news brief: mid-May 2014

Last week there were a number of mainstream and public broadcasting stories around the NSA and their secret activities of  the last decade.

On Fresh Air, a 45 min piece with the producer of a Frontline documentary on the origins of mass surveillance program

The Frontline two hour documentary on the birth and gowth of the surveillance system

A 26 minute interview on Democracy Now! with Glenn Greenwald the journalist that broke the Edward Snowden story July 2013.

Another 44 minute interview on Fresh Air with Greenwald.

In other news, as lack of money for public defenders makes a lie out of the increasingly child-like pledge-of-allegiance coda 'with liberty and justice for all', ...
courts that are skewed toward paying customers, breeds culture where imprisoning those who cannot pay court fees and fines -while strictly illegal - becomes commonplace. NPR has a series of articles.

Floods in Balkans are the worst in over a century. http://t.co/jLz5XtzZ79 pic.twitter.com/h0Vfqm8EE3
— USA TODAY Weather (@usatodayweather) May 20, 2014

New economic book author Thoams Piketty talks - for ninety minutes - with nobel  laureates about problems of increasing economic inequality and ways to back away from that divide.

All Athirst: Birth of Pantagruel: Rabelais On Drought of 1532

Does every Age await their own Godot? The child of Gargantua was so huge when he was born, that the birthing killed his mother. When Pantagruel was born there was such a severe drought that the whole world was thirsty. When he was born the midwives saw,

"... as the mid-wives were waiting to receive the child, there came out first from the mother's belly sixty-eight mule drivers, each one leading by the halter a mule loaded with salt; after these came nine dromedaries loaded with hams and smoked beef-tongues, seven camels loaded with eels, and, finally, twenty-four cartloads of leeks, garlic, onions, and shallots, all of which greatly frightened the said mid-wives." [p. 237]

One of the midwives did speak up and said this plenty was welcome.

"That's a goodly store; and it's a lucky thing, for we drink only in miserly fashion these days.... It is a good sign, for those are the goads of wine.""

Rabelais is setting up the newly born hero here hopefully, as a bringer of wine. The problem was everyone was already thirsty as there had been a great drought for some years. Salt, ham, eels, all very salty and with onions and garlic on mules, camels, carts and drivers, not terribly sweet. Without a drink in sight, more salty foods can only increase the desire. The drought had already been long and this, Rabelais tells us, was the reason the child was given his name. 'You should note,' he tells us,

"... that there was, that year, so great a drought throughout all the land of Africa that thirty-six months, three weeks, four days, and a little more than thirteen hours passed without any rain, and with the sun so intense that all the earth was dried up. It was not more scorched in the time of Elijah than it was then, for there was not a single tree on the earth that had either leaf or flower. The grass was without any green, the river beds were empty, and the fountains were dry; the poor fish, tired of their own element, wandered over the earth, crying horribly; the birds fell from the air for lack of dew; and the wolves, foxes, deer, wild boars, fallow-deer, hares, rabbits, weasels, martins, badgers, and other beasts were to be found dead in the fields, their jaws dropping open."

That was sad enough. The effects on humans was just as bad.

"As for human beings, that was a great pity. You might have seen them with their tongues hanging out, like rabbits which have been running for six hours; some cast themselves into wells, while others crawled into the bellies of cows to find a little shade.... The whole country was at anchor. It was a pitiable thing to see the effort which human beings expended in protecting themselves against the horrible thirst. It was all they could do to save the holy water in the churches from being used up; but an order went out from the council of Messieurs the Cardinals and the Holy Father that no one was to take more than a single lick at it. And so, whenever anyone entered a church, you might have seen a score of poor thirsty devils running up behind the one who distributed the water, their chops open, in the hope of catching some little drop, like the Wicked Rich Man, for they did not want any to go to waste. Oh, how happy that year was the one who had a nice, cool, well-furnished cellar!" [p 235]

As if that weren't bad enough, Rabelais explains that the very saltiness of the sea occurred because the sun had veered off course and grown too close to the earth. Phoebus Apollo in his daily traversing of the sky, carrying the sun in his chariot, one day, lent the duties to his son. It was he, who, going off course, burnt up the earth, the sea, even the Milky Way. The earth became so scorched that it had a tremendous outpouring of sweat, so that even the ocean gave up water, but retained its salt, just like sweat. This is a backwards construction of course, just like many other Rabelais inventions. He affirms that sweat is salty, "... if you care to taste your own," and so, must also be the oceans and the earth.

Others affirm, he tells us, that this very year that Pantagruel was born, the earth was witnessed to sweat great copious drops.

"...[O]ne Friday, when everybody was engaged in devotions and they were having a fine procession, with many litanies and beautiful chants, begging Almighty God that he would deign to look upon them with an eye of mercy in their discomfort -- while this was taking place, there were clearly seen going up from the earth great drops of water, as when someone is sweating copiously. And the poor people began to rejoice, as if it had been something that was to do them good, for as certain of them remarked, there was not a single drop of moisture in the air from which they might hope for rain, and so the earth was supplying the lack." [p. 236]

Not like the source of the Nile, Rabelais counters Seneca, he says. [Samuel Putnam, our translator, in his notes, tells us that the reference to Seneca is probably wrong. But a parallel story might be found in the third book of Seneca's Questiones Naturalium and credited to Theophrastus.] When people tried to catch a capful of this dew as it rose, Rablais declares, it tasted like brine, and was saltier than seawater.

This then was the state of the world when Pantagruel was born. His father named him this on account of the extreme condition they found themselves in. Panta is Greek for 'all' and, Rabelais tells us, Gruel is Hagarene for 'thirsty'. The Hagars were a biblical tribe that attacked the Jews of Saul and, in Rabelais' time, conflated with Muslims in Palestine. Now they are assumed to be the same as Ishmaelites. [p. 238]

But, it cannot be left out, that the Wicked Rich Man, Putnam tells us, is the same told as that rich man in hell that met Lazarus, in the gospel of Luke 16: 19-25. And what about the mother? She was the daughter of the king of the Amaurots that one can find in Thomas More's Utopia. But she was suffocated during childbirth, because the baby was 'so marvelously big and heavy' it could not come to light without killing her. In another sad aside, it is a pity this child did not have a mother in his life. Rabelais deals harshly with her single role in the child's life.

It is assumed today that Rabelais began this story because of a great drought in Europe in the summer of 1532.
____________________________________________________
from pp. 234 - 238: Samuel Putnam: Portable Rabelais: Viking Portable Library: Second Printing: The Colonial Press Inc. USA, 1955

Bernal Diaz Digest: Last Days With Moctezuma In Mexico: Ch. XCV - CVI

There were a number of things that Cortes & Co. had done in the capital city before he and some dozen others returned to the coast in order to address Panfilo de Narvaez. Cortes and Moctezuma talked about religion, they played a local form of dice. Cortes had messengers sent to instruct those on the coast, at Vera Cruz to melt down the iron from the ships and make great chains and gather those things to be then sent inland, so that ships could be built on the great lake of the Valley of Mexico. Cortes also meted out justice in the capital for those servants of Moctezuma who had killed those Spaniards on the coast. Already, in a few months, far from the desperate and uncertain days before the 'capture' of Moctezuma (however that actually happened), Cortes could witness himself as in control. And Diaz could testify to this as well. All three stories of very different attitude give a picture of a leader at ease, in charge of the present and yet, mindful of the future.

