Sunday, October 7, 2012

Christopher Columbus Day

 

Around 5th Grade, I was young kid in my old Allen

Elementary School from Wichita, Kansas. I remember

about my Homeroom with Mr. Randall.  He was with

me and my classmates to learn and read on the

History Book about Christopher Columbus was a

famous Explorer.   We were reading on the book

in our table together.

Christopher Columbus 

Christopher was young.

Born:  Unknown, but before October 31, 1451

       Genoa, Republic of Genoa, in present-day

       Italy

Christopher Columbus 2

He was older.

Died:  May 20, 1506 (aged c. 54)

       Valladolid, Spain

 

Burial shared in Seville, Spain and Santo Domingo,

Dominican Republic for few parts of bones of

deceased Christopher.

Christopher Burial Statue  Seville, Spain

Christopher Christopher Open Tomb Christopher Columbus Tomb

Christopher Columbus Tomb Box Christopher Columbus Headstone

Christopher Columbus Burial

Columbus’s remains were first interred at Valladolid,

then at the monastery of La Cartuja in Seville

(southern Spain) by the will of his son Diego, who

had been governor of Hispaniola.

In 1542 the remains were transferred to Colonial

Santo Domingo, in the present-day Dominican

Republic.

In 1795, when France took over the entire island of

Hispaniola, Columbus’s remains were moved to Havana,

Cuba.  After Cuba became independent following the

Spanish-American War in 1898, the remains were moved

back to Spain, to the Cathedral of Seville, where

they were placed on an elaborate catafalque.

 

However, a lead bearing an inscription identifying

“Don Christopher Columbus” and containing bone

fragments and a bullet was discovered at Santo

Domingo in 1877.

 

To lay to rest claims that the wrong relics had

been moved to Havana and the Columbus’s remains

had been left buried in the cathedral at Santo

Domingo, DNA samples of the corpse resting in

Seville were taken in June 2003 (History Today

August 2003) as well as other DNA samples from

remains of his brother Diego and younger son

Fernando Colon.  Initial observations suggested

that the bones did not appear to belong to

somebody with the physique or age at death

associated with Columbus.  DNA extraction proved

difficult; only short fragments of miotochondrial

DNA could be isolated.  The mtDNA fragments matched

corresponding DNA from Columbus’s brother, giving

support that both individuals had shared the same

mother.  Such evidence, together with anthropologic

and historic analyses led the researchers to remains

there to be exhumed, so it is unknown if any of those

remains could be from Columbus’s body as well.

The location of the Dominican remains is in

“The Columbus Lighthouse” (Faro a Colon), in

Santo Domingo.

Christopher Columbus Burial House DR  Christopher Columbus Bural House 2 DR

Christopher Columbus Bural House 3 DR Christopher Columbus Insdie Burial House DR

Christopher Columbus Tomb Burial House DR 

 

We honor Christopher Columbus Day on Monday,

October 8, 2012. I saw some statues of the

Christopher in few places and cities, Union Station,

Washington, DC, Columbus Circle, New York City,

NY and Old Town, Old San Juan, PR.

 

cc ship cc touched on shore

First Voyage

On the evening of August 3, 1492, Columbus departed

from Palos de la Frontera with three ships:

a larger carrack, the Santa Maria ex-Gallega

(“Galician”), and two smaller caravels, the Pinta

(“Painted”) and the Santa Clara, nicknamed the Nina

(lit. “Girl”) after her owner Juan Nino of captained

by Columbus.  The Pinta and the Nina were piloted by

the Pinzon brothers (Martin Alonso and Vicente

Yanez).

 

Columbus first sailed to the Canary Islands, which

belonged to the Castile, where he restocked the

provisions and made repairs.  After stopping over

in Gran Canaria, he finally departed from San

Sebastin de La Gomera on 6 September, for what

turned out to be a five-week voyage across the

ocean.  A lookout on the Pinta, Rodrigo de Triana

(also known as Juan Rodriguez Bermeo), spotted

land about 2:00 on the morning of October 12, and

immediately alerted the rest of the crew with a

shout.  Thereupon, the captain of the Pinta,

Martin Alonso Pinzon, verified the discovery and

alerted Columbus by firing a lombard.  Columbus

later maintained that he himself had already seen

a light on the land a few hours earlier, thereby

claiming for himself the lifetime pension promised

by Ferdinand and Isabella to the first person to

sight land.

 

Columbus called the island (in what is now

The Bahamas) San Salvador, the natives called it

Guanahani.  Exactly which island in the Bahamas

this corresponds to is an unresolved topic;

prime candidates are Samana Cay, Plana Cays, or

San Salvador Island (so named in 1925 in the

belief that it was Columbus’s San Salvador).

The indigenous people he encountered, the Lucayan,

Taino or Arawak, were peaceful and friendly.  From

the October 12, 1491 entry in his journal he wrote

of them, “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 the mainland come here to take them as slaves.

They ought to make good and skilled servants, for

they repeat very 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.”

He remarked that their lack of modern weaponry and

even metal-forged swords or pikes was a tactical

vulnerability, writing, “I could conquer the whole

of them with 50 men, and govern them as I pleased.”

 

Columbus also explored the northeast coast of Cuba,

where he landed on October 28.  On November 22,

Martin Alonso Pinzon took the Pinta on an

unauthorized expedition in search of an island

called “Babeque” or “Baneque”, which the natives

had told him was rich in gold.  Columbus, for his

part, continued to the northern coast of Hisponiola,

where he landed on December 5.

 

There, the Santa Maria ran aground on Christmas Day

1492 and had to be abandoned.  Columbus was received

by the native cacique Guacanagari, who gave him

permission to leave some of his men behind.  Columbus

left 39 men, including Luis de Torres, the Converso

interpreter, who spoke Hebrew and Arabic, and founded

the settlement of La Navidad at the site of present-

day Mole-Saint-Nicolas, Haiti.  He kept sailing along

the northern coast of Hispaniola with a single ship,

until he encountered Pinzon and the Pinta on

January 6.

 

On January 13, 1493 Columbus made his last stop in

the new World.  He landed on the Samana Peninsula

where he met the hostile Ciguayos who presented

him and his only violent resistance during his first

voyage to the Americas.  Because of this, and the

Ciguayos’ use of arrows, he called the inlet where

he met them the Bay of Arrows (or Gulf of Arrows). 

Today the place is called the Bay of Rincon, in

Samana, the Dominican Republic.  Columbus kidnapped

about 10 or 25 natives and took them back with him

(only seven or eight of the natives Indians arrived

in Spain alive, they made quite an impression on

Seville).

 

Columbus headed for Spain, but another storm forced

him into Lisbon.  He anchored next to the King’s

harbor patrol ship on March 4, 1493 in Portugal. 

After spending more than one week in Portugal, he

set sail for Spain.  He crossed the bar of Saltes

and entered the harbor of Palos on March 15, 1493.

World of his finding new lands rapidly spread

throughout Europe. 

 

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