--EXPEDITIONS OF DISCOVERY--GUACANAGARI--SEARCH FOR GOLD--MUTINY IN THE
COLONY--THE VESSELS SENT HOME--COLUMBUS MARCHES INLAND--COLLECTION
OF GOLD--FORTRESS OF ST. THOMAS--A NEW VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY--JAMAICA
VISITED--THE SOUTH SHORE OF CUBA EXPLORED--RETURN--EVANGELISTA
DISCOVERED--COLUMBUS FALLS SICK--RETURN TO ISABELLA.
Columbus had hoped, with reason, to send back a part of the vessels
which made up his large squadron, with gold collected in the year by
the colonists at La Navidad. In truth, when, in 1501, the system of
gold-washing-had been developed, the colony yielded twelve hundred
pounds of gold in one year. The search for gold, from the beginning,
broke up all intelligent plans for geographical discovery or for
colonization. In this case, it was almost too clear that there was
nothing but bad news to send back to Spain. Columbus went forward,
however, as well as he could, with the establishment of a new colony,
and with the search for gold.
He sent out expeditions of discovery to open relations with the natives,
and to find the best places for washing and mining for gold.
Melchior Meldonado commanded three hundred men, in the first of these
expeditions. They came to a good harbor at the mouth of a river,
where they saw a fine house, which they supposed might be the home of
Guacanagari. They met an armed party of one hundred Indians; but these
men put away their weapons when signals of peace were made, and brought
presents in token of good-will.
The house to which they went was round, with a hemispherical roof or
dome. It was thirty-two paces in diameter, divided by wicker work into
different rooms. Smaller houses, for persons of rank lower than the
chiefs, surrounded it. The natives told the explorers that Guacanagari
himself had retired to the hills.
On receiving the report of these explorers Columbus sent out Ojeda
with a hundred men, and Corvalan with a similar party in different
directions. These officers, in their report, described the operation of
gold-washing, much as it is known to explorers in mining regions to-day.
The natives made a deep ditch into which the gold bearing sand should
settle. For more important work they had flat baskets in which they
shook the sand and parted it from the gold. With the left hand they
dipped up sand, handled this skilfully or “dextrously” with the right
hand, so that in a few minutes they could give grains of gold to the
gratified explorers. Ojeda brought home to Columbus one nugget which
weighed nine ounces.
They also brought tidings of the King of Canoaboa, of whom they had
heard before, and he is called by the name of Caunebo himself.(*) He was
afterwards carried, as a prisoner or as a hostage, on the way to Spain;
but died on the passage.
(*) The name is spelled in many different ways.
Columbus was able to dispatch the returning ships, with the encouraging
reports brought in by Meldonado and Ojeda, but with very little
gold. But he was obliged to ask for fresh supplies of food for the
colony--even in the midst of the plenty which he described; for he had
found already what all such leaders find, the difficulty of training men
to use food to which they were not accustomed. He sent also his Carib
prisoners, begging that they might be trained to a knowledge of the
christian religion and of the Spanish language. He saw, already, how
much he should need interpreters. The fleet sailed on the second of
February, and its reports were, on the whole, favorably received.
Columbus chose for the new city an elevation, ten leagues east of Monte
Christi, and at first gave to his colony the name of Martha. It is the
Isabella of the subsequent history.
The colonists were delighted with the fertility of the soil under the
tropical climate. Andalusia itself had not prepared them for it. They
planted seeds of peas, beans, lettuces, cabbages and other vegetables,
and declared that they grew more in eight days than they would have
grown in twenty at home. They had fresh vegetables in sixteen days after
they planted them; but for melons, pumpkins and other fruits of that
sort, they are generous enough to allow thirty days.
They had carried out roots and suckers of the sugar-cane. In fifteen
days the shoots were a cubit high. A farmer who had planted wheat in the
beginning of February had ripe grain in the beginning of April; so that
they were sure of, at least, two crops in a year.
