[Illustration: “‘TO THE MAST WITH HIM!’ SAID MARTIN ALONZO.”
[See page 73.]]
DIEGO PINZON
AND
_THE FEARFUL VOYAGE HE TOOK
INTO THE UNKNOWN OCEAN
A.D. 1492_
BY
JOHN RUSSELL CORYELL
ILLUSTRATED
NEW YORK
HARPER & BROTHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE
1892
Copyright, 1891, by HARPER & BROTHERS.
_All rights reserved._
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I. PAGE 1
” II. ” 6
” III. ” 18
” IV. ” 32
” V. ” 48
” VI. ” 64
” VII. ” 74
” VIII. ” 81
” IX. ” 88
” X. ” 97
” XI. ” 104
” XII. ” 112
” XIII. ” 120
” XIV. ” 127
” XV. ” 136
” XVI. ” 144
” XVII. ” 151
” XVIII. ” 160
” XIX. ” 167
” XX. ” 175
” XXI. ” 182
” XXII. ” 191
” XXIII. ” 205
” XXIV. ” 218
” XXV. ” 225
” XXVI. ” 234
” XXVII. ” 246
” XXVIII. ” 253
ILLUSTRATIONS.
“‘TO THE MAST WITH HIM!’ SAID MARTIN ALONZO” _Frontispiece._
“‘THINK TWICE, DID YOU SAY, FRAY ANTONIO,’ ASKED
THE BOY, ‘ERE I SET FOOT TO THE GROUND?’” _Facing p._ 8
“‘TUT!’ SAID THE FRIAR, TAKING DIEGO BY THE COLLAR
AND LEADING HIM AWAY” ” 18
“‘IT IS MY COUSIN’S SON, DIEGO? GOOD-DAY TO THEE,
LAD!’” ” 22
“‘HE IS VERY YOUNG TO DIE,’ SAID A MOCKING VOICE” ” 32
“THEN, LIKE A FLASH, FOR HE WAS A QUICK BOY, DIEGO
STRUCK THE OTHER BOY ON THE CHEEK” ” 34
“‘NOW GO FORWARD WHERE YOU BELONG’” ” 40
“‘HUSH!’ WHISPERED JUAN, SUDDENLY, ‘THERE IS A NOISE
IN THE CABIN’” ” 58
“MARTIN ALONZO DISAPPEARED OVER THE SIDE” ” 66
“‘THOU ART A TRUE PINZON, AND I AM PROUD OF THEE’” ” 88
“IF I HAD TOLD, YOU WOULD HAVE BEEN HANGED UP THERE” ” 96
“‘I SHALL SHOOT THE FIRST MAN WHO TRIES TO DESERT’” ” 106
“NO TWO BOYS EVER FILLED CASKS WITH SUCH EXPEDITION AS
THOSE TWO DID” ” 110
“‘HEY, THERE! YOU TWO HAVE HAD ENOUGH,’ SAID A MAN’S
VOICE” ” 118
“‘COME, SPEAK OUT, BOY!’” ” 130
“ALL OVER THE VESSEL COULD BE SEEN THOSE STRONG MEN
WEEPING” ” 138
“THE ADMIRAL WAS SPLENDIDLY ROBED IN A BRILLIANT SCARLET
CLOAK OVER HIS RICH AND GLITTERING ARMOR, AND HELD THE
ROYAL STANDARD IN HIS OWN HAND” ” 154
“REFRESHING THEMSELVES WITH THE FRUITS THAT WERE BROUGHT
THEM BY THE NATIVES” ” 156
“JINGLED IT BEFORE THE EYES OF THE SAVAGE” ” 160
“‘NOT BARTER FOR GOLD?’ CRIED MARTIN ALONZO” ” 164
“DIEGO DROPPING THROUGH THE BLACKNESS OF THE NIGHT” ” 190
“HE REACHED OUT AND CLUTCHED AT THE FLOATING THING” ” 194
“THERE THEY BOTH SANK DOWN” ” 204
“‘LOOK!’ SAID DIEGO” ” 212
“THE CLEFT PROVED TO BE A NARROW, CAVE-LIKE OPENING” ” 214
“CAUGHT UP SOME OF THE TORCHES AND ADVANCED IN A BODY” ” 220
“OF COURSE THE KNIFE CUT HIS FINGERS” ” 232
“FOR THREE NIGHTS THEY FLOATED DOWN THE STREAM” ” 244
“DIEGO WENT WITH JUAN TO SEE THE MAN UNCHAINED” ” 252
“DIEGO RELATES HIS ADVENTURES TO THE CONVENT BOYS” ” 258
DIEGO PINZON.
