I, Columbus [antikvár]

PrologueColumbus was the finest sailor of his time. He knew the winds and the waters. He knew his locations from the sun and the stars. Watching a log float from bow to stern he could calculate how fast his ship sailed. He had sailed south along the coast of Africa, navigated north to England and Iceland, criss-crossed the Mediterranean Sea, and sailed west to the Canary islands. "I went to sea at an early age," he wrote in 1501. "There I have continued to this day. I have sailed everywhere that it is navigable."Christopher Columbus had a dream. He would sail west to reach the fabled lands of the East, rich in spices, jewels, silver, and goldespecially gold. The mysteries and wealth of India, Japan, and China called to him from halfway around the world. Columbus knew other explorers had reached the Indies by traveling east over land and sea. He had read their books, marked their maps, studied their charts. His own notes and ideas filled the margins of his copy of Marco Polo's Travels.Columbus convinced Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand that they could capture Jerusalem with the gold he brought back from the Indies. "I have already petitioned Your Highnesses that all of the profits of my enterprise