But the fertility of the soil was the only favorable token which the
island first exhibited. The climate was enervating and sickly. The
labor on the new city was hard and discouraging. Columbus found that his
colonists were badly fitted for their duty, or not fitted for it at
all. Court gentlemen did not want to work. Priests expected to be put
on better diet than any other people. Columbus--though he lost his
own popularity--insisted on putting all on equal fare, in sharing the
supplies he had brought from Spain. It did not require a long time to
prove that the selection of the site of the colony was unfortunate.
Columbus himself gave way to the general disease. While he was ill, a
mutiny broke out which he had to suppress by strong measures.
Bornal Diaz, who ranked as comptroller of the expedition, and Fermin
Cedo, an assayer, made a plot for seizing the remaining ships and
sailing for Europe. News of the mutiny was brought to Columbus. He
found a document in the writing of Diaz, drawn as a memorial, accusing
Columbus himself of grave crimes. He confined Diaz on board a ship to
be sent to Spain with the memorial. He punished the mutineers of lower
rank. He took the guns and naval munitions from four of the vessels, and
entrusted them all to a person in whom he had absolute confidence.
On the report of the exploring parties, four names were given to as many
divisions of the island. Junna was the most western, Attibunia the most
eastern, Jachen the northern and Naiba the southern. Columbus himself,
seeing the fortifications of the city well begun, undertook, in March,
an exploration, of the island, with a force of five hundred men.
It was in the course of this exploration that one of the natives brought
in a gold-bearing stone which weighed an ounce. He was satisfied with a
little bell in exchange. He was surprised at the wonder expressed by the
Spaniards, and showing a stone as large as a pomegranate, he said that
he had nuggets of gold as large as this at his home. Other Indians
brought in gold-bearing stones which weighed more than an ounce. At
their homes, also, but not in sight, alas, was a block of gold as large
as an infant’s head.
Columbus himself thought it best to take as many men as he could into
the mountain region. He left the new city under the care of his brother,
Diego, and with all the force of healthy men which he could muster,
making a little army of nearly five hundred men, he marched away
from the sickly seaboard into the interior. The simple natives were
astonished by the display of cavalry and other men in armor. After a few
days of a delightful march, in the beauty of spring in that country, he
entered upon the long sought Cibao. He relinquished his first idea of
founding another city here, but did build a fortress called St. Thomas,
in joking reference to Cedo and others, who had asserted that these
regions produced no gold. While building this fortress, as it was
proudly called, he sent a young cavalier named Luxan for further
exploration.
Luxan returned with stories even greater than they had heard of before,
but with no gold, “because he had no orders to do so.” He had found
ripe grapes. And at last they had found a region called Cipangi, cipan
signifying stone. This name recalled the memory of Cipango, or Japan.
With tidings as encouraging as this, Columbus returned to his city. He
appointed his brother and Pedro Margarita governors of the city, and
left with three ships for the further exploration of Cuba, which he had
left only partly examined in his first voyage. He believed that it was
the mainland of Asia. And as has been said, such was his belief till he
died, and that of his countrymen. Cuba was not known to be an island for
many years afterwards. He was now again in the career which pleased him,
and for which he was fitted. He was always ill at ease in administering
a colony, or ruling the men who were engaged in it. He was happy and
contented when he was discovering. He had been eager to follow the
southern coast of Cuba, as he had followed the north in his first
voyage. And now he had his opportunity. Having commissioned his
brother Diego and Margarita and appointed also a council of four other
gentlemen, he sailed to explore new coasts, on the twenty-fourth of
April.
He was soon tempted from his western course that he might examine
Jamaica, of which he saw the distant lines on the south. “This island,”
says the account of the time, “is larger than Sicily. It has only one
mountain, which rises from the coast on every side, little by little,
until you come to the middle of the island and the ascent is so gradual
that, whether you rise or descend, you hardly know whether you are
rising or descending.” Columbus found the island well peopled, and from
what he saw of the natives, thought them more ingenious, and better
artificers, than any Indians he had seen before. But when he proposed
to land, they generally showed themselves prepared to resist him. He
therefore deferred a full examination of the island to his return, and,
with the first favorable wind, pressed on toward the southern coast of
Cuba. He insisted on calling this the “Golden Chersonesus” of the East.
