d of four voyages. On his first voyage, Columbus arrived in the Bahamas, then proceeded to Cuba. Having three shipsthe Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Mariathere was a crew of about ninety men. A month after landing in Cuba, the captain of the Pinta left the other two ships without permission in search of his own gold. Columbus continued the exploration with two ships.On Christmas Eve, 1492, the Santa Maria ran aground and sank on a reef outside of Hispaniola. Columbus decided to use the remains of the ship to build a fort on the shore where he would leave behind forty men. The Nina was a small ship and, besides, Columbus thought those men would colonize and convert the Indians.On his second voyage across the Atlantic, Columbus discovered the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico before arriving back at Hispaniola. Upon returning to his fortress, Columbus found that the fort had been burned and that the natives had killed all forty men. According to the chief, the men had kidnapped their women and the men of the tribe retaliated by killing them.Columbus then spent several months exploring Hispaniola, before setting sail for China, which he believed was close by. Instead he found Cuba and Jamaica before ending the second voyage and returning to Spain.On his third voyage, Columbus returned to Hispaniola and the new city of Santo Domingo. Upon arrival, he found that the colonists had staged a revolt because of their displeasure with the amount of gold they had found on the island. The king and queen of Spain had appointed a royal commissioner of Santo Domingo whose influence was even greater than Columbus and he was sent back to Spain in shackles.On his final and most exciting voyage, he brought four old ships and 140 men including his brother and youngest son. At age 51, Columbus was old, sick and no longer welcome in Hispaniola. The purpose of the trip was to find a strait linking the Indies (which Columbus still thought to be part of Asia) with...
