IN the small, small cabin of the _Nina_ Christopherus Columbus sat for a
time with his head bowed in his arms, then rose and made up a mission to
go to the cacique Guacanagari and, relating our misfortune, request aid
and shelter until we had determined upon our course. There went Diego de
Arana and Pedro Gutierrez with Luis Torres and one or two more, and they
took Diego Colon and the two St. Thomas Indians. It was now full light,
the shore and mountains green as emerald, the water its old unearthly
blue.
The _Nina_ swung at anchor just under the land and the now receding tide
uncovered more and more those sands where the Santa Maria lay huddled
and dying. The Admiral gazed, and the tears ran down his face. He was so
great that he never thought to hide just emotion. He spoke as though to
himself. “Many sins have I, many, many! But thou wilt not, O God, cast
me utterly away because of them! I will not doubt Thee, nor my calling!”
There was little space about him. The _Nina_ seemed to quiver, packed
and dark with men. His deep voice went on, and they could hear him, but
he did not seem to know that they were there. “As though upon a raft,
here a thousand leagues in Ocean-Sea! Yet wilt Thou care for thy Good
News. I will come to Spain, and I will tell it. Chosen, and almost by
very name pointed out in Thy Book! The first Christian shore that I
touch I will walk barefoot and in my shirt at the head of twelve to the
first shrine. And, O my Lord, never more will I forget that that tomb in
which thou didst rest, still, still is held by the infidel!” He beat his
breast. “_Mea culpa! mea culpa!_”
His voice sank, he looked at the sky, then with a turn of the wrist
at the wheel he put that by and became again the vigilant Admiral of a
fleet of one. “She will hold together yet a while! When the tide is out,
we can get to her and empty her. Take all ashore that can be carried or
floated and may be of use. Up and down--down and up!”
The inhabitants of Hispaniola were now about us in canoes or swimming.
They seemed to cry out in distress and sympathy, gazing at the _Santa
Maria_ as though it were a god dying there. Their own canoes were living
things to them as is any ship to a mariner, and by analogy our great
canoe was a Being dying, more of a Being than theirs, because it had
wings and could open and fold them. And then back came our boat with
Diego de Arana and the others, and they had with them that same brother
of the cacique who had come to us in St. Thomas Harbor. And had we been
wrecked off Palos, not Palos could have showed more concern or been more
ready to help than were these men.
We had three boats and the Indian canoes and hands enough, white and
copper-hued. Now at low tide, we could approach and enter the _Santa
Maria_. A great breach had been made and water was deep in her hold, but
we could get at much of casks and chests, and could take away sails
and cordage, even her two cannon. Eventually, as she broke up, we might
float away to shore much of her timber. When I looked from the wreck to
the little Nina, I could see, limned as it were in air, the Viceroy’s
first colony, set in Hispaniola, beside Guacanagari’s town. All
Christmas day we toiled and the Indians at our side. We found them
ready, not without skill, gay and biddable.
Toward sunset came Guacanagari. All the little shore was strewn and
heaped with our matters. And here I will say that no Indian stole that
day though he might have stolen, and though our possessions seemed to
him great wonders and treasure beyond estimation. What was brought from
the _Santa Maria_ lay in heaps and our men came and went. The most of
our force was ashore or in the boats; only so many on the Nina. The
Admiral, just returned to the ship, stretched himself upon the bench in
her small cabin. Powerful was his frame and constitution, and powerfully
tried all his life with a thousand strains and buffetings! It seemed
still to hold; he looked a muscular, sinewy, strong and ruddy man. But
there were signs that a careful eye might find. He lay upon the bench in
the cabin and I, who was his physician, brought him wine and biscuit
and made him eat and drink who, I knew, had not touched food since the
evening before; after which I told him to close eyes and go away to
Genoa and boyhood. He shut them, and I sitting near brought my will as
best I could to the quieting of all heavy and sorrowful waves.
