by Andrew Rowen
The Castilian text of the Journal indicates on October 14 the Taínos then meeting Columbus thought the Europeans came from the “cielo,” which can be translated both as “sky” and “heaven” in English. Scholars disagree whether “sky” (a geographic concept), “heavens” (a more encompassing cosmographic concept), or “Heaven” (a religious concept including sacredness) is the correct interpretation of the Taínos’ belief, although it seems most contemporaneous Europeans self-righteously interpreted that the Taínos believed the Europeans came from Heaven. Morison and the LC Synoptic Journal translate “sky”; Dunn & Kelley Journal “heavens”; the Hakluyt Journal and Journal Raccolta “heaven”; and Fuson Log “Heaven” to capture the European interpretation.
I suspect (i) the “sky” is correct from the point of view of Taíno geographic understanding, but too limited in English translation to capture the Taínos’ belief that spirits lived there and their concern that the Europeans might be spirits, and (ii) “Heaven” is wrong, as I doubt the Taínos even had the concept of a Heaven earned by faith and do not read the events related in the Journal itself as establishing that, at the time of most initial contacts (i.e., before conflict arose), the Taínos had decided whether the Europeans were friendly as opposed to unfriendly spirits or men, which perhaps was the key question they first confronted. Accordingly, I have presented the Taínos on San Salvador as concluding the Europeans came from the heavens (i.e., the numinous sky, where spirits could travel, if the Eurpopeans were spirits), which most Europeans interpreted as “Heaven.”
Search for Gold and Cipangu,
October 14–24, 1492
P, prev. cit.: Ferdinand Columbus, chap. 25, 26. Journal, 10/14–25/1492, 11/20/1492. LC Synoptic Journal, LC30–40.
S, prev. cit.: Journal Raccolta Notes; Manzano Pinzón; Morison Documents.
The Journal does not provide Taíno or baptized Christian names for the Guanahanían captives taken, nor does it individually distinguish the captives or their actions. The Journal does indicate Columbus gave three captives for use on the Pinta and I have deduced one for the Niña. This and subsequent volumes will relate Columbus’s long-standing use, trust, and affection for one of the younger Guanahanían captives—whom I have fictitiously named “Bakako.” Hereafter, when the Journal relates Columbus placing special responsibility on a captive, I suspect that would have been “Bakako” and often so written, although it could have been another captive. The Journal and LC Synoptic Journal sometimes indicate, suggest, or imply the concurrent active involvement of two captives, one older, and I have fictionally named this second captive “Yutowa.” The historical record definitively related to “Bakako” and “Yutowa” as individuals commences in 1493, after the period of the Journal.
Caonabó
Maguana
No primary or secondary sources.
CHAPTER IX: CUBA
To Cueiba (at Bahía de Gibara) and West,
October 26–November 11, 1492
P, prev. cit.: Bernáldez Raccolta, chap. 118. Ferdinand Columbus, chaps. 27–29. Journal, 10/26/1492–11/12/1492. LC Synoptic Journal, LC 40–51. See Journal 10/30/1492 and LC Synoptic Journal LC 43 for Bakako’s plea and, in the latter, Las Casas’s explanation of the word Cuba.
S, prev. cit.: Forbes; Gould; Morison Documents; Phillips; Reséndez.
S: Harrington, M.R. Indian Notes & Monographs Cuba Before Columbus. New York: Museum of the American Indian Heve Foundation, 1921.
S: Hulme, Peter. Colonial Encounters Europe and the Native Caribbean, 1492–1797. London: Methuen, 1986.
The discussion of the women captives and the children is based on the translation of Las Casas’s Historia de las Indias in LC Synoptic Journal, where Las Casas severely criticizes Columbus’s intent to force intra-Taíno marriage or concubine relationships on Taínos and relates that the Taíno father brought aboard was the father of the three children already aboard. Dunn and Kelley and some scholars suspect or believe Columbus was arranging concubines for his crew (a criticism beyond Las Casas’s criticism, which I suspect is unwarranted) and that the father brought three additional children aboard.
