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by Edward Everett Hale
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The Life of Christopher Columbus from his own Letters and Journals
by Edward Everett Hale
October, 1998 [Etext #1492]
The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Life of Christopher Columbus
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[This was orginally done on the 400th Anniversary of 1492]
[As was the great Columbian Exposition in Chicago]
[Interesting how our heroes have all be de-canizied in the
of Political Correctitude] Comments by Michael S. Hart
THE LIFE OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS
FROM HIS OWN LETTERS AND JOURNALS
--AND --
OTHER DOCUMENTS OF HIS TIME.
by EDWARD EVERETT HALE,
PREFACE.
This book contains a life of Columbus, written with the hope of
interesting all classes of readers.
His life has often been written, and it has sometimes been well
written. The great book of our countryman, Washington Irving, is
a noble model of diligent work given to a very difficult subject.
And I think every person who has dealt with the life of Columbus
since Irving's time, has expressed his gratitude and respect for
the author.
According to the custom of biographers, in that time and since,
he includes in those volumes the whole history of the West India
islands, for the period after Columbus discovered them till his
death. He also thinks it his duty to include much of the history
of Spain and of the Spanish court. I do not myself believe that
it is wise to attempt, in a book of biography, so considerable a
study of the history of the time. Whether it be wise or not, I
have not attempted it in this book. I have rather attempted to
follow closely the personal fortunes of Christopher Columbus,
and, to the history around him, I have given only such space as
seemed absolutely necessary for the illustration of those
fortunes.
I have followed on the lines of his own personal narrative
wherever we have it. And where this is lost I have used the
absolutely contemporary authorities. I have also consulted the
later writers, those of the next generation and the generation
which followed it. But the more one studies the life of Columbus
the more one feels sure that, after the greatness of his
discovery was really known, the accounts of the time were
overlaid by what modern criticism calls myths, which had grown up
in the enthusiasm of those who honored him, and which form no
part of real history. If then the reader fails to find some
stories with which he is quite familiar in the history, he must
not suppose that they are omitted by accident, but must give to
the author of the book the credit of having used some discretion
in the choice of his authorities.
When I visited Spain in 1882, I was favored by the officers of
the Spanish government with every facility for carrying my
inquiry as far as a short visit would permit. Since that time Mr.
Harrisse has published his invaluable volumes on the life of
Columbus. It certainly seems as if every document now existing,
which bears upon the history, had been collated by him. The
reader will see that I have made full use of this treasure-house.
The Congress of Americanistas, which meets every year, brings
forward many curious studies on the history of the continent, but
it can scarcely be said to have done much to advance our
knowledge of the personal life of Columbus.
The determination of the people of the United States to celebrate
fitly the great discovery which has advanced civilization and
changed the face of the world, makes it certain that a new
interest has arisen in the life of the great man to whom, in the
providence of God, that discovery was due. The author and
publishers of this book offer it as their contribution in the
great celebration, with the hope that it may be of use,
especially in the direction of the studies of the young.
EDWARD E. HALE.
ROXBURY, MASS.,
June 1st, 1891.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER 1. EARLY LIFE OF COLUMBUS.
His Birth and Birth-place-His Early Education-His
experience at Sea-His Marriage and Residence in Lisbon--
His Plans for the Discovery of a Westward
Passage to the Indies
CHAPTER II. HIS PLANS FOR DISCOVERY.
Columbus Leaves Lisbon, and Visits Genoa--Visits Great
Spanish Dukes -For Six Years is at the Court of Ferdinand
and Isabella-The Council of Salamanca-His
Petition is at Last Granted -Squadron Made Ready
CHAPTER III. THE GREAT VOYAGE.
The Squadron Sails-Refits at Canary Islands-Hopes
and Fears of the Voyage -The Doubts of the Crew--
Land Discovered
CHAPTER IV.
The Landing on the Twelfth of October -The Natives and
their Neighbors -Search for Gold-Cuba Discovered
Columbus Coasts Along its Shores
CHAPTER V.
Landing on Cuba -The Cigar and Tobacco -Cipango and
the Great Khan -From Cuba to Hayti-Its Shores and
Harbors
CHAPTER VI.
Discovery of Hayti or Hispaniola -The Search for Gold--
Hospitality and Intelligence of the Natives--Christmas
Day -A Shipwreck--Colony to be Founded -Columbus
Sails East and Meets Martin Pinzon-The Two
Vessels Return to Europe -Storm -The Azores--
Portugal -Home
CHAPTER VII.
