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SIR HORACE PLUNKETT, + K.C.V.O., D.C.L., F.R.S. + +MY DEAR HORACE, + +Often while I have been studying the records of colonisation in the New +World I have thought of you and your difficult work in Ireland; and I +have said to myself, "What a time he would have had if be had been +Viceroy of the Indies in 1493!" There, if ever, was the chance for a +Department such as yours; and there, if anywhere, was the place for the +Economic Man. Alas! there war only one of him; William Ires or Eyre, by +name, from the county Galway; and though he fertilised the soil he did it +with his blood and bones. A wonderful chance; and yet you see what came +of it all. It would perhaps be stretching truth too far to say that you +are trying to undo some of Columbus's work, and to stop up the hole he +made in Ireland when be found a channel into which so much of what was +best in the Old Country war destined to flow; for you and be have each +your places in the great circle of Time and Compensation, and though you +may seem to oppose one another across the centuries you are really +answering the same call and working in the same vineyard. For we all set +out to discover new worlds; and they are wise who realise early that +human nature has roots that spread beneath the ocean bed, that neither +latitude nor longitude nor time itself can change it to anything richer +or stranger than what it is, and that furrows ploughed in it are furrows +ploughed in the sea sand. Columbus tried to pour the wine of +civilisation into very old bottles; you, more wisely, are trying to pour +the old wine of our country into new bottles. Yet there is no great +unlikeness between the two tasks: it is all a matter of bottling; the +vintage is the same, infinite, inexhaustible, and as punctual as the sun +and the seasons. It was Columbus's weakness as an administrator that he +thought the bottle was everything; it is your strength that you care for +the vintage, and labour to preserve its flavour and soft fire. + + Yours, + FILSON YOUNG. +RUAN MINOR, September 1906. + + + + + PREFACE + +The writing of historical biography is properly a work of partnership, to +which public credit is awarded too often in an inverse proportion to the +labours expended. One group of historians, labouring in the obscurest +depths, dig and prepare the ground, searching and sifting the documentary +soil with infinite labour and over an area immensely wide. They are +followed by those scholars and specialists in history who give their +lives to the study of a single period, and who sow literature in the +furrows of research prepared by those who have preceded them. Last of +all comes the essayist, or writer pure and simple, who reaps the harvest +so laboriously prepared. The material lies all before him; the documents +have been arranged, the immense contemporary fields of record and +knowledge examined and searched for stray seeds of significance that may +have blown over into them; the perspective is cleared for him, the +relation of his facts to time and space and the march of human +civilisation duly established; he has nothing to do but reap the field of +harvest where it suits him, grind it in the wheels of whatever machinery +his art is equipped with, and come before the public with the finished +product. And invariably in this unequal partnership he reaps most richly +who reaps latest. + +I am far from putting this narrative forward as the fine and ultimate +product of all the immense labour and research of the historians of +Columbus; but I am anxious to excuse myself for my apparent presumption +in venturing into a field which might more properly be occupied by the +expert historian. It would appear that the double work of acquiring the +facts of a piece of human history and of presenting them through the +medium of literature can hardly ever be performed by one and the same +man. A lifetime must be devoted to the one, a year or two may suffice +for the other; and an entirely different set of qualities must be +employed in the two tasks. I cannot make it too clear that I make no +claim to have added one iota of information or one fragment of original +research to the expert knowledge regarding the life of Christopher +Columbus; and when I add that the chief collection of facts and documents +relating to the subject, the 'Raccolta Columbiana,'--[Raccolta di +Documenti e Studi Publicati dalla R. Commissione Colombiana, &c. Auspice +il Ministero della Publica Istruzione. Rome, 1892-4.]--is a work +consisting of more than thirty folio volumes, the general reader will be +the more indulgent to me. But when a purely human interest led me some +time ago to look into the literature of Columbus, I was amazed to find +what seemed to me a striking disproportion between the extent of the +modern historians' work on that subject and the knowledge or interest in +it displayed by what we call the general reading public. I am surprised +to find how many well-informed people there are whose knowledge of +Columbus is comprised within two beliefs, one of them erroneous and the +other doubtful: that he discovered America, and performed a trick with +an egg. Americans, I think, are a little better informed on the subject +than the English; perhaps because the greater part of modern critical +research on the subject of Columbus has been the work of Americans. +It is to bridge the immense gap existing between the labours of the +historians and the indifference of the modern reader, between the +Raccolta Columbiana, in fact, and the story of the egg, that I have +written my narrative. + +It is customary and proper to preface a work which is based entirely on +the labours of other people with an acknowledgment of the sources whence +it is drawn; and yet in the case of Columbus I do not know where to +begin. In one way I am indebted to every serious writer who has even +remotely concerned himself with the subject, from Columbus himself and +Las Casas down to the editors of the Raccolta. The chain of historians +has been so unbroken, the apostolic succession, so to speak, has passed +with its heritage so intact from generation to generation, that the +latest historian enshrines in his work the labours of all the rest. +Yet there are necessarily some men whose work stands out as being more +immediately seizable than that of others; in the period of whose care the +lamp of inspiration has seemed to burn more brightly. In a matter of +this kind I cannot pretend to be a judge, but only to state my own +experience and indebtedness; and in my work I have been chiefly helped by +Las Casas, indirectly of course by Ferdinand Columbus, Herrera, Oviedo, +Bernaldez, Navarrete, Asensio, Mr. Payne, Mr. Harrisse, Mr. Vignaud, +Mr. Winsor, Mr. Thacher, Sir Clements Markham, Professor de Lollis, +and S. Salvagnini. It is thus not among the dusty archives of Seville, +Genoa, or San Domingo that I have searched, but in the archive formed by +the writings of modern workers. To have myself gone back to original +sources, even if I had been competent to do so, would have been in the +case of Columbian research but a waste of time and a doing over again +what has been done already with patience, diligence, and knowledge. The +historians have been committed to the austere task of finding out and +examining every fact and document in connection with their subject; and +many of these facts and documents are entirely without human interest +except in so far as they help to establish a date, a name, or a sum of +money. It has been my agreeable and lighter task to test and assay the +masses of bed-rock fact thus excavated by the historians for traces of +the particular ore which I have been seeking. In fact I have tried to +discover, from a reverent examination of all these monographs, essays, +histories, memoirs, and controversies concerning what Christopher +Columbus did, what Christopher Columbus was; believing as I do that any +labour by which he can be made to live again, and from the dust of more +than four hundred years be brought visibly to the mind's eye, will not be +entirely without use and interest. Whether I have succeeded in doing so +or not I cannot be the judge; I can only say that the labour of +resuscitating a man so long buried beneath mountains of untruth and +controversy has some times been so formidable as to have seemed hopeless. +And yet one is always tempted back by the knowledge that Christopher +Columbus is not only a name, but that the human being whom we so describe +did actually once live and walk in the world; did actually sail and look +upon seas where we may also sail and look; did stir with his feet the +indestructible dust of this old Earth, and centre in himself, as we all +do, the whole interest and meaning of the Universe. Truly the most +commonplace fact, yet none the less amazing; and often when in the dust +of documents he has seemed most dead and unreal to me I have found +courage from the entertainment of some deep or absurd reflection; such as +that he did once undoubtedly, like other mortals, blink and cough and +blow his nose. And if my readers could realise that fact throughout +every page of this book, I should say that I had succeeded in my task. + +To be more particular in my acknowledgments. In common with every modern +writer on Columbus--and modern research on the history of Columbus is +only thirty years old--I owe to the labours of Mr. Henry Harrisse, the +chief of modern Columbian historians, the indebtedness of the gold-miner +to the gold-mine. In the matters of the Toscanelli correspondence and +the early years of Columbus I have followed more closely Mr. Henry +Vignaud, whose work may be regarded as a continuation and reexamination-- +in some cases destructive--of that of Mr. Harrisse. Mr. Vignaud's work +is happily not yet completed; we all look forward eagerly to the +completion of that part of his 'Etudes Critiques' dealing with the second +half of the Admiral's life; and Mr. Vignaud seems to me to stand higher +than all modern workers in this field in the patient and fearless +discovery of the truth regarding certain very controversial matters, +and also in ability to give a sound and reasonable interpretation to +those obscurer facts or deductions in Columbus's life that seem doomed +never to be settled by the aid of documents alone. It may be unseemly in +me not to acknowledge indebtedness to Washington Irving, but I cannot +conscientiously do so. If I had been writing ten or fifteen years ago I +might have taken his work seriously; but it is impossible that anything +so one-sided, so inaccurate, so untrue to life, and so profoundly dull +could continue to exist save in the absence of any critical knowledge or +light on the subject. All that can be said for him is that he kept the +lamp of interest in Columbus alive for English readers during the period +that preceded the advent of modern critical research. Mr. Major's +edition' of Columbus's letters has been freely consulted by me, as it +must be by any one interested in the subject. Professor Justin Winsor's +work has provided an invaluable store of ripe scholarship in matters of +cosmography and geographical detail; Sir Clements Markham's book, by far +the most trustworthy of modern English works on the subject, and a +valuable record of the established facts in Columbus's life, has proved a +sound guide in nautical matters; while the monograph of Mr. Elton, which +apparently did not promise much at first, since the author has followed +some untrustworthy leaders as regards his facts, proved to be full of a +fragrant charm produced by the writer's knowledge of and interest in sub- +tropical vegetation; and it is delightfully filled with the names of gums +and spices. To Mr. Vignaud I owe special thanks, not only for the +benefits of his research and of his admirable works on Columbus, but also +for personal help and encouragement. Equally cordial thanks are due to +Mr. John Boyd Thacher, whose work, giving as it does so large a +selection of the Columbus documents both in facsimile, transliteration, +and translation, is of the greatest service to every English writer on +the subject of Columbus. It is the more to be regretted, since the +documentary part of Mr. Thacher's work is so excellent, that in his +critical studies he should have seemed to ignore some of the more +important results of modern research. I am further particularly indebted +to Mr. Thacher and to his publishers, Messrs. Putnam's Sons, for +permission to reproduce certain illustrations in his work, and to avail +myself also of his copies and translations of original Spanish and +Italian documents. I have to thank Commendatore Guido Biagi, the keeper +of the Laurentian Library in Florence, for his very kind help and letters +of introduction to Italian librarians; Mr. Raymond Beazley, of Merton +College, Oxford, for his most helpful correspondence; and Lord Dunraven +for so kindly bringing, in the interests of my readers, his practical +knowledge of navigation and seamanship to bear on the first voyage of +Columbus. Finally my work has been helped and made possible by many +intimate and personal kindnesses which, although they are not specified, +are not the less deeply acknowledged. + +September 1906. + + + + CONTENTS + + +THE INNER LIGHT + +BOOK I + + +I THE STREAM OF THE WORLD + +II THE HOME IN GENOA + +III YOUNG CHRISTOPHER + +IV DOMENICO + +V SEA THOUGHTS + +VI IN PORTUGAL + +VII ADVENTURES BODILY AND SPIRITUAL + +VIII THE FIRE KINDLES + + + +BOOK 2. + +IX WANDERINGS WITH AN IDEA + +X OUR LADY OF LA RABIDA . + +XI THE CONSENT OF SPAIN + +XII THE PREPARATIONS AT PALOS + +XIII EVENTS OF THE FIRST VOYAGE + +XIV LANDFALL + + + +THE NEW WORLD + +BOOK 3. + +I THE ENCHANTED ISLANDS + +II THE EARTHLY PARADISE + +III THE VOYAGE HOME + + + +BOOK 4. + +IV THE HOUR OF TRIUMPH + +V GREAT EXPECTATIONS + +VI THE SECOND VOYAGE + +VII THE EARTHLY PARADISE REVISITED + + + +DESPERATE REMEDIES + +BOOK 5. + +I THE VOYAGE TO CUBA + +II THE CONQUEST OF ESPANOLA + +III UPS AND DOWNS + +IV IN SPAIN AGAIN + + + +BOOK 6. + +V THE THIRD VOYAGE + +VI AN INTERLUDE + +VII THE THIRD VOYAGE (continued) + + + +TOWARDS THE SUNSET + +BOOK 7. + +I DEGRADATION + +II CRISIS IN THE ADMIRAL'S LIFE + +III THE LAST VOYAGE + +IV HEROIC ADVENTURES BY LAND AND SEA + +V THE ECLIPSE OF THE MOON + + + +BOOK 8. + +VI RELIEF OF THE ADMIRAL + +VII THE HERITAGE OF HATRED + +VIII THE ADMIRAL COMES HOME + +IX THE LAST DAYS + +X THE MAN COLUMBUS + + + + + + + THY WAY IS THE SEA, + AND THY PATH IN THE GREAT WATERS, + AND THY FOOTSTEPS ARE NOT KNOWN. + + + + +THE INNER LIGHT + +BOOK I. + + +CHAPTER I + +THE STREAM OF THE WORLD + +A man standing on the sea-shore is perhaps as ancient and as primitive a +symbol of wonder as the mind can conceive. Beneath his feet are the +stones and grasses of an element that is his own, natural to him, in some +degree belonging to him, at any rate accepted by him. He has place and +condition there. Above him arches a world of immense void, fleecy +sailing clouds, infinite clear blueness, shapes that change and dissolve; +his day comes out of it, his source of light and warmth marches across +it, night falls from it; showers and dews also, and the quiet influence +of stars. Strange that impalpable element must be, and for ever +unattainable by him; yet with its gifts of sun and shower, its furniture +of winged life that inhabits also on the friendly soil, it has links and +partnerships with life as he knows it and is a complement of earthly +conditions. But at his feet there lies the fringe of another element, +another condition, of a vaster and more simple unity than earth or air, +which the primitive man of our picture knows to be not his at all. It is +fluent and unstable, yet to be touched and felt; it rises and falls, +moves and frets about his very feet, as though it had a life and entity +of its own, and was engaged upon some mysterious business. Unlike the +silent earth and the dreaming clouds it has a voice that fills his world +and, now low, now loud, echoes throughout his waking and sleeping life. +Earth with her sprouting fruits behind and beneath him; sky, and larks +singing, above him; before him, an eternal alien, the sea: he stands +there upon the shore, arrested, wondering. He lives,--this man of our +figure; he proceeds, as all must proceed, with the task and burden of +life. One by one its miracles are unfolded to him; miracles of fire and +cold, and pain and pleasure; the seizure of love, the terrible magic of +reproduction, the sad miracle of death. He fights and lusts and endures; +and, no more troubled by any wonder, sleeps at last. But throughout the +days of his life, in the very act of his rude existence, this great +tumultuous presence of the sea troubles and overbears him. Sometimes in +its bellowing rage it terrifies him, sometimes in its tranquillity it +allures him; but whatever he is doing, grubbing for roots, chipping +experimentally with bones and stones, he has an eye upon it; and in his +passage by the shore he pauses, looks, and wonders. His eye is led from +the crumbling snow at his feet, past the clear green of the shallows, +beyond the furrows of the nearer waves, to the calm blue of the distance; +and in his glance there shines again that wonder, as in his breast stirs +the vague longing and unrest that is the life-force of the world. + +What is there beyond? It is the eternal question asked by the finite of +the infinite, by the mortal of the immortal; answer to it there is none +save in the unending preoccupation of life and labour. And if this old +question was in truth first asked upon the sea-shore, it was asked most +often and with the most painful wonder upon western shores, whence the +journeying sun was seen to go down and quench himself in the sea. The +generations that followed our primitive man grew fast in knowledge, and +perhaps for a time wondered the less as they knew the more; but we may be +sure they never ceased to wonder at what might lie beyond the sea. How +much more must they have wondered if they looked west upon the waters, +and saw the sun of each succeeding day sink upon a couch of glory where +they could not follow? All pain aspires to oblivion, all toil to rest, +all troubled discontent with what is present to what is unfamiliar and +far away; and no power of knowledge and scientific fact will ever prevent +human unhappiness from reaching out towards some land of dreams of which +the burning brightness of a sea sunset is an image. Is it very hard to +believe, then, that in that yearning towards the miracle of a sun +quenched in sea distance, felt and felt again in human hearts through +countless generations, the westward stream of human activity on this +planet had its rise? Is it unreasonable to picture, on an earth spinning +eastward, a treadmill rush of feet to follow the sinking light? The +history of man's life in this world does not, at any rate, contradict us. +Wisdom, discovery, art, commerce, science, civilisation have all moved +west across our world; have all in their cycles followed the sun; have +all, in their day of power, risen in the East and set in the West. + + +This stream of life has grown in force and volume with the passage of +ages. It has always set from shore to sea in countless currents of +adventure and speculation; but it has set most strongly from East to +West. On its broad bosom the seeds of life and knowledge have been +carried throughout the world. It brought the people of Tyre and Carthage +to the coasts and oceans of distant worlds; it carried the English from +Jutland across cold and stormy waters to the islands of their conquest; +it carried the Romans across half the world; it bore the civilisation of +the far East to new life and virgin western soils; it carried the new +West to the old East, and is in our day bringing back again the new East +to the old West. Religions, arts, tradings, philosophies, vices and laws +have been borne, a strange flotsam, upon its unchanging flood. It has +had its springs and neaps, its trembling high-water marks, its hour of +affluence, when the world has been flooded with golden humanity; its ebb +and effluence also, when it has seemed to shrink and desert the kingdoms +set upon its shores. The fifteenth century in Western Europe found it at +a pause in its movements: it had brought the trade and the learning of +the East to the verge of the Old World, filling the harbours of the +Mediterranean with ships and the monasteries of Italy and Spain with +wisdom; and in the subsequent and punctual decadence that followed this +flood, there gathered in the returning tide a greater energy and volume +which was to carry the Old World bodily across the ocean. And yet, for +all their wisdom and power, the Spanish and Portuguese were still in the +attitude of our primitive man, standing on the sea-shore and looking out +in wonder across the sea. + +The flood of the life-stream began to set again, and little by little to +rise and inundate Western Europe, floating off the galleys and caravels +of King Alphonso of Portugal, and sending them to feel their way along +the coasts of Africa; a little later drawing the mind of Prince Henry the +Navigator to devote his life to the conquest and possession of the +unknown. In his great castle on the promontory of Sagres, with the voice +of the Atlantic thundering in his ears, and its mists and sprays bounding +his vision, he felt the full force of the stream, and stretched his arms +to the mysterious West. But the inner light was not yet so brightly +kindled that he dared to follow his heart; his ships went south and south +again, to brave on each voyage the dangers and terrors that lay along the +unknown African coast, until at length his captains saw the Cape of Good +Hope. South and West and East were in those days confusing terms; for it +was the East that men were thinking of when they set their faces to the +setting sun, and it was a new road to the East that they sought when they +felt their way southward along the edge of the world. But the rising +tide of discovery was working in that moment, engaging the brains of +innumerable sages, stirring the wonder of innumerable mariners; reaching +also, little by little, to quarters less immediately concerned with the +business of discovery. Ships carried the strange tidings of new coasts +and new islands from port to port throughout the Mediterranean; Venetians +on the lagoons, Ligurians on the busy trading wharves of Genoa, were +discussing the great subject; and as the tide rose and spread, it floated +one ship of life after another that was destined for the great business +of adventure. Some it inspired to dream and speculate, and to do no more +than that; many a heart also to brave efforts and determinations that +were doomed to come to nothing and to end only in failure. And among +others who felt the force and was swayed and lifted by the prevailing +influence, there lived, some four and a half centuries ago, a little boy +playing about the wharves of Genoa, well known to his companions as +Christoforo, son of Domenico the wool-weaver, who lived in the Vico +Dritto di Ponticello. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE HOME IN GENOA + +It is often hard to know how far back we should go in the ancestry of a +man whose life and character we are trying to reconstruct. The life that +is in him is not his own, but is mysteriously transmitted through the +life of his parents; to the common stock of his family, flesh of their +flesh, bone of their bone, character of their character, he has but added +his own personality. However far back we go in his ancestry, there is +something of him to be traced, could we but trace it; and although it +soon becomes so widely scattered that no separate fraction of it seems to +be recognisable, we know that, generations back, we may come upon some +sympathetic fact, some reservoir of the essence that was him, in which we +can find the source of many of his actions, and the clue, perhaps, to his +character. + +In the case of Columbus we are spared this dilemma. The past is reticent +enough about the man himself; and about his ancestors it is almost +silent. We know that he had a father and grandfather, as all grandsons +of Adam have had; but we can be certain of very little more than that. +He came of a race of Italian yeomen inhabiting the Apennine valleys; and +in the vale of Fontanabuona, that runs up into the hills behind Genoa, +the two streams of family from which he sprang were united. His father +from one hamlet, his mother from another; the towering hills behind, the +Mediterranean shining in front; love and marriage in the valley; and a +little boy to come of it whose doings were to shake the world. + +His family tree begins for us with his grandfather, Giovanni Colombo of +Terra-Rossa, one of the hamlets in the valley--concerning whom many human +facts may be inferred, but only three are certainly known; that he lived, +begot children, and died. Lived, first at Terra Rossa, and afterwards +upon the sea-shore at Quinto; begot children in number three--Antonio, +Battestina, and Domenico, the father of our Christopher; and died, +because one of the two facts in his history is that in the year 1444 he +was not alive, being referred to in a legal document as quondam, or, as +we should say, "the late." Of his wife, Christopher's grandmother, since +she never bought or sold or witnessed anything requiring the record of +legal document, history speaks no word; although doubtless some pleasant +and picturesque old lady, or lady other than pleasant and picturesque, +had place in the experience or imagination of young Christopher. Of the +pair, old Quondam Giovanni alone survives the obliterating drift of +generations, which the shores and brown slopes of Quinto al Mare, where +he sat in the sun and looked about him, have also survived. Doubtless +old Quondam could have told us many things about Domenico, and his over- +sanguine buyings and sellings; have perhaps told us something about +Christopher's environment, and cleared up our doubts concerning his first +home; but he does not. He will sit in the sun there at Quinto, and sip +his wine, and say his Hail Marys, and watch the sails of the feluccas +leaning over the blue floor of the Mediterranean as long as you please; +but of information about son or family, not a word. He is content to +have survived, and triumphantly twinkles his two dates at us across the +night of time. 1440, alive; 1444, not alive any longer: and so hail and +farewell, Grandfather John. + + +Of Antonio and Battestina, the uncle and aunt of Columbus, we know next +to nothing. Uncle Antonio inherited the estate of Terra-Rossa, Aunt +Battestina was married in the valley; and so no more of either of them; +except that Antonio, who also married, had sons, cousins of Columbus, who +in after years, when he became famous, made themselves unpleasant, as +poor relations will, by recalling themselves to his remembrance and +suggesting that something might be done for them. I have a belief, +supported by no historical fact or document, that between the families of +Domenico and Antonio there was a mild cousinly feud. I believe they did +not like each other. Domenico, as we shall see presently, was sanguine +and venturesome, a great buyer and seller, a maker of bargains in which +he generally came off second best. Antonio, who settled in Terra-Rossa, +the paternal property, doubtless looked askance at these enterprises from +his vantage-ground of a settled income; doubtless also, on the occasion +of visits exchanged between the two families, he would comment upon the +unfortunate enterprises of his brother; and as the children of both +brothers grew up, they would inherit and exaggerate, as children will, +this settled difference between their respective parents. This, of +course, may be entirely untrue, but I think it possible, and even likely; +for Columbus in after life displayed a very tender regard for members of +his family, but never to our knowledge makes any reference to these +cousins of his, till they send emissaries to him in his hour of triumph. +At any rate, among the influences that surrounded him at Genoa we may +reckon this uncle and aunt and their children--dim ghosts to us, but to +him real people, who walked and spoke, and blinked their eyes and moved +their limbs, like the men and women of our own time. Less of a ghost to +us, though still a very shadowy and doubtful figure, is Domenico himself, +Christopher's father. He at least is a man in whom we can feel a warm +interest, as the one who actually begat and reared the man of our story. +We shall see him later, and chiefly in difficulties; executing deeds and +leases, and striking a great variety of legal attitudes, to the +witnessing of which various members of his family were called in. Little +enough good did they to him at the time, poor Domenico; but he was a +benefactor to posterity without knowing it, and in these grave notarial +documents preserved almost the only evidence that we have as to the early +days of his illustrious son. A kind, sanguine man, this Domenico, who, +if he failed to make a good deal of money in his various enterprises, +at least had some enjoyment of them, as the man who buys and sells and +strikes legal attitudes in every age desires and has. He was a wool- +carder by trade, but that was not enough for him; he must buy little bits +of estates here and there; must even keep a tavern, where he and his wife +could entertain the foreign sailors and hear the news of the world; where +also, although perhaps they did not guess it, a sharp pair of ears were +also listening, and a pair of round eyes gazing, and an inquisitive face +set in astonishment at the strange tales that went about. + +There is one fragment of fact about this Domenico that greatly enlarges +our knowledge of him. He was a wool-weaver, as we know; he also kept a +tavern, and no doubt justified the adventure on the plea that it would +bring him customers for his woollen cloth; for your buyer and seller +never lacks a reason either for his selling or buying. Presently he is +buying again; this time, still with striking of legal attitudes, calling +together of relations, and accompaniments of crabbed Latin notarial +documents, a piece of ground in the suburbs of Genoa, consisting of scrub +and undergrowth, which cannot have been of any earthly use to him. But +also, according to the documents, there went some old wine-vats with the +land. Domenico, taking a walk after Mass on some feast-day, sees the +land and the wine-vats; thinks dimly but hopefully how old wine-vats, if +of no use to any other human creature, should at least be of use to a +tavern-keeper; hurries back, overpowers the perfunctory objections of his +complaisant wife, and on the morrow of the feast is off to the notary's +office. We may be sure the wine-vats lay and rotted there, and furnished +no monetary profit to the wool-weaving tavern-keeper; but doubtless they +furnished him a rich profit of another kind when he walked about his +newly-acquired property, and explained what he was going to do with the +wine-vats. + +And besides the weaving of wool and pouring of wine and buying and +selling of land, there were more human occupations, which Domenico was +not the man to neglect. He had married, about the year 1450, one +Susanna, a daughter of Giacomo of Fontana-Rossa, a silk weaver who lived +in the hamlet near to Terra-Rossa. Domenico's father was of the more +consequence of the two, for he had, as well as his home in the valley, a +house at Quinto, where he probably kept a felucca for purposes of trade +with Alexandria and the Islands. Perhaps the young people were married +at Quinto, but if so they did not live there long, moving soon into +Genoa, where Domenico could more conveniently work at his trade. The +wool-weavers at that time lived in a quarter outside the old city walls, +between them and the outer borders of the city, which is now occupied by +the park and public gardens. Here they had their dwellings and +workshops, their schools and institutions, receiving every protection and +encouragement from the Signoria, who recognised the importance of the +wool trade and its allied industries to Genoa. Cloth-weavers, blanket- +makers, silk-weavers, and velvet-makers all lived in this quarter, and +held their houses under the neighbouring abbey of San Stefano. There are +two houses mentioned in documents which seem to have been in the +possession of Domenico at different times. One was in the suburbs +outside the Olive Gate; the other was farther in, by St. Andrew's Gate, +and quite near to the sea. The house outside the Olive Gate has +disappeared; and it was probably here that our Christopher first saw the +light, and pleased Domenico's heart with his little cries and struggles. +Neither the day nor even the year is certainly known, but there is most +reason to believe that it was in the year 1451. They must have moved +soon afterwards to the house in the Vico Dritto di Ponticello, No. 37, +in which most of Christopher's childhood was certainly passed. This is a +house close to St. Andrew's Gate, which gate still stands in a beautiful +and ruinous condition. + +From the new part of Genoa, and from the Via XX Settembre, you turn into +the little Piazza di Ponticello just opposite the church of San Stefano. +In a moment you are in old Genoa, which is to-day in appearance virtually +the same as the place in which Christopher and his little brothers and +sisters made the first steps of their pilgrimage through this world. If +the Italian, sun has been shining fiercely upon you, in the great modern +thoroughfare, you will turn into this quarter of narrow streets and high +houses with grateful relief. The past seems to meet you there; and from +the Piazza, gay with its little provision-shops and fruit stalls, you +walk up the slope of the Vico Dritto di Ponticello, leaving the sunlight +behind you, and entering the narrow street like a traveller entering a +mountain gorge. + +It is a very curious street this; I suppose there is no street in the +world that has more character. Genoa invented sky-scrapers long before +Columbus had discovered America, or America had invented steel frames for +high building; but although many of the houses in the Vico Dritto di +Ponticello are seven and eight storeys high, the width of the street from +house-wall to house-wall does not average more than nine feet. The +street is not straight, moreover; it winds a little in its ascent to the +old city wall and St. Andrew's Gate, so that you do not even see the sky +much as you look forward and upwards. The jutting cornices of the roofs, +often beautifully decorated, come together in a medley of angles and +corners that practically roof the street over; and only here and there do +you see a triangle or a parallelogram of the vivid brilliant blue that is +the sky. Besides being seven or eight storeys high, the houses are the +narrowest in the world; I should think that their average width on the +street front is ten feet. So as you walk up this street where young +Christopher lived you must think of it in these three dimensions towering +slices of houses, ten or twelve feet in width: a street often not more +than eight and seldom more than fifteen feet in width; and the walls of +the houses themselves, painted in every colour, green and pink and grey +and white, and trellised with the inevitable green window-shutters of the +South, standing like cliffs on each side of you seven or eight rooms +high. There being so little horizontal space for the people to live +there, what little there is is most economically used; and all across the +tops of the houses, high above your head, the cliffs are joined by wires +and clothes-lines from which thousands of brightly-dyed garments are +always hanging and fluttering; higher still, where the top storeys of the +houses become merged in roof, there are little patches of garden and +greenery, where geraniums and delicious tangling creepers uphold thus +high above the ground the fertile tradition of earth. You walk slowly up +the paved street. One of its characteristics, which it shares with the +old streets of most Italian towns, is that it is only used by foot- +passengers, being of course too narrow for wheels; and it is paved across +with flagstones from door to door, so that the feet and the voices echo +pleasantly in it, and make a music of their own. Without exception the +ground floor of every house is a shop--the gayest, busiest most +industrious little shops in the world. There are shops for provisions, +where the delightful macaroni lies in its various bins, and all kinds of +frugal and nourishing foods are offered for sale. There are shops for +clothes and dyed finery; there are shops for boots, where boots hang in +festoons like onions outside the window--I have never seen so many boot- +shops at once in my life as I saw in the streets surrounding the house of +Columbus. And every shop that is not a provision-shop or a clothes-shop +or a boot-shop, is a wine-shop--or at least you would think so, until you +remember, after you have walked through the street, what a lot of other +kinds of shops you have seen on your way. There are shops for newspapers +and tobacco, for cheap jewellery, for brushes, for chairs and tables and +articles of wood; there are shops with great stacks and piles of +crockery; there are shops for cheese and butter and milk--indeed from +this one little street in Genoa you could supply every necessary and +every luxury of a humble life. + +As you still go up, the street takes a slight bend; and immediately +before you, you see it spanned by the lofty crumbled arch of St. +Andrew's Gate, with its two mighty towers one on each side. Just as you +see it you are at Columbus's house. The number is thirty-seven; it is +like any of the other houses, tall and narrow; and there is a slab built +into the wall above the first storey, on which is written this +inscription:-- + + NVLLA DOMVS TITVLO DIGNIOR + HEIC + PATERNIS IN AEDIBV + CHRISTOPHORVS COLVMBVS + PVERITIAM + PRIMAMQVE IVVENTAM TRANSEGIT + +You stop and look at it; and presently you become conscious of a +difference between it and all the other houses. They are all alert, +busy, noisy, crowded with life in every storey, oozing vitality from +every window; but of all the narrow vertical strips that make up the +houses of the street, this strip numbered thirty-seven is empty, silent, +and dead. The shutters veil its windows; within it is dark, empty of +furniture, and inhabited only by a memory and a spirit. It is a strange +place in which to stand and to think of all that has happened since the +man of our thoughts looked forth from these windows, a common little boy. +The world is very much alive in the Vico Dritto di Ponticello; the little +freshet of life that flows there flows loud and incessant; and yet into +what oceans of death and silence has it not poured since it carried forth +Christopher on its stream! One thinks of the continent of that New World +that he discovered, and all the teeming millions of human lives that have +sprung up and died down, and sprung up again, and spread and increased +there; all the ploughs that have driven into its soil, the harvests that +have ripened, the waving acres and miles of grain that have answered the +call of Spring and Autumn since first the bow of his boat grated on the +shore of Guanahani. And yet of the two scenes this narrow shuttered +house in a bye-street of Genoa is at once the more wonderful and more +credible; for it contains the elements of the other. Walls and floors +and a roof, a place to eat and sleep in, a place to work and found a +family, and give tangible environment to a human soul--there is all human +enterprise and discovery, effort, adventure, and life in that. + + +If Christopher wanted to go down to the sea he would have to pass under +the Gate of St. Andrew, with the old prison, now pulled down to make room +for the modern buildings, on his right, and go down the Salita del +Prione, which is a continuation of the Vico Dritto di Ponticello. It +slopes downwards from the Gate as the first street sloped upwards to it; +and it contains the same assortment of shops and of houses, the same +mixture of handicrafts and industries, as were seen in the Vico Dritto di +Ponticello. Presently he would come to the Piazza dell' Erbe, where +there is no grass, but only a pleasant circle of little houses and shops, +with already a smack of the sea in them, chiefly suggested by the shops +of instrument-makers, where to-day there are compasses and sextants and +chronometers. Out of the Piazza you come down the Via di San Donato and +into the Piazza of that name, where for over nine centuries the church of +San Donato has faced the sun and the weather. From there Christopher's +young feet would follow the winding Via di San Bernato, a street also +inhabited by craftsmen and workers in wood and metal; and at the last +turn of it, a gash of blue between the two cliffwalls of houses, you see +the Mediterranean. + +Here, then, between the narrow little house by the Gate and the clamour +and business of the sea-front, our Christopher's feet carried him daily +during some part of his childish life. What else he did, what he thought +and felt, what little reflections he had, are but matters of conjecture. +Genoa will tell you nothing more. You may walk over the very spot where +he was born; you may unconsciously tread in the track of his vanished +feet; you may wander about the wharves of the city, and see the ships +loading and unloading--different ships, but still trafficking in +commodities not greatly different from those of his day; you may climb +the heights behind Genoa, and look out upon the great curving Gulf from +Porto Fino to where the Cape of the western Riviera dips into the sea; +you may walk along the coast to Savona, where Domenico had one of his +many habitations, where he kept the tavern, and whither Christopher's +young feet must also have walked; and you may come back and search again +in the harbour, from the old Mole and the Bank of St. George to where the +port and quays stretch away to the medley of sailing-ships and steamers; +but you will not find any sign or trace of Christopher. No echo of the +little voice that shrilled in the narrow street sounds in the Vico +Dritto; the houses stand gaunt and straight, with a brilliant strip of +blue sky between their roofs and the cool street beneath; but they give +you nothing of what you seek. If you see a little figure running towards +you in a blue smock, the head fair-haired, the face blue-eyed and a +little freckled with the strong sunshine, it is not a real figure; it is +a child of your dreams and a ghost of the past. You may chase him while +he runs about the wharves and stumbles over the ropes, but you will never +catch him. He runs before you, zigzagging over the cobbles, up the sunny +street, into the narrow house; out again, running now towards the Duomo, +hiding in the porch of San Stefano, where the weavers held their +meetings; back again along the wharves; surely he is hiding behind that +mooring-post! But you look, and he is not there--nothing but the old +harbour dust that the wind stirs into a little eddy while you look. For +he belongs not to you or me, this child; he is not yet enslaved to the +great purpose, not yet caught up into the machinery of life. His eye has +not yet caught the fire of the sun setting on a western sea; he is still +free and happy, and belongs only to those who love him. Father and +mother, brothers Bartolomeo and Giacomo, sister Biancinetta, aunts, +uncles, and cousins possibly, and possibly for a little while an old +grandmother at Quinto--these were the people to whom that child belonged. +The little life of his first decade, unviolated by documents or history, +lives happily in our dreams, as blank as sunshine. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +YOUNG CHRISTOPHER + +Christopher was fourteen years old when he first went to sea. That +is his own statement, and it is one of the few of his autobiographical +utterances that we need not doubt. From it, and from a knowledge of +certain other dates, we are able to construct some vague picture of his +doings before he left Italy and settled in Portugal. Already in his +young heart he was feeling the influence that was to direct and shape +his destiny; already, towards his home in Genoa, long ripples from the +commotion of maritime adventure in the West were beginning to spread. +At the age of ten he was apprenticed to his father, who undertook, +according to the indentures, to provide him with board and lodging, a +blue gabardine and a pair of good shoes, and various other matters in +return for his service. But there is no reason to suppose that he ever +occupied himself very much with wool-weaving. He had a vocation quite +other than that, and if he ever did make any cloth there must have been +some strange thoughts and imaginings woven into it, as he plied the +shuttle. Most of his biographers, relying upon a doubtful statement in +the life of him written by his son Ferdinand, would have us send him at +the age of twelve to the distant University of Pavia, there, poor mite, +to sit at the feet of learned professors studying Latin, mathematics, and +cosmography; but fortunately it is not necessary to believe so improbable +a statement. What is much more likely about his education--for education +he had, although not of the superior kind with which he has been +credited--is that in the blank, sunny time of his childhood he was sent +to one of the excellent schools established by the weavers in their own +quarter, and that there or afterwards he came under some influence, both +religious and learned, which stamped him the practical visionary that he +remained throughout his life. Thereafter, between his sea voyagings and +expeditions about the Mediterranean coasts, he no doubt acquired +knowledge in the only really practical way that it can be acquired; that +is to say, he received it as and when he needed it. What we know is that +he had in later life some knowledge of the works of Aristotle, Julius +Caesar, Seneca, Pliny, and Ptolemy; of Ahmet-Ben-Kothair the Arabic +astronomer, Rochid the Arabian, and the Rabbi Samuel the Jew; of Isadore +the Spaniard, and Bede and Scotus the Britons; of Strabo the German, +Gerson the Frenchman, and Nicolaus de Lira the Italian. These names +cover a wide range, but they do not imply university education. Some of +them merely suggest acquaintance with the 'Imago Mundi'; others imply +that selective faculty, the power of choosing what can help a man's +purpose and of rejecting what is useless to it, that is one of the marks +of genius, and an outward sign of the inner light. + +We must think of him, then, at school in Genoa, grinding out the tasks +that are the common heritage of all small boys; working a little at the +weaving, interestedly enough at first, no doubt, while the importance of +having a loom appealed to him, but also no doubt rapidly cooling off in +his enthusiasm as the pastime became a task, and the restriction of +indoor life began to be felt. For if ever there was a little boy who +loved to idle about the wharves and docks, here was that little boy. +It was here, while he wandered about the crowded quays and listened to +the medley of talk among the foreign sailors, and looked beyond the masts +of the ships into the blue distance of the sea, that the desire to wander +and go abroad upon the face of the waters must first have stirred in his +heart. The wharves of Genoa in those days combined in themselves all the +richness of romance and adventure, buccaneering, trading, and treasure- +snatching, that has ever crowded the pages of romance. There were +galleys and caravels, barques and feluccas, pinnaces and caraccas. There +were slaves in the galleys, and bowmen to keep the slaves in subjection. +There were dark-bearded Spaniards, fair-haired Englishmen; there were +Greeks, and Indians, and Portuguese. The bales of goods on the harbour- +side were eloquent of distant lands, and furnished object lessons in the +only geography that young Christopher was likely to be learning. There +was cotton from Egypt, and tin and lead from Southampton. There were +butts of Malmsey from Candia; aloes and cassia and spices from Socotra; +rhubarb from Persia; silk from India; wool from Damascus, raw wool also +from Calais and Norwich. No wonder if the little house in the Vico +Dritto di Ponticello became too narrow for the boy; and no wonder that at +the age of fourteen he was able to have his way, and go to sea. One can +imagine him gradually acquiring an influence over his father, Domenico, +as his will grew stronger and firmer--he with one grand object in life, +Domenico with none; he with a single clear purpose, and Domenico with +innumerable cloudy ones. And so, on some day in the distant past, there +were farewells and anxious hearts in the weaver's house, and Christopher, +member of the crew of some trading caravel or felucca, a diminishing +object to the wet eyes of his mother, sailed away, and faded into the +blue distance. + +They had lost him, although perhaps they did not realise it; from the +moment of his first voyage the sea claimed him as her own. Widening +horizons, slatting of cords and sails in the wind, storms and stars and +strange landfalls and long idle calms, thunder of surges, tingle of +spray, and eternal labouring and threshing and cleaving of infinite +waters--these were to be his portion and true home hereafter. +Attendances at Court, conferences with learned monks and bishops, +sojourns on lonely islands, love under stars in the gay, sun-smitten +Spanish towns, governings and parleyings in distant, undreamed-of lands +--these were to be but incidents in his true life, which was to be +fulfilled in the solitude of sea watches. + +When he left his home on this first voyage, he took with him one other +thing besides the restless longing to escape beyond the line of sea and +sky. Let us mark well this possession of his, for it was his companion +and guiding-star throughout a long and difficult life, his chart and +compass, astrolabe and anchor, in one. Religion has in our days fallen +into decay among men of intellect and achievement. The world has thrown +it, like a worn garment or an old skin, from off its body, the thing +itself being no longer real and alive, and in harmony with the life of +an age that struggles towards a different kind of truth. It is hard, +therefore, for us to understand exactly how the religion of Columbus +entered so deeply into his life and brooded so widely over his thoughts. + +Hardest of all is it for people whose only experience of religion is of +Puritan inheritance to comprehend how, in the fifteenth century, the +strong intellect was strengthened, and the stout heart fortified, by the +thought of hosts of saints and angels hovering above a man's incomings +and outgoings to guide and protect him. Yet in an age that really had +the gift of faith, in which religion was real and vital, and part of the +business of every man's daily life; in which it stood honoured in the +world, loaded with riches, crowned with learning, wielding government +both temporal and spiritual, it was a very brave panoply for the soul of +man. The little boy in Genoa, with the fair hair and blue eyes and grave +freckled face that made him remarkable among his dark companions, had no +doubt early received and accepted the vast mysteries of the Christian +faith; and as that other mystery began to grow in his mind, and that idea +of worlds that might lie beyond the sea-line began to take shape in his +thoughts, he found in the holy wisdom of the prophets, and the inspired +writings of the fathers, a continual confirmation of his faith. The full +conviction of these things belongs to a later period of his life; but +probably, during his first voyagings in the Mediterranean, there hung in +his mind echoes of psalms and prophecies that had to do with things +beyond the world of his vision and experience. The sun, whose going +forth is to the end of heaven, his circuit back to the end of it, and +from whose heat there is nothing hid; the truth, holy and prevailing, +that knows no speech nor language where its voice is not heard; the great +and wide sea, with its creeping things innumerable, and beasts small and +great--no wonder if these things impressed him, and if gradually, as his +way fell clearer before him, and the inner light began to shine more +steadily, he came to believe that he had a special mission to carry the +torch of the faith across the Sea of Darkness, and be himself the bearer +of a truth that was to go through all the earth, and of words that were +to travel to the world's end. + +In this faith, then, and with this equipment, and about the year 1465, +Christopher Columbus began his sea travels. His voyages would be +doubtless at first much along the coasts, and across to Alexandria and +the Islands. There would be returnings to Genoa, and glad welcomings by +the little household in the narrow street; in 1472 and 1473 he was with +his father at Savona, helping with the wool-weaving and tavern-keeping; +possibly also there were interviews with Benincasa, who was at that time +living in Genoa, and making his famous sea-charts. Perhaps it was in his +studio that Christopher first saw a chart, and first fell in love with +the magic that can transfer the shapes of oceans and continents to a +piece of paper. Then he would be off again in another ship, to the +Golden Horn perhaps, or the Black Sea, for the Genoese had a great +Crimean trade. This is all conjecture, but very reasonable conjecture; +what we know for a fact is that he saw the white gum drawn from the +lentiscus shrubs in Chio at the time of their flowering; that fragrant +memory is preserved long afterwards in his own writings, evoked by some +incident in the newly-discovered islands of the West. There are vague +rumours and stories of his having been engaged in various expeditions-- +among them one fitted out in Genoa by John of Anjou to recover the +kingdom of Naples for King Rene of Provence; but there is no reason to +believe these rumours: good reason to disbelieve them, rather. + +The lives that the sea absorbs are passed in a great variety of adventure +and experience, but so far as the world is concerned they are passed in a +profound obscurity; and we need not wonder that of all the mariners who +used those seas, and passed up and down, and held their course by the +stars, and reefed their sails before the sudden squalls that came down +from the mountains, and shook them out again in the calm sunshine that +followed, there is no record of the one among their number who was +afterwards to reef and steer and hold his course to such mighty purpose. +For this period, then, we must leave him to the sea, and to the vast +anonymity of sea life. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +DOMENICO + +Christopher is gone, vanished over that blue horizon; and the tale of +life in Genoa goes on without him very much as before, except that +Domenico has one apprentice less, and, a matter becoming of some +importance in the narrow condition of his finances, one boy less to feed +and clothe. For good Domenico, alas! is no economist. Those hardy +adventures of his in the buying and selling line do not prosper him; the +tavern does not pay; perhaps the tavern-keeper is too hospitable; at any +rate, things are not going well. And yet Domenico had a good start; as +his brother Antonio has doubtless often told him, he had the best of old +Giovanni's inheritance; he had the property at Quinto, and other property +at Ginestreto, and some ground rents at Pradella; a tavern at Savona, a +shop there and at Genoa--really, Domenico has no excuse for his +difficulties. In 1445 he was selling land at Quinto, presumably with the +consent of old Giovanni, if he was still alive; and if he was not living, +then immediately after his death, in the first pride of possession. + +In 1450 he bought a pleasant house at Quarto, a village on the sea-shore +about a mile to the west of Quinto and about five miles to the east of +Genoa. It was probably a pure speculation, as he immediately leased the +house for two years, and never lived in it himself, although it was a +pleasant place, with an orchard of olives and figs and various other +trees--'arboratum olivis ficubus et aliis diversis arboribus'. His next +recorded transaction is in 1466, when he went security for a friend, +doubtless with disastrous results. In 1473 he sold the house at the +Olive Gate, that suburban dwelling where probably Christopher was born, +and in 1474 he invested the proceeds of that sale in a piece of land +which I have referred to before, situated in the suburbs of Savona, with +which were sold those agreeable and useless wine-vats. Domenico was +living at Savona then, and the property which he so fatuously acquired +consisted of two large pieces of land on the Via Valcalda, containing a +few vines, a plantation of fruit-trees, and a large area of shrub and +underwood. The price, however, was never paid in full, and was the cause +of a lawsuit which dragged on for forty years, and was finally settled by +Don Diego Columbus, Christopher's son, who sent a special authority from +Hispaniola. + +Owing, no doubt, to the difficulties that this un fortunate purchase +plunged him into, Domenico was obliged to mortgage his house at St. +Andrew's Gate in the year 1477; and in 1489 he finally gave it up to +Jacob Baverelus, the cheese-monger, his son-in-law. Susanna, who had +been the witness of his melancholy transactions for so many years, and +possibly the mainstay of that declining household, died in 1494; but not, +we may hope, before she had heard of the fame of her son Christopher. +Domenico, in receipt of a pension from the famous Admiral of the Ocean, +and no doubt talking with a deal of pride and inaccuracy about the +discovery of the New World, lived on until 1498; when he died also, and +vanished out of this world. He had fulfilled a noble destiny in being +the father of Christopher Columbus. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +SEA THOUGHTS + +The long years that Christopher Columbus spent at sea in making voyages +to and from his home in Genoa, years so blank to us, but to him who lived +them so full of life and active growth, were most certainly fruitful in +training and equipping him for that future career of which as yet, +perhaps, he did not dream. The long undulating waves of the +Mediterranean, with land appearing and dissolving away in the morning and +evening mists, the business of ship life, harsh and rough in detail, but +not too absorbing to the mind of a common mariner to prevent any thoughts +he might have finding room to grow and take shape; sea breezes, sea +storms, sea calms; these were the setting of his knowledge and experience +as he fared from port to port and from sea to sea. He is a very elusive +figure in that environment of misty blue, very hard to hold and identify, +very shy of our scrutiny, and inaccessible even to our speculation. If +we would come up with him, and place ourselves in some kind of sympathy +with the thoughts that were forming in his brain, it is necessary that we +should, for the moment, forget much of what we know of the world, and +assume the imperfect knowledge of the globe that man possessed in those +years when Columbus was sailing the Mediterranean. + +That the earth was a round globe of land and water was a fact that, after +many contradictions and uncertainties, intelligent men had by this time +accepted. A conscious knowledge of the world as a whole had been a part +of human thought for many hundreds of years; and the sphericity of the +earth had been a theory in the sixth century before Christ. In the +fourth century Aristotle had watched the stars and eclipses; in the third +century Eratosthenes had measured a degree of latitude, and measured it +wrong;--[Not so very wrong. D.W.]-- in the second century the +philosopher Crates had constructed a rude sort of globe, on which were +marked the known kingdoms of the earth, and some also unknown. With the +coming of the Christian era the theory of the roundness of the earth +began to be denied; and as knowledge and learning became gathered into +the hands of the Church they lost something of their clarity and +singleness, and began to be used arbitrarily as evidence for or against +other and less material theories. St. Chrysostom opposed the theory of +the earth's roundness; St. Isidore taught it; and so also did St. +Augustine, as we might expect from a man of his wisdom who lived so long +in a monastery that looked out to sea from a high point, and who wrote +the words 'Ubi magnitudo, ibi veritas'. In the sixth century of the +Christian era Bishop Cosmas gave much thought to this matter of a round +world, and found a new argument which to his mind (poor Cosmas!) disposed +of it very clearly; for he argued that, if the world were round, the +people dwelling at the antipodes could not see Christ at His coming, and +that therefore the earth was not round. But Bede, in the eighth century, +established it finally as a part of human knowledge that the earth and +all the heavenly bodies were spheres, and after that the fact was not +again seriously disputed. + +What lay beyond the frontier of the known was a speculation inseparable +from the spirit of exploration. Children, and people who do not travel, +are generally content, when their thoughts stray beyond the paths trodden +by their feet, to believe that the greater world is but a continuation on +every side of their own environment; indeed, without the help of sight or +suggestion, it is almost impossible to believe anything else. If you +stand on an eminence in a great plain and think of the unseen country +that lies beyond the horizon, trying to visualise it and imagine that you +see it, the eye of imagination can only see the continuance or projection +of what is seen by the bodily sight. If you think, you can occupy the +invisible space with a landscape made up from your own memory and +knowledge: you may think of mountain chains and rivers, although there +are none visible to your sight, or you may imagine vast seas and islands, +oceans and continents. This, however, is thought, not pure imagination; +and even so, with every advantage of thought and knowledge, you will not +be able to imagine beyond your horizon a space of sea so wide that the +farther shore is invisible, and yet imagine the farther shore also. You +will see America across the Atlantic and Japan across the Pacific; but +you cannot see, in one single effort of the imagination, an Atlantic of +empty blue water stretching to an empty horizon, another beyond that +equally vast and empty, another beyond that, and so on until you have +spanned the thousand horizons that lie between England and America. The +mind, that is to say, works in steps and spans corresponding to the spans +of physical sight; it cannot clear itself enough from the body, or rise +high enough beyond experience, to comprehend spaces so much vaster than +anything ever seen by the eye of man. So also with the stretching of the +horizon which bounded human knowledge of the earth. It moved step by +step; if one of Prince Henry's captains, creeping down the west coast of +Africa, discovered a cape a hundred miles south of the known world, the +most he could probably do was to imagine that there might lie, still +another hundred miles farther south, another cape; to sail for it in +faith and hope, to find it, and to imagine another possibility yet +another hundred miles away. So far as experience went back, faith could +look forward. It is thus with the common run of mankind; yesterday's +march is the measure of to-morrow's; as much as they have done once, they +may do again; they fear it will be not much more; they hope it may be not +much less. + +The history of the exploration of the world up to the day when Columbus +set sail from Palos is just such a history of steps. The Phoenicians +coasting from harbour to harbour through the Mediterranean; the Romans +marching from camp to camp, from country to country; the Jutes venturing +in their frail craft into the stormy northern seas, making voyages a +little longer and more daring every time, until they reached England; the +captains of Prince Henry of Portugal feeling their way from voyage to +voyage down the coast of Africa--there are no bold flights into the +incredible here, but patient and business-like progress from one +stepping-stone to another. Dangers and hardships there were, and brave +followings of the faint will-o'-the-wisp of faith in what lay beyond; but +there were no great launchings into space. They but followed a line that +was the continuance or projection of the line they had hitherto followed; +what they did was brave and glorious, but it was reasonable. What +Columbus did, on the contrary, was, as we shall see later, against all +reason and knowledge. It was a leap in the dark towards some star +invisible to all but him; for he who sets forth across the desert sand or +sea must have a brighter sun to guide him than that which sets and rises +on the day of the small man. + + +Our familiarity with maps and atlases makes it difficult for us to think +of the world in other terms than those of map and diagram; knowledge and +science have focussed things for us, and our imagination has in +consequence shrunk. It is almost impossible, when thinking of the earth +as a whole, to think about it except as a picture drawn, or as a small +globe with maps traced upon it. I am sure that our imagination has a far +narrower angle--to borrow a term from the science of lenses--than the +imagination of men who lived in the fifteenth century. They thought of +the world in its actual terms--seas, islands, continents, gulfs, rivers, +oceans. Columbus had seen maps and charts--among them the famous +'portolani' of Benincasa at Genoa; but I think it unlikely that he was so +familiar with them as to have adopted their terms in his thoughts about +the earth. He had seen the Mediterranean and sailed upon it before he +had seen a chart of it; he knew a good deal of the world itself before he +had seen a map of it. He had more knowledge of the actual earth and sea +than he had of pictures or drawings of them; and therefore, if we are to +keep in sympathetic touch with him, we must not think too closely of +maps, but of land and sea themselves. + +The world that Columbus had heard about as being within the knowledge of +men extended on the north to Iceland and Scandinavia, on the south to a +cape one hundred miles south of the Equator, and to the east as far as +China and Japan. North and South were not important to the spirit of +that time; it was East and West that men thought of when they thought of +the expansion and the discovery of the world. And although they admitted +that the earth was a sphere, I think it likely that they imagined +(although the imagination was contrary to their knowledge) that the line +of West and East was far longer, and full of vaster possibilities, than +that of North and South. North was familiar ground to them--one voyage +to England, another to Iceland, another to Scandinavia; there was nothing +impossible about that. Southward was another matter; but even here there +was no ambition to discover the limit of the world. It is an error +continually made by the biographers of Columbus that the purpose of +Prince Henry's explorations down the coast of Africa was to find a sea +road to the West Indies by way of the East. It was nothing of the kind. +There was no idea in the minds of the Portuguese of the land which +Columbus discovered, and which we now know as the West Indies. Mr. +Vignaud contends that the confusion arose from the very loose way in +which the term India was applied in the Middle Ages. Several Indias were +recognised. There was an India beyond the Ganges; a Middle India between +the Ganges and the Indus; and a Lesser India, in which were included +Arabia, Abyssinia, and the countries about the Red Sea. These divisions +were, however, quite vague, and varied in different periods. In the time +of Columbus the word India meant the kingdom of Prester John, that +fabulous monarch who had been the subject of persistent legends since the +twelfth century; and it was this India to which the Portuguese sought a +sea road. They had no idea of a barrier cape far to the south, the +doubling of which would open a road for them to the west; nor were they, +as Mr. Vignaud believes, trying to open a route for the spice trade with +the Orient. They had no great spice trade, and did not seek more; what +they did seek was an extension of their ordinary trade with Guinea and +the African coast. To the maritime world of the fifteenth century, then, +the South as a geographical region and as a possible point of discovery +had no attractions. + +To the west stretched what was known as the Sea of Darkness, about which +even the cool knowledge of the geographers and astronomers could not +think steadily. Nothing was known about it, it did not lead anywhere, +there were no people there, there was no trade in that direction. The +tides of history and of life avoided it; only now and then some terrified +mariner, blown far out of his course, came back with tales of sea +monsters and enchanted disappearing islands, and shores that receded, and +coasts upon which no one could make a landfall. The farthest land known +to the west was the Azores; beyond that stretched a vague and impossible +ocean of terror and darkness, of which the Arabian writer Xerif al +Edrisi, whose countrymen were the sea-kings of the Middle Ages, wrote as +follows: + + "The ocean encircles the ultimate bounds of the inhabited earth, and + all beyond it is unknown. No one has been able to verify anything + concerning it, on account of its difficult and perilous navigation, + its great obscurity, its profound depth, and frequent tempests; + through fear of its mighty fishes and its haughty winds; yet there + are many islands in it, some peopled, others uninhabited. There is + no mariner who dares to enter into its deep waters; or if any have + done so, they have merely kept along its coasts, fearful of + departing from them. The waves of this ocean, although they roll as + high as mountains, yet maintain themselves without breaking; for if + they broke it would be impossible for a ship to plough them." + +It is another illustration of the way in which discovery and imagination +had hitherto gone by steps and not by flights, that geographical +knowledge reached the islands of the Atlantic (none of which were at a +very great distance from the coast of Europe or from each other) at a +comparatively early date, and stopped there until in Columbus there was +found a man with faith strong enough to make the long flight beyond them +to the unknown West. And yet the philosophers, and later the +cartographers, true to their instinct for this pedestrian kind of +imagination, put mythical lands and islands to the westward of the known +islands as though they were really trying to make a way, to sink stepping +stones into the deep sea that would lead their thoughts across the +unknown space. In the Catalan map of the world, which was the standard +example of cosmography in the early days of Columbus, most of these +mythical islands are marked. There was the island of Antilia, which was +placed in 25 deg. 35' W., and was said to have been discovered by Don +Roderick, the last of the Gothic kings of Spain, who fled there after +his defeat by the Moors. There was the island of the Seven Cities, +which is sometimes identified with this Antilia, and was the object of a +persistent belief or superstition on the part of the inhabitants of the +Canary Islands. They saw, or thought they saw, about ninety leagues to +the westward, an island with high peaks and deep valleys. The vision was +intermittent; it was only seen in very clear weather, on some of those +pure, serene days of the tropics when in the clear atmosphere distant +objects appear to be close at hand. In cloudy, and often in clear +weather also, it was not to be seen at all; but the inhabitants of the +Canaries, who always saw it in the same place, were so convinced of its +reality that they petitioned the King of Portugal to allow them to go and +take possession of it; and several expeditions were in fact despatched, +but none ever came up with that fairy land. It was called the island of +the Seven Cities from a legend of seven bishops who had fled from Spain +at the time of the Moorish conquest, and, landing upon this island, had +founded there seven splendid cities. There was the island of St. +Brandan, called after the Saint who set out from Ireland in the sixth +century in search of an island which always receded before his ships; +this island was placed several hundred miles to the west of the Canaries +on maps and charts through out the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. +There was the island of Brazil, to the west of Cape St. Vincent; the +islands of Royllo, San Giorgio, and Isola di Mam; but they were all +islands of dreams, seen by the eyes of many mariners in that imaginative +time, but never trodden by any foot of man. To Columbus, however, and +the mariners of his day, they were all real places, which a man might +reach by special good fortune or heroism, but which, all things +considered, it was not quite worth the while of any man to attempt to +reach. They have all disappeared from our charts, like the Atlantis of +Plato, that was once charted to the westward of the Straits of Gibraltar, +and of which the Canaries were believed to be the last peaks unsubmerged. + +Sea myths and legends are strange things, and do not as a rule persist in +the minds of men unless they have had some ghostly foundation; so it is +possible that these fabled islands of the West were lands that had +actually been seen by living eyes, although their position could never be +properly laid down nor their identity assured. Of all the wandering +seamen who talked in the wayside taverns of Atlantic seaports, some must +have had strange tales to tell; tales which sometimes may have been true, +but were never believed. Vague rumours hung about those shores, like +spray and mist about a headland, of lands seen and lost again in the +unknown and uncharted ocean. Doubtless the lamp of faith, the inner +light, burned in some of these storm-tossed men; but all they had was a +glimpse here and there, seen for a moment and lost again; not the clear +sight of faith by which Columbus steered his westward course. + + +The actual outposts of western occupation, then, were the Azores, which +were discovered by Genoese sailors in the pay of Portugal early in the +fourteenth century; the Canaries, which had been continuously discovered +and rediscovered since the Phoenicians occupied them and Pliny chose them +for his Hesperides; and Madeira, which is believed to have been +discovered by an Englishman under the following very romantic and moving +circumstances. + +In the reign of Edward the Third a young man named Robert Machin fell in +love with a beautiful girl, his superior in rank, Anne Dorset or d'Urfey +by name. She loved him also, but her relations did not love him; and +therefore they had Machin imprisoned upon some pretext or other, and +forcibly married the young lady to a nobleman who had a castle on the +shores of the Bristol Channel. + +The marriage being accomplished, and the girl carried away by her +bridegroom to his seat in the West, it was thought safe to release +Machin. Whereupon he collected several friends, and they followed the +newly-married couple to Bristol and laid their plans for an abduction. +One of the friends got himself engaged as a groom in the service of the +unhappy bride, and found her love unchanged, and if possible increased by +the present misery she was in. An escape was planned; and one day, when +the girl and her groom were riding in the park, they set spurs to their +horses, and galloped off to a place on the shores of the Bristol Channel +where young Robert had a boat on the beach and a ship in the offing. +They set sail immediately, intending to make for France, where the +reunited lovers hoped to live happily; but it came on to blow when they +were off the Lizard, and a southerly gale, which lasted for thirteen +days, drove them far out of their course. + +The bride, from her joy and relief, fell into a state of the gloomiest +despondency, believing that the hand of God was turned against her, +and that their love would never be enjoyed. The tempest fell on the +fourteenth day, and at the break of morning the sea-worn company saw +trees and land ahead of them. In the sunrise they landed upon an island +full of noble trees, about which flights of singing birds were hovering, +and in which the sweetest fruits, the most lovely flowers, and the purest +and most limpid waters abounded. Machin and his bride and their friends +made an encampment on a flowery meadow in a sheltered valley, where for +three days they enjoyed the sweetness and rest of the shore and the +companionship of all kinds of birds and beasts, which showed no signs of +fear at their presence. On the third day a storm arose, and raged for a +night over the island; and in the morning the adventurers found that +their ship was nowhere to be seen. The despair of the little company was +extreme, and was increased by the condition of poor Anne, upon whom +terror and remorse again fell, and so preyed upon her mind that in three +days she was dead. Her lover, who had braved so much and won her so +gallantly, was turned to stone by this misfortune. Remorse and aching +desolation oppressed him; from the moment of her death he scarcely ate +nor spoke; and in five days he also was dead, surely of a broken heart. +They buried him beside his mistress under a spreading tree, and put up a +wooden cross there, with a prayer that any Christians who might come to +the island would build a chapel to Jesus the Saviour. The rest of the +party then repaired their little boat and put to sea; were cast upon the +coast of Morocco, captured by the Moors, and thrown into prison. With +them in prison was a Spanish pilot named Juan de Morales, who listened +attentively to all they could tell him about the situation and condition +of the island, and who after his release communicated what he knew to +Prince Henry of Portugal. The island of Madeira was thus rediscovered in +1418, and in 1425 was colonised by Prince Henry, who appointed as +Governor Bartolomeo de Perestrello, whose daughter was afterwards to +become the wife of Columbus. + +So much for the outposts of the Old World. Of the New World, about the +possibility of which Columbus is beginning to dream as he sails the +Mediterranean, there was no knowledge and hardly any thought. Though new +in the thoughts of Columbus, it was very old in itself; generations of +men had lived and walked and spoken and toiled there, ever since men came +upon the earth; sun and shower, the thrill of the seasons, birth and life +and death, had been visiting it for centuries and centuries. And it is +quite possible that, long before even the civilisation that produced +Columbus was in its dawn, men from the Old World had journeyed there. +There are two very old fragments of knowledge which indicate at least the +possibility of a Western World of which the ancients had knowledge. +There is a fragment, preserved from the fourth century before Christ, of +a conversation between Silenus and Midas, King of Phrygia, in which +Silenus correctly describes the Old World--Europe, Asia, and Africa--as +being surrounded by the sea, but also describes, far to the west of it, a +huge island, which had its own civilisation and its own laws, where the +animals and the men were of twice our stature, and lived for twice our +years. There is also the story told by Plato of the island of Atlantis, +which was larger than Africa and Asia together, and which in an +earthquake disappeared beneath the waves, producing such a slime upon the +surface that no ship was able to navigate the sea in that place. This is +the story which the priests of Sais told to Solon, and which was embodied +in the sacred inscriptions in their temples. It is strange that any one +should think of this theory of the slime who had not seen or heard of the +Sargasso Sea--that great bank of floating seaweed that the ocean currents +collect and retain in the middle of the basin of the North Atlantic. + +The Egyptians, the Tartars, the Canaanites, the Chinese, the Arabians, +the Welsh, and the Scandinavians have all been credited with the +colonisation of America; but the only race from the Old World which had +almost certainly been there were the Scandinavians. In the year 983 the +coast of Greenland was visited by Eric the Red, the son of a Norwegian +noble, who was banished for the crime of murder. Some fifteen years +later Eric's son Lief made an expedition with thirty-five men and a ship +in the direction of the new land. They came to a coast where there were +nothing but ice mountains having the appearance of slate; this country +they named Helluland--that is, Land of Slate. This country is our +Newfoundland. Standing out to sea again, they reached a level wooded +country with white sandy cliffs, which they called Markland, or Land of +Wood, which is our Nova Scotia. Next they reached an island east of +Markland, where they passed the winter, and as one of their number who +had wandered some distance inland had found vines and grapes, Lief named +the country Vinland or Vine Land, which is the country we call New +England. The Scandinavians continued to make voyages to the West and +South; and finally Thorfinn Karlsefne, an Icelander, made a great +expedition in the spring of 1007 with ships and material for +colonisation. He made much progress to the southwards, and the Icelandic +accounts of the climate and soil and characteristics of the country leave +no doubt that Greenland and Nova Scotia were discovered and colonised at +this time. + +It must be remembered, however, that then and in the lifetime of Columbus +Greenland was supposed to--be a promontory of the coast of Europe, and +was not connected in men's minds with a western continent. Its early +discovery has no bearing on the significance of Columbus's achievement, +the greatness of which depends not on his having been the first man from +the Old World to set foot upon the shores of the New, but on the fact +that by pure faith and belief in his own purpose he did set out for and +arrive in a world where no man of his era or civilisation had ever before +set foot, or from which no wanderer who may have been blown there ever +returned. It is enough to claim for him the merit of discovery in the +true sense of the word. The New World was covered from the Old by a veil +of distance, of time and space, of absence, invisibility, virtual non- +existence; and he discovered it. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +IN PORTUGAL + +There is no reason to believe that before his twenty-fifth year Columbus +was anything more than a merchant or mariner, sailing before the mast, +and joining one ship after another as opportunities for good voyages +offered themselves. A change took place later, probably after his +marriage, when he began to adapt himself rapidly to a new set of +surroundings, and to show his intrinsic qualities; but all the attempts +that have been made to glorify him socially--attempts, it must be +remembered, in which he himself and his sons were in after years the +leaders--are entirely mistaken. That strange instinct for consistency +which makes people desire to see the outward man correspond, in terms of +momentary and arbitrary credit, with the inner and hidden man of the +heart, has in truth led to more biographical injustice than is fully +realised. If Columbus had been the man some of his biographers would +like to make him out--the nephew or descendant of a famous French +Admiral, educated at the University of Pavia, belonging to a family of +noble birth and high social esteem in Genoa, chosen by King Rene to be +the commander of naval expeditions, learned in scientific lore, in the +classics, in astronomy and in cosmography, the friend and correspondent +of Toscanelli and other learned scientists--we should find it hard indeed +to forgive him the shifts and deceits that he practised. It is far more +interesting to think of him as a common craftsman, of a lowly condition +and poor circumstances, who had to earn his living during the formative +period of his life by the simplest and hardest labour of the hand. The +qualities that made him what he was were of a very simple kind, and his +character owed its strength, not to any complexity or subtlety of +training and education, but rather to that very bareness and simplicity +of circumstance that made him a man of single rather than manifold ideas. +He was not capable of seeing both sides of a question; he saw only one +side. But he came of a great race; and it was the qualities of his race, +combined with this simplicity and even perhaps vacancy of mind, that gave +to his idea, when once the seed of it had lodged in his mind, so much +vigour in growth and room for expansion. Think of him, then, at the age +of twenty-five as a typical plebeian Genoese, bearing all the +characteristic traits of his century and people--the spirit of adventure, +the love of gold and of power, a spirit of mysticism, and more than a +touch of crafty and elaborate dissimulation, when that should be +necessary. + +He had been at sea for ten or eleven years, making voyages to and from +Genoa, with an occasional spell ashore and plunge into the paternal +affairs, when in the year 1476 he found himself on board a Genoese vessel +which formed one of a convoy going, to Lisbon. This convoy was attacked +off Cape St. Vincent by Colombo, or Colomb, the famous French corsair, of +whom Christopher himself has quite falsely been called a relative. Only +two of the Genoese vessels escaped, and one of these two was the ship +which carried Columbus. It arrived at Lisbon, where Columbus went ashore +and took up his abode. + +This, so far as can be ascertained, is the truth about the arrival of +Columbus in Portugal. The early years of an obscure man who leaps into +fame late in life are nearly always difficult to gather knowledge about, +because not only are the annals of the poor short and simple and in most +cases altogether unrecorded, but there is always that instinct, to which +I have already referred, to make out that the circumstances of a man who +late in life becomes great and remarkable were always, at every point in +his career, remarkable also. We love to trace the hand of destiny +guiding her chosen people, protecting them from dangers, and preserving +them for their great moment. It is a pleasant study, and one to which +the facts often lend themselves, but it leads to a vicious method of +biography which obscures the truth with legends and pretences that have +afterwards laboriously to be cleared away. It was so in the case of +Columbus. Before his departure on his first voyage of discovery there is +absolutely no temporary record of him except a few dates in notarial +registers. The circumstances of his life and his previous conditions +were supplied afterwards by himself and his contemporaries; and both he +and they saw the past in the light of the present, and did their best to +make it fit a present so wonderful and miraculous. The whole trend of +recent research on the subject of Columbus has been unfortunately in the +direction of proving the complete insincerity of his own speech and +writings about his early life, and the inaccuracy of Las Casas writings +his contemporary biographer, and the first historian of the West Indies. +Those of my readers, then, who are inclined to be impatient with the +meagreness of the facts with which I am presenting them, and the +disproportionate amount of theory to fact with regard to these early +years of Columbus, must remember three things. First, that the only +record of the early years of Columbus was written long after those years +had passed away, and in circumstances which did not harmonise with them; +second, that there is evidence, both substantive and presumptive, that +much of those records, even though it came from the hands of Columbus and +his friends, is false and must be discarded; and third, that the only way +in which anything like the truth can be arrived at is by circumstantial +and presumptive evidence with regard to dates, names, places, and events +upon which the obscure life of Columbus impinged. Columbus is known to +have written much about himself, but very little of it exists or remains +in his own handwriting. It remains in the form of quotation by others, +all of whom had their reasons for not representing quite accurately what +was, it must be feared, not even itself a candid and accurate record. +The evidence for these very serious statements is the subject of +numberless volumes and monographs, which cannot be quoted here; for it is +my privilege to reap the results, and not to reproduce the material, of +the immense research and investigation to which in the last fifty years +the life of Columbus has been subjected. + + +We shall come to facts enough presently; in the meantime we have but the +vaguest knowledge of what Columbus did in Lisbon. The one technical +possession which he obviously had was knowledge of the sea; he had also a +head on his shoulders, and plenty of judgment and common sense; he had +likely picked up some knowledge of cartography in his years at Genoa, +since (having abandoned wool-weaving) he probably wished to make progress +in the profession of the sea; and it is, therefore, believed that he +picked up a living in Lisbon by drawing charts and maps. Such a living +would only be intermittent; a fact that is indicated by his periodic +excursions to sea again, presumably when funds were exhausted. There +were other Genoese in Lisbon, and his own brother Bartholomew was with +him there for a time. He may actually have been there when Columbus +arrived, but it was more probable that Columbus, the pioneer of the +family, seeing a better field for his brother's talent in Lisbon than in +Genoa, sent for him when he himself was established there. This +Bartholomew, of whom we shall see a good deal in the future, is merely an +outline at this stage of the story; an outline that will later be filled +up with human features and fitted with a human character; at present he +is but a brother of Christopher, with a rather bookish taste, a better +knowledge of cartography than Christopher possessed, and some little +experience of the book-selling trade. He too made charts in Lisbon, and +sold books also, and no doubt between them the efforts of the brothers, +supplemented by the occasional voyages of Christopher, obtained them a +sufficient livelihood. The social change, in the one case from the +society of Genoese wool-weavers, and in the other from the company of +merchant sailors, must have been very great; for there is evidence that +they began to make friends and acquaintances among a rather different +class than had been formerly accessible to them. The change to a new +country also and to a new language makes a deep impression at the age of +twenty-five; and although Columbus in his sea-farings had been in many +ports, and had probably picked up a knowledge both of Portuguese and of +Spanish, his establishment in the Portuguese capital could not fail to +enlarge his outlook upon life. + +There is absolutely no record of his circumstances in the first year of +his life at Lisbon, so we may look once more into the glass of +imagination and try to find a picture there. It is very dim, very +minute, very, very far away. There is the little shop in a steep Lisbon +street, somewhere near the harbour we may be sure, with the shadows of +the houses lying sharp on the white sunlight of the street; the cool +darkness of the shop, with its odour of vellum and parchment, its rolls +of maps and charts; and somewhere near by the sounds and commotion of the +wharves and the shipping. Often, when there was a purchaser in the shop, +there would be talk of the sea, of the best course from this place to +that, of the entrance to this harbour and the other; talk of the western +islands too, of the western ocean, of the new astrolabe which the German +Muller of Konigsberg, or Regiomontanus, as they called him in Portugal, +had modified and improved. And if there was sometimes an evening walk, +it would surely be towards the coast or on a hill above the harbour, with +a view of the sun being quenched in the sea and travelling down into the +unknown, uncharted West. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +ADVENTURES BODILY AND SPIRITUAL + +Columbus had not been long in Portugal before he was off again to sea, +this time on a longer voyage than any he had yet undertaken. Our +knowledge of it depends on his own words as reported by Las Casas, and, +like so much other knowledge similarly recorded, is not to be received +with absolute certainty; but on the whole the balance of probability is +in favour of its truth. The words in which this voyage is recorded are +given as a quotation from a letter of Columbus, and, stripped of certain +obvious interpolations of the historian, are as follows:-- + + "In the month of February, and in the year 1477, I navigated as far + as the island of Tile [Thule], a hundred leagues; and to this + island, which is as large as England, the English, especially those + of Bristol, go with merchandise; and when I was there the sea was + not frozen over, although there were very high tides, so much so + that in some parts the sea rose twenty-five 'brazas', and went down + as much, twice during the day." + +The reasons for doubting that this voyage took place are due simply to +Columbus's habit of being untruthful in regard to his own past doings, +and his propensity for drawing the long bow; and the reason that has been +accepted by most of his biographers who have denied the truth of this +statement is that, in the year 1492, when Columbus was addressing the +King and Queen of Spain on his qualifications as a navigator, and when he +wished to set forth his experience in a formidable light, he said nothing +about this voyage, but merely described his explorations as having +extended from Guinea on the south to England on the north. A shrewd +estimate of Columbus's character makes it indeed seem incredible that, +if he had really been in Iceland, he should not have mentioned the fact +on this occasion; and yet there is just one reason, also quite +characteristic of Columbus, that would account for the suppression. +It is just possible that when he was at Thule, by which he meant Iceland, +he may have heard of the explorations in the direction of Greenland and +Newfoundland; and that, although by other navigators these lands were +regarded as a part of the continent of Europe, he may have had some +glimmerings of an idea that they were part of land and islands in the +West; and he was much too jealous of his own reputation as the great and +only originator of the project for voyaging to the West, to give away any +hints that he was not the only person to whom such ideas had occurred. +There is deception and untruth somewhere; and one must make one's choice +between regarding the story in the first place as a lie, or accepting it +as truth, and putting down Columbus's silence about it on a later +occasion to a rare instinct of judicious suppression. There are other +facts in his life, to which, we shall come later, that are in accordance +with this theory. There is no doubt, moreover, that Columbus had a very +great experience of the sea, and was one of the greatest practical +seamen, if not the greatest, that has ever lived; and it would be foolish +to deny, except for the greatest reasons, that he made a voyage to the +far North, which was neither unusual at the time nor a very great +achievement for a seaman of his experience. + +Christopher returned from these voyages, of which we know nothing except +the facts that he has given us, towards the end of 1477; and it was +probably in the next year that an event very important in his life and +career took place. Hitherto there has been no whisper of love in that +arduous career of wool-weaving, sailoring, and map-making; and it is not +unlikely that his marriage represents the first inspiration of love in +his life, for he was, in spite of his southern birth, a cool-blooded man, +for whom affairs of the heart had never a very serious interest. But at +Lisbon, where he began to find himself with some footing and place in the +world, and where the prospect of at least a livelihood began to open out +before him, his thoughts took that turn towards domesticity and family +life which marks a moment in the development of almost every man. And +now, since he has at last to emerge from the misty environment of sea- +spray that has veiled him so long from our intimate sight, we may take a +close look at him as he was in this year 1478. + +Unlike the southern Italians, he was fair in colouring; a man rather +above the middle height, large limbed, of a shapely breadth and +proportion, and of a grave and dignified demeanour. His face was ruddy, +and inclined to be freckled under the exposure to the sun, his hair at +this age still fair and reddish, although in a few years later it turned +grey, and became white while he was still a young man. His nose was +slightly aquiline, his face long and rather full; his eyes of a clear +blue, with sharply defined eyebrows--seamen's eyes, which get an +unmistakable light in them from long staring into the sea distances. +Altogether a handsome and distinguished-looking young man, noticeable +anywhere, and especially among a crowd of swarthy Portuguese. He was not +a lively young man; on the contrary, his manner was rather heavy, and +even at times inclined to be pompous; he had a very good opinion of +himself, had the clear calculating head and tidy intellectual methods of +the able mariner; was shrewd and cautious--in a word, took himself and +the world very seriously. A strictly conventional man, as the +conventions of his time and race went; probably some of his gayer and +lighter-hearted contemporaries thought him a dull enough dog, who would +not join in a carouse or a gallant adventure, but would probably get the +better of you if he could in any commercial deal. He was a great +stickler for the observances of religion; and never a Sunday or feast-day +passed, when he was ashore, without finding him, like the dutiful son of +the Church that he was, hearing Mass and attending at Benediction. Not, +indeed, a very attractive or inspiring figure of a man; not the man whose +company one would likely have sought very much, or whose conversation one +would have found very interesting. A man rather whose character was cast +in a large and plain mould, without those many facets which add so much +to the brightness of human intercourse, and which attract and reflect the +light from other minds; a man who must be tried in large circumstances, +and placed in a big setting, if his qualities are to be seen to advantage +. . . . I seem to see him walking up from the shop near the harbour +at Lisbon towards the convent of Saints; walking gravely and firmly, with +a dignified demeanour, with his best clothes on, and glad, for the +moment, to be free of his sea acquaintances, and to be walking in the +direction of that upper-class world after which he has a secret hankering +in his heart. There are a great many churches in Lisbon nearer his house +where he might hear Mass on Sundays; but he prefers to walk up to the +rich and fashionable convent of Saints, where everybody is well dressed, +and where those kindling eyes of his may indulge a cool taste for +feminine beauty. + + +While the chapel bell is ringing other people are hurrying through the +sunny Lisbon streets to Mass at the convent. Among the fashionable +throng are two ladies, one young, one middle-aged; they separate at the +church door, and the younger one leaves her mother and takes her place in +the convent choir. This is Philippa Moniz, who lives alone with her +mother in Lisbon, and amuses herself with her privileges as a cavaliera, +or dame, in one of the knightly orders attached to the rich convent of +Saints. Perhaps she has noticed the tall figure of the young Genoese in +the strangers' part of the convent, perhaps not; but his roving blue eye +has noticed her, and much is to come of it. The young Genoese continues +his regular and exemplary attendance at the divine Office, the young lady +is zealous in observing her duties in the choir; some kind friend +introduces them; the audacious young man makes his proposals, and, +in spite of the melancholy protests of the young lady's exceedingly +respectable and highly-connected relatives, the young people are +betrothed and actually married before the elders have time to recover +breath from their first shock at the absurdity of the suggestion. + +There is a very curious fact in connection with his marriage that is +worthy of our consideration. In all his voluminous writings, letters, +memoirs, and journals, Columbus never once mentions his wife. His sole +reference to her is in his will, made at Valladolid many years later, +long after her death; and is contained in the two words "my wife." +He ordains that a chapel shall be erected and masses said for the repose +of the souls of his father, his mother, and his wife. He who wrote so +much, did not write of her; he who boasted so much, never boasted of her; +he who bemoaned so much, never bemoaned her. There is a blank silence +on his part about everything connected with his marriage and his wife. +I like to think that it was because this marriage, which incidentally +furnished him with one of the great impulses of his career, was in itself +placid and uneventful, and belongs to that mass of happy days that do not +make history. Columbus was not a passionate man. I think that love had +a very small place in his life, and that the fever of passion was with +him brief and soon finished with; but I am sure he was affectionate, and +grateful for any affection and tenderness that were bestowed upon him. +He was much away too, at first on his voyages to Guinea and afterwards on +the business of his petitions to the Portuguese and Spanish Courts; and +one need not be a cynic to believe that these absences did nothing to +lessen the affection between him and his wife. Finally, their married +life was a short one; she died within ten years, and I am sure did not +outlive his affections; so that there may be something solemn, some +secret memories of the aching joy and sorrow that her coming into his +life and passing out of it brought him, in this silence of Columbus +concerning his wife. + + +This marriage was, in the vulgar idiom of to-day, a great thing for +Columbus. It not only brought him a wife; it brought him a home, +society, recognition, and a connection with maritime knowledge and +adventure that was of the greatest importance to him. Philippa Moniz +Perestrello was the daughter of Bartolomeo Perestrello, who had been +appointed hereditary governor of the island of Porto Santo on its +colonisation by Prince Henry in 1425 and who had died there in 1457. +Her grandfather was Gil Ayres Moniz, who was secretary to the famous +Constable Pereira in the reign of John I, and is chiefly interesting to +us because he founded the chapel of the "Piedad" in the Carmelite +Monastery at Lisbon, in which the Moniz family had the right of interment +for ever, and in which the body of Philippa, after her brief pilgrimage +in this world was over, duly rested; and whence her son ordered its +disinterment and re-burial in the church of Santa Clara in San Domingo. +Philippa's mother, Isabel Moniz, was the second or third wife of +Perestrello; and after her husband's death she had come to live in +Lisbon. She had another daughter, Violante by name, who had married one +Mulier, or Muliartes, in Huelva; and a son named Bartolomeo, who was the +heir to the governorship of Porto Santo; but as he was only a little boy +at the time of his father's death his mother ceded the governorship to +Pedro Correa da Cunha, who had married Iseult, the daughter of old +Bartolomeo by his first wife. The governorship was thus kept in the +family during the minority of Bartolomeo, who resumed it later when he +came of age. + +This Isabel, mother of Philippa, was a very important acquaintance indeed +for Columbus. It must be noted that he left the shop and poor +Bartholomew to take care of themselves or each other, and went to live in +the house of his mother-in-law. This was a great social step for the +wool-weaver of Genoa; and it was probably the result of a kind of +compromise with his wife's horrified relatives at the time of her +marriage. It was doubtless thought impossible for her to go and live +over the chart-maker's shop; and as you can make charts in one house as +well as another, it was decided that Columbus should live with his +mother-in-law, and follow his trade under her roof. Columbus, in fact, +seems to have been fortunate in securing the favour of his female +relatives-in-law, and it was probably owing to the championship of +Philippa's mother that a marriage so much to his advantage ever took +place at all. His wife had many distinguished relatives in the +neighbourhood of Lisbon; her cousin was archbishop at this very time; +but I can neither find that their marriage was celebrated with the +archiepiscopal blessing or that he ever got much help or countenance from +the male members of the Moniz family. Archbishops even today do not much +like their pretty cousins marrying a man of Columbus's position, whether +you call him a woolweaver, a sailor, a map-maker, or a bookseller. +"Adventurer" is perhaps the truest description of him; and the word was +as much distrusted in the best circles in Lisbon in the fifteenth century +as it is to-day. + +Those of his new relatives, however, who did get to know him soon began +to see that Philippa had not made such a bad bargain after all. With the +confidence and added belief in himself that the recognition and +encouragement of those kind women brought him, Columbus's mind and +imagination expanded; and I think it was probably now that he began to +wonder if all his knowledge and seamanship, his quite useful smattering +of cartography and cosmography, his real love of adventure, and all his +dreams and speculations concerning the unknown and uncharted seas, could +not be turned to some practical account. His wife's step-sister Iseult +and her husband had, moreover, only lately returned to Lisbon from their +long residence in Porto Santo; young Bartolomeo Perestrello, her brother, +was reigning there in their stead, and no doubt sending home interesting +accounts of ships and navigators that put in at Madeira; and all the +circumstances would tend to fan the spark of Columbus's desire to have +some adventure and glory of his own on the high seas. He would wish +to show all these grandees, with whom his marriage had brought him +acquainted, that you did not need to be born a Perestrello-- +or Pallastrelli, as the name was in its original Italian form--to make +a name in the world. Donna Isabel, moreover, was never tired of talking +about Porto Santo and her dead husband, and of all the voyages and sea +adventures that had filled his life. She was obviously a good teller of +tales, and had all the old history and traditions of Madeira at her +fingers' ends; the story of Robert Machin and Anne Dorset; the story of +the isle of Seven Cities; and the black cloud on the horizon that turned +out in the end to be Madeira. She told Christopher how her husband, when +he had first gone to Porto Santo, had taken there a litter of rabbits, +and how the rabbits had so increased that in two seasons they had eaten +up everything on the island, and rendered it uninhabitable for some time. + +She brought out her husband's sea-charts, memoranda, and log-books, +the sight of which still farther inflamed Christopher's curiosity and +ambition. The great thing in those days was to discover something, if it +was only a cape down the African coast or a rock in the Atlantic. The +key to fame, which later took the form of mechanical invention, and later +still of discovery in the region of science, took the form then of actual +discovery of parts of the earth's surface. The thing was in the air; +news was coming in every day of something new seen, something new +charted. If others had done so much, and the field was still half +unexplored, could not he do something also? It was not an unlikely +thought to occur to the mind of a student of sea charts and horizons. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE FIRE KINDLES + +The next step in Columbus's career was a move to Porto Santo, which +probably took place very soon after his marriage--that is to say, in the +year 1479. It is likely that he had the chance of making a voyage there; +perhaps even of commanding a ship, for his experience of the sea and +skill as a navigator must by this time have raised him above the rank of +an ordinary seaman; and in that case nothing would be more natural than +that he should take his young wife with him to visit her brother +Bartolomeo, and to see the family property. It is one of the charms of +the seaman's profession that he travels free all over the world; and if +he has no house or other fixed possessions that need to be looked after +he has the freedom of the world, and can go where he likes free of cost. +Porto Santo and Madeira, lying in the track of the busiest trade on the +Atlantic coast, would provide Columbus with an excellent base from which +to make other voyages; so it was probably with a heart full of eager +anticipation for the future, and sense of quiet happiness in the present, +that in the year 1479 Signor Cristoforo Colombo (for he did not yet call +himself Senor Cristoval Colon) set out for Porto Santo--a lonely rock +some miles north of Madeira. Its southern shore is a long sweeping bay +of white sand, with a huddle of sand-hills beyond, and cliffs and peaks +of basalt streaked with lava fringing the other shores. When Columbus +and his bride arrived there the place was almost as bare as it is to-day. +There were the governor's house; the settlement of Portuguese who worked +in the mills and sugar-fields; the mills themselves, with the cultivated +sugar-fields behind them; and the vineyards, with the dwarf Malmsey vines +pegged down to the ground, which Prince Henry had imported from Candia +fifty years before. The forest of dragon-trees that had once covered the +island was nearly all gone. The wood had all been used either for +building, making boats, or for fuel; and on the fruit of the few trees +that were left a herd of pigs was fattened. There was frequent +communication by boat with Madeira, which was the chief of all the +Atlantic islands, and the headquarters of the sugar trade; and Porto +Santo itself was a favourite place of call for passing ships. So that it +was by no means lonely for Christopher Columbus and his wife, even if +they had not had the society of the governor and his settlement. + + +We can allow him about three years in Porto Santo, although for a part of +this time at least he must have been at sea. I think it not unlikely +that it was the happiest time of his life. He was removed from the +uncomfortable environment of people who looked down upon him because of +his obscure birth; he was in an exquisite climate; and living by the sea- +shore, as a sailor loves to do; he got on well with Bartolomeo, who was +no doubt glad enough of the company of this grave sailor who had seen so +much and had visited so many countries; above all he had his wife there, +his beautiful, dear, proud Philippa, all to himself, and out of reach of +those abominable Portuguese noblemen who paid so much attention to her +and so little to him, and made him so jealous; and there was a whispered +promise of some one who was coming to make him happier still. It is a +splendid setting, this, for the sea adventurer; a charming picture that +one has of him there so long ago, walking on the white shores of the +great sweeping bay, with the glorious purple Atlantic sparkling and +thundering on the sands, as it sparkles and thunders to-day. A place +empty and vivid, swept by the mellow winds; silent, but for the +continuous roar of the sea; still, but for the scuttling of the rabbits +among the sand-hills and the occasional passage of a figure from the +mills up to the sugar-fields; but brilliant with sunshine and colour and +the bright environment of the sea. It was upon such scenes that he +looked during this happy pause in his life; they were the setting of +Philippa's dreams and anxieties as the time of motherhood drew near; +and it was upon them that their little son first opened his eyes, and +with the boom of the Atlantic breakers that he first mingled his small. +voice. + +It is but a moment of rest and happiness; for Christopher the scene is +soon changed, and he must set forth upon a voyage again, while Philippa +is left, with a new light in her eyes, to watch over the atom that wakes +and weeps and twists and struggles and mews, and sleeps again, in her +charge. Sleep well, little son! Yet a little while, and you too shall +make voyages and conquests; new worlds lie waiting for you, who are so +greatly astonished at this Old World; far journeys by land and sea, and +the company of courtiers and kings; and much honour from the name and +deeds of him who looked into your eyes with a laugh and, a sob, and was +so very large and overshadowing! But with her who quietly sings to you, +whose hands soothe and caress you, in whose eyes shines that wonderful +light of mother's love--only a little while longer. + + +While Diego, as this son was christened, was yet only a baby in his +cradle, Columbus made an important voyage to the, coast of Guinea as all +the western part of the African continent was then called. His solid and +practical qualities were by this time beginning to be recognised even by +Philippa's haughty family, and it was possibly through the interest of +her uncle, Pedro Noronhas, a distinguished minister of the King of +Portugal, that he got the command of a caravel in the expedition which +set out for Guinea in December 1481. A few miles from Cape Coast Castle, +and on the borders of the Dutch colony, there are to-day the ruined +remains of a fort; and it is this fort, the fortress of St. George, that +the expedition was sent out to erect. On the 11th of December the little +fleet set sail for [from? D.W.] Lisbon--ten caravels, and two barges or +lighters laden with the necessary masonry and timber-work for the fort. +Columbus was in command of one of the caravels, and the whole fleet was +commanded by the Portuguese Admiral Azumbaga. They would certainly see +Porto Santo and Madeira on their way south, although they did not call +there; and Philippa was no doubt looking out for them, and watching from +the sand-hills the fleet of twelve ships going by in the offing. They +called at Cape Verde, where the Admiral was commissioned to present one +of the negro kings with some horses and hawks, and incidentally to obtain +his assent to a treaty. On the 19th of January 1482, having made a very +good voyage, they, landed just beyond the Cape of the Three Points, and +immediately set about the business of the expedition. + +There was a state reception, with Admiral Azumbaga walking in front in +scarlet and brocade, followed by his captains, Columbus among them, +dressed in gorgeous tunics and cloaks with golden collars and, well +hidden beneath their finery, good serviceable cuirasses. The banner of +Portugal was ceremoniously unfurled and dis played from the top of a tall +tree. An altar was erected and consecrated by the chaplain to the +expedition, and a mass was sung for the repose of the soul of Prince +Henry. The Portugal contingent were then met by Caramansa, the king of +the country, who came, surrounded by a great guard of blacks armed with +assegais, their bodies scantily decorated with monkey fur and palm +leaves. The black monarch must have presented a handsome appearance, +for his arms and legs were decked with gold bracelets and rings, he had +a kind of dog-collar fitted with bells round his neck, and some pieces of +gold were daintily twisted into his beard. With these aids to diplomacy, +and doubtless also with the help of a dram or two of spirits or of the +wine of Oporto, the treaty was soon concluded, and a very shrewd stroke +of business accomplished for the King of Portugal; for it gave him the +sole right of exchanging gaudy rubbish from Portugal for the precious +gold of Ethiopia. When the contents of the two freight-ships had been +unloaded they were beached and broken up by the orders of King John, who +wished it to be thought that they had been destroyed in the whirlpools of +that dangerous sea, and that the navigation of those rough waters was +only safe for the caravels of the Navy. The fort was built in twenty +days, and the expedition returned, laden with gold and ivory; Admiral +Azumbaga remained behind in command of the garrison. + +This voyage, which was a bold and adventurous one for the time, may be +regarded as the first recognition of Columbus as a man of importance, +for the expedition was manned and commanded by picked men; so it was for +all reasons a very fortunate one for him, although the possession of the +dangerous secret as to the whereabouts of this valuable territory might +have proved to be not very convenient to him in the future. + + +Columbus went back to Porto Santo with his ambitions thoroughly kindled. +He had been given a definite command in the Portuguese Navy; he had been +sailing with a fleet; he had been down to the mysterious coast of Africa; +he had been trafficking with strange tribes; he had been engaged in a +difficult piece of navigation such as he loved; and on the long dreamy +days of the voyage home, the caravels furrowing the blue Atlantic before +the steady trade-wind, he determined that he would find some way of +putting his knowledge to use, and of earning distinction for himself. +Living, as he had been lately, in Atlantic seaports overlooking the +western ocean it is certain that the idea of discovering something in +that direction occupied him more and more. What it was that he was to +discover was probably very vague in his mind, and was likely not +designated by any name more exact than "lands." In after years he tried +to show that it was a logical and scientific deduction which led him to +go and seek the eastern shore of the Indian continent by sailing west; +but we may be almost certain that at this time he thought of no such +thing. He had no exact scientific knowledge at this date. His map +making had taught him something, and naturally he had kept his ears open, +and knew all the gossip and hearsay about the islands of the West; and +there gradually grew in his mind the intuition or conviction--I refuse to +call it an opinion--that, over that blue verge of the West, there was +land to be found. How this seed of conviction first lodged in his mind +it would be impossible to say; in any one of the steps through which we +have followed him, it might have taken its root; but there it was, +beginning to occupy his mind very seriously indeed; and he began to look +out, as all men do who wish to act upon faith or conviction which they +cannot demonstrate to another person, for some proofs that his conviction +was a sound one. + +And now, just at the moment when he needs it most, comes an incident +that, to a man of his religious and superstitious habit, seems like the +pointing finger of Providence. The story of the shipwrecked pilot has +been discredited by nearly all the modern biographers of Columbus, +chiefly because it does not fit in with their theory of his scientific +studies and the alleged bearing of these on his great discovery; but it +is given by Las Casas, who says that it was commonly believed by +Columbus's entourage at Hispaniola. Moreover, amid all the tangles of +theory and argument in which the achievement of Columbus has been +involved, this original story of shipwrecked mariners stands out with a +strength and simplicity that cannot be entirely disregarded by the +historian who permits himself some light of imagination by which to work. +It is more true to life and to nature that Columbus should have received +his last impulse, the little push that was to set his accumulated energy +and determination in motion, from a thing of pure chance, than that he +should have built his achievement up in a logical superstructure resting +on a basis of profound and elaborate theory. + +In the year following Columbus's return from Guinea, then, he, and +probably his family, had gone over to Madeira from Porto Santo, and were +staying there. While they were there a small ship put in to Madeira, +much battered by storms and bad weather, and manned by a crew of five +sick mariners. Columbus, who was probably never far from the shore at +Funchal when a ship came into the harbour, happened to see them. Struck +by their appearance, and finding them in a quite destitute and grievously +invalid condition, he entertained them in his house until some other +provision could be made for them. But they were quite worn out. One by +one they succumbed to weakness and illness, until one only, a pilot from +Huelva, was left. He also was sinking, and when it was obvious that his +end was near at hand, he beckoned his good host to his bedside, and, in +gratitude for all his kindness, imparted to him some singular knowledge +which he had acquired, and with which, if he had lived, he had hoped to +win distinction for himself. + +The pilot's story, in so far as it has been preserved, and taking the +mean of four contemporary accounts of it, was as follows. This man, +whose name is doubtful, but is given as Alonso Sanchez, was sailing on a +voyage from one of the Spanish ports to England or Flanders. He had a +crew of seventeen men. When they had got well out to sea a severe +easterly gale sprung up, which drove the vessel before it to the +westward. Day after day and week after week, for twenty-eight days, this +gale continued. The islands were all left far behind, and the ship was +carried into a region far beyond the limits of the ocean marked on the +charts. At last they sighted some islands, upon one of which they landed +and took in wood and water. The pilot took the bearings of the island, +in so far as he was able, and made some observations, the only one of +which that has remained being that the natives went naked; and, the wind +having changed, set forth on his homeward voyage. This voyage was long +and painful. The wind did not hold steady from the west; the pilot and +his crew had a very hazy notion of where they were; their dead reckoning +was confused; their provisions fell short; and one by one the crew +sickened and died until they were reduced to five or six--the ones who, +worn out by sickness and famine, and the labours of working the ship +short-handed and in their enfeebled condition, at last made the island of +Madeira, and cast anchor in the beautiful bay of Funchal, only to die +there. All these things we may imagine the dying man relating in +snatches to his absorbed listener; who felt himself to be receiving a +pearl of knowledge to be guarded and used, now that its finder must +depart upon the last and longest voyage of human discovery. Such +observations as he had made--probably a few figures giving the bearings +of stars, an account of dead reckoning, and a quite useless and +inaccurate chart or map--the pilot gave to his host; then, having +delivered his soul of its secret, he died. This is the story; not an +impossible or improbable one in its main outlines. Whether the pilot +really landed on one of the Antilles is extremely doubtful, although it +is possible. Superstitious and storm-tossed sailors in those days were +only too ready to believe that they saw some of the fabled islands of the +Atlantic; and it is quite possible that the pilot simply announced that +he had seen land, and that the details as to his having actually set foot +upon it were added later. That does not seem to me important in so far +as it concerns Columbus. Whether it were true or not, the man obviously +believed it; and to the mind of Columbus, possessed with an idea and a +blind faith in something which could not be seen, the whole incident +would appear in the light of a supernatural sign. The bit of paper or +parchment with the rude drawing on it, even although it were the drawing +of a thing imagined and not of a thing seen, would still have for him a +kind of authority that he would find it hard to ignore. It seems +unnecessary to disbelieve this story. It is obviously absurd to regard +it as the sole origin of Columbus's great idea; it probably belongs to +that order of accidents, small and unimportant in themselves, which are +so often associated with the beginnings of mighty events. Walking on the +shore at Madeira or Porto Santo, his mind brooding on the great and +growing idea, Columbus would remember one or two other instances which, +in the light of his growing conviction and know ledge, began to take on a +significant hue. He remembered that his wife's relative, Pedro Correa, +who had come back from Porto Santo while Columbus was living in Lisbon, +had told him about some strange flotsam that came in upon the shores of +the island. He had seen a piece of wood of a very dark colour curiously +carved, but not with any tool of metal; and some great canes had also +come ashore, so big that, every joint would hold a gallon of wine. These +canes, which were utterly unlike any thing known in Europe or the islands +of the Atlantic, had been looked upon as such curiosities that they had +been sent to the King at Lisbon, where they remained, and where Columbus +himself afterwards saw them. Two other stories, which he heard also at +this time, went to strengthen his convictions. One was the tale of +Martin Vincenti, a pilot in the Portuguese Navy, who had found in the +sea, four hundred and twenty leagues to the west of Cape St. Vincent, +another piece of wood, curiously carved, that had evidently not been +laboured with an iron instrument. Columbus also remembered that the +inhabitants of the Azores had more than once found upon their coasts the +trunks of huge pine-trees, and strangely shaped canoes carved out of +single logs; and, most significant of all, the people of Flares had taken +from the water the bodies of two dead men, whose faces were of a strange +broad shape, and whose features differed from those of any known race of +mankind. All these objects, it was supposed, were brought by westerly +winds to the shores of Europe; it was not till long afterwards, when the +currents of the Atlantic came to be studied, that the presence of such +flotsam came to be attributed to the ocean currents, deflected by the +Cape of Good Hope and gathered in the Gulf of Mexico, which are sprayed +out across the Atlantic. + +The idea once fixed in his mind that there was land at a not impossible +distance to the west, and perhaps a sea-road to the shores of Asia +itself, the next thing to be done, was to go and discover it. Rather a +formidable task for a man without money, a foreigner in a strange +land, among people who looked down upon him because of his obscure birth, +and with no equipment except a knowledge of the sea, a great mastery of +the art and craft of seamanship, a fearless spirit of adventure, and an +inner light! Some one else would have to be convinced before anything +could be done; somebody who would provide ships and men and money and +provisions. Altogether rather a large order; for it was not an unusual +thing in those days for master mariners, tired of the shore, to suggest +to some grandee or other the desirability of fitting out a ship or two to +go in search of the isle of St. Brandon, or to look up Antilia, or the +island of the Seven Cities. It was very hard to get an audience even for +such a reasonable scheme as that; but to suggest taking a flotilla +straight out to the west and into the Sea of Darkness, down that curving +hill of the sea which it might be easy enough to slide down, but up which +it was known that no ship could ever climb again, was a thing that hardly +any serious or well-informed person would listen to. A young man from +Genoa, without a knowledge either of the classics or of the Fathers, and +with no other argument except his own fixed belief and some vague talk +about bits of wood and shipwrecked mariners, was not the person to +inspire the capitalists of Portugal. Yet the thing had to be done. +Obviously it could not be done at Porto Santo, where there were no ships +and no money. Influence must be used; and Columbus knew that his +proposals, if they were to have even a chance of being listened to, must +be presented in some high-flown and elaborate form, giving reasons and +offering inducements and quoting authorities. He would have to get some +one to help him in that; he would have to get up some scientific facts; +his brother Bartholomew could help him, and some of those disagreeable +relatives-in-law must also be pressed into the service of the Idea. +Obviously the first thing was to go back to Lisbon; which accordingly +Columbus did, about the year 1483. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +A man standing on the sea-shore +Attempts that have been made to glorify him socially +Bede, in the eighth century, established it finally (sphericity) +Biography which obscures the truth with legends and pretences +Christian era denied the theory of the roundness of the earth +Columbus never once mentions his wife +Columbus's habit of being untruthful in regard to his own past +Cooling off in his enthusiasm as the pastime became a task +Diminishing object to the wet eyes of his mother, sailed away +He was a great stickler for the observances of religion +Inclined to be pompous +Irving: so inaccurate, so untrue to life, and so profoundly dull +Lives happily in our dreams, as blank as sunshine +Loose way in which the term India was applied in the Middle Ages +Man of single rather than manifold ideas +More than a touch of crafty and elaborate dissimulation +No more troubled by any wonder, sleeps at last +Religion has in our days fallen into decay +Sea of Darkness +Shifts and deceits that he practised +St. Chrysostom opposed the theory of the earth's roundness +Tasks that are the common heritage of all small boys +The great thing in those days was to discover something +There is deception and untruth somewhere +They saw the past in the light of the present +Took himself and the world very seriously +Vague longing and unrest that is the life-force of the world + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of Christopher Columbus, v1 +by Filson Young + + + + + + + CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS + AND THE NEW WORLD OF HIS DISCOVERY + + A NARRATIVE BY FILSON YOUNG + + + +BOOK 2. + + +CHAPTER IX + +WANDERINGS WITH AN IDEA + +The man to whom Columbus proposed to address his request for means with +which to make a voyage of discovery was no less a person than the new +King of Portugal. Columbus was never a man of petty or small ideas; if +he were going to do a thing at all, he went about it in a large and +comprehensive way; and all his life he had a way of going to the +fountainhead, and of making flights and leaps where other men would only +climb or walk, that had much to do with his ultimate success. King John, +moreover, had shown himself thoroughly sympathetic to the spirit of +discovery; Columbus, as we have seen, had already been employed in a +trusted capacity in one of the royal expeditions; and he rightly thought +that, since he had to ask the help of some one in his enterprise, he +might as well try to enlist the Crown itself in the service of his great +Idea. He was not prepared, however, to go directly to the King and ask +for ships; his proposal would have to be put in a way that would appeal +to the royal ambition, and would also satisfy the King that there was +really a destination in view for the expedition. In other words Columbus +had to propose to go somewhere; it would not do to say that he was going +west into the Atlantic Ocean to look about him. He therefore devoted all +his energies to putting his proposal on what is called a business +footing, and expressing his vague, sublime Idea in common and practical +terms. + +The people who probably helped him most in this were his brother +Bartholomew and Martin Behaim, the great authority on scientific +navigation, who had been living in Lisbon for some time and with whom +Columbus was acquainted. Behaim, who was at this time about forty eight +years of age, was born at Nuremberg, and was a pupil of Regiomontanus, +the great German astronomer. A very interesting man, this, if we could +decipher his features and character; no mere star-gazing visionary, but a +man of the world, whose scientific lore was combined with a wide and +liberal experience of life. He was not only learned in cosmography and +astronomy, but he had a genius for mechanics and made beautiful +instruments; he was a merchant also, and combined a little business with +his scientific travels. He had been employed at Lisbon in adapting the +astrolabe of Regiomontanus for the use of sailors at sea; and in these +labours he was assisted by two people who were destined to have a weighty +influence on the career of Columbus--Doctors Rodrigo and Joseph, +physicians or advisers to the King, and men of great academic reputation. +There was nothing known about cosmography or astronomy that Behaim did +not know; and he had just come back from an expedition on which he had +been despatched, with Rodrigo and Joseph, to take the altitude of the sun +in Guinea. + +Columbus was not the man to neglect his opportunities, and there can be +no doubt that as soon as his purpose had established itself in his mind +he made use of every opportunity that presented itself for improving his +meagre scientific knowledge, in order that his proposal might be set +forth in a plausible form. In other words, he got up the subject. The +whole of his geographical reading with regard to the Indies up to this +time had been in the travels of Marco Polo; the others--whose works he +quoted from so freely in later years were then known to him only by name, +if at all. Behaim, however, could tell him a good deal about the +supposed circumference of the earth, the extent of the Asiatic continent, +and so on. Every new fact that Columbus heard he seized and pressed into +the service of his Idea; where there was a choice of facts, or a +difference of opinion between scientists, he chose the facts that were +most convenient, and the opinions that fitted best with his own beliefs. +The very word "Indies" was synonymous with unbounded wealth; there +certainly would be riches to tempt the King with; and Columbus, being a +religious man, hit also on the happy idea of setting forth the spiritual +glory of carrying the light of faith across the Sea of Darkness, and +making of the heathen a heritage for the Christian Church. So that, what +with one thing and another, he soon had his proposals formally arranged. + +Imagine him, then, actually at Court, and having an audience of the King, +who could scarcely believe his ears. Here was a man, of whom he knew +nothing but that his conduct of a caravel had been well spoken of in the +recent expedition to Guinea, actually proposing to sail out west into the +Atlantic and to cross the unknown part of the world. Certainly his +proposals seemed plausible, but still--. The earth was round, said +Columbus, and therefore there was a way from East to West and from West +to East. The prophet Esdras, a scientific authority that even His +Majesty would hardly venture to doubt, had laid it down that only one- +seventh of the earth was covered by waters. From this fact Columbus +deduced that the maritime space extending westward between the shores of +Europe and eastern coast of Asia could not be large; and by sailing +westward he proposed to reach certain lands of which he claimed to have +knowledge. The sailors' tales, the logs of driftwood, the dead bodies, +were all brought into the proposals; in short, if His Majesty would grant +some ships, and consent to making Columbus Admiral over all the islands +that he might discover, with full viceregal state, authority, and profit, +he would go and discover them. + +There are two different accounts of what the King said when this proposal +was made to him. According to some authorities, John was impressed by +Columbus's proposals, and inclined to provide him with the necessary +ships, but he could not assent to all the titles and rewards which +Columbus demanded as a price for his services. Barros, the Portuguese +historian, on the other hand, represents that the whole idea was too +fantastic to be seriously entertained by the King for a moment, and that +although he at once made up his mind to refuse the request he preferred +to delegate his refusal to a commission. Whatever may be the truth as to +King John's opinions, the commission was certainly appointed, and +consisted of three persons, to wit: Master Rodrigo, Master Joseph the +Jew, and the Right Reverend Cazadilla, Bishop of Ceuta. + + +Before these three learned men must Columbus now appear, a little less +happy in his mind, and wishing that he knew more Latin. Master Rodrigo, +Master Joseph the Jew, the Right Reverend Cazadilla: three pairs of cold +eyes turned rather haughtily on the Genoese adventurer; three brains much +steeped in learning, directed in judgment on the Idea of a man with no +learning at all. The Right Reverend Cazadilla, being the King's +confessor, and a bishop into the bargain, could speak on that matter of +converting the heathen; and he was of opinion that it could not be done. +Joseph the Jew, having made voyages, and worked with Behaim at the +astrolabe, was surely an authority on navigation; and he was of opinion +that it could not be done. Rodrigo, being also a very learned man, had +read many books which Columbus had not read; and he was of opinion that +it could not be done. Three learned opinions against one Idea; the Idea +is bound to go. They would no doubt question Columbus on the scientific +aspect of the matter, and would soon discover his grievous lack of +academic knowledge. They would quote fluently passages from writers that +he had not heard of; if he had not heard of them, they seemed to imply, +no wonder he made such foolish proposals. Poor Columbus stands there +puzzled, dissatisfied, tongue-tied. He cannot answer these wiseacres in +their own learned lingo; what they say, or what they quote, may be true +or it may not; but it has nothing to do with his Idea. If he opens his +mouth to justify himself, they refute him with arguments that he does not +understand; there is a wall between them. More than a wall; there is a +world between them! It is his 'credo' against their 'ignoro'; it is, his +'expecto' against their 'non video'. Yet in his 'credo' there lies a +power of which they do not dream; and it rings out in a trumpet note +across the centuries, saluting the life force that opposes its +irresistible "I will" to the feeble "Thou canst not" of the worldly-wise. +Thus, in about the year 1483, did three learned men sit in judgment upon +our ignorant Christopher. Three learned men: Doctors Rodrigo, Joseph the +Jew, and the Right Reverend Cazadilla, Bishop of Ceuta; three risen, +stuffed to the eyes and ears with learning; stuffed so full indeed that +eyes and ears are closed with it. And three men, it would appear, wholly +destitute of mother-wit. + + +After all his preparations this rebuff must have been a serious blow to +Columbus. It was not his only trouble, moreover. During the last year +he had been earning nothing; he was already in imagination the Admiral of +the Ocean Seas; and in the anticipation of the much higher duties to +which he hoped to be devoted it is not likely that he would continue at +his humble task of making maps and charts. The result was that he got +into debt, and it was absolutely necessary that something should be done. +But a darker trouble had also almost certainly come to him about this +time. Neither the day nor the year of Philippa's death is known; +but it is likely that it occurred soon after Columbus's failure at the +Portuguese Court, and immediately before his departure into Spain. That +anonymous life, fulfilling itself so obscurely in companionship and +motherhood, as softly as it floated upon the page of history, as softly +fades from it again. Those kind eyes, that encouraging voice, that +helping hand and friendly human soul are with him no longer; and after +the interval of peace and restful growth that they afforded Christopher +must strike his tent and go forth upon another stage of his pilgrimage +with a heavier and sterner heart. + +Two things are left to him: his son Diego, now an articulate little +creature with character and personality of his own, and with strange, +heart-breaking reminiscences of his mother in voice and countenance and +manner--that is one possession; the other is his Idea. Two things alive +and satisfactory, amid the ruin and loss of other possessions; two +reasons for living and prevailing. And these two possessions Columbus +took with him when he set out for Spain in the year 1485. + +His first care was to take little Diego to the town of Huelva, where +there lived a sister of Philippa's who had married a Spaniard named +Muliartes. This done, he was able to devote himself solely to the +furtherance of his Idea. For this purpose he went to Seville, where he +attached himself for a little while to a group of his countrymen who were +settled there, among them Antonio and Alessandro Geraldini, and made such +momentary living as was possible to him by his old trade. But the Idea +would not sleep. He talked of nothing else; and as men do who talk of an +idea that possesses them wholly, and springs from the inner light of +faith, he interested and impressed many of his hearers. Some of them +suggested one thing, some another; but every one was agreed that it would +be a good thing if he could enlist the services of the great Count +(afterwards Duke) of Medini Celi, who had a palace at Rota, near Cadiz. + +This nobleman was one of the most famous of the grandees of Spain, and +lived in mighty state upon his territory along the sea-shore, serving the +Crown in its wars and expeditions with the power and dignity of an ally +rather than of a subject. His domestic establishment was on a princely +scale, filled with chamberlains, gentlemen-at-arms, knights, retainers, +and all the panoply of social dignity; and there was also place in his +household for persons of merit and in need of protection. To this great +man came Columbus with his Idea. It attracted the Count, who was a judge +of men and perhaps of ideas also; and Columbus, finding some hope at last +in his attitude, accepted the hospitality offered to him, and remained at +Rota through the winter of 1485-86. He had not been very hopeful when he +arrived there, and had told the Count that he had thought of going to the +King of France and asking for help from him; but the Count, who found +something respectable and worthy of consideration in the Idea of a man +who thought nothing of a journey in its service from one country to +another and one sovereign to another, detained him, and played with the +Idea himself. Three or four caravels were nothing to the Count of Medina +Eeli; but on the other hand the man was a grandee and a diplomat, with a +nice sense of etiquette and of what was due to a reigning house. Either +there was nothing in this Idea, in which case his caravels would be +employed to no purpose, or there was so much in it that it was an +undertaking, not merely for the Count of Medina Celi, but for the Crown +of Castile. Lands across the ocean, and untold gold and riches of the +Indies, suggested complications with foreign Powers, and transactions +with the Pope himself, that would probably be a little too much even for +the good Count; therefore with a curious mixture of far-sighted +generosity and shrewd security he wrote to Queen Isabella, recommending +Columbus to her, and asking her to consider his Idea; asking her also, +in case anything should come of it, to remember him (the Count), and to +let him have a finger in the pie. Thus, with much literary circumstance +and elaboration of politeness, the Count of Medina Celi to Queen +Isabella. + +Follows an interval of suspense, the beginning of a long discipline of +suspense to which Columbus was to be subjected; and presently comes a +favourable reply from the Queen, commanding that Columbus should be sent +to her. Early in 1486 he set out for Cordova, where the Court was then +established, bearing another letter from the Count in which his own +private requests were repeated, and perhaps a little emphasised. +Columbus was lodged in the house of Alonso de Quintanilla, Treasurer to +the Crown of Castile, there to await an audience with Queen Isabella. + + +While he is waiting, and getting accustomed to his new surroundings, let +us consider these two monarchs in whose presence he is soon to appear, +and upon whose decision hangs some part of the world's destiny. Isabella +first; for in that strange duet of government it is her womanly soprano +that rings most clearly down the corridors of Time. We discern in her a +very busy woman, living a difficult life with much tact and judgment, and +exercising to some purpose that amiable taste for "doing good" that marks +the virtuous lady of station in every age. This, however, was a woman +who took risks with her eyes open, and steered herself cleverly in +perilous situations, and guided others with a firm hand also, and in +other ways made good her claim to be a ruler. The consent and the will +of her people were her great strength; by them she dethroned her niece +and ascended the throne of Castile. She had the misfortune to be at +variance with her husband in almost every matter of policy dear to his +heart; she opposed the expulsion of the Jews and the establishment of the +Inquisition; but when she failed to get her way, she was still able to +preserve her affectionate relations with her husband without disagreement +and with happiness. If she had a fault it was the common one of being +too much under the influence of her confessors; but it was a fault that +was rarely allowed to disturb the balance of her judgment. She liked +clever people also; surrounded herself with men of letters and of +science, fostered all learned institutions, and delighted in the details +of civil administration. A very dignified and graceful figure, that +could equally adorn a Court drawing-room or a field of battle; for she +actually went into the field, and wore armour as becomingly as silk and +ermine. Firm, constant, clever, alert, a little given to fussiness +perhaps, but sympathetic and charming, with some claims to genius and +some approach to grandeur of soul: so much we may say truly of her inner +self. Outwardly she was a woman well formed, of medium height, a very +dignified and graceful carriage, eyes of a clear summer blue, and the red +and gold of autumn in her hair--these last inherited from her English +grandmother. + +Ferdinand of Aragon appears not quite so favourably in our pages, for he +never thought well of Columbus or of his proposals; and when he finally +consented to the expedition he did so with only half a heart, and against +his judgment. He was an extremely enterprising, extremely subtle, +extremely courageous, and according to our modern notions, an extremely +dishonest man; that is to say, his standards of honour were not those +which we can accept nowadays. He thought nothing of going back on a +promise, provided he got a priestly dispensation to do so; he juggled +with his cabinets, and stopped at nothing in order to get his way; he had +a craving ambition, and was lacking in magnanimity; he loved dominion, +and cared very little for glory. A very capable man; so capable that in +spite of his defects he was regarded by his subjects as wise and prudent; +so capable that he used his weaknesses of character to strengthen and +further the purposes of his reign. A very cold man also, quick and sure +in his judgments, of wide understanding and grasp of affairs; simple and +austere in dress and diet, as austerity was counted in that period of +splendour; extremely industrious, and close in his observations and +judgments of men. To the bodily eye he appeared as a man of middle size, +sturdy and athletic, face burned a brick red with exposure to the sun and +open air; hair and eyebrows of a bright chestnut; a well-formed and not +unkindly mouth; a voice sharp and unmelodious, issuing in quick fluent +speech. This was the man that earned from the Pope, for himself and his +successors, the title of "Most Catholic Majesty." + + +The Queen was very busy indeed with military preparations; but in the +midst of her interviews with nobles and officers, contractors and state +officials, she snatched a moment to receive the person Christopher +Columbus. With that extreme mental agility which is characteristic of +busy sovereigns all the force of this clever woman's mind was turned for +a moment on Christopher, whose Idea had by this time invested him with a +dignity which no amount of regal state could abash. There was very +little time. The Queen heard what Columbus had to say, cutting him +short, it is likely, with kindly tact, and suppressing his tendency to +launch out into long-winded speeches. What she saw she liked; and, being +too busy to give to this proposal the attention that it obviously +merited, she told Columbus that the matter would be fully gone into and +that in the meantime he must regard himself as the guest of the Court. +And so, in the countenance of a smile and a promise, Columbus bows +himself out. For the present he must wait a little and his hot heart +must contain itself while other affairs, looming infinitely larger than +his Idea on the royal horizon, receive the attention of the Court. + +It was not the happiest moment, indeed, in which to talk of ships and +charts, and lonely sea-roads, and faraway undiscovered shores. Things at +home were very real and lively in those spring days at Cordova. The war +against the Moors had reached a critical stage; King Ferdinand was away +laying siege to the city of Loxa, and though the Queen was at Cordova she +was entirely occupied with the business of collecting and forwarding +troops and supplies to his aid. The streets were full of soldiers; +nobles and grandees from all over the country were arriving daily with +their retinues; glitter and splendour, and the pomp of warlike +preparation, filled the city. Early in June the Queen herself went to +the front and joined her husband in the siege of Moclin; and when this +was victoriously ended, and they had returned in triumph to Cordova, they +had to set out again for Gallicia to suppress a rebellion there. When +that was over they did not come back to Cordova at all, but repaired at +once to Salamanca to spend the winter there. + +At the house of Alonso de Quintanilla, however, Columbus was not +altogether wasting his time. He met there some of the great persons of +the Court, among them the celebrated Pedro Gonzalez de Mendoza, +Archbishop of Toledo and Grand Cardinal of Spain. This was far too great +a man to be at this time anything like a friend of Columbus; but Columbus +had been presented to him; the Cardinal would know his name, and what his +business was; and that is always a step towards consideration. Cabrero, +the royal Chamberlain, was also often a fellow-guest at the Treasurer's +table; and with him Columbus contracted something like a friendship. +Every one who met him liked him; his dignity, his simplicity of thought +and manner, his experience of the sea, and his calm certainty and +conviction about the stupendous thing which. he proposed to do, could +not fail to attract the liking and admiration of those with whom he came +in contact. In the meantime a committee appointed by the Queen sat upon +his proposals. The committee met under the presidentship of Hernando de +Talavera, the prior of the monastery of Santa Maria del Prado, near +Valladolid, a pious ecclesiastic, who had the rare quality of honesty, +and who was therefore a favourite with Queen Isabella; she afterwards +created him Archbishop of Granada. He was not, however, poor honest +soul! quite the man to grasp and grapple with this wild scheme for a +voyage across the ocean. Once more Columbus, as in Portugal, set forth +his views with eloquence and conviction; and once more, at the tribunal +of learning, his unlearned proposals were examined and condemned. Not +only was Columbus's Idea regarded as scientifically impossible, but it +was also held to come perilously near to heresy, in its assumption of a +state of affairs that was clearly at variance with the writings of the +Fathers and the sacred Scriptures themselves. + +This new disappointment, bitter though it was, did not find Columbus in +such friendless and unhappy circumstances as those in which he left +Portugal. He had important friends now, who were willing and anxious to +help him, and among them was one to whom he turned, in his profound +depression, for religious and friendly consolation. This was Diego de +DEA, prior of the Dominican convent of San Estevan at Salamanca, who was +also professor of theology in the university there and tutor to the young +Prince Juan. Of all those who came in contact with Columbus at this time +this man seems to have understood him best, and to have realised where +his difficulty lay. Like many others who are consumed with a burning +idea Columbus was very probably at this time in danger of becoming +possessed with it like a monomaniac; and his new friends saw that if he +were to make any impression upon the conservative learning of the time to +which a decision in such matters was always referred he must have some +opportunity for friendly discussion with learned men who were not +inimical to him, and who were not in the position of judges examining a +man arraigned before them and pleading for benefits. + +When the Court went to Salamanca at the end of 1486, DEA arranged that +Columbus should go there too, and he lodged him in a country farm called +Valcuebo, which belonged to his convent and was equi-distant from it and +the city. Here the good Dominican fathers came and visited him, bringing +with them professors from the university, who discussed patiently with +Columbus his theories and ambitions, and, himself all conscious, +communicated new knowledge to him, and quietly put him right on many a +scientific point. There were professors of cosmography and astronomy in +the university, familiar with the works of Alfraganus and Regiomontanus. +It is likely that it was at this time that Columbus became possessed of +d'Ailly's 'Imago Mundi', which little volume contained a popular resume +of the scientific views of Strabo, Pliny, Ptolemy, and others, and was +from this time forth Columbus's constant companion. + +Here at Valcuebo and later, when winter came, in the great hall of the +Dominican convent at Salamanca, known as the "De Profundis" hall, where +the monks received guests and held discussions, the Idea of Columbus was +ventilated and examined. He heard what friendly sceptics had to say +about it; he saw the kind of argument that he would have to oppose to the +existing scientific and philosophical knowledge on cosmography. There is +no doubt that he learnt a good deal at this time; and more important even +than this, he got his project known and talked about; and he made +powerful friends, who were afterwards to be of great use to him. The +Marquesa de Moya, wife of his friend Cabrera, took a great liking to him; +and as she was one of the oldest and closest friends of the Queen, it is +likely that she spoke many a good word for Columbus in Isabella's ear. + +By the time the Court moved to Cordova early in 1487, Columbus was once +more hopeful of getting a favourable hearing. He followed the Court to +Cordova, where he received a gracious message from the Queen to the +effect that she had not forgotten him, and that as soon as her military +preoccupations permitted it, she would go once more, and more fully, into +his proposals. In the meantime he was attached to the Court, and +received a quarterly payment of 3000 maravedis. It seemed as though the +unfavourable decision of Talavera's committee had been forgotten. + +In the meantime he was to have a change of scene. Isabella followed +Ferdinand to the siege of Malaga, where the Court was established; and as +there were intervals in which other than military business might be +transacted, Columbus was ordered to follow them in case his affairs +should come up for consideration. They did not; but the man himself had +an experience that may have helped to keep his thoughts from brooding too +much on his unfulfilled ambition. Years afterwards, when far away on +lonely seas, amid the squalor of a little ship and the staggering buffets +of a gale, there would surely sometimes leap into his memory a brightly +coloured picture of this scene in the fertile valley of Malaga: the +silken pavilions of the Court, the great encampment of nobility with its +arms and banners extending in a semicircle to the seashore, all +glistening and moving in the bright sunshine. There was added excitement +at this time at an attempt to assassinate Ferdinand and Isabella, a +fanatic Moor having crept up to one of the pavilions and aimed a blow at +two people whom he mistook for the King and Queen. They turned out to be +Don Alvaro de Portugal, who was dangerously wounded, and Columbus's +friend, the Marquesa de Moya, who was unhurt; but it was felt that the +King and Queen had had a narrow escape. The siege was raised on the 18th +of August, and the sovereigns went to spend the winter at Zaragoza; and +Columbus, once more condemned to wait, went back to Cordova. + + +It was here that he contracted his second and, so far as we know, his +last romantic attachment. The long idle days of summer and autumn at +Cordova, empty of all serious occupation, gave nature an opportunity for +indulging her passion for life and continuity. Among Christopher's +friends at Cordova was the family of Arana, friendly hospitable souls, +by some accounts noble and by others not noble, and certainly in somewhat +poor circumstances, who had welcomed him to their house, listened to his +plans with enthusiasm, and formed a life-long friendship with him. Three +members of this family are known to us--two brothers, Diego and Pedro, +both of whom commanded ships in Columbus's expeditions, and a sister +Beatriz. Columbus was now a man of six-and-thirty, while she was little +more than a girl; he was handsome and winning, distinguished by the +daring and importance of his scheme, full of thrilling and romantic talk +of distant lands; a very interesting companion, we may be sure. No +wonder she fell in love with Christopher; no wonder that he, feeling +lonely and depressed by the many postponements of his suit at Court, and +in need of sympathy and encouragement, fell in these blank summer days +into an intimacy that flamed into a brief but happy passion. Why +Columbus never married Beatriz de Arana we cannot be sure, for it is +almost certain that his first wife had died some time before. Perhaps he +feared to involve himself in any new or embarrassing ties; perhaps he +loved unwillingly, and against his reason; perhaps--although the +suggestion is not a happy one--he by this time did not think poor Beatriz +good enough for the Admiral-elect of the Ocean Seas; perhaps (and more +probably) Beatriz was already married and deserted, for she bore the +surname of Enriquez; and in that case, there being no such thing as a +divorce in the Catholic Church, she must either sin or be celibate. But +however that may be, there was an uncanonical alliance between them which +evidently did not in the least scandalise her brothers and which resulted +in the birth of Ferdinand Columbus in the following year. Christopher, +so communicative and discursive upon some of his affairs, is as reticent +about Beatriz as he was about Philippa. Beatriz shares with his +legitimate wife the curious distinction of being spoken of by Columbus to +posterity only in his will, which was executed at Valladolid the day +before he died. In the dry ink and vellum of that ancient legal document +is his only record of these two passions. The reference to Beatriz is as +follows: + + "And I direct him [Diego] to make provision for Beatriz Enriquez, + mother of D. Fernando, my son, that she may be able to live + honestly, being a person to whom I am under very great obligation. + And this shall be done for the satisfaction of my conscience, + because this matter weighs heavily upon my soul. The reason for + which it is not fitting to write here." + +About the condition of Beatriz, temporal and spiritual, there has been +much controversy; but where the facts are all so buried and inaccessible +it is unseemly to agitate a veil which we cannot lift, and behind which +Columbus himself sheltered this incident of his life. "Acquainted with +poverty" is one fragment of fact concerning her that has come down to us; +acquainted also with love and with happiness, it would seem, as many poor +persons undoubtedly are. Enough for us to know that in the city of +Cordova there lived a woman, rich or poor, gentle or humble, married or +not married, who brought for a time love and friendly companionship into +the life of Columbus; that she gave what she had for giving, without +stint or reserve, and that she became the mother of a son who inherited +much of what was best in his father, and but for whom the world would be +in even greater darkness than it is on the subject of Christopher +himself. And so no more of Beatriz Enriquez de Arana, whom "God has in +his keeping"--and has had now these many centuries of Time. + + +Thus passed the summer and autumn of 1487; precious months, precious +years slipping by, and the great purpose as yet unfulfilled and seemingly +no nearer to fulfilment. It is likely that Columbus kept up his +applications to the Court, and received polite and delaying replies. +The next year came, and the Court migrated from Zaragoza to Murcia, from +Murcia to Valladolid, from Valladolid to Medina del Campo. Columbus +attended it in one or other of these places, but without result. In +August Beatriz gave birth to a son, who was christened Ferdinand, and who +lived to be a great comfort to his father, if not to her also. But the +miracle of paternity was not now so new and wonderful as it had been; the +battle of life, with its crosses and difficulties, was thick about him; +and perhaps he looked into this new-comer's small face with conflicting +thoughts, and memories of the long white beach and the crashing surf at +Porto Santo, and regret for things lost--so strangely mingled and +inconsistent are the threads of human thought. At last he decided to +turn his face elsewhere. In September 1488 he went to Lisbon, for what +purpose it is not certain; possibly in connection with the affairs of his +dead wife; and probably also in the expectation of seeing his brother +Bartholomew, to whom we may now turn our attention for a moment. + + +After the failure of Columbus's proposals to the King of Portugal in +1486, and the break-up of his home there, Bartholomew had also left +Lisbon. Bartholomew Diaz, a famous Portuguese navigator, was leaving for +the African coast in August, and Bartholomew Columbus is said to have +joined his small expedition of three caravels. As they neared the +latitude of the Cape which he was trying to make, he ran into a gale +which drove him a long way out of his course, west and south. + +The wind veered round from north-east to north-west, and he did not +strike the land again until May 1487. When he did so his crew insisted +upon his returning, as they declined to go any further south. He +therefore turned to the west, and then made the startling discovery that +in the course of the tempest he had been blown round the Cape, and that +the land he had made was to the eastward of it; and he therefore rounded +it on his way home. He arrived back in Lisbon in December 1488, when +Columbus met his brother again, and was present at the reception of Diaz +by the King of Portugal. They had a great deal to tell each other, these +two brothers; in the two years and a half that had gone since they had +parted a great deal had happened to them; and they both knew a good deal +more about the great question in which they, were interested than they +had known when last they talked. + +It is to this period that I attribute the inception, if not the +execution, of the forgery of the Toscanelli correspondence, if, as I +believe, it was a forgery. Christopher's unpleasant experiences before +learned committees and commissions had convinced him that unless he were +armed with some authoritative and documentary support for his theories +they had little chance of acceptance by the learned. The, Idea was +right; he knew that; but before he could convince the academic mind, he +felt that it must have the imprimatur of a mind whose learning could not +be impugned. Therefore it is not an unfair guess--and it can be nothing +more than a guess--that Christopher and Bartholomew at this point laid +their heads together, and decided that the next time Christopher had to +appear before a commission he would, so to speak, have something "up his +sleeve." It was a risky thing to do, and must in any case be used only +as a very last resource; which would account for the fact that the +Toscanelli correspondence was never used at all, and is not mentioned in +any document known to men written until long after Columbus's death. + +But these summers and winters of suspense are at last drawing to a close, +and we must follow Christopher rapidly through them until the hour of his +triumph. He was back in Spain in the spring of 1489, his travelling +expenses being defrayed out of the royal purse; and a little later he was +once more amid scenes of war at the siege of Baza, and, if report is +true, taking a hand himself, not without distinction. It was there that +he saw the two friars from the convent of the Holy Sepulchre at +Jerusalem, who brought a message from the Grand Soldan of Egypt, +threatening the destruction of the Sepulchre if the Spanish sovereigns +did not desist from the war against Granada; and it was there that in his +simple and pious mind he formed the resolve that if ever his efforts +should be crowned with success, and he himself become rich and powerful, +he would send a crusade for the rescue of the Holy Sepulchre. And it was +there that, on the 22nd of December, he saw Boabdil, the elder of the two +rival Kings of Granada, surrender all his rights and claims to Spain. +Surely now there will be a chance for him? No; there is another +interruption, this time occasioned by the royal preparations for the +marriage of the Princess Isabella to the heir of Portugal. Poor +Columbus, sickened and disappointed by these continual delays, irritated +by a sense of the waste of his precious time, follows the Court about +from one place to another, raising a smile here and a scoff there, and +pointed at by children in the street. There, is nothing so ludicrous as +an Idea to those who do not share it. + +Another summer, another winter, lost out of a life made up of a limited +number of summers and winters; a few more winters and summers, thinks +Christopher, and I shall be in a world where Ideas are not needed, and +where there is nothing left to discover! Something had to be done. In +the beginning of 1491 there was only one thing spoken of at Court--the +preparations for the siege of Granada, which did not interest Columbus at +all. The camp of King Ferdinand was situated at Santa Fe, a few miles to +the westward of Granada, and Columbus came here late in the year, +determined to get a final answer one way or the other to his question. +He made his application, and the busy monarchs once more adopted their +usual polite tactics. They appointed a junta, which was presided over by +no less a person than the Cardinal of Spain, Gonzales de Mendoza: Once +more the weary business was gone through, but Columbus must have had some +hopes of success, since he did not produce his forged Toscanelli +correspondence. It was no scruple of conscience that held him back, we +may be sure; the crafty Genoese knew nothing about such scruples in the +attainment of a great object; he would not have hesitated to adopt any +means to secure an end which he felt to be so desirable. So it is +probable that either he was not quite sure of his ground and his courage +failed him, or that he had hopes, owing to his friendship with so many of +the members of the junta, that a favourable decision would at last be +arrived at. In this he was mistaken. The Spanish prelates again quoted +the Fathers of the Church, and disposed of his proposals simply on the +ground that they were heretical. Much talk, and much wagging of learned +heads; and still no mother-wit or gleam of light on this obscurity of +learning. The junta decided against the proposals, and reported its +decision to the King and Queen. The monarchs, true to their somewhat +hedging methods when there was anything to be gained by hedging, informed +Columbus that at present they were too much occupied with the war to +grant his requests; but that, when the preoccupations and expenses of the +campaign were a thing of the past, they might again turn their attention +to his very interesting suggestion. + +It was at this point that the patience of Columbus broke down. Too many +promises had been made to him, and hope had been held out to him too +often for him to believe any more in it. Spain, he decided, was useless; +he would try France; at least he would be no worse off there. But he had +first of all to settle his affairs as well as possible. Diego, now a +growing boy nearly eleven years old, had been staying with Beatriz at +Cordova, and going to school there; Christopher would take him back to +his aunt's at Huelva before he went away. He set out with a heavy heart, +but with purpose and determination unimpaired. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +OUR LADY OF LA RABIDA + +It is a long road from Santa Fe to Huelva, a long journey to make on +foot, and the company of a sad heart and a little talking boy, prone to +sudden weariness and the asking of innumerable difficult questions, would +not make it very much shorter. Every step that Christopher took carried +him farther away from the glittering scene where his hopes had once been +so bright, and were now fallen to the dust; and every step brought him +nearer that unknown destiny as to which he was in great darkness of mind, +and certain only that there was some small next thing constantly to be +done: the putting down of one foot after another, the request for food +and lodging at the end of each short day's march, the setting out again +in the morning. That walk from Santa Fe, so real and painful and +wearisome and long a thing to Christopher and Diego, is utterly blank and +obliterated for us. What he thought and felt and suffered are things +quite dead; what he did-namely, to go and do the immediate thing that it +seemed possible and right for him to do--is a living fact to-day, for it +brought him, as all brave and honest doing will, a little nearer to his +destiny, a little nearer to the truthful realisation of what was in him. + +At about a day's journey from Huelva, where the general slope of the land +begins to fall towards the sea, two small rivers, the Odiel and the +Tinto, which have hitherto been making music each for itself through the +pleasant valleys and vineyards of Andalusia, join forces, and run with a +deeper stream towards the sea at Palos. The town of Palos lay on the +banks of the river; a little to the south of it, and on the brow of a +rocky promontory dark with pine trees, there stood the convent of Our +Lady of La Rabida. Stood, on this November evening in the year 1491; +had stood in some form or other, and used for varying purposes, for many +years and centuries before that, even to the time of the Romans; and +still stands, a silent and neglected place, yet to be visited and seen by +such as are curious. To the door of this place comes Christopher as +darkness falls, urged thereto by the plight of Diego, who is tired and +hungry. Christopher rings the bell, and asks the porter for a little +bread and water for the child, and a lodging for them both. There is +some talk at the door; the Franciscan lay brother being given, at all +times in the history of his order, to the pleasant indulgence of +gossiping conversation, when that is lawful; and the presence of a +stranger, who speaks with a foreign accent, being at all times a incident +of interest and even of excitement in the quiet life of a monastery. The +moment is one big with import to the human race; it marks a period in the +history of our man; the scene is worth calling up. Dark night, with sea +breezes moaning in the pine trees, outside; raying light from within +falling on the lay brother leaning in the doorway and on the two figures +standing without: on Christopher, grave, subdued, weary, yet now as +always of pleasant and impressive address, and on the small boy who +stands beside him round-eyed and expectant, his fatigue for the moment +forgotten in curiosity and anticipation. + +While they are talking comes no less a person than the Prior of the +monastery, Friar Juan Perez, bustling round, good-natured busybody that +he is, to see what is all this talk at the door. The Prior, as is the +habit of monks, begins by asking questions. What is the stranger's name? +Where does he come from? Where is he going to? What is his business? +Is the little boy his son? He has actually come from Santa Fe? The +Prior, loving talk after the manner of his kind, sees in this grave and +smooth-spoken stranger rich possibilities of talk; possibilities that +cannot possibly be exhausted to-night, it being now hard on the hour of +Compline; the stranger must come in and rest for tonight at least, and +possibly for several nights. There is much bustle and preparation; the +travellers are welcomed with monkish hospitality; Christopher, we may be +sure, goes and hears the convent singing Compline, and offers up devout +prayers for a quiet night and for safe conduct through this vale of +tears; and goes thankfully to bed with the plainsong echoing in his ears, +and some stoic sense that all days, however hard, have an evening, and +all journeys an end. + +Next morning the talk begins in earnest, and Christopher, never a very +reserved man, finds in the friendly curiosity of the monks abundant +encouragement to talk; and before very long he is in full swing with his +oft-told story. The Prior is delighted with it; he has not heard +anything so interesting for a long time. Moreover, he has not always +been in a convent; he was not so long ago confessor to Queen Isabella +herself, and has much to communicate and ask concerning that lady. +Columbus's proposal does not strike him as being unreasonable at all; +but he has a friend in Palos, a very learned man indeed, Doctor Garcia +Hernandez, who often comes and has a talk with him; he knows all about +astronomy and cosmography; the Prior will send for him. And meanwhile +there must be no word of Columbus's departure for a few days at any rate. + +Presently Doctor Garcia Hernandez arrives, and the whole story is gone +over again. They go at it hammer and tongs, arguments and counter- +arguments, reasons for and against, encouragements, and objections. The +result is that Doctor Garcia Hernandez, whose learning seems not yet +quite to have blinded or deafened him, thinks well of the scheme; thinks +so well of it that he protests it will be a thousand pities if the chance +of carrying it out is lost to Spain. The worthy Prior, who has been +somewhat out of it while the talk about degrees and latitudes has been +going on, here strikes in again; he will use his influence. Perhaps the +good man, living up here among the pine trees and the sea winds, and +involved in the monotonous round of Prime, Lauds, Nones, Vespers, has a +regretful thought or two of the time when he moved in the splendid +intricacy of Court life; at any rate he is not sorry to have an +opportunity of recalling himself to the attention of Her Majesty, for the +spiritual safety of whose soul he was once responsible; perhaps, being +(in spite of his Nones and Vespers) a human soul, he is glad of an +opportunity of opposing the counsels of his successor, Talavera. In a +word, he will use his Influence. Then follow much drafting of letters, +and laying of heads together, and clatter of monkish tongues; the upshot +of which is that a letter is written in which Perez urges his daughter in +the Lord in the strongest possible terms not to let slip so glorious an +opportunity, not only of fame and increment to her kingdom, but of +service to the Church and the kingdom of Heaven itself. He assures her +that Columbus is indeed about to depart from the country, but that he +(Perez) will detain him at La Rabida until he has an answer from the +Queen. + +A messenger to carry the letter was found in the person of Sebastian +Rodriguez, a pilot of the port, who immediately set off to Santa Fe. +It is not likely that Columbus, after so many rebuffs, was very hopeful; +but in the meantime, here he was amid the pious surroundings in which the +religious part of him delighted, and in a haven of rest after all his +turmoils and trials. He could look out to sea over the flecked waters of +that Atlantic whose secrets he longed to discover; or he could look down +into the busy little port of Palos, and watch the ships sailing in and +out across the bar of Saltes. He could let his soul, much battered and +torn of late by trials and disappointments, rest for a time on the rock +of religion; he could snuff the incense in the chapel to his heart's +content, and mingle his rough top-gallant voice with the harsh croak of +the monks in the daily cycle of prayer and praise. He could walk with +Diego through the sandy roads beneath the pine trees, or through the +fields and vineyards below; and above all he could talk to the company +that good Perez invited to meet him--among them merchants and sailors +from Palos, of whom the chief was Martin Alonso Pinzon, a wealthy +landowner and navigator, whose family lived then at Palos, owning the +vineyards round about, and whose descendants live there to this day. +Pinzon was a listener after Columbus's own heart; he not only believed in +his project, but offered to assist it with money, and even to accompany +the expedition himself. Altogether a happy and peaceful time, in which +hopes revived, and the inner light that, although it had now and then +flickered, had never gone out, burned up again in a bright and steady +flame. + +At the end of a fortnight, and much sooner than had been expected, the +worthy pilot returned with a letter from the Queen. Eager hands seized +it and opened it; delight beamed from the eyes of the good Prior. The +Queen was most cordial to him, thanked him for his intervention, was +ready to listen to him and even to be convinced by him; and in the +meantime commanded his immediate appearance at the Court, asking that +Columbus would be so good as to wait at La Rabida until he should hear +further from her. Then followed such a fussing and fuming, such a +running hither and thither, and giving and taking of instructions and +clatter of tongues as even the convent of La Rabida had probably never +known. Nothing will serve the good old busybody, although it is now near +midnight, but that he must depart at once. He will not wait for +daylight; he will not, the good honest soul! wait at all. He must be off +at once; he must have this, he must have that; he will take this, he +will leave that behind; or no, he will take that, and leave this behind. +He must have a mule, for his old feet will not bear him fast enough; ex- +confessors of Her Majesty, moreover, do not travel on foot; and after +more fussing and running hither and thither a mule is borrowed from one +Juan Rodriguez Cabezudo of Moguer; and with a God-speed from the group +standing round the lighted doorway, the old monk sets forth into the +night. + +It is a strange thing to consider what unimportant flotsam sometimes +floats visibly upon the stream of history, while the gravest events are +sunk deep beneath its flood. We would give a king's ransom to know +events that must have taken place in any one of twenty years in the life +of Columbus, but there is no sign of them on the surface of the stream, +nor will any fishing bring them to light. Yet here, bobbing up like a +cork, comes the name of Juan Rodriguez Cabezudo of Moguer, doubtless a +good worthy soul, but, since he has been dead these four centuries and +more, of no interest or importance to any human being; yet of whose life +one trivial act, surviving the flood of time which has engulfed all else +that he thought important, falls here to be recorded: that he did, +towards midnight of a day late in December 1491 lend a mule to Friar Juan +Perez. + + +Of that heroic mule journey we have no record; but it brought results +enough to compensate the good Prior for all his aching bones and +rheumatic joints. He was welcomed by the Queen, who had never quite lost +her belief in Columbus, but who had hitherto deferred to the apathy of +Ferdinand and the disapproval--of her learned advisers. Now, however, +the matter was reopened. She, who sometimes listened to priests with +results other than good, heard this worthy priest to good purpose. The +feminine friends of Columbus who remembered him at Court also spoke up +for him, among them the Marquesa de Moya, with whom he had always been a +favourite; and it was decided that his request should be granted and +three vessels equipped for the expedition, "that he might go and make +discoveries and prove true the words he had spoken."--Moreover, the +machinery that had been so hard to move before, turned swiftly now. +Diego Prieto, one of the magistrates of Palos, was sent to Columbus at La +Rabida, bearing 20,000 maravedis with which he was to buy a mule and +decent clothing for himself, and repair immediately to the Court at Santa +Fe. Old Perez was in high feather, and busy with his pen. He wrote to +Doctor Garcia Hernandez, and also to Columbus, in whose letter the +following pleasant passage occurs: + + "Our Lord has listened to the prayers of His servant. The wise and + virtuous Isabella, touched by the grace of Heaven, gave a favourable + hearing to the words of this poor monk. All has turned out well. + Far from despising your project, she has adopted it from this time, + and she has summoned you to Court to propose the means which seem + best to you for the execution of the designs of Providence. My + heart swims in a sea of comfort, and my spirit leaps with joy in the + Lord. Start at once, for the Queen waits for you, and I much more + than she. Commend me to the prayers of my brethren, and of your + little Diego. The grace of God be with you, and may Our Lady of La + Rabida accompany you." + +The news of that day must have come upon Columbus like a burst of +sunshine after rain. I like to think how bright must have seemed to him +the broad view of land and sea, how deeply the solemn words of the last +office which he attended must have sunk into his soul, how great and glad +a thing life must have been to him, and how lightly the miles must have +passed beneath the feet of his mule as he jogged out on the long road to +Santa Fe. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE CONSENT OF SPAIN + +Once more; in the last days of the year 1491, Columbus rode into the +brilliant camp which he had quitted a few weeks before with so heavy a +heart. Things were changed now. Instead of being a suitor, making a +nuisance of himself, and forcing his affairs on the attention of +unwilling officials, he was now an invited and honoured guest; much more +than that, he was in the position of one who believed that he had a great +service to render to the Crown, and who was at last to be permitted to +render it. + +Even now, at the eleventh hour, there was one more brief interruption. +On the 1st of January 1492 the last of the Moorish kings sent in his +surrender to King Ferdinand, whom he invited to come and take possession +of the city of Granada; and on the next day the Spanish army marched into +that city, where, in front of the Alhambra, King Ferdinand received the +keys of the castle and the homage of the Moorish king. The wars of eight +centuries were at an end, and the Christian banner of Spain floated at +last over the whole land. Victory and success were in the air, and the +humble Genoese adventurer was to have his share in them. Negotiations of +a practical nature were now begun; old friends--Talavera, Luis de +Santangel, and the Grand Cardinal himself--were all brought into +consultation with the result that matters soon got to the documentary +stage. Here, however, there was a slight hitch. It was not simply a +matter of granting two, or three ships. The Genoese was making a +bargain, and asking an impossible price. Even the great grandees and +Court officials, accustomed to the glitter and dignity of titles, rubbed +their eyes with astonishment, when they saw what Columbus was demanding. +He who had been suing for privileges was now making conditions. And what +conditions! He must be created Admiral of all the Ocean Seas and of the +new lands, with equal privileges and prerogatives as those appertaining +to the High Admiral of Castile, the supreme naval officer of Spain. Not +content with sea dignities, he was also to be Viceroy and Governor- +General in all islands or mainlands that he might acquire; he wanted a +tenth part of the profits resulting from his discoveries, in perpetuity; +and he must have the permanent right of contributing an eighth part of +the cost of the equipment and have an additional eighth part of the +profits; and all his heirs and descendants for ever were to have the same +privileges. These conditions were on such a scale as no sovereign could +readily approve. Columbus's lack of pedigree, and the fact also that he +was a foreigner, made them seem the more preposterous; for although he +might receive kindness and even friendship from some of the grand +Spaniards with whom he associated, that friendship and kindness were +given condescendingly and with a smile. He was delightful when he was +merely proposing as a mariner to confer additional grandeur and glory on +the Crown; but when it came to demanding titles and privileges which +would make him rank with the highest grandees in, the land, the matter +took on quite a different colour. It was nonsense; it could not be +allowed; and many were the friendly hints that Columbus doubtless +received at this time to relinquish his wild demands and not to overreach +himself. + +But to the surprise and dismay of his friends, who really wished him to +have a chance of distinguishing himself, and were shocked at the +impediments he was now putting in his own way, the man from Genoa stood +firm. What he proposed to do, he said, was worthy of the rewards that he +asked; they were due to the importance and grandeur of his scheme, and so +on. Nor did he fail to point out that the bestowal of them was a matter +altogether contingent on results; if there were no results, there would +be no rewards; if there were results, they would be worthy of the +rewards. This action of Columbus's deserves close study. He had come to +a turning-point in his life. He had been asking, asking, asking, for six +years; he had been put off and refused over and over again; people were +beginning to laugh at him for a madman; and now, when a combination of +lucky chances had brought him to the very door of success, he stood +outside the threshold bargaining for a preposterous price before he would +come in. It seemed like the densest stupidity. What is the explanation +of it? + +The only explanation of it is to be found in the character of Columbus. +We must try to see him as he is in this forty-second year of his life, +bargaining with notaries, bishops, and treasurers; we must try to see +where these forty years have brought him, and what they have made of him. +Remember the little boy that played in the Vico Dritto di Ponticello, +acquainted with poverty, but with a soul in him that could rise beyond it +and acquire something of the dignity of that Genoa, arrogant, splendid +and devout, which surrounded him during his early years. Remember his +long life of obscurity at sea, and the slow kindling of the light of +faith in something beyond the familiar horizons; remember the social +inequality of his marriage, his long struggle with poverty, his long +familiarity with the position of one who asked and did not receive; the +many rebuffs and indignities which his Ligurian pride must have received +at the hands of all those Spanish dignitaries and grandees--remember all +this, and then you will perhaps not wonder so much that Columbus, who was +beginning to believe himself appointed by Heaven to this task of +discovery, felt that he had much to pay himself back for. One must +recognise him frankly for what he was, and for no conventional hero of +romance; a man who would reconcile his conscience with anything, and +would stop at nothing in the furtherance of what he deemed a good object; +and a man at the same time who had a conscience to reconcile, and would, +whenever it was necessary, laboriously and elaborately perform the act of +reconciliation. When he made these huge demands in Granada he was +gambling with his chances; but he was a calculating gambler, just about +as cunning and crafty in the weighing of one chance against another as a +gambler with a conscience can be; and he evidently realised that his own +valuation of the services he proposed to render would not be without its +influence on his sovereign's estimate of them. At any rate he was +justified by the results, for on the 17th of April 1492, after a deal of +talk and bargaining, but apparently without any yielding on Columbus's +part, articles of capitulation were drawn up in which the following +provisions were made:-- + +First, that Columbus and his heirs for ever should have the title and +office of Admiral in all the islands and continents of the ocean that he +or they might discover, with similar honours and prerogatives to those +enjoyed by the High Admiral of Castile. + +Second, that he and his heirs should be Viceroys and Governors-General +over all the said lands and continents, with the right of nominating +three candidates for the governing of each island or province, one of +whom should be appointed by the Crown. + +Third, that he end his heirs should be entitled to one-tenth of all +precious stones, metals, spices, and other merchandises, however +acquired, within his Admiralty, the cost of acquisition being first +deducted. + +Fourth, that he or his lieutenants in their districts, and the High +Admiral of Castile in his district, should be the sole judge in all +disputes arising out of traffic between Spain and the new countries. + +Fifth, that he now, and he and his heirs at all times, should have the +right to contribute the eighth part of the expense of fitting out +expeditions, and receive the eighth part of the profits. + +In addition to these articles there was another document drawn up on the +30th of April, which after an infinite preamble about the nature of the +Holy Trinity, of the Apostle Saint James, and of the Saints of God +generally in their relations to Princes, and with a splendid trailing of +gorgeous Spanish names and titles across the page, confers upon our +hitherto humble Christopher the right to call himself "Don," and finally +raises him, in his own estimation at any rate, to a social level with his +proud Spanish friends. It is probably from this time that he adopted the +Spanish form of his name, Christoval Colon; but in this narrative I shall +retain the more universal form in which it has become familiar to the +English-speaking world. + +He was now upon a Pisgah height, from which in imagination he could look +forth and see his Land of Promise. We also may climb up with him, and +stand beside him as he looks westward. We shall not see so clearly as he +sees, for we have not his inner light; and it is probable that even he +does not see the road at all, but only the goal, a single point of light +shining across a gulf of darkness. But from Pisgah there is a view +backward as well as forward, and, we may look back for a moment on this +last period of Christopher's life in Spain, inwardly to him so full of +trouble and difficulty and disappointment, outwardly so brave and +glittering, musical with high-sounding names and the clash of arms; gay +with sun and shine and colour. The brilliant Court moving from camp to +camp with its gorgeous retinues and silken pavilions and uniforms and +dresses and armours; the excitement of war, the intrigues of the +antechamber--these are the bright fabric of the latter years; and against +it, as against a background, stand out the beautiful names of the Spanish +associates of Columbus at this time--Medina Celi, Alonso de Quintanilla, +Cabrero, Arana, DEA, Hernando de Talavera, Gonzales de Mendoza, Alonso de +Cardenas, Perez, Hernandez, Luis de Santangel, and Rodriguez de +Maldonado--names that now, in his hour of triumph, are like banners +streaming in the wind against a summer sky. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE PREPARATIONS AT PALOS + +The Palos that witnessed the fitting out of the ships of Columbus exists +no longer. The soul is gone from it; the trade that in those days made +it great and busy has floated away from it into other channels; and it +has dwindled and shrunk, until to-day it consists of nothing but a double +street of poor white houses, such almost as you may see in any sea-coast +village in Ireland. The slow salt tides of the Atlantic come flooding in +over the Manto bank, across the bar of Saltes, and, dividing at the +tongue of land that separates the two rivers, creep up the mud banks of +the Tinto and the Odiel until they lie deep beside the wharves of Huelva +and Palos; but although Huelva still has a trade the tides bring nothing +to Palos, and take nothing away with them again. From La Rabida now you +can no longer see, as Columbus saw, fleets of caravels lying-to and +standing off and on outside the bar waiting for the flood tide; only a +few poor boats fishing for tunny in the empty sunny waters, or the smoke +of a steamer standing on her course for the Guadalquiver or Cadiz. + +But in those spring days of 1492 there was a great stir and bustle of +preparation in Palos. As soon as the legal documents had been signed +Columbus returned there and, taking up his quarters at La Rabida, set +about fitting out his expedition. The reason Palos was chosen was an +economical one. The port, for some misdemeanour, had lately been +condemned to provide two caravels for the service of the Crown for a +period of twelve months; and in the impoverished state of the royal +exchequer this free service came in very usefully in fitting out the +expedition of discovery. Columbus was quite satisfied, since he had such +good friends at Palos; and he immediately set about choosing the ships. + +This, however, did not prove to be quite such a straightforward business +as might have been expected. The truth is that, whatever a few monks and +physicians may have thought of it, the proposed expedition terrified the +ordinary seafaring population of Palos. It was thought to be the wildest +and maddest scheme that any one had ever heard of. All that was known +about the Atlantic west of the Azores was that it was a sea of darkness, +inhabited by monsters and furrowed by enormous waves, and that it fell +down the slope of the world so steeply that no ship having once gone down +could ever climb up it again. And not only was there reluctance on the +part of mariners to engage themselves for the expedition, but also a +great shyness on the part of ship-owners to provide ships. This +reluctance proved so formidable an impediment that Columbus had to +communicate with the King and Queen; with the result that on the 23rd of +May the population was summoned to the church of Saint George, where the +Notary Public read aloud to them the letter from the sovereigns +commanding the port to furnish ships and men, and an additional order +summoning the town to obey it immediately. An inducement was provided in +the offer of a free pardon to all criminals and persons under sentence +who chose to enlist. + +Still the thing hung fire; and on June 20 a new and peremptory order was +issued by the Crown authorising Columbus to impress the vessels and crew +if necessary. Time was slipping away; and in his difficulty Columbus +turned to Martin Alonso Pinzon, upon whose influence and power in the +town he could count. There were three brothers then in this family- +Martin Alonso, Vincenti Yanez, and Francisco Martin, all pilots +themselves and owners of ships. These three brothers saw some hope of +profit out of the enterprise, and they exerted themselves on +Christopher's behalf so thoroughly that, not only did they afford him +help in the obtaining of ships, men, and supplies, but they all three +decided to go with him. + +There was one more financial question to be settled--a question that +remains for us in considerable obscurity, but was in all probability +partly settled by the aid of these brothers. The total cost of the +expedition, consisting of three ships, wages of the crew, stores and +provisions, was 1,167,542 maravedis, about L950(in 1900). After all +these years of pleading at Court, all the disappointments and deferred +hopes and sacrifices made by Columbus, the smallness of this sum cannot +but strike us with amazement. Many a nobleman that Columbus must have +rubbed shoulders with in his years at Court could have furnished the +whole sum out of his pocket and never missed it; yet Columbus had to wait +years and years before he could get it from the Crown. Still more +amazing, this sum was not all provided by the Crown; 167,000 maravedis +were found by Columbus, and the Crown only contributed one million +maravedis. One can only assume that Columbus's pertinacity in +petitioning the King and Queen to undertake the expedition, when he +could with comparative ease have got the money from some of his noble +acquaintance, was due to three things--his faith and belief in his Idea, +his personal ambition, and his personal greed. He believed in his Idea +so thoroughly that he knew he was going to find something across the +Atlantic. Continents and islands cannot for long remain in the +possession of private persons; they are the currency of crowns; and he +did not want to be left in the lurch if the land he hoped to discover +should be seized or captured by Spain or Portugal. The result of his +discoveries, he was convinced, was going to be far too large a thing to +be retained and controlled by any machinery less powerful than that of a +kingdom; therefore he was unwilling to accept either preliminary +assistance or subsequent rewards from any but the same powerful hand. +Admiralties, moreover, and Governor-Generalships and Viceroyships cannot +be conferred by counts and dukes, however powerful; the very title Don +could only be conferred by one power in Spain; and all the other titles +and dignities that Columbus craved with all his Genoese soul were to be +had from the hands of kings, and not from plutocrats. It was +characteristic of him all his life never to deal with subordinates, but +always to go direct to the head man; and when the whole purpose and +ambition of his life was to be put to the test it was only consistent in +him, since he could not be independent, to go forth under the protection +of the united Crown of Aragon and Castile. Where or how he raised his +share of the cost is not known; it is possible that his old friend the +Duke of Medina Celi came to his help, or that the Pinzon family, who +believed enough in the expedition to risk their lives in it, lent some of +the necessary money. + + +Ever since ships were in danger of going to sea short-handed methods of +recruiting and manning them have been very much the same; and there must +have been some hot work about the harbour of Palos in the summer of 1492. +The place was in a panic. It is highly probable that many of the +volunteers were a ruffianly riff-raff from the prisons, to whom personal +freedom meant nothing but a chance of plunder; and the recruiting office +in Palos must have seen many a picturesque scoundrel coming and taking +the oath and making his mark. The presence of these adventurers, many of +them entirely ignorant of the sea, would not be exactly an encouragement +to the ordinary seaman. It is here very likely that the influence of the +Pinzon family was usefully applied. I call it influence, since that is a +polite term which covers the application of force in varying degrees; +and it was an awkward thing for a Palos sailor to offend the Pinzons, +who owned and controlled so much of the shipping in the port. Little by +little the preparations went on. In the purchasing of provisions and +stores the Pinzons were most helpful to Columbus and, it is not +improbable, to themselves also. They also procured the ships; +altogether, in the whole history of the fitting out of expeditions, +I know nothing since the voyage of the Ark which was so well kept within +one family. Moreover it is interesting to notice, since we know the +names and places of residence of all the members of the expedition, +that the Pinzons, who personally commanded two of the caravels, had them +almost exclusively manned by sailors from Palos, while the Admiral's ship +was manned by a miscellaneous crew from other places. To be sure they +gave the Admiral the biggest ship, but (in his own words) it proved "a +dull sailer and unfit for discovery"; while they commanded the two +caravels, small and open, but much faster and handier. Clearly these +Pinzons will take no harm from a little watching. They may be honest +souls enough, but their conduct is just a little suspicious, and we +cannot be too careful. + + +Three vessels were at last secured. The first, named the Santa Maria, +was the largest, and was chosen to be the flagship of Columbus. She was +of about one hundred tons burden, and would be about ninety feet in +length by twenty feet beam. She was decked over, and had a high poop +astern and a high forecastle in the bows. She had three masts, two of +them square-rigged, with a latine sail on the mizzen mast; and she +carried a crew of fifty-two persons. Where and how they all stowed +themselves away is a matter upon which we can only make wondering +guesses; for this ship was about the size of an ordinary small coasting +schooner, such as is worked about the coasts of these islands with a crew +of six or eight men. The next largest ship was the Pinta, which was +commanded by Martin Alonso Pinzon, who took his brother Francisco with +him as sailing-master. The Pinta was of fifty tons burden, decked only +at the bow and stern, and the fastest of the three ships; she also had +three masts. The third ship was a caravel of forty tons and called the +Nina; she belonged to Juan Nino of Palos. She was commanded by Vincenti +Pinzon, and had a complement of eighteen men. Among the crew of the +flagship, whose names and places of residence are to be found in the +Appendix, were an Englishman and an Irishman. The Englishman is entered +as Tallarte de Lajes (Ingles), who has been ingeniously identified with a +possible Allard or AEthelwald of Winchelsea, there having been several +generations of Allards who were sailors of Winchelsea in the fifteenth +century. Sir Clements Markham thinks that this Allard may have been +trading to Coruna and have married and settled down at Lajes. There is +also Guillermo Ires, an Irishman from Galway. + +Allard and William, shuffling into the recruiting office in Palos, +doubtless think that this is a strange place for them to meet, and rather +a wild business that they are embarked upon, among all these bloody +Spaniards. Some how I feel more confidence in Allard than in William, +knowing, as I do so well, this William of Galway, whether on his native +heath or in the strange and distant parts of the world to which his +sanguine temperament leads him. Alas, William, you are but the first of +a mighty stream that will leave the Old Country for the New World; the +world destined to be good for the fortunes of many from the Old Country, +but for the Old Country itself not good. Little does he know, drunken +William, willing to be on hand where there is adventure brewing, and to +be after going with the boys and getting his health on the salt water, +what a path of hope for those who go, and of heaviness for those who stay +behind, he is opening up . . . . Farewell, William; I hope you were +not one of those whom they let out of gaol. + +June slid into July, and still the preparations were not complete. Down +on the mud banks of the Tinto, where at low water the vessels were left +high and dry, and where the caulking and refitting were in hand, there +was trouble with the workmen. Gomaz Rascon and Christoval Quintero, the +owners of the Pinta, who had resented her being pressed into the service, +were at the bottom of a good deal of it. Things could not be found; gear +mysteriously gave way after it had been set up; the caulking was found to +have been carelessly and imperfectly done; and when the caulkers were +commanded to do it over again they decamped. Even the few volunteers, +the picked hands upon whom Columbus was relying, gave trouble. In those +days of waiting there was too much opportunity for talk in the shore-side +wine-shops; some of the volunteers repented and tried to cry off their +bargains; others were dissuaded by their relatives, and deserted and hid +themselves. No mild measures were of any use; a reign of terror had to +be established; and nothing short of the influence of the Pinzons was +severe enough to hold the company together. To these vigorous measures, +however, all opposition gradually yielded. By the end of July the +provisions and stores were on board, the whole complement of eighty-seven +persons collected and enlisted, and only the finishing touches left for +Columbus. It is a sign of the distrust and fear evinced with regard to +this expedition, that no priest accompanied it--something of a sorrow to +pious Christopher, who would have liked his chaplain. There were two +surgeons, or barbers, and a physician; there were an overseer, a +secretary, a master-at-arms; there was an interpreter to speak to the +natives of the new lands in Hebrew, Greek, German, Chaldean or Arabic; +and there was an assayer and silversmith to test the quality of the +precious metals that they were sure to find. Up at La Rabida, with the +busy and affectionate assistance of the old Prior, Columbus made his +final preparations. Ferdinand was to stay at Cordova with Beatriz, and +to go to school there; while Diego was already embarked upon his life's +voyage, having been appointed a page to the Queen's son, Prince Juan, and +handed over to the care of some of the Court ladies. The course to be +sailed was talked over and over again; the bearings and notes of the +pilot at Porto Santo consulted and discussed; and a chart was made by +Columbus himself, and copied with his own hands for use on the three +ships. + +On the 2nd of August everything was ready; the ships moored out in the +stream, the last stragglers of the crew on board, the last sack of flour +and barrel of beef stowed away. Columbus confessed himself to the Prior +of La Rabida--a solemn moment for him in the little chapel up on the +pine-clad hill. His last evening ashore would certainly be spent at the +monastery, and his last counsels taken with Perez and Doctor Hernandez. +We can hardly realise the feelings of Christopher on the eve of his +departure from the land where all his roots were, to a land of mere faith +and conjecture. Even today, when the ocean is furrowed by crowded +highways, and the earth is girdled with speaking wires, and distances are +so divided and reduced that the traveller need never be very long out of +touch with his home, few people can set out on a long voyage without some +emotional disturbance, however slight it may be; and to Columbus on this +night the little town upon which he looked down from the monastery, which +had been the scene of so many delays and difficulties and vexations, must +have seemed suddenly dear and familiar to him as he realised that after +to-morrow its busy and well-known scenes might be for ever a thing of the +past to him. Behind him, living or dead, lay all he humanly loved and +cared for; before him lay a voyage full of certain difficulties and +dangers; dangers from the ships, dangers from the crews, dangers from +the weather, dangers from the unknown path itself; and beyond them, a +twinkling star on the horizon of his hopes, lay the land of his belief. +That he meant to arrive there and to get back again was beyond all doubt +his firm intention; and in the simple grandeur of that determination the +weaknesses of character that were grouped about it seem unimportant. In +this starlit hour among the pine woods his life came to its meridian; +everything that was him was at its best and greatest there. Beneath him, +on the talking tide of the river, lay the ships and equipment that +represented years of steady effort and persistence; before him lay the +pathless ocean which he meant to cross by the inner light of his faith. +What he had suffered, he had suffered by himself; what he had won, he had +won by himself; what he was to finish, he would finish by himself. + +But the time for meditations grows short. Lights are moving about in the +town beneath; there is an unwonted midnight stir and bustle; the whole +population is up and about, running hither and thither with lamps and +torches through the starlit night. The tide is flowing; it will be high +water before dawn; and with the first of the ebb the little fleet is to +set sail. The stream of hurrying sailors and townspeople sets towards +the church of Saint George, where mass is to be said and the Sacrament +administered to the voyagers. The calls and shouts die away; the bell +stops ringing; and the low muttering voice of the priest is heard +beginning the Office. The light of the candles shines upon the gaudy +roof, and over the altar upon the wooden image of Saint George +vanquishing the dragon, upon which the eyes of Christopher rested during +some part of the service, and where to-day your eyes may rest also if you +make that pilgrimage. The moment approaches; the bread and the wine are +consecrated; there is a shuffling of knees and feet; and then a pause. +The clear notes of the bell ring out upon the warm dusky silence--once, +twice, thrice; the living God and the cold presence of dawn enter the +church together. Every head is bowed; and for once at least every heart +of that company beats in unison with the rest. And then the Office goes +on, and the dark-skinned congregation streams up to the sanctuary and +receives the Communion, while the blue light of dawn increases and the +candles pale before the coming day. And then out again to the boats with +shoutings and farewells, for the tide has now turned; hoisting of sails +and tripping of anchors and breaking out of gorgeous ensigns; and the +ships are moving! The Maria leads, with the sign of the Redemption +painted on her mainsail and the standard of Castile flying at her mizzen; +and there is cheering from ships and from shore, and a faint sound of +bells from the town of Huelva. + +Thus, the sea being--calm, and a fresh breeze blowing off the land, did +Christopher Columbus set sail from Palos at sunrise on Friday the 3rd of +August 1492. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +EVENTS OF THE FIRST VOYAGE + + "In nomine D.N. Jesu Christi--Friday, August 3, 1492, at eight + o'clock we started from the bar of Saltes. We went with a strong + sea breeze sixty miles,--[Columbus reckoned in Italian miles, of + which four = one league.]--which are fifteen leagues, towards the + south, until sunset: afterwards to the south-west and to the south, + quarter south-west, which was the way to the Canaries." + +With these rousing words the Journal + + [The account of Columbus's first voyage is taken from a Journal + written by himself, but which in its original form does not exist. + Las Casas had it in his possession, but as he regarded it (no doubt + with justice) as too voluminous and discursive to be interesting, he + made an abridged edition, in which the exact words of Columbus were + sometimes quoted, but which for the most part is condensed into a + narrative in the third person. This abridged Journal, consisting of + seventy-six closely written folios, was first published by + Navarrette in 1825. When Las Casas wrote his 'Historie,' however, + he appears here and there to have restored sections of the original + Journal into the abridged one; and many of these restorations are of + importance. If the whole account of his voyage written by Columbus + himself were available in its exact form I would print it here; but + as it is not, I think it better to continue my narrative, simply + using the Journal of Las Casas as a document.] + +of Columbus's voyage begins; and they sound a salt and mighty chord which +contains the true diapason of the symphony of his voyages. There could +not have been a more fortunate beginning, with clear weather and a calm +sea, and the wind in exactly the right quarter. On Saturday and Sunday +the same conditions held, so there was time and opportunity for the three +very miscellaneous ships' companies to shake down into something like +order, and for all the elaborate discipline of sea life to be arranged +and established; and we may employ the interval by noting what aids to +navigation Columbus had at his disposal. + + +The chief instrument was the astrolabe, which was an improvement on the +primitive quadrant then in use for taking the altitude of the sun. The +astrolabe, it will be remembered, had been greatly improved, by Martin +Behaim and the Portuguese Commission in 1840--[1440 D.W.]; and it was +this instrument, a simplification of the astrolabe used in astronomy +ashore, that Columbus chiefly used in getting his solar altitudes. As +will be seen from the illustration, its broad principle was that of a +metal circle with a graduated circumference and two arms pivoted in the +centre. It was made as heavy as possible; and in using it the observer +sat on deck with his back against the mainmast and with his left hand +held up the instrument by the ring at the top. The long arm was moved +round until the two sights fixed upon it were on with the sun. The point +where the other arm then cut the circle gave the altitude. In +conjunction with this instrument were used the tables of solar +declination compiled by Regiomontanus, and covering the sun's declination +between the years 1475 and 1566. + +The compass in Columbus's day existed, so far as all essentials are +concerned, as it exists to-day. Although it lacked the refinements +introduced by Lord Kelvin it was swung in double-cradles, and had the +thirty-two points painted upon a card. The discovery of the compass, and +even of the lodestone, are things wrapt in obscurity; but the lodestone +had been known since at least the eleventh century, and the compass +certainly since the thirteenth. With the compass were used the sea +charts, which were simply maps on a rather larger and more exact scale +than the land maps of the period. There were no soundings or currents +marked on the old charts, which were drawn on a plane projection; and +they can have been of little--practical use to navigators except in the +case of coasts which were elaborately charted on a large scale. The +chart of Columbus, in so far as it was concerned with the ocean westward +of the Azores, can of course have contained nothing except the +conjectured islands or lands which he hoped to find; possibly the land +seen by the shipwrecked pilot may have been marked on it, and his failure +to find that land may have been the reason why, as we shall see, he +changed his course to the southward on the 7th of October. It must be +remembered that Columbus's conception of the world was that of the +Portuguese Mappemonde of 1490, a sketch of which is here reproduced. +This conception of the world excluded the Pacific Ocean and the continent +of North and South America, and made it reasonable to suppose that any +one who sailed westward long enough from Spain would ultimately reach +Cathay and the Indies. Behaim's globe, which was completed in the year +1492, represented the farthest point that geographical knowledge had +reached previous to the discoveries of Columbus, and on it is shown the +island of Cipango or Japan. + +By far the most important element in the navigation of Columbus, in so +far as estimating his position was concerned, was what is known as "dead- +reckoning" that is to say, the computation of the distance travelled by +the ship through the water. At present this distance is measured by a +patent log, which in its commonest form is a propeller-shaped instrument +trailed through the water at the end of a long wire or cord the inboard +end of which is attached to a registering clock. On being dragged +through the water the propeller spins round and the twisting action is +communicated by the cord to the clock-work machinery which counts the +miles. In the case of powerful steamers and in ordinary weather dead- +reckoning is very accurately calculated by the number of revolutions of +the propellers recorded in the engine-room; and a device not unlike this +was known to the Romans in the time of the Republic. They attached small +wheels about four feet in diameter to the sides of their ships; the +passage of the water turned the wheels, and a very simple gearing was +arranged which threw a pebble into a tallypot at each revolution. This +device, however, seems to have been abandoned or forgotten in Columbus's +day, when there was no more exact method of estimating dead-reckoning +than the primitive one of spitting over the side in calm weather, or at +other times throwing some object into the water and estimating the rate +of progress by its speed in passing the ship's side. The hour-glass, +which was used to get the multiple for long distances, was of course the +only portable time measurer available for Columbus. These, with a rough +knowledge of astronomy, and the taking of the altitude of the polar star, +were the only known means for ascertaining the position of his ship at +sea. + + +The first mishap occurred on Monday, August 6th, when the Pinta carried +away her rudder. The Pinta, it will be remembered, was commanded by +Martin Alonso Pinzon, and was owned by Gomaz Rascon and Christoval +Quintero, who had been at the bottom of some of the troubles ashore; and +it was thought highly probable that these two rascals had something to do +with the mishap, which they had engineered in the hope that their vessel +would be left behind at the Canaries. Martin Alonso, however, proved a +man of resource, and rigged up a sort of steering gear with ropes. There +was a choppy sea, and Columbus could not bring his own vessel near enough +to render any assistance, though he doubtless bawled his directions to +Pinzon, and looked with a troubled eye on the commotion going on on board +the Pinta. On the next day the jury-rigged rudder carried away again, +and was again repaired, but it was decided to try and make the island of +Lanzarote in the Canaries, and to get another caravel to replace the +Pinta. All through the next day the Santa Maria and the Nina had to +shorten sail in order not to leave the damaged Pinta behind; the three +captains had a discussion and difference of opinion as to where they +were; but Columbus, who was a genius at dead-reckoning, proved to be +right in his surmise, and they came in sight of the Canaries on Thursday +morning, August 9th. + +Columbus left Pinzon on the Grand Canary with orders to try to obtain a +caravel there, while he sailed on to Gomera, which he reached on Sunday +night, with a similar purpose. As he was unsuccessful he sent a message +by a boat that was going back to tell Pinzon to beach the Pinta and +repair her rudder; and having spent more days in fruitless search for a +vessel, he started back to join Pinzon on August 23rd. During the night +he passed the Peak of Teneriffe, which was then in eruption. The repairs +to the Pinta, doubtless in no way expedited by Messrs. Rascon and +Quintera, took longer than had been expected; it was found necessary to +make an entirely new rudder for her; and advantage was taken of the delay +to make some alterations in the rig of the Nina, which was changed from a +latine rig to a square rig, so that she might be better able to keep up +with the others. September had come before these two jobs were +completed; and on the 2nd of September the three ships sailed for Gomera, +the most westerly of the islands, where they anchored in the north-east +bay. The Admiral was in a great hurry to get away from the islands and +from the track of merchant ships, for he had none too much confidence in +the integrity of his crews, which were already murmuring and finding +every mishap a warning sign from God. He therefore only stayed long +enough at Gomera to take in wood and water and provisions, and set sail +from that island on the 6th of September. + +The wind fell lighter and lighter, and on Friday the little fleet lay +becalmed within sight of Ferro. But on Saturday evening north-east airs +sprang up again, and they were able to make nine leagues of westing. On +Sunday they had lost sight of land; and at thus finding their ships three +lonely specks in the waste of ocean the crew lost heart and began to +lament. There was something like a panic, many of the sailors bursting +into tears and imploring Columbus to take them home again. To us it may +seem a rather childish exhibition; but it must be remembered that these +sailors were unwillingly embarked upon a voyage which they believed would +only lead to death and disaster. The bravest of us to-day, if he found +himself press-ganged on board a balloon and embarked upon a journey, the +object of which was to land upon Mars or the moon, might find it +difficult to preserve his composure on losing sight of the earth; and the +parallel is not too extreme to indicate the light in which their present +enterprise must have appeared to many of the Admiral's crew. + +Columbus gave orders to the captains of the other two ships that, in case +of separation, they were to sail westward for 700 leagues-that being the +distance at which he evidently expected to find land--and there to lie-to +from midnight until morning. On this day also, seeing the temper of the +sailors, he began one of the crafty stratagems upon which he prided +himself, and which were often undoubtedly of great use to him; he kept +two reckonings, one a true one, which he entered in his log, and one a +false one, by means of which the distance run was made out to be less +than what it actually was, so that in case he could not make land as soon +as he hoped the crew would not be unduly discouraged. In other words, he +wished to have a margin at the other end, for he did not want a mutiny +when he was perhaps within a few leagues of his destination. On this day +he notes that the raw and inexperienced seamen were giving trouble in +other ways, and steering very badly, continually letting the ship's head- +fall off to the north; and many must have been the angry remonstrances +from the captain to the man at the wheel. Altogether rather a trying day +for Christopher, who surely has about as much on his hands as ever mortal +had; but he knows how to handle ships and how to handle sailors, and so +long as this ten-knot breeze lasts, he can walk the high poop of the +Santa Maria with serenity, and snap his fingers at the dirty rabble +below. + + +On Monday they made sixty leagues, the Admiral duly announcing forty- +eight; on Tuesday twenty leagues, published as sixteen; and on this day +they saw a large piece of a mast which had evidently belonged to a ship +of at least 120 tons burden. This was not an altogether cheerful sight +for the eighteen souls on board the little Nina, who wondered ruefully +what was going to happen to them of forty tons when ships three times +their size had evidently been unable to live in this abominable sea! + +On Thursday, September 13th, when Columbus took his observations, he made +a great scientific discovery, although he did not know it at the time. +He noticed that the needle of the compass was declining to the west of +north instead of having a slight declination to the east of north, as all +mariners knew it to have. In other words, he had passed the line of true +north and of no variation, and must therefore have been in latitude +28 deg. N. and longitude 29 deg. 37' W. of Greenwich. With his usual +secrecy he said nothing about it; perhaps he was waiting to see if the +pilots on the other ships had noticed it, but apparently they were not so +exact in their observations as he was. On the next day, Friday, the wind +falling a little lighter, they, made only twenty leagues. "Here the +persons on the caravel Nina said they had seen a jay and a ringtail, and +these birds never come more than twenty-five leagues from land at most." +--Unhappy "persons on the Nina"! Nineteen souls, including the captain, +afloat in a very small boat, and arguing God knows what from the fact +that a jay and a ringtail never went more than twenty-five leagues from +land!--The next day also was not without its incident; for on Saturday +evening they saw a meteor, or "marvellous branch of fire" falling from +the serene violet of the sky into the sea. + +They were now well within the influence of the trade-wind, which in these +months blows steadily from the east, and maintains an exquisite and balmy +climate. Even the Admiral, never very communicative about his +sensations, deigns to mention them here, and is reported to have said +that "it was a great pleasure to enjoy the morning; that nothing was +lacking except to hear the nightingales, and that the weather was like +April in Andalusia." On this day they saw some green grasses, which the +Admiral considered must have floated off from some island; "not the +continent," says the Admiral, whose theories are not to be disturbed by a +piece of grass, "because I make the continental land farther onward." +The crew, ready to take the most depressing and pessimistic view of +everything, considered that the lumps of grass belonged to rocks or +submerged lands, and murmured disparaging things about the Admiral. +As a matter of fact these grasses were masses of seaweed detached from +the Sargasso Sea, which they were soon to enter. + +On Monday, September 17th, four days after Columbus had noted it, the +other pilots noted the declination of the needle, which they had found on +taking the position of the North star. They did not like it; and +Columbus, whose knowledge of astronomy came to his aid, ordered them to +take the position of the North star at dawn again, which they did, and +found that the needles were true. He evidently thought it useless to +communicate to them his scientific speculations, so he explained to them +that it was the North star which was moving in its circle, and not the +compass. One is compelled to admit that in these little matters of +deceit the Admiral always shone. To-day, among the seaweed on the ship's +side, he picked up a little crayfish, which he kept for several days, +presumably in a bottle in his cabin; and perhaps afterwards ate. + +So for several days this calm and serene progress westward was +maintained. The trade-wind blew steady and true, balmy and warm also; +the sky was cloudless, except at morning and evening dusk; and there were +for scenery those dazzling expanses of sea and sky, and those gorgeous +hues of dawn and sunset, which are only to be found in the happy +latitudes. The things that happened to them, the bits of seaweed and +fishes that they saw in the water, the birds that flew around them, were +observed with a wondering attention and wistful yearning after their +meaning such as is known only to children and to sailors adventuring on +uncharted seas. The breezes were milder even than those of the Canaries, +and the waters always less salt; and the men, forgetting their fears of +the monsters of the Sea of Darkness, would bathe alongside in the limpid +blue. The little crayfish was a "sure indication of land"; a tunny fish, +killed by the company on the Nina, was taken to be an indication from the +west, "where I hope in that exalted God, in whose hands are all +victories, that land will very soon appear"; they saw another ringtail, +"which is not accustomed to sleep on the sea"; two pelicans came to the +ship, "which was an indication that land was near"; a large dark cloud +appeared to the north, "which is a sign that land is near"; they saw one +day a great deal of grass, "although the previous day they had not seen +any"; they took a bird with their hands which was like a jay; "it was a +river bird and not a sea bird"; they saw a whale, "which is an indication +that they are near land, because they always remain near it"; afterwards +a pelican came from the west-north-west and went to the south-east, +"which was an indication that it left land to the west-north-west, +because these birds sleep on land and in the morning they come to the sea +in search of food, and do not go twenty leagues from land." And "at dawn +two or three small land birds came singing to the ships; and afterwards +disappeared before sunrise." + +Such beautiful signs, interpreted by the light of their wishes, were the +events of this part of the voyage. In the meantime, they have their +little differences. Martin Alonso Pinzon, on Tuesday, September 18th, +speaks from the Pinta to the Santa Maria, and says that he will not wait +for the others, but will go and make the land, since it is so near; but +apparently he does not get very far out of the way, the wind which wafts +him wafting also the Santa Maria and the Nina. + + +On September the 19th there was a comparison of dead-reckonings. The +Nina's pilot made it 440 leagues from the Canaries, the Pinta's 420 +leagues, and the Admiral's pilot, doubtless instructed by the Admiral, +made it 400. On Sunday the 23rd they were getting into the seaweed and +finding crayfish again; and there being no reasonable cause for complaint +a scare was got up among the crew on an exceedingly ingenious point. The +wind having blown steadily from the east for a matter of three weeks, +they said that it would never blow in any other direction, and that they +would never be able to get back to Spain; but later in the afternoon the +sea got up from the westward, as though in answer to their fears, and as +if to prove that somewhere or other ahead of them there was a west wind +blowing; and the Admiral remarks that "the high sea was very necessary to +me, as it came to pass once before in the time when the Jews went out of +Egypt with Moses, who took them from captivity." And indeed there was +something of Moses in this man, who thus led his little rabble from a +Spanish seaport out across the salt wilderness of the ocean, and +interpreted the signs for them, and stood between them and the powers of +vengeance and terror that were set about their uncharted path. + +But it appears that the good Admiral had gone just a little too far in +interpreting everything they saw as a sign that they were approaching +land; for his miserable crew, instead of being comforted by this fact, +now took the opportunity to be angry because the signs were not +fulfilled. The more the signs pointed to their nearness to land, the +more they began to murmur and complain because they did not see it. They +began to form together in little groups--always an ominous sign at sea-- +and even at night those who were not on deck got together in murmuring +companies. Some, of the things that they said, indeed, were not very far +from the truth; among others, that it was "a great madness on their part +to venture their lives in following out the madness of a foreigner who to +make himself a great lord had risked his life, and now saw himself and +all of them in great exigency and was deceiving so many people." They +remembered that his proposition, or "dream" as they not inaptly call it, +had been contradicted by many great and lettered men; and then followed +some very ominous words indeed. They held + + [The substance of these murmurings is not in the abridged Journal, + but is given by Las Casas under the date of September 24.] + +that "it was enough to excuse them from whatever might be done in the +matter that they had arrived where man had never dared to navigate, and +that they were not obliged to go to the end of the world, especially as, +if they delayed more, they would not be able to have provisions to +return." In short, the best thing would be to throw him into the sea +some night, and make a story that he had fallen, into the water while +taking the position of a star with his astrolabe; and no one would ask +any questions, as he was a foreigner. They carried this talk to the +Pinzons, who listened to them; after all, we have not had to wait long +for trouble with the Pinzons! "Of these Pinzons Christopher Columbus +complains greatly, and of the trouble they had given him." + +There is only one method of keeping down mutiny at sea, and of preserving +discipline. It is hard enough where the mutineers are all on one ship +and the commander's officers are loyal to him; but when they are +distributed over three ships, the captains of two of which are willing to +listen to them, the problem becomes grave indeed. We have no details of +how Columbus quieted them; but it is probable that his strong personality +awed them, while his clever and plausible words persuaded them. He was +the best sailor of them all and they knew it; and in a matter of this +kind the best and strongest man always wins, and can only in a pass of +this kind maintain his authority by proving his absolute right to it. +So he talked and persuaded and bullied and encouraged and cheered them; +"laughing with them," as Las Casas says, "while he was weeping at heart." + + +Probably as a result of this unpleasantness there was on the following +day, Tuesday, September 25th, a consultation between: Martin Alonso +Pinzon and the Admiral. The Santa Maria closed up with the Pinta, and a +chart was passed over on a cord. There were islands marked on the chart +in this region, possibly the islands reported by the shipwrecked pilot, +possibly the island of Antilla; and Pinzon said he thought that they were +somewhere in the region of them, and the Admiral said that he thought so +too. There was a deal of talk and pricking of positions on charts; and +then, just as the sun was setting, Martin Alonso, standing on the stern +of the Pinta, raised a shout and said that he saw land; asking (business- +like Martin) at the same time for the reward which had been promised to +the first one who should see land: They all saw it, a low cloud to the +southwest, apparently about twenty-five leagues distant; and honest +Christopher, in the emotion of the moment, fell on his knees in gratitude +to God. The crimson sunset of that evening saw the rigging of the three +ships black with eager figures, and on the quiet air were borne the +sounds of the Gloria in Excelsis, which was repeated by each ship's +company. + +The course was altered to the south-west, and they sailed in that +direction seventeen leagues during the night; but in the morning there +was no land to be seen. The sunset clouds that had so often deceived the +dwellers in the Canaries and the Azores, and that in some form or other +hover at times upon all eagerly scanned horizons, had also deceived +Columbus and every one of his people; but they created a diversion which +was of help to the Admiral in getting things quiet again, for which in +his devout soul he thanked the merciful providence of God. + +And so they sailed on again on a westward course. They were still in the +Sargasso Sea, and could watch the beautiful golden floating mass of the +gulf-weed, covered with berries and showing, a little way under the clear +water, bright green leaves. The sea was as smooth as the river in +Seville; there were frigate pelicans flying about, and John Dorys in the +water; several gulls were seen; and a youth on board the Nina killed a +pelican with a stone. On Monday, October 1st, there was a heavy shower +of rain; and Juan de la Cosa, Columbus's pilot, came up to him with the +doleful information that they had run 578 leagues from the island of +Ferro. According to Christopher's doctored reckoning the distance +published was 584 leagues; but his true reckoning, about which he said +nothing to a soul, showed that they had gone 707 leagues. The breeze +still kept steady and the sea calm; and day after day, with the temper of +the crews getting uglier and uglier, the three little vessels forged +westward through the blue, weed-strewn waters, their tracks lying +undisturbed far behind them. On Saturday, October 6th, the Admiral was +signalled by Alonso Pinzon, who wanted to change the course to the south- +west. It appears that, having failed to find the, islands of the +shipwrecked pilot, they were now making for the island of Cipango, and +that this request of Pinzon had something to do with some theory of his +that they had better turn to the south to reach that island; while +Columbus's idea now evidently was--to push straight on to the mainland of +Cathay. Columbus had his way; but the grumbling and murmuring in creased +among the crew. + +On the next day, Sunday, and perhaps just in time to avert another +outbreak, there was heard the sound of a gun, and the watchers on the +Santa Maria and the Pinta saw a puff of smoke coming from the Nina, which +was sailing ahead, and hoisting a flag on her masthead. This was the +signal agreed upon for the discovery of land, and it seemed as though +their search was at last at an end. But it was a mistake. In the +afternoon the land that the people of the Nina thought they had seen had +disappeared, and the horizon was empty except for a great flight of birds +that was seen passing from the north to the south-west. The Admiral, +remembering how often birds had guided the Portuguese in the islands in +their possessions, argued that the birds were either going to sleep on +land or were perhaps flying from winter, which he assumed to be +approaching in the land from whence they came. He therefore altered. +his course from west to west-south-west. This course was entered upon an +hour before sunset and continued throughout the night and the next day. +"The sea was like the river of Seville," says the Admiral; "the breezes +as soft as at Seville in April, and very fragrant." More birds were to +be seen, and there were many signs of land; but the crew, so often +disappointed in their hopeful interpretations of the phenomena +surrounding them, kept on murmuring and complaining. On Tuesday, October +9th, the wind chopped round a little and the course was altered, first to +south-west and then at evening to a point north of west; and the journal +records that "all night they heard birds passing." The next day Columbus +resumed the west-southwesterly course and made a run of fifty-nine +leagues; but the mariners broke out afresh in their discontent, and +declined to go any farther. They complained of the long voyage, and +expressed their views strongly to the commander. But they had to deal +with a man who was determined to begin with, and who saw in the many +signs of land that they had met with only an additional inducement to go +on. He told them firmly that with or without their consent he intended +to go on until he had found the land he had come to seek. + + +The next day, Thursday, October 11th, was destined to be for ever +memorable in the history of the world. It began ordinarily enough, with +a west-south-west wind blowing fresh, and on a sea rather rougher than +they had had lately. The people on the Santa Maria saw some petrels and +a green branch in the water; the Pinta saw a reed and two small sticks +carved with iron, and one or two other pieces of reeds and grasses that +had been grown on shore, as well as a small board. Most wonderful of +all, the people of the Nina saw "a little branch full of dog roses"; and +it would be hard to estimate the sweet significance of this fragment of a +wild plant from land to the senses of men who had been so long upon a sea +from which they had thought never to land alive. The day drew to its +close; and after nightfall, according to their custom, the crew of the +ships repeated the Salve Regina. Afterwards the Admiral addressed the +people and sailors of his ship, "very merry and pleasant," reminding them +of the favours God had shown them with regard to the weather, and begging +them, as they hoped to see land very soon, within an hour or so, to keep +an extra good look-out that night from the forward forecastle; and adding +to the reward of an annuity of 10,000 maravedis, offered by the Queen to +whoever should sight land first, a gift on his own account of a silk +doublet. + +The moon was in its third quarter, and did not rise until eleven o'clock. +The first part of the night was dark, and there was only a faint +starlight into which the anxious eyes of the look-out men peered from the +forecastles of the three ships. At ten o'clock Columbus was walking on +the poop of his vessel, when he suddenly saw a light right ahead. The +light seemed to rise and fall as though it were a candle or a lantern +held in some one's hand and waved up and down. The Admiral called Pedro +Gutierrez to him and asked him whether he saw anything; and he also saw +the light. Then he sent for Rodrigo Sanchez and asked him if he saw the +light; but he did not, perhaps because from where he was standing it was +occulted. But the others were left in no doubt, for the light was seen +once or twice more, and to the eyes of the anxious little group standing +on the high stern deck of the Santa Maria it appeared unmistakably. The +Nina was not close at hand, and the Pinta had gone on in front hoping to +make good her mistake; but there was no doubt on board the Santa Maria +that the light which they had seen was a light like a candle or a torch +waved slowly up and down. They lost the light again; and as the hours in +that night stole away and the moon rose slowly in the sky the seamen on +the Santa Maria must have almost held their breath. + +At about two o'clock in the morning the sound of a gun was heard from the +Pinta, who could be seen hoisting her flags; Rodrigo de Triana, the look- +out on board of her, having reported land in sight; and there sure enough +in the dim light lay the low shores of an island a few miles ahead of +them. + +Immediately all sails were lowered, except a small trysail which enabled +the ships to lie-to and stand slowly off and on, waiting for the +daylight. I suppose there was never a longer night than that; but dawn +came at last, flooding the sky with lemon and saffron and scarlet and +orange, until at last the pure gold of the sun glittered on the water. +And when it rose it showed the sea-weary mariners an island lying in the +blue sea ahead of them: the island of Guanahani; San Salvador, as it was +christened by Columbus; or, to give it its modern name, Watling's Island. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +LANDFALL + +During the night the ships had drifted a little with the current, and +before the north-east wind. When the look-out man on the Pinta first +reported land in sight it was probably the north-east corner of the +island, where the land rises to a height of 120 feet, that he saw. The +actual anchorage of Columbus was most likely to the westward of the +island; for there was a strong north-easterly breeze, and as the whole of +the eastern coast is fringed by a barrier reef, he would not risk his +ships on a lee shore. Finding himself off the north end of the island at +sunrise, the most natural thing for him to do, on making sail again, +would be to stand southward along the west side of the island looking for +an anchorage. The first few miles of the shore have rocky exposed +points, and the bank where there is shoal water only extends half a mile +from the shore. Immediately beyond that the bottom shelves rapidly down +to a depth of 2000 fathoms, so that if Columbus was sounding as he came +south he would find no bottom there. Below what are called the Ridings +Rocks, however, the land sweeps to the south and east in a long sheltered +bay, and to the south of these rocks there is good anchorage and firm +holding-ground in about eight fathoms of water. + +We may picture them, therefore, approaching this land in the bright +sunshine of the early morning, their ears, that had so long heard nothing +but the slat of canvas and the rush and bubble of water under the prows, +filled at last with the great resounding roar of the breakers on the +coral reef; their eyes, that had so long looked upon blue emptiness and +the star-spangled violet arch of night, feasting upon the living green of +the foliage ashore; and the easterly breeze carrying to their eager +nostrils the perfumes of land. Amid an excitement and joyful +anticipation that it is exhilarating even to think about the cables were +got up and served and coiled on deck, and the anchors, which some of them +had thought would never grip the bottom again, unstopped and cleared. +The leadsman of the Santa Maria, who has been finding no bottom with his +forty-fathom line, suddenly gets a sounding; the water shoals rapidly +until the nine-fathom mark is unwetted, and the lead comes up with its +bottom covered with brown ooze. Sail is shortened; one after another the +great ungainly sheets of canvas are clewed up or lowered down on deck; +one after another the three helms are starboarded, and the three ships +brought up to the wind. Then with three mighty splashes that send the +sea birds whirling and screaming above the rocks the anchors go down; and +the Admiral stands on his high poop-deck, and looks long and searchingly +at the fragment of earth, rock-rimmed, surf-fringed, and tree-crowned, of +which he is Viceroy and Governor-General. + + +Watling's Island, as it is now called, or San Salvador, as Columbus named +it, or Guanahani, as it was known to the aborigines, is situated in +latitude 24 deg. 6' N., and longitude 74 deg 26' W., and is an +irregularly shaped white sandstone islet in about the middle of the great +Bahama Bank. The space occupied by the whole group is shaped like an +irregular triangle extending from the Navidad Bank in the Caribbean Sea +at the south-east corner, to Bahama Island in Florida Strait on the +north, about 200 miles. The south side trends west by north for 600 +miles, and the north side north-west by north 720 miles. Most of the +islands and small rocks in this group, called Keys or Cays, are very low, +and rise only a few feet above the sea; the highest is about 400 feet +high. They are generally situated on the edge of coral and sand banks, +some of which are of a very dangerous character. They are thinly wooded, +except in the case of one or two of the larger islands which contain +timber of moderate dimensions. The climate of the Bahamas is mild and +temperate, with refreshing sea breezes in the hottest months; and there +is a mean temperature of 75 deg. from November to April. Watling's +Island is about twelve miles in length by six in breadth, with rocky +shores slightly indented. The greater part of its area is occupied by +salt-water lagoons, separated from one another by small wooded hills from +too to 140 feet high. There is plenty of grass; indeed the island is now +considered to be the most fertile in the Bahamas, and raises an excellent +breed of cattle and sheep. In common with the other islands of the group +it was orginally settled by the Spaniards, and afterwards by the British, +who were driven from the Bahamas again by the Spanish in the year 1641. +After a great deal of changing hands they were ceded to Great Britain in +1783, and have remained in her possession ever since. In 1897 the +population of the whole group was estimated at 52,000 the whites being in +the proportion of one to six of the coloured population. Watling's +Island contains about 600 inhabitants scattered over the surface, with a +small settlement called Cockburn Town on the west side, nearly opposite +the landfall of Columbus. The seat of the local government is in the +island of New Providence, and the inhabitants of Watling's Island and of +Rum Cay unite in sending one representative to the House of Assembly. It +is high water, full and change, at Watling's Island at 7 h. 40 m., as it +was in the days of Columbus; and these facts form about the sum of the +world's knowledge of and interest in Watling's Island to-day. + + +But it was a different matter on Friday morning, October 12, 1492, + + [This date is reckoned in the old style. The true astronomical date + would be October 21st, which is the modern anniversary of the + discovery] + +when, all having been made snug on board the Santa Maria, the Admiral of +the Ocean Seas put on his armour and his scarlet cloak over it and +prepared to go ashore. The boat was lowered and manned by a crew well +armed, and Columbus took with him Rodrigo de Escovedo, the secretary to +the expedition, and Rodrigo Sanchez his overseer; they also took on board +Martin Alonso Pinzon and Vincenti Yanez Pinzon, the captains of the other +two ships. As they rowed towards the shore they saw a few naked +inhabitants, who hid themselves at their approach. Columbus carried with +him the royal standard, and the two captains each had a banner of the +expedition, which was a square flag with an "F" and a "Y" upon either +side, each letter being surmounted by the crown of the sovereigns and a +green cross covering the whole. Columbus assembled his little band +around him and called upon them to bear witness that in the presence of +them all he was taking possession of the island for the King and Queen of +Spain; duly making depositions in writing on the spot, and having them +signed and witnessed. Then he gave the name of San Salvador to the +island and said a prayer; and while this solemn little ceremony was in +progress, the astonished natives crept out of their hiding and surrounded +the strange white men. They gesticulated and grovelled and pointed +upwards, as though this gang of armed and bearded Spaniards, with the +tall white-bearded Italian in the midst of them, had fallen from the +skies. + +The first interest of the voyagers was in the inhabitants of this +delightful land. They found them well built, athletic-looking men, most +of them young, with handsome bodies and intelligent faces. Columbus, +eager to begin his missionary work, gave them some red caps and some +glass beads, with which he found them so delighted that he had good hopes +of making converts, and from which he argued that "they were a people who +would better be freed and converted to our Holy Faith by love than by +force," which sentence of his contains within itself the whole missionary +spirit of the time. These natives, who were the freest people in the +world, were to be "freed"; freed or saved from the darkness of their +happy innocence and brought to the light of a religion that had just +evolved the Inquisition; freed by love if possible, and by red caps and +glass beads; if not possible, then freed by force and with guns; but +freed they were to be at all costs. It is a tragic thought that, at the +very first impact of the Old World upon this Eden of the West, this +dismal error was set on foot and the first links in the chain of slavery +forged. But for the moment nothing of it was perceptible; nothing but +red caps and glass beads, and trinkets and toys, and freeing by love. +The sword that Columbus held out to them, in order to find out if they +knew the use of weapons, they innocently grasped by the blade and so cut +their fingers; and that sword, extended with knowledge and grasped with +fearless ignorance, is surely an emblem of the spread of civilisation and +of its doubtful blessings in the early stages. Let us hear Columbus +himself, as he recorded his first impression of Guanahani: + + "Further, it appeared to me that they were a very poor people, in + everything. They all go naked as their mothers gave them birth, and + the women also, although I only saw one of the latter who was very + young, and all those whom I saw were young men, none more than + thirty years of age. They were very well built with very handsome + bodies, and very good faces. Their hair was almost as coarse as + horses' tails, and short, and they wear it over the eyebrows, except + a small quantity behind, which they wear long and never cut. Some + paint themselves blackish, and they are of the colour of the + inhabitants of the Canaries, neither black nor white, and some paint + themselves white, some red, some whatever colour they find: and some + paint their faces, some all the body, some only the eyes, and some + only the nose. They do not carry arms nor know what they are, + because I showed them swords and they took them by the edge and + ignorantly cut themselves. They have no iron: their spears are + sticks without iron, and some of them have a fish's tooth at the end + and others have other things. They are all generally of good + height, of pleasing appearance and well built: I saw some who had + indications of wounds on their bodies, and I asked them by signs if + it was that, and they showed me that other people came there from + other islands near by and wished to capture them and they defended + themselves: and I believed and believe, that they come here from the + continental land to take them captive. They must be good servants + and intelligent, as I see that they very quickly say all that is + said to them, and I believe that they would easily become + Christians, as it appeared to me that they had no sect. If it + please our Lord, at the time of my departure, I will take six of + them from here to your Highnesses that they may learn to speak. + I saw no beast of any kind except parrots on this island." + +They very quickly say all that is said to them, and they will very easily +become good slaves; good Christians also it appears, since the Admiral's +research does not reveal the trace of any religious sect. And finally +"I will take six of them"; ostensibly that they may learn to speak the +language, but really that they may form the vanguard of cargo after cargo +of slaves ravished from their happy islands of dreams and sunshine and +plenty to learn the blessings of Christianity under the whip and the +sword. It is all, alas, inevitable; was inevitable from the moment that +the keel of Columbus's boat grated upon the shingle of Guanahani. The +greater must prey upon the less, the stronger must absorb and dominate +the weaker; and the happy gardens of the Golden Cyclades must be spoiled +and wasted for the pleasure and enrichment of a corrupting civilisation. +But while we recognise the inevitable, and enter into the joy and pride +of Columbus and his followers on this first happy morning of their +landing, we may give a moment's remembrance to the other side of the +picture, and admit that for this generation of innocents the discovery +that was to be all gain for the Old World was to be all loss to them. +In the meantime, decrees the Admiral, they are to be freed and converted; +and "I will take six of them that they may learn to speak." + + +There are no paths or footprints left in the sea, and the water furrowed +on that morning more than four hundred years ago by the keels of +Columbus's little fleet is as smooth and trackless as it was before they +clove it. Yet if you approach Guanahani from the east during the hours +of darkness you also will see a light that waxes and wanes on the +horizon. What the light was that Columbus saw is not certain; it was +probably the light from a torch held by some native woman from the door +of her hut; but the light that you will see is from the lighthouse on +Dixon Hill, where a tower of coral holds a lamp one hundred and sixty +feet above the sea at the north-east point of the island. It was erected +in no sentimental spirit, but for very practical purposes, and at a date +when Watling's Island had not been identified with the Guanahani of +Columbus's landfall; and yet of all the monuments that have been raised +to him I can think of nothing more appropriate than this lonely tower +that stands by day amid the bright sunshine in the track of the trade +wind, and by night throws its powerful double flash every half-minute +across the dark lonely sea. For it was by a light, although not of man's +kindling, that Columbus was guided upon his lonely voyage and through his +many difficulties; amid all his trials and disappointments, dimly as it +must have burned sometimes, it never quite went out. Darkness was the +name of the sea across which he took his way; darkness, from his +religious point of view, was the state of the lands to which he +journeyed; and, whatever its subsequent worth may have been, it was a +burning fragment from the living torch of the Christian religion that he +carried across the world with him, and by which he sought to kindle the +fire of faith in the lands of his discovery. So that there is a profound +symbolism in those raying beams that now, night after night, month by +month, and year after year, shine out across the sea from Watling's +Island in the direction of the Old World. + + +In the preparations for this voyage, and in the conduct and +accomplishment of it, the personality of the man Columbus stands clearly +revealed. He was seen at his best, as all men are who have a chance of +doing the thing for which they are best fitted. The singleness of aim +that can accomplish so much is made manifest in his dogged search for +means with which to make his voyage; and his Italian quality of +unscrupulousness in the means employed to attain a good end was exercised +to the full. The, practical seaman in him carried him through the +easiest part of his task, which was the actual sailing of his ships from +Palos to Guanahani; Martin Alonso Pinzon could have done as much as that. +But no Martin Alonso Pinzon or any other man of that time known to +history had the necessary combination of defective and effective +qualities that made Columbus, once he had conceived his glorious hazy +idea, spend the best years of his life, first in acquiring the position +that would make him listened to by people powerful enough to help him, +and then in besieging them in the face of every rebuff and +discouragement. Another man, proposing to venture across the unknown +ocean to unknown lands, would have required a fleet for his conveyance, +and an army for his protection; but Columbus asked for what he thought he +had some chance of getting, and for the barest equipment that would carry +him across the water. Another man would at least have had a bodyguard; +but Columbus relied upon himself, and alone held his motley crew in the +bonds of discipline. A Pinzon could have navigated the fleet from Palos +to Guanahani; but only a Columbus, only a man burning with belief is +himself and in his quest, could have kept that superstitious crowd of +loafers and malefactors and gaol-birds to their duties, and bent them to +his will. He was destined in after years for situations which were +beyond his power to deal with, and for problems that were beyond his +grasp; but here at least he was supreme, master of himself and of his +material, and a ruler over circumstances. The supreme thing that he had +professed to be able to do and which he had guaranteed to do was, in the +sublime simplicity of his own phrase, "to discover new lands," and luck +or no luck, help or hindrance, he did it at the very first attempt and in +the space of thirty-five days. And although it was from the Pinta that +the gun was fired, and the first loom of the actual land seen in the +early morning, I am glad to think that, of all the number of eager +watching men, it was Columbus who first saw the dim tossing light that +told him his journey was at an end. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +All days, however hard, have an evening, and all journeys an end +Freed by force and with guns +If there were no results, there would be no rewards +Learn the blessings of Christianity under the whip +Never to deal with subordinates +Nothing so ludicrous as an Idea to those who do not share it +She must either sin or be celibate +Stuffed so full indeed that eyes and ears are closed + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of Christopher Columbus, v2 +by Filson Young + + + + + + + CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS + AND THE NEW WORLD OF HIS DISCOVERY + + A NARRATIVE BY FILSON YOUNG + + + + +THE NEW WORLD + +BOOK 3 + + +CHAPTER I + +THE ENCHANTED ISLANDS + +Columbus did not intend to remain long at San Salvador. His landfall +there, although it signified the realisation of one part of his dream, +was only the starting-point of his explorations in the New World. Now +that he had made good his undertaking to "discover new lands," he had to +make good his assurance that they were full of wealth and would swell the +revenues of the King and Queen of Spain. A brief survey of this first +island was all he could afford time for; and after the first exquisite +impression of the white beach, and the blue curve of the bay sparkling in +the sunshine, and the soft prismatic colours of the acanthus beneath the +green wall of the woods had been savoured and enjoyed, he was anxious to +push on to the rich lands of the Orient of which he believed this island +to be only an outpost. + +On the morning after his arrival the natives came crowding down to the +beach and got down their canoes, which were dug out of the trunk of a +single tree, and some of which were large enough to contain forty or +forty-five men: They came paddling out to the ship, sometimes, in the +case of the smaller canoes which only held one man, being upset by the +surf, and swimming gaily round and righting their canoes again and +bailing them out with gourds. They brought balls of spun cotton, and +parrots and spears. All their possessions, indeed, were represented in +the offerings they made to the strangers. Columbus, whose eye was now +very steadily fixed on the main chance, tried to find out if they had any +gold, for he noticed that some of them wore in their noses a ring that +looked as though it were made of that metal; and by making signs he asked +them if there was any more of it to be had. He understood them to say +that to the south of the island there dwelt a king who had large vessels +of gold, and a great many of them; he tried to suggest that some of the +natives should come and show him the way, but he "saw that they were not +interested in going." + +The story of the Rheingold was to be enacted over again, and the whole of +the evils that followed in its glittering train to be exemplified in this +voyage of discovery. To the natives of these islands, who guarded the +yellow metal and loved it merely for its shining beauty, it was harmless +and powerless; they could not buy anything with it, nor did they seek by +its aid to secure any other enjoyments but the happiness of looking at it +and admiring it. As soon as the gold was ravished from their keeping, +however, began the reign of lust and cruelty that always has attended and +always will attend the knowledge that things can be bought with it. In +all its history, since first it was brought up from the dark bowels of +the earth to glitter in the light of day, there is no more significant +scene than this that took place on the bright sands of San Salvador so +long ago--Columbus attentively examining the ring in the nose of a happy +savage, and trying to persuade him to show him the place that it was +brought from; and the savage "not interested in going." + + +From his sign-conversation with the natives Columbus understood that +there was land to the south or the south-west, and also to the north- +west, and that the people from the north-west went to the south-west in +search of gold and precious stones. In the meantime he determined to +spend the Sunday in making a survey of the island, while the rest of +Saturday was passed in barterings with the natives, who were very happy +and curious to see all the strange things belonging to the voyagers; and +so innocent were their ideas of value that "they give all they have for +whatever thing may be given them." Columbus, however, who was busy +making calculations, would not allow the members of the crew to take +anything more on their own account, ordering that where any article of +commerce existed in quantity it was to be acquired for the sovereigns and +taken home to Spain. + +Early on Sunday morning a boat was prepared from each ship, and a little +expedition began to row north about the island. As they coasted the +white rocky shores people came running to the beach and calling to them; +"giving thanks to God," says Columbus, although this is probably a flight +of fancy. When they saw that the boats were not coming to land they +threw themselves into the water and came swimming out to them, bringing +food and drink. Columbus noticed a tongue of land lying between the +north-west arm of the internal lagoon and the sea, and saw that by +cutting a canal through it entrance could be secured to a harbour that +would float "as many ships as there are in Christendom." He did not, +apparently, make a complete circuit of the island, but returned in the +afternoon to the ships, having first collected seven natives to take with +him, and got under way again; and before night had fallen San Salvador +had disappeared below the north-west horizon. + +About midday he reached another island to the southeast. He sailed along +the coast until evening, when he saw yet another island in the distance +to the south-west; and he therefore lay-to for the night. At dawn the +next morning he landed on the island and took formal possession of it, +naming it Santa Maria de la Concepcion, which is the Rum Cay of the +modern charts. As the wind chopped round and he found himself on a lee- +shore he did not stay there, but sailed again before night. Two of the +unhappy prisoners from Guanahani at this point made good their escape by +swimming to a large canoe which one of the natives of the new island had +rowed out--a circumstance which worried Columbus not a little; since he +feared it would give him a bad name with the natives. He tried to +counteract it by loading with presents another native who came to barter +balls of cotton, and sending him away again. + +The effect of all that he was seeing, of the bridge of islands that +seemed to be stretching towards the south-west and leading him to the +region of untold wealth, was evidently very stimulating and exciting to +Columbus. His Journal is almost incoherent where he attempts to set down +all he has got to say. Let us listen to him for a moment: + + "These islands are very green and fertile, and the breezes are very + soft, and there may be many things which I do not know, because I + did not wish to stop, in order to discover and search many islands + to find gold. And since these people make signs thus, that they + wear gold on their arms and legs,--and it is gold, because I showed + them some pieces which I have,--I cannot fail, with the aid of our + Lord, in finding it where it is native. And being in the middle of + the gulf between these two islands, that is to say, the island of + Santa Maria and this large one, which I named Fernandina, I found a + man alone in a canoe who was going from the island of Santa Maria to + Fernandina, and was carrying a little of his bread which might have + been about as large as the fist, and a gourd of water, and a piece + of reddish earth reduced to dust and afterwards kneaded, and some + dry leaves--[Tobacco]--which must be a thing very much appreciated + among them, because they had already brought me some of them as a + present at San Salvador: and he was carrying a small basket of their + kind, in which he had a string of small glass beads and two blancas, + by which I knew that he came from the island of San Salvador, and + had gone from there to Santa Maria and was going to Fernandina. He + came to the ship: I caused him to enter it, as he asked to do so, + and I had his canoe placed on the ship and had everything which he + was carrying guarded and I ordered that bread and honey be given him + to eat and something to drink. And I will go to Fernandina thus and + will give him everything, which belongs to him, that he may give + good reports of us. So that, when your Highnesses send here, our + Lord pleasing, those who come may receive honour and the Indians + will give them of everything which they have." + +This hurried gabbling about gold and the aid of our Lord, interlarded +with fragments of natural and geographical observation, sounds strangely +across the gulf of time and impresses one with a disagreeable sense of +bewildered greed--like that of a dog gulping at the delicacies in his +platter and unwilling to do justice to one for fear the others should +escape him; and yet it is a natural bewilderment, and one with which we +must do our best to sympathise. + +Fernandina was the name which Columbus had already given to Long Island +when he sighted it from Santa Maria; and he reached it in the evening of +Tuesday, October 16th. The man in the canoe had arrived before him; and +the astute Admiral had the satisfaction of finding that once more his +cleverness had been rewarded, and that the man in the canoe had given +such glowing accounts of his generosity that there was no difficulty +about his getting water and supplies. While the barrels of water were +being filled he landed and strolled about in the pleasant groves, +observing the islanders and their customs, and finding them on the whole +a little more sophisticated than those of San Salvador. The women wore +mantillas on their heads and "little pieces of cotton" round their loins- +a sufficiently odd costume; and they appeared to Columbus to be a little +more astute than the other islanders, for though they brought cotton in +quantities to the ships they exacted payment of beads for it. In the +charm and wonder of his walk in this enchanted land he was able for a +moment to forget his hunger for gold and to admire the great branching +palm-trees, and the fish that + + "are here so different from ours that it is wonderful. There are + some formed like cocks of the finest colours in the world, blue, + yellow, red and of all colours, and others tinted in a thousand + manners: and the colours are so fine, that there is not a man who + does not wonder at them, and who does not take great pleasure in + seeing them. Also, there are whales. I saw no beasts on land of + any kind except parrots and lizards. A boy told me that he saw a + large snake. I did not see sheep nor goats, nor any other beast; + although I have been here a very short time, as it is midday, still + if there had been any, I could not have missed seeing some." + +Columbus was not a very good descriptive writer, and he has but two +methods of comparison; either a thing is like Spain, or it is not like +Spain. The verdure was "in such condition as it is in the month of May +in Andalusia; and the trees were all as different from ours as day from +night, and also the fruits and grasses and the stones and all the +things." The essay written by a cockney child after a day at the seaside +or in the country, is not greatly different from some of the verbatim +passages of this journal; and there is a charm in that fact too, for it +gives us a picture of Columbus, in spite of his hunt for gold and +precious stones, wandering, still a child at heart, in the wonders of the +enchanted world to which he had come. + +There was trouble on this day, because some of the crew had found an +Indian with a piece of gold in his nose, and they got a scolding from +Columbus for not detaining him and bartering with him for it. There was +bad weather also, with heavy rain and a threatening of tempest; there was +a difference of opinion with Martin Alonso Pinzon about which way they +should go round the island: but the next day the weather cleared, and the +wind settled the direction of their course for them. Columbus, whose eye +never missed anything of interest to the sailor and navigator, notes thus +early a fact which appears in every book of sailing directions for the +Bahama Islands--that the water is so clear and limpid that the bottom can +be seen at a great depth; and that navigation is thus possible and even +safe among the rockstrewn coasts of the islands, when thus performed by +sight and with the sun behind the ship. He was also keenly alive to +natural charm and beauty in the new lands that he was visiting, and there +are unmistakable fragments of himself in the journal that speak +eloquently of his first impressions. "The singing of the little birds is +such that it appears a man would wish never to leave here, and the flocks +of parrots obscure the sun." + +But life, even to the discoverer of a New World, does not consist of +wandering in the groves, and listening to the singing birds, and smelling +the flowers, and remembering the May nights of Andalusia. There was gold +to be found and the mainland of Cathay to be discovered, and a letter, +written by the sovereigns at his earnest request, to be delivered to the +Great Khan. The natives had told him of an island called Samoete to the +southward, which was said to contain a quantity of gold. He sailed +thither on the 19th, and called it Isabella; its modern name is Crooked +Island. He anchored here and found it to be but another step in the +ascending scale of his delight; it was greener and more beautiful than +any of the islands he had yet seen. He spent some time looking for the +gold, but could not find any; although he heard of the island of Cuba, +which he took to be the veritable Cipango. He weighed anchor on October +24th and sailed south-west, encountering some bad weather on the way; but +on Sunday the 28th he came up with the north coast of Cuba and entered +the mouth of a river which is the modern Nuevitas. To the island of Cuba +he gave the name of Juana in honour of the young prince to whom his son +Diego had been appointed a page. + + +If the other islands had seemed beautiful to him, Cuba seemed like heaven +itself. The mountains grandly rising in the interior, the noble rivers +and long sweeping plains, the headlands melting into the clear water, and +the gorgeous colours and flowers and birds and insects on land acted like +a charm on Columbus and his sailors. As they entered the river they +lowered a boat in order to go ahead and sound for an anchorage; and two +native canoes put off from the shore, but, when they saw the boat +approaching, fled again. The Admiral landed and found two empty houses +containing nets and hooks and fishing-lines, and one of the strange +silent dogs, such as they had encountered on the other island--dogs that +pricked their ears and wagged their tails, but that never barked. The +Admiral, in spite of his greed for gold and his anxiety to "free" the +people of the island, was now acting much more discreetly, and with the +genuine good sense which he always possessed and which was only sometimes +obscured. He would not allow anything in the empty houses to be +disturbed or taken away, and whenever he saw the natives he tried to show +them that he intended to do them no harm, and to win their good will by +making them presents of beads and toys for which he would take no return. +As he went on up the river the scenery became more and more enchanting, +so that he felt quite unhappy at not being able to express all the +wonders and beauties that he saw. In the pure air and under the serene +blue of the sky those matchless hues of blossom and foliage threw a +rainbow-coloured garment on either bank of the river; the flamingoes, the +parrots and woodpeckers and humming-birds calling to one another and +flying among the tree-tops, made the upper air also seem alive and shot +with all the colours of the rainbow. Humble Christopher, walking amid +these gorgeous scenes, awed and solemnised by the strangeness and +magnificence of nature around him, tries to identify something that he +knows; and thinks, that amid all these strange chorusings of unknown +birds, he hears the familiar note of a nightingale. Amid all his +raptures, however, the main chance is not forgotten; everything that he +sees he translates into some terms of practical utility. Just as on the +voyage out every seaweed or fish or flying bird that he saw was hailed by +him as a sign that land was near, so amid the beauty of this virgin world +everything that he sees is taken to indicate either that he is close upon +the track of the gold, or that he must be in Cipango, or that the natives +will be easy to convert to Christianity. In the fragrance of the woods +of Cuba, Columbus thought that he smelled Oriental spices, which Marco +Polo had described as abounding in Cipango; when he walked by the shore +and saw the shells of pearl oysters, he believed the island to be loaded +with pearls and precious stones; when he saw a scrap of tinsel or bright +metal adorning a native, he argued that there was a gold mine close at +hand. And so he went on in an increasing whirl of bewildering +enchantment from anchorage to anchorage and from island to island, always +being led on by that yellow will o'-the-wisp, gold, and always believing +that the wealth of the Orient would be his on the morrow. As he coasted +along towards the west he entered the river which he called Rio de Mares. +He found a large village here full of palm-branch houses furnished with +chairs and hammocks and adorned with wooden masks and statues; but in +spite of his gentleness and offer of gifts the inhabitants all fled to +the mountains, while he and his men walked curiously through the deserted +houses. + +On Tuesday, October 30th, Martin Alonso Pinzon, whose communications the +Admiral was by this time beginning to dread, came with some exciting +news. It seemed that the Indians from San Salvador who were on board the +Pinta had told him that beyond the promontory, named by Columbus the Cape +of Palms, there was a river, four days' journey upon which would bring +one to the city of Cuba, which was very rich and large and abounded with +gold; and that the king of that country was at war with a monarch whom +they called Cami, and whom Pinzon identified with the Great Khan. More +than this, these natives assured him that the land they were on at +present was the mainland itself, and that they could not be very far from +Cathay. Columbus for once found himself in agreement with Martin Alonso. +The well-thumbed copy of Marco Polo was doubtless brought out, and +abundant evidence found in it; and it was decided to despatch a little +embassy to this city in order to gain information about its position and +wealth. When they continued their course, however, and rounded the cape, +no river appeared; they sailed on, and yet promontory after promontory +was opened ahead of them; and as the wind turned against them and the +weather was very threatening they decided to turn back and anchor again +in the Rio de Mares. + +Columbus was now, as he thought, hot upon the track of the Great Khan +himself; and on the first of November he sent boats ashore and told the +sailors to get information from the houses; but the inhabitants fled +shyly into the woods. Having once postulated the existence of the Great +Khan in this immediate territory Columbus, as his habit was, found that +everything fitted with the theory; and he actually took the flight of the +natives, although it had occurred on a dozen other occasions, as a proof +that they mistook his bands of men for marauding expeditions despatched +by the great monarch himself. He therefore recalled them, and sent a +boat ashore with an Indian interpreter who, standing in the boat at the +edge of the water, called upon the natives to draw near, and harangued +them. He assured them of the peaceable intentions of the great Admiral, +and that he had nothing whatever to do with the Great Khan; which cannot +very greatly have thrilled the Cubans, who knew no more about the Great +Khan than they did about Columbus. The interpreter then swam ashore and +was well received; so well, that in the evening some sixteen canoes came +off to the ships bringing cotton yarn and spears for traffic. Columbus, +with great astuteness, forbade any trading in cotton or indeed in +anything at all except gold, hoping by this means to make the natives +produce their treasures; and he would no doubt have been successful if +the natives had possessed any gold, but as the poor wretches had nothing +but the naked skins they stood up in, and the few spears and pots and +rolls of cotton that they were offering, the Admiral's astuteness was for +once thrown away. There was one man, however, with a silver ring in his +nose, who was understood to say that the king lived four days' journey in +the interior, and that messengers had been sent to him to tell him of the +arrival of the strange ships; which messengers would doubtless soon +return bringing merchants with them to trade with the ships. If this +native was lying he showed great ingenuity in inventing the kind of story +that his questioners wanted; but it is more likely that his utterances +were interpreted by Columbus in the light of his own ardent beliefs. At +any rate it was decided to send at once a couple of envoys to this great +city, and not to wait for the arrival of the merchants. Two Spaniards, +Rodrigo de Jerez and Luis de Torres, the interpreter to the expedition-- +who had so far found little use for his Hebrew and Chaldean--were chosen; +and with them were sent two Indians, one from San Salvador and the other +a local native who went as guide. Red caps and beads and hawks' bells +were duly provided, and a message for the king was given to them telling +him that Columbus was waiting with letters and presents from Spanish +sovereigns, which he was to deliver personally. After the envoys had +departed, Columbus, whose ships were anchored in a large basin of deep +water with a clean and steep beach, decided to take the opportunity of +having the vessels careened. Their hulls were covered with shell and +weed; the caulking, which had been dishonestly done at Palos, had also +to be attended to; so the ships were beached and hove down one at a time +--an unnecessary precaution, as it turned out, for there was no sign of +treachery on the part of the natives. While the men were making fires to +heat their tar they noticed that the burning wood sent forth a heavy +odour which was like mastic; and the Admiral, now always busy with +optimistic calculations, reckoned that there was enough in that vicinity +to furnish a thousand quintals every year. While the work on the ships +was going forward he employed himself in his usual way, going ashore, +examining the trees and vegetables and fruits, and holding such +communication as he was able with the natives. He was up every morning +at dawn, at one time directing the work of his men, at another going +ashore after some birds that he had seen; and as dawn comes early in +those islands his day was probably a long one, and it is likely that he +was in bed soon after dark. On the day that he went shooting, Martin +Alonso Pinzon was waiting for him on his return; this time not to make +any difficulties or independent proposals, but to show him two pieces of +cinnamon that one of his men had got from an Indian who was carrying a +quantity of it. "Why did the man not get it all from him?" says greedy +Columbus. "Because of the prohibition of the Admiral's that no one +should do any trading," says Martin Alonso, and conceives himself to have +scored; for truly these two men do not love one another. The boatswain +of the Pinta, adds Martin Alonso, has found whole trees of it. "The +Admiral then went there and found that it was not cinnamon." The Admiral +was omnipotent; if he had said that it was manna they would have had to +make it so, and as he chose to say that it was not cinnamon, we must take +his word for it, as Martin Alonso certainly had to do; so that it was the +Admiral who scored this time. Columbus, however, now on the track of +spices, showed some cinnamon and pepper to the natives; and the obliging +creatures "said by signs that there was a great deal of it towards the +south-east." Columbus then showed them some gold and pearls; and +"certain old men" replied that in a place they called Bo-No there was any +amount of gold; the people wore it in their ears and on their arms and +legs, and there were pearls also, and large ships and merchandise--all to +the south-east. Finding this information, which was probably entirely +untrue and merely a polite effort to do what was expected of them, well +received, the natives added that "a long distance from there, there were +men with one eye, and other men with dogs' snouts who ate men, and that +when they caught a man they beheaded him and drank his blood" . . . +Soon after this the Admiral went on board again and began to write up his +Journal, solemnly entering all these facts in it. It is the most +childish nonsense; but after all, how interesting and credible it must +have been! To live thus smelling the most heavenly perfumes, breathing +the most balmy air, viewing the most lovely scenes, and to be always hot +upon the track of gold and pearls and spices and wealth and dog-nosed, +blood-drinking monstrosities--what an adventure, what a vivid piece of +living! + + +After a few days--on Tuesday, November 6th--the two men who had been sent +inland to the great and rich city came back again with their report. +Alas for visions of the Great Khan! The city turned out to be a village +of fifty houses with twenty people in each house. The envoys had been +received with great solemnity; and all the men "as well as the women" +came to see them, and lodged them in a fine house. The chief people in +the village came and kissed their hands and feet, hailing them as +visitors from the skies, and seating them in two chairs, while they sat +round on the floor. The native interpreter, doubtless according to +instructions, then told them "how the Christians lived and how they were +good people"; and I would give a great deal to have heard that brief +address. Afterwards the men went out and the women came in, also kissing +the hands and feet of the visitors, and "trying them to see if they were +of flesh and of bone like themselves." The results were evidently so +satisfactory that the strangers were implored to remain at least five +days. The real business of the expedition was then broached. Had they +any gold or pearls? Had they any cinnamon or spices? Answer, as usual: +"No, but they thought there was a great deal of it to the south-east." +The interest of the visitors then evaporated, and they set out for the +coast again; but they found that at least five hundred men and women +wanted to come with them, since they believed that they were returning to +heaven. On their journey back the two Spaniards noticed many people +smoking, as the Admiral himself had done a few days before; and this is +the first known discovery of tobacco by Europeans. + +They saw a great many geese, and the strange dogs that did not bark, and +they saw potatoes also, although they did not know what they were. +Columbus, having heard this report, and contemplating these gentle +amiable creatures, so willing to give all they had in return for a scrap +of rubbish, feels his heart lifted in a pious aspiration that they might +know the benefits of the Christian religion. "I have to say, Most Serene +Princes," he writes, + + "that by means of devout religious persons knowing their language + well, all would soon become Christians: and thus I hope in our Lord + that Your Highnesses will appoint such persons with great diligence + in order to turn to the Church such great peoples, and that they + will convert them, even as they have destroyed those who would not + confess the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit: and after their + days, as we are all mortal, they will leave their realms--in a very + tranquil condition and freed from heresy and wickedness, and will be + well received before the Eternal Creator, Whom may it please to give + them a long life and a great increase of larger realms and + dominions, and the will and disposition to spread the holy Christian + religion, as they have done up to the present time, Amen. To-day I + will launch the ship and make haste to start on Thursday, in the + name of God, to go to the southeast and seek gold and spices, and + discover land." + Thus Christopher Columbus, in the Name of God, + + November 11, 1492. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE EARTHLY PARADISE + +When Columbus weighed anchor on the 12th of November he took with him six +captive Indians. It was his intention to go in search of the island of +Babeque, which the Indians alleged lay about thirty leagues to the east- +south-east, and where, they said, the people gathered gold out of the +sand with candles at night, and afterwards made bars of it with a hammer. +They told him this by signs; and we have only one more instance of the +Admiral's facility in interpreting signs in favour of his own beliefs. +It is only a few days later that in the same Journal he says, "The people +of these lands do not understand me, nor do I nor any other person I have +with me understand them; and these Indians I am taking with me, many +times understand things contrary to what they are." It was a fault at +any rate not exclusively possessed by the Indians, who were doubtless +made the subject of many philological experiments on the part of the +interpreter; all that they seemed to have learned at this time were +certain religious gestures, such as making the Sign of the Cross, which +they did continually, greatly to the edification of the crew. + +In order to keep these six natives in a good temper Columbus kidnapped +"seven women, large and small, and three children," in order, he alleged, +that the men might conduct themselves better in Spain because of having +their "wives" with them; although whether these assorted women were +indeed the wives of the kidnapped natives must at the best be a doubtful +matter. The three children, fortunately, had their father and mother +with them; but that was only because the father, having seen his wife and +children kidnapped, came and offered to go with them of his own accord. +This taking of the women raises a question which must be in the mind of +any one who studies this extraordinary voyage--the question of the +treatment of native women by the Spaniards. Columbus is entirely silent +on the subject; but taking into account the nature of the Spanish rabble +that formed his company, and his own views as to the right which he had +to possess the persons and goods of the native inhabitants, I am afraid +that there can be very little doubt that in this matter there is a good +reason, for his silence. So far as Columbus himself was concerned, it is +probable that he was innocent enough; he was not a sensualist by nature, +and he was far too much interested and absorbed in the principal objects +of his expedition, and had too great a sense of his own personal dignity, +to have indulged in excesses that would, thus sanctioned by him, have +produced a very disastrous effect on the somewhat rickety discipline of +his crew. He was too wise a master, however, to forbid anything that it +was not in his power to prevent; and it is probable that he shut his eyes +to much that, if he did not tolerate it, he at any rate regarded as a +matter of no very great importance. His crew had by this time learned to +know their commander well enough not to commit under his eyes offences +for which he would have been sure to punish them. + + +For two days they ran along the coast with a fair wind; but on the 14th a +head wind and heavy sea drove them into the shelter of a deep harbour +called by Columbus Puerto del Principe, which is the modern Tanamo. The +number of islands off this part of the coast of Cuba confirmed Columbus +in his profound geographical error; he took them to be "those innumerable +islands which in the maps of the world are placed at the end of the +east." He erected a great wooden cross on an eminence here, as he always +did when he took possession of a new place, and made some boat excursions +among the islands in the harbour. On the 17th of November two of the six +youths whom he had taken on board the week before swam ashore and +escaped. When he started again on his voyage he was greatly +inconvenienced by the wind, which veered about between the north and +south of east, and was generally a foul wind for him. There is some +difference of opinion as to what point of the wind the ships of +Columbus's time would sail on; but there is no doubt that they were +extremely unhandy in anything approaching a head wind, and that they were +practically no good at all at beating to windward. The shape of their +hulls, the ungainly erections ahead and astern, and their comparatively +light hold on the water, would cause them to drift to leeward faster than +they could work to windward. In this head wind, therefore, Columbus +found that he was making very little headway, although he stood out for +long distances to the northward. On Wednesday, November 21st, occurred a +most disagreeable incident, which might easily have resulted in the +Admiral's never reaching Spain alive. Some time in the afternoon he +noticed the Pinta standing away ahead of him in a direction which was not +the course which he was steering; and he signalled her to close up with +him. No answer, however, was made to his signal, which he repeated, but +to which he failed to attract any response. He was standing south at the +time, the wind being well in the north-east; and Martin Alonso Pinzon, +whose caravel pointed into the wind much better than the unhandy Santa +Maria, was standing to the east. When evening fell he was still in +sight, at a distance of sixteen miles. Columbus was really concerned, +and fired lombards and flew more signals of invitation; but there was no +reply. In the evening he shortened sail and burned a torch all night, +"because it appeared that Martin Alonso was returning to me; and the +night was very clear, and there was a nice little breeze by which to come +to me if he wished." But he did not wish, and he did not come. + +Martin Alonso has in fact shown himself at last in his true colours. He +has got the fastest ship, he has got a picked company of his own men from +Palos; he has got an Indian on board, moreover, who has guaranteed to +take him straight to where the gold is; and he has a very agreeable plan +of going and getting it, and returning to Spain with the first news and +the first wealth. It is open mutiny, and as such cannot but be a matter +of serious regret and trouble to the Admiral, who sits writing up his +Journal by the swinging lamp in his little cabin. To that friend and +confidant he pours out his troubles and his long list of grievances +against Martin Alonso; adding, "He has done and said many other things +to me." Up on deck the torch is burning to light the wanderer back +again, if only he will come; and there is "a nice little breeze" by which +to come if he wishes; but Martin Alonso has wishes quite other than that. + + +The Pinta was out of sight the next morning, and the little Nina was all +that the Admiral had to rely upon for convoy. They were now near the +east end of the north coast of Cuba, and they stood in to a harbour which +the Admiral called Santa Catalina, and which is now called Cayo de Moa. +As the importance of the Nina to the expedition had been greatly +increased by the defection of the Pinta, Columbus went on board and +examined her. He found that some of her spars were in danger of giving +way; and as there was a forest of pine trees rising from the shore he was +able to procure a new mizzen mast and latine yard in case it should be +necessary to replace those of the Nina. The next morning he weighed +anchor at sunrise and continued east along the coast. He had now arrived +at the extreme end of Cuba, and was puzzled as to what course he should +take. Believing Cuba, as he did, to be the mainland of Cathay, he would +have liked to follow the coast in its trend to the south-west, in the +hope of coming upon the rich city of Quinsay; but on the other hand there +was looming to the south-west some land which the natives with him +assured him was Bohio, the place where all the gold was. He therefore +held on his course; but when the Indians found that he was really going +to these islands they became very much alarmed, and made signs that the +people would eat them if they went there; and, in order further to +dissuade the Admiral, they added that the people there had only one eye, +and the faces, of dogs. As it did not suit Columbus to believe them he +said that they were lying, and that he "felt" that the island must belong +to the domain of the Great Khan. He therefore continued his course, +seeing many beautiful and enchanting bays opening before him, and longing +to go into them, but heroically stifling his curiosity, "because he was +detained more than he desired by the pleasure and delight he felt in +seeing and gazing on the beauty and freshness of those countries wherever +he entered, and because he did not wish to be delayed in prosecuting what +he was engaged upon; and for these reasons he remained that night beating +about and standing off and on until day." He could not trust himself, +that is to say, to anchor in these beautiful harbours, for he knew he +would be tempted to go ashore and waste valuable time exploring the +woods; and so he remained instead, beating about in the open sea. + +As it was, what with contrary winds and his own indecision as to which +course he should pursue, it was December the 6th before he came up with +the beautiful island of Hayti, and having sent the Nina in front to +explore for a harbour, entered the Mole Saint Nicholas, which he called +Puerto Maria. Towards the east he saw an island shaped like a turtle, +and this island he named Tortuga; and the harbour, which he entered that +evening on the hour of Vespers, he called Saint Nicholas, as it was the +feast of that saint. Once more his description flounders among +superlatives: he thought Cuba was perfect; but he finds the new island +more perfect still. The climate is like May in Cordova; the tracts of +arable land and fertile valleys and high mountains are like those in +Castile; he finds mullet like those of Castile; soles and other fish like +those in Castile; nightingales and other small birds like those in +Castile; myrtle and other trees and grasses like those in Castile! In +short, this new land is so like Spain, only more wonderful and beautiful, +that he christens it Espanola. + +They stayed two days in the harbour of Saint Nicholas, and then began to +coast eastwards along the shores of Espaniola. Their best progress was +made at dawn and sunset, when the land breeze blew off the island; and +during the day they encountered a good deal of colder weather and +easterly winds, which made their progress slow. Every day they put in at +one or other of the natural harbours in which that beautiful coast +abounds; every day they saw natives on the shores who generally fled at +their approach, but were often prevailed upon to return and to converse +with the natives on board the Admiral's ship, and to receive presents and +bring parrots and bits of gold in exchange. On one day a party of men +foraging ashore saw a beautiful young girl, who fled at their approach; +and they chased her a long way through the woods, finally capturing her +and bringing her on board. Columbus "caused her to be clothed"-- +doubtless a diverting occupation for Rodrigo, Juan, Garcia, Pedro, +William, and the rest of them, although for the poor, shy, trembling +captive not diverting at all--and sent her ashore again loaded with beads +and brass rings--to act as a decoy. Having sown this good seed the +Admiral waited for a night, and then sent a party of men ashore, "well +prepared with arms and adapted for such an affair," to have some +conversation with the people. The innocent harvest was duly reaped; the +natives met the Spaniards with gifts of food and drink, and understanding +that the Admiral would like to have a parrot, they sent as many parrots +as were wanted. The husband of the girl who had been captured and +clothed came back with her to the shore with a large body of natives, +in order to thank the Admiral for his kindness and clemency; and their +confidence was not misplaced, as the Admiral did not at that moment wish +to do any more kidnapping. The Spaniards were more and more amazed and +impressed with the beauty and fertility of these islands. The lands were +more lovely than the finest land in Castile; the rivers were large and +wide, the trees green and full of fruit, the grasses knee-deep and +starred with flowers; the birds sang sweetly all night; there were mastic +trees and aloes and plantations of cotton. There was fishing in plenty; +and if there were not any gold mines immediately at hand, they here sure +to be round the next headland or, at the farthest, in the next island. +The people, too, charmed and delighted the Admiral, who saw in them a +future glorious army of souls converted to the Christian religion. They +were taller and handsomer than the inhabitants of the other islands, and +the women much fairer; indeed, if they had not been so much exposed to +the sun, and if they could only be clothed in the decent garments of +civilisation, the Admiral thought that their skins would be as white as +those of the women of Spain--which was only another argument for bringing +them within the fold of the Holy Catholic Church. The men were powerful +and apparently harmless; they showed no truculent or suspicious spirit; +they had no knowledge of arms; a thousand of them would not face three +Christians; and + + "so they are suitable to be governed and made to work and sow and do + everything else that shall be necessary, and to build villages and + be taught to wear clothing and observe our customs." + +At present, you see, they are but poor happy heathens, living in a +paradise of their own, where the little birds sing all through the warm +nights, and the rivers murmur through flowery meadows, and no one has any +knowledge of arms or desire of such knowledge, and every one goes naked +and unashamed. High time, indeed, that they should be taught to wear +clothing and observe our customs. + + +The local chief came on a visit of state to the ship; and the Admiral +paid him due honour, telling him that he came as an envoy from the +greatest sovereigns in the world. But this charming king, or cacique as +they called him, would not believe this; he thought that Columbus was, +for reasons of modesty, speaking less than the truth--a new charge to +bring against our Christopher! He believed that the Spaniards came from +heaven, and that the realms of the sovereigns of Castile were in the +heavens and not in this world. He took some refreshment, as his +councillors did also, little dreaming, poor wretches, what in after years +was to come to them through all this palavering and exchanging of +presents. The immediate result of the interview, however, was to make +intercourse with the natives much freer and pleasanter even than it had +been before; and some of the sailors went fishing with the natives. +It was then that they were shown some cane arrows with hardened points, +which the natives said belonged to the people of 'Caniba', who, they +alleged, came to the island to capture and eat the natives. The Admiral +did not believe it; his sublime habit of rejecting everything that did +not fit in with his theory of the moment, and accepting everything that +did, made him shake his head when this piece of news was brought to him. +He could not get the Great Khan out of his head, and his present theory +was that this island, being close to the mainland of Cathay, was visited +by the armies of the Great Khan, and that it was his men who had used the +arrows and made war upon the natives. It was no good for the natives to +show him some of their mutilated bodies, and to tell him that the +cannibals ate them piecemeal; he had no use for such information. His +mind was like a sieve of which the size of the meshes could be adjusted +at will; everything that was not germane to the idea of the moment fell +through it, and only confirmative evidence remained; and at the moment he +was not believing any stories which did not prove that the Great Khan +was, so to speak, just round the corner. If they talked about gold he +would listen to them; and so the cacique brought him a piece of gold the +size of his hand and, breaking it into pieces, gave it to him a bit at a +time. This the Admiral took to be sign of great intelligence. They told +him there was gold at Tortuga, but he preferred to believe that it came +from Babeque, which may have been Jamaica and may have been nothing at +all. + +But his theory was that it existed on Espanola only in small pieces +because that country was so rich that the natives had no need for it; +an economic theory which one grows dizzy in pondering. At any rate +"the Admiral believed that he was very near the fountainhead, and that +Our Lord was about to show him where the gold originates." + +On Tuesday, December 18th, the ships were all dressed in honour of a +religious anniversary, and the cacique, hearing the firing of the +lombards with which the festival was greeted, came down to the shore to +see what was the matter. As Columbus was sitting at dinner on deck +beneath the poop the cacique arrived with all his people; and the account +of his visit is preserved in Columbus's own words. + + "As he entered the ship he found that I was eating at the table + below the stern forecastle, and he came quickly to seat himself + beside me, and would not allow me to go to meet him or get up from + the table, but only that I should eat. I thought that he would like + to eat some of our viands and I then ordered that things should be + brought him to eat. And when he entered under the forecastle, he + signed with his hand that all his people should remain without, and + they did so with the greatest haste and respect in the world, and + all seated themselves on the deck, except two men of mature age whom + I took to be his counsellors and governors, and who came and seated + themselves at his feet: and of the viands which I placed before him + he took of each one as much as may be taken for a salutation, and + then he sent the rest to his people and they all ate some of it, and + he did the same with the drink, which he only touched to his mouth, + and then gave it to the others in the same way, and it was all done + in wonderful state and with very few words, and whatever he said, + according to what I was able to understand, was very formal and + prudent, and those two looked in his face and spoke for him and with + him, and with great respect. + + "After eating, a page brought a belt which is like those of Castile + in shape, but of a different make, which he took and gave me, and + also two wrought pieces of gold, which were very thin, as I believe + they obtain very little of it here, although I consider they are + very near the place where it has its home, and that there is a great + deal of it. I saw that a drapery that I had upon my bed pleased + him. I gave it to him, and some very good amber beads which I wore + around my neck and some red shoes and a flask of orange-flower + water, with which he was so pleased it was wonderful; and he and his + governor and counsellors were very sorry that they did not + understand me, nor I them. Nevertheless I understood that he told + me that if anything from here would satisfy me that all the island + was at my command. I sent for some beads of mine, where as a sign I + have a 'excelente' of gold upon which the images of your Highnesses + are engraved, and showed it to him, and again told him the same as + yesterday, that your Highnesses command and rule over all the best + part of the world, and that there are no other such great Princes: + and I showed him the royal banners and the others with the cross, + which he held in great estimation: and he said to his counsellors + that your Highnesses must be great Lords, since you had sent me here + from so far without fear: and many other things happened which I did + not understand, except that I very well saw he considered everything + as very wonderful." + +Later in the day Columbus got into talk with an old man who told him that +there was a great quantity of gold to be found on some island about a +hundred leagues away; that there was one island that was all gold; and +that in the others there was such a quantity that they natives gathered +it and sifted it with sieves and made it into bars. The old man pointed +out vaguely the direction in which this wonderful country lay; and if he +had not been one of the principal persons belonging to the King Columbus +would have detained him and taken him with him; but he decided that he +had paid the cacique too much respect to make it right that he should +kidnap one of his retinue. He determined, however, to go and look for +the gold. Before he left he had a great cross erected in the middle of +the Indian village; and as he made sail out of the harbour that evening +he could see the Indians kneeling round the cross and adoring it. He +sailed eastward, anchoring for a day in the Bay of Acul, which he called +Cabo de Caribata, receiving something like an ovation from the natives, +and making them presents and behaving very graciously and kindly to them. + +It was at this time that Columbus made the acquaintance of a man whose +character shines like a jewel amid the dismal scenes that afterwards +accompanied the first bursting of the wave of civilisation on these happy +shores. This was the king of that part of the island, a young man named +Guacanagari. This king sent out a large canoe full of people to the +Admiral's ship, with a request that Columbus would land in his country, +and a promise that the chief would give him whatever he had. There +must have been an Intelligence Department in the island, for the chief +seemed to know what would be most likely to attract the Admiral; and with +his messengers he sent out a belt with a large golden mask attached to +it. Unfortunately the natives on board the Admiral's ship could not +understand Guacanagari's messengers, and nearly the whole of the day was +passed in talking before the sense of their message was finally made out +by means of signs. In the evening some Spaniards were sent ashore to see +if they could not get some gold; but Columbus, who had evidently had some +recent experience of their avariciousness, and who was anxious to keep on +good terms with the chiefs of the island, sent his secretary with them to +see that they did nothing unjust or unreasonable. He was scrupulous to +see that the natives got their bits of glass and beads in exchange for +the gold; and it is due to him to remember that now, as always, he was +rigid in regulating his conduct with other men in accordance with his +ideas of justice and honour, however elastic those ideas may seem to have +been. The ruffianly crew had in their minds only the immediate +possession of what they could get from the Indians; the Admiral had in +his mind the whole possession of the islands and the bodies and souls of +its inhabitants. If you take a piece of gold without giving a glass bead +in exchange for it, it is called stealing; if you take a country and its +inhabitants, and steal their peace from them, and give them blood and +servitude in exchange for it, it is called colonisation and Empire- +building. Every one understands the distinction; but so few people see +the difference that Columbus of all men may be excused for his +unconsciousness of it. + +Indeed Columbus was seeing yellow at this point in his career. The word +"gold" is scattered throughout every page of his journal; he can +understand nothing that the natives say to him except that there is a +great quantity of gold somewhere about. He is surrounded by natives +pressing presents upon him, protesting their homage, and assuring him (so +he thinks) that there are any amount of gold mines; and no wonder that +the yellow light blinds his eyes and confounds his senses, and that +sometimes, even when the sun has gone down and the natives have retired +to their villages and he sits alone in the seclusion of his cabin, the +glittering motes still dance before his eyes and he becomes mad, maudlin, +ecstatic . . . . The light flickers in the lamp as the ship swings a +little on the quiet tide and a night breeze steals through the cabin +door; the sound of voices ashore sounds dimly across the water; the brain +of the Admiral, overfilled with wonders and promises and hopes, sends its +message to the trembling hand that holds the pen, and the incoherent +words stream out on the ink. "May our Lord in His mercy direct me until +I find this gold, I say this Mine, because I have many people here who +say that they know it." + +On Christmas Eve a serious misfortune befell Columbus. What with looking +for gold, and trying to understand the people who talked about it, and +looking after his ships, and writing up his journal, he had had +practically no sleep for two days and a night; and at eleven o'clock on +the 24th of December, the night being fine and his ship sailing along the +coast with a light land breeze, he decided to lie down to get some sleep. +There were no difficulties in navigation to be feared, because the ship's +boats had been rowed the day before a distance of about ten miles ahead +on the course which they were then steering and had seen that there was +open water all the way. The wind fell calm; and the man at the helm, +having nothing to do, and feeling sleepy, called a ship's boy to him, +gave him the helm, and went off himself to lie down. This of course was +against all rules; but as the Admiral was in his cabin and there was no +one to tell them otherwise the watch on deck thought it a very good +opportunity to rest. Suddenly the boy felt the rudder catch upon +something, saw the ship swinging, and immediately afterwards heard the +sound of tide ripples. He cried out; and in a moment Columbus, who was +sleeping the light sleep of an anxious shipmaster, came tumbling up to +see what was the matter. The current, which flows in that place at a +speed of about two knots, had carried the ship on to a sand bank, but she +touched so quietly that it was hardly felt. Close on the heels of, +Columbus came the master of the ship and the delinquent watch; and the +Admiral immediately ordered them to launch the ship's boat--and lay out +an anchor astern so that they could warp her off. The wretches lowered +the boat, but instead of getting the anchor on board rowed off in the +direction of the Nina, which was lying a mile and a half to windward. +As soon as Columbus saw what they were doing he ran to the side and, +seeing that the tide was failing and that the ship had swung round across +the bank, ordered the remainder of the crew to cut away the mainmast and +throw the deck hamper overboard, in order to lighten the ship. This took +some time; the tide was falling, and the ship beginning to heel over on +her beam; and by the time it was done the Admiral saw that it would be of +no use, for the ship's seams had opened and she was filling. + +At this point the miserable crew in the ship's boat came back, the loyal +people on the Nina having refused to receive them and sent them back to +the assistance of the Admiral. But it was now too late to do anything to +save the ship; and as he did not know but that she might break up, +Columbus decided to tranship the people to the Nina, who had by this time +sent her own boat. The whole company boarded the Nina, on which the +Admiral beat about miserably till morning in the vicinity of his doomed +ship. Then he sent Diego de Arana, the brother of Beatriz and a trusty +friend, ashore in a boat to beg the help of the King; and Guacanagari +immediately sent his people with large canoes to unload the wrecked ship, +which was done with great efficiency and despatch, and the whole of her +cargo and fittings stored on shore under a guard. And so farewell to the +Santa Maria, whose bones were thenceforward to bleach upon the shores of +Hayti, or incongruously adorn the dwellings of the natives. She may have +been "a bad sailer and unfit for discovery"; but no seaman looks without +emotion upon the wreck of a ship whose stem has cut the waters of home, +which has carried him safely over thousands of uncharted miles, and which +has for so long been his shelter and sanctuary. + + +At sunrise the kind-hearted cacique came down to the Nina, where Columbus +had taken up his quarters, and with tears in his eyes begged the Admiral +not to grieve at his losses, for that he, the cacique, would give him +everything that he possessed; that he had already given two large houses +to the Spaniards from the Santa Maria who had been obliged to encamp on +shore, and that he would provide more accommodation and help if +necessary. In fact, the day which had been ushered in so disastrously +turned into a very happy one; and before it was over Columbus had decided +that, as he could not take the whole of his company home on the Nina, he +would establish a settlement on shore so that the men who were left +behind could collect gold and store it until more ships could be sent +from Spain. The natives came buzzing round anxious to barter whatever +they had for hawks' bells, which apparently were the most popular of the +toys that had been brought for bartering; "they shouted and showed the +pieces of gold, saying chuq, chuq, for hawks' bells, as they are in a +likely state to become crazy for them." The cacique was delighted to see +that the Admiral was pleased with the gold that was brought to him, and +he cheered him up by telling him that there was any amount in Cibao, +which Columbus of course took for Cipango. The cacique entertained +Columbus to a repast on shore, at which the monarch wore a shirt and a +pair of gloves that Columbus had given him; "and he rejoiced more over +the gloves than anything that had been given him." Columbus was pleased +with his clean and leisurely method of eating, and with his dainty +rubbing of his hands with herbs after he had eaten. After the repast +Columbus gave a little demonstration of bow-and-arrow shooting and the +firing of lombards and muskets, all of which astonished and impressed the +natives. + +The afternoon was spent in deciding on a site for the fortress which was +to be constructed; and Columbus had no difficulty in finding volunteers +among the crews to remain in the settlement. He promised to leave with +them provisions of bread and wine for a year, a ship's boat, seeds for +sowing crops, and a carpenter, a caulker, a gunner, and a cooper. Before +the day was out he was already figuring up the profit that would arise +out of his misfortune of the day before; and he decided that it was the +act of God which had cast his ship away in order that this settlement +should be founded. He hoped that the settlers would have a ton of gold +ready for him when he came back from Castile, so that, as he had said in +the glittering camp of Santa Fe, where perhaps no one paid very much heed +to him, there might be such a profit as would provide for the conquest of +Jerusalem and the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre. After all, if he was +greedy for gold, he had a pious purpose for its employment. + + +The last days of the year were very busy ones for the members of the +expedition. Assisted by the natives they were building the fort which, +in memory of the day on which it was founded, Columbus called La Villa- +de la Navidad. The Admiral spent much time with King Guacanagari, who +"loved him so much that it was wonderful," and wished to cover him all +over with gold before he went away, and begged him not to go before it +was done. On December 27th there was some good news; a caravel had been +seen entering a harbour a little further along the coast; and as this +could only mean that the Pinta had returned, Columbus borrowed a canoe +from the king, and despatched a sailor in it to carry news of his +whereabouts to the Pinta. While it was away Guacanagari collected all +the other kings and chiefs who were subject to him, and held a kind of +durbar. They all wore their crowns; and Guacanagari took off his crown +and placed it on Columbus's head; and the Admiral, not to be outdone, +took from his own neck "a collar of good bloodstones and very beautiful +beads of fine colours; which appeared very good in all parts, and placed +it upon the King; and he took off a cloak of fine scarlet cloth which he +had put on that day, and clothed the King with it; and he sent for some +coloured buskins which he made him put on, and placed upon his finger a +large silver ring"--all of which gives us a picturesque glimpse into the +contents of the Admiral's wardrobe, and a very agreeable picture of King +Guacanagari, whom we must now figure as clothed, in addition to his shirt +and gloves, in a pair of coloured buskins, a collar of bloodstones, a +scarlet cloak and a silver ring. + +But the time was running short; the Admiral, hampered as he was by the +possession of only one small ship, had now but one idea, which was to get +back to Castile as quickly as possible, report the result of his +discoveries, and come back again with a larger and more efficient +equipment. Before he departed he had an affectionate leave-taking with +King Guacanagari; he gave him another shirt, and also provided a +demonstration of the effect of lombards by having one loaded, and firing +at the old Santa Maria where she lay hove down on the sandbank. The shot +went clean through her hull and fell into the sea beyond, and produced +what might be called a very strong moral effect, although an unnecessary +one, on the natives. He then set about the very delicate business of +organising the settlement. In all, forty-two men were to remain behind, +with Diego de Arana in the responsible position of chief lieutenant, +assisted by Pedro Gutierrez and Rodrigo de Escovedo, the nephew of Friar +Juan Perez of La Rabida. To these three he delegated all his powers and +authority as Admiral and Viceroy; and then, having collected the +colonists, gave them a solemn address. First, he reminded them of the +goodness of God to them, and advised them to remain worthy of it by +obeying the Divine command in all their actions. Second, he ordered +them, as a representative of the Sovereigns of Spain, to obey the captain +whom he had appointed for them as they would have obeyed himself. Third, +he urged them to show respect and reverence towards King Guacanagari and +his chiefs, and to the inferior chiefs, and to avoid annoying them or +tormenting them, since they were to remain in a land that was as yet +under native dominion; to "strive and watch by their soft and honest +speech to gain their good-will and keep their friendship and love, so +that he should find them as friendly and favourable and more so when he +returned." Fourth, he commanded them "and begged them earnestly" to do +no injury and use no force against any natives; to take nothing from them +against their will; and especially to be on their guard to avoid injury +or violence to the women, "by which they would cause scandal and set a +bad example to the Indians and show the infamy of the Christians." +Fifth, he charged them not to scatter themselves or leave the place where +they then were, but to remain together until he returned. Sixth, he +"animated" them to suffer their solitude and exile cheerfully and +bravely, since they had willingly chosen it. The seventh order was, that +they should get help from the King to send boat expeditions in search of +the gold mines; and lastly, he promised that he would petition the +Sovereigns to honour them with special favours and rewards. To this very +manly, wise and humane address the people listened with some emotion, +assuring Columbus that they placed their hopes in him, "begging him +earnestly to remember them always, and that as quickly as he could he +should give them the great joy which they anticipated from his coming +again." + +All of which things being done, the ships [ship--there was only the Nina] +loaded and provisioned, and the Admiral's final directions given, he +makes his farewells and weighs anchor at sunrise on Friday, January 4., +1493. Among the little crowd on the shore who watch the Nina growing +smaller in the distance are our old friends Allard and William, tired of +the crazy confinement of a ship and anxious for shore adventures. They +are to have their fill of them, as it happens; adventures that are to +bring to the settlers a sudden cloud of blood and darkness, and for the +islanders a brief return to their ancient peace. But death waits for +Allard and William in the sunshine and silence of Espanola. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE VOYAGE HOME + +Columbus did not stand out to sea on his homeward course immediately, but +still coasted along the shores of the island as though he were loth to +leave it, and as though he might still at some bend of a bay or beyond +some verdant headland come upon the mines and jewels that he longed for. +The mountain that he passed soon after starting he called Monte Christi, +which name it bears to this day; and he saw many other mountains and +capes and bays, to all of which he gave names. And it was a fortunate +chance which led him thus to stand along the coast of the island; for on +January 6th the sailor who was at the masthead, looking into the clear +water for shoals and rocks, reported that he saw the caravel Pinta right +ahead. When she came up with him, as they were in very shallow water not +suitable for anchorage, Columbus returned to the bay of Monte Christi to +anchor there. Presently Martin Alonso Pinzon came on board to report +himself--a somewhat crestfallen Martin, we may be sure, for he had failed +to find the gold the hope of which had led him to break his honour as a +seaman. But the Martin Alonsos of this world, however sorry their +position may be, will always find some kind of justification for it. It +must have been a trying moment for Martin Alonso as his boat from the +Pinta drew near the Nina, and he saw the stalwart commanding figure of +the white-haired Admiral walking the poop. He knew very well that +according to the law and custom of the sea Columbus would have been well +within his right in shooting him or hanging him on the spot; but Martin +puts on a bold face as, with a cold dread at his heart and (as likely as +not) an ingratiating smile upon his face he comes up over the side. +Perhaps, being in some ways a cleverer man than Christopher, he knew the +Admiral's weak points; knew that he was kind-hearted, and would remember +those days of preparation at Palos when Martin Alonso had been his +principal stay and help. Martin's story was that he had been separated +from the Admiral against his will; that the crew insisted upon it, and +that in any case they had only meant to go and find some gold and bring +it back to the Admiral. Columbus did not believe him for a moment, but +either his wisdom or his weakness prevented him from saying so. He +reproached Martin Alonso for acting with pride and covetousness "that +night when he went away and left him"; and Columbus could not think "from +whence had come the haughty actions and dishonesty Martin had shown +towards him on that voyage." Martin had done a good trade and had got a +certain amount of gold; and no doubt he knew well in what direction to +turn the conversation when it was becoming unpleasant to himself. He +told Columbus of an island to the south of Juana--[Cuba]-- called +Yamaye,--[Jamaica]-- where pieces of gold were taken from the mines as +large as kernels of wheat, and of another island towards the east which +was inhabited only by women. + +The unpleasantness was passed over as soon as possible, although the +Admiral felt that the sooner he got home the better, since he was +practically at the mercy of the Pinzon brothers and their following from +Palos. He therefore had the Pinta beached and recaulked and took in wood +and water, and continued his voyage on Tuesday, January 8th. He says +that "this night in the name of our Lord he will start on his journey +without delaying himself further for any matter, since he had found what +he had sought, and he did not wish to have more trouble with that Martin +Alonso until their Highnesses learned the news of the voyage and what he +has done." After that it will be another matter, and his turn will come; +for then, he says, "I will not suffer the bad deeds of persons without +virtue, who, with little respect, presume to carry out their own wills in +opposition to those who did them honour." Indeed, for several days, the +name of "that Martin Alonso" takes the place of gold in Columbus's +Journal. There were all kinds of gossip about the ill deeds of Martin +Alonso, who had taken four Indian men and two young girls by force; the +Admiral releasing them immediately and sending them back to their homes. +Martin Alonso, moreover, had made a rule that half the gold that was +found was to be kept by himself; and he tried to get all the people of +his ship to swear that he had been trading for only six days, but "his +wickedness was so public that he could not hide it." It was a good thing +that Columbus had his journal to talk to, for he worked off a deal of +bitterness in it. On Sunday, January 13th, when he had sent a boat +ashore to collect some "ajes" or potatoes, a party of natives with their +faces painted and with the plumes of parrots in their hair came and +attacked the party from the boat; but on getting a slash or two with a +cutlass they took to flight and escaped from the anger of the Spaniards. +Columbus thought that they were cannibals or caribs, and would like to +have taken some of them, but they did not come back, although afterwards +he collected four youths who came out to the caravel with cotton and +arrows. + +Columbus was very curious about the island of Matinino,--[Martinique]-- +which was the one said to be inhabited only by women, and he wished very +much to go there; but the caravels were leaking badly, the crews were +complaining, and he was reluctantly compelled to shape his course for +Spain. He sailed to the north-east, being anxious apparently to get into +the region of westerly winds which he correctly guessed would be found to +the north of the course he had sailed on his outward voyage. By the 17th +of January he was in the vicinity of the Sargasso Sea again, which this +time had no terrors for him. From his journal the word "gold" suddenly +disappears; the Viceroy and Governor-General steps off the stage; and in +his place appears the sea captain, watching the frigate birds and +pelicans, noting the golden gulf-weed in the sea, and smelling the +breezes that are once more as sweet as the breezes of Seville in May. He +had a good deal of trouble with his dead-reckoning at this time, owing to +the changing winds and currents; but he made always from fifty to seventy +miles a day in a direction between north-by-east and north-north-east. +The Pinta was not sailing well, and he often had to wait for her to come +up with him; and he reflected in his journal that if Martin Alonso Pinzon +had taken as much pains to provide himself with a good mast in the Indies +as he had to separate himself from the Admiral, the Pinta would have +sailed better. + +And so he went on for several days, with the wind veering always south +and south-west, and pointing pretty steadily to the north-east. On +February 4th he changed his course, and went as near due east as he +could. They now began to find themselves in considerable doubt as to +their position. The Admiral said he was seventy-five leagues to the +south of Flores; Vincenti Pinzon and the pilots thought that they had +passed the Azores and were in the neighbourhood of Madeira. In other +words, there was a difference of 600 miles between their estimates, +and the Admiral remarks that "the grace of God permitting, as soon as +land is seen, it will be known who has calculated the surest." + +A great quantity of birds that began to fly about the ship made him think +that they were near land, but they turned out to be the harbingers of a +storm. On Tuesday, February 12th, the sea and wind began to rise, and it +continued to blow harder throughout that night and the next day. The +wind being aft he went under bare poles most of the night, and when day +came hoisted a little sail; but the sea was terrible, and if he had not +been so sure of the staunch little Nina he would have felt himself in +danger of being lost. The next day the sea, instead of going down, +increased in roughness; there was a heavy cross sea which kept breaking +right over the ship, and it became necessary to make a little sail in +order to run before the wind, and to prevent the vessel falling back into +the trough of the seas. All through Thursday he ran thus under the half +hoisted staysail, and he could see the Pinta running also before the +wind, although since she presented more surface, and was able to carry a +little more sail than the Nina, she was soon lost to sight. The Admiral +showed lights through the night, and this time there was no lack of +response from Martin Alonso; and for some part of that dark and stormy +night these two humanly freighted scraps of wood and cordage staggered +through the gale showing lights to each other; until at last the light +from the Pinta disappeared. When morning came she was no longer to be +seen; and the wind and the sea had if anything increased. The Nina was +now in the greatest danger. Any one wave of the heavy cross sea, if it +had broken fairly across her, would have sunk her; and she went swinging +and staggering down into the great valleys and up into the hills, the +steersman's heart in his mouth, and the whole crew in an extremity of +fear. Columbus, who generally relied upon his seamanship, here invoked +external aid, and began to offer bargains to the Almighty. He ordered +that lots should be cast, and that he upon whom the lot fell should make +a vow to go on pilgrimage to Santa Maria de Guadaloupe carrying a white +candle of five pounds weight. Same dried peas were brought, one for +every member of the crew, and on one of them a cross was marked with a +knife; the peas were well shaken and were put into a cap. The first to +draw was the Admiral; he drew the marked pea, and he made the vow. Lots +were again drawn, this time for a greater pilgrimage to Santa Maria de +Loretto in Ancona; and the lot fell on a seaman named Pedro de Villa,-- +the expenses of whose pilgrimage Columbus promised to pay. Again lots +were drawn for a pilgrimage to the shrine of Santa Clara of Moguer, the +pilgrim to watch and pray for one night there; and again the lot fell on +Columbus. In addition to these, every one, since they took themselves +for lost, made some special and private vow or bargain with God; and +finally they all made a vow together that at the first land they reached +they would go in procession in their shirts to pray at an altar of Our +Lady. + +The scene thus conjured up is one peculiar to the time and condition of +these people, and is eloquent and pathetic enough: the little ship +staggering and bounding along before the wind, and the frightened crew, +who had gone through so many other dangers, huddled together under the +forecastle, drawing peas out of a cap, crossing themselves, making vows +upon their knees, and seeking to hire the protection of the Virgin by +their offers of candles and pilgrimages. Poor Christopher, standing in +his drenched oilskins and clinging to a piece of rigging, had his own +searching of heart and examining of conscience. He was aware of the +feverish anxiety and impatience that he felt, now that he had been +successful in discovering a New World, to bring home the news and fruits +of it; his desire to prove true what he had promised was so great that, +in his own graphic phrase, "it seemed to him that every gnat could +disturb and impede it"; and he attributed this anxiety to his lack of +faith in God. He comforted himself, like Robinson Crusoe in a similar +extremity, by considering on the other hand what favours God had shown +him, and by remembering that it was to the glory of God that the fruits +of his discovery were to be dedicated. But in the meantime here he was +in a ship insufficiently ballasted (for she was now practically empty of +provisions, and they had found it necessary to fill the wine and water +casks with salt water in order to trim her) and flying before a tempest +such as he had never experienced in his life. As a last resource, and in +order to give his wonderful news a chance of reaching Spain in case the +ship were lost, he went into his cabin and somehow or other managed to +write on a piece of parchment a brief account of his discoveries, begging +any one who might find it to carry it to the Spanish Sovereigns. He tied +up the parchment in a waxed cloth, and put it into a large barrel without +any one seeing him, and then ordered the barrel to be thrown into the +sea, which the crew took to be some pious act of sacrifice or devotion. +Then he went back on deck and watched the last of the daylight going and +the green seas swelling and thundering about his little ship, and thought +anxiously of his two little boys at school in Cordova, and wondered what +would become of them if he were lost. The next morning the wind had +changed a little, though it was still very high; but he was able to hoist +up the bonnet or topsail, and presently the sea began to go down a +little. When the sun rose they saw land to the east-north-east. Some of +them thought it was Madeira, others the rock of Cintra in Portugal; the +pilots said it was the coast of Spain, the Admiral thought it was the +Azores; but at any rate it was land of some kind. The sun was shining +upon it and upon the tumbling sea; and although the waves were still +raging mast-high and the wind still blowing a hard gale, the miserable +crew were able to hope that, having lived through the night, they could +live through the day also. They had to beat about to make the land, +which was now ahead of them, now on the beam, and now astern; and +although they had first sighted it at sunrise on Friday morning it was +early on Monday morning, February 18th, before Columbus was able to cast +anchor off the northern coast of an island which he discovered to be the +island of Santa Maria in the Azores. On this day Columbus found time to +write a letter to Luis de Santangel, the royal Treasurer, giving a full +account of his voyage and discoveries; which letter he kept and +despatched on the 4th of March, after he had arrived in Lisbon. Since it +contained a postscript written at the last moment we shall read it at +that stage of our narrative. The inhabitants of Santa Maria received the +voyagers with astonishment, for they believed that nothing could have +lived through the tempest that had been raging for the last fortnight. +They were greatly excited by the story of the discoveries; and the +Admiral, who had now quite recovered command of himself, was able to +pride himself on the truth of his dead-reckoning, which had proved to be +so much more accurate than that of the pilots. + +On the Tuesday evening three men hailed them from the shore, and when +they were brought off to the ship delivered a message from the Portuguese +Governor of the island, Juan de Castaneda, to the effect that he knew the +Admiral very well, and that he was delighted to hear of his wonderful +voyage. The next morning Columbus, remembering the vow that had been +made in the storm, sent half the crew ashore in their shirts to a little +hermitage, which was on the other side of a point a short distance away, +and asked the Portuguese messenger to send a priest to say Mass for them. +While the members of the crew were at their prayers, however, they +received a rude surprise. They were suddenly attacked by the islanders, +who had come up on horses under the command of the treacherous Governor, +and taken prisoners. Columbus waited unsuspectingly for the boat to come +back with them, in order that he and the other half of the crew could go +and perform their vow. + +When the boat did not come back he began to fear that some accident must +have happened to it, and getting his anchor up he set sail for the point +beyond which the hermitage was situated. No sooner had he rounded the +point than he saw a band of horsemen, who dismounted, launched the boat +which was drawn up on the beach, and began to row out, evidently with the +intention of attacking the Admiral. When they came up to the Nina the +man in command of them rose and asked Columbus to assure him of personal +safety; which assurance was wonderingly given; and the Admiral inquired +how it was that none of his own people were in the boat? Columbus +suspected treachery and tried to meet it with treachery also, +endeavouring with smooth words to get the captain to come on board so +that he could seize him as a hostage. But as the Portuguese would not +come on board Columbus told them that they were acting very unwisely in +affronting his people; that in the land of the Sovereigns of Castile the +Portuguese were treated with great honour and security; that he held +letters of recommendation from the Sovereigns addressed to every ruler in +the world, and added that he was their Admiral of the Ocean Seas and +Viceroy of the Indies, and could show the Portuguese his commission to +that effect; and finally, that if his people were not returned to him, he +would immediately make sail for Spain with the crew that was left to him +and report this insult to the Spanish Sovereigns. To all of which the +Portuguese captain replied that he did not know any Sovereigns of +Castile; that neither they nor their letters were of any account in that +island; that they were not afraid of Columbus; and that they would have +him know that he had Portugal to deal with--edging away in the boat at +the same time to a convenient distance from the caravel. When he thought +he was out of gunshot he shouted to Columbus, ordering him to take his +caravel back to the harbour by command of the Governor of the island. +Columbus answered by calling his crew to witness that he pledged his word +not to descend from or leave his caravel until he had taken a hundred +Portuguese to Castile, and had depopulated all their islands. After +which explosion of words he returned to the harbour and anchored there, +"as the weather and wind were very unfavourable for anything else." + +He was, however, in a very bad anchorage, with a rocky bottom which +presently fouled his anchors; and on the Wednesday he had to make sail +towards the island of San Miguel if order to try and find a better +anchorage. + +But the wind and sea getting up again very badly he was obliged to beat +about all night in a very unpleasant situation, with only three sailors +who could be relied upon, and a rabble of gaol-birds and longshoremen who +were of little use in a tempest but to draw lots and vow pilgrimages. +Finding himself unable to make the island of San Miguel he decided to go +back to Santa Maria and make an attempt to recover his boat and his crew +and the anchor and cables he had lost there. + +In his Journal for this day, and amid all his anxieties, he found time to +note down one of his curious visionary cosmographical reflections. This +return to a region of storms and heavy seas reminded him of the long +months he had spent in the balmy weather and calm waters of his +discovery; in which facts he found a confirmation of the theological idea +that the Eden, or Paradise, of earth was "at the end of the Orient, +because it is a most temperate place. So that these lands which he had +now discovered are at the end of the Orient." Reflections such as these, +which abound in his writings, ought in themselves to be a sufficient +condemnation of those who have endeavoured to prove that Columbus was a +man of profound cosmographical learning and of a scientific mind. A man +who would believe that he had discovered the Orient because in the place +where he had been he had found calm weather, and because the theologians +said that the Garden of Eden must be in the Orient since it is a +temperate place, would believe anything. + +Late on Thursday night, when he anchored again in the harbour of San +Lorenzo at Santa Maria, a man hailed them from the rocks, and asked them +not to go away. Presently a boat containing five sailors, two priests, +and a notary put off from the beach; and they asked for a guarantee of +security in order that they might treat with the Admiral. They slept on +board that night, and in the morning asked him to show them his authority +from the Spanish Sovereigns, which the Admiral did, understanding that +they had asked for this formality in order to save their dignity. He +showed them his general letter from the King and Queen of Spain, +addressed to "Princes and Lords of High Degree"; and being satisfied with +this they went ashore and released the Admiral's people, from whom he +learned that what had been done had been done by command of the King of +Portugal, and that he had issued an order to the Governors of all the +Portuguese islands that if Columbus landed there on his way home he was +to be taken prisoner. + +He sailed again on Sunday, February 24th, encountering heavy winds and +seas, which troubled him greatly with fears lest some disaster should +happen at the eleventh hour to interfere with his, triumph. On Sunday, +March 3rd, the wind rose to the force of a hurricane, and, on a sudden +gust of violent wind splitting all the sails, the unhappy crew gathered +together again and drew more lots and made more vows. This time the +pilgrimage was to be to the shrine of Santa Maria at Huelva, the pilgrim +to go as before in his shirt; and the lot fell to the Admiral. The rest +of them made a vow to fast on the next Saturday on bread and water; but +as they all thought it extremely unlikely that by that time they would be +in need of any bodily sustenance the sacrifice could hardly have been a +great one. They scudded along under bare poles and in a heavy cross sea +all that night; but at dawn on Monday they saw land ahead of them, which +Columbus recognised as the rock of Cintra at Lisbon; and at Lisbon sure +enough they landed some time during the morning. As soon as they were +inside the river the people came flocking down with stories of the gale +and of all the wrecks that there had been on the coast. Columbus hurried +away from the excited crowds to write a letter to the King of Portugal, +asking him for a safe conduct to Spain, and assuring him that he had come +from the Indies, and not from any of the forbidden regions of Guinea. + +The next day brought a visit from no less a person than Bartholomew Diaz. +Columbus had probably met him before in 1486, when Diaz had been a +distinguished man and Columbus a man not distinguished; but now things +were changed. Diaz ordered Columbus to come on board his small vessel in +order to go and report himself to the King's officers; but Columbus +replied that he was the Admiral of the Sovereigns of Castile, "that he +did not render such account to such persons," and that he declined to +leave his ship. Diaz then ordered him to send the captain of the Nina; +but Columbus refused to send either the captain or any other person, and +otherwise gave himself airs as the Admiral of the Ocean Seas. Diaz then +moderated his requests, and merely asked Columbus to show him his letter +of authority, which Columbus did; and then Diaz went away and brought +back with him the captain of the Portuguese royal yacht, who came in +great state on board the shabby little Nina, with kettle-drums and +trumpets and pipes, and placed himself at the disposal of Columbus. It +is a curious moment, this, in which the two great discoverers of their +time, Diaz and Columbus, meet for an hour on the deck of a forty-ton +caravel; a curious thing to consider that they who had performed such +great feats of skill and bravery, one to discover the southernmost point +of the old world and the other to voyage across an uncharted ocean to the +discovery of an entirely new world, could find nothing better to talk +about than their respective ranks and glories; and found no more +interesting subject of discussion than the exact amount of state and +privilege which should be accorded to each. + + +During the day or two in which Columbus waited in the port crowds of +people came down from Lisbon to see the little Nina, which was an object +of much admiration and astonishment; to see the Indians also, at whom +they greatly marvelled. It was probably at this time that the letter +addressed to Luis de Santangel, containing the first official account of +the voyage, was despatched. + + * + ***** + * + * + + "Sir: As I am sure you will be pleased at the great victory which + the Lord has given me in my voyage, I write this to inform you that + in twenty' days I arrived in the Indies with the squadron which + their Majesties had placed under my command. There I discovered + many islands, inhabited by a numerous population, and took + possession of them for their Highnesses, with public ceremony and + the royal flag displayed, without molestation. + + "The first that I discovered I named San Salvador, in remembrance of + that Almighty Power which had so miraculously bestowed them. The + Indians call it Guanahani. To the second I assigned the name of + Santa Marie de Conception; to the third that of Fernandina; to the + fourth that of Isabella; to the fifth Juana; and so on, to every one + a new name. + + "When I arrived at Juana, I followed the coast to the westward, and + found it so extensive that I considered it must be a continent and a + province of Cathay. And as I found no towns or villages by the + seaside, excepting some small settlements, with the people of which + I could not communicate because they all ran away, I continued my + course to the westward, thinking I should not fail to find some + large town and cities. After having coasted many leagues without + finding any signs of them, and seeing that the coast took me to the + northward, where I did not wish to go, as the winter was already set + in, I considered it best to follow the coast to the south and the + wind being also scant, I determined to lose no more time, and + therefore returned to a certain port, from whence I sent two + messengers into the country to ascertain whether there was any king + there or any large city. + + "They travelled for three days, finding an infinite number of small + settlements and an innumerable population, but nothing like a city: + on which account--they returned. I had tolerably well ascertained + from some Indians whom I had taken that this land was only an + island, so I followed the coast of it to the east 107 leagues, to + its termination. And about eighteen leagues from this cape, to the + east, there was another island, to which I shortly gave the name of + Espanola. I went to it, and followed the north coast of it, as I + had done that of Juana, for 178--[should be 188]-- long leagues due + east. + + "This island is very fertile, as well, indeed, as all the rest. It + possesses numerous harbours, far superior to any I know in Europe, + and what is remarkable, plenty of large inlets. The land is high, + and contains many lofty ridges and some very high mountains, without + comparison of the island of Centrefrey;--[Tenerife]-- all of them + very handsome and of different forms; all of them accessible and + abounding in trees of a thousand kinds, high, and appearing as if + they would reach the skies. And I am assured that the latter never + lose their fresh foliage, as far as I can understand, for I saw them + as fresh and flourishing as those of Spain in the month of May. + Some were in blossom, some bearing fruit, and others in other + states, according to their nature. + + "The nightingale and a thousand kinds of birds enliven the woods + with their song, in the month of November, wherever I went. There + are seven or eight kinds of palms, of various elegant forms, besides + various other trees, fruits, and herbs. The pines of this island . + are magnificent. It has also extensive plains, honey, and a great + variety of birds and fruits. It has many metal mines, and a + population innumerable. + + "Espanola is a wonderful island, with mountains, groves, plains, and + the country generally beautiful and rich for planting and sowing, + for rearing sheep and cattle of all kinds, and ready for towns and + cities. The harbours must be seen to be appreciated; rivers are + plentiful and large and of excellent water; the greater part of them + contain gold. There is a great difference between the trees, + fruits, and herbs of this island and those of Juana. In this island + there are many spices, and large mines of gold and other metals. + + "The people of this island and of all the others which I have + discovered or heard of, both men and women, go naked as they were + born, although some of the women wear leaves of herbs or a cotton + covering made on purpose. They have no iron or steel, nor any + weapons; not that they are not a well-disposed people and of fine + stature, but they are timid to a degree. They have no other arms + excepting spears made of cane, to which they fix at the end a sharp + piece of wood, and then dare not use even these. Frequently I had + occasion to send two or three of my men onshore to some settlement + for information, where there would be multitudes of them; and as + soon as they saw our people they would run away every soul, the + father leaving his child; and this was not because any one had done + them harm, for rather at every cape where I had landed and been able + to communicate with them I have made them presents of cloth and many + other things without receiving anything in return; but because they + are so timid. Certainly, where they have confidence and forget + their fears, they are so open-hearted and liberal with all they + possess that it is scarcely to be believed without seeing it. If + anything that they have is asked of them they never deny it; on the + contrary, they will offer it. Their generosity is so great that + they would give anything, whether it is costly or not, for anything + of every kind that is offered them and be contented with it. I was + obliged to prevent such worth less things being given them as pieces + of broken basins, broken glass, and bits of shoe-latchets, although + when they obtained them they esteemed them as if they had been the + greatest of treasures. One of the seamen for a latchet received a + piece of gold weighing two dollars and a half, and others, for other + things of much less value, obtained more. Again, for new silver + coin they would give everything they possessed, whether it was worth + two or three doubloons or one or two balls of cotton. Even for + pieces of broken pipe-tubes they would take them and give anything + for them, until, when I thought it wrong, I prevented it. And I + made them presents of thousands of things which I had, that I might + win their esteem, and also that they might be made good Christians + and be disposed to the service of Your Majesties and the whole + Spanish nation, and help us to obtain the things which we require + and of which there is abundance in their country. + + "And these people appear to have neither religion nor idolatry, + except that they believe that good and evil come from the skies; and + they firmly believed that our ships and their crews, with myself, + came from the skies, and with this persuasion,--after having lost + their fears, they always received us. And yet this does not proceed + from ignorance, for they are very ingenious, and some of them + navigate their seas in a wonderful manner and give good account of + things, but because they never saw people dressed or ships like + ours. + + "And as soon as I arrived in the Indies, at the first island at + which I touched, I captured some of them, that we might learn from + them and obtain intelligence of what there was in those parts. And + as soon as we understood each other they were of great service to + us; but yet, from frequent conversation which I had with them, they + still believe we came from the skies. These were the first to + express that idea, and others ran from house to house, and to the + neighbouring villages, crying out, "Come and see the people from the + skies." And thus all of them, men and women, after satisfying + themselves of their safety, came to us without reserve, great and + small, bringing us something to eat and drink, and which they gave + to us most affectionately. + + "They have many canoes in those islands propelled by oars, some of + them large and others small, and many of them with eight or ten + paddles of a side, not very wide, but all of one trunk, and a boat + cannot keep way with them by oars, for they are incredibly fast; and + with these they navigate all the islands, which are innumerable, and + obtain their articles of traffic. I have seen some of these canoes + with sixty or eighty men in them, and each with a paddle. + + "Among the islands I did not find much diversity of formation in the + people, nor in their customs, nor their language. They all + understand each other, which is remarkable; and I trust Your + Highnesses will determine on their being converted to our faith, for + which they are very well disposed. + + "I have already said that I went 107 leagues along the coast of + Juana, from east to west. Thus, according to my track, it is larger + than England and Scotland together, for, besides these 107 leagues, + there were further west two provinces to which I did not go, one of + which is called Cibau, the people of which are born with tails; + which provinces must be about fifty or sixty leagues long, according + to what I can make out from the Indians I have with me, who know all + the islands. The other island (Espanola) is larger in circuit than + the whole of Spain, from the Straits of Gibralter (the Columns) to + Fuentarabia in Biscay, as I sailed 138 long leagues in a direct line + from west to east. Once known it must be desired, and once seen one + desires never to leave it; and which, being taken possession of for + their Highnesses, and the people being at present in a condition + lower than I can possibly describe, the Sovereigns of Castile may + dispose of it in any manner they please in the most convenient + places. In this Espanola, and in the best district, where are gold + mines, and, on the other side, from thence to terra firma, as well + as from thence to the Great Khan, where everything is on a splendid + scale--I have taken possession of a large town, to which I gave the + name of La Navidad, and have built a fort in it, in every respect + complete. And I have left sufficient people in it to take care of + it, with artillery and provisions for more than a year; also a boat + and coxswain with the equipments, in complete friendship with the + King of the islands, to that degree that he delighted to call me and + look on me as his brother. And should they fall out with these + people, neither he nor his subjects know anything of weapons, and go + naked, as I have said, and they are the most timorous people in the + world. The few people left there are sufficient to conquer the + country, and the island would thus remain without danger to them, + they keeping order among themselves. + + "In all these islands it appeared to me the men are contented with + one wife, but to their governor or king they allow twenty. The + women seem to work more than the men. I have not been able to + discover whether they respect personal property, for it appeared to + me things were common to all, especially in the particular of + provisions. Hitherto I have not seen in any of these islands any + monsters, as there were supposed to be; the people, on the contrary, + are generally well formed, nor are they black like those of the + Guinea, saving their hair, and they do not reside in places exposed + to the sun's rays. It is true that the sun is most powerful there, + and it is only twenty-six degrees from the equator. In this last + winter those islands which were mountainous were cold, but they were + accustomed to it, with good food and plenty of spices and hot + nutriment. Thus I have found no monsters nor heard of any, except + at an island which is the second in going to the Indies, and which + is inhabited by a people who are considered in all the islands as + ferocious, and who devour human flesh. These people have many + canoes, which scour all the islands of India, and plunder all they + can. They are not worse formed than the others, but they wear the + hair long like women, and use bows and arrows of the same kind of + cane, pointed with a piece of hard wood instead of iron, of which + they have none. They are fierce compared with the other people, who + are in general but sad cowards; but I do not consider them in any + other way superior to them. These are they who trade in women, who + inhabit the first island met with in going from Spain to the Indies, + in which there are no men whatever. They have no effeminate + exercise, but bows and arrows, as before said, of cane, with which + they arm themselves, and use shields of copper, of which they have + plenty. + + "There is another island, I am told, larger than Espanola, the + natives of which have no hair. In this there is gold without limit, + and of this and the others I have Indians with me to witness. + + "In conclusion, referring only to what has been effected by this + voyage, which was made with so much haste, Your Highnesses may see + that I shall find as much gold as desired with the very little + assistance afforded to me; there is as much spice and cotton as can + be wished for, and also gum, which hitherto has only been found in + Greece, in the island of Chios, and they may sell it as they please, + and the mastich, as much as may be desired, and slaves, also, who + will be idolators. And I believe that I have rhubarb, and cinnamon, + and a thousand other things I shall find, which will be discovered + by those whom I have left behind, for I did not stop at any cape + when the wind enabled me to navigate, except at the town of Navidad, + where I was very safe and well taken care of. And in truth much + more I should have done if the ships had served me as might have + been expected. This is certain, that the Eternal God our Lord gives + all things to those who obey Him, and the victory when it seems + impossible, and this, evidently, is an instance of it, for although + people have talked of these lands, all was conjecture unless proved + by seeing them, for the greater part listened and judged more by + hearsay than by anything else. + + "Since, then, our Redeemer has given this victory to our illustrious + King and Queen and celebrated their reigns by such a great thing, + all Christendom should rejoice and make great festivals, and give + solemn thanks to the Blessed Trinity, with solemn praises for the + exaltation of so much people to our holy faith; and next for the + temporal blessings which not only Spain but they will enjoy in + becoming Christians, and which last may shortly be accomplished. + + "Written in the caravel off Santa Maria; on the eighteenth of + February, ninety-three." + +The following postscript was added to the letter before it was +despatched: + + "After writing the above, being in the Castilian Sea (off the coast + of Castile), I experienced so severe a wind from south and south- + east that I have been obliged to run to-day into this port of + Lisbon, and only by a miracle got safely in, from whence I intended + to write to Your Highnesses. In all parts of the Indies I have + found the weather like that of May, where I went in ninety-three + days, and returned in seventy-eight, saving these thirteen days of + bad weather that I have been detained beating about in this sea. + Every seaman here says that never was so severe a winter, nor such + loss of ships." + + +On the Friday a messenger came from the King in the person of Don Martin +de Noronha, a relative of Columbus by marriage, and one who had perhaps +looked down upon him in the days when he attended the convent chapel at +Lisbon, but who was now the bearer of a royal invitation and in the +position of a mere envoy. Columbus repaired to Paraiso where the King +was, and where he was received with great honour. + +King John might well have been excused if he had felt some mortification +at this glorious and successful termination of a project which had been +offered to him and which he had rejected; but he evidently behaved with +dignity and a good grace, and did everything that he could to help +Columbus. It was extremely unlikely that he had anything to do with the +insult offered to Columbus at the Azores, for though he was bitterly +disappointed that the glory of this discovery belonged to Spain and not +to Portugal, he was too much of a man to show it in this petty and +revengeful manner. He offered to convey Columbus by land into Spain; but +the Admiral, with a fine dramatic sense, preferred to arrive by sea on +board of all that was left of the fleet with which he had sailed. He +sailed for Seville on Wednesday, March 13th, but during the next day, +when he was off Cape Saint Vincent, he evidently changed his mind and +decided to make for Palos. Sunrise on Friday saw him off the bar of +Saltes, with the white walls of La Rabida shining on the promontory among +the dark fir-trees. During the hours in which he stood off and on +waiting for the tide he was able to recognise again all the old landmarks +and the scenes which had been so familiar to him in those busy days of +preparation nine months before; and at midday he sailed in with the flood +tide and dropped his anchor again in the mud of the river by Palos. + +The caravel had been sighted some time before, probably when she was +standing off, the bar waiting for the tide; she was flying the Admiral's +flag and there was no mistaking her identity; and we can imagine the news +spreading throughout the town of Palos, and reaching Huelva, and one by +one the bells beginning to ring, and the places of business to be closed, +and the people to come pouring out into the streets to be ready to greet +their friends. Some more impatient than the others would sail out in +fishing-boats to get the first news; and I should be surprised to know +that a boat did not put off from the little pier beneath La Rabida, to +row round the point and out to where the Nina was lying--to beyond the +Manto Bank. When the flood began to make over the bar and to cover the +long sandbank that stretches from the island of Saltes, the Nina came +gliding in, greeted by every joyful sound and signal that the inhabitants +of the two seaports could make. Every one hurried down to Palos as the +caravel rounded the Convent Point. Hernando, Marchena, and good old Juan +Perez were all there, we may be sure. Such excitements, such triumphs as +the bronzed, white-bearded Admiral steps ashore at last, and is seized by +dozens of eager hands! Such excitements as all the wives and inamoratas +of the Rodrigos and Juans and Franciscos rush to meet the swarthy +voyagers and cover them with embraces; such disappointments also, when it +is realised that some two score of the company are still on a sunbaked +island infinitely far over the western horizon. + +Tears of joy and grief, shouts and feastings, firing of guns and flying +of flags, processions and receptions with these the deathless day is +filled; and the little Nina, her purpose staunchly fulfilled, swings +deserted on the turning tide, the ripples of her native Tinto making a +familiar music under her bowsprit. + + +And in the evening, with the last of the flood, another ship comes +gliding round the point and up the estuary. The inhabitants of Palos +have all left the shore and are absorbed in the business of welcoming the +great man; and there is no one left to notice or welcome the Pinta. For +it is she that, by a strange coincidence, and after many dangers and +distresses endured since she had parted company from the Nina in the +storm, now has made her native port on the very same day as the Nina. +Our old friend Martin Alonso Pinzon is on board, all the fight and +treachery gone out of him, and anxious only to get home unobserved. For +(according to the story) he had made the port of Bayona on the north-west +coast of Spain, and had written a letter from there to the Sovereigns +announcing his arrival and the discoveries that he had made; and it is +said that he had received an unpleasant letter in return, reproaching him +for not waiting for his commander and forbidding him to come to Court. +This story is possible if his letter reached the Sovereigns after the +letter from the Admiral; for it is probable that Columbus may have +reported some of Martin's doings to them. + +Be that as it may, there are no flags and guns for him as he comes +creeping in up the river; his one anxiety is to avoid the Admiral and to +get home as quickly and quietly as he can. For he is ill, poor Martin +Alonso; whether from a broken heart, as the early historians say, or from +pure chagrin and disappointment, or, as is more likely, from some illness +contracted on the voyage, it is impossible to say. He has endured his +troubles and hardships like all the rest of them; no less skilfully than +Columbus has he won through that terrible tempest of February; and his +foolish and dishonest conduct has deprived him not only of the rewards +that he tried to steal, but of those which would otherwise have been his +by right. He creeps quietly ashore and to his home, where at any rate we +may hope that there is some welcome for him; takes to his bed, turns his +face to the wall; and dies in a few days. So farewell to Martin Alonso, +who has borne us company thus far. He did not fail in the great matters +of pluck and endurance and nautical judgment, but only in the small +matters of honesty and decent manly conduct. We will not weep for Martin +Alonso; we will make our farewells in silence, and leave his deathbed +undisturbed by any more accusations or reproaches. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +And every one goes naked and unashamed +Began to offer bargains to the Almighty +Believed that the Spaniards came from heaven +Dogs wagged their tails, but that never barked +First known discovery of tobacco by Europeans +High time, indeed, that they should be taught to wear clothing +Only confirmative evidence remained +Saw potatoes also, although they did not know what they were +Seeking to hire the protection of the Virgin + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of Christopher Columbus, v3 +by Filson Young + + + + + + + CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS + AND THE NEW WORLD OF HIS DISCOVERY + + A NARRATIVE BY FILSON YOUNG + + + + +BOOK 4. + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE HOUR OF TRIUMPH + +From the moment when Columbus set foot on Spanish soil in the spring of +1493 he was surrounded by a fame and glory which, although they were +transient, were of a splendour such as few other men can have ever +experienced. He had not merely discovered a country, he had discovered a +world. He had not merely made a profitable expedition; he had brought +the promise of untold wealth to the kingdom of Spain. He had not merely +made himself the master of savage tribes; he had conquered the +supernatural, and overcome for ever those powers of darkness that had +been thought to brood over the vast Atlantic. He had sailed away in +obscurity, he had returned in fame; he had departed under a cloud of +scepticism and ridicule, he had come again in power and glory. He had +sailed from Palos as a seeker after hidden wealth, hidden knowledge; he +returned as teacher, discoverer, benefactor. The whole of Spain rang +with his fame, and the echoes of it spread to Portugal, France, England, +Germany, and Italy; and it reached the ears of his own family, who had +now left the Vico Dritto di Ponticello in Genoa and were living at +Savona. + +His life ashore in the first weeks following his return was a succession +of triumphs and ceremonials. His first care on landing had been to go +with the whole of his crew to the church of Saint George, where a Te Deum +was sung in honour of his return; and afterwards to perform those vows +that he had made at sea in the hour of danger. There was a certain +amount of business to transact at Palos in connection with the paying of +the ships' crews, writing of reports to the Sovereigns, and so forth; and +it is likely that he stayed with his friends at the monastery of La +Rabida while this was being done. The Court was at Barcelona; and it was +probably only a sense of his own great dignity and importance that +prevented Christopher from setting off on the long journey immediately. +But he who had made so many pilgrimages to Court as a suitor could revel +in a position that made it possible for him to hang back, and to be +pressed and invited; and so when his business at Palos was finished he +sent a messenger with his letters and reports to Barcelona, and himself, +with his crew and his Indians and all his trophies, departed for Seville, +where he arrived on Palm Sunday. + +His entrance into that city was only a foretaste of the glory in which he +was to move across the whole of Spain. He was met at the gates of the +city by a squadron of cavalry commanded by an envoy sent by Queen +Isabella; and a procession was formed of members of the crew carrying +parrots, alive and stuffed, fruits, vegetables, and various other +products of the New World. + +In a prominent place came the Indians, or rather four of them, for one +had died on the day they entered Palos and three were too ill to leave +that town; but the ones that took part in the procession got all the more +attention and admiration. The streets of Seville were crowded; crowded +also were the windows, balconies, and roofs. The Admiral was entertained +at the house of the Count of Cifuentes, where his little museum of dead +and live curiosities was also accommodated, and where certain favoured +visitors were admitted to view it. His two sons, Diego and Ferdinand, +were sent from Cordova to join him; and perhaps he found time to visit +Beatriz, although there is no record of his having been to Cordova or of +her having come to Seville. + + +Meanwhile his letters and messengers to the King and Queen had produced +their due effect. The almost incredible had come to pass, and they saw +themselves the monarchs not merely of Spain, but of a new Empire that +might be as vast as Europe and Africa together. On the 30th of March +they despatched a special messenger with a letter to Columbus, whose eyes +must have sparkled and heart expanded when he read the superscription: +"From the King and Queen to Don Christoval Colon, their Admiral of the +Ocean Seas and Viceroy and Governor of the Islands discovered in the +Indies." No lack of titles and dignities now! Their Majesties express a +profound sense of his ability and distinction, of the greatness of his +services to them, to the Church, and to God Himself. They hope that he +will lose no time, but repair to Barcelona immediately, so that they can +have the pleasure of hearing from his own lips an account of his +wonderful expedition, and of discussing with him the preparations that +must immediately be set on foot to fit out a new one. On receiving this +letter Christopher immediately drew up a list of what he thought +necessary for the new expedition and, collecting all his retinue and his +museum of specimens, started by road for Barcelona. + +Every one in Spain had by this time heard more or less exaggerated +accounts of the discoveries, and the excitement in the towns and villages +through which he passed was extreme. Wherever he went he was greeted and +feasted like a king returning from victorious wars; the people lined the +streets of the towns and villages, and hung out banners, and gazed their +fill at the Indians and at the strange sun-burned faces of the crew. At +Barcelona, where they arrived towards the end of April, the climax of +these glittering dignities was reached. When the King and Queen heard +that Columbus was approaching the town they had their throne prepared +under a magnificent pavilion, and in the hot sunshine of that April day +they sat and waited the--coming of the great man. A glittering troop of +cavalry had been sent out to meet him, and at the gates of the town a +procession was formed similar to that at Seville. He had now six natives +with him, who occupied an important place in the procession; sailors +also, who carried baskets of fruit and vegetables from Espanola, with +stuffed birds and animals, and a monstrous lizard held aloft on a stick. +The Indians were duly decked out in all their paint and feathers; but if +they were a wonder and marvel to the people of Spain, what must Spain +have been to them with its great buildings and cities, its carriages and +horses, its glittering dresses and armours, its splendour and luxury! +We have no record of what the Indians thought, only of what the crowd +thought who gaped upon them and upon the gaudy parrots that screeched and +fluttered also in the procession. Columbus came riding on horseback, as +befitted a great Admiral and Viceroy, surrounded by his pilots and +principal officers; and followed by men bearing golden belts, golden +masks, nuggets of gold and dust of gold, and preceded by heralds, +pursuivants, and mace-bearers. + +What a return for the man who three years before had been pointed at and +laughed to scorn in this same brilliant society! The crowds pressed so +closely that the procession could hardly get through the streets; the +whole population was there to witness it; and the windows and balconies +and roofs of the houses, as well as the streets themselves, were thronged +with a gaily dressed and wildly excited crowd. At length the procession +reaches the presence of the King and Queen and, crowning and +unprecedented honour! as the Admiral comes before them Ferdinand and +Isabella rise to greet him. Under their own royal canopy a seat is +waiting for him; and when he has made his ceremonial greeting he is +invited to sit in their presence and give an account of his voyage. + +He is fully equal to the situation; settles down to do himself and his +subject justice; begins, we may be sure, with a preamble about the +providence of God and its wisdom and consistency in preserving the +narrator and preparing his life for this great deed; putting in a deal of +scientific talk which had in truth nothing to do with the event, but was +always applied to it in Columbus's writings from this date onwards; and +going on to describe the voyage, the sea of weeds, the landfall, his +intercourse with the natives, their aptitude for labour and Christianity, +and the hopes he has of their early conversion to the Catholic Church. +And then follows a long description of the wonderful climate, "like May +in Andalusia," the noble rivers, and gorgeous scenery, the trees and +fruits and flowers and singing birds; the spices and the cotton; and +chief of all, the vast stores of gold and pearls of which the Admiral had +brought home specimens. At various stages in his narrative he produces +illustrations; now a root of rhubarb or allspice; now a raw nugget of +gold; now a piece of gold laboured into a mask or belt; now a native +decorated with the barbaric ornaments that were the fashion in Espanola. +These things, says Columbus, are mere first-fruits of the harvest that is +to come; the things which he, like the dove that had flown across the sea +from the Ark and brought back an olive leaf in its mouth, has brought +back across the stormy seas to that Ark of civilisation from which he had +flown forth. + +It was to Columbus an opportunity of stretching his visionary wings and +creating with pompous words and images a great halo round himself of +dignity and wonder and divine distinction,--an opportunity such as he +loved, and such as he never failed to make use of. + +The Sovereigns were delighted and profoundly impressed. Columbus wound +up his address with an eloquent peroration concerning the glory to +Christendom of these new discoveries; and there followed an impressive +silence, during which the Sovereigns sank on their knees and raised hands +and tearful eyes to heaven, an example in which they were followed by the +whole of the assembly; and an appropriate gesture enough, seeing what was +to come of it all. The choir of the Chapel Royal sang a solemn Te Deum +on the spot; and the Sovereigns and nobles, bishops, archbishops, +grandees, hidalgos, chamberlains, treasurers, chancellors and other +courtiers, being exhausted by these emotions, retired to dinner. + + +During his stay at Barcelona Columbus was the guest of the Cardinal- +Archbishop of Toledo, and moved thus in an atmosphere of combined +temporal and spiritual dignity such as his soul loved. Very agreeable +indeed to him was the honour shown to him at this time. Deep down in his +heart there was a secret nerve of pride and vanity which throughout his +life hitherto had been continually mortified and wounded; but he was able +now to indulge his appetite for outward pomp and honour as much as he +pleased. When King Ferdinand went out to ride Columbus would be seen +riding on one side of him, the young Prince John riding on the other +side; and everywhere, when he moved among the respectful and admiring +throng, his grave face was seen to be wreathed in complacent smiles. His +hair, which had turned white soon after he was thirty, gave him a +dignified and almost venerable appearance, although he was only in his +forty-third year; and combined with his handsome and commanding presence +to excite immense enthusiasm among the Spaniards. They forgot for the +moment what they had formerly remembered and were to remember again--that +he was a foreigner, an Italian, a man of no family and of poor origin. +They saw in him the figure-head of a new empire and a new glory, an +emblem of power and riches, of the dominion which their proud souls +loved; and so there beamed upon him the brief fickle sunshine of their +smiles and favour, which he in his delusion regarded as an earnest of +their permanent honour and esteem. + +It is almost always thus with a man not born to such dignities, and who +comes by them through his own efforts and labours. No one would grudge +him the short-lived happiness of these summer weeks; but although he +believed himself to be as happy as a man can be, he appears to quietly +contemplating eyes less happy and fortunate than when he stood alone on +the deck of his ship, surrounded by an untrustworthy crew, prevailing by +his own unaided efforts over the difficulties and dangers with which he +was surrounded. Court functions and processions, and the companionship +of kings and cardinals, are indeed no suitable reward for the kind of +work that he did. Courtly dignities are suited to courtly services; but +they are no suitable crown for rough labour and hardship at sea, or for +the fulfilment of a man's self by lights within him; no suitable crown +for any solitary labour whatsoever, which must always be its own and only +reward. + + +It is to this period of splendour that the story of the egg, which is to +some people the only familiar incident in Columbian biography, is +attributed. The story is that at a banquet given by the Cardinal-Arch +bishop the conversation ran, as it always did in those days when he was +present, on the subject of the Admiral's discoveries; and that one of the +guests remarked that it was all very well for Columbus to have done what +he did, but that in a country like Spain, where there were so many men +learned in science and cosmography, and many able mariners besides, some +one else would certainly have been found who would have done the same +thing. Whereupon Columbus, calling for an egg, laid a wager that none of +the company but him self could make it stand on its end without support. +The egg was brought and passed round, and every one tried to make it +stand on end, but without success. When it came to Columbus he cracked +the shell at one end, making a flat surface on which the egg stood +upright; thus demonstrating that a thing might be wonderful, not because +it was difficult or impossible, but merely because no one had ever +thought of doing it before. A sufficiently inane story, and by no means +certainly true; but there is enough character in this little feat, +ponderous, deliberate, pompous, ostentatious, and at bottom a trick and +deceitful quibble, to make it accord with the grandiloquent public manner +of Columbus, and to make it easily believable of one who chose to show +himself in his speech and writings so much more meanly and pretentiously +than he showed himself in the true acts and business of his life. + + +But pomp and parade were not the only occupation of these Barcelona days. +There were long consultations with Ferdinand and Isabella about the +colonisation of the new lands; there were intrigues, and parrying of +intrigues, between the Spanish and Portuguese Courts on the subject of +the discoveries and of the representative rights of the two nations to be +the religious saviours of the New World. The Pope, to whose hands the +heathen were entrusted by God to be handed for an inheritance to the +highest and most religious bidder, had at that time innocently divided +them into two portions, to wit: heathen to the south of Spain and +Portugal, and heathen to the west of those places. By the Bull of 1438, +granted by Pope Martin V., the heathen to the west had been given to the +Spanish, and the heathen to the south to the Portuguese, and the two +crowns had in 1479 come to a working agreement. Now, however, the +existence of more heathen to the west of the Azores introduced a new +complication, and Ferdinand sent a message to Pope Alexander VI. praying +for a confirmation of the Spanish title to the new discoveries. + +This Pope, who was a native of Aragon and had been a subject of +Ferdinand, was a stolid, perverse, and stubborn being; so much is +advertised in his low forehead, impudent prominent nose, thick sensual +lips, and stout bull neck. This Pope considers the matter; considers, +by such lights as he has, to whom he shall entrust the souls of these new +heathen; considers which country, Spain or Portugal, is most likely to +hold and use the same for the increase of the Christian faith in general, +the furtherance of the Holy Catholic Church in special, and the +aggrandisement of Popes in particular; and shrewdly decides that the +country in which the. Inquisition can flourish is the country to whom +the heathen souls should be entrusted. He therefore issues a Bull, dated +May 3, 1493, granting to the Spanish the possession of all lands, not +occupied by Christian powers, that lie west of a meridian drawn one +hundred leagues to the westward of the Azores, and to the Portuguese +possession of all similar lands lying to the eastward of that line. He +sleeps upon this Bull, and has inspiration; and on the morrow, May 4th, +issues another Bull, drawing a line from the arctic to the antarctic +pole, and granting to Spain all heathen inheritance to the westward of +the same. The Pope, having signed this Bull, considers it further- +assisted, no doubt, by the Portuguese Ambassador at the Vatican, to whom +it has been shown; realises that in the wording of the Bull an injustice +has been done to Portugal, since Spain is allowed to fix very much at her +own convenience the point at which the line drawn from pole to pole shall +cut the equator; and also because, although Spain is given all the lands +in existence within her territory, Portugal is only given the lands which +she may actually have occupied. Even the legal mind of the Pope, +although much drowsed and blunted by brutish excesses, discerns +faultiness in this document; and consequently on the same day issues a +third Bull, in which the injustice to Portugal is redressed. Nothing so +easy, thinks the Pope, as to issue Bulls; if you make a mistake in one +Bull, issue another; and, having issued three Bulls in twenty-four hours, +he desists for the present, having divided the earthly globe. + +Thus easy it is for a Pope to draw lines from pole to pole, and across +the deep of the sea. Yet the poles sleep still in their icy virginal +sanctity, and the blue waves through which that papal line passes shift +and shimmer and roll in their free salt loneliness, unaffected by his +demarcation; the heathen also, it appears, since that distant day, have +had something to say to their disposition. If he had slept upon it +another night, poor Pope, it might have occurred to him that west and +east might meet on a meridian situated elsewhere on the globe than one +hundred miles west of the Azores; and that the Portuguese, who for the +moment had nothing heathen except Africa left to them, might according to +his demarcation strike a still richer vein of heathendom than that +granted to Spain. But the holy Pontiff, bull neck, low forehead, +impudent prominent nose, and sensual lips notwithstanding, is exhausted +by his cosmographical efforts, and he lets it rest at that. Later, when +Spain discovers that her privileges have been abated, he will have to +issue another Bull; but not to-day. Sufficient unto the day are the +Bulls thereof. For the moment King proposes and Pope disposes; but the +matter lies ultimately in the hands of the two eternal protagonists, man +and God. + + +In the meantime here are six heathen alive and well, or at any rate well +enough to support, willy-nilly, the rite of holy baptism. They must have +been sufficiently dazed and bewildered by all that had happened to them +since they were taken on board the Admiral's ship, and God alone knows +what they thought of it all, or whether they thought anything more than +the parrots that screamed and fluttered and winked circular eyes in the +procession with them. Doubtless they were willing enough; and indeed, +after all they had come through, a little cold water could not do them +any harm. So baptized they were in Barcelona; pompously baptized with +infinite state and ceremony, the King and Queen and Prince Juan +officiating as sponsors. Queen Isabella, after the manner of queens, +took a kindly feminine interest in these heathen, and in their brethren +across the sea. She had seen a good deal of conquest, and knew her +Spaniard pretty intimately; and doubtless her maternal heart had some +misgivings about the ultimate happiness of the gentle, handsome creatures +who lived in the sunshine in that distant place. She made their souls +her especial care, and honestly believed that by providing for their +spiritual conversion she was doing them the greatest service in her +power. She provided from her own private chapel vestments and altar +furniture for the mission church in Espanola; she had the six exiles in +Barcelona instructed under her eye; and she gave Columbus special orders +to inflict severe punishments on any one who should offer the natives +violence or injustice of any kind. It must be remembered to her credit +that in after days, when slavery and an intolerable bloody and brutish +oppression had turned the paradise of Espanola into a shambles, she +fought almost singlehanded, and with an ethical sense far in advance of +her day, against the system of slavery practised by Spain upon the +inhabitants of the New World. + + +The dignities that had been provisionally granted to Columbus before his +departure on the first voyage were now elaborately confirmed; and in +addition he was given another title--that of Captain-General of the large +fleet which was to be fitted out to sail to the new colonies. He was +entrusted with the royal seal, which gave him the right to grant letters +patent, to issue commissions, and to Appoint deputies in the royal name. +A coat-of-arms was also granted to him in which, in its original form, +the lion and castle of Leon and Castile were quartered with islands of +the sea or on a field azure, and five anchors or on a field azure. This +was changed from time to time, chiefly by Columbus himself, who +afterwards added a continent to the islands, and modified the blazonry of +the lion and castle to agree with those on the royal arms--a piece of +ignorance and childish arrogance which was quite characteristic of him. + + + + [A motto has since been associated with the coat-of-arms, although + it is not certain that Columbus adopted it in his lifetime. In one + form it reads: + "Por Castilla e por Leon + Nueva Mundo hallo Colon."] + + (For Castile and Leon Columbus found a New World.) + +And in the other: + + "A Castilla y a Leon + Nuevo Mundo dio Colon." + + (To Castile and Leon Columbus gave a New World.) + + +Equally characteristic and less excusable was his acceptance of the +pension of ten thousand maravedis which had been offered to the member of +the expedition who should first sight land. Columbus was granted a very +large gratuity on his arrival in Barcelona, and even taking the product +of the islands at a tenth part of their value as estimated by him, he +still had every right to suppose himself one of the richest men in Spain. +Yet he accepted this paltry pension of L8. 6s. 8d. in our modern +money(of 1900), which, taking the increase in the purchasing power of +money at an extreme estimate, would not be more than the equivalent of +$4000 now. Now Columbus had not been the first person to see land; he +saw the light, but it was Rodrigo de Triana, the look-out man on the +Pinta, who first saw the actual land. Columbus in his narrative to the +King and Queen would be sure to make much of the seeing of the light, and +not so much of the actual sighting of land; and he was on the spot, and +the reward was granted to him. Even if we assume that in strict equity +Columbus was entitled to it, it was at least a matter capable of +argument, if only Rodrigo de Triana had been there to argue it; and what +are we to think of the Admiral of the Ocean Seas and Viceroy of the +Indies who thus takes what can only be called a mean advantage of a poor +seaman in his employ? It would have been a competence and a snug little +fortune to Rodrigo de Triana; it was a mere flea-bite to a man who was +thinking in eighth parts of continents. It may be true, as Oviedo +alleges, that Columbus transferred it to Beatriz Enriquez; but he had no +right to provide for her out of money that in all equity and decency +ought to have gone to another and a poorer man. His biographers, some of +whom have vied with his canonisers in insisting upon seeing virtue in his +every action, have gone to all kinds of ridiculous extremes in accounting +for this piece of meanness. Irving says that it was "a subject in which +his whole ambition was involved"; but a plain person will regard it as an +instance of greed and love of money. We must not shirk facts like this +if we wish to know the man as he really was. That he was capable of +kindness and generosity, and that he was in the main kind-hearted, we +have fortunately no reason to doubt; and if I dwell on some of his less +amiable characteristics it is with no desire to magnify them out of their +due proportion. They are part of that side of him that lay in shadow, as +some side of each one of us lies; for not all by light nor all by shade, +but by light and shade combined, is the image of a man made visible to +us. + + +It is quite of a piece with the character of Columbus that while he was +writing a receipt for the look-out man's money and thinking what a pretty +gift it would make for Beatriz Enriquez he was planning a splendid and +spectacular thank-offering for all the dignities to which he had been +raised; and, brooding upon the vast wealth that was now to be his, that +he should register a vow to furnish within seven years an expedition of +four thousand horse and fifty thousand foot for the rescue of the Holy +Sepulchre, and a similar force within five years after the first if it +should be necessary. It was probable that the vow was a provisional one, +and that its performance was to be contingent on his actual receipt and +possession of the expected money; for as we know, there was no money and +no expedition. The vow was in effect a kind of religious flourish much +beloved by Columbus, undertaken seriously and piously enough, but +belonging rather to his public than to his private side. A much more +simple and truly pious act of his was, not the promising of visionary but +the sending of actual money to his old father in Savona, which he did +immediately after his arrival in Spain. The letter which he wrote with +that kindly remittance, not being couched in the pompous terms which he +thought suitable for princes, and doubtless giving a brief homely account +of what he had done, would, if we could come by it, be a document beyond +all price; but like every other record of his family life it has utterly +perished. + +He wrote also from Barcelona to his two brothers, Bartholomew and +Giacomo, or James, since we may as well give him the English equivalent +of his name. Bartholomew was in France, whither he had gone some time +after his return from his memorable voyage with Bartholomew Diaz; he was +employed as a map-maker at the court of Anne de Beaujeu, who was reigning +in the temporary absence of her brother Charles VIII. Columbus's letter +reached him, but much too late for him to be able to join in the second +expedition; in fact he did not reach Seville until five months after it +had sailed. James, however, who was now twenty-five years old, was still +at Savona; he, like Columbus, had been apprenticed to his father, but had +apparently remained at home earning his living either as a wool-weaver or +merchant. He was a quiet, discreet young fellow, who never pushed +himself forward very much, wore very plain clothes, and was apparently +much overawed by the grandeur and dignity of his elder brother. He was, +however, given a responsible post in the new expedition, and soon had his +fill of adventure. + + +The business of preparing for the new expedition was now put in hand, and +Columbus, having taken leave of Ferdinand and Isabella, went to Seville +to superintend the preparations. All the ports in Andalusia were ordered +to supply such vessels as might be required at a reasonable cost, and the +old order empowering the Admiral to press mariners into the service was +renewed. But this time it was unnecessary; the difficulty now was rather +to keep down the number of applicants for berths in the expedition, and +to select from among the crowd of adventurers who offered themselves +those most suitable for the purposes of the new colony. In this work +Columbus was assisted by a commissioner whom the Sovereigns had appointed +to superintend the fitting out of the expedition. This man was a cleric, +Juan Rodriguez de Fonseca, Archdeacon of Seville, a person of excellent +family and doubtless of high piety, and of a surpassing shrewdness for +this work. He was of a type very commonly produced in Spain at this +period; a very able organiser, crafty and competent, but not altogether +trustworthy on a point of honour. Like so many ecclesiastics of this +stamp, he lived for as much power and influence as he could achieve; and +though he was afterwards bishop of three sees successively, and became +Patriarch of the Indies, he never let go his hold on temporal affairs. +He began by being jealous of Columbus, and by objecting to the personal +retinue demanded by the Admiral; and in this, if I know anything of the +Admiral, he was probably justified. The matter was referred to the +Sovereigns, who ordered Fonseca to carry out the Admiral's wishes; and +the two were immediately at loggerheads. When the Council for the Indies +was afterwards formed Fonseca became head, of it, and had much power to +make things pleasant or otherwise for Columbus. + +It became necessary now to raise a considerable sum of money for the new +expedition. Two-thirds of the ecclesiastical tithes were appropriated, +and a large proportion of the confiscated property of the Jews who had +been banished from Spain the year before; but this was not enough; and +five million maravedis were borrowed from the Duke of Medina Sidonia in +order to complete the financial supplies necessary for this very costly +expedition. There was a treasurer, Francisco Pinelo, and an accountant, +Juan de Soria, who had charge of all the financial arrangements; but the +whole of the preparations were conducted on a ruinously expensive scale, +owing to the haste which the diplomatic relations with Portugal made +necessary. The provisioning was done by a Florentine merchant named +Juonato Beradi, who had an assistant named Amerigo Vespucci--who, by a +strange accident, was afterwards to give his name to the continent of the +New World. + + +While these preparations were going on the game of diplomacy was being +played between the Courts of Spain and Portugal. King John of Portugal +had the misfortune to be badly advised; and he was persuaded that, +although he had lost the right to the New World through his rejection of +Columbus's services when they were first offered to him, he might still +discover it for himself, relying for protection on the vague wording of +the papal Bulls. He immediately began to prepare a fleet, nominally to +go to the coast of Africa, but really to visit the newly discovered lands +in the west. Hearing of these preparations, King Ferdinand sent an +Ambassador to the Portuguese Court; and King John agreed also to appoint +an Ambassador to discuss the whole matter of the line of demarcation, and +in the meantime not to allow any of his ships to sail to the west for a +period of sixty days after his Ambassador had reached Barcelona. There +followed a good deal of diplomatic sharp practice; the Portuguese bribing +the Spanish officials to give them information as to what was going on, +and the Spaniards furnishing their envoys with double sets of letters and +documents so that they could be prepared to counter any movement on the +part of King John. The idea of the Portuguese was that the line of +demarcation should be a parallel rather than a meridian; and that +everything north of the Canaries should belong to Spain and everything +south to Portugal; but this would never do from the Spanish point of +view. The fact that a proposal had come from Portugal, however, gave +Ferdinand an opportunity of delaying the diplomatic proceedings until his +own expedition was actually ready to set sail; and he wrote to Columbus +repeatedly, urging him to make all possible haste with his preparations. +In the meantime he despatched a solemn embassy to Portugal, the purport +of which, much beclouded and delayed by preliminary and impossible +proposals, was to submit the whole question to the Pope for arbitration. +And all the time he was busy petitioning the Pope to restore to Spain +those concessions granted in the second Bull, but taken away again in the +third. + +This, being much egged on to it, the Pope ultimately did; waking up on +September 26th, the day after Columbus's departure, and issuing another +Bull in which the Spanish Sovereigns were given all lands and islands, +discovered or not discovered, which might be found by sailing west and +south. Four Bulls; and after puzzling over them for a year, the Kings of +Spain and Portugal decided to make their own Bull, and abide by it, +which, having appointed commissioners, they did on June 7, 1494., when by +the Treaty of Tordecillas the line of demarcation was finally fixed to +pass from north to south through a point 370 leagues west of the Cape +Verde Islands. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +GREAT EXPECTATIONS + +July, August, and September in the year 1493 were busy months for +Columbus, who had to superintend the buying or building and fitting of +ships, the choice and collection of stores, and the selection of his +company. There were fourteen caravels, some of them of low tonnage and +light draught, and suitable for the navigation of rivers; and three large +carracks, or ships of three to four hundred tons. The number of +volunteers asked for was a thousand, but at least two thousand applied +for permission to go with the expedition, and ultimately some fourteen or +fifteen hundred did actually go, one hundred stowaways being included in +the number. Unfortunately these adventurers were of a class compared +with whom even the cut-throats and gaol-birds of the humble little +expedition that had sailed the year before from Palos were useful and +efficient. The universal impression about the new lands in the West was +that they were places where fortunes could be picked up like dirt, and +where the very shores were strewn with gold and precious stones; and +every idle scamp in Spain who had a taste for adventure and a desire to +get a great deal of money without working for it was anxious to visit the +new territory. The result was that instead of artisans, farmers, +craftsmen, and colonists, Columbus took with him a company at least half +of which consisted of exceedingly well-bred young gentlemen who had no +intention of doing any work, but who looked forward to a free and lawless +holiday and an early return crowned with wealth and fortune. Although +the expedition was primarily for the establishment of a colony, no +Spanish women accompanied it; and this was but one of a succession of +mistakes and stupidities. + +The Admiral, however, was not to be so lonely a person as he had been on +his first voyage; friends of his own choice and of a rank that made +intimacy possible even with the Captain-General were to accompany him. +There was James his brother; there was Friar Bernardo Buil, a Benedictine +monk chosen by the Pope to be his apostolic vicar in the New World; there +was Alonso de Ojeda, a handsome young aristocrat, cousin to the +Inquisitor of Spain, who was distinguished for his dash and strength and +pluck; an ideal adventurer, the idol of his fellows, and one of whose +daring any number of credible and incredible tales were told. There was +Pedro Margarite, a well-born Aragonese, who was destined afterwards to +cause much trouble; there was Juan Ponce de Leon, the discoverer of +Florida; there was Juan de La Cosa, Columbus's faithful pilot on the +Santa Maria on his first voyage; there was Pedro de Las Casas, whose son, +at this time a student in Seville, was afterwards to become the historian +of the New World and the champion of decency and humanity there. There +was also Doctor Chanca, a Court physician who accompanied the expedition +not only in his professional capacity but also because his knowledge of +botany would enable him to make, a valuable report on the vegetables and +fruits of the New World; there was Antonio de Marchena, one of Columbus's +oldest friends, who went as astronomer to the expedition. And there was +one Coma, who would have remained unknown to this day but that he wrote +an exceedingly elegant letter to his friend Nicolo Syllacio in Italy, +describing in flowery language the events of the second voyage; which +letter, and one written by Doctor Chanca, are the only records of the +outward voyage that exist. The journal kept by Columbus on this voyage +has been lost, and no copy of it remains. + + +Columbus settled at Cadiz during the time in which he was engaged upon +the fitting out of the expedition. It was no light matter to superintend +the appointment of the crews and passengers, every one of whom was +probably interviewed by Columbus himself, and at the same time to keep +level with Archdeacon Fonseca. This official, it will be remembered, +had a disagreement with Columbus as to the number of personal attendants +he was to be allowed; and on the matter being referred to the King and +Queen they granted Columbus the ridiculous establishment of ten footmen +and twenty other servants. + +Naturally Fonseca held up his hands and wondered where it would all end. +It was no easy matter, moreover, on receipt of letters from the Queen +about small matters which occurred to her from time to time, to answer +them fully and satisfactorily, and at the same time to make out all the +lists of things that would likely be required both for provisioning the +voyage and establishing a colony. The provisions carried in those days +were not very different from the provisions carried on deep-sea vessels +at the present time--except that canned meat, for which, with its horrors +and conveniences, the world may hold Columbus responsible, had not then +been invented. Unmilled wheat, salted flour, and hard biscuit formed the +bulk of the provisions; salted pork was the staple--of the meat supply, +with an alternative of salted fish; while cheese, peas, lentils and +beans, oil and vinegar, were also carried, and honey and almonds and +raisins for the cabin table. Besides water a large provision of rough +wine in casks was taken, and the dietary scale would probably compare +favourably with that of the British and American mercantile service sixty +years ago. In addition a great quantity of seeds of all kinds were taken +for planting in Espanola; sugar cane, rice, and vines also, and an +equipment of agricultural implements, as well as a selection of horses +and other domestic animals for breeding purposes. Twenty mounted +soldiers were also carried, and the thousand and one impedimenta of +naval, military, and domestic existence. + +In the middle of all these preparations news came that a Portuguese +caravel had set sail from Madeira in the direction of the new lands. +Columbus immediately reported this to the King and Queen, and suggested +detaching part of his fleet to pursue her; but instead King John was +communicated with, and he declared that if the vessel had sailed as +alleged it was without his knowledge and permission, and that he would +send three ships after her to recall her--an answer which had to be +accepted, although it opened up rather alarming possibilities of four +Portuguese vessels reaching the new islands instead of one. Whether +these ships ever really sailed or not, or whether the rumour was merely a +rumour and an alarm, is not certain; but Columbus was ordered to push on +his preparations with the greatest possible speed, to avoid Portuguese +waters, but to capture any vessels which he might find in the part of the +ocean allotted to Spain, and to inflict summary punishment on the crews. +As it turned out he never saw any Portuguese vessels, and before he had +returned to Spain again the two nations had come to an amicable agreement +quite independently of the Pope and his Bulls. Spain undertook to make +no discoveries to the east of the line of demarcation, and Portugal none +to the west of it; and so the matter remained until the inhabitants of +the discovered lands began to have a voice in their own affairs. + + +With all his occupations Columbus found time for some amenities, and he +had his two sons, Diego and Ferdinand, staying with him at Cadiz. Great +days they must have been for these two boys; days filled with excitement +and commotion, with the smell of tar and the loading of the innumerable +and fascinating materials of life; and many a journey they must have made +on the calm waters of Cadiz harbour from ship to ship, dreaming of the +distant seas that these high, quaintly carven prows would soon be +treading, and the wonderful bays and harbours far away across the world +into the waters of which their anchors were to plunge. + + +September 24th, the day before the fleet sailed, was observed as a +festival; and in full ceremonial the blessing of God upon the enterprise +was invoked. The ships were hung with flags and with dyed silks and +tapestries; every vessel flew the royal standard; and the waters of the +harbour resounded with the music of trumpets and harps and pipes and the +thunder of artillery. Some Venetian galleys happened to enter the +harbour as the fleet was preparing to weigh, and they joined in the +salutes and demonstrations which signalled the departure. The Admiral +hoisted his flag on the 'Marigalante', one of the largest of the ships; +and somewhere among the smaller caravels the little Nina, re-caulked and +re-fitted, was also preparing to brave again the dangers over which she +had so staunchly prevailed. At sunrise on the 25th the fleet weighed +anchor, with all the circumstance and bustle and apparent confusion that +accompanies the business of sailing-ships getting under weigh. Up to the +last minute Columbus had his two sons on board with him, and it was not +until the ripples were beginning to talk under the bow of the Marigalante +that he said good-bye to them and saw them rowed ashore. In bright +weather, with a favourable breeze, in glory and dignity, and with high +hopes in his heart, the Admiral set out once more on the long sea-road. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE SECOND VOYAGE + +The second voyage of Columbus, profoundly interesting as it must have +been to him and to the numerous company to whom these waters were a +strange and new region, has not the romantic interest for us that his +first voyage had. To the faith that guided him on his first venture +knowledge and certainty had now been added; he was going by a familiar +road; for to the mariner a road that he has once followed is a road that +he knows. As a matter of fact, however, this second voyage was a far +greater test of Columbus's skill as a navigator than the first voyage had +been. If his navigation had been more haphazard he might never have +found again the islands of his first discovery; and the fact that he made +a landfall exactly where he wished to make it shows a high degree of +exactness in his method of ascertaining latitude, and is another instance +of his skill in estimating his dead-reckoning. If he had been equipped +with a modern quadrant and Greenwich chronometers he could not have made +a quicker voyage nor a more exact landfall. + +It will be remembered that he had been obliged to hurry away from +Espanola without visiting the islands of the Caribs as he had wished to +do. He knew that these islands lay to the south-east of Espanola, and on +his second voyage he therefore took a course rather more southerly in +order, to make them instead of Guanahani or Espanola. From the day they +left Spain his ships had pleasant light airs from the east and north-east +which wafted them steadily but slowly on their course. In a week they +had reached the Grand Canary, where they paused to make some repairs to +one of the ships which, was leaking. Two days later they anchored at +Gomera, and loaded up with such supplies as could be procured there +better than in Spain. Pigs, goats, sheep and cows were taken on board; +domestic fowls also, and a variety of orchard plants and fruit seeds, as +well as a provision of oranges, lemons, and melons. They sailed from +Gomera on the 7th of October, but the winds were so light that it was a +week later before they had passed Ferro and were once more in the open +Atlantic. + +On setting his course from Ferro Columbus issued sealed instructions to +the captain of each ship which, in the event of the fleet becoming +scattered, would guide them to the harbour of La Navidad in Espanola; +but the captains had strict orders not to open these instructions unless +their ships became separated from the fleet, as Columbus still wished to +hold for himself the secret of this mysterious road to the west. There +were no disasters, however, and no separations. The trade wind blew soft +and steady, wafting them south and west; and because of the more +southerly course steered on this voyage they did not even encounter the +weed of the Sargasso Sea, which they left many leagues on their starboard +hand. The only incident of the voyage was a sudden severe hurricane, a +brief summer tempest which raged throughout one night and terrified a +good many of the voyagers, whose superstitious fears were only allayed +when they saw the lambent flames of the light of Saint Elmo playing about +the rigging of the Admiral's ship. It was just the Admiral's luck that +this phenomenon should be observed over his ship and over none of the +others; it added to his prestige as a person peculiarly favoured by the +divine protection, and confirmed his own belief that he held a heavenly +as well as a royal commission. + +The water supply had been calculated a little too closely, and began to +run low. The hurried preparation of the ships had resulted as usual in +bad work; most of them were leaking, and the crew were constantly at work +at the pumps; and there was the usual discontent. Columbus, however, +knew by the signs as well as by his dead-reckoning that he was somewhere +close to land; and with a fine demonstration of confidence he increased +the ration of water, instead of lowering it, assuring the crews that they +would be ashore in a day or two. On Saturday evening, November 2nd, +although no land was in sight, Columbus was so sure of his position that +he ordered the fleet to take in sail and go on slowly until morning. As +the Sunday dawned and the sky to the west was cleared of the morning bank +of clouds the look-out on the Marigalante reported land ahead; and sure +enough the first sunlight of that day showed them a green and verdant +island a few leagues away. + +As they approached it Columbus christened it Dominica in honour of the +day on which it was discovered. He sailed round it; but as there was no +harbour, and as another island was in sight to the north, he sailed on in +that direction. This little island he christened Marigalante; and going +ashore with his retinue he hoisted the royal banner, and formally took +possession of the whole group of six islands which were visible from the +high ground. There were no inhabitants on the island, but the voyagers +spent some hours wandering about its tangled woods and smelling the rich +odours of spice, and tasting new and unfamiliar fruits. They next sailed +on to an island to the north which Columbus christened Guadaloupe as a +memorial of the shrine in Estremadura to which he had made a pious +pilgrimage. They landed on this island and remained a week there, in the +course of which they made some very remarkable discoveries. + +The villagers were not altogether unfriendly, although they were shy at +first; but red caps and hawks' bells had their usual effect. There were +signs of warfare, in the shape of bone-tipped arrows; there were tame +parrots much larger than those of the northern islands; they found +pottery and rough wood carving, and the unmistakable stern timber of a . +European vessel. But they discovered stranger things than that. They +found human skulls used as household utensils, and gruesome fragments of +human bodies, unmistakable remains of a feast; and they realised that at +last they were in the presence of a man-eating tribe. Later they came to +know, something of the habits of the islanders; how they made raiding +expeditions to the neighbouring islands, and carried off large numbers of +prisoners, retaining the women as concubines and eating the men. The +boys were mutilated and fattened like capons, being employed as labourers +until they had arrived at years of discretion, at which point they were +killed and eaten, as these cannibal epicures did not care for the flesh +of women and boys. There were a great number of women on the island, and +many of them were taken off to the ships--with their own consent, +according to Doctor Chanca. The men, however, eluded the Spaniards and +would not come on board, having doubtless very clear views about the +ultimate destination of men who were taken prisoners. Some women from a +neighbouring island, who had been captured by the cannibals, came to +Columbus and begged to be taken on board his ship for protection; but +instead of receiving them he decked them with ornaments and sent them +ashore again. The cannibals artfully stripped off their ornaments and +sent them back to get some more. + +The peculiar habits of the islanders added an unusual excitement to shore +leave, and there was as a rule no trouble in collecting the crews and +bringing them off to the ships at nightfall. But on one evening it was +discovered that one of the captains and eight men had not returned. An +exploring party was sent of to search for them, but they came back +without having found anything, except a village in the middle of the +forest from which the inhabitants had fled at their approach, leaving +behind them in the cooking pots a half-cooked meal of human remains--an +incident which gave the explorers a distaste for further search. Young +Alonso de Ojeda, however, had no fear of the cannibals; this was just the +kind of occasion in which he revelled; and he offered to take a party of +forty men into the interior to search for the missing men. He went right +across the island, but was able to discover nothing except birds and +fruits and unknown trees; and Columbus, in great distress of mind, had to +give up his men for lost. He took in wood and water, and was on the +point of weighing anchor when the missing men appeared on the shore and +signalled for a boat. It appeared that they had got lost in a tangled +forest in the interior, that they had tried to climb the trees in order +to get their bearings by the stars, but without success; and that they +had finally struck the sea-shore and followed it until they had arrived +opposite the anchorage. + +They brought some women and boys with them, and the fleet must now have +had a large number of these willing or unwilling captives. This was the +first organised transaction of slavery on the part of Columbus, whose +design was to send slaves regularly back to Spain in exchange for the +cattle and supplies necessary for the colonies. There was not very much +said now about religious conversion, but only about exchanging the +natives for cattle. The fine point of Christopher's philosophy on this +subject had been rubbed off; he had taken the first step a year ago on +the beach at Guanahani, and after that the road opened out broad before +him. Slaves for cattle, and cattle for the islands; and wealth from +cattle and islands for Spain, and payment from Spain for Columbus, and +money from Columbus for the redemption of the Holy Sepulchre--these were +the links in the chain of hope that bound him to his pious idea. He had +seen the same thing done by the Portuguese on the Guinea coast, and it +never occurred to him that there was anything the matter with it. On the +contrary, at this time his idea was only to take slaves from among the +Caribs and man-eating islanders as a punishment for their misdeeds; but +this, like his other fine ideas, soon had to give way before the tide of +greed and conquest. + +The Admiral was now anxious to get back to La Navidad, and discover the +condition of the colony which he had left behind him there. He therefore +sailed from Guadaloupe on November 20th and steered to the north-west. +His captive islanders told him that the mainland lay to the south; and if +he had listened to them and sailed south he would have probably landed on +the coast of South America in a fortnight. He shaped his course instead +to the north-west, passing many islands, but not pausing until the 14th, +when he reached the island named by him Santa Cruz. He found more Caribs +here, and his men had a brush with them, one of the crew being wounded by +a poisoned arrow of which he died in a few days. The Carib Chiefs were +captured and put in irons. They sailed again and passed a group of +islets which Columbus named after Saint Ursula and the Eleven Thousand +Virgins; discovered Porto Rico also, in one of the beautiful harbours of +which they anchored and stayed for two days. Sailing now to the west +they made land again on the 22nd of November; and coasting along it they +soon sighted the mountain of Monte Christi, and Columbus recognised that +he was on the north coast of Espanola. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE EARTHLY PARADISE REVISITED + +On the 25th November 1493, Columbus once more dropped his anchor in the +harbour of Monte Christi, and a party was sent ashore to prospect for a +site suitable for the new town which he intended to build, for he was not +satisfied with the situation of La Navidad. There was a large river +close by; and while the party was surveying the land they came suddenly +upon two dead bodies lying by the river-side, one with a rope round its +neck and the other with a rope round its feet. The bodies were too much +decomposed to be recognisable; nevertheless to the party rambling about +in the sunshine and stillness of that green place the discovery was a +very gruesome one. They may have thought much, but they said little. +They returned to the ship, and resumed their search on the next day, when +they found two more corpses, one of which was seen to have a large +quantity of beard. As all the natives were beardless this was a very +significant and unpleasant discovery, and the explorers returned at once +and reported what they had seen to Columbus. He thereupon set sail for +La Navidad, but the navigation off that part of the coast was necessarily +slow because of the number of the shoals and banks, on one of which the +Admiral's ship had been lost the year before; and the short voyage +occupied three days. + +They arrived at La Navidad late on the evening of the 27th--too late to +make it advisable to land. Some natives came out in a canoe, rowed round +the Admiral's ship, stopped and looked at it, and then rowed away again. +When the fleet had anchored Columbus ordered two guns to be fired; but +there was no response except from the echoes that went rattling among the +islands, and from the frightened birds that rose screaming and circling +from the shore. No guns and no signal fires; no sign of human habitation +whatever; and no sound out of the weird darkness except the lap of the +water and the call of the birds . . . . The night passed in anxiety +and depression, and in a certain degree of nervous tension, which was +relieved at two or three o'clock in the morning by the sound of paddles +and the looming of a canoe through the dusky starlight. Native voices +were heard from the canoe asking in a loud voice for the Admiral; and +when the visitors had been directed to the Marigalante they refused to go +on board until Columbus himself had spoken to them, and they had seen by +the light of a lantern that it was the Admiral himself. The chief of +them was a cousin of Guacanagari, who said that the King was ill of a +wound in his leg, or that he would certainly have come himself to welcome +the Admiral. The Spaniards? Yes, they were well, said the young chief; +or rather, he added ominously, those that remained were well, but some +had died of illness, and some had been killed in quarrels that had arisen +among them. He added that the province had been invaded by two +neighbouring kings who had burned many of the native houses. This news, +although grave, was a relief from the dreadful uncertainty that had +prevailed in the early part of the night, and the Admiral's company, +somewhat consoled, took a little sleep. + +In the morning a party was sent ashore to La Navidad. Not a boat was in +sight, nor any native canoes; the harbour was silent and deserted. When +the party had landed and gone up to the place where the fort had been +built they found no fort there; only the blackened and charred remains of +a fort. The whole thing had been burned level with the ground, and amid +the blackened ruins they found pieces of rag and clothing. The natives, +instead of coming to greet them, lurked guiltily behind trees, and when +they were seen fled away into the woods. All this was very disquieting +indeed, and in significant contrast to their behaviour of the year +before. The party from the ship threw buttons and beads and bells to the +retiring natives in order to try and induce them to come forward, but +only four approached, one of whom was a relation of Guacanagari. These +four consented to go into the boat and to be rowed out to the ship. +Columbus then spoke to them through his interpreter; and they admitted +what had been only too obvious to the party that went ashore--that the +Spaniards were all dead, and that not one of the garrison remained. It +seemed that two neighbouring kings, Caonabo and Mayreni, had made an +attack upon the fort, burned the buildings, and killed and wounded most +of the defenders; and that Guacanagari, who had been fighting on their +behalf, had also been wounded and been obliged to retire. The natives +offered to go and fetch Guacanagari himself, and departed with that +object. + +In the greatest anxiety the Admiral and his company passed that day and +night waiting for the King to come. Early the next morning Columbus +himself went ashore and visited the spot where the settlement had been. +There he found destruction whole and complete, with nothing but a few +rags of clothing as an evidence that the place had ever been inhabited by +human beings. As Guacanagari did not appear some of the Spaniards began +to suspect that he had had a hand in the matter, and proposed immediate +reprisal; but Columbus, believing still in the man who had "loved him so +much that it was wonderful" did not take this view, and his belief in +Guacanagari's loyalty was confirmed by the discovery that his own +dwelling had also been burned down. + +Columbus set some of his party searching in the ditch of the fort in case +any treasure should have been buried there, as he had ordered it should +be in event of danger, and while this was going on he walked along the +coast for a few miles to visit a spot which he thought might be suitable +for the new settlement. At a distance of a mile or two he found a +village of seven or eight huts from which the inhabitants fled at his +approach, carrying such of their goods as were portable, and leaving the +rest hidden in the grass. Here were found several things that had +belonged to the Spaniards and which were not likely to have been +bartered; new Moorish mantles, stockings, bolts of cloth, and one of the +Admiral's lost anchors; other articles also, among them a dead man's head +wrapped up with great care in a small basket. Shaking their own living +heads, golumbus and his party returned. Suddenly they came on some +suspicious-looking mounds of earth over which new grass was growing. An +examination of these showed them to be the graves of eleven of the +Spaniards, the remains of the clothing being quite sufficient to identify +them. Doctor Chanca, who examined them, thought that they had not been +dead two months. Speculation came to an end in the face of this eloquent +certainty; there were the dead bodies of some of the colonists; and the +voyagers knelt round with bare heads while the bodies were replaced in +the grave and the ceremony of Christian burial performed over them. + +Little by little the dismal story was elicited from the natives, who +became less timid when they saw that the Spaniards meant them no harm. +It seemed that Columbus had no sooner gone away than the colonists began +to abandon themselves to every kind of excess. While the echo of the +Admiral's wise counsels was yet in their ears they began to disobey his +orders. Honest work they had no intention of doing, and although Diego +Arana, their commander, did his best to keep order, and although one or +two of the others were faithful to him and to Columbus, their authority +was utterly insufficient to check the lawless folly of the rest. Instead +of searching for gold mines, they possessed themselves by force of every +ounce of gold they could steal or seize from the natives, treating them +with both cruelty and contempt. More brutal excesses followed as a +matter of course. Guacanagari, in his kindly indulgence and generosity, +had allowed them to take three native wives apiece, although he himself +and his people were content with one. But of course the Spaniards had +thrown off all restraint, however mild, and ran amok among the native +inhabitants, seizing their wives and seducing their daughters. Upon this +naturally followed dissensions among themselves, jealousy coming hot upon +the heels of unlawful possession; and, in the words of Irving, "the +natives beheld with astonishment the beings whom they had worshipped as +descended from the skies abandoned to the grossest of earthly passions +and raging against each other with worse than brutal ferocity." + +Upon their strifes and dissensions followed another breach of the +Admiral's wise regulations; they no longer cared to remain together in +the fort, but split up into groups and went off with their women into the +woods, reverting to a savagery beside which the gentle existence of the +natives was high civilisation. There were squabbles and fights in which +one or two of the Spaniards were killed; and Pedro Gutierrez and Rodrigo +de Escovedo, whom Columbus had appointed as lieutenants to Arana, headed +a faction of revolt against his authority, and took themselves off with +nine other Spaniards and a great number of women. They had heard a great +deal about the mines of Cibao, and they decided to go in search of them +and secure their treasures for themselves. They went inland into a +territory which was under the rule of King Caonabo, a very fierce Carib +who was not a native of Espanola, but had come there as an adventurer and +remained as a conqueror. Although he resented the intrusion of the +Spaniards into the island he would not have dared to come and attack them +there if they had obeyed the Admiral's orders and remained in the +territory of Guacanagari; but when they came into his own country he had +them in a trap, and it was easy for him to fall upon those foolish +swaggering Spaniards and put them to death. He then decided to go and +take the fort. + +He formed an alliance with the neighbouring king, Mayreni, whose province +was in the west of the island. Getting together a force of warriors +these two kings marched rapidly and stealthily through the, forest for +several days until they arrived at its northern border. They came in the +dead of night to the neighbourhood of La Navidad, where the inhabitants +of the fortress, some ten in number, were fast asleep. Fast asleep were +the remaining dozen or so of the Spaniards who were living in houses or +huts in the neighbourhood; fast asleep also the gentle natives, not +dreaming of troubles from any quarter but that close at hand. The sweet +silence of the tropical night was suddenly broken by frightful yells as +Caonabo and his warriors rushed the fortress and butchered the +inhabitants, setting fire to it and to the houses round about. As their +flimsy huts burst into flames the surprised Spaniards rushed out, only to +be fallen upon by the infuriated blacks. Eight of the Spaniards rushed +naked into the sea and were drowned; the rest were butchered. +Guacanagari manfully came to their assistance and with his own followers +fought throughout the night; but his were a gentle and unwarlike people, +and they were easily routed. The King himself was badly wounded in the +thigh, but Caonabo's principal object seems to have been the destruction +of the Spaniards, and when that was completed he and his warriors, laden +with the spoils, retired. + +Thus Columbus, walking on the shore with his native interpreter, or +sitting in his cabin listening with knitted brow to the accounts of the +islanders, learns of the complete and utter failure of his first hopes. +It has come to this. These are the real first-fruits of his glorious +conquest and discovery. The New World has served but as a virgin field +for the Old Adam. He who had sought to bring light and life to these +happy islanders had brought darkness and death; they had innocently +clasped the sword he had extended to them and cut themselves. The +Christian occupation of the New World had opened with vice, cruelty, and +destruction; the veil of innocence had been rent in twain, and could +never be mended or joined again. And the Earthly Paradise in which life +had gone so happily, of which sun and shower had been the true rulers, +and the green sprouting harvests the only riches, had been turned into a +shambles by the introduction of human rule and civilised standards of +wealth. Gold first and then women, things beautiful and innocent in the +happy native condition of the islands, had been the means of the +disintegration and death of this first colony. These are serious +considerations for any coloniser; solemn considerations for a discoverer +who is only on the verge and beginning of his empire-making; mournful +considerations for Christopher as he surveys the blackened ruins of the +fort, or stands bare-headed by the grass-covered graves. + +There seemed to be a certain hesitancy on the part of Guacanagari to +present himself; for though he kept announcing his intention of coming to +visit the Admiral he did not come. A couple of days after the discovery +of the remains, however, he sent a message to Columbus begging him to +come and see him, which the Admiral accordingly did, accompanied by a +formal retinue and carrying with him the usual presents. Guacanagari was +in bed sure enough complaining of a wounded leg, and he told the story of +the settlement very much as Columbus had already heard it from the other +natives. He pointed to his own wounded leg as a sign that he had been +loyal and faithful to his friendly promises; but when the leg was +examined by the surgeon in order that it might be dressed no wound could +be discovered, and it was obvious to Doctor Chanca that the skin had not +been broken. This seemed odd; Friar Buil was so convinced that the whole +story was a deception that he wished the Admiral to execute Guacanagari +on the spot. Columbus, although he was puzzled, was by no means +convinced that Guacanagari had been unfaithful to him, and decided to do +nothing for the present. He invited the cacique to come on board the +flagship; which he did, being greatly interested by some of the Carib +prisoners, notably a handsome woman, named by the Spaniards Dofia +Catalina, with whom he held a long conversation. + +Relations between the Admiral and the cacique, although outwardly +cordial, were altogether different from what they had been in, the happy +days after their first meeting; the man seemed to shrink from all the +evidence of Spanish power, and when they proposed to hang a cross round +his neck the native king, much as he loved trinkets and toys, expressed a +horror and fear of this jewel when he learned that it was an emblem of +the Christian faith. He had seen a little too much of the Christian +religion; and Heaven only knows with what terror and depression the +emblem of the cross inspired him. He went ashore; and when a messenger +was sent to search for him a few days afterwards, it was found that he +had moved his whole establishment into the interior of the island. The +beautiful native woman Catalina escaped to shore and disappeared at the +same time; and the two events were connected in the minds of some of the +Spaniards, and held, wrongly as it turned out, to be significant of a +deep plot of native treachery. + +The most urgent need was to build the new settlement and lay out a town. +Several small parties were sent out to reconnoitre the coast in both +directions, but none of them found a suitable place; and on December 7th +the whole fleet sailed to the east in the hope of finding a better +position. They were driven by adverse winds into a harbour some thirty +miles to the east of Monte Christi, and when they went ashore they +decided that this was as good a site as any for the new town. There was +about a quarter of a mile of level sandy beach enclosed by headlands on +either side; there was any amount of rock and stones for building, and +there was a natural barrier of hills and mountains a mile or so inland +that would protect a camp from that side.--The soil was very fertile, +the vegetation luxuriant; and the mango swamps a little way inland +drained into a basin or lake which provided an unlimited water supply. +Columbus therefore set about establishing a little town, to which he gave +the name of Isabella. Streets and squares were laid out, and rows of +temporary buildings made of wood and thatched with grass were hastily run +up for the accommodation of the members of the expedition, while the +foundations of three stone buildings were also marked out and the +excavations put in hand. These buildings were the church, the +storehouse, and a residence for Columbus as Governor-General. The stores +were landed, the horses and cattle accommodated ashore, the provisions, +ammunition, and agricultural implements also. Labourers were set to +digging out the foundations of the stone buildings, carpenters to cutting +down trees and running up the light wooden houses that were to serve as +barracks for the present; masons were employed in hewing stones and +building landing-piers; and all the crowd of well-born adventurers were +set to work with their hands, much to their disgust. This was by no +means the life they had imagined, and at the first sign of hard work they +turned sulky and discontented. There was, to be sure, some reason for +their discontent. Things had not quite turned out as Columbus had +promised they should; there was no store of gold, nor any sign of great +desire on the part of the natives to bring any; and to add to their other +troubles, illness began to break out in the camp. The freshly-turned +rank soil had a bad effect on the health of the garrison; the lake, which +had promised to be so pleasant a feature in the new town, gave off +dangerous malarial vapours at night; and among the sufferers from this +trouble was Columbus himself, who endured for some weeks all the pains +and lassitude of the disagreeable fever. + +The ships were now empty and ready for the return voyage, and as soon as +Columbus was better he set to work to face the situation. After all his +promises it would never do to send them home empty or in ballast; a cargo +of stones from the new-found Indies would not be well received in Spain. +The natives had told him that somewhere in the island existed the gold +mines of Cibao, and he determined to make an attempt to find these, so +that he could send his ships home laden with a cargo that would be some +indemnity for the heavy cost of the expedition and some compensation for +the bad news he must write with regard to his first settlement. Young +Ojeda was chosen to lead an expedition of fifteen picked men into the +interior; and as the gold mines were said to be in a part of the island +not under the command of Guacanagari, but in the territory of the dreaded +Caonabo, there was no little anxiety felt about the expedition. + +Ojeda started in the beginning of January 1494, and marched southwards +through dense forests until, having crossed a mountain range, he came +down into a beautiful and fertile valley, where they were hospitably +received by the natives. They saw plenty of gold in the sand of the +river that watered the valley, which sand the natives had a way of +washing so that the gold was separated from it; and there seemed to be so +much wealth there that Ojeda hurried back to the new city of Isabella to +make his report to Columbus. The effect upon the discontented colonists +was remarkable. Once more everything was right; wealth beyond the dreams +of avarice was at their hand; and all they had to do was to stretch out +their arms and take it. Columbus felt that he need no longer delay the +despatch of twelve of his ships on the homeward voyage. If he had not +got golden cargoes for them, at any rate he had got the next best thing, +which was the certainty of gold; and it did not matter whether it was in +the ships or in his storehouse. He had news to send home at any rate, +and a great variety of things to ask for in return, and he therefore set +about writing his report to the Sovereigns. Other people, as we know, +were writing letters too; the reiterated promise of gold, and the +marvellous anecdotes which these credulous settlers readily believed from +the natives, such as that there was a rock close by out of which gold +would burst if you struck it with a club, raised greed and expectation in +Spain to a fever pitch, and prepared the reaction which followed. + +We may now read the account of the New World as Columbus sent it home to +the King and Queen of Spain in the end of January 1494, and as they read +it some weeks later. Their comments, written in the margin of the +original, are printed in italics at the end of each paragraph. It was +drawn up in the form of a memorandum, and entrusted to Antonio de Torres, +who was commanding the return expedition. + + +"What you, Antonio de Torres, captain of the ship Marigalante and Alcalde +of the City of Isabella, are to say and supplicate on my part to the King +and Queen, our Lords, is as follows:-- + + "First. Having delivered the letters of credence which you carry + from me for their Highnesses, you will kiss for me their Royal feet + and hands and will recommend me to their Highnesses as to a King and + Queen, my natural Lords, in whose service I desire to end my days: + as you will be able to say this more fully to their Highnesses, + according to what you have seen and known of me. + + ["Their Highnesses hold him in their favour.] + + "Item. Although by the letters I write to their Highnesses, and + also the father Friar Buil and the Treasurer, they will be able to + understand all that has been done here since our arrival, and this + very minutely and extensively: nevertheless, you will say to their + Highnesses on my part, that it has pleased God to give me such + favour in their service, that up to the present time. I do not find + less, nor has less been found in anything than what I wrote and said + and affirmed to their Highnesses in the past: but rather, by the + Grace of God, I hope that it will appear, by works much more clearly + and very soon, because such signs and indications of spices have + been found on the shores of the sea alone, without having gone + inland, that there is reason that very much better results may be + hoped for: and this also may be hoped for in the mines of gold, + because by two persons only who went to investigate, each one on his + own part, without remaining there because there was not many people, + so many rivers have been discovered so filled with gold, that all + who saw it and gathered specimens of it with the hands alone, came + away so pleased and say such things in regard to its abundance, that + I am timid about telling it and writing it to their Highnesses: but + because Gorbalan, who was one of the discoverers, is going yonder, + he will tell what he saw, although another named Hojeda remains + here, a servant of the Duke of Medinaceli, a very discreet youth and + very prudent, who without doubt and without comparison even, + discovered much more according to the memorandum which he brought of + the rivers, saying that there is an incredible quantity in each one + of them for this their Highnesses may give thanks to God, since He + has been so favourable to them in all their affairs. + + ["Their Highnesses give many thanks to God for this, and + consider as a very signal service all that the Admiral has done + in this matter and is doing: because they know that after God + they are indebted to him for all they have had, and will have + in this affair: and as they are writing him more fully about + this, they refer him to their letter.] + + "Item. You will say to their Highnesses, although I already have + written it to them, that I desired greatly to be able to send them a + larger quantity of gold in this fleet, from that which it is hoped + may be gathered here, but the greater part of our people who are + here, have fallen suddenly ill: besides, this fleet cannot remain + here longer, both on account of the great expense it occasions and + because this time is suitable for those persons who are to bring the + things which are greatly needed here, to go and be able to return: + as, if they delay going away from here, those who are to return will + not be able to do so by May: and besides this, if I wished to + undertake to go to the mines or rivers now, with the well people who + are here, both on the sea and in the settlement on land, I would + have many difficulties and even dangers, because in order to go + twenty-three or twenty-four leagues from here where there are + harbours and rivers to cross, and in order to cover such a long + route and reach there at the time which would be necessary to gather + the gold, a large quantity of provisions would have to be carried, + which cannot be carried on the shoulders, nor are there beasts of + burden here which could be used for this purpose: nor are the roads + and passes sufficiently prepared, although I have commenced to get + them in readiness so as to be passable: and also it was very + inconvenient to leave the sick here in an open place, in huts, with + the provisions and supplies which are on land: for although these + Indians may have shown themselves to the discoverers and show + themselves every day, to be very simple and not malicious + nevertheless, as they come here among us each day, it did not appear + that it would be a good idea to risk losing these people and the + supplies. This loss an Indian with a piece of burning wood would be + able to cause by setting fire to the huts, because they are always + going and coming by night and by day: on their account, we have + guards in the camp, while the settlement is open and defenceless. + + ["That he did well.] + + "Moreover, as we have seen among those who went by land to make + discoveries that the greater part fell sick after returning, and + some of them even were obliged to turn back on the road, it was also + reasonable to fear that the same thing would happen to those who are + well, who would now go, and as a consequence they would run the risk + of two dangers: the one, that of falling sick yonder, in the same + work, where there is no house nor any defence against that cacique + who is called Caonabb, who is a very bad man according to all + accounts, and much more audacious and who, seeing us there, sick and + in such disorder, would be able to undertake what he would not dare + if we were well: and with this difficulty there is another--that of + bringing here what gold we might obtain, because we must either + bring a small quantity and go and come each day and undergo the risk + of sickness, or it must be sent with some part of the people, + incurring the same danger of losing it. + + ["He did well.] + + "So that, you will say to their Highnesses, that these are the + causes why the fleet has not been at present detained, and why more + gold than the specimens has not been sent them: but confiding in the + mercy of God, who in everything and for everything has guided us as + far as here, these people will quickly become convalescent, as they + are already doing, because only certain places in the country suit + them and they then recover; and it is certain that if they had some + fresh meat in order to convalesce, all with the aid of God would + very quickly be on foot, and even the greater part would already be + convalescent at this time: nevertheless they will be re-established. + With the few healthy ones who remain here, each day work is done + toward enclosing the settlement and placing it in a state of some + defence and the supplies in safety, which will be accomplished in a + short time, because it is to be only a small dry wall. For the + Indians are not a people to undertake anything unless they should + find us sleeping, even though they might have thought of it in the + manner in which they served the others who remained here. Only on + account of their (the Spaniards') lack of caution--they being so + few--and the great opportunities they gave the Indians to have and + do what they did, they would never have dared to undertake to injure + them if they had seen that they were cautious. And this work being + finished, I will then undertake to go to the said rivers, either + starting upon the road from here and seeking the best possible + expedients, or going around the island by sea as far as that place + from which it is said it cannot be more than six or seven leagues to + the said rivers. In such a manner that the gold can be gathered and + placed in security in some fortress or tower which can then be + constructed there, in order to keep it securely until the time when + the two caravels return here, and in order that then, with the first + suitable weather for sailing this course, it may be sent to a place + of safety. + + ["That this is well and must be done in this manner.] + + "Item. You will say to their Highnesses, as has been said, that the + cause of the general sicknesses common to all is the change of water + and air, because we see that it extends to all conditions and few + are in danger: consequently, for the preservation of health, after + God, it is necessary that these people be provided with the + provisions to which they are accustomed in Spain, because neither + they, nor others who may come anew, will be able to serve their + Highnesses if they are not well: and this provision must continue + until a supply is accumulated here from what shall be sowed and + planted here. I say wheat and barley, and vines, of which little + has been done this year because a site for the town could not be + selected before, and then when it was selected the few labourers who + were here became sick, and they, even though they had been well, had + so few and such lean and meagre beasts of burden, that they were + able to do but little: nevertheless, they have sown something, more + in order to try the soil which appears very wonderful, so that from + it some relief may be hoped in our necessities. We are very sure, + as the result makes it apparent to us, that in this country wheat as + well as the vine will grow very well: but the fruit must be waited + for, which, if it corresponds to the quickness with which the wheat + grows and of some few vine-shoots which were planted, certainly will + not cause regret here for the productions of Andalusia or Sicily: + neither is it different with the sugar-canes according to the manner + in which some few that were planted have grown. For it is certain + that the sight of the land of these islands, as well of the + mountains and sierras and waters as of the plains where there are + rich rivers, is so beautiful, that no other land on which the sun + shines can appear better or as beautiful. + + ["Since the land is such, it must be managed that the greatest + possible quantity of all things shall be sown, and Don Juan de + Fonseca is to be written to send continually all that is + necessary for this purpose.] + + "Item. You will say that, inasmuch as much of the wine which the + fleet brought was wasted on this journey, and this, according to + what the greater number say, was because of the bad workmanship + which the coopers did in Seville, the greatest necessity we feel + here at the present time is for wines, and it is what we desire most + to have and although we may have biscuit as well as wheat sufficient + for a longer time, nevertheless it is necessary that a reasonable + quantity should also be sent, because the journey is long and + provision cannot be made each day and in the same manner some salted + meat, I say bacon, and other salt meat better than that we brought + on this journey. It is necessary that each time a caravel comes + here, fresh meat shall be sent, and even more than that, lambs and + little ewe lambs, more females than males, and some little yearling + calves, male and female, and some he-asses and she-asses and some + mares for labour and breeding, as there are none of these animals + here of any value or which can be made use of by man. And because I + apprehend that their Highnesses may not be, in Seville, and that the + officials or ministers will not provide these things without their + express order, and as it is necessary they should come at the first + opportunity, and as in consultation and reply the time for the + departure of the vessels-which must be here during all of Maywill be + past: you will say to their Highnesses that I charged and commanded + you to pledge the gold you are carrying yonder and place it in + possession of some merchant in Seville, who will furnish therefor + the necessary maravedis to load two caravels with wine and wheat and + the other things of which you are taking a memorandum; which + merchant will carry or send the said gold to their Highnesses that + they may see it and receive it, and cause what shall have been + expended for fitting out and loading of the said two caravels to be + paid: and in order to comfort and strengthen these people remaining + here, the utmost efforts must be made for the return of these + caravels for all the month of May, that the people before commencing + the summer may see and have some refreshment from these things, + especially the invalids: the things of which we are already in great + need here are such as raisins, sugar, almonds, honey and rice, which + should have been sent in large quantities and very little was sent, + and that which came is already used and consumed, and even the + greater part of the medicines which were brought from there, on + account of the multitude of sick people. You are carrying memoranda + signed by my hand, as has been said, of things for the people in + good health as well as for the sick. You will provide these things + fully if the money is sufficient, or at least the things which it is + most necessary to send at once, in order that the said two vessels + can bring them, and you can arrange with their Highnesses, to have + the remaining things sent by other vessels as quickly as possible. + + ["Their Highnesses sent an order to Don Juan de Fonseca to + obtain at once information about the persons who committed the + fraud of the casks, and to cause all the damage to the wine to + be recovered from them, with the costs: and he must see that + the canes which are sent are of good quality, and that the + other things mentioned here are provided at once.] + + "Item. You will say to their Highnesses that as there is no + language here by means of which these people can be made to + understand our Holy Faith, as your Highnesses and also we who are + here desire, although we will do all we can towards it--I am sending + some of the cannibals in the vessels, men and women and male and + female children, whom their Highnesses can order placed with persons + from whom they can better learn the language, making use of them in + service, and ordering that little by little more pains be taken with + them than with other slaves, that they may learn one from the other: + if they do not see or speak with each other until some time has + passed, they will learn more quickly there than here, and will be + better interpreters--although we will not cease to do as much as + possible here. It is true that as there is little intercourse + between these people from one island to another, there is some + difference in their language, according to how far distant they are + from each other. And as, of the other islands, those of the + cannibals are very large and very well populated, it would appear + best to take some of their men and women and send them yonder to + Castile, because by taking them away, it may cause them to abandon + at once that inhuman custom which they have of eating men: and by + learning the language there in Castile, they will receive baptism + much more quickly, and provide for the safety of their souls. Even + among the peoples who are not cannibals we shall gain great credit, + by their seeing that we can seize and take captive those from whom + they are accustomed to receive injuries, and of whom they are in + such terror that they are frightened by one man alone. You will + certify to their Highnesses that the arrival here and sight of such + a fine fleet all together has inspired very great authority here and + assured very great security for future things: because all the + people on this great island and in the other islands, seeing the + good treatment which those who well behave receive, and the bad + treatment given to those who behave ill, will very quickly render + obedience, so that they can be considered as vassals of their + Highnesses. And as now they not only do willingly whatever is + required of them by our people, but further, they voluntarily + undertake everything which they understand may please us, their + Highnesses may also be certain that in many respects, as much for + the present as for the future, the coming of this fleet has given + them a great reputation, and not less yonder among the Christian + princes: which their Highnesses will be better able to consider and + understand than I can tell them. + + ["That he is to be told what has befallen the cannibals who + came here. That it is very well and must be done in this + manner, but that he must try there as much as possible to bring + them to our Holy Catholic faith and do the same with the + inhabitants of the islands where he is.] + + "Item. You will say to their Highnesses that the safety of the + souls of the said cannibals, and further of those here, has inspired + the thought that the more there are taken yonder, the better it will + be, and their Highnesses can be served by it in this manner: having + seen how necessary the flocks and beasts of burden are here, for the + sustenance of the people who must be here, and even of all these + islands, their Highnesses can give licence and permission to a + sufficient number of caravels to come here each year, and bring the + said flocks and other supplies and things to settle the country and + make use of the land: and this at reasonable prices at the expense + of those who bring them: and these things can be paid for in slaves + from among these cannibals, a very proud and comely people, well + proportioned and of good intelligence, who having been freed from + that inhumanity, we believe will be better than any other slaves. + They will be freed from this cruelty as soon as they are outside + their country, and many of them can be taken with the row-boats + which it is known how to build here: it being understood, however, + that a trustworthy person shall be placed on each one of the + caravels coming here, who shall forbid the said caravels to stop at + any other place or island than this place, where the loading and + unloading of all the merchandise must be done. And further, their + Highnesses will be able to establish their rights over these slaves + which are taken from here yonder to Spain. And you will bring or + send a reply to this, in order that the necessary preparations may + be made here with more confidence if it appears well to their + Highnesses. + + ["This project must be held in abeyance for the present until + another method is suggested from there, and the Admiral may + write what he thinks in regard to it.] + + "Item. Also you will say to their Highnesses that it is more + profitable and costs less to hire the vessels as the merchants hire + them for Flanders, by tons, rather than in any other manner: + therefore I charged you to hire the two caravels which you are to + send here, in this manner: and all the others which their Highnesses + send here can be hired thus, if they consider it for their service + but I do not intend to say this of those vessels which are to come + here with their licence, for the slave trade. + + ["Their Highnesses order Don Juan de Fonseca to hire the + caravels in this manner if it can be done.] + + "Item. You will say to their Highnesses, that to avoid any further + cost, I bought these caravels of which you are taking a memorandum + in order to retain them here with these two ships: that is to say + the Gallega and that other, the Capitana, of which I likewise + purchased the three-eighths from the master of it, for the price + given in the said memorandum which you are taking, signed by my + hand. These ships not only will give authority and great security + to the people who are obliged to remain inland and make arrangements + with the Indians to gather the gold, but they will also be of + service in any other dangerous matter which may arise with a strange + people; besides the caravels are necessary for the discovery of the + mainland and the other islands which lie between here and there: and + you will entreat their Highnesses to order the maravedis which these + ships cost, paid at the times which they have been promised, because + without doubt they will soon receive what they cost, according to + what I believe and hope in the mercy of God. + + ["The Admiral has done well, and to tell him that the sum has + been paid here to the one who sold the ship, and Don Juan de + Fonseca has been ordered to pay for the two caravels which the + Admiral bought.] + + "Item. You will say to their Highnesses, and will supplicate on my + part as humbly as possible, that it may please them to reflect on + what they will learn most fully from the letters and other writings + in regard to the peace and tranquillity and concord of those who are + here: and that for the service of their Highnesses such persons may + be selected as shall not be suspected, and who will give more + attention to the matters for which they are sent than to their own + interests: and since you saw and knew everything in regard to this + matter, you will speak and will tell their Highnesses the truth + about all the things as you understood them, and you will endeavour + that the provision which their Highnesses make in regard to it shall + come with the first ships if possible, in order that there may be no + scandals here in a matter of so much importance in the service of + their Highnesses. + + ["Their Highnesses are well informed in regard to this matter, + and suitable provision will be made for everything.] + + "Item. You will tell their Highnesses of the situation of this + city, and the beauty of the surrounding province as you saw and + understood it, and how I made you its Alcade, by the powers which I + have for same from their Highnesses: whom I humbly entreat to hold + the said provision in part satisfaction of your services, as I hope + from their Highnesses. + + ["It pleases their Highnesses that you shall be Alcade.] + + "Item. Because Mosen Pedro Margarite, servant of their Highnesses, + has done good service, and I hope he will do the same henceforward + in matters which are entrusted to him, I have been pleased to have + him remain here, and also Gaspar and Beltran, because they are + recognised servants of their Highnesses, in order to intrust them + with matters of confidence. You will specialty entreat their + Highnesses in regard to the said Mosen Pedro, who is married and has + children, to provide him with some charge in the order of Santiago, + whose habit he wears, that his wife and children may have the + wherewith to live. In the same manner you will relate how well and + diligently Juan Aguado, servant of their Highnesses, has rendered + service in everything which he has been ordered to do, and that I + supplicate their Highnesses to have him and the aforesaid persons in + their charge and to reward them. + + ["Their Highnesses order 30,000 maravedis to be assigned to + Mosen Pedro each year, and to Gaspar and Beltran, to each one, + 15,000 maravedis each year, from the present, August 15, 1494, + henceforward: and thus the Admiral shall cause to be paid to + them whatever must be paid yonder in the Indies, and Don Juan + de Fonseca whatever must be paid here: and in regard to Juan + Iguado, their Highnesses will hold him in remembrance.] + + "Item. You will tell their Highnesses of the labour performed by + Dr. Chanca, confronted with so many invalids, and still more because + of the lack of provisions and nevertheless, he acts with great + diligence and charity in everything pertaining to his office. And + as their Highnesses referred to me the salary which he was to + receive here, because, being here, it is certain that he cannot take + or receive anything from any one, nor earn money by his office as he + earned it in Castile, or would be able to earn it being at his ease + and living in a different manner from the way he lives here; + therefore, notwithstanding he swears that he earned more there, + besides the salary which their Highnesses gave him, I did not wish + to allow more than 50,000 maravedis each year for the work he + performs here while he remains here. This I entreat their + Highnesses to order allowed to him with the salary from here, and + that, because he says and affirms that all the physicians of their + Highnesses who are employed in Royal affairs or things similar to + this, are accustomed to have by right one day's wages in all the + year from all the people. Nevertheless, I have been informed and + they tell me, that however this may be, the custom is to give them a + certain sum, fixed according to the will and command of their + Highnesses in compensation for that day's wages. You will entreat + their Highnesses to order provision made as well in the matter of + the salary as of this custom, in such manner that the said Dr. + Chanca may have reason to be satisfied. + + ["Their Highnesses are pleased in regard to this matter of Dr. + Chanca, and that he shall be paid what the Admiral has assigned + him, together with his salary. + "In regard to the day's wages of the physicians, they are not + accustomed to receive it, save where the King, our Lord, may be + in persona.] + + "Item. You will say to their Highnesses that Coronel is a man for + the service of their Highnesses in many things, and how much service + he has rendered up to the present in all the most necessary matters, + and the need we feel of him now that he is sick; and that rendering + service in such a manner, it is reasonable that he should receive + the fruit of his service, not only in future favours, but in his + present salary, so that he and those who are here may feel that + their service profits them; because, so great is the labour which + must be performed here in gathering the gold that the persons who + are so diligent are not to be held in small consideration; and as, + for his skill, he was provided here by me with the office of + Alguacil Mayor of these Indies; and since in the provision the + salary is left blank, you will say that I supplicate their + Highnesses to order it filled in with as large an amount as they may + think right, considering his services, confirming to him the + provision I have given him here, and assuring it to him annually. + + ["Their Highnesses order that 15,000 maravedis more than his + salary shall be assigned him each year, and that it shall be + paid to him with his salary.] + + "In the same manner you will tell their Highnesses how the lawyer + Gil Garcia came here for Alcalde Mayor and no salary has been named + or assigned to him; and he is a capable person, well educated and + diligent, and is very necessary here; that I entreat their + Highnesses to order his salary named and assigned, so that he can + sustain himself, and that it may be paid from the money allowed for + salaries here. + + "[Their Highnesses order 20,000 maravedis besides his salary + assigned to him each year, as long as he remains yonder, and + that it shall be paid him when his salary is paid.] + + "Item. You will say to their Highnesses, although it is already + written in the letters, that I do not think it will be possible to + go to make discoveries this year, until these rivers in which gold + is found are placed in the most suitable condition for the service + of their Highnesses, as afterwards it can be done much better. + Because it is a thing which no one can do without my presence, + according to my will or for the service of their Highnesses, however + well it may be done, as it is doubtful what will be satisfactory to + a man unless he is present. + + ["Let him endeavour that the amount of this gold may be known + as precisely as possible.] + + "Item. You will say to their Highnesses that the Squires who came + from Granada showed good horses in the review which took place at + Seville, and afterward at the embarkation I did not see them because + I was slightly unwell, and they replaced them with such horses that + the best of them do not appear to be worth 2000 maravedis, as they + sold the others and bought these; and this was done in the same way + to many people as I very well saw yonder, in the reviews at Seville. + It appears that Juan de Soria, after he had been given the money for + the wages, for some interest of his own substituted others in place + of those I expected to find here, and I found people whom I had + never seen. In this matter he was guilty of great wickedness, so + that I do not know if I should complain of him alone. On this + account, having seen that the expenses of these Squires have been + defrayed until now, besides their wages and also wages for their + horses, and it is now being done: and they are persons who, when + they are sick or when they do not desire to do so, will not allow + any use to be made of their horses save by themselves: and their, + Highnesses do not desire that these horses should be purchased of + them, but that they should be used in the service of their + Highnesses: and it does not appear to them that they should do + anything or render any service except on horseback, which at the + present time is not much to the purpose: on this account, it seems + that it would be better to buy the horses from them, since they are + of so little value, and not have these disagreements with them every + day. Therefore their Highnesses may determine this as will best + serve them. + + ["Their Highnesses order Don Juan de Fonseca to inform himself + in regard to this matter of the horses, and if it shall be + found true that this fraud was committed, those persons shall + be sent to their Highnesses to be punished: and also he is to + inform himself in regard to what is said of the other people, + and send the result in the examination to their Highnesses; and + in regard to these Squires, their Highnesses command that they + remain there and render service, since they belong to the + guards and servants of their Highnesses: and their Highnesses + order the Squires to give up the horses each time it is + necessary and the Admiral orders it, and if the horses receive + any injury through others using them, their Highnesses order + that the damage shall be paid to them by means of the Admiral.] + + "Item. You will say to their Highnesses that more than 200 persons + have come here without wages, and there are some of them who render + good service. And as it is ordered that the others rendering + similar service should be paid: and as for these first three years + it would be of great benefit to have 1000 men here to settle, and + place this island and the rivers of gold in very great security, and + even though there were 100 horsemen nothing would be lost, but + rather it seems necessary, although their Highnesses will be able to + do without these horsemen until gold is sent: nevertheless, their + Highnesses must send to say whether wages shall be paid to these 200 + persons, the same as to the others rendering good service, because + they are certainly necessary, as I have said in the beginning of + this memorandum. + + ["In regard to these 200 persons, who are here said to have + gone without wages, their Highnesses order that they shall take + the places of those who went for wages, who have failed or + shall fail to fulfil their engagements, if they are skilful and + satisfactory to the Admiral. And their Highnesses order the + Purser (Contador) to enrol them in place of those who fail to + fulfil their engagements, as the Admiral shall instruct him.] + + "Item. As the cost of these people can be in some degree lightened + and the better part of the expense could be avoided by the same + means employed by other Princes in other places: it appears, that it + would be well to order brought in the ships, besides the other + things which are for the common maintenance and the medicines, shoes + and the skins from which to order the shoes made, common shirts and + others, jackets, linen, sack-coats, trowsers and cloths suitable for + wearing apparel, at reasonable prices: and other things like + conserves which are not included in rations and are for the + preservation of health, which things all the people here would + willingly receive to apply on their wages and if these were + purchased yonder in Spain by faithful Ministers who would act for + the advantage of their Highnesses, something would be saved. + Therefore you will learn the will of their Highnesses about this + matter, and if it appears to them to be of benefit to them, then it + must be placed in operation. + + ["This arrangement is to be in abeyance until the Admiral + writes more fully, and at another time they will send to order + Don Juan de Fonseca with Jimeno de Bribiesca to make provision + for the same.] + + "Item. You will say to their Highnesses that inasmuch as yesterday + in the review people were found who were without arms, which I think + happened in part by that exchange which took place yonder in + Seville, or in the harbour when those who presented themselves armed + were left, and others were taken who gave something to those who + made the exchange, it seems that it would be well to order 200 + cuirasses sent, and 100 muskets and 100 crossbows, and a large + quantity of arsenal supplies, which is what we need most, and all + these arms can be given to those who are unarmed. + + ["Already Don Juan de Fonseca has been written to make + provision for this.] + + "Item. Inasmuch as some artisans who came here, such as masons and + other workmen, are married and have wives yonder in Spain, and would + like to have what is owing them from their wages given to their + wives or to the persons to whom they will send their requirements in + order that they may buy for them the things which they need here I + supplicate their Highnesses to order it paid to them, because it is + for their benefit to have these persons provided for here. + + ["Their Highnesses have already sent orders to Don Juan de + Fonseca to make provision for this matter.] + + "Item. Because, besides the other things which are asked for there + according to the memoranda which you are carrying signed by my hand, + for the maintenance of the persons in good health as well as for the + sick ones, it would be very well to have fifty casks of molasses + (miel de azucar) from the island of Madeira, as it is the best + sustenance in the world and the most healthful, and it does not + usually cost more than two ducats per cask, without the cask: and if + their Highnesses order some caravel to stop there in returning, it + can be purchased and also ten cases of sugar, which is very + necessary; as this is the best season of the year to obtain it, I + say between the present time and the month of April, and to obtain + it at a reasonable price. If their Highnesses command it, the order + could be given, and it would not be known there for what place it is + wanted. + + ["Let Don Juan de Fonseca make provision for this matter.] + + "Item. You will say to their Highnesses that although the rivers + contain gold in the quantity related by those who have seen it, yet + it is certain that the gold is not engendered in the rivers but + rather on the land, the waters of the rivers which flow by the mines + bringing it enveloped in the sands: and as among these rivers which + have been discovered there are some very large ones, there are + others so small that they are fountains rather than rivers, which + are not more than two fingers of water in depth, and then the source + from which they spring may be found: for this reason not only + labourers to gather it in the sand will be profitable, but others to + dig for it in the earth, which will be the most particular operation + and produce a great quantity. And for this, it will be well for + their Highnesses to send labourers, and from among those who work + yonder in Spain in the mines of Almaden, that the work may be done + in both ways. Although we will not await them here, as with the + labourers we have here we hope, with the aid of God, once the people + are in good health, to amass a good quantity of gold to be sent on + the first caravels which return. + + ["This will be fully provided for in another manner. In the + meantime their Highnesses order Don Yuan de Fonseca to send the + best miners he can obtain; and to write to Almaden to have the + greatest possible number taken from there and sent.] + + "Item. You will entreat their Highnesses very humbly on my part, to + consider Villacorta as speedily recommended to them, who, as their + Highnesses know, has rendered great service in this business, and + with a very good will, and as I know him, he is a diligent person + and very devoted to their service: it will be a favour to me if he + is given some confidential charge for which he is fitted, and where + he can show his desire to serve them and his diligence: and this you + will obtain in such a way that Villacorta may know by the result, + that what he has done for me when I needed him profits him in this + manner. + + ["It will be done thus.] + + "Item. That the said Mosen Pedro and Gaspar and Beltran and others + who have remained here gave up the captainship of caravels, which + have now returned, and are not receiving wages: but because they are + persons who must be employed in important matters and of confidence, + their compensation, which must be different from the others, has not + been determined. You will entreat their Highnesses on my part to + determine what is to be given them each year, or by the month, + according to their service. + + "Done in the city of Isabella, January 30, 1494. + + ["This has already been replied to above, but as it is stated + in the said item that they enjoy their salary, from the present + time their Highnesses order that their wages shall be paid to + all of them from the time they left their captainships."] + + +This document is worth studying, written as it was in circumstances that +at one moment looked desperate and at another were all hope. Columbus +was struggling manfully with difficulties that were already beginning to +be too much for him. The Man from Genoa, with his guiding star of faith +in some shore beyond the mist and radiance of the West--see into what +strange places and to what strange occupations this star has led him! +The blue visionary eyes, given to seeing things immediately beyond the +present horizon, must fix themselves on accounts and requisitions, on the +needs of idle, aristocratic, grumbling Spaniards; must fix themselves +also on that blank void in the bellies of his returning ships, where the +gold ought to have been. The letter has its practical side; the +requisitions are made with good sense and a grasp of the economic +situation; but they have a deeper significance than that. All this talk +about little ewe lambs, wine and bacon (better than the last lot, if it +please your Highnesses), little yearling calves, and fifty casks of +molasses that can be bought a ducat or two cheaper in Madeira in the +months of April and May than at any other time or place, is only half +real. Columbus fills his Sovereigns' ears with this clamour so that he +shall not hear those embarrassing questions that will inevitably be asked +about the gold and the spices. He boldly begins his letter with the old +story about "indications of spices" and gold "in incredible quantities," +with a great deal of "moreover" and "besides," and a bold, pompous, +pathetic "I will undertake"; and then he gets away from that subject by +wordy deviations, so that to one reading his letter it really might seem +as though the true business of the expedition was to provide Coronel, +Mosen Pedro, Gaspar, Beltran, Gil Garcia, and the rest of them with work +and wages. Everything that occurs to him, great or little, that makes it +seem as though things were humming in the new settlement, he stuffs into +this document, shovelling words into the empty hulls of the ships, and +trying to fill those bottomless pits with a stream of talk. A system of +slavery is boldly and bluntly sketched; the writer, in the hurry and +stress of the moment, giving to its economic advantages rather greater +prominence than to its religious glories. The memorandum, for all its +courageous attempt to be very cool and orderly and practical, gives us, +if ever a human document did, a picture of a man struggling with an +impossible situation which he will not squarely face, like one who should +try to dig up the sea-shore and keep his eyes shut the while. + +In the royal comments written against the document one seems to trace the +hand of Isabella rather than of Ferdinand. Their tone is matter-of-fact, +cool, and comforting, like the coolness of a woman's hand placed on a +feverish brow. Isabella believed in him; perhaps she read between the +lines of this document, and saw, as we can see, how much anxiety and +distress were written there; and her comments are steadying and +encouraging. He has done well; what he asks is being attended to; their +Highnesses are well informed in regard to this and that matter; suitable +provision will be made for everything; but let him endeavour that the +amount of this gold may be known as precisely as possible. There is no +escaping from that. The Admiral (no one knows it better than himself) +must make good his dazzling promises, and coin every boastful word into a +golden excelente of Spain. Alas! he must no longer write about the lush +grasses, the shining rivers, the brightly coloured parrots, the gaudy +flies and insects, the little singing birds, and the nights that are like +May in Cordova. He must find out about the gold; for it has come to grim +business in the Earthly Paradise. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +Amerigo Vespucci +Cannibal epicures did not care for the flesh of women and boys +Columbus, calling for an egg, laid a wager +Desire to get a great deal of money without working for it +Establishment of ten footmen and twenty other servants +Exchanging the natives for cattle +First organised transaction of slavery on the part of Columbus +Having issued three Bulls in twenty-four hours, he desisted +Juan Ponce de Leon, the discoverer of Florida +No Spanish women accompanied it (2d expedition) + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of Christopher Columbus, v4 +by Filson Young + + + + + + + CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS + AND THE NEW WORLD OF HIS DISCOVERY + + A NARRATIVE BY FILSON YOUNG + + + +DESPERATE REMEDIES + +BOOK 5. + + +CHAPTER I + +THE VOYAGE TO CUBA + +The sight of the greater part of their fleet disappearing in the +direction of home threw back the unstable Spanish colony into doubt and +despondency. The brief encouragement afforded by Ojeda's report soon +died away, and the actual discomforts of life in Isabella were more +important than visionary luxuries that seemed to recede into the distance +with the vanishing ships. The food supply was the cause of much +discomfort; the jobbery and dishonesty which seem inseparable from the +fitting out of a large expedition had stored the ships with bad wine and +imperfectly cured provisions; and these combined with the unhealthy +climate to produce a good deal of sickness. The feeling against +Columbus, never far below the Spanish surface, began to express itself +definitely in treacherous consultations and plots; and these were +fomented by Bernal Diaz, the comptroller of the colony, who had access to +Columbus's papers and had seen the letter sent by him to Spain. Columbus +was at this time prostrated by an attack of fever, and Diaz took the +opportunity to work the growing discontent up to the point of action. He +told the colonists that Columbus had painted their condition in far too +favourable terms; that he was deceiving them as well as the Sovereigns; +and a plot was hatched to seize the ships that remained and sail for +home, leaving Columbus behind to enjoy the riches that he had falsely +boasted about. They were ready to take alarm at anything, and to believe +anything one way or the other; and as they had believed Ojeda when he +came back with his report of riches, now they believed Cado, the assayer, +who said that even such gold as had been found was of a very poor and +worthless quality. The mutiny developed fast; and a table of charges +against Columbus, which was to be produced in Spain as a justification +for it, had actually been drawn up when the Admiral, recovering from his +illness, discovered what was on foot. He dealt promptly and firmly with +it in his quarterdeck manner, which was always far more effective than +his viceregal manner. Diaz was imprisoned and lodged in chains on board +one of the ships, to be sent to Spain for trial; and the other +ringleaders were punished also according to their deserts. The guns and +ammunition were all stored together on one ship under a safe guard, and +the mutiny was stamped out. But the Spaniards did not love Columbus any +the better for it; did not any the more easily forgive him for being in +command of them and for being a foreigner. + + +But it would never do for the colony to stagnate in Isabella, and +Columbus decided to make a serious attempt, not merely to discover the +gold of Cibao, but to get it. He therefore organised a military +expedition of about 400 men, including artificers, miners, and carriers, +with the little cavalry force that had been brought out from Spain. +Every one who had armour wore it, flags and banners were carried, drums +and trumpets were sounded; the horses were decked out in rich caparisons, +and as glittering and formidable a show was made as possible. Leaving +his brother James in command of the settlement, Columbus set out on the +12th of March to the interior of the island. Through the forest and up +the mountainside a road was cut by pioneers from among the aristocratic +adventurers who had come with the party; which road, the first made in +the New World, was called El Puerto de los Hidalgos. The formidable, +glittering cavalcade inspired the natives with terror and amazement; they +had never seen horses before, and when one of the soldiers dismounted it +seemed to them as though some terrifying two-headed, six-limbed beast had +come asunder. What with their fright of the horses and their desire to +possess the trinkets that were carried they were very friendly and +hospitable, and supplied the expedition with plenty of food. At last, +after passing mountain ranges that made their hearts faint, and rich +valleys that made them hopeful again, the explorers came to the mountains +of Cibao, and passing over the first range found themselves in a little +valley at the foot of the hills where a river wound round a fertile plain +and there was ample accommodation for an encampment. There were the +usual signs of gold, and Columbus saw in the brightly coloured stones of +the river-bed evidence of unbounded wealth in precious stones. At last +he had come to the place! He who had doubted so much, and whose faith +had wavered, had now been led to a place where he could touch and handle +the gold and jewels of his desire; and he therefore called the place +Saint Thomas. He built a fort here, leaving a garrison of fifty-six men +under the command of Pedro Margarite to collect gold from the natives, +and himself returned to Isabella, which he reached at the end of March. + + +Enforced absence from the thing he has organised is a great test of +efficiency in any man. The world is full of men who can do things +themselves; but those who can organise from the industry of their men a +machine which will steadily perform the work whether the organiser is +absent or present are rare indeed. Columbus was one of the first class. +His own power and personality generally gave him some kind of mastery +over any circumstances in which he was immediately concerned; but let him +be absent for a little time, and his organisation went to pieces. No one +was better than he at conducting a one-man concern; and his conduct of +the first voyage, so long as he had his company under his immediate +command, was a model of efficiency. But when the material under his +command began to grow and to be divided into groups his life became a +succession of ups and downs. While he was settling and disciplining one +group mutiny and disorder would attack the other; and when he went to +attend to them, the first one immediately fell into confusion again. He +dealt with the discontent in Isabella, organising the better disposed +part of it in productive labour, and himself marching the malcontents +into something like discipline and order, leaving them at Saint Thomas, +as we have seen, usefully collecting gold. But while he was away the +people at Isabella had got themselves into trouble again, and when he +arrived there on the morning of March 29th he found the town in a +deplorable condition. The lake beside which the city had been built, and +which seemed so attractive and healthy a spot, turned out to be nothing +better than a fever trap. Drained from the malarial marshes, its sickly +exhalations soon produced an epidemic that incapacitated more than half +the colony and interrupted the building operations. The time of those +who were well was entirely occupied with the care of those who were sick, +and all productive work was at a standstill. The reeking virgin soil had +produced crops in an incredibly short time, and the sowings of January +were ready for reaping in the beginning of April. But there was no one +to reap them, and the further cultivation of the ground had necessarily +been neglected. + +The faint-hearted Spaniards, who never could meet any trouble without +grumbling, were now in the depths of despair and angry discontent; +and it had not pleased them to be put on a short allowance of even the +unwholesome provisions that remained from the original store. A couple +of rude hand-mills had been erected for the making of flour, and as food +was the first necessity Columbus immediately put all the able-bodied men +in the colony, whatever their rank, to the elementary manual work of +grinding. Friar Buil and the twelve Benedictine brothers who were with +him thought this a wise order, assuming of course that as clerics they +would not be asked to work. But great was their astonishment, and loud +and angry their criticism of the Admiral, when they found that they also +were obliged to labour with their hands. But Columbus was firm; there +were absolutely no exceptions made; hidalgo and priest had to work +alongside of sailor and labourer; and the curses of the living mingled +with those of the dying on the man whose boastful words had brought them +to such a place and such a condition. + +It was only in the nature of things that news should now arrive of +trouble at Saint Thomas. Gold and women again; instead of bartering or +digging, the Spaniards had been stealing; and discipline had been +relaxed, with the usual disastrous results with regard to the women of +the adjacent native tribes. Pedro Margarite sent a nervous message to +Columbus expressing his fear that Caonabo, the native king, should be +exasperated to the point of attacking them again. Columbus therefore +despatched Ojeda in command of a force of 350 armed men to Saint Thomas +with instructions that he was to take over the command of that post, +while Margarite was to take out an expedition in search of Caonabo whom, +with his brothers, Margarite was instructed to capture at all costs. + +Having thus set things going in the interior, and once more restored +Isabella to something like order, he decided to take three ships and +attempt to discover the coast of Cathay. The old Nina, the San Juan, and +the Cordera, three small caravels, were provisioned for six months and +manned by a company of fifty-two men. Francisco Nino went once more with +the Admiral as pilot, and the faithful Juan de la Cosa was taken to draw +charts; one of the monks also, to act as chaplain. The Admiral had a +steward, a secretary, ten seamen and six boys to complete the company on +the Nina. The San Juan was commanded by Alonso Perez Roldan and the +Cordera by Christoval Nino. Diego was again left in command of the +colony, with four counsellors, Friar Buil, Fernandez Coronel, Alonso +Sanchez Carvajal, and Juan de Luxan, to assist his authority. + +The Admiral sailed on April 24th, steering to the westward and touching +at La Navidad before he bore away to the island of Cuba, the southern +shore of which it was now his intention to explore. At one of his first +anchorages he discovered a native feast going on, and when the boats from +his ships pulled ashore the feasters fled in terror--the hungry Spaniards +finishing their meal for them. Presently, however, the feasters were +induced to come back, and Columbus with soft speeches made them a +compensation for the food that had been taken, and produced a favourable +impression, as his habit was; with the result that all along the coast he +was kindly received by the natives, who supplied him with food and fresh +fruit in return for trinkets. At the harbour now known as Santiago de +Cuba, where he anchored on May 2nd, he had what seemed like authentic +information of a great island to the southward which was alleged to be +the source of all the gold. The very compasses of Columbus's ships seem +by this time to have become demagnetised, and to have pointed only to +gold; for no sooner had he heard this report than he bore away to the +south in pursuit of that faint yellow glitter that had now quite taken +the place of the original inner light of faith. + + +The low coast of Jamaica, hazy and blue at first, but afterwards warming +into a golden belt crowned by the paler and deeper greens of the foliage, +was sighted first by Columbus on Sunday, May 4th; and he anchored the +next day in the beautiful harbour of Saint Anne, to which he gave the +name of Santa Gloria. To the island itself he gave the name of Santiago, +which however has never displaced its native name of Jamaica. The dim +blue mountains and clumps of lofty trees about the bay were wonderful +even to Columbus, whose eyes must by this time have been growing +accustomed to the beauty of the West Indies, and he lost his heart to +Jamaica from the first moment that his eyes rested on its green and +golden shores. Perhaps he was by this time a little out of conceit with +Hayti; but be that as it may he retracted all the superlatives he had +ever used for the other lands of his discovery, and bestowed them in his +heart upon Jamaica. + +He was not humanly so well received as he had been on the other islands, +for when he cast anchor the natives came out in canoes threatening +hostilities and had to be appeased with red caps and hawks' bells. Next +day, however, Columbus wished to careen his ships, and sailed a little to +the west until he found a suitable beach at Puerto Bueno; and as he +approached the shore some large canoes filled with painted and feathered +warriors came out and attacked his ships, showering arrows and javelins, +and whooping and screaming at the Spaniards. The guns were discharged, +and an armed party sent ashore in a boat, and the natives were soon put +to flight. There was no renewal of hostilities; the next day the local +cacique came down offering provisions and help; presents were exchanged, +and cordial relations established. Columbus noticed that the Jamaicans +seemed to be a much more virile community than either the Cubans or the +people of Espanola. They had enormous canoes hollowed out of single +mahogany trees, some of them 96 feet long and 8 feet broad, which they +handled with the greatest ease and dexterity; they had a merry way with +them too, were quick of apprehension and clever at expressing their +meaning, and in their domestic utensils and implements they showed an +advance in civilisation on the other islanders of the group. Columbus +did some trade with the islanders as he sailed along the coast, but he +does not seem to have believed much in the gold story, for after sailing +to the western point of the island he bore away to the north again and +sighted the coast of Cuba on the 18th of May. + + +The reason why Columbus kept returning to the coast of Cuba was that he +believed it to be the mainland of Asia. The unlettered natives, who had +never read Marco Polo, told him that it was an island, although no man +had ever seen the end of it; but Columbus did not believe them, and +sailed westward in the belief that he would presently come upon the +country and city of Cathay. Soon he found himself in the wonderful +labyrinth of islets and sandbanks off the south coast; and because of the +wonderful colours of their flowers and climbing plants he called them +Jardin de la Reina or Queen's Garden. Dangerous as the navigation +through these islands was, he preferred to risk the shoals and sandbanks +rather than round them out at sea to the southward, for he believed them +to be the islands which, according to Marco Polo, lay in masses along the +coast of Cathay. In this adventure he had a very hard time of it; the +lead had to be used all the time, the ships often had to be towed, the +wind veered round from every quarter of the compass, and there were +squalls and tempests, and currents that threatened to set them ashore. +By great good fortune, however, they managed to get through the +Archipelago without mishap. By June 3rd they were sailing along the +coast again, and Columbus had some conversation with an old cacique who +told him of a province called Mangon (or so Columbus understood him) that +lay to the west. Sir John Mandeville had described the province of Mangi +as being the richest in Cathay; and of course, thought the Admiral, this +must be the place. He went westward past the Gulf of Xagua and got into +the shallow sandy waters, now known as the Jardinillos Bank, where the +sea was whitened with particles of sand. When he had got clear of this +shoal water he stood across a broad bay towards a native settlement where +he was able to take in yams, fruit, fish, and fresh water. + +But this excitement and hard work were telling on the Admiral, and when a +native told him that there was a tribe close by with long tails, he +believed him; and later, when one of his men, coming back from a shore +expedition, reported that he had seen some figures in a forest wearing +white robes, Columbus believed that they were the people with the tails, +who wore a long garment to conceal them. + + +He was moving in a world of enchantment; the weather was like no weather +in any known part of the world; there were fogs, black and thick, which +blew down suddenly from the low marshy land, and blew away again as +suddenly; the sea was sometimes white as milk, sometimes black as pitch, +sometimes purple, sometimes green; scarlet cranes stood looking at them +as they slid past the low sandbanks; the warm foggy air smelt of roses; +shoals of turtles covered the waters, black butterflies circled in the +mist; and the fever that was beginning to work in the Admiral's blood +mounted to his brain, so that in this land of bad dreams his fixed ideas +began to dominate all his other faculties, and he decided that he must +certainly be on the coast of Cathay, in the magic land described by Marco +Polo. + + +There is nothing which illustrates the arbitrary and despotic government +of sea life so well as the nautical phrase "make it so." The very hours +of the day, slipping westward under the keel of an east-going ship, are +"made" by rigid decree; the captain takes his observation of sun or +stars, and announces the position of the ship to be at a certain spot on +the surface of the globe; any errors of judgment or deficiencies of +method are covered by the words "make it so." And in all the elusive +phenomena surrounding him the fevered brain of the Admiral discerned +evidence that he was really upon the coast of Asia, although there was no +method by which he could place the matter beyond a doubt. The word Asia +was not printed upon the sands of Cuba, as it might be upon a map; the +lines of longitude did not lie visibly across the surface of the sea; +there was nothing but sea and land, the Admiral's charts, and his own +conviction. Therefore Columbus decided to "make it so." If there was no +other way of being sure that this was the coast of Cathay, he would +decree it to be the coast of Cathay by a legal document and by oaths and +affidavits. He would force upon the members of his expedition a +conviction at least equal to his own; and instead of pursuing any further +the coast that stretched interminably west and south-west, he decided to +say, in effect, and once and for all, "Let this be the mainland of Asia." + +He called his secretary to him and made him draw up a form of oath or +testament, to which every member of the expedition was required to +subscribe, affirming that the land off which they were then lying (12th +June 1494), was the mainland of the Indies and that it was possible to +return to Spain by land from that place; and every officer who should +ever deny it in the future was laid under a penalty of ten thousand +maravedis, and every ship's boy or seaman under a penalty of one hundred +lashes; and in addition, any member of the expedition denying it in the +future was to have his tongue cut out. + +No one will pretend that this was the action of a sane man; neither will +any one wonder that Columbus was something less than sane after all he +had gone through, and with the beginnings of a serious illness already in +his blood. His achievement was slipping from his grasp; the gold had not +been found, the wonders of the East had not been discovered; and it was +his instinct to secure something from the general wreck that seemed to be +falling about him, and to force his own dreams to come true, that caused +him to cut this grim and fantastic legal caper off the coast of Cuba. He +thought it at the time unlikely, seeing the difficulties of navigation +that he had gone through, which he might be pardoned for regarding as +insuperable to a less skilful mariner, that any one should ever come that +way again; even he himself said that he would never risk his life again +in such a place. He wished his journey, therefore, not to have been made +in vain; and as he himself believed that he had stood on the mainland of +Asia he took care to take back with him the only kind of evidence that +was possible namely, the sworn affidavits of the ships' crews. + + +Perhaps in his madness he would really have gone on and tried to reach +the Golden Chersonesus of Ptolemy, which according to Marco Polo lay just +beyond, and so to steer homeward round Ceylon and the Cape of Good Hope; +in which case he would either have been lost or would have discovered +Mexico. The crews, however, would not hear of the voyage being continued +westward. The ships were leaking and the salt water was spoiling the +already doubtful provisions and he was forced to turn back. He stood to +the south-east, and reached the Isle of Pines, to which he gave the name +of Evangelista, where the water-casks were filled, and from there he +tried to sail back to the east. But he found himself surrounded by +islands and banks in every direction, which made any straight course +impossible. He sailed south and east and west and north, and found +himself always back again in the middle of this charmed group of islands. +He spent almost a month trying to escape from them, and once his ship +went ashore on a sandbank and was only warped off with the greatest +difficulty. On July 7th he was back again in the region of the "Queen's +Gardens," from which he stood across to the coast of Cuba. + +He anchored and landed there, and being in great distress and difficulty +he had a large cross erected on the mainland, and had mass said. When +the Spaniards rose from their knees they saw an old native man observing +them; and the old man came and sat down beside Columbus and talked to him +through the interpreter. He told him that he had been in Jamaica and +Espanola as well as in Cuba, and that the coming of the Spaniards had +caused great distress to the people of the islands. + +He then spoke to Columbus about religion, and the gist of what he said +was something like this: "The performance of your worship seems good to +me. You believe that this life is not everything; so do we; and I know +that when this life is over there are two places reserved for me, to one +of which I shall certainly go; one happy and beautiful, one dreadful and +miserable. Joy and kindness reign in the one place, which is good enough +for the best of men; and they will go there who while they have lived on +the earth have loved peace and goodness, and who have never robbed or +killed or been unkind. The other place is evil and full of shadows, and +is reserved for those who disturb and hurt the sons of men; how important +it is, therefore, that one should do no evil or injury in this world!" + +Columbus replied with a brief statement of his own theological views, and +added that he had been sent to find out if there were any persons in +those islands who did evil to others, such as the Caribs or cannibals, +and that if so he had come to punish them. The effect of this ingenuous +speech was heightened by a gift of hawks' bells and pieces of broken +glass; upon receiving which the good old man fell down on his knees, and +said that the Spaniards must surely have come from heaven. + + +A few days later the voyage to the, south-east was resumed, and some +progress was made along the coast. But contrary winds arose which made +it impossible for the ships to round Cape Cruz, and Columbus decided to +employ the time of waiting in completing his explorations in Jamaica. +He therefore sailed due south until he once more sighted the beautiful +northern coast of that island, following it to the west and landing, as +his custom was, whenever he saw a good harbour or anchorage. The wind +was still from the east, and he spent a month beating to the eastward +along the south coast of the island, fascinated by its beauty, and +willing to stay and explore it, but prevented by the discontent of his +crews, who were only anxious to get back to Espanola. He had friendly +interviews with many of the natives of Jamaica, and at almost the last +harbour at which he touched a cacique with his wife and family and +complete retinue came off in canoes to the ship, begging Columbus to take +him and his household back to Spain. + +Columbus considers this family, and thinks wistfully how well they would +look in Barcelona. Father dressed in a cap of gold and green jewels, +necklace and earrings of the same; mother decked out in similar regalia, +with the addition of a small cotton apron; two sons and five brothers +dressed principally in a feather or two; two daughters mother-naked, +except that the elder, a handsome girl of eighteen, wears a jewelled +girdle from which depends a tablet as big as an ivy leaf, made of various +coloured stones embroidered on cotton. What an exhibit for one of the +triumphal processions: "Native royal family, complete"! But Columbus +thinks also of the scarcity of provisions on board his ships, and wonders +how all these royalties would like to live on a pint of sour wine and a +rotten biscuit each per day. Alas! there is not sour wine and rotten +biscuit enough for his own people; it is still a long way to Espanola; +and he is obliged to make polite excuses, and to say that he will come +back for his majesty another time. + + +It was on the 20th of August that Columbus, having the day before seen +the last of the dim blue hills of Jamaica, sighted again the long +peninsula of Hayti, called by him Cape San Miguel, but known to us as +Cape Tiburon; although it was not until he was hailed by a cacique who +called out to him "Almirante, Almirante," that the seaworn mariners +realised with joy that the island must be Espanola. But they were a long +way from Isabella yet. They sailed along the south coast, meeting +contrary winds, and at one point landing nine men who were to cross the +island, and try to reach Isabella by land. Week followed week, and they +made very poor progress. In the beginning of September they were caught +in a severe tempest, which separated the ships for a time, and held the +Admiral weather-bound for eight days. There was an eclipse of the moon +during this period, and he took advantage of it to make an observation +for longitude, by which he found himself to be 5 hrs. 23 min., or 80 deg. +40', west of Cadiz. In this observation there is an error of eighteen +degrees, the true longitude of the island of Saona, where the observation +was taken, being 62 deg. 20' west of Cadiz; and the error is accounted +for partly by the inaccuracy of the tables of Regiomontanus and partly by +the crudity and inexactness of the Admiral's methods. On the 24th of +September they at last reached the easternmost point of Espanola, named +by Columbus San Rafael. They stood to the east a little longer, and +discovered the little island of Mona, which lies between Espanola and +Puerto Rico; and from thence shaped their course west-by-north for +Isabella. And no sooner had the course been set for home than the +Admiral suddenly and completely collapsed; was carried unconscious to his +cabin; and lay there in such extremity that his companions gave him up +for lost. + +It is no ordinary strain to which poor Christopher has succumbed. He has +been five months at sea, sharing with the common sailors their bad food +and weary vigils, but bearing alone on his own shoulders a weight of +anxiety of which they knew nothing. Watch has relieved watch on his +ships, but there has been no one to relieve him, or to lift the burden +from his mind. The eyes of a nation are upon him, watchful and jealous +eyes that will not forgive him any failure; and to earn their approval he +has taken this voyage of five months, during which he has only been able +to forget his troubles in the brief hours of slumber. Strange uncharted +seas, treacherous winds and currents, drenching surges have all done +their part in bringing him to this pass; and his body, now starved on +rotten biscuits, now glutted with unfamiliar fruits, has been preyed upon +by the tortured mind as the mind itself has been shaken and loosened by +the weakness of the body. He lies there in his cabin in a deep stupor; +memory, sight, and all sensation completely gone from him; dead but for +the heart that beats on faintly, and the breath that comes and goes +through the parted lips. Nino, de la Cosa, and the others come and look +at him, shake their heads, and go away again. There is nothing to be +done; perhaps they will get him back to Isabella in time to bury him +there; perhaps not. + +And meanwhile they are back again in calm and safe waters, and coasting a +familiar shore; and the faithful little Nina, shaking out her wings in +the sunny breezes, trips under the guidance of unfamiliar hands towards +her moorings in the Bay of Isabella. It is a sad company that she +carries; for in the cabin, deaf and blind and unconscious, there lies the +heart and guiding spirit of the New World. He does not hear the talking +of the waters past the Nina's timbers, does not hear the stamping on the +deck and shortening of sail and unstopping of cables and getting out of +gear; does not hear the splash of the anchor, nor the screams of birds +that rise circling from the shore. Does not hear the greetings and the +news; does not see bending over him a kind, helpful, and well-beloved +face. He sees and hears and knows nothing; and in that state of rest and +absence from the body they carry him, still living and breathing, ashore. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE CONQUEST OF ESPANOLA + +We must now go back to the time when Columbus, having made what +arrangements he could for the safety of Espanola, left it under the +charge of his brother James. Ojeda had duly marched into the interior +and taken over the command of Fort St. Thomas, thus setting free +Margarite, according to his instructions, to lead an expedition for +purposes of reconnoitre and demonstration through the island. These, at +any rate, were Margarite's orders, duly communicated to him by Ojeda; but +Margarite will have none of them. Well born, well educated, well bred, +he ought at least to have the spirit to carry out orders so agreeable to +a gentleman of adventure; but unfortunately, although Margarite is a +gentleman by birth, he is a low and dishonest dog by nature. He cannot +take the decent course, cannot even play the man, and take his share in +the military work of the colony. Instead of cutting paths through the +forest, and exhibiting his military strength in an orderly and proper way +as the Admiral intended he should, he marches forth from St. Thomas, on +hearing that Columbus has sailed away, and encamps no further off than +the Vega Real, that pleasant place of green valleys and groves and +murmuring rivers. He encamps there, takes up his quarters there, will +not budge from there for any Admiral; and as for James Columbus and his +counsellors, they may go to the devil for all Margarite cares. One of +them at least, he knows--Friar Buil--is not such a fool as to sit down +under the command of that solemn-faced, uncouth young snip from Genoa; +and doubtless when he is tired of the Vega Real he and Buil can arrange +something between them. In the meantime, here is a very beautiful +sunshiny place, abounding in all kinds of provisions; food for more than +one kind of appetite, as he has noticed when he has thrust his rude way +into the native houses and seen the shapely daughters of the islanders. +He has a little army of soldiers to forage for him; they can get him food +and gold, and they are useful also in those other marauding expeditions +designed to replenish the seraglio that he has established in his camp; +and if they like to do a little marauding and woman-stealing on their own +account, it is no affair of his, and may keep the devils in a good +temper. Thus Don Pedro Margarite to himself. + +The peaceable and gentle natives soon began to resent these gross doings. +To robbery succeeded outrage, and to outrage murder--all three committed +in the very houses of the natives; and they began to murmur, to withhold +that goodwill which the Spaniards had so sorely tried, and to develop a +threatening attitude that was soon communicated to the natives in the +vicinity of Isabella, and came under the notice of James Columbus and his +council. Grave, bookish, wool-weaving young James, not used to military +affairs, and not at all comfortable in his command, can think of no other +expedient than--to write a letter to Margarite remonstrating with him for +his licentious excesses and reminding him of the Admiral's instructions, +which were being neglected. + +Margarite receives the letter and reads it with a contemptuous laugh. He +is not going to be ordered about by a family of Italian wool-weavers, and +the only change in his conduct is that he becomes more and more careless +and impudent, extending the area of his lawless operations, and making +frequent visits to Isabella itself, swaggering under the very nose of +solemn James, and soon deep in consultation with Friar Buil. + +At this moment, that is to say very soon after the departure of +Christopher on his voyage to Cuba and Jamaica, three ships dropped anchor +in the Bay of Isabella. They were laden with the much-needed supplies +from Spain, and had been sent out under the command of Bartholomew +Columbus. It will be remembered that when Christopher reached Spain +after his first voyage one of his first cares had been to write to +Bartholomew, asking him to join him. The letter, doubtless after many +wanderings, had found Bartholomew in France at the court of Charles +VIII., by whom he was held in some esteem; in fact it was Charles who +provided him with the necessary money for his journey to Spain, for +Bartholomew had not greatly prospered, in spite of his voyage with Diaz +to the Cape of Good Hope and of his having been in England making +exploration proposals at the court of Henry VII. He had arrived in Spain +after Columbus had sailed again, and had presented himself at court with +his two nephews, Ferdinand and Diego, both of whom were now in the +service of Prince Juan as pages. Ferdinand and Isabella seem to have +received Bartholomew kindly. They liked this capable navigator, who had +much of Christopher's charm of manner, and was more a man of the world +than he. Much more practical also; Ferdinand would be sure to like him +better than he liked Christopher, whose pompous manner and long-winded +speeches bored him. Bartholomew was quick, alert, decisive and +practical; he was an accomplished navigator--almost as accomplished as +Columbus, as it appeared. He was offered the command of the three ships +which were being prepared to go to Espanola with supplies; and he duly +arrived there after a prosperous voyage. It will be remembered that +Christopher had, so far as we know, kept the secret of the road to the +new islands; and Bartholomew can have had nothing more to guide him than +a rough chart showing the islands in a certain latitude, and the distance +to be run towards them by dead-reckoning. That he should have made an +exact landfall and sailed into the Bay of Isabella, never having been +there before, was a certificate of the highest skill in navigation. + +Unfortunately it was James who was in charge of the colony; Bartholomew +had no authority, for once his ships had arrived in port his mission was +accomplished until Christopher should return and find him employment. +He was therefore forced to sit still and watch his young brother +struggling with the unruly Spaniards. His presence, however, was no +doubt a further exasperation to the malcontents. There existed in +Isabella a little faction of some of the aristocrats who had never, +forgiven Columbus for employing them in degrading manual labour; who had +never forgiven him in fact for being there at all, and in command over +them. And now here was another woolweaver, or son of a wool-weaver, come +to put his finger in the pie that Christopher has apparently provided so +carefully for himself and his family. + +Margarite and Buil and some others, treacherous scoundrels all of them, +but clannish to their own race and class, decide that they will put up +with it no longer; they are tired of Espanola in any case, and Margarite, +from too free indulgence among the native women, has contracted an +unpleasant disease, and thinks that a sea voyage and the attentions of a +Spanish doctor will be good for him. It is easy for them to put their +plot into execution. There are the ships; there is nothing, for them to +do but take a couple of them, provision them, and set sail for Spain, +where they trust to their own influence, and the story they will be able +to tell of the falseness of the Admiral's promises, to excuse their +breach of discipline. And sail they do, snapping their fingers at the +wool-weavers. + +James and Bartholomew were perhaps glad to be rid of them, but their +relief was tempered with anxiety as to the result on Christopher's +reputation and favour when the malcontents should have made their false +representations at Court. The brothers were powerless to do anything in +that matter, however, and the state of affairs in Espanola demanded their +close attention. Margarite's little army, finding itself without even +the uncertain restraint of its commander, now openly mutinied and +abandoned itself to the wildest excesses. It became scattered and +disbanded, and little groups of soldiers went wandering about the +country, robbing and outraging and carrying cruelty and oppression among +the natives. Long-suffering as these were, and patiently as they bore +with the unspeakable barbarities of the Spanish soldiers, there came a +point beyond which their forbearance would not go. An aching spirit of +unforgiveness and revenge took the place of their former gentleness and +compliance; and here and there, when the Spaniards were more brutal and +less cautious than was their brutal and incautious habit, the natives +fell upon them and took swift and bloody revenge. Small parties found +themselves besieged and put to death whole villages, whose hospitality +had been abused, cut off wandering groups of the marauders and burned the +houses where they lodged. The disaffection spread; and Caonabo, who had +never abated his resentment at the Spanish intrusion into the island, +thought the time had come to make another demonstration of native power. + +Fortunately for the Spaniards his object was the fort of St. Thomas, +commanded by the alert Ojeda; and this young man, who was not easily to +be caught napping, had timely intelligence of his intention. When +Caonabo, mustering ten thousand men, suddenly surrounded the fort and +prepared to attack it, he found the fifty Spaniards of the garrison more +than ready for him, and his naked savages dared not advance within the +range of the crossbows and arquebuses. Caonabo tried to besiege the +station, watching every gorge and road through which supplies could reach +it, but Ojeda made sallies and raids upon the native force, under which +it became thinned and discouraged; and Caonabo had finally to withdraw to +his own territory. + +But he was not yet beaten. He decided upon another and much larger +enterprise, which was to induce the other caciques of the island to co- +operate with him in an attack upon Isabella, the population of which he +knew would have been much thinned and weakened by disease. The island +was divided into five native provinces. The northeastern part, named +Marien, was under the rule of Guacanagari, whose headquarters were near +the abandoned La Navidad. The remaining eastern part of the island, +called Higuay, was under a chief named Cotabanama. The western province +was Xaragua, governed by one Behechio, whose sister, Anacaona, was the +wife of Caonabo. The middle of the island was divided into two +provinces-that which extended from the northern coast to the Cibao +mountains and included the Vega Real being governed by Guarionex, and +that which extended from the Cibao mountains to the south being governed +by Caonabo. All these rulers were more or less embittered by the +outrages and cruelties of the Spaniards, and all agreed to join with +Caonabo except Guacanagari. That loyal soul, so faithful to what he knew +of good, shocked and distressed as he was by outrages from which his own +people had suffered no less than the others, could not bring himself to +commit what he regarded as a breach of the laws of hospitality. It was +upon his shores that Columbus had first landed; and although it was his +own country and his own people whose wrongs were to be avenged, he could +not bring himself to turn traitor to the grave Admiral with whom, in +those happy days of the past, he had enjoyed so much pleasant +intercourse. His refusal to co-operate delayed the plan of Caonabo, who +directed the island coalition against Guacanagari himself in order to +bring him to reason. He was attacked by the neighbouring chiefs; one of +his wives was killed and another captured; but still he would not swerve +from his ideal of conduct. + + +The first thing that Columbus recognised when he opened his eyes after +his long period of lethargy and insensibility was the face of his brother +Bartholomew bend-over him where he lay in bed in his own house at +Espanola. Nothing could have been more welcome to him, sick, lonely and +discouraged as he was, than the presence of that strong, helpful brother; +and from the time when Bartholomew's friendly face first greeted him he +began to get better. His first act, as soon as he was strong enough to +sign a paper, was to appoint Bartholomew to the office of Adelantado, or +Lieutenant-Governor--an indiscreet and rather tactless proceeding which, +although it was not outside his power as a bearer of the royal seal, was +afterwards resented by King Ferdinand as a piece of impudent encroachment +upon the royal prerogative. But Columbus was unable to transact business +himself, and James was manifestly of little use; the action was natural +enough. + +In the early days of his convalescence he had another pleasant +experience, in the shape of a visit from Guacanagari, who came to express +his concern at the Admiral's illness, and to tell him the story of what +had been going on in his absence. The gentle creature referred again +with tears to the massacre at La Navidad, and again asserted that +innocence of any hand in it which Columbus had happily never doubted; and +he told him also of the secret league against Isabella, of his own +refusal to join it, and of the attacks to which he had consequently been +subjected. It must have been an affecting meeting for these two, who +represented the first friendship formed between the Old World and the +New, who were both of them destined to suffer in the impact of +civilisation and savagery, and whose names and characters were happily +destined to survive that impact, and to triumph over the oblivion of +centuries. + + +So long as the native population remained hostile and unconquered by +kindness or force, it was impossible to work securely at the development +of the colony; and Columbus, however regretfully, had come to feel that +circumstances more or less obliged him to use force. At first he did not +quite realise the gravity of the position, and attempted to conquer or +reconcile the natives in little groups. Guarionex, the cacique of the +Vega Real, was by gifts and smooth words soothed back into a friendship +which was consolidated by the marriage of his daughter with Columbus's +native interpreter. It was useless, how ever, to try and make friends +with Caonabo, that fierce irreconcilable; and it was felt that only by +stratagem could he be secured. No sooner was this suggested than Ojeda +volunteered for the service. Amid the somewhat slow-moving figures of +our story this man appears as lively as a flea; and he dances across our +pages in a sensation of intrepid feats of arms that make his great +popularity among the Spaniards easily credible to us. He did not know +what fear was; he was always ready for a fight of any kind; a quarrel in +the streets of Madrid, a duel, a fight with a man or a wild beast, +a brawl in a tavern or a military expedition, were all the same to him, +if only they gave him an opportunity for fighting. He had a little +picture of the Virgin hung round his neck, by which he swore, and to +which he prayed; he had never been so much as scratched in all his +affrays, and he believed that he led a charmed life. Who would go out +against Caonabo, the Goliath of the island? He, little David Ojeda, he +would go out and undertake to fetch the giant back with him; and all he +wanted was ten men, a pair of handcuffs, a handful of trinkets, horses +for the whole of his company, and his little image or picture of the +Virgin. + +Columbus may have smiled at this proposal, but he knew his man; and Ojeda +duly departed with his horses and his ten men. Plunging into the forest, +he made his way through sixty leagues of dense undergrowth until he +arrived in the very heart of Caonabo's territory and presented himself at +the chiefs house. The chief was at home, and, not unimpressed by the +valour of Ojeda, who represented himself as coming on a friendly mission, +received him under conditions of truce. He had an eye for military +prowess, this Caonabo, and something of the lion's heart in him; he +recognised in Ojeda the little man who kept him so long at bay outside +Fort St. Thomas; and, after the manner of lion-hearted people, liked him +none the worse for that. + +Ojeda proposes that the King should accompany him to Isabella to make +peace. No, says Caonabo. Then Ojeda tries another way. There is a +poetical side to this big fighting savage, and often in more friendly +days, when the bell in the little chapel of Isabella has been ringing for +Vespers, the cacique has been observed sitting alone on some hill +listening, enchanted by the strange silver voice that floated to him +across the sunset. The bell has indeed become something of a personality +in the island: all the neighbouring savages listen to its voice with awe +and fascination, pausing with inclined heads whenever it begins to speak +from its turret. + +Ojeda talks to Caonabo about the bell, and tells him what a wonderful +thing it is; tells him also that if he will come with him to Isabella he +shall have the bell for a present. Poetry and public policy struggle +together in Caonabo's heart, but poetry wins; the great powerful savage, +urged thereto by his childish lion-heart, will come to Isabella if they +will give him the bell. He sets forth, accompanied by a native retinue, +and by Ojeda and his ten horsemen. Presently they come to a river and +Ojeda produces his bright manacles; tells the King that they are royal +ornaments and that he has been instructed to bestow them upon Caonabo as +a sign of honour. But first he must come alone to the river and bathe, +which he does. Then he must sit with Ojeda upon his horse; which he +does. Then he must have fitted on to him the shining silver trinkets; +which he does, the great grinning giant, pleased with his toys. Then, to +show him what it is like to be on a horse, Ojeda canters gently round in +widening and ever widening circles; a turn of his spurred heels, and the +canter becomes a gallop, the circle becomes a straight line, and Caonabo +is on the road to Isabella. When they are well beyond reach of the +natives they pause and tie Caonabo securely into his place; and by this +treachery bring him into Isabella, where he is imprisoned in the +Admiral's house. + +The sulky giant, brought thus into captivity, refuses to bend his proud, +stubborn heart into even a form of submission. He takes no notice of +Columbus, and pays him no honour, although honour is paid to himself as +a captive king. He sits there behind his bars gnawing his fingers, +listening to the voice of the bell that has lured him into captivity, +and thinking of the free open life which he is to know no more. Though +he will pay no deference to the Admiral, will not even rise when he +enters his presence, there is one person he holds in honour, and that is +Ojeda. He will not rise when the Admiral comes; but when Ojeda comes, +small as he is, and without external state, the chief makes his obeisance +to him. The Admiral he sets at defiance, and boasts of his destruction +of La Navidad, and of his plan to destroy Isabella; Ojeda he respects and +holds in honour, as being the only man in the island brave enough to come +into his house and carry him off a captive. There is a good deal of the +sportsman in Caonabo. + +The immediate result of the capture of Caonabo was to rouse the islanders +to further hostilities, and one of the brothers of the captive king led a +force of seven thousand men to the vicinity of St. Thomas, to which +Ojeda, however, had in the meantime returned. His small force was +augmented by some men despatched by Bartholomew Columbus on receipt of an +urgent message; and in command of this force Ojeda sallied forth against +the natives and attacked them furiously on horse and on foot, killing a +great part of them, taking others prisoner, and putting the rest to +flight. This was the beginning of the end of the island resistance. A +month or two later, when Columbus was better, he and Bartholomew together +mustered the whole of their available army and marched out in search of +the native force, which he knew had been rallied and greatly augmented. + +The two forces met near the present town of Santiago, in the plain known +as the Savanna of Matanza. The Spanish force was divided into three main +divisions, under the command of Christopher and Bartholomew Columbus and +Ojeda respectively. These three divisions attacked the Indians +simultaneously from different points, Ojeda throwing his cavalry upon +them, riding them down, and cutting them to pieces. Drums were beaten +and trumpets blown; the guns were fired from the cover of the trees; and +a pack of bloodhounds, which had been sent out from Spain with +Bartholomew, were let loose upon the natives and tore their bodies to +pieces. It was an easy and horrible victory. The native force was +estimated by Columbus at one hundred thousand men, although we shall +probably be nearer the mark if we reduce that estimate by one half. + +The powers of hell were let loose that day into the Earthly Paradise. +The guns mowed red lines of blood through the solid ranks of the natives; +the great Spanish horses trod upon and crushed their writhing bodies, in +which arrows and lances continually stuck and quivered; and the ferocious +dogs, barking and growling, seized the naked Indians by the throat, +dragged them to the ground, and tore out their very entrails . . . . +Well for us that the horrible noises of that day are silent now; well for +the world that that place of bloodshed and horror has grown green again; +better for us and for the world if those cries had never been heard, and +that quiet place had never received a stain that centuries of green +succeeding springtides can never wash away. + + +It was some time before this final battle that the convalescence of the +Admiral was further assisted by the arrival of four ships commanded by +Antonio Torres, who must have passed, out of sight and somewhere on the +high seas, the ships bearing Buil and Margarite back to Spain. He +brought with him a large supply of fresh provisions for the colony, and a +number of genuine colonists, such as fishermen, carpenters, farmers, +mechanics, and millers. And better still he brought a letter from the +Sovereigns, dated the 16th of August 1494, which did much to cheer the +shaken spirits of Columbus. The words with which he had freighted his +empty ships had not been in vain; and in this reply to them he was warmly +commended for his diligence, and reminded that he enjoyed the unshaken +confidence of the Sovereigns. They proposed that a caravel should sail +every month from Spain and from Isabella, bearing intelligence of the +colony and also, it was hoped, some of its products. In a general letter +addressed to the colony the settlers were reminded of the obedience they +owed to the Admiral, and were instructed to obey him in all things under +the penalty of heavy fines. They invited Columbus to come back if he +could in order to be present at the convention which was to establish the +line of demarcation between Spanish and Portuguese possessions; or if he +could not come himself to send his brother Bartholomew. There were +reasons, however, which made this difficult. Columbus wished to despatch +the ships back again as speedily as possible, in order that news of him +might help to counteract the evil rumours that he knew Buil and Margarite +would be spreading. He himself was as yet (February 1494) too ill to +travel; and during his illness Bartholomew could not easily be spared. +It was therefore decided to send home James, who could most easily be +spared, and whose testimony as a member of the governing body during the +absence of the Admiral on his voyage to Cuba might be relied upon to +counteract the jealous accusations of Margarite and Buil. + +Unfortunately there was no golden cargo to send back with him. As much +gold as possible was scraped together, but it was very little. The usual +assortment of samples of various island products was also sent; but still +the vessels were practically empty. Columbus must have been painfully +conscious that the time for sending samples had more than expired, and +that the people in Spain might reasonably expect some of the actual +riches of which there had been so many specimens and promises. In +something approaching desperation, he decided to fill the empty holds of +the ships with something which, if it was not actual money, could at +least be made to realise money. From their sunny dreaming life on the +island five hundred natives were taken and lodged in the dark holds of +the caravels, to be sent to Spain and sold there for what they would +fetch. Of course they were to be "freed" and converted to Christianity +in the process; that was always part of the programme, but it did not +interfere with business. They were not man-eating Caribs or fierce +marauding savages from neighbouring islands, but were of the mild and +peaceable race that peopled Espanola. The wheels of civilisation were +beginning to turn in the New World. + +After the capture of Caonabo and the massacre of April 25th Columbus +marched through the island, receiving the surrender and submission of the +terrified natives. At the approach of his force the caciques came out +and sued for peace; and if here and there there was a momentary +resistance, a charge of cavalry soon put an end to it. One by one the +kings surrendered and laid down their arms, until all the island rulers +had capitulated with the exception of Behechio, into whose territory +Columbus did not march, and who sullenly retired to the south-western +corner of the island. The terms of peace were harsh enough, and were +suggested by the dilemma of Columbus in his frantic desire to get +together some gold at any cost. A tribute of gold-dust was laid upon +every adult native in the island. Every three months a hawk's bell full +of gold was to be brought to the treasury at Isabella, and in the case 39 +of caciques the measure was a calabash. A receipt in the form of a brass +medal was fastened to the neck of every Indian when he paid his tribute, +and those who could not show the medal with the necessary number of marks +were to be further fined and punished. In the districts where there was +no gold, 25 lbs. of cotton was accepted instead. + +This levy was made in ignorance of the real conditions under which the +natives possessed themselves of the gold. What they had in many cases +represented the store of years, and in all but one or two favoured +districts it was quite impossible for them to keep up the amount of the +tribute. Yet the hawks' bells, which once had been so eagerly coveted +and were now becoming hated symbols of oppression, had to be filled +somehow; and as the day of payment drew near the wretched natives, who +had formerly only sought for gold when a little of it was wanted for a +pretty ornament, had now to work with frantic energy in the river sands; +or in other cases, to toil through the heat of the day in the cotton +fields which they had formerly only cultivated enough to furnish their +very scant requirements of use and adornment. One or two caciques, +knowing that their people could not possibly furnish the required amount +of gold, begged that its value in grain might be accepted instead; but +that was not the kind of wealth that Columbus was seeking. It must be +gold or nothing; and rather than receive any other article from the gold- +bearing districts, he consented to take half the amount. + + +Thus step by step, and under the banner of the Holy Catholic religion, +did dark and cruel misery march through the groves and glades of the +island and banish for ever its ancient peace. This long-vanished race +that was native to the island of Espanola seems to have had some of the +happiest and most lovable qualities known to dwellers on this planet. +They had none of the brutalities of the African, the paralysing wisdom of +the Asian, nor the tragic potentialities of the European peoples. Their +life was from day to day, and from season to season, like the life of +flowers and birds. They lived in such order and peaceable community as +the common sense of their own simple needs suggested; they craved no +pleasures except those that came free from nature, and sought no wealth +but what the sun gave them. In their verdant island, near to the heart +and source of light, surrounded by the murmur of the sea, and so enriched +by nature that the idea, of any other kind of riches never occurred to +them, their existence went to a happy dancing measure like that of the +fauns and nymphs in whose charmed existence they believed. The sun and +moon were to them creatures of their island who had escaped from a cavern +by the shore and now wandered free in the upper air, peopling it with +happy stars; and man himself they believed to have sprung from crevices +in the rocks, like the plants that grew tall and beautiful wherever there +was a handful of soil for their roots. Poor happy children! You are all +dead a long while ago now, and have long been hushed in the great humming +sleep and silence of Time; the modern world has no time nor room for +people like you, with so much kindness and so little ambition . . . . +Yet their free pagan souls were given a chance to be penned within the +Christian fold; the priest accompanied the gunner and the bloodhound, the +missionary walked beside the slave-driver; and upon the bewildered sun- +bright surface of their minds the shadow of the cross was for a moment +thrown. Verily to them the professors of Christ brought not peace, but a +sword. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +UPS AND DOWNS + +While Columbus was toiling under the tropical sun to make good his +promises to the Crown, Margarite and Buil, having safely come home to +Spain from across the seas, were busy setting forth their view of the +value of his discoveries. It was a view entirely different from any that +Ferdinand and Isabella had heard before, and coming as it did from two +men of position and importance who had actually been in Espanola, and +were loyal and religious subjects of the Crown, it could not fail to +receive, if not immediate and complete credence, at any rate grave +attention. Hitherto the Sovereigns had only heard one side of the +matter; an occasional jealous voice may have been raised from the +neighbourhood of the Pinzons or some one else not entirely satisfied with +his own position in the affair; but such small cries of dissent had +naturally had little chance against the dignified eloquence of the +Admiral. + +Now, however, the matter was different. People who were at least the +equals of Columbus in intelligence, and his superiors by birth and +education, had seen with their own eyes the things of which he had +spoken, and their account differed widely from his. They represented +things in Espanola as being in a very bad way indeed, which was true +enough; drew a dismal picture of an overcrowded colony ravaged with +disease and suffering from lack of provisions; and held forth at length +upon the very doubtful quality of the gold with which the New World was +supposed to abound. More than this, they brought grave charges against +Columbus himself, representing him as unfit to govern a colony, given to +favouritism, and, worst of all, guilty of having deliberately +misrepresented for his own ends the resources of the colony. This as we +know was not true. It was not for his own ends, or for any ends at all +within the comprehension of men like Margarite and Buil, that poor +Christopher had spoken so glowingly out of a heart full of faith in what +he had seen and done. Purposes, dim perhaps, but far greater and loftier +than any of which these two mean souls had understanding, animated him +alike in his discoveries and in his account of them; although that does +not alter the unpleasant fact that at the stage matters had now reached +it seemed as though there might have been serious misrepresentation. + +Ferdinand and Isabella, thus confronted with a rather difficult +situation, acted with great wisdom and good sense. How much or how +little they believed we do not know, but it was obviously their duty, +having heard such an account from responsible officers, to investigate +matters for themselves without assuming either that the report was true +or untrue. They immediately had four caravels furnished with supplies, +and decided to appoint an agent to accompany the expedition, investigate +the affairs of the colony, and make a report to them. If the Admiral was +still absent when their agent reached the colony he was to be entrusted +with the distribution of the supplies which were being sent out; for +Columbus's long absence from Espanola had given rise to some fears for +his safety. + +The Sovereigns had just come to this decision (April 1495) when a letter +arrived from the Admiral himself, announcing his return to Espanola after +discovering the veritable mainland of Asia, as the notarial document +enclosed with the letter attested. Torres and James Columbus had arrived +in Spain, bearing the memorandum which some time ago we saw the Admiral +writing; and they were able to do something towards allaying the fears of +the Sovereigns as to the condition of the colony. The King and Queen, +nevertheless, wisely decided to carry out their original intention, and +in appointing an agent they very handsomely chose one of the men whom +Columbus had recommended to them in his letter--Juan Aguado. This action +shows a friendliness to Columbus and confidence in him that lead one to +suspect that the tales of Margarite and Buil had been taken with a grain +of salt. + +At the same time the Sovereigns made one or two orders which could not +but be unwelcome to Columbus. A decree was issued making it lawful for +all native-born Spaniards to make voyages of discovery, and to settle in +Espanola itself if they liked. This was an infringement of the original +privileges granted to the Admiral--privileges which were really absurd, +and which can only have been granted in complete disbelief that anything +much would come of his discovery. It took Columbus two years to get this +order modified, and in the meantime a great many Spanish adventurers, our +old friends the Pinzons among them, did actually make voyages and added +to the area explored by the Spaniards in Columbus's lifetime. Columbus +was bitterly jealous that any one should be admitted to the western +ocean, which he regarded as his special preserve, except under his +supreme authority; and he is reported to have said that once the way to +the West had been pointed out "even the very tailors turned explorers." +There, surely, spoke the long dormant woolweaver in him. + +The commission given to Aguado was very brief, and so vaguely worded +that it might mean much or little, according to the discretion of the +commissioner and the necessities of the case as viewed by him. "We send +to you Juan Aguada, our Groom of the Chambers, who will speak to you on +our part. We command you to give him faith and credit." A letter was +also sent to Columbus in which he was instructed to reduce the number of +people dependent on the colony to five hundred instead of a thousand; and +the control of the mines was entrusted to one Pablo Belvis, who was sent +out as chief metallurgist. As for the slaves that Columbus had sent +home, Isabella forbade their sale until inquiry could be made into the +condition of their capture, and the fine moral point involved was +entrusted to the ecclesiastical authorities for examination and solution. +Poor Christopher, knowing as he did that five hundred heretics were being +burned every year by the Grand Inquisitor, had not expected this hair- +splitting over the fate of heathens who had rebelled against Spanish +authority; and it caused him some distress when he heard of it. The +theologians, however, proved equal to the occasion, and the slaves were +duly sold in Seville market. + + +Aguado sailed from Cadiz at the end of August 1495, and reached Espanola +in October. James Columbus (who does not as yet seem to be in very great +demand anywhere, and who doubtless conceals behind his grave visage much +honest amazement at the amount of life that he is seeing) returned with +him. Aguado, on arriving at Isabella, found that Columbus was absent +establishing forts in the interior of the island, Bartholomew being left +in charge at Isabella. + +Aguado, who had apparently been found faithful in small matters, was +found wanting in his use of the authority that had been entrusted to him. +It seems to have turned his head; for instead of beginning quietly to +investigate the affairs of the colony as he had been commanded to do he +took over from Bartholomew the actual government, and interpreted his +commission as giving him the right to supersede the Admiral himself. The +unhappy colony, which had no doubt been enjoying some brief period of +peace under the wise direction of Bartholomew, was again thrown into +confusion by the doings of Aguado. He arrested this person, imprisoned +that; ordered that things should be done this way, which had formerly +been done that way; and if they had formerly been done that way, then he +ordered that they should be done this way--in short he committed every +mistake possible for a man in his situation armed with a little brief +authority. He did not hesitate to let it be known that he was there to +examine the conduct of the Admiral himself; and we may be quite sure that +every one in the colony who had a grievance or an ill tale to carry, +carried it to Aguado. His whole attitude was one of enmity and +disloyalty to the Admiral who had so handsomely recommended him to the +notice of the Sovereigns; and so undisguised was his attitude that even +the Indians began to lodge their complaints and to see a chance by which +they might escape from the intolerable burden of the gold tribute. + +It was at this point that Columbus returned and found Aguado ruling in +the place of Bartholomew, who had wisely made no protest against his own +deposition, but was quietly waiting for the Admiral to return. Columbus +might surely have been forgiven if he had betrayed extreme anger and +annoyance at the doings of Aguado; and it is entirely to his credit that +he concealed such natural wrath as he may have felt, and greeted Aguado +with extreme courtesy and ceremony as a representative of the Sovereigns. +He made no protest, but decided to return himself to Spain and confront +the jealousy and ill-fame that were accumulating against him. + +Just as the ships were all ready to sail, one of the hurricanes which +occur periodically in the West Indies burst upon the island, lashing the +sea into a wall of advancing foam that destroyed everything before it. +Among other things it destroyed three out of the four ships, dashing them +on the beach and reducing them to complete wreckage. The only one that +held to her anchor and, although much battered and damaged, rode out the +gale, was the Nina, that staunch little friend that had remained faithful +to the Admiral through so many dangers and trials. There was nothing for +it but to build a new ship out of the fragments of the wrecks, and to +make the journey home with two ships instead of with four. + + +At this moment, while he was waiting for the ship to be completed, +Columbus heard a piece of news of a kind that never failed to rouse his +interest. There was a young Spaniard named Miguel Diaz who had got into +disgrace in Isabella some time before on account of a duel, and had +wandered into the island until he had come out on the south coast at the +mouth of the river Ozama, near the site of the present town of Santo +Domingo. There he had fallen in love with a female cacique and had made +his home with her. She, knowing the Spanish taste, and anxious to please +her lover and to retain him in her territory, told him of some rich gold- +mines that there were in the neighbourhood, and suggested that he should +inform the Admiral, who would perhaps remove the settlement from Isabella +to the south coast. She provided him with guides and sent him off to +Isabella, where, hearing that his antagonist had recovered, and that he +himself was therefore in no danger of punishment, he presented himself +with his story. + +Columbus immediately despatched Bartholomew with a party to examine the +mines; and sure enough they found in the river Hayna undoubted evidence +of a wealth far in excess of that contained in the Cibao gold-mines. +Moreover, they had noticed two ancient excavations about which the +natives could tell them nothing, but which made them think that the mines +had once been worked. + +Columbus was never backward in fitting a story and a theory to whatever +phenomena surrounded him; and in this case he was certain that the +excavations were the work of Solomon, and that he had discovered the gold +of Ophir. "Sure enough," thinks the Admiral, "I have hit it this time; +and the ships came eastward from the Persian Gulf round the Golden +Chersonesus, which I discovered this very last winter." Immediately, as +his habit was, Columbus began to build castles in Spain. Here was a fine +answer to Buil and Margarite! Without waiting a week or two to get any +of the gold this extraordinary man decided to hurry off at once to Spain +with the news, not dreaming that Spain might, by this time, have had a +surfeit of news, and might be in serious need of some simple, honest +facts. But he thought his two caravels sufficiently freighted with this +new belief--the belief that he had discovered the Ophir of Solomon. + +The Admiral sailed on March 10th, 1496, carrying with him in chains the +vanquished Caonabo and other natives. He touched at Marigalante and at +Guadaloupe, where his people had an engagement with the natives, taking +several prisoners, but releasing them all again with the exception of one +woman, a handsome creature who had fallen in love with Caonabo and +refused to go. But for Caonabo the joys of life and love were at an end; +his heart and spirit were broken. He was not destined to be paraded as a +captive through the streets of Spain, and it was somewhere in the deep +Atlantic that he paid the last tribute to the power that had captured and +broken him. He died on the voyage, which was longer and much more full +of hardships than usual. For some reason or other Columbus did not take +the northerly route going home, but sailed east from Gaudaloupe, +encountering the easterly trade winds, which delayed him so much that the +voyage occupied three months instead of six weeks. + +Once more he exhibited his easy mastery of the art of navigation and his +extraordinary gift for estimating dead-reckoning. After having been out +of sight of land for eight weeks, and while some of the sailors thought +they might be in the Bay of Biscay, and others that they were in the +English Channel, the Admiral suddenly announced that they were close to +Cape Saint Vincent. + +No land was in sight, but he ordered that sail should be shortened that +evening; and sure enough the next morning they sighted the land close by +Cape Saint Vincent. Columbus managed his landfalls with a fine dramatic +sense as though they were conjuring tricks; and indeed they must have +seemed like conjuring tricks, except that they were almost always +successful. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +IN SPAIN AGAIN + +The loiterers about the harbour of Cadiz saw a curious sight on June +11th, 1496, when the two battered ships, bearing back the voyagers from +the Eldorado of the West, disembarked their passengers. There were some +220 souls on board, including thirty Indians: and instead of leaping +ashore, flushed with health, and bringing the fortunes which they had +gone out to seek, they crawled miserably from the boats or were carried +ashore, emaciated by starvation, yellow with disease, ragged and unkempt +from poverty, and with practically no possessions other than the clothes +they stood up in. Even the Admiral, now in his forty-sixth year, hardly +had the appearance that one would expect in a Viceroy of the Indies. His +white hair and beard were rough and matted, his handsome face furrowed by +care and sunken by illness and exhaustion, and instead of the glittering +armour and uniform of his office he wore the plain robe and girdle of the +Franciscan order--this last probably in consequence of some vow or other +he had made in an hour of peril on the voyage. + +One lucky coincidence marked his arrival. In the harbour, preparing to +weigh anchor, was a fleet of three little caravels, commanded by Pedro +Nino, about to set out for Espanola with supplies and despatches. +Columbus hurried on board Nino's ship, and there read the letters from +the Sovereigns which it had been designed he should receive in Espanola. +The letters are not preserved, but one can make a fair guess at their +contents. Some searching questions would certainly be asked, kind +assurances of continued confidence would doubtless be given, with many +suggestions for the betterment of affairs in the distant colony. Only +their result upon the Admiral is known to us. He sat down there and then +and wrote to Bartholomew, urging him to secure peace in the island by +every means in his power, to send home any caciques or natives who were +likely to give trouble, and most of all to push on with the building of a +settlement on the south coast where the new mines were, and to have a +cargo of gold ready to send back with the next expedition. Having +written this letter, the Admiral saw the little fleet sail away on June +17th, and himself prepared with mingled feelings to present himself +before his Sovereigns. + +While he was waiting for their summons at Los Palacios, a small town near +Seville, he was the guest of the curate of that place, Andrez Bernaldez, +who had been chaplain to Christopher's old friend DEA, the Archbishop of +Seville. This good priest evidently proved a staunch friend to Columbus +at this anxious period of his life, for the Admiral left many important +papers in his charge when he again left Spain, and no small part of the +scant contemporary information about Columbus that has come down to us is +contained in the 'Historia de los Reyes Catolicos', which Bernaldez wrote +after the death of Columbus. + + +Fickle Spain had already forgotten its first sentimental enthusiasm over +the Admiral's discoveries, and now was only interested in their financial +results. People cannot be continually excited about a thing which they +have not seen, and there were events much nearer home that absorbed the +public interest. There was the trouble with France, the contemplated +alliance of the Crown Prince with Margaret of Austria, and of the Spanish +Princess Juana with Philip of Austria; and there were the designs of +Ferdinand upon the kingdom of Naples, which was in his eyes a much more +desirable and valuable prize than any group of unknown islands beyond the +ocean. + +Columbus did his very best to work up enthusiasm again. He repeated the +performance that had been such a success after his first voyage--the kind +of circus procession in which the natives were marched in column +surrounded by specimens of the wealth of the Indies. But somehow it did +not work so well this time. Where there had formerly been acclamations +and crowds pressing forward to view the savages and their ornaments, +there were now apathy and a dearth of spectators. And although Columbus +did his very best, and was careful to exhibit every scrap of gold that he +had brought, and to hang golden collars and ornaments about the necks of +the marching Indians, his exhibition was received either in ominous +silence or, in some quarters, with something like derision. As I have +said before, there comes a time when the best-disposed debtors do not +regard themselves as being repaid by promises, and when the most +enthusiastic optimist desires to see something more than samples. +It was only old Colon going round with his show again--flamingoes, +macaws, seashells, dye-woods, gums and spices; some people laughed, +and some were angry; but all were united in thinking that the New World +was not a very profitable speculation. + +Things were a little better, however, at Court. Isabella certainly +believed still in Columbus; Ferdinand, although he had never been +enthusiastic, knew the Admiral too well to make the vulgar mistake of +believing him an impostor; and both were too polite and considerate to +add to his obvious mortification and distress by any discouraging +comments. Moreover, the man himself had lost neither his belief in the +value of his discoveries nor his eloquence in talking of them; and when +he told his story to the Sovereigns they could not help being impressed, +not only with his sincerity but with his ability and single-heartedness +also. It was almost the same old story, of illimitable wealth that was +just about to be acquired, and perhaps no one but Columbus could have +made it go down once more with success; but talking about his exploits +was never any trouble to him, and his astonishing conviction, the lofty +and dignified manner in which he described both good and bad fortune, and +the impressive way in which he spoke of the wealth of the gold of Ophir +and of the far-reaching importance of his supposed discovery of the +Golden Chersonesus and the mainland of Asia, had their due effect on his +hearers. + +It was always his way, plausible Christopher, to pass lightly over the +premises and to dwell with elaborate detail on the deductions. It was by +no means proved that he had discovered the mines of King Solomon; he had +never even seen the place which he identified with them; it was in fact +nothing more than an idea in his own head; but we may be sure that he +took it as an established fact that he had actually discovered the mines +of Ophir, and confined his discussion to estimates of the wealth which +they were likely to yield, and of what was to be done with the wealth +when the mere details of conveying it from the mines to the ships had +been disposed of. So also with the Golden Chersonesus. The very name +was enough to stop the mouths of doubters; and here was the man himself +who had actually been there, and here was a sworn affidavit from every +member of his crew to say that they had been there too. This kind of +logic is irresistible if you only grant the first little step; and +Columbus had the art of making it seem an act of imbecility in any of his +hearers to doubt the strength of the little link by which his great +golden chains of argument were fastened to fact and truth. + +For Columbus everything depended upon his reception by the Sovereigns at +this time. Unless he could re-establish his hold upon them and move to a +still more secure position in their confidence he was a ruined man and +his career was finished; and one cannot but sympathise with him as he +sits there searching his mind for tempting and convincing arguments, and +speaking so calmly and gravely and confidently in spite of all the doubts +and flutterings in his heart. Like a tradesman setting out his wares, +he brought forth every inducement he could think of to convince the +Sovereigns that the only way to make a success of what they had already +done was to do more; that the only way to make profitable the money that +had already been spent was to spend more; that the only way to prove the +wisdom of their trust in him was to trust him more. One of his +transcendent merits in a situation of this kind was that he always had +something new and interesting to propose. He did not spread out his +hands and say, "This is what I have done: it is the best I can do; how +are you going to treat me?" He said in effect, "This is what I have +done; you will see that it will all come right in time; do not worry +about it; but meanwhile I have something else to propose which I think +your Majesties will consider a good plan." + +His new demand was for a fleet of six ships, two of which were to convey +supplies to Espanola, and the other four to be entrusted to him for the +purpose of a voyage of discovery towards the mainland to the south of +Espanola, of which he had heard consistent rumours; which was said to be +rich in gold, and (a clever touch) to which the King of Portugal was +thinking of sending a fleet, as he thought that it might lie within the +limits of his domain of heathendom. And so well did he manage, and so +deeply did he impress the Sovereigns with his assurance that this time +the thing amounted to what is vulgarly called "a dead certainty," that +they promised him he should have his ships. + +But promise and performance, as no one knew better than Columbus, are +different things; and it was a long while before he got his ships. There +was the usual scarcity of money, and the extensive military and +diplomatic operations in which the Crown was then engaged absorbed every +maravedi that Ferdinand could lay his hands on. There was an army to be +maintained under the Pyrenees to keep watch over France; fleets had to be +kept patrolling both the Mediterranean and Atlantic seaboards; and there +was a whole armada required to convey the princesses of Spain and Austria +to their respective husbands in connection with the double matrimonial +alliance arranged between the two countries. And when at last, in +October 1496, six million maravedis were provided wherewith Columbus +might equip his fleet, they were withdrawn again under very mortifying +circumstances. The appropriation had just been made when a letter +arrived from Pedro Nino, who had been to Espanola and come back again, +and now wrote from Cadiz to the Sovereigns, saying that his ships were +full of gold. He did not present himself at Court, but went to visit his +family at Huelva; but the good news of his letter was accepted as an +excuse for this oversight. + +No one was better pleased than the Admiral. "What did I tell you?" he +says; "you see the mines of Hayna are paying already." King Ferdinand, +equally pleased, and having an urgent need of money in connection with +his operations against France, took the opportunity to cancel the +appropriation of the six million maravedis, giving Columbus instead an +order for the amount to be paid out of the treasure brought home by Nino. +Alas, the mariner's boast of gold had been a figure of speech. There was +no gold; there was only a cargo of slaves, which Nino deemed the +equivalent of gold; and when Bartholomew's despatches came to be read he +described the affairs of Espanola as being in very much the same +condition as before. This incident produced a most unfortunate +impression. Even Columbus was obliged to keep quiet for a little while; +and it is likely that the mention of six million maravedis was not +welcomed by him for some time afterwards. + +After the wedding of Prince Juan in March 1497, when Queen Isabella had +more time to give to external affairs, the promise to Columbus was again +remembered, and his position was considered in detail. An order was made +(April 23rd, 1497), restoring to the Admiral the original privileges +bestowed upon him at Santa Fe. He was offered a large tract of land in +Espanola, with the title of Duke; but much as he hankered after titular +honours, he was for once prudent enough to refuse this gift. His reason +was that it would only further damage his influence, and give apparent +justification to those enemies who said that the whole enterprise had +been undertaken merely in his own interests; and it is possible also that +his many painful associations with Espanola, and the bloodshed and +horrors that he had witnessed there, had aroused in his superstitious +mind a distaste for possessions and titles in that devastated Paradise. +Instead, he accepted a measure of relief from the obligations incurred by +his eighth share in the many unprofitable expeditions that had been sent +out during the last three years, agreeing for the next three years to +receive an eighth share of the gross income, and a tenth of the net +profits, without contributing anything to the cost. His appointment of +Bartholomew to the office of Adelantado, which had annoyed Ferdinand, was +now confirmed; the universal license which had been granted to Spanish +subjects to settle in the new lands was revoked in so far as it infringed +the Admiral's privileges; and he was granted a force of 330 officers, +soldiers, and artificers to be at his personal disposal in the +prosecution of his next voyage. + +The death of Prince Juan in October 1497 once more distracted the +attention of the Court from all but personal matters; and Columbus +employed the time of waiting in drafting a testamentary document in which +he was permitted to create an entail on his title and estates in favour +of his two sons and their heirs for ever. This did not represent his +complete or final testament, for he added codicils at various times, +the latest being executed the day before his death. The document is +worth studying; it reveals something of the laborious, painstaking mind +reaching out down the rivers and streams of the future that were to flow +from the fountain of his own greatness; it reveals also his triple +conception of the obligations of human life in this world--the +cultivation and retention of temporal dignity, the performance of pious +and charitable acts, and the recognition of duty to one's family. It was +in this document that Columbus formulated the curious cipher which he +always now used in signing his name, and of which various readings are +given in the Appendix. He also enjoined upon his heir the duty of using +the simple title which he himself loved and used most--"The Admiral." + +After the death of Prince Juan, Queen Isabella honoured Columbus by +attaching his two sons to her own person as pages; and her friendship +must at this time have gone far to compensate him for the coolness shown +towards him by the public at large. He might talk as much as he pleased, +but he had nothing to show for all his talk except a few trinkets, a +collection of interesting but valueless botanical specimens, and a +handful of miserable slaves. Lives and fortunes had been wrecked on the +enterprise, which had so far brought nothing to Spain but the promise of +luxurious adventure that was not fulfilled and of a wealth and glory that +had not been realised. It must have been a very humiliating circumstance +to Columbus that in the preparations which he was now (February 1498) +making for the equipment of his new expedition a great difficulty was +found in procuring ships and men. Not even before the first voyage had +so much reluctance been shown to risk life and property in the +enterprise. Merchants and sailors had then been frightened of dangers +which they did not know; now, it seemed, the evils of which they did know +proved a still greater deterrent. The Admiral was at this time the guest +of his friend Bernaldez, who has told us something of his difficulties; +and the humiliating expedient of seizing ships under a royal order had +finally to be adopted. But it would never have done to impress the +colonists also; that would have been too open a confession of failure for +the proud Admiral to tolerate. + +Instead he had recourse to the miserable plan of which he had made use in +Palos; the prisons were opened, and criminals under sentence invited to +come forth and enjoy the blessings of colonial life. Even then there was +not that rush from the prison doors that might have been expected, and +some desperate characters apparently preferred the mercies of a Spanish +prison to what they had heard of the joys of the Earthly Paradise. Still +a number of criminals did doubtfully crawl forth and furnish a retinue +for the great Admiral and Viceroy. Trembling, suspicious, and with more +than half a mind to go back to their bonds, some part of the human vermin +of Spain was eventually cajoled and chivied on board the ships. + +The needs of the colony being urgent, and recruiting being slow, two +caravels laden with provisions were sent off in advance; but even for +this purpose there was a difficulty about money, and good Isabella +furnished the expense, at much inconvenience, from her private purse. + +Columbus had to supervise everything himself; and no wonder that by the +end of May, when he was ready to sail, his patience and temper were +exhausted and his much-tried endurance broke down under the petty +gnatlike irritations of Fonseca and his myrmidons. It was on the deck of +his own ship, in the harbour of San Lucar, that he knocked down and +soundly kicked Ximeno de Breviesca, Fonseca's accountant, whose nagging +requisitions had driven the Admiral to fury. + +After all these years of gravity and restraint and endurance, this +momentary outbreak of the old Adam in our hero is like a breath of wind +through an open window. + +To the portraits of Columbus hanging in the gallery of one's imagination +this must surely be added; in which Christopher, on the deck of his ship, +with the royal standard and the Admiral's flag flying from his masthead, +is observed to be soundly kicking a prostrate accountant. The incident +is worthy of a date, which is accordingly here given, as near as may be-- +May 29, 1498. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +Absent for a little time, and his organisation went to pieces +Heretics were being burned every year by the Grand Inquisitor +Logic is irresistible if you only grant the first little step +Nautical phrase "make it so." +Professors of Christ brought not peace, but a sword +Terror and amazement; they had never seen horses before +The missionary walked beside the slave-driver +Theologians, however, proved equal to the occasion +Who never could meet any trouble without grumbling + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of Christopher Columbus, v5 +by Filson Young + + + + + + + CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS + AND THE NEW WORLD OF HIS DISCOVERY + + A NARRATIVE BY FILSON YOUNG + + + +BOOK 6. + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE THIRD VOYAGE + +Columbus was at sea again; firm ground to him, although so treacherous +and unstable to most of us; and as he saw the Spanish coast sinking down +on the horizon he could shake himself free from his troubles, and feel +that once more he was in a situation of which he was master. He first +touched at Porto Santo, where, if the story of his residence there be +true, there must have been potent memories for him in the sight of the +long white beach and the plantations, with the Governor's house beyond. +He stayed there only a few hours and then crossed over to Madeira, +anchoring in the Bay of Funchal, where he took in wood and water. As it +was really unnecessary for him to make a port so soon after leaving, +there was probably some other reason for his visit to these islands; +perhaps a family reason; perhaps nothing more historically important than +the desire to look once more on scenes of bygone happiness, for even on +the page of history every event is not necessarily big with significance. +From Madeira he took a southerly course to the Canary Islands, and on +June 16th anchored at Gomera, where he found a French warship with two +Spanish prizes, all of which put to sea as the Admiral's fleet +approached. On June 21st, when he sailed from Gomera, he divided his +fleet of six vessels into two squadrons. Three ships were despatched +direct to Espanola, for the supplies which they carried were urgently +needed there. These three ships were commanded by trustworthy men: Pedro +de Arana, a brother of Beatriz, Alonso Sanchez de Carvajal, and Juan +Antonio Colombo--this last no other than a cousin of Christopher's from +Genoa. The sons of Domenico's provident younger brother had not +prospered, while the sons of improvident Domenico were now all in high +places; and these three poor cousins, hearing of Christopher's greatness, +and deciding that use should be made of him, scraped together enough +money to send one of their number to Spain. The Admiral always had a +sound family feeling, and finding that cousin Antonio had sea experience +and knew how to handle a ship he gave him command of one of the caravels +on this voyage--a command of which he proved capable and worthy. From +these three captains, after giving them full sailing directions for +reaching Espanola, Columbus parted company off the island of Ferro. He +himself stood on a southerly course towards the Cape Verde Islands. + +His plan on this voyage was to find the mainland to the southward, of +which he had heard rumours in Espanola. Before leaving Spain he had +received a letter from an eminent lapidary named Ferrer who had travelled +much in the east, and who assured him that if he sought gold and precious +stones he must go to hot lands, and that the hotter the lands were, and +the blacker the inhabitants, the more likely he was to find riches there. +This was just the kind of theory to suit Columbus, and as he sailed +towards the Cape Verde Islands he was already in imagination gathering +gold and pearls on the shores of the equatorial continent. + +He stayed for about a week at the Cape Verde Islands, getting in +provisions and cattle, and curiously observing the life of the Portuguese +lepers who came in numbers to the island of Buenavista to be cured there +by eating the flesh and bathing in the blood of turtles. It was not an +inspiriting week which he spent in that dreary place and enervating +climate, with nothing to see but the goats feeding among the scrub, the +turtles crawling about the sand, and the lepers following the turtles. +It began to tell on the health of the crew, so he weighed anchor on July +5th and stood on a southwesterly course. + +This third voyage, which was destined to be the most important of all, +and the material for which had cost him so much time and labour, was +undertaken in a very solemn and determined spirit. His health, which he +had hoped to recover in Spain, had been if anything damaged by his +worryings with officialdom there; and although he was only forty-seven +years of age he was in some respects already an old man. He had entered, +although happily he did not know it, on the last decade of his life; and +was already beginning to suffer from the two diseases, gout and +ophthalmia, which were soon to undermine his strength and endurance. +Religion of a mystical fifteenth-century sort was deepening in him; +he had undertaken this voyage in the name of the Holy Trinity; and to +that theological entity he had resolved to dedicate the first new land +that he should sight. + +For ten days light baffling winds impeded his progress; but at the end of +that time the winds fell away altogether, and the voyagers found +themselves in that flat equatorial calm known to mariners as the +Doldrums. The vertical rays of the sun shone blisteringly down upon +them, making the seams of the ships gape and causing the unhappy crews +mental as well as bodily distress, for they began to fear that they had +reached that zone of fire which had always been said to exist in the +southern ocean. + +Day after day the three ships lay motionless on the glassy water, with +wood-work so hot as to burn the hands that touched it, with the meat +putrefying in the casks below, and the water running from the loosened +casks, and no one with courage and endurance enough to venture into the +stifling hold even to save the provisions. And through all this the +Admiral, racked with gout, had to keep a cheerful face and assure his +prostrate crew that they would soon be out of it. + +There were showers of rain sometimes, but the moisture in that baking +atmosphere only added to its stifling and enervating effects. All the +while, however, the great slow current of the Atlantic was moving +westward, and there came a day when a heavenly breeze, stirred in the +torrid air and the musical talk of ripples began to rise again from the +weedy stems of the ships. They sailed due west, always into a cooler and +fresher atmosphere; but still no land was sighted, although pelicans and +smaller birds were continually seen passing from south-west to north- +east. As provisions were beginning to run low, Columbus decided on the +31st July to alter his course to north-by-east, in the hope of reaching +the island of Dominica. But at mid-day his servant Alonso Perez, +happening to go to the masthead, cried out that there was land in sight; +and sure enough to the westward there rose three peaks of land united at +the base. Here was the kind of coincidence which staggers even the +unbeliever. Columbus had promised to dedicate the first land he saw to +the Trinity; and here was the land, miraculously provided when he needed +it most, three peaks in one peak, in due conformity with the requirements +of the blessed Saint Athanasius. The Admiral was deeply affected; the +God of his belief was indeed a good friend to him; and he wrote down his +pious conviction that the event was a miracle, and summoned all hands to +sing the Salve Regina, with other hymns in praise of God and the Virgin +Mary. The island was duly christened La Trinidad. By the hour of +Compline (9 o'clock in the evening) they had come up with the south coast +of the island, but it was the next day before the Admiral found a harbour +where he could take in water. No natives were to be seen, although there +were footprints on the shore and other signs of human habitation. + +He continued all day to sail slowly along the shore of the island, the +green luxuriance of which astonished him; and sometimes he stood out from +the coast to the southward as he made a long board to round this or that +point. It must have been while reaching out in this way to the southward +that he saw a low shore on his port hand some sixty miles to the south of +Trinidad, and that his sight, although he did not know it, rested for the +first time on the mainland of South America. The land seen was the low +coast to the west of the Orinoco, and thinking that it was an island he +gave it the name of Isla Sancta. + +On the 2nd of August they were off the south-west of Trinidad, and saw +the first inhabitants in the shape of a canoe full of armed natives, who +approached the ships with threatening gestures. Columbus had brought out +some musicians with him, possibly for the purpose of impressing the +natives, and perhaps with the idea of making things a little more +cheerful in Espanola; and the musicians were now duly called upon to give +a performance, a tambourine-player standing on the forecastle and beating +the rhythm for the ships' boys to dance to. The effect was other than +was anticipated, for the natives immediately discharged a thick flight of +arrows at the musicians, and the music and dancing abruptly ceased. +Eventually the Indians were prevailed upon to come on board the two +smaller ships and to receive gifts, after which they departed and were +seen no more. Columbus landed and made some observations of the +vegetation and climate of Trinidad, noticing that the fruits and-trees +were similar to those of Espanola, and that oysters abounded, as well as +"very large, infinite fish, and parrots as large as hens." + +He saw another peak of the mainland to the northwest, which was the +peninsula of Paria, and to which Columbus, taking it to be another +island, gave the name of Isla de Gracia. Between him and this land lay a +narrow channel through which a mighty current was flowing--that press of +waters which, sweeping across the Atlantic from Africa, enters the +Caribbean Sea, sprays round the Gulf of Mexico, and turns north again in +the current known as the Gulf Stream. While his ships were anchored at +the entrance to this channel and Columbus was wondering how he should +cross it, a mighty flood of water suddenly came down with a roar, sending +a great surging wave in front of it. The vessels were lifted up as +though by magic; two of them dragged their anchors from the bottom, and +the other one broke her cable. This flood was probably caused by a +sudden flush of fresh water from one of the many mouths of the Orinoco; +but to Columbus, who had no thought of rivers in his mind, it was very +alarming. Apparently, however, there was nothing for it but to get +through the channel, and having sent boats on in front to take soundings +and see that there was clear water he eventually piloted his little +squadron through, with his heart in his mouth and his eyes fixed on the +swinging eddies and surging circles of the channel. Once beyond it he +was in the smooth water of the Gulf of Paria. He followed the westerly +coast of Trinidad to the north until he came to a second channel narrower +than the first, through which the current boiled with still greater +violence, and to which he gave the name of Dragon's Mouth. This is the +channel between the northwesterly point of Trinidad and the eastern +promontory of Paria. Columbus now began to be bewildered, for he +discovered that the water over the ship's side was fresh water, and he +could not make out where it came from. Thinking that the peninsula of +Paria was an island, and not wishing to attempt the dangerous passage of +the Dragon's Mouth, he decided to coast along the southern shore of the +land opposite, hoping to be able to turn north round its western +extremity. + + +Sweeter blew the breezes, fresher grew the water, milder and more balmy +the air, greener and deeper the vegetation of this beautiful region. The +Admiral was ill with the gout, and suffering such pain from his eyes that +he was sometimes blinded by it; but the excitement of the strange +phenomena surrounding him kept him up, and his powers of observation, +always acute, suffered no diminution. There were no inhabitants to be +seen as they sailed along the coast, but monkeys climbed and chattered in +the trees by the shore, and oysters were found clinging to the branches +that dipped into the water. At last, in a bay where they anchored to +take in water, a native canoe containing three, men was seen cautiously +approaching; and the men, who were shy, were captured by the device of a +sailor jumping on to the gunwale of the canoe and overturning it, the +natives being easily caught in the water, and afterwards soothed and +captivated by the unfailing attraction of hawks' bells. They were tall +men with long hair, and they told Columbus that the name of their country +was Paria; and when they were asked about other inhabitants they pointed +to the west and signified that there was a great population in that +direction. + +On the 10th of August 1498 a party landed on this coast and formally took +possession of it in the name of the Sovereigns of Spain. By an unlucky +chance Columbus himself did not land. His eyes were troubling him so +much that he was obliged to lie down in his cabin, and the formal act of +possession was performed by a deputy. If he had only known! If he could +but have guessed that this was indeed the mainland of a New World that +did not exist even in his dreams, what agonies he would have suffered +rather than permit any one else to pronounce the words of annexation! +But he lay there in pain and suffering, his curious mystical mind +occupied with a conception very remote indeed from the truth. + + +For in that fertile hotbed of imagination, the Admiral's brain, a new and +staggering theory had gradually been taking shape. As his ships had been +wafted into this delicious region, as the airs had become sweeter, the +vegetation more luxuriant, and the water of the sea fresher,--he had +solemnly arrived at the conclusion that he was approaching the region of +the true terrestrial Paradise: the Garden of Eden that some of the +Fathers had declared to be situated in the extreme east of the Old World, +and in a region so high that the flood had not overwhelmed it. Columbus, +thinking hard in his cabin, blood and brain a little fevered, comes to +the conclusion that the world is not round but pear-shaped. He knows +that all this fresh water in the sea must come from a great distance and +from no ordinary river; and he decides that its volume and direction have +been acquired in its fall from the apex of the pear, from the very top of +the world, from the Garden of Eden itself. It was a most beautiful +conception; a theory worthy to be fitted to all the sweet sights and +sounds in the world about him; but it led him farther and farther away +from the truth, and blinded him to knowledge and understanding of what he +had actually accomplished. + +He had thought the coast of Cuba the mainland, and he now began to +consider it at least possible that the peninsula of Paria was mainland +also--another part of the same continent. That was the truth--Paria was +the mainland--and if he had not been so bemused by his dreams and +theories he might have had some inkling of the real wonder and +significance of his discovery. But no; in his profoundly unscientific +mind there was little of that patience which holds men back from +theorising and keeps them ready to receive the truth. He was patient +enough in doing, but in thinking he was not patient at all. No sooner +had he observed a fact than he must find a theory which would bring it +into relation with the whole of his knowledge; and if the facts would not +harmonise of themselves he invented a scheme of things by which they were +forced into harmony. He was indeed a Darwinian before his time, an adept +in the art of inventing causes to fit facts, and then proving that the +facts sprang from the causes; but his origins were tangible, immovable +things of rock and soil that could be seen and visited by other men, and +their true relation to the terrestrial phenomena accurately established; +so that his very proofs were monumental, and became themselves the +advertisements of his profound misjudgment. But meanwhile he is the +Admiral of the Ocean Seas, and can "make it so"; and accordingly, in a +state of mental instability, he makes the Gulf of Paria to be a slope of +earth immediately below the Garden of Eden, although fortunately he does +not this time provide a sworn affidavit of trembling ships' boys to +confirm his discovery. + +Meanwhile also here were pearls; the native women wore ropes of them all +over their bodies, and a fair store of them were bartered for pieces of +broken crockery. Asked as usual about the pearls the natives, also as +usual, pointed vaguely to the west and south-west, and explained that +there were more pearls in that direction. But the Admiral would not +tarry. Although he believed that he was within reach of Eden and pearls, +he was more anxious to get back to Espanola and send the thrilling news +to Spain than he was to push on a little farther and really assure +himself of the truth. How like Christopher that was! Ideas to him were +of more value than facts, as indeed they are to the world at large; but +one is sometimes led to wonder whether he did not sometimes hesitate to +turn his ideas into facts for very fear that they should turn out to be +only ideas. Was he, in his relations with Spain and the world, a trader +in the names rather than the substance of things? We have seen him going +home to Spain and announcing the discovery of the Golden Chersonesus, +although he had only discovered what he erroneously supposed to be an +indication of it; proclaiming the discovery of the Ophir of Solomon +without taking the trouble to test for himself so tremendous an +assumption; and we now see him hurrying away to dazzle Spain with the +story that he has discovered the Garden of Eden, without even trying to +push on for a few days more to secure so much as a cutting from the Tree +of Life. + +These are grave considerations; for although happily the Tree of Life is +now of no importance to any human being, the doings of Admiral +Christopher were of great importance to himself and to his fellow-men at +that time, and are still to-day, through the infinite channels in which +human thought and action run and continue thoughout the world, of grave +importance to us. Perhaps this is not quite the moment, now that the +poor Admiral is lying in pain and weakness and not quite master of his +own mind, to consider fully how he stands in this matter of honesty; we +will leave it for the present until he is well again, or better still, +until his tale of life and action is complete, and comes as a whole +before the bar of human judgment. + + +On August 11th Columbus turned east again after having given up the +attempt to find a passage to the north round Paria. There were practical +considerations that brought him to this action. As the water was growing +shoaler and shoaler he had sent a caravel of light draft some way further +to the westward, and she reported that there lay ahead of her a great +inner bay or gulf consisting of almost entirely fresh water. Provisions, +moreover, were running short, and were, as usual, turning bad; the +Admiral's health made vigorous action of any kind impossible for him; he +was anxious about the condition of Espanola--anxious also, as we have +seen, to send this great news home; and he therefore turned back and +decided to risk the passage of the Dragon's Mouth. He anchored in the +neighbouring harbour until the wind was in the right quarter, and with +some trepidation put his ships into the boiling tideway. When they were +in the middle of the passage the wind fell to a dead calm, and the ships, +with their sails hanging loose, were borne on the dizzy surface of +eddies, overfalls, and whirls of the tide. Fortunately there was deep +water in the passage, and the strength of the current carried them safely +through. Once outside they bore away to the northward, sighting the +islands of Tobago and Grenada and, turning westward again, came to the +islands of Cubagua and Margarita, where three pounds of pearls were +bartered from the natives. A week after the passage of the Dragon's +Mouth Columbus sighted the south coast of Espanola, which coast he made +at a point a long way to the east of the new settlement that he had +instructed Bartholomew to found; and as the winds were contrary, and he +feared it might take him a long time to beat up against them, he sent a +boat ashore with a letter which was to be delivered by a native messenger +to the Adelantado. The letter was delivered; a few days later a caravel +was sighted which contained Bartholomew himself; and once more, after a +long separation, these two friends and brothers were united. + + +The see-saw motion of all affairs with which Columbus had to do was in +full swing. We have seen him patching up matters in Espanola; hurrying +to Spain just in time to rescue his damaged reputation and do something +to restore it; and now when he had come back it was but a sorry tale that +Bartholomew had to tell him. A fortress had been built at the Hayna +gold-mines, but provisions had been so scarce that there had been +something like a famine among the workmen there; no digging had been +done, no planting, no making of the place fit for human occupation and +industry. Bartholomew had been kept busy in collecting the native +tribute, and in planning out the beginnings of the settlement at the +mouth of the river Ozema, which was at first called the New Isabella, but +was afterwards named San Domingo in honour of old Domenico at Savona. +The cacique Behechio had been giving trouble; had indeed marched out with +an army against Bartholomew, but had been more or less reconciled by the +intervention of his sister Anacaona, widow of the late Caonabo, who had +apparently transferred her affections to Governor Bartholomew. The +battle was turned into a friendly pagan festival--one of the last ever +held on that once happy island--in which native girls danced in a green +grove, with the beautiful Anacaona, dressed only in garlands, carried on +a litter in their midst. + +But in the Vega Real, where a chapel had been built by the priests of the +neighbouring settlement who were beginning to make converts, trouble had +arisen in consequence of an outrage on the wife of the cacique Guarionex. +The chapel was raided, the shrine destroyed, and the sacred vessels +carried off. The Spaniards seized a number of Indians whom they +suspected of having had a hand in the desecration, and burned them at the +stake in the most approved manner of the Inquisition--a hideous +punishment that fanned the remaining embers of the native spirit into +flame, and produced a hostile combination of Guarionex and several other +caciques, whose rebellion it took the Adelantado some trouble and display +of arms to quench. + +But the worst news of all was the treacherous revolt of Francisco Roldan, +a Spaniard who had once been a servant of the Admiral's, and who had been +raised by him to the office of judge in the island--an able creature, +but, like too many recipients of Christopher's favour, a treacherous +rascal at bottom. As soon as the Admiral's back was turned Roldan had +begun to make mischief, stirring up the discontent that was never far +below the surface of life in the colony, and getting together a large +band of rebellious ruffians. He had a plan to murder Bartholomew +Columbus and place himself at the head of the colony, but this fell +through. Then, in Bartholomew's absence, he had a passage with James +Columbus, who had now returned to the island and had resumed his. +official duties at Isabella. Bartholomew, who was at another part of the +coast collecting tribute, had sent a caravel laden with cotton to +Isabella, and well-meaning James had her drawn up on the beach. Roldan +took the opportunity to represent this innocent action as a sign of the +intolerable autocracy of the Columbus family, who did not even wish a +vessel to be in a condition to sail for Spain with news of their +misdeeds. Insolent Roldan formally asks James to send the caravel to +Spain with supplies; poor James refuses and, perhaps being at bottom +afraid of Roldan and his insolences, despatches him to the Vega Real with +a force to bring to order some caciques who had been giving trouble. +Possibly to his surprise, although not to ours, Roldan departs with +alacrity at the head of seventy armed men. Honest, zealous James, no +doubt; but also, we begin to fear, stupid James. + + +The Vega Real was the most attractive part of the colony, and the scene +of infinite idleness and debauchery in the early days of the Spanish +settlement. As Margarite and other mutineers had acted, so did Roldan +and his soldiers now act, making sallies against several of the chain of +forts that stretched across the island, and even upon Isabella itself; +and returning to the Vega to the enjoyment of primitive wild pleasures. +Roldan and Bartholomew Columbus stalked each other about the island with +armed forces for several months, Roldan besieging Bartholomew in the +fortress at the Vega, which he had occupied in Roldan's absence, and +trying to starve him out there. The arrival in February 1498 of the two +ships which had been sent out from Spain in advance, and which brought +also the news of the Admiral's undamaged favour at Court, and of the +royal confirmation of Bartholomew's title, produced for the moment a good +moral effect; Roldan went and sulked in the mountains, refusing to have +any parley or communication with the Adelantado, declining indeed to +treat with any one until the Admiral himself should return. In the +meantime his influence with the natives was strong enough to produce a +native revolt, which Bartholomew had only just succeeded in suppressing +when Christopher arrived on August 30th. + +The Admiral was not a little distressed to find that the three ships from +which he had parted company at Ferro had not yet arrived. His own voyage +ought to have taken far longer than theirs; they had now been nine weeks +at sea, and there was nothing to account for their long delay. When at +last they did appear, however they brought with them only a new +complication. They had lost their way among the islands and had been +searching about for Espanola, finally making a landfall there on the +coast of Xaragua, the south-western province of the island, where Roldan +and his followers were established. Roldan had received them and, +concealing the fact of his treachery, procured a large store of +provisions from them, his followers being meanwhile busy among the crews +of the ships inciting them to mutiny and telling them of the oppression +of the Admiral's rule and the joys of a lawless life. The gaol-birds +were nothing loth; after eight weeks at sea a spell ashore in this +pleasant land, with all kinds of indulgences which did not come within +the ordinary regimen of convicts and sailors, greatly appealing to them. +The result was that more than half of the crews mutinied and joined +Roldan, and the captains were obliged to put to sea with their small +loyal remnant. Carvajal remained behind in order to try to persuade +Roldan to give himself up; but Roldan had no such idea, and Carvajal had +to make his way by land to San Domingo, where he made his report to the +Admiral. Roldan has in fact delivered a kind of ultimatum. He will +surrender to no one but the Admiral, and that only on condition that he +gets a free pardon. If negotiations are opened, Roldan will treat with +no one but Carvajal. The Admiral, whose grip of the situation is getting +weaker and weaker, finds himself in a difficulty. His loyal army is only +some seventy strong, while Roldan has, of disloyal settlers, gaol-birds, +and sailors, much more than that. The Admiral, since he cannot reduce +his enemy's force by capturing them, seeks to do it by bribing them; and +the greatest bribe that he can think of to offer to these malcontents is +that any who like may have a free passage home in the five caravels which +are now waiting to return to Spain. To such a pass have things come in +the paradise of Espanola! But the rabble finds life pleasant enough in +Xaragua, where they are busy with indescribable pleasures; and for the +moment there is no great response to this invitation to be gone. +Columbus therefore despatches his ships, with such rabble of colonists, +gaol-birds, and mariners as have already had their fill both of pain and +pleasure, and writes his usual letter to the Sovereigns--half full of the +glories of the new discoveries he has made, the other half setting forth +the evil doings of Roldan, and begging that he may be summoned to Spain +for trial there. Incidentally, also, he requests a further licence for +two years for the capture and despatch of slaves to Spain. So the +vessels sail back on October 18, 1498, and the Admiral turns wearily to +the task of disentangling the web of difficulty that has woven itself +about him. + +Carvajal and Ballester--another loyal captain--were sent with a letter to +Roldan urging him to come to terms, and Carvajal and Ballester added +their own honest persuasions. But Roldan was firm; he wished to be quit +of the Admiral and his rule, and to live independently in the island; and +of his followers, although some here and there showed signs of +submission, the greater number were so much in love with anarchy that +they could not be counted upon. For two months negotiations of a sort +were continued, Roldan even presenting himself under a guarantee of +safety at San Domingo, where he had a fruitless conference with the +Admiral; where also he had an opportunity of observing what a sorry state +affairs in the capital were in, and what a mess Columbus was making of it +all. Roldan, being a simple man, though a rascal, had only to remain +firm in order to get his way against a mind like the Admiral's, and get +his way he ultimately did. The Admiral made terms of a kind most +humiliating to him, and utterly subversive of his influence and +authority. The mutineers were not only to receive a pardon but a +certificate (good Heavens!) of good conduct. Caravels were to be sent to +convey them to Spain; and they were to be permitted to carry with them +all the slaves that they had collected and all the native young women +whom they had ravished from their homes. + +Columbus signs this document on the 21st of November, and promises that +the ships shall be ready in fifty days; and then, at his wits' end, and +hearing of irregularities in the interior of the island, sets off with +Bartholomew to inspect the posts and restore them to order. In his +absence the see-saw, in due obedience to the laws that govern all see- +saws, gives a lurch to the other side, and things go all wrong again in +San Domingo. The preparations for the despatch of the caravels are +neglected as soon as his back is turned; not fifty days, but nearly one +hundred days elapse before they are ready to sail from San Domingo to +Xaragua. Even then they are delayed by storms and head-winds; and when +they do arrive Roldan and his company will not embark in them. The +agreement has been broken; a new one must be made. Columbus, returning +to San Domingo after long and harassing struggles on the other end of the +see-saw, gets news of this deadlock, and at the same time has news from +Fonseca in Spain of a far from agreeable character. His complaints +against the people under him have been received by the Sovereigns and +will be duly considered, but their Majesties have not time at the moment +to go into them. That is the gist of it, and very cold cheer it is for +the Admiral, balancing himself on this turbulent see-saw with anxious +eyes turned to Spain for encouragement and approval. + + +In the depression that followed the receipt of this letter he was no +match for Roldan. He even himself took a caravel and sailed towards +Xaragua, where he was met by Roldan, who boarded his ship and made his +new proposals. Their impudence is astounding; and when we consider that +the Admiral had in theory absolute powers in the island, the fact that +such proposals could be made, not to say accepted, shows how far out of +relation were his actual with his nominal powers. Roldan proposed that +he should be allowed to give a number of his friends a free passage to +Spain; that to all who should remain free grants of land should be given; +and (a free pardon and certificate of good conduct contenting him no +longer) that a proclamation should be made throughout the island +admitting that all the charges of disloyalty and mutiny which had been +brought against him and his followers were without foundation; and, +finally, that he should be restored to his office of Alcalde Mayor or +chief magistrate. + +Here was a bolus for Christopher to swallow; a bolus compounded of his +own words, his own acts, his hope, dignity, supremacy. In dismal +humiliation he accepted the terms, with the addition of a clause more +scandalous still--to the effect that the mutineers reserved the right, +in case the Admiral should fail in the exact performance of any of his +promises, to enforce them by compulsion of arms or any other method they +might think fit. This precious document was signed on September 28, 1499 +just twelve months after the agreement which it was intended to replace; +and the Admiral, sailing dismally back to San Domingo, ruefully pondered +on the fruits of a year's delay. Even then he was trying to make excuses +for himself, such as he made afterwards to the Sovereigns when he tried +to explain that this shameful capitulation was invalid. That he signed +under compulsion; that he was on board a ship, and so was not on his +viceregal territory; that the rebels had already been tried, and that he +had not the power to revoke a sentence which bore the authority of the +Crown; that he had not the power to dispose of the Crown property-- +desperate, agonised shuffling of pride and self-esteem in the coils of +trial and difficulty. Enough of it. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +AN INTERLUDE + +A breath of salt air again will do us no harm as a relief from these +perilous balancings of Columbus on the see-saw at Espanola. His true +work in this world had indeed already been accomplished. When he smote +the rock of western discovery many springs flowed from it, and some were +destined to run in mightier channels than that which he himself followed. +Among other men stirred by the news of Columbus's first voyage there was +one walking the streets of Bristol in 1496 who was fired to a similar +enterprise--a man of Venice, in boyhood named Zuan Caboto, but now known +in England, where he has some time been settled, as Captain John Cabot. +A sailor and trader who has travelled much through the known sea-roads +of this world, and has a desire to travel upon others not so well known. +He has been in the East, has seen the caravans of Mecca and the goods +they carried, and, like Columbus, has conceived in his mind the roundness +of the world as a practical fact rather than a mere mathematical theory. +Hearing of Columbus's success Cabot sets what machinery in England he has +access to in motion to secure for him patents from King Henry VII.; which +patents he receives on March 5, 1496. After spending a long time in +preparation, and being perhaps a little delayed by diplomatic protests +from the Spanish Ambassador in London, he sails from Bristol in May 1497. + +After sailing west two thousand leagues Cabot found land in the +neighbourhood of Cape Breton, and was thus in all probability the first +discoverer, since the Icelanders, of the mainland of the New World. He +turned northward, sailed through the strait of Belle Isle, and came home +again, having accomplished his task in three months. Cabot, like +Columbus, believed he had seen the territory of the Great Khan, of whom +he told the interested population of Bristol some strange things. He +further told them of the probable riches of this new land if it were +followed in a southerly direction; told them some lies also, it appears, +since he said that the waters there were so dense with fish that his +vessels could hardly move in them. He received a gratuity of L10 and a +pension, and made a great sensation in Bristol by walking about the city +dressed in fine silk garments. He took other voyages also with his son +Sebastian, who followed with him the rapid widening stream of discovery +and became Pilot Major of Spain, and President of the Congress appointed +in 1524 to settle the conflicting pretensions of various discoverers; but +so far as our narrative is concerned, having sailed across from Bristol +and discovered the mainland of the New World some years before Columbus +discovered it, John Cabot sails into oblivion. + + +Another great conquest of the salt unknown taken place a few days before +Columbus sailed on his third voyage. The accidental discovery of the +Cape by Bartholomew Diaz in 1486 had not been neglected by Portugal; and +the achievements of Columbus, while they cut off Portuguese enterprise +from the western ocean, had only stimulated it to greater activity within +its own spheres. Vasco da Gama sailed from Lisbon in July 1497; by the +end of November he had rounded the Cape of Good Hope; and in May 1498, +after a long voyage full of interest, peril, and hardship he had landed +at Calicut on the shores of the true India. He came back in 1499 with a +battered remnant, his crew disabled by sickness and exhaustion, and half +his ships lost; but he had in fact discovered a road for trade and +adventure to the East that was not paved with promises, dreams, or mad +affidavits, but was a real and tangible achievement, bringing its reward +in commerce and wealth for Portugal. At that very moment Columbus was +groping round the mainland of South America, thinking it to be the coast +of Cathay, and the Garden of Eden, and God knows what other +cosmographical--theological abstractions; and Portugal, busy with her +arrangements for making money, could afford for the moment to look on +undismayed at the development of the mine of promises discovered by the +Spanish Admiral. + + +The anxiety of Columbus to communicate the names of things before he had +made sure of their substance received another rude chastisement in the +events that followed the receipt in Spain of his letter announcing the +discovery of the Garden of Eden and the land of pearls. People in Spain +were not greatly interested in his theories of the terrestrial Paradise; +but more than one adventurer pricked up his ears at the name of pearls, +and among the first was our old friend Alonso de Ojeda, who had returned +some time before from Espanola and was living in Spain. His position as +a member of Columbus's force on the second voyage and the distinction he +had gained there gave him special opportunities of access to the letters +and papers sent home by Columbus; and he found no difficulty in getting +Fonseca to show him the maps and charts of the coast of Paria sent back +by the Admiral, the veritable pearls which had been gathered, and the +enthusiastic descriptions of the wealth of this new coast. Knowing +something of Espanola, and of the Admiral also, and reading in the +despatches of the turbulent condition of the colony, he had a shrewd idea +that Columbus's hands would be kept pretty full in Espanola itself, and +that he would have no opportunity for some time to make any more voyages +of discovery. He therefore represented to Fonseca what a pity it would +be if all this revenue should remain untapped just because one man had +not time to attend to it, and he proposed that he should take out an +expedition at his own cost and share the profits with the Crown. + +This proposal was too tempting to be refused; unlike the expeditions of +Columbus, which were all expenditure and no revenue, it promised a chance +of revenue without any expenditure at all. The Paria coast, having been +discovered subsequent to the agreement made with Columbus, was considered +by Fonseca to be open to private enterprise; and he therefore granted +Ojeda a licence to go and explore it. Among those who went with him were +Amerigo Vespucci and Columbus's old pilot, Juan de la Cosa, as well as +some of the sailors who had been with the Admiral on the coast of Paria +and had returned in the caravels which had brought his account of it back +to Spain. Ojeda sailed on May 20, 1499; made a landfall some hundreds of +miles to the eastward of the Orinoco, coasted thence as far as the island +of Trinidad, and sailed along the northern coast of the peninsula of +Paria until he came to a country where the natives built their hots on +piles in the water, and to which he gave the name of Venezuela. It was +by his accidental presence on this voyage that Vespucci, the meat- +contractor, came to give his name to America--a curious story of +international jealousies, intrigues, lawsuits, and lies which we have not +the space to deal with here. After collecting a considerable quantity of +pearls Ojeda, who was beginning to run short of provisions, turned +eastward again and sought the coast of Espanola, where we shall presently +meet with him again. + + +And Ojeda was not the only person in Spain who was enticed by Columbus's +glowing descriptions to go and look for the pearls of Paria. There was +in fact quite a reunion of old friends of his and ours in the western +ocean, though they went thither in a spirit far different from that of +ancient friendship. Pedro Alonso Nino, who had also been on the Paria +coast with Columbus, who had come home with the returning ships, and +whose patience (for he was an exceedingly practical man) had perhaps been +tried by the strange doings of the Admiral in the Gulf of Paria, decided +that he as well as any one else might go and find some pearls. Nino is a +poor man, having worked hard in all his voyagings backwards and forwards +across the Atlantic; but he has a friend with money, one Luis Guerra, who +provides him with the funds necessary for fitting out a small caravel +about the size of his old ship the Nifta. Guerra, who has the money, +also has a brother Christoval; and his conditions are that Christoval +shall be given the command of the caravel. Practical Niflo does not care +so long as he reaches the place where the pearls are. He also applies to +Fonseca for licence to make discoveries; and, duly receiving it, sails +from Palos in the beginning of June 1499, hot upon the track of Ojeda. + +They did a little quiet discovery, principally in the domain of human +nature, caroused with the friendly natives, but attended to business all +the time; with the result that in the following April they were back in +Spain with a treasure of pearls out of which, after Nifio had been made +independent for life and Guerra, Christoval, and the rest of them had +their shares, there remained a handsome sum for the Crown. An extremely +practical, businesslike voyage this; full of lessons for our poor +Christopher, could he but have known and learned them. + + +Yet another of our old friends profited by the Admiral's discovery. What +Vincenti Yafiez Pinzon has been doing all these years we have no record; +living at Palos, perhaps, doing a little of his ordinary coasting +business, administering the estates of his brother Martin Alonso, and, +almost for a certainty, talking pretty big about who it was that really +did all the work in the discovery of the New World. Out of the obscurity +of conjecture he emerges into fact in December 1499, when he is found at +Palos fitting out four caravels for the purpose of exploring farther +along the coast of the southern mainland. That he also was after pearls +is pretty certain; but on the other hand he was more of a sailor than an +adventurer, was a discoverer at heart, and had no small share of the +family taste for sea travel. He took a more southerly course than any of +the others and struck the coast of America south of the equator on +January 20, 1500. He sailed north past the mouths of the Amazon and +Orinoco through the Gulf of Paria, and reached Espanola in June 1500. +He only paused there to take in provisions, and sailed to the west in +search of further discoveries; but he lost two of his caravels in a gale +and had to put back to Espanola. + +He sailed thence for Palos, and reached home in September 1500, having +added no inconsiderable share to the mass of new geographical knowledge +that was being accumulated. In later years he took a high place in the +maritime world of Spain. + + +And finally, to complete the account of the chief minor discoveries of +these two busy years, we must mention Pedro Alvarez Cabral of Portugal, +who was despatched in March 1, 1500 from Lisbon to verify the discoveries +of Da Gama. He reached Calicut six months later, losing on the voyage +four of his caravels and most of his company. Among the lost was +Bartholomew Diaz, the first discoverer of the Cape of Good Hope, who was +on this voyage in a subordinate capacity, and whose bones were left to +dissolve in the stormy waters that beat round the Cape whose barrier he +was the first to pass. The chief event of this voyage, however, was not +the reaching of Calicut nor the drowning of Diaz (which was chiefly of +importance to himself, poor soul!) but the discovery of Brazil, which +Cabral made in following the southerly course too far to the west. +He landed there, in the Bay of Porto Seguro, on May 1, 1500, and took +formal possession of the land for the Crown of Portugal, naming it Vera +Cruz, or the Land of the True Cross. + +In the assumption of Columbus and his contemporaries all these doings +were held to detract from the glory of his own achievements, and were the +subject of endless affidavits, depositions, quarrels, arguments, proofs +and claims in the great lawsuit that was in after years carried on +between the Crown of Spain and the heirs of Columbus concerning his +titles and revenues. We, however, may take a different view. With the +exception of the discoveries of the Cape of Good Hope and the coast of +Brazil all these enterprises were directly traceable to Columbus's own +achievements and were inspired by his example. The things that a man can +do in his own person are limited by the laws of time and space; it is +only example and influence that are infinite and illimitable, and in +which the spirit of any achievement can find true immortality. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE THIRD VOYAGE-(continued) + +It may perhaps be wearisome to the reader to return to the tangled and +depressing situation in Espanola, but it cannot be half so wearisome as +it was for Columbus, whom we left enveloped in that dark cloud of error +and surrender in which he sacrificed his dignity and good faith to the +impudent demands of a mutinous servant. To his other troubles in San +Domingo the presence of this Roldan was now added; and the reinstated +Alcalde was not long in making use of the victory he had gained. He bore +himself with intolerable arrogance and insolence, discharging one of +Columbus's personal bodyguard on the ground that no one should hold any +office on the island except with his consent. He demanded grants of land +for himself and his followers, which Columbus held himself obliged to +concede; and the Admiral, further to pacify him, invented a very +disastrous system of repartimientos, under which certain chiefs were +relieved from paying tribute on condition of furnishing feudal service to +the settlers--a system which rapidly developed into the most cruel and +oppressive kind of slavery. The Admiral at this time also, in despair of +keeping things quiet by his old methods of peace and conciliation, +created a kind of police force which roamed about the island, exacting +tribute and meting out summary punishment to all defaulters. Among other +concessions weakly made to Roldan at this time was the gift of the Crown +estate of Esperanza, situated in the Vega Real, whither he betook himself +and embarked on what was nothing more nor less than a despotic reign, +entirely ignoring the regulations and prerogatives of the Admiral, and +taking prisoners and administering punishment just as he pleased. The +Admiral was helpless, and thought of going back to Spain, but the +condition of the island was such that he did not dare to leave it. +Instead, he wrote a long letter to the Sovereigns, full of complaints +against other people and justifications of himself, in the course of +which he set forth those quibbling excuses for his capitulation to Roldan +which we have already heard. And there was a pathetic request at the end +of the letter that his son Diego might be sent out to him. As I have +said, Columbus was by this time a prematurely old man, and feeling the +clouds gathering about him, and the loneliness and friendlessness of his +position at Espanola, he instinctively looked to the next generation for +help, and to the presence of his own son for sympathy and comfort. + + +It was at this moment (September 5, 1499) that a diversion arose in the +rumour that four caravels had been seen off the western end of Espanola +and duly reported to the Admiral; and this announcement was soon followed +by the news that they were commanded by Ojeda, who was collecting dye- +wood in the island forests. Columbus, although he had so far as we know +had no previous difficulties with Ojeda, had little cause now to credit +any adventurer with kindness towards himself; and Ojeda's secrecy in not +reporting himself at San Domingo, and, in fact, his presence on the +island at all without the knowledge of the Admiral, were sufficient +evidence that he was there to serve his own ends. Some gleam of +Christopher's old cleverness in handling men was--now shown by his +instructing Roldan to sally forth and bring Ojeda to order. It was a +case of setting a thief to catch a thief and, as it turned out, was not a +bad stroke. Roldan, nothing loth, sailed round to that part of the coast +where Ojeda's ships were anchored, and asked to see his licence; which +was duly shown to him and rather took the wind out of his sails. He +heard a little gossip from Ojeda, moreover, which had its own +significance for him. The Queen was ill; Columbus was in disgrace; there +was talk of superseding him. Ojeda promised to sail round to San Domingo +and report himself; but instead, he sailed to the east along the coast of +Xaragua, where he got into communication with some discontented Spanish +settlers and concocted a scheme for leading them to San Domingo to demand +redress for their imagined grievances. Roldan, however, who had come to +look for Ojeda, discovered him at this point; and there ensued some very +pretty play between the two rascals, chiefly in trickery and treachery, +such as capturing each other's boats and emissaries, laying traps for one +another, and taking prisoner one another's crews. The end of it was that +Ojeda left the island without having reported himself to Columbus, but +not before he had completed his business--which was that of provisioning +his ships and collecting dye-wood and slaves. + +And so exit Ojeda from the Columbian drama. Of his own drama only one +more act remained to be played; which, for the sake of our past interest +in him, we will mention here. Chiefly on account of his intimacy with +Fonseca he was some years later given a governorship in the neighbourhood +of the Gulf of Darien; Juan de la Cosa accompanying him as unofficial +partner. Ojeda has no sooner landed there than he is fighting the +natives; natives too many for him this time; Ojeda forced to hide in the +forest, where he finds the body of de la Cosa, who has come by a shocking +death. Ojeda afterwards tries to govern his colony, but is no good at +that; cannot govern his own temper, poor fellow. Quarrels with his crew, +is put in irons, carried to Espanola, and dies there (1515) in great +poverty and eclipse. One of the many, evidently, who need a strong +guiding hand, and perish without it. + +It really began to seem as though Roldan, having had his fling and +secured the excessive privileges that he coveted, had decided that +loyalty to Christopher was for the present the most profitable policy; +but the mutinous spirit that he had cultivated in his followers for his +own ends could not be so readily converted into this cheap loyalty. More +trouble was yet to come of this rebellion. There was in the island a +young Spanish aristocrat, Fernando de Guevara by name, one of the many +who had come out in the hope of enjoying himself and making a fortune +quickly, whose more than outrageously dissolute life in San Domingo had +caused Columbus to banish him thence; and he was now living near Xaragua +with a cousin of his, Adrian de Moxeca, who had been one of the +ringleaders in Roldan's conspiracy. Within this pleasant province of +Xaragua lived, as we have seen, Anacaona, the sister of Caonabo, the Lord +of the House of Gold. She herself was a beautiful woman, called by her +subjects Bloom of the Gold; and she had a still more beautiful daughter, +Higuamota, who appears in history, like so many other women, on account +of her charms and what came of them. + +Of pretty Higuamota, who once lived like a dryad among the groves of +Espanola and has been dead now for so long, we know nothing except that +she was beautiful, which, although she doubtless did not think so while +she lived, turns out to have been the most important thing about her. +Young Guevara, coming to stay with his cousin Adrian, becomes a visitor +at the house of Anacaona; sees the pretty daughter and falls in love with +her. Other people also, it appears, have been in a similar state, but +Higuamota is not very accessible; a fact which of course adds to the +interest of the chase, and turns dissolute Fernando's idle preference +into something like a passion. Roldan, who has also had an eye upon her, +and apparently no more than an eye, discovers that Fernando, in order to +gratify his passion, is proposing to go the absurd length of marrying the +young woman, and has sent for a priest for that purpose. Roldan, +instigated thereto by primitive forces, thinks it would be impolitic for +a Spanish grandee to marry with a heathen; very well, then, Fernando will +have her baptized--nothing simpler when water and a priest are handy. +Roldan, seeing that the young man is serious, becomes peremptory, and +orders him to leave Xaragua. Fernando ostentatiously departs, but is +discovered a little later actually living in the house of Anacaona, who +apparently is sympathetic to Love's young dream. Once more ordered away, +this time with anger and threats, Guevara changes his tune and implores +Roldan to let him stay, promising that he will give up the marriage +project and also, no doubt, the no-marriage project. But Guevara has +sympathisers. The mutineers have not forgiven Roldan for deserting them +and becoming a lawful instead of an unlawful ruler. They are all on the +side of Guevara, who accordingly moves to the next stage of island +procedure, and sets on foot some kind of plot to kill Roldan and the +Admiral. Fortunately where there is treachery it generally works both +ways; this plot came to the ears of the authorities; the conspirators +were arrested and sent to San Domingo. + +This action came near to bringing the whole island about Columbus's ears. +Adrian de Moxeca was furious at what he conceived to be the treachery of +Roldan, for Roldan was in such a pass that the barest act of duty was +necessarily one of treachery to his friends. Moxeca took the place of +chief rebel that Roldan had vacated; rallied the mutineers round him, and +was on the point of starting for Concepcion, one of the chain of forts +across the island where Columbus was at present staying, when the Admiral +discovered his plan. All that was strongest and bravest in him rose up +at this menace. His weakness and cowardice were forgotten; and with the +spirit of an old sea-lion he sallied forth against the mutineers. He had +only a dozen men on whom he could rely, but he armed them well and +marched secretly and swiftly under cloud of night to the place where +Moxeca and his followers were encamped in fond security, and there +suddenly fell upon them, capturing Moxeca and the chief ringleaders. The +rest scattered in terror and escaped. Moxeca was hurried off to the +battlements of San Domingo and there, in the very midst of a longdrawn +trembling confession to the priest in attendance, was swung off the +ramparts and hanged. The others, although also condemned to death, were +kept in irons in the fortress, while Christopher and Bartholomew, roused +at last to vigorous action, scoured the island hunting down the +remainder, killing some who resisted, hanging others on the spot, and +imprisoning the remainder at San Domingo. + +After these prompt measures peace reigned for a time in the island, and +Columbus was perhaps surprised to see what wholesome effects could be +produced by a little exemplary severity. The natives, who under the +weakness of his former rule had been discontented and troublesome, now +settled down submissively to their yoke; the Spaniards began to work in +earnest on their farms; and there descended upon island affairs a brief +St. Martin's Summer of peace before the final winter of blight and death +set in. The Admiral, however, was obviously in precarious health; his +ophthalmia became worse, and the stability of his mind suffered. He had +dreams and visions of divine help and comfort, much needed by him, poor +soul, in all his tribulations and adversities. Even yet the cup was not +full. + + +We must now turn back to Spain and try to form some idea of the way in +which the doings of Columbus were being regarded there if we are to +understand the extraordinary calamity that was soon to befall him. It +must be remembered first of all that his enterprise had never really been +popular from the first. It was carried out entirely by the energy and +confidence of Queen Isabella, who almost alone of those in power believed +in it as a thing which was certain to bring ultimate glory, as well as +riches and dominion, to Spain and the Catholic faith. As we have seen, +there had been a brief ebullition of popular favour when Columbus +returned from his first voyage, but it was a popularity excited solely by +the promises of great wealth that Columbus was continually holding forth. +When those promises were not immediately fulfilled popular favour +subsided; and when the adventurers who had gone out to the new islands on +the strength of those promises had returned with shattered health and +empty pockets there was less chance than ever of the matter being +regarded in its proper light by the people of Spain. Columbus had either +found a gold mine or he had found nothing--that was the way in which the +matter was popularly regarded. Those who really understood the +significance of his discoveries and appreciated their scientific +importance did not merely stay at home in Spain and raise a clamour; they +went out in the Admiral's footsteps and continued the work that he had +begun. Even King Ferdinand, for all his cleverness, had never understood +the real lines on which the colony should have been developed. His eyes +were fixed upon Europe; he saw in the discoveries of Columbus a means +rather than an end; and looked to them simply as a source of revenue with +the help of which he could carry on his ambitious schemes. And when, as +other captains made voyages confirming and extending the work of +Columbus, he did begin to understand the significance of what had been +done, he realised too late that the Admiral had been given powers far in +excess of what was prudent or sensible. + +During all the time that Columbus and his brothers were struggling with +the impossible situation at Espanola there was but one influence at work +in Spain, and that was entirely destructive to the Admiral. Every +caravel that came from the New World brought two things. It brought a +crowd of discontented colonists, many of whom had grave reasons for their +discontent; and it brought letters from the Admiral in which more and +more promises were held out, but in which also querulous complaints +against this and that person, and against the Spanish settlers generally, +were set forth at wearisome length. It is not remarkable that the people +of Spain, even those who were well disposed towards Columbus, began to +wonder if these two things were not cause and effect. The settlers may +have been a poor lot, but they were the material with which Columbus had +to deal; he had powers enough, Heaven knew, powers of life and death; and +the problem began to resolve itself in the minds of those at the head of +affairs in Spain in the following terms. Given an island, rich and +luxuriant beyond the dreams of man; given a native population easily +subdued; given settlers of one kind or another; and given a Viceroy with +unlimited powers--could he or could he not govern the island? It was a +by no means unfair way of putting the case, and there is little justice +in the wild abuse that has been hurled at Ferdinand and Isabella on this +ground. Columbus may have been the greatest genius in the world; very +possibly they admitted it; but in the meanwhile Spain was resounding with +the cries of the impoverished colonists who had returned from his ocean +Paradise. No doubt the Sovereigns ignored them as much as they possibly +could; but when it came to ragged emaciated beggars coming in batches of +fifty at a time and sitting in the very courts of the Alhambra, +exhibiting bunches of grapes and saying that that was all they could +afford to live upon since they had come back from the New World, some +notice had to be taken of it. Even young Diego and Ferdinand, the +Admiral's sons, came in for the obloquy with which his name was +associated; the colonial vagabonds hung round the portals of the palace +and cried out upon them as they passed so that they began to dislike +going out. Columbus, as we know, had plenty of enemies who had access to +the King and Queen; and never had enemies an easier case to urge. Money +was continually being spent on ships and supplies; where was the return +for it? What about the Ophir of Solomon? What about the Land of Spices? +What about the pearls? And if you want to add a touch of absurdity, what +about the Garden of Eden and the Great Khan? + +To the most impartial eyes it began to appear as though Columbus were +either an impostor or a fool. There is no evidence that Ferdinand and +Isabella thought that he was an impostor or that he had wilfully deceived +them; but there is some evidence that they began to have an inkling as to +what kind of a man he really was, and as to his unfitness for governing a +colony. Once more something had to be done. The sending out of a +commissioner had not been a great success before, but in the difficulties +of the situation it seemed the only thing. Still there was a good deal +of hesitation, and it is probable that Isabella was not yet fully +convinced of the necessity for this grave step. This hesitation was +brought to an end by the arrival from Espanola of the ships bearing the +followers of Roldan, who had been sent back under the terms of Columbus's +feeble capitulation. The same ships brought a great quantity of slaves, +which the colonists were able to show had been brought by the permission +of the Admiral; they carried native girls also, many of them pregnant, +many with new-born babies; and these also came with the permission of the +Admiral. The ships further carried the Admira'l's letter complaining of +the conspiracy of Roldan and containing the unfortunate request for a +further licence to extend the slave trade. These circumstances were +probably enough to turn the scale of Isabella's opinion against the +Admiral's administration. The presence of the slaves particularly +angered her kind womanly heart. "What right has he to give away my +vassals?" she exclaimed, and ordered that they should all be sent back, +and that in addition all the other slaves who had come home should be +traced and sent back; although of course it was impossible to carry out +this last order. + +At any rate there was no longer any hesitation about sending out a +commissioner, and the Sovereigns chose one Francisco de Bobadilla, an +official of the royal household, for the performance of this difficult +mission. As far as we can decipher him he was a very ordinary official +personage; prejudiced, it is possible, against an administration that had +produced such disastrous results and which offended his orderly official +susceptibilities; otherwise to be regarded as a man exactly honest in the +performance of what he conceived to be his duties, and entirely +indisposed to allow sentiment or any other extraneous matter to interfere +with such due performance. We shall have need to remember, when we see +him at work in Espanola, that he was not sent out to judge between +Columbus and his Sovereigns or between Columbus and the world, but to +investigate the condition of the colony and to take what action he +thought necessary. The commission which he bore to the Admiral was in +the following terms: + + "The King and the Queen: Don Christopher Columbus, our Admiral of + the Ocean-sea. We have directed Francisco de Bobadilla, the bearer + of this, to speak to you for us of certain things which he will + mention: we request you to give him faith and credence and to obey + him. From Madrid, May 26, '99. I THE KING. I THE QUEEN. By their + command. Miguel Perez de Almazan." + +In addition Bobadilla bore with him papers and authorities giving him +complete control and possession of all the forts, arms, and royal +property in the island, in case it should be necessary for him to use +them; and he also had a number of blank warrants which were signed, but +the substance of which was not filled in. This may seem very dreadful to +us, with our friendship for the poor Admiral; but considering the grave +state of affairs as represented to the King and Queen, who had their +duties to their colonial subjects as well as to Columbus, there was +nothing excessive in it. If they were to send out a commissioner at all, +and if they were satisfied, as presumably they were, that the man they +had chosen was trustworthy, it was only right to make his authority +absolute. Thus equipped Francisco de Bobadilla sailed from Spain in July +1500. + + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +Ideas to him were of more value than facts +Patience which holds men back from theorising + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of Christopher Columbus, v6 +by Filson Young + + + + + + + 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 + + + + + + + CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS + AND THE NEW WORLD OF HIS DISCOVERY + + A NARRATIVE BY FILSON YOUNG + + + +BOOK 8. + + +CHAPTER VI + +RELIEF OF THE ADMIRAL + +There was no further difficulty about provisions, which were punctually +brought by the natives on the old terms; but the familiar, spirit of +sedition began to work again among the unhappy Spaniards, and once more a +mutiny, led this time by the apothecary Bernardo, took form--the +intention being to seize the remaining canoes and attempt to reach +Espanola. This was the point at which matters had arrived, in March +1504, when as the twilight was falling one evening a cry was raised that +there was a ship in sight; and presently a small caravel was seen +standing in towards the shore. All ideas of mutiny were forgotten, and +the crew assembled in joyful anticipation to await, as they thought, the +coming of their deliverers. The caravel came on with the evening breeze; +but while it was yet a long way off the shore it was seen to be lying to; +a boat was lowered and rowed towards the harbour. + +As the boat drew near Columbus could recognise in it Diego de Escobar, +whom he remembered having condemned to death for his share in the +rebellion of Roldan. He was not the man whom Columbus would have most +wished to see at that moment. The boat came alongside the hulks, and a +barrel of wine and a side of bacon, the sea-compliment customary on such +occasions, was handed up. Greatly to the Admiral's surprise, however, +Escobar did not come on board, but pushed his boat off and began to speak +to Columbus from a little distance. He told him that Ovando was greatly +distressed at the Admiral's misfortunes; that he had been much occupied +by wars in Espanola, and had not been able to send a message to him +before; that he greatly regretted he had no ship at present large enough +to bring off the Admiral and his people, but that he would send one as +soon as he had it. In the meantime the Admiral was to be assured that +all his affairs in Espanola were being attended to faithfully, and that +Escobar was instructed to bring back at once any letters which the +Admiral might wish to write. + +The coolness and unexpectedness of this message completely took away the +breath of the unhappy Spaniards, who doubtless stood looking in +bewilderment from Escobar to Columbus, unable to believe that the caravel +had not been sent for their relief. Columbus, however, with a self- +restraint which cannot be too highly praised, realised that Escobar meant +what he said, and that by protesting against his action or trying to +interfere with it he would only be putting himself in the wrong. He +therefore retired immediately to his cabin and wrote a letter to Ovando, +in which he drew a vivid picture of the distress of his people, reported +the rebellion of the Porras brothers, and reminded Ovando that he relied +upon the fulfilment of his promise to send relief. The letter was handed +over to Escobar, who rowed back with it to his caravel and immediately +sailed away with it into the night. + + +Before he could retire to commune with his own thoughts or to talk with +his faithful brother, Columbus had the painful duty of speaking to his +people, whose puzzled and disappointed faces must have cost him some +extra pangs. He told them that he was quite satisfied with the message +from Ovando, that it was a sign of kindness on his part thus to send them +news in advance that relief was coming, that their situation was now +known in San Domingo, and that vessels would soon be here to take them +away. He added that he himself was so sure of these things that he had +refused to go back with Escobar, but had preferred to remain with them +and share their lot until relief should come. This had the desired +effect of cheering the Spaniards; but it was far from representing the +real sentiments of Columbus on the subject. The fact that Escobar had +been chosen to convey this strange empty message of sympathy seemed to +him suspicious, and with his profound distrust of Ovando Columbus began +to wonder whether some further scheme might not be on foot to damage him +in the eyes of the Sovereigns. He was convinced that Ovando had meant to +let him starve on the island, and that the real purpose of Escobar's +visit had been to find out what condition the Admiral was in, so that +Ovando might know how to act. It is very hard to get at the truth of +what these two men thought of each other. They were both suspicious, +each was playing for his own hand, and Ovando was only a little more +unscrupulous than Columbus; but there can be no doubt that whatever his +motives may have been Ovando acted with abominable treachery and cruelty +in leaving the Admiral unrelieved for nearly nine months. + + +Columbus now tried to make use of the visit of Escobar to restore to +allegiance the band of rebels that were wandering about in the +neighbourhood under the leadership of the Porras brothers. Why he should +have wished to bring them back to the ships is not clear, for by all +accounts he was very well rid of them; but probably his pride as a +commander was hurt by the thought that half of his company had defied his +authority and were in a state of mutiny. At any rate he sent out an +ambassador to Porras, offering to receive the mutineers back without any +punishment, and to give them a free passage to Espanola in the vessels +which were shortly expected, if they would return to their allegiance +with him. + +The folly of this overture was made manifest by the treatment which it +received. It was bad enough to make advances to the Porras brothers, but +it was still worse to have those advances repulsed, and that is what +happened. The Porras brothers, being themselves incapable of any single- +mindedness, affected not to believe in the sincerity of the Admiral's +offer; they feared that he was laying some kind of trap for them; +moreover, they were doing very well in their lawless way, and living very +comfortably on the natives; so they told Columbus's ambassadors that his +offer was declined. At the same time they undertook to conduct +themselves in an amicable and orderly manner on condition that, when the +vessels arrived, one of them should be apportioned to the exclusive use +of the mutineers; and that in the meantime the Admiral should share with +them his store of provisions and trinkets, as theirs were exhausted. + +This was the impertinent decision of the Porras brothers; but it did not +quite commend itself to their followers, who were fearful of the possible +results if they should persist in their mutinous conduct. They were very +much afraid of being left behind in the island, and in any case, having +attempted and failed in the main object of their mutiny, they saw no +reason why they should refuse a free pardon. But the Porras brothers +lied busily. They said that the Admiral was merely laying a trap in +order to get them into his power, and that he would send them home to +Spain in chains; and they even went so far as to assure their fellow- +rebels that the story of a caravel having arrived was not really true; +but that Columbus, who was an adept in the arts of necromancy, had really +made his people believe that they had seen a caravel in the dusk; and +that if one had really arrived it would not have gone away so suddenly, +nor would the Admiral and his brother and son have failed to take their +passage in it. + +To consolidate the effect of these remarkable statements on the still +wavering mutineers, the Porras brothers decided to commit them to an open +act of violence which would successfully alienate them from the Admiral. +They formed them, therefore, into an armed expedition, with the idea of +seizing the stores remaining on the wreck and taking the Admiral +personally. Columbus fortunately got news of this, as he nearly always +did when there was treachery in the wind; and he sent Bartholomew to try +to persuade them once more to return to their duty--a vain and foolish +mission, the vanity and folly of which were fully apparent to +Bartholomew. He duly set out upon it; but instead of mild words he took +with him fifty armed men--the whole available able-bodied force, in fact- +and drew near to the position occupied by the rebels. + + +The exhortation of the Porras brothers had meanwhile produced its effect, +and it was decided that six of the strongest men among the mutineers +should make for Bartholomew himself and try to capture or kill him. The +fierce Adelantado, finding himself surrounded by six assailants, who +seemed to be directing their whole effort against his life, swung his +sword in a berserk rage and slashed about him, to such good purpose that +four or five of his assailants soon lay round him killed or wounded. At +this point Francisco de Porras rushed in and cleft the shield held by +Bartholomew, severely wounding the hand that held it; but the sword. +stuck in the shield, and while Porras was endeavouring to draw it out +Bartholomew and some others closed upon him, and after a sharp struggle +took him prisoner. The battle, which was a short one, had been meanwhile +raging fiercely among the rest of the forces; but when the mutineers saw +their leader taken prisoner, and many of their number lying dead or +wounded, they scattered and fled, but not before Bartholomew's force had +taken several prisoners. It was then found that, although the rebels had +suffered heavily, none of Bartholomew's men were killed, and only one +other besides himself was wounded. The next day the mutineers all came +in to surrender, submitting an abject oath of allegiance; and Columbus, +always strangely magnanimous to rebels and insurgents, pardoned them all +with the exception of Francisco de Porras, who, one is glad to know, was +confined in irons to be sent to Spain for trial. + + +This submission, which was due to the prompt action of Bartholomew rather +than to the somewhat feeble diplomacy of the Admiral, took place on March +20th, and proved somewhat embarrassing to Columbus. He could put no +faith in the oaths and protestations of the mutineers; and he was very +doubtful about the wisdom of establishing them once more on the wrecks +with the hitherto orderly remnant. He therefore divided them up into +several bands, and placing each under the command of an officer whom he +could trust, he supplied them with trinkets and despatched them to +different parts of the island, for the purpose of collecting provisions +and carrying on barter with the natives. By this means the last month or +two of this most trying and exciting sojourn on the island of Jamaica +were passed in some measure of peace; and towards the end of June it was +brought to an end by the arrival of two caravels. One of them was the +ship purchased by Diego Mendez out of the three which had arrived from +Spain; and the other had been despatched by Ovando in deference, it is +said, to public feeling in San Domingo, which had been so influenced by +Mendez's account of the Admiral's heroic adventures that Ovando dared not +neglect him any longer. Moreover, if it had ever been his hope that the +Admiral would perish on the island of Jamaica, that hope was now doomed +to frustration, and, as he was to be rescued in spite of all, Ovando no +doubt thought that he might as well, for the sake of appearances, have a +hand in the rescue. + +The two caravels, laden with what was worth saving from the two abandoned +hulks, and carrying what was left of the Admiral's company, sailed from +Jamaica on June 28, 1504. Columbus's joy, as we may imagine, was deep +and heartfelt. He said afterwards to Mendez that it was the happiest day +of his life, for that he had never hoped to leave the place alive. + +The mission of Mendez, then, had been successful, although he had had to +wait for eight months to fulfil it. He himself, in accordance with +Columbus's instructions, had gone to Spain in another caravel of the +fleet out of which he had purchased the relieving ship; and as he passes +out of our narrative we may now take our farewell of him. Among the many +men employed in the Admiral's service no figure stands out so brightly as +that of Diego Mendez; and his record, almost alone of those whose service +of the Admiral earned them office and distinction, is unblotted by any +stain of crime or treachery. He was as brave as a lion and as faithful +as a dog, and throughout his life remained true to his ideal of service +to the Admiral and his descendants. He was rewarded by King Ferdinand +for his distinguished services, and allowed to bear a canoe on his coat- +of-arms; he was with the Admiral at his death-bed at Valladolid, and when +he himself came to die thirty years afterwards in the same place he made +a will in which he incorporated a brief record of the events of the +adventurous voyage in which he had borne the principal part, and also +enshrined his devotion to the name and family of Columbus. His demands +for himself were very modest, although there is reason to fear that they +were never properly fulfilled. He was curiously anxious to be remembered +chiefly by his plucky canoe voyage; and in giving directions for his +tomb, and ordering that a stone should be placed over his remains, he +wrote: "In the centre of the said stone let a canoe be carved, which is a +piece of wood hollowed out in which the Indians navigate, because in such +a boat I navigated three hundred leagues, and let some letters be placed +above it saying: Canoa." The epitaph that he chose for himself was in +the following sense: + + Here lies the Honourable Gentleman + + DIEGO MENDEZ + + He greatly served the royal crown of Spain in + the discovery and conquest of the Indies with + the Admiral Don Christopher Columbus of + glorious memory who discovered them, and + afterwards by himself, with his own ships, + at his own expense. + He died, etc. + He begs from charity a PATERNOSTER + and an AVE MARIA. + + +Surely he deserves them, if ever an honourable gentleman did. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE HERITAGE OF HATRED + +Although the journey from Jamaica to Espanola had been accomplished in +four days by Mendez in his canoe, the caravels conveying the party +rescued from Puerto Santa Gloria were seven weary weeks on this short +voyage; a strong north-west wind combining with the west-going current to +make their progress to the north-west impossible for weeks at a time. It +was not until the 13th of August 1503 that they anchored in the harbour +of San Domingo, and Columbus once more set foot, after an absence of more +than two years, on the territory from the governorship of which he had +been deposed. + +He was well enough received by Ovando, who came down in state to meet +him, lodged him in his own house, and saw that he was treated with the +distinction suitable to his high station. The Spanish colony, moreover, +seemed to have made something of a hero of Columbus during his long +absence, and they received him with enthusiasm. But his satisfaction in +being in San Domingo ended with that. He was constantly made to feel +that it was Ovando and not he who was the ruler there;--and Ovando +emphasised the difference between them by numerous acts of highhanded +authority, some of them of a kind calculated to be extremely mortifying +to the Admiral. Among these things he insisted upon releasing Porras, +whom Columbus had confined in chains; and he talked of punishing those +faithful followers of Columbus who had taken part in the battle between +Bartholomew and the rebels, because in this fight some of the followers +of Porras had been killed. Acts like these produced weary bickerings and +arguments between Ovando and Columbus, unprofitable to them, unprofitable +to us. The Admiral seems now to have relapsed into a condition in which +he cared only for two things, his honours and his emoluments. Over every +authoritative act of Ovando's there was a weary squabble between him and +the Admiral, Ovando claiming his right of jurisdiction over the whole +territory of the New World, including Jamaica, and Columbus insisting +that by his commission and letters of authority he had been placed in +sole charge of the members of his own expedition. + +And then, as regards his emoluments, the Admiral considered himself (and +not without justice) to have been treated most unfairly. By the +extravagant terms of his original agreement he was, as we know, entitled +to a share of all rents and dues, as well as of the gold collected; but +it had been no one's business to collect these for him, and every one's +business to neglect them. No one had cared; no one had kept any accounts +of what was due to the Admiral; he could not find out what had been paid +and what had not been paid. He accused Ovando of having impeded his +agent Carvajal in his duty of collecting the Admiral's revenues, and of +disobeying the express orders of Queen Isabella in that matter; and so +on-a state of affairs the most wearisome, sordid, and unprofitable in +which any man could be involved. + +And if Columbus turned his eyes from the office in San Domingo inland to +that Paradise which he had entered twelve years before, what change and +ruin, dreary, horrible and complete, did he not discover! The birds +still sang, and the nights were still like May in Cordova; but upon that +happy harmony the sound of piteous cries and shrieks had long since +broken, and along and black December night of misery had spread its pall +over the island. Wherever he went, Columbus found the same evidence of +ruin and desolation. Where once innumerable handsome natives had +thronged the forests and the villages, there were now silence and smoking +ruin, and the few natives that he met were emaciated, terrified, dying. +Did he reflect, I wonder, that some part of the responsibility of all +this horror rested on him? That many a system of island government, the +machinery of which was now fed by a steady stream of human lives, had +been set going by him in ignorance, or greed of quick commercial returns? +It is probable that he did not; for he now permanently regarded himself +as a much-injured man, and was far too much occupied with his own wrongs +to realise that they were as nothing compared with the monstrous stream +of wrong and suffering that he had unwittingly sent flowing into the +world. + +In the island under Ovando's rule Columbus saw the logical results of his +own original principles of government, which had recognised the right of +the Christians to possess the persons and labours of the heathen natives. +Las Casas, who was living in Espanola as a young priest at this time, and +was destined by long residence there and in the West Indies to qualify +himself as their first historian, saw what Columbus saw, and saw also the +even worse things that happened in after years in Cuba and Jamaica; and +it is to him that we owe our knowledge of the condition of island affairs +at this time. The colonists whom Ovando had brought out had come very +much in the spirit that in our own day characterised the rush to the +north-western goldfields of America. They brought only the slightest +equipment, and were no sooner landed at San Domingo than they set out +into the island like so many picnic parties, being more careful to carry +vessels in which to bring back the gold they were to find than proper +provisions and equipment to support them in the labour of finding it. +The roads, says Las Casas, swarmed like ant-hills with these adventurers +rushing forth to the mines, which were about twenty-five miles distant +from San Domingo; they were in the highest spirits, and they made it a +kind of race as to who should get there first. They thought they had +nothing to do but to pick up shining lumps of gold; and when they found +that they had to dig and delve in the hard earth, and to dig +systematically and continuously, with a great deal of digging for very +little gold, their spirits fell. They were not used to dig; and it +happened that most of them began in an unprofitable spot, where they +digged for eight days without finding any gold. Their provisions were +soon exhausted; and in a week they were back again in San Domingo, tired, +famished, and bitterly disappointed. They had no genius for steady +labour; most of them were virtually without means; and although they +lived in San Domingo, on what they had as long as possible, they were +soon starving there, and selling the clothes off their backs to procure +food. Some of them took situations with the other settlers, more fell +victims to the climate of the island and their own imprudences and +distresses; and a thousand of them had died within two years. + +Ovando had revived the enthusiasm for mining by two enactments. He +reduced the share of discovered gold payable to the Crown, and he +developed Columbus's system of forced labour to such an extent that the +mines were entirely worked by it. To each Spaniard, whether mining or +farming, so many natives were allotted. It was not called slavery; the +natives were supposed to be paid a minute sum, and their employers were +also expected to teach them the Christian religion. That was the plan. +The way in which it worked was that, a body of native men being allotted +to a Spanish settler for a period, say, of six or eight months--for the +enactment was precise in putting a period to the term of slavery--the +natives would be marched off, probably many days' journey from their +homes and families, and set to work under a Spanish foreman. The work, +as we have already seen, was infinitely harder than that to which they +were accustomed; and most serious of all, it was done under conditions +that took all the heart out of the labour. A man will toil in his own +garden or in tilling his own land with interest and happiness, not +counting the hours which he spends there; knowing in fact that his work +is worth doing, because he is doing it for a good reason. But put the +same man to work in a gang merely for the aggrandisement of some other +over-man; and the heart and cheerfulness will soon die out of him. + +It was so with these children of the sun. They were put to work ten +times harder than any they had ever done before, and they were put to it +under the lash. The light diet of their habit had been sufficient to +support them in their former existence of happy idleness and dalliance, +and they had not wanted anything more than their cassava bread and a +little fish and fruit; now, however, they were put to work at a pressure +which made a very different kind of feeding necessary to them, and this +they did not get. Now and then a handful of pork would be divided among +a dozen of them, but they were literally starved, and were accustomed to +scramble like dogs for the bones that were thrown from the tables of the +Spaniards, which bones they ground up and mixed with their, bread so that +no portion of them might be lost. They died in numbers under these hard +conditions, and, compared with their lives, their deaths must often have +been happy. When the time came for them to go home they were generally +utterly worn out and crippled, and had to face a long journey of many +days with no food to support them but what they could get on the journey; +and the roads were strewn with the dead bodies of those who fell by the +way. + +And far worse things happened to them than labour and exhaustion. It +became the custom among the Spaniards to regard the lives of the natives +as of far less value than those of the dogs that were sometimes set upon +them in sport. A Spaniard riding along would make a wager with his +fellow that he would cut the head off a native with one stroke of his +sword; and many attempts would be laughingly made, and many living bodies +hideously mutilated and destroyed, before the feat would be accomplished. +Another sport was one similar to pigsticking as it is practised in India, +except that instead of pigs native women and children were stuck with the +lances. There was no kind of mutilation and monstrous cruelty that was +not practised. If there be any powers of hell, they stalked at large +through the forests and valleys of Espanola. Lust and bloody cruelty, of +a kind not merely indescribable but unrealisable by sane men and women, +drenched the once happy island with anguish and terror. And in payment +for it the Spaniards undertook to teach the heathen the Christian +religion. + + +The five chiefs who had ruled with justice and wisdom over the island of +Espanola in the early days of Columbus were all dead, wiped out by the +wave of wild death and cruelty that had swept over the island. The +gentle Guacanagari, when he saw the desolation that was beginning to +overwhelm human existence, had fled into the mountains, hiding his face +in shame from the sons of men, and had miserably died there. Caonabo, +Lord of the House of Gold, fiercest and bravest of them all, who first +realised that the Spaniards were enemies to the native peace, after +languishing in prison in the house of Columbus at Isabella for some time, +had died in captivity during the voyage to Spain. Anacaona his wife, the +Bloom of the Gold, that brave and beautiful woman, whose admiration of +the Spaniards had by their bloody cruelties been turned into detestation, +had been shamefully betrayed and ignominiously hanged. Behechio, her +brother, the only cacique who did not sue for peace after the first +conquest of the island by Christopher and Bartholomew Columbus, was dead +long ago of wounds and sorrow. Guarionex, the Lord of the Vega Real, who +had once been friendly enough, who had danced to the Spanish pipe and +learned the Paternoster and Ave Maria, and whose progress in conversion +to Christianity the seduction of his wives by those who were converting +him had interrupted, after wandering in the mountains of Ciguay had been +imprisoned in chains, and drowned in the hurricane of June 30, 1502. + +The fifth chief, Cotabanama, Lord of the province of Higua, made the last +stand against Ovando in defence of the native right to existence, and was +only defeated after severe battles and dreadful slaughters. His +territory was among the mountains, and his last insurrection was caused, +as so many others had been, by the intolerable conduct of the Spaniards +towards the wives and daughters of the Indians. Collecting all his +warriors, Cotabanama attacked the Spanish posts in his neighbourhood. +At every engagement his troops were defeated and dispersed, but only to +collect again, fight again with even greater fury, be defeated and +dispersed again, and rally again against the Spaniards. They literally +fought to the death. After every battle the Spaniards made a massacre of +all the natives they could find, old men, children, and pregnant women +being alike put to the sword or burned in their houses. When their +companions fell beside them, instead of being frightened they became more +furious; and when they were wounded they would pluck the arrows out of +their bodies and hurl them back at the Spaniards, falling dead in the +very act. After one such severe defeat and massacre the natives +scattered for many months, hiding among the mountains and trying to +collect and succour their decimated families; but the Spaniards, who with +their dogs grew skilful at tracking the Indians and found it pleasant +sport, came upon them in the places of refuge where little groups of them +were sheltering their women and children, and there slowly and cruelly +slaughtered them, often with the addition of tortures and torments in +order to induce them to reveal the whereabouts of other bands. When it +was possible the Spaniards sometimes hanged thirteen of them in a row in +commemoration of their Blessed Saviour and the Twelve Apostles; and while +they were hanging, and before they had quite died, they would hack at +them with their swords in order to test the edge of the steel. At the +last stand, when the fierceness and bitterness of the contest rose to a +height on both sides, Cotabanama was captured and a plan made to broil +him slowly to death; but for some reason this plan was not carried out, +and the brave chief was taken to San Domingo and publicly hanged like a +thief. + + +After that there was never any more resistance; it was simply a case of +extermination, which the Spaniards easily accomplished by cutting of the +heads of women as they passed by, and impaling infants and little +children on their lances as they rode through the villages. Thus, in the +twelve years since the discovery of Columbus, between half a million and +a million natives, perished; and as the Spanish colonisation spread +afterwards from island to island, and the banner of civilisation and +Christianity was borne farther abroad throughout the Indies, the same +hideous process was continued. In Cuba, in Jamaica, throughout the +Antilles, the cross and the sword, the whip-lash and the Gospel advanced +together; wherever the Host was consecrated, hideous cries of agony and +suffering broke forth; until happily, in the fulness of time, the dire +business was complete, and the whole of the people who had inhabited this +garden of the world were exterminated and their blood and race wiped from +the face of the earth . . . . Unless, indeed, blood and race and hatred +be imperishable things; unless the faithful Earth that bred and reared +the race still keeps in her soil, and in the waving branches of the trees +and the green grasses, the sacred essences of its blood and hatred; +unless in the full cycle of Time, when that suffering flesh and blood +shall have gone through all the changes of substance and condition, from +corruption and dust through flowers and grasses and trees and animals +back into the living body of mankind again, it shall one day rise up +terribly to avenge that horror of the past. Unless Earth and Time +remember, O Children of the Sun! for men have forgotten, and on the soil +of your Paradise the African negro, learned in the vices of Europe, +erects his monstrous effigy of civilisation and his grotesque mockery of +freedom; unless it be through his brutish body, into which the blood and +hatred with which the soil of Espanola was soaked have now passed, that +they shall dreadfully strike at the world again. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE ADMIRAL COMES HOME + +On September 12, 1504., Christopher Columbus did many things for the last +time. He who had so often occupied himself in ports and harbours with +the fitting out of ships and preparations for a voyage now completed at +San Domingo the simple preparations for the last voyage he was to take. +The ship he had come in from Jamaica had been refitted and placed under +the command of Bartholomew, and he had bought another small caravel in +which he and his son were to sail. For the last time he superintended +those details of fitting out and provisioning which were now so familiar +to him; for the last time he walked in the streets of San Domingo and +mingled with the direful activities of his colony; he looked his last +upon the place where the vital scenes of his life had been set, for the +last time weighed anchor, and took his last farewell of the seas and +islands of his discovery. A little steadfast looking, a little straining +of the eyes, a little heart-aching no doubt, and Espanola has sunk down +into the sea behind the white wake of the ships; and with its fading away +the span of active life allotted to this man shuts down, and his powerful +opportunities for good or evil are withdrawn. + +There was something great and heroic about the Admiral's last voyage. +Wind and sea rose up as though to make a last bitter attack upon the man +who had disclosed their mysteries and betrayed their secrets. He had +hardly cleared the island before the first gale came down upon him and +dismasted his ship, so that he was obliged to transfer himself and his +son to Bartholomew's caravel and send the disabled vessel back to +Espanola. The shouting sea, as though encouraged by this triumph, hurled +tempest after tempest upon the one lonely small ship that was staggering +on its way to Spain; and the duel between this great seaman and the vast +elemental power that he had so often outwitted began in earnest. One +little ship, one enfeebled man to be destroyed by the power of the sea: +that was the problem, and there were thousands of miles of sea-room, and +two months of time to solve it in! Tempest after tempest rose and drove +unceasingly against the ship. A mast was sprung and had to be cut away; +another, and the woodwork from the forecastles and high stern works had +to be stripped and lashed round the crazy mainmast to preserve it from +wholesale destruction. Another gale, and the mast had to be shortened, +for even reinforced as it was it would not bear the strain; and so +crippled, so buffeted, this very small ship leapt and staggered on her +way across the Atlantic, keeping her bowsprit pointed to that region of +the foamy emptiness where Spain was. + +The Admiral lay crippled in his cabin listening to the rush and bubble of +the water, feeling the blows and recoils of the unending battle, +hearkening anxiously to the straining of the timbers and the vessel's +agonised complainings under the pounding of the seas. We do not know +what his thoughts were; but we may guess that they looked backward rather +than forward, and that often they must have been prayers that the present +misery would come somehow or other to an end. Up on deck brother +Bartholomew, who has developed some grievous complaint of the jaws and +teeth--complaint not known to us more particularly, but dreadful enough +from that description--does his duty also, with that heroic manfulness +that has marked his whole career; and somewhere in the ship young +Ferdinand is sheltering from the sprays and breaking seas, finding his +world of adventure grown somewhat gloomy and sordid of late, and feeling +that he has now had his fill of the sea . . . . Shut your eyes and +let the illusions of time and place fade from you; be with them for a +moment on this last voyage; hear that eternal foaming and crashing of +great waves, the shrieking of wind in cordage, the cracking and slatting +of the sails, the mad lashing of loose ropes; the painful swinging, and +climbing up and diving down, and sinking and staggering and helpless +strivings of the small ship in the waste of water. The sea is as empty +as chaos, nothing for days and weeks but that infinite tumbling surface +and heaven of grey storm-clouds; a world of salt surges encircled by +horizons of dim foam. Time and place are nothing; the agony and pain of +such moments are eternal. + +But the two brothers, grim and gigantic in their sea power, subtle as the +wind itself in their sea wit, win the battle. Over the thousands of +miles of angry surges they urge that small ship towards calm and safety; +until one day the sea begins to abate a little, and through the spray and +tumult of waters the dim loom of land is seen. The sea falls back +disappointed and finally conquered by Christopher Columbus, whose ship, +battered, crippled, and strained, comes back out of the wilderness of +waters and glides quietly into the smooth harbour of San Lucar, November +7, 1504. There were no guns or bells to greet the Admiral; his only +salute was in the thunder of the conquered seas; and he was carried +ashore to San Lucar, and thence to Seville, a sick and broken man. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE LAST DAYS + +Columbus, for whom rest and quiet were the first essentials, remained in +Seville from November 1504 to May 1505, when he joined the Court at +Segovia and afterwards at Salamanca and Valladolid, where he remained +till his death in May 1506. During this last period, when all other +activities were practically impossible to him, he fell into a state of +letter-writing--for the most part long, wearisome complainings and +explainings in which he poured out a copious flood of tears and self-pity +for the loss of his gold. + +It has generally been claimed that Columbus was in bitter penury and want +of money, but a close examination of the letters and other documents +relating to this time show that in his last days he was not poor in any +true sense of the word. He was probably a hundred times richer than any +of his ancestors had ever been; he had, money to give and money to spend; +the banks honoured his drafts; his credit was apparently indisputable. +But compared with the fabulous wealth to which he would by this time have +been entitled if his original agreement with the Crown of Spain had been +faithfully carried out he was no doubt poor. There is no evidence that +he lacked any comfort or alleviation that money could buy; indeed he +never had any great craving for the things that money can buy--only for +money itself. There must have been many rich people in Spain who would +gladly have entertained him in luxury and dignity; but he was not the +kind of man to set much store by such things except in so far as they +were a decoration and advertisement of his position as a great man. He +had set himself to the single task of securing what he called his rights; +and in these days of sunset he seems to have been illumined by some +glimmer of the early glory of his first inspiration. He wanted the +payment of his dues now, not so much for his own enrichment, but as a +sign to the world that his great position as Admiral and Viceroy was +recognised, so that his dignities and estates might be established and +consolidated in a form which he would be able to transmit to his remote +posterity. + +Since he wrote so copiously and so constantly in these last days, the +best picture of his mood and condition is afforded in his letters to his +son Diego; letters which, in spite of their infinitely wearisome +recapitulation and querulous complaint, should be carefully read by those +who wish to keep in touch with the Admiral to the end. + + Letter written by CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS to DON DIEGO, his Son, + November 21, 1504. + + "VERY DEAR SON,--I received your letter by the courier. You did + well in remaining yonder to remedy our affairs somewhat and to + employ yourself now in our business. Ever since I came to Castile, + the Lord Bishop of Palencia has shown me favour and has desired that + I should be honoured. Now he must be entreated that it may please + him to occupy himself in remedying my many grievances and in + ordering that the agreement and letters of concession which their + Highnesses gave me be fulfilled, and that I be indemnified for so + many damages. And he may be certain that if their Highnesses do + this, their estate and greatness will be multiplied to them in an + incredible degree. And it must not appear to him that forty + thousand pesos in gold is more than a representation of it; because + they might have had a much greater quantity if Satan had not + hindered it by impeding my design; for, when I was taken away from + the Indies, I was prepared to give them a sum of gold incomparable + to forty thousand pesos. I make oath, and this may be for thee + alone, that the damage to me in the matter of the concessions their + Highnesses have made to me, amounts to ten millions each year, and + never can be made good. You see what will be, or is, the injury to + their Highnesses in what belongs to them, and they do not perceive + it. I write at their disposal and will strive to start yonder. My + arrival and the rest is in the hands of our Lord. His mercy is + infinite. What is done and is to be done, St. Augustine says is + already done before the creation of the world. I write also to + these other Lords named in the letter of Diego Mendez. Commend me + to their mercy and tell them of my going as I have said above. For + certainly I feel great fear, as the cold is so inimical to this, my + infirmity, that I may have to remain on the road. + + "I was very much pleased to hear the contents of your letter and + what the King our Lord said, for which you kissed his royal hands. + It is certain that I have served their Highnesses with as much + diligence and love as though it had been to gain Paradise, and more, + and if I have been at fault in anything it has been because it was + impossible or because my knowledge and strength were not sufficient. + God, our Lord, in such a case, does not require more from persons + than the will. + + "At the request of the Treasurer Morales, I left two brothers in the + Indies, who are called Porras. The one was captain and the other + auditor. Both were without capacity for these positions: and I was + confident that they could fill them, because of love for the person + who sent them to me. They both became more vain than they had been. + I forgave them many incivilities, more than I would do with a + relation, and their offences were such that they merited another + punishment than a verbal reprimand. Finally they reached such a + point that even had I desired, I could not have avoided doing what I + did. The records of the case will prove whether I lie or not. They + rebelled on the island of Jamaica, at which I was as much astonished + as I would be if the sun's rays should cast darkness. I was at the + point of death, and they martyrised me with extreme cruelty during + five months and without cause. Finally I took them all prisoners, + and immediately set them free, except the captain, whom I was + bringing as a prisoner to their Highnesses. A petition which they + made to me under oath, and which I send you with this letter, will + inform you at length in regard to this matter, although the records + of the case explain it fully. These records and the Notary are + coming on another vessel, which I am expecting from day to day. The + Governor in Santo Domingo took this prisoner.--His courtesy + constrained him to do this. I had a chapter in my instructions in + which their Highnesses ordered all to obey me, and that I should + exercise civil and criminal justice over all those who were with me: + but this was of no avail with the Governor, who said that it was not + understood as applying in his territory. He sent the prisoner to + these Lords who have charge of the Indies without inquiry or record + or writing. They did not receive him, and both brothers go free. + It is not wonderful to me that our Lord punishes. They went there + with shameless faces. Such wickedness or such cruel treason were + never heard of. I wrote to their Highnesses about this matter in + the other letter, and said that it was not right for them to consent + to this offence. I also wrote to the Lord Treasurer that I begged + him as a favour not to pass sentence on the testimony given by these + men until he heard me. Now it will be well for you to remind him of + it anew. I do, not know how they dare to go before him with such an + undertaking. I have written to him about it again and have sent him + the copy of the oath, the same as I send to you and likewise to + Doctor Angulo and the Licentiate Zapata. I commend myself to the + mercy of all, with the information that my departure yonder will + take place in a short time. + + "I would be glad to receive a letter from their Highnesses and to + know what they order. You must procure such a letter if you see the + means of so doing. I also commend myself to the Lord Bishop and to + Juan Lopez, with the reminder of illness and of the reward for my + services. + + "You must read the letters which go with this one in order to act in + conformity with what they say. Acknowledge the receipt of his + letter to Diego Mendez. I do not write him as he will learn + everything from you, and also because my illness prevents it. + + "It would be well for Carbajal and Jeronimo --[Jeronimo de Aguero, a + landowner in Espanola and a friend of Columbus]-- to be at the-Court + at this time, and talk of our affairs with these Lords and with the + Secretary. + + "Done in Seville, November 21. + + "Your father who loves you more than himself. + + .S. + .S.A.S. + XMY + Xpo FERENS." + + "I wrote again to their Highnesses entreating them to order that + these people who went with me should be paid, because they are poor + and it is three years since they left their homes. The news which + they bring is more than extraordinary. They have endured infinite + dangers and hardships. I did not wish to rob the country, so as not + to cause scandal, because reason advises its being populated, and + then gold will be obtained freely without scandal. Speak of this to + the Secretary and to the Lord Bishop and to Juan Lopez and to + whomever you think it advisable to do so." + + +The Bishop of Palencia referred to in this letter is probably Bishop +Fonseca--probably, because it is known that he did become Bishop of +Palencia, although there is a difference of opinion among historians as +to whether the date of his translation to that see was before or after +this letter. No matter, except that one is glad to think that an old +enemy--for Fonseca and Columbus had bitter disagreements over the fitting +out of various expeditions--had shown himself friendly at last. + + + Letter written by CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS to DON DIEGO, November 28, + 1504. + + "VERY DEAR SON,--I received your letters of the 15th of this month. + It is eight days since I wrote you and sent the letter by a courier. + I enclosed unsealed letters to many other persons, in order that you + might see them, and having read them, seal and deliver them. + Although this illness of mine troubles me greatly, I am preparing + for my departure in every way. I would very much like to receive + the reply from their Highnesses and wish you might procure it: and + also I wish that their Highnesses would provide for the payment of + these poor people, who have passed through incredible hardships and + have brought them such great news that infinite thanks should be + given to God, our Lord, and they should rejoice greatly over it. + If I [lie ?] the 'Paralipomenon'--[ The Book of Chronicles]-- and + the Book of Kings and the Antiquities of Josephus, with very many + others, will tell what they know of this. I hope in our Lord to + depart this coming week, but you must not write less often on that + account. I have not heard from Carbajal and Jeronimo. If they are + there, commend me to them. The time is such that both Carbajals + ought to be at Court, if illness does not prevent them. My regards + to Diego Mendez. + + "I believe that his truth and efforts will be worth as much as the + lies of the Porras brothers. The bearer of this letter is Martin de + Gamboa. I am sending by him a letter to Juan Lopez and a letter of + credit. Read the letter to Lopez and then give it to him. If you + write me, send the letters to Luis de Soria that he may send them + wherever I am, because if I go in a litter, I believe it will be by + La Plata.--[The old Roman road from Merida to Salamanca.]-- May our + Lord have you in His holy keeping. Your uncle has been very sick + and is now, from trouble with his jaws and his teeth. + + "Done in Seville, November 28. + + "Your father who loves you more than himself. + + .S. + .S.A.S. + XMY + Xpo FERENS." + + +Bartholomew Columbus and Ferdinand were remaining with Christopher at +Seville; Bartholomew probably very nearly as ill as the Admiral, although +we do not hear so many complaints about it. At any rate Diego, being ay +Court, was the great mainstay of his father; and you can see the sick man +sitting there alone with his grievances, and looking to the next +generation for help in getting them redressed. Diego, it is to be +feared, did not receive these letters with so much patience and attention +as he might have shown, nor did he write back to his invalid father with +the fulness and regularity which the old man craved. It is a fault +common to sons. Those who are sons will know that it does not +necessarily imply lack of affection on Diego's part; those who are +fathers will realise how much Christopher longed for verbal assurance of +interest and affection, even though he did not doubt their reality. News +of the serious illness of Queen Isabella had evidently reached Columbus, +and was the chief topic of public interest. + + + Letter written by CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS to DON DIEGO, his Son, + December 1, 1504. + + "VERY DEAR SON,--Since I received your letter of November 15 I have + heard nothing from you. I wish that you would write me more + frequently. I would like to receive a letter from you each hour. + Reason must tell you that now I have no other repose. Many couriers + come each day, and the news is of such a nature and so abundant that + on hearing it all my hair stands on end; it is so contrary to what + my soul desires. May it please the Holy Trinity to give health to + the Queen, our Lady, that she may settle what has already been + placed under discussion. I wrote you by another courier Thursday, + eight days ago. The courier must already be on his way back here. + I told you in that letter that my departure was certain, but that + the hope of my arrival there, according to experience, was very + uncertain, because my sickness is so bad, and the cold is so well + suited to aggravate it, that I could not well avoid remaining in + some inn on the road. The litter and everything were ready. The + weather became so violent that it appeared impossible to every one + to start when it was getting so bad, and that it was better for so + well-known a person as myself to take care of myself and try to + regain my health rather than place myself in danger. I told you in + those letters what I now say, that you decided well in remaining + there (at such a time), and that it was right to commence occupying + yourself with our affairs; and reason strongly urges this. It + appears to me that a good copy should be made of the chapter of that + letter which their Highnesses wrote me where they say they will + fulfil their promises to me and will place you in possession of + everything: and that this copy should be given to them with another + writing telling of my sickness, and that it is now impossible for me + to go and kiss their Royal feet and hands, and that the Indies are + being lost, and are on fire in a thousand places, and that I have + received nothing, and am receiving nothing, from the revenues + derived from them, and that no one dares to accept or demand + anything there for me, and I am living upon borrowed funds. I spent + the money which I got there in bringing those people who went with + me back to their homes, for it would be a great burden upon my + conscience to have left them there and to have abandoned them. This + must be made known to the Lord Bishop of Palencia, in whose favour + I have so much confidence, and also to the Lord Chamberlain. + I believed that Carbajal and Jeronimo would be there at such a time. + Our Lord is there, and He will order everything as He knows it to be + best for us. + + "Carbajal reached here yesterday. I wished to send him immediately + with this same order, but he excused himself profusely, saying that + his wife was at the point of death. I shall see that he goes, + because he knows a great deal about these affairs. I will also + endeavour to have your brother and your uncle go to kiss the hands + of Their Highnesses, and give them an account of the voyage if my + letters are not sufficient. Take good care of your brother. He has + a good disposition, and is no longer a boy. Ten brothers would not + be too many for you. I never found better friends to right or to + left than my brothers. We must strive to obtain the government of + the Indies and then the adjustment of the revenues. I gave you a + memorandum which told you what part of them belongs to me. What + they gave to Carbajal was nothing and has turned to nothing. + Whoever desires to do so takes merchandise there, and so the eighth + is nothing, because, without contributing the eighth, I could send + to trade there without rendering account or going in company with + any one. I said a great many times in the past that the + contribution of the eighth would come to nothing. The eighth and + the rest belongs to me by reason of the concession which their + Highnesses made to me, as set forth in the book of my Privileges, + and also the third and the tenth. Of the tenth I received nothing, + except the tenth of what their Highnesses receive; and it must be + the tenth of all the gold and other things which are found and + obtained, in whatever manner it may be, within this Admiralship, and + the tenth of all the merchandise which goes and comes from there, + after the expenses are deducted. I have already said that in the + Book of Privileges the reason for this and for the rest which is + before the Tribunal of the Indies here in Seville, is clearly set + forth. + + "We must strive to obtain a reply to my letter from their + Highnesses, and to have them order that these people be paid. I + wrote in regard to this subject four days ago, and sent the letter + by Martin de Gamboa, and you must have seen the letter of Juan Lopez + with your own. + + "It is said here that it has been ordered that three or four Bishops + of the Indies shall be sent or created, and that this matter is + referred to the Lord Bishop of Palencia. After having commended me + to his Worship, tell him that I believe it will best serve their + Highnesses for me to talk with him before this matter is settled. + + "Commend me to Diego Mendez, and show him this letter. My illness + permits me to write only at night, because in the daytime my hands + are deprived of strength. I believe that a son of Francisco Pinelo + will carry this letter. Entertain him well, because he does + everything for me that he can, with much love and a cheerful + goodwill. The caravel which broke her mast in starting from Santo + Domingo has arrived in the Algarves. She brings the records of the + case of the Porras brothers. Such ugly things and such grievous + cruelty as appear in this matter never were seen. If their + Highnesses do not punish it, I do not know who will dare to go out + in their service with people. + + "To-day is Monday. I will endeavour to have your uncle and brother + start to-morrow. Remember to write me very often, and tell Diego + Mendez to write at length. Each day messengers go from here yonder. + May our Lord have you in His Holy keeping. + + "Done in Seville, December 1. + + "Your father who loves you as himself. + + .S. + .S.A.S. + XMY + Xpo FERENS." + + +The gout from which the Admiral suffered made riding impossible to him, +and he had arranged to have himself carried to Court on a litter when he +was able to move. There is a grim and dismal significance in the +particular litter that had been chosen: it was no other than the funeral +bier which belonged to the Cathedral of Seville and had been built for +Cardinal Mendoza. A minute of the Cathedral Chapter records the granting +to Columbus of the use of this strange conveyance; but one is glad to +think that he ultimately made his journey in a less grim though more +humble method. But what are we to think of the taste of a man who would +rather travel in a bier, so long as it had been associated with the +splendid obsequies of a cardinal, than in the ordinary litter of every- +day use? It is but the old passion for state and splendour thus dismally +breaking out again. + +He speaks of living on borrowed funds and of having devoted all his +resources to the payment of his crew;, but that may be taken as an +exaggeration. He may have borrowed, but the man who can borrow easily +from banks cannot be regarded as a poor man. One is nevertheless +grateful for these references, since they commemorate the Admiral's +unfailing loyalty to those who shared his hardships, and his unwearied +efforts to see that they received what was due to them. Pleasant also +are the evidences of warm family affection in those simple words of +brotherly love, and the affecting advice to Diego that he should love his +brother Ferdinand as Christopher loved Bartholomew. It is a pleasant +oasis in this dreary, sordid wailing after thirds and tenths and eighths. +Good Diego Mendez, that honourable gentleman, was evidently also at Court +at this time, honestly striving, we may be sure, to say a good word for +the Admiral. + +Some time after this letter was written, and before the writing of the +next, news reached Seville of the death of Queen Isabella. For ten years +her kind heart had been wrung by many sorrows. Her mother had died in +1496; the next year her only son and heir to the crown had followed; and +within yet another year had died her favourite daughter, the Queen of +Portugal. Her other children were all scattered with the exception of +Juana, whose semi-imbecile condition caused her parents an anxiety +greater even than that caused by death. As Isabella's life thus closed +sombrely in, she applied herself more closely and more narrowly to such +pious consolations as were available. News from Flanders of the +scandalous scenes between Philip and Juana in the summer of 1504 brought +on an illness from which she really never recovered, a kind of feverish +distress of mind and body in which her only alleviation was the +transaction of such business as was possible for her in the direction of +humanity and enlightenment. She still received men of intellect and +renown, especially travellers. But she knew that her end was near, and +as early as October she had made her will, in which her wishes as to the +succession and government of Castile were clearly laid down. There was +no mention of Columbus in this will, which afterwards greatly mortified +him; but it is possible that the poor Queen had by this time, even +against her wish, come to share the opinions of her advisers that the +rule of Columbus in the West Indies had not brought the most humane and +happy results possible to the people there. + +During October and November her life thus beat itself away in a +succession of duties faithfully performed, tasks duly finished, +preparations for the great change duly made. She died, as she would have +wished to die, surrounded by friends who loved and admired her, and +fortified by the last rites of the Church for her journey into the +unknown. Date, November 26, 1504, in the fifty-fourth year of her age. + +Columbus had evidently received the news from a public source, and felt +mortified that Diego should not have written him a special letter. + + + Letter written by CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS to DON DIEGO, his Son, + December 3, 1504. + + "VERY DEAR SON,--I wrote you at length day before yesterday and sent + it by Francisco Pinelo, and with this letter I send you a very full + memorandum. I am very much astonished not to receive a letter from + you or from any one else, and this astonishment is shared by all who + know me. Every one here has letters, and I, who have more reason to + expect them, have none. Great care should be taken about this + matter. The memorandum of which I have spoken above says enough, + and on this account I do not speak more at length here. Your + brother and your uncle and Carbajal are going yonder. You will + learn from them what is not said here. May our Lord have you in His + Holy keeping. + + "Done in Seville, December 3. + + "Your father who loves you more than himself. + + .S. + .S.A.S. + XMY + Xpo FERENS." + + + Document of COLUMBUS addressed to his Son, DIEGO, and intended to + accompany the preceding letter. + + "A memorandum for you, my very dear son, Don Diego, of what occurs + to me at the present time which must be done:--The principal thing + is, affectionately and with great devotion to commend the soul of + the Queen, our Lady, to God. Her life was always Catholic and Holy + and ready for all the things of His holy service, and for this + reason it must be believed that she is in His holy glory and beyond + the desires of this rough and wearisome world. Then the next thing + is to be watchful and exert one's self in the service of the King, + our Lord, and to strive to keep him from being troubled. His + Highness is the head of Christendom. See the proverb which says + that when the head aches, all the members ache. So that all good + Christians should entreat that he may have long life and health: and + those of us who are obliged to serve him more than others must join + in this supplication with great earnestness and diligence. This + reason prompts me now with my severe illness to write you what I am + writing here, that his Highness may dispose matters for his service: + and for the better fulfilment I am sending your brother there, who, + although he is a child in days, is not a child in understanding; and + I am sending your uncle and Carbajal, so that if this, my writing, + is not sufficient, they, together with yourself, can furnish verbal + evidence. In my opinion there is nothing so necessary for the + service of his Highness as the disposition and remedying of the + affair of the Indies. + + "His Highness must now have there more than 40,000 or 50,000 gold + pieces. I learned when I was there that the Governor had no desire + to send it to him. It is believed among the other people as well + that there will be 150,000 pesos more, and the mines are very rich + and productive. Most of the people there are common and ignorant, + and care very little for the circumstances. The Governor is very + much hated by all of them, and it is to be feared that they may at + some time rebel. If this should occur, which God forbid, the remedy + for the matter would then be difficult: and so it would be if + injustice were used toward them, either here or in other places, + with the great fame of the gold. My opinion is that his Highness + should investigate this affair quickly and by means of a person who + is interested and who can go there with 150 or 200 people well + equipped, and remain there until it is well settled and without + suspicion, which cannot be done in less than three months: and that + an endeavour be made to raise two or three forces there. The gold + there is exposed to great risk, as there are very few people to + protect it. I say that there is a proverb here which says that the + presence of the owner makes the horse fat. Here and wherever I may + be, I shall serve their Highnesses with joy, until my soul leaves + this body. + + "Above I said that his Highness is the head of the Christians, and + that it is necessary for him to occupy himself in preserving them + and their lands. For this reason people say that he cannot thus + provide a good government for all these Indies, and that they are + being lost and do not yield a profit, neither are they being handled + in a reasonable manner. In my opinion it would serve him to intrust + this matter to some one who is distressed over the bad treatment of + his subjects. + + "I wrote a very long letter to his Highness as soon as I arrived + here, fully stating the evils which require a prompt and efficient + remedy at once. I have received no reply, nor have I seen any + provision made in the matter. Some vessels are detained in San + Lucar by the weather. I have told these gentlemen of the Board of + Trade that they must order them held until the King, our Lord, makes + provision in the matter, either by some person with other people, + or by writing. This is very necessary and I know what I say. It is + necessary that the authorities should order all the ports searched + diligently, to see that no one goes yonder to the Indies without + licence. I have already said that there is a great deal of gold + collected in straw houses without any means of defence, and there + are many disorderly people in the country, and that the Governor is + hated, and that little punishment is inflicted and has been + inflicted upon those who have committed crimes and have come out + with their treasonable conduct approved. + + "If his Highness decides to make some provision, it must be done at + once, so that these vessels may not be injured. + + "I have heard that three Bishops are to be elected and sent to + Espanola. If it pleases his Highness to hear me before concluding + this matter, I will tell in what manner God our Lord may be well + served and his Highness served and satisfied. + + "I have given lengthy consideration to the provision for Espanola:" + + +Yes, the Queen is in His Holy Glory, and beyond the desires of this rough +and wearisome world; but we are not; we are still in a world where fifty +thousand gold pieces can be of use to us, and where a word spoken in +season, even in such a season of darkness, may have its effect with the +King. A strange time to talk to the King about gold; and perhaps Diego +was wiser and kinder than his father thought in not immediately taking +this strange document to King Ferdinand. + + + Letter written by CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS to DON DIEGO, his Son, + December 13, 1504 + + "VERY DEAR SON,--It is now eight days since your uncle and your + brother and Carbajal left here together, to kiss the royal hands of + his Highness, and to give an account of the voyage, and also to aid + you in the negotiation of whatever may prove to be necessary there. + + "Don Ferdinand took from here 150 ducats to be expended at his + discretion. He will have to spend some of it, but he will give you + what he has remaining. He also carries a letter of credit for these + merchants. You will see that it is very necessary to be careful in + dealing with them, because I had trouble there with the Governor, as + every one told me that I had there 11,000 or 12,000 castellanos, and + I had only 4000. He wished to charge me with things for which I am + not indebted, and I, confiding in the promise of their Highnesses, + who ordered everything restored to me, decided to leave these + charges in the hope of calling him to account for them. If any one + has money there, they do not dare ask for it, on account of his + haughtiness. I very well know that after my departure he must have + received more than 5000 castellanos. If it were possible for you to + obtain from his Highness an authoritative letter to the Governor, + ordering him to send the money without delay and a full account of + what belongs to me, by the person I might send there with my power + of attorney, it would be well; because he will not give it in any + other manner, neither to my friend Diaz or Velasquez, and they dare + not even speak of it to him. Carbajal will very well know how this + must be done. Let him see this letter. The 150 ducats which Luis + de Soria sent you when I came are paid according to his desire. + + "I wrote you at length and sent the letter by Don Ferdinand, also a + memorandum. Now that I have thought over the matter further, I say + that, since at the time of my departure their Highnesses said over + their signature and verbally, that they would give me all that + belongs to me, according to my privileges--that the claim for the + third or the tenth and eighth mentioned in the memorandum must be + relinquished, and instead the chapter of their letter must be shown + where they write what I have said, and all that belongs to me must + be required, as you have it in writing in the Book of Privileges, in + which is also set forth the reason for my receiving the third, + eighth, and tenth; as there is always an opportunity to reduce the + sum desired by a person, although his Highness says in his letter + that he wishes to give me all that belongs to me. Carbajal will + understand me very well if he sees this letter, and every one else + as well, as it is very clear. I also wrote to his Highness and + finally reminded him that he must provide at once for this affair of + the Indies, that the people there may not be disturbed, and also + reminding him of the promise stated above. You ought to see the + letter. + + "With this letter I send you another letter of credit for the said + merchants. I have already explained to you the reasons why expenses + should be moderated. Show your uncle due respect, and treat your + brother as an elder brother should treat a younger. You have no + other brother, and praised be our Lord, he is such a one as you need + very much. He has proved and proves to be very intelligent. Honour + Carbajal and Jeronimo and Diego Mendez. Commend me to them all. I + do not write them as there is nothing to write and this messenger is + in haste. It is frequently rumoured here that the Queen, whom God + has, has left an order that I be restored to the possession of the + Indies. On arrival, the notary of the fleet will send you the + records and the original of the case of the Porras brothers. I have + received no news from your uncle and brother since they left. The + water has been so high here that the river entered the city. + + "If Agostin Italian and Francisco de Grimaldo do not wish to give + you the money you need, look for others there who are willing to + give it to you. On the arrival here of your signature I will at + once pay them all that you have received: for at present there is + not a person here by whom I can send you money. + + "Done to-day, Friday, December 13, 1504 + + "Your father who loves you more than himself. + + .S. + .S.A.S. + XMY + Xpo FERENS." + + + Letter written by CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS to his Son, DON DIEGO, + December 21, 1504. + + "VERY DEAR SON, The Lord Adelantado and your brother and Carbajal + left here sixteen days ago to go to the Court. They have not + written me since. Don Ferdinand carried 150 ducats. He must spend + what is necessary, and he carries a letter, that the merchants may + furnish you with money. I have sent you another letter since, with + the endorsement of Francisco de Ribarol, by Zamora, the courier, and + told you that if you had made provision for yourself by means of my + letter, not to use that of Francisco de Ribarol. I say the same now + in regard to another letter which I send you with this one, for + Francisco Doria, which letter I send you for greater security that + you may not fail to be provided with money. I have already told you + how necessary it is to be careful in the expenditure of the money, + until their Highnesses give us law and justice. I also told you + that I had spent 1200 castellanos in bringing these people to + Castile, of which his Highness owes me the greater part, and I wrote + him in regard to it asking him to order the account settled. + + "If possible I should like to receive letters here each day. I + complain of Diego Mendez and of Jeronimo, as they do not write me: + and then of the others who do not write when they arrive there. We + must strive to learn whether the Queen, whom God has in His keeping, + said anything about me in her will, and we must hurry the Lord + Bishop of Palencia, who caused the possession of the Indies by their + Highnesses and my remaining in Castile, for I was already on my way + to leave it. And the Lord Chamberlain of his Highness must also be + hurried. If by chance the affair comes to discussion, you must + strive to have them see the writing which is in the Book of + Privileges, which shows the reason why the third, eighth, and tenth + are owing me, as I told you in another letter. + + "I have written to the Holy Father in regard to my voyage, as he + complained of me because I did not write him. I send you a copy of + the letter. I would like to have the King, our Lord, or the Lord + Bishop of Palencia see it before I send the letter, in order to + avoid false representations. + + "Camacho has told a thousand falsehoods about me. To my regret I + ordered him arrested. He is in the church. He says that after the + Holidays are past, he will go there if he is able. If I owe him, he + must show by what reason; for I make oath that I do not know it, nor + is it true. + + "If without importunity a licence can be procured for me to go on + mule-back, I will try to leave for the Court after January, and I + will even go without this licence. But haste must be made that the + loss of the Indies, which is now imminent, may not take place. May + our Lord have you in His keeping. + + "Done to-day, December 21. + + "Your father who loves you more than himself. + + .S. + .S.A.S. + XMY + Xpo FERENS." + + + "This tenth which they give me is not the tenth which was promised + me. The Privileges tell what it is, and there is also due me the + tenth of the profit derived from merchandise and from all other + things, of which I have received nothing. Carbajal understands me + well. Also remind Carbajal to obtain a letter from his Highness for + the Governor, directing him to send his accounts and the money I + have there, at once. And it would be well that a Repostero of his + Highness should go there to receive this money, as there must be a + large amount due me. I will strive to have these gentlemen of the + Board of Trade send also to say to the Governor that he must send my + share together with the gold belonging to their Highnesses. But the + remedy for the other matter must not be neglected there on this + account. I say that 7000 or 8000 pesos must have passed to my + credit there, which sum has been received since I left, besides the + other money which was not given to me. + + "To my very dear son Don Diego at the Court." + + +All this struggling for the due payment of eighths and tenths makes +wearisome reading, and we need not follow the Admiral into his +distinctions between one kind of tenth and another. There is something +to be said on his side, it must be remembered; the man had not received +what was due to him; and although he was not in actual poverty, his only +property in this world consisted of these very thirds and eighths and +tenths. But if we are inclined to think poorly of the Admiral for his +dismal pertinacity, what are we to think of the people who took advantage +of their high position to ignore consistently the just claims made upon +them? + +There is no end to the Admiral's letter-writing at this time. +Fortunately for us his letter to the Pope has been lost, or else we +should have to insert it here; and we have had quite enough of his +theological stupors. As for the Queen's will, there was no mention of +the Admiral in it; and her only reference to the Indies showed that she +had begun to realise some of the disasters following his rule there, for +the provisions that are concerned with the New World refer exclusively to +the treatment of the natives, to whose succour, long after they were past +succour, the hand of Isabella was stretched out from the grave. The +licence to travel on mule-back which the Admiral asked for was made +necessary by a law which had been passed forbidding the use of mules for +this purpose throughout Spain. There had been a scarcity of horses for +mounting the royal cavalry, and it was thought that the breeding of +horses had been neglected on account of the greater cheapness and utility +of mules. It was to encourage the use and breeding of horses that an +interdict was laid on the use of mules, and only the very highest persons +in the land were allowed to employ them. + + +Letter written by CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS to his Son, DON DIEGO, +December 29, 1504. + + "VERY DEAR SON,--I wrote you at length and sent it by Don Ferdinand, + who left to go yonder twenty-three days ago to-day, with the Lord + Adelantado and Carbajal, from whom I have since heard nothing. + Sixteen days ago to-day I wrote you and sent it by Zamora, the + courier, and I sent you a letter of credit for these merchants + endorsed by Francisco de Ribarol, telling them to give you the money + you might ask for. And then, about eight days ago, I sent you by + another courier a letter endorsed by Francisco Soria, and these + letters are directed to Pantaleon and Agostin Italian, that they may + give it to you. And with these letters goes a copy of a letter + which I wrote to the Holy Father in regard to the affairs of the + Indies, that he might not complain of me any more. I sent this copy + for his Highness to see, or the Lord Bishop of Palencia, so as to + avoid false representations. The payment of the people who went + with me has been delayed. I have provided for them here what I have + been able. They are poor and obliged to go in order to earn a + living. They decided to go yonder. They have been told here that + they will be dealt with as favourably as possible, and this is + right, although among them there are some who merit punishment more + than favours. This is said of the rebels. I gave these people a + letter for the Lord Bishop of Palencia. Read it, and if it is + necessary for them to go and petition his Highness, urge your uncle + and brother and Carbajal to read it also, so that you can all help + them as much as possible. It is right and a work of mercy, for no + one ever earned money with so many dangers and hardships and no one + has ever rendered such great service as these people. It is said + that Camacho and Master Bernal wish to go there--two creatures for + whom God works few miracles: but if they go, it will be to do harm + rather than good. They can do little because the truth always + prevails, as it did in Espanola, from which wicked people by means + of falsehoods have prevented any profit being received up to the + present time. It is said that this Master Bernal was the beginning + of the treason. He was taken and accused of many misdemeanours, + for each one of which he deserved to be quartered. At the request + of your uncle and of others he was pardoned, on condition that if he + ever said the least word against me and my state the pardon should + be revoked and he should be under condemnation. I send you a copy + of the case in this letter. I send you a legal document about + Camacho. For more than eight days he has not left the church on + account of his rash statements and falsehoods. He has a will made + by Terreros, and other relatives of the latter have another will of + more recent date, which renders the first will null, as far as the + inheritance is concerned: and I am entreated to enforce the latter + will, so that Camacho will be obliged to restore what he has + received. I shall order a legal document drawn up and served upon + him, because I believe it is a work of mercy to punish him, as he is + so unbridled in his speech that some one must punish him without the + rod: and it will not be so much against the conscience of the + chastiser, and will injure him more. Diego Mendez knows Master + Bernal and his works very well. The Governor wished to imprison him + at Espanola and left him to my consideration. It is said that he + killed two men there with medicines in revenge for something of less + account than three beans. I would be glad of the licence to travel + on muleback and of a good mule, if they can be obtained without + difficulty. Consult all about our affairs, and tell them that I do + not write them in particular on account of the great pain I feel + when writing. I do not say that they must do the same, but that + each one must write me and very often, for I feel great sorrow that + all the world should have letters from there each day, and I have + nothing, when I have so many people there. Commend me to the Lord + Adelantado in his favour, and give my regards to your brother and to + all the others. + + "Done at Seville, December 29. + + "Your father who loves you more than himself. + + .S. + .S.A.S. + XMY + Xpo FERENS." + + +"I say further that if our affairs are to be settled according to +conscience, that the chapter of the letter which their Highnesses wrote +me when I departed, in which they say they will order you placed in +possession, must be shown; and the writing must also be shown which is in +the Book of Privileges, which shows how in reason and in justice the +third and eighth and the tenth are mine. There will always be +opportunity to make reductions from this amount." + +Columbus's requests were not all for himself; nothing could be more +sincere or generous than the spirit in which he always strove to secure +the just payment of his mariners. + +Otherwise he is still concerned with the favour shown to those who were +treasonable to him. Camacho was still hiding in a church, probably from +the wrath of Bartholomew Columbus; but Christopher has more subtle ways +of punishment. A legal document, he considers, will be better than a +rod; "it will not be so much against the conscience of the chastiser, and +will injure him (the chastised) more." + + + Letter written by CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS to DON DIEGO, his Son, + January 18, 1505. + + "VERY DEAR SON,--I wrote you at length by the courier who will + arrive there to-day, and sent you a letter for the Lord Chamberlain. + I intended to inclose in it a copy of that chapter of the letter + from their Highnesses in which they say they will order you placed + in possession; but I forgot to do it here. Zamora, the courier, + came. I read your letter and also those of your uncle and brother + and Carbajal, and felt great pleasure in learning that they had + arrived well, as I had been very anxious about them. Diego Mendez + will leave here in three or four days with the order of payment + prepared. He will take a long statement of everything and I will + write to Juan Velasquez. I desire his friendship and service. I + believe that he is a very honourable gentleman. If the Lord Bishop + of Palencia has come, or comes, tell him how much pleased I have + been with his prosperity, and that if I go there I must stop with + his Worship even if he does not wish it, and that we must return to + our first fraternal love. And that he could not refuse it because + my service will force him to have it thus. I said that the letter + for the Holy Father was sent that his Worship might see it if he was + there, and also the Lord Archbishop of Seville, as the King might + not have opportunity to read it. I have already told you that the + petition to their Highnesses must be for the fulfilment of what they + wrote me about the possession and of the rest which was promised me. + I said that this chapter of the letter must be shown them and said + that it must not be delayed, and that this is advisable for an + infinite number of reasons. His Highness may believe that, however + much he gives me, the increase of his exalted dominions and revenue + will be in the proportion of 100 to 1, and that there is no + comparison between what has been done and what is to be done. The + sending of a Bishop to Espanola must be delayed until I speak to his + Highness. It must not be as in the other cases when it was thought + to mend matters and they were spoiled. There have been some cold + days here and they have caused me great fatigue and fatigue me now. + Commend me to the favour of the Lord Adelantado. May our Lord guard + and bless you and your brother. Give my regards to Carbajal and + Jeronimo. Diego Mendez will carry a full pouch there. I believe + that the affair of which you wrote can be very easily managed. The + vessels from the Indies have not arrived from Lisbon. They brought + a great deal of gold, and none for me. So great a mockery was never + seen, for I left there 60,000 pesos smelted. His Highness should + not allow so great an affair to be ruined, as is now taking place. + He now sends to the Governor a new provision. I do not know what it + is about. I expect letters each day. Be very careful about + expenditures, for it is necessary. + + "Done January 18. + "Your father who loves you more than himself. + + +There is playful reference here to Fonseca, with whom Columbus was +evidently now reconciled; and he was to be buttonholed and made to read +the Admiral's letter to the Pope. Diego Mendez is about to start, and is +to make a "long statement"; and in the meantime the Admiral will write as +many long letters as he has time for. Was there no friend at hand, I +wonder, with wit enough to tell the Admiral that every word he wrote +about his grievances was sealing his doom, so far as the King was +concerned.? No human being could have endured with patience this +continuous heavy firing at long range to which the Admiral subjected his +friends at Court; every post that arrived was loaded with a shrapnel of +grievances, the dull echo of which must have made the ears of those who +heard it echo with weariness. Things were evidently humming in Espanola; +large cargoes of negroes had been sent out to take the place of the dead +natives, and under the harsh driving of Ovando the mines were producing +heavily. The vessels that arrived from the Indies brought a great deal +of gold; "but none for me." + + + Letter written by CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS to his Son, DON DIEGO, + February 5, 1505. + + "VERY DEAR SON,--Diego Mendez left here Monday, the 3rd of this + month. After his departure I talked with Amerigo Vespucci, the + bearer of this letter, who is going yonder, where he is called in + regard to matters of navigation. He was always desirous of pleasing + me. He is a very honourable man. Fortune has been adverse to him + as it has been to many others. His labours have not profited him as + much as reason demands. He goes for me, and is very desirous of + doing something to benefit me if it is in his power. I do not know + of anything in which I can instruct him to my benefit, because I do + not know what is wanted of him there. He is going with the + determination to do everything for me in his power. See what he can + do to profit me there, and strive to have him do it; for he will do + everything, and will speak and will place it in operation: and it + must all be done secretly so that there may be no suspicion. + + "I have told him all that could be told regarding this matter, and + have informed him of the payment which has been made to me and is + being made. This letter is for the Lord Adelantado also, that he + may see how Amerigo Vespucci can be useful, and advise him about it. + His Highness may believe that his ships went to the best and richest + of the Indies, and if anything remains to be learned more than has + been told, I will give the information yonder verbally, because it + is impossible to give it in writing. May our Lord have you in his + Holy keeping. + + "Done in Seville, February 5. + + "Your father who loves you more than himself. + + +This letter has a significance which raises it out of the ruck of this +complaining correspondence. Amerigo Vespucci had just returned from his +long voyage in the West, when he had navigated along an immense stretch +of the coast of America, both north and south, and had laid the +foundations of a fame which was, for a time at least, to eclipse that of +Columbus. Probably neither of the two men realised it at this interview, +or Columbus would hardly have felt so cordially towards the man who was +destined to rob him of so much glory. As a matter of fact the practical +Spaniards were now judging entirely by results; and a year or two later, +when the fame of Columbus had sunk to insignificance, he was merely +referred to as the discoverer of certain islands, while Vespucci, who +after all had only followed in his lead, was hailed as the discoverer of +a great continent. Vespucci has been unjustly blamed for this state of +affairs, although he could no more control the public estimate of his +services than Columbus could. He was a more practical man than Columbus, +and he made a much better impression on really wise and intelligent men; +and his discoveries were immediately associated with trade and colonial +development, while Columbus had little to show for his discoveries during +his lifetime but a handful of gold dust and a few cargoes of slaves. At +any rate it was a graceful act on the part of Vespucci, whose star was in +the ascendant, to go and seek out the Admiral, whose day was fast verging +to night; it was one of those disinterested actions that live and have a +value of their own, and that shine out happily amid the surrounding murk +and confusion. + + + Letter signed by CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS to DON DIEGO, his Son, + February 25, 1505. + + "VERY DEAR SON,--The Licientiate de Zea is a person whom I desire to + honour. He has in his charge two men who are under prosecution at + the hands of justice, as shown by the information which is inclosed + in this letter. See that Diego Mendez places the said petition with + the others, that they may be given to his Highness during Holy Week + for pardon. If the pardon is granted, it is well, and if not, look + for some other manner of obtaining it. May our Lord have you in His + Holy keeping. Done in Seville, February 25, 1505. I wrote you and + sent it by Amerigo Vespucci. See that he sends you the letter + unless you have already received it. + + "Your father. + Xpo FERENS.//" + + +This is the last letter of Columbus known to us otherwise an entirely +unimportant document, dealing with the most transient affairs. With it +we gladly bring to an end this exposure of a greedy and querulous period, +which speaks so eloquently for itself that the less we say and comment on +it the better. + +In the month of May the Admiral was well enough at last to undertake the +journey to Segovia. He travelled on a mule, and was accompanied by his +brother Bartholomew and his son Ferdinand. When he reached the Court he +found the King civil and outwardly attentive to his recitals, but +apparently content with a show of civility and outward attention. +Columbus was becoming really a nuisance; that is the melancholy truth. +The King had his own affairs to attend to; he was already meditating a +second marriage, and thinking of the young bride he was to bring home to +the vacant place of Isabella; and the very iteration of Columbus's +complaints and demands had made them lose all significance for the King. +He waved them aside with polite and empty promises, as people do the +demands of importunate children; and finally, to appease the Admiral and +to get rid of the intolerable nuisance of his applications, he referred +the whole question, first to Archbishop DEA, and then to the body of +councillors which had been appointed to interpret Queen Isabella's will. +The whole question at issue was whether or not the original agreement +with Columbus, which had been made before his discoveries, should be +carried out. The King, who had foolishly subscribed to it simply as a +matter of form, never believing that anything much could come of it, was +determined that it should not be carried out, as it would give Columbus a +wealth and power to which no mere subject of a crown was entitled. The +Admiral held fast to his privileges; the only thing that he would consent +to submit to arbitration was the question of his revenues; but his titles +and territorial authorities he absolutely stuck to. Of course the +council did exactly what the King had done. They talked about the thing +a great deal, but they did nothing. Columbus was an invalid and broken +man, who might die any day, and it was obviously to their interest to +gain time by discussion and delay--a cruel game for our Christopher, who +knew his days on earth to be numbered, and who struggled in that web of +time in which mortals try to hurry the events of the present and delay +the events of the future. Meanwhile Philip of Austria and his wife +Juana, Isabella's daughter, had arrived from Flanders to assume the crown +of Castile, which Isabella had bequeathed to them. Columbus saw a chance +for himself in this coming change, and he sent Bartholomew as an envoy to +greet the new Sovereigns, and to enlist their services on the Admiral's +behalf. Bartholomew was very well received, but he was too late to be of +use to the Admiral, whom he never saw again; and this is our farewell to +Bartholomew, who passes out of our narrative here. He went to Rome after +Christopher's death on a mission to the Pope concerning some fresh +voyages of discovery; and in 1508 he made, so far as we know, his one +excursion into romance, when he assisted at the production of an +illegitimate little girl--his only descendant. He returned to Espanola +under the governorship of his nephew Diego, and died there in 1514-- +stern, valiant, brotherly soul, whose devotion to Christopher must be for +ever remembered and honoured with the name of the Admiral. + + +From Segovia Columbus followed the Court to Salamanca and thence to +Valladolid, where his increasing illness kept him a prisoner after the +Court had left to greet Philip and Juana. He had been in attendance upon +it for nearly a year, and without any results: and now, as his infirmity +increased, he turned to the settling of his own affairs, and drawing up +of wills and codicils--all very elaborate and precise. In these +occupations his worldly affairs were duly rounded off; and on May 19, +1506, having finally ratified a will which he had made in Segovia a year +before, in which the descent of his honours was entailed upon Diego and +his heirs, or failing him Ferdinand and his heirs, or failing him +Bartholomew and his heirs, he turned to the settlement of his soul. + +His illness had increased gradually but surely, and he must have known +that he was dying. He was not without friends, among them the faithful +Diego Mendez, his son Ferdinand, and a few others. His lodging was in a +small house in an unimportant street of Valladolid, now called the "Calle +de Colon"; the house, .No. 7, still standing, and to be seen by curious +eyes. As the end approached, the Admiral, who was being attended by +Franciscan monks, had himself clothed in a Franciscan habit; and so, on +the 20th May 1506, he lay upon his bed, breathing out his life. + + . . . And as strange thoughts + Grow with a certain humming in my ears, + About the life before I lived this life, + And this life too, Popes, Cardinals, and priests, + Your tall pale mother with her talking eyes + And new-found agate urns fresh as day . . . + +. . . we do not know what his thoughts were, as the shadows grew +deeper about him, as the sounds of the world, the noises from the sunny +street, grew fainter, and the images and sounds of memory clearer and +louder. Perhaps as he lay there with closed eyes he remembered things +long forgotten, as dying people do; sounds and smells of the Vico Dritto +di Ponticelli, and the feel of the hot paving-stones down which his +childish feet used to run to the sea; noises of the sea also, the +drowning swish of waters and sudden roar of breakers sounding to +anxiously strained ears in the still night; bright sunlit pictures of +faraway tropical shores, with handsome olive figures glistening in the +sun; the sight of strange faces, the sound of strange speech, the smell +of a strange land; the glitter of gold; the sudden death-shriek breaking +the stillness of some sylvan glade; the sight of blood on the grass . . +. . The Admiral's face undergoes a change; there is a stir in the room; +some one signs to the priest Gaspar, who brings forth his sacred wafer +and holy oils and administers the last sacraments. The wrinkled eyelids +flutter open, the sea-worn voice feebly frames the responses; the dying +eyes are fixed on the crucifix; and--"In manus tuas Domine commendo +spiritum meum." The Admiral is dead. + +He was in his fifty-sixth year, already an old man in body and mind; and +his death went entirely unmarked except by his immediate circle of +friends. Even Peter Martyr, who was in Valladolid just before and just +after it, and who was writing a series of letters to various +correspondents giving all the news of his day, never thought it worth +while to mention that Christopher Columbus was dead. His life flickered +out in the completest obscurity. It is not even known where he was first +buried; but probably it was in the Franciscan convent at Valladolid. +This, however, was only a temporary resting-place; and a few years later +his body was formally interred in the choir of the monastery of Las +Cuevas at Seville, there to lie for thirty years surrounded by continual +chauntings. After that it was translated to the cathedral in San +Domingo; rested there for 250 years, and then, on the cession of that +part of the island to France, the body was removed to Cuba. But the +Admiral was by this time nothing but a box of bones and dust, as also +were brother Bartholomew and son Diego, and Diego's son, all collected +together in that place. There were various examinations of the bone- +boxes; one, supposed to be the Admiral's, was taken to Cuba and solemnly +buried there; and lately, after the conquest of the island in the +Spanish-American War, this box of bones was elaborately conveyed to +Seville, where it now rests. + +But in the meanwhile the Chapter of the cathedral in San Domingo had made +new discoveries and examinations; had found another box of bones, which +bore to them authentic signs that the dust it contained was the Admiral's +and not his grandson's; and in spite of the Academy of History at Madrid, +it is indeed far from unlikely that the Admiral's dust does not lie in +Spain or Cuba, but in San Domingo still. Whole books have been written +about these boxes of bones; learned societies have argued about them, +experts have examined the bones and the boxes with microscopes; and +meantime the dust of Columbus, if we take the view that an error was +committed in the transference to Cuba, is not even collected all in one +box. A sacrilegious official acquired some of it when the boxes were +opened, and distributed it among various curiosity-hunters, who have +preserved it in caskets of crystal and silver. Thus a bit of him is worn +by an American lady in a crystal locket; a pinch of him lies +in a glass vial in a New York mansion; other pinches in the Lennox +Library, New York, in the Vatican, and in the University of Pavia. In +such places, if the Admiral should fail to appear at the first note of +their trumpets, must the Angels of the Resurrection make search. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE MAN COLUMBUS + +It is not in any leaden box or crystal vase that we must search for the +true remains of Christopher Columbus. Through these pages we have +traced, so far as has been possible, the course of his life, and followed +him in what he did; all of which is but preparation for our search for +the true man, and just estimate of what he was. We have seen, dimly, +what his youth was; that he came of poor people who were of no importance +to the world at large; that he earned his living as a working man; that +he became possessed of an Idea; that he fought manfully and diligently +until he had realised it; and that then he found himself in a position +beyond his powers to deal with, not being a strong enough swimmer to hold +his own in the rapid tide of events which he himself had set flowing; and +we have seen him sinking at last in that tide, weighed down by the very +things for which he had bargained and stipulated. If these pages had +been devoted to a critical examination of the historical documents on +which his life-story is based we should also have found that he +continually told lies about himself, and misrepresented facts when the +truth proved inconvenient to him; that he was vain and boastful to a +degree that can only excite our compassion. He was naturally and +sincerely pious, and drew from his religion much strength and spiritual +nourishment; but he was also capable of hypocrisy, and of using the self- +same religion as a cloak for his greed and cruelty. What is the final +image that remains in our minds of such a man? To answer this question +we must examine his life in three dimensions. There was its great +outline of rise, zenith, and decline; there was its outward history in +minute detail, and its conduct in varying circumstances; and there was +the inner life of the man's soul, which was perhaps simpler than some of +us think. And first, as to his life as a single thing. It rose in +poverty, it reached a brief and dazzling zenith of glory, it set in +clouds and darkness; the fame of it suffered a long night of eclipse, +from which it was rescued and raised again to a height of glory which +unfortunately was in sufficiently founded on fact; and as a reaction from +this, it has been in danger of becoming entirely discredited, and the man +himself denounced as a fraud. The reason for these surprising changes is +that in those fifty-five years granted to Columbus for the making of his +life he did not consistently listen to that inner voice which alone can +hold a man on any constructive path. He listened to it at intervals, and +he drew his inspiration from it; but he shut his ears when it had served +him, when it had brought him what he wanted. In his moments of success +he guided himself by outward things; and thus he was at one moment a seer +and ready to be a martyr, and at the next moment he was an opportunist, +watching to see which way the wind would blow, and ready to trim his +sails in the necessary direction. Such conduct of a man's life does not +make for single light or for true greatness; rather for dim, confused +lights, and lofty heights obscured in cloud. + +If we examine his life in detail we find this alternating principle of +conduct revealed throughout it. He was by nature clever, kind-hearted, +rather large-souled, affectionate, and not very honest; all the acts +prompted by his nature bear the stamp of these qualities. To them his +early years had probably added little except piety, sharp practice, and +that uncomfortable sense, often bred amid narrow and poor surroundings, +that one must keep a sharp look-out for oneself if one is to get a share +of the world's good things. Something in his blood, moreover, craved for +dignity and the splendour of high-sounding titles; craved for power also, +and the fulfilment of an arrogant pride. All these things were in his +Ligurian blood, and he breathed them in with the very air of Genoa. His +mind was of the receptive rather than of the constructive kind, and it +was probably through those long years spent between sea voyages and brief +sojourns with his family in Genoa or Savona that he conceived that vague +Idea which, as I have tried to show, formed the impulse of his life +during its brief initiative period. Having once received this Idea of +discovery and like all other great ideas, it was in the air at the time +and was bound to take shape in some human brain--he had all his native +and personal qualities to bring to its support. The patience to await +its course he had learned from his humble and subordinate life. The +ambition to work for great rewards was in his blood and race; and to +belief in himself, his curious vein of mystical piety was able to add the +support of a ready belief in divine selection. This very time of waiting +and endurance of disappointments also helped to cultivate in his +character two separate qualities--an endurance or ability to withstand +infinite hardship and disappointment; and also a greedy pride that +promised itself great rewards for whatever should be endured. + +In all active matters Columbus was what we call a lucky man. It was luck +that brought him to Guanahani; and throughout his life this element of +good luck continually helped him. He was lucky, that is to say, in his +relation with inanimate things; but in his relations with men he was +almost as consistently unlucky. First of all he was probably a bad judge +of men. His humble origin and his lack of education naturally made him +distrustful. He trusted people whom he should have regarded with +suspicion, and he was suspicious of those whom he ought to have known he +could trust. If people pleased him, he elevated them with absurd +rapidity to stations far beyond their power to fill, and then wondered +that they sometimes turned upon him; if they committed crimes against +him, he either sought to regain their favour by forgiving them, or else +dogged them with a nagging, sulky resentment, and expected every one else +to punish them also. He could manage men if he were in the midst of +them; there was something winning as well as commanding about his actual +presence, and those who were devoted to him would have served him to the +death. But when he was not on the spot all his machineries and affairs +went to pieces; he had no true organising ability; no sooner did he take +his hand off any affair for which he was responsible than it immediately +came to confusion. All these defects are to be attributed to his lack of +education and knowledge of the world. Mental discipline is absolutely +necessary for a man who would discipline others; and knowledge of the +world is essential for one who would successfully deal with men, and +distinguish those whom he can from those whom he cannot trust. Defects +of this nature, which sometimes seem like flaws in the man's character, +may be set down to this one disability--that he was not educated and was +not by habit a man of the world. + +All his sins of misgovernment, then, may be condoned on the ground that +governing is a science, and that Columbus had never learned it. What we +do find, however, is that the inner light that had led him across the +seas never burned clearly for him again, and was never his guide in the +later part of his life. Its radiance was quenched by the gleam of gold; +for there is no doubt that Columbus was a victim of that baleful +influence which has caused so much misery in this world. He was greedy +of gold for himself undoubtedly; but he was still more greedy of it for +Spain. It was his ambition to be the means of filling the coffers of the +Spanish Sovereigns and so acquiring immense dignity and glory for +himself. He believed that gold was in itself a very precious and +estimable thing; he knew that masses and candles could be bought for it, +and very real spiritual privileges; and as he made blunder after blunder, +and saw evil after evil heaping itself on his record in the New World, he +became the more eager and frantic to acquire such a treasure of gold that +it would wipe out the other evils of his administration. And once +involved in that circle, there was no help for him. + +The man himself was a simple man; capable, when the whole of his various +qualities were directed upon one single thing, of that greatness which is +the crown of simplicity. Ambition was the keynote of his life; not an +unworthy keynote, by any means, if only the ambition be sound; but one +serious defect of Columbus's ambition was that it was retrospective +rather than perspective. He may have had, before he sailed from Palos, +an ambition to be the discoverer of a New World; but I do not think he +had. He believed there were islands or land to be discovered in the West +if only he pushed on far enough; and he was ambitious to find them and +vindicate his belief. Afterwards, when he had read a little more, and +when he conceived the plan of pretending that he had all along meant to +discover the Indies and a new road to the East, he acted in accordance +with that pretence; he tried to make his acts appear retrospectively as +though they had been prompted by a design quite different from that by +which they had really been prompted. When he found that his discovery +was regarded as a great scientific feat, he made haste to pretend that it +had all along been meant as such, and was in fact the outcome of an +elaborate scientific theory. In all this there is nothing for praise or +admiration. It indicates the presence of moral disease; but fortunately +it is functional rather than organic disease. He was right and sound at +heart; but he spread his sails too readily to the great winds of popular +favour, and the result was instability to himself, and often danger of +shipwreck to his soul. + +The ultimate test of a man's character is how he behaves in certain +circumstances when there is no great audience to watch him, and when +there is no sovereign close at hand with bounties and rewards to offer. +In a word, what matters most is a man's behaviour, not as an admiral, or +a discoverer, or a viceroy, or a courtier, but as a man. In this respect +Columbus's character rings true. If he was little on little occasions, +he was also great on great occasions. The inner history of his fourth +voyage, if we could but know it and could take all the circumstances into +account, would probably reveal a degree of heroic endurance that has +never been surpassed in the history of mankind. Put him as a man face to +face with a difficulty, with nothing but his wits to devise with and his +two hands to act with, and he is never found wanting. And that is the +kind of man of whom discoverers are made. The mere mathematician may +work out the facts with the greatest accuracy and prove the existence of +land at a certain point; but there is great danger that he may be knocked +down by a club on his first landing on the beach, and never bring home +any news of his discovery. The great courtier may do well for himself +and keep smooth and politic relations with kings; the great administrator +may found a wonderful colony; but it is the man with the wits and the +hands, and some bigness of heart to tide him over daunting passages, that +wins through the first elementary risks of any great discovery. Properly +considered, Columbus's fame should rest simply on the answer to the +single question, "Did he discover new lands as he said he would?" That +was the greatest thing he could do, and the fact that he failed to do a +great many other things afterwards, failed the more conspicuously because +his attempts were so conspicuous, should have no effect on our estimate +of his achievement. The fame of it could no more be destroyed by himself +than it can be destroyed by us. + +True understanding of a man and estimate of his character can only be +arrived at by methods at once more comprehensive and more subtle than +those commonly employed among men. Everything that he sees, does, and +suffers has its influence on the moulding of his character; and he must +be considered in relation to his physical environment, no less than to +his race and ancestry. Christopher Columbus spent a great part of his +active life on the sea; it was sea-life which inspired him with his great +Idea, it was by the conquest of the sea that he realised it; it was on +the sea that all his real triumphs over circumstance and his own weaker +self were won. The influences at work upon a man whose life is spent on +the sea are as different from those at work upon one who lives on the +fields as the environment of a gannet is different from the environment +of a skylark: and yet how often do we really attempt to make due +allowance for this great factor and try to estimate the extent of its +moulding influence? + +To live within sound or sight of the sea is to be conscious of a voice or +countenance that holds you in unyielding bonds. The voice, being +continuous, creeps into the very pulses and becomes part of the pervading +sound or silence of a man's environment; and the face, although it never +regards him, holds him with its changes and occupies his mind with its +everlasting riddle. Its profound inattention to man is part of its power +over his imagination; for although it is so absorbed and busy, and has +regard for sun and stars and a melancholy frowning concentration upon the +foot of cliffs, it is never face to face with man: he can never come +within the focus of its great glancing vision. It is somewhere beyond +time and space that the mighty perspective of those focal rays comes to +its point; and they are so wide and eternal in their sweep that we should +find their end, could we but trace them, in a condition far different +from that in which our finite views and ethics have place. In the man +who lives much on the sea we always find, if he be articulate, something +of the dreamer and the mystic; that very condition of mind, indeed, which +we have traced in Columbus, which sometimes led him to such heights, and +sometimes brought him to such variance with the human code. + +A face that will not look upon you can never give up its secret to you; +and the face of the sea is like the face of a picture or a statue round +which you may circle, looking at it from this point and from that, but +whose regard is fixed on something beyond and invisible to you; or it is +like the face of a person well known to you in life, a face which you +often see in various surroundings, from different angles, now +unconscious, now in animated and smiling intercourse with some one else, +but which never turns upon you the light of friendly knowledge and +recognition; in a word, it is unconscious of you, like all elemental +things. In the legend of the Creation it is written that when God saw +the gathering together of the waters which he called the Seas, he saw +that it was good; and he perhaps had the right to say so. But the man +who uses the sea and whose life's pathway is laid on its unstable surface +can hardly sum up his impressions of it so simply as to say that it is +good. It is indeed to him neither good nor bad; it is utterly beyond and +outside all he knows or invents of good and bad, and can never have any +concern with his good or his bad. It remains the pathway and territory +of powers and mysteries, thoughts and energies on a gigantic and +elemental scale; and that is why the mind of man can never grapple with +the unconsciousness of the sea or his eye meet its eye. Yet it is the +mariner's chief associate, whether as adversary or as ally; his attitude +to things outside himself is beyond all doubt influenced by his attitude +towards it; and a true comprehension of the man Columbus must include a +recognition of this constant influence on him, and of whatever effect +lifelong association with so profound and mysterious an element may have +had on his conduct in the world of men. Better than many documents as an +aid to our understanding of him would be intimate association with the +sea, and prolonged contemplation of that face with which he was so +familiar. We can never know the heart of it, but we can at least look +upon the face, turned from us though it is, upon which he looked. Cloud +shadows following a shimmer of sunlit ripples; lines and runes traced on +the surface of a blank calm; salt laughter of purple furrows with the +foam whipping off them; tides and eddies, whirls, overfalls, ripples, +breakers, seas mountains high-they are but movements and changing +expressions on an eternal countenance that once held his gaze and wonder, +as it will always hold the gaze and wonder of those who follow the sea. + +So much of the man Christopher Columbus, who once was and no longer is; +perished, to the last bone and fibre of him, off the face of the earth, +and living now only by virtue of such truth as there was in him; who once +manfully, according to the light that he had, bore Christ on his +shoulders across stormy seas, and found him often, in that dim light, a +heavy and troublesome burden; who dropped light and burden together on +the shores of his discovery, and set going in that place of peace such a +conflagration as mankind is not likely to see again for many a +generation, if indeed ever again, in this much-tortured world, such +ancient peace find place. + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS: + +Presence of the owner makes the horse fat +Spaniards sometimes hanged thirteen of them in a row +Spaniards undertook to teach the heathen the Christian religion +The cross and the sword, the whip-lash and the Gospel + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of Christopher Columbus, v8 +by Filson Young + + + + + + +ETEXT EDITOR'S BOOKMARKS FOR THE ENTIRE CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS: + +A man standing on the sea-shore +Absent for a little time, and his organisation went to pieces +All days, however hard, have an evening, and all journeys an end +Amerigo Vespucci +And every one goes naked and unashamed +At last extricate himself from the theological stupor +Attempts that have been made to glorify him socially +Bede, in the eighth century, established it finally (sphericity) +Began to offer bargains to the Almighty +Believed that the Spaniards came from heaven +Biography which obscures the truth with legends and pretences +Cannibal epicures did not care for the flesh of women and boys +Christian era denied the theory of the roundness of the earth +Columbus, calling for an egg, laid a wager +Columbus never once mentions his wife +Columbus's habit of being untruthful in regard to his own past +Cooling off in his enthusiasm as the pastime became a task +Desire to get a great deal of money without working for it +Diminishing object to the wet eyes of his mother, sailed away +Dogs wagged their tails, but that never barked +Establishment of ten footmen and twenty other servants +Exchanging the natives for cattle +First known discovery of tobacco by Europeans +First organised transaction of slavery on the part of Columbus +Freed by force and with guns +Having issued three Bulls in twenty-four hours, he desisted +He had a way of rising above petty indignities +He was a great stickler for the observances of religion +Hearts quick to burn, quick to forget +Heretics were being burned every year by the Grand Inquisitor +High time, indeed, that they should be taught to wear clothing +Idea of importing black African labour to the New World +Ideas to him were of more value than facts +If there were no results, there would be no rewards +Inclined to be pompous +Irving: so inaccurate, so untrue to life, and so profoundly dull +Islands in that sea had their greatest length east and west +Juan Ponce de Leon, the discoverer of Florida +Learn the blessings of Christianity under the whip +Lives happily in our dreams, as blank as sunshine +Logic is irresistible if you only grant the first little step +Loose way in which the term India was applied in the Middle Ages +Man with a Grievance +Man of single rather than manifold ideas +More than a touch of crafty and elaborate dissimulation +Nautical phrase "make it so." +Never to deal with subordinates +No more troubled by any wonder, sleeps at last +No Spanish women accompanied it (2d expedition) +Nothing so ludicrous as an Idea to those who do not share it +Only confirmative evidence remained +Patience which holds men back from theorising +Presence of the owner makes the horse fat +Professors of Christ brought not peace, but a sword +Religion has in our days fallen into decay +Saw potatoes also, although they did not know what they were +Sea of Darkness +Seeking to hire the protection of the Virgin +She must either sin or be celibate +Shifts and deceits that he practised +Spaniards sometimes hanged thirteen of them in a row +Spaniards undertook to teach the heathen the Christian religion +St. Chrysostom opposed the theory of the earth's roundness +Stayed till night to eat their sop for fear of seeing (weevils) +Stuffed so full indeed that eyes and ears are closed +Tasks that are the common heritage of all small boys +Terror and amazement; they had never seen horses before +The cross and the sword, the whip-lash and the Gospel +The great thing in those days was to discover something +The missionary walked beside the slave-driver +The terrified seamen making vows to the Virgin +Theologians, however, proved equal to the occasion +There is deception and untruth somewhere +They saw the past in the light of the present +Took himself and the world very seriously +Vague longing and unrest that is the life-force of the world +When the pot boils the scum rises to the surface +Who never could meet any trouble without grumbling + + + + +End of this Project Gutenberg Etext of Christopher Columbus, Entire +by Filson Young + |