2 Voyage of Columbus. The second voyage of Columbus - briefly. Columbus is looking for a new route to India

Departed from Cadiz on September 25, 1493. Instead of the insignificant flotilla which he had at his disposal in the preceding year, he had seventeen vessels under his command; 1,200 people sailed with him on the second voyage, among which were miners, artisans, and farmers, but hidalgos (representatives of the nobility) were especially numerous. The expedition set off with the goal of not only making new discoveries, but also establishing colonies, getting gold from newly discovered lands, and converting local pagans to Christianity. Columbus took with him his brother Diego and twelve persons of the clergy, among whom was the papal vicar, the Benedictine monk Bernardo Boyle.

Portrait of Christopher Columbus. Artist S. del Piombo, 1519

The whole year of the second trip was devoted to research and new discoveries. Columbus discovered and visited the island of Dominica (November 3, 1493), Guadeloupe and Puerto Rico (during the same month). On November 27, he arrived at Fort Navidad, which he had previously founded in Haiti, and now ravaged by the natives. Alonso Ojeda began to explore the interior of Hispaniola (Haiti), searched for gold there and began to develop mines. Columbus, carried away by curiosity, again sailed along the coast of Cuba; he so wanted to be sure that these were the shores of the Asian continent that he made his sailors swear before the royal notary that it really was not an island, but a continent. If he had time to stock up on enough provisions, he intended to continue sailing along the coast to the Red Sea and return from the second trip to Spain by the Mediterranean Sea, or else to round the southern tip of Africa to amaze the Portuguese with surprise. On his way back he saw Jamaica and finally arrived on September 4, 1494 at Isabella Island.

Everything was in bad shape. The colonists, who belonged to the number of adventurers who were not accustomed to obey their superiors, constantly sent new complaints to Spain. The natives, who were subjected to various forms of violence and forced to work in the mines, rebelled against the conquerors. With the help of Ojeda, Columbus soon restored order there, but this brilliant navigator was such a bad administrator that he incurred general hatred. He was accused of rough treatment, of arrogance, and especially of the fact that he was not a Spaniard, but a Genoese. Fortunately for Columbus, his brother Bartolomeo came to his aid, an energetic, intelligent, brave and very experienced man in everything related to navigation. Columbus appointed him adelantado, that is, a territorial governor, but this governor was also a native of Genoa. Even the persons of the clergy were so frightened by the strange antics of the admiral, who had fallen into religious hypochondria, that they refused to help him. In Spain, only denunciations were received about the incapacity of Columbus and his despotism.

Spanish monarchs Ferdinand And Isabel finally they were forced to send a commissioner to investigate the case (August October 1495); this commissioner, Juan Aguado, became convinced of the miserable condition of the colony, and in this sense wrote his report to the king. Columbus, wishing to prevent the danger that threatened him, decided to go to Spain with Aguado (in March 1496). He could no longer count on the same enthusiastic reception that he received after his return from the first expedition. However, after the second trip, he was kindly received at court. He was again confirmed in all his honorable offices, and he was again granted all the former privileges; he even petitioned for the confirmation of his brother in the rank of "adelantado".

What is E Ink Carta?

E Ink Carta is the latest development of E Ink. This is a display made using "electronic paper" technology. Reading from such a screen is as comfortable as reading from a regular paper page. Compared to the displays of the previous series, it has a lighter substrate and a higher contrast ratio.

E Ink Carta Screen

The latest generation E Ink Carta 6-inch screen has a lighter backing and higher contrast than other screens in its class. It allows you to read in bright sunlight and has a high redraw speed. The absence of flickering backlight and the principle of image formation using the "electronic ink" method make reading comfortable for the eyes.

Screen backlight

MOON Light technology allows you to use the device in dark or poor lighting conditions without harming your eyesight. When using this function, a soft glow of the screen is created, which is optimal for dark rooms.

What is MOON Light?

The MOON Light system uses a reflective light distribution method. The light guide layer is located above the display. Light travels through this layer, reflects towards the screen, is absorbed by the dark elements of the image and reflects off the light elements, then enters the eyes. Feels like light in this case is similar to the reflected light from an external source. Such a backlight is much more comfortable for perception than the backlight of LCD displays.

