THE OLD SPANISH BOOK.
Next morning my doubts about Antonio were dispelled, when, from my
place of concealment (which was on the brow of a wooded rock), I
heard him shouting for me; and once or twice I obtained a glimpse of
him, stumbling about as if intoxicated, with the box of case-bottles
slung over his back in a Manilla rope.
How he had got either the box or himself ashore was a mystery, the
passage along the reef, and the ascent from thence to the upper part
of the island being so difficult and so dangerous; but heedless of
his invitations to join him, and of his threats for absenting myself,
I remained close in my place of concealment, being well aware that if
the Cubano was a hateful and perilous companion when sober, he would
be doubly so in his present state.
The morning was clear and bright in all its tropical loveliness. My
first glance was turned to the sea, where its waters blended in the
faintest blue with the flat horizon; but no sail was in sight.
So long had this been the case--so often had I swept the sea at
sunrise and at sunset with haggard eyes in vain,--that I repressed
the usual sigh; and placing the book I had found open in the
sunshine, that its damp leaves might dry, I selected a ripe banana,
brought some water in a large leaf from a spring, and proceeded to
make my breakfast like a hermit of old.
Concealed by thick shrubs and beds of gigantic tulips, I was certain
that Antonio could neither discover nor molest me--at least, that he
could not take me by surprise, which was somewhat consoling; for the
events of yesterday morning had given me a greater terror of him.
At my feet apparently lay the bay, on the margin of which stood the
rude wigwam built by the men of the _Eugenie_; and it made me think
sadly of good Marc Hislop and others who were gone.
There lay the rocks which formed the horns of that beautiful bay,
tufted with feathery trees, and between them extended the long white
line of the coral reef, over which the shadowy vessel had appeared to
sail on that eventful night.
On my right towered through the clouds the great mountain, which is
yet unnamed; and on my left rose, sheer from the water, the mighty
bluff we had first descried at sea.
I took up the book, the leaves of which the warm sunshine had dried
and crisped, and its pages made me think of home and of that
civilization from which I was exiled--of Eton and other times; and
for nearly an hour my eyes were full, my heart sick and heavy, with
intense longing for relief, and a weariness of the life I was passing
on this lonely island.
After a time I began to read, and in this new or old (it was both to
me) sense of pleasure, I forgot all my sorrow and peril.
It was a Spanish book, the title-page of which was gone, but proved
to be the first volume of a collection of the voyages and discoveries
made by the Spaniards in the olden time.
It related* the adventures of Alphonso de Albuquerque, detailing how
he and Tristan da Cunha, each with seven caravels, had sailed from
Europe and touched at Teneriffe, while there was an eruption from the
crater of the great peak, during which a mighty mass of rock fell
down, and brought to light the great diamond, which had since shone
at times with such wondrous brilliance in the night, but the exact
locality of which baffled all search during day.
* I subsequently learned from Marc Hislop that the work was probably
a volume of the _Collection de los Viages y Descubrimientos de los
Espanoles en Indias_.
Sailing from thence to the isles named Tristan da Cunha, a storm
dispersed the fleet; but Alphonso, after being separated from Don
Tristan discovered the island, which he named from himself, and had
his name cut on one of the rocks, in the year in which Philip, King
of Castile and Emperor of Austria, died; and this was the rock which
we had discovered.
Then, in the following year, he sailed to India, of which he became
viceroy, for Ferdinand the Catholic. It detailed how, thereafter, he
went from the city of Cochin unto the Straits of Malacca, and sent a
certain valiant Portuguese knight, named Ruy Nunnez da Cunha, as
ambassador to the king of the Seguiers: how he sailed to Java, where
he found the wonderful birds of paradise, that came in flights from
the southern isles of India, and were fabled to be always on the wing
without the power of alighting, till they found some that were drunk
with the strength of the nutmeg, which always intoxicates them.
In that sea huge lampreys adhered to the keels of his caravels, and
for a time retarded their progress, which was deemed to be
enchantment.
