The Only Man On The Santa Maria Who Knew The Truth

Christopher Columbus grew excited. Standing atop The Santa Maria, a vicious smile consumed his face.

As The Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria approached land, concluding an arduous sixty-one day journey, all on board were elated. Success, they all thought! Columbus had found a new trade route to India.

Well, all except one man.

The only man who knew the truth.

“I’m not sure where we are, but I know one thing, this isn’t India,” thought Antonio, a relatively unknown sailor and amateur navigator aboard The Santa Maria.

Antonio kept quiet. Why spoil the party when his boss and everyone else on board for that matter were exhilarated?

At the bow, Columbus leaped for joy, “We did it men”, he proclaimed. “We’re here, I told them I would reach India by sailing west. And here we are. India!”

Antonio simply shook his head, but kept it down, careful not to draw unwanted attention.

You see, what Columbus and the others onboard didn’t know was this; For Antonio, time wasn't linear. All too often, he found himself lost. By now though, Antonio was skilled in avoiding attention and staying alive.

The crew was also oblivious to Antonio's travels, the people, places and periods he'd experienced. Antonio was no stranger to India. He had visited the area previously, by a more traditional route. He once found himself in a caravan, traveling by land, eventually reaching the thriving subcontinent.

Now, here he was, facing a crisis; remain quiet, spoil the party, or worse.

Antonio knew little about this expedition, and the man leading it. What he learned was pieced together over the lengthy journey. He also knew, anonymity was key to survival. History had taught him many lessons.

"A New World"

Upon making their way to shore of what we now call The Bahamas, Columbus and a few others, including Antonio, began disembarking their ship. Just as quickly, their expedition came face to face with a group of natives.

The natives could best be described as curious. What were they seeing? Could they even believe their eyes? The only noise came from mouths breathing, and bodies moving ever so subtly.

Christopher was quick to break the silence. “Hey, Indians!” Columbus proclaimed with elation. "I finally found you!"

“No!” Antonio accidentally slipped. Too late, he couldn’t unsay it.

Suddenly all the men, including Columbus, looked towards him. Antonio comically turned to look behind himself also, as if the word came from someone else. Sadly, no one was there to deflect blame.

“You! What did you say?” Columbus asked intimidatingly.

“Nothing. What? I didn’t say anything,” responded Antonio nervously.

“We all heard you, you said, no. Why did you say that?” Columbus inquired.

Antonio took a deep breath, looked towards the sky briefly, then addressed the man in charge.

“Ok... This may surprise you, but... I don't think we're in India. So these people, by definition, aren't India,” Antonio countered.

The rest of the men looked towards Columbus confused, hoping for an answer. Columbus, himself in shock, stepped towards Antonio.

Antonio paused briefly and continued, “Look, Christopher, right? I’m sorry, I didn’t want to say anything. You and the guys were so excited. We did it. Yay, India, here we are. Well, we’re not. We’re not in India. I’ve been to India, sure not on a boat, but I've seen the place, and it looks nothing like this. That’s not how Indians look, let alone dress. We can’t just call this India man.”

Columbus remained speechless. More natives (not Indians) had gathered, looking towards Columbus and his men in shock. They too were speechless.

Antonio being uncomfortable with all the silence took it as a sign to keep speaking, “Look Chris, this is huge. This is way bigger than finding a new route to India. We, YOU, you found a New World dude! Who knew this was even here? I mean these people that are already here obviously did, but Europeans didn’t. I sure as hell didn’t. Did you guys?" Antonio looked to the crew for comment only to experience continued silence from Chris and the others. "This might be just a small section. I mean, there could be a whole land mass here bigger than Europe, bigger than India. This is huge!” Antonio exclaimed.

Christopher Columbus simply eyed Antonio, absorbing everything the man just said. He then shifted his gaze to the other men, smiled, and burst out in laughter. The others soon joined. Columbus and all the men were soon laughing hysterically. Antonio smiled slightly, unsure what to think, let alone say now.

Columbus walked towards Antonio, placed his hand on his shoulder, and looked back to the others.

“Kill this man and bury his body,” Columbus instructed and simply walked away towards the gathering crowd of indigenous people shouting, “Indians, what’s going on, where's all the gold and spices?”

The men began approaching Antonio who slowly walked backwards to the ocean. As one crewmember lunged towards him, Antonio turned quickly, ran into the water, dove in and began swimming for his life.

Being born and having lived in coastal towns, Antonio Trinidad was an incredible swimmer. He could easily hold his breath for long periods of time.

As Antonio fled further, becoming less visible, the men discontinued their already lackluster effort. They turned their attention towards land and were summoned to join Columbus, now interacting with the natives.

As the men neared Columbus, he laughingly remarked, “let that idiot drown, not like there are a bunch of islands around here he could swim to.”

Antonio Trinidad would eventually find refuge on another, not so distant island, from where the Columbus expedition landed. Turns out there were many more islands in the area. Antonio would go on to “discover” a series of islands, some inhabited, some not.

Antonio finally made his way to what we now call Trinidad and Tobago, off the coast of Venezuela. He lived on the islands, according to legend, for the remainder of his years.

Although he would vanish, from time to time.