May 3, 1493

by | | Rome

On May 3, Pope Alexander VI (Rodrigo de Borja) published the papal bull Inter Caetera recognizing Castile’s right to the islands and mainlands Columbus had “discovered and to be discovered” thereafter (i.e., the Taíno homeland). He later prepared two additional...

Spring-Summer 1493

by | | Haiti

The garrison of sailors Columbus left with Chief Guacanagarí in January 1493 (see January 1) left no written account, and its history is known principally through reports of Columbus and other Europeans chronicling Columbus’s second voyage. These reports conclude the...

May 29, 1493

by | | Spain

Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand spent May organizing the effort to dispatch Columbus’s second voyage promptly. They appointed Juan Rodríguez de Fonseca, archdeacon of Seville, to administer the enterprise with Columbus, granting the two men broad authority to...

Late May or Early June, 1493

by | | Spain

Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand had required the six Taínos’ instruction in Christianity and, prior to dispatching Columbus with them on the second voyage, ordered their baptism. Columbus’s most utilized captive—one of Encounters Unforeseen’s protagonists (see...

June 1493

by | | Spain

After baptism of the six Taínos, Columbus and five Taínos departed Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand’s court in Barcelona for Seville, where Columbus would organize the second voyage. The captive baptized Juan—as Prince Juan—was adopted by the prince and required to...