Cruise Through History: Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean

By Sherry Hutt

Sir Walter Raleigh left his mark on Trinidad during his search for El Dorado, the City of Gold. Admiral Nelson is a hero in this part of the world, such that he gave his name to a port in Antigua. He is rumored to have ended his days embalmed in rum. Peter Stuyvesant makes an appearance in Sint Maarten, where he lost his leg, before he fought to

• Language: English
• Publisher: Digby Creations
• Release date: Apr 1, 2015
• ISBN: 9781942153054

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Copyright © 2015 by Sherry Hutt

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without the written permission of the author, except where permitted by law.

ISBN print 978-1-942153-04-7 | eBook 978-1-942153-05-4

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ITINERARY VIII: MEXICO, CENTRAL AMERICA, AND THE CARIBBEAN ISLANDS

PREFACE TO THE CRUISE THROUGH HISTORY SERIES

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

INTRODUCTION TO ITINERARY VIII – COMMODITIES AND CHARACTERS

MAP ITINERARY VIII

TIMELINE

MEXICO – A BRIEF HISTORY OF MEXICO FOR GRINGOS

GUATEMALA – MAYA NATION

HONDURAS – THE EDIBLE BANANA REPUBLIC

COSTA RICA – BAR HOPPING IN COSTA RICA

PANAMA -

Land Divided – World United by the Panama Canal

Into the Panama Territory Rode the Masked Ranger

BAHAMAS (BR.)

History of Nassau: The Reluctant Paradise

Creole Case of 1841

JAMAICA (BR.) – THE REAL CAPTAIN HENRY MORGAN

HAITI – VOODOO MAGIC OF THE RESILIENT PARADISE

PUERTO RICO -

Center of the Terrestrial and Extraterrestrial Universe

Center of the Rum Universe

SINT MAARTEN/SAINT MARTIN (DU./FR.) – IT’S ALL IN THE NAME

ANTIGUA (BR.) – ADMIRAL NELSON DOCKED HERE

MARTINIQUE (FR.) – EMANCIPATION BEFORE GETTYSBURG

BARBADOS – A 17C TRAVELER TO THE LAND OF NEW OPPORTUNITIES

TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO (BR.) -

The Better Bitters

Legend of El Dorado

BERMUDA (BR.) -

Admiral Sir George Somers and The Tempest

Not Quite the Fourteenth Colony: Bermuda and the United States

A Tale of Two Submarines

Solving the Bermuda Triangle Mystery

PREFACE

Cruise through History is a collection of short stories grouped by the sequence of many popular cruise itineraries, rather than by country, or period of history. As the stories move from port to port, they randomly move through time. The stories are all true. They introduce the traveler to the history and culture of a port through the story of a long-ago or not so long-ago, resident, whose exploits left a castle, a palace, or a lovely site that can be explored on a cruise ship shore excursion.

The host character for each port stop is chosen for their inspiring actions and the visible culture left behind. Some names will be familiar, presented in these volumes with depth to their personality. Other characters may become like new friends, too long unrecognized. Either way, the stories offer a new twist to the school-age history of place, drawn together to put travels in a fascinating context for the short-term visitor.

No apology is made for the choice of subjects. They have been chosen in an arbitrary manner on the whim of the author, accumulated from past travels, for your enjoyment. The desire is that the reader will share the fun. No attempt is made to be politically correct, or give a chamber of commerce gloss to the stories evident in the remnants of the past. Knowledge of history can teach us a great deal about ourselves, and the human condition, but only if it is honest and fairly told. No doubt it is the quest for real that draws adults to travel as often and for as long as they are able.

No effort is made to fully educate those who slept through world history in school, but rather to tell the bits the teachers left out, perhaps intentionally. History in all its glory and warts is fascinating. It easily could be a favorite subject of all students, were the full extent of human folly allowed in the classroom, prior to graduate school. In fairness to history teachers of pre-graduate-college students, so much of the lust, greed, and family blood, that drive the events of history, would be lost on those too young to appreciate imperfection as a natural consequence of adulthood.

The desire to seek knowledge, about distant places and times, fuels international tourism. Many travelers who found history in school to be dull, later in life seek to fill in the gaps in their knowledge, with personal experience. This is the opportunity for the events of one’s life to give rich meaning to the human condition and to enjoy stories of fact for which fiction is no rival.

