THE SECOND VOYAGE, CONTINUED.
1494-1496.
[Sidenote: 1494. September 29. Columbus in Isabella.]
It was the 29th of September, 1494, when the "Nina," with the senseless
Admiral on board, and her frail consorts stood into the harbor of
Isabella. Taken ashore, the sick man found no restorative like the
presence of his brother Bartholomew, who had reached Isabella during the
Admiral's absence.
[Sidenote: Finds Bartholomew Columbus there.]
[Sidenote: Bartholomew's career in England.]
Several years had elapsed since the two congenial brothers had parted.
We have seen that this brother had probably been with Bartholomew Diaz
when he discovered the African cape. It is supposed, from the
inscriptions on it, that the map delivered by Bartholomew to Henry VII.
had shown the results of Diaz's discoveries. This chart had been taken
to England, when Bartholomew had gone thither, to engage the interest of
Henry VII. in Columbus's behalf. There is some obscurity about the
movements of Bartholomew at this time, but there is thought by some to
be reason to believe that he finally got sufficient encouragement from
that Tudor prince to start for Spain with offers for his brother. The
_Historie_ tells us that the propositions of Bartholomew were speedily
accepted by Henry, and this statement prevails in the earlier English
writers, like Hakluyt and Bacon; but Oviedo says the scheme was derided,
and Geraldini says it was declined. Bartholomew reached Paris just at
the time when word had come there of Columbus's return from his first
voyage. His kinship to the Admiral, and his own expositions of the
geographical problem then attracting so much attention, drew him within
the influence of the French court, and Charles VIII. is said to have
furnished him the means--as Bartholomew was then low in purse--to
pursue his way to Spain.
[Sidenote: In Spain.]
He was, however, too late to see the Admiral, who had already departed
from Cadiz on this second voyage. Finding that it had been arranged for
his brother's sons to be pages at Court, he sought them, and in company
with them he presented himself before the Spanish monarchs at
Valladolid. These sovereigns were about fitting out a supply fleet for
Española, and Bartholomew was put in command of an advance section of
it. Sailing from Cadiz on April 30, 1494, with three caravels, he
reached Isabella on St. John's Day, after the Admiral had left for his
western cruise.
[Sidenote: His character.]
[Sidenote: Created Adelantado.]
If it was prudent for Columbus to bring another foreigner to his aid, he
found in Bartholomew a fitter and more courageous spirit than Diego
possessed. The Admiral was pretty sure now to have an active and
fearless deputy, sterner, indeed, in his habitual bearing than Columbus,
and with a hardihood both of spirit and body that fitted him for
command. These qualities were not suited to pacify the haughty hidalgos,
but they were merits which rendered him able to confront the discontent
of all settlers, and gave him the temper to stand in no fear of them. He
brought to the government of an ill-assorted community a good deal that
the Admiral lacked. He was soberer in his imagination; not so prone to
let his wishes figure the future; more practiced, if we may believe Las
Casas, in the arts of composition, and able to speak and write much more
directly and comprehensibly than his brother. He managed men better, and
business proceeded more regularly under his control, and he contrived to
save what was possible from the wreck of disorder into which his
brother's unfitness for command had thrown the colony. This is the man
whom Las Casas enables us to understand, through the traits of character
which he depicts. Columbus was now to create this brother his
representative, in certain ways, with the title of Adelantado.
It was also no small satisfaction to the Admiral, in his present
weakness, to learn of the well-being of his children, and of the
continued favor with which he was held at Court, little anticipating the
resentment of Ferdinand that an office of the rank of Adelantado should
be created by any delegated authority.
[Sidenote: Papal Bull of Extension.]
Columbus had pursued his recent explorations in some measure to
forestall what he feared the Portuguese might be led to attempt in the
same direction, for he had not been unaware of the disturbance in the
court at Lisbon which the papal line of demarcation had created. He was
glad now to learn from his brother that his own fleet had hardly got to
sea from Cadiz, in September, 1493, when the Pope, by another bull on
the 26th of that month, had declared that all countries of the eastern
Indies which the Spaniards might find, in case they were not already in
Christian hands, should be included in the grant made to Spain. This
Bull of Extension, as it was called, was a new thorn in the side of
Portugal, and time would reveal its effect. Alexander had resisted all
importunities to recede from his position, taken in May.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Events in Española during the absence of Columbus.]
Let us look now at what had happened in Española during the absence of
Columbus; but in the first place, we must mark out the native division
of the island with whose history Columbus's career is so associated.
Just back of Isabella, and about the Vega Real, whose bewildering
beauties of grove and savanna have excited the admiration of modern
visitors, lay the territory tributary to a cacique named Guarionex,
which was bounded south by the Cibao gold mountains. South of these
interior ridges and extending to the southern shore of the island lay
the region (Maguana) of the most warlike of all the native princes,
Caonabo, whose wife, Anacaona, was a sister of Behechio, who governed
Xaragua, as the larger part of the southern coast, westward of Caonabo's
domain, including the long southwestern peninsula, was called. The
northeastern part of the island (Marien) was subject to Guacanagari, the
cacique neighboring to La Navidad. The eastern end (Higuay) of the
island was under the domination of a chief named Cotabanana.
