Columbus was 100% Portuguese!
By Manuel Luciano da Silva, M. D.

The many thousand of books and articles written about Christopher Columbus emphasize: 

(a)  the mysterious and emotional aspects of this great navigator, 
(b)  how many women there were in his life,
(c)  and the various places where his bones may be buried. 

I discard all his circumstantial information because it has no direct bearing on the correct and precise diagnosis of the true identity of the Navigator.

I am interested in analyzing Columbus’ ‘biopsies’:

1. the ciphers written by the Navigator’s own hand, 

2. as well as certain relevant documents residing in the Library of the Vatican.

For centuries, the largest and most important library in the western world has been the Library of the Vatican, still today the largest in the world. Logic dictates that anyone researching the history of exploration and discovery should go to the archives of this famous library. 

We are going to analyze concrete documents:

1. Two Papal Bulls of Alexander VI

2.  His Sigla or Signature 

3.  His Monogram

4.  His Blessing 

5.  Forty Portuguese names in the Caribbean

6.  His Coat of Arms

You will be amazed  how easy  it will be  for you to decipher the Sigla just because you are aware of the Greek signs of punctuation.  OK, let us tackle the problem.

The Columbus sigla is composed 
of two parts, top and bottom.

The upper part has seven letters SSAS  XMY. The letter X means ‘cross breed’ , hence ‘son of’ and because the letter J did not exist in the Roman alphabet five centuries ago, the Greek Y was used for the initial letter of the name Joseph.  With this information, the top part of the sigla, which is a salutation to Christ, is read as Sanctus Sanctus Altissimus Santus  ‘ Son of Mary and Joseph’.

                                                                            Columbus’s Sigla
                                                                     Click on photo for larger view

For better analysis we will divided it into two parts: top and bottom

The top has 7 letters, plus periods

The bottom has  : Colon, plus  9 letters,  plus semicolon . / 

Analysis of the Sigla
Click on photo for larger view

(A)       Upper Part: is a salutation to Christ

.Sanctus.

Sanctus. Altissimus . Sanctus.

Son of Mary and Joseph

The repetition of periods implies repetition of the word Sanctus, Sanctus.

X is crossing to mean  “son of”

Y  for Joseph because  five centuries ago the letter J did not exist in the alphabet.

(B)      Lower part: the name of the navigator

       The bottom part of the Navigator’s sigla is composed of [ : XpõFERENS . / ].

Analysis of this part reveals the following:Click on photo for larger view
1.      [ : ] , a colon, is the Greek sign of punctuation that means ‘member’ or ‘part’. Indeed, when we use a colon in punctuation, it divides or separates the sentence into parts or members. But also it means to "ward off the evil eye".

  2.      [ Xpõ ] , with a tilde over the õ, is composed of the Greek  letters chi, rho, and omicron.  Xpõ is a standard abbreviation of Christo in Greek, meaning ‘Christ’. Omicron is the fifteen letter of the Greek alphabet, and the tilde over the vowel õ is a Greek sign called a ‘macron’, indicating that the main accent of Cristo should be on the letter ó and that the name should be pronounced as Cristó.

  3.      [ FERENS ] is the Latin word meaning messenger. FERENS  in Spanish became ‘val’;  Cristo + val produces ‘Cristoval’. In Portuguese, it became vão, producing Cristó + vão, or Cristóvão

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

Why colon and semicolon? Five centuries ago in Portugal and Spain, colon and semicolon were both called ‘colons’, or separators of sentences. The colon [ : ] was called the ‘perfect colon’ and the semicolon [ ;  or . / ]  was called the ‘imperfect colon’, or just colon.

For many centuries in Portugal and Spain (and until very recently in France also), an interrogatory sentence was always signaled at its beginning with an inverted question mark, alerting the reader to the nature of the sentence, which ended with an upright question mark [ ? ].  

The same rule was applied to exclamation marks and colons and semicolons. When a sentence started with a colon, the reader knew that it would end with a semicolon, and vice versa: but only one of these punctuation marks would affect the meaning of the sentence, as happens with the question mark.

