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THE ITALIAN LEGACY IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
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panied by flattering words, and his will was certified to preserve his privileges; however, Columbus was no longer
governor, and he was prohibited from disembarking in Santo Domingo. With him were his son Ferdinand, his
brother Diego, and his most faithful friend, Bartolomeo Fieschi, who was captain of the Vizcaína. The expedition,
which included significant investment of Genoese capital, as well as Genoese crewmembers, sailed along the Carib-
bean coast of Honduras, then to Veragua in present-day Panama (which was later dubbed Columbus’s Duchy) and
again Jamaica (July 25, 1503), where Columbus, who was prohibited from landing in Hispaniola, had to remain for
a long and very difficult year due to the shipwreck of his caravels. From there, after a successful expedition in search
of help from the faithful Bartolomeo Fieschi and Diego Méndez, he was able to leave on June 28, 1504. Marked by
disastrous events and experiences, the story is narrated in
Lettera Rarissima
, in which the Admiral of the Ocean Sea
tells us everything: the terrible hurricane in Santo Domingo, which only he had foreseen, in which his enemy Boba-
dilla perished, and in which a cache of gold and inflammatory documents against Columbus also sank, while the
admiral’s own stash of gold was saved. Columbus spent the dreadful last year as a castaway in Jamaica, sick, without
provisions, and with the last two ships languishing at the bottom of the sea.
On November 7, Columbus finally landed in Sanlúcar de Barrameda. Queen Isabella’s death on November
26, 1504, meant the elimination of vital support for his endeavors. In fact, the audience with King Ferdinand in
May 1505 turned out to be quite frosty. Returning from his voyage, on December 27, 1504, Columbus wrote
another letter to his friend Nicolò Oderico. This interesting missive seemed to confirm a possible change in per-
spective. In it, the navigator recalled having spoken at length about a project, and having sent him, through his
friend de Riberol, the
Book of Privileges
and various correspondence, as well as two other letters to the Banco di
San Giorgio. Although de Riberol told him that everything had arrived in perfect condition, he never received
a response. And he added that, before leaving for his voyage, he had left another copy of the
Book of Privileges
in Cádiz in the hands of Franco Cattaneo, “the bearer of this,” to send to him. He also commented that, while
he was away, he had written letters to the monarchs, one of which was returned to him (and that he had sent it
along with the book and with the report of the voyage in another letter, specifying that Oderico should deliver it
“to Sir Gian Luigi with the other containing advice”). Finally, he said he expected letters from his friend to speak
cautiously about his purpose.
On the same day he also wrote to Gianluigi Fieschi, to whom he wrote of his return from the Indies in ex-
tremely poor health, and of his being quite consternated due to this situation. He continued: “I believe that you
have a good memory of the book that I gave you in Callis [Cádiz] and even of the notice that we have left, if it is,
there it is all written. Still, Miçer Francisco, bearer of this letter, can tell you about this, so that it can also serve as
a supplement [...].” He asked Fieschi to write more extensively about it. Columbus recalled at that point in the
letter that he was related to Fadrique Enríquez de Ribera, who, after entering victoriously in the Alhambra in
1492, and at that time Governor of Andalusia and Superior Judge in the jurisdiction of Seville, became Marquis
of Tarifa in 1514. Don Fadrique, who had gone on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, visited Genoa in 1519, leaving an
entry of his journey in his diary.
Columbus grumbled that he had received no response from the Banco di San Giorgio to the offer of one-
tenth of his income from trans-Atlantic voyages to reduce the local tax on food. He did not even know anything
about the promises made to his son Diego by the monarchs, and that made him suffer even more. Instead, he
made no reference to the fact that Giuliano della Rovere had ascended the papal throne; Julius II was a powerful
pope, whom he and his family knew well and to whom he wrote himself while the pope complained that he had
never heard from him again.
The admiral’s life ended in Valladolid on May 20, 1506. The day before, Columbus, who had gone there to
meet the new monarchs, had to once again face his past. In the testamentary codicil of May 19, he returned to
what he had established in 1498 and resumed in 1505, never failing to remember the women who accompanied
him in the three pivotal periods of his life: his Genoese mother, his Portuguese wife, and Beatriz, his Spanish com-
panion. He also decided to pay other debts. The names that appeared were almost all Genoese: the heirs of Gero-
lamo da Porto, due to the parental debts of his youth; Antonio Basso, a Genoese who lived in Lisbon; a Jew who