14. On at Least One Occasion, the Trope About Somebody Manipulating Natives by Predicting an Eclipse Rested on Fact
Christopher Columbus told the locals that he would have to check with his God and see if He was in a forgiving mood. He retired to his cabin and timed things with an hourglass. At the eclipse’s peak, he emerged to announce that he had interceded with God, who had agreed – just this once – to forgive the Arawaks. The moon began reappearing just as Columbus finished talking. From then on, the Arawak leaned over backward to be helpful and kept Columbus and his crew supplied and well-fed. The castaways spent a leisurely time for the remainder of their stay in Jamaica until rescue ships took them off the island months later.
Columbus’ experience with the Arawaks gave rise to numerous fictional variations in the centuries since. Mark Twain, for example, had his protagonist in A Connecticut Yankee in King’s Arthur’s Court predict a solar eclipse to save himself from getting burned at the stake. H. Rider Haggard used it in King Solomon’s Mines to have his hero secure help from natives by predicting a lunar eclipse. However, for all its overuse in fiction and film, the trope has a basis in fact, based on an event actually did happen at least once in real life.