With the above explanation, it should be easier to read he bottom part of the sigla:

[ : XpõFERENS . / ]  equal to colon + Cristó + vão + semicolon  or just colon  which is equal to Cristovão Colon.

The first colon serves as the alert sign to the reader that the second colon (semicolon)  is coming and therefore is read as Colon .

Cristóvão Colon was the trade name of the discoverer. 

His natural name was Salvador Fernandes Zarco.

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 and Spanish 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.

Click on photo for larger view In its normal, upright position, this letter  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.

This sensational discovery was made by Major Santos Ferreira, in Portugal, in 1930.

The conclusion  is  that  the  sigla contains two secret names: Cristovão Colon, his trade name, and Salvador Fernandes Zarco, his real name. This requires further explanation.

(2)  HIS MONOGRAM

Was the navigator Portuguese?

Our analysis of his monogram is going to answer this question clearly.

Cristovão Colon never signed his name on his documents or letters. He always used his sigla. In the fifteen extant documents, to the left of his sigla, he placed  his Monogram, which no historian or investigator had noticed, be alone deciphered, until January 1989.

Here is an original document with  the Monogram and Sigla

Click on photo for larger view

 Monogram                             Sigla

  My wife, Silvia Jorge da Silva, is an excellent embroideress. Because she has executed many monograms in needle-point, I 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, born in the southern Portuguese town of Cuba, son of Isabel Gonsalves  Zarco (Portuguese Jewish woman, from Tomar)   and Dom Fernando , Duke of Beja, son of the King of Portugal. 

Here is the original sheet of paper on which my wife, Silvia, deciphered the Monogram
Click on photos for larger view

João Gonsalves Zarco,  the discover of Porto Santo (Madeira)  in 1418  Statue of João Gonsalves Zarco,  a navigator from Tomar,  and member of the Portuguese Synagogue  Arco or Zarco, which  still exists today.  He was the father of Isabel Gonsalves Zarco, mother of Salvador Fernandes Zarco. Therefore he was the grandfather of Cristovão Colon, or Salvador Fernandes Zarco.

Click on photo for larger view On the left,  between the roses,  is a lady at the entrance of the Zarco Synagogue in Tomar. On the top is the Castle of the Order of Christ with the Charola or Octagonal Alter.

  Isabel Gonsalves Zarco was the daughter of João Gonsalves Zarco,  a Portuguese Jew  from Tomar, who discovered the island of Porto Santo in 1418 and then colonized it and also Madeira. 

The future Navigator, Salvador Fernandes Zarco, was born in 1448,  in Cuba, Alentejo, Southern part of Portugal, and at the age of six, accompanied his mother to the island of Porto Santo,  (Madeira) after she had  married Diogo Afonso Aguiar.

The Navigator started his maritime life at the age of fourteen in the Portuguese caravels to Africa. He later married Filipa Moniz de Perestrelo, daughter of Bartolomeu Perestrelo, Governor of Madeira Island. They had a legitimate son, Diogo Colon, born in Portugal.

Salvador Fernandes Zarco (the future Cristofõm Colon) was a sailor for more than ten years in the Portuguese caravels. By decree of King John II, only Portuguese citizens could serve on the Portuguese ships—“All foreigns were thrown overboard, by order of the King”.

(4)  HIS BLESSING

  The other cipher of Cristóvão Colon that we should study is his blessing, which appears on all the last twelve personal letters the Navigator wrote to his legitimate son, Diogo Colon, 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 ‘God bless you’. The letters beth and hei are intertwined like a monogram.

Click on photo for larger view The Blessing on the top with Hebrew  beth and hei, intertwined, like a monogram. Underneath is in Spanish:   Muy Caro hijo ( Much Dear Son)

All dozen letters to his son, Diogo Colon, are consistent in having the three ciphers.

Here is one letter with all three ciphers or " biopsies".

·        The Blessing on the upper left corner

·        The Monogram on the left lower left corner.

·        The Sigla on the right third of the bottom of each letter.

