EXPLORATION

I TOLD YOU SO!  

                On Oct. 11, 1492, the captains of the Nina and the Pinta came to see Christopher Columbus.  They came to complain about the fact that they had not seen land yet. They reminded Columbus that the sailing ships of that time could only go so long from land before being forced to turn back for lack of water and supplies.  They had reached that point.  They threw in the fact that the crews were close to mutiny. Columbus assured them they had not gone too far by showing them his doctored ship’s log in which he had purposely low-balled the mileage.  The captains backed down when Columbus promised that if land was not sighted in the next two days, they would turn back.  It was sighted the next day.

–  Whitcomb 134

REBECCA ROLFE

                Don’t learn your history from Disney.  Actually, the movie “Pocahontas” did not invent the legend.  John Smith created the romance with the Indian princess in a book he wrote in 1624.  In the famous story, Smith had been captured by her father Powhatan’s tribe and he was to be executed.  As his head was about to be clubbed, the young maiden intervened to protect his life and her father relented.  This encounter became exaggerated into a romance between the two.  The problem with the myth is it does not appear in Smith’s journal and only came to light in a book Smith published in 1624, sixteen years after the event.  Smith apparently made up a creepy story of a 29 year old man and a twelve year old girl.  Natoaka, as her people called Pocahontas, was the precocious daughter of a chief.  She probably had a crush on the dashing Englishman and seemed to have an affinity for the colonists in general.  The story of her warning them of an attack by her own people is probably true.  In 1609, Smith was forced to return to England due to injuries in a gunpowder accident.  John Rolfe, a leader in the development of tobacco production, groomed Pocahontas as his bride after she was captured in 1612.  He told her Smith was dead.  She was taught to read and write and converted to Christianity.  She was renamed Rebecca.  The marriage occurred in 1614.  She was 18 and he was 29.  Two years later, the couple visited England.  She was the toast of London and even met the Queen.  She gave birth to a son named Tom.  Life was good until one John Smith visited her, very much alive.  Rebecca was stunned and heart-broken.  Not long after that, the Rolfe’s headed back to Virginia.  She died on the voyage due to a fever, or that broken heart.  Tom, who had remained in England to be raised, came to America later, married, and started a family that linked many prominent families to Pocahontas.

–  Ayres 55-58

COLUMBUS WAS LAST

                It is highly unlikely that Christopher Columbus was the first to sail to North America.  Here are some claimants to the discovery of a new continent.

  1. The Vikings came possibly five times starting in the 900’s. The most famous of these explorers was Leif Ericson.  He landed somewhere in Canada and even attempted to establish a colony.  Hostility from the skraelings (Indians) caused the failure of the settlement.
  2. In 1472, Danish navigator Deitrich Pining claimed to have sailed west and sighted a land mass in the year 1472. His report encouraged King Alfonso of Portugal and King Christian I of Denmark to sponsor a joint expedition to find a passage to the Far East.  Captains Johannes Scolp and Joao Corte Real explored Labrador, Hudson Bay, and the St. Lawrence River, but found no passage.  Thus, the expedition was considered a failure and there was no follow-up.  Apparently, being unsuccessful, it was not publicized.
  3. The Chinese have their claims. Around 2,540 B.C., two astronomers corssed the Bering Strait and sailed along the west coast of North America all the way to Central America.  In 458, a Buddhist priest named Hui Shun, using information from the two astronomers, followed the same path to reach Mexico.  He supposedly stayed over 40 years.
  4. Around 550, St. Brendan of Ireland sailed across the Atlantic in a leather-hulled boat called a ‘curragh”. He was gone for seven years and claimed he had sailed along a coast of a land he called “The Land Promised to the Saints”.  Historians have been skeptical, but in 1977 an Irishman named Timothy Severin constructed a curragh and replicated the voyage.

