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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/15336-doc.doc b/15336-doc.doc Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4e555b0 --- /dev/null +++ b/15336-doc.doc diff --git a/15336-doc.zip b/15336-doc.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6197f4d --- /dev/null +++ b/15336-doc.zip diff --git a/15336-pdf.pdf b/15336-pdf.pdf Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e5974d8 --- /dev/null +++ b/15336-pdf.pdf diff --git a/15336-pdf.zip b/15336-pdf.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5db68f3 --- /dev/null +++ b/15336-pdf.zip diff --git a/15336.txt b/15336.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2e5bb41 --- /dev/null +++ b/15336.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6012 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life of Columbus, by Arthur Helps + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Life of Columbus + +Author: Arthur Helps + +Release Date: March 12, 2005 [EBook #15336] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE OF COLUMBUS *** + + + + +Produced by Don Kostuch + + + + + +Transcribers Notes: + +Several non-English proper names have been rendered in ASCI, omitting the +proper accents. + +Page headers have been moved to the beginning of the appropriate paragraph +and several very long paragraphs have been split to correspond to the page +headers. See the DOC or PDF versions for the original pagination and map +images. + +The following glossary provides references and definitions of unfamiliar +(to me) terms and names. + +Adelantado + Governor or commander. Refers to Don Bartholomew Columbus (brother of + Christopher) in this volume. + +Angelic Doctor: + Thomas Aquinas + +Arroba + In Spanish-speaking countries, a weight of about 25 pounds. + In Portuguese-speaking countries, about 32 pounds. + +Aught + Anything whatever. + +Bartholomew Columbus + Brother of Christopher Columbus. + +Cacique + Title for an Indian chief in the Spanish West Indies. + +Ca da Mosto or Cadamosto + Alvise Ca' da Mosto, (1432-1488) Venetian explorer and trader who wrote + early accounts of western African exploration. + +Caonabo + Cacique (chief) who destroyed Columbus's first garrison at La Navidad. + +Cave of Adullam + About 13 miles west of Bethlehem where David gathered "every one that + was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was + discontented" (1 Sam. 22:2). + +Cipango + Japan. + +Compeer + Person of equal status; a peer. + +Contumely + Contempt arising from arrogance; insolence. + +Cosmography + Study of the universe, including geography and astronomy. + +Diego Columbus + Son of Columbus and Donna Felipa + +Don Diego Columbus + Brother of Columbus + +Donna Felipa Munnis Perestrelo + Wife of Christopher Columbus. Daughter of the first governor of Porto + Santo. Only issue was Diego. + +Dragon's blood + Thick red liquid from a palm (Daemonorops draco) in tropical Asia; + formerly used in varnishes and lacquers. + +Encomienda + A grant entitling Spaniards to land plus the Native American inhabitants + of that land. The land and its inhabitants. + +Fernando Columbus + Son of Christopher Columbus and Beatrice. + +Friesland + Located in Europe on the North Sea between the Scheldt and Weser rivers. + Now a province of the northern Netherlands. + +Galliot + Light, swift galley. + +Gyve + Shackle for the leg. + +Las Casas + Bartlome de las Casas is the chief source of information about the + islands after Columbus arrived. Other historians overlooked the Indian + slave trade, begun by Columbus; Las Casas denounced it as "among the + most unpardonable offenses ever committed against God and mankind." + +Machiavelli: Nicolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) + Political philosopher, author of The Prince, that focuses on problems of + a monarch, the foundation of political authority and how to retain + power, rather than pursue ideals. + +Maravedis + Spanish currency. One million Maravedis (one cuentos) in 1490 is + equivalent to about 308 English Pounds in 1860, or US$ 48,000 in 2005. + +Martyr, Peter + Peter Martyr d'Anghera wrote early accounts of Columbus, Ojeda, Cortes, + and other Spanish explorers. + An Italian humanist from Florence. + Served as tutor in the Spanish court and had direct access to Columbus. + Author of "De Orbe Novo" describing the first European contacts with + native Americans. + +Moors + Arabs + +Provence + Province of southeast France bordering on the Mediterranean. + +Pinzon, Martin Alonzo + Chief shipowner of Palos. Accompanied Columbus as a captain. + +Paria, Gulf of + Between Trinidad and Venezuela. + +Repartimiento + Spanish, from repartir, to divide. + Distribution of slaves or assessment of taxes. + +Tagus + River on the Iberian Peninsula flowing westward + through central Portugal into the Atlantic. + +Ultima Thule + Ancient name for northern-most region of the habitable world. + +End of Transcribers Note + + + + + +The Life of Columbus + + + +GEORGE BELL & SONS, +LONDON: YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN +NEW YORK: 66, FIFTH AVENUE, AND +BOMBAY: 53, ESPLANADE ROAD +CAMBRIDGE: DEIGHTON, BELL & CO. + + +THE LIFE OF COLUMBUS + + +CHIEFLY BY +SIR ARTHUR HELPS K.C.B. +AUTHOR OF "THE SPANISH CONQUEST IN AMERICA" +"FRIENDS IN COUNCIL" ETC. + +LONDON +GEORGE BELL AND SONS +1897 + + + +First published 1868. +Reprinted 1869, 1873, 1874, 1877, 1878, 1881, +1883, 1887, 1890, 1892. +Included in Bohn's Standard Library, 1896, +Reprinted 1897. + + + +TO +WILLIAM HENRY STONE, +THIS LIFE OF COLUMBUS +IS DEDICATED +WITH SINCERE ESTEEM AND REGARD +BY HIS AFFECTIONATE. +FRIEND, +ARTHUR HELPS. +London, October, 1868 + + + +PREFACE. + +This Life of Columbus is one of a series of biographies prepared under my +superintendence, and for the most part taken verbatim from my "History of +the Spanish Conquest in America." + +That work was written chiefly with a view to illustrate the history of +slavery, and not to give full accounts of the deeds of the discoverers and +conquerors of the New World, much less to give a condensed memoir of each +of them. + +It has, therefore, been necessary to rearrange and add considerably to +these materials, and for this assistance I am indebted to the skill and +research of Mr. Herbert Preston Thomas. + +Perhaps there are few of the great personages in history who have been +more talked about and written about than Christopher Columbus, the +discoverer of America. It might seem, therefore, that there is very little +that is new to be said about him. I do not think, however, that this is +altogether the case. Absorbed in, and to a certain extent overcome by the +contemplation of the principal event, we have sometimes, perhaps, been +mistaken as to the causes which led to it. We are apt to look upon +Columbus as a person who knew that there existed a great undiscovered +continent, and who made his way directly to the discovery of that +continent--springing at one bound from the known to the unknown. Whereas, +the dream of Columbus's life was to make his way by an unknown route to +what was known, or to what he considered to be known. He wished to find +out an easy pathway to the territories of Kublai Khan, or Prester-John. + +Neither were his motives such as have been generally supposed. They were, +for the most part, purely religious. With the gold gained from potentates +such as Kublai Khan, the Holy Sepulchre was to be rebuilt, and the +Catholic Faith was to be spread over the remotest parts of the earth. + +Columbus had all the spirit of a crusader, and, at the same time, the +investigating nature of a modern man of science. The Arabs have a proverb +that a man is more the son of the age in which he lives than of his own +father. This was not so with Columbus; he hardly seems to belong at all to +his age. At a time when there was never more of worldliness and +self-seeking; when Alexander Borgia was Pope; when Louis the Eleventh +reigned in France, Henry the Seventh in England, and Ferdinand the +Catholic in Arragon and Castille--about the three last men in the world to +become crusaders--Columbus was penetrated with the ideas of the twelfth +century, and would have been a worthy companion of Saint Louis in that +pious king's crusade. + +Again, at a time when Aristotle and "the Angelic Doctor" ruled the minds +of men with an almost unexampled tyranny: when science was more dogmatic +than theology; when it was thought a sufficient and satisfactory +explanation to say that bodies falling to the earth descended because it +is their nature to descend--Columbus regarded natural phenomena with the +spirit of inductive philosophy that would belong to a follower of Lord +Bacon. + +Perhaps it will be found that a very great man seldom does belong to his +period, as other men do to theirs. Machiavelli [1] says that the way to +renovate states is always to go back to first principles, especially to +the first principles upon which those states were founded. The same law, +if law it be, may hold good as regards the renovation of any science, art, +or mode of human action. The man who is too closely united in thought and +feeling with his own age, is seldom the man inclined to go back to these +first principles. + + [Footnote 1: Machiavelli was contemporary with Columbus. No two men + could have been more dissimilar; and Machiavelli was thoroughly a + product of his age, and a man who entirely belonged to it.] + +It is very noticeable in Columbus that he was it most dutiful, unswerving, +and un-inquiring son of the Church. The same man who would have taken +nothing for granted in scientific research, and would not have held +himself bound by the authority of the greatest names in science, never +ventured for a moment to trust himself as a discoverer on the perilous sea +of theological investigation. + +In this respect Las Casas, though a churchman, was very different from +Columbus. Such doctrines as that the Indians should be somewhat civilized +before being converted, and that even baptism might be postponed to +instruction,--doctrines that would have found a ready acceptance from the +good bishop--would have met with small response from the soldierly +theology of Columbus. + +The whole life of Columbus shows how rarely men of the greatest insight +and foresight, and also of the greatest perseverance, attain the exact +ends they aim at. In this respect all such men partake the career of the +alchemists, who did not transmute other metals into gold, but made +valuable discoveries in chemistry. So, with Columbus. He did not rebuild +the Holy Sepulchre; he did not lead a new crusade; he did not find his +Kublai Khan, or his Prester John; but he brought into relation the New +World and the Old. + +It is impossible to read without the deepest interest the account from day +to day of his voyages. It has always been a favourite speculation with +historians, and, indeed, with all thinking men, to consider what would +have happened from a slight change of circumstances in the course of +things which led to great events. This may be an idle and a useless +speculation, but it is an inevitable one. Never was there such a field for +this kind of speculation as in the voyages, especially the first one, of +Columbus. The first point of land that he saw, and landed at, is as nearly +as possible the central point of what must once have been the United +Continent of North and South America. The least change of circumstance +might have made an immense difference in the result. The going to sleep of +the helmsman, the unshipping of the rudder, (which did occur in the case +of "The Pinzon,") the slightest mistake in taking an observation, might +have made, and probably did make, considerable change in the event. During +that memorable first voyage of Columbus, the gentlest breeze carried with +it the destinies of future empires. Had he made his first discovery of +land at a point much southward of that which he did discover, South +America might have been colonized by the Spaniards with all the vigour +that belonged to their first efforts at colonization; and, being a +continent, might not afterwards have been so easily wrested from their +sway by the maritime nations. + +On the other hand, had some breeze, big with the fate of nations, carried +Columbus northwards, it would hardly have been left for the English, more +than a century afterwards, to found those Colonies which have proved to be +the seeds of the greatest nation that the world is likely to behold. + +It was, humanly speaking, singularly unfortunate for Spanish dominion in +America, that the earliest discoveries of the Spaniards were those of the +West India Islands. A multiplicity of governors introduced confusion, +feebleness, and want of system, into colonial government. The numbers, +comparatively few, of the original inhabitants in each island, were +rapidly removed from the scene of action; and the Spaniards lacked, at the +beginning, that compressing force which would have been found in the +existence of a body of natives who could not have been removed by the +outrages of Spanish cruelty, the strength of Spanish liquors, or the +virulence of Spanish diseases.[Footnote 2] + + [Footnote 2: The smallpox, for instance, was a disease introduced by the + Spaniards, which the comparatively feeble constitution of the Indians + could not withstand.] + +The Monarchs of Spain, too, would have been compelled to treat their new +discoveries and conquests more seriously. To have held the country at all, +they must have held it well. It would not have been Ovandos, Bobadillas, +Nicuesas and Ojedas who could have been employed to govern, discover, +conquer, colonize--and ruin by their folly--the Spanish possessions in the +Indies. The work of discovery and conquest, begun by Columbus, must then +have been entrusted to men like Cortes, the Pizarros, Vasco Nunez, or the +President Gasca; and a colony or a kingdom founded by any of these men +might well have remained a great colony, or a great kingdom, to the +present day. + ARTHUR HELPS. +London, October, 1868. + + + +CONTENTS. + +CHAPTER I. + Early Discoveries in the Fifteenth Century + +CHAPTER II. + Early Years of Columbus + +CHAPTER III. + Columbus in Spain + +CHAPTER IV. + First Voyage + +CHAPTER V. + Homeward bound + +CHAPTER VI. + Second Voyage of Discovery + +CHAPTER VII. + Illness; Further Discoveries; Plots against Columbus + +CHAPTER VIII. + Criminals sent to the Indies; Repartimientos; Insurrection + +CHAPTER IX. + Columbus's Third Voyage + +CHAPTER X. + Arrival at Hispaniola; Bad Treatment by Bobadlilla + +CHAPTER XI. + Columbus pleads his Cause at Court; New Enterprise; Ovando + +CHAPTER XII. + Remarkable Despatch; Mutiny; + Eclipse predicted, and its influence; Mutiny quelled + +CHAPTER XIII. + Falling Fortunes: Conclusion + + + +CHAPTER I. Early Discoveries in the Fifteenth Century. + + + LEGENDS OF THE SEA. + +Modern familiarity with navigation renders it difficult for us to +appreciate adequately the greatness of the enterprise which was undertaken +by the discoverers of the New World. Seen by the light of science and of +experience, the ocean, if it has some real terrors, has no imaginary ones. +But it was quite otherwise in the fifteenth century. Geographical +knowledge was but just awakening, after ages of slumber; and throughout +those ages the wildest dreams had mingled fiction with fact. Legends +telling of monsters of the deep, jealous of invasion of their territory; +of rocks of lodestone, powerful enough to extract every particle of iron +from a passing ship; of stagnant seas and fiery skies; of wandering saints +and flying islands; all combined to invest the unknown with the terrors of +the supernatural, and to deter the explorer of the great ocean. The +half-decked vessels that crept along the Mediterranean shores were but +ill-fitted to bear the brunt of the furious waves of the Atlantic. The now +indispensable sextant was but clumsily anticipated by the newly invented +astrolabe. The use of the compass had scarcely become familiar to +navigators, who indeed but imperfectly understood its properties. And who +could tell, it was objected, that a ship which might succeed in sailing +down the waste of waters would ever be able to return, for would not the +voyage home be a perpetual journey up a mountain of sea? + + + INCITEMENTS TO DISCOVERY. + +But the same tradition which set forth the difficulties of reaching the +undiscovered countries promised a splendid reward to the successful +voyager. Rivers rolling down golden sand, mountains shining with priceless +gems, forests fragrant with rich spices were among the substantial +advantages to be expected as the result of the enterprise. "Our quest +there," said Peter Martyr, "is not for the vulgar products of Europe." The +proverb "Omne ignotum pro magnifico" [Transcribers's note: Everything +unknown is taken for magnificent.] was abundantly illustrated. And there +was another object, besides gain, which was predominant in the minds of +almost all the early explorers, namely, the spread of the Christian +religion. This desire of theirs, too, seems to have been thoroughly +genuine and deep-seated; and it may be doubted whether the discoveries +would have been made at that period but for the impulse given to them by +the most religious minds longing to promote, by all means in their power, +the spread of what, to them, was the only true and saving faith. "I do +not," says a candid historian [Faria y Sousa] of that age, "imagine that +I shall persuade the world that our intent was only to be preachers; but +on the other hand the world must not fancy that our intent was merely to +be traders," There is much to blame in the conduct of the first +discoverers in Africa and America; it is, however, but just to acknowledge +that the love of gold was by no means the only motive which urged them to +such endeavours as theirs. To appreciate justly the intensity of their +anxiety for the conversion of the heathen, we must keep in our minds the +views then universally entertained of the merits and efficacy of mere +formal communion with the Church, and the fatal consequences of not being +within that communion. + + + EARLY ADVENTURERS. + +This will go a long way towards explaining the wonderful inconsistency, as +it seems to us, of the most cruel and wicked men believing themselves to +be good Christians and eminent promoters of the faith, if only they +baptized, before they slew, their fellow-creatures. And the maintenance of +such church principles will altogether account for the strange oversights +which pure and high minds have made in the means of carrying out those +principles, fascinated as they were by the brilliancy and magnitude of the +main object they had in view. + +But while piety, sometimes debased into religious fanaticism, had a large +part in these undertakings, doubtless the love of adventure and the +craving for novelty had their influence also. And what adventure it was! +New trees, new men, new animals, new stars; nothing bounded, nothing +trite, nothing which had the bloom taken off it by much previous +description! The early voyagers moreover, were like children coming out to +take their first gaze into the world, with ready credulity and unlimited +fancy, willing to believe in fairies and demons, Amazons and mystic +islands, "forms of a lower hemisphere," and fountains of perpetual youth. + + + MEDIAEVAL MAP OF THE WORLD; THE ROMAN DOMINION. + +The known world, in the time of Prince Henry of Portugal (at whose +discoveries it will be convenient to take a preliminary glance), was a +very small one indeed. The first thing for us to do is to study our maps +and charts. Without frequent reference to these, a narrative like the +present forms in our mind only a mirage of names and dates and facts, is +wrongly apprehended even while we are regarding it, and soon vanishes +away. The map of the world being before us, let us reduce it to the +proportions it filled in Prince Henry's time; let us look at our infant +world. First take away those two continents, for so we may almost call +them, each much larger than a Europe, to the far west. Then cancel that +square massive looking piece to the extreme south-east; its days of penal +settlements and of golden fortunes are yet to come. Then turn to Africa; +instead of that form of inverted cone which it presents, and which we now +know there are physical reasons for its presenting, make a scimetar shape +of it, by running a slightly curved line from Juba on the eastern side to +Cape Nam on the western. Declare all below that line unknown. Hitherto, we +have only been doing the work of destruction; but now scatter emblems of +hippogriffs and anthropophagi on the outskirts of what is left on the map, +obeying a maxim, not confined to the ancient geographers only: "Where you +know nothing, place terrors." Looking at the map thus completed, we can +hardly help thinking to ourselves, with a smile, what a small space, +comparatively speaking, the known history of the world has been transacted +in, up to the last four hundred years. The idea of the universality of the +Roman dominion shrinks a little; and we begin to think that Ovid might +have escaped his tyrant.[3] The ascertained confines of the world were +now, however, to be more than doubled in the course of one century; and to +Prince Henry of Portugal, as the first promoter of these vast discoveries, +our attention must be directed. + + [Footnote 3: But the empire of the Romans filled the world; and when that + empire fell into the hands of a single person, the world became a safe + and dreary prison for his enemies. The slave of imperial despotism, + whether he was condemned to drag the gilded chain in Rome and his + senate, or to wear out a life of exile on the barren rocks of Seriphus, + or the frozen banks of the Danube, expected his fate in silent despair. + To resist was fatal, and it was impossible to fly. On every side he was + encompassed with a vast extent of sea and land, which he could never + hope to traverse without being discovered, seized, and restored to his + irritated master. GIBBON'S Decline and Fall, vol. i. p. 97, Oxford + Edition.] + + [Illustration: Contemporary map of the world.] + + [Illustration: 1490 map of the world includes only Europe, Asia and the + northern 1/4 of Africa. Excludes the Americas, Greenland, and + Australia.] + + + PRINCE HENRY OF PORTUGAL; HIS MOTIVES FOR DISCOVERY. + +This prince was born in 1394. He was the third son of John the First of +Portugal and Philippa, the daughter of John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. +That good Plantagenet blood on the mother's side was, doubtless, not +without avail to a man whose life was to be spent in continuous and +insatiate efforts to work out a great idea. Prince Henry was with his +father at the memorable capture of Ceuta, the ancient Seplem, in the year +1415. This town, which lies opposite to Gibraltar, was of great +magnificence, and one of the principal marts in that age for the +productions of the eastern world. It was here that the Portuguese +first planted a firm foot in Africa; and the date of this town's capture +may, perhaps, be taken as that from which Prince Henry began to meditate +further and far greater conquests. His aims, however, were directed to a +point long beyond the range of the mere conquering soldier. He was +especially learned, for that age of the world, being skilled in +mathematical and geographical knowledge. He eagerly acquired from Moors of +Fez and Morocco, such scanty information as could be gathered concerning +the remote districts of Africa. The shrewd conjectures of learned men, the +confused records of Arabic geographers, the fables of chivalry, were not +without their influence upon an enthusiastic mind. The especial reason +which impelled the prince to take the burden of discovery on himself was +that neither mariner nor merchant would be likely to adopt an enterprise +in which there was no clear hope of profit. It belonged, therefore, to +great men and princes; and amongst such, he knew of no one but himself who +was inclined to it. This is not an uncommon motive. A man sees something +that ought to be done, knows of no one that will do it but himself, and so +is driven to the enterprise even should it be repugnant to him. + + [Illustration: MAP OF WESTERN AFRICAN COAST.] + + + IMPORTANT EXPEDITION + +Prince Henry, then, having once the well-grounded idea in his mind that +Africa did not end, according to the common belief, at Cape Nam +[Portuguese for "not"], but that there was a region beyond that forbidding +negative, seems never to have rested until he had made known that quarter +of the world to his own. He fixed his abode upon the promontory of Sagres, +at the southern part of Portugal, whence, for many a year, he could watch +for the rising specks of white sail bringing back his captains to tell him +of new countries and new men. + +One night, in the year 1418, he is thought to have had a dream of promise, +for on the ensuing morning he suddenly ordered two vessels to be got ready +forthwith, and placed them under the command of two gentlemen of his +household, Zarco and Vaz, whom he directed to proceed down the Barbary +coast on a voyage of discovery. A contemporary chronicler, Azurara, tells +the story more simply, and merely states that these captains were young +men, who, after the ending of the Ceuta campaign, were as eager for +employment as the prince for discovery; and that they were ordered on a +voyage having for its object the general molestation of the Moors as well +as the prosecution of discoveries beyond Cape Nam. + + + DISCOVERY OF PORTO SANTO. + +The Portuguese mariners had a proverb about the Cape, "He who would pass +Cape Not either will return or not," [Quem passar o Cabo de Nam, ou +tornara ou nam], intimating that if he did not turn before passing the +Cape he would never return at all. On this occasion it was not destined to +be passed, for the two captains were driven out of their course by storms, +and accidentally discovered a little island, where they took refuge, and +which, from that circumstance, they called Porto Santo. On their return +their master was delighted with the news they brought him, more on account +of its promise than its substance. In the same year he sent them out again +with a third captain, Bartholomew Perestrelo, to convey a supply of seeds +and animals for the newly-found island. Unfortunately, however, among the +animals were some rabbits, which multiplied so rapidly that they +overspread the whole island, and, by devouring every plant and blade of +grass which grew there, soon changed a fruitful land into a bare +wilderness. + + + MADEIRA DISCOVERED. + +In the following year, Zarco and Vaz, seeing from Porto Santo something +that seemed like a cloud, but yet different (the origin of so much +discovery, noting the difference in the likeness), built two boats, and, +making for this cloud, soon found themselves alongside a beautiful island +abounding in many things, but most of all in trees, on which account they +gave it the name of Madeira (wood). The two discoverers landed upon the +island in different places. The prince, their master, afterwards rewarded +them with the captaincies of the districts adjacent to those places. To +Perestrelo he gave the island of Porto Santo, to colonize it. Perestrelo, +however, did not make much of his captaincy; and spent his life in +endeavouring to make head against the rabbits, which were as destructive +as a plague of locusts, and which by their fecundity resisted all his +efforts to exterminate them. This captain has a place in history, as being +the father-in-law of Columbus, who, indeed, lived at Porto Santo for some +time, and here, on new found land, studied the cosmographical works which +Perestrelo had been at pains to accumulate; meditating far bolder +discoveries. + + + AFRICAN COAST EXPLORED. + +Zarco and Vaz began the cultivation of their island of Madeira, but met +with an untoward event at first. In clearing the wood, they kindled a fire +amongst it, which burned for seven years, we are told; and, in the end, +that which had given its name to the island, and which, in the words of +the historian, overshadowed the whole land, became the most deficient +commodity. The captains founded churches in the island, and the King of +Portugal, Don Duart, gave the temporalities to Prince Henry, and all the +spiritualities to the Knights of Christ. + +From this time forth, Prince Henry prosecuted his explorations with a +fixity of purpose which could not but ensure success. Through every +discouragement he persevered still. Many a Swiss peak has gone through +three phases. It has been pronounced, first, "inaccessible," then, "a very +dangerous ascent," and finally, "a pleasant excursion." So it was with +each fresh headland which seemed to bar the way down the African coast. +And the travellers who came last, in each case, found it next to +impossible to imagine what were the difficulties and dangers that had +seemed so formidable to their predecessors. + + + BARRIER OF ROCKS. + +For a long time Cape Bojador, which is situate seventy leagues to the +south of Cape Nam, was the extreme limit of discovery. This cape was +formidable in itself, being terminated by a ridge of rocks, with fierce +currents running round them; but was much more formidable from the fancies +which the mariners had formed of the sea and land beyond it. "It is +clear," they were wont to say, "that beyond this cape there are no people +whatever; the land is as bare as Libya--no water, no trees, no grass in +it; the sea so shallow, that at a league from the land it is only a fathom +deep; the currents so fierce, that the ship which passes that cape will +never return;" and thus their theories were brought in to justify their +fears. + +This outstretcher (for such is the meaning of the word Bojador) was +therefore as a bar drawn across that advance in maritime discovery, which +had for so long a time been the first object of Prince Henry's life. + + + POPULAR OBJECTIONS. + +For twelve years the prince had been sending forth ships and men, with +little approbation from the public--the discovery of Madeira and Porto +Santo serving to whet his appetite for further enterprise, but not winning +the common voice in favour of his projects. The people at home, improving +upon the reports of the sailors, said that "the land which the prince +sought after was merely some sandy place like the deserts of Libya; that +princes had possessed the empire of the world, and yet had not undertaken +such designs as his, nor shown such anxiety to find new kingdoms; that the +men who arrived in those foreign parts (if they did arrive) turned from +white into black men; that the king, Don John, the prince's father, had +endowed foreigners with land in his kingdom, to break it up and cultivate +it, a thing very different from taking the people out of Portugal, which +had need of them, to bring them amongst savages to be eaten and to place +them upon lands of which the mother country had no need; that the Author +of the world had provided these islands solely for the habitation of wild +beasts, of which an additional proof was that those rabbits which the +discoverers themselves had introduced were now dispossessing them of the +island." + +There is much here of the usual captiousness [Transcriber's note: Finding +trivial faults.] to be found in the criticism of bystanders upon action, +mixed with a great deal of false assertion and assumed knowledge of +the ways of Providence. Still, it were to be wished that most criticism +upon action was as wise; for that part of the common talk which spoke of +keeping their own population to bring out their own resources, had a +wisdom in it which the men of future centuries were yet to discover +throughout the Peninsula. + + + MISGIVINGS OF PRINCE HENRY; GIL EANNES. + +Prince Henry, as may be seen by his perseverance up to this time, was not +a man to have his purposes diverted by such criticism, much of which must +have been, in his eyes, worthless and inconsequent in the extreme. +Nevertheless, he had his own misgivings. His captains came back one after +another, with no good tidings of discovery, but with petty plunder gained +as they returned from incursions on the Moorish coast. The prince +concealed from them his chagrin at the fruitless nature of their attempts, +but probably did not feel it less on that account. He began to think, was +it for him to hope to discover that land which had been hidden from so +many princes? Still he felt within himself the incitement of "a virtuous +obstinacy," which would not let him rest. Would it not, he thought, be +ingratitude to God, who thus moved his mind to these attempts, if he were +to desist from his work, or be negligent in it? He resolved, therefore, to +send out again Gil Eannes, one of his household, who had been sent the +year before, but had returned, like the rest, having discovered nothing. +He had been driven to the Canary Islands, and had seized upon some of the +natives there, whom he brought back. With this transaction the prince had +shown himself dissatisfied; and Gil Eannes, now entrusted again with +command, resolved to meet all dangers, rather than to disappoint the +wishes of his master. Before his departure, the prince called him aside +and said, "You cannot meet with such peril that the hope of your reward +shall not be much greater; and, in truth, I wonder what imagination this +is that you have all taken up--in a matter, too, of so little certainty; +for if these things which are reported have any authority, however little, +I would not blame you so much. But you quote to me the opinions of four +mariners, who, as they were driven out of their way to Frandes or to some +other ports to which they commonly navigated, had not, and could not have +used, the needle and the chart: but do you go, however, and make your +voyage without regard to their opinion, and, by the grace of God, you +will not bring out of it anything but honour and profit." + + + GIL EANNES' SUCCESSFUL VOYAGE. + +We may well imagine that these stirring words of the prince must have +confirmed Gil Eannes in his resolve to efface the stain of his former +misadventure. And he succeeded in doing so; for he passed the dreaded Cape +Bojador--a great event in the history of African discovery, and one that +in that day was considered equal to a labour of Hercules. Gil Eannes +returned to a grateful and most delighted master. He informed the prince +that he had landed, and that the soil appeared to him unworked and +fruitful; and, like a prudent man, he could not only tell of foreign +plants, but had brought some of them home with him in a barrel of the +new-found earth, plants much like those which bear, in Portugal, the roses +of Santa Maria. The prince rejoiced to see them, and gave thanks to God, +"as if they had been the fruit and sign of the promised land; and besought +our Lady, whose name the plants bore, that she would guide and set forth +the doings in this discovery to the praise and glory of God, and to the +increase of His holy faith." + + + ANTONIO GONCALVEZ AND HIS CAPTURE OF MOORS + +The old world had now obtained a glimpse beyond Cape Bojador. The fearful +"outstretcher" had no longer much interest for them, being a thing that +was overcome, and which was to descend from an impossibility to a +landmark, from which, by degrees, they would almost silently steal down +the coast, counting their miles by thousands, until Vasco de Gama should +boldly carry them round to India. But now came stormy times for the +Portuguese kingdom, and the troubles of the regency occupied the prince's +attention to the exclusion of cosmography. + +In 1441, however, there was a voyage which led to very important +consequences. In that year Antonio Goncalvez, master of the robes to +Prince Henry, was sent out with a vessel to load it with skins of +"sea-wolves," a number of them having been seen, during a former voyage, +at the mouth of a river about a hundred and fifty miles beyond Cape +Bojador. Goncalvez resolved to signalize his voyage by a feat that should +gratify his master more than the capture of sea-wolves; and he accordingly +planned and executed successfully an expedition for seizing some Azeneghi +Moors, in order, as he told his companions, to take home "some of the +language of that country." Tristam, another of Prince Henry's captains, +afterwards falling in with Goncalvez, a further capture of Moors was made, +and Goncalvez returned to Portugal with the spoil. This voyage seems to +have prompted the application which Prince Henry made, in the same year, +to Pope Martin the Fifth, praying that his holiness would grant to the +Portuguese crown all that should be conquered, from Cape Bojador to the +Indies, together with plenary indulgence for those who should die while +engaged in such conquests. The pope granted these requests; though +afterwards, as we shall see, the Spanish discoveries of Columbus and his +successors rendered it necessary that the terms of the grant should be +modified. "And now," says a Portuguese historian, "with this apostolic +grace, with the breath of royal favour, and already with the applause of +the people, the prince pursued his purpose with more courage, and with +greater outlay." + + + COMMENCEMENT OF THE SLAVE TRADE. + +One proof of this popular approval was furnished by the formation of a +company at Lagos, in 1444, who received permission from the prince to +undertake discovery along the coast of Africa, paying him a certain +portion of any gains which they might make. Whether the company was +expressly founded for slave traffic may be doubtful; but it is certain +that this branch of their business was soon found to be the most lucrative +one, and that from this time Europe may be said to have made a distinct +beginning in the slave trade, henceforth to spread on all sides, like the +waves on troubled water, and not, like them, to become fainter and fainter +as the circles widen. For slavery was now assuming an entirely new phase. +Hitherto, the slave had been merely the captive in war, "the fruit of the +spear," as he has figuratively been called, who lived in the house of his +conquer, and laboured at his lands. Now, however, the slave was no longer +an accident of war. He had become the object of war. He was no longer a +mere accidental subject of barter. He was to be sought for, to be hunted +out, to be produced; and this change accordingly gave rise to a new branch +of commerce. + +Some time before 1454 a Portuguese factory was established at one of the +Arguim islands, and this factory soon systematized the slave-trade. +Thither came all kinds of merchandize from Portugal, and gold and slaves +were taken back in return; the number of the latter sent home annually, at +the time of Ca da Mosto's visit in 1454, being between seven and eight +hundred. + +The narrative of the Portuguese voyages along the African coast is, for +the most part, rather uninviting. It abounds with names, and dates, and +facts; but the names are often hard to pronounce, the dates have sometimes +an air of uncertainty about them, and the facts stand out in hard relief, +dry and unattractive. Could we recall, however, the voyagers themselves, +and listen to their story, we should find it animating enough. Each +enterprise, as we have it now, with its bare statistics, seems a meagre +affair; but it was far otherwise to the men who were concerned in it. Of +the motives[4] impelling men to engage in such expeditions, something has +already been said. + + [Footnote 4: "They err who regard the conquistadores as led only by a + thirst for gold, or even exclusively by religious fanaticism. Dangers + always exalt the poetry of life, and moreover, the powerful age which we + here seek to depict in regard to its influence on the development of + cosmical ideas, gave to all enterprises, as well as to the impressions + of nature offered by distant voyages, the charm of novelty and surprise, + which begins to be wanting to our present more learned age in the many + regions of the earth which are now open to us."