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Part 1:
There’s a singsong school phrase likely ingrained in your memory, a core memory. It goes a little something like this. In fourteen hundred ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue. Yeah, It’s time. This man has been mentioned in too many History Fix episodes to count, mentioned more than any other single historical figure, from Vikings to Rum to Cannibalism. He’s all over History Fix. This man sent out more shockwaves than possibly anyone, changed our whole existence, culturally, spiritually, ethnically, economically, politically, geographically, morally possibly more than any single person ever has. But despite being one of the most familiar historical figures in western culture, few people know the first thing about Christopher Columbus. Let’s fix that.
Hello, I’m Shea LaFountaine and you’re listening to History Fix where I discuss lesser known true stories from history you won’t be able to stop thinking about. After getting lost in the world of the House of Borgia last week, I figured we’d just sort of stay there for another week. Actually, another two weeks because this is going to be a two parter. I’ve been wanting to really delve into Christopher Columbus for a long time because his name comes up so much in my research, more than you’d ever expect, more than I’ve even included in these last 79 episodes. And yet still, I’ve said his name a lot. A lot. October 14th is Columbus day in the United States. Yes, Christopher Columbus still has a day so just let that sink in as you listen to this story. Maybe by the end you’ll be able to form a solid opinion. Do you think we should be honoring Columbus with his very own holiday? I didn’t even want to reserve a Sunday in October for this episode. October is for Spooktober, not this jerk. Yes, friends, Spooktober is coming back and I’m so excited. I have some really fun spooky topics picked out and so that’s why I’m doing Columbus a month early. He doesn’t deserve that time slot. That’s valuable real estate and this guy really, really, really sucked.
But, while Columbus is an extremely well known historical figure, it’s actually kind of weird how much we don’t know about him and how much misinformation we do know about him. I had no idea he personally introduced sugar to the Americas, not until I interviewed my friends Matt and Scott for the rum episode. I had no idea he misrepresented the indigenous people of the Caribbean to the Spanish monarchs as bloodthirsty cannibals in order to justify enslaving them until I researched the Cannibalism episode. I had a little bit of an idea that he may not have been the first to quote discover the Americas but I had no idea how solid the evidence against it was until I studied Vikings and Polynesian wayfinders. And I had no idea what a truly sadistic psycho freak he was until right now. But even simple things. I don’t think many people even know that Christopher Columbus was Italian. He sailed for Spain and we’re determined to call him by an anglicized name. I honestly think most people think he was Spanish, or even English. I doubt many people know anything about his early life, his family, where he came from, when he was born. And I don’t think many people know his fate, how he died, when he died, where he died. So let’s get into it shall we? Starting with the man’s real name - Cristoforo Colombo. I don’t think many people know that name. We anglicized it in America because we made him our hero, hence Columbus day, hence the capital of our nation Washington DC which stands for District of Columbia. The irony of that being that he sailed for our forebear’s mortal enemies at the time. Anyway, I’m going to keep calling him Columbus in this episode for the sake of sparing you unnecessary confusion but Cristoforo Colombo was the man’s actual name.
Before Columbus was even born, Europe had started to get antsy. They had done all the things on their continent and they were getting bored. They were ready to get out, stretch their legs, see what else there was to see on this planet and really, if we’re being honest, see what else there was to gain. This started with the Portuguese in the 1420s. Small Portuguese ships called caravels, not to be confused with the popular ice cream cake brand Carvel, zipped on down the coast of Africa. They came back with valuable goods like spices, gold, and even human beings. That’s right, the Portuguese were the first to transport enslaved Africans to Europe, they started that leg of the slave trade. Now it’s like Portu-who? Isn’t it weird how these world powers sort of come and go? Or maybe it’s scary how these world powers come and go. Maybe weird is the wrong word. But anyway, the Age of Discovery or the Age of Exploration started with the Portuguese in the early to mid 1400s.
Now, Portugal’s neighbor, Spain, they see these ships coming back from Africa laden with spoils and riches and they want in. But they’re a bit busy at the moment. They are elbows deep in the Reconquista which was, to put it simply, kicking all of the Jewish and Muslim people out of their country. By the end of the century, they’ve pretty well finished that job, they dust their hands off, and they’re like cool, get us in on this conquering other lands thing now. Which is so dang hypocritical. I mean, think about it, they just spent centuries trying to expel these people they viewed as invaders, Jewish people and Muslims, they just spent centuries trying to get them out of Spain. Now what are they going to do? They’re going to go invade some other country. They’re going to become the invaders? I don’t get it. But there’s gold somewhere and that’s motivation enough.