Ayres 219-222

MYTHS ABOUT COLUMBUS

  1. MYTH: Columbus wanted to prove the world was round.  The truth is that all intelligent people in Europe at that time knew the Earth is round.  The Ancient Greeks had proved this long before.  The original idea that Columbus had was that the Earth was smaller than experts believed and thus it was possible to sail westward to cross to Asia.
  2. MYTH: Columbus was exploring to find a new world.  The truth is Columbus was in it for the wealth, not discovery.  He theorized that sailing west would be quicker than sailing around Africa to get to the spices, etc. of India and China.  He was convinced that he had arrived somewhere around Malaysia because he estimated it would take a month to complete his voyage.  If not for accidentally running into a new continent, his voyage would have ended in death (if he insisted on continuing to sail west) or abject failure (if he had been forced to turn around).  Note that he called the natives Indians as in people who live in India.
  3. MYTH: Columbus had trouble getting financing because rulers laughed at his idea the Earth was round.  Actually, he was turned down because his terms were considered outrageous.  He wanted the title “Admiral of the Ocean Sea”, to be viceroy over all lands, and 10% of the profits.  Ferdinand and Isabella agreed to his demands, but had no intention of honoring them.
  4. MYTH: Isabella pawned her royal jewels.  The truth is that the royal couple got most of the money from a loan backed by the royal police fund.
  5. MYTH: Columbus’ crew threatened to mutiny if he did not turn back.  Most historian’s do not believe this story.
  6. MYTH: Columbus died forgotten and penniless.  Columbus became famous during his lifetime due to the printing press.  While not wealthy, he was not poor.
  7. MYTH: Columbus was a hero. While definitely one of the greatest navigators in history, he was a horrible human being.  For instance, on the island of Hispaniola (Haiti/Dominican Republic) he was determined to use its gold to justify his expeditions to the rulers of Spain.  For that reason he either killed or enslaved the Arawak Indians.  The survivors were forced to mine the gold, grow cotton, or provide crops.  The miners were given a quota, which if they did not reach, their hands were cut off as an example for the others.  When gold production did not meet expectations, Columbus turned to the slave trade to earn profits.

Ayres 222-225        

VIKING EXPLORERS

There possibly as many as five Viking explorers who came to America before Columbus.

  1. Around 986, Bjarni Herjolfsson was blown off course after sailing from Greenland. He saw a large land mass that was probably Canada, but he did not go ashore.
  2. It is thought that Leif Ericsson was inspired by Herjolfsson’s report and came to Canada around 1001. He named the land “Vinland”.  He and his crew of 35 stayed over the winter in huts and then returned to Greenland.
  3. Around 1004, Leif’s brother Thorvald sailed over and he and his men stayed in the same huts. His attempt to settle was foiled by the hostile “skrellings” (Indians).  Thorvald was killed and the survivors abandoned the settlement.
  4. In 1010, Greenland trader Thorfinn Karlsefin brought 250 settlers to Newfoundland Island. They stayed for three years before the natives forced them out.
  5. In 1356, Paul Knutson sailed from Greenland. He was gone for eight years.  Only of few of his men returned to their home.  It is thought that these explorers may have gone far into the interior.  Most intriguingly, the Kensington Stone was discovered in Minnesota.  It has Norse runes on it, but it’s authenticity is disputed. 

Ayres  226-228  

CHAMPLAIN KILLS TWO CHIEFS

                Samuel de Champlain and the French got along well with most of the Indian tribes because he started the policy of helping them fight other Indian tribes. Once the accompanied an Algonquin and Huron war party 200 miles to Lake Champlain (which he had named after himself) to meet 200 fierce Iroquois warriors.  At dawn, after a night of dancing and taunting, Champlain led the Indians out into the field.  He wore armor and at 30 paces he fired his arquebus, killing two chiefs and mortally wounding another.  The rest ran.  Because of this the Algonquin and Huron remained loyal to France for 150 years.

–  maroon 48

JOHN SMITH AND THE THREE TURKISH HEADS

                John Smith was the son of a poor tenant farmer.  As a teenager he was apprenticed to a merchant.  He had hopes of going to sea as part of his job and when this did not happen, he left for Turkey to become a mercenary.  His big moment came when he substituted for a Turkish prince who had been challenged to single combat.  Smith killed the opponent with a lance-thrust and was rewarded with the victim’s head.  He won two other similar challenges, but was eventually captured by the enemy and imprisoned.  He managed to escape and make his way back to England.