Columbus is Called to Meet the King and Queen -His
Magnificent Reception -Negotiations with the Pope and
with the King of Portugal--Second Expedition Ordered
-Fonseca -The Preparations at Cadiz
CHAPTER VIII.
The Second Expedition Sails From Cadiz-Touches at
Canary Islands -Discovery of Dominica and Guadeloupe
-Skirmishes with the Caribs -Porto Rico Discovered
--Hispaniola -The Fate of the Colony at La Navidad
CHAPTER IX.
The New Colony-Expeditions of Discovery -Guacanagari--
Search for Gold-Mutiny in the Colony-The
Vessels Sent Home--Columbus Marches Inland--
Collection of Gold--Fortress of St. Thomas--A New Voyage
of Discovery--Jamaica Visited -The South Shore
of Cuba Explored -Return -Evangelista Discovered
--Columbus Falls Sick -Return to Isabella
CHAPTER X. THE THIRD VOYAGE.
Letter to the King and Queen--Discovery of Trinidad and
Paria -Curious Speculation as to the Earthly Paradise
-Arrival at San Domingo -Rebellions and Mutinies in
that Island-Roldan and His Followers--Ojeda and
His Expedition--Arrival of Bobadilla -Columbus a
Prisoner
CHAPTER XI. SPAIN, 1500, 1502.
A Cordial Reception in Spain--Columbus Favorably
Received at Court-New Interest in Geographical
Discovery-His Plans for the Redemption of the Holy
Sepulchre -Preparations for a Fourth Expedition
CHAPTER XII. FOURTH VOYAGE.
The Instructions Given for the Voyage--He is to go to
the Mainland of the Indies--A Short Passage -Ovando
Forbids the Entrance of Columbus into Harbor
Bobadilla's Squadron and Its Fate -Columbus Sails Westward
--Discovers Honduras, and Coasts Along Its Shores
--The Search for Gold -Colony Attempted and Abandoned
--The Vessels Become Unseaworthy -Refuge at
Jamaica -Mutiny Led by the Brothers Porras -Messages
to San Domingo -The Eclipse -Arrival of Relief
--Columbus Returns to San Domingo, and to Spain
CHAPTER XIII.
Two Sad Years -Isabella's Death -Columbus at Seville--
His Illness -Letters to the King -journeys to Segovia
--Salamanca and Valladolid -His Suit There --Philip
and Juana -Columbus Executes His Will--Dies--His
Burial and the Removal of His Body -His Portraits--
His Character
APPENDIX A
APPENDIX B
APPENDIX C
THE LIFE OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.
CHAPTER I. EARLY LIFE OF COLUMBUS.
HIS BIRTH AND BIRTH-PLACE--HIS EARLY EDUCATION--HIS EXPERIENCE AT
SEA--HIS MARRIAGE AND RESIDENCE IN LISBON--HIS PLANS FOR THE
DISCOVERY OF A WESTWARD PASSAGE TO THE INDIES.
Christopher Columbus was born in the Republic of Genoa. The honor
of his birth-place has been claimed by many villages in that
Republic, and the house in which he was born cannot be now
pointed out with certainty. But the best authorities agree that
the children and the grown people of the world have never been
mistaken when they have said: "America was discovered in 1492 by
Christopher Columbus, a native of Genoa."
His name, and that of his family, is always written Colombo, in
the Italian papers which refer to them, for more than one hundred
years before his time. In Spain it was always written Colon; in
France it is written as Colomb; while in England it has always
kept its Latin form, Columbus. It has frequently been said that
he himself assumed this form, because Columba is the Latin word
for "Dove," with a fanciful feeling that, in carrying Christian
light to the West, he had taken the mission of the dove. Thus, he
had first found land where men thought there was ocean, and he
was the messenger of the Holy Spirit to those who sat in
darkness. It has also been assumed that he took the name of
Christopher, "the Christ-bearer," for similar reasons. But there
is no doubt that he was baptized "Christopher," and that the
family name had long been Columbo. The coincidences of name are
but two more in a calendar in which poetry delights, and of which
history is full.
Christopher Columbus was the oldest son of Dominico Colombo and
Suzanna Fontanarossa. This name means Red-fountain. He bad two
brothers, Bartholomew and Diego, whom we shall meet again. Diego
is the Spanish way of writing the name which we call James.
It seems probable that Christopher was born in the year 1436,
though some writers have said that he was older than this, and
some that he was younger. The record of his birth and that of his
baptism have not been found.