CHAPTER I.
IN the ancient province of Andalusia, which, as everybody knows, is
famous for the charms of its climate and the fertility of its soil,
there stands now, as there stood four centuries ago, the convent of La
Rabida.
The convent is almost a ruin now; but in those days it was a sturdy
pile, where a busy, eager body of Franciscan friars dwelt, governed by
the learned and good Fray Juan Perez, who had once been confessor to
the queen, Isabella.
Now there is something mournful in the solitude of the place; but in
the days when the things happened which are set down here, there was a
suppressed excitement pervading the atmosphere of the convent, which
had communicated itself even to Fray Pedro, who had been given the post
of porter because he had what the good prior called such a singular
gift of slumber.
There had been days recently when Fray Pedro had not closed his eyes
for as long as two consecutive hours; and if _he_ felt the influence
that was around him, what wonder if the boys, digging away desperately
at their humanities, should be wrought up to the highest pitch of
unrest and excitement?
Fray Bartolomeo was the pedagogue, who had been selected for the office
because of his great learning; but he searched the stores of his
knowledge in vain during those days for a device to turn the minds of
the scholars from the one topic that absorbed them.
The fact of the matter was that at the seaport town of Palos, only
half a league away from the convent, preparations were going on for an
adventure of the most fearful nature--an adventure which some people
did not hesitate to say was prompted by the evil one himself, and which
others, more lenient, declared could have been conceived only by a
madman.
At the convent they did not believe the first of these propositions
at all, nor did any one give word openly to the second; though there
were many there who harbored it in their secret thoughts, and who
occasionally whispered it.
The prior, Juan Perez, had faith in the adventure, and, indeed, had
done all that lay in his power to forward it, and was continuing to do
so in the face of the most violent opposition. But then, as a brother
one day whispered to another, the prior was given to the promulgation
of new ideas.
It seems that a foreigner--an Italian of some sort, it was believed
from his accent--had persuaded the queen to venture some money in this
execrable enterprise, and had further induced her to designate the port
of Palos as the place which should furnish a portion of the doomed
fleet and crew.
There was very little doubt that they were doomed; though this man,
Christoval Colon, pretended to demonstrate that there was no danger at
all attached to his purposed expedition, and had persuaded the good
Fray Juan Perez of the correctness of his demonstration.
It was true that so good a seaman as Martin Alonzo Pinzon had been
beguiled by the specious representations of the pestilent foreigner,
and that Martin had in turn induced his brothers and many of his kin
to lend their countenance and aid to the adventure. A number of the
Pinzons had, in fact, enlisted in the enterprise.
It was very well known, however, that the Pinzons were bold, reckless
sailors, who feared naught and would dare anything, and all that the
people of Palos had to say as to that was that they wished them luck,
and hoped they would come back alive. It was no secret, moreover, that
more than one Pinzon wished himself well out of the affair, and would
have taken himself incontinently out, had it not been that the present
fear of the wrath of Martin Alonzo Pinzon was far greater than the fear
of the more remote perils that threatened them on the trackless wastes
of that ocean which, somewhere in the far western distance, poured
over the edge of the earth into the bottomless abyss beyond. Martin
Alonzo Pinzon was a difficult man to gainsay, and those of his poorer
kinsmen who could not take comfort in the logic of the Italian must set
themselves up against the will of the bluff sailor, who had a voice in
which thunder rumbled and an eye in which the storm-lightning played.
Martin Alonzo had furnished one vessel in joint account with the
foreigner, and as Palos owed, as a sort of forfeit, the service of
two vessels for a year to the sovereigns, Ferdinand and Isabella, two
vessels had been forcibly distrained for the benefit of the foreigner.
As for the crews, Pinzon had haled a goodly number of his kinsmen
into service, and cajoled a few of his townsmen; but there was no
inducement that could make any others stir a step towards such certain
destruction until a royal ordinance was issued, offering freedom to
such convicts as would venture their lives rather than remain in
durance.
But even with that the crews did not fill up to the required number,
and the mortal terror that was on those who had agreed to go caused
them to desert at every opportunity; and the consequent wrath of Martin
Alonzo Pinzon was a thing to be shunned carefully.
And, as may be seen, all this disturbance and turmoil naturally created
the bitterest feeling; and for the weeks that the foreigner rested at
Palos the talk of his insane folly--to call it no worse--ran high,
indeed. Well it was for him that he had the good-will of the prior,
Juan Perez, and the endorsement of the burly sailor.