Christopher Columbus was a Bible-believing, soul-winning missionary and not interested in looking for gold. This is why he was returned to Spain in chains. The Cat’lics weren’t happy with him.
Well his sailors, at least, were less than circumspect
Syphilis is thought to have been brought back to Europe
by the “God Fearing” folk
Despite the historical revisionism that has been proposed, Christopher Columbus was both a Bible-believing, soul winning missionary" AND a devout Roman Catholic:
The Marian Devotion of Christopher Columbus
The two things are not mutually exclusive, as I can confidently attest in my own life and in the lives of many other Catholics I know.
“Christopher Columbus was a Bible-believing, soul-winning missionary and not interested in looking for gold.”
He was actually a very ambitious social climber, who had insisted on a contract to govern new lands that he discovered, to elevate his family to be the ruling nobility there (subordinate to the Spanish Crown).
He was returned in chains to Spain because the extensive slavery and brutal treatment he subjected the locals to (especially in searching for gold), was beyond what the Spanish would tolerate.
His writing may have been to appeal to the religiosity of the King and Queen, to receive their funding, more than a real expression of his own motivation. He was apparently a life-long practicing Catholic however.
He was a Bible-believing Catholic