Format Support

The BOOX software allows you to open files in many different text and image formats. While reading, you can change the font style and size, page layout, as well as bookmark and arbitrarily scale documents.

Built-in dictionaries

Columbus 2 comes preinstalled with English-Russian and Russian-English dictionaries. To view the translation of a word, just select it in the text.

The book comes with a "smart" cover that not only provides reliable screen protection, but also automatically puts the device into sleep mode when closed.

Possibility of reprogramming

The device provides users with the ability to write their own software for this device using the capabilities of the Android 4.2 platform.

Long working time

Low power consumption of the E Ink display and a capacious battery ensure long battery life.

Language Support

ONYX BOOX COLUMBUS 2 is an e-book reader that is part of a series dedicated to great travelers and discoverers. The model has the latest generation E Ink Carta screen and built-in MOON Light backlight system. Suitable for those who plan to use the device primarily for reading and do not need various additional functions. Thanks to the "smart" cover, it can become an ideal travel companion.

Note. Due to the fact that part of the Flash memory is occupied by the system software, the memory available to the user is less than the total memory of the microcircuit.

Portable tablet computer ONYX BOOX Columbus 2 is a personal computer and belongs to the class of technically complex goods in accordance with the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated November 10, 2011 No. 924 Moscow "On approval of the list of technically complex goods".

The device is intended mainly for reading e-books, however, it has a number of additional functions that are determined by the installed software. For example, the current firmware has a file manager as well as other programs.
The device is freely reprogrammable at the request of the user, who can install, remove and create programs.
The device has a battery that provides long battery life.

User guide

System software updates

• Version: 1.8.2-mc 2017-11-20_11-18 8d55b1a
• MD5 checksum:
• Download: software update file (214.447 MB, ZIP file)

Changes

1. Fixed errors in the library when creating collections.
2. Added display of folders in the library.
3. Fixed a bug with changing screensavers.
4. Improved work with files with long names.

Installation

In connection with the transition to the new 1.8.2 kernel, during the installation of the update, a warning about the damage to the application section may appear in the installation selection confirmation window. Please ignore this warning.

1. Go to Settings > About device > System updates >

• Version: 1.8.2-mc 2017-07-31_19-32 9043885
• MD5 checksum:
• Download: software update file (214.379 MB, ZIP file)

Changes

1. New version of the system kernel 1.8.2.
2. The Neo Reader program has been replaced by the Neo Reader 2 program with improved functionality and interface.
3. Updated library. By popular demand, new features have been added (collections, reading progress, etc.) and the interface has been changed.
4. Changes have been made to the OReader program. Added support for fb3 format.
5. Also, at the request of users, new combinations have been added to the settings of the side keys.
6. Fixed a number of other minor bugs.
7. Made a number of other minor changes.

Installation

1. Download the firmware file to your desktop PC.
2. Charge your device battery to at least 50%.
3. Copy the zip file to the device in the root directory of the internal memory via USB cable. Then unplug the cable.
4. Plug in the mains charger.
5. Go to Settings > About device > System updates > Check for memory updates.
6. There will be a question about confirming the desire to update the system. Click "Update".
7. The firmware will start. Lasts about 5 minutes.
8. If the system menu appears during the process, select Reboot now with the scroll buttons and confirm the selection by pressing the Power button.
9. Wait for the user interface to load.
10. Delete the firmware installation file after downloading the reader.
11. After the firmware, it is recommended to reset the settings in the "Personal data" section.

September 25, 1493 17 ships left Cadiz under the command of the legendary traveler and discoverer Christopher Columbus. According to various sources, the second expedition included from 1,500 to 2,500 people, among them were sailors, priests and monks, as well as nobles and courtiers, officials, seduced by the possibility of quick profit on newly discovered lands. The ships carried donkeys and horses, cattle, pigs, crop seeds and vines, which were required to establish a colony.

