IT did not end the war. For a fortnight we thought that it had done
so. Then came loud tidings. Caonabo’s wife, Anacaona, had put on the
lioness. With her was Caonabo’s brother Manicoatex and her own brother
Behechio, cacique of Xaragua. There was a new confederacy, Gwarionex
again was with it. Only Guacanagari remained. Don Alonso marched, and
the Adelantado marched.
At dawn one morning, four sails. We all poured forth to watch them
grow bigger and yet bigger. Four ships from Cadiz, Antonio de Torres
commanding, and with him colonists of the right kind, mechanics and
husbandmen.
Many proposals, much of order, came with Torres. The Admiral had
gracious letters from the Queen, letters somewhat cooler from King
Ferdinand, a dry, dry letter from Fonseca. Moreover Torres brought a
general letter to all colonists in Hispaniola. The moral of which was,
Trust and Obey the Viceroy of the Indies, the Admiral of the Ocean-Sea!
“Excellent good!” said Luis Torres. “Don Pedro Margarite and the
Apostolic Vicar had not reached Cadiz when Don Antonio sailed!”
The Admiral talked with me that night. Gout again crippled him. He lay
helpless, now and then in much pain. “I should go home with Antonio de
Torres, but I cannot!”
“You are not very fit to go.”
“I do not mean my body. My will could drag that on ship. But I cannot
leave Hispaniola while goes on formal war. But see you, Doctor, what a
great thing their Majesties plan for, and what courtesy and respect they
show me! See how the Queen writes!”
I knew that it was balm and wine to him, how she wrote. The matter in
question was nothing more or less than an amicable great meeting between
the two sovereigns and the King of Portugal, the wisest subjects of both
attending. A line was to be drawn from top to bottom of Ocean-Sea, and
Portugal might discover to the east of it, and Spain to the west! The
Holy Father would confirm, and so the mighty spoil be justly divided.
Every great geographer should come into counsel. The greatest of them
all, the Discoverer, surely so! The Queen urged the Admiral’s presence.
But he could not go. Sense of duty to his Viceroyship held him as with
chains. Then Bartholomew? But Bartholomew was greatly needed for the
war. He sent Don Diego, a gentle, able man who longed for a cloister and
a few hundred monks, fatherly, admirably, to rule.
Antonio de Torres stayed few weeks in Hispaniola. The Viceroy and
Admiral would have his letter in the royal hands. Torres took that and
took gold and strange plants, and also six hundred Indian captives to be
sold for slaves.
War went on in Hispaniola, but not for long. We had horses and
bloodhounds and men in armor, trained in the long Moorish strife. There
was a battle in the Vega that ended as it must end.
Behechio and Anacaona fled to the high mountains. Manicoatex and
Gwarionex sued for peace. It was granted, but a great tribute was
imposed. Now all Hayti must gather gold for Spain.
Now began, a little to-day and a little to-morrow, long woe for Hayti!
It was the general way of our Age. But our Age sinned.
The year wheeled to October. Juan Aguado came with four caravels to
Isabella, and he brought letters of a different tenor from those
that Torres brought. We heard in them the voice of Margarite and the
Apostolic Vicar.
But now the Admiral was well again, the Indians defeated, Hispaniola
basking in what we blithely called peace. Aguado came to examine and
interrogate. He had his letters. “Cavaliers, esquires and others, you
are to give Don Juan Aguado faith and credit. He is with you on our part
to look into--”
Aguado looked with a hostile eye toward Viceroy and Adelantado. Where
was a malcontent he came secretly if might be, if not openly, to Aguado.
Whoever had a grudge came; whoever thought he had true injury. Every one
who disliked Italians, fire-new nobles, sea captains dubbed Admirals and
Viceroys came. Every one who had been restrained from greed, lust and
violence came. Those who held an honest doubt as to some one policy, or
act, questioned, found their mere doubt become in Aguado’s mind damning
certainty. And so many good Spaniards dead in war, and so many of
pestilence, and such thinness, melancholy, poverty in Isabella! And
where was the gold? And was this rich Asia of the spices, the elephants,
the beautiful thin cloths and the jewels? The friends of Christopherus
Columbus had their say also, but suddenly there arose all the enemies.
“When he sails home, I will sail with him!” said the Admiral, “My name
is hurt, the truth is wounded!”
In the third week of Aguado’s visit, arose out of far ocean and rushed
upon us one of those immense tempests that we call here “hurricane”.
Not a few had we seen since 1492, but none so great, so terrible as this
one. Eight ships rode in the harbor and six were sunk. Aguado’s four
caravels and two others. Many seamen drowned; some got ashore half-dead.
“How will I get away? I must to Spain!” cried Aguado. The Admiral said,
“There is the _Nina_.”
The _Nina_ must be made seaworthy, and in the end we built a smaller
ship still which we called the _Santa Cruz_. Aguado waited, fretting.
Christopherus Columbus kept toward him a great, calm courtesy.