This name had been given by the old geographers to the peninsula now
known as Malacca.
Crossing the narrow channel between Jamaica and Cuba, he began coasting
that island westward. If the reader will examine the map, he will find
many small keys and islands south of Cuba, which, before any survey had
been made, seriously retarded his westward course. In every case he was
obliged to make a separate examination to be sure where the real coast
of the island was, all the time believing it was the continent of Asia.
One of the narratives says, with a pardonable exaggeration, that in all
this voyage he thus discovered seven hundred islands. His own estimate
was that he sailed two hundred and twenty-two leagues westward in the
exploration which now engaged him.
The month of May and the beginning of June were occupied with such
explorations. The natives proved friendly, as the natives of the
northern side of Cuba had proved two years before. They had, in general,
heard of the visit of the Spaniards; but their wonder and admiration
seem to have been none the less now that they saw the reality.
On one occasion the hopes of all the party, that they should find
themselves at the court of the Grand Khan, were greatly quickened. A
Spaniard had gone into a forest alone, hunting. Suddenly he saw a man
clothed in white, or thought he did, whom he supposed to be a friar of
the order of Saint Mary de Mercedes, who was with the expedition.
But, almost immediately, ten other friars dressed in the same costume,
appeared, and then as many as thirty. The Spaniard was frightened at the
multiplication of their number, it hardly appears why, as they were all
men of peace, or should have been, whatever their number. He called out
to his companions, and bade them escape. But the men in white called
out to him, and waved their hands, as if to assure him that there was no
danger. He did not trust them, however, but rushed back to the shore
and the ship, as fast as he could, to report what he had seen to the
Admiral.
Here, at last, was reason for hope that they had found one of the
Asiatic missions of the Church. Columbus at once landed a party,
instructing them to go forty miles inland, if necessary, to find people.
But this party found neither path nor roadway, although the country was
rich and fertile. Another party brought back rich bunches of grapes, and
other native fruits. But neither party saw any friars of the order of
Saint Mary. And it is now supposed that the Spaniard saw a peaceful
flock of white cranes. The traveller Humboldt describes one occasion,
in which the town of Angostura was put to alarm by the appearance of a
flock of cranes known as soldados, or “soldiers,” which were, as people
supposed, a band of Indians.
In his interviews with the natives at one point and another, upon the
coast, Columbus was delighted with their simplicity, their hospitality,
and their kindly dealing with each other. On one occasion, when the Mass
was celebrated, a large number of them were present, and joined in the
service, as well as they could, with respect and devotion. An old man
as much as eighty years old, as the Spaniards thought, brought to
the Admiral a basket full of fruit, as a present. Then he said, by an
interpreter:
“We have heard how you have enveloped, by your power, all these
countries, and how much afraid of you the people have been. But I have
to exhort you, and to tell you that there are two ways when men leave
this body. One is dark and dismal; it is for those who have injured the
race of men. The other is delightful and pleasant; it is for those who,
while alive, have loved peace and the repose of mankind. If, then, you
remember that you are mortal, and what these retributions are, you will
do no harm to any one.”
Columbus told him in reply that he had known of the two roads after
death, and that he was well pleased to find that the natives of these
lands knew of them; for he had not expected this. He said that the king
and queen of Spain had sent him with the express mission of bringing
these tidings to them. In particular, that he was charged with the
duty of punishing the Caribs and all other men of impure life, and of
rewarding and honoring all pure and innocent men. This statement so
delighted the old prophet that he was eager to accompany Columbus on a
mission so noble, and it was only by the urgent entreaty of his wife
and children that he stayed with them. He found it hard to believe that
Columbus was inferior in rank or command to any other sovereign.
The beauty of the island and the hospitality of the natives, however,
were not enough to dispose the crews to continue this exploration
further. They were all convinced that they were on the coast of Asia.
Columbus did not mean that afterwards any one should accuse him of
abandoning the discovery of that coast too soon. Calling to their
attention the distance they had sailed, he sent round a written
declaration for the signature of every person on the ships. Every man
and boy put his name to it. It expressed their certainty that they were
on the cape which made the end of the eastern Indies, and that any
one who chose could proceed thence westward to Spain by land. This
extraordinary declaration was attested officially by a notary, and still
exists.
