Esteban

By

Sampson I.M Onwuka

This is obviously not the picture of Esteban Gomes (Estebanico)

Federal writers series on New Mexico (1942) which coincided with the celebration of the discoveries of the South West Esteban, transferred from the histories of New Mexico through the forms of a messenger traveling ahead of Coronado’s expedition, but moved ahead of Fray Marcos, entering into areas of New Mexico and then ended his travels with two Greyhounds in Arizona. That story begins with version available to them through a certain Castaneda who witnessed the preparation made by the Governor of New Spain at this time by name, Nuno De Guzman in 1528 and eventual encounter with four survivals of a ship wreck, which included Estevan, according to the book, “Their leader, Alvar Nunez Cabeza De Vaca,….Andres Dorantes, Alonso De Castillo Maldonado, and Estevan, the Negro Slave of Dorantes, wandered from the Coast of Texas to the Spanish settlements on the Gulf of California.”

These men and their original crew had left Spain for Florida in 1927 and was ship wrecked as they said on the way from Florida to Texas, and were the only survivors.  Based on the story, the slave Estevan was after consultation with Antonio Mendoza, who in separate history requested the audience of Dorantes along with Estevan, who he mentioned had intelligence after having traveled around the world. But in this case, they were said to have been sent along with others to discover lands beyond the Spanish settlement, and this expedition involved Estevan and not the other three, and would include Fray Marcos. 

According to the Story, “Marcos set out from Culiacan on March 7, 1539, following the west coast of Sonora Valley where he stopped to rest and sent Estevan on ahead to explore and report back to him. If the Country was unusually good Estevan was to send a cross two hands long; if it was as rich and populous as New Spain, a still larger cross” Four days later, an Indian returned with a big cross, and the book continued that Fray Marcos followed after Estevan to the Northern Mexico and Southeastern Arizona but did not ‘over take Estevan, however, who reached the Zuni pueblo of Hawikuh, the first of the Seven Cities, and was killed there. Fray Marcos, upon learning of the Negro’s death, did not turn back until May, 1539, when, according to his account, he beheld Hawikuh from the top of a nearby mesa, the Zuni not permitting the friar to approach nearer.”

It seems important that emphasis on the nature of the discoveries were carefully made, that at least a recognition was given some member of a crew which includes Estevan and towards, there was the arrival of San Marcos.  He was not originally part of. In the end, there was an end to the party of Marcos who in his account did not venture the areas that was traversed by Estevan. It seems that even from half the story concerning a man traveling ahead of his crew, a process familiar with explorers and pilots that he could not by tradition been what he was regarded by history to be, that for instance a slave of Dorantes whose own history was well known and he was ship wrecked under Vaca. It should be clear that the impressions that we draw from even Mendoza, do indicate that Esteban was not unknown and in the words of Mendoza, he needed the Negro since 'he had been everywhere'.

For if these men had enough of slaves or workers at this point in New Spain, there will not be needling additional mouth to feed saving for what he possessed which neither Vaca or Dorantes had. It seems that the man appeared from nowhere that he was among the few survivors in some disastrous outfit. Yet the commingled story as presented in this case do not dodge a form of history which could have been possibly were it not for the size of the events.

That it seems moving from Texas to places such New Mexico towards Arizona is a natural inclination, may also appear to suggest that the story about their travels from Spain towards Florida in 1927 places a date that even the merest comparison between the several Gomes would more than make some sense. From the earlier dispatches on Charles V mission on a certain Gomes (Gomez) in 1522, sends us back to the period of the Magellan, that at least that much is known that Esteban Gomes did rebel against Magellan over the Straights which was allotted to him which others claimed was not his to have discovered, that Magellan did not also circumvent the world as he claimed.

In reality, the release from jail by Charles V of Esteban was done with respect to the travel to Cathay which he claimed was possible if they traveled from the area heading North. That Charles V was inclined on honoring Gomes who he originally threw in jail, suggest that his actions may or may have based on the death of Magellan in 1521 in Philippines as they claimed, further the proving that some reason for the fears of Esteban was realized, perhaps they were shorter routes around world and roving west from Portugal to Pacific claimed to have been discovered by Balbao, there was the encounter with the hollow structure at the middle of nowhere (Bermuda triangle).    

