HISPANIOLA. FORMATION OF A COMPANY.
As the date for the King’s departure from Spain to assume the imperial
dignity drew near the opposition to his leaving grew so strong that the
question of stopping him by force, if necessary, was even mooted, and
various parts of Spain were in a state of ferment bordering on civil war.
Charles left Barcelona and proceeded through Aragon to Burgos and from
thence to Coruña, where he had summoned the Córtes of Castile to assemble.
This city had been chosen, partly because it was a convenient port of
embarkation and partly, also, because the tide of opposition and hatred
against the Flemish courtiers had reached such a height that they felt it
wiser to keep to a seaport, from whence flight would be easier than from
an inland town, in case their position became untenable after the King’s
departure.
In the midst of such preoccupations, it required all the energy and
unflagging perseverance of Las Casas to keep his affairs to the front and
save them from being forgotten; as it was, even he had moments of
discouragement in which he was tempted to drop the whole matter and retire
from the Court. His faithful Flemings, however, did not fail him, and
with their aid, he managed to get no less than seven days in the month of
May devoted to Indian affairs, before the sovereign sailed from Coruña.
During one of these sittings of the Council, Cardinal Adrian contrived to
overcome the opposition which was still active against Las Casas, by a
masterly discourse, in which he proved that by all natural and divine
laws, the policy so far pursued in the Indies was a mistaken one, and that
the Indians must be civilised and converted by humane and peaceful means.
The desired grant was finally made and consisted of two hundred and sixty
leagues of coast between Paria and Santa Marta, inclusively, and extending
inland in a direct line from its two extremities to the South Sea. The
text of this grant, which Charles V. signed in Coruña on May 19, 1520,
fills several chapters of the third part of the _Historia General de las
Indias_.
All the necessary formalities having been complied with and all obstacles
overcome, Las Casas was at last ready to launch his colonial venture.
Friends in Seville advanced him loans of money and others presented him
with a quantity of article of trade, of small enough value in Spain but of
great worth in the eyes of the Indians. The fifty men who were to adopt
the white habit of the Knight of the Golden Spur had not been selected,
but it was thought well to begin the settlement with labourers and perhaps
to choose the candidates for the new knighthood from amongst the Spaniards
already settled in the Indies. He sailed with his little company from San
Lucar de Barrameda on November 11, 1520, and after an uneventful voyage
reached the island of Puerto Rico, called by the Indians Boriquen, and
first named San Juan by the Spaniards.
While Las Casas had been sustaining his long struggle in Spain in behalf
of the Indians, a series of disastrous events had occurred in America,
which created serious obstacles in the way of his scheme for colonisation.
In 1518 some Dominican and Franciscan friars had founded two convents on
the Pearl Coast, the former at Chiribichi and the latter at Maracapana,
some seven leagues distant at the mouth of the Cumaná River and just
opposite the island of Cubagua. These religious communities had
established the most peaceful relations with all the Indians in their
neighbourhood and the friars came and went with perfect freedom, being
welcomed in all the villages. All went quietly until the arrival of one
Alonzo de Ojeda, who came from Cubagua, engaged ostensibly in the pearl
trade, but likewise in raiding for slaves. Pearl diving was as perilous
and fatal an occupation for the Indians as the work in the mines of
Hispaniola and Cuba, and such numbers had perished in Cubagua that it was
necessary to replenish the vacancies by bringing others from the
neighbouring mainland. When Ojeda landed at Chiribichi he repaired to the
convent, where he found but one priest and a lay-brother, all the others
being absent, preaching to the Spaniards in Cubagua. As he expressed a
wish to see the cacique, Maraguey, the priest, thinking no evil, sent to
invite the Indian to come to the monastery; on his arrival, Ojeda began to
question him as to whether cannibalism was practised by any tribes in the
neighbourhood, his answers being taken down on paper by a notary. The
cacique declared that there were no cannibals thereabouts and, being
displeased by the questions and alarmed by the formalities of ink and
paper, he quickly withdrew. Ojeda next went to the convent at Maracapana,
where the cacique, called Gil Gonzalez, came to meet him with every
demonstration of friendship. Ojeda declared he had come to trade and
wished to buy maize, and on the day following his arrival he left with
fifteen of his men to go inland in search of the grain. Fifty Indians
transported the loads from the interior to the coast, and while these
bearers were resting, the Spaniards suddenly drew their weapons, killing
some who tried to escape and forcing all the others on board their
caravel. The effect of this act of unprovoked treachery in a peaceful
settlement, where the Indians had received the newcomers with every
hospitality as guests, may be easily imagined, and as was natural, Gil
Gonzalez planned vengeance for the outrage. The scene at the convent
whither the cacique of Chiribichi had been summoned by his friend the
priest, and the impressive formality of the writing with pen and paper
furnished by the priest, unfortunately identified the monks in the minds
of the Indians with Ojeda and his exploits. The alarm was passed all
along the coast, and the Indians bided the moment for a favourable attack;
nor had they long to wait, for Ojeda, accompanied by ten men, came on
shore again on Saturday as indifferently as though nothing had happened.
Gil Gonzalez affected to receive them in a friendly manner, but no sooner
had they reached the village than the Indians fell upon them, killing
Ojeda and several others, while the remainder barely succeeded in reaching
the caravel. The Indians even went out in canoes to attack the vessel but
were repulsed, and the Spaniards, setting sail, put to sea.
The defenceless friars remained, however, and at Chiribichi the priest,
while vesting to say mass, and the lay-brother were both killed by the
people of the cacique Maraguey and the convent was burned. So great was
the fury of the Indians that they even killed a horse with which the monks
worked in their garden.
The news of this massacre reaching Hispaniola from the Spaniards at
Cubagua, the royal Audiencia at once despatched a small force under
Gonzalo de Ocampo to punish the Indians, and the disheartening news of
these turbulent events was the greeting that met Las Casas on his arrival
at Puerto Rico. Knowing that Ocampo’s armada would touch there on its way
to the Pearl Coast, he determined to await its arrival, where in fact
Ocampo appeared within a few days. Las Casas had been a neighbour of his
in other days and, though he knew that his treatment of the Indians did
not differ from that of the other colonists, he held him in some esteem.
He showed Ocampo his cedulas with the royal signature, which prohibited
any Spaniards from landing, against his will, in the territory granted to
him, and he formally required him to desist from his errand of vengeance.
Ocampo answered that, while he did not refuse obedience to the royal
commands, he was in this instance acting under the orders of the royal
Audiencia and was obliged to carry out the instructions he had received;
the responsibility lay with the Audiencia, which would protect him from
any consequences following the execution of its mandate.
Seeing that Ocampo was not to be stopped, Las Casas resolved to go himself
to Hispaniola, show his powers to the Audiencia, and exact the recall of
the fleet. Meanwhile he placed his colonists amongst the various planters
of Puerto Rico, who were glad enough to welcome labourers, who were scarce
in the island. This decision of Las Casas was a most mistaken one and was
the outcome of an error of judgment which did not require the light of
after events to make plain. More was certainly to be hoped from his
presence on the spot, and from the influence he might exercise over
Ocampo, than from anything he could obtain from the Audiencia, whose
members were his bitterest enemies. It was, moreover, impossible for any
counter-orders he might be able to wrest from the reluctant Audiencia, to
reach the Pearl Coast in time to stop the action of Ocampo, and Las Casas
does not even appear to have sought to detain the latter in Puerto Rico,
pending the arrival of further instructions.
After dividing his colonists, who thus became scattered, and lost touch
with him and with one another, Las Casas bought a vessel for five hundred
dollars—an enormous sum at the time—in which he sailed for Hispaniola.
His arrival in Santo Domingo was most unwelcome and revived all the
ancient odium of the colonists against him, for he was without doubt the
best-hated man in America.
He presented his papers to the Governor, and a meeting of some ten
officials, who composed what was termed the Consulta and dealt with local
questions, was convoked to consider his demands. The first of these was,
that the provisions of the royal grant to him should be formally
published, according to custom, with sound of trumpet so that all the
colonists might clearly understand the prohibition for any one to enter
the territory conceded to him, without his permission, and that all
Spaniards were commanded to treat the Indians humanely, and to keep faith
with them in treaties and contracts under severe penalties at the King’s
pleasure. Second he demanded that the Consulta should order all Spaniards
to quit the territory of his concession, and should recall Ocampo
forthwith, as the murder of the friars there had been provoked by the
barbarous conduct of Ojeda.
As his previous experience might have taught him, the Consulta listened
with gravity to his demands and permitted the proclamation of his cedulas,
but when it came to taking any action to restrain Ocampo, reasons for
delay were found and the matter dragged on without anything being
accomplished.
It being to the interests of those colonists who were expecting a rich
cargo of slaves to be brought back by Ocampo, from his punitive
expedition, to hinder the departure of Las Casas and, if possible, to
wreck his plans for colonising, divers means were invented to accomplish
this object. A rumour was started that his five-hundred-dollar vessel was
in a bad condition and unseaworthy; the authorities decided that this
point must be investigated, so several persons were named to examine the
boat and report on her condition. They did so, and promptly reported that
the vessel was not merely unseaworthy, but was in such a state that no
repairs would make her so, and that the only course was to dismantle her.
Thus Las Casas beheld his five hundred dollars vanish and himself a
fixture in Hispaniola.
