Ron Paul Curriculum 7th Grade Englisgh Lesson 10 essay: He Went With Christopher Columbus

Ron Paul Curriculum 

7th Grade English Class

Taught by: Professor Bradley Fish
Lesson 10 essay: Plot line development in a book
Written by: KryssaLee Baze

 The book He Went With Christopher Columbus is about Peter Aubrey, the son of the deceased Lois Aubrey, who had been a good friend of the king.  He unfortunately died by a stray moorish arrow, leaving his English estate called Melcote, as well as his trading contracts and ships to Peter.  This begins the exposition of the story.  The exposition serves as the introduction of the book, usually describing the main character and the circumstances that he is in. 

 Peter's father wished him to carry on trading with Spain if he ever died.  Peter's relatives Uncle Don Diego, a Spaniard, and Uncle Henry Tallard, who was English, planned for a trip to Spain.  Peter is betrothed to his mother's brother's daughter Gwendolyn, before they leave.

    After settling their affairs with Master Studley, the lawyer, Peter suggested that they buy a map, as they would be sailing to Spain.  He went to the nearest map making shop, and after chatting for a bit, he discovers that the map maker is Christopher Columbus' brother, Bartholemew Columbus.  He soon learns that Christopher was going to search for Cathay (China).  This is the beginning of the rising action.  The rising action of a story builds tension, leading to the climax.

    They sail off, and Peter meets the deck boy, Martin Alzate, quickly becoming fast friends.  Gonzalo Palma, one of the sailors, along with Don Diego, develop a plan to kill Peter, in order that Diego may get all the estate.  One night, as Peter and Martin are talking, Gonzalo takes a sling and hits Martin with a stone, mistaking him for Peter, and knocking him off the ship.  Peter, shouting that there was a man overboard, realized what Don Diego had done, and pretends to be Martin himself, fooling Gonzalo and Diego to think that they had indeed killed Peter.

    The next morning Peter slipped off deck.  He meant to sneak back on board when Don Diego and Gonzalo weren't there, and explain to the captain what happened.  He fell asleep, however, and when he woke up he found in despair that the ship had already left.  He almost immediately became friends with Juan de Niebo, a sailor on shore, and using the name of Martin Alzate manages to get hired as a deck boy on Christopher Columbus' ship with the help of Juan.  During this time he continues to use the name of Martin Alzate.  He eventually becomes friends with Columbus' servant, Pedro, who was Peter's age.

    After sailing for several months they finally reach land, learning disappointedly that they had not reached Cathay.  They learn from the natives that there was supposedly a land with much gold farther ahead.  They continue on, reaching another island, and find that it's not Cathay either.  However, they land and become friends with the natives.

    Columbus, thinking that he had landed in India, calls them Indians, and realized that there was gold here on this island.  He trades for gold to take back to the Queen, and prepares to sail away again, leaving a chosen group of men with supplies to start a settlement.  

    Peter spent the last night that they were to stay on the island wandering out into the forest to try to catch some parrots for Gwen and Meg, a girl Gwen's age that his mother had adopted.  He trips and his head crashes against a stone, making him unconscious.  When he awakes he finds that they have already left, and the Indians had nursed him back to health.  They wouldn't tell him how long he had been unconscious or how long ago that Columbus and his ships had left, as they had consulted their idol, and it had told them that Peter would bring good luck. 

    Peter stays on this island in a secluded valley for several years, becoming friends with the Indians, especially a boy his age named Cacibi.  Suddenly trouble starts when more ships come filled with settlers and they start enslaving the Indians to mine the gold that is bountiful everywhere on this island.  Caonabo, an Indian chieftain, is the leader of this Indian uprising, and they go to attack the settlers.

    Peter, planning on finding the Admiral (Columbus) and telling him who he really is, goes out with them, and travels to the town that Columbus is residing at.  Half way there, he falls asleep and wakes up looking into the face of Don Diego's son Esteban, who is Peter's cousin.  Esteban doesn't recognize Peter, and takes him as a slave.

    The Queen soon makes a law that after a slave has served for 8 months he can temporarily be set free, until the four months of freedom is over.  Then he must go back to his owner.  After being a slave for 8 months Peter gets set free, and he quickly finds some old English clothes, and strolls into town.  He goes to the barber, and gets shaved, when he realizes that the barber is Juan de Niebo!  He explains that he was never Martin Alzate, but is Peter Aubrey, how his estate was taken from him, and with Juan's help gets on board the ship that was departing for Spain.

    Columbus, meanwhile, had been locked up, and sent to prison, by a mob saying that he never actually found this new land.  After writing a letter to the Queen, the mob chained him and put him on the boat with Peter.  They set sail for Spain, and set Columbus free, however the Queen never made him Governor of the land again.

    Peter got on a boat set for England and sailed off.  As Peter got off the boat, he saw a taskmaster selling some African Americans and Indians as slaves.  Peter suddenly recognized that one of the slaves was Cacibi! He quickly bought him and set him free, although Cacibi became a servant of Peter's.

    Finally coming to Melcote, Peter learned that his mother, her maid Dame Butts, and Meg, had been forced to move to a different house.  Peter, after a tearful reunion with his mother and friends, set off to get Melcote back.

    Esteban was owner of the estate now, and had also married Gwen, as Peter was supposedly dead.  Peter confronted him and Gonzalo, and after proving that they had taken it from him illegally, got Melcote back, opening and closing the climax of this book.

    Peter marries Meg, and settles in Melcote, satisfied and happy.  This is when the falling action of the story takes place.  The falling action is the area of a story that resolves and relaxes the tension that had built up earlier in the story.

    The story picks up several years later.  Peter and Meg had a little boy and a little girl.  Unexpectedly Pedro and Juan de Niebo arrive and after chatting, explain that the land Columbus found had been named America, after another explorer.  The story ends, completing the resolution, or the conclusion to the story.