This is our fourth episode on Christopher Columbus, this time looking at his first exploration of Cuba and Hispaniola, his "pivot" in the positioning of his mission with his investors, and the preparations for the very difficult voyage home. It was during this part of the journey that Columbus established his best arguments to secure funding for the all-important Second Voyage.

And, also, there's just a bunch of interesting stuff!

For this episode, it might be useful to have at hand the detailed map of Columbus's journey in the Caribbean, so here it is:

CWCID

Selected references for this episode

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

Shannon Tushingham, Charles M. Snyder, Korey J. Brownstein, William J. Damitio, and David R. Gang, "Biomolecular archaeology reveals ancient origins of indigenous tobacco smoking in North American Plateau".