PUERTO BELLO! Beautiful truly, and a harbor where might ride a navy. But
no gold; and now came back very evilly the evil weather. Seven days a
blast rocked us. We strained eyes to see if the _Margarita_ yet lived.
The _San Sebastian_ likewise was in trouble. No break for seven days. It
was those enchanters of Cariari--magic asleep for a while but now awake!
Storm. And two ships nigh to foundering. When wind sank and blue came
back, we left Puerto Bello and turned again south by east, but now with
crazy, crazy ships, weather-wrenched and worm-eaten, _teredo_ pierced.
They looked old, so old, with their whipped and darkened sails. And
when we dropped anchor in some bight there was no gold, but all night we
heard that harsh blowing of shells and beating of drums.
Francisco and Diego de Porras, Alonso de Zamorra, Pedro de Villetoro,
Bernardo the Apothecary and others, the most upon the _Consolacion_,
others on the _Margarita_ and the _Juana_, now began to brew mutiny.
We sailed on, and upon this forlorn coast we met no more gold. Our ships
grew so worn that now at any threat in the sky we must look and look
quickly for harborage, be it good or indifferent bad. To many of us the
coast now took a wicked look. It was deep in November.
No gold. These Indians--how vast anyhow was India?--were hostile, not
friendly. Our ships were dying, manifestly. If they sank under us and we
drowned, the King and Queen--if the Queen still lived--never would come
to know that Christopherus Columbus had found Veragua thrice more
golden even than Paria! Found Veragua, met men of Yucatan; and heard of
Ciguarre.
At last not only the mutinous but steadfast men cried, “If there is a
strait it is too far with these ships!”
For a time he was obstinate. _It must be found,--it must be found!_ But
one night there fell all but loss of the Margarita. When next he slept
he had a dream. “The good Queen came to me and she had in her hand
a picture of five stout ships. Out of her lips came a singing voice.
‘Master Christopherus, Master Christopherus, these wait for you, riding
in Cadiz harbor! But now will you slay your son and your brother and all
your men?’ Then she said, ‘The strait is hidden for a while,’ and went.”
That day we turned. “We will go back to Veragua and lade with gold, and
then we’ll sail to Jamaica and to Hispaniola where this time we shall be
welcome! Then to Spain where the Queen will give me a stronger fleet.”
Our ships hailed the turning. Even the Adelantado, even Diego Mendez and
Juan Sanchez and Bartholomew Fiesco who were of the boldest drew long
breath as of men respited from death.
Not so many have known and lived to tell of such weather as now we met
and in it rolled from wave to wave through a long month.
Would we put to land we were beaten back. We had never seen such waves,
and at times they glowed with cold fire. The sea with the wind twisted,
danced and shouted. We were deaf with thunder and blind with lightning.
When the rain descended, it was as though an upper ocean were coming
down. A little surcease, then return of the tempest, like return of
Polyphemus. Men died from drowning, and, I think, from pure fright. One
day the clouds drove down, the sea whirled up. There was made a huge
water column, a moving column that fast grew larger. Crying out, our
sailors flung themselves upon their knees. It passed us with a mighty
sound, and we were not engulfed.
The Admiral said, “God tries us, but he will not destroy us utterly!”
The boy Fernando, in a moment’s wild terror who was ordinarily
courageous as any, clung to him. “O my son! I would that you were in La
Rabida, safe beside Fray Juan Perez! My son and my brother Bartholomew!”
Now came to us all scarcity of food and a misery of sickness. Now two
thirds would have mutinied had we not been going back--but we were going
back--creeping, crawling back as the tempest would allow us.
Christmas! We remembered our first Christmas in this world, by Guarico
in Hispaniola, when the _Santa Maria_ sank. Again we found a harbor, and
we lay there between dead and alive, until early January. We sailed and
on Epiphany Day entered a river that we knew to be in golden Veragua.
The Admiral called it the Bethlehem.
Gold again, gold! Not on the Bethlehem, but on the river of Veragua, not
far away, to which the Admiral sent the Adelantado and two long boats
filled with our stoutest men. They brought back gold, gold, gold!
