1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created (69 page)

  46
King’s hopes for mission: Royal Audiencia of New Spain. Instructions to Legazpi, 1 Sep. 1564. In B&R 2:89–100.

  47
“and Legazpi”: García-Abásolo 2004:231. Legazpi, García-Abásolo says, “always thought that his final destination would be to come to China.… Probably, if he had lived a few more years, Legazpi would have sponsored a diplomatic mission to China” (235). See also, Cortés 2001:266–77 passim, 444–47 (hoping to explore Pacific) and the many abortive China missions chronicled in Ollé Rodríguez 2002.

  48
Legazpi’s first years in the Philippines: Legarda 1999:16–31; Guerrero 1966:15–18; Rubio Mañé 1970, 1964. See also, Sanz y Díaz 1967:35–52.

  49
Beeswax (footnote): Cervancia 2003; Ruttner 1988:284 (bee ranges); Cowan 1908:73, 89, 105 (scale insect).

  50
Maujao trading place: Author’s visit, interviews with Chiquita Cabacay-Jano and Rudmar T. Cabacay (Bulalacao development office); Horsley 1950:74–75 (parasols, drums); Legazpi, M. L. d. Letter to Philip II, 23 Jul. 1567. In B&R 2:233–43, at 238. See also, Laufer 1908:251–52; Li 2001:76–79.

  51
Encounter at Maujao: Legarda 1999:23–24; Zuñiga 1814:vol. 1, 110–11; Laveçarism G. d. 1575? “Part of a Letter to the Viceroy.” In B&R 3:291–94, at 291–92; Anon. (Martín de Goiti?). 1570. Relation of the Voyage to Luzon. In B&R 3:73–104, at 73–77 (all quotes). The Spaniards went on to Manila, where they protected some Chinese junks in a trade dispute and also sacked the town (ibid.:94–96, 101–04; Anon. 1571. Relation of the Conquest of the Island of Luzon. In B&R 3:141–72, at 148–57). The distances involved are in “leagues,” which I take as the
legua común
of 3.46 miles (Chardon 1980). See also, Sanz y Díaz 1967:53–59.

  52
Chinese visit Manila: Pacheco Maldonado, J. 1572. Carta en Relación de Juan de Maldo-nado Tocante al Viaje y Poblacion de la Isla de Luzón en Filipinas, 6 May. Quoted in Ollé Rodríguez 2006:32, 1998:227–30; Riquel et al. 1573:235; Zuñiga 1814:vol. 1, 125–26.

  53
Initial exchange in Manila: Lavezaris, G. d. 1573. Affairs in the Philippines, after the Death of Legazpi, 29 Jun. In B&R 3:179–89, at 181–84; Riquel H. et al. 1573. News from the Western Islands. ibid.: 230–49, at 243–49 (“delighted,” 245); see also the letter from the viceroy of New Spain quoted on ibid.: 226, note 75.

  54
New globalized era, impact of silver trade and slavery: See Chaps. 3 and 4.

  55
China’s superiority: Pomeranz 2000:31–107; Frank 1998: Chap. 4.

  56
Spanish inability to export European goods to China: Enriquez, M. 1573. Letter to Philip II, 5 Dec. In B&R 3:209–19, at 212 (“not already possess”), 214. The Chinese were equally blunt: “China trades in Luzon solely for the purpose of obtaining
feringhee
[foreign] silver coins,” wrote Provincial Governor Xu Xueju. The foreigners had nothing else China needed (Xu, X. Initial Report on Red-Haired Foreigners. In Chen et al. eds. 1962:4726–27). See also Marks 2007:60–62.

  57
“revolutionary events”: Song 2007:2. See Chap. 5.

  58
“Asian train”: Frank 1998:277.

  59
History of Legazpi-Urdaneta monument: De Borja 2005:17, 128.

  60
World money supply triples: Garner 2006, using updated data from TePaske and Klein; Morineau 1985:571–99. By 1650 the Americas had produced about thirty thousand tons of silver.