It was executed in a bay at the extreme southwestern corner of Cuba. It
has been remarked by Munoz, that at that moment, in that place, a ship
boy at the masthead could have looked over the group of low islands and
seen the open sea, which would have shown that Cuba was an island.
The facts, which were controlling, were these, that the vessels were
leaky and the crews sick and discontented. On the thirteenth of June,
Columbus stood to the southeast. He discovered the island now known as
the Island of Pines. He called it Evangelista. He anchored here and took
in water. In an interview, not unlike that described, in which the old
Cuban expressed his desire to return with Columbus, it is said that
an Evangelistan chief made the same offer, but was withheld by the
remonstrances, of his wife and children. A similar incident is reported
in the visit to Jamaica, which soon followed. Columbus made a careful
examination of that island. Then he crossed to Hispaniola, where, from
the Indians, he received such accounts from the new town of Isabella as
assured him that all was well there.
With his own indomitable zeal, he determined now to go to the Carib
islands and administer to them the vengeance he had ready. But his own
frame was not strong enough for his will. He sank exhausted, in a sort
of lethargy. The officers of his ship, supposing he was dying, put about
the vessels and the little squadron arrived, none too soon as it proved,
at Isabella.
He was as resolute as ever in his determination to crush the Caribs, and
prevent their incursions upon those innocent islanders to whom he had
made so many promises of protection. But he fell ill, and for a short
time at least was wholly unconscious. The officers in command took
occasion of his illness, and of their right to manage the vessels, to
turn back to the city of Isabella. He arrived there “as one half dead,”
and his explorations and discoveries for this voyage were thus brought
to an end. To his great delight he found there his brother Bartholomew,
whom he had not seen for eight years. Bartholomew had accompanied Diaz
in the famous voyage in which he discovered the Cape of Good Hope.
Returning to Europe in 1488 he had gone to England, with a message from
Christopher Columbus, asking King Henry the Seventh to interest himself
in the great adventure he proposed.
The authorities differ as to the reception which Henry gave to this
great proposal. Up to the present time, no notice has been found of his
visit in the English archives. The earliest notice of America, in the
papers preserved there, is a note of a present of ten pounds “to
hym that found the new land,” who was Cabot, after his first voyage.
Bartholomew Columbus was in England on the tenth of February, 1488; how
much later is not known. Returning from England he staid in France, in
the service of Madama de Bourbon. This was either Anne of Beaujeu, or
the widow of the Admiral Louis de Bourbon. Bartholomew was living in
Paris when he heard of his brother’s great discovery.
He had now been appointed by the Spanish sovereigns to command a fleet
of three vessels, which had been sent out to provision the new colony.
He had sailed from Cadiz on the thirtieth of April, 1494, and he arrived
at Isabella on St. John’s Day of the same year.
Columbus welcomed him with delight, and immediately made him his
first-lieutenant in command of the colony. There needed a strong hand
for the management of the colony, for the quarrels which had existed
before Columbus went on his Cuban voyage had not diminished in his
absence. Pedro Margarita and Father Boil are spoken of as those who
had made the most trouble. They had come determined to make a fortune
rapidly, and they did not propose to give up such a hope to the slow
processes of ordinary colonization. Columbus knew very well that those
who had returned to Spain had carried with them complaints as to his own
course. He would have been glad on some accounts to return, himself,
at once; but he did not think that the natives of the islands were
sufficiently under the power of the new colony to be left in safety.
First of all he sent back four caravels, which had recently arrived
from Europe, with five hundred Indians whom he had taken as slaves. He
consigned them to Juan de Fonseca’s care. He was eager himself to say
that he sent them out that they might be converted, to Christianity,
and that they might learn the Spanish language and be of use as
interpreters. But, at the same time, he pointed out how easy it would
be to make a source of revenue to the Crown from such involuntary
emigration. To Isabella’s credit it is to be said, that she protested
against the whole thing immediately; and so far as appears, no further
shipments were made in exactly the same way. But these poor wretches
were not sent back to the islands, as she perhaps thought they were.
