Christopher Columbus

            Christopher Columbus is a man known to all as the pioneer explorer to reach the New World. His discovery, however, as great as it may have been, was only an accident. He was the first to come up with the idea that the earth was round and that if he sailed long enough on way he would not fall of the earth but just end up in the same place. .
             As a child he was not well educated but he made up for it in his later life when he learned to read and write Spanish and Latin. When he was around twenty he was offered his first chance to sail. His job was to take Barbary pirates to the island of Chios in the Aegean Sea. Then he got the job of sailing a ship called the Bechalla from Genoa to England. This trip, unfortunately, was attacked and Columbus was wounded and nearly lost his life. .
             He unsuccessfully tried to convince people that he was right and not crazy and it was not until 1485 when Columbus went to Spain and convinced King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella and they supplied him with the boats and supplies to go on his voyage.
             He was granted three ships. They were called the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria and all together they held about 90 men. They left port on August 3, 1492 and arrived in the New World on October 12 at 2 A.M. He arrived much later then he anticipated due to a major miscalculation in how big the earth was.
             It was while they were discovering this New World they saw Natives for the first time and they were also introduced to Tabacco which they brought back to Europe with them. .
             Their journey home was a very difficult one where the Nina and the Pinta were separated and Columbus came so near to sinking that he sealed up all his notes and threw them overboard. He made it home and he was greeted warmly and given the title of Admiral of the Ocean Sea and he also began to arrange a much bigger fleet which went on his Second voyage and it include about 1000 people.