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Misfortunes and Shipwrecks in the Seas of the Indies, Islands, and Mainland of the Ocean Sea (1513–1548) – Book Fifty of the 'General and Natural History of the Indies' - Florida Scholarship Online
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Misfortunes and Shipwrecks in the Seas of the Indies, Islands, and Mainland of the Ocean Sea (1513–1548): Book Fifty of the 'General and Natural History of the Indies'

Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo

Abstract

These dramatic tales of seafaring and shipwrecks have been translated into English for the first time from the author's sixteenth-century reports on the perils and disasters experienced by travelers to and from the New World. These narratives contain important information about colonial navigation, meteorology, geography, shipping, trade routes, and sociology. The author's goal in writing about these events is not only to share these captivating stories with others but also “o that men may know the many perils that accompany sea travel.”

Keywords: seafaring, shipwrecks, New World, narratives, colonial navigation, meteorology, geography, shipping, trade routes, sociology

Bibliographic Information

Print publication date: 2011 Print ISBN-13: 9780813035406
Published to Florida Scholarship Online: September 2011 DOI:10.5744/florida/9780813035406.001.0001

Authors

Affiliations are at time of print publication.

Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo, author
Bradley University

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Contents

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Front Matter

Title Pages

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Dedication

Maps

Acknowledgments

Translator's Introduction

Misfortunes and Shipwrecks in the Seas of the Indies, Islands, and Mainland of the Ocean Sea (1513–1548)

Book Fifty Prolog

Chapter I Of the father and son who were adrift on a plank until the father died; and how the son escaped.

Chapter II Of a ship that departed this city of Santo Domingo on the island of Hispaniola and struck a rock on this coast and a sailor jumped from the ship to the rock and came by land to this city while the ship sailed safely on to Spain.

Chapter III Of a ship that was lost on the coast of Tierra Firme: how the Sailors took the Ship's, boat, abandoned the passengers, and were not seen again; how the passengers built a small boat from the Ship's planking; how they reached such a state of starvation that they drew lots to determine who would be eaten; and how the survivors were saved.

Chapter IV Of a ship that sank in the Ocean Sea1 three hundred leagues from land; of how all the people on board survived for twelve days in the ship's boat without drinking or eating anything except for two pounds of hardtack.

Chapter V Of a Portuguese youth who, while traveling on a ship under full sail in fine weather, dove into the water wearing a balaclava to swim to another ship of the fleet; and how, by god's mercy, he was picked up by a ship following a quarter of a league behind.

Chapter VI of two ships coming from spain to this island of Hispaniola; and the one two days ahead of the other was shipwrecked, the people aboard marooned on a deserted islet; and how two days later the second ship ran aground and sank upright on another nearby low-lying islet; and how miraculously the second ship was refloated and collected [317] the people from the first lost ship and came to this city of santo domingo, where the ship was repaired and returned to spain.

Chapter VII Of a ship many leagues out to sea that caught fire which was miraculously extinguished.

Chapter VIII Of three ships two hundred or more leagues out to sea that miraculously escaped disaster with all their people aboard and managed to return to Puerto Plata on this Island of Hispaniola.

Chapter IX Of the caravel they call the Taviras' for the marvelous thing that Will Be recounted here that God and His Glorious Mother did for these women and for other persons who were involved In this shipwreck.

Chapter X How Licentiate Alonso Zuazo's Caravel was Wrecked on the Alacranes Islands with Almost Fifty-five or Sixty Persons, of Whom Seventeen Miraculously Escaped with him; and of Many Things that Happened on this Voyage and Shipwreck. To Avoid Overtiring the Reader, this Chapter will be Divided Into Thirty-nine Paragraphs or Parts.

Chapter XI Of the shipwreck that Happened To Baltasar de Castro and others on a ship from Spain bound for this island of hispaniola with a cargo of mares; of the seventy-nine persons on board, forty-six were drowned and thirty-three were miraculously saved.

Chapter XII Of the Strange Case of Juan de Lepe, subsequently a resident of this city of Santo Domingo, on the island of Hispaniola; of how he was lost in Tierra Firme where a shipwreck left him among the wild Carib bowmen; and how miraculously God and his own courage rescued him from among them.

Chapter XIII Of the Unfortunate fate of a certain fleet from which thirty companions were cast ashore in Tierra Firme and, for lack of food, ate each other until from the thirty only three remained alive; all of which happened as now will be succinctly related.

