In the first decades of European exploration and settlement in the Americas following Columbus's first voyage, European knowledge of and imprint on the Caribbean islands and the nearby mainland gradually became apparent.  If we look at the maps, it may seem as though the process was straight-line progress and clear.  If we read the major sources, especially the early writings of Columbus, we see it as a series of triumphant advances.  In reality, it was a slow process, a piecemeal operation in which eyewitnesses could not always agree on what they had found. 

            Columbus was always assertive about what he had found, even when his star dimmed after a series of major failures.  He assumed the land was Asia, in some part inexplicably not described by Marco Polo and the other sources of Asian lore and geography on which he relied.  His aim was carefully to locate the lands he found on the expanding map of European understanding. The most ludicrous episode unfolded on the second voyage, when Columbus had his men swear that the Cuban coastline that they had been following for weeks was part of China.¹  He went to his grave asserting that he had reached Asia and never made a public pronouncement to the contrary.

            Others had a better idea of what they had found. Luckily, we have a set of eyewitness accounts that serve a dual purpose:  by showing how the shorelines were mapped and domesticated and by revealing how long it was before full agreement about what had been explored came to permeate educated opinion in Europe.  The accounts are in the form of depositions in a series of lawsuits pitting the descendants of Columbus against the Castilian crown.  At stake was a definition of what Columbus found and what others had reached.  The details of the court cases need not detain us.  The main ones between the family and the crown stretched on until the middle of the sixteenth century, and subsequent litigation among various members of the Columbus family lasted into the eighteenth century.²

            In 1512-15 and again in 1535, over two hundred witnesses offered testimony about their own experiences and what they had observed.  They included people who had participated in the events of the Columbian voyages, those who had heard about the events from the participants, those who had witnessed the beginning or the end of the voyages, and others who had made different, non-Columbian voyages to the Americas.  Each side selected its own team of witnesses and devised sets of questions that would, they hoped, elicit the desired answers.  Witnesses could only answer the questions put to them, and their responses are of varying usefulness.  In the most limited cases, the witnesses simply agreed to what a question asked, but, in other cases, they elaborated on what they had experienced, giving us good information.  An additional complication is that, in most cases, we even lack the exact words of the witnesses, for the recording secretaries usually paraphrased what the witnesses said in a third-person narrative.  For example, "To this question, the witness saidÄ." 

            To interpret these sources, a complete immersion in postmodern criticism is not necessary.  A mere dip shows what the best historians have always known:  that the sources cannot command total trust as accurate depictions of the events of the past but must be seen as representations of reality, based on the imperfect tools of perception, memory, and point of view.  Even with these limitations, we can see a slowly developing picture of the lands and shores the witnesses had seen and in some cases settled in the Caribbean and on the mainland of the Americas.  We can read details of the lives of the witnesses and the people they encountered in the Americas.  We can also observe the ceremonies the Spaniards used as they claimed possession of the lands they reached. 

            The mariners who explored the coastlines of the islands and mainland were used to lives in which spatial mobility was a normal part of existence.  Columbus himself had sailed extensively in the Mediterranean before he went to Portugal in his twenties.  From then until 1492, he made numerous Atlantic voyages northward to the British Isles and perhaps Iceland and southward, calling at the major islands and along the African coast nearly as far down as the equator.  He was not alone in his frequent long-distance voyaging.  MartÍn Alonso Pinz„n, Columbus's chief lieutenant on the first voyage, was a skilled mariner and ship owner who had sailed throughout the western Mediterranean before 1492.  Numerous witnesses testified in this vein, including Hernˆn Pþrez Mateos, a cousin of MartÍn Alonso, who was in Galicia to witness his cousin's return from the first voyage.³  Juan MartÍn Pinz„n, son of MartÍn Alonso, was in Palos when his father returned, left almost immediately for a trip to Madeira, and came back to find his father dead.⁴  Also present to witness that return was Arias Pþrez Pinz„n, another son, who had witnessed the ships leave Palos for the first voyage and was back in Galicia after a trip to Flanders, when Pinz„n's ship put in to Bayona.⁵  Rodrigo Alvarez, a citizen of Palos and a crewmember in the initial phase of Columbus's third voyage, fell ill and went ashore on the Portuguese-held Cape Verde islands.  He recovered and made it back to Spain on his own by the time Columbus himself returned.⁶   As they related their sometimes peripheral contact with the stirring events of the first phase of trans-Atlantic exploration, we can even extract personal details from the statements of the witnesses.  Pedro Ortiz saw the ships return from the first voyage as he was fishing between Spain and Morocco.  They stopped to talk to him and to show him the Indians they brought with them.  Ortiz testified that he would have gone on the first voyage himself, but for the opposition of his father-in-law.  It was probably a lucky thing for him, for many of those who left never returned but perished on Espa¿ola.  As it was, Ortiz lived a long life and was over seventy-five years of age when he testified in 1535.⁷  Gonzalo Alonso Galeote also missed the first voyage, in his case due to illness, but went on the second voyage.  He seems to have been predisposed to exploration, for he testified that his father earlier had traveled far out into the Atlantic but failed to find land.⁸

