Christopher Columbus and
Pedro Menendez de Aviles

Provider: Dr. Ron Tranquilla

Christopher Columbus

Columbus' First Voyage

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Arawaks. By the end of Columbus' third voyage,
they had been decimated totally by disease and conquest

Aloe vera plant

which Columbus ordered "to be taken on board in large quantities
for the use of your Highness" (King Ferdinand of Spain)

Pedro Menéndez de Avilés

What do the "setting" and props of this portrait indicate about Avilés?
Are these confirmed in his writing?

Map of "The New World," from Münster's edition of Ptolemy, 1540

Published 150 years after Columbus, 25 years before Avilés' founding of St. Augustine, Florida, and over 60 years before the English settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. What features of North and South America do you recognize? Why are some portions so much larger than they should be on this map? What does the map tell you about the progress of exploration of the Americas?

External Links American Literature Survey1; Columbus and Pedro Menendez de Aviles