THE COURAGE OF DIEGO MENDEZ
At last they were clear of the most disastrous landing that Columbus had
ever made. What you have read is but the bare sketch of a chapter in his
life that was crowded thick with misfortunes and even horrors. And yet,
strange to say, on this detestable coast is the only settlement in the
New World that perpetuates the great discoverer's name, the town of
Colon, at the Atlantic terminus of the Panama Canal.
The Admiral's health was now ruined, for fevers, sleeplessness, gout,
and eyestrain kept him in constant pain, and at times made even that
strong mind of his a little queer and wobbly. But on one point at least
it remained alert and lucid,--he still could think out his course
clearly. With a view to avoiding the treacherous winds and coastwise
currents that had previously wrought such havoc with his ships, he set
his rudders due east on leaving Veragua; his idea being to sail first
east and then north to San Domingo.
Straightway the crews became alarmed, thinking he meant to return direct
to Spain, in spite of the fact that the ships were too rotten for the
long trip. But no; the Admiral hoped, besides escaping currents, to
mystify them as to the geographical position of the gold coast.
Remembering how Alonzo de Ojeda had gone back and reaped riches from the
pearl coast, and how Pedro Nino, that captain who brought slaves to
Cadiz and sent word that he had brought a cargo of gold, and also been
to Paria, Christopher decided to zigzag about in such a manner that no
one could ever find his way back to the gold country ten days inland
from Darien. Suffering and misfortune were surely telling on the
Admiral's mind, else he would never have written this childish note:
"None of them [the crew] could explain whither I went nor whence I came;
they did not know the way to return thither."
But all the time his men grumbled, and could not understand why they
were starting for Spain on crazy, crumbling ships, when San Domingo lay
so much nearer. Every day they murmured louder, till at last the Admiral
foolishly humored them by heading due north; the result was that he
turned too soon and found himself in a new current he had never met
before. This current carried them past Hispaniola westward again to
those same "Gardens of the Queen." The series of storms that here
overtook the two battered little ships were almost as bad as those that
met them on their last approach to Hispaniola. Anchors were lost and the
men kept the ships from sinking only by the constant use of "three pumps
and all their pots and kettles." By the 23d of June they had drifted
over to Jamaica. The crews were worn out by their hard work to keep
afloat. It seemed as if human endurance could stand no more. Many were
badly bruised from being dashed down on the decks like bits of wood
before the gales; they had had no dry clothing on for days; their hearts
were faint, their stomachs fainter, for they had had nothing to eat and
drink for some time but black wormy bread and vinegar. How, we ask
ourselves as we sit in our comfortable, solid houses, did they endure
it? And yet there was even worse to come!
The Admiral saw that even "three pumps and all their pots and kettles"
could not keep the water bailed out of the leaky boats. The only thing
he could do was to run his ships aground. The first harbor he tried was
so barren on every side that starvation stared them in the face; so they
pushed on a little farther, the exhausted men again bailing steadily,
till they entered a greener spot, now called Don Christopher's Cove. Not
a minute too soon did they reach it. Once the ships were grounded on the
sandy beach, the tide soon filled the hulls with water. The weary men
had to turn to and build cabins on the forecastles; and here at last
they managed to keep dry, and to lie down and rest.
Their first thought was how to get food. The resourceful Diego Mendez
offered to tramp over the island and trade whatever personal articles
the sailors had left for foodstuffs. In this he was successful; he
secured more than food; he exchanged the clothing on his own back for a
large canoe and six rowers, and returned by sea. The next aid Mendez
rendered the shipwrecked men showed even finer heroism than his lashing
the canoes together to rescue Bartholomew. He offered to go in an open
rowboat all the way from Jamaica to Haiti and ask Ovando to send a
rescue vessel!
Look at a map of the West Indies and see what this offer meant! Two
hundred miles to the western point of Haiti, two hundred more to the
governor at San Domingo, and this, too, across a sea frequented by
perilous hurricanes. It was a magnificent piece of volunteer work! Not
one chance in a hundred did Diego Mendez have of reaching his
destination, and he knew it; yet he offered to take the risk. One of his
shipmates caught some of his valorous spirit and offered to accompany
him; and the six native rowers, of course, had no choice but to go.
Mendez was as practical and ingenious as he was brave. He fastened
weatherboards along the rim of the canoe to prevent shipping water; he
fitted it with a mast and sail, and coated it with tar; and while he was
doing it the Admiral wrote a brief, businesslike letter to Ovando,
telling of the sad plight they were in; he also wrote a long, rambling
letter, full of evidence of feeble-mindedness, to the monarchs. These
letters Mendez was to take with him.
