which time I was at La Vega, and the Adelantado at Xaragua, where this
Adrian had made his attempt; but by that time everything was quiet, the
land was thriving, and the people at peace. The day after his arrival
he declared himself governor, created magistrates, ordered executions,
published immunities from the collection of gold and from the paying of
tithes; and, in fine, announced a general franchise for twenty years,
which is, as I have said, the calculation of an age. He also gave out
that he was going to pay everyone, although they had not even done the
service which was due up to that day; and he further proclaimed that he
had to send me back loaded with chains, and my brother also (this he
has done);[198] and that neither I, nor any of my family, should ever
return to these lands: and, in addition, he made innumerable unjust and
disgraceful charges against me. All this took place, as I have said, on
the very day after his arrival, at which time I was absent at a distance,
thinking neither of him nor of his coming. Some letters of their
Highnesses, of which he brought a considerable number signed in blank,
he filled up with exaggerated language, and sent round to the alcalde
and his myrmidons, accompanying them with compliments and flattery. To
me he never sent either a letter or a messenger, nor has he done so to
this day. Reflect upon this, madam! what could any man in my situation
think? Could it be that honour and favour were to be conferred on him who
had lent himself to plundering their Highnesses of their sovereignty, and
who had done so much injury and mischief?—Could it be that he who had
defended and preserved their cause through so many dangers, was to be
dragged through the mire? When I heard this, I thought he must be like
Hojeda, or one of the other rebels; but I held my peace, when I learned
for certain, from the friars, that he had been sent by their Highnesses.
I wrote to him, to salute him on his arrival, to let him know that I was
ready to set out to go to court, and that I had put up to sale all that
I possessed. I entreated him not to be in haste on the subject of the
grants; and I assured him that I would shortly yield this, and everything
else connected with the government, implicitly into his charge. I wrote
the same thing to the ecclesiastics, but I received no answer either
from the one or the other. On the contrary, he took a hostile position,
and obliged those who went to his residence to acknowledge him for
governor, as I have been told, for twenty years. As soon as I knew what
he had done with regard to the immunities, I proposed to repair this
great mistake, and I thought he would himself be glad of it; for, without
any reason or necessity, he had bestowed upon vagabonds privileges of
such importance, that they would have been excessive even for men with
wives and children. I published verbally, and in writing, that he could
not make use of his credentials, because mine were of higher authority,
and I showed the grants brought by Juan Aguado. All this I did for the
purpose of gaining time, that their Highnesses might be informed as to
the state of the country, and that they might have opportunity to give
fresh orders upon everything touching their interests. It is useless
to publish such grants in the Indies,—all is in favour of the settlers
who have taken up their abode there, because the best lands are given
up to them; and, at a low estimate, they are worth two hundred thousand
maravedis a head for the four years, at which they are taken, without a
single stroke of the mattock. I should not say so much if these people
were married men; but there are not six among them all, whose purpose
is not to amass all they can, and then decamp with it. It would be well
that people should come from Spain, but that only such should be sent
as are well known, so that the country may be peopled with honest men.
I had agreed with these settlers that they should pay the third of the
gold and of the tithes; and this they not only assented to, but were
very grateful to their Highnesses. I reproached them when I heard they
had afterwards refused it; they expected, however, to deal with me on
the same terms as with the commander, but I would not consent to it. He
meanwhile irritated them against me, saying, that I wished to deprive
them of that which their Highnesses had given them; and strove to make me
appear their enemy, in which he succeeded to the full. He induced them to
write to their Highnesses, that they should send me no more commissioned
as governor (truly I do not desire it any more for myself, or for any
who belong to me, while the people remain unchanged); and to conciliate
them, he ordered inquiries to be made respecting me with reference to
imputed misdeeds, such as were never invented in hell. But God is above,
who with so much wisdom and power rescued Daniel and the three children,
and who, if he please, can rescue me with a similar manifestation of
his power, and to the advancement of his own cause. I should have known
well enough how to find a remedy for the evils which I now describe and
have been describing as having happened to me since I came to the Indies,
if I had had the wish or had thought it decent, to busy myself about my
personal interest; but now I find myself undone, because I have hitherto
maintained the justice and augmented the territorial dominions of their
Highnesses. Now that so much gold is found, these people stop to consider
whether they can obtain the greatest quantity of it by theft, or by
going to the mines. For one woman they give a hundred castellanos,[199]
as for a farm; and this sort of trading is very common, and there are
already a great number of merchants who go in search of girls; there are
at this moment from nine or ten on sale; they fetch a good price, let
their age be what it will. I assert that when I said that the commander
could not confer immunities, I did what he desired, although I told him
that it was to gain time until their Highnesses had received information
respecting the country, and had given their orders as to the regulations
best calculated to advance their interest. I assert that the calumnies
of injurious men have done me more harm, than my services have done me
good: which is a bad example for the present as well as for the future.
