PARLEY TELLS HOW COLUMBUS WAS SHIPWRECKED, AND ALSO OF THE MANNER OF HIS
DEATH.
Columbus soon left Hispaniola where he met with so inhospitable a
reception, and steering towards the west, he arrived on the coast of
Honduras. There he had an interview with some of the inhabitants of the
continent, who came off in a large canoe; they appeared to be more
civilized than any whom he had hitherto discovered.
In return to the inquiries which the Spaniards made with their usual
eagerness, where the Indians got the gold which they wore by way of
ornaments, they directed him to countries situated to the west, in which
gold was found in such profusion that it was applied to the most common
uses.
Well would it have been for Columbus had he followed their advice.
Within a day or two he would have arrived at Yucatan; the discovery of
Mexico and the other opulent countries of New Spain would have
necessarily followed, the Southern Ocean would have been disclosed to
him, and a succession of splendid discoveries would have shed fresh
glory on his declining age.
But the admiral's mind was bent upon discovering the supposed strait
that was to lead to the Indian Ocean. In this navigation he explored a
great extent of coast from Cape Gracios à Dios till he came to a
harbour, which on account of its beauty and security, he called Porto
Bello.
On quitting this harbour he steered for the south, and he had not
followed this course many days when he was overtaken by storms more
terrible than any he had yet encountered.
For nine days the vessels were tossed about at the mercy of a raging
tempest. The sea, according to the description of Columbus, boiled at
times like a cauldron, at other times it ran in mountain waves covered
with foam: at night the raging billows sparkled with luminous particles,
which made them resemble great surges of flame.
For a day and a night the heavens glowed like a furnace with incessant
flashes of lightning, while the loud claps of thunder were often
mistaken for signal guns of their foundering companions.
In the midst of this wild tumult of the elements, they beheld a new
object of alarm. The ocean, in one place, became strangely agitated; the
water was whirled up into a kind of pyramid or cone; while a livid
cloud, tapering to a point, bent down to meet it; joining together, they
formed a column, which rapidly approached the ship, spinning along the
surface of the deep, and drawing up the water with a rushing sound, it
passed the ship without injury.
His leaky vessels were not able to withstand storms like these. One of
them foundered, and he was obliged to abandon another.
With the remaining two he bore away for Hispaniola, but in the tempest
his ships falling foul of each other, it was with the greatest
difficulty he reached the island of Jamaica.
His two vessels were in such a shattered condition, that, to prevent
them from sinking, and to save the lives of his crews, he was obliged to
run them on shore.
Having no ship now left, he had no means of reaching Hispaniola, or of
making his situation known. In this juncture he had recourse to the
hospitable kindness of the natives, who, considering the Spaniards as
beings of a superior nature, were eager, on every occasion to assist
them.
From them he obtained two canoes, each formed out of a single tree
hollowed with fire. In these, which were only fit for creeping along the
coast, two of his brave and faithful companions, assisted by a few
Indians, gallantly offered to set out for Hispaniola; this voyage they
accomplished in ten days, after encountering incredible fatigues and
dangers.
By them he wrote letters to Ovando, describing his situation and
requesting him to send ships to bring off him and his crews; but what
will you think of the unfeeling cruelty of this man, when I tell you
that he suffered these brave men to wait eight months before he would
give them any hopes of relieving their companions: and what must have
been the feelings of Columbus during this period.
At last the ships arrived which were to take them from the island, where
the unfeeling Ovando had suffered them to languish above a year, exposed
to misery in all its various forms. When he arrived at St. Domingo,
Ovando treated him with every kind of insult and injustice. Columbus
submitted in silence, but became extremely impatient to quit a country
where he had been treated with such barbarity.
The preparations were soon finished, and he set sail for Spain with two
ships, but disaster still pursued him to the end of his course. He
suffered acutely from a painful and dangerous disease, and his mind was
kept uneasy and anxious by a continued succession of storms. One of the
vessels being disabled, was forced back to St. Domingo, and in the other
he sailed 700 leagues with jury-masts, and reached with difficulty the
port of St. Lucar in Spain, 1504.
On his arrival he received the fatal news of the death of his patroness
queen Isabella, from whom he had hoped for the redress of his wrongs.
He applied to the king, who, instead of confirming the titles and
honours which he had formerly conferred upon him, insulted him with the
proposal of renouncing them all for a pension.
Disgusted with the ingratitude of a monarch whom he had served with
fidelity and success, exhausted with the calamities which he had
endured, and broken with infirmities, this great and good man breathed
his last at Valladolid, a.d. 1506, in the 69th year of his age.
He was buried in the cathedral at Seville, and on his tomb was engraved
an epitaph commemorating his discovery of a New World.
Christobal Colon, obiit 1506,
Ætat 69.
A Castilla y a Leon
Neubo Mundo dio Colon.[A]
Thus much for Columbus; those who are the greatest benefactors of
mankind seldom meet with much gratitude from men in their lives; they
must look to God for their reward, and leave future generations to do
justice to their memory.
It was very unfortunate for the natives of America, that the country
fell into the hands of such a cruel, covetous, and bigoted nation as the
Spaniards were. Their thirst for gold was insatiable, and the cruelties
they exercised upon the natives are too horrible to recite. After the
death of Columbus, the Indians were no longer treated with gentleness,
for it was his defence of the property and lives of these harmless
natives that brought down upon his head such bitter hatred. You will now
look into your map and follow Columbus in some of his discoveries. You
will see a great number of islands extending in a curve from Florida,
which is the southernmost part of the United States, to the mouth of the
river Oronoko in South America; and, as Columbus firmly believed these
islands, when he discovered them, to be a part of India, the name of
Indies was given to them by Ferdinand and Isabella; and, even after the
error was detected, and the true position of the new world ascertained,
the name has remained, and the appellation of Indies is given to the
country, and that of Indians to the inhabitants.
[Footnote A: To Castile and to Leon Columbus gave a New World.]