Vicente Yáñez Pinzón

Columbus departs from Palos de la Frontera on the evening of August 3, 1492, with three ships: a larger carrack, the Santa María ex-Gallega ("Galician"), and two smaller caravels, the Pinta ("The Pint", "The Look", or "The Spotted One") and the Santa Clara, nicknamed the Niña (lit.

"Girl") after her owner Juan Niño of Moguer.

The monarchs have forced the Palos inhabitants to contribute to the expedition.

The Santa María is owned by Juan de la Cosa and captained by Columbus.

The Pinta and the Niña are piloted by the Pinzón brothers (Martín Alonso and Vicente Yáñez).

Christopher Columbus, after stopping over in August in Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands, had put in at Gomera for wine and water, intending to stay only four days.

Becoming romantically involved with the widowed Governor of the island, Beatriz de Bobadilla, he stays a month.

When he finally departs from San Sebastián de La Gomera on September 6, for what will turn out to be a five-week voyage across the ocean, she gives him cuttings of sugarcane, which will become the first to reach the New World.

A lookout on the Pinta, Rodrigo de Triana (also known as Juan Rodríguez Bermeo), spots land about 2:00 on the morning of October 12, and immediately alerts the rest of the crew with a shout.

Thereupon, the captain of the Pinta, Martín Alonso Pinzón, verifies the discovery and alerts Columbus by firing a lombard.

Columbus will 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 calls 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 unresolved.

Based on primary accounts and based on what one would expect based on the geographic positions of the islands given Columbus's venture's course, the prime candidates are San Salvador Island (so named in 1925 on the theory that it was Columbus' San Salvador),...

...Samana Cay, and ...

...Plana Cays.

The indigenous people he encounters, the Lucayan, Taíno, or Arawak, are peaceful and friendly.

Noting their gold ear ornaments, Columbus takes some of the Arawaks prisoner and insists that they guide him to the source of the gold.

Apparently believing he has reached the Indies, or at least the east coast of Asia, Columbus calls them Indians.

From the entry in his journal of October 12, 1492, in which he writes 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 other nearby islands come to San Salvador to capture them; they defend themselves the best they can.

I believe that people from the mainland come here to take them as slaves.

They ought to make good and skilled servants, for they repeat very quickly 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."

Columbus remarks that their lack of modern weaponry and metal-forged swords or pikes is a tactical vulnerability, writing, "I could conquer the whole of them with 50 men, and govern them as I pleased."

After visiting and naming a few more islands in the Bahamas (inhabited by an estimated forty thousand Lucayans, with a population of about four thousand on Grand Bahama Island alone), the explorers take on board a number of locals, then make their way to Cuba, the largest island in the Antilles archipelago.

Christopher Columbus, sailing west from the Bahamas, explores the northeast coast of Cuba, where he lands on October 28.

Martín Alonso Pinzón had taken the Pinta on November 22 on an unauthorized expedition in search of an island called "Babeque" or "Baneque", which the natives have told him is rich in gold.

Columbus, for his part, continues to the northern coast of Hispaniola, where he lands on December 5.

Here, the Santa María runs aground on Christmas Day 1492 and has to be abandoned.

The wreck is used as a target for cannon fire to impress the native peoples.

Columbus is received by the native cacique Guacanagari, who gives him permission to leave some of his men behind.

Columbus leaves thirty-nine men, including Luis de Torres, the Converso interpreter, who speaks Hebrew and Arabic, and founds the settlement of La Navidad at the site of present-day Bord de Mer de Limonade, Haiti.

Columbus takes more natives prisoner and continues his exploration.

Columbus keeps sailing along the northern coast of Hispaniola with a single ship, until he encounters Pinzón and the Pinta on January 6.

Columbus makes his last stop of this voyage in the New World on January 13, 1493.

Landing on the Samaná Peninsula, he meets the hostile Ciguayos, who present him with his only violent resistance during this first voyage to the Americas.

The Ciguayos refuse to trade the amount of bows and arrows that Columbus desired; in the ensuing violence two are stabbed to death.

Because of this and because of the Ciguayos' use of arrows, he calls the inlet where he met them the Bay of Arrows (or Gulf of Arrows).

Today, the place is called the Bay of Rincón, in Samaná, the Dominican Republic.

Columbus kidnaps about ten to twenty-five natives and takes them back with him (only seven or eight of the natives will arrive in Spain alive).

Columbus’s Arrival in Lisbon (March 4, 1493) and His Encounter with the Portuguese Court

After completing his first transatlantic voyage (1492–1493), Christopher Columbus set sail for Spain aboard the Niña. However, after stopping in the Azores, a violent storm forced him to take refuge in Lisbon on March 4, 1493. His unplanned arrival in Portugal, a kingdom deeply invested in overseas exploration, led to significant diplomatic interactions.

Columbus’s Arrival in Lisbon

• Upon reaching Lisbon, Columbus anchored next to the King’s harbor patrol ship, drawing immediate attention.
• The Portuguese were well aware of Columbus’s ambitions, and his arrival was treated with great curiosity.
• Columbus was soon interviewed by Bartolomeu Dias, the Portuguese explorer who had rounded the Cape of Good Hope in 1488, proving that India could be reached by sailing east.

Diplomatic Encounters: Columbus and the Portuguese Court

• Columbus spent over a week in Portugal, where he:
  • Paid his respects to Queen Eleanor of Viseu, wife of King John II of Portugal.
  • Likely met high-ranking Portuguese officials, including navigators and royal advisors.
• King John II summoned Columbus to court to discuss his discoveries.
  • Portugal had previously rejected Columbus’s westward route proposal in 1484, favoring its own exploration around Africa.
  • Now that Spain had backed him, Columbus’s discoveries posed a direct challenge to Portugal’s claimsunder the Treaty of Alcáçovas (1479), which had given Portugal control over Atlantic exploration.

A Young Ferdinand Magellan Observes Columbus

• During Columbus’s stay in Lisbon, a young Ferdinand Magellan (born c. 1480) was a ward of Queen Eleanor’s court.
• It is likely that Magellan saw Columbus during this visit, sparking his lifelong interest in navigation and exploration.
• Magellan would later become the first explorer to lead a circumnavigation of the Earth (1519–1522), proving that Columbus’s westward route ultimately led to the Pacific and Asia.

Columbus Departs for Spain

• After his time in Lisbon, Columbus set sail for Spain, eager to report his findings to Ferdinand and Isabella.
• His encounter with the Portuguese court heightened tensions, eventually leading to the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494), which formally divided the newly discovered lands between Spain and Portugal.

Significance of Columbus’s Stop in Lisbon

1. Portuguese Interest in the New World – Portugal, realizing Spain’s discoveries threatened its monopoly on exploration, quickly negotiated the Treaty of Tordesillas.
2. The Future of Magellan – Columbus’s visit may have inspired the young Magellan, influencing his later circumnavigation voyage under Spain’s flag.
3. A Shift in Global Power – Portugal’s dominance in the east and Spain’s newly claimed lands in the west set the stage for global competition in the Age of Exploration.

Columbus’s unexpected arrival in Portugal in 1493 was a pivotal moment, as it alerted the Portuguese monarchy to Spain’s growing ambitions and influenced the territorial agreements that shaped the modern world.

Columbus, after departing Lisbon, and after reportedly being saved from assassins by John II of Portugal, crosses the bar of Saltes and enters the harbor of Palos on March 15, 1493.

The disobedient Pinzon may have hoped to reach home ahead of Columbus, thereby winning royal favor, but Columbus had arrived in Palos a few hours before the Pinta.

Word of his finding new lands rapidly spreads throughout Europe.