The Art Of Navigating

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The Art of Navigating the North Atlantic Ocean: Columbus in the Search of Cipango Renato Pereira Brandão∗ Revision and translation of “O Engano de Colombo na Procura do Oriente”. In A cruz de Cristo na Terra de Santa Cruz: A geopolítica dos descobrimentos e o domínio estratégico do Atlântico Sul. PhD thesis in Social History, Federal Fluminense University, Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil. The version of the discoveries of the Americas which is the most accepted and widespread, even in academic circles, purposes that it was a natural development from the knowledge gained by Portugal and Spain from the practice of sailing in the Atlantic between the 14th and 15th centuries. Drawing on the nautical expertise gained by the discoveries of islands and exploration of Africa’s Western coast, Spanish and Portuguese sailors searched for a way round the Turkish blockade on the trade with the West after the fall of Constantinople, in 1943. Therefore, their aim was not to discover the ‘New World’ but to arrive at the Eastern Ports where they could resume direct trade. Moreover whilst the Portuguese aim was to arrive at the Indies by navigating straight to the East, the Genovese Mariner Christopher Columbus’s conviction that the Earth was sphere shaped led him to suggest to the Spanish Monarchy a route that would go in the opposite direction to the one envisaged by the Portuguese, which meant, reaching the East by sailing towards the west. By reaching the Americas yet believing that he had arrived in the East, Columbus ended up revealing the existence of a New World. Soon after, the Portuguese Pedro Álvares Cabral discovered Brazil, by following the route indicated by Vasco da Gama, the discoverer of a new route to the Indies. Henceforth the doors to the Americas and the Eastern Ports became open to the Portuguese and Spanish Crowns. However, this version is built on a gross historical error. This refers to the claim that the Turks had created a blockade on the trade routes with the West. In truth, the fall of Constantinople had little effect on the trade with the East. As it not only also relied on the Syrian Ports, which were supplied by the Persian Gulf’s route, but more importantly by the port of Alexandria in Egypt. As it had become by the 16th century the most important port for the East-West trade market. Moreover, by receiving a constant flux of goods derived from the Indian Ocean and Red Sea’s route, Alexandria welcomed mainly the fleet

∗

Titular Professor of Modern History of the International Relations Course. Estácio de Sá University, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

2 of the Venetian merchants. As after defeating Genoa in the battle of Chioggia in 1380, the Venetians had gained the monopoly on the trade with the East. Furthermore in principle, it would not would have been economically viable to establish a route in the Atlantic, being that in a Western direction, such as the one adopted by Columbus, or the East, as the one adopted by the Portuguese, in direct competition to the route dominated by the Venetians. As the distance to be travelled in those routes are no less than ten times longer than the Mediterranean route. For this venture to be economically viable, it would have been necessary to develop large vessels, which would compensate for the increase in the distance by the sheer size of the volume that could be transported. On the other hand, a vessel which is capable to transport at least ten times more in weight than the Venetian vessels, would have to have been so heavy, that it would need to be propelled not only by the wind but also, far more importantly by the sea currents. In view of these adversities, in the 15th century, the Portuguese maritime trade in the African Coast had been limited up to the Guinean Golf. From there onwards, this coast is swept by the current of Benguele which, by flowing in a south to north direction, it impeded the access of the Portuguese ships to the South African coast. The utilization of caravels came to allow the Portuguese to exploit the African Coast to the south of the Guinean Gulf. However the excellent navigability of this type of vessel had as a counterweight the limited cargo capability, which resulted in it being unsuitable for the supply of Western markets of eastern goods. Therefore, due to these apparent impossible obstacles, the nations that were part of the trading market in the Mediterranean, including the kingdom of Aragon, believed that the Portuguese Maritime expansion would have been limited to the implementation of trading posts in the African western coast, and not as a direct competitor in the trade of eastern goods. When Columbus made his proposition to the monarchs of Castile and Aragon, he did not mention any intention of obtaining goods and spices from the East, but of gold and precious stones, in which case, if the enterprise were to succeed, would have made the voyages profitable, irrelevant of the small volume that could be carried by the relatively small and low costly vessels requested. O’Gorman expresses bellow the version that is most widely accepted by historians. The thesis is as follows: When Columbus arrived on the 12th October , 1492 in a small island that he believed to belong to an archipelago adjacent to Japan, he had