  61
Potosí geology: Bartos 2000; Waltham 2005.

  62
Potosí as biggest American city: See Chap. 3.

  63
Silver processing, transportation, fleet: Craig and Richards 2003:1–12 (sixty-five pounds, table 1–1); Goodman 2002:3–5; Cobb 1949:33–36; Acarete du Biscay 1698:54–57.

  64
Deserted Andean fields: Studies of the abandonment of highland agriculture are few, but Denevan sums the evidence and concludes that it was “primarily related to sixteenth-century population decline” (2001:201–10, quote at 210).

  65
1600 volcano: De Silva and Zielinski 1997.

  66
Proportion of silver shipped to China: The two sides of the debate are encapsulated in Garner 2006 and Flynn and Giráldez 2001. See Chap. 4.

  67
Spanish and European financial woes: Standard accounts include Kamen 2005, Elliott 2002, Lynch 1991 (price revolution, 174–84), Parker 1979 (esp. “War and Economic Change: The Economic Costs of the Dutch Revolt,” 178–203), and Hamilton 1934. Spain’s woes are succinctly summarized in Flynn 1982:esp. 142–43. A detailed study of Spain’s flight into silver-hued bankruptcy is Carande 1990, esp. vol. 3. Silver production decline: Garner 2007:figs. 6, 8 (using updated, unpub. figures from John TePaske); Garner 1988:fig. 2; Brading and Cross 1972:fig. 2. The idea of a “general crisis” apparently originated with Roland Mousnier in 1954.

  68
“Spain’s wars”: Flynn (pers. comm.) based his summary on Parker 1979b, c.

  69
Little Ice Age in Europe: Parker 2008:1065, 1073 (Ireland); Fagan 2002 (frozen sea, 137); Reiter 2000 (Greenland, 2); Lamb 1995:chap. 12; Ladurie 1971 (wine, 52–56; bishop, 180–81).

  70
Sunspots, volcanos, and Little Ice Age: Eddy 1976 (Maunder Minimum); Briffa et al. 1998 (volcano impact); Jansen et al. 2007:476–78 (skepticism on sunspots, volcanos); Hegerl et al. 2007:681–83 (sunspots and volcanos). The 1641 eruption was heard throughout the Philippines—a “noise in the air of musketry, artillery, and war drums” (Anon. 1642. News from Filipinas, 1640–42. In B&R 35:114–24, at 115).

  71
Ruddiman’s hypotheses: Ruddiman 2003, 2005, 2007. His additional argument that deforestation and burning affected climate as much as eight thousand years ago has been the subject of attacks (e.g., Olofsson and Hickler 2008) and defenses (e.g., Müller and Pross 2007). Accepted by many is the connection between American pandemics and CO
₂
decline (Dull et al. 2010; Nevle and Bird 2008; Faust et al. 2006).

  72
Fire maintains prairies: Anderson 1990; Stewart 2002:113–217; Clouser 1978. For the role of fire in worldwide grasslands, see Bond et al. 2005.

  73
Indian fire and eastern forest: Johnson 2005:85 (“Parkes in England”); Stewart 2002:70–113; Williams 1989:chap. 2, esp. 43–48; Cronon 1983:48–52; Day 1953.

  74
Thirty-one sites: Nevle and Bird 2008.

  75
Change in landscape after epidemics: Dull et al. 2010 (“carbon budget,” 765); Denevan 2007, 1992:377–79; Wood 1977:38–39 (“travel through”).

  76
Little Ice Age in North America: Parker 2008:1067; Pederson et al. 2005 (forest composition); Anderson 2004:100 (livestock); Kupperman 1982.

  77
Climate, mosquito, disease, slavery: See Chap. 4.
A. quadrimaculatus:
Reinert et al. 1997; Freeborn 1923. Paradoxically, drought also favors the mosquito, because it kills off aquatic predators on its larvae (Chase and Knight 2003); the species thrives on climatic disturbance.

  78
Introduction of horses: Hämäläinen 2008 passim; Calloway 2003:chap. 6; Holder 1974.

  79
Mexico City and Acapulco: Chap. 8, Schurz 1939:371–84; Gemelli Careri 1699–1700:vol. 6, 5–16.

  80
1637–41 volcanos, decline in silver: Garner 2007:esp. figs. 1–3 (silver); Atwell 2005 (silver); Atwell 2001:32, 36, 62–70 (volcanos).

