Encounters Unforeseen- 1492 Retold

by Andrew Rowen

P: Ca’ da Mosto, Alvise da. The Voyages of Cadamosto and Other Documents on Western Africa in the Second Half of the Fifteenth Century. Translated and edited by G. R. Crone. London: Hakluyt Society, 1937 (“Cadamosto”). Chaps. 1–10, 14–22, 25, 26, 29, 31, 33–35, 38.

  S: Cipolla, Carlo. Guns, Sails, and Empires: Technological Innovation and the Early Phases of European Expansion, 1400–1700. New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1965.

  S: Northrup, David. Africa’s Discovery of Europe, 1450–1850. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.

  S: Russell, Peter. Prince Henry ‘the Navigator’: A Life. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2001.

  S: Sallah, Tijan M. Wolof. New York: Rosen, 1996 (including for the Wolof proverb, p.42).

  S: Saunders, A. C. de C. M. A Social History of Black Slaves and Freedmen in Portugal, 1441–1555. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982.

  S: Thomas, Hugh. The Slave Trade: The Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1440–1870. New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 1997 (“Thomas Slave Trade”).

  S: Thornton, John. Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 1400–1800. 2nd ed. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998 (“Thornton Africans”).

  Malik (Pedro) and Ndey are historic persons given fictitious names.

  CHAPTER I: 1455–1460, CHILDHOOD, LESSONS, LEGACY

  Caonabó

  Aniyana (Middle Caicos, Turks and Caicos, Caribbean)

  P: d’Anghera, Peter Martyr. De Orbe Novo: The Eight Decades of Peter Martyr d’Anghera. Translated by Francis Augustus MacNutt. New York: Burt Franklin, 1912 (“Martyr”). Decade 3, bk. 10; decade 7, bk. 1.

  P: Las Casas, Bartolomé de. Apologetica historia de las Indias. 3 vols. Edition by Vidal Abril Castelló, Jesús A. Barreda, Berta Ares Quieja, and Miguel J. Abril Stoffels. Vols. 6, 7, 8, Fray Bartolomé de Las Casas: Obras Completas. Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 1992 (“Las Casas Apologetica”). Chap. 197.

  P: Pané, Ramón. An Account of the Antiquities of the Indians. New edition by José Juan Arrom, translated by Susan C. Griswold. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1999. Preamble; chap. 19.

  S: Arrom, José Juan. Mitología y artes prehispánicos de las Antillas. 2nd ed. Coyoacán, Mexico: Siglo Veintiuno Editores, 1989.

  S: Barreiro, José, “A Note on Tainos: Wither Progress?” In “View from the Shore: American Indian Perspectives on the Quincentenary,” edited by José Barriero, Columbus Quincentenary Edition, Northeast Indian Quarterly. Vol. 7, no. 3, Fall 1990, pp. 4-22.

  S: Granberry, Julian. The Americas That Might Have Been: Native American Social Systems Through Time. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2005.

  S: Granberry, Julian and Gary Vescelius. Languages of the Pre-Columbian Antilles. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2004 (“Granberry Languages”).

  S: Keegan, William F. The People Who Discovered Columbus: The Prehistory of the Bahamas. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1992 (“Keegan Prehistory”).

  S: Keegan, William F. Taíno Indian Myth and Practice: The Arrival of the Stranger King. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 2007 (“Keegan Myth”).

  S: Lovén, Sven. 1935. Origins of the Tainan Culture, West Indies. Preface by L. Antonio Curet. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2010.

  S: Mills, Carlton, gen. ed. History of the Turks & Caicos Islands. Oxford: Macmillian, 2008 (“Caicos”). Chap. 7, Josiah Marvel, “Our First Colonists: The Pre-Columbian People of the Turks & Caicos.”

  S: Rouse, Irving. The Tainos: Rise and Decline of the People Who Greeted Columbus. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1992.

  S: Sauer, Carl Ortwin. The Early Spanish Main. London: Cambridge University Press, 1966.

  S: Stevens-Arroyo, Antonio M. Cave of the Jagua: The Mythological World of the Taínos. Scranton, PA: University of Scranton Press, 2006.

