--FROM CADIZ AT CANARY ISLANDS--DISCOVERY OF DOMINICA
AND GUADELOUPE--SKIRMISHES WITH THE CARIBS--PORTO RICO
DISCOVERED--HISPANIOLA--THE FATE OF THE COLONY AT LA NAVIDAD.
There is not in history a sharper contrast, or one more dramatic, than
that between the first voyage of Columbus and the second. In the first
voyage, three little ships left the port of Palos, most of the men of
their crews unwilling, after infinite difficulty in preparation, and in
the midst of the fears of all who stayed behind.
In the second voyage, a magnificent fleet, equipped with all that the
royal service could command, crowded with eager adventurers who are
excited by expectations of romance and of success, goes on the very same
adventure.
In the first voyage, Columbus has but just turned the corner after the
struggles and failures of eight years. He is a penniless adventurer who
has staked all his reputation on a scheme in which he has hardly any
support. In the second case, Columbus is the governor-general, for aught
he knows, of half the world, of all the countries he is to discover;
and he knows enough, and all men around him know enough, to see that his
domain may be a principality indeed.
Success brings with it its disadvantages. The world has learned since,
if it did not know it then, that one hundred and fifty sailors, used to
the hard work and deprivations of a seafaring life, would be a much
more efficient force for purposes of discovery, than a thousand and more
courtiers who have left the presence of the king and queen in the hope
of personal advancement or of romantic adventure. Those dainty people,
who would have been soldiers if there were no gunpowder, are not men to
found states; and the men who have lived in the ante-chambers of courts
are not people who co-operate sympathetically with an experienced man of
affairs like Columbus.
From this time forward this is to be but a sad history, and the sadness,
nay, the cruelty of the story, results largely from the composition of
the body of men whom Columbus took with him on this occasion. It is
no longer coopers and blacksmiths and boatswains and sailmakers who
surround him. These were officers of court, whose titles even cannot be
translated into modern language, so artificial were their habits and so
conventional the duties to which they had been accustomed. Such men it
was, who made poor Columbus endless trouble. Such men it was, who, at
the last, dragged him down from his noble position, so that he died
unhonored, dispirited and poor. To the same misfortune, probably, do we
owe it that, for a history of this voyage, we have no longer authority
so charming as the simple, gossipy journal which Columbus kept through
the first voyage, of which the greater part has happily been preserved.
It may be that he was too much pressed by his varied duties to keep up
such a journal. For it is alas! an unfortunate condition of human life,
that men are most apt to write journals when they have nothing to tell,
and that in the midst of high activity, the record of that activity is
not made by the actor. In the present case, a certain Doctor Chanca, a
native of Seville, had been taken on board Columbus’s ship, perhaps with
the wish that he should be the historian of the expedition. It may be
that in the fact that his journal was sent home is the reason why the
Admiral’s, if he kept one, has never been preserved. Doctor Chanca’s
narrative is our principal contemporary account of the voyage. From
later authorities much can be added to it, but all of them put
together are not, for the purposes of history, equal to the simple
contemporaneous statement which we could have had, had Columbus’s own
journal been preserved.
The great fleet sailed from Cadiz on the twenty-fifth day of September,
in the year 1493, rather more than thirteen months after the sailing
of the little fleet from Palos of the year before. They touched at the
Grand Canary as before, but at this time their vessels were in good
condition and there was no dissatisfaction among the crews. From
this time the voyage across the ocean was short. On the third day of
November, 11 the Sunday after All Saints Day had dawned, a pilot on the
ship cried out to the captain that he saw land. “So great was the joy
among the people, that it was marvellous to hear the shouts of pleasure
on all hands. And for this there was much reason because the people were
so much fatigued by the hard life and by the water which they drank that
they all hoped for land with much desire.”
