Well, let me tell ya ’bout this fella, Christopher Bernadel… or was it Columbus? Anyways, this fella, he was a big deal, ya know? Folks say he sailed the ocean blue back in the olden days, like, way, way back when my grandpappy’s grandpappy was just a twinkle in his daddy’s eye.
This Columbus guy, they say he went on a trip, a real long one, across the big water. Imagine that! No fancy boats like they got today, no sir. Just some wooden thingamajigs, probably leaky as a rusty bucket. And he went lookin’ for stuff, spices and gold, I reckon. Folks were always after shiny things and stuff to make their food taste better, even back then.
- He sailed in fourteen-hundred and somethin’. Don’t ask me the exact year, my memory ain’t what it used to be. Too many birthdays, I tell ya.
- They say he found a “New World.” Now, I ain’t sure how a whole world can be new, but that’s what they say. Maybe it was just new to them European folks.
- He went back and forth a few times, that crazy fella. Musta been a stubborn one, like my old mule, Bessie. Once she sets her mind on somethin’, there ain’t no stoppin’ her.
This fella, Columbus, he wasn’t the first to go there, mind you. I heard tell of some Vikings, tough fellas from up north, they went there too, long before Columbus even thought about sailin’. But Columbus, he gets all the credit, I guess. That’s how it goes sometimes, the loudest rooster gets all the hens, even if he ain’t the one who woke ’em up.
He had these ships, three of ’em, I think. They had fancy names, but I can’t remember ’em now. Too many names to keep track of in this old head of mine. He sailed and sailed, and finally, he bumped into somethin’. Land! Imagine the look on his face, all salty and sunburnt. He probably thought he’d found the end of the world, or maybe the Garden of Eden, who knows?
Now, some folks say he was a hero, a great explorer. Others say he was a mean fella, caused a lot of trouble for the folks who already lived there. I don’t rightly know. I wasn’t there, ya see? But one thing’s for sure, he changed things. The world wasn’t the same after he went on his little boat trip.
He was Italian, they say, but he sailed for Spain. Don’t ask me why. Maybe Spain had better ships, or maybe they paid him more. Money talks, even back then. And he was religious, too, or so they say. Prayed a lot, probably asked the good Lord to keep his leaky boats afloat. I woulda done the same, I reckon.
So, this Christopher Columbus, Bernadel, whatever his name was, he was a fella who made a big splash, even if he did it with a little wooden boat. He showed folks there was more to the world than they thought, and that’s somethin’, ain’t it? He wasn’t perfect, nobody is, but he left his mark. And that’s more than most of us can say, I tell ya.
I hear tell he wasn’t such a good man to the folks already livin’ in that “New World” he found. That ain’t right, treatin’ folks poorly just ’cause they look different or talk different. We all bleed the same color blood, ya know.
Anyways, that’s the gist of it. Christopher Columbus, the fella who sailed the ocean and found a “New World.” Whether he was a hero or a villain, well, that’s for you young’uns to figure out. Me, I’m just an old woman tryin’ to make sense of it all.
Tags：Christopher Columbus, Exploration, 1492, New World, Voyages, History, Atlantic