Praise is due to the many historians and other scholars who have delved deeply into source data to ponder the minute details of history for pedagogical pursuits. Such information has been mined here, with attribution, for the lively details, which will heighten the traveler’s enjoyment of the past. History is a public good. The more it is found to be enjoyable, the more it will be valued.

Apology is due to those who hoped to foster disciplined scholarship in the author. This is reading for an out-of-the classroom experience. Footnotes are inserted to give due credit to the scholars who have provided valuable information and to remind the reader that these stories are true. The presence of source notes is not to feign an academic appearance. Editorial sidebars and fun bits are in the footnotes.

Where interesting facts exist they are assembled in a story to enhance a port visit on the itinerary. When there are gaps in the facts, or mysteries remain, they are not supplemented by fiction. Rather, an effort is made to look at the known as a guide to the unknown. The reader can draw their own conclusions, daydream through the gaps, and enjoy the reason that so much popular fiction and movies are drawn from historical facts.

As the reader travels to distant ports, the available on-site tour guides will likely give an approved history and, if the traveler is fortunate, an archaeological understanding of distant places. Guidebooks and cruise directors will furnish current local information of where to eat and stay, or what to purchase in the area. This series does not attempt to furnish those resources. These stories are offered to give historical context to the sites often visited as cruise destinations. The stories highlight individuals and their impacts to the landscape that can still be seen.

The stories that traverse the landscape in a Cruise through History prompt a look at not just what exists and the technology of how, but also why events occurred, or why the remnants of human effort look as they do. Where did the missing pieces on the landscape go, as conquests by subsequent cultures altered, evolved, and incorporated the past into their times? What were the intended and unintended consequences that have become the fabric of complex history? These stories take travelers beyond the castle ruins to the people who built them and lived there.

The itineraries in this series have stories at each port that seek to inspire cruise travelers to rise out of their deck chairs and investigate a destination with honesty and irreverence, or the potential traveler to rise from the sofa and embark on a Cruise through History. There is no stigma of a school assignment. Earn an E for enjoyment.

Itinerary Series available and forthcoming-

I. London to Rome - Along the Coasts of France, Iberia, and Northern Italy - September 2014.

II. Rome to Venice – Around the Boot, Up the Adriatic, with Islands of the Mediterranean (Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica) – November 2014

III. Athens to Cairo – Eastern Mediterranean

IV. Ports of the Black Sea

V. Agadir to Alexandria - Southern Mediterranean, North Africa, and the Atlantic Islands

VI. Miami to Montreal - East Coast of North America

VII. San Diego to Sitka - West Coast of North America

VIII. Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean Islands – February 2015

IX. Ports of South America

X. Around the British Iles - England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland

XI. Ports of the Baltic Sea

XII. Ports of the North Sea - Hanseatic League, Iceland, and Greenland

XIII. Cape Town to Beijing – Africa, India, and the Far East

XIV. Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Writing short stories began as therapy from the world of Washington, D.C. Thanks are due to those at Utah State University, Logan, and to the several cruise lines that have given me the opportunity to share stories with their guests and students. Thanks are also due to those who read versions of the stories and helped to produce the series, including:

Digby and Rose, publisher, art director, and publicist; Lesa Koscielski, editor; Lisa Lynn Aispuro and Alexa Nicolaides research assistance; and Feast Studios, San Francisco, video.

These stories would not be possible without the treasure trove of material in libraries and used bookshops. I am indebted to the Battery Park Book Exchange, Asheville NC, the Lanier Library, Tryon, NC, and the Library of Congress. In this increasingly paperless world, bookstores and libraries provide solace and an opportunity to revive our humanity.

Much appreciation is also due to those who apply their skill to preservation and protection of heritage in the United States and around the world; the archaeological resources protection expert squad of David Tarler, Robert Wittman, Martin McAllister, George Smith, Todd Swain, Tim Canaday, Mike Marous, Larry Mackey, Guy Prentice, Alise Foster, Caroline Blanco, Ole Varmer, and the legendary Don and Catherine Fowler. The greatest thanks go to my husband, Guy Rouse, who has lugged my camera equipment all over the world for more than 25 years.

