Africans and

Native Americana
The Language of Race
and the Evolution of Red-Black Peoples
SECOND EDITION

Jack D. Forbes

University of Illinois Press

Urbana and Chicago
 Contents

Illini Books edition, 1993 Acknowledgements

1993 by the Board of Trustees-of the University of Illinois v
Manufactured in the United States of America Introduction i
P 5 4 3
Africans and Americans: Inter-Continental Contacts Across the
Atlantic, to 1500 ' 1
This book is printed on acid-free papen. The Intensification of Contacts: Trans-Atlantic Slavery and Interaction,
after 1500 6
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication. Data
Negro, Black and Moor: The Evolution of These Terms as Applied to 26
Forbes, Jack D. Native Americans and Others
Africans and Native Americans : the language of race and the
evolution of Red-Black peoples / Jack D. Forbes. — 2nd ed. 4 Loros, Pardos and Mestizos: Classifying Brown Peoples 6
p. cm.
Rey. ed. of: Black Africans and Native Americans. Oxford and
5 The Mulato Concept: Origin and Initial Use 5
New York: Basil Blackwell, 1988. Part-Africans and Part-Americans as Mulatos 9
Includes bibliographical referentes (p. ) and index.
ISBN O-252-06321-X (pb) The Classification of Native Americans as Mulattoes in Anglo- 3
1. Indians—Mixed descent. 2. Miscegenation—America. 3. Afro- North America Y 1
Americans—Relations with Indians. I. Forbes, Jack D. Black
Africans and Native Americans. II. Title. 8 Mustees, Half-Breeds and Zambos 3
[E59.M66F67 1993]
Native Americans as Pardos and People of Color 1
305.8'00973—dc20 92-29849 9
CIP African—American Contacts and the Modern Re-Peopling of the 1
Americas 5
Notes Bibliography 1
Index
19
0
 Acknowledgements Introduction

wish to thank the faculty and staff of the Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam for
honoring me with the Tinbergen Chair for 1983-4 and for graciously assisting
me in my work. Similarly, 1 wish to thank the faculty and staff of the Institute of
Social Anthropology, Oxford University, for welcoming me as a Visiting
Scholar during 1986-7 and for helping in many significant ways. Some of the Thousands of volumes have been written about the historical and social
early chapters were also prepared while I was a Fulbright Visiting Professor in relations existing between Europeans and the Native Peoples of the Americas
Comparative American Studies at the University of Warwick or in the United and between Europeans and Africans, but relations between Native Americans
States (at the University of California, Davis). and Africans have been sadly Reglected. e entere Afro-Native American
I wish to thank individually Dr P. G. Riviére of the Institute of Social -
e-x-Ch.angeand contact experience is a fascinating and significant
Anthropology for his scholarly assistance and Sally Sutton for her typing. At subject, but one largely obscured by a focus upon European activity and
Erasmus University I wish to thank the staff in the Juridische Faculteit who European colonial relations with `peripheral' subject peoples.>
have assisted me with typing - Joke Martins, Marion Ammerlaan and Ada Africans and Americans must now be studied together without their relations
Verschoor, and Dean Professor Dr D. J. Rijnov and Wim de Jong of the always having to be obscured by the separations established through the work of
Faculteit for providing research assistance. Paula Heady and Carole Hinkle of scholars focusing essentially upon some aspect of European expansion and
Applied Behavioral Science and Nancy McLaughlin and Janet Kendrick of colonialism.
Anthropology, University of California, Davis, also should be mentioned for It is especially important to note here, at the very beginning of this study, that
typing part of the manuscript. Finally I wish to thank A. S. C. A. Muijen for her those relations do not begin only inthe__Americas. On the contrary, they also
research assistance and Dr Donald C. Cutter for his valuable help. take place in Európe _and in Africa and,.perhaps also in the Pacifica
I wish to acknowledge that portions of this work have appeared previously in Contacts in Europe can be seen as significiiiiIe" cause both African and
the 3ournal of Ethnic Studies, vol. 10 (1982), pp. 46-66 (The Evolution of the Native American ancestry there has tended to be absorbed into the general
Mulatto Concept'); in the same journal, vol. 12 (1984), pp. 17-61 (`Mulattos European society, and whatever earlier cultural developments have occurred
and People of Color'); in the American Indian Quarterly, vol. 7 (1983), pp. 57-83 have now become part of modern European culture. The impact of non -
(`Mustees, Half Breeds and Zambos . . .'); and in Explorations in Ethnic Studies, European peoples upon European societies directly within Europe has not, as of
vol. 7 (1984), pp. 11-23 (The Use of the Terms "Negro" and "Black" . . .'). yet, been fully explored; and, of course, there is now a large new group of
It is my desire to dedicate this study to Professor L. H. C. Hulsman of the Native Americans and people of African background in Europe.
Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam. Contacts in the Americas have been studied to some extent but much work
Jack D. Forbes remains to be done. Contacts in Africa have been studied very little.
The fact of a relatively small but steady American presence in ,Africa from
at least the early 1500s onward may well prove to be a vital arca for future re-
search, since one would expect to find Native American cultural influences in
regions such as Angola-Zaire and Ghan -á---Giii Yerde_es:peCraity. — -
1111,-óf course, interesting to note that lime Africans were already eXp—o-s-arlo
American cultural influences before leaving Africa. The cultures brought by
 Africans to the Americas may already have been influenced, especially by to Black Africans, the Indians of India, Native Americans, Japanese, and
Brazilian Native Americans. The extent of such cultural exchange wilD claves
obviously have to be worked out in careful field research in Angola, Ghana,
Guinea, Cabo Verde, and other places, as well as in archival records.
This study has a modcst objective, in that it seeks to introduce the subjecrl
and to primarily deal with a series of basic issues or questions which have to bé
resolved_ beforeP -roceding-to a- detailed ariaysis .of the precise nature of
A f r i c a —
A m e r i c a n
relations. Raymond Williams, in Keywords (1976), has shown
the iniottáaeoTconfronting the issue of meaning as a fundamental aspect of
scholarship. I propose to apply his example to the basic terms which
- - : i n f k m