3 in fact discovered America. [...] There is no need to worry about documental citations here, as nobody could argue with what had happened: when Columbus sighted land, in the night between the 11th and 12th of October, 1492, he was certain of having arrived in Asia (1992:25, 104) In the same way, Mollat (1990:57-58) refers to the thesis above as a historical fact. Moreover, he believes that everything could have been made simpler for the discovery of the Americas if Columbus would not have had been blinded by the search of the island of Cipango (Japan), for the land of Cathay (China) and of the city of Quinsay (Hangcheu) and of Zayton (Sinkiang) during his first journey. Resulting in Columbus believing to have found Japan in the island called Cibao by the native Indians and identified Cathay with Cuba. However, already during the 16th century suspicious were raised on the veracity of Columbus claims that he had mistakenly believed to have reached the Far-East, which resulted in him being relegated to near complete historical obscurity soon after his death. (Wilford, 1992:1) In the beginning of the last century, the thesis which supported that Columbus had indeed made a ‘mistake’ was again questioned by the American historian Henry Vignaud, after demonstrating that the correspondences and maps attributed to Toscanelli, found in the Colombina Library were in fact apocryphal and fraudulent (Dias, 1921: LXIX). Vignaud’s theory was in turn marginalized, mainly after the publication, in 1942, of the work Christopher Colombus, Mariner, written by Samuel Eliot Morison, an American admiral. In this book he revives the version that considers Columbus' ‘discovery’ to be a complete misunderstanding, as Columbus was supposed to have wrongly believed to have had arrived in Japan. (Morison, 1994:108-111). From then on the thesis of the ‘misunderstanding’ became accepted as the official one, on the discovery of the Americas. The historical fragility of this thesis is so evident, that is difficult to accept its enduring popularity, especially as the commemorations of the fifth centennial of the discovery of the Americas came to pass, without it being re-evaluated. Therefore to begin with, we must first consider the uncertainties surrounding Columbus' own origins. The version that portrays Columbus as a mere waver’s son from Genoa, has been duly accepted, not for there are any documents to prove it, but because it is considered to be the least "imaginative” of the versions concerning Columbus origins (Heers, 1992:16). In the same way that the primary sources concerning the voyage of discovery are extremely scarce. Only a single document is recognised as coming from Columbus himself. Presently found in the Archivo Nacional de Espanha, in Simanca, this document is a letter

4 written to the Spanish monarchs, where he presents his journal in an abbreviated form (Mollat, 1990:58-9). The whereabouts of that which would be the most important documental source, Columbus’ navigational journal, is unknown. The version which is known today is an abbreviation made by Frei Bartolomeu de Las Casas, who would have had access to one of the copies from the original. However, it is impossible to know how true to the originals the Franciscan friar was in his abbreviation. Fernando Columbus, Christopher’s legitimate son, is also believed to have had a copy of the journal, which was partly published in his book Historie della vita e dei fatti dell’ammiranglio Don Cristoforo Colombo. Considered to be the main historical source for the Columbus’ story, however the creditability of the documental sources cited above are currently being questioned (Caracci, 1992:38-41) The central question which ends the thesis of the Western discoveries is how to explain the navigational error which resulted in Columbus mistaken the island of Guanahani, current Watlings, in the Bahamas, with the archipelagos of Japan. For Mollat (1990:58) this mistake was due to the errors committed by Columbus in determining the latitudes, as he was not used to making these calculations under the tropical sky. However, the island of Guanahani is situated above the Tropic of Cancer, which means, out of the tropical zone, therefore, not at any moment, did Columbus in his journey from the Canary Islands to the Guanahani sailed under tropical Skies Moreover, it was not any errors committed in determining the latitude which made Columbus mistake the Americas for Japan. The greatest difficulty in sailing during the time of the discoveries was not how to determine the latitude, but how to determine the longitude, which could only be made by estimates, therefore with little precision. Therefore it would be an understandable mistake if were not for the dimensions of the error committed. If we take the Canary Islands as a point of reference for the start of the voyage, we have the following relationship: Approximated longitude of the Canaries - 20º W Approximated longitude of the Island of San Salvador - 75º W Average Longitude of Japan - 140º E Distance in degrees of longitude to be travelled from the Canaries to Japan if taken the route to the West - (180-20) + (180-140) = 160 + 40 = 200 º. Distance in degrees of longitude travelled from the Canaries to San Salvador - 55º to the West. Hence, Columbus had travelled a little over a 1/4 of the distance which separates the Canaries from Japan when, in encountering an island, decided that he had reached his