--Humboldt's Kosmos. + Sabines translation, 1848, vol. ii. p. 272] + + + AIM OF THE ADVENTURERS. + +But besides the hopes and fears of each individual of the crew, the +conjoint enterprise had in it a life to be lived, and a career to be +worked out. It started to do something; fulfilled its purpose, or at least +some purpose; and then came back, radiant with success--from that time +forward to be a great fact in history. Or, on the other hand, there was +some small failure or mischance, perhaps early in the voyage; the sailors +then began to reckon up ill omens, and to say that little good would come +of this business. Further on, some serious misadventure happened which +made them turn, or from the mere lapse of time they were obliged to +bethink themselves of getting back. Safety, not renown or profit, now +became their object; and then hope was at last out the negative of some +fear. Thereupon, no doubt, ensued a good deal of recrimination amongst +themselves, for very few people are magnanimous enough to share +ill-success kindly together. Then, in the long dull evenings of their +voyage homewards, as they sat looking on the waters, they thought what +excuses and explanations they would make to their friends at home, and how +shame and vexation would mingle with their joy at returning. + + + CA DA MOSTO. + +This transaction, teeming, as it did, with anxious life, makes but a poor +show in some chronicle;--they sailed, and did something, or failed in +doing, and then came back, and this was in such a year:--brief records, +like the entry in an almanack, or the few emphatic words on a tombstone. + +At the period, however, we are now entering upon, the annals of maritime +discovery are fortunately enriched by the account of a voyager who could +tell more of the details of what he saw than we have hitherto heard from +other voyagers, and who was himself his own chronicler. + +In 1454, Ca da Mosto, a young Venetian, who had already gained some +experience in voyaging, happened to be on board a Venetian galley that was +detained by contrary winds at Cape St. Vincent. Prince Henry was then +living close to the Cape. He sent his secretary and the Venetian consul on +board the galley. They told of the great things the prince had done, +showed samples of the commodities that came from the lands discovered by +him (Madeira sugars, dragon's blood, and other articles), and spoke of the +gains made by Portuguese voyagers being as great as 700 or 1000 per cent. +Ca da Mosto expressed his wish to be employed, was informed of the terms +that would be granted, and heard that a Venetian would be well received by +the prince, "because he was of opinion, that spices and other rich +merchandise might be found in those parts, and know that the Venetians +understood these commodities better than any other nation." + +In fine, Ca da Mosto saw the prince, and was evidently much impressed by +his noble bearing. He obtained his wishes, and being furnished with a +caravel, he embarked his merchandise in it, and set off on a voyage of +discovery. There was now, for the first time, an intelligent man on board +one of these vessels, giving us his own account of the voyage. + + + TRADE WITH THE ARABS. + +From Ca da Mosto the reader at once learns the state of things with regard +to the slave-trade. The Portuguese factory at Argnim was the headquarters +of the trade. Thither came all kinds of merchandise; and gold and slaves +were taken back in return. The "Arabs" of that district (Moors, the +Portuguese would have called them) were the middle men in this affair. +They took their Barbary horses to the negro country, and "there bartered +with the great men for slaves," getting from ten to eighteen slaves for +each horse. They also brought silks of Granada and Tunis, and silver, in +exchange for which they received slaves and gold. These Arabs, or Moors, +had a place of trade of their own, called Hoden, behind Cape Blanco. There +the slaves were brought, "from whence," Ca da Mosto says, "they are sent +to the mountains of Barka, and from thence to Sicily; part of them are +also brought to Tunis and along the coast of Barbary, and the rest to +Argin, and sold to the licensed Portuguese. Every year between seven and +eight hundred slaves are sent from Argin to Portugal." + +"Before this trade was settled," says Ca da Mosto, "the Portuguese used to +seize upon the Moors themselves (as appears occasionally from the evidence +that has before been referred to), and also the Azenegues, who live +further towards the south; but now peace is restored to all, and the +Infante suffers no further damage to be done to these people. He is in +hopes, that by conversing with Christians, they may easily be brought over +to the Romish faith, as they are not, as yet, well established in that of +Mohammed, of which they know nothing but by hear-say." + + + THE SENEGAL RIVER. + +No doubt the prince's good intentions were greatly furthered by the +convenience of this mode of trading. In short, gain made for itself its +usual convenient channels to work in, and saved itself as much as it could +the trouble of discovery, or of marauding. Ca da Mosto being, as was said +before, the first modern European visiting Africa who himself gives an +account of it, and being, moreover, an honest and intelligent man, +possessing the rare combination of keen observation and clear narrative +power, all that he writes is most valuable. He notices the differences, +both as regards the people and the country, to be found on the opposite +sides of the Senegal River. On the northern side he finds the men small, +spare and tawny, the country arid and barren; on the southern side, the +men "exceeding black, tail, corpulent and well made; the country green, +and full of green trees." This latter is the country of Jalof, the same +that Prince Henry first heard of in his intercourse with the Moors. Both +men and women, Ca da Mosto says, wash themselves four or five times a day, +being very cleanly as to their persons, but not so in eating, in which +they observe no rule. They are full of words, and never have done talking; +and are, for the most part, liars and cheats. Yet, on the other hand, they +are very charitable; for they give a dinner or a night's lodging and a +supper, to all strangers who come to their houses, without expecting any +return. + + + KING BUDOMEL. + +Leaving the country of the Jalofs, Ca da Mosto proceeded eight hundred +miles further, as he says, (but he must, I think, have over-estimated his +reckoning,) to the country of a negro potentate, called King Budomel. Here +it appears that the religion, of the court at least, was Mohammedan, and +Ca da Mosto records a conversation which he had with Budomel upon the +subject. "The king asked him to give his opinion of their manner of +worship, and also some account of his own religion. Hereupon Ca da Mosto +told him, in presence of his doctors, that the religion of Mohammed was +false, and the Romish the true one. This made the Arabs mad, and Budomel +laugh; who, on this occasion, said that he looked upon the religion of the +Europeans to be good, for that none but God could have given them so much +riches and understanding. He added, however, that the Mohammedan law must +be also good; and that he believed the negroes were more sure of salvation +than the Christians; because God was a just Lord, and therefore, as He had +given the latter Paradise in this world, it ought to be possessed in the +world to come by the negroes, who had scarcely anything here, in +comparison with the others." + + + THE RIVER GAMBRA + +From Budomel's country the voyagers, sailing southwards, came to the river +Gambra (now called Gambia), which they entered, but could not succeed in +conciliating the natives, who attacked them with signal valour, and +maintained the contest with almost unparalleled bravery, considering that +the arms used by the Europeans were totally unknown to their opponents. + + + FURTHER DISCOVERIES. + +During their stay in this river Ca da Mosto and his companions saw the +constellation of the southern cross for the first time. Finding that the +natives would have nothing to do with them, + +for they believed that the Christians were very bad people, and bought +negroes to eat them, Ca da Mosto and the other commanders wished to +proceed a hundred miles further up the river; but the common sailors would +not hear of it, and the expedition forthwith returned to Portugal. + +Two years later, in 1456, Ca da Mosto made another voyage, in the course +of which he discovered the Cape de Verde Islands. Leaving them, he went +again to the Gambia River, which he ascended much further than he had done +during his previous expedition, and he also succeeded on this occasion in +conciliating the natives. Then he went down the coast, passed Cape Roxo, +and afterwards sailed up the Rio Grande, but, from want of any knowledge +of the language of the people, was unable to prosecute his explorations +among them. + +Some time between 1460 and 1464, an expedition went out under Pedro de +Cintra, one of the King of Portugal's gentlemen, to make further +discoveries along the African coast. These voyagers, whose story is +briefly told by Ca da Mosto, discovered Sierra Leone (so called on account +of the roaring thunder heard there), and went a little beyond Cape +Mesurado. The precise date of this voyage is uncertain, but we may fairly +consider Sierra Leone as being the point attained at, or about, the death +of Prince Henry in 1463, of whose character, before parting with him, +something deserves to be said. + + + DEATH OF PRINCE HENRY. + +This great leader of maritime discovery resembled Columbus strongly in one +thing, namely, his unity of purpose. He resembled him, too, in his +patience and in his unvarying confidence of success, even under +disappointment. "He was bold and valorous in war, versed in arts and +letters; a skilful fencer; in the mathematics superior to all men of his +time; generous in the extreme; most zealous for the increase of the faith. +No bad habit was known in him. His memory was equal to the authority he +bore, and his prudence equal to his memory." [Faria y Sousa.] And to +this character the chronicler, Azurara, who evidently knew the prince +well, and speaks with perfect honesty about him, adds two or three of +those little niceties of description which give life and reality to the +picture. He says that the prince was a man of great counsel and authority, +wise and of good memory, but in some things slow, whether it was through +the prevalence of the phlegmatic temperament in his constitution, or from +intentional deliberation, being moved to some end which men did not +perceive. + + + HIS CHARACTER. + +It was this temperament, probably, that made the prince incapable of +"ill-will against any person, however great the injury he had received +from him," so that this placidity of disposition seemed an actual fault in +him. He was accordingly thought "deficient in distributive justice." There +are instances in his conduct which bear out this, and one especially, in +which he is stated to have overlooked the desertion of his banner, on an +occasion of great peril to himself, and afterwards to have unjustly +favoured the persons who had thus been found wanting in courage. This, no +doubt, was an error on his part, but at least it was an heroic one, such +as belonged to the first Caesar; and in the estimation of the prince's +followers, it probably added to their liking for the man what little it +may have taken away from their confidence in the precision of his justice +as a commander. + + + PRINCE HENRY'S CHARACTER. + +We learn, from the same authority, that his house was the resort of all +the good men of the kingdom, and of foreigners, and that he was a man of +intense labour and study. "Often the sun found him in the same place where +it had left him the day before, he having watched throughout the whole arc +of the night without any rest." + +Altogether, whether we consider this prince's motives, his objects, his +deeds, or his mode of life, we must acknowledge him to be one of the most +notable men, not merely of his own country and period, but of modern times +and of all nations, and one upon whose shoulders might worthily rest the +arduous beginnings of continuous maritime discovery. Would that such men +remained to govern the lands they have the courageous foresight to +discover! Then, indeed, they might take to themselves the motto talant de +bien jaire, which this prince, their great leader, caused to be inscribed +by his captains in many a land, that as yet, at least, has not found much +good from its introduction, under his auspices, to the civilization of an +older world. + + + PRESTER JOHN + +Hurrying over this preliminary sketch, we may briefly note that about six +years after Prince Henry's death, the Gold Coast was explored by Fernando +Gomez, and the Portuguese fort was built there which Columbus afterwards +visited; that Fernando Po discovered an island which was then called +Formosa, but which is now known by the name of its discoverer; and that +Diego Cam, accompanied, it is said, by Martin Behaim (Martin of Bohemia), +the most celebrated geographer of those times--to whom, by the way, some +of the credit exclusively due to Columbus has been rather unfairly +given--discovered the kingdom of Congo. About this time an ambassador sent +to the King of Portugal by the sovereign of Benin, a territory between the +Gold Coast and Congo, happened to speak about a greater power in Africa +than his master, to whom indeed his master was but the vassal. This +instantly set the Portuguese king thinking about Prester John, of whom +legends spoke as a Christian king ruling over a Christian nation somewhere +in what was vaguely called the Indies; and the search after whom is, in +maritime discovery, what the alchemist's pursuit after the philosopher's +stone was in chemistry. The king concluded that this "greater power" must +be Prester John; and accordingly Bartholomew Diaz and two other captains +were sent out on further discovery. They did not find Prester John, but +made their way southwards along a thousand and fifty miles of new coast, +as far as a cape which, from experience, they called Cape Stormy, but +which their master, seeing in its discovery an omen of better things, +renamed as the Cape of Good Hope. + + + BARTHOLOMEW COLUMBUS. + +It is a fact of great historical interest, and a singular link between +African and American discovery, that Bartholomew Columbus, brother of +Christopher, was engaged in this voyage. The authority for this important +statement is Las Casas, who says that he found, in a book belonging to +Christopher Columbus, being one of the works of Cardinal Aliaco, a note +"in Bartholomew Colon's handwriting," (which he knew well, having several +of the letters and papers concerning the expedition in his own +possession), which note gives a short account, in bad Latin, of the +voyage, mentions the degree of latitude of the Cape, and concludes with +the words "in quibus omnibus interfui." + + + PASSAGE IN THE "LUSIADAS" + +In fiction, too, this voyage of Bartholomew Diaz was very notable, as +it presented an occasion for the writing of one of the most celebrated +passages in modern poetry, a passage not easily to be surpassed for its +majesty and tenderness, and for a beauty which even those tiresome +allusions to the classics, that give a faded air to so much of the poetry +of the sixteenth century, cannot seriously disfigure nor obscure. + +It is to be found in the Lusiadas of Camoens, and indicates the +culminating point of Portuguese discovery in Africa, as celebrated by the +national poet. + +Just as the mariners approach the Cape, a cloud rises, darkens the air, +and then discloses a monstrous giant, with deep-set, caverned eyes, of +rugged countenance, and pallid earthy colour, vast as that statue of +Apollo, the colossal wonder of the world. In solemn language, this awful +shape pours forth disastrous prophecies, and threatens his highest +vengeance on those who have discovered him--maledictions which, alas! may +be securely uttered against those who accomplish aught that is bolder than +has hitherto been attempted by their fellow men. + +When vexed by the question "Who art thou?" the "stupendous body" harshly +and mournfully replies, that he is that great stormy Cape, hitherto hidden +from mankind, whom their boldness in discovering much offends. + +He then relates the touching story of his love: how he was Adamastor, of +the race of Titans, and how he loved Thetis, the fairest being of the sea; +and how, deceived by the (magic) arts of her "who was the life of his +body," he found himself caressing a rough and horrid crag instead of her +sweet, soft countenance; and how, crazed by grief and by dishonour, he +wandered forth to seek another world, where no one should behold him and +mock his misery; how still the vengeance of the gods pursued him; and how +he felt his flesh gradually turning into rock, and his members extending +themselves among the long waves; and how, for ever to increase his agony, +the beautiful Thetis still encircled him. + +Having told his grief, he made himself into a dark cloud (Desfez-se a +nuvem negra), and the sea roared far off with a sonorous sound. And then +the Portuguese mariner lifted up his hands in prayer to the sacred chorus +of angels, who had guided the vessel so long on its way, and prayed +God to remove the fulfilment of the evil things which Adamastor had +prophesied against his nation. + +The Genius of the Stormy Cape might have taken up a direr song of prophecy +against the inhabitants of the unfortunate land of which he formed so +conspicuous and mournful a prominence. + + + COVILHAM AND PAIVA. + +Maritime discovery had now, by slow and painful degrees, proceeded down +the coast of Africa, nearly to the southernmost point, and from thence +will soon be curving round in due course to India. But expeditions by sea +were not the only modes of discovery undertaken by the Portuguese in the +reign of John the Second of Portugal. Pedro de Covilham and Alfonso de +Paiva went on an enterprise of discovery mainly by land. The latter died +at Cairo, the former made his way to Cananor, Calecut, and Goa, and thence +back to Cairo, where he found that his companion had died. He then set out +again, and eventually came into the kingdom of Shoa, [5]to the court of +"the King of Habbesh," who fulfilled sufficiently in Covilham's eyes, the +idea of Prester John, and was accordingly called so. It is a curious +coincidence, that an ambassador from the King of Habbesh, called Lucas +Marcos, a priest of that country, came about this time to Rome and +afterwards to Lisbon, which circumstance gave a new impetus to all the +King of Portugal's "hopes, wishes, and endeavours." + + [Footnote 5: A country in the south of Abyssinia. Tegulet, the ancient + capital of Shoa, is in 38 degrees 40' E. long., and 9 degrees 45' N. + lat.] + + + BEMOIN, PRINCE OF JALOF. + +A more remarkable person even than an ambassador from Prester John arrived +nearly at the same time at Lisbon. This was Bemoin, Prince of Jalof. +Bemoin came to seek the protection of the King of Portugal, and the reason +of his coming was as follows. He was the brother, on the mother's side, of +Brian, King of Jalof. This king was inert and vicious. He had, however, +the wisdom to make Bemoin prime minister, and to throw all the cares and +troubles of governing upon him. Nothing was heard in the kingdom but of +Bemoin. But he, seeing, perhaps, the insecurity of his position, +diligently made friends with the Portuguese, keeping aloof, however, from +becoming a convert, though he listened respectfully to those who expounded +the Christian faith to him. Cibitab, a brother of the inert Brian, by +the father's side, became jealous of Bemoin, revolted, killed Brian, and +vanquished Bemoin, who thereupon threw himself upon the protection of his +Portuguese friends, and came to Lisbon. + + + BEMOIN'S RECEPTION AT LISBON, + +Bemoin was received magnificently by King John of Portugal. The negro +prince had formerly alleged that one of his reasons for not becoming a +Christian was the fear of disgusting his followers; but, being in +Portugal, that reason no longer held good, and he became a convert, being +baptized as Don John Bemoin, having King John for a godfather. Twenty-four +of Bemoin's gentlemen received baptism after him. This is the account of +his reception. "Bemoin, because he was a man of large size and fine +presence, about forty years old, with a long and well-arranged beard, +appeared indeed not like a barbarous pagan, but as one of our own princes, +to whom all honour and reverence were due. With equal majesty and gravity +of demeanour he commenced and finished his oration, using such inducements +to make men bewail his sad fortune in exile, that only seeing these +natural signs of sorrow, people comprehended what the interpreter +afterwards said. Having finished the statement of his case as a good +orator would, in declaring that his only remedy and only hope was in the +greatness and generosity of the king, with whom he spoke aside for a short +time, he was answered by the king in few words, so much to his +satisfaction that immediately it made a change in his whole look, spirits, +and bearing, rendering him most joyous. Taking leave of the king, he went +to kiss the queen's hand, and then that of the prince, to whom he said a +few words, at the end of which he prayed the prince that he would +intercede in his favour with the king. And thence he was conducted to his +lodgings by all the nobility that had accompanied him." + +After this, Bemoin had many conversations with the king, and always +acquitted himself well. Amongst other things, he gave information +respecting various African nations, and especially of the king of a Jewish +people, who in many things resembled Christians. Here again the Portuguese +monarch was delighted at finding himself upon the traces of Prester John. + + + BEMOIN'S FATE + +It must not be forgotten to mention, that the king made great rejoicings +in honor of Bemoin's conversion, on which occasion the negro prince's +attendants performed singular feats on horseback. + +Bemoin maintained his favour at the Portuguese court, and succeeded in his +object of obtaining military assistance. He was sent back to his own +country with a Portuguese squadron of twenty caravels, which had for its +instructions, besides his restitution, to found a fort on the banks of the +river Senegal. + +The Portuguese arrived at the river, and began building the fort, but are +said to have chosen an unhealthy spot to build on. Whether they could have +chosen a healthy one is doubtful. The commander, however, Pedro Vaz, +thought that there was treachery on Bemoin's part, and killed him with the +blow of a dagger on board his vessel. The building was discontinued, and +Pedro Vaz returned to Portugal, where he found the king excessively vexed +and displeased at the fate of Bemoin. + + + PRINCE HENRY'S PERSEVERANCE. + +The historian may now stop in his task of tracing Portuguese discovery +along the coast of Africa. We have seen it making its way with quiet +perseverance, for seventy years, from Cape Nam to the Cape of Good Hope, a +distance of some six thousand miles. This long course of discovery has +been almost entirely thrown into shade by the more daring and brilliant +discovery of America, which we have now to enter upon. Yet these +proceedings on the African coast had in them all the energy, perseverance, +and courage which distinguished American discovery. Prince Henry himself +was hardly a less personage than Columbus. They had different elements to +contend in. But the man whom princely wealth and position, and the +temptation to intrigue which there must have been in the then state of the +Portuguese court, never induced to swerve from the one purpose which he +maintained for forty years, unshaken by popular clamour, however sorely +vexed he might be with inward doubts and misgivings; who passed laborious +days and watchful nights in devotion to this one purpose, enduring the +occasional short-comings of his agents with that forbearance which springs +from a care for the enterprise in hand, so deep as to control private +vexation (the very same motive which made Columbus bear so mildly with +insult and contumely from his followers),--such a man is worthy to be put +in comparison with the other great discoverer who worked out his +enterprise through poverty, neglect, sore travail, and the vicissitudes of +courts. Moreover, it must not be forgotten that Prince Henry was +undoubtedly the father of modern geographical discovery, and that the +result of his exertions must have given much impulse to Columbus, if it +did not first move him to his great undertaking. After the above eulogium +on Prince Henry, which is not the least more than he merited, his kinsmen, +the contemporary Portuguese monarchs, should come in for their share of +honourable mention, as they seem to have done their part in African +discovery with much vigour, without jealousy of Prince Henry, and with +high and noble aims. It would also be but just to include, in some part of +this praise, the many brave captains who distinguished themselves in these +enterprises. + + + SPIRIT OF ENTERPRISE + +How far the great discoverer, on whose career we are about to enter, was +himself actually concerned in these African expeditions we have no means +of deciding. But there can be little doubt that this raising the curtain +of the unknown, this glimpse of new countries, gave a keen stimulus to the +researches of geographers, and, in fact, set the fashion of discovery. +Men's minds were drawn into this special channel; and it remained for +Christopher Columbus first to form a sound theory out of the conflicting +views of the cosmographers, and finally to carry out that theory with the +boldness and resolution which have made his name one of those beacon-fires +which carry on from period to period the tidings of the world's great +history through successive ages. + + + +CHAPTER II. Early Years of Columbus. + + + BIRTH OF COLUMBUS + +The question of Columbus's birthplace has been almost as hotly contested +as that of Homer's. A succession of pamphleteers had discussed the +pretensions of half a dozen different Italian villages to be the +birthplace of the great navigator; but still archaeologists were divided +on the subject, when, at a comparatively recent period, the discovery of +the will in which Columbus bequeathed part of his property to the Bank of +Genoa, conclusively settled the point in favour of that city. "Thence I +came," he says, "and there was I born." As to the date of his birth there +is no such direct evidence; and conjectures and inferences, founded on +various statements in his own writings, and in those of his +contemporaries, range over the twenty years from 1436 to 1456, in +attempting to assign the precise time of his appearance in the world. Mr. +Irving adopts the earlier of these two dates, upon the authority of a +remark by Bernaldez, the curate of Los Palacios, which speaks of the death +of Columbus in the year 1506, "at a good old age, being seventy years old, +a little more or less." But this statement has an air of vagueness, and +is, moreover, inconsistent with several passages in Columbus's own +letters.[6] And the evidence of the ancient authorities who seem +most to be relied on, points rather to the year 1447 or 1448 as the +probable date. + + [Footnote 6: "His hair," says his son Fernando, "turned white before + he was thirty." This would add to his apparent age, and might have + deceived Bernaldez.] + + HIS EDUCATION. + +His father was a wool-carder; but this fact does not necessarily imply, in +a city of traders like Genoa, that his family was of particularly humble +origin. At any rate, like most others, when the light of a great man's +birth is thrown upon its records, real and possible, it presents some +other names not altogether unworthy to be inscribed among the great man's +ancestors. Christopher was not, he says in a letter to a lady of the +Spanish court, the first admiral of his family--referring, evidently, to +two naval commanders bearing his name, who had attained some distinction +in the maritime service of Genoa and France, and the younger of whom, +Colombo el Mozo, was in command of a French squadron in the expedition +undertaken by John of Anjou against Naples for the recovery of the +Neapolitan crown. But his relationship with these Colombos, if traceable +at all, was probably only a very distant one, and his son, in admitting +this, wisely says that the glory of Christopher is quite enough, without, +there being a necessity to borrow any from his ancestors. + +At a very early age he became a student at the University of Pavia, where +he laid the foundations of that knowledge of mathematics and natural +science, which stood him in good stead throughout his life. At Genoa he +would naturally regard the sea as the great field of enterprise which +produced harvests of rich wares and spoils of glorious victories; and he +may have heard, now and then, news of the latest conclusions of the +Arabic geographers at Senaar, and rumours of explorations down the African +coast, which would be sure to excite interest among the maritime +population of his birthplace. It is not wonderful that, exposed to such +influences, he preferred a life of adventure on the sea to the drudgery of +his father's trade in Genoa. Accordingly, after finishing his academical +course at Pavia, he spent but a few irksome months as a carder of wool +(tector panni) and actually entered on his nautical career before he was +fifteen years old. + + + EARLY VOYAGES OF COLUMBUS. + +Of his many voyages, which of them took place before, and which after, his +coming to Portugal, we have no distinct record; but are sure that he +traversed a large part of the known world, that he visited England, that +he made his way to Iceland and Friesland[7] (where he may possibly have +heard vague tales of the discoveries by the Northmen in North America), +that he had been at El Mina, on the coast of Guinea, and that he had seen +the Islands of the Grecian Archipelago. "I have been seeking out the +secrets of nature for forty years," he says, "and wherever ship has +sailed, there have I voyaged." But beyond a few vague allusions of this +kind, we know scarcely anything of these early voyages. However, he +mentions particularly his having been employed by King Rene of Provence to +intercept a Venetian galliot. And this exploit furnishes illustrations +both of his boldness and his tact. During the voyage the news was brought +that the galliot was convoyed by three other vessels. Thereupon the crew +were unwilling to hazard an engagement, and insisted that Columbus should +return to Marseilles for re-inforcement. Columbus made a feint of +acquiescence, but craftily arranged the compass so that it appeared that +they were returning, while they were really steering their original +course, and so arrived at Carthagena on the next morning, thinking all the +while that they were in full sail for Marseilles. + + [Footnote 7: The account of this voyage to the north of Europe, as + commonly quoted, furnishes a singular instance of the inaccuracy of + translators in the matter of figures. Columbus is there made to say, + that at the Ultima Thule, which be reached, "the tides were so great as + to rise and fall twenty-six fathoms," i.e. 156 feet. Of course this an + absurdity; for no tides in Europe rise much above 50 feet. We have no + record of the exact words used by Columbus, but in the extant Italian + translation he is made to speak of the rise being venti sei bracchia, + i.e. twenty-six ells (not fathoms), or about fifty-two feet. But even + this reduced estimate must be excessive. Except in the Bristol Channel + there is no rise of tide in the seas of Northern Europe which at all + approaches this limit. At Reikiavik (Iceland) the rise is seventeen and + a half feet. In Greenland it varies from a minimum of seven feet at + Julianshaab to a maximum of twelve and a half feet at Frederikshaab.] + + + CHARACTERISTICS OF COLUMBUS + +Considering how much more real the hero of a biography appears if we can +picture him accurately in our mind's eye, and see him "in his habit as he +lived," it is singularly unfortunate that the personal appearance of +Columbus has been so variously described by the old historians that it is +impossible to speak with certainty on the subject. Strangely enough, too, +no well-authenticated portrait of the great discoverer exists. Ferdinand +Columbus, who would be a good authority, fails to give us, in describing +his father, any of those little touches which make up a good literary +photograph. We learn, however, that he had a commanding presence, that he +was above the middle height, with a long countenance, rather full cheeks, +an aquiline nose, and light grey eyes full of expression. His hair was +naturally light in colour, but, as has been already stated, it turned +nearly white while he was still a young man. + +The peculiar characteristics of his mind are such as we might naturally +expect to find in the originator of such a work as the discovery of +America,--who was, indeed, one of the great spirits of the earth; but +still of the same order of soul to which great inventors and discoverers +have mostly belonged. Lower down, too, in mankind, there is much of the +same nature leading to various kinds of worthy deeds, though there are no +more continents for it to discover. + +But to return to the renowned personage of whom we are speaking. There was +great simplicity about him, and much loyalty and veneration. The truly +great are apt to believe in the greatness of others, and so to be loyal in +their relations here; while, for what is beyond here, a large measure of +veneration belongs to them, as having a finer and more habitually present +consciousness than most men of something infinitely above what even their +imaginations can compass. He was as magnanimous as it was possible, +perhaps, for so sensitive and impassioned a person to be. He was humane, +self-denying, courteous. He had an intellect of that largely inquiring +kind which may remind us of our great English philosopher, Bacon. He was +singularly resolute and enduring. The Spaniards have a word, longanimidad, +which has been well applied in describing him, as it signifies greatness +and constancy of mind in adversity. He was rapt in his designs, having a +ringing for ever in his ears of great projects, making him deaf to much, +perhaps, that prudence might have heeded:--one to be loved by those near +him, and likely by his presence to inspire favour and respect. + + + COLUMBUS'S DESIRE FOR DISCOVERY. + +At what precise period his great idea came into his mind we have no means +of ascertaining. The continuous current of Portuguese discoveries had, as +we have seen, excited the mind of Europe, and must have greatly influenced +Columbus, living in the midst of them. This may be said without in the +least detracting from his merits as a discoverer. In real life people do +not spring from something baseless to something substantial, as people in +sick dreams. A great invention or discovery is often like a daring leap, +but it is from land to land, not from nothing to something; and if we look +at the subject with this consideration fully before us, we shall probably +admit that Columbus had as large a share in the merit of his discovery as +most inventors or discoverers can lay claim to. If the idea which has +rendered him famous was not in his mind at the outset of his career of +investigation, at any rate he had from the first a desire for discovery, +or, as he says himself, the wish to know the secrets of this world. It may +be a question whether this impulse soon brought him to his utmost height +of survey, and that he then only applied to learning to confirm his first +views; or whether the impulse merely carried him along with growing +perception of the great truth he was to prove, into deep thinking upon +cosmographical studies, Portuguese discoveries, the dreams of learned men, +the labours of former geographers, the dim prophetic notices of great +unknown lands, and vague reports amongst mariners of driftwood seen on the +seas. But at any rate we know that he arrived at a fixed conclusion that +there was a way by the west to the Indies; that he could discover this +way, and so come to Cipango, Cathay, the Grand Khan, and all he had met +with in the gorgeous descriptions of Marco Polo and other ancient +authorities. We may not pretend to lay down the exact chronological order +of the formation of the idea in his mind, in fact, to know more about it +than he would probably have been able to tell us himself. And it must not +be forgotten that his enterprise, as compared with that of the Portuguese +along the coast of Africa, was as an invention compared to an improvement. +Each new discovery then was but a step beyond that which had preceded it; +Columbus was the first to steer boldly from shore into the waste of +waters, an originator, not a mere improver. + + + COLUMBUS'S THEORY. + +Fernando Columbus divides into three classes the grounds on which his +father's theory was based; namely, reasons from nature, the authority of +writers, and the testimony of sailors. He believed the world to be a +sphere; he under-estimated its size; he over-estimated the size of the +Asiatic continent. The farther that continent extended to the eastward the +nearer it came round towards Spain. And this, in a greater or less degree, +had been the opinion of the ancient geographers. Both Aristotle and Seneca +thought that a ship might sail "in a few days" from Cadiz to India. +Strabo, too, believed that it might be possible to navigate on the same +parallel of latitude, due west from the coast of Africa or Spain to that +of India. The accounts given by Marco Polo and Sir John Maundeville of +their explorations towards China confirmed the exaggerated idea of the +extent of Eastern Asia. + + + CARDINAL ALIACO'S "COSMOGRAPHIA." + +But of all the works of learned men, that which, according to Ferdinand +Columbus, had most weight with his father, was the "Cosmographia" of +Cardinal Aliaco. And this book affords a good illustration of the then +state of scientific knowledge. Learned arguments are interspersed with the +most absurd fables of lion-bodied men and dog-faced women; grave, and +sometimes tolerably sound, disquisitions on the earth's surface are mixed +up with the wildest stories of monsters and salamanders, of giants and +pigmies. It is here that we find the original of our modern acquaintance, +the sea-serpent, described