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diff --git a/18038.txt b/18038.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..64287bb --- /dev/null +++ b/18038.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9532 @@ +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: ASCII + +*** 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 + + + + + +[Illustration: "'I will tell you where there is plenty of +it'"--_Frontispiece_] + + + + +_GREAT DAYS IN AMERICAN HISTORY SERIES_ + + + + +DAYS OF THE DISCOVERERS + +BY + +L. LAMPREY + +_Author of "In the Days of the Guild", +"Masters of the Guild", etc._ + +ILLUSTRATED BY + +FLORENCE CHOATE and ELIZABETH CURTIS + + +NEW YORK +FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY +PUBLISHERS + + + + +_Copyright, 1921, by_ + +FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY + + +_All rights reserved, including that of translation +into foreign languages_ + + +_Made in the United States of America_ + + + + +TO FORESTA + + + Upon the road to Faerie, + O there are many sights to see,-- + Small woodland folk may one discern + Housekeeping under leaf and fern, + And little tunnels in the grass + Where caravans of goblins pass, + And airy corsair-craft that float + On wings transparent as a mote,-- + All sorts of curious things can be + Upon the road to Faerie! + + Along the wharves of Faerie-- + There all the winds of Christendie + Are musical with hawk-bell chimes, + Carillons rung to minstrels' rimes, + And silver trumpets bravely blown + From argosies of lands unknown, + And the great war-drum's wakening roll-- + The reveille of heart and soul-- + For news of all the ageless sea + Comes to the quays of Faerie! + + Across the fields to Faerie + There is no lack of company,-- + The world is real, the world is wide, + But there be many things beside. + Who once has known that crystal spring + Shall not lose heart for anything. + The blessing of a faery wife + Is love to sweeten all your life. + To find the truth whatever it be-- + That is the luck of Faerie! + + _Above the gates of Faerie + There bends a wild witch-hazel tree. + The fairies know its elfin powers. + They wove a garland of the flowers, + And on a misty autumn day + They crowned their queen--and ran away! + And by that gift they made you free + Of all the roads of Faerie!_ + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE +_To Foresta_ v + +I +ASGARD THE BEAUTIFUL (1348) 1 +_The Viking's Secret_ 17 + +II +THE RUNES OF THE WIND-WIFE (1364) 18 +_The Navigators_ (1415-1460) 34 + +III +SEA OF DARKNESS (1475) 35 +_Sunset Song_ 48 + +IV +PEDRO AND HIS ADMIRAL (1492) 50 +_The Queen's Prayer_ 65 + +V +THE MAN WHO COULD NOT DIE (1493-1494) 66 +_The Escape_ 80 + +VI +LOCKED HARBORS (1497) 81 +_Gray Sails_ 93 + +VII +LITTLE VENICE (1500) 94 +_The Gold Road_ 104 + +VIII +THE DOG WITH TWO MASTERS (1512) 105 +_Cold o' the Moon_ (1519) 117 + +IX +WAMPUM TOWN (1508-1524) 121 +_The Drum_ 133 + +X +THE GODS OF TAXMAR (1512-1519) 134 +_The Legend of Malinche_ 148 + +XI +THE THUNDER BIRDS (1519-1520) 150 +_Moccasin Flower_ 165 + +XII +GIFTS FROM NORUMBEGA (1533-1535) 167 +_The Mustangs_ 181 + +XIII +THE WHITE MEDICINE MAN (1528-1536) 182 +_Lone Bayou_ (1542) 195 + +XIV +THE FACE OF THE TERROR (1564) 197 +_The Destroyers_ 214 + +XV +THE FLEECE OF GOLD (1561-1577) 215 +_A Watch-dog of England_ (1583) 237 + +XVI +LORDS OF ROANOKE (1584) 238 +_The Changelings_ 250 + +XVII +THE GARDENS OF HELENE (1607-1609) 252 +_The Wooden Shoe_ 269 + +XVIII +THE FIRES THAT TALKED (1610) 270 +_Imperialism_ 282 + +XIX +ADMIRAL OF NEW ENGLAND (1600-1614) 284 +_The Discoverers_ 299 + +BIBLIOGRAPHY 300 + + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + +"'I will tell you where there is plenty of it'" (in color) + _Frontispiece_ + + FACING + PAGE + +"'And Freya came from Asgard in her chariot drawn by +two cats'" (in color) 4 + +"Nils marked out an inscription in Runic letters" 30 + +"The miniature globe took form as the children watched, +fascinated" 44 + +"He proposed that Caonaba should put on the gift the +Spanish captain had brought" 78 + +"A sapling, bent down, was attached to a noose ingeniously +hidden" 86 + +"The natives seemed prepared to traffic in all peace and +friendliness" (in color) 132 + +"Cortes flung about his shoulders his own cloak" 146 + +"Moteczuma awaited them in the courtyard" (in color) 162 + +"Cartier read from his service-book" 176 + +"The creatures darkened the plain almost as far as the eye +could see" 190 + +"'Gentlemen, whence does this fleet come?'" 204 + +"Drake was silent, fingering the slender Milanese poniard" 226 + +"If he had to wear her fetters, they should at least be +golden" 244 + +"The Grand Master of the day entered the dining hall" 266 + + + + +DAYS OF THE DISCOVERERS + + + + +I + +ASGARD THE BEAUTIFUL + + +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. + +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[1] 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. + +Thorolf turned away from the church door and began to climb the +mountain. At the lane leading to his home he did not stop, but kept on +into the woods. It was not so lonely there. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"Hoh!" called Nils, "where are you going?" + +"To the farm to get our cattle and take them to the saeter. There is no +one left to do it but me." + +"Cattle?" queried the other interestedly, "She will be glad of that." + +"She!" said Thorolf, "who?" + +"The Wind-wife[2]--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." + +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. + +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 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. + +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,[3] wild strawberries from a small basket +of birchbark, and brown goat's-milk cheese. + +"And Freya came from Asgard in her chariot drawn by two cats--" + +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. + +[Illustration: "'And Freya came from Asgard in her chariot drawn by two +cats'"--_Page_ 4] + +"Hi!" called Nils, "where is Mother Elle? See what Thorolf and I have +got!" + +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 grass for Snow, the foremost cow, and patted her +as she ate it. + +"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." + +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. + +"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." + +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 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. + +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,-- + +"Now we shall live in Asgard forever and ever." + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 groet (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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + "'Tis well to be wise but not too wise, + 'Tis well that to-morrow is hid from our eyes, + For in forward-looking forebodings rise," + +she added quaintly. "I have heard her say that it is colder in Greenland +than it is here." + +"Has she been in Greenland?" + +"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." + +"Moccasins?" + +"The little shoes she made for Ellida. And she made a little boat for +Peder, like their skiffs." + +This was interesting. For a private reason, Thorolf held Greenland to be +the most fascinating of all places. + +"Can she speak their language?" + +"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: + + "'Piche Klooskap pechian + Machieswi menikok.'" + +"What does it mean?" + +"'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 runes for +everything just like the people in the sagas,--runes for war, and +healing, and the sea." + +"How did she ever get away?" + +"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." + +"I wish I knew the Skroelings' language. Some day I mean to go to +Greenland." + +"Perhaps Mother Elle will teach you. I'll ask her." + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +"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." + +"Tell all you remember and make up the rest," suggested Karen, but +Nikolina shook her head. + +"One should never do that with a saga." + +"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 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. + +"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. + +"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. + +"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 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. + +"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. + +"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. + +"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. 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. + +"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[4] 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. + +"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. + +"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 went down into the sea by his side singing, for he +feared nothing but to be a coward." + +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, + + "'Cattle die, Kings die, + Kindred die, we also die,-- + One thing never dies, + The fair fame of the valiant.'" + +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. + +"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?" + +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. Years after Thorolf +remembered the words of the Wind-wife,-- + +"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." + + +NOTES + +[1] 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." + +[2] Northern sailors regard the Finns as wizards. + +[3] 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. + +[4] 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. + + + + +THE VIKING'S SECRET + + + In the days of jarl and hersir, while yet the world was young, + And sagas of gods and heroes the grim-lipped minstrel sung, + With the beak of his open galley in the sunset's scarlet flame, + Over the wild Atlantic the Norseland Viking came. + + Life was a thing to play with,--oh, then the world was wide, + With room for man and mammoth, and a goblin life beside. + Now we have slain the mammoths, and we have driven the ghosts away, + And we read the saga of Vinland in the light of a new-born day. + + We have harnessed the deadly lightnings; we have ridden the restless + wave. + We have chased the brood of the werewolf back to their noisome cave. + But far in the icy Northland, with weird witch-lights aglow, + Locked in the Greenland glaciers, is a tale we do not know. + + Out of Brattahlid's portal, southward from Herjulfsness, + They came to their new-found kingdom, their Vinland to possess. + Armored with careless laughter, strong with a stubborn will, + The Vikings found it and lost it--it is undiscovered still! + + Where did they beach their galleys? How were their cabins planned? + Who were the fearful Skroelings? What was the Fuerduerstrand? + What were the grapes of Tyrker? For all that is written or said, + The Rune Stones hold the secret of the days of Eric the Red! + + + + +II + +THE RUNES OF THE WIND-WIFE + + +Salt and scarred from the northern seas, the _Taernan_, 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. + +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. + +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 to the wharf. They had known each +other from boyhood. + +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 +_skal_[1] with his friend in his own lodging, the croak and sputter of +German talk sounded in the street below. + +"Behold a new Bergen," observed Nils whimsically. "Let us drink to the +founding of a new Iceland. Did you go to Greenland?" + +"We touched at Kakortok with letters for the Bishop. The people are sick +and savage with fighting against the Skroelings." + +"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." + +"I wish I had known of it." + +"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." + +Thorolf's gray eyes flamed. "What is Knutson like?" + +"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." + +Three weeks later Thorolf, looking backward as the _Rotge_, (little auk +or sea-king) stood out to sea, saw the familiar outline of Snaehatten +against the sunrise 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,-- + +"In the land of Klooskap shall you be Klooskap's guest." + +The galley[2] 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. + +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, + +"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?" + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +"Erlandsson," began the Chevalier, "they say that you have information +about Vinland[3] and the Skroelings there, from an old woman who lived +among them. What can you tell me?" + +Thorolf told the story of the Wind-wife. Knutson looked interested but +doubtful. + +"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 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." + +Thorolf shook his head. "Nay, my lord. She was not a forgetful +person--and the language is neither Lapp nor Finn." + +"She was very old, you say?" + +"I think so. I do not know how old." + +"Old people sometimes confuse what they have heard with what they have +seen. But I shall remember what you have said." + +"If he had known the Wind-wife," said Nils when told of this +conversation, "he would have no doubt." + +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 _spring dans_. +Nevertheless in due season the _Rotge_ left the Greenland shore and +pointed her inquiring beak southeast by south. In the _Gudrid_ sailed +Knutson and his immediate following, with the trading cargo and most of +the provisions. By keeping well out to sea at first the commander hoped +to escape the perils of the coast. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Thorolf was seized with an inspiration. He went forward a step or two, +lifted his hand in salutation, and called,-- + +"Klooskap mech p'maosa?"[4] (Is Klooskap yet alive?) + +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. + +"Klooskap k-chi skitap, pechedog latogwesnuk." (Klooskap was a great man +in the country far to the northward.) + +This time he made out the answer. In a swift aside he explained to his +comrades,-- + +"'K'putuswin' means 'let us take council.' They want to have a talk." + +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.[5] 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 hatchet or club. They stared at the white man half +curiously and half threateningly. + +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. + +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. + +With a broad grin, the first he had worn for some time, Thorolf +translated. + +"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." + +"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." + +They accordingly went back to the ships, arriving a little before +sundown. Knutson was greatly interested. + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +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 _Rotge_ as a means of further explorations, or if necessary, of +escape. Her captain, Gustav Sigerson, was a cautious, wise and +experienced seaman. Anders Amundson, 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 +_Gudrid_ slowly fading out of sight. + +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. + +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 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. + +"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 _Rotge_. 