5 destination. Even if taken in consideration the small amount of precision in the calculus of longitude by estimation, the sheer severity of this mistake is absolutely inadmissible, even for most inexperienced, or incompetent of navigators. There are numerous attempts to justify such error. For Morrison (1994:34), it was in Marco Polo’s Description of The World, also known as Book of Wonders, that Columbus, in search of the treasures described to be found in Cipango, found the information and calculus which misled him into having this distorted notion of the distance between Spain and Japan. However, the reading of Marco Polo’s book does not offer the possibility to infer any sort of calculus for oceanic navigation, as it is, also, extremely succinct the description of the Island of Cipango, as it did not even belong to the Kingdom of Kublai Khan, for whom Marco Polo was employed (Polo,1985:188.). Morison (ibid.) further considers that Columbus “Came to the conclusion that the world was 25% smaller [sic] than Eratosthenes had estimated and 10% more reduced than what was taught by Ptolemy”. However, if taken in consideration that Eratosthenes arrived at a value which is quite close to the one which is currently accepted as expressing the Earth’s diameter, this inaccuracy is not enough to justify such a huge mistake, as Columbus would have to have had reduced the Earth’s dimensions to 25%, or at ¼ of the real one, and not by 25%. Therefore, Chaunu (1972:109-110) presents, without any sort of documental information whatsoever, a complex association of errors from the mistaken readings made by a number of geographers, which would have resulted in Columbus extending the dimension of the combined Europe-Asia to 225º, projected over the smallest dimension of the Earth ever conceived. Moreover, it needs to be taken in consideration the fact that Columbus, had as a brother Bartholomew, who was an established cartographer in Portugal and to whom Columbus had consulted a number of times, and certainly had known all the most important maps made up until then. As the admiral Gago Coutinho (1945:12) notes “even the maps at that time– such as de Martellus – placed China’s coast, distanced from Europe by the West to be more than double of the distance travelled by Columbus.” Therefore, by having a well know cartographer as a brother, it is categorically impossible for Columbus to have committed such a huge mistake. At the same time, as the distance which refers to the degree of latitude had already been calculated to a close proximity, the thesis that forwards Columbus to have made a mistake places itself in contradiction towards his own belief that the Earth is sphere shaped, as, in this case the distance which refers to the degree of the average latitude is equivalent to the Longitude in the Equator. Therefore, only if considering the

6 Earth to be cylinder shaped, it would have been possible for Columbus to have confused the Americas for China. If we take Columbus as presented to us, a dreamer caught in a delirium, driven by huge errors in calculations, it is then highly surprising that Columbus demonstrated to be extremely assured of his own navigational skills in order to reach the Americas, even though he “believed” to have reached the far side of Asia. In reference to the oceanic navigation in the Atlantic during the 15th century, we should be aware that, at that time the calculation for the compensation of the Magnetic Declination was not yet known, or in other words, the difference between the True North Pole and the Magnetic North Pole, which varies according to the time and place, as the Magnetic Pole shifts with the Earth’s plates.