It is this case and under the challenges that Verrazano presented, who at least by Winter of 1523 through 24, was said to reached Maine or discovered some areas beyond the known frontiers of the East. In some sense, the effort to push Esteban to the Sea, and the time of one month granted him by Charles V to build a new Ship, which was eventually designed as a Portuguese Vessel, reveal the lasting impact of a legend at Sea whose problems were compounded with the contrasts with Spain.

For if as some American historian mentioned, that some of the claims about the Esteban is correct, that the land between New England through Delaware were called ‘Land of Estevan’  and to the point of Florida was also called ‘Land of Esteban and Antonio Ayullon’ that Columbus could not have discovered America.

In a sense, the theory that the North was circumvented by Gomez is not an article of history, for it seems that such a person could not have also be the same man as the Esteban of the Ship wreck. In some sense, the discoveries of New Mexico and Arizona may have come by accident in the triumphs of Esteban acting under his sponsors, but such a person could not have been the same Pilot of the North proceeding Verrazano and following after him. The charter of the Sea navigation of the North in places such as the Hudson River as allotted to Henry Hudson and others following after Verrazano will fail accommodate the twist and turns of this man who was called Negro –Nico, as from Estebanico , Stephen the Negro.

But yet the long travels associated with in this area from New England to Delaware only points to a new direction heading south. That the said Gomes is same as the man who mutinied against Magellan through light on his past with Ships sailing towards Portugal at the time of Solis who apprenticed under Vespucci.

We clarify that it seems that the role of Cristobal Lisboa and the travels which appear in some account in German of Genoese and Venetian lumber jacks who discovered new woods either in the Caribbean or what now Brazil is, would decide if for instance, Vespucci actually landed the New World of America as he claimed, if this Cabo Frio which is not different from Cabo Frijid meaning Cape Frezzon, which the Spaniards called Flores, then Vespucci would have arrived the Americans and the Brazil woods from Florida was one of the 'Brazils' which the English associate with Silos who took over from Vespucci as Venetian lumber jacks in Portugal and Lisbon.

There is no end to the history of the American frontiersman and ship wrecked captain, Esteban (Stephen), discoverer of New Mexico, Arizona, parts of Texas (San Antonio - his Ship), parts of Florida, and upwards to Vermont and St Lawrence. He was supposed to be towing the footsteps of Verrazano into the Eastern part of the United States of Maine and Canada but ended up in several parts of what became United States. Of course the most consummate ship captain of that Age of exploration leading from the Age of Discovery is Matthew Acosta, himself, like San Marcos and Esteban was primarily Afro-French whereas San Marcos and Esteban were Africans and by proxy, Americans. We are lost in translation in narrating the persons of Estevan in short history of this age largely for the fact that we experience in all the records a shift from the name Esteban Gomes to Esteban Gomez. There are other records of his name as ‘Estevan’ and is primarily called the ‘little man’ as they describe him is Estebanico.  For the records, Estebanico does not mean ‘Little Stephen’, the meaning is transferred from the description; nico refers to Chief or some person of authority or power, for instance Nicholas which means Chief or person of honor.

We should pay attention to the 1490's through the early part of the 1520's, perhaps 1522 when Gomes was arrested repairing his boat in Spanish waters in the Caribbean and was passed on to the Governors of Santa Domingo. One of the last Governors to have encountered Esteban is Mendoza, who was an uncle to a certain Dorantes and who ranked below Mendoza. Dorantes in Vaca’s account is translated as master to Esteban and remained his owner until he was released to the Indians. The story about Dorantes and Mendoza can be reached through the relationship between Mendoza and Charles V and through the rank and file of the ship mates and captains under the patronage of Spanish royalty.  Ranks do not separate Dorantes from Mendoza in terms of authority but the appointment of Mendoza who never made to Sea as Governor in Santa Domingo more than set the mark on Dorantes – that besides Mendoza as an uncle and capable Governor, Mendoza enjoined a closer tie to Spanish royalty. For the sake of argument, we compare directly the ranks of Mendoza and Magellan, that by ranks and shipmate, Mendoza ranked below Magellan. Ferdinand Magellan ranked below Esteban Gomes and some of the compelling objections of Esteban to Magellan navigation around the world seem to have arrived at from the wealth of the sea knowledge on one hand and for the fact that he was a superior to Magellan. Esteban’s mutiny that forced into prison by Charles V throw light on his objections to Magellan – that he was indeed a superior and was not unlike Magellan in terms of origins. But the mutiny which resulted at high sea forced Estevan Gomes back to Spain until his release by Charles V. 

