THE COMPANIONS AND FOLLOWERS OF COLUMBUS (_concluded_).
Nicuesa and the Duns of San Domingo—Indian Contempt for a Royal
Manifesto—La Cosa’s Advice Disregarded—Ojeda’s Impetuosity—A
Desperate Fight—Seventy Spaniards Killed—La Cosa’s Untimely
End—Ojeda found Exhausted in the Woods—A Rival’s Noble
Conduct—Avenged on the Indians—A New Settlement—Ojeda’s Charm
fails—A Desperate Remedy—In Search of Provisions—Wrecked on Cuba—A
Toilsome March—Kindly Natives—Ojeda’s Vow Redeemed—Dies in Abject
Poverty—The Bachelor Enciso and Balboa—Smuggled on Board in a
Tub—Leon and his Search for the Fountain of Youth—Discovery of
Florida—Magellan—Snubbed at Home—Warmly seconded by the Spanish
Emperor—His resolute Character—Discovery of the Straits—His
Death—The First Voyage round the World—Captain Cook’s
Discoveries—His Tragical Death—Vancouver’s Island.
Nicuesa remained some time in San Domingo after the sailing of his rival’s
fleet, obtaining so many volunteers that he had to purchase another ship
to convey them. That commander was much more the courtier than the man of
business, and expended his money so freely that in the end he found
himself seriously involved. Some of his creditors, knowing that his
expedition was not favourably regarded by the governor, Admiral Don Diego
Columbus, threw every obstacle in the way of his departure, and never was
an unfortunate debtor more harassed by duns, most of whom he managed,
however, to satisfy or mollify. His forces, which now numbered seven
hundred men, were safely embarked, but just as he was stepping into his
boat he was arrested for a debt of five hundred ducats, and carried before
the Alcalde Mayor. “This was a thunderstroke to the unfortunate cavalier.
In vain he represented his utter incapacity to furnish such a sum at the
moment; in vain he represented the ruin that would accrue to himself, and
the vast injury to the public service, should he be prevented from joining
his expedition. The Alcalde Mayor was inflexible, and Nicuesa was reduced
to despair. At this critical moment relief came from a most unexpected
quarter. The heart of a public notary was melted by his distress! He
stepped forward in court, and declared that rather than see so gallant a
gentleman reduced to extremity, he himself would pay down the money.
Nicuesa gazed at him with astonishment, and could scarce believe his
senses; but when he saw him actually pay off the debt, and found himself
suddenly released from this dreadful embarrassment, he embraced his
deliverer with tears of gratitude, and hastened with all speed to embark,
lest some other legal spell should be laid upon his person.”
Ojeda set sail from San Domingo on the 10th of November, 1509, with three
hundred men, among the adventurers being Francisco Pizarro, afterwards the
renowned conqueror of Peru. They arrived speedily at Carthagena, which
harbour Cosa advised Ojeda to abandon, and commence a settlement in the
Gulf of Uraba, where the natives were much less ferocious, and did not use
poisoned weapons, as did those of the former place. Ojeda, however, was
too high-spirited to alter his plans on account of any number of naked
savages, and he landed with a considerable force, and several friars, who
had been sent out to convert the natives, were ordered to read aloud a
manifesto, which had been specially written by eminent divines and jurists
in Spain. It was utterly thrown away on the savages, who immediately made
demonstrations of the most warlike kind.
Cosa once more begged Ojeda to leave these unfriendly shores, but in vain,
and the latter, offering up a short prayer to the Virgin, led on a furious
charge. Juan de Cosa followed in the bravest manner, although the assault
was contrary to his advice. The Indians were soon driven off, and a number
killed or taken prisoners, on whose persons plates of gold were found.
Flushed by this easy victory, he pursued them into the interior, followed
as usual by his faithful, though unwilling lieutenant. Having penetrated
deep into the forest, they came to a stronghold of the enemy, where they
were warmly received. Ojeda led his men on with the old Castilian war-cry,
“Santiago!” and in a few minutes the Indians took to flight. “Eight of
their bravest warriors threw themselves into a cabin, and plied their bows
and arrows so vigorously that the Spaniards were kept at bay. Ojeda cried
shame upon his followers to be daunted by eight naked men. Stung by this
reproach, an old Castilian soldier rushed through a shower of arrows and
forced the door of the cabin, but received a shaft through the heart and
fell dead on the threshold. Ojeda, furious at the sight, ordered fire to
be set to the combustible edifice; in a moment it was in a blaze, and the
eight warriors perished in the flames.” Seventy prisoners were sent on
board the ships. Ojeda, still against the strongly-expressed advice of
Cosa, continued his pursuit, and he and his followers arrived at what
appeared to be a deserted village. They had scattered in search of booty,
when troops of savages, who had been concealed in the forest, surrounded
them. The desperate valour and iron armour of the Spaniards availed
little, for they were overwhelmed by numbers, and scattered into detached
parties. Ojeda collected a few of his followers, and made a desperate
resistance from the interior of a palisaded enclosure. “Here he was
closely besieged and galled by flights of arrows. He threw himself on his
knees, covered himself with his buckler, and being small and active,
managed to protect himself from the deadly shower, but all his companions
were slain by his side, some of them perishing in frightful agonies. At
this fearful moment the veteran La Cosa, having heard of the peril of his
commander, arrived with a few followers to his assistance. Stationing
himself at the gate of the palisades, the brave Biscayan kept the savages
at bay until most of his men were slain, and he himself was severely
wounded. Just then Ojeda sprang forth like a tiger into the midst of the
enemy, dealing his blows on every side. La Cosa would have seconded him,
but was crippled by his wounds. He took refuge with the remnant of his men
in an Indian cabin, the straw roof of which he aided them to throw off,
lest the enemy should set it on fire. Here he defended himself until all
his comrades but one were destroyed. The subtle poison of his wounds at
length overpowered him, and he sank to the ground. Feeling death at hand,
he called to his only surviving companion. ‘Brother,’ said he, ‘since God
hath protected thee from harm, sally forth and fly, and if thou shouldst
see Alonzo de Ojeda, tell him of my fate!’” Thus perished one of the
ablest of the Spanish explorers, and one of the most loyal of friends, a
true counsellor, and a warm-hearted partisan.
