DEGRADATION
The first things seen by Francisco de Bobadilla when he entered the
harbour of San Domingo on the morning of the 23rd of August 1500 were the
bodies of several Spaniards, hanging from a gibbet near the water-side
--a grim confirmation of what he had heard about the troubled state of the
island. While he was waiting for the tide so that he might enter the
harbour a boat put off from shore to ascertain who was on board the
caravels; and it was thus informally that Bobadilla first announced that
he had come to examine into the state of the island. Columbus was not at
San Domingo, but was occupied in settling the affairs of the Vega Real;
Bartholomew also was absent, stamping out the last smouldering embers of
rebellion in Xaragua; and only James was in command to deal with this
awkward situation.
Bobadilla did not go ashore the first day, but remained on board his ship
receiving the visits of various discontented colonists who, getting early
wind of the purpose of his visit, lost no time in currying favour with
him, Probably he heard enough that first day to have damned the
administration of a dozen islands; but also we must allow him some
interest in the wonderful and strange sights that he was seeing; for
Espanola, which has perhaps grown wearisome to us, was new to him. He
had brought with him an armed body-guard of twenty-five men, and in the
other caravel were the returned slaves, babies and all, under the charge
of six friars. On the day following his arrival Bobadilla landed and
heard mass in state, afterwards reading out his commission to the
assembled people. Evidently he had received a shocking impression of the
state of affairs in the island; that is the only explanation of the
action suddenly taken by him, for his first public act was to demand from
James the release of all the prisoners in the fortress, in order that
they and their accusers should appear before him.
James is in a difficulty; and, mule-like, since he does not know which
way to turn, stands stock still. He can do nothing, he says, without the
Admiral's consent. The next day Bobadilla, again hearing mass in state,
causes further documents to be read showing that a still greater degree
of power had been entrusted to his hands. Mule-like, James still stands
stock still; the greatest power on earth known to him is his eldest
brother, and he will not, positively dare not, be moved by anything less
than that. He refuses to give up the prisoners on any grounds
whatsoever, and Bobadilla has to take the fortress by assault--an easy
enough matter since the resistance is but formal.
The next act of Bobadilla's is not quite so easy to understand. He
quartered himself in Columbus's house; that perhaps was reasonable enough
since there may not have been another house in the settlement fit to
receive him; but he also, we are told, took possession of all his papers,
public and private, and also seized the Admiral's store of money and
began to pay his debts with it for him, greatly to the satisfaction of
San Domingo. There is an element of the comic in this interpretation of
a commissioner's powers; and it seemed as though he meant to wind up the
whole Columbus business, lock, stock, and barrel. It would not be in
accordance with our modern ideas of honour that a man's private papers
should be seized unless he were suspected of treachery or some criminal
act; but apparently Bobadilla regarded it as necessary. We must remember
that although he had only heard one side of the case it was evidently so
positive, and the fruits of misgovernment were there so visibly before
his eyes, that no amount of evidence in favour of Columbus would make him
change his mind as to his fitness to govern. Poor James, witnessing
these things and unable to do anything to prevent them, finds himself
suddenly relieved from the tension of the situation. Since inaction is
his note, he shall be indulged in it; and he is clapped in irons and cast
into prison. James can hardly believe the evidence of his senses. He
has been studying theology lately, it appears, with a view to entering
the Church and perhaps being some day made Bishop of Espanola, but this
new turn of affairs looks as though there were to be an end of all
careers for him, military and ecclesiastical alike.
Christopher at Fort Concepcion had early news of the arrival of
Bobadilla, but in the hazy state of his mind he did not regard it as an
event of sufficient importance to make his immediate presence at San
Domingo advisable. The name of Bobadilla conveyed nothing to him; and
when he heard that he had come to investigate, he thought that he came
to set right some disputed questions between the Admiral and other
navigators as to the right of visiting Espanola and the Paria coast.
As the days went on, however, he heard more disquieting rumours; grew at
last uneasy, and moved to a fort nearer San Domingo in case it should be
necessary for him to go there. An officer met him on the road bearing
the proclamations issued by Bobadilla, but not the message from the
Sovereigns requiring the Admiral's obedience to the commissioner.
