and fish that land must be near; but land does not come. Once, too, they
are all convinced that they see land: they sing the "Gloria in excelsis;"
and even the admiral goes out of his course towards this land, which
turns out to be no land. They are like men listening to a dreadful
discourse or oration, that seems to have many endings which end not: so
that the hearer listens at last in grim despair, thinking that all things
have lost their meaning, and that ending is but another form of beginning.
These mariners were stout-hearted, too; but what a daring thing it was to
plunge, down-hill as it were, into
A world of waves, a sea without a shore,
Trackless, and vast, and wild, [Rogers]
mocked day by day with signs of land that neared not. And these men had
left at home all that is dearest to man, and did not bring out any great
idea to uphold them, and had already done enough to make them important
men in their towns, and to furnish ample talk for the evenings of their
lives. Still we find Columbus, as late as the 3rd of October, saying,
"that he did not choose to stop beating about last week during those days
that they had such signs of land, although he had knowledge of there being
certain islands in that neighbourhood, because he would not suffer any
detention, since his object was to go to the Indies; and if he should stop
on the way, it would show a want of mind."
SIGNS OF LAND AGAIN.
Meanwhile, he had a hard task to keep his men in any order. Peter Martyr,
who knew Columbus well, and had probably been favoured with a special
account from him of these perilous days, describes his way of dealing with
the refractory mariners, and how he contrived to win them onwards from day
to day; now soothing them with soft words, now carrying their minds from
thought of the present danger by spreading out large hopes before them,
not forgetting to let them know what their princes would say to them if
they attempted aught against him, or would not obey his orders. With this
untutored crowd of wild, frightened men around him, with mocking hopes,
not knowing what each day would bring to him, on went Columbus. At last
came the 11th of October, and with it indubitable signs of land. The diary
mentions their finding on that day a table-board and a carved stick, the
carving apparently wrought by some iron instrument. Moreover, the men in
one of the vessels saw a branch of a haw tree with fruit on it.
LIGHT ON SHORE.
Now, indeed, they must be close to land. The sun went down upon the same
weary round of waters which for so long a time their eyes had ached to see
beyond, when, at ten o'clock, Columbus, standing on the poop of his
vessel, saw a light, and called to him, privately, Pedro Gutierrez, a
groom of the king's chamber, who saw it also. Then they called Rodrigo
Sanchez, who had been sent by their highnesses as overlooker. I imagine
him to have been a cold and cautious man, of the kind that are sent by
jealous states to accompany and curb great generals, and who are not
usually much loved by them. Sanchez did not see the light at first,
because, as Columbus says, he did not stand in the place where it could be
seen; but at last even he sees it, and it may now be considered to have
been seen officially. "It appeared like a candle that went up and down,
and Don Christopher did not doubt that it was true light, and that it was
on land; and so it proved, as it came from people passing with lights from
one cottage to another."
THE PROMISED PENSION.
Their highnesses had promised a pension of ten thousand maravedis to the
fortunate man who should see land first. The "Pinta" was the foremost
vessel; and it was from her deck, at two o'clock in the morning, that land
was first seen by Rodrigo de Triana. We cannot but be sorry for this poor
common sailor, who got no reward, and of whom they tell a story, that in
sadness and despite, he passed into Africa, after his return to Spain, and
became a Mahometan. The pension was adjudged to the admiral: it was
charged, somewhat ominously, on the shambles of Seville, and was paid him
to the day of his death; for, says the historian Herrera, "he saw light in
the midst of darkness, signifying the spiritual light which was introduced
amongst these barbarous people, God permitting that, the war being
finished with the Moors, seven hundred and twenty years after they had set
foot in Spain, this work (the conversion of the Indians) should commence,
so that the Princes of Castille and Leon might always be occupied in
bringing infidels to the knowledge of the Holy Catholic faith."
RELIGIOUS MOTIVIES.
These last words are notable. They are such as Columbus himself would
probably have made use of in describing this, the crowning event of his
life. In the preface to his diary, which is an address to Ferdinand and
Isabella, he speaks at large of the motives of their highnesses. He begins
by saying how, in this present year of 1492, their highnesses had
concluded their war with the Moors, having taken the great city of
Granada, at the siege of which he was present, and saw the royal banners
placed upon the towers of the Alhambra. He then tells how he had given
information to their highnesses of the lands of India, and of a prince,
called the Grand Khan, who had sent ambassadors to Rome, praying for
doctors to instruct him in the faith; and how the Holy Father had never
provided him with these doctors; and that great towns were perishing, from
the belief of their inhabitants in idolatry, and from receiving amongst
them "sects of perdition." After the above statement, he adds, "Your
highnesses, as Catholic Christians and princes, lovers and furtherers of
the Christian faith, and enemies of the sect of Mahomet, and of all
idolatries and heresies, thought to send me, Christopher Columbus, to the
aforesaid provinces of India to see the aforesaid princes, the cities and
lands, and the disposition of them and of everything about them, and the
way that should be taken to convert them to our holy faith."
GOOD FAITH OF COLUMBUS.
Columbus then speaks of the expulsion of the Jews from Spain as occurring
at the same time as that in which he received orders to pursue a westerly
course to India, thus combining the two transactions together, no doubt as
proofs of the devout intentions of their highnesses: and, indeed,
throughout the document, he ascribes no motives to the monarchs but such
as were religious.
The diary to which this address was prefixed is probably one of the books
which their highnesses allude to in a letter to Columbus, as being in
their possession, and which they assured him they had not shown to
anybody. I see no reason to doubt the perfect good faith of Columbus in
making such a statement as that just referred to; and it is well to remark
upon it, because we shall never come to a right understanding of those
times and of the question of slavery as connected with them, unless we
fully appreciate the good as well as the bad motives which guided the most
important persons of that era.
CHARACTER OF THE QUEEN.
As for Queen Isabella, there can be no doubt about her motives. Even in
the lamentably unjust things in which she was but too often concerned, she
had what, to her mind, was compelling reason to act as she did. Perhaps
there is hardly any great personage whose name and authority are found in
connection with so much that is strikingly evil, all of it done, or rather
assented to, upon the highest and purest motives. Whether we refer to the
expulsion of the Jews, the treatment of the Moorish converts, or the
establishment of the Inquisition, all her proceedings in these matters
were entirely sincere and noble-minded. Methinks I can still see her
beautiful majestic face (with broad brow, and clear, honest, loving eye),
as it looks down upon the beholder from one of the chapels in the
cathedral at Granada: a countenance too expressive and individual to be
what painters give as that of an angel, and yet the next thing to it. Now,
I could almost fancy, she looks down reproachfully, and yet with conscious
sadness. What she would say in her defence, could we interrogate her, is,
that she obeyed the voice of heaven, taking the wise and good men of her
day as its interpreters. Oh! that she had but persisted in listening to
it, as it spoke in her own kindly heart, when with womanly pity she was
wont to intercede in favour of the poor cooped-up inmates of some closely
beleaguered town or fortress! But at least the poor Indian can utter
nothing but blessing's on her. He might have needed no other "protector"
had she lived; nor would slavery have found in his fate one of the darkest
and most fatal chapters in its history.
LANDING IN THE NEW WORLD.
But now, from Granada, and our fancies there, the narrative brings us
back to the first land touched by Columbus. The landing of Columbus in the
New World must ever be a conspicuous fact in the annals of mankind, and it
was celebrated by a ceremonial worthy of the occasion. On the ensuing
morning, after the light had been observed from the ships, being a Friday,
the 12th of October, 1492, Columbus, clad in complete armour, and carrying
in his hand the royal banner of Spain, descended upon the level shores of
the small island [San Salvador, one of the Bahamas] which had first
greeted him, and which he found to be very fruitful--fresh and verdant,
and "like a garden full of trees." The other captains accompanied him,
each of them bearing a banner with a green cross depicted upon it, and
with the initials of Ferdinand and Isabella surmounted by their respective
crowns--a device that well expressed the loyalty and devotion of Columbus,
and had been chosen by him. These chief officers were followed by a large
retinue from their crews. In numerous lines along the shore stood the
simple islanders, looking on with innocent amazement.
THEIR GRATITUDE.
On touching land, Columbus and all the Spaniards who were present fell
upon their knees, and with tears--tears of that deepest kind which men do
not know the cause of--poured forth their "immense thanksgivings to
Almighty God."
The man who, of all that embassage, if we may call it so, from the Old to
the New World, was certainly the least surprised by all he saw, was, at
the same time, the most affected. For thus it is, that the boldness of a
great design is never fully appreciated by the designer himself until he
has apparently accomplished his work, when he is apt, if it be indeed a
great work, to look back with shuddering awe at his own audacity in having
proposed it to mankind. The vast resolve which has sustained such a man
throughout his long and difficult enterprise, having for the moment
nothing to struggle against, dies away, leaving a strange sinking at the
heart: and thus the greatest successes are often accompanied by a peculiar
and bewildering melancholy. New difficulties, however, bred from success
(for nothing is complete in life), soon arise to summon forth again the
discoverer's energies, and to nerve him for fresh disappointments and
renewed endeavours. Columbus will not fail to have his full share of such
difficulties.
GENERAL RECONCILATION.
The followers of the great man, whose occasional faintheartedness must
often have driven all sleep from his weary eyelids throughout the watches
of the night, now began to think with remorse how much suffering they had
needlessly inflicted upon their greatly-enduring leader. They sought his
pardon with tears, and, subdued for the moment by his greatness when
illustrated by success, expressed in loving terms their admiration, their
gratitude, and their assurances of fidelity. The placable Columbus
received their gracious sayings with all the warmth and tenderness that
belonged to his large-hearted and amiable character.
THEY TAKE LEGAL POSSESSION.
The great business of the day then commenced; and Columbus, with the due
legal formalities, took possession, on behalf of the Spanish monarchs, of
the island Guanahani, which he forthwith named San Salvador. The gravity
of the proceeding must have astonished the beholding islanders. Their
attention, however, was soon turned to the Spaniards themselves; and they
approached the strangers, wondering at their whiteness and at their
beards. Columbus, as being the noblest looking personage there present,
and also from wearing a crimson scarf over his armour, attracted especial
attention, and justly seemed, as he was, the principal figure in this
great spectacle.