This volume is dedicated to the Director, Board of Directors, members, and supporters of the Lawyers’ Committee for Cultural Heritage Preservation.

INTRODUCTION

COMMODITIES AND CHARACTERS

The first famous traveler to the West Indies was Christopher Columbus. He arrived by mistake, headed for the East Indies, thinking he simply made an error in calculation. He liked the climate well enough that he returned several times, opening the way for less magnanimous Spanish and Portuguese explorers, who were primarily looking for gold. Later the Dutch, French, and British arrived to build on the trade routes established in the New World.

The stories in this itinerary often begin with Columbus. They include many personalities familiar to most readers, as well as new names of fascinating and endearing characters. The theme that flows from the stories of Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean is one of characters and their quest for commodities. The characters in these stories compete for, fight over, or otherwise maneuver to control commodities found in the countries visited in this itinerary. The commodities include gold, bananas, sugar and rum. The conscription of a labor force and the emancipation of slaves is also a dimension central to stories of the Caribbean.

Bermuda and the Bahamas are not actually islands of the Caribbean. These islands are included as part of this itinerary as their stories so often are intertwined with those of Caribbean adventures. Cruise itineraries to the Caribbean and Central America often include ports in Bermuda and Nassau in the Bahamas. Their stories fit well among their geographical neighbors. This itinerary begins with Mexico, moves down Central America, and wanders through the Caribbean, ending in Bermuda.

In Mexico the familiar characters include Cortez, Moctezuma (also referred to as Montezuma), Pancho Villa, and a very young George Patton. Mexico offers travelers diversity of terrain, layers of history, and varied experiences. Although Mexico is the nearest southern neighbor to the United States, few Americans can name even two Mexican states and most have very little knowledge of Mexico’s history. CTH offers a brief history of Mexico for gringos traveling from Gulf ports on the Atlantic to ports of the Pacific.

As early European, Dutch, and British travelers to the area now known as Central America and the Caribbean Islands soon learned, there was much to be gained from travel to these lands, besides a search for gold. In times of political strife in England and Europe, the islands of the West Indies, the Virgin Islands, and the Greater Antilles provided opportunities for a new life. In some instances, wealth could be achieved beyond anything possible back home.

A commodity that features prominently in this itinerary is bananas. The story of the banana in the Western Hemisphere began in the Caribbean Islands, but quickly became a defining factor in the politics and economy of Central America. Honduras, Guatemala, and Panama were all economies based on the banana. So important to Central American economies was the single crop that they became known as Banana Republics.

The Maya society of Guatemala was highly developed prior to the meddling of European explorers. The Maya civilization left monuments to their superior building ability that tell the story of their cultural lives and ceremonial practices. While only some of the Maya sites have been excavated to date, sufficient structures exist to tell the tales of heroes and competitors, ending in the collapse of the Maya world.

The story in Panama includes a focus on a canal that was almost built in Nicaragua. Begun by France and completed by the United States, the story of the construction of the Panama Canal is compressed into a short story in this itinerary. In reality, the story of the Panama Canal is not history as it is an ongoing story of triumph over disease, political dissention, and engineering challenges, to be repeated in the coming of the second canal channel.

Before the Panama Canal there was only the Las Cruces trail across the land. Efforts to build a railroad, to ensure safe passage on land for travelers to and from the California Gold Rush, was the impetus for private concerns to bring their own law enforcement to the area. The real-life, masked lone ranger, who tangled with those who preyed on travelers, has his own story.

Richard Ligon is introduced in these stories as a traveler in search of a better life. Ligon left England in 1647, amid political upheaval, in which being associated with royals was not a life-enhancing situation. Ligon arrived in Barbados with associates who made a fortune in sugar, while he managed their estate. Ligon left a diary, which gives a candid portrayal of seventeenth century sugar production. He described the beauty of diverse flora and the ugliness of slavery from his perspective as an artist, an architect, and a historian.