His history continued as Esteban Gomez, and following the disaster of his boat in the Americans, he was held by Indians for number years. The last useful meaning associated with Gomez is from Vaca account where he called Estebanico.  We can argue that the links to Dorantes as a slave owner of Esteban would have started under Mendoza – but if this true, he couldn’t have made it to Spain. It may also suggest that the arrival of Esteban in Spain would have meant a different employment such as required from slavery and slave owners. One of such jobs is the fetching of slaves and slave raids where the commentary on ‘escrovas’ made leading arguments on the employment of Esteban on sea preceding the encounter with Mendoza and company and in Spain, he would be easily reduction to slave raid ship captain whose history will linger on the frontiers of human traffic in the Caribbean. As are we likely to show that the word that confuse our narrative is escrovas, for it seems two different meaning by Spain and through Portugal that the engines of slave narrative which roil certain record lead into two probable paths. Care must be taken to through addition light on these taken, for it seems defeated if the words do not fail to show hints of the pre-occupation of the leaders of the Age of Exploration.       

Originally, Ferdinand Magellan was Portuguese like Gomes, but due to the fraternal relationship to Charles V and the problems of Gomes, he was asked to lead the San Antonio which was set to navigate around the world. We can almost suggest that the years that Gomes spent incarcerated by Charles V and Mendoza will show that he was not new with the Spanish royalty. It will also further suggest that Esteban switched royalty at some point, for sure, it seems that the preceding the Governors of Santa Domingo arraigned Esteban over breach of the Spanish territory in the Caribbean, that he remained in prison for some time under Mendoza and was transferred to Charles V given the pronounced familiarity with the sea and with other matters in the new found lands of what will become the Americans. We can also suggest that Esteban was involved into possible expeditions. 

The first expedition can be established through the fact that Esteban touted the routes of Verrazano into the East of the Americans – especially Maine – and it seems that Verrazano may or may not have towed routes established by earlier navigators. We can argue that it that expedition – perhaps not his first in the unfamiliar waters of the Americans since they were looking for the routes to Eastern Cathy -, that Esteban may have started the expedition under the Portuguese flag and he may or may not have started with a ship that is more for Cargo than expedition and may have ship wrecked in Santa Domingo.     

We can establish that Esteban’s second expedition possible took place under the silhouette of Charles V, first under the captive in Santa Domingo and later was transferred to Spain and in the interregnum, re-adjusted his contractual loyalties to Spain. This second expedition would have taken place in the pally with Magellan, sometime before 1520 and the end result was the death of Ferdinand Magellan in 1521. The role that Esteban played in the establishing the expedition and in building the ship, especially his, give in to the summation that the expedition 1521 following the death of Magellan and Esteban’s release from jail.   

One of the troubles with these versions of history is not the issue of the seven cities which later Spaniard made popular, including the arrival of Cortez in Mexico City were based in part of information circulating around the Seven Cities (?) and Cibola. It would seem that preceding the earlier expedition that Esteban has been active in the Americans, perhaps as a young apprentice under a leading Lisbon travel agent. In a sense, there are reasons to believe that the mental as well personal occupation was not perhaps slave trade or slave raids, that such occurred in those Age of Discovery throw off the greater fact that certain groups of Spaniards and Portuguese were gradually forced to depart from Spain and from Portugal and the American which was unknown territory did not hold any useful promise until a decades later.  The hunt for the ‘dye-wood’ was the pre-occupation of these sea travelers at this age, make arguments that they were perhaps two possible Esteban(s), one is Portuguese in origin and the other Spanish by association. 

