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+Project Gutenberg's Christopher Columbus, Volume 4, by Filson Young
+
+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: Christopher Columbus, Volume 4
+       And The New World Of His Discovery, A Narrative
+
+Author: Filson Young
+
+Release Date: December 5, 2004 [EBook #4111]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, VOLUME 4 ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Widger
+
+
+
+
+
+                         CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS
+
+                   AND THE NEW WORLD OF HIS DISCOVERY
+
+                      A NARRATIVE BY FILSON YOUNG
+
+
+                              Volume 4
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE HOUR OF TRIUMPH
+
+From the moment when Columbus set foot on Spanish soil in the spring of
+1493 he was surrounded by a fame and glory which, although they were
+transient, were of a splendour such as few other men can have ever
+experienced.  He had not merely discovered a country, he had discovered a
+world.  He had not merely made a profitable expedition; he had brought
+the promise of untold wealth to the kingdom of Spain.  He had not merely
+made himself the master of savage tribes; he had conquered the
+supernatural, and overcome for ever those powers of darkness that had
+been thought to brood over the vast Atlantic.  He had sailed away in
+obscurity, he had returned in fame; he had departed under a cloud of
+scepticism and ridicule, he had come again in power and glory.  He had
+sailed from Palos as a seeker after hidden wealth, hidden knowledge; he
+returned as teacher, discoverer, benefactor.  The whole of Spain rang
+with his fame, and the echoes of it spread to Portugal, France, England,
+Germany, and Italy; and it reached the ears of his own family, who had
+now left the Vico Dritto di Ponticello in Genoa and were living at
+Savona.
+
+His life ashore in the first weeks following his return was a succession
+of triumphs and ceremonials.  His first care on landing had been to go
+with the whole of his crew to the church of Saint George, where a Te Deum
+was sung in honour of his return; and afterwards to perform those vows
+that he had made at sea in the hour of danger.  There was a certain
+amount of business to transact at Palos in connection with the paying of
+the ships' crews, writing of reports to the Sovereigns, and so forth; and
+it is likely that he stayed with his friends at the monastery of La
+Rabida while this was being done.  The Court was at Barcelona; and it was
+probably only a sense of his own great dignity and importance that
+prevented Christopher from setting off on the long journey immediately.
+But he who had made so many pilgrimages to Court as a suitor could revel
+in a position that made it possible for him to hang back, and to be
+pressed and invited; and so when his business at Palos was finished he
+sent a messenger with his letters and reports to Barcelona, and himself,
+with his crew and his Indians and all his trophies, departed for Seville,
+where he arrived on Palm Sunday.
+
+His entrance into that city was only a foretaste of the glory in which he
+was to move across the whole of Spain.  He was met at the gates of the
+city by a squadron of cavalry commanded by an envoy sent by Queen
+Isabella; and a procession was formed of members of the crew carrying
+parrots, alive and stuffed, fruits, vegetables, and various other
+products of the New World.
+
+In a prominent place came the Indians, or rather four of them, for one
+had died on the day they entered Palos and three were too ill to leave
+that town; but the ones that took part in the procession got all the more
+attention and admiration.  The streets of Seville were crowded; crowded
+also were the windows, balconies, and roofs.  The Admiral was entertained
+at the house of the Count of Cifuentes, where his little museum of dead
+and live curiosities was also accommodated, and where certain favoured
+visitors were admitted to view it.  His two sons, Diego and Ferdinand,
+were sent from Cordova to join him; and perhaps he found time to visit
+Beatriz, although there is no record of his having been to Cordova or of
+her having come to Seville.
+
+
+Meanwhile his letters and messengers to the King and Queen had produced
+their due effect.  The almost incredible had come to pass, and they saw
+themselves the monarchs not merely of Spain, but of a new Empire that
+might be as vast as Europe and Africa together.  On the 30th of March
+they despatched a special messenger with a letter to Columbus, whose eyes
+must have sparkled and heart expanded when he read the superscription:
+"From the King and Queen to Don Christoval Colon, their Admiral of the
+Ocean Seas and Viceroy and Governor of the Islands discovered in the
+Indies."  No lack of titles and dignities now!  Their Majesties express a
+profound sense of his ability and distinction, of the greatness of his
+services to them, to the Church, and to God Himself.  They hope that he
+will lose no time, but repair to Barcelona immediately, so that they can
+have the pleasure of hearing from his own lips an account of his
+wonderful expedition, and of discussing with him the preparations that
+must immediately be set on foot to fit out a new one.  On receiving this
+letter Christopher immediately drew up a list of what he thought
+necessary for the new expedition and, collecting all his retinue and his
+museum of specimens, started by road for Barcelona.
+
+Every one in Spain had by this time heard more or less exaggerated
+accounts of the discoveries, and the excitement in the towns and villages
+through which he passed was extreme.  Wherever he went he was greeted and
+feasted like a king returning from victorious wars; the people lined the
+streets of the towns and villages, and hung out banners, and gazed their
+fill at the Indians and at the strange sun-burned faces of the crew.  At
+Barcelona, where they arrived towards the end of April, the climax of
+these glittering dignities was reached.  When the King and Queen heard
+that Columbus was approaching the town they had their throne prepared
+under a magnificent pavilion, and in the hot sunshine of that April day
+they sat and waited the--coming of the great man.  A glittering troop of
+cavalry had been sent out to meet him, and at the gates of the town a
+procession was formed similar to that at Seville.  He had now six natives
+with him, who occupied an important place in the procession; sailors
+also, who carried baskets of fruit and vegetables from Espanola, with
+stuffed birds and animals, and a monstrous lizard held aloft on a stick.
+The Indians were duly decked out in all their paint and feathers; but if
+they were a wonder and marvel to the people of Spain, what must Spain
+have been to them with its great buildings and cities, its carriages and
+horses, its glittering dresses and armours, its splendour and luxury!
+We have no record of what the Indians thought, only of what the crowd
+thought who gaped upon them and upon the gaudy parrots that screeched and
+fluttered also in the procession.  Columbus came riding on horseback, as
+befitted a great Admiral and Viceroy, surrounded by his pilots and
+principal officers; and followed by men bearing golden belts, golden
+masks, nuggets of gold and dust of gold, and preceded by heralds,
+pursuivants, and mace-bearers.
+
+What a return for the man who three years before had been pointed at and
+laughed to scorn in this same brilliant society!  The crowds pressed so
+closely that the procession could hardly get through the streets; the
+whole population was there to witness it; and the windows and balconies
+and roofs of the houses, as well as the streets themselves, were thronged
+with a gaily dressed and wildly excited crowd.  At length the procession
+reaches the presence of the King and Queen and, crowning and
+unprecedented honour!  as the Admiral comes before them Ferdinand and
+Isabella rise to greet him.  Under their own royal canopy a seat is
+waiting for him; and when he has made his ceremonial greeting he is
+invited to sit in their presence and give an account of his voyage.
+
+He is fully equal to the situation; settles down to do himself and his
+subject justice; begins, we may be sure, with a preamble about the
+providence of God and its wisdom and consistency in preserving the
+narrator and preparing his life for this great deed; putting in a deal of
+scientific talk which had in truth nothing to do with the event, but was
+always applied to it in Columbus's writings from this date onwards; and
+going on to describe the voyage, the sea of weeds, the landfall, his
+intercourse with the natives, their aptitude for labour and Christianity,
+and the hopes he has of their early conversion to the Catholic Church.
+And then follows a long description of the wonderful climate, "like May
+in Andalusia," the noble rivers, and gorgeous scenery, the trees and
+fruits and flowers and singing birds; the spices and the cotton; and
+chief of all, the vast stores of gold and pearls of which the Admiral had
+brought home specimens.  At various stages in his narrative he produces
+illustrations; now a root of rhubarb or allspice; now a raw nugget of
+gold; now a piece of gold laboured into a mask or belt; now a native
+decorated with the barbaric ornaments that were the fashion in Espanola.
+These things, says Columbus, are mere first-fruits of the harvest that is
+to come; the things which he, like the dove that had flown across the sea
+from the Ark and brought back an olive leaf in its mouth, has brought
+back across the stormy seas to that Ark of civilisation from which he had
+flown forth.
+
+It was to Columbus an opportunity of stretching his visionary wings and
+creating with pompous words and images a great halo round himself of
+dignity and wonder and divine distinction,--an opportunity such as he
+loved, and such as he never failed to make use of.
+
+The Sovereigns were delighted and profoundly impressed.  Columbus wound
+up his address with an eloquent peroration concerning the glory to
+Christendom of these new discoveries; and there followed an impressive
+silence, during which the Sovereigns sank on their knees and raised hands
+and tearful eyes to heaven, an example in which they were followed by the
+whole of the assembly; and an appropriate gesture enough, seeing what was
+to come of it all.  The choir of the Chapel Royal sang a solemn Te Deum
+on the spot; and the Sovereigns and nobles, bishops, archbishops,
+grandees, hidalgos, chamberlains, treasurers, chancellors and other
+courtiers, being exhausted by these emotions, retired to dinner.
+
+
+During his stay at Barcelona Columbus was the guest of the
+Cardinal-Archbishop of Toledo, and moved thus in an atmosphere of
+combined temporal and spiritual dignity such as his soul loved.  Very
+agreeable indeed to him was the honour shown to him at this time.  Deep
+down in his heart there was a secret nerve of pride and vanity which
+throughout his life hitherto had been continually mortified and wounded;
+but he was able now to indulge his appetite for outward pomp and honour
+as much as he pleased.  When King Ferdinand went out to ride Columbus
+would be seen riding on one side of him, the young Prince John riding on
+the other side; and everywhere, when he moved among the respectful and
+admiring throng, his grave face was seen to be wreathed in complacent
+smiles.  His hair, which had turned white soon after he was thirty, gave
+him a dignified and almost venerable appearance, although he was only in
+his forty-third year; and combined with his handsome and commanding
+presence to excite immense enthusiasm among the Spaniards.  They forgot
+for the moment what they had formerly remembered and were to remember
+again--that he was a foreigner, an Italian, a man of no family and of
+poor origin. They saw in him the figure-head of a new empire and a new
+glory, an emblem of power and riches, of the dominion which their proud
+souls loved; and so there beamed upon him the brief fickle sunshine of
+their smiles and favour, which he in his delusion regarded as an earnest
+of their permanent honour and esteem.
+
+It is almost always thus with a man not born to such dignities, and who
+comes by them through his own efforts and labours.  No one would grudge
+him the short-lived happiness of these summer weeks; but although he
+believed himself to be as happy as a man can be, he appears to quietly
+contemplating eyes less happy and fortunate than when he stood alone on
+the deck of his ship, surrounded by an untrustworthy crew, prevailing by
+his own unaided efforts over the difficulties and dangers with which he
+was surrounded.  Court functions and processions, and the companionship
+of kings and cardinals, are indeed no suitable reward for the kind of
+work that he did.  Courtly dignities are suited to courtly services; but
+they are no suitable crown for rough labour and hardship at sea, or for
+the fulfilment of a man's self by lights within him; no suitable crown
+for any solitary labour whatsoever, which must always be its own and only
+reward.
+
+
+It is to this period of splendour that the story of the egg, which is to
+some people the only familiar incident in Columbian biography, is
+attributed.  The story is that at a banquet given by the Cardinal-Arch
+bishop the conversation ran, as it always did in those days when he was
+present, on the subject of the Admiral's discoveries; and that one of the
+guests remarked that it was all very well for Columbus to have done what
+he did, but that in a country like Spain, where there were so many men
+learned in science and cosmography, and many able mariners besides, some
+one else would certainly have been found who would have done the same
+thing.  Whereupon Columbus, calling for an egg, laid a wager that none of
+the company but him self could make it stand on its end without support.
+The egg was brought and passed round, and every one tried to make it
+stand on end, but without success.  When it came to Columbus he cracked
+the shell at one end, making a flat surface on which the egg stood
+upright; thus demonstrating that a thing might be wonderful, not because
+it was difficult or impossible, but merely because no one had ever
+thought of doing it before.  A sufficiently inane story, and by no means
+certainly true; but there is enough character in this little feat,
+ponderous, deliberate, pompous, ostentatious, and at bottom a trick and
+deceitful quibble, to make it accord with the grandiloquent public manner
+of Columbus, and to make it easily believable of one who chose to show
+himself in his speech and writings so much more meanly and pretentiously
+than he showed himself in the true acts and business of his life.
+
+
+But pomp and parade were not the only occupation of these Barcelona days.
+There were long consultations with Ferdinand and Isabella about the
+colonisation of the new lands; there were intrigues, and parrying of
+intrigues, between the Spanish and Portuguese Courts on the subject of
+the discoveries and of the representative rights of the two nations to be
+the religious saviours of the New World.  The Pope, to whose hands the
+heathen were entrusted by God to be handed for an inheritance to the
+highest and most religious bidder, had at that time innocently divided
+them into two portions, to wit: heathen to the south of Spain and
+Portugal, and heathen to the west of those places.  By the Bull of 1438,
+granted by Pope Martin V., the heathen to the west had been given to the
+Spanish, and the heathen to the south to the Portuguese, and the two
+crowns had in 1479 come to a working agreement.  Now, however, the
+existence of more heathen to the west of the Azores introduced a new
+complication, and Ferdinand sent a message to Pope Alexander VI. praying
+for a confirmation of the Spanish title to the new discoveries.
+
+This Pope, who was a native of Aragon and had been a subject of
+Ferdinand, was a stolid, perverse, and stubborn being; so much is
+advertised in his low forehead, impudent prominent nose, thick sensual
+lips, and stout bull neck.  This Pope considers the matter; considers,
+by such lights as he has, to whom he shall entrust the souls of these new
+heathen; considers which country, Spain or Portugal, is most likely to
+hold and use the same for the increase of the Christian faith in general,
+the furtherance of the Holy Catholic Church in special, and the
+aggrandisement of Popes in particular; and shrewdly decides that the
+country in which the.  Inquisition can flourish is the country to whom
+the heathen souls should be entrusted.  He therefore issues a Bull, dated
+May 3, 1493, granting to the Spanish the possession of all lands, not
+occupied by Christian powers, that lie west of a meridian drawn one
+hundred leagues to the westward of the Azores, and to the Portuguese
+possession of all similar lands lying to the eastward of that line.  He
+sleeps upon this Bull, and has inspiration; and on the morrow, May 4th,
+issues another Bull, drawing a line from the arctic to the antarctic
+pole, and granting to Spain all heathen inheritance to the westward of
+the same.  The Pope, having signed this Bull, considers it
+further-assisted, no doubt, by the Portuguese Ambassador at the Vatican,
+to whom it has been shown; realises that in the wording of the Bull an
+injustice has been done to Portugal, since Spain is allowed to fix very
+much at her own convenience the point at which the line drawn from pole
+to pole shall cut the equator; and also because, although Spain is given
+all the lands in existence within her territory, Portugal is only given
+the lands which she may actually have occupied.  Even the legal mind of
+the Pope, although much drowsed and blunted by brutish excesses,
+discerns faultiness in this document; and consequently on the same day
+issues a third Bull, in which the injustice to Portugal is redressed.
+Nothing so easy, thinks the Pope, as to issue Bulls; if you make a
+mistake in one Bull, issue another; and, having issued three Bulls in
+twenty-four hours, he desists for the present, having divided the
+earthly globe.
+
+Thus easy it is for a Pope to draw lines from pole to pole, and across
+the deep of the sea.  Yet the poles sleep still in their icy virginal
+sanctity, and the blue waves through which that papal line passes shift
+and shimmer and roll in their free salt loneliness, unaffected by his
+demarcation; the heathen also, it appears, since that distant day, have
+had something to say to their disposition.  If he had slept upon it
+another night, poor Pope, it might have occurred to him that west and
+east might meet on a meridian situated elsewhere on the globe than one
+hundred miles west of the Azores; and that the Portuguese, who for the
+moment had nothing heathen except Africa left to them, might according to
+his demarcation strike a still richer vein of heathendom than that
+granted to Spain.  But the holy Pontiff, bull neck, low forehead,
+impudent prominent nose, and sensual lips notwithstanding, is exhausted
+by his cosmographical efforts, and he lets it rest at that.  Later, when
+Spain discovers that her privileges have been abated, he will have to
+issue another Bull; but not to-day.  Sufficient unto the day are the
+Bulls thereof.  For the moment King proposes and Pope disposes; but the
+matter lies ultimately in the hands of the two eternal protagonists, man
+and God.
+
+
+In the meantime here are six heathen alive and well, or at any rate well
+enough to support, willy-nilly, the rite of holy baptism.  They must have
+been sufficiently dazed and bewildered by all that had happened to them
+since they were taken on board the Admiral's ship, and God alone knows
+what they thought of it all, or whether they thought anything more than
+the parrots that screamed and fluttered and winked circular eyes in the
+procession with them.  Doubtless they were willing enough; and indeed,
+after all they had come through, a little cold water could not do them
+any harm.  So baptized they were in Barcelona; pompously baptized with
+infinite state and ceremony, the King and Queen and Prince Juan
+officiating as sponsors.  Queen Isabella, after the manner of queens,
+took a kindly feminine interest in these heathen, and in their brethren
+across the sea.  She had seen a good deal of conquest, and knew her
+Spaniard pretty intimately; and doubtless her maternal heart had some
+misgivings about the ultimate happiness of the gentle, handsome creatures
+who lived in the sunshine in that distant place.  She made their souls
+her especial care, and honestly believed that by providing for their
+spiritual conversion she was doing them the greatest service in her
+power.  She provided from her own private chapel vestments and altar
+furniture for the mission church in Espanola; she had the six exiles in
+Barcelona instructed under her eye; and she gave Columbus special orders
+to inflict severe punishments on any one who should offer the natives
+violence or injustice of any kind.  It must be remembered to her credit
+that in after days, when slavery and an intolerable bloody and brutish
+oppression had turned the paradise of Espanola into a shambles, she
+fought almost singlehanded, and with an ethical sense far in advance of
+her day, against the system of slavery practised by Spain upon the
+inhabitants of the New World.
+
+
+The dignities that had been provisionally granted to Columbus before his
+departure on the first voyage were now elaborately confirmed; and in
+addition he was given another title--that of Captain-General of the large
+fleet which was to be fitted out to sail to the new colonies.  He was
+entrusted with the royal seal, which gave him the right to grant letters
+patent, to issue commissions, and to Appoint deputies in the royal name.
+A coat-of-arms was also granted to him in which, in its original form,
+the lion and castle of Leon and Castile were quartered with islands of
+the sea or on a field azure, and five anchors or on a field azure.  This
+was changed from time to time, chiefly by Columbus himself, who
+afterwards added a continent to the islands, and modified the blazonry of
+the lion and castle to agree with those on the royal arms--a piece of
+ignorance and childish arrogance which was quite characteristic of him.
+
+
+
+     [A motto has since been associated with the coat-of-arms, although
+     it is not certain that Columbus adopted it in his lifetime.  In one
+     form it reads:
+                      "Por Castilla e por Leon
+                       Nueva Mundo hallo Colon."]
+
+           (For Castile and Leon Columbus found a New World.)
+
+And in the other:
+
+                       "A Castilla y a Leon
+                        Nuevo Mundo dio Colon."
+
+            (To Castile and Leon Columbus gave a New World.)
+
+
+Equally characteristic and less excusable was his acceptance of the
+pension of ten thousand maravedis which had been offered to the member of
+the expedition who should first sight land.  Columbus was granted a very
+large gratuity on his arrival in Barcelona, and even taking the product
+of the islands at a tenth part of their value as estimated by him, he
+still had every right to suppose himself one of the richest men in Spain.
+Yet he accepted this paltry pension of L8. 6s. 8d.  in our modern
+money (of 1900), which, taking the increase in the purchasing power of
+money at an extreme estimate, would not be more than the equivalent of
+$4000 now.  Now Columbus had not been the first person to see land; he
+saw the light, but it was Rodrigo de Triana, the look-out man on the
+Pinta, who first saw the actual land.  Columbus in his narrative to the
+King and Queen would be sure to make much of the seeing of the light, and
+not so much of the actual sighting of land; and he was on the spot, and
+the reward was granted to him.  Even if we assume that in strict equity
+Columbus was entitled to it, it was at least a matter capable of
+argument, if only Rodrigo de Triana had been there to argue it; and what
+are we to think of the Admiral of the Ocean Seas and Viceroy of the
+Indies who thus takes what can only be called a mean advantage of a poor
+seaman in his employ?  It would have been a competence and a snug little
+fortune to Rodrigo de Triana; it was a mere flea-bite to a man who was
+thinking in eighth parts of continents.  It may be true, as Oviedo
+alleges, that Columbus transferred it to Beatriz Enriquez; but he had no
+right to provide for her out of money that in all equity and decency
+ought to have gone to another and a poorer man.  His biographers, some of
+whom have vied with his canonisers in insisting upon seeing virtue in his
+every action, have gone to all kinds of ridiculous extremes in accounting
+for this piece of meanness.  Irving says that it was "a subject in which
+his whole ambition was involved"; but a plain person will regard it as an
+instance of greed and love of money.  We must not shirk facts like this
+if we wish to know the man as he really was.  That he was capable of
+kindness and generosity, and that he was in the main kind-hearted, we
+have fortunately no reason to doubt; and if I dwell on some of his less
+amiable characteristics it is with no desire to magnify them out of their
+due proportion.  They are part of that side of him that lay in shadow, as
+some side of each one of us lies; for not all by light nor all by shade,
+but by light and shade combined, is the image of a man made visible to
+us.
+
+
+It is quite of a piece with the character of Columbus that while he was
+writing a receipt for the look-out man's money and thinking what a pretty
+gift it would make for Beatriz Enriquez he was planning a splendid and
+spectacular thank-offering for all the dignities to which he had been
+raised; and, brooding upon the vast wealth that was now to be his, that
+he should register a vow to furnish within seven years an expedition of
+four thousand horse and fifty thousand foot for the rescue of the Holy
+Sepulchre, and a similar force within five years after the first if it
+should be necessary.  It was probable that the vow was a provisional one,
+and that its performance was to be contingent on his actual receipt and
+possession of the expected money; for as we know, there was no money and
+no expedition.  The vow was in effect a kind of religious flourish much
+beloved by Columbus, undertaken seriously and piously enough, but
+belonging rather to his public than to his private side.  A much more
+simple and truly pious act of his was, not the promising of visionary but
+the sending of actual money to his old father in Savona, which he did
+immediately after his arrival in Spain.  The letter which he wrote with
+that kindly remittance, not being couched in the pompous terms which he
+thought suitable for princes, and doubtless giving a brief homely account
+of what he had done, would, if we could come by it, be a document beyond
+all price; but like every other record of his family life it has utterly
+perished.
+
+He wrote also from Barcelona to his two brothers, Bartholomew and
+Giacomo, or James, since we may as well give him the English equivalent
+of his name.  Bartholomew was in France, whither he had gone some time
+after his return from his memorable voyage with Bartholomew Diaz; he was
+employed as a map-maker at the court of Anne de Beaujeu, who was reigning
+in the temporary absence of her brother Charles VIII.  Columbus's letter
+reached him, but much too late for him to be able to join in the second
+expedition; in fact he did not reach Seville until five months after it
+had sailed.  James, however, who was now twenty-five years old, was still
+at Savona; he, like Columbus, had been apprenticed to his father, but had
+apparently remained at home earning his living either as a wool-weaver or
+merchant.  He was a quiet, discreet young fellow, who never pushed
+himself forward very much, wore very plain clothes, and was apparently
+much overawed by the grandeur and dignity of his elder brother.  He was,
+however, given a responsible post in the new expedition, and soon had his
+fill of adventure.