Unlike the first trip, this time Columbus took a course 10 ° south, caught a tailwind and was able to cross the ocean in a record short time - 20 days. In November, the ships approached the island, which Columbus called the Dominican Republic. The island was discovered on Sunday, and "dominica" is translated from Spanish as "Sunday". The expedition then turned north. Along the way, Columbus discovered and mapped a number of islands, including Santa Cruz, St. Eustatius and St. Kitts, Sabu, Montserrat, Nevis, Guadeloupe, and Antigua. Continuing to keep heading north, he saw a land consisting of forty islands, which were called the Virgin Islands (in the lane from the Spanish "maiden").

At the end of November, the ships moored in Hispaniola (Haiti), where a terrible sight opened up to the eyes of the sailors. The fort, which was built here during the first voyage, was burned down. There were no Europeans left: some were killed by local residents, others drowned while trying to escape by boat. The team built a new fort and went in search of new lands. The expedition rounded Cape Maisi, passed along the southeastern coast of Cuba, reached the island of Jamaica, from where it turned back towards Cuba, reached Cape Cruz, headed west and, having reached 84 ° W, turned back. Having overcome a distance of 1700 km, Columbus did not reach only 100 km to the western tip of Cuba, but was forced to return due to the fact that the sea was pretty shallow, the sailors were dissatisfied, the food was running out. The ships entered the harbor of Cadiz in June 1496.

The result of the second voyage of Columbus was the conquest of Hispaniola and the extermination of local residents, the city of Santo Domingo was founded and appeared on the map, and the optimal sea route to the West Indies was laid. A map of the southern coast of Cuba was drawn up. Among the discoveries are the islands of Puerto Rico, Jamaica, the Lesser Antilles and the Virgin Islands. However, Columbus is confident that his ships are passing through the Western Indies. It is noteworthy that the sea route to India was discovered only in the 16th century. However, the islands that appeared on the map thanks to Columbus, the name "West Indies" stuck.

Despite the fact that the geographical map of that time was significantly enriched with the voyage of Columbus, it was considered unsuccessful. All because little gold was found, and diseases raged in the organized colony of Isabella. In Spain, Columbus was received coldly, he was subsequently deprived of many privileges.

The second flotilla of Columbus already consisted of 17 ships. Flagship - "Maria-Galante" (displacement of two hundred tons). According to various sources, the expedition consisted of 1500-2500 people. There were already not only sailors, but also monks, priests, bureaucrats, noblemen, and courtiers. They brought horses and donkeys, cattle and pigs, vines, seeds of agricultural crops with them to organize a permanent colony.

During the expedition, the complete conquest of Hispaniola was carried out, and the mass extermination of the local population began. The city of Santo Domingo was founded. The most convenient sea route to the West Indies was laid. The Lesser Antilles, the Virgin Islands, the islands of Puerto Rico, Jamaica have been discovered, and the southern coast of Cuba has been explored almost completely. At the same time, Columbus continues to claim that he is in Western India.

Timeline of travel:

