Diego Mendez

Diego Méndez (* approx. 1472 ; † December 8, 1536 in Valladolid ) was a Spanish navigator and conquistador . He earned lasting fame by rowing several hundred nautical miles across the open sea in two canoes from Jamaica to Hispaniola on Christopher Columbus' Fourth Voyage to rescue his shipwrecked companions.

Life

Youth in Europe

Diego Méndez was born into an illegitimate association in Castile (probably in Zamora ) between 1470 and 1475.

As a child he went to Portugal with his father , where they were taken in by the Count of Penamacor and Diego was brought up together with the Count's children. In 1484 he returned to Spain with the count and then accompanied them to France , England , Flanders , Norway and Denmark . In 1492 he finally came to Barcelona , where he stayed until the Count's death in 1494.

From Jamaica to Hispaniola by canoe

Between 1502 and 1504 he took part as a ship scribe on Christopher Columbus ' fourth voyage . In 1503, the old, barely seaworthy ships, which were also severely affected by shipworms and storms, were shipwrecked off Jamaica and landed in what is now Saint Anne's Bay . In this predicament, Méndez and Bartolomé Fiesco, the former captain of the Vizcaína , suggested rowing across the open sea to Hispaniola in canoes owned by the local Taínos for help. The first attempt, in which Méndez only used a canoe, failed. On the second attempt, two canoes set sail, each canoe being manned by six Spaniards and ten Indians. The team ran out of water after just one day. After a four-day voyage, during which the castaways rowed 120 nautical miles across the open sea, they reached the small, uninhabited island of Navaza , off Hispaniola . However, there was neither fresh water nor edible animals or plants on this found. To the capital, Santo Domingo , we had to row another 300 nautical miles. Only Méndez and Fiesco survived these hardships. When the new governor of West India , Nicolás de Ovando , who was hostile to the Columbus family , learned of the misfortune of the castaways, he did nothing to rush to the aid of the stranded and stopped all efforts of other people to do this. Several months after Ovando was informed of Columbus' misfortune, a ship appeared off Jamaica. The captain refused to take in the stranded and only left food and the message that they knew of the distress of the stranded. Over a year later, Méndez was able to charter a caravel and a smaller boat (both were not under the command of Ovando) in 1504 and rescue those who remained behind from the distress at sea.

Career in the West Indies

Since Diego Méndez had always shown himself to be a loyal follower of the Columbus family, he was appointed secretary and paymaster in 1509 by Diego Columbus , son of Christopher Columbus and successor to Nicolás de Ovando. A year later he received a stately encomienda ; In 1514 further Indians were assigned to him.

In 1517 Méndez married Francisca de Ribera, with whom he had two children. In the same year he lived in Flanders with a corte from Charles I , where he represented the interests of the Columbus family. His career culminated in 1522 with the appointment of Alcalde Mayor of Hispaniola.

Diego Méndez died on December 8, 1536 in Valladolid.

annotation

The canoe trip across the open sea earned Méndez the reputation of the hero, so that it was glorified in his coat of arms and later reproduced on his tombstone .

literature

• Offenberg, Ulrich: Christopher Columbus. The departure into a new world. Grünwald near Munich: Complete Media GmbH, 2005. ISBN 978-3-8312-6068-3 (audio book)

Web links

• Extract from the Historia del Almirante by Hernando Colon at arteHistoria (Spanish)