It is possible to surmise from this that Columbus, the monarchy, or perhaps both didn't believe that the fleet would actually reach the Orient. In his notes there is also an indication of a desire to discover the Antipodes . It is clear that in 1492 Columbus was contemplating a trip in the Atlantic and that he was thinking about Asia. Whether he intended to combine these two ideas in one expedition is uncertain. It is possible that initially his sole purpose was to find some islands and mainland' and to trade. Columbus seems not so much particular about what he proposed to discover as insistent on his determination to discover something' .
The Granada Capitulations signed on 30 April 1492 by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella refers only to the discovery and acquisition of some islands and mainland in the Ocean Sea' . They don't mention Asia or the Chinese Monarch, dealing instead with the status, power and wealth that Columbus would acquire should he discover any islands or other lands. He was literally heading into the unknown and it appears as though neither he nor the monarchy expected him to reach the Indies. .
After his departure, however, it becomes apparent that Columbus's goal was a westward route to the east. This he expresses in his diary; his continual references to Asia cannot leave us in any doubt of what he was expecting to find and what he was expecting to achieve. He describes the vegetation and the people in terms of those from the orient. His desire to find spices as confirmation of his arrival in the Indies leads him to describe the flora in such a way that one would assume that he were describing plants that were actually from Asia . His continual references to the island of Cipangu, which he believed himself to be near when he first encountered the island off Hispaniola in the Caribbean echo the words of Marco Polo, whose references to an island off the coast of China, led Columbus to believe that he could establish a good trading post there in order to initiate a relationship with the Chinese sovereign.
