Šwhat do I know about life? What about yourself?
I don't even know what I used to do and what I'm doing now;
Vague, shifting conjectures appear to me;
The mighty appearance of new worlds mocks me, confuses me. (Walt Whitman)
Valladolid, year 1506 from the birth of Christ, 14th from the discovery of America. Alone, in a poor room, on a sackcloth bed, abandoned by everyone, the "Admirante del Mar Oceano", the daring explorer, closes his eyes forever Christopher Columbus. He leaves this world as he came to it - "naked", without sound titles, chests filled with gold, silver... And with the last doubt - what "changing guesses" will be written on his "account" by insatiable posterity....
Christopher Columbus was born probably in 1436, maybe 1446 or 1451 in Genoa, in the family of a weaver. It is possible that his ancestors were Christianized Jews, who at one time immigrated to Genoa.
Much more significant than the family tree, for the future "admiral of the ocean" was the time in which he grew up. Even in his childhood, he heard stories about Islamic devastation, the blockade of trade routes in the direction of the East, while with a longing gaze he followed the ships and foreign sailors loading and unloading "bulk cargoes" in the port of Genoa. Because from Genoa all roads led to the sea. He too, as a 10-year-old, will go to sea, accompanying his father on a long journey. He will become a sailor at the age of 15, and will soon sail on the ships of powerful Genoese merchant families Di Negro i spinola. During one expedition, this fleet was intercepted by French pirates near Gibraltar. The fierce battle, with the exchange of cannon and rifle fire, lasted the whole day. By dusk, three Genoese and four French ships had sunk. Columbus himself was wounded and thrown overboard of one of the sunken ships. He managed to get hold of a fragment of an oar and made a desperate swim to the shore of Lagos, a Portuguese port 6 miles from the scene of the skirmish.
The waves of the Mediterranean Sea closed over the head of Christopher Columbus. The coast of Portugal accepted the exhausted Cristóbal Colon.
The exhausted shipwrecked man was found by local fishermen. Learning from his incoherent ramblings that his brother Bartolomeo lives in Lisbon, they took him to the outskirts of the city, uninhabited by exiles from Genoa. This reunion of separated brothers will represent a major turning point in Columbus's life.
The future "admiral of the ocean" will live in the Portuguese capital for the next nine years. During that time, he will complete his knowledge of maritime cartography, ship navigation and... court etiquette.
He will perfect his maritime cartography in his brother's office. Columbus' school education was quite modest. In a biography written by his son Ferdinand it is said that he studied astronomy, geometry and cartography at the University of Pavia, but his name is not in the university archives. He acquired his skill in making nautical charts during sea voyages and - after his marriage - in the house of his father-in-law, the first governor of the island of Porto Santo, whose maps he carefully studied. Some researchers state that it was then that Columbus conceived the idea of discovering the western route to India.
During his stay in Lisbon, Columbus undertook a number of maritime expeditions. He sailed to Portuguese Guinea. He met the whims of the Atlantic on short trips to England, Ireland and Iceland. He diligently studied the writings of the leading scientists of his time, but also carefully read the works of famous researchers. "Million" Marco Paul, in which the riches of China and Japan were described, ignited his imagination, while he was brought back to the "real" world by the "Imago mundi" (Image of the world) of the French scholastic Pierre d'Ain, on whose margins he made hundreds of notes. Based on this book, Columbus concluded that the distance between the western coasts of Europe and the eastern coasts of Asia could not be great. He was also encouraged by the stories of local sailors about unusual trees that the sea throws up near Porto Santo and the Azores Islands, as well as two human corpses with broad faces, quite different from those of Christians.
The records of Marco Polo, the adventures of seafarers, Seneca the prophecy "The time will come when the ocean will loosen the ties between things and Tula will no longer be the end of the world" - all this inspired hope for the new vice-governor of the New World, but his main support was the famous geographer and cartographer Toscanelli.
Paolo Toscanelli (1397 - 1482), a renowned physician, astronomer, mathematician, erudite, was the undisputed authority of his time when it came to cartography and maritime topography. Columbus knew about the letter that Toscanelli once (in 1484) sent to the Portuguese King Alfonso V, where he states that India can be reached both easier and faster by sailing west. Through a Florentine who lived in Lisbon, he asked Toscanelli for advice, and with an affirmative answer he received a copy of a letter which the latter had addressed to a Portuguese priest.