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 _Rotge_, for all her iron strength, was no more than a +wooden shell when stripped.[6] + +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 _Rotge_ 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 their "water-snake" as the Skroelings called her, on the +shining waters of a great inland sea. + +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.[7] 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. + +"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." + +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.[8] 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 the most convenient ration for a quick march, +and they did not intend to spend much more time in exploring. + +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.[9] + +[Illustration: "NILS MARKED OUT AN INSCRIPTION IN RUNIC +LETTERS."--_Page_ 30] + +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. + +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 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. + +"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." + + +NOTES + +[1] Skal or skoal was the Norwegian word used in drinking a health. + +[2] 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. + +[3] 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. + +[4] The Indian phrases and legends referred to as learned by the +Wind-wife are Abenaki. + +[5] 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. + +[6] 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. + +[7] 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. + +[Footnote 8: 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.] + +[9] 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. + +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. + +A song commonly sung at the time of the Black Death contains the lines: + + "The Black Plague sped over land and sea + And swept so many a board. + That will I now most surely believe, + It was not with the Lord's will. + Help us God and Mary, + Save us all from evil." + + + + +THE NAVIGATORS + + + We were Prince Henry's gentlemen,-- + His gentlemen were we, + To dare the gods of Heathendom, + Whoever they might be,-- + To do our master's sovereign will + Upon a trackless sea. + + We were Prince Henry's gentlemen, + And undismayed we went + To fight for Lusitania + Wherever we were sent,-- + The stars had laid our course for us, + And we were well content. + + We were Prince Henry's gentlemen, + And though our flagship lie + Where white the great-winged albatross + Came wheeling down the sky, + Or black abysses yawned for us, + We could not fear to die. + + We were Prince Henry's gentlemen,-- + Around the Cape of Wrath + We sailed our wooden cockleshells-- + Great pride the pilot hath + To voyage to-day the Indian Sea-- + But we marked out his path! + + + + +III + +SEA OF DARKNESS + + +"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?" + +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.[1] + +"Of course I am telling you the truth. You are 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." + +"Then why didn't he die?" inquired the unbelieving Beatriz. + +"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--" + +"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?" + +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. + +"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. + +"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 +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!" + +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. + +"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 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." + +"I would believe anything you told me, Tio Sancho," promised Beatriz, +all love and confidence in her little glowing face. + +"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." + +"But is there a Sea of Darkness, verily, verily, tio caro?" persisted +Beatriz. The old man shook his head, with a little quiet smile. + +"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." + +"Oh, tell us all the story!" begged Beatriz, and Fernao silently slid +from the wall and came closer. + +"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 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. + +"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. + +"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. + +"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. + +"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. + +"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." + +Beatriz drew a long breath. "Weren't you very scared, Tio Sancho?" + +"Sailors must not be scared, little one. Or if they 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." + +"What are sea-wolves?" asked Fernao. + +"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." + +"Did they try to drive the people away?" + +"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." + +The children's laughter echoed the dry chuckle of the old man. Then +Fernao, unwilling to abandon his authorities,-- + +"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?" + +"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 Colombo! Shall we go into +the house, or will you find it pleasanter in the garden?" + +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?" + +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. + +"Where did it come from?" he asked, finally. + +"From the beach at Puerto Santo. My little son Diego picked it up, the +day before I came away from the island." + +"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." + +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. + +"And you were hearing about the discovery of Madeira?" + +"Ay, Senhor," Beatriz answered with demure dignity. + +"I live not very far from that island. It seems like living on the +western edge of the world." + +"Senhor," asked Fernao with sudden daring, "what is beyond the edge of +the world?" + +"There is no edge, my boy. The world is round--like an orange."[2] + +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. + +"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,--" + +The miniature globe took form, like fairy mapmaking, under the +cosmographer's skilful fingers, and the children watched, fascinated. + +[Illustration: "THE MINIATURE GLOBE TOOK FORM AS THE CHILDREN WATCHED, +FASCINATED."--_Page_ 44] + +"But," cried Beatriz wonderingly, "a ship could sail around the world!" + +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." + +"Why not?" asked Fernao. + +"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." + +"Oh!" cried Beatriz, her face alight with the glory of the thought. The +geographer smiled at her and went on. + +"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." + +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. + +"No; that is not African work; at least it is not like 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." + +Now the stranger's eyes lighted with keener interest. + +"You think it may be Indian, do you?" + +"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." + +"May there not be wild men in remote islands of the Indian seas?" + +"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." + +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." + +The guest nodded. "My brother-in-law and I have 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." + +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?'" + +"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.'" + +"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. + +"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 sea is His, and He made it. Man makes his own Sea of +Darkness by ignorance, and hate, and fear." + + +NOTES + +[1] 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. + +[2] 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. + + + + +SUNSET SONG + + + Down upon our seaward light, + Swept by all the winds that blow, + Birds come reeling in their flight-- + (_Ay de mi, Cristofero!_) + Petrels tossing on the gale, + Falcons daring sleet and hail, + Curlews whistling high and far, + Waifs that cross the harbor bar + Borne from isles we do not know-- + (_Ay de mi, Cristofero!_) + + Round our island haven blest + Waves like drifted mountain snow + Break from out the shoreless West-- + (_Ay de mi, Cristofero!_) + Cast ashore a broken spar + Born beneath some alien star, + Broken, beaten by the wave-- + In what far-off unknown grave + Lie the hands that shaped it so? + (_Ay de mi, Cristofero!_) + + Sails upon the gray world's edge + Like mute phantoms come and go,-- + Life and honor men will pledge-- + (_Ay de mi, Cristofero!_) + For the pearls and gems and gold + That the burning Indies hold. + Or the Guinea coast they dare + With its fever-poisoned air + For the slaves they capture so + (_Ay de mi, Cristofero!_) + + In our chamber small to-night, + Fair as love's immortal glow, + Shines our silver censer-light-- + (_Ay de mi, Cristofero_!) + What is this that holds thee fast + In old histories of the past? + Put the time-stained parchments by, + Men have sought where dead men lie + For the secret thou wouldst know-- + All too long, Cristofero! + + + + +IV + +PEDRO AND HIS ADMIRAL + + +Juan de la Cosa, captain of the _Santa Maria_, was prowling about the +beach of Gomera in a thoroughly dissatisfied frame of mind. His own +ship, the _Gallego_ 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. + +It was the _Pinta_ 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! + +"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 +_Pinta_. + +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 the dialect made him pause. Besides, he wanted to hear +something to confirm his suspicions. + +"She is no ship of mine," he growled, "and anyway, what do you know +about it?" + +"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." + +"A man! Do babes take a ship round Bojador? And who may you call +yourself, zagallo (strong youth)?" + +"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." + +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. + +"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 in the bush waiting to pick your bones.' Your +Admiral may have to go back to Castile and eat crow. + +"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." + +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 _Pinta_, stopping her leaks, and replacing the +lateen sails of the _Nina_ 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 +_Nina_; 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. + +"Pedro," he said, "have you told this to any one else?" + +"Not a soul." + +"Would you like to sail with us?" + +"Will a wolf bite? Why do you suppose I told you all this?" + +"Bite your tongue then, wolf-cub, until I have seen the Admiral. Where +shall I find you if I want you?" + +"Tia Josefa over there lets me sleep in the courtyard." + +"Very well--now, off with you." + +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. + +On that May day when Christoval Colon,[1] 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 Colon to enforce this order. + +In vain did the Pinzon brothers, who had really been convinced by the +arguments of Colon, use all their influence to secure him a proper +equipment. Even after they had themselves enlisted as captains, with +their own ship the _Nina_, 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 of their shipping for the voyage. At least half +the sailors of the three ships were pressed men. + +The _Santa Maria_, 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. + +"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?" + +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 of servants he was allowed to have, but he +must have personal attendants who were not discharged convicts. + +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. + +With a tact and understanding as great as his courage and self-command +Colon 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. + +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. + +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. + +"Do you not believe in omens, Pedro?" asked the Admiral, somewhat +amused. He had not found many Spaniards who did not. + +"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." + +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. + +"Pedro," said the Admiral quietly, "what do you think?" + +Pedro hesitated only an instant. "My lord," he answered boldly, "if we +cannot go back we must go on--around the world." + +"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. + +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. + +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 _Pinta_ predicted that they would all be 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. + +Colon 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. + +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 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 Colon 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. + +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. Colon 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. + +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 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? + +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. + +"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." + +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. + +"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." + +There was a half-hearted snicker, and one of the men pointed a warning +thumb at Pedro. + +"Oh!" said the speaker. "You heard, you little beggar?" + +"I did," said Pedro. + +"Well?" + +"Well, I was waiting for the end of the story. As I heard it the Abbot +charged the old friar with deceiving the dumb beast, and he said he had +to, because he was dealing with a donkey!" + +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." + +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. + +Nobody slept that night. About ten o'clock the Admiral, gazing from the +top of the castle built up on the poop of the _Santa Maria_, thought +that far away in the warm darkness he saw a glancing light. + +"Pedro," he said to the boy near him, "do you see a light out there? +Yes? Call Senor Gutierrez and we will see what he makes of it. I have +come to the pass where I do not trust my own eyes." + +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 _Pinta_. Rodrigo de Triana, one of the +seamen, had seen land from the mast-head. + +The sudden sunrise of the tropics revealed a green 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. + +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 _Pinta_ and the +_Nina_, 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). + +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, 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. + +"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?" + +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. + +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 _Santa Maria_ 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 ships would not hold them all. Pedro, +shaken with sobs, cast himself at the feet of his master and begged +forgiveness. + +"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." + + +NOTE + +[1] 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 Colon. 