  81
Famine and unrest in China: Parker 2008:1058–60, 1063–65. See Chap. 5.

  82
Greatest cities in 1500: Chandler 1987:478–79; see also, Eggiman 1999, De Vries 1984. The sole exception to the rough thirty-degree rule is Beijing, the northern capital of a country whose population was concentrated to the south. Note: I adjust Chandler’s list for sub-Saharan African and indigenous American cities, which he underestimates consistently. Explanations follow.
Tenochtitlan:
Typical estimates for the whole conurbation range from 1 to 1.5 million, with Tenochtitlan assigned, somewhat arbitrarily, a fifth to a quarter of the total (see, e.g., Smith 2002:57–59; Sanders 1992).
Qosqo:
Population numbers are even more uncertain, but recent estimates are between 100,000 and 200,000, based on Spanish colonial accounts (typically higher numbers) and archaeological surveys (typically somewhat lower). See, e.g., D’Altroy 2002:114 (100–150,000); Cook 1981:217–19 (150–200,000); Agurto Calvo 1980:122–28 (125,000).
Gao:
Data are poor, but a late-sixteenth-century census of compound houses in the central city came up with a population of forty to eighty thousand; presumably as many or more surrounded the central zone. “Such a size and population may sound exaggerated.… But we must remember that Gao was the epicenter of an empire that extended over 1,400,000 sq. km (500,000 square miles)” (Hunwick 1999:xlix). The nineteenth-century traveler Henry Barth, who saw the ruins in relatively undisturbed condition, estimated that Gao “had a circumference of about six miles” (Barth 1857–59:vol. 3, 482).
Paris:
Bairoch, Bateau, and Chévre estimate it at 225,000 in 1500 (cited in DeLong and Shliefer 1993:678). Chandler (1987:159) estimates Paris in 1500 at 185,000 by multiplying a 1467 estimate of the number of men who could bear arms (28–30,000) by 6 to obtain 174,000, which rises for unexplained reasons (migration?) to 185,000 in 1500. The factor of 6 seems high—indeed, Chandler uses 5 for Paris on a similar estimate a century before.

  83
Change in cities: Acemoglu et al. 2002.

CHAPTER
2 /
The Tobacco Coast

    1
Introduced earthworms: Author’s interviews, Hale, Reynolds, Bohlen; Frelich et al. 2006; Hendrix and Bohlen 2002:esp. 805–06, table 4; Reynolds 1994; Lee 1985:156–59.

    2
Rolfe: Price 2005:154–58; Townsend 2004:88–96; Haile ed. 1998:54–56; Robert 1949:6–9. Occasionally St. John’s, Newfoundland, is cited as the first long-lasting English colony, but most historians believe it had no permanent population before 1610.

    3
“Drinking” tobacco: Ernst 1889:141–42; Apperson 2006:6.

    4
Types of tobacco: Horn 2005:233; Robert 1949:7–8; Arents 1939:125; Strachey 1625:680 (“biting taste”).
N. rustica
was often so strong as to be hallucinogenic, which some colonists clearly enjoyed. Smoking, Thomas Hariot said, led to “manie rare and wonderful experiments” (Hariot 1588:n.p.[17]).

    5
Rolfe and tobacco: Arents 1939:125. See also, Hamor 1615:820, 828 (“sweet, and strong”); Velasco, A. d. 1611. Letter to King of Spain, 26 May. In Brown 1890:vol. 1, 473.

    6
English tobacco mania: Laufer 1924b:3–48; “C. T.” 1615:5 (silver); Rich 1614:25–26 (seven thousand tobacco houses).

    7
Tobacco exports: For export figures, see below. Size of barrels: author’s visit, Jamestown archaeological site.

    8
Ballast: Given that ship ballast is now viewed as a prime source of biological introductions (e.g., Bright 1988:167), it is surprisingly little studied. According to one nineteenth-century nautical textbook, ballast usually consisted of “iron, stone, or gravel, or some similar material,” though “in some Colonial and other ports sand only is to be had” (Stevens 1894:75–76).