our
nderstand. s oWricanAuerican~t4ctándn .p,re-te,m,w.uch
are part
o a nomenclaturejkveráped updercploy4lisM-T„áVci x7acism. ' . -.^ -
trig. ag-6',--When first woWing with my own Powhatan-Renápe people of
Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and surrounding arcas, I discovered that the
meaning of racial terms was a controversial issue.
I learned that terms such as `mulatto' and `colored' were used, or had been
used, in Virginia in a quite different way from their usage in most books
including modern dictionaries. I also discovered that many questions were not
answerable within the context of the latter, such as•hat do you call a person of
mixed American, European and African ancestry?? No one provided any
) answer, because, it seems, the American mixture with the African was
generally ?
V 1 subordinated to a focus
. upon (or a fascination with) only the black-white -- nexus.
--, ....,,
The modern dictionaries MI stated that a mulatto was the ChltdotaIlack-arid-
a white or someone of mixed black and white ancestry. But where did that leave
those who were also part-Indian?
In any case, I discovered that Native American descendants hui been legally
defined as mulattoes in Virginia-in 17Q5, without having any African
ancestry: -
Thwt knew that the dictionaries were wrong and that there was a lot that was
hidden from view by the way most authors had written about the southern
United States, about slavery, and about colored people. I later discovered also

(i)
that the same thing5vas true as regards the Caribbean, -Brazil, and much of the 1
rest of the Americas -t--"---_.--'-,
The unraveling of mis-conceptionsis,ahnost as-important as the creation orl ,

,.new conceptions, it would seem, and this is nowhere more true than in the
- realm of race relations. So before one can seriously reconstruct Black African-
Native- American contacts cin-i-iiáuff clear -awar a. --lot' of mistaket, ,mistakes
arising out of the very nature of discourse in a racist-colonial setting ks well as
mistakes arising from the assumption that the current meanings assigned to
racial terms have an equal validity for the past. N _
As the reader will see, there is hardly a racial terco which has a clear and
consistent rneaning over time` (and pace):¡ For example, the termt,Indian,_(or
indio) has beenapplied to many peoples including the Indians of SoutrÁs -ia as
well as all groups found in the West' Indies (the Americas) and the 'East'
Indies (Filipinos, Chinese, Japanese, etc.). The term `-ne...gra has been applied
 of whatever ancestry. `Black' has beeri used for all of the aboye and for non-1
whites in general. . -

By way of illustration, in attempting to grapple with the problcm of Black African-

Native American mixture and especially with the question of to what extent African-
Americans throughout the Americas are part American Indian, it is first necessary
to focus upon a clarification of such racial or ethnicleuns_as were used in the colonial
and early Jjátiol_lá periodsKey terms include: mulatto, pardo, colored, free
colored, negro, zambo, or sambo, mustee and mestizo
noted, many modern writers, whether popular or scholarly, have simply
assumed that they could transfer sixteenth-, seventeenth-, or eighteenthcentury
racial terms to contemporary usage without any critica] examination of meaning. For
example, it has been assumed generally that a mulatto of, let us say, 1600, would be
of the same racial background as a mulatto of 1865 or of 1900; or that a `colored
person' of 1830 would be the same as a 'colored person' of 1930.)
Moreover, it has also been assumed that terms such as 'free negro' and 'free colored'
can be used interchanieably--afid that one `could, in more Ore recent usage, substitute 'free
Black' for either of these.
Many prominent writers have, it seems, been very lax in their failure to consider
that the `meaning' of a word is never a timeless, eternal constant but rather is a
constantly evolving changing pointer. Thus the word `coach' as used in the ninteenth-
century (stage coach or other horse-drawn vehicle, then later a railway coach) has
today become something different (for example, motor coach). And while we can
trace the obvious connection between stage coach, railway coach, and motor coach it
is still quite clear that we would be badly mistaken to interpret `get on the coach' of
1840, for example as meaning `get on the bus' of 1960! And, of course, the term
`coach' has other meanings today, aside from motor coach.
We may think we know what the word 'negro' means today but do we know what it
meant in 1800 in Virginia? And did it mean the same as `colored'? The answer to these
questions is not and cannot be an exercise in deductive logic or a priori reasoning. It is,
rather, an empirical problem which can only be solved by' discovering through
documentan, and other evidence exactly how such terms were used. This is not an
easy task, for reasons which will become clearer later. -
In short, we cannot move, historiographically, from word to word or concept
17r
; to concept across the centuries. We must instead actually engage the primary data in
order to `touch reality'. When we discover that one of Sir Francis Drake's pilots
(not an airline pilot, incidentally) in 1595 was `ysleño de nación mulato' and sailed
from Plymouth, England (although being an `islander' in origin), we should not picture
him as if he were a mulato of 1981 or of 1900. His precise racial background is not
established by Me use of the term 'mulato', as wc shall see. We must ascertain from other
evidence, if we can, what the Spanish author meant by his usage of this category.
During the summer of 1981 newspapers in the United States carricd stories
`l about , bout `blacks' rioting in British cities. What they failed to tell their readers was (but with light hair and freckles), John Evans as `dark', and Richard Riddle as
_k
that in Britain today the term `black' is applied not only to Africans or- West `dark'. All or most of these men were born in Virginia and several were
•r--. Indians (of whatever shade or mixture) but also to people from India, Pakistan, `planters'. Were they part American or part African? Certainly we cannot judge
- -

Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and even to Latin Americans. (For example, a very their `race' from such color-referents alone.
light-skinned Chilean lady refu.gee living in Oxford was surprised to be referred Similarly, in 1768, an advertisement •appeared in New Jersey for `an
to as a `black'. Her dark hair, Spanish accent, and immigrant status had caused apprentice lad named John Foster, born in the Jersies, about 5 feet 8 inches
her to become `black', at least to some English contacts.) high, of a dark complexion, and pitted with the small-pox, wears his hair with a
I have before me an appeal to 'Drop All Charges against Black Youth' which false que to it.'3
refers to the arrest of some `young Asians' in Bradford during the summer of In any case, the colonial and state courts in the United States frequently had
U1981.' difficulty in determining exact racial status. In 1859 a North Carolina court .
This modern British usage (which usage extends well back into earlier years) called in a planter as an expert who could distinguish between 'the descendants
reflects very vividly the problem of assuming that English terms such as `black', of a negro and a white person, and the descendants of a negro and an Indian.'
`negro', `mulatto', or 'colored', can be interpreted easily. when found in He could also, allegedly, differentiate between a pure African and a `white
documents of earlier eras. cross' or an Indian cross'. 4 Unfortunately, most of us today lack that kind of
When the Europeans first established intensive contacts with Africans and certain expertise, whatever phenotypical features are seized upon as evidence
part-Africans, they met people with a great variety of physical characteristics. providirig-96bV.
This was especially true in the Iberian peninsula and Mediterranean area, but relations it is necessary, then, to begin with an analysis of the evolution of the
undoubtedly many of the `Moors' and `131ackamoors' who carne to England in In our fforts to r~le story_XL3lack African—Native American
Shakespeare's day were of north African as well as sub-Saharan background

. _
meaning of racial terms, for only in this way can we hope to identify people of
and from many distinct nations. Later in the sixteenth and seventeenth

