Christopher Columbus
... inaccurate event found in Christopher Columbus journal was when he arrived in the island of Hispaniola in 1508. Christopher Columbus writes “there were sixty thousand people living in the island including the Indians.” (Zinn 7) He goes on to say “Over a period of fourteen years, over three million people had perished from war, slavery, and the mines.” (Zinn 7) This statement became a clash point between Christopher Columbus and modern historians. Modern historians believe that there were “about two hundred and fifty thousand Indians in the island.” (Zinn 7) It looks like that the answer to this question, we as researches, historians, students, anthropologists, and normal people would never now. Christopher Columbus was determined to acquire wealth, treasures, gold, at any cost and nothing was going to stop him. First, Christopher Columbus held the Indians captive. As soon as Christopher Columbus arrived in the island, he was greeted by the Arawak Indians. “The Arawak Indians had tiny gold ornaments in their ears.” (Zinn 3) Columbus and his crew of sailors took the Arawak Indians aboard the ship as prisoners by force hoping that the Arawak Indians would take Christopher Columbus and his crew of sailors to where the source of the gold. Secondly, Christopher Columbus is capable of jeopardizing the lives of his co-workers for wealth. In Hispaniola, there were bits of visible gold in the rivers. He built a fort in the island of Hispaniola and left thirty-nine crew members there with specific instructions “to find and store the gold.” (Zinn 3) He later found out when he went back to get the gold and the crew members that every crew member was killed by the natives. Third, Christopher Columbus was capable of telling lies to get to the riches. In the court in Madrid, Spain, “he asked for some help from the majesties and in return, he would bring as much gold as they needed.” (Zinn 3) By making a promise like that, he knew they were going to ask for a lot of gold. Christopher Columbus knew that he wasn’t going to be able to bring back an abundance of gold. Because of his Columbus’s promise, he was given seventeen ships and over twelve hundred men. Did Christopher Columbus think that with more ships and crew members he would bring more gold? Christopher Columbus had analyzed the situation inaccurately. The reality that he was definitely facing at the time is that thirty-nine crew members of his died in search of the gold. Christopher Columbus also lied when he said that he sighted the island in the Bahamas first. “A sailor called Rodrigo saw the early morning moon shining on white sands, and cried out. It was the island in the Bahamas, the Caribbean Sea. The first man to sight land was supposed to get a yearly pension of ten thousand maravedis for life.” (Zinn 2) Rodrigo never got the pension. Columbus said that he saw the island an evening before so therefore he got the reward. (Zinn 2) Christopher Columbus’s attitudes, lies, and suspicious ways of dealing with the situations he was put in, gained wealth for things that he did not do. Zinn could’ve added this passage to clarify an event as detailed as possible to show that he did not see the island first and that the reward should have gone to Rodrigo. Fourth, Christopher Columbus was capable to kill innocent people to get to riches. In the province of Cicao in Haiti, where Columbus and his sailors imagined that huge gold fields would exist, “they ordered all persons fourteen years of age and older to collect a certain quantity of gold every three months. When they brought the gold, they were given a copper tokens to hang around their necks. Indians found without the copper token, had their hands cut off and bled to death.” (Zinn 4) Columbus had given an impossible task for the natives. “The only gold around was bits of dusts garnered from the streams.” (Zinn 4) Indians, seeing that this was an impossible task to accomplish, ran away. Columbus and his men hunted them down and killed them. When the Spaniards took the Indians prisoners, they would hang t...