while today is technically fall break, we did an impromptu history study of christopher columbus. i can vividly remember the image of him that i created in my imagination as a kid. a finely dressed, aristocratic sort with expertly honed leadership skills, his hair blowing in the wind, as he stood at the bow of his ship, scouting for the first sight of the new world. the "in fourteen hundred ninety-two, columbus sailed the ocean blue" columbus.
as an adult, i have conjured up a completely different version of him. he was the captain of santa maria (the only one of the three ships that wrecked). the captain of the pinta, martin alonso pinzon, sailed off on his own back to spain (starting to wonder about chris' leadership ability) and martin's brother, vincente yanez pinzon, had to stomach columbus the entire way back to portugal. there even seems to be some controversy surrounding how the pinzons, financially astute men, acquired their wealth. sketchy. it is even reported that columbus murdered martin upon their return to spain. seems miss taylor left that part out in the second grade.
he was 41 when he set off on his first voyage, which lasted 7 months long. he made 3 other voyages that lasted about 2 and a half years each. christopher columbus died 2 years after his final voyage and is buried in present day Dominican Republic.
there you go. your very own impromptu history lesson for today.
3 comments:
Add that he wasn't the first one to land here, and our entire country's founding moment goes up in smoke! Chinese landed here first, I've learned. The ships the Chinese made were INCREDIBLE. So beautiful. Look em up, I'm sure Ethan would get a kick.
Correction to the history lesson... Chris is buried in a Cathedral in Sevilla, Spain. I visited his burial place when I was there in May. He is in the third largest Cathedral in the world, right across from an old Spanish palace the explorers would return to after their voyages to bring Isabella and Ferdinand their spoils as well as plan their future expeditions. He is buried in a monument inside the church that is a statue of four kings carrying his casket. Happy Columbus Day!
Kim, I stand corrected! I'll share with the kidlets just how smart their "Pim" really is. I was kind of wondering who took his body back to the D.R. Mystery solved!
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