Meanwhile Ocampo had reached the Pearl Coast and, feigning to come
directly from Spain with merchandise and to be entirely ignorant of the
murder of Ojeda and the friars, he succeeded in luring the cacique Gil
Gonzalez close to his ship, when a naked sailor dived overboard, grappled
with the cacique in his canoe and finally stabbed and killed him. A
landing was then made and the country raided with the usual accompaniment
of murders, torturings, and capturing of the natives, many of whom were
carried on board the vessels and sent back to Hispaniola, to be sold as
slaves. Ocampo, with others of his followers who remained behind, founded
a town, half a league up the Cumaná River, which he named New Toledo.
The arrival of the slave cargo at Hispaniola where Las Casas was still
engaged in altercations with the authorities, threw him into a terrible
rage. He protested vehemently before the Audiencia against the deliberate
and open violation of the royal commands, whose contents had been publicly
proclaimed, and he threatened to return forthwith to Spain and lay the
case before the King, from whom he would obtain the punishment of the
authors of the outrage and their condemnation to pay all the expenses of
Ocampo’s armada, which had been illegally charged to the Royal treasury.
Nobody doubted that he was capable of executing his threat, and, since it
was known that he enjoyed the protection of the all-powerful Flemings and
was something of a favourite with the young King himself, the members of
the Consulta and some of the principal men in the colony decided, after
many discussions, that it would be well to appease the clerigo’s wrath and
come to some arrangement with him for their mutual benefit. It was then
proposed to form a company, in which there should be twenty-four
shareholders, each of whom should contribute an identical sum and derive
an equal profit from the undertaking on the Pearl Coast. Six of the
shares should be assigned to the Crown, six to Las Casas and his fifty
knights of the Golden Spur, three to Admiral Diego Columbus, one to each
of the four auditors of the Audiencia, and the remaining five to the
treasurer Pasamonte and the other officials of the Audiencia.
This scheme was submitted to Las Casas, who must by that time have been
well-nigh in despair, and, although it very materially changed his
original plan, it offered the only possible means for carrying out his
intentions, so he agreed to the formation of the company. The agreement
upon which the company was based gave to Las Casas Ocampo’s armada with
several brigantines and barques and all their contents, and he was to
choose amongst the three hundred followers of Ocampo one hundred and
twenty, who should constitute the armed force of the new colony, under the
latter’s command. This arrangement, so it was pretended, would leave Las
Casas free to dedicate all his efforts to the conversion of the Indians.
The last article of the agreement was almost comical. It provided that
when Las Casas himself should denounce any Indians as cannibals, the
Spaniards should be bound to declare war against them and make slaves of
them.
He afterwards wrote concerning the articles of agreement as follows:
“Great was the blindness or ignorance—if indeed it was not malice—of those
gentlemen to believe that the clerigo would ever fulfil those horrible and
absurd conditions, knowing him to be a good Christian, not covetous, and
ready to die to liberate and help in saving those people from the
condition in which they were held.”
With his armada well equipped, and a plentiful supply of provisions and
merchandise for trading purposes on board, Las Casas finally sailed from
Hispaniola in July, 1521, directing his course first to the island of
Mona, where a quantity of cassava bread was to be taken on board, and from
thence to Puerto Rico, where he expected to collect his original
colonists. On his arrival there, not one however, was found to join the
expedition, as they had long since dispersed throughout the island or had
joined marauding expeditions to capture Indians. This defection must have
caused Las Casas great disappointment, for he had assembled these men with
great care in Spain, choosing only such as he thought from their good
character to be adapted for his ideal colony. The change which their new
and strange surroundings had operated in these peaceful, simple folk was
not unnatural; loosed from all the anchors that held them to habits of
industry and probity, they found themselves caught in new currents;
cupidity was awakened by the gold-fever that infected all the colonists,
the pious projects with which they left Spain under the guidance of their
apostolic leader were easily abandoned when the influence of his
enthusiasm was withdrawn, and they took to the freebooting ways and easy
morals of the colonists with whom they were thrown. Las Casas had
neglected to realise that they were not angels.
On arriving at that part of the Pearl Coast called Cumaná, it was found
that Ocampo’s colony of New Toledo was already in the throes of discontent
from hunger and disease; his men had begun by pressing the Indians into
service, with the result that all the natives abandoned the country,
leaving the Spaniards to starve. When it became known that those who
chose might return to Hispaniola, every man of them declared he would go,
so Las Casas was left with a few of his friends and some who were in his
pay. Ocampo showed sincere regret and much sadness at abandoning his old
friend, for whom, in spite of their differences, he had a sincere
admiration, in such a plight. He took leave of him with many
demonstrations of affection, and joining his men sailed away to
Hispaniola.
Las Casas was now in his long-desired territory, but the material for
starting his colony was sadly reduced.