Columbus wrote to the commissioner a curious letter, which is not
preserved, in which he sought to gain time; excusing himself from
responsibility for the condition of the island, and assuring Bobadilla
that, as he intended to return to Spain almost immediately, he
(Bobadilla) would have ample opportunity for exercising his command in
his absence. He also wrote to the Franciscan friars who had accompanied
Bobadilla asking them to use their influence--the Admiral having some
vague connection with the Franciscan order since his days at La Rabida.
No reply came to any of these letters, and Columbus sent word that he
still regarded his authority as paramount in the island. For reply to
this he received the Sovereigns' message to him which we have seen,
commanding him to put himself under the direction of Bobadilla. There
was no mistaking this; there was the order in plain words; and with I
know not what sinkings of heart Columbus at last set out for San Domingo.
Bobadilla had expected resistance, but the Admiral, whatever his faults,
knew how to behave with, dignity in a humiliating position; and he came
into the city unattended on August 23, 1500. On the outskirts of the
town he was met by Bobadilla's guards, arrested, put in chains, and
lodged in the fortress, the tower of which exists to this day. He seemed
to himself to be the victim of a particularly petty and galling kind of
treachery, for it was his own cook, a man called Espinoza, who riveted
his gyves upon him.
There remained Bartholomew to be dealt with, and he, being at large and
in command of the army, might not have proved such an easy conquest, but
that Christopher, at Bobadilla's request, wrote and advised him to submit
to arrest without any resistance. Whether Bartholomew acquiesced or not
is uncertain; what is certain is that he also was captured and placed in
irons, and imprisoned on one of the caravels. James in one caravel,
Bartholomew in another, and Christopher in the fortress, and all in
chains--this is what it has come to with the three sons of old Domenico.
The trial was now begun, if trial that can be called which takes place in
the absence of the culprit or his representative. It was rather the
hearing of charges against Christopher and his brothers; and we may be
sure that every discontented feeling in the island found voice and was
formulated into some incriminating charge. Columbus was accused of
oppressing the Spanish settlers by making them work at harsh and
unnecessary labour; of cutting down their allowance of food, and
restricting their liberty; of punishing them cruelly and unduly; of
waging wars unjustly with the natives; of interfering with the conversion
of the natives by hastily collecting them and sending them home as
slaves; of having secreted treasures which should have been delivered to
the Sovereigns--this last charge, like some of the others, true. He had
an accumulation of pearls of which he had given no account to Fonseca,
and the possession of which he excused by the queer statement that he was
waiting to announce it until he could match it with an equal amount of
gold! He was accused of hating the Spaniards, who were represented as
having risen in the late rebellion in order to protect the natives and
avenge their own wrongs--, and generally of having abused his office in
order to enrich his own family and gratify his own feelings. Bobadilla
appeared to believe all these charges; or perhaps he recognised their
nature, and yet saw that there was a sufficient degree of truth in them
to disqualify the Admiral in his position as Viceroy. In all these
affairs his right-hand man was Roldan, whose loyalty to Columbus, as we
foresaw, had been short-lived. Roldan collects evidence; Roldan knows
where he can lay his hands on this witness; Roldan produces this and that
proof; Roldan is here, there, and everywhere--never had Bobadilla found
such a useful, obliging man as Roldan. With his help Bobadilla soon
collected a sufficient weight of evidence to justify in his own mind his
sending Columbus home to Spain, and remaining himself in command of the
island.
The caravels having been made ready, and all the evidence drawn up and
documented, it only remained to embark the prisoners and despatch them to
Spain. Columbus, sitting in his dungeon, suffering from gout and
ophthalmic as well as from misery and humiliation, had heard no news;
but he had heard the shouting of the people in the streets, the beating
of drums and blowing of horns, and his own name and that of his brothers
uttered in derision; and he made sure that he was going to be executed.
Alonso de Villegio, a nephew of Bishop Fonseca's, had been appointed to
take charge of the ships returning to Spain; and when he came into the
prison the Admiral thought his last hour had come.
"Villegio," he asked sadly, "where are you taking me?"
"I am taking you to the ship, your Excellency, to embark," replied the
other.
"To embark?" repeated the Admiral incredulously. "Villegio! are you
speaking the truth?"
"By the life of your Excellency what I say is true," was the reply, and
the news came with a wave of relief to the panic-stricken heart of the
Admiral.