as being "of huge size, so that he kills and +devours large stags, and is able to cross the ocean;" and the wonders of +the unknown world are enunciated with a circumstantial minuteness which +must have easily won the credence of a willing disciple like Columbus. He +was also confirmed in his views of the existence of a western passage to +the Indies by Paulo Toscanelli, the Florentine philosopher, to whom much +credit is due for the encouragement he afforded to the enterprise. That +the notices, however, of western lands were not such as to have much +weight with other men is sufficiently proved by the difficulty which +Columbus had in contending with adverse geographers and men of science in +general, of whom, he says, he never was able to convince any one. After a +new world had been discovered, many scattered indications were then found +to have foreshown it. "When he promised a new hemisphere," writes +Voltaire, "people maintained that it could not exist, and when he had +discovered it, that it had been known a long time." It was to confute such +detractors that he resorted to the well known expedient for making an egg +stand on end; an illustration of the meaning of originality which, by the +way, was not itself original, as Brunelleschi had already employed it when +his merit in devising a plan for raising the cupola of Florence cathedral +was questioned. + + + EVIDENCES OF A WESTERN WORLD. + +Of the amount of evidence furnished by the testimony of sailors, it is +difficult to speak with any degree of accuracy. Rumours of drift-wood, +apparently carved with some savage implements; of mammoth reeds, +corresponding with Ptolemy's account of those indigenous to India; even of +two corpses, cast up on one of the Azores, and presenting an appearance +quite unlike that of any race of Europe or Africa; all seem to have come +to the willing ears of Columbus, and to have been regarded by him as +"confirmations, strong as proofs of holy writ," of the great theory. + +About the year 1470 Columbus arrived at Lisbon. According to the account +given by his son, and adopted by the historian Bossi, he had sailed with +Colombo el Mozo (the nephew of that "first Admiral of the family" of whom +we have already heard) on a cruise to intercept some Venetian merchantmen +on their way home from Flanders. At break of day the battle began, off +Cape St. Vincent, and lasted till nightfall. The privateer commanded by +Columbus grappled a huge Venetian galley, which, after a hand-to-hand +struggle, caught fire, and the flames spread to the privateer. Friends and +enemies alike sought safety in the sea, and Columbus, supporting himself +on an oar, succeeded, when nearly exhausted, in gaining the land, which +was at some six miles distance. God preserved him, says his son, for +greater things. + + + COLUMBUS AT PORTO SANTO. + +It was probably not long after this that he married Donna Felipa Munnis +Perestrelo, who was residing at the convent of All Saints, in Lisbon, +where he was a regular attendant at the services of the church. She was a +daughter of that captain of Prince Henry's who has been already mentioned +as the first governor of Porto Santo. On that island, after a short +residence in the Portuguese capital, Columbus took up his abode, busying +himself with the papers of his deceased father-in-law, and earning a +livelihood by making maps and charts for sale. It is a curious fact that +the great chief of American discoverers should thus have inhabited a spot +which was the first advanced outpost in African discovery. He was here on +the high road to Guinea, and being in constant communication with the +explorers of the new regions, it was likely that he would become imbued +with some of their enthusiasm for adventure. + + + THE BISHOP OF CEUTA; RETURN OF THE CARAVEL. + +Shrouded in obscurity as this period of his life remains, we are only able +to find vague traditions of the unsuccessful effort which Columbus +made to induce the Senate of Genoa to take up his project. From the +Portuguese crown he could scarcely look for help, embroiled as it was in +costly wars, and having already a field for discovery along the African +coast, which it would scarcely be wise to forsake for an undertaking +similar in kind, but more hazardous and less definite. However, King John +the Second, to whom Columbus applied, seems to have listened with +attention to the exposition of his scheme, and indeed, according to the +account of Fernando, to have given a sort of qualified promise of his +support, but to have disagreed with Columbus as to terms. The king +referred the matter to a Committee of Council for Geographical Affairs, +before whom Columbus laid his plans; but it is possible that even in the +fifteenth century Boards had come to regard projectors as their natural +enemies, and the report of the Committee was entirely adverse to the +scheme for Atlantic discovery. But it seems that the king, was not +satisfied yet, whereupon the Bishop of Ceuta (who had headed the +opposition to Columbus in the Council) suggested that a caravel should be +secretly equipped and sent out, with instructions founded on the plan laid +before the committee. And this piece of episcopal bad faith was actually +perpetrated. The caravel, however, returned without having accomplished +anything, the sailors not having had heart to adventure far enough +westward. It was not an enterprise to be carried out successfully by men +who had only stolen the idea of it. + + + +CHAPTER III. Columbus in Spain. + + +Columbus, disgusted at the treatment he had received from the Portuguese +Court, quitted Lisbon for Spain, probably in the year 1485, with his son +Diego, the only issue of his marriage with Donna Felipa, now no longer +living. Here he addressed himself to the Duke of Medina Sidonia, and to +the Duke of Medina Celi, whose extensive possessions along the coasts of +Spain were likely to incline them in favour of a maritime expedition. +There is some uncertainty as to the degree of encouragement which he +received from them; but long afterwards, when Columbus had succeeded, the +Duke of Medina Celi wrote to the Cardinal of Spain showing that he (the +duke) had maintained Columbus two years in his house, and was ready to +have undertaken the enterprise, but that he saw it was one for the queen +herself, and even then he wished to have had a part in it. Probably, any +man in whose house Columbus resided for two years would have caught some +portion of his enthusiasm, and have been ready to take up his project. It +may be conjectured, however, that none of the nobles of the Spanish court +would have been likely to undertake the matter without some sanction from +the king or queen. + + + LETTER TO QUEEN ISABELLA. + +To the queen, accordingly, the Duke of Medina Celi addressed a letter, of +which Columbus was himself the bearer, commending his enterprise to the +royal favour. But the juncture was singularly inopportune for the +consideration of any peaceful project. The war with the Moors was raging +more and more furiously, as they were driven back, contesting every inch +of ground, farther and farther from the heart of the kingdom. The court +was now at Cordova, actively preparing for the campaign which was to +result in that subjugation of the crescent to the cross, throughout the +Peninsula, which was completed by the conquest of Granada some six years +later. Amid the clang of arms and the bustle of warlike preparation, +Columbus was not likely to obtain more than a slight and superficial +attention to a matter which must have seemed remote and uncertain. Indeed, +when it is considered that the most pressing internal affairs of kingdoms +are neglected by the wisest rulers in times of war, it is wonderful that +he succeeded in obtaining any audience at all. + + + COLUMBUS AT COURT; JUNTA OF COSMOGRAPHERS; DECISION OF THE JUNTA. + +However, he was fortunate enough to find at once a friend in the Treasurer +of the Household, Alonso de Quintanilla, a man who, like himself, "took +delight in great things," and who obtained a hearing for him from the +Spanish monarchs. Ferdinand and Isabella did not dismiss him abruptly. On +the contrary, it is said, they listened kindly; and the conference ended +by their referring the business to the Queen's Confessor, Fra Hernando de +Talavera, who was afterwards Archbishop of Granada. This important +functionary summoned a junta of cosmographers (not a promising +assemblage!) to consult about the affair, and this junta was convened at +Salamanca, in the summer of the year 1487. Here was a step gained; the +cosmographers were to consider his scheme, and not merely to consider +whether it was worth taking into consideration. But it was impossible for +the jury to be unprejudiced. All inventors, to a certain extent, insult +their contemporaries by accusing them of stupidity and of ignorance. And +the cosmographical pedants, accustomed to beaten tracks, resented the +insult by which this adventurer was attempting to overthrow the belief of +centuries. They thought that so many persons wise in nautical matters as +had preceded the Genoese mariner never could have overlooked such an idea +as this which had presented itself to his mind. Moreover, as the learning +of the middle ages resided for the most part in the cloister, the member's +of the junta were principally clerical, and combined to crush Columbus +with theological objections. Texts of Scripture were adduced to refute his +theory of the spherical shape of the earth, and the weighty authority of +the Fathers of the Church was added to overthrow the "foolish idea of the +existence of antipodes; of people who walk, opposite to us, with their +heels upwards and their heads hanging down; where everything is topsy +turvy, where the trees grow with their branches downwards, and where it +rains, hails, and snows upwards." King David, St. Paul, St. Augustine, +Lactantius, and a host of other theological authorities were all put in +evidence against the Genoese mariner: he was confronted by the +"conservatism of lawyers united to the bigotry of priests." Las Casas +displays his usual acuteness when he says that the great difficulty of +Columbus was, not that of teaching, but that of unteaching: not of +promulgating his own theory, but of eradicating the erroneous convictions +of the judges before whom he had to plead his cause. In fine, the junta +decided that the project was "vain and impossible, and that it did not +belong to the majesty of such great princes to determine anything upon +such weak grounds of information." + +Ferdinand and Isabella seem not to have taken the extremely unfavourable +view of the matter entertained by the junta of cosmographers, or at least +to have been willing to dismiss Columbus gently, for they merely said +that, with the wars at present on their hands, and especially that of +Granada, they could not undertake any new expenses, but when that war was +ended, they would examine his plan more carefully. + + + TEDIOUNESS OF COLUMBUS'S SUIT + +Thus terminated a solicitation at the court of Ferdinand and Isabella +which, according to some authorities, lasted five years; for the facts +above mentioned, though short in narration, occupied no little time in +transaction. During the whole of this period, Columbus appears to have +followed the sovereigns in the movements which the war necessitated, and +to have been treated by them with much consideration. Sums were from time +to time granted from the royal treasury for his private expenses, and he +was billeted as a public functionary in the various towns of Andalusia, +where the court rested. But his must have been a very up-hill task. Las +Casas, who, from an experience larger even than that which fell to the lot +of Columbus, knew what it was to endure the cold and indolent neglect of +superficial men in small authority, and all the vast delay, which cannot +be comprehended except by those who have suffered under it, that belongs +to the transaction of any affair in which many persons have to cooperate, +compares the suit of Columbus to a battle, "a terrible, continuous, +painful, prolix battle." The tide of this long war (for war it was, rather +than a battle) having turned against him, Columbus left the court, and +went to Seville "with much sadness and discomfiture." During this dreary +period of a suitor's life--which, however, has been endured by some of the +greatest men the world has seen, which was well known by close +observation, or bitter experience, to Spenser, Camoens, Cervantes, +Shakespeare, Bacon--one joy at least was not untasted by Columbus, +namely, that of love. His beloved Beatrice, whom he first met at Cordova, +must have believed in him, even if no one else had done so; but love was +not sufficient to retain at her side a man goaded by a great idea, or +perhaps that love did but impel him to still greater efforts for her sake, +as is the way with lovers of the nobler sort. + + + ENCOURAGEMENT OF FRIENDS; GARCIA HERNANDEZ. + +Other friends, too, shared his enthusiasm, and urged him onward. Juan +Perez de la Marchena, guardian of the monastery of La Rabida, in +Andalusia, had been the confessor of Queen Isabella, but had exchanged the +bustle of the court for the learned leisure of the cloister. The little +town of Palos, with its seafaring population and maritime interests, was +near the monastery, and the principal men of the place were glad to pass +the long winter evenings in the society of Juan Perez, discussing +questions of cosmography and astronomy. Among these visitors were Martin +Alonzo Pinzon, the chief shipowner of Palos, and Garcia Hernandez, the +village doctor; and one can fancy how the schemes of Columbus must have +appeared to the little conclave as a ray of sunlight in the dulness of +their simple life. Hernandez, especially, who seems to have been somewhat +skilled in physical science, and therefore capable of appreciating the +arguments of Columbus, became a warm believer in his project. It is worthy +of notice that a person who appears only once, as it were, in a sentence +in history, should have exercised so much influence upon it as Garcia +Hernandez, who was probably a man of far superior attainments to those +around him, and was in the habit of deploring, as such men do, his hard +lot in being placed where he could be so little understood. Now, however, +he was to do more at one stroke than many a man who has been all his days +before the world. Columbus had abandoned his suit at court in disgust, and +had arrived at the monastery before quitting Spain to fetch his son Diego, +whom he had left with Juan Perez to be educated. All his griefs and +struggles he confided to Perez, who could not bear to hear of his +intention to leave the country for France or England, and to make a +foreign nation greater by allowing it to adopt his project. The three +friends--the monk, the learned physician, and the skilled +cosmographer--discussed together the propositions so unhappily familiar to +the last named member of their little council. The affection of Juan Perez +and the learning of Hernandez were not slow to follow in the track which +the enthusiasm of the great adventurer made out before them; and they +became, no doubt, as convinced as Columbus himself of the feasibility of +his undertaking. The difficulty, however, was not in becoming believers +themselves, but in persuading those to believe who would have power to +further the enterprise. + + + PEREZ WRITES TO THE QUEEN. + +Their discussions upon this point ended in the conclusion that Juan Perez, +who was known to the queen, having acted as her confessor, should write to +her highness. He did so; and the result was favourable. The queen sent for +him, heard what he had to say, and in consequence remitted money to +Columbus to enable him to come to Court and renew his suit. + + + COLUMBUS'S CONDITIONS. + +He attended the court again; his negotiations were resumed, but were again +broken off on the ground of the largeness of the conditions which he asked +for. His opponents said that these conditions were too large if he +succeeded, and if he should not succeed and the conditions should come to +nothing, they thought that there was an air of trifling in granting such +conditions at all. And, indeed, they wore very large; namely, that he was +to be made an admiral at once, to be appointed viceroy of the countries he +should discover, and to have an eighth of the profits of the expedition. +The only probable way of accounting for the extent of these demands and +his perseverance in making them, even to the risk of total failure, is +that the discovering of the Indies was but a step in his mind to greater +undertakings, as they seemed to him, which he had in view, of going to +Jerusalem with an army and making another crusade. For Columbus carried +the chivalrous ideas of the twelfth century into the somewhat self-seeking +fifteenth. The negotiation, however, failed a second time, and Columbus +resolved again to go to France, when Alonzo de Quintanilla and Juan Perez +contrived to obtain a hearing for the great adventurer from Cardinal +Mendoza, who was pleased with him. Columbus then offered, in order to meet +the objections of his opponents, to pay an eighth part of the expense of +the expedition. Still nothing was done. + + + SANTANGLE'S ADDRESS. + +And now, finally, Columbus determined to go to France, and indeed had +actually set off one day in January of the year 1492, when Luis de +Santangel, receiver of the ecclesiastical revenues of the crown of Aragon, +a person much devoted to the plans of Columbus, addressed the queen with +all the energy that a man throws into his words when he is aware that it +is his last time for speaking in favour of a thing which he has much at +heart. He told her that he wondered that, as she always had a lofty mind +for great things, it should be wanting to her on this occasion. He +endeavoured to pique her jealousy as a monarch, by suggesting that the +enterprise might fall into the hands of other princes. Then he said +something in behalf of Columbus himself, and the queen was not unlikely to +know well the bearing of a great man. He intimated to her highness that +what was an impossibility to the cosmographers, might not be so in nature. +Nor, continued he, should any endeavour in so great a matter be attributed +to lightness, even though the endeavour should fail; for it is the part of +great and generous princes to ascertain the secrets of the world. Other +princes (he did not mention those of neighbouring Portugal) had gained +eternal fame this way. He concluded by saying that all the aid Columbus +wanted to set the expedition afloat, was but a million of maravedis +(equivalent to about 308 Pounds, English money of the period); and that so +great an enterprise ought not to be abandoned for the sake of such a +trifling sum. + + + SUCCESS OF THE ADDRESS. + +These well addressed arguments, falling in, as they did, with those of +Quintanilla, the treasurer, who had great influence with the queen, +prevailed. She thanked these lords for their counsel, and said she would +adopt it, but they must wait until the finances had recovered a little +from the drain upon them occasioned by the conquest of Granada, or if they +thought that the plan must be forthwith carried out, she would pledge her +jewels to raise the necessary funds. Santangel and Quintanilla kissed her +hands, highly delighted at succeeding; and Santangel offered to advance +the money required. Upon this the queen sent an alguazil to overtake +Columbus and bring him back to the court. He was overtaken at the bridge +of Pinos, two leagues from Granada; returned to Santa Fe, where the +sovereigns were encamped before Granada; was well received by Isabella; +and finally the agreement between him and their catholic highnesses was +settled with the secretary, Colama. + + + THE AGREEMENT SETTLED. + +Not much is seen of King Ferdinand in all these proceedings; and it is +generally understood that he looked rather coldly upon the propositions of +Columbus. We cannot say that he was at all unwise in so doing. His great +compeer, Henry the Seventh, did not hasten to adopt the same project +submitted to him by Bartholomew Columbus, sent into England[8] for that +purpose by his brother Christopher; and it has not been thought to +derogate from the English king's sagacity. + + [Footnote 8: It is difficult to determine how the project brought before + Henry the Seventh's notice by Bartholomew Columbus was received. Some + say it was made a mockery of at the English court; others speak of it as + actually accepted. Lord Bacon states that Bartholomew was taken by + pirates on his voyage to England, which delayed him so much that "before + he had obtained a capitulation with the king for his brother, the + enterprise by him was achieved." It is probable that Henry listened with + interest to Bartholomew Columbus, who was a man of much intelligence and + great maritime knowledge. But it seems unlikely that the negotiation + went very far, considering the rigid manner in which Columbus insisted + upon his exact conditions being accepted by the Spanish court. No such + bargain, at a distance, with a reserved and parsimonious monarch, was + likely, therefore, to have been concluded. It appears, however, from a + despatch from the Spanish ambassador to his sovereigns, dated the 25th + July, 1498, that the English were not behind other nations in a thirst + for discovery, "Merchants of Bristol," he says, "have for the last seven + years sent out annually some ships in search of the island of Brazil and + the Seven Cities." If this assertion is accurate, England must have + anticipated Spain in the search for, though not in the discovery of, the + western world.] + + + FATE OF PROJECTORS' PLANS. + +Those who govern are in all ages surrounded by projectors, and have to +clear the way about them as well as they can, and to take care that they +get time and room for managing their own immediate affairs. It is not to +be wondered at, therefore, if good plans should sometimes share the fate +which ought to attend, and must attend, the great mass of all projects +submitted to men in power. Here, however the ultimate event would justify +the monarch's caution; for it would be hard to prove that Spain has +derived aught but a golden weakness from her splendid discoveries and +possessions in the new world. + + + FERDINAND'S COLDNESS. + +Moreover, the characters of the two men being essentially opposed, it is +probable that Ferdinand felt something like contempt for the uncontrolled +enthusiasm of Columbus; and, upon the whole, it is rather to be wondered +that the king consented to give the powers he did, than that he did not do +more. Had it been a matter which concerned his own kingdom of Aragon, he +might not have gone so far; but the expenses were to be eventually charged +on Castille, and perhaps he looked upon the whole affair as another +instance of Isabella's good natured sympathy with enthusiasts. His own +cool and wary nature must have distrusted this "pauper pilot, promising +rich realms." [9] + + [Footnote 9: "Nudo nocchier, promettitor di regni:"--Chiabrea.] + + + COLUMBUS'S AGREEMENT WITH THE COURT OF SPAIN. + +The agreement between Columbus and their Catholic highnesses is to the +following effect:-- + +The favours which Christopher Columbus has asked from the King and Queen +of Spain in recompense of the discoveries which he has made in the ocean +seas, and as recompense for the voyage which he is about to undertake, are +the following:-- + +1. He wishes to be made admiral of the seas and countries which he is +about to discover. He desires to hold this dignity during his life, and +that it should descend to his heirs. + + This request is granted by the king and queen. + +2. Christopher Columbus wishes to be made viceroy of all the continents +and islands. + + Granted by the king and queen. + +3. He wishes to have a share, amounting to a tenth part, of the profits of +all merchandise, be it pearls, jewels, or any other things, that may be +found, gained, bought, or exported from the countries which he is to +discover. + + Granted by the king and queen. + +4. He wishes, in his quality of admiral, to be made sole judge of all +mercantile matters that may be the occasion of dispute in the countries +which he is to discover. + + Granted by the king and queen, on the condition, however, that this + jurisdiction should belong to the office of admiral, as held by Don + Enriquez and other admirals. + +5. Christopher Columbus wishes to have the right to contribute the eighth +part of the expenses of all ships which traffic with the new countries, +and in return to earn the eighth part of the profits. + + Granted by the king and queen. + +Santa Fe, in the Vega of Granada, + April 17, 1492. + +This agreement is signed by the Secretary Coloma and written by Almazan. + +Then there is a sort of passport or commendatory letter intended for +presentation to the Grand Khan, Prester John, or any other oriental +potentate at whose territories Columbus might arrive:-- + + FERDINAND AND ISABELLA TO KING-- + The sovereigns have heard that he and his subjects entertain great + love for them and for Spain. They are moreover informed that he and + his subjects very much[10] wish to hear news from Spain; and send, + therefore, their admiral, Ch. Columbus, who will tell them that they + are in good health and perfect prosperity. + + Granada, April 30, 1492. + + + [Footnote 10: This crediting the unknown ruler with an anxiety for the + welfare of the Spanish sovereigns is really a delicious piece of + diplomatic affectation.] + + + COLUMBUS GOES TO PALOS. + +Armed with these royal commissions, Columbus left the court for Palos; and +we may be sure that the knot of friends at the monastery were sufficiently +demonstrative in their delight at the scheme on which they had pinned +their faith being fairly launched. There was no delay in furnishing the +funds for the expedition. From an entry in an account-book belonging to +the Bishopric of Palencia, it appears that one million one hundred and +forty thousand maravedis were advanced by Santangel in May, 1492, "being +the sum he lent for paying the caravels which their highnesses ordered to +go as the armada to the Indies, and for paying Christopher Columbus, who +goes in the said armada." The town of Palos was ordered to provide two +vessels.[11] + + [Footnote 11: The requisition to the municipality of Palos runs thus: + "In consequence of the offence which we received at your hands, you were + condemned by our council to render us the service of two caravels, + armed, at your own expense, for the space of twelve months, whenever and + wherever it should be our pleasure to demand the same:" (30th April, + 1492.) A proclamation of immunity from civil and criminal process to + persons taking service in the expedition was issued at the same time. + The ship of Columbus was, therefore, a refuge for criminals and runaway + debtors, a cave of Adullam for the discontented and the desperate. To + have to deal with such a community was not of the least of Columbus's + difficulties.] + + + ORDER TO PRESS MEN. + +But there was still a weighty difficulty to be surmounted. It was no easy +matter to obtain crews for such an expedition. The sovereigns issued an +order authorizing Columbus to press men into the service, but still the +numbers were incomplete, for the mariners of Palos held aloof, unwilling +to risk their lives in what seemed to them the crazy project of a +monomaniac. But Juan Perez was active in persuading men to embark. The +Pinzons, rich men and skilful mariners of Palos, joined in the undertaking +personally, and aided it with their money, and, by these united exertions, +three vessels were manned with ninety mariners, and provisioned for a +year. + + + CHARACTER OF VESSELS AND CREWS. + +The vessels were all of small size, probably of not more than one hundred +tons' burden each, and, therefore, not larger than the American yachts, +whose ocean race from New York to Cowes was regarded as an example of +immense hardihood, even in the year 1867. But Columbus considered them +very suitable for the undertaking. The Santa Maria, which Columbus himself +commanded, was the only one of the three that was decked throughout. The +official persons and the crew on board her were sixteen in number. The two +other vessels were of the class called caravels, and were decked fore and +aft, but not amidships, the stem and the stern being built so as to rise +high out of the water. One of them, the "Pinta," was manned by a crew of +thirty, commanded by Martin Alonzo Pinzon. The other, the "Nina," had +Vincent Yanez Pinzon for captain, and a crew of twenty-four men. The +whole number of adventurers amounted to a hundred and twenty persons, men +of various nationalities, including, by the way, among them, two natives +of the British Isles. + + + +CHAPTER III. First Voyage. + +At length all the preparations were complete, and on a Friday (not +inauspicious in this case), the 3rd of August, 1492, after they had all +confessed and received the sacrament, they set sail from the Bar of +Saltes, making for the Canary Islands. One can fancy how the men and the +women of Palos watched the specks of white sails vanishing in the west, +and how, as each frail bark in turn disappeared in the great ocean, +mothers and sisters turned weepingly away as if from a last farewell at +the grave of their sailor kinsmen. + +Columbus was now fairly afloat, and we may say with Milton, that-- + + The world was all before him, where to choose. + And Providence his guide. + +His choice was made, however; and his Guide did not fail him. + + + CANARY ISLANDS REACHED. + +He was about to change the long-continued, weary, dismal life of a suitor, +for the sharp intense anxiety of a struggle in which there was no +alternative to success but deplorable, ridiculous, fatal failure. Speaking +afterwards of the time he spent as a suitor at court, he says, "Eight +years I was torn with disputes, and in a word, my proposition was a thing +for mockery." It was now to be seen what mockery was in it. The following +account of the voyage is mainly taken from an abridgment of Columbus's own +diary made by Las Casas, who in some places gives the admiral's own words. + +The little squadron reached the Canary Islands in a few days, with no +event worth recording, except that the caravel "Pinta," commanded Martin +Alonzo Pinzon, unshipped her rudder. This was supposed to be no accident, +but to have been contrived by the owners of the vessel, who did not like +the voyage. The admiral (from henceforth Columbus is called "the admiral") +was obliged to stay some time at the Canary Islands, to refit the +"Pinta," and to make some change in the cut of her sails. While this was +being done, news was brought that three Portuguese government vessels were +cruising in the offing with the intention of preventing the expedition. +However, on the 6th of September, Columbus set sail from Gomera, and +struck boldly out to sea, without meeting with any of his supposed +enemies. + + + RUMORS OF LAND SEEN. + +In the abridgment of the diary, under the date of the 19th of August, the +admiral remarks that many Spaniards of these islands, "respectable men," +swear that each year they see land; and he remembers how, in the year +1484, some one came from the island of Madeira to the King of Portugal to +beg a caravel in order to go and discover that land which he declared he +could see each year, and in the same manner. Had not the admiral been +conscious of the substantial originality of his proceedings, he would +hardly have been careful to collect these scattered notices which might +afterwards be used, as many like them were used, to depreciate that +originality. There is no further entry in the diary until the 6th of +September, when they set out from Gomera (one of the Canary Islands), on +their unknown way. For many days, what we have of the diary is little more +than a log-book, giving the rate of sailing, or rather two rates, one for +Columbus's own private heed, and the other for the sailors. On the 13th of +September it is noted that the needle declined in the evening to the +north-west, and on the ensuing morning, to the north-east, the first time +that such a variation had been observed, or, at least recorded by +Europeans. On the 14th, the sailors of the caravel "Nina" saw two tropical +birds, which they said were never wont to be seen at more than fifteen or +twenty leagues from shore. On the 15th they all saw a meteor fall from +heaven, which made them very sad. + + + PLAINS OF SEAWEED. + +On the 16th, they first came upon those immense plains of seaweed (the +fucus natans), which constitute the Mar de Sargasso, and which occupy a +space in the Atlantic almost equal to seven times the extent of France. +The aspect of these plains greatly terrified the sailors, who thought they +might be coming upon submerged lands and rocks; but finding that the +vessels cut their way well through this seaweed, the sailors thereupon +took heart. On the 17th, they see more of these plains of seaweed, and +thinking themselves to be near land, they are almost in good spirits, when +finding that the needle declines to the west a whole point of the +compass and more, their hopes suddenly sink again: they begin "to murmur +between their teeth," and to wonder whether they are not in another world. +Columbus, however, orders an observation to be taken at day-break, when +the needle is found to point to the north again; moreover he is ready with +a theory sufficiently ingenious for that time, to account for the +phenomenon of variation which had so disturbed the sailors, namely, that +it was caused by the north star moving round the pole. The sailors are, +therefore, quieted upon this head. + + + SIGNS OF LAND. + +In the morning of the same day they catch a crab, from which Columbus +infers that they cannot be more than eighty leagues distant from land. The +18th, they see many birds, and a cloud in the distance; and that night +they expect to see land. On the 19th, in the morning, comes a pelican (a +bird not usually seen twenty leagues from the coast); in the evening, +another; also drizzling rain without wind, a certain sign, as the diary +says, of proximity to land. + +The admiral, however, will not beat about for land, as he concludes that +the land which these various natural phenomena give token of, can only be +islands, as indeed it proved to be. He will see them on his return; but +now he must press on to the Indies. This determination shows his strength +of mind, and indicates the almost scientific basis on which his great +resolve reposed. + + + CONSPIRACY AMONG THE MEN. + +Accordingly, he was not to be diverted from the main design by any partial +success, though by this time he knew well the fears of his men, some of +whom had already come to the conclusion, "that it would be their best plan +to throw him quietly into the sea, and say he unfortunately fell in, while +he stood absorbed in looking at the stars." Indeed, three days after he +had resolved to pass on to the Indies, we find him saying, for Las Casas +gives his words, "Very needful for me was this contrary wind, for the +people were very much tormented with the idea that there were no winds on +these seas that could take them back to Spain." + + + HIS DETERMINATION TO PROCEED. + +On they go, having signs occasionally in the presence of birds and grass +and fish that land must be near; but land does not come. Once, too, they +are all convinced that they see land: they sing the "Gloria in excelsis;" +and even the admiral goes out of his course towards this land, which +turns out to be no land. They are like men listening to a dreadful +discourse or oration, that seems to have many endings which end not: so +that the hearer listens at last in grim despair, thinking that all things +have lost their meaning, and that ending is but another form of beginning. + +These mariners were stout-hearted, too; but what a daring thing it was to +plunge, down-hill as it were, into + + A world of waves, a sea without a shore, + Trackless, and vast, and wild, [Rogers] + +mocked day by day with signs of land that neared not. And these men had +left at home all that is dearest to man, and did not bring out any great +idea to uphold them, and had already done enough to make them important +men in their towns, and to furnish ample talk for the evenings of their +lives. Still we find Columbus, as late as the 3rd of October, saying, +"that he did not choose to stop beating about last week during those days +that they had such signs of land, although he had knowledge of there being +certain islands in that neighbourhood, because he would not suffer any +detention, since his object was to go to the Indies; and if he should stop +on the way, it would show a want of mind." + + + SIGNS OF LAND AGAIN. + +Meanwhile, he had a hard task to keep his men in any order. Peter Martyr, +who knew Columbus well, and had probably been favoured with a special +account from him of these perilous days, describes his way of dealing with +the refractory mariners, and how he contrived to win them onwards from day +to day; now soothing them with soft words, now carrying their minds from +thought of the present danger by spreading out large hopes before them, +not forgetting to let them know what their princes would say to them if +they attempted aught against him, or would not obey his orders. With this +untutored crowd of wild, frightened men around him, with mocking hopes, +not knowing what each day would bring to him, on went Columbus. At last +came the 11th of October, and with it indubitable signs of land. The diary +mentions their finding on that day a table-board and a carved stick, the +carving apparently wrought by some iron instrument. Moreover, the men in +one of the vessels saw a branch of a haw tree with fruit on it. + + + LIGHT ON SHORE. + +Now, indeed, they must be close to land. The sun went down upon the same +weary round of waters which for so long a time their eyes had ached to see +beyond, when, at ten o'clock, Columbus, standing on the poop of his +vessel, saw a light, and called to him, privately, Pedro Gutierrez, a +groom of the king's chamber, who saw it also. Then they called Rodrigo +Sanchez, who had been sent by their highnesses as overlooker. I imagine +him to have been a cold and cautious man, of the kind that are sent by +jealous states to accompany and curb great generals, and who are not +usually much loved by them. Sanchez did not see the light at first, +because, as Columbus says, he did not stand in the place where it could be +seen; but at last even he sees it, and it may now be considered to have +been seen officially. "It appeared like a candle that went up and down, +and Don Christopher did not doubt that it was true light, and that it was +on land; and so it proved, as it came from people passing with lights from +one cottage to another." + + + THE PROMISED PENSION. + +Their highnesses had promised a pension of ten thousand maravedis to the +fortunate man who should see land first. The "Pinta" was the foremost +vessel; and it was from her deck, at two o'clock in the morning, that land +was first seen by Rodrigo de Triana. We cannot but be sorry for this poor +common sailor, who got no reward, and of whom they tell a story, that in +sadness and despite, he passed into Africa, after his return to Spain, and +became a Mahometan. The pension was adjudged to the admiral: it was +charged, somewhat ominously, on the shambles of Seville, and was paid him +to the day of his death; for, says the historian Herrera, "he saw light in +the midst of darkness, signifying the spiritual light which was introduced +amongst these barbarous people, God permitting that, the war being +finished with the Moors, seven hundred and twenty years after they had set +foot in Spain, this work (the conversion of the Indians) should commence, +so that the Princes of Castille and Leon might always be occupied in +bringing infidels to the knowledge of the Holy Catholic faith." + + + RELIGIOUS MOTIVIES. + +These last words are notable. They are such as Columbus himself would +probably have made use of in describing this, the crowning event of his +life. In the preface to his diary, which is an address to Ferdinand and +Isabella, he speaks at large of the motives of their highnesses. He begins +by saying how, in this present year of 1492, their highnesses had +concluded their war with the Moors, having taken the great city of +Granada, at the siege of which he was present, and saw the royal banners +placed upon the towers of the Alhambra. He then tells how he had given +information to their highnesses of the lands of India, and of a prince, +called the Grand Khan, who had sent ambassadors to Rome, praying for +doctors to instruct him in the faith; and how the Holy Father had never +provided him with these doctors; and that great towns were perishing, from +the belief of their inhabitants in idolatry, and from receiving amongst +them "sects of perdition." After the above statement, he adds, "Your +highnesses, as Catholic Christians and princes, lovers and furtherers of +the Christian faith, and enemies of the sect of Mahomet, and of all +idolatries and heresies, thought to send me, Christopher Columbus, to the +aforesaid provinces of India to see the aforesaid princes, the cities and +lands, and the disposition of them and of everything about them, and the +way that should be taken to convert them to our holy faith." + + + GOOD FAITH OF COLUMBUS. + +Columbus then speaks of the expulsion of the Jews from Spain as occurring +at the same time as that in which he received orders to pursue a westerly +course to India, thus combining the two transactions together, no doubt as +proofs of the devout intentions of their highnesses: and, indeed, +throughout the document, he ascribes no motives to the monarchs but such +as were religious. + +The diary to which this address was prefixed is probably one of the books +which their highnesses allude to in a letter to Columbus, as being in +their possession, and which they assured him they had not shown to +anybody. I see no reason to doubt the perfect good faith of Columbus in +making such a statement as that just referred to; and it is well to remark +upon it, because we shall never come to a right understanding of those +times and of the question of slavery as connected with them, unless we +fully appreciate the good as well as the bad motives which guided the most +important persons of that era. + + + CHARACTER OF THE QUEEN. + +As for Queen Isabella, there can be no doubt about her motives. Even in +the lamentably unjust things in which she was but too often concerned, she +had what, to her mind, was compelling reason to act as she did. Perhaps +there is hardly any great personage whose name and authority are found in +connection with so much that is strikingly evil, all of it done, or rather +assented to, upon the highest and purest motives. Whether we refer to the +expulsion of the Jews, the treatment of the Moorish converts, or the +establishment of the Inquisition, all her proceedings in these matters +were entirely sincere and noble-minded. Methinks I can still see her +beautiful majestic face (with broad brow, and clear, honest, loving eye), +as it looks down upon the beholder from one of the chapels in the +cathedral at Granada: a countenance too expressive and individual to be +what painters give as that of an angel, and yet the next thing to it. Now, +I could almost fancy, she looks down reproachfully, and yet with conscious +sadness. What she would say in her defence, could we interrogate her, is, +that she obeyed the voice of heaven, taking the wise and good men of her +day as its interpreters. Oh! that she had but persisted in listening to +it, as it spoke in her own kindly heart, when with womanly pity she was +wont to intercede in favour of the poor cooped-up inmates of some closely +beleaguered town or fortress! But at least the poor Indian can utter +nothing but blessing's on her. He might have needed no other "protector" +had she lived; nor would slavery have found in his fate one of the darkest +and most fatal chapters in its history. + + + + LANDING IN THE NEW WORLD. + +But now, from Granada, and our fancies there, the narrative brings us +back to the first land touched by Columbus. The landing of Columbus in the +New World must ever be a conspicuous fact in the annals of mankind, and it +was celebrated by a ceremonial worthy of the occasion. On the ensuing +morning, after the light had been observed from the ships, being a Friday, +the 12th of October, 1492, Columbus, clad in complete armour, and carrying +in his hand the royal banner of Spain, descended upon the level shores of +the small island [San Salvador, one of the Bahamas] which had first +greeted him, and which he found to be very fruitful--fresh and verdant, +and "like a garden full of trees." The other captains accompanied him, +each of them bearing a banner with a green cross depicted upon it, and +with the initials of Ferdinand and Isabella surmounted by their respective +crowns--a device that well expressed the loyalty and devotion of Columbus, +and had been chosen by him. These chief officers were followed by a large +retinue from their crews. In numerous lines along the shore stood the +simple islanders, looking on with innocent amazement. + + + THEIR GRATITUDE. + +On touching land, Columbus and all the Spaniards who were present fell +upon their knees, and with tears--tears of that deepest kind which men do +not know the cause of--poured forth their "immense thanksgivings to +Almighty God." + +The man who, of all that embassage, if we may call it so, from the Old to +the New World, was certainly the least surprised by all he saw, was, at +the same time, the most affected. For thus it is, that the boldness of a +great design is never fully appreciated by the designer himself until he +has apparently accomplished his work, when he is apt, if it be indeed a +great work, to look back with shuddering awe at his own audacity in having +proposed it to mankind. The vast resolve which has sustained such a man +throughout his long and difficult enterprise, having for the moment +nothing to struggle against, dies away, leaving a strange sinking at the +heart: and thus the greatest successes are often accompanied by a peculiar +and bewildering melancholy. New difficulties, however, bred from success +(for nothing is complete in life), soon arise to summon forth again the +discoverer's energies, and to nerve him for fresh disappointments and +renewed endeavours. Columbus will not fail to have his full share of such +difficulties. + + + GENERAL RECONCILATION. + +The followers of the great man, whose occasional faintheartedness must +often have driven all sleep from his weary eyelids throughout the watches +of the night, now began to think with remorse how much suffering they had +needlessly inflicted upon their greatly-enduring leader. They sought his +pardon with tears, and, subdued for the moment by his greatness when +illustrated by success, expressed in loving terms their admiration, their +gratitude, and their assurances of fidelity. The placable Columbus +received their gracious sayings with all the warmth and tenderness that +belonged to his large-hearted and amiable character. + + + THEY TAKE LEGAL POSSESSION. + +The great business of the day then commenced; and Columbus, with the due +legal formalities, took possession, on behalf of the Spanish monarchs, of +the island Guanahani, which he forthwith named San Salvador. The gravity +of the proceeding must have astonished the beholding islanders. Their +attention, however, was soon turned to the Spaniards themselves; and they +approached the strangers, wondering at their whiteness and at their +beards. Columbus, as being the noblest looking personage there present, +and also from wearing a crimson scarf over his armour, attracted especial +attention, and justly seemed, as he was, the principal figure in this +great spectacle. + +Columbus is for the present moment radiant with success. Our interest +passes now from him to the new people he was amongst. And what were they +like? Were they worthy of the efforts which the Old World had made to find +them? Was there mind and soul enough in them for them to become good +Christians? What says the greatest of the men who first saw them? What +impression did they make on him? Let him answer for himself:-- + + "Because they had much friendship for us, and because I knew they were + people that would deliver themselves better to the Christian faith, and + be converted more through love than by force, I gave to some of them + some coloured caps and some strings of glass beads for their necks, and + many other things of little value, with which they were delighted, and + were so entirely ours that it was a marvel to see. The same afterwards + came swimming to the ship's boats where we were, and brought us parrots, + cotton threads in balls, darts and many other things, and bartered them + with us for things which we gave them, such as bells and small glass + beads. In fine, they took and gave all of whatever they had with good + will. But it appeared to me they were a people very poor in everything. + They went totally naked, as naked as their mothers brought them into the + world." + + + CHARACTER OF THE INDIANS. + +Then Columbus goes on to say that these Indians were well made, with very +good countenances, but hair like horsehair, their colour yellow; and that +they painted themselves. They neither carried arms, nor understood such +things, for when he showed them swords, they took hold of them by the +blade, and hurt themselves. Their darts were without iron; but some had a +fish's tooth at the end. In concluding his description, he says, "they +ought to make faithful servants, and of good understanding, for I see that +very quickly they repeat all that is said to them, and I believe they +would easily be converted to Christianity, for it appeared to me that they +had no creed." + + + THEIR HOUSES AND IMPLEMENTS. + +A little further on, the admiral says of the people of a neighbouring +island, that they were more domestic and tractable than those of San +Salvador, and more intelligent, too, as he saw in their way of reckoning +for the payment of the cotton they brought to the ships. At the mouth of +the Rio de Mares, some of the admiral's men, whom he had sent to +reconnoitre, brought him word that the houses of the natives were the best +they had seen. They were made, he says, like "Alfaneques (pavilions), very +large, and appeared as royal tents without an arrangement of streets, +except one here and there, and within they were very clean, and well +swept, and their furniture very well arranged. All these houses were made +of palm branches, and were very beautiful. Our men found in these houses +many statues of women, and several heads fashioned like masks, and very +well wrought. I do not know, he adds, whether they have these for the love +of the beautiful, or for purposes of worship." The Spaniards found also +excellent nets, fish-hooks, and fishing-tackle. There were tame birds +about the houses, and dogs which did not bark. "Mermaids," too, the +admiral saw on the coasts, but thought them "not so like ladies as they +are painted." + +Speaking of the Indians of the coast near the Rio del Sol, he says that +they are "very gentle, without knowing what evil is, neither killing nor +stealing." He describes the frank generosity of the people of Marien, and +the honour they thought it to be asked to give anything, in terms which +may remind his readers of the doctrines maintained by Christians in +respect of giving. + + + DISCOVERY OF TOBACCO; ITS PECULIAR EFFECTS. + +It is interesting to observe the way in which, at this point of the +narrative, a new product is introduced to the notice of the old world, a +product that was hereafter to become, not only an unfailing source of +pleasure to a large section of the male part of mankind, from the highest +to the lowest, but was also to distinguish itself as one of those +commodities for revenue, which are the delight of statesmen, the great +financial resource of modern nations, and which afford a means of indirect +taxation that has, perhaps, nourished many a war, and prevented many a +revolution. Two discoverers, whom the admiral had sent out from the Puerto +de Mares (one of them being a learned Jew, who could speak Hebrew, +Chaldee, and some Arabic, and would have been able to discourse, as +Columbus probably thought, with any of the subjects of the Grand Khan, if +he had met them), found that the men of the country they came to +investigate, indulged in a "fumigation" of a peculiar kind. The smoke in +question was absorbed into the mouth through a charred stick, and was +caused by burning certain herbs wrapped in a dry leaf, which outer +covering was called "tabaco." Las Casas, who carefully describes this +process of imbibing smoke, mentions that the Indians, when questioned +about it, said that it took away fatigue, and that he has known Spaniards +in the island of Hispaniola who adopted the same habit, and who, being +reproved for it as a vice, replied that it was not in their power to leave +it off. "I do not know," he adds, "what savour or profit they found in +them" (tabacos). I cannot help thinking that there were several periods in +his own life, when these strange fumigations would have afforded him +singular soothing and comfort. However that may be, there can be no doubt +of the importance, financially and commercially speaking, of this +discovery of tobacco; a discovery which, in the end, proved more +productive to the Spanish Crown, than that of the gold mines of the +Indies. + +The excellent relations that existed between the expedition of Columbus +and the inhabitants of Cuba may be seen from the fact that these two +Christians, who were the first witnesses of tobacco smoking, and who +travelled with only two Indian attendants, were everywhere well and +reverently received. + + + GOLD ORNAMENT'S OBSERVED. + +Resuming the thread of the history, it remains to be seen what more +Columbus did and suffered in this voyage. The first Indians he met with +had some few gold ornaments about them--poor wretches, if they had +possessed the slightest gift of prophecy, they would have thrown these +baubles into the deepest sea;--and they were asked whence came this gold? +From a race, they said, living southwards, where there was a great king, +who had much gold. On another occasion, other Indians being asked the same +question, answered, "Cubanacan, Cubanacan." They meant the middle of Cuba; +but their word at once suggested to Columbus the idea that he was now upon +the traces of his long-looked-for friend, Kublai Kaan, the Khan of Khans. +Indeed, it is almost ludicrous to see, throughout, how Columbus is +possessed with the notions borrowed from his reading of Marco Polo and +other travellers. He asks for "his Cipango," as Herrera slily puts it; and +the natives at once point out to him the direction where that is. They +thought he meant Cibao, where afterwards the best mines of gold were +found. + + + FURTHER EXPLORATIONS. + +The admiral, bent on discovery, and especially on finding the terra firma, +which adjoined "his" India, did not stay long anywhere. Proceeding +southwards from San Salvador, he discovered an island, or rather a group +of islands, to which he gave the name of Santa Maria de la Concepcion; he +then discovered Cuba, and coasted along the northeastern part of that +island; and afterwards, in due course, came to Hispaniola, called by the +natives Hayti, in which island he landed upon the territory of King +Guacanagari where he was received most cordially. + +Various conjectures have been made as to the different results which would +have followed, both for the New and for the Old World, if Columbus had +steered a little to the northward, or the southward, of the course which +he actually took. One thing, however, is obvious, that in arriving at +Hispaniola he came to a central point, not only of the West Indies, but of +the whole of the New World, and a point, therefore, most felicitously +situated for the spreading of future discovery and conquest. + + + INSUBORDINATION OF MARINERS. + +It may be mentioned here, that Martin Alonzo Pinzon had wilfully parted +company from the admiral while on the coast of Cuba: covetousness being +probably the cause of this most undutiful proceeding. But, indeed, there +is another instance of the insubordination of the mariners, which makes +the wonder only still greater how Columbus could have brought them across +the Atlantic at all. + + + WRECK OF ADMIRAL'S VESSEL. + +One evening the admiral, after paying a visit to Guacanagari, seeing the +sea quite calm, betook himself to rest. As he had not slept for two days +and a night, it is probable his slumber was deep. Meanwhile, the +steersman, contrary to the distinct orders of the admiral, gave the helm +to a common sailor, a youth. All the sailors went to sleep. The sea was as +calm "as water in a dish." Little by little the ship drifted on to a +shoal. Directly they touch, the sailor-boy at the helm starts from his +dream, and gives the alarm. The admiral jumps up first (for the +responsibility of command seldom goes quite to sleep); then the officer +whose watch it ought to have been hurries up, and the admiral orders him +to lower the boat which they carried on the poop, and to throw out all +anchor astern. Instead of obeying the admiral, this cowardly villain, with +others like him, sprang into the boat and made off for the other vessel, +which was about half a league off. The other vessel would not receive +them, and they rowed back again. But it was too late. The admiral did what +he could in the emergency: he cut down the mast, lightened the vessel as +best he might, took out his people and went with them to the other +caravel, sending his boat to Guacanagari to inform him of the misfortune. + + + KINDNESS OF INDIAN CHIEF. + +The good Guacanagari was moved to tears by this sad affair. He gave not +only sympathy, however, but assistance. His people went out with their +canoes, and in a few moments cleared the vessel of all the goods in it. +Guacanagari was very careful that nothing should be lost. He himself stood +guard over the things which had been taken out of the ship. Then he sent +comforting messages to the admiral, saying that he would give him what he +had to make up for the loss. He put all the effects under shelter, and +placed guards round them. The wrecker's trade might flourish in Cornwall; +but, like other crimes of civilization, it was unknown in St. Domingo. The +admiral was evidently touched to the heart, as well he might be, by the +kindness of these Indians. He thus expresses himself, "They are a loving, +uncovetous people, so docile in all things, that I assure your highnesses +I believe in all the world there is not a better people, or a better +country; they love their neighbours as themselves, and they have the +sweetest and gentlest way of talking in the world, and always with a +smile." + + + A COLONY FOUNDED. + +The admiral resolved to found a colony in Guacanagari's land, "having +found such good will and such signs of gold." In relating this, the +Spanish historian, Herrera, makes some curious reflections. He looks upon +the loss of the vessel as providential, in order that the true faith might +be preached in that country. Then he says, how providence causes its work +to be done, not on high motives only, but also on the ordinary ones which +influence mankind. He concludes by observing that providence dealt with +the Indians as a prudent father who has an ugly daughter, but makes up for +her ugliness by the help of a large dowry. By the ugliness in this case he +means the seas to be traversed, the hunger to be endured, and the labours +to be undertaken, which he considers no other nation but the Spaniards +would have encountered, even with the hope of greater booty. + +With the timber of the unfortunate "Santa Maria" Columbus built a fort, +and called it La Navidad, because he entered the port near there, on +Christmas-day. He remained on very friendly terms with the good Cacique +Guacanagari; and might have established himself most advantageously in +that part of the country, if he could have been content, to be a settler. + + + THE ADMIRAL RETURNS. + +But from the first moment of his discovery he doubtless had an anxious +desire to get back to Spain, and to tell what he knew; and at times, +perhaps, was fearful lest his grand secret, through some mischance to the +expedition, should still perish with him. The great discoverer, therefore, +now prepared to return homewards. He left his fort in trust to a small +body of his followers,[12] whom he commended to the good offices of +Guacanagari, not forgetting to impress upon them the excellent advice, to +do no violence to man or woman, and, in short, to make their actions +conformable to the idea (which the Indians first entertained of them) that +they had come from heaven: then, having received the necessary provisions +for his vessel from the friendly cacique, the admiral set sail for Spain +on the 4th of January, 1493. + + [Footnote 12: They were forty in number, and it would be strange to + find, but for the well-known fact that nothing brings men of different + races together more than maritime and commercial enterprise, that, in + this small list there is an Irishman, "Guillermo Ires" (Qy. William + Herries, or Rice) "natural de Galney, en Irlanda;" and an Englishman, + "Tallarte de Lajes" (Qy. Arthur Lake) "ingles."--NAVAREETE, Col. Dip., + Num. 13.] + + + +CHAPTER V. Homeward bound. + + + PINZON'S EXPLANATION. + +For two days Columbus stood to the east-ward, but was met by a head-wind +which prevented him from making much progress. On doubling the promontory +of Monte Christo, however, the look-out at the mast-head made an +announcement which was worth more than a fair wind to the voyagers, since +it assured them that the homeward voyage of the "Nina" was not to be made +without a consort; that the chance of the tidings of success being safely +conveyed to Europe was not to depend upon the fortunes of a single ship. +For, sailing down swiftly before the breeze which had detained Columbus, +the "Pinta" hove in sight and the two vessels steered together into the +bay of Monte Christo, which Columbus had recently quitted. Pinzon, as soon +as the weather permitted, went on board the admiral's caravel to account +for his desertion, which he stated to have been the accidental result of a +storm which had driven him out of his course and out of sight of his +leader. The admiral accepted this explanation, as a quarrel with Pinzon, +whose townsmen and relations formed a large proportion of the crews, might +cause a mutiny which would be fatal to the undertaking; but he did not +fail to note in his diary his conviction of Pinzon's bad faith. The fact +was, that Pinzon had heard from the natives of a certain island, whence +all the gold was said to come, and he had wished to anticipate Columbus in +the discovery of this El Dorado, and to secure the profits for himself. He +had not found this home of the gold, but had met with some natives from +whom he had obtained, by barter, a large quantity of the precious metal. +Half of this he had appropriated: the other half he had distributed among +his crew as a bribe to them to say nothing about the matter. + + + AFFRAY WITH ABORIGINES. + +After a few days spent in refitting the vessels, and preparing for the +homeward voyage, the Nina. and her consort again set sail, coasting St. +Domingo in an easterly direction as far as the Gulf of Samana. It was in +this neighbourhood that the first affray with the aborigines took place, +in consequence of an attack made by them upon an exploring expedition +which Columbus had sent out. But so anxious was he to preserve a good +understanding with the natives, that he did not leave the scene of the +encounter until he had come to an amicable agreement with them. Another +instance of the wise and humane policy by which he was actuated, is to be +found in the fact, that on discovering that Pinzon had carried on board +six natives to be taken to Spain, and there sold as slaves, he insisted on +their release, dismissing them, moreover, with presents of such glittering +toys as their kinsmen would be likely to appreciate, and as might +predispose them in favour of the Europeans. + + + SEARCH FOR AMAZONIANS. + +On the 16th of January, Columbus left the Gulf of Samana on his homeward +course, from which, however, he deviated at first in the hope of finding +the island, peopled with Amazons, described by Marco Polo, of which he had +understood the natives of St. Domingo to give him intelligence. Such a +discovery would be, he considered, a conclusive proof of the identity of +his new country with Marco Polo's Indies, and when four natives offered to +act as his guides, he thought it worth while to steer (in the direction of +Martinique) in quest of the fabulous Amazonians. But the breeze blew +towards Spain; home-sickness took possession of the crews; murmurs arose +at the prolongation of the voyage among the currents and reefs of those +strange seas; and, in deference to the universal wish of his companions, +Columbus soon abandoned all idea of further discovery, and resumed his +course for Europe. + + + STORM ENCOUNTERED. + +At first the voyage was tranquil enough, though the adverse trade-winds, +and the bad sailing of the Pinta,[13] retarded the progress of both +vessels. + + [Footnote 13: This was occasioned by the defective condition of her + mast, whereupon the admiral remarks in his diary, that "if Pinzon had + exerted himself as much to provide himself with a new mast in the + Indies, where there are so many fine trees, as he had in running away + from him in the hope of loading his vessel with gold, they would not + have laboured under that inconvenience."] + +But on the 12th of February a storm overtook them, and became more and +more furious, until, on the 14th, it rose to a hurricane, before which +Pinzon's vessel could only drift helplessly, while the Nina was able to +set a close-reefed foresail, which kept her from being buried in the +trough of the sea. In the evening both caravels were scudding under bare +poles, and when darkness fell, and the signal light of the "Pinta" gleamed +farther and farther off, through the blinding spray, until at last it +could be seen no more, when his panic-stricken crew gave themselves up to +despair, as the winds howled louder and louder, and the seas burst over +his frail vessel--then, indeed, without a single skilled navigator to +advise or to aid him, Columbus must have felt himself alone with the +tempest and the night. But his brave heart bore him up, and his wonderful +capacity for devising expedients on sudden emergencies did not forsake +him. As the stores were consumed, the Nina felt the want of the ballast +which Columbus had intended to take on board at the Amazonian Island. +"Fill the empty casks with water," he said, "and let them serve as +ballast," an expedient which has grown common enough now, but which then +was probably original. + + + THE PROMISED PILGRAMAGE + +Nor, while he did all that human skill could suggest for the safety of his +vessel, did Columbus neglect to invoke the aid of that Higher Power, at +whose special instigation he believed himself to have undertaken the +expedition. With his whole crew he drew lots to choose one of their number +to perform a pilgrimage to the shrine of Our Lady of Guadaloupe. The +admiral was chosen. Twice more were lots drawn with a similar object, and +once again the lot fell to the admiral. Afterwards, he and all the crew +made a vow to go in procession, clothed in penitential garments, to the +first church, dedicated to the Virgin, which they should meet with on +arriving at land; and this vow, as we shall see presently, was followed by +quite unexpected consequences. + + + NARRATIVE INCLOSED IN CASK. + +When the chances of weathering the storm had become small indeed, Columbus +determined that, if possible, the tidings of his discovery should not +perish with him. He wrote a short account of his voyage on parchment, and +this he enclosed in wax, and placed in a cask,[14] which he committed to +the waves. Thinking, probably, that his crew would interpret this as an +abandonment of all hope, he concealed from them the real nature of the +contents of the cask, so that they believed that their commander was +performing some religious rite which might assuage the fury of the +elements. + + [Footnote 14: About the year 1852 a paragraph went the round of the + English press announcing the discovery of this cask on the African + coast, by the barque "Chieftain," of Boston (Mass). Lamartine has + accepted this story as correct, but it has never been authenticated, and + there is a strong presumption in favour of its having been invented by + some ingeniously circumstantial newspaper correspondent.] + + + THE PILGRIMS CAPTURED. + +On the 15th of February the storm abated to some extent, and at last they +came in sight of some land on the E.N.E., which the pilots held to be the +Rock of Lisbon, but which the admiral more accurately determined to be one +of the Azores. Vainly endeavouring, however, to make head against the wind +and the sea, they lost sight of this island, but came in sight of another, +lying more to the south, round which they sailed on the night of the 17th, +but lost an anchor in endeavouring to bring up near the land. On the +following day they cast anchor, and succeeded in communicating with the +inhabitants, from whom they learned that they had reached the island of +St. Mary, belonging to the Portuguese. The governor sent amicable messages +to Columbus, and announced his intention of visiting him. But when, in +fulfilment of their vow, half the crew went, barefoot and in their shirts, +on a pilgrimage to the chapel of St. Mary, which was not far from the +harbour, the governor and his satellites lay in ambush on the road, and +captured the whole band of pilgrims. The crowns of Portugal and Castile +were still at peace, but it appears that this "man, dressed in a little +brief authority," thought that the capture would gratify his sovereign. +The remonstrances of the admiral were of no avail; and as the weather +would not allow of his remaining in his present anchorage, he was forced +to stand out to sea, and to run nearly to St. Michael's, with a crew which +comprised only three able seamen. On the 21st of February he returned to +St. Mary's, and eventually, as the governor was unable to seize Columbus +himself, he decided on recognizing the royal commission which he produced, +and restoring his crew. On the 24th the "Nina" again steered for Spain, +but another tempest supervened, and continued with more or less fury for +more than a week. + + + ARRIVAL IN THE TAGUS. + +In this last storm, which raged with destructive violence along the west +coast of the whole Continent of Europe, and which drove the "Pinta" almost +helplessly towards a lee-shore, the dangers of the voyage reached their +climax. "I escaped," says the admiral, "by the greatest miracle in the +world." Fortunately, however, his seamanship was equal to the emergency, +and on the afternoon of the fourth of March he came to anchor in the +Tagus. To the King of Portugal, who happened to be at no great distance, +he sent a despatch announcing his arrival and the result of his voyage, +and, in reply, received a pressing invitation to court. With this he +thought proper to comply, "in order not to show mistrust, although he +disliked it," and was received by the king with the highest honours. This +must have been almost too much of a triumph for a generous mind, +considering that the court before which he was displaying the signs of a +new world had refused the opportunity of securing the discovery for +itself. The king, however, now took occasion to put in a claim to the +newly found countries, basing it on that papal bull which has been +mentioned in a previous chapter but, although Columbus, in the interest of +his sovereigns, took care to repudiate this claim as decidedly as +possible, his royal host continued to entertain him with the utmost +consideration. + + + RECEPTION AT PALOS. + +Possibly mistrusting the seamanship of his subordinates, Columbus refused +the offer of safe conduct and means of transport to Spain by land; and on +the 13th of March, in the teeth of a north-westerly wind and a heavy sea, +left the Tagus for the bar of Saltes, and safely reached his starting- +point at Palos on the 15th, again a Friday. The enthusiasm and excitement +aroused by the success of the expedition were unbounded. At Palos, +especially, where few families had not a personal interest in some of the +band of explorers, the little community was filled with extraordinary +delight. Not an individual member of the expedition but was elevated into +a hero,--not a debtor or a criminal whom the charter of immunity had led, +rather than bear the ills he had, to fly to others that he knew not of,-- +but had expiated his social misdeeds, and had become a person of +consideration and an object of enthusiasm. The court was at Barcelona. +Immediately on his arrival Columbus despatched a letter to the king +and queen, stating in general terms the success of his project; and +proceeded forthwith to present himself in person to their highnesses. + + + BAD FAITH OF PINZON. + +Almost at the same time, the "Pinta," which had been separated from her +consort in the first storm which they encountered, made the port of +Bayonne, whence Pinzon had forwarded a letter to the sovereigns, +announcing "his" discoveries, and proposing to come to court and give full +intelligence as to them. Columbus, whom he probably supposed to have +perished at sea, he seems to have ignored utterly, and when he received a +reply from the king and queen, directing him not to go to court without +the admiral, chagrin and grief overcame him to such an extent that he took +to his bed; and if any man ever died from mental distress and a broken +heart, that man was Martin Alonzo Pinzon. + + + SOLEMN RECEPTION. + +Herrera tells us that the admiral now "entered into the greatest +reputation," and the historian goes on to explain to his readers what the +meaning of "reputation" is. "It does not consist," he tells us, "in +success, but in doing something which cannot be easily comprehended, which +compels men to think over and over again about it." And certainly, this +definition makes the word particularly applicable to the achievement of +Columbus. + +The court prepared a solemn reception for the admiral at Barcelona, where +the people poured out in such numbers to see him that the streets could +not contain them. A triumphal procession like his the world had not yet +seen: it was a thing to make the most incurious alert, and even the sad +and solitary student content to come out and mingle with the mob. The +captives that accompanied a Roman general's car might be strange +barbarians of a tribe from which Rome had not before had slaves. But +barbarians were not unknown creatures. Here, with Columbus, were beings of +a new world. Here was the conqueror, not of man but of nature, not of +flesh and blood but of the fearful unknown, of the elements, and, more +than all, of the prejudices of centuries. We may imagine the rumours that +must have gone before his coming. And now he was there. Ferdinand and +Isabella had their thrones placed in the presence of the assembled court. +Columbus approached the monarchs, and then, "his countenance beaming with +modest satisfaction," knelt at the king's feet, and begged leave to kiss +their highnesses' hands. They gave their hands; then they bade him rise +and be seated before them. He recounted briefly the events of his +voyage--a story more interesting than the tale told in the court of Dido +by Aeneas, like whom he had almost perished close to home, and he +concluded his unpretending narrative by showing what new things and +creatures he had brought with him. + + + MARKS OF APPROBATION. + +Ferdinand and Isabella fell on their knees, giving thanks to God with many +tears; and then the choristers of the royal chapel closed the grand +ceremonial by singing the "Te Deum." Afterwards men walked home grave and +yet happy, having seen the symbol of a great work, something to be thought +over for many a generation. Other marks of approbation for Columbus were +not wanting. The agreement between him and the sovereigns was confirmed. +An appropriate coat of arms, then a thing of much significance, was +granted to him in augmentation of his own. In the shield are conspicuously +emblazoned the Royal Arms of Castile and Leon. Nothing can better serve to +show the immense favour which Columbus had obtained at court by his +discovery than such a grant; and it is but a trifling addition to make, +in recounting his now honours, that the title of Don was given to him and +his descendants, and also to his brothers. He rode by the king's side; was +served at table as a grandee; "All hail!" was said to him on state +occasions; and the men of his age, happy in that, had found out another +great man to honour. + + + GRANT BY THE POPE. + +The more prosaic part of the business had then to be attended to. The +Sovereigns applied to the Pope Alexander the Sixth, to confer on the +crowns of Castile and Leon the lands discovered and to be discovered in +the Indies. To this application they soon received a favourable answer. +The Pope granted to the Princes of Castile and Leon, and to their +successors, the sovereign empire and principality of the Indies, and of +the navigation there, with high and royal jurisdiction and imperial +dignity and lordship over all that hemisphere. To preserve the peace +between Spain and Portugal, the Pontiff divided the Spanish and Portuguese +Indian sovereignties by an imaginary line drawn from pole to pole, one +hundred leagues west of the Azores and the Cape de Verde Islands. + + + SECOND VOYAGE PLANNED. + +Meanwhile the preparations were being made for a second voyage to be +undertaken by the admiral. After the arrival of the apostolic bulls, and +before the departure of Columbus from Barcelona, the nine Indians brought +by him were baptized. Here, parenthetically, we may take note of something +which, if the fact did correspond with what the Spaniards thought about +it, would, indeed, be notable. One of the Indians, after being baptized, +died, and was, we are told,[Herrera] the first of that nation, according +to pious belief, who entered heaven. + +We cannot help thinking of the hospitable and faithful Guacanagari, and +imagining that, if his race had been like him, some one might