BEHIND THE MYTH, BEYOND THE LEGEND, CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, DISCOVERER OF AMERICA, WAS PORTUGUESE!
By Carlos Calado President of Friends of Cuba, Alentejo, Portugal
February 2nd, 2005

HERO OF SPAIN
Because the genoese theory was proved to be false, many other hypothesis have grown and we may find articles trying to claim that the seafarer was born in places as different as Sardinia, Calvi (Corsica), Khios (Greece) or Ibiza, Galicia, Viscaya and Catalonia in Spain

Given that Cristobal Colon became the national hero of Spain , celebrated with monuments in several cities, towns and villages, it is not a surprise the increasing and stronger efforts made by Spain to turn the contracted foreigner hero into a Spanish born citizen.

DISCOVERY CHANNEL
Paramount of these efforts is a recent TV program on Discovery Channel, where the italian theory is broken into pieces by Prof. Charles Merrill, from Mount St. Mary’s University. But a fallacious alternative is offered to the audience. “Enigma Colón: was he Italian or Spaniard?” Then, a series of arguments is thrown to influence the conclusion: Colon was, probably, a Catalan spaniard. However, none of the arguments is convincing and we may even think that there is a manipulation to some extent.

In fact, exactly the same arguments used to force that conclusion, could be used to conclude that the navigator was Portuguese. This could be a surprise to everybody except for a few portuguese authors who have spend large parts of their lives investigating the origins of Christopher Columbus or, more precisely Cristóvão Colom.

COLUMBUS” WAS PORTUGUESE
Prof. Mascarenhas Barreto and Dr. Luciano da Silva, Physician-Portuguese historian and investigator, proved that there are several other aspects of Columbus or Colom’s life and many historical documents left ignored by those who want to give him a wrong nationality.

A GREAT SWIMMER
It is usually said that Colombo arrived to  Portugal in 1476, having swam six miles to shore, after the ship he was sailing in was burned by privateers, off the Cape St. Vincent, southwest Portugal. Only a miracle could allow somebody to swim 6 miles in the cold strong waters of the Atlantic Ocean in that area and survive several hours at low temperatures. Then he had to cover the distance between Cape St. Vincent and Lisbon , which is nowadays around 250 km  by road with crossing of several long bridges. Just imagine how “easy” it was five centuries ago.

There is also no proof that Cristoforo Colombo sailed with Genoese merchants, and his name is not included in the list of crew members from the five ships that suffered the attack.

AMNESIA
Greater than a miracle is the fact that in 1474 (i.e. 2 years before), Colombo in Lisbon and the cosmographer Toscanelli in Italy were writing to each other. And their letters were not written in Italian. They were written in Latin, at the time the equivalent to the use of English nowadays, between people who do not speak the same language. Why would two Italians use Latin instead of Italian?  And for the rest of his life, Colombo never wrote or spoke in Italian, not even with his brothers. Could this mysterious amnesia to the Italian language be a result of  swimming 6 miles in cold waters?

SAILOR
By 1477, Columbus was sailing with the portuguese fleet. He sailed to Ireland and Iceland in 1477, to Madeira islands in 1478, and to West Africa between 1482 and 1485. By Royal laws, only Portuguese citizens were allowed to become crew members of the Portuguese fleet. Who could be this “Italian” Colombo to sail in the Portuguese fleet?

NOBLE MARRIAGE
In 1479, Colombo married to Felipa  Perestrelo, daughter from a noble  Portuguese family. Felipa’s father was Bartolomeu Perestrelo, navigator who discovered Madeira Islands together with partner navigator João Gonçalves Zarco. All our knowledge about marriages within the nobility should now be subject to doubt. Cristoforo Colombo, son of a poor weaver Genoese family, married to Felipa, member of the Portuguese nobility, daughter of a navigator, the most prestigious group at those times.

Unbelievable! For Drª Anunciada Colón de Carvajal, historian and descendent from the navigator, this marriage was also impossible. But Felipa was in fact, a noble, she in fact, married to Columbus . Could her husband be Cristoforo Colombo?