+
+
+The business of preparing for the new expedition was now put in hand, and
+Columbus, having taken leave of Ferdinand and Isabella, went to Seville
+to superintend the preparations.  All the ports in Andalusia were ordered
+to supply such vessels as might be required at a reasonable cost, and the
+old order empowering the Admiral to press mariners into the service was
+renewed.  But this time it was unnecessary; the difficulty now was rather
+to keep down the number of applicants for berths in the expedition, and
+to select from among the crowd of adventurers who offered themselves
+those most suitable for the purposes of the new colony.  In this work
+Columbus was assisted by a commissioner whom the Sovereigns had appointed
+to superintend the fitting out of the expedition.  This man was a cleric,
+Juan Rodriguez de Fonseca, Archdeacon of Seville, a person of excellent
+family and doubtless of high piety, and of a surpassing shrewdness for
+this work.  He was of a type very commonly produced in Spain at this
+period; a very able organiser, crafty and competent, but not altogether
+trustworthy on a point of honour.  Like so many ecclesiastics of this
+stamp, he lived for as much power and influence as he could achieve; and
+though he was afterwards bishop of three sees successively, and became
+Patriarch of the Indies, he never let go his hold on temporal affairs.
+He began by being jealous of Columbus, and by objecting to the personal
+retinue demanded by the Admiral; and in this, if I know anything of the
+Admiral, he was probably justified.  The matter was referred to the
+Sovereigns, who ordered Fonseca to carry out the Admiral's wishes; and
+the two were immediately at loggerheads.  When the Council for the Indies
+was afterwards formed Fonseca became head, of it, and had much power to
+make things pleasant or otherwise for Columbus.
+
+It became necessary now to raise a considerable sum of money for the new
+expedition.  Two-thirds of the ecclesiastical tithes were appropriated,
+and a large proportion of the confiscated property of the Jews who had
+been banished from Spain the year before; but this was not enough; and
+five million maravedis were borrowed from the Duke of Medina Sidonia in
+order to complete the financial supplies necessary for this very costly
+expedition.  There was a treasurer, Francisco Pinelo, and an accountant,
+Juan de Soria, who had charge of all the financial arrangements; but the
+whole of the preparations were conducted on a ruinously expensive scale,
+owing to the haste which the diplomatic relations with Portugal made
+necessary.  The provisioning was done by a Florentine merchant named
+Juonato Beradi, who had an assistant named Amerigo Vespucci--who, by a
+strange accident, was afterwards to give his name to the continent of the
+New World.
+
+
+While these preparations were going on the game of diplomacy was being
+played between the Courts of Spain and Portugal.  King John of Portugal
+had the misfortune to be badly advised; and he was persuaded that,
+although he had lost the right to the New World through his rejection of
+Columbus's services when they were first offered to him, he might still
+discover it for himself, relying for protection on the vague wording of
+the papal Bulls.  He immediately began to prepare a fleet, nominally to
+go to the coast of Africa, but really to visit the newly discovered lands
+in the west.  Hearing of these preparations, King Ferdinand sent an
+Ambassador to the Portuguese Court; and King John agreed also to appoint
+an Ambassador to discuss the whole matter of the line of demarcation, and
+in the meantime not to allow any of his ships to sail to the west for a
+period of sixty days after his Ambassador had reached Barcelona.  There
+followed a good deal of diplomatic sharp practice; the Portuguese bribing
+the Spanish officials to give them information as to what was going on,
+and the Spaniards furnishing their envoys with double sets of letters and
+documents so that they could be prepared to counter any movement on the
+part of King John.  The idea of the Portuguese was that the line of
+demarcation should be a parallel rather than a meridian; and that
+everything north of the Canaries should belong to Spain and everything
+south to Portugal; but this would never do from the Spanish point of
+view.  The fact that a proposal had come from Portugal, however, gave
+Ferdinand an opportunity of delaying the diplomatic proceedings until his
+own expedition was actually ready to set sail; and he wrote to Columbus
+repeatedly, urging him to make all possible haste with his preparations.
+In the meantime he despatched a solemn embassy to Portugal, the purport
+of which, much beclouded and delayed by preliminary and impossible
+proposals, was to submit the whole question to the Pope for arbitration.
+And all the time he was busy petitioning the Pope to restore to Spain
+those concessions granted in the second Bull, but taken away again in the
+third.
+
+This, being much egged on to it, the Pope ultimately did; waking up on
+September 26th, the day after Columbus's departure, and issuing another
+Bull in which the Spanish Sovereigns were given all lands and islands,
+discovered or not discovered, which might be found by sailing west and
+south.  Four Bulls; and after puzzling over them for a year, the Kings of
+Spain and Portugal decided to make their own Bull, and abide by it,
+which, having appointed commissioners, they did on June 7, 1494., when by
+the Treaty of Tordecillas the line of demarcation was finally fixed to
+pass from north to south through a point 370 leagues west of the Cape
+Verde Islands.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+GREAT EXPECTATIONS
+
+July, August, and September in the year 1493 were busy months for
+Columbus, who had to superintend the buying or building and fitting of
+ships, the choice and collection of stores, and the selection of his
+company.  There were fourteen caravels, some of them of low tonnage and
+light draught, and suitable for the navigation of rivers; and three large
+carracks, or ships of three to four hundred tons.  The number of
+volunteers asked for was a thousand, but at least two thousand applied
+for permission to go with the expedition, and ultimately some fourteen or
+fifteen hundred did actually go, one hundred stowaways being included in
+the number.  Unfortunately these adventurers were of a class compared
+with whom even the cut-throats and gaol-birds of the humble little
+expedition that had sailed the year before from Palos were useful and
+efficient.  The universal impression about the new lands in the West was
+that they were places where fortunes could be picked up like dirt, and
+where the very shores were strewn with gold and precious stones; and
+every idle scamp in Spain who had a taste for adventure and a desire to
+get a great deal of money without working for it was anxious to visit the
+new territory.  The result was that instead of artisans, farmers,
+craftsmen, and colonists, Columbus took with him a company at least half
+of which consisted of exceedingly well-bred young gentlemen who had no
+intention of doing any work, but who looked forward to a free and lawless
+holiday and an early return crowned with wealth and fortune.  Although
+the expedition was primarily for the establishment of a colony, no
+Spanish women accompanied it; and this was but one of a succession of
+mistakes and stupidities.
+
+The Admiral, however, was not to be so lonely a person as he had been on
+his first voyage; friends of his own choice and of a rank that made
+intimacy possible even with the Captain-General were to accompany him.
+There was James his brother; there was Friar Bernardo Buil, a Benedictine
+monk chosen by the Pope to be his apostolic vicar in the New World; there
+was Alonso de Ojeda, a handsome young aristocrat, cousin to the
+Inquisitor of Spain, who was distinguished for his dash and strength and
+pluck; an ideal adventurer, the idol of his fellows, and one of whose
+daring any number of credible and incredible tales were told.  There was
+Pedro Margarite, a well-born Aragonese, who was destined afterwards to
+cause much trouble; there was Juan Ponce de Leon, the discoverer of
+Florida; there was Juan de La Cosa, Columbus's faithful pilot on the
+Santa Maria on his first voyage; there was Pedro de Las Casas, whose son,
+at this time a student in Seville, was afterwards to become the historian
+of the New World and the champion of decency and humanity there.  There
+was also Doctor Chanca, a Court physician who accompanied the expedition
+not only in his professional capacity but also because his knowledge of
+botany would enable him to make, a valuable report on the vegetables and
+fruits of the New World; there was Antonio de Marchena, one of Columbus's
+oldest friends, who went as astronomer to the expedition.  And there was
+one Coma, who would have remained unknown to this day but that he wrote
+an exceedingly elegant letter to his friend Nicolo Syllacio in Italy,
+describing in flowery language the events of the second voyage; which
+letter, and one written by Doctor Chanca, are the only records of the
+outward voyage that exist.  The journal kept by Columbus on this voyage
+has been lost, and no copy of it remains.
+
+
+Columbus settled at Cadiz during the time in which he was engaged upon
+the fitting out of the expedition.  It was no light matter to superintend
+the appointment of the crews and passengers, every one of whom was
+probably interviewed by Columbus himself, and at the same time to keep
+level with Archdeacon Fonseca.  This official, it will be remembered,
+had a disagreement with Columbus as to the number of personal attendants
+he was to be allowed; and on the matter being referred to the King and
+Queen they granted Columbus the ridiculous establishment of ten footmen
+and twenty other servants.
+
+Naturally Fonseca held up his hands and wondered where it would all end.
+It was no easy matter, moreover, on receipt of letters from the Queen
+about small matters which occurred to her from time to time, to answer
+them fully and satisfactorily, and at the same time to make out all the
+lists of things that would likely be required both for provisioning the
+voyage and establishing a colony.  The provisions carried in those days
+were not very different from the provisions carried on deep-sea vessels
+at the present time--except that canned meat, for which, with its horrors
+and conveniences, the world may hold Columbus responsible, had not then
+been invented.  Unmilled wheat, salted flour, and hard biscuit formed the
+bulk of the provisions; salted pork was the staple--of the meat supply,
+with an alternative of salted fish; while cheese, peas, lentils and
+beans, oil and vinegar, were also carried, and honey and almonds and
+raisins for the cabin table.  Besides water a large provision of rough
+wine in casks was taken, and the dietary scale would probably compare
+favourably with that of the British and American mercantile service sixty
+years ago.  In addition a great quantity of seeds of all kinds were taken
+for planting in Espanola; sugar cane, rice, and vines also, and an
+equipment of agricultural implements, as well as a selection of horses
+and other domestic animals for breeding purposes.  Twenty mounted
+soldiers were also carried, and the thousand and one impedimenta of
+naval, military, and domestic existence.
+
+In the middle of all these preparations news came that a Portuguese
+caravel had set sail from Madeira in the direction of the new lands.
+Columbus immediately reported this to the King and Queen, and suggested
+detaching part of his fleet to pursue her; but instead King John was
+communicated with, and he declared that if the vessel had sailed as
+alleged it was without his knowledge and permission, and that he would
+send three ships after her to recall her--an answer which had to be
+accepted, although it opened up rather alarming possibilities of four
+Portuguese vessels reaching the new islands instead of one.  Whether
+these ships ever really sailed or not, or whether the rumour was merely a
+rumour and an alarm, is not certain; but Columbus was ordered to push on
+his preparations with the greatest possible speed, to avoid Portuguese
+waters, but to capture any vessels which he might find in the part of the
+ocean allotted to Spain, and to inflict summary punishment on the crews.
+As it turned out he never saw any Portuguese vessels, and before he had
+returned to Spain again the two nations had come to an amicable agreement
+quite independently of the Pope and his Bulls.  Spain undertook to make
+no discoveries to the east of the line of demarcation, and Portugal none
+to the west of it; and so the matter remained until the inhabitants of
+the discovered lands began to have a voice in their own affairs.
+
+
+With all his occupations Columbus found time for some amenities, and he
+had his two sons, Diego and Ferdinand, staying with him at Cadiz.  Great
+days they must have been for these two boys; days filled with excitement
+and commotion, with the smell of tar and the loading of the innumerable
+and fascinating materials of life; and many a journey they must have made
+on the calm waters of Cadiz harbour from ship to ship, dreaming of the
+distant seas that these high, quaintly carven prows would soon be
+treading, and the wonderful bays and harbours far away across the world
+into the waters of which their anchors were to plunge.
+
+
+September 24th, the day before the fleet sailed, was observed as a
+festival; and in full ceremonial the blessing of God upon the enterprise
+was invoked.  The ships were hung with flags and with dyed silks and
+tapestries; every vessel flew the royal standard; and the waters of the
+harbour resounded with the music of trumpets and harps and pipes and the
+thunder of artillery.  Some Venetian galleys happened to enter the
+harbour as the fleet was preparing to weigh, and they joined in the
+salutes and demonstrations which signalled the departure.  The Admiral
+hoisted his flag on the 'Marigalante', one of the largest of the ships;
+and somewhere among the smaller caravels the little Nina, re-caulked and
+re-fitted, was also preparing to brave again the dangers over which she
+had so staunchly prevailed.  At sunrise on the 25th the fleet weighed
+anchor, with all the circumstance and bustle and apparent confusion that
+accompanies the business of sailing-ships getting under weigh.  Up to the
+last minute Columbus had his two sons on board with him, and it was not
+until the ripples were beginning to talk under the bow of the Marigalante
+that he said good-bye to them and saw them rowed ashore.  In bright
+weather, with a favourable breeze, in glory and dignity, and with high
+hopes in his heart, the Admiral set out once more on the long sea-road.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE SECOND VOYAGE
+
+The second voyage of Columbus, profoundly interesting as it must have
+been to him and to the numerous company to whom these waters were a
+strange and new region, has not the romantic interest for us that his
+first voyage had.  To the faith that guided him on his first venture
+knowledge and certainty had now been added; he was going by a familiar
+road; for to the mariner a road that he has once followed is a road that
+he knows.  As a matter of fact, however, this second voyage was a far
+greater test of Columbus's skill as a navigator than the first voyage had
+been.  If his navigation had been more haphazard he might never have
+found again the islands of his first discovery; and the fact that he made
+a landfall exactly where he wished to make it shows a high degree of
+exactness in his method of ascertaining latitude, and is another instance
+of his skill in estimating his dead-reckoning.  If he had been equipped
+with a modern quadrant and Greenwich chronometers he could not have made
+a quicker voyage nor a more exact landfall.
+
+It will be remembered that he had been obliged to hurry away from
+Espanola without visiting the islands of the Caribs as he had wished to
+do.  He knew that these islands lay to the south-east of Espanola, and on
+his second voyage he therefore took a course rather more southerly in
+order, to make them instead of Guanahani or Espanola.  From the day they
+left Spain his ships had pleasant light airs from the east and north-east
+which wafted them steadily but slowly on their course.  In a week they
+had reached the Grand Canary, where they paused to make some repairs to
+one of the ships which, was leaking.  Two days later they anchored at
+Gomera, and loaded up with such supplies as could be procured there
+better than in Spain.  Pigs, goats, sheep and cows were taken on board;
+domestic fowls also, and a variety of orchard plants and fruit seeds, as
+well as a provision of oranges, lemons, and melons.  They sailed from
+Gomera on the 7th of October, but the winds were so light that it was a
+week later before they had passed Ferro and were once more in the open
+Atlantic.
+
+On setting his course from Ferro Columbus issued sealed instructions to
+the captain of each ship which, in the event of the fleet becoming
+scattered, would guide them to the harbour of La Navidad in Espanola;
+but the captains had strict orders not to open these instructions unless
+their ships became separated from the fleet, as Columbus still wished to
+hold for himself the secret of this mysterious road to the west.  There
+were no disasters, however, and no separations.  The trade wind blew soft
+and steady, wafting them south and west; and because of the more
+southerly course steered on this voyage they did not even encounter the
+weed of the Sargasso Sea, which they left many leagues on their starboard
+hand.  The only incident of the voyage was a sudden severe hurricane, a
+brief summer tempest which raged throughout one night and terrified a
+good many of the voyagers, whose superstitious fears were only allayed
+when they saw the lambent flames of the light of Saint Elmo playing about
+the rigging of the Admiral's ship.  It was just the Admiral's luck that
+this phenomenon should be observed over his ship and over none of the
+others; it added to his prestige as a person peculiarly favoured by the
+divine protection, and confirmed his own belief that he held a heavenly
+as well as a royal commission.
+
+The water supply had been calculated a little too closely, and began to
+run low.  The hurried preparation of the ships had resulted as usual in
+bad work; most of them were leaking, and the crew were constantly at work
+at the pumps; and there was the usual discontent.  Columbus, however,
+knew by the signs as well as by his dead-reckoning that he was somewhere
+close to land; and with a fine demonstration of confidence he increased
+the ration of water, instead of lowering it, assuring the crews that they
+would be ashore in a day or two.  On Saturday evening, November 2nd,
+although no land was in sight, Columbus was so sure of his position that
+he ordered the fleet to take in sail and go on slowly until morning.  As
+the Sunday dawned and the sky to the west was cleared of the morning bank
+of clouds the look-out on the Marigalante reported land ahead; and sure
+enough the first sunlight of that day showed them a green and verdant
+island a few leagues away.
+
+As they approached it Columbus christened it Dominica in honour of the
+day on which it was discovered.  He sailed round it; but as there was no
+harbour, and as another island was in sight to the north, he sailed on in
+that direction.  This little island he christened Marigalante; and going
+ashore with his retinue he hoisted the royal banner, and formally took
+possession of the whole group of six islands which were visible from the
+high ground.  There were no inhabitants on the island, but the voyagers
+spent some hours wandering about its tangled woods and smelling the rich
+odours of spice, and tasting new and unfamiliar fruits.  They next sailed
+on to an island to the north which Columbus christened Guadaloupe as a
+memorial of the shrine in Estremadura to which he had made a pious
+pilgrimage.  They landed on this island and remained a week there, in the
+course of which they made some very remarkable discoveries.
+
+The villagers were not altogether unfriendly, although they were shy at
+first; but red caps and hawks' bells had their usual effect.  There were
+signs of warfare, in the shape of bone-tipped arrows; there were tame
+parrots much larger than those of the northern islands; they found
+pottery and rough wood carving, and the unmistakable stern timber of a
+European vessel.  But they discovered stranger things than that.  They
+found human skulls used as household utensils, and gruesome fragments of
+human bodies, unmistakable remains of a feast; and they realised that at
+last they were in the presence of a man-eating tribe.  Later they came to
+know, something of the habits of the islanders; how they made raiding
+expeditions to the neighbouring islands, and carried off large numbers of
+prisoners, retaining the women as concubines and eating the men.  The
+boys were mutilated and fattened like capons, being employed as labourers
+until they had arrived at years of discretion, at which point they were
+killed and eaten, as these cannibal epicures did not care for the flesh
+of women and boys.  There were a great number of women on the island, and
+many of them were taken off to the ships--with their own consent,
+according to Doctor Chanca.  The men, however, eluded the Spaniards and
+would not come on board, having doubtless very clear views about the
+ultimate destination of men who were taken prisoners.  Some women from a
+neighbouring island, who had been captured by the cannibals, came to
+Columbus and begged to be taken on board his ship for protection; but
+instead of receiving them he decked them with ornaments and sent them
+ashore again.  The cannibals artfully stripped off their ornaments and
+sent them back to get some more.
+
+The peculiar habits of the islanders added an unusual excitement to shore
+leave, and there was as a rule no trouble in collecting the crews and
+bringing them off to the ships at nightfall.  But on one evening it was
+discovered that one of the captains and eight men had not returned.  An
+exploring party was sent of to search for them, but they came back
+without having found anything, except a village in the middle of the
+forest from which the inhabitants had fled at their approach, leaving
+behind them in the cooking pots a half-cooked meal of human remains--an
+incident which gave the explorers a distaste for further search.  Young
+Alonso de Ojeda, however, had no fear of the cannibals; this was just the
+kind of occasion in which he revelled; and he offered to take a party of
+forty men into the interior to search for the missing men.  He went right
+across the island, but was able to discover nothing except birds and
+fruits and unknown trees; and Columbus, in great distress of mind, had to
+give up his men for lost.  He took in wood and water, and was on the
+point of weighing anchor when the missing men appeared on the shore and
+signalled for a boat.  It appeared that they had got lost in a tangled
+forest in the interior, that they had tried to climb the trees in order
+to get their bearings by the stars, but without success; and that they
+had finally struck the sea-shore and followed it until they had arrived
+opposite the anchorage.
+
+They brought some women and boys with them, and the fleet must now have
+had a large number of these willing or unwilling captives.  This was the
+first organised transaction of slavery on the part of Columbus, whose
+design was to send slaves regularly back to Spain in exchange for the
+cattle and supplies necessary for the colonies.  There was not very much
+said now about religious conversion, but only about exchanging the
+natives for cattle.  The fine point of Christopher's philosophy on this
+subject had been rubbed off; he had taken the first step a year ago on
+the beach at Guanahani, and after that the road opened out broad before
+him.  Slaves for cattle, and cattle for the islands; and wealth from
+cattle and islands for Spain, and payment from Spain for Columbus, and
+money from Columbus for the redemption of the Holy Sepulchre--these were
+the links in the chain of hope that bound him to his pious idea.  He had
+seen the same thing done by the Portuguese on the Guinea coast, and it
+never occurred to him that there was anything the matter with it.  On the
+contrary, at this time his idea was only to take slaves from among the
+Caribs and man-eating islanders as a punishment for their misdeeds; but
+this, like his other fine ideas, soon had to give way before the tide of
+greed and conquest.
+
+The Admiral was now anxious to get back to La Navidad, and discover the
+condition of the colony which he had left behind him there.  He therefore
+sailed from Guadaloupe on November 20th and steered to the north-west.
+His captive islanders told him that the mainland lay to the south; and if
+he had listened to them and sailed south he would have probably landed on
+the coast of South America in a fortnight.  He shaped his course instead
+to the north-west, passing many islands, but not pausing until the 14th,
+when he reached the island named by him Santa Cruz.  He found more Caribs
+here, and his men had a brush with them, one of the crew being wounded by
+a poisoned arrow of which he died in a few days.  The Carib Chiefs were
+captured and put in irons.  They sailed again and passed a group of
+islets which Columbus named after Saint Ursula and the Eleven Thousand
+Virgins; discovered Porto Rico also, in one of the beautiful harbours of
+which they anchored and stayed for two days.  Sailing now to the west
+they made land again on the 22nd of November; and coasting along it they
+soon sighted the mountain of Monte Christi, and Columbus recognised that
+he was on the north coast of Espanola.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE EARTHLY PARADISE REVISITED
+
+On the 25th November 1493, Columbus once more dropped his anchor in the
+harbour of Monte Christi, and a party was sent ashore to prospect for a
+site suitable for the new town which he intended to build, for he was not
+satisfied with the situation of La Navidad.  There was a large river
+close by; and while the party was surveying the land they came suddenly
+upon two dead bodies lying by the river-side, one with a rope round its
+neck and the other with a rope round its feet.  The bodies were too much
+decomposed to be recognisable; nevertheless to the party rambling about
+in the sunshine and stillness of that green place the discovery was a
+very gruesome one.  They may have thought much, but they said little.
+They returned to the ship, and resumed their search on the next day, when
+they found two more corpses, one of which was seen to have a large
+quantity of beard.  As all the natives were beardless this was a very
+significant and unpleasant discovery, and the explorers returned at once
+and reported what they had seen to Columbus.  He thereupon set sail for
+La Navidad, but the navigation off that part of the coast was necessarily
+slow because of the number of the shoals and banks, on one of which the
+Admiral's ship had been lost the year before; and the short voyage
+occupied three days.
+
+They arrived at La Navidad late on the evening of the 27th--too late to
+make it advisable to land.  Some natives came out in a canoe, rowed round
+the Admiral's ship, stopped and looked at it, and then rowed away again.
+When the fleet had anchored Columbus ordered two guns to be fired; but
+there was no response except from the echoes that went rattling among the
+islands, and from the frightened birds that rose screaming and circling
+from the shore.  No guns and no signal fires; no sign of human habitation
+whatever; and no sound out of the weird darkness except the lap of the
+water and the call of the birds .  .  .  .  The night passed in anxiety
+and depression, and in a certain degree of nervous tension, which was
+relieved at two or three o'clock in the morning by the sound of paddles
+and the looming of a canoe through the dusky starlight.  Native voices
+were heard from the canoe asking in a loud voice for the Admiral; and
+when the visitors had been directed to the Marigalante they refused to go
+on board until Columbus himself had spoken to them, and they had seen by
+the light of a lantern that it was the Admiral himself.  The chief of
+them was a cousin of Guacanagari, who said that the King was ill of a
+wound in his leg, or that he would certainly have come himself to welcome
+the Admiral.  The Spaniards?  Yes, they were well, said the young chief;
+or rather, he added ominously, those that remained were well, but some
+had died of illness, and some had been killed in quarrels that had arisen
+among them.  He added that the province had been invaded by two
+neighbouring kings who had burned many of the native houses.  This news,
+although grave, was a relief from the dreadful uncertainty that had
+prevailed in the early part of the night, and the Admiral's company,
+somewhat consoled, took a little sleep.
