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D.W.] + + + + + + CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS + AND THE NEW WORLD OF HIS DISCOVERY + + A NARRATIVE BY FILSON YOUNG + + + +TOWARDS THE SUNSET + +BOOK 7. + + +CHAPTER I + +DEGRADATION + +The first things seen by Francisco de Bobadilla when he entered the +harbour of San Domingo on the morning of the 23rd of August 1500 were the +bodies of several Spaniards, hanging from a gibbet near the water-side-- +a grim confirmation of what he had heard about the troubled state of the +island. While he was waiting for the tide so that he might enter the +harbour a boat put off from shore to ascertain who was on board the +caravels; and it was thus informally that Bobadilla first announced that +he had come to examine into the state of the island. Columbus was not at +San Domingo, but was occupied in settling the affairs of the Vega Real; +Bartholomew also was absent, stamping out the last smouldering embers of +rebellion in Xaragua; and only James was in command to deal with this +awkward situation. + +Bobadilla did not go ashore the first day, but remained on board his ship +receiving the visits of various discontented colonists who, getting early +wind of the purpose of his visit, lost no time in currying favour with +him, Probably he heard enough that first day to have damned the +administration of a dozen islands; but also we must allow him some +interest in the wonderful and strange sights that he was seeing; for +Espanola, which has perhaps grown wearisome to us, was new to him. He +had brought with him an armed body-guard of twenty-five men, and in the +other caravel were the returned slaves, babies and all, under the charge +of six friars. On the day following his arrival Bobadilla landed and +heard mass in state, afterwards reading out his commission to the +assembled people. Evidently he had received a shocking impression of the +state of affairs in the island; that is the only explanation of the +action suddenly taken by him, for his first public act was to demand from +James the release of all the prisoners in the fortress, in order that +they and their accusers should appear before him. + +James is in a difficulty; and, mule-like, since he does not know which +way to turn, stands stock still. He can do nothing, he says, without the +Admiral's consent. The next day Bobadilla, again hearing mass in state, +causes further documents to be read showing that a still greater degree +of power had been entrusted to his hands. Mule-like, James still stands +stock still; the greatest power on earth known to him is his eldest +brother, and he will not, positively dare not, be moved by anything less +than that. He refuses to give up the prisoners on any grounds +whatsoever, and Bobadilla has to take the fortress by assault--an easy +enough matter since the resistance is but formal. + +The next act of Bobadilla's is not quite so easy to understand. He +quartered himself in Columbus's house; that perhaps was reasonable enough +since there may not have been another house in the settlement fit to +receive him; but he also, we are told, took possession of all his papers, +public and private, and also seized the Admiral's store of money and +began to pay his debts with it for him, greatly to the satisfaction of +San Domingo. There is an element of the comic in this interpretation of +a commissioner's powers; and it seemed as though he meant to wind up the +whole Columbus business, lock, stock, and barrel. It would not be in +accordance with our modern ideas of honour that a man's private papers +should be seized unless he were suspected of treachery or some criminal +act; but apparently Bobadilla regarded it as necessary. We must remember +that although he had only heard one side of the case it was evidently so +positive, and the fruits of misgovernment were there so visibly before +his eyes, that no amount of evidence in favour of Columbus would make him +change his mind as to his fitness to govern. Poor James, witnessing +these things and unable to do anything to prevent them, finds himself +suddenly relieved from the tension of the situation. Since inaction is +his note, he shall be indulged in it; and he is clapped in irons and cast +into prison. James can hardly believe the evidence of his senses. He +has been studying theology lately, it appears, with a view to entering +the Church and perhaps being some day made Bishop of Espanola, but this +new turn of affairs looks as though there were to be an end of all +careers for him, military and ecclesiastical alike. + +Christopher at Fort Concepcion had early news of the arrival of +Bobadilla, but in the hazy state of his mind he did not regard it as an +event of sufficient importance to make his immediate presence at San +Domingo advisable. The name of Bobadilla conveyed nothing to him; and +when he heard that he had come to investigate, he thought that he came +to set right some disputed questions between the Admiral and other +navigators as to the right of visiting Espanola and the Paria coast. +As the days went on, however, he heard more disquieting rumours; grew at +last uneasy, and moved to a fort nearer San Domingo in case it should be +necessary for him to go there. An officer met him on the road bearing +the proclamations issued by Bobadilla, but not the message from the +Sovereigns requiring the Admiral's obedience to the commissioner. +Columbus wrote to the commissioner a curious letter, which is not +preserved, in which he sought to gain time; excusing himself from +responsibility for the condition of the island, and assuring Bobadilla +that, as he intended to return to Spain almost immediately, he +(Bobadilla) would have ample opportunity for exercising his command in +his absence. He also wrote to the Franciscan friars who had accompanied +Bobadilla asking them to use their influence--the Admiral having some +vague connection with the Franciscan order since his days at La Rabida. + +No reply came to any of these letters, and Columbus sent word that he +still regarded his authority as paramount in the island. For reply to +this he received the Sovereigns' message to him which we have seen, +commanding him to put himself under the direction of Bobadilla. There +was no mistaking this; there was the order in plain words; and with I +know not what sinkings of heart Columbus at last set out for San Domingo. +Bobadilla had expected resistance, but the Admiral, whatever his faults, +knew how to behave with, dignity in a humiliating position; and he came +into the city unattended on August 23, 1500. On the outskirts of the +town he was met by Bobadilla's guards, arrested, put in chains, and +lodged in the fortress, the tower of which exists to this day. He seemed +to himself to be the victim of a particularly petty and galling kind of +treachery, for it was his own cook, a man called Espinoza, who riveted +his gyves upon him. + +There remained Bartholomew to be dealt with, and he, being at large and +in command of the army, might not have proved such an easy conquest, but +that Christopher, at Bobadilla's request, wrote and advised him to submit +to arrest without any resistance. Whether Bartholomew acquiesced or not +is uncertain; what is certain is that he also was captured and placed in +irons, and imprisoned on one of the caravels. James in one caravel, +Bartholomew in another, and Christopher in the fortress, and all in +chains--this is what it has come to with the three sons of old Domenico. + +The trial was now begun, if trial that can be called which takes place in +the absence of the culprit or his representative. It was rather the +hearing of charges against Christopher and his brothers; and we may be +sure that every discontented feeling in the island found voice and was +formulated into some incriminating charge. Columbus was accused of +oppressing the Spanish settlers by making them work at harsh and +unnecessary labour; of cutting down their allowance of food, and +restricting their liberty; of punishing them cruelly and unduly; of +waging wars unjustly with the natives; of interfering with the conversion +of the natives by hastily collecting them and sending them home as +slaves; of having secreted treasures which should have been delivered to +the Sovereigns--this last charge, like some of the others, true. He had +an accumulation of pearls of which he had given no account to Fonseca, +and the possession of which he excused by the queer statement that he was +waiting to announce it until he could match it with an equal amount of +gold! He was accused of hating the Spaniards, who were represented as +having risen in the late rebellion in order to protect the natives and +avenge their own wrongs--, and generally of having abused his office in +order to enrich his own family and gratify his own feelings. Bobadilla +appeared to believe all these charges; or perhaps he recognised their +nature, and yet saw that there was a sufficient degree of truth in them +to disqualify the Admiral in his position as Viceroy. In all these +affairs his right-hand man was Roldan, whose loyalty to Columbus, as we +foresaw, had been short-lived. Roldan collects evidence; Roldan knows +where he can lay his hands on this witness; Roldan produces this and that +proof; Roldan is here, there, and everywhere--never had Bobadilla found +such a useful, obliging man as Roldan. With his help Bobadilla soon +collected a sufficient weight of evidence to justify in his own mind his +sending Columbus home to Spain, and remaining himself in command of the +island. + +The caravels having been made ready, and all the evidence drawn up and +documented, it only remained to embark the prisoners and despatch them to +Spain. Columbus, sitting in his dungeon, suffering from gout and +ophthalmic as well as from misery and humiliation, had heard no news; +but he had heard the shouting of the people in the streets, the beating +of drums and blowing of horns, and his own name and that of his brothers +uttered in derision; and he made sure that he was going to be executed. +Alonso de Villegio, a nephew of Bishop Fonseca's, had been appointed to +take charge of the ships returning to Spain; and when he came into the +prison the Admiral thought his last hour had come. + +"Villegio," he asked sadly, "where are you taking me?" + +"I am taking you to the ship, your Excellency, to embark," replied the +other. + +"To embark?" repeated the Admiral incredulously. "Villegio! are you +speaking the truth?" + +"By the life of your Excellency what I say is true," was the reply, and +the news came with a wave of relief to the panic-stricken heart of the +Admiral. + +In the middle of October the caravels sailed from San Domingo, and the +last sounds heard by Columbus from the land of his discovery were the +hoots and jeers and curses hurled after him by the treacherous, +triumphant rabble on the shore. Villegio treated him and his brothers +with as much kindness as possible, and offered, when they had got well +clear of Espanola, to take off the Admiral's chains. But Columbus, with +a fine counterstroke of picturesque dignity, refused to have them +removed. Already, perhaps, he had realised that his subjection to this +cruel and quite unnecessary indignity would be one of the strongest +things in his favour when he got to Spain, and he decided to suffer as +much of it as he could. "My Sovereigns commanded me to submit to what +Bobadilla should order. By his authority I wear these chains, and I +shall continue to wear them until they are removed by order of the +Sovereigns; and I will keep them afterwards as reminders of the reward I +have received for my services." Thus the Admiral, beginning to pick up +his spirits again, and to feel the better for the sea air. + +The voyage home was a favourable one and in the course of it Columbus +wrote the following letter to a friend of his at Court, Dona Juana de la +Torre, who had been nurse to Prince Juan and was known by him to be a +favourite of the Queen: + + "MOST VIRTUOUS LADY,--Though my complaint of the world is new, its + habit of ill-using is very ancient. I have had a thousand struggles + with it, and have thus far withstood them all, but now neither arms + nor counsels avail me, and it cruelly keeps me under water. Hope in + the Creator of all men sustains me: His help was always very ready; + on another occasion, and not long ago, when I was still more + overwhelmed, He raised me with His right arm, saying, 'O man of + little faith, arise: it is I; be not afraid.' + + "I came with so much cordial affection to serve these Princes, and + have served them with such service, as has never been heard of or + seen. + + "Of the new heaven and earth which our Lord made, when Saint John + was writing the Apocalypse, after what was spoken by the mouth of + Isaiah, He made me the messenger, and showed me where it lay. In + all men there was disbelief, but to the Queen, my Lady, He gave the + spirit of understanding, and great courage, and made her heiress of + all, as a dear and much loved daughter. I went to take possession + of all this in her royal name. They sought to make amends to her + for the ignorance they had all shown by passing over their little + knowledge and talking of obstacles and expenses. Her Highness, on + the other hand, approved of it, and supported it as far as she was + able. + + "Seven years passed in discussion and nine in execution. During + this time very remarkable and noteworthy things occurred whereof no + idea at all had been formed. I have arrived at, and am in, such a + condition that there is no person so vile but thinks he may insult + me: he shall be reckoned in the world as valour itself who is + courageous enough not to consent to it. + + "If I were to steal the Indies or the land which lies towards them, + of which I am now speaking, from the altar of Saint Peter, and give + them to the Moors, they could not show greater enmity towards me in + Spain. Who would believe such a thing where there was always so + much magnanimity? + + "I should have much desired to free myself from this affair had it + been honourable towards my Queen to do so. The support of our Lord + and of her Highness made me persevere: and to alleviate in some + measure the sorrows which death had caused her, I undertook a fresh + voyage to the new heaven and earth which up to that time had + remained hidden; and if it is not held there in esteem like the + other voyages to the Indies, that is no wonder, because it came to + be looked upon as my work. + + "The Holy Spirit inflamed Saint Peter and twelve others with him, + and they all contended here below, and their toils and hardships + were many, but last of all they gained the victory. + + "This voyage to Paria I thought would somewhat appease them on + account of the pearls, and of the discovery of gold in Espanola. + I ordered the pearls to be collected and fished for by people with + whom an arrangement was made that I should return for them, and, as + I understood, they were to be measured by the bushel. If I did not + write about this to their Highnesses, it was because I wished to + have first of all done the same thing with the gold. + + "The result to me in this has been the same as in many other things; + I should not have lost them nor my honour, if I had sought my own + advantage, and had allowed Espanola to be ruined, or if my + privileges and contracts had been observed. And I say just the same + about the gold which I had then collected, and [for] which with such + great afflictions and toils I have, by divine power, almost + perfected [the arrangements]. + + "When I went from Paria I found almost half the people from Espanola + in revolt, and they have waged war against me until now, as against + a Moor; and the Indians on the other side grievously [harassed me]. + At this time Hojeda arrived and tried to put the finishing stroke: + he said that their Highnesses had sent him with promises of gifts, + franchises and pay: he gathered together a great band, for in the + whole of Espanola there are very few save vagabonds, and not one + with wife and children. This Hojeda gave me great trouble; he was + obliged to depart, and left word that he would soon return with more + ships and people, and that he had left the Royal person of the + Queen, our Lady, at the point of death. Then Vincente Yanez arrived + with four caravels; there was disturbance and mistrust but no + mischief: the Indians talked of many others at the Cannibals + [Caribbee Islands] and in Paria; and afterwards spread the news of + six other caravels, which were brought by a brother of the Alcalde, + but it was with malicious intent. This occurred at the very last, + when the hope that their Highnesses would ever send any ships to the + Indies was almost abandoned, nor did we expect them; and it was + commonly reported that her Highness was dead. + + "A certain Adrian about this time endeavoured to rise in rebellion + again, as he had done previously, but our Lord did not permit his + evil purpose to succeed. I had purposed in myself never to touch a + hair of anybody's head, but I lament to say that with this man, + owing to his ingratitude, it was not possible to keep that resolve + as I had intended: I should not have done less to my brother, if he + had sought to kill me, and steal the dominion which my King and + Queen had given me in trust. + + "This Adrian, as it appears, had sent Don Ferdinand to Xaragua to + collect some of his followers, and there a dispute arose with the + Alcalde from which a deadly contest ensued, and he [Adrian] did not + effect his purpose. The Alcalde seized him and a part of his band, + and the fact was that he would have executed them if I had not + prevented it; they were kept prisoners awaiting a caravel in which + they might depart. The news of Hojeda which I told them made them + lose the hope that he would now come again. + + "For six months I had been prepared to return to their Highnesses + with the good news of the gold, and to escape from governing a + dissolute people Who fear neither God nor their King and Queen, + being full of vices and wickedness. + + "I could have paid the people in full with six hundred thousand, and + for this purpose I had four millions of tenths and somewhat more, + besides the third of the gold. + + "Before my departure I many times begged their Highnesses to send + there, at my expense, some one to take charge of the administration + of justice; and after finding the Alcalde in arms I renewed my + supplications to have either some troops or at least some servant of + theirs with letters patent; for my reputation is such that even if I + build churches and hospitals, they will always be called dens of + thieves. + + "They did indeed make provision at last, but it was the very + contrary of what the matter demanded: it may be successful, since it + was according to their good pleasure. + + "I was there for two years without being able to gain a decree of + favour for