His father was not a rich man, but he was able to send
Christopher, as a boy, to the University of Pavia, and here he
studied grammar, geometry, geography and navigation, astronomy
and the Latin language. But this was as a boy studies, for in his
fourteenth year he left the university and entered, in hard work,
on "the larger college of the world." If the date given above, of
his birth, is correct, this was in the year 1450, a few years
before the Turks took Constantinople, and, in their invasion of
Europe, affected the daily life of everyone, young or old, who
lived in the Mediterranean countries. From this time, for fifteen
years, it is hard to trace along the life of Columbus. It was the
life of an intelligent young seaman, going wherever there was a
voyage for him. He says himself, "I passed twenty-three years on
the sea. I have seen all the Levant, all the western coasts, and
the North. I have seen England; I have often made the voyage from
Lisbon to the Guinea coast." This he wrote in a letter to
Ferdinand and Isabella. Again he says, "I went to sea from the
most tender age and have continued in a sea life to this day.
Whoever gives himself up to this art wants to know the secrets of
Nature here below. It is more than forty years that I have been
thus engaged. Wherever any one has sailed, there I have sailed."
Whoever goes into the detail of the history of that century will
come upon the names of two relatives of his--Colon el Mozo (the
Boy, or the Younger) and his uncle, Francesco Colon, both
celebrated sailors. The latter of the two was a captain in the
fleets of Louis XI of France, and imaginative students may
represent him as meeting Quentin Durward at court. Christopher
Columbus seems to have made several voyages under the command of
the younger of these relatives. He commanded the Genoese galleys
near Cyprus in a war which the Genoese had with the Venetians.
Between the years 1461 and 1463 the Genoese were acting as allies
with King John of Calabria, and Columbus had a command as captain
in their navy at that time.
"In 1477," he says, in one of his letters, "in the month of
February, I sailed more than a hundred leagues beyond Tile." By
this he means Thule, or Iceland. "Of this island the southern
part is seventy-three degrees from the equator, not sixty-three
degrees, as some geographers pretend." But here he was wrong. The
Southern part of Iceland is in the latitude of sixty-three and a
half degrees. "The English, chiefly those of Bristol, carry their
merchandise, to this island, which is as large as England. When I
was there the sea was not frozen, but the tides there are so
strong that they rise and fall twenty-six cubits."
The order of his life, after his visit to Iceland, is better
known. He was no longer an adventurous sailor-boy, glad of any
voyage which offered; he was a man thirty years of age or more.
He married in the city of Lisbon and settled himself there. His
wife was named Philippa. She was the daughter of an Italian
gentleman named Bartolomeo Muniz de Perestrello, who was, like
Columbus, a sailor, and was alive to all the new interests which
geography then presented to all inquiring minds. This was in the
year 1477, and the King of Portugal was pressing the expeditions
which, before the end of the century, resulted in the discovery
of the route to the Indies by the Cape of Good Hope.
The young couple had to live. Neither the bride nor her husband
had any fortune, and Columbus occupied himself as a draftsman,
illustrating books, making terrestrial globes, which must have
been curiously inaccurate, since they had no Cape of Good Hope
and no American Continent, drawing charts for sale, and
collecting, where he could, the material for such study. Such
charts and maps were beginning to assume new importance in those
days of geographical discovery. The value attached to them may be
judged from the statement that Vespucius paid one hundred and
thirty ducats for one map. This sum would be more than five
hundred dollars of our time.
Columbus did not give up his maritime enterprises. He made
voyages to the coast of Guinea and in other directions.
It is said that he was in command of one of the vessels of his
relative Colon el Mozo, when, in the Portuguese seas, this
admiral, with his squadron, engaged four Venetian galleys
returning from Flanders. A bloody battle followed. The ship which
Christopher Columbus commanded was engaged with a Venetian
vessel, to which it set fire. There was danger of an explosion,
and Columbus himself, seeing this danger, flung himself into the
sea, seized a floating oar, and thus gained the shore. He was not
far from Lisbon, and from this time made Lisbon his home for many
years.[*]
[*] The critics challenge these dates, but there seems to be good
foundation for the story.
It seems. clear that, from the time when he arrived in Lisbon,
for more than twenty years, he was at work trying to interest
people in his "great design," of western discovery. He says
himself, "I was constantly corresponding with learned men, some
ecclesiastics and some laymen, some Latin and some Greek, some
Jews and some Moors." The astronomer Toscanelli was one of these
correspondents.
