In 1526 English ships crossing the Caribbean Sea in all directions, but America was still a little known continent. In the south, in what is now Colombia, he founded Santa Marta. The English ships continuously sent from Cuba to open this new region. Sailors were a sea insecure and maps that made reference only on costs and a few safe routes, outside, danger lurked. One of those ships, a slight patache exploration, had left Havana bound for Santa Marta . I sent Captain Pedro Serrano.
Halfway in the middle of the Caribbean, a major storm patache surprises. The boat capsizing, too little time for such a vessel. Shipwrecked. Among enormous difficulties, the crew try to escape. The sea swallows. Only three men survive. Among them, Serrano. A swim, arrive at a sandbar, an atoll that is not on any map. The place is hell: in 35 miles long by 15 wide, there is only sand and sun, with little vegetation and no source of fresh water. These three men have survived, but have been isolated in a place where death seems imminent. Do not know where they are. Do not know how to eat. They do not know if a boat will pass by. Begins a race against death. Of the three castaways, one dies within a few days. Only two. Serrano knows that will only survive if it makes the most of limited resources that the island offers.
Serrano and his companion star in a real show of ingenuity. To take advantage of rainwater, collected molluscs and wood the wreck and made a small deposit. To protect the blazing tropical sun and strong winds, and lack of trees, collect rocks, shells and corals, and build a kind of tomb that serves as a shed. Make fire with flint, as there is no vegetation, which are used as tinder shreds of his own shirts.
One day, after several months of isolation, something extraordinary happens: there are two men in a boat. They do not come to rescue them, unfortunately, are also survivors. Serrano's companion went on that boat with one of them, hoping to reach the coast of Nicaragua. Both were lost forever. Serrano is with the other newly arrived.
Life in the sand is a daily struggle for survival. No more wood than it arrives, random, swept by the waves, the product of other wrecks. With these woods make fire. Fuel must be weighed very carefully: not just for roasting the meat of turtles and shellfish, but above all, to make smoke signals in the event of sighting a ship. Years pass. Serrano and his partner not ever give up. From their vantage point they saw a English boat, none will see them. We can imagine the despair of the castaways to see how salvation is missed by the skyline. Much more is hard to imagine and life, day after day, up to eight years !!!!. However, one day ... Let him count the Inca Garcilaso:
" For years saw some ships pass and made their smoked, but did not profit them, so they were so heartbroken, but lacked not die. But after this long time he passed a vessel so close to them who smoked and I saw the boat began to collect them. So they took the ship where they enjoyed to those who saw and heard his last works. The companion died at sea coming to Spain . "
Serrano's companion, in fact, died on board; did not see land anymore. Fate. Serrano, however, survived. It was 1534. Her story turned to Spain, which at that time was like that around the world. Feat so impressed the authorities decided to take to Germany, where he was then the Emperor Charles, to tell it personally Serrano. The wreck came to the imperial court with fur as we had when he was rescued, to give highest potential of truth to his story. We can imagine the astonishment of the Emperor by the appearance of this man, health and recovered, but his hair and beard of eight years of isolation.
Serrano became a famous man. Was dozens of meetings called courtesans, where the nobility was ready to hear your story. He himself wrote in a lively narrative that is preserved in the Archivo de Indias. Then rewarded by the Crown, went to Panama. End his days there.
It goes almost certainly Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe when he wrote , in 1719, had as its inspiration the story of Pedro Serrano in his barren sandbar. Today that island, Colombia is administered territory and calls Serrana Island, in honor just to wreck Pedro Serrano.
Sources: Wikipedia , www.elmanifiesto.com
