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+The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Life of Christopher Columbus
+by Edward Everett Hale
+
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+The Life of Christopher Columbus from his own Letters and Journals
+
+by Edward Everett Hale
+
+October, 1998  [Etext #1492]
+
+
+The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Life of Christopher Columbus
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+[Interesting how our heroes have all be de-canizied in the
+of Political Correctitude]  Comments by Michael S. Hart
+
+
+
+
+
+THE LIFE OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS
+
+FROM HIS OWN LETTERS AND JOURNALS
+
+--AND --
+
+OTHER DOCUMENTS OF HIS TIME.
+
+
+
+by EDWARD EVERETT HALE,
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+This book contains a life of Columbus, written with the hope of
+interesting all classes of readers.
+
+His life has often been written, and it has sometimes been well
+written. The great book of our countryman, Washington Irving, is
+a noble model of diligent work given to a very difficult subject.
+And I think every person who has dealt with the life of Columbus
+since Irving's time, has expressed his gratitude and respect for
+the author.
+
+According to the custom of biographers, in that time and since,
+he includes in those volumes the whole history of the West India
+islands, for the period after Columbus discovered them till his
+death. He also thinks it his duty to include much of the history
+of Spain and of the Spanish court. I do not myself believe that
+it is wise to attempt, in a book of biography, so considerable a
+study of the history of the time. Whether it be wise or not, I
+have not attempted it in this book. I have rather attempted to
+follow closely the personal fortunes of Christopher Columbus,
+and, to the history around him, I have given only such space as
+seemed absolutely necessary for the illustration of those
+fortunes.
+
+I have followed on the lines of his own personal narrative
+wherever we have it. And where this is lost I have used the
+absolutely contemporary authorities. I have also consulted the
+later writers, those of the next generation and the generation
+which followed it. But the more one studies the life of Columbus
+the more one feels sure that, after the greatness of his
+discovery was really known, the accounts of the time were
+overlaid by what modern criticism calls myths, which had grown up
+in the enthusiasm of those who honored him, and which form no
+part of real history. If then the reader fails to find some
+stories with which he is quite familiar in the history, he must
+not suppose that they are omitted by accident, but must give to
+the author of the book the credit of having used some discretion
+in the choice of his authorities.
+
+When I visited Spain in 1882, I was favored by the officers of
+the Spanish government with every facility for carrying my
+inquiry as far as a short visit would permit. Since that time Mr.
+Harrisse has published his invaluable volumes on the life of
+Columbus. It certainly seems as if every document now existing,
+which bears upon the history, had been collated by him. The
+reader will see that I have made full use of this treasure-house.
+
+The Congress of Americanistas, which meets every year, brings
+forward many curious studies on the history of the continent, but
+it can scarcely be said to have done much to advance our
+knowledge of the personal life of Columbus.
+
+The determination of the people of the United States to celebrate
+fitly the great discovery which has advanced civilization and
+changed the face of the world, makes it certain that a new
+interest has arisen in the life of the great man to whom, in the
+providence of God, that discovery was due. The author and
+publishers of this book offer it as their contribution in the
+great celebration, with the hope that it may be of use,
+especially in the direction of the studies of the young.
+ EDWARD E. HALE.
+ ROXBURY, MASS.,
+ June 1st, 1891.
+
+
+
+TABLE OF CONTENTS.
+
+CHAPTER 1. EARLY LIFE OF COLUMBUS.
+ His Birth and Birth-place-His Early Education-His
+ experience at Sea-His Marriage and Residence in Lisbon--
+ His Plans for the Discovery of a Westward
+ Passage to the Indies 
+
+CHAPTER II. HIS PLANS FOR DISCOVERY.
+ Columbus Leaves Lisbon, and Visits Genoa--Visits Great
+ Spanish Dukes -For Six Years is at the Court of Ferdinand
+ and Isabella-The Council of Salamanca-His
+ Petition is at Last Granted -Squadron Made Ready
+
+CHAPTER III. THE GREAT VOYAGE.
+ The Squadron Sails-Refits at Canary Islands-Hopes
+ and Fears of the Voyage -The Doubts of the Crew--
+ Land Discovered
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+ The Landing on the Twelfth of October -The Natives and
+ their Neighbors -Search for Gold-Cuba Discovered
+ Columbus Coasts Along its Shores
+
+CHAPTER V.
+ Landing on Cuba -The Cigar and Tobacco -Cipango and
+ the Great Khan -From Cuba to Hayti-Its Shores and
+ Harbors
+
+CHAPTER VI. 
+ Discovery of Hayti or Hispaniola -The Search for Gold--
+ Hospitality and Intelligence of the Natives--Christmas
+ Day -A Shipwreck--Colony to be Founded -Columbus
+ Sails East and Meets Martin Pinzon-The Two
+ Vessels Return to Europe -Storm -The Azores--
+ Portugal -Home
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+Columbus is Called to Meet the King and Queen -His
+ Magnificent Reception -Negotiations with the Pope and
+ with the King of Portugal--Second Expedition Ordered
+ -Fonseca -The Preparations at Cadiz
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+ The Second Expedition Sails From Cadiz-Touches at
+ Canary Islands -Discovery of Dominica and Guadeloupe
+ -Skirmishes with the Caribs -Porto Rico Discovered
+--Hispaniola -The Fate of the Colony at La Navidad
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+ The New Colony-Expeditions of Discovery -Guacanagari--
+ Search for Gold-Mutiny in the Colony-The
+ Vessels Sent Home--Columbus Marches Inland--
+ Collection of Gold--Fortress of St. Thomas--A New Voyage
+ of Discovery--Jamaica Visited -The South Shore
+ of Cuba Explored -Return -Evangelista Discovered
+--Columbus Falls Sick -Return to Isabella
+
+CHAPTER X. THE THIRD VOYAGE.
+ Letter to the King and Queen--Discovery of Trinidad and
+ Paria -Curious Speculation as to the Earthly Paradise
+ -Arrival at San Domingo -Rebellions and Mutinies in
+ that Island-Roldan and His Followers--Ojeda and
+ His Expedition--Arrival of Bobadilla -Columbus a
+ Prisoner 
+
+CHAPTER XI. SPAIN, 1500, 1502.
+A Cordial Reception in Spain--Columbus Favorably
+ Received at Court-New Interest in Geographical
+ Discovery-His Plans for the Redemption of the Holy
+ Sepulchre -Preparations for a Fourth Expedition
+
+CHAPTER XII. FOURTH VOYAGE.
+ The Instructions Given for the Voyage--He is to go to
+ the Mainland of the Indies--A Short Passage -Ovando
+ Forbids the Entrance of Columbus into Harbor
+ Bobadilla's Squadron and Its Fate -Columbus Sails Westward
+ --Discovers Honduras, and Coasts Along Its Shores
+ --The Search for Gold -Colony Attempted and Abandoned
+ --The Vessels Become Unseaworthy -Refuge at
+ Jamaica -Mutiny Led by the Brothers Porras -Messages
+ to San Domingo -The Eclipse -Arrival of Relief
+ --Columbus Returns to San Domingo, and to Spain
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+ Two Sad Years -Isabella's Death -Columbus at Seville--
+ His Illness -Letters to the King -journeys to Segovia
+ --Salamanca and Valladolid -His Suit There --Philip
+ and Juana -Columbus Executes His Will--Dies--His
+ Burial and the Removal of His Body -His Portraits--
+ His Character
+
+APPENDIX A 
+
+APPENDIX B
+
+APPENDIX C
+
+
+
+
+THE LIFE OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I. EARLY LIFE OF COLUMBUS.
+HIS BIRTH AND BIRTH-PLACE--HIS EARLY EDUCATION--HIS EXPERIENCE AT
+SEA--HIS MARRIAGE AND RESIDENCE IN LISBON--HIS PLANS FOR THE
+DISCOVERY OF A WESTWARD PASSAGE TO THE INDIES.
+
+Christopher Columbus was born in the Republic of Genoa. The honor
+of his birth-place has been claimed by many villages in that
+Republic, and the house in which he was born cannot be now
+pointed out with certainty. But the best authorities agree that
+the children and the grown people of the world have never been
+mistaken when they have said: "America was discovered in 1492 by
+Christopher Columbus, a native of Genoa."
+
+His name, and that of his family, is always written Colombo, in
+the Italian papers which refer to them, for more than one hundred
+years before his time. In Spain it was always written Colon; in
+France it is written as Colomb; while in England it has always
+kept its Latin form, Columbus. It has frequently been said that
+he himself assumed this form, because Columba is the Latin word
+for "Dove," with a fanciful feeling that, in carrying Christian
+light to the West, he had taken the mission of the dove. Thus, he
+had first found land where men thought there was ocean, and he
+was the messenger of the Holy Spirit to those who sat in
+darkness. It has also been assumed that he took the name of
+Christopher, "the Christ-bearer," for similar reasons. But there
+is no doubt that he was baptized "Christopher," and that the
+family name had long been Columbo. The coincidences of name are
+but two more in a calendar in which poetry delights, and of which
+history is full.
+
+Christopher Columbus was the oldest son of Dominico Colombo and
+Suzanna Fontanarossa. This name means Red-fountain. He bad two
+brothers, Bartholomew and Diego, whom we shall meet again. Diego
+is the Spanish way of writing the name which we call James.
+
+It seems probable that Christopher was born in the year 1436,
+though some writers have said that he was older than this, and
+some that he was younger. The record of his birth and that of his
+baptism have not been found.
+
+His father was not a rich man, but he was able to send
+Christopher, as a boy, to the University of Pavia, and here he
+studied grammar, geometry, geography and navigation, astronomy
+and the Latin language. But this was as a boy studies, for in his
+fourteenth year he left the university and entered, in hard work,
+on "the larger college of the world." If the date given above, of
+his birth, is correct, this was in the year 1450, a few years
+before the Turks took Constantinople, and, in their invasion of
+Europe, affected the daily life of everyone, young or old, who
+lived in the Mediterranean countries. From this time, for fifteen
+years, it is hard to trace along the life of Columbus. It was the
+life of an intelligent young seaman, going wherever there was a
+voyage for him. He says himself, "I passed twenty-three years on
+the sea. I have seen all the Levant, all the western coasts, and
+the North. I have seen England; I have often made the voyage from
+Lisbon to the Guinea coast." This he wrote in a letter to
+Ferdinand and Isabella. Again he says, "I went to sea from the
+most tender age and have continued in a sea life to this day.
+Whoever gives himself up to this art wants to know the secrets of
+Nature here below. It is more than forty years that I have been
+thus engaged. Wherever any one has sailed, there I have sailed."
+
+Whoever goes into the detail of the history of that century will
+come upon the names of two relatives of his--Colon el Mozo (the
+Boy, or the Younger) and his uncle, Francesco Colon, both
+celebrated sailors. The latter of the two was a captain in the
+fleets of Louis XI of France, and imaginative students may
+represent him as meeting Quentin Durward at court. Christopher
+Columbus seems to have made several voyages under the command of
+the younger of these relatives. He commanded the Genoese galleys
+near Cyprus in a war which the Genoese had with the Venetians.
+Between the years 1461 and 1463 the Genoese were acting as allies
+with King John of Calabria, and Columbus had a command as captain
+in their navy at that time.
+
+"In 1477," he says, in one of his letters, "in the month of
+February, I sailed more than a hundred leagues beyond Tile." By
+this he means Thule, or Iceland. "Of this island the southern
+part is seventy-three degrees from the equator, not sixty-three
+degrees, as some geographers pretend." But here he was wrong. The
+Southern part of Iceland is in the latitude of sixty-three and a
+half degrees. "The English, chiefly those of Bristol, carry their
+merchandise, to this island, which is as large as England. When I
+was there the sea was not frozen, but the tides there are so
+strong that they rise and fall twenty-six cubits."
+
+The order of his life, after his visit to Iceland, is better
+known. He was no longer an adventurous sailor-boy, glad of any
+voyage which offered; he was a man thirty years of age or more.
+He married in the city of Lisbon and settled himself there. His
+wife was named Philippa. She was the daughter of an Italian
+gentleman named Bartolomeo Muniz de Perestrello, who was, like
+Columbus, a sailor, and was alive to all the new interests which
+geography then presented to all inquiring minds. This was in the
+year 1477, and the King of Portugal was pressing the expeditions
+which, before the end of the century, resulted in the discovery
+of the route to the Indies by the Cape of Good Hope.
+
+The young couple had to live. Neither the bride nor her husband
+had any fortune, and Columbus occupied himself as a draftsman,
+illustrating books, making terrestrial globes, which must have
+been curiously inaccurate, since they had no Cape of Good Hope
+and no American Continent, drawing charts for sale, and
+collecting, where he could, the material for such study. Such
+charts and maps were beginning to assume new importance in those
+days of geographical discovery. The value attached to them may be
+judged from the statement that Vespucius paid one hundred and
+thirty ducats for one map. This sum would be more than five
+hundred dollars of our time.
+
+Columbus did not give up his maritime enterprises. He made
+voyages to the coast of Guinea and in other directions.
+
+It is said that he was in command of one of the vessels of his
+relative Colon el Mozo, when, in the Portuguese seas, this
+admiral, with his squadron, engaged four Venetian galleys
+returning from Flanders. A bloody battle followed. The ship which
+Christopher Columbus commanded was engaged with a Venetian
+vessel, to which it set fire. There was danger of an explosion,
+and Columbus himself, seeing this danger, flung himself into the
+sea, seized a floating oar, and thus gained the shore. He was not
+far from Lisbon, and from this time made Lisbon his home for many
+years.[*]
+
+[*] The critics challenge these dates, but there seems to be good
+foundation for the story.
+
+
+It seems. clear that, from the time when he arrived in Lisbon,
+for more than twenty years, he was at work trying to interest
+people in his "great design," of western discovery. He says
+himself, "I was constantly corresponding with learned men, some
+ecclesiastics and some laymen, some Latin and some Greek, some
+Jews and some Moors." The astronomer Toscanelli was one of these
+correspondents.
+
+We must not suppose that the idea of the roundness of the earth
+was invented by Columbus. Although there were other theories
+about its shape, many intelligent men well understood that the
+earth was a globe, and that the Indies, though they were always
+reached from Europe by going to the East, must be on the west of
+Europe also. There is a very funny story in the travels of
+Mandeville, in which a traveler is represented as having gone,
+mostly on foot, through all the countries of Asia, but finally
+determines to return to Norway, his home. In his farthest eastern
+investigation, he hears some people calling their cattle by a
+peculiar cry, which he had never heard before. After he returned
+home, it was necessary for him to take a day's journey westward
+to look after some cattle he had lost. Finding these cattle, he
+also heard the same cry of people calling cattle, which he had
+heard in the extreme East, and now learned, for the first time,
+that he had gone round the world on foot, to turn and come back
+by the same route, when he was only a day's journey from home,
+Columbus was acquainted with such stories as this, and also had
+the astronomical knowledge which almost made him know that the
+world was round, "and, like a ball, goes spinning in the air."
+The difficulty was to persuade other people that, because of this
+roundness, it would be possible to attain Asia by sailing to the
+West.
+
+Now all the geographers of repute supposed that there was not
+nearly so large a distance as there proved to be, in truth,
+between Europe and Asia. Thus, in the geography of Ptolemy, which
+was the standard book at that time, one hundred and thirty-five
+degrees, a little more than one-third of the earth's
+circumference, is given to the space between the extreme eastern
+part of the Indies and the Canary Islands. In fact, as we now
+know, the distance is one hundred and eighty degrees, half the
+world's circumference. Had Columbus believed there was any such
+immense distance, he would never have undertaken his voyage.
+
+Almost all the detailed knowledge of the Indies which the people
+of his time had, was given by the explorations of Marco Polo, a
+Venetian traveler of the thirteenth century, whose book had long
+been in the possession of European readers. It is a very
+entertaining book now, and may well be recommended to young
+people who like stories of adventure. Marco Polo had visited the
+court of the Great Khan of Tartary at Pekin, the prince who
+brought the Chinese Empire into very much the condition in which
+it now is. He had, also, given accounts of Japan or Cipango,
+which he had himself never visited. Columbus knew, therefore,
+that, well east of the Indies, was the island of Cipango, and he
+aimed at that island, because he supposed that that was the
+nearest point to Europe, as in fact it is. And when finally he
+arrived at Cuba, as the reader will see, he thought he was in
+Japan.
+
+Columbus's father-in-law had himself been the Portuguese governor
+of the island of Porto Santo, where he had founded a colony. He,
+therefore, was interested in western explorations, and probably
+from him Columbus collected some of the statements which are
+known to have influenced him, with regard to floating matters
+from the West, which are constantly borne upon that island by the
+great currents of the sea.
+
+The historians are fond of bringing together all the intimations
+which are given in the Greek and Latin classics, and in later
+authors, with regard to a land beyond Asia. Perhaps the most
+famous of them is that of Seneca, "In the later years there shall
+come days in which Ocean shall loose his chains, and a great land
+shall appear . . . and Thule shall not be the last of the
+worlds."
+
+In a letter which Toscanelli wrote to Columbus in 1474, he
+inclosed a copy of a letter which he had already sent to an
+officer of Alphonso V, the King of Portugal. In writing to
+Columbus, he says, "I see that you have a great and noble desire
+to go into that country (of the East) where the spices come from,
+and in reply to your letter I send you a copy of that which I
+addressed some years ago to my attached friend in the service of
+the most serene King of Portugal. He had an order from his
+Highness to write me on this subject. . . . If I had a globe in
+my hand, I could show you what is needed. But I prefer to mark
+out the route on a chart like a marine chart, which will be an
+assistance to your intelligence and enterprise. On this chart I
+have myself drawn the whole extremity of our western shore from
+Ireland as far down as the coast of Guinea toward the South, with
+all the islands which are to be found on this route. Opposite
+this [that is, the shores of Ireland and Africa] I have placed
+directly at the West the beginning of the Indies with the islands
+and places where you will land. You will see for yourself how
+many miles you must keep from the arctic pole toward the equator,
+and at what distance you will arrive at these regions so fertile
+and productive of spices and precious stones." In Toscanelli's
+letter, he not only indicates Japan, but, in the middle of the
+ocean, he places the island of Antilia. This old name afterwards
+gave the name by which the French still call the West Indies, Les
+Antilles. Toscanelli gives the exact distance which Columbus will
+have to sail: "From Lisbon to the famous city of Quisay
+[Hang-tcheou-fou, then the capital of China] if you take the
+direct route toward the West, the distance will be thirty-nine
+hundred miles. And from Antilia to Japan it will be two hundred
+and twenty-five leagues." Toscanelli says again, "You see that
+the voyage that you wish to attempt is much legs difficult than
+would be thought. You would be sure of this if you met as many
+people as I do who have been in the country of spices."
+
+While there were so many suggestions made that it would be
+possible to cross the Atlantic, there was one man who determined
+to do this. This man was Christopher Columbus. But he knew well
+that he could not do it alone. He must have money enough for an
+expedition, he must have authority to enlist crews for that
+expedition, and he must have power to govern those crews when
+they should arrive in the Indies. In our times such adventures
+have been conducted by mercantile corporations, but in those
+times no one thought of doing any such thing without the direct
+assistance and support of some monarch.
+
+It is easy now to see and to say that Columbus himself was
+singularly well fitted to take the charge of the expedition of
+discovery. He was an excellent sailor and at the same time he was
+a learned geographer and a good mathematician. He was living in
+Portugal, the kings of which country had, for many years,
+fostered the exploration of the coast of Africa, and were pushing
+expeditions farther and farther South.
+
+In doing this, they were, in a fashion, making new discoveries.
+For Europe was wholly ignorant of the western coast of Africa,
+beyond the Canaries, when their expeditions began. But all men of
+learning knew that, five hundred years before the Christian era,
+Hanno, a Carthaginian, had sailed round Africa under the
+direction of the senate of Carthage. The efforts of the King of
+Portugal were to repeat the voyage made by Hanno. In 1441,
+Gonzales and Tristam sailed as far as Sierra Leone. They brought
+back some blacks as slaves, and this was the beginning of the
+slave trade.
+
+In 1446 the Portuguese took possession of the Azores, the most
+western points of the Old World. Step by step they advanced
+southward, and became familiar with the African coast. Bold
+navigators were eager to find the East, and at last success came.
+Under the king's orders, in August, 1477, three caravels sailed
+from the Tagus, under Bartolomeo Diaz, for southern discovery.
+Diaz was himself brave enough to be willing to go on to the Red
+Sea, after he made the great discovery of the Cape of Good Hope,
+but his crews mutinied, after he had gone much farther than his
+predecessors, and compelled him to return. He passed the southern
+cape of Africa and went forty miles farther. He called it the
+Cape of Torments, "Cabo Tormentoso," so terrible were the storms
+he met there. But when King John heard his report he gave it that
+name of good omen which it has borne ever since, the name of the
+"Cape of Good Hope."
+
+In the midst of such endeavors to reach the East Indies by the
+long voyage down the coast of Africa and across an unknown ocean,
+Columbus was urging all people who cared, to try the route
+directly west. If the world was round, as the sun and moon were,
+and as so many men of learning believed, India or the Indies must
+be to the west of Portugal. The value of direct trade with the
+Indies would be enormous. Europe had already acquired a taste for
+the spices of India and had confidence in the drugs of India. The
+silks and other articles of clothing made in India, and the
+carpets of India, were well known and prized. Marco Polo and
+others had given an impression that there was much gold in India;
+and the pearls and precious stones of India excited the
+imagination of all who read his travels.
+
+The immense value of such a commerce may be estimated from one
+fact. When, a generation after this time, one ship only of all
+the squadron of Magellan returned to Cadiz, after the first
+voyage round the world, she was loaded with spices from the
+Moluccas. These spices were sold by the Spanish government for so
+large a sum of money that the king was remunerated for the whole
+cost of the expedition, and even made a very large profit from a
+transaction which had cost a great deal in its outfit.
+
+Columbus was able, therefore, to offer mercantile adventurers the
+promise of great profit in case of success; and at this time
+kings were willing to take their share of such profits as might
+accrue.
+
+The letter of Toscanelli, the Italian geographer, which has been
+spoken of, was addressed to Alphonso V, the King of Portugal. To
+him and his successor, John the Second, Columbus explained the
+probability of success, and each of them, as it would seem, had
+confidence in it. But King John made the great mistake of
+intrusting Columbus's plan to another person for experiment. He
+was selfish enough, and mean enough, to fit out a ship privately
+and intrust its command to another seaman, bidding him sail west
+in search of the Indies, while he pretended that he was on a
+voyage to the Cape de Verde Islands. He was, in fact, to follow
+the route indicated by Columbus. The vessel sailed. But,
+fortunately for the fame of Columbus, she met a terrible storm,
+and her officers, in terror, turned from the unknown ocean and
+returned to Lisbon. Columbus himself tells this story. It was in
+disgust with the bad faith the king showed in this transaction
+that he left Lisbon to offer his great project to the King and
+Queen of Spain.
+
+In a similar way, a generation afterward, Magellan, who was in
+the service of the King of Portugal, was disgusted by insults
+which he received at his court, and exiled himself to Spain. He
+offered to the Spanish king his plan for sailing round the world
+and it was accepted. He sailed in a Spanish fleet, and to his
+discoveries Spain owes the possession of the Philippine Islands.
+Twice, therefore, did kings of Portugal lose for themselves,
+their children and their kingdom, the fame and the recompense
+which belong to such great discoveries.
+
+The wife of Columbus had died and he was without a home. He left
+Lisbon with his only son, Diego, in or near the end of the year
+1484.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II. HIS PLANS FOR DISCOVERY.
+COLUMBUS LEAVES LISBON, AND VISITS GENOA--VISITS GREAT SPANISH
+DUKES--FOR SIX YEARS IS AT THE COURT OF FERDINAND AND
+ISABELLA--THE COUNCIL OF SALAMANCA--HIS PETITION IS AT LAST
+GRANTED --SQUADRON MADE READY.
+
+It has been supposed that when Columbus left Lisbon he was
+oppressed by debts. At a subsequent period, when King John wanted
+to recall him, he offered to protect him against any creditors.
+But on the other hand, it is thought that at this time he visited
+Genoa, and made some provision for the comfort of his father, who
+was now an old man. Christopher Columbus, himself, according to
+the usual opinion regarding his birth, was now almost fifty years
+old.
+
+It is probable that at this time he urged on his countrymen, the
+Genoese, the importance of his great plan; and tried to interest
+them to make the great endeavor, for the purpose of reaching the
+Indies by a western route. As it proved, the discovery of the
+route by the Cape of Good Hope was, commercially, a great injury
+to Genoa and the other maritime cities of Italy. Before this
+time, the eastern trade of Europe came by the ports of the
+eastern Mediterranean, and the Italian cities. Columbus's offer
+to Genoa was therefore one which, if her statesmen could have
+foreseen the future, they would have considered eagerly.
+
+But Genoa was greatly depressed at this period. In her wars with
+the Turks she had been, on the whole, not successful. She had
+lost Caffa, her station in the Crimea, and her possessions in the
+Archipelago were threatened. The government did not accept
+Columbus's proposals, and he was obliged to return with them to
+Spain. He went first to distinguished noblemen, in the South of
+Spain, who were of liberal and adventurous disposition. One was
+the Duke of Medina Celi, and one the Duke of Medina Sidonia. Each
+of these grandees entertained him at their courts, and heard his
+proposals.
+
+The Duke of Medina Celi was so much interested in them, that at
+one time he proposed to give Columbus the direction of four
+vessels which he had in the harbor of Cadiz. But, of a sudden, he
+changed his mind. The enterprise was so vast, he said, that it
+should be under the direction of the crown. And, without losing
+confidence in it, he gave to Columbus an introduction to the king
+and queen, in which he cordially recommended him to their
+patronage.
+
+This king and queen were King Ferdinand of Aragon, and Queen
+Isabella of Castile. The marriage of these two had united Spain.
+Their affection for each other made the union real, and the
+energy, courage and wisdom of both made their reign successful
+and glorious. Of all its glories the greatest, as it has proved,
+was connected with the life and discoveries of the sailor who was
+now to approach them. He had been disloyally treated by Portugal,
+he had been dismissed by Genoa. He had not succeeded with the
+great dukes. Now he was to press his adventure upon a king and
+queen who were engaged in a difficult war with the Moors, who
+still held a considerable part of the peninsula of Spain.
+
+The king and queen were residing at Cordova, a rich and beautiful
+city, which they had taken from the Moors. Under their rule
+Cordova had been the most important seat of learning in Europe.
+Here Columbus tarried at the house of Alonso de Quintinilla, who
+became an ardent convert to his theory, and introduced him to
+important friends. By their agency, arrangements were made, in
+which Columbus should present his views to the king. The time was
+not such as he could have wished. All Cordova was alive with the
+preparation for a great campaign against the enemy. But King
+Ferdinand made arrangements to hear Columbus; it does not appear
+that, at the first hearing, Isabella was present at the
+interview. But Ferdinand, although in the midst of his military
+cares, was intereste in the proposals made by Columbus. He liked
+the man. He was pleased by the modesty and dignity with which he
+brought forward his proposals. Columbus spoke, as he tells us, as
+one specially appointed by God Himself to carry out this
+discovery. The king did not, however, at once adopt the scheme,
+but gave out that a council of men of learning should be called
+together to consider it.
+
+Columbus himself says that he entered the service of the
+sovereigns January 26, 1486. The council to which he was referred
+was held in the university city of Salamanca, in that year. It
+gave to him a full opportunity to explain his theory. It
+consisted of a fair representation of the learning of the time.
+But most of the men who met had formed their opinions on the
+subjects involved, and were too old to change them. A part of
+them were priests of the church, in the habit of looking to
+sacred Scripture as their only authority, when the pope had given
+no instruction in detail. Of these some took literally
+expressions in the Old Testament, which they supposed to be fatal
+to the plans of Columbus. Such was the phrase in the 104th Psalm,
+that God stretches out the heavens like a curtain. The expression
+in the book of Hebrews, that the heavens are extended as a tent,
+was also quoted, in the same view.
+
+Quotations from the early Fathers of the church were more fatal
+to the new plan than those from the Scripture.
+
+On the other hand there were men who cordially supported
+Columbus's wishes, and there were more when the congress parted
+than when it met. Its sessions occupied a considerable part of
+the summer, but it was not for years that it rendered any
+decision.
+
+The king, queen and court, meanwhile, were occupied in war with
+the Moors. Columbus was once and again summoned to attend the
+court, and more than once money was advanced to him to enable him
+to do so. Once he began new negotiations with King John, and from
+him he received a letter inviting him to return to Portugal. He
+received a similar letter from King Henry VII of England inviting
+him to his court. Nothing was determined on in Spain. To this
+day, the people of that country are thought to have a habit of
+postponement to tomorrow of that which perplexes them. In 1489,
+according to Ortiz de Zuniga, Columbus fought in battle in the
+king's army.
+
+When, however, in the winter of 1490, it was announced that the
+army was to take the field again, never to leave its camp till
+Grenada had fallen, Columbus felt that he must make one last
+endeavor. He insisted that he must have an answer regarding his
+plans of discovery. The confessor of the queen, Fernando da
+Talavera, was commanded to obtain the definite answer of the men
+of learning. Alas! it was fatal to Columbus's hopes. They said
+that it was not right that great princes should undertake such
+enterprises on grounds as weak as those which he relied upon.
+
+The sovereigns themselves, however, were more favorable; so was a
+minority of the council of Salamanca. And the confessor was
+instructed to tell him that their expenses in the war forbade
+them from sending him out as a discoverer, but that, when that
+was well over, they had hopes that they might commission him.
+This was the end of five years of solicitation, in which he had
+put his trust in princes. Columbus regarded the answer, as well
+he might, as only a courtly measure of refusal. And he retired in
+disgust from the court at Seville.
+
+He determined to lay his plans before the King of France. He was
+traveling with this purpose, with his son, Diego, now a boy of
+ten or twelve years of age, when he arrived at night at the
+hospitable convent of Saint Mary of Rabida, which has been made
+celebrated by that incident. It is about three miles south of
+what was then the seaport of Palos, one of the active ports of
+commercial Spain. The convent stands on level ground high above
+the sea; but a steep road runs down to the shore of the ocean.
+Some of its windows and corridors look out upon the ocean on the
+west and south, and the inmates still show the room in which
+Columbus used to write, and the inkstand which served his
+purposes while he lived there. It is maintained as a monument of
+history by the Spanish government.
+
+At the door of this convent he asked for bread and water for his
+boy. The prior of the convent was named Juan Perez de Marchena.
+He was attracted by the appearance of Columbus, still more by his
+conversation, and invited him to remain as their guest.
+
+When he learned that his new friend was about to offer to France
+the advantages of a discovery so great as that proposed, he
+begged him to make one effort more at home. He sent for some
+friends, Fernandos, a physician at Palos, and for the brothers
+Pinzon, who now appear for the first time in a story where their
+part is distinguished. Together they all persuaded Columbus to
+send one messenger more to wait upon their sovereigns. The man
+sent was Rodriguez, a pilot of Lepe, who found access to the
+queen because Juan Perez, the prior, had formerly been her
+confessor. She had confidence in him, as she had, indeed, in
+Columbus. And in fourteen days the friendly pilot came back from
+Santa Fe with a kind letter from the queen to her friend, bidding
+him return at once to court. Perez de Marchena saddled his mule
+at once and before midnight was on his way to see his royal
+mistress.
+
+Santa Fe was half camp, half city. It had been built in what is
+called the Vega, the great fruitful plain which extends for many
+miles to the westward of Grenada. The court and army were here as
+they pressed their attack on that city. Perez de Marchena had
+ready access to Queen Isabella, and pressed his suit well. He was
+supported by one of her favorites, the Marquesa de Moya. In reply
+to their solicitations, she asked that Columbus should return to
+her, and ordered that twenty thousand maravedis should be sent to
+him for his traveling expenses.
+
+This sum was immediately sent by Perez to his friend. Columbus
+bought a mule, exchanged his worn clothes for better ones, and
+started, as he was bidden, for the camp.
+
+He arrived there just after the great victory, by which the king
+and queen had obtained their wish--had taken the noble city of
+Grenada and ended Moorish rule in Spain. King, queen, court and
+army were preparing to enter the Alhambra in triumph. Whoever
+tries to imagine the scene, in which the great procession entered
+through the gates, so long sealed, or of the moment when the
+royal banner of Spain was first flying out upon the Tower of the
+Vela, must remember that Columbus, elate, at last, with hopes for
+his own great discovery, saw the triumph and joined in the
+display.
+
+But his success was not immediate, even now. Fernando de
+Talavera, who had had the direction of the wise council of
+Salamanca, was now Archbishop of Grenada, whose see had been
+conferred on him after the victory. He was not the friend of
+Columbus. And when, at what seemed the final interview with king
+and queen, he heard Columbus claim the right to one-tenth of all
+the profits of the enterprise, he protested against such lavish
+recompense of an adventurer. He was now the confessor of
+Isabella, as Juan Perez, the friendly prior, had been before.
+Columbus, however, was proud and firm. He would not yield to the
+terms prepared by the archbishop. He preferred to break off the
+negotiation, and again retired from court. He determined, as he
+had before, to lay his plans before the King of France.
+
+Spain would have lost the honor and the reward of the great
+discovery, as Portugal and Genoa had lost them, but for Luis de
+St. Angel, and the queen herself. St. Angel had been the friend
+of Columbus. He was an important officer, the treasurer of the
+church revenues of Aragon. He now insisted upon an audience from
+the queen. It would seem that Ferdinand, though King of Aragon,
+was not present. St. Angel spoke eloquently. The friendly
+Marchioness of Moya spoke eagerly and persuasively. Isabella was
+at last fired with zeal. Columbus should go, and the enterprise
+should be hers.