We must not suppose that the idea of the roundness of the earth
was invented by Columbus. Although there were other theories
about its shape, many intelligent men well understood that the
earth was a globe, and that the Indies, though they were always
reached from Europe by going to the East, must be on the west of
Europe also. There is a very funny story in the travels of
Mandeville, in which a traveler is represented as having gone,
mostly on foot, through all the countries of Asia, but finally
determines to return to Norway, his home. In his farthest eastern
investigation, he hears some people calling their cattle by a
peculiar cry, which he had never heard before. After he returned
home, it was necessary for him to take a day's journey westward
to look after some cattle he had lost. Finding these cattle, he
also heard the same cry of people calling cattle, which he had
heard in the extreme East, and now learned, for the first time,
that he had gone round the world on foot, to turn and come back
by the same route, when he was only a day's journey from home,
Columbus was acquainted with such stories as this, and also had
the astronomical knowledge which almost made him know that the
world was round, "and, like a ball, goes spinning in the air."
The difficulty was to persuade other people that, because of this
roundness, it would be possible to attain Asia by sailing to the
West.
Now all the geographers of repute supposed that there was not
nearly so large a distance as there proved to be, in truth,
between Europe and Asia. Thus, in the geography of Ptolemy, which
was the standard book at that time, one hundred and thirty-five
degrees, a little more than one-third of the earth's
circumference, is given to the space between the extreme eastern
part of the Indies and the Canary Islands. In fact, as we now
know, the distance is one hundred and eighty degrees, half the
world's circumference. Had Columbus believed there was any such
immense distance, he would never have undertaken his voyage.
Almost all the detailed knowledge of the Indies which the people
of his time had, was given by the explorations of Marco Polo, a
Venetian traveler of the thirteenth century, whose book had long
been in the possession of European readers. It is a very
entertaining book now, and may well be recommended to young
people who like stories of adventure. Marco Polo had visited the
court of the Great Khan of Tartary at Pekin, the prince who
brought the Chinese Empire into very much the condition in which
it now is. He had, also, given accounts of Japan or Cipango,
which he had himself never visited. Columbus knew, therefore,
that, well east of the Indies, was the island of Cipango, and he
aimed at that island, because he supposed that that was the
nearest point to Europe, as in fact it is. And when finally he
arrived at Cuba, as the reader will see, he thought he was in
Japan.
Columbus's father-in-law had himself been the Portuguese governor
of the island of Porto Santo, where he had founded a colony. He,
therefore, was interested in western explorations, and probably
from him Columbus collected some of the statements which are
known to have influenced him, with regard to floating matters
from the West, which are constantly borne upon that island by the
great currents of the sea.
The historians are fond of bringing together all the intimations
which are given in the Greek and Latin classics, and in later
authors, with regard to a land beyond Asia. Perhaps the most
famous of them is that of Seneca, "In the later years there shall
come days in which Ocean shall loose his chains, and a great land
shall appear . . . and Thule shall not be the last of the
worlds."
In a letter which Toscanelli wrote to Columbus in 1474, he
inclosed a copy of a letter which he had already sent to an
officer of Alphonso V, the King of Portugal. In writing to
Columbus, he says, "I see that you have a great and noble desire
to go into that country (of the East) where the spices come from,
and in reply to your letter I send you a copy of that which I
addressed some years ago to my attached friend in the service of
the most serene King of Portugal. He had an order from his
Highness to write me on this subject. . . . If I had a globe in
my hand, I could show you what is needed. But I prefer to mark
out the route on a chart like a marine chart, which will be an
assistance to your intelligence and enterprise. On this chart I
have myself drawn the whole extremity of our western shore from
Ireland as far down as the coast of Guinea toward the South, with
all the islands which are to be found on this route. Opposite
this [that is, the shores of Ireland and Africa] I have placed
directly at the West the beginning of the Indies with the islands
and places where you will land. You will see for yourself how
many miles you must keep from the arctic pole toward the equator,
and at what distance you will arrive at these regions so fertile
and productive of spices and precious stones." In Toscanelli's
letter, he not only indicates Japan, but, in the middle of the
ocean, he places the island of Antilia. This old name afterwards
gave the name by which the French still call the West Indies, Les
Antilles. Toscanelli gives the exact distance which Columbus will
have to sail: "From Lisbon to the famous city of Quisay
[Hang-tcheou-fou, then the capital of China] if you take the
direct route toward the West, the distance will be thirty-nine
hundred miles. And from Antilia to Japan it will be two hundred
and twenty-five leagues." Toscanelli says again, "You see that
the voyage that you wish to attempt is much legs difficult than
would be thought. You would be sure of this if you met as many
people as I do who have been in the country of spices."