–  Whitcomb 39

FACTS ABOUT COLUMBUS

  1. Columbus was probably born in Genoa, Italy. His birth name was Cristoforo Colombo.   In his teens, he went to sea.  At age 25, his merchant ship was sunk by pirates.  He floated to shore on a piece of wood and made his way to Lisbon where he studied math, astronomy, cartography, and navigation.
  2. He was not the first to believe the Earth was round. The Ancient Greeks knew that as early as Pythagoras in the 6th Century B.C.  His radical idea was you could successfully sail westward to reach the riches of China and India.  When experts pointed out that the Earth was too big for a ship to sail the distance required, Columbus pulled out his calculations that reduced the size of the Earth to voyage size.  He was not able to convince Portugal or England, but he did talk Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain into back the voyage in exchange for a cut of the riches and the chance to spread Catholicism.  The monarchs disregarded their experts who pointed out the distance was 12,000 miles, not 2,400.
  3. Two of his three ships were nicknamed. Nina was officially the Santa Clara.  It was nicknamed after its owner Juan Nino.  Pinta meant “the painted one” which meant prostitute.  It is unknown what its given name was.  The Santa Maria was called La Gallega because it was built in the province of Galicia.
  4. Columbus lied to his crew about how far they had sailed because they were aware how far a ship could sail out into the ocean and still get back. They threatened to mutiny around the one-month mark and he got them to give him a couple more days.  They sighted land the next day.  Specifically, Rodrigo de Triana was first to see land, but Columbus stiffed him of the promised gold for whoever sighted land first, claiming he had seen it himself the day before.
  5. On Christmas eve, a cabin boy steered the Santa Maria onto a reef and the ship had to be abandoned. Columbus returned on the Nina, but had to leave 40 crewmen behind.  They established the first settlement in the new world on the island of Hispaniola called La Navidad.  When Columbus returned in the fall of 1493, no one was still alive.
  6. In his journal, Columbus referred to the natives of Hispaniola as “they would make good servants.” Since they were naïve and unarmed, he added that “with fifty men we could subjugate then all and make them do whatever we want.”  Like search for gold.  Since a limited amount of gold was found, Columbus shipped 500 slaves back to Spain as part of his second expedition to pay off on Ferdinand and isabella’s investment.  Isabella was greatly offended by the slaves and had them shipped back.  She was determined that the natives were to be Spanish subjects, not slaves.
  7. Unfortunately, Isabella’s edict was not exactly followed to the letter. Hispaniola was run by slave labor.  The native Taino Indians were forced to dig for gold, and if they did not meet their quota, they could have their hands cut off.  In 60 years, the Tainos went from 250,000 to the low hundreds.
  8. Columbus got in trouble for his governorship of Hispaniola. His treatment of the Indians was reported back to the government.  When he was away exploring, the Spanish settlers treated the Indians even worse, resulting in his executing some of them.  This was added to the charges and Columbus was returned to Spain in chains.  He was freed, but stripped of his governorship.  However, a few years later, he talked them into a fourth voyage.  This voyage was a disaster and he and his crew spent a year marooned on Jamaica.
  9. On his four voyages, he set foot on several islands in the Caribbean (Cuba, the Bahamas, Haiti, Jamaica), Central America (Mexico, Panama), and South America (Venezuela). He never set foot in any of the 50 states.
  10. The natives eventually caught on that these strangers were not beneficent. They stopped naively trading with them.  Once, when Columbus’ crew was badly in need of food, they refused to help.  He consulted his almanac and discovered that there would be a lunar eclipse in a few days, on Feb. 29, 1504.  He threatened the Indians with making the moon go away and when it started to happen, they panicked and gave him the food he needed.
  11. America is not named after him because he never claimed to have discovered a new world. He thought he was exploring lands near the East Indies, hence calling the natives “Indians”.  There is some evidence that by the end of his life, he realized he had landed somewhere no European had been before.  (He would not have known that Leif Eriksson had come to America about 500 years earlier.)

https://www.history.com/news/10-things-you-may-not-know-about-christopher-columbus

https://www.britannica.com/list/5-unbelievable-facts-about-christopher-columbus

https://www.thoughtco.com/facts-about-christopher-columbus-2136702

COLUMBUS TRIVIA

  1.  The average size of the ships was 78 by 26 feet (about the size of a tennis court).  There were no bathrooms and only one bedroom.
  2.   The ships had two dozen cats on them to deal with the rats.
  3.   The food was mainly salted meat, hard biscuits, and dried peas.
  4.   The men were paid $7 per month.
  5.   The natives they met were smoking tobacco, except they would roll the leaf, put it in their nose, and then light it.
  6.   The second voyage had 17 ships, 1,200-1,500 men, cannons, crossbows, guns, horses, and attack dogs.
  •  notes

ALLIGATOR HUNTING

Native Americans loved alligator meat, but it wasn’t easy to get it.  However, they were willing to try.  One method was to jam a spear down its mouth and flip it on its back.  Then the softer underbelly could be shot with arrows and/or pummeled with clubs.  It you wanted to catch an alligator in the water, a  very brave Indian would swim in front of a gator with a stout stick.  When the alligator caught up and opened its jaws to chomp down, the Indian would jam the stick sideways so the alligator would bite down into the wood and get its teeth stuck.  Then the thrashing monster could be pulled onto shore and killed.  Bon appetit.  I hope the swimmer got the first portion.

