Columbus: The Four Voyages, 1492-1504 (66 page)

 

Financing the fleet for the second voyage is described in
Christopher Columbus: Accounts and Letters
, vol. 6, part 2,
Nuova Raccolta Colombiana
.

Las Casas’s remarks on the voyage are mentioned in Hugh Thomas,
Rivers of Gold
(2003), page 304.

For a thorough discussion of Fernández de Oviedo, Las Casas, and Martyr, among other Spanish historians who have written about Columbus, see
Oviedo on Columbus,
vol. 9,
Repertorium Columbianum
(2000), pages 9–27. Details of Fernández de Oviedo’s biography have been drawn from
Oviedo
, pages ix–xvii.

The Discoverers
(1983) by Daniel Boorstin presents a concise overview of this transformative era of exploration on pages 248–59.

Coma’s description of the raucous departure from Cadiz can be found in “Syllacio’s Letter to the Duke of Milan 13 December 1494” in Morison,
Journals and Other Documents on the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus
, pages 229–30. The “huntress” description appears on page 231.

Animals on the ships are described in
Christopher Columbus: Accounts and Letters
, vol. 6,
Nuova Raccolta Colombiana
, page 17.

Fernández-Armesto discusses festivities in
Columbus
, page 53.

The report about Doña Beatriz de Peraza can be found in Morison’s
Admiral of the Ocean Sea
, page 399.

The tale of the friar and the cannibals is related in
Admiral of the Ocean Sea
, page 405. In general, the evidence presented by Columbus and other participants in the voyages is more reliable than subsequent efforts to reinterpret their experiences. For a scholarly discussion of this fraught subject, see Myers, “Island Carib Cannibalism.”

Peter Martyr is believed to have based his description of
areítos
on the observations of Santiago Cañizares, who had witnessed them. And information about Taíno music and instruments has been drawn from Lynne Guitar, “New Notes about Taíno Music and Its Influence on Contemporary Dominican Life.” Peter Martyr is also known as Peter Martyr d’Anghiera.

Peter Martyr’s letter to Cardinal Ascanio Sforza is in
The Discovery of the New World in the Writings of Peter Martyr of Anghiera
, vol. 2,
Nuova Raccolta Colombiana
(1992), page 229.

The remarks by Guillermo Coma are from Morison,
Journals and Other Documents on the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus
, page 236.

Fernández de Oviedo expounds on poison apples on page 91 of Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés,
Natural History of the West Indies
.

The term “buccaneer” derives from the French term for the rack,
boucan
, used for barbecuing meat, an early occupation of such “freebooters,” another word of piratical origin, referring to plundering and booty.

Columbus’s remarks about the city of La Isabela are in Kathleen Deagan and José María Cruxent,
Columbus’s Outpost among the Taínos
(2002), pages 48–50, 54.

The list of requested supplies can be found in Deagan and Cruxent,
Columbus’s Outpost among the Taínos
, page 137.

Ferdinand and Isabella’s kingdom of Castile was only the most recent empire to claim the endlessly contested city of Cadiz, believed to have been founded by Phoenicians as a trading center, who called it Gadir, for “walled city.” In AD 711, the Moors seized it, and held it until 1262, when it was conquered by Alfonso X of Castile. Under Spanish rule, the city assumed the name Cadiz. As exploration grew, Cadiz attracted mariners from across Europe, especially Genoa. By one estimate, nearly half the city consisted of Genoese in search of opportunity, and they were about to greet one of their own.

Columbus’s advice to the Sovereigns is quoted in
Christopher Columbus: Accounts and Letters,
vol. 6, part 1,
Nuova Raccolta Colombiana
, pages 13–39.

The letters of Ferdinand and Isabella beginning April 13 are quoted in Morison,
Admiral of the Ocean Sea
, page 436.

Fernández de Oviedo discusses mining for gold on pages 106–9 of Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés,
Natural History of the West Indies
(1959).