While there were so many suggestions made that it would be
possible to cross the Atlantic, there was one man who determined
to do this. This man was Christopher Columbus. But he knew well
that he could not do it alone. He must have money enough for an
expedition, he must have authority to enlist crews for that
expedition, and he must have power to govern those crews when
they should arrive in the Indies. In our times such adventures
have been conducted by mercantile corporations, but in those
times no one thought of doing any such thing without the direct
assistance and support of some monarch.
It is easy now to see and to say that Columbus himself was
singularly well fitted to take the charge of the expedition of
discovery. He was an excellent sailor and at the same time he was
a learned geographer and a good mathematician. He was living in
Portugal, the kings of which country had, for many years,
fostered the exploration of the coast of Africa, and were pushing
expeditions farther and farther South.
In doing this, they were, in a fashion, making new discoveries.
For Europe was wholly ignorant of the western coast of Africa,
beyond the Canaries, when their expeditions began. But all men of
learning knew that, five hundred years before the Christian era,
Hanno, a Carthaginian, had sailed round Africa under the
direction of the senate of Carthage. The efforts of the King of
Portugal were to repeat the voyage made by Hanno. In 1441,
Gonzales and Tristam sailed as far as Sierra Leone. They brought
back some blacks as slaves, and this was the beginning of the
slave trade.
In 1446 the Portuguese took possession of the Azores, the most
western points of the Old World. Step by step they advanced
southward, and became familiar with the African coast. Bold
navigators were eager to find the East, and at last success came.
Under the king's orders, in August, 1477, three caravels sailed
from the Tagus, under Bartolomeo Diaz, for southern discovery.
Diaz was himself brave enough to be willing to go on to the Red
Sea, after he made the great discovery of the Cape of Good Hope,
but his crews mutinied, after he had gone much farther than his
predecessors, and compelled him to return. He passed the southern
cape of Africa and went forty miles farther. He called it the
Cape of Torments, "Cabo Tormentoso," so terrible were the storms
he met there. But when King John heard his report he gave it that
name of good omen which it has borne ever since, the name of the
"Cape of Good Hope."
In the midst of such endeavors to reach the East Indies by the
long voyage down the coast of Africa and across an unknown ocean,
Columbus was urging all people who cared, to try the route
directly west. If the world was round, as the sun and moon were,
and as so many men of learning believed, India or the Indies must
be to the west of Portugal. The value of direct trade with the
Indies would be enormous. Europe had already acquired a taste for
the spices of India and had confidence in the drugs of India. The
silks and other articles of clothing made in India, and the
carpets of India, were well known and prized. Marco Polo and
others had given an impression that there was much gold in India;
and the pearls and precious stones of India excited the
imagination of all who read his travels.
The immense value of such a commerce may be estimated from one
fact. When, a generation after this time, one ship only of all
the squadron of Magellan returned to Cadiz, after the first
voyage round the world, she was loaded with spices from the
Moluccas. These spices were sold by the Spanish government for so
large a sum of money that the king was remunerated for the whole
cost of the expedition, and even made a very large profit from a
transaction which had cost a great deal in its outfit.
Columbus was able, therefore, to offer mercantile adventurers the
promise of great profit in case of success; and at this time
kings were willing to take their share of such profits as might
accrue.
The letter of Toscanelli, the Italian geographer, which has been
spoken of, was addressed to Alphonso V, the King of Portugal. To
him and his successor, John the Second, Columbus explained the
probability of success, and each of them, as it would seem, had
confidence in it. But King John made the great mistake of
intrusting Columbus's plan to another person for experiment. He
was selfish enough, and mean enough, to fit out a ship privately
and intrust its command to another seaman, bidding him sail west
in search of the Indies, while he pretended that he was on a
voyage to the Cape de Verde Islands. He was, in fact, to follow
the route indicated by Columbus. The vessel sailed. But,
fortunately for the fame of Columbus, she met a terrible storm,
and her officers, in terror, turned from the unknown ocean and
returned to Lisbon. Columbus himself tells this story. It was in
disgust with the bad faith the king showed in this transaction
that he left Lisbon to offer his great project to the King and
Queen of Spain.
In a similar way, a generation afterward, Magellan, who was in
the service of the King of Portugal, was disgusted by insults
which he received at his court, and exiled himself to Spain. He
offered to the Spanish king his plan for sailing round the world
and it was accepted. He sailed in a Spanish fleet, and to his
discoveries Spain owes the possession of the Philippine Islands.