  Historians, anthropologists, and others disagree whether Caonabó was a Caribe or a Lucayan or Haitian Taíno and, if Haitian, whether he might have been of the Macorix or Ciguayo peoples. I have chosen a Lucayan Taíno, born in a Taíno settlement on a Lucayan island, on the basis of Las Casas, Keegan, and Lovén; the presence of brothers in Haiti; and a suspicion that Caonabó’s reputation as a warrior led Europeans, including Oviedo, to assume or assert that he was Caribe. In particular, Columbus knew Caonabó, and there is no suggestion by Columbus in the Libro Copiador (see Chap. II, “Caonabó Journey from Aniyana to Haiti,” below) that Caonabó was Caribe. Keegan has speculated that Caonabó’s homeland was a Taíno settlement on Middle Caicos (i.e., Lucayan)—as presented in the text—but it is unknown.

  There are various recurring traditions regarding Onaney as a Haitian born intimate to Caonabó, including that she was of a Ciguayan caciqual family and his lover. I am unaware of primary source evidence validating the traditions, but have speculated—parallel to speculating that Caonabó was Lucayan—that Onaney was an historic person and a Lucayan childhood friend. See introduction to Pedro L. Verges Vidal, Anacaona (1474–1503), Ciudad Trujillo, Dominican Republic: Editora Montalvo, 1947; and Mon González, Lo Feminino en lo Taíno: Religión, Mitología, Sociedad, Sexualidad, Historia, Magia y Poesia, Conferencia dictada en la Biblioteca Nacional de Santo Domingo, August 9, 2005, and en el Centro Cuesta del Libro, October 17, 2005. Special thanks to Lynne Guitar, PhD History and Anthropology.

  Cristoforo

  Genoa, (March 1460)

  P, prev. cit.: Ferdinand Columbus, chap. 1. Las Casas Repertorium, sec. 1.1.

  P: Dotson, John ed. and trans. Christopher Columbus and His Family: The Genoese and Ligurian Documents. Vol. 4, Repertorium Columbianum. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols Publishers, 1998 (“Dotson”). Docs. 4 (Domenico has apprentice), 9 and 18 (Domenico named warder of city gate), 26 (Domenico replaced as warder), 30 (Domenico’s lease for Genoa home), 41 (Domenico’s nephew apprenticed to tailor), 149 (Columbus’s first will, 1497, stating born in Genoa).

  P: Farina, Luciano F., trans. and ed., and Robert W. Tolf, ed. Columbus Documents: Summaries of Documents in Genoa. Detroit: Omnigraphics, 1992.

  P: Oviedo on Columbus. Edited by Jesús Carrillo, translated by Diane Avalle-Arce. Vol. 9, Repertorium Columbianum. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols Publishers, 2000 (“Oviedo Repertorium”). Sec. 3.3.

  P: Palencia, Alonso de. Crónica de Enrique IV. Introduction by Antonio Paz y Melia. Vols. 257, 258, and 267, Biblioteca de Autores Españoles. Madrid: Ediciones Atlas, 1973–1975 (“Palencia Cronica”). Decade 1, bk. 5, chap. 6.

  P: Zurita, Jerónimo. Anales de la Corona de Aragón. 9 vols. Edition by Angel Canellas Lopez. Zarazoga, Spain: Institucion Fernando el Católico, 1985–2008 (“Zurita Anales”). Bk. 16, chaps. 50, 59.

  S: Epstein, Steven A. Genoa and the Genoese, 958–1528. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996.

  S: Ferro, Gaetano. Liguria and Genoa at the Time of Columbus. With contributions from Pietro Barozzi, Daniela Galassi, Stefanella Guardo, and Maria Pia Rota. Translated by Anne Goodrich Heck, revised by Luciano F. Farina. Vol. 3, Nuova Raccolta Colombiana. 3. Rome: Instituto Poligrafico e Zecca Dello Stato, 1992.

  S: Morison, Samuel Eliot. Admiral of the Ocean Sea: A Life of Christopher Columbus. Boston: Little, Brown, 1942 (“Morison Admiral”).

  S: Morison, Samuel Eliot. The European Discovery of America: The Southern Voyages, AD 1492–1616. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1974 (“Morison Southern”).