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. + + + + +THE QUEEN'S PRAYER + + + In this Thy world, O blessed Christ, + I live but for Thy will, + To serve Thy cause and drive Thy foes + Before Thy banner still. + + In rich and stately palaces + I have my board and bed, + But Thou didst tread the wilderness + Unsheltered and unfed. + + My gallant squadrons ride at will + The undiscover'd sea, + But Thou hadst but a fishing-boat + On windy Galilee. + + In valiant hosts my men-at-arms + Eager to battle go, + But Thou hadst not a single blade + To fend Thee from the foe. + + Great store of pearls and beaten gold + My bold seafarers bring, + But Thou hadst not a little coin + To pay for Thy lodging. + + The trust that Thou hast placed in me, + O may I not betray, + Nor fail to save Thy people from + The fires of Judgment Day! + + Be strong and stern, O heart, faint heart-- + Stay not, O woman's hand, + Till by this Cross I bear for Thee + I have made clean Thy land! + + + + +V + +THE MAN WHO COULD NOT DIE + + +"Nombre de San Martin! who is that up there like a cat?" + +"Un gato! Cucarucha en palo!" + +"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. + +"Your pardon--hidalgo. I have been at sea so much of late that the +comparison jumped into my mind. Is he a caballero then?" + +"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." + +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 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. + +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. + +"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 Colon, a quiet-looking youth, the youngest +brother of the Admiral; Antonio de Marchena the astronomer, a learned +monk; Juan Ponce de Leon, a nobleman from the neighborhood of Cadiz with +a brilliant military record; Francisco de las Casas with his son +Bartolome; and the valiant young courtier whom all Seville had seen +flirting with death in mid-air. + +"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 such a master as mine, it has kept me safe. I have +never even been wounded." + +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. + +"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. + +"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, + +"Where have you been, Hernan' Cortes? Lucky you were not with us. My +faith--" the speaker wriggled expressively, "we caught a drubbing!" + +"Told you so," returned the lad addressed, with cool unconcern. "Why +can't you see when to let go the cat's tail?" + +"He has a head on him, that one," the seaman chuckled. "There is always +one of his sort in every 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. + +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 Colon'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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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! + +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. + +"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. + +"Who did that?" he cried, leaping to his feet, hand on sword. + +"Only a pig, my lord," the sailor answered choking 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. + +"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. + +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. + +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 and destroyed their fort. Colon 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. + +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. + +On March 12, 1494, Colon 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. + +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. Colon gave the +plain the name of the Vega Real or Royal Plain. + +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 dismounted the people fled in horror, +believing that the ferocious beasts were going to eat them. + +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 Tomas. +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 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. + +"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. + +"I wish we had a few more such commanders," he said. + +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 +Colon'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 just recovering from a severe illness, the prospect +looked very gloomy. + +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. + +"His health," said Pedro, "would improve if I had Caonaba's head in this +basket. I wish somebody would get it." + +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?" + +When Ojeda appeared Colon detected a trace of excitement in the young +man's bearing, and tactfully led the conversation to Caonaba. He frankly +expressed his perplexity. + +"Have you a plan, Ojeda?" he asked with a half smile. "It has been my +experience, that you usually have." + +Ojeda felt a thrill of pleasure, for the Admiral did not scatter his +compliments broadcast. He admitted that he had a plan. + +"Let me hear it," said Colon. + +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. + +"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 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." + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. 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. + +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. + +[Illustration: "HE PROPOSED THAT CAONABA SHOULD PUT ON THE GIFT THE +SPANISH CAPTAIN HAD BROUGHT."--_Page_ 78] + +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. + +Caonaba showed no respect to Colon 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. + + +NOTE + +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." + + + + +THE ESCAPE + + + Why do you come here, white men, white men? + Why do you bend the knee + When your priests before you, singing, singing, + Lift the cross, the cross of tree? + + Flashing in the sunlight, rainbows waking, + Move your mighty oars keeping time. + Sailors heave your anchors, chanting, chanting + Some strange and mystic rime. + + Pearls and gold we bring you, feathers of our wild birds, + Glowing in the sunshine like flowers. + Houses we will build you, food and clothing find you, + You shall share in all that is ours. + + Why do you frighten us, white men, white men? + Can you not be friends for a day? + Souls are like the sea-birds, flying, flying, + Borne by the sea-wind away. + + Why do you chain us in the mines of the mountains? + Why do you hunt us with your hounds? + We who were so free, are we evermore to be + Prisoned in your narrow hateful bounds? + + One escape is left us, white men, white men,-- + You cannot forbid our souls to fly + To the stars of freedom, far beyond the sunset,-- + We whom you have captured can die! + + + + +VI + +LOCKED HARBORS + + +"But of what use is a King's patent," said Hugh Thorne of Bristol, "if +the harbors be locked?" + +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." + +"'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." + +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." + +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. + +"Dad," he inquired solemnly, "vat is a locked harbor?" + +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." + +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." + +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. + +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. + +He was a good navigator, or he would not have been a true son of the +Genoese house of Caboto--Giovanni 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. + +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, Luebeck, +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. Neither, at present, did the King, whose shrewd +brain was at work on the problem. + +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. + +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." + +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 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. + +In May, 1497, properly furnished with provisions and a few such things +as might show what England had to barter, the little _Matthew_ 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. + +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 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. + +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? + +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. 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. + +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. + +[Illustration: "A SAPLING, BENT DOWN, WAS ATTACHED TO A NOOSE +INGENIOUSLY HIDDEN."--_Page_ 87] + +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 great cross, with the flag of England and the +Venetian banner bearing the lion of Saint Mark. + +There was wild excitement in Bristol when it was known that the little +_Matthew_ 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. + +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. + +"This country you found," he remarked at last, "is not much like New +Spain." + +"Nay, Sire," answered John Cabot simply. + +"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." + +Cabot bowed. As a matter of fact there had been no profits. + +"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. + +The King turned again to the Cabots. + +"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." + +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: + +"10th August, donation of L10 to him that found the new isle." + +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 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. + +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 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. + + +NOTE + +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: + +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. + +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. + +26. "Every nation and region to be considered advisedly, and not to +provoke them by any distance, laughing, contempt, or such like; but to +use them with prudent circumspection, with all gentleness and +courtesie." + +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. + + + + +GRAY SAILS + + + Gray sails that fill with the winds of the morning, + Out upon the Channel or the bleak North sea, + Neither cross nor fleur-de-lis goes to your adorning,-- + Arctic frost and southern gale your tirewomen shall be. + Yet when you come home again--home again--home again, + Gray sails turn to silver when the keel runs free. + + Gray sails of Plymouth, 'ware the wild Orcades, + Gray sails of Lisbon, 'ware the guns of Dieppe. + Cross-bows of Genoa, 'ware the wharves of Gades,-- + You that sail the Spanish Seas may neither trust nor sleep. + Yet when you come home again--home again--home again, + You shall make the covenant for Kings to keep! + + Gray sails are crowding where the sea-fog sleeping + Masks the faces of the folk that throng and traffic there. + When the winds are free again and the cod are leaping, + All the tongues of Pentecost wake the laughing air. + And when they come home again--home again--home again, + They shall bring their freedom for the world to share! + + + + +VII + +LITTLE VENICE + + +"Translators," observed Amerigo Vespucci, "are frequently traitors. Now +who is to be surety that yonder interpreter does not change your words +in repeating them?" + +Alonso de Ojeda touched the hilt of his poniard. "This," he said. +"Toledo steel speaks all languages." + +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. + +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 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 Colon 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. + +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. + +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 Colon received the +title of Admiral of the Indies that no expedition should be sent out +without his authority. 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 Colon 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. + +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. + +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, 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. + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +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 the shore by +means of canoes gliding along the water-ways between the piles. The +interpreters said it was called Coquibacoa. + +"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?" + +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. + +"It is rather like Venice," he said demurely. + +"That is the name for it," cried Ojeda in high +delight,--"Venezuela--Little Venice!" + +"It would be interesting," observed Vespucci, "to know what names they +are giving to us. How they stare!" + +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 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. + +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." + +"What really happened?" Vespucci inquired privately of Juan de la Cosa. +The old mariner's eyes twinkled. + +"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. + +"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. + +"'What are you doing here?' asks our worshipful commander. + +"'Looking at the sky,' said the other man, cool as a cucumber. 'I think +we are going to have a storm.' + +"'Don't bandy words with me,' says Ojeda. 'You are trespassing on my +master's dominions.' + +"'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 Colon has not been well +treated. But he only got the more furious. + +"'Do you insult me?' says he, and whips out his Toledo blade and bends +it almost double, to show the quality. + +"'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.' + +"The caballero's temper is like gunpowder--it 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, + +"'Senor, 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." + +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. + +Vespucci wrote his book some years later, and as it was the first +popular account of the new Spanish possessions 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. + + +NOTE + +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. + + + + +THE GOLD ROAD + + + O the Gold Road is a hard road, + And it leads beyond the sea,-- + Some follow it through the altar gates + And some to the gallows tree. + And they who squander the gold they earn + On kin-folk ill to please + Go soon to the grave, but he toils in the grave-- + The miner upon his knees. + + The Gold Road is a dark road-- + No bird by the wayside sings, + No sun shines into the canons deep, + No children's laughter rings. + They are slaves who delve in the stubborn rocks + For the pittance their labor brings. + Their bread is bitter who toil for their own, + But they starve who toil for Kings. + + The Gold Road is a small road,-- + A man must tread it alone, + With none to help if he faint or fall, + And none to hear his groan. + The weight of gold is a weary weight + When we toil for the sake of our own-- + But our masters are branding our hearts and souls + With a Christ that is carved in stone! + + + + +VIII + +THE DOG WITH TWO MASTERS + + +"They fight among themselves too much. They need the man with the whip." + +"_Bough! wough!_" + +"_Yar-r-rh! arrh!--agh!