Press pause on Spain, let’s go to Italy, Genoa Italy, 1451, Christopher Columbus is born. His father was believed to have been a weaver and a wool merchant so the family would have been fairly middle class. They weren’t nobility or anything like that. When he was a teenager, Columbus got a job working on a merchant ship sailing all over. Some sources say his ship was attacked by pirates as it sailed by Portugal. The ship sank, but Columbus survived, floating to shore on a piece of debris and was like, “cool I’ll just chill here in Portugal, I guess.” That, I don’t know, that seems a bit embellishy. And a lot of sources don’t mention it, so grain of salt. Whatever happened though, he had settled down in Portugal by about 1476 and began to study math, astronomy, cartography, and navigation. As he’s learning about exploration, essentially is what those four subject areas add up to, he starts to hatch this master plan. Because he knows Europe is starting to itch for goods from far off lands, Africa, but especially Asia. Because there’s good stuff in Asia but it’s really hard and dangerous to get to. You have to travel over land, the Silk Road, that is mostly controlled by the Ottomans who aren’t very nice. There’s a lot of political instability in the area. It’s rough terrain, it’s enemy territory, it’s just a borderline impossible trade route, making goods like silk and spices from Asia very hard to get and therefore very expensive. But Columbus believes that he can find an alternate sea route to Asia. He believes that if he just sails west, he will be able to sail all around the Earth and he will end up in Asia. And he incorrectly believes that this route will be easier than sailing around the southern tip of Africa. He thinks he’s a genius. He goes to the leaders of Portugal and he’s like, “let me do this, send me, fund me, sponsor me, let me find this westward route to Asia in the name of Portugal.” And they’re like no way. He goes to France, he goes to England, they all shut him down. They’re like, “no, that’s a terrible idea, get out of here.”
Now there are a lot of misconceptions about this part of the story. In the past, at least, we were led to believe that people thought the Earth was flat at this point and that’s why Portugal, France, England weren’t buying into Columbus’ plan. That they thought he was wrong to believe he could sail around the world to get to Asia, that Columbus was some sort of revolutionary new thinker who figured out that the Earth wasn’t flat. No. It was common knowledge at this point that the Earth was not flat. Over 500 years ago, my some modern humans have some catching up to do don’t they? Not gonna go there. Anyway, Columbus didn’t come up with this idea, it was common knowledge and it’s not the reason he kept getting denied. The reason he kept getting denied is because his calculations were fundamentally flawed. He thought he’d only have to sail around 2,400 miles west to reach Asia which is a vast vast underestimation. In fact it’s more like 11,000 miles and you’re going to hit two continents and a whole nother ocean, the largest ocean by far before you get there. So he wasn’t getting turned down by these countries because he was like a visionary, ahead of his time thinker. He was getting turned down because he was straight up wrong and they knew it. But that got a bit twisted at some point to glorify Columbus.
Eventually he finds a sponsor, Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, los reyes católicos, the Catholic monarchs. Remember, their marriage had been approved by Rodrigo Borgia who would soon become Pope Alexander VI, the chestnut orgy guy from last week. He approved their marriage, gave them permission to unite the kingdoms of Spain and named them the official Catholic monarchs of Europe. Borgia basically made them. And they are into the idea. They’re not really worried about mileage miscalculations. They’re like “hey I mean there’s something that way, we don’t even know, let’s go find out.” Which like, how crazy is that y’all? What if there was some direction you could go on Earth today where you just had no idea what you might find? Isn’t that wild? So they want him to go find riches and whatnot, gold, untapped resources, but they’re also interested in spreading Christianity to the rest of the world. So they like the idea of finding people that can be converted. Columbus has the same goals in mind. He’s also after riches and he’s a devout Catholic himself, at least on paper, so he’s down with the evangelization plan. He also wants fame. He wants to go down in history as the first guy who did this sail around the world thing. His agreement with Ferdinand and Isabella stated that he could keep 10 percent of whatever riches he found, plus a noble title of “Admiral of the Ocean Sea”, and he would also be governor of whatever lands he encountered. Just automatically be governor. Which is such a stupid promise. Sure you can go ahead and control whatever land you find regardless of who is already in charge. It’s the most pompous, egotistical plan. And these are overly generous terms. But, as Columbus' son would later write, Ferdinand and Isabella were not confident at all that Columbus would return from this voyage. So they may have made some promises they didn’t think they’d actually have to keep like “sure, yeah you can go ahead and rule over whatever you find and take some of the gold and we’ll call you Admiral of the Ocean Sea, that has a nice ring to it, sure sounds good, whatever, good luck dude.”
On August 3, 1492, Columbus and his crew left Spain in three ships. You know them as the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria but only one of the three names is technically correct. Back then it was common for ships to have official names and also nicknames. The Santa Maria was the actual name of that ship. But that isn’t what people called it. They called it by its nickname, La Gallega. The other two, the Niña and the Pinta, those were just their nicknames. The Niña was actually called the Santa Clara and we don’t actually know the real name of the ship nicknamed the Pinta. So they set sail in these 3 ships. The Santa Maria was a regular sized ship, the Niña and the Pinta were those smaller caravel ships. Ten weeks later, on October 12, they make landfall somewhere in the Bahamas, most likely Watling’s Island or San Salvador. Now, just think about this timing for a second. They sailed from early August to mid October. Straight up hurricane season. And they got very very lucky that they didn’t encounter a hurricane which would have ended the whole thing right then and there. Just imagine how much one well placed storm could have completely altered history. But it’s smooth sailing and they make it to the Bahamas after two months at sea. A sailor aboard the Pinta named Rodrigo de Triana actually spotted land first but Columbus would later claim that he himself had made the first sighting in order to claim a promised reward of 10,000 maravedís which was what Spanish money was called then. So, already, from the very beginning we see a tendency toward greed. I mean you’d think 10% of all the riches discovered and the right to govern all lands would be enough but no, he’s also gotta steal this meager reward from this lowly sailor guy.
