Encounters Unforeseen- 1492 Retold
Page 60
As some other contemporaries, Columbus believed the estimate of 56.67 Roman miles (52.1 statutory miles) to one equatorial degree was consistent with the estimate of 56.67 miles by the Arab geographer Al-Farghani (Alfraganus). Columbus later confirmed this when reading Cardinal d’Ailly’s Ymago Mundi. Columbus (and possibly the cardinal himself) misunderstood, however; Alfraganus’s mile was a longer Arabian mile, equivalent to more than 1.2 statutory miles. With a Roman mile equivalent to approximately 0.92 statutory miles, Columbus’s estimate of the earth’s equatorial circumference was actually 23 percent shorter than Alfragan’s, almost 10 percent shorter than Ptolemy’s and almost 25 percent shorter than actual.
Isabel and Fernando
Reconquista Resumed, 1482–1485
P, prev. cit.: Bernáldez, chaps. 48, 51–63, 67–71, 75–77. Palencia Grenada, bks. 2–5. Pulgar, chaps. 125–138, 141, 147–155, 157–162, 164–173, 194. Zurita Anales, bk. 20, chaps. 42–4, 48, 51, 58.
P: Abenhamin. The Civil Wars of Grenada, and the History of the Factions of the Zegries and Abencerrages, Two Noble Families of that City, To the Final Conquest by Ferdinand and Isabella. Translated from Arabic into Spanish by Gines Pérez de Hita and into English by Thomas Rodd. London: Thomas Ostell, 1803.
P: Bustani, Alfredo. Fragmento de la época sobre noticias de los Reyes Nazaritas o Capitulación de Grenada y Emigración de los andaluces a Marruecos. Larache: Publicaciones del Instituto General Franco para la Investigación Hispano-Árabe, Artes Gráficas Bosca, 1940 (“Fragmento”).
S, prev. cit.: Azcona Isabel; Harvey; Liss; Rubin; Schwartz, Chap. 3, Miguel Angel Ladero Quesada, “Spain, circa 1492: Social values and structures.”
S: Raya Retamero, Salvador. Guia Historico-Artistica de Alhama de Grenada. Grenada: Museo Parroquial, 2007.
Anacaona
Birth of Higueymota
P, prev. cit.: Las Casas Historia, bk. 1, chap. 169. Martyr, decade 3, bk. 9; decade 7, bk. 9.
S, prev. cit.: Arrom Lexicología; Granberry Languages; Wilson.
I have found no primary source addressing whether Higueymota was Caonabó’s child. Some believe Anacaona’s marriage to Caonabó occurred close to 1492; if this is correct, Higueymota would have been a child out of wedlock (which carried no moral opprobrium and regularly occurred) or by a prior husband. Anacaona certainly may have had other children with Caonabó or others. I have chosen to present Anacaona’s marriage and Higueymota’s birth in the chronology and with the father indicated simply on the assumptions that (i) Anacaona would have been married to an important cacique shortly following puberty because of the importance of the alliance to her uncle or Behecchio and (ii) Anacaona’s subsequent renown suggests she attained over thirty years by 1500.
Cristóvão and João
Audience and Review, 1484–1485
P, prev. cit.: Barros, decade 1, bk. 3, chap. 11, and English trans. in Catz. Bernáldez, chap. 118. Jane, Letter of Columbus on Third Voyage. Morison Documents, Invitation of D. João II to Columbus to Return to Portugal, March 20, 1488. Ferdinand Columbus, chap. 11. Las Casas Repertorium, sec. 2.1. Oviedo Repertorium, sec. 3.5. Pina, chap. 66.
S, prev. cit.: Beazley; Disney; García; Morison Admiral; Morison Northern; Morison Southern; Northrup; Taviani Grand Design.
S: Fernández-Armesto, Felipe. Columbus and the Conquest of the Impossible. London: Phoenix, 2000 (“Fernández-Armesto Conquest”).
S: Ravenstein, Ernst Georg, William Brooks Greenlee, and Pero Vaz de Caminha. Bartolomeu Dias. Edited by Keith Bridgeman and Tahira Arsham. England: Viartis, 2010 (“Ravenstein”).