Twice, therefore, did kings of Portugal lose for themselves,
their children and their kingdom, the fame and the recompense
which belong to such great discoveries.
The wife of Columbus had died and he was without a home. He left
Lisbon with his only son, Diego, in or near the end of the year
1484.
CHAPTER II. HIS PLANS FOR DISCOVERY.
COLUMBUS LEAVES LISBON, AND VISITS GENOA--VISITS GREAT SPANISH
DUKES--FOR SIX YEARS IS AT THE COURT OF FERDINAND AND
ISABELLA--THE COUNCIL OF SALAMANCA--HIS PETITION IS AT LAST
GRANTED --SQUADRON MADE READY.
It has been supposed that when Columbus left Lisbon he was
oppressed by debts. At a subsequent period, when King John wanted
to recall him, he offered to protect him against any creditors.
But on the other hand, it is thought that at this time he visited
Genoa, and made some provision for the comfort of his father, who
was now an old man. Christopher Columbus, himself, according to
the usual opinion regarding his birth, was now almost fifty years
old.
It is probable that at this time he urged on his countrymen, the
Genoese, the importance of his great plan; and tried to interest
them to make the great endeavor, for the purpose of reaching the
Indies by a western route. As it proved, the discovery of the
route by the Cape of Good Hope was, commercially, a great injury
to Genoa and the other maritime cities of Italy. Before this
time, the eastern trade of Europe came by the ports of the
eastern Mediterranean, and the Italian cities. Columbus's offer
to Genoa was therefore one which, if her statesmen could have
foreseen the future, they would have considered eagerly.
But Genoa was greatly depressed at this period. In her wars with
the Turks she had been, on the whole, not successful. She had
lost Caffa, her station in the Crimea, and her possessions in the
Archipelago were threatened. The government did not accept
Columbus's proposals, and he was obliged to return with them to
Spain. He went first to distinguished noblemen, in the South of
Spain, who were of liberal and adventurous disposition. One was
the Duke of Medina Celi, and one the Duke of Medina Sidonia. Each
of these grandees entertained him at their courts, and heard his
proposals.
The Duke of Medina Celi was so much interested in them, that at
one time he proposed to give Columbus the direction of four
vessels which he had in the harbor of Cadiz. But, of a sudden, he
changed his mind. The enterprise was so vast, he said, that it
should be under the direction of the crown. And, without losing
confidence in it, he gave to Columbus an introduction to the king
and queen, in which he cordially recommended him to their
patronage.
This king and queen were King Ferdinand of Aragon, and Queen
Isabella of Castile. The marriage of these two had united Spain.
Their affection for each other made the union real, and the
energy, courage and wisdom of both made their reign successful
and glorious. Of all its glories the greatest, as it has proved,
was connected with the life and discoveries of the sailor who was
now to approach them. He had been disloyally treated by Portugal,
he had been dismissed by Genoa. He had not succeeded with the
great dukes. Now he was to press his adventure upon a king and
queen who were engaged in a difficult war with the Moors, who
still held a considerable part of the peninsula of Spain.
The king and queen were residing at Cordova, a rich and beautiful
city, which they had taken from the Moors. Under their rule
Cordova had been the most important seat of learning in Europe.
Here Columbus tarried at the house of Alonso de Quintinilla, who
became an ardent convert to his theory, and introduced him to
important friends. By their agency, arrangements were made, in
which Columbus should present his views to the king. The time was
not such as he could have wished. All Cordova was alive with the
preparation for a great campaign against the enemy. But King
Ferdinand made arrangements to hear Columbus; it does not appear
that, at the first hearing, Isabella was present at the
interview. But Ferdinand, although in the midst of his military
cares, was intereste in the proposals made by Columbus. He liked
the man. He was pleased by the modesty and dignity with which he
brought forward his proposals. Columbus spoke, as he tells us, as
one specially appointed by God Himself to carry out this
discovery. The king did not, however, at once adopt the scheme,
but gave out that a council of men of learning should be called
together to consider it.
Columbus himself says that he entered the service of the
sovereigns January 26, 1486. The council to which he was referred
was held in the university city of Salamanca, in that year. It
gave to him a full opportunity to explain his theory. It
consisted of a fair representation of the learning of the time.
