Columbus and the Quest for Jerusalem by Carol Delaney

Author:Carol Delaney [Delaney, Carol]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Free Press
Published: 2011-09-20T06:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

PARADISE FOUND AND LOST

Columbus was oblivious to the rebellion happening in Hispaniola. He was glad to be exploring again, but he was preoccupied. He knew that if he did not soon find major sources of gold, spices, and other valuables, the “Enterprise of the Indies” would come to an end and so, too, would his dream of financing the crusade to Jerusalem. The sovereigns were becoming anxious about the expense of voyages that had resulted in so little return. Las Casas captured the importance of this voyage to Columbus when he wrote:

Truly this man had a good and Christian purpose . . . was thoroughly content with his station in life, and wished to live modestly therein and to rest from the great hardships which he had undergone so meritoriously . . . But he saw that his signal services were held of slight value, and that suddenly the reputation that these Indies at first had enjoyed was sinking and declining, by reason of those who had the ear of the Sovereigns, so that day by day he feared greater disfavors, and that the Sovereigns might abandon the enterprise altogether, and that he might thus see his labor and travail go for naught, and he in the end die in poverty.1

For Columbus, the enterprise was not just about finding gold; he felt that his discovery of islands in the sea, all the people to be converted to the Holy Christian faith, and of a new route to the east were as important as finding riches. But the issue of gold was ever present and the source of it had to be found, soon. The sovereigns asked Jaime Ferrer, a lapidary with extensive knowledge about the probable location of gold and gems, to write to Columbus and suggest that he go farther south on this voyage since gold ought to be found nearer the equator. Most of Ferrer’s letter was taken up with stories of the achievements of great men of antiquity with whom he favorably compared Columbus, adding that Columbus was “an Apostle and Ambassador of God, sent by His Divine judgment to make known His Holy Name in unknown regions.” Slowly, Ferrer came to the topic at hand; prefacing the gem of wisdom he was meant to communicate, he wrote that “temporal things . . . are not evil or repugnant to the spiritual things” if they “will be for the service of God and of all Christianity, especially of this, our Spain.” Those words were well calculated to ease Columbus’s conscience for, though his ultimate goal was the liberation of Jerusalem, he was not so naive as to think that could be accomplished without gold.

Ferrer went on to give his opinion “that within the equinoctial regions there are great and precious things, such as fine stones and gold and spices and drugs,” which are “from a very hot region where the inhabitants are black or tawny.” Ferrer concluded that if Columbus found such people he would also find the valuables.

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