Columbus met with John and then Ferdinand and Isabella from 1484 to 1492 to convince them to sponsor his first Atlantic voyage. There is no account by a court chronicler of the substance of these meetings written at the time of the meetings—undoubtedly because no one except Columbus thought they were important. Descriptions of Columbus’s meetings with royalty prior to 1492 do not have greater foundation than other pre-1492 passages herein. The principal primary source for this story are three paragraphs written by Barros in the sixteenth century. I believe the year and place of this meeting are unknown. García says 1483, Taviani says 1483– 1484, Morison says 1484–1485. Columbus handwritten notes indicate he was in Portugal in 1485, so I have followed Morison suspecting Columbus left Lisbon soon after the rejection.
Ferdinand Columbus and Las Casas state, and many historians believe, that Columbus left Portugal secretly because João might have restrained him, possibly because of his knowledge of Toscanelli, Mina, or the potential viability of Columbus’s plans. I have not perceived such concern on João’s behalf.
CHAPTER V: 1485–1490, FAITH
Bakako’s Fishing Lesson
Guanahaní (San Salvador?, Bahamas)
P, prev. cit.: Journal, 10/11/1492, 10/13–14/1492, for descriptions of Guanahaní. Las Casas Historia, bk. 1, chap. 86, and Las Casas Repertorium, sec. 5.3, as to Las Casas’s acquaintance with “Bakako.”
S, prev. cit.: Journal Raccolta Notes; Keegan Prehistory; Keegan Talking Taíno.
It is undisputed that the inhabitants’ name for the first island Columbus visited was Guanahaní and that he named Guanahaní “San Salvador.” Geographers and historians continue to disagree whether this Guanahaní/ San Salvador is the island currently named “San Salvador” or another. The text in this story, Chap. VI, “Bakako’s Sentry Duty, Guanahaní (San Salvador?, Bahamas),” and Chap. VIII assumes the Guanahaní/San Salvador of 1492 is the island currently named “San Salvador,” which accords with my untutored, on-site observation that the current “San Salvador” does well correspond to the Journal’s description of San Salvador. This assumption affects the geography described in this passage, Chap. VI, and the route described in Chap. VIII, but the island’s current identity is otherwise irrelevant to the story and ideas presented.
Bakako is an historical person given a fictitious name. Yuni is a fictitious person.
Cristóbal, Isabel, Fernando, and Talavera
Palos, Audience with Sovereigns, and Talavera Commission, 1485–1487
P, prev. cit.: D’Ailly, postils 23c-g, 28, 30b, 31, 37, 43, 58, 78, 79, 362, 366, 397, 486, 495, 677, 689. Barros, decade 1, bk. 3, chaps. 3–5. Bernáldez Raccolta, chap. 108. Ferdinand Columbus, chaps. 5, 11–13. Goís, bk. 1. Jane, Columbus’s Letter to Sovereigns on Fourth Voyage (July 7, 1503). Journal, 1/14/1493, as to date Columbus began to serve sovereigns. Las Casas Repertorium, secs. 1.4, 2.1–2.3. Marco Polo, bk. 3, chap. 4. Morison Documents, Letter of the Duke of Medina Celi to the Grand Cardinal of Spain, March 19, 1493. Oviedo Repertorium, sec. 3.5. Palencia Cronica, decade 3, bk. 25, chaps. 4, 5. Pleitos docs. 1.12, 11.2, 19.5, testimonies of Bartolomé Colón, Rodrigo Maldonado, Dr. García Fernández. Prophecies, Columbus’s letter to King and Queen, 1500–1502(?), as to mapmaking. Pulgar, chap. 224. Zurita Anales, bk. 20, chap. 65.
P: Castanheda, Fernao Lopes de. Historia do Descobrimento e Conquista da India. Book I. Lisbon: Na Typographia Rollandiana, 1833. Chap. I.
P: Meyers, Jacob M., trans. I & II Esdras. Garden City: Doubleday, 1974 (“Esdras”). Bk. 2, chap. 6, paras. 42–52.