The reader will see that this is the ejaculation of a tired landsman;
one might say, of a tired scholar, who was glad that even the short
voyage was at an end. Some of the pilots supposed that the distance
which they had run was eight hundred leagues from Ferro; others thought
it was seven hundred and eighty. As the light increased, there were
two islands in sight the first was mountainous, being the island of
“Dominica,” which still retains that name, of the Sunday when it was
discovered; the other, the island of Maria Galante, is more level, but
like the first, as it is described by Dr. Chanca, it was well wooded.
The island received its name from the ship that Columbus commanded. In
all, they discovered six islands on this day.
Finding no harbor which satisfied him in Dominica, Columbus landed on
the island of Maria Galante, and took possession of it in the name of
the king and queen. Dr. Chanca expresses the amazement which everyone
had felt on the other voyage, at the immense variety of trees, of fruits
and of flowers, which to this hour is the joy of the traveller in the
West Indies.
“In this island was such thickness of forest that it was wonderful, and
such a variety of trees, unknown to anyone, that it was terrible, some
with fruit, some with flowers, so that everything was green. * * * There
were wild fruits of different sorts, which some not very wise men tried,
and, on merely tasting them, touching them with their tongues, their
faces swelled and they had such great burning and pain that they seemed
to rage (or to have hydrophobia). They were cured with cold things.”
This fruit is supposed to have been the manchireel, which is known to
produce such effects.
They found no inhabitants on this island and went on to another, now
called Guadeloupe. It received this name from its resemblance to a
province of the same name in Spain. They drew near a mountain upon it
which “seemed to be trying to reach the sky,” upon which was a beautiful
waterfall, so white with foam that at a distance some of the sailors
thought it was not water, but white rocks. The Admiral sent a light
caravel to coast along and find harbor. This vessel discovered some
houses, and the captain went ashore and found the inhabitants in them.
They fled at once, and he entered the houses. There he found that they
had taken nothing away. There was much cotton, “spun and to be spun,”
and other goods of theirs, and he took a little of everything, among
other things, two parrots, larger and different from what had been seen
before. He also took four or five bones of the legs and arms of men.
This last discovery made the Spaniards suppose that these islands were
those of Caribs, inhabited by the cannibals of whom they had heard in
the first voyage.
They went on along the coast, passing by some little villages, from
which the inhabitants fled, “as soon as they saw the sails.” The Admiral
decided to send ashore to make investigations, and next morning “certain
captains” landed. At dinnertime some of them returned, bringing with
them a boy of fourteen, who said that he was one of the captives of the
people of the island. The others divided, and one party “took a little
boy and brought him on board.” Another party took a number of women,
some of them natives of the island, and others captives, who came of
their own accord. One captain, Diego Marquez, with his men, went off
from the others and lost his way with his party. After four days he came
out on the coast, and by following that, he succeeded in coming to the
fleet. Their friends supposed them to have been killed and eaten by the
Caribs, as, since some of them were pilots and able to set their course
by the pole-star, it seemed impossible that they should lose themselves.
During the first day Columbus spent here, many men and women came to the
water’s edge, “looking at the fleet and wondering at such a new thing;
and when any boat came ashore to talk with them, saying, ‘tayno, tayno,’
which means good. But they were all ready to run when they seemed
in danger, so that of the men only two could be taken by force or
free-will. There were taken more than twenty women of the captives, and
of their free-will came other women, born in other islands, who were
stolen away and taken by force. Certain captive boys came to us. In this
harbor we were eight days on account of the loss of the said captain.”
They found great quantities of human bones on shore, and skulls hanging
like pots or cups about the houses. They saw few men. The women said
that this was because ten canoes had gone on a robbing or kidnapping
expedition to other islands. “This people,” says Doctor Chanca,
“appeared to us more polite than those who live in the other islands
we have seen, though they all have straw houses.” But he goes on to say
that these houses are better made and provided, and that more of both
men’s and women’s work appeared in them. They had not only plenty of
spun and unspun cotton, but many cotton mantles, “so well woven that
they yield in nothing (or owe nothing) to those of our country.”