  S: Taviani, Paolo Emilio. Christopher Columbus: The Grand Design. Translated by William Weaver. London: Orbis, 1985 (“Taviani Grand Design”).

  S: Vicens Vives, Jaime. Fernando el Católico: Principe de Aragón, Rey de Sicilia 1458–1478. Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, Biblioteca “Reyes Católicos,” 1952.

  I have followed Taviani’s analysis of the Ligurian notarial documents translated or summarized in Dotson and Farina that Columbus was born in Genoa or environs, most likely between August 25 and October 31, 1451. Antonio is fictitious.

  Prince Henrique of Portugal (Henry the Navigator)
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  Raposeira, Southern Portugal (Spring 1460)

  P, prev. cit.: Cadamosto, chap. 1.

  P: Acosta, Joseph de. The Natural and Moral History of the Indies. Vol. 1. The Natural History. Edited by Clements R. Markham. 1880. Reprint, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009. Chaps. 7–10.

  P: Berggren, J. Lennart, and Alexander Jones. Ptolemy’s Geography: An Annotated Translation of the Theoretical Chapters. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000 (“Ptolemy” or, as to the introduction, “Berggren-Jones”). Ptolemy, bk. 1, sec. 12; bk. 7, sec. 5.

  P: Davenport, Frances Gardiner. European Treaties Bearing on the History of the United States and its Dependencies to 1468. Translated by William Bollan. Washington, DC: Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1917 (“Davenport”). Romanus Pontifex (January 8, 1455) and Inter Caetera (March 13, 1456).

  P: Kritovoulos. History of Mehmed The Conqueror. Translated by Charles T. Riggs. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1954. Pt. 1.

  P: Puyol, Julio, ed. Crónica incompleta de los Reyes Católicos (1469–1476): Según un manuscrito anónimo de la época. Madrid: Academia de la Historia, 1934 (“Incompleta”). Title 1.

  P: Zurara, Gomes Eanes de. The Chronicle of the Discovery of Guinea. 2 vols. Translated by Charles R. Beazley and Edgar Prestage for the Hakluyt Society. 1896. Reprint, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010 (“Zurara” or, as to the introduction in Vol. 2, “Beazley”). Chaps. 2, 4, 5, 7–9, 12, 14–18, 23–26, 31.

  P: Genesis 11:1-9. Isaiah 27:1. Job 41:1, 31.

  S, prev. cit.: Morison Admiral; Russell; Sallah; Saunders; Thomas Slave Trade.

  S: Babinger, Franz. Mehmed the Conqueror: and His Time. Edited by William C. Hickman, translated by Ralph Manheim. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1978.

  S: Boxer, C. R. The Portuguese Seaborne Empire, 1415–1825. Middlesex, UK: Penguin, 1969.

  S: Crosby Jr., Alfred W. The Columbian Exchange: Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492. 30th anniv. ed. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2003 (“Crosby”).

  S: Disney, A. R. A History of Portugal and the Portuguese Empire: From Beginnings to 1807. Vol. I. Portugal. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.

  S: Fernández-Armesto, Felipe. Before Columbus: Exploration and Colonization from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic, 1229–1492. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1987 (“Fernández-Armesto Before Columbus”).

  S: Freely, John. The Grand Turk Sultan Mehmet II: Conqueror of Constantinople and Master of an Empire. New York: Overlook. 2009.

  S: Hopkins, Donald R. Hopkins. The Greatest Killer: Smallpox in History. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002.

  S: Mallet, Michael. The Borgias: The rise and fall of the most infamous family in history. London: Granada Publishing, 1969.

  S: Morison, Samuel Eliot. The European Discovery of America: The Northern Voyages, AD 500–1600. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1971 (“Morison Northern”).

  S: Phillips, Jr., William D., and Carla Rahn Phillips. The Worlds of Christopher Columbus. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992.

  S: Rumeu de Armas, Antonio. La Politica Indigenista de Isabel La Católica. Valladolid, Spain: Instituto “Isabel La Católica” de Historia Eclesiastica, 1969 (“Rumeu de Armas Indigenista”).

