Columbus's Fourth Voyage (1502–1504): Shipwrecked on Jamaica

Christopher Columbus’s fourth voyage, from 1502 to 1504, was his last and most troubled expedition. Searching for a sea passage to Asia, he explored the Caribbean coast of Central America from Honduras to Panama, only to lose all his ships and spend a year marooned on Jamaica. The voyage is remembered for a hurricane that Columbus predicted, a failed colony in Panama and his famous use of a lunar eclipse to secure food from the Taíno.

Background

Columbus’s earlier voyages had made him Admiral and governor of the Indies, but his rule on Hispaniola went badly. After his third voyage, the royal investigator Francisco de Bobadilla arrested him in 1500 and sent him back to Spain in chains. Ferdinand and Isabella released him, but did not restore his governorship; Nicolás de Ovando was appointed governor instead.

Now in his early fifties and in poor health, Columbus persuaded the monarchs to fund one more voyage. His aim was to find a strait through the lands he had explored, leading to the Indian Ocean. The crown agreed but forbade him to land on Hispaniola except, if necessary, on the way home.

Outward voyage and the hurricane

Columbus sailed from Cádiz on 11 May 1502 with four ships, the Capitana, the Santiago de Palos, the Gallega and the Vizcaína, and roughly 140–150 men and boys. With him were his brother Bartholomew and his son Ferdinand, then aged 13, who later wrote an account of the voyage.

After a fast crossing the fleet reached Santo Domingo on 29 June 1502. Columbus sensed an approaching hurricane and asked to shelter in the harbour, warning Ovando not to let a large fleet sail for Spain. Ovando refused both requests. The fleet left, and the storm destroyed most of it, killing hundreds of people, including Bobadilla. Columbus’s ships, sheltering along the coast, survived.

Exploring Central America

The fleet reached the island of Guanaja, off Honduras, on 30 July 1502. There the Spaniards met a large trading canoe carrying cloth, copper goods and cacao, evidence of the rich Maya trading world to the west. Columbus chose instead to sail east and south along the coast.

The journey east was slow, against winds and currents. When the ships finally rounded a cape in mid-September 1502, Columbus named it Gracias a Dios (“Thanks be to God”), a name that survives today on the border of Honduras and Nicaragua. The fleet continued south along the coasts of Nicaragua and Costa Rica and reached Veragua, in present-day Panama, where local people wore gold ornaments.

In early 1503 Columbus tried to found a trading post called Santa María de Belén on the Belén River, under his brother Bartholomew. The local Ngäbe ruler, known in Spanish sources as the Quibián, resisted the intrusion. After fighting in which Spaniards were killed, the settlement was abandoned in April 1503, and the Gallega was left behind. Columbus never found the strait he was seeking; the narrow isthmus that separated him from the Pacific was crossed by Balboa ten years later.

Marooned on Jamaica

By now shipworms had riddled the hulls. The Vizcaína was abandoned near Portobelo, and the two remaining ships, leaking badly, barely reached Jamaica. Around 25 June 1503 Columbus beached them side by side at Santa Gloria, now St Ann’s Bay, as a fortified shelter.

From Jamaica Columbus wrote a long, emotional letter to the monarchs, often called the Lettera Rarissima, dated 7 July 1503. His captain Diego Méndez and the Genoese Bartolomeo Fieschi set off in dugout canoes paddled by Taíno and Spaniards to cross some 170 kilometres (about 105 miles) of open sea to Hispaniola. They succeeded, but Ovando delayed sending a rescue for months.

The governor had political reasons for his slowness: he had no wish to see Columbus back on Hispaniola stirring up old disputes. Méndez had to wait in Santo Domingo until a ship became available and then charter it himself. For months the castaways on Jamaica had no idea whether the canoe crossing had even succeeded, and the only contact from Hispaniola was a small vessel that briefly appeared in March 1504, delivered a message and sailed away again.

On Jamaica tensions rose. In January 1504 the brothers Francisco and Diego de Porras led a mutiny, and about half the men left the camp. Meanwhile the Taíno, who had been trading food for European goods, began to supply less.

The eclipse of 1504

Columbus carried an astronomical almanac, probably the Ephemerides of Regiomontanus, which predicted a total lunar eclipse on the night of 29 February 1504. According to his son Ferdinand’s account, Columbus summoned local leaders and told them that God was angry at them for withholding food and would show it by making the Moon rise red and dark.

When the eclipse began, the Taíno, in Ferdinand’s telling, begged Columbus to intercede, and he withdrew until the eclipse was about to end, then announced that God had forgiven them. Food supplies resumed. The story rests mainly on Ferdinand’s account, but the eclipse itself is confirmed by modern astronomical calculation.

Rescue and return

A caravel chartered by Méndez finally reached Jamaica at the end of June 1504 and took the survivors to Santo Domingo. Columbus sailed for Spain on 12 September and reached Sanlúcar de Barrameda on 7 November 1504. Queen Isabella died on 26 November, and with her Columbus lost his most important supporter. He spent his last months petitioning for his rights and died in Valladolid on 20 May 1506.

Key people

• Christopher Columbus (c. 1451–1506): Genoese navigator and Admiral of the Ocean Sea, leading his fourth and final expedition.
• Bartholomew Columbus (c. 1461–1515): Columbus’s younger brother, an experienced seaman who commanded the attempted settlement at Belén.
• Ferdinand Columbus (1488–1539): Columbus’s younger son, who sailed as a boy and later wrote the main narrative of the voyage. He went on to build one of the great libraries of Renaissance Europe in Seville.
• Diego Méndez (c. 1472–1536): the loyal officer who crossed to Hispaniola by canoe and arranged the rescue.
• Nicolás de Ovando (c. 1460–1511): governor of Hispaniola, who refused Columbus shelter and delayed his rescue.

By the numbers

Timeline

• 1502, 11 May: Columbus sails from Cádiz with four ships.
• 1502, 29 June: Ovando refuses him shelter at Santo Domingo; a hurricane destroys the treasure fleet.
• 1502, 30 July: The fleet reaches Guanaja off Honduras and meets a Maya trading canoe.
• 1502, September: Columbus rounds Cape Gracias a Dios.
• 1503, April: The settlement of Santa María de Belén in Panama is abandoned.
• 1503, c. 25 June: The last two ships are beached on Jamaica.
• 1504, 29 February: A total lunar eclipse helps Columbus regain Taíno food supplies.
• 1504, late June: A rescue caravel reaches Jamaica.
• 1504, 7 November: Columbus lands at Sanlúcar de Barrameda.

Why it matters

The fourth voyage gave Europeans their first look at the Central American coast and the first hint of the Maya world. It also marked the end of Columbus’s career, closing in shipwreck and disappointment a life that had begun lasting contact between Europe and the Americas. Columbus died still convinced that he had reached the edge of Asia.