[Illustration: THE DEATH OF LA COSA.]
Meanwhile there was great alarm on the ships at the non-arrival of the
seventy men who had adventured into the forests on this mad expedition.
Parties were sent ashore and round the coasts, where they fired signal
guns and sounded trumpets, but in vain. At length some of them arrived at
a great thicket of mangrove trees, amid the entanglements of which they
caught a glimpse of a man in Spanish attire. Approaching, they found that
it was their commander, buckler on shoulder and sword in hand, but so weak
with hunger and fatigue that he could not utter a word. When he was a
little revived by the fire they made on the shore, and the food and wine
they gave him, he told the story of how he had escaped from the savage
bands, how he had hidden every day, and struggled forward at night among
rocks and thickets and matted forests till he reached the coast. As
another proof of the special protection of the Virgin he showed them his
buckler bearing the marks of 300 arrows, while he had received no wound
whatever.
Just as this transpired, the fleet of Nicuesa arrived, and Ojeda was much
troubled in mind, remembering his late rash challenge. He ordered his men
to return to the ships, and leave him on the shore till his rival should
depart. Some of the men went to Nicuesa and intreated him not to take
advantage of Ojeda’s misfortunes. But there was no need for this, and
Nicuesa blushed with indignation that they should think him a gentleman so
unworthy the name. He told them to bring their commander to him, and when
they met he received his late foe with every show of friendship. “It is
not,” said he, “for hidalgoes, like men of vulgar souls, to remember past
differences when they behold one another in distress. Henceforth, let all
that has occurred between us be forgotten. Command me as a brother. Myself
and my men are at your orders, to follow you wherever you please, until
the deaths of Juan de la Cosa and his comrades are revenged.” This noble
offer was not one of words only, and the two commanders became fast
friends. Four hundred men, with several horses, were landed, and they
approached the village, which had cost them seventy lives, in the dead of
the night, their near approach being heralded by the numerous parrots in
the woods, which made a great outcry. The Indians paid no attention,
however, believing that the Spaniards had been exterminated, and they
found their village in flames before they took the alarm. The Spaniards
either killed them at their doors or drove them back into the flames. The
horses, which they supposed to be savage monsters, caused great alarm. The
carnage was something fearful, for no quarter was given. While ranging
about in search of booty they found the body of La Cosa tied to a tree,
swollen and discoloured in a hideous manner by the poison of the Indian
arrows. “This dismal spectacle had such an effect upon the common men that
not one would remain in that place during the night.” The spoil in gold
and other valuables was so great that the share of Nicuesa and his men
amounted to 37,281 dollars.
[Illustration: ARRIVAL OF OJEDA AND HIS FOLLOWERS AT THE INDIAN VILLAGE.]
Ojeda now, somewhat late in the day, took the advice of his late faithful
lieutenant, and steered for the Gulf of Uraba, where he formed a
settlement which he named St. Sebastian. The Indians of the surrounding
country proved unfriendly and hostile, and at length their provisions
began to fail. “In one of their expeditions they were surprised by an
ambuscade of savages in a gorge of the mountains, and attacked with such
fury and effect that they were completely routed, and pursued with yells
and howlings to the very gates of St. Sebastian. Many died in excruciating
agony of their wounds, and others recovered with extreme difficulty. Those
who were well no longer dared to venture forth in search of food, for the
whole forest teemed with lurking foes. They devoured such herbs and roots
as they could find without regard to their quality. Their bodies became
corrupted, and various diseases, combined with the ravages of famine,
daily thinned their numbers. The sentinel who feebly mounted guard at
night was often found dead at his post in the morning. Some stretched
themselves on the ground, and expired of mere famine and debility; nor was
death any longer regarded as an evil, but rather as a welcome relief from
a life of horror and despair.” Such is the chronicler’s mournful account.
We have seen that Ojeda felt unbounded confidence in his charm—the picture
of the Holy Virgin—and he had so long escaped unscathed that the Indians
also believed him to bear a charmed life. They determined one day to test
the question, and placed four of their most expert archers in ambush, with
directions to single him out, while a number more advanced to the fort
sounding their conches and drums, and yelling with hideous noises. Ojeda
sallied forth to meet them, and the Indians fled to the ambuscade. The
archers waited till he was full in front, and then discharged their
poisoned arrows. Three he warded off by his buckler, but the fourth
pierced his thigh. Ojeda was carried back to the fort, more despondent
than he had ever yet been, for his talisman seemed to have failed him, and
thrilling pains shot through his body. But he was not to be thus defeated.