  •  Lawrence  p. 4

THE TURK –  THE BIGGEST LIAR OF THE PLAINS

Coronado and his conquistadors headed north from Mexico with dreams of finding the legendary Seven Cities of Cibola.  When they reached what is now New Mexico, they freed an Indian captive who they named “El Turco” because he looked like a Turk.  The Turk immediately tapped into their fever by describing his homeland to the north.  His king was incredibly wealthy.  He slept under a tree decorated with silver bells.  There were wide rivers with fish the size of horses.  Nobles rode in giant canoes with golden oarlocks.  The sails were encrusted with jewels.  The people ate off plates made of gold or silver.  Skeptical, but wanting to believe, the Spaniards showed the Turk copper and tin and he was able to correctly identify them as not gold.  “He must be telling the truth.”  In spite of the other Indians telling them he was a big fibber.  So off they went through Texas, the panhandle of Oklahoma, into Kansas.  Encountering dirt poor Indians along the way.  Finally they reached El Turco’s village of simple huts and his “king” who was naked with a simple copper necklace.  Hey, this guy must have been lying.  He confessed that his Indian masters had convinced to lie to get these greedy Europeans out of their hair.  Mission accomplished.  But not a happy ending for The Turk.  He was strangled to death.

  •  Lawrence p. 12-13

SQUANTO

                Tisquantum was a Native American who somehow hooked up the British explorer George Weymouth.  Weymouth brought him back to England in 1605.  He later returned to America with John Smith as he explored and mapped the coast of New England.  Weymouth allowed him to stay, but Squanto was subsequently captured by the  Spanish and taken to Spain as a slave.  Somehow he made it back to London where he worked for a merchant.  By this time he could speak English and Spanish and had been baptized as a Christian.  His merchant friend sent him off as a guide for another expedition and again he was allowed to stay in his homeland, which was near Plymouth colony.  He quickly made his valuable services available to the Pilgrims.  He famously taught them to fertilize their corn with herrings.  What is not so famous is his payoff scheme.  He would get local Indian villages to pay him to prevent the Pilgrims from attacking them.

–  Lawrence pp. 18-19

MYTH:  JOHN SMITH AND POCAHONTAS

                The tale of Pocahontas saving John Smith’s life is almost surely a myth.  Pocahontas was only ten when Smith and the other male settlers arrived in Virginia.  He was 27.  Although he probably knew her, they had no relationship.  When he left the colony, never to return, he did not mention anything about her saving his life until he wrote a letter to Queen Anne in 1616.  He expanded the story in his General History of Virginia published in 1624.  The story was similar to one he told about his time fighting in Turkey.  Pocahontas did not pine for her boyfriend when Smith left, but she was friendly with the English.  In 1613, she was captured and held for ransom.  During her captivity she converted to Christianity and changed her name to Rebecca.  Instead of going home to her family, she stayed and married a tobacco farmer named John Rolfe.  She was 17 and he was 29.  They had a son named Thomas.  Rolfe brought her back to England where she became a celebrity.  On the way back to Virginia, she died of an unknown illness.

https://historycollection.co/19-american-history-myths-debunked/2/

MYTH:  THE DUTCH BOUGHT MANHATTAN ISLAND FOR $24 WORTH OF BEADS AND TRINKETS

                Americans school children have laughed at the Indians who sold Manhattan Island for more than three hundred years.  Those primitive savages sold this valuable real estate for only $24 worth of beads and trinkets.  Or so the story goes.  But it’s Native Americans who should be laughing.  In actuality, the Manahatta tribe sold half the island for 60 guilders (equivalent to $1,100 today).  They definitely got cheated, except for the fact that the Manahatta did not own the territory.  It was considered the land of another tribe.  The Wappinger tribe made war on the Dutch for the next few years.

https://historycollection.co/19-american-history-myths-debunked/2/

COLUMBUS’ SHIPS

                It is a myth that Isabella paid for Columbus’ ships by pawning her jewels.  In fact, Isabella turned down Columbus on advice from her confessor.  It was Ferdinand that reconsidered and decided to back the expedition.  He paid for it by forcing a town that owed the crown money to pay for the ships and supplies.  The ship names that we all know were actually nicknames.  The crew called La Gallicia “Santa Maria”.  The Santa Clara was nicknamed the Nina.  It is unclear what the real name of the Pinta was.

