Sailed this day nineteen leagues, and determined to count less than the true number, that the crew might not be dismayed if the voyage should prove long.

According to historian Edmund Morgan

Throughout his life Columbus also showed a keen interest in the Bible and in Biblical prophecies and would often quote biblical texts in his letters and logs. In retaliation for the attack on La Navidad Columbus demanded that each Taino over 14 years of age deliver a hawk's bell full of gold powder every three months or when this was lacking twenty-five pounds of spun cotton. In his later years Columbus demanded that the Spanish Crown give him 10% of all profits made in the new lands as stipulated in the Capitulations of Santa Fe.

Christopher Columbus (Italian: Cristoforo Colombo; Spanish: Cristóbal Colón; Portuguese: Cristóvão Colombo; before 31 October 1451 – 20 May 1506) was an Italian explorer navigator and colonizer born in the Republic of Genoa in what is today northwestern Italy. Those voyages and his efforts to establish permanent settlements on the island of Hispaniola initiated the Spanish colonization of the New World. During his first voyage in 1492 instead of reaching Japan as he had intended Columbus landed in the Bahamas archipelago at a locale he named San Salvador.