When schoolchildren recite the classic tale of Columbus “discovering” America, they miss a trove of lesser‑known anecdotes. Here are 10 rarely told stories that shine a different light on the famed explorer.

10 Rarely Told Highlights

10 The Mysterious Green Glow

On October 11, 1492, Columbus recorded something strange in his journals, and we’re not talking about his tendency to refer to himself in the third person, which takes a special sort of personality. Columbus noted an odd phenomenon so faint or so far away that only one other person had been able to see it when he pointed it out from the deck of the Santa Maria. Something was glowing, which Columbus thought may or may not be land. The glow was irregular and incredibly faint, and it seemed to moving.

There have been plenty of guesses as to what it was that Columbus saw and was so captivated by that he thought it important enough to record it. Explanations included candlelight or firelight on distant land, canoes rowing on the nighttime ocean, or the explorers’ eyes simply playing tricks on them. A few centuries later, a naturalist suggested what looks like the most likely answer—luminous worms.

Only recently have biologists begun to unlock the secrets of the species that might be responsible for the mysterious glow that Columbus spotted off the deck of his ship. The aptly named fireworms are little more than 1 centimeter (0.4 in) long and live in coastal waters, where Columbus would have been sailing. During their mating cycle, the worms swim close to the surface, and the green glow of the females attracts the males as they perform their circular dance. The display only lasts for about half an hour before the worms retreat to the safety of the ocean floor, but it’s entirely possible that Columbus’s mysterious light was the age‑old dance of fireworms.

9 The Jewish Theories

Considering how famous (or infamous) he is, there’s a lot that we don’t know about Columbus’s personal life and childhood. According to some historians, it’s looking more and more like he was secretly Jewish, and contrary to popular belief, he wasn’t from Italy at all. While it’s just a theory based largely around a rather scattered set of clues, it just might carry some weight.

It started with a linguistic investigation by Georgetown University linguist Estelle Irizarry. When she reviewed dozens of Columbus’s personal letters, she found some signs that his first language might have been Catalan. Those included the use of a particular punctuation mark called the virgule, a slash used to show where the pauses come in his writing, a mark specific to those who come only from Catalan‑speaking areas of the Iberian Peninsula. She also found a few telling signs in some of his personal letters, which were never meant for anyone outside his family to see. In correspondence between Columbus and his son, she found the Hebrew letters bet‑hei, a blessing found in the letters of practicing Jews. (The mark was left off of letters that were addressed to both family and crown.) His will also contained some things that seemed telling, like the traditional Jewish practice of setting aside some of his estate to go to poor girls who otherwise would have no dowry.

Irizarry also feels that Columbus tried to hide his Catalan Jewish background by telling people that he was from Genoa. Historians have never been able to definitively pin down Columbus’s birthplace. Although it’s generally said to be Genoa, others have also suggested Corsica, Portugal, or even Greece. The idea that he was actually from Spain—and a practicing Jew—might cast his voyages in a whole new light.

In 1492, Spain was going through a major ethnic cleansing. In March, around 800,000 Spanish Jews were given an ultimatum: Convert or get out. The date of the ultimatum? August 3, 1492. Perhaps coincidentally, this is the date that Columbus and his crew set sail.

If Columbus really was a Catalan‑speaking Spanish Jew, some think that he might have had other motives for setting out to the New World. He may have been looking for a new Jewish homeland, or he may have hoped to claim riches to help reestablish their home in Jerusalem. It’s just a theory, certainly, but it seems clear that there was more going on than we’re likely to ever know.

8 Texas Longhorn Cattle

Texas Longhorns—they’re one of the most distinctive types of cattle in the United States. They’re a huge part of Texas’s state identity, and when the University of Texas at Austin took a crack at decoding the genome to find out just what went into making the famous Texas Longhorn, they found something unexpected. They’re descended from cattle that made the trip across the ocean with Columbus.

They looked at more than 50,000 genetic markers and traced most of the cattle’s ancestry to the taurine variety of cattle, which come from the ancient aurochs that once roamed the Middle East around 10,000 years ago. A smaller part of the genome (about 15 percent) came from the indicine aurochs of India, and that’s the part that gives some of them their hump. The indicine cattle spread from India, through Africa, and up into the Iberian Peninsula, where they influenced cattle genetics there.

