Life

The ships for the first voyage—the Niña, Pinta, and Santa María—were fitted out at Palos, on the Tinto River in Spain. Consortia put together by a royal treasury official and composed mainly of Genoese and Florentine bankers in Sevilla (Seville) provided at least 1,140,000 maravedis to outfit the expedition, and Columbus supplied more than a third of the sum contributed by the king and queen. Queen Isabella did not, then, have to pawn her jewels (a myth first put about by Bartolomé de Las Casas in the 16th century).

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The fleet departed Palos on August 3, 1492, and sailed south toward the Canary Islands rather than heading directly west across the Atlantic. From there Columbus could take advantage of the northeast trade winds for the westward crossing. After repairs and nearly a month in the Canaries, the three ships departed San Sebastián de la Gomera on September 6.

On several occasions in September and early October, sailors spotted floating vegetation and various types of birds—all taken as signs that land was nearby. But by October 10 the crew had begun to lose patience, complaining that with their failure to make landfall, contrary winds and a shortage of provisions would keep them from returning home. Columbus allayed their fears, at least temporarily, and on October 12 land was sighted from the Pinta (though Columbus, on the Niña, later claimed the privilege for himself). The place of the first Caribbean landfall, called Guanahani, is hotly disputed, but San Salvador (Watlings) Island in the Bahamas is generally preferred to other Bahamian islands (Samana Cay, Rum Cay, or the Plana Cays) or to the Turks and Caicos Islands. Beyond planting the royal banner, however, Columbus spent little time there, being anxious to press on to Cipango, or Cipangu (Japan). He thought that he had found it in Cuba, where he landed on October 28, but he convinced himself by November 1 that Cuba was the Cathay mainland itself, though he had yet to see evidence of great cities. Thus, on December 5, he turned back southeastward to search for the fabled city of Zaiton (Quanzhou, China), missing through this decision his sole chance of setting foot on Florida soil.

Adverse winds carried the fleet to an island called Ayti (Haiti) by its Indigenous Taino inhabitants; on December 6 Columbus renamed it La Isla Española, or Hispaniola. He seems to have thought that Hispaniola might be Cipango or, if not Cipango, then perhaps one of the legendarily rich isles from which King Solomon’s triennial fleet brought back gold, gems, and spices to Jerusalem (1 Kings 10:11, 22); alternatively, he reasoned that the island could be related to the biblical kingdom of Sheba (Sabaʾ). There Columbus found at least enough gold and prosperity to save him from ridicule on his return to Spain. With the help of a Taino cacique, or Indigenous chief, named Guacanagarí, he set up a stockade on the northern coast of the island, named it La Navidad, and posted 39 men to guard it until his return. The accidental running aground of the Santa María on December 25, 1492, provided additional planks and provisions for the garrison.

Columbus began the return journey on January 16, 1493, aboard the Niña, accompanied by the Pinta. The journey was a nightmare. The Atlantic westerlies carried the ships toward Europe, but severe storms separated them during the crossing. The Niña reached Santa Maria in the Azores, where Portuguese authorities briefly detained several members of Columbus’s party after they went ashore. Another storm subsequently forced Columbus into Lisbon, where he met with King John II of Portugal before continuing to Spain. Columbus returned to Palos on March 15, 1493, about seven months after departing from Spain.

The voyage demonstrated that ships could cross the Atlantic and return to Europe using the prevailing wind systems, but Columbus remained mistaken about the geography of the lands he had encountered. He continued to believe that the Caribbean islands lay near Asia rather than recognizing that Europeans had encountered continents previously unknown to them. The voyage also established patterns that would have far-reaching consequences during Columbus’s subsequent expeditions and the Spanish colonization of the Caribbean. Columbus claimed inhabited territories for the Spanish crown from that first voyage and searched for sources of gold and other wealth, took Indigenous people captive, and established a Spanish outpost on Hispaniola. Although some early encounters involved trade and cooperation, relations between Spanish colonists and the Indigenous peoples of the Caribbean would soon be marked by increasing demands for labor and tribute, armed conflict, enslavement, and profound disruption of Indigenous communities.