P: Navarrete, Martín Fernández de. Colección de los Viages y Descubrimientos que Hicieron por Mar Los Españoles Desde Fines del Siglo XV. Vols. 1–5. Buenos Aires: Editorial Guarania, 1945. Tomo II, Col. Dipl. 2 (disbursements for Columbus).
P: Resende, García de. Chronica de El-Rei D. João II. Vols. 1, 3. Lisbon: Bibliotheca de Classicos Portuguezes, 1902. Chap. 61.
P: Zurita, Jerónimo. Historia del Rey Don Hernando el Católico: de las Empresas y Ligas de Italia. 6 vols. Edition by Angel Canellas Lopez. Zaragoza, Spain: Diputación General de Aragón, 1989 (“Zurita Hernando”). Bk. 1, chap. 13.
S, prev. cit.: Álvarez Álvarez; Baer; Berggren-Jones; Boxer; Catz; Documentos Expulsion (preliminary study by Luis Suarez Fernández); Fernández-Armesto Columbus; Fernández-Armesto Conquest; Fuson Islands; Jane, Introductions; Kamen; Larner; Lea; Liss; Morison Admiral; Moris
on Portuguese; Netanyahu Inquisition; Phillips; Ravenstein; Rumeu de Armas Tordesillas; Seed; Taviani Grand Design; Thornton Africans.
S: Angel Ortega, P. La Rábida: Historia Documental Crítica. Vol 2. Seville: Impr y Editorial de San Antonio, 1880.
S: Kayserling, Meyer, trans. and ed. Charles Gross. Christopher Columbus and the Participation of the Jews in the Spanish and Portuguese Discoveries. New York: Longmans, Green, 1894.
S: Manzano Manzano, Juan. Cristóbal Colón: Siete años decisivos de su vida, 1485–1492. Madrid: Ediciones Cultura Hispánica, 1964 (“Manzano Siete”).
S: Morison, Samuel Eliot. Portuguese Voyages to America in the Fifteenth Century. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1940 (“Morison Portuguese”).
S: Thomas, Hugh. Rivers of Gold: The Rise of the Spanish Empire, from Columbus to Magellan. New York: Random House, 2003 (“Thomas Rivers”).
Scholars disagree whether Columbus visited La Rábida in 1485, and, if so, why he did, offering various political, mercantile, religious, social, or other connections. Following Ferdinand Columbus, Las Casas, Morison, Taviani, and Manzano, I believe he did. I have assumed the simplest motive: he traveled to Palos to leave Diego with Violante while en route to Seville or Córdoba and, by chance, stopped at La Rábida to honor the Virgin and St. Francis for the safe voyage.
Scholars disagree where and when Columbus first met Isabella and Ferdinand; whether Columbus offered to sail for the Duke of Medina Sidonia and the Duke of Medinaceli before offering to sail for the sovereigns; and on Bartholomew’s whereabouts during this period. Taviani, relying on Manzano’s extensive analysis, believes Columbus first met the sovereigns on January 20, 1486, in Alcalá de Henares and, as Ferdinand Columbus and Las Casas indicate, that Columbus’s offers to the noblemen were made only after the initial rejection by the sovereigns. Morison believes the first meeting with the sovereigns was in Córdoba and, as Oviedo, followed offers to the noblemen. I have followed Manzano’s analysis and Columbus’s Journal entry of 1/14/1493 and thereby Taviani as to the date and place of the first meeting and as preceding the offers to the noblemen. I have followed Taviani and Manzano placing Bartholomew in Castile. These temporal issues do not affect the ideas presented.
Scholars disagree as to Columbus’s precise calculations of, and the resulting mileages for, the breadth of the Ocean Sea and inter island distances. Generally, I have presented mileage consistent with Morison because his is one of the “longer” estimates; even using these “longer” estimates, Columbus grossly underestimated the Ocean Sea’s breadth.
