Born of Genoese parents, Columbus had early seafaring experience in the Mediterranean, and later gained knowledge of the European and African north Atlantic coastline. The idea of sailing westward across the Atlantic in search of the Indies emerged first in the 1480s but it was not until August 1492 that his fleet of three small ships made its historic landfall on one of the Bahamas. Columbus made three more crossings of the Atlantic and made many more discoveries. But his later life was marred by political intrigue, and in 1506, a year and a half after his return from his final trip to the New World, he died still trying to recover the honor and fame that he though was his due.