_" + +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. + +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 Nunez 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." + +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, 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. + +"You called him off, eh, General?" Saavedra asked, bending to stroke the +terrible head. He and Vasco Nunez 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. + +"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." + +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 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. + +"General," said Saavedra, "I never like to put my neck in a noose, but +if you were only Vasco Nunez I would ask you why you made exactly that +choice." + +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 Nunez to you, +_amigo_," 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." + +"And keeps him out of mischief for the time being," put in Saavedra +dryly. + +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." + +Pizarro and his men had not gone ten miles from Darien before they ran +into an ambush of Indians 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. + +"Only six of you? Where is Francisco Hernan?" + +"He was crippled and could not walk," answered Pizarro sulkily; he saw +what was coming. Balboa's eyes blazed. + +"What! You--Spaniards--ran away from savages and left a comrade to die? +Go back and bring him in!" + +Pizarro turned in silence, took his men back over the road just +traversed, and brought Hernan safely in. + +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 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. + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Balboa decided to send Valdivia back to Hispaniola for more supplies. He +also sent by him a letter to Diego Colon, 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. + +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, in the place of Balboa, an old +and wily courtier, one of Fonseca's favorites, named Pedro Arias de +Avila, and usually called Pedrarias. + +"That," said Balboa, handing the letter over to Saavedra to read, "seems +to mean that the fat has gone into the fire." + +"What shall you do?" + +"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." + +"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?" + +"Has the dog adopted him?" laughed Balboa, extracting a thorn with the +utmost care from the paw of Leoncico. + +"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." + +"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." + +Saavedra, as he went to his own quarters, wondered whether Balboa were +really as unconscious and unsuspicious as he seemed. + +"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. 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?" + +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. + +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, and the Indians pointed out a hill, from which they said +the sea was visible. + +Then Balboa commanded the others to rest, while he went alone to the +top. + +"And this," muttered Pizarro to the man next him, "is the man who is +always saying that there is enough glory for all!" + +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. + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +Balboa stood up, and taking a banner which displayed 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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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." + +"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." + +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. + +"The dog is dead--that is all that is absolutely certain," said Saavedra +grimly. "I wish it had been his master." + + +NOTE + +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. + + + + +COLD O' THE MOON + + + Alone with all the stars that rule mankind + Ruy Faleiro sought to read the fate + Of his close friend--now by the King's rebuke + Sent stumbling out of Portugal to seek + His fortune on the sea-roads of the world. + But when Faleiro read the horoscope + It seemed to point to glory--and a grave + Beyond the sunset. + + When Magalhaens heard + The prophecy, he smiled, and steadfastly + Held on his way to that young Emperor, + The blond shy stripling with the Austrian face, + And in due time was Admiral of the Fleet + To sail the seas that lay beyond the world. + + Mid-August was it when the fleet set forth, + December, when in that Brazilian bay, + Santa Lucia, they dropped anchor,--then + Set up a little altar on the beach + And knelt at Mass in that gray solitude. + + Carvagio the pilot knew the place, + And said the folk were kindly,--brown, straight-haired, + Wore feather mantles, used no poisoned flints, + And only ate man's flesh on holidays. + Whereat a little daunted, not with fear, + The mariners met them running to the shore, + Bought swine of them, and plantains, cassava, + And for one playing card, the king of clubs, + The wild men gave six fowls! There were brown roots + Formed like the turnip, chestnut-like in taste + And called patata in ship-Spanish--cane + Wherefrom is made the sugar and the wine + Of Hispaniola, and the pineapple + That was like nectar to their sea-parched throats. + And thus they feasted and were satisfied. + + Like an enchanted Eden seemed the land, + For birds on dazzling many-colored wings + Made the trees blossom--parrots red, green, blue, + Humming-birds like live jewels in the air, + Strange ducks with spoon-shaped bills,--and overhead + Like some fantastic frieze of living gold, + The little yellow monkeys leaped and swung + Chattering of Setebos in their unknown tongue. + + The old men lived beyond their sevenscore years-- + Or so the people said. They made canots + Of logs that they carved out with heated stones. + They slept in hamacs, woven cotton swings. + Their chiefs were called cacichas--you may find + All this put down in the thrice precious book + Written by Pigafetta of Vicenza + For a queen's pleasure when the voyage was done. + + Then from that shore they sailed, and southward bent, + And as the long days lengthened, till the nights + Were but star-circled midnight intervals, + They wondered of what race and by what seas + They should find kings at the antipodes. + + Where a great river flowed into the sea + They found sea-lions,--on another isle + Strange geese, milk-white and sable, with no wings, + Who swam instead of flying, and they called + The place the Isle of Penguins. + + Then they found + A desolate harbor called San Juliano, + Where the fierce flame of mutiny broke forth, + Spaniard on Portuguese turned treacherously + Till in the red midwinter sunrise towered + The place of execution, and an end + Was made of the two traitors. Outward flashed the sail + And left the sea-birds there to tell the tale. + + Beyond there lay a bleak and misty shore, + And in the fog a wild gigantic form + White-haired, a savage, called a greeting to them. + Friendly the huge men were, and took these men, + Bearded and strange, for kinfolk of their god, + Setebos, from his home beyond the moon, + And from their great shoes filled with straw for warmth + Magalhaens named them men of Patagonia. + + Westward they steered, and buffeted by winds, + They found a narrow channel, where the fleet + Halted for council. One returned to Spain + Laden with falsehood and with mutiny. + On sailed the others valiantly, their hearts + Remembering their Admiral's haughty words + Flung at his craven captain, "I will see + This great voyage to the end, though we should eat + The leather from the yards!" And thus they reached + The end of that strait path of Destiny, + And saw beyond the shining Western Sea. + + Northward the Admiral followed that long coast + Past Masafuera--then began his flight + Across the great uncharted shining sea. + And surely there was never stranger voyage. + The winds were gentle toward him, and no more + The dreadful laughter of the tempest shrilled, + Or down upon them pounced the hurricane. + Therefore Magalhaens, giving thanks to God, + Named it Pacific, and the lonely sea. + Still bore him westward where his heart would be. + + Alone with all the stars of Christendom + He set his course,--if he had known his fate + Would he have stayed his hand? Before the end + Fate the old witch, who often loves to turn + A man's words on him, kept the ships becalmed + Even to thirst and famine; when instead + They fed on leather, gnawed wood, and ate mice + As did the Patagonian giants, when + They begged such vermin for a savage feast. + Then Fate, her jest outworn, blew them to shore + On the green islands called the Isles of Thieves, + And brought them to more islands--and still more, + A kingdom of bright lands in sunny seas. + Here did the Admiral land, and raise the Cross + Above that heathen realm,--and here went down + In battle for strange allies in strange lands. + + So ended his adventure. Yet not so, + For the Victoria, faithful to his hand + That laid her charge upon her, southward sailed + Around the Cape and westward to Seville. + El Cano brought her in, and her strange tale + Told to the Emperor. "And the Admiral said," + He ended, "that indeed these heathen lands + God meant should all be Christian, for He set + A cross of stars above the southern sea, + A passion-flower upon the southern shore, + To be a sign to great adventurers. + These be two marvels,--and upon the way + We gained a kingdom, but we lost a day!" + + + + +IX + +WAMPUM TOWN + + +"Elephants' teeth?" + +"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." + +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. + +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. Planters of Hispaniola declared one negro slave worth a +dozen Indians. + +"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." + +"Some of our folk in Rochelle are of that way of thinking," agreed +Captain Parmentier dryly. "What say you to a western voyage?" + +"Not Brazil? Cabral claims that for Portugal." + +"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." + +"I am tired of the Guinea trade," the youth repeated; "Cape Breton at +any rate is not Spanish." + +"Not yet," said Jean Parmentier with emphasis. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 hot fever-mist of African +swamps, thinking they saw them. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Francis of Angouleme, the brilliant, reckless and extravagant young +French King, was hard pushed to 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 chateaux 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. + +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. + +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 +chateaux, 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. + +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 Medoc +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 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. + +"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." + +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." + +"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 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?" + +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. + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +Verrazzano made a second start a little later, but 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 _Dauphine_, 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. + +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 +_Dauphine_ 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. + +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. + +"One thing is certain," said young Francois Parmentier cheerfully, +"these folk have never seen Spaniards--or Portuguese. Even on the +Labrador the people ran from us, after Cortereale went slave-stealing +there." + +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 Francois 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. + +Verrazzano was if anything more horrified than Francois 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. + +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 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. + +At last the _Dauphine_ came into a harbor or lake three leagues in +circumference, where more than thirty canoes were assembled, filled with +people. Suddenly Francois Parmentier leaped to his feet and waved his +cap with a shout. + +"Now what madness has taken you?" queried Verrazzano. + +"I know where we are, that's all. This is Wampum Town,--L'Anorme +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." + +"And what may wampum be?" asked Verrazzano coolly. + +"'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!" + +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. + +[Illustration: "The natives seemed prepared to traffic in all peace and +friendliness"--_Page_ 132] + +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. + + +NOTE + +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. + + + + +THE DRUM + + + I wake the gods with my sullen boom-- + I am the Drum! + They wait for the blood-red flowers that bloom + In the heart of the sacrifice, there in the gloom + With terror dumb-- + I sound the call to his dreadful doom-- + I am the Drum! + + I was the Serpent, the Sacred Snake-- + Wolf, bear and fox + By the silent shores of river and lake + Tread softly, listening lest they wake + My voice that mocks + The rattle that falling bones will make + On barren rocks. + + My banded skin is the voice of the Priest-- + I am the Drum! + I sound the call to the War-God's feast + Till Tezcatlipoca's power hath ceased + And the White Gods come + Out of the fire of the burning East-- + Hear me, the Drum! + + + + +X + +THE GODS OF TAXMAR + + +If the Fathers of the Church had ever been on the other side of the +world, they would have made new rules for it. + +So thought Jeronimo Aguilar, on board a caravel plying between Darien +and Hispaniola. It was a thought he would hardly have dared think in +Spain. + +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 Jeronimo had been moved by +fiery missionary preaching to give himself to the work among the +Indians, his mother wept with astonishment and pride. + +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 Colon'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, 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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +A strong young sailor by the name of Gonzalo Guerrero, who had done +good service during the hurricane, pulled Jeronimo by the sleeve, "What +in the name of all the saints can we do, Padre?" he muttered. "Jose and +the rest will be raving maniacs." + +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. + +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. + +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 Jeronimo 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. + +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. + +Taxmar sent the sailor as a present to a friend, cacique of Chatemal, +but kept Aguilar for himself, watching his ways. + +The cacique was a sagacious heathen of considerable experience, but he +had never seen a man like this one. Jeronimo 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 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. + +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. + +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. + +"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." + +Aguilar never flinched, although from what he knew of the savages he +thought nothing more likely than his being set up for a San Sebastian. +He answered quietly, + +"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." + +The suggestion had been made by the order of Taxmar, and the answer was +duly reported to him. + +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. Jeronimo 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 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. + +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. + +While Jeronimo 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. + +Aguilar thought it possible that Taxmar might reply 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. + +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, + +"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." + +"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." + +The other chief went home in rage and disappointment and offended +dignity. + +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. + +The neighboring cacique now joined Taxmar's enemies 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. + +"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." + +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. + +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 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. + +Hernando de Cordova'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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +But a broken canoe and a stave from a water-barrel lay on the beach, and +with the help of the messengers 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. + +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 Jeronimo 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. + +[Illustration: "CORTES FLUNG ABOUT HIS SHOULDERS HIS OWN +CLOAK."