by Andrew Rowen | Jul 4, 2023 | New York City
Following the hurricane (see prior post), Columbus ordered Isabela’s shipwrights to construct two new caravels, the first ships so designed made in the Americas. He’d survived violent storms—during the return ocean crossing of the first voyage and the Cuban...
by Andrew Rowen | Jun 4, 2023 | New York City
A tremendous storm ravaged “Española” in the summer of 1495 (528 years ago), and the Spaniards adopted the Taínos’ word for it—hurakán—as the storm’s fury and swirl so distinguished it from storms they knew. As depicted in Columbus and Caonabó, the hurricane uprooted...
by Andrew Rowen | May 6, 2023 | New York City
Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand’s instructions to Columbus at the commencement of the second voyage required that all trade with “Indians” be conducted by barter. In practice, the key barter envisioned was trading items such as hawks’ bells, bead necklaces, and...
by Andrew Rowen | Apr 16, 2023 | New York City
The four ships bearing 550 Taíno captives that Columbus dispatched from Isabela on February 24, 1495 (see posts of February 1 and 25) arrived at Cádiz, Spain, on April 7, 1495. As depicted in Columbus and Caonabó, the ships had labored two weeks skirting east from...
by Andrew Rowen | Mar 27, 2023 | New York City
As depicted in Columbus and Caonabó, Taíno peoples fought the first major battle of four centuries of wars between Amerindians and Europeans on March 27, 1495 (528 years ago), beneath the hill now known as Santo Cerro (Holy Hill) north of La Vega, Dominican Republic....
by Andrew Rowen | Mar 17, 2023 | New York City
Columbus’s letter to Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand of October 15, 1495 (first available in 1985, as discussed in the post of February 25) reveals that he felt Chief Caonabó’s capture was essential to “Española’s” conquest. He reported that Caonabó was “truly the...
