REDISCOVERING COLUMBUS, Part VII
Between Two Worlds: The Long Voyage Home by Peter Stanford
Columbus's last stop in the islands was at the east end of Hispaniola. There, the Nifta and Pinta anchored under a headland which is still called Punta de las Flechas-so-named by Columbus because of the arrows the native peoples used. These were the first arrned Tai nos the Europeans had encountered. At first Columbus thought they must be the much-feared Caribs, who coursed these waters in their "numberless canoes," killing or enslaving the hapless Tai no. But conversation between these natives and those Columbus had brought with him from the other end of the big island soon convinced him , correctly , that these people had adopted Carib weapons to defend themselves against the Caribs. This extended to adopting some of their warlike ways-including grim ash war paint in place of the cheerful cosmetic colors occasionally used by the Indians they 'd encountered earlier, further back along their trail through the islands. No one knew then (how could they?) that the Tainos, who encouraged European intervention agai nst the Caribs, would themselves within a few decades be virtually wiped off the map by European war, enslavement and, finally and most devastatingly, by the strange diseases the Europeans unwittingly brought with them. Las Casas, transcribing and summarizing Columbus's Diario, or daily journal of the voyage, lived to see these horrors and repeatedly breaks into the narrative with editorial admonitions against Columbus 's cavalier remarks about the Indians. But by the time Las Casas wrote, the damage had been done. Columbus wanted to go seek out the Caribs, perhaps thinking them a more advanced as well as more warlike racealthough by this time, after just over three months in the islands, he seems to have given up the idea that the Caribs were members of a superior caste carrying out the will of the Great Khan in China. But still , he could not give up the idea that he was in the Indies, presumably somewhere in the China Seas. An Indian tale of an island where women held sway, permitting males ashore periodically for reproductive purposes, tormented him further, for this matched a European myth of a similar island of Amazons in the Indian Ocean. From our perspective, all this seems ridiculous. But, to be fair to Columbus in hi s fantasies, remember that neither he nor the cartographers of Europe knew that China was still half the world away, as is ev ident in maps drawn after voyages by Columbus and by others to this part of the world.* After leaving their anchorage at the east end of Hispaniola in the pre-dawn darkness to find the island of the Amazons, the Nifta (with the Pinta once again obediently in company) encountered a rare westerly wind, which carried them some 50 sea miles on their way (64 of Co lumbus's miles). Then, as they were heading off southeast at the Indians' direction , proceeding another 6 miles toward the islands in a freshening wind, Columbus had a change of heart. Fortunately for the navigator, reality took over-reality in the form of belated recognition of the actual state of ships and men , and the overriding importance of their safe return to Spain with the priceless cargo of info rmation they carried. Earlier he had commented on the fact that both caravels were leaking along the garboards (the structurally important planks next to the keel). Now, in Las Casas 's transcript of his Diario: "He noticed that the men began to get gloomy because of dev iating from the direct route, because both caravels were leaking badly, and they had not help except that of God ." So the little ships bore up for Spain, northeast by east. It is not clear from what direction the wind was coming then , but *see Johann Ruysch world map of 1508, SH53, p 19.
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the easterlies soon resumed their accustomed sway, and the ships continued working their way north and east, closehauled against the wind, it is true, but making their way steadily to the higher latitudes where they would find the prevailing westerlies Columbus clearly relied on to carry him back to Spain. It was easy sai ling in the mild weather. They encountered Sargasso weed again, which no longer held terrors for the men , and on their third day out, January 18, the Diario notes the sea "thick with tuna," and Columbus "thought they must go from there to the fi sheries of the Duke of Con ii and Cadiz." One feels he must have cheered up the men with this homely pleasantry, and Columbus's great biographer Admiral Morison jumps from there to a guess at how the seamen must have taken it, looking forward to "seeing again the Cadiz girls , famous through Europe for their saucy beauty and salty wit. " And it is in this period of easy sailing, Morison fee ls, that Co lumbus began composing hi s report to Ferdinand and Isabella, in which he reflects at some length on the nature of the native peoples he had encountered. He notes: "They believe very firrn ly that I, with these ships and people, came from the sky .. ."adding, "this does not result from their being ignorant, for they are of a very keen intelligence and men who navigate all seas." The tone of thi s comment argues its sincerity; this is no put-down of Indian beliefs and attitudes. And subsequent explorers who maintained excellent, non-exploitative relations with native peoples, from Francis Drake to James Cook, also noted this belief of native peoples that the Europeans in their winged ships came from the skies. To our eyes it seems that a priceless opportunity was lost in these initial encounters, characterized by wonder on the native side, and something like real respect on the side of the far-voyaging Europeans. On February 3, having passed through the Sargasso Sea with its variable winds, the ships picked up a southwest wind which shoved them along nobly on their way. And Columbus noted: "The North Star appeared very high , as in Cape St. Vincent." He tried to confirrn this with observations by astrolabe and quadrant, but the Nina's rolling in the following seas prevented accurate sights-which , it must be said, he never succeeded in securing anyway on thi s voyage. Nonetheless, trusting his sailor's eye, he ev idently decided he was in the right latitude for the run home, and at daybreak on the ensuing day, Monday , February 4 , he squared away to the eastward. For the next few days, they ran on with fair winds in chilly weather, with occasional overcast and rain, making perhaps 8 to 9 knots consistently (not, in view of later inforrnation about the length of Co lumbus's mile, the considerably higher speeds Mori son credits them with- but in all conscience, fast enough for these ships just emerging from the medieval era). Estimates of their positions by the pilots put them far ahead of where they actually were. Co lumbu s's estimates were the most accurate (as recorded in hi s daily journal which he apparently never corrected), but hi s positions were also pretty soft, due to hi s "eyeball" estimate of latitude, and the complete inability of nav igators of the day to get accurate longitudes. But now the terrible winter gales of the North Atlantic caught up with these worn and leaking ships and anxious men, superseding any concern with just where they were on the trackless and increasingly hostile ocean. The transcript of the Diario catches the onset of their trouble in short, pithy sentences of a kind to send chills up the spine of anyone who has experienced bad weather at sea. The entry for February 12 SEA HISTORY 62, SUMMER 1992