I declare solemnly that a great number of men have been to the Indies,
who did not deserve baptism in the eyes of God or men, and who are now
returning thither. The governor has made every one hostile to me; and
it appears, from the manner of his acting, and the plans that he has
adopted, that he was already my enemy, and very virulent against me when
he arrived; and it is said, that he has been at great expense to obtain
this office: but I know nothing about the matter except what I have
heard. I never before heard of any one who was commissioned to make an
inquiry, assembling the rebels, and taking, as evidence against their
governor, wretches without faith, and who are unworthy of unbelief. If
their Highnesses would cause a general inquiry to be made throughout the
land, I assure you they would be astonished, that the island has not
been swallowed up. I believe that you will recollect, that when I was
driven by a tempest into the port of Lisbon (having lost my sails), I was
falsely accused of having put in thither with the intention of giving the
Indies to the sovereign of that country. Since then, their Highnesses
have learned the contrary, and that it was all malice. Although I am an
ignorant man, I do not imagine that any one supposed me so stupid as
not to be aware, that even if the Indies had belonged to me, I could
not support myself without the assistance of some prince. In such case
where should I find better support, or more security against expulsion,
than in the king and queen our sovereigns? who, from nothing, have
raised me to so great an elevation, and who are the greatest princes of
the world, on the land and on the sea. These princes know how I have
served them, and they uphold my privileges and rewards; and if any one
violates them, their Highnesses augment them by ordering great favour to
be shown me, and ordain me many honours, as was shown in the affair of
Juan Aguado. Yes, as I have said, their Highnesses have received some
services from me, and have taken my sons into their household, which
would not have happened with another prince, because where there is no
attachment, all other considerations prove of little weight. If I have
now spoken severely of a malicious slander, it is against my will, for
it is a subject I would not willingly recall even in my dreams. The
governor Bobadilla has maliciously exhibited in open day his character
and conduct in this affair; but I will prove without difficulty, that his
ignorance, his cowardice, and his inordinate cupidity, have frustrated
all his undertakings. I have already said that I wrote to him, as well
as to the monks, and I set out almost alone, all our people being with
the Adelantado and elsewhere, to remove suspicion; when he heard this he
seized Don Diego, and sent him on board a caravel, loaded with irons;
on my arrival he did the same to me; and afterwards to the Adelantado
when he came. I have never spoken with him, and to this day he has not
permitted any one to hold converse with me, and I solemnly declare that
I cannot think for what reason I was made prisoner. His first care was
to take the gold that I had, and that without measuring or weighing it,
although I was absent; he said he would pay those to whom it was owing,
and if I am to believe what has been reported to me, he reserved to
himself the greater part, and sent for strangers to make the bargains.
I had put aside some samples of this gold, some as large as a goose’s
or a hen’s egg, and of various sizes, which a few persons had collected
in a short space of time, that their Highnesses might be gratified and
impressed with the importance of the affair, when they saw a quantity of
large stones full of gold. This gold was the first that, after he had
feathered his own nest (which he was in great haste to do), his malice
suggested to give away, in order that their Highnesses might have a low
opinion of the whole affair: the gold which required melting, diminished
at the fire, and a chain weighing nearly twenty marks disappeared
altogether. I have been yet more concerned respecting this matter of
the gold than even about the affair of the pearls, that I have not been
able to bring them to their Highnesses. In every thing that he thought
could add to my annoyance, the governor has always shown himself ready
to bestir himself. Thus, as I have said, with six hundred thousand
maravedis, I should have paid every one, without injustice to any; and
I had more than four millions of tithes and constabulary dues, without
touching the gold. He made the most absurd gifts, although I believe he
began with himself first; their Highnesses will be able to ascertain
the truth on this subject when they demand the account to be rendered
them, especially if I may assist at the examination. He is continually
saying, that there is a considerable sum owing, while it is only what I
have already reported, and even less. I have been wounded extremely by
the thought, that a man should have been sent out to make inquiry into
my conduct, who knew, that if he sent home a very aggravated account
of the result of his investigation, he would remain at the head of the
government. Would to God, their Highnesses had sent either him or some
other person two years ago, for then I know that I should have had no
cause to fear either scandal or disgrace; they could not then have taken
away my honour, and I could not have been in the position to have lost
it. God is just, and He will in due time make known by whom and how it
has been done. Let them judge me, as a governor who had been sent to
Sicily or some province or city under regular government, and where the
laws could be executed without fear of danger to the public weal or
subjection to any enormous wrong. I ought to be judged as a captain sent
from Spain to the Indies, to conquer a nation numerous and warlike, with
customs and religion altogether different to ours; a people who dwell
in the mountains, without regular habitations for themselves or for
us; and where, by the Divine will, I have subdued another world to the
dominion of the King and Queen, our sovereigns; in consequence of which,
Spain, that used to be called poor, is now the most wealthy of kingdoms.