Sailing thence, Alphonso discovered an island where the sea-serpent
coiled up his monstrous length for certain seasons, guarding caverns
that were filled with piles of golden ingots, and casks of orient
pearls, rubies, and diamonds; and in this isle were deep bights and
bays, where ships with all their crews lay spell-bound by
necromancers.
On another island he found a white nation, whose cavaliers were
arrayed in fine shirts, slashed doublets of taffeta, and trunk hose,
with long swords and short mantles, exactly like the Portuguese; and
having money of silver, with many other incredible statements, all
tending to assure the reader that this settlement was one of the
seven Christian colonies that, under seven bishops, had fled from the
Spanish Peninsula when the cross was trampled under the feet of the
Moors, and when the churches of Christ were converted into mosques
for the worship of Mohammed, as a punishment for the wickedness of
Roderick the Last of the Goths.
Returning westward from this wonderful voyage, in 1513, Don Alphonso
went from the city of Goa to the straits of Mecca, and passing with
twenty caravels through the narrow Gate of Tears into the Red Sea, he
bombarded the city of Aden, after which a cross appeared in heaven,
shining before his ship, like the pillar of fire that shone before
the children of Israel; and two years after, this worthy cavalier,
just as he was about to make Shah Ishmael, king of Persia, pay
tribute to his master the king of Castile, "passed away to the
company of the saints," dying like a true Hidalgo, with his armor on,
and his toledo at his girdle.
The real and the marvellous were so curiously blended in these
voyages, that I read on, forgetful of all about me, and charmed in
spite of my deplorable situation.
At last I came to the history of a valiant mariner who invented a
_steamship_ in the time of Charles V.--a narrative which seemed to
illustrate the old aphorism, that there is nothing new under the sun.
When Charles the First of Spain and Fifth of Germany was emperor,
there lived in the busy town of Barcelona, a certain Blasco de Garay,
captain of a merchant ship.
In his youth, Blasco had been one of the mariners of Columbus, whom
he accompanied in all those voyages which gave to Castile and Leon a
new realm beyond the seas of the southern and western world. He was
with him when he landed in Guana Bay, and erected the standard of
Ferdinand and Isabella on a shore never before trod by a Christian
foot; so this land, which is one of the Bahamas, by the suggestion of
Blasco, he named San Salvador; and he was also with him at the
discovery of Cuba, of Hispaniola, and the discovery of that mighty
continent, the nominal honor of which was robbed from Columbus, by
Amerigo Vespucius, the Florentine.
But all this was when Blasco was a boy; so fifty-one years after,
that is, in the year of grace 1543, he conceived the idea "of an
engine able to move large vessels in calm weather without the use of
oars or sails."
So coldly were his proposals met at home, that he was on the point of
applying to James V. of Scotland, a monarch then far in advance of
any other in Europe, in the cultivation of the arts, of commerce,
music, architecture, and painting; but unfortunately he died of a
broken heart, and, moreover, his mariners were the scourge of the
shores of Portugal and Spain.
But Blasco did not lose heart, for after enduring torrents of
ridicule, and experiencing incredible abuse, with threats from the
Dominicans that they would burn him as a sorcerer, the Emperor agreed
to permit a trial of his great invention, and it took place in
presence of a mighty concourse, at Barcelona, on the 17th of June,
1543.
The harbor there is formed by a kind of bight, which lies between the
citadel of Monjuich and the city; all the shore of this bay was
covered with spectators; the battlements of the governor's palace,
and those of the palaces of the counts of Barcelona and of the kings
of Arragon, with the spire of St. Mary-of-the-Sea, were also covered
by a multitude.
The Emperor was on horseback, surrounded by his courtiers, the
commanders of St. Jago of Calatrava, of Alcantara, and other
religious and military orders, wearing their crosses and mantles, and
all the officials of his splendid household, while his guard of
archers, the guards of Monteros de Espinosa, and the old German
Lanzknechts, lined the beach with their great gilded partisans, the
staves of which were covered with crimson velvet and tasselled with
gold.
