Dear Diary

March 12th, 1493
Dear Diary,
Yet again have I been turned down. What have I done wrong this time? It's just a bit of gold, no big deal. Queens should have lots of gold, shouldn't they? Still, they yell at me as if I were wasting their time. Pitiful! I shall think of something else.
Sincerely,
Christopher Columbus

Hello. My name is Christopher Columbus, and I have a dream. I want to be an explorer! Yes, I know. This is a huge dream, but I think I'm ready for it. See, I have gone to Queen Isabella to ask for gold to pay for my expeditions. She told me no. Today, I went back to ask again. They declined. I don't know what else I could do. This keeps me wondering ; am I not worthy enough? Do they not trust me?
- WAIT! I'VE JUST GOT THE BRIGHTEST IDEA! I shall bribe them. I will promise new spices and food for the land. Yes! Christopher Columbus, you are a genius!
"Guards! Take this man out of my castle!" Queen Isabella shouted. "And don't let him come back in!" Next thing I know, people were pulling at my arms and tugging at my hair. "I promise to pay you back!" I yelled. "I'll be a successful explorer! I'll bring back spices! Our trading markets shall increase! You can trust me! You can trust me, Queen Isabella!"
Hearing this, the guards were told to let me go. "You are to go on the expedition in two days," said Queen Isabella.
Woopee! I shouted in my mind.
I was to lead one of the ships that were given to me and my crew to go on the expedition. Their names were the Santa Maria, the Nina, and the Pinta. I was to be the captain of the Santa Maria. My fellow explorers were Vicente Yanez and Martin Pinzan. They were the captains of the Nina and the Pinta.
"Sir, there's a violent storm up ahead!" cried one of my men. "Captain, should we evacuate?" I ignored him and kept on steering. "Land ahoy!" cried someone else. "Land ahoy!!" Before I knew it, the storm had caught up to us. "Evacuate, evacuate!"
We landed on this island, somewhere far away from Spain. "This must be India!" I shouted. When I turned around to get a better look at my surroundings, I saw that my beautiful ship was being torn apart. Bloody storm! Curses!
"Land ahoy, land ahoy!" someone called. It was someone from the Nina. They had caught up with us. Now what?
"Behold!" I beamed, "India!" I heard some oohs and aahhs.
Just then, I heard gibberish. What was that noise? There were funny looking people walking towards us. Indians, I suppose. Dark Indians.
"Are you Indians?" I asked one of them. "Hakuna matata!" They said to me. "What a strange language..." I said to myself. Before I knew it, they were shaking our hands.
"What are they?" Someone whispered. "Look at their skin!" "I know what they are!" someone responded, "they're slaves!"

We've been on this land for many days now... We showed them some of our foods, and they gave us some of their crops. We were trading things, I guess. Some of the Indians died off, though. Strange...No one knew why. Most of them were covered in dots. Why...?

One day, I caught an Indian slacking off. "Get up!" I shouted at him. Turning to see me, I see now what he was doing. He was gathering some things together. Was he trying to escape this land? No. He was walking towards me. He reached his arms out, as if offering me something.
And so he was! There were so many things. There was spices, silk, and animals. Pieces of horses, cows, and sheep. Along with the cows, they gave us milk.
Confused, I took the goods. I get now. He was telling me to leave their land. I see how it is. Now that I have what I came for, I killed this Indian without hesitation. Polka dot face. Psh...
"Queen Isabella!" I exclaimed. "I have brought back to you what I promised." "Wonderful!" she said. "Tell me about your expedition..."
Dear Journal,
Well, I'm close to dead now. The doctor told me that I have caught a deadly disease. The attack is thought to have been caused by an autoimmune form of arthritis which caused joint swelling, eye disease, and urinary infections. It's a good thing to know that I have left my titles and wealth to someone trustworthy.
King Ferdinand, LET ME BE KNOWN!
-Christopher Columbus




Edit : This was deduced based on observer accounts of his symptoms, and his personal writings in his notebook.
When Columbus died he was still unaware that he had reached the Western Hemisphere (he thought he was on the east coast of Asia).

Christopher Columbus died in Valladolid, Spain, on May 20, 1506, at the age of 54. He had suffered through a long terminal illness that first showed symptoms on his third voyage eight years before.

According to his son Fernando, the cause of death was "gout." But in those days, gout was a catchall diagnosis for anything that caused joint pain. Recent research by Gerald Weissmann indicates that the most likely cause of death was Reiter's Syndrome, a rare tropical disease.

Upon his death, Columbus was initially buried in a small cemetary in Valladolid. Shortly thereafter, his body was moved to Seville. When Columbus' eldest son and heir Diego died in 1526, he was buried beside his father.

But Diego's widow petitioned the Spanish court to move both bodies to the cathedral in Santo Domingo on Hispaniola. So the remains of Columbus were moved across the Atlantic, and were buried under the right side of the altar in the cathedral in Santo Domingo. And there matters stood for two centuries.

In 1795, France captured the island of Hispaniola from Spain. By this time, the Spanish viewed the Admiral's remains as a national treasure, and wanted to prevent their capture by the French at all costs. So, relying on old records, they dug up the remains and removed them to Havana, Cuba. A century later, when Cuba won independence from Spain, the remains were moved again, from Havana back across the ocean to Seville. And so, if you visit the cathedral in Seville today, you will find the tomb of Columbus.

But that's not the whole story. In 1877, workers were restoring the cathedral in Santo Domingo and found, under the left side of the altar, a box containing human remains. The box bore Columbus's name. It immediately became clear to some that the "left" and "right" sides of the altar depend entirely upon the direction one is facing. And therefore, some argue, the body that had been moved to Havana in 1795 was really that of Diego, while the Admiral's remains had been in Santo Domingo all along. And so, if you visit the cathedral in Santo Domingo today, you will find another tomb of Columbus.

Meanwhile, one historian has argued that the wrong body was moved from Havana to Seville, and therefore, Columbus's remains are really in Havana. And another historian argues that Columbus's remains never left Valladolid! Furthermore, portions of the remains in Seville were given to the city of Genoa in 1892 as part of the quadricentennial celebration.

Recently, Spanish scientists tried DNA analysis to answer the question. As it turned out, DNA was not even necessary: a cursory examination of the bones in Seville showed that they must have been those of Columbus's sickly son Diego, not the Admiral himself. So the discoverer's final resting place is in Santo Domingo after all.

The End.