WHAT YOU HAVE ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS by Phyllis Eckelman Half a millennium ago the peoples of the Old World were aroused by extraordinary news which was spreading through the major civilizations. Tonight, we look back with wonder at that fateful year - 1492. On a warm October evening in the waters of the Bahamas, the natives on the island of Guanahani later to be called San Salva- dor, had built bon-fires on the beaches to keep the fleas out of their cabins. Earlier that day sailors aboard a small fleet of three sailing vessels had seen indications of land in the water: reeds, a tree branch with berries, and in the sky - birds that nest at night on land, and now as darkness fell, they sighted a dim quivering light in the distance which seemed to be moving, as the Admiral would later write, "like a little wax candle rising and falling". Around 2:00 a.m. the look-out on the lead ship, the Pinta, saw white cliffs in the moonlight and signaled to the flagship, the Santa Maria, to verify the landfall --- thus catapulting the world from a period of isolation to a new age of communication and interdependence. A time that rushed ahead on its own momentum. AND IT ALL HAPPENED QUITE BY ACCIDENT. The Admiral of the fleet, Christopher Columbus, thought that the LAND TO THE WEST, which he was seeking, namely Japan, China, India, to be a "short run" from the Canaries (approx. two weeks sail). However, he underestimated the length of his journey by more than one half. Had it not been for this decided miscalcula- tion, there never would have been a trip. If his PATRONS or his crew had had any idea of the true distance, 1142 leagues, no one would ever have sailed on August 3, 1492 from the bar of Saltes Palos. He kept two logs - one a true log and a second, falsified to keep his crew unaware of how far they had traveled. Until his death, May 20, 1506 in Valladolid, Columbus be- lieved he had discovered India. Few mistakes in history have had so profound an impact on the entire world. Alfred Crosby, in an article entitled, "RETHINKING THE ENCOUNTER", had this to say: "My view is that it is nearly impossible to exaggerate the importance of the ENCOUNTER. Its significance towers far above considerations of the fate of this or that group of humans. This Encounter marks one of the major discontinuities in the course of the life on this planet. To measure its influence would require reference to a scale of time far greater than historians or archaeologists... have been calling of late, "deep time". To find changes comparable to those wrought by Columbus and his followers, we have to go back in time, far back, beyond recorded time to events marking the divisions between the periods of geological history. And one of the greatest Historians, William McNeill, in concert with Crosby has said this: "We ought not to celebrate the discovery of America in 1492 - that had been done long before. What Columbus did was to change the world in which he lived and the world in which the American Indians and Black Africans lived by connecting the two in a way that has lasted for half a millen- nium. When Columbus came to the end of his journey, however mistaken he was in calling this land the Indies, he inaugurated a profound change in human history and identity. WHAT WAS THE THEN KNOWN WORLD LIKE IN THAT FATEFUL YEAR - 1492?? This period in history, mid 15th century to mid 16th centu- ry, was in every sense a GOLDEN AGE. In Europe there was a re- birth of intellectual vigor. It was an age of great names: LEONARDO DA VINCI - the most ingenious mind of the period, was 42 years old. ERASMUS - the Dutchman, was about to become the leading scholar of the age. THOMAS A KEMPIS - was alive in Germany. MACHIAVELLI - was 23. MICHELANGELO - was 17. MARTIN LUTHER - was 9 years old. MARTIN BEHAIN - possibly a German Jew, made the first known world map in the form of a globe which attracted the attention of the Portuguese King, John II. This map showed LAND TO THE WEST. ABRAHAM ZACUTO - A Jewish astronomer, prepared valuable astronomical and mathematical TABLES which he had not yet published. (These, Colum- bus is said to have secretly taken with him on his first voyage.) It was a time of great change and power for the Roman Catholic Church as King Ferdinand-Queen Isabella accomplished the downfall of Granada, ending the Muslim occupation of Spain and the expul- sion of the Jews to "purify" the country. The Republic of Venice was at its zenith. Portugal was the center of unparalleled activity in navigation under the influence of Prince Henry the Navigator. In the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, nautical instruments, maps and marine charts had revolutionized seafaring. The Spanish Jews were prominent in the fields of cartography and calligraphy. 