The stories of many of the islands of the Caribbean are intertwined, as they are the stories of sugar and its by-product rum. These commodities created the modern economies of several of the islands, such as Barbados, Jamaica, and Martinique. One of the myths of slavery is that it was a necessary evil for the development of the New World. This is simply not true. Shortly after slavery was abolished in the Caribbean Islands, about 500,000 free Africans migrated there. Like the Europeans, the free Africans sought greater opportunities. After the abolition of slavery, goods shipped from the islands cost more and the privileged few early plantation owners found their easily gained wealth quickly dissipated unless it was carefully managed. Free and healthy workers were more innovative and productive. The multi-cultural communities that developed were responsible for the rich cultural experiences, cuisine, and music enjoyed by travelers to the Caribbean Islands today.

Topics such as slavery and colonialism are not the typical fare of a Cruise through History. However, it would be difficult for present-day travelers to these places to understand the context of the sites typically visited without background knowledge of the past, no matter how unpleasant. Haiti was the first independent nation led by those of African descent and the second colony in the New World to achieve independence. Britain and France enacted abolition legislation decades prior to the United States. Frenchman Victor Schoelcher’s success at bringing freedom to those in French colonies was informed by the success of Britain in ending slavery in the New World. The British efforts at emancipation are seen in the Creole Case of 1841, which arose from events in Nassau in the Bahamas.

The export of sugar and rum from the Caribbean Islands enabled them to import amenities from Europe that could not be created at home. The bounty of goods on ships to and from the islands became attractive targets for real-life pirates of the Caribbean. There really was a Captain Morgan, the character best known today for his portrait on bottles of rum. From humble beginnings in Wales, Morgan became infamous for his brutal tactics in capturing cargo and raiding port cities. Later in life, when he was the lieutenant governor of Jamaica, he brought legal actions against those who would attempt to diminish his reputation as an upstanding citizen.

Other characters making appearances in this itinerary are little known Rachel Pringle-Polgreen, a freed-African woman entrepreneur in the retail rum business, the easily recognized name of the Bacardi family rum distillers in Puerto Rico, and the founders of the Angostura Bitters in Trinidad. Sir Walter Raleigh left his mark on Trinidad during his search for El Dorado, the city of gold. Admiral Nelson is a hero in this part of the world, such that he gave his name to a port in Antigua. He is rumored to have ended his days embalmed in rum. Peter Stuyvesant makes an appearance in Sint Maarten, where he lost his leg, before he fought to maintain New Amsterdam as a Dutch port.

Bermuda is so closely associated with early American history that it begs the question as to why this part of the Virginia colony did not become part of the United States. British adventurers, who accompanied supplies bound for Jamestown in 1609, unintentionally settled the island. That it became a haven for British loyalists after the American Revolution, and for merchants who supplied the Confederacy during the Civil War, cemented its connection to Britain. During World War II, Bermuda became the site of a story of two submarines, one that met a mysterious fate and one that sealed the bonds of lasting friendship between Bermuda and the United States. Characters in these stories include Mark Twain and a librarian at Arizona State University, who solved the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle.

The stories in the Cruise through History volumes are chosen to entertain the traveler. The history of each of the countries in an itinerary cannot be fully represented in a few short stories. Cruise itineraries are chosen to give guests an enriching visit, even if only for a short stay. A Cruise through History seeks to make the most of those short visits, to entice the traveler to return, and to enjoy future travels.

CTH

As the United States’ closest neighbor to the south, the history of Mexico should be as familiar to American school children as United States history. It is, however, not part of the typical school curriculum. Few adults can name more than two Mexican states. The states of Baja on the western coast and Cozumel off the eastern coast would be two good guesses as they are most frequented by American vacationers. Between the two popular places there is so much more to experience.

The history of Mexico is replete with cultural icons and iconic characters. The Olmec, Maya, and Aztec, who became the Mexica, left vast treasures reflecting cultural practices beyond the gold sought by the Spanish treasure seekers, Grijalva, Cortes, and others. The Spanish controlled Mexico for three hundred years from 1521 to September 16, 1821. When independence came to Mexico, it was a bloody affair, followed by turmoil and frequent political transition. Gun-toting banditos, such as Emiliano Zapata and Doroteo Arango, better known as Pancho Villa, drew General John J. Pershing and a young Lieutenant Colonel George Patton deep into Mexico to seek an American version of order, one hundred years after independence from Spain. Modern Mexico is an economic world power, with vast natural resources.