It is here that the Journal reveals that Columbus (or perhaps merely Las Casas) is comfortable that a converso can become a genuine Christian: Columbus notes that Luís de Torres had been a Jew (11/2/1492), refers to Torres as a Christian (11/6/1492), and, in an apparent reference to the Jews’ expulsion from Spain, refers to the sovereigns’ destruction of those Jews who did not convert (11/6/1492). See also Ferdinand Columbus, chaps. 27, 28, and LC Synoptic Journal, LC 46, 50.
East to Baneque (Great Iguana Island?),
November 12–22, 1492
P, prev. cit.: Bernáldez Raccolta, chap. 118. Ferdinand Columbus, chaps. 29, 30, 35. Journal, 11/12–23/1492. LC Synoptic Journal, LC 51–58.
S, prev. cit.: Fernández Duro; Gould; Journal Raccolta Notes; Manzano Pinzón; Morison Admiral; Phillips.
Some historians believe the crews felt the voyage a failure when they failed to find gold and Cipangu at Cuba. I suspect the crew had a lower expectation of quick gratification and were more optimistic. Some historians doubt Baneque was Great Iguana Island.
East to Baracoa,
November 23–December 5, 1492
P, prev. cit.: Bernáldez Raccolta, chap. 118. Ferdinand Columbus, chaps. 30, 31. Journal, 11/23/1492–12/5/1492. LC Synoptic Journal, LC 59–70. Martyr, decade 1, bk. 1. Oviedo Repertorium, sec. 3.7.
P: Matthew 6:9–15; 28:16–20.
S, prev. cit.: Forbes; Harrington; Journal Raccolta Notes; Keegan Myth; Keegan Talking Taíno; Manzano Pinzón; Morison Admiral; Rouse; Schwartz, chap. 5, Peter Hulme, “Tales of Distinction: European ethnography and the Caribbean”; Wilson.
Primary sources do not discuss or relate facts regarding the transmission in the Caribbean of disease from Europeans to Taínos on Columbus’s first voyage other than identifying a Taíno perhaps dying on the return voyage (Oviedo Repertorium, sec. 3.7.12; cf. Bernáldez Raccolta, chap. 118; Martyr Raccolta, bk. 1; Las Casas Repertorium, sec. 3.3). As related in the text hereafter, the captives taken to Spain become ill in Spain.
The substantial weight of epidemiological opinion is that Columbus’s observation that his crews had been healthy coupled with (i) the medical fact that the duration of the outward voyage was sufficiently long to preclude the latent, human transmission of many notable infectious diseases, e.g., smallpox, malaria, measles, (ii) the absence of animal cargo other than vermin, (iii) the small number of Europeans involved, and (iv) the brevity of their contacts with Taínos precludes the possibility that disease was transmitted to Taínos in the Carribean on the first voyage. Scholars debate the impact of germs versus guns on Taíno populations after the first voyage, and this horrific topic is for future volumes. But I have not fictionalized epidemics in the Bahamas, Cuba, Haiti, or the Dominican Republic arising from the first voyage. See Crosby and the following:
S: Cook, Noble David. Born to Die: Disease and New World Conquest, 1492–1650. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
S: Ramenofsky, Ann F. Vectors of Death: The Archaeology of European Contact. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press, 1987.
S: Raudzens, George, ed. Technology, Disease, and Colonial Conquests, Sixteenth to Eighteenth Centuries. Boston: Brill Academic, 2003.
Barcelona,
December 1492
P, prev. cit.: Bernáldez, chaps. 104, 115, 116. Clemencín, Illustracion 13, Letter de la Reina Doña Isabel a su confessor D. Fr. Hernando de Talavera. Zurita Hernando, bk. 1, chaps. 9, 12.
S, prev. cit.: Fernández-Armesto Ferdinand Isabella; Liss; Rubin; Ryder.