Columbus is for the present moment radiant with success. Our interest
passes now from him to the new people he was amongst. And what were they
like? Were they worthy of the efforts which the Old World had made to find
them? Was there mind and soul enough in them for them to become good
Christians? What says the greatest of the men who first saw them? What
impression did they make on him? Let him answer for himself:--
"Because they had much friendship for us, and because I knew they were
people that would deliver themselves better to the Christian faith, and
be converted more through love than by force, I gave to some of them
some coloured caps and some strings of glass beads for their necks, and
many other things of little value, with which they were delighted, and
were so entirely ours that it was a marvel to see. The same afterwards
came swimming to the ship's boats where we were, and brought us parrots,
cotton threads in balls, darts and many other things, and bartered them
with us for things which we gave them, such as bells and small glass
beads. In fine, they took and gave all of whatever they had with good
will. But it appeared to me they were a people very poor in everything.
They went totally naked, as naked as their mothers brought them into the
world."
CHARACTER OF THE INDIANS.
Then Columbus goes on to say that these Indians were well made, with very
good countenances, but hair like horsehair, their colour yellow; and that
they painted themselves. They neither carried arms, nor understood such
things, for when he showed them swords, they took hold of them by the
blade, and hurt themselves. Their darts were without iron; but some had a
fish's tooth at the end. In concluding his description, he says, "they
ought to make faithful servants, and of good understanding, for I see that
very quickly they repeat all that is said to them, and I believe they
would easily be converted to Christianity, for it appeared to me that they
had no creed."
THEIR HOUSES AND IMPLEMENTS.
A little further on, the admiral says of the people of a neighbouring
island, that they were more domestic and tractable than those of San
Salvador, and more intelligent, too, as he saw in their way of reckoning
for the payment of the cotton they brought to the ships. At the mouth of
the Rio de Mares, some of the admiral's men, whom he had sent to
reconnoitre, brought him word that the houses of the natives were the best
they had seen. They were made, he says, like "Alfaneques (pavilions), very
large, and appeared as royal tents without an arrangement of streets,
except one here and there, and within they were very clean, and well
swept, and their furniture very well arranged. All these houses were made
of palm branches, and were very beautiful. Our men found in these houses
many statues of women, and several heads fashioned like masks, and very
well wrought. I do not know, he adds, whether they have these for the love
of the beautiful, or for purposes of worship." The Spaniards found also
excellent nets, fish-hooks, and fishing-tackle. There were tame birds
about the houses, and dogs which did not bark. "Mermaids," too, the
admiral saw on the coasts, but thought them "not so like ladies as they
are painted."
Speaking of the Indians of the coast near the Rio del Sol, he says that
they are "very gentle, without knowing what evil is, neither killing nor
stealing." He describes the frank generosity of the people of Marien, and
the honour they thought it to be asked to give anything, in terms which
may remind his readers of the doctrines maintained by Christians in
respect of giving.
DISCOVERY OF TOBACCO; ITS PECULIAR EFFECTS.
It is interesting to observe the way in which, at this point of the
narrative, a new product is introduced to the notice of the old world, a
product that was hereafter to become, not only an unfailing source of
pleasure to a large section of the male part of mankind, from the highest
to the lowest, but was also to distinguish itself as one of those
commodities for revenue, which are the delight of statesmen, the great
financial resource of modern nations, and which afford a means of indirect
taxation that has, perhaps, nourished many a war, and prevented many a
revolution. Two discoverers, whom the admiral had sent out from the Puerto
de Mares (one of them being a learned Jew, who could speak Hebrew,
Chaldee, and some Arabic, and would have been able to discourse, as
Columbus probably thought, with any of the subjects of the Grand Khan, if
he had met them), found that the men of the country they came to
investigate, indulged in a "fumigation" of a peculiar kind. The smoke in
question was absorbed into the mouth through a charred stick, and was
caused by burning certain herbs wrapped in a dry leaf, which outer
covering was called "tabaco." Las Casas, who carefully describes this
process of imbibing smoke, mentions that the Indians, when questioned
about it, said that it took away fatigue, and that he has known Spaniards
in the island of Hispaniola who adopted the same habit, and who, being
reproved for it as a vice, replied that it was not in their power to leave
it off. "I do not know," he adds, "what savour or profit they found in
them" (tabacos). I cannot help thinking that there were several periods in
his own life, when these strange fumigations would have afforded him
singular soothing and comfort. However that may be, there can be no doubt
of the importance, financially and commercially speaking, of this
discovery of tobacco; a discovery which, in the end, proved more
productive to the Spanish Crown, than that of the gold mines of the
Indies.
The excellent relations that existed between the expedition of Columbus
and the inhabitants of Cuba may be seen from the fact that these two
Christians, who were the first witnesses of tobacco smoking, and who
travelled with only two Indian attendants, were everywhere well and
reverently received.
GOLD ORNAMENT'S OBSERVED.
Resuming the thread of the history, it remains to be seen what more
Columbus did and suffered in this voyage. The first Indians he met with
had some few gold ornaments about them--poor wretches, if they had
possessed the slightest gift of prophecy, they would have thrown these
baubles into the deepest sea;--and they were asked whence came this gold?
From a race, they said, living southwards, where there was a great king,
who had much gold. On another occasion, other Indians being asked the same
question, answered, "Cubanacan, Cubanacan." They meant the middle of Cuba;
but their word at once suggested to Columbus the idea that he was now upon
the traces of his long-looked-for friend, Kublai Kaan, the Khan of Khans.
Indeed, it is almost ludicrous to see, throughout, how Columbus is
possessed with the notions borrowed from his reading of Marco Polo and
other travellers. He asks for "his Cipango," as Herrera slily puts it; and
the natives at once point out to him the direction where that is. They
thought he meant Cibao, where afterwards the best mines of gold were
found.
FURTHER EXPLORATIONS.
The admiral, bent on discovery, and especially on finding the terra firma,
which adjoined "his" India, did not stay long anywhere. Proceeding
southwards from San Salvador, he discovered an island, or rather a group
of islands, to which he gave the name of Santa Maria de la Concepcion; he
then discovered Cuba, and coasted along the northeastern part of that
island; and afterwards, in due course, came to Hispaniola, called by the
natives Hayti, in which island he landed upon the territory of King
Guacanagari where he was received most cordially.
Various conjectures have been made as to the different results which would
have followed, both for the New and for the Old World, if Columbus had
steered a little to the northward, or the southward, of the course which
he actually took. One thing, however, is obvious, that in arriving at
Hispaniola he came to a central point, not only of the West Indies, but of
the whole of the New World, and a point, therefore, most felicitously
situated for the spreading of future discovery and conquest.
INSUBORDINATION OF MARINERS.
It may be mentioned here, that Martin Alonzo Pinzon had wilfully parted
company from the admiral while on the coast of Cuba: covetousness being
probably the cause of this most undutiful proceeding. But, indeed, there
is another instance of the insubordination of the mariners, which makes
the wonder only still greater how Columbus could have brought them across
the Atlantic at all.
WRECK OF ADMIRAL'S VESSEL.
One evening the admiral, after paying a visit to Guacanagari, seeing the
sea quite calm, betook himself to rest. As he had not slept for two days
and a night, it is probable his slumber was deep. Meanwhile, the
steersman, contrary to the distinct orders of the admiral, gave the helm
to a common sailor, a youth. All the sailors went to sleep. The sea was as
calm "as water in a dish." Little by little the ship drifted on to a
shoal. Directly they touch, the sailor-boy at the helm starts from his
dream, and gives the alarm. The admiral jumps up first (for the
responsibility of command seldom goes quite to sleep); then the officer
whose watch it ought to have been hurries up, and the admiral orders him
to lower the boat which they carried on the poop, and to throw out all
anchor astern. Instead of obeying the admiral, this cowardly villain, with
others like him, sprang into the boat and made off for the other vessel,
which was about half a league off. The other vessel would not receive
them, and they rowed back again. But it was too late. The admiral did what
he could in the emergency: he cut down the mast, lightened the vessel as
best he might, took out his people and went with them to the other
caravel, sending his boat to Guacanagari to inform him of the misfortune.
KINDNESS OF INDIAN CHIEF.
The good Guacanagari was moved to tears by this sad affair. He gave not
only sympathy, however, but assistance. His people went out with their
canoes, and in a few moments cleared the vessel of all the goods in it.
Guacanagari was very careful that nothing should be lost. He himself stood
guard over the things which had been taken out of the ship. Then he sent
comforting messages to the admiral, saying that he would give him what he
had to make up for the loss. He put all the effects under shelter, and
placed guards round them. The wrecker's trade might flourish in Cornwall;
but, like other crimes of civilization, it was unknown in St. Domingo. The
admiral was evidently touched to the heart, as well he might be, by the
kindness of these Indians. He thus expresses himself, "They are a loving,
uncovetous people, so docile in all things, that I assure your highnesses
I believe in all the world there is not a better people, or a better
country; they love their neighbours as themselves, and they have the
sweetest and gentlest way of talking in the world, and always with a
smile."
A COLONY FOUNDED.
The admiral resolved to found a colony in Guacanagari's land, "having
found such good will and such signs of gold." In relating this, the
Spanish historian, Herrera, makes some curious reflections. He looks upon
the loss of the vessel as providential, in order that the true faith might
be preached in that country. Then he says, how providence causes its work
to be done, not on high motives only, but also on the ordinary ones which
influence mankind. He concludes by observing that providence dealt with
the Indians as a prudent father who has an ugly daughter, but makes up for
her ugliness by the help of a large dowry. By the ugliness in this case he
means the seas to be traversed, the hunger to be endured, and the labours
to be undertaken, which he considers no other nation but the Spaniards
would have encountered, even with the hope of greater booty.
With the timber of the unfortunate "Santa Maria" Columbus built a fort,
and called it La Navidad, because he entered the port near there, on
Christmas-day. He remained on very friendly terms with the good Cacique
Guacanagari; and might have established himself most advantageously in
that part of the country, if he could have been content, to be a settler.
THE ADMIRAL RETURNS.