r
American and African ancestry in the past. But the study of w nrcYs alone does
centuries, diversity was also encountered, as when most English vessels sailing
not, in fact, reveal the subtleties of actual usage. And thus I have had to delve
to the Caribbean dropped anchor at the Cabo Verde Islands. One writer in
into many aspects of Native American—Black African history in order to
1647 commented on the extreme variability of physical types met there and the
great beauty of the mixed Cabo Verde women. 2 reconstruct the environments in which racial and color terms have evolved and
been given a neZo7-7177.en content. ;')
We must realize, therefore, that at the very beginning of the modern
The reader will find a great deal of the social and cultural history of
period racial terms as used by Iberians and as acquired by the English Afroamericans and Native Americans in this work, woven together with broad
were going to refer to part-African peoples who might not only have the social history as it relates to colonialism, slavery and racism. But the primary
feátures of the Gulf of Guinea (variable as they are) but also every purpose of this study is not to write a comprehensive account of Native American-
conceivable. combination of \central African, Ibero—African, Afro—Arabic and African relations but rather to establish a sound empirical and conceptual basis for
further study in this area and, more importantly, to demonstrate beyond any doubt
American—African mixtures. that old assumptions must be set aside. This latter is especially true as regards the
And for our purposes it is important to stress that many Africans from the extent of Native American—African mixture and the significant genetic contri-
Sahel or `savannah' belt (Hausa etc.), as well as from parts of East Africa, bution of Americans to present-day `black' or `Afroamerican' populations in
sometimes resemble American—African hybrids (with various combinations of
high cheekbones, prominent aquiline foses, semi-wavy or `bushy' hair,
the Caribbean, Brazil, the United States, and elsewhere.
`oriental' eye shapes, etc.). Why is this important? Simply because many part- This work will, I hope, make a major contribution to the field of the history of
American, part-African persons (with no European ancestry) could easily be race relations and, more specifically, to the study of the formation of plantation,
subslineci-under a racial terrii -üfflicable to `pure-blood' Africans, and would creole, and colonial cultures in the Americas and elsewhere. Because of the
not, in any case, be especially-recbgnizable to most observers as being part- data presented herein, a great deal of revision will have to be made in these
American. The predominant physical type of the slaves brought in from Africa areas, as well as in the fields stndying the evolution of modern African,
may have been that of coastal West Africa, but enough variability'existed so that Afroamerican, and Native American cultures.
terms such as `Blackamoor', negro, and `black' cannot a priori be assumed to be Finally, I hope that this study of interethnic contact and racial classifying will
useful for determining preciSeeujeticidentity. ', lead to progress in the field of human rights by highlighting and clarifying a L-
Many color terms, such as `dark', `sWarthy' and 'brown' are also quite major area of abuse: the arbitrary and often racist practice of defining the
ambiguous, as should be obvious. In a 175611st of militia-men in King and identities of other human beings by powerful outsiders, as well as by
Queen County, Virginia, for example, one finds, in addition to fair - governments and institutions.
complexioned persons, Thomas Delany as `dark', Benjamin Wilson as (dark',
James Willimore as 'Brown', John Major as 'Brown', John Kemp as (swarthy'
 Thus in spiritual as well as secular contexts, the American and African
1 peoples have interacted with each other in a variety of settings and situations.
These interactions may well have begun in very ancient times.
Africans and Americans: Inter- J. A. Rogers, Leo Wiener, Ivan Van Sertima, and others have cited evidence,
including the "Olmec" stone heads_of-114ffldco, pointing towards early contacts
Continental Contacts Across the between Americariánd African cultures. 5 I do not propose here to explore the
early archaeological evidence which, in essence, requires a separate study, but
Atlantic, to 1500 instead, I will cite briefly some tantalizing data which suggests contacts in both
directions.
It is now well known that the Atlantic Ocean contains a series_ofpowerfuL,
I
`rivers' or currents which can facilit —aieilem ovement of floating objects from
AMERICANS GROSSING THE ATLANTIC BEFORE COLUMBUS ílie-Aiherias to Europe and Africa as well as from the latter to the Americas. In
the North Atlantic the most prominent current is that of the `Gulfstream'
The meeting of Native Americans and Africans, of people from two great which swings through the Caribbean and then moves in a northeasterly
continente of the earth, can be described in many ways. A fitting mode in which direction from Florida to the Grand Banks off Terra Nova (Newfoundland),
to begin is to cite a Native American story from Guyana, presented by Jan turning then eastwards towards the British Isles and the Bay of Biscay. This
Carew, in which Nyan, an African sky-spirit, along with the African earth - current has carried debris from Jamaica and the Caribbean to the Hebrides and
mother, the African river-mother, and Anancy the Spider-trickster met the Orkneys of Scotland. Moreover, Jean Merrien tells us that valuable hardwood
Great Spirit, the Father Sun, and other spirit-powers of the Americans.' was commonly washed ashore along the coasts of Ireland and Wales: 'This
timber from the ocean, borne by the Gulf Stream, really carne from the rivers of
The next day, all the peoples of the earth complained to Father Sun and for the first Mexico.' Merrien, a student of trans-Atlantic navigation by small vessels, also
time, the ebony people, who were neighbors of Tihona, made themselves heard. .. The states that
Great Spirit invited Nyan, the anthracite-coloured Sky-God . to share his domains. . . .
'I'hey [the African spirits] agreed on condition that the Great Spirit, in turn, shared the
distant kingdoms of earth and sky that Nyan ruled.'
Pia, an American child of the Sun and of Tihona, the Mist-woman, became a
brother to Anancy the Spiderman, and both agreed to live among human
beings.
Thus the spirit-powers of the Black Africans are said to have established a
close cooperative relationship with the spirit-powers of the Americans. This the first attempt — the first success [of crossing the Atlantic by one man] coul&only
same cooperation and reciprocal relationship can also be seen in Brazil, where come from the American sid£, . . because the crossing is much less difficult in that
Tupinamba and Guaraní candomblés exist side by side with those of Congo— 'direction. A French writer has said (justly, in all probability) that if America had been the
