The Return Voyage

Three Vocabulary Words:

1. Pilgrimage: A pilgrims journey.
2. Penitential: Relating to or penitence or penance.
3. Estuary: The tidal mouth of a large river, where the tide meets the stream.

Summary: The Return Voyage was about Columbus and his crew traveling home from their voyage. As said before they were trying to come home from their latest voyage. They traveled back from Hispaniola and sailed northeast and then north till they reached the Azores and Santa Maria for a pit stop. They then continued to sail to Lisbon. This journey back took place in 1493, and they left on January 6th and got to Europe on March 4th. They returned to Europe so they could resupply all of their food and water, and to get more ships to go on another voyage. They also went back to Lisbon to prove to everyone that they had been to Asia and that the trip is possible. And they succeeded and made it back to Europe and proved to everyone that he was right, or so he thought.

Thoughts on Columbus Day: After thinking about it I believe that the holiday celebrating Columbus should be changed so we can celebrate the indigenous people of the Americas. I believe this for several reasons one reason is the fact that Columbus killed millions of people. When visiting many islands Columbus wanted to call them his own, but once he realized there were other people already there he had to kill them to make space for his people. We don't celebrate any other murders so why do we celebrate Columbus? What's that? Did you say that he discovered the Americas? Oh... well that's wrong too. Columbus landed on many of the islands off the coast of the Americas and South America. But never did he step foot on North America. And those places where he did land on there were Native Americans already there, so all Columbus did was say he discovered it. In conclusion, I think that we should stop celebrating a lying murderer, and switch to who was really on the Americas first, the Native Americans.