            A champion first-hand witness was Diego Mþndez. He was in the town of Santa Fe, the royal camp during the final siege of Granada, when Columbus negotiated the contract for the first voyage with the Spanish monarchs, and he later witnessed their reception of Columbus in Barcelona after his return from the first voyage.  Mþndez was chief secretary for the fourth voyage, which ended in Jamaica when Columbus beached his two remaining vessels before they sank.  Mþndez led a desperate canoe trip to Espa¿ola to report the admiral's plight and to arrange rescue.  He later sailed all the coast of northern South America and while in Cuba he witnessed the departure of the three crucial expeditions to Mexico, those of Grijalva, Cortþs, and Narvaþz.  Testifying in Madrid in 1535, he gave his age as about sixty and reported that he was citizen of Santo Domingo.⁹  Mþndez was not alone in keeping up the tradition of mobility after 1492.  Brother Francisco de Bobadilla, of the order of Our Lady of Mercy, testified at the same time as Mþndez that he had been on the coast of northern South America and as far north as Nicaragua for some fourteen years.¹⁰  Also testifying at the same time was Juan L„pez de Archuleta, who had been on the same coast for some twenty years as a mariner and navigator.  He learned even more from his father-in-law, Diego de Porras, who had been on Columbus's fourth voyage.  He had seen all the relevant maps and descriptions, including those made by Columbus.  Equally important, he had talked with mariners who had sailed the western coast of South America as far as the Strait of Magellan and, accordingly, could testify that there was but one mainland.¹¹

            This was a crucial piece of testimony, for the key to the dispute between the crown and the Columbus family revolved around a central question.  Had Columbus, as the crown's attorneys contended, found and claimed only discrete parts of the territories in Central and South America?  Should Columbus, regardless of how many times and in how many places he touched the mainland, receive credit for discovery of the entire landmass?  As the lawyers for the Columbus family maintained, was there only one mainland, from the strait of Magellan, up both coasts of South America, through Central America, and on to Florida and the land of the cods, in today's Atlantic maritime Canada?¹²

            There was some lack of agreement about this, even as late as the mid-1530s.  For our present purposes, it is a little beside the point, for in the depositions that each side presented, we can see details about how navigation was done.  It is clear from other sources that Columbus and his fellow navigators used the compass, quadrants, and dead-reckoning to find their way.  Witnesses in the lawsuits testified that Columbus used a quadrant and made a sphere and detailed maritime charts as he proceeded.¹³  Columbus later gave his nautical charts to Juan de la Cosa, who copied them and used them for his own voyages.¹⁴  

            In their ventures into unknown waters, they employed other methods that proved effective.  Shortly before landfall on the first voyage, they noted land birds flying over and assumed that they were close to land.¹⁵  The European navigators and pilots also received the aid of native informants.  It is clear that Columbus and MartÍn Alonso Pinz„n, who parted company soon after the first landing on San Salvador, made use of what they gathered from Indian informants as they traveled through the islands before meeting again in the waters north of Espa¿ola.  Alonso Ojeda [sometimes spelled Hojeda], who later made voyages of his own to South America, testified that he had received information from an Indian who told him about lands to the south of Espa¿ola.  Ojeda passed that information on to Columbus, who, on the third voyage, went by a southerly route and encountered the island of Trinidad and the nearby South American mainland.¹⁶ 