The cacique of these parts was Quibian, a barbarian whom at the last,
not the first, we concluded to be true brother of Caonabo.
With threescore of our strongest, the Adelantado pushed again up the
river of Veragua, too rough and shallow for our ships. He visited
Quibian; he traded for gold; he was taken far inland and from a hill
observed a country of the noblest, vale and mountain and Indian smokes.
The mountains, the Indians said, were packed with gold. He brought back
much gold, Indians bearing it for him in deep baskets that they made.
Quibian paid us a visit, looked sullenly around, and left us. Not in
the least was he Guacanagari! But neither, quite yet, did he turn into
Caonabo.
The Admiral sat pondering, his hands before him between his knees, his
gray-blue eyes looking further than the far mountains. Later, on the
shore, he and the Adelantado walked up and down under palm trees. The
crews watched them, knowing they were planning.
What they planned came forth the next day, and it was nothing short of a
colony, a settlement upon the banks of the river Bethlehem.
Christopherus Columbus spoke,--tall, powerful, gaunt, white-headed,
gray-eyed, trusted because he himself so trusted, suasive, filled with
the power of his vision. His frame was growing old, but he himself
stayed young. His voice never grew old, nor the gray-blue light from
his eyes. Here was gold at last, and Veragua manifestly richer than all
Hispaniola; aye, richer than Paria! Behind Veragua ran Ciguarre that was
fabulously rich, that was indeed India sloping to Ganges. The Indians
were friendly enough for all their drum-beating and shell-blowing.
Quibian’s first frowning aspect had been but aspect. A scarlet cloak
and a sack full of toys had made all right. There was rest on land, with
fruit and maize as we saw. Build a fort--leave a ship--divide our force.
A half would rest here, first settlers of a golden country with all
first settlers’ advantage. Half sail with Christopherus Columbus back
to Spain--straight to Spain--for supplies and men. He would return, he
swore it, with all speed. A ship should be left, and beyond the ship,
the Adelantado.--It was for volunteers for the fortress and city of
Veragua!
In the end eighty men said “We will stay.” We began to build. How long
since we had built La Navidad!
The River Bethlehem, that had been full when we entered, now was half
empty of its waters. The _Consolacion_, the _Juana_, and the _San
Sebastian_ that were to depart for Spain could not pass. The Admiral
hung, fitted to go, but waiting perforce for rains that should lift the
ships so they might pass the bar.
Again Juan Lepe was to stay--so surely would the staying need a
physician.
“It is March,” said the Admiral. “God aiding, I and Fernando shall be
back in October at latest.”
These Indians seemed to us to have Carib markings. Yet they all
professed amity and continuously brought in gold. We began to build by
the fort a storehouse for much gold.
Suddenly we found--Diego Mendez, bold enough and a great wanderer, doing
the finding--that Quibian’s village up the river of Veragua contained
many too, many young men and men in their prime, and that by day and
night these continued to pour in. It had--Diego Mendez thought--much the
aspect of a camp whose general steadily received reenforcement.
Next day came to the Admiral an Indian who betrayed his people. Quibian
never meant to have in Veragua a swarm of white caciques! When he had
about him every young man, he was coming, coming, coming through the
woods!
The Admiral sent the Adelantado. That strong man chose fourscore
Spaniards, armed them and departed. By boat and through thick forest he
reached Quibian’s village, descended upon it like a hurricane and seized
Quibian, much as long ago--long, long ago it seemed to us--Alonso de
Ojeda had seized Caonabo.
Juan Sanchez the pilot held Quibian in the long boat while the
Adelantado still wrought upon the land. Juan Sanchez was strong and
wary, and watchful; so they swore were all the Spaniards in the boat.
Yet when night was fallen that Indian, bound as he was, broke with a
shout from them all and leaped from boat into black river.
