There were showers of rain sometimes, but the moisture in that baking

atmosphere only added to its stifling and enervating effects. All the

while, however, the great slow current of the Atlantic was moving

westward, and there came a day when a heavenly breeze, stirred in the

torrid air and the musical talk of ripples began to rise again from the

weedy stems of the ships. They sailed due west, always into a cooler and

fresher atmosphere; but still no land was sighted, although pelicans

and smaller birds were continually seen passing from south-west to

north-east. As provisions were beginning to run low, Columbus decided

on the 31st July to alter his course to north-by-east, in the hope of

reaching the island of Dominica. But at mid-day his servant Alonso

Perez, happening to go to the masthead, cried out that there was land in

sight; and sure enough to the westward there rose three peaks of land

united at the base. Here was the kind of coincidence which staggers

even the unbeliever. Columbus had promised to dedicate the first land

he saw to the Trinity; and here was the land, miraculously provided when

he needed it most, three peaks in one peak, in due conformity with the

requirements of the blessed Saint Athanasius. The Admiral was deeply

affected; the God of his belief was indeed a good friend to him; and he

wrote down his pious conviction that the event was a miracle, and

summoned all hands to sing the Salve Regina, with other hymns in praise

of God and the Virgin Mary. The island was duly christened La Trinidad.

By the hour of Compline (9 o’clock in the evening) they had come up with

the south coast of the island, but it was the next day before the

Admiral found a harbour where he could take in water. No natives were

to be seen, although there were footprints on the shore and other signs

of human habitation.

He continued all day to sail slowly along the shore of the island, the

green luxuriance of which astonished him; and sometimes he stood out from

the coast to the southward as he made a long board to round this or that

point. It must have been while reaching out in this way to the southward

that he saw a low shore on his port hand some sixty miles to the south of

Trinidad, and that his sight, although he did not know it, rested for the

first time on the mainland of South America. The land seen was the low

coast to the west of the Orinoco, and thinking that it was an island he

gave it the name of Isla Sancta.

On the 2nd of August they were off the south-west of Trinidad, and saw

the first inhabitants in the shape of a canoe full of armed natives, who

approached the ships with threatening gestures. Columbus had brought out

some musicians with him, possibly for the purpose of impressing the

natives, and perhaps with the idea of making things a little more

cheerful in Espanola; and the musicians were now duly called upon to give

a performance, a tambourine-player standing on the forecastle and beating

the rhythm for the ships’ boys to dance to. The effect was other than

was anticipated, for the natives immediately discharged a thick flight of

arrows at the musicians, and the music and dancing abruptly ceased.

Eventually the Indians were prevailed upon to come on board the two

smaller ships and to receive gifts, after which they departed and were

seen no more. Columbus landed and made some observations of the

vegetation and climate of Trinidad, noticing that the fruits and-trees

were similar to those of Espanola, and that oysters abounded, as well as

“very large, infinite fish, and parrots as large as hens.”

He saw another peak of the mainland to the northwest, which was the

peninsula of Paria, and to which Columbus, taking it to be another

island, gave the name of Isla de Gracia. Between him and this land lay a

narrow channel through which a mighty current was flowing--that press of

waters which, sweeping across the Atlantic from Africa, enters the

Caribbean Sea, sprays round the Gulf of Mexico, and turns north again in

the current known as the Gulf Stream. While his ships were anchored at

the entrance to this channel and Columbus was wondering how he should

cross it, a mighty flood of water suddenly came down with a roar, sending

a great surging wave in front of it. The vessels were lifted up as

though by magic; two of them dragged their anchors from the bottom, and

the other one broke her cable. This flood was probably caused by a

sudden flush of fresh water from one of the many mouths of the Orinoco;

but to Columbus, who had no thought of rivers in his mind, it was very

alarming. Apparently, however, there was nothing for it but to get

through the channel, and having sent boats on in front to take soundings

and see that there was clear water he eventually piloted his little

squadron through, with his heart in his mouth and his eyes fixed on the

swinging eddies and surging circles of the channel. Once beyond it he

was in the smooth water of the Gulf of Paria. He followed the westerly

coast of Trinidad to the north until he came to a second channel narrower

than the first, through which the current boiled with still greater

violence, and to which he gave the name of Dragon’s Mouth. This is the

channel between the northwesterly point of Trinidad and the eastern

promontory of Paria. Columbus now began to be bewildered, for he

discovered that the water over the ship’s side was fresh water, and he

could not make out where it came from. Thinking that the peninsula of

Paria was an island, and not wishing to attempt the dangerous passage of

the Dragon’s Mouth, he decided to coast along the southern shore of the

land opposite, hoping to be able to turn north round its western

extremity.

Sweeter blew the breezes, fresher grew the water, milder and more balmy

the air, greener and deeper the vegetation of this beautiful region. The

Admiral was ill with the gout, and suffering such pain from his eyes that

he was sometimes blinded by it; but the excitement of the strange

phenomena surrounding him kept him up, and his powers of observation,

always acute, suffered no diminution. There were no inhabitants to be

seen as they sailed along the coast, but monkeys climbed and chattered in

the trees by the shore, and oysters were found clinging to the branches

that dipped into the water. At last, in a bay where they anchored to

take in water, a native canoe containing three, men was seen cautiously

approaching; and the men, who were shy, were captured by the device of a

sailor jumping on to the gunwale of the canoe and overturning it, the

natives being easily caught in the water, and afterwards soothed and

captivated by the unfailing attraction of hawks’ bells. They were tall

men with long hair, and they told Columbus that the name of their country

was Paria; and when they were asked about other inhabitants they pointed

to the west and signified that there was a great population in that

direction.

On the 10th of August 1498 a party landed on this coast and formally took

possession of it in the name of the Sovereigns of Spain. By an unlucky

chance Columbus himself did not land. His eyes were troubling him so

much that he was obliged to lie down in his cabin, and the formal act of

possession was performed by a deputy. If he had only known! If he could

but have guessed that this was indeed the mainland of a New World that

did not exist even in his dreams, what agonies he would have suffered

rather than permit any one else to pronounce the words of annexation!

But he lay there in pain and suffering, his curious mystical mind

occupied with a conception very remote indeed from the truth.

For in that fertile hotbed of imagination, the Admiral’s brain, a new and

staggering theory had gradually been taking shape. As his ships had been

wafted into this delicious region, as the airs had become sweeter, the

vegetation more luxuriant, and the water of the sea fresher,--he had

solemnly arrived at the conclusion that he was approaching the region of

the true terrestrial Paradise: the Garden of Eden that some of the

Fathers had declared to be situated in the extreme east of the Old World,

and in a region so high that the flood had not overwhelmed it. Columbus,

thinking hard in his cabin, blood and brain a little fevered, comes to

the conclusion that the world is not round but pear-shaped. He knows

that all this fresh water in the sea must come from a great distance and

from no ordinary river; and he decides that its volume and direction have

been acquired in its fall from the apex of the pear, from the very top of

the world, from the Garden of Eden itself. It was a most beautiful

conception; a theory worthy to be fitted to all the sweet sights and

sounds in the world about him; but it led him farther and farther away

from the truth, and blinded him to knowledge and understanding of what he

had actually accomplished.

He had thought the coast of Cuba the mainland, and he now began to

consider it at least possible that the peninsula of Paria was mainland

also--another part of the same continent. That was the truth--Paria was

the mainland--and if he had not been so bemused by his dreams and

theories he might have had some inkling of the real wonder and

significance of his discovery. But no; in his profoundly unscientific

mind there was little of that patience which holds men back from

theorising and keeps them ready to receive the truth. He was patient

enough in doing, but in thinking he was not patient at all. No sooner

had he observed a fact than he must find a theory which would bring it

into relation with the whole of his knowledge; and if the facts would not

harmonise of themselves he invented a scheme of things by which they were

forced into harmony. He was indeed a Darwinian before his time, an adept

in the art of inventing causes to fit facts, and then proving that the

facts sprang from the causes; but his origins were tangible, immovable

things of rock and soil that could be seen and visited by other men, and

their true relation to the terrestrial phenomena accurately established;

so that his very proofs were monumental, and became themselves the

advertisements of his profound misjudgment. But meanwhile he is the

Admiral of the Ocean Seas, and can “make it so”; and accordingly, in a

state of mental instability, he makes the Gulf of Paria to be a slope of

earth immediately below the Garden of Eden, although fortunately he does

not this time provide a sworn affidavit of trembling ships’ boys to

confirm his discovery.

Meanwhile also here were pearls; the native women wore ropes of them all

over their bodies, and a fair store of them were bartered for pieces of

broken crockery. Asked as usual about the pearls the natives, also as

usual, pointed vaguely to the west and south-west, and explained that

there were more pearls in that direction. But the Admiral would not

tarry. Although he believed that he was within reach of Eden and pearls,

he was more anxious to get back to Espanola and send the thrilling news

to Spain than he was to push on a little farther and really assure

himself of the truth. How like Christopher that was! Ideas to him were

of more value than facts, as indeed they are to the world at large; but

one is sometimes led to wonder whether he did not sometimes hesitate to

turn his ideas into facts for very fear that they should turn out to be

only ideas. Was he, in his relations with Spain and the world, a trader

in the names rather than the substance of things? We have seen him going

home to Spain and announcing the discovery of the Golden Chersonesus,

although he had only discovered what he erroneously supposed to be an

indication of it; proclaiming the discovery of the Ophir of Solomon

without taking the trouble to test for himself so tremendous an

assumption; and we now see him hurrying away to dazzle Spain with the

story that he has discovered the Garden of Eden, without even trying to

push on for a few days more to secure so much as a cutting from the Tree

of Life.

These are grave considerations; for although happily the Tree of Life is

now of no importance to any human being, the doings of Admiral

Christopher were of great importance to himself and to his fellow-men at

that time, and are still to-day, through the infinite channels in which

human thought and action run and continue thoughout the world, of grave

importance to us. Perhaps this is not quite the moment, now that the

poor Admiral is lying in pain and weakness and not quite master of his

own mind, to consider fully how he stands in this matter of honesty; we

will leave it for the present until he is well again, or better still,

until his tale of life and action is complete, and comes as a whole

before the bar of human judgment.

On August 11th Columbus turned east again after having given up the

attempt to find a passage to the north round Paria. There were practical

considerations that brought him to this action. As the water was growing

shoaler and shoaler he had sent a caravel of light draft some way further

to the westward, and she reported that there lay ahead of her a great

inner bay or gulf consisting of almost entirely fresh water. Provisions,

moreover, were running short, and were, as usual, turning bad; the

Admiral’s health made vigorous action of any kind impossible for him; he

was anxious about the condition of Espanola--anxious also, as we have

seen, to send this great news home; and he therefore turned back and

decided to risk the passage of the Dragon’s Mouth. He anchored in the

neighbouring harbour until the wind was in the right quarter, and with

some trepidation put his ships into the boiling tideway. When they were

in the middle of the passage the wind fell to a dead calm, and the ships,

with their sails hanging loose, were borne on the dizzy surface of

eddies, overfalls, and whirls of the tide. Fortunately there was deep

water in the passage, and the strength of the current carried them safely

through. Once outside they bore away to the northward, sighting the

islands of Tobago and Grenada and, turning westward again, came to the

islands of Cubagua and Margarita, where three pounds of pearls were

bartered from the natives. A week after the passage of the Dragon’s

Mouth Columbus sighted the south coast of Espanola, which coast he made

at a point a long way to the east of the new settlement that he had

instructed Bartholomew to found; and as the winds were contrary, and he

feared it might take him a long time to beat up against them, he sent a

boat ashore with a letter which was to be delivered by a native messenger

to the Adelantado. The letter was delivered; a few days later a caravel

was sighted which contained Bartholomew himself; and once more, after a

long separation, these two friends and brothers were united.