To find out just how cattle from the Iberian Peninsula made it to the New World, they looked at the earliest voyages across the ocean. The first cattle brought to the New World (on Columbus’s second voyage) ended up in the Caribbean. Records of how many were on the ship are long gone, but it’s estimated that he would have had somewhere between 20 and 30. Those first cattle were likely pregnant females that were picked up on the Canary Islands. Gradually, the descendants of those first few spread to the mainland with the spreading European population. They turned feral and adapted to life in the desert, which they were already well‑equipped to survive thanks to their Indian and African ancestors.

7 The First Tax In The New World

“No taxation without representation” has been the rallying cry of the young US since the middle of the 18th century, but taxes were problematic long before then, and they were introduced to the native population by Columbus.

On his second trip to the New World, he settled the ill‑fated colony of La Isabela with the goal of trading with the indigenous population. He’d already met and “claimed” the native Taino, a well‑established, thriving society that would be nearly extinct by 1550. La Isabela was to be a purely economical settlement, but in order to turn a profit, Columbus needed guaranteed income in the form of gold. In 1495, he enacted what’s known as the first instance of taxation in the New World, a tax that the Taino couldn’t pay.

The tax was due every three months, and it was to be paid for every man in the settlement over the age of 14. They were a few options for payment. The first was described as one hawk’s bell of gold, which wasn’t achievable for a people who hadn’t placed any particular value on gold. They hadn’t developed their mining and smelting operations to the point where they could keep up with that kind of demand. Alternately, Columbus allowed them to pay off their debt with 11 kilograms (25 lb) of cotton or with manual labor.

The ability to pay in physical labor instead of gold made the colony different than other factorías that had been set up by the Spanish, and it also hastened La Isabela’s downfall. Gold wasn’t plentiful enough to allow the workers to pay their tax with it, and when the funds began to dwindle, the whole structure began to crumble.

6 The Wolof Slave Rebellion

The Columbus family was at the heart of another infamous first in the New World—the first organized uprising of slaves.

It happened in what is now the Dominican Republic, and it was led by the Wolof men from Senegal. They had been taken to the New World about two decades before the Christmas 1522 uprising. They were captured during a series of wars that ravaged the area known as Senegambia. Those prisoners eventually ended up in Portugal and Europe. From there, they were shipped off to the New World.

On December 25, a group of around 20 men armed themselves with machetes that they had been given to cut sugar cane and became a rather effective fighting unit. They were so effective, in fact, that they held out for several days. (It helped that they chose Christmas to revolt, knowing that their overseers would be drunk after a Christmas Eve celebration.) They also held their own against the initial Spanish cavalry charges.

They headed for an estate on the Zuazo plantation, where they planned to execute those in charge and free the roughly 120 slaves who were kept there. Once the Spanish got word of what was going on and where the Wolof seemed to be headed, however, they organized a better resistance and put down the rebellion, but not before they’d lost more than a dozen men total.

The whole thing happened on the holdings of Diego Columbus, Christopher’s son and the appointed viceroy of the Indies. The rebellion kicked off only a few miles from his own estate, and the resultant legislation was bizarre, to say the least. In response to the rebellion, Spain outlawed the use and introduction of so‑called gelofes into a slave population. That included anyone raised by Moors or anyone from Guinea, as they were deemed too dangerous to be good workers on Spanish holdings.

5 La Isabela And The Silver Ore

La Isabela was founded by Columbus after he returned to Spain full of stories of the fortune and glory they were going to find there—if only he had a little more time, money, and people. When he settled there in 1494 with about 1,500 people, it would take only about four years for the colony to be completely abandoned. There was no gold or silver, but there was plenty of starvation, disease, and death, so much so that Columbus himself headed back to Spain in 1496.

We’ve always known that the settlement was a failure, so archaeologists probably weren’t expecting to find gold and silver when they excavated La Isabela, but that’s exactly what they found. Excavations turned up samples of galena, an ore that contains silver. They also found lead silicate, a by‑product of the smelting process that’s usually used to extract the silver, seeming to indicate that there was a smelting operation going on there.

Silver deposits were never recorded as having been found in the area around La Isabela, so the evidence seemed to completely contradict what we’ve always known about the settlement, until they started looking at the makeup of the mineral itself, with the help of an archaeometallurgist from the University of Arizona. Then, they were able to identify the galena as having come from Europe. Tracing Columbus’s journey showed that he’d stopped at several places where galena occurred along the way. A few more experts weighed in, and they realized that it was a standard process for gold‑ and silver‑seeking operations to bring along a sample of rock that they knew contained what they were looking for. These samples had been smelted, however, perhaps in a desperate attempt to make what little money they had last a bit longer.