He caused two plates of iron to be made red hot, and ordered a surgeon to
apply them to each orifice of his wound. The surgeon, fearful that should
he die the death would be laid to his door, shudderingly refused,
whereupon Ojeda threatened to hang him if he did not obey, and he was
obliged to comply. Ojeda refused to be held or tied down, and endured the
agony without moving a muscle. This violent remedy so inflamed his system
that he had to be wrapped in sheets steeped in vinegar to allay the fever,
and it is said that a barrel of vinegar was consumed in this way. But he
lived, and his wounds healed; “the cold poison,” says Las Casas, “was
consumed by the vivid fire.”
At this time their provisions were again becoming scarce, and the arrival
of a strange ship, commanded by one Bernardino de Talavera, a desperate
pirate, was welcomed, as it brought some relief, although supplies were
only furnished for large prices in gold. Some dissatisfaction was
expressed at the division of the food, and shortly afterwards serious
factions arose. At last Ojeda volunteered to go himself to San Domingo in
quest of necessary supplies, to which his followers agreed, and he
embarked on board Talavera’s ship. They had scarcely put to sea when a
serious quarrel arose between the freebooter and Ojeda; the latter,
apparently, having acted on board as though he were commander instead of
passenger. He was actually put in irons, where “he reviled Talavera and
his gang as recreants, traitors, pirates, and offered to fight the whole
of them successively, provided they would give him a clear deck and come
on two at a time.” They left him fuming and raging in his chains until a
violent gale arose, and they bethought themselves that Ojeda was a skilful
navigator. They then parleyed, offering him his liberty if he would pilot
the ship, and he consented, but all his skill was unavailing, and he was
obliged to run her on the southern coast of Cuba—then as yet uncolonised,
except by runaway slaves from Hayti. Here they made a toilsome march
through forests and morasses, crossing mountains and rivers, in a nearly
starved condition. One morass, entangled by roots and creeping vines, and
cut up by sloughs and creeks, occupied them thirty days to cross, at the
end of which time only thirty-five men survived out of seventy that had
left the ship. At last they reached an Indian village. “The Indians
gathered round and gazed at them with wonder, but when they learnt their
story, they exhibited a humanity that would have done honour to the most
professing Christians. They bore them to their dwellings, set meat and
drink before them, and vied with each other in discharging the offices of
the kindest humanity. Finding that a number of their companions were still
in the morass, the cacique sent a large party of Indians with provisions
for their relief, with orders to bring on their shoulders such as were too
feeble to walk.... The Spaniards were brought to the village, succoured,
cherished, consoled, and almost worshipped as if they had been angels.”
And now Ojeda prepared to carry out a vow he had made on his journey, that
if saved, he would erect a little hermitage or oratory, with an altar,
above which he would place the picture to which he attributed his
wonderful escape. The cacique listened with attention to his explanations
regarding the beneficence of the Virgin, whom he represented as the mother
of the Deity who reigned above, and acquired a profound veneration for the
picture. Long after, when the Bishop Las Casas, who has recorded these
facts, arrived at the same village, he found the chapel preserved with
religious care. But when he offered—wishing to obtain possession of the
relic—to exchange it for an image of the Virgin, the chief made an evasive
reply, and next morning was missing, having fled with the picture in his
possession. It was all in vain that Las Casas sent messages after him,
“assuring him that he should not be deprived of the relic, but, on the
contrary, that the image should likewise be presented to him.” The cacique
would not return to the village till he knew that the Spaniards had
departed.
We find Ojeda next in Jamaica, and afterwards in San Domingo, where he
inquired earnestly after the Bachelor Enciso, who had, it will be
remembered, promised to aid him with reinforcements and supplies. He was
assured that that ambitious lawyer had sailed for the settlement, which
was a fact. Next we find the sanguine Ojeda endeavouring to set on foot
another armament, but the failure of his colony was too well understood,
and there were no more volunteers, either as regards personal service or
pecuniary aid. The poor adventurer was destined never again to see his
settlement, the subsequent history of which is a series of intrigues and
disasters. He died in abject poverty in San Domingo, and “so broken in
spirit that, with his last breath, he intreated his body might be buried
in the monastery of St. Francisco, just at the portal, in humble expiation
of his past pride, _that every one who entered might tread upon his
grave_.” Nicuesa, after many vicissitudes, was lost at sea. The Bachelor
Enciso was rather snubbed when he arrived at Ojeda’s colony, but made some
fortunate ventures, and plundered a village on the banks of a river named
Darien, collecting great quantities of gold ornaments, bracelets, anklets,
plates, and what not, with food and cotton to the value of ten thousand
castillanos, or about ten thousand seven hundred pounds sterling. Among
the men who for a time served with Enciso was Vasco Nuñez de Balbao,
afterwards the discoverer of the Pacific from the Isthmus of Darien, of
whom these pages have already furnished some account. He joined the
expedition of Enciso in a very curious manner. He had been a man of very
loose and prodigal habits, but had settled down on a farm in Hispaniola,
where he soon became hopelessly involved in debt. The proposed armament
gave him the opportunity he sought of running away from his creditors. He
concealed himself in a cask, which was taken on board the vessel as though
containing provisions. When the vessel was fairly out at sea “Nuñez
emerged like an apparition from his cask, to the great surprise of Enciso,
who had been totally ignorant of the stratagem. The Bachelor was indignant
at being thus outwitted, even though he gained a recruit by the deception,
and, in the first ebullition of his wrath, gave the fugitive debtor a very
rough reception, threatening to put him on shore on the first uninhabited
island they should encounter. Vasco Nuñez, however, succeeded in pacifying
him, ‘for God,’ says the venerable Las Casas, ‘reserved him for greater
things.’” It was Nuñez who afterwards directed Enciso to the village where
he obtained so much plunder.