It will be remembered that before starting for Cuba the Admiral had
equipped an expedition, which, when it arrived at St. Thomas, was to be
consigned to the charge of Pedro Margarite. This officer had
instructions to explore the mountains of Cibao, and map out its
resources. He was not to harass the natives by impositions, but he was
to make them fear his power. It was also his business to avoid reducing
the colony's supplies by making the natives support this exploring
force. If he could not get this support by fair means, he was to use
foul means. Such instructions were hazardous enough; but Margarite was
not the man to soften their application. He had even failed to grasp the
spirit of the instructions which had been given by Columbus to ensnare
Caonabo, which were "as thoroughly base and treacherous as could well be
imagined," says Helps, and the reader can see them in Navarrete.
[Illustration: NATIVE DIVISIONS OF ESPAÑOLA.
[From Charlevoix's _L'Isle Espagnole_, Amsterdam, 1733.]]
This commander had spent his time mainly among the luxurious scenes of
the Vega Real, despoiling its tribes of their provisions, and
squandering the energies of his men in sensual diversions. The natives,
who ought to have been his helpers, became irritated at his extortions
and indignant at the invasion of their household happiness. The
condition in the tribes which this riotous conduct had induced looked so
threatening that Diego Columbus, as president of the council, wrote to
Margarite in remonstrance, and reminded him of the Admiral's
instructions to explore the mountains.
[Sidenote: Factions.]
The haughty Spaniard, taking umbrage at what he deemed an interference
with his independent command, readily lent himself to the faction
inimical to Columbus. With his aid and with that of Father Boyle, a
brother Catalonian, who had proved false to his office as a member of
the ruling council and even finally disregardful of the royal wishes
that he should remain in the colony, an uneasy party was soon banded
together in Isabella. The modern French canonizers, in order to
reconcile the choice by the Pope of this recusant priest, claim that his
Holiness, or the king for him, confounded a Benedictine and Franciscan
priest of the same name, and that the Benedictine was an unlucky
changeling--perhaps even purposely--for the true monk of the
Franciscans.
In the face of Diego, this cabal found little difficulty in planning to
leave the island for Spain in the ships which had come with Bartholomew
Columbus. Diego had no power to meet with compulsion the defiance of
these mutineers, and was subjected to the sore mortification of seeing
the rebels sail out of the harbor for Spain. There was left to Diego,
however, some satisfaction in feeling that such dangerous ringleaders
were gone; but it was not unaccompanied with anxiety to know what effect
their representations would have at Court. A like anxiety now became
poignant in the Admiral's mind, on his return.
The stories which Diego and Bartholomew were compelled to tell Columbus
of the sequel of this violent abandonment of the colony were sad ones.
The license which Pedro Margarite had permitted became more extended,
when the little armed force of the colony found itself without military
restraint. It soon disbanded in large part, and lawless squads of
soldiers were scattered throughout the country, wherever passion or
avarice could find anything to prey upon. The long-suffering Indians
soon reached the limits of endurance. A few acts of vengeance encouraged
them to commit others, and everywhere small parties of the Spaniards
were cut off as they wandered about for food and lustful conquests. The
inhabitants of villages turned upon such stragglers as abused their
hospitalities. Houses where they sheltered themselves were fired.
Detached posts were besieged.
[Sidenote: Caonabo and Fort St. Thomas.]
While this condition prevailed, Caonabo planned to surprise Fort St.
Thomas. Ojeda, here in control with fifty men, commanded about the only
remnant of the Spanish forces which acknowledged the discipline of a
competent leader. The vigilant Ojeda did not fail to get intelligence of
Caonabo's intentions. He made new vows to the Virgin, before an old
Flemish picture of Our Lady which hung in his chamber in the fort, and
which never failed to encourage him, wherever he tarried or wherever he
strayed. Every man was under arms, and every eye was alert, when their
commander, as great in spirit as he was diminutive in stature, marshaled
his fifty men along his ramparts, as Caonabo with his horde of naked
warriors advanced to surprise him. The outraged cacique was too late. No
unclothed natives dared to come within range of the Spanish crossbows
and arquebuses. Ojeda met every artful and stealthy approach by a sally
that dropped the bravest of Caonabo's warriors.
The cacique next tried to starve the Spaniards out. His parties infested
every path, and if a foraging force came out, or one of succor
endeavored to get in, multitudes of the natives foiled the endeavor.
Famine was impending in the fort. The procrastinations of the arts of
beleaguering always help the white man behind his ramparts, when the
savage is his enemy. The native force dwindled under the delays, and
Caonabo at last abandoned the siege.
[Sidenote: Caonabo's league.]