The see-saw motion of all affairs with which Columbus had to do was in

full swing. We have seen him patching up matters in Espanola; hurrying

to Spain just in time to rescue his damaged reputation and do something

to restore it; and now when he had come back it was but a sorry tale that

Bartholomew had to tell him. A fortress had been built at the Hayna

gold-mines, but provisions had been so scarce that there had been

something like a famine among the workmen there; no digging had been

done, no planting, no making of the place fit for human occupation and

industry. Bartholomew had been kept busy in collecting the native

tribute, and in planning out the beginnings of the settlement at the

mouth of the river Ozema, which was at first called the New Isabella, but

was afterwards named San Domingo in honour of old Domenico at Savona.

The cacique Behechio had been giving trouble; had indeed marched out with

an army against Bartholomew, but had been more or less reconciled by the

intervention of his sister Anacaona, widow of the late Caonabo, who had

apparently transferred her affections to Governor Bartholomew. The

battle was turned into a friendly pagan festival--one of the last ever

held on that once happy island--in which native girls danced in a green

grove, with the beautiful Anacaona, dressed only in garlands, carried on

a litter in their midst.

But in the Vega Real, where a chapel had been built by the priests of the

neighbouring settlement who were beginning to make converts, trouble had

arisen in consequence of an outrage on the wife of the cacique Guarionex.

The chapel was raided, the shrine destroyed, and the sacred vessels

carried off. The Spaniards seized a number of Indians whom they

suspected of having had a hand in the desecration, and burned them at the

stake in the most approved manner of the Inquisition--a hideous

punishment that fanned the remaining embers of the native spirit into

flame, and produced a hostile combination of Guarionex and several other

caciques, whose rebellion it took the Adelantado some trouble and display

of arms to quench.

But the worst news of all was the treacherous revolt of Francisco Roldan,

a Spaniard who had once been a servant of the Admiral’s, and who had been

raised by him to the office of judge in the island--an able creature,

but, like too many recipients of Christopher’s favour, a treacherous

rascal at bottom. As soon as the Admiral’s back was turned Roldan had

begun to make mischief, stirring up the discontent that was never far

below the surface of life in the colony, and getting together a large

band of rebellious ruffians. He had a plan to murder Bartholomew

Columbus and place himself at the head of the colony, but this fell

through. Then, in Bartholomew’s absence, he had a passage with James

Columbus, who had now returned to the island and had resumed his.

official duties at Isabella. Bartholomew, who was at another part of the

coast collecting tribute, had sent a caravel laden with cotton to

Isabella, and well-meaning James had her drawn up on the beach. Roldan

took the opportunity to represent this innocent action as a sign of the

intolerable autocracy of the Columbus family, who did not even wish a

vessel to be in a condition to sail for Spain with news of their

misdeeds. Insolent Roldan formally asks James to send the caravel to

Spain with supplies; poor James refuses and, perhaps being at bottom

afraid of Roldan and his insolences, despatches him to the Vega Real with

a force to bring to order some caciques who had been giving trouble.

Possibly to his surprise, although not to ours, Roldan departs with

alacrity at the head of seventy armed men. Honest, zealous James, no

doubt; but also, we begin to fear, stupid James.

The Vega Real was the most attractive part of the colony, and the scene

of infinite idleness and debauchery in the early days of the Spanish

settlement. As Margarite and other mutineers had acted, so did Roldan

and his soldiers now act, making sallies against several of the chain of

forts that stretched across the island, and even upon Isabella itself;

and returning to the Vega to the enjoyment of primitive wild pleasures.

Roldan and Bartholomew Columbus stalked each other about the island with

armed forces for several months, Roldan besieging Bartholomew in the

fortress at the Vega, which he had occupied in Roldan’s absence, and

trying to starve him out there. The arrival in February 1498 of the two

ships which had been sent out from Spain in advance, and which brought

also the news of the Admiral’s undamaged favour at Court, and of the

royal confirmation of Bartholomew’s title, produced for the moment a good

moral effect; Roldan went and sulked in the mountains, refusing to have

any parley or communication with the Adelantado, declining indeed to

treat with any one until the Admiral himself should return. In the

meantime his influence with the natives was strong enough to produce a

native revolt, which Bartholomew had only just succeeded in suppressing

when Christopher arrived on August 30th.

The Admiral was not a little distressed to find that the three ships from

which he had parted company at Ferro had not yet arrived. His own voyage

ought to have taken far longer than theirs; they had now been nine weeks

at sea, and there was nothing to account for their long delay. When at

last they did appear, however they brought with them only a new

complication. They had lost their way among the islands and had been

searching about for Espanola, finally making a landfall there on the

coast of Xaragua, the south-western province of the island, where Roldan

and his followers were established. Roldan had received them and,

concealing the fact of his treachery, procured a large store of

provisions from them, his followers being meanwhile busy among the crews

of the ships inciting them to mutiny and telling them of the oppression

of the Admiral’s rule and the joys of a lawless life. The gaol-birds

were nothing loth; after eight weeks at sea a spell ashore in this

pleasant land, with all kinds of indulgences which did not come within

the ordinary regimen of convicts and sailors, greatly appealing to them.

The result was that more than half of the crews mutinied and joined

Roldan, and the captains were obliged to put to sea with their small

loyal remnant. Carvajal remained behind in order to try to persuade

Roldan to give himself up; but Roldan had no such idea, and Carvajal had

to make his way by land to San Domingo, where he made his report to the

Admiral. Roldan has in fact delivered a kind of ultimatum. He will

surrender to no one but the Admiral, and that only on condition that he

gets a free pardon. If negotiations are opened, Roldan will treat with

no one but Carvajal. The Admiral, whose grip of the situation is getting

weaker and weaker, finds himself in a difficulty. His loyal army is only

some seventy strong, while Roldan has, of disloyal settlers, gaol-birds,

and sailors, much more than that. The Admiral, since he cannot reduce

his enemy’s force by capturing them, seeks to do it by bribing them; and

the greatest bribe that he can think of to offer to these malcontents is

that any who like may have a free passage home in the five caravels which

are now waiting to return to Spain. To such a pass have things come in

the paradise of Espanola! But the rabble finds life pleasant enough in

Xaragua, where they are busy with indescribable pleasures; and for the

moment there is no great response to this invitation to be gone.

Columbus therefore despatches his ships, with such rabble of colonists,

gaol-birds, and mariners as have already had their fill both of pain and

pleasure, and writes his usual letter to the Sovereigns--half full of the

glories of the new discoveries he has made, the other half setting forth

the evil doings of Roldan, and begging that he may be summoned to Spain

for trial there. Incidentally, also, he requests a further licence for

two years for the capture and despatch of slaves to Spain. So the

vessels sail back on October 18, 1498, and the Admiral turns wearily to

the task of disentangling the web of difficulty that has woven itself

about him.

Carvajal and Ballester--another loyal captain--were sent with a letter to

Roldan urging him to come to terms, and Carvajal and Ballester added

their own honest persuasions. But Roldan was firm; he wished to be quit

of the Admiral and his rule, and to live independently in the island; and

of his followers, although some here and there showed signs of

submission, the greater number were so much in love with anarchy that

they could not be counted upon. For two months negotiations of a sort

were continued, Roldan even presenting himself under a guarantee of

safety at San Domingo, where he had a fruitless conference with the

Admiral; where also he had an opportunity of observing what a sorry state

affairs in the capital were in, and what a mess Columbus was making of it

all. Roldan, being a simple man, though a rascal, had only to remain

firm in order to get his way against a mind like the Admiral’s, and get

his way he ultimately did. The Admiral made terms of a kind most

humiliating to him, and utterly subversive of his influence and

authority. The mutineers were not only to receive a pardon but a

certificate (good Heavens!) of good conduct. Caravels were to be sent to

convey them to Spain; and they were to be permitted to carry with them

all the slaves that they had collected and all the native young women

whom they had ravished from their homes.

Columbus signs this document on the 21st of November, and promises that

the ships shall be ready in fifty days; and then, at his wits’ end, and

hearing of irregularities in the interior of the island, sets off with

Bartholomew to inspect the posts and restore them to order. In his

absence the see-saw, in due obedience to the laws that govern all

see-saws, gives a lurch to the other side, and things go all wrong again

in San Domingo. The preparations for the despatch of the caravels are

neglected as soon as his back is turned; not fifty days, but nearly one

hundred days elapse before they are ready to sail from San Domingo to

Xaragua. Even then they are delayed by storms and head-winds; and when

they do arrive Roldan and his company will not embark in them. The

agreement has been broken; a new one must be made. Columbus, returning

to San Domingo after long and harassing struggles on the other end of

the see-saw, gets news of this deadlock, and at the same time has news

from Fonseca in Spain of a far from agreeable character. His complaints

against the people under him have been received by the Sovereigns and

will be duly considered, but their Majesties have not time at the moment

to go into them. That is the gist of it, and very cold cheer it is for

the Admiral, balancing himself on this turbulent see-saw with anxious

eyes turned to Spain for encouragement and approval.

In the depression that followed the receipt of this letter he was no

match for Roldan. He even himself took a caravel and sailed towards

Xaragua, where he was met by Roldan, who boarded his ship and made his

new proposals. Their impudence is astounding; and when we consider that

the Admiral had in theory absolute powers in the island, the fact that

such proposals could be made, not to say accepted, shows how far out of

relation were his actual with his nominal powers. Roldan proposed that

he should be allowed to give a number of his friends a free passage to

Spain; that to all who should remain free grants of land should be given;

and (a free pardon and certificate of good conduct contenting him no

longer) that a proclamation should be made throughout the island

admitting that all the charges of disloyalty and mutiny which had been

brought against him and his followers were without foundation; and,

finally, that he should be restored to his office of Alcalde Mayor or

chief magistrate.

Here was a bolus for Christopher to swallow; a bolus compounded of his

own words, his own acts, his hope, dignity, supremacy. In dismal

humiliation he accepted the terms, with the addition of a clause more

scandalous still--to the effect that the mutineers reserved the right,

in case the Admiral should fail in the exact performance of any of his

promises, to enforce them by compulsion of arms or any other method they

might think fit. This precious document was signed on September 28, 1499

just twelve months after the agreement which it was intended to replace;

and the Admiral, sailing dismally back to San Domingo, ruefully pondered

on the fruits of a year’s delay. Even then he was trying to make excuses

for himself, such as he made afterwards to the Sovereigns when he tried

to explain that this shameful capitulation was invalid. That he signed

under compulsion; that he was on board a ship, and so was not on his

viceregal territory; that the rebels had already been tried, and that he

had not the power to revoke a sentence which bore the authority of the

Crown; that he had not the power to dispose of the Crown property

--desperate, agonised shuffling of pride and self-esteem in the coils of

trial and difficulty. Enough of it.

