by Andrew Rowen | Apr 24, 2022 | New York City
Prior to the second voyage, Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand had instructed Columbus promptly to explore the land the “Indians” called “Cuba” to ascertain whether it was the Indies mainland, and he’d advised them that this exploration would follow establishment of...
by Andrew Rowen | Apr 9, 2022 | New York City
After dispatching reinforcements to Fort Santo Tomás, Columbus decided on the next steps to his conquest of “Española.” Alonso de Hojeda would replace Pedro Margarite as the fort’s warden, and Margarite was to march about the island with a squadron of almost four...
by Andrew Rowen | Apr 1, 2022 | New York City
Columbus returned to Isabela in late March 1494, having left Pedro Margarite and a garrison of almost sixty men in the island’s mountainous Cibao to complete Fort Santo Tomás’s construction (see post of March 12). Within just days—April 1, 1494 (528 years...
by Andrew Rowen | Mar 25, 2022 | New York City
The twelve ships Columbus had dispatched to Spain from Isabela on February 2, 1494 (see post of February 2), arrived Cádiz on March 7, and the surviving indigenous captives he’d taken on Guadeloupe and St. Croix (see posts of November 4 and 14) were transferred to the...
by Andrew Rowen | Mar 12, 2022 | New York City
With Isabela’s construction underway on the coast, on March 12, 1494 (528 years ago), Columbus heralded his conquest of “Española,” marching with five hundred men into the mountainous region the Taínos called the Cibao to build a fort intended to garrison soldiers who...