CHAPTER X: HAITI
Unknown Arrives on Haiti (Bohío),
Late November–Mid-December 1492
P, prev. cit.: Ferdinand Columbus, chap. 35. Journal, 12/27/1492; 1/6 & 10/1493. LC Synoptic Journal, LC101, 104. Las Casas Apologetica, chaps. 1, 2. Pleitos docs. 8.2, 18.1, 19.5, 19.8, 19.11, 19.12, 22.10, testimonies of Pedro En
ríquez, García Fernández (sailor on Pinta), García Fernández (physician), Diego Fernández Colmenero, Francisco García Vallejo (sailor on Pinta or Niña), Arias Pérez Pinzón, Gonzalo Martín.
S, prev. cit.: Gould; Journal Raccolta Notes; Manzano Pinzón; Morison Admiral; Sauer; Wilson.
Martín Alonso Pinzón did not record his voyage separate from Columbus in a journal, and the story is fictionalized from information contained in Columbus’s account in the Journal (which is contemptuous of Pinzón) and the testimony largely of Crown witnesses in the Pleitos (who are sympathetic to the Pinzón family), including Pinzón’s son Arias. As some historians, based on the primary sources I believe Martín Alonso Pinzón arrived at Luperon on the Dominican Republic’s northern coast by mid-December 1492. The dates for and the route taken by Pinzón from Baneque to Luperon are unknown.
Cristóbal’s First Encounters in Marien
(Mole St. Nicholas to Baie de l’Acul, Haiti), December 5–22, 1492
P, prev. cit.: Bernáldez Raccolta, chap. 118. Ferdinand Columbus, chaps. 31, 32. Journal, 12/5–22/1492. Las Casas Apologetica, chaps. 1, 2. LC Synoptic Journal, LC70–88.
S, prev. cit.: Journal Raccolta Notes; Morison Admiral; Morison Documents; Schwartz, Chap. 5, Peter Hulme, “Tales of Distinction: European ethnography and the Caribbean”; Taviani Voyages; Wilson.
Bawana is a historical person given a fictitious name. The Journal and LC Synoptic Journal are confusing about whether Columbus’s caciqual encounters on December 16–18 are with one, two, or three caciques, and scholars disagree. I suspect the first and third encounters were with the same cacique, the intervening encounter with a second cacique (see Wilson).
Guarionex’s, Caonabó’s, Anacaona’s, and Behecchio’s First Encounters,
Mid-December 1492–Early January 1493
Same sources as “Unknown Arrives on Haiti (Bohío), Late November–Mid-December, 1492” above.
To Guarico,
December 23–25, 1492
P, prev. cit.: Ferdinand Columbus, chaps. 33, 34. Journal, 12/23–25/1492. LC Synoptic Journal, LC88–90, 92, 98. Las Casas Apologetica, chaps. 1, 2. Oviedo Repertorium, sec. 3.7.
S, prev. cit.: Journal Raccolta Notes; Morison Admiral; Morison Documents; Taviani Voyages; Wilson.
Guacanagarí’s First Encounters,
Guarico, December 26–27, 1492
P, prev. cit.: Bernáldez Raccolta, chaps. 118, 126. Ferdinand Columbus, chap. 34. Journal, 12/26–27/1492; 1/2/1493. Las Casas Apologetica, chaps. 1, 2. LC Synoptic Journal, LC91–93, 98. Martyr, decade 1, bk. 1. Oviedo Repertorium, sec. 3.7.
S, prev. cit.: Journal Raccolta Notes; Morison Admiral; Wilson.
S: Bergreen, Laurence. Columbus: The Four Voyages. New York: Viking, 2011.