Click on photo for larger view Obviously, the great  discoverer, Cristóvão Colon, was a learned man, not only in the science of navigation, but also in the knowledge of languages—Spanish, Portuguese, Greek, Latin and Hebrew, including the Bible.  He acquired his navigational knowledge from the School of Navigation at Sagres, Portugal.

Testifying  to that fact are the intrinsic values of his Sigla, his Monogram and his Blessing. His mother,  Isabel Gonsalves Zarco, was a Portuguese  Jew from Tomar, in central Portugal, where there is the  Synagogue of Arco or Zarco, built in 1448, and open to the public today.

Was he a Portuguese Jew? His mother was a Portuguese Jewish woman! What more do you want?

(5) FORTY PORTUGUESE NAMES

Attesting to the fact that Cristovão Colon, or  Salvador Fernandes Zarco, was 100% Portuguese is a list of more than forty Portuguese names the Navigator gave to locations in the Greater and Lesser Antilles of  the Caribbean area during his four voyages.

Some of these are:  S. Vincente, Santa  Luzia, Guadiana, Ponta de Santo Antonio, S. João Baptista, Porto Santo, Mourão, Isabel, Sanctus Spiritus, Sta. Clara, S. Nicolau, Conceição, Cabo de S. João,  Cabo Alfa, S. Domingos, Cabo Roxo, S. Miguel, Cabo Omega, S. Antonio, Sta. Catarina, S. Jorge, Ponta Galera, S. Bernando, Bocas das Serpentes, Boca do Dragão, Margarida, Ponta de Faro, Boca de Touro, Cabo Isabel, Ilha dos Guinchos, Salvador, Santarém, Cuba, Curaçao, Brasil, Belém.

Some of these names on this list are common to both  Spanish and Portuguese, but some can only be Portuguese: Brasil, Santarém, Curacao, Faro, Belém, Touro, Ponta,  Porto.

Cristovão Colon  gave the name Salvador to the first island he encountered because  it was his own first name. He gave the name Cuba to the second island because it was  the name of his birthplace in Portugal.

The list of these Portuguese toponyms was first compiled by Mascarenhas Barreto and can be found in his book Portuguese  Columbus published in  1992. 

(6) HIS COAT OF ARMS

The Coat of Arms of Cristofõm Colon also gives us interesting information. It takes the shape of the letter U divided in four parts: upper left has a castle; upper right a lion, symbol of strength.  In the lower left is a blue sea with many islands—the Caribbean,  and the lower right has five small anchors.

Click on photo for larger view

Compare the left Coat of Arms with the right one.

A -stands for the Castle, symbol of arms

B -  stands for Lion, symbol of arms or strength

C -  stands for the islands in the Caribbean

D -  stands for the "coins" or the Quinas of Portugal

Why five anchors? The anchors represent five coins, and it is interesting that, in Hebrew, small anchor is anchorote or angoroth, also meaning ‘coin’.   But the Coat of Arms of Portugal also has five coins. Historian Henry Harrisse (1969)  and Mascarenhas Barreto (1992) have both stated that these five small anchors stand for the five coins, or Quinas, of the Portuguese Coat of Arms. 

DOCUMENTAL CONCLUSIONS
Click on photos for larger view

Let us make a trip to Tordesillas,  Spain, which was the epicenter of the world in 1494, where the Treaty of Tordesillas was signed between Portugal and Spain. Then we will proceed to Valladolid where Cristóvão Colon died in 1506, on  a Thursday, Ascension Day, May 20th.

Tordesillas with the bridge over Douro River. The brick building,  with 7 windows on the top,  was where the Treaty of Tordesillas was signed,  on  June 7, 1494 

Museum House of Colon, in Valladolid, Spain

Next to the Museum is  this plaque identifying the place where Colon has died,  in 1506.  It says in Spanish: "Here died Colon", (not Columbus!!!)

                                                                                Extract of the  First Papal Bull

Extract of the Second Papal Bul

Please, do not argue with me: argue with Pope Alexander VI. He was the one who ordered the Papal Bulls to be published! 

FINAL CONCLUSIONS

(1)        The Navigator chose the name Colon because of its religious and mystic power.