When the women, who had been found captives, were asked who the people
of the island were, they replied that they were Caribs. “When they heard
that we abhorred such people for their evil use of eating men’s flesh,
they rejoiced much.” But even in the captivity which all shared, they
showed fear of their old masters.
“The customs of this people, the Caribs,” says Dr. Chanca, “are
beastly;” and it would be difficult not to agree with him, in spite of
the “politeness” and comparative civilization he has spoken of.
They occupied three islands, and lived in harmony with each other, but
made war in their canoes on all the other islands in the neighborhood.
They used arrows in warfare, but had no iron. Some of them used
arrow-heads of tortoise shell, others sharply toothed fish-bones, which
could do a good deal of damage among unarmed men. “But for people of our
nation, they are not arms to be feared much.”
These Caribs carried off both men and women on their robbing
expeditions. They slaughtered and ate the men, and kept the women as
slaves; they were, in short, incredibly cruel. Three of the captive boys
ran away and joined the Spaniards.
They had twice sent out expeditions after the lost captain, Diego
Marquez, and another party had returned without news of him, on the
very day on which he and his men came in. They brought with them ten
captives, boys and women. They were received with great joy. “He and
those that were with him, arrived so DESTROYED BY THE MOUNTAIN, that
it was pitiful to see them. When they were asked how they had lost
themselves, they said that it was the thickness of the trees, so
great that they could not see the sky, and that some of them, who were
mariners, had climbed up the trees to look at the star (the Pole-star)
and that they never could see it.”
One of the accounts of this voyage(*) relates that the captive women,
who had taken refuge with the Spaniards, were persuaded by them to
entice some of the Caribs to the beach. “But these men, when they had
seen our people, all struck by terror, or the consciousness of their
evil deeds, looking at each other, suddenly drew together, and very
lightly, like a flight of birds, fled away to the valleys of the woods.
Our men then, not having succeeded in taking any cannibals, retired to
the ships and broke the Indians’ canoes.”
(*) That of Peter Martyr.
They left Guadeloupe on Sunday, the tenth of November. They passed
several islands, but stopped at none of them, as they were in haste to
arrive at the settlement of La Navidad in Hispaniola, made on the first
voyage. They did, however, make some stay at an island which seemed well
populated. This was that of San Martin. The Admiral sent a boat ashore
to ask what people lived on the island, and to ask his way, although,
as he afterwards found, his own calculations were so correct that he
did not need any help. The boat’s crew took some captives, and as it
was going back to the ships, a canoe came up in which were four men, two
women and a boy. They were so astonished at seeing the fleet, that they
remained, wondering what it could be, “two Lombard-shot from the ship,”
and did not see the boat till it was close to them. They now tried
to get off, but were so pressed by the boat that they could not. “The
Caribs, as soon as they saw that flight did not profit them, with much
boldness laid hands on their bows, the women as well as the men. And I
say with much boldness, because they were no more than four men and two
women, and ours more than twenty-five, of whom they wounded two. To one
they gave two arrow-shots in the breast, and to the other one in the
ribs. And if we had not had shields and tablachutas, and had not come up
quickly with the boat and overturned their canoe, they would have
shot the most of our men with their arrows. And after their canoe was
overturned, they remained in the water swimming, and at times getting
foothold, for there were some shallow places there. And our men had much
ado to take them, for they still kept on shooting as they could. And
with all this, not one of them could be taken, except one badly wounded
with a lance-thrust, who died, whom thus wounded they carried to the
ships.”
Another account of this fight says that the canoe was commanded by one
of the women, who seemed to be a queen, who had a son “of cruel look,
robust, with a lion’s face, who followed her.” This account represents
the queen’s son to have been wounded, as well as the man who died. “The
Caribs differed from the other Indians in having long hair; the others
wore theirs braided and a hundred thousand differences made in their
heads, with crosses and other paintings of different sorts, each one
as he desires, which they do with sharp canes.” The Indians, both the
Caribs and the others, were beardless, unless by a great exception. The
Caribs, who had been taken prisoners here, had their eyes and eyebrows
blackened, “which, it seems to me, they do as an ornament, and with that
they appear more frightful.” They heard from these prisoners of much
gold at an island called Cayre.