The native leader now gave himself to a larger enterprise. His spies
told him of the weakened condition of Isabella, and he resolved to form
a league of the principal caciques of the island to attack that
settlement. Wherever the Spaniards had penetrated, they had turned the
friendliest feelings into hatred, and in remote parts of the island the
reports of the Spanish ravages served, almost as much as the experience
of them, to embitter the savage. It was no small success for Caonabo to
make the other caciques believe that the supernatural character of the
Spaniards would not protect them if a combined attack should be
arranged. He persuaded all of them but Guacanagari, for that earliest
friend of Columbus remained firm in his devotion to the Spaniards. The
Admiral's confidence in him had not been misplaced. He was subjected to
attacks by the other chieftains, but his constancy survived them all. In
these incursions of his neighbors, his wives were killed and captured,
and among them the dauntless Catalina, as is affirmed; but his zeal for
his white neighbors did not abate.
[Sidenote: Columbus and Guacanagari.]
When Guacanagari heard that Columbus had returned, he repaired to
Isabella, and from this faithful ally the Admiral learned of the plans
which were only waiting further developments for precipitate action.
[Sidenote: Fort Conception.]
Columbus, thus forewarned, was eager to break any confederacy of the
Indians before it could gather strength. He had hardly a leader
disengaged whom he could send on the warpath. It was scarcely politic
to place Bartholomew in any such command over the few remaining Spanish
cavaliers whose spirit was so necessary to any military adventure. He
sent a party, however, to relieve a small garrison near the villages of
Guatiguana, a tributary chief to the great cacique Guarionex; but the
party resorted to the old excesses, and came near defeating the purposes
of Columbus. Guatiguana was prevailed upon, however, to come to the
Spanish settlement, and Columbus, to seal his agreement of amity with
him, persuaded him to let the Lucayan interpreter marry his daughter. To
this diplomatic arrangement the Admiral added the more powerful argument
of a fort, called La Concepcion, which he later built where it could
command the Vega Real.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Torres's ships arrive.]
It was not long before four ships, with Antonio Torres in command,
arrived from Spain, bringing a new store of provisions, another
physician, and more medicines, and, what was much needed, artificers and
numerous gardeners. There was some hope now that the soil could be made
to do its part in the support of the colony.
[Sidenote: 1494. June 7. Treaty of Tordesillas.]
To the Admiral came a letter, dated August 16, from Ferdinand and
Isabella, giving him notice that all the difficulties with Portugal had
been amicably adjusted. The court of Lisbon, finding that Pope Alexander
was not inclined to recede from his position, and Spain not courting any
difference that would lead to hostilities, both countries had easily
been brought to an agreement, which was made at Tordesillas, June 7,
1494, to move the line of demarcation so much farther as to fall 370
leagues west of the Cape de Verde Islands. Each country then bound
itself to respect its granted rights under the bull thus modified. The
historical study of this diplomatic controversy over the papal division
of the world is much embarrassed by the lack of documentary records of
the correspondence carried on by Spain, Portugal, and the Pope.
[Sidenote: The sovereign's letter to Columbus,]
This letter of August 16 must have been very gratifying to Columbus.
Their Majesties told him that one of the principal reasons of their
rejoicing in his discoveries was that they felt it all due to his genius
and perseverance, and that the events had justified his foreknowledge
and their expectations. So now, in their desire to define the new line
of demarcation, and in the hope that it might be found to run through
some ocean island, where a monument could be erected, they turned to him
for assistance, and they expected that if he could not return to assist
in these final negotiations, he would dispatch to them some one who was
competent to deal with the geographical problem.
[Sidenote: and to the colonists.]
Torres had also brought a general letter of counsel to the colonists,
commanding them to obey all the wishes and to bow to the authority of
the Admiral. Whatever his lack of responsibility, in some measure at
least, for the undoubted commercial failure of the colony, its want of a
product in any degree commensurate both with expectation and outlay
could not fail, as he well understood, to have a strong effect both on
the spirit of the people and on the constancy of his royal patrons, who
might, under the urging of Margarite and his abettors, have already
swerved from his support.
[Sidenote: 1495. February 24. The fleet returns to Spain.]
[Sidenote: Carrying slaves.]
[Sidenote: Columbus and slavery.]
Reasons of this kind made it imperative that the newly arrived ships
should be returned without delay, and with such reassuring messages and
returns as could be furnished. The fleet departed on February 24, 1495.
Himself still prostrate, and needing his brother Bartholomew to act
during this season of his incapacity, there was no one he could spare so
well to meet the wishes of the sovereigns as his other brother. So armed
with maps and instructions, and with the further mission of protecting
the Admiral's interest at Court, Diego embarked in one of the caravels.
All the gold which had been collected was consigned to Diego's care, but
it was only a sorry show, after all. There had been a variety of new
fruits and spices, and samples of baser metals gathered, and these
helped to complete the lading. There was one resource left. He had
intimated his readiness to avail himself of it in the communication of
his views to the sovereigns, which Torres had already conveyed to them.