+
+It is here that the incident belongs, represented in the statue
+by Mr. Mead, and that of Miss Hosmer. The sum required for the
+discovery of a world was only three thousand crowns. Two vessels
+were all that Columbus asked for, with the pay of their crews.
+But where were three thousand crowns? The treasury was empty, and
+the king was now averse to any action. It was at this moment that
+Isabella said, "The enterprise is mine, for the Crown of Castile.
+I pledge my jewels for the funds."
+
+The funds were in fact advanced by St. Angel, from the
+ecclesiastical revenues under his control. They were repaid from
+the gold brought in the first voyage. But, always afterward,
+Isabella regarded the Indies as a Castilian possession. The most
+important officers in its administration, indeed most of the
+emigrants, were always from Castile.
+
+Columbus, meanwhile, was on his way back to Palos, on his mule,
+alone. But at a bridge, still pointed out, a royal courier
+overtook him, bidding him return. The spot has been made the
+scene of more than one picture, which represents the crisis, in
+which the despair of one moment changed to the glad hope which
+was to lead to certainty.
+
+He returned to Isabella for the last time, before that great
+return in which he came as a conqueror, to display to her the
+riches of the New World. The king yielded a slow and doubtful
+assent. Isabella took the enterprise in her own hands. She and
+Columbus agreed at once, and articles were drawn up which gave
+him the place of admiral for life on all lands he might discover;
+gave him one-tenth of all pearls, precious stones, gold, silver,
+spices and other merchandise to be obtained in his admiralty, and
+gave him the right to nominate three candidates from whom the
+governor of each province should be selected by the crown. He was
+to be the judge of all disputes arising from such traffic as was
+proposed; and he was to have one-eighth part of the profit, and
+bear one-eighth part of the cost of it.
+
+With this glad news he returned at once to Palos. The Pinzons,
+who had been such loyal friends, were to take part in the
+enterprise. He carried with him a royal order, commanding the
+people of Palos to fit out two caravels within ten days, and to
+place them and their crews at the disposal of Columbus. The third
+vessel proposed was to be fitted out by him and his friends. The
+crews were to be paid four months' wages in advance, and Columbus
+was to have full command, to do what he chose, if he did not
+interfere with the Portuguese discoveries.
+
+On the 23rd of May, Columbus went to the church of San Giorgio in
+Palos, with his friend, the prior of St. Mary's convent, and
+other important people, and the royal order was read with great
+solemnity:
+
+But it excited at first only indignation or dismay. The
+expedition was most unpopular. Sailors refused to enlist, and the
+authorities, who had already offended the crown, so that they had
+to furnish these vessels, as it were, as a fine, refused to do
+what they were bidden. Other orders from Court were necessary.
+But it seems to have been the courage and determination of the
+Pinzons which carried the preparations through. After weeks had
+been lost, Martin Alonso Pinzon and his brothers said they would
+go in person on the expedition. They were well-known merchants
+and seamen, and were much respected. Sailors were impressed, by
+the royal authority, and the needful stores were taken in the
+same way. It seems now strange that so much difficulty should
+have surrounded an expedition in itself so small. But the plan
+met then all the superstition, terror and other prejudice of the
+time.
+
+All that Columbus asked or needed was three small vessels and
+their stores and crews. The largest ships engaged were little
+larger than the large yachts, whose races every summer delight
+the people of America. The Gallega and the Pinta were the two
+largest. They were called caravels, a name then given to the
+smallest three-masted vessels. Columbus once uses it for a vessel
+of forty tons; but it generally applied in Portuguese or Spanish
+use to a vessel, ranging one hundred and twenty to one hundred
+and forty Spanish "toneles." This word represents a capacity
+about one-tenth larger than that expressed by our English "ton."
+
+The reader should remember that most of the commerce of the time
+was the coasting commerce of the Mediterranean, and that it was
+not well that the ships should draw much water. The fleet of
+Columbus, as it sailed, consisted of the Gallega (the Galician),
+of which he changed the name to the Santa Maria, and of the Pinta
+and the Nina. Of these the first two were of a tonnage which we
+should rate as about one hundred and thirty tons. The Nina was
+much smaller, not more than fifty tons. One writer says that they
+were all without full decks, that is, that such decks as they had
+did not extend from stem to stern. But the other authorities
+speak as if the Nina only was an open vessel, and the two larger
+were decked. Columbus himself took command of the Santa Maria,
+Martin Alonso Pinzon of the Pinta, and his brothers, Francis
+Martin and Vicente Yanez, of the Nina. The whole company in all
+three ships numbered one hundred and twenty men.
+
+Mr. Harrisse shows that the expense to the crown amounted to
+1,140,000 maravedis. This, as he counts it, is about sixty-four
+thousand dollars of our money. To this Columbus was to add
+one-eighth of the cost. His friends, the Pinzons, seem to have
+advanced this, and to have been afterwards repaid. Las Casas and
+Herrera both say that the sum thus added was much more than
+one-eighth of the cost and amounted to half a million maravedis.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III. THE GREAT VOYAGE.
+THE SQUADRON SAILS--REFITS AT CANARY ISLANDS--HOPES AND FEARS OF
+THE VOYAGE--THE DOUBTS OF THE CREW--LAND DISCOVERED.
+
+At last all was ready. That is to say, the fleet was so far ready
+that Columbus was ready to start. The vessels were small, as we
+think of vessels, but he was not dissatisfied. He says in the
+beginning of his journal, "I armed three vessels very fit for
+such an enterprise." He had left Grenada as late as the twelfth
+of May. He had crossed Spain to Palos,[*] and in less than three
+months had fitted out the ships and was ready for sea.
+
+[*] Palos is now so insignificant a place that on some important
+maps of Spain it will not be found. It is on the east side of the
+Tinto river; and Huelva, on the west side, has taken its place.
+
+
+The harbor of Palos is now ruined. Mud and gravel, brought down
+by the River Tinto, have filled up the bay, so that even small
+boats cannot approach the shore. The traveler finds, however, the
+island of Saltes, quite outside the bay, much as Columbus left
+it. It is a small spit of sand, covered with shells and with a
+few seashore herbs. His own account of the great voyage begins
+with the words:
+
+"Friday, August 3, 1492. Set sail from the bar of Saltes at 8
+o'clock, and proceeded with a strong breeze till sunset sixty
+miles, or fifteen leagues south, afterward southwest and south by
+west, which is in the direction of the Canaries."
+
+It appears, therefore, that the great voyage, the most important
+and successful ever made, began on Friday, the day which is said
+to be so much disliked by sailors. Columbus never alludes to this
+superstition.
+
+He had always meant to sail first for the Canaries, which were
+the most western land then known in the latitude of his voyage.
+From Lisbon to the famous city of "Quisay," or "Quinsay," in
+Asia, Toscanelli, his learned correspondent, supposed the
+distance to be less than one thousand leagues westward. From the
+Canary islands, on that supposition, the distance would be ten
+degrees less. The distance to Cipango, or Japan, would be much
+less.
+
+As it proved, the squadron had to make some stay at the Canaries.
+The rudder of the Pinta was disabled, and she proved leaky. It
+was suspected that the owners, from whom she had been forcibly
+taken, had intentionally disabled her, or that possibly the crew
+had injured her. But Columbus says in his journal that Martin
+Alonso Pinzon, captain of the Pinta, was a man of capacity and
+courage, and that this quieted his apprehensions. From the ninth
+of August to the second of September, nearly four weeks were
+spent by the Pinta and her crew at the Grand Canary island, and
+she was repaired. She proved afterwards a serviceable vessel, the
+fastest of the fleet. At the Canaries they heard stories of lands
+seen to the westward, to which Columbus refers in his journal. On
+the sixth of September they sailed from Gomera and on the eighth
+they lost sight of land. Nor did they see land again for
+thirty-three days. Such was the length of the great voyage. All
+the time, most naturally, they were wishing for signs, not of
+land perhaps, but which might show whether this great ocean were
+really different from other seas. On the whole the voyage was not
+a dangerous one.
+
+According to the Admiral's reckoning--and in his own journal
+Columbus always calls himself the Admiral--its length was one
+thousand and eighty-nine leagues. This was not far from right,
+the real distance being, in a direct line, three thousand one
+hundred and forty nautical miles, or three thousand six hundred
+and twenty statute miles.[*] It would not be considered a very
+long voyage for small vessels now. In general the course was
+west. Sometimes, for special reasons, they sailed south of west.
+If they had sailed precisely west they would have struck the
+shore of the United States a little north of the spot where St.
+Augustine now is, about the northern line of Florida.
+
+[*] The computations from Santa Cruz, in the Canaries, to San
+Salvador give this result, as kindly made for us by Lieutenant
+Mozer, of the United States navy.
+
+
+Had the coast of Asia been, indeed, as near as Toscanelli and
+Columbus supposed, this latitude of the Canary islands would have
+been quite near the mouth of the Yang-tse-Kiang river, in China,
+which was what Columbus was seeking. For nearly a generation
+afterwards he and his followers supposed that the coast of that
+region was what they had found.
+
+It was on Saturday, the eighth of September, that they lost sight
+of Teneriffe. On the eleventh they saw a large piece of the mast
+of a ship afloat. On the fourteenth they saw a "tropic-bird,"
+which the sailors thought was never seen more than twenty-five
+leagues from land; but it must be remembered, that, outside of
+the Mediterranean, few of the sailors had ever been farther
+themselves. On the sixteenth they began to meet "large patches of
+weeds, very green, which appeared to have been recently washed
+away from land." This was their first knowledge of the "Sargasso
+sea," a curious tract in mid-Atlantic which is always green with
+floating seaweeds. "The continent we shall find farther on,"
+wrote the confident Admiral.
+
+An observation of the sun on the seventeenth proved what had been
+suspected before, that the needles of the compasses were not
+pointing precisely to the north. The variation of the needle,
+since that time, has been a recognized fact. But this observation
+at so critical a time first disclosed it. The crew were naturally
+alarmed. Here was evidence that, in the great ocean, common laws
+were not to be relied upon. But they had great respect for
+Columbus's knowledge of such subjects. He told them that it was
+not the north which had changed, nor the needle, which was true
+to the north, but the polar star revolved, like other stars, and
+for the time they were satisfied.
+
+The same day they saw weeds which he was sure were land weeds.
+From them he took a living crab, whose unintentional voyage
+eastward was a great encouragement to the bolder adventurer
+westward. Columbus kept the crab, saying that such were never
+found eighty leagues from land. In fact this poor crab was at
+least nine hundred and seventy leagues from the Bahamas, as this
+same journal proves. On the eighteenth the Pinta ran ahead of the
+other vessels, Martin Alonso was so sure that he should reach
+land that night. But it was not to come so soon.
+
+Columbus every day announced to his crew a less distance as the
+result of the day than they had really sailed. For he was afraid
+of their distrust, and did not dare let them know how far they
+were from home. The private journal, therefore, has such entries
+as this, "Sailed more than fifty-five leagues, wrote down only
+forty-eight." That is, he wrote on the daily log, which was open
+to inspection, a distance some leagues less than they had really
+made.
+
+On the twentieth pelicans are spoken of, on the twenty-first
+"such abundance of weeds that the ocean seemed covered with
+them," "the sea smooth as a river, and the finest air in the
+world. Saw a whale, an indication of land, as they always keep
+near the coast." To later times, this note, also, shows how
+ignorant Columbus then was of mid-ocean.
+
+On the twenty-second, to the Admiral's relief, there was a head
+wind; for the crew began to think that with perpetual east winds
+they would never return to Spain. They had been in what are known
+as the trade winds. On the twenty-third the smoother water gave
+place to a rough sea, and he writes that this "was favorable to
+me, as it happened formerly to Moses when he led the Jews from
+Egypt."
+
+The next day, thanks to the headwinds, their progress was less.
+On the twenty-fifth, Pinzon, of the Pinta, felt sure that they
+were near the outer islands of Asia as they appeared on the
+Toscanelli map, and at sunset called out with joy that he saw
+land, claiming a reward for such news. The crews of both vessels
+sang "Glory to God in the highest," and the crew of the little
+Nina were sure that the bank was land. On this occasion they
+changed from a western course to the southwest. But alas! the
+land was a fog-bank and the reward never came to Martin Pinzon.
+On the twenty-sixth, again "the sea was like a river." This was
+Wednesday. In three days they sailed sixty-nine leagues. Saturday
+was calm. They saw a bird called "Rabihorcado," which never
+alights at sea, nor goes twenty leagues from land," wrote the
+confident Columbus; "Nothing is wanting but the singing of the
+nightingale," he says.
+
+Sunday, the thirtieth, brought "tropic-birds" again, "a very
+clear sign of land." Monday the journal shows them seven hundred
+and seven leagues from Ferro. Tuesday a white gull was the only
+visitor. Wednesday they had pardelas and great quantities of
+seaweed. Columbus began to be sure that they had passed "the
+islands" and were nearing the continent of Asia. Thursday they
+had a flock of pardelas, two pelicans, a rabihorcado and a gull.
+Friday, the fifth of October, brought pardelas and flying-fishes.
+
+We have copied these simple intimations from the journal to show
+how constantly Columbus supposed that he was near the coast of
+Asia. On the sixth of October Pinzon asked that the course might
+be changed to the southwest. But Columbus held on. On the seventh
+the Nina was ahead, and fired a gun and hoisted her flag in token
+that she saw land. But again they were disappointed. Columbus
+gave directions to keep close order at sunrise and sunset. The
+next day he did change the course to west southwest, following
+flights of birds from the north which went in that direction. On
+the eighth "the sea was like the river at Seville," the weeds
+were very few and they took land birds on board the ships. On the
+ninth they sailed southwest five leagues, and then with a change
+of wind went west by north. All night they heard the birds of
+passage passing.
+
+On the tenth of October the men made remonstrance, which has been
+exaggerated in history into a revolt. It is said, in books of
+authority, that Columbus begged them to sail west only three days
+more. But in the private journal of the tenth he says simply:
+"The seamen complained of the length of the voyage. They did not
+wish to go any farther. The Admiral did his best to renew their
+courage, and reminded them of the profits which would come to
+them. He added, boldly, that no complaints would change his
+purpose, that he had set out to go to the Indies, and that with
+the Lord's assistance he should keep on until he came there."
+This is the only passage in the journal which has any resemblance
+to the account of the mutiny.
+
+If it happened, as Oviedo says, three days before the discovery,
+it would have been on the eighth of October. On that day the
+entry is, "Steered west southwest, and sailed day and night
+eleven or twelve leagues--at times, during the night, fifteen
+miles an hour--if the log can be relied upon. Found the sea like
+the river at Seville, thanks to God. The air was as soft as that
+of Seville in April, and so fragrant that it was delicious to
+breathe it. The weeds appeared very fresh. Many land birds, one
+of which they took, flying towards the southwest, also grajaos,
+ducks and a pelican were seen."
+
+This is not the account of a mutiny. And the discovery of
+Columbus's own journal makes that certain, which was probable
+before, that the romantic account of the despair of the crews was
+embroidered on the narrative after the event, and by people who
+wanted to improve the story. It was, perhaps, borrowed from a
+story of Diaz's voyage. We have followed the daily record to show
+how constantly they supposed, on the other hand, that they were
+always nearing land.
+
+With the eleventh of October, came certainty. The eleventh is
+sometimes spoken of as the day of discovery, and sometimes the
+twelfth, when they landed on the first island of the new world.
+
+The whole original record of the discovery is this: "Oct. 11,
+course to west and southwest. Heavier sea than they had known,
+pardelas and a green branch near the caravel of the Admiral. From
+the Pinta they see a branch of a tree, a stake and a smaller
+stake, which they draw in, and which appears to have been cut
+with iron, and a piece of cane. Besides these, there is a land
+shrub and a little bit of board. The crew of the Nina saw other
+signs of land and a branch covered with thorns and flowers. With
+these tokens every-one breathes again and is delighted. They sail
+twenty-seven leagues on this course.
+
+"The Admiral orders that they shall resume a westerly course at
+sunset. They make twelve miles each hour; up till two hours after
+midnight they made ninety miles.
+
+"The Pinta, the best sailer of the three, was ahead. She makes
+signals, already agreed upon, that she has discovered land. A
+sailor named Rodrigo de Triana was the first to see this land.
+For the Admiral being on the castle of the poop of the ship at
+ten at night really saw a light, but it was so shut in by
+darkness that he did not like to say that it was a sign of land.
+Still he called up Pedro Gutierrez, the king's chamberlain, and
+said to him that there seemed to be a light, and asked him to
+look. He did so and saw it. He said the same to Rodrigo Sanchez
+of Segovia, who had been sent by the king and queen as inspector
+in the fleet, but he saw nothing, being indeed in a place where
+he could see nothing.
+
+"After the Admiral spoke of it, the light was seen once or twice.
+It was like a wax candle, raised and lowered, which would appear
+to few to be a sign of land. But the Admiral was certain that it
+was a sign of land. Therefore when they said the "Salve," which
+all the sailors are used to say and sing in their fashion, the
+Admiral ordered them to look out well from the forecastle, and he
+would give at once a silk jacket to the man who first saw land,
+besides the other rewards which the sovereigns had ordered, which
+were 10,000 maravedis, to be paid as an annuity forever to the
+man who saw it first.
+
+"At two hours after midnight land appeared, from which they were
+about two leagues off."
+
+This is the one account of the discovery written at the time. It
+is worth copying and reading at full in its little details, for
+it contrasts curiously with the embellished accounts which appear
+in the next generation. Thus the historian Oviedo says, in a
+dramatic way:
+
+"One of the ship boys on the largest ship, a native of Lepe,
+cried 'Fire!' 'Land!' Immediately a servant of Columbus replied,
+'The Admiral had said that already.' Soon after, Columbus said,
+'I said so some time ago, and that I saw that fire on the land.'
+" And so indeed it happened that Thursday, at two hours after
+midnight, the Admiral called a gentleman named Escobedos, officer
+of the wardrobe of the king, and told him that he saw fire. And
+at the break of day, at the time Columbus had predicted the day
+before, they saw from the largest ship the island which the
+Indians call Guanahani to the north of them.
+
+"And the first man to see the land, when day came, was Rodrigo of
+Triana, on the eleventh day of October, 1492." Nothing is more
+certain than that this was really on the twelfth.
+
+The reward for first seeing land was eventually awarded to
+Columbus, and it was regularly paid him through his life. It was
+the annual payment of 10,000 maravedis. A maravedi was then a
+little less than six cents of our currency. The annuity was,
+therefore, about six hundred dollars a year.
+
+The worth of a maravedi varied, from time to time, so that the
+calculations of the value of any number of maravedis are very
+confusing. Before the coin went out of use it was worth only half
+a cent.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+THE LANDING ON THE TWELFTH OF OCTOBER--THE NATIVES AND THEIR
+NEIGHBORS--SEARCH FOR GOLD--CUBA DISCOVERED--COLUMBUS COASTS
+ALONG ITS SHORES.
+
+It was on Friday, the twelfth of October, that they saw this
+island, which was an island of the Lucayos group, called, says
+Las Casas, "in the tongue of the Indians, Guanahani." Soon they
+saw people naked, and the Admiral went ashore in the armed boat,
+with Martin Alonzo Pinzon and, Vicente Yanez, his brother, who
+was captain of the Nina. The Admiral unfurled the Royal Standard,
+and the captain's two standards of the Greek Cross, which the
+Admiral raised on all the ships as a sign, with an F. and a Y.;
+over each letter a crown; one on one side of the {"iron cross
+symbol"} and the other on the other. When they were ashore they
+saw very green trees and much water, and fruits of different
+kinds.
+
+"The Admiral called the two captains and the others who went
+ashore, and Rodrigo Descovedo, Notary of the whole fleet, and
+Rodrigo Sanchez of Segovia, and he said that they must give him
+their faith and witness how he took possession before all others,
+as in fact he did take possession of the said island for the king
+and the queen, his lord and lady. . . . Soon many people of the
+island assembled. These which follow are the very words of the
+Admiral, in his book of his first navigation and discovery of
+these Indies."
+
+October 11-12. "So that they may feel great friendship for us,
+and because I knew that they were a people who would be better
+delivered and converted to our Holy Faith by love than by force,
+I gave to some of them red caps and glass bells which they put
+round their necks, and many other things of little value, in
+which they took much pleasure, and they remained so friendly to
+us that it was wonderful.
+
+"Afterwards they came swimming to the ship's boats where we were.
+And they brought us parrots and cotton-thread in skeins, and
+javelins and many other things. And they bartered them with us
+for other things, which we gave them, such as little glass beads
+and little bells. In short, they took everything, and gave of
+what they had with good will. But it seemed to me that they were
+a people very destitute of everything.
+
+"They all went as naked as their mothers bore them, and the women
+as well, although I only saw one who was really young. And all
+the men I saw were young, for I saw none more than thirty years
+of age; very well made, with very handsome persons, and very good
+faces; their hair thick like the hairs of horses' tails, and cut
+short. They bring their hair above their eyebrows, except a
+little behind, which they wear long, and never cut. Some of them
+paint themselves blackish (and they are of the color of the
+inhabitants of the Canaries, neither black nor white), and some
+paint themselves white, and some red, and some with whatever they
+can get. And some of them paint their faces, and some all their
+bodies, and some only the eyes, and some only the nose.
+
+"They do not bear arms nor do they know them, for I showed them
+swords and they took them by the edge, and they cut themselves
+through ignorance. They have no iron at all; their javelins are
+rods without iron, and some of them have a fish's tooth at the
+end, and some of them other things. They are all of good stature,
+and good graceful appearance, well made. I saw some who had scars
+of wounds in their bodies, and I made signs to them [to ask] what
+that was, and they showed me how people came there from other
+islands which lay around, and tried to take them captive and they
+defended themselves. And I believed, and I [still] believe, that
+they came there from the mainland to take them for captives.
+
+"They would be good servants, and of good disposition, for I see
+that they repeat very quickly everything which is said to them.
+And I believe that they could easily be made Christians, for it
+seems to me that they have no belief. I, if it please our Lord,
+will take six of them to your Highnesses at the time of my
+departure, so that they may learn to talk. No wild creature of
+any sort have I seen, except parrots, in this island."
+
+All these are the words of the Admiral, says Las Casas. The
+journal of the next day is in these words:
+
+Saturday, October 13. "As soon as the day broke, many of these
+men came to the beach, all young, as I have said, and all of good
+stature, a very handsome race. Their hair is not woolly, but
+straight and coarse, like horse hair, and all with much wider
+foreheads and heads than any other people I have seen up to this
+time. And their eyes are very fine and not small, and they are
+not black at all, but of the color of the Canary Islanders. And
+nothing else could be expected, since it is on one line of
+latitude with the Island of Ferro, in the Canaries.
+
+"They came to the ship with almadias,[*] which are made of the
+trunk of a tree, like a long boat, and all of one piece--and made
+in a very wonderful manner in the fashion of the country--and
+large enough for some of them to hold forty or forty-five men.
+And others are smaller, down to such as hold one man alone. They
+row with a shovel like a baker's, and it goes wonderfully well.
+And if it overturns, immediately they all go to swimming and they
+right it, and bale it with calabashes which they carry.
+
+[*] Arabic word for raft or float; here it means canoes.
+
+
+"They brought skeins of spun cotton, and parrots, and javelins,
+and other little things which it would be wearisome to write
+down, and they gave everything for whatever was given to them.
+
+"And I strove attentively to learn whether there were gold. And I
+saw that some of them had a little piece of gold hung in a hole
+which they have in their noses. And by signs I was able to
+understand that going to the south, or going round the island to
+the southward, there was a king there who had great vessels of
+it, and had very much of it. I tried to persuade them to go
+there; and afterward I saw that they did not understand about
+going.[*]
+
+[*] To this first found land, called by the natives Guanahani,
+Columbus gave the name of San Salvador. There is, however, great
+doubt whether this is the island known by that name on the maps.
+Of late years the impression has generally been that the island
+thus discovered is that now known as Watling's island. In 1860
+Admiral Fox, of the United States navy, visited all these
+islands, and studied the whole question anew, visiting the
+islands himself and working backwards to the account of
+Columbus's subsequent voyage, so as to fix the spot from which
+that voyage began. Admiral Fox decides that the island of
+discovery was neither San Salvador nor Watling's island, but the
+Samana island of the same group. The subject is so curious that
+we copy his results at more length in the appendix.
+
+
+"I determined to wait till the next afternoon, and then to start
+for the southwest, for many of them told me that there was land
+to the south and southwest and northwest, and that those from the
+northwest came often to fight with them, and so to go on to the
+southwest to seek gold and precious stones.
+
+"This island is very large and very flat and with very green
+trees, and many waters, and a very large lake in the midst,
+without any mountain. And all of it is green, so that it is a
+pleasure to see it. And these people are so gentle, and desirous
+to have our articles and thinking that nothing can be given them
+unless they give something and do not keep it back. They take
+what they can, and at once jump [into the water] and swim [away].
+But all that they have they give for whatever is given them. For
+they barter even for pieces of porringus, and of broken glass
+cups, so that I saw sixteen skeins of cotton given for three
+Portuguese centis, that is a blanca of Castile, and there was
+more than twenty-five pounds of spun cotton in them. This I shall
+forbid, and not let anyone take [it]; but I shall have it all
+taken for your Highnesses, if there is any quantity of it.
+
+"It grows here in this island, but for a short time I could not
+believe it at all. And there is found here also the gold which
+they wear hanging to their noses; but so as not to lose time I
+mean to go to see whether I can reach the island of Cipango.
+
+"Now as it was night they all went ashore with their almadias."
+
+Sunday, October 14. "At daybreak I had the ship's boat and the
+boats of the caravels made ready, and I sailed along the island,
+toward the north-northeast, to see the other port, * * * * what
+there was [there], and also to see the towns, and I soon saw two
+or three, and the people, who all were coming to the shore,
+calling us and giving thanks to God. Some brought us water,
+others things to eat. Others, when they saw that I did not care
+to go ashore, threw themselves into the sea and came swimming,
+and we understood that they asked us if we had come from heaven.
+And an old man came into the boat, and others called all [the
+rest] men and women, with a loud voice: 'Come and see the men who
+have come from heaven; bring them food and drink.'
+
+"There came many of them and many women, each one with something,
+giving thanks to God, casting themselves on the ground, and
+raising their heads toward heaven. And afterwards they called us
+with shouts to come ashore.
+
+"But I feared [to do so], for I saw a great reef of rocks which
+encircles all that island. And in it there is bottom and harbor
+for as many ships as there are in all Christendom, and its
+entrance very narrow. It is true that there are some shallows
+inside this ring, but the sea is no rougher than in a well.
+
+"And I was moved to see all this, this morning, so that I might
+be able to give an account of it all to your Highnesses, and also
+[to find out] where I might make a fortress. And I saw a piece of
+land formed like an island, although it is not one, in which
+there were six houses, which could be cut off in two days so as
+to become an island; although I do not see that it is necessary,
+as this people is very ignorant of arms, as your Highnesses will
+see from seven whom I had taken, to carry them off to learn our
+speech and to bring them back again. But your Highnesses, when
+you direct, can take them all to Castile, or keep them captives
+in this same island, for with fifty men you can keep them all
+subjected, and make them do whatever you like.
+
+"And close to the said islet are groves of trees, the most
+beautiful I have seen, and as green and full of leaves as those
+of Castile in the months of April and May, and much water.
+
+"I looked at all that harbor and then I returned to the ship and
+set sail, and I saw so many islands that I could not decide to
+which I should go first. And those men whom I had taken said to
+me by signs that there were so very many that they were without
+number, and they repeated by name more than a hundred. At last I
+set sail for the largest one, and there I determined to go. And
+so I am doing, and it will be five leagues from the island of San
+Salvador, and farther from some of the rest, nearer to others.
+They all are very flat, without mountains and very fertile, and
+all inhabited. And they make war upon each other although they
+are very simple, and [they are] very beautifully formed."
+
+Monday, October 15, Columbus, on arriving at the island for which
+he had set sail, went on to a cape, near which he anchored at
+about sunset. He gave the island the name of Santa Maria de la
+Concepcion.[*]
+
+[*] This is supposed to be Caico del Norte.
+
+
+"At about sunset I anchored near the said cape to know if there
+were gold there, for the men whom I had taken at the Island of
+San Salvador told me that there they wore very large rings of
+gold on their legs and arms. I think that all they said was for a
+trick, in order to make their escape. However, I did not wish to
+pass by any island without taking possession of it.
+
+"And I anchored, and was there till today, Tuesday, when at the
+break of day I went ashore with the armed boats, and landed.
+
+"They [the inhabitants], who were many, as naked and in the same
+condition as those of San Salvador, let us land on the island,
+and gave us what we asked of them.
+
+* * * "I set out for the ship. And there was a large almadia
+which had come to board the caravel Nina, and one of the men from
+we Island of San Salvador threw himself into the sea, took this
+boat, and made off; and the night before, at midnight, another
+jumped out. And the almadia went back so fast that there never
+was a boat which could come up with her, although we had a
+considerable advantage. It reached the shore, and they left the
+almadia, and some of my company landed after them, and they all
+fled like hens.
+
+"And the almadia, which they had left, we took to the caravel
+Nina, to which from another headland there was coming another
+little almadia, with a man who came to barter a skein of cotton.
+And some of the sailors threw themselves into the sea, because he
+did not wish to enter the caravel, and took him. And I, who was
+on the stern of the ship, and saw it all, sent for him and gave
+him a red cap and some little green glass beads which I put on
+his arm, and two small bells which I put at his ears, and I had
+his almadia returned, * * * and sent him ashore.
+
+And I set sail at once to go to the other large island which I
+saw at the west, and commanded the other almadia to be set
+adrift, which the caravel Nina was towing astern. And then I saw
+on land, when the man landed, to whom I had given the above
+mentioned things (and I had not consented to take the skein of
+cotton, though he wished to give it to me), all the others went
+to him and thought it a great wonder, and it seemed to them that
+we were good people, and that the other man, who had fled, had
+done us some harm, and that therefore we were carrying him off.
+And this was why I treated the other man as I did, commanding him
+to be released, and gave him the said things, so that they might
+have this opinion of us, and so that another time, when your
+Highnesses send here again, they may be well disposed. And all
+that I gave him was not worth four maravedis."
+
+Columbus had set sail at ten o'clock for a "large island" he
+mentions, which he called Fernandina, where, from the tales of
+the Indian captives, he expected to find gold. Half way between
+this island and Santa Maria, he met with "a man alone in an
+almadia which was passing" [from one island to the other], "and
+he was carrying a little of their bread, as big as one's fist,
+and a calabash of water and a piece of red earth made into dust,
+and then kneaded, and some dry leaves, which must be a thing much
+valued among them, since at San Salvador they brought them to me
+as a present.[*] And he had a little basket of their sort, in
+which he had a string of little glass bells and two blancas, by
+which I knew that he came from the Island of San Salvador. * * *
+He came to the ship; I took him on board, for so he asked, and
+made him put his almadia in the ship, and keep all he was
+carrying. And I commanded to give him bread and honey to eat, and
+something to drink.
+
+[*] Was this perhaps tobacco?
+
+
+"And thus I will take him over to Fernandina, and I will give him
+all his property so that he may give good accounts of us, so
+that, if it please our Lord, when your Highnesses send there,
+those who come may receive honor, and they may give us of all
+they have."
+
+Columbus continued sailing for the island he named Fernandina,
+now called Inagua Chica. There was a calm all day and he did not
+arrive in time to anchor safely before dark. He therefore waited
+till morning, and anchored near a town. Here the man had gone,
+who had been picked up the day before, and he had given such good
+accounts that all night long the ship had been boarded by
+almadias, bringing supplies. Columbus directed some trifle to be
+given to each of the islanders, and that they should be given
+"honey of sugar" to eat. He sent the ship's boat ashore for water
+and the inhabitants not only pointed it out but helped to put the
+water-casks on board.
+
+"This people," he says, "is like those of the aforesaid islands,
+and has the same speech and the same customs, except that these
+seem to me a somewhat more domestic race, and more intelligent. *
+* * And I saw also in this island cotton cloths made like
+mantles. * * *
+
+"It is a very green island and flat and very fertile, and I have
+no doubt that all the year through they sow panizo (panic-grass)
+and harvest it, and so with everything else. And I saw many
+trees, of very different form from ours, and many of them which
+had branches of many sorts, and all on one trunk. And one branch
+is of one sort and one of another, and so different that it is
+the greatest wonder in the world. * * * One branch has its leaves
+like canes, and another like the lentisk; and so on one tree five
+or six of these kinds; and all so different. Nor are they
+grafted, for it might be said that grafting does it, but they
+grow on the mountains, nor do these people care for them. * * *
+
+"Here the fishes are so different from ours that it is wonderful.