Toscanelli's letter, miraculously preserved in the archives of Columbus, in his restless and unstable life has somewhat realistic contours, but the telling of the virtuous Las Casas, critical Of course and gullible Gomorrah, are closer to the manner of licentia poetica than to critical historiography.
Allegedly, a ship headed for England from Spain, driven by a storm, stopped at the Antilles. After a painful voyage, he reached Madeira. A small number of surviving sailors went ashore, where they received the last communion, but the steersman took care of Columbus himself. He lived for a few more days, just long enough to entrust Columbus with the position of the accidentally discovered island and hand over the map on which the island was outlined.
Encouraged by Toscanelli's "calculations" (from Lisbon to the Chinese city of Kinsey - today's Hankou is 6500 miles) and d'Ain's arguments, Columbus requested an audience with João II, King of Portugal.
Grandson of the famous Enrike Moroplovac became interested in Columbus's plan and convened a special council - made up of geographers, cosmographers, clergymen - to give their opinion. After careful consideration, the Council assessed it as meaningless. Columbus' estimate that the distance to the nearest land across the Atlantic was 3200 miles was too low in their opinion, and they were right - that was the distance from the Canary Islands to the "West Indian Islands", and Columbus's demands for special honors and high incomes from the newly discovered countries - evaluated are out of place.
At that time, Columbus also suffered a personal misfortune. At the end of 1484, his wife passed away and he was left a widower with an eight-year-old son, Diego, alone, without protectors and their support. Seeing that his plans were falling apart in Portugal, he decided to move to Spain. With no money or support, he traveled a good part of the way on dusty Spanish roads on foot, carrying little Diego. The road led him to Palos, a small town in Andalusia and the nearby monastery of the Virgin Mary de Rabida. Tired of the journey, he asked the porter there for a crust of bread and a glass of water for his little son. While they were giving him alms, the abbot of the monastery, Juan Perez de Mancêna, came by and engaged in a conversation with the stranger. The headmaster was a very educated man with solid knowledge of geography. Columbus's bold plans greatly interested him. He kept him for a few days, and then gave him a letter - a recommendation for his acquaintance, the clergyman of the Spanish royal couple Ferdinand i Isabella.
Entrusting Diego to the friars, refreshed and encouraged, Columbus headed to Córdoba with the letter, where Ferdinand and Isabella were soon to arrive to wage a "holy war" against the Moors.
The curate of Prada and the queen's chaplain skull he kindly received Columbus, listened to him carefully, but did not grant him an audience with the royal couple.
The Genoese now settled in Córdoba, supporting himself by making nautical charts, building acquaintances with influential dignitaries with "ant persistence". The almighty managed to receive him Petro Koncaler Mentos, archbishop of Toledo and great cardinal.
Mentosa enjoyed a great reputation at the Spanish court. At his insistence, Ferdinand and Isabella received Columbus, carefully listening to this "messenger of God" whose mission was to sail west to reach Cipanga (Japan) and the area generally called India. They forwarded his plan for consideration to the Committee composed of geographers, cosmographers, and navigators.
For several days, this Board - in June 1486, in the monastery of Sveti Stefan in Salamanca - considered Columbus's project. Some of the members of the Committee allowed that the earth had the shape of a ball and that the west could be reached to the east, but not that Columbus's ships from India could return to Spain, because of the convexity of the sphere, and the immeasurable mountain of water, which they could not reach. to climb, even with the "most favorable wind".
So Columbus's plan was rejected.
The Genoese could not even think of a repeat audience. Ferdinand and Isabella strove to bring order to the country, liberate Granada and end the Moorish economy in Spain. On the other hand, the poor supplicant could only offer "firm character, stubborn love of honor and unshakable faith that heaven alone has chosen him to carry out a great purpose". For the next five years, Columbus would visit the thresholds of Spanish dignitaries in vain. As his cloak was tattered and his story faded, everyone regarded this newcomer as a freak, with phantasmagoric plans of new conquests and schemes.
At the end of 1491, Columbus will suddenly appear in Santa Fe, a hastily built town, within easy reach of the Alhambra tower. He wanted to receive support for his expedition from the royal "government" that was temporarily sitting here, and he was again refused - the fault was partially up to Columbus, because he - knowingly - submitted unconvincing evidence to the Commission, fearing to fully reveal his plans.
