diff options
| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:52:25 -0700 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:52:25 -0700 |
| commit | 60510b984377504bc80a89139119173608ccd479 (patch) | |
| tree | cd387369dcff3f3d289dac133b7d44cb9d7ed1f2 /18038-h | |
Diffstat (limited to '18038-h')
18 files changed, 12112 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/18038-h/18038-h.htm b/18038-h/18038-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e4e9079 --- /dev/null +++ b/18038-h/18038-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,12112 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" + content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Days of the Discoverers, by + L. Lamprey + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + ul { + list-style: none; + margin-left: 0; + padding-left: 1em; + text-indent: -1em; + } + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + padding-left: 1em; + } /* page numbers */ + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + .back {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%; font-size: smaller; padding-right: 1em;} + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + .u {text-decoration: underline;} + .caption {font-weight: bold; font-size: small; font-variant: small-caps; text-align: center;} + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span.i0 {display: block; margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i6 {display: block; margin-left: 6em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i10 {display: block; margin-left: 10em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i14 {display: block; margin-left: 14em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + span.ralign { position: absolute; right: 10%; top: auto; vertical-align: bottom} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Days of the Discoverers, by L. Lamprey + +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: Days of the Discoverers + +Author: L. Lamprey + +Illustrator: Florence Choate + Elizabeth Curtis + +Release Date: March 23, 2006 [EBook #18038] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DAYS OF THE DISCOVERERS *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, LN Yaddanapudi and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div> +<span class="back"><a href="#LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">[Illustrations]</a></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ii" id="Page_ii">[ii]</a></span><br /> +</div> +<div class="center"><div class="figcenter" style="width: 420px;"> +<img src="images/illus-0343-1.jpg" width="420" height="600" alt=""'I will tell you where there is plenty of it'"—Frontispiece" title=""'I will tell you where there is plenty of it'"—Frontispiece" /> +<span class="caption">"'I will tell you where there is plenty of it'"—<i>Frontispiece</i></span> +</div></div> + +<div> +<span class="back"><a href="#CONTENTS">[Contents]</a></span> +<span class='pagenum'>[iii]</span> +</div> +<h3 class="u"><i>GREAT DAYS IN AMERICAN HISTORY SERIES</i></h3> +<h1>DAYS OF THE DISCOVERERS</h1> +<h3>BY</h3> +<h2>L. LAMPREY</h2> +<p class="center"><i>Author of "In the Days of the Guild", +"Masters of the Guild", etc.</i></p> +<p class="center smcap">illustrated by</p> +<p class="center smcap">FLORENCE CHOATE and ELIZABETH CURTIS</p> + +<div class="center"><div class="figcenter" style="width: 200px;"> +<img src="images/illus-002.png" width="200" height="200" alt="" title="" /> +</div></div> + +<p class="center smcap">new york</p> +<p class="center">FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY</p> +<p class="center smcap">publishers</p> +<hr /> + +<div> +<span class='pagenum'>[iv]</span> +</div> + +<p class="center"><i>Copyright, 1921, by</i></p> +<p class="center smcap">Frederick A. Stokes Company</p> +<hr style="width: 15%" /> +<p class="center"><i>All rights reserved, including that of translation +into foreign languages</i></p> +<p class="center"><i>Made in the United States of America</i></p> +<hr /> + +<div> +<span class="back"><a href="#CONTENTS">[Contents]</a></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[v]</a></span> +</div> + + +<h2><a name="TO_FORESTA" id="TO_FORESTA"></a>TO FORESTA</h2> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Upon the road to Faerie,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O there are many sights to see,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Small woodland folk may one discern<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Housekeeping under leaf and fern,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And little tunnels in the grass<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where caravans of goblins pass,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And airy corsair-craft that float<br /></span> +<span class="i0">On wings transparent as a mote,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">All sorts of curious things can be<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Upon the road to Faerie!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Along the wharves of Faerie—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There all the winds of Christendie<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Are musical with hawk-bell chimes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Carillons rung to minstrels' rimes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And silver trumpets bravely blown<br /></span> +<span class="i0">From argosies of lands unknown,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And the great war-drum's wakening roll—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The reveillé of heart and soul—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For news of all the ageless sea<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Comes to the quays of Faerie!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Across the fields to Faerie<br /></span> +<span class="i0">There is no lack of company,—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The world is real, the world is wide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But there be many things beside.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who once has known that crystal spring<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall not lose heart for anything.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The blessing of a faery wife<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is love to sweeten all your life.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To find the truth whatever it be—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That is the luck of Faerie!<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'>[vi]</span></div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Above the gates of Faerie</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>There bends a wild witch-hazel tree.</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>The fairies know its elfin powers.</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>They wove a garland of the flowers,</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>And on a misty autumn day</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>They crowned their queen—and ran away!</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>And by that gift they made you free</i><br /></span> +<span class="i0"><i>Of all the roads of Faerie!</i><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[vii]</a></span></div> + +<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS</h2> + +<div class="center"><table summary=""> +<tr><td></td><td></td><td style="text-align: right; padding-left: 6em">PAGE</td></tr> + +<tr><td style="text-align: left;" ><a href="#TO_FORESTA"><i>To Foresta</i></a></td><td></td><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#Page_v">v</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td style="text-align: left;" ><a href="#CONTENTS">Contents</a></td><td></td><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#Page_vii">vii</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td style="text-align: left;" ><a href="#LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">List of Illustrations</a></td><td></td><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#Page_ix">ix</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td></tr><tr><td></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td><td style="text-align: center">I</td><td></td></tr> +<tr><td style="text-align: left;" ><a href="#ASGARD_THE_BEAUTIFUL"><span class="smcap">Asgard the Beautiful</span> (1348)</a></td><td></td><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr> +<tr><td style="text-align: left;" ><a href="#THE_VIKINGS_SECRET"><i>The Viking's Secret</i></a></td><td></td><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#Page_17">17</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td></tr><tr><td></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td><td style="text-align: center">II</td><td></td></tr> +<tr><td style="text-align: left;" ><a href="#THE_RUNES_OF_THE_WIND-WIFE"><span class="smcap">The Runes of the Wind-Wife</span> (1364)</a></td><td></td><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#Page_18">18</a></td></tr> +<tr><td style="text-align: left;" ><a href="#THE_NAVIGATORS"><i>The Navigators</i> (1415-1460)</a></td><td></td><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#Page_34">34</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td></tr><tr><td></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td><td style="text-align: center">III</td><td></td></tr> +<tr><td style="text-align: left;" ><a href="#SEA_OF_DARKNESS"><span class="smcap">Sea of Darkness</span> (1475)</a></td><td></td><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#Page_35">35</a></td></tr> +<tr><td style="text-align: left;" ><a href="#SUNSET_SONG"><i>Sunset Song</i></a></td><td></td><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#Page_48">48</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td></tr><tr><td></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td><td style="text-align: center">IV</td><td></td></tr> +<tr><td style="text-align: left;" ><a href="#PEDRO_AND_HIS_ADMIRAL"><span class="smcap">Pedro and His Admiral</span> (1492)</a></td><td></td><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#Page_50">50</a></td></tr> +<tr><td style="text-align: left;" ><a href="#THE_QUEENS_PRAYER"><i>The Queen's Prayer</i></a></td><td></td><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#Page_65">65</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td></tr><tr><td></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td><td style="text-align: center">V</td><td></td></tr> +<tr><td style="text-align: left;" ><a href="#THE_MAN_WHO_COULD_NOT_DIE"><span class="smcap">The Man Who Could Not Die</span> (1493-1494)</a></td><td></td><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#Page_66">66</a></td></tr> +<tr><td style="text-align: left;" ><a href="#THE_ESCAPE"><i>The Escape</i></a></td><td></td><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#Page_80">80</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td></tr><tr><td></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td><td style="text-align: center">VI</td><td></td></tr> +<tr><td style="text-align: left;" ><a href="#LOCKED_HARBORS"><span class="smcap">Locked Harbors</span> (1497)</a></td><td></td><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#Page_81">81</a></td></tr> +<tr><td style="text-align: left;" ><a href="#GRAY_SAILS"><i>Gray Sails</i></a></td><td></td><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#Page_93">93</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td></tr><tr><td></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td><td style="text-align: center">VII</td><td></td></tr> +<tr><td style="text-align: left;" ><a href="#LITTLE_VENICE"><span class="smcap">Little Venice</span> (1500)</a></td><td></td><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#Page_94">94</a></td></tr> +<tr><td style="text-align: left;" ><a href="#THE_GOLD_ROAD"><i>The Gold Road</i></a></td><td></td><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#Page_104">104</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td></tr><tr><td></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td><td style="text-align: center">VIII</td><td></td></tr> +<tr><td style="text-align: left;" ><a href="#THE_DOG_WITH_TWO_MASTERS"><span class="smcap">The Dog with Two Masters</span> (1512)</a></td><td></td><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#Page_105">105</a></td></tr> +<tr><td style="text-align: left;" ><a href="#COLD_O_THE_MOON"><i>Cold o' the Moon</i> (1519)</a></td><td></td><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#Page_117">117</a><span class='pagenum'>[viii]</span></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td></tr><tr><td></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td><td style="text-align: center">IX</td><td></td></tr> +<tr><td style="text-align: left;" ><a href="#WAMPUM_TOWN"><span class="smcap">Wampum Town</span> (1508-1524)</a></td><td></td><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#Page_121">121</a></td></tr> +<tr><td style="text-align: left;" ><a href="#THE_DRUM"><i>The Drum</i></a></td><td></td><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#Page_133">133</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td></tr><tr><td></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td><td style="text-align: center">X</td><td></td></tr> +<tr><td style="text-align: left;" ><a href="#THE_GODS_OF_TAXMAR"><span class="smcap">The Gods of Taxmar</span> (1512-1519)</a></td><td></td><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#Page_134">134</a></td></tr> +<tr><td style="text-align: left;" ><a href="#A_LEGEND_OF_MALINCHE"><i>The Legend of Malinche</i></a></td><td></td><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#Page_148">148</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td></tr><tr><td></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td><td style="text-align: center">XI</td><td></td></tr> +<tr><td style="text-align: left;" ><a href="#THE_THUNDER_BIRDS"><span class="smcap">The Thunder Birds</span> (1519-1520)</a></td><td></td><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#Page_150">150</a></td></tr> +<tr><td style="text-align: left;" ><a href="#MOCCASIN_FLOWER"><i>Moccasin Flower</i></a></td><td></td><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#Page_165">165</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td></tr><tr><td></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td><td style="text-align: center">XII</td><td></td></tr> +<tr><td style="text-align: left;" ><a href="#GIFTS_FROM_NORUMBEGA"><span class="smcap">Gifts from Norumbega</span> (1533-1535)</a></td><td></td><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#Page_167">167</a></td></tr> +<tr><td style="text-align: left;" ><a href="#THE_MUSTANGS"><i>The Mustangs</i></a></td><td></td><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#Page_181">181</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td></tr><tr><td></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td><td style="text-align: center">XIII</td><td></td></tr> +<tr><td style="text-align: left;" ><a href="#THE_WHITE_MEDICINE_MAN"><span class="smcap">The White Medicine Man</span> (1528-1536)</a></td><td></td><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#Page_182">182</a></td></tr> +<tr><td style="text-align: left;" ><a href="#LONE_BAYOU"><i>Lone Bayou</i> (1542)</a></td><td></td><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#Page_195">195</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td></tr><tr><td></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td><td style="text-align: center">XIV</td><td></td></tr> +<tr><td style="text-align: left;" ><a href="#THE_FACE_OF_THE_TERROR"><span class="smcap">The Face of the Terror</span> (1564)</a></td><td></td><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#Page_197">197</a></td></tr> +<tr><td style="text-align: left;" ><a href="#THE_DESTROYERS"><i>The Destroyers</i></a></td><td></td><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#Page_214">214</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td></tr><tr><td></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td><td style="text-align: center">XV</td><td></td></tr> +<tr><td style="text-align: left;" ><a href="#THE_FLEECE_OF_GOLD"><span class="smcap">The Fleece of Gold</span> (1561-1577)</a></td><td></td><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#Page_215">215</a></td></tr> +<tr><td style="text-align: left;" ><a href="#A_WATCH-DOG_OF_ENGLAND"><i>A Watch-dog of England</i> (1583)</a></td><td></td><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#Page_237">237</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td></tr><tr><td></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td><td style="text-align: center">XVI</td><td></td></tr> +<tr><td style="text-align: left;" ><a href="#LORDS_OF_ROANOKE"><span class="smcap">Lords of Roanoke</span> (1584)</a></td><td></td><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#Page_238">238</a></td></tr> +<tr><td style="text-align: left;" ><a href="#THE_CHANGELINGS"><i>The Changelings</i></a></td><td></td><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#Page_250">250</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td></tr><tr><td></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td><td style="text-align: center">XVII</td><td></td></tr> +<tr><td style="text-align: left;" ><a href="#THE_GARDENS_OF_HELENE"><span class="smcap">The Gardens of Helêne</span> (1607-1609)</a></td><td></td><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#Page_252">252</a></td></tr> +<tr><td style="text-align: left;" ><a href="#THE_WOODEN_SHOE"><i>The Wooden Shoe</i></a></td><td></td><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#Page_269">269</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td></tr><tr><td></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td><td style="text-align: center">XVIII</td><td></td></tr> +<tr><td style="text-align: left;" ><a href="#THE_FIRES_THAT_TALKED"><span class="smcap">The Fires that Talked</span> (1610)</a></td><td></td><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#Page_270">270</a></td></tr> +<tr><td style="text-align: left;" ><a href="#IMPERIALISM"><i>Imperialism</i></a></td><td></td><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#Page_282">282</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td></tr><tr><td></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td><td style="text-align: center">XIX</td><td></td></tr> +<tr><td style="text-align: left;" ><a href="#ADMIRAL_OF_NEW_ENGLAND"><span class="smcap">Admiral of New England</span> (1600-1614)</a></td><td></td><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#Page_284">284</a></td></tr> +<tr><td style="text-align: left;" ><a href="#THE_DISCOVERERS"><i>The Discoverers</i></a></td><td></td><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#Page_299">299</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td style="text-align: left;" ><a href="#BIBLIOGRAPHY"><span class="smcap">Bibliography</span></a></td><td></td><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#Page_300">300</a></td></tr> +</table> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div><span class="back"><a href="#CONTENTS">[Contents]</a></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[ix]</a></span></div> + +<h2><a name="LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS" id="LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS"></a>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> + +<div class="center"> +<table summary=""> +<tr><td style="text-align: left;" >"'I will tell you where there is plenty of it'" (in color)</td> +<td style="text-align: right; padding-left: 2em"><a href="#Page_ii"><i>Frontispiece</i></a></td></tr> + +<tr><td></td><td></td></tr> + +<tr><td style="text-align: left;" >"'And Freya came from Asgard in her chariot drawn by +two cats'" (in color)</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#Page_4">4</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td style="text-align: left;" >"Nils marked out an inscription in Runic letters"</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#Page_30">30</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td style="text-align: left;" >"The miniature globe took form as the children watched, +fascinated"</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#Page_44">44</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td style="text-align: left;" >"He proposed that Caonaba should put on the gift the +Spanish captain had brought"</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#Page_78">78</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td style="text-align: left;" >"A sapling, bent down, was attached to a noose ingeniously +hidden"</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#Page_86">86</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td style="text-align: left;" >"The natives seemed prepared to traffic in all peace and +friendliness" (in color)</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#Page_132">132</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td style="text-align: left;" >"Cortes flung about his shoulders his own cloak"</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#Page_146">146</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td style="text-align: left;" >"Moteczuma awaited them in the courtyard" (in color)</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#Page_162">162</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td style="text-align: left;" >"Cartier read from his service-book"</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#Page_176">176</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td style="text-align: left;" >"The creatures darkened the plain almost as far as the eye +could see"</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#Page_190">190</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td style="text-align: left;" >"'Gentlemen, whence does this fleet come?'"</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#Page_204">204</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td style="text-align: left;" >"Drake was silent, fingering the slender Milanese poniard"</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#Page_226">226</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td style="text-align: left;" >"If he had to wear her fetters, they should at least be +golden"</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#Page_244">244</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td style="text-align: left;" >"The Grand Master of the day entered the dining hall"</td><td style="text-align: right"><a href="#Page_266">266</a></td></tr> +</table></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div><span class="back"><a href="#CONTENTS">[Contents]</a></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></div> + +<h2>DAYS OF THE DISCOVERERS</h2> + +<h2>I</h2> + +<h3><a name="ASGARD_THE_BEAUTIFUL" id="ASGARD_THE_BEAUTIFUL"></a>ASGARD THE BEAUTIFUL</h3> + +<p>A red fox ran into the empty church. In the +middle of the floor he sat up and looked +around. Nothing stirred—not the painted figures on +the wooden walls, nor the boy who now stood in the +doorway. This boy was gray-eyed and flaxen-haired, +and might have been eleven or twelve years old. He +was looking for the good old priest, Father Ansgar, +and the wild shy animal eyeing him from the foot of +the altar made it only too clear that the church, like +the village, was deserted.</p> + +<p>Father Ansgar was dead of the strange swift +pestilence that was called in 1348 the Black Death. +So also were the sexton, the cooper, the shoemaker, +and almost all the people of the valley. A ship had +come into Bergen with the plague on board, and it +spread through Norway like a grass-fire. Only last +week Thorolf Erlandsson<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1] </a> had had a father and +mother, a grandmother, two younger sisters and a +brother. Now he was alone. In the night the dairy +woman and the plowmen at Ormgard farm had run +away. Other farms and houses were already closed +and silent, or plundered and burned. Ormgard being +remote had at first escaped the sickness.</p> + +<p>Thorolf turned away from the church door and +began to climb the mountain. At the lane leading to <span class='pagenum'>[2]</span> +his home he did not stop, but kept on into the woods. +It was not so lonely there.</p> + +<p>Up and up he climbed, the thrilling scent of fir-balsam +in his nostrils, the small friendly noises of the +forest all about him. Only a few months ago he had +come down this very road with his father, driving the +cattle and goats home from the summer pasture. All +the other farmers were doing the same, and the clear +notes of the lure, the long curving horn, used for calling +the cattle and signaling across valleys, soared from +slope to slope. There was laughter and shouting and +joking all the way down. Now the only persons +abroad seemed to be thieving ruffians whose greed for +plunder was more than their fear of the plague.</p> + +<p>A thought came to the boy. How could he leave +his father's cattle unfed and uncared for? What if +he were to drive the cows himself to the saeter and +tend them through the summer? He faced about, +resolutely, and began to descend the hill.</p> + +<p>Within sight of the familiar roofs he heard some +one coming from the village, on horseback. It proved +to be Nils the son of Magnus the son of Nils who was +called the Bear-Slayer, with a sack of grain and a pair +of saddlebags on a sedate brown pony. Nils was lame +of one foot and no taller than a boy of nine, although +he was thirteen this month and his head was nearly as +large as a man's. He had been an orphan from baby-hood, +and for the last three years had lived in the +priest's house learning to be a clerk.</p> + +<p>"Hoh!" called Nils, "where are you going?"</p> + +<p>"To the farm to get our cattle and take them to +the saeter. There is no one left to do it but me."</p> + +<p>"Cattle?" queried the other interestedly, "She will +be glad of that."<span class='pagenum'>[3]</span></p> + +<p>"She!" said Thorolf, "who?"</p> + +<p>"The Wind-wife<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a>—Mother Elle, who used to sell +wind to the sailors—the Finnish woman from Stavanger. +She has gathered up a lot of children who have +no one to look after them and is leading them into the +mountains. She has Nikolina Sven's daughter Larsson, +and Olof and Anders Amundson, and half a score +of younger ones from different villages. She says that +if it is God's will for the plague to come to the saeter +it will come, but it is not there now, and it is in the +valleys and the towns. She has gone on with the small +ones who cannot walk fast, and left Olof and Anders +and me to bring along the ponies with the loads. I'll +help you drive your beasts."</p> + +<p>Without trouble the lads got the animals out of the +byres and headed them up the road. Norway is so +sharply divided by precipitous mountain ranges and +deeply-penetrating fiords, that it may be but a few miles +from a farm near sea level to the high grassy pastures +three or four thousand feet above it where the cattle +are pastured in summer. The saeter maidens live +there in their cottages from June to September, making +butter and cheese, tending the herds and doing such +other work as they can. The saeter belonging to +Ormgard and its neighbors was the one chosen by +Mother Elle as a refuge for her flock.</p> + +<p>The forest of magnificent firs through which the road +passed presently grew less somber, beginning to be +streaked with white birches whose bright leaves +twinkled in the sun. Then it reached the height at +which evergreens cease to grow. The birches were +shorter and sparser, and through the thinning woodland +appeared glimpses of a treeless pasture dotted +with scrubby low bushes and clumps of rushes. A glint <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span> +of clear green water betrayed a small lake in a dip of +the hills. And now were heard sounds most unusual +in that lonely place, the high sweet voices of children.</p> + +<p>Birch trees, little trees, dwarfed by sharp winds and +poor soil, encircled a level space perhaps ten feet +across, carpeted with new soft grass, reindeer moss +and cupped lichens. Here sat seven or eight children +eagerly listening to a story told by an older child as she +divided the ration of fladbrod,<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> wild strawberries +from a small basket of birchbark, and brown goat's-milk +cheese.</p> + +<p>"And Freya came from Asgard in her chariot drawn +by two cats—"</p> + +<p>Nikolina the daughter of Sven Larsson of the +Trolle farm was known through all the valley, not only +as the sole child of its richest farmer, but for the bright +blonde hair that covered her shoulders with its soft +abundance and hung to her waist. Her father would +not have it cut or braided or even covered save by such +a little embroidered cap as she wore now. Her scarlet +bodice, and blue-black skirt bordered with bright woven +bands, were of the finest wool; the full-sleeved white +linen under-dress had been spun and woven and embroidered +by skilful and loving fingers. Nikolina had +lost the roof from over her head, and a great deal +more than that. Now she was giving her whole mind +to the little ones of all ages from four to eight, crowding +close about her.</p> +<div> +<span class="back"><a href="#LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">[Illustrations]</a></span><br /></div> +<div class="center"><div class="figcenter" style="width: 436px;"> +<img src="images/illus-0342-1.jpg" width="436" height="600" alt=""'And Freya came from Asgard in her chariot drawn by two cats'"—Page 4" title=""'And Freya came from Asgard in her chariot drawn by two cats'"—Page 4" /> +<span class="caption">"'And Freya came from Asgard in her chariot drawn by two cats'"—<i>Page 4</i></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"Hi!" called Nils, "where is Mother Elle? See +what Thorolf and I have got!"</p> + +<p>The children scrambled to their feet and gazed with +round eyes, their small hungry teeth munching their +morsels of hard bread. Nikolina plucked a bunch of <span class='pagenum'>[5]</span> +grass for Snow, the foremost cow, and patted her as +she ate it.</p> + +<p>"The little ones were so tired and hungry," she said, +"that Mother Elle said they might have their supper +now, while she and Olof and Anders went on to the +saeter. This is wonderful! She was saying only this +morning that she feared all the cattle were dead or +stolen."</p> + +<p>Within an hour they came in sight of the log huts +with turf-covered roofs that sloped almost to the +ground in the rear. A broad plain stretched away beyond, +and the new grass was of that vivid green to be +found in places which deep snow makes pure. Hills +enclosed it, and beyond, a gleaming network of lake +and stream ended in range above range of blue and +silver peaks. The clear invigorating air was like some +unearthly wine. The cows at the scent of fresh pasture +moved more briskly; the pony tossed his head and +whinnied. Not far from the cottages there came to +meet them a little old woman, dark and wiry, with +bright searching eyes. Her face was wrinkled all over +in fine soft lines, but her hair was hardly gray at all. +She wore a pointed hood and girdled tunic of tanned +reindeer hide, with leggings and shoes of the same. A +blanket about her shoulders was draped into a kind of +pouch, in which she carried on her back a tow-headed, +solemn-eyed baby.</p> + +<p>"Welcome to you, Thorolf Erlandsson," she said, +just as if she had been expecting him. "With this +good milk we shall fare like the King."</p> + +<p>No king, truly, could have supped on food more delicious +than that enjoyed by Nils and Thorolf on this +first night in the saeter. It is strange but true that <span class='pagenum'>[6]</span> +the most exquisite delights are those that money cannot +buy. No man can taste cold spring water and +barley bread in absolute perfection who has not paid +the poor man's price—hard work and keen hunger.</p> + +<p>When Nikolina, Karen and Lovisa came up with the +smaller children the place had already an inhabited, +homelike look. There was even a wise old raven, almost +as large as a gander, whom Nils had christened +Munin, after Odin's bird. The little ones had all the +new milk they could drink from their wooden bowls, +and were put to bed in the movable wooden bed-places, +on beds of hay covered with sheepskins and blankets. +All were asleep before dark, for at that season the night +lasted only two or three hours. The last thing that +Thorolf heard was a happy little pipe from the five-year-old +Ellida,—</p> + +<p>"Now we shall live in Asgard forever and ever."</p> + +<p>For all it had to do with the experience of many of +the children the saeter might really have been Asgard, +the Norse paradise. The youngest had never before +been outside the narrow valley where they were born. +Ellida and Margit, Didrik and little Peder, could not +be convinced that they were anywhere but in Asgard +the Blest.</p> + +<p>Norway had long since become Christian, but the +old faith was not forgotten. The legends, songs and +customs of the people were full of it. In the sagas +Asgard was described as being on a mountain at the +top of the world. Around the base of this mountain +lay Midgard, the abode of mankind. Beyond the +great seas, in Utgard, the giants lived. Hel was the +under-world, the home of evil ghosts and spirits. +Tales were told in the long winter evenings, of Baldur +the god of spring, Loki the crafty, Odin the old one-eyed <span class='pagenum'>[7]</span> +beggar in a hooded cloak, with his two ravens and +his two tame wolves, Freya the lovely lady of flowers, +Elle-folk dancing in the moonlight, and little rascally +Trolls.</p> + +<p>The songs and legends repeated by the old people +or chanted by minstrels or skalds were more than idle +stories—they were the history of a race. Children +heard over and over again the family records telling +in rude rhyme the story of centuries. In distant Iceland, +Greenland, the Shetlands, the Faroes or the Orkneys, +a Norseman could tell exactly what might be his +udall right, or right of inheritance, in the land of his +fathers.</p> + +<p>On Nils and Thorolf, Anders, Olof, Nikolina, Karen +and Lovisa, who were all over ten years old, rested +great responsibility. Mother Elle always managed to +solve her own problems and expected them to attend +to theirs without constant direction from her. She +told them what there was to be done and left them to +attend to it.</p> + +<p>All were hardy, active youngsters who took to fending +for themselves as naturally as a day-old chick takes +to scratching. In ordinary seasons the work at the +saeter was heavy, for the maidens must not only follow +the herds over miles of pasture land, but make butter +and cheese for the winter from their milking. The +few cows that were here now could be tethered near by; +the milk, when the children had had all they wanted, +was mostly used in soups, pudding or gröt (porridge). +A net or weir stretched across the outlet of the lake +would fill with fish overnight. The streams were full +of trout. Mother Elle knew how to make fish-hooks +of bone, bows and arrows, ropes, and baskets of bark, +how to weave osiers, how to cure bruises and cuts, how <span class='pagenum'>[8]</span> +to trap the wild hares, grouse and plover and cook +them over an open fire. The children found plover's +eggs and the eggs of other wild fowl. They raised +pulse, leeks, onions and turnips in a little garden patch. +They gathered strawberries, cranberries, crowberries, +wild currants, black and red, the cloudberry and the +delicious arctic raspberry which tastes of pineapple. +Some stores of salt and grain were already at the saeter +and the grain-fields had been sowed, before the pestilence +appeared in the valley.</p> + +<p>In the long summer days of these northern mountains, +one has the feeling that they will never end, +that life must go on in an infinite succession of still, +sunshiny, fragrant hours, filled with the songs of birds, +the chirr of insects and the distant lowing of cattle. +There is time for everything. At night comes dreamless +slumber, and the morning is like a birth into new +life.</p> + +<p>There was a great deal of singing and story-telling +at odd times. A group of children making mats or +baskets, gathering pease or going after berries would +beg Nils or Nikolina to tell a story, or Karen would +lead them in some old song with a familiar refrain. +But some of the songs the Wind-wife crooned to the +baby were not like any the children had heard. They +were not even in Norwegian.</p> + +<p>Thorolf was a silent lad, who would rather listen +than talk, and hated asking questions. But one day, +when he and Nikolina were hunting wild raspberries, +he asked her if she thought Mother Elle meant to +stay in the mountains through the winter. Nikolina +did not know.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"'Tis well to be wise but not too wise,</span> +<span class="i0">'Tis well that to-morrow is hid from our eyes,</span><span class='pagenum'>[9]</span> +<span class="i0">For in forward-looking forebodings rise,"</span> +</div></div> + +<p>she added quaintly. "I have heard her say that it is +colder in Greenland than it is here."</p> + +<p>"Has she been in Greenland?"</p> + +<p>"Her father and mother were on the way there +when she was little, and the ship was wrecked somewhere +on the coast. The Skroelings found her and +took her to live in their country. That is how she +learned so much about trees and herbs, and how to +make bows and arrows and moccasins."</p> + +<p>"Moccasins?"</p> + +<p>"The little shoes she made for Ellida. And she +made a little boat for Peder, like their skiffs."</p> + +<p>This was interesting. For a private reason, Thorolf +held Greenland to be the most fascinating of all +places.</p> + +<p>"Can she speak their language?"</p> + +<p>"Of course. I asked her to teach me, and she said +that perhaps she would some day. The songs that +she sings to the little ones are some that the Skroeling +woman who adopted her used to sing to her when she +cried for her own mother. One of them begins like +this:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"'Piche Klooskap pechian</span> +<span class="i0">Machieswi menikok.'"</span> +</div></div> + +<p>"What does it mean?"</p> + +<p>"'Long ago Klooskap came to the island of the +partridges.' Klooskap was like Odin, or Thor. The +priests in Greenland told her he was a devil and +wouldn't let her talk about him, but the Skroelings had <span class='pagenum'>[10]</span> +runes for everything just like the people in the sagas,—runes +for war, and healing, and the sea."</p> + +<p>"How did she ever get away?"</p> + +<p>"Some men came from Westbyrg to cut wood in +the forest, and when they saw that she was not really +a Skroeling they bought her for an iron pot and one +of them married her. But he was drowned a long +time ago."</p> + +<p>"I wish I knew the Skroelings' language. Some +day I mean to go to Greenland."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps Mother Elle will teach you. I'll ask +her."</p> + +<p>The Wind-wife was rather chary of information +about the country of the Skroelings until Nikolina's +coaxing and Thorolf's silent but intense interest had +taken effect. The country, she said, was rather like +Norway, with mountains and great forests, lakes and +streams, but far colder. There were no fiords, and +no cities. The people lived in tents made of poles +covered with bark, or hides. They dressed in the +hides of wild animals and lived by hunting and fishing. +They had no reindeer, horses, cattle, sheep or goats, +no fowls, no pigs. They could not work iron, nor did +they spin or weave. The man and woman who had +adopted her treated her just like their own child.</p> + +<p>The stories she had learned from these people were +intensely interesting to her listeners. There was one +about a battle between the wasps and the squirrels, +and another about the beaver who wanted wings. One +was about a girl who was married to the Spirit of the +Mountain and had a son beautiful and straight and like +any other boy except that he had stone eyebrows. +Then there was the tale about Klooskap tying up the +White Eagle of the Wind so that he could not flap <span class='pagenum'>[11]</span> +his wings. After a short time everything was so dirty +and ill-smelling and unhealthy that Klooskap had to +go back and untie one wing, and let the wind blow to +clear the air and make the earth once more wholesome.</p> + +<p>Wild apples fell, grain ripened, nights lengthened. +Long ago the twin-flower, violet, wild pansy, forget-me-not +and yellow anemone had left their fairy haunts, +and there remained only the curving fantastic fronds +of the fern,—the dragon-grass. Then had come +brilliant spots and splashes of color on the summer +slopes—purple butterwort, golden ragweed, aconite, +buttercup, deep crimson mossy patches of saxifrage, +rosy heather, catchfly, wild geranium, cinnamon +rose. These also finished their triumphal procession +and went to their Valhalla. Then one September +morning the children woke to hear the wind +screaming as if the White Eagle had escaped his +prison, and the rain pelting the world.</p> + +<p>All summer they had been out, rain or shine, like +water-ouzels, but now they were glad to sit about the +fire with the shutters all closed, and the smoke now and +then driven down into the room by the storm. Before +evening the little ones were begging for stories.</p> + +<p>"I wish I could remember a saga I heard last Yule," +Nikolina said at last. "It was about a voyage the +Vikings made to a country where the people had never +seen cattle. When they heard the cattle bellowing they +all ran away and left the furs they had come to sell."</p> + +<p>"Tell all you remember and make up the rest," suggested +Karen, but Nikolina shook her head.</p> + +<p>"One should never do that with a saga."</p> + +<p>"I know that tale," spoke up Thorolf suddenly, although +he had never in his life repeated a saga. +"Grandmother used to tell it. In the beginning Bjarni <span class='pagenum'>[12]</span> +Heriulfson the sea-rover, after many years came home +to Iceland to drink wassail in his father's house. But +strangers dwelt there and told him that his father was +gone to Greenland, and he set sail for that land. Soon +was the ship swallowed up in a gray mist in which were +neither sun nor stars. They sailed many days they +knew not where, but suddenly the fog lifted and the +sun revealed to them a coast of low hills covered with +forest. By this Bjarni thought that it was not Greenland +but some southerly coast. Therefore turned he +northward and sailed many days before he sighted the +mountains of Greenland and his father's house.</p> + +<p>"Years afterward returned Bjarni to Iceland, and +in his telling of that voyage it came to the ears of Leif +Ericsson, who asked him many questions about the land +he had seen. There grew no trees in Iceland or Greenland, +fit for house-timber, and Leif was minded to find +out this place of great forests. Thus it came that Leif +sailed from Brattahlid in Greenland with five and thirty +men in a long ship upon a journey of discovery.</p> + +<p>"First came they to a barren land covered with big +flat stones, and this Leif named Helluland, the slate +land. Southward sailed he for many days until he +saw a coast covered with wooded hills, and there he +landed, calling it Markland, the land of woods. Then +southward again they bore and came to a place where +a river flowed out of a lake and fell into the sea. The +country was pleasant, with good fishing. Leif said +that they would spend the winter there, and they built +wooden cabins well-made and warm.</p> + +<p>"Then at the season when the leaves are blood-red +and bright gold came in from the woods Thorkel the +German, smacking his lips and making strange faces +and jabbering in his own language. When they asked <span class='pagenum'>[13]</span> +what ailed him he said that he had found vines loaded +with grapes, and having seen none since he left his +own country, which was a land of vineyards, he was +out of his senses with delight. Therefore was that +country named Vinland the Fair. In the spring went +Leif home, well pleased, with a cargo of timber, but +his father being dead he voyaged no more to Vinland, +but remained to be head of his house.</p> + +<p>"Next went Thorvald, Leif's brother, to Vinland +and stayed two winters in the booths that Leif built, +until he was slain in a fight with the men of that land. +His men buried him there and returned sorrowfully +to their own land.</p> + +<p>"Next went Thorestein, Leif's second brother, +forth, with Gudrid his wife, to get the body of Thorvald +but he died on the voyage and his widow +returned to Brattahlid.</p> + +<p>"Next came to Brattahlid Thorfin Karlsefne, the +Viking from Iceland, who loved and married Gudrid +and from her heard the story of Vinland, and desired +it for his own. In good time went he forth in a long +ship with his wife, and there went with him three other +valiant ships. They had altogether one hundred and +sixty men and five women, with cattle, grain and all +things fit for a settlement. This was seven years after +Leif Ericsson found Vinland. Among the stores +for trading was scarlet cloth, which the Skroelings +greatly covet, insomuch that one small strip of scarlet +would buy many rich furs. But when they came to +trade, hearing a bull bellow, with a great squalling they +all ran away and left their packs on the ground, nor +did they show their faces again for three weeks. +Snorre, the son of Thorfin Karlsefne, born in Vinland, +was three years old when the Northmen left that land. <span class='pagenum'>[14]</span> +They had found the winter hard and cold, and in a +fight with the Skroelings many had been killed, so that +they took ship and returned to Iceland.</p> + +<p>"They had gone but a little way when one of the +ships, which was commanded by Bjarni Grimulfsson, +lagged so far behind that it lost sight of the others. +The men then discovered that shipworms<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> had bored +the hull so that it was about to sink. None could hope +to be saved but in the stern boat, and that would not +hold half of them.</p> + +<p>"Then stood Bjarni Grimulfsson forth, and said to +his men that in this matter there should be no advantage +of rank, but they would draw lots, who should go +in the boat and who remain in the ship. When this +had been done it was Bjarni's lot to go in the boat. +After all had gone down into the boat who had the +right, an Icelander who had been Bjarni's companion +made outcry dolefully saying, 'Bjarni, Bjarni, do you +leave me here to die in the sea? It was not so you +promised me when I left my father's house.' Then +said Bjarni, for the lot was fairly cast, 'What else can +be done?' Then said the Icelander, 'I think that you +should come up into the ship and let me go down into +the boat.' And indeed no other way might be found +for him to live. Then answered Bjarni making light +of the matter, 'Let it be so, since I see that you are +so anxious to live and so afraid of death; I will return +to the ship.' This was done, and the men rowing away +looked back and saw the ship go down in a great swirl +of waves with Bjarni and those who remained.</p> + +<p>"This tale my grandmother heard from her father, +and he from his, and so on until the time of that Thorolf +Erlandsson who sailed with Bjarni Grimulfsson and <span class='pagenum'>[15]</span> +went down into the sea by his side singing, for he +feared nothing but to be a coward."</p> + +<p>Thorolf's eyes were as proud and his head as high +as were his Viking forefather's when the worm-riddled +galley went to her grave with more than half her crew, +three hundred and forty years before. In the little +silence which followed the fire crackled and whistled, +the gusty rain-drenched wind beat upon the little hut. +And then Nils repeated musingly the ancient saying +from the Runes of Odin,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"'Cattle die, Kings die,</span> +<span class="i0">Kindred die, we also die,—</span> +<span class="i0">One thing never dies,</span> +<span class="i0">The fair fame of the valiant.'"</span> +</div></div> + +<p>Some one knocked at the door. A real Viking in +winged helmet and scale-armor would hardly have +surprised them just then. But it was only a tall man +in a traveler's cloak and hat, and they made quickly +room for him to dry himself by the fire, and brought +food and drink for him to refresh himself.</p> + +<p>"I thought that I knew the way to the old place," +he said, looking about, "but in this tempest I nearly +lost myself. Which of you is Thorolf Erlandsson?"</p> + +<p>The stranger was Syvert Thorolfson, a merchant of +Iceland, Thorolf's uncle. He brought messages from +Nikolina's grandmother in Stavanger, and from the +Bishop, who was ready to see that all the children +who had no relatives should be taken care of in Bergen. +Within three days Asgard the Beautiful was +left to the lemming and the raven. Yet the long +bright summer lived always in the hearts of the children. <span class='pagenum'>[16]</span> +Years after Thorolf remembered the words of +the Wind-wife,—</p> + +<p>"Make friends with the Skroelings—make friends. +Friendship is a rock to stand on; hatred is a rock to +split on. In the land of Klooskap shall you be Klooskap's +guest."</p> + + +<h4 class="smcap">notes</h4> + +<div class="footnotes"><div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> +In old Norse families names alternated from father to son. For +example, Thorolf Erlandsson (Thorolf the son of Erland) would +name his son after his own father, and the boy would be known as +Erland Thorolfsson. A daughter was known by her given name and +her father's, as Sigrid Erlandsdatter. In the case of the farm being +of sufficient importance for a surname the name might be added, as +"Elsie Tharaldsdatter Ormgrass."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> +Northern sailors regard the Finns as wizards.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> +Fladbrod is the coarse peasant-bread of Norway, made from an +unfermented dough of barley and oatmeal rolled out into large thin +cakes and baked. It will keep a long time.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> +The teredo or shipworm was a serious peril in the days before +the sheathing of ships. Even tar sheathing was not used until the +sixteenth century.</p></div></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div><span class="back"><a href="#CONTENTS">[Contents]</a></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span></div> + +<h3><a name="THE_VIKINGS_SECRET" id="THE_VIKINGS_SECRET"></a>THE VIKING'S SECRET</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In the days of jarl and hersir, while yet the world was young,</span> +<span class="i0">And sagas of gods and heroes the grim-lipped minstrel sung,</span> +<span class="i0">With the beak of his open galley in the sunset's scarlet flame,</span> +<span class="i0">Over the wild Atlantic the Norseland Viking came.</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Life was a thing to play with,—oh, then the world was wide,</span> +<span class="i0">With room for man and mammoth, and a goblin life beside.</span> +<span class="i0">Now we have slain the mammoths, and we have driven the ghosts away,</span> +<span class="i0">And we read the saga of Vinland in the light of a new-born day.</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">We have harnessed the deadly lightnings; we have ridden the restless wave.</span> +<span class="i0">We have chased the brood of the werewolf back to their noisome cave.</span> +<span class="i0">But far in the icy Northland, with weird witch-lights aglow,</span> +<span class="i0">Locked in the Greenland glaciers, is a tale we do not know.</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Out of Brattahlid's portal, southward from Herjulfsness,</span> +<span class="i0">They came to their new-found kingdom, their Vinland to possess.</span> +<span class="i0">Armored with careless laughter, strong with a stubborn will,</span> +<span class="i0">The Vikings found it and lost it—it is undiscovered still!</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Where did they beach their galleys? How were their cabins planned?</span> +<span class="i0">Who were the fearful Skroelings? What was the Fürdürstrand?</span> +<span class="i0">What were the grapes of Tyrker? For all that is written or said,</span> +<span class="i0">The Rune Stones hold the secret of the days of Eric the Red!</span> +</div></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div><span class="back"><a href="#CONTENTS">[Contents]</a></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span></div> + +<h2>II</h2> + +<h3><a name="THE_RUNES_OF_THE_WIND-WIFE" id="THE_RUNES_OF_THE_WIND-WIFE"></a>THE RUNES OF THE WIND-WIFE</h3> + + +<p>Salt and scarred from the northern seas, the <i>Taernan</i>, +deep-laden with herring, nosed in at the +Hanse quay in Bergen. Thorolf Erlandsson looked +grimly up at the huge warehouses. Since the Hanseatic +League secured a foothold in Norway, in 1343, most +Norwegian ports had been losing trade, and Bergen, +or rather the Hanse merchants in Bergen, had been +getting it. Between the Danes and the Germans it +looked rather as if Norwegians were to be crowded out +of their own country.</p> + +<p>The Hanse traders not only received and sold fish +for the Friday markets of northern Europe, but sold +all kinds of manufactured goods. It was said that they +had two sets of scales—one for buying and one for +selling. Norwegians had either to adapt themselves +to the new methods or give their sons to the ceaseless +battle of the open sea. From the Baltic and Icelandic +fisheries, the North Sea and the Lofoden Islands, their +ships got the heaviest and the hardest of the sea-harvesting.</p> + +<p>But it takes more than hardship to break a Norseman. +In his four years at sea Thorolf had become tall, +broad-shouldered and powerful, and at eighteen he +looked a grown man. He did more than he promised, +and listened oftener than he talked, and his only close +friend was Nils Magnusson, who was now coming down <span class='pagenum'>[19]</span> +to the wharf. They had known each other from boyhood.</p> + +<p>Nils had been for three years a clerk in Syvert Thorolfsson's +warehouse. While not tall he was neither +stunted nor crippled, and easily kept pace with Thorolf. +As he set out the silver-bound horn cups to drink <i>skal</i><a name="FNanchor_1_5" id="FNanchor_1_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_5" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> +with his friend in his own lodging, the croak and sputter +of German talk sounded in the street below.</p> + +<p>"Behold a new Bergen," observed Nils whimsically. +"Let us drink to the founding of a new Iceland. Did +you go to Greenland?"</p> + +<p>"We touched at Kakortok with letters for the +Bishop. The people are sick and savage with fighting +against the Skroelings."</p> + +<p>"Now," said Nils, rubbing his long nose, "it is odd +that you say that, for I was just going to tell you some +news. The King has given Paul Knutson leave to raise +a company to fight against the Skroelings in Greenland—and +parts beyond. He sails in a month."</p> + +<p>"I wish I had known of it."</p> + +<p>"I thought you would say that. This is between +us two and the candle, but Anders Amundson is going, +and I am going, and you may go if you will."</p> + +<p>Thorolf's gray eyes flamed. "What is Knutson +like?"</p> + +<p>"Well, they may call him Chevalier, but he has the +old Viking way with him. I said that I had a friend +who had long wished to lay his bones in a strange +land, and he answered, 'If your friend sails with me +I would prefer to have him bring his bones home +again.' He kept a place for you."</p> + +<p>Three weeks later Thorolf, looking backward as +the <i>Rotge</i>, (little auk or sea-king) stood out to sea, +saw the familiar outline of Snaehatten against the sunrise <span class='pagenum'>[20]</span> +and wondered when he should see it again. Like a +questing raven his mind returned to the summer spent +at the saeter, and recalled that dark saying of the +Wind-wife,—</p> + +<p>"In the land of Klooskap shall you be Klooskap's +guest."</p> + +<p>The galley<a name="FNanchor_2_6" id="FNanchor_2_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_6" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> rode the waves with the bold freedom +of her kind. Her keel was carved out of a single +great tree. Her seasoned oaken timbers, overlapping, +were riveted together by iron bolts, with the round +heads outside. Where a timber touched a rib, a strip +was cut out on each side, forming a block through +which a hole was bored. Another hole was bored in +the rib to match and a rope twisted of the inner bark +of the linden was put through both holes and knotted. +In surf or heavy sea, this construction gave the craft +a supple strength. Calking was done with woolen +cloth steeped in pitch. The mast, of a chosen trunk +of fir, was set upright in a log with ends shaped like +a fishtail. The long oarlike rudder was on the board +or side of the ship to the right of the stern, called the +starboard or steerboard. The lading was done on the +opposite side, the larboard or ladderboard. There +were ten oars to a side, and a single large triangular +sail.</p> + +<p>Long and narrow, hardly ten feet above the water-line +at her lowest, her curved prow glancing over the +waves like the head of a swimming snake, she was no +more like the tumbling cargo-ships than a shark is like +a porpoise. When they were two days out, Nils said +to Thorolf,</p> + +<p>"A Viking in such a galley would sail to the end of +the world. By the way, did the Skroelings in Greenland +understand that language the Wind-wife spoke?"<span class='pagenum'>[21]</span></p> + +<p>"I was not there long enough to find out. I once +asked a man who knows their talk well, and he said it +was no tongue that ever he heard."</p> + +<p>The Greenland folk welcomed them heartily. Finding +that the white men had not after all been forgotten +by their own people, the natives drew off and gave +them no more trouble. The Northmen spent the winter +in sleep, talk, song, and hunting with native guides. +Besides the old man in white fur, as the polar bear was +respectfully called, Arctic foxes, walrus, whales and +seal abounded. Many of the new-comers became +skilful in the making and the use of the skin-covered +native boats called Kayaks. Nils had some skill in +carving wood and stone, and could write in the Runic +script of Elfdal. In the long evenings when winds +from the cave of the Great Bear buffeted the low huts, +he taught Thorolf and Anders what he knew, and +talked with the Skroelings. But none of them understood +the runes of the Wind-wife. Their speech was +quite different.</p> + +<p>Spring came with brief, hot sunshine, and the creeping +birches budded on the pebbly shore. Encouraged +by the reports from Greenland, new colonists ventured +out, and house-building went on briskly. One day +Thorolf was summoned to Knutson's headquarters.</p> + +<p>"Erlandsson," began the Chevalier, "they say that +you have information about Vinland<a name="FNanchor_3_7" id="FNanchor_3_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_7" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> and the Skroelings +there, from an old woman who lived among them. +What can you tell me?"</p> + +<p>Thorolf told the story of the Wind-wife. Knutson +looked interested but doubtful.</p> + +<p>"I have talked with the oldest colonists," he said, +"and they know nothing of any Skroelings but those +hereabouts. They say also that Vinland is hard to <span class='pagenum'>[22]</span> +come at. Boats venturing south return with tales of +heavy winds, dense fogs and dangerous cliffs and skerries—or +do not return at all. One was caught and +crushed in the ice, and the crew were found on the floe +half starved and gnawing bits of hide. In the sagas +of Vinland the Skroelings are spoken of as fierce and +treacherous. To hold such a land would need a strong +hand. The old woman may have forgotten—or the +stories may be those of her own people."</p> + +<p>Thorolf shook his head. "Nay, my lord. She +was not a forgetful person—and the language is +neither Lapp nor Finn."</p> + +<p>"She was very old, you say?"</p> + +<p>"I think so. I do not know how old."</p> + +<p>"Old people sometimes confuse what they have +heard with what they have seen. But I shall remember +what you have said."</p> + +<p>"If he had known the Wind-wife," said Nils when +told of this conversation, "he would have no doubt."</p> + +<p>Knutson wrote to the King, but got no reply for a +long time. A ship with a cargo of trading stores was +sent for, and was wrecked on the Faroes. But in the +following spring an expedition to Vinland was really +planned. There was no general desire to take part +in it. Many of Knutson's party now longed for their +native land, where the mountains were drawn swords +flashing in the sun, and the malachite and silver waters +and flowery turf, the jeweled scabbards. They +dreamed of the lure sounding over the valleys, of +bright-paired maidens dancing the <i>spring dans</i>. +Nevertheless in due season the <i>Rotge</i> left the Greenland +shore and pointed her inquiring beak southeast +by south. In the <i>Gudrid</i> sailed Knutson and his +immediate following, with the trading cargo and most <span class='pagenum'>[23]</span> +of the provisions. By keeping well out to sea at first +the commander hoped to escape the perils of the +coast.</p> + +<p>This hope was dashed by an Atlantic gale which +drove them westward. For two days and two nights +they were tossed between wind and tide. Toward the +end of the second night the sound of the waves indicated +land to starboard. In the growing light they +saw a harbor that seemed spacious enough for all the +ships in the world, sheltered by wooded hills. If this +were Vinland, it was greater than saga told or skald +sang.</p> + +<p>They landed to take in fresh water, mend a leak and +see the country, but found no grapes, no Skroelings nor +any sign of Northmen's presence. On the rocks grew +vineberries, or mountain cranberries, and Knutson +thought that perhaps these and not true grapes were +the fruit found in Vinland. He sent a party of a +dozen men, Anders and Thorolf leading, to explore the +forest, ascend some hill if possible and return the same +day. He himself remained with the ships and kept +Nils by him. He rather expected that the natives, +learning of the strangers' arrival, would be drawn by +curiosity to visit the bay.</p> + +<p>The scouting party followed the banks of the little +stream that had given them fresh water, Anders leading, +Thorolf just behind him. Wind stirred softly in +the leaves overhead, unseen birds fluttered and chirped, +sunshine sifting through the maple undergrowth turned +it to emerald and gold and jasper. Once there was a +discordant screech from the evergreens, but it was only +a brilliant blue jay with crest erect, scolding at them. +A striped squirrel flashed up the trunk of a tree to his +hole. Then sudden as lightning, from the bushes they +had just passed, came a flight of arrows.<span class='pagenum'>[24]</span></p> + +<p>Two men were slightly wounded, but most of the +arrows were turned by the light strong body armor +of the Norsemen. The foe remained unseen and unheard. +Nothing stirred, though the men scanned +the woods about them with the keen eyes of seamen +and hunters.</p> + +<p>Thorolf was seized with an inspiration. He went +forward a step or two, lifted his hand in salutation, +and called,—</p> + +<p>"Klooskap mech p'maosa?"<a name="FNanchor_4_8" id="FNanchor_4_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_8" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> (Is Klooskap +yet alive?)</p> + +<p>There was a silence stiller than death. The Norsemen +faced the ominous thicket without moving a muscle. +Some one within it called out something which +Thorolf did not understand. But no more arrows +came. He tried another sentence.</p> + +<p>"Klooskap k-chi skitap, pechedog latogwesnuk." +(Klooskap was a great man in the country far to the +northward.)</p> + +<p>This time he made out the answer. In a swift aside +he explained to his comrades,—</p> + +<p>"'K'putuswin' means 'let us take council.' They +want to have a talk."</p> + +<p>He managed to convey his assent to the unseen listeners, +and every tree, rock and log sprouted Skroelings. +They were quite unlike the natives of Greenland, +though of copper-colored complexion.<a name="FNanchor_5_9" id="FNanchor_5_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_9" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> These men—there +were no women among them,—were tall and +sinewy, and wore their coarse black hair knotted up on +the head with a tuft of feathers. They were naked to +the waist, and wore fringed breeches of deerskin, and +soft shoes embroidered in bright colors. Some had +necklaces of bears' claws, beads or shells, but the only +weapons seemed to be the bow and arrow and a stone-headed <span class='pagenum'>[25]</span> +hatchet or club. They stared at the white +man half curiously and half threateningly.</p> + +<p>Then began the queerest conversation that any one +present had ever heard. Thorolf discovered the wild +men's language to be so nearly like that learned from +the Wind-wife that he could understand it when spoken +slowly, and in a halting fashion could make them comprehend +him. His companions listened in wonder. +Not even Anders had really believed in that language.</p> + +<p>At last Thorolf held out his hand, and the leader of +the Skroelings came forward in a very gingerly manner +and took it. Then walking in single file, toes pointed +straight forward, the savages melted into the forest as +frost melts in sunshine.</p> + +<p>With a broad grin, the first he had worn for some +time, Thorolf translated.</p> + +<p>"He asked why we came here. I told him, to see +the country and trade with his people. He says that +white men have come here before, very long ago. I +think they were killed and he did not wish to say so. +He says that the Sagem, the jarl of his people, lives in +a castle over there somewhere. I told him to give the +Sagem greeting from our commander, and invite him +to visit the place where our ships are. He says that it +will not be safe for us to go further into the forest +until the Skroelings have heard who we are and what +we are doing here."</p> + +<p>"That is very good advice," said Anders with a wry +face, as he plucked some moss to stanch the wound in +his arm. The arrow-head which had made it was a +shaped piece of flint bound to the shaft with cords of +fine sinew. "We are too few to get into a general +fight. Besides, that is not in our orders."<span class='pagenum'>[26]</span></p> + +<p>They accordingly went back to the ships, arriving a +little before sundown. Knutson was greatly interested.</p> + +<p>"You have done well," he said. "A boat was hovering +about soon after you left. This may have been +a scouting party sent through the forest to cut you off."</p> + +<p>All the next day they waited, but nothing happened. +On the morning after, a large number of boats appeared +rounding the headland to the south. In the +largest sat the Sagem, a very old man wrapped in furs. +The boats were made of birchbark laced on a wooden +framework with fibrous roots, like the toy skiff Mother +Elle had made for little Peder.</p> + +<p>The Skroelings landed, and advanced with great dignity +to meet Knutson, who was equally ceremonious. +Nils and Thorolf had all they could do to interpret the +old chief's long speech, although many phrases were +repeated again and again, which made it easier. Knutson +made one in reply, briefer but quite as polite, and +brought out beads, little knives, and scarlet cloth from +his trading stores. The red cloth and beads were received +with eagerness, the knives with interest, and after +a young chief had cut himself, with some awe. The +Sagem in his turn presented the stranger with skins of +the sable, the silver fox and the bear. He and a few +of the warriors tasted of the food offered them, and all +the white men were asked to a feast in the village the +next day.</p> + +<p>So friendly were the Skroelings, in fact, that Knutson +determined to return to Greenland and see what could +be done toward founding a settlement here. He would +leave part of the men in winter quarters, with the <i>Rotge</i> +as a means of further explorations, or if necessary, of +escape. Her captain, Gustav Sigerson, was a cautious, +wise and experienced seaman. Anders Amundson, <span class='pagenum'>[27]</span> +as the best hunter of the expedition, was to stay, +with Nils as clerk and Thorolf as interpreter. Booths +were erected, stores landed, and on a brilliant day in +late summer some forty Norsemen and Gothlanders on +the shore watched the <i>Gudrid</i> slowly fading out of +sight.</p> + +<p>In talking with the natives Nils and Thorolf observed +that their world seemed to be infested with demons—particularly +water-fiends. A reason for this +appeared in time. Half a dozen men one day took the +stern-boat and went a-fishing. They came back white-faced, +with a story of a giant squid with arms four +times as long as the boat, that had risen out of the +sea and tried to pull them under. Only their skill as +rowers had saved them. Nils remembered the kraken, +of ancient legends, and thought he could see why the +Skroelings never ventured out to sea in their frail canoes. +This put an end to plans for exploring along +the coast.