MOVING TO SPAIN
Felipa and Columbus had a son, Diogo, but Felipa died in January 1485 and Columbus moves to Spain , where he starts contacts with friends and relatives as he arrives to the monastery of La Rabida.  Just before Columbus’ departure from Portugal , King João II organized a meeting of experts to evaluate the navigator’s plan to reach India and Asia sailing westwards.  At the time, Portugal was the most powerful nation over the seas and had achieved several milestones progressing along the coast of Africa .

The books of history have been telling us that King João II refused support to Columbus and, for that reason, he decided to offer his plan to the Kings of Castile and Aragon. He spent seven years to convince them.  It is surprising that Columbus kept pursuing his aim of convincing the Kings of Spain during seven long years, but withdraw from his attempt with King João II of Portugal , immediately after the initial refuse.

AGENT FOR AN ENTERPRISE
For some investigators, King João II refused support because the experts concluded that it was impossible to survive the long extension of the trip. For Prof. Mascarenhas Barreto and other portuguese investigators, King João II had hidden objectives and sent Columbus as an agent to Spain in order to keep the Spanish fleet far from those objectives.

King João II wanted to ensure that the route to India, sailing around the African continent would be achieved without Spanish interference as per the Treaty of Toledo, but also wanted to modify this treaty. The Portuguese strategic way of sailing forth and back from Africa in large circles, had already offered very interesting results, and a new land was found: Brazil . However, its location was beyond the meridian division at 100 miles from Cape Verde , set by the treaty, and the Portuguese kept it secret. King João II wanted to move the division line further west. How could this be done?

The navigator Salvador Fernandes Zarco was appointed by the King to perform a strategic move in Spain . Once there, Salvador Zarco avoided to use his real identity. Queen Isabel and thus also King Fernando knew who Salvador was, as they were relatives (cousins, from same grand-grandfathers). However, Salvador convinced them  that he had moved to Spain due to his bad relation with João II and his refusal for support. Thus the reason to offer his services abroad, under a pseudonym, as Cristovão Colom.

After seven long years trying to convince the Kings of Castile and Aragon , the navigator is offered the enterprise of finding a route to India and Asia , sailing westwards. The existing treaty also defined a parallel division line at the latitude of the Canaries Islands . Above that line -for Spain , below that line -for Portugal —Alcoçovas Treaty, 1478. The Spanish fleet of three ships, Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria, under the command of Cristóvão Colom, crosses below the line (latitude of 28 degrees north),  and goes to discover several islands inside the Portuguese area for new possessions.

When they returned  to Spain after the discoveries, the ship of Cristóvão Colom diverts to Lisbon where Colom submits to his King João II a detailed report of the new lands discovered. Only after that meeting Colom proceeds to Spain , where he announces the good news and is proclaimed as an hero.

The Portuguese King looses no time to claim the territories, as they belong to the Portuguese area. He pretends to send a large fleet to make possession, until the Kings of Spain accepted another negotiated solution.  A brand new treaty was signed between Portugal and Spain , blessed by the Pope. The Treaty of Tordesillas defines a single division line for the whole world. It is a meridian at 370 miles from Cape Verde .

Spain gets the new islands discovered by Colom. It looks like Portugal gets nothing but sea…, without Spanish competition. It has taken not long until Portugal announced more progressions along the coast of Africa and arrived to India . It took not long until Portugal announced the discovery of Brazil , conveniently located before the 370 miles division line.

THE PAPAL BULLS

In the library of the Vatican City are kept some of the most important documents of the world. Amongst them, are two Papal Bulls addressed to the Kings of Spain, confirming the discovery of the New World and declaring Spanish possession. The Bulls are written in Latin. The Pope at the time was Alexander VI, an Italo-Spaniard. The first Bull is dated May 1493 and displays the name of the navigator as Christofom Colon. The second Bull, a few days  weeks later, displays the name as Christofõru (latinised form of Christofom) Colon .  (The discovery of the Papal Bulls was made by Dr. Luciano da Silva and his wife in 1992).

There is no doubt: the navigator who discovered the New World was not Cristoforo Colombo.(Italian)  Neither he was Christobal (Spanish).

COLUMBUS’ LETTERS

There are a few documents and letters from Columbus . Some were hand-written by himself, others by his personal secretary. Many others are just falsifications forged to pretend he was the Genoese.