• § September 25, 1493 - the expedition left Cadiz. In the Canary Islands they took sugar cane and dogs specially trained to hunt people. The course ran about 10° southerly than the first time. Later, all ships from Europe to "Western India" began to use this route.
• § With a successful tailwind, the journey took only 20 days, and already on November 3, 1493, an island from the Lesser Antilles ridge, called Dominica, was discovered.
• § November 4 - the expedition arrived at the largest of the local islands, called Guadeloupe. The open islands were inhabited by the Caribs, who made raids on the islands of peaceful Arawaks on large canoes. Their weapons were bows and arrows tipped with fragments of tortoiseshell or serrated fish bones.
• § November 11 - the islands of Montserrat, Antigua, Nevis are discovered.
• § November 13 - the first armed clash with the Caribs took place off the island of Santa Cruz.
• November 15 - An archipelago is discovered north of Santa Cruz, which Columbus called the "Islands of Eleven Thousand Maidens" - now they are called the Virgin Islands. Having bypassed the archipelago on both sides, the ships of the flotilla united three days later at the western end of the ridge.
• § November 19 - The Spaniards landed on the west coast of a large island, which Columbus named San Juan Bautista. Since the 16th century, it has been called Puerto Rico.
• § November 27 - the flotilla approached the one built during the first expedition to about. Haiti fort La Navidad, but on the shore the Spaniards found only traces of a fire and corpses.
• § January 1494 - A city is built to the east of the burned fort, La Isabella in honor of Queen Isabella. Many Spaniards were struck by the yellow fever epidemic. A detachment sent to reconnaissance inland found gold in the river sand in the mountainous region of the Cordillera Central.
• § March 1494 - Columbus made a trip into the interior of the island. Meanwhile, in La Isabella, due to the heat, most of the food has deteriorated, and Columbus decided to leave only 5 ships and about 500 people on the island, and send the rest to Spain. With them, he conveyed to the king and queen that he had found rich deposits of gold, and asked to send cattle, food supplies and agricultural tools, offering to pay for them with slaves from among the local residents.
• § April 24, 1494 - Leaving a garrison at La Isabella under the command of his younger brother Diego, Columbus led three small ships west along the southeast coast of Cuba.
• § May 1 - Narrow and deep bay discovered (modern city with Guantanamo bay). Further to the west are the Sierra Maestra mountains. From here, Columbus turned south.
• § May 5 - Jamaica is discovered (Columbus named it Santiago).
• § May 14 - having passed along the northern coast of Jamaica and not finding gold, Columbus returned to Cuba. The next 25 days the ships moved through small islands along the southern coast of the island.
• § June 12 - having traveled almost 1700 km along the southern coast of Cuba and not having reached only 100 km to the western tip of the island, Columbus decided to turn around, because the sea was very shallow, the sailors were dissatisfied, and provisions were running out. Before that, in order to protect himself from accusations of cowardice that could follow in Spain, he demanded that the entire team swear that Cuba is part of the continent, and therefore there is no point in sailing further. Turning back, the flotilla discovered the island of Evangelista (later named Pinos, and since 1979 - Juventud).
• § June 25 - September 29 - on the way back rounded Jamaica from the west and south, passed along the southern coast of Hispaniola and returned to La Isabella. By this time, Columbus was already quite seriously ill.
• § In the past five months, Columbus's second brother, Bartolome, brought three ships from Spain with troops and supplies. A group of Spaniards captured them and fled home. The rest scattered around the island, robbing and raping the natives. They resisted and killed part of the Spaniards. After returning, Christopher was ill for five months, and when he recovered, in March 1495 he organized the conquest of Hispaniola by a detachment of two hundred soldiers. The natives were almost unarmed, and Columbus used against them cavalry and specially trained dogs brought with him. After nine months of this persecution, the island was conquered. The Indians were taxed, enslaved in the gold mines and plantations. The Indians fled from the villages to the mountains, dying from unknown diseases brought by colonists from Europe. Meanwhile, the colonists moved to the southern coast of the island, where in 1496 Bartolome Columbus founded the city of Santo Domingo, the future center of Hispaniola, and later the capital of the Dominican Republic.
• § Meanwhile, the Spanish royal couple, having discovered that the income from Hispaniola (some gold, copper, valuable wood and several hundred slaves sent to Spain by Columbus) was insignificant, allowed all Castilian subjects to move to new lands, paying off the treasury in gold.
• § April 10, 1495 - The Spanish government broke off relations with Columbus, and Amerigo Vespucci acquired the right to supply India until May 1498. January 12, 1496 Vespucci receives 10,000 maravedis from the treasurer Pinelo to pay the wages of sailors. In fact, he contracted to supply in Andalusia one (if not two) expeditions in India, in particular the third expedition of Columbus. The success of the Columbus enterprise inspired Amerigo with the idea of ​​​​leaving the trading business in order to get acquainted with the newly discovered part of the world.
• On June 11, 1496, Christopher Columbus returned to Spain to assert his earlier rights. He provided a document according to which he really reached the Asian continent, stated that in the center of Hispaniola he discovered the wonderful country of Ophir, where gold was once mined for the biblical King Solomon. In addition, Columbus proposed sending not free settlers, but criminals, to new lands, reducing their sentence by half.