</p> + +<p>The winter was colder than they had expected. +This land, so much further south than Norway, was +bitten by frost as Norway never was. There is something +in intense cold which is inhuman. When men +are shut up together in exile by it, all that is bad in them +is likely to crop out. It might have been worse but +for the fortunate friendliness of the Skroelings. +When scurvy appeared in the camp, their first acquaintance, +Munumqueh (woodchuck) had his women brew +a drink which cured it. He showed the white men +also how to make pemmican, the compressed meat +ration of native hunters, and how to construct and use +a birch canoe, a pair of snowshoes, and a fire-drill. +Gustav Sigerson died in the spring, and Nils was +chosen captain. He and Munumqueh became great <span class='pagenum'>[28]</span> +cronies, and exchanged names, Nils being thereafter +known to his native friends as the Woodchuck, and bestowing +upon Munumqueh the proud name of his grandfather, +Nils the Bear-Slayer.</p> + +<p>"It will never do for us to sit quiet here until +Knutson returns," said Nils when at Midsummer +nothing had been seen of the ships. "We shall be at +one another's throats or quarreling with the savages." +He had been inquiring about the nature of the country, +and had learned that westward a great river led to five +inland seas, so connected that canoes could go from one +to another. Along this chain of waters lived tribes +who spoke somewhat the same language and traded +with one another. Southward lived a warlike people +who sometimes attacked the lake tribes. Beyond the +last of the lakes they did not know what the country +was like. The waters inland were not troubled with +the water-demon so far as they knew. Nils, Anders +and Thorolf held a council and decided to explore the +wilderness as far as they could go in the <i>Rotge</i>. It +was nothing more than all their ancestors had done. +Often, in their invasions of England, France and other +unknown regions Vikings had gone up one river and +come down another, and the <i>Rotge</i>, for all her iron +strength, was no more than a wooden shell when +stripped.<a name="FNanchor_6_10" id="FNanchor_6_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_10" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p> + +<p>They set forth, escorted by a flotilla of small canoes, +on a clear summer morning, and found their progress +surprisingly easy. Fish, game and berries were plentiful, +the villages along the river supplied corn and +beans, and though it was not always easy to drag the +<i>Rotge</i> around the carrying-places pointed out by their +native guides, they did not have to turn back. It was +a proud moment when the undefeated crew launched <span class='pagenum'>[29]</span> +their "water-snake" as the Skroelings called her, on +the shining waters of a great inland sea.</p> + +<p>The journey had been a far longer one than they +expected, and to natives of any other country would +have been much more exciting than it was to the Norsemen.<a name="FNanchor_7_11" id="FNanchor_7_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_11" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> +They had seen cliffs a thousand feet high, cataracts, +rapids, a multitude of wooded islands, narrow +valleys where floating misty clouds came and went and +the sky looked like a riband. But the precipice above +Naero Fiord rises four thousand perpendicular feet, +and the water which laps its base is thousands of feet +in depth. The Skjaeggedalsfos is loftier than Niagara, +and the mist-maidens dance along the perilous pathways +of a hundred Norwegian cliffs. Nils and Thorolf +agreed that the Wind-wife was right when she said +that the country of the Skroelings was like Norway +but had no end.</p> + +<p>"The trouble is," reflected Nils as he set down the +day's happenings on a birch-bark scroll, "that nobody +will believe us when we tell how great the land is."</p> + +<p>At the end of the fifth and largest lake they found +people with some knowledge of the country beyond. +It seemed that after crossing the Big Woods one came +to great open plains where a ferocious and cruel race +of warriors hunted animals as large as the moose, with +hoofs and short horns and curly brown fur. This +sounded like a cattle country. The lake tribes evidently +stood in great fear of the plains people, but in +spite of their evident alarm the Norsemen determined +to go and see for themselves.<a name="FNanchor_8_12" id="FNanchor_8_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_12" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> Leaving the boat +with ten of their company to guard it they struck off +southwestward through a country of forests, lakes +and streams. After fourteen days they stopped to +make camp and go a-fishing, for dried fish would be <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> +the most convenient ration for a quick march, and +they did not intend to spend much more time in exploring.</p> + +<p>It seemed to Nils and Thorolf that some mark or +monument should be left to show how far they had +really come. A small natural column of dark trap +rock was chosen, and while the others fished, or made +a seine after the native fashion, Nils marked out an +inscription in Runic letters, which are suited to rough +work. Not far from the place where they found the +stone, and about a day's journey from camp, was a +small high island in a little lake, the kind of place +usually chosen by Vikings for a first camp. The stone, +set in the middle of this island, would be easily seen by +any one looking for it, and savages would not see it at +all. When finished it was rafted across to the island +and set up, the inscription covering about half of it on +both sides. While Nils and several others were thus +busy, the remainder of the party were trying the seine. +They reached camp after dark to find their booths in +ashes, and Nils with his men murdered a little way off, +as they had come up from the Rune Stone.<a name="FNanchor_9_13" id="FNanchor_9_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_13" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></p> + +<div><span class="back"><a href="#LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">[Illustrations]</a></span></div> +<div class="center"><div class="figcenter" style="width: 411px;"> +<img src="images/illus-044.png" width="411" height="600" alt=""Nils marked out an inscription in runic letters."—Page 30" title=""Nils marked out an inscription in runic letters."—Page 30" /> +<span class="caption">"Nils marked out an inscription in runic letters."—<i>Page 30</i></span> +</div></div> + +<p>With fury and horror the Norsemen looked upon +the destruction. It was all Thorolf and the cooler +heads could do to keep the rest from attacking the +first Skroelings they saw. But the mischief had been +done, without doubt, by the unknown warriors of the +plains, who had been perhaps watching their advance. +They sadly prepared to return to their boat. But before +they went, Thorolf paddled out to the island on +two logs, while the others kept guard, and added some +lines to the inscription on the stone.</p> + +<p>They never saw their Vinland again. Knutson, finding +the King fighting hard against the Danes, gave no +further thought to the wilderness. Thorolf and a <span class='pagenum'>[31]</span> +handful of his men finally reached Bergen; Anders +stayed in Greenland. More than five centuries +afterward, a Scandinavian farmer, grubbing for +stumps in a Minnesota marsh, found overgrown by +the roots of a tulip tree a stone with an inscription in +Runic letters, took it to learned men and had it +translated.</p> + +<p>"8 Goths and 22 Norsemen upon journey of discovery +from Vinland westward. We had camp by two +rocks one day's journey from this stone. We were +out fishing one day. When we returned home we +found ten men red with blood and dead. AVM +save us from evil. have ten men by the sea to +look after our ship 14 days journey from this island. +Year 1362." </p> + +<hr /> +<h4 class="smcap">notes</h4> + +<div class="footnotes"><div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_5" id="Footnote_1_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_5"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> +Skal or skoal was the Norwegian word used in drinking a +health.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_6" id="Footnote_2_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_6"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> +The description of the Norse galley is taken from Du Chaillu's +"Land of the Midnight Sun," in which the construction of one which +was unearthed at Nydam in Jutland is described (Vol. I. 380). The +galley "Viking" built in Norway on the model of an actual Viking +ship of the early Middle Ages, was taken across the Atlantic in 1893 +by a Norwegian crew of fourteen, anchoring in Lake Michigan, after +a voyage in which they had no shelter except an awning and cooked +their own food as best they could.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_7" id="Footnote_3_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_7"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> +The question of the actual whereabouts of Leif Ericsson's booths +and Thorfin Karlsefne's later settlement has never been positively +decided. The Knutson expedition to Greenland is an historical fact. +It left Norway about 1354 and returned about 1364. It is not positively +known that Knutson attempted the rediscovery of Vinland, unless +what is known as the Kensington Rune Stone is evidence of it. The +writer has adopted the theory that he did take a party southward, +landing at Halifax, and left a part of his men there, intending to +return with more colonists; that on returning to Norway he found +the country in the throes of war and abandoned any thought of further +settlement, leaving his men to find their way back as they could.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_8" id="Footnote_4_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_8"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> +The Indian phrases and legends referred to as learned by the +Wind-wife are Abenaki.</p></div> + +<span class='pagenum'>[32]</span> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_9" id="Footnote_5_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_9"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> +According to historians the region along the St. Lawrence and +the Great Lakes was for a long time inhabited by tribes belonging +to the great Ojibway nation. Their territory extended nearly to the +western boundary of what is now Minnesota. Southward were the +tribes later known as Iroquois.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_10" id="Footnote_6_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_10"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> +Accounts of the open galleys of the Northmen agree in describing +them as small and light compared with the later decked ships. The +open "sea-serpent" of forty-two feet, with her mast unshipped was +heavier but not much bigger than the largest Indian carrying-canoes +such as were used in the fur-trade, and these were taken from the +St. Lawrence through the Great Lakes. Vikings landing in Europe +were prepared not only to return by a new route but even to take +their boats apart or build new ones if necessary.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_11" id="Footnote_7_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_11"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> +Bayard Taylor, visiting the Saguenay and the St. Lawrence +immediately after a sojourn in Norway, speaks of his inability to be +impressed as others had been, by the height of the cliffs and waterfalls +of Canada, although fully appreciating the beauty of the +scenery.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_12" id="Footnote_8_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_12"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> +The Sioux or Dakotas, who occupied the Great Plains, were +hereditary enemies of the Ojibways. In the Ojibway language one +name for these Plains Indians indicated that they were in the habit +of mutilating their victims.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_13" id="Footnote_9_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_13"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> +The monument known as the Kensington Rune Stone was found +near Kensington, Minnesota, and is fully described in the reports of +the Minnesota Historical Society. It was the subject of many arguments +at first. Well known authorities pronounced it a forgery, +while other well known authorities declared it genuine. It was +pointed out that the language used was not that of the time of Leif +Ericsson, but much more modern; but later it was found that the +inscription was exactly such as would have been written about the +middle of the fourteenth century, when Knutson's expedition was in +Greenland. Aside from the obvious lack of motive for a forgery, +investigation showed that neither the farmer nor any one who might +have been in a position to bury the stone where it was found had any +knowledge of Runic writing. Moreover, if the stone had been a +forgery it would seem that the forger would have used the name of +some well known leader, whereas no name is mentioned. If Knutson +had been with the expedition he would certainly have seen to it that +his presence was recorded.</p> + +<p>Otter Tail Lake, just north of the place where the stone was discovered, +was one of the points marking the boundary between the +Ojibway and Dakota country. The position of the runes on the stone +is precisely what it would be if the inscription had been finished, or +nearly finished, as a guide to future exploration, and the account of +the massacre added as a warning.</p><span class='pagenum'>[33]</span> + +<p>A song commonly sung at the time of the Black Death contains the +lines:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"The Black Plague sped over land and sea</span> +<span class="i0">And swept so many a board.</span> +<span class="i0">That will I now most surely believe,</span> +<span class="i0">It was not with the Lord's will.</span> +<span class="i0">Help us God and Mary,</span> +<span class="i0">Save us all from evil."</span> +</div></div></div></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div><span class="back"><a href="#CONTENTS">[Contents]</a></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span></div> + +<h3><a name="THE_NAVIGATORS" id="THE_NAVIGATORS"></a>THE NAVIGATORS</h3> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">We were Prince Henry's gentlemen,—</span> +<span class="i2">His gentlemen were we,</span> +<span class="i0">To dare the gods of Heathendom,</span> +<span class="i2">Whoever they might be,—</span> +<span class="i0">To do our master's sovereign will</span> +<span class="i2">Upon a trackless sea.</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">We were Prince Henry's gentlemen,</span> +<span class="i2">And undismayed we went</span> +<span class="i0">To fight for Lusitania</span> +<span class="i2">Wherever we were sent,—</span> +<span class="i0">The stars had laid our course for us,</span> +<span class="i2">And we were well content.</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">We were Prince Henry's gentlemen,</span> +<span class="i2">And though our flagship lie</span> +<span class="i0">Where white the great-winged albatross</span> +<span class="i2">Came wheeling down the sky,</span> +<span class="i0">Or black abysses yawned for us,</span> +<span class="i2">We could not fear to die.</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">We were Prince Henry's gentlemen,—</span> +<span class="i2">Around the Cape of Wrath</span> +<span class="i0">We sailed our wooden cockleshells—</span> +<span class="i2">Great pride the pilot hath</span> +<span class="i0">To voyage to-day the Indian Sea—</span> +<span class="i2">But we marked out his path!</span> +</div></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div><span class="back"><a href="#CONTENTS">[Contents]</a></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span></div> + +<h2>III</h2> + +<h3><a name="SEA_OF_DARKNESS" id="SEA_OF_DARKNESS"></a>SEA OF DARKNESS</h3> + + +<p>"Those things that you say cannot be true, Fernao! +How do you know that the sea turns black +and dreadful just behind those heavenly clouds? If +there are hydras, and gorgons, and sea-snakes that can +swallow a ship, and a great black hand reaching up +out of a whirlpool to drag men down, why do we +never see them here? Look at that sea, can there +be anything in the world more beautiful?"</p> + +<p>The vehement small speaker waved her slender hand +with a gesture that seemed to take in half the horizon. +The old Moorish garden, overrun with the brilliant +blossoms that drink their hues from the sea, overlooked +the harbor. Across the huddled many-colored +houses the ten-year-old Beatriz and her playfellow +Fernao could see the western ocean in a great half-circle, +bounded by the mysterious line above which +three tiny caravels had just risen. The sea to-day was +exquisite, bluer than the heavens that arched above it. +The wave-crests looked like a flock of sea-doves playing +on the sunlit sparkling waters. Fernao from his +seat on the crumbling wall watched the incoming ships +with the far-sighted gaze of a sailor. Portuguese +through and through, the son and grandson of men who +had sailed at the bidding of the great Prince Henry, +he felt that he could speak with authority.<a name="FNanchor_1_14" id="FNanchor_1_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_14" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p> + +<p>"Of course I am telling you the truth. You are <span class='pagenum'>[36]</span> +very wise about the sea—you who never saw it until +two weeks ago! Gil Andrade has been to places that +you Castilians never even heard of. He has seen +whales, and mermaids, and the Sea of Darkness itself! +He has been to the Gold Coast beyond Bojador, where +the people are fried black like charcoal, and the rivers +are too hot to drink."</p> + +<p>"Then why didn't he die?" inquired the unbelieving +Beatriz.</p> + +<p>"Because he didn't stay there long enough. And +there are devils in the forest, stronger than ten men, +and all covered with shaggy hair—"</p> + +<p>"I will not listen to such nonsense! Do you think +that because I am Spanish, and a girl, I am without +understanding? Tio Sancho, is it true that there is a +Sea of Darkness?"</p> + +<p>Sancho Serrao was an old seaman, as any one would +know by his eyes and his walk. For fifty years he had +used the sea, as ship-boy, sailor, and pilot. His daughter +Catharina had been the nurse of Beatriz, and he +had brought coral, shells and queer toys to the little +thing from the time she could toddle to his knee.</p> + +<p>"What has Fernao been saying to thee, pombinha +agreste?" (little wood-dove) he asked soberly, though +his eyes twinkled ever so little. He seated himself as +he spoke, on an ancient bench that rested its back +against the wall just where the wind was sweetest. +Under the fragrances of ripening vineyards and flowering +shrubs there was always the sharp clean smell of +the sea.</p> + +<p>"He believes all that Gil Andrade and Joao Pancado +tell him as if it were the Credo," Beatriz began, +her words flung out like sparks from a little crackling +fire. "He says that there is a Sea of Darkness out <span class='pagenum'>[37]</span> +away beyond the Falcon Islands, where ships are +drawn into a great pit under the edge of the world. +And he says that ships cannot go too far south because +the sun is so near it would burn them, and they +cannot go too far north because the icebergs will catch +them and crush them. If I were a man, I would sail +straight out there, into the sunset, and show them +what my people dared to do!"</p> + +<p>Old Sancho was not all Portuguese. In his veins +ran the blood of the three great seafaring races of +southern Europe—the Genoese, the Lusitanian and +the Vizcayan—and their jealousies and rivalries +amused him. He had spent most of his life in the +feluccas and caravels of Lisbon and Oporto, because +when he was young they went where no other ships +dared even follow; but he did not believe that the last +word in discovery had been said even by Dom Henriques +at Sagres, or the Mappe-Monde of Fra Mauro +in Venice.</p> + +<p>"Not so fast there, velinha (small candle)" he cautioned, +raising a whimsical forefinger. "So said many +of us in our youth. And when we had sailed for +weeks, and all our provisions were mouldy or weevilly, +and our water-casks warped and leaking so that we +had to catch the rain in our shirts, we began to wonder +what it was we had come for. The sea won't be +mocked or threatened. She has ways of her own, the +old witch, to tame the vainglorious. And 't is true +enough," the old pilot went on with a quizzing look at +Fernao on his insecure perch, "that sailors have a +bad habit of doubling and trebling their recollections +when they find anybody who will listen. I don't know +why they do it. Maybe it is because having told a perfectly +true tale which nobody believed, they think that <span class='pagenum'>[38]</span> +a little more or a little less will do no harm. For this +you must remember, my children,—that at sea many +things happen which when told no one believes to be +true."</p> + +<p>"I would believe anything you told me, Tio Sancho," +promised Beatriz, all love and confidence in her little +glowing face.</p> + +<p>"Ay, would you now? What if I said that I have +seen a ship with all sail set coming swiftly before the +wind, in a place where no wind was, to stir our hair who +beheld it—and sailing moreover through the air at +the height of a tall mast-head above the sea? And a +mountain of ice half a league long and as high as the +Giralda at Seville, floating in a sea as blue as this one, +and as warm? And islands with mountains that +smoke, appearing and disappearing in broad daylight? +Yet all of these are common sights at sea."</p> + +<p>"But is there a Sea of Darkness, verily, verily, tio +caro?" persisted Beatriz. The old man shook his +head, with a little quiet smile.</p> + +<p>"I'll not say there is not. And I'll not say there is. +I saw a Sea of Darkness on the second voyage that ever +I made, but that's all."</p> + +<p>"Oh, tell us all the story!" begged Beatriz, and +Fernao silently slid from the wall and came closer.</p> + +<p>"The commander of our ship was Gonsales Zarco, +one of Dom Henriques' gentlemen. Years before +he'd been caught by a gale on his way to Africa, and +driven north on to an island that he named because of +that, Puerto Santo (Holy Haven). So when he came +that way again he stopped to see how the settlement +that was planted there prospered, and found the people +in great trouble of mind. They showed him that +a thick black cloud hung upon the sea to the northwest <span class='pagenum'>[39]</span> +of the island, filling the air to the very heavens and +never going away; and out of this cloud, they said, +came strange noises, not like any they had heard before. +They dared not sail far from their island, for +they said that if a man lost sight of land thereabouts +it was a miracle if he ever returned. They believed +that place to be the great abyss, the mouth of hell. +But learned men held the opinion that this cloud hid the +island of Cipango, where the Seven Bishops had taken +refuge from the Moors and the Saracens.</p> + +<p>"Certainly the cloud was there, for we all saw it, +and when the Commander said that he would stay to +see whether it would change when the moon changed, +we liked it not, I can tell you. And when we learned +that he was minded to sail straight into the darkness +and see what lay behind it, why, there were some who +would have run away—if they could have run anywhere +but into the sea.</p> + +<p>"But we had a Spanish pilot, Morales, who had +once been a prisoner in Morocco, and there he knew +two Englishmen who had sailed these seas in time past. +Their ship had been lying ready to sail for France, +when late at night Robert Macham, a gentleman of +their country, came hurriedly aboard with his lady love +whom he had carried off from her home in Bristol, and +between dark and dawn the captain weighed anchor and +was off. Then being driven from the course the ship +was cast on a thickly wooded island with a high mountain +in the middle, where they dwelt not long, for the +lady died, and Macham died of grief. The crew left +the island and were wrecked in Morocco and made +slaves. All this was many years before, for the Englishmen +had grown old in slavery, and Morales himself +had grown old since he heard the tale.<span class='pagenum'>[40]</span></p> + +<p>"It was the belief of Morales that this was the island +of which they told, and that the cloud which hung +above the waters was the mist arising from those dense +woods which covered it. The upshot was that the commander +set sail one morning early and steered straight +for the cloud.</p> + +<p>"The nearer we came the higher and thicker looked +the darkness that spread over the sea, and we heard +about noon a great roaring of the waves. Still Gonsales +held his course, and when the wind failed he ordered +out the boats to tow the ship into the cloud, and +I was one of those who rowed. As we got closer it +was not quite so dark, but the roaring was louder, although +the sea was smooth. Then through the darkness +we beheld tall black objects which we guessed to +be giants walking in the water, but as we came nearer +we saw that they were great rocks, and before us +loomed a high mountain covered with thick woods.</p> + +<p>"We found no place to land but a cave under a +rock that overhung the sea, and that was trodden all +over the bottom by the sea-wolves, so that Gonsales +named it the Camera dos Lobos. The island, because +of its forests, he called Madeira. When we came +back, having taken possession of the island for the King, +he sent a colony to settle upon it, and the first boy and +girl born there were named Adam and Eva. The people +set fire to the trees, which were in their way, and +could not put out the fire, so that it burned for seven +years and all the trees were destroyed. And the King +gave our commander the right to carry as supporters +on his coat-of-arms two sea-wolves."</p> + +<p>Beatriz drew a long breath. "Weren't you very +scared, Tio Sancho?"</p> + +<p>"Sailors must not be scared, little one. Or if they <span class='pagenum'>[41]</span> +are, they must never let their arms and legs be scared. +We knew that we had to obey orders or be dead, so we +obeyed. I have been glad many a time since that I +sailed with Gonsales and old Morales to the discovery +of Madeira."</p> + +<p>"What are sea-wolves?" asked Fernao.</p> + +<p>"Like no beast that ever you saw, my son. They +have the fore part of the body like a dog or bear, the +hind part ending in a tail like a fish, but with hair, not +scales, on the body; the head has a thick mane, and the +jaws are large and strong. They are no more seen +on that island, for they went there only because it was +never visited by men."</p> + +<p>"Did they try to drive the people away?"</p> + +<p>"No; they do not fight men unless men attack them. +But the settlers were once driven off Puerto Santo by +animals, and not very fierce animals at that." The +old pilot grinned. "They were driven away by rabbits. +Somebody brought rabbits there and let them +loose, and in a few years there were so many that everything +that was planted was eaten green. The people +who live on that island now have made a strict rule +about rabbits."</p> + +<p>The children's laughter echoed the dry chuckle of +the old man. Then Fernao, unwilling to abandon his +authorities,—</p> + +<p>"But if the Sea of Darkness and the great abyss are +not in the western ocean, why haven't they found out +what really is there?"</p> + +<p>"That, my son, is more than I can tell you," said +Sancho Serrao, getting up. "I sailed where I was told, +and I never was told to sail due west from Lisbon. +But here is a man who can answer your question, if any +one can. Welcome to my humble dwelling, Senhor <span class='pagenum'>[42]</span> +Colombo! Shall we go into the house, or will you find +it pleasanter in the garden?"</p> + +<p>The new-comer was a tall man of middle age, although +at first sight he looked older, because of his +white hair. The fresh complexion, alert walk, and +keen thoughtful blue eyes were those of a man not old +in either mind or body. He smiled in answer to the +greeting, and replied with a quick wave of the hand. +"Do not disturb yourself, I beg of you, my friend. +The garden is very pleasant. I have come on an errand +of my own this time. Did you ever see, in your +voyages to Africa or elsewhere, any such carving as +this?"</p> + +<p>He held out a curious worm-eaten bit of reddish +brown wood, rudely ornamented with carved figures in +relief. Old Sancho took it and turned it about, examining +it with narrowed attentive eyes.</p> + +<p>"Where did it come from?" he asked, finally.</p> + +<p>"From the beach at Puerto Santo. My little son +Diego picked it up, the day before I came away from +the island."</p> + +<p>"Now that is curious. I was just telling the young +ones about an adventure of my youth, when Gonsales +Zarco touched there on his way to Madeira. With +your good permission I will leave you for a few minutes +and rummage in an old sea-chest, and see whether there +is any flotsam in it to compare with this."</p> + +<p>Left alone with the stranger, Fernao and Beatriz +looked at him with shy curiosity. They had seen him +before, and knew him to be a mapmaker in the King's +service, but he had never before been within speaking +distance. He seemed to like children, for he +smiled at them very kindly and spoke to them almost +at once.<span class='pagenum'>[43]</span></p> + +<p>"And you were hearing about the discovery of +Madeira?"</p> + +<p>"Ay, Senhor," Beatriz answered with demure dignity.</p> + +<p>"I live not very far from that island. It seems like +living on the western edge of the world."</p> + +<p>"Senhor," asked Fernao with sudden daring, "what +is beyond the edge of the world?"</p> + +<p>"There is no edge, my boy. The world is round—like +an orange."<a name="FNanchor_1_15" id="FNanchor_1_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_15" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p> + +<p>In all their fancies they had never thought of such +a thing as that. Beatriz looked at the tall man with +silent amazement, and Fernao looked as if he would +like to ask who could prove the statement. The stranger's +smile was amused but quite comprehending, as if +he was not at all surprised that they should doubt him.</p> + +<p>"See," he went on, taking an orange from the basket +that stood by, "suppose this little depression where +the stem lost its hold to be Jerusalem, the center of our +world; then this is Portugal—" he traced with the +point of a penknife the outline of the great western +peninsula. "Here you see are the capes—Saint Vincent, +Finisterre, the great rock the Arabs call Geber-al-Tarif—the +Mediterranean—the northern coast of +Africa—so. Beyond are Arabia and India, and the +Spice Islands which we do not know all about—then +Cathay, where Marco Polo visited the Great Khan—you +have heard of that? Yes? On the eastern and +southern shore of Cathay is a great sea in which are +many islands—Cipangu here, and to the south Java +Major and Java Minor. We are told in the Book of +Esdras that six parts of the earth are land and one +part water, so here we cut away the skin where there +is any sea,—"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span></p> + +<p>The miniature globe took form, like fairy mapmaking, +under the cosmographer's skilful fingers, and the +children watched, fascinated.</p> + +<div><span class="back"><a href="#LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">[Illustrations]</a></span></div> +<div class="center"><div class="figcenter" style="width: 423px;"> +<img src="images/illus-060.png" width="423" height="600" alt=""The miniature globe took form as the children watched, fascinated."—Page 44" title=""The miniature globe took form as the children watched, fascinated."—Page 44" /> +<span class="caption">"The miniature globe took form as the children watched, fascinated."—<i>Page 44</i></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"But," cried Beatriz wonderingly, "a ship could sail +around the world!"</p> + +<p>Colombo nodded and smiled. "So it was written in +the 'Travels of Sir John Maundeville' more than a +hundred years ago. But no ship has done so."</p> + +<p>"Why not?" asked Fernao.</p> + +<p>"Chiefly, perhaps, because of tales like that of the +Sea of Darkness and Satan's hand. And it is true that +a ship venturing very far westward is drawn out of its +course, as if the earth were not a perfect round, but +sloped upward to the south. My own belief is,"—he +seemed for a moment to forget that he was talking to +children, "that it is not perfectly round, but somewhat +like this pear,—" he selected a short chubby pear from +the basket, "and that on this mountain may be a cool +and lovely region which was once Paradise."</p> + +<p>"Oh!" cried Beatriz, her face alight with the glory +of the thought. The geographer smiled at her and +went on.</p> + +<p>"Also you see that the ocean is on this side of the +earth very much greater than the Mediterranean. We +do not know how long it would take to cross it. I have +lately received a map from the famous Florentine Toscanelli +which—ah!" he interrupted himself, "here +comes our good friend Master Serrao."</p> + +<p>It had taken the pilot longer than he expected to +hunt over his relics of old voyages, and there was nothing, +after all, like the piece of wood cast ashore by the +Atlantic waves. Old Sancho turned it over, examined +the edges of the carving, and shook his head.</p> + +<p>"No; that is not African work; at least it is not like <span class='pagenum'>[45]</span> +any work of the black men that I have ever seen. They +can all work iron, and this was made without the use of +iron tools; that I am sure of. Some of our men were +shipwrecked once where they had to make stone and +shells serve their turn, and I know the look of wood +that has been worked with such tools. And the wood +itself is not like anything I have from Africa. It is +more like the timber of the East."</p> + +<p>Now the stranger's eyes lighted with keener interest.</p> + +<p>"You think it may be Indian, do you?"</p> + +<p>"It may. But how in the name of Sao Cristobal +did it come here? Besides, the people of India understand +the use of metal as well as we do, or better."</p> + +<p>"May there not be wild men in remote islands of +the Indian seas?"</p> + +<p>"That might be. Gil Andrade has been in those +parts, and he says there are more islands than he could +count. I have sometimes had occasion to take his stories +with a pinch of salt, but if there are islands where +wild people live they would make such things as this. +And now I think of it, I once picked up a paddle myself, +floating off the Azores, that was some such wood +as this, but not carved. But the queerest thing I ever +found was this nut. Look at it."</p> + +<p>It was part of a nutshell as big as a man's head and +as hard as wood. "The inside was quite spoiled," +went on the old seaman, "but so far as I could judge +it was no kin to the palm nuts we get. I kept the shell, +and I have never found any merchant who could match +it. Now the current sets toward our coast from the +west at a certain point, and that is where all these odd +things come ashore."</p> + +<p>The guest nodded. "My brother-in-law and I have <span class='pagenum'>[46]</span> +talked much of these matters. One of his captains saw +some time ago the floating bodies of two men, brown-skinned, +with straight black hair, not like the natives +of any part of Europe or Africa. Another thing which +is strange, though I hold it not as important as they +do, is that the people of Madeira persistently declare +that they see a great island appear and disappear to the +westward. According to their description it has lofty +mountains and wooded valleys, and some say it is Atlantis +and some Saint Brandan's Isle. No ship sailing +that way has ever landed there, however."</p> + +<p>Sancho's eyes turned seaward. "It is marvelous," +he said after a pause, "what things men think they see. +And you think, senhor, that the world is not yet all +known to us?'"</p> + +<p>"I do not know." Colombo stood up to take his +departure. "If God hath reserved any great work to +be done, He hath also chosen the man who is to do it. +His tasks are not done by accident, or left to the blind +or the selfish. Toscanelli thinks that since the world is +round, we should reach the Indies by sailing due west +from this coast, but in that case India would seem to +be far greater than we have believed. If I had the +ships and the men I would venture it. But at this time +the King is altogether taken up with the eastward route +to the Indies. It was said of old time, 'He that believeth +shall not make haste.'"</p> + +<p>"But you will sail to Paradise some day, will you not, +senhor?" asked Beatriz, treasuring the tiny globe in +one careful hand while the other shaded her eyes from +the level rays of the evening sun.</p> + +<p>"There is only one way to Paradise, little maid. +That is by the will of our Lord. And if you, my lad, +are the first to sail round the world, remember that the <span class='pagenum'>[47]</span> +sea is His, and He made it. Man makes his own +Sea of Darkness by ignorance, and hate, and fear."</p> + +<hr /> + +<h4 class="smcap">notes</h4> + +<div class="footnotes"><div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_14" id="Footnote_1_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_14"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> +Prince Henry of Portugal, often called "Henry the Navigator" +built the first naval observatory in Europe at Sagres. He may be +said to have laid the foundation of the Portuguese and later Spanish +discoveries. In the time of Columbus the Mappe-Mondo or Map of +the World of a Venetian monk was considered the most complete map +yet made.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_15" id="Footnote_1_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_15"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> +The statement has been carelessly made in some juvenile books +dealing with the age of discovery, that in the time of Columbus nobody +knew that the world was round. This of course is not even approximately +the case. The conception of the earth as a sphere was generally +set forth in what might be called books of science, and even in +some popular works like that of Sir John Maundeville, who died in +1372. Its acceptance by the public, however, may be said to have +followed somewhat the course of the Darwinian theory in the nineteenth +century. Long after evolution was admitted as a truth by +scientific men there were schools and even colleges which refused to +teach it, and in fact it was not accepted by the public until the +generation which first heard of it had died.</p></div></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div><span class="back"><a href="#CONTENTS">[Contents]</a></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span></div> +<h3><a name="SUNSET_SONG" id="SUNSET_SONG"></a>SUNSET SONG</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Down upon our seaward light,</span> +<span class="i2">Swept by all the winds that blow,</span> +<span class="i0">Birds come reeling in their flight—</span> +<span class="i2">(<i>Ay de mi, Cristofero!</i>)</span> +<span class="i0">Petrels tossing on the gale,</span> +<span class="i0">Falcons daring sleet and hail,</span> +<span class="i0">Curlews whistling high and far,</span> +<span class="i0">Waifs that cross the harbor bar</span> +<span class="i0">Borne from isles we do not know—</span> +<span class="i2">(<i>Ay de mi, Cristofero!</i>)</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Round our island haven blest</span> +<span class="i2">Waves like drifted mountain snow</span> +<span class="i0">Break from out the shoreless West—</span> +<span class="i2">(<i>Ay de mi, Cristofero!</i>)</span> +<span class="i0">Cast ashore a broken spar</span> +<span class="i0">Born beneath some alien star,</span> +<span class="i0">Broken, beaten by the wave—</span> +<span class="i0">In what far-off unknown grave</span> +<span class="i0">Lie the hands that shaped it so?</span> +<span class="i2">(<i>Ay de mi, Cristofero!</i>)</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Sails upon the gray world's edge</span> +<span class="i2">Like mute phantoms come and go,—</span> +<span class="i0">Life and honor men will pledge—</span> +<span class="i2">(<i>Ay de mi, Cristofero!</i>)</span> +<span class="i0">For the pearls and gems and gold</span> +<span class="i0">That the burning Indies hold.</span> +<span class="i0">Or the Guinea coast they dare</span> +<span class="i0">With its fever-poisoned air</span> +<span class="i0">For the slaves they capture so</span> +<span class="i2">(<i>Ay de mi, Cristofero!</i>)</span><span class='pagenum'>[49]</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In our chamber small to-night,</span> +<span class="i2">Fair as love's immortal glow,</span> +<span class="i0">Shines our silver censer-light—</span> +<span class="i2">(<i>Ay de mi, Cristofero</i>!)</span> +<span class="i0">What is this that holds thee fast</span> +<span class="i0">In old histories of the past?</span> +<span class="i0">Put the time-stained parchments by,</span> +<span class="i0">Men have sought where dead men lie</span> +<span class="i0">For the secret thou wouldst know—</span> +<span class="i2">All too long, Cristofero!</span> +</div></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div><span class="back"><a href="#CONTENTS">[Contents]</a></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span></div> + +<h2>IV</h2> + +<h3><a name="PEDRO_AND_HIS_ADMIRAL" id="PEDRO_AND_HIS_ADMIRAL"></a>PEDRO AND HIS ADMIRAL</h3> + + +<p>Juan de la Cosa, captain of the <i>Santa Maria</i>, +was prowling about the beach of Gomera in a +thoroughly dissatisfied frame of mind. His own ship, +the <i>Gallego</i> before the Admiral re-christened her and +made her his flagship, was riding trim as a mallard +within sight of his eye. She would never have kept the +fleet waiting in the Canaries for a little thing like a +broken rudder.</p> + +<p>It was the <i>Pinta</i> that had done this, and it was the +veteran pilot's private opinion that she would behave +much better if her owners, Gomez Rascon and Christoval +Quintero, had been left behind in Palos. But what +can you do when you have seized a ship for the service +of the Crown, and turned her over to a captain who +is a rival ship-owner, and her owners wish to serve in +her crew and not elsewhere? They cannot be blamed +for liking to keep an eye on their property!</p> + +<p>"Capitano!" piped a voice at his elbow. He +looked around, and then he looked down. An undersized +urchin with not much on but a pair of +ragged breeches stared up at him boldly, hands behind +his back. "Do you know what ails your ship over +there?" He nodded sideways at the disgraced <i>Pinta</i>.</p> + +<p>The accent was that of Bilbao in the captain's own +native province, Vizcaya. Ordinarily he would have +cuffed the speaker heels over head for impudence, but <span class='pagenum'>[51]</span> +the dialect made him pause. Besides, he wanted to +hear something to confirm his suspicions.</p> + +<p>"She is no ship of mine," he growled, "and anyway, +what do you know about it?"</p> + +<p>"I know much more than they think I do. The +calkers did not half do their work before she left port. +I'd like to sail in her if she were properly looked after. +But when a man goes out on the dolphins' track he +likes to come home again, you know."</p> + +<p>"A man! Do babes take a ship round Bojador? +And who may you call yourself, zagallo (strong +youth)?"</p> + +<p>"I am Pedro, son of Pedro who was an escaladero +(climber) at the siege of Alhama. He was killed on +the way home, and my mother died of grief, so that +I get my bread where the saints put it. People say +that they unlocked all the jails to get you your crew +for the Indies, and now I see that it is true."</p> + +<p>Juan de la Cosa knew the untamable sauciness of +the Vizcayan breed, and knew as well the loyalty that +went with it. "Son," he said seriously, "what do you +know of this matter?" The boy put aside his insolence +and spoke gravely.</p> + +<p>"I know that these fellows who have been commanded +to serve your Admiral hate him, and will make +him lose his venture if they can. I would sooner put +to sea in a meal-tub with myself that I can trust, than +in a Cadiz galley manned with plotters. When they +hauled this fine ship up on the beach I asked for a job, +and the lazy fellows were glad enough of help. I +never minded doing their work if they hadn't kicked +me. When I heard them planning I said to myself, +'Pedro, mi hidalgo, a crow in hand is worth two buzzards <span class='pagenum'>[52]</span> +in the bush waiting to pick your bones.' Your +Admiral may have to go back to Castile and eat +crow.</p> + +<p>"They have agreed that they will sail seven hundred +leagues and no more, since that is the distance +from here to the Indies if your map is true. If the +Admiral refuse to turn back in case land is not found +they will pitch him into the sea and tell the world that +he was star-gazing and fell overboard, being an old +man and unused to perilous voyages. He should get +him another crew—if he can."</p> + +<p>This was important information. Yet to go back +might be more dangerous than to go on. The expedition +had already been delayed a fortnight with making +a rudder for the <i>Pinta</i>, stopping her leaks, and replacing +the lateen sails of the <i>Nina</i> with square ones, that +she might be able to keep up with the others. Another +week must pass before they could sail. If they returned +to Palos it was doubtful whether they could get +any men at all to replace the disloyal ones. Too much +delay might cause the withdrawal of Martin Pinzon +and his brother Vicente, owners of the <i>Nina</i>; and if +they went, most of the seamen who were worth their +salt would go also. La Cosa himself in the Admiral's +place would go on and take the chance of mutiny, trusting +in his own power to prevent or subdue it.</p> + +<p>"Pedro," he said, "have you told this to any one +else?"</p> + +<p>"Not a soul."</p> + +<p>"Would you like to sail with us?"</p> + +<p>"Will a wolf bite? Why do you suppose I told +you all this?"</p> + +<p>"Bite your tongue then, wolf-cub, until I have seen +the Admiral. Where shall I find you if I want you?"<span class='pagenum'>[53]</span></p> + +<p>"Tia Josefa over there lets me sleep in the courtyard."</p> + +<p>"Very well—now, off with you."</p> + +<p>The Admiral said exactly what the pilot had thought +he would say. He knew himself to be looked upon +with envy and dislike, as a Genoese, and the Spaniards +who made up his three crews had been collected as +with a rake from the unwilling Andalusian seaports. +It was decided that the mutinous sailors should be scattered +so that they could not easily act together. Pedro +was taken on as cabin-boy, for he was thirteen, and +wiser than his age.</p> + +<p>On that May day when Christoval Colón,<a name="FNanchor_1_16" id="FNanchor_1_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_16" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> the hare-brained +foreigner whom the King and Queen had made +an Admiral, read the royal orders in the Church of +San Jorge in Palos, there was amazement, wrath and +horror in that small seaport. Queen Ysabel had indeed +been so rash as to pledge her jewels to meet the +cost of this expedition; but the royal treasurers, looking +over their accounts, noted that Palos owed a fine +to the Crown which had never been paid. Very good; +let Palos contribute the use and maintenance of two +ships for two months, and let the magistrates of the +Andalusian ports hunt up shipmasters and crews and +supplies. The officers of the government came with +Colón to enforce this order.</p> + +<p>In vain did the Pinzon brothers, who had really +been convinced by the arguments of Colón, use all their +influence to secure him a proper equipment. Even after +they had themselves enlisted as captains, with their +own ship the <i>Nina</i>, they could not get men enough to +go on so doubtful a venture. The royal officers finally +took to the reckless course of pardoning all prisoners +guilty of any crime short of murder or treason, on condition <span class='pagenum'>[54]</span> +of their shipping for the voyage. At least half +the sailors of the three ships were pressed men.</p> + +<p>The <i>Santa Maria</i>, largest of the three caravels, was +ninety feet long and twenty broad. She was a decked +ship; the others had only the tiny cabin and forecastle. +A caravel was never intended for long voyages into +unknown seas. Her builders designed her for coasting +trade, not for a quick voyage independent of wind and +tide; but on the other hand she was cheaper to build +and to sail than a Genoese galley. The Admiral believed +that in the end the smallness of the ships would +be no disadvantage. Among the estuaries, bays and +groups of islands which he expected to find, they could +go anywhere. Including shipmasters, pilots and crews +the fleet carried eighty-seven men and three ship-boys, +besides the personal servants of the Admiral, a physician, +a surgeon, an interpreter and a few adventurers. +The interpreter was a converted Jew who could speak +not only several European languages but Arabic and +Chaldean.</p> + +<p>"A retinue of servants indeed!" observed Fonseca, +the bishop, when the door had closed upon the Admiral +of the Indies. "Since all enlisted in the expedition +are at his service, why does he demand lackeys?"</p> + +<p>But the head of the Genoese navigator had not been +turned by his honors. No man cared less for display +than he did, personally. He knew very well, however, +that unless he maintained his own dignity the rabble +under his command might be emboldened to cut his +throat, seize the ships and become pirates. The men +whom he could trust were altogether too few to control +those he could not, if it came to an open fight,—but +it must not be allowed to come to that. It was +not agreeable to squabble with Fonseca about the number <span class='pagenum'>[55]</span> +of servants he was allowed to have, but he must +have personal attendants who were not discharged convicts.</p> + +<p>On the open seas, removed from their lamenting +and despondent relatives, the crews gradually subsided +into a state of discipline. The quarter-deck is perhaps +the severest test of character known. Despite themselves +the sailors began to feel the serene and kindly +strength of the man who was their master.</p> + +<p>With a tact and understanding as great as his courage +and self-command Colón told his men more than +they had ever known of the Indies. The East had +for generations been the enchanted treasure-house of +Europe. Arabic, Venetian, Genoese and Portuguese +traders had brought from it spices, rare woods, gold, +diamonds, pearls, silk, and other foreign luxuries. But +the wide and varied reading of the Admiral had given +him more definite information. He told of the gilded +temples of Cipangu, the porcelain towers of Cathay, +rajahs' elephants in gilded and jeweled trappings, +golden idols with eyes of great glowing gems, thrones +of ebony inlaid with patterns of diamonds, emeralds +and rubies, rich cargoes of spices, dyewood, fine cotton +and silk, pearl fisheries, the White Feast of Cambalu +and the Khan's great hall where six thousand courtiers +gathered. Portugal already was reaching out toward +these Indies, groping her way around the African coast. +Were they, Spaniards and Christians, to be outdone by +Portuguese and Arab traders? No men ever had so +great a future. Not only the wealth of the Indies, but +the glory of winning heathen empires to abandon their +idols for the Christian faith, was the adventure to +which they were pledged; and he strove to kindle their +spirits from his own.<span class='pagenum'>[56]</span></p> + +<p>To Pedro the cabin-boy, listening in silence, it was +like an entrance into another world. When he asked +to be taken on he had been moved simply by a boy's +desire to go where he had not been before. Now he +served a demigod, who led men where none had dared +go. The Admiral might have the glory of rediscovering +the western route to the Indies; his cabin-boy was +discovering him.</p> + +<p>The sea was beautifully calm, and there was time for +talk and speculation. A drifting mast, to which nobody +would have given two thoughts anywhere else, +was pointed out as an evil omen. Pedro grinned cheerfully +and elevated his nose.</p> + +<p>"Do you not believe in omens, Pedro?" asked the +Admiral, somewhat amused. He had not found many +Spaniards who did not.</p> + +<p>"One does not believe all one hears, my lord," the +youngster answered, coolly. "Tia Josefa saw ill +omens a dozen times a week, all sure death; and she is +ninety years old. A mast drifting with the current is +usual. When I see one drifting against it I will begin +to worry."</p> + +<p>The jumpy nerves of the sailors were easily upset. +They might have been calmer if the sea had been less +calm. It is hard for Spanish blood to endure inaction +and suspense together. Day after day a soft strong +wind wafted them westward. Ruiz, one of the pilots, +bluntly declared that he did not see how they could +ever sail back to Spain against this wind, whether they +reached the Indies or not.</p> + +<p>"Pedro," said the Admiral quietly, "what do you +think?"</p> + +<p>Pedro hesitated only an instant. "My lord," he <span class='pagenum'>[57]</span> +answered boldly, "if we cannot go back we must go +on—around the world."</p> + +<p>"So we can," smiled the Admiral. "But it will not +come to that." And Ruiz, reassured and rather +ashamed of his fears, told the other grumblers if they +had seen as much rough weather as he had they +would know when they were well off.</p> + +<p>But after a time even the pilots took fright. The +compass needle no longer pointed to the North Star, +but half a point or more to the northwest of it. They +had visions of the fleet helplessly drifting without a +guide upon a vast unknown sea. It was not then +known that the action of the magnetic pole upon the +needle varies in different parts of the earth, but the +quick mind of the Admiral found an explanation which +quieted their fears. He told them that the real north +pole was a fixed point indeed, but not necessarily the +North Star. While this star might be in line with the +pole when seen from the coast of Spain, it would not, +of course, be in the same relative position when seen +from a point hundreds of miles to the west.</p> + +<p>On September 15 a meteor fell, which might be another +omen—nobody could say exactly what it meant. +Then about three hundred and sixty leagues from the +Canaries the ships began to encounter patches of floating +yellow-green sea-weed, which grew more numerous +until the fleet was sailing in a vast level expanse +of green like an ocean meadow. Tuna fish played in +the waters; on one of the patches of floating weed +rested a live crab. A white tropical bird of a kind +never known to sleep upon the sea came flying toward +them, alighting for a moment in the rigging. The +owners of the <i>Pinta</i> predicted that they would all be <span class='pagenum'>[58]</span> +caught in this ocean morass to starve, or die of thirst, +for the light winds were not strong enough to drive +the ships through it as easily as they had sailed at first. +The Admiral, quite undisturbed, suggested that in his +experience land-birds usually meant land not very far +away.</p> + +<p>Colón always answered frankly the questions put to +him, but there was one secret which he kept to himself +from the beginning. Knowing that he would be likely +to have trouble when he reached the seven-hundred-league +limit his crews had set for him, he kept two +reckonings. One was for his private journal, the other +was for all to see. He took the actual figures of each +day's run as set down in his private record, subtracted +from them a certain percentage and gave out this revised +reckoning to the fleet. He, and he alone, knew +that they were nearly seven hundred leagues from +Palos already, instead of five hundred and fifty. According +to Toscanelli's calculation, by sailing west from +the Canaries along the thirtieth parallel of latitude he +should land somewhere on the coast of Cipangu; but +the map of Toscanelli might be incorrect. If the ocean +should prove to be a hundred or more leagues wider +than the chart showed it, they would have to go on, all +the same.</p> + +<p>Even after they were out of the seaweed there was +something weird and unnatural in the sluggish calm of +the sea. Light winds blew from the west and southwest, +but there were no waves, as by all marine experience +there should have been. On September 25 the +sea heaved silently in a mysterious heavy swell, without +any wind. Then the wind once more shifted to +the east, and carried them on so smoothly that they +could talk from one ship to another. Martin Pinzon <span class='pagenum'>[59]</span> +borrowed the Admiral's chart, and it seemed to him +that according to this they must be near Cipangu. He +tossed the chart back to the flagship on the end of a +cord, and gave himself to scanning the horizon. Ten +thousand maravedis had been promised by the sovereigns +to the first man who actually saw land. Suddenly +Pinzon shouted, "Tierra! Tierra!" There was a +low bank of what seemed to be land, about twenty-five +leagues away to the southwest. Even for this Colón +hesitated to turn from his pre-arranged course, but at +last he yielded to the chorus of pleading and protest +which arose from his officers, set his helm southwest +and found—a cloud-bank.</p> + +<p>Again and again during the following days the eager +eyes and strained nerves of the seamen led to similar +disappointments. Land birds appeared; some +alighted fearlessly on the rigging and sang. Dolphins +frolicked about the keels. Flying-fish, pursued by +their enemy the bonito (mackerel), rose from the +water in rainbow argosies, and fell sometimes inside +the caravels. A heron, a pelican and a duck passed, +flying southwest. By the true reckoning the fleet had +sailed seven hundred and fifty leagues. Colón wondered +whether there could be an error in the map, or +whether by swerving from their course they had passed +between islands into the southern sea. Pedro, as sensitive +as a dog to the moods of his master, watched +the Admiral's face as he came and went, and wondered +in his turn.</p> + +<p>The pilots and shipmasters were cautious in expressing +their fears within hearing of the sailors, for by +this time every one in authority knew that open mutiny +might break out at any moment. On the evening of +October 10 a delegation of anxious officers came to <span class='pagenum'>[60]</span> +explain to the Admiral that they could not hold the +panic-stricken crews. If no land appeared within a +week their provisions would not last until they reached +home; they had not enough water to last through the +homeward voyage even now. The Admiral knew as +well as they the horrors of thirst and famine at sea, +particularly with a crew of the kind they had been +obliged to ship. What did he intend to do?</p> + +<p>The Admiral, seated at his table, finished the sentence +he was adding in his neat, legible hand to his log, +put it aside, put the pen in the case which hung at his +belt, closed his ink-horn. His quiet eyes rested fearlessly +on their uneasy faces.</p> + +<p>"This expedition," he said calmly, "has been sent +out to look for the Indies. With God's blessing we +shall continue to look for them until we find them. +Say to the men, however, that if they will wait two or +three days I think they will see land."</p> + +<p>Next morning Pedro was engaged in polishing his +master's steel corslet and casque, while near by two or +three sailors conferred in low tones.</p> + +<p>"We have had enough of promises," growled one. +"As Rascon says, we are like Fray Agostino's donkey, +that went over the mountain at a trot, trying to reach +the bunch of carrots hung on a staff in front of his +nose."</p> + +<p>There was a half-hearted snicker, and one of the +men pointed a warning thumb at Pedro.</p> + +<p>"Oh!" said the speaker. "You heard, you little +beggar?"</p> + +<p>"I did," said Pedro.</p> + +<p>"Well?"</p> + +<p>"Well, I was waiting for the end of the story. As +I heard it the Abbot charged the old friar with deceiving <span class='pagenum'>[61]</span> +the dumb beast, and he said he had to, because he +was dealing with a donkey!"</p> + +<p>Pedro slung the pieces of gleaming plate-mail to his +shoulder and added as he turned to go, "You need not +be afraid that I shall tell the Admiral what you were +saying. I am not a fool, and he knows how scared +you are, already."</p> + +<p>More signs of land appeared—river weeds, a +thorny branch with fresh berries like rose-hips, a reed, +a piece of wood, a carved staff. As always, the vesper +hymn to the Virgin was sung on the deck of the flagship, +and after service the Admiral briefly addressed +the men. He reminded them of the singular favor of +God in granting them so quiet and safe a voyage, and +recalled his statement made on leaving the Canaries, +that after they had made seven hundred leagues he +expected to be so near land that they should not make +sail after midnight. He told them that in his belief +they might find land before morning.</p> + +<p>Nobody slept that night. About ten o'clock the +Admiral, gazing from the top of the castle built up +on the poop of the <i>Santa Maria</i>, thought that far away +in the warm darkness he saw a glancing light.</p> + +<p>"Pedro," he said to the boy near him, "do you see +a light out there? Yes? Call Señor Gutierrez and +we will see what he makes of it. I have come to the +pass where I do not trust my own eyes."</p> + +<p>Gutierrez saw it, but when Sanchez of Segovia came +up, the light had vanished. It seemed to come and go +as if it were a torch in a fishing-boat or in the hand of +some one walking. But at two in the morning a gun +boomed from the <i>Pinta</i>. Rodrigo de Triana, one of +the seamen, had seen land from the mast-head.</p> + +<p>The sudden sunrise of the tropics revealed a green <span class='pagenum'>[62]</span> +Paradise lapped in tranquil seas. The ships must have +come up toward it between sunset and midnight. No +one had been able to imagine with any certainty what +morning would show. But this was no seaport, or +coast of any civilized land. People were coming +down to the shore to watch the approach of the ships, +but they were wild people, naked and brown, and the +sight was evidently perfectly new to them.</p> + +<p>The Admiral ordered the ships to cast anchor, and +the boats were manned and armed. He himself in a +rich uniform of scarlet held the royal banner of Castile, +while the brothers Pinzon, commanders of the <i>Pinta</i> +and the <i>Nina</i>, in their boats, had each a banner emblazoned +with a green cross and the crowned initials +of the sovereigns, Fernando and Ysabel. The air +was clear and soft, the sea was almost transparent, and +strange and beautiful fruits could be seen among the +rich foliage of the trees along the shore. The Admiral +landed, knelt and kissed the earth, offering +thanks to God, with tears in his eyes; and the other +captains followed his example. Then rising, he drew +his sword, and calling upon all who gathered around +him to witness his action, took possession of the newly-discovered +island in the name of his sovereigns, and +gave it the name of San Salvador (Holy Savior).</p> + +<p>The wild people, terrified at the sight of men coming +toward them from these great white-winged birds, +as they took the ships to be, ran away to the woods, +but they presently returned, drawn by irresistible +curiosity. They had no weapons of iron, and one of +them innocently took hold of a sword by the edge. +They were delighted with the colored caps, glass beads, +hawk-bells and other trifles which were given to them, <span class='pagenum'>[63]</span> +and brought the strangers great balls of spun cotton, +cakes of cassava bread, fruits, and tame parrots. +Pedro went everywhere, and saw everything, as only +a boy could. Later, when the flagship was cruising +among the islands, and the Admiral, worn out by long +anxiety, lay asleep in his cabin, the helmsman, smothering +a mighty yawn, called Pedro to him.</p> + +<p>"See here, young chap," he said, "we are running +along the shore of this island and there is no difficulty—take +my place will you, while I get a nap?"</p> + +<p>The boy hesitated. He would have asked his master, +but his master was asleep, and must not be awakened. +This helmsman, moreover, was one of the men +who had been kind to him, ready to answer his questions +regarding navigation, and loyal to the Admiral. +Moreover it was not quite the first time that Pedro +had been allowed to take this responsibility. He accepted +it now. The man staggered away and lost +himself in heavy sleep almost before he lay down.</p> + +<p>It was one of the still, breathless nights of the tropic +seas. Pedro's small strong hands had not grasped the +helm for a half-hour before the wind freshened, and +then a tremendous gust swept down upon the flagship +hurling her right upon the unknown shore. Pedro +strove desperately with the fearful odds, but before +the half-awakened sailors heard his call the <i>Santa +Maria</i> was past repair. No lives were lost, but the +Admiral decided that it would be necessary to leave a +part of the men on shore as the beginning of a settlement. +He would not have chosen to do this but for +the disaster, for the men who made up these crews were +not promising material for a colony in a wild land. +But he had no choice in the matter. The two smaller <span class='pagenum'>[64]</span> +ships would not hold them all. Pedro, shaken with +sobs, cast himself at the feet of his master and begged +forgiveness.</p> + +<p>"No one blames you, my son," said the Admiral, +more touched than he had been for a long time. "Be +not so full of sorrow for what cannot be helped. The +wild people are friendly, the land is kind, and when we +have sailed back to Spain with our news there will be +no difficulty in returning with as many ships as we may +need. Nay, I will not leave thee here, Pedro. I think +that now I could not do without thee."</p> + +<hr /> +<h4 class="smcap">note</h4> + +<div class="footnotes"><div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_16" id="Footnote_1_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_16"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> +The name of Columbus took various forms according to the country +in which he lived. In his native Genoa it would be Cristofero +Colombo. In Portugal, where he dwelt for many years, it would be +Cristobal Colombo, and in Spanish Christoval or Cristobal Colón. +In Latin, which was the common language of all learned men until +comparatively recent times, the name took the form Christopherus +Columbus, which has become in modern English Christopher Columbus. +In each story the discoverer is spoken of as he would have been +spoken of by the characters in that particular story.</p></div></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div><span class="back"><a href="#CONTENTS">[Contents]</a></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span></div> + +<h3><a name="THE_QUEENS_PRAYER" id="THE_QUEENS_PRAYER"></a>THE QUEEN'S PRAYER</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In this Thy world, O blessed Christ,</span> +<span class="i2">I live but for Thy will,</span> +<span class="i0">To serve Thy cause and drive Thy foes</span> +<span class="i2">Before Thy banner still.</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In rich and stately palaces</span> +<span class="i2">I have my board and bed,</span> +<span class="i0">But Thou didst tread the wilderness</span> +<span class="i2">Unsheltered and unfed.</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">My gallant squadrons ride at will</span> +<span class="i2">The undiscover'd sea,</span> +<span class="i0">But Thou hadst but a fishing-boat</span> +<span class="i2">On windy Galilee.</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In valiant hosts my men-at-arms</span> +<span class="i2">Eager to battle go,</span> +<span class="i0">But Thou hadst not a single blade</span> +<span class="i2">To fend Thee from the foe.</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Great store of pearls and beaten gold</span> +<span class="i2">My bold seafarers bring,</span> +<span class="i0">But Thou hadst not a little coin</span> +<span class="i2">To pay for Thy lodging.</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The trust that Thou hast placed in me,</span> +<span class="i2">O may I not betray,</span> +<span class="i0">Nor fail to save Thy people from</span> +<span class="i2">The fires of Judgment Day!</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Be strong and stern, O heart, faint heart—</span> +<span class="i2">Stay not, O woman's hand,</span> +<span class="i0">Till by this Cross I bear for Thee</span> +<span class="i2">I have made clean Thy land!