+
+In the morning a party was sent ashore to La Navidad.  Not a boat was in
+sight, nor any native canoes; the harbour was silent and deserted.  When
+the party had landed and gone up to the place where the fort had been
+built they found no fort there; only the blackened and charred remains of
+a fort.  The whole thing had been burned level with the ground, and amid
+the blackened ruins they found pieces of rag and clothing.  The natives,
+instead of coming to greet them, lurked guiltily behind trees, and when
+they were seen fled away into the woods.  All this was very disquieting
+indeed, and in significant contrast to their behaviour of the year
+before.  The party from the ship threw buttons and beads and bells to the
+retiring natives in order to try and induce them to come forward, but
+only four approached, one of whom was a relation of Guacanagari.  These
+four consented to go into the boat and to be rowed out to the ship.
+Columbus then spoke to them through his interpreter; and they admitted
+what had been only too obvious to the party that went ashore--that the
+Spaniards were all dead, and that not one of the garrison remained.  It
+seemed that two neighbouring kings, Caonabo and Mayreni, had made an
+attack upon the fort, burned the buildings, and killed and wounded most
+of the defenders; and that Guacanagari, who had been fighting on their
+behalf, had also been wounded and been obliged to retire.  The natives
+offered to go and fetch Guacanagari himself, and departed with that
+object.
+
+In the greatest anxiety the Admiral and his company passed that day and
+night waiting for the King to come.  Early the next morning Columbus
+himself went ashore and visited the spot where the settlement had been.
+There he found destruction whole and complete, with nothing but a few
+rags of clothing as an evidence that the place had ever been inhabited by
+human beings.  As Guacanagari did not appear some of the Spaniards began
+to suspect that he had had a hand in the matter, and proposed immediate
+reprisal; but Columbus, believing still in the man who had "loved him so
+much that it was wonderful" did not take this view, and his belief in
+Guacanagari's loyalty was confirmed by the discovery that his own
+dwelling had also been burned down.
+
+Columbus set some of his party searching in the ditch of the fort in case
+any treasure should have been buried there, as he had ordered it should
+be in event of danger, and while this was going on he walked along the
+coast for a few miles to visit a spot which he thought might be suitable
+for the new settlement.  At a distance of a mile or two he found a
+village of seven or eight huts from which the inhabitants fled at his
+approach, carrying such of their goods as were portable, and leaving the
+rest hidden in the grass.  Here were found several things that had
+belonged to the Spaniards and which were not likely to have been
+bartered; new Moorish mantles, stockings, bolts of cloth, and one of the
+Admiral's lost anchors; other articles also, among them a dead man's head
+wrapped up with great care in a small basket.  Shaking their own living
+heads, Columbus and his party returned.  Suddenly they came on some
+suspicious-looking mounds of earth over which new grass was growing.  An
+examination of these showed them to be the graves of eleven of the
+Spaniards, the remains of the clothing being quite sufficient to identify
+them.  Doctor Chanca, who examined them, thought that they had not been
+dead two months.  Speculation came to an end in the face of this eloquent
+certainty; there were the dead bodies of some of the colonists; and the
+voyagers knelt round with bare heads while the bodies were replaced in
+the grave and the ceremony of Christian burial performed over them.
+
+Little by little the dismal story was elicited from the natives, who
+became less timid when they saw that the Spaniards meant them no harm.
+It seemed that Columbus had no sooner gone away than the colonists began
+to abandon themselves to every kind of excess.  While the echo of the
+Admiral's wise counsels was yet in their ears they began to disobey his
+orders.  Honest work they had no intention of doing, and although Diego
+Arana, their commander, did his best to keep order, and although one or
+two of the others were faithful to him and to Columbus, their authority
+was utterly insufficient to check the lawless folly of the rest.  Instead
+of searching for gold mines, they possessed themselves by force of every
+ounce of gold they could steal or seize from the natives, treating them
+with both cruelty and contempt.  More brutal excesses followed as a
+matter of course.  Guacanagari, in his kindly indulgence and generosity,
+had allowed them to take three native wives apiece, although he himself
+and his people were content with one.  But of course the Spaniards had
+thrown off all restraint, however mild, and ran amok among the native
+inhabitants, seizing their wives and seducing their daughters.  Upon this
+naturally followed dissensions among themselves, jealousy coming hot upon
+the heels of unlawful possession; and, in the words of Irving, "the
+natives beheld with astonishment the beings whom they had worshipped as
+descended from the skies abandoned to the grossest of earthly passions
+and raging against each other with worse than brutal ferocity."
+
+Upon their strifes and dissensions followed another breach of the
+Admiral's wise regulations; they no longer cared to remain together in
+the fort, but split up into groups and went off with their women into the
+woods, reverting to a savagery beside which the gentle existence of the
+natives was high civilisation.  There were squabbles and fights in which
+one or two of the Spaniards were killed; and Pedro Gutierrez and Rodrigo
+de Escovedo, whom Columbus had appointed as lieutenants to Arana, headed
+a faction of revolt against his authority, and took themselves off with
+nine other Spaniards and a great number of women.  They had heard a great
+deal about the mines of Cibao, and they decided to go in search of them
+and secure their treasures for themselves.  They went inland into a
+territory which was under the rule of King Caonabo, a very fierce Carib
+who was not a native of Espanola, but had come there as an adventurer and
+remained as a conqueror.  Although he resented the intrusion of the
+Spaniards into the island he would not have dared to come and attack them
+there if they had obeyed the Admiral's orders and remained in the
+territory of Guacanagari; but when they came into his own country he had
+them in a trap, and it was easy for him to fall upon those foolish
+swaggering Spaniards and put them to death.  He then decided to go and
+take the fort.
+
+He formed an alliance with the neighbouring king, Mayreni, whose province
+was in the west of the island.  Getting together a force of warriors
+these two kings marched rapidly and stealthily through the, forest for
+several days until they arrived at its northern border.  They came in the
+dead of night to the neighbourhood of La Navidad, where the inhabitants
+of the fortress, some ten in number, were fast asleep.  Fast asleep were
+the remaining dozen or so of the Spaniards who were living in houses or
+huts in the neighbourhood; fast asleep also the gentle natives, not
+dreaming of troubles from any quarter but that close at hand.  The sweet
+silence of the tropical night was suddenly broken by frightful yells as
+Caonabo and his warriors rushed the fortress and butchered the
+inhabitants, setting fire to it and to the houses round about.  As their
+flimsy huts burst into flames the surprised Spaniards rushed out, only to
+be fallen upon by the infuriated blacks.  Eight of the Spaniards rushed
+naked into the sea and were drowned; the rest were butchered.
+Guacanagari manfully came to their assistance and with his own followers
+fought throughout the night; but his were a gentle and unwarlike people,
+and they were easily routed.  The King himself was badly wounded in the
+thigh, but Caonabo's principal object seems to have been the destruction
+of the Spaniards, and when that was completed he and his warriors, laden
+with the spoils, retired.
+
+Thus Columbus, walking on the shore with his native interpreter, or
+sitting in his cabin listening with knitted brow to the accounts of the
+islanders, learns of the complete and utter failure of his first hopes.
+It has come to this.  These are the real first-fruits of his glorious
+conquest and discovery.  The New World has served but as a virgin field
+for the Old Adam.  He who had sought to bring light and life to these
+happy islanders had brought darkness and death; they had innocently
+clasped the sword he had extended to them and cut themselves.  The
+Christian occupation of the New World had opened with vice, cruelty, and
+destruction; the veil of innocence had been rent in twain, and could
+never be mended or joined again.  And the Earthly Paradise in which life
+had gone so happily, of which sun and shower had been the true rulers,
+and the green sprouting harvests the only riches, had been turned into a
+shambles by the introduction of human rule and civilised standards of
+wealth.  Gold first and then women, things beautiful and innocent in the
+happy native condition of the islands, had been the means of the
+disintegration and death of this first colony.  These are serious
+considerations for any coloniser; solemn considerations for a discoverer
+who is only on the verge and beginning of his empire-making; mournful
+considerations for Christopher as he surveys the blackened ruins of the
+fort, or stands bare-headed by the grass-covered graves.
+
+There seemed to be a certain hesitancy on the part of Guacanagari to
+present himself; for though he kept announcing his intention of coming to
+visit the Admiral he did not come.  A couple of days after the discovery
+of the remains, however, he sent a message to Columbus begging him to
+come and see him, which the Admiral accordingly did, accompanied by a
+formal retinue and carrying with him the usual presents.  Guacanagari was
+in bed sure enough complaining of a wounded leg, and he told the story of
+the settlement very much as Columbus had already heard it from the other
+natives.  He pointed to his own wounded leg as a sign that he had been
+loyal and faithful to his friendly promises; but when the leg was
+examined by the surgeon in order that it might be dressed no wound could
+be discovered, and it was obvious to Doctor Chanca that the skin had not
+been broken.  This seemed odd; Friar Buil was so convinced that the whole
+story was a deception that he wished the Admiral to execute Guacanagari
+on the spot.  Columbus, although he was puzzled, was by no means
+convinced that Guacanagari had been unfaithful to him, and decided to do
+nothing for the present.  He invited the cacique to come on board the
+flagship; which he did, being greatly interested by some of the Carib
+prisoners, notably a handsome woman, named by the Spaniards Dofia
+Catalina, with whom he held a long conversation.
+
+Relations between the Admiral and the cacique, although outwardly
+cordial, were altogether different from what they had been in, the happy
+days after their first meeting; the man seemed to shrink from all the
+evidence of Spanish power, and when they proposed to hang a cross round
+his neck the native king, much as he loved trinkets and toys, expressed a
+horror and fear of this jewel when he learned that it was an emblem of
+the Christian faith.  He had seen a little too much of the Christian
+religion; and Heaven only knows with what terror and depression the
+emblem of the cross inspired him.  He went ashore; and when a messenger
+was sent to search for him a few days afterwards, it was found that he
+had moved his whole establishment into the interior of the island.  The
+beautiful native woman Catalina escaped to shore and disappeared at the
+same time; and the two events were connected in the minds of some of the
+Spaniards, and held, wrongly as it turned out, to be significant of a
+deep plot of native treachery.
+
+The most urgent need was to build the new settlement and lay out a town.
+Several small parties were sent out to reconnoitre the coast in both
+directions, but none of them found a suitable place; and on December 7th
+the whole fleet sailed to the east in the hope of finding a better
+position.  They were driven by adverse winds into a harbour some thirty
+miles to the east of Monte Christi, and when they went ashore they
+decided that this was as good a site as any for the new town.  There was
+about a quarter of a mile of level sandy beach enclosed by headlands on
+either side; there was any amount of rock and stones for building, and
+there was a natural barrier of hills and mountains a mile or so inland
+that would protect a camp from that side.--The soil was very fertile,
+the vegetation luxuriant; and the mango swamps a little way inland
+drained into a basin or lake which provided an unlimited water supply.
+Columbus therefore set about establishing a little town, to which he gave
+the name of Isabella.  Streets and squares were laid out, and rows of
+temporary buildings made of wood and thatched with grass were hastily run
+up for the accommodation of the members of the expedition, while the
+foundations of three stone buildings were also marked out and the
+excavations put in hand.  These buildings were the church, the
+storehouse, and a residence for Columbus as Governor-General.  The stores
+were landed, the horses and cattle accommodated ashore, the provisions,
+ammunition, and agricultural implements also.  Labourers were set to
+digging out the foundations of the stone buildings, carpenters to cutting
+down trees and running up the light wooden houses that were to serve as
+barracks for the present; masons were employed in hewing stones and
+building landing-piers; and all the crowd of well-born adventurers were
+set to work with their hands, much to their disgust.  This was by no
+means the life they had imagined, and at the first sign of hard work they
+turned sulky and discontented.  There was, to be sure, some reason for
+their discontent.  Things had not quite turned out as Columbus had
+promised they should; there was no store of gold, nor any sign of great
+desire on the part of the natives to bring any; and to add to their other
+troubles, illness began to break out in the camp.  The freshly-turned
+rank soil had a bad effect on the health of the garrison; the lake, which
+had promised to be so pleasant a feature in the new town, gave off
+dangerous malarial vapours at night; and among the sufferers from this
+trouble was Columbus himself, who endured for some weeks all the pains
+and lassitude of the disagreeable fever.
+
+The ships were now empty and ready for the return voyage, and as soon as
+Columbus was better he set to work to face the situation.  After all his
+promises it would never do to send them home empty or in ballast; a cargo
+of stones from the new-found Indies would not be well received in Spain.
+The natives had told him that somewhere in the island existed the gold
+mines of Cibao, and he determined to make an attempt to find these, so
+that he could send his ships home laden with a cargo that would be some
+indemnity for the heavy cost of the expedition and some compensation for
+the bad news he must write with regard to his first settlement.  Young
+Ojeda was chosen to lead an expedition of fifteen picked men into the
+interior; and as the gold mines were said to be in a part of the island
+not under the command of Guacanagari, but in the territory of the dreaded
+Caonabo, there was no little anxiety felt about the expedition.
+
+Ojeda started in the beginning of January 1494, and marched southwards
+through dense forests until, having crossed a mountain range, he came
+down into a beautiful and fertile valley, where they were hospitably
+received by the natives.  They saw plenty of gold in the sand of the
+river that watered the valley, which sand the natives had a way of
+washing so that the gold was separated from it; and there seemed to be so
+much wealth there that Ojeda hurried back to the new city of Isabella to
+make his report to Columbus.  The effect upon the discontented colonists
+was remarkable.  Once more everything was right; wealth beyond the dreams
+of avarice was at their hand; and all they had to do was to stretch out
+their arms and take it.  Columbus felt that he need no longer delay the
+despatch of twelve of his ships on the homeward voyage.  If he had not
+got golden cargoes for them, at any rate he had got the next best thing,
+which was the certainty of gold; and it did not matter whether it was in
+the ships or in his storehouse.  He had news to send home at any rate,
+and a great variety of things to ask for in return, and he therefore set
+about writing his report to the Sovereigns.  Other people, as we know,
+were writing letters too; the reiterated promise of gold, and the
+marvellous anecdotes which these credulous settlers readily believed from
+the natives, such as that there was a rock close by out of which gold
+would burst if you struck it with a club, raised greed and expectation in
+Spain to a fever pitch, and prepared the reaction which followed.
+
+We may now read the account of the New World as Columbus sent it home to
+the King and Queen of Spain in the end of January 1494, and as they read
+it some weeks later.  Their comments, written in the margin of the
+original, are printed in italics at the end of each paragraph.  It was
+drawn up in the form of a memorandum, and entrusted to Antonio de Torres,
+who was commanding the return expedition.
+
+
+"What you, Antonio de Torres, captain of the ship Marigalante and Alcalde
+of the City of Isabella, are to say and supplicate on my part to the King
+and Queen, our Lords, is as follows:--
+
+     "First.  Having delivered the letters of credence which you carry
+     from me for their Highnesses, you will kiss for me their Royal feet
+     and hands and will recommend me to their Highnesses as to a King and
+     Queen, my natural Lords, in whose service I desire to end my days:
+     as you will be able to say this more fully to their Highnesses,
+     according to what you have seen and known of me.
+
+          ["Their Highnesses hold him in their favour.]
+
+     "Item.  Although by the letters I write to their Highnesses, and
+     also the father Friar Buil and the Treasurer, they will be able to
+     understand all that has been done here since our arrival, and this
+     very minutely and extensively: nevertheless, you will say to their
+     Highnesses on my part, that it has pleased God to give me such
+     favour in their service, that up to the present time.  I do not find
+     less, nor has less been found in anything than what I wrote and said
+     and affirmed to their Highnesses in the past: but rather, by the
+     Grace of God, I hope that it will appear, by works much more clearly
+     and very soon, because such signs and indications of spices have
+     been found on the shores of the sea alone, without having gone
+     inland, that there is reason that very much better results may be
+     hoped for: and this also may be hoped for in the mines of gold,
+     because by two persons only who went to investigate, each one on his
+     own part, without remaining there because there was not many people,
+     so many rivers have been discovered so filled with gold, that all
+     who saw it and gathered specimens of it with the hands alone, came
+     away so pleased and say such things in regard to its abundance, that
+     I am timid about telling it and writing it to their Highnesses: but
+     because Gorbalan, who was one of the discoverers, is going yonder,
+     he will tell what he saw, although another named Hojeda remains
+     here, a servant of the Duke of Medinaceli, a very discreet youth and
+     very prudent, who without doubt and without comparison even,
+     discovered much more according to the memorandum which he brought of
+     the rivers, saying that there is an incredible quantity in each one
+     of them for this their Highnesses may give thanks to God, since He
+     has been so favourable to them in all their affairs.
+
+          ["Their Highnesses give many thanks to God for this, and
+          consider as a very signal service all that the Admiral has done
+          in this matter and is doing: because they know that after God
+          they are indebted to him for all they have had, and will have
+          in this affair: and as they are writing him more fully about
+          this, they refer him to their letter.]
+
+     "Item. You will say to their Highnesses, although I already have
+     written it to them, that I desired greatly to be able to send them a
+     larger quantity of gold in this fleet, from that which it is hoped
+     may be gathered here, but the greater part of our people who are
+     here, have fallen suddenly ill: besides, this fleet cannot remain
+     here longer, both on account of the great expense it occasions and
+     because this time is suitable for those persons who are to bring the
+     things which are greatly needed here, to go and be able to return:
+     as, if they delay going away from here, those who are to return will
+     not be able to do so by May: and besides this, if I wished to
+     undertake to go to the mines or rivers now, with the well people who
+     are here, both on the sea and in the settlement on land, I would
+     have many difficulties and even dangers, because in order to go
+     twenty-three or twenty-four leagues from here where there are
+     harbours and rivers to cross, and in order to cover such a long
+     route and reach there at the time which would be necessary to gather
+     the gold, a large quantity of provisions would have to be carried,
+     which cannot be carried on the shoulders, nor are there beasts of
+     burden here which could be used for this purpose: nor are the roads
+     and passes sufficiently prepared, although I have commenced to get
+     them in readiness so as to be passable: and also it was very
+     inconvenient to leave the sick here in an open place, in huts, with
+     the provisions and supplies which are on land: for although these
+     Indians may have shown themselves to the discoverers and show
+     themselves every day, to be very simple and not malicious
+     nevertheless, as they come here among us each day, it did not appear
+     that it would be a good idea to risk losing these people and the
+     supplies.  This loss an Indian with a piece of burning wood would be
+     able to cause by setting fire to the huts, because they are always
+     going and coming by night and by day: on their account, we have
+     guards in the camp, while the settlement is open and defenceless.
+
+          ["That he did well.]
+
+     "Moreover, as we have seen among those who went by land to make
+     discoveries that the greater part fell sick after returning, and
+     some of them even were obliged to turn back on the road, it was also
+     reasonable to fear that the same thing would happen to those who are
+     well, who would now go, and as a consequence they would run the risk
+     of two dangers: the one, that of falling sick yonder, in the same
+     work, where there is no house nor any defence against that cacique
+     who is called Caonabb, who is a very bad man according to all
+     accounts, and much more audacious and who, seeing us there, sick and
+     in such disorder, would be able to undertake what he would not dare
+     if we were well: and with this difficulty there is another--that of
+     bringing here what gold we might obtain, because we must either
+     bring a small quantity and go and come each day and undergo the risk
+     of sickness, or it must be sent with some part of the people,
+     incurring the same danger of losing it.
+
+          ["He did well.]
+
+     "So that, you will say to their Highnesses, that these are the
+     causes why the fleet has not been at present detained, and why more
+     gold than the specimens has not been sent them: but confiding in the
+     mercy of God, who in everything and for everything has guided us as
+     far as here, these people will quickly become convalescent, as they
+     are already doing, because only certain places in the country suit
+     them and they then recover; and it is certain that if they had some
+     fresh meat in order to convalesce, all with the aid of God would
+     very quickly be on foot, and even the greater part would already be
+     convalescent at this time: nevertheless they will be re-established.
+     With the few healthy ones who remain here, each day work is done
+     toward enclosing the settlement and placing it in a state of some
+     defence and the supplies in safety, which will be accomplished in a
+     short time, because it is to be only a small dry wall.  For the
+     Indians are not a people to undertake anything unless they should
+     find us sleeping, even though they might have thought of it in the
+     manner in which they served the others who remained here.  Only on
+     account of their (the Spaniards') lack of caution--they being so
+     few--and the great opportunities they gave the Indians to have and
+     do what they did, they would never have dared to undertake to injure
+     them if they had seen that they were cautious.  And this work being
+     finished, I will then undertake to go to the said rivers, either
+     starting upon the road from here and seeking the best possible
+     expedients, or going around the island by sea as far as that place
+     from which it is said it cannot be more than six or seven leagues to
+     the said rivers.  In such a manner that the gold can be gathered and
+     placed in security in some fortress or tower which can then be
+     constructed there, in order to keep it securely until the time when
+     the two caravels return here, and in order that then, with the first
+     suitable weather for sailing this course, it may be sent to a place
+     of safety.
+
+          ["That this is well and must be done in this manner.]
+
+     "Item.  You will say to their Highnesses, as has been said, that the
+     cause of the general sicknesses common to all is the change of water
+     and air, because we see that it extends to all conditions and few
+     are in danger: consequently, for the preservation of health, after
+     God, it is necessary that these people be provided with the
+     provisions to which they are accustomed in Spain, because neither
+     they, nor others who may come anew, will be able to serve their
+     Highnesses if they are not well: and this provision must continue
+     until a supply is accumulated here from what shall be sowed and
+     planted here.  I say wheat and barley, and vines, of which little
+     has been done this year because a site for the town could not be
+     selected before, and then when it was selected the few labourers who
+     were here became sick, and they, even though they had been well, had
+     so few and such lean and meagre beasts of burden, that they were
+     able to do but little: nevertheless, they have sown something, more
+     in order to try the soil which appears very wonderful, so that from
+     it some relief may be hoped in our necessities.  We are very sure,
+     as the result makes it apparent to us, that in this country wheat as
+     well as the vine will grow very well: but the fruit must be waited
+     for, which, if it corresponds to the quickness with which the wheat
+     grows and of some few vine-shoots which were planted, certainly will
+     not cause regret here for the productions of Andalusia or Sicily:
+     neither is it different with the sugar-canes according to the manner
+     in which some few that were planted have grown.  For it is certain
+     that the sight of the land of these islands, as well of the
+     mountains and sierras and waters as of the plains where there are
+     rich rivers, is so beautiful, that no other land on which the sun
+     shines can appear better or as beautiful.
+
+          ["Since the land is such, it must be managed that the greatest
+          possible quantity of all things shall be sown, and Don Juan de
+          Fonseca is to be written to send continually all that is
+          necessary for this purpose.]
+
+     "Item.  You will say that, inasmuch as much of the wine which the
+     fleet brought was wasted on this journey, and this, according to
+     what the greater number say, was because of the bad workmanship
+     which the coopers did in Seville, the greatest necessity we feel
+     here at the present time is for wines, and it is what we desire most
+     to have and although we may have biscuit as well as wheat sufficient
+     for a longer time, nevertheless it is necessary that a reasonable
+     quantity should also be sent, because the journey is long and
+     provision cannot be made each day and in the same manner some salted
+     meat, I say bacon, and other salt meat better than that we brought
+     on this journey.  It is necessary that each time a caravel comes
+     here, fresh meat shall be sent, and even more than that, lambs and
+     little ewe lambs, more females than males, and some little yearling
+     calves, male and female, and some he-asses and she-asses and some
+     mares for labour and breeding, as there are none of these animals
+     here of any value or which can be made use of by man.  And because I
+     apprehend that their Highnesses may not be, in Seville, and that the
+     officials or ministers will not provide these things without their
+     express order, and as it is necessary they should come at the first
+     opportunity, and as in consultation and reply the time for the
+     departure of the vessels-which must be here during all of Maywill be
+     past: you will say to their Highnesses that I charged and commanded
+     you to pledge the gold you are carrying yonder and place it in
+     possession of some merchant in Seville, who will furnish therefor
+     the necessary maravedis to load two caravels with wine and wheat and
+     the other things of which you are taking a memorandum; which
+     merchant will carry or send the said gold to their Highnesses that
+     they may see it and receive it, and cause what shall have been
+     expended for fitting out and loading of the said two caravels to be
+     paid: and in order to comfort and strengthen these people remaining
+     here, the utmost efforts must be made for the return of these
+     caravels for all the month of May, that the people before commencing
+     the summer may see and have some refreshment from these things,
+     especially the invalids: the things of which we are already in great
+     need here are such as raisins, sugar, almonds, honey and rice, which
+     should have been sent in large quantities and very little was sent,
+     and that which came is already used and consumed, and even the
+     greater part of the medicines which were brought from there, on
+     account of the multitude of sick people.  You are carrying memoranda
+     signed by my hand, as has been said, of things for the people in
+     good health as well as for the sick.  You will provide these things
+     fully if the money is sufficient, or at least the things which it is
+     most necessary to send at once, in order that the said two vessels
+     can bring them, and you can arrange with their Highnesses, to have
+     the remaining things sent by other vessels as quickly as possible.