When we look to Columbus ’ signature, we do not specifically see his name as he always used a coded form of signing: a sigla.

This coded form, the “Kaballah” was common amongst Hebrews and medieval Templar Knights. When Templar Knights organization was forced to extinction elsewhere, (1308),  in Portugal it has been replaced by Christ Knights (March 14, 1319).

At the time of the discoveries, Christ Knights were lead by Infante D. Henrique (Prince Henry, the Navigator) and the Portuguese navigators were members of the Knights.

Salvador Fernandes Zarco (or Cristóvão Colom) was certainly no exception.

Up to very recently, it wasn’t easily accepted that this sigla could have any relation with secret organizations like the  Knights. But after the book “The da Vinci Code” has been published, people starts to understand the existence of those mysteries.

Run Futthark, in the book “Les Templiers – Moines et Chevaliers de la Lumiére” says that Columbus’ ships displayed the Templar cross symbol on their sails and concludes that Columbus had some relation with the organization, in spite of its official extinction, and probably was a member of the Calatrava Knights, that succeeded to the Templars in Spain.

Why should a member of Calatrava Knights use the symbol of the Temple instead of Calatrava?

Templar Knights have been forced to extinction. In Spain they were succeeded by Calatrava Knights; in Portugal they were succeeded by Christ Knights. Using the symbol of Templars instead of Calatrava, he was, certainly, pointing his secret affiliation.

This sigla has been deeply investigated by Prof. Mascarenhas Barreto, who, after 15 years, achieved to decode the meaning of the encryption:

“Fernandus ensifer copiae Pacis Juliae illaqueatus cum Isabella Sciarra Camarae mea soboles Cubae sunt”

This latin sentence translates to english as “Fernando, Duke of Beja and Isabel Sciarra da Câmara are my parents from Cuba ”

(Beja is the capital city of the Baixo Alentejo district in Portugal . Under the Roman Empire , its name was Pax Julia;

Cuba is a village located about 10 miles north of Beja. No other village, city or territory had the same name at the time, in Italy , Spain or Portugal )

Dr. Luciano da Silva also studied the sigla, basing his conclusions just on the alphabetic symbols:

“[ Xpõ ]  is a standard abbreviation of Christo in Greek, meaning ‘Christ’.

[ FERENS ] is the Latin word meaning messenger. FERENS  in Portuguese became vão, producing Cristó + vão, or Cristóvão.

[ . / ] is the Greek semicolon. But five centuries ago was only called colon.

Cristóvão Colon was the trade name of the discoverer. 

His natural name was Salvador Fernandes Zarco

We have stated  above that a sigla has secret meanings. Now we will show the Navigator’s  sigla has a double meaning. The bottom part of the sigla contains also  his other name, Salvador Fernandes Zarco. How?

We should know that Christians commonly  called Christ the Savior. Savior in Portuguese is ‘ Salvador ’. The letters  ‘põ’  of Xpõ are small letters. Why? Because the name Salvador is the name of a person and does not stand for ‘Christ” or ‘God’, otherwise, all letters would have been capitalized.

In addition to its meaning as messenger, FERENS has an encoded meaning. It is the abbreviation of the name Fernandes in Portuguese.

So far, we have two names, Salvador Fernandes. Where in the sigla is the last name Zarco?

Taking another look at FERENS, we note  the final S differs from the Ss in the upper part of the sigla—its upper extremity is raised. Although similar to an upper case S, it is not an S. Rather, it is the inverted Hebrew  letter called a Lamed.

Lamed has the same meaning as the Greek word “ Colon ” [ : ] or [ . / ] meaning ‘member’ or ‘parts’. 

But there is a rule in Hebrew  alphabet that when a letter is upside down or inverted, it alters the meaning of what follows: “It looks like, but it is not. It is the other one.”

And the other meaning of [ . / ], Colon , in Greek, should be read as the  meaning in Hebrew of the inverted Lamed, which  is the name Zarco.

Colon   in  Greek  is equal to Zarco in Hebrew.”

MONOGRAM

Cristovão Colom never signed his name on his documents or letters. He always used his sigla. To the left of his sigla, he placed  his Monogram, which no historian or investigator had noticed or deciphered until January 1989.

