Encounters Unforeseen- 1492 Retold

by Andrew Rowen

  Isabel

  Seville, Castile, 1477–1478

  P, prev. cit.: Bernáldez, chaps. 29–33, 43. Documentos Expulsion, docs. 21, 33. Palencia Cronica, decade 3, bk. 25, chaps. 4, 5; bk. 29, chaps. 7–10 (Guzmán’s thoughts, suspicion pregnant); bk. 30, chaps. 1–4. Pulgar, chaps. 89–97. Zurita Anales, bk. 20, chaps. 12, 22.

  P: Llorca, Bernardino. Miscellanea Historiae Pontificiae Vol. XV: Bulario Pontificio de la Inquisitión Española en su Periodo Constitutional (1478– 1525). Rome: Pontifica Universita Gregoriana, 1949 (“Inquisition Bulls”). Doc. 3 (Rome, November 1, 1478, and Seville, January 1, 1481).

  P: Palencia, Alonso de. Cuarta Decada. Madrid: Real Academia de la Historia, 1974 (“Palencia Cuarta”). Bk. 32, chap. 1.

  P: Talavera, Hernando de. Católica Impugnacion: del héretico libelo maldito descomulgado que fue divulgado en la ciudad de Sevilla. Spain: Almuzara, 2012 (“Talavera Impugnacion”). Chap. 53.

  S, prev. cit.: Azcona Isabel; Azcona Juana; Beinart; Fernández-Armesto Ferdinand Isabella; Harvey; Kamen; Liss; Netanyahu Origins; Pérez Inquisition; Rubin; Vives Fernando.

  S: Baer, Yitzhak. A History of the Jews in Christian Spain. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1966.

  S: Benbassa, Esther, and Aron Rodrigue. Sephardi Jewry: A History of the Judeo-Spanish Community, 14th–20th Centuries. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000.

  Guacanagarí

  Gold Homage, Marien

  P, prev. cit.: Bernáldez Raccolta, chap. 130. Chanca. Las Casas Repertorium, sec. 5.3. Libro Copiador, letters 2 (January–February, 1494), 3 (April 1494), and 4 (February 16, 1495), as to gold in Cibao. Martyr, decade 1, bks. 1–3. Pané, chaps. 19 (tree moving roots), 24. Oviedo Repertorium, sec. 3.25. Syllacio.

  S, prev. cit.: Oliver; Stevens-Arroyo.

  S: Guitar, Lynne. “Cultural Genesis: Relationships among Indians, Africans, and Spaniards in rural Hispaniola, first half of the sixteenth century.” PhD diss., Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN. UMI Microform no. 9915091.

  Isabel, Fernando, and João

  Treaties at Alcáçovas, Portugal, 1479–1481

  P, prev. cit.: Bernáldez, chaps. 49, 50. Davenport, Treaty between Spain and Portugal, concluded at Alcáçovas, September 4, 1479; Aeterni Regis, June 21, 1481. Palencia Cuarta, bk. 33, chap. 10; bk. 36, chap. 10. Pulgar, chaps. 81, 104, 107, 109–112. Zurita Anales, bk. 20, chaps. 27, 34, 38.

  P: Parry, John H. and Robert G. Keith. New Iberian World A Documentary History of the Discovery and Settlement of Latin America to the Early 17 th Century. Vol. 1. New York: Times Books, 1984. Doc. 5:7, order of Afonso V, 1480.

  S, prev. cit.: Azcona Isabel; Azcona Juana; Fonseca; Morison Admiral; Raccolta Letters Notes.

  S: Edwards, John. Ferdinand and Isabella: Profiles in Power. Harlow, UK: Pearson Education, 2005.

  S: Rumeu de Armas, Antonio. El Tratado de Tordesillas. Madrid: Editorial MAPFRE, 1992 (“Rumeu de Armas Tordesillas”).

  Anacaona

  Succession in Xaraguá

  P, prev. cit.: Benzoni, bk. 1. Las Casas Apologetica, chaps. 5, 197. Las Casas Historia, bk. 1, chaps. 102, 114, 116. Las Casas Short Account, chap. “The Kingdoms of Hispaniola.” Martyr, decade 1, bk. 5; Decade 3, bks. 7–9; decade 7, bk. 10. Oviedo, bk. 5, chap. 3.

  S, prev. cit.: Oliver; Wilson.