+There are some like cocks of the finest colors in the world,
+blue, yellow, red and of all colors, and others painted in a
+thousand ways. And the colors are so fine that there is no man
+who does not wonder at them and take great pleasure in seeing
+them. Also, there are whales. As for wild creatures on shore, I
+saw none of any sort, except parrots and lizards; a boy told me
+that he saw a great snake. Neither sheep nor goats nor any other
+animal did I see; although I have been here a very short time,
+that is, half a day, but if there had been any I could not have
+failed to see some of them." * * *
+
+Wednesday, October 17. He left the town at noon and prepared to
+sail round the island. He had meant to go by the south and
+southeast. But as Martin Alonzo Pinzon, captain of the Pinta, had
+heard, from one of the Indians he had on board, that it would be
+quicker to start by the northwest, and as the wind was favorable
+for this course, Columbus took it. He found a fine harbor two
+leagues further on, where he found some friendly Indians, and
+sent a party ashore for water. "During this time," he says, "I
+went [to look at] these trees, which were the most beautiful
+things to see which have been seen; there was as much verdure in
+the same degree as in the month of May in Andalusia, and all the
+trees were as different from ours as the day from the night. And
+so [were] the fruits, and the herbs, and the stones and
+everything. The truth is that some trees had a resemblance to
+others which there are in Castile, but there was a very great
+difference. And other trees of other sorts were such that there
+is no one who could * * * liken them to others of Castile. * * *
+
+"The others who went for water told me how they had been in their
+houses, and that they were very well swept and clean, and their
+beds and furniture [made] of things which are like nets of
+cotton.[*] Their houses are all like pavilions, and very high and
+good chimneys.[**]
+[*] They are called Hamacas.
+
+[**] Las Casas says they were not meant for smoke but as a crown,
+for they have no opening below for the smoke.
+
+
+"But I did not see, among many towns which I saw, any of more
+than twelve or fifteen houses. * * * And there they had dogs. * *
+* And there they found one man who had on his nose a piece of
+gold which was like half a castellano, on which there were cut
+letters.[*] I blamed them for not bargaining for it, and giving
+as much as was asked, to see what it was, and whose coin it was;
+and they answered me that they did not dare to barter it."
+
+[*] A castellano was a piece of gold, money, weighing about
+one-sixth of an ounce.
+
+
+He continued towards the northwest, then turned his course to the
+east-southeast, east and southeast. The weather being thick and
+heavy, and "threatening immediate rain. So all these days since I
+have been in these Indies it has rained little or much."
+
+Friday, October 19. Columbus, who had not landed the day before,
+now sent two caravels, one to the east and southeast and the
+other to the south-southeast, while he himself, with the Santa
+Maria, the SHIP, as he calls it, went to the southeast. He
+ordered the caravels to keep their courses till noon, and then
+join him. This they did, at an island to the east, which he named
+Isabella, the Indians whom he had with him calling it Saomete. It
+has been supposed to be the island now called Inagua Grande.
+
+"All this coast," says the Admiral, "and the part of the island
+which I saw, is all nearly flat, and the island the most
+beautiful thing I ever saw, for if the others are very beautiful
+this one is more so." He anchored at a cape which was so
+beautiful that he named it Cabo Fermoso, the Beautiful Cape, "so
+green and so beautiful," he says, "like all the other things and
+lands of these islands, that I do not know where to go first, nor
+can I weary my eyes with seeing such beautiful verdure and so
+different from ours. And I believe that there are in them many
+herbs and many trees, which are of great value in Spain for dyes
+[or tinctures] and for medicines of spicery. But I do not know
+them, which I greatly regret. And as I came here to this cape
+there came such a good and sweet odor of flowers or trees from
+the land that it was the sweetest thing in the world."
+
+He heard that there was a king in the interior who wore clothes
+and much gold, and though, as he says, the Indians had so little
+gold that whatever small quantity of it the king wore it would
+appear large to them, he decided to visit him the next day. He
+did not do so, however, as he found the water too shallow in his
+immediate neighborhood, and then had not enough wind to go on,
+except at night.
+
+Sunday morning, October 21, he anchored, apparently more to the
+west, and after having dined, landed. He found but one house,
+from which the inhabitants were absent; he directed that nothing
+in it should be touched. He speaks again of the great beauty of
+the island, even greater than that of the others he had seen.
+"The singing of the birds," he says, "seems as if a man would
+never seek to leave this place, and the flocks of parrots which
+darken the sun, and fowls and birds of so many kinds and so
+different from ours that it is wonderful. And then there are
+trees of a thousand sorts, and all with fruit of their kinds. And
+all have such an odor that it is wonderful, so that I am the most
+afflicted man in the world not to know them."
+
+They killed a serpent in one of the lakes upon this island, which
+Las Casas says is the Guana, or what we call the Iguana.
+
+In seeking for good water, the Spaniards found a town, from which
+the inhabitants were going to fly. But some of them rallied, and
+one of them approached the visitors. Columbus gave him some
+little bells and glass beads, with which he was much pleased. The
+Admiral asked him for water, and they brought it gladly to the
+shore in calabashes.
+
+He still wished to see the king of whom the Indians had spoken,
+but meant afterward to go to "another very great island, which I
+believe must be Cipango, which they call Colba." This is probably
+a mistake in the manuscript for Cuba, which is what is meant. It
+continues, "and to that other island which they call Bosio"
+(probably Bohio) "and the others which are on the way, I will see
+these in passing. * * * But still, I am determined to go to the
+mainland and to the city of Quisay and to give your Highnesses'
+letters to the Grand Khan, and seek a reply and come back with
+it."
+
+He remained at this island during the twenty-second and
+twenty-third of October, waiting first for the king, who did not
+appear, and then for a favorable wind. "To sail round these
+islands," he says, "one needs many sorts of wind, and it does not
+blow as men would like." At midnight, between the twenty-third
+and twenty-fourth, he weighed anchor in order to start for Cuba.
+
+"I have heard these people say that it was very large and of
+great traffic," he says, "and that there were in it gold and
+spices, and great ships and merchants. And they showed me that I
+should go to it by the west-southwest, and I think so. For I
+think that if I may trust the signs which all the Indians of
+these islands have made me, and those whom I am carrying in the
+ships, for by the tongue I do not understand them, it (Cuba) is
+the Island of Cipango,[*] of which wonderful things are told, and
+on the globes which I have seen and in the painted maps, it is in
+this district."
+
+[*] This was the name the old geographers gave to Japan.
+
+
+The next day they saw seven or eight islands, which are supposed
+to be the eastern and southern keys of the Grand Bank of Bahama.
+He anchored to the south of them on the twenty-sixth of October,
+and on the next day sailed once more for Cuba.
+
+On Sunday, October 28, he arrived there, in what is now called
+the Puerto de Nipe; he named it the Puerto de San Salvador. Here,
+as he went on, he was again charmed by the beautiful country. He
+found palms "of another sort," says Las Casas, "from those of
+Guinea, and from ours." He found the island the "most beautiful
+which eyes have seen, full of very good ports and deep rivers,"
+and that apparently the sea is never rough there, as the grass
+grows down to the water's edge. This greenness to the sea's edge
+is still observed there. "Up till that time," says Las Casas, ,he
+had not experienced in all these islands that the sea was rough."
+He had occasion to learn about it later. He mentions also that
+the island is mountainous.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+LANDING ON CUBA--THE CIGAR AND TOBACCO--CIPANGO AND THE GREAT
+KHAN--FROM CUBA TO HAYTI--ITS SHORES AND HARBORS.
+
+When Columbus landed, at some distance farther along the coast,
+he found the best houses he had yet seen, very large, like
+pavilions, and very neat within; not in streets but set about
+here and there. They were all built of palm branches. Here were
+dogs which never barked (supposed to be the almiqui), wild birds
+tamed in the houses and "wonderful arrangements of nets,[*] and
+fish-hooks and fishing apparatus. There were also carved masks
+and other images. Not a thing was touched." The inhabitants had
+fled.
+
+[*] These were probably hammocks.
+
+
+He went on to the northwest, and saw a cape which he named Cabo
+de Palmas. The Indians on board the Pinta said that beyond this
+cape was a river and that at four days' journey from this was
+what they called "Cuba." Now they had been coasting along the
+Island of Cuba for two or three days. But Martin Pinzon, the
+captain of the Pinta, understood this Cuba to be a city, and that
+this land was the mainland, running far to the north. Columbus
+until he died believed that it was the mainland.
+
+Martin Pinzon also understood that the king of that land was at
+war with the Grand Khan, whom they called Cami. The Admiral
+determined to go to the river the Indians mentioned, and to send
+to the king the letter of the sovereigns. He meant to send with
+it a sailor who had been to Guinea, and some of the Guanahani
+Indians. He was encouraged, probably, by the name of Carni, in
+thinking that he was really near the Grand Khan.
+
+He did not, however, send off these messengers at once, as the
+wind and the nature of the coast proved unfit for his going up
+the river the Indians had spoken of. He went back to the town
+where he had been two days before.
+
+Once more he found that the people had fled, but "after a good
+while a man appeared," and the Admiral sent ashore one of the
+Indians he had with him. This man shouted to the Indians on shore
+that they must not be afraid, as these were good people, and did
+harm to no man, nor did they belong to the Grand Khan, but they
+gave, of what they had, in many islands where they had been. He
+now jumped into the sea and swam ashore, and two of the
+inhabitants took him in their arms and brought him to a house
+where they asked him questions. When he had reassured them, they
+began to come out to the ships in their canoes, with "spun cotton
+and others of their little things." But the Admiral commanded
+that nothing should be taken from them, so that they might know
+that he was seeking nothing but gold, or, as they called it,
+nucay.
+
+He saw no gold here, but one of them had a piece of wrought
+silver hanging to his nose. They made signs, that before three
+days many merchants would come from the inland country to trade
+with the Spaniards, and that they would bring news from the king,
+who, according to their signs, was four days' journey away. "And
+it is certain" says the Admiral, "that this is the mainland, and
+that I am before Zayto and Quinsay, a hundred leagues more or
+less from both of them, and this is clearly shown by the tide,
+which comes in a different manner from that in which it has done
+up to this time; and yesterday when I went to the northwest I
+found that it was cold."
+
+Always supposing that he was near Japan, which they called
+Cipango, Columbus continued to sail along the northern coast of
+Cuba and explored about half that shore. He then returned to the
+east, governed by the assurances of the natives that on an island
+named Babegue he would find men who used hammers with which to
+beat gold into ingots. This gold, as he understood them, was
+collected on the shore at night, while the people lighted up the
+darkness with candles.
+
+At the point where he turned back, he had hauled his ships up on
+the shore to repair them. From this point, on the second of
+November, he sent two officers inland, one of whom was a Jew, who
+knew Chaldee, Hebrew and a little Arabic, in the hope that they
+should find some one who could speak these languages. With them
+went one of the Guanahani Indians, and one from the neighborhood.
+
+They returned on the night between the fifth and sixth of
+November. Twelve leagues off they had found a village of about
+fifty large houses, made in the form of tents. This village had
+about a thousand inhabitants, according to the explorers. They
+had received the ambassadors with cordial kindness, believing
+that they had descended from heaven.
+
+They even took them in their arms and thus carried them to the
+finest house of all. They gave them seats, and then sat round
+them on the ground in a circle. They kissed their feet and hands,
+and touched them, to make sure whether they were really men of
+flesh and bone.
+
+It was on this expedition that the first observation was made of
+that gift of America to the world, which has worked its way so
+deep and far into general use. They met men and women who
+"carried live coals, so as to draw into their mouths the smoke of
+burning herbs." This was the account of the first observers. But
+Las Casas says that the dry herbs were wrapped in another leaf as
+dry. He says that "they lighted one end of the little stick thus
+formed, and sucked in or absorbed the smoke by the other, with
+which," he says, "they put their flesh to sleep, and it nearly
+intoxicates them, and thus they say that they feel no fatigue.
+These mosquetes, as we should call them, they call tobacos. I
+knew Spaniards on this Island of Hispaniola who were accustomed
+to take them, who, on being reproved for it as a vice, replied
+that it was not in their power (in their hand) to leave off
+taking them. I do not know what savour or profit they found in
+them." This is clearly a cigar.
+
+The third or fourth of November, then, 1892, with the addition of
+nine days to change the style from old to new, may be taken by
+lovers of tobacco as the fourth centennial of the day when
+Europeans first learned the use of the cigar.
+
+On the eleventh of November the repairs were completed.
+
+He says that the Sunday before, November 11 it had seemed to him
+that it would be good to take some persons, from those of that
+river, to carry to the sovereigns, so that "they might learn our
+tongue, so as to know what there is in the country, and so that
+when they come back they may be tongues to the Christians, and
+receive our customs and the things of the faith. Because I saw
+and know," says the Admiral, "that this people has no religion
+(secta) nor are they idolaters, but very mild and without knowing
+what evil is, nor how to kill others, nor how to take them, and
+without arms, and so timorous that from one of our men ten of
+them fly, although they do sport with them, and ready to believe
+and knowing that there is a God in heaven, and sure that we have
+come from heaven; and very ready at any prayer which we tell them
+to repeat, and they make the sign of the cross.
+
+"So your Highnesses should determine to make them Christians, for
+I believe that if they begin, in a short time they will have
+accomplished converting to our holy faith a multitude of towns."
+"Without doubt there are in these lands the greatest quantities
+of gold, for not without cause do these Indians whom I am
+bringing say that there are places in these isles where they dig
+out gold and wear it on their necks, in their ears and on their
+arms and legs, and the bracelets are very thick.
+
+"And also there are stones and precious pearls, and unnumbered
+spices. And in this Rio de Mares, from which I departed last
+night, without doubt there is the greatest quantity of mastic,
+and there might be more if more were desired. For the trees, if
+planted, take root, and there are many of them and very great and
+they have the leaf like a lentisk, and their fruit, except that
+the trees and the fruit are larger, is such as Pliny describes,
+and I have seen in the Island of Chios in the Archipelago.
+
+"And I had many of these trees tapped to see if they would send
+out resin, so as to draw it out. And as it rained all the time I
+was at the said river, I could not get any of it, except a very
+little which I am bringing to your Highnesses. And besides, it
+may be that it is not the, time to tap them, for I believe that
+this should be done at the time when the trees begin to leave out
+from the winter and seek to send out their flowers, and now they
+have the fruit nearly ripe.
+
+"And also here there might be had a great store of cotton, and I
+believe that it might be sold very well here without taking it to
+Spain, in the great cities of the Great Khan, which will
+doubtless be discovered, and many others of other lords, who will
+then have to serve your Highnesses. And here will be given them
+other things from Spain, from the lands of the East, since these
+are ours in the West.
+
+"And here there is also aloes everywhere, although this is not a
+thing to make great account of, but the mastic should be well
+considered, because it is not found except in the said island of
+Chios, and I believe that they get from it quite 50,000 ducats if
+I remember aright. And this is the best harbor which I have seen
+thus far--deep and easy of access, so that this would be a good
+place for a large town."
+
+The notes in Columbus's journals are of the more interest and
+value, because they show his impressions at the moment when he
+wrote. However mistaken those impressions, he never corrects them
+afterwards. Although, while he was in Cuba, he never found the
+Grand Khan, he never recalls the hopes which he has expressed.
+
+He had discovered the island on its northern side by sailing
+southwest from the Lucayos or Bahamas. From the eleventh of
+November until the sixth of December he was occupied in coasting
+along the northern shore, eventually returning eastward, when he
+crossed the channel which parts Cuba from Hayti.
+
+The first course was east, a quarter southeast, and on the
+sixteenth, they entered Port-au-Prince, and took possession,
+raising a cross there. At Port-au-Prince, to his surprise, he
+found on a point of rock two large logs, mortised into each other
+in the shape of a cross, so "that you would have said a carpenter
+could not have proportioned them better."
+
+On the nineteenth the course was north-northeast; on the
+twenty-first they took a course south, a quarter southwest,
+seeking in these changes the island of "Babeque," which the
+Indians had spoken of as rich with gold. On the day last named
+Pinzon left the Admiral in the Pinta, and they did not meet again
+for more than a month.
+
+Columbus touched at various points on Cuba and the neighboring
+islands. He sought, without success, for pearls, and always
+pressed his inquiries for gold. He was determined to find the
+island of Bohio, greatly to the terror of the poor Indians, whom
+he had on board: they said that its natives had but one eye, in
+the middle of their foreheads, and that they were well armed and
+ate their prisoners.
+
+He landed in the bay of Moa, and then, keeping near the coast,
+sailed towards the Capo del Pico, now called Cape Vacz. At Puerto
+Santo he was detained some days by bad weather. On the fourth of
+December he continued his eastward voyage, and on the next day
+saw far off the mountains of Hayti, which was the Bohio he sought
+for.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+DISCOVERY OF HAYTI OR HISPANIOLA--THE SEARCH FOR
+GOLD--HOSPITALITY AND INTELLIGENCE OF THE NATIVES--CHRISTMAS
+DAY--A SHIPWRECK--COLONY TO BE FOUNDED--COLUMBUS SAILS EAST AND
+MEETS MARTIN PINZON--THE TWO VESSELS RETURN TO EUROPE
+--STORM--THE AZORES--PORTUGAL--HOME.
+
+On the sixth of December they crossed from the eastern cape of
+Cuba to the northwestern point of the island, which we call Hayti
+or San Domingo. He says he gave it this name because "the plains
+appeared to him almost exactly like those of Castile, but yet
+more beautiful."
+
+He coasted eastward along the northern side of the island, hoping
+that it might be the continent, and always inquiring for gold
+when he landed; but the Indians, as before, referred him to yet
+another land, still further south, which they still called Bohio.
+It was not surrounded by water, they said. The word "caniba,"
+which is the origin of our word "cannibal," and refers to the
+fierce Caribs, came often into their talk. The sound of the
+syllable can made Columbus more sure that he was now approaching
+the dominions of the Grand Khan of eastern Asia, of whom Marco
+Polo had informed Europe so fully.
+
+On the twelfth of the month, after a landing in which a cross had
+been erected, three sailors went inland, pursuing the Indians.
+They captured a young woman whom they brought to the fleet. She
+wore a large ring of gold in her nose. She was able to understand
+the other Indians whom they had on board. Columbus dressed her,
+gave her some imitation pearls, rings and other finery, and then
+put her on shore with three Indians and three of his own men.
+
+The men returned the next day without going to the Indian
+village. Columbus then sent out nine men, with an Indian, who
+found a town of a thousand huts about four and a half leagues
+from the ship. They thought the population was three thousand.
+The village in Cuba is spoken of as having twenty people to a
+house. Here the houses were smaller or the count of the numbers
+extravagant. The people approached the explorers carefully, and
+with tokens of respect. Soon they gained confidence and brought
+out food for them: fish, and bread made from roots, "which tasted
+exactly as if it were made of chestnuts."
+
+In the midst of this festival, the woman, who had been sent back
+from the ship so graciously, appeared borne on the shoulders of
+men who were led by her husband.
+
+The Spaniards thought these natives of St. Domingo much whiter
+than those of the other islands. Columbus says that two of the
+women, if dressed in Castilian costume, would be counted to be
+Spaniards. He says that the heat of the country is intense, and
+that if these people lived in a cooler region they would be of
+lighter color.
+
+On the fourteenth of December he continued his voyage eastward,
+and on the fifteenth landed on the little island north of Hayti,
+which he called Tortuga, or Turtle island. At midnight on the
+sixteenth he sailed, and landed on Hispaniola again. Five hundred
+Indians met him, accompanied by their king, a fine young man of
+about twenty years of age. He had around him several counselors,
+one of whom appeared to be his tutor. To the steady questions
+where gold could be found, the reply as steady was made that it
+was in "the Island of Babeque." This island, they said, was only
+two days off, and they pointed out the route. The interview ended
+in an offer by the king to the Admiral of all that he had. The
+explorers never found this mysterious Babeque, unless, as Bishop
+Las Casas guessed, Babeque and Jamaica be the same.
+
+The king visited Columbus on his ship in the evening, and
+Columbus entertained him with European food. With so cordial a
+beginning of intimacy, it was natural that the visitors should
+spend two or three days with these people. The king would not
+believe that any sovereigns of Castile could be more powerful
+than the men he saw. He and those around him all believed that
+they came direct from heaven.
+
+Columbus was always asking for gold. He gave strict orders that
+it should always be paid for, when it was taken. To the islanders
+it was merely a matter of ornament, and they gladly exchanged it
+for the glass beads, the rings or the bells, which seemed to them
+more ornamental. One of the caciques or chiefs, evidently a man
+of distinction and authority, had little bits of gold which he
+exchanged for pieces of glass. It proved that he had clipped them
+off from a larger piece, and he went back into his cabin, cut
+that to pieces, and then exchanged all those in trade for the
+white man's commodities. Well pleased with his bargain, he then
+told the Spaniards that he would go and get much more and would
+come and trade with them again.
+
+On the eighteenth of December, the wind not serving well, they
+waited the return of the chief whom they had first seen. In the
+afternoon he appeared, seated in a palanquin, which was carried
+by four men, and escorted by more than two hundred of his people.
+He was accompanied by a counselor and preceptor who did not leave
+him. He came on board the ship when Columbus was at table. He
+would not permit him to leave his place, and readily took a seat
+at his side, when it was offered. Columbus offered him European
+food and drink; he tasted of each, and then gave what was offered
+to his attendants. The ceremonious Spaniards found a remarkable
+dignity in his air and gestures. After the repast, one of his
+servants brought a handsome belt, elegantly wrought, which he
+presented to Columbus, with two small pieces of gold, also
+delicately wrought.
+
+Columbus observed that this cacique looked with interest on the
+hangings of his ship-bed, and made a present of them to him, in
+return for his offering, with some amber beads from his own neck,
+some red shoes and a flask of orange flower water.
+
+On the nineteenth, after these agreeable hospitalities, the
+squadron sailed again, and on the twentieth arrived at a harbor
+which Columbus pronounced the finest he had ever seen. The
+reception he met here and the impressions he formed of Hispaniola
+determined him to make a colony on that island. It may be said
+that on this determination the course of his after life turned.
+This harbor is now known as the Bay of Azul.
+
+The men, whom he sent on shore, found a large village not far
+from the shore, where they were most cordially received. The
+natives begged the Europeans to stay with them, and as it proved,
+Columbus accepted the invitation for a part of his crew. On the
+first day three different chiefs came to visit him, in a friendly
+way, with their retinues. The next day more than a hundred and
+twenty canoes visited the ship, bringing with them such presents
+as the people thought would be acceptable. Among these were bread
+from the cassava root, fish, water in earthen jars, and the seeds
+of spices. These spices they would stir in with water to make a
+drink which they thought healthful.
+
+On the same day Columbus sent an embassy of six men to a large
+town in the interior. The chief by giving his hand "to the
+secretary" pledged himself for their safe return.
+
+The twenty-third was Sunday. It was spent as the day before had
+been, in mutual civilities. The natives would offer their
+presents, and say "take, take," in their own language. Five
+chiefs were among the visitors of the day. From their accounts
+Columbus was satisfied that there was much gold in the island, as
+indeed, to the misery and destruction of its inhabitants, there
+proved to be. He thought it was larger than England. But he was
+mistaken. In his journal of the next day he mentions Civao, a
+land to the west, where they told him that there was gold, and
+again he thought he was approaching Cipango, or Japan.
+
+The next day he left these hospitable people, raising anchor in
+the morning, and with a light land wind continued towards the
+west. At eleven in the evening Columbus retired to rest. While he
+slept, on Christmas Day, there occurred an accident which changed
+all plans for the expedition so far as any had been formed, and
+from which there followed the establishment of the ill-fated
+first colony. The evening was calm when Columbus himself retired
+to sleep, and the master of the vessel followed his example,
+entrusting the helm to one of the boys. Every person on the ship,
+excepting this boy, was asleep, and he seems to have been awake
+to little purpose.
+
+The young steersman let the ship drift upon a ridge of rock,
+although, as Columbus says, indignantly, there were breakers
+abundant to show the danger. So soon as she struck, the boy cried
+out, and Columbus was the first to wake. He says, by way of
+apology for himself, that for thirty-six hours he had not slept
+until now. The master of the ship followed him. But it was too
+late. The tide, such as there was, was ebbing, and the Santa
+Maria was hopelessly aground. Columbus ordered the masts cut
+away, but this did not relieve her.
+
+He sent out his boat with directions to carry aft an anchor and
+cable, but its crew escaped to the Nina with their tale of
+disaster. The Nina's people would not receive them, reproached
+them as traitors, and in their own vessel came to the scene of
+danger. Columbus was obliged to transfer to her the crew of the
+Santa Maria.
+
+So soon as it was day, their friendly ally, Guacanagari, came on
+board. With tears in his eyes, he made the kindest and most
+judicious offers of assistance. He saw Columbus's dejection, and
+tried to relieve him by expressions of his sympathy. He set aside
+on shore two large houses to receive the stores that were on the
+Santa Maria, and appointed as many large canoes as could be used
+to remove these stores to the land. He assured Columbus that not
+a bit of the cargo or stores should be lost, and this loyal
+promise was fulfilled to the letter.
+
+The weather continued favorable. The sea was so light that
+everything on board the Santa Maria was removed safely. Then it
+was that Columbus, tempted by the beauty of the place, by the
+friendship of the natives, and by the evident wishes of his men,
+determined to leave a colony, which should be supported by the
+stores of the Santa Maria, until the rest of the party could go
+back to Spain and bring or send reinforcements. The king was well
+pleased with this suggestion, and promised all assistance for the
+plan. A vault was dug and built, in which the stores could be
+placed, and on this a house was built for the home of the
+colonists, so far as they cared to live within doors.
+
+The chief sent a canoe in search of Martin Pinzon and the Pinta,
+to tell them of the disaster. But the messengers returned without
+finding them. At the camp, which was to be a city, all was
+industriously pressed, with the assistance of the friendly
+natives. Columbus, having no vessel but the little Nina left,
+determined to return to Europe with the news of his discovery,
+and to leave nearly forty men ashore.
+
+It would appear that the men, themselves, were eager to stay. The
+luxury of the climate and the friendly overtures of the people
+delighted them, They had no need to build substantial houses. So
+far as houses were needed, those of the natives were sufficient.
+All the preparations which Columbus thought necessary were made
+in the week between the twenty-sixth of December and the second
+of January. On that day he expected to sail eastward, but
+unfavorable winds prevented.
+
+He landed his men again, and by the exhibition of a pretended
+battle with European arms, he showed the natives the military
+force of their new neighbors. He fired a shot from an arquebuse
+against the wreck of the Santa Maria, so that the Indians might
+see the power of his artillery. The Indian chief expressed his
+regret at the approaching departure, and the Spaniards thought
+that one of his courtiers said that the chief had ordered him to
+make a statue of pure gold as large as the Admiral.
+
+Columbus explained to the friendly chief that with such arms as
+the sovereigns of Castile commanded they could readily destroy
+the dreaded Caribs. And he thought he had made such an impression
+that the islanders would be the firm friends of the colonists.
+
+"I have bidden them build a solid tower and defense, over a
+vault. Not that I think this necessary against the natives, for I
+am satisfied that with a handful of people I could conquer the
+whole island, were it necessary, although it is, as far as I can
+judge, larger than Portugal, and twice as thickly peopled." In
+this cheerful estimate of the people Columbus was wholly wrong,
+as the sad events proved before the year had gone by.
+
+He left thirty-nine men to be the garrison of this fort; and the
+colony which was to discover the mine of gold. In command he
+placed Diego da Arana, Pedro Gutierres and Rodrigo de Segovia. To
+us, who have more experience of colonies and colonists than he
+had had, it does not seem to promise well that Rodrigo was "the
+king's chamberlain and an officer of the first lord of the
+household." Of these three, Diego da Arana was to be the
+governor, and the other two his lieutenants. The rest were all
+sailors, but among them there were Columbus's secretary, an
+alguazil, or person commissioned in the civil service at home, an
+"arquebusier," who was also a good engineer, a tailor, a ship
+carpenter, a cooper and a physician. So the little colony had its
+share of artificers and men of practical skill. They all staid
+willingly, delighted with the prospects of their new home.
+
+On the third of January Columbus sailed for Europe in the little
+Nina. With her own crew and the addition she received from the
+Santa Maria, she must have been badly crowded. Fortunately for
+all parties, on Sunday, the third day of the voyage, while they
+were still in sight of land, the Pinta came in sight. Martin
+Pinzon came on board the Nina and offered excuses for his
+absence. Columbus was not really satisfied with them, but he
+affected to be, as this was no moment for a quarrel. He believed
+that Pinzon had left him, that, in the Pinta, he might be alone
+when he discovered the rich gold-bearing island of Babeque or
+Baneque. Although the determination was made to return, another
+week was spent in slow coasting, or in waiting for wind. It
+brought frequent opportunities for meeting the natives, in one of
+which they showed a desire to take some of their visitors
+captive. This would only have been a return for a capture made by
+Pinzon of several of their number, whom Columbus, on his meeting
+Pinzon, had freed. In this encounter two of the Indians were
+wounded, one by a sword, one by an arrow. It would seem that he
+did not show them the power of firearms.
+
+This was in the Bay of Samana, which Columbus called "The Bay of
+Arrows," from the skirmish or quarrel which took place there.
+They then sailed sixty-four miles cast, a quarter northeast, and
+thought they saw the land of the Caribs, which he was seeking.
+But here, at length, his authority over his crew failed. The men
+were eager to go home;--did not, perhaps, like the idea of fight
+with the man-eating Caribs. There was a good western wind, and on
+the evening of the sixteenth of January Columbus gave way and
+they bore away for home.
+
+Columbus had satisfied himself in this week that there were many
+islands east of him which he had not hit upon, and that to the
+easternmost of these, from the Canaries, the distance would prove
+not more than four hundred leagues. In this supposition he was
+wholly wrong, though a chain of islands does extend to the
+southeast.
+
+He seems to have observed the singular regularity by which the
+trade winds bore him steadily westward as he came over. He had no
+wish to visit the Canary Islands again, and with more wisdom than
+could have been expected, from his slight knowledge of the
+Atlantic winds, he bore north. Until the fourteenth of February
+the voyage was prosperous and uneventful. One day the captive
+Indians amused the sailors by swimming. There is frequent mention
+of the green growth of the Sargasso sea. But on the fourteenth
+all this changed. The simple journal thus describes the terrible
+tempest which endangered the two vessels, and seemed, at the
+moment, to cut off the hope of their return to Europe.
+
+"Monday, February 14.--This night the wind increased still more;
+the waves were terrible. Coming from two opposite directions,
+they crossed each other, and stopped the progress of the vessel,
+which could neither proceed nor get out from among them; and as
+they began continually to break over the ship, the Admiral caused
+the main-sail to be lowered. She proceeded thus during three
+hours, and made twenty miles. The sea became heavier and heavier,
+and the wind more and more violent. Seeing the danger imminent,
+he allowed himself to drift in whatever direction the wind took
+him, because he could do nothing else. Then the Pinta, of which
+Martin Alonzo Pinzon was the commander, began to drift also; but
+she disappeared very soon, although all through the night the
+Admiral made signals with lights to her, and she answered as long
+as she could, till she was prevented, probably by the force of
+the tempest, and by her deviation from the course which the
+Admiral followed." Columbus did not see the Pinta again until she
+arrived at Palos. He was himself driven fifty-four miles towards
+the northeast.
+
+The journal continues. "After sunrise the strength of the wind
+increased, and the sea became still more terrible. The Admiral
+all this time kept his mainsail lowered, so that the vessel might
+rise from among the waves which washed over it, and which
+threatened to sink it. The Admiral followed, at first, the
+direction of east-northeast, and afterwards due northeast. He
+sailed about six hours in this direction, and thus made seven
+leagues and a half. He gave orders that every sailor should draw
+lots as to who should make a pilgrimage to Santa Maria of
+Guadeloupe, to carry her a five-pound wax candle. And each one
+took a vow that he to whom the lot fell should make the
+pilgrimage.
+
+"For this purpose, he gave orders to take as many dry peas as
+there were persons in the ship, and to cut, with a knife, a cross
+upon one of them, and to put them all into a cap, and to shake
+them up well. The first who put his hand in was the Admiral. He
+drew out the dry pea marked with the cross; so it was upon him
+that the lot fell, and he regarded himself, after that, as a
+pilgrim, obliged to carry into effect the vow which he had thus
+taken. They drew lots a second time, to select a person to go as
+pilgrim to Our Lady of Lorette, which is within the boundaries of
+Ancona, making a part of the States of the Church: it is a place
+where the Holy Virgin has worked and continues to work many and
+great miracles. The lot having fallen this time upon a sailor of
+the harbor of Santa Maria, named Pedro de Villa, the Admiral
+promised to give him all the money necessary for the expenses. He
+decided that a third pilgrim should be sent to watch one night at
+Santa Clara of Moguer, and to have a mass said there. For this
+purpose, they again shook up the dry peas, not forgetting that
+one which was marked with the cross, and the lot fell once again
+to the Admiral himself. He then took, as did all his crew, the
+vow that, on the first shore which they might reach, they would
+go in their shirts, in a procession, to make a prayer in some
+church in invocation of Our Lady."
+
+"Besides the general vows, or those taken by all in common, each
+man made his own special vow, because nobody expected to escape.
+The storm which they experienced was so terrible, that all
+regarded themselves as lost; what increased the danger was the
+circumstance that the vessel lacked ballast, because the
+consumption of food, water and wine had greatly diminished her
+load. The hope of the continuance of weather as fine as that
+which they had experienced in all the islands, was the reason why
+the Admiral had not provided his vessel with the proper amount of
+ballast. Moreover, his plan had been to ballast it in the Women's
+Island, whither he had from the first determined to go. The
+remedy which the Admiral employed was to fill with sea water, as
+soon as possible, all the empty barrels which had previously held
+either wine or fresh water. In this way the difficulty was
+remedied.