But from the first moment of his discovery he doubtless had an anxious
desire to get back to Spain, and to tell what he knew; and at times,
perhaps, was fearful lest his grand secret, through some mischance to the
expedition, should still perish with him. The great discoverer, therefore,
now prepared to return homewards. He left his fort in trust to a small
body of his followers,[12] whom he commended to the good offices of
Guacanagari, not forgetting to impress upon them the excellent advice, to
do no violence to man or woman, and, in short, to make their actions
conformable to the idea (which the Indians first entertained of them) that
they had come from heaven: then, having received the necessary provisions
for his vessel from the friendly cacique, the admiral set sail for Spain
on the 4th of January, 1493.
[Footnote 12: They were forty in number, and it would be strange to
find, but for the well-known fact that nothing brings men of different
races together more than maritime and commercial enterprise, that, in
this small list there is an Irishman, "Guillermo Ires" (Qy. William
Herries, or Rice) "natural de Galney, en Irlanda;" and an Englishman,
"Tallarte de Lajes" (Qy. Arthur Lake) "ingles."--NAVAREETE, Col. Dip.,
Num. 13.]
CHAPTER V. Homeward bound.
PINZON'S EXPLANATION.
For two days Columbus stood to the east-ward, but was met by a head-wind
which prevented him from making much progress. On doubling the promontory
of Monte Christo, however, the look-out at the mast-head made an
announcement which was worth more than a fair wind to the voyagers, since
it assured them that the homeward voyage of the "Nina" was not to be made
without a consort; that the chance of the tidings of success being safely
conveyed to Europe was not to depend upon the fortunes of a single ship.
For, sailing down swiftly before the breeze which had detained Columbus,
the "Pinta" hove in sight and the two vessels steered together into the
bay of Monte Christo, which Columbus had recently quitted. Pinzon, as soon
as the weather permitted, went on board the admiral's caravel to account
for his desertion, which he stated to have been the accidental result of a
storm which had driven him out of his course and out of sight of his
leader. The admiral accepted this explanation, as a quarrel with Pinzon,
whose townsmen and relations formed a large proportion of the crews, might
cause a mutiny which would be fatal to the undertaking; but he did not
fail to note in his diary his conviction of Pinzon's bad faith. The fact
was, that Pinzon had heard from the natives of a certain island, whence
all the gold was said to come, and he had wished to anticipate Columbus in
the discovery of this El Dorado, and to secure the profits for himself. He
had not found this home of the gold, but had met with some natives from
whom he had obtained, by barter, a large quantity of the precious metal.
Half of this he had appropriated: the other half he had distributed among
his crew as a bribe to them to say nothing about the matter.
AFFRAY WITH ABORIGINES.
After a few days spent in refitting the vessels, and preparing for the
homeward voyage, the Nina. and her consort again set sail, coasting St.
Domingo in an easterly direction as far as the Gulf of Samana. It was in
this neighbourhood that the first affray with the aborigines took place,
in consequence of an attack made by them upon an exploring expedition
which Columbus had sent out. But so anxious was he to preserve a good
understanding with the natives, that he did not leave the scene of the
encounter until he had come to an amicable agreement with them. Another
instance of the wise and humane policy by which he was actuated, is to be
found in the fact, that on discovering that Pinzon had carried on board
six natives to be taken to Spain, and there sold as slaves, he insisted on
their release, dismissing them, moreover, with presents of such glittering
toys as their kinsmen would be likely to appreciate, and as might
predispose them in favour of the Europeans.
SEARCH FOR AMAZONIANS.
On the 16th of January, Columbus left the Gulf of Samana on his homeward
course, from which, however, he deviated at first in the hope of finding
the island, peopled with Amazons, described by Marco Polo, of which he had
understood the natives of St. Domingo to give him intelligence. Such a
discovery would be, he considered, a conclusive proof of the identity of
his new country with Marco Polo's Indies, and when four natives offered to
act as his guides, he thought it worth while to steer (in the direction of
Martinique) in quest of the fabulous Amazonians. But the breeze blew
towards Spain; home-sickness took possession of the crews; murmurs arose
at the prolongation of the voyage among the currents and reefs of those
strange seas; and, in deference to the universal wish of his companions,
Columbus soon abandoned all idea of further discovery, and resumed his
course for Europe.
STORM ENCOUNTERED.
At first the voyage was tranquil enough, though the adverse trade-winds,
and the bad sailing of the Pinta,[13] retarded the progress of both
vessels.
[Footnote 13: This was occasioned by the defective condition of her
mast, whereupon the admiral remarks in his diary, that "if Pinzon had
exerted himself as much to provide himself with a new mast in the
Indies, where there are so many fine trees, as he had in running away
from him in the hope of loading his vessel with gold, they would not
have laboured under that inconvenience."]
But on the 12th of February a storm overtook them, and became more and
more furious, until, on the 14th, it rose to a hurricane, before which
Pinzon's vessel could only drift helplessly, while the Nina was able to
set a close-reefed foresail, which kept her from being buried in the
trough of the sea. In the evening both caravels were scudding under bare
poles, and when darkness fell, and the signal light of the "Pinta" gleamed
farther and farther off, through the blinding spray, until at last it
could be seen no more, when his panic-stricken crew gave themselves up to
despair, as the winds howled louder and louder, and the seas burst over
his frail vessel--then, indeed, without a single skilled navigator to
advise or to aid him, Columbus must have felt himself alone with the
tempest and the night. But his brave heart bore him up, and his wonderful
capacity for devising expedients on sudden emergencies did not forsake
him. As the stores were consumed, the Nina felt the want of the ballast
which Columbus had intended to take on board at the Amazonian Island.
"Fill the empty casks with water," he said, "and let them serve as
ballast," an expedient which has grown common enough now, but which then
was probably original.
THE PROMISED PILGRAMAGE
Nor, while he did all that human skill could suggest for the safety of his
vessel, did Columbus neglect to invoke the aid of that Higher Power, at
whose special instigation he believed himself to have undertaken the
expedition. With his whole crew he drew lots to choose one of their number
to perform a pilgrimage to the shrine of Our Lady of Guadaloupe. The
admiral was chosen. Twice more were lots drawn with a similar object, and
once again the lot fell to the admiral. Afterwards, he and all the crew
made a vow to go in procession, clothed in penitential garments, to the
first church, dedicated to the Virgin, which they should meet with on
arriving at land; and this vow, as we shall see presently, was followed by
quite unexpected consequences.
NARRATIVE INCLOSED IN CASK.
When the chances of weathering the storm had become small indeed, Columbus
determined that, if possible, the tidings of his discovery should not
perish with him. He wrote a short account of his voyage on parchment, and
this he enclosed in wax, and placed in a cask,[14] which he committed to
the waves. Thinking, probably, that his crew would interpret this as an
abandonment of all hope, he concealed from them the real nature of the
contents of the cask, so that they believed that their commander was
performing some religious rite which might assuage the fury of the
elements.
[Footnote 14: About the year 1852 a paragraph went the round of the
English press announcing the discovery of this cask on the African
coast, by the barque "Chieftain," of Boston (Mass). Lamartine has
accepted this story as correct, but it has never been authenticated, and
there is a strong presumption in favour of its having been invented by
some ingeniously circumstantial newspaper correspondent.]
THE PILGRIMS CAPTURED.
On the 15th of February the storm abated to some extent, and at last they
came in sight of some land on the E.N.E., which the pilots held to be the
Rock of Lisbon, but which the admiral more accurately determined to be one
of the Azores. Vainly endeavouring, however, to make head against the wind
and the sea, they lost sight of this island, but came in sight of another,
lying more to the south, round which they sailed on the night of the 17th,
but lost an anchor in endeavouring to bring up near the land. On the
following day they cast anchor, and succeeded in communicating with the
inhabitants, from whom they learned that they had reached the island of
St. Mary, belonging to the Portuguese. The governor sent amicable messages
to Columbus, and announced his intention of visiting him. But when, in
fulfilment of their vow, half the crew went, barefoot and in their shirts,
on a pilgrimage to the chapel of St. Mary, which was not far from the
harbour, the governor and his satellites lay in ambush on the road, and
captured the whole band of pilgrims. The crowns of Portugal and Castile
were still at peace, but it appears that this "man, dressed in a little
brief authority," thought that the capture would gratify his sovereign.
The remonstrances of the admiral were of no avail; and as the weather
would not allow of his remaining in his present anchorage, he was forced
to stand out to sea, and to run nearly to St. Michael's, with a crew which
comprised only three able seamen. On the 21st of February he returned to
St. Mary's, and eventually, as the governor was unable to seize Columbus
himself, he decided on recognizing the royal commission which he produced,
and restoring his crew. On the 24th the "Nina" again steered for Spain,
but another tempest supervened, and continued with more or less fury for
more than a week.
ARRIVAL IN THE TAGUS.
In this last storm, which raged with destructive violence along the west
coast of the whole Continent of Europe, and which drove the "Pinta" almost
helplessly towards a lee-shore, the dangers of the voyage reached their
climax. "I escaped," says the admiral, "by the greatest miracle in the
world." Fortunately, however, his seamanship was equal to the emergency,
and on the afternoon of the fourth of March he came to anchor in the
Tagus. To the King of Portugal, who happened to be at no great distance,
he sent a despatch announcing his arrival and the result of his voyage,
and, in reply, received a pressing invitation to court. With this he
thought proper to comply, "in order not to show mistrust, although he
disliked it," and was received by the king with the highest honours. This
must have been almost too much of a triumph for a generous mind,
considering that the court before which he was displaying the signs of a
new world had refused the opportunity of securing the discovery for
itself. The king, however, now took occasion to put in a claim to the
newly found countries, basing it on that papal bull which has been
mentioned in a previous chapter but, although Columbus, in the interest of
his sovereigns, took care to repudiate this claim as decidedly as
possible, his royal host continued to entertain him with the utmost
consideration.
RECEPTION AT PALOS.