Therefore, the compass was of great

usefulness for journeys which did not sail too far away from the coastal references, from which the much needed corrections in directions were made. Hence because of these limits, at the time of Columbus’ departure, the archipelagos of Azores was the maximum limit in the Atlantic reached by the Portuguese mariners. It is believed that the island of Santa Maria was discovered in 1427 by Gonçalo Velho, under orders from Dom Henrique. Therefore, being this island at (Lat. + 36° 55’ 25’’; Long. 25° 01’40’’ W) distanced by around 16° of longitude from Lisbon (+ 38° 42’ 18’’; Long. 09° 08’ 18’’ W), which approximately twice the distance in longitude of the island of Madeira (Funchal Lat. + 32° 28’ 04’’; Long. 16° 53’ 53’’ W), the control of the route from Portugal to the Azores is regarded as one of the great nautical enterprises sponsored by Dom Henrique, due to the difficulties in sailing that far away from the coast. However, this navigational route was made possible due to the fact that, the island of Santa Maria is positioned practically in the same latitude of the Cape of Sao Vicente (+ Lat. 37° 01’ 16’’; Long. 08° 38’ 15’’ W), an important point of reference for sailing along the whole of the Iberian peninsula. Therefore, having as a reference the latitude obtained from the position of the sun, with an astrolabe or a cross-staff, the most skilled Portuguese mariners could reach the said archipelagos, however not without fear, for being forced to sail so deep into the Atlantic Ocean. Moreover in reference to Columbus, it is usually said that during the voyage of discovery the only obstacle presented for him to overcome was the fear and anxiety of his crew. Apart from that, the voyage went on quite smoothly, and did not present, any major complication as far as the actual sailing was concerned. ( Heers, 1992:174)

7 The voyage begun with a stop at the Canary Islands, where the way to, did not present any difficulty for the pilots who followed in the fleet. Columbus then ordered a modification in the equipment of the only caravel, the Niña, changing its sails from lateen into a caravel (Colombo, 1991: 36) which, as shown above, did generate more speed in favourable winds, but on the other hand, made the sailing more difficult in adverse winds. After leaving the Canaries, Columbus went in a westerly direction, going deep into a region which was not yet known in the Atlantic. Sailing between the parallels 25º and 28º N propelled by the North Equatorial Current and by the north-eastern trade winds, Columbus was then able to arrive at the Americas (Colombo,1991:119-133). In this manner, he sailed in a latitude similar to the one travelled by the Portuguese to reach the Azores. However, whilst the masterful Portuguese mariners travelled at the most, around 16° of longitude without coastal reference, Columbus, along the way, travelled 55° of longitude until he reached San Salvador, meaning, more than three times over the maximum sailed by the experienced Portuguese mariners. Therefore it could be said that, the fear and apprehension felt by the crew in setting sail, was not due to their ignorance or belief in sea monsters, but noting that, by being propelled to the west by favourable constant winds and currents, they were distancing themselves from the continent to such an extent that would make impossible for them to return, specially because they could not even count on a single vessel equipped with the lateen sail. For Morison (1993:69)., the success of Columbus in this crossing was due to the fact that “his good fortune caused that the wind carried speedily, without any hindrance, the fleet to the Americas.” Therefore, having the whole of the Atlantic in front of him, Columbus amazing luck, resulted in him utilizing exactly the only route possible to safely surpass the 55° of longitude which divides the Canaries to the Bahamas. However, if the voyage to the Americas was a staggering strike of “good fortune”, it does not even come close in comparison to the voyage of return. As for that, Columbus could not simply revert to applying the same navigation of height, due to the fact that, the currents and winds would have been flowing in the opposite direction. Setting off from San Domingo (Lat. + 18° 27’ 53’’; Long. 69° 52’ 59’’ W), amazingly, Columbus sailed in a northern direction, until the approximated height of the 40º parallel. From then on, he started another navigation of height, taking the direction to the east, propelled by the Gulf Stream and south-westerly winds. In this way, he arrived at the island of Santa Maria, in the Azores, with the approximated latitude of 37° (Mollat, 1990:114).