But most of the men who met had formed their opinions on the
subjects involved, and were too old to change them. A part of
them were priests of the church, in the habit of looking to
sacred Scripture as their only authority, when the pope had given
no instruction in detail. Of these some took literally
expressions in the Old Testament, which they supposed to be fatal
to the plans of Columbus. Such was the phrase in the 104th Psalm,
that God stretches out the heavens like a curtain. The expression
in the book of Hebrews, that the heavens are extended as a tent,
was also quoted, in the same view.
Quotations from the early Fathers of the church were more fatal
to the new plan than those from the Scripture.
On the other hand there were men who cordially supported
Columbus's wishes, and there were more when the congress parted
than when it met. Its sessions occupied a considerable part of
the summer, but it was not for years that it rendered any
decision.
The king, queen and court, meanwhile, were occupied in war with
the Moors. Columbus was once and again summoned to attend the
court, and more than once money was advanced to him to enable him
to do so. Once he began new negotiations with King John, and from
him he received a letter inviting him to return to Portugal. He
received a similar letter from King Henry VII of England inviting
him to his court. Nothing was determined on in Spain. To this
day, the people of that country are thought to have a habit of
postponement to tomorrow of that which perplexes them. In 1489,
according to Ortiz de Zuniga, Columbus fought in battle in the
king's army.
When, however, in the winter of 1490, it was announced that the
army was to take the field again, never to leave its camp till
Grenada had fallen, Columbus felt that he must make one last
endeavor. He insisted that he must have an answer regarding his
plans of discovery. The confessor of the queen, Fernando da
Talavera, was commanded to obtain the definite answer of the men
of learning. Alas! it was fatal to Columbus's hopes. They said
that it was not right that great princes should undertake such
enterprises on grounds as weak as those which he relied upon.
The sovereigns themselves, however, were more favorable; so was a
minority of the council of Salamanca. And the confessor was
instructed to tell him that their expenses in the war forbade
them from sending him out as a discoverer, but that, when that
was well over, they had hopes that they might commission him.
This was the end of five years of solicitation, in which he had
put his trust in princes. Columbus regarded the answer, as well
he might, as only a courtly measure of refusal. And he retired in
disgust from the court at Seville.
He determined to lay his plans before the King of France. He was
traveling with this purpose, with his son, Diego, now a boy of
ten or twelve years of age, when he arrived at night at the
hospitable convent of Saint Mary of Rabida, which has been made
celebrated by that incident. It is about three miles south of
what was then the seaport of Palos, one of the active ports of
commercial Spain. The convent stands on level ground high above
the sea; but a steep road runs down to the shore of the ocean.
Some of its windows and corridors look out upon the ocean on the
west and south, and the inmates still show the room in which
Columbus used to write, and the inkstand which served his
purposes while he lived there. It is maintained as a monument of
history by the Spanish government.
At the door of this convent he asked for bread and water for his
boy. The prior of the convent was named Juan Perez de Marchena.
He was attracted by the appearance of Columbus, still more by his
conversation, and invited him to remain as their guest.
When he learned that his new friend was about to offer to France
the advantages of a discovery so great as that proposed, he
begged him to make one effort more at home. He sent for some
friends, Fernandos, a physician at Palos, and for the brothers
Pinzon, who now appear for the first time in a story where their
part is distinguished. Together they all persuaded Columbus to
send one messenger more to wait upon their sovereigns. The man
sent was Rodriguez, a pilot of Lepe, who found access to the
queen because Juan Perez, the prior, had formerly been her
confessor. She had confidence in him, as she had, indeed, in
Columbus. And in fourteen days the friendly pilot came back from
Santa Fe with a kind letter from the queen to her friend, bidding
him return at once to court. Perez de Marchena saddled his mule
at once and before midnight was on his way to see his royal
mistress.
Santa Fe was half camp, half city. It had been built in what is
called the Vega, the great fruitful plain which extends for many
miles to the westward of Grenada. The court and army were here as
they pressed their attack on that city. Perez de Marchena had
ready access to Queen Isabella, and pressed his suit well. He was
supported by one of her favorites, the Marquesa de Moya. In reply
to their solicitations, she asked that Columbus should return to
her, and ordered that twenty thousand maravedis should be sent to
him for his traveling expenses.
This sum was immediately sent by Perez to his friend. Columbus
bought a mule, exchanged his worn clothes for better ones, and
started, as he was bidden, for the camp.