Now, Columbus has sailed already way farther than he thought he would have to, over 4,000 miles, and he’s finally hit land. He assumes, incorrectly, that he has reached Asia, the East Indies, and so he calls the people he encounters there, members of the Lucayan, Taino, and Arawak tribes, he calls them Indians. And, you guys, we still freaking call them Indians. And that is mind blowing. The area where he first made landfall, is still called the West Indies based on a major major mistake. He literally could not have been farther from the actual Indies. And yet these names somehow stuck for 500 years and that says a lot.
So he reaches the Bahamas and he encounters native people who are already living there. He’s keeping a detailed journal during all of this but I want you to remember that while we have Columbus’ first hand account, we do not have that for the indigenous people. And we know that these sorts of documents, these accounts written by explorers, were typically quite biased. They had motives, they were trying to accomplish things and they needed to portray the experience a certain way to their benefactors, in this case Ferdinand and Isabella. Columbus writes about all sorts of things - the wildlife he saw, the weather, the moods of the crew, and his impression of the indigenous people, or the impression he wanted to convey to Isabella at least because this journal would be handed over directly to her upon his return to Spain. He writes quote “Many of the men I have seen have scars on their bodies, and when I made signs to them to find out how this happened, they indicated that people from other nearby islands come to San Salvador to capture them; they defend themselves the best they can. I believe that people from the mainland come here to take them as slaves. They ought to make good and skilled servants, for they repeat very quickly whatever we say to them. I think they can very easily be made Christians, for they seem to have no religion. If it pleases our Lord, I will take six of them to Your Highnesses when I depart, in order that they may learn our language,” end quote. He also writes quote “They… brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other things, which they exchanged for the glass beads and hawks’ bells," he wrote. "They willingly traded everything they owned… They were well-built, with good bodies and handsome features… They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. They have no iron… They would make fine servants… With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want,” end quote.
Columbus and his men spent the next several months sailing around to different islands in the Caribbean looking for quote “pearls, precious stones, gold, silver, spices, and other objects and merchandise whatsoever,” end quote. But he didn’t find much. He explored Cuba and Hispaniola which is present day Haiti and Dominican Republic. On Christmas Day, 1492, the Santa Maria, which was the ship Columbus himself was on, ran aground near present day Haiti and had to be abandoned. The native cacique or chieftain there Guacanagari gave him permission to leave some of his men behind. So 39 men stayed behind in a makeshift settlement they called La Navidad. Columbus hops on the Niña and together with the Pinta, continues exploring.
On the Northeast part of Hispaniola, modern day Dominican Republic, he encounters the Ciguayo people. And this is the first group that pushes back at all, according to Columbus’ account. They refused to trade the number of bows and arrows that Columbus had asked for which seems like a minor thing and not worth breaking the peace over at all but a skirmish ensues and a couple Ciguayo guys are injured. It’s here, from the native people that Columbus learns about an island supposedly occupied by a group of cannibals called the Carib as well as another island called Matinino that was only occupied by women. Matinino meant Island of Women. This is the present day island of Martinique. But I don’t know if something got lost in translation or what. The island was not just occupied by women. The real story is that the Carib conquered this island, killed all the men and assimilated with the women and children that they let live. Anyway, it piques Columbus’ interest, and he files it away for later. Marco Polo had written about an island in the Indian Ocean that was supposedly only inhabited by women so this is probably more proof to Columbus that he was where he thought he was, in Asia.
Mid January, 1493, the crew heads back to Spain on the Niña and the Pinta minus those 39 men that stayed behind at La Navidad in Hispaniola.They hit terrible storms as they neared Europe and were held up in Portugal for a minute before making their way back to Spain. Half of the crew was actually arrested on the Azores Islands when they were mistakenly identified as pirates. But they get back to Spain and Columbus presents his findings to Ferdinand and Isabella: a few small bits of gold, pearls, gold jewelry he took from the indigenous people, a few Taino people he had kidnapped, flowers, a hammock, tobacco which was unheard of in Europe at the time, and some pineapple. It should be noted, he did not bring back any of the trade goods they were used to getting from the actual East Indies - mostly spices like black pepper, ginger, and cloves. Yet he still insisted that he had reached Asia. Columbus believed that the island of Hispaniola was just off the coast of China. He wrote of it quote “Hispaniola is a miracle. Mountains and hills, plains and pastures, are both fertile and beautiful ... the harbors are unbelievably good and there are many wide rivers of which the majority contain gold. ... There are many spices, and great mines of gold and other metal,” end quote. And this was translated into many languages and dispersed throughout Europe, causing a sensation. But, it was mostly untrue, as we know, he did not actually find very much gold at all outside of some bits and pieces the native people had crafted into jewelry. But by claiming that there were quote “great mines of gold,” he is able to maintain support of the monarchs for future voyages. At this time, Pope Alexander VI, Rodrigo Borgia, grants Spain and Portugal exclusive rights to claim this land, drawing a vertical dividing line.
Columbus prepares for a second voyage. Now, the purpose of the first voyage was just to see what’s out there. The purpose of the second voyage was actually to start converting the indigenous people to Christianity. That was the official, stated purpose. Of course they were still looking for gold and riches too though. But because of the Christianity mission work he was supposed to be doing, Columbus was commanded by Ferdinand and Isabella to treat the indigenous people lovingly and maintain peaceful relations. He set sail in September of 1493, once again during hurricane season, this time with a much larger crew and 17 ships, which included two larger ships and 15 of those smaller caravels, one of them the Niña once again.