After the brief story in Diaz [ch xcv] where Moctezuma was captured but allowed to have visitors and leave the palace, the captains who killed the Spaniards on the coast were then brought. Diaz also has Moctezuma send for Cortes to come 'for judgement'. He questions them outside of the king's presence, but they confess to being ordered by Moctezuma to kill the Europeans that they found on the coast. Cortes orders for them to be burnt in front of the palace. The names that Diaz gives of those killed in this way were those of the chief 'Quetzalpopoca', referred to now as Cuauhpopoca, and also Coate and Quiavit. He then has Cortes explain that the king should suffer for this betrayal, but because he loves him so, he would rather suffer punishment himself. Moctezuma may have been angry but Cortes talked to him soothingly and they had some sort of emotional exchange, and the incident was allowed to pass. But the news went far and wide in New Spain, according to Diaz.

The story of the exchange of captains of Villa Rica on the coast, replacing Alonso de Grado with one Gonzalo de Sandoval, came next in ch xcvi. De Grado was brought to Mexico and was put into 'newly made stocks' for two days. It was Sandoval that Cortes had ordered to assemble the tools and metal needed to build a ship and chain, and he that sent them back.

They play a local game, like dice, but thrown at ingots with points given and taken away, called totoloque in ch xcvii. They are shown having a good time. A conversation about rank and bad manners among the Europeans is given by Orteguilla, the 'page' to the king. Bernal Diaz also tells of the time that he himself was addressed by the great Moctezuma and given a woman - doña Francisca - for him, on account of his 'noble temperament'. Diaz says he kissed the king's hands on account of this. This too was in the textual context of more stories about European guards (Pedro de Alvarado, Trujillo, Pero Lopez) having bad manners while around the king.

The great chains from the coast arrive, newly fashioned and Moctezuma was informed. In ch xcviii the 'brigantines' are built, and in ch xcix they are given a test and the local lords and Moctezuma given a ride on this new ship in the great Lake of the City. A hawk was captured and given to the Spaniards to see if they could tame it and make it hunt. All on the command of the king.

Elsewhere there were 'close relatives' of Moctezuma that came to know of his condition and apparently had decided to take matters into their own hands. They had risen up to take control where the king had failed to. But when the king heard of this he gave orders that the chief antagonist of these many, Cacamatzin, lord of Texcoco be captured and brought to him. This was done and he was confined to the brig in the lake. After a while, so were the other conspirators. [ch c]

Cortes then asked for and was given maps that had locations for 'gold mines' elsewhere in Mexico controlled lands. Guides were summoned and sent out and the precious ore collected from three separate places. [ch cii-ciii]

In Chapters civ-cvi they talk about money and tribute and gifts and more on allegiance, as in ci.
____________________________________________
in Bernal Díaz de Castillo: The True History of the Conquest of New Spain translated with an introduction and notes by Janet Burke and Ted Humphrey, Indianapolis, Hackett Publishing Co, Inc. 2012

Columbus Along Southern Coast of Cuba: On Second Voyage: mid-May 1494

This week there is news that the wreck of Columbus' pilot ship, the Santa Maria may have been found off the north coast of Hispaniola. The location and the remains seem correct to certain experts. Independent studies of the 15th century artifacts have begun.

On the 13th of May, in 1494, Columbus decided to return to what he thought was the mainland, i.e. Cuba. On the 14th his son tells us, they sailed north from Jamaica and after making Cabo de la Cruz [where there is now a lighthouse] they began heading north-west for a few days. According to his son's biography, the Admiral already was sick with an illness, poor food and no rest.

"As he followed the coast he was overtaken by a heavy thunderstorm with terrible lightning which put him in great danger. His difficulties were increased by the many shallows and narrow channels which he found, and he was compelled to seek safety from those two dangers which demanded opposite remedies. To protect himself from the storm he should have lowered the sails; to get out of the shallows he had to keep them spread. Indeed, if his difficulties had continued for eight or ten leagues he would never have escaped."

There was all these inlets and shoals that continued to make passage more difficult. But it was beautiful, full of birds and the peaceful locals were more attuned to their fishing than the big ships.

"Though they saw large trees on some, the rest were sandbanks which scarcely rose above water level. ... the nearer they came to Cuba the higher and more beautiful these inlets were. Since it would have been useless and difficult to give a name to each one, the Admiral called them collectively El Jardin de la Reina. But if they saw many islands that day, they saw even more on the next and they were on the whole bigger than those they had sighted before.... That day they sighted as many as 160 of these islets, which were divided by deep channels through which the ships sailed." [p. 173]

There were cranes like in Spain, but red. There were sea turtles and those hatching from eggs then, crows, goosanders, sweet-singing small birds and lovely scents that "... seemed to be in a rose garden full of the most delightful scents in the world."

Some locals were fishing with remora, or suckerfish that attach themselves to other aquatic life. The sailors were so intrigued they waited for the locals to end fishing and then invited them aboard ship. They would have given them anything, Columbus' son tells us, but they had little with them but fish.  The Admiral gave them some small objects and they went away happy. But the ships were running out of food and Columbus wondered if they could go much further.
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quotes, pagination from: The Four Voyages, Christopher Columbus, edited, translated and with an introduction by JM Cohen, 1969 and for The Penguin Group, London, 

Francesco Guicciardini Gives Examples For Study of History of Italian Wars

Francesco Guicciardini (1483 - 1540) was born of a well-off connected family in Florence. He was a diplomat, governed Reggio and Modena for the papacy, was a member of Florence's Signoria and wrote a great number of books. Much more about his life, experience, works, the criticism on that, etc. will come later. Here he is, late in life where he gives a kind of prospectus at the beginning of his twenty volume History of the Wars in Italy.

"... Italy for a longSeries of Years having laboured under all such Calamities as the Almighty is wont, in his Displeasure, to inflict on wretched Mortals for their Impieties and Wickedness. From the Knowledge of so many, so various, and so important Incidents, every one may draw Instructions of some sort or other, conducive both to his own and to the Public Good. By numberless Examples it will evidently appear, that human Affairs are as subject to Change and Fluctuation as the Waters of the Sea, agitated by the Winds: and also how pernicious, often to themselves, and ever to their People, are the precipitate Measures of our Rulers, when actuated only by the allurement of some vain Project, or present Pleasure and Advantage. Such Princes never allow themselves Leisure to reflect on the Instability of Fortune ; but, perverting the Use of that Power which was given them to do good, become the Authors of Disquiet and Confusion by their Misconduct and Ambition. " [p. 2]

This is from a 1763 published translation by Austin Parke Goddard into English, compleat with its own period's Capitalization of specific Nouns. The author a man in his 50's, wrote it probably in the late 1530's in Italian. The translator, a man in his 20's, translated it in the 1750's for an English audience. This huge undertaking was also shipped to the Americas and this work used by people like John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, collecting and keeping them in their homes and reading them. Which just goes to show a bit of how widely these have gone on to be read and how they can be read. 

It needs to be mentioned again that Guiccciardini was, as a statesman, a politician as well as a Florentine partisan who, as a family member served also the allied de' Medici clan as partisans in his times, in all manner of Florentine and Italian affairs. It is safe to say that we have a Florentine point of view here when we read Guicciardini describing the Italian wars of his period, and much else and that he lived through them and even played some part in them, later on.

But for the start of the Italian Wars, and the advancement of the French King Charles in 1494 over the Alps, into Italy, Guicciardini places much of the blame on Ludovico Sforza as is commonly accepted in modern times. What he does do that is more surprising, since he was so Florentine and such a servant to Leo X, and Clement VII, is how much blame he puts into the lap of Piero de'Medici, the son of the great Lorenzo. This son Piero led affairs for Florence in the period of the French invasion.