Possibly mistrusting the seamanship of his subordinates, Columbus refused
the offer of safe conduct and means of transport to Spain by land; and on
the 13th of March, in the teeth of a north-westerly wind and a heavy sea,
left the Tagus for the bar of Saltes, and safely reached his starting-
point at Palos on the 15th, again a Friday. The enthusiasm and excitement
aroused by the success of the expedition were unbounded. At Palos,
especially, where few families had not a personal interest in some of the
band of explorers, the little community was filled with extraordinary
delight. Not an individual member of the expedition but was elevated into
a hero,--not a debtor or a criminal whom the charter of immunity had led,
rather than bear the ills he had, to fly to others that he knew not of,--
but had expiated his social misdeeds, and had become a person of
consideration and an object of enthusiasm. The court was at Barcelona.
Immediately on his arrival Columbus despatched a letter to the king
and queen, stating in general terms the success of his project; and
proceeded forthwith to present himself in person to their highnesses.
BAD FAITH OF PINZON.
Almost at the same time, the "Pinta," which had been separated from her
consort in the first storm which they encountered, made the port of
Bayonne, whence Pinzon had forwarded a letter to the sovereigns,
announcing "his" discoveries, and proposing to come to court and give full
intelligence as to them. Columbus, whom he probably supposed to have
perished at sea, he seems to have ignored utterly, and when he received a
reply from the king and queen, directing him not to go to court without
the admiral, chagrin and grief overcame him to such an extent that he took
to his bed; and if any man ever died from mental distress and a broken
heart, that man was Martin Alonzo Pinzon.
SOLEMN RECEPTION.
Herrera tells us that the admiral now "entered into the greatest
reputation," and the historian goes on to explain to his readers what the
meaning of "reputation" is. "It does not consist," he tells us, "in
success, but in doing something which cannot be easily comprehended, which
compels men to think over and over again about it." And certainly, this
definition makes the word particularly applicable to the achievement of
Columbus.
The court prepared a solemn reception for the admiral at Barcelona, where
the people poured out in such numbers to see him that the streets could
not contain them. A triumphal procession like his the world had not yet
seen: it was a thing to make the most incurious alert, and even the sad
and solitary student content to come out and mingle with the mob. The
captives that accompanied a Roman general's car might be strange
barbarians of a tribe from which Rome had not before had slaves. But
barbarians were not unknown creatures. Here, with Columbus, were beings of
a new world. Here was the conqueror, not of man but of nature, not of
flesh and blood but of the fearful unknown, of the elements, and, more
than all, of the prejudices of centuries. We may imagine the rumours that
must have gone before his coming. And now he was there. Ferdinand and
Isabella had their thrones placed in the presence of the assembled court.
Columbus approached the monarchs, and then, "his countenance beaming with
modest satisfaction," knelt at the king's feet, and begged leave to kiss
their highnesses' hands. They gave their hands; then they bade him rise
and be seated before them. He recounted briefly the events of his
voyage--a story more interesting than the tale told in the court of Dido
by Aeneas, like whom he had almost perished close to home, and he
concluded his unpretending narrative by showing what new things and
creatures he had brought with him.
MARKS OF APPROBATION.
Ferdinand and Isabella fell on their knees, giving thanks to God with many
tears; and then the choristers of the royal chapel closed the grand
ceremonial by singing the "Te Deum." Afterwards men walked home grave and
yet happy, having seen the symbol of a great work, something to be thought
over for many a generation. Other marks of approbation for Columbus were
not wanting. The agreement between him and the sovereigns was confirmed.
An appropriate coat of arms, then a thing of much significance, was
granted to him in augmentation of his own. In the shield are conspicuously
emblazoned the Royal Arms of Castile and Leon. Nothing can better serve to
show the immense favour which Columbus had obtained at court by his
discovery than such a grant; and it is but a trifling addition to make,
in recounting his now honours, that the title of Don was given to him and
his descendants, and also to his brothers. He rode by the king's side; was
served at table as a grandee; "All hail!" was said to him on state
occasions; and the men of his age, happy in that, had found out another
great man to honour.
GRANT BY THE POPE.
The more prosaic part of the business had then to be attended to. The
Sovereigns applied to the Pope Alexander the Sixth, to confer on the
crowns of Castile and Leon the lands discovered and to be discovered in
the Indies. To this application they soon received a favourable answer.
The Pope granted to the Princes of Castile and Leon, and to their
successors, the sovereign empire and principality of the Indies, and of
the navigation there, with high and royal jurisdiction and imperial
dignity and lordship over all that hemisphere. To preserve the peace
between Spain and Portugal, the Pontiff divided the Spanish and Portuguese
Indian sovereignties by an imaginary line drawn from pole to pole, one
hundred leagues west of the Azores and the Cape de Verde Islands.
SECOND VOYAGE PLANNED.
Meanwhile the preparations were being made for a second voyage to be
undertaken by the admiral. After the arrival of the apostolic bulls, and
before the departure of Columbus from Barcelona, the nine Indians brought
by him were baptized. Here, parenthetically, we may take note of something
which, if the fact did correspond with what the Spaniards thought about
it, would, indeed, be notable. One of the Indians, after being baptized,
died, and was, we are told,[Herrera] the first of that nation, according
to pious belief, who entered heaven.
We cannot help thinking of the hospitable and faithful Guacanagari, and
imagining that, if his race had been like him, some one might already have
reached the regions of the blessed. I do not, however, refer to this
passage of Herrera for its boldness or its singularity, but because it
brings before us again the profound import attached to baptism in those
times, and may help to account for many seeming inconsistencies in the
conduct of the Spaniards to the Indians.
COLONIAL DEPARTMENT.
In the conduct, however, of Ferdinand and Isabella towards the Indians
there was nothing equivocal, but all that they did showed the tenderness
and religious care of these monarchs for their new subjects. A special
department for the control of colonial affairs was placed under the charge
of Juan de Fonseca, an eminent ecclesiastic who was high in the royal
favour, and on whom was eventually conferred the title of Patriarch of the
Indies. But, unfortunately for the poor savages whose fate he was now to
influence so largely, Fonseca's character had in it but little of the mild
and forbearing spirit of Christianity. A shrewd man of business, a hard
task-master, an implacable enemy, he displayed, during his long
administration of Indian affairs, all the qualities of an unscrupulous
tyrant, and was instrumental in inflicting on the islanders keener
miseries than ever have been brought by conqueror upon a subject race.
HOME OF THE GOLD.
Jealous of the rivalry of Portugal, the sovereigns took every means of
hastening the preparations for a second voyage to be undertaken by the
admiral. Twelve caravels and five smaller vessels were made ready, and
were laden with horses and other animals, and with plants, seeds, and
agricultural implements for the cultivation of the new countries.
Artificers of various trades were engaged, and a quantity of merchandize
and gaudy trifles, fit for bartering with the natives, were placed on
board. There was no need to press men into the service now; volunteers for
the expedition were only too numerous. The fever for discovery was
universal. Columbus was confident that he had been on the outskirts of
Cathay, and that the scriptural land of Havilah, the home of gold, was not
far off. Untold riches were to be acquired, and probably there was not one
of the 1500 persons who took ship in the squadron that did not anticipate
a prodigious fortune as the reward of the voyage. Nor was one of the great
objects of these discoveries uncared for. Twelve missionaries, eager to
enlighten the spiritual darkness of the western lands, were placed under
the charge of Bernard Buil, a Benedictine monk, who was specially
appointed by the Pope, in order to ensure an authorized teaching of the
faith, to superintend the religious education of the Indians.
THE ADMIRAL'S INSTRUCTIONS.
The instructions to Columbus, dated the 29th of May, 1493, are the first
strokes upon that obdurate mass of colonial difficulty which at last, by
incessant working of great princes, great churchmen, and great statesmen,
was eventually to be hammered into some righteous form of wisdom and of
mercy. In the course of these instructions, the admiral is ordered to
labour in all possible ways to bring the dwellers in the Indies to a
knowledge of the Holy Catholic Faith. And that this may the more easily be
done, all the armada is to be charged to deal "lovingly" with the Indians;
the admiral is to make them presents, and to "honour them much;" and if by
chance any person or persons should treat the Indians ill, in any manner
whatever, the admiral is to chastise such ill-doers severely.
Even at this early period of his administration, Fonseca appears to have
made some attempts to thwart the admiral's wishes, attempts which
Columbus, now at the zenith of royal favour, had no difficulty in
baffling. As regards the household, for instance, Fonseca demurred to the
number of footmen which the admiral proposed for his domestic
establishment. The admiral appealed to the sovereigns, who allowed his
claim, and reproved Fonseca for objecting.
CHAPTER VI. Second Voyage of Discovery.
On the 25th of September, all the preparations being complete, the
squadron left Cadiz for the Canary Islands, and, after taking in
provisions there, sailed from Ferro on the 13th of October. The voyage was
singularly prosperous. There was but one storm, and that of not more than
a few hours' duration; and favouring breezes wafted them over calm seas
with a rapidity that brought the ships within sight of land on the 3rd of
November, having made the voyage "by the goodness of God, and the wise
management of the admiral, in as straight a track as if they had sailed by
a well-known and frequented route." It was Sunday, and accordingly the
name of Dominica was given to the first island to which the admiral came.
ISLAND OF GUADALOUPE.
From Dominica, where no aborigines were found, the admiral stood
northward, naming one small island Maria Galante, after his own flagship,
and calling a second and much larger one Guadaloupe, after a certain
monastery in Estramadura. This island was peopled by a race of cannibals;
and, in the houses of the natives, human flesh was found roasting at the
fire. An exploring party from one of the ships penetrated into the
interior, but so thickly was it wooded that they lost their way in the
jungle, and only regained the ships after four days' wanderings, and when
their safety was despaired of by their companions, who feared that they
had become food for the savages. Fortunately, however, the men of the
island were absent on some warlike expedition, and the white men only met
with women and children in the course of their dangerous explorations.
DESTRUCTION OF LA NAVIDAD.
Anxious to revisit the colony at La Navidad, the admiral proceeded
north-westward as speedily as possible, and after passing and naming
Montserrat, Antigua, St. Martin, and Santa Cruz, arrived at a beautiful
and fertile island which he called St. John, but which has since received
the name of Porto Rico. Here were found houses and roads constructed after
a civilized fashion; but proofs that the inhabitants were cannibals
abounded everywhere. On the 22nd of November the admiral reached the
eastern end of Hispaniola, and sailed along the northern shore toward La
Navidad, where a profound disappointment awaited him. The little colony
which he had founded had been entirely destroyed. The fort was razed to
the ground. Not one of the settlers was alive to tell the tale.
