Columbus Sights the South American Mainland
Columbus sailed from Spain on his third voyage in May 1498 with six ships, three of which he sent directly to Hispaniola while he took the others further south than he had gone before. He crossed at a lower latitude and struck land at an island he named Trinidad for its three peaks. Passing into the Gulf of Paria between it and the mainland, he encountered water that was fresh far out to sea. He reasoned correctly that no island could discharge that volume of fresh water and that he had reached a continent. He had touched South America, at the Orinoco delta, and it was the first European landfall on the American mainland. His explanation of it was not correct. He concluded in a letter to the monarchs that the earth was not spherical but pear-shaped, with a protuberance near the equator, and that he had found the site of the earthly paradise from which the four rivers of Genesis flowed. He then reached Hispaniola to find the colony in revolt. Settlers under Francisco Roldán had rebelled against the rule of Columbus and his brothers, and he bought them off by granting land and forced Taíno labour — the beginning of the repartimiento system. Complaints reaching Spain led the crown to send Francisco de Bobadilla as royal commissioner in 1500 with full powers. Bobadilla arrested all three Columbus brothers and shipped them home in chains. The admiral was released and stripped of his governorship. He was allowed a fourth voyage but never governed again. The chains, according to his son, he kept and asked to be buried with.
- Year: 1498 CE