15th century Europe was still basically an agricultural continent. There was great concern for hygiene and ecology. Columbus's landfall led to a phenomenal mixing of plant and animal species. WHAT ABOUT THE MAN - CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS ?? He was one of history's most controversial and shadowy figures with mysteries surrounding his birth, his character, his career, and his achievements. WHO WAS THE REAL COLUMBUS ?? His aristocratic bearing, seeming extensive education and multi- faceted talents belied the humble background he claimed. His sophisticated library, probably acquired from the family of his Portuguese wife, reflected and uncommonly broad knowledge of languages, history, geography and the Bible. His reading notes point to a surprising knowledge of Hebrew lore. He wasn't understood or appreciated in his time. He was a visionary, a man of singular insight and purpose - to reach THE LAND TO THE WEST. It has been said by some that, as an individual, only JESUS OF NAZARETH has had greater influence on the course of human events. One historian put it this way: "the European discovery of the Americas ranks as one of the two greatest events since CREATION, the other being the life of CHRIST". Christopher Columbus kept his personal life a mystery. Who really knows his true life story other than himself. Not even his sons, Diego and Ferdinand were sure. If we put together everything that has been previously published on Christopher Columbus's descent, we are confronted with an absolute puzzle. Some claim he was an imaginative liar, often contradicting himself again and again when writing about himself. No less than eight countries claim him as a native son. In a recent issue of U.S. News and World Report - letters to the editor section - replies to their,"Myths About Columbus", article, which appeared in the previous issue, one modern day student of Columbus makes the claim that: "anyone who has ever lived in Barcelona KNOWS that he was a convert from Judaism horn in Catalonia and that his true name was CULOM; another wrote, "Christophero Columbo was born in 1446 in Calvi, Corsica, which at the time was part of Genoa. Still another claims that: HE was 100% Portuguese, born 1448 in Southern Portugal. Historians, however, generally have accepted the account of his birth place as Genoa in 1451...BUT THERE ARE NO RECORDS TO VERIFY THIS. His father is said to have been Domenico Columbo, a weaver and dealer of wool. A man who was loved, as a father, by his sons; who would close his shop on a fine day and take them fishing... His name at birth, according to the accepted account, is said to have been CHRISTOFERO, after the patron Saint. He saw in his name his destiny and divine mission in life: to be the bearer of Christianity to the heathens. Historians are quite certain that he was not of noble lineage. The lack of recorded family records substantiates this. He never wrote in Italian which could indicate that he was illiterate when he left Italy. Most of his letters were written in Spanish. He probably went to sea at the age of 14... One report says that on these voyages he did not perform the duties of the sailors but went rather as a dealer in wool and silk goods. There is convincing evidence that he had not studied naviga- tion before he became The Admiral of the Sea... that he simply told tall stories in order to convince people of his qualifica- tions to carry out his destiny: TO FIND THE LAND TO THE WEST. Columbus is known to have had two brothers, DIEGO and BARTOLOME. The first authentic fact of real importance in Columbus's life of which we have knowledge is that in 1476, at approximately 25 years of age, he went to live in LISBON with his brother, BARTOLOME who was a brilliant cartographer and calligrapher AND a book seller. It was here that Columbus developed his expertise in these fields and gained a great deal of knowledge from books and conversations. HIS GOAL: To learn all he could about the "OCEAN SEA" as the Atlantic was called. WASHINGTON IRVING says of Columbus, "He was one of those men of strong natural genius, who, having nothing on the out-set, acquire a facility in vanquishing difficulties throughout their career. Such men learn to effect great purposes with small means, supplying this deficiency by the resources of their own energy and imagination. In all of Columbus' life the scantiness and apparent insufficiency of his means, enhance the grandeur of his achievements". Columbus had considerable powers of observation and a dreamy practical nature. His JOURNAL, written in Castilian, is considered by far the best account left by a navigator of that time. The only copy of Columbus' diary which has come down to us is an abstract in the hand of a Dominican historian, Bartolome de Las Casas. The original, given to the monarchs was copied but never returned to Columbus. It is thought that Las Casas had access to the origi- nal. He did not alter the spirit of the Journal in translation. Another historian describes Columbus as proud, arrogant, not too honest, an opportunist, ready to be a martyr, pious, vain and a shrewd negotiator who drove one of the hardest bargains, "THE CAPITULATION", in history with two of the most astute Monarchs ever to share a throne. PERSEVERANCE was one of his strongest qualities. Once set on a course, he rarely changed it... EXCEPT... on that fateful voyage when, on an impulse, he decided to change his course heading: from due WEST to WEST SOUTH WEST and follow a great flock of birds. He was a man of extraordinary presence and personality and extremely persuasive. Throughout his life he remained close to his family, often involving them in his undertakings. His love for his father prompted him in later life to name the oldest city in the New World Santo Domingo, after his father's patron Saint. He remained a Genoese throughout his life, never becoming naturalized in any other country. Columbus was a devoutly religious man. Another quality he displayed was kindness... especially toward the natives he encountered