But Mendez, to every one's dismay, came back again in a few days,--came
back alone and with boat and oars smashed. While waiting at the eastern
point of Jamaica for a favorable wind to take them over to Haiti, they
were surrounded by hostile natives and captured. The six rowers escaped,
and the companion of Mendez was probably killed instantly; but while the
savages were debating how to kill and cook Mendez, he managed to dash
away, jump in his huge canoe, and push off!
The shipwrecked party felt crushed indeed. Their last hope of rescue was
gone; but no--Diego Mendez offered to start all over again, if only Don
Bartolome would march with an armed force along the shore till there
came a favorable moment in the weather for Diego to push across to
Haiti.
This precaution saved the intrepid Diego a second surprise from
cannibals; but the passage, after leaving Jamaica, was torture. So
intense was the heat, that he and his Indian rowers were forced to take
turns jumping overboard and swimming alongside the canoe in order to
cool off. The Indians, like children, wanted to drink all the water at
once. In spite of warning, they emptied the kegs the second night, and
then lay down on the bottom of the canoe, panting for more. Diego and
his Spanish companion did the rowing till the Indians were rested a bit.
Then Diego brought out two more kegs of water which he had artfully
hidden under his seat, gave them all a drink, and set them to work
again. Late that second night the moon came up, not out of the sea, but
behind the jagged rock that lies ten miles off the western end of Haiti.
Blessed sight! What new courage it put into the tired rowers; how eager
they were to make the rock by sunrise so as to lie in its shade all that
August day of 1503, instead of blistering under the torrid sun in an
open boat. Surely, if ever men deserved to lie all day in the shade, it
was these brave fellows who were trying to save Christopher Columbus.
From this point Mendez went on with his six rowers till he found the
governor; but before going into that matter, let me tell you how proud,
and justly proud, Diego Mendez was all his life of this canoe trip. He
lived to be an old man (in the city of Valladolid), and when he felt
himself nearing the end, he asked his relatives to mark his grave by a
tombstone, "in the center of which let a canoe be carved (which is a
piece of wood hollowed out in which the Indians navigate), because in
such a boat I navigated some three hundred leagues; and let some letters
be carved above it saying _canoa_."
Quite right of you, Diego Mendez, to wish posterity to know of your
plucky voyage. We hope your relatives gave you the coveted tombstone;
and we hope, also, that they carved, on its reverse side, that of all
the men who ever served Don Cristobal Colon, you were the most loyal and
the most valiant.
The Admiral, in writing an account of what happened on the Jamaica beach
while Mendez was seeking aid, says:--
"At the request of the king's treasurer, I took two brothers with me to
the Indies--one as captain, the other as auditor. Both were without any
capacity for their work, yet became more and more vain. I forgave them
many incivilities. They rebelled openly on Jamaica, at which I was as
much astonished as if the sun should go black."
Yet why, we ask, should Columbus have been so astonished? Had he ever
known much else from those under him but incivility and rebellion?
Ever since Mendez left in August the men had been looking in vain for
his return. Autumn and winter and spring wore away, and as the natives
had grown tired of feeding them, the shipwrecked crew were now mere
skeletons. Of course they blamed the pain-racked Admiral because Mendez
had not returned with succor; and of course they were constantly
quarreling among themselves. One day the captain who had commanded the
vessel that went to pieces near Darien came into the cabin where the
sick Admiral lay, and grumbled and quarreled and said he was going to
seize canoes from the Indians and make his way to Haiti. It was
Francisco Porras, one of the two brothers foisted on Columbus by their
relative, the king's treasurer, who wanted to get rid of them.
Porras and forty-one of the discontented voyagers actually started for
Haiti, but a short time on the rough sea sent them back ashore. They
next formed themselves into a raiding party and outraged the natives in
every possible way, falsely saying that they did so by order of the
Admiral. This so angered the Indians that they marched down to Don
Christopher's Cove, surrounded the beached ships, and threatened to kill
every Spaniard there.
It so happened that there was to be an eclipse of the moon that night,
and Columbus suddenly recalled it and turned the fact to good use. He
told the angry natives that the power that had made the moon and the
stars was very displeased with them and would prove it that very night
by darkening the moon. The childish creatures decided to wait before
attacking and see if the Admiral spoke the truth. When the eclipse
really started, they became terrified and sent their chiefs to ask
Columbus's pardon; Columbus promptly declared that the light of the moon
would return if the Indians would faithfully promise to treat the
Spaniards kindly and supply them with food. The credulous creatures
hastened to procure it; and as they brought it to the shore, the moon
kindly emerged from the black shadow that had covered it. Result, the
Indians believed Columbus to be a superior being and from that time on
they fed him and his men well. This eclipse was on February 29, 1504.
But even with plenty of food the months of waiting were long and dreary.