already have +reached the regions of the blessed. I do not, however, refer to this +passage of Herrera for its boldness or its singularity, but because it +brings before us again the profound import attached to baptism in those +times, and may help to account for many seeming inconsistencies in the +conduct of the Spaniards to the Indians. + + + COLONIAL DEPARTMENT. + +In the conduct, however, of Ferdinand and Isabella towards the Indians +there was nothing equivocal, but all that they did showed the tenderness +and religious care of these monarchs for their new subjects. A special +department for the control of colonial affairs was placed under the charge +of Juan de Fonseca, an eminent ecclesiastic who was high in the royal +favour, and on whom was eventually conferred the title of Patriarch of the +Indies. But, unfortunately for the poor savages whose fate he was now to +influence so largely, Fonseca's character had in it but little of the mild +and forbearing spirit of Christianity. A shrewd man of business, a hard +task-master, an implacable enemy, he displayed, during his long +administration of Indian affairs, all the qualities of an unscrupulous +tyrant, and was instrumental in inflicting on the islanders keener +miseries than ever have been brought by conqueror upon a subject race. + + + HOME OF THE GOLD. + +Jealous of the rivalry of Portugal, the sovereigns took every means of +hastening the preparations for a second voyage to be undertaken by the +admiral. Twelve caravels and five smaller vessels were made ready, and +were laden with horses and other animals, and with plants, seeds, and +agricultural implements for the cultivation of the new countries. +Artificers of various trades were engaged, and a quantity of merchandize +and gaudy trifles, fit for bartering with the natives, were placed on +board. There was no need to press men into the service now; volunteers for +the expedition were only too numerous. The fever for discovery was +universal. Columbus was confident that he had been on the outskirts of +Cathay, and that the scriptural land of Havilah, the home of gold, was not +far off. Untold riches were to be acquired, and probably there was not one +of the 1500 persons who took ship in the squadron that did not anticipate +a prodigious fortune as the reward of the voyage. Nor was one of the great +objects of these discoveries uncared for. Twelve missionaries, eager to +enlighten the spiritual darkness of the western lands, were placed under +the charge of Bernard Buil, a Benedictine monk, who was specially +appointed by the Pope, in order to ensure an authorized teaching of the +faith, to superintend the religious education of the Indians. + + + THE ADMIRAL'S INSTRUCTIONS. + +The instructions to Columbus, dated the 29th of May, 1493, are the first +strokes upon that obdurate mass of colonial difficulty which at last, by +incessant working of great princes, great churchmen, and great statesmen, +was eventually to be hammered into some righteous form of wisdom and of +mercy. In the course of these instructions, the admiral is ordered to +labour in all possible ways to bring the dwellers in the Indies to a +knowledge of the Holy Catholic Faith. And that this may the more easily be +done, all the armada is to be charged to deal "lovingly" with the Indians; +the admiral is to make them presents, and to "honour them much;" and if by +chance any person or persons should treat the Indians ill, in any manner +whatever, the admiral is to chastise such ill-doers severely. + +Even at this early period of his administration, Fonseca appears to have +made some attempts to thwart the admiral's wishes, attempts which +Columbus, now at the zenith of royal favour, had no difficulty in +baffling. As regards the household, for instance, Fonseca demurred to the +number of footmen which the admiral proposed for his domestic +establishment. The admiral appealed to the sovereigns, who allowed his +claim, and reproved Fonseca for objecting. + + + +CHAPTER VI. Second Voyage of Discovery. + +On the 25th of September, all the preparations being complete, the +squadron left Cadiz for the Canary Islands, and, after taking in +provisions there, sailed from Ferro on the 13th of October. The voyage was +singularly prosperous. There was but one storm, and that of not more than +a few hours' duration; and favouring breezes wafted them over calm seas +with a rapidity that brought the ships within sight of land on the 3rd of +November, having made the voyage "by the goodness of God, and the wise +management of the admiral, in as straight a track as if they had sailed by +a well-known and frequented route." It was Sunday, and accordingly the +name of Dominica was given to the first island to which the admiral came. + + + ISLAND OF GUADALOUPE. + +From Dominica, where no aborigines were found, the admiral stood +northward, naming one small island Maria Galante, after his own flagship, +and calling a second and much larger one Guadaloupe, after a certain +monastery in Estramadura. This island was peopled by a race of cannibals; +and, in the houses of the natives, human flesh was found roasting at the +fire. An exploring party from one of the ships penetrated into the +interior, but so thickly was it wooded that they lost their way in the +jungle, and only regained the ships after four days' wanderings, and when +their safety was despaired of by their companions, who feared that they +had become food for the savages. Fortunately, however, the men of the +island were absent on some warlike expedition, and the white men only met +with women and children in the course of their dangerous explorations. + + + DESTRUCTION OF LA NAVIDAD. + +Anxious to revisit the colony at La Navidad, the admiral proceeded +north-westward as speedily as possible, and after passing and naming +Montserrat, Antigua, St. Martin, and Santa Cruz, arrived at a beautiful +and fertile island which he called St. John, but which has since received +the name of Porto Rico. Here were found houses and roads constructed after +a civilized fashion; but proofs that the inhabitants were cannibals +abounded everywhere. On the 22nd of November the admiral reached the +eastern end of Hispaniola, and sailed along the northern shore toward La +Navidad, where a profound disappointment awaited him. The little colony +which he had founded had been entirely destroyed. The fort was razed to +the ground. Not one of the settlers was alive to tell the tale. + + + LICENTIOUSNESS OF SETTLERS. + +The account which Guacanagari gave to Columbus, and which there seems no +reason to doubt, is, that the Spanish who had been left at La Navidad took +to evil courses, quarrelled amongst themselves, straggled about the +country, and finally were set upon, when weak and few in numbers, by a +neighbouring Indian chief named Caonabo, who burned the tower and killed +or dispersed the garrison, none of whom were ever discovered. It was in +Caonabo's country that the gold mines were reported to exist, and it is +probable that both the cupidity and the profligacy of the colonists were +so gross as to draw down upon them the not unreasonable vengeance of the +natives. Guacanagari, the friendly cacique, who had received the admiral +amicably on his first voyage, declared that he and his tribe had done +their utmost in defence of the Europeans, in proof of which he exhibited +recent wounds which had evidently been inflicted by savage weapons. He +was, naturally, scarcely so friendly as before, but communication with him +was made easy by the aid of one of the Indians whom Columbus had taken to +Spain, and who acted as interpreter. Guacanagari was willing that a second +fort should be built on the site of the first, but the admiral thought it +better to seek a new locality, both because the position of the old fort +had been unhealthy, and because the disgusting licentiousness of the +settlers had offended the Indians to such an extent that whereas they had +at first regarded the white men as angels from heaven, now they considered +them as debased profligates and disturbers of the peace, against whom they +had to defend their honour and their lives. + + + COLONY FOUNDED AT ISABELLA. + +Sailing along the coast of Hayti, Columbus selected a site for his +projected settlement, about forty miles to the east of the present Cape +Haytien. This he called Isabella, after his royal mistress. Here the ships +of his squadron discharged their stores, and the Spaniards laboured +actively in the construction of the first town built by Europeans in the +New World. But the work did not progress prosperously. Diseases prevailed +among the colonists. The fatigues and discomforts of a long sea voyage +were not the best preparations for hard physical labour. The number of men +which the admiral had brought out with him was disproportionate to his +means of sustaining them. Provisions and medicines began to fail. And, +worst of all, none of the golden dreams were realized, under the influence +of which they had left Spain. Only small samples of the precious metal +could be procured from the natives, and the vaguely indicated gold mines +of Cibao had not been reached. Anxiety, responsibility, and labour began +to tell upon the iron constitution of the admiral, and for some time he +was stretched upon a bed of sickness. + + + COLUMBUS DESPATCH TO THE COURT OF SPAIN. + +Some idea of the difficulties which had to be encountered at this period +may be conceived from an account of the state of his colony which +Columbus sent home in January 1494. It is in the form of instructions to a +certain Antonio de Torres, the Receiver of the Colony, who was to proceed +to the court of Spain and inform the Monarchs of such things as were +written in these instructions, and doubtless to elucidate them by +discourse, as in the present day we send a despatch to be read by an +ambassador to the foreign minister of the power we are treating with. +There remains a copy, made at the time, of this document, and of the notes +in the margin containing the resolutions of the sovereigns. The original, +thus noted, was taken back to Columbus. It is a most valuable document, +very illustrative of the cautious and wise dealing of the catholic +sovereigns. + +The document begins with the usual strain of complimentary address to +great personages, "Their Highnesses hold it for good service" is the +marginal remark. + +The next paragraph consists of a general statement of the discoveries that +have been made. "Their Highnesses give much thanks to God, and hold as +very honoured service all that the admiral has done." + +Then follow the admiral's reasons why he has not been able to send home +more gold. His people have been ill: it was necessary to keep guard, &c. +"He has done well" is in the margin. + +He suggests the building of a fortress near the place where gold can be +got. Their Highnesses approve; and the note in the margin is, "This is +well, and so it must be done." + +Then comes a paragraph about provisions, and a marginal order from the +sovereigns, "that Juan de Fonseca is to provide for that matter." + +Again, there comes another paragraph about provisions, complaining, +amongst other things, that the casks, in which the wine for the armada had +been put, were leaky. Their Highnesses make an order in the margin, "that +Juan de Fonseca is to find out the persons who played this cheat with the +wine casks, and to make good from their pockets the loss, and to see that +the canes" (sugar canes for planting, possibly) "are good, and that all +that is here asked for, be provided immediately." + + + CASTILIAN INTERPRETERS. + +So far, nothing can run more pleasantly with the main document than the +notes in the margin. Columbus now touches upon a matter which intimately +concerns the subject of slavery. He desires his agent to inform their +Highnesses that he has sent home some Indians from the Cannibal Islands as +slaves, to be taught Castilian, and to serve afterwards as interpreters, +so that the work of conversion may go on. His arguments in support of this +proceeding are weighty. He speaks of the good that it will be to take +these people away from cannibalism and to have them baptized, for so they +will gain their souls, as he expresses it. Then, too, with regard to the +other Indians, he remarks, "we shall have great credit from them, seeing +that we can capture and make slaves of these cannibals, of whom they (the +peaceable Indians) entertain so great a fear." Such arguments must be +allowed to have much force in them; and it may be questioned whether many +of those persons who, in these days, are the strongest opponents of +slavery, would then have had that perception of the impending danger of +its introduction which the sovereigns appear to have entertained, from +their answer to this part of the document. "This is very well, and so it +must be done; but let the admiral see whether it could not be managed +there" (i.e. in the Cannibal Islands) "that they should be brought to our +Holy Catholic Faith, and the same thing with the Indians of those islands +where he is." + + + SLAVERY PROPOSED. + +The admiral's despatch goes much further: in the next paragraph he boldly +suggests that, for the advantage of the souls of these cannibal Indians, +the more of them that could be taken the better; and that, considering +what quantities of live-stock and other things are required for the +maintenance of the colony, a certain number of caravels should be sent +each year with these necessary things, and the cargoes be paid for in +slaves taken from amongst the cannibals. He touches again on the good that +will be done to the cannibals themselves; alludes to the customs duties +that their Highnesses may levy upon them; and concludes by desiring +Antonio de Torres to send, or bring, an answer, "because the preparations +here (for capturing these cannibals) may be carried on with more +confidence, if the scheme seem good to their Highnesses." + + + THE PROPOSAL REJECTED. + +At the same time that we must do Columbus the justice to believe that his +motives were right in his own eyes, it must be admitted that a more +distinct suggestion for the establishment of a slave-trade was never +proposed. To their honour, Ferdinand and Isabella thus replied: "As +regards this matter, it is suspended for the present, until there come +some other way of doing it there, and let the admiral write what he thinks +of this." + +This is rather a confused answer, as often happens, when a proposition +from a valued friend or servant is disapproved of, but has to be rejected +kindly. The Catholic sovereigns would have been very glad to have received +some money from the Indies: money was always welcome to King Ferdinand; +the purchase of wine, seeds, and cattle for the colonists had hitherto +proved anything but a profitable outlay; the prospect of conversion was +probably dear to the hearts of both these princes, certainly to one of +them: but still this proposition for the establishment of slavery was +wisely and magnanimously set aside. + + + FORT ST. THOMAS FOUNDED. + +While Antonio de Torres was absent from Hispaniola, laying these +propositions before Los Reyes, Columbus was busy about the affairs of the +colony, which were in a most distracted state. Scant fare and hard work +were having their effect; sickness pervaded the whole armament; and men of +all ranks and stations, hidalgoes, people of the court and ecclesiastics, +were obliged to labour manually under regulations strictly enforced. The +rage and vexation of these men, many of whom had come out with the notion +of finding gold ready for them on the sea shore, may be imagined; and +complaints of the admiral's harsh way of dealing with those under him +(probably no harsher than was absolutely necessary to save them), now took +their rise, and pursued him ever after to his ruin. A mutiny, headed by +Bernal Diaz, a man high in authority, was detected and quelled before the +mutineers could effect their intention of seizing the ships. Diaz was sent +for trial to Spain. The colonists, however, were somewhat cheered after a +time by hearing of gold mines, and seeing specimens of ore brought from +thence; and the admiral went himself and founded the Fort of St. Thomas, +in the mining district of Cibao. But the Spaniards gained very little real +advantage from these gold mines, which they began to work before they had +consolidated around them the means of living; in fact, dealing with the +mines of Hispaniola as if they had been discovered in an old country, +where the means of transit and, supplies of provisions can, with +certainty, be procured. + + + DESIRE FOR DISCOVERY. + +There was also another evil, besides that of inconsiderate mining, and, +perhaps, quite as mischievous a one, which stood in the way of the steady +improvement of these early Spanish colonies. The Catholic sovereigns had +unfortunately impressed upon Columbus their wish that he should devote +himself to further discovery, a wish but too readily adopted and furthered +by his enterprising spirit. The hankering of the Spanish monarchs for +further discovery was fostered by their jealousy of the Portuguese. The +Portuguese were making their way towards India, going eastward. They, the +Spaniards, thought they were discovering India, going westward. The more +rapidly, therefore, each nation could advance and plant its standard, the +more of much-coveted India it would hereafter be able to claim. Acting +upon such views, Columbus now proceeded onwards, bent upon further +discovery, notwithstanding that his little colonies at Isabella and St. +Thomas must have needed all his sagacity to protect them, and all his +authority to restrain them. + + + A COUNCIL APPOINTED. + +He nominated a council to manage the government during his absence, with +his brother Don Diego as president of it; he appointed a certain Don Pedro +Margarite as captain-general; and then put to sea on the 24th of April, +1494. + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +In the course of the voyage that then ensued, the admiral made many +important discoveries, amongst them Jamaica, and the cluster of little +islands called the "Garden of the Queen." The navigation amongst these +islands was so difficult, that the admiral is said to have been thirty-two +days without sleeping. Certain it is, that after he had left the island +called La Mona, and when he was approaching the island of San Juan, a +drowsiness, which Las Casas calls "pestilential," but which might +reasonably be attributed to the privations, cares, and anxieties which the +admiral had now undergone for many months, seized upon him, and entirely +deprived him for a time of the use of his senses. + +The object in going to San Juan was to capture cannibals there, and Las +Casas looks upon this lethargical attack as a judgment upon the admiral +for so unjust a manner of endeavouring to introduce Christianity. The +mariners turned the fleet homewards to Isabella, where they arrived the +29th of September, 1494, bearing with them their helpless commander. + + + ILLNESS OF COLUMBUS. + +On Columbus's arrival at Isabella, where he remained ill for five months, +he found his brother, Bartholomew Columbus, whose presence gladdened him +exceedingly. His brothers were very dear to the admiral, as may be +gathered from a letter to his eldest son Diego, in which he bids him make +much of his brother Ferdinand, the son of Beatrice, "for," says he, "ten +brothers would not be too many for you. I have never found better friends, +on my right hand and on my left, than my brothers." Afterwards came +Antonio de Torres with provisions, and all things needful for the colony. +But nothing, we are told, delighted the admiral so much as the despatches +from court, for he was a faithful, loyal man, who loved to do his duty to +those who employed him, and to have his faithfulness recognized. + + + DISORGANIZATION OF THE COLONY. + +Peace or delight, however, was not at any time to be long enjoyed by +Columbus. He found his colony in a sad state of disorganization: the +Indians were in arms against the Spaniards; and Father Buil, Don Pedro +Margarite, and other principal persons had gone home to Spain in the ship +which had brought Bartholomew Columbus. + + +The admiral, before his departure, had given a most injudicious command to +Margarite, namely, to put himself at the head of four hundred men and go +through the country, with the twofold object of impressing upon the +natives a respect for the power of the Spaniards, and of freeing the +colony from supporting these four hundred men. The instructions to +Margarite were, to observe the people and the natural productions of the +country through which he should pass; to do rigorous justice, so that the +Spaniards should be prevented from injuring the Indians, or the Indians +the Spaniards; to treat the Indians kindly; to obtain provisions by +purchase, if possible, if not, by any other means; and to capture Caonabo +and his brothers, either by force or artifice. + + + OPPRESSION OF INDIANS. + +The proceedings of the men under Margarite were similar to those of the +Spaniards formerly left at La Navidad. They went straggling over the +country: they consumed the provisions of the poor Indians, astonishing +them by their voracious appetites; waste, rapine, injury and insult +followed in their steps; and from henceforth there was but little hope of +the two races living peaceably together in those parts, at least upon +equal terms. The Indians were now swarming about the Spaniards with +hostile intent: as a modern historian describes the situation, "they had +passed from terror to despair;" and but for the opportune arrival of the +admiral, the Spanish settlements in Hispaniola might again have been +entirely swept away. + +Caonabo, the cacique who, in former days, had put to death the garrison at +La Navidad, was now threatening that of St. Thomas, the fort which the +admiral had caused to be built in the mining district of Cibao. +Guatignana, the cacique of Macorix, who had killed eight Spanish soldiers +and set fire to a house where there were forty ill, was now within two +days' march of Isabella, besieging the fort of Magdalena. Columbus started +up forthwith, went off to Magdalena, engaged the Indians, and routed them +utterly. + + + TRANSMISSION OF SLAVES, + +He took a large part of them for slaves, and reduced to obedience the +whole of the province of Macorix. Returning to Isabella, he sent back, on +the 24th of February, 1495, the four ships which Antonio de Torres had +brought out, chiefly laden with Indian slaves. It is rather remarkable +that the very ships which brought that admirable reply from Ferdinand and +Isabella to Columbus, begging him to seek some other way to Christianity +than through slavery, even for wild man-devouring Caribs, should come back +full of slaves taken from amongst the wild islanders of Hispaniola. + + +Caonabo, not daunted by the fate of Guatignana, still continued to molest +St. Thomas. The admiral accordingly sallied out with two hundred men +against this cacique. On the broad plains of the Vega Real the Spaniards +found an immense number of Indians collected together, amounting, it is +said, to one hundred thousand men. The admiral divided his forces into two +bands, giving the command of one to his brother Bartholomew, and leading +the other himself; and when the brothers made an attack upon the Indians +at the same time from different quarters, this numerous host was at once +and utterly put to flight. In speaking of such a defeat, the modern reader +must not be lavish of the words "cowardly," "pusillanimous," and the like, +until, at least, he has well considered what it is to expose naked bodies +to firearms, to the charge of steel-clad men on horseback, and to the +clinging ferocity of bloodhounds. + + + SLAUGHRTER OF NATIVES. + +A "horrible carnage" ensued upon the flight of the Indians. Many of them, +less fortunate, perhaps, than those who were slain, being taken alive, +were condemned to slavery. Caonabo, however, who was besieging the +fortress of St. Thomas at the time of the battle on the Vega Real, +remained untaken. The admiral resolved to secure the person of this +cacique by treachery; and sent Ojeda (who afterwards became a conspicuous +actor in the sad drama of conquest and depopulation in the West Indies) to +cajole Caonabo into coming to a friendly meeting. There are some curious +instructions of Columbus's to Margarite in 1494, respecting a plot to take +this formidable Caonabo. They are as thoroughly base and treacherous as +can well be imagined. This time the admiral's plan was completely +successful. + + + CUNNING CAPTURE OF INDIAN CHIEF. + +The story which was current in the colonies, of the manner in which Ojeda +captured the resolute Indian chief, is this. Ojeda carried with him gyves +and manacles, the latter of the kind called by the Spaniards, somewhat +satirically, esposas (wives), and all made of brass or steel, finely +wrought, and highly polished. The metals of Spain were prized by the +Indians in the same way that the gold of the Indies was by the Spaniards. +Moreover, amongst the Indians, there was a strange rumour of talking +brass, that arose from their listening to the church bell at Isabella, +which, summoning the Spaniards to mass, was thought by the simple Indians +to converse with them. Indeed the natives of Hispaniola held the Spanish +metals in such estimation that they applied to them an Indian word, Turey, +which seems to have signified anything that descends from heaven. When, +therefore, Ojeda brought these ornaments to Caonabo, and told him they +were Biscayan Turey, and that they were a great present from the admiral, +and that he would show him how to put them on, and that when they were put +on Caonabo should set himself on Ojeda's horse and be shown to his +admiring subjects, as, Ojeda said, the kings of Spain were wont to show +themselves to theirs, the incautious Indian is said to have fallen +entirely into the trap. Going with Ojeda, accompanied by only a small +escort, to a river a short distance from his main encampment. Caonabo, +after performing ablutions, suffered the crafty young Spaniard to put the +heaven-descended fetters on him, and to set him upon the horse. Ojeda +himself got up behind the Indian prince, and then whirling a few times +round, like a pigeon before it takes its determined flight, making the +followers of Caonabo imagine that this was but display, (they all the +while keeping at a respectful distance from the horse, an animal they much +dreaded,) he darted off for Isabella, and after great fatigues, now +keeping to the main track, now traversing the woods in order to evade +pursuit, brought Caonabo bound into the presence of Columbus. The +unfortunate cacique was afterwards sent to Spain [He died on the voyage, +however.] to be judged there; and his forces were presently put to flight +by a troop of Spaniards under the command of this same Ojeda. Some were +killed; some taken prisoners; some fled to the forests and the mountains; +some yielded, "offering themselves to the service of the Christians, if +they would allow them to live in their own ways." + + + GOLD TRIBUTE IMPOSED. + +Never, perhaps, were little skirmishes, for such they were on the part of +the Spaniards, of greater permanent importance than those above narrated, +which took place in the early part of the year 1495. They must be looked +upon as the origin in the Indies of slavery, vassalage, and the system of +repartimientos. We have seen that the admiral, after his first victory, +sent off four ships with slaves to Spain. He now took occasion to impose a +tribute upon the whole population of Hispaniola. It was thus arranged. +Every Indian above fourteen years old, who was in the provinces of the +mines, or near to these provinces, was to pay every three months a little +bellful of gold; all other persons in the island were to pay at the same +time an arroba of cotton for each person. Certain brass or copper tokens +were made--different ones for each tribute time--and were given to the +Indians when they paid tribute and these tokens, being worn about their +necks, were to show who had paid tribute. + + + REMARKABLE INDIAN SCHEME. + +A remarkable proposal was made upon this occasion to the admiral by +Guarionex, cacique of the Vega Real, namely, that he would institute a +huge farm for the growth of corn and the manufacture of bread, stretching +from Isabella to St. Domingo (i. e. from sea to sea) which would suffice +to maintain all Castile with bread. The cacique would do this on condition +that his vassals were not to pay tribute in gold, as they did not know how +to collect that. But this proposal was not accepted, because Columbus +wished to have tribute in such things as he could send over to Spain. + +This tribute is considered to have been a most unreasonable one in point +of amount, and Columbus was obliged to modify his demands upon these poor +Indians, and in some instances to change the nature of them. It appears +that, in 1496, service instead of tribute was demanded of certain Indian +villages; and as the villagers were ordered to make (and work) the farms +in the Spanish settlements, this may be considered as the beginning of the +system of repartimientos, or encomiendas, as they were afterwards called. + + + VIEWS OF COLUMBUS ON SLAVERY. + +We must not, however, suppose that Indian slavery would not have taken +place by means of Columbus, even if these uprisings and defeats of the +Indians in the course of the year 1495 had never occurred. Very early +indeed we see what the admiral's views were with regard to the Indians. In +the diary which he kept of his first voyage, on the 14th of October, three +days after discovering the New World, he describes a position which he +thinks would be a very good one for a fort; and he goes on to say, "I do +not think that it (the fort) will be necessary, for this people is very +simple in the use of arms (as your highnesses will see from seven of them +that I have taken in order to bring them to you, to learn our language and +afterwards to take them back); so that when your highnesses command, you +can have them all taken to Castille or kept in the island as captives." + +Columbus was not an avaricious, nor a cruel man; and certainly he was a +very pious one; but early in life he had made voyages along the coast of +Africa, and he was accustomed to a slave trade. Moreover, he was anxious +to reduce the expenses of these Indian possessions to the Catholic +sovereigns, to prove himself in the right as to all he had said respecting +the advantages that would flow to Spain from the Indies, and to confute +his enemies at Court. + +Those who have read the instructions to Columbus given by the Catholic +monarchs will naturally be curious to know how the news of the arrival of +these vessels laden with slaves, the fruit of the admiral's first victory +over the Indians, was received by the Sovereigns, recollecting how tender +they had been about slavery before. This, however, was a very different +case from the former one. Here were people taken in what would be called +rebellion--prisoners of war. Still we find that Ferdinand and Isabella +were heedful in their proceedings in this matter. There is a letter of +theirs to Bishop Fonseca, who managed Indian affairs, telling him to +withhold receiving the money for the sale of these Indians that Torres had +brought with him until their Highnesses should be able to inform +themselves from men learned in the law, theologians and canonists, whether +with a good conscience these Indians could be ordered to be sold or not. +The historian Munoz, who has been indefatigable in his researches amongst +the documents relating to Spanish America, declares that he cannot find +that the point was decided; and if he has failed, we are not likely to +discover any direct evidence about the decision. We shall hereafter, +however, find something which may enable us to conjecture what the +decision practically came to be. + + + DISTRESS OF NATIVES. + +Many of the so-called free Indians in Hispaniola had, perhaps, even a +worse fate than that which fell to the lot of their brethren condemned to +slavery. These free men, seeing the Spaniards quietly settling down in +their island, building houses, and making forts, and no vessels in the +harbour of Isabella to take them away, fell into the profoundest sadness, +and bethought them of the desperate remedy of attempting to starve the +Spaniards out, by not sowing or planting anything. But this is a shallow +device, when undertaken on the part of the greater number, in any country, +against the smaller. The scheme reacted upon themselves. They had intended +to gain a secure though scanty sustenance in the forests and upon the +mountains; but though the Spaniards suffered bitterly from famine, they +were only driven by it to further pursuit and molestation of the Indians, +who died in great numbers, of hunger, sickness, and misery. + + + SPANISH COMMISSIONER. + +About this period there arrived in the Indies from the Court of Spain a +Commissioner of Inquiry, his mission being doubtless occasioned by the +various complaints made against the admiral by Father Buil, Margarite, and +the Spaniards who had returned from Hispaniola. The name of this +commissioner was Juan Aguado, and his powers were vouched for by the +following letter from the sovereigns:-- + + "The King and the Queen. + + "Cavaliers, Esquires and other persons, who by our command are in the + Indies: we send you thither Juan Aguado, our Gentleman of the Chamber, + who will speak to you on our part: we command that you give him faith + and credence. + "I the King: I the Queen. + "By command of the King and Queen, our Lords. + "HENAND ALVAREZ. + "Madrid, the ninth of April, one thousand + four hundred and ninety-five." + + + PLOTS TO UNDERMINE AND RUIN THE ADMIRAL + +The royal commissioner arrived at Isabella in October, 1495, and his +proceedings in the colony, together with the fear of what he might report +on his return, quickened the admiral's desire to return to Court, that he +might fight his own battles there himself. For the tide of his fortune was +turning, and this appeared by several notable signs. Strong as was the +confidence which the Sovereigns reposed in him, the representations of +Margarite and Buil--the rough soldier and the wily Benedictine--had +produced their effect. They complained of the despotic rule of Columbus; +of the disregard of distinctions of rank which he had manifested by +placing the hidalgoes on the same footing as the common men, as regards +work and rations, during the construction of the settlement; and of his +mania for discovery, which made him abandon the colony already formed, in +the unremunerative search for new countries. The commissioner who was sent +to investigate these charges, as well as to report on the condition of the +colony, found no difficulty in collecting evidence to substantiate them. +An unsuccessful man is generally persuaded that somebody else has caused +his failure. And the "somebody else," in the case of the colonists, was, +by universal consent, the foreign sea captain who had deluded Spanish +hidalgoes by his wild projects, and had become a grandee under false +pretences. The Indians, too, who were glad to lay their miseries at the +door of somebody, and who were told that Aguado was the new admiral, and +had come to supplant the old one, were not slow to add their quota to the +charges against Columbus. To rebut these accusations, as well as to +protest against the issue of licences, to private adventurers, to trade in +the new countries independently of the admiral (a measure which, in +violation of Columbus's charter, had lately been adopted by Fonseca) he +quitted Isabella on the 10th of March, 1496, in the "Nina," while Aguado +took ship in another caravel. Many of the colonists, who had been rudely +awakened from their golden dreams, seized this opportunity of returning to +Spain; and the Cacique Caonabo was also on board, probably with a view of +impressing upon him an overwhelming conviction of Spanish power, and of +the futility of any efforts to resist it. + + + WRETCHED VOYAGE HOME + +The voyage was a miserable one. Contrary winds prevailed until provisions +began to run short, and rations were doled out in pittances which grew +scantier and scantier until all the admiral's authority was needed to +prevent his ravenous shipmates from killing and eating the Caribs who were +on board,--in retribution, so ran the grim jest, for their cannibalism. At +last, when famine was imminent, after a voyage of three months' duration, +the two caravels entered the Bay of Cadiz on the 11th of June, 1496. + + + RECEPTION AT COURT. + +After about a month's delay, Columbus received a summons to proceed to the +Court, which was then at Burgos. In the course of his journey thither he +adopted the same means of dazzling the eyes of the populace, by the +display of gold and the exhibition of his captives, as on his return from +his first voyage; but so many unsuccessful colonists had returned, sick at +heart and ruined in health, to tell the tale of failure to their +countrymen, that this triumphal procession was very unlike the last as +regards the welcome accorded by the public. However the Sovereigns seem to +have given the admiral a kind reception, and instead of placing him on his +defence against the charges which had been brought forward by Father Buil, +they listened with sympathy to his story of the difficulties which had +beset him, and heard with sanguine satisfaction of the recent discovery of +the mines from which it was said that the natives procured most of the +gold that had been found in their possession, and which promised an +incalculably rich harvest. Presently, in apparent confirmation of this +belief, one Pedro Nino, a captain of the admiral's, announced his arrival +at Cadiz, with a quantity of "gold in bars" on board his ship. It was not +until great expectations had been raised at Court, and the wildest ideas +conceived of the magnitude of this supposed first instalment of the riches +of the newly found gold mines, that it turned out that this Nino was +merely a miserable maker of jokes, and that the "gold in bars" was only +represented by the Indians who composed his cargo, whose present captivity +was secured by "bars," and whose future sale was to furnish gold. This +absurdity naturally caused Columbus and his friends no slight +mortification, and added a fresh weapon to the shafts of ridicule which +his enemies wore for ever launching at his extravagant theories and his +expensive projects. + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +During the two years that elapsed from the Admiral's leaving Hispaniola in +1496 to his return there in 1498, many things happened on both sides the +Atlantic, which need recording. In 1496 we find, that Don Bartholomew +Columbus sent to Spain three hundred slaves from Hispaniola. He had +previously informed the Sovereigns that certain caciques were killing the +Castilians, and their Highnesses had given orders in reply, that all those +who should be found guilty should be sent to Spain. If this meant the +common Indians as well as the caciques, then it seems probable that the +question about selling them with a safe conscience was already decided. + + + CRIMINALS SENT TO THE INDIES. + +In 1497, two very injudicious edicts were published by the Catholic +Sovereigns, upon the advice, as we are told, of Columbus; one, authorizing +the judges to transport criminals to the Indies; the other, giving an +indulgence to all those who had committed any crime (with certain +exceptions, among which heresy, lese majeste, and treason, find a place) +to go out at their own expense to Hispaniola, and to serve for a certain +time under the orders of the admiral. The remembrance of this advice on +his part, might well have shamed Columbus from saying, as he did three +years afterwards, in his most emphatic manner, "I swear that numbers of +men have gone to the Indies who did not deserve water from God or man." It +is but fair, however, to mention, that Las Casas, speaking of the +colonists who went out under these conditions, says, "I have known some of +them in these islands, even of those who had lost their ears, whom I +always found sufficiently honest men." + + + "REPARTIMIENTOS." + +In 1497, letters patent were issued from the Sovereigns to the admiral, +authorizing him to grant repartimientos of the lands in the Indies to the +Spaniards. It is noticeable that in this document there is no mention of +Indians, so that they had not come to form portion of a repartimiento at +this period. The document in question is of a formal character, expressed +in the style of legal documents of the present day, by virtue of which the +fortunate Spaniard who gets the land is "to have, and to hold, and to +possess," and so forth; and is enabled "to sell and to give, and to +present, and to traffic with, and to exchange, and to pledge, and to +alienate, and to do with it and in it all that he likes or may think good." + +While the acts of legislation above narrated, which cannot be said to have +been favourable to good government in the Indies, were being framed at the +Court of Spain, Don Bartholomew Columbus was doing much in his +administration of Hispaniola that led to very mischievous results. + +Before the admiral left the island, he had discovered some mines to the +southward, and had thought of choosing a port in their vicinity, where he +might establish a colony. He had spoken about this in his letters to the +Government at home. As he entered the Bay of Cadiz on his return, he met +some vessels there, which were bound for Hispaniola, and which contained +letters from their Highnesses approving of his suggestion. By these ships, +therefore, he sent orders to his brother to make this southern settlement; +and the "Adelantado" accordingly proceeded southwards, and fixed upon a +port at the entrance or the river Ozama. He sent for artizans from +Isabella, and commenced building a fortress, which he called St. Domingo, +and which afterwards became the chief port of the island. + + + XARAGUA PENETRATED; TRIBUTE IMPOSED UPON THE INDIANS. + +There was one part of Hispaniola into which the Spaniards had not yet +penetrated: it was called Xaragua, and was reigned over by a Cacique named +Bohechio, whose sister, Anacaona, the wife of Caonabo, and a noted beauty, +seems also to have had much authority in those parts. The Adelantado, +after seeing the works at St. Domingo commenced, resolved to enter the +kingdom of Xaragua, whither he proceeded at the head of one hundred men. +Arriving at the river Neyba, he found an immense army of Indians drawn up +there to oppose his progress. Don Bartholomew made signs to them that his +errand was peaceful; and the good-natured Indians accepting his proffers +of amity, he was conducted some thirty leagues further to the city of +Xaragua, where he was received with processions of dancing and singing +women, and feasted magnificently. After having been well entertained by +these Indians, the "Adelantado" proceeded to business, and, in plain +terms, demanded tribute of them. Bohechio pleaded that there was no gold +in his dominions, to which the Adelantado replied that he did not wish to +impose tribute upon any people, except of the natural production to be +found in their country. It was finally settled that Bohechio should pay +tribute in cotton and cazabi-bread. He acceded to this agreement very +willingly; and the Adelantado and this cacique parted on the most friendly +terms. + +Don Bartholomew then returned to Isabella, where he found that about three +hundred men had died from disease, and that there was great dearth of +provisions. He distributed the sick men in his fortresses, and in the +adjacent Indian villages, and afterwards set out on a journey to his new +fort of St. Domingo, collecting tribute by the way. In all these rapid and +energetic proceedings of the Adelantado, and still more from causes over +which he had no control, the Spaniards must have suffered much; and, +doubtless, those complaints on their part, which were soon to break +out very menacingly, were not unheard at the present time. + +If the Spaniards, however, complained of the labours which Don Bartholomew +imposed upon them, the Indians complained still more, and far more justly, +of the tribute imposed upon them. Several of the minor chiefs, upon this +occasion of collecting tribute, complained to the great Cacique Guarionex, +and suggested a rising of the Indians. This cacique seems to have been a +peaceful, prudent man, and well aware of the power of the Spaniards. But +he now consented to place himself at the head of an insurrection, which, +however, the lieutenant-governor, soon made aware of it, quelled at once +by a battle in which he was victorious over Guarionex, taking him and +other principal persons captive. The chief movers of the revolt were put +to death; but Guarionex was delivered up to his people, who flocked by +thousands to his place of imprisonment, clamouring for his restitution. + + + DISCONTENT OF THE SPANISIH COLONISTS. + +About this time messengers came from Bohechio and Anacaona, informing the +Adelantado that the tribute of that country was ready for him, and he +accordingly went to fetch it. During his absence from the seat of +government, and under the less vigorous administration of Don Diego +Columbus, who had been left at the head of affairs at Isabella, those +discontents among the Spaniards, which had no doubt been rife for a long +time, broke out in a distinct manner. I allude to the well-known +insurrection of Roldan, whom the admiral, on his departure, had left as +chief justice in the island. The disputes between the chief justice and +the governor were to form the first of a series of similar proceedings to +take place afterwards in many colonies even down to our own times. It may +be imagined that the family of Columbus were a hard race to deal with; and +any one observing that the admiral was very often engaged in disputes, and +almost always in the right, might conjecture that he was one of those +persons who pass through life proving that all people about them are +wrong, and going a great way to make them so. This would have been an easy +mode of explaining many things, and therefore very welcome to a narrator, +but it would not be at all just towards Columbus to saddle upon him any +such character. Here were men who had come out with very grand. +expectations, and who found themselves pinched with hunger, having dire +storms to encounter, and vast labours to undergo; who were restrained +within due bounds by no pressure of society; who were commanded by a +foreigner, or by members of his family, whom they knew to have many +enemies at court; who thought that the Sovereigns themselves could +scarcely reach them at this distance; and who imagined that they had +worked themselves out of an law and order, and that they deserved an +Alsatian immunity. With such men (many of them, perhaps, "not worthy of +water,") the admiral and his brothers had to get useful works of all kinds +done; and did contrive to get vessels navigated, forts built, and some +ideas of civilization maintained. But it was an arduous task at all times: +and this Roldan did not furnish the least of the troubles which the +admiral and his brothers had to endure. + + + INSURRECTION OF ROLDAN. + +Roldan, too, if we could hear him, would probably have something to say. +He wished, it appears, to return to Spain, as Father Buil and Margarite +had done; and urged that a certain caravel which the Governor Don +Bartholomew Columbus had built, might be launched for that purpose. Such +is the account of Ferdinand Columbus, who maintains that the said caravel +could not be lunched for want of tackle. He also mentions that Roldan +complained of the restless life the Adelantado led his men, building forts +and towns; and said that there was no hope of the admiral coming back to +the colony with supplies. Without going into these squabbles--and indeed +it is very difficult when a quarrel of this kind arises, taking it up at +the point where it breaks out, to judge it upon that only, since the +stream of ill-will may have run underground for a long time--suffice it to +say, that Roldan and his men grew more and more insubordinate; were not at +all quelled by the presence of the Adelantado on his return from Xaragua; +and finally quitted Isabella in a body. The Adelantado contrived to keep +some men faithful to him, promising them, amongst other things, two slaves +each. Negotiations then took place between the Adelantado and Roldan, +which must be omitted for the present, to enter upon the further dealing +of Don Bartholomew with the Indians. + + + FLIGHT OF GUARIONEX. + +These poor, islanders were now harassed both by the rebels and by the +loyal Spaniards, whom the Adelantado could not venture to curb much, for +fear of their going over to the other party. The Indians were also tempted +by Roldan to join him, as he contended that tribute had been unjustly +imposed upon them. From all these difficulties, Guarionex made his escape +by flying to the territories of Maiobanex, the cacique of a hardy race, +who inhabited the hilly country towards Cabron. This flight of Guarionex +was a very serious affair, as it threatened the extinction of tribute in +that cacique's territory; and Don Bartholomew accordingly pursued the +fugitive. After some skirmishes with the troops of Maiobanex, in which, as +usual, the Spaniards were victorious, the Adelantado sent a messenger to +Maiobanex, telling him that the Spaniards did not seek war with him, but +that he must give up Guarionex, otherwise his own territory would be +destroyed by fire and sword. Maiobanex replied, that everyone knew that +Guarionex was a good man, endowed with all virtue, wherefore he judged him +to be worthy of assistance and defence, but that they, the Spaniards, were +violent and bad men, and that he would have neither friendship nor +commerce with them. + + + MAIOBANEX AND HIS GUEST. + +Upon receiving this answer, the Adelantado burnt several villages, and +approached nearer to the camp of Maiobanex. Fresh negotiations were +entered into: Maiobanex convoked an assembly of his people; and they +contended that Guarionex ought to be given up, and cursed the day when +first he came amongst them. Their noble chief, however, said, "that +Guarionex was a good man, and deserved well at his hands, for he had given +him many royal gifts when he came to him, and had taught him and his wife +to join in choral songs and to dance, of which he made no little account, +and for which he was grateful: wherefore, he would be party to no treaty +to desert Guarionex, since he had fled to him, and he had pledged himself +to take care of the fugitive; and would rather suffer all extremities than +give detractors a cause for speaking ill, to say that he had delivered up +his guest." The assemblage of the people being dismissed, Maiobanex +informed his guest that he would stand by him to the last. + + + THEIR CAPTURE. + +The fugitive cacique, however, finding that Maiobanex's people were +ill-disposed towards him, quitted, of his own accord, their territory; but +by so doing, he was not enabled to save his generous host, who, with his +family, was surprized and taken; and Guarionex himself being shortly +afterwards captured and put in chains at Fort Concepcion, the two caciques +probably shared the same prison. Thus concludes a story, which, if it had +been written by some Indian Plutarch, and the names had been more easy to +pronounce, might have taken its just place amongst the familiar and +household stories which we tell our children, to make them see the beauty +of great actions. + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + + COLUMBUS'S THIRD VOYAGE. + +A good starting-point for that important part of the narrative which comes +next--namely, the discovery of the American continent by Columbus--will be +a recital of the first clause in the instructions given by Ferdinand and +Isabella to the admiral, in the year 1497, previously to his undertaking +his third voyage--a voyage which, though not to be compared to his first +one, is still very memorable, on account of the discoveries he made, and +the sufferings he experienced in the course of it. + +The first clause of the instructions is to the effect, that the Indians of +the islands are to be brought into peace and quietude, being reduced into +subjection "benignantly;" and also, as the principal end of the conquest, +that they be converted to the sacred Catholic Faith, and have the holy +Sacraments administered to them. + +It will be needless to recount the vexations of that "much-enduring man," +Columbus, before his embarkation. Suffice it to say, that he set sail from +the port of San Lucar on the 30th of May, 1498, with six vessels, and two +hundred men, in addition to the sailors that were necessary to navigate +the vessels. In the course of his voyage he was obliged to avoid a French +squadron which was cruizing in those seas, as France and Spain were then +at war. From Gomera, one of the Canary islands, he despatched three of his +ships directly to Hispaniola, declaring in his instructions to their +commanders, that he was going to the Cape Verde islands, and thence, "in +the name of the Sacred Trinity," intended to navigate to the south of +those islands, until he should arrive under the equinoctial line, in the +hope of being "guided by God to discover something which may be to His +service, and to that of our Lords, the King and Queen, and to the honour +of Christendom;" "for, I believe," he adds, "that no one has ever +traversed this way, and that this sea is nearly unknown." + + + CAPE VERDE ISLANDS. + +With one ship, therefore, and two caravels, the great admiral made for the +Cape Verde islands, "a false name," as he observes, for nothing was to be +seen there of a green colour. He reached these islands on the 27th of +June, and quitted them on the 4th of July, having been in the midst of +such a dense fog all the time, that, he says, "it might have been cut with +a knife," Thence he proceeded to the south-west, intending afterwards to +take a westerly direction. When he had gone, as he says, one hundred and +twenty leagues, he began to find those floating fields of sea-weed which +he had encountered in his first voyage. Here he took an observation at +nightfall, and found that the north star was in five degrees. The wind +suddenly abated, and the heat was intolerable; so much so, that nobody +dared to go below deck to look after the wine and the provisions. This +extraordinary heat lasted eight days. The first day was clear, and if the +others had been like it, the admiral says, not a man would have been left +alive, but they would all have been burnt up. + + + COLUMBUS SAILS WESTWARD. + +At last a favourable breeze sprang up, enabling the admiral to take a +westerly course, the one he most desired, as he had before noticed in his +voyages to the Indies that about a hundred miles west of the Azores there +was always a sudden change of temperature.[15] + + [Footnote 15: I suppose he came into or out of one of those warm ocean + rivers which have so great an effect in modifying the temperature of the + earth--perhaps into the one which comes from the south of Africa through + the Gulf of Mexico, to our own shores, and on which we so much depend.] + + + TRINIDAD SEEN. + +On Sunday, the 22nd of July, in the evening, the sailors saw innumerable +birds going from the south-west to the north-east, which flight of birds +was a sign that land was not far off. For several successive days birds +were seen, and an albatross perched upon the admiral's vessel. Still the +fleet went on without seeing land, and, as it was in want of fresh water, +the admiral was thinking of changing his course, and, indeed, on Thursday, +the 31st of July, had commenced steering northwards for some hours, when, +to use his own words, "as God had always been accustomed to show mercy to +him," a certain mariner of Huelva, a follower of the admiral's, named +Alonzo Perez, happened to go up aloft upon the maintop-sail of the +admiral's ship, and suddenly saw land towards the south-west, about +fifteen leagues off. This land which he described was in the form of three +lofty hills or mountains. It would be but natural to conjecture that, as +Columbus had resolved to name the first land he should discover +"Trinidad," it was by an effort of the will, or of the imagination, that +these three eminences were seen first; but it is exceedingly probable that +such eminences were to be seen from the point whence Alonzo Perez first +saw land.[16] + + [Footnote 16: Cape Cashepou is backed by three peaked mountains, of + which a representation is given in Day's West Indies, vol 2, p. 31.] + +The sailors sang the "Salve Regina," with other pious hymns in honour of +God and "Our Lady," according to the custom of the mariners of Spain, who, +in terror or in joy, were wont to find an expression for their feelings in +such sacred canticles. + + + THE PEARL COAST. + +The admiral's course, when he was going northwards, had been in the +direction of the Carib islands, already well known to him; but with great +delight he now turned towards Trinidad, making for a cape which, from the +likeness of a little rocky islet near it to a galley in full sail, he +named "La Galera." [17] There he arrived "at the hour of complines," but, +not finding the port sufficiently deep for his vessels to enter, he +proceeded westwards. + + [Footnote 17: This point is sometimes placed at the north-east of + Trinidad; but wrongly so. It is now Cape Galeota.--See Humbolt's Examen + Critique, vol. i. p. 310.] + + [Illustration: Map of THE PEARL COAST. From about 50 miles west of the + island of Margarita to just east of Trinidad and Tobago; from about 50 + miles north of Grenada to 50 miles south of the Orinoco River.] + + + FIRST VIEW OF AMERICAN CONTINENT + +The first thing noticeable as he neared these shores, was that the trees +grew well on the margin of the sea. There were houses and people,--and +very beautiful lands, which reminded him, from their beauty and their +verdure, of the gardens of Valencia as seen in the month of March. It was +also to be observed that these lands were well cultivated. + +On the following morning he continued in a westerly direction in search of +a port, where he might take in water, and refit his ships, the timber of +which had shrunk, from extreme heat, so that they sadly needed caulking. +He did not find a port, but came to deep soundings somewhere near Point +Alcatraz, where he brought to, and took in fresh water. This was on a +Wednesday, the first of August. From the point where he now was, the low +lands of the Orinoco must have been visible, and Columbus must have beheld +the continent of America for the first time.[18] He supposed it to be an +island of about twenty leagues in extent, and he gave it the somewhat +insignificant name of Zeta. + + [Footnote 18: The northern part of the continent had been discovered by + Sebastian Cabot, on the 24th of June, 1497.] + +The same signs of felicity which greeted his eyes on his first sight of +land, continued to manifest themselves. Farms and populous places[19] were +visible above the water as he coasted onwards; with the trees flourishing +close to the sea--a sure sign of the general mildness of the weather, +wherever it occurs. + + [Footnote 19: "Vido muchas labranzas por luengo de Costa y muchas + Poblaciones."--LAS CASAS, Hist. de las Indias, MS., lib. i cap. 132.] + +The next day he proceeded westwards along the southern part of Trinidad, +until he arrived It the westernmost point, which he called "La punta de +Arenal;" and now he beheld the gulf of Paria, which he called "La Balena" +(the gulf of the whale). It was just after the rainy season, and the great +rivers which flow into that gulf were causing its waters to rush with +impetuosity out of the two openings [20] which lead into the open sea. The +contest between the fresh water and the salt water produced a ridge of +waters, on the top of which the admiral was borne into the gulf at such +risk, that, writing afterwards of this event to the Spanish court, he +says, "Even to-day I shudder lest the waters should have upset the vessel +when they came under its bows." + + [Footnote 20: The Boca del Drago and the Boca de la Sierpe.] + + + COLUMBUS MISTAKES THE CONTINENT FOR ISLANDS. + +Previously to entering the gulf, the admiral had sought to make friends +with some Indians who approached him in a large canoe, by ordering his men +to come upon the poop, and dance to the sound of a tambourine; but this, +naturally enough, appears to have been mistaken for a warlike +demonstration, and it was answered by a flight of arrows from the Indians. + +The admiral, still supposing that he was amongst islands, called the land +to the left of him, as he moved up the gulf, the island of Gracia; and he +continued to make a similar mistake throughout the whole of his course up +the gulf, taking the various projections of the indented coast for +islands. Throughout his voyage in the gulf, Columbus met with nothing but +friendly treatment from the natives. At last he arrived at a place which +the natives told him was called Paria, and where they also informed him +that, to the westward, the country was more populous. He took four of +these natives, and went onwards, until he came to a point which he named +Punto de Aguja (Needle Point), where, he says, he found the most beautiful +lands in the world, very populous, and whence, to use his own words, "an +infinite number of canoes came off to the ships." + +Proceeding onwards, the admiral came to a place where the women had pearl +bracelets, and, on his enquiring where these came from, they made signs, +directing him out of the Gulf of Paria towards the island of Cubagua. Here +he sent some of his men on shore, who were very well received and +entertained by two of the principal Indians. It is needless to dwell upon +this part of the narrative. Very few of the places retain the names which +the admiral gave them, and, consequently, it is difficult to trace his +progress. He began to conjecture, from the immense amount of fresh water +brought down by the rivers into the Gulf of Paria, that the land which he +had been calling the island of Gracia was not an island, but a continent, +of which fact he afterwards became more convinced. But little time was +given him for research of any kind. He was anxious to reach Hispaniola, in +order to see after his colonists there, and to bring them the stores which +he had in charge; and so, after passing through the "Boca del Drago," and +reconnoitring the island of Margarita, which he named, he was compelled +to go on his way to Hispaniola. We are hardly so much concerned with what +the admiral saw and heard, as with what he afterwards thought and +reported. To understand this, it will be desirable to enter somewhat into +the scientific questions which occupied the mind of this great mariner and +most observant man. + + + THE ADMIRAL'S REASONING ABOUT THE CONTINENT. + +The discovery of the continent of America by Columbus, in his third +voyage, was the result of a distinct intention on his part to discover +some new land, and cannot be attributed to chance. It would be difficult +to define precisely the train of ideas which led Columbus to this +discovery. The Portuguese navigations were one compelling cause. Then the +change, already alluded to, which Columbus had noticed in his voyages to +the Indies, on passing a line a hundred leagues west of the Azores, was in +his mind, as it was in reality, a circumstance of great moment[21] and +significance. It was not a change of temperature alone that he noticed, +but a change in the heavens, the air, the sea, and the magnetic current. + + [Footnote 21: It is the opinion of HUMBOLDT, as mentioned before, that + the celebrated division, made by Alexander the Sixth between the + Castilian and Portuguese monarchs, was adopted in reference to these + phenomena which Columbus had noticed: and, if the line of no variation + were a "constant," no better marine boundary could well be suggested.] + +In the first place, the needles of the compass, instead of north-easting, +north-wested at this line; and that remarkable phenomenon occurred just +upon the passage of the line, as if, Columbus says, one passed a hill. +Then, the sea there was full of sea-weed like small pine-branches, laden +with a fruit similar to pistachio nuts. Moreover, on passing this +imaginary line, the admiral had invariably found that the temperature +became agreeable, and the sea calm. Accordingly, in the course of this +voyage, when they were suffering from that great heat which has been +mentioned, he determined to take a westerly course, which led, as we have +seen, to his discovering the beautiful land of Paria.[22] + + [Footnote 22: Las Casas, who had other authentic information about this + voyage besides the manuscripts of Columbus, says, that the admiral + intended to have gone southwards, after he had taken a westerly course, + on quitting the place where he was becalmed. Had he done so, which the + state of his ships would not permit, he might have been the discoverer + of Brazil.] + + + PECULIAR THEORY OF THE SHAPE OF THE EARTH. + +Now Columbus was one of those men of divining minds, who must have general +theories on which to thread their observations; and, as few persons have +so just a claim to theorize as those who have added largely to the number +of ascertained facts (a privilege which they generally make abundant use +of), so Columbus may well be listened to, when propounding his explanation +of the wonderful change in sea, air, sky, and magnetic current, which he +discerned at this distance of a hundred leagues from the Azores. + +His theory was, that the earth was not a perfect sphere, but pear-shaped; +and he thought that, as he proceeded westwards in this voyage, the sea +went gradually rising, and his ships rising too, until they came nearer to +the heavens. It is very possible that this theory had been long in his +mind, or, at any rate, that he held it before he reached the coast of +Paria. When there, new facts struck his mind, and were combined with his +theory. He found the temperature much more moderate than might have been +expected so near the equinoctial line, far more moderate than on the +opposite coast of Africa. In the evenings, indeed, it was necessary for +him to wear an outer garment of fur. Then, the natives were lighter +coloured, more astute, and braver than those of the islands. Their hair, +too, was different. + +Then, again, he meditated upon the immense volume of fresh waters which +descended into the Gulf of Paria. And, in fine, the conclusion which his +pious mind came to, was, that when he reached the land which he called the +island of Gracia, he was at the base of the earthly Paradise. He also, +upon reflection, concluded that it was a continent which he had +discovered, the same continent of the east which he had always been in +search of; and that the waters, which we now know to be a branch of the +river Orinoco, formed one of the four great rivers which descended from +the garden of Paradise. + +Very different were the conjectures of the pilots. Some said that they +were in the Sea of Spain, others, in that of Scotland, and, being in +despair about their whereabouts, they concluded that they had been under +the guidance of the Devil. The admiral, however, was not a man to be much +influenced by the sayings of the unthoughtful and the unlearned. He +fortified himself by references to St. Isidro, Beda, Strabo, St. Ambrose, +and Duns Scotus, and held stoutly to the conclusion that he had discovered +the site of the earthly Paradise. It is said, that he exclaimed to his +men, that they were in the richest country in the world. + +Columbus did not forget to claim, with all due formalities, the possession +of this approach to Paradise, for his employers, the Catholic Sovereigns. +Accordingly, when at Paria, he had landed and taken possession of the +coast in their names, erecting a great cross upon the shore, which, he +tells Ferdinand and Isabella, he was in the habit of doing at every +headland, the religious aspect of the conquest being one which always had +great influence with the admiral, as he believed it to have with the +Catholic monarchs. In communicating this discovery, he reminds them how +they bade him go on with the enterprise, if he should discover only stones +and rocks, and had told him that they counted the cost for nothing, +considering that the Faith would be increased, and their dominions +widened. + + + GRACEFUL REARING OF NATIVES; BEAUTY OF THE LAND. + +It was, however, no poor discovery of mere "rocks and stones" which the +admiral had now made. It will be interesting to see his first impressions +of the men and the scenery of this continent which he had now, +unconsciously, for the first time, discovered. He says, "I found some +lands, the most beautiful in the world, and very populous." The lands in +the island of Trinidad he had previously compared to Valencia, in Spain, +during the month of March. It is also noticeable that he had observed that +the fields were cultivated. Of the people, he says, "They are all of good +stature, well made, and of very graceful bearing, with much and smooth +hair;" and he mentions that on their heads they wore the beautiful Arab +head-dress (called keffeh), made of worked and coloured handkerchiefs, +which appeared in the distance as if they were silken. + +The description given by Columbus of the natives whom he encounters in his +voyages is almost always favourable. Indeed, the description of any man or +thing depends as much on the person describing, as on the thing or person +described. Those little differences in look or dress, which excite the +ready mockery of the untravelled rustic, appear very slight indeed to the +man who, like Columbus or Las Casas, has seen many lands, and travelled +over many minds. The rude Spanish common soldier perceived a far greater +difference between himself and the Indian, than did the most accomplished +man who visited the Indies, when he made to himself a similar comparison. +Occasionally, in a narrow nature, however cultivated, the commonest +prejudices hold their ground; but, in general, knowledge sees behind and +beyond disgust, and suffices to conquer it. + + + THE EARTHLY PARADISE. + +Columbus, however, found the men, the country, and the products, equally +admirable. It is somewhat curious that he does not mention his discovery +of pearls to the Catholic monarchs, and he afterwards makes a poor excuse +for this. The real reason I conjecture to have been a wish to preserve +this knowledge to himself, that the fruits of this enterprise might not be +prematurely snatched from him. His shipmates, however, were sure to +disperse the intelligence; and the gains to be made on the Pearl Coast +were, probably, the most tempting bait for future navigators to follow in +the track of Columbus, and complete the discovery of the earthly Paradise. + + + ILLNESS OF COLUMBUS. + +Of the delights of this Paradise Columbus himself was to have but a slight +and mocking foretaste. He had been constantly ill during the voyage, +suffering from the gout and from an inflammation in his eyes which +rendered him almost blind. His new colony in Hispaniola demanded his +attention, and must often have been the cause of anxious thought to him; +and the grave but glowing enthusiast made his way to St. Domingo, and +afterwards returned to Spain, to be vexed henceforth by those mean +miseries and small disputes which afflicted him for the remainder of his +days--miseries the more galling, as they were so disproportionately small +in comparison with the greatness of such a man, and with the aims and +hopes which they effectually hindered. + + + +CHAPTER X. + + + SLAVES AND LOGWOOD; PLAN OF SLAVE BARTER. + +It was on the 30th of August, 1498, that Columbus arrived at Hispaniola, +where he found the state of his colony far from cheering, the defection of +Roldan and his followers having put everything into confusion. The admiral +supposed at first that the enmity of Roldan's party was chiefly directed +against his brother, the Adelantado, and the admiral hoped that, now he +had arrived, some agreement would speedily be concluded with Roldan, of +which he might inform the catholic sovereigns by the vessels which he +purposed to send back immediately to Spain. This was very far, however, +from being the case. These vessels, five in number, left the port of St. +Domingo bearing no good news of peace and amity amongst the Spaniards, but +laden with many hundreds of Indian slaves, which had been taken in the +following manner. Some cacique failed to perform the personal services +imposed upon him and his people, and fled to the forests; upon which, +orders were given to pursue him, and a large number of slaves were +captured and put into these ships. Columbus, in his letters to the +sovereigns, enters into an account of the pecuniary advantage that will +arise from these slave-dealing transactions, and from the sale of logwood. +He estimates, that "in the name of the sacred Trinity" there may be sent +as many slaves as sale could be found for in Spain, and that the value of +the slaves, for whom there would be a demand to the number of four +thousand, as he calculated from certain information, and of the logwood, +would amount to forty cuentos (i. e. forty million maravedis). The number +of slaves who were sent in these five ships was six hundred, of which two +hundred were given to the masters of the vessels in payment of freight. In +the course of these letters, throughout which Columbus speaks after the +fashion of a practised slave-dealer, he alludes to the intended adoption, +on behalf of private individuals, of a system of exchange of slaves for +goods wanted from the mother country. The proposed arrangement was as +follows:--The masters of vessels were to receive slaves from the +colonists, were to carry them to Spain, and to pay for their maintenance +during the voyage; they were then to allow the colonists so much money, +payable at Seville, in proportion to the number of slaves brought over. +This money they would expend according to the orders of the colonists, who +would thus be able to obtain such goods as they might stand in need of. It +was upon the same occasion of writing home to Spain that the admiral +strongly urged upon the Catholic Sovereigns that the Spanish colonists +should be allowed to make use of the services of the Indians for a year or +two until the colony should be in a settled state, a proposal which he did +not wait for their highnesses' authority to carry out, and which led to a +new form of the repartimiento. But this brings us back to Roldan's story, +being closely connected with it. + + + CONTENTION WITH ROLDAN. + +After great trouble and many attempts at agreement, in which mention is +more than once made of slaves, the dispute between Roldan's party, rebels +they might almost be called, and Columbus, was at last, after two years' +negotiation, brought to a close. Roldan kept his chief-justiceship; and +his friends received lands and slaves. It brings to mind the conclusion of +many a long war in the old world, in which two great powers have been +contending against each other, with several small powers on each side, the +latter being either ruined in the course of the war, or sacrificed at the +end. The admiral gave repartimientos to those followers of Roldan who +chose to stay in the island, which were constituted in the following +manner. The admiral placed under such a caciqne so many thousand matas +(shoots of the cazabi), or, which came to the same thing, so many thousand +montones (small mounds a foot and a half high, and ten or twelve feet +round, on each of which a cazabi shoot was planted); and Columbus then +ordered that the cacique or his people should till these lands for +whomsoever they were assigned to. The repartimiento had now grown to its +second state--not lands only, but lands and the tillage of them. We shall +yet find that there is a further step in this matter, before the +repartimiento assumes its utmost development. It seems, too, that in +addition to these repartimientos, Columbus gave slaves to those partizans +of Roldan who stayed in the island. Others of Roldan's followers, fifteen +in number, chose to return to Spain; they received a certain number of +slaves, some one, some two, some three; and the admiral sent them home in +two vessels which left the port of St. Domingo at the beginning of +October, 1499. + + + THE QUEEN'S ANGER; PARTIAL RELEASE OF SLAVES. + +On the arrival in Spain of these vessels, the Queen was in the highest +degree angered by the above proceedings, and said that the admiral had +received no authority from her to give her vassals to anyone. She +accordingly commanded proclamation to be made at Seville, Granada, and +other places, that all persons who were in possession of Indians, given to +them by the admiral, should, under pain of death, send those Indians back +to Hispaniola, "and that particularly they should send back those Indians, +and not the others who had been brought before, because she was informed +that the others had been taken in just war." The former part of this +proclamation has been frequently alluded to, and no doubt it deserves much +praise; but from the latter part it is clear that there were some Indians +who could justly, according to Queen Isabella, be made slaves. By this +time, therefore, at any rate the question had been solved, whether by the +learned in the law, theologians and canonists, I know not, but certainly +in practice, that the Indians taken in war could be made slaves. The whole +of this transaction is very remarkable, and, in some measure, +inexplicable, on the facts before us. There is nothing to show that the +slaves given to Roldan's followers were made slaves in a different way +from those who had been sent over on former occasions, both by the admiral +and his brother, for the benefit of the crown. And yet the Queen, whom no +one has ever accused of condescending to state craft, seems to deal with +this particular case as if it were something quite new. It cannot be said +that the crown was favoured, for the question is put upon the legitimacy +of the original capture; and to confirm this, there is a letter from the +Sovereigns to one of their household, from which it may be inferred, +though the wording is rather obscure, that they, too, gave up the slaves +which had come over for them on this occasion. + +Every body would be sorry to take away any honour from Isabella; and all +who are conversant with that period must