myself or for those who went there, yet this man brought + a coffer full: whether they will all redound to their [Highnesses] + service, God knows. Indeed, to begin with, there are exemptions for + twenty years, which is a man's lifetime; and gold is collected to + such an extent that there was one person who became worth five marks + in four hours; whereof I will speak more fully later on. + + "If it would please their Highnesses to remove the grounds of a + common saying of those who know my labours, that the calumny of the + people has done me more harm than much service and the maintenance + of their [Highnesses] property and dominion has done me good, it + would be a charity, and I should be re-established in my honour, and + it would be talked about all over the world: for the undertaking is + of such a nature that it must daily become more famous and in higher + esteem. + + "When the Commander Bobadilla came to Santo Domingo, I was at La + Vega, and the Adelantado at Xaragua, where that Adrian had made a + stand, but then all was quiet, and the land rich and all men at + peace. On the second day after his arrival, he created himself + Governor, and appointed officers and made executions, and proclaimed + immunities of gold and tenths and in general of everything else for + twenty years, which is a man's lifetime, and that he came to pay + everybody in full up to that day, even though they had not rendered + service; and he publicly gave notice that, as for me, he had charge + to send me in irons, and my brothers likewise, as he has done, and + that I should nevermore return thither, nor any other of my family: + alleging a thousand disgraceful and discourteous things about me. + All this took place on the second day after his arrival, as I have + said, and while I was absent at a distance, without my knowing + either of him or of his arrival. + + "Some letters of their Highnesses signed in blank, of which he + brought a number, he filled up and sent to the Alcalde and to his + company with favours and commendations: to me he never sent either + letter or messenger, nor has he done so to this day. Imagine what + any one holding my office would think when one who endeavoured to + rob their Highnesses, and who has done so much evil and mischief, is + honoured and favoured, while he who maintained it at such risks is + degraded. + + "When I heard this I thought that this affair would be like that of + Hojeda or one of the others, but I restrained myself when I learnt + for certain from the friars that their Highnesses had sent him. I + wrote to him that his arrival was welcome, and that I was prepared + to go to the Court and had sold all I possessed by auction; and that + with respect to the immunities he should not be hasty, for both that + matter and the government I would hand over to him immediately as + smooth as my palm. And I wrote to the same effect to the friars, + but neither he nor they gave me any answer. On the contrary, he put + himself in a warlike attitude, and compelled all who went there to + take an oath to him as Governor; and they told me that it was for + twenty years. + + "Directly I knew of those immunities, I thought that I would repair + such a great error and that he would be pleased, for he gave them + without the need or occasion necessary in so vast a matter: and he + gave to vagabond people what would have been excessive for a man who + had brought wife and children. So I announced by word and letters + that he could not use his patents because mine were those in force; + and I showed them the immunities which John Aguado brought. + + "All this was done by me in order to gain time, so that their + Highnesses might be informed of the condition of the country, and + that they might have an opportunity of issuing fresh commands as to + what would best promote their service in that respect. + + "It is useless to publish such immunities in the Indies: to the + settlers who have taken up residence it is a pure gain, for the best + lands are given to them, and at a low valuation they will be worth + two-hundred thousand at the end of the four years when the period of + residence is ended, without their digging a spadeful in them. I + would not speak thus if the settlers were married, but there are not + six among them all who are not on the look-out to gather what they + can and depart speedily. It would be a good thing if they should go + from Castile, and also if it were known who and what they are, and + if the country could be settled with honest people. + + "I had agreed with those settlers that they should pay the third of + the gold, and the tenths, and this at their own request; and they + received it as a great favour from their Highnesses. I reproved + them when I heard that they ceased to do this, and hoped that the + Commander would do likewise, and he did the contrary. + + "He incensed them against me by saying that I wanted to deprive them + of what their Highnesses had given them; and he endeavoured to set + them at variance with me, and did so; and he induced them to write + to their Highnesses that they should never again send me back to the + government, and I likewise make the same supplication to them for + myself and for my whole family, as long as there are not different + inhabitants. And he together with them ordered inquisitions + concerning me for wickednesses the like whereof were never known in + hell. Our Lord, who rescued Daniel and the three children, is + present with the same wisdom and power as He had then, and with the + same means, if it should please Him and be in accordance with His + will. + + "I should know how to remedy all this, and the rest of what has been + said and has taken place since I have been in the Indies, if my + disposition would allow me to seek my own advantage, and if it + seemed honourable to me to do so, but the maintenance of justice and + the extension of the dominion of her Highness has hitherto kept me + down. Now that so much gold is found, a dispute arises as to which + brings more profit, whether to go about robbing or to go to the + mines. A hundred castellanos are as easily obtained for a woman as + for a farm, and it is very general, and there are plenty of dealers + who go about looking for girls: those from nine to ten are now in + demand, and for all ages a good price must be paid. + + "I assert that the violence of the calumny of turbulent persons has + injured me more than my services have profited me; which is a bad + example for the present and for the future. I take my oath that a + number of men have gone to the Indies who did not deserve water in + the sight of God and of the world; and now they are returning + thither, and leave is granted them. + + "I assert that when I declared that the Commander could not grant + immunities, I did what he desired, although I told him that it was + to cause delay until their Highnesses should, receive information + from the country, and should command anew what might be for their + service. + + "He excited their enmity against me, and he seems, from what took + place and from his behaviour, to have come as my enemy and as a very + vehement one; or else the report is true that he has spent much to + obtain this employment. I do not know more about it than what I + hear. I never heard of an inquisitor gathering rebels together and + accepting them, and others devoid of credit and unworthy of it, as + witnesses against their Governor. + + "If their Highnesses were to make a general inquisition there, I + assure you that they would look upon it as a great wonder that the + island does not founder. + + "I think your Ladyship will remember that when, after losing my + sails, I was driven into Lisbon by a tempest, I was falsely accused + of having gone there to the King in order to give him the Indies. + Their Highnesses afterwards learned the contrary, and that it was + entirely malicious. + + "Although I may know but little, I do not think any one considers me + so stupid as not to know that even if the Indies were mine I could + not uphold myself without the help of some Prince. + + "If this be so, where could I find better support and security than + in the King and Queen, our Lords, who have raised me from nothing to + such great honour, and are the most exalted Princes of the world on + sea and on land, and who consider that I have rendered them service, + and who preserve to me my privileges and rewards: and if any one + infringes them, their Highnesses increase them still more, as was + seen in the case of John Aguado; and they order great honour to be + conferred upon me, and, as I have already said, their Highnesses + have received service from me, and keep my sons in their household; + all which could by no means happen with another prince, for where + there is no affection, everything else fails. + + "I have now spoken thus in reply to a malicious slander, but against + my will, as it is a thing which should not recur to memory even in + dreams; for the Commander Bobadilla maliciously seeks in this way to + set his own conduct and actions in a brighter light; but I shall + easily show him that his small knowledge and great cowardice, + together with his inordinate cupidity, have caused him to fail + therein. + + "I have already said that I wrote to him and to the friars, and + immediately set out, as I told him, almost alone, because all the + people were with the Adelantado, and likewise in order to prevent + suspicion on his part. When he heard this, he seized Don Diego and + sent him on board a caravel loaded with irons, and did the same to + me upon my arrival, and afterwards to the Adelantado when he came; + nor did I speak to him any more, nor to this day has he allowed any + one to speak to me; and I take my oath that I cannot understand why + I am made a prisoner. + + "He made it his first business to seize the gold, which he did + without measuring or weighing it and in my absence; he said that he + wanted it to pay the people, and according to what I hear he + assigned the chief part to himself and sent fresh exchangers for the + exchanges. Of this gold I had put aside certain specimens, very big + lumps, like the eggs of geese, hens, and pullets, and of many other + shapes, which some persons had collected in a short space of time, + in order that their Highnesses might be gladdened, and might + comprehend the business upon seeing a quantity of large stones full + of gold. This collection was the first to be given away, with + malicious intent, so that their Highnesses should not hold the + matter in any account until he has feathered his nest, which he is + in great haste to do. Gold which is for melting diminishes at the + fire: some chains which would weigh about twenty marks have never + been seen again. + + "I have been more distressed about this matter of the gold than even + about the pearls, because I have not brought it to her Highness. + + "The Commander at once set to work upon anything which he thought + would injure me. I have already said that with six hundred thousand + I could pay every one without defrauding anybody, and that I had + more than four millions of tenths and constabulary [dues] without + touching the gold. He made some free gifts which are ridiculous, + though I believe that he began by assigning the chief part to + himself. Their Highnesses will find it out when they order an + account to be obtained from him, especially if I should be present + thereat. He does nothing but reiterate that a large sum is owing, + and it is what I have said, and even less. I have been much + distressed that there should be sent concerning me an inquisitor who + is aware that if the inquisition which he returns is very grave he + will remain in possession of the government. + + "Would that it had pleased our Lord that their Highnesses had sent + him or some one else two years ago, for I know that I should now be + free from scandal and infamy, and that my honour would not be taken + from me, nor should I lose it. God is just, and will make known the + why and the wherefore. + + "They judge me over there as they would a governor who had gone to + Sicily, or to a city or town placed under regular government, and + where the laws can be observed in their entirety without fear of + ruining everything; and I am greatly injured thereby. + + "I ought to be judged as a captain who went from Spain to the Indies + to conquer a numerous and warlike people, whose customs and religion + are very contrary to ours; who live in rocks and mountains, without + fixed settlements, and not like ourselves: and where, by the Divine + Will, I have placed under the dominion of the King and Queen, our + Sovereigns, a second world, through which Spain, which was reckoned + a poor country, has become the richest. + + "I ought to be judged as a captain who for such a long time up to + this day has borne arms without laying them aside for an hour, and + by gentlemen adventurers and by custom, and not by letters, unless + they were from Greeks or Romans or others of modern times of whom + there are so many and such noble examples in Spain; or otherwise I + receive great injury, because in the Indies there is neither town + nor settlement. + + "The gate to the gold and pearls is now open, and plenty of + everything--precious stones, spices and a thousand other things--may + be surely expected, and never could a worse misfortune befall me: + for by the name of our Lord the first voyage would yield them just + as much as would the traffic of Arabia Felix as far as Mecca, as I + wrote to their Highnesses by Antonio de Tomes in my reply respecting + the repartition of the sea and land with the Portuguese; and + afterwards it would equal that of Calicut, as I told them and put in + writing at the monastery of the Mejorada. + + "The news of the gold that I said I would give is, that on the day + of the Nativity, while I was much tormented, being harassed by + wicked Christians and by Indians, and when I was on the point of + giving up everything, and if possible escaping from life, our Lord + miraculously comforted me and said, 'Fear not violence, I will + provide for all things: the seven years of the term of the gold have + not elapsed, and in that and in everything else I will afford thee a + remedy.' + + "On that day I learned that there were eighty leagues of land with + mines at every point thereof. The opinion now is that it is all + one. Some have collected a hundred and twenty castellanos in one + day, and others ninety, and even the number of two hundred and fifty + has been reached. From fifty to seventy, and in many more cases + from fifteen to fifty, is considered a good day's work, and many + carry it on. The usual quantity is from six to twelve, and any one + obtaining less than this is not satisfied. It seems to me that these + mines are like others, and do not yield equally every day. The + mines are new, and so are the workers: it is the opinion of + everybody that even if all Castile were to go there, every + individual, however inexpert he might be, would not obtain less than + one or two castellanos daily, and now it is only commencing. It is + true that they keep Indians, but the business is in the hands of the + Christians. Behold what discernment Bobadilla had, when he gave up + everything for nothing, and four millions of tenths, without any + reason or even being requested, and without first notifying it to + their Highnesses. And this is not the only loss. + + "I know that my errors have not been committed with the intention of + doing evil, and I believe that their Highnesses regard the matter + just as I state it: and I know and see that they deal mercifully + even with those who maliciously act to their disservice. I believe + and consider it very certain that their clemency will be both + greater and more abundant towards me, for I fell therein through + ignorance and the force of circumstances, as they will know fully + hereafter; and I indeed am their creature, and they will look upon + my services, and will acknowledge day by day that they are much + profited. They will place everything in the balance, even as Holy + Scripture tells us good and evil will be at the day of judgment. + + "If, however, they command that another person do judge me, which I + cannot believe, and that it be by inquisition in the Indies, I very + humbly beseech them to send thither two conscientious and honourable + persons at my expense, who I believe will easily, now that gold is + discovered, find five marks in four hours. In either case it is + needful for them to provide for this matter. + + "The Commander on his arrival at San Domingo took up his abode in my + house, and just as he found it so he appropriated everything to + himself. Well and good; perhaps he was in want of it. A pirate + never acted thus towards a merchant. About my papers I have a + greater grievance, for he has so completely deprived me of them that + I have never been able to obtain a single one from him; and those + that would have been most useful in my exculpation are precisely + those which he has kept most concealed. Behold the just and honest + inquisitor! Whatever he may have done, they tell me that there has + been an end to justice, except in an arbitrary form. God, our Lord, + is present with His strength and wisdom, as of old, and always + punishes in the end, especially ingratitude and injuries." + +We must keep in mind the circumstances in which this letter was written +if we are to judge it and the writer wisely. It is a sad example of +querulous complaint, in which everything but the writer's personal point +of view is ignored. No one indeed is more terrible in this world than +the Man with a Grievance. How rarely will human nature in such +circumstances retire into the stronghold of silence! Columbus is asking +for pity; but as we read his letter we incline to pity him on grounds +quite different from those which he represented. He complains that the +people he was sent to govern have waged war against him as against a +Moor; he complains of Ojeda and of Vincenti Yanez Pinzon; of Adrian de +Moxeca, and of every other person whom it was his business to govern and +hold in restraint. He complains of the colonists--the very people, some +of them, whom he himself took and impressed from the gaols and purlieus +of Cadiz; and then he mingles pious talk about Saint Peter and Daniel in +the den of lions with notes on the current price of little girls and big +lumps of gold like the eggs of geese, hens, and pullets. He complains +that he is judged as a man would be judged who had been sent out to +govern a ready-made colony, and represents instead that he went out to +conquer a numerous and warlike people "whose custom and religion are very +contrary to ours, and who lived in rocks and mountains"; forgetting that +when it suited him for different purposes he described the natives as so +peaceable and unwarlike that a thousand of them would not stand against +one Christian, and that in any case he was sent out to create a +constitution and not merely to administer one. Very sore indeed is +Christopher as he reveals himself in this letter, appealing now to his +correspondent, now to the King and Queen, now to that God who is always +on the side of the complainant. "God our Lord is present with His +strength and wisdom, as of old, and always punishes in the end, +especially ingratitude and injuries." Not boastfulness and weakness, let +us hope, or our poor Admiral will come off badly. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +CRISIS IN THE ADMIRAL'S LIFE + +Columbus was not far wrong in his estimate of the effect likely to be +produced by his manacles, and when the ships of Villegio arrived at Cadiz +in October, the spectacle of an Admiral in chains produced a degree of +commiseration which must have exceeded his highest hopes. He was now in +his fiftieth year and of an extremely venerable appearance, his kindling +eye looking forth from under brows of white, his hair and beard snow- +white, his face lined and spiritualised with suffering and sorrow. It +must be remembered that before the Spanish people he had always appeared +in more or less state. They had not that intimacy with him, +an intimacy which perhaps brought contempt, which the people in Espanola +enjoyed; and in Spain, therefore, the contrast between his former +grandeur and this condition of shame and degradation was the more +striking. It was a fact that the people of Spain could not neglect. +It touched their sense of the dramatic and picturesque, touched their +hearts also perhaps--hearts quick to burn, quick to forget. They had +forgotten him before, now they burned with indignation at the picture of +this venerable and much-suffering man arriving in disgrace. + +His letter to Dofia Juana, hastily despatched by him, probably through +the office of some friendly soul on board, immediately on his arrival at +Cadiz, was the first news from the ship received by the King and Queen, +and naturally it caused them a shock of surprise. It was followed by the +despatches from Bobadilla and by a letter from the Alcalde of Cadiz +announcing that Columbus and his brothers were in his custody awaiting +the royal orders. Perhaps Ferdinand and Isabella had already repented +their drastic action and had entertained some misgivings as to its +results; but it is more probable that they had put it out of their heads +altogether, and that their hasty action now was prompted as much by the +shock of being recalled to a consciousness of the troubled state of +affairs in the New World as by any real regret for what they had done. +Moreover they had sent out Bobadilla to quiet things down; and the first +result of it was that Spain was ringing with the scandal of the Admiral's +treatment. In that Spanish world, unsteadfast and unstable, when one end +of the see-saw was up the other must be down; and it was Columbus who now +found himself high up in the heavens of favour, and Bobadilla who was +seated in the dust. Equipoise any kind was apparently a thing +impossible; if one man was right the other man must be wrong; no excuses +for Bobadilla; every excuse for the Admiral. + +The first official act, therefore, was an order for the immediate release +of the Admiral and his brothers, followed by an invitation for him to +proceed without delay to the Court at Granada, and an order for the +immediate payment to him of the sum of 2000 ducats [perhaps $250,000 in +the year 2000 D.W.] this last no ungenerous gift to a Viceroy whose +pearl accounts were in something less than order. Perhaps Columbus had +cherished the idea of appearing dramatically before the very Court in his +rags and chains; but the cordiality of their letter as well as the gift +of money made this impossible. Instead, not being a man to do things by +halves, he equipped himself in his richest and most splendid garments, +got together the requisite number of squires and pages, and duly +presented himself at Granada in his full dignity. The meeting was an +affecting one, touched with a humanity which has survived the intervening +centuries, as a touch of true humanity will when details of mere parade +and etiquette have long perished. Perhaps the Admiral, inspired with a +deep sense of his wrongs, meant to preserve a very stiff and cold +demeanour at the beginning of this interview; but when he looked into the +kind eyes of Isabella and saw them suffused with tears at the thought of +his sorrows all his dignity broke down; the tears came to his own eyes, +and he wept there naturally like a child. Ferdinand looking on kind but +uncomfortable; Isabella unaffectedly touched and weeping; the Admiral, in +spite of his scarlet cloak and golden collar and jewelled sword, in spite +of equerries, squires, pages and attendants, sobbing on his knees like a +child or an old man-these were the scenes and kindly emotions of this +historic moment. + + +The tears were staunched by kindly royal words and handkerchiefs supplied +by attendant pages; sobbings breaking out again, but on the whole soon +quieted; King and Queen raising the gouty Christopher from his knees, +filling the air with kind words of sympathy, praise, and encouragement; +the lonely worn heart, somewhat arid of late, and parched from want of +human sympathy, much refreshed by this dew of kindness. The Admiral was +soon himself again, and he would not have been himself if upon recovering +he had not launched out into what some historians call a "lofty and +dignified vindication of his loyalty and zeal." No one, indeed, is +better than the Admiral at such lofty and dignified vindications. He +goes into the whole matter and sets forth an account of affairs at +Espanola from his own point of view; and can even (so high is the +thermometer of favour) safely indulge in a little judicious self- +depreciation, saying that if he has erred it has not been from want of +zeal but from want of experience in dealing with the kind of material +he has been set to govern. All this is very human, natural, and +understandable; product of that warm emotional atmosphere, bedewed with +tears, in which the Admiral finds himself; and it is not long before the +King and Queen, also moved to it by the emotional temperature, are +expressing their unbroken and unbounded confidence in him and repudiating +the acts of Bobadilla, which they declare to have been contrary to their +instructions; undertaking also that he shall be immediately dismissed +from his post. Poor Bobadilla is not here in the warm emotional +atmosphere; he had his turn of it six months ago, when no powers were too +high or too delicate to be entrusted to him; he is out in the cold at the +other end of the see-saw, which has let him down to the ground with a +somewhat sudden thump. + + +Columbus, relying on the influence of these emotions, made bold to ask +that his property in the island should be restored to him, which was +immediately granted; and also to request that he should be reinstated in +his office of Viceroy and allowed to return at once in triumph to +Espanola. But emotions are unstable things; they present a yielding +surface which will give to any extent, but which, when it has hardened +again after the tears have evaporated, is often found to be in much the +same condition as before. At first promises were made that the whole +matter should be fully gone into; but when it came to cold fact, +Ferdinand was obliged to recognise that this whole business of discovery +and colonisation had become a very different thing to what it had been +when Columbus was the only discoverer; and he was obviously of opinion +that, as Columbus's office had once been conveniently withdrawn from him, +it would only be disastrous to reinstate him in it. Of course he did not +say so at once; but reasons were given for judicious delay in the +Admiral's reappointment. It was represented to him that the colony, +being in an extremely unsettled state, should be given a short period of +rest, and also that it would be as well for him to wait until the people +who had given him so much trouble in the island could be quietly and +gradually removed. Two years was the time mentioned as suitable for an +interregnum, and it is probable that it was the intention of Isabella, +although not of Ferdinand, to restore Columbus to his office at the end +of that time. + + +In the meantime it became necessary to appoint some one to supersede +Bobadilla; for the news that arrived periodically from Espanola during +the year showed that he had entirely failed in his task of reducing the +island to order. For the wholesome if unequal rigours of Columbus +Bobadilla had substituted laxness and indulgence, with the result that +the whole colony was rapidly reduced to a state of the wildest disorder. +Vice and cruelty were rampant; in fact the barbarities practised upon the +natives were so scandalous that even Spanish opinion, which was never +very sympathetic to heathen suffering, was thoroughly shocked and +alarmed. The Sovereigns therefore appointed Nicholas de Ovando to go out +and take over the command, with instructions to use very drastic means +for bringing the colony to order. How he did it we shall presently see; +in the meantime all that was known of him (the man not having been tried +yet) was that he was a poor knight of Calatrava, a man respected in royal +circles for the performance of minor official duties, but no very popular +favourite; honest according to his lights--lights turned rather low and +dim, as was often the case in those days. A narrow-minded man also, +without sympathy or imagination, capable of cruelty; a tough, stiff- +necked stock of a man, fit to deal with Bobadilla perhaps, but hardly fit +to deal with the colony. Spain in those days was not a nursery of +administration. Of all the people who were sent out successively to +govern Espanola and supersede one another, the only one who really seems +to have had the necessary natural ability, had he but been given the +power, was Bartholomew Columbus; but unfortunately things were in such a +state that the very name of Columbus was enough to bar a man from +acceptance as a governor of Espanola. + +It was not for any lack of powers and equipment that this procession of +governors failed in their duties. We have seen with what authority +Bobadilia had been entrusted; and Ovando had even greater advantages. +The instructions he received showed that the needs of the new colonies +were understood by Ferdinand and Isabella, if by no one else. Ovando was +not merely appointed Governor of Espanola but of the whole of the new +territory discovered in the west, his seat of government being San +Domingo. He was given the necessary free hand in the matters of +punishment, confiscation, and allotment of lands. He was to revoke the +orders which had been made by Bobadilla reducing the proportion of gold +payable to the Crown, and was empowered to take over one-third of the. +gold that was stored on the island, and one-half of what might be found +in the future. The Crown was to have a monopoly of all trade, and +ordinary supplies were only to be procured through the Crown agent. +On the other hand, the natives were to be released from slavery, and +although forced to work in the mines, were to be paid for their labour-- +a distinction which in the working out did not produce much difference. +A body of Franciscan monks accompanied Ovando for the purpose of tackling +the religious question with the necessary energy; and every regulation +that the kind heart of Isabella could think of was made for the happiness +and contentment of the Indians. + +Unhappily the real mischief had already been done. The natives, who had +never been accustomed to hard and regular work under the conditions of +commerce and greed, but had only toiled for the satisfaction of their own +simple wants, were suffering cruelly under the hard labour in the mines, +and the severe driving of their Spanish masters. Under these unnatural . +conditions the native population was rapidly dying off, and there was +some likelihood that there would soon be a scarcity of native labour. +These were the circumstances in which the idea of importing black African +labour to the New World was first conceived--a plan which was destined to +have results so tremendous that we have probably not yet seen their full +and ghastly development. There were a great number of African negro +slaves at that time in Spain; a whole generation of them had been born in +slavery in Spain itself; and this generation was bodily imported to +Espanola to relieve and assist the native labour. + + +These preparations were not made all at once; and it was more than a year +after the return of Columbus before Ovando was ready to sail. In the +meantime Columbus was living in Granada, and looking on with no very +satisfied eye at the plans which were being made to supersede him, and +about which he was probably not very much consulted; feeling very sore +indeed, and dividing his attention between the nursing of his grievances +and other even less wholesome occupations. There was any amount of +smiling kindness for him at Court, but very little of the satisfaction +that his vanity and ambition craved; and in the absence of practical +employment he fell back on visionary speculations. He made great friends +at this time with a monk named Gaspar Gorricio, with whose assistance he +began to make some kind of a study of such utterances of the Prophets and +the Fathers as he conceived to have a bearing on his own career. + +Columbus was in fact in a very queer way at this time; and what with his +readings and his meditatings and his grievances, and his visits to his +monkish friend in the convent of Las Cuevas, he fell into a kind of +intellectual stupor, of which the work called 'Libro de las Profecias,' +or Book of the Prophecies, in which he wrote down such considerations as +occurred to him in his stupor, was the result. The manuscript of this +work is in existence, although no human being has ever ventured to +reprint the whole of it; and we would willingly abstain from mentioning +it here if it were not an undeniable act of Columbus's life. The +Admiral, fallen into theological stupor, puts down certain figures upon +paper; discovers that St. Augustine said that the world would only last +for 7000 years; finds that some other genius had calculated that before +the birth of Christ it had existed for 5343 years and 318 days; adds 1501 +years from the birth of Christ to his own time; adds up, and finds that +the total is 6844 years; subtracts, and discovers that this earthly globe +can only last 155 years longer. He remembers also that, still according +to the Prophets, certain things must happen before the end of the world; +Holy Sepulchre restored to Christianity, heathen converted, second coming +of Christ; and decides that he himself is the man appointed by God and +promised by the Prophets to perform these works. Good Heavens! in what +an entirely dark and sordid stupor is our Christopher now sunk--a +veritable slough and quag of stupor out of which, if he does not manage +to flounder himself, no human hand can pull him. + + +But amid his wallowings in this slough of stupor, when all else, in him +had been well-nigh submerged by it, two dim lights were preserved towards +which, although foundered up to the chin, he began to struggle; and by +superhuman efforts did at last extricate himself from the theological +stupor and get himself blown clean again by the salt winds before he +died. One light was his religion; not to be confounded with theological +stupor, but quite separate from it in my belief; a certain steadfast and +consuming faith in a Power that could see and understand and guide him to +the accomplishment of his purpose. This faith had been too often a good +friend and help to Christopher for him to forget it very long, even while +he was staggering in the quag with Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the Fathers; and +gradually, as I say, he worked himself out into the region of activity +again. First, thinking it a pity that his flounderings in the slough +should be entirely wasted, he had a copy of his precious theological work +made and presented it to the Sovereigns, with a letter urging them (since +he himself was unable to do it) to undertake a crusade for the recovery +of the Holy Sepulchre--not an altogether wild proposal in those days. +But Ferdinand had other uses for his men and his money, and contented +himself with despatching Peter Martyr on a pacific mission to the Grand +Soldan of Egypt. + +The other light left unquenched in Columbus led him back to the firm +ground of maritime enterprise; he began to long for the sea again, and +for a chance of doing something to restore his reputation. An infinitely +better and more wholesome frame of mind this; by all means let him mend +his reputation by achievement, instead of by writing books in a +theological trance or stupor, and attempting to prove that he was chosen +by the Almighty. He now addressed himself to the better task of getting +himself chosen by men to do something which should raise him again in +their esteem. + + +His maritime ambition was no doubt stimulated at this time by witnessing +the departure of Ovando, in February 1502, with a fleet of thirty-five +ships and a company of 2500 people. It was not in the Admiral's nature +to look on without envy at an equipment the like of which he himself had +never been provided with, and he did not restrain his sarcasms at its +pomp and grandeur, nor at the ease with which men could follow a road +which had once been pointed out to them. Ovando had a great body-guard +such as Columbus had never had; and he also carried with him a great +number of picked married men with their families, all with knowledge of +some trade or craft, whose presence in the colony would be a guarantee +of permanence and steadiness. He perhaps remembered his own crowd of +ruffians and gaol-birds, and realised the bitterness of his own mistakes. +It was a very painful moment for him, and he was only partially +reconciled to it by the issue of a royal order to Ovando under which he +was required to see to the restoration of the Admiral's property. If it +had been devoted to public purposes it was to be repaid him from the +royal funds; but if it had been merely distributed among the colonists +Bobadilla was to be made responsible for it. The Admiral was also +allowed to send out an agent to represent him and look after his +interests; and he appointed Alonso de Carvajal to this office. + + +Ovando once gone, the Admiral could turn again to his own affairs. +It is true there were rumours that the whole fleet had perished, for it +encountered a gale very soon after leaving Cadiz, and a great quantity of +the deck hamper was thrown overboard and was washed on the shores of +Spain; and the Sovereigns were so bitterly distressed that, as it is +said, they shut them selves