There is no need for citation for this huge amazing, revealing source. It's online at archive.org.

news and opinion early May 2014

Really liked this that I saw the other day:

Ceci n'est pas une lune pic.twitter.com/XU5nPZAZjG
— The Clarke Award (@ClarkeAward) May 7, 2014

That, among other things, is a referent to the famous Rene Magritte painting called, The Treachery of Images, 1929. This currently is housed ironically enough in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art just a few city blocks south of Hollywood. But the silver disc pictured in the tweet above can be readily recognized as the 'Death Star' famous from the 1977 Star Wars movie. It then quotes a character named Obi Wan Kenobi saying, 'that's not a moon', but in french, like the painting of the pipe.

A remarkable breakthrough in conductivity science happened this week.

Big NAVY just solved the Big Oil problem in Big tech advance and nobody noticed?

On May 1 this local article appeared discussing the repeated attempts in Topeka to outlaw wind power generation. This video from May 9 expands and fills out details of this obstruction, for a national audience. More on the policies that state representatives  in Kansas tout.

Word continues to spread about the woes of Kansas' state economy. Hjow Governor Brownback's experiment of cutting taxes for rich while raising sales tax for all has resulted in record revenue shortfalls.

Kansas tax revenues fall while other states see rise as found on http://t.co/IOcmLtlTEU "Questions need answers".
— Barbara Casey (@teachn_oz) May 10, 2014

pic.twitter.com/GrMnu2tgeH
— tmservo433 (@tmservo433) May 2, 2014

But across the country, survey says more millionaires agree to taxes being raised.

A criticism of modern libertarian and far right economists is that they ignore the growth of the middle class and the progress of the New Deal legislation that got the US out of the economic depression of the 1930's. A pretty typical 20th century libertarian look at major banking houses in the world today that demonizes the US  Federal Reserve, pines for a return to the gold standard, in 26 min video. British economist Simon Dixon explains why debt is more real in Britain, 18 min video.

Sights Along The Columbus Itinerary: Cuba & Jamaica: May1494: On Second Voyage

After exploring the northern part of the island Hispaniola, Columbus saw to the end the building of those life-saving mills at Isabela. Then after hearing more reports of gold there, he set out again, back into the sea to try to find more sources of the precious mineral. He appointed men to take charge in Isabela, saw to their abundance of food and pushed off, still not certain where he was going.

On April 24 he left Isabela and the sailed west along the coast. After several days they put in at the island of Tortuga which Columbus had named previously on the first voyage. Encounters with locals along the way were sometimes beneficial with leaders peacefully bearing food and sometimes they were hostile, or, at times, fearfully fleeing. But it was because of the contrary winds that kept them there, they did not reach Mole Saint-Nicolas until April 29. With better weather they began sailing west again and the next day were sailing along the southern coast of Cuba.

Columbus thought this had to be the mainland of Asia. Since he believed that Hispaniola was the island of Japan, this being how he reconciled what he saw with what he had learned from Marco Polo's writings, this new coastline had to be in his mind, the mainland of China. On the 30th of April, his son tells us they put into a large bay. This Columbus called Puerto Grande because the entrance was deep and 150 yards wide. It is now known as Guantanamo, Cuba.

"On the following day [a Thursday in his calendar], which was 1 May, he left this place and sailed along the coast, on which he found very convenient harbours, most beautiful rivers and very high wooded hills, and in the sea, ever since leaving the island of Tortuga, he found great quantities of that weed which he had met in the ocean on his way to and from Spain. As he sailed along the coast many natives of the island came out to the ships in canoes, believing that our people had come down from the sky. They brought us their bread, water and fish, which they gave us gladly, asking for nothing in return. But in order to leave them happy, the Admiral ordered that everything should be paid for and gave them glass beads, hawks' bells, little brass bells and suchlike." [pp 170-71]

The son knew it was Cuba, but the father, our translator tells us, clung to the belief that it was China as long as he could.

On 3 May, Columbus decided to go to Jamaica. The next day sailing south, he sighted it and the following day, anchored next to it. This "... seemed to him the most beautiful island of any he had ever seen in the Indies. An amazing number of natives came out in canoes great and small." There were so many though that they decided to put into a more tranquil harbor and that one Columbus named Puerto Bueno.

"And when the Indians came out from there also, and hurled their spears, the crews of the boats fired such a volley from their crossbows that the natives were compelled to retire with six or seven wounded. Once the fight was over great numbers of canoes came out very peaceably, from neighboring villages, bringing to the ships various foods and otyher articles for sale and barter." [pp 171-72]

Here repairs were made to the ships that were leaking, including the Admiral's which was bringing on water. This took the rest of the week. By Friday, 8 May, they were ready and sailed west along the north edge of Jamaica and managed to round the western end of the island higing the coast. Winds from the south and east checked their progress and after a few days, Columbus decided to return to what he thought was the mainland.

"He was resolved not to turn back until he had sailed five or six hundred leagues and make certain whether it was island or mainland.

Just as the ships were putting to sea a very young Indian came out and said he wanted to go to Castile. He was followed by many of his relatives and other people in canoes, who begged him most insistently to return to the island, but they could not deflect him from his purpose. Indeed, to avoid the tears and groans of his brothers he hid in a place where no one could see him. The Admiral was amazed at this Indian's persistence and ordered that he should be well treated." [p 172]

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quotes, pagination from: The Four Voyages, Christopher Columbus, edited, translated and with an introduction by JM Cohen, 1969 and for The Penguin Group, London, 

KS news apr-may2014: Part One: As Seen On Twitter: Bad News In Kansas; Congress Passes Bad Bills To Make It Worse

It's been a bad couple weeks for the highest levels of government in the US state of Kansas.

Late on 26th April, Tim Carpenter of the local Topeka paper reported that the FBI were investigating the activities of former close aides of Governor Sam Brownback who were acting now as lobbyists for his KanCare policy.

Sources: FBI examines lobbying by Brownback loyalists | http://t.co/lNxwxh0S2y http://t.co/2IG0lliN1R
— neditsimple (@neditssimple) April 28, 2014

On the 28th of April, at town hall type meetings in Goddard and Derby KS, towns outside Wichita, citizens expressed frustrations at attending legislators.

KS speakers at SC #ksleg forum are just plain pissed off. These legislators really managed to make people angry. WE WILL NOT BE SILENCED!
— Steve Maack (@SteveMaack) April 29, 2014

At SCKs Leg forum, spkrs now talking about how extremist lgslatrs have hurt KS hlth care, especially 4 disabled. Man, they r catching hell.
— Larry Smith (@LarrySmith259) April 29, 2014

'you legislators have committed Pearl Harbor on Teachers. And we know how that turned out. See you in November!' #ksed #ksleg
— tmservo433 (@tmservo433) April 29, 2014

This of course, had followed a couple late night session of the House of Representatives in Topeka which passed an education bill by April 8. That budget bill did pay for some things, expanded others, but also did away with the 'due process' portions of public teacher's contracts. Essentially they can be fired now by local administrators without the longstanding legal protections that teachers have been able to rely on for decades. These protections, once fought for, have now been stripped by state fiat and this new policy was then added to a larger budget bill which was signed by Governor Brownback on May 2.

On the 29th and 30th of April there was further news that the state had lost credibility on a couple issues. One was from the Kansas Health Institute that claimed the state was indeed suffering from having refused the Federal Medicaid Expansion $ allotted to the state to cover those not covered through the ACA, aka Obamacare.

"Decision to pass on #Medicaid expansion costing state, panelists say" http://t.co/zoDV7Avlak #Brownback #KSLeg
— KS Democratic Party (@KansasDems) April 29, 2014

The other came the following day when it was discovered that state revenues had fallen $93 million short of expectations. Expectations that the Republican majority and the Governor expected and crowed about as expectations for months.

The very next day, Thursday May 1, came news from Wall Street that the rating agency Moody's had downgraded the state's bond buying capacity because of its budgetary problems.

