"Columbus in the Azores"
 
by Rebecca Catz
 
     A little known incident occurred in the Azores that placed
Columbus's life in jeopardy.  It happened in February of 1493, on
the first homeward bound voyage from America.  Columbus made two
unscheduled stops in Portuguese territory before returning to his
home port in Spain.  The first stop was at the little island of
Santa Maria, in the Azores, and the other in Lisbon.  He had not
intended to stop at either one of those ports but he was over-
taken by two storms, one that struck as he was approaching the
Azores, and the other, a few days after his departure from the
Azores.
     The Portuguese chroniclers of the period have described the
stopover in Lisbon in great detail(1), but they have absolutely
nothing to say about Columbus's brief stop in the Azores during
the ten days from February 18 to 28, 1493.  And were it not for
the fact that Columbus himself has told us so, in his logbook(2),
we might never have known about it.
     Santa Maria is a mountainous little island only 10 miles
long by 5 wide.  It is situated in the Atlantic Ocean about 900
miles from mainland Portugal.  Together with Sao Miguel, the
largest of the nine main islands of the archipelago, it forms the
eastern group of the Azores, which are administratively part of
Portugal.  Under the auspices of Prince Henry the Navigator,
Goncalo Velho Cabral discovered the uninhabited island of Santa
Maria on August 15, 1432, but colonization did not take place
until 1445.  By the time Columbus arrived in Santa Maria, it was
already settled with small villages where they were raising
cereals, grapes and citrus.
     Columbus begins the journal of the first homeward passage
from America to Europe in the following manner: "On Wednesday,
January 16, 1493, three hours before dawn, I departed from the
Gulf, which I have named the Gulf of the Arrows, first with a
land breeze and then with a west wind."(3)  It proved to be a far
more difficult feat of navigation than the outward passage of
discovery, for there were no gentle trade winds to blow the two
remaining ships of the fleet--the "Nina" and "Pinta"--back to
Spain.  The third ship with which he had left Spain, the "Santa
Maria," had foundered off the coast of Hispaniola.
     It was now the winter season in the North Atlantic when the
westerly winds are often accompanied by heavy rain and high seas. 
There were days when the caravels were averaging ten knots,
something that would be considered good for many a modern ocean
racer with all the technology of the twentieth century behind
her.  On February 10, Columbus reckoned that they were about on
the latitude of Flores in the Azores.  The other pilots reckoned
that they were much further north, near Madeira.  As it turned
out, Columbus was more accurate.  They were in fact still south
of the Azores and more or less on the latitude of Cape Spartel in
northern Morocco.(4)  Two days later there were all the signs of
an impending gale.  In winter the area of the Azores can be one
of the most unpleasant in the Atlantic Ocean.  "Pinta" and "Nina"
were in for a difficult time, bearing in mind that they were
vessels that had not been designed for the North Atlantic in the
winter, nor were they freshly fitted out.  They had only been
careened once since they had left Europe.
     The two caravels ran before the wind under bare poles. 
There was nothing else they could do.  On the night of February
13, the two ships lost contact with each other.  It was the worst
moment of the entire expedition.  There was thunder to the north,
a howling westerly gale, and the sea pitched into a cross-
confusion, which meant that everyone on board was drenched from
head to toe.  They all prayed, and as they ran before those
monstrous seas, they drew lots to see who should make a pilgrim-
age of devotion to Santa Maria of Guadalupe, if they were spared. 
The Admiral drew the lot, which was a chick-pea, marked with a
cross.  Another penitential pilgrimage was then proposed and one
of the seamen drew the lot for making a pilgrimage to the shrine
of Santa Maria of Loreto.  Then a third was agreed upon, a night
watch and a Mass at Santa Clara de Moguer , not far from their
home port of Palos.  Once again the Admiral drew the marked chick
pea.  After this, since the sea and the storm continued to
surround them with their noise and fury, all hands aboard the
"Nina" vowed to make a pilgrimage, clad only in their shirts, to
the nearest church of Our Lady at whatever place they should
first make land.(5)
     Shortly after sunrise on Friday, February 15, a seaman named
Ruy Garcia sighted land dead ahead.  Some believed it to be
Castile, others, the Rock of Sintra, near Lisbon, still others,
Madeira.  Columbus alone insisted that it was one of the Azores,
and as usual he was right.  It was Santa Maria, southernmost of
the group, and one of the smallest.
     After dark, on the evening of February 17, they came to
anchor off some houses, in the hope of hailing someone to tell
them where they were, but the cable soon broke on the sharp
rocks.(6)  So the weary sailors, robbed of the night's rest they
had anticipated, made sail and stood off and on all night.  It
had never been Columbus's intention to call at the Azores on the
way home.  As a matter of fact, he had carefully avoided all the
Portuguese islands, but ship and seamen had taken such a beating
that he decided to take a chance in the hope of obtaining wood,
water, fresh provisions, and a bit of rest.
     After sunrise on Monday, February 18, Columbus again
searched the northern side of the island, found a spot he thought
was appropriate, dropped anchor, and sent the boat ashore.  His
sailors spoke to the local people who told them that they were on
the island of Santa Maria in the Azores, and showed them where
they could find a safe anchorage for the caravel.
     At this point, the first land where Columbus's men went
ashore after leaving Hispaniola, there is a green coastal plain
about half a mile wide.  On the edge of it, where a small sandy
beach makes a good boat landing, the first settlers of Santa