--_Page_ 146] + + +NOTE + +The story of Jeronimo 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. + + + + +A LEGEND OF MALINCHE + + + O sorcerer Time, turn backward to the shore + Where it is always morning, and the birds + Are troubadours of all the hidden lore + Deeper than any words! + + There lived a maiden once,--O long ago, + Ere men were grown too wise to understand + The ancient language that they used to know + In Quezalcoatl's land. + + Though her own mother sold her for a slave, + Her own bright beauty as her only dower, + Into her slender hands the conqueror gave + A more than queenly power. + + Between her people and the enemy-- + The fierce proud Spaniard on his conquest bent-- + Interpreter and interceder, she + In safety came and went. + + And still among the wild shy forest folk + The birds are singing of her, and her name + Lives in that language that her people spoke + Before the Spaniard came. + + She is not dead, the daughter of the Sun,-- + By love and loyalty divinely stirred, + She lives forever--so the legends run,-- + Returning as a bird. + + Who but a white bird in her seaward flight + Saw, borne upon the shoulders of the sea, + Three tiny caravels--how small and light + To hold a world in fee! + + Who but the quezal, when the Spaniards came + And plundered all the white imperial town, + Saw in a storm of red rapacious flame + The Aztec throne go down! + + And when the very rivers talked of gold, + The humming-bird upon her lichened nest + Strange tales of wild adventure never told + Hid in her tiny breast. + + The mountain eagle, circling with the stars, + Watched the great Admiral swiftly come and go + In his light ship that set at naught the bars + Wrought by a giant foe. + + Dull are our years and hard to understand, + We dream no more of mighty days to be, + And we have lost through delving in the land + The wisdom of the sea. + + Yet where beyond the sea the sunset burns, + And the trees talk of kings dead long ago, + Malinche sings among the giant ferns-- + Ask of the birds--they know! + + + + +XI + +THE THUNDER BIRDS + + +"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." + +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. + +"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." + +"People often do, but in what way, especially?" + +"_Amigo_, 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." + +Saavedra laughed. "Pizarro is wise in his way, but as I have said, +Cortes is our commander." + +"What has that to do with it?" + +"If you had been at Salamanca in his University days you wouldn't ask. +He never got caught in a scrape, and he always got what he was after." + +"And kept it?" + +"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." + +"He will lose his, if Velasquez catches him. Remember Balboa." + +"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. Cordova 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." + +The man of whom they were speaking just then approached, summoning +Alvarado to him. Saavedra leaned on the rail musing. + +"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." + +The fleet was a rather imposing one for those waters. 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. + +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. + +The people of this coast, however, were not at all like the gentle and +childlike natives Colon 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 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +During this polite and interesting conversation Cortes observed certain +attendants busily making sketches of all that they saw, and on inquiry +was told 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +"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 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." + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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." + +An instant of breathless silence followed, then somebody shouted. A +hundred voices took up the cry,-- + +"To Mexico! To Mexico!" + +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 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. + +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 +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +[Illustration: "Moteczuma awaited them in the courtyard"--_Page_ 162] + +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? + +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 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, + +"This is the most beautiful city in the world." + +"And you think we shall win it for the Cross and the King?" asked +Saavedra in the same quiet tone. + +"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." + + +NOTE + + +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. + + + + +MOCCASIN FLOWER + + + Klooskap's children, the last and least, + Bidden to dance at his farewell feast, + Under the great moon's wizard light, + Over the mountain's drifted white, + The Winag'mesuk, the wood-folk small, + Came to the feasting the last of all! + + Magic snowshoes they wore that night, + Woven of frostwork and sunset light, + Round and trim like the Master's own,-- + Their lances of reed, with a point of bone, + Their oval shields of the woven grass, + Their leader the mighty Kaktugwaas. + + The Winag'mesuk, the forest folk, + They fled from the words that the white man spoke. + They were so tired, they were so small, + They hardly could find their way back at all, + Yet bravely they rallied with shield and lance + To dance for Klooskap their Snowshoe Dance! + + Light and swift as the whirling snow + They leaped and fluttered aloft, alow. + Silent as owls in the white moonlight + They pounced and grappled in mimic fight. + When they chanted to Klooskap their last farewell + He laid on the forest a fairy spell. + + From Little Thunder, from Kaktugwaas, + He took the buckler of woven grass, + The lance of reed with a point of bone, + The rounded footgear like his own, + And bade them grow there under the pines + While the snowdrifts melt and the sunlight shines! + + The sagamore pines are dark and tall + That guard the Norumbega wall. + When the clear brooks dance to the flute of spring, + And veery and catbird of Klooskap sing, + The Winag'mesuk for one short hour + Come back for their token of Klooskap's power-- + Moccasin Flower! + + + + +XII + +GIFTS FROM NORUMBEGA + + +"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. + +"There should be three gifts," she said at last, "for so it always is in +Mere Bastienne's stories. I will have the shoes of silence, the girdle +of fortune, and diamonds from Norumbega. Tell me again about Norumbega." + +"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 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 +_Dauphine_, 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. + +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 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? + +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 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. + +"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. + +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 down the rest of the word as Canada, as nearly as the French +alphabet could spell out the gutturals. + +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.[1] Five tribes, many generations ago, had united under the +leadership of the great Ayonhwatha--"he who made the wampum belt."[2] +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." + +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. + +No sign had been seen of Norumbega. Presently the keen expectant eye of +Cartier caught sight of something 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. + +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. + +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. + +"Pierre! Kadoc!" the annoyed commander called from his quarter-deck, +"what is all this hullabaloo about?" + +"News!" gasped Pierre. "News from Canghyenye! He says white men not come +to Hochelaga!" And Kadoc chimed in eagerly, "Not go! Not go!" + +"Coudouagny?" Cartier repeated to Maclou, completely mystified. "Who can +that be?" + +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. + +But the Breton captain had not come across the Atlantic 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +[Illustration: "CARTIER READ FROM HIS SERVICE-BOOK."--_Page_ 176] + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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.[3] 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. + +"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." + +"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. + +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 +with soft white fur; and they fitted the little maid's foot exactly. + +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." + +The third was a cluster of long slender crystals set in a fragment of +rock the color of a blush rose.[4] + +"'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." + +Marguerite turned the strange quartz rock about in her small hands with +something like awe. + +"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." + +"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 +man is a white wizard. It is a very beautiful kingdom, Alain, and I +think you are the Prince in disguise!" + + +NOTES + +[1] 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. + +[2] 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. + +[3] 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. + +[4] Rose quartz has this property. + + + + +THE MUSTANGS + + + Bred to the Game of the World as the Kings and the Emperors played it, + Fate and our masters hurled us over the terrible sea. + When the sails of the carracks were furled the Game was the Game that + we made it,-- + We that were horses in Spain were gods in a realm to be! + + Swift at the word we sped, we fought in the front of the battle,-- + Ah, but the wild men fled when they heard us neigh from afar! + The field was littered with dead, cut down like slaughtered cattle + --Ah, but the earth is red where the Conquistadores are! + + Now does the desert wake and croon of hidalgos coming-- + Now for her children's sake she is whetting her sword to slay, + And the armored squadrons break, and our iron-shod hoofs are drumming + On the rocks of the mountain pass--we are free, we are off and away! + + Hush--did a man's foot fall in the pasture where we go straying? + Listen--is that the call of a man aware of his right? + Hearken, my comrades all--once more the Game they are playing! + Masters, we come, we come, to be one with you in the fight! + + + + +XIII + +THE WHITE MEDICINE MAN + + +"Cavalry without horses, in ships without sailors, built by blacksmiths +without forges and carpenters without tools. Now who in Spain will +believe that?" commented Cabeca de Vaca. + +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. + +"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." + +"Miracles? It is nothing less than a miracle that this fleet was built," +said Cabeca de Vaca valiantly. And indeed he had some reason for saying +so. + +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." Cabeca, who was treasurer of the +expedition, strongly advised against proceeding 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. + +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. + +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. + +Next day one of the men proved to have been a carpenter, and another +came to Cabeca 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 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. + +On October 30, about the time of vespers, Cabeca 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 Cabeca 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. + +On November 5 the wind became a gale. All night the boats drifted, the +men exhausted with toil, hunger and cold. Cabeca 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. 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. + +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. + +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 Cabeca 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 Cabeca de Vaca alone, as the slave +of the Indians. + +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 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. + +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. + +Many of the baskets made by the squaws were 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +Cabeca 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. Cabeca 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +[Illustration: "THE CREATURES DARKENED THE PLAIN ALMOST AS FAR AS EYE +COULD SEE."