Las Casas’s description of Ojeda can be found in Morison,
Admiral of the Ocean Sea
, pages 432–33.

On page 36 of Deagan and Cruxent’s
Columbus’s Outpost among the Taínos
, the authors write that the Indians ate, in addition to hutias, “iguanas, birds, snakes, giant beetle grubs, and insects. This versatility did not commend them to the Spaniards,” who were disgusted by the practice.

Andrés Bernáldez’s vivid and appealing description of the Indians of Jamaica is reproduced in Morison,
Admiral of the Ocean Sea
, pages 474–76.

Columbus’s remarks about the second voyage come from
Christopher Columbus: Accounts and Letters
, vol. 6, part 1,
Nuova Raccolta Colombiana
, written February 26, 1495, pages 267–325 passim.

 

Michele de Cuneo on La Bella Saonese is quoted in Morison,
Admiral of the Ocean Sea
, page 478. His other observations can be found in
Admiral of the Ocean Sea
, pages 482–88.

Columbus writes about converting Indians to Christianity in
Christopher Columbus: Accounts and Letters
, vol. 6, part 1,
Nuova Raccolta Colombiana
, pages 340–41. And he explains his ideas about educating Indians on page 355.

Las Casas discusses greyhounds and Indians in
Christopher Columbus: Accounts and Letters
, vol. 6, part 2,
Nuova Raccolta Colombiana,
pages 113, 152. And he explores Columbus’s increasingly tormented relations with the Indians on page 492 of
Admiral of the Ocean Sea
.

In addition to Peter Martyr, Columbus himself refers to the massive number of Indian deaths in a letter to Ferdinand and Isabella dated October 15, 1495, in
Christopher Columbus: Accounts and Letters
, vol. 6, part 1,
Nuova Raccolta Colombiana
, page 337. Here he says the famine killed two-thirds of the region’s 50,000 inhabitants, and “it is not over yet, nor do we know when to hope the end.” For more statistics about the depopulation of the Indians, see
Admiral of the Ocean Sea
, page 493.

The Dominican Republic
(1998) by Frank Moya Pons reviews the political structure of the Indians, pages 22–23.

Aguado is quoted in Deagan and Cruxent,
Columbus’s Outpost among the Taínos
, pages 63–64, relying on Las Casas.

Ramon Pané and his Indian investigations receive a thorough consideration in Antonio M. Stevens-Arroyo,
Cave of the Jagua
[
sic
] (2006), pages 41–83.

The anecdote about the headless people at La Isabela appears in
Columbus’s Outpost among the Taínos
on page 72, quoting Las Casas. I have adjusted the translation slightly for syntax.

 

The starting point for considering the Columbian Exchange is Alfred Crosby’s 1972 work,
The Columbian Exchange: Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492
(republished in 2003). Related studies of this resonant subject include the following: Woodrow W. Borah and Sherburne F. Cook ’s
The Aboriginal Population of Central Mexico on the Eve of the Spanish Conquest
(1963); Noble David Cook’s
Born to Die; The Native Population of the Americas in 1492
(1992), edited by William M. Denevan; Bernal Díaz del Castillo’s
Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva España
(1956); William H. McNeill’s
Plagues and Peoples
(1976); Elinor G. K. Melville’s
A Plague of Sheep
(1994); Redcliffe N. Salaman’s
The History and Social Influence of the Potato
(1993); and Russel Thornton’s
American Indian Holocaust and Survival
(1987)
.

The following chart suggests the extent of the Columbian Exchange as it affected both the Old World and the New:

Columbus’s impassioned complaints about his detractors at court and the heat he endured on the third voyage can be found in
Christopher Columbus: Accounts and Letters of the Second, Third, and Fourth Voyages
, vol. 6, part 1,
Nuova Raccolta Colombiana,
pages 66–67.

For more on Columbus’s flamboyant ideas concerning biblical sites, see Delno C. West, “Christopher Columbus, Lost Biblical Sites, and the Last Crusade.”

