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- BIOGRAPHY
Aged fourteen he went to sea, fought with Tunisian galleys and, about 1470, was shipwrecked in a fight off Cape St.Vincent, but reached the shores of Portugal on a plank. In Lisbon he married Filippa Moniz. As early as 1474 he had conceived the design of reaching India by sailing westward---a design in which he was encouraged by the Florentine astronomer, Toscanelli; in 1477 he 'sailed 100 leagues beyond Thule', probably to or beyond Iceland; and also, having visited the Cape Verde Islands and Sierra Leone, he began to seek a patron for his intended expedition.
He applied to Joao II, King of Portugal; later by letters to Henry VII of England; then to the powerful Duke of Medina Celi, who referred him to Isabella the Catholic, Queen of Castile. After an adverse judgment from a board of advisers, mainly ecclesiastics, his plans were rejected, but afterwards reconsidered. Finally, after seven years of alternate encouragement and repulse, they were accepted by Ferdinand and Isabella in April 1492.
On Friday, 3 August 1492, Columbus set sail from the bar of Saltes, an island near Palos, in command of the small 'Santa Maria' with fifty men and the 'Nina', the whole squadron comprising only 120 adventurers. He first made the Canary Islands and, though he found it hard to keep up the courage and patience of his crews, new land was decried on Friday, 12 October 1492, now believed to have been Watling's Island in the Bahamas.
He then visited Cuba and Hispaniola (Haiti), planted a small colony, and set sail with his two caravels. After an exceedingly tempestuous voyage, on 15 March 1493 he re-entered the port of Palos and was received with the highest honours by the court. On 25 September 1493 he sailed on his second voyage with three carracks and seventeen small caravels and, on 3 November, sighted Dominica in the West Indies. In 1496, after a succession of wretched quarrels with his associates and a long and desperate illness in Hispaniola, he returned to Spain much dejected.
His third voyage, begun in 1498, resulted in the discovery of the South American mainland. In 1500 Columbus and his brother were sent home in irons by a newly appointed royal governor. However, the king and queen repudiated this action and restored Columbus to favour.
His last great voyage, from 1502 till 1504, along the south side of the Gulf of Mexico, was accomplished in the midst of great hardships and many distresses, Spanish jealousy of the foreigner working against him at sea no less than at court.
He died at Valladolid in Spain and was buried in a monastery near Seville, whence in 1536 his remains and those of his son Diego were removed to Santo Domingo in Hispaniola. In 1796 they were said to have been transferred to the cathedral at Havanna; then, in 1899, brought to Spain where, in 1902, they were deposited in the Cathedral of Seville. From Chambers's Biographical Dictionary.
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