4 He Devastated Europe With Disease

We all know about how the native populations in the New World suffered and died from the introduction of all sorts of new European diseases after encountering Columbus and his men. Less talked about is the disease that Columbus and company brought back to Europe with them—syphilis.

It’s no coincidence that the first confirmed case of syphilis happened in Italy in 1495. When it started to spread, it was horrific enough that some friars thought the outbreaks were signs heralding the Second Coming. The church itself cracked down on the afflicted. Much like with those who contracted leprosy, syphilis was thought to be a very visual sign that someone was doing something that they weren’t supposed to.

Even archaeological evidence dates the arrival of syphilis in Europe as coinciding with Columbus’s return from the New World. Older skeletons once thought to be the remains of syphilis sufferers have tested negative for the virus. Before you start blaming long months at sea with no women in sight for the spread of the disease, you should know that it probably didn’t happen that way at all.

We’ve always known that syphilis is sexually transmitted, but tracing the earliest strains back to the New World has shown that it likely didn’t start as such. In its New World form, it was called yaws, and it started with red patches on the skin and escalated into something permanently disfiguring. When it was taken from the wet, humid New World to the colder European climate, it mutated not only to survive in a different environment, but to be transmitted by sexual rather than causal contact.

3 The Most Accurate Portrait We Have

There are a lot of famous portraits of Christopher Columbus, so many that it’s easy to forget that we don’t actually know what he looked like. There are no surviving portraits of him that were painted during his lifetime, and for a long time, people have been trying to figure out what he looked like.

The best written description we have of him comes from his son, Fernando. Fernando describes his father as “a vigorous man, of tall stature, with blond beard and hair, clear complexion and blue eyes,” which is nothing like some of the usual depictions of him. Because Columbus was never accurately represented in his lifetime as well as his rather mythic status as a larger‑than‑life figure, it’s also likely that even many of the earliest portraits of him were a bit more embellished and stylized than usual. There are, however, a couple portraits out there that are probably more accurate, and one is the piece done by Ridolfo Ghirlandaio.

The other is part of a larger piece done as a triptych and altar piece called The Virgin of the Navigators. In the work, the Virgin Mary stands watch over a group of explorers, including a robed, late‑middle‑aged Columbus (shown above). Unlike many of the portraits that claim to show him, his appearance in The Virgin matches all of the contemporary reports of what Columbus would have looked like. Most importantly, the artist, Alejo Fernandez, was of the right age and in the right place to at least have seen him.

Fernandez was born about 30 years before Columbus died, and as he was working in Seville, he would have known—and probably consulted with—others who had known Columbus in life. Art historians also point to a period of Spanish pride, making the image of Columbus not only likely to be accurate, but finely dressed in an attempt to create him as not just an explorer, but as an icon of the country that he represented. Also weighing in on the side of the portrait being accurate is the idea that it was created with the intention for the figures (which also include Martin Alonso Pinzon, Hernan Cortes, and Amerigo Vespucci) would be instantly recognizable to viewers who’d lived at the same time as the explorers.

2 The Most Devastating Disease

La Isabela had a whole bunch of problems, and for a long time, it was thought that diseases like smallpox, tuberculosis, and influenza were largely to blame for the deaths that occurred when Columbus and his crew settled in what became Europe’s first permanent (albeit short‑lived) settlement in the New World. When archaeologists took a closer look at some of the skeletons that were excavated from the colony, they found something rather unexpected. One of the biggest problems that the settlers faced was something usually associated with long months at sea—scurvy.

Scurvy was well‑known by the 1700s (unlike the 1490s), and it would kill more sailors than shipwrecks would. It happens when there’s a complete vitamin C deficiency, and symptoms are varied. They can include headaches, bleeding gums, reopening of healed or partially healed wounds, joint pain, rashes, or even mood swings and exhaustion. The symptoms of scurvy can take up to three months to manifest, so it was likely that by the time the settlers were a month or so into their foray into the New World, they were starting to feel the ill effects of what had started during the ship’s crossing.

It’s also something that could have been prevented, and some of the skeletons showed signs that some people had started to repair the damage done to their bodies by reintroducing some vitamin C. It was, after all, all over the place. The scurvy‑ridden explorers had landed in a place rich with native fruits and vegetables, and that might have saved their colony. They were surrounded by cherries, guavas, yuccas, sweet potatoes, and so on. According to modern doctors, the daily amount of vitamin C that it takes to keep scurvy at bay can be attained from a few ketchup packets. Unfortunately, the European settlers seemed more interested in finding gold than exploring the local cuisine, and they also relied heavily on the supplies and stores that they brought with them rather than procuring new food sources. Doing so might have saved lives.