Maria had established the village of Nossa Senhora dos Anjos (Our
Lady of the Angels).  The anchorage chosen by "Nina" off Anjos
being far from safe, she changed her position as the villagers
advised, to the eastward, on the other side of a high rocky cape
called Punta Frades.  There, in a bay open to the northeast,
"Nina" lay secure as long as the wind held southerly.  Three men
were left on shore at Anjos, a mile and a half away, in order to
obtain fresh provisions and water.(7)
     All that afternoon "Nina" rode at anchor in this lonely bay.
out of sight of the village, and without communication from
shore.  After sunset, three islanders appeared on the cliff and
hailed.  Columbus sent them a boat in which they came aboard. 
Fortunately, it was Shrove Tuesday, for, as Columbus writes in
his journal: "They brought with them fowls and fresh bread, and
other things that were sent by the captain of the island, who was
called Juan de Castaneda, saying that he knew me very well, and
that as it was night he did not come to call, but at daybreak he
would come and bring more refreshments with the three men of the
caravel who remained there, whom he did not then send back
because of the great pleasure that he had with them, hearing
about events of the voyage."(8)  Of course, the name Juan de
Castaneda would be Joao de Castanheira in Portuguese.
     Informed by the men who had come aboard with the refresh-
ments that there was a little shrine near the sea dedicated to
Our Lady, Columbus decided that this was the proper time to
fulfill the third vow which had been made at the height of the
storm.  At daybreak on Tuesday, February 19, Columbus sent half
the crew ashore in "Nina's" one boat, asking the messengers who
returned with them to seek out the village priest to say Mass;
after which, the men were to return to the ship while Columbus
with the other half of the crew performed their vows.  As the men
were saying their prayers, clad only in their shirts, unbeknownst
to Columbus, they were attacked and seized by all the villagers,
on horseback and on foot, and by the Captain as well, and taken
prisoners.(9)
     About eleven in the morning, Columbus, anxiously awaiting
the return of his boat from the village that he was unable to
see, decided that either the boat had been wrecked on the rocks
or the people detained.  Weighing anchor, he sailed the "Nina"
around Punta Frades and saw many well armed horsemen,  who
dismounted, got into the boat, and came out to the ship, com-
manded by Castanheira.  Their obvious intention was to arrest
Columbus.  A parley followed between ship and boat, amusing for
us, but trying for Columbus.  He attempted to lure Castanheira
aboard in order to hold him as hostage, while the Portuguese
endeavored to inveigle Columbus into the boat, in order to take
him prisoner along with the men who had been captured at prayer. 
Columbus showed them his credentials over the bulwarks, but
refused to allow the Portuguese near enough to read them.  Rash
and angry words were exchanged.  Columbus said that he was "the
Admiral of the Ocean Sea and Viceroy of the Indies which belong
to Their Highnesses,"(10) and that he would return to Castile
with half his crew if the others were not released, and see to it
that the offending Portuguese were suitably punished.  Captain
Castanheira replied that "they did not recognize the King and
Queen of Castile here, nor their letters, nor were they afraid;
rather, they would have us understand that this is Portugal, and
they said this in a threatening way."(11)  Columbus then lost his
temper and swore that he would not leave until he had depopulated
Santa Maria and captured a hundred Portuguese to carry home as
slaves.  He returned to anchor in the harbor where he had first
come, because wind and weather were very unfavorable for doing
anything else.  This anchorage was the one against which the
villagers had warned him, and on the twentieth, as was to be
expected, when he was employing his remaining crew in filling
casks with sea water for ballast, the cables broke and Columbus
made sail for Sao Miguel.  The island of Sao Miguel is visible
from Santa Maria in fair weather, but it was extremely foul that
day and the "Nina" was unable to reach the island by nightfall. 
Also, it was very difficult to handle her because only three of
the crew left aboard were seamen and the rest soldiers, landsmen
or Indians, who were not very useful for navigating the ship.
     At sunrise on February 21, Columbus decided to return to
Santa Maria and see what diplomacy could do.  This is how he
describes what led up to his return: "I beat about all last night
in a very great storm, in constant danger and difficulty.  The
Lord showed His mercy for me in that the waves came only from one
direction.  If there had been a cross-sea, as in the past, I
would have suffered very serious injury.  After sunrise, when I
found that I could not see the island of Sao Miguel, I decided to
return to Santa Maria, to see if I could recover my people, the
boat, and the anchors and lines that I left there."(12)  By late
afternoon he was moored by his two remaining anchors in the bay
east of Punta Frades.  There he was hailed by a villager from
atop some rocks they were facing, telling them not to leave. 
Presently, the "Nina's" own boat came around the point, carrying
five of the captured seamen, two priests, and a notary public. 
After such evening's entertainment aboard as the Admiral could
offer, and passing the night, the priests and the scribe scruti-
nized the Admiral's credentials, expressed themselves satisfied,
and granted them free entry.  Captain Castanheira had apparently
repented of his rashness, and perhaps had failed to extract any
evidence of wrongdoing after putting his prisoners through some
sort of cross-examination.  The boat went ashore and returned
with the rest of the "Nina's" crew, who said that the real reason
for their release was Castanheira's failure to capture Columbus. 
The seamen alone were too unimportant for him, they said.
     With her full crew restored, the "Nina" left this uneasy