Erdinand and Isabella confirmed all the rights and privileges promised to the Genoese in 1492. In an instruction dated May 29, 1493, Don Cristoval Colon is called admiral, viceroy and ruler of the open islands and the mainland. A new flotilla of 17 vessels was immediately equipped, including three large ships; on the largest (200 tons), "Maria Galante", Columbus raised the admiral's flag. Horses and donkeys, cattle and pigs, vines of various varieties, seeds of various agricultural crops were loaded onto the ships: no one saw either livestock or European cultivated plants among the Indians, and it was supposed to organize a colony on Hispaniola. With Columbus, a small group of courtiers and about 200 hidalgos left idle after the end of the war with the Arabs, dozens of officials, six monks and priests went to seek their fortune in new places. According to various sources, there were 1.5–2.5 thousand people on the ships. On September 25, 1493, the second expedition of Columbus left Cadiz. In the Canary Islands they took sugar cane and, following the example of the Portuguese, huge dogs specially trained to hunt people.

From the Canary Islands, Columbus headed southwest: the inhabitants of Hispaniola indicated that to the southeast of them there are “lands of the Caribs, eaters of people”, and “islands of husbandless women”, where there is a lot of gold. The path of the ships ran approximately 10 ° south than during the first voyage. The course was taken exceptionally well: Columbus caught a fair wind - the northeast trade wind and crossed the ocean in 20 days. Vessels coming from Europe to the "Western Indies" began to use this route. On November 3, a mountainous, forested island appeared. The discovery happened on a Sunday (Spanish for "dominica"), and Columbus named it that. There was no convenient harbor there, and the admiral turned north, where he noticed a small low-lying island (Marie-Galante), on which he landed. Other islands were visible nearby. On November 4, Columbus headed for the largest of them, named Guadeloupe. The Spaniards spent eight days there, disembarked many times, examined the villages, and entered the dwellings. “In the houses we found a lot of human bones and skulls, hung like dishes, for various needs. We saw few men here: as the women explained to us, most of them left in dozens of canoes to rob ... islands. These people seemed to us more developed than the inhabitants of other islands... Although they have thatched dwellings, they are better built... they have more utensils... They have a lot of cotton... so good that they are in no way inferior to our Castilian ones. From a letter from the doctor of the second expedition, Diego Alvarez Chanca.

According to the captives, Caribs lived on all three newly discovered islands. They raided the islands of peaceful, almost unarmed Arawaks, making long crossings on large canoes-one-trees. Their weapons were bows and arrows tipped with fragments of tortoiseshell or "of serrated fish bones, like sharp saws." “Making raids ... - writes D. Chanka, - Caribs take with them women, as many as they can capture, in order to cohabit with them ... or keep them in service. Women ... so many that in 50 houses we saw only Indian women ... Thus, the rumor about the "Islands of unmarried women" was clarified, which Columbus believed, as he read about them from Marco Polo and later authors who described voyages in the "Indian Sea". These women say that the Caribs ... the children born to these women ... devour, and bring up only those who are accustomed by Carib wives. They take captive men to their villages and eat them there, and in the same way they do with the dead. The word "Carib", distorted by the Spaniards into "cannibal", soon became equivalent to the word "cannibal". The accusation of cannibalism by the Caribs, as can be seen from the "diary" of Columbus and Chanka's letter, was based on the words of the inhabitants of Hispaniola and captives from the Lesser Antilles, and seemed to be confirmed by the finds in the Caribbean dwellings of human skulls and bones. However, D. Chanka himself soon doubted that this was evidence of cannibalism - the skulls were in the dwellings of peaceful Arawaks: “We found on Hispaniola in a basket woven very beautifully and carefully, a well-preserved human head. We decided that this was the head of a father, mother, or another person whose memory is greatly revered here. Subsequently, I heard that a great many such heads were found, and therefore I believe that we correctly judge this.

As for the testimony of the Arawaks who suffered from the Carib raids, even some bourgeois historians and ethnographers of the 19th century. did not consider such evidence worthy of unconditional trust. They emphasized that the colonialists deliberately exaggerated the "bloodthirstiness" of the Caribs in their reports in order to justify the mass conversion into slavery or the extermination of the inhabitants of the Lesser Antilles. Soviet ethnographers admit that the Caribs, like other peoples, during the period of transition from matriarchy to patriarchy, there was cannibalism as a military custom: they believed that the courage, strength, speed and other military prowess of the enemy would pass to the one who would eat his heart or muscles of the arms and legs.

