Chapter 5

I was alone in a strange town, but I felt happy. I was once more surrounded by the sounds of my native tongue, and I had a purse full of gold maravedis. I had received my dues for the voyage although the record of how many cod each man had caught had been lost when the ship was driven ashore. However, I was given an extra share of the money that the captain had obtained when he sold the strange furs for more than he would have obtained from selling the salted bacalao because it was my time in the village of the Beothuk that made them friends rather than enemies; and it was my gift of a knife that had begun the trade between the two camps. We felt that we had made the better bargain, because the furs were such a novelty in Bermeo that we obtained an excellent price without having to haggle. I did not tell the crew about my nights with Demasduit, and kept my mouth shut when the captain explained to the crew why he was giving me more than others.

Now, it was early in the year of Our Lord 1503, and I was 16 years old, and without any obligations to anyone. However, I had now tasted life at sea, and also my time living with the Beothuk had given me a desire for adventure, and my nights with Demasduit had made me want to investigate the delights of other women. Consequently, instead of returning home to Getaria where I would have to live under my mother’s roof and be under her watchful eye, I set my face towards Granada where I could rest and decide on what I wanted to do next.

Granada was not a Basque city; indeed, it lay many kilometres and many days’ journey to the south of my native coast, but I knew that in 1492, the Catholic Kings, Ferdinand and Isabella, had finally driven the last Moorish Sultan from his Kingdom of Granada. I had met several Mozarabes who had remained in Spain after the expulsion of Muslims and Jews in 1492 by converting to Christianity, so I knew that the general who was responsible for taking Granada was called Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba. I decided to travel to Granada and seek service under this famous general.

Although I had a purse full of maravedis, I did not want to let it be known that I had money. Therefore, I looked for a trading ship that was going to the Mediterranean, but that would call at the port of Sanlúcar de Barrameda at the mouth of the river Guadalquivir which was to become a river of great significance later in my life. From there, I could easily make my way to Granada. I was in luck as there was a ship about to depart on its way to trade with Venice. I talked to the captain and joined the ship as a mariner on the understanding that I would only be employed until we arrived at the port of Sanlúcar de Barrameda. I did not want to seem different, and as a 16-year-old I knew that I could not attempt to pay for my passage because this would arouse suspicions that I had money, and I might not wake from sleep one night as a result of a knife in my ribs from a sailor who wanted to steal my money. So, I hid my purse full of maravedis in a small chest that I had bought to store my personal belongings including my wolf pelt, worked my passage and was paid for it.

At this time of year, the weather was good, and we made good time to the port where I would disembark. The voyage was uneventful, as we sailed along the north coast of Spain and turning south, we stayed close to the coast of Portugal. I learned from the captain that the Portuguese had managed to break the monopoly that the Ottoman Turks and the Venetians had on the trade in spices from the Spice Islands far to the east beyond the shores of India. The route that the Portuguese took was to sail south staying close to the coast of Africa and then around the Cape of Good Hope at the southern tip of Africa, which was first rounded by the Portuguese explorer, Bartolomeu Dias in 1488. After that, they stayed close to the coast of Africa before finally heading east across the ocean, by which means in 1498 Vasco da Gama arrived in Calicut on the southeast coast of India. He had few goods to trade that the King of Calicut deemed worthwhile, but he managed to obtain some spices. He returned to Portugal the next year retracing the same route, but the voyage was made very difficult by having to sail against the monsoon winds. He had begun the voyage with 3 ships and 170 men, but only 60 returned to Lisbon because of the hardships, especially scurvy, they suffered during the voyage. However, he delivered a small cargo of spices, including pepper and cinnamon, to the King of Portugal at Sintra which proved that it was possible to trade for spices from India without having to buy them from the Venetians who obtained them from the Turks.