This time he explored a bunch of islands, Antigua, Saint Martin, Saint Croix, the Virgin Islands. On Santa Cruz which is now called Saint Croix, they spotted a canoe with a few Carib men and two women in it. Remember, Columbus had heard about the Carib people from other indigenous groups. These were the supposed cannibals. But he had not actually encountered them on his first voyage. Now, here they were in a canoe and the Europeans were intrigued so they followed the canoe which the Carib’s weren’t cool with. They fired arrows at Columbus and his men, killing one guy. So they killed or captured everyone in the canoe and beheaded them. I like how Isabella was like “just be nice, we want them to like us,” and Columbus somehow twisted that into “kill them all!” Apparently one of the crew, Michele de Cuneo, who was one of Columbus’ childhood friends, took one of the indigenous women during the skirmish and Columbus gave him permission to enslave her. According to Cuneo’s own account he regularly physically and sexually assaulted this woman.
After that they headed towards Puerto Rico which was called Boriken by the native Taino people. They had quite a few indigenous people sailing with them at this point, including at least 20 Taino women and some children that had been rescued from Carib captors who had apparently been keeping them as sex slaves. The women explained that when they had been captured by the Carib, the men had been eaten and the boys had been castrated but allowed to live until they were big enough to eat. Now this is coming from European reports, from guys who barely understood the language these women were speaking, that’s what they thought they heard anyway. As they sailed near Puerto Rico, these women recognized it as their homeland and actually swam to shore. And I’m sure the crew saw themselves as these great super heroes who had saved these women and children from the evil Carib and delivered them home. But, I find it so ironic, that the Europeans can judge the Carib for enslaving these women, taking them as sex slaves, and yet it’s fine when they do it themselves. Cuneo’s like “yeah we’re so righteous, look at us doing good out here,” as he’s like shuffling his own sex slave back into the ship’s hold.
So then they go back to Hispaniola, because remember they left 39 men behind in that settlement, La Navidad after the Santa Maria ran aground. The first thing they find when they get close is the decomposing bodies of 4 men and one of them clearly has a beard implying that he was a Spaniard because the indigenous people didn’t have beards. They shoot off some cannons and light some flares to signal to the men at La Navidad but they don’t get a response back. The next day, they discover the burnt remains of La Navidad and learn from a cousin of the cacique or chieftain Guacanagari, who was the guy who gave them permission to leave men behind. They learn from his cousin that Guacanagari had been injured by another Chief named Caonabo and that Caonabo had killed the colonists he had left behind. But it wasn’t like a random massacre, apparently the Spanish dudes were asking for it. Apparently some of the men had formed a murderous gang and were causing a ruckus in search of gold and women and they had actually captured and enslaved 3 or 4 women each. So Caonabo was like “nope. Ain’t having it. Not here” and went in and killed them all. And guys, I don’t feel sorry for them at all. I’m team Caonabo on this one.
So Columbus is like, “welp, that sucks,” leaves the ruins of La Navidad behind and establishes another settlement called La Isabela on the North Coast of Hispaniola. He keeps exploring though. He goes to Jamaica and back to Cuba which he thinks is a peninsula of China, he doesn’t even realize it’s an island. He thinks it like comes off of the mainland which he believes to be China and not North America. They’re finding little insignificant bits of gold here and there but it’s nothing at all close to what they already claimed to have found. They have to be sweating at this point like, “alright, we can’t come back empty handed. The native people aren’t showering us with all their gold like we expected plus we told them there were gold mines here, let’s, uh, I guess we gotta set up some gold mines and hope for the best.” And so that’s what they do, they start trying to mine for gold but of course these gentlemen aren’t rolling up their sleeves and digging themselves, they’re forcing the indigenous people to do the work. And this is where the whole thing takes a really nasty turn. Let me remind you real quick before we keep going though, that the goal of this second voyage, according to Isabella, Queen of Spain, was to convert the indigenous people to Christianity, to spread the good word. And she gave Columbus explicit directions to treat them with kindness and love and to focus on building positive relationships, building trust with these people. This is what he does instead.
He begins subjugating the native people immediately, torturing them to learn where supposed gold was hidden and setting up a tribute system. According to the writings of Columbus’ son Ferdinand quote “In the Cibao, where the gold mines were, every person of fourteen years of age or upward was to pay a large hawk's bell of gold dust, all others were each to pay 25 pounds of cotton. Whenever an Indian delivered his tribute, he was to receive a brass or copper token which he must wear about his neck as proof that he had made his payment; any Indian found without such a token was to be punished," end quote. Now, this punishment, this wasn’t just like a slap on the wrist. Any native person found without one of these tokens had their hands cut off which was basically a death sentence due to infection. On top of that, there was very little gold on the island so it was pretty much impossible to meet this quota, to pay this tribute. According to reports, thousands of indigenous people committed suicide, chose to end their own lives, rather than have their hands cut off and die a slow and painful death from infection.
