Columbus_ The Four Voyages - Laurence Bergreen [71]
A new realism informed these instructions. There was no more talk of trading with the Grand Khan, although the possibility that he existed hovered over the voyage. Columbus still tried to reconcile the lands and people he had encountered with those described in Marco Polo’s flamboyant travelogue. In reality, the Venetian had died in 1324, and the Mongol empire had rapidly disintegrated.
Columbus’s orders also directed him to construct a “customs house for the storage of all the merchandise of Their Highnesses.” This plan borrowed heavily from the Portuguese model and made the venture’s commercial aspect explicit. Almost as an afterthought, Ferdinand and Isabella permitted Columbus to explore as he saw fit: “If the Admiral, after reaching the Islands, believes it would be well to send some vessels and people to certain parts to discover what has not hitherto been discovered, or for the sake of barter . . . all the captains and mariners whom he may so command are required to carry out and fulfill his orders.” Even here, trade was the impetus, and as an incentive the Sovereigns awarded Columbus a healthy share of the proceeds: “The Admiral should have one eighth part of whatever may be acquired from whatever gold and other things there may be on the Islands and Mainland.”
Never was there a more exalted moment in his career than this. He had vast resources and royal prestige at his disposal, beginning with the seventeen ships at his command. Three were classed simply as naos, or ships. Columbus named the flagship Santa María, after the durable vessel he had commanded during his comparatively modest first voyage, and called her by the affectionate nickname Maríagalante. She was owned by Antonio de Torres, the brother of the governess of Prince Don Juan. The connection to the Catholic Sovereigns was impressive and implied their approval. Colina and Gallega were similarly substantial craft. Of the remaining fourteen ships, twelve were light, maneuverable caravels. Sharp-eyed observers recognized Santa Clara as Niña of the first voyage, under a new name. Several of the caravels were square-rigged, that is, they carried conventional square rigging on the mainmast and the foremast, and lateen rigging on the mizzen, aft of the mainmast. Learning from the mistakes of the first voyage, Columbus insisted that at least some of his new fleet have a shallow draft to explore rivers and shoals without running aground.
The ships, according to his son Ferdinand, came “well-stocked with provisions and carrying all the things and persons needed to settle those lands, including artisans of all kinds, laborers, and peasants to work the land.” When he was preparing for his first voyage, Columbus had to scrape for every crew member he could find, and sailed shorthanded, but this time “so many offered themselves that it was necessary to restrict the number of those who might go,” even though the fleet was nearly six times larger than his earlier convoy. The ships carried horses—unknown in the Caribbean—and other beasts of burden that could be useful in settling Hispaniola. His company of over a thousand gentlemen, commoners, and criminals comprised a microcosm of Spain waiting and, for once, eager to be transported to a New World and its riches under the leadership of Christopher Columbus.
Many reprised their roles on the first voyage, a circumstance that spoke well of Columbus’s reputation as a navigator and the promise of easy riches. There were the Genoese; a few Basques, born to the sea; and still others from the Spanish towns of Palos, Huelva, and Moguer, where the sailors resided between voyages. The influential Pinzón family was conspicuously absent from the roster. Many in Spain believed their claim that they were responsible for whatever success Columbus had enjoyed on his first voyage. The Admiral would be on his own this time, with storms and tides