It was at this moment that Don Bartholomew found, through Miguel Diaz,
the mines of Hayna, that was a great river in a very rich country. The
Adelantado brought to Isabella ore in baskets. Pablo Belvis, our new
essayer, pronounced it true and most rich. Brought in smaller measures
were golden grains, knobs as large as filberts, golden collars and arm
rings from the Indians of Bonao where flowed the Hayna.
“Ophir!” said the Admiral. “Mayhap it is Ophir! Then have we passed
somewhere the Gulf of Persia and Trapoban!”
With that gold he sailed, he and Aguado and two small crowded ships.
With him he carried Caonabo. It was early March in 1496.
But Juan Lepe stayed in Hispaniola, greatly commended by the Admiral to
the Adelantado. A man might attach himself to the younger as well as
the elder of these brothers. Don Bartholomew had great qualities. But
he hardly dreamed as did Christopherus Columbus. I loved the latter most
for that--for his dreams.
Days and days and days! We sought for gold in the Hayna country and
found a fair amount. And all Hayti now, each Indian cacique and his
country, must gather for us. _Must_, not may. We built the fortress of
San Cristoval, and at last, to be nearer the gold than was Isabella, the
Adelantado founded the city of San Domingo, at the mouth of the Ozema,
in the Xaragua country. Spaniards in Hispaniola now lived, so many in
Isabella, so many in San Domingo, and garrisons in the forts of St.
Thomas, Concepcion, and San Cristoval.
Weeks--months. July, and Pedro Alonzo Nino with three caravels filled
with strong new men and with provisions. How always we welcomed these
incoming ships and the throng they brought that stood and listened and
thought at first, after the sea tossing and crowding, that they were
come to heaven! And Pedro Nino had left Cadiz in June, three days after
the arrival there of the _Nina_ and the _Santa Cruz_. “June! They had
then a long voyage!”--“Long enough! They looked like skeletons! If the
Admiral’s hair could get whiter, it was whiter.”
He had letters for the Adelantado from the great brother, having waited
in Cadiz while they were written.
Juan Lepe had likewise a letter. “I was in the _Nina_, Don Juan de
Aguado in the Santa Cruz. We met at once head winds that continued. At
first I made east, but at last of necessity somewhat to the southward.
We saw Marigalante again and Guadaloupe, and making for this last,
anchored and went ashore, for the great relief of all, and for water
and provision. Here we met Amazons, wearing plumes and handling mightily
their bows and arrows. After them came a host of men. Our cannon and
arquebuses put them to flight but three of our sailors were wounded.
Certain prisoners we took and bound upon the ships. In the village that
we entered we found honey and wax. They are Cannibals; they eat men.
After four days we set sail, but met again tempest and head winds,
checking us so that for weeks we but crept and crawled over ocean. At
last we must give small doles of bread and water. There grew famine,
sickness and misery. I and all may endure these when great things are
about. But they blame me. O God, who wills that the Unknown become the
Known, I betake myself to Thy court! Famine increased. There are those,
but I will not name them, who cried that we must kill the Indians with
us and eat them that we might live. I stood and said, ‘Let the Cannibals
stand with the Cannibals!’ But no man budged.--I will not weary thee,
best doctor, with our woes! At last St. Vincent rose out of sea, and
we presently came to Cadiz. Many died upon the voyage, and among them
Caonabo. In the harbor here we find Pedro Alonzo Nino who will bear my
letters.
“In Cadiz I discover both friends and not friends. The sovereigns are at
Burgos, and thither I travel. My fortunes are at ebb, yet will the flood
come again!”
Time passed. Hispaniola heard again from him and again. When ships
put forth from Cadiz--and now ships passed with sufficient regularity
between Spain in Europe and Spanish Land across Ocean-Sea--he wrote by
them. He believed in the letter. God only knows how many he wrote in his
lifetime! It was ease to him to tell out, to dream visibly, to argue his
case on fair paper. And those who came in the ships had stories about
him-El Almirante!
Were his fortunes at ebb, or were they still in flood? There might
be more views here than one. Some put in that he was done for, others
clamored that he was yet mounting.
But he wrote to the Adelantado and also to Juan Lepe that he sat between
good and bad at court. The Queen was ever the great head of the good.
We knew from him that Pedro Margarite and Father Buil and Juan Aguado
altered nothing there. But elsewhere now there were warm winds, and now
biting cold. And warm and cold, he could not get the winds that should
fill his sails. He begged for ships--eight he named--that he might now
find for the sovereigns main Asia--not touch here and there upon Cuba
shore, but find the Deep All. But forever promised, he was forever kept
from the ships! True it was that the sovereigns and the world beside
were busy folk! There were Royal Marriages and Naples to be reconquered
for its king.
We heard of confirmations of all his dignities and his tithes of wealth.
He was offered to be made Marquess, but that he would not have. “The
Admiral” was better title. But he sued for and obtained entail upon his
sons and their sons forever of his nobility and his great Estate in the
West. “Thus,” he wrote, “have I made your fortunes, sons and brothers!
But truly not without you and your love and strengthening could I have
made aught! A brother indeed for my left hand and my right hand, and to
beckon me on, two dear sons!”