LICENTIOUSNESS OF SETTLERS.
The account which Guacanagari gave to Columbus, and which there seems no
reason to doubt, is, that the Spanish who had been left at La Navidad took
to evil courses, quarrelled amongst themselves, straggled about the
country, and finally were set upon, when weak and few in numbers, by a
neighbouring Indian chief named Caonabo, who burned the tower and killed
or dispersed the garrison, none of whom were ever discovered. It was in
Caonabo's country that the gold mines were reported to exist, and it is
probable that both the cupidity and the profligacy of the colonists were
so gross as to draw down upon them the not unreasonable vengeance of the
natives. Guacanagari, the friendly cacique, who had received the admiral
amicably on his first voyage, declared that he and his tribe had done
their utmost in defence of the Europeans, in proof of which he exhibited
recent wounds which had evidently been inflicted by savage weapons. He
was, naturally, scarcely so friendly as before, but communication with him
was made easy by the aid of one of the Indians whom Columbus had taken to
Spain, and who acted as interpreter. Guacanagari was willing that a second
fort should be built on the site of the first, but the admiral thought it
better to seek a new locality, both because the position of the old fort
had been unhealthy, and because the disgusting licentiousness of the
settlers had offended the Indians to such an extent that whereas they had
at first regarded the white men as angels from heaven, now they considered
them as debased profligates and disturbers of the peace, against whom they
had to defend their honour and their lives.
COLONY FOUNDED AT ISABELLA.
Sailing along the coast of Hayti, Columbus selected a site for his
projected settlement, about forty miles to the east of the present Cape
Haytien. This he called Isabella, after his royal mistress. Here the ships
of his squadron discharged their stores, and the Spaniards laboured
actively in the construction of the first town built by Europeans in the
New World. But the work did not progress prosperously. Diseases prevailed
among the colonists. The fatigues and discomforts of a long sea voyage
were not the best preparations for hard physical labour. The number of men
which the admiral had brought out with him was disproportionate to his
means of sustaining them. Provisions and medicines began to fail. And,
worst of all, none of the golden dreams were realized, under the influence
of which they had left Spain. Only small samples of the precious metal
could be procured from the natives, and the vaguely indicated gold mines
of Cibao had not been reached. Anxiety, responsibility, and labour began
to tell upon the iron constitution of the admiral, and for some time he
was stretched upon a bed of sickness.
COLUMBUS DESPATCH TO THE COURT OF SPAIN.
Some idea of the difficulties which had to be encountered at this period
may be conceived from an account of the state of his colony which
Columbus sent home in January 1494. It is in the form of instructions to a
certain Antonio de Torres, the Receiver of the Colony, who was to proceed
to the court of Spain and inform the Monarchs of such things as were
written in these instructions, and doubtless to elucidate them by
discourse, as in the present day we send a despatch to be read by an
ambassador to the foreign minister of the power we are treating with.
There remains a copy, made at the time, of this document, and of the notes
in the margin containing the resolutions of the sovereigns. The original,
thus noted, was taken back to Columbus. It is a most valuable document,
very illustrative of the cautious and wise dealing of the catholic
sovereigns.
The document begins with the usual strain of complimentary address to
great personages, "Their Highnesses hold it for good service" is the
marginal remark.
The next paragraph consists of a general statement of the discoveries that
have been made. "Their Highnesses give much thanks to God, and hold as
very honoured service all that the admiral has done."
Then follow the admiral's reasons why he has not been able to send home
more gold. His people have been ill: it was necessary to keep guard, &c.
"He has done well" is in the margin.
He suggests the building of a fortress near the place where gold can be
got. Their Highnesses approve; and the note in the margin is, "This is
well, and so it must be done."
Then comes a paragraph about provisions, and a marginal order from the
sovereigns, "that Juan de Fonseca is to provide for that matter."
Again, there comes another paragraph about provisions, complaining,
amongst other things, that the casks, in which the wine for the armada had
been put, were leaky. Their Highnesses make an order in the margin, "that
Juan de Fonseca is to find out the persons who played this cheat with the
wine casks, and to make good from their pockets the loss, and to see that
the canes" (sugar canes for planting, possibly) "are good, and that all
that is here asked for, be provided immediately."
CASTILIAN INTERPRETERS.
So far, nothing can run more pleasantly with the main document than the
notes in the margin. Columbus now touches upon a matter which intimately
concerns the subject of slavery. He desires his agent to inform their
Highnesses that he has sent home some Indians from the Cannibal Islands as
slaves, to be taught Castilian, and to serve afterwards as interpreters,
so that the work of conversion may go on. His arguments in support of this
proceeding are weighty. He speaks of the good that it will be to take
these people away from cannibalism and to have them baptized, for so they
will gain their souls, as he expresses it. Then, too, with regard to the
other Indians, he remarks, "we shall have great credit from them, seeing
that we can capture and make slaves of these cannibals, of whom they (the
peaceable Indians) entertain so great a fear." Such arguments must be
allowed to have much force in them; and it may be questioned whether many
of those persons who, in these days, are the strongest opponents of
slavery, would then have had that perception of the impending danger of
its introduction which the sovereigns appear to have entertained, from
their answer to this part of the document. "This is very well, and so it
must be done; but let the admiral see whether it could not be managed
there" (i.e. in the Cannibal Islands) "that they should be brought to our
Holy Catholic Faith, and the same thing with the Indians of those islands
where he is."
SLAVERY PROPOSED.
The admiral's despatch goes much further: in the next paragraph he boldly
suggests that, for the advantage of the souls of these cannibal Indians,
the more of them that could be taken the better; and that, considering
what quantities of live-stock and other things are required for the
maintenance of the colony, a certain number of caravels should be sent
each year with these necessary things, and the cargoes be paid for in
slaves taken from amongst the cannibals. He touches again on the good that
will be done to the cannibals themselves; alludes to the customs duties
that their Highnesses may levy upon them; and concludes by desiring
Antonio de Torres to send, or bring, an answer, "because the preparations
here (for capturing these cannibals) may be carried on with more
confidence, if the scheme seem good to their Highnesses."
THE PROPOSAL REJECTED.
At the same time that we must do Columbus the justice to believe that his
motives were right in his own eyes, it must be admitted that a more
distinct suggestion for the establishment of a slave-trade was never
proposed. To their honour, Ferdinand and Isabella thus replied: "As
regards this matter, it is suspended for the present, until there come
some other way of doing it there, and let the admiral write what he thinks
of this."
This is rather a confused answer, as often happens, when a proposition
from a valued friend or servant is disapproved of, but has to be rejected
kindly. The Catholic sovereigns would have been very glad to have received
some money from the Indies: money was always welcome to King Ferdinand;
the purchase of wine, seeds, and cattle for the colonists had hitherto
proved anything but a profitable outlay; the prospect of conversion was
probably dear to the hearts of both these princes, certainly to one of
them: but still this proposition for the establishment of slavery was
wisely and magnanimously set aside.
FORT ST. THOMAS FOUNDED.
While Antonio de Torres was absent from Hispaniola, laying these
propositions before Los Reyes, Columbus was busy about the affairs of the
colony, which were in a most distracted state. Scant fare and hard work
were having their effect; sickness pervaded the whole armament; and men of
all ranks and stations, hidalgoes, people of the court and ecclesiastics,
were obliged to labour manually under regulations strictly enforced. The
rage and vexation of these men, many of whom had come out with the notion
of finding gold ready for them on the sea shore, may be imagined; and
complaints of the admiral's harsh way of dealing with those under him
(probably no harsher than was absolutely necessary to save them), now took
their rise, and pursued him ever after to his ruin. A mutiny, headed by
Bernal Diaz, a man high in authority, was detected and quelled before the
mutineers could effect their intention of seizing the ships. Diaz was sent
for trial to Spain. The colonists, however, were somewhat cheered after a
time by hearing of gold mines, and seeing specimens of ore brought from
thence; and the admiral went himself and founded the Fort of St. Thomas,
in the mining district of Cibao. But the Spaniards gained very little real
advantage from these gold mines, which they began to work before they had
consolidated around them the means of living; in fact, dealing with the
mines of Hispaniola as if they had been discovered in an old country,
where the means of transit and, supplies of provisions can, with
certainty, be procured.
DESIRE FOR DISCOVERY.
There was also another evil, besides that of inconsiderate mining, and,
perhaps, quite as mischievous a one, which stood in the way of the steady
improvement of these early Spanish colonies. The Catholic sovereigns had
unfortunately impressed upon Columbus their wish that he should devote
himself to further discovery, a wish but too readily adopted and furthered
by his enterprising spirit. The hankering of the Spanish monarchs for
further discovery was fostered by their jealousy of the Portuguese. The
Portuguese were making their way towards India, going eastward. They, the
Spaniards, thought they were discovering India, going westward. The more
rapidly, therefore, each nation could advance and plant its standard, the
more of much-coveted India it would hereafter be able to claim. Acting
upon such views, Columbus now proceeded onwards, bent upon further
discovery, notwithstanding that his little colonies at Isabella and St.
Thomas must have needed all his sagacity to protect them, and all his
authority to restrain them.
A COUNCIL APPOINTED.
He nominated a council to manage the government during his absence, with
his brother Don Diego as president of it; he appointed a certain Don Pedro
Margarite as captain-general; and then put to sea on the 24th of April,
1494.
CHAPTER VII.
In the course of the voyage that then ensued, the admiral made many
important discoveries, amongst them Jamaica, and the cluster of little
islands called the "Garden of the Queen." The navigation amongst these
islands was so difficult, that the admiral is said to have been thirty-two
days without sleeping. Certain it is, that after he had left the island
called La Mona, and when he was approaching the island of San Juan, a
drowsiness, which Las Casas calls "pestilential," but which might
reasonably be attributed to the privations, cares, and anxieties which the
admiral had now undergone for many months, seized upon him, and entirely
deprived him for a time of the use of his senses.