Moody’s downgrades Kansas’ credit rating, citing sluggish recovery, risky tax plan http://t.co/fg2wa94QDX #ksleg #UniteBlue
— Turn Kansas Blue (@UniteBlueKS) May 2, 2014

Almost predictably, the Governor blamed the president. But, Moody's didn't downgrade other states for their fiscal policies.

Literally everyone told Gov. Brownback tax cuts would cripple state revenue. Now that it's happened he blames Obama pic.twitter.com/d4MHJxKhqQ
— ksleg problems (@kslegproblems) April 30, 2014

Meanwhile others are having problems from state government some of whom want to make it more difficult to utilize sun and wind for energy production.

Kansas, which has neverending wind, wants to repeal energy standards bringing in jobs: http://t.co/syhhYLM1Lb Why? Kochs prefer oil. #ksleg
— Matthew Calcara (@matthewcalcara) May 2, 2014

The very next day, May 2 was a Friday and Congress in Topeka decided to cut the spring legislative session short and pass as many bills as they could. Without warning. The KCStar reported on it the next day.

House, Senate pass $14.6 billion budget http://t.co/v2i0x1DDdO via @kansasdotcom

— neditsimple (@neditssimple) May 3, 2014

Cortes & Malintzin Rush Back To Coast; May 1520

It could be no later than mid-May of 1520 that Cortes went to the coast to confront Panfilo de Narvaez. Sent with 800 men by Diego de Velasquez the Governor of Cuba, Narvaez was his 2nd in command and came bearing a permit from the king to conquer the mainland. They were coming to do this the correct, and imperially sanctioned way. Camilla Townshend tells us that Cortes probably got word of this in April - and that through Moctezuma's messengers - and began planning what to do next. By the end of a month or maybe two, Cortes would ensure Moctezuma's compliance and protection in the city, race off to the coast, and then deal with Narvaez completely, one way or the other.

As Townshend tells it in her lively fashion, activities were already frequent and complex. The translator Malintzin would remain at the center of it all. That winter and early spring were full.

"For now, the Spanish continued their project of gathering information about Moctezuma's territories and resources. Cortes had his host send for mapmakers so that they could give him a report on all possible ports, and he soon learned that the River Coatzacoalcos was the only waterway with the length and depth he was looking for. Though they had never seen it..." [p. 96]

they knew just where to find it and even came back with glowing reports, though what they had found was swampland and would never make a good port. This was where Malintzin was from and she may have been the one that directed them in that direction. Townshend also tells how all three, Cortes, Diaz and Andres de Tapias had said that the report of the additional Spaniards on the coast first came from Mexican messengers. In a footnote (4,21) she adds that it was de Tapias' later Chronicle that said these new ships were depicted by painted signs and hand delivered to Tenochtitlan.

Townshend also concludes that the timing of finding out about Narvaez and, the actual physical capture of Moctezuma, probably happened within the same short number of days. [p.99] Then, some of Narvaez' men arrived, escorted to the great city, sent by Gonzalo de Sandoval. This new captain that Cortes had sent to command Villa Rica, when the old one had grown lax, was doing his job well.  First capturing the Narvaez scouts, he then bundled them off inland to the trek over the mountains to the city.

Once there, Cortes drew them aside and wined and dined them, hoping to learn more about these new arrivals on the coast. He gave them gifts and promised more. He gave orders for men there in the city, to keep Moctezuma under guard and then, quickly assembled a team to go back over the mountains and confront the governor's second in command. Malintzin would go as well. He rode on horseback. She did not. [p. 100]
_______________________________________________
quotes and pagination from Malintzin's Choices: an Indian Woman In The Conquest of Mexico, Camilla Townshend, University of New Mexico Press, as part of the series Dialogos, 2006

Bernal Diaz Details Capture of Moctezuma, ~c. 1520

Messages delivered to Cortes by Tlaxcalan allies, Diaz says, told of the death of the chief constable at the fort called Villa Rica on the coast. Juan de Escalante, his horse, along with six others had been killed along wth many local Totonac locals. Bernal Diaz gives us this story and makes a point to say he's doing just that, prior to explaining, how the Spaniards took Moctezuma in his own capital. But there was more.

He tells us he wants to tell the story completely, "... not to leave anything out, because it must be clearly understood." The backdrop of fear and uncertainty and urgency are made plain by our witness, and renewed every so many pages, as the larger looming context here. It is a dramatic tale, told knowing that, and knowing the hugeness of the stakes, and the credit, Diaz says, was given to God.

News of the death of their captain, and at the hands of servants of their host Moctezuma, had to be a frightful prospect for the few europeans far inland, in the capital city. Diaz, at this point in his tale, after criticizing the version told by Gomara of this moment, credits the Mexica messengers as telling Moctezuma a story of what happened at Nautla. That they were showing him the head of a Spaniard from Leon, named Argüello and his horrified response. That Moctezuma had asked these Mexica messengers bearing the head of Argüello why they did not overwhelm the few Europeans along the coast. The Mexica responded that

"... neither their spears nor arrows nor good fighting was any use to them, that they could not make them retreat, because a great tequecihuata of Castile appeared before them, and that lady frightened the Mexicans and said words to her teules that encouraged them. Then Montezuma believed that the great lady was Saint Mary, who we had told him was our advocate." [p. 223]

Our translator tells us that tequecihuata here meant 'lady' and previously, that teules meant 'lords', leaving them intact as foreign words in his english translated text. I don't mean anything more than to simply point out that these happen to be the words chosen for these, actually, very different kinds of european honorifics of extreme ends of the chivalric spectrum. And Diaz gives them local names in the mouth of Mexican messengers. It just is there to be pointed out. Again, the backdrop of fear, the worse bad news from the coast at Almeria/Nautla, then the reassurance of the aid from the Blessed Virgin Mary for these Spanish conquistadors and then a whole night in prayer begins a new chapter.

Next day, Cortes took with him a small armed contingent, including Diaz as well as the translators, Aguilar and Malintzin, sent word he was coming, and went to Moctezuma's palace. There, after 'paying the usual respects,' Cortes gave a speech to Moctezuma. He accused him of treachery after the personal kindnesses shown. He accused him of giving orders to kill a Spaniard and a horse, leaving out what he was told about the subsequent death of Escalante and the others. He accuses him of betraying Cortes' own kindnesses, of his own men serving Moctezuma's needs and being treated insolently by M's servants and aids. That he knew some aids were talking about having them killed there. "I do not want to start a war," Diaz has Cortes say,

"or destroy this city for these reasons. Everything will be forgiven if right away silently and without making any disturbance, you come with us to our lodgings; you will be served there and looked after very well, as if in your own house. But if you make a disturbance or call out, these captains of mine will immediately kill you; I brought them for no other purpose." [p. 224]

 Moctezuma replied that he had never given any such order and that 'he was not a person that could be ordered to leave' and, he didn't want to. Cortes tried to persuade him, Moctezuma gave better reasons to stay. They talked like that for some time until one of the men grew impatient and vented to Cortes the danger of the situation. Moctezuma saw his emotion and asked Malintzin what he meant. She was reassuring and told him to go with the Spaniards or he might be left for dead. That he would learn the truth if he went with them.

Moctezuma, Diaz confides, told Cortes not to insult him, to take some relatives as hostages instead. Cortes calmly tells the great king that, only he could do this, personally. That it was he that had to go with them and that's all there was left to do. They talked some more, Cortes making sure that no alarm be made to anyone by the great king. Then his litter was called, and they all left together. Moctezuma played his part perfectly and they all then went to the chambers occupied by the europeans. [pp. 225-6]
________________________________________________
from ch xciii -xcv in Bernal Díaz de Castillo: The True History of the Conquest of New Spain translated with an introduction and notes by Janet Burke and Ted Humphrey, Indianapolis, Hackett Publishing Co, Inc. 2012

Letters From Rome Arrive: Sanudo Diaries: April 30, 1519

An interesting anecdote can be inserted here. In it Marin Sanudo offers particulars of provenance, the details of the transmission of certain letters and historical papers. For some reason he summarizes the reception of these into the city, for his diary and us.