In the middle of October the caravels sailed from San Domingo, and the
last sounds heard by Columbus from the land of his discovery were the
hoots and jeers and curses hurled after him by the treacherous,
triumphant rabble on the shore. Villegio treated him and his brothers
with as much kindness as possible, and offered, when they had got well
clear of Espanola, to take off the Admiral's chains. But Columbus, with
a fine counterstroke of picturesque dignity, refused to have them
removed. Already, perhaps, he had realised that his subjection to this
cruel and quite unnecessary indignity would be one of the strongest
things in his favour when he got to Spain, and he decided to suffer as
much of it as he could. "My Sovereigns commanded me to submit to what
Bobadilla should order. By his authority I wear these chains, and I
shall continue to wear them until they are removed by order of the
Sovereigns; and I will keep them afterwards as reminders of the reward I
have received for my services." Thus the Admiral, beginning to pick up
his spirits again, and to feel the better for the sea air.
The voyage home was a favourable one and in the course of it Columbus
wrote the following letter to a friend of his at Court, Dona Juana de la
Torre, who had been nurse to Prince Juan and was known by him to be a
favourite of the Queen:
"MOST VIRTUOUS LADY,--Though my complaint of the world is new, its
habit of ill-using is very ancient. I have had a thousand struggles
with it, and have thus far withstood them all, but now neither arms
nor counsels avail me, and it cruelly keeps me under water. Hope in
the Creator of all men sustains me: His help was always very ready;
on another occasion, and not long ago, when I was still more
overwhelmed, He raised me with His right arm, saying, 'O man of
little faith, arise: it is I; be not afraid.'
"I came with so much cordial affection to serve these Princes, and
have served them with such service, as has never been heard of or
seen.
"Of the new heaven and earth which our Lord made, when Saint John
was writing the Apocalypse, after what was spoken by the mouth of
Isaiah, He made me the messenger, and showed me where it lay. In
all men there was disbelief, but to the Queen, my Lady, He gave the
spirit of understanding, and great courage, and made her heiress of
all, as a dear and much loved daughter. I went to take possession
of all this in her royal name. They sought to make amends to her
for the ignorance they had all shown by passing over their little
knowledge and talking of obstacles and expenses. Her Highness, on
the other hand, approved of it, and supported it as far as she was
able.
"Seven years passed in discussion and nine in execution. During
this time very remarkable and noteworthy things occurred whereof no
idea at all had been formed. I have arrived at, and am in, such a
condition that there is no person so vile but thinks he may insult
me: he shall be reckoned in the world as valour itself who is
courageous enough not to consent to it.
"If I were to steal the Indies or the land which lies towards them,
of which I am now speaking, from the altar of Saint Peter, and give
them to the Moors, they could not show greater enmity towards me in
Spain. Who would believe such a thing where there was always so
much magnanimity?
"I should have much desired to free myself from this affair had it
been honourable towards my Queen to do so. The support of our Lord
and of her Highness made me persevere: and to alleviate in some
measure the sorrows which death had caused her, I undertook a fresh
voyage to the new heaven and earth which up to that time had
remained hidden; and if it is not held there in esteem like the
other voyages to the Indies, that is no wonder, because it came to
be looked upon as my work.
"The Holy Spirit inflamed Saint Peter and twelve others with him,
and they all contended here below, and their toils and hardships
were many, but last of all they gained the victory.
"This voyage to Paria I thought would somewhat appease them on
account of the pearls, and of the discovery of gold in Espanola.
I ordered the pearls to be collected and fished for by people with
whom an arrangement was made that I should return for them, and, as
I understood, they were to be measured by the bushel. If I did not
write about this to their Highnesses, it was because I wished to
have first of all done the same thing with the gold.
"The result to me in this has been the same as in many other things;
I should not have lost them nor my honour, if I had sought my own
advantage, and had allowed Espanola to be ruined, or if my
privileges and contracts had been observed. And I say just the same
about the gold which I had then collected, and [for] which with such
great afflictions and toils I have, by divine power, almost
perfected [the arrangements].
"When I went from Paria I found almost half the people from Espanola
in revolt, and they have waged war against me until now, as against
a Moor; and the Indians on the other side grievously [harassed me].