They left San Martin on the same day, and passed the island of Santa
Cruz, and the next day (November 15) they saw a great number of islands,
which the Admiral named Santa Ursula and the Eleven Thousand Virgins.
This seemed “a country fit for metals,” but the fleet made no stay
there. They did stop for two days at an island called Burenquen. The
Admiral named it San Juan Bautista (Saint John Baptist). It is what
we now call Porto Rico. He was not able to communicate with any of the
inhabitants, as they lived in such fear of the Caribs that they all
fled. All these islands were new to the Admiral and all “very beautiful
and of very good land, but this one seemed better than all of them.”
On Friday, the twenty-second of November, they landed at the island of
Hispaniola or Hayti which they so much desired. None of the party who
had made the first voyage were acquainted with this part of the island;
but they conjectured what it was, from what the Indian captive women
told them.
The part of the island where they arrived was called Hayti, another part
Xamana, and the third Bohio. “It is a very singular country,” says Dr.
Chanca, “where there are numberless great rivers and great mountain
ridges and great level valleys. I think the grass never dries in the
whole year. I do not think that there is any winter in this (island) nor
in the others, for at Christmas are found many birds’ nests, some with
birds, and some with eggs.” The only four-footed animals found in these
islands were what Dr. Chanca calls dogs of various colors, and one
animal like a young rabbit, which climbed trees. Many persons ate these
last and said they were very good. There were many small snakes, and few
lizards, because the Indians were so fond of eating them. “They made as
much of a feast of them as we would do of pheasants.”
“There are in this island and the others numberless birds, of those
of our country, and many others which never were seen there. Of our
domestic birds, none have ever been seen here, except that in Zuruquia
there were some ducks in the houses, most of them white as snow, and
others black.”
They coasted along this island for several days, to the place where the
Admiral had left his settlement. While passing the region of Xamana,
they set ashore one of the Indians whom they had carried off on the
first voyage. They “gave him some little things which the Admiral had
commanded him to give away.” Another account adds that of the ten Indian
men who had been carried off on the first voyage, seven had already
died on account of the change of air and food. Two of the three whom the
Admiral was bringing back, swam ashore at night. “The Admiral cared for
this but little, thinking that he should have enough interpreters among
those whom he had left in the island, and whom he hoped to find there
again.” It seems certain that one Indian remained faithful to the
Spaniards; he was named Diego Colon, after the Admiral’s brother.
On the day that the captive Indian was set ashore, a Biscayan sailor
died, who had been wounded by the Caribs in the fight between the boat’s
crew and the canoe. A boat’s crew was sent ashore to bury him, and as
they came to land there came out “many Indians, of whom some wore gold
at the neck and at the ears. They sought to come with the christians to
the ships, and they did not like to bring them, because they had not had
permission from the Admiral.” The Indians then sent two of their number
in a little canoe to one of the caravels, where they were received
kindly, and sent to speak with the Admiral.
“They said, through an interpreter, that a certain king sent them to
know what people we were, and to ask that we might be kind enough to
land, as they had much gold and would give it to him, and of what they
had to eat. The Admiral commanded silken shirts and caps and other
little things to be given them, and told them that as he was going where
Guacanagari was, he could not stop, that another time he would be able
to see him. And with that, they (the Indians) went away.”
They stopped two days at a harbor which they called Monte Christi, to
see if it were a suitable place for a town, for the Admiral did not feel
altogether satisfied with the place where the settlement of La Navidad
had been made on the first voyage. This Monte Christi was near “a great
river of very good water” (the Santiago). But it is all an inundated
region, and very unfit to live in.
“As they were going along, viewing the river and land, some of our men
found, in a place close by the river, two dead men, one with: a cord
(lazo) around his neck, and the other with one around his foot. This was
the first day. On the next day following, they found two other dead men
farther on than these others. One of these was in such a position
that it could be known that he had a plentiful beard. Some of our men
suspected more ill than good, and with reason, as the Indians are all
beardless, as I have said.”