+
+"The Admiral tells here the reasons for fearing that our Saviour
+would allow him to become the victim of this tempest, and other
+reasons which made him hope that God would come to his
+assistance, and cause him to arrive safe and sound, so that
+intelligence such as that which he was conveying to the king and
+queen would not perish with him. The strong desire which he had
+to be the bearer of intelligence so important, and to prove the
+truth of all which he had said, and that all which he had tried
+to discover had really been discovered, seemed to contribute
+precisely to inspire him with the greatest fear that he could not
+succeed. He confessed, himself, that every mosquito that passed
+before his eyes was enough to annoy and trouble him. He
+attributed this to his little faith, and his lack of confidence
+in Divine Providence. On the other hand, he was re-animated by
+the favors which God had shown him in granting to him so great a
+triumph as that which he had achieved, in all his discoveries, in
+fulfilling all his wishes, and in granting that, after having
+experienced in Castile so many rebuffs and disappointments, all
+his hopes should at last be more than surpassed. In one word, as
+the sovereign master of the universe, had, in the outset,
+distinguished him in granting all his requests, before he had
+carried out his expedition for God's greatest glory, and before
+it had succeeded, he was compelled to believe now that God would
+preserve him to complete the work which he had begun." Such is
+Las Casas's abridgment of Columbus's words.
+
+"For which reasons he said he ought to have had no fear of the
+tempest that was raging. But his weakness and anguish did not
+leave him a moment's calm. He also said that his greatest grief
+was the thought of leaving his two boys orphans. They were at
+Cordova, at their studies. What would become of them in a strange
+land, without father or mother? for the king and queen, being
+ignorant of the services he had rendered them in this voyage, and
+of the good news which he was bringing to them, would not be
+bound by any consideration to serve as their protectors.
+
+"Full of this thought, he sought, even in the storm, some means
+of apprising their highnesses of the victory which the Lord had
+granted him, in permitting him to discover in the Indies all
+which he had sought in his voyage, and to let them know that
+these coasts were free from storms, which is proved, he said, by
+the growth of herbage and trees even to the edge of the sea. With
+this purpose, that, if he perished in this tempest, the king and
+queen might have some news of his voyage, he took a parchment and
+wrote on it all that he could of his discoveries, and urgently
+begged that whoever found it would carry it to the king and
+queen. He rolled up this parchment in a piece of waxed linen,
+closed this parcel tightly, and tied it up securely; he had
+brought to him a large wooden barrel, within which he placed it,
+without anybody's knowing what it was. Everybody thought the
+proceeding was some act of devotion. He then caused it to be
+thrown into the sea."[*]
+
+[*] Within a few months, in the summer of 1890, a well known
+English publisher has issued an interesting and ingenious
+edition, of what pretended to be a fac simile of this document.
+The reader is asked to believe that the lost barrel has just now
+been found on the western coast of England. But publishers and
+purchasers know alike that this is only an amusing suggestion of
+what might have been.
+
+
+The sudden and heavy showers, and the squalls which followed some
+time afterwards, changed the wind, which turned to the west. They
+had the wind thus abaft, and he sailed thus during five hours
+with the foresail only, having always the troubled sea, and made
+at once two leagues and a half towards the northeast. He had
+lowered the main topmast lest a wave might carry it away.
+
+With a heavy wind astern, so that the sea frequently broke over
+the little Nina, she made eastward rapidly, and at daybreak on
+the fifteenth they saw land. The Admiral knew that he had made
+the Azores, he had been steadily directing the course that way;
+some of the seamen thought they were at Madeira, and some hopeful
+ones thought they saw the rock of Cintra in Portugal. Columbus
+did not land till the eighteenth, when he sent some men on shore,
+upon the island of Santa Maria. His news of discovery was at
+first received with enthusiasm.
+
+But there followed a period of disagreeable negotiation with
+Castaneda, the governor of the Azores. Pretending great courtesy
+and hospitality, but really acting upon the orders of the king of
+Portugal, he did his best to disable Columbus and even seized
+some of his crew and kept them prisoners for some days. When
+Columbus once had them on board again, he gave up his plans for
+taking ballast and water on these inhospitable islands, and
+sailed for Europe.
+
+He had again a stormy passage. Again they were in imminent
+danger. "But God was good enough to save him. He caused the crew
+to draw lots to send to Notre Dame de la Cintra, at the island of
+Huelva, a pilgrim who should come there in his shirt. The lot
+fell upon himself. All the crew, including the Admiral, vowed to
+fast on bread and water on the first Saturday which should come
+after the arrival of the vessel. He had proceeded sixty miles
+before the sails were torn; then they went under masts and
+shrouds on account of the unusual strength of the wind, and the
+roughness of the sea, which pressed them almost on all sides.
+They saw indications of the nearness of the land; they were in
+fact, very near Lisbon."
+
+At Lisbon, after a reception which was at first cordial, the
+Portuguese officers showed an inhospitality like that of
+Castaneda at the Azores. But the king himself showed more dignity
+and courtesy. He received the storm-tossed Admiral with
+distinction, and permitted him to refit his shattered vessel with
+all he needed. Columbus took this occasion to write to his own
+sovereigns.
+
+On the thirteenth he sailed again, and on the fifteenth entered
+the bay and harbor of Palos, which he had left six months and a
+half before. He had sailed on Friday. He had discovered America
+on Friday. And on Friday he safely returned to his home.
+
+His journal of the voyage ends with these words: "I see by this
+voyage that God has wonderfully proved what I say, as anybody may
+convince himself, by reading this narrative, by the signal
+wonders which he has worked during the course of my voyage, and
+in favor of myself, who have been for so long a time at the court
+of your Highnesses in opposition and contrary to the opinions of
+so many distinguished personages of your household, who all
+opposed me, treating my project as a dream, and my undertaking as
+a chimera. And I hope still, nevertheless, in our Lord, this
+voyage will bring the greatest honor to Christianity, although it
+has been performed with so much ease."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+COLUMBUS IS CALLED TO MEET THE KING AND QUEEN--HIS MAGNIFICENT
+RECEPTION--NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE POPE AND WITH THE KING OF
+PORTUGAL--SECOND EXPEDITION ORDERED--FONSECA--THE PREPARATIONS AT
+CADIZ.
+
+The letter which Columbus sent from Lisbon to the king and queen
+was everywhere published. It excited the enthusiasm first of
+Spain and then of the world. This letter found in the earlier
+editions is now one of the most choice curiosities of libraries.
+Well it may be, for it is the first public announcement of the
+greatest event of modern history.
+
+Ferdinand and Isabella directed him to wait upon them at once at
+court. It happened that they were then residing at Barcelona, on
+the eastern coast of Spain, so that the journey required to
+fulfill their wishes carried him quite across the kingdom. It was
+a journey of triumph. The people came together in throngs to meet
+this peaceful conqueror who brought with him such amazing
+illustrations of his discovery.
+
+The letter bearing instructions for him to proceed to Barcelona
+was addressed "To Don Christopher Columbus, our Admiral of the
+Ocean Sea, Viceroy and Governor of the islands discovered in the
+Indies." So far was he now raised above the rank of a poor
+adventurer, who had for seven years attended the court in its
+movements, seeking an opportunity to explain his proposals.
+
+As he approached Barcelona he was met by a large company of
+people, including many persons of rank. A little procession was
+formed of the party of the Admiral. Six Indians of the islands
+who had survived the voyage, led the way. They were painted
+according to their custom in various colors, and ornamented with
+the fatal gold of their countries, which had given to the
+discovery such interest in the eyes of those who looked on.
+
+Columbus had brought ten Indians away with him, but one had died
+on the voyage and he had left three sick at Palos. Those whom he
+brought to Barcelona, were baptized in presence of the king and
+queen.
+
+After the Indians, were brought many curious objects which had
+come from the islands, such as stuffed birds and beasts and
+living paroquets, which perhaps spoke in the language of their
+own country, and rare plants, so different from those of Spain.
+Ornaments of gold were displayed, which would give the people
+some idea of the wealth of the islands. Last of all came
+Columbus, elegantly mounted and surrounded by a brilliant
+cavalcade of young Spaniards. The crowd of wondering people
+pressed around them. Balconies and windows were crowded with
+women looking on. Even the roofs were crowded with spectators.
+
+The king and queen awaited Columbus in a large hall, where they
+were seated on a rich dais covered with gold brocade. It was in
+the palace known as the "Casa de la Deputacion" which the kings
+of Aragon made their residence when they were in Barcelona. A
+body of the most distinguished lords and ladies of Spain were in
+attendance. As Columbus entered the hall the king and queen
+arose. He fell on his knee that he might kiss their hands but
+they bade him rise and then sit and give an account of his
+voyage.
+
+Columbus spoke with dignity and simplicity which commanded
+respect, while all listened with sympathy. He showed some of the
+treasures he had brought, and spoke with certainty of the
+discoveries which had been made, as only precursors of those yet
+to come. When his short narrative was ended, all the company
+knelt and united in chanting the "Te Deum," "We Praise Thee, O
+God." Las Casas, describing the joy and hope of that occasion
+says, "it seems as if they had a foretaste of the joys of
+paradise."
+
+It would seem as if those whose duty it is to prepare fit
+celebrations of the periods of the great discovery, could hardly
+do better than to produce on the twenty-fourth of April, 1893, a
+reproduction of the solemn pageant in which, in Barcelona, four
+centuries before, the Spanish court commemorated the great
+discovery.
+
+From this time, for several weeks, a series of pageants and
+festivities surrounded him. At no other period of his life were
+such honors paid to him. It was at one of the banquets, at which
+he was present, that the incident of the egg, so often told in
+connection with the great discovery, took place. A flippant
+courtier--of that large class of people who stay at home when
+great deeds are done, and afterwards depreciate the doers of
+them--had the impertinence to ask Columbus, if the adventure so
+much praised was not, after all, a very simple matter. He
+probably said "a short voyage of four or five weeks; was it
+anything more?" Columbus replied by giving him an egg which was
+on the table, and asking him if he could stand it on one end. He
+said he could not, and the other guests said that they could not.
+Columbus tapped it on the table so as to break the end of the
+shell, and the egg stood erect. "It is easy enough," he said,
+"when any one has shown you how."
+
+It is well to remember, that if after years showed that the ruler
+of Spain wearied in his gratitude, Columbus was, at the time,
+welcomed with the enthusiasm which he deserved. From the very
+grains of gold brought home in this first triumph, the queen,
+Isabella, had the golden illumination wrought of a most beautiful
+missal-book.
+
+Distinguished artists decorated the book, and the portraits of
+sovereigns then on the throne appear as the representations of
+King David, King Solomon, the Queen of Sheba and other royal
+personages. This book she gave afterwards to her grandson,
+Charles V, of whom it has been said that perhaps no man in modern
+times has done the world more harm.
+
+This precious book, bearing on its gilded leaves the first fruits
+of America, is now preserved in the Royal Library at Madrid.
+
+The time was not occupied merely in shows and banquets. There was
+no difficulty now, about funds for a second expedition.
+Directions were given that it might be set forward as quickly as
+possible, and on an imposing scale. For it was feared at court
+that King John of Portugal, the successful rival of Spain, thus
+far, in maritime adventure, might anticipate further discovery.
+The sovereigns at once sent an embassy to the pope, not simply to
+announce the discovery, but to obtain from him a decree
+confirming similar discoveries in the same direction. There was
+at least one precedent for such action. A former pope had granted
+to Portugal all the lands it might discover in Africa, south of
+Cape Bojador, and the Spanish crown had assented by treaty to
+this arrangement. Ferdinand and Isabella could now refer to this
+precedent, in asking for a grant to them of their discoveries on
+the western side of the Atlantic. The pope now reigning was
+Alexander II. He had not long filled the papal chair. He was an
+ambitious and prudent sovereign--a native of Spain--and, although
+he would gladly have pleased the king of Portugal, he was quite
+unwilling to displease the Spanish sovereigns. The Roman court
+received with respect the request made to them. The pope
+expressed his joy at the hopes thrown out for the conversion of
+the heathen, which the Spanish sovereigns had expressed, as
+Columbus had always done. And so prompt were the Spanish
+requests, and so ready the pope's answer, that as early as May 3,
+1493, a papal bull was issued to meet the wishes of Spain.
+
+This bull determined for Spain and for Portugal, that all
+discoveries made west of a meridian line one hundred leagues west
+of the Azores should belong to Spain. All discoveries east of
+that line should belong to Portugal. No reference was made to
+other maritime powers, and it does not seem to have been supposed
+that other states had any rights in such matters. The line thus
+arranged for the two nations was changed by their own agreement,
+in 1494, for a north and south line three hundred and fifty
+leagues west of the Cape de Verde Islands. The difference between
+the two lines was not supposed to be important.
+
+The decision thus made was long respected. Under a mistaken
+impression as to the longitude of the Philippine Islands in the
+East Indies, Spain has held those islands, under this line of
+division, ever since their discovery by Magellan. She considered
+herself entitled to all the islands and lands between the
+meridian thus drawn in the Atlantic and the similar meridian one
+hundred and eighty degrees away, on exactly the other side of the
+world.
+
+Under the same line of division, Portugal held, for three
+centuries and more, Brazil, which projects so far eastward into
+the Atlantic as to cross this line of division.
+
+Fearful, all the time, that neither the pope's decree, nor any
+diplomacy would prevent the king of Portugal from attempting to
+seize lands at the west, the Spanish court pressed with eagerness
+arrangements for a second expedition. It was to be on a large and
+generous scale and to take out a thousand men. For this was the
+first plan, though the number afterwards was increased to fifteen
+hundred. To give efficiency to all the measures of colonization,
+what we should call a new department of administration was
+formed, and at the head of it was placed Juan Rodriguez de
+Fonseca.
+
+Fonseca held this high and responsible position for thirty years.
+He early conceived a great dislike of Columbus, who, in some
+transactions before this expedition sailed, appealed to the
+sovereigns to set aside a decision of Fonseca's, and succeeded.
+For all the period while he managed the Indian affairs of Spain,
+Fonseca kept his own interests in sight more closely than those
+of Spain or of the colonists; and not Columbus only, but every
+other official of Spain in the West Indies, had reason to regret
+the appointment.
+
+The king of Portugal and the sovereigns of Spain began
+complicated and suspicious negotiations with each other regarding
+the new discoveries. Eventually, as has been said, they acceded
+to the pope's proposal and decree. But, at first, distrusting
+each other, and concealing their real purposes, in the worst
+style of the diplomacy of that time, they attempted treaties for
+the adjustment between themselves of the right to lands not yet
+discovered by either. Of these negotiations, the important result
+was that which has been named,--the change of the meridian of
+division from that proposed by the pope. It is curious now to see
+that the king of Portugal proposed a line of division, which
+would run east and west, so that Spain should have the new
+territories north of the latitude of the Grand Canary, and
+Portugal all to the south.
+
+In the midst of negotiation, the king and queen and Columbus knew
+that whoever was first on the ground of discovery would have the
+great advantage. There was a rumor in Spain that Portugal had
+already sent out vessels to the west. Everything was pressed with
+alacrity at Cadiz. The expedition was to be under Columbus's
+absolute command. Seamen of reputation were engaged to serve
+under him. Seventeen vessels were to take out a colony. Horses as
+well as cattle and other domestic animals were provided. Seeds
+and plants of different kinds were sent out, and to this first
+colonization by Spain, America owes the sugar-cane, and perhaps
+some other of her tropical productions.
+
+Columbus remained in Barcelona until the twenty-third of May. But
+before that time, the important orders for the expedition had
+been given. He then went to Cadiz himself, and gave his personal
+attention to the preparations. Applications were eagerly pressed,
+from all quarters, for permission to go. Young men of high family
+were eager to try the great adventure. It was necessary to
+enlarge the number from that at first proposed. The increase of
+expense, ordered as the plans enlarged, did not please Fonseca.
+To quarrels between him and Columbus at this time have been
+referred the persecutions which Columbus afterwards suffered. In
+this case the king sustained Columbus in all his requisitions,
+and Fonseca was obliged to answer them.
+
+So rapidly were all these preparations made, that, in a little
+more than a year from the sailing of the first expedition, the
+second, on a scale so much larger, was ready for sea.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+THE SECOND EXPEDITION SAILS FROM CADIZ AT CANARY
+ISLANDS--DISCOVERY OF DOMINICA AND GUADELOUPE--SKIRMISHES WITH
+THE CARIBS--PORTO RICO DISCOVERED--HISPANIOLA--THE FATE OF THE
+COLONY AT LA NAVIDAD.
+
+There is not in history a sharper contrast, or one more dramatic,
+than that between the first voyage of Columbus and the second. In
+the first voyage, three little ships left the port of Palos, most
+of the men of their crews unwilling, after infinite difficulty in
+preparation, and in the midst of the fears of all who stayed
+behind.
+
+In the second voyage, a magnificent fleet, equipped with all that
+the royal service could command, crowded with eager adventurers
+who are excited by expectations of romance and of success, goes
+on the very same adventure.
+
+In the first voyage, Columbus has but just turned the corner
+after the struggles and failures of eight years. He is a
+penniless adventurer who has staked all his reputation on a
+scheme in which he has hardly any support. In the second case,
+Columbus is the governor-general, for aught he knows, of half the
+world, of all the countries he is to discover; and he knows
+enough, and all men around him know enough, to see that his
+domain may be a principality indeed.
+
+Success brings with it its disadvantages. The world has learned
+since, if it did not know it then, that one hundred and fifty
+sailors, used to the hard work and deprivations of a seafaring
+life, would be a much more efficient force for purposes of
+discovery, than a thousand and more courtiers who have left the
+presence of the king and queen in the hope of personal
+advancement or of romantic adventure. Those dainty people, who
+would have been soldiers if there were no gunpowder, are not men
+to found states; and the men who have lived in the ante-chambers
+of courts are not people who co-operate sympathetically with an
+experienced man of affairs like Columbus.
+
+From this time forward this is to be but a sad history, and the
+sadness, nay, the cruelty of the story, results largely from the
+composition of the body of men whom Columbus took with him on
+this occasion. It is no longer coopers and blacksmiths and
+boatswains and sailmakers who surround him. These were officers
+of court, whose titles even cannot be translated into modern
+language, so artificial were their habits and so conventional the
+duties to which they had been accustomed. Such men it was, who
+made poor Columbus endless trouble. Such men it was, who, at the
+last, dragged him down from his noble position, so that he died
+unhonored, dispirited and poor. To the same misfortune, probably,
+do we owe it that, for a history of this voyage, we have no
+longer authority so charming as the simple, gossipy journal which
+Columbus kept through the first voyage, of which the greater part
+has happily been preserved. It may be that he was too much
+pressed by his varied duties to keep up such a journal. For it is
+alas! an unfortunate condition of human life, that men are most
+apt to write journals when they have nothing to tell, and that in
+the midst of high activity, the record of that activity is not
+made by the actor. In the present case, a certain Doctor Chanca,
+a native of Seville, had been taken on board Columbus's ship,
+perhaps with the wish that he should be the historian of the
+expedition. It may be that in the fact that his journal was sent
+home is the reason why the Admiral's, if he kept one, has never
+been preserved. Doctor Chanca's narrative is our principal
+contemporary account of the voyage. From later authorities much
+can be added to it, but all of them put together are not, for the
+purposes of history, equal to the simple contemporaneous
+statement which we could have had, had Columbus's own journal
+been preserved.
+
+The great fleet sailed from Cadiz on the twenty-fifth day of
+September, in the year 1493, rather more than thirteen months
+after the sailing of the little fleet from Palos of the year
+before. They touched at the Grand Canary as before, but at this
+time their vessels were in good condition and there was no
+dissatisfaction among the crews. From this time the voyage across
+the ocean was short. On the third day of November, 11 the Sunday
+after All Saints Day had dawned, a pilot on the ship cried out to
+the captain that he saw land. So great was the joy among the
+people, that it was marvellous to hear the shouts of pleasure on
+all hands. And for this there was much reason because the people
+were so much fatigued by the hard life and by the water which
+they drank that they all hoped for land with much desire."
+
+The reader will see that this is the ejaculation of a tired
+landsman; one might say, of a tired scholar, who was glad that
+even the short voyage was at an end. Some of the pilots supposed
+that the distance which they had run was eight hundred leagues
+from Ferro; others thought it was seven hundred and eighty. As
+the light increased, there were two islands in sight the first
+was mountainous, being the island of "Dominica," which still
+retains that name, of the Sunday when it was discovered; the
+other, the island of Maria Galante, is more level, but like the
+first, as it is described by Dr. Chanca, it was well wooded. The
+island received its name from the ship that Columbus commanded.
+In all, they discovered six islands on this day.
+
+Finding no harbor which satisfied him in Dominica, Columbus
+landed on the island of Maria Galante, and took possession of it
+in the name of the king and queen. Dr. Chanca expresses the
+amazement which everyone had felt on the other voyage, at the
+immense variety of trees, of fruits and of flowers, which to this
+hour is the joy of the traveller in the West Indies.
+
+"In this island was such thickness of forest that it was
+wonderful, and such a variety of trees, unknown to anyone, that
+it was terrible, some with fruit, some with flowers, so that
+everything was green. * * * There were wild fruits of different
+sorts, which some not very wise men tried, and, on merely tasting
+them, touching them with their tongues, their faces swelled and
+they had such great burning and pain that they seemed to rage (or
+to have hydrophobia). They were cured with cold things." This
+fruit is supposed to have been the manchireel, which is known to
+produce such effects.
+
+They found no inhabitants on this island and went on to another,
+now called Guadeloupe. It received this name from its resemblance
+to a province of the same name in Spain. They drew near a
+mountain upon it which "seemed to be trying to reach the sky,"
+upon which was a beautiful waterfall, so white with foam that at
+a distance some of the sailors thought it was not water, but
+white rocks. The Admiral sent a light caravel to coast along and
+find harbor. This vessel discovered some houses, and the captain
+went ashore and found the inhabitants in them. They fled at once,
+and he entered the houses. There he found that they had taken
+nothing away. There was much cotton, "spun and to be spun," and
+other goods of theirs, and he took a little of everything, among
+other things, two parrots, larger and different from what had
+been seen before. He also took four or five bones of the legs and
+arms of men. This last discovery made the Spaniards suppose that
+these islands were those of Caribs, inhabited by the cannibals of
+whom they had heard in the first voyage.
+
+They went on along the coast, passing by some little villages,
+from which the inhabitants fled, "as soon as they saw the sails."
+The Admiral decided to send ashore to make investigations, and
+next morning "certain captains" landed. At dinnertime some of
+them returned, bringing with them a boy of fourteen, who said
+that he was one of the captives of the people of the island. The
+others divided, and one party "took a little boy and brought him
+on board." Another party took a number of women, some of them
+natives of the island, and others captives, who came of their own
+accord. One captain, Diego Marquez, with his men, went off from
+the others and lost his way with his party. After four days he
+came out on the coast, and by following that, he succeeded in
+coming to the fleet. Their friends supposed them to have been
+killed and eaten by the Caribs, as, since some of them were
+pilots and able to set their course by the pole-star, it seemed
+impossible that they should lose themselves.
+
+During the first day Columbus spent here, many men and women came
+to the water's edge, "looking at the fleet and wondering at such
+a new thing; and when any boat came ashore to talk with them,
+saying, 'tayno, tayno,' which means good. But they were all ready
+to run when they seemed in danger, so that of the men only two
+could be taken by force or free-will. There were taken more than
+twenty women of the captives, and of their free-will came other
+women, born in other islands, who were stolen away and taken by
+force. Certain captive boys came to us. In this harbor we were
+eight days on account of the loss of the said captain."
+
+They found great quantities of human bones on shore, and skulls
+hanging like pots or cups about the houses. They saw few men. The
+women said that this was because ten canoes had gone on a robbing
+or kidnapping expedition to other islands. "This people," says
+Doctor Chanca, "appeared to us more polite than those who live in
+the other islands we have seen, though they all have straw
+houses." But he goes on to say that these houses are better made
+and provided, and that more of both men's and women's work
+appeared in them. They had not only plenty of spun and unspun
+cotton, but many cotton mantles, "so well woven that they yield
+in nothing (or owe nothing) to those of our country."
+
+When the women, who had been found captives, were asked who the
+people of the island were, they replied that they were Caribs.
+When they heard that we abhorred such people for their evil use
+of eating men's flesh, they rejoiced much." But even in the
+captivity which all shared, they showed fear of their old
+masters.
+
+"The customs of this people, the Caribs," says Dr. Chanca, "are
+beastly;" and it would be difficult not to agree with him, in
+spite of the "politeness" and comparative civilization he has
+spoken of.
+
+They occupied three islands, and lived in harmony with each
+other, but made war in their canoes on all the other islands in
+the neighborhood. They used arrows in warfare, but had no iron.
+Some of them used arrow-heads of tortoise shell, others sharply
+toothed fish-bones, which could do a good deal of damage among
+unarmed men. "But for people of our nation, they are not arms to
+be feared much."
+
+These Caribs carried off both men and women on their robbing
+expeditions. They slaughtered and ate the men, and kept the women
+as slaves; they were, in short, incredibly cruel. Three of the
+captive boys ran away and joined the Spaniards.
+
+They had twice sent out expeditions after the lost captain, Diego
+Marquez, and another party had returned without news of him, on
+the very day on which he and his men came in. They brought with
+them ten captives, boys and women. They were received with great
+joy. "He and those that were with him, arrived so DESTROYED BY
+THE MOUNTAIN, that it was pitiful to see them. When they were
+asked how they had lost themselves, they said that it was the
+thickness of the trees, so great that they could not see the sky,
+and that some of them, who were mariners, had climbed up the
+trees to look at the star (the Pole-star) and that they never
+could see it."
+
+One of the accounts of this voyage[*] relates that the captive
+women, who had taken refuge with the Spaniards, were persuaded by
+them to entice some of the Caribs to the beach. "But these men,
+when they had seen our people, all struck by terror, or the
+consciousness of their evil deeds, looking at each other,
+suddenly drew together, and very lightly, like a flight of birds,
+fled away to the valleys of the woods. Our men then, not having
+succeeded in taking any cannibals, retired to the ships and broke
+the Indians' canoes."
+
+[*] That of Peter Martyr.
+
+
+They left Guadeloupe on Sunday, the tenth of November. They
+passed several islands, but stopped at none of them, as they were
+in haste to arrive at the settlement of La Navidad in Hispaniola,
+made on the first voyage. They did, however, make some stay at an
+island which seemed well populated. This was that of San Martin.
+The Admiral sent a boat ashore to ask what people lived on the
+island, and to ask his way, although, as he afterwards found, his
+own calculations were so correct that he did not need any help.
+The boat's crew took some captives, and as it was going back to
+the ships, a canoe came up in which were four men, two women and
+a boy. They were so astonished at seeing the fleet, that they
+remained, wondering what it could be, "two Lombard-shot from the
+ship," and did not see the boat till it was close to them. They
+now tried to get off, but were so pressed by the boat that they
+could not. "The Caribs, as soon as they saw that flight did not
+profit them, with much boldness laid hands on their bows, the
+women as well as the men. And I say with much boldness, because
+they were no more than four men and two women, and ours more than
+twenty-five, of whom they wounded two. To one they gave two
+arrow-shots in the breast, and to the other one in the ribs. And
+if we had not had shields and tablachutas, and had not come up
+quickly with the boat and overturned their canoe, they would have
+shot the most of our men with their arrows. And after their canoe
+was overturned, they remained in the water swimming, and at times
+getting foothold, for there were some shallow places there. And
+our men had much ado to take them, for they still kept on
+shooting as they could. And with all this, not one of them could
+be taken, except one badly wounded with a lance-thrust, who died,
+whom thus wounded they carried to the ships."
+
+Another account of this fight says that the canoe was commanded
+by one of the women, who seemed to be a queen, who had a son "of
+cruel look, robust, with a lion's face, who followed her." This
+account represents the queen's son to have been wounded, as well
+as the man who died. "The Caribs differed from the other Indians
+in having long hair; the others wore theirs braided and a hundred
+thousand differences made in their heads, with crosses and other
+paintings of different sorts, each one as he desires, which they
+do with sharp canes." The Indians, both the Caribs and the
+others, were beardless, unless by a great exception. The Caribs,
+who had been taken prisoners here, had their eyes and eyebrows
+blackened, "which, it seems to me, they do as an ornament, and
+with that they appear more frightful." They heard from these
+prisoners of much gold at an island called Cayre.
+
+They left San Martin on the same day, and passed the island of
+Santa Cruz, and the next day (November 15) they saw a great
+number of islands, which the Admiral named Santa Ursula and the
+Eleven Thousand Virgins. This seemed "a country fit for metals,"
+but the fleet made no stay there. They did stop for two days at
+an island called Burenquen. The Admiral named it San Juan
+Bautista (Saint John Baptist). It is what we now call Porto Rico.
+He was not able to communicate with any of the inhabitants, as
+they lived in such fear of the Caribs that they all fled. All
+these islands were new to the Admiral and all "very beautiful and
+of very good land, but this one seemed better than all of them."
+
+On Friday, the twenty-second of November, they landed at the
+island of Hispaniola or Hayti which they so much desired. None of
+the party who had made the first voyage were acquainted with this
+part of the island; but they conjectured what it was, from what
+the Indian captive women told them.
+
+The part of the island where they arrived was called Hayti,
+another part Xamana, and the third Bohio. "It is a very singular
+country," says Dr. Chanca, "where there are numberless great
+rivers and great mountain ridges and great level valleys. I think
+the grass never dries in the whole year. I do not think that
+there is any winter in this (island) nor in the others, for at
+Christmas are found many birds' nests, some with birds, and some
+with eggs." The only four-footed animals found in these islands
+were what Dr. Chanca calls dogs of various colors, and one animal
+like a young rabbit, which climbed trees. Many persons ate these
+last and said they were very good. There were many small snakes,
+and few lizards, because the Indians were so fond of eating them.
+"They made as much of a feast of them as we would do of
+pheasants."
+
+"There are in this island and the others numberless birds, of
+those of our country, and many others which never were seen
+there. Of our domestic birds, none have ever been seen here,
+except that in Zuruquia there were some ducks in the houses, most
+of them white as snow, and others black."
+
+They coasted along this island for several days, to the place
+where the Admiral had left his settlement. While passing the
+region of Xamana, they set ashore one of the Indians whom they
+had carried off on the first voyage. They "gave him some little
+things which the Admiral had commanded him to give away." Another
+account adds that of the ten Indian men who had been carried off
+on the first voyage, seven had already died on account of the
+change of air and food. Two of the three whom the Admiral was
+bringing back, swam ashore at night. "The Admiral cared for this
+but little, thinking that he should have enough interpreters
+among those whom he had left in the island, and whom he hoped to
+find there again." It seems certain that one Indian remained
+faithful to the Spaniards; he was named Diego Colon, after the
+Admiral's brother.
+
+On the day that the captive Indian was set ashore, a Biscayan
+sailor died, who had been wounded by the Caribs in the fight
+between the boat's crew and the canoe. A boat's crew was sent
+ashore to bury him, and as they came to land there came out "many
+Indians, of whom some wore gold at the neck and at the ears. They
+sought to come with the christians to the ships, and they did not
+like to bring them, because they had not had permission from the
+Admiral." The Indians then sent two of their number in a little
+canoe to one of the caravels, where they were received kindly,
+and sent to speak with the Admiral."
+
+"They said, through an interpreter, that a certain king sent them
+to know what people we were, and to ask that we might be kind
+enough to land, as they had much gold and would give it to him,
+and of what they had to eat. The Admiral commanded silken shirts
+and caps and other little things to be given them, and told them
+that as he was going where Guacanagari was, he could not stop,
+that another time he would be able to see him. And with that,
+they (the Indians) went away."
+
+They stopped two days at a harbor which they called Monte
+Christi, to see if it were a suitable place for a town, for the
+Admiral did not feel altogether satisfied with the place where
+the settlement of La Navidad had been made on the first voyage.
+This Monte Christi was near "a great river of very good water"
+(the Santiago). But it is all an inundated region, and very unfit
+to live in.
+
+"As they were going along, viewing the river and land, some of
+our men found, in a place close by the river, two dead men, one
+with: a cord (lazo) around his neck, and the other with one
+around his foot. This was the first day. On the next day
+following, they found two other dead men farther on than these
+others. One of these was in such a position that it could be
+known that he had a plentiful beard. Some of our men suspected
+more ill than good, and with reason, as the Indians are all
+beardless, as I have said."
+
+This port was not far from the port where the Spanish settlement
+had been made on the first voyage, so that there was great reason
+for these anxieties. They set sail once more for the settlement,
+and arrived opposite the harbor of La Navidad on the
+twenty-seventh of November. As they were approaching the harbor,
+a canoe came towards them, with five or six Indians on board,
+but, as the Admiral kept on his course without waiting for them,
+they went back.
+
+The Spaniards arrived outside the port of La Navidad so late that
+they did not dare to enter it that night. "The Admiral commanded
+two Lombards to be fired, to see if the christians replied, who
+had been left with the said Guacanagari, (this was the friendly
+cacique Guacanagari of the first voyage), for they too had
+Lombards," "They never replied, nor did fires nor signs of houses
+appear in that place, at which the people were much discouraged,
+and they had the suspicion that was natural in such a case."
+
+"Being thus all very sad, when four or five hours of the night
+had passed, there came the same canoe which they had seen the
+evening before. The Indians in it asked for the Admiral and the
+captain of one of the caravels of the first voyage. They were
+taken to the Admiral's ship, but would not come on board until
+they had "spoken with him and seen him." They asked for a light,
+and as soon as they knew him, they entered the ship. They came
+from Guacanagari, and one of them was his cousin.
+
+They brought with them golden masks, one for the Admiral and
+another for one of the captains who had been with him on the
+first voyage, probably Vicente Yanez Pinzon. Such masks were much
+valued among the Indians, and are thought to have been meant to
+put upon idols, so that they were given to the Spaniards as
+tokens of great respect. The Indian party remained on board for
+three hours, conversing with the Admiral and apparently very glad
+to see him again. When they were asked about the colonists of La
+Navidad, they said that they were all well, but that some of them
+had died from sickness, and that others had been killed in
+quarrels among themselves. Their own cacique, Guacanagari, had
+been attacked by two other chiefs, Caonabo and Mayreni. They had
+burned his village, and he had been wounded in the leg, so that
+he could not come to meet the Spaniards that night. As the
+Indians went away, however, they promised that they would bring
+him to visit them the next day. So the explorers remained
+"consoled for that night."