The Spanish found it impossible to sail east to India in order to break the monopoly of the Turks and Venetians, because of the Treaty of Tordesillas agreed in 1494 after the return to Spain of Columbus from what he claimed were the Indies. In this treaty, Portugal and Spain divided the world between them, with Portugal being granted control of all trade to the east of a line drawn running from pole to pole, 370 leagues or 1850 kilometres to the west of Cape Verde islands, and Spain granted control of all land to the west of the line. Hope of gaining control of the spice trade from the Venetians was what encouraged Christopher Columbus to sail west in search of India in 1492. However, in the years following 1492, it became obvious that he had not found a way to India, but that there was a New World to be explored, which led to Spain and Portugal agreeing the Treaty of Tordesillas. Although I was interested in any news about sea voyages to far distant places, my immediate goal was to enter the service of Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba. I did not know what skills I could offer him, but I was sure that he would have need of an experienced mariner because I had learnt that he was about to sail for Naples to expel a French army that had taken control of that kingdom.

The Italian Wars, as they became known, began in 1494 when King Charles VIII of France marched into Italy with 200,000 men to make good his claim to the Kingdom of Naples ruled by Ferdinand II, a cousin to Ferdinand, the King of Castile and Spain. The French easily overwhelmed the Neapolitan defences and on 12th May 1495 Charles had himself crowned Emperor of Naples. The Catholic Monarchs of Spain, Ferdinand and Isabella, were anxious to reverse French success in Naples and selected Fernández de Córdoba to lead an expeditionary force against Charles. Fernández de Córdoba landed in Naples shortly after Charles’ coronation with a force of about 40,000 infantry and 600 light cavalry. Fearful of being trapped in Italy, Charles installed Gilbert de Bourbon as Viceroy of Naples and returned to France with about half of the French forces.

Initially, the light infantry and cavalry under Fernández de Córdoba’s command were no match against the heavily armed French. A lack of training and poor coordination between Spanish and Italian forces compounded the problem. In their first major engagement on 28 June 1495, Fernández de Córdoba was defeated at the Battle of Seminara against French forces led by Bernard Stewart d’Aubigny. After the defeat, Fernández de Córdoba withdrew to implement a rigorous training program and reorganize his army. The Spanish employed effective guerrilla tactics, striking quickly to disrupt French supply lines and avoiding large-scale battles. This strategy had been used effectively in these same places hundreds of years previously by the Roman general who gradually forced the Carthaginian army led by Hannibal to withdraw from Italy and return to Carthage. Gradually, Fernández de Córdoba regained a foothold in the country and then assaulted the French-occupied Italian cities. Within a year, Fernández de Córdoba achieved a decisive victory at Atella, capturing the French viceroy and expelling the remaining French forces from Naples. He also recovered the Roman port of Ostia and returned the captured territories to the Italians by 1498.

However, when the French sent a new army to retake Naples, Fernández de Córdoba returned to Spain and began to organize a more effective Spanish army by devising new tactics including the use of pikes and arquebuses which were heavy guns fired from the shoulder. When I reached Granada, I discovered that Fernández de Córdoba had been ordered by the King and Queen to return to Naples. I left Granada and arrived in Alicante just in time to offer my services as a mariner on the fleet that was being assembled to carry a Spanish army of 6,000 men to retake Naples once more from the French. With this newly equipped army trained in his new tactics of combining the forces of men armed with arquebuses, infantry with pikes, and cavalry in any battle, Fernández de Córdoba quickly occupied the city of Naples and pushed the French forces back across the Garigliano River. Separated by the river, a stalemate ensued with neither side able to make progress. But Fernández de Córdoba strung together a pontoon bridge made of boats and stole across the river on the night of December 29, 1503. The French, commanded by Ludovico II of Saluzzo, had assumed the rain-swollen river was impassable and were taken by complete surprise. Fernández de Córdoba and his army decisively defeated the French with their formations of pikes and arquebuses. They continued to pursue the French and captured the Italian city of Gaeta in January 1504. Unable to mount a defence after these losses, the French surrendered and were allowed to evacuate Italy by sea.