The object in going to San Juan was to capture cannibals there, and Las
Casas looks upon this lethargical attack as a judgment upon the admiral
for so unjust a manner of endeavouring to introduce Christianity. The
mariners turned the fleet homewards to Isabella, where they arrived the
29th of September, 1494, bearing with them their helpless commander.
ILLNESS OF COLUMBUS.
On Columbus's arrival at Isabella, where he remained ill for five months,
he found his brother, Bartholomew Columbus, whose presence gladdened him
exceedingly. His brothers were very dear to the admiral, as may be
gathered from a letter to his eldest son Diego, in which he bids him make
much of his brother Ferdinand, the son of Beatrice, "for," says he, "ten
brothers would not be too many for you. I have never found better friends,
on my right hand and on my left, than my brothers." Afterwards came
Antonio de Torres with provisions, and all things needful for the colony.
But nothing, we are told, delighted the admiral so much as the despatches
from court, for he was a faithful, loyal man, who loved to do his duty to
those who employed him, and to have his faithfulness recognized.
DISORGANIZATION OF THE COLONY.
Peace or delight, however, was not at any time to be long enjoyed by
Columbus. He found his colony in a sad state of disorganization: the
Indians were in arms against the Spaniards; and Father Buil, Don Pedro
Margarite, and other principal persons had gone home to Spain in the ship
which had brought Bartholomew Columbus.
The admiral, before his departure, had given a most injudicious command to
Margarite, namely, to put himself at the head of four hundred men and go
through the country, with the twofold object of impressing upon the
natives a respect for the power of the Spaniards, and of freeing the
colony from supporting these four hundred men. The instructions to
Margarite were, to observe the people and the natural productions of the
country through which he should pass; to do rigorous justice, so that the
Spaniards should be prevented from injuring the Indians, or the Indians
the Spaniards; to treat the Indians kindly; to obtain provisions by
purchase, if possible, if not, by any other means; and to capture Caonabo
and his brothers, either by force or artifice.
OPPRESSION OF INDIANS.
The proceedings of the men under Margarite were similar to those of the
Spaniards formerly left at La Navidad. They went straggling over the
country: they consumed the provisions of the poor Indians, astonishing
them by their voracious appetites; waste, rapine, injury and insult
followed in their steps; and from henceforth there was but little hope of
the two races living peaceably together in those parts, at least upon
equal terms. The Indians were now swarming about the Spaniards with
hostile intent: as a modern historian describes the situation, "they had
passed from terror to despair;" and but for the opportune arrival of the
admiral, the Spanish settlements in Hispaniola might again have been
entirely swept away.
Caonabo, the cacique who, in former days, had put to death the garrison at
La Navidad, was now threatening that of St. Thomas, the fort which the
admiral had caused to be built in the mining district of Cibao.
Guatignana, the cacique of Macorix, who had killed eight Spanish soldiers
and set fire to a house where there were forty ill, was now within two
days' march of Isabella, besieging the fort of Magdalena. Columbus started
up forthwith, went off to Magdalena, engaged the Indians, and routed them
utterly.
TRANSMISSION OF SLAVES,
He took a large part of them for slaves, and reduced to obedience the
whole of the province of Macorix. Returning to Isabella, he sent back, on
the 24th of February, 1495, the four ships which Antonio de Torres had
brought out, chiefly laden with Indian slaves. It is rather remarkable
that the very ships which brought that admirable reply from Ferdinand and
Isabella to Columbus, begging him to seek some other way to Christianity
than through slavery, even for wild man-devouring Caribs, should come back
full of slaves taken from amongst the wild islanders of Hispaniola.
Caonabo, not daunted by the fate of Guatignana, still continued to molest
St. Thomas. The admiral accordingly sallied out with two hundred men
against this cacique. On the broad plains of the Vega Real the Spaniards
found an immense number of Indians collected together, amounting, it is
said, to one hundred thousand men. The admiral divided his forces into two
bands, giving the command of one to his brother Bartholomew, and leading
the other himself; and when the brothers made an attack upon the Indians
at the same time from different quarters, this numerous host was at once
and utterly put to flight. In speaking of such a defeat, the modern reader
must not be lavish of the words "cowardly," "pusillanimous," and the like,
until, at least, he has well considered what it is to expose naked bodies
to firearms, to the charge of steel-clad men on horseback, and to the
clinging ferocity of bloodhounds.
SLAUGHRTER OF NATIVES.
A "horrible carnage" ensued upon the flight of the Indians. Many of them,
less fortunate, perhaps, than those who were slain, being taken alive,
were condemned to slavery. Caonabo, however, who was besieging the
fortress of St. Thomas at the time of the battle on the Vega Real,
remained untaken. The admiral resolved to secure the person of this
cacique by treachery; and sent Ojeda (who afterwards became a conspicuous
actor in the sad drama of conquest and depopulation in the West Indies) to
cajole Caonabo into coming to a friendly meeting. There are some curious
instructions of Columbus's to Margarite in 1494, respecting a plot to take
this formidable Caonabo. They are as thoroughly base and treacherous as
can well be imagined. This time the admiral's plan was completely
successful.
CUNNING CAPTURE OF INDIAN CHIEF.
The story which was current in the colonies, of the manner in which Ojeda
captured the resolute Indian chief, is this. Ojeda carried with him gyves
and manacles, the latter of the kind called by the Spaniards, somewhat
satirically, esposas (wives), and all made of brass or steel, finely
wrought, and highly polished. The metals of Spain were prized by the
Indians in the same way that the gold of the Indies was by the Spaniards.
Moreover, amongst the Indians, there was a strange rumour of talking
brass, that arose from their listening to the church bell at Isabella,
which, summoning the Spaniards to mass, was thought by the simple Indians
to converse with them. Indeed the natives of Hispaniola held the Spanish
metals in such estimation that they applied to them an Indian word, Turey,
which seems to have signified anything that descends from heaven. When,
therefore, Ojeda brought these ornaments to Caonabo, and told him they
were Biscayan Turey, and that they were a great present from the admiral,
and that he would show him how to put them on, and that when they were put
on Caonabo should set himself on Ojeda's horse and be shown to his
admiring subjects, as, Ojeda said, the kings of Spain were wont to show
themselves to theirs, the incautious Indian is said to have fallen
entirely into the trap. Going with Ojeda, accompanied by only a small
escort, to a river a short distance from his main encampment. Caonabo,
after performing ablutions, suffered the crafty young Spaniard to put the
heaven-descended fetters on him, and to set him upon the horse. Ojeda
himself got up behind the Indian prince, and then whirling a few times
round, like a pigeon before it takes its determined flight, making the
followers of Caonabo imagine that this was but display, (they all the
while keeping at a respectful distance from the horse, an animal they much
dreaded,) he darted off for Isabella, and after great fatigues, now
keeping to the main track, now traversing the woods in order to evade
pursuit, brought Caonabo bound into the presence of Columbus. The
unfortunate cacique was afterwards sent to Spain [He died on the voyage,
however.] to be judged there; and his forces were presently put to flight
by a troop of Spaniards under the command of this same Ojeda. Some were
killed; some taken prisoners; some fled to the forests and the mountains;
some yielded, "offering themselves to the service of the Christians, if
they would allow them to live in their own ways."
GOLD TRIBUTE IMPOSED.
Never, perhaps, were little skirmishes, for such they were on the part of
the Spaniards, of greater permanent importance than those above narrated,
which took place in the early part of the year 1495. They must be looked
upon as the origin in the Indies of slavery, vassalage, and the system of
repartimientos. We have seen that the admiral, after his first victory,
sent off four ships with slaves to Spain. He now took occasion to impose a
tribute upon the whole population of Hispaniola. It was thus arranged.
Every Indian above fourteen years old, who was in the provinces of the
mines, or near to these provinces, was to pay every three months a little
bellful of gold; all other persons in the island were to pay at the same
time an arroba of cotton for each person. Certain brass or copper tokens
were made--different ones for each tribute time--and were given to the
Indians when they paid tribute and these tokens, being worn about their
necks, were to show who had paid tribute.
REMARKABLE INDIAN SCHEME.
A remarkable proposal was made upon this occasion to the admiral by
Guarionex, cacique of the Vega Real, namely, that he would institute a
huge farm for the growth of corn and the manufacture of bread, stretching
from Isabella to St. Domingo (i. e. from sea to sea) which would suffice
to maintain all Castile with bread. The cacique would do this on condition
that his vassals were not to pay tribute in gold, as they did not know how
to collect that. But this proposal was not accepted, because Columbus
wished to have tribute in such things as he could send over to Spain.
This tribute is considered to have been a most unreasonable one in point
of amount, and Columbus was obliged to modify his demands upon these poor
Indians, and in some instances to change the nature of them. It appears
that, in 1496, service instead of tribute was demanded of certain Indian
villages; and as the villagers were ordered to make (and work) the farms
in the Spanish settlements, this may be considered as the beginning of the
system of repartimientos, or encomiendas, as they were afterwards called.
VIEWS OF COLUMBUS ON SLAVERY.
We must not, however, suppose that Indian slavery would not have taken
place by means of Columbus, even if these uprisings and defeats of the
Indians in the course of the year 1495 had never occurred. Very early
indeed we see what the admiral's views were with regard to the Indians. In
the diary which he kept of his first voyage, on the 14th of October, three
days after discovering the New World, he describes a position which he
thinks would be a very good one for a fort; and he goes on to say, "I do
not think that it (the fort) will be necessary, for this people is very
simple in the use of arms (as your highnesses will see from seven of them
that I have taken in order to bring them to you, to learn our language and
afterwards to take them back); so that when your highnesses command, you
can have them all taken to Castille or kept in the island as captives."
Columbus was not an avaricious, nor a cruel man; and certainly he was a
very pious one; but early in life he had made voyages along the coast of
Africa, and he was accustomed to a slave trade. Moreover, he was anxious
to reduce the expenses of these Indian possessions to the Catholic
sovereigns, to prove himself in the right as to all he had said respecting
the advantages that would flow to Spain from the Indies, and to confute
his enemies at Court.