Old World its inhabitants would have discovered Europe long before` we did, in fact,
Angola and Nago orientation and where Native American and African spiritual discover America.
powers are called upon for assistance in various contexts. 3
The dimensions of African—American contact can also be seen in a painting This is because of the prevailing winds from the west as well as the currents.
by the Dutch artist Jan Steen (1645) in which the making of a marriage contract One can, says Merrien, sail in a `straight line' from Boston via Newfoundland to
in the Netherlands area is depicted. The future bridegroom is of African Ireland or Cornwall 'with almost the certainty of fair winds'. The other
ancestry while a man of American race is an active onlooker on the right-hand direction requires `twice the distance, thrice the time, and four times the sweat'.
side of the scene. The bride is of European Dutch background. 4 In the 1860s a 48-foot-long sloop, Alice, was navigated from North America
to the Isle of Wight in less than 20 days with very favorable winds; and in recent
times a wooden raft was propelled from Canada to northern Europe by means
of this ocean river. Moreover, Stephen C. Jett cites the 68-day passage of one
William Verity from Florida to Ireland in a 12-foot sloop as well as the
crossing by two men from. New York to the Scilly Islands in 55 days in a 17-
foot dory powered only by oars. Thus the Gulfstream demonstrably can
propel small craft successfully from the Americas to Europe.
Perhaps this is the explanation behind the local Dutch tradition that
holds that in AD 849 one Zierik arrived by boat to found the coastal city of
Zierikzee and why the local people believed that he had arrived in an Inuit
(Greenland) kayak which was on display there for severa] centuries. The
kayak may, indeed, not have been Zierik's original craft but it very possibly
points toward a genuine folk tradition of a crossing of the Atlantic from the
west."
 In this context it is also worth noting a report that Columbus had information coast of Brazil until it veers eastwards across the Atlantic to Africa again,
about strange people from the west who had reached Ireland prior to 1492, reaching southwestern Africa, from whence it curves northwards to rejoin the
doubdess via the Gulfstream. Merrien tells us that Bartholornew or Christopher Zaire—Amazon current. Thus, as farther north, a great circle is formed.
gólumbuSlad made marginal notes in their copy of Pius IT's Historia (1477) to Zaire—Amazon
the effect that 'some men have come from Cathay by heading east. We have what we see are two great circular rivers in the ocean, the
seen more than one remarkable thing, especially in Galway, in Ireland, two northern circle running in a clockwikedirebtion and the - soüth:ertl circle in a
people tied to two wrecks, a man and a woman, a superb creature.' Merrien also counter-clockwise direction, with a smaller counter-current in between,
believes that the first documented case of a single navigator crossing the running eastwards. In the South Atlantic Americans might have reached Africa
Atlantic consists in the record of a Native American who reached the Iberian via the counter-current or, more likely, via the Brazil to southwest Africa
península long before Columbus' day. current. Africans could have used either the southern (westwards) swing of the
North Atlantic circle or the northern (also westwards) swing of the South
In the Middle Ages there arrived one day on the coast of Spain a man "red and strange" Atlantic circle, coming from the Sierra Leone-Senegal region or the Congo-
in a craft described as a hollowed tree. From the recorded description, which specifically
Angola region respectively.
states that he was not a Negro, he might well have been a native of America in a piragua
—a dug-out canoe . . . the unfortunate man, ill and enfeebled, died before he had been Of course, one of the problems with the argument for early trans-Atlantic
taught to make himself understood. crossings is that in the modem period such islands as Iceland, Bermuda, the
Azores, the Madeiras, the Cabo Verdes, Tristan da Cunha, Ascension, and
To return to our own discussion of the Gulfstrearn, it should be noted even Sáo Torné (off Nigeria and Cameroun) were uninhabited prior to
that this eastward-flowing current has a so -Aberti extension_which-swings documented Irish, Norse, and Portuguese occupations. On the other hand,
southwards coastOfEurope to the Iberian peninsula and on.to some of these islands are small or far from major currents. Bartolomé de las
the-Cáláry m the latter region it turns southwestwards and then Casas states that the Azores were the islas Cassitérides mentioned by Strabo in
westwards, returning to the Americas in the vicinity of Trinidad and rejoining his Geography and which islands were repeatedly visited by the Carthaginians.
the Caribbean segment of the Gulfstream.a(hus it would be theoretically Allegedly, there lived in the Azores a people who were of loro or bao color, that
possible to float in a great circle from the Caribbean to Europe and j is to say, people of the color of Native Americans or intermediate between white
northwestern Africa and then back again to the Caribbean. and black." The Canary Islands were inhabited in the fifteenth century by a
A North American archaeologist, E. F. Greenman, has argued that the (t` people who were isolated from nearby Africa and whose cultures somewhat
crossing of the North Atlantic was `feasible' before the end of the Pleistocene resembled those of some Americans. Moreover, the personal narres of the
period (about 11,000 years ago) 'for a people with kayaks and the Beothuk type many canarios enslaved by the Spanish have a decidedly American 'ring' about
of canoe [from Newfoundland], if at that time the ocean was filled with floating them (although such resemblances do not always mean a great deal). 1" The
ice from the Scandinavian and Labrador glaciers, and from freezing of the sea canarios are sometimes described as a loro or brownish-colored people in the
itself.' The same author attempts to show many parallels between Pleistocene slave registers.
European and American cultures, but sadly neglects African comparisons. In The fact that the islands of Cabo Verde and Madeira were uninhabited in the
any case, his argument is based solely upon hypothetical European movements
towards the Americas, movements which would have had to fight against the fifteenth century does indeed pose a problem for African navigation to the
currents (and winds) rather than flowing with them.' Americas; however, that will be discussed later. Now it is necessary to consider
briefly evidence relating to the maritime capabilities_oLAmericans in the late
Bartolomé de IáS Casas, in his monumental Historia de las Indias, cites fifteenth century, to see whether voyages across the' Affanfic might have been •
exan`Tples ot ratts Orcancies (almadías), dead Americans, and debris reaching the feasible.