Another remarkable man of that age was Juan Ponce de Leon, the conqueror
of Porto Rico, and the discoverer of Florida. He had amassed a
considerable amount of wealth in the former place, and, like many of the
active discoverers of that energetic age, was ambitious for new triumphs.
By accident he met with some Indians who assured him “that far to the
north, there existed a land abounding in gold and in all manner of
delights; but, above all, possessing a river of such wonderful virtue,
that whoever bathed in it would be restored to youth! They added that in
times past, before the arrival of the Spaniards, a large party of the
natives of Cuba had departed northward in search of this happy land and
this river of life, and, having never returned, it was concluded that they
were flourishing in renewed youth, detained by the pleasures of that
enchanting country.” Others told him that in a certain island of the
Bahamas, called Bimini, there was a fountain possessing the same
marvellous and inestimable qualities, and that whoever drank from it would
secure perennial youth. Juan Ponce listened to these fables with
credulity, and actually fitted out three vessels at his own expense to
prosecute the discovery, and obtained numerous volunteers to assist him.
“It may seem incredible,” says Irving, “at the present day, that a man of
years and experience could yield any faith to a story which resembles the
wild fiction of an Arabian tale; but the wonders and novelties breaking
upon the world in that age of discovery almost realised the illusions of
fable, and the imaginations of the Spanish voyagers had become so heated
that they were capable of any stretch of credulity.” A similar statement
was made by an eminent man of learning, Peter Martyr, to Leo X., then
Bishop of Rome. Juan Ponce left Porto Rico on the 3rd March, 1512, for the
Bahama Islands, on his search for the Fountain of Youth, but all his
inquiries and explorations failed in its discovery. Still he persevered,
and was rewarded in discovering on the mainland a country in the fresh
bloom of spring, the trees gay with blossoms and abounding with flowers.
He took possession of it in the name of the Castilian sovereigns, and gave
it the name of Florida, which it still retains. He subsequently discovered
a group of islands, where his sailors, in the course of one night, caught
one hundred and seventy turtles. He appropriately named them the Tortugas,
or Turtles, the title they also still bear. Disheartened by the failure of
his special mission, he gave up the command to a trusty captain, and
returned to Porto Rico, “where he arrived infinitely poorer in purse and
wrinkled in brow, by this cruise after inexhaustible riches and perpetual
youth.” His captain arrived soon after with the news that he had
discovered the island of Bimini, and that it abounded in crystal springs
and limpid streams, which kept the island ever fresh and verdant; “but
none that could restore to an old man the vernal greenness of his youth.”
As late as 1521 we find old Juan Ponce engaged in a new expedition to
Florida, where, in an encounter with the Indians, he was fatally wounded
by an arrow. He retired to Cuba, where he died shortly afterwards. The
Spaniards said of him that he was a lion by name, and still more by
nature.
The name of Magellan, or Magalhaens, is more familiar to the general
reader than some of those which have preceded it in this chapter. He was a
Portuguese of noble birth, and had served honourably in India. When he
made the offer of his services to his own sovereign, there is no doubt
that the undertaking he proposed—viz., to determine the question whether
the shores of South America were washed by an open sea—had been mooted
before. To him however, belongs the credit of having brought that question
to an issue. His own king would have nought to do with his project, and
dismissed him with a frown. Magellan, accompanied by Ruy Falero, an
astrologer (the astrologers were in part the astronomers of those days),
who was associated with him in the enterprise, next made his proposals to
the Spanish Emperor, Charles V., by whom he was received with attention
and respect. Articles of agreement were drawn up, to this effect: the
navigator agreed to reach the Moluccas _by sailing to the west_; they were
to enjoy for ten years the exclusive right to the track (!), and to
receive the twentieth part of all profits accruing from their discoveries,
with some special privileges in regard to the merchandise of the first
voyage. Moreover, the Emperor agreed to furnish five vessels, and victual
them for two years—an unusual act of liberality in those days, when the
monarchs usually contented themselves with conferring patents, privileges,
and titles merely, which cost them nothing, and yet were often the means
of subsequently enriching them. The sailing of the expedition was retarded
by the machinations of the Portuguese king, who now professed a
willingness to employ Magellan, and, failing in this, is said to have
spread reports that “the King of Spain would lose his expenses, for
Fernando Magellan was a chattering fellow, and little reliance could be
placed in him, and that he would never execute that which he promised.”
But at last, on the 20th September, 1519, the squadron got under weigh.
In the month of December following Magellan anchored in a port on the
coast of Brazil, which he named Santa Lucia. The natives appeared a
confiding and credulous race, and readily bartered provisions for the
merest trifles; “half a dozen fowls were exchanged for a king of spades”
(card). Putting again to sea, Magellan sailed southward, touching at
various points till he came to anchor in a harbour which he named San
Julian, and where he made a stay of five months. Here discontent, and at
length open mutiny, broke out, the ringleaders being certain Spanish
officers who felt mortified at serving under a Portuguese commander.
