Columbus's 'San&nbsp;Salvador' |journal=DIO – the International Journal of Scientific History |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=13–32 |date=August 1994 |access-date=16 March 2009}}</ref> [[San Salvador Island|The island considered]] by [[Samuel Eliot Morison]] to be the most likely location of first contact{{sfn|Morison|1991|p=228}} is the easternmost land touching the top edge of this image.|name=firstimage}} Modern place names in black, Columbus's place names in blue]]

On the evening of 3 August 1492, Columbus departed from [[Palos de la Frontera]] with three ships. The largest was a [[carrack]], the ''[[Santa María (ship)|Santa María]]'', owned and captained by [[Juan de la Cosa]], and under Columbus's direct command.{{Sfn|Dyson|1991|p=102}} The other two were smaller [[caravel]]s, the ''[[Pinta (ship)|Pinta]]'' and the ''[[Niña]]'',<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.thenina.com/the_original_nina.html |title=The Original Niña |website=The Niña & Pinta |publisher=The Columbus Foundation |location=British Virgin Islands |access-date=12 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150526034248/http://www.thenina.com/the_original_nina.html |archive-date=26 May 2015}}</ref> piloted by the [[Pinzón brothers]].{{Sfn|Dyson|1991|p=102}} Columbus first sailed to the Canary Islands. There he restocked provisions and made repairs then departed from [[San Sebastián de La Gomera]] on 6 September,{{sfn|Phillips|Phillips|1992|pp=146–147}} for what turned out to be a five-week voyage across the ocean.

On 7 October, the crew spotted "[i]mmense flocks of birds".<ref name="Nicholls2009">{{Cite book |last=Nicholls |first=Steve |title=Paradise Found: Nature in America at the Time of Discovery |pages=[https://archive.org/details/paradisefoundnat00stev/page/103 103–104] |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-226-58340-2 |url=https://archive.org/details/paradisefoundnat00stev/page/103}}</ref> On 11 October, Columbus changed the fleet's course to due west, and sailed through the night, believing land was soon to be found. At around 02:00 the following morning, a lookout on the ''Pinta'', [[Rodrigo de Triana]], spotted land. The captain of the ''Pinta'', [[Martín Alonso Pinzón]], verified the sight of land and alerted Columbus.{{sfn|Morison|1991|p=226}}<ref>Lopez, ([[#CITEREFLopez1990|1990]], [https://books.google.com/books?id=wyh9-rhsaQgC&pg=PT14 p. 14]); Columbus & Toscanelli ([[#CITEREFColumbusToscanelli2010|2010]], [https://books.google.com/books?id=MI7dzFQZHOoC&pg=PA35 p. 35])</ref> Columbus later maintained that he 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.{{sfn|Murphy|Coye|2013}}<ref>Lopez, ([[#CITEREFLopez1990|1990]], [https://books.google.com/books?id=wyh9-rhsaQgC&pg=PT15 p. 15])</ref> Columbus called this island (in what is now the Bahamas) {{lang|es|San Salvador}} ('Holy Savior'); [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|the Natives]] called it [[Guanahani]].{{Sfn|Bergreen|2011|ref=none|p=99}}{{Efn|According to [[Samuel Eliot Morison]], [[San Salvador Island]], renamed from Watling's Island in 1925 in the belief that it was Columbus's San Salvador,<ref>William D. Phillips Jr., 'Columbus, Christopher', in David Buisseret (ed.), ''The Oxford Companion to World Exploration'', (Oxford University Press, online edition 2012).</ref> is the only island fitting the position indicated by Columbus's journal. Other candidates are the [[Grand Turk]], [[Cat Island, Bahamas|Cat Island]], [[Rum Cay]], [[Samana Cay]], or [[Mayaguana]].{{sfn|Morison|1991|p=228}}}} [[Christopher Columbus's journal]] entry of 12 October 1492 states:<blockquote>I saw some who had marks of wounds on their bodies and I made signs to them asking what they were; and they showed me how people from other islands nearby came there and tried to take them, and how they defended themselves; and I believed and believe that they come here from {{lang|es|tierra firme}} to take them captive. They should be good and intelligent servants, for I see that they say very quickly everything that is said to them; and I believe they would become Christians very easily, for it seemed to me that they had no religion. Our Lord pleasing, at the time of my departure I will take six of them from here to Your Highnesses in order that they may learn to speak.<ref name="DunnKelly1989">{{cite book |last1=Dunn |first1=Oliver |last2=Kelley |first2=James E. Jr. |title=The Diario of Christopher Columbus's First Voyage to America, 1492–1493 |year=1989 |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |isbn=978-0-8061-2384-4 |pages=67–69 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nS6kRnXJgCEC&pg=PA67}}</ref></blockquote>

