by Andrew Rowen | | Dominican Republic, Haiti, Sea of Darkness, Spain
In October 1492, the Taíno peoples of the Caribbean lived mostly in territory within modern Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, eastern Cuba, and Jamaica, and, to the north, the smaller islands of the Bahamas and the Turks & Caicos. Haiti was one of the...
by Andrew Rowen | | Dominican Republic, Haiti, Sea of Darkness, Spain
While the horizons remained landless, the crews of the Niña, Pinta, and Santa María were soothed that many birds were flying about—signaling land was nearby. Peace then reigned on the Taíno Haiti (i.e., modern Haiti and the Dominican Republic), with five caciques...
by Andrew Rowen | | Lucayan Islands, Spain
Columbus wrote his Journal as a report to Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand. On October 17, he indicated in the Journal that he was sailing in the “Indies” (as he had promised them) and referred to the Taínos as “Indians.” Isabella and Ferdinand approach Barcelona,...
by Andrew Rowen | | Cuba, Spain
Columbus’s daily ship’s log of the voyage was presented to Queen Isabella when he returned to Spain in 1493 and has been lost since her death. Isabella had a copy made and given to Columbus in 1493, which has been lost since the 16th century. Before the copy vanished,...
by Andrew Rowen | | Spain
Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand had taken their court to Barcelona for the winter. They regularly held audiences to hear grievances and resolve criminal and civil cases of their common subjects and, at noon, Ferdinand finished an audience at the Casa de Deputacion....
by Andrew Rowen | | Atlantic Ocean, Castile, Portugal, Sea of Darkness, Spain
The Niña’s crew had lost sight of the Pinta during the storms off the Azores on the night of February 13 and surmised it had sunk. But the Pinta had survived, and its captain, Martín Alonso Pinzón, brought it to harbor at Bayona on Castile’s western coast, north of...
