This is our third episode on Christopher Columbus, which looks at his voyage west from the morning of his departure from Spain, his stop in the Canaries, the crossing of the Atlantic ahead of the fine easterly trade winds that blow at that latitude, ending with the First Contact on an island in the Bahamas. Along the way we learn that but for a flock of birds, the Spanish might not have colonized the western hemisphere.

Recorded January 21, 2021, Austin, Texas.

I've got a new microphone, and am getting a bit more adept at mixing, so here's to hoping the production values improve, in no doubt fits and starts, as we work our way along through history.

The map of the Atlantic islands will again be useful, so here it is:

Here's a high level map of the First Voyage which will be useful for the next couple of episodes.

CWCID

This is a more granular map that will become useful at the end of this episode and during the next episode.

CWCID

Selected references for this episode

Samuel Eliot Morison, The Admiral of the Ocean Sea: A Life of Christopher Columbus

Iberian Roots of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, 1440–1640

Guanches (Wikipedia)

Conquest of the Canary Islands (Wikipedia)