Martin Behaim’s globe of 1492, in the German Natural History Museum, Nuremberg, and the “Columbus Map,” in the National Library, Paris, are perhaps the contemporaneous maps best representing Christopher’s and Bartholomew’s view of the Ocean Sea, the Indies, and terra firma. The German-born Behaim (ca. 1436–1507) was a geographic adviser to King John and resided in the Azores until 1490, when he returned to Nuremberg. It is possible he met Columbus; regardless, his globe confirms that geographers contemporaneous to Columbus shared d’Ailly’s view of the proximity of Cipangu and the Canaries. Most scholars dispute that the “Columbus Map” was drawn by either Columbus brother, but it does reflect Dias’s expedition of 1488.
A record of the Talavera commission’s members and proceedings has not been found. Historians disagree the extent Columbus had read Marco Polo, Ptolemy, and other authorities cited by this time or even 1492 so as to permit the substance of the discussion I have presented. It may be that Columbus read copies of Ptolemy and Marco Polo only after his first voyage but I suspect a combination of his informal learning and reading of Cardinal d’Ailly by this time permitted the conversation presented.
Guacanagarí, Mayobanex, and Guarionex
On the Border of Marien, Ciguayo, and Magua
P, prev. cit.: Cuneo. Las Casas Historia, bk. 1, chaps. 102, 115, 121. Las Casas Repertorium, sec. 5.4. Martyr, decade 1, bks. 5, 7; decade 3, bks. 7, 8; decade 7, bk. 9. Oviedo, bk. 5, chap. 1. Pané, chap. 18.
S, prev. cit.: Alegría; Deagan; Indigenous Peoples; Keegan Myth; Keegan Talking Taíno; Lovén; Oliver; Stevens-Arroyo; Wilson.
S: Vega, Bernardo. Breve historia de Samaná. Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic: Fundación Cultural Dominicana, 2004 (“Vega Samaná”).
Tuobasa is an historical person given a fictitious name.
Fernando
Málaga, 1487
P, prev. cit.: Bernáldez, chap. 82–88. Fragmento. Navarrete, vol. 2, Col. Dipl. 2 (disbursements for Columbus). Palencia Grenada, chaps. 6, 7. Pulgar, chaps. 197–223. Zurita Anales, bk. 20, chaps. 70, 71.
S, prev. cit.: Harvey; Manzano Siete; Morison Admiral; Prescott; Rubin; Taviani Grand Design.
Cristóbal
Beatriz, Dias, Henry VII, and Baby Fernando, 1487–1488
P, prev. cit.: D’Ailly, postil 23b. Barros, decade 1, bk. 3, chap. 4. Ferdinand Columbus, chaps. 11, 13. Goís, bk. 1. Las Casas Historia, bk. 1, chap. 27. Las Casas Repertorium, secs. 2.1, 2.2. Morison Documents, Invitation of D. João II to Columbus to Return to Portugal, March 20, 1488. Oviedo Repertorium, sec. 3.5.
S, prev. cit.: Manzano Siete; Morison Admiral; Morison Portuguese; Phillips; Ravenstein; Taviani Grand Design; Thomas Rivers.
S: Crowley, Roger. Conquerors: How Portugal Forged the First Global Empire. New York: Random House, 2015.
S: Subrahmanyam, Sanjay. The Career and Legend of Vasco de Gama. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
S: Torre y del Cerro, José de la. Beatriz Enríquez de Harana y Cristóbal Colón. Madrid: Compania Iberoamericana de Publicaciones, 1933.
With scant primary source evidence, leading historians disagree as to Bartholomew Columbus’s whereabouts from 1485–1494 and, while there is more evidence, Columbus’s whereabouts 1487–1491, and whether it was Bartholomew or Christopher (or both or neither) who witnessed Bartholomew Dias’s return to Lisbon. Either Christopher or Bartholomew could have recorded the postil in d’Ailly’s Ymago Mundi indicating having witnessed the event. Evidence indicates Bartholomew Columbus presented his map to King Henry VII in England in February 1488. I have assumed Bartholomew Columbus was not in Lisbon (and probably in England or France) in December 1488, and, by process of elimination, Christopher was. The story could be written with Bartholomew in Lisbon in December 1488 and reporting to Christopher without changing the ideas presented.