</span> +</div></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div><span class="back"><a href="#CONTENTS">[Contents]</a></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span></div> + +<h2>V</h2> + +<h3><a name="THE_MAN_WHO_COULD_NOT_DIE" id="THE_MAN_WHO_COULD_NOT_DIE">THE MAN WHO COULD NOT DIE</a></h3> + + +<p>"Nombre de San Martin! who is that up there like a cat?"</p> + +<p>"Un gato! Cucarucha en palo!"</p> + +<p>"If Alonso de Ojeda hears of your calling him a +cockroach on a mast, he will grind your ribs to a paste +with a cudgel (os moliesen las costillas a puros +palos)!" observed a pale, sharp-faced lad in a shabby +doublet. The sailor who had made the comparison +glanced at him and chuckled.</p> + +<p>"Your pardon—hidalgo. I have been at sea so +much of late that the comparison jumped into my mind. +Is he a caballero then?"</p> + +<p>"One of the household of the Duke of Medina +Coeli. He is always doing such things. If he happened +to think of flying, he would fly. Every one must +be good at something."</p> + +<p>The performance which they had just been watching +would fix the name of Ojeda very firmly in the +minds of those who saw. Queen Ysabel, happening +to ascend the tower of the cathedral at Seville with her +courtiers and ladies, remarked upon the daring and +skill of the Moorish builders. Everywhere in the +newly conquered cities of Granada were their magnificent +domes and lofty muezzin towers, often seeming +like the airy minarets of a mirage. The next instant +Alonso de Ojeda had walked out upon a twenty-foot <span class='pagenum'>[67]</span> +timber projecting into space two hundred feet above +the pavement, and at the very end he stood on one leg +and waved the other in the air. Returning, he rested +one foot against the wall and flung an orange clean +over the top of the tower. He was small, though +handsome and well-made, and he had now shown a +muscular strength of which few had suspected him.</p> + +<p>It was natural that the sailor should be interested +in the people of the court, for he had business there. +The Admiral of the Indies was making his arrangements +for his second voyage, and he had desired Juan +de la Cosa to meet him at Seville. As the pilot stood +waiting for the Admiral to come out from an interview +with Fonseca he had a good look at many of the persons +who were to join in this second expedition.</p> + +<p>"There will be no unlocking the jail doors to scrape +together crews for this fleet, I warrant you," thought +the old sailor exultantly as he stood in the shadow of +the Giralda watching Castile parade itself before the +new hero. Here were Diego Colón, a quiet-looking +youth, the youngest brother of the Admiral; Antonio +de Marchena the astronomer, a learned monk; Juan +Ponce de León, a nobleman from the neighborhood of +Cadiz with a brilliant military record; Francisco de las +Casas with his son Bartolomé; and the valiant young +courtier whom all Seville had seen flirting with death +in mid-air.</p> + +<p>"Oh, it was nothing," La Cosa heard Ojeda say +when Las Casas made some kindly compliment on his +daring. "I will tell you," he added in a lower voice, +pulling something small out of his doublet, "I have a +sure talisman in this little picture of the Virgin. The +Bishop gave it to me, and I always carry it. In all the +dangers one naturally must encounter in the service of <span class='pagenum'>[68]</span> +such a master as mine, it has kept me safe. I have +never even been wounded."</p> + +<p>The Duke of Medina Coeli was in fact a stern master +in the school of arms. He was always at the front +in the wars just concluded between Spaniard and Moor, +and where he was, there he expected his squires to be. +There was no place among the youths whose fathers +had given him charge of their military training, for a +lad with a grain of physical cowardice. Ojeda moreover +had a quick temper and a fiery sense of honor, +and it really seemed to savor of the miraculous that he +had escaped all harm. At any rate he had reached the +age of twenty-one with unabated faith in the little +Flemish painting.</p> + +<p>"These youngsters—" the veteran seaman said to +himself as he looked at the straight, proud, keen-faced +squires and youthful knights marching along the streets +of the temporary capital, "now that the Moors are +vanquished what won't they do in the Indies! I think +the golden days must be come for Christians. And +shall you be a soldier also, my lad?" he asked of the +sharp-faced boy, who still stood near him.</p> + +<p>"My father says not. He wants me to be a lawyer," +said the youngster indifferently. Then he slipped +away as some companions of his own age, or a little +older, came by, and one said enviously,</p> + +<p>"Where have you been, Hernan' Cortes? Lucky +you were not with us. My faith—" the speaker +wriggled expressively, "we caught a drubbing!"</p> + +<p>"Told you so," returned the lad addressed, with +cool unconcern. "Why can't you see when to let go +the cat's tail?"</p> + +<p>"He has a head on him, that one," the seaman +chuckled. "There is always one of his sort in every <span class='pagenum'>[69]</span> +gang of boys. But that young gallant Ojeda! A +fine young fellow, and as devoted as he is brave." +Juan de la Cosa had conceived at first sight an admiration +and affection for Ojeda which was to last as long +as they both should live.</p> + +<p>The fleet that stately sailed from Cadiz on September +25, 1493, was a very different sight from the +three shabby little caravels that slipped down the +Tinto a year and a half before. The Admiral now +commanded fourteen caravels and three great carracks +or store-ships, on board of which were horses, +mules, cattle, carefully packed shoots of grape-vines +and sugar-cane, seeds of all kinds, and provisions ready +for use. The fleet carried nearly fifteen hundred persons,—three +hundred more than had been arranged +for, but the enthusiasm in Spain was boundless. It +carried also the embittered hatred of Fonseca. The +Bishop, having been the Queen's confessor, naturally +became head of the Department of the Indies in order +to forward with all zeal the conversion of the native +races. But when he tried to assert his authority over +the Admiral and appealed to Fernando and Ysabel to +support him, he was told mildly but firmly that in the +equipment and command of the fleet Colón's judgment +was best. This royal snub Fonseca never forgave, and +he was one of those persons who revenge a slight on +some one else rather than the one who inflicted it. It +was also his nature never to forgive any one for succeeding +in an undertaking which he himself had prophesied +would fail.</p> + +<p>All seemed in order on the morning of the embarkation. +At this time of year storms were unlikely, and +there was no severity of climate to be feared. Half +Castile and Aragon had come to see the expedition <span class='pagenum'>[70]</span> +off. The young cavaliers' heads were filled with visions +of rich dukedoms and principalities in the golden +empire upon whose coast the discovered islands hung, +like pendants of pearl and gold upon the robe of a +monarch.</p> + +<p>The first incident of the voyage was not, however, +romantic. The fleet touched at the Canary Islands to +take on board more animals—goats, sheep, swine +and fowls, for the Admiral had seen none of these in +any of the islands he had visited. In fact the people +had no domestic animal whatever except their strange +dumb dogs. The cavaliers, glad of a chance to stretch +their legs in a space a little greater than the deck of a +crowded ship, strolled about discussing past and future +with large freedom.</p> + +<p>Ojeda was asking Juan de la Cosa about the nature +of the country. It seemed to him the ideal field for +a man of spirit and high heart. How glorious a conquest +would it be to abolish the vile superstitions of the +barbarians and set up the altars of the true faith!</p> + +<p>The pilot was a little amused and somewhat doubtful; +he knew something of savages, and Ojeda and the +priests on board did not. It was not, he suggested, +always easy to convert stubborn heathen. A pig was +a small animal, but Ojeda would remember that to the +Moslem it was as great an object of aversion as a +lion.</p> + +<p>"Ho!" said Ojeda superbly, "that is quite—" +He was interrupted by a blow that knocked his legs +out from under him and landed him on the ground in +a sitting position with his hat over his eyes.</p> + +<p>"Who did that?" he cried, leaping to his feet, hand +on sword.</p> + +<p>"Only a pig, my lord," the sailor answered choking <span class='pagenum'>[71]</span> +with half-swallowed laughter. It was a pig, which the +sailors had goaded to such a state of desperation that +it had bolted straight into the group as a pig will, and +was now galloping away, pursued by a great variety +of maledictions and persons. "They have got the +creature now," he added, "You are not hurt?" for +Ojeda was actually pale with indignation and disgust.</p> + +<p>"No," sputtered the youth, "but that pig—that +p-pig—" He looked around him with an eye which +seemed to challenge any beholder of whatever condition, +to laugh and be instantly run through. Fortunately +most of those on the wharf had been too much +occupied to see Ojeda fall before the pig, and just then +the trumpets blew, and all hastened to get back on +board ship.</p> + +<p>When an expedition is composed largely of hot-headed +youths trained to the use of arms, each of whom +has a code of honor as sensitive as a mimosa plant and +as prickly as a cactus, the lot of their commanders is +not happy. It may have been Ojeda's treasured talisman +which saved him from several sudden deaths during +the following weeks, but Juan de la Cosa privately +believed it was partly the memory of the pig. The +young man had what might in another time and civilization +have developed into a sense of humor. It +would not do for a hero with the world before him to +get himself sent back to Spain because of some trivial +personal quarrel.</p> + +<p>On reaching Hispaniola the adventurers found +plenty of real occupation awaiting them. The little +colony which the Admiral had left at Navidad on his +first voyage had been wiped out. The natives timidly +explained that a fierce chief from the interior, Caonaba, +had killed or captured all the forty men of the garrison <span class='pagenum'>[72]</span> +and destroyed their fort. Colón was obliged to remodel +all his plans at a moment's notice. Instead of +finding a colony well under way, and in control of the +wild tribes or at least friendly with them, he found the +wreck of a luckless attempt at settlement, and the +kindly native villagers turned aloof and suspicious, and +living in dread of a second raid by Caonaba. He +chose a site for a second settlement on the coast, where +ships could find a harbor, not far from gold-bearing +mountains which the natives described and called Cibao. +This sounded rather like Cipangu.</p> + +<p>Ojeda led an exploring party into the mountains, and +found gold nuggets in the beds of the streams. In +March a substantial little town had been built, with a +church, granary, market-square, and a stone wall +around the whole. The Admiral then organized an +expedition to explore the interior.</p> + +<p>On March 12, 1494, Colón with his chief officers +went out of the gate of the settlement, which had been +named for the Queen, at the head of four hundred +men, many of whom were mounted, and all armed with +sword, cross-bow, lance or arquebus. With casques +and breastplates shining in the sun, banners flying, +pennons fluttering, drums and trumpets sounding, they +presented a sight which should have brought ambassadors +from any monarch of the Indies who heard of +their approach. But although a multitude of savages +came from the forest to see, no signs of any such capital +as that of the Great Khan appeared. At the end +of the first day's march they camped at the foot of a +rocky mountain range with no way over it but a footpath, +winding over rocks and through dense tropical +jungles. There appeared to be no roads in the country.<span class='pagenum'>[73]</span></p> + +<p>But this was not an impossible situation to the young +Spanish cavaliers, for in the Moorish wars it had often +been necessary to construct a road over the mountains. +A number of them at once volunteered for the service, +and with laborers and pioneers, to whom they set an +example by working as valiantly as they were ready to +fight, they made a road for the little army, which was +named in their honor El Puerto de los Hidalgos, the +Gentlemen's Pass. When they reached the top of +this steep defile and could look down upon the land +beyond they saw a vast and magnificent plain, covered +with forests of beautiful trees, blossoming meadows +and a network of clear lakes and rivers, and dotted +here and there with thatch-roofed villages. Near the +top of the pass a spring of cool delicious water bubbled +out in a glen shaded by palms and one tall and handsome +tree of an unknown variety, with wood so hard +that it turned the ax of a laborer who tried to cut a +chip of it. Colón gave the plain the name of the +Vega Reál or Royal Plain.</p> + +<p>Of all the events, exploits and intrigues of those +first years in the Spanish Indies, no one historian among +those who accompanied the expedition ever found time +to write. Where all was so new, and every man, +whether priest, cavalier, soldier, sailor, clerk or artisan, +had his own reasons and his own aims in coming +to this land of promise, nothing went exactly according +to anybody's plans. The Admiral was soon convinced +that in Hispaniola at least no civilized capital +existed. To their amazement and amusement the +Spaniards found that the savages feared their horses +more than their weapons. It was discovered after +a while that horse and rider were at first supposed to +be one supernatural animal. When the white men <span class='pagenum'>[74]</span> +dismounted the people fled in horror, believing that +the ferocious beasts were going to eat them.</p> + +<p>It became evident that with the fierce chief Caonaba +to reckon with, military strength and capacity would +be the only means of holding the country. The commander +could not count on patriotism, religious principle +or even self-interest to keep the colonists united. +In this tangled situation one of the few persons who +really enjoyed himself was Alonso de Ojeda. Instead +of spending his time in drinking, quarreling or getting +himself into trouble with friendly natives, the young +man seemed bent on proving himself an able and +sagacious leader of men. A little fortress of logs had +been built about eighteen leagues from the settlement, +in the mining country, defended on all sides but one by +a little river, the Yanique, and on the remaining side +by a deep ditch. Gold dust, nuggets, amber, jasper +and lapis lazuli had been found in the neighborhood, +and it was the Admiral's intention to send miners there +as soon as possible, protected by the fort, which he +called San Tomás. Ojeda happened to be in command +of the garrison, in the absence of his superior, when +Caonaba came down from his mountains with an immense +force of hostile tribes. The young lieutenant +in his rude eyrie, perched on a hill surrounded by the +enemy, held off ten thousand savages under the Carib +chief for more than a month. Finally the chief, whose +people had never been trained in warfare after the +European fashion, found them deserting by hundreds, +tired of the monotony of the siege. Ojeda did not +merely stand on the defensive. He was continually +sallying forth at the head of small but determined companies +of Spaniards, whenever the enemy came near +his stronghold. He never went far enough from his <span class='pagenum'>[75]</span> +base to be captured, but killed off so many of the best +warriors of Caonaba that the chief himself grew tired +of the unprofitable undertaking and withdrew his army. +During the siege provisions ran short, and when things +were looking very dark a friendly savage slipped in +one night with two pigeons for the table of the commander. +When they were brought to Ojeda, in the +council chamber where he was seated consulting with +his officers, he glanced at the famine-pinched faces +about him, took the pigeons in his hands and stroked +their feathers for an instant.</p> + +<p>"It is a pity," he said, "that we have not enough +to make a meal. I am not going to feast while the +rest of you starve," and he gave the birds a toss into +the air from the open window and turned again to his +plans. When some one reported the incident to the +Admiral his eyes shone.</p> + +<p>"I wish we had a few more such commanders," he +said.</p> + +<p>Caonaba's next move was to form a conspiracy +among all the caciques of Hispaniola, to join in a grand +attack against the white men and wipe them out, as he +had wiped out the little garrison at Navidad. A +friendly cacique, Guacanagari, who had been the ally +of the Admiral from the first, gave him information +of this plot, and the danger was seen by Colón's acute +mind to be desperate indeed. He had only a small +force, torn by jealousy and private quarrels, and a defensive +fight at this stage of his enterprise would almost +surely be a losing one. The territory of Caonaba +included the most mountainous and inaccessible part +of the island, where that wily barbarian could hold out +for years; and as long as he was loose there would be +no safety for white men. To the Admiral, who was <span class='pagenum'>[76]</span> +just recovering from a severe illness, the prospect +looked very gloomy.</p> + +<p>Pedro the Vizcayan cabin-boy, who was his confidential +servant, was crossing the plaza one day with +a basket of fruit, when Alonso de Ojeda stopped him +to inquire after his master's health.</p> + +<p>"His health," said Pedro, "would improve if I had +Caonaba's head in this basket. I wish somebody +would get it."</p> + +<p>Ojeda laughed, showing a flash of white teeth under +his jaunty mustachios. Then he grew thoughtful. +"Wait a moment, Pedro," he said. "Will you ask +the Admiral if he can see me for a few minutes, this +morning?"</p> + +<p>When Ojeda appeared Colón detected a trace of +excitement in the young man's bearing, and tactfully +led the conversation to Caonaba. He frankly expressed +his perplexity.</p> + +<p>"Have you a plan, Ojeda?" he asked with a half +smile. "It has been my experience, that you usually +have."</p> + +<p>Ojeda felt a thrill of pleasure, for the Admiral did +not scatter his compliments broadcast. He admitted +that he had a plan.</p> + +<p>"Let me hear it," said Colón.</p> + +<p>But as the youthful captain unfolded his scheme the +cool gray eye of the Genoese commander betrayed distinct +surprise. It seemed only yesterday that this +youngster had been a little monkey of a page in the +great palace of the Duke of Medina Coeli, when he +was entertained there, on arriving in Spain.</p> + +<p>"You see," Ojeda concluded, "I have observed in +fighting these people that if their leader is killed or +captured, they seem to lose their heads completely. I <span class='pagenum'>[77]</span> +think that with a dozen men I can get Caonaba and +bring him in. If I do not—the loss will not be very +great."</p> + +<p>"I should not like to lose you," said the Admiral, +with his hand on the young man's shoulder. "Go, if +you will,—but do not sacrifice your own life if you +can help it."</p> + +<p>Ojeda had faith in his talisman, and he also believed +that if any man could go into Caonaba's territory and +come back alive, he was that man. He knew that he +himself, in the place of the chief, would respect a man +whom he had not been able to beat.</p> + +<p>With ten soldiers he rode up into the mountains, his +blood leaping with the wild joy of an adventure as +great as any in the Song of the Cid. To be sure, +Caonaba would not in his mountain camp have any +such army as when he surrounded the fort, for then +he commanded whole tribes of allies. In case of coming +to blows Ojeda believed that he and his men with +their superior weapons could cut their way out. Still, +the odds were beyond anything that he had ever heard +of.</p> + +<p>He found the Carib chief, and began by trying +diplomacy. He said that his master, the Guamaquima +or chief of the Spaniards, had sent him with a present. +Would he not consent to make a visit to the colony, +with a view of becoming the Admiral's ally and friend? +If he would, he should be presented with the bell of +the chapel, the voice of the church, the wonder of +Hispaniola.</p> + +<p>Caonaba had heard that bell when he was prowling +about the settlement, and the temptation to become its +owner was great. He finally agreed to accompany +Ojeda and his handful of Spaniards back to the coast. <a name="Page_78" id="Page_78"></a><span class='pagenum'>[78]</span> +But when they were ready to start, the force of warriors +in Caonaba's escort was out of all proportion to +any peaceful embassy. Ojeda turned to his original +plan.</p> + +<p>He proposed that Caonaba, after bathing in the +stream at the foot of the mountain, and attiring himself +in his finest robe, should put on the gift the Spanish +captain had brought, a pair of metal bracelets, and +return to his followers mounted with Ojeda on his +horse. The chief's eyes glittered as he saw the polished +steel of the ornaments Ojeda produced. He +knew that nothing could so impress his wild followers +with his power and greatness as his ability to conquer +all fear of the terrible animals always seen in the vanguard +of the white men's army. He consented to the +plan, and after putting on his state costume, and being +decorated with the handcuffs, he cautiously mounted +behind the young commander, and his followers, in +awe and admiration, beheld their cacique ride.</p> + +<div><span class="back"><a href="#LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">[Illustrations]</a></span><br /></div> +<div class="center"><div class="figcenter" style="width: 421px;"> +<img src="images/illus-096.png" width="421" height="600" alt=""He proposed that Caonaba should put on the gift the Spanish captain had brought."—Page 78" title=""He proposed that Caonaba should put on the gift the Spanish captain had brought."—Page 78" /> +<span class="caption">"He proposed that Caonaba should put on the gift the Spanish captain had brought."—<i>Page 78</i></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Ojeda, who was a perfect horseman, made the horse +leap, curvet and caracole, taking a wider circuit each +time, until making a long sweep through the forest the +two disappeared from the view of the Carib army altogether. +Ojeda's own men closed in upon him, bound +Caonaba hand and foot, behind their leader, and thus +the chief was taken into the Spanish settlement. The +conspiracy fell to pieces and the colony was saved.</p> + +<p>Caonaba showed no respect to Colón or any one else +in the camp while a prisoner there, except Ojeda. +When Ojeda entered he promptly rose to his feet. +They had many conversations together, and Caonaba, +who evidently rather admired the stratagem by which +he had been captured, agreed with his captor that +Ojeda was The Man Who Could Not Die.<span class='pagenum'>[79]</span></p> + + +<hr /> + +<h4 class="smcap">note</h4> + +<div class="footnotes"><div class="footnote"><p> +The career of Alonso de Ojeda is one of the most picturesque and +adventurous in early Spanish-American history, and his character is +typical of the young Spanish cavalier of the age just following the +discovery of America. The episodes here used, with many others +quite as dramatic, are described at length in Irving's "Life of +Columbus."</p></div></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div><span class="back"><a href="#CONTENTS">[Contents]</a></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span></div> + +<h3><a name="THE_ESCAPE" id="THE_ESCAPE"></a>THE ESCAPE</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Why do you come here, white men, white men?</span> +<span class="i2">Why do you bend the knee</span> +<span class="i0">When your priests before you, singing, singing,</span> +<span class="i2">Lift the cross, the cross of tree?</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Flashing in the sunlight, rainbows waking,</span> +<span class="i2">Move your mighty oars keeping time.</span> +<span class="i0">Sailors heave your anchors, chanting, chanting</span> +<span class="i2">Some strange and mystic rime.</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Pearls and gold we bring you, feathers of our wild birds,</span> +<span class="i2">Glowing in the sunshine like flowers.</span> +<span class="i0">Houses we will build you, food and clothing find you,</span> +<span class="i2">You shall share in all that is ours.</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Why do you frighten us, white men, white men?</span> +<span class="i2">Can you not be friends for a day?</span> +<span class="i0">Souls are like the sea-birds, flying, flying,</span> +<span class="i2">Borne by the sea-wind away.</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Why do you chain us in the mines of the mountains?</span> +<span class="i2">Why do you hunt us with your hounds?</span> +<span class="i0">We who were so free, are we evermore to be</span> +<span class="i2">Prisoned in your narrow hateful bounds?</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">One escape is left us, white men, white men,—</span> +<span class="i2">You cannot forbid our souls to fly</span> +<span class="i0">To the stars of freedom, far beyond the sunset,—</span> +<span class="i2">We whom you have captured can die!</span> +</div></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div><span class="back"><a href="#CONTENTS">[Contents]</a></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span></div> + +<h2>VI</h2> + +<h3><a name="LOCKED_HARBORS" id="LOCKED_HARBORS"></a>LOCKED HARBORS</h3> + +<p>"But of what use is a King's patent," said Hugh +Thorne of Bristol, "if the harbors be locked?"</p> + +<p>The Italian merchant glanced up from his papers +and smiled, which was all the answer the Englishman +seemed to expect, for he stormed on, "Here have we +better fleeces than Spain, better wheat than France, +finer cattle than the Netherlands, the tin of Cornwall, +the flax of Kent and Durham, and our people starve or +live rudely because of the fettering of our trade."</p> + +<p>"'T is a sad misfortune," said the merchant. "In +a world so great as this there is surely room for all to +work and all to get reward for their labor. But so +long as the English merchant guilds wear away their +time and substance in fighting one another I fear 't will +be no better."</p> + +<p>Thorne flung his cloak about him with an impatient +gesture. "That's true," he answered, "the Spaniards +hold by Spain, and all the Hanse merchants by one +another, but our English go every man for himself +and the devil take the hindmost. I speak freely to +you, friend, because you have cast in your lot with us +West Country folk and are content to be called John +Cabot."</p> + +<p>The other smiled again, his quick childlike smile, +and went with his guest to the door. When he entered +again his small private room a dark-eyed boy of +five was crawling out from under the table.<span class='pagenum'>[82]</span></p> + +<p>"Dad," he inquired solemnly, "vat is a locked harbor?"</p> + +<p>John Cabot laughed and swung his little son to his +shoulder. "That is a great question for a little +brain," he said fondly. "But see thee here; suppose +I put thee in the chest and shut the lid and turn the +key; thou art locked in and canst not get out—so! +But now I put thee out of door and set the bandog to +guard it; thou art locked out though the door be wide +open, seest thou? And when I forbid thee to pick up +the plums that fall on the grass from the Frenchman's +damson tree, they are as safe as if I locked them in the +dresser here, are they not? So 't is when the King +forbids his people to send their goods to some harbor; +it is the same as if a great chain were stretched across +that harbor with a great lock upon it. Now run and +play with Ludovico and Santo, Sebastiano mio, and +be glad thou art free of a pleasant garden."</p> + +<p>But Sebastian still hung back, his dark head rubbing +softly against his father's shoulder. "When I am a +great merchant," he announced, "the King will let me +send my ships all over the world."</p> + +<p>John Cabot stroked the wavy dark hair with a +lingering, tender touch. "God grant thee thy wish, +little one," he said. And Sebastian, with a shout in +answer to a call from the sunny out-of-door world, +scampered away.</p> + +<p>John Cabot, who had been born in Genoa, married +while a merchant in Venice, and had now lived for +many years in Bristol, felt sometimes that the life of a +trader was like that of a player at dice. And the dice +were often loaded.</p> + +<p>He was a good navigator, or he would not have been +a true son of the Genoese house of Caboto—Giovanni <span class='pagenum'>[83]</span> +Caboto translated meant John the Captain, and in a city +full of sea-captains a man must know more than a +little of the sea to win that title. He had made a +place for himself in Venice as Zuan Gaboto, and now +he was a known and respected man in the second greatest +seaport of England, with a house in the quarter of +Bristol known as "Cathay," the only part of the city +where foreigners were allowed to live. It had its +nickname from the fact that the foreign trade of +Bristol was largely with the Orient.</p> + +<p>English trade in those days was hampered by a +multitude of restrictions. There were monopolies, +there were laws forbidding the export of this and that, +or the making of goods by any one outside certain +guilds, there were arrangements favoring foreign traders +who had got their foothold during the War of the +Roses,—when kings needed money from any source +that would promise it. The Hanse merchants at the +Steelyard alone controlled the markets of more than a +hundred towns. Their grim stone buildings rose like +a fort commanding London Bridge, and they paid less +both in duties and customs than English merchants +did. They employed no English ships, and could underbuy +and undersell the English manufacturer and +the English trader. Their men were all bachelors, +with no families to found or houses to keep up in +England. The farmer might get half price for his +wool and pay more than one price for whatever he was +obliged to buy. There was plenty of private exasperation, +but no open fighting, against this ruling of the +London markets by Hamburg, Lübeck, Antwerp and +Cologne. Cabot's clear head and wide experience +plainly showed him the enormous waste of such a system, +but he did not see how to unlock the harbors. <span class='pagenum'>[84]</span> +Neither, at present, did the King, whose shrewd brain +was at work on the problem.</p> + +<p>Henry Tudor had the thrift of a youth spent in poverty, +and the turn for finance inherited from Welsh +ancestors, but his kingdom was not rich, and his throne +not over-secure. He was prejudiced against doing +anything rash, both by nature and by the very limited +income of the crown. He had given an audience to +Bartholomew Columbus while the older brother was +still haunting the court of Castile with his unfulfilled +plans, and had gone so far as to tell the Genoese captain +to bring his brother Christopher to England that +he might talk with him. Had it not been for Queen +Isabella's impulsive decision England instead of Spain +might have made the lucky throw in the great game of +discovery. But by the time Bartholomew could get +the message to his brother the matter had been settled +and the expedition was already taking shape. Henry +VII. always kept one foot on the ground, and until he +could see some other way to bring wealth into the royal +treasury he let the monopolies go on.</p> + +<p>In 1495 he took a chance. He gave to John Cabot +and his sons a license to search "for islands, provinces +or regions in the eastern, western or northern seas; +and, as vassals of the King, to occupy the territories +that might be found, with an exclusive right to their +commerce, on paying the King a fifth part of the +profits."</p> + +<p>It will be noted that this license did not say anything +about the southern ocean. Already troops of Spanish +cavaliers were pouring into the seaports, eager to +make discoveries by the road of Columbus, and Spain +would regard as unfriendly any attempt to send English +ships in that direction. Whatever could be got <span class='pagenum'>[85]</span> +from the Spanish territories Henry would try another +way of getting. The year before he had arranged +to have Prince Arthur, the heir to his throne, +marry the fourth daughter of the King of Aragon, +Catherine, then a little Princess of eleven. Prince +Arthur died while still a boy, and Catherine became +the first wife of Henry, afterward Henry VIII. +With a Spanish Princess as queen of England, there +might be an alliance between the two countries. That +would be better than quarreling with Spain over discoveries +which were at best uncertain. If Cabot really +found anything valuable in the northern seas the +move might turn out to be a good one. It would make +England a more powerful member of the Spanish alliance, +without taking anything which Spain appeared +to value.</p> + +<p>In May, 1497, properly furnished with provisions +and a few such things as might show what England +had to barter, the little <i>Matthew</i> sailed from Bristol +under the command of John Cabot with his nineteen-year-old +son Sebastian and a crew of eighteen—nearly +all Englishmen, used to the North Atlantic. +The King's permission was for five ships, but the wise +Cabot had heard something of the hardships of the +first expeditions to Hispaniola, and preferred to keep +within his means, and sail with men whom he could +trust.</p> + +<p>But on this voyage they found locked harbors not +closed by the order of any King but by natural causes,—harbors +without inhabitants or means of supporting +life, and so far north as to be blocked by ice for +half the year. They sailed seven hundred leagues +west and came at last to a rocky wooded coast. Now +in all the books of travel in Asia, mention had been +made of an immense territory ruled by the Grand <a name='Page_86' id='Page_86'></a><span class='pagenum'>[86]</span> +Cham of Tartary, whose hordes had nearly overrun +Eastern Europe in times not so very long ago. The +adventures of Marco Polo the Venetian, in a great +book sent to Cabot by his wife's father, had been the +fairy-tale of Sebastian and his brothers from the time +they were old enough to understand a story. In this +book it was written how Marco Polo and his companions +passed through utterly uninhabited wilds in the +Great Khan's empire, and afterward came to a region +of barbarians, who robbed and killed travelers. These +fierce people lived on the fruits and game of the forest, +cultivating no fields; they dressed in the skins of wild +animals and used salt for money. Could this be the +place? If so it behooved the little party of explorers +to be careful. As yet, nobody dreamed that any mainland +discovered by sailing westward from northern +Europe could be anything but Asia.</p> + +<p>Cautiously they sailed along the rugged shore, but +not a human being was to be seen. It was the twenty-fourth +of June, when by all accounts the people of any +civilized country should be coasting along from port +to port fishing or engaged in traffic. The sun blazed +hot and clear, but the inquisitive noses of the crew +scented no cinnamon, cloves or ginger in the air. All +of these, according to Marco Polo, were in the wilderness +he crossed, and also great rivers. On crossing +one of these rivers he had found himself in a populous +country with castles and cities. Were there no people +on this desolate shore—or were they lying in wait +for the voyagers to land, that they might seize and kill +them and plunder the ship?</p> + +<p>One thing was certain, the air of this strange place +made them all more thirsty than they ever had been in +England, and their water-supply had given out. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span> +Sebastian and a crew of the younger men tumbled into +a boat, cross-bow and cutlass at hand, and went ashore +to fill the barrels, while John Cabot kept an anxious +eye on the land. Sebastian himself rather relished +the adventure.</p> + +<p>They found a stream of delicious water,—pure, +cold and clear as a fountain of Eden. Among the +rocks they found creeping vines with rather tasteless, +bright red berries, in the woods little evergreen herbs +with leaves like laurel and scarlet spicy berries, dark +green mossy vines with white berries—but no spice-trees. +The forest in fact was rather like Norway, +according to Ralph Erlandsson, who was a native of +Stavanger. Sebastian, who was ahead, presently came +upon signs of human life. A sapling, bent down and +held by a rude contrivance of deerhide thong and +stakes, was attached to a noose so ingeniously hidden +that the young leader nearly stepped into it. He took +it off the tree and looked about him. A minute later, +from one side and to the rear, a startled exclamation +came from Robert Thorne of Bristol, who had stepped +on a similar snare and been jerked off his feet. This +was quite enough. The party retreated to the ship. +On the way back they saw trees that had been cut not +very long since, and Sebastian picked up a wooden +needle such as fishermen used in making nets, yet not +like any English tool of that sort.</p> + +<div><span class="back"><a href="#LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">[Illustrations]</a></span><br /></div> +<div class="center"><div class="figcenter" style="width: 416px;"> +<img src="images/illus-107.png" width="416" height="600" alt=""A sapling, bent down, was attached to a noose ingeniously hidden."—Page 87" title=""A sapling, bent down, was attached to a noose ingeniously hidden."—Page 87" /> +<span class="caption">"A sapling, bent down, was attached to a noose ingeniously hidden."—<i>Page 87</i></span> +</div></div> + +<p>They saw nothing more of the kind, although they +sailed some three hundred leagues along the coast, nor +did they see any sort of tilled land. This certainly +could not be Cipangu or Cathay with their seaports and +gilded temples. Whatever else it was, it was a land +of wild people, savage hunters. John Cabot left on a +bold headland where it could not fail to be seen, a <span class='pagenum'>[88]</span> +great cross, with the flag of England and the Venetian +banner bearing the lion of Saint Mark.</p> + +<p>There was wild excitement in Bristol when it was +known that the little <i>Matthew</i> had come safely into +port, after three months' voyaging in unknown seas. +August of that year found the two Cabots at Westminster +with their story and their handful of forest +trophies, and the excited and suspicious Spanish Ambassador +was framing a protest to the King and a letter +to Ferdinand and Isabella.</p> + +<p>Henry VII. fingered the wooden needle, pulled the +rawhide thong meditatively through his fingers, and +ate a little handful of the wintergreen berries and +young leaves. Their pungent flavor wrinkled his long +nose. This was certainly not any spice that came from +the Indies.</p> + +<p>"This country you found," he remarked at last, +"is not much like New Spain."</p> + +<p>"Nay, Sire," answered John Cabot simply.</p> + +<p>"And I understand,"—the King put the collection +of curiosities back into the wallet that had held them, +"that this represents one fifth at least of the gains of +the voyage."</p> + +<p>Cabot bowed. As a matter of fact there had been +no profits.</p> + +<p>"My lord,"—the King handed the wallet over to +the uneasy Ambassador, who had been invited to the +conference, "you have heard what our good Captain +says. If, as you say, Spain claims this landfall, we +willingly make over to you our—ahem!—share of +the emolument." And the Spaniard, looking rather +foolish, saw nothing better to do than to bow his thanks +and retire from the presence.</p> + +<p>The King turned again to the Cabots.<span class='pagenum'>[89]</span></p> + +<p>"Nevertheless," he went on meditatively, "we will +not be neglectful of you. In another year, if it is still +your desire to engage in this work, you may have—" +a pause—"ten ships armed as you see fit, and manned +with whatever prisoners are not confined for—high +treason. Fish, I think you said, abound in those +waters? Bacalao—er—that is cod, is it not? +Now it seems to me that our men of Bristol can go +a-fishing on those banks without interference from the +Hanse merchants, and we shall be less dependent on—foreign +aid, for the victualing of our tables. And +there may be some way to Asia through these Northern +seas—in which case our brother of Spain may +not be so nice in his scruples about trespass. The +Spice Islands are not his but Portugal's. And for +your present reward,—" the King reached for his lean +purse and waggled his gaunt foot in its loose worn red +shoe "this, and the title of Admiral of your new-found +land."</p> + +<p>He dropped some gold pieces into the hand of John +Cabot. In the accounts of his treasurer for that year +may be seen this item:</p> + +<p>"10th August, donation of £10 to him that found +the new isle."</p> + +<p>In May of the next year another voyage was undertaken +by Sebastian, John Cabot having died. This +time there was a small fleet from Bristol with some +three hundred men. Sebastian sailed so far north as +to be stopped by seas full of icebergs, then turning +southward discovered the island of Newfoundland, +landed further south on the mainland, and went as far +toward the Spanish possessions as the great bay called +Chesapeake. Meanwhile shoals of little fishing boats, +from Bristol, Brittany, Lisbon, Rye, and the Vizcayan <span class='pagenum'>[90]</span> +ports on the north of Spain, crept across the gray seas +to fish for cod. They held no patent and carried no +guns, but they made a floating city off the Grand +Banks for a brief season, settling their own disputes. +The people at home found salt fish good cheap and +wholesome. When Sebastian told the Bristol folk that +the fish were so thick in these new seas that he could +hardly get his ships through, they would not believe it. +But when Robert Thorne and a dozen others had seen +the little caplin, the fish which the cod feeds upon, +swimming inshore by the acre, crowded by the cod +behind them, and by seal, shark and dogfish hunting the +cod, when cod were caught and salted down and shown +in Bristol, four and five feet long, then Bristol swallowed +both story and cargo and blessed the name of +Cabot.</p> + +<p>Sebastian Cabot shook the dust of Bristol off his +restless feet more than once in the years that followed. +Within five years after his voyage to the Arctic regions +he was cruising about the Caribbean. In 1517 he was +at the entrance of the great bay on the north coast of +Labrador. In 1524 he was in the service of Spain, +and coasting along the eastern shores of South America +ascended the great river which De Solis had named +Rio de la Plata, came within sight of the mountains of +Peru. But for orders from Spain, where Pizarro had +secured the governorship of that land, Cabot might +have been its conqueror. In 1548, after some years +spent in Spain as pilot major, he came back to England, +where he was appointed to the position of superintendent +of naval affairs. It was his work to examine and +license pilots, and make charts and maps, and some ten +years later he died, having founded the company of +Merchant Adventurers in 1553. This company was <span class='pagenum'>[91]</span> +entitled to build and send out ships for discovery and +trade in parts unknown. By uniting merchant traders +in one body, governed by definite rules, and backed by +their combined capital, it broke the monopoly of the +Hanseatic League and finally drove the Hanse merchants +out of England. Sebastian Cabot was its first +governor, holding the office until he died, and has +rightly been called the father of free trade. He had +unlocked the harbors of the world to his adopted country, +England.</p> + +<hr /> + +<h4 class="smcap">note</h4> + +<div class="footnotes"><div class="footnote"><p> +The rules drawn up by Cabot for the merchant adventurers, to be +read publicly on board ship once a week, are interesting as showing +the character of the man and the great advance made in welding +English trade into a company to be guided by the best traditions. +For the first time captains were required to keep a log, and this one +thing, by putting on record everything seen and noted by those who +sailed strange waters, made an increasing fund of knowledge at the +service of each navigator. Some of the points in the instructions are +as follows:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>7. "That the merchants and other skilful persons, in writing, shall +daily write, describe and put in memorie the navigation of each day +and night, with the points and observations of the lands, tides, elements, +altitude of the sunne, course of the moon and starres, and the +same so noted by the order of the master and pilot of every ship to +be put in writing; the captain-general assembling the masters together +once every weeke (if winde and weather shall serve) to conferre all +the observations and notes of the said ships, to the intent it may appeare +wherein the notes do agree and wherein they dissent, and upon +good debatement, deliberation and conclusion determined to put the +same into a common ledger, to remain of record for the companie; +the like order to be kept in proportioning of the cardes, astrolabes, and +other instruments prepared for the voyage, at the charge of the +companie.</p> + +<p>12. "That no blaspheming of God, or detestable swearing, be used +in any ship, or communication of ribaldrie, filthy tales, or ungodly +talk to be suffered in the company of any ship, neither dicing, tabling, +nor other divelish games to be permitted, whereby ensueth not only +povertie to the players, but also strife, variance, brauling, fighting and +oftentimes murther.</p> + +<p>26. "Every nation and region to be considered advisedly, and +not to provoke them by any distance, laughing, contempt, or such like; <span class='pagenum'>[92]</span> +but to use them with prudent circumspection, with all gentleness and +courtesie."</p></div> + +<p>These and other instructions form an ideal far beyond anything +found in the merchant shipping of any other land at that time, and +the wisdom which inspired them undoubtedly laid the foundation of +the fine and noble tradition which formed the best officers of the navy +not yet born. There was no British navy in the modern sense until +a hundred years after Cabot's day. In time of war the King impressed +all suitable ships into his service, if they were not freely +offered by private owners. In time of peace the monarch was a +ship-owner like any other, and such a thing as a standing navy was +not thought of. Hence the brave, generous, and courteous merchant +adventurer, when such a man was abroad, was the upholder of the +honor of his country as well as the upbuilder of her commerce.</p></div></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div><span class="back"><a href="#CONTENTS">[Contents]</a></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span></div> + +<h3><a name="GRAY_SAILS" id="GRAY_SAILS"></a>GRAY SAILS</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Gray sails that fill with the winds of the morning,</span> +<span class="i2">Out upon the Channel or the bleak North sea,</span> +<span class="i0">Neither cross nor fleur-de-lis goes to your adorning,—</span> +<span class="i2">Arctic frost and southern gale your tirewomen shall be.</span> +<span class="i0">Yet when you come home again—home again—home again,</span> +<span class="i2">Gray sails turn to silver when the keel runs free.</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Gray sails of Plymouth, 'ware the wild Orcades,</span> +<span class="i2">Gray sails of Lisbon, 'ware the guns of Dieppe.</span> +<span class="i0">Cross-bows of Genoa, 'ware the wharves of Gades,—</span> +<span class="i2">You that sail the Spanish Seas may neither trust nor sleep.</span> +<span class="i0">Yet when you come home again—home again—home again,</span> +<span class="i2">You shall make the covenant for Kings to keep!</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Gray sails are crowding where the sea-fog sleeping</span> +<span class="i2">Masks the faces of the folk that throng and traffic there.</span> +<span class="i0">When the winds are free again and the cod are leaping,</span> +<span class="i2">All the tongues of Pentecost wake the laughing air.</span> +<span class="i0">And when they come home again—home again—home again,</span> +<span class="i2">They shall bring their freedom for the world to share!</span> +</div></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div><span class="back"><a href="#CONTENTS">[Contents]</a></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span></div> + +<h2>VII</h2> + +<h3><a name="LITTLE_VENICE" id="LITTLE_VENICE"></a>LITTLE VENICE</h3> + +<p>"Translators," observed Amerigo Vespucci, +"are frequently traitors. Now who is to be +surety that yonder interpreter does not change your +words in repeating them?"</p> + +<p>Alonso de Ojeda touched the hilt of his poniard. +"This," he said. "Toledo steel speaks all languages."</p> + +<p>The Florentine's black eyebrows lifted a little, but +he did not pursue the subject. Ojeda was not the sort +of man likely to be convinced of anything he did not +believe already, and Vespucci was having too good a +time to waste it in argument.</p> + +<p>This middle-aged, shrewd-looking individual had +for half his life been chained to the desk, for he had +been many years a clerk in the great merchant houses +of the Medici. Until he was forty years old he had +hardly gone outside his native city. In the latter half +of the fifteenth century each Italian city was a little +world in itself, with its own standards, customs and +traditions. The fact that Vespucci spent most of his +leisure and all of his spare ducats in the collection and +study of maps and globes and works on geography, +was regarded as a proof of mild insanity. When he +paid one hundred and thirty gold pieces for a particularly +fine map made by Valsequa in 1439, even his +intimate friend Soderini called him a fool. Vespucci <span class='pagenum'>[95]</span> +was himself an expert mapmaker. This may have +been a reason why, about 1490, the Medici sent him to +Barcelona to look after their interests in Spain. In +Seville he secured a position as manager in the house +of Juanoto Berardi, who fitted out ships for Atlantic +voyages. In 1497 he himself sailed for the newly discovered +islands of the West, and spent more than a +year in exploration. This taste of travel seemed to +have whetted his appetite for more, for he was now +acting as astronomer and geographer in the expedition +which Ojeda had organized and Juan de la Cosa fitted +out, to the coast which Colón had discovered and called +Tierre Firme. In the seven years since the first voyage +of the great Admiral it had become the custom to +have on board, for expeditions of discovery, a person +who understood astronomy, the use of the astrolabe +and navigation in general, and the making of charts +and maps. Vespucci was exactly that sort of man. +However queer it might seem to the young Ojeda to +find in a clerk forty years old such a fresh and youthful +delight in travel, both he and La Cosa knew that they +had in him a valuable assistant. It was generally understood +that he meant to write a book about it all.</p> + +<p>Vespucci was in fact thinking of his future book +when he made that speech about translators. He was +planning to write the book not in Latin, as was usual, +but in Italian, making if necessary another copy in +Latin.</p> + +<p>The party had sailed from Puerto Santa Maria on +May 20, 1499, taking with them a chart which Bishop +Fonseca, head of the Department of the Indies, furnished. +It had been the understanding when Colón +received the title of Admiral of the Indies that no expedition +should be sent out without his authority. <span class='pagenum'>[96]</span> +This understanding Fonseca succeeded in persuading +the King and Queen to take back, and another order +was issued, to the effect that no independent expedition +was to go out without the royal permission. This, +practically, meant Fonseca's leave. The Bishop signed +the permit for Ojeda's undertaking with double satisfaction. +He was doing a favor for his friend, Bishop +Ojeda, cousin to this young man, and he was aiming +a blow at the hated Genoese Admiral, whose very chart +he was turning over to the young explorer. All sorts +of stories had been set afloat about the unfitness of the +Admiral to hold such an important office. Fonseca +had managed to influence the Queen so far against him +that one Bobadilla had been sent to Hispaniola with +power to depose Colón and treat him as a criminal,—so +cunningly were his instructions framed. When the +great discoverer was actually thrown into prison and +sent to Spain manacled like a felon, it might have added +a few drops of bitterness to his reflections if he had +known what Ojeda was doing. This youth, whom he +had trusted and liked, was now looking forward to the +conquest of the very region which the Admiral had discovered, +and using what was supposed to be the Admiral's +private chart to guide him.</p> + +<p>It is not likely, however, that the fiery and impatient +Ojeda gave any thought to the feelings of the older +man. Juan de la Cosa was a leader in the expedition, +many sailors were enlisted, who had served in former +voyages of discovery, and above all, Fonseca approved. +Ojeda would never have dreamed of setting up any +personal opinion contrary to the views of the Church.</p> + +<p>In twenty-four days the fleet arrived upon a coast +which no one on board had ever seen. It was in fact +two hundred leagues further to the south than Paria, <span class='pagenum'>[97]</span> +where the Admiral had touched. The people were +taller and more vigorous than the Arawaks of Hispaniola, +and expert with the bow, the lance and the +shield. Their bell-shaped houses were of tree-trunks +thatched with palm leaves, some of them very large. +The people wore ornaments made of fish-bones, and +strings of white and green beads, and feather headdresses +of the most gorgeous colors. The interpreter +told Ojeda that the Spaniards' desire of gold and pearls +was very puzzling to these simple folk, who had never +considered them of any especial value. In a harbor +called Maracapana the fleet was unloaded and careened +for cleaning. Under the direction of Ojeda and La +Cosa a small brigantine was built. The people +brought venison, fish, cassava bread and other provisions +willingly, and seemed to think the Spaniards +angels. At least, that was the version of their talk +which reached Ojeda. It was here that Amerigo Vespucci +made that remark about translators. He had +not studied accounts of Atlantic voyages for the last +few years without drawing a few conclusions regarding +the nature of savages. When it was explained +that the natives had neighbors who were cannibals, +and that they would greatly value the strangers' assistance +in fighting them, Vespucci came very near making +a suggestion. He finally made it to Juan de la +Cosa instead of to Ojeda. The old pilot chuckled +wisely.</p> + +<p>"I've got past warning my young gentleman of danger +ahead," he said good-naturedly. "He can do +without fighting just as well as a fish can do without +water. If I die trying to get him out of some scrape +he has plunged into head-first, it will be no more than +I expect."<span class='pagenum'>[98]</span></p> + +<p>Ojeda was, in fact, spoiling for adventure, and joyfully +set sail in the direction of the Carib Islands. +Seven coast natives were on board as guides, and +pointed out the island inhabited by their especial enemies. +The shore was lined with fierce-faced savages, +painted and feathered, armed with bows and arrows, +lances and darts and bucklers. Ojeda launched his +boats, in each of which was a paterero, or small cannon, +with a number of soldiers crouching down out of +sight. The armor of the Spaniards protected them +from the Indian arrows, while the cotton armor of the +savages and their light shields were no defense against +cannon-balls or crossbow-bolts.</p> + +<p>When the barbarians leaped into the sea and attacked +the boats the cannon scattered them, but they +rallied and fought more fiercely on land. The Spaniards +won that day's battle, but the dauntless islanders +were ready to renew the fight next morning. With his +fifty-seven men Ojeda routed the whole fighting force +of the tribe, made many prisoners, plundered and set +fire to the villages, and returned to his ships. A part +of the spoil was bestowed on the seven friendly natives. +Ojeda, who had not received so much as a scratch, +anchored in a bay for three weeks to let his wounded +recover. There were twenty-one wounded and one +Spaniard had been killed.</p> + +<p>Sailing westward along the coast the fleet presently +entered a vast gulf like an inland sea, on the eastern +side of which was a most curious village. Ojeda +could hardly believe the evidence of his own eyes. +Twenty large cone-shaped houses were built on piles +driven into the bottom of the lake, which in that part +was clear and shallow. Each house had its drawbridge, +and communicated with its neighbors and with <span class='pagenum'>[99]</span> +the shore by means of canoes gliding along the water-ways +between the piles. The interpreters said it was +called Coquibacoa.</p> + +<p>"That is no proper name for so marvelous a place," +said Ojeda after he had tried to pronounce the clucking +many-syllabled word. "Is it like anything you have +seen, Vespucci?"</p> + +<p>The Italian had been comparing it with a similar +village he had seen on his first voyage, on a part of +the coast called Lariab. He had an instinct, however, +that it would not be well to mix his own discoveries +with those of the present expedition.</p> + +<p>"It is rather like Venice," he said demurely.</p> + +<p>"That is the name for it," cried Ojeda in high +delight,—"Venezuela—Little Venice!"</p> + +<p>"It would be interesting," observed Vespucci, "to +know what names they are giving to us. How they +stare!"</p> + +<p>The people of the village on stilts were evidently as +much astonished at the strangers as the strangers were +at them. They fled into their houses and raised the +draw-bridges. The men in a squadron of canoes +which came paddling in from the sea were also terrified. +But this did not last long. The warriors went +into the forest and returned with sixteen young girls, +four of whom they brought to each ship. While the +white men wondered what this could mean, several old +crones appeared at the doors of the houses and began +a furious shrieking. This seemed to be a signal. The +maidens dived into the sea and made for the shore, and +a storm of arrows came from the canoemen. The +fight, however, was not long, and the Spaniards won +an easy victory, after which they had no further +trouble. They found a harbor called Maracaibo, and <span class='pagenum'>[100]</span> +twenty-seven Spaniards at the earnest request of the +natives were entertained as guests among the inland +villages for nine days. They were carried from place +to place in litters or hammocks, and when they returned +to the ships every man of them had a collection of +gifts—rich plumes, weapons, tropical birds and animals—but +no gold. The monkeys and parrots were +very amusing, but they did not make up, in the minds +of some of the crew, for the gold which had not been +found.</p> + +<p>Ojeda returned from an exploring journey one day +with a ruffled temper. "A gang of poachers," he +sputtered,—"rascally Bristol traders. We shall have +to teach these folk their place."</p> + +<p>"What really happened?" Vespucci inquired privately +of Juan de la Cosa. The old mariner's eyes +twinkled.</p> + +<p>"It was funny. You see, we were coming down to +the shore, ready to return to the ships, when we spied +an English ship and some sailors on the beach, dancing +after they'd caught their fish and eaten 'em. Up +marches our young caballero with hand on hilt and +asks whose men they are. But they answered him in +a language he can't understand, d'ye see, and after +some jabbering he makes them understand that he +wants to go on board to see their captain. I went +along, for I'd no mind to leave him alone if there +should be trouble.</p> + +<p>"So soon as I set eyes on the captain I knew him +for a chap I'd seen years ago in Venice. He did me a +good turn there, too, though he was but a lad. I +knew he was a Bristol man, but I hadn't expected to +see him or his ship so far from home. He could talk +Spanish nearly as well as you do.<span class='pagenum'>[101]</span></p> + +<p>"'What are you doing here?' asks our worshipful +commander.</p> + +<p>"'Looking at the sky,' said the other man, cool as +a cucumber. 'I think we are going to have a storm.'</p> + +<p>"'Don't bandy words with me,' says Ojeda. 'You +are trespassing on my master's dominions.'</p> + +<p>"'Your master is the Admiral of the Indies, no?' +says the stranger, and that pretty near shut our young +gentleman's mouth for a minute, for between you and +me I think he knows that Colón has not been well +treated. But he only got the more furious.</p> + +<p>"'Do you insult me?' says he, and whips out his +Toledo blade and bends it almost double, to show the +quality.</p> + +<p>"'Wait a minute, my young hornet,' says the captain—he +wasn't much more than a boy, himself,—'didn't +your master the Duke of Medina Coeli teach +you better than to irritate a man on the deck of his +own ship? Mine can sail two leagues to your one, +and I'm just leaving for home, so, unless you would +like to go with me, perhaps you will let this conversation +end without any more pointed remarks. If I chose, +you know, I could drop you overboard in sight of your +men, to swim ashore. My guns would stave your longboat +all to pieces. But I've stayed long enough to +give the lads a chance to have a good meal and a bit of +fun—nothing's better than dancing, for the spirits, +dad always said it was better than either fighting or +dicing on shipboard. Before we part, though, I'm +going to give you one piece of advice. Don't stir up +these coast natives too often. If you do, they'll eat +you. They use poisoned arrows in some of these parts, +and there's no cure for that but a red-hot iron.'</p> + +<p>"The caballero's temper is like gunpowder—it <span class='pagenum'>[102]</span> +flashes up in a second, or not at all. He must ha' seen +that the captain meant him kindness. Anyway, he +slips his sword back in the scabbard and says cool as +you please,</p> + +<p>"'Señor, pardon my hasty conclusion. You have +of course a perfect right to look at the sky, and to +dance, if that is your diversion. I should be extremely +sorry to interfere with your departure. But +you will understand that when a commander in the service +of the sovereigns of Aragon and Castile finds intruders +within their territory it is his duty to make it +his affair. I thank you for your warning. Adios,' +and he makes a little stiff bow and goes over the side, +me after him. I looked back just as I went over the +rail, and the skipper was watching me, and I may be +mistaken but I believe he winked. I tell you, our little +captain can do things that would get him run +through the body if he were any other man."</p> + +<p>Vespucci smiled thoughtfully. But this incident +may have had something to do with his later decision +to part company with Ojeda. Vespucci continued to +explore the coast, and Ojeda sailed northward to the +islands, where he kidnaped some Indians for slaves. +When he returned to Cadiz the young adventurer +found to his intense disgust that after all expenses were +paid there remained but five hundred ducats to be divided +among fifty-five men. This was all the more +mortifying because, two months before, Pedro Alonso +Nino, a captain of Palos, and Christoval Guerra of +Seville, had come in from a trading voyage in the +Indies with the richest cargo of gold and pearls ever +seen in Cadiz.</p> + +<p>Vespucci wrote his book some years later, and as it +was the first popular account of the new Spanish possessions <span class='pagenum'>[103]</span> +and was written in a lively and entertaining +style it had a great reputation. It gave to the natives +of the country the name which they have ever since +borne—Indians. A German geographer who much +admired the work suggested that an appropriate mark +of appreciation would be to name the new continent +America, after Vespucci, and this was done. Vespucci +described all that he saw and some things of +which he heard, using care and discretion, and if he +suspected that the captain of the Bristol ship was Sebastian +Cabot, later pilot-major of Spain, he did not say +so.</p> + +<hr /> + +<h4 class="smcap">note</h4> + +<div class="footnotes"><div class="footnote"><p> +Amerigo Vespucci has been unjustly accused of endeavoring to +steal the glory of Columbus, but there is no evidence that +he ever contemplated anything of the kind. It was a German +geographer's suggestion that the continent be named America.</p></div></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div><span class="back"><a href="#CONTENTS">[Contents]</a></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104"></a></span></div> +<h3><a name="THE_GOLD_ROAD" id="THE_GOLD_ROAD"></a>THE GOLD ROAD</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O the Gold Road is a hard road,</span> +<span class="i2">And it leads beyond the sea,—</span> +<span class="i0">Some follow it through the altar gates</span> +<span class="i2">And some to the gallows tree.</span> +<span class="i0">And they who squander the gold they earn</span> +<span class="i2">On kin-folk ill to please</span> +<span class="i0">Go soon to the grave, but he toils in the grave—</span> +<span class="i2">The miner upon his knees.</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The Gold Road is a dark road—</span> +<span class="i2">No bird by the wayside sings,</span> +<span class="i0">No sun shines into the cañons deep,</span> +<span class="i2">No children's laughter rings.</span> +<span class="i0">They are slaves who delve in the stubborn rocks</span> +<span class="i2">For the pittance their labor brings.</span> +<span class="i0">Their bread is bitter who toil for their own,</span> +<span class="i2">But they starve who toil for Kings.</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The Gold Road is a small road,—</span> +<span class="i2">A man must tread it alone,</span> +<span class="i0">With none to help if he faint or fall,</span> +<span class="i2">And none to hear his groan.</span> +<span class="i0">The weight of gold is a weary weight</span> +<span class="i2">When we toil for the sake of our own—</span> +<span class="i0">But our masters are branding our hearts and souls</span> +<span class="i2">With a Christ that is carved in stone!</span> +</div></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div><span class="back"><a href="#CONTENTS">[Contents]</a></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span></div> + +<h2>VIII</h2> + +<h3><a name="THE_DOG_WITH_TWO_MASTERS" id="THE_DOG_WITH_TWO_MASTERS"></a>THE DOG WITH TWO MASTERS</h3> + +<p>"They fight among themselves too much. They +need the man with the whip."</p> + +<p>"<i>Bough! wough!</i>"</p> + +<p>"<i>Yar-r-rh! arrh!—agh!</i>"</p> + +<p>A spirited and entertaining dog-fight was going on +just outside the house of the governor of Darien. The +deep sullen roar of Balboa's big hound Leoncico was as +unmistakable as the snarling, snapping, furious bark +of Cacafuego, who belonged to the Bachelor Enciso. +The two hated each other at sight, months ago. Now +they were having it out. The man with the whip evidently +came on the scene, for there was a final crescendo +of barks, yelps and growls, followed by silence.</p> + +<p>Pizarro's remark, however, did not refer to the dogs +but to the settlers, who had been rioting over the governorship +of the colony. The outcome of this disturbance +had been the practical seizure of the office of +captain-general by Vasco Nuñez de Balboa. Pizarro +himself, and Juan de Saavedra, to whom he addressed +his comment, had supported Balboa. Saavedra did +not commit himself further than to answer, with a +shrug, "Balboa can use the whip on occasion, we all +know that. Ah, here he comes now."</p> + +<p>The man and the dog would have attracted attention +anywhere, separately or together. The man was +well-made and vigorous, with red-brown hair and beard, <span class='pagenum'>[106]</span> +and clear merry eyes, a leader who would rather lead +than command. The dog was of medium size but very +powerful, tawny in color with a black muzzle, and the +scars on his compact body recorded many battles, not +with other dogs but with hostile Indians. He had been +his master's body-guard in several fights, and Balboa +sometimes lent him to his friends, the dog receiving the +same share of plunder that would have been due to +an armed man. Leoncico is said to have brought his +captain in this way more than a thousand crowns.</p> + +<p>"You called him off, eh, General?" Saavedra +asked, bending to stroke the terrible head. He and +Vasco Nuñez had been friends for years; in fact it +was Saavedra who had managed the smuggling of +Balboa on board the ship in a cask, to escape his +creditors, when the expedition set out. They were +intimate, as men are intimate who are different in +character but alike in feeling and tradition. Pizarro +was an outsider and knew it.</p> + +<p>"Yes; Enciso's dog would be better for a whipping, +perhaps, but I had no mind to make the Bachelor +any more an enemy than he is. Pizarro,—" he turned +to the soldier of fortune, with a frank smile, "I have +work for you to do. It is dangerous, but I know that +you do not care for that. Pick out six good men, and +be ready to see if there is any truth in those stories +about the Coyba gold mines."