CHAPTER VI

AN INTERLUDE

A breath of salt air again will do us no harm as a relief from these

perilous balancings of Columbus on the see-saw at Espanola. His true

work in this world had indeed already been accomplished. When he smote

the rock of western discovery many springs flowed from it, and some were

destined to run in mightier channels than that which he himself followed.

Among other men stirred by the news of Columbus’s first voyage there was

one walking the streets of Bristol in 1496 who was fired to a similar

enterprise--a man of Venice, in boyhood named Zuan Caboto, but now known

in England, where he has some time been settled, as Captain John Cabot.

A sailor and trader who has travelled much through the known sea-roads

of this world, and has a desire to travel upon others not so well known.

He has been in the East, has seen the caravans of Mecca and the goods

they carried, and, like Columbus, has conceived in his mind the roundness

of the world as a practical fact rather than a mere mathematical theory.

Hearing of Columbus’s success Cabot sets what machinery in England he has

access to in motion to secure for him patents from King Henry VII.; which

patents he receives on March 5, 1496. After spending a long time in

preparation, and being perhaps a little delayed by diplomatic protests

from the Spanish Ambassador in London, he sails from Bristol in May 1497.

After sailing west two thousand leagues Cabot found land in the

neighbourhood of Cape Breton, and was thus in all probability the first

discoverer, since the Icelanders, of the mainland of the New World. He

turned northward, sailed through the strait of Belle Isle, and came home

again, having accomplished his task in three months. Cabot, like

Columbus, believed he had seen the territory of the Great Khan, of whom

he told the interested population of Bristol some strange things. He

further told them of the probable riches of this new land if it were

followed in a southerly direction; told them some lies also, it appears,

since he said that the waters there were so dense with fish that his

vessels could hardly move in them. He received a gratuity of L10 and a

pension, and made a great sensation in Bristol by walking about the city

dressed in fine silk garments. He took other voyages also with his son

Sebastian, who followed with him the rapid widening stream of discovery

and became Pilot Major of Spain, and President of the Congress appointed

in 1524 to settle the conflicting pretensions of various discoverers; but

so far as our narrative is concerned, having sailed across from Bristol

and discovered the mainland of the New World some years before Columbus

discovered it, John Cabot sails into oblivion.

Another great conquest of the salt unknown taken place a few days before

Columbus sailed on his third voyage. The accidental discovery of the

Cape by Bartholomew Diaz in 1486 had not been neglected by Portugal; and

the achievements of Columbus, while they cut off Portuguese enterprise

from the western ocean, had only stimulated it to greater activity within

its own spheres. Vasco da Gama sailed from Lisbon in July 1497; by the

end of November he had rounded the Cape of Good Hope; and in May 1498,

after a long voyage full of interest, peril, and hardship he had landed

at Calicut on the shores of the true India. He came back in 1499 with a

battered remnant, his crew disabled by sickness and exhaustion, and half

his ships lost; but he had in fact discovered a road for trade and

adventure to the East that was not paved with promises, dreams, or mad

affidavits, but was a real and tangible achievement, bringing its reward

in commerce and wealth for Portugal. At that very moment Columbus was

groping round the mainland of South America, thinking it to be the coast

of Cathay, and the Garden of Eden, and God knows what other

cosmographical--theological abstractions; and Portugal, busy with her

arrangements for making money, could afford for the moment to look on

undismayed at the development of the mine of promises discovered by the

Spanish Admiral.

The anxiety of Columbus to communicate the names of things before he had

made sure of their substance received another rude chastisement in the

events that followed the receipt in Spain of his letter announcing the

discovery of the Garden of Eden and the land of pearls. People in Spain

were not greatly interested in his theories of the terrestrial Paradise;

but more than one adventurer pricked up his ears at the name of pearls,

and among the first was our old friend Alonso de Ojeda, who had returned

some time before from Espanola and was living in Spain. His position as

a member of Columbus’s force on the second voyage and the distinction he

had gained there gave him special opportunities of access to the letters

and papers sent home by Columbus; and he found no difficulty in getting

Fonseca to show him the maps and charts of the coast of Paria sent back

by the Admiral, the veritable pearls which had been gathered, and the

enthusiastic descriptions of the wealth of this new coast. Knowing

something of Espanola, and of the Admiral also, and reading in the

despatches of the turbulent condition of the colony, he had a shrewd idea

that Columbus’s hands would be kept pretty full in Espanola itself, and

that he would have no opportunity for some time to make any more voyages

of discovery. He therefore represented to Fonseca what a pity it would

be if all this revenue should remain untapped just because one man had

not time to attend to it, and he proposed that he should take out an

expedition at his own cost and share the profits with the Crown.

This proposal was too tempting to be refused; unlike the expeditions of

Columbus, which were all expenditure and no revenue, it promised a chance

of revenue without any expenditure at all. The Paria coast, having been

discovered subsequent to the agreement made with Columbus, was considered

by Fonseca to be open to private enterprise; and he therefore granted

Ojeda a licence to go and explore it. Among those who went with him were

Amerigo Vespucci and Columbus’s old pilot, Juan de la Cosa, as well as

some of the sailors who had been with the Admiral on the coast of Paria

and had returned in the caravels which had brought his account of it back

to Spain. Ojeda sailed on May 20, 1499; made a landfall some hundreds of

miles to the eastward of the Orinoco, coasted thence as far as the island

of Trinidad, and sailed along the northern coast of the peninsula of

Paria until he came to a country where the natives built their hots on

piles in the water, and to which he gave the name of Venezuela. It was

by his accidental presence on this voyage that Vespucci, the

meat-contractor, came to give his name to America--a curious story of

international jealousies, intrigues, lawsuits, and lies which we have not

the space to deal with here. After collecting a considerable quantity of

pearls Ojeda, who was beginning to run short of provisions, turned

eastward again and sought the coast of Espanola, where we shall presently

meet with him again.

And Ojeda was not the only person in Spain who was enticed by Columbus’s

glowing descriptions to go and look for the pearls of Paria. There was

in fact quite a reunion of old friends of his and ours in the western

ocean, though they went thither in a spirit far different from that of

ancient friendship. Pedro Alonso Nino, who had also been on the Paria

coast with Columbus, who had come home with the returning ships, and

whose patience (for he was an exceedingly practical man) had perhaps been

tried by the strange doings of the Admiral in the Gulf of Paria, decided

that he as well as any one else might go and find some pearls. Nino is a

poor man, having worked hard in all his voyagings backwards and forwards

across the Atlantic; but he has a friend with money, one Luis Guerra, who

provides him with the funds necessary for fitting out a small caravel

about the size of his old ship the Nifta. Guerra, who has the money,

also has a brother Christoval; and his conditions are that Christoval

shall be given the command of the caravel. Practical Niflo does not care

so long as he reaches the place where the pearls are. He also applies to

Fonseca for licence to make discoveries; and, duly receiving it, sails

from Palos in the beginning of June 1499, hot upon the track of Ojeda.

They did a little quiet discovery, principally in the domain of human

nature, caroused with the friendly natives, but attended to business all

the time; with the result that in the following April they were back in

Spain with a treasure of pearls out of which, after Nifio had been made

independent for life and Guerra, Christoval, and the rest of them had

their shares, there remained a handsome sum for the Crown. An extremely

practical, businesslike voyage this; full of lessons for our poor

Christopher, could he but have known and learned them.

Yet another of our old friends profited by the Admiral’s discovery. What

Vincenti Yafiez Pinzon has been doing all these years we have no record;

living at Palos, perhaps, doing a little of his ordinary coasting

business, administering the estates of his brother Martin Alonso, and,

almost for a certainty, talking pretty big about who it was that really

did all the work in the discovery of the New World. Out of the obscurity

of conjecture he emerges into fact in December 1499, when he is found at

Palos fitting out four caravels for the purpose of exploring farther

along the coast of the southern mainland. That he also was after pearls

is pretty certain; but on the other hand he was more of a sailor than an

adventurer, was a discoverer at heart, and had no small share of the

family taste for sea travel. He took a more southerly course than any of

the others and struck the coast of America south of the equator on

January 20, 1500. He sailed north past the mouths of the Amazon and

Orinoco through the Gulf of Paria, and reached Espanola in June 1500.

He only paused there to take in provisions, and sailed to the west in

search of further discoveries; but he lost two of his caravels in a gale

and had to put back to Espanola.

He sailed thence for Palos, and reached home in September 1500, having

added no inconsiderable share to the mass of new geographical knowledge

that was being accumulated. In later years he took a high place in the

maritime world of Spain.

And finally, to complete the account of the chief minor discoveries of

these two busy years, we must mention Pedro Alvarez Cabral of Portugal,

who was despatched in March 1, 1500 from Lisbon to verify the discoveries

of Da Gama. He reached Calicut six months later, losing on the voyage

four of his caravels and most of his company. Among the lost was

Bartholomew Diaz, the first discoverer of the Cape of Good Hope, who was

on this voyage in a subordinate capacity, and whose bones were left to

dissolve in the stormy waters that beat round the Cape whose barrier he

was the first to pass. The chief event of this voyage, however, was not

the reaching of Calicut nor the drowning of Diaz (which was chiefly of

importance to himself, poor soul!) but the discovery of Brazil, which

Cabral made in following the southerly course too far to the west.

He landed there, in the Bay of Porto Seguro, on May 1, 1500, and took

formal possession of the land for the Crown of Portugal, naming it Vera

Cruz, or the Land of the True Cross.

In the assumption of Columbus and his contemporaries all these doings

were held to detract from the glory of his own achievements, and were the

subject of endless affidavits, depositions, quarrels, arguments, proofs

and claims in the great lawsuit that was in after years carried on

between the Crown of Spain and the heirs of Columbus concerning his

titles and revenues. We, however, may take a different view. With the

exception of the discoveries of the Cape of Good Hope and the coast of

Brazil all these enterprises were directly traceable to Columbus’s own

achievements and were inspired by his example. The things that a man can

do in his own person are limited by the laws of time and space; it is

only example and influence that are infinite and illimitable, and in

which the spirit of any achievement can find true immortality.