+
+Next day, however, events were less reassuring. None of last
+night's party came back and nothing was seen of the cacique. The
+Spaniards, however, thought that the Indians might have been
+accidentally overturned in their canoe, as it was a small one,
+and as wine had been given them several times during their visit.
+
+While he was still waiting for them, the Admiral sent some of his
+men to the place where La Navidad had stood. They found that the
+strong fort with a palisade was burned down and demolished. They
+also found some cloaks and other clothes which had been carried
+off by the Indians, who seemed uneasy, and at first would not
+come near the party.
+
+"This did not appear well" to the Spaniards, as the Admiral had
+told them how many canoes had come out to visit him in that very
+place on the other voyage. They tried to make friends, however,
+threw out to them some bells, beads and other presents, and
+finally a relation of the cacique and three others ventured to
+the boat, and were taken on board ship.
+
+These men frankly admitted that the "christians" were all dead.
+The Spaniards had been told so the night before by their Indian
+interpreter, but they had refused to believe him. They were now
+told that the King of Canoaboa[*] and the King Mayreni had killed
+them and burned the village.
+
+[*] "Canoaboa" was thought to mean "Land of Gold."
+
+
+They said, as the others had done, that Guacanagari was wounded
+in the thigh and they, like the others, said they would go and
+summon him. The Spaniards made them some presents, and they, too,
+disappeared.
+
+Early the next morning the Admiral himself, with a party,
+including Dr. Chanca, went ashore.
+
+"And we went where the town used to be, which we saw all burnt,
+and the clothes of the christians were found on the grass there.
+At that time we saw no dead body. There were among us many
+different opinions, some suspecting that Guacanagari himself was
+(concerned) in the betrayal or death of the christians, and to
+others it did not appear so, as his town was burnt, so that the
+thing was very doubtful."
+
+The Admiral directed the whole place to be searched for gold, as
+he had left orders that if any quantity of it were found, it
+should be buried. While this search was being made, he and a few
+others went to look for a suitable place for a new settlement.
+They arrived at a village of seven or eight houses, which the
+inhabitants deserted at once. Here they found many things
+belonging to the christians, such as stockings, pieces of cloth,
+and "a very pretty mantle which had not been unfolded since it
+was brought from Castile." These, the Spaniards thought, could
+not have been obtained by barter. There was also one of the
+anchors of the ship which had gone ashore on the first voyage.
+
+When they returned to the site of La Navidad they found many
+Indians, who had become bold enough to come to barter gold. They
+had shown the place where the bodies of eleven Spaniards lay
+"covered already by the grass which had grown over them." They
+all "with one voice" said that Canoaboa and Mayreni had killed
+them. But as, at the same time, they complained that some of the
+christians had taken three Indian wives, and some four, it seemed
+likely that a just resentment on the part of the islanders had
+had something to do with their death.
+
+The next day the Admiral sent out a caravel to seek for a
+suitable place for a town, and he himself went out to look for
+one in a different direction. He found a secure harbor and a good
+place for a settlement, But he thought it too far from the place
+where he expected to find a gold mine. On his return, he found
+the caravel he had sent out. As it was coasting along the island,
+a canoe had come out to it, with two Indians on board, one of
+whom was a brother of Guacanagari. This man begged the party to
+come and visit the cacique. The "principal men" accordingly went
+on shore, and found him in bed, apparently suffering from his
+wounded thigh, which he showed them in bandages. They judged from
+appearances that he was telling them the truth.
+
+He said to them, "by signs as best be could," that since he was
+thus wounded, they were to invite the Admiral to come to visit
+him. As they were going away, he gave each of them a golden
+jewel, as each "appeared to him to deserve it." "This gold," says
+Dr. Chanca, "is made in very delicate sheets, like our gold leaf,
+because they use it for making masks and to plate upon bitumen.
+They also wear it on the head and for earrings and nose-rings,
+and therefore they beat it very thin as they only wear it for its
+beauty and not for its value."
+
+The Admiral decided to go to the cacique on the next day. He was
+visited early in the day by his brother, who hurried on the
+visit.
+
+The Admiral went on shore and all the best people (gente de pro)
+with him, handsomely dressed, as would be suitable in a capital
+city." They carried presents. with them, as they had already
+received gold from him.
+
+"When we arrived, we found him lying in his bed, according to
+their custom, hanging in the air, the bed being made of cotton
+like a net. He did not rise, but from the bed made a semblance of
+courtesy, as best he knew how. He showed much feeling, with tears
+in his eyes, at the death of the christians, and began to talk of
+it, showing, as best he could, how some died of sickness, and how
+others had gone to Canoaboa to seek for the gold mine, and that
+they had been killed there, and how the others had been killed in
+their town."
+
+He presented to the Admiral some gold and precious stones. One of
+the accounts says that there were eight hundred beads of a stone
+called ciba, one hundred of gold, a golden coronet, and three
+small calabashes filled with gold dust. Columbus, in return, made
+him a present.
+
+"I and a navy surgeon were there," says Dr. Chanca. "The Admiral
+now said that we were learned in the infirmities of men, and
+asked if he would show us the wound. He replied that it pleased
+him to do so. I said that it would be necessary, if he could, for
+him to go out of the house, since with the multitudes of people
+it was dark, and we could not see well. He did it immediately, as
+I believe, more from timidity than from choice. The surgeon came
+to him and began to take off the bandage. Then he said to the
+Admiral that the injury was caused by ciba, that is, by a stone.
+When it was unbandaged we managed to examine it. It is certain
+that he was no more injured in that leg than in the other,
+although he pretended that it was very painful."
+
+The Spaniards did not know what to believe. But it seemed certain
+that an attack of some enemy upon these Indians had taken place,
+and the Admiral determined to continue upon good terms with them.
+Nor did he change this policy toward Guacanagari. How far that
+chief had tried to prevent the massacre will never be known. The
+detail of the story was never fully drawn from the natives. The
+Spaniards had been cruel and licentious in their dealing with the
+Indians. They had quarrelled among themselves, and the indignant
+natives, in revenge, had destroyed them all.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+THE NEW COLONY--EXPEDITIONS OF DISCOVERY--GUACANAGARI --SEARCH
+FOR GOLD--MUTINY IN THE COLONY--THE VESSELS SENT HOME--COLUMBUS
+MARCHES INLAND--COLLECTION OF GOLD--FORTRESS OF ST. THOMAS--A NEW
+VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY--JAMAICA VISITED--THE SOUTH SHORE OF CUBA
+EXPLORED--RETURN --EVANGELISTA DISCOVERED--COLUMBUS FALLS
+SICK--RETURN TO ISABELLA.
+
+Columbus had hoped, with reason, to send back a part of the
+vessels which made up his large squadron, with gold collected in
+the year by the colonists at La Navidad. In truth, when, in 1501,
+the system of gold-washing-had been developed, the colony yielded
+twelve hundred pounds of gold in one year. The search for gold,
+from the beginning, broke up all intelligent plans for
+geographical discovery or for colonization. In this case, it was
+almost too clear that there was nothing but bad news to send back
+to Spain. Columbus went forward, however, as well as he could,
+with the establishment of a new colony, and with the search for
+gold.
+
+He sent out expeditions of discovery to open relations with the
+natives, and to find the best places for washing and mining for
+gold. Melchior Meldonado commanded three hundred men, in the
+first of these expeditions. They came to a good harbor at the
+mouth of a river, where they saw a fine house, which they
+supposed might be the home of Guacanagari. They met an armed
+party of one hundred Indians; but these men put away their
+weapons when signals of peace were made, and brought presents in
+token of good-will.
+
+The house to which they went was round, with a hemispherical roof
+or dome. It was thirty-two paces in diameter, divided by wicker
+work into different rooms. Smaller houses, for persons of rank
+lower than the chiefs, surrounded it. The natives told the
+explorers that Guacanagari himself had retired to the hills.
+
+On receiving the report of these explorers Columbus sent out
+Ojeda with a hundred men, and Corvalan with a similar party in
+different directions. These officers, in their report, described
+the operation of gold-washing, much as it is known to explorers
+in mining regions to-day. The natives made a deep ditch into
+which the gold bearing sand should settle. For more important
+work they had flat baskets in which they shook the sand and
+parted it from the gold. With the left hand they dipped up sand,
+handled this skilfully or "dextrously" with the right hand, so
+that in a few minutes they could give grains of gold to the
+gratified explorers. Ojeda brought home to Columbus one nugget
+which weighed nine ounces.
+
+They also brought tidings of the King of Canoaboa, of whom they
+had heard before, and he is called by the name of Caunebo
+himself.[*] He was afterwards carried, as a prisoner or as a
+hostage, on the way to Spain; but died on the passage.
+
+[*] The name is spelled in many different ways.
+
+
+Columbus was able to dispatch the returning ships, with the
+encouraging reports brought in by Meldonado and Ojeda, but with
+very little gold. But he was obliged to ask for fresh supplies of
+food for the colony--even in the midst of the plenty which he
+described; for he had found already what all such leaders find,
+the difficulty of training men to use food to which they were not
+accustomed. He sent also his Carib prisoners, begging that they
+might be trained to a knowledge of the christian religion and of
+the Spanish language. He saw, already, how much he should need
+interpreters. The fleet sailed on the second of February, and its
+reports were, on the whole, favorably received.
+
+Columbus chose for the new city an elevation, ten leagues east of
+Monte Christi, and at first gave to his colony the name of
+Martha. It is the Isabella of the subsequent history.
+
+The colonists were delighted with the fertility of the soil under
+the tropical climate. Andalusia itself had not prepared them for
+it. They planted seeds of peas, beans, lettuces, cabbages and
+other vegetables, and declared that they grew more in eight days
+than they would have grown in twenty at home. They had fresh
+vegetables in sixteen days after they planted them; but for
+melons, pumpkins and other fruits of that sort, they are generous
+enough to allow thirty days.
+
+They had carried out roots and suckers of the sugar-cane. In
+fifteen days the shoots were a cubit high. A farmer who had
+planted wheat in the beginning of February had ripe grain in the
+beginning of April; so that they were sure of, at least, two
+crops in a year.
+
+But the fertility of the soil was the only favorable token which
+the island first exhibited. The climate was enervating and
+sickly. The labor on the new city was hard and discouraging.
+Columbus found that his colonists were badly fitted for their
+duty, or not fitted for it at all. Court gentlemen did not want
+to work. Priests expected to be put on better diet than any other
+people. Columbus--though he lost his own popularity--insisted on
+putting all on equal fare, in sharing the supplies he had brought
+from Spain. It did not require a long time to prove that the
+selection of the site of the colony was unfortunate. Columbus
+himself gave way to the general disease. While he was ill, a
+mutiny broke out which he had to suppress by strong measures.
+
+Bornal Diaz, who ranked as comptroller of the expedition, and
+Fermin Cedo, an assayer, made a plot for seizing the remaining
+ships and sailing for Europe. News of the mutiny was brought to
+Columbus. He found a document in the writing of Diaz, drawn as a
+memorial, accusing Columbus himself of grave crimes. He confined
+Diaz on board a ship to be sent to Spain with the memorial. He
+punished the mutineers of lower rank. He took the guns and naval
+munitions from four of the vessels, and entrusted them all to a
+person in whom he had absolute confidence.
+
+On the report of the exploring parties, four names were given to
+as many divisions of the island. Junna was the most western,
+Attibunia the most eastern, Jachen the northern and Naiba the
+southern. Columbus himself, seeing the fortifications of the city
+well begun, undertook, in March, an exploration, of the island,
+with a force of five hundred men.
+
+It was in the course of this exploration that one of the natives
+brought in a gold-bearing stone which weighed an ounce. He was
+satisfied with a little bell in exchange. He was surprised at the
+wonder expressed by the Spaniards, and showing a stone as large
+as a pomegranate, he said that he had nuggets of gold as large as
+this at his home. Other Indians brought in gold-bearing stones
+which weighed more than an ounce. At their homes, also, but not
+in sight, alas, was a block of gold as large as an infant's head.
+
+Columbus himself thought it best to take as many men as he could
+into the mountain region. He left the new city under the care of
+his brother, Diego, and with all the force of healthy men which
+he could muster, making a little army of nearly five hundred men,
+he marched away from the sickly seaboard into the interior. The
+simple natives were astonished by the display of cavalry and
+other men in armor. After a few days of a delightful march, in
+the beauty of spring in that country, he entered upon the long
+sought Cibao. He relinquished his first idea of founding another
+city here, but did build a fortress called St. Thomas, in joking
+reference to Cedo and others, who had asserted that these regions
+produced no gold. While building this fortress, as it was proudly
+called, he sent a young cavalier named Luxan for further
+exploration.
+
+Luxan returned with stories even greater than they had heard of
+before, but with no gold, "because he had no orders to do so." He
+had found ripe grapes. And at last they had found a region called
+Cipangi, cipan signifying stone. This name recalled the memory of
+Cipango, or Japan. With tidings as encouraging as this, Columbus
+returned to his city. He appointed his brother and Pedro
+Margarita governors of the city, and left with three ships for
+the further exploration of Cuba, which he had left only partly
+examined in his first voyage. He believed that it was the
+mainland of Asia. And as has been said, such was his belief till
+he died, and that of his countrymen. Cuba was not known to be an
+island for many years afterwards. He was now again in the career
+which pleased him, and for which he was fitted. He was always ill
+at ease in administering a colony, or ruling the men who were
+engaged in it. He was happy and contented when he was
+discovering. He had been eager to follow the southern coast of
+Cuba, as he had followed the north in his first voyage. And now
+he had his opportunity. Having commissioned his brother Diego and
+Margarita and appointed also a council of four other gentlemen,
+he sailed to explore new coasts, on the twenty-fourth of April.
+
+He was soon tempted from his western course that he might examine
+Jamaica, of which he saw the distant lines on the south. "This
+island," says the account of the time, "is larger than Sicily. It
+has only one mountain, which rises from the coast on every side,
+little by little, until you come to the middle of the island and
+the ascent is so gradual that, whether you rise or descend, you
+hardly know whether you are rising or descending." Columbus found
+the island well peopled, and from what he saw of the natives,
+thought them more ingenious, and better artificers, than any
+Indians he had seen before. But when he proposed to land, they
+generally showed themselves prepared to resist him. He therefore
+deferred a full examination of the island to his return, and,
+with the first favorable wind, pressed on toward the southern
+coast of Cuba. He insisted on calling this the "Golden
+Chersonesus" of the East. This name had been given by the old
+geographers to the peninsula now known as Malacca.
+
+Crossing the narrow channel between Jamaica and Cuba, he began
+coasting that island westward. If the reader will examine the
+map, he will find many small keys and islands south of Cuba,
+which, before any survey had been made, seriously retarded his
+westward course. In every case he was obliged to make a separate
+examination to be sure where the real coast of the island was,
+all the time believing it was the continent of Asia. One of the
+narratives says, with a pardonable exaggeration, that in all this
+voyage he thus discovered seven hundred islands. His own estimate
+was that he sailed two hundred and twenty-two leagues westward in
+the exploration which now engaged him.
+
+The month of May and the beginning of June were occupied with
+such explorations. The natives proved friendly, as the natives of
+the northern side of Cuba had proved two years before. They had,
+in general, heard of the visit of the Spaniards ; but their
+wonder and admiration seem to have been none the less now that
+they saw the reality.
+
+On one occasion the hopes of all the party, that they should find
+themselves at the court of the Grand Khan, were greatly
+quickened. A Spaniard had gone into a forest alone, hunting.
+Suddenly he saw a man clothed in white, or thought he did, whom
+he supposed to be a friar of the order of Saint Mary de Mercedes,
+who was with the expedition. But, almost immediately, ten other
+friars dressed in the same costume, appeared, and then as many as
+thirty. The Spaniard was frightened at the multiplication of
+their number, it hardly appears why, as they were all men of
+peace, or should have been, whatever their number. He called out
+to his companions, and bade them escape. But the men in white
+called out to him, and waved their hands, as if to assure him
+that there was no danger. He did not trust them, however, but
+rushed back to the shore and the ship, as fast as he could, to
+report what he had seen to the Admiral.
+
+Here, at last, was reason for hope that they had found one of the
+Asiatic missions of the Church. Columbus at once landed a party,
+instructing them to go forty miles inland, if necessary, to find
+people. But this party found neither path nor roadway, although
+the country was rich and fertile. Another party brought back rich
+bunches of grapes, and other native fruits. But neither party saw
+any friars of the order of Saint Mary. And it is now supposed
+that the Spaniard saw a peaceful flock of white cranes. The
+traveller Humboldt describes one occasion, in which the town of
+Angostura was put to alarm by the appearance of a flock of cranes
+known as soldados, or "soldiers," which were, as people supposed,
+a band of Indians.
+
+In his interviews with the natives at one point and another, upon
+the coast, Columbus was delighted with their simplicity, their
+hospitality, and their kindly dealing with each other. On one
+occasion, when the Mass was celebrated, a large number of them
+were present, and joined in the service, as well as they could,
+with respect and devotion. An old man as much as eighty years
+old, as the Spaniards thought, brought to the Admiral a basket
+full of fruit, as a present. Then he said, by an interpreter:
+
+"We have heard how you have enveloped, by your power, all these
+countries, and how much afraid of you the people have been. But I
+have to exhort you, and to tell you that there are two ways when
+men leave this body. One is dark and dismal; it is for those who
+have injured the race of men. The other is delightful and
+pleasant; it is for those who, while alive, have loved peace and
+the repose of mankind. If, then, you remember that you are
+mortal, and what these retributions are, you will do no harm to
+any one."
+
+Columbus told him in reply that he had known of the two roads
+after death, and that he was well pleased to find that the
+natives of these lands knew of them; for he had not expected
+this. He said that the king and queen of Spain had sent him with
+the express mission of bringing these tidings to them. In
+particular, that he was charged with the duty of punishing the
+Caribs and all other men of impure life, and of rewarding and
+honoring all pure and innocent men. This statement so delighted
+the old prophet that he was eager to accompany Columbus on a
+mission so noble, and it was only by the urgent entreaty of his
+wife and children that he stayed with them. He found it hard to
+believe that Columbus was inferior in rank or command to any
+other sovereign.
+
+The beauty of the island and the hospitality of the natives,
+however, were not enough to dispose the crews to continue this
+exploration further. They were all convinced that they were on
+the coast of Asia. Columbus did not mean that afterwards any one
+should accuse him of abandoning the discovery of that coast too
+soon. Calling to their attention the distance they had sailed, he
+sent round a written declaration for the signature of every
+person on the ships. Every man and boy put his name to it. It
+expressed their certainty that they were on the cape which made
+the end of the eastern Indies, and that any one who chose could
+proceed thence westward to Spain by land. This extraordinary
+declaration was attested officially by a notary, and still
+exists.
+
+It was executed in a bay at the extreme southwestern corner of
+Cuba. It has been remarked by Munoz, that at that moment, in that
+place, a ship boy at the masthead could have looked over the
+group of low islands and seen the open sea, which would have
+shown that Cuba was an island.
+
+The facts, which were controlling, were these, that the vessels
+were leaky and the crews sick and discontented. On the thirteenth
+of June, Columbus stood to the southeast. He discovered the
+island now known as the Island of Pines. He called it
+Evangelista. He anchored here and took in water. In an interview,
+not unlike that described, in which the old Cuban expressed his
+desire to return with Columbus, it is said that an Evangelistan
+chief made the same offer, but was withheld by the remonstrances,
+of his wife and children. A similar incident is reported in the
+visit to Jamaica, which soon followed. Columbus made a careful
+examination of that island. Then he crossed to Hispaniola, where,
+from the Indians, he received such accounts from the new town of
+Isabella as assured him that all was well there.
+
+With his own indomitable zeal, he determined now to go to the
+Carib islands and administer to them the vengeance he had ready.
+But his own frame was not strong enough for his will. He sank
+exhausted, in a sort of lethargy. The officers of his ship,
+supposing he was dying, put about the vessels and the little
+squadron arrived, none too soon as it proved, at Isabella.
+
+He was as resolute as ever in his determination to crush the
+Caribs, and prevent their incursions upon those innocent
+islanders to whom he had made so many promises of protection. But
+he fell ill, and for a short time at least was wholly
+unconscious. The officers in command took occasion of his
+illness, and of their right to manage the vessels, to turn back
+to the city of Isabella. He arrived there "as one half dead," and
+his explorations and discoveries for this voyage were thus
+brought to an end. To his great delight he found there his
+brother Bartholomew, whom he had not seen for eight years.
+Bartholomew had accompanied Diaz in the famous voyage in which he
+discovered the Cape of Good Hope. Returning to Europe in 1488 he
+had gone to England, with a message from Christopher Columbus,
+asking King Henry the Seventh to interest himself in the great
+adventure he proposed.
+
+The authorities differ as to the reception which Henry gave to
+this great proposal. Up to the present time, no notice has been
+found of his visit in the English archives. The earliest notice
+of America, in the papers preserved there, is a note of a present
+of ten pounds "to hym that found the new land," who was Cabot,
+after his first voyage. Bartholomew Columbus was in England on
+the tenth of February, 1488; how much later is not known.
+Returning from England he staid in France, in the service of
+Madama de Bourbon. This was either Anne of Beaujeu, or the widow
+of the Admiral Louis de Bourbon. Bartholomew was living in Paris
+when he heard of his brother's great discovery.
+
+He had now been appointed by the Spanish sovereigns to command a
+fleet of three vessels, which had been sent out to provision the
+new colony. He had sailed from Cadiz on the thirtieth of April,
+1494, and he arrived at Isabella on St. John's Day of the same
+year.
+
+Columbus welcomed him with delight, and immediately made him his
+first-lieutenant in command of the colony. There needed a strong
+hand for the management of the colony, for the quarrels which had
+existed before Columbus went on his Cuban voyage had not
+diminished in his absence. Pedro Margarita and Father Boil are
+spoken of as those who had made the most trouble. They had come
+determined to make a fortune rapidly, and they did not propose to
+give up such a hope to the slow processes of ordinary
+colonization. Columbus knew very well that those who had returned
+to Spain had carried with them complaints as to his own course.
+He would have been glad on some accounts to return, himself, at
+once; but he did not think that the natives of the islands were
+sufficiently under the power of the new colony to be left in
+safety.
+
+First of all he sent back four caravels, which had recently
+arrived from Europe, with five hundred Indians whom he had taken
+as slaves. He consigned them to Juan de Fonseca's care. He was
+eager himself to say that he sent them out that they might be
+converted, to Christianity, and that they might learn the Spanish
+language and be of use as interpreters. But, at the same time, he
+pointed out how easy it would be to make a source of revenue to
+the Crown from such involuntary emigration. To Isabella's credit
+it is to be said, that she protested against the whole thing
+immediately; and so far as appears, no further shipments were
+made in exactly the same way. But these poor wretches were not
+sent back to the islands, as she perhaps thought they were.
+Fonseca did not hesitate to sell them, or apprentice them, to use
+our modern phrase, and it is said by Bernaldez that they all
+died. His bitter phrase is that Fonseca took no more care of them
+than if they had been wild animals.
+
+Columbus did not recover his health, so as to take a very active
+part in affairs for five months after his arrival at San Domingo.
+He was well aware that the Indians were vigorously organized,
+with the intention of driving his people from the island, or
+treating the colony as they had treated the colony of Navidad. He
+called the chief of the Cipangi, named Guarionexius, for
+consultation. The interpreter Didacus, who had served them so
+faithfully, married the king's sister, and it was hoped that this
+would be a bond of amity between the two nations.
+
+Columbus sent Ojeda into the gold mountains with fifty armed men
+to make an alliance with Canabao. Canabao met this party with a
+good deal of perplexity. He undoubtedly knew that he had given
+the Spaniards good reason for doubting him. It is said that he
+had put to death twenty Spaniards by treasonable means, but it is
+to be remembered that this is the statement of his enemies. He,
+however, came to Columbus with a large body of his people, all
+armed. When he was asked why he brought so large a force with
+him, he said that so great a king as he, could not go anywhere
+without a fitting military escort. But Ojeda did not hesitate to
+take him prisoner and carry him into Isabella, bound. As has been
+said, he was eventually sent to Spain, but he died on the
+passage.
+
+Columbus made another fortress, or tower, on the border of King
+Guarionexius's country, between his kingdom and Cipango. He gave
+to this post the name of the "Tower of the Conception," and meant
+it to be a rallying point for the miners and others, in case of
+any uprising of the natives against them. This proved to be an
+important centre for mining operations. From this place, what we
+should call a nugget of gold, which one of the chiefs brought in,
+was sent to Spain. It weighed twenty ounces. A good deal of
+interest attached also to the discovery of amber, one mass of
+which weighed three hundred pounds. Such discoveries renewed the
+interest and hope which had been excited in Spain by the first
+accounts of Hispaniola.
+
+Columbus satisfied himself that he left the island really
+subdued; and in this impression he was not mistaken. Certain that
+his presence in Spain was needed, if he would maintain his own
+character against the attacks of the disaffected Spaniards who
+had gone before him, he set sail on the Nina on the tenth of
+March, taking with him as a consort a caravel which had been
+built at Isabella. He did not arrive in Cadiz till the eleventh
+of June, having been absent from Spain two years and nine months.
+
+His return to Spain at this time gave Isabella another
+opportunity to show the firmness of her character, and the
+determination to which alone belongs success.
+
+The excitement and popularity which attended the return from the
+first voyage had come to an end. Spain was in the period of
+reaction. The disappointment which naturally follows undue
+expectations and extravagant prophecies, was, in this instance,
+confirmed by the return of discontented adventurers. Four hundred
+years have accustomed the world to this reflex flow of
+disappointed colonists, unable or unwilling to work, who come
+back from a new land to say that its resources have been
+exaggerated. In this case, where everything was measured by the
+standard of gold, it was certainly true that the supply of gold
+received from the islands was very small as compared with the
+expenses of the expedition which had been sent out.
+
+Five hundred Indians, who came to be taught the language,
+entering Spain as slaves, were but a poor return for the expenses
+in which the nation, not to say individuals, had been involved.
+The people of Spain, therefore, so far as they could show their
+feeling, were prejudiced against Columbus and those who
+surrounded him. They heard with incredulity the accounts of Cuba
+which he gave, and were quite indifferent to the geographical
+theories by which he wanted to prove that it was a part of Asia.
+He believed that the rich mines, which he had really found in
+Hispaniola, were the same as those of Ophir. But after five years
+of waiting, the Spanish public cared but little for such
+conjectures.
+
+As he arrived in Cadiz, he found three vessels, under Nino, about
+to sail with supplies. These were much needed, for the relief of
+the preceding year, sent out in four vessels, had been lost by
+shipwreck. Columbus was able to add a letter of his own to the
+governor of Isabella, begging him to conform to the wishes
+expressed by the king and queen in the dispatches taken by Nino.
+He recommended diligence in exploring the new mines, and that a
+seaport should be founded in their neighborhood. At the same time
+he received a gracious letter from the king and queen,
+congratulating him on his return, and asking him to court as soon
+as he should recover from his fatigue.
+
+Columbus was encouraged by the tone of this letter. He had chosen
+to act as if he were in disgrace, and dressed himself in humble
+garb, as if he were a Franciscan monk, wearing his beard as the
+brethren of those orders do. Perhaps this was in fulfillment of
+one of those vows which, as we know, he frequently made in
+periods of despondency.
+
+He went to Burgos, where Ferdinand and Isabella were residing,
+and on the way made such a display of treasure as he had done on
+the celebrated march to Barcelona. Canabao, the fierce cacique of
+Hispaniola, had died on the voyage, but his brother and nephew
+still lived, and he took them to the king and queen, glittering
+on state occasions with golden ornaments. One chain of gold which
+the brother wore, is said to have been worth more than three
+thousand dollars of our time. In the procession Columbus carried
+various masks and other images, made by the Indians in fantastic
+shapes, which attracted the curiosity which in all nations
+surrounds the idols of a foreign creed.
+
+The sovereigns received him cordially. No reference was made to
+the complaints of the adventurers who had returned. However the
+sovereigns may have been impressed by these, they were still
+confident in Columbus and in his merits, and do not seem to have
+wished to receive the partial accounts of his accusers. On his
+part, he pressed the importance of a new expedition, in order
+that they might annex to their dominions the eastern part of
+Asia. He wanted for this purpose eight ships. He was willing to
+leave two in the island of Hispaniola, and he hoped that he might
+have six for a voyage of discovery. The sovereigns assented
+readily to his proposal, and at the time probably intended to
+carry out his wishes.
+
+But Spain had something else to do than to annex Asia or to
+discover America; and the fulfillment of the promises made so
+cordially in 1496, was destined to await the exigencies of
+European war and diplomacy. In fact, he did not sail upon the
+third expedition for nearly two years after his arrival in Cadiz.
+
+In the autumn of 1496, an order was given for a sum amounting to
+nearly a hundred thousand dollars of our time, for the equipment
+of the promised squadron. At the same time Columbus was relieved
+from the necessity by which he was bound in his original
+contract, to furnish at least one-eighth of the money necessary
+in any of these expeditions. This burden was becoming too heavy
+for him to bear. It was agreed, however, that in the event of any
+profit resulting to the crown, he should be entitled to
+one-eighth of it for three ensuing years. This concession must be
+considered as an evidence that he was still in favor. At the end
+of three years both parties were to fall back upon the original
+contract.
+
+But these noble promises, which must have been so encouraging to
+him, could not be fulfilled, as it proved. For the exigencies of
+war, the particular money which was to be advanced to Columbus
+was used for the repair of a fortress upon the frontier. Instead
+of this, Columbus was to receive his money from the gold brought
+by Nino on his return. Alas, it proved that a report that he had
+returned with so much gold, meant that he had Indian prisoners,
+from the sale of whom he expected to realize this money. And poor
+Columbus was virtually consigned to building and fitting out his
+ship from the result of a slave-trade, which was condemned by
+Isabella, and which he knew was wretchedly unprofitable.
+
+A difficulty almost equally great resulted from the unpopularity
+of the expedition. People did not volunteer eagerly, as they had
+done, the minds of men being poisoned by the reports of
+emigrants, who had gone out in high hope, and had returned
+disappointed. It even became necessary to commute the sentences
+of criminals who had been sentenced to banishment, so that they
+might be transported into the new settlements, where they were to
+work without pay. Even these expedients did not much hasten the
+progress of the expedition.
+
+Fonseca, the steady enemy of Columbus, was placed in command
+again at this time. The queen was overwhelmed with affliction by
+the death of Prince Juan; and it seemed to Columbus and his
+friends that every petty difficulty was placed in the way of
+preparation. When at length six vessels were fitted for sea, it
+was only after the wear and tear of constant opposition from
+officials in command; and the expedition, as it proved, was not
+what Columbus had hoped for, for his purposes.
+
+On the thirtieth of May, however, in 1498, he was able to sail.
+As this was the period when the Catholic church celebrates the
+mystery of the Trinity, he determined and promised that the first
+land which he discovered should receive that sacred name. He was
+well convinced of the existence of a continent farther south than
+the islands among which he had cruised, and intended to strike
+that continent, as in fact he did, in the outset of his voyage.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X. THE THIRD VOYAGE.
+LETTER TO THE KING AND QUEEN--DISCOVERY OF TRINIDAD AND
+PARIA--CURIOUS SPECULATION AS TO THE EARTHLY PARADISE--ARRIVAL AT
+SAN DOMINGO--REBELLIONS AND MUTINIES IN THAT ISLAND--ROLDAN AND
+HIS FOLLOWERS--OJEDA AND HIS EXPEDITION--ARRIVAL OF
+BOBADILLA--COLUMBUS A PRISONER.
+
+For the narrative of the third voyage, we are fortunate in having
+once more a contemporary account by Columbus himself. The more
+important part of his expedition was partly over when he was able
+to write a careful letter to the king and queen, which is still
+preserved. It is lighted up by bursts of the religious enthusiasm
+which governed him from the beginning. All the more does it show
+the character of the man, and it impresses upon us, what is never
+to be forgotten, the mixture in his motive of the enthusiasm of a
+discoverer, the eager religious feeling which might have
+quickened a crusader, and the prospects of what we should call
+business adventure, by which he tries to conciliate persons whose
+views are less exalted than his own.
+
+In addressing the king and queen, who are called "very high and
+very powerful princes," he reminds them that his undertaking to
+discover the West Indies began in the inspiration of the Holy
+Spirit, which appointed him as a messenger for this enterprise.
+He asks them to remember that he has always addressed them as
+with that intention.
+
+He reminds them of the seven or eight years in which he was
+urging his cause and that it was not enough that he should have
+showed the religious side of it, that he was obliged to argue for
+the temporal view as well. But their decision, for which he
+praises them indirectly, was made, he says, in the face of the
+ridicule of all, excepting the two priests, Marcheza and the
+Archbishop of Segovia. "And everything will pass away excepting
+the word of God, who spoke so clearly of these lands by the voice
+of Isaiah in so many places, affirming that His name should be
+divulged to the nations from Spain." He goes on in a review of
+the earlier voyages, and after this preface gives his account of
+the voyage of 1498.