Now that he had them completely under his control, Columbus also began enslaving the indigenous people. In February of 1495 alone, he enslaved over 1,500 Arawak people. They were forced to work and subjected to harsh punishments including dismemberment, cutting off ears, noses, and hands, as well as all out decapitation. He gifted the women to Spanish colonists who regularly beat and sexually abused them. According to reporter Aura Bogado in an article for Grist, quote “pregnant Taíno women who were taken captive gave birth to babies who were sometimes thrown to hungry dogs. Columbus established a business in the sale of 9- and 10-year-old Taíno girls for sexual slavery. He also kidnapped and enslaved Taínos themselves — personally initiating the transatlantic slave trade in his voyage back to Europe,” end quote. Yes, let’s jump to that part, the personally initiating the transatlantic slave trade part.
In 1495, in lieu of the promised gold, Columbus shipped around 500 enslaved indigenous people back to Spain. About 40% of them died en route and the rest were in very bad shape when they arrived. I don’t know what he was expecting but Queen Isabella was not pleased. In fact, she was horrified. She had given him explicit instructions to show kindness and love. In her mind, these people were Spanish now. They were Spanish subjects and Spanish subjects could not be enslaved. She sent them straight back and I’m sure she’s really questioning putting Columbus in charge at this point. This guy is blowing it.
In March of 1496, so two and a half years after leaving Spain for this second voyage, Columbus heads back. But the ships are battered by strong winds immediately, delaying them, and they end up making landfall on the island of Guadeloupe when their supplies run low. There, they request that the native people give them food. Instead, they were ambushed by arrows. In response, they destroyed some huts and held a group of 13 women and children hostage to force the sale of food. Then they hopped back on their ships and sailed to Spain.
So, I mean, things have certainly declined between the first voyage and the second. Not only is there very little of the gold they promised, they’re doing hardly anything at all to convert the indigenous people to Christianity. None of them were even baptized for 2 years after Columbus arrived for this second voyage. And then the baptizer guy got mad at Columbus and sailed back to Spain. On top of all that, they are horribly abusing the native people. Bogado says quote “In short, Columbus was a murderous, enslaving, sexual-abusing, treacherous colonizer to the peoples he encountered in the Caribbean. Only two-thirds of the Taíno survived just four years after Columbus’ arrival; some were killed, others succumbed to diseases, and fully half of the dead killed themselves rather than live with his tyranny,” end quote.
But, you guys, this story is far from over. What I’ve told you so far is just the drop. It’s the drop hitting the surface of the water. What happens next is the ripple, waves of energy moving outward from the epicenter, growing larger and larger, moving ever farther away, reaching forward in all directions. Join me next week for the ripple.
Thank you all so very much for listening to History Fix, I hope you found this story interesting and maybe you even learned something new. Remember to tune back in next week for the rest of the story in part 2. In the meantime, Be sure to follow my instagram @historyfixpodcast to see some images that go along with this episode and to stay on top of new episodes as they drop. I’d also really appreciate it if you’d rate and follow History Fix on whatever app you’re using to listen, and help me spread the word by telling a few friends about it. That’ll make it much easier to get your next fix.
Information used in this episode was sourced from NPR, Grist, History.com, BBC, and Wikipedia. As always, links to these sources can be found in the show notes.
Part 2:
In June of 1496, Christopher Columbus returned to Spain after his second expedition to the Americas. And although it had been a complete dumpster fire, he was still apparently suffering under grandiose delusions that things were going well. In reality, he had found hardly any of the gold he promised, did very little to accomplish the goal of converting the native people to Christianity, and instead had tortured, abused, murdered, and enslaved them. But, no matter, he had already set his sights on a third voyage. This time, he’d shore up his colony, La Isabella, in modern day Dominican Republic on the island of Hispaniola, with fresh colonists and supplies and he’d do some more exploring, heading southwest in search of a larger landmass he mistakenly still believed to be Asia. Columbus was likely excited by the prospect, a fresh start, a triumphant return to a land that he governed, their righteous leader come back. But, did you know, this third voyage would be nothing like Columbus’ grandiose daydreams and in reality, he’d soon find himself in chains aboard his own ship? Let’s fix that.
Hello, I’m Shea LaFountaine and you’re listening to History Fix, where I discuss lesser known true stories from history you won’t be able to stop thinking about. This is part 2 of a two part episode on Christopher Columbus. So if you missed last week’s episode, episode 80, you really need to go back and listen to that one first. When we left off, Columbus had basically lit a match and thrown it over his shoulder towards a gasoline soaked colony, sailing off into the sunrise back to Spain already daydreaming about his next great adventure. He had left his two brothers in charge, Diego and Bartholomew, as well as a man named Francisco Roldan. When he got back to Spain, he began making plans to send more Spanish colonists to La Isabella. He requested 330 people, specifically 100 men to work as wood men, soldiers, and laborers; 50 farmers, 40 squires, 30 sailors, 30 cabin boys, 20 goldsmiths, 10 gardeners, 20 handymen, and 30 women. God help those women. Plans were also made to send friars and clergymen, a physician, a pharmacist, an herbalist, and musicians for entertaining the colonists. Most of these people were volunteers, but some were prisoners that had been pardoned in exchange for working in the colony and others had been sentenced to exile and so they just switched the exile location from wherever else to Hispaniola.