</p> + +<p>Pizarro's black brows unbent. Nothing could have +suited him better than just these orders. He was, like +Balboa, a native of the province of Estremadura in +Spain, and being shut out by his low birth from advancement +in his own land, had come to the colonies in +the hope of gaining wealth and position by the sword. +His reckless courage, iron muscle, and a certain cold <span class='pagenum'>[107]</span> +stubbornness had given him the reputation of an able +man, but though nearly ten years older than Balboa, +he had never held any but a subordinate position. He +had nearly made up his mind that his chance would +never come. These hidalgos wanted all the glory as +well as all the power for themselves. He could not +see why Balboa should turn the possible discovery of a +rich new province over to him, but if the gold should +be there, Pizarro would get it. He bowed, thanked +the general, and took his leave.</p> + +<p>"General," said Saavedra, "I never like to put my +neck in a noose, but if you were only Vasco Nuñez I +would ask you why you made exactly that choice."</p> + +<p>Balboa laughed and pulled the ears of Leoncico, +who had laid his head in full content on his master's +knee. "I am always Vasco Nuñez to you, <i>amigo</i>," he +said easily, "as you very well know. Pizarro is a +bulldog for bravery, and he has a head on his shoulders. +Also he is ambitious, and this will give him a +chance to win renown."</p> + +<p>"And keeps him out of mischief for the time being," +put in Saavedra dryly.</p> + +<p>Balboa laughed again. "Why do you ask me questions +when you know my mind almost as well as I do? +You see, now that Enciso is about to go, we shall have +some freedom to do something besides quarrel among +ourselves. Gold is an apology for whatever one does, +out here. If there is as much of it as they say, in this +Coyba, the King may be able to gild the walls of another +salon, and if he puts Pizarro's portrait in it in +the place of honor I shall not weep over that. There +is glory enough for all of us, who choose to earn it."</p> + +<p>Pizarro and his men had not gone ten miles from +Darien before they ran into an ambush of Indians <span class='pagenum'>[108]</span> +armed with slings. The seven Spaniards charged instantly, +and actually put the enemy to flight, then beat +a quick retreat. Every man of them despite their body +armor had wounds and bruises, and one was left disabled +upon the field. Balboa met them as they limped +painfully in. His quick eye took in the situation.</p> + +<p>"Only six of you? Where is Francisco Hernan?"</p> + +<p>"He was crippled and could not walk," answered +Pizarro sulkily; he saw what was coming. Balboa's +eyes blazed.</p> + +<p>"What! You—Spaniards—ran away from +savages and left a comrade to die? Go back and +bring him in!"</p> + +<p>Pizarro turned in silence, took his men back over the +road just traversed, and brought Hernan safely in.</p> + +<p>This was one of the many incidents by which the +colony learned the mettle of the new captain-general. +Under his direction exploration of the neighboring +provinces was undertaken. Balboa with eighty men +made a friendly visit to Comagre, a cacique who could +put three thousand fighting men in the field. Comagre +and his seven sons entertained the white men in a +house larger and more like a palace of the Orient than +any they had before seen. It was one hundred and +fifty paces long by eighty paces broad, the lower part +of the walls built of logs, the floors and upper walls of +beautiful and ingenious wood-work. The son of this +cacique presented to Balboa seventy slaves, captives +taken by himself, and golden ornaments weighing altogether +four thousand ounces. The gold was at once +melted into ingots, or bars of uniform size, for purposes +of division. One-fifth of it was weighed out for +the Crown, the rest divided among the members of the +expedition. The young cacique stood by watching <span class='pagenum'>[109]</span> +with scornful curiosity as the Spaniards argued and +squabbled over the allotment. Suddenly he struck up +the scales with his fist, and the shining treasure tumbled +over the porch floor like spilt corn.</p> + +<p>"Why do you quarrel over this trash?" he asked. +"If this gold is so precious to you that you leave your +homes, invade the land of peaceable nations and endure +desperate perils, I will tell you where there is +plenty of it."</p> + +<p>The Spaniards' attention was instantly caught and +held. The young Indian went on, with the same careless +contempt, "You see those mountains over there? +Beyond them is a great sea. The people who dwell on +the border of that sea have ships almost as big as +yours, with sails and oars as yours have. The streams +in their country are full of gold. The King eats from +golden dishes, for gold is as common there as iron is +among you,"—he glanced at the cumbrous armor and +weapons of his guests. Indeed the panoply of the +Spaniards, made necessary by the constant possibility +of attack, and the weight of their cross-bows and other +weapons, was a source of continual wonder to the light +and nimble Indians, and of much weariness and suffering +to themselves. Many in time adopted the quilted +cotton body armor of the natives, and used pikes when +they could in place of the musketoun, which was like a +hand-cannon.</p> + +<p>This was not the first time that Balboa and many of +the others had heard of the Lord of the Golden House, +but no one else had told the story with such boldness. +The young cacique said that to invade this land, a +thousand warriors would be none too many. He offered +to accompany Balboa with his own troops, if the +white men would go.<span class='pagenum'>[110]</span></p> + +<p>Here indeed was an enterprise with glory enough for +all. Balboa returned to Darien and began preparations. +Valdivia, the regidor of the colony, had been +sent to Hispaniola for provisions, but the supply he +brought back was absurdly small. One of the serious +difficulties encountered by all the first settlers in the +New World was this matter of provisioning the camps. +For the Indians the natural fruits and produce of the +country were sufficient, and they seldom laid up any +great store. The small surplus of any one chief was +soon exhausted by a large body of guests. Moreover, +the country had no cattle, swine, fowls, goats, no domestic +food animals whatever, no grain but the +maize. The supply of meat and grain was thus very +small until Spanish planters could clear and cultivate +their estates. On the march the troops could and +did live off the country with less trouble.</p> + +<p>Balboa decided to send Valdivia back to Hispaniola +for more supplies. He also sent by him a letter to +Diego Colón, son of the great Admiral and governor +of the island, explaining his need for more troops in +view of what he had just learned about a new and +wealthy kingdom not far away. He frankly requested +the Governor to use his influence with the King to make +this discovery possible without delay.</p> + +<p>Weeks passed, and Valdivia did not come back. +Provisions again became scarce. Then a letter from +Balboa's friend Zamudio, who had gone to Spain in +the same ship with the Bachelor Enciso, in order to defend +Balboa's course. Everything, it seemed, had +gone wrong. The King had listened to the eloquence +of the Bachelor, and would probably send for Balboa +to come to Spain to answer criminal charges. It was +said that he meant to send out as governor of Darien, <span class='pagenum'>[111]</span>i +in the place of Balboa, an old and wily courtier, one of +Fonseca's favorites, named Pedro Arias de Avila, and +usually called Pedrarias.</p> + +<p>"That," said Balboa, handing the letter over to +Saavedra to read, "seems to mean that the fat has +gone into the fire."</p> + +<p>"What shall you do?"</p> + +<p>"If the King's summons arrives," said Balboa reflectively, +"I think I will be on the top of that mountain +range looking for the sea the cacique spoke of."</p> + +<p>"I will go at once and make my preparations," assented +the other. "Did you know that Pizarro has +adopted that dog—the Spitfire—Enciso's brute?"</p> + +<p>"Has the dog adopted him?" laughed Balboa, extracting +a thorn with the utmost care from the paw of +Leoncico.</p> + +<p>"That is a shrewd question. You know I have a +theory that a man is known by his dog. This beast +seems to have changed character when he changed +masters. When Enciso had him he was little more +than a puppy, and then he was thievish and cowardly. +Now he will attack an Indian as savagely as Leoncico +himself. Pizarro must have put the iron into him."</p> + +<p>"Pizarro can," said Balboa carelessly. "He does +it with his men. I think there is more in that fellow +than we have supposed. We shall see—this expedition +will be a kind of test."</p> + +<p>Saavedra, as he went to his own quarters, wondered +whether Balboa were really as unconscious and unsuspicious +as he seemed.</p> + +<p>"Like dog, like master," he said to himself. +"Cacafuego shifted collars as easily as any mongrel +does—as readily as Pizarro himself would. I think +that Leoncico, left here without Balboa, would die. <span class='pagenum'>[112]</span> +Neither a dog or a man has any business with two masters. +I wonder whether in the end we shall conquer +this land, or find that the land has conquered us?"</p> + +<p>Balboa set forth with one hundred and ninety picked +men and a few bloodhounds. Half the company remained +on shore at Coyba to guard the brigantine +and canoes, and with the others Balboa began the ascent +of the range of mountains from whose heights he +hoped to view the sea.</p> + +<p>In no other time and country have discoverers encountered +the obstacles and dangers which confronted +the Spaniards who first explored Central America. +Precipitous mountains, matted jungles, barren deserts, +deep and swift streams, malarious bogs, and hostile +natives often armed with poisoned weapons, all were +in their way, and they had to make their overland journeys +on foot, fully armed and often in tropical heat. +Even when accompanied by Indians familiar with the +country, they could count on little or nothing in the +way of game or other provisions. Balboa's friendly +ways with the natives had secured him Indian guides +and porters, but it was difficult work, even so. In +four days they traveled no more than ten leagues, and +it took them from the sixth to the twenty-fifth of September +to cover the ground between the coast of Darien +and the foot of the last mountain they must climb. +One-third of the men had been sent back from time to +time, because of illness and exhaustion. The party +remained for the night in the village of Quaraqua at +the foot of the mountain, and at dawn they began their +ascent, hoping to reach the summit before the hottest +time of the day. About ten o'clock they came out of +the thick forest on a high and airy slope of the mountain, <span class='pagenum'>[113]</span> +and the Indians pointed out a hill, from which +they said the sea was visible.</p> + +<p>Then Balboa commanded the others to rest, while he +went alone to the top.</p> + +<p>"And this," muttered Pizarro to the man next him, +"is the man who is always saying that there is enough +glory for all!"</p> + +<p>Saavedra's quick ear caught the remark. He smiled +rather satirically. He, and he alone, knew the true +reason for this action of Balboa's.</p> + +<p>"Juan," the commander had said to him while they +were wading through their last swamp, "when we are +somewhere near the summit I shall go on alone. I +want no one with me when I look down the other side +of that range. Whether I see a mere lake, which these +savages may call a sea, or—something greater, I am +not sure I shall be able to command my feelings. I +will not be a fool before the men."</p> + +<p>Balboa's heart was thumping as he climbed, more +with excitement than exertion. No one but Saavedra +had so much as an inkling of the importance his success +or failure would have for him personally. The +whole of his future lay on the unknown other side of +that hill. He shut his eyes as he reached the top—then +opened them upon a glorious view.</p> + +<p>A vast blue sea sparkled in the sunshine, only a few +leagues away. From the mountain top to the shore of +this great body of water sloped a wild landscape of +forest, rock, savanna and winding river. Balboa knelt +and gave thanks to God.</p> + +<p>Then he sprang to his feet and beckoned to his followers, +who rushed up the hill, the great hound Leoncico +bounding far ahead. When all had reached the <span class='pagenum'>[114]</span> +summit Father Andreas de Varo, motioning them to +kneel, began the chant of Te Deum Laudamus, in +which the company joined. The notary of the expedition +then wrote out a testimonial witnessing that Balboa +took possession of the sea, all its islands and surrounding +lands, in the name of the sovereign of Castile; +and each man signed it. Balboa had a tall tree cut +down and made into a cross, which was planted on the +exact spot where he had stood when he first looked +upon the sea. A mound of stones was piled up for +an additional monument, and the names of the sovereigns +were carved on neighboring trees. Then Balboa, +leading his men down the southern slope of the +mountain, sent out three scouting parties under Francisco +Pizarro, Juan de Escaray and Alonso Martin to +discover the best route to the shore. Martin's party +were first to reach it, after two days' journey, and +found there two large canoes. Martin stepped into +one of them, calling his companions to witness that he +was the first European who had ever embarked upon +those waters; Blas de Etienza, who followed, was the +second. They reported their success to Balboa, and +with twenty-six men the commander set out for the +sea-coast. The Indian chief Chiapes, whom Balboa +had fought and then made his ally, accompanied the +party with some of his followers. On Michaelmas +they reached the shore of a great bay, which in honor +of the day was christened Bay de San Miguel. The +tide was out, leaving a beach half a league wide covered +with mud, and the Spaniards sat down to rest and wait. +When it turned, it came in so fast that some who had +dropped asleep found it lapping the bank at their feet, +before they were fairly roused.</p> + +<p>Balboa stood up, and taking a banner which displayed <span class='pagenum'>[115]</span> +the arms of Castile and Leon, and the figure of +the Madonna and Child, he drew his sword and +marched into the sea. In a formal speech he again +took possession, in the names of the sovereigns, of the +seas and lands and coasts and ports, the islands of the +south, and all kingdoms and provinces thereunto appertaining. +These rights he declared himself ready to +maintain "until the day of judgment."</p> + +<p>While another document was receiving the signatures +of the members of the expedition, Saavedra, who +was standing near the margin of the bay, took up a +little water in his hand and tasted it. It was salt.</p> + +<p>In the excitement of actually reaching the coast of so +broad and beautiful a sea, no one had happened to +think of finding out whether the water was fresh or +salt. This discovery made it certain that they had +found, not a great inland lake, but the ocean itself.</p> + +<p>Pizarro scowled; he wished that he had not missed +this last chance of fame. Since he had discovered +nothing it was not likely that his name should be mentioned +in Balboa's report to the King, at all. But Balboa, +high in expectation of the change which this fortunate +adventure would make in his career, went on +triumphantly exploring the neighboring country, gaining +here and there considerable quantities of gold and +pearls. Saavedra, who had inherited an estate in +Spain just before the expedition started, and expected +on his return to Darien to go home to look after it, +watched Pizarro with growing distrust and anxiety.</p> + +<p>"I think you are ready to accuse him of witchcraft," +said Balboa lightly when Saavedra hinted at his suspicions. +"You have not given me one positive proof +that the man is anything but a rather sulky, unhappy +brute who has had ill luck."<span class='pagenum'>[116]</span></p> + +<p>"He is ill-bred, I tell you," said Saavedra stubbornly. +"He is making up to the Indians, and that is +not like him. We shall have trouble there yet."</p> + +<p>Balboa laughed and went to his hut, there to fling +himself into a hammock and take a much-needed nap. +Saavedra, coming back in the twilight, spied an Indian +creeping through the forest toward a window in the +rear of the hut. He was about to challenge the man +when there was a yelp from the bushes, and Cacafuego +leaped upon the prowler and bore him to earth, tearing +savagely at his throat and receiving half a dozen +wounds from the arrows the Indian carried in his hand +and in his belt. He had been trained by Pizarro to fly +at an Indian, and made no distinctions. Within an +hour or two the poison in the arrow-points began to +take effect, and the dog died. Whether he had been +prowling about in search of food—for Pizarro kept +him hungry with a view to making his temper more +touchy—or was looking for his old enemy Leoncico, +no one would ever know. Balboa looked grave and +said nothing.</p> + +<p>"The dog is dead—that is all that is absolutely +certain," said Saavedra grimly. "I wish it had been +his master."</p> + +<hr /> + +<h4 class="smcap">note</h4> + +<div class="footnotes"><div class="footnote"><p> +It is recorded that when Pizarro met Balboa with the order for his +arrest Balboa thus addressed him: "It is not thus, Pizarro, that you +were wont to greet me!" Pizarro's jealousy and ill-will are evident +in the recorded facts, though he does not appear to have been actually +guilty of treachery to his general.</p></div></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div><span class="back"><a href="#CONTENTS">[Contents]</a></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span></div> + +<h3><a name="COLD_O_THE_MOON" id="COLD_O_THE_MOON"></a>COLD O' THE MOON</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Alone with all the stars that rule mankind</span> +<span class="i0">Ruy Faleiro sought to read the fate</span> +<span class="i0">Of his close friend—now by the King's rebuke</span> +<span class="i0">Sent stumbling out of Portugal to seek</span> +<span class="i0">His fortune on the sea-roads of the world.</span> +<span class="i0">But when Faleiro read the horoscope</span> +<span class="i0">It seemed to point to glory—and a grave</span> +<span class="i0">Beyond the sunset.</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i10">When Magalhaens heard</span> +<span class="i0">The prophecy, he smiled, and steadfastly</span> +<span class="i0">Held on his way to that young Emperor,</span> +<span class="i0">The blond shy stripling with the Austrian face,</span> +<span class="i0">And in due time was Admiral of the Fleet</span> +<span class="i0">To sail the seas that lay beyond the world.</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Mid-August was it when the fleet set forth,</span> +<span class="i0">December, when in that Brazilian bay,</span> +<span class="i0">Santa Lucia, they dropped anchor,—then</span> +<span class="i0">Set up a little altar on the beach</span> +<span class="i0">And knelt at Mass in that gray solitude.</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Carvagio the pilot knew the place,</span> +<span class="i0">And said the folk were kindly,—brown, straight-haired,</span> +<span class="i0">Wore feather mantles, used no poisoned flints,</span> +<span class="i0">And only ate man's flesh on holidays.</span> +<span class="i0">Whereat a little daunted, not with fear,</span> +<span class="i0">The mariners met them running to the shore,</span> +<span class="i0">Bought swine of them, and plantains, cassava,</span> +<span class="i0">And for one playing card, the king of clubs,</span> +<span class="i0">The wild men gave six fowls! There were brown roots</span> +<span class="i0">Formed like the turnip, chestnut-like in taste</span> +<span class="i0">And called patata in ship-Spanish—cane</span> +<span class="i0">Wherefrom is made the sugar and the wine</span> +<span class="i0">Of Hispaniola, and the pineapple</span><span class='pagenum'>[118]</span> +<span class="i0">That was like nectar to their sea-parched throats.</span> +<span class="i0">And thus they feasted and were satisfied.</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Like an enchanted Eden seemed the land,</span> +<span class="i0">For birds on dazzling many-colored wings</span> +<span class="i0">Made the trees blossom—parrots red, green, blue,</span> +<span class="i0">Humming-birds like live jewels in the air,</span> +<span class="i0">Strange ducks with spoon-shaped bills,—and overhead</span> +<span class="i0">Like some fantastic frieze of living gold,</span> +<span class="i0">The little yellow monkeys leaped and swung</span> +<span class="i0">Chattering of Setebos in their unknown tongue.</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The old men lived beyond their sevenscore years—</span> +<span class="i0">Or so the people said. They made canots</span> +<span class="i0">Of logs that they carved out with heated stones.</span> +<span class="i0">They slept in hamacs, woven cotton swings.</span> +<span class="i0">Their chiefs were called cacichas—you may find</span> +<span class="i0">All this put down in the thrice precious book</span> +<span class="i0">Written by Pigafetta of Vicenza</span> +<span class="i0">For a queen's pleasure when the voyage was done.</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then from that shore they sailed, and southward bent,</span> +<span class="i0">And as the long days lengthened, till the nights</span> +<span class="i0">Were but star-circled midnight intervals,</span> +<span class="i0">They wondered of what race and by what seas</span> +<span class="i0">They should find kings at the antipodes.</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Where a great river flowed into the sea</span> +<span class="i0">They found sea-lions,—on another isle</span> +<span class="i0">Strange geese, milk-white and sable, with no wings,</span> +<span class="i0">Who swam instead of flying, and they called</span> +<span class="i0">The place the Isle of Penguins.</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i14">Then they found</span> +<span class="i0">A desolate harbor called San Juliano,</span> +<span class="i0">Where the fierce flame of mutiny broke forth,</span> +<span class="i0">Spaniard on Portuguese turned treacherously</span><span class='pagenum'>[119]</span> +<span class="i0">Till in the red midwinter sunrise towered</span> +<span class="i0">The place of execution, and an end</span> +<span class="i0">Was made of the two traitors. Outward flashed the sail</span> +<span class="i0">And left the sea-birds there to tell the tale.</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Beyond there lay a bleak and misty shore,</span> +<span class="i0">And in the fog a wild gigantic form</span> +<span class="i0">White-haired, a savage, called a greeting to them.</span> +<span class="i0">Friendly the huge men were, and took these men,</span> +<span class="i0">Bearded and strange, for kinfolk of their god,</span> +<span class="i0">Setebos, from his home beyond the moon,</span> +<span class="i0">And from their great shoes filled with straw for warm</span>th +<span class="i0">Magalhaens named them men of Patagonia.</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Westward they steered, and buffeted by winds,</span> +<span class="i0">They found a narrow channel, where the fleet</span> +<span class="i0">Halted for council. One returned to Spain</span> +<span class="i0">Laden with falsehood and with mutiny.</span> +<span class="i0">On sailed the others valiantly, their hearts</span> +<span class="i0">Remembering their Admiral's haughty words</span> +<span class="i0">Flung at his craven captain, "I will see</span> +<span class="i0">This great voyage to the end, though we should eat</span> +<span class="i0">The leather from the yards!" And thus they reached</span> +<span class="i0">The end of that strait path of Destiny,</span> +<span class="i0">And saw beyond the shining Western Sea.</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Northward the Admiral followed that long coast</span> +<span class="i0">Past Masafuera—then began his flight</span> +<span class="i0">Across the great uncharted shining sea.</span> +<span class="i0">And surely there was never stranger voyage.</span> +<span class="i0">The winds were gentle toward him, and no more</span> +<span class="i0">The dreadful laughter of the tempest shrilled,</span> +<span class="i0">Or down upon them pounced the hurricane.</span> +<span class="i0">Therefore Magalhaens, giving thanks to God,</span> +<span class="i0">Named it Pacific, and the lonely sea.</span> +<span class="i0">Still bore him westward where his heart would be.</span> +</div><span class='pagenum'>[120]</span> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Alone with all the stars of Christendom</span> +<span class="i0">He set his course,—if he had known his fate</span> +<span class="i0">Would he have stayed his hand? Before the end</span> +<span class="i0">Fate the old witch, who often loves to turn</span> +<span class="i0">A man's words on him, kept the ships becalmed</span> +<span class="i0">Even to thirst and famine; when instead</span> +<span class="i0">They fed on leather, gnawed wood, and ate mice</span> +<span class="i0">As did the Patagonian giants, when</span> +<span class="i0">They begged such vermin for a savage feast.</span> +<span class="i0">Then Fate, her jest outworn, blew them to shore</span> +<span class="i0">On the green islands called the Isles of Thieves,</span> +<span class="i0">And brought them to more islands—and still more,</span> +<span class="i0">A kingdom of bright lands in sunny seas.</span> +<span class="i0">Here did the Admiral land, and raise the Cross</span> +<span class="i0">Above that heathen realm,—and here went down</span> +<span class="i0">In battle for strange allies in strange lands.</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">So ended his adventure. Yet not so,</span> +<span class="i0">For the Victoria, faithful to his hand</span> +<span class="i0">That laid her charge upon her, southward sailed</span> +<span class="i0">Around the Cape and westward to Seville.</span> +<span class="i0">El Cano brought her in, and her strange tale</span> +<span class="i0">Told to the Emperor. "And the Admiral said,"</span> +<span class="i0">He ended, "that indeed these heathen lands</span> +<span class="i0">God meant should all be Christian, for He set</span> +<span class="i0">A cross of stars above the southern sea,</span> +<span class="i0">A passion-flower upon the southern shore,</span> +<span class="i0">To be a sign to great adventurers.</span> +<span class="i0">These be two marvels,—and upon the way</span> +<span class="i0">We gained a kingdom, but we lost a day!"</span> +</div></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div><span class="back"><a href="#CONTENTS">[Contents]</a></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span></div> + +<h2>IX</h2> + +<h3><a name="WAMPUM_TOWN" id="WAMPUM_TOWN"></a>WAMPUM TOWN</h3> + + +<p>"Elephants' teeth?"</p> + +<p>"A fair lot, but I am sick of the Guinea coast. +The Lisbon slavers get more of black ivory than we do +of the white."</p> + +<p>The good Jean Parmentier, who asked the question, +and the youth called Jean Florin, who answered it, +were looking at a stanch weather-beaten little cargo-ship +anchored in the harbor of Dieppe. She had been +to the Gold Coast, where wild African chiefs conjured +elephants' tusks out of the mysterious back country +and traded them for beads, trinkets and gay cloth. +In Dieppe this ivory was carved by deft artistic fingers +into crucifixes, rosaries, little caskets, and other exquisite +bibelots. African ivory was finer, whiter and +firmer than that of India, and when thus used was almost +as valuable as gold.</p> + +<p>But within the last ten years the slave trade had +grown more profitable than anything else. A Portuguese +captain would kidnap or purchase a few score negroes, +take them, chained and packed together like +convicts, to Lisbon or Seville and sell them for fat +gold moidores and doubloons. The Spanish conquistadores +had not been ten years in the West Indies before +they found that Indian slavery did not work. +The wild people, under the terrible discipline of the +mines and sugar plantations, died or killed themselves. <span class='pagenum'>[122]</span> +Planters of Hispaniola declared one negro slave worth +a dozen Indians.</p> + +<p>"I do not wonder that the cacique Hatuey told the +priest that he would burn forever rather than go to a +heaven where Spaniards lived," said Jean Florin. +"To roast a man is no way to change his religion."</p> + +<p>"Some of our folk in Rochelle are of that way of +thinking," agreed Captain Parmentier dryly. "What +say you to a western voyage?"</p> + +<p>"Not Brazil? Cabral claims that for Portugal."</p> + +<p>"No; the northern seas—the Baccalaos. Of +course codfish are not ivory, and it is rough service, but +Aubert and some of the others think that there may be +a way to India. Sebastian Cabot tried for it and +found only icebergs, but Aubert says there is a gulf or +strait somewhere south of Cabot's course, that leads +westward and has never been explored."</p> + +<p>"I am tired of the Guinea trade," the youth repeated; +"Cape Breton at any rate is not Spanish."</p> + +<p>"Not yet," said Jean Parmentier with emphasis.</p> + +<p>Thus it came about that when Aubert, in 1508, +poked the prow of his little craft into open water to the +west of the great island off which men fished for cod, +there stood beside him a young man who had been +learning navigation under his direction, and was now +called Jean Verassen. His real name was Giovanni +Verrazzano, but nobody in Dieppe knew who the Florentine +Verazzani might be, and during his apprenticeship +there he had been known as Florin—the +Florentine. In his boyhood the magnificent Medici, +the merchant princes, had ruled Florence. After the +fall of Constantinople he had seen the mastery of the +sea pass from Venice to Lisbon. When he left Florence +he followed the call of the sea-wind westward <span class='pagenum'>[123]</span> +until now he had cast his lot with the seafarers of +northern France, the only bit of the Continent that was +outside the shadow of the mighty power of Spain. +That shadow was growing bigger and darker year by +year. The heir to the Spanish throne, Charles, grandson +of Ferdinand and Isabella, would be emperor of +Germany, ruler of the Netherlands, King of Aragon, +Castile, Granada and Andalusia, and sovereign of all +the Spanish discoveries in the West; and no one knew +how far they might extend. France might have to +fight for her life.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Norman and Breton fishermen went +scudding across the North Atlantic every year, like so +many petrels. Honfleur, Saint Malo, La Rochelle and +Dieppe owed their modest prosperity to the cod. Baccalao, +codfish or stockfish, all its names referred to +the beating of the fish while drying, with a stick, to +make it more tender; it was cheaper and more plentiful +than any other fish for the Lenten tables and fast-days +of Europe. The daring French captains found +the fishing trade a hard life but a clean one.</p> + +<p>From the fishermen Aubert and Verrazzano had +learned something of the nature of the country. Bears +would come down to steal fish from under the noses of +the men. Walrus and seal and myriads of screaming +sea-gulls greeted them every season. The natives +were barbarous and unfriendly. North of Newfoundland +were two small islands known as the Isles of Demons, +where nobody ever went. Veteran pilots told +of hearing the unseen devils howling and shrieking in +the air. "Saint Michael! tintamarre terrible!" they +said, crossing themselves. The young Florentine listened +and kept his thoughts to himself. He had never +seen any devils, but he had seen men go mad in the <span class='pagenum'>[124]</span> +hot fever-mist of African swamps, thinking they saw +them.</p> + +<p>Aubert was not sure whether this was an inlet, a +strait or a river behind the great barren island. When +he had sailed westward for eighty leagues the water +was still salt. The banks had drawn closer together +and rude fortifications appeared on the heights. Canoes +put forth from the wooded shores and surrounded +the sailing ship. They were filled with copper-colored +warriors of threatening aspect.</p> + +<p>The French commander did not like what he saw. +He was not provisioned for a voyage around the world, +and if these waters were the eastern entrance to a +strait he might emerge upon a vast unknown ocean. +If on the other hand he was at the mouth of a river, +to ascend it might result in being cut off by hostile +savages, which would be most unpleasant. A third +consideration was that the inhabitants were said to live +on fish, game, and berries, none of which could be secured, +either peaceably or by fighting, in an enemy's +country. Making hostages of seven young savages +who climbed his bulwarks without any invitation, he +put about and sailed away. During the following year +the seven wild men were exhibited at Rouen and elsewhere.</p> + +<p>Aubert had made sure of one thing at least; the +land to the west was not in the least like the rich islands +which the Spanish held in the tropics. Except in +the brief season when the swarming cod filled the seines +of the fishermen, it yielded no wealth, not even in +slaves, for the fierce and shy natives would be almost +uncatchable and quite impossible to tame.</p> + +<p>Francis of Angoulême, the brilliant, reckless and +extravagant young French King, was hard pushed to <span class='pagenum'>[125]</span> +get money for his own Court, and was not interested +in expeditions whose only result might be glory. He +jested over the threatening Spanish dominion as he did +over everything else. Italian dukedoms were overrun +by troops from France, Spain, Austria and Switzerland, +and Francis welcomed Italian artists, architects +and poets to his capital. When the plague attacked +Paris he removed to one of the royal châteaux in the +country or paid visits to great noblemen like his cousin +Charles de Bourbon. It was in 1522 at Moulins, the +splendid country estate of the Duc de Bourbon, that +the monarch met a captain of whom he had heard a +great deal—all of it gratifying. He had in mind a +new enterprise for this Verrazzano.</p> + +<p>During the last seven or eight years Verrazzano, +like many other captains, had been engaged in the +peculiar kind of expedition dubbed piracy or privateering +according to the person speaking. France and +Spain were neither exactly at peace nor openly at war. +The Florentine had gone out upon the high seas in +command of a ship fitted out and armed at his own risk, +and fought Spanish galleons wherever he met them. +This helped to embarrass the King of Spain in his wars +abroad. Galleons eastward bound were usually treasure-ships. +The colonial governors, planters, captains +and common soldiers took all the gold they could get +for themselves, and the gold, silver and pearls that +went as tribute to the royal master in Spain had to run +the gauntlet of these fierce and fearless sea-wolves. +The wealth of the Indies was really a possession of +doubtful value. It attracted pirates as honey draws +flies. When these pirates turned a part of their spoils +over to kings who were not friendly to Spain, it was +particularly exasperating.<span class='pagenum'>[126]</span></p> + +<p>Francis had asked Verrazzano to come to Moulins +because, from what he had heard, it seemed to him +that here was a man who could take care of himself +and hold his tongue, and he liked such men. The experience +reminded the Florentine of the great days of +the Medici. Charles de Bourbon's palace at Moulins +was fit for a king. Unlike most French châteaux, +which were built on low lands among the hunting forests, +it stood on a hill in a great park, and was surrounded +with terraces, fountains, and gardens in the +Italian style. Moreover its furniture was permanent, +not brought in for royal guests and then taken away. +The richness and beauty of its tapestries, state beds, +decorations, and other belongings was beyond anything +in any royal palace of that time. The duke's household +included five hundred gentlemen in rich suits of +Genoese velvet, each wearing a massive gold chain +passing three times round the neck and hanging low +in front; they attended the guests in divisions, one hundred +at a time.</p> + +<p>The feasting was luxurious, and many of its choice +dishes were supplied by the estate. There were rare +fruits and herbs in the gardens, and a great variety of +game-birds and animals in the park and the forest. +But there were also imported delicacies—Windsor +beans, Genoa artichokes, Barbary cucumbers and Milan +parsley. The first course consisted of Médoc oysters, +followed by a light soup. The fish course included the +royal sturgeon, the dorado or sword-fish, the turbot. +Then came heron, cooked in the fashion of the day, +with sugar, spice and orange-juice; olives, capers and +sour fruits; pheasants, red-legged partridges, and the +favorite roast, sucking-pig parboiled and then roasted <span class='pagenum'>[127]</span> +with a stuffing of chopped meats, herbs, raisins and +damson plums. There were salads of fruit,—such +as the King's favorite of oranges, lemons and sugar +with sweet herbs,—or of herbs, such as parsley and +mint with pepper, cinnamon and vinegar. For dessert +there were Italian ices and confectionery, and the +Queen's favorite plum, Reine Claude, imported from +Italy; the white wine called Clairette-au-miel, hypocras, +gooseberry and plum wines, lemonade, champagne. +There was never a King who could appreciate +such artistic luxury more deeply than Francis I. This +may be one reason for his warm welcome of Verrazzano, +who seemed to be able to increase the wealth of +his country and his King.</p> + +<p>"I have had a very indignant visit from the Spanish +ambassador," said Francis when they were seated +together in a private room. "He says that there has +been piracy on the high seas, my Verrazzano."</p> + +<p>The Italian met the laughing glance of the King +with a somber gleam in his own dark eyes. "Does +one steal from a robber?" he asked. "Not a quill +of gold-dust nor an ingot of silver nor a seed-pearl +comes honestly to Spain. It is all cruelty, bribery, slavery. +Savonarola threatened Lorenzo de' Medici with +eternal fires, prince as he was, for sins that were peccadilloes +beside those of Spanish governors."</p> + +<p>"There is something in what you say," assented +Francis lightly. "If we get the treasure of the Indies +without owning the Indies we are certainly rid of +much trouble. I never heard of Father Adam making +any will dividing the earth between our brother of +Spain and our brother of Portugal. Unless they can +find such a document—" the laughing face hardened <span class='pagenum'>[128]</span> +suddenly into keen attention, "we may as well take +what we can get where we can find it. And now about +this road to India; what have you to suggest?"</p> + +<p>Verrazzano outlined his plans in brief speech and +clear. The proposed voyage might have two objects; +one, the finding of a route to Asia if it existed; the +other, the discovery of other countries from which +wealth might be gained, in territory not yet explored. +Verrazzano pointed out the fact that, as the earth +was round, the shortest way to India ought to be near +the pole rather than near the equator, yet far enough +to the south to escape the danger of icebergs.</p> + +<p>"Very well then,"—the King pondered with finger +on cheek. "Say as little as possible of your preparations, +use your own discretion, and if any Spaniards +try to interfere with you—" the monarch grinned,—"tell +them that it is my good pleasure that my subjects +go where they like."</p> + +<p>The Spanish agents in France presently informed +their employer that the Florentine Verrazzano was +again making ready to sail for regions unknown. Perhaps +he did not himself know where he should go; at +any rate the spies had not been able to find out.</p> + +<p>Two months later news came that before Verrazzano +had gone far enough to be caught by the squadron +lying in wait for him, he had pounced on the +great carrack which had been sent home by Cortes +loaded with Aztec gold. In convoying this prize to +France he had caught another galleon coming from +Hispaniola with a cargo of gold and pearls, and the +two rich trophies were now in the harbor of La +Rochelle, where the audacious captain was doubtless +making ready for another piratical voyage.</p> + +<p>Verrazzano made a second start a little later, but <span class='pagenum'>[129]</span> +was driven back by a Biscay storm. Finally, toward +the end of the year 1523, he set out once more with +only one ship, the <i>Dauphine</i>, out of his original fleet of +four, and neither friend nor foe caught a glimpse of +him during the voyage. In March, 1524, having +sailed midway between the usual course of the West +Indian galleons and the path of the fishers going to +and from the Banks of Newfoundland, he saw land +which he felt sure had not been discovered either by +ancient or modern explorers.</p> + +<p>It was a low shore on which the fine sand, some fifteen +feet deep, lay drifted into hillocks or dunes. +Small creeks and inlets ran inland, but there seemed to +be no good harbor. Beyond the sand-dunes were forests +of cypress, palm, bay and other trees, and the wind +bore the scent of blossoming trees and vines far out to +sea. For fifty leagues the <i>Dauphine</i> followed the +coast southward, looking for a harbor, for Verrazzano +knew that pearl fisheries and spices were far more likely +to be found in southern than in northern waters. No +harbor appeared. The daring navigator knew that +if he went too far south he ran some risk of encountering +a Spanish fleet, and that after his getting two of +the most valuable cargoes ever sent over seas, they +would be patroling all the tropical waters in the hope +of catching him. He turned north again.</p> + +<p>On the shore from time to time little groups of +savages appeared moving about great bonfires, and +watching the ship. They wore hardly any clothing +except the skin of some small animal like a marten, attached +to a belt of woven grass; their skins were russet-brown +and their thick straight black hair was tied +in a knot rather like a tail.</p> + +<p>"One thing is certain," said young François Parmentier<span class='pagenum'>[130]</span> +cheerfully, "these folk have never seen Spaniards—or +Portuguese. Even on the Labrador the +people ran from us, after Cortereale went slave-stealing +there."</p> + +<p>Verrazzano smiled. Young Parmentier was always +full of hope and faith. A little later the youth volunteered +to be one of a boat's crew sent ashore for water, +and provided himself with a bagful of the usual trinkets +for gifts. The surf ran so high that the boat could +not land, and François leaped overboard and swam +ashore. Here he scattered his wares among the watching +Indians, and then, leaping into the waves again, +struck out for the boat. But the surf dashed him back +upon the sand into the very midst of the natives, who +seized him by the arms and legs and carried him toward +the fire, while he yelled with astonishment and terror.</p> + +<p>Verrazzano was if anything more horrified than +François himself; this was the son of his oldest friend. +The Indians were removing his clothing as if they +were about to roast him alive. But it appeared presently +that they only wished to dry his clothes and comfort +him, for they soon allowed him to return to the +boat, seeing this was his earnest desire, and watched +him with the greatest friendliness as he swam back.</p> + +<p>No strait appeared, but at one point Verrazzano, +landing and marching into the interior with an exploring +party, found a vast expanse of water on the other +side of what seemed a neck of land between the two +seas, about six miles in width. If this were the South +Sea, the same which Balboa had seen from the Isthmus +of Darien, so narrow a strip of land was at least as +good or better than anything possessed by Spain. Verrazzano +continued northward, and found a coast rich +in grapes, the vines often covering large trees around <span class='pagenum'>[131]</span> +which the natives kept the ground clear of shrubs that +might interfere with this natural vineyard. Wild +roses, violets, lilies, iris and many other plants and +flowers, some quite unknown to Europe, greeted the +admiring gaze of the commander. His quick mind +pictured a royal garden adorned with these foreign +shrubs and herbs, the wainscoting and furniture to be +made by French and Italian joiners from these endless +leagues of timber, the stately churches and castles +which might be built by skilful masons from the abundant +stone along these shores. Here was a province +which, if it had not gold, had the material for many +luxuries which must otherwise be bought with gold, and +his clear Italian brain perceived that ingots of gold and +silver are not the only treasure of kings.</p> + +<p>At last the <i>Dauphine</i> came into a harbor or lake +three leagues in circumference, where more than thirty +canoes were assembled, filled with people. Suddenly +François Parmentier leaped to his feet and waved his +cap with a shout.</p> + +<p>"Now what madness has taken you?" queried Verrazzano.</p> + +<p>"I know where we are, that's all. This is Wampum +Town,—L'Anormé Berge—the Grand Scarp. +This is one of their great trading places, Captain. +Father heard about it at Cape Breton from some +south-country savages."</p> + +<p>"And what may wampum be?" asked Verrazzano +coolly.</p> + +<p>"'T is the stuff they use for money—bits of shell +made into beads and strung into a belt. There is an +island in this bay where they make it out of their shell-fish +middens—two kinds—purple and white. On +my word, this big chief has on a wampum belt now!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span></p> + +<p>This was interesting information indeed, and the +natives seemed prepared to traffic in all peace and +friendliness. Verrazzano found upon investigation +that on the north of this bay a very large river, deep +at the mouth, came down between steep hills. Afterward, +following the shore to the east, he discovered +a fine harbor beyond a three-cornered island. Here +he met two chiefs of that country, a man of about +forty, and a young fellow of twenty-four, dressed in +quaintly decorated deerskin mantles, with chains set +with colored stones about their necks. He stayed two +weeks, refitting the ship with provisions and other necessaries, +and observing the place. The crew got by +trading and as gifts the beans and corn cultivated by +the people, wild fruits and nuts, and furs. Further +north they found the tribes less friendly, and at last +came so near the end of their provision that Verrazzano +decided to return to France. He reached home +July 8, 1524, after having sailed along seven hundred +leagues of the Atlantic coast.</p> + +<div><span class="back"><a href="#LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">[Illustrations]</a></span></div> + +<div class="center"><div class="figcenter" style="width: 425px;"> +<img src="images/illus-0341-1.jpg" width="425" height="600" alt=""The natives seemed prepared to traffic in all peace and friendliness"—Page 132" title=""The natives seemed prepared to traffic in all peace and friendliness"—Page 132" /> +<span class="caption">"The natives seemed prepared to traffic in all peace and friendliness"—<i>Page 132</i></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Francis I. was in the thick of a disastrous war with +Spain, and had not time just then to consider further +explorations. The war was not fairly over when a +Cadiz warship, in 1527, caught Verrazzano and +hanged him as a pirate.</p> + +<hr /> + +<h4 class="smcap">note</h4> + +<div class="footnotes"><div class="footnote"><p> +The not unnatural conclusion of Verrazzano that what he saw was +an ocean or a great inland sea led to extraordinary misconceptions in +the maps and charts of the time. It was not until the early part of +the seventeenth century that the region was actually explored, by +Newport and Smith, and found to be only Chesapeake Bay.</p></div></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div><span class="back"><a href="#CONTENTS">[Contents]</a></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span></div> + +<h3><a name="THE_DRUM" id="THE_DRUM"></a>THE DRUM</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I wake the gods with my sullen boom—</span> +<span class="i2">am the Drum!</span> +<span class="i0">They wait for the blood-red flowers that bloom</span> +<span class="i0">In the heart of the sacrifice, there in the gloom</span> +<span class="i2">With terror dumb—</span> +<span class="i0">I sound the call to his dreadful doom—</span> +<span class="i2">I am the Drum!</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">I was the Serpent, the Sacred Snake—</span> +<span class="i2">Wolf, bear and fox</span> +<span class="i0">By the silent shores of river and lake</span> +<span class="i0">Tread softly, listening lest they wake</span> +<span class="i2">My voice that mocks</span> +<span class="i0">The rattle that falling bones will make</span> +<span class="i2">On barren rocks.</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">My banded skin is the voice of the Priest—</span> +<span class="i2">I am the Drum!</span> +<span class="i0">I sound the call to the War-God's feast</span> +<span class="i0">Till Tezcatlipoca's power hath ceased</span> +<span class="i2">And the White Gods come</span> +<span class="i0">Out of the fire of the burning East—</span> +<span class="i2">Hear me, the Drum!</span> +</div></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div><span class="back"><a href="#CONTENTS">[Contents]</a></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span></div> + +<h2>X</h2> + +<h3><a name="THE_GODS_OF_TAXMAR" id="THE_GODS_OF_TAXMAR"></a>THE GODS OF TAXMAR</h3> + +<p>If the Fathers of the Church had ever been on the +other side of the world, they would have made new +rules for it.</p> + +<p>So thought Jerónimo Aguilar, on board a caravel +plying between Darien and Hispaniola. It was a +thought he would hardly have dared think in Spain.</p> + +<p>He was a dark thin young friar from the mountains +near Seville. In 1488 his mother, waiting, as women +must, for news from the wars, vowed that if God and +the Most Catholic Sovereigns drove out the Moors +and sent her husband home to her, she would give her +infant son to the Church. That was twenty-four +years ago, and never had the power of the Church +been so great as it now was. When the young Fray +Jerónimo had been moved by fiery missionary preaching +to give himself to the work among the Indians, +his mother wept with astonishment and pride.</p> + +<p>But the Indies he found were not the Indies he had +heard of. Men who sailed from Cadiz valiant if +rough and hard-bitted soldiers of the Cross, turned +into cruel adventurers greedy for gold, hard masters +abusing their power. The innocent wild people of +Colón's island Eden were charged by the planters with +treachery, theft, murderous conspiracy, and utter laziness. +With a little bitter smile Aguilar remembered +how the hidalgo, who would not dig to save his life, <span class='pagenum'>[135]</span> +railed at the Indian who died of the work he had never +learned to do. It was not for a priest to oppose the +policy of the Church and the Crown, and very few +priests attempted it, whatever cruelty they might see. +Aguilar half imagined that the demon gods of the +heathen were battling against the invading apostles of +the Cross, poisoning their hearts and defeating their +aims. It was all like an evil enchantment.</p> + +<p>These meditations were ended by a mighty buffet of +wind that smote the caravel and sent it flying northwest. +Ourakan was abroad, the Carib god of the +hurricane, and no one could think of anything thereafter +but the heaving, tumbling wilderness of black +waves and howling tempest and hissing spray. Valdivia, +regidor of Darien, had been sent to Hispaniola +by Balboa, the governor, with important letters and a +rich tribute of gold, to get supplies and reinforcements +for the colony. Shipwreck would be disastrous to Balboa +and his people as well as to the voyagers.</p> + +<p>Headlong the staggering ship was driven upon Los +Viboros, (The Vipers) that infamous group of hidden +rocks off Jamaica. She was pounded to pieces almost +before Valdivia could get his one boat into the water, +with its crew of twenty men. Without food or drink, +sails or proper oars, the survivors tossed for thirteen +dreadful days on the uncharted cross-currents of unknown +seas. Seven died of hunger, thirst and exposure +before the tide that drifted northwest along the coast +of the mainland caught them and swept them ashore.</p> + +<p>None of them had ever seen this coast. Valdivia +cherished a faint hope that it might be a part of the +kingdom of walled cities and golden temples, of which +they had all heard. There were traces of human presence, +and they could see a cone-shaped low hill with a <span class='pagenum'>[136]</span> +stone temple or building of some kind on the top. +Natives presently appeared, but they broke the boat +in pieces and dragged the castaways inland through the +forest to the house of their cacique.</p> + +<p>That chief, a villainous looking savage in a thatched +hut, looked at them as if they had been cattle—or +slaves—or condemned heretics. What they thought, +felt or hoped was nothing to him. He ordered them +taken to a kind of pen, where they were fed. So great +is the power of the body over the mind that for a few +days they hardly thought of anything but the unspeakable +joy of having enough to eat and drink, and nothing +to do but sleep. The cacique visited the enclosure now +and then, and looked them over with a calculating eye. +Aguilar was haunted by the idea that this inspection +meant something unpleasant.</p> + +<p>All too soon the meaning was made known to them. +Valdivia and four other men who were now less gaunt +and famine-stricken than when captured, were seized +and taken away, to be sacrificed to the gods.</p> + +<p>It was the custom of the Mayas of Yucatan to sacrifice +human beings, captives or slaves for choice, to +the gods in whose honor the stone pyramids were +raised. When the victim had been led up the winding +stairway to the top, the central figure in a procession +of priests and attendants, he was laid upon a stone +altar and his heart was cut out and offered to the idol, +after which the body was eaten at a ceremonial feast. +The eight captives who remained now understood that +the food they had had was meant merely to fatten them +for future sacrifice. Half mad with horror, they +crouched in the hot moist darkness, and listened to the +uproar of the savages.</p> + +<p>A strong young sailor by the name of Gonzalo Guerrero, <span class='pagenum'>[137]</span> +who had done good service during the hurricane, +pulled Jerónimo by the sleeve, "What in the name +of all the saints can we do, Padre?" he muttered. +"José and the rest will be raving maniacs."</p> + +<p>Aguilar straightened himself and rose to his feet +where the rays of the moon, white and calm, shone into +the enclosure. Lifting his hands to heaven he began +to pray.</p> + +<p>All he had learned from books and from the disputations +and sermons of the Fathers fell away from +him and left only the bare scaffolding, the faith of his +childhood. At the familiar syllables of the Ave Maria +the shuddering sailors hushed their cries and oaths and +listened, on their knees.</p> + +<p>This was a handful of castaways in the clutch of a +race of man-eaters who worshiped demons. But above +them bent the tender and pitiful Mother of Christ who +had seen her Son crucified, and Christ Himself stood +surrounded by innumerable witnesses. Among the +saints were some who had died at the hands of the +heathen, many who had died by torture. The poor +and ignorant men who listened were caught up for the +moment into the vision of Fray Jerónimo and regained +their self-control. When the prayer was ended Gonzalo +Guerrero sprang up, and rallied them to furious +labor. Under his direction and Aguilar's they dug +and wrenched at their cage like desperate rats, until +they broke away enough of it just to let a man's body +through. Aguilar was the last to go. He closed the +hole and heaped rubbish outside it, as rubbish and +branches had been piled where they were used to sleep, +to delay as long as possible the discovery of their escape. +They got clear away into the depths of the +forest.<span class='pagenum'>[138]</span></p> + +<p>But for men without provisions or weapons the wilderness +of that unknown land was only less dreadful +than death. Trees and vines barren of fruit, streams +where a huge horny lizard ate all the fish—El Lagarto +he was called by the discoverers,—no grain or +cattle which might be taken by stealth—this was the +realm into which they had been exiled. When they +ventured out of the forest, driven by famine, they were +captured by Acan Xooc, the cacique of another province, +Jamacana. Here they were made slaves, to cut +wood, carry water and bear burdens. Water was +scarce in that region. There had been reservoirs, built +in an earlier day, but these were ruined, and water had +to be carried in earthern jars. The cacique died, and +another named Taxmar succeeded him. Year after +year passed. The soul of one worn-out white man +slipped away, followed by another, and another, until +only Aguilar and Guerrero were left alive.</p> + +<p>Taxmar sent the sailor as a present to a friend, +cacique of Chatemal, but kept Aguilar for himself, +watching his ways.</p> + +<p>The cacique was a sagacious heathen of considerable +experience, but he had never seen a man like this one. +Jerónimo was now almost as dark as an Indian and +had not a scrap of civilized clothing, yet he was unlike +the other white men, unlike any other slave. He had +a string of dried berries with a cross made of reeds +hung from it, which he sometimes appeared to be +counting, talking to himself in his own language. +Taxmar had once seen a slave from the north who had +been a priest in his own country and knew how to remember +things by string-talk, knotting a string in a +peculiar fashion; but he was not like this man. When <span class='pagenum'>[139]</span> +the white slave saw the crosses carved on their old +walls he had eagerly asked how they came there, and +Taxmar gathered that the cross had some meaning in +the captive's own religion. He never lied, never stole, +never got angry, never tattled of the other slaves, +never disobeyed orders, never lost his temper. Taxmar +could not remember when he himself had ever +been restrained by anything but policy from taking +whatever he wanted. Here was a man who could deny +himself even food at times, when he was not compelled +to. Taxmar could not understand.</p> + +<p>What he did not know was, that when he had escaped +from the cannibals Aguilar had made a fresh +vow to keep with all strictness every vow of his priesthood, +and to bear his lot with patience and meekness +until it should be the will of God to free him from the +savages. He had begun to think that this freedom +would never be his in his lifetime, but a vow was a +vow. He no more suspected that Taxmar was taking +note of his behavior, than a man standing in front of +the lion's cage at the menagerie can translate the +thoughts behind the great cat's intent eyes.</p> + +<p>Taxmar began to try experiments. He invented +temptations to put in the way of his slave, but Aguilar +generally did not seem to see them. One day the Indians +were shooting at a mark. One came up to +Aguilar and seized him by the arm.</p> + +<p>"How would you like to be shot at?" he said. +"These bowmen hit whatever they aim at—if they +aim at a nose they hit a nose. They can shoot so near +you that they miss only by the breadth of a grain of +corn—or do not miss at all."</p> + +<p>Aguilar never flinched, although from what he knew <span class='pagenum'>[140]</span> +of the savages he thought nothing more likely than his +being set up for a San Sebastian. He answered +quietly,</p> + +<p>"I am your slave, and you can do with me what you +please. I think you are too wise to destroy one who is +both useful and obedient."</p> + +<p>The suggestion had been made by the order of Taxmar, +and the answer was duly reported to him.</p> + +<p>It took a long time to satisfy the chief that this +man who seemed so extraordinary was really what he +seemed. He came at last to trust him wholly, even +making him the steward of his household and leaving +him to protect his women in his absence. Finding the +chief thus disposed, Aguilar ventured a suggestion. +Guerrera had won great favor with his master by his +valor in war. Aguilar was shrewd enough to know +that though it was very pleasant to have his master's +confidence, if anything happened to Taxmar he might +be all the worse off. The only sure way to win the +respect of these barbarians was by efficiency as a soldier. +Taxmar upon request gave his steward the military +outfit of the Mayas—bow and arrows, wicker-work +shield, and war-club, with a dagger of obsidian, +a volcanic stone very hard and capable of being made +very keen of edge, but brittle. Jerónimo when a boy +had been an expert archer, and his old skill soon returned. +He also remembered warlike devices and +stratagems he had seen and heard of. Old soldiers +chatting with his father in the purple twilight had often +fought their battles over again, and nearly every form +of military tactics then known to civilized armies had +been used in the war in Granada. Naturally the +young friar had heard more or less discussion of military +campaigns in Darien. His suggestions were so <span class='pagenum'>[141]</span> +much to the point that Taxmar had an increased respect +for the gods of that unknown land of his. If +they could do so much for this slave, without even demanding +any offerings, they must be very different +from the gods of the Mayas.</p> + +<p>In reply to Taxmar's questions, Aguilar, who now +spoke the language quite well, endeavored to explain +the nature of his religion. Not many of the Spaniards +who expected to convert the Indians went so far as +this. If they could by any means whatever make their +subjects call themselves Christians and observe the +customs of the Church, it was all they attempted. +Taxmar was not the sort of person to be converted in +that informal way. He demanded reasons. If +Aguilar advised him against having unhappy people +murdered to bribe the gods for their help in the coming +campaign, he wished to know what the objection was, +and what the white chiefs did in such a case. The idea +of sacrificing to one's god, not the lives of men, but +one's own will and selfish desires, was entirely new to +him.</p> + +<p>While Jerónimo was still wrestling with the problem +of making the Christian faith clear to one single Indian +out of the multitudes of the heathen, a neighboring +cacique appeared on the scene,—jealous, angry and +suspicious. He had heard, he said, that Taxmar +sought the aid of a stranger, who worshiped strange +gods, in a campaign directed against his neighbors. +He wished to know if Taxmar considered this right. +In his own opinion this stranger ought to be sacrificed +to the gods of the Mayas after the usual custom, or the +gods would be angry,—and then no one knew what +would happen.</p> + +<p>Aguilar thought it possible that Taxmar might reply <span class='pagenum'>[142]</span> +that the conduct of an army was no one's business but +the chief's. That would be in line with the cacique's +character as he knew it. He did not expect that any +chief in that ancient land would dare to defy its gods +openly.</p> + +<p>Taxmar did not meet the challenge at once. His +deep set opaque black eyes and mastiff-like mouth +looked as immovable as the carving on the basalt stool +upon which he sat. The cacique thought he was impressed, +and concluded triumphantly,</p> + +<p>"Who can resist the gods? Let the altar drink the +blood of the stranger; it is sweet to them and they will +sleep, and not wake."</p> + +<p>"I shall do nothing of the kind," said Taxmar, the +clicking, bubbling Maya talk dropping like water on +hot stones. "When a man serves me well, I do not +reward him with death. My slave's wisdom is greater +than the craft of Coyotl, and if his gods help me it is +because they know enough to do right."</p> + +<p>The other chief went home in rage and disappointment +and offended dignity.</p> + +<p>No one, who has not tried it, can imagine the sensation +of living in a hostile land, removed from all that +is familiar. Until his captivity began Aguilar had +never been obliged to act for himself. He had always +been under the authority of a superior. He had questioned +and wondered, seen the injustice of this thing +and that, but only in his own mind. When everything +in his past life had been swept away at one stroke, his +faith alone was left him in the wrecked and distorted +world. He had never dreamed that Taxmar was +learning to respect that faith.</p> + +<p>The neighboring cacique now joined Taxmar's enemies <span class='pagenum'>[143]</span> +with all his army, and the councilors took alarm +and repeated the suggestion that Aguilar should be +sacrificed to make sure of the help of the gods. Taxmar +again spoke plainly.</p> + +<p>"Our gods," he said, "have helped us when we +were strong and powerful and sacrificed many captives +in their honor. This man's gods help him when he is +a slave, alone, far from his people, with nothing to +offer in sacrifice. We will see now what they will do +for my army."</p> + +<p>In the battle which followed, the cacique adopted a +plan which Aguilar suggested. That loyal follower +was placed in command of a force hidden in the woods +near the route by which the enemy would arrive. The +hostile forces marched past it, and charged upon the +front of Taxmar's army. It gave way, and they +rushed in with triumphant yells. When they were +well past, Aguilar's division came out of the bushes and +took them in the rear. At the same instant Taxmar +and his warriors faced about and sprang at them like +a host of panthers. There was a great slaughter, +many prisoners were taken, among them the cacique +himself and many men of importance; and Taxmar +made a little speech to them upon the wisdom of the +white man's gods.</p> + +<p>In the years that passed the captive's hope of escape +faded. Once he had thought he might slip away and +reach the coast, but he was too carefully watched. +Even if he could get to the sea from so far inland, +without the help of the natives, he could not reach any +Spanish colony without a boat. There were rumors +of strange ships filled with bearded men, whose weapons +were the thunder and the lightning. Old people <span class='pagenum'>[144]</span> +wagged their heads and recalled a prophecy of the +priest Chilam Cambal many years ago, that a white +people, bearded, would come from the east, to overturn +the images of the gods, and conquer the land.</p> + +<p>Hernando de Córdova's squadron came and went; +Grijalva's came and went; Aguilar heard of them but +never saw them. At last, seven long years after he +came to Jamacana, three coast Indians from the island +of Cozumel came timidly to the cacique with gifts and +a letter. The gifts were for Taxmar, to buy his +Christian slaves, if he had any, and the letter was for +them.</p> + +<p>Hernando Cortes, coming from Cuba with a squadron +to discover and conquer the land ruled by the Lord +of the Golden House, had stopped at Cozumel and +there heard of white men held as captives somewhere +inland. He had persuaded the Indians to send messengers +for them, saying that if the captives were sent +to the sea-coast, at the cape of Cotoche, he would leave +two caravels there eight days, to wait for them.</p> + +<p>While Aguilar read this letter the Indians were +telling of the water-houses of the strangers, their sharp +weapons, their command of thunder and lightning, and +the wonderful presents they gave in exchange for what +they wanted. Aguilar's account of the squadron was +even more complete. He described the dress of the +Spaniards, their weapons and their manner of life +without having seen them at all, and the Indians, when +asked, said it was so.</p> + +<p>Taxmar's acute mind was adjusting itself to this +event, which was not altogether unexpected. He had +heard more than Aguilar had about the previous visits +of the Spaniards to that coast. He asked Aguilar if <span class='pagenum'>[145]</span> +he thought that the strange warriors would accept him, +their countryman, as ambassador, and deal mildly with +Taxmar and his people, if they let him go. Aguilar +answered that he thought they would.</p> + +<p>Now freedom was within his grasp, and only one +thing delayed him. He could not leave his comrade +Guerrero behind. The sailor had married the daughter +of a chief and become a great man in his adopted +country. Aguilar sent Indian messengers with the letter +and a verbal message, and waited.</p> + +<p>Guerrero had never known much about reading, and +he had forgotten nearly all he knew. He understood, +however, that he could now return to Spain. Before +his eyes rose a picture of the lofty austere sierras, the +sunny vineyards, the wine, so unlike pulque, the bread, +so unlike flat cakes of maize, the maidens of Barcelona +and Malaga, so very different from tattooed Indian +girls. And then he surveyed his own brawny arms and +legs, and felt of his own grotesquely ornamented +countenance.