The primary sources do not discuss the fate of the Cuban captives, who according to the Journal shared the Lucayans fear of “Bohío,” other than “Abasu.” My speculation is that Guacanagarí would have distributed the unmarried women to his nitaínos for marriage and offered the men work as naborias, allowing the married man to retain his wife and children. This seems harsh by modern standards, but I suspect it quite benign for the fifteenth century and that the arrangements would then have been harsher in each of Seville, Lisbon, Genoa, Rome, Istanbul, the land of the Budomel, and King Ansa’s kingdom. For distinctions between the Cuban Taíno peoples, see Rouse.
I believe Abasu is a historical person, and his name is fictitious. See “Ciguayo and Samaná, January 12–16, 1493,” below. Xamabo is a historical person with a fictitious name.
In Guacanagarí’s Bohío,
December 28, 1492
P, prev. cit.: Benzoni, bk. 1. Journal, 12/28/1492, 1/2/1493. LC Synoptic Journal, LC93. Martyr, decade 1, bks. 3 and 4 as to Bakako’s relationship with Columbus.
The Journal merely indicates the conversation dealt with what should be “done” and does not indicate that Bakako participated. The primary sources do not explain Guacanagarí’s motive for sending his representative to meet the sovereigns, and it is my supposition that it was to establish both a trading relationship and an alliance to augment Guacanagarí’s reputation and power as an internal Haitian matter (see Rouse, Wilson).
Final Preparations and Departure,
December 29, 1492–January 4, 1493
P, prev. cit.: Bernáldez Raccolta, chap. 118. Ferdinand Columbus, chaps. 34, 35. Journal, 12/29/1492–1/1/1493. Las Casas Repertorium, sec. 3.3. LC Synoptic Journal, LC93–99. Libro Copiador, letter 2, January–February 1494. Martyr, decade 1, bk. 1. Oviedo Repertorium, secs. 3.7, 3.8.
S, prev. cit.: Gould; Morison Admiral; Morison Documents; Taviani Voyages; Wilson.
Monte Christi,
Early January 1493
P, prev. cit.: Bernáldez Raccolta, chap. 118. Ferdinand Columbus, chap. 35. Journal, 1/5–10/1493. LC Synoptic Journal, LC100–104. Oviedo Repertorium, sec. 3.7. Pleitos doc. 19.11, testimony of Francisco García Vallejo.
S, prev. cit.: Manzano Pinzón; Morison Admiral; Morison Documents.
There is no disinterested record of the Columbus-Pinzón meeting nor any detailed interested record.
Journal translations differ whether Martín’s two young captives were girls or boys. I have followed Dunn & Kelley Journal and Las Casas’s Historia in LC Synoptic Journal as being girls.
Ciguayo and Samaná,
January 12–16, 1493
P, prev. cit.: Ferdinand Columbus, chaps. 36, 37. Journal, 1/12–16/1493. LC Synoptic Journal, LC105–110. Las Casas Apologetica, chap. 3. Mandeville, chap. 17. Marco Polo, bk. 3, chap. 34. Marco Polo Biblioteca, bk. 3, chap. 37. Martyr, decade 1, bk. 5. Oviedo Repertorium, sec. 3.7
S, prev. cit.: Badillo Caribes; Fuson Log; Hulme; Keegan Myth; Morison Admiral; Rouse; Vega Cacicazgos, Samaná; Wilson.
S: Irving, Washington. The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus. Hertfordshire, UK: Wordsworth Editions, 2008.
To my knowledge, no primary or secondary source other than Washington Irving identifies Mayobanex as the cacique who meets Columbus on January 14, 1493. Based on Martyr’s description, and Rouse’s delineation, of Mayobanex’s cacicazgo, I speculate as Irving. This identification does not affect the ideas presented in the text (Mayobanex’s thoughts could be those of any cacique), but does affect Mayobanex’s outlook hereafter.
Historians disagree whether the encounter occurred in Bahía del Rincon or Bahía de Samaná. I suspect the former, but it irrelevant to the encounter and ideas presented.