CHAPTER VII

THE THIRD VOYAGE-(continued)

It may perhaps be wearisome to the reader to return to the tangled and

depressing situation in Espanola, but it cannot be half so wearisome as

it was for Columbus, whom we left enveloped in that dark cloud of error

and surrender in which he sacrificed his dignity and good faith to the

impudent demands of a mutinous servant. To his other troubles in San

Domingo the presence of this Roldan was now added; and the reinstated

Alcalde was not long in making use of the victory he had gained. He bore

himself with intolerable arrogance and insolence, discharging one of

Columbus’s personal bodyguard on the ground that no one should hold any

office on the island except with his consent. He demanded grants of land

for himself and his followers, which Columbus held himself obliged to

concede; and the Admiral, further to pacify him, invented a very

disastrous system of repartimientos, under which certain chiefs were

relieved from paying tribute on condition of furnishing feudal service to

the settlers--a system which rapidly developed into the most cruel and

oppressive kind of slavery. The Admiral at this time also, in despair of

keeping things quiet by his old methods of peace and conciliation,

created a kind of police force which roamed about the island, exacting

tribute and meting out summary punishment to all defaulters. Among other

concessions weakly made to Roldan at this time was the gift of the Crown

estate of Esperanza, situated in the Vega Real, whither he betook himself

and embarked on what was nothing more nor less than a despotic reign,

entirely ignoring the regulations and prerogatives of the Admiral, and

taking prisoners and administering punishment just as he pleased. The

Admiral was helpless, and thought of going back to Spain, but the

condition of the island was such that he did not dare to leave it.

Instead, he wrote a long letter to the Sovereigns, full of complaints

against other people and justifications of himself, in the course of

which he set forth those quibbling excuses for his capitulation to Roldan

which we have already heard. And there was a pathetic request at the end

of the letter that his son Diego might be sent out to him. As I have

said, Columbus was by this time a prematurely old man, and feeling the

clouds gathering about him, and the loneliness and friendlessness of his

position at Espanola, he instinctively looked to the next generation for

help, and to the presence of his own son for sympathy and comfort.

It was at this moment (September 5, 1499) that a diversion arose in the

rumour that four caravels had been seen off the western end of Espanola

and duly reported to the Admiral; and this announcement was soon followed

by the news that they were commanded by Ojeda, who was collecting

dye-wood in the island forests. Columbus, although he had so far as we

know had no previous difficulties with Ojeda, had little cause now to

credit any adventurer with kindness towards himself; and Ojeda’s secrecy

in not reporting himself at San Domingo, and, in fact, his presence on

the island at all without the knowledge of the Admiral, were sufficient

evidence that he was there to serve his own ends. Some gleam of

Christopher’s old cleverness in handling men was--now shown by his

instructing Roldan to sally forth and bring Ojeda to order. It was a

case of setting a thief to catch a thief and, as it turned out, was not

a bad stroke. Roldan, nothing loth, sailed round to that part of the

coast where Ojeda’s ships were anchored, and asked to see his licence;

which was duly shown to him and rather took the wind out of his sails.

He heard a little gossip from Ojeda, moreover, which had its own

significance for him. The Queen was ill; Columbus was in disgrace;

there was talk of superseding him. Ojeda promised to sail round to San

Domingo and report himself; but instead, he sailed to the east along the

coast of Xaragua, where he got into communication with some discontented

Spanish settlers and concocted a scheme for leading them to San Domingo

to demand redress for their imagined grievances. Roldan, however, who

had come to look for Ojeda, discovered him at this point; and there

ensued some very pretty play between the two rascals, chiefly in

trickery and treachery, such as capturing each other’s boats and

emissaries, laying traps for one another, and taking prisoner one

another’s crews. The end of it was that Ojeda left the island without

having reported himself to Columbus, but not before he had completed his

business--which was that of provisioning his ships and collecting

dye-wood and slaves.

And so exit Ojeda from the Columbian drama. Of his own drama only one

more act remained to be played; which, for the sake of our past interest

in him, we will mention here. Chiefly on account of his intimacy with

Fonseca he was some years later given a governorship in the neighbourhood

of the Gulf of Darien; Juan de la Cosa accompanying him as unofficial

partner. Ojeda has no sooner landed there than he is fighting the

natives; natives too many for him this time; Ojeda forced to hide in the

forest, where he finds the body of de la Cosa, who has come by a shocking

death. Ojeda afterwards tries to govern his colony, but is no good at

that; cannot govern his own temper, poor fellow. Quarrels with his crew,

is put in irons, carried to Espanola, and dies there (1515) in great

poverty and eclipse. One of the many, evidently, who need a strong

guiding hand, and perish without it.

It really began to seem as though Roldan, having had his fling and

secured the excessive privileges that he coveted, had decided that

loyalty to Christopher was for the present the most profitable policy;

but the mutinous spirit that he had cultivated in his followers for his

own ends could not be so readily converted into this cheap loyalty. More

trouble was yet to come of this rebellion. There was in the island a

young Spanish aristocrat, Fernando de Guevara by name, one of the many

who had come out in the hope of enjoying himself and making a fortune

quickly, whose more than outrageously dissolute life in San Domingo had

caused Columbus to banish him thence; and he was now living near Xaragua

with a cousin of his, Adrian de Moxeca, who had been one of the

ringleaders in Roldan’s conspiracy. Within this pleasant province of

Xaragua lived, as we have seen, Anacaona, the sister of Caonabo, the Lord

of the House of Gold. She herself was a beautiful woman, called by her

subjects Bloom of the Gold; and she had a still more beautiful daughter,

Higuamota, who appears in history, like so many other women, on account

of her charms and what came of them.

Of pretty Higuamota, who once lived like a dryad among the groves of

Espanola and has been dead now for so long, we know nothing except that

she was beautiful, which, although she doubtless did not think so while

she lived, turns out to have been the most important thing about her.

Young Guevara, coming to stay with his cousin Adrian, becomes a visitor

at the house of Anacaona; sees the pretty daughter and falls in love with

her. Other people also, it appears, have been in a similar state, but

Higuamota is not very accessible; a fact which of course adds to the

interest of the chase, and turns dissolute Fernando’s idle preference

into something like a passion. Roldan, who has also had an eye upon her,

and apparently no more than an eye, discovers that Fernando, in order to

gratify his passion, is proposing to go the absurd length of marrying the

young woman, and has sent for a priest for that purpose. Roldan,

instigated thereto by primitive forces, thinks it would be impolitic for

a Spanish grandee to marry with a heathen; very well, then, Fernando will

have her baptized--nothing simpler when water and a priest are handy.

Roldan, seeing that the young man is serious, becomes peremptory, and

orders him to leave Xaragua. Fernando ostentatiously departs, but is

discovered a little later actually living in the house of Anacaona, who

apparently is sympathetic to Love’s young dream. Once more ordered away,

this time with anger and threats, Guevara changes his tune and implores

Roldan to let him stay, promising that he will give up the marriage

project and also, no doubt, the no-marriage project. But Guevara has

sympathisers. The mutineers have not forgiven Roldan for deserting them

and becoming a lawful instead of an unlawful ruler. They are all on the

side of Guevara, who accordingly moves to the next stage of island

procedure, and sets on foot some kind of plot to kill Roldan and the

Admiral. Fortunately where there is treachery it generally works both

ways; this plot came to the ears of the authorities; the conspirators

were arrested and sent to San Domingo.

This action came near to bringing the whole island about Columbus’s ears.

Adrian de Moxeca was furious at what he conceived to be the treachery of

Roldan, for Roldan was in such a pass that the barest act of duty was

necessarily one of treachery to his friends. Moxeca took the place of

chief rebel that Roldan had vacated; rallied the mutineers round him, and

was on the point of starting for Concepcion, one of the chain of forts

across the island where Columbus was at present staying, when the Admiral

discovered his plan. All that was strongest and bravest in him rose up

at this menace. His weakness and cowardice were forgotten; and with the

spirit of an old sea-lion he sallied forth against the mutineers. He had

only a dozen men on whom he could rely, but he armed them well and

marched secretly and swiftly under cloud of night to the place where

Moxeca and his followers were encamped in fond security, and there

suddenly fell upon them, capturing Moxeca and the chief ringleaders. The

rest scattered in terror and escaped. Moxeca was hurried off to the

battlements of San Domingo and there, in the very midst of a longdrawn

trembling confession to the priest in attendance, was swung off the

ramparts and hanged. The others, although also condemned to death, were

kept in irons in the fortress, while Christopher and Bartholomew, roused

at last to vigorous action, scoured the island hunting down the

remainder, killing some who resisted, hanging others on the spot, and

imprisoning the remainder at San Domingo.

After these prompt measures peace reigned for a time in the island, and

Columbus was perhaps surprised to see what wholesome effects could be

produced by a little exemplary severity. The natives, who under the

weakness of his former rule had been discontented and troublesome, now

settled down submissively to their yoke; the Spaniards began to work in

earnest on their farms; and there descended upon island affairs a brief

St. Martin’s Summer of peace before the final winter of blight and death

set in. The Admiral, however, was obviously in precarious health; his

ophthalmia became worse, and the stability of his mind suffered. He had

dreams and visions of divine help and comfort, much needed by him, poor

soul, in all his tribulations and adversities. Even yet the cup was not

full.

We must now turn back to Spain and try to form some idea of the way in

which the doings of Columbus were being regarded there if we are to

understand the extraordinary calamity that was soon to befall him. It

must be remembered first of all that his enterprise had never really been

popular from the first. It was carried out entirely by the energy and

confidence of Queen Isabella, who almost alone of those in power believed

in it as a thing which was certain to bring ultimate glory, as well as

riches and dominion, to Spain and the Catholic faith. As we have seen,

there had been a brief ebullition of popular favour when Columbus

returned from his first voyage, but it was a popularity excited solely by

the promises of great wealth that Columbus was continually holding forth.

When those promises were not immediately fulfilled popular favour

subsided; and when the adventurers who had gone out to the new islands on

the strength of those promises had returned with shattered health and

empty pockets there was less chance than ever of the matter being

regarded in its proper light by the people of Spain. Columbus had either

found a gold mine or he had found nothing--that was the way in which the

matter was popularly regarded. Those who really understood the

significance of his discoveries and appreciated their scientific

importance did not merely stay at home in Spain and raise a clamour; they

went out in the Admiral’s footsteps and continued the work that he had

begun. Even King Ferdinand, for all his cleverness, had never understood

the real lines on which the colony should have been developed. His eyes

were fixed upon Europe; he saw in the discoveries of Columbus a means

rather than an end; and looked to them simply as a source of revenue with

the help of which he could carry on his ambitious schemes. And when, as

other captains made voyages confirming and extending the work of

Columbus, he did begin to understand the significance of what had been

done, he realised too late that the Admiral had been given powers far in

excess of what was prudent or sensible.