Disappointed and depressed, the Genoese decided to leave Spain and place himself at the disposal of the French to King Charles VII. Before that, he went to the de Rabida monastery to take his little son. When the curate Juan Perez learned of his failure, he endeavored to console him, calling his fellow citizens Dr. Fernandez i Martin Pinson to consult. All of them sympathized with Columbus, considering his plans correct. They persuaded Perez to write a letter to Isabella, asking her to keep Columbus in Spain. Two weeks later, the king's owner brought a reply that Perez should come urgently to the king's camp. He mounted the best mule and headed to Santa Fe after midnight, to bring the good news the very next day. The queen agreed to receive Columbus and also sent 20 thousand maravedis for travel expenses, the purchase of a mule and decent clothes.
With new hope, Columbus set off for the king's camp. He arrived at the moment when Granada fell and the last Moor king Boabdil gave the keys to the city to Isabella and Fernandinado. After the celebration, the royal couple appointed the Commission for negotiations with Columbus. One of the members was i Fernando Talabera, now Archbishop of Granada.
Columbus stood by his earlier demands. He demanded the title of admiral, the title of viceroy of all the newly discovered countries and a tenth of the income from the newly discovered colonies. The Commission rejected the demands of the Genoese. And the queen agreed that his demands were excessive, but Columbus would not yield. He hurriedly mounted a mule, said goodbye to his friends, and at the beginning of February 1492, headed for Cordoba, from where he intended to travel to France.
At that critical moment, one baptized Jew will speed up the "course of history".
Luis de Santander, Ferdinand's finance minister, reproaches Isabella for her lack of imagination and enterprise, and hints at the possibility of converting Asia to Christianity. In addition, he proposed that he himself, with the help of friends, finance the expedition. Several other Jews - Don Isaac Abrabanel, Juan Cabrero, Abraham Senior, supported Santander. The brotherhood now contributed 400 maravedis, Santander 350, and Columbus himself was supposed to provide 250. Isabella, encouraged, now gave her consent and the king's messenger mounted his horse, Columbus arrived at the race and called him back - all his demands were accepted.
In April 1492, the king's order arrived in the city of Palas to prepare two ships for Christopher Columbus, with all the necessities and a crew - the third ship had to be equipped by Columbus himself, who personally supervised the construction of the ships. Three months later, at the beginning of August, the three most famous ships in history were launched into the sea. The largest, "Santa Maria", 128 feet long and 25,71 feet wide, with a load capacity of 100 tons, could accommodate 52 men, "Pinta" was half smaller, with a load capacity of 50 tons, and "Njina" was the most elegant with a load capacity of 40 tons .
The crew numbered 120 people, mostly recruited from the "dregs" of the suburbs of Palos. The intellectual "brio" of the crew consisted of ship captains, two doctors, a notary, a secretary, and steersmen.
The captain of the "Santa Maria" was Columbus himself; "Pint" and "Njina" were managed by brothers chaffinch - Alfonso i Vicenza. On August 1492, XNUMX, these three ships set sail, set sail from Cape Sal in the direction of the Canary Islands, in order to sail westward to the eastern shores of Asia and "beautiful" India.
A smaller group of islands - seven larger and seven smaller known as the Canary Islands, were the last stop on Columbus' voyage to the New World. They reached these islands after 19 days of sailing. On one of them - the island of Homer, the ships were supplied with water, food and fuel. On September 28, the squadron sailed west along the XNUMXth parallel of latitude - not far enough south to take full advantage of the trade winds and shorten the distance but also the painful journey to the New World.
After two days of sailing, Ferro Island, the last of the Canary Islands, disappeared from the crew's sight. The unexplored area of the Ocean was beginning and Columbus found himself tet-a-tet with…
The Atlantic Ocean - it was first mentioned under this name by a Dutch geographer VareniusAt Mercatorova map in 1596 - it is significantly smaller in size than its closest relative, the Pacific Ocean. It accounts for "only" 106 million square kilometers or 29 percent of the total surface of the sea. At the time of Columbus, the Atlantic actually "represented the union of many partial spaces." There was the Atlantic of England and France, then the Atlantic of the Spanish and then the Atlantic of the Portuguese. Columbus already got to know its moods by sailing to the British Isles, the coast of South Africa. But this was now a “sailing into the unknown.”
(Ends next Saturday)
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