No blog about giants would be complete without mention of Amerigo Vespucci, the
man for whom 1/3 of the world is named after. Which is quite extraordinary if you think about it. But why was most of the western hemisphere named after him? Is it because America (named by a German geographer in 1507) has a better ring to it than the United States of Columbus? No, it’s because Vespucci realized the lands he was exploring were two separate continents and not a part of Asia, or India as he and most others believed at the time. Although if that German geographer didn’t publish a paper proclaiming why it should be named in honor of Vespucci, who knows what the continent would have been called. Vespucci was an Italian merchant, born in 1454 in Florence to wealthy parents, he grew up around and was later employed by the Medicis, the mega rich banking family that basically owned northern Italy. Vespucci was sent to look after their ship-outfitting business in Seville, and even had a hand in outfitting Columbus's third voyage, an event that inspired Vespucci to outfit his own quest to search for that elusive passage to India.
In 1499, seven years after Columbus first landed in the West Indies, Vespucci departed Seville on his maiden voyage across the ocean blue. During this first voyage he crossed the Atlantic and landed on the northern coast of South America. He glimpsed the mouth of the Amazon and made journeys inland around the fringes of Southern Brazil. His first views of giant natives came while exploring for water on the outskirts of the Brazilian jungles but the big breakthrough came on Vespucci's second journey of expedition. After exploring the coasts of Venezuela, Vespucci and his ship floated towards the tiny Caribbean island of modern day Curacao. The story unfolds below in the Second Voyage of Amerigo Vespucci translated from the original text by Oxford scholar Clements R. Markham in 1893:
We found on this coast that the current of the sea had such force that it prevented us from navigating, for it ran from south to north. The inconvenience was so great for our navigation that, after a consultation, we decided upon altering the course to north, and we made good such a distance along the land, that we reached a most excellent port, formed by a large island, which was at the entrance. Within, a very large haven was formed. In sailing along the island to enter it we saw many people, and we steered our ships so as to bring them up where the people were seen, which was nearly four leagues more towards the sea. Sailing in this way we had seen a canoe, which was coming from seaward, with many people on board. We determined to overhaul her, and we went round with our ships in her direction, so that we might not lose her. Sailing towards the canoe with a fresh breeze, we saw that they had stopped with their oars tossed—I believe, with wonder at the sight of our ships. But when they saw that we were gaining upon them, they put down their oars, and began to row towards the land. As our company came in a fast-sailing caravel of forty-five tons, we got to windward of the canoe, and when it seemed time to bear down upon her, the sheets were eased off so as to come near her; and as the caravel seemed to be coming down upon her, and those on board did not wish to be caught, they pulled away to leeward, and, seeing their advantage, they gave way with their oars to escape. As we had our boats at the stern well manned, we thought we should catch the canoe.
The boats chased for more than two hours, and at last the caravel made another tack, but could not fetch the canoe. As the people in the canoe saw they were closely pressed by the caravel and the boats, they all jumped into the sea, their number being about seventy men; the distance from the shore being nearly two leagues. Following them in the boats, during the whole day, we were unable to capture more than two, all the rest escaping on shore. Only four boys remained in the canoe, who were not of their tribe, but prisoners from some other land. They had been castrated, and were all without the virile member, and with the scars fresh, at which we wondered much. Having taken them on board, they told us by signs that they had been castrated to be eaten. We then knew that the people in the canoe belonged to a tribe called Cambali, very fierce men who eat human flesh. We came with the ship, towing the canoe astern, approaching the land, and anchored at a distance of half a league. We saw a great number of people on the beach, so we went on shore with the boats, taking with us the two men we had captured. When we came near all the people fled into the wood. So we released one of our prisoners, giving him many signs that we wanted to be their friends. He did what we wanted very well, and brought back all the people with him, numbering about 400 men and many women, and they came unarmed to the boats. A good understanding was established with them; we released the other prisoner, sent to the ships for their canoe, and restored it to them. This canoe was twenty-six paces long, and two braccia in width, all dug out of a single tree, and very well worked. When they had hauled it up and put it in a secure place, they all fled, and would not have anything more to do with us; which seemed a barbarous act, and we judged them to be faithless and ill-conditioned people.