At this time Hojeda arrived and tried to put the finishing stroke:
he said that their Highnesses had sent him with promises of gifts,
franchises and pay: he gathered together a great band, for in the
whole of Espanola there are very few save vagabonds, and not one
with wife and children. This Hojeda gave me great trouble; he was
obliged to depart, and left word that he would soon return with more
ships and people, and that he had left the Royal person of the
Queen, our Lady, at the point of death. Then Vincente Yanez arrived
with four caravels; there was disturbance and mistrust but no
mischief: the Indians talked of many others at the Cannibals
[Caribbee Islands] and in Paria; and afterwards spread the news of
six other caravels, which were brought by a brother of the Alcalde,
but it was with malicious intent. This occurred at the very last,
when the hope that their Highnesses would ever send any ships to the
Indies was almost abandoned, nor did we expect them; and it was
commonly reported that her Highness was dead.
"A certain Adrian about this time endeavoured to rise in rebellion
again, as he had done previously, but our Lord did not permit his
evil purpose to succeed. I had purposed in myself never to touch a
hair of anybody's head, but I lament to say that with this man,
owing to his ingratitude, it was not possible to keep that resolve
as I had intended: I should not have done less to my brother, if he
had sought to kill me, and steal the dominion which my King and
Queen had given me in trust.
"This Adrian, as it appears, had sent Don Ferdinand to Xaragua to
collect some of his followers, and there a dispute arose with the
Alcalde from which a deadly contest ensued, and he [Adrian] did not
effect his purpose. The Alcalde seized him and a part of his band,
and the fact was that he would have executed them if I had not
prevented it; they were kept prisoners awaiting a caravel in which
they might depart. The news of Hojeda which I told them made them
lose the hope that he would now come again.
"For six months I had been prepared to return to their Highnesses
with the good news of the gold, and to escape from governing a
dissolute people Who fear neither God nor their King and Queen,
being full of vices and wickedness.
"I could have paid the people in full with six hundred thousand, and
for this purpose I had four millions of tenths and somewhat more,
besides the third of the gold.
"Before my departure I many times begged their Highnesses to send
there, at my expense, some one to take charge of the administration
of justice; and after finding the Alcalde in arms I renewed my
supplications to have either some troops or at least some servant of
theirs with letters patent; for my reputation is such that even if I
build churches and hospitals, they will always be called dens of
thieves.
"They did indeed make provision at last, but it was the very
contrary of what the matter demanded: it may be successful, since it
was according to their good pleasure.
"I was there for two years without being able to gain a decree of
favour for myself or for those who went there, yet this man brought
a coffer full: whether they will all redound to their [Highnesses]
service, God knows. Indeed, to begin with, there are exemptions for
twenty years, which is a man's lifetime; and gold is collected to
such an extent that there was one person who became worth five marks
in four hours; whereof I will speak more fully later on.
"If it would please their Highnesses to remove the grounds of a
common saying of those who know my labours, that the calumny of the
people has done me more harm than much service and the maintenance
of their [Highnesses] property and dominion has done me good, it
would be a charity, and I should be re-established in my honour, and
it would be talked about all over the world: for the undertaking is
of such a nature that it must daily become more famous and in higher
esteem.
"When the Commander Bobadilla came to Santo Domingo, I was at La
Vega, and the Adelantado at Xaragua, where that Adrian had made a
stand, but then all was quiet, and the land rich and all men at
peace. On the second day after his arrival, he created himself
Governor, and appointed officers and made executions, and proclaimed
immunities of gold and tenths and in general of everything else for
twenty years, which is a man's lifetime, and that he came to pay
everybody in full up to that day, even though they had not rendered
service; and he publicly gave notice that, as for me, he had charge
to send me in irons, and my brothers likewise, as he has done, and
that I should nevermore return thither, nor any other of my family:
alleging a thousand disgraceful and discourteous things about me.
All this took place on the second day after his arrival, as I have
said, and while I was absent at a distance, without my knowing
either of him or of his arrival.
"Some letters of their Highnesses signed in blank, of which he
brought a number, he filled up and sent to the Alcalde and to his
company with favours and commendations: to me he never sent either
letter or messenger, nor has he done so to this day. Imagine what
any one holding my office would think when one who endeavoured to
rob their Highnesses, and who has done so much evil and mischief, is
honoured and favoured, while he who maintained it at such risks is
degraded.