Had the brave Diego Mendez gone to the bottom? He must have perished,
thought the Admiral, for surely if he had reached San Domingo alive even
the harsh Comendador Ovando could not have refused to send aid to
stranded countrymen on a savage island! But why not, good Admiral? Had
not this same Ovando refused to let you enter the harbor of San Domingo
last year when the frightful hurricane was gathering?
Yet that was what happened. Ovando, whose heart, if he ever had one, had
shriveled to the size of a mustard grain, practically refused to send
help. On hearing Mendez' tale he said he was sorry for the Admiral and
his men, but he did not say he would send them a ship. Mendez kept at
him, telling him very emphatically that the one hundred and thirty
stranded Spaniards would certainly die unless soon rescued; still Ovando
said he was sorry, but did not offer to send relief. Instead, scoundrel
that he was, he _did_ send a small caravel, very small indeed, so
that it could not accommodate the forlorn men, and could not carry them
any provisions. The captain, one of Roldan's rebels, was carefully
instructed merely to see if Columbus and his shipmates were still alive,
and then to come back and report. The Roldan rebel took his caravel to
Don Christopher's Cove, rowed out in a small trailer until within
shouting distance of the two rotting hulks on the beach, and yelled out
that Governor Ovando was very sorry to learn from Mendez that the
Admiral and his party were in trouble, and regretted that he had no ship
large enough to send to their rescue. And then the villain sailed back
to his villainous master.
Imagine this studied, impudent message to a group of men whose eyes had
been straining for months to see a relief ship head their way! Imagine
sending such a message to the most illustrious discoverer the world has
ever known! A more dastardly bit of cruelty hardly exists in history!
This expedition was kept secret from Diego Mendez, however; and Diego,
still storming about because nothing was being done, went among the
populace of San Domingo and declared that it was a base, shameful
business to leave a sick old man to perish on a savage island,
especially when that old man had discovered all these lands for Spain.
The people, though many of them had been the sick old man's enemies in
bygone days, and though they never suspected the greatness of Columbus,
agreed. They even began to clamor that Columbus should be rescued; but
it was not until they had clamored long and urgently that their knightly
governor sent a ship.
On June 25, 1504, exactly one year after Columbus had beached his two
remaining caravels, the relief ship came in sight. "Never in my life,"
wrote Christopher, "did I experience so joyful a day!" and we may well
believe it.
On the 15th of August the party reached San Domingo after their long
suffering and hardships. Ovando, seeing how popular sympathy had turned
towards the sick Admiral, decided to secure a little popular favor
himself out of the incident by inviting the discoverer to stay in his
own house, that is, the governor's house, which really had belonged to
Columbus. There Columbus learned that the agent appointed to set aside
his share of the island profits had not done so; also, as Ovando wanted
to punish Captain Porras, who had rebelled on Jamaica, while Columbus
preferred to deal with the matter himself, host and guest disagreed.
Too proud to remain an unwelcome guest in Ovando's house, Columbus
collected what he could of the money due him, and prepared to go home to
Spain. Two vessels were purchased, one for Bartholomew and one for
Fernando and himself. Again Columbus proceeded with the familiar
business of calking ships, buying provisions, and engaging a crew. In
less than a month he was off again from San Domingo on the last voyage
he was ever to make. On September 12, 1504, the ships weighed anchor and
pointed away from the "western lands" which Christopher Columbus had
made known to Europe. The white-haired old man, we may be sure, stood
long on deck gazing backward as the scene of his triumph and his
humiliation faded from sight. Never again could he undertake a voyage of
discovery, for he was now a confirmed invalid. Cipango, Cathay, and "the
strait" to the Indian Ocean were not for him; so it was with many a
heartburn that his poor old eyes strained toward the fading islands.
His ill luck held out to the end. The first day a sudden storm broke
with a crash and carried away his masts. With the utmost difficulty he
and Fernando got into a small boat and clambered on board Bartholomew's
vessel, the disabled boat being sent back to San Domingo. Still the sea
would show him no mercy. Hardly had he crawled into a berth than another
tempest came, and another and another, one unending, pitiless fury all
across the ocean, till our great man must have thought that old Atlantic
hated him for having solved her mysteries. The ship appeared to leap and
stagger every minute of the time, and the Admiral was too ill to take
command. Bartholomew was doing his best and little Fernando was helping;
running down to his father for orders, scurrying up to his uncle with
directions. What a struggle for life it was! And it was repeated every
single day till November 7, when the crippled little caravel put into
the harbor of San Lucar near Cadiz. Christopher Columbus's last voyage
was over. No bells pealed out to greet him; no flags were flung to the
breeze; but at least he had the glory of knowing in his heart that he
had conquered that grim, unknown, menacing Atlantic Ocean which man had
feared since the beginning of time.