Translation No. 003
- manuscript
- transcription
- translation
- commentary
- manuscript & transcription
Date: 1500. La Española
Theme: A young Black man, named Juan Moreno or Juan Prieto, who worked as Christopher Columbus’ servant in La Española, is considered the first Black person on record to arrive in the Americas since 1492.
Source: España. Ministerio de Cultura, Educación y Deporte, Archivo General de Simancas, INC. 13, 1ra. Parte, fo. 13v.- 21r., 2da. Parte, fo. 4v.- 5r.
Note: This translation is based on a transcription donated by paleographer and archivist Isabel Aguirre Landa. An earlier version was published in Consuelo Varela: La caída de Cristóbal Colón. El juicio de Bobadilla. Madrid, 2006.
[First Part]
[fo. 13v.] That the admiral ordered / 13/ |
of the ones that had killed the said Indians in that / |
[fo. 14r.] |
to cut his nose and ears and to flog and / Also, he says that to a Juan Moreno, who went to hunt with / |
[fo. 21r.][2] Witness 13. / Witness14 / |
Also, he says that he had Requelme jailed and he wanted / |
[Second Part ]
[fo. 4v.] |
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land “To us, to us [they] should give the credit about them, / |
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About Lope de Olano and Francisco de Montalván / |
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prisoner by the Adelantado for nothing / |
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Francisco de Montalván says: that the adelantado told him a few times that he was/ |
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very upset with Lope de Olano and that he did not have / |
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About Pedro, shepherd, who was flogged, and about Juan / |
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The said Rodrigo Pérez says: That don Diego ordered Pedro, shepherd, to be flogged because / |
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he had lost a flock of sheep, and Juan Moreno / |
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[fo. 5r.] |
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lost six or seven sheep, and that one of them / |
Francisco Manzorro says: That don Diego and Rodrigo Pérez ordered a hundred / |
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lashes to be given to a servant of Bernal de pisa because / |
Pedro Camacho says that he saw Juan Prieto being flogged, that / |
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he had gone away to hunt with a female dog and he lost it / |
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About Juan de Luxan, beheaded, and about Gaspar / |
Francisco Roldán, alcalde, says: That a trial that he did against Gaspara and another one / |
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against Juan de Luxán, that the Admiral had taken them / |
Mateo Valenciano says: That as per the orders from the Admiral, they hanged Gaspar, / |
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because they said that Juan Ramírez had complained/ |
[1] In between lines: “to free.”
[2] Crossed out: Witness 13. He talks about the death of Martín de Lucena and [says] that, when tortured, he confessed that he had slept with and Indian woman. Also, he says that they hanged Vanegas and Pedro Gallego, and the truth about why Vanegas was hanged, because he had argued with Don Diego verbally and had behaved as an equal with him. Also he says that Salinas, notary of the chamber of his highness, was hanged because he issued affidavits of the things that indeed happened and because he was a servant of Bernal de Pisa.
[3] Pomar.
[4] After “dog,” “Witness fourteen” is crossed out.
[5] In the Spanish original the verb go is written in singular, though the subject of the clause are two persons, Columbus and the witness that is talking in the first person. [CUNY DSI.]
[6] After “disclose”, “that non” is crossed out.