It’s well known that in 1492 Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue and bumped into the Bahamas.

Less known is that Columbus did much wayfaring post-mortem, that is, after he died of a heart attack at 54 in 1506. His corpse made two trans-Atlantic voyages and was deposited into various tombs, crypts and graves. So many that it’s not clear where his real bones rest, writes J. D. Mullane. Maybe Spain. Maybe the Dominican Republic.

Depending on who you read, Columbus was a genius, a greedy egotist or a loon with delusions of Messianism.

Genius, because he is a giant of the Age of Discovery.

Egotist, because he took credit for spotting land on Oct. 12, 1492, when this honor belongs to Rodrigo de Triana, a lowly lookout aboard the Pinta. (By claiming to have seen land first, Columbus scored himself a bonus from the Court of Spain — a lifetime pension.)

Loon, because in his 1503 “Book of Prophecies” he presents his discoveries as events presaging the Christian End Times.

Attempting to find a western route to China, Columbus massively miscalculated the journey. His mistake led him to the Caribbean islands and South America. Despite all evidence, he insisted until his death that he really had landed in Asia.

Death did not end his travels, though.

Various historical accounts, among them a piece by the early 20th century journalist John E. Watkins, report that Columbus was initially buried at Valladolid, the town in northern Spain where he died. At the request of his son, Diego, the body was exhumed and reburied at the monastery of La Cartuja, in Seville.

In 1542, Diego, now governor of Hispaniola, had his father’s remains disinterred and moved across the Atlantic to the island, today the Dominican Republic. Columbus was placed in a crypt at the cathedral in Santo Domingo.

In 1586, as the English marauder Sir Francis Drake approached the island, the archbishop of Santo Domingo was alarmed. He believed Drake would desecrate the cathedral. He ordered all tombs in the crypt to be covered with earth.

Columbus’s remains were forgotten until 1795, the year Spain ceded Santo Domingo to France. The Duke of Veragua, a descendant of Columbus, requested that his ancestor’s remains be removed from the cathedral and handed over.

After much hunting in the earth-covered crypts, a stone vault marked “Columbus” was recovered. The dust and bones inside were placed in a smaller lead and gold case. A Mass was said over the remains, and then were taken to Cuba, so Columbus would remain on Spanish soil.

This is where the mystery deepens.

In 1877, workmen making repairs on the cathedral in Santo Domingo found a lead casket in a spot next to the place from which the “Columbus” remains were retrieved. On the coffin were Christopher Columbus’s initials. Inside were bones.

This implied that the bones taken to Cuba were not those of the Great Columbus, but of someone else, probably his son, Diego, who had been buried next to him in the cathedral.

An international uproar followed. Spain lashed out at the church and the government of Santo Domingo, saying they had been “the authors and accomplices of a pious fraud.” Meanwhile, in Cuba, the archbishop in Havana insisted he had possession of the real Columbus remains.

So began the Era of Dueling Tombs.

When the Spanish-American war broke out in 1898, Spaniards fleeing Cuba were permitted to remove Columbus’s alleged remains from Havana. The bones were taken back across the Atlantic to Spain and interred in Seville.

In Santo Domingo in March 1939, the bones in the casket bearing Columbus’s initials were removed from the cathedral crypt, and reinterred beneath the Columbus Memorial Lighthouse in the capital city’s harbor.

Both Spain and the Dominican Republic squabbled for years over who had the real Columbus.

But in 2004, DNA tests suggested that the bones in Spain aren’t those of Columbus the Discoverer, but of his son, Diego.

Officially, the United States recognizes the Santo Domingo remains as the real deal. But who’s to say?

The Dominican government has never permitted a forensic exam of the lighthouse bones. In Seville, people still claim to have the real Columbus.

But the remains in Spain rest mainly on those claims.

For the original report go to http://www.phillyburbs.com/blogs/news_columnists/jd_mullane/dead-man-trekking/article_1fd5a35c-e4b2-5f35-8b6b-6e795d32b837.html

Cartoon from http://www.the-isb.com/?p=125