on his first VOYAGE. He wanted a friendly reception if he ever returned. CHRISTOBAL COLON'S APPEARANCE IN 1485 was that of a man, taller than average, sturdy, well proportioned build, fair complexion with freckles, sandy hair, blue eyes and bold sharply defined eyebrows. His colorings and personality were the same as those of Queen Isabella. This could have been a factor which attracted her to him. His NOSE was aquiline. No portrait of him was painted in his lifetime as the age of Spanish portraiture was yet to come. However, no less than 71 originals or copies were exhibited at the Chicago Columbian Exposition in 1893. Many of these, espe- cially those painted by Christians, gave his nose essentially a JEWISH SHAPE. WHICH BRINGS US TO ONE OF THE HOTTEST CONTROVERSIES AMONG HISTORIANS... WAS HE JEWISH ?? There is no direct evidence, but there are many occurrences and associations which point to a definite Jewish influence. Any investigation of Columbus' life leads by a direct path to the plight of the Jews in Spain at that time. His story appears to be intertwined with theirs from day one. It is a curious fact that throughout his life, where ever there is evidence of any sort of support of his activities, we find an intelligent, influential, wealthy Jew or Converso in the background. One source suggests that Jews are willing to take financial risks not acceptable to Gentiles. As long as the Moors dominated a large part of the Hispanic peninsula and were at war with the Spanish kingdoms, the Chris- tian rulers were often dependent on the Jews living in their kingdoms. In spite of the Church's rulings, the kings had entrusted high positions to the Jews, especially in commerce and finance. Cartography had long been a concern of the Jews on the Iberian peninsula. Learned Jews presided over a number of schools of cartography whose contributions vastly enlarged the boundaries of the known world. The Spaniards and Portuguese would refer to such specialists as "MAP JEWS" or "COMPASS JEWS", but the products of their skill and knowledge were highly esteemed throughout Europe and in great demand among sea captains. Almost every adventure in the history of mankind began with the study of some kind of map. Old Jewish dreams and longings for a land where they could live unmolested, began to reawaken with the excitement of the AGE OF DISCOVERY. These longings had accompanied the Jews on their wanderings ever since they had been driven from their homeland in Biblical times. Columbus' enterprise gave renewed hope to the Jews who were trying to escape persecution in an intolerant Catholic Spain. His plans, therefore, were of significance to them, and Jews played a great part in his venture. Columbus, having failed to convince the Portuguese King, John II, about his dream of finding LAND TO THE WEST, WENT TO SPAIN. There he would have been met with the same type of rejection except for one outstanding and overruling factor: THE JEWISH ELEMENT. Namely a converted Jew, LUIS DE SANTANGEL, finance member of King Ferdinand's Court, who "saw through" Columbus, but realized that because of his invincible single- mindedness, he should be entrusted with the venture to discover LAND TO THE WEST. Rightly or wrongly, he believed Columbus to be Jewish. He proceeded to press his opinions on the Monarchs. THIS MAN "MADE THE DIFFERENCE" IN THEIR DECISION. Because the royal treasury was without sufficient funds to pay for this expedition, LUIS DE SANTANGEL offered to advance the throne the cost of the voyage out of his own pocket in the amount equivalent to $4,500.00 (U.S. Dollars). Thus establishing the following propositions: The New World was discovered by an expedition TOTALLY fi- nanced by Jewish money. Money for the first voyage was voluntarily given because the Jews believed in the enterprise. Most of the money to finance subsequent exploitations was confiscated by the Spanish Monarchs from Jewish sources... But neither the Jews or the Moslems were permitted to settle in the New World until after 1502. Why did Columbus take an interpreter of Hebrew with him? The only possible explanation must be that he expected to be reaching countries in which Jewish people lived and governed. After the landfall, we do know that Columbus sent his interpreter to communicate with the natives and among the first words addressed to them were words in Hebrew. As you know, Columbus did not discover the way to India, however, on his 4th voyage he was only a few miles from the Pacific Ocean but did not know it and at that point was too sick with malaria to leave his ship with a search party. The dream of the Jews and the Conversos, that Columbus would show them the way to the ten tribes of Israel was never ful- filled. THERE ARE CONTROVERSIES surrounding what is called the AGE OF DISCOVERY and the celebration that is being planned in 1992: Should 1992 be a year of celebration, commemoration or lamentation??? You will, of course get a different answer depending upon the national origin of the person to whom you present the ques- tion. The Italians would like to celebrate the occasion as a great achievement of a native son. The Spanish would like to celebrate the event as evidence of their superior culture and their crusading spirit, as a Christian enterprise. Even the Portuguese are proud of the event because, after all, Columbus's success was a direct result of the Portuguese naval experiences in the