https://historycollection.co/19-american-history-myths-debunked/17/

THE LOST COLONY

            In August, 1587,  115 settlers arrived at Roanoke Island in what is today North Carolina.  A couple of months later, John White sailed back to England to get more supplies.  He left his daughter and his granddaughter Virginia Dare.  Virginia was the first English child born in America.  Unfortunately, when White arrived in England, it had just declared war.  Queen Elizabeth I needed every ship to face the Spanish Armada.  It was not until three years later that White was able to sail back to Roanoke.  He found an abandoned settlement and no colonists.  The homes had been dismantled as if in preparation for relocation, but the pieces remained on the ground, along with tools and farming equipment.  The only clues were the word CRO carved on a tree trunk and CROATOAN on a log of the fort.  This seemingly referred to either a nearby island of that name or the tribe that lived on that island.  White sailed to search the island, but a hurricane blew him off course and he returned to England.  There he was unable to raise the finances to return to search for his family.  In 1607, Jamestown was founded and rumors about the Roanoke settlers were heard.  One reported that English-looking slaves were seen in a nearby tribe.  Another story had it that there was a tribe of Indians with English traits somewhere to the west.  There are various theories to explain the mystery.  They may have set sailed for England and perished at sea.  They may have been wiped out by hostile Indians or raiding Spanish (although the condition of the fort does not evidence a fight).  They might have moved inland and joined a tribe.  The most logical explanation is that they went to the island of Croatoan to live with the friendly Croatoan tribe.  They were gradually assimilated.

            –  Amazing 645-7

                –  https://www.history.com/news/what-happened-to-the-lost-colony-of-roanoke

COLUMBUS AND THE EGG

Columbus was at a banquet with Spanish dignitaries, at least one of whom was envious of his fame.  The Spaniard questioned Columbus about his discovery of the New World.  “Don’t you think that if you had not discovered it, someone else would have?”  Columbus reached for a boiled egg and held it up.  “Who can stand this egg up?”  Many tried, with no success.  Then Columbus took the egg, tapped it on the table so part was flattened and stood it up.  (This story may be apocryphal.)  Little, Brown  p. 136

COLUMBUS AND THE ECLIPSE

In 1504, Columbus was anchored off the coast of Jamaica.  He and his crew were suffering from lack of food, but by this time his reputation proceeded him and the Indians refused to trade with him.  Columbus consulted his almanac and found that a lunar eclipse was coming the next night.  He went to the Indian chief and demanded food or he would make the moon go away.  The Indians laughed, but they weren’t laughing when the eclipse began.  They rushed to bring food to Columbus and he caused the moon to reappear.  (This story may be apocryphal.) 

  •  Little, Brown  p. 136-137

    FACTS ABOUT MAGELLAN

    1. His parents died at age 10. Two years later he moved to Lisbon, Portugal to become a page to the queen.  He went to the page school and learned about cartography, astronomy, and navigation.
    2. He first went to sea as a soldier. He fought for Portugal in Malaysia and Morocco.  In Morocco, he was wounded in the leg and limped the rest of his life.  He fell out of favor in Portugal, partly because of accusations of illegally trading with the Moors.  He moved to Spain and was considered a traitor in Portugal.  King Charles I of Spain sponsored his voyage with the promise of finding a new route west to the Spice Islands near Indonesia.  (Portugal had a monopoly on the route south around Africa.) There was a great demand for the cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg of the islands.  The King of Portugal retaliated for his treason by vandalizing Magellan’s family properties.  He sent several ships to intercept Magellan’s fleet.  They failed.
    3. Magellan was given five ships: the flagship Victoria, Trinidad, San Antonio, Concepcion, Santiago.  Many of his men were convicts released from prison and debtors avoiding prison.  His crews included sailors from Spain, Portugal, Greece, Sicily, England, France, Germany, and North Africa.
    4. Since Magellan was Portuguese, his Spanish sailors resented his leadership. There were two mutinies.  In the second one, three of the five ships joined in and it was put down with the three captains being drawn, quartered, and impaled.
    5. After a rough passage through the Strait of Magellan, with the loss of one ship, the Pacific seemed relatively calm so he named it “Mar Pacifico (the calm sea). This name caught on over Balboa’s “South Sea”.
    6. Magellan died in the Philippines. He was very keen on converting natives to Christianity.  For instance, he baptized King Humabon and thousands of his people.  But another king named Lapu-Lapu refused, so Magellan had his village burned.  Later, Magellan returned with an armed force, but the Indians fought back.  Magellan was targeted and hit in the face with a spear.  The natives then proceeded to use his body for stabbing practice.
    7. Only one of his ships returned to Spain. It was captained by Juan Sebastian Elcano.  Only 18 of the 260 sailors survived.  However, the ship carried 381 sacks of cloves which were worth more than the value of the five ships combined.
    8. It was not for another 58 years that another ship circumnavigated the globe – Sir Francis Drake’s Golden Hind.