During all the time that Columbus and his brothers were struggling with

the impossible situation at Espanola there was but one influence at work

in Spain, and that was entirely destructive to the Admiral. Every

caravel that came from the New World brought two things. It brought a

crowd of discontented colonists, many of whom had grave reasons for their

discontent; and it brought letters from the Admiral in which more and

more promises were held out, but in which also querulous complaints

against this and that person, and against the Spanish settlers generally,

were set forth at wearisome length. It is not remarkable that the people

of Spain, even those who were well disposed towards Columbus, began to

wonder if these two things were not cause and effect. The settlers may

have been a poor lot, but they were the material with which Columbus had

to deal; he had powers enough, Heaven knew, powers of life and death; and

the problem began to resolve itself in the minds of those at the head of

affairs in Spain in the following terms. Given an island, rich and

luxuriant beyond the dreams of man; given a native population easily

subdued; given settlers of one kind or another; and given a Viceroy with

unlimited powers--could he or could he not govern the island? It was a

by no means unfair way of putting the case, and there is little justice

in the wild abuse that has been hurled at Ferdinand and Isabella on this

ground. Columbus may have been the greatest genius in the world; very

possibly they admitted it; but in the meanwhile Spain was resounding with

the cries of the impoverished colonists who had returned from his ocean

Paradise. No doubt the Sovereigns ignored them as much as they possibly

could; but when it came to ragged emaciated beggars coming in batches of

fifty at a time and sitting in the very courts of the Alhambra,

exhibiting bunches of grapes and saying that that was all they could

afford to live upon since they had come back from the New World, some

notice had to be taken of it. Even young Diego and Ferdinand, the

Admiral’s sons, came in for the obloquy with which his name was

associated; the colonial vagabonds hung round the portals of the palace

and cried out upon them as they passed so that they began to dislike

going out. Columbus, as we know, had plenty of enemies who had access to

the King and Queen; and never had enemies an easier case to urge. Money

was continually being spent on ships and supplies; where was the return

for it? What about the Ophir of Solomon? What about the Land of Spices?

What about the pearls? And if you want to add a touch of absurdity, what

about the Garden of Eden and the Great Khan?

To the most impartial eyes it began to appear as though Columbus were

either an impostor or a fool. There is no evidence that Ferdinand and

Isabella thought that he was an impostor or that he had wilfully deceived

them; but there is some evidence that they began to have an inkling as to

what kind of a man he really was, and as to his unfitness for governing a

colony. Once more something had to be done. The sending out of a

commissioner had not been a great success before, but in the difficulties

of the situation it seemed the only thing. Still there was a good deal

of hesitation, and it is probable that Isabella was not yet fully

convinced of the necessity for this grave step. This hesitation was

brought to an end by the arrival from Espanola of the ships bearing the

followers of Roldan, who had been sent back under the terms of Columbus’s

feeble capitulation. The same ships brought a great quantity of slaves,

which the colonists were able to show had been brought by the permission

of the Admiral; they carried native girls also, many of them pregnant,

many with new-born babies; and these also came with the permission of the

Admiral. The ships further carried the Admiral’s letter complaining of

the conspiracy of Roldan and containing the unfortunate request for a

further licence to extend the slave trade. These circumstances were

probably enough to turn the scale of Isabella’s opinion against the

Admiral’s administration. The presence of the slaves particularly

angered her kind womanly heart. “What right has he to give away my

vassals?” she exclaimed, and ordered that they should all be sent back,

and that in addition all the other slaves who had come home should be

traced and sent back; although of course it was impossible to carry out

this last order.

At any rate there was no longer any hesitation about sending out a

commissioner, and the Sovereigns chose one Francisco de Bobadilla, an

official of the royal household, for the performance of this difficult

mission. As far as we can decipher him he was a very ordinary official

personage; prejudiced, it is possible, against an administration that had

produced such disastrous results and which offended his orderly official

susceptibilities; otherwise to be regarded as a man exactly honest in the

performance of what he conceived to be his duties, and entirely

indisposed to allow sentiment or any other extraneous matter to interfere

with such due performance. We shall have need to remember, when we see

him at work in Espanola, that he was not sent out to judge between

Columbus and his Sovereigns or between Columbus and the world, but to

investigate the condition of the colony and to take what action he

thought necessary. The commission which he bore to the Admiral was in

the following terms:

“The King and the Queen: Don Christopher Columbus, our Admiral of

the Ocean-sea. We have directed Francisco de Bobadilla, the bearer

of this, to speak to you for us of certain things which he will

mention: we request you to give him faith and credence and to obey

him. From Madrid, May 26, ‘99. I THE KING. I THE QUEEN. By their

command. Miguel Perez de Almazan.”

In addition Bobadilla bore with him papers and authorities giving him

complete control and possession of all the forts, arms, and royal

property in the island, in case it should be necessary for him to use

them; and he also had a number of blank warrants which were signed, but

the substance of which was not filled in. This may seem very dreadful to

us, with our friendship for the poor Admiral; but considering the grave

state of affairs as represented to the King and Queen, who had their

duties to their colonial subjects as well as to Columbus, there was

nothing excessive in it. If they were to send out a commissioner at all,

and if they were satisfied, as presumably they were, that the man they

had chosen was trustworthy, it was only right to make his authority

absolute. Thus equipped Francisco de Bobadilla sailed from Spain in July

1500.

TOWARDS THE SUNSET

CHAPTER I

DEGRADATION

The first things seen by Francisco de Bobadilla when he entered the

harbour of San Domingo on the morning of the 23rd of August 1500 were the

bodies of several Spaniards, hanging from a gibbet near the water-side

--a grim confirmation of what he had heard about the troubled state of the

island. While he was waiting for the tide so that he might enter the

harbour a boat put off from shore to ascertain who was on board the

caravels; and it was thus informally that Bobadilla first announced that

he had come to examine into the state of the island. Columbus was not at

San Domingo, but was occupied in settling the affairs of the Vega Real;

Bartholomew also was absent, stamping out the last smouldering embers of

rebellion in Xaragua; and only James was in command to deal with this

awkward situation.

Bobadilla did not go ashore the first day, but remained on board his ship

receiving the visits of various discontented colonists who, getting early

wind of the purpose of his visit, lost no time in currying favour with

him, Probably he heard enough that first day to have damned the

administration of a dozen islands; but also we must allow him some

interest in the wonderful and strange sights that he was seeing; for

Espanola, which has perhaps grown wearisome to us, was new to him. He

had brought with him an armed body-guard of twenty-five men, and in the

other caravel were the returned slaves, babies and all, under the charge

of six friars. On the day following his arrival Bobadilla landed and

heard mass in state, afterwards reading out his commission to the

assembled people. Evidently he had received a shocking impression of the

state of affairs in the island; that is the only explanation of the

action suddenly taken by him, for his first public act was to demand from

James the release of all the prisoners in the fortress, in order that

they and their accusers should appear before him.

James is in a difficulty; and, mule-like, since he does not know which

way to turn, stands stock still. He can do nothing, he says, without the

Admiral’s consent. The next day Bobadilla, again hearing mass in state,

causes further documents to be read showing that a still greater degree

of power had been entrusted to his hands. Mule-like, James still stands

stock still; the greatest power on earth known to him is his eldest

brother, and he will not, positively dare not, be moved by anything less

than that. He refuses to give up the prisoners on any grounds

whatsoever, and Bobadilla has to take the fortress by assault--an easy

enough matter since the resistance is but formal.

The next act of Bobadilla’s is not quite so easy to understand. He

quartered himself in Columbus’s house; that perhaps was reasonable enough

since there may not have been another house in the settlement fit to

receive him; but he also, we are told, took possession of all his papers,

public and private, and also seized the Admiral’s store of money and

began to pay his debts with it for him, greatly to the satisfaction of

San Domingo. There is an element of the comic in this interpretation of

a commissioner’s powers; and it seemed as though he meant to wind up the

whole Columbus business, lock, stock, and barrel. It would not be in

accordance with our modern ideas of honour that a man’s private papers

should be seized unless he were suspected of treachery or some criminal

act; but apparently Bobadilla regarded it as necessary. We must remember

that although he had only heard one side of the case it was evidently so

positive, and the fruits of misgovernment were there so visibly before

his eyes, that no amount of evidence in favour of Columbus would make him

change his mind as to his fitness to govern. Poor James, witnessing

these things and unable to do anything to prevent them, finds himself

suddenly relieved from the tension of the situation. Since inaction is

his note, he shall be indulged in it; and he is clapped in irons and cast

into prison. James can hardly believe the evidence of his senses. He

has been studying theology lately, it appears, with a view to entering

the Church and perhaps being some day made Bishop of Espanola, but this

new turn of affairs looks as though there were to be an end of all

careers for him, military and ecclesiastical alike.

Christopher at Fort Concepcion had early news of the arrival of

Bobadilla, but in the hazy state of his mind he did not regard it as an

event of sufficient importance to make his immediate presence at San

Domingo advisable. The name of Bobadilla conveyed nothing to him; and

when he heard that he had come to investigate, he thought that he came

to set right some disputed questions between the Admiral and other

navigators as to the right of visiting Espanola and the Paria coast.

As the days went on, however, he heard more disquieting rumours; grew at

last uneasy, and moved to a fort nearer San Domingo in case it should be

necessary for him to go there. An officer met him on the road bearing

the proclamations issued by Bobadilla, but not the message from the

Sovereigns requiring the Admiral’s obedience to the commissioner.

Columbus wrote to the commissioner a curious letter, which is not

preserved, in which he sought to gain time; excusing himself from

responsibility for the condition of the island, and assuring Bobadilla

that, as he intended to return to Spain almost immediately, he

(Bobadilla) would have ample opportunity for exercising his command in

his absence. He also wrote to the Franciscan friars who had accompanied

Bobadilla asking them to use their influence--the Admiral having some

vague connection with the Franciscan order since his days at La Rabida.

No reply came to any of these letters, and Columbus sent word that he

still regarded his authority as paramount in the island. For reply to

this he received the Sovereigns’ message to him which we have seen,

commanding him to put himself under the direction of Bobadilla. There

was no mistaking this; there was the order in plain words; and with I

know not what sinkings of heart Columbus at last set out for San Domingo.

Bobadilla had expected resistance, but the Admiral, whatever his faults,

knew how to behave with, dignity in a humiliating position; and he came

into the city unattended on August 23, 1500. On the outskirts of the

town he was met by Bobadilla’s guards, arrested, put in chains, and

lodged in the fortress, the tower of which exists to this day. He seemed

to himself to be the victim of a particularly petty and galling kind of

treachery, for it was his own cook, a man called Espinoza, who riveted

his gyves upon him.

There remained Bartholomew to be dealt with, and he, being at large and

in command of the army, might not have proved such an easy conquest, but

that Christopher, at Bobadilla’s request, wrote and advised him to submit

to arrest without any resistance. Whether Bartholomew acquiesced or not

is uncertain; what is certain is that he also was captured and placed in

irons, and imprisoned on one of the caravels. James in one caravel,

Bartholomew in another, and Christopher in the fortress, and all in

chains--this is what it has come to with the three sons of old Domenico.

The trial was now begun, if trial that can be called which takes place in

the absence of the culprit or his representative. It was rather the

hearing of charges against Christopher and his brothers; and we may be

sure that every discontented feeling in the island found voice and was

formulated into some incriminating charge. Columbus was accused of

oppressing the Spanish settlers by making them work at harsh and

unnecessary labour; of cutting down their allowance of food, and

restricting their liberty; of punishing them cruelly and unduly; of

waging wars unjustly with the natives; of interfering with the conversion

of the natives by hastily collecting them and sending them home as

slaves; of having secreted treasures which should have been delivered to

the Sovereigns--this last charge, like some of the others, true. He had

an accumulation of pearls of which he had given no account to Fonseca,

and the possession of which he excused by the queer statement that he was

waiting to announce it until he could match it with an equal amount of

gold! He was accused of hating the Spaniards, who were represented as

having risen in the late rebellion in order to protect the natives and

avenge their own wrongs--, and generally of having abused his office in

order to enrich his own family and gratify his own feelings. Bobadilla

appeared to believe all these charges; or perhaps he recognised their

nature, and yet saw that there was a sufficient degree of truth in them

to disqualify the Admiral in his position as Viceroy. In all these

affairs his right-hand man was Roldan, whose loyalty to Columbus, as we

foresaw, had been short-lived. Roldan collects evidence; Roldan knows

where he can lay his hands on this witness; Roldan produces this and that

proof; Roldan is here, there, and everywhere--never had Bobadilla found

such a useful, obliging man as Roldan. With his help Bobadilla soon

collected a sufficient weight of evidence to justify in his own mind his

sending Columbus home to Spain, and remaining himself in command of the

island.