1 What Happened To The Santa Maria And The Villa De La Navidad?

It starts like all good stories do—with a party and someone left in charge who probably shouldn’t have been. In December 1492, Columbus and his crew were off the coast of Haiti. After what we can only imagine was a pretty rowdy Christmas Eve party, the crew all fell asleep, and steering the ship fell to one of the only people still sober—the cabin boy. He was, understandably, ill‑equipped to navigate the waters by himself, and the Santa Maria was wrecked on a coral reef. Christmas Day was spent salvaging what they could, including stripping timbers from part of the ship itself. Those timbers were then used to make a fort that was christened Villa de la Navidad.

When Columbus returned on his next trip, the fort was gone, along with the remains of the Santa Maria. Today, people are still looking for both. At the head of the search for the location of La Navidad is amateur archaeologist Clark Moore. We’re using the term “amateur” only as a technicality; Moore is credited with finding more than 980 significant sites in Haiti, where he spends winters exploring the lands that Columbus settled. He’s pretty sure that he has a good idea where La Navidad was built—on a hill amid villagers who ultimately burned it to the ground when they realized the character of those who settled there.

And as for the Santa Maria? In 2014, it was claimed that marine archaeologists led by Barry Clifford had found the wreck by closely studying contemporary accounts of the trip and then diving in the right spot. Unfortunately, UNESCO stepped in with the final word, saying the wreck found wasn’t of the Santa Maria. Their conclusions were based on finding fasteners and the remains of copper fittings. Those, along with evident shipbuilding techniques, dated the wreck to sometime in the 18th century.

That last fact only helps us to conclude that in spite of being known throughout Europe and the Americas as one of the great explorers of the Age of Exploration, there’s more myth and mystery about Christopher Columbus than there is historic fact.

When you hear the phrase “10 wtf facts” you probably expect a list of jaw‑dropping trivia, and that’s exactly what we’re serving up about Christopher Columbus. The man still enjoys a dedicated holiday, yet the dark, often forgotten details of his voyages read more like a horror novel than a heroic saga. Below, we dive into ten unsettling revelations that make a strong case for retiring his commemorative day.

10 wtf facts Overview

10 He Cut The Hands Off Of Natives Who Didn’t Bring Him Enough Gold

When Columbus first set foot on the islands he promised the Spanish crown a bounty of gold and slaves, writing that he would deliver “as much gold as they need… and as many slaves as they ask.” To meet that impossible quota, he instituted a brutal system: every native over fourteen was forced into a labor camp in what is now Haiti, tasked with digging for the imagined riches.

Those who managed to bring back a sufficient amount of gold received a copper token to hang around their necks, a grim badge of life. Anyone caught without the token faced a savage penalty – their hands were severed on the spot, the wounds left untreated so they bled out on the beach.

The promised gold fields were largely a myth; the terrain offered little of the precious metal Columbus coveted. Realizing the futility, many natives attempted to flee, only to be hunted down by armed Spaniards and their dogs, who killed anyone they could catch.

In the end, the policy resulted in a terrifying combination of forced labor, amputation, and mass murder, all to satisfy a promise that was never realistic.

9 Columbus’s Men Tested Their Blades By Killing People

Father Bartolomé de las Casas, who accompanied the expedition, sent a harrowing letter back to Europe describing scenes that read like a nightmare. He wrote that the Spaniards would capture natives only to slice off pieces of flesh, using the acts as a grotesque way to test the sharpness of their swords.

According to his account, the soldiers turned execution into a perverse sport, betting on who could cleave a man in two or behead someone with a single blow. The cruelty didn’t stop at adult males; infants were snatched from mothers’ arms and brutally smashed against rocks, while other babies were thrust onto swords, their tiny bodies shredded.

These atrocities were not random; they were systematic, serving as both entertainment and intimidation. De las Casas noted a “stream of blood” flowing through the villages, likening it to a herd of slaughtered cattle.

The sheer savagery of these acts shocked even contemporary observers, highlighting a level of violence that far exceeded the usual colonial exploitation narratives.

Such accounts underscore the depth of cruelty that accompanied Columbus’s quest for wealth and dominance.