+
+          ["Their Highnesses sent an order to Don Juan de Fonseca to
+          obtain at once information about the persons who committed the
+          fraud of the casks, and to cause all the damage to the wine to
+          be recovered from them, with the costs: and he must see that
+          the canes which are sent are of good quality, and that the
+          other things mentioned here are provided at once.]
+
+     "Item.  You will say to their Highnesses that as there is no
+     language here by means of which these people can be made to
+     understand our Holy Faith, as your Highnesses and also we who are
+     here desire, although we will do all we can towards it--I am sending
+     some of the cannibals in the vessels, men and women and male and
+     female children, whom their Highnesses can order placed with persons
+     from whom they can better learn the language, making use of them in
+     service, and ordering that little by little more pains be taken with
+     them than with other slaves, that they may learn one from the other:
+     if they do not see or speak with each other until some time has
+     passed, they will learn more quickly there than here, and will be
+     better interpreters--although we will not cease to do as much as
+     possible here.  It is true that as there is little intercourse
+     between these people from one island to another, there is some
+     difference in their language, according to how far distant they are
+     from each other.  And as, of the other islands, those of the
+     cannibals are very large and very well populated, it would appear
+     best to take some of their men and women and send them yonder to
+     Castile, because by taking them away, it may cause them to abandon
+     at once that inhuman custom which they have of eating men: and by
+     learning the language there in Castile, they will receive baptism
+     much more quickly, and provide for the safety of their souls.  Even
+     among the peoples who are not cannibals we shall gain great credit,
+     by their seeing that we can seize and take captive those from whom
+     they are accustomed to receive injuries, and of whom they are in
+     such terror that they are frightened by one man alone.  You will
+     certify to their Highnesses that the arrival here and sight of such
+     a fine fleet all together has inspired very great authority here and
+     assured very great security for future things: because all the
+     people on this great island and in the other islands, seeing the
+     good treatment which those who well behave receive, and the bad
+     treatment given to those who behave ill, will very quickly render
+     obedience, so that they can be considered as vassals of their
+     Highnesses.  And as now they not only do willingly whatever is
+     required of them by our people, but further, they voluntarily
+     undertake everything which they understand may please us, their
+     Highnesses may also be certain that in many respects, as much for
+     the present as for the future, the coming of this fleet has given
+     them a great reputation, and not less yonder among the Christian
+     princes: which their Highnesses will be better able to consider and
+     understand than I can tell them.
+
+          ["That he is to be told what has befallen the cannibals who
+          came here.  That it is very well and must be done in this
+          manner, but that he must try there as much as possible to bring
+          them to our Holy Catholic faith and do the same with the
+          inhabitants of the islands where he is.]
+
+     "Item.  You will say to their Highnesses that the safety of the
+     souls of the said cannibals, and further of those here, has inspired
+     the thought that the more there are taken yonder, the better it will
+     be, and their Highnesses can be served by it in this manner: having
+     seen how necessary the flocks and beasts of burden are here, for the
+     sustenance of the people who must be here, and even of all these
+     islands, their Highnesses can give licence and permission to a
+     sufficient number of caravels to come here each year, and bring the
+     said flocks and other supplies and things to settle the country and
+     make use of the land: and this at reasonable prices at the expense
+     of those who bring them: and these things can be paid for in slaves
+     from among these cannibals, a very proud and comely people, well
+     proportioned and of good intelligence, who having been freed from
+     that inhumanity, we believe will be better than any other slaves.
+     They will be freed from this cruelty as soon as they are outside
+     their country, and many of them can be taken with the row-boats
+     which it is known how to build here: it being understood, however,
+     that a trustworthy person shall be placed on each one of the
+     caravels coming here, who shall forbid the said caravels to stop at
+     any other place or island than this place, where the loading and
+     unloading of all the merchandise must be done.  And further, their
+     Highnesses will be able to establish their rights over these slaves
+     which are taken from here yonder to Spain.  And you will bring or
+     send a reply to this, in order that the necessary preparations may
+     be made here with more confidence if it appears well to their
+     Highnesses.
+
+          ["This project must be held in abeyance for the present until
+          another method is suggested from there, and the Admiral may
+          write what he thinks in regard to it.]
+
+     "Item.  Also you will say to their Highnesses that it is more
+     profitable and costs less to hire the vessels as the merchants hire
+     them for Flanders, by tons, rather than in any other manner:
+     therefore I charged you to hire the two caravels which you are to
+     send here, in this manner: and all the others which their Highnesses
+     send here can be hired thus, if they consider it for their service
+     but I do not intend to say this of those vessels which are to come
+     here with their licence, for the slave trade.
+
+          ["Their Highnesses order Don Juan de Fonseca to hire the
+          caravels in this manner if it can be done.]
+
+     "Item.  You will say to their Highnesses, that to avoid any further
+     cost, I bought these caravels of which you are taking a memorandum
+     in order to retain them here with these two ships: that is to say
+     the Gallega and that other, the Capitana, of which I likewise
+     purchased the three-eighths from the master of it, for the price
+     given in the said memorandum which you are taking, signed by my
+     hand.  These ships not only will give authority and great security
+     to the people who are obliged to remain inland and make arrangements
+     with the Indians to gather the gold, but they will also be of
+     service in any other dangerous matter which may arise with a strange
+     people; besides the caravels are necessary for the discovery of the
+     mainland and the other islands which lie between here and there: and
+     you will entreat their Highnesses to order the maravedis which these
+     ships cost, paid at the times which they have been promised, because
+     without doubt they will soon receive what they cost, according to
+     what I believe and hope in the mercy of God.
+
+          ["The Admiral has done well, and to tell him that the sum has
+          been paid here to the one who sold the ship, and Don Juan de
+          Fonseca has been ordered to pay for the two caravels which the
+          Admiral bought.]
+
+     "Item.  You will say to their Highnesses, and will supplicate on my
+     part as humbly as possible, that it may please them to reflect on
+     what they will learn most fully from the letters and other writings
+     in regard to the peace and tranquillity and concord of those who are
+     here: and that for the service of their Highnesses such persons may
+     be selected as shall not be suspected, and who will give more
+     attention to the matters for which they are sent than to their own
+     interests: and since you saw and knew everything in regard to this
+     matter, you will speak and will tell their Highnesses the truth
+     about all the things as you understood them, and you will endeavour
+     that the provision which their Highnesses make in regard to it shall
+     come with the first ships if possible, in order that there may be no
+     scandals here in a matter of so much importance in the service of
+     their Highnesses.
+
+          ["Their Highnesses are well informed in regard to this matter,
+          and suitable provision will be made for everything.]
+
+     "Item.  You will tell their Highnesses of the situation of this
+     city, and the beauty of the surrounding province as you saw and
+     understood it, and how I made you its Alcade, by the powers which I
+     have for same from their Highnesses: whom I humbly entreat to hold
+     the said provision in part satisfaction of your services, as I hope
+     from their Highnesses.
+
+          ["It pleases their Highnesses that you shall be Alcade.]
+
+     "Item.  Because Mosen Pedro Margarite, servant of their Highnesses,
+     has done good service, and I hope he will do the same henceforward
+     in matters which are entrusted to him, I have been pleased to have
+     him remain here, and also Gaspar and Beltran, because they are
+     recognised servants of their Highnesses, in order to intrust them
+     with matters of confidence.  You will specialty entreat their
+     Highnesses in regard to the said Mosen Pedro, who is married and has
+     children, to provide him with some charge in the order of Santiago,
+     whose habit he wears, that his wife and children may have the
+     wherewith to live.  In the same manner you will relate how well and
+     diligently Juan Aguado, servant of their Highnesses, has rendered
+     service in everything which he has been ordered to do, and that I
+     supplicate their Highnesses to have him and the aforesaid persons in
+     their charge and to reward them.
+
+          ["Their Highnesses order 30,000 maravedis to be assigned to
+          Mosen Pedro each year, and to Gaspar and Beltran, to each one,
+          15,000 maravedis each year, from the present, August 15, 1494,
+          henceforward: and thus the Admiral shall cause to be paid to
+          them whatever must be paid yonder in the Indies, and Don Juan
+          de Fonseca whatever must be paid here: and in regard to Juan
+          Iguado, their Highnesses will hold him in remembrance.]
+
+     "Item.  You will tell their Highnesses of the labour performed by
+     Dr. Chanca, confronted with so many invalids, and still more because
+     of the lack of provisions and nevertheless, he acts with great
+     diligence and charity in everything pertaining to his office.  And
+     as their Highnesses referred to me the salary which he was to
+     receive here, because, being here, it is certain that he cannot take
+     or receive anything from any one, nor earn money by his office as he
+     earned it in Castile, or would be able to earn it being at his ease
+     and living in a different manner from the way he lives here;
+     therefore, notwithstanding he swears that he earned more there,
+     besides the salary which their Highnesses gave him, I did not wish
+     to allow more than 50,000 maravedis each year for the work he
+     performs here while he remains here.  This I entreat their
+     Highnesses to order allowed to him with the salary from here, and
+     that, because he says and affirms that all the physicians of their
+     Highnesses who are employed in Royal affairs or things similar to
+     this, are accustomed to have by right one day's wages in all the
+     year from all the people.  Nevertheless, I have been informed and
+     they tell me, that however this may be, the custom is to give them a
+     certain sum, fixed according to the will and command of their
+     Highnesses in compensation for that day's wages.  You will entreat
+     their Highnesses to order provision made as well in the matter of
+     the salary as of this custom, in such manner that the said Dr.
+     Chanca may have reason to be satisfied.
+
+          ["Their Highnesses are pleased in regard to this matter of Dr.
+          Chanca, and that he shall be paid what the Admiral has assigned
+          him, together with his salary.
+          "In regard to the day's wages of the physicians, they are not
+          accustomed to receive it, save where the King, our Lord, may be
+          in persona.]
+
+     "Item.  You will say to their Highnesses that Coronel is a man for
+     the service of their Highnesses in many things, and how much service
+     he has rendered up to the present in all the most necessary matters,
+     and the need we feel of him now that he is sick; and that rendering
+     service in such a manner, it is reasonable that he should receive
+     the fruit of his service, not only in future favours, but in his
+     present salary, so that he and those who are here may feel that
+     their service profits them; because, so great is the labour which
+     must be performed here in gathering the gold that the persons who
+     are so diligent are not to be held in small consideration; and as,
+     for his skill, he was provided here by me with the office of
+     Alguacil Mayor of these Indies; and since in the provision the
+     salary is left blank, you will say that I supplicate their
+     Highnesses to order it filled in with as large an amount as they may
+     think right, considering his services, confirming to him the
+     provision I have given him here, and assuring it to him annually.
+
+          ["Their Highnesses order that 15,000 maravedis more than his
+          salary shall be assigned him each year, and that it shall be
+          paid to him with his salary.]
+
+     "In the same manner you will tell their Highnesses how the lawyer
+     Gil Garcia came here for Alcalde Mayor and no salary has been named
+     or assigned to him; and he is a capable person, well educated and
+     diligent, and is very necessary here; that I entreat their
+     Highnesses to order his salary named and assigned, so that he can
+     sustain himself, and that it may be paid from the money allowed for
+     salaries here.
+
+          "[Their Highnesses order 20,000 maravedis besides his salary
+          assigned to him each year, as long as he remains yonder, and
+          that it shall be paid him when his salary is paid.]
+
+     "Item.  You will say to their Highnesses, although it is already
+     written in the letters, that I do not think it will be possible to
+     go to make discoveries this year, until these rivers in which gold
+     is found are placed in the most suitable condition for the service
+     of their Highnesses, as afterwards it can be done much better.
+     Because it is a thing which no one can do without my presence,
+     according to my will or for the service of their Highnesses, however
+     well it may be done, as it is doubtful what will be satisfactory to
+     a man unless he is present.
+
+          ["Let him endeavour that the amount of this gold may be known
+          as precisely as possible.]
+
+     "Item.  You will say to their Highnesses that the Squires who came
+     from Granada showed good horses in the review which took place at
+     Seville, and afterward at the embarkation I did not see them because
+     I was slightly unwell, and they replaced them with such horses that
+     the best of them do not appear to be worth 2000 maravedis, as they
+     sold the others and bought these; and this was done in the same way
+     to many people as I very well saw yonder, in the reviews at Seville.
+     It appears that Juan de Soria, after he had been given the money for
+     the wages, for some interest of his own substituted others in place
+     of those I expected to find here, and I found people whom I had
+     never seen.  In this matter he was guilty of great wickedness, so
+     that I do not know if I should complain of him alone.  On this
+     account, having seen that the expenses of these Squires have been
+     defrayed until now, besides their wages and also wages for their
+     horses, and it is now being done: and they are persons who, when
+     they are sick or when they do not desire to do so, will not allow
+     any use to be made of their horses save by themselves: and their,
+     Highnesses do not desire that these horses should be purchased of
+     them, but that they should be used in the service of their
+     Highnesses: and it does not appear to them that they should do
+     anything or render any service except on horseback, which at the
+     present time is not much to the purpose: on this account, it seems
+     that it would be better to buy the horses from them, since they are
+     of so little value, and not have these disagreements with them every
+     day.  Therefore their Highnesses may determine this as will best
+     serve them.
+
+          ["Their Highnesses order Don Juan de Fonseca to inform himself
+          in regard to this matter of the horses, and if it shall be
+          found true that this fraud was committed, those persons shall
+          be sent to their Highnesses to be punished: and also he is to
+          inform himself in regard to what is said of the other people,
+          and send the result in the examination to their Highnesses; and
+          in regard to these Squires, their Highnesses command that they
+          remain there and render service, since they belong to the
+          guards and servants of their Highnesses: and their Highnesses
+          order the Squires to give up the horses each time it is
+          necessary and the Admiral orders it, and if the horses receive
+          any injury through others using them, their Highnesses order
+          that the damage shall be paid to them by means of the Admiral.]
+
+     "Item.  You will say to their Highnesses that more than 200 persons
+     have come here without wages, and there are some of them who render
+     good service.  And as it is ordered that the others rendering
+     similar service should be paid: and as for these first three years
+     it would be of great benefit to have 1000 men here to settle, and
+     place this island and the rivers of gold in very great security, and
+     even though there were 100 horsemen nothing would be lost, but
+     rather it seems necessary, although their Highnesses will be able to
+     do without these horsemen until gold is sent: nevertheless, their
+     Highnesses must send to say whether wages shall be paid to these 200
+     persons, the same as to the others rendering good service, because
+     they are certainly necessary, as I have said in the beginning of
+     this memorandum.
+
+          ["In regard to these 200 persons, who are here said to have
+          gone without wages, their Highnesses order that they shall take
+          the places of those who went for wages, who have failed or
+          shall fail to fulfil their engagements, if they are skilful and
+          satisfactory to the Admiral.  And their Highnesses order the
+          Purser (Contador) to enrol them in place of those who fail to
+          fulfil their engagements, as the Admiral shall instruct him.]
+
+     "Item.  As the cost of these people can be in some degree lightened
+     and the better part of the expense could be avoided by the same
+     means employed by other Princes in other places: it appears, that it
+     would be well to order brought in the ships, besides the other
+     things which are for the common maintenance and the medicines, shoes
+     and the skins from which to order the shoes made, common shirts and
+     others, jackets, linen, sack-coats, trowsers and cloths suitable for
+     wearing apparel, at reasonable prices: and other things like
+     conserves which are not included in rations and are for the
+     preservation of health, which things all the people here would
+     willingly receive to apply on their wages and if these were
+     purchased yonder in Spain by faithful Ministers who would act for
+     the advantage of their Highnesses, something would be saved.
+     Therefore you will learn the will of their Highnesses about this
+     matter, and if it appears to them to be of benefit to them, then it
+     must be placed in operation.
+
+          ["This arrangement is to be in abeyance until the Admiral
+          writes more fully, and at another time they will send to order
+          Don Juan de Fonseca with Jimeno de Bribiesca to make provision
+          for the same.]
+
+     "Item.  You will say to their Highnesses that inasmuch as yesterday
+     in the review people were found who were without arms, which I think
+     happened in part by that exchange which took place yonder in
+     Seville, or in the harbour when those who presented themselves armed
+     were left, and others were taken who gave something to those who
+     made the exchange, it seems that it would be well to order 200
+     cuirasses sent, and 100 muskets and 100 crossbows, and a large
+     quantity of arsenal supplies, which is what we need most, and all
+     these arms can be given to those who are unarmed.
+
+          ["Already Don Juan de Fonseca has been written to make
+          provision for this.]
+
+     "Item.  Inasmuch as some artisans who came here, such as masons and
+     other workmen, are married and have wives yonder in Spain, and would
+     like to have what is owing them from their wages given to their
+     wives or to the persons to whom they will send their requirements in
+     order that they may buy for them the things which they need here I
+     supplicate their Highnesses to order it paid to them, because it is
+     for their benefit to have these persons provided for here.
+
+          ["Their Highnesses have already sent orders to Don Juan de
+          Fonseca to make provision for this matter.]
+
+     "Item.  Because, besides the other things which are asked for there
+     according to the memoranda which you are carrying signed by my hand,
+     for the maintenance of the persons in good health as well as for the
+     sick ones, it would be very well to have fifty casks of molasses
+     (miel de azucar) from the island of Madeira, as it is the best
+     sustenance in the world and the most healthful, and it does not
+     usually cost more than two ducats per cask, without the cask: and if
+     their Highnesses order some caravel to stop there in returning, it
+     can be purchased and also ten cases of sugar, which is very
+     necessary; as this is the best season of the year to obtain it, I
+     say between the present time and the month of April, and to obtain
+     it at a reasonable price.  If their Highnesses command it, the order
+     could be given, and it would not be known there for what place it is
+     wanted.
+
+          ["Let Don Juan de Fonseca make provision for this matter.]
+
+     "Item.  You will say to their Highnesses that although the rivers
+     contain gold in the quantity related by those who have seen it, yet
+     it is certain that the gold is not engendered in the rivers but
+     rather on the land, the waters of the rivers which flow by the mines
+     bringing it enveloped in the sands: and as among these rivers which
+     have been discovered there are some very large ones, there are
+     others so small that they are fountains rather than rivers, which
+     are not more than two fingers of water in depth, and then the source
+     from which they spring may be found: for this reason not only
+     labourers to gather it in the sand will be profitable, but others to
+     dig for it in the earth, which will be the most particular operation
+     and produce a great quantity.  And for this, it will be well for
+     their Highnesses to send labourers, and from among those who work
+     yonder in Spain in the mines of Almaden, that the work may be done
+     in both ways.  Although we will not await them here, as with the
+     labourers we have here we hope, with the aid of God, once the people
+     are in good health, to amass a good quantity of gold to be sent on
+     the first caravels which return.
+
+          ["This will be fully provided for in another manner.  In the
+          meantime their Highnesses order Don Yuan de Fonseca to send the
+          best miners he can obtain; and to write to Almaden to have the
+          greatest possible number taken from there and sent.]
+
+     "Item.  You will entreat their Highnesses very humbly on my part, to
+     consider Villacorta as speedily recommended to them, who, as their
+     Highnesses know, has rendered great service in this business, and
+     with a very good will, and as I know him, he is a diligent person
+     and very devoted to their service: it will be a favour to me if he
+     is given some confidential charge for which he is fitted, and where
+     he can show his desire to serve them and his diligence: and this you
+     will obtain in such a way that Villacorta may know by the result,
+     that what he has done for me when I needed him profits him in this
+     manner.
+
+          ["It will be done thus.]
+
+     "Item.  That the said Mosen Pedro and Gaspar and Beltran and others
+     who have remained here gave up the captainship of caravels, which
+     have now returned, and are not receiving wages: but because they are
+     persons who must be employed in important matters and of confidence,
+     their compensation, which must be different from the others, has not
+     been determined.  You will entreat their Highnesses on my part to
+     determine what is to be given them each year, or by the month,
+     according to their service.
+
+     "Done in the city of Isabella, January 30, 1494.
+
+          ["This has already been replied to above, but as it is stated
+          in the said item that they enjoy their salary, from the present
+          time their Highnesses order that their wages shall be paid to
+          all of them from the time they left their captainships."]
+
+
+This document is worth studying, written as it was in circumstances that
+at one moment looked desperate and at another were all hope.  Columbus
+was struggling manfully with difficulties that were already beginning to
+be too much for him.  The Man from Genoa, with his guiding star of faith
+in some shore beyond the mist and radiance of the West--see into what
+strange places and to what strange occupations this star has led him!
+The blue visionary eyes, given to seeing things immediately beyond the
+present horizon, must fix themselves on accounts and requisitions, on the
+needs of idle, aristocratic, grumbling Spaniards; must fix themselves
+also on that blank void in the bellies of his returning ships, where the
+gold ought to have been.  The letter has its practical side; the
+requisitions are made with good sense and a grasp of the economic
+situation; but they have a deeper significance than that.  All this talk
+about little ewe lambs, wine and bacon (better than the last lot, if it
+please your Highnesses), little yearling calves, and fifty casks of
+molasses that can be bought a ducat or two cheaper in Madeira in the
+months of April and May than at any other time or place, is only half
+real.  Columbus fills his Sovereigns' ears with this clamour so that he
+shall not hear those embarrassing questions that will inevitably be asked
+about the gold and the spices.  He boldly begins his letter with the old
+story about "indications of spices" and gold "in incredible quantities,"
+with a great deal of "moreover" and "besides," and a bold, pompous,
+pathetic "I will undertake"; and then he gets away from that subject by
+wordy deviations, so that to one reading his letter it really might seem
+as though the true business of the expedition was to provide Coronel,
+Mosen Pedro, Gaspar, Beltran, Gil Garcia, and the rest of them with work
+and wages.  Everything that occurs to him, great or little, that makes it
+seem as though things were humming in the new settlement, he stuffs into
+this document, shovelling words into the empty hulls of the ships, and
+trying to fill those bottomless pits with a stream of talk.  A system of
+slavery is boldly and bluntly sketched; the writer, in the hurry and
+stress of the moment, giving to its economic advantages rather greater
+prominence than to its religious glories.  The memorandum, for all its
+courageous attempt to be very cool and orderly and practical, gives us,
+if ever a human document did, a picture of a man struggling with an
+impossible situation which he will not squarely face, like one who should
+try to dig up the sea-shore and keep his eyes shut the while.
+
+In the royal comments written against the document one seems to trace the
+hand of Isabella rather than of Ferdinand.  Their tone is matter-of-fact,
+cool, and comforting, like the coolness of a woman's hand placed on a
+feverish brow.  Isabella believed in him; perhaps she read between the
+lines of this document, and saw, as we can see, how much anxiety and
+distress were written there; and her comments are steadying and
+encouraging.  He has done well; what he asks is being attended to; their
+Highnesses are well informed in regard to this and that matter; suitable
+provision will be made for everything; but let him endeavour that the
+amount of this gold may be known as precisely as possible.  There is no
+escaping from that.  The Admiral (no one knows it better than himself)
+must make good his dazzling promises, and coin every boastful word into a
+golden excelente of Spain.  Alas!  he must no longer write about the lush
+grasses, the shining rivers, the brightly coloured parrots, the gaudy
+flies and insects, the little singing birds, and the nights that are like
+May in Cordova.  He must find out about the gold; for it has come to grim
+business in the Earthly Paradise.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Christopher Columbus, Volume 4, by Filson Young
+
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+
+
+                         CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS
+                   AND THE NEW WORLD OF HIS DISCOVERY
+
+                      A NARRATIVE BY FILSON YOUNG
+
+
+
+
+BOOK 4.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE HOUR OF TRIUMPH
+
+From the moment when Columbus set foot on Spanish soil in the spring of
+1493 he was surrounded by a fame and glory which, although they were
+transient, were of a splendour such as few other men can have ever
+experienced.  He had not merely discovered a country, he had discovered a
+world.  He had not merely made a profitable expedition; he had brought
+the promise of untold wealth to the kingdom of Spain.  He had not merely
+made himself the master of savage tribes; he had conquered the
+supernatural, and overcome for ever those powers of darkness that had
+been thought to brood over the vast Atlantic.  He had sailed away in
+obscurity, he had returned in fame; he had departed under a cloud of
+scepticism and ridicule, he had come again in power and glory.  He had
+sailed from Palos as a seeker after hidden wealth, hidden knowledge; he
+returned as teacher, discoverer, benefactor.  The whole of Spain rang
+with his fame, and the echoes of it spread to Portugal, France, England,
+Germany, and Italy; and it reached the ears of his own family, who had
+now left the Vico Dritto di Ponticello in Genoa and were living at
+Savona.