    https://www.history.com/news/10-surprising-facts-about-magellans-circumnavigation-of-the-globe

    https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/548165/facts-about-ferdinand-magellan

    https://www.discoverwalks.com/blog/top10/top-10-facts-about-ferdinand-magellar/

    FACTS ABOUT CORTES

    1. Governor Diego Velazquez of Cuba gave Cortes approval to explore the coast of Mexico, make contact with the natives, and do a little trading. When he learned that Cortes planned to conquer, he rescinded the approval, but Cortes had hastily sailed to escape the disapproval.  He left with 11 ships and 500 men.
    2. Despite the legend, he did not burn his ships to give his troops no choice but to march inland. He dismantled them, keeping important parts for future ship construction and sank the rest.
    3. Although the firearms and horses were an advantage, the main reason he won was he had numerous Indian allies. In particular, the Tlaxcalans joined him because they hated the Aztecs.  The Aztecs dominated them and forced them to provide human sacrifices.  As many as 200,000 Tlaxcalan warriors aided Cortes.  When he retreated after the Night of Sorrows, he found refuge in Tlaxcala.
    4. Just as important as those 200,000 Tlaxcalans, was one Indian woman named Malinali (called Malinche). She was a gift to Cortes by a chief.  She became his mistress, but she also served as an interpreter.  She gave Cortes advice and warnings of plots against him.  He had a son named Martin with her.
    5. When he reached Tenochtitlan, he was not mistaken for a god. He and his men were mistaken as envoys of the god Quetzalcoatl, who was prophesized to return around that time in a bad mood. This is why the Aztecs treated them with kid gloves.  They grudgingly allowed the Spaniards to take their gold. The enormous wealth which the men were to get 3/5 of.  The brave conquistadors got stiffed with each getting less than 200 pesos.  Cortes became very wealthy.
    6. When Cortes learned that a Spanish force had been sent to stop him, he left a small group under Alvarado in the capital and went to meet the Spaniards. He easily defeated it and coopted the troops.  However, when he was gone, the poorly chosen Alvarado provoked the Aztecs by executing lots of Aztec leaders at a festival.  The Aztecs had finally had enough of poor treatment and robbery and rebelled.  Cortes returned to a siege.
    7. Cortes sent the hostage Moctezuma out onto a terrace to reason with the mob and he was pelted to death. Cortes decided to attempt a night escape from the city.  This became known as the Night of Sorrows because of the heavy losses the Spaniards sustained.  Many drowned attempting to flee over the causeways connecting the island capital to the countryside.  Some drowned due to greed –  they were loaded down with gold.  Much of the gold was lost during the evacuation.
    8. Cortes built a fleet of small warships to reconquer the capital. This was accomplished with a lot of bloodshed.  There was house-to-house fighting.  During the campaign, Spanish prisoners were sacrificed with their hearts pulled out and their bodies eaten.
    9. After Cortes won the war, his wife Catalina showed up unexpectedly from Cuba. Cortes’ mistress Malinche made the reunion awkward.  Cortes hosted a party where Catalina made critical comments about the Indian guests.  Hernan was very angry.  Later that night, Catalina died under mysterious circumstances.

    https://www.thoughtco.com/ten-facts-about-hernan-cortes-2136576

    https://www.discoverwalks.com/blog/madrid/top-10-facts-about-hernando-cortes/

    https://www.britannica.com/biography/Hernan-Cortes

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall_of_Tenochtitlan#Siege_of_Tenochtitlan

    THE DEATH OF A NATIVE AMERICAN PRINCESS

                Everyone has heard the story of Pocahontas saving John Smith’s life (which may not be true), but few know what happened to the famous Indian maiden.  First, she did not marry John Smith, that would have been creepy considering the age difference.  But she did marry an Englishman.  Pocahontas, the daughter of the chief Powhatan, was friendly with the settlers of Jamestown.  They rewarded her friendship by kidnapping her and converting her to Christianity.  She was baptized Rebecca.  During this period of captivity (during which she was treated well) she met and fell in love with John Rolfe.  She was about 17 and he was 28.  Rolfe was a leading figure in Virginia.  He had started the tobacco industry.  Rolfe was a widower, having lost his wife and daughter in a ship wreck.  They were married on April 5, 1614.  This started a temporary lull in conflict between the Indians and whites called the “Peace of Pocahontas”.  It lasted eight years.  They had a son named Thomas in 1615.  The Virginia Company decided it would be good for recruiting investors to bring this Indian princess to England.  The Rolfes arrived on June 12, 1616, along with eleven other “savages” that had been civilized.  Rebecca was feted in London and even met King James.  John Smith, who she had been told had been killed in a gunpowder explosion years ago in Virginia, did not visit her even though he was living in London.  John Rolfe settled his family on an estate in the countryside.  It was there that Smith visited.  Rebecca was shocked and upset to learn he was alive.  She had harsh words for Smith’s treatment of her people.  Not exactly the Disneyesque love affair of myth.  In March, 1617, the Rolfes set off to return to Virginia.  They barely were underway when she was taken gravely ill and passed away on shore.  Her funeral was on March 21, 1617.  She was about 21 years old. 

