Encounters Unforeseen- 1492 Retold

by Andrew Rowen

  “Indians”:

  Fifteenth-century Europeans used the word Indians to describe people who lived in the “Indies,” which was not uniformly defined, but stretched as far as from modern Japan to modern Ethiopia. Columbus and some Europeans initially believed Columbus’s first voyage had reached a place near the Indies and referred to the Taínos as “Indians,” which name continued after the realization that the New World had been discovered and gradually assumed an ethnic or racial connotation as opposed to geographic. When a story is from the European perspective, the Taínos typically are referred to as Indians in the fifteenth-century geographical sense except when important to distinguish Taínos from Caribes or Lucayans.

  “Infidels, Heretics, Heathens, and Idolaters”:

  European Christians frequently referred to Jews and Muslims as “infidels,” baptized Christians who deviated as “heretics,” and others as “heathens” (“pagans”) or “idolaters,” and believed that none of these peoples could achieve salvation without conversion to Christianity.

  GLOSSARY OF TAÍNO WORDS

  Spanish spellings of the Taíno words are typically used except for islands, where the likely Taíno phonetic form is sometimes retained. Based upon Julian Granberry and Gary Vescelius’s Languages of the Pre-Columbian Antilles, William F. Keegan and Lisabeth A. Carlson’s Talking Taíno: Caribbean Natural History from a Native Perspective, and other sources.

  areíto

  song, dance

  batey

  ball game, plaza

  behique

  shaman (i.e., a priest and doctor)

  bohío

  house, home, dwelling, shelter

  cacicazgo

  chiefdom

  cacique

  chief

  caney

  house for a chief

  Caniba

  a Caribe

  canoa

  canoe

  caona

  gold

  Caribe

  fierce, strong, or brave person, and the native people of the Lesser Antilles (i.e., Guadeloupe and the islands south)

  cazabi

  cassava, a toasted bread made from yucca

  cemí

  spirit or object that represents spirit, typically of stone, wood, or cotton

  chicha

  corn beer

  cibao

  rocky place

  cocuyo

  firefly

  cohaba

  narcotic powder used in communication with spirits, or the communication ceremony itself

  duho

  ceremonial or chief’s seat

  guanín

  a composition of gold, copper, and silver with reddish hue

  hutia

  cat-size rodent

  iguana

  iguana

  macana

  wooden club

  mahisi

  corn

  naboria

  servant, the servant class

  nagua

  married woman’s loincloth

  nitaíno

  nobleman, lord

  Taíno

  noble or good person, and the native people of Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, and Turks and Caicos

  uici

  yucca beer

  yuca

  yucca, manioc

  Islands and Places

  Haiti

  Dominican Republic and Haiti

  Bohío

  Lucayans, and sometimes Cubans and Haitians, referred to Haiti (i.e., the Dominican Republic and Haiti) as “Bohío,” the word for “home”; Columbus, relying on Lucayan captives, uses “Bohío” in his Journal to mean “Haiti” and renames it “La Isla Española”

  Amayaúna

  Cave without Importance

  Aniyana

  Middle Caicos, Turks and Caicos

  Ba We Ka

  Caicos bank

  Bajabonico

  Bajabonico river

  Baneque

  Great Iguana?

  Boriquén

  Puerto Rico

  Cacibajugua

  Jagua Cave, the Jagua being a tree species from which Taínos extracted dye for body paint

  Camú

  Camú river

  Carib

  mythical island of men

  Cauta

  mountains in “Haiti” containing Cacibajugua

  Cibao

  rocky, mountainous region in “Haiti”

  Ciguayo

  Mayobanex’s chiefdom

  Cuba

  (an abbr.)

  Cuba

  Guanahaní

  San Salvador?

  Guanín

  mythical island where Guahayona obtains guanín

  Guaricano

  Guarionex’s village

  Guarico

  Guacanagarí’s village

  Higüey

  Cayacoa’s chiefdom

  Lucayans

  island people, from the Bahamas or Turks and Caicos

  Magua

  Guarionex’s chiefdom

  Maguana

  Caonabó’s chiefdom

  Manigua

  Rum Cay

  Marien

  Guacanagarí’s chiefdom

  Matininó

  mythical island of women

  Samana

  Samana, Bahamas

  Samaná

  Samaná, Dominican Republic

  Samoete

  Crooked, Fortune, and Acklins islands

  Utiaquia

  Ragged Islands

  Wana

  East Caicos, Turks and Caicos

  Xaraguá

  Behecchio’s chiefdom

  Yamaye

  Jamaica

  Yaque

  Yaque del Norte river

  Yasica

  Yásica river

  Yuma

  Long Island

  SOURCES

  The principal primary (P) and secondary (S) sources considered in writing each story are set forth herein (whether supportive or at variance with the story), including, for primary sources, the chapter, section, paragraph, or date considered (rather than page numbers, in deference to readers with different editions). Stories occasionally quote or paraphrase words from the primary sources so identified (or infrequently, secondary sources) without quotation marks to preserve the novel style.