"When I heard this I thought that this affair would be like that of
Hojeda or one of the others, but I restrained myself when I learnt
for certain from the friars that their Highnesses had sent him. I
wrote to him that his arrival was welcome, and that I was prepared
to go to the Court and had sold all I possessed by auction; and that
with respect to the immunities he should not be hasty, for both that
matter and the government I would hand over to him immediately as
smooth as my palm. And I wrote to the same effect to the friars,
but neither he nor they gave me any answer. On the contrary, he put
himself in a warlike attitude, and compelled all who went there to
take an oath to him as Governor; and they told me that it was for
twenty years.
"Directly I knew of those immunities, I thought that I would repair
such a great error and that he would be pleased, for he gave them
without the need or occasion necessary in so vast a matter: and he
gave to vagabond people what would have been excessive for a man who
had brought wife and children. So I announced by word and letters
that he could not use his patents because mine were those in force;
and I showed them the immunities which John Aguado brought.
"All this was done by me in order to gain time, so that their
Highnesses might be informed of the condition of the country, and
that they might have an opportunity of issuing fresh commands as to
what would best promote their service in that respect.
"It is useless to publish such immunities in the Indies: to the
settlers who have taken up residence it is a pure gain, for the best
lands are given to them, and at a low valuation they will be worth
two-hundred thousand at the end of the four years when the period of
residence is ended, without their digging a spadeful in them. I
would not speak thus if the settlers were married, but there are not
six among them all who are not on the look-out to gather what they
can and depart speedily. It would be a good thing if they should go
from Castile, and also if it were known who and what they are, and
if the country could be settled with honest people.
"I had agreed with those settlers that they should pay the third of
the gold, and the tenths, and this at their own request; and they
received it as a great favour from their Highnesses. I reproved
them when I heard that they ceased to do this, and hoped that the
Commander would do likewise, and he did the contrary.
"He incensed them against me by saying that I wanted to deprive them
of what their Highnesses had given them; and he endeavoured to set
them at variance with me, and did so; and he induced them to write
to their Highnesses that they should never again send me back to the
government, and I likewise make the same supplication to them for
myself and for my whole family, as long as there are not different
inhabitants. And he together with them ordered inquisitions
concerning me for wickednesses the like whereof were never known in
hell. Our Lord, who rescued Daniel and the three children, is
present with the same wisdom and power as He had then, and with the
same means, if it should please Him and be in accordance with His
will.
"I should know how to remedy all this, and the rest of what has been
said and has taken place since I have been in the Indies, if my
disposition would allow me to seek my own advantage, and if it
seemed honourable to me to do so, but the maintenance of justice and
the extension of the dominion of her Highness has hitherto kept me
down. Now that so much gold is found, a dispute arises as to which
brings more profit, whether to go about robbing or to go to the
mines. A hundred castellanos are as easily obtained for a woman as
for a farm, and it is very general, and there are plenty of dealers
who go about looking for girls: those from nine to ten are now in
demand, and for all ages a good price must be paid.
"I assert that the violence of the calumny of turbulent persons has
injured me more than my services have profited me; which is a bad
example for the present and for the future. I take my oath that a
number of men have gone to the Indies who did not deserve water in
the sight of God and of the world; and now they are returning
thither, and leave is granted them.
"I assert that when I declared that the Commander could not grant
immunities, I did what he desired, although I told him that it was
to cause delay until their Highnesses should, receive information
from the country, and should command anew what might be for their
service.
"He excited their enmity against me, and he seems, from what took
place and from his behaviour, to have come as my enemy and as a very
vehement one; or else the report is true that he has spent much to
obtain this employment. I do not know more about it than what I
hear. I never heard of an inquisitor gathering rebels together and
accepting them, and others devoid of credit and unworthy of it, as
witnesses against their Governor.
"If their Highnesses were to make a general inquisition there, I
assure you that they would look upon it as a great wonder that the
island does not founder.
"I think your Ladyship will remember that when, after losing my
sails, I was driven into Lisbon by a tempest, I was falsely accused
of having gone there to the King in order to give him the Indies.
Their Highnesses afterwards learned the contrary, and that it was
entirely malicious.
"Although I may know but little, I do not think any one considers me
so stupid as not to know that even if the Indies were mine I could
not uphold myself without the help of some Prince.