  S: Sued-Badillo, Jalil. La mujer indígena y su sociedad. 6th ed. Río Piedras, Puerto Rico: Editorial Cultural, 2010 (“Badillo Mujer”).

  Cristóvão

  Marriage in Lisbon, (1479)

  P, prev. cit.: Bernáldez Raccolta, chap. 118. Dotson, doc. 113 (Columbus’s declaration as witness in commercial dispute before Genoa’s Merchandise Office, August 25, 1479). Ferdinand Columbus, chaps. 2, 5, 11. Las Casas Repertorium, secs. 1.3, 2.2

  P: Goís, Damião de. Lisbon in the Renaissance. Translated by Jeffery S. Ruth. New York: Italia Press, 1966. Book II.

  P: Symcox, Geoffrey, ed., Luciano Formisano, Theodore J. Cachey, Jr., and John C. McLucas, eds. and trans. Italian Reports on America 1493–1522 Accounts by Contemporary Observers. Vol. 12, Repertorium Columbianum. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols Publishers, 2002 (“Italian Reports Repertorium”). Docs. 12.1, 12.2 (Agostino Gustiniani, 1516, 1537).

  S, prev. cit.: Beazley; Fernández-Armesto Columbus, 1492; Fonseca; Morison Admiral; Morison Southern; Russell; Taviani Grand Design.

  S: Catz, Rebecca Catz. Christopher Columbus and the Portuguese, 1476– 1478. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1993.

  S: Felicidade Alves, José da. O Mosteiro dos Jerónimos I—Descrição e Evocação. Lisbon: Livros Horizonte, 1989.

  S: Madariaga, Salvador de. Christopher Columbus: Being the Life of The Very Magnificent Lord Don Cristóbal Colón. New York: Christopher Columbus Publishing, 1978.

  There is little evidence as to when or how Bartholomew first arrived in Lisbon or how he and Christopher started their mapmaking business. Morison assumed Bartholomew was closer in age to Christopher and arrived in Lisbon before Christopher (i.e., before 1477). Taviani believed Bartholomew would not have arrived before 1479. I have followed Taviani as to the ten-year age difference and Christopher’s presence in Lisbon first, but left more time to establish the mapmaking business before Christopher departs Lisbon in 1480.

  Salvador de Madariaga has argued that Columbus was born in Genoa of a Spanish-Jewish family that emigrated from Catalonia to Genoa during the repressions of the 1390s; he was raised bilingual (Genoese and Castilian) and brought up in a Spanish atmosphere (explaining his “fluency” in Castilian); thereafter, he engaged in anti-Genoese behavior, fighting with the pirate Coulon against the Genoese; and, while a sincere and devout Catholic, he was influenced by Jewish faith and loyal to that heritage as a descendant of conversos.

  Most historians find these particularized arguments unsupported by evidence. A more mainstream view is simply that (i) Columbus was a devout Catholic born in Genoa or its environs (Columbus states he was born in Genoa in his first will, 1497, Dotson, doc. 149)—which, in my view, his writings and the Ligurian record reveal unambiguously, and (ii) he might have had converso (and therefor Jewish) ancestors. In support of the latter view, I believe the historical record shows he was comfortable in relationships with conversos and well versed in the Old Testament (each as presented in the text), and, as discussed under Chap. IX, “To Cueiba (at Bahia de Gibara) and West, October 26–November 11, 1492,” below, he apparently accepts that a converted Jew may become a true Christian—perhaps as his ancestors (similar to Talavera). While the Journal acknowledges the sovereigns’ expulsion of the Jews from Spain and their effort to eliminate heresy (Prologue) and recommends to the sovereigns that the lands he has discovered be restricted to good Christians (11/27/1492), I suspect this involves some pandering, and it is consistent with the belief a Jew can convert to become a true Christian. I find Columbus devoutly Catholic but that his writings do not evidence the cultural anti-Jewishness prevalent in many of the other primary sources.

  For a summary of the debate, see John Noble Wilford, The Mysterious History of Columbus: An Exploration of the Man, the Myth, the Legacy (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1991). See also Simon Wiesenthal, Sails of Hope: The Secret Mission of Christopher Columbus, trans. Richard and Clara Winston (New York: Christopher Columbus Publishing, 1979); and Carlos Esteban Deive, Heterodoxia e Inquisicion en Santo Domingo 1492– 1822 (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic: Taller, 1983).