            Indian informants also allowed the Europeans to know whether they were the first to reach certain islands or locations on the mainland.  Ant„n GarcÍa testified that when he visited South America south of the Orinoco in company with Diego de Lepe and others, they believed that "before this neither the admiral nor anyone else had arrived there because the Indians had no memory of having seen Christians and they were astounded at what they saw."¹⁷  Diego de Morales offered a similar explanation about what happened when he traveled with Ojeda along the South American coast west of the Paria peninsula.  "Asked how he knows that no Christian had gone there before, he said that they asked the Indians of those lands, who said no Christian had arrived there."¹⁸  Pedro de Toledo, presented as one of the witnesses selected by the Columbus family, said that when he traveled on a later voyage to the Paria peninsula the ship's captain and pilot and "the Indians who were of the land [and] who traveled with them" told him Paria was on the mainland and that there was only one coast.¹⁹  Juan Ferr„n de Posada testified to the same effect, because "the Indians of that land said it."²⁰

            Obviously, Europeans and Indians were communicating from an early stage.  In Las Casas's redaction of Columbus's log of the first voyage, it is apparent that the Spaniards are learning the Indians' languages just as the Indians learned some Spanish.  Columbus himself seems to have had a tin ear for native languages.  Like the Portuguese as they went down the African coast, the Spaniards obtained native interpreters, often by force.  During the first voyage, Columbus seems not to have learned to speak with the Indians, but others among his crew did so.  In all the voyages, Columbus and the captains of other expeditions used interpreters that they exchanged as they went along.  For example, on the fourth voyage, as they approached the Central American coast, an Indian interpreter told them an island contained gold, but they declined to land on it due to the surrounding shallow waters.²¹  By the time of the fourth voyage, when Columbus's expedition reached Veragua, one witness, obviously understanding the local language, reported "that he heard how the Indians asked the Christians if they had come from heaven and that this witness asked the Indians if they had seen other Christians and people of his sort and they said no."²²

            The lawsuits offer us some fascinating glimpses into the encounters between the Europeans and the Indians.  In 1512 the Spanish crown issued orders that the Requerimiento be read to the indigenous people as part of the ceremonies of possession.²³  By then, Columbus had been dead for six years, and all the testimony of the witnesses in these cases relates to earlier events and early ceremonies, which turn out to be surprisingly varied. 

            During the third voyage, the expedition reached the Paria peninsula, and Columbus "ordered the people who came in the ships to go ashore, and this witness was one of them, and he took possession of the province of Paria for the king and queen our lords, and they put a great cross planted in the ground. . . ."²⁴  Miguel de Toro reported that when he traveled with Ojeda in 1499 to Paria, "they found signs on it, from which they believed that the admiral had already arrived there because they found crosses set up and by the speech of the Indians, who named the admiral. . . ."²⁵  On his voyage of 1499-1500 Vicente Yˆ¿ez Pinz„n sailed from the Cape Verde Islands and reached the northeast coast of Brazil, naming part of the area Rostro Hermoso.  GarcÍa Fernˆndez, a physician of Palos was present on the expedition and described it in this way:  Vicente Yˆ¿ez "went ashore with a number of his people and four squires from each one of her highness's ships and he and his people cut trees and drank water in order to attest to her highness and as a sign of possession they made some crosses and gave the name Rostro Hermoso to where they went the day that land was discovered."²⁶  Another participant, Diego Fernˆndez Colmenero, reported that "Vicente Yˆ¿ez and this witness took possession of the land for their highnesses and cut many branches and in principal places they made crosses as a sign of taking possession of the land and put other wooden crosses there."²⁷   Diego de Lepe took another expedition to South America in 1499 and held a ceremony of possession somewhere in the vicinity of the mouth of the Amazon.  Pedro Medel was present and described the event.  "As a sign of his taking possession, [Lepe] cut trees and made crosses from some of the larger trees, all for the king and queen of Castile."²⁸