They thought he perished, seeing him no more for all their moving about
and bringing the boat to the land. Juan Sanchez was certain he sank,
bound as he was. With other captives and with a great mass of golden
ornaments, came back to the ships the Adelantado. The Indian camp was
broken, dispersed.
The rains began to fall. The river swelled; the fort and store place and
other houses were builded.
The eighty who were to stay and the something under that number who were
to go prepared to say farewell. We went to mass under three palm trees,
before our fort on the river Bethlehem. That over, those who were to go
went aboard the three ships, and the sails were made, and they began to
sing as they passed down the Bethlehem. The _Margarita_ and we watched
their going.
They went a league, and then another--we thought they were wholly gone.
But out of the river, though the skies were clear, again rushed against
them an enemy wind. They lay at anchor in river mouth, waiting on
propitiousness. But we, up the river, thought they were gone. That
night, before dawn, Quibian attacked us.
We had several killed, and the Adelantado was hurt in the breast, and
many others had their wounds. But we thundered with our cannon and we
loosed two bloodhounds and we charged. For a time the brown, naked foe
fought desperately, but at last he broke. Far streamed five hundred
fleeing particles into the gloomy, the deep, the matted forest. Up the
river came a long boat, and we found it to hold Diego Tristan and eight
men sent by the Admiral with a forgotten word for the Adelantado. Much
we rejoiced that the ships were not clean gone!
Diego Tristan took our news. The Adelantado--his hurt was slight--wrote
again to the Admiral. Again we said farewell to Diego Tristan. The long
boat passed a turn in the Bethlehem; out of our sight. Once we thought
we heard a faint and distant shouting, but there was no telling. But
in five hours there staggered into fort Juan de Noya who alone lived of
that boatful, set upon by Quibian. Diego Tristan dead, and seven men.
All that night we heard in the wood those throbbing Indian drums and
wild-blowing shells.
They were Caribs, now we were sure, and Quibian lived and preached a
holy war. Though we had driven them off, we heard them mustering again.
If we could not get food--perhaps not water?
Sixty of ours came to the Adelantado. In truth, all might have come,
for massacre, slow or swift, was certain if we stayed in Veragua. I read
that the Adelantado, who was never accused of cowardice or fickleness,
was himself determined. The settlement below the golden mines of golden
Veragua must wait a little.
We took our wounded and with the Adelantado, turned Mars in these three
days, came down to the Bethlehem, to a pebbly shore from which the water
had shrunken. Here at least was our ship with us, and the river that
bore to the sea. Here, for the weather was ferocious and Quibian howling
around us, we built what shelter we might. Here in much misery we waited
days for the long and wild storm to cease. We hoped the Admiral was yet
at the mouth of the Bethlehem, but could not do more than hope.
Then came through every peril that might be Pedro Ledesma, from the
ships. They waited! Break through--come down!
The _Margarita_ could never pass the bar that now the falling water left
exposed. We made rafts, we dismantled her and took what we could; we
left her in Veragua for Quibian to walk her deck and sail her if he
might. Through danger in multitude, with our rafts and two boats, with
the loss of six men, we went down the Bethlehem. Some of ours wept when
they saw the ships, and the Admiral wept when he and the Adelantado met.
Away from Veragua!
Is it only the Spaniards who suffer, and for what at the last, not
at the first, did Quibian fight? In that strong raid when we thought
Quibian perished had been taken captive brothers and kinsmen of that
cacique. These were prisoned upon the _Juana_, to be taken to Spain,
shown, made Christian, perhaps sold, perhaps--who knows?--returned to
their land, but never to freedom.
While the _Juana_ tossed where Bethlehem met the sea, these Indians
broke in the night time up through hatchway and made for the side to
throw themselves over. But the watch gave a great cry and sprang upon
them, and other Spaniards came instantly. All but two were retaken.
These two, wrenching themselves free, sprang away into rough water and
dark night, and it is most likely that they drowned, being a mile from
shore. But the others were thrust back and down under hatch which then
was chained so that they might not again lift it. But in the morning
when the captain of the _Juana_ went to look, all, all were dead, having
hanged themselves.