anchorage for the last time on February 23, and sailed around
Santa Maria to the westward, in search of a good place to take on
wood and stone ballast.  She anchored at about 9:00 p.m. in
either the Bay of Vila do Porto or Vila da Praia on the southern
shore of the island, there being a good landing beach and plenty
of loose rocks on each of them.  However, at the passing of the
first night watch at about 11:00 p.m., Columbus writes, "that the
wind began to blow east and southwest.  I ordered the sails
raised on account of the great danger one finds here in these
islands if he remains at anchor with a south wind, and a south-
west wind easily shifts until it blows south.  Since it was good
weather for going to Castile, I gave up the idea of taking on
wood and stone and ordered the course to the east."  Before
daylight, the "Nina" was well beyond the inhospitable island. 
Samuel Eliot Morison, whose masterful biography of Columbus won
him a Pulitzer prize in 1942, sums up the incident at Santa Maria
succinctly when he says: "Ten days had been spent in and around
Santa Maria, two or three anchors had been lost, and Columbus had
nothing to show for the delay but fresh water, a few provisions,
and a diplomatic victory over Joao da Castanheira."(13)
     How can we explain the strange behavior on the part of Joao
da Castanheira?  This man, who had ordered the cowardly capture
of ten half naked seamen at prayer, was not the ruling captain of
the island but one who was a locum tenens, acting on behalf of
the appointed captain, one Joao Soares de Albergaria, who was
away in Lisbon, getting married for the second time.  Castanheira
boasted, and Columbus believed him, that he had received orders
from the King of Portugal to arrest him.(14)  It may be doubted
whether Castanheira had any such orders, or he would have been
more persistent in carrying them out, for he had already been
rebuked for allowing a prisoner to escape.  Morison gives the
following explanation for Castanheira's behavior.  Since the
Portuguese had been much troubled by the Castilians who had been
poaching on the Guinea coast of Africa, contrary to the terms of
the Treaty of Alcacobas; and since the Azores were natural places
of call for vessels returning from Guinea to the Peninsula, it
seems probable that Castanheira suspected Columbus and his men of
having been on an illicit Guinea voyage, which they were trying
to cover up by telling tall tales of the Indies.(15)
     Morison's hypothesis is rejected outright by the modern
Portuguese historian Jacinto Monteiro, who says that the
Castilians had halted their depredations off the African coast in
1479, some 14 years earlier, when they had signed the Treaty of
Alcacovas with Portugal.(16)
     Monteiro raises a more interesting question when he asks why
did the early Portuguese chroniclers of the Azores fail to
mention the presence of Columbus on their shores?(17)  The first
and most important of the insular chronicles was written by
Gaspar de Frutuoso (1522-1591) sometime between 1570 and 1571,
though not published until 1873.  It is called "Saudades da
Terra," which can be loosely translated as "Nostalgia for the
Homeland."  When composing this lengthy chronicle, it is known
that Frutuoso spent some time in Santa Maria in the year 1570,
interviewing the children and grandchildren of Columbus's contem-
poraries, among whom the tradition of Columbus's presence was
still very much alive.  Moreover, he proves quite conclusively
that Frutuoso read the works of Ferdinand Columbus and Bartolome
de las Casas, both of whom mention the incident at Santa Maria. 
Therefore, he asks, why did Frutuoso choose to omit it from his
own history of the Azores, which is filled with the most insig-
nificant minutiae?  Finally, Monteiro comes to the conclusion
that Frutuoso omitted the incident because (1) at the time that
he finished writing his chronicle (1591?), Portugal was ruled by
Spain and he feared to write anything that would cause dissension
between the two nations; and (2) he was also afraid to write
anything that would discredit King John II or the descendants of
Castanheira who were very powerful and who were living in the
Azores at the time.(18)  Perhaps all these factors account for
Frutuoso's silence on the subject of Columbus in the Azores. 
Perhaps not.  Still, he was the earliest of the insular chroni-
clers and the nearest in time to Columbus, and as such, one would
naturally have expected him to mention the Columbus episode in
his book.  As for the other chroniclers of the Azores who came
after him, such as Antonio Cordeiro (18th century) and Agostinho
de Monte Alverne (19th century), they can be dismissed as mere
plagiarizers of Frutuoso.
     But have the people of Santa Maria forgotten Columbus?  By
no means.  On August 3, 1892, exactly 400 years later and at the
same hour that Columbus was supposed to have departed from the
port of Palos on his first voyage to America, an official ceremo-
ny was held on the island of Santa Maria, marking the 400th
anniversary of that memorable voyage.(19)
     And according to newspaper accounts, on February 19, 1992,
500 years later, Columbus's forced visit to Santa Maria will be
celebrated by a solemn high Mass.  This will be followed by a
theatrical representation of Columbus's arrival and the unveiling
of a statue to him.  Also included in the projected program of
activities are the acquisition and remodeling of a building next
to the Chapel of the Angels, where Columbus's men went ashore to
pray, which will serve as a Columbus museum.  All this, in
addition to the installation of an exposition relating to the
theme "The Azores and the Discoveries."  Not to be overlooked is
the display of three anchors in Portugal's Naval Museum which
reputedly belonged to the "Nina," and which were found in the Bay
of the Frades (or Friars), in Santa Maria, on May 18, 1960.(20) 
All these programs and activities would seem to indicate that if
the Azoreans paid no attention to Columbus in their near contem-
poraneous accounts, they are certainly trying to make up for it
after 500 years.
 