Several interpretation of the early years of Esteban suggest he came from Africa - perhaps from Morocco and was sold into Slavery to a Genoese and Venetian ship line to Vespucci and Lawrence Medici, that at least he was agent for the ship line belonging to Vespucci and was mainly interested in timber and dye wood which was called Escrovas, which had a different meaning. We can achieve only so much if we position the early years of Esteban along the narrow reasoning of ownership, for it seems that it takes his story to a different land far from what was perhaps common at this time. In a sense if we maintain that he was a slave from Africa or sold into slavery sometime later, it would impossible to deny that he didn’t relapse into the dominion of the Spanish or Portuguese holders, and would have made matters also redoubtable to cast as an Esteban in any light of Spanish history. Since there is not enough we can establish about his early – especially through the poverty of his accounts in Peter Matyrs account of early exploration, it is redolent to ignore that he was at least occupied in hunting ‘Escrovas’ – which are dye-woods and not ‘slaves’ and would have exercised degrees of entitlement for a captain. 

This aspect is historical given his presence at least in Lisbon in 1490's. But the argument may raise the additional question of authenticity given the frenetic rise of Esteban Gomes in Portugal in 1490's through the early part of the 15th century. Of course the incident of 1492 in Spain and the fracture fabric of Jewish society and Muslims across the world does not explain anything for us, saving the accounts of the travels of these Jews and Muslims to anywhere but Spain and Europe half a century later.

12/9

We cannot fail to suppose at this point that the adventures in the high seas was not a decorated art as it became in later years, it was for hardy souls, especially for men as they say given the natural trial by circumstance of that age. Apparently Vespucci discovered an area which is now Florida - at least a part of it, and since Ojeda met Vespucci in what is now Florida (some people dispute that) or on his way returning from the land of dye woods (Beresi), Vespucci navigation to United States may or may not have subtended in Florida - a little ways from Cuba which Christopher Columbus founded.  There is something else -, the navigation into what became United States and Brazil, was due to a search for something, especially dye woods - examples of decayed dye wood which a highly enthusiastic Vespucci brought back to Lisbon was to prove in the words of Ojeda that there was Brazil or dye-wood in Florida. The use of the word escrovas has been disputed and was taken to mean human beings given the accounts of these ship lines entering Africa and other parts of the world.

We are not interested in questioning the whole history since I for one, took months of exhaustive study to separate a certain Esteban Gomez from Esteban Gomes, understanding that the incidents of 1522 through the later part of 1530, took Esteban from Portuguese authority to Spanish following the disputation of Tordesila. Some of the incarnations of this disagreement seem to me a later injection and not part of the real history of the disputes and would add to the possibility that the narratives were based on certain degrees of assumptions.   

The problem with Esteban (Estevan) is that he was mingled as a certain Vega whose ship wrecked off the Coast of Florida. But this is an undigested history, since the capture of Gomes by Spaniard in Caribbean is an article of history, and his crime was fishing or found shipping for Escrovas which was called slaves in Spanish territory. His defense was simple that they -the ship lines - were there before the coming of Spanish and Portuguese that the lands which Mendoza claimed for Spain was already discovered - perhaps through vessels chattered through Lisbon and Portugal.

The later quarrel between Mendoza who was junior Esteban Gomez and Dontes, allowed him to sail around the new found territories, which according to Gomes' argument to Charles V as price for release from prison was the globe was not navigable saving for landing on small islands steps. Magellan was given the ship which was originally assigned to Esteban (Estevan) and it seems to this author that reason for Esteban's release from Spanish prison was the fact that his fears were proven correct, especially the area called Bermuda triangle. But Magellan perished at Sea and his assistant who he acquired in Manilla Philippines helped to complete the journeys.            

We can still protect that interest of authors such Samuel Eliot Morison who maintained that the claims of the land discovered by Vespucci is probably Brazil, we chime in on this with two statement from two separate sources on the use of the name America and the use of the terms ‘indies’. In a polar tug of meaning between the principle roles of the church and the royalty, between Philip II and Pope Julius II, we read concierge on the claims of the territories in what is now the Indies in 1574, that “The right of Patronage of the Indies is, alone and undivided, forever reserved to us and royal crown, and may not be alienated from it either wholly or in part”.

The holy church responded through Pope Julius II – following the example of Alex VI - which appointment in the Colonies could be done without the consent of the Church, that “conceding to the Catholic Kings all the tithes of the State of the Indies, under the condition of endowing the churches and providing the priest with proper support.”