This port was not far from the port where the Spanish settlement had
been made on the first voyage, so that there was great reason for these
anxieties. They set sail once more for the settlement, and arrived
opposite the harbor of La Navidad on the twenty-seventh of November. As
they were approaching the harbor, a canoe came towards them, with five
or six Indians on board, but, as the Admiral kept on his course without
waiting for them, they went back.
The Spaniards arrived outside the port of La Navidad so late that they
did not dare to enter it that night. “The Admiral commanded two Lombards
to be fired, to see if the christians replied, who had been left with
the said Guacanagari, (this was the friendly cacique Guacanagari of the
first voyage), for they too had Lombards,” “They never replied, nor did
fires nor signs of houses appear in that place, at which the people were
much discouraged, and they had the suspicion that was natural in such a
case.”
“Being thus all very sad, when four or five hours of the night had
passed, there came the same canoe which they had seen the evening
before. The Indians in it asked for the Admiral and the captain of one
of the caravels of the first voyage. They were taken to the Admiral’s
ship, but would not come on board until they had spoken with him and
seen him.” They asked for a light, and as soon as they knew him, they
entered the ship. They came from Guacanagari, and one of them was his
cousin.
They brought with them golden masks, one for the Admiral and another for
one of the captains who had been with him on the first voyage, probably
Vicente Yanez Pinzon. Such masks were much valued among the Indians,
and are thought to have been meant to put upon idols, so that they were
given to the Spaniards as tokens of great respect. The Indian party
remained on board for three hours, conversing with the Admiral and
apparently very glad to see him again. When they were asked about the
colonists of La Navidad, they said that they were all well, but that
some of them had died from sickness, and that others had been killed
in quarrels among themselves. Their own cacique, Guacanagari, had been
attacked by two other chiefs, Caonabo and Mayreni. They had burned his
village, and he had been wounded in the leg, so that he could not come
to meet the Spaniards that night. As the Indians went away, however,
they promised that they would bring him to visit them the next day. So
the explorers remained “consoled for that night.”
Next day, however, events were less reassuring. None of last night’s
party came back and nothing was seen of the cacique. The Spaniards,
however, thought that the Indians might have been accidentally
overturned in their canoe, as it was a small one, and as wine had been
given them several times during their visit.
While he was still waiting for them, the Admiral sent some of his men
to the place where La Navidad had stood. They found that the strong fort
with a palisade was burned down and demolished. They also found some
cloaks and other clothes which had been carried off by the Indians, who
seemed uneasy, and at first would not come near the party.
“This did not appear well” to the Spaniards, as the Admiral had told
them how many canoes had come out to visit him in that very place on
the other voyage. They tried to make friends, however, threw out to
them some bells, beads and other presents, and finally a relation of the
cacique and three others ventured to the boat, and were taken on board
ship.
These men frankly admitted that the “christians” were all dead. The
Spaniards had been told so the night before by their Indian interpreter,
but they had refused to believe him. They were now told that the King of
Canoaboa(*) and the King Mayreni had killed them and burned the village.
(*) “Canoaboa” was thought to mean “Land of Gold.”
They said, as the others had done, that Guacanagari was wounded in the
thigh and they, like the others, said they would go and summon him. The
Spaniards made them some presents, and they, too, disappeared.
Early the next morning the Admiral himself, with a party, including Dr.
Chanca, went ashore.
“And we went where the town used to be, which we saw all burnt, and the
clothes of the christians were found on the grass there. At that time
we saw no dead body. There were among us many different opinions, some
suspecting that Guacanagari himself was (concerned) in the betrayal or
death of the christians, and to others it did not appear so, as his town
was burnt, so that the thing was very doubtful.”
The Admiral directed the whole place to be searched for gold, as he had
left orders that if any quantity of it were found, it should be buried.