Dr. Luciano da Silva’s wife, Sílvia, is an excellent embroideress. Because she has executed many monograms in needle-point,  Dr. Luciano asked her to unscramble  the letters contained in the monogram to the left of the sigla. She easily obtained the letters, S, F, Z, which are the initials of the Navigator, Salvador Fernandes Zarco.

Monogram SFZ = Salvador Fernandes Zarco

HIS BLESSING

The other cipher used by Cristóvão Colom is his blessing, which appears on all the last twelve personal letters the Navigator wrote to his legitimate son, Diogo, from November 12, 1504 to February 24, 1505.

This peculiar sign or cipher, according to Simon Wiesenthal (1973), appears on all of those letters in the upper left corner. This cipher consists of two Hebrew characters “beth” and “hei”, which stand for baruch hashem, meaning a blessing salutation between Hebrews. The letters beth and hei are intertwined like a monogram. All dozen letters to his son, Diogo, are consistent in having the three ciphers, constantly reminding Diogo which were his origins and Jewish ancestors from the Zarco family.

COATS OF ARMS

Cristoforo Colombo was a son of a poor Genoese family of weavers. Coats of Arms were only a privilege to the nobility.

As a reward for his successful voyage of discovery, the Spanish sovereigns granted Columbus the right to bear arms. According to the blazon specified in letters patent dated May 20, 1493, Columbus was to bear in the first and the second quarters the royal charges of Castile and Leon -- the castle and the lion -- but with different tinctures or colors. In the third quarter would be islands in a wavy sea, and in the fourth, “the customary arms of his family”.

Clearly, the man whose family used to have a customary coat of arms, could not be a genoese weaver.

And the forth quarter of Columbus ’ coat of arms displays five small silver anchors, forming an X, over a blue area. The insertion of an additional element in the lower part of Columbus ’ coat, between the quarters, gave this quarters the form of a Shield. The royal portuguese coat of arms displays five blue Shields, each of them with five silver coins forming an X. The silver coins in the Portuguese coat are a sign for “good luck”. The equivalent for the Hebrews were the anchorets, or small anchors. The new element inserted in the lower part of the coat represents a chamber, with a diagonal band. The chamber is an esoteric symbol related to organizations like the Knights. So, the man with this Coat of Arms was a member of the Knights, had Hebrew ancestors and was Portuguese. All of these characteristics match with Salvador Fernandes Zarco!

Salvador was the son of D. Fernando, Duke of Beja, from his relation with Isabel Sciarra da Câmara.

Fernandes stands for “son of Fernando”.

D. Fernando was son of King D. Duarte of Portugal . Isabel da Câmara was daughter of João Gonçalves Zarco, a Portuguese navigator who discovered Madeira island with partner navigator Bartolomeu Perestrelo. Both of them were members of Christ Knights, lead by D. Henrique (Prince Henry – The Navigator)

Christopher Columbus married to Felipa Perestrelo, daughter of Bartolomeu Perestrelo.

This was too much of a coincidence for Christopher Columbus not to be Salvador Fernandes Zarco.

HANDWRITING ANALYSIS

One of the arguments used on Discovery Channel documentary is the analysis of Columbus ’ handwriting. To conclude that he could be Catalan, one of his letters was compared, by Pe. Gabriel Roura, to Catalan documents of the 15^th Century and the type of handwriting was found to be very similar.

But this is not only a very poor theory, as it also can be a major mistake: the letter shown by Discovery can be clearly identified by an expert – it is addressed to his son Diogo and dated April 29^th 1498. There is only one issue: the sigla is wrong. This letter was not hand-written by Columbus , it was written by his personal secretary.

So, it could only be used to conclude that the secretary was Catalan, not the navigator.

STRANGE WORDS

Another argument is that there are many hesitations and strange words in Columbus’ documents and letters, written in castillian. For Prof. Dr. Luis de Yzaguirre, linguistics engineering specialist from Pompeu Fabra University , this could mean he was Catalan. But not a single Catalan word is shown from his texts.

However, Prof. Mascarenhas Barreto has found more than a hundred pure Portuguese words and many other Portuguese original words transformed by Spanish influence.

He was a bizarre Catalan, this Columbus!

CATALAN?! WHY?

