Christopher Columbus

I was born in Genoa and made my living at sea before Castile knew my name. I studied portolan charts and Atlantic winds, sailed for Portugal, and fixed my mind on a westward passage to the Indies. When Portugal refused, I went to their rivals. In 1492, by the Capitulaciones de Santa Fe, the Catholic Monarchs named me Admiral of the Ocean Sea and sent me to prove what I had long measured in thought.

With Niña, Pinta, and Santa María I stood down to the Canaries, then rode the trades into waters where even the compass wavered. I kept one reckoning to soothe the crew and another for myself. On 12 October 1492 we made land at an island I called San Salvador, then coasted Cuba and Hispaniola. The Santa María broke on Christmas; from her bones we raised La Navidad and I left men there to hold the place.

I returned with seventeen ships, founded La Isabela, and governed under demands for tribute and labor. Gold was scarce, tempers quick, and my rule was judged severe; in 1500 I was arrested and sent to Spain in chains. In 1498 I felt the Orinoco freshen the sea and still insisted it was Asia; in 1502–1504 I traced the coast from Honduras to Panama, marooned in Jamaica and bargaining with a lunar eclipse. I died in 1506, unconvinced of a new world.