From Guadeloupe, Columbus moved northwest, discovering one island after another: November 11 - Montserrat, Antigua (the Spaniards did not land there) and Nevis, where ships anchored; November 12 - St. Kitts, St. Eustatius and Saba, and November 13 - Santa Cruz (in the west), where cultivated fields were visible. Hoping to get a guide here to other islands and Hispaniola, Columbus sent a boat with armed men the next day to the coastal village, who captured several women and boys (prisoners of the Caribbean), but on the way back the boat collided with a Caribbean boat. The Caribs were numb with surprise when they saw large ships in the sea, and at that time the boat cut them off from the coast. “Seeing that they would not be able to escape, the Caribs with great courage pulled their bows, and the women did not lag behind the men ... there were only six of them - four men and two women - against twenty-five of ours. They wounded two sailors ... And they would have hit most of our people with arrows if our boat had not come close to the canoe and capsized it ...

They started swimming and wading - it was shallow in this place - and ... continued to shoot from their bows ... They managed to take one, mortally wounding him with a blow of a spear ”(D. Chanka). It was, apparently, a people who knew how to fight and defend their freedom from invaders.

On the morning of November 15, “a land consisting of forty or even more islets, mountainous and for the most part barren” opened up in the north. Columbus named this archipelago the "Isles of Eleven Thousand Maidens". Since that time they are called Virgin. The “Maiden Islands” were named so by Columbus because they dot the sea with a long line, reminiscent of the procession of “Eleven Thousand Virgins” (E. Reclus). According to legend, the virgins who made the pilgrimage from Cornwall to Nimes were killed on the way back by the Huns, who were besieging Cologne. For three days, small ships of the flotilla went around the northern islands of the archipelago, and large ships - the southern ones. They joined at Fr. Vieques, to the west of which a large land has opened up. The Indians taken on Guadeloupe declared that they were from there, that it was Boriquen, which was often raided by the Caribs. All day (November 19) the flotilla moved along the mountainous southern coast of "a very beautiful and, it seems, very fertile island." The Spaniards landed on the west coast at 18 ° 17 "N, where they saw a lot of people, but they fled. Columbus called it San Juan Bautista (from the 16th century Puerto Rico - "Rich Harbor").

Before reaching Fort Navidad, the sailors landed on the coast of Hispaniola to draw water and found four decomposed corpses with ropes around their necks and legs. One of the dead was bearded, therefore European. The flotilla approached the fort on the night of November 27 and gave a signal with two cannon shots - there was no answer. At dawn, Columbus himself went ashore, but found neither a fort nor people - only traces of a fire and corpses. It was not possible to find out the circumstances of the death of the Spaniards, but, undoubtedly, they were guilty of robberies and violence. The Indians said that each colonist acquired several wives, strife began, most of them went inside the island and were killed by the local cacique (tribal leader), who then destroyed and burned Navidad. The defenders of the fort, fleeing by boat, drowned.

Columbus built a city to the east of the burned fort and named it Isabella (January 1494). A new enemy appeared there - yellow fever: "most of the people were stricken with an ailment." For reconnaissance inland, the admiral sent a small detachment under the command of Alonso Ojeda. A few days later he returned with the news that the inner parts of the island were densely populated by peaceful Indians and that there were rich gold placers: he brought samples of river sand with a significant content of gold, which he found in the river valley. Yaque del Norte, at the foot of the Cibao Mountains (Cordillera Central). In search of gold on March 12-29, Columbus made a trip inside about. Haiti, and crossed Mt. Cordillera Central (up to 3175 m, the highest point of the Antilles). Bad news awaited him in Isabella: most of the food supplies had gone bad due to the humid tropical heat. Famine was approaching - it was necessary to reduce the number of eaters - and the admiral decided to leave only five ships and about 500 people on Hispaniola. The rest, on 12 ships, he sent to Spain under the command of Antonio Torres with a "Memorandum" to be given to the king and queen.