The caravels having been made ready, and all the evidence drawn up and

documented, it only remained to embark the prisoners and despatch them to

Spain. Columbus, sitting in his dungeon, suffering from gout and

ophthalmic as well as from misery and humiliation, had heard no news;

but he had heard the shouting of the people in the streets, the beating

of drums and blowing of horns, and his own name and that of his brothers

uttered in derision; and he made sure that he was going to be executed.

Alonso de Villegio, a nephew of Bishop Fonseca’s, had been appointed to

take charge of the ships returning to Spain; and when he came into the

prison the Admiral thought his last hour had come.

“Villegio,” he asked sadly, “where are you taking me?”

“I am taking you to the ship, your Excellency, to embark,” replied the

other.

“To embark?” repeated the Admiral incredulously. “Villegio! are you

speaking the truth?”

“By the life of your Excellency what I say is true,” was the reply, and

the news came with a wave of relief to the panic-stricken heart of the

Admiral.

In the middle of October the caravels sailed from San Domingo, and the

last sounds heard by Columbus from the land of his discovery were the

hoots and jeers and curses hurled after him by the treacherous,

triumphant rabble on the shore. Villegio treated him and his brothers

with as much kindness as possible, and offered, when they had got well

clear of Espanola, to take off the Admiral’s chains. But Columbus, with

a fine counterstroke of picturesque dignity, refused to have them

removed. Already, perhaps, he had realised that his subjection to this

cruel and quite unnecessary indignity would be one of the strongest

things in his favour when he got to Spain, and he decided to suffer as

much of it as he could. “My Sovereigns commanded me to submit to what

Bobadilla should order. By his authority I wear these chains, and I

shall continue to wear them until they are removed by order of the

Sovereigns; and I will keep them afterwards as reminders of the reward I

have received for my services.” Thus the Admiral, beginning to pick up

his spirits again, and to feel the better for the sea air.

The voyage home was a favourable one and in the course of it Columbus

wrote the following letter to a friend of his at Court, Dona Juana de la

Torre, who had been nurse to Prince Juan and was known by him to be a

favourite of the Queen:

“MOST VIRTUOUS LADY,--Though my complaint of the world is new, its

habit of ill-using is very ancient. I have had a thousand struggles

with it, and have thus far withstood them all, but now neither arms

nor counsels avail me, and it cruelly keeps me under water. Hope in

the Creator of all men sustains me: His help was always very ready;

on another occasion, and not long ago, when I was still more

overwhelmed, He raised me with His right arm, saying, ‘O man of

little faith, arise: it is I; be not afraid.’

“I came with so much cordial affection to serve these Princes, and

have served them with such service, as has never been heard of or

seen.

“Of the new heaven and earth which our Lord made, when Saint John

was writing the Apocalypse, after what was spoken by the mouth of

Isaiah, He made me the messenger, and showed me where it lay. In

all men there was disbelief, but to the Queen, my Lady, He gave the

spirit of understanding, and great courage, and made her heiress of

all, as a dear and much loved daughter. I went to take possession

of all this in her royal name. They sought to make amends to her

for the ignorance they had all shown by passing over their little

knowledge and talking of obstacles and expenses. Her Highness, on

the other hand, approved of it, and supported it as far as she was

able.

“Seven years passed in discussion and nine in execution. During

this time very remarkable and noteworthy things occurred whereof no

idea at all had been formed. I have arrived at, and am in, such a

condition that there is no person so vile but thinks he may insult

me: he shall be reckoned in the world as valour itself who is

courageous enough not to consent to it.

“If I were to steal the Indies or the land which lies towards them,

of which I am now speaking, from the altar of Saint Peter, and give

them to the Moors, they could not show greater enmity towards me in

Spain. Who would believe such a thing where there was always so

much magnanimity?

“I should have much desired to free myself from this affair had it

been honourable towards my Queen to do so. The support of our Lord

and of her Highness made me persevere: and to alleviate in some

measure the sorrows which death had caused her, I undertook a fresh

voyage to the new heaven and earth which up to that time had

remained hidden; and if it is not held there in esteem like the

other voyages to the Indies, that is no wonder, because it came to

be looked upon as my work.

“The Holy Spirit inflamed Saint Peter and twelve others with him,

and they all contended here below, and their toils and hardships

were many, but last of all they gained the victory.

“This voyage to Paria I thought would somewhat appease them on

account of the pearls, and of the discovery of gold in Espanola.

I ordered the pearls to be collected and fished for by people with

whom an arrangement was made that I should return for them, and, as

I understood, they were to be measured by the bushel. If I did not

write about this to their Highnesses, it was because I wished to

have first of all done the same thing with the gold.

“The result to me in this has been the same as in many other things;

I should not have lost them nor my honour, if I had sought my own

advantage, and had allowed Espanola to be ruined, or if my

privileges and contracts had been observed. And I say just the same

about the gold which I had then collected, and [for] which with such

great afflictions and toils I have, by divine power, almost

perfected [the arrangements].

“When I went from Paria I found almost half the people from Espanola

in revolt, and they have waged war against me until now, as against

a Moor; and the Indians on the other side grievously [harassed me].

At this time Hojeda arrived and tried to put the finishing stroke:

he said that their Highnesses had sent him with promises of gifts,

franchises and pay: he gathered together a great band, for in the

whole of Espanola there are very few save vagabonds, and not one

with wife and children. This Hojeda gave me great trouble; he was

obliged to depart, and left word that he would soon return with more

ships and people, and that he had left the Royal person of the

Queen, our Lady, at the point of death. Then Vincente Yanez arrived

with four caravels; there was disturbance and mistrust but no

mischief: the Indians talked of many others at the Cannibals

[Caribbee Islands] and in Paria; and afterwards spread the news of

six other caravels, which were brought by a brother of the Alcalde,

but it was with malicious intent. This occurred at the very last,

when the hope that their Highnesses would ever send any ships to the

Indies was almost abandoned, nor did we expect them; and it was

commonly reported that her Highness was dead.

“A certain Adrian about this time endeavoured to rise in rebellion

again, as he had done previously, but our Lord did not permit his

evil purpose to succeed. I had purposed in myself never to touch a

hair of anybody’s head, but I lament to say that with this man,

owing to his ingratitude, it was not possible to keep that resolve

as I had intended: I should not have done less to my brother, if he

had sought to kill me, and steal the dominion which my King and

Queen had given me in trust.

“This Adrian, as it appears, had sent Don Ferdinand to Xaragua to

collect some of his followers, and there a dispute arose with the

Alcalde from which a deadly contest ensued, and he [Adrian] did not

effect his purpose. The Alcalde seized him and a part of his band,

and the fact was that he would have executed them if I had not

prevented it; they were kept prisoners awaiting a caravel in which

they might depart. The news of Hojeda which I told them made them

lose the hope that he would now come again.

“For six months I had been prepared to return to their Highnesses

with the good news of the gold, and to escape from governing a

dissolute people Who fear neither God nor their King and Queen,

being full of vices and wickedness.

“I could have paid the people in full with six hundred thousand, and

for this purpose I had four millions of tenths and somewhat more,

besides the third of the gold.

“Before my departure I many times begged their Highnesses to send

there, at my expense, some one to take charge of the administration

of justice; and after finding the Alcalde in arms I renewed my

supplications to have either some troops or at least some servant of

theirs with letters patent; for my reputation is such that even if I

build churches and hospitals, they will always be called dens of

thieves.

“They did indeed make provision at last, but it was the very

contrary of what the matter demanded: it may be successful, since it

was according to their good pleasure.

“I was there for two years without being able to gain a decree of

favour for myself or for those who went there, yet this man brought

a coffer full: whether they will all redound to their [Highnesses]

service, God knows. Indeed, to begin with, there are exemptions for

twenty years, which is a man’s lifetime; and gold is collected to

such an extent that there was one person who became worth five marks

in four hours; whereof I will speak more fully later on.

“If it would please their Highnesses to remove the grounds of a

common saying of those who know my labours, that the calumny of the

people has done me more harm than much service and the maintenance

of their [Highnesses] property and dominion has done me good, it

would be a charity, and I should be re-established in my honour, and

it would be talked about all over the world: for the undertaking is

of such a nature that it must daily become more famous and in higher

esteem.

“When the Commander Bobadilla came to Santo Domingo, I was at La

Vega, and the Adelantado at Xaragua, where that Adrian had made a

stand, but then all was quiet, and the land rich and all men at

peace. On the second day after his arrival, he created himself

Governor, and appointed officers and made executions, and proclaimed

immunities of gold and tenths and in general of everything else for

twenty years, which is a man’s lifetime, and that he came to pay

everybody in full up to that day, even though they had not rendered

service; and he publicly gave notice that, as for me, he had charge

to send me in irons, and my brothers likewise, as he has done, and

that I should nevermore return thither, nor any other of my family:

alleging a thousand disgraceful and discourteous things about me.

All this took place on the second day after his arrival, as I have

said, and while I was absent at a distance, without my knowing

either of him or of his arrival.

“Some letters of their Highnesses signed in blank, of which he

brought a number, he filled up and sent to the Alcalde and to his

company with favours and commendations: to me he never sent either

letter or messenger, nor has he done so to this day. Imagine what

any one holding my office would think when one who endeavoured to

rob their Highnesses, and who has done so much evil and mischief, is

honoured and favoured, while he who maintained it at such risks is

degraded.

“When I heard this I thought that this affair would be like that of

Hojeda or one of the others, but I restrained myself when I learnt

for certain from the friars that their Highnesses had sent him. I

wrote to him that his arrival was welcome, and that I was prepared

to go to the Court and had sold all I possessed by auction; and that

with respect to the immunities he should not be hasty, for both that

matter and the government I would hand over to him immediately as

smooth as my palm. And I wrote to the same effect to the friars,

but neither he nor they gave me any answer. On the contrary, he put

himself in a warlike attitude, and compelled all who went there to

take an oath to him as Governor; and they told me that it was for

twenty years.

“Directly I knew of those immunities, I thought that I would repair

such a great error and that he would be pleased, for he gave them

without the need or occasion necessary in so vast a matter: and he

gave to vagabond people what would have been excessive for a man who

had brought wife and children. So I announced by word and letters

that he could not use his patents because mine were those in force;

and I showed them the immunities which John Aguado brought.

“All this was done by me in order to gain time, so that their

Highnesses might be informed of the condition of the country, and

that they might have an opportunity of issuing fresh commands as to

what would best promote their service in that respect.

