Many of us know the little jingle, "In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue." What many of us may not know is that he sailed the ocean blue on this date, August 3, 1492, in three ships (the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria) for what he thought would be India. The plan was not to sail by way of the normal easterly route but to head west in order to reach the east. Although Columbus clearly had financial motives in setting off on this expedition, he did apparently also have spiritual motives, at least to some degree. For, according to his own record, the king and queen had sent him off with the charge of "converting [the people of India] to our holy faith."
No comments:
Post a Comment