to pick up the favourable westerly winds prevalent at that time of year.
Clearly, it was not purely altruism or even the desire to establish new overseas colonies that persuaded the Spanish crown to support the expedition. The Spanish monarchs needed money to pay for the war against the Moors and the looming wars in Europe. Although this was a high-risk adventure, it promised enormous rewards if a secure route to the Spice Islands could be found by sailing across the Atlantic and spices could be brought to Europe through the ports of Spain.
When the three small caravels made landfall in the Caribbean, Columbus was confident that he had arrived in the East Indies. Even by the time he returned to Spain, he was unaware that he had not landed in the East Indies.
During the time he spent in the Caribbean he made several exploratory trips. On one such voyage he discovered Cuba (Hispaniola) and established a colony there. On his return to Spain, he painted a glowing picture of the fertile and beautiful land he had discovered, whose rivers contained gold and whose mountains were a rich source of minerals. He also suggested that he had evidence of countries that were rich in silver and gold that were a short distance to the west of the land he had found.
The Columbus trail
A combination of missionary zeal and the lure of gold led to further expeditions in the years following Columbus’s return from his first voyage to the New World. Very soon Spanish colonies were established on the island of Hispaniola and at Darien, on the southern end of the Panama isthmus. It was from this latter colony that Hernán Cortés led his expedition to the land of Montezuma and the Aztecs, in what is now Mexico. He sent back gold and silver treasure to King Charles in Spain as evidence of the riches to be found in the New World.
However, it was the exploits of Francisco Pizarro, a noble of Salamanca who became an influential figure in the disputatious court of the governor of Hispaniola, that fired the imagination of the Spanish court. Although Amerigo Vespucci and Francisco Pizarro had explored the coast of South America as far as the origin of the Amazon, they had met hostile savages who had denied them access to water and victuals necessary for a prolonged exploration.
By a feat of great seamanship, Pizarro travelled much further down the South American coast and, after many false starts, made his way inland to discover the secret of the Incas in the heights of the Peruvian Andes. The enormous quantities of gold and silver sent back to Spain from his conquest led to credible stories reaching Europe of cities of gold and silver and of untold treasure to be had by those bold enough to venture to this New World.
The arrow poison
When the news of the gold and silver being brought to Spain reached the sea ports of Europe, it caused feverish excitement. Many ill-prepared adventurers soon set out on the perilous voyage to the New World. For the first time in Europe money was available to back these schemes. Sir Thomas Gresham had built his Royal Exchange near the stock market in London and risk companies were established to fund ‘merchant adventurers of good report’. Although most of the voyagers who set out for the New World were privateers and buccaneers seeking their fortunes, there were also a number of soldiers and monks among them eager to convert the heathen and to establish dominion over this new land.
Inexperienced adventurers, many of whom had never been beyond their home town or village, crowded into small, poorly constructed vessels that were unsuitable for the long ocean crossing. They knew nothing of the prevailing winds and storms in the southern ocean, the extremes of climate they would have to endure or the privations they would suffer. Many died of dehydration, scurvy, disease and starvation on the long sea journey. The vessels were seldom big enough to carry sufficient provisions.
Many never reached the New World. Of those that did a large number suffered scurvy, typhus and swamp fever. One can only imagine the fear and wonderment with which those who survived the journey viewed this foreign land. As they landed, they found themselves surrounded by hostile natives, armed with spears and blow darts, who would suddenly emerge from the seemingly impenetrable jungle lining the shores, with their faces and bodies covered with paint and feathers. (Fig 2) They found ferocious animals and brightly coloured birds that were unlike anything they had ever seen before. They had to cross muddy rivers swarming with flesh-devouring fish and with alligators that bit off the limbs of the unwary. They encountered poisonous snakes and swarms of stinging insects whose bites produced sores and fever.
They brought back colourful tales of their adventures to amaze and impress their sponsors. None of these tales was more astonishing, or caused more concern, than that of the mystical properties of the substance into which the natives dipped their darts and arrows. They described, in some detail, ‘the flying death’ caused by the magical South American arrow poison. (figure 3)
The practice of anointing arrows and darts with poisons was not new: it had been common practice in ancient times. Homer refers to their use, and in Virgil’s Aeneid, Ovid is described as smearing his arrows with ‘viper’s blood’ and Apollo’s darts were said to carry ‘pestilence’. The word toxin is itself derived from the etymological stem toxon, meaning a bow or a bow and arrow. There is evidence that the practice of dipping arrows into concoctions of poisonous herbs was common in Europe among the Celts and Gauls, but that it had died out with the advent of more effective weapons and the discovery of gunpowder. From the stories told by the explorers of the New World, the effects of the poisoned arrows were at first thought to be some form of witchcraft. It was only when the natives were observed dipping their darts into the sticky concoction of poisonous herbs that the reason for their lethal effect became obvious.
This lethal effect was consistently reported by voyagers who returned from these jungles. Especially terrifying tales were told by those who ventured along the Amazon River and into the Orinoco Basin, where the bloodthirsty warriors, native to this region, used a particularly potent form of the poison for hunting their prey and killing their enemies.
It is the tales from these explorers that contained the most graphic details of the ‘flying death’ wreaked by the blow darts used by these Indians. Many of the published reports were written to titillate a European audience hungry for excitement, who longed for extraordinary stories of exotic discoveries and flesh-creeping tales of the dangers of this New World. It is not surprising that some of the stories were purposely embellished and made absurdly fanciful to increase their appeal to an expectant and gullible audience and to boost the sales of their books. As a result it is difficult to distinguish where fact ends and mysticism begins.
Clearly, the death caused by the poison was horrendous. Stories of the victim dying with ‘staring eyes’, of his ‘bowels exploding’, of his being in ‘convulsions’ and ‘fixed to the ground unable to move’ are so common in published reports that they must, in large part, be believed. One of the most frightening aspects of the nature of the death was that there appeared to be nothing that could be done to remedy the effect of the poison. It soon became apparent that there was a pressing need for an antidote with which to treat the victims, but first more had to be known about what the poison was and how it killed its victims.
Possibly the earliest details of how it was produced came from the account of the Italian monk, Peter Martyr d’Anghiera, who joined an expedition established to convert the heathen natives to the Catholic faith. He published an account of his report to the Spanish court early in the sixteenth century. The book, De Orbe Novo (‘Of the New World’), which was translated by Dr Mac Nutt of New York, tells of a poisonous concoction being made by members of a small cabal of female elders who were kept sealed in a special hut for one or two days. He wrote that ‘they often died from inhaling the fumes.’(Fig 4)
If all the women survived the ordeal it was considered that the poison was not sufficiently strong. According to a native high priest, it was made from