“It is useless to publish such immunities in the Indies: to the

settlers who have taken up residence it is a pure gain, for the best

lands are given to them, and at a low valuation they will be worth

two-hundred thousand at the end of the four years when the period of

residence is ended, without their digging a spadeful in them. I

would not speak thus if the settlers were married, but there are not

six among them all who are not on the look-out to gather what they

can and depart speedily. It would be a good thing if they should go

from Castile, and also if it were known who and what they are, and

if the country could be settled with honest people.

“I had agreed with those settlers that they should pay the third of

the gold, and the tenths, and this at their own request; and they

received it as a great favour from their Highnesses. I reproved

them when I heard that they ceased to do this, and hoped that the

Commander would do likewise, and he did the contrary.

“He incensed them against me by saying that I wanted to deprive them

of what their Highnesses had given them; and he endeavoured to set

them at variance with me, and did so; and he induced them to write

to their Highnesses that they should never again send me back to the

government, and I likewise make the same supplication to them for

myself and for my whole family, as long as there are not different

inhabitants. And he together with them ordered inquisitions

concerning me for wickednesses the like whereof were never known in

hell. Our Lord, who rescued Daniel and the three children, is

present with the same wisdom and power as He had then, and with the

same means, if it should please Him and be in accordance with His

will.

“I should know how to remedy all this, and the rest of what has been

said and has taken place since I have been in the Indies, if my

disposition would allow me to seek my own advantage, and if it

seemed honourable to me to do so, but the maintenance of justice and

the extension of the dominion of her Highness has hitherto kept me

down. Now that so much gold is found, a dispute arises as to which

brings more profit, whether to go about robbing or to go to the

mines. A hundred castellanos are as easily obtained for a woman as

for a farm, and it is very general, and there are plenty of dealers

who go about looking for girls: those from nine to ten are now in

demand, and for all ages a good price must be paid.

“I assert that the violence of the calumny of turbulent persons has

injured me more than my services have profited me; which is a bad

example for the present and for the future. I take my oath that a

number of men have gone to the Indies who did not deserve water in

the sight of God and of the world; and now they are returning

thither, and leave is granted them.

“I assert that when I declared that the Commander could not grant

immunities, I did what he desired, although I told him that it was

to cause delay until their Highnesses should, receive information

from the country, and should command anew what might be for their

service.

“He excited their enmity against me, and he seems, from what took

place and from his behaviour, to have come as my enemy and as a very

vehement one; or else the report is true that he has spent much to

obtain this employment. I do not know more about it than what I

hear. I never heard of an inquisitor gathering rebels together and

accepting them, and others devoid of credit and unworthy of it, as

witnesses against their Governor.

“If their Highnesses were to make a general inquisition there, I

assure you that they would look upon it as a great wonder that the

island does not founder.

“I think your Ladyship will remember that when, after losing my

sails, I was driven into Lisbon by a tempest, I was falsely accused

of having gone there to the King in order to give him the Indies.

Their Highnesses afterwards learned the contrary, and that it was

entirely malicious.

“Although I may know but little, I do not think any one considers me

so stupid as not to know that even if the Indies were mine I could

not uphold myself without the help of some Prince.

“If this be so, where could I find better support and security than

in the King and Queen, our Lords, who have raised me from nothing to

such great honour, and are the most exalted Princes of the world on

sea and on land, and who consider that I have rendered them service,

and who preserve to me my privileges and rewards: and if any one

infringes them, their Highnesses increase them still more, as was

seen in the case of John Aguado; and they order great honour to be

conferred upon me, and, as I have already said, their Highnesses

have received service from me, and keep my sons in their household;

all which could by no means happen with another prince, for where

there is no affection, everything else fails.

“I have now spoken thus in reply to a malicious slander, but against

my will, as it is a thing which should not recur to memory even in

dreams; for the Commander Bobadilla maliciously seeks in this way to

set his own conduct and actions in a brighter light; but I shall

easily show him that his small knowledge and great cowardice,

together with his inordinate cupidity, have caused him to fail

therein.

“I have already said that I wrote to him and to the friars, and

immediately set out, as I told him, almost alone, because all the

people were with the Adelantado, and likewise in order to prevent

suspicion on his part. When he heard this, he seized Don Diego and

sent him on board a caravel loaded with irons, and did the same to

me upon my arrival, and afterwards to the Adelantado when he came;

nor did I speak to him any more, nor to this day has he allowed any

one to speak to me; and I take my oath that I cannot understand why

I am made a prisoner.

“He made it his first business to seize the gold, which he did

without measuring or weighing it and in my absence; he said that he

wanted it to pay the people, and according to what I hear he

assigned the chief part to himself and sent fresh exchangers for the

exchanges. Of this gold I had put aside certain specimens, very big

lumps, like the eggs of geese, hens, and pullets, and of many other

shapes, which some persons had collected in a short space of time,

in order that their Highnesses might be gladdened, and might

comprehend the business upon seeing a quantity of large stones full

of gold. This collection was the first to be given away, with

malicious intent, so that their Highnesses should not hold the

matter in any account until he has feathered his nest, which he is

in great haste to do. Gold which is for melting diminishes at the

fire: some chains which would weigh about twenty marks have never

been seen again.

“I have been more distressed about this matter of the gold than even

about the pearls, because I have not brought it to her Highness.

“The Commander at once set to work upon anything which he thought

would injure me. I have already said that with six hundred thousand

I could pay every one without defrauding anybody, and that I had

more than four millions of tenths and constabulary [dues] without

touching the gold. He made some free gifts which are ridiculous,

though I believe that he began by assigning the chief part to

himself. Their Highnesses will find it out when they order an

account to be obtained from him, especially if I should be present

thereat. He does nothing but reiterate that a large sum is owing,

and it is what I have said, and even less. I have been much

distressed that there should be sent concerning me an inquisitor who

is aware that if the inquisition which he returns is very grave he

will remain in possession of the government.

“Would that it had pleased our Lord that their Highnesses had sent

him or some one else two years ago, for I know that I should now be

free from scandal and infamy, and that my honour would not be taken

from me, nor should I lose it. God is just, and will make known the

why and the wherefore.

“They judge me over there as they would a governor who had gone to

Sicily, or to a city or town placed under regular government, and

where the laws can be observed in their entirety without fear of

ruining everything; and I am greatly injured thereby.

“I ought to be judged as a captain who went from Spain to the Indies

to conquer a numerous and warlike people, whose customs and religion

are very contrary to ours; who live in rocks and mountains, without

fixed settlements, and not like ourselves: and where, by the Divine

Will, I have placed under the dominion of the King and Queen, our

Sovereigns, a second world, through which Spain, which was reckoned

a poor country, has become the richest.

“I ought to be judged as a captain who for such a long time up to

this day has borne arms without laying them aside for an hour, and

by gentlemen adventurers and by custom, and not by letters, unless

they were from Greeks or Romans or others of modern times of whom

there are so many and such noble examples in Spain; or otherwise I

receive great injury, because in the Indies there is neither town

nor settlement.

“The gate to the gold and pearls is now open, and plenty of

everything--precious stones, spices and a thousand other things--may

be surely expected, and never could a worse misfortune befall me:

for by the name of our Lord the first voyage would yield them just

as much as would the traffic of Arabia Felix as far as Mecca, as I

wrote to their Highnesses by Antonio de Tomes in my reply respecting

the repartition of the sea and land with the Portuguese; and

afterwards it would equal that of Calicut, as I told them and put in

writing at the monastery of the Mejorada.

“The news of the gold that I said I would give is, that on the day

of the Nativity, while I was much tormented, being harassed by

wicked Christians and by Indians, and when I was on the point of

giving up everything, and if possible escaping from life, our Lord

miraculously comforted me and said, ‘Fear not violence, I will

provide for all things: the seven years of the term of the gold have

not elapsed, and in that and in everything else I will afford thee a

remedy.’

“On that day I learned that there were eighty leagues of land with

mines at every point thereof. The opinion now is that it is all

one. Some have collected a hundred and twenty castellanos in one

day, and others ninety, and even the number of two hundred and fifty

has been reached. From fifty to seventy, and in many more cases

from fifteen to fifty, is considered a good day’s work, and many

carry it on. The usual quantity is from six to twelve, and any one

obtaining less than this is not satisfied. It seems to me that these

mines are like others, and do not yield equally every day. The

mines are new, and so are the workers: it is the opinion of

everybody that even if all Castile were to go there, every

individual, however inexpert he might be, would not obtain less than

one or two castellanos daily, and now it is only commencing. It is

true that they keep Indians, but the business is in the hands of the

Christians. Behold what discernment Bobadilla had, when he gave up

everything for nothing, and four millions of tenths, without any

reason or even being requested, and without first notifying it to

their Highnesses. And this is not the only loss.

“I know that my errors have not been committed with the intention of

doing evil, and I believe that their Highnesses regard the matter

just as I state it: and I know and see that they deal mercifully

even with those who maliciously act to their disservice. I believe

and consider it very certain that their clemency will be both

greater and more abundant towards me, for I fell therein through

ignorance and the force of circumstances, as they will know fully

hereafter; and I indeed am their creature, and they will look upon

my services, and will acknowledge day by day that they are much

profited. They will place everything in the balance, even as Holy

Scripture tells us good and evil will be at the day of judgment.

“If, however, they command that another person do judge me, which I

cannot believe, and that it be by inquisition in the Indies, I very

humbly beseech them to send thither two conscientious and honourable

persons at my expense, who I believe will easily, now that gold is

discovered, find five marks in four hours. In either case it is

needful for them to provide for this matter.

“The Commander on his arrival at San Domingo took up his abode in my

house, and just as he found it so he appropriated everything to

himself. Well and good; perhaps he was in want of it. A pirate

never acted thus towards a merchant. About my papers I have a

greater grievance, for he has so completely deprived me of them that

I have never been able to obtain a single one from him; and those

that would have been most useful in my exculpation are precisely

those which he has kept most concealed. Behold the just and honest

inquisitor! Whatever he may have done, they tell me that there has

been an end to justice, except in an arbitrary form. God, our Lord,

is present with His strength and wisdom, as of old, and always

punishes in the end, especially ingratitude and injuries.”

We must keep in mind the circumstances in which this letter was written

if we are to judge it and the writer wisely. It is a sad example of

querulous complaint, in which everything but the writer’s personal point

of view is ignored. No one indeed is more terrible in this world than

the Man with a Grievance. How rarely will human nature in such

circumstances retire into the stronghold of silence! Columbus is asking

for pity; but as we read his letter we incline to pity him on grounds

quite different from those which he represented. He complains that the

people he was sent to govern have waged war against him as against a

Moor; he complains of Ojeda and of Vincenti Yanez Pinzon; of Adrian de

Moxeca, and of every other person whom it was his business to govern and

hold in restraint. He complains of the colonists--the very people, some

of them, whom he himself took and impressed from the gaols and purlieus

of Cadiz; and then he mingles pious talk about Saint Peter and Daniel in

the den of lions with notes on the current price of little girls and big

lumps of gold like the eggs of geese, hens, and pullets. He complains

that he is judged as a man would be judged who had been sent out to

govern a ready-made colony, and represents instead that he went out to

conquer a numerous and warlike people “whose custom and religion are very

contrary to ours, and who lived in rocks and mountains”; forgetting that

when it suited him for different purposes he described the natives as so

peaceable and unwarlike that a thousand of them would not stand against

one Christian, and that in any case he was sent out to create a

constitution and not merely to administer one. Very sore indeed is

Christopher as he reveals himself in this letter, appealing now to his

correspondent, now to the King and Queen, now to that God who is always

on the side of the complainant. “God our Lord is present with His

strength and wisdom, as of old, and always punishes in the end,

especially ingratitude and injuries.” Not boastfulness and weakness, let

us hope, or our poor Admiral will come off badly.