8 Therefore, the 55° of longitude which separates San Domingo from the Azores were cleared, by applying, not just one navigation of height. Hence, Columbus had to first travel to the parallel that refers to the Azores, as only from there onwards, he was able to start the navigation of height, maintaining the same latitude. The arrival of Columbus to the Azores from the Americas is implicated in the fact that he had reached the archipelagos through a completely new sea route, as up until then all the accumulated nautical knowledge referred to the route coming from Europe. Nevertheless, Morison goes on to make the startling claim that this feat was only possible because “Columbus had as much luck in his return as he had in his journey to”. (Ibidem: 136). However, in the diary attributed to Columbus, he states that the “navigation was done extremely correctly and he had oriented himself very well (...) Moreover, he was sure to be in the region of the Azores.” He goes to say that he pretended to be disorientated in order to confuse the pilots and thus remain the only one able to master the route to the Indies. (Columbus, 1991:133). Therefore, there could be no doubts that Columbus intentionally arrived at the Azores, and not by sheer luck, as Morison claims. If this was the case, he would have been as disorientated as the pilots that accompanied him, as Morison himself observes: “There were those who judged it to be already Castella, others that it was the mountain range of Sintra, near Lisbon yet others believed it to be Madeira. Only Columbus affirmed it to be an island in the Azores, and as ever, correctly so.” (Ibidem: 142). As Chaunu observes, the routes and stopovers made by Columbus were exactly those which were later consolidated by the armada and the New Spanish fleet, for being the only safe sailing route between the Iberian Peninsula and Central America. In the technical conditions of this first blind, transoceanic voyage, it was impossible to arrive in the Americas, coming from the Iberian Peninsula, without stopping at the Canaries. Columbus also stopped there in the four voyages he made, as did every other discoverer after him. The archipelagos of the Canaries are there, in the route of the New World. (...) But this role of port of call – is lucky and unlucky at the same time - due to the flow of the wind and of the sea currents, it can only be use during the voyage to. (...) Is for this reason that the base of the Canaries, in the traffic with the Americas, cannot be disassociated with the Azores (...). In the return route, the use of Azores as a port of call is necessary for a number of reasons. On the way back, the voyage takes longer than on the way to, due to the tempestuous zone that needs to be crossed, which is much more difficult than on the way to. The position of the Azores is, in this aspect, superior to that of the Canaries (...) many ships, in a desperate effort, were able to reach the Azores, before sinking, in order to save men and treasures. Even a higher number of ships, were only able to continue on their voyage after undergoing extensive repairs in the archipelagos. (...) Moreover, the Azores are essential for many other reasons, as during the 16th and 17th century oceanic navigation had to be performed almost blindly. Without a single calculation

9 of longitude, and a very mediocre calculation done at sea for the latitude. The way back is even harder to trail than the way to; it is therefore important, in the first place, to multiply the points of reference. (1980:50,61-2) Moreover, even if we go against nautical logic by considering valid the thesis of the mistake, and consequently believing that Columbus had in fact arrived at the Americas by a huge strike of luck in his insane obsession to get to Japan, this same rationale cannot be extended to the question of how he arrived at the Azores. To find a continent, which extended before Columbus, sailing in the same latitude of the last notable point of reference, is very different to purposely reach the Azores, a small archipelago lost in the vastness of the ocean. Chaunu (1980:63) also observes that all the oceanic routes that originated in either Portugal or Spain carved out a triangle consisting of the Azores to the north, the Canaries to the south and a fragment of the Iberian coast which goes from Lisbon to Cádiz to the east. “It is the bottleneck; everything passes through there, everything enters through it”. Therefore, even though he had the whole of the Atlantic laying before him, Columbus still managed to sail correctly through the very narrow bottleneck, not only on the way to the Americas but also on the way back. Thus, we can safely affirm that it was categorically impossible for Columbus to have intentionally arrived at the Azores without having the full knowledge of the necessary routes to be followed. The manner that Columbus behaved in the command of this transoceanic crossing demonstrates that he had precise knowledge not only of the direction and the latitude of the routes to be followed, but also of the differences in longitude. Without this knowledge it would be simply impossible to know the time that would have taken to undertake the crossing of the Canaries-Americas and then back via Azores. Consequently, there would also be no way of knowing the amount of provisions to be carried specially water during the crossing, which would inevitable result in a tragic end to this voyage of discovery. Even if we contradict all the evidence expounded above, by stating that Columbus was indeed an irresponsible and maverick mariner, the same certainly cannot be said about the other officers under his command. If he managed to con the sailors, by registering in his log-book a shorter distance than the one travelled, he certainly did not manage to pull this trick on Martín Alonso Pinzón, a far more experienced mariner than Columbus, who accompanied him in the commando of the Pinta. In the return voyage, when he left Columbus’ company in the date of 22 of November, Pinzón was trying to precede