Azores Islands before 1492. This evidence will be discussed below. Here it is The Americans of the Caribbean region_were putstanding navigators and
only necessary to note that the Azores lay in an area of weak currents but that, seamen, -the Spaniards and other Europeans. Christopher
even so, with the help of winds from the west and northwest some boats could tóiárn—bus was impressed everywher• by their skill. He noted, for example, that
reach the islands from the Americas. 8 their boats (barcos y barquillos) `which they call canoas', were excellently made
In the South Atlantic, as noted, a strong current runs from the west coast of from a single tree, were very large and long, carrying sometimes 40 or 45 men,
North AfriCa. toWaldá" Trinidad. Below that a counter-current is sometimes two or more codos (perhaps a man's breadth) in width. The American boats were
shown, running eastwards from South America to the Gulf of Guinea. Then a unsinkable, and if in a storm they happened to capsize, the sailors simply turned
strong current runs westwards from the mouth of the River Zaire (Congo), to them back over while swimming in the sea, bailing them out with goards carried
the north of the Amazon, where it divides, part joining the northwesterly for that purpose." Andrés Bernaldez recorded (from Columbus) that the
current which becomes the Gulfstream and part swinging southwards along the
 Americans navigated in their canoas with exceptional agility and speed, with 60 conveyed by two Spaniards living among them, but whatever the source the
to 80 men in them, each with an oar, and they went by sea 150 leagues or more. `news' had spread very widely.
They were `masters of the sea'. (A canoe was later discovered in Jamaica which EVen more significant, for our purposes, is the fact that when the Spaniards
was 96 feet long, 8 feet broad, made from a single tree.) 12 reached Yucatan in 1517 they
Columbus found that the Lucayo peopk of the Bahamas were not only very
well acquainted with Cuba (ine ánd a half days away via canoe) but also knew saw ten large canoes, called piraguas, full of Indians from the tocan, approaching us with
oars and sails. The canees were large ones made like hollow troughs cleverly cut out
that from Cuba it was a 'ten days' journey' to the mainland (doubtless Mexico
from huge single logs, and many of them would hold forty Indians.
or South America since Florida would have been closer than that). He also saw
a boat which was 95 palms long in which 150 persons could be contained and The fact that these boats were equipped with sails is indeed interesting,
navigate. Others were seen which were of great workmanship and beauty, being because it means that wind-power could be used to run against currents or to
expertly carved. A canoe was also seen being navigated successfully by one man navigate rapidly even where currents were lacking. Clinton R. Edwards also
in high winds and rough sea. cites other evidence documenting the use of sails by Carib and other American
At Haiti, Columbus learned that that island, or Jamaica, was ten days' journey ne2ples in the Caribbean and by Ecuadorian—north Peruvian sailors in the
distaiii —frbm the mainland and that the people there were clothed (thus Pacifie, both at the time of initial Spanish contact.
referring to Mexico or Yucatan most likely). In another place he learned of a As an example of the navigational capabilities of the Caribbean natives, we
land, 100 leagues away, where gold was mined." can cite the case in 1516 when 70 or 80 Spaniards in a caravel and a bergantíne
The Ayawak and Carib-speaking peoples of the Caribbean were well (brig) sailed from Santiago de Cuba to the Guanaxa Islands off Honduras (now
informed geOgraphically. Columbus capuired Caribs in the Antilles (such as Roatan). There they enslaved many Guanaxa people and carried them in the
Guadeloupe) from whom he learned of the South American mainland, but he caravel to Havana, Cuba. The Americans were subsequently able to overcome
also learned of the mainland from Americans living on St Croix and &finquen their Spanish guards, seizing the sailing ship 'y haciéndose a la vela, cual si
(Puerto Rico). Americans who were taken into Europe lar --eW—inaps there which fueran expertos navegantes, volvieron a su patria que distaba más de
showed Haiti, Cuba and the Bahamas, as well as `many other islands and doscientas leguas.' In short, the Americans were such `gnert navigators' that
countries' which were named in the native language." they were able to sail from Havana to Honduras, a distance of more than 200
It seems quite clear that the geography of the Caribbean basin and the leagues, in a European vessel withinoassiStan ce from any non7Arnericans; and
Bahamas, including that of the adjacent mainland, was accurately known to the this after having been kept below decks during their journey to Havana.
Americans. Moreover, it seems clear that voyages of 60 to 150 leagues were The navigational capabilities of the Americans of the Caribbean—Mexican
undertaken (about 180 to 450 miles, figured conservatively at three miles per coastal area extend back well into pre-Columbian times, as attested to by
league although the Spanish nautical league often exceeded that distance). pictures of boats found in various codices, murals, and sculptured walls in the
When Spaniards reached the area of bid-atan in 1517 and again in 1518 they Mexico—Yucatan region. In about the tenth century AD also the Mexican
found that the Maya people were already aw - are of what had transpired on the leader Quetzalcoad is recorded as having sailed with a raft to the east (rising
islands invaded earlier by. the Europeans. The Maya were uniformly hostile sun) from the Gulf coast of central Mexico.'s
and, at Campeche, `they then made signs with their hands to find out whether Along the Atlantic coast of North America, Americans also went out to sea.
r we carne from the direction of the sunrise, repeating the word "Castilan" On the South Carolina coast, for example, the Sewee outfitted boats with sails
"Castilan" and we did not understand what they meant by Castilan.' In the and on one occasion a group of natives decided to visit England. They outfitted
latter year the Spaniards met an American woman from Jamaica on the island of a canoe with sails and went out into the Atlantic but were picked up by a British
Cozumel. She told them vessel and sOld as slaves."
that two years earlier she had started from Jamaica with ten Indians in a large canoe In 1524 Verrazano saw dugout boats outside Chesapeake Bay which were 20
intending to go and fish near some small islands, and that the currents had carried them feet long, while canoes were seen in Narraganset Bay, going out to sea, with 14
over to this island where they had been driven ashore, and that her husband and all the or 15 men in them." One report of a later date states that Americans navigated
Jamaica Indians had been killed and sacrificed. between New Jersey and Chesapeake Bay, using canoes specially fitted out with