Anthropologists and historians continue to debate whether Caribes practiced cannibalism. Anthropologists generally do agree that Taíno mythology and belief held that Caribes did practice cannibalism. Historians generally agree that Columbus and subsequent explorers and colonists quickly asserted that cannibalism was justication for enslavement and falsely claimed that many Taínos were eligible for enslavement for that reason. Agreement ends there, and I will return to examine Carib cannibalism in the next novel when Columbus visits a Caribe island. For now, I simply note, as reflected in the text, that Columbus’s initial impression that Caribe cannibalism was not real (see Chap. IX, “East to Baracoa, November 23– December 5, 1492,” and Journal, 11/26/1492) has—as he leaves Haiti in January 1493—been replaced by an assertion that it is real (see Journal, 1/13/1493). I suspect this assertion is his genuine belief at this time, but it can be argued otherwise.
Primary and secondary sources do not agree the precise number or origin of the captives aboard the Niña and Pinta when they depart for Spain on January 16, 1493. Bernáldez, Las Casas, Martyr, and Oviedo report, or include as a possible number, ten, which has been my assumption. Based on these sources, as well as the Libro Copiador, I believe the ten includes: “Xamabo,” the relative of Guacanagarí, who Oviedo indicates was the leader of the captives (Oviedo Repertorium, sec. 3.8.8); the four Samanáns captured January 15, 1493; “Bakako” and “Yutowa,” Guanahanians; “Abasu,” the Cuban (see Bernáldez Raccolta, chap. 126); and two others, whom I have assumed were bot
h Guanahanian although one could have been another Haitian relative or nitaíno to Guacanagarí. This implies that, of the original seven Guanahanian captives, one escaped, died, or was released at Navidad before January 4, 1493 (in addition to the two who escaped in October 1492).
Meeting with Admiral’s Lieutenants,
Guarico, (January, 1493)
P, prev. cit.: Benzoni, bk. 1. Bernáldez Raccolta, chap. 120. Chanca. Cuneo. Ferdinand Columbus, chaps. 49, 50. Las Casas Repertorium, secs. 5.1, 5.2, 5.4. Libro Copiador, letters 2 (undated, summary of second voyage) and 3 (April 1494). Martyr, decade 1, bk. 2. Oviedo Repertorium, secs. 3.9, 3.11. Syllacio.
S, prev. cit.: Morison Admiral; Raccolta Letters Notes.
There is no contemporaneous account of what transpired on Haiti after Columbus departed written by the crew members left at Navidad. The foregoing primary sources contain almost all of the limited information known. There is no evidence of this meeting.
CHAPTER XI: NORTHERN CROSSING
Letters to the Sovereigns,
January–February 1493
P, prev. cit.: Bernáldez Raccolta, chap. 108. Ferdinand Columbus, chap.37. Journal, 1/16/1493–2/12/1493. LC Synoptic Journal, LC110–119. Letter to Reyes (see below). Letter to Santángel (see below). Martyr Raccolta, I, 1.
S, prev. cit.: Badillo Caribes; Ballesteros; Crosby; Fernández-Armesto Columbus on Himself; Jane, Introduction; Journal Raccolta Notes; Morison Admiral; Phillips; Schwartz, chap. 1, Seymour Phillips, “The outer world of the European Middle Ages”; Stevens-Arroyo; Zamora.
S: Ramos Perez, Demetrio, and Lucio Mijares Perez. La Carta de Colon Sobre el Descubrimiento. Granada: Excma. Diputacion Provincial de Granada, 1983.
S: Rumeu de Armas, Antonio. Libro Copiador de Cristóbal Colón Correspondencia Inedita con Los Reyes Católicos Sobre Los Viajes a America. Vol. 1. Madrid: Testimonio Compania Editorial, 1989 (“Rumeu de Armas Libro Copiador”). This is Rumeu de Armas’s analysis of the Libro Copiador. Vol. 2 contains his translations of the letters.
S: Watson, Kelley L. Insatiable Appetites: Imperial Encounters with Cannibals in the North Atlantic World. New York: New York University Press, 2015.