audiobook Napoleon Against Great Odds: The Emperor and the Defenders of France; 1814 by Ralph Ashby in History

Description

The Year is 1500. Christopher Columbus; stripped of his title Admiral of the Ocean Seas; waits in chains in a Caribbean prison built under his orders; looking out at the colony that he founded; nurtured; and ruled for eight years. Less than a decade after discovering the New World; he has fallen into disgrace; accused by the royal court of being a liar; a secret Jew; and a foreigner who sought to steal the riches of the New World for himself. The tall; freckled explorer with the aquiline nose; whose flaming red hair long ago turned gray; passes his days in prayer and rumination; trying to ignore the waterfront gallows that are all too visible from his cell. And he plots for one great escape; one last voyage to the ends of the earth; one final chance to prove himself. What follows is one of history's most epic-and forgotten-adventures. Columbus himself would later claim that his fourth voyage was his greatest. It was without doubt his most treacherous. Of the four ships he led into the unknown; none returned. Columbus would face the worst storms a European explorer had ever encountered. He would battle to survive amid mutiny; war; and a shipwreck that left him stranded on a desert isle for almost a year. On his tail were his enemies; sent from Europe to track him down. In front of him: the unknown. Martin Dugard's thrilling account of this final voyage brings Columbus to life as never before-adventurer; businessman; father; lover; tyrant; and hero.