 
Paper delivered on April 22, 1989 at UCLA's XII Annual Symposium
on Portuguese Traditions
 
 
                               NOTES
 
     (1)Joao de Barros, "Da Asia de Joao de Barros," 4 vols.
(Lisbon: Regia Officina Typografica, 1778), Decada I, Book iii,
chap. 11, 245-255; Rui de Pina, "Chronica d'El Rey D. Joao II,"
ed. M. Lopes de Almeida (Porto: Lello & Irmao, 1977), 1016-1018;
Garcia de Resende, "Vida e Feitos del Rey D. Joao II" (Coimbra:
University Press, 1798), 241-244.
 
     (2)Robert H. Fuson, ed. and trans., "The Log of Christopher
Columbus" (Camden, Maine: International Marine Publishing Compa-
ny, 1987), 187-192.
 
     (3)Ibid., 177.
 
     (4)Ernle Bradford, "Christopher Columbus" (New York: Viking
Press, 1973), 149.
     (5)Fuson, 185.
 
     (6)Fuson, 187.
 
     (7)Fuson, 188.
 
     (8)loc. cit.
 
     (9)loc. cit.
 
     (10)Fuson, 189.
 
     (11)loc. cit.
 
     (12)Fuson, 190.
 
     (13)Samuel Eliot Morison, "Admiral of the Ocean Sea" (Bos-
ton: Little, Brown and Company, 1942), 334.
 
     (14)Fuson, 191.
 
     (15)Morison, 335.
 
     (16)Jacinto Monteiro, "O episodio Colombino da ilha de Santa
Maria, nas suas implicacoes com o descobrimento da America"
(Ponta Delgada: "Diario dos Acores," 1969), 29.
 
     (17)Ibid., 22-24.
 
     (18)loc. cit.
 
     (19)Victorino Bento da Cunha, "A Ilha de Santa Maria," Janu-
ary, 1983.  (Copy of article received from the Sociedade de
Geografia de Lisboa with no indication of source.)
 
     (20)Ferreira Moreno, Staff writer.  "The Portuguese Tri-
bune."  Article entitled "Azores, Columbus and Marx," p. 24, 16
February 1989.
 
Reprint permission granted by author.