He now gave the plan the full force of an experiment, and packed into
the little caravels full five hundred of the unhappy natives, to be sold
as slaves. "The very ship," says Helps, "which brought that admirable
reply from Ferdinand and Isabella to Columbus, begging him to seek some
other way to Christianity than through slavery, even for wild
man-devouring Caribs, should go back full of slaves taken from among the
mild islanders of Hispaniola." The act was a long step in the miserable
degradation which Columbus put upon those poor creatures whose existence
he had made known to the world. Almost in the same breath, as in his
letter to Santangel, he had suggested the future of a slave traffic out
of that very existence. It is an obvious plea in his defense that the
example of the church and of kings had made such heartless conduct a
common resort to meet the financial burdens of conquest. The Portuguese
had done it in Africa; the Spaniards had done it in Spain. The
contemporary history of that age may be said to ring with the wails and
moans of such negro and Moorish victims. A Holy Religion had
unblushingly been made the sponsor for such a crime. Theologians had
proved that the Word of God could ordain misery in this world, if only
the recompense came--or be supposed to come--in a passport to the
Christian's heaven.
The merit which Columbus arrogated to himself was that he was superior
to the cosmographical knowledge of his time. It was the merit of Las
Casas that he threw upon the reeking passions of the enslaver the light
of a religion that was above sophistry and purer than cupidity. The
existence of Las Casas is the arraignment of Columbus.
It may be indeed asking too much of weak humanity to be good in all
things, and therein rests the pitiful plea for Columbus, the originator
of American slavery.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Attacked by bloodhounds.]
Events soon became ominous. A savage host began to gather in the Vega
Real, and all that Columbus, now recovering his strength, could marshal
in his defense was about two hundred foot and twenty horse, but they
were cased in steel, and the natives were naked. In this respect, the
fight was unequal, and the more so that the Spaniards were now able to
take into the field a pack of twenty implacable bloodhounds. The bare
bodies of the Indians had no protection against their insatiate thirst.
[Sidenote: 1495. March 27. Columbus marches,]
[Sidenote: and fights in the Vega Real.]
It was the 27th of March, 1495, when Columbus, at the head of this
little army, marched forth from Isabella, to confront a force of the
natives, which, if we choose to believe the figures that are given by
Las Casas, amounted to 100,000 men, massed under the command of
Manicaotex. The whites climbed the Pass of the Hidalgos, where Columbus
had opened the way the year before, and descended into that lovely
valley, no longer a hospitable paradise. As they approached the hostile
horde, details were sent to make the attacks various and simultaneous.
The Indians were surprised at the flashes of the arquebuses from every
quarter of the woody covert, and the clang of their enemies' drums and
the bray of their trumpets drowned the savage yells. The native army had
already begun to stagger in their wonder and perplexity, when Ojeda,
seizing the opportune moment, dashed with his mounted lancemen right
into the centre of the dusky mass. The bloodhounds rushed to their
sanguinary work on his flanks. The task was soon done. The woods were
filled with flying and shrieking savages. The league of the caciques was
broken, and it was only left for the conquerors to gather up their
prisoners. Guacanagari, who had followed the white army with a train of
his subjects, looked on with the same wonder which struck the Indians
who were beaten.
[Sidenote: 1495. April 25.]
There was no opportunity for him to fight at all. The rout had been
complete. This notable conflict taking place on April 25, 1495, is a
central point in a somewhat bewildering tangle of events, as our
authorities relate them, so that it is not easy in all cases to
establish their sequence.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Caonabo captured by Ojeda.]
The question of dealing with Caonabo was still the most important of
all. It was solved by the cunning and dash of Ojeda. Presenting his plan
to the Admiral, he was commanded to carry it out. Taking ten men whom he
could trust, Ojeda boldly sought the village where Caonabo was
quartered, and with as much intrepidity as cunning put himself in the
power of that cacique. The chieftain was not without chivalry, and the
confidence and audacity of Ojeda won him. Hospitality was extended, and
the confidences of a mutual respect soon ensued. Ojeda proposed that
Caonabo should accompany him to Isabella, to make a compact of
friendship with the Viceroy. All then would be peaceful. Caonabo, who
had often wondered at the talking of the great bell in the chapel at
Isabella, as he had heard it when skulking about the settlement, eagerly
sprang to the lure, when Ojeda promised that he should have the bell.
Ojeda, congratulating himself on the success of his bait, was
disconcerted when he found that the cacique intended that a large force
of armed followers should make the visit with him. To prevent this,
Ojeda resorted to a stratagem, which is related by Las Casas, who says
it was often spoken of when that priest first came to the island, six
years later. Muñoz was not brought to believe the tale; but Helps sees
no obstacle to giving it credence.
The Spaniards and the Indians were all on the march together, and had
encamped by a river. Ojeda produced a set of burnished steel manacles,
and told the cacique that they were ornaments such as the King of Spain
wore on solemn occasions, and that he had been commanded to give them to
the most distinguished native prince. He first proposed a bath in the
river. The swim over, Caonabo was prevailed upon to be put behind Ojeda
astride the same horse. Then the shining baubles were adjusted,
apparently without exciting suspicion, amid the elation of the savage at
his high seat upon the wondrous beast. A few sweeping gallops of the
horse, guided by Ojeda, and followed by the other mounted spearmen,
scattered the amazed crowd of the cacique's attendants. Then at a
convenient gap in the circle Ojeda spurred his steed, and the whole
mounted party dashed into the forest and away. The party drew up only
when they had got beyond pursuit, in order to bind the cacique faster in
his seat. So in due time, this little cavalcade galloped into Isabella
with its manacled prisoner.