8 Columbus Also Mutilated His Own Spaniards

Columbus’s tyranny extended to his own crew. As supplies dwindled, he hoarded food aboard his ships, refusing to share with the starving settlers. To enforce his draconian rule, he declared that any theft of bread would result in hanging.

The punishments, however, went far beyond execution. When a cabin boy pilfered a fish from a trap, Columbus ordered the boy’s hand to be nailed to the spot where the fish had been taken. Another youngster caught stealing corn suffered the removal of both ears and his nose, followed by whipping, shackling, and eventual sale into slavery.

Even the act of purchasing food with personal gold was deemed treasonous. A group of twelve Spaniards were bound by neck and feet, then publicly flogged for buying pork and bread without the admiral’s permission.

By the time Columbus abandoned the settlement, fifty of his men had perished from starvation, while he remained relatively well‑fed, his belly kept full by strict command. When a subordinate failed to provision his pantry adequately, Columbus stripped him naked and delivered a hundred lashes.

This internal cruelty paints a picture of a leader whose cruelty knew no ethnic boundaries.

7 Women Were Regularly Paraded Naked Through The Streets

When a Spanish woman crossed Columbus or his brothers, the punishment was public humiliation on a grotesque scale. Rather than simply whipping or imprisoning her, Columbus ordered her to be stripped completely, mounted on a mule, and forced to trot through the town in her shame.

The first recorded incident involved a woman accused of falsely claiming pregnancy. Columbus sentenced her to the naked parade, turning her personal grievance into a spectacle for all to witness.

Later, Bartolomé, Columbus’s brother, repeated the cruelty when a woman alleged they were the sons of a common journeyman. After the public stripping, he also had her tongue cut out, a gruesome addition to the humiliation.

A third case saw Teresa de Vaeca punished for an affair committed by a friend. Though she herself had done nothing, the authorities deemed her guilty of “pimping,” stripping her naked, lashing her a hundred times, and cutting out her tongue.

These episodes reveal a pattern of gender‑based terror used to enforce obedience and protect the reputation of the Columbus family.

6 He Started A Child Sex Slave Ring

When Columbus realized that prostitution could be more lucrative than agriculture, he organized a ring of sex slaves, treating women and girls as mere commodities. He wrote home that a hundred castellanos could be earned from a woman as easily as from a farm, justifying the abduction and sale of women for forced sexual exploitation.

His correspondence makes it clear that the most profitable victims were not adult women but pre‑pubescent girls. He specifically mentioned that children “from nine to ten are now in demand,” indicating a calculated market for child sexual slavery.

One chilling testimony comes from Michele de Cuneo, who received a young girl as a gift from Columbus. Cuneo described how the girl fiercely resisted, scratching him with her nails and crying out in agony as he tried to bind her with rope. He later remarked that the experience was so harrowing he wished he’d never been given the child.

This sordid chapter underscores the depths of exploitation Columbus pursued in the New World, turning human lives into a profit‑driven enterprise.

5 He Lied About Being The First Person To Spot Land

Beyond the bloodshed, Columbus displayed petty greed. The Spanish monarchs had promised a lifelong pension to whoever first laid eyes on new land. While his crew kept vigilant watch, it was Rodrigo de Triaga who, in the dead of night, first sighted the horizon.

Instead of crediting his man, Columbus claimed he had seen a candle‑like light the previous day, insisting he deserved the reward. He argued that his earlier observation, though not officially reported, entitled him to the pension, effectively stealing the prize from his own subordinate.

Historians believe Columbus’s motive was not financial need—he already commanded wealth and power—but sheer pride. By inserting himself into the record as the first discoverer, he secured a permanent place in the annals of history while denying his crew their rightful honor.

This act of deception illustrates how personal vanity could eclipse even the grandest of voyages.

4 He Paraded Dismembered Bodies Through Town

When the Arawak people attempted to resist Columbus’s rule, the Spaniards responded with overwhelming force. Armed with armor, muskets, swords, and horses, they crushed the rebellion, hanging prisoners, enslaving survivors, and burning some alive.

To send a chilling warning, the conquistadors dismembered the corpses of those they killed, then marched the severed parts through native villages. The macabre display was intended to terrorize any would‑be rebels, making clear that defiance would be met with gruesome, public retribution.

This gruesome parade of bodies served as a stark psychological weapon, reinforcing Columbus’s dominance through fear and horror.