Those who have read the instructions to Columbus given by the Catholic
monarchs will naturally be curious to know how the news of the arrival of
these vessels laden with slaves, the fruit of the admiral's first victory
over the Indians, was received by the Sovereigns, recollecting how tender
they had been about slavery before. This, however, was a very different
case from the former one. Here were people taken in what would be called
rebellion--prisoners of war. Still we find that Ferdinand and Isabella
were heedful in their proceedings in this matter. There is a letter of
theirs to Bishop Fonseca, who managed Indian affairs, telling him to
withhold receiving the money for the sale of these Indians that Torres had
brought with him until their Highnesses should be able to inform
themselves from men learned in the law, theologians and canonists, whether
with a good conscience these Indians could be ordered to be sold or not.
The historian Munoz, who has been indefatigable in his researches amongst
the documents relating to Spanish America, declares that he cannot find
that the point was decided; and if he has failed, we are not likely to
discover any direct evidence about the decision. We shall hereafter,
however, find something which may enable us to conjecture what the
decision practically came to be.
DISTRESS OF NATIVES.
Many of the so-called free Indians in Hispaniola had, perhaps, even a
worse fate than that which fell to the lot of their brethren condemned to
slavery. These free men, seeing the Spaniards quietly settling down in
their island, building houses, and making forts, and no vessels in the
harbour of Isabella to take them away, fell into the profoundest sadness,
and bethought them of the desperate remedy of attempting to starve the
Spaniards out, by not sowing or planting anything. But this is a shallow
device, when undertaken on the part of the greater number, in any country,
against the smaller. The scheme reacted upon themselves. They had intended
to gain a secure though scanty sustenance in the forests and upon the
mountains; but though the Spaniards suffered bitterly from famine, they
were only driven by it to further pursuit and molestation of the Indians,
who died in great numbers, of hunger, sickness, and misery.
SPANISH COMMISSIONER.
About this period there arrived in the Indies from the Court of Spain a
Commissioner of Inquiry, his mission being doubtless occasioned by the
various complaints made against the admiral by Father Buil, Margarite, and
the Spaniards who had returned from Hispaniola. The name of this
commissioner was Juan Aguado, and his powers were vouched for by the
following letter from the sovereigns:--
"The King and the Queen.
"Cavaliers, Esquires and other persons, who by our command are in the
Indies: we send you thither Juan Aguado, our Gentleman of the Chamber,
who will speak to you on our part: we command that you give him faith
and credence.
"I the King: I the Queen.
"By command of the King and Queen, our Lords.
"HENAND ALVAREZ.
"Madrid, the ninth of April, one thousand
four hundred and ninety-five."
PLOTS TO UNDERMINE AND RUIN THE ADMIRAL
The royal commissioner arrived at Isabella in October, 1495, and his
proceedings in the colony, together with the fear of what he might report
on his return, quickened the admiral's desire to return to Court, that he
might fight his own battles there himself. For the tide of his fortune was
turning, and this appeared by several notable signs. Strong as was the
confidence which the Sovereigns reposed in him, the representations of
Margarite and Buil--the rough soldier and the wily Benedictine--had
produced their effect. They complained of the despotic rule of Columbus;
of the disregard of distinctions of rank which he had manifested by
placing the hidalgoes on the same footing as the common men, as regards
work and rations, during the construction of the settlement; and of his
mania for discovery, which made him abandon the colony already formed, in
the unremunerative search for new countries. The commissioner who was sent
to investigate these charges, as well as to report on the condition of the
colony, found no difficulty in collecting evidence to substantiate them.
An unsuccessful man is generally persuaded that somebody else has caused
his failure. And the "somebody else," in the case of the colonists, was,
by universal consent, the foreign sea captain who had deluded Spanish
hidalgoes by his wild projects, and had become a grandee under false
pretences. The Indians, too, who were glad to lay their miseries at the
door of somebody, and who were told that Aguado was the new admiral, and
had come to supplant the old one, were not slow to add their quota to the
charges against Columbus. To rebut these accusations, as well as to
protest against the issue of licences, to private adventurers, to trade in
the new countries independently of the admiral (a measure which, in
violation of Columbus's charter, had lately been adopted by Fonseca) he
quitted Isabella on the 10th of March, 1496, in the "Nina," while Aguado
took ship in another caravel. Many of the colonists, who had been rudely
awakened from their golden dreams, seized this opportunity of returning to
Spain; and the Cacique Caonabo was also on board, probably with a view of
impressing upon him an overwhelming conviction of Spanish power, and of
the futility of any efforts to resist it.
WRETCHED VOYAGE HOME
The voyage was a miserable one. Contrary winds prevailed until provisions
began to run short, and rations were doled out in pittances which grew
scantier and scantier until all the admiral's authority was needed to
prevent his ravenous shipmates from killing and eating the Caribs who were
on board,--in retribution, so ran the grim jest, for their cannibalism. At
last, when famine was imminent, after a voyage of three months' duration,
the two caravels entered the Bay of Cadiz on the 11th of June, 1496.
RECEPTION AT COURT.
After about a month's delay, Columbus received a summons to proceed to the
Court, which was then at Burgos. In the course of his journey thither he
adopted the same means of dazzling the eyes of the populace, by the
display of gold and the exhibition of his captives, as on his return from
his first voyage; but so many unsuccessful colonists had returned, sick at
heart and ruined in health, to tell the tale of failure to their
countrymen, that this triumphal procession was very unlike the last as
regards the welcome accorded by the public. However the Sovereigns seem to
have given the admiral a kind reception, and instead of placing him on his
defence against the charges which had been brought forward by Father Buil,
they listened with sympathy to his story of the difficulties which had
beset him, and heard with sanguine satisfaction of the recent discovery of
the mines from which it was said that the natives procured most of the
gold that had been found in their possession, and which promised an
incalculably rich harvest. Presently, in apparent confirmation of this
belief, one Pedro Nino, a captain of the admiral's, announced his arrival
at Cadiz, with a quantity of "gold in bars" on board his ship. It was not
until great expectations had been raised at Court, and the wildest ideas
conceived of the magnitude of this supposed first instalment of the riches
of the newly found gold mines, that it turned out that this Nino was
merely a miserable maker of jokes, and that the "gold in bars" was only
represented by the Indians who composed his cargo, whose present captivity
was secured by "bars," and whose future sale was to furnish gold. This
absurdity naturally caused Columbus and his friends no slight
mortification, and added a fresh weapon to the shafts of ridicule which
his enemies wore for ever launching at his extravagant theories and his
expensive projects.
CHAPTER VIII.
During the two years that elapsed from the Admiral's leaving Hispaniola in
1496 to his return there in 1498, many things happened on both sides the
Atlantic, which need recording. In 1496 we find, that Don Bartholomew
Columbus sent to Spain three hundred slaves from Hispaniola. He had
previously informed the Sovereigns that certain caciques were killing the
Castilians, and their Highnesses had given orders in reply, that all those
who should be found guilty should be sent to Spain. If this meant the
common Indians as well as the caciques, then it seems probable that the
question about selling them with a safe conscience was already decided.
CRIMINALS SENT TO THE INDIES.
In 1497, two very injudicious edicts were published by the Catholic
Sovereigns, upon the advice, as we are told, of Columbus; one, authorizing
the judges to transport criminals to the Indies; the other, giving an
indulgence to all those who had committed any crime (with certain
exceptions, among which heresy, lese majeste, and treason, find a place)
to go out at their own expense to Hispaniola, and to serve for a certain
time under the orders of the admiral. The remembrance of this advice on
his part, might well have shamed Columbus from saying, as he did three
years afterwards, in his most emphatic manner, "I swear that numbers of
men have gone to the Indies who did not deserve water from God or man." It
is but fair, however, to mention, that Las Casas, speaking of the
colonists who went out under these conditions, says, "I have known some of
them in these islands, even of those who had lost their ears, whom I
always found sufficiently honest men."
"REPARTIMIENTOS."
In 1497, letters patent were issued from the Sovereigns to the admiral,
authorizing him to grant repartimientos of the lands in the Indies to the
Spaniards. It is noticeable that in this document there is no mention of
Indians, so that they had not come to form portion of a repartimiento at
this period. The document in question is of a formal character, expressed
in the style of legal documents of the present day, by virtue of which the
fortunate Spaniard who gets the land is "to have, and to hold, and to
possess," and so forth; and is enabled "to sell and to give, and to
present, and to traffic with, and to exchange, and to pledge, and to
alienate, and to do with it and in it all that he likes or may think good."
While the acts of legislation above narrated, which cannot be said to have
been favourable to good government in the Indies, were being framed at the
Court of Spain, Don Bartholomew Columbus was doing much in his
administration of Hispaniola that led to very mischievous results.
Before the admiral left the island, he had discovered some mines to the
southward, and had thought of choosing a port in their vicinity, where he
might establish a colony. He had spoken about this in his letters to the
Government at home. As he entered the Bay of Cadiz on his return, he met
some vessels there, which were bound for Hispaniola, and which contained
letters from their Highnesses approving of his suggestion. By these ships,
therefore, he sent orders to his brother to make this southern settlement;
and the "Adelantado" accordingly proceeded southwards, and fixed upon a
port at the entrance or the river Ozama. He sent for artizans from
Isabella, and commenced building a fortress, which he called St. Domingo,
and which afterwards became the chief port of the island.
XARAGUA PENETRATED; TRIBUTE IMPOSED UPON THE INDIANS.
There was one part of Hispaniola into which the Spaniards had not yet
penetrated: it was called Xaragua, and was reigned over by a Cacique named
Bohechio, whose sister, Anacaona, the wife of Caonabo, and a noted beauty,
seems also to have had much authority in those parts. The Adelantado,
after seeing the works at St. Domingo commenced, resolved to enter the
kingdom of Xaragua, whither he proceeded at the head of one hundred men.
