Cristóbal Colón
Third Voyage 1498 - 1500
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| Colón, started his third voyage of exploration in 1498.
He left from the port of Sanlucar in Spain on May 30, 1498. His flotilla
consisting of 6, was split into two groups at the Canary Islands. One
group was sent directly to Española with supplies and the other group,
under his command, went exploring. He wanted to find lands south of the
islands that he had discovered on his earlier trips.
He landed on Trinidad on July 31, 1498 and discovered the mainland of South America on the next day. He landed on the Peninsula of Paria, believing that it was an island, he called it La Isla Santa (Holy Island). For the next couple of days, he explored the land around the cape and gulf of Paria. Believing that the new area consisted of another island, he called it Isla de Gracia. Cruising westward along the coast of Paria for about 150 miles, convinced him that he was not dealing with an island, but with something mush larger, like a continent. From here, he turned north, arriving in Española on August 19, 1498. He now was under the impression that he had discovered two continents. One was Cuba, on the north with its coast extending indefinitely to the west and south, and Paria on the south with its shores extending indefinitely to the west. On October, 1500, he is arrested and sent back to Spain in chains. |
| The object of his fourth voyage would be to discover the narrow water-passage that existed between these two mainland’s, through which allowed the Atlantic Ocean to flowed into the Indian Ocean. Once he discovered this passage, he could sail around the world and get back to Spain by way of the Cape of Good Hope. |
 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 other islands discovered by Columbus on his third voyage of discovery.
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