up for eight days. News eventually came, +however, that only one ship had been lost and that the rest had proceeded +safely to San Domingo. Columbus, much recovered in body and mind, now +began to apply for a fleet for himself. He had heard of the discovery by +the Portuguese of the southern route to India; no doubt he had heard also +much gossip of the results of the many private voyages of discovery that +were sailing from Spain at this time; and he began to think seriously +about his own discoveries and the way in which they might best be +extended. He thought much of his voyage to the west of Trinidad and of +the strange pent-up seas and currents that he had discovered there. He +remembered the continual westward trend of the current, and how all the +islands in that sea had their greatest length east and west, as though +their shores had been worn into that shape by the constant flowing of the +current; and it was not an unnatural conclusion for him to suppose that +there was a channel far to the west through which these seas poured and +which would lead him to the Golden Chersonesus. He put away from him +that nightmare madness that he transacted on the coast of Cuba. He knew +very well that he had not yet found the Golden Chersonesus and the road +to India; but he became convinced that the western current would lead him +there if only he followed it long enough. There was nothing insane about +this theory; it was in fact a very well-observed and well-reasoned +argument; and the fact that it happened to be entirely wrong is no +reflection on the Admiral's judgment. The great Atlantic currents at +that time had not been studied; and how could he know that the western +stream of water was the northern half of a great ocean current which +sweeps through the Caribbean Sea, into and round the Gulf of Mexico, and +flows out northward past Florida in the Gulf Stream? + +His applications for a fleet were favourably received by the King and +Queen, but much frowned upon by certain high officials of the Court. +They were beginning to regard Columbus as a dangerous adventurer who, +although he happened to have discovered the western islands, had brought +the Spanish colony there to a dreadful state of disorder; and had also, +they alleged, proved himself rather less than trustworthy in matters of +treasure. Still in the summer days of 1501 he was making himself very +troublesome at Court with constant petitions and letters about his rights +and privileges; and Ferdinand was far from unwilling to adopt a plan by +which they would at least get rid of him and keep him safely occupied at +the other side of the world at the cost of a few caravels. There was, +besides, always an element of uncertainty. His voyage might come to +nothing, but on the other hand the Admiral was no novice at this game of +discovery, and one could not tell but that something big might come of +it. After some consideration permission was given to him to fit out a +fleet of four ships, and he proceeded to Seville in the autumn of 1501 +to get his little fleet ready. Bartholomew was to come with him, and his +son Ferdinand also, who seems to have much endeared himself to the +Admiral in these dark days, and who would surely be a great comfort to +him on the voyage. Beatriz Enriquez seems to have passed out of his +life; certainly he was not living with her either now or on his last +visit to Spain; one way or another, that business is at an end for him. +Perhaps poor Beatriz, seeing her son in such a high place at Court, has +effaced herself for his sake; perhaps the appointment was given on +condition of such effacement; we do not know. + + +Columbus was in no hurry over his preparations. In the midst of them he +found time to collect a whole series of documents relating to his titles +and dignities, which he had copied and made into a great book which he +called his "Book of Privileges," and the copies of which were duly +attested before a notary at Seville on January 5, 1502. He wrote many +letters to various friends of his, chiefly in relation to these +privileges; not interesting or illuminating letters to us, although very +important to busy Christopher when he wrote them. Here is one written to +Nicolo Oderigo, a Genoese Ambassador who came to Spain on a brief mission +in the spring of 1502, and who, with certain other residents in Spain, is +said to have helped Columbus in his preparations for his fourth voyage: + + "Sir,--The loneliness in which you have left us cannot be described. + I gave the book containing my writings to Francisco de Rivarol that + he may send it to you with another copy of letters containing + instructions. I beg you to be so kind as to write Don Diego in + regard to the place of security in which you put them. Duplicates + of everything will be completed and sent to you in the same manner + and by the same Francisco. Among them you will find a new document. + Their Highnesses promised to give all that belongs to me and to + place Don Diego in possession of everything, as you will see. I + wrote to Senor Juan Luis and to Sefora Catalina. The letter + accompanies this one. I am ready to start in the name of the Holy + Trinity as soon as the weather is good. I am well provided with + everything. If Jeronimo de Santi Esteban is coming, he must await + me and not embarrass himself with anything, for they will take away + from him all they can and silently leave him. Let him come here and + the King and the Queen will receive him until I come. May our Lord + have you in His holy keeping. + + "Done at Seville, March 21, 1502. + "At your command. + + .S. + .S.A.S. + Xpo FERENS." + + +His delays were not pleasing to Ferdinand, who wanted to get rid of him, +and he was invited to hurry his departure; but he still continued to go +deliberately about his affairs, which he tried to put in order as far as +he was able, since he thought it not unlikely that he might never see +Spain again. Thinking thus of his worldly duties, and his thoughts +turning to his native Genoa, it occurred to him to make some benefaction +out of the riches that were coming to him by which his name might be +remembered and held in honour there. This was a piece of practical +kindness the record of which is most precious to us; for it shows the +Admiral in a truer and more human light than he often allowed to shine +upon him. The tone of the letter is nothing; he could not forbear +letting the people of Genoa see how great he was. The devotion of his +legacy to the reduction of the tax on simple provisions was a genuine +charity, much to be appreciated by the dwellers in the Vico Dritto di +Ponticello, where wine and provision shops were so very necessary to +life. The letter was written to the Directors of the famous Bank of +Saint George at Genoa. + + "VERY NOBLE LORDS,--Although my body is here, my heart is + continually yonder. Our Lord has granted me the greatest favour he + has granted any one since the time of David. The results of my + undertaking already shine, and they would make a great light if the + obscurity of the Government did not conceal them. I shall go again + to the Indies in the name of the Holy Trinity, to return + immediately. And as I am mortal, I desire my son Don Diego to give + to you each year, for ever, the tenth part of all the income + received, in payment of the tax on wheat, wine, and other + provisions. If this tenth amounts to anything, receive it, and if + not, receive my will for the deed. I beg you as a favour to have + this son of mine in your charge. Nicolo de Oderigo knows more about + my affairs than I myself. I have sent him the copy of my privileges + and letters, that he may place them in safe keeping. I would be + glad if you could see them. The King and the Queen, my Lords, now + wish to honour me more than ever. May the Holy Trinity guard your + noble persons, and increase the importance of your very magnificent + office. + "Done in Seville, April a, 1502. + + "The High-Admiral of the Ocean-Sea and Viceroy and Governor-General + of the islands and mainland of Asia and the Indies, belonging to the + King and Queen, my Lords, and the Captain-General of the Sea, and a + Member of their Council. + + .S. + .S.A.S. + X M Y + Xpo FERENS." + + +Columbus was anxious to touch at Espanola on his voyage to the West; but +he was expressly forbidden to do so, as it was known that his presence +there could not make for anything but confusion; he was to be permitted, +however, to touch there on his return journey. The Great Khan was not +out of his mind yet; much in it apparently, for he took an Arabian +interpreter with him so that he could converse with that monarch. In +fact he did not hesitate to announce that very big results indeed were to +come of this voyage of his; among other things he expected to +circumnavigate the globe, and made no secret of his expectation. In the +meantime he was expected to find some pearls in order to pay for the +equipment of his fleet; and in consideration of what had happened to the +last lot of pearls collected by him, an agent named Diego de Porras was +sent along with him to keep an account of the gold and precious stones +which might be discovered. Special instructions were issued to Columbus +about the disposal of these commodities. He does not seem to have minded +these somewhat humiliating precautions; he had a way of rising above +petty indignities and refusing to recognise them which must have been of +great assistance to his self-respect in certain troubled moments in his +life. + +His delays, however, were so many that in March 1502 the Sovereigns were +obliged to order him to depart without any more waiting. Poor +Christopher, who once had to sue for the means with which to go, whose +departures were once the occasion of so much state and ceremony, has now +to be hustled forth and asked to go away. Still he does not seem to +mind; once more, as of old, his gaze is fixed beyond the horizon and his +mind is filled with one idea. They may not think much of him in Spain +now, but they will when he comes back; and he can afford to wait. +Completing his preparations without undignified haste he despatched +Bartholomew with his four little vessels from Seville to Cadiz, where the +Admiral was to join them. He took farewell of his son Diego and of his +brother James; good friendly James, who had done his best in a difficult +position, but had seen quite enough of the wild life of the seas and was +now settled in Seville studying hard for the Church. It had always been +his ambition, poor James; and, studying hard in Seville, he did in time +duly enter the sacred pale and become a priest--by which we may see that +if our ambitions are only modest enough we may in time encompass them. +Sometimes I think that James, enveloped in priestly vestments, nodding in +the sanctuary, lulled by the muttering murmur of the psalms or dozing +through a long credo, may have thought himself back amid the brilliant +sunshine and strange perfumes of Espanola; and from a dream of some nymph +hiding in the sweet groves of the Vega may have awakened with a sigh to +the strident Alleluias of his brother priests. At any rate, farewell to +James, safely seated beneath the Gospel light, and continuing to sit +there until, in the year 1515, death interrupts him. We are not any more +concerned with James in his priestly shelter, but with those elder +brothers of his who are making ready again to face the sun and the +surges. + +Columbus's ships were on the point of sailing when word came that the +Moors were besieging a Portuguese post on the coast of Morocco, and, as +civility was now the order of the day between Spain and Portugal, the +Admiral was instructed to call on his way there and afford some relief. +This he did, sailing from Cadiz on the 9th or 10th of May to Ercilla on +the Morocco coast, where he anchored on the 13th. But the Moors had all +departed and the siege was over; so Columbus, having sent Bartholomew and +some of his officers ashore on a civil visit, which was duly returned, +set out the same day on his last voyage. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE LAST VOYAGE + +The four ships that made up the Admiral's fleet on his fourth and last +voyage were all small caravels, the largest only of seventy tons and the +smallest only of fifty. Columbus chose for his flagship the Capitana, +seventy tons, appointing Diego Tristan to be his captain. The next best +ship was the Santiago de Palos under the command of Francisco Porras; +Porras and his brother Diego having been more or less foisted on to +Columbus by Morales, the Royal Treasurer, who wished to find berths for +these two brothers-in-law of his. We shall hear more of the Porras +brothers. The third ship was the Gallega, sixty tons, a very bad sailer +indeed, and on that account entrusted to Bartholomew Columbus, whose +skill in navigation, it was hoped, might make up for her bad sailing +qualities. Bartholomew had, to tell the truth, had quite enough of the +New World, but he was too loyal to Christopher to let him go alone, +knowing as he did his precarious state of health and his tendency to +despondency. The captain of the Gallega was Pedro de Terreros, who had +sailed with the Admiral as steward on all his other voyages and was now +promoted to a command. The fourth ship was called the Vizcaina, fifty +tons, and was commanded by Bartolome Fieschi, a friend of Columbus's from +Genoa, and a very sound, honourable man. There were altogether 143 souls +on board the four caravels. + +The fleet as usual made the Canary Islands, where they arrived on the +20th of May, and stopped for five days taking in wood and water and fresh +provisions. Columbus was himself again--always more himself at sea than +anywhere else; he was following a now familiar road that had no +difficulties or dangers for him; and there is no record of the voyage out +except that it was quick and prosperous, with the trade wind blowing so +steadily that from the time they left the Canaries until they made land +twenty days later they had hardly to touch a sheet or a halliard. The +first land they made was the island of Martinique, where wood and water +were taken in and the men sent ashore to wash their linen. To young +Ferdinand, but fourteen years old, this voyage was like a fairy tale come +true, and his delight in everything that he saw must have added greatly +to Christopher's pleasure and interest in the voyage. They only stayed a +few days at Martinique and then sailed westward along the chain of +islands until they came to Porto Rico, where they put in to the sunny +harbour which they had discovered on a former voyage. + +It was at this point that Columbus determined, contrary to his precise +orders, to stand across to Espanola. The place attracted him like a +magnet; he could not keep away from it; and although he had a good enough +excuse for touching there, it is probable that his real reason was a very +natural curiosity to see how things were faring with his old enemy +Bobadilla. The excuse was that the Gallega, Bartholomew's ship, was so +unseaworthy as to be a drag on the progress of the rest of the fleet and +a danger to her own crew. In the slightest sea-way she rolled almost +gunwale under, and would not carry her sail; and Columbus's plan was to +exchange her for a vessel out of the great fleet which he knew had by +this time reached Espanola and discharged its passengers. + + +He arrived off the harbour of San Domingo on the 29th of June in very +threatening weather, and immediately sent Pedro de Terreros ashore with a +message to Ovando, asking to be allowed to purchase or exchange one of +the vessels that were riding in the harbour, and also leave to shelter +his own vessels there during the hurricane which he believed to be +approaching. A message came back that he was neither permitted to buy a +ship nor to enter the harbour; warning him off from San Domingo, in fact. + +With this unfavourable message Terreros also brought back the news of the +island. Ovando had been in San Domingo since the 15th of April, and had +found the island in a shocking state, the Spanish population having to a +man devoted itself to idleness, profligacy, and slave-driving. The only +thing that had prospered was the gold-mining; for owing to the licence +that Bobadilla had given to the Spaniards to employ native labour to an +unlimited extent there had been an immense amount of gold taken from the +mines. But in no other respect had island affairs prospered, and Ovando +immediately began the usual investigation. The fickle Spaniards, always +unfaithful to whoever was in authority over them, were by this time tired +of Bobadilla, in spite of his leniency, and they hailed the coming of +Ovando and his numerous equipment with enthusiasm. Bobadilla had also by +this time, we may suppose, had enough of the joys of office; at any rate +he showed no resentment at the coming of the new Governor, and handed +over the island with due ceremony. The result of the investigation of +Ovando, however, was to discover a state of things requiring exemplary +treatment; friend Roldan was arrested, with several of his allies, and +put on board one of the ships to be sent back to Spain for trial. The +cacique Guarionex, who had been languishing in San Domingo in chains for +a long time, was also embarked on one of the returning ships; and about +eighteen hundred-weights of gold which had been collected were also +stowed into cases and embarked. Among this gold there was a nugget +weighing 35 lbs. which had been found by a native woman in a river, and +which Ovando was sending home as a personal offering to his Sovereigns; +and some further 40 lbs. of gold belonging to Columbus, which Carvajal +had recovered and placed in a caravel to be taken to Spain for the +Admiral. The ships were all ready to sail, and were anchored off the +mouth of the river when Columbus arrived in San Domingo. + +When he found that he was not to be allowed to enter the harbour himself +Columbus sent a message to Ovando warning him that a hurricane was coming +on, and begging him to take measures for the safety of his large fleet. +This, however, was not done, and the fleet put to sea that evening. It +had only got so far as the eastern end of Espanola when the hurricane, as +predicted by Columbus, duly came down in the manner of West Indian +hurricanes, a solid wall of wind and an advancing wave of the sea which +submerged everything in its path. Columbus's little fleet, finding +shelter denied them, had moved a little way along the coast, the Admiral +standing close in shore, the others working to the south for sea-room; +and although they survived the hurricane they were scattered, and only +met several days later, in an extremely battered condition, at the +westerly end of the island. But the large home-going fleet had not +survived. The hurricane, which was probably from the north-east, struck +them just as they lost the lee of the island, and many of them, including +the ships with the treasure of gold and the caravels bearing Roldan, +Bobadilla, and Guarionex, all went down at once and were never seen or +heard of again. Other ships survived for a little while only to founder +in the end; a few, much shattered, crept back to the shelter of San +Domingo; but only one, it is said, survived the hurricane so well as to +be able to proceed to Spain; and that was the one which carried Carvajal +and Columbus's little property of gold. The Admiral's luck again; or the +intervention of the Holy Trinity--whichever you like. + +After the shattering experience of the storm, Columbus, although he did +not return to San Domingo, remained for some time on the coast of +Espanola repairing his ships and resting his exhausted crews. There were +threatenings of another storm which delayed them still further, and it +was not until the middle of July that the Admiral was able to depart on +the real purpose of his voyage. His object was to strike the mainland +far to the westward of the Gulf of Paria, and so by following it back +eastward to find the passage which he believed to exist. But the winds +and currents were very baffling; he was four days out of sight of land +after touching at an island north of Jamaica; and finally, in some +bewilderment, he altered his course more and more northerly until he +found his whereabouts by coming in sight of the archipelago off the +south-western end of Cuba which he had called the Gardens. From here he +took a departure south-west, and on the 30th of July came in sight of a +small island off the northern coast of Honduras which he called Isla de +Pinos, and from which he could see the hills of the mainland. At this +island he found a canoe of immense size with a sort of house or caboose +built amidships, in which was established a cacique with his family and +dependents; and the people in the canoe showed signs of more advanced +civilisation than any seen by Columbus before in these waters. They wore +clothing, they had copper hatchets, and bells, and palm-wood swords in +the edges of which were set sharp blades of flint. They had a fermented +liquor, a kind of maize beer which looked like English ale; they had some +kind of money or medium of exchange also, and they told the Admiral that +there was land to the west where all these things existed and many more. +It is strange and almost inexplicable that he did not follow this trail +to the westward; if he had done so he would have discovered Mexico. But +one thing at a time always occupied him to the exclusion of everything +else; his thoughts were now turned to the eastward, where he supposed the +Straits were; and the significance of this canoe full of natives was lost +upon him. + +They crossed over to the mainland of Honduras on August 15th, Bartholomew +landing and attending mass on the beach as the Admiral himself was too +ill to go ashore. Three days later the cross and banner of Castile were +duly erected on the shores of the Rio Tinto and the country was formally +annexed. The natives were friendly, and supplied the ships with +provisions; but they were very black and ugly, and Columbus readily +believed the assertion of his native guide that they were cannibals. +They continued their course to the eastward, but as the gulf narrowed the +force of the west-going current was felt more severely. Columbus, +believing that the strait which he sought lay to the eastward, laboured +against the current, and his difficulties were increased by the bad +weather which he now encountered. There were squalls and hurricanes, +tempests and cross-currents that knocked his frail ships about and almost +swamped them. Anchors and gear were lost, the sails were torn out of the +bolt-ropes, timbers were strained; and for six weeks this state of +affairs went on to an accompaniment of thunder and lightning which added +to the terror and discomfort of the mariners. + +This was in August and the first half of September--six weeks of the +worst weather that Columbus had ever experienced. It was the more +unfortunate that his illness made it impossible for him to get actively +about the ship; and he had to have a small cabin or tent rigged up on +deck, in which he could lie and direct the navigation. It is bad enough +to be as ill as he was in a comfortable bed ashore; it is a thousand +times worse amid the discomforts of a small boat at sea; but what must it +have been thus to have one's sick-bed on the deck of a cockle-shell which +was being buffeted and smashed in unknown seas, and to have to think and +act not for oneself alone but for the whole of a suffering little fleet! +No wonder the Admiral's distress of mind was great; but oddly enough his +anxieties, as he recorded them in a letter, were not so much on his own +account as on behalf of others. The terrified seamen making vows to the +Virgin and promises of pilgrimages between their mad rushes to the sheets +and furious clinging and hauling; his son Ferdinand, who was only +fourteen, but who had to endure the same pain and fatigue as the rest of +them, and who was enduring it with such pluck that "it was as if he had +been at sea eighty years"; the dangers of Bartholomew, who had not wanted +to come on this voyage at all, but was now in the thick of it in the +worst ship of the squadron, and fighting for his life amid tempests and +treacherous seas; Diego at home, likely to be left an orphan and at the +mercy of fickle and doubtful friends--these were the chief causes of the +Admiral's anxiety. All he said about himself was that "by my misfortune +the twenty years of service which I gave with so much fatigue and danger +have profited me so little that to-day I have in Castile no roof, and if +I wished to dine or sup or sleep I have only the tavern for my last +refuge, and for that, most of the time, I would be unable to pay the +score." Not cheerful reflections, these, to add to the pangs of acute +gout and the consuming anxieties of seamanship under such circumstances. +Dreadful to him, these things, but not dreadful to us; for they show us +an Admiral restored to his true temper and vocation, something of the old +sea hero breaking out in him at last through all these misfortunes, like +the sun through the hurrying clouds of a stormy afternoon. + + +Forty days of passage through this wilderness of water were endured +before the sea-worn mariners, rounding a cape on September 12th, saw +stretching before them to the southward a long coast of plain and +mountain which they were able to follow with a fair wind. Gradually the +sea went down; the current which had opposed them here aided them, and +they were able to recover a little from the terrible strain of the last +six weeks. The cape was called by Columbus 'Gracios de Dios'; and on the +16th of September they landed at the entrance to a river to take in +water. The boat which was sent ashore, however, capsized on the sandy +bar of the entrance, two men being drowned, and the river was given the +name of Rio de Desastre. They found a better anchorage, where they +rested for ten days, overhauled their stores, and had some intercourse +with the natives and exploration on shore. Some incidents occurred which +can best be described in the Admiral's own language as he recorded them +in his letter to the Sovereigns. + + " . . When I reached there, they immediately sent me two young + girls dressed in rich garments. The older one might not have been + more than eleven years of age and the other seven; both with so much + experience, so much manner, and so much appearance as would have + been sufficient if they had been public women for twenty years. + They bore with them magic powder and other things belonging to their + art. When they arrived I gave orders that they should be adorned + with our things and sent them immediately ashore. There I saw a + tomb within the mountain as large as a house and finely worked with + great artifice, and a corpse stood thereon uncovered, and, looking + within it, it seemed as if he stood upright. Of the other arts they + told me that there was excellence. Great and little animals are + there in quantities, and very different from ours; among which I saw + boars of frightful form so that a dog of the Irish breed dared not + face them. With a cross-bow I had wounded an animal which exactly + resembles a baboon only that it was much larger and has a face like + a human being. I had pierced it with an arrow from one side to the + other, entering in the breast and going out near the tail, and + because it was very ferocious I cut off one of the fore feet which + rather seemed to be a hand, and one of the hind feet. The boars + seeing this commenced to set up their bristles and fled with great + fear, seeing the blood of the other animal. When I saw this I + caused to be thrown them the 'uegare,'--[Peccary]--certain animals + they call so, where it stood, and approaching him, near as he was to + death, and the arrow still sticking in his body, he wound his tail + around his snout and held it fast, and with the other hand which + remained free, seized him by the neck as an enemy. This act, so + magnificent and novel, together with the fine country and hunting of + wild beasts, made me write this to your Majesties." + + +The natives at this anchorage of Cariari were rather suspicious, but +Columbus seized two of them to act as guides in his journey further down +the coast. Weighing anchor on October 5th he worked along the Costa Rica +shore, which here turns to the eastward again, and soon found a tribe of +natives who wore large ornaments of gold. They were reluctant to part +with the gold, but as usual pointed down the coast and said that there +was much more gold there; they even gave a name to the place where the +gold could be found--Veragua; and for once this country was found to have +a real existence. The fleet anchored there on October 17th, being +greeted by defiant blasts of conch shells and splashing of water from the +indignant natives. Business was done, however: seventeen gold discs in +exchange for three hawks' bells. + +Still Columbus went on in pursuit of his geographical chimera; even gold +had no power to detain him from the earnest search for this imaginary +strait. Here and there along the coast he saw increasing signs of +civilisation--once a wall built of mud and stone, which made him think of +Cathay again. He now got it into his head that the region he was in was +ten days' journey from the Ganges, and that it was surrounded by water; +which if it means anything means that he thought he was on a large island +ten days' sail to the eastward of the coast of India. Altogether at sea +as to the facts, poor Admiral, but with heart and purpose steadfast and +right enough. + +They sailed a little farther along the coast, now between narrow islands +that were like the streets of Genoa, where the boughs of trees on either +hand brushed the shrouds of the ships; now past harbours where there were +native fairs and markets, and where natives were to be seen mounted on +horses and armed with swords; now by long, lonely stretches of the coast +where there was nothing to be seen but the low green shore with the +mountains behind and the alligators basking at the river mouths. At last +(November 2nd) they arrived at the cape known as Nombre de Dios, which +Ojeda had reached some time before in his voyage to the West. + +The coast of the mainland had thus been explored from the Bay of Honduras +to Brazil, and Columbus was obliged to admit that there was no strait. +Having satisfied himself of that he decided to turn back to Veragua, +where he had seen the natives smelting gold, in order to make some +arrangement for establishing a colony there. The wind, however, which +had headed him almost all the way on his easterly voyage, headed him +again now and began to blow steadily from the west. He started on his +return journey on the 5th of December, and immediately fell into almost +worse troubles than he had been in before. The wood of the ships had +been bored through and through by seaworms, so that they leaked very +badly; the crews were sick, provisions were spoilt, biscuits rotten. +Young Ferdinand Columbus, if he did not actually make notes of this +voyage at the time, preserved a very lively recollection of it, and it is +to his Historie, which in its earlier passages is of doubtful +authenticity, that we owe some of the most human touches of description +relating to this voyage. Any passage in his work relating to food or +animals at this time has the true ring of boyish interest and +observation, and is in sharp contrast to the second-hand and artificial +tone of the earlier chapters of his book. About the incident of the +howling monkey, which the Admiral's Irish hound would not face, Ferdinand +remarks that it "frighted a good dog that we had, but frighted one of our +wild boars a great deal more"; and as to the condition of the biscuits +when they turned westward again, he says that they were "so full of +weevils that, as God shall help me, I saw many that stayed till night to +eat their sop for fear of seeing them." + +After experiencing some terrible weather, in the course of which they had +been obliged to catch sharks for food and had once been nearly +overwhelmed by a waterspout, they entered a harbour where, in the words +of young Ferdinand, "we saw the people living like birds in the tops of +the trees, laying sticks across from bough to bough and building their +huts upon them; and though we knew not the reason of the custom we +guessed that it was done for fear of their enemies, or of the griffins +that are in this island." After further experiences of bad weather they +made what looked like a suitable harbour on the coast of Veragua, which +harbour, as they entered it on the day of the Epiphany (January 9, 1503), +they named Belem or Bethlehem. The river in the mouth of which they were +anchored, however, was subject to sudden spouts and gushes of water from +the hills, one of which occurred on January 24th and nearly swamped the +caravels. This spout of water was caused by the rainy season, which had +begun in the mountains and presently came down to the coast, where it +rained continuously until the 14th of February. They had made friends +with the Quibian or chief of the country, and he had offered to conduct +them to the place where the gold mines were; so Bartholomew was sent off +in the rain with a boat party to find this territory. It turned out +afterwards that the cunning Quibian had taken them out of his own country +and showed them the gold mined of a neighbouring chief, which were not so +rich as his own. + +Columbus, left idle in the absence of Bartholomew, listening to the +continuous drip and patter of the rain on the leaves and the water, +begins to dream again--to dream of gold and geography. Remembers that +David left three thousand quintals of gold from the Indies to Solomon for +the decoration of the Temple; remembers that Josephus said it came from +the Golden Chersonesus; decides that enough gold could never have been +got from the mines of Hayna in Espanola; and concludes that the Ophir of +Solomon must be here in Veragua and not there in Espanola. It was always +here and now with Columbus; and as he moved on his weary sea pilgrimages +these mythical lands with their glittering promise moved about with him, +like a pillar of fire leading him through the dark night of his quest. + + +The rain came to an end, however, the sun shone out again, and activity +took the place of dreams with Columbus and with his crew. He decided to +found a settlement in this place, and to make preparations for seizing +and working the gold mines. It was decided to leave a garrison of eighty +men, and the business of unloading the necessary arms and provisions and +building houses ashore was immediately begun. Hawks' bells and other +trifles were widely distributed among the natives, with special toys and +delicacies for the Quibian, in order that friendly relations might be +established from the beginning; and special regulations were framed to +prevent the possibility of any recurrence of the disasters that overtook +the settlers of Isabella. + +Such are the orderly plans of Columbus; but the Quibian has his plans +too, which are found to be of quite a different nature. The Quibian does +not like intruders, though he likes their hawks' bells well enough; he is +not quite so innocent as poor Guacanagari and the rest of them were; he +knows that gold is a thing coveted by people to whom it does not belong, +and that trouble follows in its train. Quibian therefore decides that +Columbus and his followers shall be exterminated--news of which intention +fortunately came to the ears of Columbus in time, Diego Mendez and +Rodrigo de Escobar having boldly advanced into the Quibian's village and +seen the warlike preparations. Bartholomew, returning from his visit to +the gold mines, was informed of this state of affairs. Always quick to +strike, Bartholomew immediately started with an armed force, and advanced +upon the village so rapidly that the savages were taken by surprise, +their headquarters surrounded, and the Quibian and fifty of his warriors +captured. Bartholomew triumphantly marched the prisoners back, the +Quibian being entrusted to the charge of Juan Sanchez, who was rowing him +in a little boat. The Quibian complained that his bonds were hurting +him, and foolish Sanchez eased them a little; Quibian, with a quick +movement, wriggled overboard and dived to the bottom; came up again +somewhere and reached home alive. No one saw him come up, however, and +they thought had had been drowned. + +Columbus now made ready to depart, and the caravels having been got over +the shallow bar, their loading was completed and they were ready to sail. +On April 6th Diego Tristan was sent in charge of a boat with a message to +Bartholomew, who was to be left in command of the settlement; but when +Tristan had rounded the point at the entrance to the river and come in +sight of the shore he had an unpleasant surprise; the settlement was +being savagely attacked by the resurrected Quibian and his followers. +The fight had lasted for three hours, and had been going badly against +the Spaniards, when Bartholomew and Diego Mendes rallied a little force +round them and, calling to Columbus's Irish dog which had been left with +them, made a rush upon the savages and so terrified them that they +scattered. Bartholomew with eight of the other Spaniards was wounded, +and one was killed; and it was at this point that Tristan's boat arrived +at the settlement. Having seen the fight safely over, he went on up the +river to get water, although he was warned that it was not safe; and sure +enough, at a point a little farther up the river, beyond some low green +arm of the shore, he met with a sudden and bloody death. A cloud of +yelling savages surrounded his boat hurling javelins and arrows, and only +one seaman, who managed to dive into the water and