Magellan was not a man to stand any nonsense, and was utterly
unscrupulous. He despatched a person with a letter to one of the captains,
with orders to stab him whilst he was engaged in reading it. This
commission being rigorously executed, and followed up by other stringent
measures, his authority was re-established through the mutineers’
knowledge and fear of his determined character.
In October of the next year, after various minor discoveries, he arrived
at the entrance of the great strait which now bears his name. After
careful examination of the opening, a council was held, at which the
pilot, Estevan Gomez, voted for returning to refit, while the more
enterprising wished to complete their discovery. Magellan listened
patiently and silently, and then firmly declared that were he reduced to
eat the hides on the yards—which were, in fact, the sails—he would keep
his faith with the Emperor. It was forbidden to speak of home or scarcity
of provisions on pain of death!
Two vessels were sent to reconnoitre in advance, and these were driven
violently by a gale into the straits, where the two coasts more than once
seemed to join, and the mariners thought all was lost, when a narrow
channel would disclose itself, into which they would gladly enter. They
returned, and made their report to Magellan, who ordered the whole
squadron to advance. On reaching the open expanse of water into which the
second gut opens, an inlet to the south-east was observed, and Estevan
Gomez was sent in charge of one of two vessels to explore it. He took the
opportunity to incite a mutiny, threw the captain into chains, and steered
back for Spain. When the western or Pacific end of the straits was
reached,(53) and they saw a grand open ocean beyond, they named the
headland at the entrance, Il Capo Descado—the “Longed-for Cape”—and spent
some days in erecting standards in conspicuous places, and in rejoicing
over their discovery. On the 28th November, 1520, the small squadron
reached the open sea, and took a northerly course towards the equator, in
order to reach a milder climate, the sailors having suffered much in and
about the straits.
[Illustration: FERDINAND DE MAGELLAN.]
Magellan, besides minor discoveries, is fairly credited with that of the
Philippine Islands, where he was treated in a most friendly manner. At
Zebu he acted after the manner of his time; for, finding the people
submissive and respectful, he exacted a tribute, which seems to have been
willingly paid. One king, or chief, alone refused, which so incensed
Magellan that he resolved to punish him. He accordingly landed with
forty-nine of his followers, clothed in mail, and began an attack on 1,500
Indians. The battle raged some hours, but at last numbers prevailed, and
only some seven or eight Spaniards remained with Magellan, the rest being
either already killed or utterly routed. He himself was wounded in the
limbs by a poisoned arrow, and his sword-arm being disabled he could no
longer defend himself, and so fell a martyr to overweening ambition and
greed. The voyage home was completed, and those of his men who remained
had achieved the proud distinction of having been the first
circumnavigators of the globe.
Before leaving the subject of remarkable voyages, a few supplementary
remarks are necessary. The great epoch just mentioned was followed by
great commercial activity, owing to the important discoveries of new lands
made, and, of course, the map of the world was by degrees filled in with
details which earlier explorers had overlooked. In some previous chapters,
notably those referring to the history of shipping and shipping interests,
many of the more important voyages following those just described have
been sufficiently noticed. In effect, the many subjects treated in
connection with THE SEA naturally intertwine, and the same voyages are in
the course of this work occasionally mentioned more than once, though in
different ways, and for different reasons.
No explorer’s name, after those recently considered, shines with more
effulgency than that of the celebrated Captain Cook, already mentioned in
two separate connections. Born in 1728, the son of an agricultural
labourer and farm bailiff, he early showed an irresistible inclination for
the sea, and could not be chained down to the haberdasher’s counter, for
which his father had destined him. He commenced his seafaring life as an
apprentice on a collier, but soon rose to be mate. He next entered the
royal navy, where, from able seaman, his promotion was rapid. Some charts
and observations drawn up by him while marine surveyor of the coasts of
Newfoundland and Labrador brought him much notice from scientific
quarters, and the Royal Society offered him the command of an expedition
to the Pacific, to make an observation of the transit of Venus. This was
the first of his three great voyages, during which he re-discovered New
Zealand,(54) practically took possession of Australia, proved that New
Guinea was a separate island, made discoveries in the Antarctic,
discovered the Sandwich Islands, and made the northern explorations also
mentioned previously. He met his death on the island of Hawaii (Sandwich
Islands), in the tragical manner known almost to every schoolboy.
It would appear that, previous to the fatal day, there had been some
little trouble with the natives. One day, the officer who had commanded a
watering-party returned to the ship, stating that some chief had driven
away the natives employed in rolling the casks to the beach, work which
had been gladly performed before for trifling payments. A marine, with
side-arms only, was sent back with him, when it was noticed that the
islanders were arming with stones, and two others with loaded muskets were
sent off to the watering party’s assistance, which for the moment quieted
the matter. Captain Cook gave orders that, if the natives should venture
to attack his men, they should in the future fire on them with balls,
instead of small shot, as hitherto. And not long after a volley proceeding
from the _Discovery_, fired after a retreating canoe, announced that his
orders were being carried into execution. Ignorant that some stolen goods
were thereupon returned, Cook himself, with an officer and a marine,
chased these natives on shore, but fruitlessly. Meantime, the officer who
had recovered the stolen goods, thinking that he might retaliate, took
possession of a canoe on the beach, which act the owner naturally
resented, and a scuffle ensued, during which he was knocked down by a blow
from an oar. The natives returned the attack with a shower of stones, and
would have destroyed the pinnace but for the interference of the very man
who had just been knocked on the head, who was, however, still friendly
inclined towards the English.
Captain Cook was naturally annoyed at and perplexed by these occurrences.
In the course of the next night a boat was stolen from the _Discovery_,
and Cook at once ordered a body of marines ashore, going with them
himself, and taking a double-barrelled gun, one barrel loaded with small
shot, and the other with a bullet. The other boats were ordered out to
prevent any canoe from leaving the bay until the matter was settled.
Arrived ashore, he marched up to the old king, who to every appearance had
had no hand in the theft, nor had connived at it, for he promised to go on
board with the captain, the latter intending to keep him as a hostage. The
chief’s two sons were already in the pinnace, when his wife entreated him
with tears not to go off to the ship. Two chiefs also, at this juncture,
forcibly laid hold of the old man, and made him sit down on the beach.
Cook saw from the general aspect of affairs, and the gathering thousands
on the beach, that he must give up his idea, and proceeded slowly to the
place of embarkation.
It appears that, while this was going on, some of the men on the boats
stationed around the bay had fired on some escaping canoes, and worse, had
killed a chief. The news arrived ashore just as Cook was leaving, and the
natives immediately began to put on their war-mats, and arm themselves.
One of them, carrying an iron dagger, which he brandished wildly,
threatened Cook with a large stone, and the captain at last could stand
his insolence no longer, and gave him a volley of small shot. This against
the native’s thick war-mat was about as effective as shooting peas against
a rhinoceros. Next came a volley of stones in return, while an attempt was
made to stab a marine officer, who returned a heavy blow from the butt-end
of his musket. A native crawled behind a canoe, and then aimed a spear at
Cook, who soon gave them the contents of his other barrel, killing one of
the assailants. In quick succession, volleys of stones were answered by a
volley of musketry; four marines fell, and were speedily despatched. Cook
now stood by the water’s edge, signalling the men to stop firing and get
on board; but in the scuffle and confusion his orders were not understood.
A lieutenant commanding one of the boats blundered, or worse, to the
extent of taking his boat further off, so that the picking up of the
wounded marines was thrown entirely on the pinnace, which had been brought
in as near the shore as the master was able to come. Poor Cook was left
alone on a rock, where he was seen trying to shield his head from the
shower of stones with the one hand, while he still grasped his musket in
the other. So soon as his back was turned, the natives attacked him, one
clubbing him down, and another stabbing him in the neck. Again he dropped
in the water knee-deep, looking earnestly out for help from the pinnace,
not more than a few yards off. But the end was near. The savages got him
under in deeper water. In his death-struggle he broke from them, and clung
to the rock. In a second there was another blow, and the end had come. His
body was dragged ashore and mutilated. After the fall of their commander,
the survivors of the men escaped under cover of a fire kept up from the
boats. But for Cook himself, one of the most humane of commanders, nothing
seems to have been attempted in the hurry and excitement of the scuffle.
Cook’s body—or as much as remained of it—was subsequently recovered, and
committed to the deep, the guns booming solemnly over the watery grave of
one of England’s greatest explorers. While the rites were being performed,
absolute unbroken silence was enjoined upon the natives ashore and afloat,
nor was the water disturbed by the dip of a single paddle. Thus perished,
at the early age of fifty-one, in a miserable scuffle with semi-savages,
Captain James Cook, a navigator whose fame was and still remains
world-wide.
Our space will only permit us to refer, briefly, to one other notable
voyage, namely, that of Vancouver, whose first experiences were gained
with Cook. The fame of this explorer rests very much upon his
circumnavigation, towards the end of the eighteenth century, of the island
which now bears his name. The actual discovery of the entrance to the
straits between the island and mainland dates from the time of De Fuca;
while Vancouver himself, in the following passage, admits a prior claim to
its partial investigation. He says—“At four o’clock a sail was discovered
to the westward standing in shore. This was a very great novelty, not
having seen any vessel but our consort during the last eight months. She
soon hoisted American colours, and fired a gun to leeward. At six we spoke
her. She proved to be the ship _Columbia_, commanded by Mr. Robert Gray,
belonging to Boston, from which port she had been absent nineteen months.
Having little doubt of his being the same person who had formerly
commanded the sloop _Washington_, I desired he would bring to, and sent
Mr. Puget and Mr. Menzies on board to acquire such information as might be
serviceable in our future operations.”
On the return of the boat, Vancouver found that his conjectures had not
been ungrounded, and that Mr. Gray was the same gentleman who had
commanded the sloop _Washington_ at the time she had made a voyage behind
the island. It was a little remarkable that on his approach to the
entrance of this inland sea or strait, he should fall in with the
identical person who, it had been stated, had sailed through it. Mr. Gray
assured the officers, however, that he had penetrated only fifty miles
into the straits in question in an ESE. direction; that he found the
passage five leagues wide; and that he understood from the natives that
the opening extended a considerable distance to the northward. He then
returned to the ocean the same way he had entered it. This inlet he
supposed to be the same De Fuca had discovered. The fact, however, remains
that Vancouver most thoroughly explored the coasts of the island, and the
inlets and shores of Puget Sound, Washington Territory, and British
Columbia—countries which are slowly but surely taking their proper place
in the world’s estimation.
END OF VOLUME III.
FOOTNOTES
1 “The History of the Bucaniers of America.” This once celebrated work
contains a number of the most reliable histories of the pirates and
freebooters of the seventeenth century.
2 The “piece of eight” means in value, as nearly as possible, the
American dollar of to-day.
3 This is the chronicler’s statement. He meant the _cacao_-nut.
_ 4 i.e._, “Spiked,” as we say now-a-days.
5 Wherever “religious men and women” are mentioned in these old
records, the meaning is priests or monks, and nuns.
6 The city site was almost immediately afterwards moved to a spot,
four miles off, where the present Panama stands to-day.
7 The account is derived from a French source, and although in all
probability veracious in most points, cannot be implicitly believed.
For this reason the author has not gone further into the most
romantic story of this high-principled pirate. Misson is said to
have later gone down with his vessel, while Caraccioli was killed in
an affray with natives.
8 The best known of which is “The Pilot,” in which he is the prominent
character.
9 Few readers will need reminding that the same Dr. Franklin was the
celebrated philosopher.
10 The narrative is derived from one of two most graphic letters by the
author of “The Military Sketch-book.”
11 “Heroes of the Arctic.” Society for the Promotion of Christian
Knowledge.
12 These papers, with others, were published in a small work bearing
the title, “The Possibility of Approaching the North Pole Asserted,
&c.”
_ 13 De_-lighted—_i.e._, deprived of light.
14 “Under the Northern Lights.” By J. A. MacGahan.
15 The entertainments were, we are informed by Captain Markham, termed
the Thursday “Pops,” and popular they most undoubtedly were.
16 Few readers will need to be reminded that on the Fahrenheit
thermometer commonly used in England zero is expressed by 0, and
that the freezing point of water is plus (+) 32°, or 32° above zero.
The above temperatures are all minus (-), or below zero. Without
remembering these facts, one can hardly appreciate the intense and
almost unparalleled cold experienced by the late expedition.
17 “Journals and Proceedings of the Arctic Expedition, 1875-6,” &c.
(printed as a Parliamentary Blue-book).
18 Mercury frequently froze during the writer’s stay on the Yukon, and
other parts of Northern Alaska, in the winter of 1866-7. On one
occasion the thermometer registered 58° below zero (90° below the
freezing point of water).
19 The recently-reported exploit of Professor Nordenskjold, of which we
have at present the barest outlines, does not properly come under
this category. It was in reality a successful voyage by the
north-west passage, and must eventually find its place in these
pages.
20 Sir John Barrow: “Chronological History of Voyages into the Arctic
Regions.”
21 The full name of this navigator is Willem zoon Barents, or Barentz,
_i.e._, William, the son of Barents. The abbreviated form, however,
has always been adopted of late.
22 Introduction to the Hakluyt Society’s edition of these voyages.
23 A Dutch proverb, used when an undertaking turns out badly. The dog
stole a sausage, and got well whipped for his pains.
24 “Discoveries East of Spitzbergen,” &c. Paper read before the Royal
Geographical Society by C. R. Markham, Esq., C.B., F.R.S., February
10th, 1873.
25 A cubical or rectangular mass of ice will, floating in the sea, have
about six times the depth under water that it has height above. But
it will be evident that this will not apply to irregular-shaped
masses, which may have very solid bases, rising above in lighter
pinnacles or other fantastic forms. The brother of the writer has
seen on the Greenland coast icebergs 90 to 100 feet out of the
water, _grounded_ at 100 fathoms (600 feet).
26 “Journey from Prince of Wales’s Fort in Hudson’s Bay to the Northern
Ocean.”
27 In several of the older Arctic works glaciers and icebergs are
confounded. The fact is that the latter, or at all events the larger
number of the latter, are born of the former. They are masses of ice
which have become detached at the sea end and have floated away.
28 The writer has visited many parts of Russian-America, or, as it is
now called, Alaska, a little south of the above point. The natives
as a rule live _underground_ in winter, but they have for summer use
board and log houses on the surface, and stages above and around
them of all kinds, some for drying fish, others for raising sledges
or canoes above the surface of the ground, &c.
29 There is none growing, but a wreck or piece of drift-wood
occasionally supplies their need. The writer was in Behring Sea in
the autumn of the year 1865, when the famed and dreaded privateer
_Shenandoah_ burned _thirty_ American whale-ships, and the natives
had then a considerable amount of wreckage, including complete
boats, which had come ashore. _Vide_ the author’s work, “Travel and
Adventure in the Territory of Alaska,” &c.
30 In the summer of 1843 Middendorf explored the coasts and
neighbourhood of Cape Taimyr, and looking seawards to the Polar
Ocean, saw open water.
31 The writer has spelt the word phonetically. It is impossible to
render more than the sound of a Russian word in English, and any
attempt to Anglicise the Russian spelling must end in failure, as
there are thirty-six letters in that language. But from intercourse
with educated Russians in Kamchatka during two visits in 1865 and
1866, he knows that his mode more nearly represents the sound than
the versions commonly adopted, one of which may be noted above in
the quotation from Müller, where the English translator has made the
word _Kamtschatka_.
32 We read little of these animals afterwards in Parry’s narrative, and
they were not, and could not be, of service in the perilous and
harassing journey, over broken and detached _sea_ ice, about to be
described.
33 “Phipps’s Voyage towards the North Pole.”