Atlantic, the off-shore islands of the Azores and the Canaries, and a full century of voyages along the Western Coast of Africa. Most of the best navigators were Portuguese and Genoese. There is an old saying, "God gave the Portuguese a small country in which to live, but all the world in which to die." The great Portuguese poet, Camoes, once wrote about his countrymen, "And if there had been more of the world, they would have reached it." As one looks around at the rising tide of gloomy articles and books on the effects of the AGE OF ENCOUNTER, upon the AMERINDIAN demography, on the rate of suicides among Amerindian adolescents and young adults, on the rate of species extinction and more, one wonders if there isn't another side to the story. In other words, IS IT ALL GLORY? ...SOMEONE HAD TO SUFFER. Amerindians and Blacks hold different views than Europeans. To the Indians, the European discovery of America was nothing less than an "INVASION OF AMERICA." It was, as the title of Russell Thornton's book suggests, "The American Indian Holo- caust." And, indeed, the islands of the Caribbean, as well as the terra firma, experienced a genocide unparalleled in all of history. The Spanish conquistadores regarded the Indians as subhumans upon whom they were conferring a blessing by converting them to Christianity. If they resisted, they were slaughtered. The Indians were regarded as having no property rights at all: their land, their possessions and their women belonged to the Spanish conquerors. One Indian organization in Argentina recently wrote: "Why should we celebrate the 500th anniversary? The Spaniards invaded our culture and forced us into colonial subjugation. A group of Bolivan Indians has said, "The 5th centennial should not be considered as a triumph of Spain or the West. Rather, it is one of the darkest chapters in history. Yet another group has stated,"Europe forced us to prostitute ourselves, after they poisoned our minds and filled us with lies, they committed unspeakable atrocities." AMERINDIA 92, a UNESCO organization, is currently involved in a hot disagreement. Although there is a large contingency of Spaniards on the commission, they have been unable to prevent hostile comments by the Indian membership and the 3rd world membership. From Peruvian members we hear this: "Do you really believe that we are going to participate in a fiesta to celebrate the initiation and continuation of genocide, colonization and exploi- tation of our people??... "Spain ought to beg us for a pardon, it's not too late for King Juan Carlos to grant us the respect and dignity which we deserve." And finally, our own National Indian Council of the United States has stated: "To celebrate this occasion is the equivalent of helping an assassin to celebrate his crime." There are controversies surrounding Columbus, himself: How was it that he was able to marry a Portuguese noble woman, far above his station in society and mix with nobility and call upon the Kings of Europe?... What was his native tongue?... How did he come by such knowledge of Judaism? CONCLUSION It is difficult for us, living as we do in a familiar world of jet aircraft and instant communication, to imagine what it would be like to encounter a wholly new continent, not only with unfamiliar plants and animals, but also with a startling variety of human inhabitants. Today our frontiers lie in the wilderness of space. What an impact the New World had on the Old!! Columbus remade the world; his voyage of discovery was not only the high point of the AGE OF DISCOVERY, but also it ushered in the Modern Age. Just suppose there had been a popular press on the American model in 1493... Columbus's discovery would have been reported something like this in the leading paper of Genoa: "GENOA MAN SEES NAKED NATIVES"... "FINDS GOLD IN RIVER SANDS"... "RICH STRIKE FOR KING OF SPAIN".... "Colombo, with three ships reaches GOLDEN ISLANDS near India where...men bear no arms and women wear no clothes". THE HARD BOILED EGG STORY ANECDOTE TO PROVE COLUMBUS' SELF CONFIDENCE. Sometime during 1493, (4 to 6 weeks after his return from his first voyage) Columbus was at a party. One member of the group said to him, "If you had not undertaken the expedition, someone else from Spain would have". Columbus made no reply but took a hard boiled egg and said, "Gentlemen, you make it stand here without support, as I will, who was the first to discover the Indies." The egg was passed around the table, each person attempting to make it stand without support. No one succeeded. When the egg came to Columbus' hands, by bearing it down on the table he fixed it, having crushed a little of one end, making the point to the confused dinner partners that, after the deed is done, everybody knows how to do it. That THEY first should have sought the Indies and not laugh at him who had done it and showed them how. BIBLIOGRAPHY - COLUMBUS TALK - Nov. 2, 1990 The Truth About Columbus - Charles Duff - 1936 Admiral Of The Sea - Samuel Eliot Morison - 1942 Christopher Columbus, Mariner - Samuel Eliot Morison - 1955 Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus - Vol III - Washington Irving - 1860 Columbus - Bjorn Landstrohm - 1967 The Boalsburg Mansion Columbus Talk - Thomas C. Tirado - 1989 Europe 1492 - Portrait of a Continent 500 Years Ago - Franco Cardini - 1989 The Journal of Christopher Columbus - translated by Cecil Jane - 1960 Permission granted by author.