 Sanudo Diaries: April 30, 1519; (27:223-23) "Summary of letters from ser Marco Antonio Michiel in Rome to don Nicolo Tiepolo, university laureate, dated 17 April 1519.
According to what ser Piero Sumontio [Pietro Summonte] has told me, when he has completed having the works of Pontano copied in fine and elegant form on good paper, he would like to come to Venice to present them to our most illustrious Signoria. This matter was planned by Pontano while he was still alive." [p. 445]

Our Editors explain that the Venetian Marco Antonio Michiel [1484 - 1552] was a patrician art patron living in Rome who sent word back to Venice on antiquities, painting and 'was well known in literary circles in Venice'. Officially ser Michiel was part of Cardinal Francesco Pisani's entourage in Rome for the years 1518-20. Later, this same cardinal would become bishop of Padua, Narbonne and Ostia and commission the Villa Pisani in Montagnana and the altarpiece there by Paolo Veronese. [p. 459]

nedits: Nicolo Tiepolo was the son of a famous family and would go on to be an ambassador, a courtier and writer of letters.

Pietro Summonte was acting, according to our editors as the agent of Pontano and was then living in Rome. Sanudo explains that he wanted to come to visit Venice personally rather than send someone else but was prevented by illness.

Giovanni Pontano [1429 - 1503] was a poet, politician and writer associated with the Aragonese court of King Ferdinand and Alfonso in Naples. The same Alfonso that saw the French march across the Alps to take his kingdom. Our Editors tell us he came to the court in Naples at eighteen. "Pontano's Opera had already been published by Aldo Manuzio in 1505 and by Manuzio and Torresani in 1513." [p. 445]
__________________________________________
notes from 'our editors', pagination and Sanudo Diaries from Venice, Cita Excellentissima, Selection from the Renaissance Diaries of Marin Sanudo translated by Linda L Carroll,  editors: Patricia H LaBalme and Laura Sanguineti White, published by Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008

more news later April, 2014

A more random than usual bunch of news stories filtered to the top this month. Again, the news is terrible - all month - and as more & more of it piles on there continues that 'blurred' effect. Like the common slush and mud in the roads, this time of year in northern climes, the news gets you mired if you look at it too long. Lots of spinning wheels out there. Here it's been dry, until this week. Plenty of storms this April drift across the US: seasonal, political, economic. I was expecting a call for work but, because of the rains, I haven't received one. I mention all this becasue it speaks to, shows another side to, even reflects on, the transitions that many of the posts that this blog highlights.
Across the country: Guns are allowed everywhere in Georgia now, personal security issues flared, building to building takeovers continued in E Ukraine, the war in Syria stepped up, bombings all over Iraq continued, more drone attacks in Yemen killed scores, the FOXnews standoff in Nevada came and went, killings by law enforcement in Albuquerque, NM outraged: all were like cyclones sucking in anyone who got near, increasing tempers and fueling more divisions.

I said slushy, muddy, blurry, but this also reflects the feeling I get with reading the news of the last several weeks. It's harder to disentangle and lay out into clear neat rows when so much of it is so interconnected. But it's also depressing so I want to turn away from it. I find little time or patience to want to write any down.

There were a couple good news items in there.

President Obama put off deciding about the Keystone XL pipeline which would connect Canada's tarsands oilfields with Texas refineries. Republicans have been pushing it for years while environmentalists have also been saying for years that it would be an ecological disaster. Republicans say it would create 60-80,000 jobs, sceptics say as few as 35 new jobs. You would think in this day and age you could find definitive answers to bridge this ridiculous gap in understanding or presentation. Not these days, not in Washington. Not on twitter either. So that's a maddening thing. However it broughts Cowboys & Indians into Washington, on horsebcak to protest the proposed pipe.

Cowboys & Indians Ride Through DC to Protest Keystone XL Pipeline http://t.co/a0k1ONTDsv @EdShow @cspanwj #KeystoneXL pic.twitter.com/DCCK0M8Ozd
— Maverick™ (@spooney35) April 23, 2014

Princeton Study found the US was most like a growing plutocracy in years 1981-2000. And since then, is there any wonder? But while this is not good news, it is good that it got reported. Harder for those many who would deny it to try. But in this day when any can say anything and act like it's so, what used to pass as accepted wisdom, is just some opinion, nowadays. Hence the blurriness. It becomes very important who the author is and why they tell it like they do.

Marketplace on the US Supreme Court hearing Aereo case  4 min audio. And here is the transcript of the Supreme Court oral arguments.

Is it the end of the internet-as-we-know-it? Another case involving Comcast looks to dispense with Net Neutrality. More on that from the NYT a few days ago.

Harith al-Dari, a leading Sunni cleric in Iraq tells on April 19, why they are battling with Shi'a government. Elections occurred April 29.

April 20 was St Agnes' Day of Montepulciano's fame. The old place of the convent is an address in Abruzzo, near Siena, Italy.

April 21 was St Anselm's Day. He spent  years as Benedictine monk at the monastery in Bec, Normandy, before becoming Archbishop of Canterbury.

April 27 was St Zita's Day. She was a serving maid to the Fatinelli household in Lucca, Italy in the thirteenth century. She became popular as patron saint of servants, bakers and women throughout Europe. Even as far as Lincolnshire, UK where she is called St Sithes. In our time, pope Francis canonized prior popes John XXIII and John Paul II on this day. Here is the text of Francis' homily on this important occasion.

April 29 was Catherine of Siena's Day. She is one of two patron saints of Italy, the other being St Francis of Assisi. Born the spring that the black plague ravaged Italy in 1347, she became a healer, an ambassador to Florence to plead before the pope in France, and may have induced pope Gregory XI to return the papacy to Rome. She's also considered a Catholic mystic today and pope John Paul II made her one of six patron saints of Europe.

Columbus Shows Clemency To Locals: On Second Voyage, later April 1494

The son of Christopher Columbus in his biography of his father, took the opportunity at this point in the chronology to give example of the kind of clemency he offered to the locals. Also to show their fear of horses. Columbus had sent the man Hojeda inland with more than 400 men to relieve Pedro Margarit at the new settlement of Santo Tomas.

Bad news had been arriving about uprisings and conflicts with the locals and Columbus needed to reassure his men both about their own strength but also the justice of their methods. When the captain Hojeda, after marching inland and had crossed the aforementioned Rio del Oro, he captured the local chieftain and a couple of his relatives and sent them back to Isabela in chains. Additionally, he

"... took one of their chieftains too and had one of his ears cut off in the centre of his village because of his treatment of three Christians on their way from Isabela to Santo Tomas: this chieftain had lent them [the Christians] five Indians to carry their clothing across the river ford, and when the Christians were half-way across these Indians had run off to his village with their clothes and the cacique instead of punishing theor crime had taken the clothing himself and refused to return it."

One could make a case here, even with this scant evidence or testimony that these locals were being punished for betraying the trust bestowed on them by these Christian explorers. Whether cutting off the ear of a chief was appropriate justice for this betrayal is an entirely different matter. But the cacique on the near side of the river, closer to Isabela, decided to take this opportunity to show his merit in the matter, according to Hernan Colon.

"The cacique who ruled on the other side of the river, however, relying on the services he had rendered to the Christians, decided to accompany the prisoners to Isabela and intercede for them with the Admiral. The Admiral received him politely and ordered that the Indians with their hands tied should be sentenced to death by public proclamation. The good cacique wept at the sight and their lives were granted him, the guilty Indians promising by signs that they would never commit another crime."

