Christopher Columbus' journal

Christopher Columbus's journal (Diario) is a diary and logbook written by Christopher Columbus about his first voyage. The journal covers events from 3 August 1492, when Columbus departed from Palos de la Frontera, to 15 March 1493 and includes a prologue addressing the sovereigns. Several contemporary references confirm Columbus kept a journal of his voyage as a daily record of events and as evidence for the Catholic Monarchs. Upon his return to Spain in the spring of 1493, Columbus presented the journal to Isabella I of Castile. She had it copied, retained the original, and gave the copy to Columbus before his second voyage. The whereabouts of the original Spanish text have been unknown since 1504. Copies based on an abstract from the journal have been made, most notably by Bartolomé de las Casas. Since the discovery of the las Casas copy in the late 18th century, scholars have questioned the accuracy of the copy and its fidelity to the original. A number of alternative translations of the journal and bibliographies of Columbus are derived from the las Casas copy. The most commonly sourced works include the University of Oklahoma's The Diario of Christopher Columbus' First Voyage to America 1492–1493, John Cummins' The Voyage of Christopher Columbus: Columbus' Own Journal of Discovery, and Robert Fuson's The Log of Christopher Columbus. Background The story of Christopher Columbus's origins and young life preceding his sea-faring voyages is still largely unknown. Columbus survived the sinking of a Portuguese ship, worked for a merchant, and began mapping with his brother Bartholomew before his marriage to Dona Filipa Moniz Perestrelo in 1478. Columbus was interested in studying geography, philosophy, theology, and history. Columbus lived the life of a wandering traveler through his ocean-oriented profession until 1480. Through inaccurate calculations and estimates, Columbus believed that he could successfully travel west to east in order to open up a new trade route to the East Indies. Initially, Columbus presented his potential trade passage to John II of Portugal, who rejected his request for financial accommodations to support his eastward expedition. Afterwards, Columbus experienced a number of dismissals from presenting his proposal to Venice, Genoa, France, and King Henry VII of England, before reaching Queen Isabella I and King Ferdinand II of Spain in January 1492.