Chapter 33. Fountain
Rockfish Grill and Seafood Market. Bristol, England.
The Rockfish Grill and Seafood Market was one of Bistol's finest seafood restaurants. Located near the Bristol docks, the chef's motto was "Fish so fresh, tomorrow's is still in the sea." After the mediocre meal at the Clifton Antiquarian Club, Professor Charlie Winston and his friend Professor John Morse were ready for some good seafood. Winston and Morse split the fare of the cabbie, who dropped them off in front of the restaurant, with its teal exterior and large white wooden letters spelling "Rockfish Grill," with the "O" shaped like a white fish. Blue fish nets, wooden barrels and white-and-red rescue life rings met them at the door. Winston requested that the waitress seat them in the unoccupied back room, so that the professors could spread out with their laptops and papers to discuss the day's events in privacy. The booths were a smoky green leather, with rows of wine bottles stacked along the back of the booth. Charlie Winston loved the variety on the menu, which boasted such dishes as "cuttlefish cooked in its own ink with fried polenta" and "roasted wing of Devon ray with sherry and capers." John Morse was not so sure, and stroked his beard, figuring out what he could find to eat. He was more of a meat and potatoes man, and his appetite was not that adventurous. The two started with some oysters. Winston liked his with a bottle of hot sauce. Morse ate his plain. While the two were waiting for the main course to be served, Morse pulled out his laptop and fired it up.
"Charlie, thanks for cutting out of there with me. Let me tell you what's on my mind."
Morse opened his laptop and pulled up scanned copies of the Amerigo Vespucci ship logs which had been rescued from the trove of documents behind the Virgin Mary painting.
“The first important entry is from Vespucci’s newly found logs where he discusses what transpired about a week after de Hojeda’s ship met Cabot’s ship.” Morse read the English translation:
Today we reached the Island of Boyuca in the Bay of Veragua.
One of the men became ill in the mind and jumped overboard.
Unfortunately, we were unable to save him.
“Charlie, you have speculated that this ‘ill man’ was probably John Cabot, who de Hojeda dumped overboard to die. And I agree with you. Vespucci was trying to explain away a man being thrown overboard in case one of the other crew members mentioned it when they got back to Spain, so he made up the story about the crew member being ill in the mind. This suggests that de Hojeda marooned Cabot near or on the Island of Boyuca.”
Winston was waiting for the punch line. “Okay….?”
“There is another set of log entries written by John Cabot back in May, 1499 relating to a trip to the island of Boyuca.” Morse then translated the next few entries from the original Italian:
May 25. At sea. Today, we sailed to a point 14 leagues directly east of Veragua, two leagues north of Flower Island. There was a beautiful pair of rock pillars which rose from the sea to the sky. The pillars looked like this:
Giovanni said they reminded him of the Pillars of Hercules. Two white birds sit on top of the Pillars, like sentries.
May 27. Today, after traveling 9 leagues east and 3 leagues north from the Pillars, or a total of 325 leagues from Hispaniola, we arrived at the place the Veraguans call Ananeo or Boyuca, which means the Evil Place. It is green and lush, with a mountain on the east side. There is white lightning on the horizon.
May 31. Today we were attacked by cannibals. Wilson Henry and Sebastian were brutally killed, and ten more of our crew were lost on the island. We left the island, headed south.
"Did you get a chance to look at these logs?" asked Morse.
"Sure, I have read these," said Winston.
"These entries reference again a place called Boyuca or Ananeo. Do those names mean anything to you?"
"No, should they?" asked Winston.
"According to sixteenth century Spanish historian Pedro Martir de Angleria, or, as he is known in his Anglicized form, Peter Martyr, there is an island off the coast of Central America known as Boinca, also called Boyuca or Ananeo, on which the legendary Fountain of Youth is located."
Winston stopped eating his oyster as it was an inch from his mouth. He stared at Morse, speechless.
"You're putting me on," said Winston, putting down his oyster.
"I am very serious," said Morse. "Listen, Charlie, I know it sounds crazy, but it’s true. When I tried to tell everyone about the lost prophecies of Nostradamus predicting future terrorist attacks, the government--and every scholar I know for that matter--thought I was a loon. Hell, I thought I was a loon for a while. But it turned out to be right. Sometimes, crazy things just happen.”
