Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) not only discovered America - he pushed the boundaries of what was possible and permitted. All his life he strove for wealth and fame, but his main passion was an insatiable thirst for adventure. He was sure that the Earth was round, and therefore it was possible to sail to India not only by the eastern, but also by the western route. To achieve his goal, he managed to ignite the king and queen of Spain with his faith, demanding from them, as an advance for future discoveries, a noble coat of arms and the title of Admiral of the Sea-Ocean and Viceroy of new lands. He did not reach his goal by about 8,000 miles: open to them, the West Indies, unlike the East Indies, actually turned out to be America - and this was probably the greatest geographical mistake of the last millennium. Columbus's caravels crossed the Atlantic Ocean eight times, to bring tobacco, corn, potatoes, tomatoes, hammocks, syphilis and mountains of gold to Europe, and most importantly - incredible stories about wonderful overseas lands, abundant and amazing. He marked the beginning of a whole series of gold rushes that periodically flared up in the New World. He was tried, chained, kept in prison, acquitted and again sent overseas. In twelve years (1492-1504) he made four expeditions to the Caribbean Sea, discovered Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti and Puerto Rico, the Lesser Antilles and the island of Trinidad. He learned that the Atlantic Ocean, crossed by his caravels, was separated from the next, still unknown, only by a narrow isthmus. He did not find rest even after death: for three hundred years his ashes were transported from Spain to Haiti, from there to Cuba - and again to Spain. He died without Having become rich, he did not reach the real India, but he was the first - and remained so forever. He showed the way to another hemisphere to all those who were cramped in the Old World - a whole host of sailors and conquistadors, pirates and adventurers, missionaries and dissidents. Thanks to their desperation, work, fanaticism, cruelty, curiosity, greed, dedication, the world became what it is. The diaries of the great navigator are a full of drama story about his four voyages to the shores of America. The notes of the Admiral of the Sea-Ocean and the Viceroy of the new Spanish colonies have been exciting the imagination of readers for 500 years with stories about dangerous journeys, incredible adventures and the dramatic history of the conquest of the New World. The electronic publication includes all the texts of the paper book and the basic illustrative material. But for true connoisseurs of exclusive publications, we offer a gift classic book. Beautiful offset paper, dozens of color and more than 300 old black and white paintings and drawings allow the reader not only to look into the past, but to rediscover the New World together with Columbus and his companions. This edition, like all books in the Great Journeys series, is printed on beautiful offset paper and elegantly designed. Editions of the series will adorn any, even the most sophisticated library, and will be a wonderful gift for both young readers and discerning bibliophiles.