We saw a little gold, which they wear in their ears. We departed and entered the bay, where we found so many people that it was wonderful. We made friends with them, and many of us went with them to their villages in great security. In this place we collected 150 pearls, which they gave us for a small bell, and a little gold was given to us for nothing. In this land we found that they drank wine made from their fruits and seeds, like beer, both white and red. The best was made from plums, and it was very good. We ate a great many of them, as they were in season. It is a very good fruit, pleasant to the taste, and wholesome for the body. The land abounds in their articles of food, and the people are of good manners, and the most peaceful we have yet met with. We were seventeen days in this port, enjoying it very much, and every day new people from the interior came to see us, wondering at our faces and the whiteness of our skins, at our clothes and arms, and at the shape and size of our ships. From these people we had tidings that there was another tribe to the westward who were their enemies, and who had an immense quantity of pearls. Those which they possessed had been taken in their wars. They told us how they were fished, and in what manner the pearls were born, and we found their information to be correct, as your Magnificence will hear.
We left this port and sailed along the coast, always seeing people on the beach, and at the end of many days we came to in a port, by reason of the necessity for repairing one of our ships, which made much water. Here we found many people, but were unable, either by force or persuasion, to establish any intercourse with them. When we went on shore they opposed the landing fiercely, and when they could do no more they fled into the woods and did not wait for us. Seeing that they were such barbarians we departed thence, and, sailing onwards, we came in sight of an island which was fifteen leagues from the land. We decided upon going to see whether it was inhabited. We found on it the most bestial and the most brutal race that has ever been seen, and they were of this kind. They were very brutish in appearance and gesture, and they had their mouths full of the leaves of a green herb, which they continually chewed like beasts, so that they could hardly speak; and each had round his neck two dry gourds, one full of that herb which they had in their mouths, and the other of white flour that appeared to be powdered lime. From time to time they put in the powder with a spindle which they kept wet in the mouth. Then they put stuff into their mouths from both, powdering the herb already in use. They did this with much elaboration; and the thing seemed wonderful, for we could not understand the secret, or with what object they did it.
These people, when they saw us, came to us with much familiarity, as if we had formed friendship with them. Walking with them on the beach and talking, being desirous of drinking fresh water, they made signs that they had none, and offered their herb and powder; from which we concluded that the island was ill-provided with water, and that they kept this herb in their mouths to keep off thirst. We walked over the island for a day and a half, without finding a spring of water, and we saw that the water they drank was what had fallen during the night on certain leaves which looked like ass's ears, and held the water, and of this they drank. It was excellent water; and these leaves are not found in many places. They had no kind of meat and no roots, as on the mainland. They were sustained by fish caught in the sea, of which they had great abundance, and they were very good fishermen. They gave us many turtles, and many large and excellent fish. Their women did not have the herb in their mouths like the men, but they all carried a gourd with water, from which they drank. They have no villages nor houses, but merely live under bowers of leaves, which shade them from the sun, though not from the rain. But I believe that it seldom rains on that island. When they are fishing out at sea they all have a very large leaf, and of such width that it forms a shade. As the sun rises, so they raise the leaf, and thus they protect themselves from the sun. The island contains many animals of various sorts, and much water in swamps, and seeing that it offered no profit whatever, we departed and went to another island.
We found that this other island was inhabited by very tall people. We landed to see whether there was any fresh water, and not thinking it was inhabited, as we had not seen anyone, we came upon very large footprints in the sand, as we were walking along the beach. We judged that if the other measurements were in proportion to those of their feet, they must be very tall. Going in search, we came into a road which led inland. There were nine of us. Judging that there could not be many inhabitants, as the island was small, we walked over it to see what sort of people they were. When we had gone about a league we saw five huts, which appeared to be uninhabited, in a valley, and we went to them. But we only found five women, two old, and three children of such lofty stature that, for the wonder of the thing, we wanted to keep them. When they saw us they were so frightened that they had not the power to run away. The two old women began to invite us with words, and to set before us many things, and took us into a hut. They were taller than a large man who may well be tall, such as was Francesco degli Albizi, but better proportioned. Our intention was to take the young girls by force, and to bring them to Castille as a wonderful thing.
While we were forming this design there entered by the door of the hut as many as thirty-six men, much bigger than the women, and so well made that it was a rare thing to behold them. They, in like manner, put us into such a state of perturbation that we rather wished we were on board, than having dealings with such people. They carried very large bows and arrows, and great clubs with knobs. They talked among themselves in a tone as if they wished to destroy us. Seeing ourselves in such danger, we made various suggestions one to another. Some proposed that we should attack them in the hut, and others said that it would be better to do so outside, while others advised that we should not take any action until we saw what the natives were going to do. We at last agreed to go out of the hut, and walk away in the direction of the ships as if nothing had happened, and this we did. Having taken our route to return to the ships, they also came along behind us at a distance of about a stone's throw, talking among themselves. I believe they had not less fear of us than we of them; for sometimes we stopped to rest, and they did so also without coming nearer. At last we came to the beach, where the boats were waiting for us. We got in, and, when we were some way from the shore, the natives rushed down and shot many arrows; but we then had little fear of them. We replied with two bombard-shots, more to frighten them than to do them harm. They all fled into the woods, and so we took leave of them, thankful to escape after a dangerous adventure. They all went naked like the others. We called this island, the Island of the Giants, by reason of their stature.