  NOTE ON COLUMBUS’S JOURNAL, RELATED PRIMARY SOURCES, CERTAIN ABBREVIATIONS, AND PERMISSIONS

  Columbus’s daily ship’s log of the first voyage was presented to Isabella at the completion of the voyage and has been lost since her death. Isabella had a copy made and given to Columbus in 1493, which has been lost since the sixteenth century. Before the copy vanished, Columbus’s son Ferdinand reviewed it, and Bartolomé de Las Casas prepared an abstract summarizing and sometimes copying portions of it. This abstract has survived, and today we refer to it as the Journal. Historians disagree about the extent to which the Journal substantively edits or otherwise deviates intentionally or mistakenly from the original log. Portions of the log omitted from Las Casas’s abstract, including information for the period from August 9 to September 5, can be found summarized or copied in Ferdinand’s biography of his father or, more extensively, Las Casas’s Historia de las Indias, both of which also add significant detail and color to the days that are presented in the Journal.

  The Journal’s Castilian handwritten text has been transcribed to print a number of times, and these transcriptions or the original text have been translated into English a number of times. For discussion of the various transcriptions and translations, see the prologue to “Fuson Log,” and, with respect to Las Casas’s editing and the Journal’s shortcomings as a historical record, the introduction to the “Synoptic Journal,” the “Journal Raccolta Notes,” and “Zamora,” each noted below.

  I have considered the following English translations of the Journal:

  P: The Journal of Christopher Columbus (During His First Voyage, 1492– 93) and D
ocuments Relating the Voyages of John Cabot and Gaspar Corte Real. Translated by Clements R. Markham. 1893. Reprint, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010 (referred to herein as the “Hakluyt Journal”). This Journal, originally published by the Hakluyt Society in London, is the English translation older readers would have read in their youth. It has been my companion on my investigations in Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

  P: Samuel Eliot Morison’s translation (“Morison Journal”) contained in “Morison Documents” noted below.

  P: The Diario of Christopher Columbus’s First Voyage to America, 1492– 1493. Translated by Oliver Dunn and James E. Kelley, Jr. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1989 (the “Dunn & Kelley Journal”).

  P: Christopher Columbus: The Journal, Account of the First Voyage and Discovery of the Indies, Part 1. Translated by Marc A. Beckwith and Luciano F. Farina, with an introduction and notes by Paolo Emilio Taviani and Consuelo Varela. Vol. 1, Nuova Raccolta Colombiana. Rome: Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca Dello Stato, 1990 (the “Journal Raccolta”). Part 2 of this volume, identically titled, presents explanatory analysis of the Journal reflecting current scholarship (a secondary source, the “Journal Raccolta Notes”). The Nuova Raccolta Colombiana is a comprehensive collection of contemporary sources—Spanish texts and Italian and English translations—and analyses sponsored by the Italian Ministry of Cultural and Environmental Assets, National Commission for the Celebration of the Quincentennial of the Discovery of America, with English translations provided by The Ohio State University (the editions I used).

  P: The Log of Christopher Columbus. Translated by Robert H. Fuson. Camden, ME: International Marine Publishing Company, 1987 (“Fuson Log”). This contains modernized language and interpolation of Las Casas’s Historia de las Indias.

  The portions of Las Casas’s Historia de las Indias corresponding to the Journal have been translated into English and presented together with translations of the Journal and Ferdinand Columbus’s biography—a substantial scholarly effort and achievement—in the following volume, which I have considered for those portions of Las Casas’s Historia de las Indias:

  P: A Synoptic Edition of the Log of Columbus’s First Voyage. Edited by Francesca Lardicci, with additional editing and translation by Valeria Bertolucci Pizzorusso, Cynthia L. Chamberlin, and Blair Sullivan. Vol. 6, Repertorium Columbianum. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols, 1999 (the “Synoptic Journal” or, as relating to the portions of Las Casas’s Historia de las Indias alone, the “LC Synoptic Journal”). The Repertorium Columbianum is a comprehensive collection of contemporary sources—Spanish or Italian texts and English translations—and analyses relating to Columbus’s four voyages published under the auspices of the UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, also undertaken at the time of the quincentenary anniversary of 1492.

  As for the remainder of Las Casas’s Historia de las Indias, which includes information about both the Taínos and Columbus not directly related to the encounter, I have considered:

  P: Las Casas on Columbus: Background and the Second and Fourth Voyages. Edited and translated by Nigel Griffin. Vol. 7, Repertorium Columbianum. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols Publishers, 1999 (“Las Casas Repertorium”). This work of the Repertorium Columbianum translates into English portions of Historia de las Indias relating to Columbus other than the Journal, as well as some portions of other works of Las Casas.

  P: Las Casas, Bartolomé de. Historia de las Indias. 3 vols. With prologue, notes, and chronology by André Saint-Lu. Caracas, Venezuela: Biblioteca Ayacucho, 1986 (“Las Casas Historia”). This is the work in Spanish and remains untranslated in its entirety.