wish that her proclamation could +be proved to have gone to the root of the matter; and that it had +forbidden the sending Indians to Spain as slaves, on any pretext whatever. + + + THE ADMIRAL'S ENEMIES WORKING AT COURT. + +To return to the affairs of Hispaniola. Columbus had now settled the +Roldan revolt and other smaller ones; he had now, too, reduced the Indians +into subjection; the mines were prospering; the Indians were to be brought +together in populous villages, that so they might better be taught the +Christian faith, and serve as vassals to the crown of Castile; the royal +revenues (always a matter of much concern to Columbus) would, he thought, +in three years amount to sixty millions of reals; and now there was time +for him to sit down, and meditate upon the rebuilding of the temple of +Jerusalem, or the conversion of Cathay. If there had been any prolonged +quiet for him, such great adventures would probably have begun to form the +staple of his high thoughts. But he had hardly enjoyed more than a month +of repose, when that evil came down upon him, which "poured the juice of +aloes into the remaining portion of his life." + +The Catholic sovereigns had hitherto, upon the whole, behaved well to +Columbus. He had bitter enemies at court. People were for ever suggesting +to the monarchs that this foreigner was doing wrong. The admiral's son, +Ferdinand, gives a vivid picture of some of the complaints preferred +against his father. He says, "When I was at Granada, at the time the most +serene Prince Don Miguel died, more than fifty of them (Spaniards who had +returned from the Indies), as men without shame, bought a great quantity +of grapes, and sat themselves down in the court of the Alhambra, uttering +loud cries, saying, that their Highnesses and the admiral made them live +in this poor fashion on account of the bad pay they received, with many +other dishonest and unseemly things, which they kept repeating. Such was +their effrontery that when the Catholic king came forth they all +surrounded him, and got him into the midst of them, saying, 'Pay! pay!' +and if by chance I and my brother, who were pages to the most serene +Queen, happened to pass where they were, they shouted to the very heavens +saying, 'Look at the sons of the admiral of Mosquitoland, of that man who +has discovered the lands of deceit and disappointment, a place of +sepulchre and wretchedness to Spanish hidalgoes:' adding many other +insulting expressions, on which account we excused ourselves from passing +by them." + + + SERIOUS DISSATISFACTION. + +Unjust clamour, like the above, would not alone have turned the hearts of +the Catholic sovereigns against Columbus; but this clamour was supported +by serious grounds for dissatisfaction in the state and prospects of the +colony: and when there is a constant stream of enmity and prejudice +against a man, his conduct or his fortune will, some day or other, offer +an opportunity for it to rush in upon him. + + + COLUMBUS SUPERSEDED. + +However this may be, soon after the return of the five vessels from St. +Domingo, mentioned above, which first told the news of the revolt of +Roldan, Ferdinand and Isabella appear to have taken into serious +consideration the question of suspending Columbus. He had, himself, in the +letters transmitted by these ships, requested that some one might be sent +to conduct the affairs of justice in the colony; but if Ferdinand and +Isabella began by merely looking out for such an officer, they ended in +resolving to send one who should take the civil as well as judicial +authority into his own hands. This determination was not, however, acted +upon hastily. On the 21st of March, 1499, they authorized Francis de +Bobadilla "to ascertain what persons have raised themselves against +justice in the island of Hispaniola, and to proceed against them according +to law." On the 21st of May, 1499, they conferred upon this officer the +government, and signed an order that all arms and fortresses in the Indies +should be given up to him. On the 26th of the same month, they gave him +the following remarkable letter to Columbus:- + + "Don Christopher Columbus, our Admiral of the Ocean: We have commanded + the Comendador Francis de Bobadilla, the bearer of this that he speak to + you on our part some things which he will tell you: we pray you give him + faith and credence, and act accordingly. + "I the King, I the Queen, + "By their command, + "MIGUEL PEREZ DE ALMAZAN," + + + HARSH TREATMENT OF COLUMBUS AND HIS BROTHERS + +Bobadilla, however, was not sent from Spain until the beginning of July, +1500, and did not make his appearance in Hispaniola till the 23rd of +August of the same year. Their Highnesses, therefore, must have taken time +before carrying their resolve into execution; and what they meant by it is +dubious. Certainly, not that the matter should have been transacted in the +coarse way which Bobadilla adopted. It is a great pity, and a sad instance +of mistaken judgment, that they fixed upon him for their agent. I imagine +him to have been such a man as may often be met with, who, from his +narrowness of mind and distinctness of prejudice, is supposed to be high- +principled and direct in his dealings; and whose untried reputation has +great favour with many people: until, placed in power some day, he shows +that to rule well requires other things than one-sidedness in the ruling +person; and is fortunate if he does not acquire that part of renown which +consists in notoriety, by committing some colossal blunder, henceforth +historical from its largeness. + + + COLUMBUS SENT HOME BY BOBADILLA IN CHAINS. + +The first thing that Bobadilla did on arriving at St. Domingo was to take +possession of the admiral's house (he being at the fort La Concepcion), +and then to summon the admiral before him, sending him the royal letter. +Neither the admiral nor his brothers attempted to make any resistance; and +Bobadilla, with a stupid brutality, which I suppose he took for vigour, +put them in chains, and sent them to Spain. There is no doubt that the +Castilian population of Hispaniola were rejoiced at Bobadilla's coming, +and that they abetted him in his violence. Accusations came thickly +against Columbus: "the stones rose up against him and his brothers," says +the historian Herrera, emphatically, The people told how he had made them +work, even sick men, at his fortresses, at his house, at the mills, and +other buildings; how he had starved them; how he had condemned men to be +whipped for the slightest causes, as, for instance, for stealing a peck of +wheat when they were dying of hunger. Considering the difficulties he had +to deal with, and the scarcity of provisions, many of these accusations, +if rightly examined, would probably have not merely failed in producing +anything against Columbus, but would have developed some proofs of his +firmness and sagacity as a governor. Then his accusers went on to other +grounds, such as his not having baptized Indians "because he desired +slaves rather than Christians:" moreover, that he had entered into war +unjustly with the Indians, and that he had made many slaves, in order to +send them to Castile. It is highly unlikely that these latter charges were +preferred by a single colonist, unless, perhaps, by some man in religious +orders. The probability is, that they came from the other side of the +water; and this does give considerable strength to the report, that the +displeasure of the court with respect to the Admiral's proceedings against +the Indians had to do with his removal from the government of the Indies. +If so, it speaks largely for the continued admirable intentions of the +Spanish court in this matter. + + +Poor Columbus! His chains lay very heavily upon him. He insisted, however, +upon not having them taken off, unless by royal command, and would ever +keep them by him, ("I always saw them in his room," says his son +Ferdinand), ordering that they should be buried with him. He did not know +how many wretched beings would have to traverse those seas, in bonds much +worse than his, with no room allowed them for writing, as was his +case,--not even for standing upright; nor did he foresee, I trust, that +some of his doings would further all this coming misery. In these +chains Columbus is of more interest to us than when in full power as +governor of the Indies; for so it is, that the most infelicitous times of +a man's life are those which posterity will look to most, and love him +most for. This very thought may have comforted him; but happily he had +other sources of consolation in the pious aspirations which never deserted +him. + +We have come now to the end of Columbus's administration of the Indies. +Whatever we may think of his general policy, we cannot but regret his +removal at the present time, when there appeared some chance of solidity +in his government: though we must honestly admit, that the Catholic +Sovereigns, with such evidence as they had before them, were far from +wrong in recalling him, had it been done in a manner worthy of his and of +their greatness. + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + + REACTION AT COURT. + +The career of Columbus had already been marked by strong contrasts. First, +a "pauper pilot," then the viceroy of a new world; alternately hoping, and +fearing, despondent, and triumphant, he had passed through strange +vicissitudes of good and evil fortune. But no two events in his life stand +out in stronger contrast to each other than his return to Spain after his +first voyage, and his return now. He was then a conqueror; he was now a +prisoner. He was then the idol of popular favour; he was now the unpopular +victim of insidious maligners. In truth, the contrast was so startling as +to strike home to the hearts of the common people, even of those--and +there were many such--who had lost kinsmen or friends in that fatal quest +for gold which the admiral had originated and stimulated. The broad fact +was this: Columbus had given Spain a new world; Spain loaded him with +fetters in return. There was a reaction. The current of public opinion +began to turn in his favour. The nation became conscious of ingratitude to +its benefactor. The nobility were shocked at the insult to one of their +own order. And no sooner had the Sovereigns learned from Columbus of his +arrival, and of his disgrace, than they issued immediate orders for his +liberation, and summoned him to their court at Grenada, forwarding money +to enable him to proceed there in a style befitting his rank. They then +received him with all possible signs of distinction; repudiated +Bobadilla's arbitrary proceedings; and promised the admiral compensation +and satisfaction. As a mark of their disapprobation of the way in which +Bobadilla had acted under their commission, they pointedly refused to +enquire into the charges against Columbus, and dismissed them as not +worthy of investigation. + +But though the Sovereigns acted thus promptly on the admiral's behalf, +there is no doubt that one of them, at least, was in no wise displeased at +his being removed from his government. At each fresh discovery, Ferdinand +had repented more and more of the concession by which Columbus was to +receive an eighth part of the profits of the newly-found countries, and to +be their governor-general. He probably apprehended that this viceroy, when +once master of the boundless wealth which was supposed to be nearly within +his grasp, would become more powerful than his master, and might finally +throw off his allegiance altogether. But here was an opportunity, without +any flagrant breach of faith, of eluding the bargain, by refusing, on very +plausible grounds of policy, to reinstate Columbus immediately in his +viceroyalty. Isabella, who had always been his firm friend, would probably +have refused to acquiesce in, any scheme for absolutely depriving him of +his rights, but it was sufficiently obvious that just at present, while +the colonists were excited against him, it would be prudent that some one +else should take the reins of government. + + + COLUMBUS PLEADS HIS CAUSE BEFORE THE QUEEN. + +The Queen granted Columbus a private audience. He told his story with much +simple eloquence--so pathetically, indeed, that his warmhearted mistress +is said to have been moved to tears at the recital. He described the +difficulties which he had encountered and the machinations of the +enemies who had been constantly thwarting him. He pleaded that he had been +obliged to create a line of conduct for himself, having to deal with an +entirely new combination of circumstances without any precedent to guide +him. And he implored the Queen to believe that the accusations which had, +of late, poured in against him, were prompted by the disappointed ambition +and the jealousy of his enemies, and had not any solid foundation in fact. + +Isabella replied in a very sensible speech, telling him that, while she +fully appreciated his services, and knew the rancour of his enemies, she +was afraid that he had given some cause for complaint. "Common report," +she said,[Charlevoix.] "accuses you of acting with a degree of severity +quite unsuitable for an infant colony, and likely to excite rebellion +there. But the matter as to which I find it hardest to give you my pardon, +is your conduct in reducing to slavery a number of Indians who had done +nothing to deserve such a fate. This was contrary to my express orders. As +your ill fortune willed it, just at the time when I heard of this breach +of my instructions, everybody was complaining of you, and no one spoke a +word in your favour. And I felt obliged to send to the Indies a +commissioner to investigate matters, and give me a true report; and, if +necessary, to put limits to the authority which you were accused of +overstepping. If you were found guilty of the charges, he was to relieve +you of the government and to send you to Spain to give an account of your +stewardship. This was the extent of his commission. I find that I have +made a bad choice in my agent; and I will take care to make an example of +Bobadilla, which shall serve as a warning to others not to exceed their +powers. I cannot, however, promise to re-instate you at once in your +government. People are too much inflamed against you, and must have time +to cool. As to your rank of admiral, I never intended to deprive you of +it. But you must bide your time and trust in me." + + + THE QUEEN'S DECISION; BOBADILLA'S TYRANNY + +It was arranged that the appointment of the new governor should be for two +years only, at the expiration of which period, as Isabella thought, the +administration of the colonies might be again entrusted to Columbus; while +Ferdinand doubtless considered that some pretext might be found in the +meantime for omitting to re-appoint him at all. And though Columbus may +have been told verbally that it was their Highnesses' intention to +re-instate him after the lapse of two years, it is noteworthy that the +document appointing Ovando makes no mention of any limitation of the term +of his (Ovando's) government. The words are, "that he is to be governor as +long as it is their Highnesses' will and pleasure." Bobadilla, fortunately +for the islanders, was forthwith to be superseded; for, if Columbus had +chastised them with whips, Bobadilla was chastising them with scorpions. +His first object was the discovery of gold; and to secure this he took a +census of the natives, and assigned them all as slaves to the colonists. A +large proportion of the latter, as we have seen, were simply the scourings +of Spanish prisons; and the brutality with which these men treated their +wretched helots was very terrible. Some estimate of the amount of pressure +employed may be formed from the fact that, although Bobadilla had reduced +the royalty payable to the Sovereigns from one-third to one-eleventh of +the gold found, this smaller proportion produced a larger revenue. In +other words, about four times as much gold was discovered under +Bobadilla's system as under that of Columbus. + + + OVANDO AS GOVERNOR + +But when the Sovereigns heard of the cruelties which that system involved, +they urged forward the departure of Ovando, whom they had selected as +governor, and who, to judge from his previous career, was a man eminently +fitted to rule justly and mercifully. He was well known to Ferdinand and +Isabella, having been chosen by the Queen as one of the companions for her +eldest son, Prince John. With regard to his personal appearance, we are +told that he was of moderate stature, and had a "vermilion-coloured +beard," which fact hardly conveys much to our minds; but it is added, in +general terms, that his presence expressed authority. With respect to his +mental qualifications, we learn that he was a friend to justice, an +honourable person both in words and deeds, and that he held all avarice +and covetousness in much aversion. He was humble, too, they say, and when +he was appointed Commendador Mayor of the Order of Alcantara, he would +never allow himself to be addressed by the title of "Lordship," which +belonged to that office. + + + HIS INSTRUCTIONS. + +Previous to Ovando's departure from court, the monarchs were particular in +giving him instructions both verbal and written. Among these instructions +was one which Isabella especially insisted on, namely, "that all the +Indians in Hispaniola should be free from servitude and be unmolested by +anyone, and that they should live as free vassals, governed and protected +by justice, as were the vassals of Castile." Like the vassals in Spain, +the Indians were to pay tribute; they were also to assist in getting gold, +but for this they were to be paid daily wages. Other commands were given +at the same time for the conversion of the Indians, and to insure their +being treated kindly. + + + ADVICE TO OVANDO ON THE DUTIES OF A GOVERNOR. + +Respecting the general government of the country, it was arranged that on +Ovando's going out, all those who received pay from the government in the +Indies, as well those who had accompanied Bobadilla as those who had come +out originally with Columbus, should return to Spain, and that a new set +to replace them should go out with Ovando. This was done because most of +these soldiers and officials had necessarily been connected with the late +troubles in the colony, and it would be a good plan to start afresh, as it +were. At the same time it was provided that no Jews, Moors, or new +converts were to go to the Indies, or be permitted to remain there; but +negro slaves "born in the power of Christians, were to be allowed to pass +to the Indies, and the officers of the royal revenue were to receive the +money to be paid for their permits." This is the first notice with respect +to negroes going to the Indies. These instructions were given in the year +1501. + +On Ovando's arrival in the colony, Bobadilla was to undergo the ordeal of +a "residencia," a kind of examination well known and constantly practised +in Spain, to which Authorities were subject on going out of office--being +of the nature of a general impeachment. It is satisfactory to find, that +amongst the orders given to Ovando, there are some for the restitution of +the admiral's property, and the maintenance of his mercantile rights. + +Just before Ovando took leave of the king, he received a formal lecture +upon the duties of a governor. The King, the Queen, and a privy +councillor, Antonio de Fonseca, were the persons present; and, as I +imagine, the latter addressed Ovando on the part of their Highnesses. As +it is not often that we have an opportunity of hearing a didactic +lecture on the modes and duties of government given in the presence of a +great master of that art, and probably looked over, if not prepared, by +him, we must enter the royal cabinet, and hear some part of this +discourse. + +The first point which Fonseca impresses upon Ovando is, that before all +things, he is to look to what concerns the reverence of God and His +worship. Then he is to examine into the life and capacity of the men about +him, and to put good men into office; taking care, however, not to leave +all the authority in the hands of subordinates (here we may well imagine +Ferdinand nodded approvingly), to the diminution of his own power, "nor to +make them so great that they shall have occasion to contrive novelties," +in order to make themselves greater. Also, let there be change of +authorities, so that many may have a share of profit and honour, and be +made skilful in affairs. + +That he should use moderation in making repartimientos and tributes, not +overtaxing the people, which moderation would be furthered by his taking +care that his personal and his household expenses were within due bounds. +(Here, I fancy, the monarchs looked at each other, thought of their own +frugal way of living, and Isabella smiled.) + +That he should not make himself judge in a cause, but let culprits be +tried in the ordinary way. Thus he will avoid unpopularity, for "the +remembrance of the crime perishes: not so that of the punishment." (This +aphorism must, I think, have been composed by Ferdinand himself. His +writing is always exceedingly concise and to the purpose.) + +That he should not listen to tale-bearers, (parleros) either of his own +household or to those out of it; nor take vengeance upon anybody who had +spoken ill of him, it being "an ugly thing to believe that anybody could +speak ill of one who did ill to no one, but good to all," That it is one +of the conditions of bad governors, "moved therein by their own +consciences" to give heed to what they hear is said of them, and to take +ill that, which if it had been said, they had better not have heard. +Rather let injurious sayings be overcome by magnanimity. + +That it would be good for him to give free audience to all, and to hear +what they had to say; and if their counsel turned out ill, not to look +coldly upon them for that. The same in war, or in any other undertaking: +his agents must not have to fear punishment for failure, nor calumny for +success: "for there were many persons who, to avoid the envy of their +superiors, sought rather to lose a victory than to gain it," (Here +Ferdinand ought to have looked a little ashamed, being conscious that his +own practice by no means came up to what he perceives to be noble and wise +policy in the matter.) + +That he (Ovando) should look to what example he gives both in word and +deed,--governors living, as in a theatre, in the midst of the world. If he +does ill, even those who follow him in that, will not the less disesteem +him. + +That although it is necessary for him to know the life of everyone, yet he +must not be over-inquisitive about it, nor rout up offences which are not +brought before him officially. "Since if all offences were looked into, +few men, or none, would be without punishment." Besides, for secret faults +men may correct themselves: if those faults are made known, and especially +if they are punished in excess, shame is lost, and men give way to their +bad impulses. + +That he is to encourage those who work, and to discourage the idle, as the +universal Father does. + +That, as regards liberality, he should so conduct himself, that men should +not dare to ask him for things which they would know he must deny: this +would be a great restraint upon them, and a great proof of good reputation +in a governor. + +That, in fine, all that had been said consisted in this, that he was to +govern as he would be, governed: and that "it behoved him to be intent in +business, to show courage in difficulties, and management in all things, +brevity in executing useful determinations, yet not as if carried away by +passion, but always upon good counsel; considering much what a charge was +upon him, for this thought would be useful to him at all times: and above +all things he was to take heed (in order that the same thing might not +happen to him which had happened to the admiral) that when any occasion +for dealing briefly with an offence occurred, he should have swift +recourse to punishment, for in such cases the remedy ought to be like a +thunderbolt." + +After reading the above, we cannot say that the Catholic monarchs were +inattentive to the government of their Indian possessions, nor can the +sagacity which directed that attention be for a moment questioned. Indeed +that sagacity is so remarkable, that it may naturally occur to the learned +reader to inquire, whether Machiavelli's "Prince" had yet been published, +and whether King Ferdinand could have read that much-abused manual of +crafty statesmen. It was, however, about twelve years after this memorable +audience granted by Ferdinand and Isabella to Ovando that "The Prince" is +alluded to by Machiavelli, and described as a small unpublished work. + + + HE ARRIVES AT ST. DOMINGO. + +Charged with these instructions, then, Nicholas de Ovando left the port of +San Lucas on the 13th of February, 1502, to take possession of his new +government, having under him a gallant company of two thousand five +hundred persons, a large proportion of them being hidalgoes. On his way he +met with a terrible storm, in which one of his largest vessels foundered, +and he had some difficulty in reaching St. Domingo at all. This, however, +he succeeded in doing on the 15th of April, and entered at once upon the +reforms which he was commissioned to institute. + + + OVANDO'S ADMINISTRATION + +He announced the residencia of Bobadilla, and placed Roldan under arrest. +He exerted himself to found settlements along the coast, and at first, no +doubt, he endeavoured to carry out the merciful directions which he had +received with regard to the Indians. But, like Bobadilla, he was a knight +of a religious order, with a certain narrow way of looking at things +incident to his profession, with no especial culture that we know of, and +with little originality of character. In these respects he presented a +remarkable contrast to Columbus, who was a man of various accomplishments, +large minded, enthusiastic, fluent, affectionate, inventive. And so, +whereas Columbus had always treated the natives with consideration and +humanity, Ovando soon began to rule them with a rod of iron. We must not +linger too long over his administration of what we may call Columbus's +kingdom, but there is one sad episode which it is worth while to recount, +if only to make the policy of Columbus stand out in brighter relief. + + + AN INDIAN RECEPTION. + +When Anacaona, the Queen of Xaragua, had received the admiral's brother, +Don Bartolome, on a former occasion, the Spaniards affirmed her to be a +wise woman, of good manners, and pleasant address; and she is said to have +earnestly entreated her brother to take warning by the fate of her +husband, Caonabo, and to love and obey the Christians. As she was now to +play the hostess again, this time to Ovando, we may refer to the account +of her former reception of a Spanish governor, the Adelantado, of which +there are some details furnished by Peter Martyr. + +After mentioning that the queen and her brother received the lieutenant +with all courtesy and honour, he says: "They brought our men to their +common hall, into which they come together as often as they make any +notable games or triumphs, as we have said before. Here, after many +dancings, singings, maskings, runnings, wrestlings, and other trying of +masteries, suddenly there appeared in a large plain near unto the hall, +two great armies of men of war, which the king for his pastime had caused +to be prepared, as the Spaniards use the play with reeds, which they call +Juga de Canias. As the armies drew near together, they assailed the one +the other as fiercely as if mortal enemies with their banners spread +should fight for their goods, their lands, their lives, their liberty, +their country, their wives and their children, so that within the moment +of an hour, four men were slain, and many wounded. The battle also would +have continued longer, if the king had not, at the request of our men, +caused them to cease." + + + OVANDO VISITS XARAGUA. + +At this time, in the year 1503, some of Roldan's former partizans were +settled in the province of Xaragua, and were a great trouble to the +colony. Herrera says, in a quiet sarcastic way, "they lived in the +discipline they had learnt from Roldan;" and the governing powers of +Xaragua found them "intolerable." He also adds that Anacaona's people were +in policy, in language, and in other things superior to all the other +inhabitants of the island. As might be expected, there were constant +disturbances between these Spaniards and the adjacent Indians; and the +Spaniards took care to inform the governor that their adversaries, the +Indians of Xaragua, intended to rebel. Perhaps they did so intend. Ovando +resolved, after much consultation, to take a journey to Xaragua. It must +be said, in justice to Ovando, that this does not look as if he thought +the matter were a light one. Xaragua was seventy leagues from St. Domingo. +The governor set out well accompanied, with seventy horsemen and three +hundred foot soldiers. + + + HIS RECEPTION BY ANACAONA. + +Anacaona, who had some suspicion of his intentions, summoned all her +feudatories around her "to do horour" to him, when she heard of his +coming. She went out to meet Ovando with a concourse of her subjects, and +with the same festivities of singing and dancing as in former days she had +adopted when she went to receive the Adelantado. Various pleasures and +amusements were provided for the strangers, and probably Anacaona thought +that she had succeeded in soothing and pleasing this severe looking +governor, as she had done the last. But the former followers of Roldan +were about the governor, telling him that there certainly was an +insurrection at hand, that if he did not look to it now, and suppress it +at once, the revolt would be far more difficult to quell when it did break +out. Thus they argued, using all those seemingly wise arguments of +wickedness which from time immemorial have originated and perpetuated +treachery. Ovando listened to these men; indeed he must have been much +inclined to believe them, or he would hardly have come all this way. He +was now convinced that an insurrection was intended. + + + PRETENDED TOURNAMENT; MASSACRE OF INDIAN CHIEFS. + +With these thoughts in his mind, he ordered that, on a certain Sunday, +after dinner, all the cavalry should get to horse, on the pretext of a +tournament. The infantry, too, he caused to be ready for action. He +himself, a Tiberius in dissembling, went to play at quoits, and was +disturbed by his men coming to him and begging him to look on at their +sports. The poor Indian queen hurried with the utmost simplicity into the +snare prepared for her. She told the governor that her caciques, too, +would like to see this tournament, upon which, with demonstrations of +pleasure, he bade her come with all her caciques to his quarters, for he +wanted to talk to them, intimating, as I conjecture, that he would explain +the festivity to them. Meanwhile, he gave his cavalry orders to surround +the building; he placed the infantry at certain commanding positions; and +told his men, that when, in talking with the caciques, he should place his +hand upon the badge of knighthood which hung upon his breast, they should +rush in and bind the caciques and Anacaona. It fell out as he had planned. +All these deluded Indian chiefs and their queen were secured. She alone +was led out of Ovando's quarters, which were then set fire to, and all the +chiefs burnt alive. Anacaona was afterwards hanged and the province was +desolated. + +Humanity does not gain much, after all, by this man's not taking the title +of "Lordship" which he had a right to. + +Finally, the governor collected the former followers of Roldan in Xaragua, +and formed a town of their settlement, which he named "the city of the +true peace" (La villa de la vera Paz), but which a modern chronicler well +says might more properly havc been named "Aceldama, the field of blood." I +observe that the arms assigned to this new settlement were a dove with the +olive-branch, a rainbow, and a cross. + + + FERDINAND'S LETTER TO COLUMBUS + +But it is time to return to Columbus, who in the mean time was chafing at +the inactivity which had been forced upon him. His was a restless spirit, +perhaps too restless for an organizer, who ought to possess an +inexhaustible amount of patience, and to be able to wait as well as to +labour. He had formed a theory that some strait existed through which a +passage might be made from the neighbourhood of St. Domingo to those +regions in Asia from which the Portuguese were just beginning to reap a +large profit, and which must be very near that home of the gold which had +always occupied his thoughts. He pressed the Sovereigns to provide him +with ships for an expedition having for its special object the discovery +of this strait; and on the occurrence of some delay as to the equipment of +vessels for the purpose, he seems to have written to Ferdinand, +reproaching him with the treatment which he had received, and with the +want of confidence manifested towards him now. To this Ferdinand answered +in a letter which was certainly well calculated to soothe the Admiral's +indignation. It was to the following effect, "You ought to be convinced of +our displeasure at your captivity, for we lost not a moment in setting you +free. Your innocence is well known; you are aware of the consideration and +friendship with which we have treated you; the favours which you have +received from us shall not be the last that you will receive; we assure to +you your privileges, and are desirous that you and your children may enjoy +them. We offer to confirm them to you again, and to put your eldest son in +possession of all your offices, whenever you wish....We beg you to set out +as soon as possible." + + + NEW ENTERPRISE. + +On the 9th of May the preparations were complete, and Columbus set sail +from Cadiz with his brother, Don Bartholomew, and his second son, +Fernando. As an instance of the admiral's chivalrous love of adventure, it +may be mentioned that upon hearing that the Portuguese fortress of +Arzilla, on the African coast, was besieged by the Moors, he first +proceeded thither, quite voluntarily, to its relief. When he reached it, +however, he found that the siege had been raised; and his services were +not, therefore, called into requisition. + + + COLUMBUS REFUSED SHELTER; DESTRUCTIVE TORNADO. + +After a singularly prosperous voyage, he reached Martinique on the 13th of +June. His instructions from the Sovereigns expressly interdicted him from +visiting St. Domingo; but, on finding that his largest ship required some +repairs to make her seaworthy, he boldly disregarded the prohibition, and +sent a boat to ask Ovando to furnish him with another vessel in place of +the damaged one, and to allow his squadron to take refuge in the harbour +during a hurricane which he foresaw to be imminent. Ovando refused both +requests. His commission set forth that Columbus was not to visit the +island; and the contingency of hurricanes was not provided for. Besides, +the governor believed that this prediction of a hurricane was a mere +pretext of the admiral's for obtaining admission to the harbour. To an eye +unaccustomed to tropical changes, the weather appeared to be "set fair." +Scarcely a ripple passed over the sea; scarcely a breath stirred the +luxuriant foliage on shore. Ovando repulsed with scorn the admiral's +suggestion that, at any rate, the departure of the fleet for Spain should +he delayed. This fleet was the richest in cargo that had ever left the +islands. It contained all the gold which had been wrung out of the natives +by Bobadilla's harsh measures. Of one nugget, especially, the old +chroniclers speak in the most glowing terms. According to them, it was the +largest piece of virgin gold ever discovered. It had been found +accidentally, by an Indian woman at the mines, while listlessly moving her +rake to and fro in the water one day during dinner time. Its value was +estimated at 1,350,000 maravedis;[About 416 English Pounds] and in the +festivities which took place on the occasion, it was used as a dish for a +roast pig, the miners saying that no king of Castile has ever feasted from +a dish of such value. We do not find that the poor Indian woman had any +part in the good fortune. Indeed, as Las Casas observes, she was fortunate +if she had any portion of the meat, not to speak of the dish. Bobadilla +had purchased the nugget for Ferdinand and Isabella, and had shipped it +with other treasure valuable enough to go a long way towards compensating +the sovereigns for all their expenditure on the new colony--if the fleet +could only reach Spain in safety. + +But on the second day after its departure the Admiral's prediction became +terribly verified. A tornado of unexampled fury swept over the seas; and +those on shore could judge of the fate that was likely to befall the +unfortunate squadron, as many of the buildings and trees on the island +were levelled with the ground by the force of the tempest. Of all the +ships, only one--and that the frailest of the fleet--was able to +accomplish the voyage to Spain. A few vessels managed to return, in dire +distress, to the island; but by far the greater number foundered at sea. +The historians of the period do not fail to remark that, while the ship +which reached Spain safely was the one carrying the admiral's property, a +special providence decreed that his enemies--Bobadilla, Roldan, and their +associates in cruelty and plunder--should perish with their ill-gotten +gains. + +Like Cassandra, Columbus witnessed the discomfiture of the disbelievers in +his prophecy: like her he was denied the right of sanctuary upon the +occurrence of the disaster which he had foretold. Repulsed from port by +Ovando, however, the admiral sailed along the coast, and succeeded in +bringing his own ship under the lee of the land when the storm came on. +But the three other caravels were in no little danger (particularly the +disabled one, which was commanded by the Adelantado), and some days +elapsed before the little squadron was re-united in the port of Azua, to +the west of San Domingo. + + + JAMIAICA PASSED. + +Thence he proceeded to Jaquimo, on the extremity of the same coast, and +after refitting his ships, set sail for Jamaica on the 14th of July, 1502. +Passing that island, he met with light and varying winds, and contrary +currents, in the archipelago of reefs and keys which he had previously +named the Queen's Garden. + + + INSUBORDINATION OF CREWS. + +For about nine weeks he made so little progress that his crews began to +clamour for the abandonment of the expedition. The ships were worm-eaten +and leaky. Provisions were running short. The seamen had seen their +commander thrust away from what might be called his own door; and the +sight of his powerlessness had strengthened their independence until it +amounted to insubordination. Fortunately, however, before the discontent +broke out into open mutiny, a breeze sprang up from the east, and the +admiral easily persuaded his unruly crews that it was better to prosecute +their voyage than to remain beating about the islets waiting to return +home. + +They were soon gladdened by the sight of the pine-clad slopes of the +little island of Guanaja, lying about forty miles from Truxillo, on