Cristóbal Colón
Second Voyage 1493 - 1496
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| Columbus had no trouble convincing the Spanish King and Queen to finance a second voyage of exploration. On this trip, the fleet was composed of 16 ships and over one thousand men. This was a trip to Colonize the newly discovered islands. Besides all of the people, which included craftsmen, farmers and soldiers, there was some live stock. Columbus still had to rescue the 40 men that he had left behind in La Navidad, on his first voyage. |
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The fleet left the Canary Islands on October 13th, of 1493. On November
3rd, they sighted the island of Dominica, in the West Indies. The fleet
crisscrossed the Caribbean and discovered many islands in the process.
There were so many island, the Columbus named the "Las Mil
Virgenes" (One Thousand Virgins). He arrived in Española on
November 22
Columbus reached La Navidad on November 28th, and found it burned to the ground and all of the men dead. According to a local Indian chief, the men started to fight amongst themselves over gold and women. Some of the men had left and took off on there own. Those remaining, raided an Indian village, and they retaliated and burned La Navidad, and killed the remaining men. Sailing along the coast, he founded a new town, La Isabela. They spent some time at La Isabel, building the town and colonizing Española. Columbus then took three of his ships and continued his voyage of exploration. They sailed north to Cuba. They sailed along the southern coast of Cuba, headed west. From there, he sailed south to island of Jamaica which he heard was rich in gold. After exploring Jamaica, he went back to Española. He continued sailing around Española, convincing himself that it was a island. By September, Columbus was very sick, and returned to La Isabela. |
| On March 10th, 1496, Columbus set sail to Spain. |
Note: The course that is outlined is not the exact course taken by Columbus, but an approximation of it. I just want to give the readers an idea of the general course and the Thousand Virgin Islands discovered by Columbus on his second voyage of discovery. |