Chapter XIV Of the admirable case of a Venetian sailor who was marooned on an island for two years, and of another Genoese marooned for eight years; and how these two and other castaways came together on an island; and how finally only the Venetian and the Genoese remained; and how later God brought them out of that tribulation. [358]

Chapter XV Of the misfortune that befell a captain named Benito Hurtado and his people at sea and on land in Tierra Firme in the settling of the province of Cheriquí and in other parts through which they passed.1

Chapter XVI Of a shipwreck in which the Mother of God worked her marvels for the ship's master named Baltasar de Chaves.

Chapter XVII Of the wreck of a ship that embarked from this city of Santo Domingo on the island of Hispaniola on which was traveling a gentleman resident of the island of Cuba named Juan de Rojas with his wife, doña María de Lobera, whom he had married here a few days earlier and was taking to his home in the town of La Havana, On the island which is also known as Fernandina.

Chapter XVIII Of a very notable case that happened a few years ago to one Antonio de Palenzuela on the coast of Tierra Firme.

Chapter XIX Of what happened to Master Francisco de Santa Ana, resident of Tirana, suburb of Seville, and to others with him on a ship from these parts bound for Spain with a great quantity of gold and silver; and how they miraculously escaped.

Chapter XX Of the several wrecks of Cristóbal de sanabria, of seville, who now is a resident of this city of Santo Domingo on the island of Hispaniola, and of the others who were with him; and because the story is long it is contained in fourteen paragraphs or parts.

Chapter XXI Of the unfortunate event and shipwreck (which some have attributed to a lack of prudence) of a pilot named Juan Bermúdez, who departed the port of this city of Santo Domingo on the island of Hispaniola bound for Castile in the year 1538 and returned from the Azores the following year, 1539, without making Spain.

chapter XXII Of a shipwreck and the unfortunate events that happened to the survivors of the fleet that Licentiate Ayllón led to the northern part of Tierra Firme.

Chapter XXIII Of a shipwreck on the island of Cáliz, which the indians call parataure, which is in the mouth of the Huyapari River; and of the sufferings of some Spaniards of the army of Governor Hierónimo Dortal.

Chapter XXIV Which is more than a shipwreck tale because it treats of a marvelous event which is given in an extraordinary report of the very famous and powerful river called the marañón, along which Captain Francisco de Orellana and other hidalgos navigated more than two thousand leagues for eight months until arriving in Christian lands at Las Perlas Island (or Cubagua) in this oceanic region, and from there the captain came to this city of Santo Domingo with some soldiers from his company, participants in his travails and witnesses to everything herein contained;1 all this as recorded by a devout and reverend father of the Order of Preachers Friars, Gaspar de Carvajal,2 who was present in person for everything and who relates the lesson and brief history in the following fashion:3

Chapter XXV Of the Shipwreck and Marvelous event that befell a reverend canon of the holy cathedral of this our city of Santo Domingo on the island of Hispaniola and to others who experienced this crisis, from which they escaped by God's mercy in the manner that will be related here.

Chapter XXVI In Which is related the marvelous case of a Portuguese ship that with thirty seamen left the port of this city of Santo Domingo to return to Portugal and, caught in a storm, was blown to the island of Bermuda, Where the ship was wrecked and the people escaped by God's mercy.

Chapter XXVII Which treats of two hurricanes or storms that struck the island of Hispaniola and other neighboring islands, and of some shipwrecks that happened because of the storms in the months of August and September of 1545.

Chapter XXVIII Of shipwrecks and the very marvelous occurrence that is here recounted.

Chapter XXIX Of another shipwreck that happened later in the same year as the previous one but with not such happy outcome as was related above.

Chapter XXX In which are the author's conclusion and defense of these histories to those who may see these materials, making known that in Spain among some Latinists and authoritative persons it was said that the historian of such new and strange studies ought to have written them in the Latin language; and later there was controversy among the aforesaid—some faulting him, others supporting him; and, of course, there was someone to write to him in the Indies concerning the deliberation pro and con in Spain; to which the author responded with a letter which here, reader, you may judge for yourself, providing that impartially, humanely, and calmly you weigh his response in the balance of justice, giving it due reason and truth to better consider, ponder, and decide the correct verdict; note what he says.

End Matter

Bibliography

Index

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