  S: Schwartz, Stuart B., ed. Implicit Understandings: Observing, Reporting, and Reflecting on the Encounters Between Europeans and Other Peoples in the Early Modern Era. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994 (“Schwartz”). Chap. 1, Seymour Phillips, “The outer world of the European Middle Ages.”

  S: Tozer, Henry Fanshawe. A History of Ancient Geography. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1897.

  CHAPTER II: 1460S, YOUTH

  Caonabó

  Journey from Aniyana to Haiti

  P, prev. cit.: Journal, 10/13/1492; 12/3/1492; 1/8–9/1493, for descriptions of canoes and Haiti. Libro Copiador, letters 3 (April 1494) and 4 (February 26, 1495), for descriptions of Haiti. Martyr, decade 1, bk. 9 (Haiti’s caves); decade 7, bk. 8 (Haiti as beast). Morison Documents, Michele de Cuneo’s letter on second voyage (“Cuneo”), for descriptions of Haiti. Pané, Preamble; chaps. 1 (the two caves), 2–6, 13.

  P: Benzoni, Girolamo. History of the New World; Shewing His Travels in America, from AD 1541 to 1556: with some Particulars of the Island Canary. Translated and edited by W. H. Smyth. 1857. Reprint, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009. Bk. 1.

  P: Bernáldez, Andrés. Historia de los Reyes Católicos D. Fernando y Doña Isabel. Seville: D. José María Geofrin, 1870. 2 vols. (“Bernáldez”). Chap. 118.

  P: Jane, Cecil, trans. and ed. The Four Voyages of Columbus: A History in Eight Documents, Including Five by Christopher Columbus, in the Original Spanish, with English Translations. 2 vols. New York: Dover, 1988 (“Jane”). Dr. Diego Alvarez Chanca’s letter on second voyage (“Chanca”), for descriptions of Haiti.

  S, prev. cit.: Caicos; Granberry Languages; Keegan Myth; Keegan Prehistory; Rouse; Sauer; Stevens-Arroyo.

  S: Alegría, Ricardo E. Ball Courts and Ceremonial Plazas in the West Indies. New Haven, CT: Yale University Publications in Anthropology, 1983.

  S: Arrom, José Juan. Estudio de Lexicología Antillana. 2nd ed. San Juan, Puerto Rico: Editorial de la Universidad de Puerto Rico, 2000 (“Arrom Lexicología”).

  S: Callaghan, Richard T. “Archaeological Views of Caribbean Seafaring.” In The Oxford Handbook of Caribbean Archaeology, pp. 283-295, edited by William F. Keegan, Corrine L. Hofman, and Reniel Rodríguez Ramos. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.

  S: Curet, L. Antonio, and Mark W. Hauser. Islands at the Crossroads: Migration, Seafaring, and Interaction in the Caribbean. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2011.

  S: Keegan, William F., and Lisabeth A. Carlson. Talking Taíno: Caribbean Natural History from a Native Perspective. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2008 (“Keegan Talking Taíno”).

  S: Oliver, José R. Caciques and Cemí Idols: The Web Spun by Taíno Rulers Between Hispaniola and Puerto Rico. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2009.

  S: Wilson, Samuel M. Hispaniola: Caribbean Chiefdoms in the Age of Columbus. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1990.

  Primary sources (e.g., Las Casas Historia, bk. 1, chap. 50; Martyr, decade 3, bk. 7; Bernáldez, chap. 118) indicate that the Taínos referred to the entire island of the Dominican Republic and Haiti (i.e., “Española” or the Latinized “Hispaniola”) as Haiti and sometimes “Bohío,” the latter being the typical Lucayan reference and used by Columbus in the Journal. Martyr (decade 3, bk. 7) indicates that the word Quizqueia was also used by its “early inhabitants” to describe Hispaniola, and scholars disagree whether Quizqueia was a Taíno or pre-Taíno name. While Quizqueia may also be correct, I have used Haiti and sometimes Bohío as the Taíno name for the entire island. See Granberry Languages and Arrom Lexicología.

