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 October 14 and January 22)—was baptized Diego, named as Columbus’s elder son and youngest brother. Chief Guacanagarí’s representative (see December 26) was baptized Fernando de Aragon. A third was baptized Juan, named as Prince Juan—likely the remaining Cuban captive (see November 11). Isabella and Ferdinand served as godparents. Encounters Unforeseen portrays the baptisms.
None at Isabella’s court respected the Taínos’ own religious worship. The court chroniclers recorded that the captives asked for their baptisms of their own free will, essential for the baptisms to be valid. The subsequent experience with conversions during Columbus’s second voyage suggests the six Taínos didn’t forsake their Taíno spirits. Taíno chieftains didn’t embrace Christianity or accept it as a truer religion—not even Chief Guarionex, who agreed to receive instruction in it for a period of over a year.
I suspect the captives felt they had no practical recourse in Europe other than to accept the ceremonies their captors required. When reflecting on the voluntariness of their baptisms, one has to consider that those at Isabella’s court also considered the following acts “voluntary”: a Jew’s decision to be baptized rather than to leave Spain in the expulsion; a heretic’s decision to repent and accept Christ rather than to be burned at the stake; and, perhaps most relevant, a Canary Islander’s submission to vassalage rather than to be slaughtered.
Encounters Unforeseen’s depiction of 15th century Taíno religion is based principally on the European study of it (not entirely credible) that Columbus ordered the Catalan, Hieronymite friar Ramón Pané to prepare during the period of Columbus’s second voyage. Pané had lived at the Monastery of San Jerónimo de la Murta in Badalona (north of Barcelona) prior to the voyage, and he likely was brought to King Ferdinand’s attention while Ferdinand recuperated in the monastery following the assassination attempt (see December 7). Pané then enlisted to sail to the “Indies” along with a dozen other clerics. It was Pané who gave Chief Guarionex instruction in Christianity, and Pané’s understanding of Taíno religion was learned largely from Guarionex and his subjects.
The monastery commemorates Pané’s life and missionary work, and, for those visiting Barcelona, it makes a lovely half-day trip, as shown in the photos below, including the monastery’s baptismal fountain.
