Columbus, Christopher ___ 1451-1506 ___ Italian ___ sailor, explorer

BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY
The eldest of five children, Columbus was born in Genoa into a wool weaving family, possibly of Spanish Jewish descent. How he became a sailor is unclear, although it seems he may have worked first as a commercial agent in his home city, a busy port. He may also have been in the service of a pirate for a while. He made his first trading voyage to Khios in the Aegean Sea. On one early voyage, his vessel sank during a battle off the Portuguese coast, and it is thought he swam ashore. He then settled in Portugal, and married, in 1479, the daughter of the governor of the island of Porto Santo, who bore him one son. In the belief that the world was smaller than thought, and round, and that Asia could be reached quickly by sailing west, he petitioned the Portuguese court for funds, only to be rejected. He moved to Spain where his plans were more favourably received. Here, Beatriz Enriquez became his mistress and bore him a second son, Ferdinand Columbus. In 1492, Columbus set off on the first of four famous voyages. On the this first one, he explored the Caribbean islands. On the second, he founded the first European town in the New World; and, on the third, he discovered the mainland of South America. By the time of his fourth and somewhat ill-fated voyage, Columbus had fallen out of royal favour. His journals, which have been translated into English many times, provide a unique record of this famous explorer's voyages, and of his discoveries.
A biography link
Wikipedia bio

DIARY DATES, CONTENT DESCRIPTORS
1492-1493 1498 ___ maritime travel exploration weather nature

WEB TEXT LINKS
long extracts
one quote
about

ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT LINKS
 

SOME PUBLISHED TITLES
The Journal of Christopher Columbus
The Four Voyages of Columbus
 

May 2005, August 2008
Please email if you have any corrections, additions or comments, or if you've found the site useful. Thank you.

IMPORTANT NOTES AND CAUTIONS: 1) The first line of basic information may be incomplete in several ways: some historical figures have different names (titles, pen-names); their birth and death dates may be unknown or uncertain (g - guess, c - circa); similarly, their occupations may be unknown, or they may have had other jobs; and, for early diarists, I've used 'British' a bit too freely. 2) The biographical summary may not be accurate. It was compiled quickly from various sources, mostly on the internet, and the facts were not checked anywhere near as rigorously as they would have been if they'd been intended for publication in a printed form. 3) The journal dates and descriptors (which are in no particular order) must be treated with caution: since I have not examined the diaries myself, the descriptors are only guesses based on bibliographies, anthologies and internet biographies. 4) For the biography and etext links, I have ignored any sites with charges, and I have avoided, wherever possible, those with pop-ups or too much advertising. I have limited myself to providing three etext links where there is some variety between them. 5) For the original manuscript links, I have limited myself to providing a maximum of two (although, for a few diarists, their original diaries are held in more than two places). 6) I have provided the titles - chosen randomly - for up to three printed editions of the diaries.