  Guacanagarí

  Marien, Haiti

  P, prev. cit.: Ferdinand Columbus, chap. 62, quoting his father’s description of the Taíno cohoba ceremony, including dedicated bohio and cemi worship. Journal, 12/23/1492, for description of Guarico. Las Casas Apologetica, chaps. 120 and 166, including English translation thereof in Pané, appendix C. Martyr, decade 1, bk. 9. Morison Documents, Nicolò Syllacio’s letter to the Duke of Milan, December 13, 1494, relating letter of Guillermo Coma on second voyage (“Syllacio”). Pané, chap. 19.

  S: Keegan Myth; Journal Raccolta Notes; Oliver; Rouse; Stevens-Arroyo.

  S: Deagan, Kathleen, and José María Cruxent. Columbus’s Outpost among the Taínos: Spain and America at La Isabela, 1493–1498. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2002.

  S: Reid, Basil A. Myths and Realities of Caribbean History. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2009.

  S: Sued-Badillo, Jalil. Los Caribes: Realidad o Fabula. Río Piedras, Puerto Rico: Editorial Antillana, 1978 (“Badillo Caribes”).

  S: Wilson, Samuel M., ed. The Indigenous People of the Caribbean. Gainesville: Universit
y Press of Florida, 1997 (“Indigenous People”).

  This story depicts Carib wife-raiding, not cannibalism. For discussion of whether Carib cannibalism was mythological or real, see Chap. X. “Ciguayo and Samaná, January 12–16, 1493.”

  Heitiana and Butiyari are fictitious.

  Isabel

  Segovia, Castile (January–June 1465)

  P, prev. cit.: Bernáldez, chap. 1. Incompleta, title 1. Palencia Cronica, decade 1, bk. 1, chaps. 1, 2; bk. 2, chaps. 1, 9, 10; bk. 3, chaps. 1, 2, 6, 9, 10; bk. 4, chap. 2; bk. 6, chaps. 3, 5, 10; bk. 7, chaps. 1, 3, 4, 5, 8. Zurita Anales, bk. 16, chaps. 13, 14, 28; bk. 17, chap. 36; bk. 18, chap. 2; bk. 20, chap. 44.

  P: Castillo, Diego Enríquez del. Crónica del Rey D. Enrique el Quarto de Este Nombre. Madrid: D. Antonio de Sanch, 1787. Chaps. 14, 38–40, 57, 60, 62, 64, 67–70, 77.

  P: Memorias de Don Enrique IV de Castilla. Vol.2. Contiene la Colección Diplomatica del Mismo Rey, compuesta y ordenada por la Real Academia de la Historia. Madrid: Establecimiento Tipográfico de Fortanet, 1835–1913 (“Enrique Colección Diplomatica”). Docs. CI-CV (1464), CIX (1465), CXVIII (1465).

  P: Paz y Melia, Antonio, ed. El Cronista Alonso de Palencia: su vida y sus obras; sus Décadas y las Crónicas contemporáneas; illustraciones de las Décadas y notas varias. Madrid: Hispanic Society of America, 1914 (“Palencia Notes”). Docs. 10 (Real Cedula, September 4, 1464) and 11 (Letter, September 28, 1464).

  P: Pulgar, Fernando del. Crónica de los Reyes Católicos. 2 vols. Edition by Juan de Mata Carriazo. Granada: Marcial Pons Historia, 2008. Chap. 1.

  P: St. Augustine. Concerning the City of God and the Pagans. Translated by Henry Bettenson. London: Penguin, 2003 (“Augustine City”). Bk. 5, chap. 11.

  P: Sigüenza, José. Historia de la Orden de San Jerónimo. Vol. 2. Spain: Junta de Castilla y León, Consejería de Educación y Cultura, 2000. (“Historia Jerónimo”). Pt. 3, bk. 2, chaps. 29, 30, 35.

  P: Valera, Diego de. Memorial de Diversas Hazañas: Crónica de Enrique IV. Edition by Juan de Mata Carriazo. Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, S. A., 1941. Chaps. 7, 20, 28.

  P: Ezekiel 18:20. John 2:14–16; 5:29; 8; 18. Mark 12:29–31. Matthew 5:8, 44–45; 10:34–37; 21:12–13; 27:1–2.