Message from the West

May 2000

Aloha brethren.  In the past month, we have raised two new brothers as Entered Apprentices.  We are experiencing a refreshing number of new candidates and will be busy for months to come performing all of the degree  work.  Thank you to all the brothers who assisted in the raisings.  I would also like to say how well the April 11th event at the IHS shelter went.  We started at 2:30 p.m. and finished about 7 p.m.  We fed approximately 100 women and children and 250 men in the two shelters.  We received no complaints about our tuna casserole, so it must have been preety good.  I believe we made a real difference in the lives of these people and it felt very good to help those in need.  Very often we forget about the homeless on the streets and would prefer that they remain anonymous and away from us.  As Masons, we accept no hierarchy among men and accept all as equal creations of the Great Architect in the Universe.  Our unselfish act at IHS shows Masons and others what can be done and what should be done in the community.

Freemasonry’s link to Master Navigators

The Sinclair Voyage to America

In 1393, Henry Sinclair, Prince of the Orkney Islands, sent a Venetian admiral, Nicolo Zeno, to carry out a survey of Greenland, in preparation for their journey to the New World. Before embarking on what was considered a risky endeavor, Sinclair made provisions for transferring some of his lands to his brothers and eldest daughter. He then took to the sea with 12 vessels, Zeno navigating, and 200-300 fellow voyagers, made up of monks and fugitive Templars. They set foot on American soil on June 2, 1398.  Eminent historians have corroborated the saga of their voyage from Zeno's ship's log-"Zeno's Narrative"-which documented  the exploration of Nova Scotia during the next year. The explorers then supposedly traveled to Cape D'Or and Advocate and  built a ship there. There is evidence that they erected a small castle in New Ross, near Oak Island. In fact, today, a 14th-century  cannon in Louisburg Harbor dates back to Henry's time and a stone wall near Halifax, which also dates back to the 14th century, has a distinctly Scottish design to it.  Later, Zeno returned to Orkney while Sinclair continued to explore the coastline of Massachusetts. One evening, upon seeing  smoke, the explorers traveled inland for a better view.

Along the way, Sir James Gunn, lifelong friend to Sinclair, died. In honor of his memory, they carved his effigy on a horizontal stone ledge in Westford, MA which depicts the helm of a medieval  knight, a shield bearing the coat of arms of the Gunn family, a sword with a break in the blade (indicating the death of a knight),  a falcon, and a rosette, which served as a lance rest. The carving is comprised of various sized holes punched into the stone by a   sharp tool, driven by a mallet. Archaeologists have confirmed that the holes were punched into the rock 600 years ago and the  effigy contains elements known only by northern Europeans.  Located in the basement of the library in Westford, MA is an oval-shaped "boat" stone, measuring about 2 feet in diameter. Carved into its surface is the image of a 14th-century ship, an arrow, and the numbers 184, presumably indicating the distance to where a campsite was located.  A construction crew discovered the boat stone over 30 years ago when a road was being built; the stone was subsequently moved to someone's garage, until it was recently donated to the library. Archaeological evidence indicates these images were   probably carved at the same time as the Westford Knight carving, most probably by the same voyagers.  Researchers believe that the Sinclair expedition then sailed southward to the Rhode Island coast, where they built the Newport  Tower as part of a settlement. Prince Henry was familiar with the style of architecture of the the Tower, which is similar to European strongholds built by the Knights Templar in both the Orkney Islands and in Scandinavia.  Certainly, the number of Norse and Gaelic words in the languages of the Algonquin tribes indicates that trade had been taking  place between Europe and America before the time of Columbus. Micmac Indians of the 14th century tell legends of a blond  haired, blue eyed god who they called "Glooscap," whose friendly manner won the hearts of the natives. He treated them fairly and taught them to fish with nets. Indeed, fishing was a natural pastime for Sinclair's companions.

According to a Micmac  Legend, "[Glooscap] built himself an island, planted trees on it, and sailed away in his stone canoe." They also spoke of the men who built Newport Tower as "fire-haired men with green eyes."  Prince Henry Sinclair's historic voyage of 1398 is even indelibly hewn in stone at the Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland, where there are stone carvings of Indian maize and American aloe cacti, which were carved before Columbus was born and were native only to the Americas.  So what was the ultimate purpose of such a long journey? Speculation as to the purpose of their voyage has ranged from  exploration and settlement to a mission to move the Templar's treasure to safer ground. Certainly Oak Island's "money pit" may  someday prove the reason behind their voyage.   It seems that a complex hole in the ground was discovered a few hundred years ago. Before the original treasure hunters were able to find the treasure, the pit was flooded (a safety feature which had been built into the pit by its original builders). Since   then, the only clues to have been found are scraps of parchment and some gold dust. However, many treasure hunters are  certain that what lays still buried within the money pit is the Templar's lost treasure, buried for safekeeping by Henry Sinclair and his shipmates 600 years ago this year!