            Upon reaching Veragua on the Central American coast during his fourth voyage, "the admiral took possession of that land in the name of the king and queen our lords and with banners and trumpets."²⁹  The eyewitness Hernˆn Gutiþrrez de Gibaja agreed and said that all along the coast during the voyage "he saw the admiral plant flags in these places for the king and queen of Castile. . . ."³⁰  Diego Mþndez offered more details and reported that "when the armada reached the place called the point of Caxinas, which is to the east of the islands of the Guanajes, near the cape of Honduras, don Crist„bal Col„n ordered his brother the adelantado don Bartolomþ Col„n to go ashore with the royal standard of Castile and to claim all those lands for their majesties, and that the adelantado with the flag and the people who left with him cut tree branches and dug in the ground with a spade to claim it all for their majesties and he commanded this witness, who was present, that, as chief scribe of the armada, he should tell it as testimony and that he record it in this way in his registers, and that is what he did."³¹  Another witness, Gonzalo Camacho, was less precise in his testimony but nonetheless added important details.  "[H]e is not very sure on which spot of land [Bartolomþ Col„n] took possession of it because so much time has passed, but this witness remembers that it was on the mainland that admiral don Crist„bal Col„n discovered, and he also remembers that when he claimed the land, don Bartolomþ Col„n performed many acts such as digging the land and cutting the branches of the trees with his own sword, saying that he was claiming it in the name of their highnesses the Catholic monarchs don Fernando and do¿a Isabel. . . ."³²  Another witness testified that he was present on the same voyage and "went ashore and helped make the crosses. . . ."³³  Juan de Quexo watched the crosses being made and added a fascinating detail in his testimony.  "With the sails of the ships they made awnings in the form of a church and mass was said by a Franciscan friar who was there, and by Juan Martinelo, a clergyman from [Palos] who went on that armada. . . ."³⁴

            Not all was pleasant, and indigenous suspicion developed into hostility as Columbus's expedition coasted through Central America.  Two witnesses reported similar actions by Indians who encountered Europeans for the first time.  Ramiro RamÍrez recounted what happened on the Central American coast during the fourth voyage.  "[T]he Indians left two young women on the beach and the admiral had them put on board a ship and he caused them to be dressed and given shoes and he ordered them returned to where they had been left and he did not allow any injury to be done to them, and the Indians returned for them and undressed them and left what had been given them and they took them away and . . . they smelled the clothing of the Christians and marveled to see the Christians. . . ."³⁵  Testifying at the same time as RamÍrez, Hernando Pacheco testified about a similar event during the second voyage, when Columbus's men landed on the Paria peninsula.  "[A]s the boat reached shore this witness saw how the Indians of the province marveled and came to the boat and smelled it. . . ."³⁶

            Obviously, not all was peaceful between the native peoples and the newcomers.  Several witnesses testified to violence on both sides.  Pedro de Tudela responded to this question:  "if they know . . . that . . . the admiral . . . found and discovered an island . . . called Guanasa, where the Indians brought a great present to the admiral and the adelantado his brother in his name, who went ashore, and a canoe was taken with many things and people, among whom was taken one named Ynubera to who was given the name Juan Pþrez."  Tudela responded the had later heard from the participants "that the Indians hurt and wounded and killed some Christians. . . ."³⁷  Later during the same voyage, Columbus and his brother Bartolomþ built a town in the river of Veragua.

            Settlement along the Central American coast was a slow process long after Columbus left, not least because of the hostility of the local populations.  Nonetheless, in those first four decades, mariners were gaining geographical knowledge of the shape of the coastline and transmitting it back to Spain, where cartographers and geographers working for the Spanish crown assembled it into a coherent picture of the newly explored lands.  Both groups, explorers and mapmakers, made their contributions as they testified in the Columbian lawsuits. 