  CHAPTER IV: 1480–1485, AMBITION

  Caonabó and Anacaona

  Marriage in Xaraguá

  P, prev. cit.: Las Casas Historia, bk. 3, chap. 24. Martyr, decade 7, bk. 8; decade 8, bk. 8. Oviedo, bk. 5, chap. 3; bk. 17, chap. 4.

  S, prev. cit.: Arrom Lexicología; Badillo Mujer; Guitar; Stevens-Arroyo.

  Las Casas, Martyr, and Oviedo briefly describe Taíno marriage ceremonies, but the focus is on ordinary (non-caciqual) marriages and none describes this caciqual marriage in Haiti. I have presented Oviedo’s description applying to a caciqual Taíno marriage in neighboring
Cuba as would be interpreted by Las Casas.

  Cristóvão

  Births of Diogo Colombo and an Idea, Porto Santo, (1480–1481)

  P, prev. cit.: Barros, decade 1, bk. 1, chaps. 2, 3; bk. 2, chap. 1, and English translation of bk. 2, chap. 1, in Cadamosto. Ferdinand Columbus, chaps. 5–9, 11. Las Casas Repertorium, secs. 1.3, 1.4, 2.1. Mandeville, chap. 20. Prophecies, folio 59 rvs., quoting Seneca’s Medea. Translations of Toscanelli’s letters to Columbus contained in Hakluyt Journal; Morison Documents; Ferdinand Columbus, chap. 8.

  P: Seneca, Lucius Annaeus. Natural Questions. Translated by Harry M. Hine. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010. Book 1, On…Fires.

  S, prev. cit.: Ballesteros; Fuson Islands; Morison Admiral; Morison Northern; Morison Southern; Nunn; Russell; Taviani Grand Design; Vignaud.

  S: Gay, Franco, and Cesare Ciano. The Ships of Christopher Columbus. Translated by Lucio Bertolazzi and Luciano F. Farina. Vol. 7, Nuova Raccolta Colombiana. Rome: Instituto Poligrafico e Zecca Dello Stato, 1996 (“Gay”).

  S: Greens, Jack P., and Philip D. Morgan, eds. Atlantic History A Critical Appraisal. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.

  Many scholars believe Columbus, his son Ferdinand, and/or Las Casas invented the correspondence between Columbus and Toscanelli, and a limited minority believe they also invented the correspondence between the Portuguese cleric and Toscanelli; two alleged motivations are (i) to establish that Columbus’s aim was to achieve the Indies whereas his true aim simply was to achieve new islands, such as Antilla, or (ii) to attribute the error in not anticipating the American continents to an authority on which Columbus relied.

  As Morison, Taviani, and most others, I find the invention of the cleric-Toscanelli correspondence highly improbable because (for me) the content of the original correspondence seems well beyond the perspective of Columbus, Ferdinand, and Las Casas.

  As for Columbus’s own correspondence with Toscanelli, it reflects the perspective of the cleric-Toscanelli correspondence, which could be copied. Nevertheless, when Ferdinand and Las Casas wrote, the New World’s discovery was viewed as a success for Spain, and I do not see the foregoing motives sufficient concerns to induce a fabrication, and, following Taviani and Morison, I have written that the correspondence existed.

  More important, in my view, the actual existence of the Columbus-Toscanelli correspondence is a mechanical detail that does not affect the ideas presented in the text. I believe that by 1492 Columbus was aware of the substance of Marco Polo’s discussion of Cathay, Mangi, and Cipangu either by (i) direct knowledge of Marco Polo’s discussion of them or, at minimum, to the extent discussed by Toscanelli in either (ii) the cleric-Toscanelli correspondence or the (iii) Columbus-Toscanelli correspondence. This awareness—by any one of the three potential sources alone—significantly affects Columbus’s perceptions presented in the text after the voyage commences. Although some historians disagree, I find it problematic to refute Columbus’s knowledge of Marco Polo’s Cathay, Mangi, and Cipangu in 1492.

  I have followed most scholars’ view that Columbus did not commence reading ancient and current books regarding the earth’s geography while in Portugal. However, he would have heard of Marco Polo since youth, and I suspect that he would have heard of Mandeville, Aristotle, and Seneca by virtue of the brothers’ mapmaking business and/or sailing on ships and/or his Portuguese relatives.