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocahontas#Marriage_to_John_Rolfe

    https://www.nps.gov/jame/learn/historyculture/pocahontas-her-life-and-legend.htm

    LA NOCHE TRISTE (THE NIGHT OF SADNESS)

                In 1519, Hernan Cortes landed in Mexico with 500 men, 100 sailors, and 16 horses.  He burned his ships when he decided that his goal was the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan or bust.  He hooked up with a maiden named Malinche (Marina after being baptized) who gave birth to their child and served as an interpreter.  Cortes discovered that the Aztecs were harsh rulers, so he convinced some of their conquered tribes to ally with him.  Together they marched on the capital.  Cortes tapped into an Aztec legend about a god named Quetzalcoatl who was believed to be returning around that time.  The Aztecs thought these strange men could be his emissaries.  The horses and guns of the conquistadors awed the Aztecs and they allowed them to enter the city unopposed.  The Emperor Moctezuma II was cowed and became their puppet.  In May, 1520, Cortes had to deal with an army led by Panfilo Narvaez that had been sent to rein him in.  Cortes won the Battle of Cempoala and incorporated Narvaez men.  Cortes had left a small force behind in the capital and while he was gone, their leader Pedro de Alvarado decided to preempt a rumored Aztec attack by wading into a crowd at a festival.  Many unarmed Aztecs were slain in what became known as the Temple Massacre.  Cortes returned to a city that was seething in anger.  On June 26, with a hostile mob gathering, Cortes sent Moctezuma to quell the crowd.  This had worked in the past, but this time the crowd stoned Moctezuma to death.  On June 30, 1520, Cortes decided to escape at night.  They would take their treasures with them.  The escape route was over a causeway.  The alerted Aztecs attacked.  They used war canoes to pelt the conquistadors with arrows, stones, spears, etc.  Many of the Spaniards fell into the water and drowned, especially those weighted down with loot.  The causeway was intersected by some canals.  At one of them, Cortes’ men literally walked across on the dead bodies.  Some of the men retreated back to the palace where they were united with some of Narvaez men (who apparently had not been told about the escape).  None of these men survived the siege.  Cortes lost 600 men and 4,000 allies, but he was not pursued and was able to prepare for his return.  He would be back.

    https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/spanish-retreat-from-aztec-capital

    https://www.thoughtco.com/the-night-of-sorrows-2136530

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Noche_Triste

    MYTH #4 –  Columbus Was the First to Believe the Earth Was Round

                When I was in elementary school, I can remember my teacher telling a story about the young Christopher Columbus watching a ship leave the harbor.  He noticed that as it got further away it disappeared, but with its sails staying in sight longer than the hull.  Eureka!  Columbus deduced that the explanation for this was the Earth must be round.  When he got older, he was determined to prove it.  And find a new way to the riches of the Far East.  In the 15th Century, ships were sailing to China, India, and Japan by sailing around Africa.  It was a long journey.  Columbus felt that sailing west would end up shorter.  According to my teacher, when he proposed the voyage to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, the court officials laughed at him.  His belief in a round Earth was sacrilege. 

    The truth is that Columbus was not ahead of his time in believing the Earth was round.  As early as the 6th Century B.C., Greek scientists knew the Earth was round.  Lunar eclipses proved the Sun was round and so was the Moon.  Therefore, the Earth must be round, too.  It was Aristotle that noticed that ships leaving a harbor had their hulls disappear before their sails.  Eratosthenes, in Egypt, was able to calculate the circumference of the Earth with remarkable accuracy.  Historian Jeffrey Burton stated that “no educated person in the history of Western Civilization from the 3rd century B.C. onward believed that the Earth was flat.”

                So, when Columbus came to convince Ferdinand and Isabella to sponsor him, he was not faced with skeptics about round versus flat.  The monarchs’ geographers argued the money would be poorly invested because sailing west would take longer than a ship could survive.  They were right.  Columbus had miscalculated the size of the Earth.  He argued that it was about 5,000 kilometers to reach Japan.  Actually, it is closer to 20,000.  5,000 kilometers was the range of a sailing ship back then.  After that, you would be forced to turn around or end up using up all your food and water.  Some historians believe Columbus came up with the 5,000 kilometer figure because God would not have the world so big that Columbus would perish.  His faith convinced  Isabella and she put her faith in him above her experts.

