WHETHER or not the admiral ever learned of the loss and subsequent
return of Diego and Juan cannot be known. Certain it is that he made no
mention of their adventure in his account of the voyage, rendered to
the queen upon his return to Spain.
At the time he was not told by any one in authority or with the
knowledge to relate the facts as they were; for he did not go aboard
the _Pinta_, but gave his orders from his deck, when the vessels were
near enough for that, or had Martin Alonzo visit him when they had need
to communicate.
The next day after the return of the boys the order was given to set
sail, and the two vessels started to coast around the island. They
did not go farther than the eastern end of the island, however, and
then the admiral got the notion of wishing to visit one of the Carib
islands, in order to see some of those fierce savages; and perhaps he
would have gone on that voyage, as he did on a subsequent one, if a
fair wind for home had not sprung up, and caused the sailors to be so
home-sick that they begged him most piteously to turn towards the east.
At first the wind kept favorable, but not for long, and now they began
to experience as much difficulty in returning across the ocean as they
had had ease in coming. And by and by, when they began to have hopes of
reaching Spain before many days, violent storms arose, and nearly made
an end of the crazy little craft.
The _Pinta_ was even worse off than the _Niña_, for her foremast was
weak and could not stand any strain. The worst storm came on about the
middle of February, and it was with great difficulty that the admiral
could keep the two vessels together. For a time Martin Alonzo did as
well as he could to keep company with the _Niña_; but the storm was
so violent that it seemed to him that it was no more than the barest
chance that either vessel would live, and so he determined to disregard
the signals of the admiral and once more part company. Indeed, it was
a measure of real safety; and he had no thought then of doing what
presently suggested itself to him, which was to take it for granted
that the _Niña_ had been unable to survive the storm, and to make good
his way home and announce himself as the discoverer.
He believed that the _Niña_ could not have weathered a storm that had
nearly wrecked the _Pinta_, and so he sailed before the still raging
storm, and after many days was able to make the port of Bayonne, in the
Bay of Biscay. From there he despatched a letter to his sovereigns,
announcing his discovery of the eastern coast of Asia, and assuming
that the admiral was drowned.
Then, the storm having abated, he sailed for Palos, pleasing himself
with the thought of how he would be received by his friends. The
_Pinta_ reached the bar of Saltes at the mouth of the little river,
and the men all crowded on deck to see the land they had left so
sorrowfully a few months before, and were returning to so triumphant.
Diego pointed out to Juan the convent of La Rabida, standing on its
eminence, where it could plainly be seen, and from which he had so many
times looked down on the little river he was now sailing up, after such
strange adventures. He wondered how he would be received there. There
was certainly to be one nugget of gold to make a cross for the breviary
of Fray Bartolomeo, and Alfonso, his old friend, should have another.
And Juan was to go with him wherever he went, and it was always to be
share and share alike with them. Juan had agreed to that with a full
heart; for the approach to Spain recalled to him the things he had been
able so long to put away from him, and it was pleasant to hear Diego’s
hearty voice telling him that he had been his brother, and always
should be.
“And,” said Diego, with a joyous laugh, “we will fight it out as soon
as I have taken as great a risk for you as you did for me off Haiti.”
The sail up the river is not a long one, with the tide favorable, and
it was a short time after entering it that they came in sight of the
town. Martin Alonzo paced the poop, filled with the thought of the
triumph that was to be his.
“Brother,” said Francisco Martin, his face quite pale, “what vessel is
that riding in the river?”
Martin Alonzo looked and looked again, and a change came over his face
such as one looks for on the face of the dying.
“The _Niña_,” was all he said.
Yes, it was true. After passing through many adventures, the _Niña_
had reached Palos just one day in advance of the _Pinta_; and as the
_Pinta_ drew nearer the town, the noise of the rejoicing over the
admiral could be distinctly heard.
* * * * *
It is a sad thing to say, but it is true, alas! that Martin Alonzo
Pinzon was hurt to his death by the ending to his voyage. Most of all
that wounded him was the feeling that he had dishonored himself. He
would not sail up to the town, but took a small boat ashore, and went
stealthily to his house, bitterly contrasting such a home-coming with
the one he had anticipated, and yet finding in his heart that his
punishment was just.
He had already been ill, but not seriously. Now he went to his house
to take to his bed; and when a letter arrived not many days after from
his sovereigns, reproaching him for his conduct, he groaned aloud, and
turned his face to the wall. A few days later he died.
The part which Diego and Juan took was very much brighter than this.
They had nothing wherewith to reproach themselves, and they enjoyed to
the full the rôle of hero which was forced upon them.
At the convent, in particular, where Diego went with Juan the very
first thing, they were made so much of that it is a wonder they were
not ruined. The other boys followed them about like dumb cattle after
a leader; and when either, but especially Diego, opened his lips, you
would have thought some of the gold of Haiti was about to fall from
them, so eagerly did his old schoolmates watch them.
As for the nuggets, Diego and Juan were not niggards with them, and
would have melted them away in the warmth of their generosity in a very
short time, had not Vicente Yanez Pinzon, the brother next to Martin
Alonzo, and the captain of the _Niña_, taken him aside and talked with
him.
Well, he had already been generous enough, so he permitted his cousin
to take his money and put it in a safe place. And, indeed, some of the
property bought with that money can be seen to this day, still owned by
a Pinzon, too, in the little town of Moguer, about a league from Palos.
After that? Well, after that Diego and Juan made many a voyage to the
newly discovered countries, and lived to learn what Christoval Colon
never did learn--that they had actually discovered a new continent, and
not Asia at all.
[Illustration: “DIEGO RELATES HIS ADVENTURES TO THE CONVENT BOYS.”]
And they were with Vicente Yanez Pinzon when he and that Italian,
Amerigo Vespucci, made the voyage together--an account of which voyage
being widely read over Europe was the means of gaining for Vespucci
the unmerited honor of having been the first to reach the continent,
whereby his name is to this day attached to the country discovered.
THE END.
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:
--Obvious print and punctuation errors were corrected.
--A Table of Contents for Chapters was not in the original work; one
has been produced and added by Transcriber.