While this search was being made, he and a few others went to look for a
suitable place for a new settlement. They arrived at a village of seven
or eight houses, which the inhabitants deserted at once. Here they found
many things belonging to the christians, such as stockings, pieces of
cloth, and “a very pretty mantle which had not been unfolded since it
was brought from Castile.” These, the Spaniards thought, could not have
been obtained by barter. There was also one of the anchors of the ship
which had gone ashore on the first voyage.
When they returned to the site of La Navidad they found many Indians,
who had become bold enough to come to barter gold. They had shown the
place where the bodies of eleven Spaniards lay “covered already by the
grass which had grown over them.” They all “with one voice” said that
Canoaboa and Mayreni had killed them. But as, at the same time, they
complained that some of the christians had taken three Indian wives, and
some four, it seemed likely that a just resentment on the part of the
islanders had had something to do with their death.
The next day the Admiral sent out a caravel to seek for a suitable
place for a town, and he himself went out to look for one in a different
direction. He found a secure harbor and a good place for a settlement,
But he thought it too far from the place where he expected to find a
gold mine. On his return, he found the caravel he had sent out. As it
was coasting along the island, a canoe had come out to it, with two
Indians on board, one of whom was a brother of Guacanagari. This man
begged the party to come and visit the cacique. The “principal men”
accordingly went on shore, and found him in bed, apparently suffering
from his wounded thigh, which he showed them in bandages. They judged
from appearances that he was telling them the truth.
He said to them, “by signs as best he could,” that since he was thus
wounded, they were to invite the Admiral to come to visit him. As they
were going away, he gave each of them a golden jewel, as each “appeared
to him to deserve it.” “This gold,” says Dr. Chanca, “is made in very
delicate sheets, like our gold leaf, because they use it for making
masks and to plate upon bitumen. They also wear it on the head and for
earrings and nose-rings, and therefore they beat it very thin as they
only wear it for its beauty and not for its value.”
The Admiral decided to go to the cacique on the next day. He was visited
early in the day by his brother, who hurried on the visit.
The Admiral went on shore and all the best people (gente de pro) with
him, “handsomely dressed, as would be suitable in a capital city.” They
carried presents with them, as they had already received gold from him.
“When we arrived, we found him lying in his bed, according to their
custom, hanging in the air, the bed being made of cotton like a net. He
did not rise, but from the bed made a semblance of courtesy, as best he
knew how. He showed much feeling, with tears in his eyes, at the death
of the Christians, and began to talk of it, showing, as best he could,
how some died of sickness, and how others had gone to Canoaboa to seek
for the gold mine, and that they had been killed there, and how the
others had been killed in their town.”
He presented to the Admiral some gold and precious stones. One of the
accounts says that there were eight hundred beads of a stone called
ciba, one hundred of gold, a golden coronet, and three small calabashes
filled with gold dust. Columbus, in return, made him a present.
“I and a navy surgeon were there,” says Dr. Chanca. “The Admiral now
said that we were learned in the infirmities of men, and asked if he
would show us the wound. He replied that it pleased him to do so. I said
that it would be necessary, if he could, for him to go out of the house,
since with the multitudes of people it was dark, and we could not see
well. He did it immediately, as I believe, more from timidity than from
choice. The surgeon came to him and began to take off the bandage. Then
he said to the Admiral that the injury was caused by ciba, that is, by
a stone. When it was unbandaged we managed to examine it. It is certain
that he was no more injured in that leg than in the other, although he
pretended that it was very painful.”
The Spaniards did not know what to believe. But it seemed certain that
an attack of some enemy upon these Indians had taken place, and the
Admiral determined to continue upon good terms with them. Nor did he
change this policy toward Guacanagari. How far that chief had tried to
prevent the massacre will never be known. The detail of the story was
never fully drawn from the natives. The Spaniards had been cruel and
licentious in their dealing with the Indians. They had quarrelled among
themselves, and the indignant natives, in revenge, had destroyed them
all.