the +coast of Honduras. Here there appeared a canoe, much more like the ships +of the old world than any they had seen before, manned by twenty-five +Indians who had come from the continent on a trading voyage among the +islands. Their cargo consisted of cotton fabrics, iron-wood swords, flint +knives, copper axe-heads, and a fruit called by the natives cacao, to +which the Spaniards were now introduced for the first time, but the merits +of which, as a beverage, they were not slow to appreciate. The admiral +treated these people with much kindness, and won their confidence at once +by presenting them with some of the glittering toys which never failed to +dazzle a barbarian eye. + + + AN INDIAN PILOT. + +One old Indian, whom Columbus selected as apparently the most intelligent +of the band, consented to accompany him as pilot, and indicated, by signs, +his knowledge of a land, not far distant, where there were ships, and +arms, and merchandize, and, in fact, all the marks of civilization which +were displayed to him by the Spaniards themselves, and with which he +professed to be perfectly familiar. Whether he intended to mislead +Columbus, or whether, like most of his race, he was merely proud of being +impassive, and of being able to repress all indication of astonishment at +startling novelties, it is certain that his demeanour and his signs were +interpreted by the admiral to indicate an acquaintance with a country, +rich and civilized, lying towards the east; which country could, of +course, be no other than the long sought-for kingdom of the Grand Khan. +Had Columbus, in pursuance of his first intention, steered to the west, a +few hours would have brought him to the coast of Yucatan; and the riches +of Mexico would have rewarded his discovery. But this savage, like his +evil destiny, crossed his path at the critical moment, and turned him from +the road to fortune. + + + CAPE GUACIAS A DIOS. + +Steering along the coast of Honduras, on the 12th of September, he reached +Cape Gracias a Dios, to which he gave this name in pious thankfulness for +the southerly turn taken by the land at that point, so that the east +winds, which had hitherto obstructed him, were now favourable to his +course along the coast. A month later he entered several bays on the +Isthmus of Panama, where he was able to procure provisions and to refit +his vessels, but failed to obtain any intelligence either of the kingdom +of the Khan, or of the strait which he fancied would lead him there. The +natives whom he encountered were generally disposed to be friendly; but, +in one instance, when the depth of water in a creek obliged him to moor +his vessels close to the shore, an attack of the Indians was only repulsed +by the use of artillery, the thunder and lightning of which seemed always +to possess, in the eyes of the savages, a supernatural and therefore awful +character. On another occasion, when a conference was held with one of the +tribes, great alarm was caused by a notary, who attended to take notes of +the conversation. The savages had never before seen the operation of +writing; and they regarded it as a spell which was to have some magic +effect upon them, and which they must neutralize by various mystic +fumigations which they believed to act as counter-charms. "They were +themselves skilled sorcerers," says Columbus,--whose credulity in such +matters was only that of his age. + + + EASTERLY COURSE ABANDONED; THE BETHLEHEM RIVER. + +It was not until the 5th of December that the admiral could resolve to +abandon his easterly course, although the conviction had been gradually +forcing itself upon him that the condition of his ships was such as to +render a prosecution of his voyage almost impossible. He had scarcely +turned back, intending to found a settlement on the river Veragua, before +he encountered a storm which tried his worm-eaten caravels very severely. +The thunder and lightning wore incessant; the waterspouts (the first they +had seen) threatened to engulph them; huge crests of waves burst in +phosphorescent floods over them; and their escape, if we consider the +smallness of the caravels, and the force of a tropical cyclone, was little +less than miraculous. At last, after eight days' tossing to and fro, the +admiral gained the mouth of a river, which he named the Bethlehem, because +he entered it on the day of the Epiphany. + + + A SETTLEMENT FORMED. + +In this neighbourhood there was a powerful cacique, named Quibia, whose +territory contained much gold, and with whom, therefore, the Spaniards +were anxious to treat. But he outwitted them. Offering to supply them with +guides to conduct them to his gold mines, he really sent them, not to his +own mines, but to those of a rival cacique, of Urira. Here, however, they +succeeded in acquiring, by barter and by actual discovery, large +quantities of the precious metal, which seemed to be so abundant, that the +admiral made sure that he had come to the very Aurea Chersonesus from +which Solomon had obtained the gold for the temple at Jerusalem. He had +seen more signs of gold here in two days, he said, than he had seen in St. +Domingo in four years. His first step was to form a settlement to provide +a depot for the gold which might be collected. A convenient site was found +near the mouth of the river Bethlehem, and by the end of March the +Adelantado had built a village of huts, in which it was proposed that he +should remain, with about eighty followers, while Columbus returned to +Spain for supplies. + + + ATTACK BY INDIANS. + +But rumours soon reached the Adelantado of a projected attack on the +settlement by the natives, and he took measures to seize Quibia in his own +palace. The Indians, dismayed at the capture of their cacique, offered +large quantities of gold for his ransom, but the Adelantado preferred to +keep him as a hostage for peace. However, as he was being conveyed down +the river, on board one of the boats, he managed, although bound hand and +foot, and in the custody of one of the most powerful of the Spaniards, to +spring overboard and to make his escape, swimming under water to the +shore. Henceforward, as might have been expected, there was war to the +knife between the natives and the settlers. An attempt was made to burn +down the village by means of blazing arrows. A boat's crew of eleven +Spaniards, who had proceeded some distance up the river, were attacked by +savages in canoes, and only one man escaped to carry to the settlement the +news of the massacre of his companions. + + + SETTLEMENT ABANDONED. + +The admiral, with three of the caravels, was in the offing, awaiting a +wind favourable for his departure, but the dry weather had made the river +so shallow that it was impossible for the caravel left with the settlers +to cross the bar, and as they had no boat strong enough to weather the +surf, it seemed impossible for them to carry to him tidings of their +condition. They were in despair; for if they were left, they knew that +they were left to perish. The admiral, on his part, had become uneasy, not +knowing that their failure to communicate with him was owing to the fact +that their only seaworthy boat had been destroyed by the Indians. His own +boats were small and scarcely weathertight. But some of Quibia's family +who had been taken on board the squadron as prisoners, had made their +escape by swimming to the shore, three miles off; and this feat encouraged +a bold pilot of Seville, named Ledesma, who was on board the admiral's +caravel, to attempt a similar exploit. Never was bearer of reprieve for +the condemned more welcome. Ledesma communicated with the Adelantado, and +conveyed to the admiral intelligence of the desperate state of affairs. +The result was, that when in a few days the wind moderated, all the +settlers were taken on board the squadron, which now only consisted of +three ships, as it was found necessary to abandon the caravel which had +been left inside the harbour bar. + +And there was no time to spare. The rough weather had severely tried the +crazy and worm-eaten vessels; and anxiety and want of rest were having +their effect on Columbus. Making his way first to Porto Bello, where he +was obliged to leave another caravel as no longer seaworthy, on the 31st +of May he quitted the coast at a point on the west of the Gulf of Darien, +and steered northward towards Cuba. A collision between his two remaining +ships rendered them still more unfit to cope with the squalls and breakers +of the Archipelago; but at last, in the middle of June, with his crews in +despair, nearly all his anchors lost, and his vessels worm-eaten so as to +be "as full of holes as a honey-comb," he arrived off the southern coast +of Cuba, where he obtained supplies of cassava bread from friendly +natives. + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +Failing to make head against the wind so as to reach Hispaniola, Columbus +shaped his course for Jamaica, and there, in the harbour which he had +named Santa Gloria on his former visit, his voyage was perforce brought to +a conclusion. As his ships could not float any longer, he ran them on +shore, side by side, and built huts upon the decks for housing the crews. +Such a habitation, like the Swiss lake dwellings, afforded remarkable +advantages of position in case of attack by a hostile tribe. + + + SUPPLY OF PROVISIONS. + +The admiral's first care was to prevent any offence being given to the +aborigines which might give cause for such an attack. Knowing, by sad +experience, the results of permitting free intercourse between the +Spaniards and the natives, he enforced strictly a rule forbidding any +Spaniard to go ashore without leave; and took measures for regulating the +traffic for food so as to prevent the occurrence of any quarrel. Diego +Mendez, who had been his lieutenant, and had shown himself the boldest of +his officers throughout this voyage, volunteered to proceed into the +interior of the island to make arrangements for the periodical supply of +provisions from some of the more remote tribes, as it was certain that the +sudden addition to the population would soon exhaust the resources of the +immediate neighbourhood. This service Mendez performed with great +adroitness, and a regular market was established to which the natives +brought fish, game and cassava bread, in exchange for Spanish toys and +ornaments. + + + A MESSENGER SENT TO OVANDO; REMARKABLE DESPATCH TO THE SOVEREIGNS. + +Although the Spaniards were thus secure from starvation for the present, +their position was most critical. The journey to the easternmost extremity +of Jamaica would probably not be unattended with difficulty and danger, +for it must be effected through the midst of Indian tribes, hostile to +each other, and therefore probably not unanimous in being friendly towards +strangers. But the most formidable obstacle to communication with the +government of Hispaniola was the strait of forty leagues' breadth, full of +tumbling breakers and rushing currents, which separated the two islands. +However, it was necessary that the attempt should be made; and Diego +Mendez, though he considered it to be "not merely difficult, but +impossible, to cross in so small a vessel as a canoe," volunteered for the +service, after all the other Spaniards had declined to undertake it. He +was to be the bearer of a letter from the admiral to Ovando, asking him to +send a vessel to release the castaways from their imprisonment, and of a +despatch to the Sovereigns, giving a detailed account of the Admiral's +voyage and a glowing description of the riches of Veragua. This despatch +is very characteristic of the writer, bearing, as it does, the marks of +strong enthusiasm, of almost fanatical superstition, of confidence in the +midst of despair, and of exultation in the face of ruin. Describing his +reflections during the storm at the mouth of the river Bethlehem, he +breaks into the following rhapsody, which, probably in perfect good faith, +dwells on the contrast between the goodness of God and the bad faith of +man, in a way which ought to have touched Ferdinand nearly. It is worth +quoting at full length, as an example of the wild fervour of a rapt +enthusiast. + +"Wearied and sighing," writes Columbus, "I fell into a slumber, when I +heard a piteous voice saying to me, 'O fool, and slow to believe and serve +thy God, who is the God of all! What did He more for Moses, or for His +servant David, than He has done for thee? From the time of thy birth He +has ever had thee under His peculiar care. When He saw thee of a fitting +age, He made thy name to resound marvellously throughout the earth, and +thou wert obeyed in many lands, and didst acquire honourable fame among +Christians. Of the gates of the ocean sea, shut up with such mighty +chains, He delivered to thee the keys; the Indies, those wealthy regions +of the world, He gave thee for thine own, and empowered thee to dispose of +them to others, according to thy pleasure. What did He more for the great +people of Israel, when He led them forth from Egypt? Or for David, whom, +from being it shepherd, He made a king in Judaea? Turn to Him, then, and +acknowledge thine error: His mercy is infinite. He has many and vast +inheritances yet in reserve. Fear not to seek them. Thine age shall be no +impediment to any great undertaking. Abraham was above a hundred years +when he begat Isaac; and was Sarah youthful? Thou urgest despondingly +for succour. Answer! Who hath afflicted thee so much, and so many times, +God, or the world? The privileges and promises which God hath made to thee +He hath never broken,[23] neither hath He said, after having received thy +services, that His meaning was different, and to be understood in a +different sense. He fulfils all that He promises, and with increase. Such +is His custom. I have shown thee what thy Creator hath done for thee, and +what He doeth for all. The present is the reward of the toils and perils +thou hast endured in serving others.' I heard this," adds Columbus, "as +one almost dead, and had no power to reply to words so true, excepting to +weep for my errors. Whoever it was that spoke to me finished by saying, +'Fear not! All these tribulations are written in marble, and not without +cause.'" + + [Footnote 23: A sarcasm to "catch the conscience of the king."] + + + RELIGIOUS ENTHUSIASM. + +"Though this be madness, there is method in it;" but still, the whole +character of Columbus forbids us to assume that this alleged vision was +merely an ingenious device for remonstrating with the Sovereigns. It must +not be forgotten that in those times the popular belief as to such matters +was very different from that which obtains now; and that Columbus was as +credulous as his contemporaries on the subject of the supernatural. It was +easy for an imagination like his to be wrought upon so as to give to "airy +nothings," to the "thousand phantasies that crowd into the memory," the +character of special revelations from heaven. In this very despatch his +religious fervour is displayed again and again. Jerusalem, according to +the prophecy, was to be rebuilt by the hand of a Christian. He would be +that Christian. Prester John, so said tradition, had asked for +missionaries to instruct him in the true faith. He would conduct them to +the kingdom of this unknown potentate. Then he goes on to deplore his own +hard case; "surrounded by cruel and hostile savages; isolated, infirm, +expecting each day will be my last; severed from the holy sacraments of +the Church, so that my soul, if parted here from my body, must be for ever +forgotten....If it should please God to deliver me hence, I humbly +supplicate your majesties to permit me to repair to Rome, and perform +other pilgrimages." Columbus, then, being really convinced of the fatal +consequences of not being within reach of formal communion with the +Church, must have felt that he was risking more than his mere bodily life +when he wandered into those unknown countries; that he staked both body +and soul on his success. + + + CAPTURE OF MENDEZ; ESCAPE AND SAFE ARRIVAL. + +Laden with these despatches, Mendez and a Spanish comrade set out along +the coast in a canoe manned by six Indians. The party arrived safely at +the easternmost Cape of Jamaica (now called Point Morant); but while +awaiting calm weather for crossing the strait to Hispaniola, they were +attacked by a tribe of savages, who overpowered them by sheer force of +numbers, and carried them off as captives. The beads and toys, however, +which Mendez had taken with him to barter with the natives, were too +attractive not to claim the chief share of the attention of his +conquerors; and while they were settling the division of the spoil he +managed to effect his escape to his canoe, and to return in it in safety +to Santa Gloria. As soon as a second canoe could be procured, Mendez was +ready to make a second attempt, but on this occasion he stipulated that he +should be accompanied to the easternmost point of Jamaica by a force +sufficient to protect him from the hostile tribes. Accordingly, on the 7th +July, 1503, the Adelantado, with an armed escort, proceeded along the +shore; while Mendez, with six Spaniards and ten Indians, in one canoe, and +Fieschi (a Genoese, who had commanded one of the caravels), with a like +number in the other, made their way by sea to Point Morant. + +After waiting a short time for fine weather, the two canoes started for +Hispaniola, and reached a little island called Navazza on the third day, +both Spaniards and Indians having suffered terribly from the want of +water, with which they were insufficiently supplied. Another day's labour +at the oar brought them to Cape Tiburon, where Mendez left his companions +and proceeded alone to St. Domingo. Here he was informed that the governor +had left for Xaragua; and thither he made his way alone, through fifty +leagues of wild forest country, to represent to Ovando the necessity of +sending relief to the admiral, and that speedily. Ovando seems to have +temporized. He dreaded the return of Columbus, as likely to excite the +seditious to a revolt against his own government. And so far from taking +active steps in the matter himself, it was only with reluctance that he +authorized Mendez to proceed to St. Domingo to purchase a caravel on +behalf of Columbus, in which Fieschi might return to Santa Gloria, and +bring him off. + + + SUSPENSE OF THE ADMIRAL; MUTINY OF PORRAS. + +Meanwhile, month after month passed by, and the unfortunate castaways at +Santa Gloria had no tidings from Hispaniola, and were even ignorant +whether their messengers had succeeded in reaching that island. At last, +in January, 1504, the murmurs against the inaction of Columbus broke out +into open mutiny. Francesco Porras, the captain of one of the caravels, +headed the mutineers, and going to the admiral, who was confined to his +bed by the gout, told him that he, the admiral, evidently was afraid to +return to Spain; but that the people had determined to remain no longer to +perish, and intended to depart at once. On this there arose shouts from +the followers of Porras, "To Castile! We follow!" The admiral made a +temperate speech, pointing out the danger of attempting to leave the +island in mere canoes, and the absurdity of supposing that he had not a +common interest with them in all respects. But Porras was as persistent in +his desire to go, as Columbus in his determination to stay; and, taking +possession of the canoes which had been purchased from the natives, the +mutineers set out on their journey towards Hispaniola, leaving the admiral +and his brother with scarcely any adherents except those whom sickness +incapacitated for undertaking the journey. + + + BAD CONDUCT OF MUTINEERS. + +The progress of Porras and his followers through the island was marked by +a series of outrages on the natives which completely neutralized the +effect of the admiral's conciliatory policy. They seized forcibly on +whatever provisions could be found, and mockingly referred the owners to +Columbus for payment. Three attempts to cross over to Hispaniola failed in +consequence of rough weather. On one occasion the canoes were in so much +danger of being swamped that the Spaniards cast everything on board into +the sea; and, as this did not lighten the canoes sufficiently, they then +proceeded to force overboard their unfortunate companions, the Indians, +who swam after them for a long time, but sank one by one, being prevented +by the swords of the Spaniards from approaching. Abandoning, as hopeless, +their design of reaching Hispaniola, the mutineers then proceeded to roam +over the island, quartering themselves on the Indians, and committing +every possible excess. + +Of course the influence of this conduct on the relations between Columbus +and the natives, was soon apparent. The trinkets and beads, which had once +been so precious in their eyes, had first lost the charm of novelty, then +the value of rarity. The circulating medium became so depreciated that +provisions were scarcely procurable. And, similarly, the personal +veneration which the natives had first evinced for the white men, had +given way to contempt and to hatred, when familiarity had shown how +worthless were these "superior beings." The Indians refused to minister to +their wants any longer; and famine was imminent. + + + ECLIPSE PREDICTED BY COLUMBUS. + +But just at this last extremity, the admiral, ever fertile in devices, +bethought him of an expedient for re-establishing his influence over the +Indians. His astronomical knowledge told him that on a certain night an +eclipse of the moon would take place. One would think that people living +in the open air must be accustomed to see such eclipses sufficiently +often, not to be particularly astonished at them. But Columbus judged--and +as the event proved, judged rightly--that by predicting the eclipse he +would gain a reputation as a prophet, and command the respect and the +obedience due to a person invested with supernatural powers. He assembled +the caciques of the neighbouring tribes. Then, by means of an interpreter, +he reproached them with refusing to continue to supply provisions to the +Spaniards. "The God who protects me," he said, "will punish you. You know +what has happened to those of my followers who have rebelled against me; +and the dangers which they encountered in their attempt to cross to Haiti; +while those who went at my command,[24] made the passage without +difficulty. Soon, too, shall the divine vengeance fall on you; this very +night shall the moon change her colour and lose her light, in testimony of +the evils which shall be sent upon you from the skies." + + [Footnote 24: This was a gratuitous assumption: as the admiral had as + yet no tidings of the success of Mendez.] + + + RESULT OF PREDICTION. + +The night was fine: the moon shone down in full brilliancy. But, at the +appointed time, the predicted phenomenon took place, and the wild howls of +the savages proclaimed their abject terror. They came in a body to +Columbus, and implored his intercession. They promised to let him want for +nothing if only he would avert this judgment: as all earnest of their +sincerity they collected hastily a quantity of food, and offered it at his +feet. At first, diplomatically hesitating, Columbus presently affected to +be softened by their entreaties. He consented to intercede for them; and, +retiring to his cabin, performed, as they supposed, some mystic rite which +should deliver them from the threatened punishment. Soon the terrible +shadow passed away from the face of the moon; and the gratitude of the +savages was as deep as their previous terror. But, being blended with much +awe, it was not so evanescent as gratitude often is; and henceforward +there was no failure in the regular supply of provisions to the castaways. + + + DESPATCH FROM OVANDO. + +Eight months had passed away without any tidings of Mendez, when, one +evening there hove in sight a small caravel which stood in towards the +harbour of Santa Gloria, and anchored just outside. A boat which put off +from the caravel brought on shore her commander, a certain Diego de +Escobar, whom Columbus recognized as a person whom he had sentenced to be +hanged as it ringleader in Roldan's mutiny, and who had been pardoned by +Bobadilla. The proceedings of this person--whose reprieve must have now +seemed to the admiral particularly injudicious--were singular enough. +Standing at a distance from Columbus, as if the admiral had been in +quarantine, he shouted, at the top of his voice, a message from Ovando, to +the effect that he (the governor) regretted the admiral's misfortunes very +keenly, that he hoped before long to send a ship of sufficient size to +take him off. He added, that in the meantime, Ovando begged him to accept +a slight mark of his friendship. The "slight mark of his friendship" +was--a side of bacon, which, with a small cask of wine and a letter from +Ovando he delivered to the admiral; and rowed off as fast as possible. The +whole scheme of this visit, which was probably planned by Ovando with the +object of ascertaining the real condition and designs of Columbus, was in +the last degree insulting to him and tantalizing to his companions, with +whom D'Escobar would not permit any communication to be held. However, the +admiral wrote a civil reply to Ovando, describing piteously the hardships +of his condition, and disclaiming any ulterior design with regard to the +government of Hispaniola. Carrying this missive, D'Escobar set sail at +once, and was out of sight, on his return voyage, before the morning of +the day after his arrival. + + + OVERTURES TO MUTINEERS. + +This mysterious visit was by no means satisfactory to the admiral's +companions. As he alone had held communication with D'Escobar, he was free +to give them whatever account he chose of his interview; and this liberty, +it may be parenthetically observed, he did not scruple to exercise +somewhat at the expense of strict truth. He represented himself as having +refused to depart with D'Escobar, because the caravel was too small to +carry them all away, and he was determined to share their lot, confident +in Ovando's assurance of speedy succour. He made overtures for a +reconciliation to Porras, and endeavoured to persuade the mutineers to +return on board the ships. But these overtures were scornfully repulsed +and the admiral's messengers were sent back with threats of force. As for +the caravel, Porras had little difficulty in persuading his credulous +followers that it was merely an apparition which Columbus had conjured up +by magic arts; and such was the reputation for sorcery which the admiral +had acquired by his astronomical observations, that even the sight and +taste of some tangible bacon (half of that present from Ovando of which we +have heard) which he sent as a peace offering to the mutineers, failed to +convince them of the material character of the supposed phantom ship. + + + RESORT TO ARMS. + +Soon, however, the differences between the rival parties were brought to +an issue. The Adelantado received information that Porras was planning a +descent on the ships, with the object of seizing the stores and capturing +the admiral. Resolving to anticipate this attack, he placed himself at the +head of fifty[25] devoted partisans of Columbus, and sallied out to engage +the mutineers. A furious struggle ensued; but the Adelantado performed +prodigies of valour, and his followers were better supplied with fire-arms +than the rebels; so that the latter sustained a complete defeat, and their +leader Porras was carried off as a prisoner to the ships. + + [Footnote 25: It would appear from this number that either there had + been some defection from the ranks of the mutineers or that more than + half the Spaniards had remained faithful to the admiral.] + + + THE MUTINEERS CONQUERED. + +The natives, who had been spectators of the affray, were much perplexed. +Wiser people than these poor savages have looked with sorrowful wonder on +the appeal to brute force to decide the quarrels of nations; and the +Indians, when they saw strife and death among the beings whom they had +formerly considered as heaven-descended and immortal, felt that their +estimate of these attributes ought to be lowered. But when curiosity +impelled them to examine the corpses of the Spaniards who had been killed +in the encounter, after minutely inspecting several bodies, they came to +that of Ledesma--whose name may be remembered as that of the gigantic +pilot of Seville who swam through the surf at Bethlehem to the +Adelantado's relief--who had now fallen, covered with wounds, fighting on +behalf of the mutineers. As the savages proceeded to thrust their fingers +into his wounds, Ledesma, who had fainted from pain, recovered +consciousness, and uttered a stentorian yell which put the Indians to +flight, says an ancient chronicler, "as if all the dead men were at their +heels." And as Ledesma eventually recovered, notwithstanding his having +received wounds sufficient to kill three ordinary persons, the natives +must have been inspired by a proper respect for the almost miraculous +vitality of the white men. + + + PORRAS A PRISONER. + +The victory gained by the Adelantado was conclusive. The rebels at once +submitted to the admiral, who consented to pardon them; reserving only +their ringleader, Porras, for future punishment. It was arranged that they +should not again take up their habitation on board the ships, but Columbus +sent ashore a trusty lieutenant as their commander, and supplied them at +the same time with European articles to barter for food with the natives. +And so the two bands of castaways--one on ship and one on shore--awaited +the promised succour, with the weariness of hope deferred. + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +It was not till the 28th of June, 1504, when just a year had elapsed since +their arrival at Santa Gloria, that the Spaniards were gladdened by the +sight of the two caravels which had been sent--one by Mendez, the other by +Ovando--to their relief. Their embarkation, as may be supposed, was +quickly effected; but adverse winds made the voyage to Hispaniola a long +one, and the two vessels did not reach St. Domingo before the 13th of +August. + + + CONFLICTING JURISDICTION. + +Much to the surprise of the admiral, he found himself treated with the +most punctilious courtesy by Ovando, who even proceeded to the harbour, +with a numerous suite, to receive him in state upon his arrival. However, +differences soon arose as to the conflicting jurisdictions of the viceroy +and the governor; especially with regard to the case of Porras, whom +Ovando, in opposition to the admiral's wish, insisted upon releasing from +custody. Moreover he even announced his intention of instituting a general +enquiry as to the events which had taken place in Jamaica, in order to +decide whether Porras and his associates had been justified in their +rebellion. Columbus disputed the right of Ovando to take upon himself the +office of judge in such a matter; and remarked that his own authority as +viceroy must have sunk very low indeed, if it did not empower him to +punish his officers for mutinying against himself. This dispute was +unfortunate as regards the private interests of the admiral, for the +revenues arising from his property in the island had been collected under +the authority of the governor, who, upon the occurrence of this quarrel, +was easily able to raise difficulties in the way of his obtaining a fair +account of the proceeds. But he was all the more anxious to return to +Spain; and, within a month from his arrival at St. Domingo, he started +homeward in the caravel which had brought him from Jamaica. + + + FALLING FORTUNES. + +But even in this last voyage he was forced to "make head against a sea of +troubles." His evil star was in the ascendant. Twice his vessel nearly +foundered. Twice her masts were sprung in successive tempests. His own +health was succumbing to the acute attacks of gout which had become more +and more frequent for the last few years. And so, prostrated by sickness, +nearly ruined in means, and now hopeless of encouragement from the +Sovereigns, the discoverer of the New World arrived at Seville, on the 7th +of November, 1504, in as miserable a plight as his worst enemy could have +wished. + +He could scarcely expect to be received with much favour at court. He had +failed in the search for that strait leading to the kingdom of the Grand +Khan, the discovery of which had been the special object of his +expedition; he had lost his ships; he had brought home wonderful stories +of golden lands, but no gold. Porras[26] was at large, and had influence +at court, which enabled him to stimulate the existing prejudice against +Columbus. + + [Footnote 26: It seems just possible that, as the original narrative of + the mutiny of Porras was written by Fernando Columbus, who would + naturally take his father's side, something is to be said for Porras + which has not been said for him by historians.] + + + DEATH OF THE QUEEN. + +Poor, old, infirm, he had now to receive intelligence which was to deepen +all his evils. He remained at Seville, too unwell to make a journey +himself, but sent his son Diego to court, to manage his affairs for him. +The complaints of the admiral, that he had no news from court, are quite +touching. He says, he desires to hear news each hour. Couriers are +arriving every day, but none for him: his very hair stands on end to hear +things so contrary to what his soul desires. He alludes, I imagine, to the +state of the Queen's health; for, in a memorandum of instructions to his +son, written at this period, the first thing, he says, to be done is, "to +commend affectionately, with much devotion," the soul of the Queen to God. +Could the poor Indians but have known what a friend to them was dying, one +continued wail would have gone up to heaven from Hispaniola and all the +western islands. The dread decree, however, had gone forth, and on the +26th of November, 1504, it was only a prayer for the departed that could +have been addressed; for the great Queen was no more. If it be permitted +to departing spirits to see those places on earth they yearn much +after, we might imagine that the soul of Isabella would give "one longing, +lingering look" to the far West. + + + OPPRESSION OF THE INDIANS. + +And if so, what did she see there? How different was the aspect of things +from what governors and officers of all kinds had told her: how different +from aught that she had thought of, or commanded! She had insisted that +the Indians were to be free: she would have seen their condition to be +that of slaves. She had declared that they were to have spiritual +instruction: she would have seen them less instructed than the dogs. She +had ordered that they should receive payment for their labour: she would +have found that all they received was a mockery of wages, just enough to +purchase once, perhaps, in the course of the year, some childish trifles +from Castile. She had always directed that they should have kind treatment +and proper maintenance: she would have seen them literally watching under +the tables of their masters, to catch the crumbs which fell there. She +would have beheld the Indian labouring at the mine under cruel buffetings, +his family, neglected, perishing, or enslaved. She would have marked him +on his return, after eight months of dire toil, enter a place which knew +him not, or a household that could only sorrow over the gaunt creature who +had returned to them, and mingle their sorrows with his; or, still more +sad, she would have seen Indians who had been brought from far distant +homes, linger at the mines, too hopeless, or too careless, to return. + + + PETITIONS OF COLUMBUS; INJUSTICE OF THE KING. + +Turning from what might have been seen by Queen Isabella, had her +departing gaze pierced to the outskirts of her dominions, we have to +record the closing scene of the strange eventful history of Columbus, who +did not long survive his benefactress. Ever since his return from his +fourth voyage to the Indies, he had done little else than memorialize, and +petition, and negotiate about his rights. But Ferdinand, who had always +looked coldly on his projects, was disposed to regard his claims with +still less favour. Columbus professed himself willing to sacrifice the +arrears of revenue due to him, but urged strenuously his demand that his +son Diego should be made viceroy of the Indies, in accordance with the +terms of the grant making that dignity hereditary in his family. Ferdinand +did not refuse absolutely: the breach of faith would have been too +flagrant. But he procrastinated, and ended by referring the matter to the +significantly named Board of Discharges of the Royal Conscience, which +board regulated its proceedings by the known wishes of the king, and +procrastinated too. + +The proverb, "Fear old age, for it does not come alone," was especially +applicable to Columbus, while suffering sickness without the elasticity to +bear it, poverty with high station and debt, and all the delay of +suitorship, not at the beginning, but at the close, of a career. A similar +decline of fortune is to be seen in the lives of many men; of those, too, +who have been most adventurous and successful in their prime. Their +fortunes grow old and feeble with themselves; and those clouds, which were +but white and scattered during the vigour of the day, sink down together, +stormful and massive, in huge black lines, across the setting sun. + + + DEATH OF COLUMBUS + +Shortly after the arrival of Philip and his queen in Spain, Columbus had +written to their Highnesses, deploring his inability to come to them, +through illness, and saying that, notwithstanding his pitiless disease +(the gout), he could yet do them service the like of which had not been +seen. Perhaps he meant service in the way of good advice touching the +administration of the Indies; perhaps, for he was of an indomitable +spirit, that he could yet make more voyages of discovery. But there was +then only left for him that voyage in which the peasant who has seen but +the little district round his home, and the great travellers in thought +and deed, are alike to find themselves upon the unknown waters of further +life. Looked at in this way, what a great discoverer each of us is to be! +But we must not linger too long, even at the deathbed of a hero. Having +received all the sacraments of the Church, and uttering as his last words, +"In manus tuas, Domine, commendo spiritum meum," Columbus died, at +Valladolid, on Ascension Day, the 20th of May, 1506. His remains were +carried to Seville and buried in the monastery of Las Cuevas; afterwards +they were removed to the cathedral at St. Domingo; and, in modern times, +were taken to the cathedral at Havana, where they now rest. + + + +THE END. + + + +CHISWICK PRESS:--CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO. +TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, LONDON. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life of Columbus, by Arthur Helps + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE OF COLUMBUS *** + +***** This file should be named 15336.txt or 15336.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/3/3/15336/ + +Produced by Don Kostuch + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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