Another argument used by French investigator Francesc Albardaner, to enforce the Catalan theory is that Columbus could be a member of a noble Catalan family of rich merchants, and he was fighting against King Ferdinand of Aragon . The kingdom of Aragon included the territory of Catalonia . The family name would be Coullon and the man survived the battle between the fleet of genoese ships and privateers, but he was with the privateers, not with the Genoese.

As described, Salvador Fernandes Zarco was a grand-son of King D. Duarte of Portugal . And who was Salvador ’s grandmother, married to D. Duarte? Queen D. Leonor of Aragon !

The Portuguese Salvador was also a member of a noble family from Aragon , that included Catalonia .

No wonder he can be described as a member of a Catalan family. But that’s it. From here there is no path to argue he was Catalan.

FORCING THE HISTORY

There are already some scientific conclusions based on anthropomorphic studies done by Prof. Miguel Botella, forensics antropology specialist at Granada University , to the remains of Diogo, Columbus ’ brother. At the date of his dead, Diogo would be about 56 years old.

According to the documentation submitted by Italian authorities and related to the family from Genoa , this brother of Cristoforo Colombo was less than 48 years old when he died. So, cannot be the same person.

The Colombo family from Genoa were Dominicus Colombo and Susana Fontanarossa, parents of Christoforus, Bartholomeus, Jacobus, Giovanni and Bianchinetta.

Because Cristovão Colom had two brothers sailing with him, Bartolomeu and Diogo, the italians had to force history: they found  a Cristoforo Colombo with a brother Bartolomeu. But the other brother was Jacobus, not Diogo, so they changed the name in the documents that followed.

Only a miraculous coincidence would allow the remains of Diogo, brother of the navigator Cristóvão to proof he had the same age as Jacobus, brother of the weaver Cristoforo.

NOT ENOUGH

As well, the scientists from Granada University , Dr. José Manuel Llorente and Carlos Alvarez, said that it was not possible to conclude that Columbus and Diogo were brothers, based on the DNA tests, because the sequence extracted from Columbus ’s bones was too short.

Maybe it was too short. But even with a longer sequence, when they are able to extract it, they will find and say that Columbus and Diogo where not brothers...

In fact, Cristóvão and Diogo were half-brothers, sons of the same father and different mothers. And the scientists have tested the type of DNA which brings the characteristics from the mother.

CUBA AND OTHER PORTUGUESE NAMES

To the first island he arrived, Columbus gave his own first name: Salvador

Then he gave the following names to the places he discovered:

Fernandina, which relates to Fernando, his father’s name.

Isabella, relating to Isabel, his mother’s name.

Juana, relating to João, his King’s name (but then he decided to replace the name, as Juana could be too obvious for the Kings of Spain) and the new name was

Cuba , the name of the village he was born in Alentejo , Portugal .

Conceição, the name of the church he was baptised, in Beja, built by his father.

It’s also very interesting the name Hispaniola he gave to the second largest island. People usually make the association with España ( Spain ), but in fact it stands for the whole Iberian peninsula . A look to old maps will confirm that the Iberian peninsula was Hispania.

More than forty portuguese names were given by Columbus to locations in the Greater and Lesser Antilles of the Caribbean area. Not one single Italian name was identified!!!

BEHIND AND BEYOND

Behind the Myth of the Genoese Colombo, beyond the poor attempts to give him another wrong nationality where he is a Legend, we arrive to the bright side of the mystery:

Christopher Columbus, the navigator known as the Italian Cristoforo Colombo from the history, was not the Spaniard Cristobal Colon . He used the pseudonym of Cristóvão Colom and was, in fact, the Portuguese Salvador Fernandes Zarco, born in the village of Cuba , in the Alentejo region, inland south Portugal .

Now, after the DNA tests made to the remains of Fernando Colon - navigator’s son (second marriage), of Diogo Colon – navigator’s brother (in fact half-brother) and of the navigator himself, only a very small step is required to close the gap and bring scientific confirmation to the document proofs for the Portuguese and real Columbus – Salvador Fernandes Zarco: to make DNA tests to one of his ancestors, for example the Portuguese kings D. Duarte (his grandfather) or D. Manuel I (his half-brother, same father), given that there are no remains left in the grave of his father D. Fernando, Duke of Beja.

Return