Remember this is an example of how the son showed that his father the Admiral provided justice on the locals. This is all he says about the matter. If only we knew more. Still more messages arrived from Santo Tomas.

"No sooner had the Admiral set these Indians at liberty than a horseman from Santo Tomas arrived with bad news. On passing through the town of the cacique who had been made prisoner he had found that this man's subjects had seized five Christians on their way back from Sannto Tomas to Isabela. Arriving suddenly on his horse he had terrified the Indians and freed his fellow-Christians, putting more than 500 of the natives to flight, and wounding two of them in the chase. He [this messenger] said that on reaching the further side of the river he had seen the Indians coming back to attack the Christians, but when they saw his horse they had again run away, terrified that the creature might fly back across the river."

 Here, Colon has given example to the idea that the locals could not be trusted left to their own devices, that Christians were under attack - a common Spanish claim back in Spain as well - and that the appearance of a horse could scare hundreds of locals. Never mind that this was not India, so the locals were not actually Indian and that horses were known and common in actual India.
_______________________________________________
quotes, from p. 167 in: The Four Voyages, Christopher Columbus, edited, translated and with an introduction by JM Cohen, 1969 and for The Penguin Group, London, 1969

Bernal Diaz Begins Story of Moctezuma Capture: c. 1520

Bernal Diaz gives us a longer description of the 'capture' of Moctezuma. This roughly, can be split into three stories. One when Cortes talked to his men after viewing the great market and great temples and their interiors The time after Cortes first asked to build a church and the men found a secret treasure room. One story that involves the intrigue at Nautla / Almeria. And one talking around the happenings directly surrounding the 'arrest'. Diaz helpfully provides setting, mood, a speech he attributes to Cortes, all in the midst of things. Even here, he uses his long-winded declaiming style, with clauses on top of clauses, and further asides and more clauses. He evinces a great deal of fear.

"... as we had such brave captains and soldiers and of such good counsel and judgment, and primarily as we were very certain Our Lord Jesus Christ put his divine hand on all our affairs, four of our captains took Cortes aside in the [temporary makeshift] church together with twelve soldiers in whom he had confidence and confided, and I was one of them; we asked him to look at the net and trap we were in, the great strength of that city, the bridges and causeways, the words of warning they gave us in all the towns through which we had come that [the great god] Huichilobos had advised Montezuma to let us enter his city and they would kill us there; we said he should understand that the hearts of men are very changeable, especially among the Indians, and he should not have confidence in the goodwill and kindness Montezuma was showing us, because from one hour to the next he would change when he felt like attacking; and if he should stop our food or water or raise any bridge, we would not be able to fend for ourselves; and we told him to look at the great number of Indian warriors Montezuma had as his guard, and what could we do to attack them or defend ourselves, because all the houses were in the water? How could our friends the Tlaxcalans enter to help us?" [p. 219]

Then if that weren't enough to proclaim their intense sense of urgency, Diaz leaps several flights of order in order to bring the point home.

"Since all this we were telling him was something to think about, he should right away seize Montezuma if we wanted to secure our lives... he should consider ... all the gold Montezuma gave us and what we had seen in the treasury of his father, Axayaca, and all the food we were eating would turn into arsenic in our body, that neither day nor night could we rest nor sleep with this thought, and that if any of our soldiers told him anything other than this, they would be like senseless beasts drawn to the sweetness of the gold, not seeing death staring them in the face." [pp. 219-20]

Prior to this, literally in the text, the men had found a new hidden treasure room and sealed it back up. Prior to that they had asked to build their own church. And this request followed close after having been allowed to view and enter the interior of the inner temple of Huichilobos high atop the great cu. Montezuma had excused himself after this, explaining they had probably offended the god by their presence as outsiders. The sense of doom was apparent to them.

"When Cortes heard this, he said: "Don't believe, gentlemen, that I'm asleep or that I don't have the same concern; I'm sure you must have felt it in me; but, what power do we have to be so bold as to sieze such a great lord in his own palace with his guards and warriors? What means can be found to try to put it into effect without his giving the alarm to his warriors and their attacking us immediately?" [p. 220]

A couple of the captains give a couple more reasons to seize the great king before being attacked. Some said the servants were becoming insolent with the soldiers and the Tlaxcalans agreed that the Mexica were not acting as kind as they had when first the Europeans arrived. They all discussed it at great length, Diaz tell us, and agreed to act quickly but not on one certain plan for that day. The next day, two Tlaxcala arrived with messages from Villa Rica, the settlement built on the coast.
_________________________________________________
from ch xciii in Bernal Díaz de Castillo: The True History of the Conquest of New Spain translated with an introduction and notes by Janet Burke and Ted Humphrey, Indianapolis, Hackett Publishing Co, Inc. 2012

news early April 2014

There has been a lot of news the last couple weeks. There were some clarifications,

• healthcare goals met, and Health and Human Services Secretary Sebelius stepped down. Steve Kornacki recap, 6 min video  
• Today is tax day and with the IRS budgets cut, the agency under six different investigations by the Republican led House Oversight Committee and widespread antipathy expressed on the right, the government still presents an optimistic face. npr has a great interview in 8 min audio piece.
• a ridiculous stand-off in Nevada and  Bureau of Land Management decided to change tactics. Cattle Rancher still Cliven Bundy needs to pay a million bucks after not paying his fee for using federal land for 20 years. 5 min video w/ @chrislhayes
• the slow overtaking of Eastern Ukraine by forces claiming to be with the Russian army. Russia denies this, but the forces take city governmnet buildings, assume control and expand their forces. This has been a slow process over the last weeks. US and Europe talk about imposing more sanctions. Despite communications between Presidents Obama & Putin, little if anything is resolved.

St. Volodymyr's Cathedral Kiev pic.twitter.com/CnodprH0vs
— Maria Boedeker (@MariaBoedeker) April 15, 2014

The moment caught in time:

“Russia doesn’t care abt the opinion of the West. If it did, I would not have a Russian paratrooper in my office.” http://t.co/VlWfsXghJu
— Ellen Barry (@EllenBarryNYT) April 15, 2014

Meanwhile, back in the states.

• A number of shooting in the Kansas City metro area has shaken a number of communities. One by an ex-KKK grand master was targeting Jews at a suburban community center and killed three other people who weren't Jewish. This happened during Passover this year. 
• The twentieth victim of a roadway shooting occurred yesterday in Kansas City , as well. It does seem to be a thing with cars. Twelve of them seem 'related'.
• The Guardian and the Washington Post won Pulitzer's and Glenn Greewald and Laura Poitras received Polk awards for reporting on Edward Snowden revelations about governement surveillance.
• Last night there was a lunar eclipse.

Ann Stuble from Atlantic Beach sent in this shot of the Blood Moon. pic.twitter.com/NkJ7PdKZce
— Steve Smith (@fcnsteve) April 15, 2014

• If you support the humanities, the NEH is spreading a petition

70 Kansans have added their names to a letter in support of @NEHgov funding. Will you join them? http://t.co/EAIprwOUCd #humanitiesmatter

— Kansas Humanities (@kshumanities) April 15, 2014

Notes From Burckhardt: On French Invasion, 1494

Lecture notes of Jacob Burckhardt, history professor at the University of Basel were collected from the years 1865-85. Emil Dürr edited and assembled these and they were published under the title of Historiche Fragmente as volume seven of Burckhardt's Collected Works in 1929. The translation of this by Harry Zohn that I have is from 1958 and was a find of pure luck. Burckhardt is a favorite historian, still widely admired for his conclusions, deep understanding and passion for history. He has a reputation for clarity and even almost a  kind of certainty, that stems from his works, but a position in his own world as a kind of outsider, not unlike Alexis de Tocqueville or even Frederich Nietzsche. He also may have shared certain aristocratic sensibilities or judgements from his upbringing, but there is where similarities with de Tocqueville probably end. A biographic sketch of him and his times will come later.