In Portugal, the Templars were cleared by an inquiry and simply modified their name, becoming the Knights of Christ. They survived under this title well into the sixteenth century, their maritime explorations leaving an indelible mark on history. (Vasco da Gama was a Knight of Christ; Prince Henry the Navigator was a grand Master of the Order. Ships of the Knights of Christ sailed under the Templars' familiar red patte cross. And it was under the same cross that

Columbus's three caravels crossed the Atlantic to the New World. Columbus himself was married to the daughter of a former Grand Master of the Order, and had access to his father-in-law's charts and diaries.  The first and most active figure on whom any solid information is available was Prince Henry the navigator, Grand master of the Order of Christ and a man described by his biographer [Zurara] as possessing 'strength of heart and keenness of mind to a very excellent degree...[who] was, beyond comparison, ambitious of achieving great and  lofty deeds.   Born in 1394, and actively involved in seafaring by 1415, Henry's greatest ambition - as he himself declared - was that he would 'have knowledge of the land of Prester John'. Chroniclers who were his contemporaries, as well as  modern historians, are in full agreement that he devoted the greater part of his illustrious career to the pursuit of  precisely this goal.  It is notable that he immersed himself in the study of mathematics and cosmography, 'the course of the heavens and astrology', and that he was constantly surrounded by Jewish doctors and astronomers -  who 'saw hidden secrets in the constellations [and] declared there was a thing called the Gral whose name he read in the stars without more ado' [Parzival ].   In Portugal, Dom Enrique, mestrat of the Knights of Christ became known as Enrique the Navigator and exploited every modern method. At Sagres his staff included geographers, shipwrights, linguists, Jewish cartographers and Moorish pilots. The team studied map making and how to improve navigational instruments, the astrolabe and compass. Islam had conquered the Spains; Christianity would conquer Africa, then Asia.  By 1425 his brethren had colonized Madeira and the Canaries. In 1445 they settled the Azores. The systematic exploitation of the west African coast began in 1434, made possible by the new caravels, the most seaworthy ships of their day. Rigged with many small sails instead of one or two huge spreads of canvas as hitherto, these new ships were much easier to handle - a smaller crew make provisions last longer.

Our knowledge of the Henrican voyages is inadequate, and this is largely due to the adoption of a policy of secrecy which included the suppression of facts...historical works...nautical guides, maps, instructions to navigators and their reports.   Indeed, so great was the commitment to secrecy in Henry's time that the release of information on the results of the  various exploratory voyages that were undertaken was punishable by death. Despite this, however, it is known that the prince was obsessed with the notion of making direct contact with Ethiopia - and that he sought to achieve this end by circumnavigating Africa (since the shorter route through the Mediterranean and then into the Red Sea via Egypt was blocked by hostile Muslim forces). Moreover, even before the Cape of Good Hope was rounded, the masters of Portuguese vessels venturing down the West African coast were instructed to enquire after 'Prester John' to see whether it might mot be quicker to approach his kingdom overland.   It was not until the early years of the twentieth century that certain secret archives pertaining to the last decade of his life came to light. Among these archives a brief note was found to the effect that 'an ambassador of Prester John visited Lisbon eight years before Henry's death'. It is not known what the purpose of this mission was, or what the  prince and the Ethiopian envoy discussed. Nevertheless, two years after their meeting it can hardly have been accidental that King Alfonso V of Portugal granted spiritual jurisdiction over Ethiopia to the Order of Christ."  In 1487 "King John II of Portugal, then Grand Master of the Order, had sent his trusted aide Pero de Covilhan on  perilous journey to the court of Prester John via the Mediterranean, Egypt and the Red Sea. Disguised as a merchant,  Covilhan passed through Alexandria and Cairo to Suakin and there, in 1488, he took ship in a small Arab barque for   the Yemeni port of Aden. He then became caught up in various adventures which delayed him considerably. As a result it was not until 1493 that he finally succeeded in entering Abyssinia. Once there, however, he made his way immediately to the emperor's court where he was first welcomed but later placed under comfortable house arrest.  One can only speculate as to why this happened, but...Covilhan's greatest skill was as a spy (he had previously worked as a secret agent in Spain).   In 1497 Vasco da Gama, also a Knight of the Order of Christ "devoted a considerable part of the expedition [to India] to African exploration and is reported to have wept for joy when, at anchor off Mozambique he was rightly   told that Prester John lived in the interior far to the north...the first official Portuguese embassy to the court of Prester John landed at the port of Massawa in 1520 and made its way inland [in a grueling eight month march] to meet with Lebna Dengel, the Solomic emperor who had been on  the throne since 1508.

Not long after the Templar dispersal, very accurate and inexplicable sea-charts began to appear all over Europe.  These maps, called portolans (thought to be derived from 'port' to 'land'), were far superior to the Ptolemaic maps  studied by academic ecclesiastics in the monasteries and fledgling universities. Most of the portolans covered the area of the Mediterranean and the European Atlantic coast. They covered the areas crucial to European sea-commerce.  The earliest dated portolan chart is the Opicinis de Canestris map of the Mediterranean of 1335 A.D. It demonstrates that maps of inexplicable accuracy began to appear in Europe less than 25 years after King Philippe's surprise raids against the Templars and the papal elimination of the Order under Clement V.   It is not mere coincidence that his flagship, the famous Santa Maria, bore Templar crosses on her sails when Columbus set sail from Palos. It is not mere coincidence that his voyage was financed, not by the sale of Isabella's jewelry as so commonly thought, but by a mysterious consortium of wealthy men which included Jews and other heretics. And it is not only coincidence that Columbus weighed anchor on August 3, 1492 just a few hours before the deadline for all Jews to be out of Spain.

Fraternally,

Frank Condello II

Senior Warden