Letter to the Editor

Columbus' quest

Monday, October 10, 2011

Dear Editor,

Good fortune smiled upon Christopher Columbus (originally Colombo) -- at first.

Born in 1451 in Genoa, Italy, he knew that he did not want to weave wool cloth like his parents, Comieco and Susana Colombo. His brothers, Bartholomew and Diego, agreed with him.

Bartholomew opened a shop in Lisbon, Portugal. It specialized in nautical supplies and charts.

Christopher and Diego joined him in the business. People in Geonoa spoke a special Italian dialect. Christopher did not read or write it. He studied Latin so he could read geography books (Most of them were in Latin.)

Contrary to what most of us may have learned in school, Columbus did not try to prove that the world is round. Geography experts had already done that. He was trying to find a shorter route to China and India.

He estimated that China and Japan were not far from Lisbon and the Canary Islands. He thought Japan was only about 3,000 miles away. Actually, from Palos, Spain, it is 11,000 miles.

Columbus needed financial backing for his voyage. Bartholomew went to Henry VII of England and Charles VIII of France for money and supplies. They turned him down.

King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain finally drove the Moors out of their last stronghold in Granada, Spain Jan. 2, 1492. They were ready to do business with him. He was furnished with the ships known as the Santa Maria, Niņa and the Pinta; crews and supplies.

At 2 a.m., Columbus sighted an island in the Bahamas, which he named San Salvador. This was achieved on Oct. 12, 1492. He thought it was an island of the Indies near Japan or China.

Unfortunately, Columbus faced problems of shipwrecks, near starvation, Indian hostilities and other men's greed for riches during his four voyages between 1492 and 1502. When he died in 1506, he didn't know he had opened up a whole Western Hemisphere for future generations.

Helen Ruth Arnold,

Trenton, Nebraska

Respond to this story

Posting a comment requires free registration: