Christopher Columbus First Voyage Essay

Christopher Columbus had a great voyage that began August 3, 1492. It is mentioned through extracts from his journal, that the purpose of this voyage was to try to convert the Indians to Christianity, as declared by his King and Queen. Therefore, we get a glimpse into Columbus’ mind and his thoughts on his impression of the natives and what is drawn from that, his insights on the flora and fauna of the islands, to what ends up becoming his own self-serving reasons to have taken this voyage all leading up to the creation of the New World.

He first departs from Palos de la Frontera, Spain commanding three ships the Santa Maria, the Pinta, and the Nina. In this journal, he only describes his first voyage to a couple islands on his way to the New World and describes his sightings. So, when he arrives at

As the sailors thought that when they saw some kind of wildlife or animals, like birds flying around, it meant they were near land. However, this was not always the case. Some flora and fauna Columbus and his crew saw were things like parrots; birds; dories and other fish, as Columbus said “fish that are so dissimilar to ours,… of the finest hues in the world, blue, yellow, red, and every other color, some variegated with a thousand different tints” (Columbus); very green trees, “branches of the bore leaves like those of cane, another branch of the same tree leaves similar to those of lentisk” (Columbus); however, there were no beasts nor any creatures on land, but a boy said to Columbus he did see a large snake. Later on in his voyage they did see dogs, more birds, and flowers. As he said, “my eyes were never tired with viewing such delightful verdure (lush green vegetation) and new and dissimilar species from our country” (Columbus). The last island Columbus said “even exceeds the others in beauty and fertility” (Columbus). Groves of lofty and flourishing trees and large lakes”