[Sidenote: Meets Columbus.]
The meeting of Columbus and his captive was one of very different
emotions in the two,--the Admiral rejoicing that his most active foe was
in his power, and the cacique abating nothing of the defiance which
belonged to his freedom. Las Casas tells us that, as Caonabo lay in his
shackles in an outer apartment of the Admiral's house, the people came
and looked at him. He also relates that the bold Ojeda was the only one
toward whom the prisoner manifested any respect, acknowledging in this
way his admiration for his audacity. He would maintain only an
indifferent haughtiness toward the Admiral, who had not, as he said, the
courage to do himself what he left to the bravery of his lieutenant.
[Sidenote: Ojeda attacks the Indians.]
Ojeda presently returned to his command at St. Thomas, only to find that
a brother of Caonabo had gathered the Indians for an assault. Dauntless
audacity again saved him. He had brought with him some new men, and so,
leaving a garrison in the fort, he sallied forth with his horsemen and
with as many foot as he could muster and attacked the approaching host.
A charge of the glittering horse, with the flashing of sabres, broke the
dusky line. The savages fled, leaving their commander a prisoner in
Ojeda's hands.
Columbus followed up these triumphs by a march through the country.
Every opposition needed scarce more than a dash of Ojeda's cavalry to
break it. The Vega was once more quiet with a sullen submission. The
confederated caciques all sued for peace, except Behechio, who ruled the
southwestern corner of the island. The whites had not yet invaded his
territory, and he retired morosely, taking with him his sister,
Anacaona, the wife of the imprisoned Caonabo.
[Sidenote: Repartimientos and encomiendas.]
The battle and the succeeding collapse had settled the fate of the poor
natives. The policy of subjecting men by violence to pay the tribute of
their lives and property to Spanish cupidity was begun in earnest, and
it was shortly after made to include the labor on the Spanish farms,
which, under the names of repartimientos and encomiendas, demoralized
the lives of master and slave. When prisoners were gathered
in such numbers that to guard them was a burden, there could be but
little delay in forcing the issue of the slave trade upon the Crown as a
part of an established policy. To the mind of Columbus, there was now
some chance of repelling the accusations of Margarite and Father Boyle
by palpable returns of olive flesh and shining metal. A scheme of
enforced contribution of gold was accordingly planned. Each native above
the age of fourteen was required to pay every three months, into the
Spanish coffers, his share of gold, measured by the capacity of a hawk's
bell for the common person, and by that of a calabash for the cacique.
In the regions distant from the gold deposits, cotton was accepted as a
substitute, twenty-five pounds for each person. A copper medal was put
on the neck of every Indian for each payment, and new exactions were
levied upon those who failed to show the medals. The amount of this
tribute was more than the poor natives could find, and Guarionex tried
to have it commuted for grain; but the golden greed of Columbus was
inexorable. He preferred to reduce the requirements rather than vary the
kind. A half of a hawk's bell of gold was better than stores of grain.
"It is a curious circumstance," says Irving, "that the miseries of the
poor natives should thus be measured out, as it were, by the very
baubles which first fascinated them."
[Sidenote: Forts built.]
To make this payment sure, it was necessary to establish other armed
posts through the country; and there were speedily built that of
Magdalena in the Vega, one called Esperanza in Cibao, another named
Catalina, beside La Concepcion, which has already been mentioned.
[Sidenote: The natives debased.]
The change which ensued in the lives of the natives was pitiable. The
labor of sifting the sands of the streams for gold, which they had
heretofore made a mere pastime to secure bits to pound into ornaments,
became a depressing task. To work fields under a tropical sun, where
they had basked for sportive rest, converted their native joyousness
into despair. They sang their grief in melancholy songs, as Peter Martyr
tells us. Gradually they withdrew from their old haunts, and by hiding
in the mountains, they sought to avoid the exactions, and to force the
Spaniards, thus no longer supplied by native labor with food, to abandon
their posts and retire to Isabella, if not to leave the island.
[Sidenote: Guacanagari disappears.]
Scant fare for themselves and the misery of dank lurking-places were
preferable to the heavy burdens of the taskmasters. They died in their
retreats rather than return to their miserable labors. Even the
long-tried friend of the Spaniards, Guacanagari, was made no exception.
He and his people suffered every exaction with the rest of their
countrymen. The cacique himself is said eventually to have buried
himself in despair in the mountain fastnesses, and so passed from the
sight of men.
The Spaniards were not so easily to be thwarted. They hunted the poor
creatures like game, and, under the goading of lashes, such as survived
were in time returned to their slavery. So thoroughly was every instinct
of vengeance rooted out of the naturally timid nature of the Indians
that a Spaniard might, as Las Casas tells us, march solemnly like an
army through the most solitary parts of the island and receive tribute
at every demand.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Columbus's interests in Spain.]