Isabel and Fernando
Rebellion in Gomera, Canary Islands, 1488–1489
P, prev. cit.: Ovetense, chaps. 24–26.
S, prev. cit.: Fernández-Armesto Before Columbus, 1492; Rumeu de Armas Indigenista; Viera y Clavijo.
Isabel and Cristóbal
Audience, Jaén, 1489
P, prev. cit.: D’Ailly, postils 374, 397, 398. Bernáldez, chap. 97. Bernáldez Raccolta, chap. 118. Fernando Columbus, chaps. 9, 13. Jane, Columbus’s Letters on the Third and Fourth Voyages (October 18, 1498 and July 7, 1503). Las Casas Repertorium, sec. 2.3. Oviedo Repertorium, sec. 3.5. Mandeville, chaps. 20, 22, 30, 33. Marco Polo, bk. 1, chaps. 1, 42, 43, 51–53; bk. 3, chap. 44. Morison Documents, Letter of the Duke of Medina Celi to the Grand Cardinal of Spain, March 19, 1493. Navarrete, vol. 2, Col. Dipl. 4 (sovereigns’ letter for Columbus’s transit). Palencia Grenada, chap. 9. Prophecies, Columbus’s letter to King and Queen, 1500–1502(?). Pulgar, chap. 260. Zurita Anales, bk. 20, chap. 85.
P: Pliny the Elder. Natural History. Vol. 2. Translated by H. Rackham. London: The Folio Society, 1940. Bk. 9, paras. 1–3.
P: Genesis 2:9–14. I Kings 9:26–8; 10:11, 22–23.
S: Sánchez González, Antonio. Medinaceli y Colón: La otra alternativa del Descubrimiento. Madrid: Editorial MAPFRE, 1995.
S, prev. cit.: Larner; Manzano Siete; Morison Admiral; Nader, Introduction; Phillips; Taviani Grand Design.
The historical record of the substance of this conversation is merely that Isabella gave Columbus certain hope. I have not followed Sánchez González, who believes the Duke of Medinaceli’s support o
ccurred during 1490 and the sovereigns’ denial of the duke’s sponsorship in 1491 (and, by deduction, that the meeting in Jaén had a different pretext).
CHAPTER VI: 1490–AUGUST 2, 1492, DESTINY
Cristóbal
Forgotten, 1491
P, prev. cit.: Cuneo.Fernando Columbus, chaps. 13, 14. Las Casas Repertorium, sec. 2.3. Oviedo Repertorium, sec. 3.5. Pleitos, docs. 19.5, 22.3, testimonies of García Fernández, Alonso Velez.
S, prev. cit.: Angel Ortega: Fernández-Armesto Conquest; Manzano Siete; Morison Admiral; Phillips; Taviani Grand Design.
S: Rumea de Armas, Antonio. Cristóbal Colón y Beatriz de Bobadilla en las Antevísperas del Descubrimiento. Las Palmas, Spain: El Museo Canario, 1960.
While not verifiable, many historians believe Columbus had an affair with Beatriz de Bobadilla of the Canary Islands.
Isabel, Fernando, and Cristóbal
Reconquista Completed, 1491–1492
P, prev. cit.: Abenhamin, chap. 17. Bernáldez, chaps. 92–102. Documentos Expulsion, docs. 109, 170. Fragmento. Historia Jerónimo, pt. 3, bk. 2, chap. 32. Palencia Cuarto, bk. 36, chap. 3. Palencia Grenada, chaps. 7, 9. Pulgar, chaps. 230, 252, 253, 255, 257, 259. Zurita Anales, bk. 20, chaps. 49, 79, 81, 84, 87–92.
S, prev. cit.: Azcona Isabel; Baer; Beinart; Clavijo; Fernández-Armesto Conquest; Harvey; Kamen; Kayserling; Lea; Liss; Netanyahu Origins; Peréz; Prescott; Rubin; Rumeu de Armas Indigenista; Thomas Rivers.
S: Netanyahu, B. Don Isaac Abravanel Statesman & Philosopher. 5th ed. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1998 (“Netanyahu Abravanel”).
S: Varela, Consuelo. Colón y los florentinos. Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 1988.