    9
Earthworms as engineers: Darwin 1881 (“organized creatures,” 313); Edwards 2004:4 (mass of worms, turnover rate).

  10
Ice Age and worms: James 1995. The Ice Age didn’t kill
all
northern American worms. But all common earthworms in North America today are imports, mostly from Europe and Japan.

  11
Ecological impacts of introduced earthworms: Author’s interview, Hale; Frelich et al. 2006:1239 (see fig. 1), 1236, 1238 (soil density), 1237 (impact on nutrients), 1241 (litter), 1241 (understory plants); Bohlen et al. 2004a:8 (nutrients); Bohlen et al. 2004b:432 (clears understory); Migge-Kleian et al. 2006 (declines in invertebrates, mammals, birds, lizards). Specific impact of
L. terrestris:
Proulx 2003:18; Tiunov et al. 2006. Impact of
L. rubellus:
Bohlen et al. 2004b:432; Tiunov et al. 2006:1226. Earthworms may promote invasions by exotic species (Heneghan et al. 2007).

  12
Goal of colony: Horn 2005:41–42, 55–56, 80–81; Price 2005:21–22, 75–76. The colonists’ instructions commanded them to hunt for “any minerals” and to set up camp on a river flowing from the northwest, “for that way you shall soonest find the other sea.” (Haile ed. 1998:19–22). The company charter (McDonald ed. 1899:1–11) concerns itself with only three things beyond survival and defense: converting the natives (¶II); obtaining “Gold, Silver, and Copper” (¶IX); and trading with “any other Foreign Country” (¶XVI). In part the English believed there was gold and silver because of the claims of a previous English visitor to North America (Ingram 1883; DeCosta 1883).

  13
First representative body, first slaves: See below.

  14
Jamestown landing: Bernhard 1992:600–01; Billings 1991:5; Kelso 2006:14. The number of colonists is disputed. Bernhard and Kelso, agreeing with George Percy (Haile ed. 1998:98), argue for 104 (105 sailed, 1 died en route). But Kelso and Straube (2004:18) and Kupperman (2007:217) use 108; Price (2005:15) calls it at “105 or so.”

  15
Jamestown settlers: Visitors to the Jamestown archaeological site find lists of “Jamestown settlers.” The same language turns up in Wikipedia and newsmagazine headlines (Lord 2007).

  16
Tsenacomoco: Variant spellings include Tsenacomacah, Tsenacommacah, and Tsenacommacoh. I use “empire” following Fausz 1977:68–70.

  17
Began with six villages: Strachey 1612:615. For accounts of Powhatan’s empire building, see Rountree 2005:chap. 4 and Fausz 1977:56–68.

  18
Powhatan domain boundaries: Hatfield 2003:247; Rountree 2005:40; Turner 1993:77.

  19
Tsenacomoco’s size and population in 1607: Subject to scholarly debate since Thomas Jefferson (1993:220) made the first population estimate (8,000 mi
²
, 8,000 people). Recent estimates include Feest 1973 (14,300–22,300 people); Turner 1973 (18,550 km
²
[7,160 mi
²
], 10,400 people); Fausz 1977:60 (“in the neighborhood of twelve thousand”); Turner 1982 (16,400 km
²
[6,332 mi
²
], 12,940 people); Rountree 1990:15 (16,500 km
²
[6,370 mi
²
], 13,000–14,300 people); Rountree and Turner 1994:359 (“slightly less than 6,500 square miles”; “some 13,000 persons”); McCord 2001 (“sparse” population); Hatfield 2003:fig. 1 (about 6,200 mi
²
); Turner 2004 (13,000–15,000 people); Horn 2005:16 (“perhaps 15,000 people”); and Rountree 2005:13 (“about 15,000”), 40. I follow Rountree and Horn.

  20
“of western Europe”: Williams 1989:33.

  21
Powhatan as man and domain: Rountree 1990:7; Rountree 2005:33. Allen (2003:64–67) explains the derivation of the name. His subjects addressed him by his common name, Wahunsenacawh (Strachey 1612:614).