In the broadest section of the book are notes from the period 1450-1589. Big sections on the French Invasion of 1494 follow.

"Basically, this campaign was pure folly. It would have been to the real French interest, at any rate, that Naples should belong to an Aragonese bastard line rather than to that Aragonese who already possessed Sicily. The greatest significance of these lands was to be the vanguard against Islam, a very difficult honorary privilege! ... On the other hand, Naples was at best a valueless possession for France, and Charles VIII would not have set out merely for the sake of Naples; could designs on Constantinople and Jerusalem have been the decisive factor?"

 Some today say this was the young king's big motivation, to take Naples and start a crusade.

"Could this whole swindle with Constantinople and Jesrusalem have been only a mask -- to lend a campaign of conquest the character of a crusade? Considering the Turkish menace at that time, a mere campaign of conquest against Naples was an enormous scandal; [pope] Alexander VI (in February of 1494?) reminds Charles that such a campaign could really not be undertaken importuniori tempore [at a less favorable time]; Ferrante might  in utter despair throw himself into the arms of the Turks. Then, too, 30,000 men were quite insufficient for a crusade. But the main consideration is one that is hardly ever brought up: through her invading zeal France incited the Spanish power, which was bent on increasing its might anyway, to apply itself likewise to further occupation of outside areas." 

Burckhardt starts his denouncement of this adventure simply as "... grand politics directed toward the outside."

"It was as though France wanted to compensate for the austere prose of Louis XI. Romanticism burgeons on every side. To the realist... it had to happen that his so well guarded son must become a visionary (the daughter, Anne de Beaujeu, was a realist)."

"The other side of the French mind, the imaginative, comes brilliantly to the fore. It was in this light that the Italians regarded Charles VIII. To Savonarola he is the great, exalted head of the Guelphs; to Pisa he is a liberator; to Naples a ...[sacred crown]; to all a great new chance in that land of chances, Italy."

Burckhardt then quotes contemporary French historian Henri Martin for the effects of this newfound belligerence. In translation:

"The revolutionary and warlike element in the French population retained, after the campaign of Naples, a blind passion for remote conquests, a deadly infatuation with its military superiority...".

It was these advances and trials that would awaken Spain. It was the abandonment he says, of Artois and Franche-Comte in 1493 by the French in favor of Italian prospects that kept France from advancing into Flanders. This would create a vacuum there that the later Spanish king and Holy Roman Emperor Charles V would exploit and his son Phillip II would claim to crush the Reformation in Holland. It would also throw Italy into war for sixty years.
______________________________________________
from pp 87-90 of Jacob Burckhardt: Judgments on History and Historians translated by Harry Zohn, Beacon Press, Boston, 1958

At Isabela, Columbus Encounters Many Difficulties: On Second Voyage, early April, 1494

The first week of April for Columbus on Hispaniola during the second voyage, was very busy. Though he had returned to his fort Isabela and was gratified with the rapid growth of produce grown there, a number of other events soon  piled up quickly. The tales of them, by his son, are notably unsettling. Chief among these concerns seemed to be lack of available food. But there were conflicts with the locals as well and the Admiral decided to return to the sea in order to find 'the mainland', as well as send more supplies inland to the new fort Santo Tomas. In taking this biography by the son as a source, we must remember to be careful. It's still quite possible that the son embellished some things to protect the honor and prestige of his father who, overall, led a troubled life despite his long time notoriety.  Hernando Colon published the book about his father in 1571.

On April 1, 1494, relates his son, a message sent from Santo Tomas by Pedro Margarit, Columbus' captain there, said that the 'natives were fleeing their homes and a local cacique was coming to burn the fort.'

"But the Admiral, knowing that these Indians were cowards, did not make much of this rumour, especially as he trusted in the horses, of which the Indians were very much afraid, fearing that they [the horses] would eat them. In fact, they were in such dread of horses that they dare not enter any building in which one of them was. But as an added precaution the Admiral decided to send more men and food, for he intended to go in the three caravels remaining, to discover the mainland, and thought it wise to ensure the complete peace and security of the island."

These statements of the son aren't explained. Columbus theought the locals were afraid of horses and he knew 'peace and security' was uncertain, yet he wanted to find the mainland. Without more facts it is hard to follow this kind of logic. But the next day he sent 70 men inland to Santo Tomas w/ food and munitions with directions to build a new road, "... for on the original road it was difficult to cross the river fords."

Columbus turned to improving the - still very new-  fort of Isabela and expanded the place into a town.

"He divided it into streets with a convenient central square and endeavoured to bring the river to it in a broad canal, for which he would construct a dam that would also serve to drive mills." [p.165]

But this was given as his response to his people being ill from 'thin air which did not suit them'. They suffered from numerous sicknesses, had only biscuits and wine left as provisions from Spain,

"... since the captains of the ships had failed to look after their stores, and they do not keep as well in that country as in ours [Spain]. And although they received plenty of victuals from the Indians, these disagreed with them badly, since they were not used to them. For this reason the Admiral had decided not to leave more than 300 men on the island, and to send the rest back to Castile, since he considered this number sufficient to keep it at peace and obedient to the rule of the Catholic sovereigns. And because by this time the biscuit was used up and they had wheat but no flour, he decided to construct mills; but there was no spate of water to drive them within a league and a half of the town." [p. 166]

There was no food but that of the locals which many couldn't or wouldn't eat. So Columbus directs them to expand the town and build a ditch nearly four miles in order to direct water, to an as yet, unbuilt mill. A league for the Spanish in those days was around 2.5 miles.

 "In order to hurry the workmen on this job and all the others, the Admiral had himself supervise them, for they all tried to avoid work. He decided to send everyone who was fit except the master craftsmen and workers to march through the Vega Real in order to pacify it and strike fear into the Indians and also gradually to accustom his men to the local food, because the stores they had brought from Castile were diminishing every day." [p. 166]

Columbus put one Hojeda in charge of this force with orders to march inland to Santo Tomas, rebuild the road along the way and when they arrived there to take command of the inland fort. They could rest and remain there but were to send Pedro Margarit ahead to discover new lands. This order was given the week after they received word that they were suffering attacks in Santo Tomas.
On Wednesday, April 9, 1494, this Hojeda set out with 400 men to venture inland to the newer fort.[p.167]

_______________________________________________
quotes, pagination from: The Four Voyages, Christopher Columbus, edited, translated and with an introduction by JM Cohen, 1969 and for The Penguin Group, London, 

Found On Internet: some news & opinion early April 2014

It's been a busy week with the news.

On April 3, Alec MacGillis had a strong going over of the effects that our current shift to plutocracy means to our country, with a quick daily drip of news for The New Republic over the previous week.

On Tuesday, April 1, the Republican budget plan was presented by US House of Representatives Budget Committee chair and former vice-president candidate Paul Ryan of Wisconsin. It is a simple rework of the same budget the Republican party has presented for the last twenty years. The two main mechanisms this proposal underscores in order to implement their vision of responsible conservative economic policy  - cutting taxes and cutting spending, especially in Medicare/Medicaid, Social Security funds - have been Republican claims since Reagan. But there is little evidence to support the idea that these policies actually benefit the economy, let alone society. Instead it is driven by the belief that smaller government is better and that any way to get there is preferrable to even, 'knowledgable improvements', however described, by people of the opposing party. In light of this, those against the consistent but so far, ineffective republican policies came out to say what they think. An example, plucked,

in response to: 

http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2014/04/01/how-paul-ryans-budget-proves-the-federal-debt-isnt-a-priority-for-republicans/ by Jon Walker, 

So  you and I know that the Republicans aren’t actually ‘fiscally conservative’. “Deficits don’t matter.” vice-president Dick Cheney said as recently as 2006.
We know that they, the Republicans are not actually strong on defense and don’t in reality support our troops. Sequestration cuts and failure to rnew benefits for military veterans should prove that.
We know that despite all the patriotic fervor and bunting and grandstanding that all of that is a show for the rubes who pine for a past that never existed. That the real show and real decisions are made with lobbyists and think-tanks and special interest donors.