+
+His life ashore in the first weeks following his return was a succession
+of triumphs and ceremonials.  His first care on landing had been to go
+with the whole of his crew to the church of Saint George, where a Te Deum
+was sung in honour of his return; and afterwards to perform those vows
+that he had made at sea in the hour of danger.  There was a certain
+amount of business to transact at Palos in connection with the paying of
+the ships' crews, writing of reports to the Sovereigns, and so forth; and
+it is likely that he stayed with his friends at the monastery of La
+Rabida while this was being done.  The Court was at Barcelona; and it was
+probably only a sense of his own great dignity and importance that
+prevented Christopher from setting off on the long journey immediately.
+But he who had made so many pilgrimages to Court as a suitor could revel
+in a position that made it possible for him to hang back, and to be
+pressed and invited; and so when his business at Palos was finished he
+sent a messenger with his letters and reports to Barcelona, and himself,
+with his crew and his Indians and all his trophies, departed for Seville,
+where he arrived on Palm Sunday.
+
+His entrance into that city was only a foretaste of the glory in which he
+was to move across the whole of Spain.  He was met at the gates of the
+city by a squadron of cavalry commanded by an envoy sent by Queen
+Isabella; and a procession was formed of members of the crew carrying
+parrots, alive and stuffed, fruits, vegetables, and various other
+products of the New World.
+
+In a prominent place came the Indians, or rather four of them, for one
+had died on the day they entered Palos and three were too ill to leave
+that town; but the ones that took part in the procession got all the more
+attention and admiration.  The streets of Seville were crowded; crowded
+also were the windows, balconies, and roofs.  The Admiral was entertained
+at the house of the Count of Cifuentes, where his little museum of dead
+and live curiosities was also accommodated, and where certain favoured
+visitors were admitted to view it.  His two sons, Diego and Ferdinand,
+were sent from Cordova to join him; and perhaps he found time to visit
+Beatriz, although there is no record of his having been to Cordova or of
+her having come to Seville.
+
+
+Meanwhile his letters and messengers to the King and Queen had produced
+their due effect.  The almost incredible had come to pass, and they saw
+themselves the monarchs not merely of Spain, but of a new Empire that
+might be as vast as Europe and Africa together.  On the 30th of March
+they despatched a special messenger with a letter to Columbus, whose eyes
+must have sparkled and heart expanded when he read the superscription:
+"From the King and Queen to Don Christoval Colon, their Admiral of the
+Ocean Seas and Viceroy and Governor of the Islands discovered in the
+Indies."  No lack of titles and dignities now!  Their Majesties express a
+profound sense of his ability and distinction, of the greatness of his
+services to them, to the Church, and to God Himself.  They hope that he
+will lose no time, but repair to Barcelona immediately, so that they can
+have the pleasure of hearing from his own lips an account of his
+wonderful expedition, and of discussing with him the preparations that
+must immediately be set on foot to fit out a new one.  On receiving this
+letter Christopher immediately drew up a list of what he thought
+necessary for the new expedition and, collecting all his retinue and his
+museum of specimens, started by road for Barcelona.
+
+Every one in Spain had by this time heard more or less exaggerated
+accounts of the discoveries, and the excitement in the towns and villages
+through which he passed was extreme.  Wherever he went he was greeted and
+feasted like a king returning from victorious wars; the people lined the
+streets of the towns and villages, and hung out banners, and gazed their
+fill at the Indians and at the strange sun-burned faces of the crew.  At
+Barcelona, where they arrived towards the end of April, the climax of
+these glittering dignities was reached.  When the King and Queen heard
+that Columbus was approaching the town they had their throne prepared
+under a magnificent pavilion, and in the hot sunshine of that April day
+they sat and waited the--coming of the great man.  A glittering troop of
+cavalry had been sent out to meet him, and at the gates of the town a
+procession was formed similar to that at Seville.  He had now six natives
+with him, who occupied an important place in the procession; sailors
+also, who carried baskets of fruit and vegetables from Espanola, with
+stuffed birds and animals, and a monstrous lizard held aloft on a stick.
+The Indians were duly decked out in all their paint and feathers; but if
+they were a wonder and marvel to the people of Spain, what must Spain
+have been to them with its great buildings and cities, its carriages and
+horses, its glittering dresses and armours, its splendour and luxury!
+We have no record of what the Indians thought, only of what the crowd
+thought who gaped upon them and upon the gaudy parrots that screeched and
+fluttered also in the procession.  Columbus came riding on horseback, as
+befitted a great Admiral and Viceroy, surrounded by his pilots and
+principal officers; and followed by men bearing golden belts, golden
+masks, nuggets of gold and dust of gold, and preceded by heralds,
+pursuivants, and mace-bearers.
+
+What a return for the man who three years before had been pointed at and
+laughed to scorn in this same brilliant society!  The crowds pressed so
+closely that the procession could hardly get through the streets; the
+whole population was there to witness it; and the windows and balconies
+and roofs of the houses, as well as the streets themselves, were thronged
+with a gaily dressed and wildly excited crowd.  At length the procession
+reaches the presence of the King and Queen and, crowning and
+unprecedented honour!  as the Admiral comes before them Ferdinand and
+Isabella rise to greet him.  Under their own royal canopy a seat is
+waiting for him; and when he has made his ceremonial greeting he is
+invited to sit in their presence and give an account of his voyage.
+
+He is fully equal to the situation; settles down to do himself and his
+subject justice; begins, we may be sure, with a preamble about the
+providence of God and its wisdom and consistency in preserving the
+narrator and preparing his life for this great deed; putting in a deal of
+scientific talk which had in truth nothing to do with the event, but was
+always applied to it in Columbus's writings from this date onwards; and
+going on to describe the voyage, the sea of weeds, the landfall, his
+intercourse with the natives, their aptitude for labour and Christianity,
+and the hopes he has of their early conversion to the Catholic Church.
+And then follows a long description of the wonderful climate, "like May
+in Andalusia," the noble rivers, and gorgeous scenery, the trees and
+fruits and flowers and singing birds; the spices and the cotton; and
+chief of all, the vast stores of gold and pearls of which the Admiral had
+brought home specimens.  At various stages in his narrative he produces
+illustrations; now a root of rhubarb or allspice; now a raw nugget of
+gold; now a piece of gold laboured into a mask or belt; now a native
+decorated with the barbaric ornaments that were the fashion in Espanola.
+These things, says Columbus, are mere first-fruits of the harvest that is
+to come; the things which he, like the dove that had flown across the sea
+from the Ark and brought back an olive leaf in its mouth, has brought
+back across the stormy seas to that Ark of civilisation from which he had
+flown forth.
+
+It was to Columbus an opportunity of stretching his visionary wings and
+creating with pompous words and images a great halo round himself of
+dignity and wonder and divine distinction,--an opportunity such as he
+loved, and such as he never failed to make use of.
+
+The Sovereigns were delighted and profoundly impressed.  Columbus wound
+up his address with an eloquent peroration concerning the glory to
+Christendom of these new discoveries; and there followed an impressive
+silence, during which the Sovereigns sank on their knees and raised hands
+and tearful eyes to heaven, an example in which they were followed by the
+whole of the assembly; and an appropriate gesture enough, seeing what was
+to come of it all.  The choir of the Chapel Royal sang a solemn Te Deum
+on the spot; and the Sovereigns and nobles, bishops, archbishops,
+grandees, hidalgos, chamberlains, treasurers, chancellors and other
+courtiers, being exhausted by these emotions, retired to dinner.
+
+
+During his stay at Barcelona Columbus was the guest of the Cardinal-
+Archbishop of Toledo, and moved thus in an atmosphere of combined
+temporal and spiritual dignity such as his soul loved.  Very agreeable
+indeed to him was the honour shown to him at this time.  Deep down in his
+heart there was a secret nerve of pride and vanity which throughout his
+life hitherto had been continually mortified and wounded; but he was able
+now to indulge his appetite for outward pomp and honour as much as he
+pleased.  When King Ferdinand went out to ride Columbus would be seen
+riding on one side of him, the young Prince John riding on the other
+side; and everywhere, when he moved among the respectful and admiring
+throng, his grave face was seen to be wreathed in complacent smiles.  His
+hair, which had turned white soon after he was thirty, gave him a
+dignified and almost venerable appearance, although he was only in his
+forty-third year; and combined with his handsome and commanding presence
+to excite immense enthusiasm among the Spaniards.  They forgot for the
+moment what they had formerly remembered and were to remember again--that
+he was a foreigner, an Italian, a man of no family and of poor origin.
+They saw in him the figure-head of a new empire and a new glory, an
+emblem of power and riches, of the dominion which their proud souls
+loved; and so there beamed upon him the brief fickle sunshine of their
+smiles and favour, which he in his delusion regarded as an earnest of
+their permanent honour and esteem.
+
+It is almost always thus with a man not born to such dignities, and who
+comes by them through his own efforts and labours.  No one would grudge
+him the short-lived happiness of these summer weeks; but although he
+believed himself to be as happy as a man can be, he appears to quietly
+contemplating eyes less happy and fortunate than when he stood alone on
+the deck of his ship, surrounded by an untrustworthy crew, prevailing by
+his own unaided efforts over the difficulties and dangers with which he
+was surrounded.  Court functions and processions, and the companionship
+of kings and cardinals, are indeed no suitable reward for the kind of
+work that he did.  Courtly dignities are suited to courtly services; but
+they are no suitable crown for rough labour and hardship at sea, or for
+the fulfilment of a man's self by lights within him; no suitable crown
+for any solitary labour whatsoever, which must always be its own and only
+reward.
+
+
+It is to this period of splendour that the story of the egg, which is to
+some people the only familiar incident in Columbian biography, is
+attributed.  The story is that at a banquet given by the Cardinal-Arch
+bishop the conversation ran, as it always did in those days when he was
+present, on the subject of the Admiral's discoveries; and that one of the
+guests remarked that it was all very well for Columbus to have done what
+he did, but that in a country like Spain, where there were so many men
+learned in science and cosmography, and many able mariners besides, some
+one else would certainly have been found who would have done the same
+thing.  Whereupon Columbus, calling for an egg, laid a wager that none of
+the company but him self could make it stand on its end without support.
+The egg was brought and passed round, and every one tried to make it
+stand on end, but without success.  When it came to Columbus he cracked
+the shell at one end, making a flat surface on which the egg stood
+upright; thus demonstrating that a thing might be wonderful, not because
+it was difficult or impossible, but merely because no one had ever
+thought of doing it before.  A sufficiently inane story, and by no means
+certainly true; but there is enough character in this little feat,
+ponderous, deliberate, pompous, ostentatious, and at bottom a trick and
+deceitful quibble, to make it accord with the grandiloquent public manner
+of Columbus, and to make it easily believable of one who chose to show
+himself in his speech and writings so much more meanly and pretentiously
+than he showed himself in the true acts and business of his life.
+
+
+But pomp and parade were not the only occupation of these Barcelona days.
+There were long consultations with Ferdinand and Isabella about the
+colonisation of the new lands; there were intrigues, and parrying of
+intrigues, between the Spanish and Portuguese Courts on the subject of
+the discoveries and of the representative rights of the two nations to be
+the religious saviours of the New World.  The Pope, to whose hands the
+heathen were entrusted by God to be handed for an inheritance to the
+highest and most religious bidder, had at that time innocently divided
+them into two portions, to wit: heathen to the south of Spain and
+Portugal, and heathen to the west of those places.  By the Bull of 1438,
+granted by Pope Martin V., the heathen to the west had been given to the
+Spanish, and the heathen to the south to the Portuguese, and the two
+crowns had in 1479 come to a working agreement.  Now, however, the
+existence of more heathen to the west of the Azores introduced a new
+complication, and Ferdinand sent a message to Pope Alexander VI. praying
+for a confirmation of the Spanish title to the new discoveries.
+
+This Pope, who was a native of Aragon and had been a subject of
+Ferdinand, was a stolid, perverse, and stubborn being; so much is
+advertised in his low forehead, impudent prominent nose, thick sensual
+lips, and stout bull neck.  This Pope considers the matter; considers,
+by such lights as he has, to whom he shall entrust the souls of these new
+heathen; considers which country, Spain or Portugal, is most likely to
+hold and use the same for the increase of the Christian faith in general,
+the furtherance of the Holy Catholic Church in special, and the
+aggrandisement of Popes in particular; and shrewdly decides that the
+country in which the.  Inquisition can flourish is the country to whom
+the heathen souls should be entrusted.  He therefore issues a Bull, dated
+May 3, 1493, granting to the Spanish the possession of all lands, not
+occupied by Christian powers, that lie west of a meridian drawn one
+hundred leagues to the westward of the Azores, and to the Portuguese
+possession of all similar lands lying to the eastward of that line.  He
+sleeps upon this Bull, and has inspiration; and on the morrow, May 4th,
+issues another Bull, drawing a line from the arctic to the antarctic
+pole, and granting to Spain all heathen inheritance to the westward of
+the same.  The Pope, having signed this Bull, considers it further-
+assisted, no doubt, by the Portuguese Ambassador at the Vatican, to whom
+it has been shown; realises that in the wording of the Bull an injustice
+has been done to Portugal, since Spain is allowed to fix very much at her
+own convenience the point at which the line drawn from pole to pole shall
+cut the equator; and also because, although Spain is given all the lands
+in existence within her territory, Portugal is only given the lands which
+she may actually have occupied.  Even the legal mind of the Pope,
+although much drowsed and blunted by brutish excesses, discerns
+faultiness in this document; and consequently on the same day issues a
+third Bull, in which the injustice to Portugal is redressed.  Nothing so
+easy, thinks the Pope, as to issue Bulls; if you make a mistake in one
+Bull, issue another; and, having issued three Bulls in twenty-four hours,
+he desists for the present, having divided the earthly globe.
+
+Thus easy it is for a Pope to draw lines from pole to pole, and across
+the deep of the sea.  Yet the poles sleep still in their icy virginal
+sanctity, and the blue waves through which that papal line passes shift
+and shimmer and roll in their free salt loneliness, unaffected by his
+demarcation; the heathen also, it appears, since that distant day, have
+had something to say to their disposition.  If he had slept upon it
+another night, poor Pope, it might have occurred to him that west and
+east might meet on a meridian situated elsewhere on the globe than one
+hundred miles west of the Azores; and that the Portuguese, who for the
+moment had nothing heathen except Africa left to them, might according to
+his demarcation strike a still richer vein of heathendom than that
+granted to Spain.  But the holy Pontiff, bull neck, low forehead,
+impudent prominent nose, and sensual lips notwithstanding, is exhausted
+by his cosmographical efforts, and he lets it rest at that.  Later, when
+Spain discovers that her privileges have been abated, he will have to
+issue another Bull; but not to-day.  Sufficient unto the day are the
+Bulls thereof.  For the moment King proposes and Pope disposes; but the
+matter lies ultimately in the hands of the two eternal protagonists, man
+and God.
+
+
+In the meantime here are six heathen alive and well, or at any rate well
+enough to support, willy-nilly, the rite of holy baptism.  They must have
+been sufficiently dazed and bewildered by all that had happened to them
+since they were taken on board the Admiral's ship, and God alone knows
+what they thought of it all, or whether they thought anything more than
+the parrots that screamed and fluttered and winked circular eyes in the
+procession with them.  Doubtless they were willing enough; and indeed,
+after all they had come through, a little cold water could not do them
+any harm.  So baptized they were in Barcelona; pompously baptized with
+infinite state and ceremony, the King and Queen and Prince Juan
+officiating as sponsors.  Queen Isabella, after the manner of queens,
+took a kindly feminine interest in these heathen, and in their brethren
+across the sea.  She had seen a good deal of conquest, and knew her
+Spaniard pretty intimately; and doubtless her maternal heart had some
+misgivings about the ultimate happiness of the gentle, handsome creatures
+who lived in the sunshine in that distant place.  She made their souls
+her especial care, and honestly believed that by providing for their
+spiritual conversion she was doing them the greatest service in her
+power.  She provided from her own private chapel vestments and altar
+furniture for the mission church in Espanola; she had the six exiles in
+Barcelona instructed under her eye; and she gave Columbus special orders
+to inflict severe punishments on any one who should offer the natives
+violence or injustice of any kind.  It must be remembered to her credit
+that in after days, when slavery and an intolerable bloody and brutish
+oppression had turned the paradise of Espanola into a shambles, she
+fought almost singlehanded, and with an ethical sense far in advance of
+her day, against the system of slavery practised by Spain upon the
+inhabitants of the New World.
+
+
+The dignities that had been provisionally granted to Columbus before his
+departure on the first voyage were now elaborately confirmed; and in
+addition he was given another title--that of Captain-General of the large
+fleet which was to be fitted out to sail to the new colonies.  He was
+entrusted with the royal seal, which gave him the right to grant letters
+patent, to issue commissions, and to Appoint deputies in the royal name.
+A coat-of-arms was also granted to him in which, in its original form,
+the lion and castle of Leon and Castile were quartered with islands of
+the sea or on a field azure, and five anchors or on a field azure.  This
+was changed from time to time, chiefly by Columbus himself, who
+afterwards added a continent to the islands, and modified the blazonry of
+the lion and castle to agree with those on the royal arms--a piece of
+ignorance and childish arrogance which was quite characteristic of him.
+
+
+
+     [A motto has since been associated with the coat-of-arms, although
+     it is not certain that Columbus adopted it in his lifetime.  In one
+     form it reads:
+                      "Por Castilla e por Leon
+                       Nueva Mundo hallo Colon."]
+
+           (For Castile and Leon Columbus found a New World.)
+
+And in the other:
+
+                       "A Castilla y a Leon
+                        Nuevo Mundo dio Colon."
+
+            (To Castile and Leon Columbus gave a New World.)
+
+
+Equally characteristic and less excusable was his acceptance of the
+pension of ten thousand maravedis which had been offered to the member of
+the expedition who should first sight land.  Columbus was granted a very
+large gratuity on his arrival in Barcelona, and even taking the product
+of the islands at a tenth part of their value as estimated by him, he
+still had every right to suppose himself one of the richest men in Spain.
+Yet he accepted this paltry pension of L8. 6s. 8d.  in our modern
+money(of 1900), which, taking the increase in the purchasing power of
+money at an extreme estimate, would not be more than the equivalent of
+$4000 now.  Now Columbus had not been the first person to see land; he
+saw the light, but it was Rodrigo de Triana, the look-out man on the
+Pinta, who first saw the actual land.  Columbus in his narrative to the
+King and Queen would be sure to make much of the seeing of the light, and
+not so much of the actual sighting of land; and he was on the spot, and
+the reward was granted to him.  Even if we assume that in strict equity
+Columbus was entitled to it, it was at least a matter capable of
+argument, if only Rodrigo de Triana had been there to argue it; and what
+are we to think of the Admiral of the Ocean Seas and Viceroy of the
+Indies who thus takes what can only be called a mean advantage of a poor
+seaman in his employ?  It would have been a competence and a snug little
+fortune to Rodrigo de Triana; it was a mere flea-bite to a man who was
+thinking in eighth parts of continents.  It may be true, as Oviedo
+alleges, that Columbus transferred it to Beatriz Enriquez; but he had no
+right to provide for her out of money that in all equity and decency
+ought to have gone to another and a poorer man.  His biographers, some of
+whom have vied with his canonisers in insisting upon seeing virtue in his
+every action, have gone to all kinds of ridiculous extremes in accounting
+for this piece of meanness.  Irving says that it was "a subject in which
+his whole ambition was involved"; but a plain person will regard it as an
+instance of greed and love of money.  We must not shirk facts like this
+if we wish to know the man as he really was.  That he was capable of
+kindness and generosity, and that he was in the main kind-hearted, we
+have fortunately no reason to doubt; and if I dwell on some of his less
+amiable characteristics it is with no desire to magnify them out of their
+due proportion.  They are part of that side of him that lay in shadow, as
+some side of each one of us lies; for not all by light nor all by shade,
+but by light and shade combined, is the image of a man made visible to
+us.
+
+
+It is quite of a piece with the character of Columbus that while he was
+writing a receipt for the look-out man's money and thinking what a pretty
+gift it would make for Beatriz Enriquez he was planning a splendid and
+spectacular thank-offering for all the dignities to which he had been
+raised; and, brooding upon the vast wealth that was now to be his, that
+he should register a vow to furnish within seven years an expedition of
+four thousand horse and fifty thousand foot for the rescue of the Holy
+Sepulchre, and a similar force within five years after the first if it
+should be necessary.  It was probable that the vow was a provisional one,
+and that its performance was to be contingent on his actual receipt and
+possession of the expected money; for as we know, there was no money and
+no expedition.  The vow was in effect a kind of religious flourish much
+beloved by Columbus, undertaken seriously and piously enough, but
+belonging rather to his public than to his private side.  A much more
+simple and truly pious act of his was, not the promising of visionary but
+the sending of actual money to his old father in Savona, which he did
+immediately after his arrival in Spain.  The letter which he wrote with
+that kindly remittance, not being couched in the pompous terms which he
+thought suitable for princes, and doubtless giving a brief homely account
+of what he had done, would, if we could come by it, be a document beyond
+all price; but like every other record of his family life it has utterly
+perished.
+
+He wrote also from Barcelona to his two brothers, Bartholomew and
+Giacomo, or James, since we may as well give him the English equivalent
+of his name.  Bartholomew was in France, whither he had gone some time
+after his return from his memorable voyage with Bartholomew Diaz; he was
+employed as a map-maker at the court of Anne de Beaujeu, who was reigning
+in the temporary absence of her brother Charles VIII.  Columbus's letter
+reached him, but much too late for him to be able to join in the second
+expedition; in fact he did not reach Seville until five months after it
+had sailed.  James, however, who was now twenty-five years old, was still
+at Savona; he, like Columbus, had been apprenticed to his father, but had
+apparently remained at home earning his living either as a wool-weaver or
+merchant.  He was a quiet, discreet young fellow, who never pushed
+himself forward very much, wore very plain clothes, and was apparently
+much overawed by the grandeur and dignity of his elder brother.  He was,
+however, given a responsible post in the new expedition, and soon had his
+fill of adventure.
+
+
+The business of preparing for the new expedition was now put in hand, and
+Columbus, having taken leave of Ferdinand and Isabella, went to Seville
+to superintend the preparations.  All the ports in Andalusia were ordered
+to supply such vessels as might be required at a reasonable cost, and the
+old order empowering the Admiral to press mariners into the service was
+renewed.  But this time it was unnecessary; the difficulty now was rather
+to keep down the number of applicants for berths in the expedition, and
+to select from among the crowd of adventurers who offered themselves
+those most suitable for the purposes of the new colony.  In this work
+Columbus was assisted by a commissioner whom the Sovereigns had appointed
+to superintend the fitting out of the expedition.  This man was a cleric,
+Juan Rodriguez de Fonseca, Archdeacon of Seville, a person of excellent
+family and doubtless of high piety, and of a surpassing shrewdness for
+this work.  He was of a type very commonly produced in Spain at this
+period; a very able organiser, crafty and competent, but not altogether
+trustworthy on a point of honour.  Like so many ecclesiastics of this
+stamp, he lived for as much power and influence as he could achieve; and
+though he was afterwards bishop of three sees successively, and became
+Patriarch of the Indies, he never let go his hold on temporal affairs.