CHAPTER II

CRISIS IN THE ADMIRAL’S LIFE

Columbus was not far wrong in his estimate of the effect likely to be

produced by his manacles, and when the ships of Villegio arrived at Cadiz

in October, the spectacle of an Admiral in chains produced a degree of

commiseration which must have exceeded his highest hopes. He was now in

his fiftieth year and of an extremely venerable appearance, his kindling

eye looking forth from under brows of white, his hair and beard

snow-white, his face lined and spiritualised with suffering and sorrow.

It must be remembered that before the Spanish people he had always

appeared in more or less state. They had not that intimacy with him, an

intimacy which perhaps brought contempt, which the people in Espanola

enjoyed; and in Spain, therefore, the contrast between his former

grandeur and this condition of shame and degradation was the more

striking. It was a fact that the people of Spain could not neglect. It

touched their sense of the dramatic and picturesque, touched their

hearts also perhaps--hearts quick to burn, quick to forget. They had

forgotten him before, now they burned with indignation at the picture of

this venerable and much-suffering man arriving in disgrace.

His letter to Dofia Juana, hastily despatched by him, probably through

the office of some friendly soul on board, immediately on his arrival at

Cadiz, was the first news from the ship received by the King and Queen,

and naturally it caused them a shock of surprise. It was followed by the

despatches from Bobadilla and by a letter from the Alcalde of Cadiz

announcing that Columbus and his brothers were in his custody awaiting

the royal orders. Perhaps Ferdinand and Isabella had already repented

their drastic action and had entertained some misgivings as to its

results; but it is more probable that they had put it out of their heads

altogether, and that their hasty action now was prompted as much by the

shock of being recalled to a consciousness of the troubled state of

affairs in the New World as by any real regret for what they had done.

Moreover they had sent out Bobadilla to quiet things down; and the first

result of it was that Spain was ringing with the scandal of the Admiral’s

treatment. In that Spanish world, unsteadfast and unstable, when one end

of the see-saw was up the other must be down; and it was Columbus who now

found himself high up in the heavens of favour, and Bobadilla who was

seated in the dust. Equipoise any kind was apparently a thing

impossible; if one man was right the other man must be wrong; no excuses

for Bobadilla; every excuse for the Admiral.

The first official act, therefore, was an order for the immediate release

of the Admiral and his brothers, followed by an invitation for him to

proceed without delay to the Court at Granada, and an order for the

immediate payment to him of the sum of 2000 ducats [perhaps $250,000 in

the year 2000 D.W.] this last no ungenerous gift to a Viceroy whose

pearl accounts were in something less than order. Perhaps Columbus had

cherished the idea of appearing dramatically before the very Court in his

rags and chains; but the cordiality of their letter as well as the gift

of money made this impossible. Instead, not being a man to do things by

halves, he equipped himself in his richest and most splendid garments,

got together the requisite number of squires and pages, and duly

presented himself at Granada in his full dignity. The meeting was an

affecting one, touched with a humanity which has survived the intervening

centuries, as a touch of true humanity will when details of mere parade

and etiquette have long perished. Perhaps the Admiral, inspired with a

deep sense of his wrongs, meant to preserve a very stiff and cold

demeanour at the beginning of this interview; but when he looked into the

kind eyes of Isabella and saw them suffused with tears at the thought of

his sorrows all his dignity broke down; the tears came to his own eyes,

and he wept there naturally like a child. Ferdinand looking on kind but

uncomfortable; Isabella unaffectedly touched and weeping; the Admiral, in

spite of his scarlet cloak and golden collar and jewelled sword, in spite

of equerries, squires, pages and attendants, sobbing on his knees like a

child or an old man-these were the scenes and kindly emotions of this

historic moment.

The tears were staunched by kindly royal words and handkerchiefs supplied

by attendant pages; sobbings breaking out again, but on the whole soon

quieted; King and Queen raising the gouty Christopher from his knees,

filling the air with kind words of sympathy, praise, and encouragement;

the lonely worn heart, somewhat arid of late, and parched from want of

human sympathy, much refreshed by this dew of kindness. The Admiral was

soon himself again, and he would not have been himself if upon recovering

he had not launched out into what some historians call a “lofty and

dignified vindication of his loyalty and zeal.” No one, indeed, is

better than the Admiral at such lofty and dignified vindications. He

goes into the whole matter and sets forth an account of affairs at

Espanola from his own point of view; and can even (so high is the

thermometer of favour) safely indulge in a little judicious

self-depreciation, saying that if he has erred it has not been from want

of zeal but from want of experience in dealing with the kind of material

he has been set to govern. All this is very human, natural, and

understandable; product of that warm emotional atmosphere, bedewed with

tears, in which the Admiral finds himself; and it is not long before the

King and Queen, also moved to it by the emotional temperature, are

expressing their unbroken and unbounded confidence in him and

repudiating the acts of Bobadilla, which they declare to have been

contrary to their instructions; undertaking also that he shall be

immediately dismissed from his post. Poor Bobadilla is not here in the

warm emotional atmosphere; he had his turn of it six months ago, when no

powers were too high or too delicate to be entrusted to him; he is out

in the cold at the other end of the see-saw, which has let him down to

the ground with a somewhat sudden thump.

Columbus, relying on the influence of these emotions, made bold to ask

that his property in the island should be restored to him, which was

immediately granted; and also to request that he should be reinstated in

his office of Viceroy and allowed to return at once in triumph to

Espanola. But emotions are unstable things; they present a yielding

surface which will give to any extent, but which, when it has hardened

again after the tears have evaporated, is often found to be in much the

same condition as before. At first promises were made that the whole

matter should be fully gone into; but when it came to cold fact,

Ferdinand was obliged to recognise that this whole business of discovery

and colonisation had become a very different thing to what it had been

when Columbus was the only discoverer; and he was obviously of opinion

that, as Columbus’s office had once been conveniently withdrawn from him,

it would only be disastrous to reinstate him in it. Of course he did not

say so at once; but reasons were given for judicious delay in the

Admiral’s reappointment. It was represented to him that the colony,

being in an extremely unsettled state, should be given a short period of

rest, and also that it would be as well for him to wait until the people

who had given him so much trouble in the island could be quietly and

gradually removed. Two years was the time mentioned as suitable for an

interregnum, and it is probable that it was the intention of Isabella,

although not of Ferdinand, to restore Columbus to his office at the end

of that time.

In the meantime it became necessary to appoint some one to supersede

Bobadilla; for the news that arrived periodically from Espanola during

the year showed that he had entirely failed in his task of reducing the

island to order. For the wholesome if unequal rigours of Columbus

Bobadilla had substituted laxness and indulgence, with the result that

the whole colony was rapidly reduced to a state of the wildest disorder.

Vice and cruelty were rampant; in fact the barbarities practised upon the

natives were so scandalous that even Spanish opinion, which was never

very sympathetic to heathen suffering, was thoroughly shocked and

alarmed. The Sovereigns therefore appointed Nicholas de Ovando to go out

and take over the command, with instructions to use very drastic means

for bringing the colony to order. How he did it we shall presently see;

in the meantime all that was known of him (the man not having been tried

yet) was that he was a poor knight of Calatrava, a man respected in royal

circles for the performance of minor official duties, but no very popular

favourite; honest according to his lights--lights turned rather low and

dim, as was often the case in those days. A narrow-minded man also,

without sympathy or imagination, capable of cruelty; a tough,

stiff-necked stock of a man, fit to deal with Bobadilla perhaps, but

hardly fit to deal with the colony. Spain in those days was not a

nursery of administration. Of all the people who were sent out

successively to govern Espanola and supersede one another, the only one

who really seems to have had the necessary natural ability, had he but

been given the power, was Bartholomew Columbus; but unfortunately things

were in such a state that the very name of Columbus was enough to bar a

man from acceptance as a governor of Espanola.

It was not for any lack of powers and equipment that this procession of

governors failed in their duties. We have seen with what authority

Bobadilia had been entrusted; and Ovando had even greater advantages.

The instructions he received showed that the needs of the new colonies

were understood by Ferdinand and Isabella, if by no one else. Ovando was

not merely appointed Governor of Espanola but of the whole of the new

territory discovered in the west, his seat of government being San

Domingo. He was given the necessary free hand in the matters of

punishment, confiscation, and allotment of lands. He was to revoke the

orders which had been made by Bobadilla reducing the proportion of gold

payable to the Crown, and was empowered to take over one-third of the.

gold that was stored on the island, and one-half of what might be found

in the future. The Crown was to have a monopoly of all trade, and

ordinary supplies were only to be procured through the Crown agent.

On the other hand, the natives were to be released from slavery, and

although forced to work in the mines, were to be paid for their labour

--a distinction which in the working out did not produce much difference.

A body of Franciscan monks accompanied Ovando for the purpose of tackling

the religious question with the necessary energy; and every regulation

that the kind heart of Isabella could think of was made for the happiness

and contentment of the Indians.

Unhappily the real mischief had already been done. The natives, who had

never been accustomed to hard and regular work under the conditions of

commerce and greed, but had only toiled for the satisfaction of their own

simple wants, were suffering cruelly under the hard labour in the mines,

and the severe driving of their Spanish masters. Under these unnatural

conditions the native population was rapidly dying off, and there was

some likelihood that there would soon be a scarcity of native labour.

These were the circumstances in which the idea of importing black African

labour to the New World was first conceived--a plan which was destined to

have results so tremendous that we have probably not yet seen their full

and ghastly development. There were a great number of African negro

slaves at that time in Spain; a whole generation of them had been born in

slavery in Spain itself; and this generation was bodily imported to

Espanola to relieve and assist the native labour.

These preparations were not made all at once; and it was more than a year

after the return of Columbus before Ovando was ready to sail. In the

meantime Columbus was living in Granada, and looking on with no very

satisfied eye at the plans which were being made to supersede him, and

about which he was probably not very much consulted; feeling very sore

indeed, and dividing his attention between the nursing of his grievances

and other even less wholesome occupations. There was any amount of

smiling kindness for him at Court, but very little of the satisfaction

that his vanity and ambition craved; and in the absence of practical

employment he fell back on visionary speculations. He made great friends

at this time with a monk named Gaspar Gorricio, with whose assistance he

began to make some kind of a study of such utterances of the Prophets and

the Fathers as he conceived to have a bearing on his own career.