                On Oct. 10, 1492, Columbus’ ships were nearing that 5,000 kilometer mark.  The crews weren’t afraid of sailing off the edge of the Earth.  They were worried about running out of food and water.  They threatened to mutiny, but Columbus talked them into waiting three more days.  America was discovered two days later.  Columbus had failed.  The land he spotted was not off the coast of India, but he refused to believe this and insisted on naming the natives “Indians”.  Three more voyages failed to get him to admit he had found a new continent (actually two).  He went to his death believing he had reached Asia.  His stubbornness resulted in the New World being named after another explorer (Amerigo Vespucci) instead of Columbus.

                So, how did this myth get started?  In 1828, Washington Irving wrote a biography of Columbus entitled “the life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus”.  To make his book more entertaining, he invented the Earth is round story.  Textbooks and teachers picked up the story and passed it on to generations of students.  In fact, it is still being taught in classrooms today.  This must stop.  If you are one of those teachers, tell your students you were wrong.  They’ll understand, unless their parents are flat-earthers.

    https://www.history.com/news/christopher-columbus-never-set-out-to-prove-the-earth-was-round

    https://www.ripleys.com/weird-news/columbus-earth/

    https://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2013/05/people-in-columbus-time-did-not-think-the-world-was-flat/

    JOHN SMITH BEFORE JAMESTOWN

                Everyone knows the John Smith and Pocahontas story (which is not true, by the way), but few know of the remarkable adventures of Smith.  In 1630, 23 years after he saved Jamestown with h s firm leadership, Smith wrote “The True Travels, Adventures, and Observations of Captaine John Smith”.  Historians have discounted most of the book as fabricated, but recently some historians have been able to find evidence to corroborate much of Smith’s tall tales. 

    John Smith was born the son of a poor tenant farmer.  As a boy, he dreamed of become a Sea Dog, like Sir Francis Drake.  He wanted to become a privateer, but instead he was apprenticed to a merchant.  He had hopes of going to sea as part of his job and when this did not happen, he left to become a mercenary.  He first fought for King Henry IV of France against the Spanish.  He then fought for the Dutch in their war of independence.  Meanwhile, he was reading books about the military and politics, like “The Prince”.   He also got training in horsemanship and the use of weapons.  He traveled all over Europe looking for wars to fight in.  Once, the ship he was on sank in a storm in the Mediterranean.  He washed ashore and was rescued by the captain of a pirate gang.  He added piracy to his resume and it made him rich.  Next, the fought for the Austrian Hapsburgs against the Ottoman Turks.  He helped lift the siege of Limbach by communicating with the besieged using a system of torch signals.  He notified the garrison that they would both launch attacks to break the siege that night.  Smith fooled the Turks into thinking the attack was coming from a different direction by setting up a long string with pieces of cloth laced with gunpowder to create the illusion of numerous muskets firing.  He later helped liberate the Hungarian capital by using pots filled with gunpowder as primitive grenades.  After the victory, Smith was promoted to captain and given 250 cavalrymen to command. 

    His most famous exploit came when he accepted the challenge to duel a Turkish warrior.  Smith made quick work of his opponent and cut his head off.  A second Turk advanced on him.  The two exchanged sword blows and then pistol shots.  Smith was hit in his breastplate, but his foe was seriously injured in the arm.  It was easy for Smith to decapitate him.  Finally, a third enemy faced him with battle axes.  Once again, the duel ended with the Turk beheaded.  Smith was knighted and allowed a coat-of-arms that featured three Turkish heads.  Unfortunately, at a later battle, Smith was so badly injured he was put in a stack of dead bodies.  Scavengers discovered him barely alive.  He was sold into slavery.  His owner sent him to be a slave to his mistress.  The mistress fell in love with him.  She wanted to marry him, but he needed to be schooled in Turkish customs.  She sent him to her brother to get trained to be a Turkish gentleman.  The evil brother instead put him to work in the fields as the lowest of slaves.  One day, Smith brained his master with a farming tool and escaped.  It took him a while, but he finally made it back to England where he hooked up with the group that was going to found Jamestown.  It is no surprise that when the going got rough, the colonists turned to this seasoned adventurer to lead them. 

    –  Whitcomb 39

    https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2007/januaryfebruary/feature/soldier-fortune-john-smith-jamestown

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Smith_(explorer)