It seems more likely that the Jamaicans had fled from their home to avoid sails and decks.
Spanish slave-raiders and that they did not want to fall under European control; But when they want [to go] a distance over the sea, as for instance to Virginia or New
hence her story. In any case, all of the Maya towns along the coast in 1517 were Holland, then they fasten two punts [canoes, dugouts] together broadwise with timbers
well aware of the threat posed by the Spaniards. This news could have been over thern, right strongly put together, the deck made completely tight and sido board of
 planks; sails of rugs and freze [cloth] joined together; ropes and tackle made of bast and that Quintus Metellus Celer, colleague of Afranius in the consulship [of Rome] but at
slender spruce roots; [and they] also mason for themselves a little fireplace on deck.'' the time pro-Consul of Gaul [south of the Alps] received from the [Suevi] king . . . a
present of Indians, who on a trade voyage had been carried off their course by storms to
To the south, along the Brazilian coast, the Portuguese and other Europeans Germany.
also witnessed American navigation at sea. An Italian traveling with Magellan in
In order to interpret this event, which occurred about 60 BC, we must keep in
1519 noted that the Brazilians' boats were made from the trunk of a tree, and mind that for Pliny Germany commenced far to the south of Denmark (that is
were so large that each boat held 30 to 40 men. In the 1550s Hans Staden in the Belgium—Netherlands region most likely). Pliny states that in the time of
noted that the dugout boats of the Santos—Rio de Janeiro area could hold up to Augustus `Germaniam classe circumvecta ad Cimbrorum promunturium' (a
30 men, were four feet in width, with some being larger and some smaller. fleet 'sailed round Germany' to the promontory of the Cimbri, in Denmark)."
In these they move rapidly with oars, navigating with them as far as they wish. When the Also Pliny believed that the Indos had reached a Germanic-speaking zone by
sea is rough they take the canoes ashore until good weather comes again. They do not go way of a fictitious sea which was thought by him to have connected India with
more than two leagues straight out to sea but along the coast they navigate far." the Baltic. We know, however, that the only way that people looking like
In 1565 the Jesuit José de Anchieta stated that the Americans of the same `Indians' could have been driven by a storm to northern Europe would have
beeri across the Atlantic from America. It should also be noted that the Suevi
region had dozens or more canoas made from a single tree, with other pieces of
group of Germanic-speaking tribes is thought by some to have included the
the same cutting used as `boards' well attached with vines. They were large
Angles, a people living at a later date along the North Sea shore of Germany.
enough to carry 20 to 25 persons with their arms and supplies, and some held
Several later writers, citing the Nepos account, assume that the `Indians'
up to 30 persons. With these boats they were able to cross `such fierce [bravas]
were driven across the Atlantic. Certainly there is no reason to doubt that the
seas that it is a frightful thing and not to be imagined or believed without
builders of Teotihuacan and the Olmecs were engaged in widespread trade or
seeing'. Anchieta also noted that if the canoes turned over, the navigators
that they possessed navigational capabilities, to mention only two American
simply bailed out the boat, turned it right side up, and carried on.
groups active in the 60 BC time-period. 23
Thus the Brazilian boats were also very well made, were very fast and
Archaeological evidence may also support later eastbound voyages, since
manoeuvrable and could be righted at sea if necessary. They were used to carry
Inuit (Eskimo) type harpoon-heads have been found at two locations in Ireland
warriors and supplies over considerable distances along the coast, as, for
and Scotland. For example, a harpoon-head of very worn condition was found
example, from Santos (Sao Vicente) to Rio de Janeiro.'"
in County Down, Ireland of which it is `absolutely certain, that it is of Archaic
In general, it would appear that the Americans of the Caribbean built the
Eskimo origin'.
biggest boats and were most accustomed to going far out to sea, while the
Specifically, this harpoon-head is of `Thule type', dated probably between
Atlantic coastal groups were more oriented to staying within a certain distance
the tenth and thirteenth centuries. It was very unlikely to have been carried to
of land (six miles or so). On the other hand, all were capable of being carried
Ireland by a seal or a walrus and most likely was taken there by a, living Inuit
out to sea by strong winds and currents and yet surviving rough water.
hunter, perphaps on a Norse vessel. The authors of the report on this find state
It should also be noted that several groups along the Pacific coast
that 'so far no harpoon-head of the mesolithic period has been recovered from
manufactured seaworthy craft and were capable of reaching Polynesia b means
Ireland, and the present specimen has no parallels among prehistoric European
of favorable currents. It is beyond the scope of this study to discuss such
finds.'24 The harpoon-head found in Scotland may be of `old Thule' type and is
voyages but one must note that many Pacific island peoples may very well be of
perhaps earlier in date than the Irish discovery. It was found before 1876 in
American ancestry mixed with varying proportions of `Oceanic Negroid'
Aberdeenshire, in sandy ground.25
(African?) and Malayo—Indonesian stocks.'
Inuit navigation will be discussed below, but here it is worth noting that the
Returning to the Atlantic, it is interesting to note that there is some additional
Angmagssalik people of east Greenland in the eighteenth century used umiaks
evidence to support the notion that Americans crossed in an easterly direction.
to journey all the way aroiind the southern tip of Greenland to barter on the
For example, Pliny, in bis Natural History, reported that
west coast. Often they did not beach the umiaks but moored them in the water,
Nepos de septentrionali circuitu tradit Quinto Metello Celeri, Afrani in consulatu having no need to dry them out. Such boats might have survived the kind of
collegae sed tum Galliae proconsuli, Indos a rege Sueborum dono datos, que ex India strong easterly winds which in 1347 drove a small Norse boat all the way from
commerci causa navigantes tempestatibus essent in Germaniam abrepti.
Markland (Labrador) to Iceland. 26
Thus we learn that Cornelius Nepos, an author of several works in the last Vas Casas and other writers report that Columbus knew before bis 1492
century BC, and virtually a contemporary observer, recorded that as to the \-voyage of Americans reaching the Azores, along with `reeds', pino trees and
northern circuit of the seas (from France northwards) 1
,1other debris driven by westerly and northwesterly winds. Certain Azorean
 1