</p> + +<p>To please the taste of his adopted people he had let +himself be decorated as they were, for life,—with +tattooed pictures, with nose-ring, with ear-rings of +gold set with rudely cut gems and heavy enough to +drag down the lobe of the ear. He would cut a figure +in the streets of Seville. The little boys would run +after him as if he were a show. He grinned, sighed +mightily, and sent word to Aguilar that he thought it +wiser to stay where he was. Aguilar set out for the +coast with the Cozumel Indians, but this delay had consumed +all of the eight days appointed, and when they +reached Point Cotoche the caravels had gone.</p> + +<p>But a broken canoe and a stave from a water-barrel +lay on the beach, and with the help of the messengers <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[146]</a></span> +Aguilar patched up the canoe, and with the board for a +paddle, made the canoe serve his need. Following the +coast they came to the narrowest part of the channel +between the mainland and Cozumel, and in spite of a +very strong current got across to the island. No +sooner had they landed when some Spaniards rushed +out of the bushes, with drawn swords. The Indians +were about to fly in terror, but Aguilar called to them +in their own language to have no fear. Then he spoke +to the Spaniards in broken Castilian, saying that he +was a Christian, fell on his knees and thanked God that +he had lived to hear his own language again.</p> + +<p>The Spaniards looked at this strange figure in absolute +bewilderment. He was to all appearance an +Indian. His long hair was braided and wound about +his head, he had a bow in his hand, a quiver of arrows +on his back, a bag of woven grass-work hung about his +neck by a long cord. The pattern of the weaving was +a series of interwoven crosses. Cortes, giving up hope +of rescuing any Christian captives, had left the island, +but one of his ships had sprung a leak and he had put +back. When he saw an Indian canoe coming he had +sent scouts to see what it might be. They now led +Jerónimo Aguilar and his Indian companions into the +presence of the captain-general and his staff. Aguilar +saluted Cortes in the Indian fashion, by carrying his +hand from the ground to his forehead as he knelt +crouching before him. But Cortes, when he understood +who this man was, raised him to his feet, embraced +him and flung about his shoulders his own +cloak. Aguilar became his interpreter, and thus was +the prophecy fulfilled concerning the gods of Taxmar.</p> + +<div><span class="back"><a href="#LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">[Illustrations]</a></span></div> + +<div class="center"><div class="figcenter" style="width: 411px;"> +<img src="images/illus-170.png" width="411" height="600" alt=""Cortes flung about his shoulders his own cloak."—Page 146" title=""Cortes flung about his shoulders his own cloak."—Page 146" /> +<span class="caption">"Cortes flung about his shoulders his own cloak."—<i>Page 146</i></span> +</div></div> + +<hr /> +<div><span class='pagenum'>[147]</span></div> + +<h4 class="smcap">note</h4> + +<div class="footnotes"><div class="footnote"><p> +The story of Jerónimo Aguilar follows the actual facts very closely. +The account of his adventures will be found in Irving's "Life of +Columbus" and other works dealing with the history of the Spanish +conquests.</p></div></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div><span class="back"><a href="#CONTENTS">[Contents]</a></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[148]</a></span></div> + +<h3><a name="A_LEGEND_OF_MALINCHE" id="A_LEGEND_OF_MALINCHE"></a>A LEGEND OF MALINCHE</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">O sorcerer Time, turn backward to the shore</span> +<span class="i2">Where it is always morning, and the birds</span> +<span class="i0">Are troubadours of all the hidden lore</span> +<span class="i2">Deeper than any words!</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">There lived a maiden once,—O long ago,</span> +<span class="i2">Ere men were grown too wise to understand</span> +<span class="i0">The ancient language that they used to know</span> +<span class="i2">In Quezalcoatl's land.</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Though her own mother sold her for a slave,</span> +<span class="i2">Her own bright beauty as her only dower,</span> +<span class="i0">Into her slender hands the conqueror gave</span> +<span class="i2">A more than queenly power.</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Between her people and the enemy—</span> +<span class="i2">The fierce proud Spaniard on his conquest bent—</span> +<span class="i0">Interpreter and interceder, she</span> +<span class="i2">In safety came and went.</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And still among the wild shy forest folk</span> +<span class="i0">The birds are singing of her, and her name</span> +<span class="i0">Lives in that language that her people spoke</span> +<span class="i2">Before the Spaniard came.</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">She is not dead, the daughter of the Sun,—</span> +<span class="i2">By love and loyalty divinely stirred,</span> +<span class="i0">She lives forever—so the legends run,—</span> +<span class="i2">Returning as a bird.</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Who but a white bird in her seaward flight</span> +<span class="i2">Saw, borne upon the shoulders of the sea,</span> +<span class="i0">Three tiny caravels—how small and light</span> +<span class="i2">To hold a world in fee!</span> +</div><span class='pagenum'>[149]</span> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Who but the quezal, when the Spaniards came</span> +<span class="i2">And plundered all the white imperial town,</span> +<span class="i0">Saw in a storm of red rapacious flame</span> +<span class="i2">The Aztec throne go down!</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And when the very rivers talked of gold,</span> +<span class="i2">The humming-bird upon her lichened nest</span> +<span class="i0">Strange tales of wild adventure never told</span> +<span class="i2">Hid in her tiny breast.</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The mountain eagle, circling with the stars,</span> +<span class="i2">Watched the great Admiral swiftly come and go</span> +<span class="i0">In his light ship that set at naught the bars</span> +<span class="i2">Wrought by a giant foe.</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Dull are our years and hard to understand,</span> +<span class="i2">We dream no more of mighty days to be,</span> +<span class="i0">And we have lost through delving in the land</span> +<span class="i2">The wisdom of the sea.</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Yet where beyond the sea the sunset burns,</span> +<span class="i2">And the trees talk of kings dead long ago,</span> +<span class="i0">Malinche sings among the giant ferns—</span> +<span class="i2">Ask of the birds—they know!</span> +</div></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div><span class="back"><a href="#CONTENTS">[Contents]</a></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[150]</a></span></div> + +<h2>XI</h2> + +<h3><a name="THE_THUNDER_BIRDS" id="THE_THUNDER_BIRDS"></a>THE THUNDER BIRDS</h3> + +<p>"Glory is all very well," said Juan de Saavedra +to Pedro de Alvarado as the squadron left the +island of Cozumel, "but my familiar spirit tells me +that there is gold somewhere in this barbaric land or +Cortes would not be with us."</p> + +<p>Alvarado's peculiarly sunny smile shone out. He +was a ruddy golden-haired man, a type unusual in +Spaniards, and the natives showed a tendency to revere +him as the sun-god. Life had treated him very well, +and he had an abounding good-nature.</p> + +<p>"It will be the better," he said comfortably, "if we +get both gold and glory. I confess I have had my +doubts of the gold, for after all, these Indians may +have more sense than they appear to have."</p> + +<p>"People often do, but in what way, especially?"</p> + +<p>"<i>Amigo</i>, put yourself in the place of one of these +caciques, with white men bedeviling you for a treasure +which you never even troubled yourself to pick up +when it lay about loose. What can be more easy than +to tell them that there is plenty of it somewhere else—in +the land of your enemies? That is Pizarro's theory, +at any rate."</p> + +<p>Saavedra laughed. "Pizarro is wise in his way, +but as I have said, Cortes is our commander."</p> + +<p>"What has that to do with it?"</p> + +<p>"If you had been at Salamanca in his University <span class='pagenum'>[151]</span> +days you wouldn't ask. He never got caught in a +scrape, and he always got what he was after."</p> + +<p>"And kept it?"</p> + +<p>"Is that a little more of Pizarro's wisdom? No; +he always shared the spoils as even-handedly as you +please. But if any of us lost our heads and got into +a pickle he never was concerned in it—or about it."</p> + +<p>"He will lose his, if Velasquez catches him. Remember +Balboa."</p> + +<p>"Now there is an example of the chances he will +take. Cortes first convinces the Governor that nobody +else is fit to trust with this undertaking. Córdova +failed; Grijalva failed; Cortes will succeed or leave +his bones on the field of honor. No sooner are we +fairly out of harbor than Velasquez tries to whistle us +back. He might as well blow his trumpets to the sea-gulls. +All Cortes wanted was a start. You will see—either +the Governor will die or be recalled while we +are gone, or we shall come back so covered with gold +and renown that he will not dare do anything when we +are again within his reach. Somebody's head may be +lost in this affair, but it will not be that of Hernan' +Cortes."</p> + +<p>The man of whom they were speaking just then approached, +summoning Alvarado to him. Saavedra +leaned on the rail musing.</p> + +<p>"Sometimes," he said to himself, "one hastens a +catastrophe by warning people of it, but then, that may +be because it could not have been prevented. Cortes +is inclined to make that simple fellow his aide because +they are so unlike, and so, I suspect, are others. At +any rate I have done my best to make him see whose +leadership is safest."</p> + +<p>The fleet was a rather imposing one for those waters. <span class='pagenum'>[152]</span> +There were eleven ships altogether, the flagship and +three others being over seventy tons' weight, the rest +caravels and open brigantines. These were manned +by one hundred and ten sailors, and carried five hundred +and fifty-three soldiers, of whom thirty-two were +crossbowmen and thirteen arquebusiers. There were +also about two hundred Indians. Sixteen horses accompanied +the expedition, and it had ten heavy cannon, +four light field-guns, called falconets, and a good supply +of ammunition. The horses cost almost more than the +ships that carried them, for they had been brought +from Spain; but their value in such an undertaking was +great.</p> + +<p>Hernando Cortes had come out to Cuba when he +was nineteen, and that was fifteen years ago. Much +had been reported concerning an emperor in a country +to the west, who ruled over a vast territory inhabited +by copper-colored people rich in gold, who worshiped +idols. Cortes had observed that Indian tribes, like +schoolboys, were apt to divide into little cliques and +quarreling factions. If the subject tribes did not like +the Emperor, and were jealous of him and of each +other, a foreign conqueror had one tool ready to his +hand, and it was a tool that Cortes had used many +times before.</p> + +<p>The people of this coast, however, were not at all +like the gentle and childlike natives Colón had found. +From the rescued captive Aguilar, the commander +learned much of their nature and customs. On his +first attempt to land, his troops encountered troops of +warriors in brilliant feathered head-bands and body +armor of quilted white cotton. They used as weapons +the lance, bow and arrows, club, and a curious staff +about three and a half feet long set with crosswise <span class='pagenum'>[153]</span> +knife-blades of obsidian. Against poisoned arrows, +such as the invaders had more than once met, neither +arquebus nor cannon was of much use, and body armor +was no great protection, since a scratch on hand or +leg would kill a man in a few hours. After some +skirmishing and more diplomacy, at various points +along the coast, Cortes landed his force on the island +which Grijalva had named San Juan de Ulloa, from a +mistaken notion that Oloa, the native salutation, was +the name of the place. The natives had watched the +"water-houses," as they called them, sailing over the +serene blue waters, and this tribe, being peaceable folk, +sent a pirogue over to the island with gifts. There +were not only fruits and flowers, but little golden ornaments, +and the Spanish commander sent some trinkets +in return. In endeavoring to talk with them Cortes +became aware of an unusual piece of luck. Aguilar +did not understand the language of these folk. But +at Tabasco, where Cortes had had a fight with the +native army, some slaves had been presented to him as +a peace-offering. Among them was a beautiful young +girl, daughter of a Mexican chief, who after her father's +death had been sold as a slave by her own mother, +who wished to get her inheritance. During her captivity +she had learned the dialect Aguilar spoke, and +the two interpreters between them succeeded in translating +Cortes's Castilian into the Aztec of Mexico from +the first. The young girl was later baptized Marina. +There being no "r" in the Aztec language the people +called her Malintzin or Malinche,—Lady Marina, the +ending "tzin" being a title of respect. She learned +Castilian with wonderful quickness, and was of great +service not only to Cortes but to her own people, since +she could explain whatever he did not understand.<span class='pagenum'>[154]</span></p> + +<p>Cortes learned that the name of the ruler of the +country was Moteczuma. His capital was on the +plateau about seventy miles in the interior. This +coast province, which he had lately conquered, was +ruled by one of his Aztec governors. Gold was abundant. +Moteczuma had great store of it. Cortes decided +to pitch his camp where afterward stood the capital +of New Spain.</p> + +<p>The friendly Indians brought stakes and mats and +helped to build huts, native fashion. From all the +country round the people flocked to see the strange +white men, bringing fruit, flowers, game, Indian corn, +vegetables and native ornaments of all sorts. Some +of these they gave away and some they bartered. +Every soldier and mariner turned trader; the place +looked like a great fair.</p> + +<p>On Easter Day the Aztec governor arrived upon a +visit of ceremony. Cortes received him in his own +tent, with all courtesy, in the presence of his officers, all +in full uniform. Mass was said, and the Aztec chief +and his attendants listened with grave politeness. Then +the guests were invited to a dinner at which various +Spanish dishes, wines and sweetmeats were served as +formally as at court. After this the interpreters were +summoned for the real business of the day.</p> + +<p>The Aztec nobleman wished to know whence and +why the strangers had come to this country. Cortes +answered that he was the subject of a monarch beyond +seas, as powerful as Moteczuma, who had heard of +the Aztec Emperor and sent his compliments and some +gifts. The governor gracefully expressed his willingness +to convey both to his royal master. Cortes +courteously declined, saying that he must himself deliver +them. At this the governor seemed surprised <span class='pagenum'>[155]</span> +and displeased; evidently this was not in his plan. +"You have been here only two days," he said, "and +already demand an audience with the Emperor?" +Then he expressed his astonishment at learning that +there was any other monarch as great as Moteczuma, +and sent his attendants to bring a few gifts which he +himself had chosen for the white chief.</p> + +<p>These tributes consisted of ten loads, each as much +as a man could carry, of fine cotton stuff, mantles of +exquisite feather-work, and a woven basket full of gold +ornaments. Cortes expressed his admiration and appreciation +of the gifts, and sent for those he had +brought for Moteczuma. They consisted of an arm-chair, +richly carved and painted, a crimson cloth cap +with a gold medal bearing the device of San Jorge and +the dragon, and some collars, bracelets and other ornaments +of cut glass. To the Aztec, who had never seen +glass, these appeared wonderful. He ventured the remark +that a gilt helmet worn by one of the Spanish +soldiers was like the casque of their god Quetzalcoatl, +and he wished that Moteczuma could see it. Cortes +immediately sent for the helmet and handed it to the +chief, with the suggestion that he should like to have +it returned full of the gold of the country in order to +compare it with the gold of Spain. Spaniards, he +said, were subject to a complaint affecting the heart, +for which gold was a remedy. This was not entirely +an invention of the commander's fertile brain. Many +physicians of those days did regard gold as a valuable +drug; but only Cortes ever thought of making use of +the theory to get the gold.</p> + +<p>During this polite and interesting conversation +Cortes observed certain attendants busily making +sketches of all that they saw, and on inquiry was told <span class='pagenum'>[156]</span> +that this "picture-writing" would give the Emperor +a far better idea of the appearance of the strangers +than words alone. Upon this the Spanish general ordered +out the cavalry and artillery and put them +through their evolutions on the beach. The cannon, +whose balls splintered great trees, and the horsemen, +whose movements the Aztecs followed with even more +terror than those of the gunners, made a tremendous +impression. The artists, though scared, stuck to their +duty, and the strange and terrible beasts, and the +thunder-birds whose mouths breathed destruction, +were drawn for the Emperor to see. After this the +governor, assuring Cortes that he should have whatever +he needed in the way of provisions until further +orders were received from the Emperor, made his +adieux and went home.</p> + +<p>Then began a diplomatic game between Cortes and +the Emperor and the various chiefs of the country. +The couriers of the imperial government, who traveled +in relays, could take a message to the capital and return +in seven or eight days. In due time two ambassadors +arrived from Moteczuma, with gifts evidently +meant to impress the strangers with his wealth and +power. The embassy was accompanied by the governor +of the province and about a hundred slaves. +Some of these attendants carried burning censers from +which arose clouds of incense; others unrolled upon +the ground fine mats on which to place the presents.</p> + +<p>Nothing like this had ever been offered to a Spanish +conqueror, even by Moors, to say nothing of Indians. +There were two collars of gold set with precious +stones; a hundred ounces of gold ore just as it came +from the mines; a large alligator's-head of gold; six +shields covered with gold; helmets and necklaces of <span class='pagenum'>[157]</span> +gold. There were birds made of green feathers, the +feet, beaks and eyes of gold; a box of feather-work +upon leather, set with a gold plate weighing seventy +ounces; pieces of cloth curiously woven with feathers, +and others woven in various designs. Most gorgeous +of all were two great plates as big as carriage wheels, +one of gold and one of silver, wrought with various +devices of plants and animals rather like the figures of +the zodiac. The wildest tales of the most imaginative +adventurer never pictured such magnificence. If +Moteczuma's plan had been to induce the strangers to +respect his wishes and go home without visiting his +capital, it was a complete failure. After this proof +of the wealth and splendor of the country Cortes had +no more idea of leaving it than a hound has of abandoning +a fresh trail. When the envoys gave him +Moteczuma's message of regret that it would not be +possible for them to meet, Cortes replied that he could +not think of going back to Spain now. The road to +the capital might be perilous, but what was that to +him? Would they not take to the Emperor these +slight additional tokens of the regard and respect of +the Spanish ruler, and explain to him how impossible +it would be for Cortes to face his own sovereign, with +the great object of his voyage unfulfilled? There was +nothing for the embassy to do but to take the message.</p> + +<p>While waiting for results, Cortes received a visit +from some Indian chiefs of the Totonacs, a tribe lately +conquered by the Aztecs. Their ruler, it seemed, had +heard of the white cacique and would like to receive +him in his capital. Cortes gave them presents and +promised to come. In the meantime his own men +were quarreling, and both parties were threatening +him. The bolder spirits announced that if he did not <span class='pagenum'>[158]</span> +make a settlement in the country, with or without instructions +from the governor of Cuba who had sent +him out, they would report him to the King. The +friends of Velazquez accused Cortes of secretly encouraging +this rebellion, and demanded that as he had +now made his discovery, he should return to Cuba and +report.</p> + +<p>Cortes calmly answered that he was quite willing to +return at once, and ordered the ships made ready. +This caused such a storm of wrath and disappointment +that even those who had urged it quailed. Seeing that +the time was ripe, the captain-general called his followers +together and made a speech. He declared that +nobody could have the interests of the sovereigns and +the glory of the Spanish race more at heart than he +had. He was willing to do whatever was best. If +they, his comrades, desired to return to Cuba he would +go directly. But if they were ready to join him, he +would found a colony in the name of the sovereigns, +with all proper officers to govern it, to remain in this +rich country and trade with the people. In that case, +however, he would of course have to resign his commission +as captain-general of an expedition of discovery.</p> + +<p>There was a roar of approval from the army at +this alluring suggestion. Before most of them fairly +knew what they were about they had voted to form a +colony under the royal authority, elected Cortes governor +as soon as he resigned his former position, and +seen the new governor appoint a council in proper form, +to aid in the government.</p> + +<p>"I knew it," said Saavedra to himself as he went +back, alone, to his quarters. "Just as people have +made up their minds they have got him between the <span class='pagenum'>[159]</span> +door and the jamb, he is somewhere else. When he +resigned his commission he slipped out from under the +government of Cuba, and that has no authority over +him. He has appointed a council made up of his own +friends, and now he can hang every one of the Velasquez +party if they make any trouble. But they +won't."</p> + +<p>They did not. Cortes sent his flagship to Spain +with some of his especial friends and some of his particular +enemies on board, the enemies to get them out +of his way, the friends to defend him to the King +against their accusations. He founded a city which he +named Villa Rica de Vera Cruz, the Rich Town of the +True Cross. Then, as the next step toward the invasion +of the country, he proceeded to play Indian +politics.</p> + +<p>First he accepted the invitation of the chief of the +Totonacs, and Moteczuma, hearing of it, sent the tax-gatherers +to collect tribute and also to demand twenty +young men and women to sacrifice to the gods as an +atonement for having entertained the strangers. +Cortes expressed lively horror, and advised the chief +of the Totonacs to throw the tax-gatherers into prison. +Then he secretly rescued them and telling them how +deeply he regretted their misfortunes as innocent men +doing their duty to their ruler, he sent them on board +his own ships for safe-keeping. When the Emperor +heard what had happened he was enraged against the +Totonacs. If they wished to escape his vengeance +now their only chance was to become allies of Cortes.</p> + +<p>Thus within a few days after landing, the commander +had got all of his own followers and a powerful +native tribe so bound up with his fortunes that they +could not desert him without endangering their own <span class='pagenum'>[160]</span> +skins. He now suggested to two of the pilots that +they should report five of the ships to be in an unseaworthy +condition from the borings of the teredos—in +those days sheathing for hulls had not been invented, +and the ship-worm was a constant danger, in tropical +waters especially. At the pilots' report Cortes appeared +astonished, but saying that there was nothing to +do but make the best of it, ordered the ships to be +dismantled, the cordage, sails and everything that +could be of use brought on shore, and the stripped +hulls scuttled and sunk. Then four more were condemned, +leaving but one small ship.</p> + +<p>There was nearly a riot in the army, marooned in +an unknown and unfriendly land. Cortes made another +speech. He pointed out the fact that if they +were successful in the expedition to the capital they +would not need the ships; if they were not, what good +would the ships do them when they were seventy +leagues inland? Those who dared not take the risk +with him could still return to Cuba in the one ship that +was left. "They can tell there," he added in a tone +which cut the deeper for being so very quiet, "how +they deserted their commander and their friends, and +patiently wait until we return with the spoils of the +Aztecs."</p> + +<p>An instant of breathless silence followed, then somebody +shouted. A hundred voices took up the cry,—</p> + +<p>"To Mexico! To Mexico!"</p> + +<p>Of the adventures, the fighting, the wonderful +sights and the narrow escapes of the march to the +capital, Bernal Diaz, who was with the army, wrote +afterward in bulky volumes. On the seventh day of +November, 1519, the compact little force of Spaniards, +little more than a battalion in all, with their Indian <span class='pagenum'>[161]</span> +allies from the provinces which had rebelled against +the Emperor, came in sight of the capital. The moment +at which Cortes, at the head of his followers, +rode into the city of Mexico is one of the most dramatic +in all history. Nothing in any novel of adventure +compares with it in amazing contrast or tragic +possibilities. The men of the Age of Cannon met the +men of the Age of Stone. The mighty Catholic +Church confronted a nation of snake-worshiping cannibals. +The sons of a race that lived in hardy simplicity, +a race of fighters, had come into a capital where +life was more luxurious than it was in Seville, Paris +or Rome—a heathen capital rich in beauty, wealth +and all the arts of a barbarian people.</p> + +<p>The city had been built on an island in the middle +of a salt lake, reached by three causeways of masonry +four or five miles long and twenty or thirty feet wide. +At the end near the city each causeway had a wooden +drawbridge. There were paved streets and water-ways. +The houses, built around large court-yards, +were of red stone, sometimes covered with white stucco. +The roofs were encircled with battlements and defended +with towers. Often they were gardens of +growing flowers. In the center of the city was the +temple enclosure, surrounded by an eight-foot stone +wall. Within this were a score of teocallis, or pyramids +flattened at the top, the largest, that of the war-god, +being about a hundred feet high. Stone stairs +wound four times around the pyramid, so that religious +processions appeared and disappeared on their way to +the top. On the summit was a block of jasper, rounded +at top, the altar of human sacrifice. Near by were the +shrines and altars of the gods. Outside the temple +enclosure was a huge altar, or embankment, called the <a name='Page_162' id='Page_162'></a><span class='pagenum'>[162]</span> +tzompantli, one hundred and fifty-four feet long, upon +which the skulls of innumerable victims were arranged. +The doorways and walls everywhere were carved with +the two symbols of the Aztec religion—the cross and +the snake. Among the birds in the huge aviary of the +royal establishment were the humming-birds which were +sacred to one of the most cruel of the gods, and in +cages built for them were the rattlesnakes also held +sacred. Flowers were everywhere—in garlands hung +about the city, in the hands of the people, on floating +islands in the water, in the gardens blazing with color.</p> + +<p>The Spanish strangers were housed in a great stone +palace and entertained no less magnificently than the +gifts of the Emperor had led them to expect. The +houses were ceiled with cedar and tapestried with fine +cotton or feather work. Moteczuma's table service +was of gold and silver and fine earthenware. The people +wore cotton garments, often dyed vivid scarlet with +cochineal, the men wearing loose cloaks and fringed +sashes, the women, long robes. Fur capes and feather-work +mantles and tunics were worn in cold weather; +sandals and white cotton hoods protected feet and +head. The women sometime used a deep violet hair-dye. +Ear-rings, nose-rings, finger-rings, bracelets, +anklets and necklaces were of gold and silver.</p> + +<p>Moteczuma himself, a tall slender man about forty +years old, came to meet them in a palanquin shining +with gold and canopied with feather-work. As he descended +from it his attendants laid cotton mats upon +the ground that he might not soil his feet. He wore +the broad girdle and square cloak of cotton cloth which +other men wore, but of the finest weave. His sandals +had soles of pure gold. Both cloak and sandals were +embroidered with pearls, emeralds, and a kind of stone <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[163]</a></span> +much prized by the Aztecs, the chalchivitl, green and +white. On his head he wore a plumed head-dress of +green, the royal color. When Cortes with his staff +approached the building set apart for their quarters, +Moteczuma awaited them in the courtyard. From a +vase of flowers held by an attendant he took a massive +gold collar, in which the shell of a certain crawfish was +set in gold and connected by golden links. Eight +golden ornaments a span long, wrought to represent +the same shell-fish, hung from this chain. Moteczuma +hung the necklace about the neck of Cortes with a +graceful little speech of welcome.</p> + +<div><span class="back"><a href="#LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">[Illustrations]</a></span></div> + +<div class="center"><div class="figcenter" style="width: 427px;"> +<img src="images/illus-0340-1.jpg" width="427" height="600" alt=""Moteczuma awaited them in the courtyard"—Page 162" title=""Moteczuma awaited them in the courtyard"—Page 162" /> +<span class="caption">"Moteczuma awaited them in the courtyard"—<i>Page 162</i></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The Aztec Emperor was making the best of a situation +which he did not like at all. In other Mexican +cities Cortes had ordered the idols cast headlong down +the steps of the teocalli, the temples cleansed, and a +crucifix wreathed in flowers to be set up in place of the +red altar stained with human blood. He was attended +by some seven thousand native allies from tribes considered +by the Aztecs as wild barbarians. His daring +behavior and military successes had all been reported +to Moteczuma by the picture-writing of his scribes. +There was a tradition among the Aztecs that some day +white bearded strangers would come, destroy the worship +of the old gods of blood and terror, and restore +the worship of the fair god Quetzalcoatl. Before the +white men landed there had been earthquakes, meteors +and other omens. Would the old gods destroy the +invaders and all who joined them, or was this the great +change which the prophets foretold? Who could +say?</p> + +<p>In the beautiful, terrible city Cortes moved alert and +silent, courteous to all, every nerve as sensitive to new +impressions as a leaf to the wind. He knew that <span class='pagenum'>[164]</span> +strong as the priesthood of the fierce gods undoubtedly +was, there was surely an undercurrent of rebellion +against their cruelty and their unlimited power. In +a fruitless attempt to keep the Spaniards out of the +city by the aid of the gods, three hundred little children +had been sacrificed. If Cortes failed to conquer, by +peaceful means or otherwise, nothing was more certain +than that he and all of his followers not killed in +the fighting would be butchered on the top of those +terrible pyramids sooner or later. Yet he looked about +him and said, under his breath,</p> + +<p>"This is the most beautiful city in the world."</p> + +<p>"And you think we shall win it for the Cross and +the King?" asked Saavedra in the same quiet tone.</p> + +<p>"We must win," said Cortes, with a spark in his eyes +like the flame in the heart of a black opal. "There is +nothing else to do."</p> + +<hr /> + +<h4 class="smcap">note</h4> + +<div class="footnotes"><div class="footnote"><p> +In the spelling of the Aztec Emperor's name Cortes' own form is +used,—"Moteczuma," instead of the commoner "Montezuma." One +must read Prescott's "Conquest of Mexico" for even an approximately +adequate account of this extraordinary campaign.</p></div></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div><span class="back"><a href="#CONTENTS">[Contents]</a></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[165]</a></span></div> + +<h3><a name="MOCCASIN_FLOWER" id="MOCCASIN_FLOWER"></a>MOCCASIN FLOWER</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Klooskap's children, the last and least,</span> +<span class="i0">Bidden to dance at his farewell feast,</span> +<span class="i0">Under the great moon's wizard light,</span> +<span class="i0">Over the mountain's drifted white,</span> +<span class="i0">The Winag'mesuk, the wood-folk small,</span> +<span class="i0">Came to the feasting the last of all!</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Magic snowshoes they wore that night,</span> +<span class="i0">Woven of frostwork and sunset light,</span> +<span class="i0">Round and trim like the Master's own,—</span> +<span class="i0">Their lances of reed, with a point of bone,</span> +<span class="i0">Their oval shields of the woven grass,</span> +<span class="i0">Their leader the mighty Kaktugwaas.</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The Winag'mesuk, the forest folk,</span> +<span class="i0">They fled from the words that the white man spoke.</span> +<span class="i0">They were so tired, they were so small,</span> +<span class="i0">They hardly could find their way back at all,</span> +<span class="i0">Yet bravely they rallied with shield and lance</span> +<span class="i0">To dance for Klooskap their Snowshoe Dance!</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Light and swift as the whirling snow</span> +<span class="i0">They leaped and fluttered aloft, alow.</span> +<span class="i0">Silent as owls in the white moonlight</span> +<span class="i0">They pounced and grappled in mimic fight.</span> +<span class="i0">When they chanted to Klooskap their last farewell</span> +<span class="i0">He laid on the forest a fairy spell.</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">From Little Thunder, from Kaktugwaas,</span> +<span class="i0">He took the buckler of woven grass,</span> +<span class="i0">The lance of reed with a point of bone,</span> +<span class="i0">The rounded footgear like his own,</span> +<span class="i0">And bade them grow there under the pines</span> +<span class="i0">While the snowdrifts melt and the sunlight shines!</span><span class='pagenum'>[166]</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The sagamore pines are dark and tall</span> +<span class="i0">That guard the Norumbega wall.</span> +<span class="i0">When the clear brooks dance to the flute of spring,</span> +<span class="i0">And veery and catbird of Klooskap sing,</span> +<span class="i0">The Winag'mesuk for one short hour</span> +<span class="i0">Come back for their token of Klooskap's power—</span> +<span class="i4">Moccasin Flower!</span> +</div></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div><span class="back"><a href="#CONTENTS">[Contents]</a></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[167]</a></span></div> + +<h2>XII</h2> + +<h3><a name="GIFTS_FROM_NORUMBEGA" id="GIFTS_FROM_NORUMBEGA"></a>GIFTS FROM NORUMBEGA</h3> + +<p>"What shall I bring thee then, from the world's +end, Reine Margot?" asked Alain Maclou. +The small girl in the deep fireside recess of a Picardy +castle-hall considered it gravely.</p> + +<p>"There should be three gifts," she said at last, "for +so it always is in Mère Bastienne's stories. I will have +the shoes of silence, the girdle of fortune, and diamonds +from Norumbega. Tell me again about Norumbega."</p> + +<p>"Nay, little one, I must go, to see after the lading +of the ship. Fare thee well for this time," and the +young man bent his tall head above the hand of his +seven-year-old lady. The graceful, quick-witted and +imaginative child had been his pet and he her loyal +servant these three years. It was understood between +them that she was really the Queen of France, barred +from her throne by the Salic Law that forbade any +woman to rule that country in her own right. Some +day he was to discover for her a kingdom beyond +seas, in which she alone should reign. Of all the tales, +marvelous, fanciful or tragic, which he or her old +nurse had told her, she liked best the legend of Norumbega, +the city in the wilderness which no explorer +had ever found. Wherever French, Breton or English +fishermen had become at all familiar with the +Indians they heard of a city great and populous, with +walls of stone, ruled by a king richer than any of their <span class='pagenum'>[168]</span> +chiefs, but no two stories agreed on the location. +Some had heard that it was an island, west of Cape +Breton; others that it was on the bank of a great +river to the southward. Maclou had seen at a fair +one of the Indians brought to France ten years before +in the <i>Dauphine</i>, and spoken to him. According to +this Indian the chief town of his people was on an +island in the mouth of a river where high gray walls +of rock arose, longer and statelier than the walls of +Dieppe. In describing these walls the Indian did +not indeed say that they encircled the city, but no +Frenchman could have imagined rock palisades built +for any other purpose. On the other hand Maclou +knew a pilot who had been caught in a storm and +blown down the coast southwest from the fisheries, +and he and his crew had seen, from ten or twelve +leagues out at sea, white and shining battlements on +the crest of a mountain far inland. When they asked +their Indian guides what city it was the slaves trembled +and showed fear, and declared that none of their people +ever went there. Had only one man seen the glittering +walls it might have been a vision, but they had +all seen.</p> + +<p>If Norumbega really existed, the expedition of +Jacques Cartier in 1535 seemed likely to find it. He +had made a voyage the year before with two ships and +a hundred and twenty men, of whom Maclou had been +one. Not being prepared to remain through the +winter, they had been obliged to turn back before they +had done more than discover a magnificent bay which +Cartier named the Bay of Chaleur on account of the +July heat, and a squarish body of water west of Cape +Breton which seemed to be marked out on their map +as the Square Gulf. Now the veteran of Saint Malo +had instructions to explore this gulf and see whether <span class='pagenum'>[169]</span> +any strait existed beyond it which might lead to Cathay. +On general principles he was to find out how great and +of what nature the country was. The maps of the +New World were fairly complete in their outline of +the southern continent and islands discovered by Spain; +it was hoped that this expedition might give an equally +definite outline to the northern coast. Cartier had on +his previous voyage caught two young Indians who had +come from far inland to fish, and brought them back to +France. They had since learned enough Breton to +make themselves understood, and from what they said +it seemed to Cartier that there might be a far greater +land west of the fisheries than the mapmakers had +supposed. The King, on the other hand, was inclined +to hope that the lands already found were islands, +among which might be the coveted route to Cathay. +Maclou bent his brows over the map and pondered. +If Norumbega were found it would be the key to the +situation, for the people of a great inland city would +know, as the people of Mexico did, all about their +country. Did it exist, or was it a fairy tale, born of +mirage or a lying brain?</p> + +<p>On Whitsunday the sixteenth of May, Carrier and +his men went in solemn procession to the Cathedral +Church of Saint Malo, confessed themselves, received +the sacrament, and were blessed by the Bishop in his +robes of state, standing in the choir of the ancient +sanctuary. On the following Wednesday they set sail +with three ships and one hundred and ten men. Cartier +had been careful to explain to the King that it +would be of no use to send an expedition to those northern +shores unless it could live through the winter on +its own supplies. The summer was brief, the winter +severe, and there was no possibility of living on the <span class='pagenum'>[170]</span> +country while exploring it. As such voyages went, +the three ships were well provisioned. Late in July +they came through the Strait of Belle Isle, and on +Saint Laurence's Day, August 10, found themselves in +a small bay which Cartier named for that saint. +Rounding the western point of a great island the little +fleet came into a great salt water bay.</p> + +<p>"I believe," said Cartier to Maclou as the flagship +sailed gaily on over the sunlit sparkling waves, "that +this must be the place from which all the whales in the +world come." The great creatures were spouting and +diving all around the fleet, frolicking like unwieldy +puppies. Every one was alert for what might be discovered +next. None were more lively and full of +pleased expectation than the two Indian youths. Captives +had been taken by the white men before, but none +had ever returned. Their people were undoubtedly +mourning them as dead, but would presently see them +not only alive but fat and happy. They had crossed +the great waters in the white men's canoe, and lived in +the white men's villages, and learned their talk. They +had been christened Pierre and Kadoc, French tongues +finding it hard to pronounce their former names.</p> + +<p>Cartier called them to him and began to ask questions. +He learned that the northern coast of the gulf, +along which they were sailing, was that of a land called +Saghwenay, in which was found Caignetdaze, called by +the white men copper. This gulf led to a great river +called Hochelaga. They had never heard of any one +going all the way to the head of it, but the old men +might remember. What the name of the country to +the south of the gulf was, Cartier could not make out. +It sounded something like Kanacdajikaouah. "Kaou-ah" +meant great, or large, and Cartier finally set <span class='pagenum'>[171]</span> +down the rest of the word as Canada, as nearly as the +French alphabet could spell out the gutturals.</p> + +<p>The youths in fact belonged to a tribe in the great +confederacy of the Kanonghsionni, the People of the +Long House—or rather the lengthened house, Kanonsa +being the word for house, and "ionni" meaning +lengthened or extended.<a name="FNanchor_1_24" id="FNanchor_1_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_24" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> Five tribes, many generations +ago, had united under the leadership of the great +Ayonhwatha—"he who made the wampum belt."<a name="FNanchor_2_25" id="FNanchor_2_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_25" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> +They had adopted weaker tribes when they conquered +them, exactly as, upon the marriage of a daughter, the +father built an addition to his house for the newly +wedded couple. The captives had picked up the Breton +patois rather easily, but there was nothing in France +which was at all like an Iroquois bark house, and they +had to use the Indian word for it. Maclou, who had +been studying the native language at odd times during +the voyage, found that it had no b, f, m, or v, and on +the other hand it had some noises which were not in +any Breton, French or English words, though the Indian +"n" was rather like the French "nque."</p> + +<p>Some fifteen leagues from the salt gulf the water +became so fresh that Cartier finally gave up the idea +that the channel he had entered might be a strait. It +was still very wide, and if it really was a river it was +the biggest he had ever seen. Three islands now appeared, +opposite the mouth of a swift and deep river +which came from the northern territory called Saghwenay. +Cartier sailed up this river for some distance, +finding high steep hills on both sides, and then +continued up the great river to find the chief city of +the wilderness empire, if it was an empire.</p> + +<p>No sign had been seen of Norumbega. Presently +the keen expectant eye of Cartier caught sight of something <span class='pagenum'>[172]</span> +which went far to shake his faith in that romantic +citadel. It was a bold headland on the right, which +would certainly have been chosen by any civilized king +in Europe as a site for a fortress. Those mighty cliffs +would almost make other defenses needless. Yet the +heights were occupied by nothing more than a wooden +village, which the interpreters called Stadacona, saying +that their chief, Daghnacona, was its ruler. Shouts +arose from the water's edge as some one among the +excited Indians recognized on the deck of a great +winged canoe their own lost countrymen. The interpreters +answered with joyous whoops. A dozen canoes +came paddling out, filled with young warriors, and a +rapid interchange of guttural Indian talk went on between +Pierre and Kadoc and their kinfolk. The enthusiasm +rose to a still higher pitch when strings of +beads of all colors were handed down to the Indians +in the canoes, and presently Daghnacona himself appeared +to welcome the white men to his country, with +dignified Indian eloquence and an escort of twelve +canoes. This was clearly a good place to stop and +refit the ships. Cartier took his fleet into a little river +not far away, and prepared to learn all he could of the +country before going on.</p> + +<p>The information he got from Daghnacona was not +encouraging. This was not, it appeared, the chief +town of the country. That was many miles up the +river, and was called Hochelaga. It would not be +safe for the white men to go there. Their ships might +be caught between ice-floes, and the falling snow would +blind and bewilder them. Cartier glanced at the blue +autumn sky and smiled. No one is quicker than an +Indian to read faces. Daghnacona saw that the white +chief intended to go, all the same.<span class='pagenum'>[173]</span></p> + +<p>Cartier decided to leave the larger ships where they +were, and proceed up the great river to Hochelaga +with a forty-ton pinnace, two boats, and about fifty +men. Early in the morning, before he was quite ready +to start, a canoe came down stream, in which were +three weird figures resembling the devils in a medieval +miracle-play. Their faces were jet black, they were +clothed in hairy skins, and on their heads were great +horns. As they passed the ships they kept up a monotonous +and appalling chant, and as their canoe touched +the beach all three fell upon their faces. Indians, +rushing out of the woods, dragged them into a thicket, +and a great hubbub followed, not a word of which was +understood by the white men, for the Indian interpreters +were there with the rest. Presently the interpreters +appeared on the beach yelling with fright.</p> + +<p>"Pierre! Kadoc!" the annoyed commander +called from his quarter-deck, "what is all this hullabaloo +about?"</p> + +<p>"News!" gasped Pierre. "News from Canghyenye! +He says white men not come to Hochelaga!" +And Kadoc chimed in eagerly, "Not go! Not go!"</p> + +<p>"Coudouagny?" Cartier repeated to Maclou, completely +mystified. "Who can that be?"</p> + +<p>Further questioning drew out information which +sounded as if Coudouagny, or Canyengye, were a tribal +god. In reality this was the word for "elder +brother." In that region it was applied to the Tekarihokens, +the eldest of the five nations in the league +of the Long House. They were afterward dubbed by +their enemies the Mohawks or man-eaters, and the fear +for the white men's safety which the interpreters expressed +may very well have been quite genuine.</p> + +<p>But the Breton captain had not come across the Atlantic <span class='pagenum'>[174]</span> +to give up his plans for fear of an Indian god, +if it was a god, and his reply to the warning was to the +effect that Coudouagny must be a numskull. More +seriously he explained to the interpreters that although +he had not himself spoken with the God of his people +his priests had, and he fully trusted in the power of +his God to protect him. The party set forth at the +appointed time.</p> + +<p>In about two weeks they reached the greatest Indian +town that any of them had ever seen. It was not the +walled city of the Norumbega legend, but both Maclou +and Cartier had ceased to expect anything of that kind. +The Indian guides had said that the town was near, +and all were dressed in their best. A thousand Indians, +men, women and children, were on the shore to +receive them, and the commander at the head of his +little troop marched into Hochelaga to pay their respects +to the chief.</p> + +<p>The Indian city was inhabited by several thousand +people, living in wigwams about a hundred and fifty +feet long by fifty wide, built of bark over a frame of +wood, and arranged around a large open space. The +whole was surrounded by a stockade of three rows of +stakes twelve or fifteen feet high. The middle row +was set straight, the other two rows five or six feet +from it and inclining toward it like wigwam-poles. +The three rows, meeting at the top, were lashed to a +ridgepole. Half way down and again at the bottom +cross-braces were fastened diagonally, making a strong +wall. Around the inside, near the top, was a gallery +reached by ladders, on which were piles of stones to +be thrown at invaders. Instead of being square, or +irregular with many angles and outstanding towers, +like a French walled town, it was perfectly round.<span class='pagenum'>[175]</span></p> + +<p>The interpreters afterward explained that each of +the houses was occupied by several families, as the head +of each house shared his shelter with his kinfolk. +When a daughter was married she brought her husband +home, as a rule, and her father added an apartment +to his house by the simple device of taking out +the end wall of bark and building on another section. +Each household had its own stone hearth, the smoke +escaping through openings in the roof. A common +passage-way led through the middle of the house. On +the sides were rows of bunks covered with furs. +Weapons hung on the walls, and meat broth or messes +of corn and beans simmered fragrantly in their +kettles. Some of these long houses held fifty or sixty +people each, and there were over fifty of them in all. +In that climate, with warlike neighbors, the advantage +of such an organized community over scattered single +wigwams was very great. All around were cleared +fields dotted with great yellow pumpkins, where corn +and beans had grown during the past summer.</p> + +<p>To the sons of Norman and Breton peasants it was +evident that these fields had not been cultivated for +centuries, like those of France, any more than the wall +around Hochelaga was the work of stone-masons toiling +under generations of feudal lords. If this were +the chief city of these people, they had no Norumbega. +But it was very picturesque in its sylvan barbaric way, +among the limitless forests of scarlet and gold and +crimson and deep green, which stretched away over the +mountains. Upon the rude cots in the wigwams as they +passed, Cartier's men saw rich and glossy furs of the +silver fox, the beaver, the mink and the marten, which +princesses might be proud to wear. Curious bead-work +there was also on the quivers, pouches, moccasins <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[176]</a></span> +and belts of these wild people, done in white and purple +shell beads made and polished by hand and not +more than a quarter of an inch long and an eighth of +an inch thick. These were sewn in patterns of animals, +birds, fishes and other things not unlike the emblems +of old families in France. Belts of these beads +were worn by those who seemed to be the chief men +of Hochelaga. Porcupine quills were also used in embroidery +and head-bands.</p> + +<p>The people thronged into the open central space, +which was about a stone's throw across, some carrying +their sick, some their children, that the strangers might +touch them for healing or for good fortune. The old +chief, who was called Agouhana, was brought in, helpless +from paralysis, upon a deerskin litter. When Cartier +understood that his touch was supposed to have +some mysterious magic he rubbed the old man's helpless +limbs with his own hands, read from his service-book +the first chapter of the Gospel of Saint John and +other passages, and prayed that the people who listened +might come to know the true faith. Then, after +beads, rings, brooches and other little gifts had been +distributed, the trumpets blew, and the white men took +their leave. Before they returned to their boats the +Indians guided them to the top of the hill which rose +behind the town, from which the surrounding country +could be seen. Cartier named it Montreal—the +Royal Mountain.</p> + +<div><span class="back"><a href="#LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">[Illustrations]</a></span></div> + +<div class="center"><div class="figcenter" style="width: 413px;"> +<img src="images/illus-204.png" width="413" height="600" alt=""Cartier read from his service-book."—Page 176" title=""Cartier read from his service-book."—Page 176" /> +<span class="caption">"Cartier read from his service-book."—<i>Page 176</i></span> +</div></div> + +<p>It was now the first week in October, and the rapids +in the river above Hochelaga blocked further exploration +with a sailing vessel. As for going on foot, that +was out of the question with winter so near. The +party returned to Stadacona and went into winter +quarters. While they had been gone their comrades <span class='pagenum'>[177]</span> +had built a palisaded fort beside the little river where +the ships lay moored. They were hardly settled in this +rude shelter before snow began to fall, and seemed as +if it would go on forever, softly blanketing the earth +with layer on layer of cold whiteness. It was waist-deep +on the level; the river was frozen solid; the drifts +were above the sides of the ships, and the ice was four +inches thick on the bulwarks. The glittering armor +of the ice incased masts, spars, ropes, and fringed every +line of cordage with icicles of dazzling brightness. +Never was such cold known in France. Maclou +thought, whimsically, while his teeth chattered beside +the fire, of a tale he had once told Marguerite of the +palace of the Frost King. That fierce monarch, and +not the guileless Indian chief, was the foe they would +have to fight for this kingdom.</p> + +<p>Their provisions were those of any ship sent on a +voyage into unknown lands in those days—dried and +salted meat and fish, flour and meal to be made into +cakes or porridge, dried pease, dried beans. For a +time the Indians visited them, in the bitterest weather, +but in December even this source of a game supply was +cut off, for they came no more. The dreaded scurvy +broke out, and before long there were hardly a dozen +of the whole company able to care for the sick. Besides +the general misery they were tormented by the +fear that if the savages knew how feeble they were the +camp might be attacked and destroyed. Cartier told +those who had the strength, to beat with sticks on the +sides of their bunks, so that prowling Indians might +believe that the white men were busy at work.</p> + +<p>But the wild folk were both shrewder and more +friendly than the French believed. Their medicine-men +told Cartier one day that they cured scurvy by <span class='pagenum'>[178]</span> +means of a drink made from the leaves and bark of +an evergreen. Squaws presently came with a birch-bark +kettle of this brew and it proved to have such +virtues that the sick were cured of scurvy, and in some +cases of other diseases which they had had for years. +Cartier afterward wrote in his report that they boiled +and drank within a week all the foliage of a tree, which +the Indians called aneda or tree of life, as large as a +full-grown oak.<a name="FNanchor_3_26" id="FNanchor_3_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_26" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> Many had died before the remedy +was learned, and when the weather allowed the fleet to +sail for home, there were only men enough for two of +the ships. The Indians had told of other lands where +gold and rubies were found, of a nation somewhere in +the interior, white like the French, of people with but +one leg apiece. But as it was, the country was a great +country, and well worth the attention of the King of +France. Leaving the cross and the fleur-de-lis to mark +the place of their discovery, the expedition sailed for +France, and on July 16, 1536, anchored once more in +the port of Saint Malo.</p> + +<p>"And there is no Norumbega really?" asked little +Margot rather dolefully, when the story of the adventure +had been told. "And your hair is all gray, here, +on the side."</p> + +<p>"None the less I have gifts for thee, little queen, +and such as no Queen of France hath in her treasury." +Maclou's smile, though a trifle grave, had a singular +charm as he opened his wallet. Margot nestled closer, +her eyes bright with excitement.</p> + +<p>The first gift was a little pair of shoes of deer-skin +dyed green and embroidered with pearly white beads +on a ground of black and red French brocade. They +had no heels and no heavy leather soles, and were lined <span class='pagenum'>[179]</span> +with soft white fur; and they fitted the little maid's +foot exactly.</p> + +<p>The second gift was a girdle of the same beads, +purple and white, in a pattern of queer stiff sprays. +"That," said Alain Maclou, "is the Tree of Life that +cured us all of the sickness."</p> + +<p>The third was a cluster of long slender crystals set +in a fragment of rock the color of a blush rose.<a name="FNanchor_4_27" id="FNanchor_4_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_27" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p> + +<p>"'Tis a magic stone, sweetheart. Keep it in the +sunshine on thy window-ledge, and when summer is +over 't will be white as snow. Leave it in a snowbank, +or in a cellar under wet moss, and 't will turn again to +rose-color. This I have seen. In the winter nights +the Frost King hangs his ice-diamonds on every twig +and rope and eave, and when they shine in the red +sunrise they look like these crystals. And I have seen +all the sky from the zenith to the horizon at midnight +full of leaping rose-red flames above such a world of +ice. 'Tis very beautiful there, Reine Margot, and fit +kingdom for a fairy queen."</p> + +<p>Marguerite turned the strange quartz rock about +in her small hands with something like awe.</p> + +<p>"And the shoes are shoes of silence, for an Indian +can go and come in them so softly that even a rabbit +does not hear. They were made by a kind old squaw +who would take no pay, and a young warrior gave me +the wampum belt, and I found the stone one day while +I was hunting in the forest, so that all three of thy +gifts are really gifts from Norumbega."</p> + +<p>"I think—I'm rather glad it is not a real city," +said Margot with a long breath. "It is more like +fairyland, just as it is,—and the Frost King and the +terrible sickness are the two ogres, and the good medicine <span class='pagenum'>[180]</span> +man is a white wizard. It is a very beautiful kingdom, +Alain, and I think you are the Prince in disguise!"</p> + +<hr /> + +<h4 class="smcap">notes</h4> + +<div class="footnotes"><div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_24" id="Footnote_1_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_24"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> +Kanonghsionni was the name which the Iroquois gave themselves. +It appears that at this time they occupied the country along the St. +Lawrence held some centuries before by the Ojibways and later, in +the time of Champlain, by the Hurons.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_25" id="Footnote_2_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_25"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> +Hiawatha is generally said to have founded the league of the +Five Nations. Although these nations were united against any attack +from outside they were not always free from interior enmities +and dissensions, and the Mohawks in particular were objects of the +fear and dislike of their neighbors, as the significance of their +sobriquet clearly shows.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_26" id="Footnote_3_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_26"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> +Aneda is said to be the Iroquois word for spruce. When +Champlain's men were attacked by scurvy in the same neighborhood +half a century later, the Iroquois no longer lived there, and this remedy +was not suggested.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_27" id="Footnote_4_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_27"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> +Rose quartz has this property.</p></div></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div><span class="back"><a href="#CONTENTS">[Contents]</a></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[181]</a></span></div> + +<h3><a name="THE_MUSTANGS" id="THE_MUSTANGS"></a>THE MUSTANGS</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Bred to the Game of the World as the Kings and the Emperors played it,</span> +<span class="i2">Fate and our masters hurled us over the terrible sea.</span> +<span class="i0">When the sails of the carracks were furled the Game was the Game that we made it,—</span> +<span class="i2">We that were horses in Spain were gods in a realm to be!</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Swift at the word we sped, we fought in the front of the battle,—</span> +<span class="i2">Ah, but the wild men fled when they heard us neigh from afar!</span> +<span class="i0">The field was littered with dead, cut down like slaughtered cattle</span> +<span class="i2">—Ah, but the earth is red where the Conquistadores are!</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Now does the desert wake and croon of hidalgos coming—</span> +<span class="i2">Now for her children's sake she is whetting her sword to slay,</span> +<span class="i0">And the armored squadrons break, and our iron-shod hoofs are drumming</span> +<span class="i2">On the rocks of the mountain pass—we are free, we are off and away!</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Hush—did a man's foot fall in the pasture where we go straying?</span> +<span class="i2">Listen—is that the call of a man aware of his right?</span> +<span class="i0">Hearken, my comrades all—once more the Game they are playing!</span> +<span class="i2">Masters, we come, we come, to be one with you in the fight!</span> +</div></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div><span class="back"><a href="#CONTENTS">[Contents]</a></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[182]</a></span></div> + +<h2>XIII</h2> + +<h3><a name="THE_WHITE_MEDICINE_MAN" id="THE_WHITE_MEDICINE_MAN"></a>THE WHITE MEDICINE MAN</h3> + +<p>"Cavalry without horses, in ships without sailors, +built by blacksmiths without forges and carpenters +without tools. Now who in Spain will believe +that?" commented Cabeça de Vaca.</p> + +<p>It was the evening of the twenty-first of September, +1528. Five of the oddest looking boats ever launched +on any sea were drawn up on the shore of La Baya de +Cavallos, where not a horse was in sight, though there +had been twoscore a fortnight ago. On the morrow +the one-eyed commander of the Spaniards, Pamfilo de +Narvaez, would marshal his ragamuffin expedition into +those boats, in the hope of reaching Mexico by sea.</p> + +<p>"We shall tell of it when we are grandfathers—if +the sea does not take us within a week," said Andres +Dorantes with a sigh. "I think that God does not +waste miracles on New Spain."</p> + +<p>"Miracles? It is nothing less than a miracle that +this fleet was built," said Cabeça de Vaca valiantly. +And indeed he had some reason for saying so.</p> + +<p>Narvaez, with a grant from the King which covered +all the territory between the Atlantic and the Rio de +los Palmas in Mexico, had staked his entire private +fortune on this venture. He had landed in Baya de +le Cruz—now Tampa Bay—on the day before Easter. +The Indians had some gold which they said +came "from the north." Cabeça, who was treasurer +of the expedition, strongly advised against proceeding <span class='pagenum'>[183]</span> +through a totally unknown country on this very sketchy +information. But Narvaez consulted the pilot, who +said he knew of a harbor some distance to the west, +ordered the ships to meet him there, and with forty +horsemen and two hundred and sixty men on foot, +struck boldly into the interior.</p> + +<p>It was an amazing country. It had magnificent forests +and almost impassable swamps, gorgeous tropical +flowers and black bogs infested with snakes, alligators +and hostile Indians, game of every kind and dense jungles +into which it retreated. There seemed to be no +towns, no grain-land and no gold-bearing mountains. +The persevering explorers crossed half a dozen large +rivers and many small ones, wading when they could, +building rafts or swimming when the water was deep. +After between three and four months of this, half-starved, +shaken with swamp fever, weary and bedraggled, +they reached the first harbor they had found upon +the coast they followed, but no ships were there. +Whether the ships had been wrecked, or put in somewhere +only to meet with destruction at the hands of +the Indians, they never knew.</p> + +<p>Narvaez called his officers into consultation, one at +a time, as to the best course to pursue in this desperate +case. They had no provisions, a third of the men +were sick and more were dropping from exhaustion +every day, and all agreed that unless they could get +away and reach Mexico while some of them could still +work, there was very little chance that they would ever +leave the place at all. But they had no tools, no +workmen and no sailors, and nothing to eat while the +ships were a-building, even if they knew how to build +them. They gave it up for that night and prayed for +direction.<span class='pagenum'>[184]</span></p> + +<p>Next day one of the men proved to have been a carpenter, +and another came to Cabeça de Vaca with a +plan for making bellows of deerskin with a wooden +frame and nozzle, so that a forge could be worked +and whatever spare iron they had could be pounded +into rude tools. The officers took heart. Cross-bows, +stirrups, spurs, horse-furniture, reduced to scrap-iron, +furnished axes, hammers, saws and nails. There was +plenty of timber in the forests. Those not able to do +hard work stripped palmetto leaves to use in the place +of tow for calking and rigging. Every third day one +of the horses was killed, the meat served out to the +sick and the working party, the manes and tails saved +to twist into rope with palmetto fiber, and the skin of +the legs taken off whole and tanned for water bottles. +At four different times a selected body of soldiers went +out to get corn from the Indians, peaceably if possible, +by force if necessary, and on this, with the horse-meat +and sometimes fish or sea-food caught in the bay, the +camp lived and toiled for sixteen desperate days. A +Greek named Don Theodoro knew how to make pitch +for the calking, from pine resin. For sails the men +pieced together their shirts. Not the least wearisome +part of their labor was stone-hunting, for there were +almost no stones in the country, and they must have +anchors. But at last the boats were finished, of +twenty-two cubits in length, with oars of savin (fir), +and fifty of the men had died from fever, hardship or +Indian arrows. Each boat must carry between forty-five +and fifty of those who remained, and this crowded +them so that it was impossible to move about, and +weighted them until the gunwales were hardly a hand's +breadth above the water. It would have been madness +to venture out to sea, and they crept along the <span class='pagenum'>[185]</span> +coast, though they well knew that in following all the +inlets of that marshy shore the length of the voyage +would be multiplied several times over. When they +had been out a week they captured five Indian canoes, +and with the timbers of these added a few boards to +the side of each galley. This made it possible to steer +in something like a direct line toward Mexico.