  As to Ferdinand Columbus’s biography, I have used:

  P: Columbus, Ferdinand. The Life of the Admiral Christopher Columbus. Translated and annotated by Benjamin Keen. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1959 (“Ferdinand Columbus”).

  Readers can refer to any of the foregoing or other versions of the Journal for substantially the same basic information, but not the information in Ferdinand Columbus or LC Synoptic Journal. The various texts differ as to details as to what occurred and other nuances, and I have made judgments between them and quoted or paraphrased words, phrases, and portions of sentences selected from some of them, particularly the Hakluyt Journal. There is a substantial translation issue relevant to the ideas presented herein upon which scholars disagree, discussed in Chap. VIII, “From the heavens, Guanahaní, October 13–14, 1492,” below. References hereafter to the “Journal” refer to the foregoing translations of the Journal collectively due to their similarity, but not to Ferdinand Columbus or Las Casas’s Historia de las Indias as translated in the LC Synoptic Journal.

  In 1985, copies of lost letters purportedly of Columbus were discovered, now known as the “Libro Copiador.” Some bear upon the events narrated herein, and I have considered the following translations:

  P: Christopher Columbus: Accounts and Letters of the Second, Third and Fourth Voyages, Part 1. Edited by Paolo Emilio Taviani, Consuelo Varela, Juan Gil, and María Conti, translated by Marc A. Beckwith and Luciano F. Farina. Vol. 6, Nuova Raccolta Colombiana. Rome: Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca Dello Stato, 1994. Section 2 of this Part 1 includes the lost letters in Spanish and English and is referred to herein as the “Libro Copiador;” and Section 1 contains other Columbian letters previously known, referred to herein as the “Raccolta Letters on Subsequent Voyages.” Part 2 of this Nuova Raccolta Colombiana volume, identically titled, presents explanatory analysis of the letters (a secondary source, the “Raccolta Letters Notes”).

  S: Zamora, Margarita. Reading Columbus. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993 (“Zamora”). This analysis of Columbus’s writings includes an English translation of the first lost letter, the Letter to Reyes discussed under Chap. XI. “Letters to the Sovereigns, January–February 1493” below.

  Following Columbus’s death in 1506, his heirs and the Spanish crown contested Columbus’s hereditary entitlements in lawsuits spanning decades, as discussed under Chap. VI, “Christóbal Recruiting Crews to Traverse the Sea of Darkness, Palos, Moguer, Huelva, Summer 1492,” below. Some of the lawsuits’ testimony bears upon the events narrated herein, and I have considered the following Repertorium Columbianum text/translation:

  P: Phillips, Jr., William D., ed. and trans. Testimonies from the Columbian Lawsuits. Philologist Mark D. Johnston, translated by Anne Marie Wolf. Vol. 8, Repertorium Columbianum. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols Publishers, 2000 (the “Pleitos,” i.e., the “lawsuits”).

  English translations of other documents and records bearing on the events narrated herein include:

  S: Nader, Helen, ed. and trans. The Book of Privileges Issued to Christopher Columbus By King Fernando and Queen Isabel 1492–1502. Philologist Luciano Formisano. Vol. 2, Repertorium Columbianum. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 1996 (“Nader”).

  P: Morison, Samuel Eliot, ed. and trans. Journals and Other Documents on the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus. New York: Heritage, 1963 (“Morison Documents”).

  I thank the following institutions and publishers for the permission to quote or paraphrase words, phrases, and sentence portions from their works, as follows: the UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies and Brepols Publishers n.v., with respect to seven volumes of the Repertorium Columbianum, the four noted above (Vols. 2, 6, 7, and 8) and three others noted herein below (Vols. 9, 10, and 12); Rutgers, The State University, with respect to Ferdinand Columbus noted above; the University of California Press, with respect to Zamora noted above; and the Hakluyt Society, with respect to the volume relating to Cadamosto cited in the Prologue: 1455 and Chap. IV, “João and King Ansa Mina de Oro (Elmina, Ghana), 1481–1482,” below.

  In particular, the seven volumes of the Repertorium Columbianum include English translations of primary sources that are relevant not only to the period of the Journal, but to events occurring over the entire time period of this novel, including translations of works of Las Casas providing information
relating to the novel’s Taíno participants and the testimonies of members of Columbus’s crews and their relatives revealing their viewpoints and understandings; accordingly, I’m especially grateful to both the UCLA Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies and Brepols for their permission and, more fundamentally, for undertaking the endeavor to make and publish the English translations in the first place.

  This book is a novel for which I bear full responsibility, and none of the foregoing institutions or publishers have participated in or bear any responsibility for how I have used their work herein.

  PROLOGUE: 1455

  Ca’ da Mosto

  Land of the Budomel (North of Dakar, Senegal, Africa), April–May 1455