crawl ashore, escaped +to bring the evil tidings. + +The Spaniards under Bartholomew's command broke into a panic, and taking +advantage of his wounded condition they tried to make sail on their +caravel and join the ships of Columbus outside; but since the time of the +rains the river had so much gone down that she was stuck fast in the +sand. They could not even get a boat over the bar, for there was a heavy +cross sea breaking on it; and in the meantime here they were, trapped +inside this river, the air resounding with dismal blasts of the natives' +conch-shells, and the natives themselves dancing round and threatening to +rush their position; while the bodies of Tristan and his little crew were +to be seen floating down the stream, feasted upon by a screaming cloud of +birds. The position of the shore party was desperate, and it was only by +the greatest efforts that the wounded Adelantado managed to rally his +crew and get them to remove their little camp to an open place on the +shore, where a kind of stockade was made of chests, casks, spars, and the +caravel's boat. With this for cover, the Spanish fire-arms, so long as +there was ammunition for them, were enough to keep the natives at bay. + + +Outside the bar, in his anchorage beyond the green wooded point, the +Admiral meanwhile was having an anxious time. One supposes the entrance +to the river to have been complicated by shoals and patches of broken +water extending some considerable distance, so that the Admiral's +anchorage would be ten or twelve miles away from the camp ashore, and of +course entirely hidden from it. As day after day passed and Diego +Tristan did not return, the Admiral's anxiety increased. Among the three +caravels that now formed his little squadron there was only one boat +remaining, the others, not counting one taken by Tristan and one left +with Bartholomew, having all been smashed in the late hurricanes. In the +heavy sea that was running on the bar the Admiral dared not risk his last +remaining boat; but in the mean time he was cut off from all news of the +shore party and deprived of any means of finding out what had happened to +Tristan. And presently to these anxieties was added a further disaster. +It will be remembered that when the Quibian had been captured fifty +natives had been taken with him; and these were confined in the +forecastle of the Capitana and covered by a large hatch, on which most of +the crew slept at night. But one night the natives collected a heap of +big stones from the ballast of the ship, and piled them up to a kind of +platform beneath the hatch; some of the strongest of them got upon the +platform and set their backs horizontally against the hatch, gave a great +heave and, lifted it off. In the confusion that followed, a great many +of the prisoners escaped into the sea, and swam ashore; the rest were +captured and thrust back under the hatch, which was chained down; but +when on the following morning the Spaniards went to attend to this +remnant it was found that they had all hanged themselves. + +This was a great disaster, since it increased the danger of the garrison +ashore, and destroyed all hope of friendship with the natives. There was +something terrible and powerful, too, in the spirit of people who could +thus to a man make up their minds either to escape or die; and the +Admiral must have felt that he was in the presence of strange, powerful +elements that were far beyond his control. At any moment, moreover, the +wind might change and put him on a lee shore, or force him to seek safety +in sea-room; in which case the position of Bartholomew would be a very +critical one. It was while things were at this apparent deadlock that a +brave fellow, Pedro Ledesma, offered to attempt to swim through the surf +if the boat would take him to the edge of it. Brave Pedro, his offer +accepted, makes the attempt; plunges into the boiling surf, and with +mighty efforts succeeds in reaching the shore; and after an interval is +seen by his comrades, who are waiting with their boat swinging on the +edge of the surf, to be returning to them; plunges into the sea, comes +safely through the surf again, and is safely hauled on board, having +accomplished a very real and satisfactory bit of service. + +The story he had to tell the Admiral was as we know not a pleasant one-- +Tristan and his men dead, several of Bartholomew's force, including the +Adelantado himself, wounded, and all in a state of panic and fear at the +hostile natives. The Spaniards would do nothing to make the little +fortress safer, and were bent only on escaping from the place of horror. +Some of them were preparing canoes in which to come out to the ships when +the sea should go down, as their one small boat was insufficient; and +they swore that if the Admiral would not take them they would seize their +own caravel and sail out themselves into the unknown sea as soon as they +could get her floated over the bar, rather than remain in such a dreadful +situation. Columbus was in a very bad way. He could not desert +Bartholomew, as that would expose him to the treachery of his own men +and the hostility of the savages. He could not reinforce him, except by +remaining himself with the whole of his company; and in that case there +would be no means of sending the news of his rich discovery to Spain. +There was nothing for it, therefore, but to break up the settlement and +return some other time with a stronger force sufficient to occupy the +country. And even this course had its difficulties; for the weather +continued bad, the wind was blowing on to the shore, the sea was--so +rough as to make the passage of the bar impossible, and any change for +the worse in the weather would probably drive his own crazy ships ashore +and cut off all hope of escape. + +The Admiral, whose health was now permanently broken, and who only had +respite from his sufferings in fine weather and when he was relieved from +a burden of anxieties such as had been continually pressing on him now +for three months, fell into his old state of sleeplessness, feverishness, +and consequent depression; and it, these circumstances it is not +wonderful that the firm ground of fact began to give a little beneath him +and that his feet began to sink again into the mire or quag of stupor. +Of these further flounderings in the quag he himself wrote an account to +the King and Queen, so we may as well have it in his own words. + + "I mounted to the top of the ship crying out with a weak voice, + weeping bitterly, to the commanders of your Majesties' army, and + calling again to the four winds to help; but they did not answer me. + Tired out, I fell asleep and sighing I heard a voice very full of + pity which spoke these words: O fool! and slow to believe and to + serve Him, thy God and the God of all. What did He more for Moses? + and for David His servant? Since thou wast born He had always so + great care for thee. When He saw thee in an age with which He was + content He made thy name sound marvellously through the world. The + Indies, which are so rich apart of the world, He has given to thee + as thine. Thou hast distributed them wherever it has pleased thee; + He gave thee power so to do. Of the bonds of the ocean which were + locked with so strong chains He gave thee the keys, and thou wast + obeyed in all the land, and among the Christians thou hast acquired + a good and honourable reputation. What did He more for the people + of Israel when He brought them out of Egypt? or yet for David, whom + from being a shepherd He made King of Judea? Turn to Him and + recognise thine error, for His mercy is infinite. Thine old age + will be no hindrance to all great things. Many very great + inheritances are in His power. Abraham was more than one hundred + years old when he begat Isaac and also Sarah was not young. Thou + art calling for uncertain aid. Answer me, who has afflicted thee so + much and so many times--God or the world? The privileges and + promises which God makes He never breaks to any one; nor does He say + after having received the service that His intention was not so and + it is to be understood in another manner: nor imposes martyrdom to + give proof of His power. He abides by the letter of His word. All + that He promises He abundantly accomplishes. This is His way. I + have told thee what the Creator hath done for thee and does for all. + Now He shows me the reward and payment of thy suffering and which + thou hast passed in the service of others. And thus half dead, I + heard everything; but I could never find an answer to make to words + so certain, and only I wept for my errors. He, who ever he might + be, finished speaking, saying: Trust and fear not, for thy + tribulations are written in marble and not without reason." + + +Mere darkness of stupor; not much to be deciphered from it, nor any +profitable comment to be made on it, except that it was our poor +Christopher's way of crying out his great suffering and misery. We must +not notice it, much as we should like to hold out a hand of sympathy and +comfort to him; must not pay much attention to this dark eloquent +nonsense--merely words, in which the Admiral never does himself justice. +Acts are his true conversation; and when he speaks in that language all +men must listen. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +HEROIC ADVENTURES BY LAND AND SEA + +No man ever had a better excuse for his superstitions than the Admiral; +no sooner had he got done with his Vision than the wind dropped, the sun +came out, the sea fell, and communication with the land was restored. +While he had been sick and dreaming one of his crew, Diego Mendez, had +been busy with practical efforts in preparation for this day of fine +weather; he had made a great raft out of Indian canoes lashed together, +with mighty sacks of sail cloth into which the provisions might be +bundled; and as soon as the sea had become calm enough he took this raft +in over the bar to the settlement ashore, and began the business of +embarking the whole of the stores and ammunition of Bartholomew's +garrison. By this practical method the whole establishment was +transferred from the shore to the ships in the space of two days, and +nothing was left but the caravel, which it was found impossible to float +again. It was heavy work towing the raft constantly backwards and +forwards from the ships to the shore, but Diego Mendez had the +satisfaction of being the last man to embark from the deserted +settlement, and to see that not an ounce of stores or ammunition had been +lost. + +Columbus, always quick to reward the services of a good man, kissed Diego +Mendez publicly--on both cheeks, and (what doubtless pleased him much +better) gave him command of the caravel of which poor Tristan had been +the captain. + +With a favourable wind they sailed from this accursed shore at the end of +April 1503. It is strange, as Winsor points out, that in the name of +this coast should be preserved the only territorial remembrance of +Columbus, and that his descendant the Duke of Veragua should in his title +commemorate one of the most unfortunate of the Admiral's adventures. And +if any one should desire a proof of the utterly misleading nature of most +of Columbus's writings about himself, let him know that a few months +later he solemnly wrote to the Sovereigns concerning this very place that +"there is not in the world a country whose inhabitants are more timid; +and the whole place is capable of being easily put into a state of +defence. Your people that may come here, if they should wish to become +masters of the products of other lands, will have to take them by force +or retire empty-handed. In this country they will simply have to trust +their persons in the hands of the savages." The facts being that the +inhabitants were extremely fierce and warlike and irreconcilably hostile; +that the river was a trap out of which in the dry season there was no +escape, and the harbour outside a mere shelterless lee shore; that it +would require an army and an armada to hold the place against the +natives, and that any one who trusted himself in their hands would +share the fate of the unhappy Diego Tristan. One may choose between +believing that the Admiral's memory had entirely failed him (although he +had not been backward in making a minute record, of all his sufferings) +or that he was craftily attempting to deceive the Sovereigns. My own +belief is that he was neither trying to deceive anybody nor that he had +forgotten anything, but that he was simply incapable of uttering the bare +truth when he had a pen in his hand. + + +From their position on the coast of Veragua Espanola bore almost due +north; but Columbus was too good a seaman to attempt to make the island +by sailing straight for it. He knew that the steady west-going current +would set him far down on his course, and he therefore decided to work up +the coast a long way to the eastward before standing across for Espanola. +The crew grumbled very much at this proceeding, which they did not +understand; in fact they argued from it that the Admiral was making +straight for Spain, and this, in the crazy condition of the vessels, +naturally alarmed them. But in his old high-handed, secret way the +Admiral told them nothing; he even took away from the other captains all +the charts that they had made of this coast, so that no one but himself +would be able to find the way back to it; and he took a kind of pleasure +in the complete mystification thus produced on his fellow-voyagers. +"None of them could explain whither I went nor whence I came; they did +not know the way to return thither," he writes, somewhat childishly. + +But he was not back in Espanola yet, and his means for getting there were +crumbling away beneath his feet. One of the three remaining caravels was +entirely riddled by seaworms and had to be abandoned at the harbour +called Puerto Bello; and the company was crowded on to two ships. The +men now became more than ever discontented at the easterly course, and on +May 1st, when he had come as far east as the Gulf of Darien, Columbus +felt obliged to bear away to the north, although as it turned out he had +not nearly made enough easting. He stood on this course, for nine days, +the west-going current setting him down all the time; and the first land +that he made, on May loth, was the group of islands off the western end +of Cuba which he had called the Queen's Gardens. + +He anchored for six days here, as the crews were completely exhausted; +the ships' stores were reduced to biscuits, oil, and vinegar; the vessels +leaked like sieves, and the pumps had to be kept going continually. And +no sooner had they anchored than a hurricane came on, and brought up a +sea so heavy that the Admiral was convinced that his ships could not live +within it. We have got so accustomed to reading of storms and tempests +that it seems useless to try and drive home the horror and terror of +them; but here were these two rotten ships alone at the end of the world, +far beyond the help of man, the great seas roaring up under them in the +black night, parting their worn cables, snatching away their anchors from +them, and finally driving them one upon the other to grind and strain and +prey upon each other, as though the external conspiracy of the elements +against them both were not sufficient! One writes or reads the words, +but what does it mean to us? and can we by any conceivable effort of +imagination realise what it meant to this group of human beings who lived +through that night so many hundred years ago--men like ourselves with +hearts to sink and faint, capable of fear and hunger, capable of misery, +pain, and endurance? Bruised and battered, wet by the terrifying surges, +and entirely uncomforted by food or drink, they did somehow endure these +miseries; and were to endure worse too before they were done with it. + +Their six days' sojourn amid the Queen's Gardens, then, was not a great +success; and as soon as they were able they set sail again, standing +eastward when the wind permitted them. But wind and current were against +them and all through the month of May and the early part of June they +struggled along the south coast of Cuba, their ships as full of holes as +a honeycomb, pumps going incessantly, and in addition the worn-out seamen +doing heroic labour at baling with buckets and kettles. Lee helm! Down +go the buckets and kettles and out run the wretched scarecrows of seamen +to the weary business of tacking ship, letting go, brailing up, hauling +in, and making fast for the thousandth time; and then back to the pumps +and kettles again. No human being could endure this for an indefinite +time; and though their diet of worms represented by the rotten biscuit +was varied with cassava bread supplied by friendly natives, the Admiral +could not make his way eastward further than Cape Cruz. Round that cape +his leaking, strained vessels could not be made to look against the wind +and the tide. Could hardly indeed be made to float or swim upon the +water at all; and the Admiral had now to consider, not whether he could +sail on a particular point of the compass, but whether he could by any +means avoid another course which the fates now proposed to him--namely, a +perpendicular course to the bottom of the sea. It was a race between the +water and the ships, and the only thing the Admiral could think of was to +turn southward across to Jamaica, which he did on June 23rd, putting into +Puerto Bueno, now called Dry Harbour. But there was no food there, and +as his ships were settling deeper and deeper in the water he had to make +sail again and drive eastwards as far as Puerto Santa Gloria, now called +Don Christopher's Cove. He was just in time. The ships were run ashore +side by side on a sandy beach, the pumps were abandoned, and in one tide +the ships were full of water. The remaining anchor cables were used to +lash the two ships together so that they would not move; although there +was little fear of that, seeing the weight of water that was in them. +Everything that could be saved was brought up on deck, and a kind of +cabin or platform which could be fortified was rigged on the highest part +of the ships. And so no doubt for some days, although their food was +almost finished, the wretched and exhausted voyagers could stretch their +cramped limbs, and rest in the warm sun, and listen, from their safe +haven on the firm sands, to the hated voice of the sea. + + +Thanks to careful regulations made by the Admiral, governing the +intercourse between the Spaniards and the natives ashore, friendly +relations were soon established, and the crews were supplied with cassava +bread and fruit in abundance. Two officials superintended every purchase +of provisions to avoid the possibility of any dispute, for in the event +of even a momentary hostility the thatched-roof structures on the ships +could easily have been set on fire, and the position of the Spaniards, +without