Winston laughed. "I have to admit when I first heard about the Nostradamus thing, I thought you had smoked too much of that California weed. To this day, I still cannot believe all of that really occurred, but you lived to tell the tale.”
Just at that point, the waitress returned and the two ordered their entrees. Charlie Winston went with the "cuttlefish in its own ink." Morse, who suppressed an urge to vomit, ordered the shrimp scampi. Anyone who orders cuttlefish in its own ink must be crazy, thought Morse. Morse continued:
"Peter Martyr wrote a book called Decades de Orbe Nova, which chronicled the European voyages to the New World. In his Second Decade, he recounts the voyage of Juan Diaz de Solis in 1507, eight years after Cabot and Vespucci visited the area, stating:
‘Beyond Veragua, the coast bends in a northernly direction, to a point opposite the Pillars of Hercules; that is, if we accept our measures certain lands discovered by the Spaniards, more than three hundred and twenty-five leagues from the north coast of Hispaniola. Among these countries is an island called by us Boinca (later Boyuca) and by others Ananeo; it is celebrated for a spring whose waters restore youth to old men.’
“Hispaniola, as you know, is the area now shared by the Dominican Republic and Haiti. A Spanish 'league' is about 3.2 nautical miles, so 325 Spanish leagues is 1,040 nautical miles. 1,040 miles east of Haiti puts you right in the Bay of Honduras. At the time of these travels, Juan de Solis was traveling in the area that is now the Bay of Honduras.”
“Hmmm,” mumbled Winston, stroking his goatee.
"Previously, scholars did not know what to make of Martyr's account, because he synchronized the location with the Pillars of Hercules, the two promontories which flank the Straits of Gibraltar between Spain and Morocco. Using the Pillars made no sense geographically. But now that we have these Vespucci and Cabot logs, we can see that the sailors were not referring to the traditional Pillars of Hercules, but to rock outcroppings in the Bay of Honduras which reminded them of the Pillars of Hercules. With this new information, the reference to the Pillars of Hercules makes perfect sense."
Winston considered this for a minute. "I have never heard of Juan Diaz de Solis being involved with the Fountain of Youth. I thought Ponce de Leon discovered the Fountain of Youth. And I thought the Fountain was in Florida."
John Morse waved his hand and shook his head, laughing. "No, Charlie, the history books once again have it all wrong. Ponce de Leon had absolutely nothing to do with the Fountain of Youth. He did not discover it. He did not know about it. He did not even look for it. We have Ponce de Leon's nautical logs. In his seven months traveling through the Bahamas, Ponce de Leon mentions twelve islands. None of them bear the name Boinca, Boyuca or Ananeo. None of the logs mention the Fountain of Youth. None of the logs mention him even trying to find a Fountain of Youth."
"Then why do all the history books connect Ponce de Leon with the Fountain of Youth? There must be some basis," said Winston.
“Hah! Coming from the man who refuted all the history books which reported that America was named after Amerigo Vespucci! As you know well, Charlie, our childhood history books often get it wrong.”
“Well why did Ponce de Leon ever get connected with the Fountain of Youth?”
Morse smiled. "Professor Doug Peck has an excellent article on this which I will e-mail you that explains all of this. There was a famous Spanish historian named Gonzalo Fernandez de Oveido. Ponce de Leon's family and Fernandez's family were rivals for the favors of King Ferdinand in the royal court. Oveido did not like Ponce de Leon and believed him to be arrogant and obnoxious. Oveido published a historical account of voyages to the New World called Historia General in 1535. In that account, Oveido talked about Ponce de Leon's vanity, saying that he was probably looking for the Fountain of Youth as a cure for his el enflaquecimiento del sexo, or sexual impotence. This was a back-handed crack on Ponce de Leon's manliness, but by the time it was published, Ponce de Leon was dead and could not defend himself. Oveido was the official historian of the Court, so his word was accepted as true. It was this one unfounded, baseless attack on Ponce de Leon's manliness that serves as the entire basis for later reports that Ponce de Leon was looking for a Fountain of Youth."
The waitress came up and served the men their entrees. John Morse dug into his shrimp scampi, which was delicious. The cuttlefish which Winston ordered looked surprisingly good on the plate, but Morse could not imagine what "scuttlefish ink" tasted like.