"If this be so, where could I find better support and security than
in the King and Queen, our Lords, who have raised me from nothing to
such great honour, and are the most exalted Princes of the world on
sea and on land, and who consider that I have rendered them service,
and who preserve to me my privileges and rewards: and if any one
infringes them, their Highnesses increase them still more, as was
seen in the case of John Aguado; and they order great honour to be
conferred upon me, and, as I have already said, their Highnesses
have received service from me, and keep my sons in their household;
all which could by no means happen with another prince, for where
there is no affection, everything else fails.
"I have now spoken thus in reply to a malicious slander, but against
my will, as it is a thing which should not recur to memory even in
dreams; for the Commander Bobadilla maliciously seeks in this way to
set his own conduct and actions in a brighter light; but I shall
easily show him that his small knowledge and great cowardice,
together with his inordinate cupidity, have caused him to fail
therein.
"I have already said that I wrote to him and to the friars, and
immediately set out, as I told him, almost alone, because all the
people were with the Adelantado, and likewise in order to prevent
suspicion on his part. When he heard this, he seized Don Diego and
sent him on board a caravel loaded with irons, and did the same to
me upon my arrival, and afterwards to the Adelantado when he came;
nor did I speak to him any more, nor to this day has he allowed any
one to speak to me; and I take my oath that I cannot understand why
I am made a prisoner.
"He made it his first business to seize the gold, which he did
without measuring or weighing it and in my absence; he said that he
wanted it to pay the people, and according to what I hear he
assigned the chief part to himself and sent fresh exchangers for the
exchanges. Of this gold I had put aside certain specimens, very big
lumps, like the eggs of geese, hens, and pullets, and of many other
shapes, which some persons had collected in a short space of time,
in order that their Highnesses might be gladdened, and might
comprehend the business upon seeing a quantity of large stones full
of gold. This collection was the first to be given away, with
malicious intent, so that their Highnesses should not hold the
matter in any account until he has feathered his nest, which he is
in great haste to do. Gold which is for melting diminishes at the
fire: some chains which would weigh about twenty marks have never
been seen again.
"I have been more distressed about this matter of the gold than even
about the pearls, because I have not brought it to her Highness.
"The Commander at once set to work upon anything which he thought
would injure me. I have already said that with six hundred thousand
I could pay every one without defrauding anybody, and that I had
more than four millions of tenths and constabulary [dues] without
touching the gold. He made some free gifts which are ridiculous,
though I believe that he began by assigning the chief part to
himself. Their Highnesses will find it out when they order an
account to be obtained from him, especially if I should be present
thereat. He does nothing but reiterate that a large sum is owing,
and it is what I have said, and even less. I have been much
distressed that there should be sent concerning me an inquisitor who
is aware that if the inquisition which he returns is very grave he
will remain in possession of the government.
"Would that it had pleased our Lord that their Highnesses had sent
him or some one else two years ago, for I know that I should now be
free from scandal and infamy, and that my honour would not be taken
from me, nor should I lose it. God is just, and will make known the
why and the wherefore.
"They judge me over there as they would a governor who had gone to
Sicily, or to a city or town placed under regular government, and
where the laws can be observed in their entirety without fear of
ruining everything; and I am greatly injured thereby.
"I ought to be judged as a captain who went from Spain to the Indies
to conquer a numerous and warlike people, whose customs and religion
are very contrary to ours; who live in rocks and mountains, without
fixed settlements, and not like ourselves: and where, by the Divine
Will, I have placed under the dominion of the King and Queen, our
Sovereigns, a second world, through which Spain, which was reckoned
a poor country, has become the richest.
"I ought to be judged as a captain who for such a long time up to
this day has borne arms without laying them aside for an hour, and
by gentlemen adventurers and by custom, and not by letters, unless
they were from Greeks or Romans or others of modern times of whom
there are so many and such noble examples in Spain; or otherwise I
receive great injury, because in the Indies there is neither town
nor settlement.
"The gate to the gold and pearls is now open, and plenty of
everything--precious stones, spices and a thousand other things--may
be surely expected, and never could a worse misfortune befall me:
for by the name of our Lord the first voyage would yield them just
as much as would the traffic of Arabia Felix as far as Mecca, as I
wrote to their Highnesses by Antonio de Tomes in my reply respecting
the repartition of the sea and land with the Portuguese; and
afterwards it would equal that of Calicut, as I told them and put in
writing at the monastery of the Mejorada.