            Testifying in Madrid in 1535, Juan L„pez de Archuleta said that he had been on most of the Caribbean coast of South America and Central America and, as a pilot, knew the area well.  He also was well informed about the actions of Columbus when he explored the region, due to earlier conversations with his father-in-law Diego de Porras, who had accompanied Columbus.  Porras told L„pez de Archuleta that Columbus kept a book in which data was entered "for every province or island [indicating] at what latitude and course it was on. . . ." He was convinced that there was only one major and connected landmass in the Americas, because "that is how he has seen it represented on the nautical charts where this witness has navigated as the mariner that he is."  He trusted the "many navigational charts that he has in his possession, which were approved by his majesty's chief pilots, and [said] that he believed that if the maps with which they sailed were not approved, they would not have been used." ³⁹  Those books and charts of Columbus were the products of Diego Mþndez, whom we already have seen as chief scribe of the fleet.  In his testimony, Mþndez said that he "wrote down everything for [Columbus] and . . . recorded in his register the names of the provinces and ports."  Thereafter, Mþndez traveled widely in the Atlantic and the Pacific and could attest that the mainland ran from Panama down through Peru to the Strait of Magellan.  He testified that he was certain of his knowledge for several reasons:   that he "has traveled and sailed along this coast. . . , that is how he has seen in all the nautical charts by which the pilots and mariners navigate, and . . . [that] he has heard it as public and well known from many people who have been along that coast. . . ."⁴⁰

            In Seville later in 1535, two well placed witnesses revealed how the geographical knowledge submitted by the mariners was coordinated back in Spain.  At that time, Sebastiˆn Caboto (familiar in English-language studies as Sebastian Cabot, son of John Cabot) was a captain and chief pilot of the crown. As for the explorations as a whole, Caboto had "seen that all these lands or the majority of them are represented on nautical charts and there are many charts which differ from one another and the licenciate Suˆrez de Carvajal, judge of the Council of the Indies, now located in this city, has ordered that all the nautical charts be collected and that one master map be made for navigation. . . ."⁴¹  Testifying at the same time as Cabot, the twenty-nine-year-old Alonso de Santa Cruz said that he was a cosmographer working with Suˆrez de Carvajal on research for the compilation of "the true master map of the navigation of all these lands."⁴²

            It was necessary to have a standard compilation to spread knowledge of the coasts.  As late as 1513, an experienced royal pilot, Pedro de Ledesma, could still admit uncertainty about whether America was part of Asia.  "[T]his witness went with don Crist„bal Col„n when he made the [second] voyage. . ., and . . . he went as his pilot, and this witness saw that don Crist„bal Col„n did not discover [extensively] on the mainland that people say is Asia. . . ."⁴³

            Even in 1535 Sebastiˆn Caboto could not say for certain whether North America was a single landmass.  His testimony about Columbus's first explorations reveals both his erudition and lingering doubt about the place of the Caribbean in the history of world geography.  "Solinus, a [classical] cosmographer and historian, says that from the Fortunate Isles, which are [now] called the Canary Islands, sailing westward for thirty days, there were some islands that were named the Hesperides, and that this witness assumes that those Hesperides islands are the islands that were discovered in the time of the Catholic monarchs . . . [by] don Crist„bal Col„n. . . ."⁴⁴

            Geographical certainty aside, by 1536 there had been hundreds of Spanish voyages across the Atlantic to the Caribbean islands and the Americas.  Thousands of Europeans were settling towns and villages from Espa¿ola and Cuba to Mexico and Peru.  In the lawsuits, about a third of the witnesses identified themselves as citizens or residents of the new colonial towns.  By then, too, the African slave trade had begun.  We find no echo of it in the Columbian lawsuits, though we do see numerous references to Indians captured, enslaved, and set to Spain, despite royal prohibitions.  Among the testators was a man of African origin who may be the first African to accompany the Europeans to the Americas.  He was Juan Portuguþs, who testified that he was a (presumably) free servant of Columbus and that he accompanied him on the first voyage, went back to Spain at some point, and returned to settle on the island of Antigua.⁴⁵

            From the testimony of these witnesses, we can see the earliest beginnings of the incorporation of the Americas into the themes of this conference.  Europeans became familiar with the American seascapes as they visited and mapped the coastlines.  Littoral cultures formed as trans-oceanic exchanges began and multiplied.