Columbus sent three of his ships straight to Hispaniola with supplies and led the other three south by way of Madeira, the Canary Islands and the Cape Verde Islands, hoping to test reports of a great landmass to the southwest. On July 31 his crew sighted Trinidad, and on August 5 they went ashore on the Paria Peninsula of present-day Venezuela, setting foot on the mainland of South America.
Columbus's third expedition was meant to answer a question raised by King John II of Portugal, who believed a continent lay southwest of the Cape Verde Islands. After leaving Sanlúcar on May 30, 1498, Columbus detached three ships to carry supplies directly to the struggling colony on Hispaniola and took the rest on a more southerly course through Madeira, the Canary Islands and Cape Verde.
The crew sighted Trinidad on July 31, sailed through the strait he called the Dragon's Mouth into the Gulf of Paria, and on August 5 landed on the Paria Peninsula. The size of the coast convinced Columbus that he had found a vast land, which he described as an 'otro mundo', another world, though he still believed it lay at the edge of Asia and even wondered whether it held the Earthly Paradise.
Hispaniola, when he reached it, was in turmoil, with settlers in open revolt against his rule. Columbus was forced to make peace with the rebels on humiliating terms, and complaints reaching Spain led the crown to send Francisco de Bobadilla to investigate. In 1500 Bobadilla arrested Columbus and his brothers and shipped them back to Spain in chains, ending his time as governor.
Key people: Christopher Columbus