Arriving at the river Neyba, he found an immense army of Indians drawn up
there to oppose his progress. Don Bartholomew made signs to them that his
errand was peaceful; and the good-natured Indians accepting his proffers
of amity, he was conducted some thirty leagues further to the city of
Xaragua, where he was received with processions of dancing and singing
women, and feasted magnificently. After having been well entertained by
these Indians, the "Adelantado" proceeded to business, and, in plain
terms, demanded tribute of them. Bohechio pleaded that there was no gold
in his dominions, to which the Adelantado replied that he did not wish to
impose tribute upon any people, except of the natural production to be
found in their country. It was finally settled that Bohechio should pay
tribute in cotton and cazabi-bread. He acceded to this agreement very
willingly; and the Adelantado and this cacique parted on the most friendly
terms.
Don Bartholomew then returned to Isabella, where he found that about three
hundred men had died from disease, and that there was great dearth of
provisions. He distributed the sick men in his fortresses, and in the
adjacent Indian villages, and afterwards set out on a journey to his new
fort of St. Domingo, collecting tribute by the way. In all these rapid and
energetic proceedings of the Adelantado, and still more from causes over
which he had no control, the Spaniards must have suffered much; and,
doubtless, those complaints on their part, which were soon to break
out very menacingly, were not unheard at the present time.
If the Spaniards, however, complained of the labours which Don Bartholomew
imposed upon them, the Indians complained still more, and far more justly,
of the tribute imposed upon them. Several of the minor chiefs, upon this
occasion of collecting tribute, complained to the great Cacique Guarionex,
and suggested a rising of the Indians. This cacique seems to have been a
peaceful, prudent man, and well aware of the power of the Spaniards. But
he now consented to place himself at the head of an insurrection, which,
however, the lieutenant-governor, soon made aware of it, quelled at once
by a battle in which he was victorious over Guarionex, taking him and
other principal persons captive. The chief movers of the revolt were put
to death; but Guarionex was delivered up to his people, who flocked by
thousands to his place of imprisonment, clamouring for his restitution.
DISCONTENT OF THE SPANISIH COLONISTS.
About this time messengers came from Bohechio and Anacaona, informing the
Adelantado that the tribute of that country was ready for him, and he
accordingly went to fetch it. During his absence from the seat of
government, and under the less vigorous administration of Don Diego
Columbus, who had been left at the head of affairs at Isabella, those
discontents among the Spaniards, which had no doubt been rife for a long
time, broke out in a distinct manner. I allude to the well-known
insurrection of Roldan, whom the admiral, on his departure, had left as
chief justice in the island. The disputes between the chief justice and
the governor were to form the first of a series of similar proceedings to
take place afterwards in many colonies even down to our own times. It may
be imagined that the family of Columbus were a hard race to deal with; and
any one observing that the admiral was very often engaged in disputes, and
almost always in the right, might conjecture that he was one of those
persons who pass through life proving that all people about them are
wrong, and going a great way to make them so. This would have been an easy
mode of explaining many things, and therefore very welcome to a narrator,
but it would not be at all just towards Columbus to saddle upon him any
such character. Here were men who had come out with very grand.
expectations, and who found themselves pinched with hunger, having dire
storms to encounter, and vast labours to undergo; who were restrained
within due bounds by no pressure of society; who were commanded by a
foreigner, or by members of his family, whom they knew to have many
enemies at court; who thought that the Sovereigns themselves could
scarcely reach them at this distance; and who imagined that they had
worked themselves out of an law and order, and that they deserved an
Alsatian immunity. With such men (many of them, perhaps, "not worthy of
water,") the admiral and his brothers had to get useful works of all kinds
done; and did contrive to get vessels navigated, forts built, and some
ideas of civilization maintained. But it was an arduous task at all times:
and this Roldan did not furnish the least of the troubles which the
admiral and his brothers had to endure.
INSURRECTION OF ROLDAN.
Roldan, too, if we could hear him, would probably have something to say.
He wished, it appears, to return to Spain, as Father Buil and Margarite
had done; and urged that a certain caravel which the Governor Don
Bartholomew Columbus had built, might be launched for that purpose. Such
is the account of Ferdinand Columbus, who maintains that the said caravel
could not be lunched for want of tackle. He also mentions that Roldan
complained of the restless life the Adelantado led his men, building forts
and towns; and said that there was no hope of the admiral coming back to
the colony with supplies. Without going into these squabbles--and indeed
it is very difficult when a quarrel of this kind arises, taking it up at
the point where it breaks out, to judge it upon that only, since the
stream of ill-will may have run underground for a long time--suffice it to
say, that Roldan and his men grew more and more insubordinate; were not at
all quelled by the presence of the Adelantado on his return from Xaragua;
and finally quitted Isabella in a body. The Adelantado contrived to keep
some men faithful to him, promising them, amongst other things, two slaves
each. Negotiations then took place between the Adelantado and Roldan,
which must be omitted for the present, to enter upon the further dealing
of Don Bartholomew with the Indians.
FLIGHT OF GUARIONEX.
These poor, islanders were now harassed both by the rebels and by the
loyal Spaniards, whom the Adelantado could not venture to curb much, for
fear of their going over to the other party. The Indians were also tempted
by Roldan to join him, as he contended that tribute had been unjustly
imposed upon them. From all these difficulties, Guarionex made his escape
by flying to the territories of Maiobanex, the cacique of a hardy race,
who inhabited the hilly country towards Cabron. This flight of Guarionex
was a very serious affair, as it threatened the extinction of tribute in
that cacique's territory; and Don Bartholomew accordingly pursued the
fugitive. After some skirmishes with the troops of Maiobanex, in which, as
usual, the Spaniards were victorious, the Adelantado sent a messenger to
Maiobanex, telling him that the Spaniards did not seek war with him, but
that he must give up Guarionex, otherwise his own territory would be
destroyed by fire and sword. Maiobanex replied, that everyone knew that
Guarionex was a good man, endowed with all virtue, wherefore he judged him
to be worthy of assistance and defence, but that they, the Spaniards, were
violent and bad men, and that he would have neither friendship nor
commerce with them.
MAIOBANEX AND HIS GUEST.
Upon receiving this answer, the Adelantado burnt several villages, and
approached nearer to the camp of Maiobanex. Fresh negotiations were
entered into: Maiobanex convoked an assembly of his people; and they
contended that Guarionex ought to be given up, and cursed the day when
first he came amongst them. Their noble chief, however, said, "that
Guarionex was a good man, and deserved well at his hands, for he had given
him many royal gifts when he came to him, and had taught him and his wife
to join in choral songs and to dance, of which he made no little account,
and for which he was grateful: wherefore, he would be party to no treaty
to desert Guarionex, since he had fled to him, and he had pledged himself
to take care of the fugitive; and would rather suffer all extremities than
give detractors a cause for speaking ill, to say that he had delivered up
his guest." The assemblage of the people being dismissed, Maiobanex
informed his guest that he would stand by him to the last.
THEIR CAPTURE.
The fugitive cacique, however, finding that Maiobanex's people were
ill-disposed towards him, quitted, of his own accord, their territory; but
by so doing, he was not enabled to save his generous host, who, with his
family, was surprized and taken; and Guarionex himself being shortly
afterwards captured and put in chains at Fort Concepcion, the two caciques
probably shared the same prison. Thus concludes a story, which, if it had
been written by some Indian Plutarch, and the names had been more easy to
pronounce, might have taken its just place amongst the familiar and
household stories which we tell our children, to make them see the beauty
of great actions.
CHAPTER IX.
COLUMBUS'S THIRD VOYAGE.
A good starting-point for that important part of the narrative which comes
next--namely, the discovery of the American continent by Columbus--will be
a recital of the first clause in the instructions given by Ferdinand and
Isabella to the admiral, in the year 1497, previously to his undertaking
his third voyage--a voyage which, though not to be compared to his first
one, is still very memorable, on account of the discoveries he made, and
the sufferings he experienced in the course of it.
The first clause of the instructions is to the effect, that the Indians of
the islands are to be brought into peace and quietude, being reduced into
subjection "benignantly;" and also, as the principal end of the conquest,
that they be converted to the sacred Catholic Faith, and have the holy
Sacraments administered to them.
It will be needless to recount the vexations of that "much-enduring man,"
Columbus, before his embarkation. Suffice it to say, that he set sail from
the port of San Lucar on the 30th of May, 1498, with six vessels, and two
hundred men, in addition to the sailors that were necessary to navigate
the vessels. In the course of his voyage he was obliged to avoid a French
squadron which was cruizing in those seas, as France and Spain were then
at war. From Gomera, one of the Canary islands, he despatched three of his
ships directly to Hispaniola, declaring in his instructions to their
commanders, that he was going to the Cape Verde islands, and thence, "in
the name of the Sacred Trinity," intended to navigate to the south of
those islands, until he should arrive under the equinoctial line, in the
hope of being "guided by God to discover something which may be to His
service, and to that of our Lords, the King and Queen, and to the honour
of Christendom;" "for, I believe," he adds, "that no one has ever
traversed this way, and that this sea is nearly unknown."
CAPE VERDE ISLANDS.
With one ship, therefore, and two caravels, the great admiral made for the
Cape Verde islands, "a false name," as he observes, for nothing was to be
seen there of a green colour. He reached these islands on the 27th of
June, and quitted them on the 4th of July, having been in the midst of
such a dense fog all the time, that, he says, "it might have been cut with
a knife," Thence he proceeded to the south-west, intending afterwards to
take a westerly direction. When he had gone, as he says, one hundred and
twenty leagues, he began to find those floating fields of sea-weed which
he had encountered in his first voyage. Here he took an observation at
nightfall, and found that the north star was in five degrees. The wind
suddenly abated, and the heat was intolerable; so much so, that nobody
dared to go below deck to look after the wine and the provisions. This
extraordinary heat lasted eight days. The first day was clear, and if the
others had been like it, the admiral says, not a man would have been left
alive, but they would all have been burnt up.
COLUMBUS SAILS WESTWARD.
At last a favourable breeze sprang up, enabling the admiral to take a
westerly course, the one he most desired, as he had before noticed in his
voyages to the Indies that about a hundred miles west of the Azores there
was always a sudden change of temperature.[15]
[Footnote 15: I suppose he came into or out of one of those warm ocean
rivers which have so great an effect in modifying the temperature of the
earth--perhaps into the one which comes from the south of Africa through
the Gulf of Mexico, to our own shores, and on which we so much depend.]
TRINIDAD SEEN.