Introduction

This introduction sets the tone for the whole book, which opens in Chapter 1 with the story of Matto the manatee, written by Lopéz de Gomara in the early 16th century and retold by several other authors, from Herrera y Tordesillas in 1725 to Durand in the 20th century. Here, I address the agency of Native American and European peoples and discuss the agency of marine mammals and other large aquatic animals and water monsters. My aim is to unravel different stories in order to assemble a history of the interactions between humans and marine animals in the early modern Atlantic. I will use documentary and iconographic historical sources for West Africa and the Americas that include aquatic animals in their descriptions.