By the mid-1480s, Columbus had become focused on his plans of discovery, chief among them the desire to discover a westward route to Asia. In 1484, he had asked King John II of Portugal to back his voyage west, but had been refused. The next year, he went to Spain with his young son, Diego, to seek the aid of Queen Isabella of Castile and her husband, King Ferdinand of Aragon. Though the Spanish monarchs at first rejected Columbus, they gave him a small annuity to live on, and he remained hopeful of convincing them. In January of 1492, after being twice rebuffed, Columbus obtained the support of Ferdinand and Isabella. The favorable response came directly after the fall of Granada, the last Moorish stronghold in Spain, which led Spanish Christians to believe they were close to eliminating the spread of Islam in southern Europe and beyond. Christian missionary zeal, as well as the desire to increase Spanish prominence in Europe over that of Portugal and the desire for gold and conquest, were the primary driving forces behind Columbus?historic voyage.
On August 3, 1492, the fleet of three ships he Ni, the Pinta, and the Santa Maret forth from Palos, on the Tinto River in southern Spain. After spending nearly a month in the Canary Islands, off the mainland of northwest Africa, the ships continued west, following the parallel of Gomera. According to records of the voyage, weather remained fair throughout. The first sighting of land came at dawn on October 12. The place of the first Caribbean landfall was most likely modern San Salvador, or Watling Island, in the Bahamas.
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