Pam Conrad brings you this gripping log of Pedro de Salcedo, who was aboard the great voyage with Christopher Columbus from August 3rd of 1492 to February 14th of 1493. Pedro is a young man of only fourteen, and it is his first time away from home. The captain quickly makes him a sort of right-hand man. Pedro watches how intensely the men doubt Columbus from the beginning. The day before they finally touch land, Columbus promises they will turn around home. As fate would have it, the next day they land in a place Columbus names San Salvador. Here they gain experience with the natives, who are extremely docile and generous. In each place they land on, the people gradually become unfriendly - perhaps some words of caution were spread? Soon enough, the entire crew realizes they have not landed in India and there are no spices or silks or pearls. In fact, nobody except Columbus cares about anything except heading home to Spain at this point. After the sinking of the Santa Maria, some of the men board the Nina to go home, and the others are left behind to start a Spanish settlement in the New World. Pedro fears he may not ever return home. On the last day at sea, he encases a last letter into a barrel and throws it out to the ocean so that if it ever reaches his home, his mother should know that he loves her and she should pray for his soul. This recounting is sometimes suspenseful, troubling, and mystifying, but at all times it is engaging.
Pedro's Journal
Description
It is August 3, 1492 and Pedro de Salcedo has had little experience at sea or aboard a ship. But he can read and write - a rare skill for a boy of his times - and because of this, he is assigned as ship's boy to a sailing vessel bound for India. The ship's commander is a man who calls himself "Captain General of the Ocean Sea." He is a man known for leading morning prayers and for his fiery temper. He is Christopher Columbus, and Pedro de Salcedo, along with the 40 other men aboard the Santa Maria, are riding with him into history.
From August until October of 1492, Christopher Columbus and the ships under his command - the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria - sail into the great unknown, searching the seas for a western route to India. Pedro keeps a journal of the voyage. He describes the hopelessness shared by some of the men on board after so many months on the open sea, and the near mutiny that Columbus overcomes before land is finally spotted on a moonlit horizon on October 12, 1492. The beach on which Columbus steps is given the name of San Salvador. Pedro remains by his captain's side - and keeps writing in his journal - throughout the months Columbus and his men explore the Americas to claim what they find in the name of the king and queen of Spain.
Pam Conrad based her novel on extensive research of Columbus and his historic voyage. Telling her story through journal entries made by the young Pedro allows the reader a personal and unique perspective on the events that would shake worlds, both old and new, on either side of the Atlantic. When the Santa Maria finally makes it back to Spain in February 1493, after many harrowing months, storms and squalls, Pedro de Salcedo, it is said, never returns to the sea again.
| Product Format: | Softcover Book |
|---|---|
| Grades: | 3-6 |
| Brand: | Scholastic |
| ISBN: | 9780590462068 |
| Length in Inches: | 7.569 |
| Width in Inches: | 5.67 |
| Height in Inches: | 0.242 |
| Weight in Pounds: | 0.157 |
| Ages: | 8 - 12 |
| Edition: | Illustrated |
| Pages: | 96 |
| Publication Date: | 9/1/1992 |