The
portrait was painted by Carlos Genicio, an artist living in San Antonio, Ibiza.
It is an oil painting and measures 72 x 53 cm. The information was obtained
from descriptions left to us by the historians Fray Bartolomé de las Casas,
Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo and Hernando Colón, the Admiral’s son. The painting
shows Columbus on the island of Guanahani (Sant Salvador) on October 12th
1492 when he was 56 years old , a fact that we know because his friend and
counsellor, Andrés Bernáldez “el Cura de los Palacios” (the priest
from Los Palacios [a village near Seville]) tells us that he was born in 1436.
There is documentary proof that he was wearing a cloak and his head was covered
with a blue and crimson cap, as we can also see in the map drawn by Juan de
la Cosa in 1500. It is reasonable to assume that Columbus would have felt
satisfied and happy on the day he first set foot in the New World, and this
is reflected by the artist who, incidentally, has collaborated on several
occasions with the Spanish Police Scientific Department.
The meeting between Spaniards and natives
is described by Las Casas as follows: “The Indians stared at the Christians
in astonishment, terrified by their beards, white skin and clothes: they approached
the bearded men, especially the Admiral, since they obviously regarded him
as the leader because of his air of distinction and authority and also as
he was dressed in scarlet. They even touched the newcomer’s beards in wonder,
as they themselves were beardless”.The identikit portrait hangs in Nito Verdera’s
library.
The
Monument al Descobriment d’Amèrica (Monument to the discovery of América),
popularly known as “Columbus’s Egg” was unveiled in San Antonio (Ibiza) on
October 12th 1992, while Antoni Marí Tur was Mayor, and it owes
its existence to three men: Antoni Hormigo, whose idea it originary was, based
on the hypothesis of an “Ibizan Columbus”; Julio Bauza, the architect and
project designer; and Julio Ojeda, who made the original models. It is built
of reinforced concrete and is 6 metres tall. In the middle there is an iron
replica of the ship Santa María, the work of Julio Bauza, which is
2.8 metres in length and 650 kilos in weight. The prow points westward, towards
America. There is probably no other monument quite like it anywhere else in
the world and every year it is photographed by hundreds of thousands of tourists
who have come to spend their holidays on the island of Ibiza.
The
legend of “Columbus’s egg” is recorded by Martin Fernández de Navarrete [Colección
de Viajes y descubrimientos, Madrid, 1954] based on a passage written
by the historian Bossi, which in its turn was inspired by an engraving made
by Teodoro Bry, a bookseller and engraver from Liège who settled in Frankfurt
in 1570. It goes as follows:
“Among
the festivities organised in Columbus’s honour by the court grandees on his
return after his first voyage, there was a banquet offered by Cardinal Pedro
González de Mendoza. The Admiral was the guest of honour and during the course
of the meal one of the grandees said that if Columbus had not discovered the
New World, there would have been many other talented men ready and able to
do the very same thing. Then Columbus picked up an egg and asked if any of
those present was capable of making it stand on end unsuported. No one was
able to do it, but Columbus, by hitting the ends of the egg and flattening
them, managed to make it stand on the table without falling over”.
The
most interesting members of the Colom family, I have been able to trace are
Pere Colom, an official in the Universitat (Island governing council),
according to a letter posted from Perpignan on May 26th 1340; Francesc
Colom, a Proctor working for the same organisation, as seen in the Cabrevación
(property register) of Archbishop Iñigo de Tarragona (1396-1398) in a document
dated February 3rd 1367; and finally there was a certain Joan Colom,
who, in 1379, had the monopoly on the movement of captives and slaves to and
from Ibiza [Nito Verdera, La verdad de un nacimiento- Colón ibicenco,
Madrid, 1988]. The great problem is the lack of documents in the Ibiza archives,
which has so far made it impossible to find any further trace of such an ilustrious
family, who, according to my research, may well have been forced into exile
in the south of France for some political or religious reason.
The
arrow points to the area of Dalt Vila where the Colom family owed property.
Apart
from this, we can also see the Gulf of Mexico drawn on the map of Caverio, indicated
by an arrow, at a time when, “officially” it had still not been discovered by the Spanish. However, if we also take into
account that there are 21 placenames written on the American coast, the only
possible explanation is that sailors knowledgable in the art of mapmaking had
previously navigated these coasts. It
seems that the Portuguese had in fact done just that, and as Humboldt says,
the shape and placenames had been taken from an earlier map. Who could have
drawn it?
The most outstanding feature of the Waldseemüller
map is that the hemisphere to be found next to Vespucci in the decorative part
and indicated by an arrow, we can see the American continent situated between
two great oceanic masses and separated from Japan and Asia. It must be remembered
that in 1507 nothing was as yet known of the existence of the Pacific Ocean
nor that America lay in between to oceans which in fact surround it. What explanation
can be offered? The only possible explanation is that there were people who
already knew.
We can also observe that there is a strait
drawn across the Panama isthmus, within the circle. During his fourth voyage,
Christopher Columbus searched long and hard for a passage, a strait which which
would lead him to the Southern Sea, later called the Pacific. In fact, such
a strait did exist during the Miocene period, but no geologist knows when this
natural passage connecting the Caribbean to the Pacific actually closed up,
whether due to volcanic activity or to the movement of tectonic plates. Apparently,
sailors in ancient times knew not only of the existence of a channel between
the two oceans but also of a continent situated between Europe and Asia, and
they reflected this knowledge on at least one map; a map to which both Columbus
and Waldseemüller had access. If anyone else can offer a better explanation,
then let them do so.
Amazing
facts! We can only come to the conclusion that, long before Christopher Columbus
sailed to the New World there were seafarers who had mapped the whole American
continent and the Antarctic into the bargain. Does anyone have a better explanation?
It is dated 18th January 1505, although the place is not mentioned.
