When Christopher Columbus, Indies bound, set out on the ocean blue in 1492, he found it mandatory to combat the intransigent doctrine of his sailors. Sometimes doctrine works to one's advantage and at other times it is an adverse condition that must be dealt with. Columbus was a wise man as well as an able man of the sea. He refrained from putting his sailors down for their flat earth faith and did not attempt to convert them. If he had tried to do so, he may have had a mutiny on his hands. Instead, Columbus contented himself with accommodating them.
It has been said that he fudged his logbook so that the track made good was often plotted as being of far fewer knots than had actually been accomplished that day. Columbus merely created a myth that tended to soften the demands of the doctrine, which demanded that sailors bound for the far reaches of the oceans were bound to fall off the edge into the abyss.
What accounted for the successful wanderlust of the Micronesians, Polynesians and Melanesians in contrast to the European landlubbers' prevalence for staying within the sight of land? There are two factors. The night sky over the Pacific Ocean made celestial navigation practical. The people from Fatu Hiva, one of the Society Islands, ventured far to the east and then north on a voyage that took at least three months in an open outrigger before they made landfall in what is now called Hawaii. Celestial navigation was only part of it. There was also guided by a legend that dictated to the venturesome Polynesians, who were said to have been fleeing from vengeful gods. A group of islands lies far to the east and then far to the north.
Contrast this with the task facing Columbus, whom maritime historians believe used dead reckoning as his sole means of navigation. In addition to insurmountable difficulties finding his way across the Atlantic to the riches of the East Indies, Colombus had to rely on sailors whose legends were filled with dire consequences. Long before the first Europeans reached Fiji, the Fijians had a term for outsiders - vu valangi. / vulangi / It means beneath the sky. Fijians routinely sailed outside the sight of land and lived with the sight of sails inching up as outriggers approached. With the advent of tall ships, this phenomenon was exaggerated so that the term vu vulagi became a term for those who arrived on the tall ships.
| Here's the follow-up discussion on this article: | View all related messages |
For a complete listing of article comments, questions, and other discussions related to Larry Low's Folklore topic, please visit the Discussions page.