--_Page_ 191] + +"Why do you do this?" asked the medicine man, putting one long bronze +finger on the strange marks. + +"It is a message," said Cabeca de Vaca. "If any of my own people see it +they will know who made the pictures." + +The Indian looked at him thoughtfully. + +"You are very clever," he said. "You ought to be a medicine-man." + +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 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. + +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. + +"Send to them," suggested Cabeca, "and tell them we are coming." + +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. + +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, + +"They came from heaven." + +"Who brought them?" asked Cabeca. + +"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." + +Then Cabeca knew that his countrymen must have passed that way. His +feelings were a strange mixture of joy and grief. + +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 Cabeca 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. + +"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." + +The next day Cabeca 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 +eleven Indians went out to look for his countrymen. + +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 Cabeca 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. + +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 Cabeca de Vaca wrote of his travels +was the first written description of the country now called Texas, +Arizona and New Mexico. + + +NOTE + +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. + + + + +LONE BAYOU + + + De Soto was a gentleman of Spain + In those proud years when Spanish chivalry + From fierce adventure never did refrain,-- + Ruler of argosies that ruled the sea, + She looked on lesser nations in disdain, + As born to trafficking or slavery. + + In shining armor, and with shot and steel + Abundantly purveyed for their delight, + Banners before whose Cross the foe should kneel, + His company embarked--how great a light + Through men's perversity to stoop and reel + Down through calamity to endless night! + + Yet unsubmissive, obdurately bold, + The savages refused to serve their need. + They would not guide the conquerors to their gold, + Nor though cast in the fire like a weed + Or driven by stern compulsion to the fold, + Would they abandon their unhallowed creed. + + The forest folk in terror broke and fled + Like fish before the fierce pursuing pike. + The stubborn chiefs as hostages were led-- + And in the wilderness, a grisly dyke + Of slaves and captives, lay the heathen dead, + And the black bayou claims all dead alike. + + Then southward through the haunted bearded trees + The Spaniards fought their way--Mauila's fires + Devoured their vestments and their chalices, + Their sacramental wine and bread--the choirs + No longer sang their requiems, and the seas + Lay between them and all their sacred spires. + + At last in a lone cabin, where the cane + Hid the black mire before the lowly door, + De Soto died--although they sought to feign + By some pretended magic mirror's lore + That still he lived, a gentleman of Spain,-- + And the dread flood rolled onward to the shore! + + + + +XIV + +THE FACE OF THE TERROR + + +"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, Francois +Debre, 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." + +"If the Jesuits have their way all Huguenots will be exterminated, men, +women and children," said Laudonniere, with a gleam of melancholy +sarcasm in his dark pensive eyes. "Life to a Jesuit is quite simple." + +"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." + +In consequence of this conversation, when Ribault's fleet anchored near +the River of May, on June 25, 1564, Pierre Debre was hanging to the +collars of two of Laudonniere's deerhounds and gazing in silent wonder +at the strange and beautiful land. + +"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 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. + +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. + +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 +and decked with offerings of maize and fruits as if it were an altar. + +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 Laudonniere 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 Laudonniere 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. + +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 began to think of crowding the +survivors into the two little ships he had and returning to France. + +Matters were in this unsatisfactory state when Captain John Hawkins in +his great seven-hundred-ton ship the _Jesus_, with three smaller ones, +the _Solomon_, the _Tiger_ and the _Swallow_, 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 Laudonniere declined. + +"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." + +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. Laudonniere answered this threat by the cool statement that he +had bought one of the English ships, the _Tiger_, 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. + +The fleet approached as cautiously as if it were coming to attack the +colony instead of relieving it, and Laudonniere, 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, three thousand miles away, had decided to ask +the Governor to resign. Ribault advised him to stay and fight it out, +but Laudonniere 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. + +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 Rene. 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. + +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 in Spain for the conquest of all Florida, learned with horror +and indignation that its virgin soil had already been polluted by +heretic Frenchmen. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 _San +Pelayo_, 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. + +About half past eleven on the night of September 4, the watchman on one +of the French ships anchored off shore saw the huge _San Pelayo_, 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 +_Trinity_, and dropped anchor. The others did likewise. Not a word was +spoken by friend or foe. The Spanish chaplain Mendoza afterward wrote: + +"Never since I came into the world did I know such a stillness." + +A trumpet sounded on the _San Pelayo_. A trumpet sounded on the +_Trinity_. Menendez spoke, politely. + +[Illustration: "'GENTLEMEN, WHENCE DOES THIS FLEET COME?'"--_Page_ 204] + +"Gentlemen, whence does this fleet come?" + +"From France." + +"What is it doing here?" + +"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. + +"Are you Catholics or Lutherans?" + +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?" + +"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." + +The reply to the rolling sonorous ultimatum was a shout of derision. + +"Ah, if you are a brave man, don't put it off till daylight! Come on now +and see what you will get!" + +Menendez in black fury snapped out a command. Cables were slipped, and +the towering black hulk of the _San Pelayo_ bore down toward the +_Trinity_. 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 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. + +In Fort Caroline, Pierre Debre, 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. + +The terror which haunted the future of every Huguenot in France now +menaced the New World. + +Ribault gave his counsel for an immediate attack by sea, before Menendez +completed his defense or received reinforcements. Laudonniere 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. + +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 the fleet found refuge? or had it been hurled to destruction +by the rage of wind and sea? Laudonniere, 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 +Laudonniere 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. + +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, Francois 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 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. + +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. Laudonniere 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 Debre 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. + +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 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. + +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. + +"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, 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." + +Coligny bowed his noble gray head. + +"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?" + +"One," said the Admiral coolly. "A demand was made by Philip of Spain. +He has required his brother of France to punish one Gaspe Coligny, +sometimes known as Admiral, for sending out a Huguenot colony to settle +in Florida." + +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. + +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 to +go slave-raiding in Benin, on the coast of Africa. On August 22, 1567, +he set sail from the mouth of the Charente. + +"I should like to know," said one of the trumpeters, Lucas Moreau, +"whether we are really going slave-catching, or not." + +"Why do you think we are not?" asked the pilot, to whom he spoke. + +"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." + +"And you would like to go back?" asked the other, gruffly. + +"If there were a chance of killing Menendez, yes," answered Moreau with +a fierce flash of white teeth. + +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. + +"They may think we are Spaniards," said Dominic de Gourgues. "Moreau, +if you think they will understand you, it might be well for you to speak +to them." + +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. + +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, + +"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 +Debre. + +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 warriors asked only to +be allowed to join in that foray. + +"How soon?" asked Gourgues. Satouriona could have his people ready in +three days. + +"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. + +"Pierre," said Gourgues, when he had the lad safe on board ship, "they +said you were killed." + +"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." + +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, and over them was set an inscription burned with a hot poker +on a pine board: + +"Not as to Spaniards, but as to Traitors, Robbers, and Murderers." + +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. + + +NOTE + +The full history of this dramatic episode is to be found in Parkman's +"The Pioneers of France in the New World." + + + + +THE DESTROYERS + + + The moon herself doth sail the air + As we do sail the sea, + Where by Saint Michael's Mount we fare + Free as the winds are free. + Our keels are bright with elfin gold + That mocks the tyrant's gaze, + That slips from out his greedy hold + And leaves him in amaze. + + White water creaming past her prow + The little _Golden Hynde_ + Bears westward with her treasure now-- + We'd ship and follow blind, + But that he never did require-- + Our Captain hath us bound + Only by force of his desire-- + The quarry hunts the hound! + + The hunt is up, the hunt is up + To the gray Atlantic's bound,-- + The health of the Queen in a golden cup!-- + The quarry is hunting the hound! + Like steel the stars gleam through the night + On armored waves beneath,-- + As England's honor cold and bright + We bear her sword in sheath! + + When that great Empire dies away + And none recall her place, + Men shall remember our work to-day + And tell of our Captain's grace,-- + How never a woman or child was the worse + Wherever our foe we found, + Nor their own priests had cause to curse + The quarry that hunted the hound! + + + + +XV + +THE FLEECE OF GOLD + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"'T is unlucky," grumbled Will Harvest under his breath. "Take a +drownded man from the sea and she get one of us--some time." + +"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?" + +"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." + +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. + +"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?" + +"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. + +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 ring +to show who he was, but it was the same man who had spoken to him at +Gravesend five years ago. + +A barge-load of London folk had come down to see the launching of the +_Serchthrift_, 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, + +"Did you get your share of the plunder, my son?" + +The lad shook his head a trifle impatiently. "I be no beggar," he +answered. "I be a ship's boy." + +"Ay," said the man, "and you seek not the Golden Fleece?" + +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. + +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? + +The young captain turned from the window, into which through the +clearing air the moon was shining, to find the stranger looking at him +with sane though troubled eyes. + +"The _Golden Fleece_?" he asked in English. Drake shook his head. + +"You've had a bad hurt, sir," he said, and briefly explained the +circumstances. + +"Ah," said the man frowning, and was silent. + +"If you would wish to send any word to your friends,--" Drake began, and +hesitated. + +"I have no friends here, save my servant Sancho. The _Golden Fleece_ +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." + +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. + +"I fear I trespass on your kindness," he added courteously, "and that I +have talked some nonsense before I came to myself." + +"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." + +"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." + +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 +had never spent a night like this, even when he had seen his master +die. + +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. + +"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." + +"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." + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +"They have outgrown us altogether, these young fellows," he said once +with his quaint half-melancholy 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." + +"Not England," Drake put in quickly. + +"Not England--I beg your pardon, my friend. But we have grown heavy with +gold in these days--and gold makes cowards." + +"It never made a coward o' me," laughed the lad. "Belike it'll never +have the chance." + +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. + +"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!" + +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." + +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. + +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." + +"God made men afore the Devil made Dons," growled Tom Moone. "Yon's a +man." + +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; 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 _Pelican_, +afterward re-christened the _Golden Hynde_ for Hatton's coat-of-arms, +was a hundred-ton ship carrying eighteen guns. The _Marygold_, a barque +of thirty tons and fifteen guns, and the _Swan_, 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 +_Elizabeth_, a new eighty-ton ship, and a fifteen-ton pinnace called +the _Christopher_ 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. + +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. + +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. + +"'T is the strangest thing in life, that whatever we are most averse to, +that we are fated to do." + +"Eh?" said Drake with a laugh, looking up from 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." + +"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." + +Sheer surprise kept the other silent for the moment, and Doughty went +on,-- + +"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." + +"He was in luck." Drake's eyes twinkled. + +"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." + +"Maybe they acted out o' pure decency," Drake said dryly. + +"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 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.) + +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. + +[Illustration: "DRAKE WAS SILENT, FINGERING THE SLENDER MILANESE +PONIARD."