+
+They sailed from Santa Lucca the thirtieth of May, and went down
+to Madeira to avoid the hostile squadron of the French who were
+awaiting him at Cape St. Vincent. In the history by Herrara, of
+another generation, this squadron is said to be Portuguese. From
+Maderia, they passed to the Canary Islands, from which, with one
+ship and two caravels, he makes his voyage, sending the other
+three vessels to Hispaniola. After making the Cape de Verde
+Islands, he sailed southwest. He had very hot weather for eight
+days, and in the hope of finding cooler weather changed his
+course to the westward.
+
+On the thirty-first of July, they made land, which proved to be
+the cape now known as Galeota, the southeastern cape of the
+island of Trinidad. The country was as green at this season as
+the orchards of Valencia in March. Passing five leagues farther
+on, he lands to refit his vessels and take on board wood and
+water. The next day a large canoe from the east, with twenty-four
+men, well armed, appeared.
+
+The Admiral wished to communicate with them, but they refused,
+although he showed them basins and other things which he thought
+would attract them. Failing in this effort, he directed some of
+the boys of the crew to dance and play a tambourine on the poop
+of the ship. But this conciliatory measure had as little success
+as the other. The natives strung their bows, took up their
+shields and began to shoot the dancers. Columbus stopped the
+entertainment, therefore, and ordered some balls shot at them,
+upon which they left him. With the other vessel they opened more
+friendly communication, but when the pilot went to Columbus and
+asked leave to land with them, they went off, nor were any of
+them or theirs seen again.
+
+On his arrival at Punta de Icacocos, at the southern point of
+Trinidad, he observes the very strong currents which are always
+noticed by voyagers, running with as much fury as the
+Guadalquiver in time of flood. In the night a terrible wave came
+from the south, "a hill as high as a ship," so that even in
+writing of it he feels fear. But no misfortune came from it.
+
+Sailing the next day, he found the water comparatively fresh. He
+is, in fact, in the current produced by the great river Orinoco,
+which affects, in a remarkable way, all the tide-flow of those
+seas. Sailing north, he passes different points of the Island of
+Trinidad, and makes out the Punta de la Pena and the mainland. He
+still observes the freshness of the water and the severity of the
+currents.
+
+As he sails farther westward, he observes fleets, and he sends
+his people ashore. They find no inhabitants at first, but
+eventually meet people who tell him the enemy of this country is
+Paria. Of these he took on board four. The king sent him an
+invitation to land, and numbers of the people came in canoes,
+many of whom wore gold and pearls. These pearls came to them from
+the north. Columbus did not venture to land here because the
+provisions of his vessels were already failing him.
+
+He describes the people, as of much the same color as those who
+have been observed before, and were ready for intercourse, and of
+good appearance. Two prominent persons came to meet them, whom he
+thought to be father and son. The house to which the Spaniards
+were led was large, with many seats. An entertainment was brought
+forward, in which there were many sorts of fruits, and wine of
+many kinds. It was not made from grapes, however, and he supposed
+it must be made of different sorts of fruits.
+
+A part of the entertainment was of maize, "which is a sort of
+corn which grows here, with a spike like a spindle." The Indians
+and their guests parted with regret that they could not
+understand each other's conversation. All this passed in the
+house of the elder Indian. The younger then took them to his
+house, where a similar collation was served, and they then
+returned to the ship, Columbus being in haste to press on, both
+on account of his want of supplies and the failure of his own
+health. He says he was still suffering from diseases which he had
+contracted on the last voyage, and with blindness. "That then his
+eyes did not give him as much pain, nor were they bloodshot as
+much as they are now."
+
+He describes the people whom they at first visited as of fine
+stature, easy bearing, with long straight hair, and wearing
+worked handkerchiefs on their heads. At a little distance it
+seemed as if these were made of silk, like the gauze veil with
+which the Spaniards were familiar, from Moorish usage.
+
+"Others," he says, "wore larger handkerchiefs round their waists,
+like the panete of the Spaniards." By this phrase he means a full
+garment hanging over the knees, either trousers or petticoats.
+These people were whiter in color than the Indians he had seen
+before. They all wore something at the neck and arms, with many
+pieces of gold at the neck. The canoes were much larger than he
+had seen, better in build and lighter; they had a cabin in the
+middle for the princes and their women.
+
+He made many inquiries for gold, but was told he must go farther
+on, but he was advised not to go there, because his men would be
+in danger of being eaten. At first, Columbus supposed that this
+meant that the inhabitants of the gold-bearing countries were
+cannibals, but he satisfied himself afterwards that the natives
+meant that they would be eaten by beasts. With regard to pearls,
+also, he got some information that he should find them when he
+had gone farther west and farther north.
+
+After these agreeable courtesies, the little fleet raised its
+anchors and sailed west. Columbus sent one caravel to investigate
+the river. Finding that he should not succeed in that direction,
+and that he had no available way either north or south, he leaves
+by the same entrance by which he had entered. The water is still
+very fresh, and he is satisfied, correctly as we know, that these
+currents were caused by the entrance of the great river of water.
+
+On the thirteenth of August he leaves the island by what he calls
+the northern mouth of the river [Boca Grande], and begins to
+strike salt water again.
+
+At this part of Columbus's letter there is a very curious
+discussion of temperature, which shows that this careful
+observer, even at that time, made out the difference between what
+are called isothermal curves and the curves of latitude. He
+observes that he cannot make any estimate of what his temperature
+will be on the American coast from what he has observed on the
+coast of Africa.
+
+He begins now to doubt whether the world is spherical, and is
+disposed to believe that it is shaped like a pear, and he tries
+to make a theory of the difference of temperature from this
+suggestion. We hardly need to follow this now. We know he was
+entirely wrong in his conjecture. "Pliny and others," he says,
+"thought the world spherical, because on their part of it it was
+a hemisphere." They were ignorant of the section over which he
+was sailing, which he considers to be that of a pear cut in the
+wrong way. His demonstration is, that in similar latitudes to the
+eastward it is very hot and the people are black, while at
+Trinidad or on the mainland it is comfortable and the people are
+a fine race of men, whiter than any others whom he has seen in
+the Indies. The sun in the constellation of the Virgin is over
+their heads, and all this comes from their being higher up,
+nearer the air than they would have been had they been on the
+African coast.
+
+With this curious speculation he unites some inferences from
+Scripture, and goes back to the account in the Book of Genesis
+and concludes that the earthly Paradise was in the distant east.
+He says, however, that if he could go on, on the equinoctial
+line, the air would grow more temperate, with greater changes in
+the stars and in the water. He does not think it possible that
+anyone can go to the extreme height of the mountain where the
+earthly Paradise is to be found, for no one is to be permitted to
+enter there but by the will of God, but he believes that in this
+voyage he is approaching it.
+
+Any reader who is interested in this curious speculation of
+Columbus should refer to the "Divina Comedia" of Dante, where
+Dante himself held a somewhat similar view, and describes his
+entrance into the terrestrial paradise under the guidance of
+Beatrice. It is a rather curious fact, which discoverers of the
+last three centuries have established, that the point, on this
+world, which is opposite the city of Jerusalem, where all these
+enthusiasts supposed the terrestrial Paradise would be found, is
+in truth in the Pacific Ocean not far from Pitcairn's Island, in
+the very region where so many voyagers have thought that they
+found the climate and soil which to the terrestrial Paradise
+belong.
+
+Columbus expresses his dissent from the recent theory, which was
+that of Dante, supposing that the earthly Paradise was at the top
+of a sharp mountain. On the other hand, he supposes that this
+mountain rises gently, but yet that no person can go to the top.
+
+This is his curious "excursion," made, perhaps, because Columbus
+had the time to write it.
+
+The journal now recurs to more earthly affairs. Passing out from
+the mouth of the "Dragon," he found the sea running westward and
+the wind gentle. He notices that the waters are swept westward as
+the trade winds are. In this way he accounts for there being so
+many islands in that part of the earth, the mainland having been
+eaten away by the constant flow of the waves. He thinks their
+very shape indicates this, they being narrow from north to south
+and longer from east to west. Although some of the islands differ
+in this, special reasons maybe given for the difference. He
+brings in many of the old authorities to show, what we now know
+to be entirely false, that there is much more land than water on
+the surface of the globe.
+
+All this curious speculation as to the make-up of the world
+encourages him to beg their Highnesses to go on with the noble
+work which they have begun. He explains to them that he plants
+the cross on every cape and proclaims the sovereignty of their
+Majesties and of the Christian religion. He prays that this may
+continue. The only objection to it is the expense, but Columbus
+begs their Highnesses to remember how much more money is spent
+for the mere formalities of the elegancies of the court. He begs
+them to consider the credit attaching to plans of discovery and
+quickens their ambition by reference to the efforts of the
+princes of Portugal.
+
+This letter closes by the expression of his determination to go
+on with his three ships for further discoveries.
+
+This letter was written from San Domingo on the eighth of
+October. He had already made the great discovery of the mainland
+of South America, though he did not yet know that he had touched
+the continent. He had intentionally gone farther south than
+before, and had therefore struck the island of Trinidad, to
+which, as he had promised, he gave the name which it still bears.
+A sailor first saw the summits of three mountains, and gave the
+cry of land. As the ships approached, it was seen that these
+three mountains were united at the base. Columbus was delighted
+by the omen, as he regarded it, which thus connected his
+discovery with the vow which he had made on Trinity Sunday.
+
+As the reader has seen, he first passed between this great island
+and the mainland. The open gulf there described is now known as
+the Gulf of Paria. The observation which he made as to the
+freshness of the water caused by the flow of the Orinoco, has
+been made by all navigators since. It may be said that he was
+then really in the mouth of the Orinoco.
+
+Young readers, at least, will be specially interested to remember
+that it was in this region that Robinson Crusoe's island was
+placed by Defoe; and if they will carefully read his life they
+will find discussions there of the flow of the "great River
+Orinoco." Crossing this gulf, Columbus had touched upon the coast
+of Paria, and thus became the first discoverer of South America.
+It is determined, by careful geographers, that the discovery of
+the continent of North America, had been made before this time by
+the Cabots, sailing under the orders of England.
+
+Columbus was greatly encouraged by the discovery of fine pearls
+among the natives of Paria. Here he found one more proof that he
+was on the eastern coast of Asia, from which coast pearls had
+been brought by the caravans on which, till now, Europe had
+depended for its Asiatic supplies. He gave the name "Gulf of
+Pearls" to the estuary which makes the mouth of the River Paria.
+
+He would gladly have spent more time in exploring this region;
+but the sea-stores of his vessel were exhausted, he was suffering
+from a difficulty with his eyes, caused by overwatching, and was
+also a cripple from gout. He resisted the temptation, therefore,
+to make further explorations on the coast of Paria, and passed
+westward and northwestward. He made many discoveries of islands
+in the Caribbean Sea as he went northwest, and he arrived at the
+colony of San Domingo, on the thirtieth of August. He had hoped
+for rest after his difficult voyage; but he found the island in
+confusion which seemed hopeless.
+
+His brother Bartholomew, from all the accounts we have, would
+seem to have administered its affairs with justice and decision;
+but the problem he had in hand was one which could not be solved
+so as to satisfy all the critics. Close around him he had a body
+of adventurers, almost all of whom were nothing but adventurers.
+With the help of these adventurers, he had to repress Indian
+hostilities, and to keep in order the natives who had been
+insulted and injured in every conceivable way by the settlers.
+
+He was expected to send home gold to Spain with every vessel; he
+knew perfectly well that Spain was clamoring with indignation
+because he did not succeed in doing so. But on the island itself
+he had to meet, from day to day, conspiracies of Spaniards and
+what are called insurrections of natives. These insurrections
+consisted simply in their assertion of such rights as they had to
+the beautiful land which the Spaniards were taking away from
+them.
+
+At the moment when Columbus landed, there was an instant of
+tranquility. But the natives, whom he remembered only six years
+ago as so happy and cheerful and hospitable, had fled as far as
+they could. They showed in every way their distrust of those who
+were trying to become their masters. On the other hand, soldiers
+and emigrants were eager to leave the island if they could. They
+were near starvation, or if they did not starve they were using
+food to which they were not accustomed. The eagerness with which,
+in 1493, men had wished to rush to this land of promise, was
+succeeded by an equal eagerness, in 1498, to go home from it.
+
+As soon as he arrived, Columbus issued a proclamation, approving
+of the measures of his brother in his absence, and denouncing the
+rebels with whom Bartholomew had been contending. He found the
+difficulties which surrounded him were of the most serious
+character. He had not force enough to take up arms against the
+rebels of different names. He offered pardon to them in the name
+of the sovereigns, and that they refused.
+
+Columbus was obliged, in order to maintain any show of authority,
+to propose to the sovereigns that they should arbitrate between
+his brother and Roldan, who was the chief of the rebel party. He
+called to the minds of Ferdinand and Isabella his own eager
+desire to return to San Domingo sooner, and ascribed the
+difficulties which had arisen, in large measure, to his long
+delay. He said he should send home the more worthless men by
+every ship.
+
+He asked that preachers might be sent out to convert the Indians
+and to reform the dissolute Spaniards. He asked for officers of
+revenue, and for a learned judge. He begged at the same time
+that, for two years longer, the colony might be permitted to
+employ the Indians as slaves, but he promised they would only use
+such as they captured in war and insurrections.
+
+By the same vessel the rebels sent out letters charging Columbus
+and his brother with the grossest oppression and injustice. All
+these letters came to court by one messenger. Columbus was then
+left to manage as best he could, in the months which must pass,
+before he could receive an answer.
+
+He was not wholly without success. That is to say, no actual
+battles took place between the parties before the answer
+returned. But when it returned, it proved to be written by his
+worst enemy, Fonseca. It was a genuine Spanish answer to a letter
+which required immediate decision. That is to say, Columbus was
+simply told that the whole matter must be left in suspense till
+the sovereigns could make such an investigation as they wished.
+The hope, therefore, of some help from home was wholly
+disappointed.
+
+Roldan, the chief of the rebels, was encouraged by this news to
+take higher ground than even he had ventured on before. He now
+proposed that he should send fifteen of his company to Spain,
+also that those who remained should not only be pardoned, but
+should have lands granted them; third, that a public proclamation
+should be made that all charges against him had been false; and
+fourth, that he should hold the office of chief judge, which he
+had held before the rebellion.
+
+Columbus was obliged to accede to terms as insolent as these, and
+the rebels even added a stipulation, that if he should fail in
+fulfilling either of these articles, they might compel him to
+comply, by force or any other means. Thus was he hampered in the
+very position where, by the king's orders, and indeed, one would
+say, by the right of discovery, he was the supreme master.
+
+For himself, he determined to return with Bartholomew to Spain,
+and he made some preparations to do so. But at this time he
+learned, from the western part of the island, that four strange
+ships had arrived there. He could not feel that it was safe to
+leave the colony in such a condition of latent rebellion as he
+knew it to be in; he wrote again to the sovereigns, and said
+directly that his capitulation with the rebels had been extorted
+by force, and that he did not consider that the sovereigns, or
+that he himself, were bound by it. He pressed some of the
+requests which he had made before, and asked that his son Diego,
+who was no longer a boy, might be sent out to him.
+
+It proved that the ships which had arrived at the west of the
+island were under the command of Ojeda, who will be remembered as
+a bold cavalier in the adventures of the second voyage. Acting
+under a general permission which had been given for private
+adventurers, Ojeda had brought out this squadron, and, when
+Columbus communicated with him, was engaged in cutting dye-woods
+and shipping slaves.
+
+Columbus sent Roldan, who had been the head of the rebels, to
+inquire on what ground he was there. Ojeda produced a license
+signed by Fonseca, authorizing him to sail on a voyage of
+discovery. It proved that Columbus's letters describing the
+pearls of Paria had awakened curiosity and enthusiasm, and, while
+the crown had passed them by so coldly, Ojeda and a body of
+adventurers had obtained a license and had fitted out four ships
+for adventure. The special interest of this voyage for us, is
+that it is supposed that Vespucci, a Florentine merchant, made at
+this time his first expedition to America.
+
+Vespucci was not a professional seaman, but he was interested in
+geography, and had made many voyages before this time. So soon as
+it was announced that Ojeda was on the coast, the rebels of San
+Domingo selected him as a new leader. He announced to Columbus,
+rather coolly, that he could probably redress the grievances
+which these men had. He undoubtedly knew that he had the
+protection of Fonseca at home. Fortunately for Columbus, Roldan
+did not mean to give up his place as "leader of the opposition;"
+and it may be said that the difficulty between the two was a
+certain advantage to Columbus in maintaining his authority.
+
+Meanwhile, all wishes on his part to continue his discoveries
+were futile, while he was engaged in the almost hopeless duty of
+reconciling various adventurers and conciliating people who had
+no interests but their own. In Spain, his enemies were doing
+everything in their power to undermine his reputation. His
+statements were read more and more coldly, and at last, on the
+twenty-first and twenty-sixth of May, 1499, letters were written
+to him instructing him to deliver into the hands of Bobadilla, a
+new commandant, all the fortresses any ships, houses and other
+royal property which he held, and to give faith and obedience to
+any instructions given by Bobadilla. That is to say, Bobadilla
+was sent out as a commander who was to take precedence of every
+one on the spot. He was an officer of the royal household,
+probably a favorite at court, and was selected for the difficult
+task of reconciling all difficulties, and bringing the new colony
+into loyal allegiance to the crown. He sailed for San Domingo in
+the middle of July, 1500, and arrived on the twenty-third of
+August.
+
+On his arrival, he found that Columbus and his brother
+Bartholomew were both absent from the city, being in fact engaged
+in efforts to set what may be called the provinces in order. The
+young Diego Columbus was commander in their absence. The morning
+after he arrived, Bobadilla attended mass, and then, with the
+people assembled around the door of the church, he directed that
+his commission should be read. He was to investigate the
+rebellion, he was to seize the persons of delinquents and punish
+them with rigor, and he was to command the Admiral to assist him
+in these duties.
+
+He then bade Diego surrender to him certain prisoners, and
+ordered that their accusers should appear before him. To this
+Diego replied that his brother held superior powers to any which
+Bobadilla could possess; he asked for a copy of the commission,
+which was declined, until Columbus himself should arrive.
+Bobadilla then took the oath of office, and produced, for the
+first time, the order which has been described above, ordering
+Columbus to deliver up all the royal property. He won the popular
+favor by reading an order which directed him to pay all arrears
+of wages due to all persons in the royal service.
+
+But when he came before the fortress, he found that the commander
+declined to surrender it. He said he held the fortress for the
+king by the command of the Admiral, and would not deliver it
+until he should arrive. Bobadilla, however, "assailed the
+portal;" that is to say, he broke open the gate. No one offered
+any opposition, and the commander and his first-lieutenant were
+taken prisoners. He went farther, taking up his residence in
+Columbus's house, and seizing his papers. So soon as Columbus
+received account of Bobadilla's arrival, he wrote to him in
+careful terms, welcoming him to the island. He cautioned him
+against precipitate measures, told him that he himself was on the
+point of going to Spain, and that he would soon leave him in
+command, with everything explained. Bobadilla gave no answer to
+these letters; and when Columbus received from the sovereigns the
+letter of the twenty-sixth of May, he made no longer any
+hesitation, but reported in person at the city of San Domingo.
+
+He traveled without guards or retinue, but Bobadilla had made
+hostile preparations, as if Columbus meant to come with military
+force. Columbus preferred to show his own loyalty to the crown
+and to remove suspicion. But no sooner did he arrive in the city
+than Bobadilla gave orders that he should be put in irons and
+confined in the fortress. Up to this moment, Bobadilla had been
+sustained by the popular favor of those around him; but the
+indignity, of placing chains upon Columbus, seems to have made a
+change in the fickle impressions of the little town.
+
+Columbus, himself, behaved with magnanimity, and made no
+complaint. Bobadilla asked him to bid his brother return to San
+Domingo, and he complied. He begged his brother to submit to the
+authority of the sovereigns, and Bartholomew immediately did so.
+On his arrival in San Domingo he was also put in irons, as his
+brother Diego had been, and was confined on board a caravel. As
+soon as a set of charges could be made up to send to Spain with
+Columbus, the vessels, with the prisoners, set sail.
+
+The master of the caravel, Martin, was profoundly grieved by the
+severe treatment to which the great navigator was subjected. He
+would gladly have taken off his irons, but Columbus would not
+consent. "I was commanded by the king and queen," he said, "to
+submit to whatever Bobadilla should order in their name. He has
+put these chains on me by their authority. I will wear them until
+the king and queen bid me take them off. I will preserve them
+afterwards as relics and memorials of the reward of my services."
+His son, Fernando, who tells this story, says that he did so,
+that they were always hanging in his cabinet, and that he asked
+that they might be buried with him when he died.
+
+From this expression of Fernando Columbus, there has arisen, what
+Mr. Harrisse calls, a "pure legend," that the chains were placed
+in the coffin of Columbus. Mr. Harrisse shows good reason for
+thinking that this was not so. "Although disposed to believe
+that, in a moment of just indignation, Columbus expressed the
+wish that these tokens of the ingratitude of which he had been
+the victim should be buried, with him, I do not believe that they
+were ever placed in his coffin."
+
+It will thus be seen that the third voyage added to the knowledge
+of the civilized world the information which Columbus had gained
+regarding Paria and the island of Trinidad. For other purposes of
+discovery, it was fruitless.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI. SPAIN, 1500, 1501.
+A CORDIAL RECEPTION IN SPAIN--COLUMBUS FAVORABLY RECEIVED AT
+COURT--NEW INTEREST IN GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERY--HIS PLANS FOR THE
+REDEMPTION OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE--PREPARATIONS FOR A FOURTH
+EXPEDITION.
+
+Columbus was right in insisting on wearing his chains. They
+became rather an ornament than a disgrace. So soon as it was
+announced in Spain that the great discoverer had been so treated
+by Bobadilla, a wave of popular indignation swept through the
+people and reached the court. Ferdinand and Isabella, themselves,
+had never intended to give such powers to their favorite, that he
+should disgrace a man so much his superior.
+
+They instantly sent orders to Cadiz that Columbus should be
+received with all honor. So soon as he arrived he had been able
+to send, to Dona Juana de la Torre, a lady high in favor at
+court, a private letter, in which he made a proud defense of
+himself. This letter is still preserved, and it is of the first
+interest, as showing his own character, and as showing what were
+the real hardships which he had undergone.
+
+The Lady Juana read this letter to Isabella. Her own indignation,
+which probably had been kindled by the general news that Columbus
+had been chained, rose to the highest. She received him,
+therefore, when he arrived at court, with all the more
+cordiality. Ferdinand was either obliged to pretend to join with
+her in her indignation, or he had really felt distressed by the
+behavior of his subordinate.
+
+They did not wait for any documents from Bobadilla. As has been
+said, they wrote cordially to Columbus; they also ordered that
+two thousand ducats should be paid him for his expenses, and they
+bade him appear at Grenada at court. He did appear there on the
+seventeenth of December, attended by an honorable retinue, and in
+the proper costume of a gentleman in favor with the king and
+queen.
+
+When the queen met him she was moved to tears, and Columbus,
+finding himself so kindly received, threw himself upon his knees.
+For some time he could not express himself except by tears and
+sobs. His sovereigns raised him from the ground and encouraged
+him by gracious words.
+
+So soon as he recovered his self-possession he made such an
+address as he had occasion to make more than once in his life,
+and showed the eloquence which is possible to a man of affairs.
+He could well boast of his loyalty to the Spanish crown; and he
+might well say that, whether he were or were not experienced in
+government, he had been surrounded by such difficulties in
+administration as hardly any other man had had to go through. But
+really, it was hardly necessary that he should vindicate himself.
+
+The stupidity of his enemies, had injured their cause more than
+any carelessness of Columbus could have done. The sovereigns
+expressed their indignation at Bobadilla's proceedings, and,
+indeed, declared at once that he should be dismissed from
+command. They never took any public notice of the charges which
+he had sent home; on the other hand, they received Columbus with
+dignity and favor, and assured him that he should be reinstated
+in all his privileges.
+
+The time at which he arrived was, in a certain sense, favorable
+for his future plans, so far as he had formed any. On the other
+hand, the condition of affairs was wholly changed from what it
+was when he began his great discoveries, and the changes were in
+some degree unfavorable. Vasco da Gama had succeeded in the great
+enterprise by which he had doubled the Cape of Good Hope, had
+arrived at the Indies by the route of the Indian ocean, and his
+squadron had successfully returned.
+
+This great adventure, with the commercial and other results which
+would certainly follow it, had quickened the mind of all Europe,
+as the discovery by Columbus had quickened it eight years before.
+So far, any plan for the discoveries over which Columbus was
+always brooding, would be favorably received. But, on the other
+hand, in eight years since the first voyage, a large body of
+skillful adventurers had entered upon the career which then no
+one chose to share with him. The Pinzon brothers were among
+these; Ojeda, already known to the reader, was another; and
+Vespucci, as the reader knows, an intelligent and wise student,
+had engaged himself in such discoveries.
+
+The rumors of the voyages of the Cabots, much farther north than
+those made by Columbus, had gone through all Europe. In a word,
+Columbus was now only one of several skilful pilots and voyagers,
+and his plans were to be considered side by side with those which
+were coming forward almost every day, for new discoveries, either
+by the eastern route, of which Vasco da Gama had shown the
+practicability, or by the western route, which Columbus himself
+had first essayed.
+
+It is to be remembered, as well, that Columbus was now an old
+man, and, whatever were his successes as a discoverer, he had not
+succeeded as a commander. There might have been reasons for his
+failure; but failure is failure, and men do not accord to an
+unsuccessful leader the honors which they are ready to give to a
+successful discoverer. When, therefore, he offered his new plans
+at court, he should have been well aware that they could not be
+received, as if he were the only one who could make suggestions.
+Probably he was aware of this. He was also obliged, whether he
+would or would not, to give up the idea that he was to be the
+commander of the regions which he discovered.
+
+It had been easy enough to grant him this command before there
+was so much as an inch of land known, over which it would make
+him the master. But now that it was known that large islands, and
+probably a part of the continent of Asia, were to be submitted to
+his sway if he had it, there was every reason why the sovereigns
+should be unwilling to maintain for him the broad rights which
+they had been willing to give when a scratch of the pen was all
+that was needful to give them.
+
+Bobadilla was recalled; so far well. But neither Ferdinand nor
+Isabella chose to place Columbus again in his command. They did
+choose Don Nicola Ovando, a younger man, to take the place of
+Bobadilla, to send him home, and to take the charge of the
+colony.
+
+From the colony itself, the worst accounts were received. If
+Columbus and his brother had failed, Bobadilla had failed more
+disgracefully. Indeed, he had begun by the policy of King Log, as
+an improvement on the policy of King Stork. He had favored all
+rebels, he had pardoned them, he had even paid them for the time
+which they had spent in rebellion; and the natural result was
+utter disorder and license.
+
+It does not appear that he was a bad man; he was a man wholly
+unused to command; he was an imprudent man, and was weak. He had
+compromised the crown by the easy terms on which he had rented
+and sold estates; he had been obliged, in order to maintain the
+revenue, to work the natives with more severity than ever. He
+knew very well that the system, under which he was working could
+not last long. One of his maxims was, "Do the best with your
+time," and he was constantly sacrificing future advantages for
+such present results as he could achieve.
+
+The Indians, who had been treated badly enough before, were worse
+treated now. And during his short administration, if it may be
+called an administration,--during the time when he was nominally
+at the head of affairs--he was reducing the island to lower and
+lower depths. He did succeed in obtaining a large product of
+gold, but the abuses of his government were not atoned for by
+such remittances. Worst of all, the wrongs of the natives touched
+the sensitiveness of Isabella, and she was eager that his
+successor should be appointed, and should sail, to put an end to
+these calamities.
+
+The preparations which were made for Ovando's expedition, for the
+recall of Bobadilla, and for a reform, if it were possible, in
+the administration of the colony, all set back any preparations
+for a new expedition of discovery on the part of Columbus. He was
+not forgotten; his accounts were to be examined and any
+deficiencies made up to him; he was to receive the arrears of his
+revenue; he was permitted to have an agent who should see that he
+received his share in future. To this agency he appointed Alonzo
+Sanchez de Carvajal, and the sovereigns gave orders that this
+agent should be treated with respect.
+
+Other preparations were made, so that Ovando might arrive with a
+strong reinforcement for the colony. He sailed with thirty ships,
+the size of these vessels ranging from one hundred and fifty
+Spanish toneles to one bark of twenty-five. It will be remembered
+that the Spanish tonele is larger by about ten per cent than our
+English ton. Twenty-five hundred persons embarked as colonists in
+the vessels, and, for the first time, men took their families
+with them.
+
+Everything was done to give dignity to the appointment of Ovando,
+and it was hoped that by sending out families of respectable
+character, who were to be distributed in four towns, there might
+be a better basis given to the settlement. This measure had been
+insisted upon by Columbus.
+
+This fleet put to sea on the thirteenth of February, 1502. It
+met, at the very outset, a terrible storm, and one hundred and
+twenty of the passengers were lost by the foundering of a ship.
+The impression was at first given in Spain that the whole fleet
+had been lost; but this proved to be a mistake. The others
+assembled at the Canaries, and arrived in San Domingo on the
+fifteenth of April.
+
+Columbus himself never lost confidence in his own star. He was
+sure that he was divinely sent, and that his mission was to open
+the way to the Indies, for the religious advancement of mankind.
+If Vasco de Gama had discovered a shorter way than men knew
+before, Christopher Columbus should discover one shorter still,
+and this discovery should tend to the glory of God. It seemed to
+him that the simplest way in which he could make men understand
+this, was to show that the Holy Sepulchre might, now and thus, be
+recovered from the infidel.
+
+Far from urging geographical curiosity as an object, he proposed
+rather the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre. That is, there was to
+be a new and last crusade, and the money for this enterprise was
+to be furnished from the gold of the farthest East. He was close
+at the door of this farthest East; and as has been said, he
+believed that Cuba was the Ophir of Solomon, and he supposed,
+that a very little farther voyaging would open all the treasures
+which Marco Polo had described, and would bring the territory,
+which had made the Great Khan so rich, into the possession of the
+king of Spain.
+
+He showed to Ferdinand and Isabella that, if they would once more
+let him go forward, on the adventure which had been checked
+untimely by the cruelty of Bobadilla, this time they would have
+wealth which would place them at the head of the Christian
+sovereigns of the world.
+
+While he was inactive at Seville, and the great squadron was
+being prepared which Ovando was to command, he wrote what is
+known as the "Book of Prophecies," in which he attempted to
+convince the Catholic kings of the necessity of carrying forward
+the enterprise which he proposed. He urged haste, because he
+believed the world was only to last a hundred and fifty-five
+years longer; and, with so much before them to be done, it was
+necessary that they should begin.
+
+He remembered an old vow that he had undertaken, that, within
+seven years of the time of his discovery, he would furnish fifty
+thousand foot soldiers and five thousand horsemen for the
+recovery of the Holy Sepulchre. He now arranged in order
+prophecies from the Holy Scripture, passages from the writings of
+the Fathers, and whatever else suggested itself, mystical and
+hopeful, as to the success of an enterprise by which the new
+world could be used for the conversion of the Gentiles and for
+the improvement of the Christianity of the old world.
+
+He had the assistance of a Carthusian monk, who seems to have
+been skilled in literary work, and the two arranged these
+passages in order, illustrated them with poetry, and collected
+them into a manuscript volume which was sent to the sovereigns.
+
+Columbus accompanied the Book of Prophecies with one of his own
+long letters, written with the utmost fervor. In this letter he
+begins, as Peter the Hermit might do, by urging the sovereigns to
+set on foot a crusade. If they are tempted to consider his advice
+extravagant, he asks them how his first scheme of discovery was
+treated. He shows that, as heaven had chosen him to discover the
+new world, heaven has also chosen him to discover the Holy
+Sepulchre. God himself had opened his eyes that he might make the
+great discovery, which has reflected such honor upon them and
+theirs.
+
+"If his hopes had been answered," says a Catholic writer, the
+modern question of holy places, which is the Gordian knot of the
+religious politics of the future, would have been solved long ago
+by the gold of the new world, or would have been cut by the sword
+of its discoverer. We should not have seen nations which are
+separated from the Roman communion, both Protestant and
+Pantheistic governments, coming audaciously into contest for
+privileges, which, by the rights of old possession, by the rights
+of martyrdom and chivalry, belong to the Holy Catholic Church,
+the Apostolic Church, the Roman Church, and after her to France,
+her oldest daughter."
+
+Columbus now supposed that the share of the western wealth which
+would belong to him would be sufficient for him to equip and arm
+a hundred thousand infantry and ten thousand horsemen.
+
+At the moment when the Christian hero made this pious calculation
+he had not enough of this revenue with which to buy a cloak,"
+This is the remark of the enthusiastic biographer from whom we
+have already quoted.
+
+It is not literally true, but it is true that Columbus was living
+in the most modest way at the time when he was pressing his
+ambitious schemes upon the court. At the same time, he wrote a
+poem with which he undertook to press the same great enterprise
+upon his readers. It was called "The End of Man," "Memorare
+novissima tua, et non peccabis in eternum."
+
+In his letter to the king and queen he says, "Animated as by a
+heavenly fire, I came to your Highnesses; all who heard of my
+enterprise mocked it; all the sciences I had acquired profited me
+as nothing; seven years did I pass in your royal court, disputing
+the case with persons of great authority and learned in all the
+arts, and in the end they decided that all was vain. In your
+Highnesses alone remained faith and constancy. Who will doubt
+that this light was from the Holy Scriptures, illumining you, as
+well as myself, with rays of marvellous brightness."