Vespucci’s tale is an extremely fascinating account of 16th century Island hopping! Fellow explorer, the conquistador Alonso de Ojeda discovered and named another “Island of giants” this time on the neighboring island of Aruba, although in time the name would be changed to “useless island” as the Spanish found no gold or anything of value there. Historians have since argued whether they are both talking about the same island. But considering that both islands are within close proximity of each other, it’s possible both had tribes of giant Indians ruling over their earthly paradises. The giant Indians they managed to enslave were deported to work in Hispaniola where they soon died out mining for gold.
The Spanish colony established in Santo Domingo in 1496 soon became their headquarters for gold hunting in the Caribbean. They set up mines and enslaved the local Arawak-Lucayan Indians they found living there to work for them. In the early 1500s the conquistadors were roaming around the Caribbean islands searching for gold and silver, and enslaving or killing any Indian who resisted. By the time they had set up shop in Cuba they had reduced the most feared tribes of the Caribbean to the edge of extinction. The original inhabitants of the main Caribbean islands of Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica, Puerto Rico and the Bahamas were the Arawak, the Lucayan and the Taino Indians, who were all described as being tall statuesque people with long black hair. When Columbus arrived in the Bahamas in 1492 he encountered the Lucayan and was ultimately impressed by their canoes, ceramic art, and appearance but eventually deemed them expendable since they had no gold. When Columbus and his crew arrived, the Lucayans first mistook them as returning Gods, because according to their oral history the Gods used to fly around in the skies and promised one day to return. Columbus even noted in his journals the strange presence of mysterious orange colored flying orbs before making landfall in Cuba.
However, Columbus wasn’t flying a spaceship and although dressed mysteriously and harboring huge vessels and unknown technology he was no God as the Lucayans quickly discovered. The interesting thing about the Lucayans in relation to flying ships and ancient aliens was the fact that they practiced the cranial deformation and head flattening techniques used to produce elongated skulls. Meaning at some point in their history what the Lucayan were saying about Gods flying around in the Caribbean was probably true as they maintained the practice of cranial deformation to imitate and honor these so-called Gods. The Taino and the Arawak also shared this practice.
Based on petroglyphs found in the Dominican Republic’s Pomier caves, indigenous tribes like the Taino have been documenting Caribbean history for thousands of years. The Pomier Caves are a thousand feet below sea level and contain more than 5,000 pictographs of animals, humans, giants and mysterious alien looking beings with elongated heads. But the ancient giants that once wandered the Caribbean did so at a time when the waters were much lower. Science has shown that before the end of the last Ice Age (12,000 years ago) ocean levels were at least 400 feet below their current levels. Meaning that the Bahamas and Cuba were all part of one vast island in the remote past instead of the chain of islands they are today.
During the 1950s Cuban divers found artifacts of a Native American civilization on the western edge of Cuba far more advanced that the Arawak, Taino or the Lucayans, but the Cuban revolution halted any further investigations. Fifty years later a joint Russian-Canadian expedition was helmed by oceanographic engineer, Paulina Zelitsky, who used high tech equipment and underwater cameras to find and film these mysterious structures. Sending probes down more than 2,200 feet Zelitsky was able to film images of what appeared to be pyramids, plazas, and terraces, which looked similar to the ruins of Teotihuacan. That fabled city in central Mexico attributed to being built by giants. This shocking discovery of a lost city sleeping off the coast of Cuba was reported on briefly by the BBC in the winter of 2002 and was mentioned in a short article about Caribbean flood myths in the November issue of National Geographic magazine. Then it was subsequently never talked about again by the mainstream media.It’s plain to see why as it totally upends their false timeline of history. As the giant Indians of the Caribbean were systematically wiped out shortly after the arrival of the Spanish, most of their history and proof of their lineage went with them. Very little information has survived about the giants of the Caribbean, much less about the ice age and Atlantean type civilizations that were once the true pirates of the Caribbean.