The Voyages Of Columbus And The Second Voyage Of Hispaniola

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Because Columbus thought that he had found uncharted lands in Japan or maybe China, he asked for the money and help for a second voyage. King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella once again helped him, even though the last trip had been unsuccessful. He had brought some of the natives from one of the islands he visited. For the second voyage, Columbus was sent with a lot more resources and men. He was given over a thousand men to accompany him to the new lands to colonize Hispaniola. There were 17 ships sailing on the second voyage, along with domesticated animals such as pigs and horses (Minster n.d.-b). Not only was this voyage much larger, but it took much less time to get to the islands that Columbus had discovered the year before. Leaving Spain on October 13th, 1492, they spotted land in less than a month on November 3rd (Minster n.d.-b). The first island that Columbus and his crew landed on was not the one that he was sailing to colonize, but one that he named Dominica, but the natives of this island weren’t friendly, so they left quickly, heading to find Hispaniola. Making a few stops along the way, Columbus discovered a few more islands and also ended up in Costa Rica before getting to the island he was going to colonize. When Columbus returned to Hispaniola, he found that the agreement between him and the natives had been terminated. All of his men that had been left behind had been killed by the natives, because they were supposedly mistreating and raping the native women. Columbus went to the northern coast to establish a town he called Isabella. In the process of establishing this town many of his men got sick and perished because of the sicknesses. A group of Columbus’ men tried to leave the island in hopes to return to Spain... ... middle of paper ... ..., in the form of a human and new governor, whom they sent over to the island. Francisco de Bobadilla arrived to calm the situation in the year 1500, with about 500 men and some slaves to be freed in tow (Minster n.d.-c). Columbus and his two brothers, were sent to a dungeon, in chains for the way that they had been trying to run the settlement and were eventually sent back to Spain to face their consequences, although they were only in custody for a few weeks before being freed. In 1502, at the age of 51, Columbus tried again, this time with four ships and part of his family and some of the men from the other voyages (Minster n.d.-d). His two brothers Bartholomew and Diego and his son Fernando accompanied him on this voyage. I think that this was significant because it showed that his family believed in him even though most of the other people around him didn’t.

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