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Description

Beautiful Pencil Sketch of Columbus' First Expedition

The map shows the Caribbean, with Spanish flags on Cuba and Hispaniola, today the island that houses the Dominican Republic and Haiti. To the right is an inset of the Atlantic with Columbus' track laid out. The sketch is adorned beautifully, and with considerable skill.

A decorative border surrounds the map. Rhumb lines criss-cross the Caribbean, connected to elaborate compass roses that remind one of the portolan charts of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Small drawings are tucked into the map, including an archer, ships, and sea monsters. To the left is a round inset of Columbus' three ships, the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa María. To the right is another round inset, this time showing Columbus, Pinzón, who accompanied him on the voyage, and one other explorer. Finally, gothic script runs along the top and bottom of the sketch, explaining the focus of the image.

Columbus, having convinced King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain to sponsor his explorations, set sail on August 3, 1492. He was in search of the riches of the East Indies and China, places he calculated could be reached by sailing west around the curve of the earth. First, he stocked at the Canary Islands and then struck out across the Atlantic.

On October 12 of that year, a sailor of the Pinta sighted land, an island in the Bahamas archipelago. After exploring the Bahamas a bit, the ships continued on and landed on what is now Cuba, making the first contact by Europeans with American indigenous peoples. Next, the ships landed at Hispaniola. Early in 1493, the Pinta and Niña set out for Spain, the Santa María having run aground. This journey is chronicled in the tracks of this map, as well as with the flags marking Columbus' two most significant land encounters on this voyage.