Columbus reported that he had found deposits of gold, greatly exaggerating their wealth, as well as "signs and traces of all kinds of spices." He asked to send cattle, food supplies and agricultural implements, offered to cover the costs with slaves, whom he undertook to deliver in large numbers, realizing that it was impossible to pay for goods for the colony with hopes of gold and spices alone. “Memorandum” is a heavy accusatory document against Columbus, characterizing him as the initiator of the mass conversion of Indians into slavery, as a hypocrite and a hypocrite: “... Concern for the good for the souls of cannibals and the inhabitants of Hispaniola led to the idea that the more they were brought to Castile , the better it will be for them ... Their Highnesses will deign to give permission and the right to a sufficient number of caravels to come here every year and bring cattle, food and everything ... necessary for settling the region and cultivating fields ... Payment ... can be made by slaves from among the cannibals, cruel people ... well-built and very smart. We are sure that they can become the best slaves, but they will cease to be inhuman as soon as they find themselves outside the borders of their country. Karl Marx remarks on this: Robbery and robbery- the only goal of the Spanish adventurers in America, as also shown by the reports of Columbus to the Spanish court]. [Reports of Columbus characterize him as a pirate]; ... [The slave trade as a basis!]". Archive of Marx and Engels, 1940, vol. VII, p. 100.

placing a strong garrison in Isabella under the command of his younger brother Diego, on April 24, 1494, the admiral led three small ships to the west "to open the mainland of the Indies." Rounding Cape Maisi, he moved along the southeastern coast of Cuba and on May 1 discovered a narrow and deep bay, which he called Puerto Grande (modern Guantanamo Bay). Further to the west, the coast became more and more mountainous. “The most wonderful bays and high mountains opened before him every hour ...” It was the Sierra Maestra with the Turquino peak (1974 m), the highest peak in Cuba. Here he turned south: according to the instructions of the Indians, "not far [in the south] lies the island of Jamaica, where there is a lot of gold ..." (wrote B. Las Casas). This island appeared on May 5th. Columbus named him Santiago. Naked Indians, “painted in different colors, but mostly black”, with feather headdresses, approached the ships on canoes without fear, trying to prevent the landing. Columbus ordered to shoot at them with crossbows. “After six or seven Indians were wounded, they considered it good to stop resisting ...” and many canoes approached the ships. “The Indians brought food supplies and everything else that they owned, and willingly gave what they brought with them ... for any thing ...”

The admiral passed along the northern coast of Jamaica to 78° W. e. On the island there was "neither gold nor other metals, although in all other respects it seemed like a paradise," and on May 14 Columbus returned to Cuba, to Cape Cruz. “The sea was shallow - they entered the shallow bay of Guacanaybo. Columbus carefully moved to the west, and a strange archipelago opened up in front of him: the farther, the more often small and low islands were encountered on the way. The closer to the coast of Cuba, the friendlier and greener they seemed. The Admiral named them Jardines de la Reina ("Gardens of the Queen"). Columbus sailed west for 25 days in this labyrinth of islands. Every evening, with a stormy wind, there was a downpour with a thunderstorm. Sailors sometimes did not close their eyes for a whole day. More than once the keel of the ship scraped the bottom. Soon the mountains appeared - the Sierra del Escambray. Moving along the steep coast to the west, the admiral missed the narrow entrance to the bay, where the port of Senfuegos later grew, but explored the Bay of Cochinos (“Bay of Pigs” - here in 1961 Cuban emigrant counter-revolutionaries landed and were defeated). Then the ships ended up in a shallow water area - Batabano Bay, which intrigued the Spaniards: the water in it, from the movement of the waves, became either white, like milk, or black, like ink. The reason for this phenomenon was established much later: the bottom of the bay is composed of white marl and black sand, and the waves raise either white or black “dregs”. The mangroves along the shores of the bay were, according to Columbus, "so dense that even a cat could not reach the shore." On May 27, ships passed the western tip of the swampy Zapata Peninsula, and on June 3, the Spaniards landed on the swampy northern shore of Batabano Bay (at 82 ° 30 "W).