For his success in securing the Kingdom of Naples as a Spanish territory, he was awarded the title of Duke of Terranova and became Viceroy of Naples in 1504. For my part, I was first a mariner on the fleet that brought the troops to Naples and later entered service as a page to Fernández de Córdoba. The reason that I was able to become a page to the Duke was because he learned from the captain of my ship that I had experience of sailing in the far north, and that I had lived among savages. He was curious to learn about my experiences, so he invited me to join him as a page. This was how I learned about the best military tactics and also about how to besiege a city because I was always present when he discussed military tactics with his advisers in case the French decided to return. Although I was an experienced sailor, I had never been involved in warfare, so I took the opportunity to widen my knowledge. The surprise attack across a swollen river at night was often discussed and that is where I learned that surprise was often a better weapon than superiority of troops.

As a page, my duties were light which gave me much time to explore Naples and specially to explore the delights of the beautiful ladies who lived there. That is how I came to learn Italian well as there is no better way to learn a language than in the arms of a beautiful and ardent lover, and the Neapolitan ladies were both beautiful and interested in practising the arts of love with a lusty young foreigner. My experience among the Beothuk had already demonstrated to me that this was the easiest and the most pleasurable way to learn a new language. Thus, I added a knowledge of Italian to my linguistic skills in Euskara, Castilian and Portuguese. Although I had no desire to remain in Naples for long, I found that the country and the customs of the people were very similar to my own homeland. As our Spanish forces had taken control of the Kingdom of Naples and there were no more French forces in the country, I had the opportunity to travel to other parts of Italy.

One of the most important places that I visited in the company of the Viceroy was the Papal States which controlled the central area of Italy, and which had its capital at Rome. Although I had visited Granada in Spain and seen the wonders of the architecture of the buildings and palaces constructed by the Muslims, I was overwhelmed by the grandeur of the churches and buildings of Rome. In 1506 the Viceroy and I travelled to Rome where he went to pay his respects to Pope Julius II who had assumed the papacy in 1505. While the Duke was entertained by the Pope, I spent time in exploring the remains of the Roman Empire such as the Colosseum. While I admired the skill of those ancient builders, I could not help but compare the life of a city filled with history and the life of the Beothuk filled with nature. In many ways, it appeared that the way of life of the Beothuk was superior to that of people who lived in cities because the life of a Beothuk was simpler and with none of the worries of a typical city dweller.

However, I also discovered that there were men living in cities who were driven by desires and ambitions that did not revolve around the pursuit of gold or fame. One day as I was admiring the Colosseum, I came by chance to the church of San Pietro in Vincoli which can be translated as Saint Peter in Chains. When I entered the church to pray, I was unable to concentrate because of noise of the continuous sound of a hammer striking stone. On investigation, I discovered that there was a man working with a hammer and chisel on a huge block of marble. When he paused from his labours, I approached him to enquire about his work. That is how I made the acquaintance of the Florentine artist known as Michelangelo. He had a thin face, deep-set eyes and a nose that had been broken at some time in the past. He was willing to talk to me and he explained that in 1505 he had been commissioned by Pope Julius to design his tomb in the church and to carve several statues to adorn the tomb. The block of marble that he had begun to work on was planned to be a statue of Moses. All I could see was a large block of white marble, so I could only admire the vision of an artist who could transform this piece of stone into a work of art which had previously only existed in the inner eye of his imagination. I revisited the church several times during the month that we spent in Rome and heard him speak with pride of his sculpture of David which he had completed two years previously in Florence and which stood in Piazza della Signoria, in front of the Palazzo Vecchi or Town Hall of Florence. He urged me to visit Florence to see for myself the many works of art that had been commissioned by the Medici family although his statue of David had been commissioned by the Guild of Wool. He also spoke of his plans to paint the ceiling of a church in Rome known as the Capella Magna and which had been built 25 years previously. Unfortunately, I was bound by my service to the Duke and could only travel where he decided to visit, so I was unable to view the statue of David that Michelangelo spoke of with such pride.