In this brief history of Mexico it is only possible to tell the stories of major notable events and some of the iconic personalities. In order to give some depth to this story many other events are touched on only in passing. This is not to indicate that they are less important. The topic can be overwhelming.

There is a vast library on Mexico available, with many tomes suitable for weightlifters. This story is intended as an introduction for cruise travelers who will enjoy sites at the several ports available as they cruise from the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean to Pacific destinations.

Early Empires to the Spanish Conquest

Before the Spanish arrived in Mexico there were highly developed civilizations across the country, which had thrived for thousands of years. The first Spanish to arrive were so mesmerized by the beauty of the vast developments that they thought they must have found the Garden of Eden. Unfortunately, they decided that to conquer the people they needed to destroy the cultures in their midst.

The earliest of these civilizations were the Olmec, who lived in the area of Oaxaca, south of Mexico City, from about 1500 BCE to 900 BCE. The Olmec planted corn and squash. They enjoyed such long periods of peaceful habitation that they were able to build large four-sided pyramids to the gods in tribute. The Olmec are best represented in the National Museum in Mexico City by the large rounded heads carved in stone.

The Zapotec Indians followed the Olmec in time. Their high period is estimated between 500 BCE to 200 CE. The Zapotec are represented in the site of Monte Albán, outside Mexico City. The site is believed to be a compound built by notable citizens rather than a trading or religious site.

The Aztec Indians are the latecomers, from the tenth century to the time of the Spanish in 1518. They flourished in the valley of central Mexico, enlarging the pyramids of the Olmec. There were many vassal and independent Indian kingdoms that did commerce with the kings of the Aztec in the great city of Teotihuacán on the lake.

The Maya culture flourished separate from the Aztec on the eastern side of Mexico, the upward-curving area from the state of Chiapas at the base to the Yucatan peninsula, and southward into Guatemala and Honduras. The classic Maya period is 800 BCE to 900 CE, when there was a Maya collapse of unknown cause. One of the largest of the Maya sites is Chichén Itza in the Yucatan. The city of Copán in Honduras is also a Maya site, as is Tikal in Guatemala. Tikal was active from about 300 BCE to 100 CE.

After 900 CE the Maya were fewer in number in their cities. Later groups such as the Toltec built upon Maya sites, leaving Toltec statues guarding the tops of Maya pyramids. Few Maya still populated their cities in Mexico at the time of the arrival of the Spanish.

Archaeologists refer to all of the people of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, western Nicaragua and Costa Rica living in the area from 22,000 BCE to prior to the Spanish arrival as Mesoamericans. The most distinct cultures overlapped in time and place. There are artistic differences notable to experts, although many styles evolved over time. The pantheon of gods is similar across Mesoamerica. Sometimes an Aztec god is called a different name in the Maya culture, although their powers are of the same description.

The origin of the Aztecs is Aztlán, an unknown place. They are also known as the founders of Tenochtitlán, the predecessor to Mexico City. As a group of people they referred to themselves as Mexica, the name attributed to them by the Spanish.

The people of Mesoamerica practiced sacrifices to the gods of food and humans. They believed that going to the gods was a noble end for a ruler or warrior. The steps of the temples were palaces of ritual sacrifice. Hearts of the offered humans were cut out with knives of obsidian stone by high priests and were held in dishes in the hands of the cute-looking, seated, stone statues known as chacmool.

Quetzalcóatl

Quetzalcóatl is a major Aztec god, represented as a serpent with a plumed headdress. Versions of this god appear in stone at all major Mesoamerican sites. The Maya called this god Kukulcán. The god controlled storms, wind, and rain. This was the god that so controlled the Aztec leader Moctezuma that he gave over his kingdom to the Spanish in what he believed was the second coming prophesized by the god.²

In a year carefully noted in the Aztec calendar, the god Quetzalcóatl moved east out to the sea at a place on the coast very near Veracruz, Mexico. It was believed that the god would return at an auspicious time, rising from the sea from where the vanishing occurred.

In 1518 the Aztecs noted many odd occurrences, consistent with an approaching return of Quetzalcóatl. There was a comet that burned through the sky.