"Charlie, you should know that Ponce de Leon did not have impotence. Quite to the contrary, he was kind of a macho man. During the period Oveido calls him impotent, he had four children with his wife Lenore. He took his mistress, Juana Jiminez, on the voyages with him. And he was only 39 at the time he went on his discovery voyage, not in his seventies as some historians have claimed. So the crack about his impotence was obviously made up by Oveido as an insult. It was Juan Diaz de Solis, not Ponce de Leon, who was looking for the Fountain of Youth, and its location is in the Bay of Honduras, not in Florida. And he was looking for the island where the Fountain of Youth was located. He already knew about it because it was on Cabot’s maps, which Vespucci had stolen. But Charlie, your most important discovery, which got no attention today, was this so-called ‘Veraguan Map,’ which was found among Vespucci’s logs.” Morse laid out the map on the table.
“I saw that,” said Winston, “but I could not make heads or tails of it. It speaks about a Road to Xibalba, which is the Mayan Underworld.”
“Yes, Charlie. The Mayans believed that Xibalba, the Mayan Underworld, was guarded by twelve demons who set up a series of traps, challenges, and riddles for the unwary. Failure to solve the challenges meant death, and another soul for the Lords of the Underworld. According to Mayan tradition, only the Mayan Hero Twins, Hunahpu and Xbalanque, were able to solve the challenges and reach the finish line, where they defeated and killed the Lords of the Underworld. This map appears to set forth the path through Xibalba, and highlights the challenges the Hero Twins had to overcome. But the most important thing on this map is the ‘xaxtzintzoj saqloloj.’ That is a Mayan phrase in the K’iche’ dialect. It means ‘pool of clear water.’ Charlie, the ‘pool of clear water’ is the Fountain of Youth. And this map tells us how to find it.”
Winston put his fork down and considered the matter. It was certainly an interesting theory. "OK, so you now have these ship logs and maps. What do you plan to do with this, write a book about the Fountain of Youth?"
"No, now that I have the exact coordinates from these logs, I am going to find the Fountain of Youth!" exclaimed Morse. “And I want you to help me find it!” With that, Morse dug into his entrée, devouring it with abandon. Winston looked at Morse, unsure if he was serious.
TWA Transatlantic Flight, somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean.
Charlie Winston told Morse he would think about his proposal. But the truth was, Winston did not think he could take another trip this year. The History Department had already spent a lot of money for his trips to Seville and Bristol. It was unlikely that the History Department was going to fund a trip to look for the Fountain of Youth. The Department Head would think he was crazy. Before Morse left on his flight back to California, however, he had given Winston a book on the Fountain of Youth to read on the plane. Still curious about Morse’s tale about the Fountain of Youth, Winston read the book during the flight. He learned about the historian Herodotus and his account of an Ethiopian Fountain of Youth in 530 B.C.; a Muslim folk tale about Alexander the Great’s cook, whose name was Al-Khidr, who supposedly found the Fountain of Youth at the “end of the earth;” a Biblical account in John 5:2-4 of the legendary Healing Pool of Bethesda which was touched by an angel and cured the lame; and a mythical island called “Beniny” believed by the Taino Indians to contain great wealth, and which Spanish historians inaccurately associated with a fountain of youth. He also read about Ponce de Leon, and history’s false association of the explorer with the legendary healing spring. And he read with great interest historian Peter Martyr’s account of a Fountain of Youth pursued by explorer Juan Diaz de Solis in the Bay of Honduras. When he read the passages about De Solis, he re-read from his laptop the scanned images of the ship logs which he had found behind the Virgin painting in Seville.
Winston put the book down and took off his glasses, rubbing the bridge of his nose. He thought the stories in the book quite fantastic. Still, the reference to Boyuca was intriguing. Fortunately, this flight came equipped with Wi-Fi access. Winston powered up his MacBook and checked his messages. His wife had left him an e-mail.
Returning from Africa soon. Had a scare out here in the field. Don’t worry though. I am OK. Have much to tell you. Hope your lecture went well. M.
A “scare in the field.” Winston wondered what that could mean. He hoped his wife was safe. He checked the messages from his son. He was doing fine. His grandmother was watching him. Winston smiled, turned off his phone, and pulled a blanket up. He decided to catch some sleep for a few hours. Meanwhile, his wife was on the trail of a deadly virus in Africa.