The other purpose of this third voyage was to explore more, in search of a large landmass that was rumored to be to the south west - this is South America, but they don’t know that yet. So in May of 1498, three ships set out heading back to La Isabella, the colony left behind on Hispaniola with all of the new colonists on board. And another 3 ships with Columbus on board sets out to do the exploring. And then they’re going to meet up with the colonists on the first three ships at La Isabella later. Columbus heads farther south this time and they first spot the Island of Trinidad around 2 months after leaving Spain. Then they make their way to modern day Venezuela. Columbus notes just based on the topography, the land itself, that it must be the mainland and although he refers to it as a quote “otro mundo” or other world, dude still thinks it’s part of Asia. So they bop around for a while, landing in new places, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela, Granada, but he’s determined to make it back to Hispaniola, to his colony of La Isabella, before the supplies on his ships spoil. And he’s not in great health at this point. He’s suffering from insomnia, arthritis, and ophthalmia which is an inflammation of the eyes. He’s probably hoping to return to Hispaniola, retake his seat as governor and just chill and recover for a bit. But that’s not what happens at all.
When he gets there, he learns that Francisco Roldan, the guy he left in charge along with his two brothers, has started a rebellion. He holds the territory of Xaragua along with quite a few colonists that have joined his rebellion. Many of these were from the group of new colonists that Columbus had just sent over. Like they just got there, and were like, the Columbus brothers suck, we’re going with this guy. And that’s mostly because they were still expecting to find all this gold and riches when they arrived and when they got there, wah wah wah, there was none. They felt that they had been misled by Columbus and so they joined the rebellion. Now those ships though, those ships go back to Spain and they carry with them returning colonists and sailors who go straight to the Spanish court and complain, accusing Columbus and his brothers of gross mismanagement of the colony. They tell them about all the abuse, the harsh punishments, plus the fact that Columbus was making no attempt to convert the native people to Christianity. He wasn’t baptizing anyone like he said he was going to. And there’s a reason for this guys. Once they’re baptized, they can’t be enslaved. They are really and truly Spanish at that point. So if he doesn’t convert them, if he doesn’t baptize them, he can justify enslaving them. And so these people returning to Spain, they’re telling the monarchs all this.
Now, meanwhile, Columbus gets back and he learns of this rebellion and he’s just mentally and physically exhausted. He needs help. He needs backup. So he sends two ships back to Spain asking them to appoint a royal commissioner to help him govern. To help him fix this mess. But he doesn’t realize, the returning colonists and sailors have already completely obliterated him with what they’ve shared with the Spanish court, all of these accusations of mismanagement to put it lightly. And so Spain does send a guy, Francisco de Bobadilla, but he’s not necessarily there to help Columbus. He is actually given complete control as governor of the Americas and is tasked with delivering the news that Columbus must relinquish all control of the colonies and can keep only his personal wealth. When Bobadilla arrives, Columbus’ brother Diego is actively executing rebels, and Columbus is off trying to suppress a revolt in Grenada. He’s is like “okay, this truly is a dumpster fire.” He gets there, and the colonists basically rush to him and are like “oh thank god, the Columbus brothers are nuts, they are executing everyone, you have to fix this.” Bobadilla recorded that quote “seven Spanish men had been hanged that week," with another five awaiting execution” end quote. And this is actually really interesting, that came from a 48 page report that Bobadilla wrote based on the testimonies of 23 people who had witnessed the atrocities committed by Columbus and his brothers. And that report was actually lost for centuries until 2005 when it was rediscovered in Spanish archives, shedding a whole new light on the real character of our hero Christopher Columbus.
And here are some of the things that Bobadilla recorded in that report based on his inquiry. Apparently, Columbus had forced priests not to baptize native people without his permission so that he could first decide if they should be sold into slavery. Because, remember, once they are baptized, they can’t be enslaved. He had captured a group of 300 indigenous people under Roldan’s protection and sold them into slavery. He ordered 12 Spaniards to be whipped and tied by the neck and feet for trading gold for food without his permission. He ordered a woman to be whipped naked on the back of a donkey for lying that she was pregnant. He had a woman’s tongue cut out because she had insulted him and his brothers. He slit a Spanish man’s throat because he was gay. He hanged colonists for stealing bread. He ordered that a cabin boy’s hand be cut off and displayed publicly for using a trap to catch fish. He ordered that another man have his nose and ears cut off and be whipped, shackled, and banished. Who knows what he even did, it’s not in the report. Others were reportedly beaten to death with 100 fatal lashes, sometimes while naked. And, icing on the cake, some 50 men starved to death because of tight control over rations even though there was plenty of food. So, I mean they’ve been doing this mess to indigenous people for years but now these reports, a lot of this they’re doing to Spanish people to colonists. And that’s where they draw the line I guess.
In October of 1500, Columbus and his brothers are locked in chains aboard Columbus own ship called La Gorda, or I mean I assume that was the ship’s nickname. Bobadilla took possession of most of Columbus’ gold and treasures. His son, Ferdinand Columbus recorded that Bobadilla had quote “[taken] testimony from their open enemies, the rebels, and even showing open favor” and had auctioned off his father’s possessions for quote “one third of their value,” end quote. Which like, wah, cry me a river Ferdinand.