3 He Pretended To Be God To Keep The Natives Working For Him

When the Arawak people realized they could starve Columbus by withholding food, he resorted to deception. Knowing the date of a forthcoming lunar eclipse from an astronomical table, he warned the natives that his god was angry and that the Moon would turn fiery as a sign of divine wrath.

As the eclipse darkened the sky, the natives, terrified, rushed to Columbus’s ships laden with provisions, pleading for intercession. Columbus’s son Ferdinand recorded the moment, noting how the indigenous people begged the admiral to appeal to God on their behalf.

This clever manipulation bought Columbus the supplies he needed, allowing him to survive while the natives continued to suffer under his rule.

The episode shows how Columbus leveraged superstition and fear, presenting himself as a divine intermediary to maintain control.

2 The Arawaks Committed Mass Suicide Rather Than Live With Columbus

Facing relentless oppression, many Arawak communities chose death over continued subjugation. Whole villages coordinated mass suicides, often in groups of a hundred, to escape the horrors Columbus imposed.

Mothers administered cassava‑derived poison to their children, ensuring painless departures, while young women swore never to bear more children under such tyranny. A Spanish chronicler, Perdro de Corboda, recorded that pregnant women took abortive measures and that many mothers killed their newborns to prevent them from enduring slavery.

At the height of this tragedy, approximately 250,000 native Haitians lost their lives within just two years, a stark testament to the desperation and hopelessness they felt.

1 He Brought Syphilis To Europe

While Columbus’s voyages decimated indigenous populations, they also introduced a new scourge to Europe. In 1495, shortly after his return, the continent experienced its first recorded outbreak of syphilis, a disease previously unknown in Europe.

Historians link the epidemic to the infected crew members who had engaged in the child sex‑slave trade in the New World. The disease spread rapidly as sailors, now part of various European armies, carried it across borders, causing widespread devastation.

The initial outbreak claimed the lives of more than five million Europeans. Some scholars even suggest that Columbus himself may have succumbed to complications from the disease, which was later misdiagnosed as gout or Reiter’s syndrome.

This tragic irony—Columbus’s own demise possibly tied to the very illness his expeditions unleashed—adds another layer of darkness to his legacy.

In the 1960s, archaeologists uncovered a Viking settlement on Newfoundland’s coast, a find that pre‑dated Christopher Columbus’s celebrated 1492 crossing by roughly five centuries. That breakthrough knocked down the long‑held belief that Columbus was the first to lay eyes on the New World (aside from the Indigenous peoples who had lived there for millennia, of course). So, if the Norse could pull it off, who else might have managed to cross the Atlantic before fourteen‑hundred‑ninety‑two? Below are ten theories—spun by university scholars, museum curators, and dedicated hobby historians—that suggest other cultures may have beaten Columbus to the Americas. The focus keyword “10 peoples might” appears right at the start of this opening paragraph, setting the stage for a fun yet scholarly ride.

10 Polynesian Voyagers

The legendary odysseys of the ancient Polynesians even inspired Disney’s 2016 hit Moana. Beginning roughly three millennia ago, they set sail in sturdy ocean‑going catamarans, establishing colonies across New Zealand, Hawaii, Rapa Nui (Easter Island), and countless islands in between. Their interconnected web—known today as the Polynesian Triangle—covers an area larger than modern Russia.

Evidence strongly suggests Polynesians reached South America well before Columbus. Sweet potatoes, native to the Andes, were being cultivated on Mangaia and Hawaiʻi centuries prior to any European contact. In 2007, archaeologists uncovered chicken bones in Chile dating between 1321 and 1407 AD. While DNA proof is still pending, Polynesians were renowned for transporting chickens across the Pacific.

Genetic studies of Rapa Nui inhabitants reveal South American DNA entering their gene pool sometime between 1300 and 1500 AD. Some argue that Andean peoples could have drifted eastward on balsa rafts—Thor Heyerdahl famously sailed a replica from Peru to Raroia in 1947—but most scholars favor the superior vessels and sophisticated wayfinding of the Polynesians, techniques still practiced today, as the more plausible conduit.

9 Japanese Fishermen

During the late 1960s, Ecuadorian entrepreneur Emilio Estrada led an excavation at Valdivia, a 5,000‑year‑old site in Ecuador. Among the artifacts, a trove of unusual pottery caught his eye, prompting him to write to Betty Meggers at the Smithsonian for identification. Meggers responded that the ceramics closely resembled 5,000‑year‑old Jōmon pottery from Japan.

