Columbus day is here, and we really need to be honest about what that means to America, all of America, and whether it should be a national holiday of celebration, or an international day of mourning and/or shame.
I understand the patriotic clamor of pride, both for those In the US who dont know better, and also for those in Italy, and those Americans of Italian descent. If the tame stories and tales of Columbus were vaguely true, it would be more than justified. But, unfortunatley, like much of world history, and nearly all of American History, the stories we learned about Columbus are so far from true. Yes, there are many facts that hold water, like dates, locations, and names. But for the most part, it is fable, written to glorify a man, an adventure, and a milestone in history. But this is not a milestone that should be celebrated as it is, by anyone who knows the truth. For this reason, I am going to print out the truth, word by word, fact by fact, and you decide who should be doing what in remembering this date, this man, and this “discovery”.
Before I even begin, I want to make one fact very apparent so those of Italian heritage do not take offense. While “Columbus” was from Italy, he did not sail for the Italian flag or country in his “discovery”, Italy, Portugal, and England had turned him down when he came to them for financing and ships, He sailed under the flag of Spain, for the king and queen of Spain, and besides his italian blood, had no loyalties to anyone or any country, only whoever would pay his way. He certainly did not ‘discover America’ for the Italians, and in fact, even denied his heritage many times to save his hide, so the sometimes rabid support and homage given to this mythical man by Italians in the US today is very misguided, at best.There are far more honorable and loyal men who deserve their praise than this scoundrel.
“Columbus”, was born in 1451, in Genoa, in what is now Italy, and was named Domenico Columbo. Eventually he married a local govenors daughter, and had a son; Diego. He left his wife and hooked up with a 20 year old mistress in Spain in 1487.
Colombo was obsessed with sailing, and became very educated in the ways of the seas, and increasing shipping routes for the lucrative spice trades from Asia. He studied the stars and the seas, and was convinced there was a more direct route through the Indies, and whoever would finance his sea adventure could become a partner in his tradings, hoping to take away the business from the dominant Italian and Arab traders.
After approaching the Italians, the English, and Portugal, he finally convinced the queen of Spain to finance his first expedition with three ships; the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria.The king and queen were not too concerned about the costs, as they had recently become very rich from their successful conquering of the Moors to the south.
Columbo had heard of tales of a better route, and even possibly a new world loaded with gold and silver from descendants of the Norsemen, and a rumor of a man called Leif Ericson who had sailed to the far east and beyond, over 500 years before. In fact, Ericson and other Norsemen had sailed to the New World long ago, and brought with them yellow fever and typhus,enfluenza, and small pox, among other great gifts, and decimated tens of thousands of Natives living on the Eastern and Southern shores of the new world, called Turtle Island. He had managed to create a deserved fear among the Natives of this hidden land that would serve the later colonists well in keeping the natives just far enough from the newcomers to allow them to gain a strong and unrelenting foothold.
Driven by greed, love of the oceans, and tales from previous sailors, Columbo set off to find whatever he could to fill his ships holds with proof of a better way. After weeks of sailing, he landed in the Bahamas Archipelago, a small Island named Guanahani by the locals, and renamed San Salvador by Columbo. Even to his dying day he never thought he had found anything new to the established world. He was convinced he had found a part of Asia, calling it China and Japan. He made a fool of himself back in Europe later on by claiming that the reason he never found the passage to India was because the earth wasnt exactly round; it was pear shaped, and thus the bulge in the pear prevented him from finding the secret route he was after. He sailed to several Islands, in present day Cuba he was certain he would find the Emperor of China, and only found villages of the local Taino tribes.
In reading the many diaries that Columbo wrote during his journeys, there is a tidbit of information that has been hidden for many years, that has a great bearing on today. I have been saving this revelation for my next book, and am reluctant to put it out there now, but I am afraid it could become twisted before then, so I am writing it now. It will still be in the book, and will undoubtedly be news to many even then, as it is highly unlikely this blog will become widely circulated. So consider yourself special, on the receiving end of some very interesting and relevant facts about columbo and about the title of Indian, as opposed to Native American.
