Isabella of Castile by Giles Tremlett

Author:Giles Tremlett
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2017-06-20T16:00:00+00:00

32

Indians, Parrots and Hammocks

Palos de la Frontera, 15 March 1493

La Niña rode a rising tide as it sailed past the Saltés Bar into the calm waters of the Odiel and Tinto estuary at midday on 15 March 1493. It had sat offshore overnight and the friars at La Rábida must have watched its arrival excitedly from their privileged viewpoint just inland. News of Columbus’s return to Europe with the men from the local ports of Palos and Moguer may already have reached them, as fierce storms had driven him first to a safe harbour in the Azores and then on to Lisbon on 4 March, where his exotic cargo of natives, birds, animals and tropical foods had attracted the envious attention of King João II, known as ‘the Perfect Prince’. From there1 he had written that first historic letter to Isabella and her husband, announcing their ‘greatest victory’.

In fact, Columbus was not the first person to send Isabella news of the Americas, or to make the return crossing to Europe. That honour lay with Pinzón, whose La Pinta caravel had become separated from La Niña when they ran into a storm on 14 February. He landed at Bayona, in Galicia, and some four days later wrote to Isabella and Ferdinand of his arrival, rested for two weeks and then sailed to Palos, entering the port later on the same day as Columbus but rushing off to a house in nearby Moguer so as to avoid meeting the man with whom he had fallen out so badly during the voyage. Pinzón’s letter reached Isabella’s court some two weeks before she heard from Columbus, though it does not survive. Nor did Pinzón himself, who was very sick. Within days he had been taken in by the friars at La Rábida, but they failed to cure him.2 By the time Isabella wrote asking him to come to court, he had died.

Columbus remained true to character. He was boastful and flamboyant, aware that it was important to broadcast and exaggerate his triumph as loudly as possible. But he was also mistrustful, resentful and insecure – knowing that he had failed to find any gold mines and that many people still did not believe he had found the Indies. In a later, written vision of his exploits he reminded Isabella and her husband of the disbelief his plans had provoked originally. ‘I was in your court so long … against the advice of so many of the principal people in your household, all of whom were against me, making fun of this idea [of mine] which, I hope, will prove to be the greatest honour to Christianity that has ever been seen.’3 On their arrival in Palos, he and his crew had gone straight to the Convent of Santa Clara to fulfil a promise that the ship’s crew would give thanks there for their safe return. He then processed through nearby Seville, his Taíno ‘Indians’, multi-coloured parrots and Caribbean trinkets on full display. The same

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