Columbus remained in chains throughout the entire voyage back to Spain. Once there, he was jailed for 6 weeks during which time he wrote this letter to a friend at the Spanish court quote “It is now seventeen years since I came to serve these princes with the Enterprise of the Indies. They made me pass eight of them in discussion, and at the end rejected it as a thing of jest. Nevertheless I persisted therein... Over there I have placed under their sovereignty more land than there is in Africa and Europe, and more than 1,700 islands... In seven years I, by the divine will, made that conquest. At a time when I was entitled to expect rewards and retirement, I was incontinently arrested and sent home loaded with chains... The accusation was brought out of malice on the basis of charges made by civilians who had revolted and wished to take possession on the land... I beg your graces, with the zeal of faithful Christians in whom their Highnesses have confidence, to read all my papers, and to consider how I, who came from so far to serve these princes... now at the end of my days have been despoiled of my honor and my property without cause, wherein is neither justice nor mercy,” end quote.
After six weeks, Ferdinand and Isabella finally got around to releasing the Columbus brothers from jail and summoning them to the Alhambra Palace in Grenada to give testimony before the court. Columbus reportedly wore short sleeves to show off the chain marks on his arms. Once there, he broke down in tears, admitted his faults, and begged for their forgiveness. And, you guys, it freaking worked. That’s the sick part of all this. He was never restored as governor but he did retain the titles of admiral and viceroy. Bobadilla was also required to return all of Columbus’ possessions that he had confiscated. And, they even decided to fund a fourth voyage. I cannot even conceive of why.
The goal this time is to find the Strait of Malacca to cut through to the Indian Ocean. The Strait of Malacca is in Indonesia. So, once again, Columbus still mistakenly believes that the Americas are actually Asia and that he’s one strait away from breaking through to the Indian Ocean. Nevermind the two continents and the entire Pacific Ocean that actually lay between him and the actual Strait of Malacca. But that’s the goal of this fourth and, thank God, final voyage. In March of 1502, he sets out with 142 men and strict orders from the King and Queen to absolutely not, under any circumstances stop in Hispaniola. Of note, he brings his son Ferdinand with him on this voyage who is only 13 years old. They cross the Atlantic pretty quickly, in only 20 days and land in Martinique. But, Columbus gets the feeling that a hurricane is brewing. He’s like “I really think a hurricane is coming, I just feel it.” Or maybe he’s using barometric pressure or something, I don’t know. One of his ships also needed some repairs so, he goes to Hispaniola even though he has been absolutely forbidden from ever going there. He cannot take orders. So he goes to Hispaniola and is denied entry, of course. Bobadilla, who is still in charge there, refuses to listen to him when he warns about this storm that’s coming. Columbus can’t access the colony but his ships seek shelter at the mouth of a nearby river to ride out this storm.
Now, meanwhile, Bobadilla has been ordered to return all of Columbus’ confiscated possessions to Spain. So he goes about doing that, loading it all into a ship called the Aguya which was like the most fragile, not sea-worthy ship, and starts taking it back to Spain along with some 30 other ships. And they do in fact encounter this hurricane that Columbus warned of. And this is an absolute disaster. Of the 30 ships, 20 some of them sink including the ship Bobadilla is on and around 500 people drown including Bobadilla himself. 3 of the ships make it back to Hispaniola and only one single ship makes it through the storm and onward to Spain. Any guesses which one that is? The Aguya, the crappiest, least sea-worthy ship that they put Columbus’ gold and possessions on. This is so wild that some of Columbus’ enemies accuse him of conjuring the storm as revenge. Which of course we know isn’t actually possible but it is really crazy the way that all played out. He’s like “hey guys there's a hurricane coming” and they’re like “screw you go away” and then they all drown and only the ship with his stuff on it makes it to Spain. Wild.
After this, Columbus and his men head to the mainland, making landfall in modern day Honduras. There he encounters indigenous people who were most likely Maya although we’re not totally sure. They introduce him to cacao which is where chocolate comes from. Columbus spent months exploring Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama looking for this passage, this strait that would connect to the Indian Ocean. He learns from the indigenous people about a province ten days journey by land west or 200 miles west called Ciguare. There was to be found quote “gold without limit, people who wear coral on their heads, who know of pepper, do business in fairs and markets, and who were accustomed to warfare.” There was also said to be water surrounding it. And I don’t know what this is referring to. It sounds like the Aztec, like Tenochtitlan surrounded by water, but I don’t know. Columbus never goes to this place. He never encountered the Aztec. But it does give him his first clue that this is a totally separate continent and not at all part of Asia. Because this is the mainland, right? This is supposed to be China. There should be Chinese people here. But these people aren’t Chinese, they are totally different people. And so he starts to realize this is somewhere else entirely. And these tales of gold without limit will go on to spur continued Spanish exploration and conquest in Central and South America in later years.