Columbus called the inhabitants of the lands that he visited {{lang|es|Los Indios}} ('Indians').<ref name="Hoxie 1996 p.">{{cite book |last=Hoxie |first=Frederick |url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofno00hoxi/page/568 |title=Encyclopedia of North American Indians |publisher=Houghton Mifflin |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-395-66921-1 |location=Boston |page=[https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofno00hoxi/page/568 568]}}</ref> He initially encountered the [[Lucayan people|Lucayan]], [[Taíno]], and [[Arawak]] peoples.<ref name="Keegan2015">{{cite journal |last1=Keegan |first1=William F. |title=Mobility and Disdain: Columbus and Cannibals in the Land of Cotton |journal=Ethnohistory |year=2015 |volume=62 |issue=1 |pages=1–15 |doi=10.1215/00141801-2821644 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/273291078}}</ref> Noting their gold ear ornaments, Columbus took some of the Arawaks prisoner and insisted that they guide him to the source of the gold.<ref name=Zinn>{{harvnb|Zinn|2003|pp=[https://archive.org/details/peopleshistoryof00howa/page/1 1–22]}}</ref> Columbus did not believe he needed to create a fortified outpost, writing, "the people here are simple in war-like matters ... I could conquer the whole of them with fifty men, and govern them as I pleased."<ref>Columbus ([[#CITEREFColumbus1991|1991]], [https://books.google.com/books?id=OxbLxcS5uYgC&pg=PA87 p. 87]). Or "these people are very simple as regards the use of arms ... for with fifty men they can all be subjugated and made to do what is required of them." (Columbus & Toscanelli, [[#CITEREFColumbusToscanelli2010|2010]], [https://books.google.com/books?id=MI7dzFQZHOoC&pg=PA41 p. 41])</ref> The Taínos told Columbus that another indigenous tribe, the [[Kalinago|Caribs]], were fierce warriors and [[Human cannibalism|cannibals]], who made frequent raids on the Taínos, often capturing their women, although this may have been a belief perpetuated by the Spaniards to justify enslaving them.<ref name="Figueredo2008">{{cite book |last1=Figueredo |first1=D. H. |title=A Brief History of the Caribbean |year=2008 |publisher=Infobase |isbn=978-1-4381-0831-5 |page=9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RsNPdvRtT7oC&pg=PA9}}</ref><ref name="Deagan2008">{{cite book |last1=Deagan |first1=Kathleen A. |title=Columbus's Outpost Among the Taínos: Spain and America at La Isabela, 1493–1498 |year=2008 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-13389-9 |page=32 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iWGZP0V8WroC&pg=PA32}}</ref>