In addition to its meaning in punctuation and in anatomy, the word colon has religious and spiritual meaning and serves  to ward off the evil eye. It equates with making the sign of the cross ‘to protect us from evil’ or ‘to ward off the evil eye.’ ( In the near future I will place on this website another  article dealing with this idea).

  Cristóvão may have chosen Colon because he foresaw that he would face bad weather and tempests on the high seas during his long and arduous voyages.

Highly religious, he wanted to take with him all the protection he could by using the meaning of the colon signs. In his sigla [ : XpõFERENS . / ], his name in the center is shielded on either end by the protective colon and semicolon.

(2)      Historians failed to discover the name Cristofõm Colon on the Papal Bulls  because  they were transfixed on the name Columbus or Colombo, a major mistake. Colombo means ‘pigeon’ or ‘dove’ and the Navigator was never a pigeon…

  (3)      All the documentation referring to the Genovese Columbus is false. The name Cristoforo Colombo is false, the Codicilio Militar is false, and the so-called last will in Italian is false. Fifteen different places in Italy claim to be Columbus’  birthplace!  Mama Mia!

(4)     We find no single instance of an Italian place name in the Caribbean. Why?   Because the Navigator did not know how to speak or write  Italian!!!

(5)    Nobody has the right to transpose the Navigator’s name into some other name.

His true name as it appears on two Papal Bulls is Cristofõm Colon

  FINAL THOUGHTS

The greatest  historical discoveries were made by amateur historians!

Henrich Schlimann, German business man, discovered  the fable City of Troy.

Jean-Francois Champollion, military officer, another amateur , discovered the secret of the Rosetta Stone.

Michael George Francis Ventris, an architect, deciphered the ancient Minoan writing.

There are countless amateurs historians, anthropologists, meteorologists, who have made tremendous discoveries which have benefit all humanity.

As a practicing physician for 41 years, I considered myself very fortunate to belong to a profession which never blushes when there is a need to change the diagnosis or change for  better treatment based on  new findings.

This is the reason why I feel sorry and sad for the professors and teachers of history, who resist changing the diagnosis  of Cristovão Colon based on new concrete findings.

If they have been teaching, for years, and even writing that Columbus was born in Genoa, Italy, they are not going to change their teachings. They do not have the  guts or  "colones" to admit  to their students and to the world at large that they have been teaching the wrong stuff. 

Too bad. Instead of challenging their students to research to refute or to approve the new findings, they will die and will carry to their graves their NARROWMINDEDNESS only to be transform into dust!  This is unfortunately, because  the TRUTH  eventually will triumph!

******************************************************************************* The world famous Historian-Author James A.  Michener wrote me this letter BEFORE I discovered the name of Cristofõm Colon on both Papal Bulls. 

THE LETTER OF JAMES MICHENER 

REFERENCES

  Amler, Jane Fances Christopher Columbus Jewish Roots   Jason Aronson Inc., Northvale, New Jersey

Barreto Mascarenhas 1992 - The Portuguese Columbus, Secret agent of King John II. New York: St. Martin’s Press.

Da Silva , Manuel Luciano 1971 - The Portuguese Pilgrims and Dighton Rock, Nelson Martins, Editor. Published by the Author: Bristol,  RI.

  Da Silva , Manuel Luciano -  Columbus wasn’t Columbus, Massachusetts Academy Magazine, Fall/Winter 1989-1990, Vol III, No. 3, pp. 3-10.

  Harrisse, Henry - The Discovery of North America. Amsterdam: N. Israel Publishing Dept.  Reprint 1969

De Mello, Alfredo El Verdadero Colón, Montevideo, Uruguay.  Author's Edition

Thacher, John Boyd 1967 -  Christopher Columbus: His Life, His Work, His Remains, 3 Vols. New York: AMA Press Inc.

Wiesenthal, Simon   1973 -  Sails of Hope - The Secret Mission of Christopher Columbus.   New York: Macmillam.

  **************************************************************************

This Monograph has Certificate of Copyright Registration from Copyright Office records in Washington, D. C., U. S. A. 

  Form TX Registration Number  TX 2-481-737. Effective date of Registration: January 6, 1989.

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