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	<title>My Father&#039;s America</title>
	<link>http://jameslorenz.com/myfathersamerica</link>
	<description>A Tribute Blog</description>
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		<description><![CDATA[Several dramatic events in other parts of Europe suddenly revived Spanish interest in those far-off islands of the Indies. From Portugal came the news that a fleet of four ships had set out under the command of Vasco da Gama to reach the Indies by the long and difficult way around Africa. The Portuguese were [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://jameslorenz.com/myfathersamerica/2010/09/09/516/</link>
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		<description><![CDATA[In October 1495, four more Spanish ships arrived at Isabela. Ferdinand and Isabela had meanwhile heard numerous complaints against their Admiral, especially from Pedro Margarit and his band, and they had finally decided to send out a royal commissioner to investigate these complaints. It did not take Juan Aguada very long to prepare his report [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://jameslorenz.com/myfathersamerica/2010/09/08/514/</link>
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		<description><![CDATA[As might have been expected, Pedro Margarit&#8217;s band of plunderers had caused serious problems on the island. Raiding the interior regions for treasures, the Spaniards had quickly found that they could not exist for very long on Indian maize and fruits, and after eating some ‘Indian rats’ and lizards, many were suddenly overcome by sickness [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://jameslorenz.com/myfathersamerica/2010/09/07/512/</link>
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		<description><![CDATA[With three small caravels, a mere handful of Spaniards, and a few Indian guides, Christopher Columbus had left Isabela on April 24. Five days later they reached the coast of Cuba, still unaware that this was an island, still convinced, in fact, that this was the coast of the Asian mainland. According to Aristotle&#8217;s ancient [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://jameslorenz.com/myfathersamerica/2010/09/06/510/</link>
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		<description><![CDATA[With the settlement barely established, Columbus himself organized a reconnaissance party to explore the interior of Hispaniola. 500 men marched off in military formation, drums beating, trumpets sounding, and banners displayed &#8211; a spectacle that soon was to become an all too familiar and usually ominous sight to all the Indians of Spanish America. Entering [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://jameslorenz.com/myfathersamerica/2010/09/05/508/</link>
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		<description><![CDATA[Columbus had already made some enemies among the new settlers when he refused to take bloody revenge on Chief Caonabo for the destruction at Navidad; now, however, he added insult to injury. Impatient to get the settlement on its feet, all the men were put to work felling trees, cutting stone, building shelters, and digging [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://jameslorenz.com/myfathersamerica/2010/09/04/506/</link>
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		<description><![CDATA[There was little reason to linger at St. Croix, and a hard wind soon blew the fleet toward a group of little islands which Columbus named Las Once Mil Virgenes, the Virgin Islands, after the 11,000 legendary virgins who were supposed to have been massacred by the Huns in the 5th century. On November 19th, [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://jameslorenz.com/myfathersamerica/2010/09/03/504/</link>
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		<description><![CDATA[Columbus had meanwhile submitted to Ferdinand and Isabella a detailed plan for the colonization of the Indies. Hispaniola would first be settled by some 2,000 volunteer emigrants who would build and live in three or four towns. Priests were to be sent out to these settlements, not only for the benefit of these Spaniards, but [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://jameslorenz.com/myfathersamerica/2010/09/02/502/</link>
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		<description><![CDATA[No one at the time seems to have questioned the fact that Christopher Columbus had indeed done what he had set out to do. The lands discovered was undoubtedly the easternmost end of the Asiatic continent, and the coast of Hispaniola therefore must be the northern end of Japan. A direct route to the lands [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://jameslorenz.com/myfathersamerica/2010/09/01/499/</link>
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		<description><![CDATA[Hispaniola proved to be a fateful discovery. While the crews were still salvaging provisions and equipment from the wreck of the Santa Maria, many of the island&#8217;s natives came to the shore and offered gold in exchange for the white men&#8217;s possessions. They brought rings and necklaces, even entire masks of gold, and assured Columbus [...]]]></description>
		<link>http://jameslorenz.com/myfathersamerica/2010/08/31/497/</link>
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