shelter amid a hostile population, would have been a desperate +one. This disaster, however, was avoided; but the Admiral soon began to +be anxious about the supply of provisions from the immediate +neighbourhood, which after the first few days began to be irregular. +There were a large number of Spaniards to be fed, the natives never kept +any great store of provisions for themselves, and the Spaniards were +entirely at their mercy for, provisions from day to day. Diego Mendez, +always ready for active and practical service, now offered to take three +men and make a journey through the island to arrange for the purchase of +provisions from different villages, so that the men on the ships would +not be dependent upon any one source. This offer was gratefully +accepted; and Mendez, with his lieutenants well supplied with toys and +trinkets, started eastward along the north coast of Jamaica. He made no +mistakes; he was quick and clever at ingratiating himself with the +caciques, and he succeeded in arranging with three separate potentates to +send regular supplies of provisions to the men on the ships. At each +place where he made this arrangement he detached one of his assistants +and sent him back with the first load of provisions, so that the regular +line of carriage might be the more quickly established; and when they had +all gone he borrowed a couple of natives and pushed on by himself until +he reached the eastern end of the island. He made friends here with a +powerful cacique named Amerro, from whom he bought a large canoe, and +paid for it with some of the clothing off his back. With the canoe were +furnished six Indians to row it, and Mendez made a triumphant journey +back by sea, touching at the places where his depots had been established +and seeing that his commissariat arrangements were working properly. He +was warmly received on his return to the ships, and the result of his +efforts was soon visible in the daily supplies of food that now regularly +arrived. + +Thus was one difficulty overcome; but it was not likely that either +Columbus himself or any of his people would be content to remain for ever +on the beach of Jamaica. It was necessary to establish communication +with Espanola, and thence with Spain; but how to do it in the absence of +ships or even boats? Columbus, pondering much upon this matter, one day +calls Diego Mendez aside; walks him off, most likely, under the great +rustling trees beyond the beach, and there tells him his difficulty. +"My son," says he, "you and I understand the difficulties and dangers of +our position here better than any one else. We are few; the Indians are +many; we know how fickle and easily irritated they are, and how a fire- +brand thrown into our thatched cabins would set the whole thing ablaze. +It is quite true that you have very cleverly established a provision +supply, but it is dependent entirely upon the good nature of the natives +and it might cease to-morrow. Here is my plan: you have a good canoe; +why should some one not go over to Espanola in it and send back a ship +for us?" + +Diego Mendez, knowing very well what is meant, looks down upon the +ground. His spoken opinion is that such a journey is not merely +difficult but impossible journey in a frail native canoe across one +hundred and fifty miles of open and rough sea; although his private +opinion is other than that. No, he cannot imagine such a thing being +done; cannot think who would be able to do it. + +Long silence from the Admiral; eloquent silence, accompanied by looks no +less eloquent. + +"Admiral," says Mendez again, "you know very well that I have risked my +life for you and the people before and would do it again. But there are +others who have at least as good a right to this great honour and peril +as I have; let me beg of you, therefore, to summon all the company +together, make this proposal to them, and see if any one will undertake +it. If not, I will once more risk my life." + +The proposal being duly made to the assembled crews, every one, as +cunning Mendez had thought, declares it impossible; every one hangs back. +Upon which Diego Mendez with a fine gesture comes forward and volunteers; +makes his little dramatic effect and has his little ovation. Thoroughly +Spanish this, significant of that mixture of vanity and bravery, of +swagger and fearlessness, which is characteristic of the best in Spain. +It was a desperately brave thing to venture upon, this voyage from +Jamaica to Espanola in a native canoe and across a sea visited by +dreadful hurricanes; and the volunteer was entitled to his little piece +of heroic drama. + +While Mendez was making his preparations, putting a false keel on the +canoe and fixing weather boards along its gunwales to prevent its +shipping seas, fitting a mast and sail and giving it a coat of tar, the +Admiral retired into his cabin and busied himself with his pen. He wrote +one letter to Ovando briefly describing his circumstances and requesting +that a ship should be sent for his relief; and another to the Sovereigns, +in which a long rambling account was given of the events of the voyage, +and much other matter besides, dismally eloquent of his floundering in +the quag. Much in it--about Solomon and Josephus, of the Abbot Joachim, +of Saint Jerome and the Great Khan; more about the Holy Sepulchre and the +intentions of the Almighty in that matter; with some serious practical +concern for the rich land of Veragua which he had discovered, lest it +should share the fate of his other discoveries and be eaten up by idle +adventurers. "Veragua," he says, "is not a little son which may be given +to a stepmother to nurse. Of Espanola and Paria and all the other lands +I never think without the tears falling from my eyes; I believe that the +example of these ought to serve for the others." And then this passage: + + "The good and sound purpose which I always had to serve your + Majesties, and the dishonour and unmerited ingratitude, will not + suffer the soul to be silent although I wished it, therefore I ask + pardon of your Majesties. I have been so lost and undone; until now + I have wept for others that your Majesties might have compassion on + them; and now may the heavens weep for me and the earth weep for me + in temporal affairs; I have not a farthing to make as an offering in + spiritual affairs. I have remained here on the Indian islands in + the manner I have before said in great pain and infirmity, expecting + every day death, surrounded by innumerable savages full of cruelty + and by our enemies, and so far from the sacraments of the Holy + Mother Church that I believe the soul will be forgotten when it + leaves the body. Let them weep for me who have charity, truth and + justice. I did not undertake this voyage of navigation to gain + honour or material things, that is certain, because the hope already + was entirely lost; but I did come to serve your Majesties with + honest intention and with good charitable zeal, and I do not lie." + +Poor old heart, older than its years, thus wailing out its sorrows to +ears none too sympathetic; sad old voice, uplifted from the bright shores +of that lonely island in the midst of strange seas! It will not come +clear to the head alone; the echoes of this cry must reverberate in the +heart if they are to reach and animate the understanding. + + +At this time also the Admiral wrote to his friend Gaspar Gorricio. For +the benefit of those who may be interested I give the letter in English. + + + REVEREND AND VERY DEVOUT FATHER: + + "If my voyage should be as conducive to my personal health and the + repose of my house as it seems likely to be conducive to the + aggrandisement of the royal Crown of the King and Queen, my Lords, + I might hope to live more than a hundred years. I have not time to + write more at length. I hope that the bearer of this letter may be + a person of my house who will tell you verbally more than can be + told in a thousand papers, and also Don Diego will supply + information. I beg as a favour of the Father Prior and all the + members of your religious house, that they remember me in all their + prayers. + + "Done on the island of Jamaica, July 7, 1503. + "I am at the command of your Reverence. + + .S. + .S.A.S. XMY + Xpo FERENS." + + +Diego Mendez found some one among the Spaniards to accompany him, but his +name is not recorded. The six Indians were taken to row the canoe. They +had to make their way at first against the strong currents along the +northern coast of Jamaica, so as to reach its eastern extremity before +striking across to Espanola. At one point they met a flotilla of Indian +canoes, which chased them and captured them, but they escaped. When they +arrived at the end of the easterly point of Jamaica, now known as Morant +Point, they had to wait two or three days for calm weather and a +favourable wind to waft them across to Espanola, and while thus waiting +they were suddenly surrounded and captured by a tribe of hostile natives, +who carried them off some nine or ten miles into the island, and +signified their intention of killing them. + +But they began to quarrel among themselves as to how they should divide +the spoils which they had captured with the canoe, and decided that the +only way of settling the dispute was by some elaborate trial of hazard +which they used. While they were busy with their trial Diego Mendez +managed to escape, got back to the canoe, and worked his way back in it +alone to the harbour where the Spaniards were encamped. The other +Spaniard who was with him probably perished, for there is no record of +what became of him--an obscure life lost in a brave enterprise. + +One would have thought that Mendez now had enough of canoe voyages, but +he had no sooner got back than he offered to set out again, only +stipulating that an armed force should march along the coast by land to +secure his safety until he could stand across to Espanola. Bartholomew +Columbus immediately put himself at the head of a large and well-armed +party for this purpose, and Bartolomeo Fieschi, the Genoese captain of +one of the lost caravels, volunteered to accompany Mendez in a second +canoe. Each canoe was now manned by six Spanish volunteers and ten +Indians to row; Fieschi, as soon as they had reached the coast of +Espanola, was to bring the good news to the Admiral; while Mendez must go +on to San Domingo, procure a ship, and himself proceed to Spain with the +Admiral's letters. The canoes were provisioned with water, cassava +bread, and fish; and they departed on this enterprise some time in August +1503. + +Their passage along the coast was protected by Bartholomew Columbus, who +marched along with them on the shore. They waited a few days at the end +of the island for favourable weather, and finally said farewell to the +good Adelantado, who we may be sure stood watching them until they were +well out of sight. + + +There was not a cloud in the sky when the canoes stood out to sea; the +water was calm, and reflected the blistering heat of the sun. It was not +a pleasant situation for people in an open boat; and Mendez and Fieschi +were kept busy, as Irving says, "animating the Indians who navigated +their canoes, and who frequently paused at their labour." The poor +Indians, evidently much in need of such animation, would often jump into +the water to escape the intolerable heat, and after a short immersion +there would return to their task. Things were better when the sun went +down, and the cool night came on; half the Indians then slept and half +rowed, while half of the Spaniards also slept and the other half, I +suppose, "animated." Irving also says that the animating half "kept +guard with their weapons in hand, ready to defend themselves in the case +of any perfidy on the part of their savage companions"; such perfidy +being far enough from the thoughts of the savage companions, we may +imagine, whose energies were entirely occupied with the oars. + +The next day was the same: savage companions rowing, Spaniards animating; +Spaniards and savage companions alike drinking water copiously without +regard for the smallness of their store. The second night was very hot, +and the savage companions finished the water, with the result that on the +third day the thirst became a torment, and at mid-day the poor companions +struck work. Artful Mendez, however, had concealed two small kegs of +water in his canoe, the contents of which he now administered in small +doses, so that the poor Indians were enabled to take to their oars again, +though with vigour much abated. Presumably the Spaniards had put up +their weapons by this time, for the only perfidy shown on the part of the +savage companions was that one of them died in the following night and +had to be thrown overboard, while others lay panting on the bottom of the +canoes; and the Spaniards had to take their turn at the oars, although +they were if anything in a worse case than the Indians. + +Late in the night, however, the moon rose, and Mendez had the joy of +seeing its lower disc cut by a jagged line which proved to be the little +islet or rock of Navassa, which lies off the westerly end of Espanola. +New hope now animated the sufferers, and they pushed on until they were +able to land on this rock, which proved to be without any vegetation +whatsoever, but on the surface of which there were found some precious +pools of rain-water. Mendez was able to restrain the frantic appetites +of his fellow-countrymen, but the savage companions were less wise, and +drank their fill; so that some of them died in torment on the spot, and +others became seriously ill. The Spaniards were able to make a fire of +driftwood, and boil some shell-fish, which they found on shore, and they +wisely spent the heat of the day crouching in the shade of the rocks, and +put off their departure until the evening. It was then a comparatively +easy journey for them to cross the dozen miles that separated them from +Espanola, and they landed the next day in a pleasant harbour near Cape +Tiburon. Fieschi, true to his promise, was then ready to start back for +Jamaica with news of the safe accomplishment of the voyage; but the +remnant of the crews, Spaniards and savage companions alike, had had +enough of it, and no threats or persuasions would induce them to embark +again. Mendez, therefore, left his friends to enjoy some little repose +before continuing their journey to San Domingo, and, taking six natives +of Espanola to row his canoe; set off along the coast towards the +capital. He had not gone half-way when he learned that Ovando was not +there, but was in Xaragua, so he left his canoe and struck northward +through the forest until he arrived at the Governor's camp. + + +Ovando welcomed Mendez cordially, praised him for his plucky voyage, and +expressed the greatest concern at the plight of the Admiral; but he was +very busy at the moment, and was on the point of transacting a piece of +business that furnished a dismal proof of the deterioration which had +taken place in him. Anacaona--the lady with the daughter whom we +remember--was now ruling over the province of Xaragua, her brother having +died; and as perhaps her native subjects had been giving a little trouble +to the Governor, he had come to exert his authority. The narrow official +mind, brought into contact with native life, never develops in the +direction of humanity; and Ovando had now for some time made the great +discovery that it was less trouble to kill people than to try to rule +over them wisely. There had evidently always been a streak of Spanish +cruelty in him, which had been much developed by his residence in +Espanola; and to cruelty and narrow officialdom he now added treachery of +a very monstrous and horrible kind. + +He announced his intention of paying a state visit to Anacaona, who +thereupon summoned all her tributary chiefs to a kind of levee held in +his honour. In the midst of the levee, at a given signal, Ovando's +soldiers rushed in, seized the caciques, fastened them to the wooden +pillars of the house, and set the whole thing on fire; the caciques being +thus miserably roasted alive. While this was going on the atrocious work +was completed by the soldiers massacring every native they could see-- +children, women, and old men included--and Anacaona herself was taken and +hanged. + +All these things Diego Mendez had to witness; and when they were over, +Ovando still had excuses for not hurrying to the relief of the Admiral. +He had embarked on a campaign of extermination against the natives, and +he followed up his atrocities at Xaragua by an expedition to the eastern +end of Espanola, where very much the same kind of business was +transacted. Weeks and months passed in this bloody cruelty, and there +was always an excuse for putting off Mendez. Now it was because of the +operations which he dignified by the name of wars, and now because he had +no ship suitable for sending to Jamaica; but the truth was that Ovando, +the springs of whose humanity had been entirely dried up during his +disastrous reign in Espanola, did not want Columbus to see with his own +eyes the terrible state of the island, and was callous enough to leave +him either to perish or to find his own way back to the world. It was +only when news came that a fleet of caravels was expected from Spain that +Ovando could no longer prevent Mendez from going to San Domingo and, +purchasing one of them. + +Ovando had indeed lost all but the outer semblance of a man; the soul or +animating part of him had entirely gone to corruption. He had no +interest in rescuing the Admiral; he had, on the contrary, great interest +in leaving him unrescued; but curiosity as to his fate, and fear as to +his actions in case he should return to Espanola, induced the Governor to +make some effort towards spying cut his condition. He had a number of +trained rascals under his command--among them Diego de Escobar, one of +Roldan's bright brigade; and Ovando had no sooner seen Mendez depart on +his journey to San Domingo than he sent this Escobar to embark in a small +caravel on a visit to Jamaica in order to see if the Admiral was still +alive. The caravel had to be small, so that there could be no chance of +bringing off the 130 men who had been left to perish there; and various +astute instructions were given to Escobar in order to prevent his arrival +being of any comfort or assistance to the shipwrecked ones. And so +Escobar sailed; and so, in the month of March 1504, eight months after +the vanishing of Mendez below the eastern horizon, the miserable company +encamped on the two decaying ships on the sands at Puerto Santa Gloria +descried with joyful excitement the sails of a Spanish caravel standing +in to the shore. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE ECLIPSE OF THE MOON + +We must now return to the little settlement on the coast of Jamaica-- +those two wornout caravels, lashed together with ropes and bridged by an +erection of wood and thatch, in which the forlorn little company was +established. In all communities of men so situated there are alternate +periods of action and reaction, and after the excitement incidental to +the departure of Mendez, and the return of Bartholomew with the news that +he had got safely away, there followed a time of reaction, in which the +Spaniards looked dismally out across the empty sea and wondered when, if +ever, their salvation would come. Columbus himself was now a confirmed +invalid, and could hardly ever leave his bed under the thatch; and in his +own condition of pain and depression his influence on the rest of the +crew must inevitably have been less inspiriting than it had formerly +been. The men themselves, moreover, began to grow sickly, chiefly on +account of the soft vegetable food, to which they were not accustomed, +and partly because of their cramped quarters and the moist, unhealthy +climate, which was the very opposite of what they needed after their long +period of suffering and hardship at sea. + +As the days and weeks passed, with no occupation save the daily business +of collecting food that gradually became more and more nauseous to them, +and of straining their eyes across the empty blue of the sea in an +anxious search for the returning canoes of Fieschi, the spirits of the +castaways sank lower and lower. Inevitably their discontent became +articulate and broke out into murmurings. The usual remedy for this +state of affairs is to keep the men employed at some hard work; but there +was no work for them to do, and the spirit of dissatisfaction had ample +opportunity to spread. As usual it soon took the form of hostility to +the Admiral. They seem to have borne him no love or gratitude for his +masterly guiding of them through so many dangers; and now when he lay ill +and in suffering his treacherous followers must needs fasten upon him the +responsibility for their condition. After a month or two had passed, and +it became certain that Fieschi was not coming back, the castaways could +only suppose that he and Mendez had either been captured by natives or +had perished at sea, and that their fellow-countrymen must still be +without news of the Admiral's predicament. They began to say also that +the Admiral was banished from Spain; that there was no desire or +intention on the part of the Sovereigns to send an expedition to his +relief; even if they had known of his condition; and that in any case +they must long ago have given him up for lost. + +When the pot boils the scum rises to the surface, and the first result of +these disloyal murmurings and agitations was to bring into prominence the +two brothers, Francisco and Diego de Porras, who, it will be remembered, +owed their presence with the expedition entirely to the Admiral's good +nature in complying with the request of their brother-in-law Morales, who +had apparently wished to find some distant occupation for them. They had +been given honourable posts as officers, in which they had not proved +competent; but the Admiral had always treated them with kindness and +courtesy, regarding them more as guests than as servants. Who or what +these Porras brothers were, where they came from, who were their father +and mother, or what was their training, I do not know; it is enough for +us to know that the result of it all had been the production of a couple +of very mean scoundrels, who now found an opportunity to exercise their +scoundrelism. + +When they discovered the nature of the murmuring and discontent among the +crew they immediately set them to work it up into open mutiny. They +represented that, as Mendez had undoubtedly perished, there was no hope +of relief from Espanola; that the Admiral did not even expect such +relief, knowing that the island was forbidden ground to him. They +insinuated that he was as well content to remain in Jamaica as anywhere +else, since he had to undergo a period of banishment until his friends at +Court could procure his forgiveness. They were all, said the Porras +brothers, being made tools for the Admiral's convenience; as he did not +wish to leave Jamaica himself, he was keeping them all there, to perish +as likely as not, and in the meantime to form a bodyguard, and establish +a service for himself. The Porras brothers suggested that, under these +circumstances, it would be as well to take a fleet of native canoes from +the Indians and make their own way to Espanola; the Admiral would never +undertake the voyage himself, being too helpless from the gout; but it +would be absurd if the whole company were to be allowed to perish because +of the infirmities of one man. They reminded the murmurers that they +would not be the first people who had rebelled with success against the +despotic rule of Columbus, and that the conduct of the Sovereigns on a +former occasion afforded them some promise that those who rebelled again +would receive something quite different from punishment. + +Christmas passed, the old year went out in this strange, unhomelike +place, and the new year came in. The Admiral, as we have seen, was now +almost entirely crippled and confined to his bed; and he was lying alone +in his cabin on the second day of the year when Francisco de Porras +abruptly entered. Something very odd and flurried about Porras; he jerks +and stammers, and suddenly breaks out into a flood of agitated speech, in +which the Admiral distinguishes a stream of bitter reproach and +impertinence. The thing forms itself into nothing more or less than a +hurried, gabbling complaint; the people are dissatisfied at being kept +here week after week with no hope of relief; they accuse the Admiral of +neglecting their interests; and so on. Columbus, raising himself in his +bed, tries to pacify Porras; gives him reasons why it is impossible for +them to depart in canoes; makes every endeavour, in short, to bring this +miserable fellow back to his duties. He is watching Porras's eye all the +time; sees that he is too excited to be pacified by reason, and suspects +that he has considerable support behind him; and suggests that the crew +had better all be assembled and a consultation held as to the best course +to pursue. + +It is no good to reason with mutineers; and the Admiral has no sooner +made this suggestion than he sees that it was a mistake. Porras scoffs +at it; action, not consultation, is what he demands; in short he presents +an ultimatum to the Admiral--either to embark with the whole company at +once, or stay behind in Jamaica at his own pleasure. And then, turning +his back on Columbus and raising his voice, he calls out, "I am for +Castile; those who choose may follow me!" + +The shout was a signal, and immediately from every part of the vessel +resounded the voices of the Spaniards, crying out that they would follow +Porras. In the midst of the confusion Columbus hobbled out of his bed +and staggered on to the deck; Bartholomew seized his weapons and prepared +for action; but the whole of the crew was not mutinous, and there was a +large enough loyal remnant to make it unwise for the chicken-hearted +mutineers to do more for the moment than shout: Some of them, it is true, +were heard threatening the life of the Admiral, but he was hurried back +to his bed by a few of the faithful ones, and others of them rushed up to +the fierce Bartholomew, and with great difficulty persuaded him to drop +his lance and retire to Christopher's cabin with him while they dealt +with the offenders. They begged Columbus to let the scoundrels go if +they wished to, as the condition of those who remained would be improved +rather than hurt by their absence, and they would be a good riddance. +They then went back to the deck and told Porras and his followers that +the sooner they went the better, and that nobody would interfere with +their going as long as they offered no one any violence. + +The Admiral had some time before purchased some good canoes from the +natives, and the mutineers seized ten of these and loaded them with +native provisions. Every effort was made to add to the number of the +disloyal ones; and when they saw their friends making ready to depart +several of these did actually join. There were forty-eight who finally +embarked with the brothers Porras; and there would have been more, but +that so many of them were sick and unable to face the exposure of the +voyage. As it was, those who remained witnessed with no very cheerful +emotions the departure of their companions, and even in some cases fell +to tears and lamentations. The poor old Admiral struggled out of his bed +again, went round among the sick and the loyal, cheering them and +comforting them, and promising to use every effort of the power left to +him to secure an adequate reward for their loyalty when he should return +to Spain. + +We need only follow the career of Porras and his deserters for the +present far enough to see them safely off the premises and out of the way +of the Admiral and our narrative. They coasted along the shore of +Jamaica to the eastward as Mendez had done, landing whenever they had a +mind to, and robbing and outraging the natives; and they took a +particularly mean and dirty revenge on the Admiral by committing all +their robbings and outragings as though under his authority, assuring the +offended Indians that what they did they did by his command and that what +they took he would pay for; so that as they went along they sowed seeds +of grievance and hostility against the Admiral. They told the natives, +moreover, that Columbus was an enemy of all Indians, and that they would +be very well advised to kill him and get him out of the way. + +They had not managed very well with the navigation of the canoes; and +while they were waiting for fine weather at the eastern end of the island +they collected a number of natives to act as oarsmen. When they thought +the weather suitable they put to sea in the direction of Espanola. They +were only about fifteen miles from the shore, however, when the wind +began to head them and to send up something of a sea; not rough, but +enough to make the crank and overloaded canoes roll heavily, for they had +not been prepared, as those of Mendez were, with false keels and weather- +boards. The Spaniards got frightened and turned back to Jamaica; but the +sea became rougher, the canoes rolled more and more, they often shipped a +quantity of water, and the situation began to look serious. All their +belongings except arms and provisions were thrown overboard; but still, +as the wind rose and the sea with it, it became obvious that unless the +canoes were further lightened they would not reach the shore in safety. +Under these circumstances the Spaniards forced the natives to leap into +the water, where they swam about like rats as well as they could, and +then came back to the canoes in order to hold on and rest themselves. +When they did this the Spaniards slashed at them with their swords or cut +off their hands, so that one by one they fell back and, still swimming +about feebly as well as they could with their bleeding hands or stumps of +arms, the miserable wretches perished and sank at last. + +By this dreadful expedient the Spaniards managed to reach Jamaica again, +and when they landed they immediately fell to quarrelling as to what they +should do next. Some were for trying to make the island of Cuba, the +wind being favourable for that direction; others were for returning and +making their submission to the Admiral; others for going back and seizing +the remainder of his arms and stores; others for staying where they were +for the present, and making another attempt to reach Espanola when the +weather should be more favourable. This last plan, being the counsel of +present inaction, was adopted by the majority of the rabble; so they +settled themselves at a neighbouring Indian village, behaving in: the +manner with which we are familiar. A little later, when the weather was +calm, they made another attempt at the voyage, but were driven back in +the same way; and being by this time sick of canoe voyages, they +abandoned the attempt, and began to wander back westward through the +island, maltreating the natives as before, and sowing seeds of bitter +rancour and hostility against the Admiral; in whose neighbourhood we +shall unfortunately hear of them again. + +In the meantime their departure had somewhat relieved the condition of +affairs on board the hulks. There were more provisions and there was +more peace; the Admiral, rising above his own infirmities to the +necessities of the occasion, moved unweariedly among the sick, cheering +them and nursing them back into health and good humour, so that gradually +the condition of the little colony was brought into better order and +health than it had enjoyed since its establishment. + +But now unfortunately the evil harvest sown by the Porras gang in their +journey to the east of the island began to ripen. The supplies of +provisions, which had hitherto been regularly brought by the natives, +began to appear with less punctuality, and to fall off both in quantity +and quality. The trinkets with which they were purchased had now been +distributed in such quantities that they began to lose their novelty and +value; sometimes the natives demanded a much higher price for the +provisions they brought, and (having by this time acquired the art of +bargaining) would take their stores away again if they did not get the +price they asked. + +But even of this device they soon grew weary; from being irregular, the +supplies of provisions from some quarters ceased altogether, and the +possibilities of famine began to stare the unhappy castaways in the face. +It must be remembered that they were in a very weak physical condition, +and that among the so-called loyal remnant there were very few who were +not invalids; and they were unable to get out into the island and forage +for themselves. If the able-bodied handful were to sally forth in search +of provisions, the hulks would be left defenceless and at the mercy of +the natives, of whose growing hostility the Admiral had by this time +discovered abundant evidence. Thus little by little the food supply +diminished until there was practically nothing left, and the miserable +company of invalids were confronted with the alternative of either dying +of starvation or desperately attempting a canoe voyage. + + +It was from this critical situation that the spirit and resource of +Columbus once more furnished a way of escape, and in these circumstances +that he invented and worked a device that has since become famous--the +great Eclipse Trick. Among his small library in the cabin of the ship +was the book containing the astronomical tables of Regiomontanus; and +from his study of this work he was aware that an eclipse of the moon was +due on a certain date near at hand. He sent his Indian interpreter to +visit the neighbouring caciques, summoning them to a great conference to +be held on the evening of the eclipse, as the Admiral had matters of +great importance to reveal to them. They duly arrived on the evening +appointed; not the caciques alone, but large numbers of the native +population, well prepared for whatever might take place. Columbus then +addressed them through his interpreter, informing him that he was under +the protection of a God who dwelt in the skies and who rewarded all who +assisted him and punished all his enemies. He made an effective use of +the adventures of Mendez and Porras, pointing out that Mendez, who took +his voyage by the Admiral's orders, had got away in safety, but that +Porras and his followers, who had departed in disobedience and mutiny, +had been prevented by the heavenly power from achieving their object. He +told them that his God was angry with them for their hostility and for +their neglect to supply him with provisions; and that in token of his +anger he was going to send them a dreadful punishment, as a sign of which +they would presently see the moon change colour and lose its light, and +the earth become dark. + +This address was spun out as long as possible; but even so it was +followed by an interval in which, we may be sure, Columbus anxiously eyed +the serene orb of night, and doubtless prayed that Regiomontanus might +not have made a mistake in his calculations. Some of the Indians were +alarmed, some of them contemptuous; but it was pretty clearly realised on +both sides that matters between them had come to a head; and probably if +Regiomontanus, who had worked out these tables of figures and +calculations so many years ago in his German home, had done his work +carelessly or made a mistake, Columbus and his followers would have been +massacred on the spot. But Regiomontanus, God bless him! had made no +mistake. Sure enough, and punctually to the appointed time, the dark +shadow began to steal over the moon's disc; its light gradually faded, +and a ghostly darkness crept over the face of the world. Columbus, +having seen that all was right with the celestial machinery, had retired +to his cabin; and presently he found himself besieged there in the dark +night by crowds of natives frantically bringing what provisions they had +and protesting their intention of continuing to bring them for the rest +of their lives. If only the Admiral would ask his God to forgive them, +there was no limit to the amount of provisions that he might have! The +Admiral, piously thankful, and perhaps beginning to enjoy the situation a +little, kept himself shut up in his cabin as though communing with the +implacable deity, while the darkness deepened over the land and the shore +resounded with the howling and sobbing of the terrified natives. He kept +a look-out on the sky; and when he saw that the eclipse was about to pass +away, he came out and informed the natives that God had decided to pardon +them on condition of their remaining faithful in the matter of +provisions, and that as a sign of His mercy He would restore the light. +The beautiful miracle went on through its changing phases; and, watching +in the darkness, the terrified natives saw the silver edge of the moon +appearing again, the curtain that had obscured it gradually rolling away, +and land and sea lying visible to them and once more steeped in the +serene light which they worshipped. It is likely that Christopher slept +more soundly that night than he had slept for many nights before. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +At last extricate himself from the theological stupor +He had a way of rising above petty indignities +Hearts quick to burn, quick to forget +Idea of importing black African labour to the New World +Islands in that sea had their greatest length east and west +Man with a Grievance +Stayed till night to eat their sop for fear of seeing (weevils) +The terrified seamen making vows to the Virgin +When the pot boils the scum rises to the surface + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of Christopher Columbus, v7 +by Filson Young + |