True or false? Christopher Columbus was the first European to discover America. False! Viking explorers had come to America hundreds of years earlier, but they didn't leave any records. (The first map of America was drawn to Juan de la Cosa, Columbus's shipmate.) Columbus sailed on a ship that was attacked by pirates. He was arrested by the king and queen of Spain. He sailed to America four times, but he never believed he had found a new continent. Christopher Columbus made history!