"The news of the gold that I said I would give is, that on the day
of the Nativity, while I was much tormented, being harassed by
wicked Christians and by Indians, and when I was on the point of
giving up everything, and if possible escaping from life, our Lord
miraculously comforted me and said, 'Fear not violence, I will
provide for all things: the seven years of the term of the gold have
not elapsed, and in that and in everything else I will afford thee a
remedy.'
"On that day I learned that there were eighty leagues of land with
mines at every point thereof. The opinion now is that it is all
one. Some have collected a hundred and twenty castellanos in one
day, and others ninety, and even the number of two hundred and fifty
has been reached. From fifty to seventy, and in many more cases
from fifteen to fifty, is considered a good day's work, and many
carry it on. The usual quantity is from six to twelve, and any one
obtaining less than this is not satisfied. It seems to me that these
mines are like others, and do not yield equally every day. The
mines are new, and so are the workers: it is the opinion of
everybody that even if all Castile were to go there, every
individual, however inexpert he might be, would not obtain less than
one or two castellanos daily, and now it is only commencing. It is
true that they keep Indians, but the business is in the hands of the
Christians. Behold what discernment Bobadilla had, when he gave up
everything for nothing, and four millions of tenths, without any
reason or even being requested, and without first notifying it to
their Highnesses. And this is not the only loss.
"I know that my errors have not been committed with the intention of
doing evil, and I believe that their Highnesses regard the matter
just as I state it: and I know and see that they deal mercifully
even with those who maliciously act to their disservice. I believe
and consider it very certain that their clemency will be both
greater and more abundant towards me, for I fell therein through
ignorance and the force of circumstances, as they will know fully
hereafter; and I indeed am their creature, and they will look upon
my services, and will acknowledge day by day that they are much
profited. They will place everything in the balance, even as Holy
Scripture tells us good and evil will be at the day of judgment.
"If, however, they command that another person do judge me, which I
cannot believe, and that it be by inquisition in the Indies, I very
humbly beseech them to send thither two conscientious and honourable
persons at my expense, who I believe will easily, now that gold is
discovered, find five marks in four hours. In either case it is
needful for them to provide for this matter.
"The Commander on his arrival at San Domingo took up his abode in my
house, and just as he found it so he appropriated everything to
himself. Well and good; perhaps he was in want of it. A pirate
never acted thus towards a merchant. About my papers I have a
greater grievance, for he has so completely deprived me of them that
I have never been able to obtain a single one from him; and those
that would have been most useful in my exculpation are precisely
those which he has kept most concealed. Behold the just and honest
inquisitor! Whatever he may have done, they tell me that there has
been an end to justice, except in an arbitrary form. God, our Lord,
is present with His strength and wisdom, as of old, and always
punishes in the end, especially ingratitude and injuries."
We must keep in mind the circumstances in which this letter was written
if we are to judge it and the writer wisely. It is a sad example of
querulous complaint, in which everything but the writer's personal point
of view is ignored. No one indeed is more terrible in this world than
the Man with a Grievance. How rarely will human nature in such
circumstances retire into the stronghold of silence! Columbus is asking
for pity; but as we read his letter we incline to pity him on grounds
quite different from those which he represented. He complains that the
people he was sent to govern have waged war against him as against a
Moor; he complains of Ojeda and of Vincenti Yanez Pinzon; of Adrian de
Moxeca, and of every other person whom it was his business to govern and
hold in restraint. He complains of the colonists--the very people, some
of them, whom he himself took and impressed from the gaols and purlieus
of Cadiz; and then he mingles pious talk about Saint Peter and Daniel in
the den of lions with notes on the current price of little girls and big
lumps of gold like the eggs of geese, hens, and pullets. He complains
that he is judged as a man would be judged who had been sent out to
govern a ready-made colony, and represents instead that he went out to
conquer a numerous and warlike people "whose custom and religion are very
contrary to ours, and who lived in rocks and mountains"; forgetting that
when it suited him for different purposes he described the natives as so
peaceable and unwarlike that a thousand of them would not stand against
one Christian, and that in any case he was sent out to create a
constitution and not merely to administer one. Very sore indeed is
Christopher as he reveals himself in this letter, appealing now to his
correspondent, now to the King and Queen, now to that God who is always
on the side of the complainant. "God our Lord is present with His
strength and wisdom, as of old, and always punishes in the end,
especially ingratitude and injuries." Not boastfulness and weakness, let
us hope, or our poor Admiral will come off badly.