--_Page_ 227] + +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. + +Doughty had a way of taking it for granted that 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. + +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. + +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." + +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." + +"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." + +"Sneck up!" laughed Doughty, "he would not dare hang a gentleman!" but +he felt a creeping chill at the back of his neck. + +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. + +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. + +"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." + +There was a breathless instant when none stirred; then every hand was +raised. + +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!" + +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. + +"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." + +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. + +"I am going to preach to-day," he said shortly. Then he unfolded a paper +and began to read it aloud. + +"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. + +"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. + +"Any who desire to go home may go in the _Marygold_, but let them take +care that they do go home, for if I find them in my way I will sink +them." + +Then beginning with Wynter he reduced every officer to the ranks +forthwith, reprimanded known offenders, and wound up with this appeal: + +"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. + +Adventure after adventure succeeded, wilder than minstrel ever sang. The +_Marygold_ went down with all hands; Wynter in the _Elizabeth_, +believing the Admiral lost, turned homeward; the _Christopher_ and the +_Swan_ had already been broken up. All alone the little _Golden Hynde_, +blown southward, sailed around Cape Horn and proved the Antarctic +continent a myth. 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 _Nuestra +Senora de la Concepcion_, nicknamed the _Spitfire_ because she was +better armed than most of the ships plying on that coast. As they +ballasted the _Golden Hynde_ with silver from her huge hulk the jesting +seamen dubbed her the _Spit-silver_. 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! + +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. + +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 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. + +"'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." + +"So she did," said Drake with a grim smile as he passed. "Takes a woman +to tell a fortune, after all." + +"D'you ever hear what become of the old Don we picked up that time?" +Moone asked in a lowered voice. + +"Not since he sent Frankie the dagger with the gold work and the jewel. +Why?" + +"'Cause the pilot o' the _Spit-silver_ 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." + +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." + +Moone presently hummed half aloud, + + "When I served my master I got my Sunday pudden, + When I served the Company I got my bread and cheese. + When I served the Queen I got hanged for a pirate, + All along o'sailin' on the Carib Seas!" + +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. + +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. + +Battered and scarred but still seaworthy the _Golden Hynde_ 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. + +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 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. + +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 _Golden Hynde_ 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 +_Golden Hynde_ came up to Deptford; a list of the plunder was returned +to Mendoza; and London waited, excited and curious. + +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 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,-- + +"Rise up,--Sir Francis Drake!" + + + + +A WATCH-DOG OF ENGLAND + + + Where the Russian Bear stirs blindly in the leash of a mailed hand, + Bright in the frozen sunshine, the domes of Moscow stand, + + Scarlet and blue and crimson, blazing across the snow + As they did in the Days of Terror, three hundred years ago. + + Courtiers bending before him, envoys from near and far, + Sat in his Hall of Audience Ivan the Terrible Tsar, + + (He of the knout and torture, poison and sword and flame) + Yet unafraid before him the English envoy came. + + And he was Sir Jeremy Bowes, born of that golden time + When in the soil of Conquest blossomed the flower of Rhyme. + + Dauntless he fronted the Presence,--and the courtiers whispered low, + "Doth Elizabeth send us madmen, to tempt the torture so?" + + "Have you heard of that foolhardy Frenchman?" Ivan the Terrible said,-- + "He came before me covered,--I nailed his hat to his head." + + Then spoke Sir Jeremy Bowes, "I serve the Virgin Queen,-- + Little is she accustomed to vail her face, I ween. + + "She is Elizabeth Tudor, mighty to bless or to ban, + Nor doth her envoy give over at the bidding of any man! + + "Call to your Cossacks and hangmen,--do with me what ye please, + But ye shall answer to England when the news flies over seas." + + Ivan smiled on the envoy,--the courtiers saw that smile, + Glancing one at the other, holding their breath the while. + + Then spoke the terrible Ivan, "His Queen sits over sea, + Yet he hath bid me defiance,--would ye do as much for me?" + + + + +XVI + +LORDS OF ROANOKE + + +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. + +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.[1] + +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 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. + +"'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." + +"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." + +"Oh, the barbarians,--" Armadas began, and paused, for the chatter of +young voices broke forth in a copse. + +"I tell thee salvages be hairy men with tails like monkeys. My uncle he +has seen them on the Guinea coast." + +"Dick, if thou keep not off my heels in the passamezzo--" + +"Be not so cholerical, Tom Poope, or the Master'll give thee a tuning. +Thou'rt not Lord of the Indies yet." + +"Faith," chuckled Barlowe, "here be some little eyasses practising a +fantasy for the Queen's pleasure. Hey, lads, what's all the pother +about?"[2] + +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, + +"'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." + +"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." + +"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?" + +Barlowe grinned good-humoredly, and Armadas waved a laughing assent. +They seated themselves upon a grassy bank and the play began. + +Before half a dozen speeches had been said it was 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. + +"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: + + "To this our wild domain we welcome thee + In honorable hospitality. + If Thou dost come as the great Lord of Life, + The Lord of bear and wolf, and stag and fox, + Leopard and ape, and rabbits of the rocks, + We are thy children, as our brothers are,-- + The furry folk of forest fastnesses, + The bright-winged birds that wanton with the breeze, + The seal that sport amid the sapphire seas. + We worship gods of lightning and of thunder, + Of winds and hissing waves, the rainbow's wonder, + The fruits and grains, borne by the kindly earth, + And all the mysteries of death and birth. + Say who you are, and from what realm you hail, + White spirits that in winged peraguas sail? + If ye be angels, tell us of your heaven. + If ye be men, tell us who is your King." + +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.[3] 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. + +"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!" + +"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." + +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 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. + +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." + +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 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. + +"You may repent of the venture and wish to stay at Court," he said +smiling. "The Queen thinks well of ye." + +"Not I," growled Barlowe, and Armadas laughed, "My Lord, do you think so +ill of us as to deem us weathercocks in the wind?" + +"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." + +"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."[4] + +"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." + +Ralegh's head lifted as if he saw visions. In silence 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. + +[Illustration: "IF HE HAD TO WEAR HER FETTERS, THEY SHOULD AT LEAST BE +GOLDEN."--_Page_ 245] + +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. + +"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." + +"You forget the serpent," returned Barlowe, who had been reared by a +Puritan grandfather and knew his Bible. + +"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." + +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. + +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 blaze up in war. And by chance also Armadas learned how narrow +had been their own escape from a Spanish prison. + +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,-- + + "'At last he staked her all his arrows. + His mother's doves, and team of sparrows--'" + +A small hand slid into his own and pulled him toward a byway. + +"Why, how is it with thee, Master Poope? Didst play thy part bravely, +lad." + +"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." + +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. + +"Art not going on any more voyages to the Virginias?" asked the boy, his +eager eyes on the Captain's face. + +"Not for the present, my boy. Why? Wouldst like to sail with us, and +learn more of the ways of Indian Princes?" + +"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." + +"Before we sailed to Roanoke?" queried Armadas with lifted brows. + +"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!" + +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!" + +"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?" + +"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." + +"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 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." + + +NOTES + +[1] 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." + +[2] 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. + +[3] The passamezzo, passy-measure or half-measure was a popular +Elizabethan dance, like the coranto and lavolta. + +[4] 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." + + + + +THE CHANGELINGS + + + Out on the road to Fairyland where the dreaming children go, + There's a little inn at the Sign of the Rose, that all the fairies + know, + For Titania lodged in that tavern once, and betwixt the night and + the day + The children that crowded about her there, she stole their hearts away! + + Peaseblossom, Moth and Mustardseed, Agate and Airymouse too, + Once were children that laughed and played as children always do, + But when Titania kissed their lips, and crowned them with daffodil gold + They never forgot what she whispered them, they never knew how to grow + old! + + Mothers that wonder why little lads forget their homely ways, + And little maids put their dolls aside and take to acting plays, + Ah, let them be kings and queens awhile, for there's nothing sad or + mean + In their innocent thought, and their crowns were wrought by the touch + o' the Fairy Queen! + + Close to the heart o' the world they come, the children who know the + way + To the little low gateway under the rose, where 't is neither night + nor day. + They see what others can never guess, they hear what we cannot hear, + And the loathly dragons that waste our life they never learn to fear. + + The little inn at the Sign of the Rose,--ah, who can forget the place + Where Titania danced with the children small and lent them her elfin + grace? + And wherever they go and whatever they do in the years that turn them + gray + They never forget the charm she said when she stole their hearts away! + + + + +XVII + +THE GARDENS OF HELENE + + +"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. + +"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. Helene 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. + +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 _poulet en casserole_. + +But the common herbs were far from being all that 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-te-to. Jacqueline's husband, who had been a sea-captain, had brought +those roots from Brazil, and she,--Helene,--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. Helene 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. + +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 beret and +made a deep bow. "Mademoiselle la bien-aimee de la bonne Sainte Marthe," +he said gravely, "may I come in?" + +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. + +"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." + +"Oh, go on!" cried Helene, and Lescarbot sat down on the old bench +under the pear-tree and began to help with the herbs. + +"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. + +"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 inside that he would be like a +lamb forever after. + +"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." + +Helene 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. + +"I wonder if Sainte Marthe blessed this garden?" she said. + +"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." + +"Oh, I know that," cried Helene, 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." + +"Ah!" said Lescarbot gravely, and he put the potato in his wallet. + +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 +explored those coasts, as chief geographer, and the merchant Pontgrave +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 river which they +called the Equille. 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 Pontgrave +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. + +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. + +Helene 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. + +"Oh, what are you doing, Uncle Marc?" she cried. + +"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." + +All curiosity and wonder, the little maid settled herself on the ancient +worm-eaten bench, and Lescarbot began. + +"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." + +"Did the animals know it?" + +"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. + +"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." + +Helene's blue eyes grew round with interest. + +"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 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 Helene, I am filling a pair of +paniers with those roots and those seeds, and I am going to be a +gardener beyond the sunset." + +Helene 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. + +"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. + +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 _Jonas_. 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 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. + +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 Pontgrave and Champlain all dead +with their people? Had help come too late? + +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. + +When they had landed they learned what had happened. There were only two +Frenchmen in the fort; Pontgrave 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 _Jonas_ 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 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. + +All was now eager life and activity. Poutrincourt sent out a boat to +explore the coast, which met the two little ships of Pontgrave 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. Pontgrave took his departure for France +in the _Jonas_, and Champlain and Poutrincourt began making plans. + +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. + +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 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. + +"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?" + +"Potatoes," answered the lawyer-gardener. "The Peruvian root they are +planting in Ireland." + +"But you do not expect to get a crop this year--and in this climate?" + +"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." + +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. + +September came, with cool bright days and a hint of frost at night; the +lawyer marshalled his forces and harvested the crops. The storehouses, +already stocked with Pontgrave'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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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. + +"So you see we lost our rudder in a storm off Mount Desert--" "And the +autumn gales drove us back before we had fairly passed Port Fortune--" +"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 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?" + +"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." + +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 Helene." + +"And who is Helene?" asked Champlain with interest. Lescarbot explained. + +"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." + +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 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. + +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. + +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. 