Sailor on Columbus' First Expedition

 Christopher burst through the door. He was full of joy and hugged me. I was confused at first but then I realized that the expedition got approved. We were so excited that we went out for drinks. The ships took a long time to make. We waited for so long and then finally we got to see the ships in all their glory. Christopher favored the Niña with its long deck and small sails. Personally, my favorite was the Pinta because it was not too small as the Nina and it was not as slow as the Santa Maria.

It was the third of August we prepared for the expedition. We boarded on Santa Maria and sailed off into the treacherous waters.

Christopher was a kind man. He helped me with the knots and fix the ships when they were broken. Once in a while Christopher gave me a job to do. Mostly, it was sweeping the deck or fixing the sails.

Sometimes I would get to help him set course and help it with the maps. When that happened I would be overzealous with joy and happiness. It was the twelfth of Ottobre, a crew member from the Pinta called us saying that they spotted land. We got off of the ships looking for gold or silver. Columbus wanted fame and fortune. We did not find any since we did not stay there for long. All the members boarded the ships and started sailing again. There were many things we wanted to bring to the Spanish patrons like spices, gold, silver, pearls, stones, and many more items.

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But, we never found any treasures to bring back home.

Sixteen days later we found land again. According to britannica.com Christopher was having doubts about if the land was Cuba or not. But he decided on the first of Novembre it was though we did not see any cities. One early morning on the fifth of Dicembre we turned back to head southeastward as we did not see any cities before. We were searching to find the city of Zation in China. The next day Christopher gave the Hispaniola a new name. I got out my journal and recorded the name. It was now called La Isla Espanola. Some men settled in the land that we found. The people there were not welcoming to us at first but later we became friends and traded with them. Sadly, around Christmas time the ship Santa Maria wrecked and sank near the Haitian coast and we had to leave those settlers behind.

According to hurricanescience.org Columbus stopped at Hispaniola to send letter back Spain and possibly trade one of his slower ships. While we were at Hispaniola we experienced severe weather. Much serious weather than back at home. There some natives that tried to warn us about the huracans. We did seek shelter by one of the natives when the huracan did come and were so grateful that they helped us. We showed the natives our swords and weaponry. Though, Christopher believed that the people from the places we visited should be enslaved. Christopher thought it would be better if we controlled the natives and make them our servants.

All of us discovered something new over the days at Hispaniola. We saw wildlife, different species of animals that were majestic and beautiful. We saw a whales that could swallow our ships whole, we saw dolphins that ate some of the shipworms on the ships, we saw parrots that talked a lot and we all laughed at them, we saw big and small animals that were just magnificent and exquisite. Though we did cook and eat the animals. I got out my journal and wrote down the animals though I was not a very good artist and had messy handwriting.

It was Gennaio next year. We already reached Asia so Christopher and the others wanted to go home. After the shipwreck and trades we started to head home with the two remaining ships we had. The journey going back was worse than when we started. There were many storms and many times our crew died by the oceans. Then we all got back home to Spain. According to biography.com Columbus gave a somewhat exaggerated report on what they found and it was warmly received from the royal court. The report was a bit much and heighten. Finally, at home we were celebrated, well Christopher was celebrated really. Columbus went on to have many more voyages, some worse than his first and he got into trouble a lot. But, the journey I experienced was very eye-opening and it helped me to stop thinking selfishly and made me see a new way of life. The journey was exciting and the most wonderful to be apart of.