  As Taviani and Morison, I do not credit the story of the “unknown pilot”—whose ship was sailing off Portugal and blown in a storm to the Caribbean, who then returned on the same ship to die as the survivor of the ill-fated voyage in Columbus’s house, and who, before dying, revealed to Columbus alone the latitude and longitude of the Caribbean islands (see the accounts in Las Casas Repertorium, sec. 1.4, and Oviedo Repertorium, sec. 3.3). I suspect the account was invented by Columbus detractors among the colonists in Española during the European rebellion against Columbus’s rule. But Juan Manzano Manzano believes the account true, as argued in Juan Manzano Manzano, Colon y su secreto (Madrid: Ediciones Cultura Hispanica, 1976).

  In addition to Porto Santo, Columbus and Filipa probably lived in Madeira and possibly the Canary Islands before 1485. Most historians agree that Columbus sailed to the Canary Islands prior to 1492. Taviani believes he also sailed to the Azores, although the evidence is indirect; I have followed Taviani, although Columbus could merely have heard reports of them.

  Isabel, Fernando, Mehmed II, and Abu l’Hassan

  Otranto and the Emirate of Grenada, 1480–1481

  P, prev. cit.: Bernáldez, chap. 45. Kritovoulos, pt. 1, paras. 234–279; pt. 3, paras. 51–53; pt. 5, paras. 56–60. Palencia Cuarta, bk. 36, chap. 9. Pulgar, 119. Zurita Anales, bk. 20, chap. 37.

  P: Palencia, Alonso de. Guerra de Granada. Edicion by Antonio Paz y Melia, preliminary study by Rafael Gerardo Peinado Santaella. Granada: Universidad de Grenada, 1998 (“Palencia Grenada”). Bk. 1.

  S, prev. cit.: Babinger; Berggren-Jones; Freely; Harvey.

  Isabel, Fernando, Doramas, and Tenesor Semidan

  Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, 1477–1483

  P, prev. cit.: Augustine City, bk. 16, chap. 9. Benzoni, Brief Discourse on Some Remarkable Things in the Canary Islands. Bernáldez, chaps. 35, 64–66. Martyr, decade 1, bk. 1. Palencia Cuarta, bk. 31, chaps. 8, 9; bk. 32, chaps. 3, 7; bk. 33, chaps. 5, 8; bk. 34, chap. 8; bk. 35, chaps. 2, 6; bk. 36, chaps. 4, 5. Pulgar, chaps. 81, 145. Zurita Anales, bk., 20, chaps. 39, 42.

  P: Morales Padrón, Francisco. Canarias: Crónicas de su Conquista. 3rd ed. Madrid: Cabildo de Gran Canaria, 2008. Libro de Alferes Alonso Jaimes de Sotomayor (“Ovetense”), chaps. 7, 15, 16, 19–22.

  S, prev. cit.: Deagan; Fernández-Armesto Before Columbus; Fernández-Armesto Ferdinand Isabella; Fernández-Armesto 1492; Rumeu de Armas Indigenista; Rumeu de Armas Tordesillas; Schwartz, Chap. 3, Miguel Angel Ladero Quesada, “Spain, circa 1492: Social values and structures.”

  S: Castellano Gil, José M., and Fransisco J. Macías Martín. History of the Canary Islands. Translated by M. del Pino Minguez Espino. Tenerife, Spain: Centro de la Cultura Popular Canaria, 1993.

  S: González Anton, R., and A. Tejera Gaspar. Los Aborígenes Canarios, Gran Canaria y Tenerife. Madrid: Colegio Universitario Ediciones Istmo, 1990.

  S: Hanke, Lewis. Aristotle and the American Indians: A Study in Race Prejudice in the Modern World. Chicago: Henry Regnery Company, 1959.

  S: Rumeu de Armas, Antonio. “Introduccion Historica.” In Canarias. La Colección Tierras de España by Antonio López Gómez, Antonio Rumeu de Armas, Alfonso Armas Ayala, and Jesús Hernández Perera. Madrid: La Fundacion Juan March, 1984, pp. 68-104.

  S: Seed, Patricia. Ceremonies of Possession in Europe’s Conquest of the New World, 1492–1640. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1995.

