Columbus Describing Third Voyage
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| First Day of Issue: May 22, 1992; First Issue Location: Chicago, Illinois. As soon as Christopher Columbus returned from his second voyage to the newly-discovered lands, he went to Ferdinand and Isabella to request funding for yet another voyage. Approval for a third trip was a long time coming since the country's bank was being drained by the war with France and Naples. And Columbus was no longer in the limelight. The navigation genius Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape of Good Hope in 1497 and found a route to India, while others were probing the seas in every direction. Nevertheless, he was finally given funding and embarked for the New World on his ill-fated third voyage. The $3 Columbus Describing Third Voyage commemorative stamp of 1893 was based upon a painting created around 1881 by Francisco Jover and entitled Columbus Describing His Third Voyage. However, the subject for the painting contains no small amount of irony, since Columbus returned to Spain in disgrace and irons and probably had little to describe. The painting has since disappeared, although it is felt to be somewhere in Spain |