+
+It is probable that the king and queen were, to a certain extent,
+influenced by his enthusiasm. It is certain that they knew that
+something was due to their reputation and to his success. By
+whatever motive led, they encouraged him with hopes that he might
+be sent forward again, this time, not as commander of a colony,
+but as a discoverer. Discovery was indeed the business which he
+understood, and to which alone he should ever have been
+commissioned.
+
+It is to be remembered that the language of crusaders was not
+then a matter of antiquity, and was not used as if it alluded to
+bygone affairs. It was but a few years since the Saracens had
+been driven out of Spain, and all men regarded them as being the
+enemies of Christianity and of Europe, who could not be
+neglected. More than this, Spain was beginning to receive very
+large and important revenues from the islands.
+
+It is said that the annual revenues from Hispaniola already
+amounted to twelve millions of our dollars. It was not unnatural
+that the king and queen, willing to throw off the disgrace which
+they had incurred from Bobadilla's cruelty, should not only send
+Ovando to replace him, but should, though in an humble fashion,
+give to Columbus an opportunity to show that his plans were not
+chimerical.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII. FOURTH VOYAGE.
+THE INSTRUCTIONS GIVEN FOR THE VOYAGE--HE IS TO GO TO THE
+MAINLAND OF THE INDIES--A SHORT PASSAGE--OVANDO FORBIDS THE
+ENTRANCE OF COLUMBUS INTO HARBOR--BOBADILLA'S SQUADRON AND ITS
+FATE--COLUMBUS SAILS WESTWARD--DISCOVERS HONDURAS, AND COASTS
+ALONG ITS SHORES--THE SEARCH FOR GOLD--COLONY ATTEMPTED AND
+ABANDONED--THE VESSELS BECOME UNSEAWORTHY--REFUGE AT
+JAMAICA--MUTINY LED BY THE BROTHERS PORRAS--MESSAGES TO SAN
+DOMINGO--THE ECLIPSE--ARRIVAL OF RELIEF--COLUMBUS RETURNS TO SAN
+DOMINGO, AND TO SPAIN.
+
+It seems a pity now that, after his third voyage, Columbus did
+not remain in Spain and enjoy, as an old man could, the honors
+which he had earned and the respect which now waited upon him.
+Had this been so, the world would have been spared the
+mortification which attends the thought that the old man to whom
+it owes so much suffered almost everything in one last effort,
+failed in that effort, and died with the mortification of
+failure. But it is to be remembered that Columbus was not a man
+to cultivate the love of leisure. He had no love of leisure to
+cultivate. His life had been an active one. He had attempted the
+solution of a certain problem which he had not solved, and every
+day of leisure, even every occasion of effort and every word of
+flattery, must have quickened in him new wishes to take the prize
+which seemed so near, and to achieve the possibility which had
+thus far eluded him.
+
+From time to time, therefore, he had addressed new memorials to
+the sovereigns proposing a new expedition; and at last, by an
+instruction which is dated on the fourteenth of March, in the
+year 1502, a fourth voyage was set on foot at the charge of the
+king and queen,--an instruction not to stop at Hispaniola, but,
+for the saving of time, to pass by that island. This is a
+graceful way of intimating to him that he is not to mix himself
+up with the rights and wrongs of the new settlement.
+
+The letter goes on to say, that the sovereigns have communicated
+with the King of Portugal, and that they have explained to him
+that Columbus is pressing his discoveries at the west. and will
+not interfere with those of the Portuguese in the east. He is
+instructed to regard the Portuguese explorers as his friends, and
+to make no quarrel with them. He is instructed to take with him
+his sons, Fernando and Diego. This is probably at his request.
+
+The prime object of the instruction is still to strike the
+mainland of the Indies. All the instructions are, "You will make
+a direct voyage, if the weather does not prevent you, for
+discovering the islands and the mainland of the Indies in that
+part which belongs to us." He is to take possession of these
+islands and of this mainland, and to inform the sovereigns in
+regard to his discoveries, and the experience of former voyages
+has taught them that great care must be taken to avoid private
+speculation in "gold, silver, pearls, precious stones, spices and
+other things of different quality." For this purpose special
+instructions are given.
+
+Of this voyage we have Columbus's own official account.
+
+There were four vessels, three of which were rated as caravels.
+The fourth was very small. The chief vessel was commanded by
+Diego Tristan; the second, the Santiago, by Francisco de Porras;
+the third, the Viscaina (Biscayan), by Bartholomew de Fiesco; and
+the little Gallician by Pedro de Torreros. None of these vessels,
+as the reader will see, was ever to return to Spain. From de
+Porras and his brother, Columbus and the expedition were to
+receive disastrous blows.
+
+It must be observed that he is once more in his proper position
+of a discoverer. He has no government or other charge of colonies
+entrusted to him. His brother Bartholomew and his youngest son
+Fernando, sail with him.
+
+The little squadron sailed from the bay of Cadiz on the eleventh
+of May, 1502. They touched at Sicilla,--a little port on the
+coast of Morocco,--to relieve its people, a Portuguese garrison,
+who had been besieged by the Moors. But finding them out of
+danger, Columbus went at once to the Grand Canary island, and had
+a favorable passage.
+
+From the Grand Canary to the island which he calls "the first
+island of the Indies," and which he named Martinino, his voyage
+was only seventeen days long. This island was either the St.
+Lucia or the Martinique of today. Hence he passed to Dominica,
+and thence crossed to San Domingo, to make repairs, as he said.
+For, as has been said, he had been especially ordered not to
+interfere in the affairs of the settlement.
+
+He did not disobey his orders. He says distinctly that he
+intended to pass along the southern shore of San Domingo, and
+thence take a departure for the continent. But he says, that his
+principal vessel sailed very ill--could not carry much canvas,
+and delayed the rest of the squadron. This weakness must have
+increased after the voyage across the ocean. For this reason he
+hoped to exchange it for another ship at San Domingo.
+
+But he did not enter the harbor. He sent a letter to Ovando, now
+the governor, and asked his permission. He added, to the request
+he made, a statement that a tempest was at hand which he did not
+like to meet in the offing. Ovando, however, refused any
+permission to enter. He was, in fact, just dispatching a fleet to
+Spain, with Bobadilla, Columbus's old enemy, whom Ovando had
+replaced in his turn.
+
+Columbus, in an eager wish to be of use, by a returning messenger
+begged Ovando to delay this fleet till the gale had passed. But
+the seamen ridiculed him and his gale, and begged Ovando to send
+the fleet home.
+
+He did so. Bobadilla and his fleet put to sea. In ten days a West
+India hurricane struck them. The ship on which Columbus's
+enemies, Bobadilla and Roldan, sailed, was sunk with them and the
+gold accumulated for years. Of the whole fleet, only one vessel,
+called the weakest of all, reached Spain. This ship carried four
+thousand pieces of gold, which were the property of the Admiral.
+Columbus's own little squadron, meanwhile--thanks probably to the
+seamanship of himself and his brother--weathered the storm, and
+he found refuge in the harbor which he had himself named "the
+beautiful," El Hermoso, in the western part of San Domingo.
+
+Another storm delayed him at a port which he called Port Brasil.
+The word Brasil was the name which the Spaniards gave to the red
+log-wood, so valuable in dyeing, and various places received that
+name, where this wood was found. The name is derived from
+"Brasas,"--coals,--in allusion, probably, to the bright red color
+of the dye.
+
+Sailing from this place, on Saturday, the sixteenth of June, they
+made sight of the island of Jamaica, but he pressed on without
+making any examination of the country, for four days sailing west
+and south-west. He then changed his course, and sailed for two
+days to the northwest and again two days to the north.
+
+On Sunday, the twenty fourth of July, they saw land. This was the
+key now known as Cuyago, and they were at last close upon the
+mainland. After exploring this island they sailed again on
+Wednesday, the twenty-seventh, southwest and quarter southwest
+about ninety miles, and again they saw land, which is supposed to
+be the island of Guanaja or Bonacca, near the coast of Honduras.
+
+The Indians on this island had some gold and some pearls. They
+had seen whites before. Columbus calls them men of good stature.
+Sailing from this island, he struck the mainland near Truxillo,
+about ten leagues from the island of Guanaja. He soon found the
+harbor, which we still know as the harbor of Truxillo, and from
+this point Columbus began a careful investigation of the coast.
+
+He observed, what all navigators have since observed, the lack of
+harbors. He passed along as far as the river now known as the
+Tinto, where he took possession in the name of the sovereigns,
+calling this river the River of Possession. He found the natives
+savage, and the country of little account for his purposes. Still
+passing southward, he passed what we call the Mosquito Coast, to
+which he found the natives gave the name of Cariay.
+
+These people were well disposed and willing to treat with them.
+They had some cotton, they had some gold. They wore very little
+clothing, and they painted their bodies, as most of the natives
+of the islands had done. He saw what he thought to be pigs and
+large mountain cats.
+
+Still passing southward, running into such bays or other harbors
+as they found, he entered the "Admiral's Bay," in a country which
+had the name of Cerabaro, or Zerabora. Here an Indian brought a
+plate of gold and some other pieces of gold, and Columbus was,
+encouraged in his hopes of finding more.
+
+The natives told him that if he would keep on he would find
+another bay which they called Arburarno, which is supposed to be
+the Laguna Chiriqui. They said the people, of that country, lived
+in the mountains. Here Columbus noticed the fact,--one which has
+given to philologists one of their central difficulties for four
+hundred years since,--that as he passed from one point to another
+of the American shores, the Indians did not understand each
+other's language. "Every ten or twenty leagues they did not
+understand each other." In entering the river Veragua, the
+Indians appeared armed with lances and arrows, some of them
+having gold also. Here, also, the people did not live upon the
+shore, but two or three leagues back in the interior, and they
+only came to the sea by their canoes upon the rivers.
+
+The next province was then called Cobraba, but Columbus made no
+landing for want of a proper harbor. All his courses since he
+struck the continent had been in a southeasterly direction. That
+an expedition for westward discovery should be sailing eastward,
+seemed in itself a contradiction. What irritated the crews still
+more was, that the wind seemed always against them.
+
+From the second to the ninth of November, 1502, the little fleet
+lay at anchor in the spacious harbor, which he called Puerto
+Bello, "the beautiful harbor." It is still known by that name. A
+considerable Spanish city grew up there, which became well known
+to the world in the last century by the attack upon it by the
+English in the years 1739 and 1742.
+
+The formation of the coast compelled them to pass eastward as
+they went on. But the currents of the Gulf flow in the opposite
+direction. Here there were steady winds from the east and the
+northeast. The ships were pierced by the teredo, which eats
+through thick timbers, and is so destructive that the seamen of
+later times have learned to sheath the hulls of their vessels
+with copper.
+
+The seamen thought that they were under the malign influence of
+some adverse spell. And after a month Columbus gave way to their
+remonstrances, and abandoned his search for a channel to India.
+He was the more ready to do this because he was satisfied that
+the land by which he lay was connected with the coast which other
+Spaniards had already discovered. He therefore sailed westward
+again, retracing his course to explore the gold mines of Veragua.
+
+But the winds could change as quickly as his purposes, and now
+for nearly a fortnight they had to fight a tropical tempest. At
+one moment they met with a water-spout, which seemed to advance
+to them directly. The sailors, despairing of human help, shouted
+passages from St. John, and to their efficacy ascribed their
+escape. It was not until the seventeenth that they found
+themselves safely in harbor. He gave to the whole coast the name
+of "the coast of contrasts," to preserve the memory of his
+disappointments.
+
+The natives proved friendly, as he had found them before; but
+they told him that he would find no more gold upon the coast;
+that the mines were in the country of the Veragua. It was, on the
+tenth day of January that, after some delay, Columbus entered
+again the river of that name.
+
+The people told him where he should find the mines, and were all
+ready to send guides with his own people to point them out. He
+gave to this river, the name of the River of Belen, and to the
+port in which he anchored he gave the name of Santa Maria de
+Belen, or Bethlehem.
+
+His men discovered the mines, so called, at a distance of eight
+leagues from the port. The country between was difficult, being
+mountainous and crossed by many streams. They were obliged to
+pass the river of Veragua thirty-nine times. The Indians
+themselves were dexterous in taking out gold. Columbus added to
+their number seventy-five men.
+
+In one day's work, they obtained "two or three castellianos"
+without much difficulty. A castelliano was a gold coin of the
+time, and the meaning of the text is probably that each man
+obtained this amount. It was one of the "placers," such as have
+since proved so productive in different parts of the world.
+
+Columbus satisfied himself that there was a much larger
+population inland. He learned from the Indians that the cacique,
+as he always calls the chief of these tribes, was a most
+important monarch in that region. His houses were larger than
+others, built handsomely of wood, covered with palm leaves.
+
+The product of all the gold collected thus far is stated
+precisely in the official register. There were two hundred and
+twenty pieces of gold, large and small. Altogether they weighed
+seventy-two ounces, seven-eighths of an ounce and one grain.
+Besides these were twelve pieces, great and small, of an inferior
+grade of gold, which weighed fourteen ounces, three-eighths of an
+ounce, and six tomienes, a tomiene weighing one-third part of our
+drachm. In round numbers then, we will say that the result in
+gold of this cruising would be now worth $1,500.
+
+Columbus collected gold in this way, to make his expedition
+popular at home, and he had, indeed, mortgaged the voyage, so to
+speak, by pledging the pecuniary results, as a fund to bear the
+expense of a new crusade. But, for himself, the prime desire was
+always discovery.
+
+Eventually the Spaniards spent two months in that region,
+pressing their explorations in search of gold. And so promising
+did the tokens seem to him, that he determined to leave his
+brother, to secure the country and work the mines, while he
+should return to Spain, with the gold he had collected, and
+obtain reinforcements and supplies. But all these fond hopes.
+were disappointed.
+
+The natives, under a leader named Quibian, rallied in large
+numbers, probably intending to drive the colonists away. It was
+only by the boldest measures that their plans were met. When
+Columbus supposed that he had suppressed their enterprise, he
+took leave of his brother, as he had intended, leaving him but
+one of the four vessels.
+
+Fortunately, as it proved, the wind did not serve. He sent back a
+boat to communicate with the settlement, but it fell into the
+hands of the savages. Doubtful as to the issue, a seaman, named
+Ledesma, volunteered to swim through the surf, and communicate
+with the settlement. The brave fellow succeeded. By passing
+through the surf again, he brought back the news that the little
+colony was closely besieged by the savages.
+
+It seemed clear that the settlement must be abandoned, that
+Columbus's brother and his people must be taken back to Spain.
+This course was adopted. With infinite difficulty, the guns and
+stores which had been left with the colony were embarked on the
+vessels of the Admiral. The caravel which had been left for the
+colony could not be taken from the river. She was completely
+dismantled, and was left as the only memorial of this unfortunate
+colony.
+
+At Puerto Bello he was obliged to leave another vessel, for she
+had been riddled by the teredo. The two which he had were in
+wretched condition. "They were as full of holes as a honey-comb."
+On the southern coast of Cuba, Columbus was obliged to supply
+them with cassava bread. The leaks increased. The ships' pumps
+were insufficient, and the men bailed out the water with buckets
+and kettles. On the twentieth of June, they were thankful to put
+into a harbor, called Puerto Bueno, on the coast of Jamaica,
+where, as it proved, they eventually left their worthless
+vessels, and where they were in exile from the world of
+civilization for twelve months.
+
+Nothing in history is more pathetic than the memory that such a
+waste of a year, in the closing life of such a man as Columbus,
+should have been permitted by the jealousy, the cruelty, or the
+selfish ambition of inferior men.
+
+He was not far from the colony at San Domingo. As the reader will
+see, he was able to send a message to his countrymen there. But
+those countrymen left him to take his chances against a strong
+tribe of savages. Indeed, they would not have been sorry to know
+that he was dead.
+
+At first, however, he and his men welcomed the refuge of the
+harbor. It was the port which he had called Santa Gloria, on his
+first visit there. He was at once surrounded by Indians, ready to
+barter with them and bring them provisions. The poor Spaniards
+were hungry enough to be glad of this relief.
+
+Mendez, a spirited sailor, had the oversight of this trade, and
+in one negotiation, at some distance from the vessels, he bought
+a good canoe of a friendly chief. For this he gave a brass basin,
+one of his two shirts, and a short jacket. On this canoe turned
+their after fortunes. Columbus refitted her, put on a false keel,
+furnished her with a mast and sail.
+
+With six Indians, whom the chief had lent him, Diego Mendez,
+accompanied by only one Spanish companion, set sail in this
+little craft for San Domingo. Columbus sent by them a letter to
+the sovereigns, which gives the account of the voyage which the
+reader has been following.
+
+When Mendez was a hundred miles advanced on his journey, he met a
+band of hostile savages. They had affected friendship until they
+had the adventurers in their power, when they seized them all.
+But while the savages were quarreling about the spoils, Mendez
+succeeded in escaping to his canoe, and returned alone to his
+master after fifteen days.
+
+It was determined that the voyage should be renewed. But this
+time, another canoe was sent with that under the command of
+Mendez. He sailed again, storing his boats with cassava bread and
+calabashes of water. Bartholomew Columbus, with his armed band,
+marched along the coast, as the two canoes sailed along the
+shore.
+
+Waiting then for a clear day, Mendez struck northward, on the
+passage, which was long for such frail craft, to San Domingo. It
+was eight months before Columbus heard of them. Of those eight
+months, the history is of dismal waiting, mutiny and civil war.
+It is pathetic, indeed, that a little body of men, who had been,
+once and again, saved from death in the most remarkable way,
+could not live on a fertile island, in a beautiful climate,
+without quarrelling with each other.
+
+Two officers of Columbus, Porras and his brother, led the
+sedition. They told the rest of the crew that the Admiral's hope
+of relief from Mendez was a mere delusion. They said that he was
+an exile from Spain, and that he did not dare return to
+Hispaniola. In such ways they sought to rouse his people against
+him and his brother. As for Columbus, he was sick on board his
+vessel, while the two brothers Porras were working against him
+among his men.
+
+On the second of January, 1504, Francesco de Porras broke into
+the cabin. He complained bitterly that they were kept to die in
+that desolate place, and accused the Admiral as if it were his
+fault. He told Columbus, that they had determined to go back to
+Spain; and then, lifting his voice, he shouted, "I am for
+Castile; who will follow me?" The mutinous crew instantly replied
+that they would do so. Voices were heard which threatened
+Columbus's life.
+
+His brother, the Adelantado, persuaded Columbus to retire from
+the crowd and himself assumed the whole weight of the assault.
+The loyal part of the crew, however, persuaded him to put down
+his weapon, and on the other hand, entreated Porras and his
+companions to depart. It was clear enough that they had the
+power, and they tried to carry out their plans.
+
+They embarked in ten canoes, and thus the Admiral was abandoned
+by forty-eight of his men. They followed, to the eastward, the
+route which Mendez had taken. In their lawless way they robbed
+the Indians of their provisions and of anything else that they
+needed. As Mendez had done, they waited at the eastern extremity
+of Jamaica for calm weather. They knew they could not manage the
+canoes, and they had several Indians to help them.
+
+When the sea was smooth they started; but they had hardly gone
+four leagues from the land, when the waves began to rise under a
+contrary wind. Immediately they turned for shore, the canoes were
+overfreighted, and as the sea rose, frequently shipped water.
+
+The frightened Spaniards threw overboard everything they could
+spare, retaining their arms only, and a part of their provisions.
+They even compelled the Indians to leap into the sea to lighten
+the boats, but, though they were skillful swimmers, they could
+not pretend to make land by swimming. They kept to the canoes,
+therefore, and would occasionally seize them to recover breath.
+The cruel Spaniards cut off their hands and stabbed them with
+their swords. Thus eighteen of their Indian comrades died, and
+they had none left, but such as were of most help in managing the
+canoes. Once on land, they doubted whether to make another effort
+or to return to Columbus.
+
+Eventually they waited a month, for another opportunity to go to
+Hispaniola; but this failed as before, and losing all patience,
+they returned westward, to the commander whom they had insulted,
+living on the island "by fair means or foul," according as they
+found the natives friendly or unfriendly.
+
+Columbus, meanwhile, with his half the crew, was waiting. He had
+established as good order as he could between his men and the
+natives, but he was obliged to keep a strict watch over such
+European food as he still had, knowing how necessary it was for
+the sick men in his number. On the other hand, the Indians,
+wholly unused to regular work, found it difficult to supply the
+food which so many men demanded.
+
+The supplies fell off from day to day; the natives no longer
+pressed down to the harbor; the trinkets, with which food had
+been bought, had lost their charm; the Spaniards began to fear
+that they should starve on the shore of an island which, when
+Columbus discovered it, appeared to be the abode of plenty. It
+was at this juncture, when the natives were becoming more and
+more unfriendly, that Columbus justified himself by the tyrant's
+plea of necessity, and made use of his astronomical science, to
+obtain a supernatural power over his unfriendly allies.
+
+He sent his interpreter to summon the principal caciques to a
+conference. For this conference he appointed a day when he knew
+that a total eclipse of the moon would take place. The chiefs met
+as they were requested. He told them that he and his followers
+worshipped a God who lived in the heavens; that that God favored
+such as did well, but punished all who displeased him.
+
+He asked them to remember how this God had protected Mendez and
+his companions in their voyage, because they went obedient to the
+orders which had been given them by their chief. He asked them to
+remember that the same God had punished Porras and his companions
+with all sorts of affliction, because they were rebels. He said
+that now this great God was angry with the Indians, because they
+refused to furnish food to his faithful worshippers; that he
+proposed to chastise them with famine and pestilence.
+
+He said that, lest they should disbelieve the warning which he
+gave, a sign would be given, in the heavens that night, of the
+anger of the great God. They would see that the moon would change
+its color and would lose its light. They might take this as a
+token of the punishment which awaited them.
+
+The Indians had not that confidence in Columbus which they once
+had. Some derided what he said, some were alarmed, all waited
+with anxiety and curiosity. When the night came they saw a dark
+shadow begin to steal over the moon. As the eclipse went forward,
+their fears increased. At last the mysterious darkness covered
+the face of the sky and of the world, when they knew that they
+had a right to expect the glory of the full moon.
+
+There were then no bounds to their terror. They, seized on all
+the provisions that they had, they rushed to the ships, they
+threw themselves at the feet of Columbus and begged him to
+intercede with his God, to withhold the calamity which he had
+threatened. Columbus would not receive them; he shut himself up
+in his cabin and remained there while the eclipse increased,
+hearing from within, as the narrator says, the howls and prayers
+of the savages.
+
+It was not until he knew the eclipse was about to diminish, that
+he condescended to come forth, and told them that he had
+interceded with God, who would pardon them if they would fulfil
+their promises. In token of pardon, the darkness would be
+withdrawn from the moon.
+
+The Indians saw the fulfilment of the promise, as they had seen
+the fulfilment of the threat. The moon reappeared in its
+brilliancy. They thanked the Admiral eagerly for his
+intercession, and repaired to their homes. From this time
+forward, having proved that he knew on earth what was passing in
+the heavens, they propitiated him with their gifts. The supplies
+came in regularly, and from this time there was no longer any
+want of provisions.
+
+But no tales of eclipses would keep the Spaniards quiet. Another
+conspiracy was formed, as the eight remaining months of exile
+passed by, among the survivors. They meant to seize the remaining
+canoes, and with them make their way to Hispaniola. But, at the
+very point of the outbreak of the new mutiny, a sail was seen
+standing toward the harbor.
+
+The Spaniards could see that the vessel was small. She kept the
+offing, but sent a boat on shore. As the boat drew near, those
+who waited so eagerly recognized Escobar, who had been condemned
+to death, in Isabella, when Columbus was in administration, and
+was pardoned by his successor Bobadilla. To see this man
+approaching for their relief was not hopeful, though he were
+called a Christian, and was a countryman of their own.
+
+Escobar drew up to the ships, on which the Spaniards still lived,
+and gave them a letter from Ovando, the new governor of
+Hispaniola, with some bacon and a barrel of wine, which were sent
+as presents to the Admiral. He told Columbus, in a private
+interview, that the governor had sent him to express his concern
+at his misfortune, and his regret that he had not a vessel of
+sufficient size to bring off all the people, but that he would
+send one as soon as possible. He assured him that his concerns in
+Hispaniola were attended to faithfully in his absence; he asked
+him to write to the governor in reply, as he wished to return at
+once.
+
+This was but scant comfort for men who had been eight months
+waiting to be relieved. But Escobar was master of the position.
+Columbus wrote a reply at once to Ovando, pointed out that the
+difficulties of his situation had been increased by the rebellion
+of the brothers Porras. He, however, expressed his reliance on
+his promise, and said he would remain patiently on his ships
+until relief came. Escobar took the letter, returned to his
+vessel, and she made sail at once, leaving the starving Spaniards
+in dismay, to the same fate which hung over them before.
+
+Columbus tried to reassure them. He professed himself satisfied
+with the communications from Ovando, and told them that vessels
+large enough for them would soon arrive. He said that they could
+see that he believed this, because he had not himself taken
+passage with Escobar, preferring to share their lot with them. He
+had sent back the little vessel at once, so that no time might be
+lost in sending the necessary ships.
+
+With these assurances he cheered their hearts. In truth, however,
+he was very indignant at Ovando's cool behavior. That he should
+have left them for months in danger and uncertainty, with a mere
+tantalizing message and a scanty present of food--all this
+naturally made the great leader indignant. He believed that
+Ovando hoped that he might perish on the island.
+
+He supposed that Ovando thought that this would be favorable for
+his own political prospects, and he believed that Escobar was
+sent merely as a spy. This same impression is given by Las Casas,
+the historian, who was then at San Domingo. He says that Escobar
+was chosen simply because of his enmity to Columbus, and that he
+was ordered not to land, nor to hold conversation with any of the
+crew, nor to receive letters from any except the Admiral.
+
+After Escobar's departure, Columbus sent an embassy on shore to
+communicate with the rebel party, who were living on the island.
+He offered to them free pardon, kind treatment, and a passage
+with him in the ships which he expected from Ovando, and, as a
+token of good will, he sent them a part of the bacon which
+Escobar had brought them.
+
+Francesco de Porras met these ambassadors, and replied that they
+had no wish to return to the ships, but preferred living at
+large. They offered to engage that they would be peaceable, if
+the Admiral would promise them solemnly, that, in case two
+vessels arrived, they should have one to depart in; that if only
+one vessel arrived they should have half of it, and that the
+Admiral would now share with them the stores and articles of
+traffic, which he had left in the ship. But these demands
+Columbus refused to accept.
+
+Porras had spoken for the rebels, but they were not so well
+satisfied with the answer. The incident gave occasion for what
+was almost an outbreak among them. Porras attempted to hold them
+in hand, by assuring them that there had been no real arrival of
+Escobar. He told them that there had been no vessel in port; that
+what had been seen was a mere phantasm conjured up by Columbus,
+who was deeply versed in necromancy.
+
+He reminded them that the vessel arrived just in the edge of the
+evening; that it communicated with Columbus only, and then
+disappeared in the night. Had it been a real vessel would he not
+have embarked, with his brother and his son? Was it not clear
+that it was only a phantom, which appeared for a moment and then
+vanished?
+
+Not satisfied, however, with his control over his men, he marched
+them to a point near the ships, hoping to plunder the stores and
+to take the Admiral prisoner. Columbus, however, had notice of
+the approach of this marauding party, and his brother and fifty
+followers, of whose loyalty he was sure, armed themselves and
+marched to meet them. The Adelantado again sent ambassadors, the
+same whom he had sent before with the offer of pardon, but Porras
+and his companions would not permit them to approach.
+
+They determined to offer battle to the fifty loyal men, thinking
+to attack and kill the Adelantado himself. They rushed upon him
+and his party, but at the first shock four or five of them were
+killed.
+
+The Adelantado, with his own hand, killed Sanchez, one of the
+most powerful men among the rebels. Porras attacked him in turn,
+and with his sword cut his buckler and wounded his hand. The
+sword, however, was wedged in the shield, and before Porras could
+withdraw it, the Adelantado closed upon him and made him
+prisoner. When the rebels saw this result of the conflict, they
+fled in confusion.
+
+The Indians, meanwhile, amazed at this conflict among men who had
+descended from heaven, gazed with wonder at the battle. When it
+was over, they approached the field, and looked with amazement on
+the dead bodies of the beings whom they had thought immortal. It
+is said, however, that at the mere sound of a groan from one of
+the wounded they fled in dismay.
+
+The Adelantado returned in triumph to the ships. He brought with
+him his prisoners. Only two of his party had been wounded,
+himself and his steward. The next day the remaining fugitives
+sent in a petition to the Admiral, confessing their misdeeds and
+asking for pardon.
+
+He saw that their union was broken; he granted their prayer, on
+the single condition that Francesco de Porras should remain a
+prisoner. He did not receive them on board the ships, but put
+them under the command of a loyal officer, to whom he gave a
+sufficient number of articles for trade, to purchase food of the
+natives.
+
+This battle, for it was such, was the last critical incident in
+the long exile of the Spaniards, for, after a year of hope and
+fear, two vessels were seen standing into the harbor. One of them
+was a ship equipped, at Columbus's own expense, by the faithful
+Mendez; the other had been fitted out afterwards by Ovando, but
+had sailed in company with the first vessel of relief.
+
+It would seem that the little public of Isabella had been made
+indignant by Ovando's neglect, and that he had been compelled, by
+public opinion to send another vessel as a companion to that sent
+by Mendez. Mendez himself, having seen the ships depart, went to
+Spain in the interest of the Admiral.
+
+With the arrival at Puerto Bueno, in Jamaica, of the two relief
+vessels, Columbus's chief sufferings and anxiety were over. The
+responsibility, at least, was in other hands. But the passage to
+San Domingo consumed six tedious weeks. When he arrived, however,
+it was to meet one of his triumphs. He could hardly have expected
+it.
+
+But his sufferings, and the sense of wrong that he had suffered,
+had, in truth, awakened the regard of the people of the colony.
+Ovando took him as a guest to his house. The people received him
+with distinction.
+
+He found little to gratify him, however. Ovando, had ruled the
+poor natives with a rod of iron, and they were wretched.
+Columbus's own affairs had been neglected, and he could gain no
+relief from the governor. He spent only a month on the island,
+trying, as best he could, to bring some order into the
+administration of his own property; and then, on the twelfth of
+September, 1504, sailed for Spain.
+
+Scarcely had the ship left harbor when she was dismasted in a
+squall. He was obliged to cross to another ship, under command of
+his brother, the Adelantado. She also was unfortunate. Her
+mainmast was sprung in a storm, and she could not go on until the
+mast was shortened.
+
+In another gale the foremast was sprung, and it was only on the
+seventh of November that the shattered and storm-pursued vessel
+arrived at San Lucar. Columbus himself had been suffering,
+through the voyage, from gout and his other maladies. The voyage
+was, indeed, a harsh experience for a sick man, almost seventy
+years old.
+
+He went at once to Seville, to find such rest as he might, for
+body and mind.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+TWO SAD YEARS--ISABELLA'S DEATH--COLUMBUS AT SEVILLE --HIS
+ILLNESS--LETTERS TO THE KING--JOURNEYS TO SEGOVIA, SALAMANCA, AND
+VALLADOLID--HIS SUIT THERE--PHILIP AND JUANA--COLUMBUS EXECUTES
+HIS WILL--DIES--HIS BURIAL AND THE REMOVAL OF HIS BODY--HIS
+PORTRAITS--HIS CHARACTER.
+
+Columbus had been absent from Spain two years and six months. He
+returned broken in health, and the remaining two years of his
+life are only the sad history of his effort to relieve his name
+from dishonor and to leave to his sons a fair opportunity to
+carry forward his work in the world.
+
+Isabella, alas, died on the twenty-sixth day of November, only a
+short time after his arrival. Ferdinand, at the least, was cold
+and hard toward him, and Ferdinand was now engaged in many
+affairs other than those of discovery. He was satisfied that
+Columbus did not know how to bring gold home from the colonies,
+and the promises of the last voyage, that they should strike the
+East, had not been fulfilled.
+
+Isabella had testified her kindly memory of Columbus, even while
+he was in exile at Jamaica, by making him one of the body-guard
+of her oldest son, an honorary appointment which carried with it
+a handsome annual salary. After the return to Spain of Diego
+Mendez, the loyal friend who had cared for his interests so well
+in San Domingo, she had raised him to noble rank.
+
+It is clear, therefore, that among her last thoughts came in the
+wish to do justice to him whom she had served so well. She had
+well done her duty which had been given her to do. She had never
+forgotten the new world to which it was her good fortune to send
+the discoverer, and in her death that discoverer lost his best
+friend.
+
+On his arrival in Seville, where one might say he had a right to
+rest himself and do nothing else, Columbus engaged at once in
+efforts to see that the seamen who had accompanied him in this
+last adventure should be properly paid. Many of these men had
+been disloyal to him and unfaithful to their sovereign, but
+Columbus, with his own magnanimity, represented eagerly at court
+that they had endured great peril, that they brought great news,
+and that the king ought to repay them all that they had earned.
+
+He says, in a letter to his son written at this period, "I have
+not a roof over my head in Castile. I have no place to eat nor to
+sleep excepting a tavern, and there I am often too poor to pay my
+scot." This passage has been quoted as if he were living as a
+beggar at this time, and the world has been asked to believe that
+a man who had a tenth of the revenue of the Indies due to him in
+some fashion, was actually living from hand to mouth from day to
+day. But this is a mere absurdity of exaggeration.
+
+Undoubtedly, he was frequently pressed for ready money. He says
+to his son, in another letter, "I only live by borrowing." Still
+he had good credit with the Genoese bankers established in
+Andalusia. In writing to his son he begs him to economize, but at
+the same time he acknowledges the receipt of bills of exchange
+and considerable sums of money.