Columbo was very detailed and even graphic in his journals of his discoveries. Much of what he wrote was kept out of the history books, for obvious reasons. It is unlikely Columbus Day would be a national holiday if the real story of Columbus ever became mainstream. All we have been told is”in 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue”, and discovered America, an empty and rich land, the handful of local savages became christians, and the rest is wonderful history.
What he did write was that the Natives he first encountered were a” sweet and innocent group of well behaved heathens. They welcomed him and his men with open arms, and treated us with utmost respect and dignity”. He detailed there lifestyle as very low key, living communaly with each other, each person with his place in their close-knit society, no hostilities towards each other or towards his men. No weapons other than what was needed for hunting the abundant game, no enemies, and no jealousy. He wrote thet their demeanor was what he had hoped would be the attitude of his men who claimed to be Christians, he said his new hosts were more “christian in word and deed than the christians he had sailed with”. He still considered them damned to hell because of their heathen religions, and tendency towards wearing very few clothes to cover up their parts that cause temptations. But he knew that these non aggressive people would surely embrace the God of Salvation once presented, and once they learned to read from the good book.
Since he was more convinced he had found a far end of Asia, and not a new route through the Indies, he did not think the local natives were from India. He never wrote about that anywhere. And the Taino people had very Asian characteristics; he was certain it was China or Japan. He loved the new people, for many reasons. He felt they were already living “in God”; acting as a christian should act, they only lacked education and baptism. He described them as a people who live in God, “en Dios”. He wrote they were”un gente que vive en Dios”- a people who live in God. As children “En Dios”, they would soon come to be saved as christians.
En Dios, Indios, in english; Indians. Not confused with people from India, linked with God as children of God, in God, en Dios, Indians. These were Indians, not from India. Not to be later renamed by the politically correct as “Native Americans”, this is incorrect, as America came from another Italian to be discussed soon; Amerigo Vespucci. We are not native americans, native amerigos, no,.. we are a people who were known from the beginning by outsiders as those who live “In God”. We are Indians, not native americans! A proclamation that will be certain to rile up those politically correct, even those Indians who dont know the whole story, but a piece of history that should be clarified. We can be proud to be Indians once again, no need to be Native Amerigos after an Italian writer named Vespucci, and not worried that soon someone will come up with a new and more politically correct title that we must bear. We are In God, Indians.
Columbo, for all of his kind words in his journals, was ultimatel driven by greed, nothing else. He is rumored to be a freemason, of the knights Templar, of viking origin, but I doubt it, and it doesnt matter. He was a greedy man looking for fame and fortune at any cost, and had no shame when it came to doing whatever he had to to make money.
His expedition was actually a great disappointment; no great shortcut, no contact with the Emperor, no mountains of gold and silver, only a gentle and nearly meek group of peaceful Natives. But he was convinced these natives would at least please the queen as a new source of slaves, as the slave trade was big in Europe at the time. He captured a large group of them and brought them back to the queen. He made friends with the Chief of Hispaniola; Guacanagari, and left 39 men there to stay and set up camp, since one of his ships had run aground.
He returned to Spain without any Chinese silks or exotic spices, or tales of a great new trade route. Instead, he had some bedraggled slaves(10 died en-route) to show the queen of the potential for a grand slave trade. The queen was not impressed, set the slaves free, and declared them subjects of the crown, and made the islands of the new world off limits to slavers, to Columbo’s dismay.
He was, however, able to convince the king that this was a great opportunity for colonization, and the prospect of gold, silver, and emeralds was great. The king sent him back with 17 ships, 1000 men, pigs, horses, cattle, and disease. He demanded Columbo set up a trading post and convert the heathens to Christianity, and use the area as an opportunity to expand exploration of China and Japan.