Columbus also explored the northeast coast of Cuba, where he landed on 28 October. On the night of 26 November, Martín Alonso Pinzón took the ''Pinta'' on an unauthorized expedition in search of an island called "Babeque" or "Baneque",<ref name="Hunter2012">{{cite book |last1=Hunter |first1=Douglas |title=The Race to the New World: Christopher Columbus, John Cabot, and a Lost History of Discovery |year=2012 |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=978-0-230-34165-4 |page=62 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fYrvCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA62}}</ref> which the natives had told him was rich in gold.<ref name="Magasich-AirolaBeer2007">{{cite book |last1=Magasich-Airola |first1=Jorge |last2=Beer |first2=Jean-Marc de |title=America Magica: When Renaissance Europe Thought It Had Conquered Paradise |edition=2nd |year=2007 |publisher=Anthem |isbn=978-1-84331-292-5 |page=61 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SauW0UOVcp0C&pg=PA61}}</ref> Columbus, for his part, continued to the northern coast of [[Hispaniola]], where he landed on 6 December.<ref name="Anderson-Córdova2017">{{cite book |last1=Anderson-Córdova |first1=Karen F. |title=Surviving Spanish Conquest: Indian Fight, Flight, and Cultural Transformation in Hispaniola and Puerto Rico |year=2017 |publisher=University of Alabama Press |isbn=978-0-8173-1946-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RNoZDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA55 |page=55}}</ref> There, the ''Santa María'' ran aground on 25 December 1492 and had to be abandoned. The wreck was used as a target for cannon fire to impress the native peoples.{{sfn|Murphy|Coye|2013|pp=31–32}} Columbus was received by the native ''[[cacique]]'' [[Guacanagari]], who gave him permission to leave some of his men behind. Columbus left 39 men, including the interpreter [[Luis de Torres]],{{Sfn|Morison|1991|p=145}}{{Efn|Torres spoke Hebrew and some Arabic; the latter was then believed to be the mother tongue of all languages.{{sfn|Morison|1991|p=145}}}} and founded the settlement of [[La Navidad]], in present-day [[Haiti]].<ref name="DeaganCruxent1993">{{cite journal |last1=Deagan |first1=Kathleen |last2=Cruxent |first2=José Maria |author1-link=Kathleen Deagan |author2-link=José Cruxent |title=From Contact to Criollos: The Archaeology of Spanish Colonization in Hispaniola |journal=Proceedings of the British Academy |date=1993 |volume=81 |page=73 |url=http://publications.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/pubs/proc/files/81p067.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://publications.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/pubs/proc/files/81p067.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2022 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Maclean2008">{{cite magazine |last=Maclean |first=Frances |title=The Lost Fort of Columbus |url=http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-lost-fort-of-columbus-8026921/ |magazine=[[Smithsonian Magazine]] |date=January 2008 |access-date=24 January 2008}}</ref> Columbus took more natives prisoner and continued his exploration.<ref name=Zinn /> He kept sailing along the northern coast of Hispaniola with a single ship until he encountered Pinzón and the ''Pinta'' on 6 January.<ref name="Gužauskytė2014">{{cite book |last1=Gužauskytė |first1=Evelina |title=Christopher Columbus's Naming in the 'diarios' of the Four Voyages (1492–1504): A Discourse of Negotiation |year=2014 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=978-1-4426-6825-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U0SWAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA96 |page=96}}</ref>

On 13 January 1493, Columbus made his last stop of this voyage in the Americas, in the [[Bay of Rincón]] in northeast Hispaniola.<ref>Fuson, Robert. ''The Log of Christopher Columbus'' (Camden, International Marine, 1987) 173.</ref> There he encountered the [[Ciguayos]], the only natives who offered violent resistance during this voyage.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lTsLAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA33 |title=Confronting Columbus: An Anthology |publisher=McFarland & Co. |last=Yewell |first=John |first2=Chris |last2=Dodge |year=1992 |location=Jefferson, NC |page=33 |isbn=978-0-89950-696-8 |access-date=28 February 2016}}</ref> The Ciguayos refused to trade the amount of bows and arrows that Columbus desired; in the ensuing clash one Ciguayo was stabbed in the buttocks and another wounded with an arrow in his chest.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XwI7AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA159 |title=The Journal of Christopher Columbus |publisher=Hakluyt Society |last=Markham |first=Clements R. |year=1893 |location=London |pages=159–160 |access-date=28 February 2016}}</ref> Because of these events, Columbus called the inlet the {{lang|es|Golfo de Las Flechas}} ('[[Bay of Arrows]]').<ref name="DunnKelly1989341">{{cite book |last1=Dunn |first1=Oliver |last2=Kelley |first2=James E. Jr. |title=The Diario of Christopher Columbus's First Voyage to America, 1492–1493 |year=1989 |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |isbn=978-0-8061-2384-4 |page=341 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nS6kRnXJgCEC&pg=PA341}}</ref>

Columbus headed for Spain on the ''Niña'', but a storm separated him from the ''Pinta'', and forced the ''Niña'' to stop at the island of Santa Maria in the Azores. Half of his crew went ashore to say prayers of thanksgiving in a chapel for having survived the storm. But while praying, they were imprisoned by the governor of the island, ostensibly on suspicion of being pirates. After a two-day stand-off, the prisoners were released, and Columbus again set sail for Spain.<ref name="Catz1990">{{Cite journal |title=Columbus in the Azores |jstor=41104900 |journal=Portuguese Studies |date=1990 |pages=19–21 |volume=6 |first=Rebecca |last=Catz}}</ref>