How could a Japanese vessel have traveled all the way to Ecuador? One theory points to the Kuroshio Current, notorious for sweeping Japanese fishing junks far offshore, sometimes leaving crews adrift for months. Historical records note a 1815 incident where a junk washed ashore near Santa Barbara, California, with three survivors after a 17‑month odyssey. Another case in 1843 saw a junk strand on the Mexican coast, its two fishermen still alive but traumatized.

Although the Kuroshio does not provide a direct route to Ecuador, researchers have detected DNA markers and unique viral signatures in the region that hint at a Japanese presence. If this hypothesis holds, those fishermen would have beaten Columbus by roughly 4,500 years.

8 Irish Monks

Shortly after Saint Patrick’s death, another Irish saint emerged: Saint Brendan, nicknamed “the Navigator” for his voyages to Scotland, Wales, and Brittany to spread Christianity. By the ninth century, a semi‑mythical, semi‑historical narrative of his expedition had become a medieval bestseller.

In The Voyage of Saint Brendan, a character named Saint Barinthus recounts that Brendan had just returned from “Paradise,” a land far beyond the western horizon. Determined to see it, Brendan gathered a crew, a leather‑bound Irish currach, and divine goodwill before setting sail. Their journey led them through a fantastical realm, including “hell,” where “great demons threw down lumps of fiery slag from an island with rivers of gold fire.”

Could these accounts hint at a stop in Iceland? If the Irish reached Iceland, they might have followed the Viking trail all the way to Newfoundland. To test feasibility, historian‑adventurer Tim Severin successfully recreated the voyage in 1976, sailing a leather‑bound currach from Ireland to the New World—proving that such a trek was indeed possible.

7 English Merchants

In 1475, the Hanseatic League—a medieval cod‑fish cartel—refused to sell cod to Bristol, a bustling English port. The English, lovers of fish, immediately began searching for an alternative source.

A wealthy customs official named Thomas Croft financed several fish‑finding expeditions led by merchant John Jay, whose mission was to locate a legendary, fog‑shrouded land west of Ireland called Hy‑Brasil. Official records state they never found it. Yet, shortly thereafter, Bristol began importing a suspiciously large volume of fish. Croft was arrested for illegal trading but later acquitted, leaving the question of the fish’s origin unanswered.

In 1956, a spy for the Spanish Inquisition left a letter in the Spanish National Archives stating, “It is considered certain that the cape of the said land was found and discovered in the past…by the men from Bristol who found ‘Brasil.’” If Bristol’s fishermen had indeed discovered the rich cod banks off Newfoundland, they would have kept it secret—until Columbus inadvertently revealed the bounty.

6 A Moorish Daredevil

Arab historian Abu al‑Hasan Ali Al‑Mas’udi (896‑956 AD) chronicled in his famed work The Golden Meadows that a Moor named Khoshkhash had sailed into the Atlantic. He wrote, “Nobody knew for a long time what had become of them; at length they returned with rich booty.” While the text omits the destination, Muslim scholars have speculated that Khoshkhash may have reached the Caribbean islands over six centuries before Columbus.

In the 1960s, a container of numerous Roman and two eighth‑century Arabic coins washed ashore off Venezuela. These coins, used in medieval Europe, have been cited as possible evidence of Khoshkhash’s voyage. However, scholars note the lack of clear information about the container—whether it was a ceramic amphora or a pickle jar—making definitive conclusions elusive.

Top 10 Iconic Things With Criminal Beginnings

5 Two Venetian Brothers and a Norwegian Nobleman

In 1558, Nicolò Zeno published a bestselling collection of letters he claimed had been preserved in his family archives for generations. These letters came from his great‑great‑great‑grandfather Antonio Zeno and great‑great‑great‑uncle Nicolò Zeno, recounting adventures in the Arctic.

According to the narrative, in 1380 Nicolò Zeno set sail from Venice to Flanders. From there, he was shipwrecked on an island he called Frislanda and rescued by a prince named Zichmni, a conqueror of everything in sight. Nicolò wrote to his brother Antonio, and together they aided Zichmni in numerous battles against defenseless islanders. The documents also featured a map, a semi‑accurate depiction of northern Scotland, Iceland, and Greenland.

Modern theorists suggest that “Zichmni” is a grossly misspelled version of “d’Orkney,” referring to Henry Sinclair, Earl of Orkney, and that the island names are similarly distorted versions of known North Atlantic islands.