Fonseca did not hesitate to sell them, or apprentice them, to use our
modern phrase, and it is said by Bernaldez that they all died. His
bitter phrase is that Fonseca took no more care of them than if they had
been wild animals.
Columbus did not recover his health, so as to take a very active part
in affairs for five months after his arrival at San Domingo. He was well
aware that the Indians were vigorously organized, with the intention of
driving his people from the island, or treating the colony as they had
treated the colony of Navidad. He called the chief of the Cipangi, named
Guarionexius, for consultation. The interpreter Didacus, who had served
them so faithfully, married the king’s sister, and it was hoped that
this would be a bond of amity between the two nations.
Columbus sent Ojeda into the gold mountains with fifty armed men to make
an alliance with Canabao. Canabao met this party with a good deal of
perplexity. He undoubtedly knew that he had given the Spaniards good
reason for doubting him. It is said that he had put to death twenty
Spaniards by treasonable means, but it is to be remembered that this is
the statement of his enemies. He, however, came to Columbus with a large
body of his people, all armed. When he was asked why he brought so
large a force with him, he said that so great a king as he, could not go
anywhere without a fitting military escort. But Ojeda did not hesitate
to take him prisoner and carry him into Isabella, bound. As has been
said, he was eventually sent to Spain, but he died on the passage.
Columbus made another fortress, or tower, on the border of King
Guarionexius’s country, between his kingdom and Cipango. He gave to this
post the name of the “Tower of the Conception,” and meant it to be a
rallying point for the miners and others, in case of any uprising of the
natives against them. This proved to be an important centre for mining
operations. From this place, what we should call a nugget of gold,
which one of the chiefs brought in, was sent to Spain. It weighed twenty
ounces. A good deal of interest attached also to the discovery of amber,
one mass of which weighed three hundred pounds. Such discoveries renewed
the interest and hope which had been excited in Spain by the first
accounts of Hispaniola.
Columbus satisfied himself that he left the island really subdued; and
in this impression he was not mistaken. Certain that his presence in
Spain was needed, if he would maintain his own character against the
attacks of the disaffected Spaniards who had gone before him, he set
sail on the Nina on the tenth of March, taking with him as a consort
a caravel which had been built at Isabella. He did not arrive in Cadiz
till the eleventh of June, having been absent from Spain two years and
nine months.
His return to Spain at this time gave Isabella another opportunity to
show the firmness of her character, and the determination to which alone
belongs success.
The excitement and popularity which attended the return from the first
voyage had come to an end. Spain was in the period of reaction.
The disappointment which naturally follows undue expectations and
extravagant prophecies, was, in this instance, confirmed by the return
of discontented adventurers. Four hundred years have accustomed the
world to this reflex flow of disappointed colonists, unable or unwilling
to work, who come back from a new land to say that its resources have
been exaggerated. In this case, where everything was measured by the
standard of gold, it was certainly true that the supply of gold received
from the islands was very small as compared with the expenses of the
expedition which had been sent out.
Five hundred Indians, who came to be taught the language, entering Spain
as slaves, were but a poor return for the expenses in which the
nation, not to say individuals, had been involved. The people of Spain,
therefore, so far as they could show their feeling, were prejudiced
against Columbus and those who surrounded him. They heard with
incredulity the accounts of Cuba which he gave, and were quite
indifferent to the geographical theories by which he wanted to prove
that it was a part of Asia. He believed that the rich mines, which he
had really found in Hispaniola, were the same as those of Ophir. But
after five years of waiting, the Spanish public cared but little for
such conjectures.
As he arrived in Cadiz, he found three vessels, under Nino, about
to sail with supplies. These were much needed, for the relief of the
preceding year, sent out in four vessels, had been lost by shipwreck.
Columbus was able to add a letter of his own to the governor of
Isabella, begging him to conform to the wishes expressed by the king
and queen in the dispatches taken by Nino. He recommended diligence in
exploring the new mines, and that a seaport should be founded in their
neighborhood. At the same time he received a gracious letter from the
king and queen, congratulating him on his return, and asking him to
court as soon as he should recover from his fatigue.