+He began by being jealous of Columbus, and by objecting to the personal
+retinue demanded by the Admiral; and in this, if I know anything of the
+Admiral, he was probably justified.  The matter was referred to the
+Sovereigns, who ordered Fonseca to carry out the Admiral's wishes; and
+the two were immediately at loggerheads.  When the Council for the Indies
+was afterwards formed Fonseca became head, of it, and had much power to
+make things pleasant or otherwise for Columbus.
+
+It became necessary now to raise a considerable sum of money for the new
+expedition.  Two-thirds of the ecclesiastical tithes were appropriated,
+and a large proportion of the confiscated property of the Jews who had
+been banished from Spain the year before; but this was not enough; and
+five million maravedis were borrowed from the Duke of Medina Sidonia in
+order to complete the financial supplies necessary for this very costly
+expedition.  There was a treasurer, Francisco Pinelo, and an accountant,
+Juan de Soria, who had charge of all the financial arrangements; but the
+whole of the preparations were conducted on a ruinously expensive scale,
+owing to the haste which the diplomatic relations with Portugal made
+necessary.  The provisioning was done by a Florentine merchant named
+Juonato Beradi, who had an assistant named Amerigo Vespucci--who, by a
+strange accident, was afterwards to give his name to the continent of the
+New World.
+
+
+While these preparations were going on the game of diplomacy was being
+played between the Courts of Spain and Portugal.  King John of Portugal
+had the misfortune to be badly advised; and he was persuaded that,
+although he had lost the right to the New World through his rejection of
+Columbus's services when they were first offered to him, he might still
+discover it for himself, relying for protection on the vague wording of
+the papal Bulls.  He immediately began to prepare a fleet, nominally to
+go to the coast of Africa, but really to visit the newly discovered lands
+in the west.  Hearing of these preparations, King Ferdinand sent an
+Ambassador to the Portuguese Court; and King John agreed also to appoint
+an Ambassador to discuss the whole matter of the line of demarcation, and
+in the meantime not to allow any of his ships to sail to the west for a
+period of sixty days after his Ambassador had reached Barcelona.  There
+followed a good deal of diplomatic sharp practice; the Portuguese bribing
+the Spanish officials to give them information as to what was going on,
+and the Spaniards furnishing their envoys with double sets of letters and
+documents so that they could be prepared to counter any movement on the
+part of King John.  The idea of the Portuguese was that the line of
+demarcation should be a parallel rather than a meridian; and that
+everything north of the Canaries should belong to Spain and everything
+south to Portugal; but this would never do from the Spanish point of
+view.  The fact that a proposal had come from Portugal, however, gave
+Ferdinand an opportunity of delaying the diplomatic proceedings until his
+own expedition was actually ready to set sail; and he wrote to Columbus
+repeatedly, urging him to make all possible haste with his preparations.
+In the meantime he despatched a solemn embassy to Portugal, the purport
+of which, much beclouded and delayed by preliminary and impossible
+proposals, was to submit the whole question to the Pope for arbitration.
+And all the time he was busy petitioning the Pope to restore to Spain
+those concessions granted in the second Bull, but taken away again in the
+third.
+
+This, being much egged on to it, the Pope ultimately did; waking up on
+September 26th, the day after Columbus's departure, and issuing another
+Bull in which the Spanish Sovereigns were given all lands and islands,
+discovered or not discovered, which might be found by sailing west and
+south.  Four Bulls; and after puzzling over them for a year, the Kings of
+Spain and Portugal decided to make their own Bull, and abide by it,
+which, having appointed commissioners, they did on June 7, 1494., when by
+the Treaty of Tordecillas the line of demarcation was finally fixed to
+pass from north to south through a point 370 leagues west of the Cape
+Verde Islands.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+GREAT EXPECTATIONS
+
+July, August, and September in the year 1493 were busy months for
+Columbus, who had to superintend the buying or building and fitting of
+ships, the choice and collection of stores, and the selection of his
+company.  There were fourteen caravels, some of them of low tonnage and
+light draught, and suitable for the navigation of rivers; and three large
+carracks, or ships of three to four hundred tons.  The number of
+volunteers asked for was a thousand, but at least two thousand applied
+for permission to go with the expedition, and ultimately some fourteen or
+fifteen hundred did actually go, one hundred stowaways being included in
+the number.  Unfortunately these adventurers were of a class compared
+with whom even the cut-throats and gaol-birds of the humble little
+expedition that had sailed the year before from Palos were useful and
+efficient.  The universal impression about the new lands in the West was
+that they were places where fortunes could be picked up like dirt, and
+where the very shores were strewn with gold and precious stones; and
+every idle scamp in Spain who had a taste for adventure and a desire to
+get a great deal of money without working for it was anxious to visit the
+new territory.  The result was that instead of artisans, farmers,
+craftsmen, and colonists, Columbus took with him a company at least half
+of which consisted of exceedingly well-bred young gentlemen who had no
+intention of doing any work, but who looked forward to a free and lawless
+holiday and an early return crowned with wealth and fortune.  Although
+the expedition was primarily for the establishment of a colony, no
+Spanish women accompanied it; and this was but one of a succession of
+mistakes and stupidities.
+
+The Admiral, however, was not to be so lonely a person as he had been on
+his first voyage; friends of his own choice and of a rank that made
+intimacy possible even with the Captain-General were to accompany him.
+There was James his brother; there was Friar Bernardo Buil, a Benedictine
+monk chosen by the Pope to be his apostolic vicar in the New World; there
+was Alonso de Ojeda, a handsome young aristocrat, cousin to the
+Inquisitor of Spain, who was distinguished for his dash and strength and
+pluck; an ideal adventurer, the idol of his fellows, and one of whose
+daring any number of credible and incredible tales were told.  There was
+Pedro Margarite, a well-born Aragonese, who was destined afterwards to
+cause much trouble; there was Juan Ponce de Leon, the discoverer of
+Florida; there was Juan de La Cosa, Columbus's faithful pilot on the
+Santa Maria on his first voyage; there was Pedro de Las Casas, whose son,
+at this time a student in Seville, was afterwards to become the historian
+of the New World and the champion of decency and humanity there.  There
+was also Doctor Chanca, a Court physician who accompanied the expedition
+not only in his professional capacity but also because his knowledge of
+botany would enable him to make, a valuable report on the vegetables and
+fruits of the New World; there was Antonio de Marchena, one of Columbus's
+oldest friends, who went as astronomer to the expedition.  And there was
+one Coma, who would have remained unknown to this day but that he wrote
+an exceedingly elegant letter to his friend Nicolo Syllacio in Italy,
+describing in flowery language the events of the second voyage; which
+letter, and one written by Doctor Chanca, are the only records of the
+outward voyage that exist.  The journal kept by Columbus on this voyage
+has been lost, and no copy of it remains.
+
+
+Columbus settled at Cadiz during the time in which he was engaged upon
+the fitting out of the expedition.  It was no light matter to superintend
+the appointment of the crews and passengers, every one of whom was
+probably interviewed by Columbus himself, and at the same time to keep
+level with Archdeacon Fonseca.  This official, it will be remembered,
+had a disagreement with Columbus as to the number of personal attendants
+he was to be allowed; and on the matter being referred to the King and
+Queen they granted Columbus the ridiculous establishment of ten footmen
+and twenty other servants.
+
+Naturally Fonseca held up his hands and wondered where it would all end.
+It was no easy matter, moreover, on receipt of letters from the Queen
+about small matters which occurred to her from time to time, to answer
+them fully and satisfactorily, and at the same time to make out all the
+lists of things that would likely be required both for provisioning the
+voyage and establishing a colony.  The provisions carried in those days
+were not very different from the provisions carried on deep-sea vessels
+at the present time--except that canned meat, for which, with its horrors
+and conveniences, the world may hold Columbus responsible, had not then
+been invented.  Unmilled wheat, salted flour, and hard biscuit formed the
+bulk of the provisions; salted pork was the staple--of the meat supply,
+with an alternative of salted fish; while cheese, peas, lentils and
+beans, oil and vinegar, were also carried, and honey and almonds and
+raisins for the cabin table.  Besides water a large provision of rough
+wine in casks was taken, and the dietary scale would probably compare
+favourably with that of the British and American mercantile service sixty
+years ago.  In addition a great quantity of seeds of all kinds were taken
+for planting in Espanola; sugar cane, rice, and vines also, and an
+equipment of agricultural implements, as well as a selection of horses
+and other domestic animals for breeding purposes.  Twenty mounted
+soldiers were also carried, and the thousand and one impedimenta of
+naval, military, and domestic existence.
+
+In the middle of all these preparations news came that a Portuguese
+caravel had set sail from Madeira in the direction of the new lands.
+Columbus immediately reported this to the King and Queen, and suggested
+detaching part of his fleet to pursue her; but instead King John was
+communicated with, and he declared that if the vessel had sailed as
+alleged it was without his knowledge and permission, and that he would
+send three ships after her to recall her--an answer which had to be
+accepted, although it opened up rather alarming possibilities of four
+Portuguese vessels reaching the new islands instead of one.  Whether
+these ships ever really sailed or not, or whether the rumour was merely a
+rumour and an alarm, is not certain; but Columbus was ordered to push on
+his preparations with the greatest possible speed, to avoid Portuguese
+waters, but to capture any vessels which he might find in the part of the
+ocean allotted to Spain, and to inflict summary punishment on the crews.
+As it turned out he never saw any Portuguese vessels, and before he had
+returned to Spain again the two nations had come to an amicable agreement
+quite independently of the Pope and his Bulls.  Spain undertook to make
+no discoveries to the east of the line of demarcation, and Portugal none
+to the west of it; and so the matter remained until the inhabitants of
+the discovered lands began to have a voice in their own affairs.
+
+
+With all his occupations Columbus found time for some amenities, and he
+had his two sons, Diego and Ferdinand, staying with him at Cadiz.  Great
+days they must have been for these two boys; days filled with excitement
+and commotion, with the smell of tar and the loading of the innumerable
+and fascinating materials of life; and many a journey they must have made
+on the calm waters of Cadiz harbour from ship to ship, dreaming of the
+distant seas that these high, quaintly carven prows would soon be
+treading, and the wonderful bays and harbours far away across the world
+into the waters of which their anchors were to plunge.
+
+
+September 24th, the day before the fleet sailed, was observed as a
+festival; and in full ceremonial the blessing of God upon the enterprise
+was invoked.  The ships were hung with flags and with dyed silks and
+tapestries; every vessel flew the royal standard; and the waters of the
+harbour resounded with the music of trumpets and harps and pipes and the
+thunder of artillery.  Some Venetian galleys happened to enter the
+harbour as the fleet was preparing to weigh, and they joined in the
+salutes and demonstrations which signalled the departure.  The Admiral
+hoisted his flag on the 'Marigalante', one of the largest of the ships;
+and somewhere among the smaller caravels the little Nina, re-caulked and
+re-fitted, was also preparing to brave again the dangers over which she
+had so staunchly prevailed.  At sunrise on the 25th the fleet weighed
+anchor, with all the circumstance and bustle and apparent confusion that
+accompanies the business of sailing-ships getting under weigh.  Up to the
+last minute Columbus had his two sons on board with him, and it was not
+until the ripples were beginning to talk under the bow of the Marigalante
+that he said good-bye to them and saw them rowed ashore.  In bright
+weather, with a favourable breeze, in glory and dignity, and with high
+hopes in his heart, the Admiral set out once more on the long sea-road.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE SECOND VOYAGE
+
+The second voyage of Columbus, profoundly interesting as it must have
+been to him and to the numerous company to whom these waters were a
+strange and new region, has not the romantic interest for us that his
+first voyage had.  To the faith that guided him on his first venture
+knowledge and certainty had now been added; he was going by a familiar
+road; for to the mariner a road that he has once followed is a road that
+he knows.  As a matter of fact, however, this second voyage was a far
+greater test of Columbus's skill as a navigator than the first voyage had
+been.  If his navigation had been more haphazard he might never have
+found again the islands of his first discovery; and the fact that he made
+a landfall exactly where he wished to make it shows a high degree of
+exactness in his method of ascertaining latitude, and is another instance
+of his skill in estimating his dead-reckoning.  If he had been equipped
+with a modern quadrant and Greenwich chronometers he could not have made
+a quicker voyage nor a more exact landfall.
+
+It will be remembered that he had been obliged to hurry away from
+Espanola without visiting the islands of the Caribs as he had wished to
+do.  He knew that these islands lay to the south-east of Espanola, and on
+his second voyage he therefore took a course rather more southerly in
+order, to make them instead of Guanahani or Espanola.  From the day they
+left Spain his ships had pleasant light airs from the east and north-east
+which wafted them steadily but slowly on their course.  In a week they
+had reached the Grand Canary, where they paused to make some repairs to
+one of the ships which, was leaking.  Two days later they anchored at
+Gomera, and loaded up with such supplies as could be procured there
+better than in Spain.  Pigs, goats, sheep and cows were taken on board;
+domestic fowls also, and a variety of orchard plants and fruit seeds, as
+well as a provision of oranges, lemons, and melons.  They sailed from
+Gomera on the 7th of October, but the winds were so light that it was a
+week later before they had passed Ferro and were once more in the open
+Atlantic.
+
+On setting his course from Ferro Columbus issued sealed instructions to
+the captain of each ship which, in the event of the fleet becoming
+scattered, would guide them to the harbour of La Navidad in Espanola;
+but the captains had strict orders not to open these instructions unless
+their ships became separated from the fleet, as Columbus still wished to
+hold for himself the secret of this mysterious road to the west.  There
+were no disasters, however, and no separations.  The trade wind blew soft
+and steady, wafting them south and west; and because of the more
+southerly course steered on this voyage they did not even encounter the
+weed of the Sargasso Sea, which they left many leagues on their starboard
+hand.  The only incident of the voyage was a sudden severe hurricane, a
+brief summer tempest which raged throughout one night and terrified a
+good many of the voyagers, whose superstitious fears were only allayed
+when they saw the lambent flames of the light of Saint Elmo playing about
+the rigging of the Admiral's ship.  It was just the Admiral's luck that
+this phenomenon should be observed over his ship and over none of the
+others; it added to his prestige as a person peculiarly favoured by the
+divine protection, and confirmed his own belief that he held a heavenly
+as well as a royal commission.
+
+The water supply had been calculated a little too closely, and began to
+run low.  The hurried preparation of the ships had resulted as usual in
+bad work; most of them were leaking, and the crew were constantly at work
+at the pumps; and there was the usual discontent.  Columbus, however,
+knew by the signs as well as by his dead-reckoning that he was somewhere
+close to land; and with a fine demonstration of confidence he increased
+the ration of water, instead of lowering it, assuring the crews that they
+would be ashore in a day or two.  On Saturday evening, November 2nd,
+although no land was in sight, Columbus was so sure of his position that
+he ordered the fleet to take in sail and go on slowly until morning.  As
+the Sunday dawned and the sky to the west was cleared of the morning bank
+of clouds the look-out on the Marigalante reported land ahead; and sure
+enough the first sunlight of that day showed them a green and verdant
+island a few leagues away.
+
+As they approached it Columbus christened it Dominica in honour of the
+day on which it was discovered.  He sailed round it; but as there was no
+harbour, and as another island was in sight to the north, he sailed on in
+that direction.  This little island he christened Marigalante; and going
+ashore with his retinue he hoisted the royal banner, and formally took
+possession of the whole group of six islands which were visible from the
+high ground.  There were no inhabitants on the island, but the voyagers
+spent some hours wandering about its tangled woods and smelling the rich
+odours of spice, and tasting new and unfamiliar fruits.  They next sailed
+on to an island to the north which Columbus christened Guadaloupe as a
+memorial of the shrine in Estremadura to which he had made a pious
+pilgrimage.  They landed on this island and remained a week there, in the
+course of which they made some very remarkable discoveries.
+
+The villagers were not altogether unfriendly, although they were shy at
+first; but red caps and hawks' bells had their usual effect.  There were
+signs of warfare, in the shape of bone-tipped arrows; there were tame
+parrots much larger than those of the northern islands; they found
+pottery and rough wood carving, and the unmistakable stern timber of a .
+European vessel.  But they discovered stranger things than that.  They
+found human skulls used as household utensils, and gruesome fragments of
+human bodies, unmistakable remains of a feast; and they realised that at
+last they were in the presence of a man-eating tribe.  Later they came to
+know, something of the habits of the islanders; how they made raiding
+expeditions to the neighbouring islands, and carried off large numbers of
+prisoners, retaining the women as concubines and eating the men.  The
+boys were mutilated and fattened like capons, being employed as labourers
+until they had arrived at years of discretion, at which point they were
+killed and eaten, as these cannibal epicures did not care for the flesh
+of women and boys.  There were a great number of women on the island, and
+many of them were taken off to the ships--with their own consent,
+according to Doctor Chanca.  The men, however, eluded the Spaniards and
+would not come on board, having doubtless very clear views about the
+ultimate destination of men who were taken prisoners.  Some women from a
+neighbouring island, who had been captured by the cannibals, came to
+Columbus and begged to be taken on board his ship for protection; but
+instead of receiving them he decked them with ornaments and sent them
+ashore again.  The cannibals artfully stripped off their ornaments and
+sent them back to get some more.
+
+The peculiar habits of the islanders added an unusual excitement to shore
+leave, and there was as a rule no trouble in collecting the crews and
+bringing them off to the ships at nightfall.  But on one evening it was
+discovered that one of the captains and eight men had not returned.  An
+exploring party was sent of to search for them, but they came back
+without having found anything, except a village in the middle of the
+forest from which the inhabitants had fled at their approach, leaving
+behind them in the cooking pots a half-cooked meal of human remains--an
+incident which gave the explorers a distaste for further search.  Young
+Alonso de Ojeda, however, had no fear of the cannibals; this was just the
+kind of occasion in which he revelled; and he offered to take a party of
+forty men into the interior to search for the missing men.  He went right
+across the island, but was able to discover nothing except birds and
+fruits and unknown trees; and Columbus, in great distress of mind, had to
+give up his men for lost.  He took in wood and water, and was on the
+point of weighing anchor when the missing men appeared on the shore and
+signalled for a boat.  It appeared that they had got lost in a tangled
+forest in the interior, that they had tried to climb the trees in order
+to get their bearings by the stars, but without success; and that they
+had finally struck the sea-shore and followed it until they had arrived
+opposite the anchorage.
+
+They brought some women and boys with them, and the fleet must now have
+had a large number of these willing or unwilling captives.  This was the
+first organised transaction of slavery on the part of Columbus, whose
+design was to send slaves regularly back to Spain in exchange for the
+cattle and supplies necessary for the colonies.  There was not very much
+said now about religious conversion, but only about exchanging the
+natives for cattle.  The fine point of Christopher's philosophy on this
+subject had been rubbed off; he had taken the first step a year ago on
+the beach at Guanahani, and after that the road opened out broad before
+him.  Slaves for cattle, and cattle for the islands; and wealth from
+cattle and islands for Spain, and payment from Spain for Columbus, and
+money from Columbus for the redemption of the Holy Sepulchre--these were
+the links in the chain of hope that bound him to his pious idea.  He had
+seen the same thing done by the Portuguese on the Guinea coast, and it
+never occurred to him that there was anything the matter with it.  On the
+contrary, at this time his idea was only to take slaves from among the
+Caribs and man-eating islanders as a punishment for their misdeeds; but
+this, like his other fine ideas, soon had to give way before the tide of
+greed and conquest.
+
+The Admiral was now anxious to get back to La Navidad, and discover the
+condition of the colony which he had left behind him there.  He therefore
+sailed from Guadaloupe on November 20th and steered to the north-west.
+His captive islanders told him that the mainland lay to the south; and if
+he had listened to them and sailed south he would have probably landed on
+the coast of South America in a fortnight.  He shaped his course instead
+to the north-west, passing many islands, but not pausing until the 14th,
+when he reached the island named by him Santa Cruz.  He found more Caribs
+here, and his men had a brush with them, one of the crew being wounded by
+a poisoned arrow of which he died in a few days.  The Carib Chiefs were
+captured and put in irons.  They sailed again and passed a group of
+islets which Columbus named after Saint Ursula and the Eleven Thousand
+Virgins; discovered Porto Rico also, in one of the beautiful harbours of
+which they anchored and stayed for two days.  Sailing now to the west
+they made land again on the 22nd of November; and coasting along it they
+soon sighted the mountain of Monte Christi, and Columbus recognised that
+he was on the north coast of Espanola.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+THE EARTHLY PARADISE REVISITED
+
+On the 25th November 1493, Columbus once more dropped his anchor in the
+harbour of Monte Christi, and a party was sent ashore to prospect for a
+site suitable for the new town which he intended to build, for he was not
+satisfied with the situation of La Navidad.  There was a large river
+close by; and while the party was surveying the land they came suddenly
+upon two dead bodies lying by the river-side, one with a rope round its
+neck and the other with a rope round its feet.  The bodies were too much
+decomposed to be recognisable; nevertheless to the party rambling about
+in the sunshine and stillness of that green place the discovery was a
+very gruesome one.  They may have thought much, but they said little.
+They returned to the ship, and resumed their search on the next day, when
+they found two more corpses, one of which was seen to have a large
+quantity of beard.  As all the natives were beardless this was a very
+significant and unpleasant discovery, and the explorers returned at once
+and reported what they had seen to Columbus.  He thereupon set sail for
+La Navidad, but the navigation off that part of the coast was necessarily
+slow because of the number of the shoals and banks, on one of which the
+Admiral's ship had been lost the year before; and the short voyage
+occupied three days.
+
+They arrived at La Navidad late on the evening of the 27th--too late to
+make it advisable to land.  Some natives came out in a canoe, rowed round
+the Admiral's ship, stopped and looked at it, and then rowed away again.
+When the fleet had anchored Columbus ordered two guns to be fired; but
+there was no response except from the echoes that went rattling among the
+islands, and from the frightened birds that rose screaming and circling
+from the shore.  No guns and no signal fires; no sign of human habitation
+whatever; and no sound out of the weird darkness except the lap of the
+water and the call of the birds .  .  .  .  The night passed in anxiety
+and depression, and in a certain degree of nervous tension, which was
+relieved at two or three o'clock in the morning by the sound of paddles
+and the looming of a canoe through the dusky starlight.  Native voices
+were heard from the canoe asking in a loud voice for the Admiral; and
+when the visitors had been directed to the Marigalante they refused to go
+on board until Columbus himself had spoken to them, and they had seen by
+the light of a lantern that it was the Admiral himself.  The chief of
+them was a cousin of Guacanagari, who said that the King was ill of a
+wound in his leg, or that he would certainly have come himself to welcome
+the Admiral.  The Spaniards?  Yes, they were well, said the young chief;
+or rather, he added ominously, those that remained were well, but some
+had died of illness, and some had been killed in quarrels that had arisen
+among them.  He added that the province had been invaded by two
+neighbouring kings who had burned many of the native houses.  This news,
+although grave, was a relief from the dreadful uncertainty that had
+prevailed in the early part of the night, and the Admiral's company,
+somewhat consoled, took a little sleep.
+
+In the morning a party was sent ashore to La Navidad.  Not a boat was in
+sight, nor any native canoes; the harbour was silent and deserted.  When
+the party had landed and gone up to the place where the fort had been
+built they found no fort there; only the blackened and charred remains of
+a fort.  The whole thing had been burned level with the ground, and amid
+the blackened ruins they found pieces of rag and clothing.  The natives,
+instead of coming to greet them, lurked guiltily behind trees, and when
+they were seen fled away into the woods.  All this was very disquieting
+indeed, and in significant contrast to their behaviour of the year
+before.  The party from the ship threw buttons and beads and bells to the
+retiring natives in order to try and induce them to come forward, but
+only four approached, one of whom was a relation of Guacanagari.  These
+four consented to go into the boat and to be rowed out to the ship.