Bringing light to all that is an important first step. The busybees out here can tweet it and post it on fb, or rail about it on their blogs, can yell at their congresscritters, go to city council meetings and hold fundraisers.

But how do we reach the low-info FOX watchers? The Rush, beck and TedCruz, George Zimmerman fans who would rather kill somebody than listen to a cognitively dissonant word? They’ll just start shooting cuz they ‘felt threatened’.

Using a well-worded, reasonable treatment like you offer here (it is!), just doesn’t get through to these people. Saying the truth, that Ryan has no math skills or economic sense, pointing out his racist dogwhistles or classist ideations make us instead the ‘race-hustlers’ that O’Reilly’s current harangue inflates out of all proportion or sense.

Depending on law enforcement or the courts to do their job is no longer an option out here. Not for justice or economics. Saving netflix and coffee money for more bullets is what makes sense to them. And if the R’s don’t get control of Senate in November, the low-info voters out in flyover country – where there is no press – will take matters farther into their own hands.

Also on April 1, there was an internet discussion with social policy wonks over the hopeful benefits and proven detractions of an imperial-acting but nominal neo-liberal regime for the US into the future. The ridiculous hilaity that ensued was well captured by DSWright, also at fdl, from a leftist point of view. But again, a commenter piped up and gave a different view of what a 'culture of poverty' might look like to different cultures, in time.

found in response to:

http://news.firedoglake.com/2014/04/01/ta-nehisi-coates-jonathan-chait-and-the-logic-of-liberal-imperialism/ by DSWright 1737 Tuesday 01April14:

 I agree that to get people out of poverty, literally means raising their standard of living: Putting more $ in their hands to spend.
You and I also probably agree that as Lincoln said, ‘labor is prior to capital’. The worker is more important than the goods manufactured or even the credit it takes to get the venture up and going.
These are logical ideas which have also been proven in reality again and again.
But for all that, they still sound like Marxism and worse to the low-info voter out in flyover country. Unfortunately, for Modern Monetary theorists and neo-liberals alike, the ‘culture of poverty’ is centuries older than Marxism, fans of new-deal type credit schemes, or tax-and-spend liberals of any other modern econ theories I have heard.
Centuries older – people feel it in their bones. People out here simply don’t believe more money in the pocket of ‘the other’ – however defined – will help anything. We can call it racism or zero-sum economics or even the supply-siders can say their trickle-down theories are working. People don’t care. They’re still gonna think some other – now the GOV – is taking their goodies.
An example. I learned a lot watching The Wire. Living most of life in white suburbia it opened my eyes to the impossible life of inner cities. So amazed I was at the clear depictions, revealing story lines, entrenched interests, my heart opened up to the dispossessed, impossibly living with the despair of the dog-eat-dog. And I had always prior to that saw myself as seeing things from the pov of the homeless, the disenfranchised, the left behinds of corporate greed.
But one of the themes of that series, understood by professionals and academics in the abstract is that with hard work, we may be able to move on this or that piece of progress. Get those people voting, give intuitive, thoughtful classes to those who never knew a one-on-one teacher-student rapport, fund this investigation into that crime problem, try a new tactic in the drug war, etc.
But with every step forward there always seems to be two or three steps backward. The right numbers may be up, but the people in power see it as not politically expedient. It may be the right thing to do but this powerful city councilman, cop chief, preacher or lobbyist is all against it. The union boss may not like it but will turn a blind eye, so long as no one gets caught. The result is that fixing things becomes reason and basis for corruption, bending the rules, crime, loss of justice.

The culture of poverty is real and has morphed since St Francis of Assissi’s day. No longer based on humility and social justice, St Reagan popularized a false welfare queen mentality. Gave the poor white south a demon to attack: ‘They’re taking yer goodies!’
No longer about justice for social weal or community well-being. It’s been morphed into keeping the blood in your turnip before ‘the other’, ‘those poor’ who might get yer cookies.
The right wing has learned this well, and ***holes like brietbart, Beck, Malkin, FOX et al took it and ran, for example, toppling ACORN based on obviously fraudulent, farcical means. Congress still handily voted to repeal all their funding.

I agree it may be folly to export imperialism as based on our western ‘successes’. But this ain’t about what intellectuals say, warring on the direction of liberalism anymore.
People I’m talking abt, that I touted The Wire to didn’t see that and say, ‘OMG how awful that people have to live like that! What can we do?’
They said, ‘Can you believe how awful those people are? We’re gonna shut those liberals & all their ‘good works’ down, once and for all. You’ll see.’
For people like me, and probably you, a cold dose of reality is enough to get me going in the right direction. But for many, “soaring ideals” optically placed, repeatedly rung with a strong injection of ‘other-disdain’ wins the very real ‘culture of poverty’ wars. From St Francis, and friar Savonarola to Reagan and Sarah Palin. Their grandaddy hated Communism and they’ll shoot you before they listen to anything resembling that.

 There were several other stories of prominent imporatnce last week as well.

Footnotes of Anthony Pagden: What Happened In Nautla

In a footnote, Anthony Pagden explains, the stated desire by Cortes for himself and Moctezuma to stay together, near each other, 'was a ruse to imprison Motecuzoma.' The difficult question of what to do about attacked members of his own party, Cortes took as reason to demand the proximity to, if not yet, control of the local King's person, according to his own Second Letter to his King and Emperor written before October 1520, some ten to twelve months after these events. What an enormous ruse this had to be.
But Pagden as voluminous researcher and translator also gives more evidence showing some of the variations.

One Juan Alvarez was said to testify, years later, that the captain Cortes said was mistreated or killed was named Escalante. He said, according to this Second Letter footnote 43:

"Escalante had gone to Nautla with a force of Spaniards and Totonaque to look for gold. The Indians refused to give them any, and a fight ensued in which the Spaniards were defeated, losing two of their men."

Nautla was the local name for Almeria, the town Cortes said was 'neighboring Vera Cruz.' The one destroyed and set fire to, but used as a landmark throughout these tales.

Diaz in his chp xciv, says there were six that were killed, as well as Escalante.

Pagden also mentions that Gomara, Cortes' secretary and later official biographer said,

"... that it was not Escalante but Pedro de Ircio who was killed. He also says that the expedition was sent to prevent Francisco de Garay from settling on the coast..."

And this is referenced from Wagner, pp 208-9, which must be the HR Wagner 1942 Berkeley Publication,  The Discovery of Yucatan, which included 'Documents and Narratives concerning the Discovery and Conquest of Latin America'.

 The local chief who was killed in the affair was called "Bright Eagle" or Cuauhpopoca and he may have been the chief for the entire north coast. Cortes called him Qualpopoca, Pagden also notes taht Eulalia Guzman disagrees and says that was a confusion of two different people. There is also evidence this leader was instead shot full of arrows, rather than as Cortes depicted him being burned alive.

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quoted footnote 43, p 469, from The Second Letter from Hernán  Cortés: Letters From Mexico, translated, edited and with a new intro by Anthony Pagden, as a Yale Nota Bene book, Yale University Press, USA 2001