</p> + +<p>On October 30, about the time of vespers, Cabeça +de Vaca, who happened to be in the lead, discovered +the mouth of what seemed to be an immense river. +There they anchored among islands. They found that +the volume of water brought down by this river was +so great that it freshened the sea-water even three +miles out. They went up the river a little way to try +to get fuel to parch their corn, half a handful of raw +corn being the entire ration for a day. The current +and a strong north wind, however, drove them back. +When they sounded, a mile and a half from shore, a +line of thirty fathoms found no bottom. After this +Narvaez with three of the boats kept on along the +shore, but the boat commanded by Castillo and Dorantes, +and that of Cabeça de Vaca, stood out to sea +before a fair east wind, rowing and sailing, for four +days. They never again saw or heard of the remainder +of the fleet.</p> + +<p>On November 5 the wind became a gale. All night +the boats drifted, the men exhausted with toil, hunger +and cold. Cabeça de Vaca and the shipmaster were +the only men capable of handling an oar in their boat. +Near morning they heard the tumbling of waves on +a beach, and soon after, a tremendous wave struck +the boat with a force that hurled her up on the beach +and roused the men who seemed dead, so that they +crept on hands and knees toward shelter in a ravine. <span class='pagenum'>[186]</span> +Here some rain-water was found, a fire was made and +they parched their corn, and here they were found by +some Indians who brought them food. They still had +some of their trading stores, from which they produced +colored beads and hawk-bells. After resting +and collecting provisions the indomitable Spaniards +dug their boat out of the sand and made ready to go +on with the voyage.</p> + +<p>They were but a little way from shore when a great +wave struck the battered craft, and the cold having +loosened their grip on the oars the boat was capsized +and some of the crew drowned. The rest were driven +ashore a second time and lost literally everything they +had. Fortunately some live brands were left from +their fire, and while they huddled about the blaze the +Indians appeared and offered them hospitality. To +some of the party this seemed suspicious. Were the +Indians cannibals? Even when they were warmed and +fed in a comfortable shelter nobody dared to sleep.</p> + +<p>But the Indians had no treacherous intentions whatever, +and continued to share with the shipwrecked unfortunates +their own scanty provision. Fever, hunger +and despair, reduced the eighty men who had +come ashore, to less than twenty. All but Cabeça and +two others who were helpless from fever at last departed +on the desperate adventure of trying to find +their way overland to Mexico. One of the two left +behind died and the other ran away in delirium, leaving +Cabeça de Vaca alone, as the slave of the Indians.</p> + +<p>He discovered presently that he was of little use +to them, for though he could have cut wood or carried +water, this was squaws' work, and should a man +be seen doing it every tradition of the tribe would be +upset. He was of no use as a hunter, for he had not <span class='pagenum'>[187]</span> +the hawk-like sight of an Indian or the Indian instinct +for following a trail. He could dig out the wild roots +they ate, which grew among canes and under water, +but this was laborious and painful work, which made +his hands bleed. With tools, or even metal with +which to make them, he might have made himself the +most useful member of the tribe, but as it was, he was +even poorer than the wretched people among whom +he lived, for they knew how to make the most of what +was in the country, and he had no such training.</p> + +<p>The lonely Spaniard studied their language and customs +diligently. He found that they made knives and +arrows of shell, and clothing of woven fibers of grass +and leaves, and deerskin. They went from one part +of the country to another according to the food supply. +In prickly pear time they went into the cactus +region to gather the fruit, on which they mainly lived +during the season. When pinon nuts were ripe they +went into the mountains and gathered these, threshing +them out of the cones to be eaten fresh, roasted, or +ground into flour for cakes baked on flat stones. +They had no dishes except baskets and gourd-rinds, and +their houses were tent-poles covered with hides. +When a squaw wished to roast a piece of meat she +thrust a sharp stick through it. When she wished to +boil it she filled a large calabash-rind with water, put +in it the materials of her stew, and threw stones into +the fire to heat. When very hot these stones were +raked out with a loop of twisted green reed or willow-shoots +and put into the water. When enough had +been put in to make the water boil, it was kept boiling +by changing the cooled stones for hotter ones until +the meat was cooked.</p> + +<p>Many of the baskets made by the squaws were <span class='pagenum'>[188]</span> +curiously decorated, and made of fine reed or fiber +sewed in coils with very fine grass-thread, so that they +were both light and strong. There were cone-shaped +carrying-baskets borne on the back with a loop passed +around the forehead; in these the squaws carried grain, +fruit, nuts or occasionally babies. There were baskets +for sifting grain and meal, and a sort of flask +that would hold water. The materials were gathered +from mountains, valleys and plains over a range of +hundreds of miles—grasses here, bark fiber there, +dyes in another place, maguey leaves in another, and +for black figures in decoration the seed-pods called +"cat's claws" or the stems of maiden-hair fern. A +design was not copied exactly, but each worker made +the pattern in the same general form and sometimes +improved on it. There was a banded pattern in a +diamond-shaped criss-cross almost exactly like the +shaded markings on a rattlesnake-skin. The Indians +believed in a goddess or Snake-Mother, who lived underground +and knew about springs; and as water was +the most important thing in that land of deserts, they +showed respect to the Snake-Mother by baskets decorated +in her honor. Another design showed a round +center with four zigzag lines running to the border. +This was intended for a lake with four streams flowing +out of it, widening as they flowed; but it looked rather +like a cross or a swastika. There was a design in zigzags +to represent the lightning, and almost all the patterns +had to do in some way with lakes, rivers, rain, or +springs.</p> + +<p>As the exile of Spain began to know the country he +sometimes ventured on journeys alone, without the +tribe, to the north, away from the coast. In these +wanderings he met with tribes whose language was not <span class='pagenum'>[189]</span> +wholly strange, but whose customs and occupations +were not exactly like those of his own Indians. Once +he found a village of deerskin tents where the warriors +were painting themselves with red clay, for a dance. +He remembered that the squaws, when he came away +some days before, were in great lamentation because +they had no red paint for their baskets. He took out +a handful of shells and found that these Indians were +only too pleased to pay for them in red earth, deerskin, +and tassels of deer hair dyed red. They would +hardly let him go till he promised to come again and +bring them more shells and shell beads. This suggested +to him a way in which he might make himself +of use and value.</p> + +<p>Longer and longer journeys he took, trading shells +for new dyes, flint arrow-heads, strong basket-reeds, +and hides and furs of all sorts, learning more and more +of the country as he trafficked. Once he found families +living in a house built of stone and mud bricks, in +the crevice of a cliff, getting water from a little brook +at the base of it, and raising corn and vegetables along +the waterside. Their houses had no real doors. +They had trap-doors in the roof, reached by a notched +tree-trunk inside and one outside. The corn that grew +in the little farm at the foot of the cliff was of different +colors, red, yellow, blue and white. Each kind was +put in a separate basket. Each kind of meal was made +separately into thin cakes cooked on a very hot flat +stone. A handful of the batter was slapped on with +the fingers so deftly that though the cake was thin, +crisp and even, the cook never burned herself. The +people were always on their guard against roving bands +of Indians who lived in tipis, or wigwams, and were +likely to attack the cliff-dwellers at any moment.<a name='Page_190' id='Page_190'></a><span class='pagenum'>[190]</span></p> + +<p>Cabeça de Vaca became interested in these wandering +tribes, and moved north to see what they were like. +He found them quite ready to trade with him and extremely +curious about his wares. They had hides upon +their tipis of a sort he had not seen before, not smooth, +but covered with curly brown fur like a big dog's. It +was some time before the Spanish trader made out +what sort of animal wore such a skin, though he knew +at first sight that it must be a very large one. Finally +the old medicine man with whom he was talking began +to make sketches on the inside of one of the +great robes. The Spaniard in his turn made sketches, +drawing a horse, a goat, a bear, a wolf, a bull. When +he drew the bull the old Indian got excited. He declared +that that was very like the animal they hunted, +but that their bulls had great humped shoulders like +this—he added a high curved line over the back. +Cabeça came to the conclusion that it must be some +sort of hunchbacked cow, but whatever it was, the curly +furry hide was comforting on cold nights. The old +Indian told him a few days after that some of the +young men had just come in with news of a herd of +these great animals moving along one of their trails, +and if the white men cared to travel with them he +could see them for himself.</p> + +<p>It did not take the trader long to make up his mind. +He went with the Indians at the slow trot which covers +so many miles in a day, and sooner than they had expected, +they saw from a little rise in the ground a vast +herd of slowly moving animals which at first the white +man took for black cattle. But they were not cattle.</p> + +<p>There was the huge hump with the curly mane, and +there were the short horns and slender, neat little legs +which had seemed so out of proportion in the old Indian's <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[191]</a></span> +sketch. From their point of view they could see +the hunters cut out one animal and attack him with +their arrows and lances without arousing the fears of +the rest. The creatures moved quietly along, grazing +and pawing now and then, darkening the plain almost +as far as the eye could see. The trader spent several +days with the tribe, and when he went south again he +had a bundle of hides so large that he had to drag it +on a kind of hurdle made of poles. He had helped the +Indians decorate some of the hides they had, and whenever +he did this he wrote his own name, the date, and +a few words, somewhere on the skin.</p> + +<div><span class="back"><a href="#LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">[Illustrations]</a></span></div> + +<div class="center"><div class="figcenter" style="width: 407px;"> +<img src="images/illus-220.png" width="407" height="600" alt=""The creatures darkened the plain almost as far as eye could see."—Page 191" title=""The creatures darkened the plain almost as far as eye could see."—Page 191" /> +<span class="caption">"The creatures darkened the plain almost as far as eye could see."—<i>Page 191</i></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"Why do you do this?" asked the medicine man, +putting one long bronze finger on the strange marks.</p> + +<p>"It is a message," said Cabeça de Vaca. "If any +of my own people see it they will know who made the +pictures."</p> + +<p>The Indian looked at him thoughtfully.</p> + +<p>"You are very clever," he said. "You ought to be +a medicine-man."</p> + +<p>This put another idea into the exile's head. He had +seen much of the medicine-men in his wanderings, and +had studied their ways. Like most men of his day +who traveled much, he had a rough-and-ready knowledge +of medicine and surgery. He had sometimes +been able to be of service to sick and wounded Indians, +and whether it was their faith in him, or in the virtues +of his treatment, his patients usually got well. In +comparing notes they found that he often prayed and +sang in his own language while watching with them. +In the end he gained a great reputation as a sort of +combined priest and doctor. He was not too proud to +adopt some of the methods of the medicine-men when +he found them effective, especially as regards herbs <span class='pagenum'>[192]</span> +and other healing medicaments, used either in poultices +or drinks. From being a poor slave and a burden to +his masters, he became their great man.</p> + +<p>He had been for more than five years among the +Indians when another tribe of Indians met with his +tribe, perhaps drawn by the fame of the white medicine-man, +and among their captives he recognized with +joy three of his own comrades—Castillo, Dorantes, +and a Barbary negro called Estevanico (Little Stephen). +He told them of his experience, and found +them glad to have him teach them whatever of the arts +of the medicine-man he himself knew. After that, the +four friends traveled more or less in company, and +persuaded the Indians to go westward, where they +thought that there might be a chance of meeting with +some of their own people. They finally reached a +point at which the Indians explained that they dared +not go further, because the tribe which held the country +further west was hostile.</p> + +<p>"Send to them," suggested Cabeça, "and tell them +we are coming."</p> + +<p>After some argument the Indians sent two women, +because women would not be harmed even in the enemy's +country. Then the four comrades set out into +the new land.</p> + +<p>Among them they knew six Indian dialects, and +could talk with the people after a fashion, wherever +they went. Even when two tribes were at war, they +made a truce, so that they might trade and talk with +the strangers. At last Castillo saw on the neck of an +Indian the buckle of a sword-belt, and fastened to it +like a pendant the nail of a horse-shoe. His heart +leaped. He asked the Indian where he got the things. +The Indian answered,</p> + +<p>"They came from heaven."<span class='pagenum'>[193]</span></p> + +<p>"Who brought them?" asked Cabeça.</p> + +<p>"Men with beards like you," the Indian answered +rather timidly, "seated on strange animals and carrying +long lances. They killed two of our people with +those lances, and the rest ran away."</p> + +<p>Then Cabeça knew that his countrymen must have +passed that way. His feelings were a strange mixture +of joy and grief.</p> + +<p>As they went on they came upon more traces of +Spaniards, parties of slave-hunters from the south. +Everywhere they themselves were well treated, even +by people who were hiding in the mountains for fear +of the Christians. When Cabeça told the Indians +that he was himself a Christian they smiled and said +nothing; but one night he heard them talking among +themselves, not knowing that he could understand +their talk.</p> + +<p>"He is lying, or he is mistaken," they said. "He +and his friends come from the sunrise, and the Christians +from the sunset; they heal the sick, the Christians +kill the well ones; they wear only a little clothing, +as we do, the Christians come on horses, with shining +garments and long lances; these good men take our +gifts only to help others who need them; the Christians +come to rob us and never give any one anything."</p> + +<p>The next day Cabeça told the Indians that he wished +to go back to his own people and tell them not to kill +and enslave the natives. He explained to them that +this wickedness was not in any way part of his religion, +and that the founder of that religion never injured or +despised the poor, but went about doing good. When +he was sure that there were Spaniards not many miles +away, he took Estevanico, leaving the other two Spaniards +to rest their tired bones, and with an escort of <span class='pagenum'>[194]</span> +eleven Indians went out to look for his countrymen.</p> + +<p>When he found them, they were greatly astonished. +Their astonishment did not lessen when he told them +how he came to be where he was. He sent Estevanico +back to tell the rest of the party to come, and himself +remained to talk with Diego de Alcaraz, the leader +of the Spanish adventurers, and his three followers. +They were slave-hunters, like the other Spaniards. +When, five days afterward Estevanico, Castillo and +Dorantes came on with an escort of several hundred +Indians, all Cabeca's determination and diplomacy +were taxed to keep the slavers from making a raid on +the confiding natives then and there. To buy Alcaraz +off cost nearly all the bows, pouches, finely dressed +skins, and other native treasures he had gained by trading +or received as gifts. In this collection were five +arrowheads of emerald or something very like that +stone. It was not in Cabeça de Vaca to break his word +to people who trusted him. He had suffered every sort +of privation; he had traveled more than ten thousand +miles on foot in his six years among the Indians of the +Southwest; now he had lost most of his profit from +that long exile; but he went back to Spain with faith +unbroken and honor clear as a white diamond.</p> + +<p>In May, 1536, he and his companions reached Culiacan +in the territory of Spain. All the way to the City +of Mexico they were feasted and welcomed as honored +guests. The account which Cabeça de Vaca wrote of +his travels was the first written description of the country +now called Texas, Arizona and New Mexico.</p> + +<hr /> + +<h4 class="smcap">note</h4> + +<div class="footnotes"><div class="footnote"><p> +This story follows closely the "Relacion of Cabeca de Vaca." It +illustrates the resourcefulness, bravery and ingenuity of Spanish +cavaliers of the heroic age as hardly any other episode does.</p></div></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div><span class="back"><a href="#CONTENTS">[Contents]</a></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[195]</a></span></div> + +<h3><a name="LONE_BAYOU" id="LONE_BAYOU"></a>LONE BAYOU</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">De Soto was a gentleman of Spain</span> +<span class="i2">In those proud years when Spanish chivalry</span> +<span class="i0">From fierce adventure never did refrain,—</span> +<span class="i2">Ruler of argosies that ruled the sea,</span> +<span class="i0">She looked on lesser nations in disdain,</span> +<span class="i2">As born to trafficking or slavery.</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">In shining armor, and with shot and steel</span> +<span class="i2">Abundantly purveyed for their delight,</span> +<span class="i0">Banners before whose Cross the foe should kneel,</span> +<span class="i2">His company embarked—how great a light</span> +<span class="i0">Through men's perversity to stoop and reel</span> +<span class="i2">Down through calamity to endless night!</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Yet unsubmissive, obdurately bold,</span> +<span class="i2">The savages refused to serve their need.</span> +<span class="i0">They would not guide the conquerors to their gold,</span> +<span class="i2">Nor though cast in the fire like a weed</span> +<span class="i0">Or driven by stern compulsion to the fold,</span> +<span class="i2">Would they abandon their unhallowed creed.</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The forest folk in terror broke and fled</span> +<span class="i2">Like fish before the fierce pursuing pike.</span> +<span class="i0">The stubborn chiefs as hostages were led—</span> +<span class="i2">And in the wilderness, a grisly dyke</span> +<span class="i0">Of slaves and captives, lay the heathen dead,</span> +<span class="i2">And the black bayou claims all dead alike.</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then southward through the haunted bearded trees</span> +<span class="i2">The Spaniards fought their way—Mauila's fires</span> +<span class="i0">Devoured their vestments and their chalices,</span> +<span class="i2">Their sacramental wine and bread—the choirs</span> +<span class="i0">No longer sang their requiems, and the seas</span> +<span class="i2">Lay between them and all their sacred spires.</span> +</div><span class='pagenum'>[196]</span> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">At last in a lone cabin, where the cane</span> +<span class="i2">Hid the black mire before the lowly door,</span> +<span class="i0">De Soto died—although they sought to feign</span> +<span class="i2">By some pretended magic mirror's lore</span> +<span class="i0">That still he lived, a gentleman of Spain,—</span> +<span class="i2">And the dread flood rolled onward to the shore!</span> +</div></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div><span class="back"><a href="#CONTENTS">[Contents]</a></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[197]</a></span></div> + +<h2>XIV</h2> + +<h3><a name="THE_FACE_OF_THE_TERROR" id="THE_FACE_OF_THE_TERROR"></a>THE FACE OF THE TERROR</h3> + +<p>"Paris is no place in these times for a Huguenot +lad from Navarre," said Dominic de Gourgues, +of Mont-de-Marsan in Gascony. "His father, François +Debré, did me good service in the Spanish Indies. +One of these days, Philip and his bloodhounds will be +pulled down by these young terriers they have orphaned."</p> + +<p>"If the Jesuits have their way all Huguenots will be +exterminated, men, women and children," said Laudonnière, +with a gleam of melancholy sarcasm in his dark +pensive eyes. "Life to a Jesuit is quite simple."</p> + +<p>"My faith," said Gascon, twisting his mustache, +"they may find in that case, that other people can be +simple too. But I must be off. I thank you for making +a place for Pierre."</p> + +<p>In consequence of this conversation, when Ribault's +fleet anchored near the River of May, on June +25, 1564, Pierre Debré was hanging to the collars of +two of Laudonnière's deerhounds and gazing in silent +wonder at the strange and beautiful land.</p> + +<p>"The fairest, fruitfullest and pleasantest land in +all the world," Jean Ribault had said in his report two +years before to Coligny the Great Admiral of France. +Live-oaks and cedars untouched for a thousand years +were draped in luxuriant grape-vines or wreathed with +the mossy gray festoons of "old men's beard." Cypress <span class='pagenum'>[198]</span> +and pine mingled with the shining foliage of +magnolia and palm. From the marsh arose on sudden +startled wings multitudes of water-fowl. The +dogs tugged and whined eagerly as if they knew that +in these vast hunting-forests there was an abundance +of game. In this rich land, thus far neglected by the +Spanish conquistadores because it yielded neither gold +nor silver, surely the Huguenots might find prosperity +and peace. Coligny was a Huguenot and a powerful +friend, and if the French Protestants now hunted into +the mountains or driven to take refuge in England, +could be transplanted to America, France might be +spared the horrors of religious civil war.</p> + +<p>Pierre was thirteen and looked at least three years +older. He could not remember when his people and +their Huguenot neighbors had not lived in dread of +prison, exile or death. When he was not more than +ten years old he had guided their old pastor to safety +in a mountain cave, and seen men die, singing, for +their faith. After the death of his father and mother +he had lived for awhile with his mother's people in +Navarre, and since they were poor and bread was hard +to come by he had run away the year before and found +his way to Paris, where Dominic de Gourgues had +found him. If the Huguenots had a safe home he +might be able to repay the kindness of his cousins. +Meanwhile the country, the wild creatures, the copper-colored +people and the hard work of landing colonists +and supplies were full of interest and excitement for +Pierre.</p> + +<p>Satouriona, the Indian chief, showed the French officers +the pillar which Ribault's party had set up on +their previous visit to mark their discovery. The +faithful savages had kept it wreathed with evergreens <span class='pagenum'>[199]</span> +and decked with offerings of maize and fruits as if it +were an altar.</p> + +<p>Unfortunately not all the colonists were of heroic +mind. Most who had left France to seek their fortunes +were merchants, craftsman and young Huguenot +noblemen whose swords were uneasy in time of peace. +French farm-laborers were mainly serfs on Catholic +estates, and landowners did not wish to come to the +New World. Thus the people of the settlement were +city folk with little experience or inclination for cultivating +the soil. The Indians grew tired of supplying +the wants of so large a number of strangers. Quarrels +arose among the French. A discontented group +of adventurers mutinied and went off on a wild attempt +at piracy. They plundered two ships in the +Spanish Indies and were caught by the Spanish governor. +The twenty-six who escaped his clutches fled +back to the fort, which Laudonnière had built and +named Carolina. His faithful lieutenant La Caille arrested +them and dragged them to judgment. "Say +what you will," said one of the culprits ruefully, "if +Laudonnière does not hang us I will never call him an +honest man." The four leaders were promptly sentenced +to be hanged, but the sentence was commuted +to shooting. After that order reigned, for a time.</p> + +<p>Some of the tradesmen ranged the wilderness, bringing +back feather mantles, arrows tipped with gold, +curiously wrought quivers of beautiful fur, wedges of +a green stone like beryl. There were reports of a +gold mine somewhere in the northern mountains. Ribault +did not return with the expected supplies, the +Indians had mostly left the neighborhood, and misery +and starvation followed, for the game, like the Indians +fled the presence of the white men. The Governor <span class='pagenum'>[200]</span> +began to think of crowding the survivors into the two +little ships he had and returning to France.</p> + +<p>Matters were in this unsatisfactory state when Captain +John Hawkins in his great seven-hundred-ton ship +the <i>Jesus</i>, with three smaller ones, the <i>Solomon</i>, the +<i>Tiger</i> and the <i>Swallow</i>, put in at the River of May for +a supply of fresh water. He gave them provisions, +and offered readily to take them back to France on +his way to England, but this offer Laudonnière declined.</p> + +<p>"Monsieur Hawkins is a good fellow," he observed +dryly to La Caille, "and I am grateful to him, but that +is no reason why I should abandon this land to his +Queen, and that is what he is hoping that I may do."</p> + +<p>Others were not so long-sighted. The soldiers and +hired workmen raised a howl of wrath and disappointment +when they heard that they were not to sail with +Hawkins, and openly threatened to desert and sail +without leave. Laudonnière answered this threat by +the cool statement that he had bought one of the English +ships, the <i>Tiger</i>, with provisions for the voyage, +and that if they would have a little patience they might +soon sail for France in their own fleet. Somewhat +taken aback they ceased their clamor and awaited a +favoring wind. Before it came, Ribault came sailing +back with seven ships, plenty of supplies, and three +hundred new colonists.</p> + +<p>The fleet approached as cautiously as if it were coming +to attack the colony instead of relieving it, and +Laudonnière, who saw many of his friends among the +new arrivals, presently learned that his enemies among +the colonists had written to Coligny describing him as +arrogant and cruel and charging that he was about to +set up an independent monarchy of his own. The Admiral, <span class='pagenum'>[201]</span> +three thousand miles away, had decided to ask +the Governor to resign. Ribault advised him to stay +and fight it out, but Laudonnière was sick and disheartened. +Life was certainly far from simple when to +use authority was to be accused of treason, and not to +use it was to foster piracy, and he had had enough of +governing colonies in remote jungles of the New +World. He was going home.</p> + +<p>To most of the colonists, however, Ribault's arrival +promised an end of all their troubles. Stores were +landed, tents were pitched, and the women and children +were bestowed in the most comfortable quarters +which could be found for them just then. To his +great satisfaction Pierre found among the arrivals his +cousin Barbe and her husband, a carpenter, and her +three children, Marie, Suzanne and little René. The +two young girls regarded Cousin Pierre as a hero, especially +when they learned that the bearskin on the +floor of their palmetto hut had but a few months ago +been the coat of a live black bear. It had been caught +feasting in the maize-fields of the Indians, by their +cousin and another youth, and shot with a crossbow +bolt by Pierre. They thought the roast corn and +stewed clams of their first meal ashore the most delicious +food they had ever tasted, and the three-cornered +enclosure in the forest with the wilderness all +about it, the most wonderful place they had seen.</p> + +<p>Little did these innocent folk imagine what was +brewing in Spain. The raid of French pirates upon +the Jamaican coast had promptly been reported by the +Adelantado of that island. Spanish spies at the +French court had carefully noted the movements of +Coligny and Ribault. Pedro Menendez de Avila, +raising money and men in his native province of Asturia <span class='pagenum'>[202]</span> +in Spain for the conquest of all Florida, learned +with horror and indignation that its virgin soil had already +been polluted by heretic Frenchmen.</p> + +<p>Menendez had in that very year gained permission +from the King of Spain to conquer and convert this +land at his own cost. In return he was to have free +trade with the whole Spanish empire, and the title of +Adelantado or governor of Florida for life—absolute +power over all of America north of Mexico, for +Spain had never recognized any right of France or +England in the region discovered by Cabot, Cartier, +Verrazzano or others. Menendez was allowed three +years for his tremendous task. He was to take with +him five hundred men and as many slaves, a suitable +supply of horses, cattle, sheep, hogs, and provisions, +and sixteen priests, four of whom were to be Jesuits. +He had also to find ships to convey this great expedition.</p> + +<p>But Menendez had been playing for big stakes all +his life. He was only ten years old when he ran away +and went to sea on a Barbary pirate ship. While yet +a lad he was captain of a ship of his own, fighting pirates +and French privateers. He had served in the +West Indies and he had commanded fleets. King +Philip had never really understood the enormous possibilities +of Florida until Menendez explained them to +him. The soil was fertile, the climate good, there +might be valuable mines, and there were above all +countless heathen whom it was the deepest desire of +Menendez to convert to the true faith. In this last +statement he was as sincere as he was in the others. +He expected to do in Florida what Cortes had done in +Mexico. Now heresy, the unpardonable sin, burned +out and stamped out in Spain, had appeared in the <span class='pagenum'>[203]</span> +province which he had bound himself at the cost of a +million ducats to make Spanish and Catholic. With +furious energy he pushed on the work of preparation.</p> + +<p>He had assembled in June, 1565, a fleet of thirty-four +ships and a force of twenty-six hundred men. +Arciniega, another commander, was to join him with +fifteen hundred. On June 29 he sailed from Cadiz in +the <i>San Pelayo</i>, a galleon of nearly a thousand tons, +a leviathan for those days. Ten other ships accompanied +him; the rest of the fleet would follow later. +It was the plan of Menendez to wipe out the garrison at +Fort Caroline before Ribault could get there, plant a +colony there and one on the Chesapeake, to control the +northern fisheries for Spain alone. On the way a +Caribbean tempest scattered the ships and only five met +at Hispaniola, but Menendez did not wait for the +rest. When he reached the Florida coast he sent a +captain ashore with twenty men to find out exactly +where on that long, lonely shore line the French colony +had squatted.</p> + +<p>About half past eleven on the night of September 4, +the watchman on one of the French ships anchored off +shore saw the huge <i>San Pelayo</i>, the Spanish banner +lifting sluggishly in the slow wind, coming up from the +south. Ribault was in the fort, so were most of the +troops, and three of the ships were anchored inside +the bar. The strange fleet came steadily nearer, the +great flagship moved to windward of Ribault's flagship +the <i>Trinity</i>, and dropped anchor. The others +did likewise. Not a word was spoken by friend or +foe. The Spanish chaplain Mendoza afterward +wrote:</p> + +<p>"Never since I came into the world did I know such +a stillness."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[204]</a></span></p> + +<p>A trumpet sounded on the <i>San Pelayo</i>. A trumpet +sounded on the <i>Trinity</i>. Menendez spoke, politely.</p> + +<div><span class="back"><a href="#LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">[Illustrations]</a></span></div> + +<div class="center"><div class="figcenter" style="width: 416px;"> +<img src="images/illus-236.png" width="416" height="600" alt=""'Gentlemen, whence does this fleet come?'"—Page 204" title=""'Gentlemen, whence does this fleet come?'"—Page 204" /> +<span class="caption">"'Gentlemen, whence does this fleet come?'"—<i>Page 204</i></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"Gentlemen, whence does this fleet come?"</p> + +<p>"From France."</p> + +<p>"What is it doing here?"</p> + +<p>"Bringing soldiers and supplies to a fort of the +King of France in this country—where he soon will +have many more," flung back the Breton captain defiantly.</p> + +<p>"Are you Catholics or Lutherans?"</p> + +<p>This time a score of clear voices reinforced +the Captain's—"Lutherans—Huguenots—the Reformed +Faith—The Religion!" And the Captain +added, "Who are you yourself?"</p> + +<p>"I am Pedro Menendez de Avila, General of the +fleet of the King of Spain, Don Felipe the Second, who +come hither to hang and behead all Lutherans whom +I find by land or sea, according to instructions from +his Majesty, which leave me no discretion. These +commands I shall obey, as you will presently see. At +daybreak I shall board your ships. If I find there any +Catholic he shall be well treated. But every heretic +shall die."</p> + +<p>The reply to the rolling sonorous ultimatum was a +shout of derision.</p> + +<p>"Ah, if you are a brave man, don't put it off till +daylight! Come on now and see what you will get!"</p> + +<p>Menendez in black fury snapped out a command. +Cables were slipped, and the towering black hulk of +the <i>San Pelayo</i> bore down toward the <i>Trinity</i>. But +the Breton captain was already leading the little fleet +out of danger, and with all sail set, went out to sea, +answering the Spanish fire with tart promptness. In +the morning Menendez gave up the chase and came <span class='pagenum'>[205]</span> +back to find armed men drawn up on the beach, and all +the guns of the ships inside the bar pointed in his direction. +He steered southward and found three ships +already unloading in a harbor which he named San +Augustin and proceeded to fortify.</p> + +<p>In Fort Caroline, Pierre Debré, awakened by the +sound of firing, ran down to the beach, where a crowd +was gathering. No one could see anything but the +flashes of the guns; who or what was attacking the +ships there was no way of knowing. The first light of +dawn showed the two fleets far out at sea, and Ribault +at once ordered the drums to beat "To arms!" They +saw the great galleon approach, hover about awhile, +and bear away south. When the French fleet came +back later, one of the captains, Cosette, reported that +trusting in the speed of his ship he had followed the +Spaniards to the harbor where they were now landing +and entrenching themselves.</p> + +<p>The terror which haunted the future of every +Huguenot in France now menaced the New World.</p> + +<p>Ribault gave his counsel for an immediate attack by +sea, before Menendez completed his defense or received +reinforcements. Laudonnière was ill in bed. The +fleet sailed as soon as it could be made ready, and with +it nearly every able fighting man in the settlement. +Pierre, nearly crying with wrath and disappointment, +was left among the non-combatants at the fort. In +vain did old Challeux the carpenter try to console him. +It might be, as Challeux said, that there would be +plenty of chances to fight after his beard was grown, +but now he was missing everything.</p> + +<p>That night a terrible storm arose and continued for +days. The marshes became a boundless sea; the forests +were whipped like weeds in the wind. Where had <span class='pagenum'>[206]</span> +the fleet found refuge? or had it been hurled to destruction +by the rage of wind and sea? Laudonnière, in +the driving rain, came from his sick-bed to direct the +work on the defenses, which were broken down in +three or four places. Besides the four dog-boys, the +cook, the brewer, an old cross-bow maker, and the old +carpenter, there were two shoemakers, a musician, four +valets, fourscore camp-followers who did not know the +use of arms, and the crowd of women and children. +The sole consolation that could be found in their plight +was that in such a storm no enemy would be likely to +attack them by sea or land. Nevertheless Laudonnière +divided his force into two watches with an officer +for each, gave them lanterns and an hour glass for +going the rounds, and himself, weak with fever, spent +each night in the guard-room.</p> + +<p>On the night of the nineteenth the tempest became +a deluge. The officer of the night took pity on the +drenched and gasping sentries and dismissed them. +But on that night five hundred Spaniards were coming +from San Augustin through almost impassable swamps, +their provisions spoiled and their powder soaked, under +the leadership of the pitiless Menendez. The +storm had caught Ribault's fleet just as it was about to +attack on the eleventh, and Menendez had determined +to take a force of Spaniards overland and attack the +fort while its defenders were away. With twenty +Vizcayan axemen to clear the way and two Indians and +a renegade Frenchman, François Jean, for a guide, he +had bullied, threatened and exhorted them through +eight days of wading through mud waist-deep, creeping +around quagmires and pushing by main force +through palmetto jungles, until two hours before daylight +the panting, shivering, sullen men stood cursing <span class='pagenum'>[207]</span> +the country and their commander, under their breath, +in a pine wood less than a mile from Fort Caroline. +It was all that Menendez could do to get them to go a +rod further. All night, he said, he had prayed for +help; their provisions and ammunition were gone; +there was nothing to do but to go on and take the fort. +They went on.</p> + +<p>In the faint light of early morning a trumpeter saw +them racing down the slope toward the fort and blew +the alarm. "Santiago! Santiago!" sounded in the +ears of the half-awakened French as the Spaniards +came through the gaps in the defenses and over the +ramparts. Fierce faces and stabbing pikes were +everywhere. Laudonnière snatched sword and buckler, +rallied his men to the point of greatest danger, +fought desperately until there was no more hope, and +with a single soldier of his guard escaped into the +woods. Challeux, chisel in hand, on his way to his +work, swung himself over the palisade and ran like a +boy. In the edge of the forest he and a few other +fugitives paused and looked down upon the enclosure +of the fort. It was a butchery. Some of the Huguenots +in the woods decided to return and surrender +rather than risk the terrors of the wilderness. The +Spaniards, they said, were at least men. Six of them +did return, and were cut down as they came. Pierre +Debré side by side with a few desperate men who had +one of the two light cannon the fort possessed, was +fighting like a tiger in defense of a corner where a +group of women and children were crouching.</p> + +<p>When Menendez could secure the attention of his +maddened men he gave an order that women, children +and boys under fifteen should be spared. This order +and the instant's pause it gave came just as the last of <span class='pagenum'>[208]</span> +the men in Pierre's corner went down before the halberds +of the Spaniards. Pierre leaped the palisade +and ran for the forest. Looking back, he saw the +trembling women and children herded into shelter, but +not killed. Fifteen of the captured Huguenots were +presently hanged; a hundred and forty-two had been +cut down and lay heaped together on the river bank. +Pierre plunged into the forest and after days of wandering +reached a friendly Indian village. The carpenter +and the other fugitives who escaped were taken +to France in the two small ships of Ribault's fleet +which had not gone to attack the Spanish settlement. +Menendez returned at leisure to San Augustin, where +he knelt and thanked the Lord.</p> + +<p>The fate of the men of Ribault's fleet became known +through the letters which the Spaniards themselves +wrote in course of time to their friends at home, but +chiefly through Menendez's own report to the King. +Dominic de Gourgues heard of it from Coligny, and +his eyes burned with the still anger of a naturally impetuous +man who has learned in stern schools how to +keep his temper.</p> + +<p>"As I understand it," he said grimly and quietly, +"Menendez, in the disguise of a sailor, found Ribault +and his men shipwrecked and starving, some in one +place, some in another. He promised them food and +safety on condition that they should surrender and +give up their arms and armor. He separated them +into lots of ten, each guarded by twenty Spaniards. +When each lot had been led out of sight of the rest he +explained that on account of their great numbers and +the fewness of his own followers he should be compelled +to tie their hands before taking them into camp, <span class='pagenum'>[209]</span> +for fear they might capture the camp. At the end of +the day, when all had reached a certain line which +Menendez marked out with his cane in the sand, he +gave the word to his murderers to butcher them."</p> + +<p>Coligny bowed his noble gray head.</p> + +<p>"And he offered them life if they would renounce +their religion, whereupon Ribault repeating in French +the psalm, 'Lord, remember thou me,' they died without +other supplication to God or man. On this account +did Menendez write above the heads of those +whom he hanged, 'I do this not as to Frenchmen but +as to Lutherans.' And no demand for redress has as +yet been made?"</p> + +<p>"One," said the Admiral coolly. "A demand was +made by Philip of Spain. He has required his +brother of France to punish one Gaspé Coligny, sometimes +known as Admiral, for sending out a Huguenot +colony to settle in Florida."</p> + +<p>The Gascon sprang to his feet muttering something +between his teeth. "I crave your pardon, my lord," +he added with a courteous bow. "I am but a plain +rough soldier unused to the ways of courts, but it seems +to me that things being as they are, my duty is quite +simple." He bowed himself out and left Coligny +wondering.</p> + +<p>During the following months it was noted that in +choosing the men for his coming expedition Gourgues +appeared to be unusually select. He sold his inheritance, +borrowed some money of his brother, and fitted +out three small ships carrying both sails and oars. He +enlisted, one by one, about a hundred arquebusiers and +eighty sailors who could fight either by land or sea if +necessary. He secured a commission from the King <span class='pagenum'>[210]</span> +to go slave-raiding in Benin, on the coast of Africa. +On August 22, 1567, he set sail from the mouth of the +Charente.</p> + +<p>"I should like to know," said one of the trumpeters, +Lucas Moreau, "whether we are really going slave-catching, +or not."</p> + +<p>"Why do you think we are not?" asked the pilot, +to whom he spoke.</p> + +<p>"Because I have seen nothing on board that looks +like it. Moreover, he was very particular to ask me +if I had been in the Spanish Indies, and when he heard +that I had been in Florida he took me on at once. I +was out there, you know, when you were, two years +ago."</p> + +<p>"And you would like to go back?" asked the other, +gruffly.</p> + +<p>"If there were a chance of killing Menendez, yes," +answered Moreau with a fierce flash of white teeth.</p> + +<p>The trumpeter's guess was a shrewd one. When +the tiny fleet reached the West Indies, the commander +took his men into his confidence and revealed the true +object of his voyage—to avenge the massacre at Fort +Caroline. The result proved that he had not misjudged +them. Fired by his spirit they became so eager +that they wanted to push on at once instead of waiting +for moonlight to pass the dangerous Bahama Channel. +They came through it without mishap, and at +daybreak were anchored at the mouth of a river about +fifteen leagues north of Fort Caroline. In the growing +light an Indian army in war paint and feathers, +bristling with weapons, could be seen waiting on the +shore.</p> + +<p>"They may think we are Spaniards," said Dominic <span class='pagenum'>[211]</span> +de Gourgues. "Moreau, if you think they will understand +you, it might be well for you to speak to them."</p> + +<p>No sooner had the trumpeter come near enough in +a small boat for the Indians to recognize him, than +yells of joy were heard, for the war party was headed +by Satouriona himself, who well remembered him. +When Moreau explained that the French had returned +with presents for their good friends there was great +rejoicing. A council was appointed for the next day.</p> + +<p>In the morning Satouriona's runners had scoured the +country, and the woods were full of Indians. The +white men landed in military order, and in token of +friendliness laid aside their arquebuses, and the Indians +came in without their bows and arrows. Satouriona +met Gourgues with every sign of friendliness, and +seated him at his side upon a wooden stool covered +with the gray "Spanish moss" that curtained all the +trees. In the clearing the chiefs and warriors stood +or sat around them, ring within ring of plumed crests +fierce faces and watchful eyes. Satouriona described +the cruelty of the Spaniards, their abuse of the Indians +and the miseries of their rule, saying finally,</p> + +<p>"A French boy fled to us after the fort was taken, +and we adopted him. The Spaniards wished to get +him to kill him, but we would not give him up, for we +love the French." He waved his hand, and from the +woods at one side came, in full Indian costume, bronzed +and athletic, Pierre Debré.</p> + +<p>Greatly as he was surprised and delighted, Gourgues +dared not show it too plainly, and Pierre had grown +almost as self-contained as a veteran of twice his years. +When the French commander suggested fighting the +Spaniards Satouriona leaped for joy. He and his <span class='pagenum'>[212]</span> +warriors asked only to be allowed to join in that foray.</p> + +<p>"How soon?" asked Gourgues. Satouriona could +have his people ready in three days.</p> + +<p>"Be secret," the Gascon cautioned, "for the enemy +must not feel the wind of the blow." Satouriona assured +him that there was no need of that warning, for +the Indians hated the Spaniards worse than the French +did.</p> + +<p>"Pierre," said Gourgues, when he had the lad safe +on board ship, "they said you were killed."</p> + +<p>"I stayed alive to fight Spaniards," said the boy +with a flash of the eye. "'Sieur Dominic, there are +four hundred of them behind their walls, where they +rebuilt our fort. I have hidden in the trees and +counted. But you can trust Satouriona. The Spaniards +have stolen women, enslaved and tortured men, +and killed children, and the tribe is mad with hate."</p> + +<p>Twenty sailors were left to guard the ships, Gourgues +with a hundred and sixty Frenchmen took up their +march along the seashore; their Indian allies slipped +around through the forest. With the French went +Olotoraca, the nephew of the chief, a young brave of +distinguished reputation, a French pike in his hand. +The French met their allies not far from the fort, and +pounced upon the garrison just as it finished dinner, +Olotoraca being the first man up the glacis and over +the unfinished moat. The fort across the river began +to cannonade the attacking party, who turned four captured +guns upon them, and then crossed, the French in +a large boat which had been brought up the river, the +Indians swimming. Not one Spaniard escaped. Fifteen +were kept alive, to be hanged on the very trees +from which Menendez had hanged his French captives, <span class='pagenum'>[213]</span> +and over them was set an inscription burned with a hot +poker on a pine board:</p> + +<p>"Not as to Spaniards, but as to Traitors, Robbers, +and Murderers."</p> + +<p>When not one stone was left upon another in either +fort, Dominic de Gourgues bade farewell to his Indian +allies, and taking with him the lad so strangely saved +from death and exile, went back to France.</p> + +<hr /> + +<h4 class="smcap">note</h4> + +<div class="footnotes"><div class="footnote"><p> +The full history of this dramatic episode is to be found in Parkman's +"The Pioneers of France in the New World."</p></div></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div><span class="back"><a href="#CONTENTS">[Contents]</a></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[214]</a></span></div> + +<h3><a name="THE_DESTROYERS" id="THE_DESTROYERS"></a>THE DESTROYERS</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The moon herself doth sail the air</span> +<span class="i2">As we do sail the sea,</span> +<span class="i0">Where by Saint Michael's Mount we fare</span> +<span class="i2">Free as the winds are free.</span> +<span class="i0">Our keels are bright with elfin gold</span> +<span class="i2">That mocks the tyrant's gaze,</span> +<span class="i0">That slips from out his greedy hold</span> +<span class="i2">And leaves him in amaze.</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">White water creaming past her prow</span> +<span class="i2">The little <i>Golden Hynde</i></span> +<span class="i0">Bears westward with her treasure now—</span> +<span class="i2">We'd ship and follow blind,</span> +<span class="i0">But that he never did require—</span> +<span class="i2">Our Captain hath us bound</span> +<span class="i0">Only by force of his desire—</span> +<span class="i2">The quarry hunts the hound!</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The hunt is up, the hunt is up</span> +<span class="i2">To the gray Atlantic's bound,—</span> +<span class="i0">The health of the Queen in a golden cup!—</span> +<span class="i2">The quarry is hunting the hound!</span> +<span class="i0">Like steel the stars gleam through the night</span> +<span class="i2">On armored waves beneath,—</span> +<span class="i0">As England's honor cold and bright</span> +<span class="i2">We bear her sword in sheath!</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">When that great Empire dies away</span> +<span class="i2">And none recall her place,</span> +<span class="i0">Men shall remember our work to-day</span> +<span class="i2">And tell of our Captain's grace,—</span> +<span class="i0">How never a woman or child was the worse</span> +<span class="i2">Wherever our foe we found,</span> +<span class="i0">Nor their own priests had cause to curse</span> +<span class="i2">The quarry that hunted the hound!</span> +</div></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div><span class="back"><a href="#CONTENTS">[Contents]</a></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[215]</a></span></div> + +<h2>XV</h2> + +<h3><a name="THE_FLEECE_OF_GOLD" id="THE_FLEECE_OF_GOLD"></a>THE FLEECE OF GOLD</h3> + +<p>White fog, the thick mist of windless marshes, +masked the Kentish coast. The Medway at +flood-tide from Sheerness to Gillingham Reach was one +maze of creeks and bends and inlets and tiny bays. +Nothing was visible an oar's length overside but shifting +cloudy shapes that bulked obscurely in the fog. +But although this was Francis Drake's first voyage as +master of his own ship, he knew these waters as he +knew the palm of his hand. His old captain, dying a +bachelor, had left him the weather-beaten cargo-ship +as reward for his "diligence and fidelity", and at sixteen +he was captain where six years before he had been +ship's-boy.</p> + +<p>Scores of daring projects went Catherine-wheeling +through his mind as he steered seaward through the +white enchanted world. In 1561 Spain was the bogy +of English seaports, most of whose folk were Protestants. +There was no knowing how long the coast-wise +trade would be allowed to go on.</p> + +<p>Out of the white mist flashed a whiter face, etched +with black brows and lashes and a pointed silky beard—the +face of a man all in black, whose body rose and +dipped with the waves among the marsh grass of an +eyot. So lightly was it held that it might have slipped +off in the wake of the boat had not Tom Moone the +carpenter caught it with a boat-hook. But when they +had the man on board they found that he was not +dead.<span class='pagenum'>[216]</span></p> + +<p>Ten minutes before, the young captain would have +said that every dead Spaniard was so much to the good, +but he had the life-saving instinct of a Newfoundland +dog. He set about reviving the rescued man without +thinking twice on the subject.</p> + +<p>"'T is unlucky," grumbled Will Harvest under his +breath. "Take a drownded man from the sea and +she get one of us—some time."</p> + +<p>"Like enough," agreed his master blithely. "But +this one's not drownded—knocked on the head and +robbed, I guess. D'you think we might take him to +Granny Toothacre's, Tom?"</p> + +<p>"I reckon so," returned Tom with a wide grin, +"seein' 't is you. If I was the one to ask her I'd as +lief do it with a brass kittle on my head. She don't +like furriners."</p> + +<p>Drake laughed and brought his craft alongside an +old wharf near which an ancient farm-house stood, +half-hidden by a huge pollard willow. Here, when he +had seen his guest bestowed in a chamber whose one +window looked out over the marshes, he stayed to +watch with him that night, sending the ship on to +Chatham in charge of the mate.</p> + +<p>"Now what's the lad up to?" queried Will as they +caught the ebbing tide. "D'ye think he'll find out anything, +tending that there Spanisher?"</p> + +<p>"Not him. He don't worm secrets out o' nobody. +But he's got his reasons, I make no doubt. You go +teach a duck to swim—and leave Frankie alone," said +Moone.</p> + +<p>The youth did not analyze the impulse that kept +him at the bedside of the injured man, but he felt that +he desired to know more of him. The stranger was +gaunt, gray and without jewel, gold chain or signet <span class='pagenum'>[217]</span> +ring to show who he was, but it was the same man who +had spoken to him at Gravesend five years ago.</p> + +<p>A barge-load of London folk had come down to see +the launching of the <i>Serchthrift</i>, the new pinnace of +the Muscovy Company, and among them was the venerable +Sebastian Cabot. Alms were freely distributed +that the spectators might pray for a fortunate voyage, +but Frankie Drake was gazing with all his eyes at the +veteran navigator. A hand was laid on his shoulder, +and a friendly voice inquired,</p> + +<p>"Did you get your share of the plunder, my son?"</p> + +<p>The lad shook his head a trifle impatiently. "I be +no beggar," he answered. "I be a ship's boy."</p> + +<p>"Ay," said the man, "and you seek not the Golden +Fleece?"</p> + +<p>His eyes laughed, and his long fingers played with +a strange jewel that glowed like Mars in the midnight +of his breast. It was of gold enamel, with a splendid +ruby in the center, and hanging from it a tiny golden +ram. Could he mean that? But the crowd surged +between them and left the boy wondering. He had +never spoken to a Spaniard before.</p> + +<p>As the fluttering pulse grew stronger and the man +roused from his stupor, disjointed phrases of sinister +meaning fell from his lips. No names were used, and +much of his talk was in Spanish, but it suggested a foul +undercurrent of bribery, falsehood and conspiracy hidden +by the bright magnificence of the young Queen's +court. The queer fact seemed to be that the speaker +appeared himself to be the victim of some Spanish +plot. Now why should that be, and he a Spaniard?</p> + +<p>The young captain turned from the window, into <span class='pagenum'>[218]</span> +which through the clearing air the moon was shining, +to find the stranger looking at him with sane though +troubled eyes.</p> + +<p>"The <i>Golden Fleece</i>?" he asked in English. +Drake shook his head.</p> + +<p>"You've had a bad hurt, sir," he said, and briefly +explained the circumstances.</p> + +<p>"Ah," said the man frowning, and was silent.</p> + +<p>"If you would wish to send any word to your +friends,—" Drake began, and hesitated.</p> + +<p>"I have no friends here, save my servant Sancho. +The <i>Golden Fleece</i> will sail on Saint James's Eve for +Coruna, and he was to meet me at Dover and return +with me to our own country. In Alcala they know +what to expect of a Saavedra."</p> + +<p>The last words were spoken with a proud assurance +that gave the listener a tingling sense of something +high and indomitable. Saavedra's dark eyes were +searching his face.</p> + +<p>"I fear I trespass on your kindness," he added +courteously, "and that I have talked some nonsense +before I came to myself."</p> + +<p>"Nothing of any account, sir," answered the lad +quickly. "Mostly it was Spanish—and I don't know +much o' that. You'll miss your ship if she sails so +soon, but you're welcome here so long as you like to +stay."</p> + +<p>"I thank you," said the Spaniard in a relieved tone, +adding half to himself, "No friends—but one cannot +break faith—even with an enemy."</p> + +<p>He dropped asleep almost at once after swallowing +the cordial which Drake held to his lips. The moon +came up over the flooded meadows that were all silvery +lights and black shadow like a fairy realm. The lad <span class='pagenum'>[219]</span> +had never spent a night like this, even when he had +seen his master die.</p> + +<p>When the pearl and rose of a July morning overspread +the sky he descended, to splash and spatter and +souse his rough brown head in a bucket of fresh-drawn +water, and wheedle the old dame into a good humor.</p> + +<p>"What ye hate and fear's bound to come to ye, +sooner or later," Granny Toothacre grumbled as she +stirred her savory broth, "My old man said so and I +never beleft it—here be I at my time o' life harborin' +a Spanisher."</p> + +<p>"Ah, now, mother,"—Drake laid a brown hand +coaxingly on her old withered one,—"you'll take good +care of him for me, and we'll share the ransom."</p> + +<p>"Ransom," the old woman muttered, looking after +the straight, sturdy young figure as it strode down to +the wharf, "not much hope o' that. Not but what +he's a grand gentleman," she admitted, turning the contents +of her saucepan into her best porringer. "He +don't give me a rough word no more than if I was a +lady."</p> + +<p>Drake spent all his leisure during the next fortnight +with the Spaniard, whose recovery was slow but steady. +It was tacitly understood that the less said of the incident +which had left him stunned and half-drowned the +better. If those who had sought to kill him knew +him to be alive, they might try again.</p> + +<p>The young seaman had never known a man like this +before. In his guest's casual talk of his young days +one could see as in a mirror the Spain of a half-century +since, with its audacious daring, its extravagant chivalry +and its bulldog ferocity.</p> + +<p>"They have outgrown us altogether, these young +fellows," he said once with his quaint half-melancholy <span class='pagenum'>[220]</span> +smile. "When the King and Queen rode in armor at +the head of their troops in Granada, our cavaliers +dreamed of conquering the world—now it has all +been conquered."</p> + +<p>"Not England," Drake put in quickly.</p> + +<p>"Not England—I beg your pardon, my friend. +But we have grown heavy with gold in these days—and +gold makes cowards."</p> + +<p>"It never made a coward o' me," laughed the lad. +"Belike it'll never have the chance."</p> + +<p>Through the shadows the old ship's-lantern cast in +the rude half-timbered room seemed to move the wild +figures of that marvellous pageant of conquest which +began in 1492. Saavedra spoke little of himself but +much of others—Ojeda, Nicuesa, Balboa, Cortes, Alvarado, +Pizarro. In his soft slow speech they lived +again, while by the stars outside, unknown uncharted +realms revealed themselves. This man used words as +a master mariner would use compass and astrolabe.</p> + +<p>"Those days when we followed Balboa in his quest +for the South Sea," he ended, "were worth it all. +Gold is nothing if it blinds a man to the heavens. You +too, my son, may seek the Golden Fleece in good time. +May the high planets fortify you!"</p> + +<p>What room was left for a knight-errant in the Spain +of to-day, ruling by steel and shot and flame and gold? +It must be rather awful, the listener reflected, to see +your own country go rotten like that in a generation. +Yet there was no bitterness in the old hidalgo's tranquil +eyes. "I have been a fool," he said smiling, "but +somehow I do not regret it. The wound from a poisoned +arrow can be seared with red-hot iron, but for the +creeping poison of the soul—the loss of honor—there +is no cure."<span class='pagenum'>[221]</span></p> + +<p>When the seamen came to get orders from their +young captain, Saavedra observed with surprise the +lad's clear knowledge of his own trade. Francis +Drake's old master had seen King Henry's shipwrights +discarding time-honored models to build for speed, +speed and more speed. He had seen Fletcher of Rye, +in 1539, prove to all the Channel that a ship could sail +against the wind. All that he knew he had taught +his young apprentice, and now the boy was free to use +it for his own work—whatever that should be. Unlike +the gilded and perfumed courtiers, these men of +the sea showed little respect toward the tall ships of +Spain. Saavedra, pleased that they spoke without reserve +in his presence, watched the rugged straightforward +faces, and wondered.</p> + +<p>The time came when they took him and his stocky, +silent old servant to board a Vizcayan boat. As they +caught his last quick smile and farewell gesture Will +Harvest heaved a rueful sigh. "I never thought to +be sorrowful at parting with a Don," he said reflectively, +"but I be."</p> + +<p>"God made men afore the Devil made Dons," +growled Tom Moone. "Yon's a man."</p> + +<p>Drake had gone down the wharf with John Hawkins +of Plymouth, a town that was warmly defiant of +Spain's armed monopoly of sea-trade. Privateers +were dodging about the trade-routes where Spanish +and Portuguese galleons, laden with ingots of gold and +silver, dyewoods, pearls, spices, silks and priceless merchandise, +moved as menacing sea-castles. Huger and +huger galleasses were built, masted and timbered with +mighty trunks from the virgin forests of the Old +World, four and five feet thick. The military discipline +of the Continent made a warship a floating barrack; <span class='pagenum'>[222]</span> +the decks of a Spanish man-of-war were packed +with drilled troops like marching engines of destruction, +dealing leaden death from arquebus and musquetoun. +The little ships of Cabot, Willoughby and +William Hawkins had not exceeded fifty, sixty, at most +a hundred tons; Philip's leviathans outweighed them +more than ten to one. What could England do +against the landing of such an army? An English +Admiral would be Jack the Giant-Killer with no magic +at his command. Yet in the face of all this, under the +very noses of the Spanish patrol, Protestant craftsmen +were escaping from the Inquisition in the Netherlands +to England, where Elizabeth had contrived to let it +be known that they were quite welcome.</p> + +<p>To a perfectly innocent and lawful coasting trade +Drake and his crew now added this hazardous passenger +service. They were braving imprisonment, torture +and the stake, for in 1562 no less than twenty-six +Englishmen were burned alive in Spain, and ten times +as many lay in prison. Before Drake was twenty all +Spanish ports were closed to English trade. He sold +his ship and joined Hawkins in his more or less contraband +trade with the West Indies.</p> + +<p>With every year of adventure upon the high seas his +hatred of the tyranny of Spain deepened and strengthened. +Yet though Spanish ferocity might soak the +world in blood, he would not have his men tainted with +the evil inheritance of the idolaters. It came to be +known that El Draque did not kill prisoners. His +crews fought like demons, but they slew no unarmed +man, they molested no woman or child. On these +terms only would he accept allies. Tons of plunder he +took, but never a helpless life. He landed the shivering +crews of his prizes on some Spanish island or with <span class='pagenum'>[223]</span> +a laugh returned to them their empty ships. "A dead +man's no mortal use to anybody," he would say cheerily, +and go on using his cock-boats to sink or capture galleys. +At twenty-seven, beholding for the first time +the shining Pacific, he vowed that with God's help he +would sail an English ship on that sea. Alone upon +the platform built in a great tree with steps cut in its +trunk, to which his negro allies the Maroons had +guided him, he conceived the sublimely audacious plan +which he was one day to unfold to Walsingham and the +Queen.</p> + +<p>The air was thick with rumors of war with Spain +when Drake arrived in London years later, in the company +of a new friend, Thomas Doughty,—courtier, +soldier, scholar, familiar with every shifting undercurrent +of European court life. Never at a loss for a +phrase, ready of wit and quick of understanding, +Doughty could put into words what the frank-hearted +young sea-captain had thought and felt and dreamed. +Both knew the peace with Philip to be only deceptive. +Walsingham and Leicester were for war; Burleigh for +peace; between the two the subtle Queen played fast +and loose with her powerful enemy.</p> + +<p>Drake avowed to Doughty his belief that to strike +effectively at the gigantic power of Spain, England +must raid the colonies—not the West Indies alone, +but the rich western provinces of Peru and Chili. No +one had been south of Patagonia since its discovery, +sixty years before. Geographers still held that beyond +the Straits of Magellan a huge Antarctic continent +existed. From that unknown region of darkness +and tempest came the great heaving ground-swell, the +tidal wave and the hurricane. Even Spanish pilots +never used the perilous southern route. Treasure went <a name='Page_224' id='Page_224'></a><span class='pagenum'>[224]</span> +overland across the Isthmus. Every year an elephantine +treasure-ship sailed from Panama westward +through the South Sea; and there was a rich trade between +the American mines and the Orient and the +Spanish peninsula, by way of the Cape of Good Hope. +Doughty's imagination was fired by the gorgeous possibilities +of the idea, and when he became the secretary +of Christopher Hatton, the Queen's handsome Captain +of the Guard, he laid the plan before him with all +the eloquence of his persuasive tongue. Hatton +finally obtained from Elizabeth a promise to contribute +a thousand crowns to the cost of an expedition to penetrate +the South Seas. This, however, was only on condition +that the affair should be kept secret, above all +from Burleigh, who was certain to use every effort to +stop it. She had already, in a private audience with +Drake, been informed of the main features and even +the details of the scheme, and had assured him that +when the time was ripe he should be chosen to avenge +the long series of injuries which Philip had inflicted +upon England's honor and her own.</p> + +<p>When in mid-November, 1577, Drake ran out of +Plymouth with his tiny fleet, he had with him all told +one hundred and fifty seamen and fourteen boys, enlisted +for a voyage to Alexandria, although it was +pretty well known that this was a blind. His flagship, +the <i>Pelican</i>, afterward re-christened the <i>Golden +Hynde</i> for Hatton's coat-of-arms, was a hundred-ton +ship carrying eighteen guns. The <i>Marygold</i>, a +barque of thirty tons and fifteen guns, and the <i>Swan</i>, +a provision ship of fifty tons, were commanded by two +of the gentlemen volunteers, Mr. John Thomas and +Mr. John Chester. Captain John Wynter commanded +the <i>Elizabeth</i>, a new eighty-ton ship, and a <span class='pagenum'>[225]</span> +fifteen-ton pinnace called the <i>Christopher</i> in honor of +Hatton, was commanded by Tom Moore. Thomas +Doughty was commander of the land-soldiers, and his +brother John was enlisted among the gentlemen adventurers.