“Water and nothing but water, no land in sight,” thus the three sailors - Santa Maria, Penta and La La Niña - faced the unknown with great pain since they left the Canary Islands on September 6, until the crews were on the verge of revolt at the beginning of October The first, before Commander and Admiral Christopher Columbus announced a prize of 10,000 Maravidi (gold and silver coins used between the 11th and 14th centuries) for the first to see the earth, as an encouragement to men after seeing some omens.
After this promise - as the French Le Point magazine says - and after the crews noticed the presence of weeds and saw a stick covered with snails and a twig floating, they rejoiced and continued the progress, thinking that the land of Japan - which they imagined they were heading to - became close, especially as the flight of parrots split the sky Ships on October 11th.
earth earth
On October 12, 1492, as Frederic Luino and Gwendolyn dos Santos report to the magazine, a scream sounded at 2 a.m., which made all the sailors of La Pinta board the ship: “Earth, earth,” shouts Juan Rodríguez Bermejo, better known as Rodrigo de She sees me joyfully from above, and the entire crew tries to notice the coast in the dark.
At this moment - as the report continues - the captain of the ship, Martin Alonzo Pinzon, asks the helmsman to approach the Santa Maria to alert the admiral, before everyone can see the dark coast under the moonlight, and then asks to drop the anchor to avoid hitting the ground.
Early in the morning the Pinzon brothers went up to Santa Maria to confer with Columbus, but the latter showed an astonishing and unforgivable meanness when, when told by Martín Alonzo Pinzon that the promised reward was Rodrigo's right, he claimed that he was the first to see the land, at about 10 p.m. , which astonished the two captains who doubted the authenticity of his words, and Columbus continued, "In the night I saw a little glow like a candle. Two men were with me."
Portrait of Christopher Columbus (Getty Images)
Then - as the report says - the two Pinzon brothers looked at each other in shock, because the group of ships was at 10 pm yesterday so far from the coast that the land could not be seen, and perhaps what Columbus saw - if he saw something - is just a reflection of a star on the waves.
However, the two men were silent because it was not possible to quarrel with the Admiral.
Thus Christopher Columbus stripped Rodrigo de Triana of his discovery.
Who is Rodrygo?
The report says that they questioned a lot about this Rodrigo who they are, and they found that there is a difference in his matter, as some claim that he is of Jewish origin and was born in the Triana province of Seville, while others claim that he is a Moorish Muslim who converted to Catholicism, and he participated in another mission in 1525, and he died In North Africa after he converted to Islam. However, in both cases - whether he was a Morsky or a Jew - he was robbed by Columbus when he was maneuvering on the famous 12th of October to approach this green land.
After the admiral and the two captains had spoken, the brothers knelt before Columbus to forgive their doubts, before they all landed shortly afterwards on the island, accompanied by a notary, to formally take possession of it in the name of the King of Spain. Peaceful people, who wondered among themselves about these "metal-wrapped zebras, with bushes on their faces," had landed on their land, after they saw the sailors in their shields and long beards.
The naked residents did not see at the time, the report says, that these newcomers, who welcomed them with cotton and parrots, would soon steal their land and their lives, even though Columbus was believed to be in Japan.