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Andrew’s Current Blog

Archived blogs chronicling 1492 from a bicultural perspective appear under 1492 Blogs.

Andrew’s Current Blog

Archived blogs chronicling 1492 from a bicultural perspective appear under 1492 Blogs.

 

Guadeloupe

After Dominica and Marie-Galante, Columbus’s fleet anchored for a week (November 4–10, 1493) at the twin islands close to Marie-Galante that the Kalinago or Caribe inhabitants called Caloucaera and Couchoalaoua. Columbus named them as one—Santa María de Guadalupe...

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Dominica and Marie-Galante

At 5 a.m. on November 3, 1493, 528 years ago today, a lookout on Columbus’s flagship, the María Galante, sighted a volcano topping the sea mist in the moonlight. By dawn, islands of the archipelago now known as the Lesser Antilles came into view, and Columbus directed...

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Canary Islands, October 2–13, 1493

Columbus’s second fleet stopped over at Gran Canaria on October 2, 1493, where sugar was stocked and a leaking ship repaired, and then anchored in the tiny harbor at San Sebastián on Gomera on October 5, the latter shown in two photos below. Prior to his first voyage,...

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Isabella and Anacaona

Women rulers were uncommon in both Taíno chiefdoms and European kingdoms during the fifteenth century. Nevertheless, the events related in Columbus and Caonabó: 1493–1498 Retold were significantly shaped by two women renowned in history—Spain’s Queen Isabella and the...

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Chief Caonabó, in Columbus’s Own Words

Contemporary Spanish chroniclers of 1492—including Bartolomé de Las Casas—relate information about Chief Caonabó’s personality and his battle against Columbus’s invasion of “Española.” Most chroniclers derived this information largely through conversations with...

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Columbus and Caonabó: 1493–1498 Retold

At last, the sequel to Encounters Unforeseen: 1492 Retold goes on sale this November! Titled Columbus and Caonabó: 1493–1498 Retold, it dramatizes Columbus’s invasion of “Española” and the bitter resistance mounted by its Taíno peoples during the period and aftermath...

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La Vega—in Columbus’s Final Thoughts

Columbus died in Valladolid, Spain, on May 20, 1506—515 years ago. In his will of February 1498, he had directed his heirs to build a church on “Española” dedicated to Santa María de Concepción. On his deathbed, he instructed that the church lie in the valley he’d...

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