+Columbus then spoke to them through his interpreter; and they admitted
+what had been only too obvious to the party that went ashore--that the
+Spaniards were all dead, and that not one of the garrison remained.  It
+seemed that two neighbouring kings, Caonabo and Mayreni, had made an
+attack upon the fort, burned the buildings, and killed and wounded most
+of the defenders; and that Guacanagari, who had been fighting on their
+behalf, had also been wounded and been obliged to retire.  The natives
+offered to go and fetch Guacanagari himself, and departed with that
+object.
+
+In the greatest anxiety the Admiral and his company passed that day and
+night waiting for the King to come.  Early the next morning Columbus
+himself went ashore and visited the spot where the settlement had been.
+There he found destruction whole and complete, with nothing but a few
+rags of clothing as an evidence that the place had ever been inhabited by
+human beings.  As Guacanagari did not appear some of the Spaniards began
+to suspect that he had had a hand in the matter, and proposed immediate
+reprisal; but Columbus, believing still in the man who had "loved him so
+much that it was wonderful" did not take this view, and his belief in
+Guacanagari's loyalty was confirmed by the discovery that his own
+dwelling had also been burned down.
+
+Columbus set some of his party searching in the ditch of the fort in case
+any treasure should have been buried there, as he had ordered it should
+be in event of danger, and while this was going on he walked along the
+coast for a few miles to visit a spot which he thought might be suitable
+for the new settlement.  At a distance of a mile or two he found a
+village of seven or eight huts from which the inhabitants fled at his
+approach, carrying such of their goods as were portable, and leaving the
+rest hidden in the grass.  Here were found several things that had
+belonged to the Spaniards and which were not likely to have been
+bartered; new Moorish mantles, stockings, bolts of cloth, and one of the
+Admiral's lost anchors; other articles also, among them a dead man's head
+wrapped up with great care in a small basket.  Shaking their own living
+heads, golumbus and his party returned.  Suddenly they came on some
+suspicious-looking mounds of earth over which new grass was growing.  An
+examination of these showed them to be the graves of eleven of the
+Spaniards, the remains of the clothing being quite sufficient to identify
+them.  Doctor Chanca, who examined them, thought that they had not been
+dead two months.  Speculation came to an end in the face of this eloquent
+certainty; there were the dead bodies of some of the colonists; and the
+voyagers knelt round with bare heads while the bodies were replaced in
+the grave and the ceremony of Christian burial performed over them.
+
+Little by little the dismal story was elicited from the natives, who
+became less timid when they saw that the Spaniards meant them no harm.
+It seemed that Columbus had no sooner gone away than the colonists began
+to abandon themselves to every kind of excess.  While the echo of the
+Admiral's wise counsels was yet in their ears they began to disobey his
+orders.  Honest work they had no intention of doing, and although Diego
+Arana, their commander, did his best to keep order, and although one or
+two of the others were faithful to him and to Columbus, their authority
+was utterly insufficient to check the lawless folly of the rest.  Instead
+of searching for gold mines, they possessed themselves by force of every
+ounce of gold they could steal or seize from the natives, treating them
+with both cruelty and contempt.  More brutal excesses followed as a
+matter of course.  Guacanagari, in his kindly indulgence and generosity,
+had allowed them to take three native wives apiece, although he himself
+and his people were content with one.  But of course the Spaniards had
+thrown off all restraint, however mild, and ran amok among the native
+inhabitants, seizing their wives and seducing their daughters.  Upon this
+naturally followed dissensions among themselves, jealousy coming hot upon
+the heels of unlawful possession; and, in the words of Irving, "the
+natives beheld with astonishment the beings whom they had worshipped as
+descended from the skies abandoned to the grossest of earthly passions
+and raging against each other with worse than brutal ferocity."
+
+Upon their strifes and dissensions followed another breach of the
+Admiral's wise regulations; they no longer cared to remain together in
+the fort, but split up into groups and went off with their women into the
+woods, reverting to a savagery beside which the gentle existence of the
+natives was high civilisation.  There were squabbles and fights in which
+one or two of the Spaniards were killed; and Pedro Gutierrez and Rodrigo
+de Escovedo, whom Columbus had appointed as lieutenants to Arana, headed
+a faction of revolt against his authority, and took themselves off with
+nine other Spaniards and a great number of women.  They had heard a great
+deal about the mines of Cibao, and they decided to go in search of them
+and secure their treasures for themselves.  They went inland into a
+territory which was under the rule of King Caonabo, a very fierce Carib
+who was not a native of Espanola, but had come there as an adventurer and
+remained as a conqueror.  Although he resented the intrusion of the
+Spaniards into the island he would not have dared to come and attack them
+there if they had obeyed the Admiral's orders and remained in the
+territory of Guacanagari; but when they came into his own country he had
+them in a trap, and it was easy for him to fall upon those foolish
+swaggering Spaniards and put them to death.  He then decided to go and
+take the fort.
+
+He formed an alliance with the neighbouring king, Mayreni, whose province
+was in the west of the island.  Getting together a force of warriors
+these two kings marched rapidly and stealthily through the, forest for
+several days until they arrived at its northern border.  They came in the
+dead of night to the neighbourhood of La Navidad, where the inhabitants
+of the fortress, some ten in number, were fast asleep.  Fast asleep were
+the remaining dozen or so of the Spaniards who were living in houses or
+huts in the neighbourhood; fast asleep also the gentle natives, not
+dreaming of troubles from any quarter but that close at hand.  The sweet
+silence of the tropical night was suddenly broken by frightful yells as
+Caonabo and his warriors rushed the fortress and butchered the
+inhabitants, setting fire to it and to the houses round about.  As their
+flimsy huts burst into flames the surprised Spaniards rushed out, only to
+be fallen upon by the infuriated blacks.  Eight of the Spaniards rushed
+naked into the sea and were drowned; the rest were butchered.
+Guacanagari manfully came to their assistance and with his own followers
+fought throughout the night; but his were a gentle and unwarlike people,
+and they were easily routed.  The King himself was badly wounded in the
+thigh, but Caonabo's principal object seems to have been the destruction
+of the Spaniards, and when that was completed he and his warriors, laden
+with the spoils, retired.
+
+Thus Columbus, walking on the shore with his native interpreter, or
+sitting in his cabin listening with knitted brow to the accounts of the
+islanders, learns of the complete and utter failure of his first hopes.
+It has come to this.  These are the real first-fruits of his glorious
+conquest and discovery.  The New World has served but as a virgin field
+for the Old Adam.  He who had sought to bring light and life to these
+happy islanders had brought darkness and death; they had innocently
+clasped the sword he had extended to them and cut themselves.  The
+Christian occupation of the New World had opened with vice, cruelty, and
+destruction; the veil of innocence had been rent in twain, and could
+never be mended or joined again.  And the Earthly Paradise in which life
+had gone so happily, of which sun and shower had been the true rulers,
+and the green sprouting harvests the only riches, had been turned into a
+shambles by the introduction of human rule and civilised standards of
+wealth.  Gold first and then women, things beautiful and innocent in the
+happy native condition of the islands, had been the means of the
+disintegration and death of this first colony.  These are serious
+considerations for any coloniser; solemn considerations for a discoverer
+who is only on the verge and beginning of his empire-making; mournful
+considerations for Christopher as he surveys the blackened ruins of the
+fort, or stands bare-headed by the grass-covered graves.
+
+There seemed to be a certain hesitancy on the part of Guacanagari to
+present himself; for though he kept announcing his intention of coming to
+visit the Admiral he did not come.  A couple of days after the discovery
+of the remains, however, he sent a message to Columbus begging him to
+come and see him, which the Admiral accordingly did, accompanied by a
+formal retinue and carrying with him the usual presents.  Guacanagari was
+in bed sure enough complaining of a wounded leg, and he told the story of
+the settlement very much as Columbus had already heard it from the other
+natives.  He pointed to his own wounded leg as a sign that he had been
+loyal and faithful to his friendly promises; but when the leg was
+examined by the surgeon in order that it might be dressed no wound could
+be discovered, and it was obvious to Doctor Chanca that the skin had not
+been broken.  This seemed odd; Friar Buil was so convinced that the whole
+story was a deception that he wished the Admiral to execute Guacanagari
+on the spot.  Columbus, although he was puzzled, was by no means
+convinced that Guacanagari had been unfaithful to him, and decided to do
+nothing for the present.  He invited the cacique to come on board the
+flagship; which he did, being greatly interested by some of the Carib
+prisoners, notably a handsome woman, named by the Spaniards Dofia
+Catalina, with whom he held a long conversation.
+
+Relations between the Admiral and the cacique, although outwardly
+cordial, were altogether different from what they had been in, the happy
+days after their first meeting; the man seemed to shrink from all the
+evidence of Spanish power, and when they proposed to hang a cross round
+his neck the native king, much as he loved trinkets and toys, expressed a
+horror and fear of this jewel when he learned that it was an emblem of
+the Christian faith.  He had seen a little too much of the Christian
+religion; and Heaven only knows with what terror and depression the
+emblem of the cross inspired him.  He went ashore; and when a messenger
+was sent to search for him a few days afterwards, it was found that he
+had moved his whole establishment into the interior of the island.  The
+beautiful native woman Catalina escaped to shore and disappeared at the
+same time; and the two events were connected in the minds of some of the
+Spaniards, and held, wrongly as it turned out, to be significant of a
+deep plot of native treachery.
+
+The most urgent need was to build the new settlement and lay out a town.
+Several small parties were sent out to reconnoitre the coast in both
+directions, but none of them found a suitable place; and on December 7th
+the whole fleet sailed to the east in the hope of finding a better
+position.  They were driven by adverse winds into a harbour some thirty
+miles to the east of Monte Christi, and when they went ashore they
+decided that this was as good a site as any for the new town.  There was
+about a quarter of a mile of level sandy beach enclosed by headlands on
+either side; there was any amount of rock and stones for building, and
+there was a natural barrier of hills and mountains a mile or so inland
+that would protect a camp from that side.--The soil was very fertile,
+the vegetation luxuriant; and the mango swamps a little way inland
+drained into a basin or lake which provided an unlimited water supply.
+Columbus therefore set about establishing a little town, to which he gave
+the name of Isabella.  Streets and squares were laid out, and rows of
+temporary buildings made of wood and thatched with grass were hastily run
+up for the accommodation of the members of the expedition, while the
+foundations of three stone buildings were also marked out and the
+excavations put in hand.  These buildings were the church, the
+storehouse, and a residence for Columbus as Governor-General.  The stores
+were landed, the horses and cattle accommodated ashore, the provisions,
+ammunition, and agricultural implements also.  Labourers were set to
+digging out the foundations of the stone buildings, carpenters to cutting
+down trees and running up the light wooden houses that were to serve as
+barracks for the present; masons were employed in hewing stones and
+building landing-piers; and all the crowd of well-born adventurers were
+set to work with their hands, much to their disgust.  This was by no
+means the life they had imagined, and at the first sign of hard work they
+turned sulky and discontented.  There was, to be sure, some reason for
+their discontent.  Things had not quite turned out as Columbus had
+promised they should; there was no store of gold, nor any sign of great
+desire on the part of the natives to bring any; and to add to their other
+troubles, illness began to break out in the camp.  The freshly-turned
+rank soil had a bad effect on the health of the garrison; the lake, which
+had promised to be so pleasant a feature in the new town, gave off
+dangerous malarial vapours at night; and among the sufferers from this
+trouble was Columbus himself, who endured for some weeks all the pains
+and lassitude of the disagreeable fever.
+
+The ships were now empty and ready for the return voyage, and as soon as
+Columbus was better he set to work to face the situation.  After all his
+promises it would never do to send them home empty or in ballast; a cargo
+of stones from the new-found Indies would not be well received in Spain.
+The natives had told him that somewhere in the island existed the gold
+mines of Cibao, and he determined to make an attempt to find these, so
+that he could send his ships home laden with a cargo that would be some
+indemnity for the heavy cost of the expedition and some compensation for
+the bad news he must write with regard to his first settlement.  Young
+Ojeda was chosen to lead an expedition of fifteen picked men into the
+interior; and as the gold mines were said to be in a part of the island
+not under the command of Guacanagari, but in the territory of the dreaded
+Caonabo, there was no little anxiety felt about the expedition.
+
+Ojeda started in the beginning of January 1494, and marched southwards
+through dense forests until, having crossed a mountain range, he came
+down into a beautiful and fertile valley, where they were hospitably
+received by the natives.  They saw plenty of gold in the sand of the
+river that watered the valley, which sand the natives had a way of
+washing so that the gold was separated from it; and there seemed to be so
+much wealth there that Ojeda hurried back to the new city of Isabella to
+make his report to Columbus.  The effect upon the discontented colonists
+was remarkable.  Once more everything was right; wealth beyond the dreams
+of avarice was at their hand; and all they had to do was to stretch out
+their arms and take it.  Columbus felt that he need no longer delay the
+despatch of twelve of his ships on the homeward voyage.  If he had not
+got golden cargoes for them, at any rate he had got the next best thing,
+which was the certainty of gold; and it did not matter whether it was in
+the ships or in his storehouse.  He had news to send home at any rate,
+and a great variety of things to ask for in return, and he therefore set
+about writing his report to the Sovereigns.  Other people, as we know,
+were writing letters too; the reiterated promise of gold, and the
+marvellous anecdotes which these credulous settlers readily believed from
+the natives, such as that there was a rock close by out of which gold
+would burst if you struck it with a club, raised greed and expectation in
+Spain to a fever pitch, and prepared the reaction which followed.
+
+We may now read the account of the New World as Columbus sent it home to
+the King and Queen of Spain in the end of January 1494, and as they read
+it some weeks later.  Their comments, written in the margin of the
+original, are printed in italics at the end of each paragraph.  It was
+drawn up in the form of a memorandum, and entrusted to Antonio de Torres,
+who was commanding the return expedition.
+
+
+"What you, Antonio de Torres, captain of the ship Marigalante and Alcalde
+of the City of Isabella, are to say and supplicate on my part to the King
+and Queen, our Lords, is as follows:--
+
+     "First.  Having delivered the letters of credence which you carry
+     from me for their Highnesses, you will kiss for me their Royal feet
+     and hands and will recommend me to their Highnesses as to a King and
+     Queen, my natural Lords, in whose service I desire to end my days:
+     as you will be able to say this more fully to their Highnesses,
+     according to what you have seen and known of me.
+
+          ["Their Highnesses hold him in their favour.]
+
+     "Item.  Although by the letters I write to their Highnesses, and
+     also the father Friar Buil and the Treasurer, they will be able to
+     understand all that has been done here since our arrival, and this
+     very minutely and extensively: nevertheless, you will say to their
+     Highnesses on my part, that it has pleased God to give me such
+     favour in their service, that up to the present time.  I do not find
+     less, nor has less been found in anything than what I wrote and said
+     and affirmed to their Highnesses in the past: but rather, by the
+     Grace of God, I hope that it will appear, by works much more clearly
+     and very soon, because such signs and indications of spices have
+     been found on the shores of the sea alone, without having gone
+     inland, that there is reason that very much better results may be
+     hoped for: and this also may be hoped for in the mines of gold,
+     because by two persons only who went to investigate, each one on his
+     own part, without remaining there because there was not many people,
+     so many rivers have been discovered so filled with gold, that all
+     who saw it and gathered specimens of it with the hands alone, came
+     away so pleased and say such things in regard to its abundance, that
+     I am timid about telling it and writing it to their Highnesses: but
+     because Gorbalan, who was one of the discoverers, is going yonder,
+     he will tell what he saw, although another named Hojeda remains
+     here, a servant of the Duke of Medinaceli, a very discreet youth and
+     very prudent, who without doubt and without comparison even,
+     discovered much more according to the memorandum which he brought of
+     the rivers, saying that there is an incredible quantity in each one
+     of them for this their Highnesses may give thanks to God, since He
+     has been so favourable to them in all their affairs.
+
+          ["Their Highnesses give many thanks to God for this, and
+          consider as a very signal service all that the Admiral has done
+          in this matter and is doing: because they know that after God
+          they are indebted to him for all they have had, and will have
+          in this affair: and as they are writing him more fully about
+          this, they refer him to their letter.]
+
+     "Item. You will say to their Highnesses, although I already have
+     written it to them, that I desired greatly to be able to send them a
+     larger quantity of gold in this fleet, from that which it is hoped
+     may be gathered here, but the greater part of our people who are
+     here, have fallen suddenly ill: besides, this fleet cannot remain
+     here longer, both on account of the great expense it occasions and
+     because this time is suitable for those persons who are to bring the
+     things which are greatly needed here, to go and be able to return:
+     as, if they delay going away from here, those who are to return will
+     not be able to do so by May: and besides this, if I wished to
+     undertake to go to the mines or rivers now, with the well people who
+     are here, both on the sea and in the settlement on land, I would
+     have many difficulties and even dangers, because in order to go
+     twenty-three or twenty-four leagues from here where there are
+     harbours and rivers to cross, and in order to cover such a long
+     route and reach there at the time which would be necessary to gather
+     the gold, a large quantity of provisions would have to be carried,
+     which cannot be carried on the shoulders, nor are there beasts of
+     burden here which could be used for this purpose: nor are the roads
+     and passes sufficiently prepared, although I have commenced to get
+     them in readiness so as to be passable: and also it was very
+     inconvenient to leave the sick here in an open place, in huts, with
+     the provisions and supplies which are on land: for although these
+     Indians may have shown themselves to the discoverers and show
+     themselves every day, to be very simple and not malicious
+     nevertheless, as they come here among us each day, it did not appear
+     that it would be a good idea to risk losing these people and the
+     supplies.  This loss an Indian with a piece of burning wood would be
+     able to cause by setting fire to the huts, because they are always
+     going and coming by night and by day: on their account, we have
+     guards in the camp, while the settlement is open and defenceless.
+
+          ["That he did well.]
+
+     "Moreover, as we have seen among those who went by land to make
+     discoveries that the greater part fell sick after returning, and
+     some of them even were obliged to turn back on the road, it was also
+     reasonable to fear that the same thing would happen to those who are
+     well, who would now go, and as a consequence they would run the risk
+     of two dangers: the one, that of falling sick yonder, in the same
+     work, where there is no house nor any defence against that cacique
+     who is called Caonabb, who is a very bad man according to all
+     accounts, and much more audacious and who, seeing us there, sick and
+     in such disorder, would be able to undertake what he would not dare
+     if we were well: and with this difficulty there is another--that of
+     bringing here what gold we might obtain, because we must either
+     bring a small quantity and go and come each day and undergo the risk
+     of sickness, or it must be sent with some part of the people,
+     incurring the same danger of losing it.
+
+          ["He did well.]
+
+     "So that, you will say to their Highnesses, that these are the
+     causes why the fleet has not been at present detained, and why more
+     gold than the specimens has not been sent them: but confiding in the
+     mercy of God, who in everything and for everything has guided us as
+     far as here, these people will quickly become convalescent, as they
+     are already doing, because only certain places in the country suit
+     them and they then recover; and it is certain that if they had some
+     fresh meat in order to convalesce, all with the aid of God would
+     very quickly be on foot, and even the greater part would already be
+     convalescent at this time: nevertheless they will be re-established.
+     With the few healthy ones who remain here, each day work is done
+     toward enclosing the settlement and placing it in a state of some
+     defence and the supplies in safety, which will be accomplished in a
+     short time, because it is to be only a small dry wall.  For the
+     Indians are not a people to undertake anything unless they should
+     find us sleeping, even though they might have thought of it in the
+     manner in which they served the others who remained here.  Only on
+     account of their (the Spaniards') lack of caution--they being so
+     few--and the great opportunities they gave the Indians to have and
+     do what they did, they would never have dared to undertake to injure
+     them if they had seen that they were cautious.  And this work being
+     finished, I will then undertake to go to the said rivers, either
+     starting upon the road from here and seeking the best possible
+     expedients, or going around the island by sea as far as that place
+     from which it is said it cannot be more than six or seven leagues to
+     the said rivers.  In such a manner that the gold can be gathered and
+     placed in security in some fortress or tower which can then be
+     constructed there, in order to keep it securely until the time when
+     the two caravels return here, and in order that then, with the first
+     suitable weather for sailing this course, it may be sent to a place
+     of safety.
+
+          ["That this is well and must be done in this manner.]
+
+     "Item.  You will say to their Highnesses, as has been said, that the
+     cause of the general sicknesses common to all is the change of water
+     and air, because we see that it extends to all conditions and few
+     are in danger: consequently, for the preservation of health, after
+     God, it is necessary that these people be provided with the
+     provisions to which they are accustomed in Spain, because neither
+     they, nor others who may come anew, will be able to serve their
+     Highnesses if they are not well: and this provision must continue
+     until a supply is accumulated here from what shall be sowed and
+     planted here.  I say wheat and barley, and vines, of which little
+     has been done this year because a site for the town could not be
+     selected before, and then when it was selected the few labourers who
+     were here became sick, and they, even though they had been well, had
+     so few and such lean and meagre beasts of burden, that they were
+     able to do but little: nevertheless, they have sown something, more
+     in order to try the soil which appears very wonderful, so that from
+     it some relief may be hoped in our necessities.  We are very sure,
+     as the result makes it apparent to us, that in this country wheat as
+     well as the vine will grow very well: but the fruit must be waited
+     for, which, if it corresponds to the quickness with which the wheat
+     grows and of some few vine-shoots which were planted, certainly will
+     not cause regret here for the productions of Andalusia or Sicily:
+     neither is it different with the sugar-canes according to the manner
+     in which some few that were planted have grown.  For it is certain
+     that the sight of the land of these islands, as well of the
+     mountains and sierras and waters as of the plains where there are
+     rich rivers, is so beautiful, that no other land on which the sun
+     shines can appear better or as beautiful.
+
+          ["Since the land is such, it must be managed that the greatest
+          possible quantity of all things shall be sown, and Don Juan de
+          Fonseca is to be written to send continually all that is
+          necessary for this purpose.]
+
+     "Item.  You will say that, inasmuch as much of the wine which the
+     fleet brought was wasted on this journey, and this, according to
+     what the greater number say, was because of the bad workmanship
+     which the coopers did in Seville, the greatest necessity we feel
+     here at the present time is for wines, and it is what we desire most
+     to have and although we may have biscuit as well as wheat sufficient
+     for a longer time, nevertheless it is necessary that a reasonable
+     quantity should also be sent, because the journey is long and
+     provision cannot be made each day and in the same manner some salted
+     meat, I say bacon, and other salt meat better than that we brought
+     on this journey.  It is necessary that each time a caravel comes
+     here, fresh meat shall be sent, and even more than that, lambs and
+     little ewe lambs, more females than males, and some little yearling
+     calves, male and female, and some he-asses and she-asses and some
+     mares for labour and breeding, as there are none of these animals
+     here of any value or which can be made use of by man.  And because I
+     apprehend that their Highnesses may not be, in Seville, and that the
+     officials or ministers will not provide these things without their
+     express order, and as it is necessary they should come at the first
+     opportunity, and as in consultation and reply the time for the
+     departure of the vessels-which must be here during all of Maywill be
+     past: you will say to their Highnesses that I charged and commanded
+     you to pledge the gold you are carrying yonder and place it in
+     possession of some merchant in Seville, who will furnish therefor
+     the necessary maravedis to load two caravels with wine and wheat and
+     the other things of which you are taking a memorandum; which
+     merchant will carry or send the said gold to their Highnesses that
+     they may see it and receive it, and cause what shall have been
+     expended for fitting out and loading of the said two caravels to be
+     paid: and in order to comfort and strengthen these people remaining
+     here, the utmost efforts must be made for the return of these
+     caravels for all the month of May, that the people before commencing
+     the summer may see and have some refreshment from these things,
+     especially the invalids: the things of which we are already in great
+     need here are such as raisins, sugar, almonds, honey and rice, which
+     should have been sent in large quantities and very little was sent,
+     and that which came is already used and consumed, and even the
+     greater part of the medicines which were brought from there, on
+     account of the multitude of sick people.  You are carrying memoranda
+     signed by my hand, as has been said, of things for the people in
+     good health as well as for the sick.  You will provide these things
+     fully if the money is sufficient, or at least the things which it is
+     most necessary to send at once, in order that the said two vessels
+     can bring them, and you can arrange with their Highnesses, to have
+     the remaining things sent by other vessels as quickly as possible.