Columbus was encouraged by the tone of this letter. He had chosen to act
as if he were in disgrace, and dressed himself in humble garb, as if
he were a Franciscan monk, wearing his beard as the brethren of those
orders do. Perhaps this was in fulfillment of one of those vows which,
as we know, he frequently made in periods of despondency.
He went to Burgos, where Ferdinand and Isabella were residing, and on
the way made such a display of treasure as he had done on the celebrated
march to Barcelona. Canabao, the fierce cacique of Hispaniola, had died
on the voyage, but his brother and nephew still lived, and he took
them to the king and queen, glittering on state occasions with golden
ornaments. One chain of gold which the brother wore, is said to
have been worth more than three thousand dollars of our time. In the
procession Columbus carried various masks and other images, made by the
Indians in fantastic shapes, which attracted the curiosity which in all
nations surrounds the idols of a foreign creed.
The sovereigns received him cordially. No reference was made to the
complaints of the adventurers who had returned. However the sovereigns
may have been impressed by these, they were still confident in Columbus
and in his merits, and do not seem to have wished to receive the partial
accounts of his accusers. On his part, he pressed the importance of a
new expedition, in order that they might annex to their dominions the
eastern part of Asia. He wanted for this purpose eight ships. He was
willing to leave two in the island of Hispaniola, and he hoped that
he might have six for a voyage of discovery. The sovereigns assented
readily to his proposal, and at the time probably intended to carry out
his wishes.
But Spain had something else to do than to annex Asia or to discover
America; and the fulfillment of the promises made so cordially in 1496,
was destined to await the exigencies of European war and diplomacy. In
fact, he did not sail upon the third expedition for nearly two years
after his arrival in Cadiz.
In the autumn of 1496, an order was given for a sum amounting to
nearly a hundred thousand dollars of our time, for the equipment of
the promised squadron. At the same time Columbus was relieved from the
necessity by which he was bound in his original contract, to furnish
at least one-eighth of the money necessary in any of these expeditions.
This burden was becoming too heavy for him to bear. It was agreed,
however, that in the event of any profit resulting to the crown, he
should be entitled to one-eighth of it for three ensuing years. This
concession must be considered as an evidence that he was still in
favor. At the end of three years both parties were to fall back upon the
original contract.
But these noble promises, which must have been so encouraging to him,
could not be fulfilled, as it proved. For the exigencies of war, the
particular money which was to be advanced to Columbus was used for the
repair of a fortress upon the frontier. Instead of this, Columbus was to
receive his money from the gold brought by Nino on his return. Alas, it
proved that a report that he had returned with so much gold, meant that
he had Indian prisoners, from the sale of whom he expected to realize
this money. And poor Columbus was virtually consigned to building
and fitting out his ship from the result of a slave-trade, which was
condemned by Isabella, and which he knew was wretchedly unprofitable.
A difficulty almost equally great resulted from the unpopularity of
the expedition. People did not volunteer eagerly, as they had done, the
minds of men being poisoned by the reports of emigrants, who had
gone out in high hope, and had returned disappointed. It even became
necessary to commute the sentences of criminals who had been sentenced
to banishment, so that they might be transported into the new
settlements, where they were to work without pay. Even these expedients
did not much hasten the progress of the expedition.
Fonseca, the steady enemy of Columbus, was placed in command again at
this time. The queen was overwhelmed with affliction by the death of
Prince Juan; and it seemed to Columbus and his friends that every petty
difficulty was placed in the way of preparation. When at length six
vessels were fitted for sea, it was only after the wear and tear of
constant opposition from officials in command; and the expedition, as it
proved, was not what Columbus had hoped for, for his purposes.
On the thirtieth of May, however, in 1498, he was able to sail. As this
was the period when the Catholic church celebrates the mystery of
the Trinity, he determined and promised that the first land which he
discovered should receive that sacred name. He was well convinced of the
existence of a continent farther south than the islands among which he
had cruised, and intended to strike that continent, as in fact he did,
in the outset of his voyage.