Christopher Columbus

Hi my name is Reed.  You probably know Christopher Columbus. he was an early settler.  He was born in Genoa, Italy in 1451.  His parents named him after Saint Christopher the protector of travelers.  Having the name Christopher would mean that he was chosen by God to travel the world.  Which he did.  When Christopher was young little did he know where he was going to spread his religion would lead him.  He would be one of the greatest explorers of all time.  When Christopher was maybe about 14, he sailed from Genoa, Italy to other cities.  Some people say that when he was on the sea, pirates attacked his ship.  He swam to shore and found himself in another European country called Portugal.  The best sailors and explorers are in Portugal. He was going to go to the Indies. A lot of people want to go there.  He was going to cross the Atlantic Ocean.  Explorers in the 1400s were going to find patrons which means to find people to pay for their equipment then pay them gold if they find any.  He asked 1 king and queen .  They said no.  Then he went to Spain and that king and queen said yes if he brung back gold.  They ordered three ships to sail with him.  Their names are the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria. The Santa Maria was a kind of ship called nao. It was about 117 feet long.   The Nina and the Pinta were about half the size of that which is about 58.  The Nina and the Pinta were called caravels.  Each ship has a large sail and a small sail for better sailing.  The ships were loaded with guns for self defense.  Christopher brought many different people with him.  Even Chinese people with him.  They had to have an interpreter which is a person who can translate to English.  They also took a doctor, a record keeper, and a scribe which is a person whose job is to copy books by hand, and they have many gromets who are young boys on the ship's crew who cooked and kept track of time.  They kept time by hourglass which is an instrument used to measure time with either sand, mercury, or water.  As soon as Columbus ship left Spain  in August in 1492 the crew began to panic.  The water looked like it stretched on forever.  They were afraid they'd be lost at sea.  Some sailor threatened to kill Christopher if they didn't go back. To calm the sailors he reminded them what the reward was.  They were looking for land the queen would give a prize who found land first.  Soon a sailor shouted "Land! Land!" he saw it  at October 12th, 1992.  As the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria approached land.  They saw that Indians lived there and they were called Arawaks, Columbus  claimed the lad for the king and queen of Spain.  He named it San Salvador.  The area  they were on was now called The West Indies.  When he left San Salvador, he decided to take some Arawaks with him. He thought he could turn some into slaves.   Today we know that people shouldn't be forced to be a slaves or be treated meanly,  Before he sailed home, he wanted to find some more gold.  While they were searching the Santa Maria tore its bottom by a big rock.  The rock is now called Dominican Republic.  Then he built a fort near the shore.  He called it Fort Naridad. Which is a Spanish word for Christmas.  He gave it that name because the shipwreck was on Christmas Eve.  When he returned on his second trip about a year later.  He went to San Salvador he found dead bodies all over the place.  The Spaniards had left in charge of the fort.  The fort had been treated badly.  The Native Americans had rebelled.  Which means  to disobey the people or country in charge.  Have you ever rebelled your parents?  Well back to the story.  In 1504, Christopher was stranded on an island.  The people there would not feed him or his crew.  He tricked the people.  He knew an eclipse was coming.  Which is when the sun covers the moon so its blocks it.  So it looks like the moon had disappeared.  He told the people that God sent the eclipse to eat the moon.  This scared the people into giving them food.  A year later a ship brought them back to Spain.  Christopher was among the first European  to reach the Americans.  Christopher died on May 20, 1506 at home in Spain.