+
+          ["Their Highnesses sent an order to Don Juan de Fonseca to
+          obtain at once information about the persons who committed the
+          fraud of the casks, and to cause all the damage to the wine to
+          be recovered from them, with the costs: and he must see that
+          the canes which are sent are of good quality, and that the
+          other things mentioned here are provided at once.]
+
+     "Item.  You will say to their Highnesses that as there is no
+     language here by means of which these people can be made to
+     understand our Holy Faith, as your Highnesses and also we who are
+     here desire, although we will do all we can towards it--I am sending
+     some of the cannibals in the vessels, men and women and male and
+     female children, whom their Highnesses can order placed with persons
+     from whom they can better learn the language, making use of them in
+     service, and ordering that little by little more pains be taken with
+     them than with other slaves, that they may learn one from the other:
+     if they do not see or speak with each other until some time has
+     passed, they will learn more quickly there than here, and will be
+     better interpreters--although we will not cease to do as much as
+     possible here.  It is true that as there is little intercourse
+     between these people from one island to another, there is some
+     difference in their language, according to how far distant they are
+     from each other.  And as, of the other islands, those of the
+     cannibals are very large and very well populated, it would appear
+     best to take some of their men and women and send them yonder to
+     Castile, because by taking them away, it may cause them to abandon
+     at once that inhuman custom which they have of eating men: and by
+     learning the language there in Castile, they will receive baptism
+     much more quickly, and provide for the safety of their souls.  Even
+     among the peoples who are not cannibals we shall gain great credit,
+     by their seeing that we can seize and take captive those from whom
+     they are accustomed to receive injuries, and of whom they are in
+     such terror that they are frightened by one man alone.  You will
+     certify to their Highnesses that the arrival here and sight of such
+     a fine fleet all together has inspired very great authority here and
+     assured very great security for future things: because all the
+     people on this great island and in the other islands, seeing the
+     good treatment which those who well behave receive, and the bad
+     treatment given to those who behave ill, will very quickly render
+     obedience, so that they can be considered as vassals of their
+     Highnesses.  And as now they not only do willingly whatever is
+     required of them by our people, but further, they voluntarily
+     undertake everything which they understand may please us, their
+     Highnesses may also be certain that in many respects, as much for
+     the present as for the future, the coming of this fleet has given
+     them a great reputation, and not less yonder among the Christian
+     princes: which their Highnesses will be better able to consider and
+     understand than I can tell them.
+
+          ["That he is to be told what has befallen the cannibals who
+          came here.  That it is very well and must be done in this
+          manner, but that he must try there as much as possible to bring
+          them to our Holy Catholic faith and do the same with the
+          inhabitants of the islands where he is.]
+
+     "Item.  You will say to their Highnesses that the safety of the
+     souls of the said cannibals, and further of those here, has inspired
+     the thought that the more there are taken yonder, the better it will
+     be, and their Highnesses can be served by it in this manner: having
+     seen how necessary the flocks and beasts of burden are here, for the
+     sustenance of the people who must be here, and even of all these
+     islands, their Highnesses can give licence and permission to a
+     sufficient number of caravels to come here each year, and bring the
+     said flocks and other supplies and things to settle the country and
+     make use of the land: and this at reasonable prices at the expense
+     of those who bring them: and these things can be paid for in slaves
+     from among these cannibals, a very proud and comely people, well
+     proportioned and of good intelligence, who having been freed from
+     that inhumanity, we believe will be better than any other slaves.
+     They will be freed from this cruelty as soon as they are outside
+     their country, and many of them can be taken with the row-boats
+     which it is known how to build here: it being understood, however,
+     that a trustworthy person shall be placed on each one of the
+     caravels coming here, who shall forbid the said caravels to stop at
+     any other place or island than this place, where the loading and
+     unloading of all the merchandise must be done.  And further, their
+     Highnesses will be able to establish their rights over these slaves
+     which are taken from here yonder to Spain.  And you will bring or
+     send a reply to this, in order that the necessary preparations may
+     be made here with more confidence if it appears well to their
+     Highnesses.
+
+          ["This project must be held in abeyance for the present until
+          another method is suggested from there, and the Admiral may
+          write what he thinks in regard to it.]
+
+     "Item.  Also you will say to their Highnesses that it is more
+     profitable and costs less to hire the vessels as the merchants hire
+     them for Flanders, by tons, rather than in any other manner:
+     therefore I charged you to hire the two caravels which you are to
+     send here, in this manner: and all the others which their Highnesses
+     send here can be hired thus, if they consider it for their service
+     but I do not intend to say this of those vessels which are to come
+     here with their licence, for the slave trade.
+
+          ["Their Highnesses order Don Juan de Fonseca to hire the
+          caravels in this manner if it can be done.]
+
+     "Item.  You will say to their Highnesses, that to avoid any further
+     cost, I bought these caravels of which you are taking a memorandum
+     in order to retain them here with these two ships: that is to say
+     the Gallega and that other, the Capitana, of which I likewise
+     purchased the three-eighths from the master of it, for the price
+     given in the said memorandum which you are taking, signed by my
+     hand.  These ships not only will give authority and great security
+     to the people who are obliged to remain inland and make arrangements
+     with the Indians to gather the gold, but they will also be of
+     service in any other dangerous matter which may arise with a strange
+     people; besides the caravels are necessary for the discovery of the
+     mainland and the other islands which lie between here and there: and
+     you will entreat their Highnesses to order the maravedis which these
+     ships cost, paid at the times which they have been promised, because
+     without doubt they will soon receive what they cost, according to
+     what I believe and hope in the mercy of God.
+
+          ["The Admiral has done well, and to tell him that the sum has
+          been paid here to the one who sold the ship, and Don Juan de
+          Fonseca has been ordered to pay for the two caravels which the
+          Admiral bought.]
+
+     "Item.  You will say to their Highnesses, and will supplicate on my
+     part as humbly as possible, that it may please them to reflect on
+     what they will learn most fully from the letters and other writings
+     in regard to the peace and tranquillity and concord of those who are
+     here: and that for the service of their Highnesses such persons may
+     be selected as shall not be suspected, and who will give more
+     attention to the matters for which they are sent than to their own
+     interests: and since you saw and knew everything in regard to this
+     matter, you will speak and will tell their Highnesses the truth
+     about all the things as you understood them, and you will endeavour
+     that the provision which their Highnesses make in regard to it shall
+     come with the first ships if possible, in order that there may be no
+     scandals here in a matter of so much importance in the service of
+     their Highnesses.
+
+          ["Their Highnesses are well informed in regard to this matter,
+          and suitable provision will be made for everything.]
+
+     "Item.  You will tell their Highnesses of the situation of this
+     city, and the beauty of the surrounding province as you saw and
+     understood it, and how I made you its Alcade, by the powers which I
+     have for same from their Highnesses: whom I humbly entreat to hold
+     the said provision in part satisfaction of your services, as I hope
+     from their Highnesses.
+
+          ["It pleases their Highnesses that you shall be Alcade.]
+
+     "Item.  Because Mosen Pedro Margarite, servant of their Highnesses,
+     has done good service, and I hope he will do the same henceforward
+     in matters which are entrusted to him, I have been pleased to have
+     him remain here, and also Gaspar and Beltran, because they are
+     recognised servants of their Highnesses, in order to intrust them
+     with matters of confidence.  You will specialty entreat their
+     Highnesses in regard to the said Mosen Pedro, who is married and has
+     children, to provide him with some charge in the order of Santiago,
+     whose habit he wears, that his wife and children may have the
+     wherewith to live.  In the same manner you will relate how well and
+     diligently Juan Aguado, servant of their Highnesses, has rendered
+     service in everything which he has been ordered to do, and that I
+     supplicate their Highnesses to have him and the aforesaid persons in
+     their charge and to reward them.
+
+          ["Their Highnesses order 30,000 maravedis to be assigned to
+          Mosen Pedro each year, and to Gaspar and Beltran, to each one,
+          15,000 maravedis each year, from the present, August 15, 1494,
+          henceforward: and thus the Admiral shall cause to be paid to
+          them whatever must be paid yonder in the Indies, and Don Juan
+          de Fonseca whatever must be paid here: and in regard to Juan
+          Iguado, their Highnesses will hold him in remembrance.]
+
+     "Item.  You will tell their Highnesses of the labour performed by
+     Dr. Chanca, confronted with so many invalids, and still more because
+     of the lack of provisions and nevertheless, he acts with great
+     diligence and charity in everything pertaining to his office.  And
+     as their Highnesses referred to me the salary which he was to
+     receive here, because, being here, it is certain that he cannot take
+     or receive anything from any one, nor earn money by his office as he
+     earned it in Castile, or would be able to earn it being at his ease
+     and living in a different manner from the way he lives here;
+     therefore, notwithstanding he swears that he earned more there,
+     besides the salary which their Highnesses gave him, I did not wish
+     to allow more than 50,000 maravedis each year for the work he
+     performs here while he remains here.  This I entreat their
+     Highnesses to order allowed to him with the salary from here, and
+     that, because he says and affirms that all the physicians of their
+     Highnesses who are employed in Royal affairs or things similar to
+     this, are accustomed to have by right one day's wages in all the
+     year from all the people.  Nevertheless, I have been informed and
+     they tell me, that however this may be, the custom is to give them a
+     certain sum, fixed according to the will and command of their
+     Highnesses in compensation for that day's wages.  You will entreat
+     their Highnesses to order provision made as well in the matter of
+     the salary as of this custom, in such manner that the said Dr.
+     Chanca may have reason to be satisfied.
+
+          ["Their Highnesses are pleased in regard to this matter of Dr.
+          Chanca, and that he shall be paid what the Admiral has assigned
+          him, together with his salary.
+          "In regard to the day's wages of the physicians, they are not
+          accustomed to receive it, save where the King, our Lord, may be
+          in persona.]
+
+     "Item.  You will say to their Highnesses that Coronel is a man for
+     the service of their Highnesses in many things, and how much service
+     he has rendered up to the present in all the most necessary matters,
+     and the need we feel of him now that he is sick; and that rendering
+     service in such a manner, it is reasonable that he should receive
+     the fruit of his service, not only in future favours, but in his
+     present salary, so that he and those who are here may feel that
+     their service profits them; because, so great is the labour which
+     must be performed here in gathering the gold that the persons who
+     are so diligent are not to be held in small consideration; and as,
+     for his skill, he was provided here by me with the office of
+     Alguacil Mayor of these Indies; and since in the provision the
+     salary is left blank, you will say that I supplicate their
+     Highnesses to order it filled in with as large an amount as they may
+     think right, considering his services, confirming to him the
+     provision I have given him here, and assuring it to him annually.
+
+          ["Their Highnesses order that 15,000 maravedis more than his
+          salary shall be assigned him each year, and that it shall be
+          paid to him with his salary.]
+
+     "In the same manner you will tell their Highnesses how the lawyer
+     Gil Garcia came here for Alcalde Mayor and no salary has been named
+     or assigned to him; and he is a capable person, well educated and
+     diligent, and is very necessary here; that I entreat their
+     Highnesses to order his salary named and assigned, so that he can
+     sustain himself, and that it may be paid from the money allowed for
+     salaries here.
+
+          "[Their Highnesses order 20,000 maravedis besides his salary
+          assigned to him each year, as long as he remains yonder, and
+          that it shall be paid him when his salary is paid.]
+
+     "Item.  You will say to their Highnesses, although it is already
+     written in the letters, that I do not think it will be possible to
+     go to make discoveries this year, until these rivers in which gold
+     is found are placed in the most suitable condition for the service
+     of their Highnesses, as afterwards it can be done much better.
+     Because it is a thing which no one can do without my presence,
+     according to my will or for the service of their Highnesses, however
+     well it may be done, as it is doubtful what will be satisfactory to
+     a man unless he is present.
+
+          ["Let him endeavour that the amount of this gold may be known
+          as precisely as possible.]
+
+     "Item.  You will say to their Highnesses that the Squires who came
+     from Granada showed good horses in the review which took place at
+     Seville, and afterward at the embarkation I did not see them because
+     I was slightly unwell, and they replaced them with such horses that
+     the best of them do not appear to be worth 2000 maravedis, as they
+     sold the others and bought these; and this was done in the same way
+     to many people as I very well saw yonder, in the reviews at Seville.
+     It appears that Juan de Soria, after he had been given the money for
+     the wages, for some interest of his own substituted others in place
+     of those I expected to find here, and I found people whom I had
+     never seen.  In this matter he was guilty of great wickedness, so
+     that I do not know if I should complain of him alone.  On this
+     account, having seen that the expenses of these Squires have been
+     defrayed until now, besides their wages and also wages for their
+     horses, and it is now being done: and they are persons who, when
+     they are sick or when they do not desire to do so, will not allow
+     any use to be made of their horses save by themselves: and their,
+     Highnesses do not desire that these horses should be purchased of
+     them, but that they should be used in the service of their
+     Highnesses: and it does not appear to them that they should do
+     anything or render any service except on horseback, which at the
+     present time is not much to the purpose: on this account, it seems
+     that it would be better to buy the horses from them, since they are
+     of so little value, and not have these disagreements with them every
+     day.  Therefore their Highnesses may determine this as will best
+     serve them.
+
+          ["Their Highnesses order Don Juan de Fonseca to inform himself
+          in regard to this matter of the horses, and if it shall be
+          found true that this fraud was committed, those persons shall
+          be sent to their Highnesses to be punished: and also he is to
+          inform himself in regard to what is said of the other people,
+          and send the result in the examination to their Highnesses; and
+          in regard to these Squires, their Highnesses command that they
+          remain there and render service, since they belong to the
+          guards and servants of their Highnesses: and their Highnesses
+          order the Squires to give up the horses each time it is
+          necessary and the Admiral orders it, and if the horses receive
+          any injury through others using them, their Highnesses order
+          that the damage shall be paid to them by means of the Admiral.]
+
+     "Item.  You will say to their Highnesses that more than 200 persons
+     have come here without wages, and there are some of them who render
+     good service.  And as it is ordered that the others rendering
+     similar service should be paid: and as for these first three years
+     it would be of great benefit to have 1000 men here to settle, and
+     place this island and the rivers of gold in very great security, and
+     even though there were 100 horsemen nothing would be lost, but
+     rather it seems necessary, although their Highnesses will be able to
+     do without these horsemen until gold is sent: nevertheless, their
+     Highnesses must send to say whether wages shall be paid to these 200
+     persons, the same as to the others rendering good service, because
+     they are certainly necessary, as I have said in the beginning of
+     this memorandum.
+
+          ["In regard to these 200 persons, who are here said to have
+          gone without wages, their Highnesses order that they shall take
+          the places of those who went for wages, who have failed or
+          shall fail to fulfil their engagements, if they are skilful and
+          satisfactory to the Admiral.  And their Highnesses order the
+          Purser (Contador) to enrol them in place of those who fail to
+          fulfil their engagements, as the Admiral shall instruct him.]
+
+     "Item.  As the cost of these people can be in some degree lightened
+     and the better part of the expense could be avoided by the same
+     means employed by other Princes in other places: it appears, that it
+     would be well to order brought in the ships, besides the other
+     things which are for the common maintenance and the medicines, shoes
+     and the skins from which to order the shoes made, common shirts and
+     others, jackets, linen, sack-coats, trowsers and cloths suitable for
+     wearing apparel, at reasonable prices: and other things like
+     conserves which are not included in rations and are for the
+     preservation of health, which things all the people here would
+     willingly receive to apply on their wages and if these were
+     purchased yonder in Spain by faithful Ministers who would act for
+     the advantage of their Highnesses, something would be saved.
+     Therefore you will learn the will of their Highnesses about this
+     matter, and if it appears to them to be of benefit to them, then it
+     must be placed in operation.
+
+          ["This arrangement is to be in abeyance until the Admiral
+          writes more fully, and at another time they will send to order
+          Don Juan de Fonseca with Jimeno de Bribiesca to make provision
+          for the same.]
+
+     "Item.  You will say to their Highnesses that inasmuch as yesterday
+     in the review people were found who were without arms, which I think
+     happened in part by that exchange which took place yonder in
+     Seville, or in the harbour when those who presented themselves armed
+     were left, and others were taken who gave something to those who
+     made the exchange, it seems that it would be well to order 200
+     cuirasses sent, and 100 muskets and 100 crossbows, and a large
+     quantity of arsenal supplies, which is what we need most, and all
+     these arms can be given to those who are unarmed.
+
+          ["Already Don Juan de Fonseca has been written to make
+          provision for this.]
+
+     "Item.  Inasmuch as some artisans who came here, such as masons and
+     other workmen, are married and have wives yonder in Spain, and would
+     like to have what is owing them from their wages given to their
+     wives or to the persons to whom they will send their requirements in
+     order that they may buy for them the things which they need here I
+     supplicate their Highnesses to order it paid to them, because it is
+     for their benefit to have these persons provided for here.
+
+          ["Their Highnesses have already sent orders to Don Juan de
+          Fonseca to make provision for this matter.]
+
+     "Item.  Because, besides the other things which are asked for there
+     according to the memoranda which you are carrying signed by my hand,
+     for the maintenance of the persons in good health as well as for the
+     sick ones, it would be very well to have fifty casks of molasses
+     (miel de azucar) from the island of Madeira, as it is the best
+     sustenance in the world and the most healthful, and it does not
+     usually cost more than two ducats per cask, without the cask: and if
+     their Highnesses order some caravel to stop there in returning, it
+     can be purchased and also ten cases of sugar, which is very
+     necessary; as this is the best season of the year to obtain it, I
+     say between the present time and the month of April, and to obtain
+     it at a reasonable price.  If their Highnesses command it, the order
+     could be given, and it would not be known there for what place it is
+     wanted.
+
+          ["Let Don Juan de Fonseca make provision for this matter.]
+
+     "Item.  You will say to their Highnesses that although the rivers
+     contain gold in the quantity related by those who have seen it, yet
+     it is certain that the gold is not engendered in the rivers but
+     rather on the land, the waters of the rivers which flow by the mines
+     bringing it enveloped in the sands: and as among these rivers which
+     have been discovered there are some very large ones, there are
+     others so small that they are fountains rather than rivers, which
+     are not more than two fingers of water in depth, and then the source
+     from which they spring may be found: for this reason not only
+     labourers to gather it in the sand will be profitable, but others to
+     dig for it in the earth, which will be the most particular operation
+     and produce a great quantity.  And for this, it will be well for
+     their Highnesses to send labourers, and from among those who work
+     yonder in Spain in the mines of Almaden, that the work may be done
+     in both ways.  Although we will not await them here, as with the
+     labourers we have here we hope, with the aid of God, once the people
+     are in good health, to amass a good quantity of gold to be sent on
+     the first caravels which return.
+
+          ["This will be fully provided for in another manner.  In the
+          meantime their Highnesses order Don Yuan de Fonseca to send the
+          best miners he can obtain; and to write to Almaden to have the
+          greatest possible number taken from there and sent.]
+
+     "Item.  You will entreat their Highnesses very humbly on my part, to
+     consider Villacorta as speedily recommended to them, who, as their
+     Highnesses know, has rendered great service in this business, and
+     with a very good will, and as I know him, he is a diligent person
+     and very devoted to their service: it will be a favour to me if he
+     is given some confidential charge for which he is fitted, and where
+     he can show his desire to serve them and his diligence: and this you
+     will obtain in such a way that Villacorta may know by the result,
+     that what he has done for me when I needed him profits him in this
+     manner.
+
+          ["It will be done thus.]
+
+     "Item.  That the said Mosen Pedro and Gaspar and Beltran and others
+     who have remained here gave up the captainship of caravels, which
+     have now returned, and are not receiving wages: but because they are
+     persons who must be employed in important matters and of confidence,
+     their compensation, which must be different from the others, has not
+     been determined.  You will entreat their Highnesses on my part to
+     determine what is to be given them each year, or by the month,
+     according to their service.
+
+     "Done in the city of Isabella, January 30, 1494.
+
+          ["This has already been replied to above, but as it is stated
+          in the said item that they enjoy their salary, from the present
+          time their Highnesses order that their wages shall be paid to
+          all of them from the time they left their captainships."]
+
+
+This document is worth studying, written as it was in circumstances that
+at one moment looked desperate and at another were all hope.  Columbus
+was struggling manfully with difficulties that were already beginning to
+be too much for him.  The Man from Genoa, with his guiding star of faith
+in some shore beyond the mist and radiance of the West--see into what
+strange places and to what strange occupations this star has led him!
+The blue visionary eyes, given to seeing things immediately beyond the
+present horizon, must fix themselves on accounts and requisitions, on the
+needs of idle, aristocratic, grumbling Spaniards; must fix themselves
+also on that blank void in the bellies of his returning ships, where the
+gold ought to have been.  The letter has its practical side; the
+requisitions are made with good sense and a grasp of the economic
+situation; but they have a deeper significance than that.  All this talk
+about little ewe lambs, wine and bacon (better than the last lot, if it
+please your Highnesses), little yearling calves, and fifty casks of
+molasses that can be bought a ducat or two cheaper in Madeira in the
+months of April and May than at any other time or place, is only half
+real.  Columbus fills his Sovereigns' ears with this clamour so that he
+shall not hear those embarrassing questions that will inevitably be asked
+about the gold and the spices.  He boldly begins his letter with the old
+story about "indications of spices" and gold "in incredible quantities,"
+with a great deal of "moreover" and "besides," and a bold, pompous,
+pathetic "I will undertake"; and then he gets away from that subject by
+wordy deviations, so that to one reading his letter it really might seem
+as though the true business of the expedition was to provide Coronel,
+Mosen Pedro, Gaspar, Beltran, Gil Garcia, and the rest of them with work
+and wages.  Everything that occurs to him, great or little, that makes it
+seem as though things were humming in the new settlement, he stuffs into
+this document, shovelling words into the empty hulls of the ships, and
+trying to fill those bottomless pits with a stream of talk.  A system of
+slavery is boldly and bluntly sketched; the writer, in the hurry and
+stress of the moment, giving to its economic advantages rather greater
+prominence than to its religious glories.  The memorandum, for all its
+courageous attempt to be very cool and orderly and practical, gives us,
+if ever a human document did, a picture of a man struggling with an
+impossible situation which he will not squarely face, like one who should
+try to dig up the sea-shore and keep his eyes shut the while.
+
+In the royal comments written against the document one seems to trace the
+hand of Isabella rather than of Ferdinand.  Their tone is matter-of-fact,
+cool, and comforting, like the coolness of a woman's hand placed on a
+feverish brow.  Isabella believed in him; perhaps she read between the
+lines of this document, and saw, as we can see, how much anxiety and
+distress were written there; and her comments are steadying and
+encouraging.  He has done well; what he asks is being attended to; their
+Highnesses are well informed in regard to this and that matter; suitable
+provision will be made for everything; but let him endeavour that the
+amount of this gold may be known as precisely as possible.  There is no
+escaping from that.  The Admiral (no one knows it better than himself)
+must make good his dazzling promises, and coin every boastful word into a
+golden excelente of Spain.  Alas!  he must no longer write about the lush
+grasses, the shining rivers, the brightly coloured parrots, the gaudy
+flies and insects, the little singing birds, and the nights that are like
+May in Cordova.  He must find out about the gold; for it has come to grim
+business in the Earthly Paradise.
+
+
+
+
+ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS:
+
+Amerigo Vespucci
+Cannibal epicures did not care for the flesh of women and boys
+Columbus, calling for an egg, laid a wager
+Desire to get a great deal of money without working for it
+Establishment of ten footmen and twenty other servants
+Exchanging the natives for cattle
+First organised transaction of slavery on the part of Columbus
+Having issued three Bulls in twenty-four hours, he desisted
+Juan Ponce de Leon, the discoverer of Florida
+No Spanish women accompanied it (2d expedition)
+
+
+
+
+End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of Christopher Columbus, v4
+by Filson Young
+
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