Another storm forced Columbus into the port at Lisbon.{{sfn|Murphy|Coye|2013|p=}} From there he went to {{lang|pt|Vale do Paraíso}} north of Lisbon to meet King John II of Portugal, who told Columbus that he believed the voyage to be in violation of the 1479 [[Treaty of Alcáçovas]]. After spending more than a week in Portugal, Columbus set sail for Spain. Returning to Palos on 15 March 1493, he was given a hero's welcome and soon afterward received by Isabella and Ferdinand in Barcelona.<ref name="Kamen2014">{{cite book |last1=Kamen |first1=Henry |title=Spain, 1469–1714: A Society of Conflict |date=2014 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-75500-5 |page=51 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=akIsAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA51}}</ref> To them he presented kidnapped Taínos and various plants and items he had collected.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Fernández-Armesto |first=Felipe |author-link=Felipe Fernández-Armesto |url=https://archive.org/details/amerigomanwhogav0000fern |title=Amerigo: The Man Who Gave His Name to America |publisher=Random House |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-4000-6281-2 |location=New York}}</ref>{{rp|54}}

One of the ten Natives taken on the return trip was a Lucayan Taíno from Guanahani thought to be 13–15 years of age, who Columbus adopted as his son upon their arrival in Spain; the boy, whose Lucayan name is unknown, received the name ''[[Diego Columbus (Lucayan)|Diego]]'' at baptism. Initially, Diego had been recognized for his intelligence and rapid acquisition of Spanish customs, and would serve as a guide and interpreter on each of Columbus's subsequent voyages. By the second voyage's departure later in 1493, Diego was the only Native out of the ten taken to Europe who had not died or become seriously ill as the result of disease; while on this voyage, he played a vital role in the discovery of La Navidad. He subsequently married and had a son, also named Diego, who died of illness in 1506. Following Columbus's death, Diego spent the rest of his life confined to [[Santo Domingo]], and does not reappear in the historical record following a smallpox epidemic that swept Hispaniola in 1519.{{sfnm|Caballos|2004|Ostapkowicz|2023|2pp=314–316}}

[[Columbus's letter on the first voyage]], probably dispatched to the Spanish court upon arrival in Lisbon, was instrumental in spreading the news throughout Europe about his voyage. Almost immediately after his arrival in Spain, printed versions began to appear, and word of his voyage spread rapidly.<ref name="Ife1992">{{cite web |last1=Ife |first1=Barry |title=Early Modern Spain: Introduction to the Letters from America |url=http://www.ems.kcl.ac.uk/content/pub/b002.html |website=King's College London |access-date=15 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210424100905/http://www.ems.kcl.ac.uk/content/pub/b002.html |archive-date=24 April 2021 |year=1992}}</ref> Most people initially believed that he had reached Asia.{{sfn|Morison|1991|p=381}} The [[Bulls of Donation]], three papal bulls of [[Pope Alexander VI]] delivered in 1493, purported to grant overseas territories to Portugal and the Catholic Monarchs of Spain. They were replaced by the [[Treaty of Tordesillas]] of 1494.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Diffie |first=Bailey Wallys |title=Foundations of the Portuguese Empire, 1415–1580 |publisher=University of Minnesota Press |others=Winius, George D. |year=1977 |isbn=0-8166-0782-6 |location=Minneapolis |page=173 |oclc=3488742 |author-link=Bailey W. Diffie}}</ref>

The two earliest published copies of Columbus's letter on the first voyage aboard the ''Niña'' were donated in 2017 by the Jay I. Kislak Foundation to the [[University of Miami]] library in [[Coral Gables, Florida]], where they are housed.<ref>{{cite news |last=Veciana-Suarez |first=Ana |date=22 January 2017 |title=This college donation is truly historic. And it's not just the artifacts involved |url=http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/education/article128075264.html |newspaper=[[Miami Herald]] |access-date=22 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170223042258/http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/education/article128075264.html |archive-date=23 February 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref>