CHAPTER VI._The Discovery of America Vol. 1 (of 2) with some account of Ancient America and the Spanish Conquest

THE FINDING OF STRANGE COASTS.

[Sidenote: The Discovery of America was a gradual process.]

But that era did not close with Columbus, nor did he live long enough to

complete the Discovery of America. Our practice of affixing specific

dates to great events is on many accounts indispensable, but it is

sometimes misleading. Such an event as the discovery of a pair of vast

continents does not take place within a single year. When we speak of

America as discovered in 1492, we do not mean that the moment Columbus

landed on two or three islands of the West Indies, a full outline map of

the western hemisphere from Labrador and Alaska to Cape Horn suddenly

sprang into existence--like Pallas from the forehead of Zeus--in the

minds of European men. Yet people are perpetually using arguments which

have neither force nor meaning save upon the tacit assumption that

somehow or other some such sort of thing must have happened. This

grotesque fallacy lies at the bottom of the tradition which has caused

so many foolish things to be said about that gallant mariner, Americus

Vespucius. In geographical discussions the tendency to overlook the fact

that Columbus and his immediate successors did not sail with the latest

edition of Black's General Atlas in their cabins is almost inveterate;

it keeps revealing itself in all sorts of queer statements, and probably

there is no cure for it except in familiarity with the long series of

perplexed and struggling maps made in the sixteenth century. Properly

regarded, the Discovery of America was not a single event, but a very

gradual process. It was not like a case of special creation, for it was

a case of evolution, and the voyage of 1492 was simply the most decisive

and epoch-marking incident in that evolution. Columbus himself, after

all his four eventful voyages across the Sea of Darkness, died in the

belief that he had simply discovered the best and straightest route to

the eastern shores of Asia. Yet from his first experiences in Cuba down

to his latest voyage upon the coasts of Honduras and Veragua, he was

more or less puzzled at finding things so different from what he had

anticipated. If he had really known anything with accuracy about the

eastern coast of Asia, he would doubtless soon have detected his

fundamental error, but no European in his day had any such knowledge. In

his four voyages Columbus was finding what he supposed to be parts of

Asia, what we now know to have been parts of America, but what were

really to him and his contemporaries neither more nor less than Strange

Coasts. We have now to consider briefly his further experiences upon

these strange coasts.

* * * * *

The second voyage of Columbus was begun in a very different mood and

under very different auspices from either his former or his two

subsequent voyages. On his first departure from Palos, in 1492, all

save a few devoted friends regarded him as a madman rushing upon his

doom; and outside the Spanish peninsula the expedition seems to have

attracted no notice. But on the second start, in 1493, all hands

supposed that they were going straight to golden Cathay and to boundless

riches. It was not now with groans but with pæans that they flocked on

board the ships; and the occasion was observed, with more or less

interest, by some people in other countries of Europe,--as in Italy, and

for the moment in France and England.

[Sidenote: The letter to Sanchez.]

At the same time with his letter to Santangel, the Admiral had

despatched another account, substantially the same,[532] to Gabriel

Sanchez,[533] another officer of the royal treasury. Several copies of a

Latin translation of this letter were published at Rome, at Paris, and

elsewhere, in the course of the year 1493.[534] The story which it

contained was at once paraphrased in Italian verse by Giuliano Dati, one

of the most popular poets of the age, and perhaps in the autumn of 1493

the amazing news that the Indies had been found by sailing west[535] was

sung by street urchins in Florence. We are also informed, in an

ill-vouched but not improbable clause in Ramusio, that not far from that

same time the news was heard with admiration in London, where it was

pronounced "a thing more divine than human to sail by the West unto the

East, where spices grow, by a way that was never known before;"[536] and

it seems altogether likely that it was this news that prompted the

expedition of John Cabot hereafter to be mentioned.[537]

[Footnote 532: "Un duplicata de cette relation," Harrisse,

_Christophe Colomb_, tom i. p. 419.]

[Footnote 533: Often called Raphael Sanchez.]

[Footnote 534: The following epigram was added to the first

Latin edition of the latter by Corbaria, Bishop of

Monte-Peloso:--

_Ad Invictissimum Regem Hispaniarum_:

Iam nulla Hispanis tellus addenda triumphis,

Atque parum tantis viribus orbis erat.

Nunc longe eois regio deprensa sub undis,

Auctura est titulos Betice magne tuos.

Unde repertori inerita referenda Columbo

Gratia, sed summo est maior habenda deo,

Qui vincenda parat noua regna tibique sibique

Teque simul fortem prestat et esse pium.

These lines are thus paraphrased by M. Harrisse:--

_To the Invincible King of the Spains_:

Less wide the world than the renown of Spain,

To swell her triumphs no new lands remain.

Rejoice, Iberia! see thy fame increased!

Another world Columbus from the East

And the mid-ocean summons to thy sway!

Give thanks to him--but loftier homage pay

To God Supreme, who gives its realms to thee!

Greatest of monarchs, first of servants be!

_Bibliotheca Americana Vetustissima_, p. 13.

The following is a literal version:--"Already there is no land

to be added to the triumphs of Spain, and the earth was too

small for such great deeds. Now a far country under the eastern

waves has been discovered, and will be an addition to thy

titles, O great Bætica! wherefore thanks are due to the

illustrious discover Columbus; but greater thanks to the

supreme God, who is making ready new realms to be conquered for

thee and for Himself, and vouchsafes to thee to be at once

strong and pious." It will be observed that nothing is said

about "another world."

An elaborate account of these earliest and excessively rare

editions is given by M. Harrisse, _loc. cit._]

[Footnote 535: Or, as Mr. Major carelessly puts it, "the

astounding news of the discovery of a new world." (_Select

Letters of Columbus_, p. vi.) Mr. Major knows very well that no

such "news" was possible for many a year after 1493; his remark

is, of course, a mere slip of the pen, but if we are ever going

to straighten out the tangle of misconceptions with which this

subject is commonly surrounded, we must be careful in our

choice of words.--As a fair specimen, of the chap-book style of

Dati's stanzas, we may cite the fourteenth:--

Hor vo tornar almio primo tractato

dellisole trovate incognite a te

in [~q]sto anno presente [~q]sto e stato

nel millequatrocento nov[=a]tatre,

uno che x[~p]ofan col[=o]bo chiamato,

che e stato in corte der prefecto Re

ha molte volte questa stimolato,

el Re ch'cerchi acrescere il suo stato.

M. Harrisse gives the following version:--

Back to my theme, O Listener, turn with me

And hear of islands all unknown to thee!

Islands whereof the grand discovery

Chanced in this year of fourteen ninety-three.

One Christopher Colombo, whose resort

Was ever in the King Fernando's court,

Bent himself still to rouse and stimulate

The King to swell the borders of his State.

_Bibliotheca Americana Vetustissima_, p. 29.

The entire poem of sixty-eight stanzas is given in Major, _op.

cit._ pp. lxxiii.-xc. It was published at Florence, Oct. 26,

1493, and was called "the story of the discovery [not of a new

world, but] of the new Indian islands of Canary!" (_Storia

della inventione delle nuove isole dicanaria indiane._)]

[Footnote 536: _Raccolta di Navigazioni_, etc., Venice, 1550,

tom. i. fol. 414.]

[Footnote 537: See below, vol. ii. pp. 2-15.]

[Sidenote: Earliest references to the discovery.]

[Sidenote: Earliest reference in English.]

The references to the discovery are very scanty, however, until after

the year 1500, and extremely vague withal. For example, Bernardino de

Carvajal, the Spanish ambassador at the papal court, delivered an

oration in Rome on June 19, 1493, in which he said: "And Christ placed

under their [Ferdinand and Isabella's] rule the Fortunate [Canary]

islands, the fertility of which has been ascertained to be wonderful.

And he has lately disclosed some other unknown ones towards the Indies

which may be considered among the most precious things on earth; and it

is believed that they will be gained over to Christ by the emissaries

of the king."[538] Outside of the Romance countries we find one German

version of the first letter of Columbus, published at Strasburg, in

1497,[539] and a brief allusion to the discovery in Sebastian Brandt's

famous allegorical poem, "Das Narrenschiff," the first edition of which

appeared in 1494.[540] The earliest distinct reference to Columbus in

the English language is to be found in a translation of this poem, "The

Shyppe of Fooles," by Henry Watson, published in London by Wynkyn de

Worde in 1509. The purpose of Brandt's allegory was to satirize the

follies committed by all sorts and conditions of men. In the chapter,

"Of hym that wyll wryte and enquere of all regyons," it is said: "There

was one that knewe that in y^{e} ysles of Spayne was enhabitantes.

Wherefore he asked men of Kynge Ferdynandus & wente & founde them, the

whiche lyved as beestes."[541] Until after the middle of the sixteenth

century no English chronicler mentions either Columbus or the Cabots,

nor is there anywhere an indication that the significance of the

discoveries in the western ocean was at all understood.[542]

[Footnote 538: Harrisse, _Bibliotheca Americana Vetustissima_,

p. 35.]

[Footnote 539: Id. p. 50.]

[Footnote 540:

Auch hat man sydt in Portigall

Und in Hyspanyen uberall

Golt-inseln funden, und nacket l[°u]t

Von den man vor wust sagen n[°u]t.

Harrisse, _Bibl. Amer. Vet._; _Additions_, p. 4.

Or, in more modern German:--

Wie man auch jüngst von Portugal

Und Hispanien aus schier überall

Goldinseln fand und nakte Leute,

Von denen man erst weiss seit heute.

_Das Narrenschiff_, ed. Simrock, Berlin, 1872, p. 161.

In the Latin version of 1497, now in the National Library at

Paris, it goes somewhat differently:--

Antea que fuerat priscis incognita tellus:

Exposita est oculis & manifesta patet.

Hesperie occidue rex Ferdinandus: in alto

Aequore nunc gentes repperit innumeras.

Harrisse, _op. cit._; _Additions_, p. 7.

It will be observed that these foreign references are so

ungallant, and so incorrect, as to give all the credit to

Ferdinand, while poor Isabella is not mentioned!]

[Footnote 541: Harrisse, _op. cit._; _Additions_, p. 45.]

[Footnote 542: Harrisse, _Jean et Sebastien Cabot_, Paris,

1882, p. 15.]

[Sidenote: Portuguese claim to the Indies.]

North of the Alps and Pyrenees the interest in what was going on at the

Spanish court in 1493 was probably confined to very few people. As for

Venice and Genoa we have no adequate means of knowing how they felt

about the matter,--a fact which in itself is significant. The interest

was centred in Spain and Portugal. There it was intense and awakened

fierce heart-burnings. Though John II. had not given his consent to the

proposal for murdering Columbus, he appears to have seriously

entertained the thought of sending a small fleet across the Atlantic as

soon as possible, to take possession of some point in Cathay or Cipango

and then dispute the claims of the Spaniards.[543] Such a summary

proceeding might perhaps be defended on the ground that the grant from

Pope Eugenius V. to the crown of Portugal expressly included "the

Indies." In the treaty of 1479, moreover, Spain had promised not to

interfere with the discoveries and possessions of the Portuguese.

[Footnote 543: Vasconcellos, _Vida del Rey Don Juan II._,

Madrid, 1639, lib. vi.]

[Sidenote: Bulls of Pope Alexander VI.]

But whatever King John may have intended, Ferdinand and Isabella were

too quick for him. No sooner had Columbus arrived at Barcelona than an

embassy was despatched to Rome, asking for a grant of the Indies just

discovered by that navigator in the service of Castile. The notorious

Rodrigo Borgia, who had lately been placed in the apostolic chair as

Alexander VI., was a native of Valencia in the kingdom of Aragon, and

would not be likely to refuse such a request through any excess of

regard for Portugal. As between the two rival powers the pontiff's

arrangement was made in a spirit of even-handed justice. On the 3d of

May, 1493, he issued a bull conferring upon the Spanish sovereigns all

lands already discovered or thereafter to be discovered in the western

ocean, with jurisdiction and privileges in all respects similar to those

formerly bestowed upon the crown of Portugal. This grant was made by the

pope "out of our pure liberality, certain knowledge, and plenitude of

apostolic power," and by virtue of "the authority of omnipotent God

granted to us in St. Peter, and of the Vicarship of Jesus Christ which

we administer upon the earth."[544] It was a substantial reward for the

monarchs who had completed the overthrow of Mahometan rule in Spain, and

it afforded them opportunities for further good work in converting the

heathen inhabitants of the islands and mainland of Asia.[545]

[Footnote 544: "De nostra mera liberalitate, et ex certa

scientia, ac de apostolicæ potestatis plenitudine." ...

"auctoritate omnipotentis Dei nobis in beato Petro concessa, ac

vicariatus Jesu Christi qua fungimur in terris." The same

language is used in the second bull. Mr. Prescott (_Ferdinand

and Isabella_, part i. chap, vii.) translates _certa scientia_

"infallible knowledge," but in order to avoid any complications

with modern theories concerning papal infallibility, I prefer

to use a less technical word.]

[Footnote 545: A year or two later the sovereigns were further

rewarded with the decorative title of "Most Catholic." See

Zurita, _Historia del Rey Hernando_, Saragossa, 1580, lib. ii.

cap. xl.; Peter Martyr, _Epist._ clvii.]

[Sidenote: Treaty of Tordesillas.]

On the following day Alexander issued a second bull in order to prevent

any occasion for quarrel between Spain and Portugal.[546] He decreed

that all lands discovered or to be discovered to the west of a meridian

one hundred leagues west of the Azores and Cape Verde islands should

belong to the Spaniards. Inasmuch as between the westernmost of the

Azores and the easternmost of the Cape Verde group the difference in

longitude is not far from ten degrees, this description must be allowed

to be somewhat vague, especially in a document emanating from "certain

knowledge;"[547] and it left open a source of future disputes which one

would suppose the "plenitude of apostolic power" might have been

worthily employed in closing. The meridian 25° W., however, would have

satisfied the conditions, and the equitable intent of the arrangement is

manifest. The Portuguese were left free to pursue their course of

discovery and conquest along the routes which they had always preferred.

King John, however, was not satisfied. He entertained vague hopes of

finding spice islands, or something worth having, in the western waters;

and he wished to have the Line of Demarcation carried farther to the

west. After a year of diplomatic wrangling a treaty was signed at

Tordesillas, June 7, 1494, in which Spain consented to the moving of the

line to a distance of 370 leagues west from the Cape Verde islands.[548]

It would thus on a modern map fall somewhere between the 41st and 44th

meridians west of Greenwich. This amendment had important and curious

consequences. It presently gave the Brazilian coast to the Portuguese,

and thereupon played a leading part in the singular and complicated

series of events that ended in giving the name of Americus Vespucius to

that region, whence it was afterwards gradually extended to the whole

western hemisphere.[549]

[Footnote 546: The complete text of this bull, with Richard

Eden's translation, is given at the end of this work; see

below, Appendix B. The official text is in _Magnum Bullarium

Romanum_, ed. Cherubini, Lyons, 1655, tom. i. p. 466. The

original document received by Ferdinand and Isabella is

preserved in the Archives of the Indies at Seville; it is

printed entire in Navarrete, _Coleccion de viages_, tom. ii.

No. 18. Another copy, less complete, may be found in Raynaldus,

_Annales ecclesiastici_, Lucca, 1754, tom. xi. p. 214, No.

19-22; and another in Leibnitz, _Codex Diplomaticus_, tom. i.

pt. i. p. 471. It is often called the Bull "Inter Cetera," from

its opening words.

The origin of the pope's claim to apostolic authority for

giving away kingdoms is closely connected with the fictitious

"Donation of Constantine," an edict probably fabricated in Rome

about the middle of the eighth century. The title of the old

Latin text is _Edictum domini Constantini Imp._, apud

Pseudo-Isidorus, _Decretalia_. Constantine's transfer of the

seat of empire from the Tiber to the Bosphorus tended greatly

to increase the dignity and power of the papacy, and I presume

that the fabrication of this edict, four centuries afterward,

was the expression of a sincere belief that the first Christian

emperor _meant_ to leave the temporal supremacy over Italy in

the hands of the Roman see. The edict purported to be such a

donation from Constantine to Pope Sylvester I., but the extent

and character of the donation was stated with such vagueness as

to allow a wide latitude of interpretation. Its genuineness was

repeatedly called in question, but belief in it seems to have

grown in strength until after the thirteenth century. Leo IX.,

who was a strong believer in its genuineness, granted in 1054

to the Normans their conquests in Sicily and Calabria, to be

held as a fief of the Roman see. (Muratori, _Annali d' Italia_,

tom. vi. pt. ii. p. 245.) It was next used to sustain the papal

claim to suzerainty over the island of Corsica. A century later

John of Salisbury maintained the right of the pope to dispose

"of all _islands_ on which Christ, the Sun of righteousness,

hath shined," and in conformity with this opinion Pope Adrian

IV. (Nicholas Breakspeare, an Englishman) authorized in 1164

King Henry II. of England to invade and conquer Ireland. (See

Adrian IV., _Epist._ 76, apud Migne, _Patrologia_, tom.

clxxxviii.) Dr. Lanigan, in treating of this matter, is more an

Irishman than a papist, and derides "this nonsense of the

pope's being the head-owner of all Christian islands."

(_Ecclesiastical History of Ireland_, vol. iv. p.

159.)--Gregory VII., in working up to the doctrine that all

Christian kingdoms should be held as fiefs under St. Peter

(Baronius, _Annales_, tom. xvii. p. 430; cf. Villemain,

_Histoire de Grégoire VII._, Paris, 1873, tom. ii. pp. 59-61),

does not seem to have appealed to the Donation. Perhaps he was

shrewd enough to foresee the kind of objection afterwards

raised by the Albigensians, who pithily declared that if the

suzerainty of the popes was derived from the Donation, then

they were successors of Constantine and not of St. Peter.

(Moneta Cremonensis, _Adversus Catharos et Waldenses_, ed.

Ricchini, Rome, 1743, v. 2.) But Innocent IV. summarily

disposed of this argument at the Council of Lyons in 1245, when

he deposed the Emperor Frederick II. and King Sancho II. of

Portugal,--saying that Christ himself had bestowed temporal as

well as spiritual headship upon St. Peter and his successors,

so that Constantine only gave up to the Church what belonged to

it already. The opposite or Ghibelline theory was eloquently

set forth by Dante, in his treatise _De Monarchia_; he held

that inasmuch as the Empire existed before the Church, it could

not be derived from it. Dante elsewhere expressed his

abhorrence of the Donation:--

Ahi Constantin, di quanto mal fu matre,

Non la tua conversion, ma quella dote

Che da te prese il primo ricco patre!

_Inferno_, xix. 115.

Similar sentiments were expressed by many of the most popular

poets from the twelfth century to the sixteenth. Walther von

der Vogelweide was sure that if the first Christian emperor

could have foreseen the evils destined to flow from his

Donation, he would have withheld it:--

Solte ich den pfaffen raten an den triuwen min,

So spræche ir haut den armen zuo: se, daz ist din,

Ir zunge sünge, unde lieze mengem man daz sin,

Gedæhten daz ouch si dur Got wæren almuosenære.

Do gab ir erste teil der Kuenik Konstantin,

Het er gewest, daz da von uebel kuenftik wære,

So het er wol underkomen des riches swære,

Wan daz si do waren kiusche, und uebermuete lære.

Hagen, _Minnesinger-Sammlung_, Leipsic, 1838,

bd. i. p. 270.

Ariosto, in a passage rollicking with satire, makes his

itinerant paladin find the "stinking" Donation in the course of

his journey upon the moon:--

Di varii fiori ad un gran monte passa,

Ch' ebber già buono odore, or puzzan forte,

Questo era il dono, se però dir lece,

Che Constantino al buon Silvestro fece.

_Orlando Furioso_, xxxiv. 80.

The Donation was finally proved to be a forgery by Laurentius

Valla in 1440, in his _De falso credita et ementita Constantini

donatione declamatio_ (afterward spread far and wide by Ulrich

von Hutten), and independently by the noble Reginald Pecock,

bishop of Chichester, in his _Repressor_, written about

1447.--During the preceding century the theory of Gregory VII.

and Innocent IV. had been carried to its uttermost extreme by

the Franciscan monk Alvaro Pelayo, in his _De Planctu

Ecclesiæ_, written at Avignon during the "Babylonish

Captivity," about 1350 (printed at Venice in 1560), and by

Agostino Trionfi, in his _Summa de potestate ecclesiastica_,

Augsburg, 1473, an excessively rare book, of which there is a

copy in the British Museum. These writers maintained that the

popes were suzerains of the whole earth and had absolute power

to dispose not only of all Christian kingdoms, but also of all

heathen lands and powers. It was upon this theory that Eugenius

IV. seems to have acted with reference to Portugal and

Alexander VI. with reference to Spain. Of course there was

never a time when such claims for the papacy were not denied by

a large party within the Church. The Spanish sovereigns in

appealing to Alexander VI. took care to hint that some of their

advisers regarded them as already entitled to enjoy the fruits

of their discoveries, even before obtaining the papal

permission, but they did not choose to act upon that opinion

(Herrera, decad. i. lib. ii. cap. 4). The kings of Portugal

were less reserved in their submission. In _Valasci Ferdinandi

ad Innocentium octauum de obedientia oratio_, a small quarto

printed at Rome about 1488, John II. did homage to the pope for

the countries just discovered by Bartholomew Dias. His

successor Emanuel did the same after the voyages of Gama and

Vespucius. In a small quarto, _Obedientia potentissimi

Emanuelis Lusitaniæ regis &c. per clarissimum juris consultum

Dieghum Pacett[=u] oratorem ad Iuli[=u] Pont. Max._, Rome,

1505, all the newly found lands are laid at the feet of Julius

II. in a passage that ends with words worth noting: "Accipe

tandem orbem ipsum terrarum, Deus enim noster es," i. e.

"Accept in fine the earth itself, for thou art our God."

Similar homage was rendered to Leo X. in 1513, on account of

Albuquerque's conquests in Asia.--We may suspect that if the

papacy had retained, at the end of the fifteenth century,

anything like the overshadowing power which it possessed at the

end of the twelfth, the kings of Portugal would not have been

quite so unstinted in their homage. As it came to be less of a

reality and more of a flourish of words, it cost less to offer

it. Among some modern Catholics I have observed a disposition

to imagine that in the famous bull of partition Alexander VI.

acted not as supreme pontiff but merely as an arbiter, in the

modern sense, between the crowns of Spain and Portugal; but

such an interpretation is hardly compatible with Alexander's

own words. An arbiter, as such, does not make awards by virtue

of "the authority of Omnipotent God granted to us in St. Peter,

and of the Vicarship of Jesus Christ which we administer upon

the earth."

Since writing this note my attention has been called to Dr.

Ignaz von Döllinger's _Fables respecting the Popes of the

Middle Ages_, London, 1871; and I find in it a chapter on the

Donation of Constantine, in which the subject is treated with a

wealth of learning. Some of my brief references are there

discussed at considerable length. To the references to Dante

there is added a still more striking passage, where Constantine

is admitted into Heaven _in spite of_ his Donation (_Paradiso_,

xx. 55).]

[Footnote 547: The language of the bull is even more vague than

my version in the text. His Holiness describes the lands to be

given to the Spaniards as lying "to the west and south" (versus

occidentem et meridiem) of his dividing meridian. Land to the

south of a meridian would be in a queer position! Probably it

was meant to say that the Spaniards, once west of the papal

meridian, might go south as well as north. For the king of

Portugal had suggested that they ought to confine themselves to

northern waters.]

[Footnote 548: For the original Spanish text of the treaty of

Tordesillas, see Navarrete, tom. ii. pp. 116-130.]

[Footnote 549: See below, vol. ii. pp. 98-154.]

* * * * *

[Sidenote: Juan Rodriguez de Fonseca.]

Already in April, 1493, without waiting for the papal sanction,

Ferdinand and Isabella bent all their energies to the work of fitting

out an expedition for taking possession of "the Indies." First, a

department of Indian affairs was created, and at its head was placed

Juan Rodriguez de Fonseca, archdeacon of Seville: in Spain a man in high

office was apt to be a clergyman. This Fonseca was all-powerful in

Indian affairs for the next thirty years. He won and retained the

confidence of the sovereigns by virtue of his executive ability. He was

a man of coarse fibre, ambitious and domineering, cold-hearted and

perfidious, with a cynical contempt--such as low-minded people are apt

to call "smart"--for the higher human feelings. He was one of those ugly

customers who crush, without a twinge of compunction, whatever comes in

their way. The slightest opposition made him furious, and his

vindictiveness was insatiable. This dexterous and pushing Fonseca held

one after another the bishoprics of Badajoz, Cordova, Palencia, and

Conde, the archbishopric of Rosano in Italy, together with the bishopric

of Burgos, and he was also principal chaplain to Isabella and afterwards

to Ferdinand. As Sir Arthur Helps observes, "the student of early

American history will have a bad opinion of many Spanish bishops, if he

does not discover that it is Bishop Fonseca who reappears under

various designations."[550] Sir Arthur fitly calls him "the ungodly

bishop."

[Footnote 550: _History of the Spanish Conquest_, vol. i. p.

487.]

[Sidenote: Friar Boyle.]

The headquarters of Fonseca and of the Indian department were

established at Seville, and a special Indian custom-house was set up at

Cadiz. There was to be another custom-house upon the island of

Hispaniola (supposed to be Japan), and a minute registry was to be kept

of all ships and their crews and cargoes, going out or coming in. Nobody

was to be allowed to go to the Indies for any purpose whatever without a

license formally obtained. Careful regulations were made for hampering

trade and making everything as vexatious as possible for traders,

according to the ordinary wisdom of governments in such matters. All

expenses were to be borne and all profits received by the crown of

Castile, saving the rights formerly guaranteed to Columbus. The cost of

the present expedition was partly defrayed with stolen money, the

plunder wrung from the worthy and industrious Jews who had been driven

from their homes by the infernal edict of the year before. Extensive

"requisitions" were also made; in other words, when the sovereigns

wanted a ship or a barrel of gunpowder they seized it, and impressed it

into the good work of converting the heathen. To superintend this

missionary work, a Franciscan monk[551] was selected who had lately

distinguished himself as a diplomatist in the dispute with France over

the border province of Rousillon. This person was a native of Catalonia,

and his name was Bernardo Boyle, which strongly suggests an Irish

origin. Alexander VI. appointed him his apostolic vicar for the

Indies,[552] and he seems to have been the first clergyman to perform

mass on the western shores of the Atlantic. To assist the vicar, the six

Indians brought over by Columbus were baptized at Barcelona, with the

king and queen for their godfather and godmother. It was hoped that they

would prove useful as missionaries, and when one of them presently died

he was said to be the first Indian ever admitted to heaven.[553]

[Footnote 551: Irving calls him a Benedictine, but he is

addressed as "fratri ordinis Minorum" in the bull clothing him

with apostolic authority in the Indies, June 25, 1493. See

Raynaldus, _Annales ecclesiastici_, tom. xi. p. 216. I cannot

imagine what M. Harrisse means by calling him "religieux de

Saint-Vincent de Paule" (_Christophe Colomb_, tom. ii. p. 55).

Vincent de Paul was not born till 1576.]

[Footnote 552: Not for "the New World," as Irving carelessly

has it in his _Columbus_, vol. i. p. 346. No such phrase had

been thought of in 1493, or until long afterward.]

[Footnote 553: Herrera, _Hist. de las Indias_, decad. i. lib.

ii. cap. 5.]

The three summer months were occupied in fitting out the little fleet.

There were fourteen caravels, and three larger store-ships known as

carracks. Horses, mules, and other cattle were put on board,[554] as

well as vines and sugar-canes, and the seeds of several European

cereals, for it was intended to establish a permanent colony upon

Hispaniola. In the course of this work some slight matters of

disagreement came up between Columbus and Fonseca, and the question

having been referred to the sovereigns, Fonseca was mildly snubbed and

told that he must in all respects be guided by the Admiral's wishes.

From that time forth this ungodly prelate nourished a deadly hatred

toward Columbus, and never lost an opportunity for whispering evil

things about him. The worst of the grievous afflictions that afterward

beset the great discoverer must be ascribed to the secret machinations

of this wretch.

[Footnote 554: _Vita dell' Ammiraglio_, cap. xliv.]

[Sidenote: Notable persons who embarked on the second voyage.]

At last the armament was ready. People were so eager to embark that it

was felt necessary to restrain them. It was not intended to have more

than 1,200, but about 1,500 in all contrived to go, so that some of the

caravels must have been overcrowded. The character of the company was

very different from that of the year before. Those who went in the first

voyage were chiefly common sailors. Now there were many aristocratic

young men, hot-blooded and feather-headed hidalgos whom the surrender of

Granada had left without an occupation. Most distinguished among these

was Alonso de Ojeda, a dare-devil of unrivalled muscular strength, full

of energy and fanfaronade, and not without generous qualities, but with

very little soundness of judgment or character. Other notable personages

in this expedition were Columbus's youngest brother Giacomo (henceforth

called Diego), who had come from Genoa at the first news of the

Admiral's triumphant return; the monk Antonio de Marchena,[555] whom

historians have so long confounded with the prior Juan Perez; an

Aragonese gentleman named Pedro Margarite, a favourite of the king and

destined to work sad mischief; Juan Ponce de Leon, who afterwards gave

its name to Florida; Francisco de Las Casas, father of the great apostle

and historian of the Indies; and, last but not least, the pilot Juan de

La Cosa, now charged with the work of chart-making, in which he was an

acknowledged master.[556]

[Footnote 555: He went as astronomer, from which we may perhaps

suppose that scientific considerations had made him one of the

earliest and most steadfast upholders of Columbus's views.]

[Footnote 556: See Harrisse, _Christophe Colomb_, tom. ii. pp.

55, 56; Las Casas, _Hist. de las Indias_, tom. i. p. 498;

Fabié, _Vida de Las Casas_, Madrid, 1879, tom. i. p. 11;

Oviedo, _Hist. de las Indias_, tom. i. p. 467; Navarrete,

_Coleccion de viages_, tom. ii. pp. 143-149.]

[Sidenote: Cruise among the cannibal islands.]

The pomp and bustle of the departure from Cadiz, September 25, 1493, at

which the Admiral's two sons, Diego and Ferdinand, were present, must

have been one of the earliest recollections of the younger boy, then

just five years of age.[557] Again Columbus stopped at the Canary

islands, this time to take on board goats and sheep, pigs and fowls, for

he had been struck by the absence of all such animals on the coasts

which he had visited.[558] Seeds of melons, oranges, and lemons were

also taken. On the 7th of October the ships weighed anchor, heading a

trifle to the south of west, and after a pleasant and uneventful voyage

they sighted land on the 3d of November.[559] It turned out to be a

small mountainous island, and as it was discovered on Sunday they called

it Dominica. In a fortnight's cruise in these Caribbean waters they

discovered and named several islands, such as Marigalante, Guadaloupe,

Antigua, and others, and at length reached Porto Rico. The inhabitants

of these islands were ferocious cannibals, very different from the

natives encountered on the former voyage. There were skirmishes in which

a few Spaniards were killed with poisoned arrows. On Guadaloupe the

natives lived in square houses made of saplings intertwined with reeds,

and on the rude porticoes attached to these houses some of the wooden

pieces were carved so as to look like serpents. In some of these houses

human limbs were hanging from the roof, cured with smoke, like ham; and

fresh pieces of human flesh were found stewing in earthen kettles, along

with the flesh of parrots. Now at length, said Peter Martyr, was proved

the truth of the stories of Polyphemus and the Læstrygonians, and the

reader must look out lest his hair stand on end.[560] These western

Læstrygonians were known as Caribbees, Caribales, or Canibales, and have

thus furnished an epithet which we have since learned to apply to

man-eaters the world over.

[Footnote 557: "E con questo preparamento il mercoledé ai 25

del mese di settembre dell' anno 1493 un' ora avanti il levar

del sole, essendovi io e mio fratel presenti, l' Ammiraglio

levò le ancore," etc. _Vita dell' Ammiraglio_, cap. xliv.]

[Footnote 558: Eight sows were bought for 70 maravedis apiece,

and "destas ocho puercas se han multiplicado todos los puercos

que, hasta hoy, ha habido y hay en todas estas Indias," etc.

Las Casas, _Historia_, tom. ii. p. 3.]

[Footnote 559: The relation of this second voyage by Dr. Chanca

may be found in Navarrete, tom. i. pp. 198-241; an interesting

relation in Italian by Simone Verde, a Florentine merchant then

living in Valladolid, is published in Harrisse, _Christophe

Colomb_, tom. ii. pp. 68-78. The narrative of the curate of Los

Palacios is of especial value for this voyage.]

[Footnote 560: Martyr, _Epist._ cxlvii. _ad Pomponium Lætum_;

cf. _Odyssey_, x. 119; Thucyd. vi. 2.--Irving (vol. i. p. 385)

finds it hard to believe these stories, but the prevalence of

cannibalism, not only in these islands, but throughout a very

large part of aboriginal America, has been superabundantly

proved.]

[Sidenote: Fate of the colony at La Navidad.]

It was late at night on the 27th of November that Columbus arrived in

the harbour of La Navidad and fired a salute to arouse the attention of

the party that had been left there the year before. There was no reply

and the silence seemed fraught with evil omen. On going ashore next

morning and exploring the neighbourhood, the Spaniards came upon sights

of dismal significance. The fortress was pulled to pieces and partly

burnt, the chests of provisions were broken open and emptied, tools and

fragments of European clothing were found in the houses of the natives,

and finally eleven corpses, identifiable as those of white men, were

found buried near the fort. Not one of the forty men who had been left

behind in that place ever turned up to tell the tale. The little colony

of La Navidad had been wiped out of existence. From the Indians,

however, Columbus gathered bits of information that made a sufficiently

probable story. It was a typical instance of the beginnings of

colonization in wild countries. In such instances human nature has shown

considerable uniformity. Insubordination and deadly feuds among

themselves had combined with reckless outrages upon the natives to

imperil the existence of this little party of rough sailors. The cause

to which Horace ascribes so many direful wars, both before and since the

days of fairest Helen, seems to have been the principal cause on this

occasion. At length a fierce chieftain named Caonabo, from the region of

Xaragua, had attacked the Spaniards in overwhelming force, knocked their

blockhouse about their heads, and butchered all that were left of them.

[Sidenote: Building of Isabella.]

[Sidenote: Exploration of Cibao.]

This was a gloomy welcome to the land of promise. There was nothing to

be done but to build new fortifications and found a town. The site

chosen for this new settlement, which was named Isabella, was at a good

harbour about thirty miles east of Monte Christi. It was chosen because

Columbus understood from the natives that it was not far from there to

the gold-bearing mountains of Cibao, a name which still seemed to

signify Cipango. Quite a neat little town was presently built, with

church, marketplace, public granary, and dwelling-houses, the whole

encompassed with a stone wall. An exploring party led by Ojeda into the

mountains of Cibao found gold dust and pieces of gold ore in the beds of

the brooks, and returned elated with this discovery. Twelve of the ships

were now sent back to Spain for further supplies and reinforcements, and

specimens of the gold were sent as an earnest of what was likely to be

found. At length, in March, 1494, Columbus set forth, with 400 armed

men, to explore the Cibao country. The march was full of interest. It is

upon this occasion that we first find mention of the frantic terror

manifested by Indians at the sight of horses. At first they supposed the

horse and his rider to be a kind of centaur, and when the rider

dismounted this separation of one creature into two overwhelmed them

with supernatural terror. Even when they had begun to get over this

notion they were in dread of being eaten by the horses.[561] These

natives lived in houses grouped into villages, and had carved wooden

idols and rude estufas for their tutelar divinities. It was ascertained

that different tribes tried to steal each other's idols and even fought

for the possession of valuable objects of "medicine."[562] Columbus

observed and reported the customs of these people with some minuteness.

There was nothing that agreed with Marco Polo's descriptions of Cipango,

but so far as concerned the discovery of gold mines, the indications

were such as to leave little doubt of the success of this

reconnaissance. The Admiral now arranged his forces so as to hold the

inland regions just visited and gave the general command to Margarite,

who was to continue the work of exploration. He left his brother, Diego

Columbus, in charge of the colony, and taking three caravels set sail

from Isabella on the 24th of April, on a cruise of discovery in these

Asiatic waters.

[Footnote 561: For an instance of 400 hostile Indians fleeing

before a single armed horseman, see _Vita dell' Ammiraglio_,

cap. lii.; Las Casas, _Hist._ tom. ii. p. 46.]

[Footnote 562: Compare the Fisherman's story of Drogio, above,

pp. 246, 252.]

[Illustration: Discoveries made by Columbus in his first and second

voyages.]

[Sidenote: Cape Alpha and Omega.]

A brief westward sail brought the little squadron into the Windward

Passage and in sight of Cape Mayzi, which Columbus on his first voyage

had named Cape Alpha and Omega as being the easternmost point on the

Chinese coast. He believed that if he were to sail to the right of this

cape he should have the continent on his port side for a thousand miles

and more, as far as Quinsay and Cambaluc (Peking). If he had sailed

in this direction and had succeeded in keeping to the east of Florida,

he would have kept a continent on his port side, and a thousand miles

would have taken him a long way toward that Vinland which our

Scandinavian friends would fondly have us believe was his secret

guiding-star, and the geographical position of which they suppose him to

have known with such astounding accuracy. But on this as on other

occasions, if the Admiral had ever received any information about

Vinland, it must be owned that he treated it very cavalierly, for he

chose the course to the left of Cape Mayzi. His decision is intelligible

if we bear in mind that he had not yet circumnavigated Hayti and was not

yet cured of his belief that its northern shore was the shore of the

great Cipango. At the same time he had seen enough on his first voyage

to convince him that the relative positions of Cipango and the mainland

of Cathay were not correctly laid down upon the Toscanelli map. He had

already inspected two or three hundred miles of the coast to the right

of Cape Mayzi without finding traces of civilization; and whenever

inquiries were made about gold or powerful kingdoms the natives

invariably pointed to the south or southwest. Columbus, therefore,

decided to try his luck in this direction. He passed to the left of Cape

Mayzi and followed the southern coast of Cuba.

[Sidenote: Discovery of Jamaica.]

By the 3d of May the natives were pointing so persistently to the south

and off to sea that he changed his course in that direction and soon

came upon the northern coast of the island which we still know by its

native name Jamaica. Here he found Indians more intelligent and more

warlike than any he had as yet seen. He was especially struck with the

elegance of their canoes, some of them nearly a hundred feet in length,

carved and hollowed from the trunks of tall trees. We may already

observe that different tribes of Indians comported themselves very

differently at the first sight of white men. While the natives of some

of the islands prostrated themselves in adoration of these

sky-creatures, or behaved with a timorous politeness which the Spaniards

mistook for gentleness of disposition, in other places the red men

showed fight at once, acting upon the brute impulse to drive away

strangers. In both cases, of course, dread of the unknown was the

prompting impulse, though so differently manifested. As the Spaniards

went ashore upon Jamaica, the Indians greeted them with a shower of

javelins and for a few moments stood up against the deadly fire of the

cross-bows, but when they turned to flee, a single bloodhound, let loose

upon them, scattered them in wildest panic.[563]

[Footnote 563: Bernaldez, _Reyes Católicos_, cap. cxxv.

Domesticated dogs were found generally in aboriginal America,

but they were very paltry curs compared to these fierce hounds,

one of which could handle an unarmed man as easily as a terrier

handles a rat.]

[Sidenote: Coasting the south side of Cuba.]

Finding no evidences of civilization upon this beautiful island,

Columbus turned northward and struck the Cuban coast again at the point

which still bears the name he gave it, Cape Cruz. Between the general

contour of this end of Cuba and that of the eastern extremity of Cathay

upon the Toscanelli map there is a curious resemblance, save that the

direction is in the one case more east and west and in the other more

north and south. Columbus passed no cities like Zaiton, nor cities of

any sort, but when he struck into the smiling archipelago which he

called the Queen's Gardens, now known as Cayos de las Doce Leguas, he

felt sure that he was among Marco Polo's seven thousand spice islands.

On the 3d of June, at some point on the Cuban coast, probably near

Trinidad, the crops of several doves were opened and spices found in

them. None of the natives here had ever heard of an end to Cuba, and

they believed it was endless.[564] The next country to the west of

themselves was named Mangon, and it was inhabited by people with tails

which they carefully hid by wearing loose robes of cloth. This

information seemed decisive to Columbus. Evidently this Mangon was

Mangi, the province in which was the city of Zaiton, the province just

south of Cathay. And as for the tailed men, the book of Mandeville had a

story of some naked savages in eastern Asia who spoke of their more

civilized neighbours as wearing clothes in order to cover up some bodily

peculiarity or defect. Could there be any doubt that the Spanish

caravels had come at length to the coast of opulent Mangi?[565]

[Footnote 564: As a Greek would have said, [Greek: êpeiros], a

continent.]

[Footnote 565: Bernaldez, _Reyes Católicos_, cap. cxxvii, Mr.

Irving, in citing these same incidents from Bernaldez, could

not quite rid himself of the feeling that there was something

strange or peculiar in the Admiral's method of interpreting

such information: "Animated by one of the pleasing illusions of

his ardent imagination, Columbus pursued his voyage, with a

prosperous breeze, along the supposed continent of Asia."

(_Life of Columbus_, vol. i. p. 493.) This lends a false colour

to the picture, which the general reader is pretty sure to make

still falser. To suppose the southern coast of Cuba to be the

southern coast of Toscanelli's Mangi required no illusion of an

"ardent imagination." It was simply a plain common-sense

conclusion reached by sober reasoning from such data as were

then accessible (i. e. the Toscanelli map, amended by

information such as was understood to be given by the natives);

it was more probable than any other theory of the situation

likely to be devised from those data; and it seems fanciful to

us to-day only because knowledge acquired since the time of

Columbus has shown us how far from correct it was. Modern

historians abound in unconscious turns of expression--as in

this quotation from Irving--which project modern knowledge back

into the past, and thus destroy the historical perspective. I

shall mention several other instances from Irving, and the

reader must not suppose that this is any indication of

captiousness on my part toward a writer for whom my only

feeling is that of sincerest love and veneration.]

[Sidenote: The "people of Mangon."]

[Sidenote: The Golden Chersonese.]

Under the influence of this belief, when a few days later they landed in

search of fresh water, and a certain archer, on the lookout for game,

caught distant glimpses of a flock of tall white cranes feeding in an

everglade, he fled to his comrades with the story that he had seen a

party of men clad in long white tunics, and all agreed that these must

be the people of Mangon.[566] Columbus sent a small company ashore to

find them. It is needless to add that the search was fruitless, but

footprints of alligators, interpreted as footprints of griffins guarding

hoarded gold,[567] frightened the men back to their ships. From the

natives, with whom the Spaniards could converse only by signs, they

seemed to learn that they were going toward the realm of Prester

John;[568] and in such wise did they creep along the coast to the point,

some fifty miles west of Broa Bay, where it begins to trend decidedly to

the southwest. Before they had reached Point Mangles, a hundred miles

farther on, inasmuch as they found this southwesterly trend persistent,

the proof that they were upon the coast of the Asiatic continent began

to seem complete. Columbus thought that they had passed the point (lat.

23°, long. 145° on Toscanelli's map) where the coast of Asia began to

trend steadily toward the southwest.[569] By pursuing this coast he felt

sure that he would eventually reach the peninsula (Malacca) which

Ptolemy, who knew of it only by vague hearsay, called the Golden

Chersonese.[570] An immense idea now flitted through the mind of

Columbus. If he could reach and double that peninsula he could then find

his way to the mouth of the Ganges river; thence he might cross the

Indian ocean, pass the Cape of Good Hope (for Dias had surely shown that

the way was open), and return that way to Spain after circumnavigating

the globe! But fate had reserved this achievement for another man of

great heart and lofty thoughts, a quarter of a century later, who should

indeed accomplish what Columbus dreamed, but only after crossing another

Sea of Darkness, the most stupendous body of water on our globe, the

mere existence of which until after Columbus had died no European ever

suspected.[571] If Columbus had now sailed about a hundred miles

farther, he would have found the end of Cuba, and might perhaps have

skirted the northern shore of Yucatan and come upon the barbaric

splendours of Uxmal and Campeche. The excitement which such news would

have caused in Spain might perhaps have changed all the rest of his life

and saved him from the worst of his troubles. But the crews were now

unwilling to go farther, and the Admiral realized that it would be

impossible to undertake such a voyage as he had in mind with no more

than their present outfit. So it was decided to return to Hispaniola.

[Footnote 566: These tropical birds are called _soldados_, or

"soldiers," because their stately attitudes remind one of

sentinels on duty. The whole town of Angostura, in Venezuela,

was one day frightened out of its wits by the sudden appearance

of a flock of these cranes on the summit of a neighbouring

hill. They were mistaken for a war-party of Indians. Humboldt,

_Voyage aux régions équinoxiales du Nouveau Continent_, tom.

ii. p. 314.]

[Footnote 567: See above, p. 287, note.]

[Footnote 568: For these events, see Bernaldez, _Reyes

Católicos_, cap. cxxiii.; F. Columbus, _Vita dell' Ammiraglio_,

cap. lvi.; Muñoz, _Historia del Nuevo Mundo_, lib. v. § 16;

Humboldt, _Examen critique_, tom. iv. pp. 237-263; Irving's

_Columbus_, vol. i. pp. 491-504.]

[Footnote 569: That is to say, he thought he had passed the

coast of Mangi (southern China) and reached the beginning of

the coast of Champa (Cochin China; see Yule's _Marco Polo_,

vol. ii. p. 213). The name Champa, coming to European writers

through an Italian source, was written Ciampa and Ciamba. See

its position on the Behaim and Toscanelli maps, and also on

Ruysch's map, 1508, below, vol. ii. p. 114. Peter Martyr says

that Columbus was sure that he had reached the coast of

Gangetic (i. e. what we call Farther) India: "Indiæ Gangetidis

continentem eam (Cubæ) plagam esse contendit Colonus." _Epist._

xciii. _ad Bernardinum_. Of course Columbus understood that

this region, while agreeing well enough with Toscanelli's

latitude, was far from agreeing with his longitude. But from

the moment when he turned eastward on his first voyage he seems

to have made up his mind that Toscanelli's longitudes needed

serious amendment. Indeed he had always used different

measurements from Toscanelli.]

[Footnote 570: For an account of Ptolemy's almost purely

hypothetical and curiously distorted notions about southeastern

Asia, see Bunbury's _History of Ancient Geography_, vol. ii.

pp. 604-608.]

[Footnote 571: See below, vol. ii. pp. 200-210.]

Upon consultation with La Cosa and others, it was unanimously agreed

that they were upon the coast of the continent of Asia. The evidence

seemed conclusive. From Cape Mayzi (Alpha and Omega) they had observed,

upon their own reckoning, 335 leagues, or about 1,000 geographical

miles, of continuous coast running steadily in nearly the same

direction.[572] Clearly it was too long for the coast of an island; and

then there was the name Mangon = Mangi. The only puzzling circumstance

was that they did not find any of Marco Polo's cities. They kept getting

scraps of information which seemed to refer to gorgeous kingdoms, but

these were always in the dim distance. Still there was no doubt that

they had discovered the coast of a continent, and of course such a

continent could be nothing else but Asia!

[Footnote 572: The length of Cuba from Cape Mayzi to Cape San

Antonio is about 700 English miles. But in following the

sinuosities of the coast, and including tacks, the estimate of

these pilots was probably not far from correct.]

[Sidenote: A solemn expression of opinion.]

Such unanimity of opinion might seem to leave nothing to be desired. But

Columbus had already met with cavillers. Before he started on this

cruise from Isabella, some impatient hidalgos, disgusted at finding much

to do and little to get, had begun to hint that the Admiral was a

humbug, and that his "Indies" were no such great affair after all. In

order to silence these ill-natured critics, he sent his notary,

accompanied by four witnesses, to every person in those three caravels,

to get a sworn statement. If anybody had a grain of doubt about this

coast being the coast of Asia, so that you could go ashore there and

walk on dry land all the way to Spain if so disposed, let him declare

his doubts once for all, so that they might now be duly considered. No

one expressed any doubts. All declared, under oath, their firm belief.

It was then agreed that if any of the number should thereafter deny or

contradict this sworn statement, he should have his tongue slit;[573]

and if an officer, he should be further punished with a fine of 10,000

maravedis, or if a sailor, with a hundred lashes. These proceedings were

embodied in a formal document, dated June 12, 1494, which is still to be

seen in the Archives of the Indies at Seville.[574]

[Footnote 573: "É cortada la lengua;" "y le cortarian la

lengua." Irving understands it to mean cutting off the tongue.

But in those days of symbolism slitting the tip of that unruly

member was a recognized punishment for serious lying.]

[Footnote 574: It is printed in full in Navarrete, torn. ii.

pp. 143-149.]

Having disposed of this solemn matter, the three caravels turned

eastward, touching at the Isle of Pines and coasting back along the

south side of Cuba. The headland where the Admiral first became

convinced of the significance of the curvature of the coast, he named

Cape of Good Hope,[575] believing it to be much nearer the goal which

all were seeking than the other cape of that name, discovered by Dias

seven years before.

[Footnote 575: It is given upon La Cosa's map; see below, vol.

ii., frontispiece.]

[Sidenote: Vicissitudes of theory.]

It will be remembered that the Admiral, upon his first voyage, had

carried home with him two theories,--first, that in the Cuban coast he

had already discovered that of the continent of Asia, secondly that

Hispaniola was Cipango. The first theory seemed to be confirmed by

further experience; the second was now to receive a serious shock.

Leaving Cape Cruz the caravels stood over to Jamaica, leisurely explored

the southern side of that island, and as soon as adverse winds would let

them, kept on eastward till land appeared on the port bow. Nobody

recognized it until an Indian chief who had learned some Spanish hailed

them from the shore and told them it was Hispaniola. They then followed

that southern coast its whole length, discovering the tiny islands,

Beata, Saona, and Mona. Here Columbus, overcome by long-sustained

fatigue and excitement, suddenly fell into a death-like lethargy, and in

this sad condition was carried all the way to Isabella, and to his own

house, where he was put to bed. Hispaniola had thus been

circumnavigated, and either it was not Cipango or else that wonderland

must be a much smaller affair than Toscanelli and Martin Behaim had

depicted it.[576] There was something truly mysterious about these

Strange Coasts!

[Footnote 576: Hispaniola continued, however, for many years to

be commonly identified with Cipango. See note D on Ruysch's

map, 1508, below, vol. ii. p. 114.]

[Sidenote: Arrival of Bartholomew Columbus.]

When Columbus, after many days, recovered consciousness, he found his

brother Bartholomew standing by his bedside. It was six years since they

had last parted company at Lisbon, whence the younger brother started

for England, while the elder returned to Spain. The news of

Christopher's return from his first voyage found Bartholomew in Paris,

whence he started as soon as he could for Seville, but did not arrive

there until just after the second expedition had started. Presently the

sovereigns sent him with three ships to Hispaniola, to carry supplies to

the colony; and there he arrived while the Admiral was exploring the

coast of Cuba. The meeting of the two brothers was a great relief to

both. The affection between them was very strong, and each was a support

for the other. The Admiral at once proceeded to appoint Bartholomew to

the office of Adelantado, which in this instance was equivalent to

making him governor of Hispaniola under himself, the Viceroy of the

Indies. In making this appointment Columbus seems to have exceeded the

authority granted him by the second article of his agreement of April,

1492, with the sovereigns;[577] but they mended the matter in 1497 by

themselves investing Bartholomew with the office and dignity of

Adelantado.[578]

[Footnote 577: See above, p. 417.]

[Footnote 578: Las Casas, _Hist. de las Indias_, tom. ii. p.

80.]

[Sidenote: Mutiny in Hispaniola; desertion of Boyle and Margarite.]

Columbus was in need of all the aid he could summon, for, during his

absence, the island had become a pandemonium. His brother Diego, a man

of refined and studious habits, who afterwards became a priest, was too

mild in disposition to govern the hot-heads who had come to Hispaniola

to get rich without labour. They would not submit to the rule of this

foreigner. Instead of doing honest work they roamed about the island,

abusing the Indians and slaying one another in silly quarrels. Chief

among the offenders was King Ferdinand's favourite, the commander

Margarite; and he was aided and abetted by Friar Boyle. Some time after

Bartholomew's arrival, these two men of Aragon gathered about them a

party of malcontents and, seizing the ships which had brought that

mariner, sailed away to Spain. Making their way to court, they sought

pardon for thus deserting the colony, saying that duty to their

sovereigns demanded that they should bring home a report of what was

going on in the Indies. They decried the value of Columbus's

discoveries, and reminded the king that Hispaniola was taking money out

of the treasury much faster than it was putting it in; an argument well

calculated to influence Ferdinand that summer, for he was getting ready

to go to war with France over the Naples affair. Then the two recreants

poured forth a stream of accusations against the brothers Columbus, the

general purport of which was that they were gross tyrants not fit to be

trusted with the command of Spaniards.

[Sidenote: The government of Columbus was not tyrannical.]

No marked effect seems to have been produced by these first complaints,

but when Margarite and Boyle were once within reach of Fonseca, we need

not wonder that mischief was soon brewing. It was unfortunate for

Columbus that his work of exploration was hampered by the necessity of

founding a colony and governing a parcel of unruly men let loose in the

wilderness, far away from the powerful restraints of civilized society.

Such work required undivided attention and extraordinary talent for

command. It does not appear that Columbus was lacking in such talent. On

the contrary both he and his brother Bartholomew seem to have possessed

it in a high degree. But the situation was desperately bad when the

spirit of mutiny was fomented by deadly enemies at court. I do not find

adequate justification for the charges of tyranny brought against

Columbus. The veracity and fairness of the history of Las Casas are

beyond question; in his divinely beautiful spirit one sees now and then

a trace of tenderness even for Fonseca, whose conduct toward him was

always as mean and malignant as toward Columbus. One gets from Las Casas

the impression that the Admiral's high temper was usually kept under

firm control, and that he showed far less severity than most men would

have done under similar provocation. Bartholomew was made of sterner

stuff, but his whole career presents no instance of wanton cruelty;

toward both white men and Indians his conduct was distinguished by

clemency and moderation. Under the government of these brothers a few

scoundrels were hanged in Hispaniola. Many more ought to have been.

[Sidenote: Troubles with the Indians.]

Of the attempt of Columbus to collect tribute from the native

population, and its consequences in developing the system of

_repartimientos_ out of which grew Indian slavery, I shall treat in a

future chapter.[579] That attempt, which was ill-advised and

ill-managed, was part of a plan for checking wanton depredations and

regulating the relations between the Spaniards and the Indians. The

colonists behaved so badly toward the red men that the chieftain

Caonabo, who had destroyed La Navidad the year before, now formed a

scheme[580] for a general alliance among the native tribes, hoping with

sufficient numbers to overwhelm and exterminate the strangers, in spite

of their solid-hoofed monsters and death-dealing thunderbolts. This

scheme was revealed to Columbus, soon after his return from the coast of

Cuba, by the chieftain Guacanagari, who was an enemy to Caonabo and

courted the friendship of the Spaniards. Alonso de Ojeda, by a daring

stratagem, captured Caonabo and brought him to Columbus, who treated him

kindly but kept him a prisoner until it should be convenient to send him

to Spain. But this chieftain's scheme was nevertheless put in operation

through the influence of his principal wife Anacaona. An Indian war

broke out; roaming bands of Spaniards were ambushed and massacred; and

there was fighting in the field, where the natives--assailed by firearms

and cross-bows, horses and bloodhounds--were wofully defeated.

[Footnote 579: See below, vol. ii. pp. 433, 434.]

[Footnote 580: The first of a series of such schemes in

American history, including those of Sassacus, Philip, Pontiac,

and to some extent Tecumseh.]

[Sidenote: Mission of Aguado.]

[Sidenote: Discovery of gold mines.]

[Sidenote: Speculations about Ophir.]

Thus in the difficult task of controlling mutinous white men and

defending the colony against infuriated red men Columbus spent the first

twelvemonth after his return from Cuba. In October, 1495, there arrived

in the harbour of Isabella four caravels laden with welcome supplies. In

one of these ships came Juan Aguado, sent by the sovereigns to gather

information respecting the troubles of the colony. This appointment

was doubtless made in a friendly spirit, for Columbus had formerly

recommended Aguado to favour. But the arrival of such a person created a

hope, which quickly grew into a belief, that the sovereigns were

preparing to deprive Columbus of the government of the island; and, as

Irving neatly says, "it was a time of jubilee for offenders; every

culprit started up into an accuser." All the ills of the colony, many of

them inevitable in such an enterprise, many of them due to the

shiftlessness and folly, the cruelty and lust of idle swash-bucklers,

were now laid at the door of Columbus. Aguado was presently won over by

the malcontents, so that by the time he was ready to return to Spain,

early in 1496, Columbus felt it desirable to go along with him and make

his own explanations to the sovereigns. Fortunately for his purposes,

just before he started, some rich gold mines were discovered on the

south side of the island, in the neighbourhood of the Hayna and Ozema

rivers. Moreover there were sundry pits in these mines, which looked

like excavations and seemed to indicate that in former times there had

been digging done.[581] This discovery confirmed the Admiral in a new

theory, which he was beginning to form. If it should turn out that

Hispaniola was not Cipango, as the last voyage seemed to suggest,

perhaps it might prove to be Ophir![582] Probably these ancient

excavations were made by King Solomon's men when they came here to get

gold for the temple at Jerusalem! If so, one might expect to find

silver, ivory, red sandal-wood, apes, and peacocks at no great distance.

Just where Ophir was situated no one could exactly tell,[583] but the

things that were carried thence to Jerusalem certainly came from "the

Indies." Columbus conceived it as probably lying northeastward of the

Golden Chersonese (Malacca) and as identical with the island of

Hispaniola.

[Footnote 581: The Indians then living upon the island did not

dig, but scraped up the small pieces of gold that were more or

less abundant in the beds of shallow streams.]

[Footnote 582: Peter Martyr, _De Rebus Oceanicis_, dec. i. lib.

iv.]

[Footnote 583: The original Ophir may be inferred, from

_Genesis_ x. 29, to have been situated where, as Milton says,

"northeast winds blow

Sabæan odours from the spicy shore

Of Araby the Blest,"

but the name seems to have become applied indiscriminately to

the remote countries reached by ships that sailed past that

coast; chiefly no doubt, to Hindustan. See Lassen, _Indische

Alterthumskunde_, bd. i. p. 538.]

[Sidenote: Founding of San Domingo, 1496.]

[Sidenote: The return voyage.]

The discovery of these mines led to the transfer of the headquarters of

the colony to the mouth of the Ozema river, where, in the summer of

1496, Bartholomew Columbus made a settlement which became the city of

San Domingo.[584] Meanwhile Aguado and the Admiral sailed for Spain

early in March, in two caravels overloaded with more than two hundred

homesick passengers. In choosing his course Columbus did not show so

much sagacity as on his first return voyage. Instead of working

northward till clear of the belt of trade-winds, he kept straight to the

east, and so spent a month in beating and tacking before getting out of

the Caribbean Sea. Scarcity of food was imminent, and it became

necessary to stop at Guadaloupe and make a quantity of cassava

bread.[585] It was well that this was done, for as the ships worked

slowly across the Atlantic, struggling against perpetual head-winds, the

provisions were at length exhausted, and by the first week in June the

famine was such that Columbus had some difficulty in preventing the

crews from eating their Indian captives, of whom there were thirty or