10 Columbus’ return to Spain, most certainly in order to claim the authorship of the discovery for himself. Moreover, as he did not know of the necessity of initially sailing to the north, and only then, when propelled by the Gulf Stream, take to the east, he found himself in the embarrassing situation of being forced to rejoin Columbus’ company in order to return to Europe (Morison, 1994: 131-2) If the experienced navigator Martin Pinzón accepted to take part in the expedition under the Columbus’ command, certainly it was not because he believed in some visionary’s luck who, in truly suicidal fashion, was about to throw himself into the yet unknown ends of the Atlantic ocean, in his drive to find the wonders described Marco Polo based in the most delirious possible association of nautical and cartographical errors. By utilising the quantitative method, Chaunu (1980:306-7) demonstrates that the biggest obstacle to be surmounted by the Spanish fleet in the crossing with the Americas was in the voyage of return. While there was almost no losses suffered in the passage Canaries-Antilles, there were a number of vessels that sunk along the route to the Azores. Therefore, the most that the “mistaken” Columbus could have had accomplished, sailing under the luckiest of all the lucky stars in the sky, was to have arrived in the Americas. However, he would never be able to return safely to Spain. Certainly, it would not have been enough for Columbus to be in possession of only one map where this route in the Atlantic was represented. A single map would only be of use if Columbus was able to do the necessary calculations for pinpointing the vessel, together with the compensation of the magnetic declination, and than trace the route to be taken.

Moreover, Morison observes, rightly, that Columbus in the whole length the

journey only made three astronomic observations for the calculus of the latitude, which he got it wrong every time. Therefore, Columbus’ journey would only have been possible if he possessed an extremely detailed nautical chart where it was specified the routes to be followed and the estimated time of each route, according to the travelled speed. This nautical chart, in turn, would be based in what is known as the cartographical polygon, with the apex in Cape of San Vicente, in the Canaries, in San Domingo and in the Azores. The geographical coordinates of this polygon would permit the elaboration of a safe route to be sailed in such a vast area of the ocean. It is evident that this is consequence of a long process, which included numerous exploratory voyages, with a heavy toll not only financial, but also of lives lost by some of Columbus’ predecessors in order to make this voyage possible.

11 Pérez (1992:32-5) observes that the fact that Columbus broke the news of his “discovery” to king of Portugal John II even before the monarchs of Spain instantly raised suspicion in the court of Aragon. This suspicion becomes even more significant once we consider the fact that, due to the information given by Columbus to D. João II, even before communicating the “discovery” to the monarchs of Spain, the king of Portugal was able to claim as belonging to his own crown the lands reached by Columbus. This just claim is based in the terms of the treaty agreed between the two Iberian crowns in the Portuguese town of Alcáçovar in 1478, where the Portuguese crown agreed to forsake the possession of all the islands in the archipelago of the Canaries, in exchange for exclusive rights to any new found land to the south of this archipelago (1). Due to the sheer importance of the Canaries, for sailing in the Atlantic, the delegation negotiating for the Spanish crown, were certainly extremely satisfied with what seemed to be a diplomatic coup, and did not notice that the terms of the treaty did not restrict the rights to the discoveries which concerned solely the African continent. Therefore, as the Earth is round and as the lands Discovered by Columbus were at latitudes in the northern hemisphere inferior to the ones in the Canaries, D. João II’s claim to the new found lands were indeed validated by the terms agreed in the Treaty of Alcáçovar. Moreover, in order for D. João II to be able apply this stratagem, it would have been necessary for Columbus to have informed him not only of the existence of the discovered islands but also of their respective latitudes, as, only in this way the king of Portugal could substantiate his claim, as he did, due to the fact that those islands are situated to the south of the Canaries. As the claim from the King of Portugal took place almost as soon as Columbus had returned, we are therefore, faced with only two possibilities. Either Columbus had informed the king of Portugal not only of his “discovery” but also of the islands’ latitudes, or the King of Portugal had known of their latitudes all along. Therefore, as the extreme south of the island of Tenerife and the Cape Canaveral, in Florida, are in the latitude of + 28°, Portugal’s possessions, by extending over the continent, would have had incorporated the great American empires of the; Aztecs, Mayans and Incas; leaving to Spain the North-American regions where there were no accumulative cultures nor treasures and material wealth. However, soon after Columbus departure in his voyage of discovery, there was a twist that would cause a serious blow to Portugal’s geopolitical strategy. The untimely death of the pope Innocent VIII was to cause a crisis in the ensuing battle for the nomination for the pontiff’s successor, which became increasingly bitter and entrenched