</p> + +<p>All of Drake's experience and sagacity had gone to +the fitting out of the ships. There were less than fifty +men on board besides the regular crews, and among +them were special artisans, two trained surveyors, +skilled musicians furnished with excellent instruments, +and the adventurous sons of some of the best families +in England. As page the Admiral had his own +nephew, Jack Drake. There were stores of wild-fire, +chain-shot, arquebuses, pistols, bows, and other weapons. +The Queen herself had sent packets of perfume +breathing of rich gardens, and Drake's table furniture +was of silver gilt, engraved with his arms; even some +of the cooking utensils were of silver. Nothing was +spared which became the dignity of England, her Admiral +and her Queen. On calm nights the sea was +alive with music. And on board the little flagship +Doughty and Drake talked together as those do whose +minds answer one another like voices in a roundelay.</p> + +<p>Men who have time and again run their heads into +the jaws of death are often inclined to fatalism. +Drake had never expressed it in words, but he had a +feeling that whatever he was meant to do, God would +see that he did, so long as he gave himself wholly to +the work. One evening when the Southern Cross was +lifting above the darkling sea, and the violins were +crooning something with a weird burden to it, +Doughty mused aloud.</p> + +<p>"'T is the strangest thing in life, that whatever we +are most averse to, that we are fated to do."</p> + +<p>"Eh?" said Drake with a laugh, looking up from <a name='Page_226' id='Page_226'></a><span class='pagenum'>[226]</span> +Eden's translation of Pigafetts. "Accordin' to that +you can't even trust yourself. D'you look to see me +set up an image to be worshiped?" Then he added +in a lower tone, "That's foolish, Tom. God don't +shape us to be puppets."</p> + +<p>"That sounds like old Saavedra," was Doughty's +idle comment. "He had great store of antiquated +sentiments—like those in the chronicles of the paladins. +I knew his nephew well—a witty fellow, but +visionary. He laughed at the old cavalero, but he +was fond of him, and our affections rule us and ruin +us. A man should have no loves nor hates if he would +get on at court."</p> + +<p>Sheer surprise kept the other silent for the moment, +and Doughty went on,—</p> + +<p>"The old man had been in Mexico with Cortes, and +might have risen to Adelantado in some South American +province if he had not been too scrupulous to join +Pizarro. He was in London, ten or fifteen years before +I knew him, and I believe he was the destruction +of a well-considered Spanish plot for the assassination +of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth—the assassins +nearly killed him. He was left for dead and was +picked up by some sailors."</p> + +<p>"He was in luck." Drake's eyes twinkled.</p> + +<p>"They would have been luckier—if they had let +the Spanish agents in London know they had him. He +paid them well of course, but he gave them credit for +the most exalted motives. All his geese were swans."</p> + +<p>"Maybe they acted out o' pure decency," Drake +said dryly.</p> + +<p>"My Admiral, this is not Utopia." Doughty +stroked his beard with a light complacent hand. +"Seriously, it is not a kindness to expect of men without <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[227]</a></span> +traditions more than they are capable of doing. +'E meglio cade dalle fenestre che del tetto.'" (It is +better to fall from the window than from the roof.)</p> + +<p>Drake was silent, fingering the slender Milanese +poniard with the blade inlaid with gold and the great +ruby in the top of the hilt, which lay on the table between +them. The shipmaster came in just then with +some question, and the conversation dropped.</p> + +<div><span class="back"><a href="#LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">[Illustrations]</a></span></div> + +<div class="center"><div class="figcenter" style="width: 416px;"> +<img src="images/illus-260.png" width="416" height="600" alt=""Drake was silent, fingering the slender Milanese poniard."—Page 227" title=""Drake was silent, fingering the slender Milanese poniard."—Page 227" /> +<span class="caption">"Drake was silent, fingering the slender Milanese poniard."—<i>Page 227</i></span> +</div></div> + +<p>It was not often that Francis Drake attempted to +analyze the character and behavior of those about him. +Mostly he judged men by a shrewd instinct; but that +night he lay long awake, watching the witch-lights upon +the waves from the dancing lanterns. He was acute +enough to see that Doughty had hit slyly at him over +Saavedra's shoulders. Doughty had not liked it that +Moone should be raised to the rank of captain; he had +already shown that he regarded himself as second only +to Drake in command, and the champion of the gentlemen +as distinct from the mariners. The second +officer of every English ship was a practical shipmaster +whose authority held in all matters concerning navigation. +The soldiers and their officers were passengers. +This was unavoidable in view of the new method +of English sea-fighting, which depended quite as much +on the skill of the seamen as on the armed and trained +soldier. English gunners could give the foe a broadside +and slip away before their huge adversary could +turn. Drake now had two factions to deal with, and +he bent his brows and set his jaw as he pondered the +situation. If discord arose, the gentlemen would have +to come to order. There was no room here for old +ideas of caste. Any man too good to haul on a rope +might go to—Spain.</p> + +<p>Doughty had a way of taking it for granted that <span class='pagenum'>[228]</span> +Drake and he, as gentlemen, shared thoughts and feelings +not to be comprehended by common men. On +land this had not seemed offensive, but on blue water, +with the old sea-chanteys in his ears, in the intimate association +of a long voyage, Drake found himself resenting +it. What was there about the man that made +his arguments so plausible when one heard them, so +false when his engaging presence was withdrawn? +And yet how devoted, how sympathetic, how witty and +companionable he could be! Drake found himself excusing +his friend as if he were a woman,—laughed, +sighed, and went to sleep.</p> + +<p>Presently he began to hear of John Doughty's amusing +himself by reading palms and playing on the superstitions +of the sailors with strange prophecies, in which +his brother sometimes joined. Drake summoned the +two to a brief interview in which Thomas Doughty +learned that his friend on land, frank, boyish and unassuming, +was a different person from the Admiral of +the Fleet. Yet as this impression faded, the brothers +perversely went on encouraging discord between the +gentlemen adventurers and the sailors, and foretelling +events with sinister aptness.</p> + +<p>It grew colder and colder. It should be summer,—but +as they crept southward they encountered cold and +wind beyond that of the North Sea in January. The +nights grew long; the battering of the gales never +ceased; the ships lost sight of one another. It was +whispered that not only had the uncanny brothers foretold +the evil weather, but Thomas Doughty had boasted +of having brought it about. "We'll ha' no luck till +we get rid of our prophet," said blunt Tom Moone, +"and the Lord don't provide no whales for the likes +o' he."<span class='pagenum'>[229]</span></p> + +<p>Drake warned his comrade with an ominous quiet. +"Doughty," he said, "if you value your neck you keep +your reading and writing to what a common man can +understand—you and your brother. A man can't +always prophesy for himself, let alone other folk."</p> + +<p>"You heard what he said," commented Wynter +grimly when the Admiral was in his cabin behind closed +doors. "Better not raise the devil unless you know +for sure what he'll do. There's been one gallows +planted on this coast."</p> + +<p>"Sneck up!" laughed Doughty, "he would not dare +hang a gentleman!" but he felt a creeping chill at the +back of his neck.</p> + +<p>On the desolate island where the stump of Magellan's +gallows stood black against a crimson dawn, they +landed and the tragedy of estrangement and suspicion +ended. Thomas Doughty was tried for mutiny and +treason before a jury of his peers. Every man there +held him a traitor, yet he was acquitted for lack of evidence. +Thus encouraged, Doughty boldly declared +that they should all smart for this when Burleigh heard +of it. What he had done to hinder the voyage, he +averred, was by Burleigh's orders, for before they +sailed he had gone to that wily statesman and told him +the entire scheme.</p> + +<p>In a flash of merciless revelation Drake saw the +truth. He left Doughty to await the verdict, called +the companies down to the shore, and there told them +the story of the expedition from first to last, not overlooking +the secret orders of the Queen.</p> + +<p>"This man was my friend," he said with a break in +his voice such as they had not heard save at the suffering +of a child. "I would not take his life,—but if he +be worthy of death, I pray you hold up your hands."<span class='pagenum'>[230]</span></p> + +<p>There was a breathless instant when none stirred; +then every hand was raised.</p> + +<p>On the next day but one they all sat down to a last +feast on that bleak and lonely shore; the two comrades +drank to each other for the last time, shared the sacrament, +and embracing, said their farewells. Doughty +proved that if he could not live a true man he could die +like a gentleman; the headsman did his work, and +Drake pronounced the solemn sentence, "Lo! this is +the death of traitors!"</p> + +<p>In that black hour the boyish laughter went forever +from the eyes of the Admiral, and the careless mirth +from his voice. When after a while young Jack +Drake, unable to bear the silence that fell between +them, began some phrase of blundering boyish affection, +the sentence trailed off into a stammer.</p> + +<p>"He's dead and at peace, Jack," the master said, +the words dropping wearily, like spent bullets. "He +couldn't help being as he was,—I reckon. If I'd +known he was like that I could ha' stopped him, but I +never knew—till too late."</p> + +<p>Discord among the crews continued, until Drake, +rousing from his fitful melancholy, called them all together +on a Sunday, and mounted to the place of the +chaplain.</p> + +<p>"I am going to preach to-day," he said shortly. +Then he unfolded a paper and began to read it aloud.</p> + +<p>"My masters, I am a very bad orator, for my bringing +up hath not been in learning; but what I shall +speak here let every man take good notice of and let +him write it down. For I will speak nothing but what +I will answer it in England, yea, and before Her Majesty." +He reminded them of the great adventure before +them and went on.<span class='pagenum'>[231]</span></p> + +<p>"Now by the life of God this mutiny and dissension +must cease. Here is such controversy between the gentlemen +and the sailors that it doth make me mad to +hear it. I must have the gentleman to haul with the +mariner and the mariner with the gentleman. I would +know him that would refuse to set his hand to a rope—but +I know there is not any such here.</p> + +<p>"Any who desire to go home may go in the <i>Marygold</i>, +but let them take care that they do go home, for +if I find them in my way I will sink them."</p> + +<p>Then beginning with Wynter he reduced every officer +to the ranks forthwith, reprimanded known +offenders, and wound up with this appeal:</p> + +<p>"We have set by the ears three mighty sovereigns, +and if this voyage have not success we shall be a scorning +unto our enemies and a blot on our country forever. +What triumph would it not be for Spain and Portugal! +The like of this would never more be tried!" Then +he gave every man his former rank and dismissed them. +Moone, meeting Will Harvest that night by the light +of a bonfire, was the only man who dared venture a +comment. "We was spoilin' for a lickin'," he said, +"and we got it. I do hope and trust we'll keep out o' +mischief till Frankie gets us home to Plymouth, Hol'." +Will grinned back cheerfully, and there was a subdued +laugh from the group about the fire. The fleet +was itself again.</p> + +<p>Adventure after adventure succeeded, wilder than +minstrel ever sang. The <i>Marygold</i> went down with +all hands; Wynter in the <i>Elizabeth</i>, believing the Admiral +lost, turned homeward; the <i>Christopher</i> and the +<i>Swan</i> had already been broken up. All alone the little +<i>Golden Hynde</i>, blown southward, sailed around +Cape Horn and proved the Antarctic continent a myth. <span class='pagenum'>[232]</span> +Then Drake steered northward after more than two +month's tossing on the uncharted seas, to revictual +his ship in Spanish ports, fill his hold with the rich cargoes +of one prize ship after another, and capture at +last the great annual treasure-ship <i>Nuestra Señora de +la Concepçion</i>, nicknamed the <i>Spitfire</i> because she was +better armed than most of the ships plying on that +coast. As they ballasted the <i>Golden Hynde</i> with silver +from her huge hulk the jesting seamen dubbed her +the <i>Spit-silver</i>. The little flagship was literally brimful +of silver bars, ingots of gold, pieces of eight, and +jewels whose value has never been accurately known. +The Spanish Adelantados, accustomed to trust in their +remoteness for defense, frantically looked for Drake +everywhere except where he was. Warships hung +about the Patagonian coast to catch him on his way +home—surely he could not stay at sea forever!</p> + +<p>But Drake had other plans. Navigators were still +searching for the northern passage, the Straits of +Anian, and he coasted northward until his men were +half paralyzed with cold and the creeping chill of the +fog. From the latitude of Vancouver he turned south +again, and put into a natural harbor not far from the +present San Francisco, which he named New Albion because +of the white cliffs like the chalk downs of England. +Here he landed and made camp to refit and repair +his flagship. He had captured on one prize, two +China pilots in whose possession were all the secret +charts of the Pacific trade.</p> + +<p>Indians ventured down from the mountains to the +little fort and dockyard, wondering and admiring. +Parson Fletcher presently came to the Admiral with +the extraordinary news that they were worshiping the +English as gods. Horror and laughter contended <span class='pagenum'>[233]</span> +among the Puritans when they found themselves set +up as idols of the heathen, and the chaplain endeavored +by signs to teach the simple savages that the God whom +all men should worship was invisible in the heavens.</p> + +<p>"'T only shows," remarked Moone, with a nail +in one corner of his mouth, after vehemently dissuading +a persistent adorer, "that a man never knows what +he'll come to. Granny Toothacre used to say that if +there's a thing you fight against all your life it'll come +to you sooner or later."</p> + +<p>"So she did," said Drake with a grim smile as he +passed. "Takes a woman to tell a fortune, after +all."</p> + +<p>"D'you ever hear what become of the old Don we +picked up that time?" Moone asked in a lowered voice.</p> + +<p>"Not since he sent Frankie the dagger with the +gold work and the jewel. Why?"</p> + +<p>"'Cause the pilot o' the <i>Spit-silver</i> he knowed un. +He say the plague broke out in the Low Countries, +and the old Don took and tended that Gallego servant +o' his and then he died—not o' the pestilence—just +wore out like. I reckon maybe he told Mus' Drake. +I didn't."</p> + +<p>Silence fell. Then Will said thoughtfully, "He +won't be Mus' Drake much longer—by rights—but +you never know what a woman'll do. She keep her +presents and her favors for them that ha'n't earned +'em—as a rule."</p> + +<p>Moone presently hummed half aloud,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"When I served my master I got my Sunday pudden,</span> +<span class="i2">When I served the Company I got my bread and cheese.</span> +<span class="i0">When I served the Queen I got hanged for a pirate,</span> +<span class="i2">All along o'sailin' on the Carib Seas!"</span> +</div></div><div><span class='pagenum'>[234]</span></div> + +<p>It was a reckless jest, for every one knew that if +Elizabeth were dead or married to a Catholic or at +peace with Spain when they saw England again, it was +extremely likely that the gallows would be their reward. +But here, at any rate, was one spot not yet +haunted by the Spanish spectre.</p> + +<p>The Indians, persuaded at last that the white chief +was not a god, insisted on making him their King. +They crowned him with a headdress of brilliant feathers, +in all due ceremony, hung a chain of beads about +his neck, and looked on with the utmost reverence while +Drake fixed to a large upright post a tablet claiming the +land for the Queen of England, and a silver sixpence +with the portrait of Elizabeth and the Tudor rose. +Securely hidden under the tablet in a hollow of the +wood were memoranda concerning the direction in +which, according to the Indians, gold was to be found +in the streams,—plenty of gold. When she was +ready to the last rope's end the little ship spread her +wings and sailed straight across the Pacific, round the +Cape of Good Hope, home to England.</p> + +<p>Battered and scarred but still seaworthy the <i>Golden +Hynde</i> crept into Plymouth Sound, where Drake heard +that the plague was in the seaport. Using this for excuse +not to land until he knew his footing, he anchored +behind Saint Nicholas Island and sent letters to Court.</p> + +<p>The sea-dogs who patrolled the Narrow Seas in +Elizabeth's time understood her better than her courtiers +did. To Drake she was still the keen-minded +woman who, like the jeweled silent birds he had seen +in tropical jungles, sat in her palace, with enemies all +about her alert and observant, and ready to seize her +if she came within their grasp. He knew her waywardness +to be half assumed, since to let an enemy <span class='pagenum'>[235]</span> +know what he can count on is fatal. He had not much +doubt of her action, but he must wait for her to give +him his cue.</p> + +<p>Within a week came her answer. She demurely +suggested that she should be pleased to see any curiosities +which her good Captain had brought home. +Drake went up to London, and with him a pack train +laden with the cream of his spoil. The Spanish Ambassador +Mendoza came with furious letters from +Philip demanding the pirate's head. A Spanish force +landed that very week in Ireland. Burleigh and the +peace party were desperate. All that Mendoza could +get out of Elizabeth was an order to Edmund Tremayne +at Plymouth to register the cargo of the <i>Golden +Hynde</i> and send it up to London that she might see +how much the pirate had really taken. At the same +time Drake himself went down with her private letter +to Tremayne telling him to look another way while +her captain got his share of the bullion. Meanwhile +she suggested that Philip call his Spaniards out of +Ireland. Philip snarled that they were private volunteers. +Elizabeth replied, so was Drake. An inquiry +was held, and not a single act of cruelty or destruction +of property could be proved against any of +Drake's crews. The men were richly rewarded by +their Admiral; the <i>Golden Hynde</i> came up to Deptford; +a list of the plunder was returned to Mendoza; +and London waited, excited and curious.</p> + +<p>Out of this diplomatic tangle Elizabeth took her +own way, as she usually did. On April 4, 1581, she +suggested to Drake that she would be his guest at a +banquet on board the little, worm-eaten ship. All the +court was there, and a multitude of on-lookers besides, +for those were the days when royalty sometimes dined <span class='pagenum'>[236]</span> +in public. After the banquet, the like of which, as +Mendoza wrote his master, had not been seen in England +since the time of her father, Elizabeth requested +Drake to hand her the sword she had given him before +he left England. "The King of Spain demands the +head of Captain Drake," she said with a little laugh, +"and here am I to strike it off." As Drake knelt at +her command she handed the sword to Marchaumont, +the envoy of her French suitor, asking that since she +was a woman and not trained to the use of weapons, +he should give the accolade. This open defiance of +Philip thus involved in her action the second Catholic +power of Europe before all the world. Then, as +Marchaumont gave the three strokes appointed the +Queen spoke out clearly, while men thrilled with sudden +presage of great days to come,—</p> + +<p>"Rise up,—Sir Francis Drake!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div><span class="back"><a href="#CONTENTS">[Contents]</a></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[237]</a></span></div> + +<h3><a name="A_WATCH-DOG_OF_ENGLAND" id="A_WATCH-DOG_OF_ENGLAND"></a>A WATCH-DOG OF ENGLAND</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Where the Russian Bear stirs blindly in the leash of a mailéd hand,</span> +<span class="i0">Bright in the frozen sunshine, the domes of Moscow stand,</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Scarlet and blue and crimson, blazing across the snow</span> +<span class="i0">As they did in the Days of Terror, three hundred years ago.</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Courtiers bending before him, envoys from near and far,</span> +<span class="i0">Sat in his Hall of Audience Ivan the Terrible Tsar,</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">(He of the knout and torture, poison and sword and flame)</span> +<span class="i0">Yet unafraid before him the English envoy came.</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And he was Sir Jeremy Bowes, born of that golden time</span> +<span class="i0">When in the soil of Conquest blossomed the flower of Rhyme.</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Dauntless he fronted the Presence,—and the courtiers whispered low,</span> +<span class="i0">"Doth Elizabeth send us madmen, to tempt the torture so?"</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Have you heard of that foolhardy Frenchman?" Ivan the Terrible said,—</span> +<span class="i0">"He came before me covered,—I nailed his hat to his head."</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then spoke Sir Jeremy Bowes, "I serve the Virgin Queen,—</span> +<span class="i0">Little is she accustomed to vail her face, I ween.</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"She is Elizabeth Tudor, mighty to bless or to ban,</span> +<span class="i0">Nor doth her envoy give over at the bidding of any man!</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Call to your Cossacks and hangmen,—do with me what ye please,</span> +<span class="i0">But ye shall answer to England when the news flies over seas."</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Ivan smiled on the envoy,—the courtiers saw that smile,</span> +<span class="i0">Glancing one at the other, holding their breath the while.</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Then spoke the terrible Ivan, "His Queen sits over sea,</span> +<span class="i0">Yet he hath bid me defiance,—would ye do as much for me?"</span> +</div></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div><span class="back"><a href="#CONTENTS">[Contents]</a></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[238]</a></span></div> + +<h2>XVI</h2> + +<h3><a name="LORDS_OF_ROANOKE" id="LORDS_OF_ROANOKE"></a>LORDS OF ROANOKE</h3> + +<p>Primrose garlands in Coombe Wood shone +with the pale gold of winter sunshine. Violets +among dry leaves peered sedately at the pageant of +spring. In the royal hunting forest of Richmond, +venerable trees unfolded from their tiny buds canopies +like the fairy pavilion of Paribanou.</p> + +<p>Philip Armadas and Arthur Barlowe, coming up +from Kingston, beheld all this April beauty with the +wistful pleasure of those who bid farewell to a dearly +beloved land. Within a fortnight Sir Walter Ralegh's +two ships, which they commanded, would be out +upon the gray Atlantic. The Queen would lie at Richmond +this night, and the two young captains had been +bidden to court that she might see what manner of +men they were.<a name="FNanchor_1_30" id="FNanchor_1_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_30" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p> + +<p>Armadas, though born in Hull, was the son of a +Huguenot refugee. Barlowe was English to the back-bone. +Both knew more of the ways of ships than the +ways of courts. Yet for all her magnificence and her +tempers Elizabeth had a way with her in dealing with +practical men. She welcomed merchants, builders, +captains and soldiers as frankly as she did Italian +scholars or French gallants. Her attention was as +keen when she was framing a letter to the Grand Turk +securing trade privileges to London or Bristol, as when +she listened to the graceful flatteries of Spenser or +Lyly. In this year 1584 she had granted a patent to <span class='pagenum'>[239]</span> +Ralegh for further explorations of the lands north of +Florida discovered half a century since by Sebastian +Cabot. She heaped upon it rights and privileges +which made Hatton and her other court gallants grind +their teeth. Ralegh knew well that this was no time +for him to be wandering about strange coasts. He +was therefore fitting out an expedition to make a preliminary +voyage and report to him what was found.</p> + +<p>"'T is like this," Armadas was saying with the +buoyant confidence which endeared him alike to his +patron and his comrade. "North you get the scurvy +and south the fever, but midway is the climate for a +new empire. There Englishmen may have timber for +their shipyards, and pasture for their sheep and cattle, +and meadows for their corn. There Flemings and +Huguenots may live and work in peace. Our sons may +be lords and princes of a new world, Arthur lad."</p> + +<p>"Aye; but there's the Inquisition in the Indies to +reckon with," answered Barlowe with his grim half-smile. +"And if what we hear of the barbarians be +true, the men who make the first plantation may be +forced to plant and build with their left hand and keep +their right for fighting."</p> + +<p>"Oh, the barbarians,—" Armadas began, and +paused, for the chatter of young voices broke forth in +a copse.</p> + +<p>"I tell thee salvages be hairy men with tails like +monkeys. My uncle he has seen them on the Guinea +coast."</p> + +<p>"Dick, if thou keep not off my heels in the passamezzo—"</p> + +<p>"Be not so cholerical, Tom Poope, or the Master'll +give thee a tuning. Thou'rt not Lord of the Indies +yet."<span class='pagenum'>[240]</span></p> + +<p>"Faith," chuckled Barlowe, "here be some little +eyasses practising a fantasy for the Queen's pleasure. +Hey, lads, what's all the pother about?"<a name="FNanchor_2_31" id="FNanchor_2_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_31" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p> + +<p>The company emerged half-shamefacedly from the +shrubbery, a group of youngsters between ten and fourteen, +in fanciful costumes of silk and brocade, or mimic +armor and puffed doublets. The central figure of the +group was a handsome little lad in a sort of tunic of +hairy undressed goatskin, a feather head-dress and +gilded ornaments. His dark face had a sullen look, +and he grasped his lance as if about to use it. Another +urchin, whose great arched eyebrows, rolling eyes and +impish mouth marked him as the clown of the company, +made answer boldly,</p> + +<p>"'T is Tom Poope, your lordships, who mislikes +the dress he must wear, and says if we have but a king +and queen of the monkeys to welcome the discoverers, +the Queen will only laugh at us, and 'a will not stay to +be laughed at. 'T is a masque of the ventures of Captain +Cabot, look you, and Tom's the King of the +salvages and makes all the long speeches."</p> + +<p>"Upon my word, coz," laughed Armadas, "I think +we have stumbled upon a pretty conceit intended to do +honor to our master. Methinks His Royal Highness +here has the right on't—the man who made that +costume never saw true Indians."</p> + +<p>"Have you seen them, then, sir? Are you a voyager?" +asked Tom Poope eagerly, his face brightening. +"And will you look on and tell us if we do it +right?"</p> + +<p>Barlowe grinned good-humoredly, and Armadas +waved a laughing assent. They seated themselves +upon a grassy bank and the play began.</p> + +<p>Before half a dozen speeches had been said it was <span class='pagenum'>[241]</span> +quite clear that the dark-eyed child who played the Indian +King was the heart and fire of the piece. They +were all clever children and well trained, but he alone +lived his part. His small figure moved with a grace +and dignity that even his grotesque apparel could not +spoil. The costumer had evidently built his design +for the costume of an Indian chief upon legends of wild +men drawn from the history of Hanno and his gorillas, +adding whatever absurdities he had gathered from +sailors of the Gold Coast and the Caribbean Sea. +Armadas, who had made a voyage to Newfoundland +and seen the stately figure of a sachem outlined against +a sunset sky, thought that the boy's instinct was truer +than the costumer's tradition.</p> + +<p>"Let me arrange thy habit, lad," he said when the +first scene ended and the clown began his dance. With +a few deft touches, ripping down one side of the tunic +and wreathing a girdle of ivy and bracken, he changed +the whole outline of the figure. With the hairy tunic +draped as a cloak, and the ungainly plumed head-dress +arranged as a warrior's crest, the character which had +been almost ridiculous became heroic, as the author of +the masque evidently had intended. The little King's +beautiful voice changed like the singing of a Cremona +violin as he spoke his lines to the white stranger:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"To this our wild domain we welcome thee</span> +<span class="i0">In honorable hospitality.</span> +<span class="i0">If Thou dost come as the great Lord of Life,</span> +<span class="i0">The Lord of bear and wolf, and stag and fox,</span> +<span class="i0">Leopard and ape, and rabbits of the rocks,</span> +<span class="i0">We are thy children, as our brothers are,—</span> +<span class="i0">The furry folk of forest fastnesses,</span> +<span class="i0">The bright-winged birds that wanton with the breeze,</span> +<span class="i0">The seal that sport amid the sapphire seas.</span> +<span class="i0">We worship gods of lightning and of thunder,</span> +<span class="i0">Of winds and hissing waves, the rainbow's wonder,</span> +<span class="i0">The fruits and grains, borne by the kindly earth,</span> +<span class="i0">And all the mysteries of death and birth.</span> +<span class="i0">Say who you are, and from what realm you hail,</span> +<span class="i0">White spirits that in winged peraguas sail?</span> +<span class="i0">If ye be angels, tell us of your heaven.</span> +<span class="i0">If ye be men, tell us who is your King."</span> +</div></div> + +<p>It was not a long play, and had been written by a +court poet especially for the children, of whose acting +the Queen was fond. There were dances and songs—a +sailor's contra-dance to the music of a horn pipe, a +stately passamezzo by the Indian court, a madrigal and +an ode in compliment to the Queen.<a name="FNanchor_3_32" id="FNanchor_3_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_32" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> Finally the +leader of the white men planted the banner of England +on the little knoll, and in the name of his sovereign +received the homage of the Indians. The last +notes of the final chorus had just died away when +trumpets called from the Thames, and the scene melted +into chaos. Off ran the players, cramming costumes +and properties into their wallets as they went, to see +the Queen land at the water-gate. Amadas and Barlowe +took the same direction less hurriedly.</p> + +<p>"I wonder now," said Armadas thoughtfully, "how +much of prophecy there may have been in that mascarado? +Do you know, old lad, we may be taken for +gods ourselves in two months' time? God grant they +think us not devils before we are done!"</p> + +<p>"We need have no fear if no Spaniards have landed +on that coast before us," said Barlowe stolidly. "If +they have—no poetical speeches will help our cause."</p> + +<p>The Queen's great gilded barge with its crimson +hangings came sweeping up the river just as they joined +the company drawn up to receive her. The tall graceful <span class='pagenum'>[243]</span> +figure of Ralegh was nearest her, and when she set +her small neat foot upon the stone step it was his hand +which she accepted to steady her in landing. She was +a sovereign every inch even in her traveling cloak, but +when dinner was over, and she took her seat in the +throne-room, she dazzled the eye with the splendor +of gold and pearl network over brilliant velvets, the +glitter of diamonds among the frost-work of Flanders +lace. Elizabeth knew how to stage the great Court +drama as well as any Master of the Revels.</p> + +<p>Moreover, what the Queen did, set the fashion for +all the courtiers, to the profit and prosperity of merchants +and craftsmen. Earls might secretly writhe at +the prospect of entertaining their sovereign with suitable +magnificence, but the tradesmen and purveyors +rubbed their hands. When a company of Flemings +was employed for four years on the carving of the +beams and panels of the Middle Temple Hall, or +noblemen to be in the fashion built new banquet-rooms +in the Italian style, with long windows and galleries, +English, Flemish and Huguenot builders flocked to the +kingdom. If she took with one hand she gave with +the other, and it was not without reason that the common +folk of England long after she was dead called +their daughters after "good Queen Bess."</p> + +<p>To Armadas and Barlowe it was a novel and +splendid pageant. After they were presented to the +Queen, and expressed their modest thanks for the +honor of being sent upon her service, they withdrew +to a window-recess to watch the company. The gentlemen +pensioners in gold-embroidered suits and lace-edged +ruffs, the dignified councilors in richer if darker +robes, the maids of honor, bright as damask roses moving +in the wind, all circled around one pale woman <a name='Page_244' id='Page_244'></a><span class='pagenum'>[244]</span> +with keen gray-blue eyes that never betrayed her. A +little apart, speaking now and then to some courtier +or councilor, stood the Spanish Ambassador in somber +black and gold, like a watchful spider in a garden of +rich flowers. Ralegh, careless and debonair, gave him +a frank salutation as he came to speak to his captains.</p> + +<p>"You may repent of the venture and wish to stay +at Court," he said smiling. "The Queen thinks well +of ye."</p> + +<p>"Not I," growled Barlowe, and Armadas laughed, +"My Lord, do you think so ill of us as to deem us +weathercocks in the wind?"</p> + +<p>"You must take care to avoid the clutches of the +Inquisition," Ralegh added, not lowering his voice +noticeably, yet not speaking loud enough to be heard +by others. "I have hastened the fitting out of the +ships and delayed your coming to Court lest Philip's +ferrets be set on you. The life of Kings and Queens +is like to a game of chess."</p> + +<p>"Of primero rather, it seems to me," said Armadas, +"or the game the Spanish call ombre. Chess is brain +against brain, fair play. In the other one may win the +game by the fall of the cards—or by cheatery."<a name="FNanchor_4_33" id="FNanchor_4_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_33" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p> + +<p>"A good simile, Philip," said Ralegh, with shining +eyes. "'T is all very well to say, as some do, that if +old King Harry were alive he'd have our Englishmen +out of Spanish prisons. But in his day Spain had +hardly begun her conquests over seas, and the Inquisition +had not tasted English blood. It was Philip that +taught our men primero—and the best player is he +who can bluff, so playing his hand that his enemy +guesses not the truth. And the stake in this game +is—Empire."</p> + +<p>Ralegh's head lifted as if he saw visions. In silence <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[245]</a></span> +the three joined the company now assembling to see +the masque of the children. Bravely it went, nimbly +the dancers footed it, sweetly rang the choruses, and +well did the little chief and captain play their parts. +At the end the Queen, saying in merry courtesy that +she could do no less for him who had found her a +kingdom and him who freely gave it, presented a ring +set with a carnelian heart to Hal Kempe who played +Cabot, but about the neck of Tom Poope she hung a +golden chain, for if he had to wear her fetters, she +said, they should at least be golden. And so the play +came to an end, and work began.</p> + +<div><span class="back"><a href="#LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">[Illustrations]</a></span></div> + +<div class="center"><div class="figcenter" style="width: 412px;"> +<img src="images/illus-280.png" width="412" height="600" alt=""If he had to wear her fetters, they should at least be golden."—Page 245" title=""If he had to wear her fetters, they should at least be golden."—Page 245" /> +<span class="caption">"If he had to wear her fetters, they should at least be golden."—<i>Page 245</i></span> +</div></div> + +<p>On April 27, with a fair wind, the two ships of +Ralegh's venture went down to the Channel and out +upon the western ocean. They had good fortune, for +not a Spaniard crossed their course. Nine weeks later +they sighted the coast which the French had once +called Carolina. Before they were near enough to +see it well they caught the scent of a wilderness of flowering +vines and trees blown seaward, and as they +neared the shore they saw tall cedars and goodly cypresses, +pines and oaks and many other trees, some of +them quite unknown to English soil. It is written in +Armadas's journal that the wild grapes were so abundant +near the sea that sometimes the waves washed +over them; and the sands were yellow as gold. The +first time that an arquebus was fired, great flocks of +birds rose from the trees, screaming all together like +the shouting of an army, but there seemed to be no +fierce beasts nor indeed any large animals.</p> + +<p>"With kine, sheep, cattle, and poultry, and such +herbs and grain as can be brought from England," +said Armadas, "this land would sure be a paradise on +earth."<span class='pagenum'>[246]</span></p> + +<p>"You forget the serpent," returned Barlowe, who +had been reared by a Puritan grandfather and knew +his Bible.</p> + +<p>"I am not likely to forget our great enemy while +the name of Ribault or Coligny remains unforgotten," +said the other. "All the more reason why this land +should be kept for the Religion."</p> + +<p>Indeed when they landed they found little in the +country or the people to recall Adam's doom. They +set up their English standard upon an island and took +possession of the domain in the name of Elizabeth of +England. This island the Indians called Wocoken, +and the inlet where the ships lay, Ocracoke. They +went inland as the guests of the native chiefs, and on +the island of Roanoke they were entertained by the +people of Wingina the king, most kindly and hospitably. +The sea remained smooth and pleasant and the +air neither very hot nor very cold, but sweet and wholesome. +Manteo and Wanchese, two of the Indian warriors, +chose to sail away with the white men, and in +good time the ships returning reached Plymouth harbor, +early in September of that year. Manteo was +made Lord of Roanoke, the first and the last of the +American Indians to bear an English title to his wild +estate. The new province was named Virginia, with +the play upon words favored in that day, for it was a +virgin country, and its sovereign was the Virgin Queen.</p> + +<p>When the two captains came again to London they +found the air full of the intriguings of Spain. In that +year Santa Cruz had organized a plot against the +Queen's life, discovered almost by chance; in that year +it became clear that Philip's long chafing against the +growing sea-power of England and his hatred of such +rangers as Drake and Hawkins must sooner or later <span class='pagenum'>[247]</span> +blaze up in war. And by chance also Armadas learned +how narrow had been their own escape from a Spanish +prison.</p> + +<p>He had been the guest of a friend at the acting of +Master Lyly's new masque by the Children of the +Chapel at Gray's Inn. Little Tom Poope sang +Apelles's song and ruffled it afterward among the ladies +of the court, as lightly as Essex himself. Armadas +came out into the dank Thames air humming over the +dainty verses,—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"'At last he staked her all his arrows.</span> +<span class="i0">His mother's doves, and team of sparrows—'"</span> +</div></div> + +<p>A small hand slid into his own and pulled him +toward a byway.</p> + +<p>"Why, how is it with thee, Master Poope? Didst +play thy part bravely, lad."</p> + +<p>"Come," said the boy in a low breathless voice. +"I have somewhat to tell thee. In here," and he +drew Armadas toward a doorway. "'T is my mother's +lodging—there is nothing to fear."</p> + +<p>A woman let them in as if she had been watching +for them, opened the door into a small plainly furnished +private room and vanished.</p> + +<p>"Art not going on any more voyages to the Virginias?" +asked the boy, his eager eyes on the Captain's +face.</p> + +<p>"Not for the present, my boy. Why? Wouldst +like to sail with us, and learn more of the ways of +Indian Princes?"</p> + +<p>"Nay, I have no time for fooling—they'll miss +me," said the youngster impatiently. "The Spanish +Ambassador has his spies upon thee, and thou must +leave a false scent for them to smell out. He sent his +report on thee, eight months ago."<span class='pagenum'>[248]</span></p> + +<p>"Before we sailed to Roanoke?" queried Armadas +with lifted brows.</p> + +<p>"Before thou went to Richmond that day. His +Excellency quizzed me after the masque and asked me +did I know when the ships sailed and whither they +were bound, believing me to be cozened by his gold. I +told him they were for Florida to find the fountain of +youth for the Queen, and would sail on May-day!"</p> + +<p>A grin of pure delight widened the boy's face, and +he wriggled in gleeful remembrance where he perched, +on a tall oaken chair. "Oh, they will swallow any +bait, those gudgeons, and some day their folly will be +the end of them. I would not have them catch thee +if they could be fooled, and well did I fool them, I +tell thee!"</p> + +<p>"For—heaven's—sake!" stammered Armadas +in amazement. "Little friend," he added gently, "it +seems to me that we owe thee life and honor. But +why didst do it?"</p> + +<p>"Why?" The boy's fine dark brows bent in a +quick frown. "What a pox right had they to be +tempting me to be false to the salt that I and they had +eaten? I hate all Spaniards. I'd ha' done it any +way," he added shyly, "for to win our game, but I +did it for love o' thee because thou took my part about +the mascarado."</p> + +<p>"I think," said Armadas as he took from his wallet +a bracelet of Indian shell-work hung with baroque +pearls, "that all our fine plans would ha' come to +naught but for thy wise head, young 'un. These be +pearls from the Virginias, and if you find 'em scorched, +that's only because the heathen know no other way of +opening the oyster-shell but by fire. The beads are +such as they use for money and call roanoke. The <span class='pagenum'>[249]</span> +gold of the Spanish mines can buy men maybe, but it +does not buy such loyalty as thine, that's sure. I have +no gold to give, lad,—but wear this for a love-token. +And I think that could the truth be known, the Queen +herself would freely name thee Lord of Roanoke."</p> + +<hr /> + +<h4 class="smcap">notes</h4> + +<div class="footnotes"><div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_30" id="Footnote_1_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_30"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> +The name is variously spelled Armadas, Amidas and Amadas. +The form here used is that of the earliest records. The same is true +of the spelling "Ralegh."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_31" id="Footnote_2_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_31"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> +Companies of children under various names were often employed +in the acting of plays in the time of Elizabeth. These are the +"troops of children, little eyasses" alluded to by Shakespeare in +"Hamlet." They sometimes acted in plays written for them by +Lyly and others, and sometimes in the popular dramas of the day. +Ben Jonson wrote a charming epitaph on Salathiel Pavy, one of these +little actors, who died at thirteen.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_32" id="Footnote_3_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_32"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> +The passamezzo, passy-measure or half-measure was a popular +Elizabethan dance, like the coranto and lavolta.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_33" id="Footnote_4_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_33"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> +Primero, or ombre, is said to be the ancestor of our modern game +of poker. An interesting account of its origin and variations will be +found in Mrs. Schuyler Van Rensselaer's "Prophetical, Educational +and Playing Cards."</p></div></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div><span class="back"><a href="#CONTENTS">[Contents]</a></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[250]</a></span></div> + +<h3><a name="THE_CHANGELINGS" id="THE_CHANGELINGS"></a>THE CHANGELINGS</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Out on the road to Fairyland where the dreaming children go,</span> +<span class="i0">There's a little inn at the Sign of the Rose, that all the fairies know,</span> +<span class="i0">For Titania lodged in that tavern once, and betwixt the night and the day</span> +<span class="i0">The children that crowded about her there, she stole their hearts away!</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Peaseblossom, Moth and Mustardseed, Agate and Airymouse too,</span> +<span class="i0">Once were children that laughed and played as children always do,</span> +<span class="i0">But when Titania kissed their lips, and crowned them with daffodil gold</span> +<span class="i0">They never forgot what she whispered them, they never knew how to grow old!</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Mothers that wonder why little lads forget their homely ways,</span> +<span class="i0">And little maids put their dolls aside and take to acting plays,</span> +<span class="i0">Ah, let them be kings and queens awhile, for there's nothing sad or mean</span> +<span class="i0">In their innocent thought, and their crowns were wrought by the touch o' the Fairy Queen!</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Close to the heart o' the world they come, the children who know the way</span> +<span class="i0">To the little low gateway under the rose, where 't is neither night nor day.</span> +<span class="i0">They see what others can never guess, they hear what we cannot hear,</span> +<span class="i0">And the loathly dragons that waste our life they never learn to fear.</span> +</div><span class='pagenum'>[251]</span> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The little inn at the Sign of the Rose,—ah, who can forget the place</span> +<span class="i0">Where Titania danced with the children small and lent them her elfin grace?</span> +<span class="i0">And wherever they go and whatever they do in the years that turn them gray</span> +<span class="i0">They never forget the charm she said when she stole their hearts away!</span> +</div></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div><span class="back"><a href="#CONTENTS">[Contents]</a></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[252]</a></span></div> + +<h2>XVII</h2> + +<h3><a name="THE_GARDENS_OF_HELENE" id="THE_GARDENS_OF_HELENE"></a>THE GARDENS OF HELÊNE</h3> + +<p>"Is there not any saint of the kitchen, at all?" asked +the serious-eyed little demoiselle sorting herbs under +the pear-tree. Old Jacqueline, gathering the tiny +fagots into her capacious apron, chuckled wisely.</p> + +<p>"There should be, if there isn't. Perhaps the good +God thinks that the men will take care that there are +kitchens, without His help." She hobbled briskly into +the house. Helêne sat for a few minutes with hands +folded, her small nose alert as a rabbit's to the marvelous +blend of odors in the hot sunshiny air.</p> + +<p>It was a very agreeable place, that old French garden. +There had been a kitchen-garden on that very +spot for more than five hundred years; at least, so said +Monsieur Lescarbot the lawyer, and he knew all about +the history of the world. A part of the old wall had +been there in the days of the First Crusade, and the +rest looked as if it had. When Henry of Navarre +dined at the Guildhall, before Ivry, they had come +to Jacqueline for poultry and seasoning. She could +show you exactly where she gathered the parsley, the +thyme, the marjoram, the carrots and the onion for +the stuffing, and from which tree the selected chestnuts +came. A white hen proudly promenading the yard at +this moment was the direct descendant of the fowl +chosen for the King's favorite dish of <i>poulet en casserole</i>.</p> + +<p>But the common herbs were far from being all that <span class='pagenum'>[253]</span> +this garden held. Besides the dozen or more herbs +and as many vegetables which all cooks used, there +were artichokes, cucumbers, peppers of several kinds, +marigolds, rhubarb, and even two plants of that curious +Peruvian vegetable with the golden-centered +creamy white flowers, called po-té-to. Jacqueline's +husband, who had been a sea-captain, had brought +those roots from Brazil, and she,—Helêne,—who was +very little then, had disgraced herself by gathering the +flowers for a nosegay. It was after that that Jacqueline +had begun to teach her what each plant was +good for, and how it must be fed and tended. +Helêne had grown to feel that every plant, shrub or +seedling was alive and had thoughts. In the delightful +fairy tales that Monsieur Marc Lescarbot told her +they were alive, and talked of her when they left their +places at night and held moonlight dances.</p> + +<p>Lescarbot's thin keen face with the bald forehead +and humorous eyes appeared now at the grille in the +green door. He swept off his béret and made a deep +bow. "Mademoiselle la bien-aimée de la bonne Sainte +Marthe," he said gravely, "may I come in?"</p> + +<p>He had a new name for her every time he came, +usually a long one. "But why Sainte Marthe?" she +asked, running to let him in.</p> + +<p>"She is the patron saint of cooks and housewives, +petite. A good cook can do anything. Sainte Marthe +entertained the blessed Lord in her own home, and was +the first nun of the sisterhood she founded. Moreover +when she was preaching at Aix a fearful dragon +by the name of Tarasque inhabited the river Rhone, +and came out each night to devastate the country until +Sainte Marthe was the means of his—conversion."</p> + +<p>"Oh, go on!" cried Helêne, and Lescarbot sat <span class='pagenum'>[254]</span> +down on the old bench under the pear-tree and began +to help with the herbs.</p> + +<p>"Sainte Marthe was an excellent cook, and the first +thing she did when she founded her convent was to +plant a kitchen-garden. On Saint John's Eve she went +into the garden and watered each plant with holy +water, blessing it in the use of God. People came +from miles around to get roots and seeds from the +garden and to ask for Sainte Marthe's recipes for +broths and cordials for the sick. Often they brought +roots of such plants as rhubarb and—er—marigold, +which had been imported from heathen countries, to +be blessed and made wholesome." Lescarbot's eye +rested on the potato plant, which he distrusted.</p> + +<p>"Well. The dragon prowled around and around +the convent walls, but of course he could not come in. +At last he pretended to be sick and sent for Sainte +Marthe to come and cure him. As soon as she set +eyes on him she knew what a wicked lie he had told, +and resolved to punish him for his impudence. Of +course all he wanted of her was to get her recipes for +sauces and stews so that he might cook and eat his +victims without having indigestion—which is what a +good sauce is for. Sainte Marthe promised to make +him some broth if he would do no harm while she was +gone, and just to make sure he kept his promise she +made him hold out his fore-paws and tied them hard +and fast with her girdle, while he sat with his fore-legs +around his—er—knees, and her broomstick +thrust crosswise between. Then she got out her +largest kettle and made a good savory broth of all +the herbs in her garden—there were three hundred +and sixty-five kinds. She knew that if he drank it all, +the blessed herbs would work such a change in his <span class='pagenum'>[255]</span> +inside that he would be like a lamb forever after.</p> + +<p>"But one thing neither she nor Tarasque had +thought of, and that was, that the broth was hot. Of +course he always took his food and drink very cold. +When he smelled its delicious fragrance he opened his +mouth wide, and she poured it hissing hot down his +throat, and it melted him into a famous bubbling +spring. People go there to be cured of colic."</p> + +<p>Helêne drew a long breath. She did not believe +that Lescarbot had found that story in any book of +legends of the saints, but she liked it none the worse for +that.</p> + +<p>"I wonder if Sainte Marthe blessed this garden?" +she said.</p> + +<p>"I have no doubt she did, and that is why it flourishes +from Easter to Michaelmas. But I came to-day +for a potato. Sieur de Monts desires to see one and +to understand the method of its cultivation."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I know that," cried Helêne, eagerly, and she +took one of the queer brown roots from the willow +basket by the wall. "See, these are its eyes, one, two, +three—seven eyes in this one. You must cut it in +pieces, as many pieces as it has eyes, and plant each +piece separately; and from each eye springs a plant."</p> + +<p>"Ah!" said Lescarbot gravely, and he put the potato +in his wallet.</p> + +<p>For two years Pierre du Guast, Sieur de Monts, and +the valiant gentlemen Samuel de Champlain, Bienville +de Poutrincourt, and others of his company, had been +striving to maintain a settlement in the grant of La +Cadie or L'Acadie, between the fortieth and forty-sixth +degrees of north latitude in the New World, of +which the King had made De Monts Lieutenant-General. +De Monts engaged Champlain, who had already <span class='pagenum'>[256]</span> +explored those coasts, as chief geographer, and +the merchant Pontgravé was in charge of a store-ship +laden with supplies. Fearing the severe winter of the +St. Lawrence, the party steered south along the coast +and anchored in a tranquil and beautiful harbor surrounded +with forest, green lowlands, and hills laced +with waterfalls. In his delight with the place Poutrincourt +declared that he would ask nothing better than +to make it his home; and he received a grant of the +harbor, which he named Port Royal. The expedition +finally came to rest on an island in a river flowing into +Passamaquoddy Bay, where they began their settlement. +Their wooden buildings—a house for their +viceroy, one for Champlain and other gentlemen, barracks, +lodgings, workshops and storehouses,—surrounded +a square in the middle of which one fine cedar +was left standing, while a belt of them remained to +hedge the island from the north winds. The work +done, Poutrincourt set sail for France, leaving seventy-nine +men to spend the winter at Ile Sainte-Croix. +Scurvy broke out, and before spring almost half the +company were in their graves. Spring came, but no +help from France. It was June 16 before Poutrincourt +returned with forty men, and two days later +Champlain set sail in a fifteen-ton barque with De +Monts and several others, to explore the coast and +discover if possible a better place for the colony. +They went as far south as Nauset Harbor, and Champlain +made charts and kept a journal quaintly illustrated +with figures drawn and painted; but De Monts +found no place that suited him. Then he bethought +himself of the deep sheltered harbor of Port Royal, +and they removed everything to that new site, on the +north side of the basin below the mouth of a little <span class='pagenum'>[257]</span> +river which they called the Équille. Even parts of the +buildings were taken across the Bay of Fundy. But +a ship from France brought news to De Monts that +enemies at court were working against his Company, +and leaving Pontgravé in command he and Poutrincourt +returned home, to see what they could do to +further the interests of the colony in Paris. Among +other things Champlain, who had tried without success +to make a garden in the sandy soil of the island, +begged them to provide the settlers with seeds, roots, +cuttings and implements by which they might raise +grain and vegetables and other provisions for themselves. +This would improve the health and also reduce +the expenses of the colony, and the land about the +new site was well adapted for cultivation.</p> + +<p>Poutrincourt, foregathering with his friend Lescarbot +soon after the lawyer had lost nearly all he possessed +in a suit, recounted to him the woes of the +colony, and found with pleasure that in spite of the +doleful history of the last two years Lescarbot was +eager to seek a new career in New France.</p> + +<p>Helêne came running in one morning in the early +spring of 1606, to find old Jacqueline on the steps of +the root-cellar with a heap of sprouting potatoes beside +her. Lescarbot was packing away in a panier such +as she gave him, while under the whitening pear-tree a +donkey stood, sleepily shaking his ears as he waited +for orders.</p> + +<p>"Oh, what are you doing, Uncle Marc?" she cried.</p> + +<p>"Making ready to go to the land beyond the sunset, +Mademoiselle la Princesse du Jardin de Paradis," +he said smiling. "Sit down while the good mother +gets the packets of seeds she promised me, and I will +tell you a story."<span class='pagenum'>[258]</span></p> + +<p>All curiosity and wonder, the little maid settled +herself on the ancient worm-eaten bench, and Lescarbot +began.</p> + +<p>"It happened one day that men came and told the +King that a great realm lay beyond the seas, where +only wild men and animals lived, and that this realm +was all his. Now the wild men were not good for +anything, for they had never been taught anything, but +since the winters in that country were very cold the +animals wore fur coats. The King called to him a +Chief Huntsman and told him that he might go and +collect tribute from the fur coats of the animals, and +that after he had given the King his share, the fur +coats of all the animals belonged to him."</p> + +<p>"Did the animals know it?"</p> + +<p>"I think they did, for they were accustomed to having +men try to take away their fur coats. All the +other hunters were very angry when they found that +the King had given this order, but the Chief Huntsman +told them that they might have a share in the +hunting, only they must ask his permission and pay +tribute to the King; and that satisfied them for a while.</p> + +<p>"The Chief Huntsman sailed to the far country +and built a castle for himself and his men, and when +winter came they found that it was indeed very cold—so +cold that the wine and the cider froze and had to +be given out by the pound instead of the pint. But +that was not the worst of it. There was a dragon."</p> + +<p>Helêne's blue eyes grew round with interest.</p> + +<p>"A dragon whose poisonous breath tainted the food +and caused a terrible plague. They prayed to Saint +Luke the Physician for help, and he appeared to them +in a vision and said, 'I cannot do anything for you so +long as you eat not good food. God made man to live <span class='pagenum'>[259]</span> +in a garden, not to fill himself with salt fish and salt +meat and dry bread.' But they could not plant a garden +in the middle of winter, and they had to wait. +When the ship went back to France a gallant captain—named +Samuel de Champlain—sent a letter to a +friend of his in France, praying him to send a gardener +with seeds, roots and cuttings that there might be +good broths and tisanes and sauces to work magic +against the dragon that he slay no more of their folk. +And, little Helêne, I am filling a pair of paniers with +those roots and those seeds, and I am going to be a +gardener beyond the sunset."</p> + +<p>Helêne looked grave. To find her friend and playfellow +suddenly dropped away from her into the middle +of a fairy-tale was rather terrifying, but it was also +thrilling. She slipped down from the bench.</p> + +<p>"You shall have cuttings from my very own rose-bushes," +said she; and at her direction Lescarbot took +up very carefully small rose-shoots that had rooted +themselves around the great bushes,—bushes that bore +roses white with a faint flush, white with a golden-creamy +heart, pure snow-white, sunrise pink and deep +glowing crimson with a purple shade.</p> + +<p>If Lescarbot had been a superstitious man, he might +have been inclined to gloom during his first sea-voyage, +for the ship in which he and Poutrincourt set sail from +Rochelle on the thirteenth of May, 1606, was called +the <i>Jonas</i>. But instead he joined in all the diversions +possible in their two months' voyage—harpooning +porpoises, fishing for cod off the Banks, or dancing +on the deck in calm weather,—and in his leisure kept +a lively and entertaining journal of the adventure. +They ran into dense fog in which they could see nothing; +they saw, when the mist cleared, a green and <span class='pagenum'>[260]</span> +lovely shore, but before it fierce and dangerous rocks +on which the breakers pounded. Then a storm broke, +with rolling thunder like a salute of cannon. At last +on July 27 they sailed into the narrow channel at the +entrance of the harbor of Port Royal.</p> + +<p>The flag of France, with its golden lilies on a white +ground, gleamed in the noon sunlight as they came +up the bay toward the little group of wooden buildings +in the edge of the forest. Not a man was to be +seen on the silent shore; a birch canoe, with one old +Indian in it, hovered near the landing. A great fear +gripped the hearts of Bienville de Poutrincourt and +Marc Lescarbot. Were Pontgravé and Champlain all +dead with their people? Had help come too late?</p> + +<p>Then from the bastion of the rude fortifications a +cannon barked salute, and a Frenchman with a gun +in his hand came running down to the beach. The +ship's guns returned the salute, and the trumpets sang +loud greeting to whoever might be there to hear.</p> + +<p>When they had landed they learned what had happened. +There were only two Frenchmen in the fort; +Pontgravé and the others, fearing that the supply +ship would never arrive, had gone twelve days before +in two small ships of their own building to look for +some of the French fishing fleet who might have provisions. +The two who remained had volunteered to +stay and guard the buildings and stores. There was a +village of friendly Indians near by, and the chief, +Membertou, who was more than a hundred years old, +had seen the distant sail of the <i>Jonas</i> and come to warn +the white men, who were at dinner. Not knowing +whether the strange ship came in peace or war, one of +the comrades had gone to the platform on which the +cannon were mounted, and stood ready to do what <span class='pagenum'>[261]</span> +he could in defense, while the other ran down to the +shore. When they saw the French flag at the mast-head +the cannon spoke joyfully in salute.</p> + +<p>All was now eager life and activity. Poutrincourt +sent out a boat to explore the coast, which met the +two little ships of Pontgravé and Champlain and told +the great news. Lescarbot, exploring the meadows +under the guidance of some of Membertou's people, +saw moose with their young feeding peacefully upon +the lush grass, and beavers building their curious habitations +in a swamp. Pontgravé took his departure +for France in the <i>Jonas</i>, and Champlain and Poutrincourt +began making plans.</p> + +<p>The winter in Port Royal had been less severe than +the terrible first winter of the settlement, on the St. +Croix, but the two leaders decided to take one of the +ramshackle little ships and make another exploring +voyage along the coast, to see whether some more +comfortable site for the colony could not be found. +There was plenty of leeway to the southward, for De +Monts was supposed to control everything as far south +as the present site of Philadelphia; but the coast had +never been accurately charted by the French further +south than Cape Cod.</p> + +<p>Lescarbot, who was to command at Port Royal in +their absence, had already laid out his kitchen-garden +and set about spading and planting it. The kitchen, +the smithy and the bakery were on the south side of +the quadrangle around which the wooden buildings +stood; east of them was the arched gateway, protected +by a sort of bastion of log-work, from which +a path led to the water a few paces away; and west +of them another bastion matched it, mounting the four +cannon. The storehouses for ammunition and provisions <span class='pagenum'>[262]</span> +were on the eastern side; on the west were the +men's quarters, and on the north, a dining-hall and +lodgings for the chief men of the company, who now +numbered fifteen. Lescarbot set some of the men to +burning over the meadows that they might sow wheat +and barley; others broke up new soil for the herbs, +roots and cuttings he had brought, and he himself, +hoe in hand, was busiest of all.</p> + +<p>"Do not overtask yourself," warned Poutrincourt, +pausing beside the thin, pale-faced man who knelt in +the long shadows of the rainy dawn among his neatly-arranged +plots. "If you are too zealous you may +never see France again." Lescarbot laughed and dug +a little grave in his plantation. "What in heaven's +name are those?"</p> + +<p>"Potatoes," answered the lawyer-gardener. "The +Peruvian root they are planting in Ireland."</p> + +<p>"But you do not expect to get a crop this year—and +in this climate?"</p> + +<p>"I don't expect anything at all. I am making the +experiment. If they come up, good; if they do not, I +have seed enough for next year."</p> + +<p>The potatoes came up. It was an unusually hot +summer, and the situation was favorable. If Lescarbot +had known the habits of the vegetable he might +not have thought of putting them into the ground on +the last day of July, but they grew and flourished, and +their odd ivory-and-gold blossoms were charming. +Lescarbot worked all day in the bracing sunlit air, +and now and then he hoed and transplanted by moonlight. +In the evening he read, wrote, or planned out +the next day's program.</p> + +<p>September came, with cool bright days and a hint +of frost at night; the lawyer marshalled his forces <span class='pagenum'>[263]</span> +and harvested the crops. The storehouses, already +stocked with Pontgravé's abundant provision, were +filled to overflowing, and they had to dig a makeshift +cellar or root-pit under a rough shelter for the last +of their produce. The potatoes were carefully bestowed +in huge hampers provided by Membertou's +people, who were greatly interested in all that the +white men did. Old Jacqueline had said that they +needed "room to breathe," and Lescarbot was taking +no chances on this unknown American product.</p> + +<p>October came; the Indians showed the white men +how to grind corn, and the carpenters planned a water-mill +to be constructed in the spring, to take the place +of the tedious hand-mill worked by two men. Wild +geese flew overhead, recalling to the Frenchmen the +legends of Saint Gabriel's hounds. The forests robed +themselves in hues like those of a priceless Kashmir +shawl, and the squirrels, martens, beavers, otters, +weasels, which the hunters brought in were in their +winter coats. But the exploring party had not returned. +Lescarbot, who had occupied spare moments +in preparing a surprise for them when they did return, +and carefully drilled the men in their parts, began to be +secretly anxious. But on the morning of November +14, old Membertou, who had appointed himself an informal +sentinel to patrol the waters near the fort, appeared +with the news that the chiefs were coming +back.</p> + +<p>All was excitement in a moment, although Lescarbot +privately had to admit that he could not even see +a sail, to say nothing of recognizing the boat or its +occupants. But the long-sighted old sagamore was +right. The party of adventurers, their craft considerably +the worse for the journey, steering with a pair <span class='pagenum'>[264]</span> +of oars in place of a rudder, reached the landing-place +and battered, weary and dilapidated, came up to the +fort. They were surprised and disappointed to see +no one about except a few curious Indians peeping +from the woods.</p> + +<p>As they neared the wooden gateway it was suddenly +flung open, and out marched a procession of masquers, +headed by Neptune in full costume of shell-fringed +robe, diadem, trident, and garlands of kelp and sea-moss, +attended by tritons grotesquely attired, and +fauns, reinforced by a growing audience of Indians, +squaws and papooses. This merry company greeted +the wanderers with music, song and some excellent +French verse written by Lescarbot for the occasion. +Refreshed with laughter and the relief of finding all +so well conducted, Champlain, Poutrincourt and their +men went in to have something to eat and drink. Then +they spent the rest of the day hearing and telling the +story of the last three months.