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Happy Columbus Day A belief is nothing more than a thought we believe to be true. And our beliefs shape our reality. Case in point, today is Columbus Day. A holiday commemorating the belief that Christopher Columbus discovered America in 1492. Sometimes though, usually years later, we have our own 'discovery'. We discover that what we believed to be true, was in fact, wrong. The moral of this story is to examine your beliefs. Are they actually based on true statements, or do you just think they are? We all know the history (story). It has been taught in our public schools for decades. The story of how Columbus set off on the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria in search for gold, and by pure accident, discovered the Americas. It was considered to be the greatest discovery of all time. Three hundred years later, in 1792, New York City began celebrating the 300th anniversary of his landing. In 1892, President Benjamin Harrison called upon the people of the Unites States to celebrate 'Columbus Day' on the 400th anniversary of the event. Colorado made it an official state holiday in 1906, and it became a federal holiday in 1934. So what kind of man was Christopher Columbus - really? He must have been a truly great man - all the history books say so. Before he set off on his infamous voyage, he told Queen Isabella that all he wanted in return was 10% of all the gold, silver, and pearls he found. A small price to pay for discovering a new continent you might say. In a letter to Queen Isabella he stated: "Gold is most excellent; gold is treasure, and he who possesses it does all he wishes to in this world." He also wanted to be governor of all the lands he found, and - he wanted to be called "The Admiral of the Ocean Sea". Sounds to me like he had an obsession with gold, was a tad bit greedy, and definitely had an ego .... but nothing too horribly bad. Probably normal for the times. But... As I have said so many times in this blog, when it comes to history, what we believe to be true - is usually wrong. Remember history is usually just one perceptive. So does Columbus really deserve to have his own holiday? What was he really, really like? Let's look at some of the 'historical facts' and judge for ourselves. Columbus discovered America in 1492. Wrong.
- Columbus never saw North America. His 3 ships landed in the Islands of the Bahamas on October 12, 1492.
- Norse explorer Leif Erikson set foot in the Americas long before 1492, according to Icelandic sagas, having pulled his Viking longboat into the shallows off modern Newfoundland, Canada. Archaeologists found remains of a Viking-type settlement in 1963. It is believed to have been in existence around 1000 A.D., roughly half a century before Christopher Columbus "discovered" America.
- Also, just outside the little village of Roslin, Scotland is the famous Rosslyn Chapel, known for it's Masonic Architecture and abundance of stone carvings, one of which is Corn. What's odd about the corn carvings is that corn was a crop native to North America only, and the chapel was built in 1456. Columbus had not yet 'discovered' America yet.
- Native Americans had been living in this 'new continent' for thousands of years before Columbus landed.
So sorry history books, Columbus did NOT discover America. But Columbus was a good, Christian man. Wrong. They traded with us and gave us everything they had, with good will..they took great delight in pleasing us..They are very gentle and without knowledge of what is evil; nor do they murder or steal..Your highness may believe that in all the world there can be no better people ..They love their neighbours as themselves, and they have the sweetest talk in the world, and are gentle and always laughing. The above quote was from Columbus' journal on encountering the Arawak-Taino Indians in Haiti (Hispanolia) after landing. But remember, Columbus was in search of gold, not peace loving Indians. On Columbus' second voyage, he began to require tribute from the Taínos. Each adult over 14 years of age was expected to deliver a hawks bell full of gold every three months, or when this was lacking, twenty five pounds of spun cotton. If this tribute was not observed, the Taínos had their hands cut off and were left to bleed to death. Spanish priest Bartolomé de Las Casas noted in his own journals, that he (Columbus) and his men flung native infants to their dogs to be torn to pieces, cut off the noses of the people if they didn’t bring them gold and began sending inhabitants back to Spain as slaves for the Queen, informing her in writing that “in the name of the Holy Trinity I can send you as many slaves as you want.” Columbus records in one of his journals that young girls were being taken by his men as sex slaves, “with nine year olds being the most favored.” Las Casas(who was living in the Dominican Republic at the time) wrote in his 1561 multivolume "History of the Indies" There were 60,000 people living on this island when I arrived in 1508, including the Indians; so that from 1494 to 1508, over three million people had perished from war, slavery and the mines. Who in future generations will believe this? La Casas also wrote that the Spaniards made bets as to who would slit a man in two, or cut off his head at one blow; or they opened up his bowels. They tore the babes from their mothers breast by their feet, and dashed their heads against the rocks...they spitted the bodies of other babes, together with their mothers and all who were before them, on their swords....and by thirteens, in honor and reverence for our Redeemer and the twelve Apostles they put wood underneath and, with fire, they burned the Indians alive. In thirty years, between 80% and 90% of the Indian population died. Because of the increased number of people (Spanish) on the island, there was a higher demand for food from the Taíno method of plantation which was being converted to Spanish methods. Because so many Taíno were put into slavery, they had little time for community affairs, and the supply of food became so low in 1495 and 1496 that famine occurred and combined with diseases like smallpox to which the Taíno had no immunity. This took a staggering death toll. By 1507 their numbers had shrunk to 60,000. By 1531 the number was down to 600. Scholars now believe that, among the various contributing factors, epidemic disease was the overwhelming cause of the population decline of the American natives. As the native population was decimated, Columbus began to import African slaves to the island to continue his search for gold, establishing a new transatlantic slave trade.
Slave trader, mass genocide, 9yr old sex toys, murderer. Seems I don't remember reading anything like this in my High School History Class. But like I said, most of what we believe to be true, is in fact wrong. The important thing to take out of this, besides a free 'holiday' off....is what other beliefs do we have that we have always believed to be true? And are they true? Beliefs like.....there is no cure for cancer, everyone should get a flu shot, I can't help it - it's genetic, I'll always be poor...... Question your beliefs. Don't take everyone's word for it....even our own history books. Search for the truth. As John said in Chaper 8 verse 32: "Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
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