On beholding all these preparations, and such a concourse of the
noble, the wealthy, and great around the Emperor, Blasco de Garay
believed that the fortunate hour--"the hour which, according to the
general saying, presents itself to every man _once_ in his life for
making fame and fortune," had now arrived.
He had spent the night in prayer, at Montserrat, for the success of
his invention--dreamt of in youth, studied in manhood, and now
matured in age--the ship that would be alike independent of wave and
wind.
Montserrat is a few miles from Barcelona, and had then a famous
abbey, which was much frequented in consequence of a miraculous image
of the Virgin, which was kept in a chapel on the summit of a rock;
and in this chapel ninety lamps of solid silver, filled with perfumed
oil, burned night and day, and on each was engraved the name and arms
of Alphonso de Albuquerque, who brought them from the mosques of the
East, beyond the realms of Prester John. In the caverns beneath
dwelt many aged hermits and others who wished to seclude themselves
from the world; so there did Blasco de Garay spend the night
preceding the 17th of June, in meditation and prayer for the success
of his wonderful scheme.
A vessel of two hundred tons, named _La Trinidad_, commanded by
Captain Pedro de Scarza, was then passing the high bar which is
formed at the entrance of the bay by the waters of the Bezos, and the
Llobregat mingling with the sea; and when she caught the eye of the
Emperor, he ordered Blasco to try his experiment on _her_.
She was laden with corn, and had just come from Monte Colibre or the
Columbretes islets, which lie near the coast of Valencia, and poor
Pedro de Scarza, in his ignorance and fear of what was about to be
done to his ship, rent his beard and tore his slashed doublet as he
stamped about her deck and gave himself up for lost, when ordered to
furl every thing aloft as _La Trinidad_ was to sail without canvas,
or as he believed, about to be bewitched.
Blasco told his secret to none; but it was observed that he placed
across the vessel's deck, and bolted thereto an axle, at each end of
which was a large wooden wheel. Amidships were several other
mysterious wheels with bands and bars, and a necromantic-looking iron
boiler of great size, which he filled, however, with water from the
holy well of Montserrat.
The moment this water attained boiling heat, by means of a fire which
burned in a grating underneath, the wheels revolved, and again Pedro
de Scarza rent his beard, while most of his crew jumped overboard;
for now the vessel ran right across the Bay of Barcelona _against_
the wind which was blowing fresh, to the great astonishment and
terror of the people.
Charles V., whose mind was more occupied by wars and conquests, by
battles and sieges, than the arts of science and peace, ordered his
treasurer to inspect this strange machine and report upon it.
The treasurer, in doing so, got his trunk breeches torn by a portion
of the machinery, by which accident about three pecks (Spanish) of
fine cedar sawdust, which formed the bombasting thereof, were spilled
on the deck of _La Trinidad_; so being a solemn, proud, and pompous
grandee of Old Castile, he justly considered himself insulted by a
vile mechanical contrivance, which he loudly denounced, stating "that
it was not worth adopting, as the vessel did not go more than eight
miles in two hours, which any caravel might do; and that the boiler
was a Satanic affair, which was liable to burst and scald good
Christians."
The Emperor, who was on the eve of departing from Spain to invade
France, thus forbade Blasco to think more of his invention; but he
bestowed upon him forty thousand maravedis, and created him a knight
of the Dove of Castile--an order instituted in 1379, by Henry II.,
King of Castile and Lord of Biscay--the same who was poisoned by a
handsome pair of buskins sent to him by Mohammed II., the Red-faced
king of Granada.
But Blasco de Garay, on seeing no further hope of success with his
long-cherished steam engine, in the bitterness of his heart dashed it
to pieces with a hammer, thus destroying in an instant all that the
fond hopes, the deep thoughts, and the labor of a lifetime had
developed and constructed.
Disgusted with the world and weary of it, he retired to one of the
little hermitages in the Rock of Montserrat, only in time to prevent
the Inquisition from burning him as a sorcerer, and there he died, in
the year of the Emperor's abdication, 1555.