A reply to /u/MrMoustach3

On the return voyage of the first crossing, Columbus' fleet was bewitched by bad weather. The Santa Maria had been lost in Hispaniola, and now the Pinta disappeared in a storm. Only the Nina, in bad shape, was left. He called at the Santa Maria port in Portuguese Azores, where he was treated badly, due to poor relations between Castille and Portugal.

He then failed to make for Spain, instead winds blew him towards Lisbon where he had to make a stop given the poor state of his only remaining vessel and her crew. King Joao II interviewed him carefully and apprehended him and his crew. At the same time, the Castilian court feared that Columbus had defected, as Columbus had previously sought patronage from Joao II.

In the end, Joao let him go ahead of negotiations with Spain, and the missing Pinta had by herself made it into the northern Spanish port of Bayona, Galicia. Fortunately for Columbus, the captain of that vessel Pinzon didn't survive the travails of the hard voyage and died, leaving Columbus and his narrative the only survivor of the first voyage, casting only himself as the discoverer of the Americas and severely underplaying the role of Pinzon in the navigation.