Columbus Day: 7 interesting facts about the famed explorer

4. He was arrested

From 1496 until 1500, Columbus served as a Spanish colonial governor of an island now known as the Dominican Republic and Haiti. However, the colony fared poorly due to multiple factors.

News of the poor conditions in the Caribbean colony prompted the Spanish government to send Francisco de Bobadilla to investigate the situation on the ground.

When Bobadilla beheld the bodies of four executed Spanish colonists prominently hung by the Ozama River, he had Columbus arrested, put in chains and shipped back to Spain.

“Although some of the charges might have been manufactured by his political enemies, Columbus admitted to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella that many of the accusations were true,” noted Biography.com.

“Columbus was stripped of his title as governor.”