I ought to be judged as a captain, who for so many years has borne arms,
never quitting them for an instant. I ought to be judged by cavaliers who
have themselves won the meed of victory;[200] by knights of the sword
and not of title deeds; as least, so it would have been among the Greeks
and Romans, or any modern nation in which exists so much nobility as in
Spain; for under any other judgment I receive great injury, because in
the Indies there is neither civil right nor judgment seat.
Already the road is opened to the gold and pearls, and it may surely
be hoped that precious stones, spices, and a thousand other things,
will also be found. Would to God that it were as certain that I should
suffer no greater wrongs than I have already experienced, as it is that
I would, in the name of our Lord, again undertake my first voyage; and
that I would undertake to go to Arabia Felix as far as Mecca, as I have
said in the letter that I sent to their Highnesses by Antonio de Torres,
in answer to the division of the sea and land between Spain and the
Portuguese; and I would go afterwards to the North Pole, as I have said
and given in writing to the monastery of the Mejorada.
The tidings of the gold which I said I would give, are, that on
Christmas-day, being greatly afflicted and tormented by the wicked
Spaniards and the Indians, when I was at the point of leaving all to
save my life if possible, our Lord comforted me miraculously, saying to
me, “_Take courage, be not dismayed nor fear, I will provide for all;
the seven years, the term of the gold, are not yet passed; and in this,
as in the rest, I will redress thee._” I learned that same day, that
there were twenty-four leagues of land where they found mines at every
step, which appear now to form but one. Some of the people collected a
hundred and twenty castellanos’ worth in one day, others ninety; and
there have been those who have gathered the equivalent of nearly two
hundred and fifty castellanos. They consider it a good day’s work when
they collect from fifty to seventy, or even from twenty to fifty, and
many continue searching; the mean day’s work is from six to twelve, and
those who get less are very dissatisfied. It appears that these mines,
like all others, do not yield equally every day; the mines are new, and
those who collect their produce inexperienced. According to the judgment
of everybody here, it seems that, if all Spain were to come over, every
individual, however inexpert he might be, would gain the equivalent of
at least one or two castellanos in a day; and so it is up to the present
time. It is certain that any man who has an Indian to work for him,
collects as much, but the management depends upon the Spaniard. See, now,
what discernment was shown by Bobadilla when he gave up everything for
nothing, and four millions of tithes without any reason, and even without
being asked to do so, and without first giving notice to their Highnesses
of his intention; and this is not the only evil which he has caused. I
know, assuredly, that the errors which I may have fallen into, have been
committed without any intention of doing wrong, and I think that their
Highnesses will believe me when I say so; but I know and see that they
show mercy towards those who intentionally do injury to their service. I,
however, feel very certain that the day will come when they will treat me
much better; since, if I have been in error, it has been innocently and
under the force of circumstances, as they will shortly understand beyond
all doubt: I, who am their creature, and whose services and usefulness
they will every day be more willing to acknowledge. They will weigh all
in the balance, even as, according to the Holy Scripture, it will be with
the evil and the good at the day of judgment. If, nevertheless, their
Highnesses ordain me another judge, which I do not expect, and if my
examination is to be holden in the Indies, I humbly beseech them to send
over two conscientious and respectable persons at my expense, and they
would readily acknowledge that, at this time, five marks of gold may be
found in four hours: be it however as it may, it is highly necessary that
their Highnesses should have this matter inquired into. The governor,
on his arrival at St. Domingo, took up his abode in my house, and
appropriated to himself all that was therein. Well and good; perhaps
he was in want of it: but even a pirate does not behave in this manner
towards the merchants that he plunders. That which grieves me most is the
seizure of my papers, of which I have never been able to recover one; and
those that would have been most useful to me in proving my innocence,
are precisely those which he has kept most carefully concealed. Behold
the just and honest inquisitor! But whatever he may have done, they tell
me that he has now bidden good bye to justice and is simply a despot. Our
Lord God retains His power and wisdom as of old; and, above all things,
He punishes injustice and ingratitude.
CARTA
_Del Almirante al ama (que habia sido) del Principe D. Juan, escrita
hacia fines del año 1500._