Columbus's report of the third voyage -- letter summary

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Columbus goes from Spain to Madeira, and then to the Canaries and then the Cape Verde islands. He goes below the equator and it's super hot there until God graces them with a fair wind. They go up to the equator and it becomes mild. Something about the pole and the stars. He has heard that the earth is a sphere but to him, it seems more like the shape of a pear or a nipple. When he sails in different directions stuff happens to the stars. Ptolemy had it wrong because he knew nothing of the Southern hemisphere. He reaches the island Cape Verde where the people are black. Then he reaches Trinidad where the people are whiter, shrewder, and less timid than the natives of the Indies.


Christopher Columbus. Image source

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