We are left with important scenarios at this period of Spanish History and the history of the New World, that these two authorities of meaning did not use the word ‘America’ or the ‘Americas’ to describe the domain of the Indies, rather they used the term ‘Indies’ indicating to some manageable light that these ‘Other World’ of Vespucci (Under Spanish Contract) - the New World of Christopher Columbus as first used as they say by Peter Martyr (both under Spanish contracts) – is a term that had no meaning in 1574 on a national level, and if such terms such as America as opposed to the 'Indies' is perhaps useful in Spain at this period, it may have therefore existed on the imaginations of the general public or within circumstances of Spanish definitions of Realms and boundaries.

It will be fitting to question the plurality of the word America in terms of discoveries of the 16th centuries, to the extent of the Maps so named after Vespucci, for if we compare the land mass in question, and the estimate that one the greatest explorers since Verrazano, Vespucci, Columbus, and Estevan Gomes, by name Samuel de Champlain tagging other such as Mathew Da Costa (Canadian legendary Sea Master), it becomes clear that United States as a Nation bounded mostly by water was a discovery hundred years in the making.

It is impossible to accept that Columbus reached America in the chum we accept it, it is no doubt a secondary argument by that we place the Maps of Madsmuller to  the fore of the argument that he could not have performed so magic an occlusion in the Map detailing the New Found lands of Vespucci as Americae, a name that has origin elsewhere and a meaning that has enjoyed a permanent stay in world histories being lifted from French translation of the Mare Indicus > Mericae, only by indictment does it stretch to a single land since 'Mericae' refers then and now to the meridian waters heading the Incas.

The bipolar translation of history and geographical apartment from Genoese travels into foreign lands and Venetian map making to go back to the century of the Nomad as effectively used in Maffeo Niccolo, and Marco Polo travels to the lands of the immortal Genghis Khan and Kublai Khan, to its standard forms beginning with Louis XIV of France, subtending the Italian, Spanish, Dutch, French, and English historical atlases offers America its appurtenance to history, that outsiders such as German and Prussia would have found it necessary to publish vulgarity based on loosely held opinions and figures generated by discoverers of Spanish contract.

They may have reached a land – any land – may have aided others in lands afar but couldn’t have imagined that the map of US as there is now known to us. Columbus from the Islands associated with him would be looking at the dates of his voyages, would be considering to what extent his claims or the claims associated with him by La Casas who Florentines called a liar in his time, and students of Paulo Toscanneli also hinted that Las Casas history on Columbus was set to parry his friend as the discover of America – if at all they knew what America was?

These people could have known American as one giant continues land that it was in fact an Island of some sort or at least bonded by water from Sea to Shining Sea, else the maps showing as an Island could as well mean the Caribbean or a West Indies formally or not formally known.  If Vespucci is considered to be the man who discovered Brazil or that the land he discovered was Brazil, it should be difficult to compose such a theory going at the fact that Spanish gentlemen and pilots were not permitted to sail anywhere close to the area that is now Brazil.

The other issue is that document of Tordesila of 1494 involving limits of the arguments about the Portuguese request to the Pope to amend the division of the territories to eventually include Brazil, was ultimately untrue, for how could the Pope and the Portuguese had in 1494 discovered a land that entered into the Annals of World Maps in 1515, believed to have been visited by agents of Vera Cruz and Cabral in 1500. Both parties including the oath and innuendo of Alonzo Ojeda who claimed to have seen Vespucci on his return from what was called Brazil is in of itself an unfulfilled assertion, for if this was half true and if for now such half-truth are accepted as true or factual as a construct, the likely possibilities of this meeting would be in Florida where the samples of the wood called Brazil was also said to have been collected by some of the explorers.

Historically the sketch of Vespucci's visit to the New World – discovering Another Land – makes it’s clear that these were perhaps one of the series of land and Islands between Cuba and the United States. In this case, it may well be the land of beautiful flowers or the Beresi (The Land of the Bless'd) alternately described as Brazil therefore a generic term for beautify lands mainly associated with a type (Escrovas or Dye wood) which Vespucci brought a sample. It was customary to bring samples of dye woods from lands afar, it is usually a summation of the probable fact, but it was gradually and eventually a ploy or.....