August 3, 1492- I finally convinced the King and Queen of Spain to finance my first voyage to India by boat, because it is very dangerous to travel to India on land. I wanted to sail across the ocean, hoping to find a route to India, in order to trade for spices. I was excited to begin my voyage, but was also afraid that I wouldn’t find land and would disappoint the King and the Queen. In order to maintain my voyage I had to be determined to go forward when we had problems. I also had to be brave, organized, and wise.
September 6, 1492- After making port in the Canary Islands for a final restocking of the ships, I set out to sail. I was in command of three ships, the Pinta, the Nina, and the Santa Maria. …show more content…
October 28, 1492- We reached Cuba. I was fascinated with Cuba it was very large and had highlands. We were not greeting in a friendly matter. At first, most of the natives ran and hid. Finally, I sent out two men to talk to some of the men in the village one of the men I sent out, was Luis de Torres, who spoke Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic, and Spanish. I brought Luis along as my interpreter. Luis convinced the natives that we meant no harm. At the village the men saw some of the natives smoking tobacco, and picked up the habit immediately. We stayed here the remainder of October and much of November.
December 5, 1492- I made landfall on the Island of Hispaniola. The people who lived there called it Haiti. I renamed it La Espanola, which was later changed to Hispaniola.
December 25, 1492- The Santa Maria ran aground, and I told my men to abandon the ship. I took over as captain of the Nina. However the Pinta had become separated from the other two ships. We had no Idea where the Pinta was. I had to leave thirty-nine of my men behind in La Navidad because we did not have enough room on the Nina for