But Columbus doesn’t go any farther. He and his crew are battered by storms and end up stranded in Jamaica for a year, their ships too badly damaged by storms to continue on. One of the men he brought with him named Diego Mendez paddles a canoe with some of the indigenous people to Hispaniola to get help. I mean, I doubt he’s paddling. I’m sure the indigenous Jamaicans are paddling. This voyage takes four days of nonstop paddling but they reach Hispaniola and Mendez goes to the guy in charge there now, Nicolas de Ovando y Caceres, because remember Bobadilla drowned in the hurricane. So he goes to the new governor like “hey, I’m with Christopher Columbus and we’re stranded in Jamaica, will you please come rescue us.” And he’s like “heck no.” This guy hated Columbus and he did everything in his power to prevent them from being rescued which is why they ended up stranded there for a solid year. That’s how long it took for Diego Mendez to finally get someone to go help them. But even then, due to strong winds, it took the ship 45 days to reach Jamaica from Hispaniola. Now, remember this voyage had only taken 4 days in a canoe. But this ship takes 45 days to get to them. But despite all of this, 110 members of the original 142 member crew are still alive. Some of them decide to stay in Hispaniola, most of them, including Columbus and his son, sail back to Spain in September of 1504. Columbus died two years later, in 1506, at the age of 54. According to Dr. Frank Arnett at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, quote “after Jamaica, the patient’s condition declined rapidly. Although a prolonged period of rest brought modest relief, by his 54th year, his arthritis was so severe, that “most of the time he was confined to bed.” In cold weather, his agony was unbearable. Toward the end, his hands were so painful, he could no longer write. Finally, on May 20, 1506, shortly before his 55th birthday, “already quite paralyzed, bedridden with ‘gout’,” the patient died,” end quote. His cause of death is listed as reactive arthritis precipitated by recurrent infection with an alternative diagnosis of parrot fever which is apparently some sort of bird flu. So who even knows. It seems like he was bedridden towards the end and there are a lot of potentially fatal complications that go along with that particularly in a pre-antibiotics world.
But anyway, 1506 the man is dead. But the ripples are still just getting started. Columbus’ first voyage and the exaggerated reports of riches and gold he brought back with him to Europe set off a frenzy of exploration all across the continent. Everybody wants in. It begins a chain reaction of exploration, colonization, oppression, and conquest that leads to the formation of the western hemisphere as we know it today but not without major major consequences. Not without major systemic issues that still affect us to this day. With the arrival of Columbus as the catalyst that sets off this reaction, we see the beginning of the transatlantic slave trade. We see the decimation of native populations, mostly due to diseases introduced by European explorers. And when the indigenous people begin to die, we see the Europeans turning to Africa to continue the slave trade. We see the destruction of advanced civilizations, the Aztec and the Inca at the hands of the Spanish. We see the continued oppression of indigenous people for centuries as they were forced down into the lowest rung of society, and the enslaved Africans and their descendents right along with them. Bogado says in that article for Grist quote “Haiti remains the poorest country in all of the Americas; the European Union region remains one of the wealthiest in the world. This isn’t because of some innate curse on Haiti. It’s because its peoples, their labor, their lands, and their resources have long been embezzled without reparation. The insidious nature of the colonization of the Americas, which started in Haiti, not only terrorized the people who lived there at the time; it also created a system that kept indigenous peoples in slavery or perpetual poverty, while Europe basked in wealth,” end quote.
But this chain reaction Columbus started, it didn’t just have social consequences. It had environmental consequences as well. He arrived in an honest to God paradise on Earth. And the people he brought with him had absolutely no respect for nature, no respect for the land, for mother Earth like the indigenous people already living there did. The European nations that took over cleared the land for tobacco and sugar plantations leading to a slippery slope of deforestation and soil erosion. What’s more, the money that those plantations brought it, pouring into the pockets of already wealthy Europeans, helped fund the industrial revolution when our carbon footprint absolutely exploded with unprecedented levels of fossil fuel burning that has contributed to pollution and climate change. Columbus’ first voyage to the Americas is often cited as the beginning of the modern era. That’s how monumental it was. It issued in the modern world, the good and the bad.
And for a very long time, we just focused on the good. We chose to view Christopher Columbus as a hero. As a brave, daring, explorer, who courageously discovered new lands, our lands, the lands we call home. He’s the forefather of our forefathers. A man deserving of a holiday Columbus Day, the second Monday in October. When in reality, those weren’t our lands and we had no right to take them. What Columbus really did was steal and lie and murder and abuse. This is documented. And I don’t care how brave you are or how much a certain group profited off of your misdeeds. It doesn’t make them right. Christopher Columbus is no hero. He’s a supervillain like Darth Vader or Lord Voldemort. Except he won. And, because of that, we’ve been viewing him from the wrong side all these years. We can’t change what happened. We can’t go back and rewrite the story so that the good guys win and the villain is stopped. But we can shift the lens through which we view Christopher Columbus. We don’t have to stay on the side of the villain. We shift this lens by learning the truth about what he did and sharing it with others. We shift it by letting the realization sink in, feeling the outrage, the betrayal, exposing the trickery. We’ve been tricked. We’ve been tricked all this time into thinking that Christopher Columbus was anything more than a vile, evil villain. And so to you my friends I say happy Indigenous Peoples Day, because that man will never get an ounce of honor or respect from me.
Thank you all so very much for listening to History Fix, I hope you found this story interesting and maybe you even learned something new. Be sure to follow my instagram @historyfixpodcast to see some images that go along with this episode and to stay on top of new episodes as they drop. I’d also really appreciate it if you’d rate and follow History Fix on whatever app you’re using to listen, and help me spread the word by telling a few friends about it. That’ll make it much easier to get your next fix.
Information used in this episode was sourced from NPR, Grist, History.com, BBC, Wikipedia, and the University of Maryland. As always, links to these sources can be found in the show notes.
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