settlers had told him that the sea make discoveries to the southwest 'y
had tossed up on the island of Las que se habían hallado canoas que
Flores the bodies of two dead salían de la costa de Guinea, que
persons, `who seemed to have very navegaban al Oeste con
wide faces and features unlike mercadurías.' In short, the
those of Christians'. Moreover, on Portuguese had found boats
another occasion, it was said that in (canoas) which left from West
the Cabo de la Verga and its vicinity Africa to navigate to the west with
almadías or canoes were seen merchandise.28
outfitted with In the Gulf of Paría area near
,

a sort of (house'. These canoes Trinidad, Columbus found that the

were driven from place to place or Americans
island to island by the force of trajeron pañezuelos de algodón muy
winds, and the occupants had labrados y tejidos, con colores y labores
apparently perished or disappeared como los llevan de Guinea, de los ríos
while the vessels drifted for a time a la Sierra Leona, sin diferencia, y dice
in the Azores region. que no deben comunicar con aquéllos,
Also it was known that a porque hay de aquí donde él agoró
esta, mas de 800 leguas; abajo dice que
Portuguese pilot had seen an paracen almaizares.
`ingeniously carved piecé of wood'
some 450 leagues to the west of Thus he saw well-made multi-
Portugal, which wood was being colored scarves or sashes, identical
driven from the west and had not with those of Sierra Leone, but
been carved with iron tools." because of the distance he thought
that the two peoples ‘ought not' to
be in communication. Later
Columbus stated that each
AFRICANS CROSSING THE
ATLANTIC BEFORE
American wore scarves which
COLUMBUS resembled almaizares (Moorish
sashes), one for the head and one
Columbus was also aware that for the rest of the body. 29
Africans may well have utilized Nonetheless, one of Columbus'
ocean currents to navigate to the motives in examining the area
Americas. His 1498 voyage around Trinidad was to
specifically used the southern route experimentar lo que decían los indios
from the Cabo Verde Islands to fiesta Española, que había venido a ella
Trinidad, an easy crossing de la parte del Austro y del Sueste
travelled consistently thereafter by gente negra, y que trae los hierros de
Spaniards, Portuguese, Britons and las nagayas de un metal a que llaman
others. Columbus was especially guanín, de lo cual había enviado a los
reyes hecho el ensaye, donde se halló
intrigued to see what lands lay in
que de trienta y dos pantes, las diez y
the South American direction, since ocho eran de oro y las seis de plata y las
the king of Portugal had said that ocho de cobre.
there was tierra firme in that
direction and was greatly inclined to Thus, Columbus wanted to verify the
truth of what the Americans of Haiti
 had that the `black people' who brought
stated previously, to the effect that spears tipped with it to Haiti were
`black people' had come from the south only Americans painted black (a
and common practice) and not Africans.
southeast and that their azagaya (One must also remember that
(spear) heads were made of guanín, Columbus' knowledge of American
a brass or bronze-like mixture of language was virtually non-
gold, silver and copper. existent.)
Las Casas doubted the truth of In 1464-5 Alviso da Ca'da
one of Columbus' stories, about an Mosto wrote a description of his
island with only women, visit of a few years before to the
West African coast. He noted that
como lo que aquí dice que entendía the West Africans of the kingdom
haber isla que llamaba Guanín donde of Senegal (to Cape Verde) were
había mucho oro, y no era sino que using azagaie (spears) with worked
había en alguna parte guanín mucho,
y esto era cierto especio de oro bajo
and barbed iron heads, and that the
que llamaban guanín, que es álgo Wolofs of Senegal obtained from
morado, el cual cognoscen por el olor Gambia curved alfanges (swords)
y estímanlo en mucho. made of iron 'sem nenhum aco
(azzale)', without steel.
Thus the existance of an island of He also noted that they did not
Guanín where much gold was to have ships, nor were any seen, but
be found was also doubted. those Africans living along the river
Probably in some region there was of Senegal and by the sea had some
much guanín, which was a base type zoppoli, called almadie (almadías)
of gold (oro), somewhat `purplish' by the Portuguese (dugout boats),
(morado), esteemed much by the the largest of which carried only
Americans and known by its smell. three or four men and which were
Significantly, the Americans of the used for fishing, as noted:
Gulf of Paría area possessed
pieces of gold but it was 'muy Non hanno navilii né mai li viddero,
bajo, que parescía sobredorado' salvo dapoi che hanno avuto
conoscimento de' Portogallesi. Vero é
(very low-grade, appearing to be che coloro che abitano sopra questo
alloyed with, or gilded over silver fiume, e alcuni di quelli che stanno alle
or base metal). No evidente of marine, hanno alcuni zoppoli, cioé
`black people' was found in the almadie tune d'un legro, che portarlo
Trinidad—Paría region, the da tre in quattro uomini al piú nelle
Americans being either of indio maggiori, e con queste vanno alle volte
a pescare, e passano il fiume e vanno
color or near-white, many being 'tan
di loco a loco.3'
blancos como nostros y mejores
cabellos y bien cortados' ('as white Only very small almadías were
as us and better hair, well-cut')" seen beyond Cabo Verde also and
Thus it seems likely that guanin this, coupled with the fact that
was a base alloy or gilding of gold the Cape Verde Islands were
which was quite common in the found to be uninhabited, without
Caribbean region. It may well be any trace of occupancy, would seem
to argue against much West African
marine navigation, at least in the
years 1455-63.32 The use of iron
spear-points also tends to argue
against the accuracy of Columbus'
information relative to `black
people' reaching Haiti with spear-
points of a softer metal.