How Did Columbus Return to Spain After His Third Trip to the New World

That nosedive in popularity we mentioned earlier was pretty justified. Columbus treated the natives of the land he discovered in truly horrific fashion. Now we look back on that era as a time when mistreatment of indigenous people upon discovering new land was commonplace and accepted, but even back then, people knew there was something wrong about all this. Some of his crew sent word back home about the terrible things Columbus was doing and the explorer was arrested and sent home in chains where he spent six weeks in jail. Though it would be wrong to represent everyone at the time as disapproving of Columbus' actions. The king granted him a full pardon and funded his next voyage.