</p> + +<p>It is written down, adorned with drawings, in the +journals of Champlain, and it was all told over as the +men sat around their blazing fires and talked, all together, +while a light November snow flurried in the +air outside.</p> + +<p>"So you see we lost our rudder in a storm off +Mount Désert—" "And the autumn gales drove us +back before we had fairly passed Port Fortuné—" +"It came near being Port Malheur for us, and it was +for Pierre and Jacques le Malouin, poor fellows. +They and three others stayed ashore for the night and +hundreds of Indians attacked them,—oh, but hundreds. +Well, we heard the uproar—naturally it +waked us in a hurry—and up we jumped and snatched +any weapon that was handy, and piled into the boat in <span class='pagenum'>[265]</span> +our shirts. Two of the shore party were killed and we +saw the other three running for their boat for dear +life, all stuck over with arrows like hedgehogs, my +faith! So then we landed and charged the Indians, +who must have thought we were ghosts, for they left +off whooping and ran for the woods. Our provisions +were so far spent that we thought it best to return +after that, and in any case—it would be as bad, would +it not, to die of Indians as to die of scurvy?"</p> + +<p>"But tell me, my dear fellow," said Champlain when +the happy hubbub had a little subsided, "how have +your gardens prospered? Truly I need not ask, in +view of the abundance of the dinner you gave us."</p> + +<p>Lescarbot smiled. "I think that the saints must +have whispered to the little plants," he said whimsically, +"or else they knew that they must grow their +best for the honor of France. But perhaps it is not +strange. I had the seeds and roots from the garden +of Helêne."</p> + +<p>"And who is Helêne?" asked Champlain with interest. +Lescarbot explained.</p> + +<p>"It was really wonderful," he said in conclusion, +"to see how careful she was to remember every herb +and plant which might be useful, and to ask Jacqueline +for some especial recipes for cordials and tisanes for +the sick. And by the way, Jacqueline told me that +the sea-captains regard potatoes as especially good to +prevent or cure scurvy."</p> + +<p>In any case the potato was popular among the exiled +Frenchmen. They ate it boiled, they ate it parboiled, +sliced and fried in deep kettles of fat, they +ate it in stews, and they ate it—and liked it best of +all—roasted in the ashes. Jacqueline had said that +the water in which the root was boiled must always be <a name='Page_266' id='Page_266'></a><span class='pagenum'>[266]</span> +thrown away, which showed that there was something +uncanny about it, but whether it was due to the +potatoes or the general variety of the bill of fare, +there was not a case of scurvy in the camp all winter.</p> + +<p>Soon after his return Champlain broached a plan +which he had been perfecting during the voyage. The +fifteen men of rank formed a society, to be called +"L'Ordre de Bon-Temps." Each man became Grand-Master +in turn, for a single day. On that day he +was responsible for the dinner,—the cooking, catering, +buying and serving. When not in office he usually +spent some days in hunting, fishing and trading with the +Indians for supplies. He had full authority over the +kitchen during his reign, and it was a point of honor +with each Grand Master to surpass, if possible, the +abundance, variety and gastronomic excellence of the +meals of the day before. There was no market to +draw upon, but the caterer could have steaks and +roasts and pies of moose, bear, venison and caribou; +beavers, otters, hares, trapped for their fur, also +helped to feed the hunters. Ducks, geese, grouse and +plover were to be had for the shooting. Sturgeon, +trout and other fish might be caught in the bay, or +speared through the ice of the river. The supplies +brought from France, with the addition of all this +wilderness fare, held out well, and Lescarbot expressed +the opinion, with which nobody disagreed, that no epicure +in Paris could dine better in the Rue de l'Ours +than the pioneers of Port Royal dined that winter.</p> + +<p>Ceremony was not neglected, either. At the dinner +hour, twelve o'clock, the Grand Master of the +day entered the dining-hall, a napkin on his shoulder, +his staff of office in his hand, and the collar of the +Order, worth about four crowns, about his neck. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[267]</a></span> +After him came the Brotherhood in procession, each +carrying a dish. Indian chiefs were often guests at +the board; old Membertou was always made welcome. +Biscuit, bread and many other kinds of food served +there were new and alluring luxuries to the Indians, +and warriors, squaws and children who had not seats +at table squatted on the floor gravely awaiting their +portions.</p> + +<div><span class="back"><a href="#LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS">[Illustrations]</a></span></div> + +<div class="center"><div class="figcenter" style="width: 421px;"> +<img src="images/illus-304.png" width="421" height="600" alt=""The Grand Master of the day entered the dining hall."—Page 266" title=""The Grand Master of the day entered the dining hall."—Page 266" /> +<span class="caption">"The Grand Master of the day entered the dining hall."—<i>Page 266</i></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The evening meal was less formal. When all were +gathered about the fire, the Grand Master presented +the collar and staff of office to his successor, and drank +his health in a cup of wine.</p> + +<p>The winter was unusually mild; until January they +needed nothing warmer than their doublets. On the +fourteenth, a Sunday, they went boating on the river, +and came home singing the gay songs of France. A +little later they went to visit the wheat fields two +leagues from the fort, and dined merrily out of doors. +When the snow melted they saw the little bright blades +of the autumn sowing already coming up from the rich +black soil. Winter was over, and work began in good +heart. Poutrincourt was not above gathering turpentine +from the pines and making tar, after a process invented +by himself. Then late in spring a ship came +into harbor with news which ended everything. The +fur-traders of Normandy, Brittany and the Vizcayan +ports had succeeded in having the privilege of De +Monts withdrawn. Hardly more than a year after +his arrival Lescarbot left his beloved gardens, and in +October all the colonists were once more in France. +Membertou and his Indians bewailed their departure, +and held them in long remembrance. Wilderness +houses soon go back to their beginnings, and it was +not long before all that was left of the brave and gay <span class='pagenum'>[268]</span> +French colony was a little clearing where the herb of +immortality, the tansy of Saint Athanase, lifted its +golden buttons and thick dark green foliage above the +remnant of the garden of Helêne.</p> + +<p>Yet the experience of that year was not lost. It +was the first instance of a company of settlers in that +northern climate passing the winter without illness, +discord or trouble with the Indians. Later, in the little +new settlements of Quebec and Montreal, some of +the colonists met again under the wise and kindly +rule of Champlain. Little Helêne lived to bring her +own roses to a garden in New France, and teach Indian +girls the secrets which old Jacqueline taught her. +And it is recorded in the history of the voyageurs, +priests and adventurers of France in the New World +that wherever they went they were apt to take with +them seeds and plants of wholesome garden produce, +which they planted along their route in the hope that +they might thus be of service to those who came after +them.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div><span class="back"><a href="#CONTENTS">[Contents]</a></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[269]</a></span></div> + +<h3><a name="THE_WOODEN_SHOE" id="THE_WOODEN_SHOE"></a>THE WOODEN SHOE</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Amsterdam's the cradle where the race was rocked—</span> +<span class="i0">All the ships of all the world to her harbor flocked.</span> +<span class="i0">Rosy with the sea-wind, solid, stubborn, sweet,</span> +<span class="i0">Played the children by canals, up and down the street.</span> +<span class="i0">Neltje, Piet and Hendrik, Dirck and Myntje too,—</span> +<span class="i0">Little Nick of Leyden sailed his wooden shoe.</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Quarter-deck and cabin—rig her fore-and-aft,"—</span> +<span class="i0">Thus he murmured wisely as he launched his craft.</span> +<span class="i0">"Cutlass, pike and musquetoun, howitzer and shot—</span> +<span class="i0">But our knives and mirrors and beads are worth the lot."</span> +<span class="i0">Room enough for cargo to last a year or two,</span> +<span class="i0">In the round amidships of a wooden shoe!</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Bobbing on the waters of the Nieuwe Vlei</span> +<span class="i0">See the bantam galleot, short and broad and high.</span> +<span class="i0">Laden for the Indies, trading all the way,</span> +<span class="i0">Frank and shrewd and cautious, fiery in a fray,—</span> +<span class="i0">Sagamore and mandarin are all the same to you,</span> +<span class="i0">Little Nick of Leyden with your wooden shoe!</span> +</div></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div><span class="back"><a href="#CONTENTS">[Contents]</a></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[270]</a></span></div> + +<h2>XVIII</h2> + +<h3><a name="THE_FIRES_THAT_TALKED" id="THE_FIRES_THAT_TALKED"></a>THE FIRES THAT TALKED</h3> + +<p>All along the coast of Britain, from John o' +Groat's to Beachey Head, from Saint Michael's +Mount to Cape Wrath, twinkled the bonfires on the +headlands. Henry Hudson, returning from a voyage +among icebergs, guessed at once what this chain of +lights meant. The son of Mary Queen of Scots had +been crowned in London.<a name="FNanchor_1_34" id="FNanchor_1_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_34" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p> + +<p>Hudson's keen eyes were unusually grave and +thoughtful as the <i>Muscovy Duck</i> sailed up to London +Pool on the incoming tide. The sailors looked even +more sober, for most of them were English Protestants, +with a few Flemings, and John Williams the pilot was +an Anabaptist. It was he who asked the question of +which all were thinking.</p> + +<p>"Master Hudson, d'ye think the new King will light +them other fires—the ones at Smithfield?"</p> + +<p>Hudson shook his head. "That's a thing no man +can say for certain, John. But there's the Low Countries +and the Americas to run to. 'T is not as it was +in Queen Mary's day."</p> + +<p>"Aye, but Spain has got all of America, pretty near, +and the French are nabbing the rest," said the pilot +doubtfully.</p> + +<p>"Nay, that's a bigger place than you guess, over +yonder. Ever see the map that Doctor Dee made for +Queen Bess near thirty years ago? I remember him <span class='pagenum'>[271]</span> +showing it to my grandsire with the ink scarce dry on +it. The country Ralegh's people saw has got room for +the whole of France and England, and plenty timber +and corn-land. Sir Walter he knew that."</p> + +<p>There was plague in London when they landed, and +all sought their families in fear and trembling, not +knowing what might have come and gone in their absence. +Hudson's house was at Mortlake on the +Thames above London, and there he was rejoiced to +find all well. Young John Hudson was brimful of +Mr. Brereton's new Relacion of the Voyage of Captain +Bartholomew Gosnold and Captain Bartholomew +Gilbert to the North part of Virginia by permission of +the honorable Knight Sir Walter Ralegh. Strawberries +bigger than those of England, and cherries in +clusters like grapes, blackbirds with carnation-colored +wings, Indians who painted their eyebrows white and +made faces over mustard, were mixed higgledy-piggledy +in his bubbling talk. Hudson, turning the pages of +the new book, saw at once that on this voyage around +Cape Cod the little ship <i>Concord</i> had sailed seas unknown +to him.</p> + +<p>"Why won't the Company send you to the Americas, +Dad?" the boy asked eagerly. "When will I be +old enough to go to sea?"</p> + +<p>"Wait till ye're fourteen at least, Jack," his father +answered. "There's much to learn before ye're a +master mariner."</p> + +<p>In the next few years things were not so well with +English mariners as they had been. Cecil and Howard, +picking a quarrel with Ralegh, had him shut up in +the Tower. The Dutch were trading everywhere, +seizing the chances King James missed. But Hudson +was in the employ of the Muscovy Company like his <span class='pagenum'>[272]</span> +father and grandfather, and the Russian fur trade was +making that Company rich.</p> + +<p>Captain John Smith, a shrewd-faced soldier with +merry eyes, appeared at the house one day and told +entertaining stories of his campaigns under Prince Sigismund +of Bohemia. He and the boy John drove the +neighbors nearly distracted with curiosity, one winter +evening, signalling with torches from the house to the +river.<a name="FNanchor_2_35" id="FNanchor_2_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_35" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> To anxious souls who surmised a new Guy +Fawkes conspiracy Captain Smith showed how he had +once conveyed a message to the garrison of a beleaguered +city in this way. Here was the code. The +first half of the alphabet was represented by single +lights, the second half by pairs. To secure attention +three torches were shown at equal distances from one +another, until a single light flashed in response to show +that the signal was understood. For any letter from +A to L a single light was shown and hidden one or more +times according to the number of the letter from the +beginning; thus, three flashes meant C; four meant D, +and so on. For a letter between M and Z the same +plan was followed using two torches. The end of a +word was signified by three lights. In this way Smith +had spelled out the message, "On Thursday night I +will charge on the east; at the alarum, sally you." He +had, however, translated it into Latin, to make it short.</p> + +<p>John Hudson found new interest in Latin.</p> + +<p>When Captain Smith began to talk of joining a new +colony to go to Virginia the boy begged hard to be allowed +to go. But just at this time the Muscovy Company +was sending Henry Hudson to look for a way +round through northern seas to the Spice Islands. The +Dutch were already trading in the Portuguese Indies. +If England could reach them by a shorter route, it <span class='pagenum'>[273]</span> +would be a very pleasant discovery for the Muscovy +Company.</p> + +<p>Even in 1607 geographers believed in an open polar +sea north of Asia. Hudson tried the Greenland route. +Sailing east of Greenland he found himself between +that country and the islands named "Nieuwland" by +William Barents the Dutch navigator in 1596. Their +pointed icy mountains seemed to push up through the +sea. Icebergs crowded the waters like miniature peaks +of a submerged range. Hudson returned to report +to the company "no open sea."</p> + +<p>In 1608 he was again sent out on the same errand. +This time he steered further east, between those islands +and another group named by Barents Nova Zembla. +He sailed nearer to the pole than any man had been +before him, and found whales bigger, finer and more +numerous than anywhere else. Rounding the North +Cape on his way home he made the first recorded observation +of a sun-spot. In August, when he returned +and made his report, there was a sensation in the seafaring +world.</p> + +<p>The Dutch promptly sent whaling ships into the arctic +seas, and suggested, through Van Meteren the +Dutch consul in London, a friend of Hudson, that the +English navigator should come to Amsterdam and talk +of entering their service. While there, he received an +offer from the French Ambassador, suggesting that his +services would be welcome to a proposed French East +India Company. Hearing this, the Dutch hastened to +secure him, and on April 4, 1609, he sailed from Amsterdam +in a yacht of eighty tons called the <i>Half Moon</i> +and shaped rather like one, manned by a crew of +twenty, half English and half Netherlanders, and John +as cabin-boy.<span class='pagenum'>[274]</span></p> + +<p>John was in such a state of bliss as a boy can know +when sailing on the venture of his dreams. His father +had told him in confidence that as his sailing orders +were almost the same as the year before, he did not +expect to find the northern route to India in that direction. +Failing this the <i>Half Moon</i> would look for it in +the western seas. Of this plan he had said nothing +in Holland.</p> + +<p>He found, as he had expected, that the arctic waters +were choked with ice, and turning southward he headed +for the Faroe Isles. While in Holland he had had a +letter from Captain John Smith, who had explored the +regions about Chesapeake Bay. No straits leading to +the western ocean had been discovered there, and no +Sea of Verrazzano. Captain Smith's opinion was that +if such a passage existed it would be somewhere about +the fortieth parallel. Explorations had already been +made farther north. Davis Strait had been discovered +some years before by John Davis, now dead. Martin +Frobisher had found another strait leading northwest. +Both of these were so far north that they were likely to +be ice-bound by the time the little <i>Half Moon</i> could +reach them. Hudson meant to look along the coast +further south, and see what could be found there.</p> + +<p>The <i>Half Moon</i> took in water at the Faroes and +anchored some seven weeks later, on July 18, in Penobscot +Bay. Her foremast was gone and her sails ripped +and rent by the gales of the North Atlantic, and the +carpenter with a selected crew rowed ashore and chose +a pine tree for a new mast. While this was a-making +and the sails were patched up, the crew not otherwise +engaged went fishing.</p> + +<p>"I say," presently observed John Hudson, who +knew Brereton's Relacion by heart, "this must ha' been <span class='pagenum'>[275]</span> +the place where they caught so many fish that they were +'pestered with Cod' and threw numbers of 'em overboard. +This makes twenty-seven, Dad, so far."</p> + +<p>During that week they caught fifty cod, a hundred +lobsters and a halibut which John declared to be half +as big as the ship. Two French boats appeared, full +of Indians ready to trade beaver skins for red cloth. +The strawberry season was past, but John found wild +cherries, small, deep red, in heavy bunches. When he +tried to eat them, however, they were so sour that he +nearly choked. Cautiously he tasted the big blue +whortleberries that grew on high bushes; near water, +and found them delicious. He had been eating them +by the handful for some time when he became aware +that there was a feaster on the other side of the thicket. +Receiving no reply to his challenge he went to investigate +and saw a brown bear standing on his hind legs +and raking the berries off the twigs with both forepaws, +into his mouth. At sight of John he dropped +on all fours and cantered off.</p> + +<p>Leaving the bay they cruised along the coast past +Cape Cod, and then steered southwest for the fortieth +parallel. Wind and rain came on in the middle of +August, and they were blown toward an inlet which +Hudson decided to be the James. Not knowing how +the English governor of Jamestown might regard an +intrusion by a Dutch ship, he turned north again, and +on the twenty-eighth of August entered a large bay and +took soundings. More than once the <i>Half Moon</i>, +light as she rode, grounded on sand-banks, and Hudson +shook his head in rueful doubt.</p> + +<p>"D' you think the straits are here, Dad?" asked +John when he had a chance to speak with his father +alone.<span class='pagenum'>[276]</span></p> + +<p>"Hardly. This is fresh water. It's the mouth of +a river."<a name="FNanchor_3_36" id="FNanchor_3_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_36" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p> + +<p>"Yes, but might there be an isthmus—or the like?"</p> + +<p>"A big river with as strong a current as this would +not rise on a narrow, level strip of land, son. It's +bringing down tons of sand to make these banks we +run into. There's a great wide country inland there."</p> + +<p>The chanteys of the sailors were heard at daybreak +in the lonely sea, as the <i>Half Moon</i> went on her way +northward. On September 3 the little ship edged into +another and bigger bay to the north. Whether it was +a bay or a lake Hudson was at first rather doubtful. +The shores were inhabited, for little plumes of smoke +arose everywhere, and soon from all sides log canoes +came paddling toward the ship. These Indians were +evidently not unused to trading, for they brought green +tobacco, hemp, corn and furs to sell, and some of them +knew a few words of French. By this, and by signs, +they gave Hudson to understand that three rivers, or +inlets, came into this island-encircled sea, the largest +being toward the north. Hudson determined to follow +this north river and see where it led.</p> + +<p>As he sailed cautiously into the channel, taking +soundings and observing the shores, he was puzzled. +The tide rose and fell as if this were an inlet of the sea, +and it was far deeper than an ordinary river. In fact +it was more like a Norwegian fiord.<a name="FNanchor_4_37" id="FNanchor_4_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_37" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> It might possibly +lead to a lake, and this lake might have an outlet to the +western ocean. That it was a strait he did not believe. +Even in the English Channel the meeting tides of the +North Sea and the Atlantic made rough water, and the +<i>Half Moon</i> was drifting as easily as if she were slipping +down stream. In any event, nothing else had been +found, either north or south of this point, which could <span class='pagenum'>[277]</span> +possibly be a strait, and Hudson meant to discover exactly +what this was before he set sail for Amsterdam.</p> + +<p>They passed an Indian village in the woods to the +right, and according to the Indians who had come on +board the place was called Sapokanican,<a name="FNanchor_5_38" id="FNanchor_5_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_38" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> and was +famous for the making of wampum or shell beads. A +brook of clear sweet water flowed close by. Presently +Hudson anchored and sent five men ashore in a boat +to explore the right-hand bank of the channel. Night +came on, and it began to rain, but the boat had not returned. +Hudson slept but little. In the morning the +missing men appeared with a tale of disaster. After +about two leagues' travel they had come to a bay full of +islands. Here they had been attacked by two canoes +carrying twenty-six Indians, and their arrows had killed +John Colman and wounded two other men. It grew +so dark when the rain began that they dared not seek +the ship, and the current was so strong that their grapnel +would not hold, so that they had had to row all +night.</p> + +<p>Sailing only in the day time and anchoring at night +the little Dutch ship went on to the north, looking between +the steep rocky banks like a boat carved out of a +walnut-shell, in the wooden jaws of a nutcracker. +After dark, fires twinkled upon the heights, and the lapping +waters about the quiet keel were all shining with +broken stars. The flame appeared and vanished like +a signal, and John Hudson wondered if the Indians +knew John Smith's trick of sending a message as far as +a beacon light could be seen.</p> + +<p>One night he climbed up on the poop with the ship's +great lantern and tried the flashing signals he remembered. +Before many minutes two of the wild men had +drawn near to watch, and although John could not make <span class='pagenum'>[278]</span> +out the meaning of the light that came and went upon +the cliffs, it was quite clear that they could. One of +them waved his mantle in front of the lantern, and +turning to the boy nodded and grinned good-naturedly. +The signal fires must have talked to some purpose, for +the next day a delegation paddled out from the shore to +invite the great captain, his son and his chief officers to +a feast.</p> + +<p>When the party arrived at the house of the chief, +which was a round building, or pavilion, of saplings +sheathed with oak bark, mats were spread for them to +sit upon, and food was served in polished red wooden +bowls. Two hunters were sent out to bring in game, +and returned almost at once with pigeons which were +immediately dressed and cooked by the women. One +of the hunters gave John one of the arrowheads used +for shooting small birds; it was no bigger than his least +fingernail and made of a red stone like jasper. A fat +dog had also been killed, skinned and dressed with +shell knives, and served as the dish of honor. Hudson +hastily explained in English to his companions that +whether they relished dog or not, it would never do to +refuse it, as this was a special dish for great occasions.</p> + +<p>"Dad," said John that night, "do you think any +ship with white men ever came up here before?"</p> + +<p>"No," said Hudson.</p> + +<p>"I hope they'll call this the Hudson."</p> + +<p>The water was now hardly more than seven feet +deep, and the tide rose only a few inches. Hudson +came reluctantly to the conclusion that there was no +proceeding further in a ship. He sent a boatload of +men several leagues up-stream, but they came back with +the report that the river was much the same so far as +they had gone.<span class='pagenum'>[279]</span></p> + +<p>During the voyage they had often seen parties of +the savages, usually friendly but sometimes hostile. +Flights of arrows occasionally were aimed at the <i>Half +Moon</i>, and the crew replied with musket-shots which +sometimes but not always hit the mark. The painted +warriors had a way of disappearing into the woods +like elves. Once, in spite of all endeavors to shake +him off, a solitary Indian in a small canoe followed +along under the stern till he saw the chance of climbing +up the rudder to the cabin window. He stole the +pillow off the commander's bed, two shirts, and two +bandoliers (ammunition-belts), the tinkle of which betrayed +him. The mate saw him making off with his +plunder and shot him, whereupon the other Indians +paddled off at top speed, some even leaping from their +canoes to swim ashore. A boat put out and recovered +the stolen property, and when a swimming Indian +caught the side of it to overturn it the cook valiantly +beat him off with a sword. These with many other adventures +were duly written down by Robert Juet the +mate.</p> + +<p>To John Hudson the voyage was a journey of enchantment. +Nothing he had ever seen was in the least +like the glory of the autumn forests, mantling the mountains +in scarlet, gold, malachite, russet, orange and +purple. He had been in the gardens at Lambeth +where Tradescant the famous gardener ruled, but there +was more color in a single vivid maple standing blood-red +in a bit of lowland than in all his Lancaster roses. +And the great river had its flowers as well. A tall +plant like an elfin elm covered with thick-set tiny blossoms +yellow as broom, grew wild over the pastures, and +interspersed with this fairy forest were thickets of +deep lavender daisies with golden centers. In lowland <span class='pagenum'>[280]</span> +glades were tall spikes of cardinal blossoms, and +clusters of deep blue flowers like buds that never +opened. Vines loaded with bunches of scarlet and +orange berries like waxwork, and others bearing fluffy +bunches of silky gray down curly as an old man's beard, +climbed the trees that overhung the stream. The +mountains in the upper river came right down to the +water like the glacis of a giant fort, and fitful winds +pounced upon the <i>Half Moon</i> and rocked her like a +cradle. Once there was a late thunder-shower, and +the noise of the thunder among the humped ranges was +for all the world like balls rolling in a great game of +bowls played by goblins of the mountains.</p> + +<p>On the fourth of October, the <i>Half Moon</i> left the +island which the Indians called Manahatta, passed +through the Narrows and sailed for Europe. Looking +back at those green shores with their bronze feather-crowned +people watching to see the flight of their +strange guest, John Hudson felt that when he was a +man, he would like nothing better than to have an estate +on the shores of the noble river, which no white +boy had ever before set eyes on. Where a great terrace +rose, some fifty miles above Manahatta, walled +around by mountains and almost two hundred feet +above the river, there should be a fort, of which Captain +John Smith should be the commander; and in the +broadening of the river below to form an inland sea, +his father's squadron should ride, while the Indians of +all the upper reaches of the river should come to pay +tribute and bring wampum, furs and tobacco in exchange +for trinkets. And on the island at the mouth +of the river there would be a great city, greater than +Antwerp, to which all the ships of the world should +come as they came now to Antwerp and to London. <span class='pagenum'>[281]</span> +So dreaming, John Hudson saw the shores of this new +world vanish in the blue line, where earth and sky are +one.</p> + +<hr /> + +<h4 class="smcap">notes</h4> + +<div class="footnotes"><div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_34" id="Footnote_1_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_34"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> +The kindling of bonfires and beacon lights on the accession of a +sovereign or any other occasion of national rejoicing is a very old +custom in Britain and is still kept up. At the time of Queen Victoria's +jubilee trees were planted closely to form a great V on the side of +the Downs, and when the fires were lighted on Ditchling Beacon and +other heights the letter stood out black against the close turf of the +hillside.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_35" id="Footnote_2_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_35"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> +The account of Smith's campaigns and signalling code is given +in his autobiography.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_36" id="Footnote_3_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_36"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> +The Delaware.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_37" id="Footnote_4_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_37"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> +Some authorities consider the Hudson River to be actually a fiord +or fjord and not a true river.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_38" id="Footnote_5_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_38"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> +Greenwich Village.</p></div></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div><span class="back"><a href="#CONTENTS">[Contents]</a></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[282]</a></span></div> + +<h3><a name="IMPERIALISM" id="IMPERIALISM"></a>IMPERIALISM</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">The Tailor sat with his goose on the table—</span> +<span class="i2">(Table of Laws it was, he said)</span> +<span class="i0">Fashioning uniforms dyed in sable,</span> +<span class="i2">Picked out with gold and sanguine red.</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"This," he said as he snipped and drafted,</span> +<span class="i2">"Sublimely foreshadowing cosmic Fate</span> +<span class="i0">With world-dominion august, resplendent,</span> +<span class="i0">Will wear, as nothing can wear but Hate!</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">"Chimerical dreams of souls romantic</span> +<span class="i2">Are out of date as an old wife's rune.</span> +<span class="i0">Britain is doomed as Plato's Republic—"</span> +<span class="i2">When in at the door came a lilting tune!</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2"><i>"Here to-day and gone to-morrow—</i></span> +<span class="i4"><i>All in the luck of the road!</i></span> +<span class="i2"><i>Didn't come to stay forever,</i></span> +<span class="i4"><i>But we'll take our share of the load!"</i></span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">Highlanders, Irish, Danes, Egyptians,</span> +<span class="i2">Norman or Slav the dialects ran;</span> +<span class="i0">Something more than a board-school shaped them—</span> +<span class="i2">Drill and discipline never made man!</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Once they knew Crecy, Hastings, Drogheda,</span> +<span class="i2">Moscow, Assaye, Khartoum or Glencoe,—</span> +<span class="i0">Now the old hatreds are tinder for campfires.</span> +<span class="i2">England has only her world to show!</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">They are not dreamers, these men of the Empire,</span> +<span class="i2">Guarding their land in the old-time way,</span> +<span class="i2">And this is the style that prevails in the Legions,—</span> +<span class="i2">"The foe of the past is a friend to-day."</span> +</div><span class='pagenum'>[283]</span> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2"><i>"It's a long, long road to the Empire</i></span> +<span class="i4"><i>(From Beersheba even to Dan)</i></span> +<span class="i2"><i>And the time is rather late for a chronic Hymn of Hate,—</i></span> +<span class="i4"><i>And we know the tailor doesn't make the man!"</i></span> +</div></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div><span class="back"><a href="#CONTENTS">[Contents]</a></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[284]</a></span></div> + +<h2>XIX</h2> + +<h3><a name="ADMIRAL_OF_NEW_ENGLAND" id="ADMIRAL_OF_NEW_ENGLAND"></a>ADMIRAL OF NEW ENGLAND</h3> + +<p>Barefoot and touzle-headed, in the coarse russet +and blue homespun of an apprentice, a small +boy sidled through the wood. Like a hunted hedgehog, +he was ready to run or fight. Where a bright +brook slid into the meadows, he stopped, and looked +through new leaves at the infinite blue of the sky. +Words his grandfather used to read to him came back +to his mind.</p> + +<p>"Let the inhabitants of the rock sing, let them shout +from the top of the mountain."</p> + +<p>The Bible which old Joseph Bradford had left to +his grandson had been taken away, but no one could +take away the memory of it. If he had dared, Will +would have shouted aloud then and there. For all +his hunger and weariness and dread of the future the +strength of the land entered into his young soul. He +drank of the clear brook, and let it wash away the soil +of his pilgrimage. Then he curled himself in a hollow +full of dry leaves, and went to sleep.</p> + +<p>When he woke, it was in the edge of the evening. +Long shadows pointed like lances among the trees. A +horse was cropping the grass in a clearing, and some +one beyond the thicket was reading aloud. For an instant +he thought himself dreaming of the old cottage +at Austerfield—but the voice was young and lightsome.<span class='pagenum'>[285]</span></p> + +<p>"Where a man can live at all, there can he live +nobly."</p> + +<p>The reader stopped and laughed out. A lively +snarling came from a burrow not far away, where two +badgers were quarrelling conscientiously.</p> + +<p>"Just like folks ye be, a-hectorin' and a-fussin'. +What's the great question to settle now—predestination +or infant baptism?—Why, where under the canopy +did you come from, you pint o' cider?"</p> + +<p>"I be a-travelin'," Will said stoutly.</p> + +<p>"Runaway 'prentice, I should guess. I was one myself +at fifteen."</p> + +<p>"I'm 'leven, goin' on twelve," said the boy, standing +as straight as he could.</p> + +<p>"Any folks?"</p> + +<p>"I lived with granddad until he died, four year +back."</p> + +<p>"And so you're wayfarin', be you? What can you +do to get your bread?"</p> + +<p>The urchin dug a bare toe into the sod. "I can +work," he said half-defiantly. "Granddad always said +I should be put to school some day, but my uncle won't +have that. I can read."</p> + +<p>"Latin?"</p> + +<p>"No—English. Granddad weren't college-bred."</p> + +<p>"Nor I—they gave me more lickings than Latin at +the grammar school down to Alvord, 'cause I would +go bird's-nesting and fishing sooner than study my +<i>hic</i>, <i>haec</i>, <i>hoc</i>. And now I've built me a booth like a +wild man o' Virginia and come out here to get my +Latin that I should ha' mastered at thirteen. All the +travel-books are in Latin, and you have to know it to +get on in foreign parts."</p> + +<p>"Have you been in foreign parts?"<span class='pagenum'>[286]</span></p> + +<p>"Four year—France and Scotland and the Low +Countries. But I got enough o' seeing Christians kill +one another, and says I to myself, John Smith, you go +see what they're about at home. And here I found our +fen-sludgers all by the ears over Bishops and Papists +and Brownists and such like. In Holland they let a +man read's Bible in peace."</p> + +<p>"Is that the Bible you got there?"</p> + +<p>"Nay—Marcus Aurelius Antoninus—a mighty +wise old chap, if he was an Emperor. And I've got +Niccolo Macchiavelli's seven books o' the Art o' War. +When I'm weary of one I take to t' other, and between +times I ride a tilt." He waved his hand toward a +ring fastened on a tree, and a lance and horse-furniture +leaning against the trunk.</p> + +<p>"Our folks be Separatists," the boy said.</p> + +<p>"Well, and what of it?" laughed the young man. +"As I was a-reading here—a man is what his thoughts +make him. Be he Catholic or Church Protestant or +Baptist, he's what he's o' mind to be, good or bad. +Other folk's say-so don't stop him—no more than +them badgers' worryin' dams the brook."</p> + +<p>This was a new idea to Will. His hunger for books +was so keen that it had seemed to him that without +them, he would be stupid as the swine. John Smith +seemed to understand it, for he added,</p> + +<p>"You bide here with me awhile, lad. Maybe there's +a way for you to get learning, yet."</p> + +<p>Will shared the leafy booth and simple fare of his +new friend for a fortnight, doing errands, rubbing +down the black horse, Tamlane, and at odd times learning +his conjugations. When John Smith left his hermitage +and went to fight against the Turks in Transylvania, +he placed a little sum of money with a Puritan <span class='pagenum'>[287]</span> +scholar at Scrooby to pay for the boy's schooling for a +year or two. The yeoman uncle had a family of his +own to provide for, and was glad to have Will off his +hands.</p> + +<p>Transylvania in 1600 was on the very frontier of +Christendom. John Smith needed all the philosophy +he had learned from his favorite author when, after +many adventures, he was taken prisoner and sent to +the slave-market of Axopolis to be sold. Bogal, a +Turkish pacha, bought the young Englishman to send +as a gift to his future wife, Charatza Tragabigzanda, +in Constantinople.</p> + +<p>Chained by the neck in gangs of twenties the slaves +entered the great Moslem city. John Smith was left +at the gate of a house exactly like all the others in the +narrow noisy street. The beauty of an Oriental palace +is inside the walls. Within the blank outer wall of +stone and mud-brick, arched roofs, painted and gilded +within, were upheld by slender round pillars of fine +stone—marble, jasper, porphyry, onyx, red syenite, +highly polished and sometimes brought from old +palaces and temples in other lands. Intricate carving +in marble or in fine hard wood adorned the doorways +and lattices, and the balconies with their high lattice-work +railings where the women could see into a room +below without being seen. In the courtyards fountains +plashed in marble basins, and from hidden gardens +came the breath of innumerable roses. On floors of +fine mosaic were silken many-hued rugs, brought in +caravans from Bagdad, Moussoul or Ispahan, and the +soft patter of bare feet, morocco shoes and light sandals +came from the endless vistas of open arches. A +silken rustling and once a gurgle of soft laughter might +have told the Englishman that he was watched, but he <span class='pagenum'>[288]</span> +knew no more what it meant than he understood the +Arabic mottoes, interwoven with the decoration of the +blue-and-gold walls.</p> + +<p>Charatza's curiosity was aroused at the sight of a +slave so tall, ruddy and handsome. She sent for him +to come into an inner room where she and her ladies +sat, closely veiled, upon a cushioned divan. Bogal's +letter said that the slave was a rich Bohemian nobleman +whom he had captured in battle, and whose ransom +would buy Charatza splendid jewels. But when +spoken to in Bohemian the captive looked perfectly +blank. He did not seem to understand one word.</p> + +<p>Arabic and Turkish were no more successful. At +last the young princess asked a question in Italian and +found herself understood. It did not take long for her +to find out that the story her lover had written had not +a word of truth in it. She was as indignant as a spirited +girl would naturally be.</p> + +<p>In one way and another she made opportunities to +talk with the Englishman and to inquire of others about +his career. She presently discovered that he was the +champion who had beheaded three Turkish warriors, +one after another, before the walls of the besieged +city Regall. She made up her mind that when she was +old enough to control her own fortune, which would +be in the not very distant future, she would set him +free and marry him. Such things had been done in +Constantinople, and doubtless could be done again.</p> + +<p>But meantime Charatza's mother, learning that her +daughter had been talking to a slave, was not at all +pleased and threatened, since he was no nobleman and +would not be ransomed, to sell him in the market. +Charatza was used to having her way sooner or later, +and managed to have him sent instead to her brother, a <span class='pagenum'>[289]</span> +pacha or provincial governor in Tartary. She sent +also a letter asking the pacha to be kind to the young +English slave and give him a chance of learning Turkish +and the principles of the Koran.</p> + +<p>This was far from agreeable to a brother who had +already heard of his sister's liking for the penniless +stranger,—especially as he found that the Englishman +had no intention of turning Moslem. The slave-master +was told to treat him with the utmost severity, +which meant that his life was made almost unbearable. +A ring of iron, with a curved iron handle, was locked +around his neck, his only garment was a tunic of hair-cloth +belted with undressed hide, he was herded with +other Christian slaves and a hundred or more Turks +and Moors who were condemned criminals, and, as the +last comer, had to take the kicks and cuffs of all the +others. The food was coarse and unclean, and only +extreme hunger made it possible to eat it.</p> + +<p>John Smith was not the man to sit down hopelessly +under misfortune, and he talked with the other Christians +whenever chance offered, about possible plans of +escape. None of them saw any hope of getting away, +even by joining their efforts. It may be that some of +this talk was overheard; at any rate Smith was sent +after a while to thresh wheat by himself in a barn two +or three miles from the stone castle where the governor +lived. The pacha rode up while he was at work +and began to abuse him, taunting him with being a +Christian outcast who had tried to set himself above +his betters by winning the favor of a Turkish lady. +The Englishman flew at him like a wildcat, dragged +him off his horse and broke his skull with the club +which was used instead of a flail for threshing. Then +he dressed himself in the Turk's garments, hid the body <span class='pagenum'>[290]</span> +under a heap of grain, filled a bag with wheat for all +his provision, mounted the horse of his late master, +and rode away northward. He knew that Muscovy +was in this general direction, and coming to a road +marked by a cross, rode that way for sixteen days, +hiding whenever he heard any sound of travelers for +fear the iron slave-ring should betray him. At last he +came to a Russian garrison on the River Don, where he +found good friends. In 1604, after some other adventures, +he came again to England. All London was +talking of the doings of King James, who in one short +year had managed to dissatisfy both Catholics and +Protestants. Since the voyages of Gosnold, Pring and +Weymouth there was much interest in Virginia. +Ralegh was a prisoner in the Tower. There was talk +of a trading association to be called the London Company, +and it was said that this company planned a new +plantation somewhere north of Roanoke. Smith could +see the great future which might await an English settlement +in that rich land. He decided to join the adventurers +going out in the fleet of Captain Christopher +Newport. Before sailing, he went to Lincolnshire to +bid farewell to his own people, and in the shadow of +the Tower of Saint Botolph's he espied a tall lad whose +look recalled something.</p> + +<p>"Why," he cried with a hearty clasp of the hand. +"'t is thyself grown a man, Will! And how goes the +Latin?"</p> + +<p>"I love it well," the youth answered shyly. "Master +Brewster hath also instructed me in the Greek. If—if +I had known where to send it I would have repaid +the money you was so kind as to spare."</p> + +<p>"Nay, think no more o't—or rather, hand it on +to some other young book-worm," laughed the bearded <span class='pagenum'>[291]</span> +and bronzed captain. "And how be all your folk?"</p> + +<p>The lad's eyes rested wistfully upon the quaint old +seaport streets. "The Bishop rails upon our congregation," +he said. "Holland is better than a prison, +and we shall go there soon."</p> + +<p>Smith's practical mind saw the uselessness of trying +to get any Non-Conformist taken on by a royal colony +in Virginia just then. "'Tis a hard case," he said sympathetically, +"but we may meet again some day. +There's room enough in the Americas, the Lord knows, +for all the honest men England can spare."</p> + +<p>Thus they parted, and on April 26, 1607, the Virginia +voyagers saw land at the mouth of the Chesapeake.</p> + +<p>The company was rather top-heavy. Out of the +hundred who were enrolled, fifty-two were gentlemen +adventurers, each of whom thought himself as good as +the rest and even a little better. No sooner had the +ship dropped anchor than thirty of them went ashore +to roam the forest, laughing and shouting as if they +had the country to themselves. The appearance of +five Indians sent them scurrying back to the ship with +two of their number wounded, for they had no weapons +with them. That night the sealed orders of the London +Company were opened, and it was found that the +directors had appointed a council of seven to govern +the colony and choose a president for a year. The +colonists were charged to search for gold and pearls +and for a passage to the East Indies. Nothing more +original in the way of a colonial enterprise had occurred +to the directors. Success in these undertakings +meant immediate profits with which the new Company +could compete with Bristol, Antwerp, and the +Muscovy Company's rich fur trade.<span class='pagenum'>[292]</span></p> + +<p>In the list of names for the council appeared that of +Captain John Smith, which was somewhat embarrassing, +since a scandalous tale had been set going during +the voyage, that he intended to lead a mutiny and make +himself governor of the colony. This was so far believed +that he was kept a prisoner through the last part +of the voyage. The other councilors, Newport, Gosnold, +Wingfield, Ratcliffe, Martin and Kendall, held +their election without him and chose Wingfield president.</p> + +<p>Next day the carpenters began work on the shallop, +which had been shipped in sections, and Wingfield ordered +Smith inland with a party of armed men, to explore. +They saw no Indians, but found a fire where +oysters were still roasting, and made a good meal off +them, though some of the luscious shellfish were so +large that they had to be cut in pieces before they were +eaten. Coasting along the bay they discovered a river, +which was explored when the shallop was launched. +Upon this river they saw an Indian canoe forty feet +long, made of the trunk of a tree hollowed out, Indian +fashion, with hot stones and shell gouges. They found +also oysters in abundance and in some of them fresh-water +pearls. After spending seventeen days in examining +the country, they chose for their settlement a +peninsula on the north side of the river called the Powhatans +by the Indians, from the tribe living on its banks. +This site was about forty miles from the sea, and here, +on May 13, they moored their ships to trees in six +fathom of water and named the place Jamestown, and +the river the King's River.</p> + +<p>Thus far the Indians had been friendly, and Wingfield +would not have any fortifications built, or any military +drill, for fear of arousing their anger. Captain <span class='pagenum'>[293]</span> +Kendall, despite orders, constructed a crescent-shaped +line of fence of untrimmed boughs, but most of the +weapons remained in packing-cases on board ship. +Wingfield, who regarded Smith as a rather dangerously +outspoken man to have about just then, sent him with +Newport and twenty others, to explore the river to its +head. On the sixth day they passed the chief town +of the Powhatans. On May 24 they reached the head +of the river, set up a cross, and proclaimed in the wilderness +the sovereignty of King James Stuart.</p> + +<p>The thrifty eye of the Lincolnshire yeoman observed +many things with satisfaction during this march. +There might not be any gold mines, but there was unlimited +timber, and the meadows would make as good +pasture for cattle as any in England. In the forests +were red deer and fallow deer, bears, otters, beavers, +and foxes, besides animals unknown in Europe. One +moonlight night, while examining deer tracks near a +little stream, Smith saw humped on a fallen log above +it a furry beast about the size of a badger, with black +face and paws like a bear, and a bushy tail with crosswise +rings of brown and black. This queer animal +was eating something, and dipping the food into the +water before each mouthful. When Smith described +it to the Indians he could make nothing of the name +they gave it, but wrote it down as best he could—Araughcoune. +Another new kind of creature was of +the size of a rabbit, grayish white, with black ears and +a tail like a rat. It would hang by its tail from a tree, +until knocked off with a stick, and then curl up with +shut eyes and pretend to be dead. It was excellent +eating when roasted with wild yams,—rather like a +very small suckling pig, the colonists later discovered. +For the most part, however, Smith was inclined to think <span class='pagenum'>[294]</span> +they would have to depend upon their provisions and +the corn they could buy from the Indians.</p> + +<p>On returning to Jamestown they found that the Indians +had been raiding the settlement, the colonists at +the time being all at work and taken completely by surprise. +Seventeen men had been wounded, and a boy +killed. After this, the men were drilled each day, the +guns were unpacked and a palisade was begun.</p> + +<p>Newport was in a hurry to return to England, and +Wingfield now suggested that Smith, who was still +supposed to be under arrest, should go with him and +save any further trouble. This did not suit Smith at +all. He demanded an open trial, got it, and was triumphantly +cleared of all charges.</p> + +<p>Of the privation, dissensions and sickness which followed +Newport's departure, the bad water, rotten food, +constant trouble with savages, and the unreasonable +demands of the directors of the London Company, all +historians have told. One story, which Smith was +wont to tell with keen relish, deals with the instructions +of the Company that the Indian chief, "King +Powhatan," should be crowned with all due ceremony, +just at a time of year when every hand in the colony +was needed for attending to the crops. Smith and +Newport had just come to a reasonable understanding +with that astute savage, by which he treated them with +real respect; and the attention paid him by his "brother +James," as he proceeded to call the King of England, +rather turned his head. He liked the red cloak +sent him, but had no idea what a crown meant. The +raccoon skin mantle which he removed when robed in +the royal crimson was sent to England and is now in a +museum at Oxford.</p> + +<p>After some years of strenuous toil and adventure <span class='pagenum'>[295]</span> +John Smith went back to London. An explosion of +powder, whether accidental or intentional was never +known, wounded him seriously just before he left +Jamestown, and he did not recover from it for some +time.</p> + +<p>"And what is in your mind to do next, Captain?" +asked Master William Simons the geographer when +they had finished, between them, the new map of Virginia. +Smith's eyes twinkled as he snapped the cover +on his inkhorn.</p> + +<p>"Why, 't is hard for an old rover like me to lie +abed when there's man's work to be done. You know, +the London Company holds only the southern division +of the King's Patent for Virginia; the north's given to +Bristol, Exeter and Plymouth. And that's never been +settled yet."</p> + +<p>"There was a colony of Captain George Popham +and Ralegh Gilbert went out, five year ago," said Simons +doubtfully. "They said they could not endure the +bitter climate."</p> + +<p>"Sho," said Smith impatiently, one stubbed forefinger +on the map, "'t is in almost the same latitude as +France. Maybe they chose the wrong place for their +plantation. Why, the French trade furs with the savages, +all up and down the Saint Laurence, and mind the +cold no more than nothing at all. The first thing we +know, the Dutch will be out here finding a road to the +Indies."</p> + +<p>Both men laughed. They had lost faith in that +road to fortune.</p> + +<p>"Anyhow Hudson didn't find it when they sent him +to look for it the year afore he died," said Simons, +"or they'd be into it now. But what are you scheming?"<span class='pagenum'>[296]</span></p> + +<p>"First make a voyage of exploration," said Smith. +"I ha' talked with one and another that told me they +taken a draught of the coast, and I ha' six or seven of +the plots they drew, so different from one another and +out of proportion they do me as much good as so much +waste paper—though they cost me more," added the +veteran grimly. "With a true map o' the coast, we'd +know whereabouts we were."</p> + +<p>"No gold nor silver, I hear."</p> + +<p>"Maybe not. But what commodity in England decays +faster than wood? And where will you find better +forest than along that shore? Build shipyards +there, and our English folk would make a living off'n +that and the fisheries. I know how 't was in Boston—the +Flemings would salt their fish down right aboard +the ships when the fleets came in. But men for work +like this must be men—not tyrants, nor slaves."</p> + +<p>John Smith's eyes flashed, and his lips closed so +tightly that his thick mustaches and beard stuck straight +out like a lion's. He had seen a plenty of both slavery +and tyranny in his life.</p> + +<p>In fact there was a neck-and-neck race between the +Plymouth Company and the Dutch West India Company, +for the control of the northern province. Dutch +fur traders were already on Manhattan Island living +in makeshift wooden huts, and Adrian Block was exploring +Long Island Sound, when John Smith went out +to map the coast north of Cape Cod for Sir Ferdinando +Gorges of the Plymouth Company in 1614. The two +little English ships reached the part of the coast called +by the Indians Monhegan in April of that year. They +had general instructions to meet the cost of the expedition, +if possible, by whaling, fishing and fur-trading. +No true whales were found, however, and by the time <span class='pagenum'>[297]</span> +the ships reached the fishing grounds the cod season +was nearly past. Mullet and sturgeon were plentiful +in summer, and while the sailors fished, Smith took a +few men in a small boat and ranged the coast, trading +for furs. Within a distance of fifty or sixty miles they +got in exchange for such trifles as were prized by the +Indians, more than a thousand beaver skins, a hundred +or more martens and as many otter-pelts. On a rocky +island four leagues from shore, in latitude 431/2, he +made a garden in May which gave them all salad vegetables +through June and July. Not a man of the +twenty-five was ill even for a day. Cod, they learned, +were abundant from March to the middle of June, and +again from September to November, for cor-fish—salt +fish or Poor John. The Indians said that the herring +were more than the hairs of the head. Sturgeon, mullet, +salmon, halibut and other fish were plentiful. +Smith had a vision of comfortable independent mariners +settled on farms all along the coast, sending their fish +to market the year round, and sleeping every night at +home. It seemed to him that here, in a hardy thrifty +province which gold-seekers and gentlemen adventurers +might scorn, he could contentedly end his days.</p> + +<p>There was a pleasant inlet on the coast of a bold +headland, north of Cape Cod, which he thought would +be his choice for his plantation. This headland he had +named Cape Tragabigzanda. There were three small +round islands to be seen far to seaward, which he called +the Three Turks' Heads. One Sunday, "a faire sunshining +day," he climbed a green height above Anusquam, +and sitting on a huge boulder surveyed the bright +and peaceful landscape and chose the site for his house. +Good stone there would be in abundance, and mighty +timbers that had been growing for him since the days <span class='pagenum'>[298]</span> +of Noah. In this Province of New England a strong +and fearless race would found new towns with the old +names—Boston, Plymouth, Ipswich, Sandwich, Gloucester. +So he dreamed until the sun went down under +a canopy of crimson and gold, while the boat rocked in +the little bay where he would have his wharf.</p> + +<p>In 1619, when English Puritans began preparations +for the founding of a new colony, he offered his +services, but the older men would have none of him. +He was a "Church of England Protestant" and one of +the unregenerate with whom they had no fellowship. +They took his map as a guide, and settled, not on Cape +Tragabigzanda, which Prince Charles had re-named +Cape Anne, but in the bay which he had called Plymouth. +He spent some years in London writing an account +of his adventures, and died in 1631 at the age of +fifty-two—Captain John Smith, Admiral of New +England.</p> + +<hr /> + +<h4 class="smcap">note</h4> + +<div class="footnotes"><div class="footnote"><p> +The account of Captain John Smith's adventures among the Turks +was at one time considered apocryphal, but good authorities now see no +reason to regard his narrative of his own career as in any way +inaccurate. The perils and strange chances which an adventurous +man encountered in such times often seem almost incredible in a more +peaceful age, but there is really no more reason to doubt them than +to discredit authentic accounts of men like Daniel Boone, Francis +Drake, or other men of similar disposition.</p></div></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div><span class="back"><a href="#CONTENTS">[Contents]</a></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[299]</a></span></div> + +<h3><a name="THE_DISCOVERERS" id="THE_DISCOVERERS"></a>THE DISCOVERERS</h3> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Through tangled mysteries of old romance</span> +<span class="i2">Knights, Latin, Celt or Saxon, pass a-dream,</span> +<span class="i0">Seeking the minarets of magic towers</span> +<span class="i2">Through the witched woods that gleam.</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Stately in trappings thick with gold and gems,</span> +<span class="i2">Stern-browed and stubborn-eyed, they wandered forth,</span> +<span class="i0">As children credulous, as strong men brave,</span> +<span class="i2">To South, and West, and North.</span> +</div> + +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Our venturous pilots map the windy skies;</span> +<span class="i2">To serve our pleasure, huger galleons wait.</span> +<span class="i0">Aflame with more than magic lights, our walls</span> +<span class="i2">Guard the Manhattan Gate!</span> +</div></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div><span class="back"><a href="#CONTENTS">[Contents]</a></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[300]</a></span></div> + +<h3><a name="BIBLIOGRAPHY" id="BIBLIOGRAPHY"></a>BIBLIOGRAPHY</h3> + +<p>Among the sources of information from which the historical +material of this book are drawn are the following works:</p> + +<ul> +<li>Voyages, <span class="smcap">Hakluyt</span></li> + +<li>The Discovery of America. <span class="smcap">John Fiske</span></li> + +<li>Dutch and Quaker Colonies in America. <span class="smcap">John Fiske</span></li> + +<li>The Conquest of Mexico. <span class="smcap">Prescott</span></li> + +<li>Two Voyages in New England. <span class="smcap">J. Josselyn</span></li> + +<li>Adventures and Conquests of Magellan. <span class="smcap">George Makepeace +Towle</span></li> + +<li>Narrative and Critical History of America. (Edited by <span class="smcap">Justin +Winsor</span>)</li> + +<li>The People for Whom Shakespeare Wrote. <span class="smcap">Warner</span></li> + +<li>The Romance of Colonization. <span class="smcap">G. Barnett Smith</span></li> + +<li>Life of Columbus. <span class="smcap">Washington Irving</span></li> + +<li>The Voyage of the Vega. <span class="smcap">Nordenskiold</span></li> + +<li>The Land of the Midnight Sun. <span class="smcap">Du Chaillu</span></li> + +<li>The Court of France. <span class="smcap">Lady Jackson</span></li> + +<li>Sailors' Narratives of New England Voyages. (Edited by +<span class="smcap">George Parker Winship</span>)</li> + +<li>Indian Basketry. <span class="smcap">George Wharton James</span></li> + +<li>The Iroquois Book of Rites. <span class="smcap">Hale</span></li> + +<li>Drake. <span class="smcap">Alfred Noyes</span> (<i>poem</i>)</li> + +<li>Crusaders of New France. <span class="smcap">William Bennett Munro</span></li> + +<li>Elizabethan Sea-dogs. <span class="smcap">William Wood</span></li> + +<li>Young Folks' Book of American Explorers. <span class="smcap">Higginson</span></li> + +<li>Paradise Found. <span class="smcap">William F. Warren</span></li> + +<li>Ferdinand and Isabella. <span class="smcap">Prescott</span></li> + +<li>Pioneers of France in the New World. <span class="smcap">Parkman</span></li> + +<li>Sir Francis Drake. <span class="smcap">Julian Corbett</span></li> + +<li>Henry the Navigator. <span class="smcap">Men of Action Series</span></li> +</ul> + +<h4 class="smcap">the end</h4> + +<div class="center"><div class="figcenter" style="width: 700px;"> +<img src="images/endpaper-0344-1.jpg" width="700" height="522" alt="End paper illustration" title="End paper illustration" /> +</div></div> + +<hr /> + +<h3>Transcriber's Notes</h3> + +<table cellpadding="10" summary=""> +<tr class="u"><td style="text-align: right;">Page</td><td>Problem</td><td>Change/Comment</td></tr> +<tr><td style="text-align: right;">8</td><td>"Helene"</td><td>"Helêne" to match rest of text</td></tr> +<tr><td style="text-align: right;">26</td><td>same awe</td><td>some awe</td></tr> +<tr><td style="text-align: right;">55</td><td></td><td>Inserted a comma after 'jeweled trappings'.</td></tr> +<tr><td style="text-align: right;">85</td><td></td><td>superfluous comma in "Catherine, became" removed</td></tr> +<tr><td style="text-align: right;">85</td><td>valauble</td><td>valuable</td></tr> +<tr><td style="text-align: right;">90</td><td>good cheap and wholesome.</td><td>As in image</td></tr> +<tr><td style="text-align: right;">108</td><td>comrad</td><td>comrade</td></tr> +<tr><td style="text-align: right;">133</td><td>'And the White Gods come'</td><td>Line indented to match other stanzas.</td></tr> +<tr><td style="text-align: right;">150</td><td>sqadron</td><td>squadron</td></tr> +<tr><td style="text-align: right;">162</td><td>religon</td><td>religion</td></tr> +<tr><td style="text-align: right;">178</td><td>exicitement</td><td>excitement</td></tr> +<tr><td style="text-align: right;">194</td><td>slaves</td><td>slavers</td></tr> +<tr><td style="text-align: right;">194</td><td>Cabeca</td><td>'Cabeça' as elsewhere</td></tr> +<tr><td style="text-align: right;">230</td><td>'like spent bullets"</td><td>'like spent bullets.'</td></tr> +<tr><td style="text-align: right;">232</td><td>two month's</td><td>As in image</td></tr> +<tr><td style="text-align: right;">239</td><td>exploratioins</td><td>explorations</td></tr> +<tr><td style="text-align: right;">247</td><td>Amadas</td><td>Armadas</td></tr> +<tr><td style="text-align: right;">300</td><td></td><td>Inserted '(' before 'Edited by <span class="smcap">Justin Winsor</span>)'</td></tr> +</table> + +<p>The following variant spellings in the text have been left unmodified:</p> + +<ol> +<li>"Bacalao" and "Baccalao"</li> +<li>"Mappe-Mondo" and "Mappe-Monde"</li> +<li>"'T is" and "'Tis"</li> +</ol> + +<p>The following variant hyphenations in the text have been left unmodified:</p> + +<ol> +<li>"arrow-heads" and "arrowheads"</li> +<li>"birch-bark" and "birchbark"</li> +<li>"cross-bow" and "crossbow-bolts"</li> +<li>"court-yards" and "courtyards"</li> +<li>"deer-skin" and "deerskin"</li> +<li>"frost-work" and "frostwork"</li> +<li>"Grand-Master" and "Grand Master"</li> +<li>"ink-horn" and "inkhorn"</li> +<li>"kin-folk" and "kinfolk"</li> +<li>"sea-weed" and "seaweed"</li> +<li>"shell-fish" and "shellfish"</li> +<li>"ship-worm" and "shipworms"</li> +</ol> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Days of the Discoverers, by L. Lamprey + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DAYS OF THE DISCOVERERS *** + +***** This file should be named 18038-h.htm or 18038-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/8/0/3/18038/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, LN Yaddanapudi and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +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. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +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 + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + +*** END: FULL LICENSE *** + + + +</pre> + +</body> +</html> + diff --git a/18038-h/images/endpaper-0344-1.jpg b/18038-h/images/endpaper-0344-1.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..619ba91 --- /dev/null +++ b/18038-h/images/endpaper-0344-1.jpg diff --git a/18038-h/images/illus-002.png b/18038-h/images/illus-002.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..29c129e --- /dev/null +++ b/18038-h/images/illus-002.png diff --git a/18038-h/images/illus-0340-1.jpg b/18038-h/images/illus-0340-1.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..22ec094 --- /dev/null +++ b/18038-h/images/illus-0340-1.jpg diff --git a/18038-h/images/illus-0341-1.jpg b/18038-h/images/illus-0341-1.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..07ac007 --- /dev/null +++ b/18038-h/images/illus-0341-1.jpg diff --git a/18038-h/images/illus-0342-1.jpg b/18038-h/images/illus-0342-1.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4a91029 --- /dev/null +++ b/18038-h/images/illus-0342-1.jpg diff --git a/18038-h/images/illus-0343-1.jpg b/18038-h/images/illus-0343-1.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9b8d478 --- /dev/null +++ b/18038-h/images/illus-0343-1.jpg diff --git a/18038-h/images/illus-044.png b/18038-h/images/illus-044.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f7cecd2 --- /dev/null +++ b/18038-h/images/illus-044.png diff --git a/18038-h/images/illus-060.png b/18038-h/images/illus-060.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b30bf62 --- /dev/null +++ b/18038-h/images/illus-060.png diff --git a/18038-h/images/illus-096.png b/18038-h/images/illus-096.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f8c4feb --- /dev/null +++ b/18038-h/images/illus-096.png diff --git a/18038-h/images/illus-107.png b/18038-h/images/illus-107.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5d7a634 --- /dev/null +++ b/18038-h/images/illus-107.png diff --git a/18038-h/images/illus-170.png b/18038-h/images/illus-170.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0dbf656 --- /dev/null +++ b/18038-h/images/illus-170.png diff --git a/18038-h/images/illus-204.png b/18038-h/images/illus-204.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..fb13fa3 --- /dev/null +++ b/18038-h/images/illus-204.png diff --git a/18038-h/images/illus-220.png b/18038-h/images/illus-220.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3a35994 --- /dev/null +++ b/18038-h/images/illus-220.png diff --git a/18038-h/images/illus-236.png b/18038-h/images/illus-236.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..bf5607d --- /dev/null +++ b/18038-h/images/illus-236.png diff --git a/18038-h/images/illus-260.png b/18038-h/images/illus-260.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..07d7297 --- /dev/null +++ b/18038-h/images/illus-260.png diff --git a/18038-h/images/illus-280.png b/18038-h/images/illus-280.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9bce94d --- /dev/null +++ b/18038-h/images/illus-280.png diff --git a/18038-h/images/illus-304.png b/18038-h/images/illus-304.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e5fa537 --- /dev/null +++ b/18038-h/images/illus-304.png |