To the west (at 84° W) the sea became very shallow, and Columbus decided to return: the ships were leaking, the sailors were grumbling, provisions were running out. On June 12, 1494, under oath, from almost every member of the crew, he received evidence that Cuba was part of the continent and, therefore, it was useless to sail further: islands of such a length could not exist. In reality, the admiral was almost 100 km from Cape San Antonio, the western tip of about. Cuba. The total length of the southern Cuban coast he discovered was about 1,700 km. Turning east, Columbus discovered a large about. Evangelista (Pinos, 3056 km²) Since 1979, the island has been called Huventud. and stood there for about two weeks to give rest to the people. From June 25 to July 18, she sailed southeast across the same island-strewn sea towards Cape Cruz. "At the same time, he was especially annoyed by the showers that fell on the ships every evening." After resting at Cape Cruz, he tried to go straight to Hispaniola, but due to contrary winds, he was forced to return to Jamaica on July 22. He circled from the west and south “this green, beautiful and happy land ... Countless canoes followed the ships, and the Indians served the Christians, giving them food, as if the aliens were their own fathers ... However, every evening storms and showers pestered the crews of the ships ". Fortunately, good weather set in on August 19, and the next day Columbus crossed the Jamaica Channel and approached the southwestern ledge of Hispaniola. For 40 days he explored the coast of this island, which had not yet been visited by the Spaniards, and only on September 29 returned to the city of Isabella, exhausted and seriously ill. He was ill for five months.

During the admiral's absence, his brother Bartolome Columbus brought three ships from Spain with troops and supplies. A group of Spaniards secretly seized these ships and fled to their homeland. Detachments of newly arrived soldiers scattered around the island, plundered and raped; some of them were killed by the Indians. In this regard, Columbus undertook the conquest of Hispaniola in March 1495, bringing out 200 soldiers, 20 horses and the same number of dogs. The Indians had a numerical superiority, but the most primitive weapons, and they did not know how to fight, attacked in droves. Columbus acted in small detachments, choosing areas for battle where cavalry could deploy. The horsemen ran into dense crowds of Indians, trampling them with the hooves of their horses. But the unfortunate dogs that took an active part in hostilities were especially frightened. The persecution lasted nine months, and Hispaniola was almost completely conquered. Columbus imposed an unbearable tribute on the Indians - gold or cotton. They left the villages, went deep into the island, into the mountains, tens of thousands died from diseases that the conquerors brought with them. Who could not hide - became a slave on plantations or gold mines. Due to the yellow fever epidemic, the colonists left the northern coast of Hispaniola and moved to the southern, healthier one. Here, in 1496, Bartolome Columbus founded the city of Santo Domingo, which became the political and economic center of Hispaniola, the oldest European settlement in America.

Meanwhile, Columbus sent to Spain some gold, copper, valuable wood and several hundred Indian slaves, but Isabella suspended their sale until the advice of priests and lawyers. The income from Hispaniola turned out to be insignificant compared to the costs of the expedition - and the kings violated the agreement with Columbus. In 1495, a decree was issued allowing all Castilian subjects to move to new lands if they contribute two-thirds of the gold mined to the treasury; the government was obliged only to supply the settlers with food for a year. The same decree allowed any entrepreneur to equip ships for new discoveries in the west and for gold mining (with the exception of Hispaniola). The alarmed Columbus on June 11, 1496 returned to Spain in person to defend his rights. He brought a document stating that he had reached the Asian continent, for which he assumed, or pretended to accept, Fr. Cuba. He claimed to have found the wonderful country of Ophir in the center of Hispaniola, from where the biblical king Solomon received gold. He again charmed the kings with speeches and obtained a promise that no one but himself and his sons would receive permission to open lands in the west. But free settlers cost the treasury very dearly - and Columbus offered to populate his "earthly paradise" with criminals - for the sake of cheapness. And by. By royal decree, the Spanish courts began to exile criminals to Hispaniola, reducing their sentences by half.

In the second expedition, as, indeed, in the first one, Columbus showed himself to be an outstanding navigator and naval commander: for the first time in the history of navigation, a large unit of different types of ships crossed the Atlantic without loss and passed through the maze of the Lesser Antilles, replete with shoals and reefs, without even having map hint.

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