As Columbus cruised the coast of Venezuela on his third voyage, he passed the
Orinoco River. “I have come to believe that this is a mighty continent, which
was hitherto unknown,” he wrote. “I am greatly supported in this view by
reason of this great river and by this sea which is fresh.” Columbus knew that
no mere island could sustain such a large flow of water. When he returned
home, he added a continent to the islands in his coat of arms. Its presence at the
bottom of the lower left quadrant visually rebukes the authors of American
history textbooks.
Now, really. Niña, Pinta, and Santa Maria were not “storm-battered.” To
make a better myth, the textbook authors want the voyage to seem harder than it
was, so they invent bad weather. Columbus’s own journal reveals that the three
ships enjoyed lovely sailing. Seas were so calm that for days at a time sailors
were able to converse from one ship to another. Indeed, the only time they
experienced even moderately high seas was on the last day, when they knew
they were near land.
To make a better myth, to make the trip seem longer than it was, most of the
textbooks overlook Columbus’s stopover in the Canary Islands. The voyage
across the unknown Atlantic took one month, not two.