It is time to watch the effect of the representations of Margarite and
Father Boyle at the Spanish Court. Columbus had been doubtless impelled,
in these schemes of cruel exaction, by the fear of their influence, and
with the hope of meeting their sneers at his ill success with
substantial tribute to the Crown. The charges against Columbus and his
policy and against his misrepresentation had all the immediate effect of
accusations which are supported by one-sided witnesses. Every sentiment
of jealousy and pride was played upon, and every circumstance of
palliation and modification was ignored. The suspicious reservation
which had more or less characterized the bearing of Ferdinand towards
the transactions of the hero could become a background to the newer
emotions. Fonseca and the comptroller Juan de Soria are charged with an
easy acceptance of every insinuation against the Viceroy. The canonizers
cannot execrate Fonseca enough. They make him alternately the creature
and beguiler of the King. His subserviency, his trading in bishoprics,
and his alleged hatred of Columbus are features of all their portraits
of him.
[Sidenote: Aguado sent to Española.]
The case against the Admiral was thus successfully argued. Testimony
like that of the receiver of the Crown taxes in rebuttal of charges
seemed to weigh little. Movements having been instituted at once (April
7, 1495) to succor the colony by the immediate dispatch of supplies, it
was two days later agreed with Beradi--the same with whom Vespucius had
been associated, as we have seen--to furnish twelve ships for Española.
The resolution was then taken to send an agent to investigate the
affairs of the colony. If he should find the Admiral still absent,--for
the length of his cruise to Cuba had already, at that time, begun to
excite apprehension of his safety,--this same agent was to superintend
the distribution of the supplies which he was to take. At this juncture,
in April, 1495, Torres, arriving with his fleet, reported the Admiral's
safe return, and submitted the notarial document, in which Columbus had
made it clear to his own satisfaction that the Golden Chersonesus was in
sight. Whether that freak of geographical prescience threw about his
expedition a temporary splendor, and again wakened the gratitude of the
sovereigns, as Irving says it did, may be left to the imagination; but
the fact remains that the sovereigns did not swerve from their purpose
to send an inquisitor to the colony, and the same Juan Aguado who had
come back with credentials from the Admiral himself was selected for the
mission.
[Sidenote: 1495. April 10. All Spaniards allowed to explore.]
[Sidenote: Nameless voyagers.]
There were some recent orders of the Crown which Aguado was to break to
the Admiral, from which Columbus could not fail to discover that the
exclusiveness of his powers was seriously impaired. On the 10th of
April, 1495, it had been ordered that any native-born Spaniard could
invade the seas which had been sacredly apportioned to Columbus, that
such navigator might discover what he could, and even settle, if he
liked, in Española. This order was a ground of serious complaint by
Columbus at a later day, for the reason that this license was availed of
by unworthy interlopers. He declares that after the way had been shown
even the very tailors turned explorers. It seems tolerably certain that
this irresponsible voyaging, which continued till Columbus induced the
monarchs to rescind the order in June, 1497, worked developments in the
current cartography of the new regions which it is difficult to trace to
their distinct sources. Gomara intimates that during this period there
were nameless voyagers, of whose exploits we have no record by which to
identify them, and Navarrete and Humboldt find evidences of
explorations which cannot otherwise be accounted for.
[Sidenote: Enemies of Columbus.]
How far this condition of affairs was brought about by the importunities
of the enemies of Columbus is not clear. The surviving Pinzons are said
to have been in part those who influenced the monarchs, but doubtless a
share of profits, which the Crown required from all such private
speculation, was quite as strong an incentive as any importunities of
eager mariners. The burdens of the official expeditions were onerous for
an exhausted treasury, and any resource to replenish its coffers was not
very narrowly scrutinized in the light of the pledges which Columbus had
exacted from a Crown that was beginning to understand the impolicy of
such concessions.
[Sidenote: Fonseca and Diego Colon.]
There was also at this time a passage of words between Fonseca and Diego
Colon that was not without irritating elements. The Admiral's brother
had brought some gold with him, which he claimed as his own. Fonseca
withheld it, but in the end obeyed the sovereign's order and released
it. It was no time to add to the complications of the Crown's relations
with the distant Viceroy.
[Sidenote: Royal letter to Columbus.]
Aguado bore a royal letter, which commanded Columbus to reduce the
dependents of the colony to five hundred, as a necessary retrenchment.
There had previously been a thousand. Directions were also given to
control the apportionment of rations. A new metallurgist and
master-miner, Pablo Belvis, was sent out, and extraordinary privileges
in the working of the mines were given to him. Muñoz says that he
introduced there the quicksilver process of separating the gold from the
sand. A number of new priests were collected to take the place of those
who had returned, or who desired to come back.
[Sidenote: Columbus and slavery.]