The Dragon’s Mouth is mentioned in
Las Casas on Columbus
, page 46. Meanwhile, references to the earthly paradise and the characteristics of the people he encountered appear in
Christopher Columbus: Accounts and Letters of the Second, Third, and Fourth Voyages
, vol. 6, part 1,
Nuova Raccolta Colombiana
, pages 87 and following.

Columbus’s observation that “the world is small” appears in the Letter Rarissima, quoted in
Nuova Raccolta
, vol. 6, part 1. Columbus wrote this letter in Jamaica in July 1503.

For more about Columbus and the Guaiqueri Indians and
chicha
, see Morison and Obregón’s
The Caribbean as Columbus Saw It
(1964), beginning on page 160. This work contains photographs of vistas as they might have appeared to Columbus, but five hundred years of erosion and other changes have altered the land- and seascapes. Nevertheless, this document remains an evocative view of Columbian harbors and ports.

 

For full accounts of the back-and-forth between the two sides as related by Ferdinand Columbus, see Fernando Colón,
The Life of the Admiral Christopher Columbus by His Son Ferdinand
(1959) and
The History of the Life and Deeds of the Admiral Don Christopher Columbus, Attributed to His Son Fernando Colón
(2004). Also, Las Casas delivers his own stinging assessment in
Las Casas on Columbus: The Third Voyage
, vol. 11,
Repertorium Columbianum
(1999). Las Casas lamented that Roldán was never brought to justice in Spain—his lineage worked in his favor, just as Columbus’s worked against him.

 

The letter to Doña Juana appears in Cecil Jane,
The Four Voyages of Columbus
(1988), vol. 2, page 54.

Letters from Bobadilla read aloud:
Las Casas on Columbus: The Third Voyage
, pages 24–128. Here, as in many other places, Las Casas shows his mettle as a historian when he refrains from strident editorializing and learned digressions to focus on the matter at hand.

Background about Bobadilla’s inquiry is drawn from the corrective study by Consuelo Varela,
La caída de Cristobál Colón, el juicio de Bobadilla
(2006).

In
Las Casas on Columbus: The Third Voyage
, page 136, Las Casas writes that Vallejo was “my good friend.” The letter in which Columbus avows that he has been diligent, and says “I swear,” appears in the same work, page 43.

The Royal Mandate restoring Columbus’s possessions is contained in Morison,
Journals and Other Documents on the Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus
, pages 300–302.

 

John Noble Wilford’s
The Mysterious History of Columbus
offers an absorbing discussion of the mystical
Book of Prophecies
on pages 217 and 223.

Ferdinand’s extensive library emphasizes the bookish, scholarly side of the Columbus family. Although Christopher, as a mariner, is considered primarily a man of action, he was thoroughly educated in the sea, and throughout his life he was eager to absorb (if not apply) new information and lore. His brother Bartholomew was, of course, a map and book dealer, and his son a historian and bibliophile.

Ferdinand Columbus never married.

 

Columbus’s striking description of ascending his ship and hearing the voice of God appears in
Christopher Columbus: Accounts and Letters of the Second, Third, and Fourth Voyages,
vol. 6, part 1,
Nuova Raccolta Colombiana,
pages 143 and following. The entire letter is an extraordinary cri de coeur that would be easy to dismiss were it not so self-dramatizing and nakedly poignant.

The “Account by Diego Mendez of Certain Incidents on Christopher Columbus’s Last Voyage” can be found in J. M. Cohen,
The Four Voyages of Christopher Columbus
(1969), pages 305–17.

Las Casas’s first crossing: quoted in David Boyle,
Toward the Setting Sun
(2008), page 264.

Details of the death of Isabella can be found in Hugh Thomas’s authoritative study,
Rivers of Gold,
page 236. Thomas appears much less troubled by Columbus’s humanitarian failings than other contemporary historians, and encompasses a wide swath of the age of discovery in his sturdy account.