12 between the cardinals Caraffa and Juliano Della Rovere, resulting in the election of the opportunistic and lewd Valencia born Aragonite cardinal, Rodrigo Borgia. Even though his nomination was to face severe opposition not only from within the Vatican but also from Charles VIII, King of France, Rodrigo Borgia, father, of amongst others, Cesar e Lucrecia Borgia, managed, with the backing of Ferdinand of Aragon, to take his place on the papal throne on the 11th of August 1492 as Alexander VI. After being informed by D. João II that the Columbus “discovery” would suit primarily Portugal’s interest, Ferdinand of Aragon managed to change the course of events due to his influence over the new pope. Alexander VI promulgated then a new bull in the 3rd of May 1493, denominated Inter Coetera, where he concedes to the Catholic Monarchy the control and ecclesiastical patronage over all the lands to be discovered from the Azores and Cabo Verde a hundred leagues from the West and from noon. In the king of Portugal’s refusal to accept this bull, an extremely unusual behaviour for a catholic king, which normally would have resulted in his excommunication, the representatives of the kings of Castile and of Portugal met in the city of Tordesilhas in 1494, with the aim of reaching an agreement. By arguing of the need to preserve the control over the oceanic space necessary in order for its vessels to return from the Guinean Gulf, in the African coast, the representatives from Portugal proposed that the dividing line to be dislocated to the West, going from a hundred to 370 leagues from Cabo Verde. As for the Spanish representatives this advance would only take place over the sea, probably incorporating a small island lost in the vastness of the ocean, the proposal forwarded by the king of Portugal was accepted, resulting in the signing of the treaty of Tordesilhas in the 7th of July 1494. In the law suit ensued by the Spanish Crown against Columbus’ heir over the sole rights in the capitulations of Santa Fé (In Cortesão, 1947:660-5), the witnesses Alonso Gallego and Fernando Valiente claimed that the company in charge of the discovery of the West Indies was in reality a joint venture between Columbus and Martin Alonso Pinzón, who had received the information on the existence and localisation of the islands to be discovered through Pero Vázques de la Frontera. Who in turn, is identified as an experienced mariner, and was known to have taken part in at least one of the Portuguese expedition that took place under orders from the Portuguese Infante D. Henry (In Pregunta Del cuestionario de 1535. Cortesão, idem: 765-6). Even if openly manipulated by the Spanish Crown, this law suit reveals that, soon after Columbus “discovery”, it was already known in the Spanish court of the impossibility of him going through with this venture without the full knowledge

13 of the sea routes to and from the Americas, and that the necessary information had, in all probably been trafficked from Portugal. MAPS

First voyage of Colombus. In Morison (opus cit)

Ocean Currents.

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15 PERES, Damião O descobrimento do Brasil por Pedro Álvares Cabral. Porto e Rio de Janeiro. Portucalense & Livros de Portugal, 1949. POLO, Marco. O Livro das maravilhas. Porto Alegre, L&PM, 1985. WILFORD, John Noble. Descobrindo Colombo. Diálogo. Rio de Janeiro, vol. 25 n. 3, pp. 6-9, 1992.