Christopher Columbus and Porto Santo

“Porto Santo, the golden island. This is paradise in paradise”

Porto Santo is a small island, 15 km long and barely 5 km wide. Anchored in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, it has been a possession of Portugal since 1418. 

Neighboring Madeira Island, on which Porto Santo politically depends, is almost twenty times bigger and more humid.

When the European settlers arrived, Madeira was covered by dense forests which were rapidly eliminated to make room for sugar cane plantations. It is said that the forests of Madeira were burned by the newly arrived people in a large fire that lasted for seven years.

The island of Porto Santo is very different. Its climate is semiarid and the vegetation is composed of grasses, bushes and only a few trees.

For this reason, it was not possible to plant cane or to burn forests, as in the nearby larger island. The only activities that brought some benefit were fishing, cattle raising and the harvest of a few crops, such as wheat, barley and vineyards.

From the start, it was a poor settlement; just a stepping stone for passing ships. Its population never exceeded a few hundred inhabitants.

Since the early fifteenth century, the Portuguese had established a small colony, appointing as hereditary governor its discoverer, the Genoese Mr. Bartolome Perestrelo.

Perestrelo was one of many Italian immigrants who had gone to Portugal to make his fortune during that epoch of Lusitan expansionism.

His first attempt to colonize the island in 1454 failed when rabbits, an introduced species, reproduced beyond control wreaking ecological havoc. Some years later, with the rabbit problem partially solved, Perestrello managed to establish a permanent colony on the island.

Twenty years later one of his daughters met another Genoese immigrant, named Christopher Columbus, and married him. The married couple settled in Porto Santo in 1478, remaining there until 1484, when Doña Filipa died at the early age of 33. Christopher Columbus became a widower with a young son and at that time decided to move back to Portugal on a significant mission.

According to Luis Coin and John Dyson who researched some poorly known aspects about the life of the Genoese sailor, Columbus’ stay in Porto Santo provided critical leads about the extent of the Western Ocean and the existence of accessible new lands beyond. In all likelihood it was there that he received the information that would persuade him to attempt his transoceanic voyage.

"One early morning during the mild Winter of Porto Santo, when the Western winds predominate. an early vessel appeared on the horizon coming from the Ocean beyond Madeira.

It was a lonely ship in a deplorable state. Its masts were tied with ropes, its sails patched, and the boards profoundly attacked by broma and falling apart.

It did not carry any flag that could identify its country of origin. Finally, the few remaining crew members managed to dock their ship at the island port under the gaze of curious local inhabitants, among whom was Columbus himself. In their ragged clothes the seamen looked dirty, miserable and emaciated. They were thirsty and hungry.

Once their thirst was quenched and they were fed and rested, they told their story. Columbus listened attentively.

They had sailed from Cadiz six months ago towards the Canary Islands. They did not reach their destination because a storm destroyed their sails and masts, setting them adrift for over two weeks. After a while they managed to repair their masts and sails, as best they could, but remained at the mercy of the Eastern winds for several days. Finally, when they were feeling most hopeless, an island appeared on the horizon. They managed to approach it and disembark.

The island was part of a larger archipelago and inhabited by native people who treated them in a very friendly manner.

After a one month stay, and for reasons they did not know, they were attacked and forced to escape. Only eight succeeded in reaching the boat. The captain and thirty-five men remained behind. After realizing that nothing could be done to rescue them they decided to raise anchor and leave.

The leader of the crew, who was visibly ill, explained that all directions and latitudes had been carefully registered, and that, according to their estimates they had gone East for at least 400 leagues, proving that these Western lands were quite accessible. Everything had been recorded on a map which Columbus examined and copied carefully.

A few days later the leader died in Columbus home.

The rest of the crew remained for several days on the island until their ship was repaired. To make up for their lodging and other expenses they paid with some gold and copper ornaments received as gifts from the natives of the Western Island. Finally they left.

We do not know if the information about the Western lands reached Columbus through an earlier expedition which had been pushed westward by storms and returned (as described in the previous text) or through a different channel.

Francisco López de Gómara in his “Historia General de las Indias” (General History of the Indies), reproduced by Geronimo Benzoni in the “History of the New World” (Historia del Nuevo Mundo) explained that:

“a pilot traversed our Ocean Sea with an Easterly blowing wind, he was surprised by a large tempest which forced him... westward. He was driven to unknown lands which cannot be found on the navigation maps. Once returned to Spain with only 3 or 4 sailors, he died in the port as a result of the discomfort, distress, hunger and thirst that he had suffered on such an unusual trip, without leaving either name, or any memory of himself or of his land of origin.”

Neither his nationality nor his destination are known for sure. “They only agree that he died in Christopher Columbus house, leaving documents indicating the location of the recently discovered land.” 

A similar assertion was stated by an Irish Friar, Bernardo Boyle, who returning from the West "felt it his duty in the name of God's truth to expose the humbug." According to Boyle, Columbus made "a false claim of discovery at the outset, for he quoted the natives of Española as saying that Columbus and his crew in 1492 were not the first white and bearded men they had seen, but that others had arrived at their island a few years earlier.".

From "Amerrique, Orphans of Paradise", Danilo Antón, Piriguazú Ediciones.