page_title: Voyages of Christopher Columbus
section_title: Third voyage (1498–1500)
hierarchical_section_title: Voyages of Christopher Columbus / Voyages and events / Third voyage (1498–1500)
caption_attribution_description: English: Map of the third voyage of Christopher Columbus, 1498-1500.Español: Mapa del tercer viaje de Cristóbal Colón, 1498-1500.
context_page_description: In 1492, a Spanish-based transatlantic maritime expedition led by Italian explorer Christopher Columbus encountered the Americas, continents which were virtually unknown to and outside of the Old World political and economic system. The four voyages of Columbus led to the widespread knowledge that a continent existed west of Europe and east of Asia. This breakthrough in geographical knowledge inaugurated a period of exploration, conquest, colonization, biological exchange, and trans-Atlantic trade, whose effects and consequences persist to the present, and are sometimes cited as the start of the modern era.
  Columbus was an Italian-born navigator sailing for the Crown of Castile in search of a westward route to the Indies, the vaguely rumored East Asian sources of spices and other precious oriental goods obtainable only through arduous overland routes. Although he did not realize it, this search failed when he encountered the New World between Europe and Asia. Columbus made a total of four voyages to the Americas between 1492 and 1502.
context_section_description: According to the abstract of Columbus's journal made by Bartolomé de Las Casas, the objective of the third voyage was to verify the existence of a continent that King John II of Portugal suggested was located to the southwest of the Cape Verde islands. King John reportedly knew of the existence of such a mainland because "canoes had been found which set out from the coast of Guinea [West Africa] and sailed to the west with merchandise."
  On 30 May 1498, Columbus left with six ships from Sanlúcar, Spain, for his third trip to the New World. Three of the ships headed directly for Hispaniola with much-needed supplies, while Columbus took the other three in an exploration of what might lie to the south of the Caribbean islands he had already visited, including a hoped-for passage to continental Asia.
  Columbus led his fleet to the Portuguese island of Porto Santo, his wife's native land. He then sailed to Madeira and spent some time there with the Portuguese captain João Gonçalves da Camara, before sailing to the Canary Islands and Cape Verde. As he crossed the Atlantic, Columbus discovered that the angle between North as indicated by a magnetic compass and North as measured by the position of the pole star changed with his position. He would later use his previous measurements of the compass variation to adjust his reckoning.
  After being becalmed for several days in the doldrums of the mid-Atlantic, Columbus's fleet regained its wind and, dangerously low on water, turned north in the direction of Dominica, which Columbus had visited in his previous voyage. The men sighted the land of Trinidad on 31 July, approaching from the southeast. The fleet sailed along the southern coast and entered Dragon's Mouth, anchoring near Soldado Rock (west of Icacos Point, Trinidad's southwesternmost point) where they made contact with a group of Amerindians in canoes. On 1 August, Columbus arrived at a landmass near the mouth of South America's Orinoco river, and recognizing it as the continent's mainland, planted the Spanish flag there. On 2 August, Columbus and his men landed at Icacos Point (which Columbus named Punta de Arenal). After resupplying with food and water, from 4 to 12 August, they explored the Gulf of Paria, which separates Trinidad from what is now Venezuela, near the delta of the Orinoco. On 5 August, they landed on the mainland of South America at the Paria Peninsula.
  Columbus then sailed to the islands of Chacachacare and Margarita (reaching the latter on 14 August), and sighted Tobago (which he named "Bella Forma") and Grenada (which he named "Concepción").
  In poor health, Columbus returned to Hispaniola on 19 August, only to find that many of the Spanish settlers of the new colony were in rebellion against his rule, claiming that Columbus had misled them about the supposedly bountiful riches of the New World. A number of returning settlers and sailors lobbied against Columbus at the Spanish court, accusing him and his brothers of gross mismanagement. Columbus had some of his crew hanged for disobedience. He had an economic interest in the enslavement of the Hispaniola natives and for that reason was not eager to baptize them, which attracted criticism from some churchmen. An entry in his journal from September 1498 reads: "From here one might send, in the name of the Holy Trinity, as many slaves as could be sold ..."
  Columbus was eventually forced to make peace with the rebellious colonists on humiliating terms. In 1500, the Crown had him removed as governor, arrested, and transported in chains to Spain. He was eventually freed and allowed to return to the New World, but not as governor.
caption: Third voyage
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