Such were the companions and instructions that Aguado was commissioned
to bear to Columbus. There was still another movement in the policy of
the Crown that offered the Viceroy little ground for reassurance. The
prisoners which he had sent by the ships raised a serious question. It
was determined that any transaction looking to the making slaves of them
had not been authorized; but the desire of Columbus so to treat them had
at first been met by a royal order directing their sale in the marts of
Andalusia. A few days later, under the influence of Isabella, this
order had been suspended, till an inquiry could be made into the cause
of the capture of the Indians, and until the theologians could decide
upon the justifiableness of such a sale. If we may believe Bernaldez,
who pictures their misery, they were subsequently sold in Seville.
Muñoz, however, says that he could not find that the trouble which
harassed the theologians was ever decided. Such hesitancy was calculated
to present a cruel dilemma to the Viceroy, since the only way in which
the clamor of the Court for gold could be promptly appeased came near
being prohibited by what Columbus must have called the misapplied mercy
of the Queen. He failed to see, as Muñoz suggests, why vassals of the
Crown, entering upon acts of resistance, should not be subjected to
every sort of cruelty. Humboldt wonders at any hesitancy when the grand
inquisitor, Torquemada, was burning heretics so fiercely at this time
that such expiations of the poor Moors and Jews numbered 8,800 between
1481 and 1498!
[Sidenote: 1495. October. Aguado at Isabella.]
Aguado, with four caravels, and Diego Columbus accompanying him, having
sailed from Cadiz late in August, 1495, reached the harbor of Isabella
some time in October. The new commissioner found the Admiral absent,
occupied with affairs in other parts of the island. Aguado soon made
known his authority. It was embraced in a brief missive, dated April 9,
1495, and as Irving translates it, it read: "Cavaliers, esquires, and
other persons, who by our orders are in the Indies, we send to you Juan
Aguado, our groom of the chambers, who will speak to you on our part. We
command you to give him faith and credit." The efficacy of such an order
depended on the royal purpose that was behind it, and on the will of the
commissioner, which might or might not conform to that purpose. It has
been a plea of Irving and others that Aguado, elated by a transient
authority, transcended the intentions of the monarchs. It is not easy to
find a definite determination of such a question. It appears that when
the instrument was proclaimed by trumpet, the general opinion did not
interpret the order as a suspension of the Viceroy's powers. The
Adelantado, who was governing in Columbus's absence, saw the new
commissioner order arrests, countermand directions, and in various ways
assume the functions of a governor. Bartholomew was in no condition to
do more than mildly remonstrate. It was clearly not safe for him to
provoke the great body of the discontented colonists, who professed now
to find a champion sent to them by royal order.
[Sidenote: Meets Columbus.]
Columbus heard of Aguado's arrival, and at once returned to Isabella.
Aguado, who had started to find him with an escort of horse, missed him
on the road, and this delayed their meeting a little. When the
conference came, Columbus, with a dignified and courteous air, bowed to
a superior authority. It has passed into history that Aguado was
disappointed at this quiet submission, and had hoped for an altercation,
which might warrant some peremptory force. It is also said that later he
endeavored to make it appear how Columbus had not been so complacent as
was becoming.
It was soon apparent that this displacement of the Admiral was restoring
even the natives to hope, and their caciques were not slow in presenting
complaints, not certainly without reason, to the ascendant power, and
against the merciless extortions of the Admiral.
[Sidenote: Accuses Columbus.]
The budget of accusations which Aguado had accumulated was now full
enough, and he ordered the vessels to make ready to carry him back to
Spain. The situation for Columbus was a serious one. He had in all this
trial experienced the results of the intrigues of Margarite and Father
Boyle. He knew of the damaging persuasiveness of the Pinzons. He had not
much to expect from the advocacy of Diego. There was nothing for him to
do but to face in person the charges as reënforced by Aguado. He
resolved to return in the ships. "It is not one of the least singular
traits in his history," says Irving, "that after having been so many
years in persuading mankind that there was a new world to be discovered,
he had almost an equal trouble in proving to them the advantage of the
discovery." He himself never did prove it.
[Sidenote: Ships wrecked in the harbor.]
The ships were ready. They lay at anchor in the roadstead. A cloud of
vapor and dust was seen in the east. It was borne headlong before a
hurricane such as the Spaniards had never seen, and the natives could
not remember its equal. It cut a track through the forests. It lashed
the sea until its expanse seethed and writhed and sent its harried
waters tossing in a seeming fright. The uplifted surges broke the
natural barriers and started inland. The ships shuddered at their
anchorage; cables snapped; three caravels sunk, and the rest were dashed
on the beach. The tumult lasted for three hours, and then the sun shone
upon the havoc.
[Illustration: SPANISH SETTLEMENTS IN ESPAÑOLA.
[From Charlevoix's _L'Isle Espagnole_ (Amsterdam, 1733).]]
There was but one vessel left in the harbor, and she was shattered. It
was the "Nina," which had borne Columbus in his western cruise. As soon
as the little colony recovered its senses, men were set to work
repairing the solitary caravel, and constructing another out of the
remnants of the wrecks.
[Sidenote: Miguel Diaz finds gold.]
[Sidenote: Hayna mines.]
[Sidenote: Solomon's Ophir.]
