Bartolomé de las Casas in his Historia de las Indias, wrote that Columbus wrote about John II (1455-1495), the King of Portugal, who believed that there was land south of the Cape Verde Islands, furthermore, "King John had a great inclination to send men to explore the Southwest, and canoes had been found leaving the coast of Guinea, sailing west with merchandise". (p. 225)
On p. 244 de las Casas mentions that during Columbus' third voyage in 1498, on August 7, they ment natives who "brought very finely crafted and woven cotton handkerchiefs, with colors and designs like those they bring from Guinea, from the rivers of Sierra Leone, without difference, and he says that they could not communicate with those, because there are more than 800 leagues from here where he is now, to there; below he says that they look like alymayzares." The Spanish word almaizar (also almayzar, almaizal) has a Moorish origin and is applied to fine fabric such as silk, flax, and cotton, or gauze, used to manufacture headdresses, veils, or turbans.
Clearly, the natives wove fine cotton cloth if Columbus compares it with Spanish almayzares.
Columbus had visited the Gulf of Guinea and had stayed at the castle of San Jorge de la Mina in 1481, built by the Portuguese, so he must have seen the Sierra Leone cloth there (Source, p. 485).
The anonymous pilot
An interesting article by Juan José Guerra Pérez-Maffei, Cristóbal Colón y el piloto anónimo (Cristopher Columbus and the anonymous pilot) explores the story that says that "Columbus took in a dying sailor at his home in Porto Santo, in the Madeira archipelago. This sailor had made a long voyage under extreme conditions, and most of the crew had died from an epidemic. This anonymous pilot, before dying, as a gesture of gratitude, revealed his discovery to Christopher Columbus, indicating all the navigational terms he had collected on his long voyage: courses, distances, descriptions, and sketches for traveling to and from the New World. It is not known exactly whether this sailor gave him navigational charts explaining how to reach the Indies or gave him precise instructions on how to get there."
The article suggests that the pilot was a Spaniard, Pedro de Covides, who in 1478, escaping from a Portuguese attack on the coast of Africa, reached America. He met Columbus in 1482-83. It says that the white-skinned people Columbus found on Hispaniola in 1492 were the outcome of intercourse between the sailors of the 1478 ship and the locals (Columbus described the people he met on Hispaniola as follows (Source): "their skins are whiter than the others. They saw two girls whose skins were as white as any that could be seen in Spain" (p. 109) and "They are fairly white, and if they were clothed and protected from the sun and air, they would be almost as fair as people in Spain. " (p. 113).
The "Madeira" story was also reported, with a different date and nationality, back in 1899 by Ellen M. Taylor: "...Perestrello whose third daughter Filippa married the great Christopher Columbus who had settled at Porto Santo shortly after its discovery and earned a living there by drawing maritime charts. Christopher Columbus afterwards came over to Madeira and lived in Funchal. Even at that time vessels of different nationalities called at the island and Columbus's charts were in great demand. Old writers suppose that it was he who first introduced the Madeira group into existing maps. Fructuoso writes that in 1486 a Biscayan vessel arrived at Funchal much battered by storms and the crew utterly worn out and famished. Columbus gave shelter and food to these men but weakened by their sufferings they all died and their pilot as a token of gratitude bequeathed to Columbus all their papers and charts with valuable matter for thought and enterprise in the hoped for discoveries of the Western Ocean..." (Source - see p. 163).
But the tale is even older; de Oviedo in the first volume of his Historia General y Natural de las Indias Chap. II wrote the following version of the story, in 1535:
"Some say that a caravel that was passing from Spain to England loaded with merchandise and provisions, as well as wines and other things that are usually loaded for that island, which it lacks and is in need of, happened to encounter such forceful and adverse times, that it was necessary to sail west for so many days that it explored one or more of the islands of these parts and the Indies; and it came ashore, and saw naked people, in the way that there are here; and that when the winds, which against its will brought it here, had ceased, it took water and firewood to return to its original course. They say more: that the majority of the cargo this ship carried consisted of provisions, food, and wine; and that thus they had enough to sustain themselves on such a long and arduous voyage; and that afterward, the time came for its purpose, and it turned back, and such favorable navigation followed that it returned to Europe and went to Portugal. But since the voyage was so long and arduous, and especially for those who undertook it with such fear and danger, however swift its voyage, it would have taken them four or five months, or perhaps more, to come here and return to where I have said. And during this time almost all the people on the ship died, and only the pilot and three or four, or perhaps a few more, of the sailors left Portugal, and all of them were so ill that they died a few days after arriving.
It is said, along with this, that this pilot was a very close friend of Christopher Columbus, and that he understood something about the skies; and he marked the land he found in the manner described, and in great secrecy informed Columbus of this, and begged him to draw him a chart and mark on it the land he had seen. It is said that Columbus took him into his home, as a friend, and nursed him back to health, because he too was very ill; but that he too died like the others, and that thus Columbus was informed of the land and navigation of these parts, and this secret was kept secret only by him. Some say that this master or pilot was Andalusian; others say he was Portuguese; others Basque; others say that Columbus was then on the island of Madeira, and others say that he was on the Cape Verde Islands, and that the caravel I mentioned landed there, and that he thus learned of this land."
Francisco López de Gomara in his work Historia General de las Indias (p. 37), published in 1552, repeats the account:
"The First Discovery of the Indies.
A caravel sailing across our Ocean Sea encountered such a strong and constant easterly wind that it ran aground on a land unknown and unmarked on any map or nautical chart. It took many more days to return; and when it arrived here, it had only the pilot and three or four other sailors, who, being sick from hunger and exhaustion, died shortly afterward in the port. Here is how the Indies were discovered, to the misfortune of the one who first saw them, for he ended his life without enjoying them and without leaving, at least, any memory of his name, his place of origin, or the year he found them. Although it was not his fault, but the malice of others or the envy of what they call fortune. And I am not surprised by ancient histories that recount great deeds from small or obscure beginnings, for we do not know who recently discovered the Indies, which is such a remarkable and new thing. We will at least have the name of that pilot, for all things perish with death. Some say this pilot was Andalusian, trading in the Canary Islands and Madeira when that long and deadly voyage befell him; others say he was Basque, trading in England and France; and still others say he was Portuguese, traveling to or from the Middle East or India, which fits well with the name those new lands took and still bear. There are also those who say he brought the caravel to Portugal, and those who say to Madeira or one of the other Azores islands; however, no one is certain. They all agree, however, that this pilot died at Christopher Columbus's house, in whose possession remained the caravel's registration documents and the account of that entire long voyage, including the marks and latitudes of the newly sighted and discovered lands."
We will never know if these stories are true or not, or if they were made up later to later to deny Columbus priority in the discovery of the New World.
Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2025 by Austin Whittall ©
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