Good Monday morning Fellow Seekers,

Martin Luther King and Christopher Columbus are the only individuals with official U.S. federal holidays named for them. Today (which is Columbus Day and the excuse for this post) is the only one named for a man who never clapped eyes on the North America, and whose actions toward the natives he encountered in the islands off the Americas, in modern eyes, must be called atrocities.

In 1992, for the quincentennial of Columbus’ journey, I wrote an overview of Columbus’ life for the Strib based on the then-latest books on the topic. I rely on that research for this post and gratefully acknowledge my former employer for giving me those kinds of assignments for so many years. What follows are some of the most surprising, interesting, horrifying and fun-to-know-and-tell facts about the man we call Christopher Columbus. For example:

He never called himself that. “Christopher Columbus” is a Latinization of his name that came into use after he was gone. As a lad in the city-state of Genoa, it was the Italian version, Cristoforo Colombo. In  Portugal where he spent his young adulthood unsuccessfully seeking backing for a mission to find the shortcut to Asia, it was Cristovao Colombo. In Spain, where he got the backing and became rich, famous and crazy, it was Cristobal Colon.

Late in life when he did many things that make him look pretty, umm, eccentric to 21st century eyes,  he signed himself  Xpo ferens, a combination of Greek and Latin that translates as “Christ bearer,” based on his belief that God had chosen him to carry Christianity across the ocean. (Notwithstanding his atrocities toward the natives he encountered, he was nominated and considered for Catholic sainthood in the 19th century, but he didn’t make the cut, in large part, apparently, because he fathered an illegitimate child.)

Yes, Columbus said the world was round. But contrary to the Gershwin lyrics, they didn’t all laugh at him when he said it. By the 15th century, educated people and experienced sailors knew the world was round. Therefore it was theoretically possible to get to Asia by going west from Europe. The question was how far you would have to go.

Columbus believed that the round Earth was small — so small that east-west sea travel between Europe and Asia would be the most economical commercial route. If they all laughed at Christopher Columbus when he said the Earth was small, they were right because he was wrong. It is possible to get from Europe to Asia by sailing west, but it’s not the smart way to go.

Before Columbus died, Vasco da Gama, sailing for the Portuguese crown that had rejected Columbus’ idea, established that the best sea route to Asia was to sail around the bottom of Africa.

Columbus crossed the Atlantic four times, started a colony, sailed around the neighborhood looking for Japan, and (almost) always asserted that what he had reached was Asia.

The Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria departed from Spain, on Aug. 3, 1492, with a crew of 90 men. The Santa Maria, the largest of the  three was about the size of a tennis court. Whatever else you think about Columbus, it took guts to sail straight west for more than two months on a theory.

On Oct. 12, 1492, a crewman sighted a Bahamian island. Columbus went ashore, planted a flag, constructed a cross, uttered some phrases and, in the eyes of European law, the  island in question was owned by Spain, notwithstanding the presence of a nation of Taino Indians. Columbus’ first impression what that that they were a sweet-natured, generous,  peace-loving people who would be easy to convert to Christianity and  would make excellent slaves.

The Taino population soon became extinct, mostly because their immune systems were powerless  against diseases that the Europeans brought with  them. This pattern would be repeated across the Americas with the vast  majority of the pre-Columbian population dying, mostly from exposure to European  diseases.

Although Columbus never acknowledged that he might have found something other than a profitable trade route to Asia, he must have suspected as much because he soon hatched an alternative scheme of colonizing the islands and extracting  gold, silver, spices or other plants, and slaves that could be carried back to Spain and sold.

After sailing around the neighborhood for three months, exploring six islands, and losing the Santa Maria, Columbus, the remains of his crew, his cargo and new slaves, made the trip home (which turned out to be a much tougher crossing) and limped into Spain, seven months after their departure, to a hero’s welcome.

Thrilled with his report of the opportunity for profits and new Christians, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella granted him the titles and prizes he had been  promised and approved a much larger fleet of 17 ships with more than 1,200 passengers to go back, found a colony and continue the explorations.

During the second mission, while sailing along the southern coast of Cuba, Columbus decided  that Cuba was not an island but a peninsula of the Asian mainland. It’s a big island, true, but, in one of those aforementioned eccentric acts of his life, Columbus required all those with him to take an oath that any of them who ever said this wasn’t the mainland, would be fined, whipped and have his tongue cut out.

Columbus stayed in the Americas two years on the second journey, exploring more islands and establishing himself as an unpopular colonial governor whose leadership led to mutinies and rebellions.

By far the most tragic events were the cruelties inflicted on the Indians and the tone they set for the  centuries of European-Indian relations to follow.

The single nastiest blot on the Columbus record, in my reading, was an unspeakably cruel policy instituted in 1495 by Columbus and his two brothers (who had come along to help him govern the colony) to incentivize native cooperation in the search for gold. (Warning: The paragraph just ahead is exceptionally grisly and disturbing.)

Every Taino was ordered to supply a  small quantity of gold every calendar quarter.  Those who fulfilled their quota would be given a token as proof. But  an Indian caught without a token would have his hands cut off and be  left to bleed to death.

In 1496, Columbus sailed back to Spain to report to the king and queen, whose enthusiasm had cooled but who authorized a third, smaller mission of six ships that departed in May of 1498.

During the third mission, Columbus reached the real mainland off the coast of what we now call Venezuela. A week later he wrote: ”I have come to believe that this  is a mighty continent which was hitherto unknown.” But Columbus, who had become extremely religious, dressing as a monk at times, developed a theory that he was near the “terrestrial paradise” described in the Bible where Adam and Eve had lived.

Back at the main colony on the island of Hispaniola (the island that comprises Haiti and the Dominican Republic) Columbus found that mutineers had allied with the Indians against his brothers. When a royal inspector, sent by Ferdinand and Isabella, arrived to investigate, he arrested the Columbus  brothers and carried them all, including Cristobal, to Spain in irons.

Back in Spain, Ferdinand and Isabella concluded that Columbus was a good sailor but a disastrous colonial governor. They therefore tried to reward his services while keeping him away the colony (although the original contract had provided for him to govern the colony he founded). They  agreed to sponsor one more small Columbian voyage of exploration (just four ships this time) in 1502 on condition  that Columbus stay off of Hispaniola.

On mission four, Columbus explored the coast of modern-day Honduras and Panama, lost two of his four ships, and was shipwrecked for a year on Jamaica where he faced a  mutiny from his own men and deteriorating relations with the natives. Ships dispatched from Hispaniola rescued Columbus from Jamaica and carried him back to the Spain for the last time in 1504.

In a letter from Jamaica to the Spanish monarchs, Columbus told how a voice had revealed that he was chosen by God to bring Christianity to the  Indies. Columbus volunteered to lead the Christian reconquest of  Jerusalem, as a prerequisite  to the second coming of Christ.

But the monarchs were through with him. He spent his last years, demanding full reinstatement of the rights that had been  promised him in 1492, including the right to govern the lands Spain had gained from his exploration. King Ferdinand wisely declined to let Columbus have anything further to do with Spain’s burgeoning Caribbean empire.

Contrary to the legend that Columbus died poor and forgotten, the monarchs had actually kept enough of their promises to him to make him wealthy. And he was famous, but sick and pretty crazy. Embittered by slights unavenged and promises unfulfilled, he died in 1506.