While this was going on, a young Spaniard, Miguel Diaz by name,
presented himself in Isabella. He had been in the service of the
Adelantado, and was not unrecognized. He was one who had some time
before wounded another Spaniard in a duel, and, supposing that the wound
was mortal, he had, with a few friends, fled into the woods and wandered
away till he came to the banks of the Ozema, a river on the southern
coast of the island, at the mouth of which the city of Santo Domingo now
stands. Here, as he said, he had attracted the attention of a female
cacique, there reigning, and had become her lover. She confided to him
the fact that there were rich gold mines in her territory, and to make
him more content in her company, she suggested that perhaps the Admiral,
if he knew of the mines, would abandon the low site of Isabella, and
find a better one on the Ozema. Acting on this suggestion, Diaz, with
some guides, returned to the neighborhood of Isabella, and lingered in
concealment till he learned that his antagonist had survived his wound.
Then, making bold, he entered the town, as we have seen. His story was a
welcome one, and the Adelantado was dispatched with a force to verify
the adventurer's statement. In due time, the party returned, and
reported that at a river named Hayna they had found such stores of gold
that Cibao was poor in comparison. The explorers had seen the metal in
all the streams; they observed it in the hillsides. They had discovered
two deep excavations, which looked as if the mines had been worked at
some time by a more enterprising people, since of these great holes the
natives could give no account. Once more the Admiral's imagination was
fired. He felt sure that he had come upon the Ophir of Solomon. These
ancient mines must have yielded the gold which covered the great Temple.
Had the Admiral not discovered already the course of the ships which
sought it? Did they not come from the Persian gulf, round the Golden
Chersonesus, and so easterly, as he himself had in the reverse way
tracked the very course? Here was a new splendor for the Court of Spain.
If the name of India was redolent of spices, that of Ophir could but be
resplendent with gold! That was a message worth taking to Europe.
The two caravels were now ready. The Adelantado was left in command,
with Diego to succeed in case of his death. Francisco Roldan was
commissioned as chief magistrate, and the Fathers Juan Berzognon and
Roman Pane remained behind to pursue missionary labors among the
natives. Instructions were left that the valley of the Ozema should be
occupied, and a fort built in it. Diaz, with his queenly Catalina, had
become important.
[Sidenote: 1496. March 10. Columbus and Aguado sail for Spain, carrying
Caonabo.]
There was a motley company of about two hundred and fifty persons,
largely discontents and vagabonds, crowded into the two ships. Columbus
was in one, and Aguado in the other. So they started on their
adventurous and wearying voyage on March 10, 1496. They carried about
thirty Indians in confinement, and among them the manacled Caonabo, with
some of his relatives. Columbus told Bernaldez that he took the
chieftain over to impress him with Spanish power, and that he intended
to send him back and release him in the end. His release came otherwise.
There is some disagreement of testimony on the point, some alleging that
he was drowned during the hurricane in the harbor, but the better
opinion seems to be that he died on the voyage, of a broken spirit. At
any rate, he never reached Spain, and we hear of him only once while on
shipboard.
[Sidenote: 1496. April 6.]
We have seen that on his return voyage in 1492 Columbus had pushed north
before turning east. It does not appear how much he had learned of the
experience of Torres's easterly passages. Perhaps it was only to make a
new trial that he now steered directly east. He met the trade winds and
the calms of the tropics, and had been almost a month at sea when, on
April 6, he found himself still neighboring to the islands of the
Caribs. His crew needed rest and provisions, and he bore away to seek
them. He anchored for a while at Marigalante, and then passed on to
Guadaloupe.
[Sidenote: At Guadaloupe.]
[Sidenote: 1496. June.]
[Sidenote: 1496. June 11. Cadiz.]
He had some difficulty in landing, as a wild, screaming mass of natives
was gathered on the beach in a hostile manner. A discharge of the
Spanish arquebuses cleared the way, and later a party scouring the woods
captured some of the courageous women of the tribe. These were all
released, however, except a strong, powerful woman, who, with a
daughter, refused to be left, for the reason, as the story goes, that
she had conceived a passion for Caonabo. By the 20th, the ships again
set sail; but the same easterly trades baffled them, and another month
was passed without much progress. By the beginning of June, provisions
were so reduced that there were fears of famine, and it began to be
considered whether the voyagers might not emulate the Caribs and eat the
Indians. Columbus interfered, on the plea that the poor creatures were
Christian enough to be protected from such a fate; but as it turned out,
they were not Christian enough to be saved from the slave-block in
Andalusia. The alert senses of Columbus had convinced him that land
could not be far distant, and he was confirmed in this by his reckoning.
These opinions of Columbus were questioned, however, and it was not at
all clear in the minds of some, even of the experienced pilots who were
on board, that they were so near the latitude of Cape St. Vincent as the
Admiral affirmed. Some of these navigators put the ships as far north as
the Bay of Biscay, others even as far as the English Channel. Columbus
one night ordered sail to be taken in. They were too near the land to
proceed. In the morning, they saw land in the neighborhood of Cape St.
Vincent. On June 11, they entered the harbor of Cadiz.