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. + +[Illustration: "THE GRAND MASTER OF THE DAY ENTERED THE DINING +HALL."--_Page_ 266] + +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. + +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 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 Helene. + +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 Helene 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. + + + + +THE WOODEN SHOE + + + Amsterdam's the cradle where the race was rocked-- + All the ships of all the world to her harbor flocked. + Rosy with the sea-wind, solid, stubborn, sweet, + Played the children by canals, up and down the street. + Neltje, Piet and Hendrik, Dirck and Myntje too,-- + Little Nick of Leyden sailed his wooden shoe. + + "Quarter-deck and cabin--rig her fore-and-aft,"-- + Thus he murmured wisely as he launched his craft. + "Cutlass, pike and musquetoun, howitzer and shot-- + But our knives and mirrors and beads are worth the lot." + Room enough for cargo to last a year or two, + In the round amidships of a wooden shoe! + + Bobbing on the waters of the Nieuwe Vlei + See the bantam galleot, short and broad and high. + Laden for the Indies, trading all the way, + Frank and shrewd and cautious, fiery in a fray,-- + Sagamore and mandarin are all the same to you, + Little Nick of Leyden with your wooden shoe! + + + + +XVIII + +THE FIRES THAT TALKED + + +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.[1] + +Hudson's keen eyes were unusually grave and thoughtful as the _Muscovy +Duck_ 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. + +"Master Hudson, d'ye think the new King will light them other fires--the +ones at Smithfield?" + +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." + +"Aye, but Spain has got all of America, pretty near, and the French are +nabbing the rest," said the pilot doubtfully. + +"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 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." + +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 _Concord_ had sailed seas unknown to him. + +"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?" + +"Wait till ye're fourteen at least, Jack," his father answered. "There's +much to learn before ye're a master mariner." + +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 father and grandfather, and the Russian fur trade was +making that Company rich. + +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.[2] 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. + +John Hudson found new interest in Latin. + +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 would be a very pleasant discovery for the Muscovy +Company. + +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." + +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. + +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 _Half Moon_ and shaped rather like one, manned by +a crew of twenty, half English and half Netherlanders, and John as +cabin-boy. + +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 _Half Moon_ would look for it in the western seas. Of this plan +he had said nothing in Holland. + +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 _Half Moon_ could reach them. Hudson meant to look +along the coast further south, and see what could be found there. + +The _Half Moon_ 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. + +"I say," presently observed John Hudson, who knew Brereton's Relacion by +heart, "this must ha' been 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." + +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. + +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 _Half Moon_, light as she rode, grounded +on sand-banks, and Hudson shook his head in rueful doubt. + +"D' you think the straits are here, Dad?" asked John when he had a +chance to speak with his father alone. + +"Hardly. This is fresh water. It's the mouth of a river."[3] + +"Yes, but might there be an isthmus--or the like?" + +"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." + +The chanteys of the sailors were heard at daybreak in the lonely sea, as +the _Half Moon_ 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. + +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.[4] 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 _Half Moon_ +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 possibly be a strait, and Hudson meant to discover exactly +what this was before he set sail for Amsterdam. + +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,[5] 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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +"Dad," said John that night, "do you think any ship with white men ever +came up here before?" + +"No," said Hudson. + +"I hope they'll call this the Hudson." + +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. + +During the voyage they had often seen parties of the savages, usually +friendly but sometimes hostile. Flights of arrows occasionally were +aimed at the _Half Moon_, 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. + +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 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 _Half +Moon_ 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. + +On the fourth of October, the _Half Moon_ 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. So dreaming, John Hudson saw +the shores of this new world vanish in the blue line, where earth and +sky are one. + + +NOTES + +[1] 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. + +[2] The account of Smith's campaigns and signalling code is given in his +autobiography. + +[3] The Delaware. + +[4] Some authorities consider the Hudson River to be actually a fiord or +fjord and not a true river. + +[5] Greenwich Village. + + + + +IMPERIALISM + + + The Tailor sat with his goose on the table-- + (Table of Laws it was, he said) + Fashioning uniforms dyed in sable, + Picked out with gold and sanguine red. + + "This," he said as he snipped and drafted, + "Sublimely foreshadowing cosmic Fate + With world-dominion august, resplendent, + Will wear, as nothing can wear but Hate! + + "Chimerical dreams of souls romantic + Are out of date as an old wife's rune. + Britain is doomed as Plato's Republic--" + When in at the door came a lilting tune! + + _"Here to-day and gone to-morrow-- + All in the luck of the road! + Didn't come to stay forever, + But we'll take our share of the load!"_ + + Highlanders, Irish, Danes, Egyptians, + Norman or Slav the dialects ran; + Something more than a board-school shaped them-- + Drill and discipline never made man! + + Once they knew Crecy, Hastings, Drogheda, + Moscow, Assaye, Khartoum or Glencoe,-- + Now the old hatreds are tinder for campfires. + England has only her world to show! + + They are not dreamers, these men of the Empire, + Guarding their land in the old-time way, + And this is the style that prevails in the Legions,-- + "The foe of the past is a friend to-day." + + _"It's a long, long road to the Empire + (From Beersheba even to Dan) + And the time is rather late for a chronic Hymn of Hate,-- + And we know the tailor doesn't make the man!"_ + + + + +XIX + +ADMIRAL OF NEW ENGLAND + + +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. + +"Let the inhabitants of the rock sing, let them shout from the top of +the mountain." + +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. + +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. + +"Where a man can live at all, there can he live nobly." + +The reader stopped and laughed out. A lively snarling came from a burrow +not far away, where two badgers were quarrelling conscientiously. + +"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?" + +"I be a-travelin'," Will said stoutly. + +"Runaway 'prentice, I should guess. I was one myself at fifteen." + +"I'm 'leven, goin' on twelve," said the boy, standing as straight as he +could. + +"Any folks?" + +"I lived with granddad until he died, four year back." + +"And so you're wayfarin', be you? What can you do to get your bread?" + +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." + +"Latin?" + +"No--English. Granddad weren't college-bred." + +"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 _hic_, _haec_, _hoc_. 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." + +"Have you been in foreign parts?" + +"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." + +"Is that the Bible you got there?" + +"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. + +"Our folks be Separatists," the boy said. + +"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." + +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, + +"You bide here with me awhile, lad. Maybe there's a way for you to get +learning, yet." + +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 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. + +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. + +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 knew no more what it +meant than he understood the Arabic mottoes, interwoven with the +decoration of the blue-and-gold walls. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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. + +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 +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. + +"Why," he cried with a hearty clasp of the hand. "'t is thyself grown a +man, Will! And how goes the Latin?" + +"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." + +"Nay, think no more o't--or rather, hand it on to some other young +book-worm," laughed the bearded and bronzed captain. "And how be all +your folk?" + +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." + +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." + +Thus they parted, and on April 26, 1607, the Virginia voyagers saw land +at the mouth of the Chesapeake. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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 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. + +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 +they would have to depend upon their provisions and the corn they could +buy from the Indians. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +After some years of strenuous toil and adventure 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. + +"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. + +"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." + +"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." + +"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." + +Both men laughed. They had lost faith in that road to fortune. + +"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?" + +"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." + +"No gold nor silver, I hear." + +"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." + +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. + +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 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. + +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 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. + +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. + + +NOTE + +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. + + + + +THE DISCOVERIES + + + Through tangled mysteries of old romance + Knights, Latin, Celt or Saxon, pass a-dream, + Seeking the minarets of magic towers + Through the witched woods that gleam. + + Stately in trappings thick with gold and gems, + Stern-browed and stubborn-eyed, they wandered forth, + As children credulous, as strong men brave, + To South, and West, and North. + + Our venturous pilots map the windy skies; + To serve our pleasure, huger galleons wait. + Aflame with more than magic lights, our walls + Guard the Manhattan Gate! + + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY + + +Among the sources of information from which the historical material of +this book are drawn are the following works: + +Voyages, HAKLUYT + +The Discovery of America. JOHN FISKE + +Dutch and Quaker Colonies in America. JOHN FISKE + +The Conquest of Mexico. PRESCOTT + +Two Voyages in New England. J. JOSSELYN + +Adventures and Conquests of Magellan. GEORGE MAKEPEACE TOWLE + +Narrative and Critical History of America. (Edited by JUSTIN WINSOR) + +The People for Whom Shakespeare Wrote. WARNER + +The Romance of Colonization. G. BARNETT SMITH + +Life of Columbus. WASHINGTON IRVING + +The Voyage of the Vega. NORDENSKIOLD + +The Land of the Midnight Sun. DU CHAILLU + +The Court of France. LADY JACKSON + +Sailors' Narratives of New England Voyages. (Edited by GEORGE PARKER +WINSHIP) + +Indian Basketry. GEORGE WHARTON JAMES + +The Iroquois Book of Rites. HALE + +Drake. ALFRED NOYES (_poem_) + +Crusaders of New France. WILLIAM BENNETT MUNRO + +Elizabethan Sea-dogs. WILLIAM WOOD + +Young Folks' Book of American Explorers. HIGGINSON + +Paradise Found. WILLIAM F. WARREN + +Ferdinand and Isabella. PRESCOTT + +Pioneers of France in the New World. PARKMAN + +Sir Francis Drake. JULIAN CORBETT + +Henry the Navigator. MEN OF ACTION SERIES + + +THE END + + + + +[Transcriber's Notes: + +Page Problem Change/Comment + +8 "Helene" "Helene" to match rest of text +26 same awe some awe +55 Inserted a comma after 'jeweled + trappings'. +85 superfluous comma in "Catherine, + became" removed +85 valauble valuable +90 good cheap and wholesome. As in image +108 comrad comrade +133 'And the White Gods come' Line indented to match other stanzas. +150 sqadron squadron +162 religon religion +178 exicitement excitement +194 slaves slavers +194 Cabeca 'Cabeca' as elsewhere +230 'like spent bullets" 'like spent bullets.' +232 two month's As in image +239 exploratioins explorations +247 Amadas Armadas +300 Inserted '(' before 'Edited by Justin + Winsor)' + + +The following variant spellings in the text have been left unmodified: + +"Bacalao" and "Baccalao" +"Mappe-Mondo" and "Mappe-Monde" +"'T is" and "'Tis" + +The following variant hyphenations in the text have been left unmodified: + +"arrow-heads" and "arrowheads" +"birch-bark" and "birchbark" +"cross-bow" and "crossbow-bolts" +"court-yards" and "courtyards" +"deer-skin" and "deerskin" +"frost-work" and "frostwork" +"Grand-Master" and "Grand Master" +"ink-horn" and "inkhorn" +"kin-folk" and "kinfolk" +"sea-weed" and "seaweed" +"shell-fish" and "shellfish" +"ship-worm" and "shipworms"] + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Days of the Discoverers, by L. 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