It’s also been proposed that Henry Sinclair and the Zeno brothers sailed beyond Greenland, following the Viking route to Nova Scotia, over a century before Columbus. In 1998, the Prince Henry Sinclair Society of North America unveiled a monument at the alleged landing site in Canso, Nova Scotia, hoping to attract tourists.

4 A Roman Explorer

In 1933, a tiny terracotta statue head was uncovered at an archaeological site in Calixtlahuaca, Mexico. The face displayed beaded features and a distinctly non‑Mexican style, topped with a truncated cap. Classical archaeologist Ernest Boehringer examined the piece and declared it a second‑ or third‑century Roman artifact.

How did a Roman head end up at a site occupied from 1300 BC to 800 BC? One hypothesis suggests the head was placed there as a prank. Dr. John Paddack, who taught at the Universidad de las Américas, often joked that the head had been planted by a student named Hugo Moedano. Another possibility points to lax archaeological standards of the 1930s, leading to miscataloguing. Yet a third, more tantalizing theory posits that a Roman traveler somehow reached Mexico in pre‑Columbian times, leaving this enigmatic sculpture behind.

3 Chinese Treasure Ships

In the early 1400s, China held the title of the world’s pre‑eminent naval power. Its treasure ships, described as massive as the World War I‑era USS Minnesota, roamed the Indian Ocean, the Persian Gulf, and the east coast of Africa. If the Chinese desired, they could have ventured across the Pacific.

Former submarine commander Gavin Mendes argues that a Chinese treasure fleet under Admiral Zheng He ventured farther than traditionally believed, exploring Australia, the Caribbean, and even establishing settlements in South America. His claim lacked solid proof until Chinese lawyer Liu Gang uncovered an old map in a Shanghai second‑hand bookshop depicting North and South America with surprising detail. The map bore a note claiming it was a 1763 copy of a 1418 original—aligning with Mendes’s proposed timeline.

The cartographic community largely dismisses the map as a forgery. China and Hong Kong’s bustling markets are replete with “ancient texts” sold on street corners, and the map contains numerous naming errors, including a modern Chinese spelling of “Mohammed.” While the evidence is shaky, the possibility of a trans‑Pacific Chinese expedition remains an intriguing, albeit unproven, notion.

2 A Mali Emperor

Mansa Musa, ruler of the Mali Empire, was so wealthy that his 1324 pilgrimage to Mecca involved such lavish generosity that gold prices worldwide plummeted. When asked about his predecessor, Abu Bakar II, Musa recounted, “The ruler who preceded me did not believe it impossible to reach the extremity of the ocean that encircles the earth (meaning the Atlantic), and wanted to reach that… never to return nor to give a sign of life.”

Malian scholar Gaoussou Diawara interprets Musa’s words as evidence that Abu Bakar II may have landed in Brazil, specifically the city of Recife—its alternative name, Purnanbuco, possibly a corruption of a Mande term for Mali’s famed goldfields. Diawara also cites chemical analyses indicating that gold found on American spears could trace back to Mali, as well as a report by Columbus noting encounters with black traders during his voyages.

Whether Abu Bakar II indeed made it to Brazil or perished in the Atlantic, his heir Mansa Musa went on to become the most celebrated emperor in Mali’s history, cementing the empire’s legacy.

1 Basque Whalers

In 1530, Basque whalers began operating in Newfoundland. By 1535, when Jacques de Cartier “discovered” the Saint Lawrence River, he reported encountering roughly 1,000 Basque fishing vessels already harvesting cod. This makes the Basques the first European group to settle the area after the Vikings.

The Basques inhabit the border region of France and Spain, boasting a distinct culture and a language—Euskera—that bears no relation to neighboring tongues. Their reticence to engage with outsiders is legendary. For centuries, Basque shipbuilders and sailors honed expert navigation and fishing techniques, becoming masters of the sea.

It remains unclear whether the Basques arrived precisely when Columbus returned to the Atlantic or enjoyed a head start—perhaps chasing whales across the ocean. Their extraordinary skill at preserving fish allowed for lengthy voyages, suggesting a pre‑Columbian Basque settlement could still lie undiscovered in Newfoundland.

10 Rarely Told Tales Of Columbus, History’s Greatest Explorer

Why 10 peoples might have reached the New World

The phrase “10 peoples might” threads through each of these captivating stories, underscoring the tantalizing possibility that many cultures ventured across the ocean before Columbus’s famed expedition. From Polynesian navigators to Basque whalers, the evidence—archaeological, genetic, and documentary—invites us to rethink the conventional Eurocentric narrative of discovery.