The Natives, the Indians, had at first thought these were the bearded men from heaven from old stories. They purposely treated them with respect. But after Columbo took some away as slaves, and when he was gone, they witnessed the commander rape the chiefs wife, they realized these were not anything like men of any god. The natives weapons were not used for war, more for games like jousting, so they were no match for the military trained spanish. But when the 39 men left behind began raping all of the native women, the Indians killed every one of them.
When Columbo returned with his spanish militay contingent, and learned of the murders of his men, and then let his true colors shine. He became the appointed govenor and viceroy of the Islands, and started a program called Encomienda; They would provide the Taino Indians the ‘protection of the Castillian Crown”, and instruction in the Christian faith, in exchange for labor. Another way of instituting slavery without calling it that. The spaniard was the Encomendero, the Indian was the Encomedido.
This return voyage brought along a man named Vespucci Amerigo. While he was an unimportant passenger, he published letters to a friend in Europe about the new world that made it into the public under the title”Mondus Novus”; new world .His descriptions of naked women, the raw sexuality of an untamed nature, and the belief that this was not Asia, this was the garden of eden, a new land! He turned the writings into 2 popular books that became translated all over Europe. Amerigo became a celebrity, and was put on a commitee to advise the king of Spain about policy in the new world. The King eventually named the new continents after him; the Americas, north and south.
The policy of Encomienda warped into a brutal genocide of the Taino people. An influential priest, Bartolomede Las Casas, was so sickened by ther killings and torture of the slaves, he desparately begged them to replace them with African slaves, a request he would later regret. In 1515 las Casas asked the king(Ferdinand) to end the abuses and horrors of the Taino. The king referred it to his President of the Council of the Indies, Juan Rodriguez de Fonseca. He told of 7000 children slaughtered in 3 months, and Juan asked “how does that affect me”?
The slaughter by Columbos men began slowly, but gained momentum fast. And it got more gruesome as they tried to outdo each other in twisted torture techniques. Small children, pregnant women,old men, women who just gave birth, hacked into pieces, bellys cut wide open.The officers would lay wages whether they could slice a man in two with one stroke, or cut the head from the body, or disembowl them with a single blow from their ax .They would rip the nursing infant from the mother by the feet, slam their head into the rocks, and toss them overhead into the river, shouting” wriggle, you little perisher”. They ceremoniously erected ropes in the trees and hung 13 natives by their feet over big fires, burning them alive in honor of Jesus and the 12 deciples. The would tie straw to their bodies and light them on fire, keeping them away from the river as they screamed for mercy. They would cut the writs of some so the hand barely dangled, saying”take this letter to the rest”, meaning this was the warning for those hiding in the hills.
They took the leaders of tribes, the chiefs, and tied them to griddles, sticks laced together and staked into the ground with pitchforks, grilling them over slow fires. The screaming was so loud the commander demanded they stop so he could sleep. Instead, the drove dowels into their mouths so they could no longer scream, and stoked the fire even more.
By the mid-1500′s the Taino were nearly gone, a handful left to eat grass and starve in the trees, eventually not one Taino was left.
This was the beginning of a crusade that marched northward. They entered Florida and continued the rampage. By then, the settlers from Europe were taking over farther north, and the carnage marched west, slow but sure, until not one Indian was left in his original land, most tribes completely wiped out, the remaining survivors rounded up and forced onto reservations, then families torn apart and put into boarding schools and blood dilution programs.
Why so graphic? Why the gory details. Why not? Where are these true stories in American history books? Why is Domenico Columbo the conquerer , now Christopher Columbus the explorer, the man who “discovered” america. Who is america, what happened to Turtle Island, and all of the millions of Indian who lived among each other in relative peace for thousands of years?
Columbus Day is a national holiday, a day of celebration, parades, and pride. It should be a national day of mourning, if the truth mattered anymore. But it doesnt. The old prophecies, even the Bible, foretold of a time when good will be bad, bad will be good, right is wrong, and wrong is right, up is down, and down is up. The truth is a lie, and the lies become the truth. We are in that time now. There are other things that go with these predictions. Those will come true, too. It is important to know the truth in these times.
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