But then the cacique came. So small was the _Nina_ that we could hear
well enough the word of his arrival. The Admiral opened his eyes and sat
stiffly up. He groaned and took his head into his hands, then dropped
these and with a shake of his shoulders resumed command. So many and
grievous a sea had dashed over him and retreated and he had stood! What
he said now was, “The tide of the spirit goes out; the tide comes back
in. Let it come back a spring tide!”
Guacanagari entered. This cacique, whose fortunes now began to be
intertwined with ours, had his likeness, so far as went state and
custom, to that Cuban chieftain whom Luis Torres and I had visited.
But this was an easier, less strongly fibred person, a big, amiable,
indolent man with some quality of a great dog who, accepting you and
becoming your friend, may never be estranged. He was brave after his
fashion, gifted enough in simple things. In Europe he would have been
an easy, well-liked prince or duke of no great territory. He kept a
simple state, wore some slight apparel of cotton and a golden necklet.
He brought gifts and an unfeigned sympathy for that death upon the sand
bar.
He and the Admiral sat and talked together. “Gods from
heaven?”--“Christian men and from Europe,” and we could not make him,
at this time, understand that that was not the same thing. We began
to comprehend that “heaven” was a word of many levels, and that they
ascribed to it everything that they chose to consider good and that was
manifestly out of the range of their experience.
In his turn the Admiral was ready for all that Guacanagari could tell
him. “Gold?” His eyes were upon the Indian’s necklet. Removing it, the
cacique laid it in the god’s hand. All Indians now understood that
we made high magic with gold, getting out of it virtues beyond their
comprehension. In return the Admiral gave him a small brazen gong and
hammer. “Where did they get the gold?” Again like the Cuban chief this
cacique waved his hand to the mountains. “Cibao!” and then turning he
too pointed to the south. “Much gold there,” said Diego Colon. “Inland,
in the mountains,” quoth the Admiral, “and evidently, in very great
quantity, in some land to the south! This is not Cipango, but I think
that Cipango lies to the south.” He asked who ruled Hayti that we called
Hispaniola. We understood that there were a number of caciques, but that
for a day’s journey every way it was Guacanagari’s country.
“A cacique who ruled them all?” No, there was no such thing.
“Had ships like ours and clothed men ever before come to them?”
No, never! But then he seemed to say that there was undoubtedly a
tradition. Gods had come, and would come again, and when they did so
great things would follow! But no cacique nor priest nor any knew when
the gods had come.
The Admiral made some question of Caribs. Again there was gesture
southward, though it seemed to us that something was said of folk within
this great island who were at least like Caribs. And where was the
most gold and the greatest other wealth that they knew of? Again south,
though this time we thought it rather south by west. The Admiral sighed,
and spoke of Cuba. Yes, Guacanagari knew of Cuba. Had it end far yonder
to the westward, or no end? Had any one ever come to its end? The
cacique thought not, or knew not and assumed deliberation. Luis and
I agreed that we had not met among these Indians any true notion of
a continent. To them Hayti was vast, Cuba was vast, the lands of the
Caribs, wherever they were, were vast, and vast whatever other islands
there might be. To them this was the _OEcumene_, the inhabited and
inhabitable world, Europe--Asia--Africa? Their faces stayed blank. Were
these divisions of heaven?
Guacanagari would entertain and succor us. This canoe--oh, the huge
marvel!--was too crowded! Yonder lay his town. All the houses that we
might want were ours, all the hammocks, all the food. And he would feast
the gods. That had been preparing since yesterday, A feast with dancing.
He hoped the great cacique and his people from far nearer heaven than
was Guacanagari would live as long as might be in his town. Guarico was
his town. A big, easy, amiable, likeable man, he sat in nakedness only
not utter, save for that much like a big hidalgo offering sympathy and
shelter to some fire-ousted or foe-ousted prince! As for the part of
prince it was not hard for the Admiral to play it. He was one naturally.
He thanked the cacique to whom, I could see, he had taken liking. Seven
houses would be enough. To-night some of us would sleep upon the beach
beside the heaped goods. To-morrow we would visit Guacanapri. The
big, lazy, peaceable man expressed his pleasure, then with a wide and
dignified gesture dismissing all that, asked to be shown marvels.