  22
Powhatan’s capital, residence, appearance: Author’s visit, archaeological site; Gallivan et al. 2006 (geography, fig. 3.1); Gallivan 2007 (town map, fig. 2); Smith 2007a:17, 22 (“expresse”), 53–54; Smith 2007b:270 (“a vault”), 296–97 (pearls, divan); Strachey 1612:614–19 (“king’s house” 615); Rountree 2005:29–35.

  23
Lack of domesticated animals: Strachey 1612:637; Crosby 1986:172–94; Diamond 1999:160–75. The Powhatan, like other Indians in eastern North America, had only dogs and hawks, the latter of which were not domesticated so much as tamed (Anderson 2004:34–37).

  24
Criteria for domestication, tally of domesticated animals: E. O. Price 2002; Mason ed. 1984. The number of birds is disputed, one issue being whether caged birds like parakeets and canaries are domesticated.

  25
English landscapes: Anderson 2004:84–90.

  26
Native agriculture methods: Smith 2007b:279; Strachey 1612:676–77; Spelman 1609:492.

  27
Indian maize field size: Maxwell 1910:73; Smith 2007b:284 (“their fields or gardens [are] some 20 acres, some 40. some 100. some 200”). Strachey (1612:626) noted that “so much ground [in one town] is there cleared and open” that with “little labor” the colonists could plant corn “or make vineyards of two or three thousand acres.” Edward Williams argued (1650:13) that colonists need not fear the labor of opening up the forest, because of the “immense quantity of Indian fields cleared already to our hand.” Scholarly summaries include Rountree et al. 2007:34–35, 41–42, 153. Citing another figure by Strachey (1612:636), Rountree (1990:280, note 22) argues that most fields were one to two hundred feet on a side. Strachey also reported that plants were separated from each other by “4 or 5 foot” and “commonly” bore two small ears, which would indicate that a 150’ x 150’ household field would yield about three thousand ears—food for a month or two for the “six to twenty” residents of each house (1612:636, 676). (Native maize ears were less than half the size of typical modern ears.) In anthropological annals one rarely encounters people who take the trouble to clear land for cereals but not enough to use them as staples, as Strachey’s second, smaller estimate suggests.

  28
Palisades, absence of fencing: Rountree 2005:42; Rountree and Turner 1998:279; Rountree et al. 2007:38.

  29
Meaning of fences, domestic animals in England: Anderson 2004:78–90.

  30
Use of “abandoned” fields and plants on them: Rountree, Clarke, and Mountford 2007:42; Rountree 2005:9, 56; Rountree 1993a:173–74.

  31
Impact of beaver: Hemenway 2002; Naiman et al. 1988. There is a European beaver, but it had been hunted to extinction in Britain.

  32
Tuckahoe: Author’s visits, Jamestown; Smith 2007b:276, 391; Rountree et al. 2007:43–44, 124; Rountree 2005:12, 1990:52–53; Strachey 1625:679.

  33
Smoke and fire observable from sea: De Vries 1993:22 (“it is seen”); Bigges 1589:38 (“great fire[s]…are very ordinarie all alongst this coast,” 132).

  34
Indian hunting by fire: Smith 2007a:14 (“over the wood”); Mann 2005:248–52; Williams 1989:32–49; Krech 1999:104–06; Byrd 1841:80–81.

  35
Effects of native burning: Miller 2001:122; Wennersten 2000:chaps. 13–15; Pyne 1999 (“into metals,” 7), 1997a:301–08, 1997b, 1991 (“corridors of travel,” 504); Pyne et al. 1996:235–40; Rountree 1993b:33–38 (paths); Hammett 1992; Williams 1989:32–49; Byrd 1841:61 (“all before it”); White 1634:40 (“without molestation”). Like White, John Smith insisted that “a man may gallop a horse amongst these woods” (2007b:284), as did a seventeenth-century chronicler from Maryland (“The Woods for the most part are free from underwood, so that a man may travel on horsebacke, almost any-where” [Anon. 1635:79]). So commonly was the Virginia forest understood to be open that William Bullock, before his first visit there, explained (1649:3) that in Virginia people can see “above a mile and a half in the Wood, and the Trees stand at that distance, that you may drive Carts or Coaches between the thickest of them, being clear from boughs a great height.” (Bullock 1649:3). Among the first sights that greeted the Jamestown colonists was a big fire-created clearing (Percy 1625?:90–91).