  S: Viera y Clavijo, Joseph de. Noticias de la Historia General de las islas de Canaria. Vol. 2. Madrid: Imprenta de Blas Romàn, 1773.

  S: Zwemer, Samuel M. Raymund Lull: First Missionary to the Moslems. New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1902.

  João and King Ansa

  Mina de Oro (Elmina, Ghana), 1481–1482

  P, prev. cit.: Barros, decade 1, bk. 3, chaps. 1–3, and English trans. thereof in Cadamosto.

  P: Pina, Rui de. Crónica de el-Rei D. João II. Coimbra: Atlantida, 1950. Chap. 2.

  P: Newitt, Malyn, ed. The Portuguese in West Africa, 1415–1670: A Documentary History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010. Doc. 22, trans. of Pina, Chronica de El-Rey D. João II.

  S, prev. cit.: Boxer; Northrup; Saunders; Thomas Slave Trade; Thornton Africans.

  S: Adoma Perbi, Akosua. A History of Indigenous Slavery in Ghana: from the 15th to the 19th Century. Accra, Ghana: Sub-Saharan Publishers, 2004.

  Isabel and Fernando

  Inquisition, 1480–1483

  P, prev. cit.: Bernáldez, chap. 44. Inquisition Bulls, docs. 3 (Rome, November 1, 1481), 4 (Rome, January 29, 1482), 5 (Rome, February 2, 1482), 6 (Rome, April 18, 1482), 7 (Córdoba, May 13, 14
82), 8 (Rome, October 10, 1482), 10 (Rome, February 23, 1483). Pulgar, chaps. 96, 120. Talavera Impugnacion, chaps. 8, 31, 37, 38, 44, 53, 73–77. Zurita Anales, bk. 20, Chap. 49.

  S, prev. cit.: Azcona Isabel; Baer; Beinart; Documentos Expulsion (preliminary study by Luis Suarez Fernández); Kamen, including for translation and explanation of papal bull of April 18, 1482, p. 49; Liss; Netanyahu Origins; Pérez Inquisition; Rubin; Walsh.

  S: Lea, Henry Charles. A History of the Inquisition of Spain. 4 vols. New York: Macmillan, 1922.

  S: Netanyahu, B. The Marranos of Spain. 3rd ed. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1999.

  S: Reston, Jr., James. Dogs of God: Columbus, The Inquisition, and the Defeat of the Moors. New York: Anchor Books, 2005.

  Cristóvão

  Voyage to Mina, (1482–1483)

  P, prev. cit.: Acosta, chaps. 1–3. Ferdinand Columbus, chap. 4. Journal, 10/28/1492, 11/12/1492, 11/27/1492, 12/21/1492, references to Guinea. Journal Raccolta Notes, n. 30, translation of postils in D’Aily’s Ymago Mundi. Las Casas Repertorium, sec. 1.2.

  P: D’Ailly, Pierre. Ymago Mundi y otras opúsculos. Prepared by Antonio Ramírez de Verger, revised by Juan Fernández Valverde y Francisco Socas. Biblioteca de Colón, Vol. 2. Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 1992 (“D’Ailly”). This edition includes Columbus’s and his brother’s postils. Postils 16, 18, 490, 491.

  P: Ymago Mundi de Pierre d’Ailly. 3 vols. Edmund Buron editor. Paris: Maisonneuve Freres, 1930.

  S, prev. cit.: Boxer; Fuson Islands; Morison Admiral; Morison Southern; Nunn; Phillips; Taviani Grand Design.

  S: Fernández-Armesto, Felipe. Columbus on Himself. Indianapolis: Hackett, 2010 (“Fernández-Armesto Columbus on Himself”).

  S: Reséndez, Andrés. The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016.

  Most historians agree Columbus’s voyage to Mina occurred. Historians disagree whether, prior to 1492, Columbus had ever “commanded” a ship. Ferdinand Columbus, chap. 4, and Las Casas, Las Casas Repertorim, sec. 1.2, indicate he had, with which Morison and Taviani agree. I believe it is important to distinguish the roles of a “merchant commander,” such as Cadamosto, from a “captain,” such as Vicente Dias; Prince Henrique looked to Cadamosto to understand Prince Henrique’s objectives and to command in that respect, not to command the crew in the operation of the boat. I believe Columbus, at this stage of his life, cared about “command” only in the former sense. Ferdinand’s and Las Casas’s indications may be exaggerations.