+
+In the month of December, there is a single transaction in
+Hispaniola which amounts to five thousand dollars of our money.
+We must not, therefore, take literally his statement that he was
+too poor to pay for a night's lodging. On the other hand, it is
+observed in the correspondence that, on the fifteenth of April,
+1505, the king ordered that everything which belonged to Columbus
+on account of his ten per cent should be carried to the royal
+treasury as a security for certain debts contracted by the
+Admiral.
+
+The king had also given an order to the royal agent in Hispaniola
+that everything which he owned there should be sold. All these
+details have been carefully brought together by Mr. Harrisse, who
+says truly that we cannot understand the last order.
+
+When at last the official proceedings relating to the affairs in
+Jamaica arrived in Europe, Columbus made an effort to go to
+court. A litter was provided for him, and all the preparations
+for his journey made. But he was obliged once more by his
+weakness to give up this plan, and he could only write letters
+pressing his claim. Of such letters the misfortune is, that the
+longer they are, and the more of the detail they give, the less
+likely are they to be read. Columbus could only write at night;
+in the daytime he could not use his hands.
+
+He took care to show Ferdinand that his interests had not been
+properly attended to in the islands. He said that Ovando had been
+careless as to the king's service, and he was not unwilling to
+let it be understood that his own administration had been based
+on a more intelligent policy than that of either of the men who
+followed him.
+
+But he was now an old man. He was unable to go to court in
+person. He had not succeeded in that which he had sailed for--a
+strait opening to the Southern Sea. He had discovered new gold
+mines on the continent, but he had brought home but little
+treasure. His answers from the court seemed to him formal and
+unsatisfactory. At court, the stories of the Porras brothers were
+told on the one side, while Diego Mendez and Carvajal represented
+Columbus.
+
+In this period of the fading life of Columbus, we have eleven
+letters addressed by him to his son. These show that he was in
+Seville as late as February, 1505. From the authority of Las
+Casas, we know that he left that part of Spain to go to Segovia
+in the next May, and from that place he followed the court to
+Salamanca and Valladolid, although he was so weak and ill.
+
+He was received, as he had always been, with professions of
+kindness; but nothing followed important enough to show that
+there was anything genuine in this cordiality. After a few days
+Columbus begged that some action might be taken to indemnify him
+for his losses, and to confirm the promises which had been made
+to him before. The king replied that he was willing to refer all
+points which had been discussed between them to an arbitration.
+Columbus assented, and proposed the Archbishop Diego de Deza as
+an arbiter.
+
+The reader must remember that it was he who had assisted Columbus
+in early days when the inquiry was made at Salamanca. The king
+assented to the arbitration, but proposed that it should include
+questions which Columbus would not consider as doubtful. One of
+these was his restoration to his office of viceroy.
+
+Now on the subject of his dignities Columbus was tenacious. He
+regarded everything else as unimportant in comparison. He would
+not admit that there was any question that he was the viceroy of
+the Indies, and all this discussion ended in the postponement of
+all consideration of his claims till, after his death, it was too
+late for them to be considered.
+
+All the documents, when read with the interest which we take in
+his character and fortunes, are indeed pathetic; but they did not
+seem so to the king, if indeed they ever met his eye.
+
+In despair of obtaining justice for himself, Columbus asked that
+his son Diego might be sent to Hispaniola in his place. The king
+would promise nothing, but seems to have attempted to make
+Columbus exchange the privileges which he enjoyed by the royal
+promise for a seignory in a little town in the kingdom of Leon,
+which is named not improperly "The Counts' Carrion."
+
+It is interesting to see that one of the persons whom he
+employed, in pressing his claim at the court and in the
+management of his affairs, was Vespucci, the Florentine merchant,
+who in early life had been known as Alberigo, but had now taken
+the name of Americo.
+
+The king was still engaged in the affairs of the islands. He
+appointed bishops to take charge of the churches in the colonies,
+but Columbus was not so much as consulted as to the persons who
+should be sent. When Philip arrived from Flanders, with his wife
+Juana, who was the heir of Isabella's fortunes and crown,
+Columbus wished to pay his court to them, but was too weak to do
+so in person.
+
+There is a manly letter, written with dignity and pathos, in
+which he presses his claims upon them. He commissioned his
+brother, the Adelantado, to take this letter, and with it he went
+to wait upon the young couple. They received him most cordially,
+and gave flattering hopes that they would attend favorably to the
+suit. But this was too late for Columbus himself. Immediately
+after he had sent his brother away, his illness increased in
+violence.
+
+The time for petitions and for answers to petitions had come to
+an end. His health failed steadily, and in the month of May he
+knew that he was approaching his death. The king and the court
+had gone to Villafranca de Valcacar.
+
+On the nineteenth of May Columbus executed his will, which had
+been prepared at Segovia a year before. In this will he directs
+his son and his successors, acting as administrators, always to
+maintain "in the city of Genoa, some person of our line, who
+shall have a house and a wife in that place, who shall receive a
+sufficient income to live honorably, as being one of our
+relatives, having foot and root in the said city, as a native;
+since he will be able to receive from this city aid in favor of
+the things of his service; because from that city I came forth
+and in that city I was born." This clause became the subject of
+much litigation as the century went on.
+
+Another clause which was much contested was his direction to his
+son Diego to take care of Beatriz Enriquez, the mother of
+Fernando. Diego is instructed to provide for her an honorable
+subsistence "as being a person to whom I have great obligation.
+What I do in this matter is to relieve my conscience, for this
+weighs much upon my mind. The reason of this cannot be written
+here."
+
+The history of the litigation which followed upon this will and
+upon other documents which bear upon the fortunes of Columbus is
+curious, but scarcely interesting. The present representative of
+Columbus is Don Cristobal Colon de la Cerda, Duke of Veragua and
+of La Vega, a grandee of Spain of the first class, Marquis of
+Jamaica, Admiral and Seneschal Major of the Indies, who lives at
+Madrid.
+
+Two days after the authentication of the will he died, on the
+twenty first of May, 1506, which was the day of Ascension. His
+last words were those of his Saviour, expressed in the language
+of the Latin Testament, "In manus tuas, Pater, commendo spiritum
+meum,"--"Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." The absence
+of the court from Valladolid took with it, perhaps, the
+historians and annalists. For this or for some other reason,
+there is no mention whatever of Columbus's funeral in any of the
+documents of the time.
+
+The body was laid in the convent of San Francisco at Valladolid.
+Such at least is the supposition of Navarrete, who has collected
+the original documents relating to Columbus. He supposes that the
+funeral services were conducted in the church of the parish of
+Santa Maria de la Antigua. From the church of Saint Francis, not
+many months after, the body was removed to Seville. A new chapel
+had lately been built there, called Santa Maria de las Cuevas. In
+this chapel was the body of Columbus entombed. In a curious
+discussion of the subject, which has occupied much more space
+than it is worth, it is supposed that this was in the year 1513,
+but Mr. Harrisse has proved that this date is not accurate.
+
+For at least twenty-eight years, the body was permitted to remain
+under the vaults of this chapel. Then a petition was sent to
+Charles V, for leave to carry the coffin and the body to San
+Domingo, that it might be buried in the larger chapel of the
+cathedral of that city. To this the emperor consented, in a
+decree signed June 2, 1537. It is not known how soon the removal
+to San Domingo was really made, but it took place before many
+years.
+
+Mr. Harrisse quotes from a manuscript authority to show, that
+when William Penn besieged the city of San Domingo in 1655, all
+the bodies buried under the cathedral were withdrawn from view,
+lest the heretics should profane them, and that "the old
+Admiral's" body was treated like the rest.
+
+Mr. Harrisse calls to mind the fact that the earthquake of the
+nineteenth of May, 1673, demolished the cathedral in part, and
+the tombs which it contained. He says, "the ruin of the colony,
+the climate, weather, and carelessness all contributed to the
+loss from sight and the forgetfulness of the bones of Columbus,
+mingled with the dust of his descendants"; and Mr. Harrisse does
+not believe that any vestige of them was ever found afterwards,
+in San Domingo or anywhere else. This remark, from the person who
+has given such large attention to the subject, is interesting.
+For it is generally stated and believed that the bones were
+afterwards removed to Havana in the island of Cuba. The opinion
+of Mr. Harrisse, as it has been quoted, is entitled to very great
+respect and authority.
+
+A very curious question has arisen in later times as to the
+actual place where the remains now are. On this question there is
+great discussion among historians, and many reports, official and
+unofficial, have been published with regard to it.
+
+In the year 1867, the proposal was made to the Holy Father at
+Rome, that Columbus should receive the honors known in the Roman
+Catholic Church as the honors of beatification. In 1877, De
+Lorgues, the enthusiastic biographer of Columbus, represents that
+the inquiry had gone so far that these honors had been determined
+on. One who reads his book would be led to suppose that Columbus
+had already been recognized as on the way to be made a saint of
+the Church. But, in truth, though some such inquiry was set on
+foot, he never received the formal honors of beatification.
+--------
+
+We have one account by a contemporary of the appearance of
+Columbus.[*] We are told that he was a robust man, quite tall, of
+florid complexion, with a long face."
+
+[*] In the first Decade of Peter Martyr.
+
+
+In the next generation, Oviedo says Columbus was "of good aspect,
+and above the middle stature. His limbs were strong, his eyes
+quick, and all the parts of his body well proportioned. His hair
+was decidedly reddish, and the complexion of his face quite
+florid and marked with spots of red."
+
+Bishop Las Casas knew the admiral personally, and describes him
+in these terms: "He was above the middle stature, his face was
+long and striking, his nose was aquiline, his eyes clear blue,
+his complexion light, tending towards a distinct florid
+expression, his beard and hair blonde in his youth, but they were
+blanched at an early age by care.
+
+Las Casas says in another place, he was rude in bearing, and
+careless as to his language. He was, however, gracious when he
+chose to be, but he was angry when he was annoyed."
+
+Mr. Harrisse, who has collected these particulars from the
+different writers, says that this physical type may be frequently
+met now in the city and neighborhood of Genoa. He adds, "as for
+the portraits, whether painted, engraved, or in sculpture, which
+appear in collections, in private places, or as prints, there is
+not one which is authentic. They are all purely imaginary."
+
+For the purpose of the illustration of this volume, we have used
+that which is best known, and for many reasons most interesting.
+It is preserved in the city of Florence, but neither the name of
+the artist nor the date of the picture is known. It is generally
+spoken of as the "Florentine portrait." The engraving follows an
+excellent copy, made by the order of Thomas Jefferson, and now in
+the possession of the Massachusetts Historical Society. We are
+indebted to the government of this society for permission to use
+it.[*]
+
+[*] The whole subject of the portraits of Columbus is carefully
+discussed in a learned paper presented to the Wisconsin
+Historical Society by Dr. James Davie Butler, and published in
+the Collections of that Society, Vol. IX, pp. 79-96.
+
+
+A picture ascribed to Titian, and engraved and circulated by the
+geographer, Jomard, resembles closely the portraits of Philip
+III. The costume is one which Columbus never wore.
+
+In his youth Columbus was affiliated with a religious
+brotherhood, that of Saint Catherine, in Genoa. In after times,
+on many occasions when it would have been supposed that he would
+be richly clothed, he appeared in a grave dress which recalled
+the recollections of the frock of the religious order of Saint
+Francis. According to Diego Columbus, he died, "dressed in the
+frock of this order, to which he had always been attached."
+--------
+
+The reader who has carefully followed the fortunes of the great
+discoverer understands from the history the character of the man.
+He would not have succeeded in his long suit at the court of
+Ferdinand and Isabella, had he not been a person of single
+purpose and iron will.
+
+From the moment when he was in command of the first expedition,
+that expedition went prosperously to its great success, in
+precisely the way which he had foreseen and determined. True, he
+did not discover Asia, as he had hoped, but this was because
+America was in the way. He showed in that voyage all the
+attributes of a great discoverer; he deserved the honors which
+were paid to him on his return.
+
+As has been said, however, this does not mean that he was a great
+organizer of cities, or that he was the right person to put in
+charge of a newly founded colony. It has happened more than once
+in the history of nations that a great general, who can conquer
+armies and can obtain peace, has not succeeded in establishing a
+colony or in governing a city.
+
+On the other hand, it is fair to say that Columbus never had a
+chance to show what he would have been in the direction of his
+colonies had they been really left in his charge. This is true,
+that his heart was always on discovery; all the time that he
+spent in the wretched detail of the arrangement of a new-built
+town was time which really seemed to him wasted.
+
+The great problem was always before him, how he should connect
+his discoveries with the knowledge which Europe had before of the
+coast of Asia. Always it seemed to him that the dominions of the
+Great Khan were within his reach. Always he was eager for that
+happy moment when he should find himself in personal
+communication with that great monarch, who had been so long the
+monarch of the East--who, as he thought, would prove to be the
+monarch of the West.
+
+Columbus died with the idea that he had come close to Asia. Even
+a generation after his death, the companions of Cortes gave to
+the peninsula of California that name because it was the name
+given in romance to the farthest island of the eastern Indies.
+
+Columbus met with many reverses, and died, one might almost say,
+a broken-hearted man. But history has been just to him, and has
+placed him in the foremost rank of the men who have set the world
+forward. And, outside of the technical study of history, those
+who like to trace the laws on which human progress advances have
+been proud and glad to see that here is a noble example of the
+triumph of faith.
+
+The life of Columbus is an illustration constantly brought
+forward of the success which God gives to those who, having
+conceived of a great idea, bravely determine to carry it through.
+
+His singleness of purpose, his unselfishness, his determination
+to succeed, have been cited for four centuries, and will be cited
+for centuries more, among the noblest illustrations which history
+has given, of success wrought out by the courage of one man.
+
+
+
+APPENDIX A.
+
+[The following passages, from Admiral Fox's report, give his
+reasons for believing that Samana, or Atwood's Key, is the island
+where Columbus first touched land. The interest which attaches to
+this subject at the moment of the centennial, when many voyages
+will be made by persons following Columbus, induces me to copy
+Admiral Fox's reasonings in detail. I believe his conclusion to
+be correct.]
+
+This method of applying Columbus's words in detail to refute each
+of the alleged tracks, and the study that I gave to the subject
+in the winter of 1878-79 in the Bahamas, which has been familiar
+cruising ground to me, has resulted in the selection of Samana or
+Atwood's Key for the first landing place.
+
+It is a little island 8.8 miles east and west; 1.6 extreme
+breadth, and averaging 1.2 north and south. It has 8.6 square
+miles. The east end is in latitude 23 degrees 5' N.; longitude 73
+degrees 37' west of Greenwich. The reef on which it lies is 15 by
+2 1/2 miles.
+
+On the southeast this reef stretches half a mile from the land,
+on the east four miles, on the west two, along the north shore
+one-quarter to one-half mile, and on the southwest scarcely
+one-quarter. Turk is smaller than Samana, and Cat very much
+larger.
+
+The selection of two so unlike in size show that dimension has
+not been considered essential in choosing an island for the first
+landfall.[*]
+
+[*] I am indebted to T. J. McLain, Esq., United States consul at
+Nassau, for the following information given to him by the
+captains of this port, who visit Samana or Atwood's Key. The
+sub-sketch on this chart is substantially correct: Good water is
+only obtained by sinking wells. The two keys to the east are
+covered with guano; white boobies hold the larger one, and black
+boobies the other; neither intermingles.
+
+The island is now uninhabited, but arrow heads and stone hatchets
+are sometimes found; and in places there are piles of stones
+supposed to have been made by the aborigines. Most of the growth
+is scrubby, with a few scattered trees.
+
+The Nassau vessels enter an opening through the reef on the south
+side of the island and find a very comfortable little harbor with
+from two to two and a half fathoms of water. From here they send
+their boats on shore to "strip" guano, and cut satin, dye woods
+and bark.
+
+
+When Columbus discovered Guanahani, the journal called it a
+"little island." After landing he speaks of it as "bien grande,"
+"very large," which some translate, tolerably, or pretty large.
+November 20, 1492 (Navarette, first edition, p. 61), the journal
+refers to Isabella, a larger island than Guanahani, as "little
+island," and the fifth of January following (p. 125) San Salvador
+is again called "little island."
+
+The Bahamas have an area of about 37,000 square miles, six per
+cent of which may be land, enumerated as 36 islands, 687 keys,
+and 2,414 rocks. The submarine bank upon which these rest
+underlies Florida also. But this peninsula is wave-formed upon
+living corals, whose growth and gradual stretch toward the south
+has been made known by Agassiz.
+
+I had an unsuccessful search for a similar story of the Bahamas,
+to learn whether there were any probable changes within so recent
+a period as four hundred years.
+
+The common mind can see that all the rock there is coral, none of
+which is in position. The surface, the caves, the chinks, and the
+numerous pot-holes are compact limestone, often quite
+crystalline, while beneath it is oolitic, either friable or hard
+enough to be used for buildings. The hills are sand-blown, not
+upheaved. On a majority of the maps of the sixteenth century
+there were islands on Mouchoir, and on Silver Banks, where now
+are rocks "awash;" and the Dutch and the Severn Shoals, which lay
+to the east, have disappeared.
+
+It is difficult to resist the impression that the shoal banks,
+and the reefs of the Bahamas, were formerly covered with land;
+and that for a geological age waste has been going on, and,
+perhaps, subsidence. The coral polyp seems to be doing only
+desultory work, and that mostly on the northeast or Atlantic side
+of the islands; everywhere else it has abandoned the field to the
+erosive action of the waves.
+
+Columbus said that Guanahani had abundance of water and a very
+large lagoon in the middle of it. He used the word
+laguna--lagoon, not lago--lake. His arrival in the Bahamas was at
+the height of the rainy season. Governor Rawson's Report on the
+Bahamas, 1864, page 92, Appendix 4, gives the annual rainfall at
+Nassau for ten years, 1855--'64, as sixty-four inches. From May
+1, to November 1 is the wet season, during which 44.7 inches
+fall; the other six months 19.3 only. The most is in October, 8.5
+inches.
+
+Andros, the largest island, 1,600 square miles, is the only one
+that has a stream of water. The subdivision of the land into so
+many islands and keys, the absence of mountains, the showery
+characteristic of the rainfall, the porosity of the rock, and the
+great heat reflected from the white coral, are the chief causes
+for the want of running water. During the rainy season the
+"abundance of water" collects in the low places, making ponds and
+lagoons, that afterward are soaked up by the rock and evaporated
+by the sun.
+
+Turk and Watling have lagoons of a more permanent condition,
+because they are maintained from the ocean by permeation. The
+lagoon which Columbus found at Guanahani had certainly
+undrinkable water, or he would have gotten some for his vessels,
+instead of putting it off until he reached the third island.
+
+There is nothing in the journal to indicate that the lagoon at
+Guanahani was aught but the flooding of the low grounds by
+excessive rains; and even if it was one communicating with the
+ocean, its absence now may be referred to the effect of those
+agencies which are working incessantly to reshape the soft
+structure of the Bahamas.
+
+Samana has a range of hills on the southwest side about one
+hundred feet high, and on the northeast another, lower. Between
+them, and also along the north shore, the land is low, and during
+the season of rains there is a row of ponds parallel to the
+shore. On the south side a conspicuous white bluff looks to the
+southward and eastward.
+
+The two keys, lying respectively half a mile and three miles east
+of the island, and possibly the outer breaker, which is four
+miles, all might have been connected with each other, and with
+the island, four hundred years ago. In that event the most
+convenient place for Columbus to anchor in the strong northeast
+trade-wind, was where I have put an anchor on the sub-sketch of
+Samana.
+
+[In a subsequent passage Admiral Fox says:--]
+
+There is a common belief that the first landing place is settled
+by one or another of the authors cited here. Nevertheless, I
+trust to have shown, paragraph by paragraph, wherein their
+several tracks are contrary to the journal, inconsistent with the
+true cartography of the neighborhood, and to the discredit,
+measurably, both of Columbus and of Las Casas. The obscurity and
+the carelessness which appear in part of the diary through the
+Bahamas offer no obstacle to this demonstration, provided that
+they do not extend to the "log," or nautical part.
+
+Columbus went to sea when he was fourteen years of age, and
+served there almost continuously for twenty-three years. The
+strain of a sea-faring life, from so tender an age, is not
+conducive to literary exactness. Still, for the very reason of
+this sea experience, the "log" should be correct.
+
+This is composed of the courses steered, distances sailed over,
+bearings of islands from one another, trend of shores, etc. The
+recording of these is the daily business of seamen, and here the
+entries were by Columbus himself, chiefly to enable him, on his
+return to Spain, to construct that nautical map, which is
+promised in the prologue of the first voyage.
+
+In crossing the Atlantic the Admiral understated to the crew each
+day's run, so that they should not know how far they had gone
+into an unknown ocean. Las Casas was aware of this counterfeit
+"log," but his abridgment is from that one which Columbus kept
+for his own use.
+
+If the complicated courses and distances in this were originally
+wrong, or if the copy of them is false, it is obvious that they
+cannot be "plotted " upon a correct chart. Conversely, if they
+ARE made to conform to a succession of islands among which he is
+known to have sailed, it is evident that this is a genuine
+transcript of the authentic "log" of Columbus, and, reciprocally,
+that we have the true track, the beginning of which is the
+eventful landfall of October 12, 1492.
+
+The student or critical reader, and the seaman, will have to
+determine whether the writer has established this conformity. The
+public, probably, desires to have the question settled, but it
+will hardly take any interest in a discussion that has no
+practical bearing, and which, for its elucidation, leans so much
+upon the jargon or the sea.
+
+It is not flattering to the English or Spanish speaking peoples
+that the four hundredth anniversary of this great event draws
+nigh, and is likely to catch us still floundering, touching the
+first landing place.
+
+
+SUMMARY.
+
+First. There is no objection to Samana in respect to size,
+position or shape. That it is a little island, lying east and
+west, is in its favor. The erosion at the east end, by which
+islets have been formed, recalls the assertion of Columbus that
+there it could be cut off in two days and made into an island.
+
+The Nassau vessels still find a snug anchorage here during the
+northeast trades. These blew half a gale of wind at the time of
+the landfall; yet Navarette, Varnhagen, and Captain Becher
+anchored the squadron on the windward sides of the coral reefs of
+their respective islands, a "lee shore."
+
+The absence of permanent lagoons at Samana I have tried to
+explain.
+
+Second. The course from Samana to Crooked is to the southwest,
+which is the direction that the Admiral said be should steer
+"tomorrow evening." The distance given by him corresponds with
+the chart.
+
+Third. The second island, Santa Maria, is described as having two
+sides which made a right angle, and the length of each is given.
+This points directly to Crooked and Acklin. Both form one island,
+so fitted to the words of the journal as cannot be done with any
+other land of the Bahamas.
+
+Fourth. The course and distance from Crooked to Long Island is
+that which the Admiral gives from Santa Maria to Fernandina.
+
+Fifth. Long Island, the third, is accurately described. The trend
+of the shores, "north-northwest and south-southeast;" the
+"marvelous port" and the "coast which runs east [and] west," can
+nowhere be found except at the southeast part of Long Island.
+
+Sixth. The journal is obscure in regard to the fourth island. The
+best way to find it is to "plot" the courses FORWARD from the
+third island and the courses and distances BACKWARD from the
+fifth. These lead to Fortune for the fourth.
+
+Seventh. The Ragged Islands are the fifth. These he named las
+islas de Arena--Sand Islands.
+
+They lie west-southwest from the fourth, and this is the course
+the Admiral adhered to. He did not "log" all the run made between
+these islands; in consequence the "log" falls short of the true
+distance, as it ought to. These "seven or eight islands, all
+extending from north to south," and having shoal water "six
+leagues to the south" of them, are seen on the chart at a glance.
+
+Eighth. The course and distance from these to Port Padre, in
+Cuba, is reasonable. The westerly current, the depth of water at
+the entrance of Padre, and the general description, are free of
+difficulties. The true distance is greater than the "logged,"
+because Columbus again omits part of his run. It would be awkward
+if the true distances from the fourth to the fifth islands, and
+from the latter to Padre, had fallen short of the "log," since it
+would make the unexplainable situation which occurs in Irving's
+course and distance from Mucaras Reef to Boca de Caravela.
+
+From end to end of the Samana track there are but three
+discrepancies. At the third island, two leagues ought to be two
+miles. At the fourth island twelve leagues ought to be twelve
+miles. The bearing between the third and fourth islands is not
+quite as the chart has it, nor does it agree with the courses he
+steered. These three are fairly explained, and I think that no
+others can be mustered to disturb the concord between this track
+and the journal. --------
+
+Rev. Mr. Cronan, in his recent voyage, discovered a cave at
+Watling's island, where were many skeletons of the natives. It is
+thought that a study of the bones in these skeletons will give
+some new ethnological information as to the race which Columbus
+found, which is now, thanks to Spanish cruelty, entirely extinct.
+
+
+
+APPENDIX B.
+
+The letter to the Lady Juana, which gives Columbus's own
+statement of the indignities put upon him in San Domingo, is
+written in his most crabbed Spanish. He never wrote the Spanish
+language accurately, and the letter, as printed from his own
+manuscript, is even curious in its infelicities. It is so
+striking an illustration of the character of the man that we
+print here an abstract of it, with some passages translated
+directly from his own language.
+
+Columbus writes, towards the end of the year 1500, to the former
+nurse of Don Juan, an account of the treatment he has received.
+"If my complaint of the world is new, its method of abuse is very
+old," he says. "God has made me a messenger of the new heaven and
+the new earth which is spoken of in the Apocalypse by the mouth
+of St. John, after having been spoken of by Isaiah, and he showed
+me the place where it was." Everybody was incredulous, but the
+queen alone gave the spirit of intelligence and zeal to the
+undertaking. Then the people talked of obstacles and expense.
+Columbus says "seven years passed in talk, and nine in executing
+some noted acts which are worthy of remembrance," but he returned
+reviled by all.
+
+"If I had stolen the Indies and had given them to the Moors I
+could not have had greater enmity shown to me in Spain." Columbus
+would have liked then to give up the business if he could have
+come before the queen. However he persisted, and he says he
+"undertook a new voyage to the new heaven and the new earth which
+before had been hidden, and if it is not appreciated in Spain as
+much as the other countries of India it is not surprising,
+because it is all owing to my industry." He "had believed that
+the voyage to Paria would reconcile all because of the pearls and
+gold in the islands of Espanola." He says, "I caused those of our
+people whom I had left there to come together and fish for
+pearls, and arranged that I should return and take from them what
+had been collected, as I understood, in measure a fanega (about a
+bushel). If I have not written this to their Highnesses it is
+because I wished also to have as much of gold. But that fled
+before me, as all other things; I would not have lost them and
+with them my honor, if I could have busied myself with my own
+affairs.
+
+"When I went to San Domingo I found almost half of the colony
+uprising, and they made war upon me as a Moor, and the Indians on
+the other side were no less cruel.
+
+"Hojida came and he tried to make order, and he said that their
+Highnesses had sent him with promises of gifts and grants and
+money. He made up a large company, for in all Espanola there were
+few men who were not vagabonds, and no one lived there who had
+wife or children." Hojida retired with threats.
+
+"Then Vincente Ganez came with four ships. There were outbreaks
+and suspicions but no damage." He reported that six other ships
+under a brother of the Alcalde would arrive, and also the death
+of the queen, but these were rumors without foundation.
+
+"Adrian (Mogica) attempted to go away as before, but our Lord did
+not permit him to carry out his bad plan." Here Columbus regrets
+that he was obliged to use force or ill-treat Adrian, but says he
+would have done the same had his brother wished to kill him or
+wrest from him the government which the king and queen had given
+him to guard.
+
+"For six months I was ready to leave to take to their Highnesses
+the good news of the gold and to stop governing a dissolute
+people who feared neither king nor queen, full of meanness and
+malice. I would have been able to pay all the people with six
+hundred thousand maravedis and for that there were more than four
+millions of tithes without counting the third part of the gold."
+
+Columbus says that be begged before his departure that they would
+send some one at his expense to take command, and yet again a
+subject with letters, for he says bitterly that he has such a
+singular reputation that if he "were building churches and
+hospitals they would say they were cells for stolen goods."
+
+Then Bobadilla came to Santo Domingo while Columbus was at LaVega
+and the Adelantado at Jaragua. "The second day of his arrival he
+declared himself governor, created magistrates, made offices,
+published grants for gold and tithes, and everything else for a
+term of twenty years." He said he had come to pay the people, and
+declared he would send Columbus home in irons. Columbus was away.
+Letters with favors were sent to others, but none to him.
+Columbus resorted to methods to gain time so that their
+Highnesses could understand the state of things. But he was
+constantly maligned and persecuted by those who were jealous of
+him. He says:
+
+"I think that you will remember that when the tempest threw me
+into the port of Lisbon, after having lost my sails, I was
+accused of having the intention to give India to that country.
+Afterwards their Highnesses knew to the contrary. Although I know
+but little, I cannot conceive that any one would suppose me so
+stupid as not to know that though India might belong to me, yet I
+could not keep it without the help of a prince."
+
+Columbus complains that he has been judged as a governor who has
+been sent to a peaceful, well-regulated province. He says, "I
+ought to be judged as a captain sent from Spain to the Indies to
+conquer a warlike people, whose custom and religion are all
+opposed to ours, where the people live in the mountains without
+regular houses for themselves, and where, by the will of God, I
+have placed under the rule of the king and queen another world,
+and by which Spain, which calls itself poor, is today the richest
+empire. I ought to be judged as a captain who for many years
+bears arms incessantly.
+
+"I know well that the errors that I have committed have not been
+with bad intentions, and I think that their Highnesses will
+believe what I say; but I know and see that they use pity for
+those who work against them."
+
+"If, nevertheless, their Highnesses order that another shall
+judge me, which I hope will not be, and this ought to be on an
+examination made in India, I humbly beg of them to send there two
+conscientious and respectable people, at my expense, which may
+know easily that one finds five marcs of gold in four hours.
+However that may be, it is very necessary that they should go
+there." --------
+
+
+APPENDIX C.
+
+It would have been so natural to give the name of Columbus to the
+new world which he gave to Castile and Leon, that much wonder has
+been expressed that America was not called Columbia, and many
+efforts have been made to give to the continent this name. The
+District of Columbia was so named at a time when American writers
+of poetry, were determined that "Columbia" should be the name of
+the continent. The ship Columbia, from which the great river of
+the West takes that name, had received this name under the same
+circumstances about the same time. The city of Columbia, which is
+the capital of South Carolina, was named with the same wish to do
+justice to the great navigator.
+
+Side by side with the discussion as to the name, and sometimes
+making a part of it, is the question whether Columbus himself was
+really the first discoverer of the mainland. The reader has seen
+that he first saw the mainland of South America in the beginning
+of August, 1498. It was on the fifth, sixth or seventh day,
+according to Mr. Harrisse's accurate study of the letters. Was
+this the first discovery by a European of the mainland?
+
+It is known that Ojeda, with whom the reader is familiar, also
+saw this coast. With him, as passenger on his vessel, was
+Alberico Vespucci, and at one time it was supposed that Vespucci
+had made some claim to be the discoverer of the continent, on
+account of this voyage. But in truth Ojeda himself says that
+before he sailed he had seen the map of the Gulf of Paria which
+Columbus had sent home to the sovereigns after he made that
+discovery. It also seems to be proved that Alberico Vespucci, as
+he was then called, never made for himself any claim to the great
+discovery.
+
+Another question, of a certain interest to people proud of
+English maritime science, is the question whether the Cabots did
+not see the mainland before Columbus. It is admitted on all hands
+that they did not make their first voyage till they knew of
+Columbus's first discoveries; but it is supposed that in the
+first or second voyage of the Cabots, they saw the mainland of
+North America. The dates of the Cabots' voyages are unfortunately
+badly entangled. One of them is as early as 1494, but this is
+generally rejected. It is more probable that the king's letters
+patent, authorizing John Cabot and his three sons to go, with
+five vessels, under the English flag, for the discovery of
+islands and countries yet unknown," was dated the fifth of March,
+1496. Whether, however, they sailed in that year or in the next
+year is a question. The first record of a discovery is in the
+account-book of the privy purse of Henry VII, in the words,
+"August 10th, 1497. To him who discovered the new island, ten
+pounds." This is clearly not a claim on which the discovery of
+the mainland can be based.
+
+A manuscript known as the Cotton Manuscript says that John Cabot
+had sailed, but had not returned, at the moment when the
+manuscript was written. This period was "the thirteenth year of
+Henry VII." The thirteenth year of Henry began on the
+twenty-second of August, 1497, and ended in 1498. On the third of
+February, 1498, Henry VII granted permission to Cabot to take six
+English ships "to the lands and islands recently found by the
+said Cabot, in the name of the king and by his orders." Strictly
+speaking, this would mean that the mainland had then been
+discovered; but it is impossible to establish the claim of
+England on these terms.
+
+What is, however, more to the point, is a letter from Pasqualigo,
+a Venetian merchant, who says, writing to Venice, on the
+twenty-third of August, 1497, that Cabot had discovered the
+mainland at seven hundred leagues to the west, and had sailed
+along it for a coast of three hundred leagues. He says the voyage
+was three months in length. It was made, then, between May and
+August, 1497. The evidence of this letter seems to show that the
+mainland of North America was really first discovered by Cabot.
+The discussion, however, does not in the least detract from the
+merit due to Columbus for the great discovery. Whether he saw an
+island or whether he saw the mainland, was a mere matter of what
+has been called landfall by the seamen. It is admitted on all
+hands that he was the leader in all these enterprises, and that
+it was on his success in the first voyage that all such
+enterprises followed.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg etext of The Life of Christopher
+Columbus from his own Letters and Journals, by Edward Everett Hale
+
+
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