  36
Jumble of ecological zones: Rountree 1996:4–14.

  37
Smith tales in
True Travels
: Smith 2007c (early years, 689–94; “to Rome,” 693; “Stratagem,” 696; “such like,” 703; single combats, 704–06; slavery, 717–18; “his necke,” 720; “braines,” escape and flight, 730–33; African piracy, 741–43). See also, Kupperman ed. 1988:introduction.

  38
Skepticism, support of Smith: Adams 1871; Fuller 1860:vol. 1, 276 (“proclaim them”). Adams’s motives: Rule 1962 (“aristocracy,” 179). Refutations of skeptics: Striker 1958; Fishwick 1958; Striker and Smith 1962 (“Al Limbach,” 478); Barbour 1963; Kupperman ed. 1988:2–4. A popular satirical poem,
The Legend of Captaine Jones,
appeared in 1630, mocking Smith’s boastfulness.

  39
Smith irritates social betters: Like a modern populist, Smith mocked the milieu of “Parliaments, Plaies, Petitions, Admiralls, Recorders, Interpreters, Chronologers, Courts of Plea, [and] Justices of peace” (2007c:329) inhabited by politically connected gentlemen like the colony leaders. In return, they denounced him (Wingfield 1608?:199–200; Percy 1625?:502; Ratcliffe [in Haile ed. 1998:354]; and Archer [ibid.:352–53]). Attempts to pass new sumptuary laws are described in Kuchta 2002:37–39. Percy’s trunk is described in Nicholls ed. 2005:213–14.

  40
Smith’s version of capture: Smith 2007b:316–23 (“from death,” 321; “with hunger,” 323).

  41
Skepticism on Pocahontas story: The two varying accounts are from 1608 (Smith 2007a) and 1624 (Smith 2007b). Rountree (2005:76–82) argues, convincingly to my mind, that at most Pocahontas was playing a part in a ritual whereby Powhatan made Smith his vassal (Horn 2005:66–71; Kupperman 2007a:228; Allen 2003:46–51; Richter 2001:69–78). The lovelorn women who succored Smith are cataloged by Townsend (2004:52–54) and Smith himself (2007b:203–04). Films include
The New World
(2005),
Pocahontas
(1995), and
Captain John Smith and Pocahontas
(1953). Popular accounts are divided on accepting the story (Price 2005:59–69, 241–45; Horwitz 2008:334–37).

  42
Smith story obscures real story: Kupperman 2007a.

  43
English monarchy’s debts, forced loans: Homer and Sylla 2005:122; Croft 2003:71–82; Scott 1912:vol. 1, 16–27, 52–54, 133–40.

  44
“Slave of Wickedness”: Barlow 1681:2–6 (all quotes). This is the most common seventeenth-century translation of the encyclical
Regnans in Excelsis
(1570).

  45
Spanish colonies: Pre-Jamestown Spanish incursions included San Miguel de Gualdape (founded in 1525, probably in South Carolina [see Chap. 8]), Santa Rosa Island (1559, off the Florida panhandle), San Agustín (1565, now the city of St. Augustine, Florida), Guatari (1566, in South Carolina), San Antonio (1567, in southwestern Florida), Tequesta (1567, in southeastern Florida), Ajacán (1570, near Jamestown), San Pedro de Mocama (1587, on an island near the present Georgia-Florida border), Santa Catalina de Guale (early 1590s, on another Georgia island), Tolomato (1595, on the Georgia coast), Santa Clara de Tipiqui (1595, on the same coast), Talapo (1595, on the same coast), Santo Domingo de Asao (1595, on the same coast), San Pedro y San Pablo de Puturiba (1595, on the same island as San Pedro de Mocama), San Buenaventura de Guadalquini (1605, on another Georgia island), and San Joseph de Sapala (1605, on yet another). This list is not complete; in some cases sources differ on the proper spelling and exact date of founding. For details on Ajacán, see Lewis and Loomie 1953. Many more were founded after Jamestown, among them Santa Fe.