34 Sir John Franklin’s first wife died on the day after the departure
of the expedition from England.
35 It is not desirable here to enter into the detailed consideration of
who first discovered the North-west Passage. When Franklin sailed in
1845 there was but a comparatively small gap between Parry’s
furthest western point (Melville Island) and Back’s Great Fish
River, unexplored, and Franklin did undoubtedly complete this
missing link. M’Clure, as we shall afterwards see, made the passage
successfully and independently, and his discoveries were published
long before the world knew anything of Franklin’s fate or the extent
of his last voyage. The late Sir Roderick Murchison considered
Franklin “the first real discoverer of the North-west Passage,” and
the inscription on his monument bears witness to the same effect.
36 It will have been observed that Captain Collinson, who was to have
accompanied M’Clure, was never able to communicate with him. This
vessel, however, passed some time in the Arctic waters, and some
pieces of wreck purchased by him from the Esquimaux, and _supposed_
to have been parts of Franklin’s vessels, the _Erebus_ and _Terror_,
were the only relics which were ever obtained by any naval commander
acting under Government orders. Captain Parry’s discoveries, however
interesting in regard to the early progress of the expedition, threw
no light on its fate.
37 Although there is some variation in the mode of preparing this
comestible, it is essentially always the same: lean meat, dried and
cut into shreds, which is then pounded up and mixed with melted beef
fat, and pressed into cases. Among the Indians, who have not this
latter resource of civilisation, gut and skins are employed, and
their pemmican is not, therefore, unlike a rather substantial and
solid sausage.
38 Conjecture is perhaps wrong at this point, but the painful thought
has often occurred to the writer that the Esquimaux, not always
quite so innocent as some writers would have us believe, were the
murderers of some at least of the enfeebled party. Broken down by
starvation, and exhausted by painful travel, they would be an easy
prey to the hardy natives, whose cupidity might be excited by the
many useful articles they possessed. We have before seen how
Franklin was nearly involved in a serious _fracas_ with those
people, and in later days it is on record that Dr. Hayes, the
American explorer, discovered a plot for the destruction of his
party.
39 There are slight discrepancies in the above records, which, however,
can be readily understood were made in the hurry and excitement of
the moment.
40 No part of the skull of either skeleton was found, with the
exception only of the lower jaw of each.
41 “Arctic Explorations in the Years 1853, ’54, ’55,” by Elisha Kent
Kane, M.D., U.S.N.
42 “Summer in the Antarctic Regions.”
43 The word _Arctic_ is derived from the Greek, and signifies _of_, or
_belonging to the bear_.
44 Captain Dumont D’Urville commanded an expedition dispatched by
France in 1837 for the express purpose of exploring the Antarctic,
and Lieutenant Wilkes, U.S.N. had a similar commission the same
year. Wilkes and D’Urville sighted each other’s vessels on one
occasion, but through a mistake did not communicate.
45 Don Cristoval Colon. The port now generally termed Aspinwall, on the
Atlantic side of the Isthmus of Panama, was long, and is sometimes
nowadays known as Colon.
46 Translation of the history by Don Ferdinand Columbus in Churchill’s
Collection of Voyages and Travels.
47 They had been seventy days on the passage from Spain.
48 “Land-lubber” about expresses this term.
49 “History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella.”
50 It must be remembered that it was the received opinion of the good
Roman Catholics of the period, that heathen nations were outside the
pale of spiritual and civil rights, and that their bodies were the
property of their conquerors. Even Columbus recommended an exchange
of native slaves for the commodities required in the colony;
representing, moreover, that their conversion would be the more
surely effected in slavery! _Vide_ Prescott’s “History of the Reign
of Ferdinand and Isabella.”
51 Calicut, in the district of Malabar, must not be confounded with
Calcutta. Calico derives its name from Calicut, once a famous
manufacturing city.
52 “The Voyages and Discoveries of the Companions of Columbus.”
53 The Straits of Magellan are nearly 300 miles in length, and vary in
breadth from one and a half to thirty-three miles. The rocky cliffs
and mountains which bound it are in some places 3,000 to 4,000 feet
in height. The passage has only been used extensively since the
steamship era. Now it is a common highway for steamships and some
sailing vessels, the latter being often towed through by steam tugs.
54 First discovered by Tasman in 1642.
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE
The illustrations have been moved so that they do not break up paragraphs
and are near the text they illustrate.
Several illustrations which were missing from the List of Illustrations
have been added to it. They can be identified by the missing page numbers
in the list.
The following changes have been made to the text:
page iv, “Portugese” changed to “Portuguese” (three times)
page 7, “sudddenly” changed to “suddenly”
page 21, comma changed to period after “fleet”
page 27, “armanent” changed to “armament”
page 41, double quote changed to single quote after “them.”
page 60, “were” changed to “where”
page 134, “Vere” changed to “Veer”
page 201, period added after “northward”
page 212, quote mark added after “putrid.”
page 229, prime added after “43”, prime changed to double prime
after “15”
page 246, quote mark added before “It”
page 249, quote mark added after “superb.”
page 251, quote mark added after “land.”
page 271, quote mark added after “ice.”
page 275, comma changed to period after “whales”
page 299, quote mark removed before “On”
page 310, quote mark added after “fate!”
page 319, double “to” removed
Differences between the table of contents and the chapter summaries have
not been corrected. Neither have variations in hyphenation been
normalized.