He arrived there just after the great victory, by which the king
and queen had obtained their wish--had taken the noble city of
Grenada and ended Moorish rule in Spain. King, queen, court and
army were preparing to enter the Alhambra in triumph. Whoever
tries to imagine the scene, in which the great procession entered
through the gates, so long sealed, or of the moment when the
royal banner of Spain was first flying out upon the Tower of the
Vela, must remember that Columbus, elate, at last, with hopes for
his own great discovery, saw the triumph and joined in the
display.
But his success was not immediate, even now. Fernando de
Talavera, who had had the direction of the wise council of
Salamanca, was now Archbishop of Grenada, whose see had been
conferred on him after the victory. He was not the friend of
Columbus. And when, at what seemed the final interview with king
and queen, he heard Columbus claim the right to one-tenth of all
the profits of the enterprise, he protested against such lavish
recompense of an adventurer. He was now the confessor of
Isabella, as Juan Perez, the friendly prior, had been before.
Columbus, however, was proud and firm. He would not yield to the
terms prepared by the archbishop. He preferred to break off the
negotiation, and again retired from court. He determined, as he
had before, to lay his plans before the King of France.
Spain would have lost the honor and the reward of the great
discovery, as Portugal and Genoa had lost them, but for Luis de
St. Angel, and the queen herself. St. Angel had been the friend
of Columbus. He was an important officer, the treasurer of the
church revenues of Aragon. He now insisted upon an audience from
the queen. It would seem that Ferdinand, though King of Aragon,
was not present. St. Angel spoke eloquently. The friendly
Marchioness of Moya spoke eagerly and persuasively. Isabella was
at last fired with zeal. Columbus should go, and the enterprise
should be hers.
It is here that the incident belongs, represented in the statue
by Mr. Mead, and that of Miss Hosmer. The sum required for the
discovery of a world was only three thousand crowns. Two vessels
were all that Columbus asked for, with the pay of their crews.
But where were three thousand crowns? The treasury was empty, and
the king was now averse to any action. It was at this moment that
Isabella said, "The enterprise is mine, for the Crown of Castile.
I pledge my jewels for the funds."
The funds were in fact advanced by St. Angel, from the
ecclesiastical revenues under his control. They were repaid from
the gold brought in the first voyage. But, always afterward,
Isabella regarded the Indies as a Castilian possession. The most
important officers in its administration, indeed most of the
emigrants, were always from Castile.
Columbus, meanwhile, was on his way back to Palos, on his mule,
alone. But at a bridge, still pointed out, a royal courier
overtook him, bidding him return. The spot has been made the
scene of more than one picture, which represents the crisis, in
which the despair of one moment changed to the glad hope which
was to lead to certainty.
He returned to Isabella for the last time, before that great
return in which he came as a conqueror, to display to her the
riches of the New World. The king yielded a slow and doubtful
assent. Isabella took the enterprise in her own hands. She and
Columbus agreed at once, and articles were drawn up which gave
him the place of admiral for life on all lands he might discover;
gave him one-tenth of all pearls, precious stones, gold, silver,
spices and other merchandise to be obtained in his admiralty, and
gave him the right to nominate three candidates from whom the
governor of each province should be selected by the crown. He was
to be the judge of all disputes arising from such traffic as was
proposed; and he was to have one-eighth part of the profit, and
bear one-eighth part of the cost of it.
With this glad news he returned at once to Palos. The Pinzons,
who had been such loyal friends, were to take part in the
enterprise. He carried with him a royal order, commanding the
people of Palos to fit out two caravels within ten days, and to
place them and their crews at the disposal of Columbus. The third
vessel proposed was to be fitted out by him and his friends. The
crews were to be paid four months' wages in advance, and Columbus
was to have full command, to do what he chose, if he did not
interfere with the Portuguese discoveries.
On the 23rd of May, Columbus went to the church of San Giorgio in
Palos, with his friend, the prior of St. Mary's convent, and
other important people, and the royal order was read with great
solemnity:
But it excited at first only indignation or dismay. The
expedition was most unpopular. Sailors refused to enlist, and the
authorities, who had already offended the crown, so that they had
to furnish these vessels, as it were, as a fine, refused to do
what they were bidden. Other orders from Court were necessary.
But it seems to have been the courage and determination of the
Pinzons which carried the preparations through. After weeks had
been lost, Martin Alonso Pinzon and his brothers said they would
go in person on the expedition. They were well-known merchants
and seamen, and were much respected. Sailors were impressed, by
the royal authority, and the needful stores were taken in the
same way. It seems now strange that so much difficulty should
have surrounded an expedition in itself so small. But the plan
met then all the superstition, terror and other prejudice of the
time.
All that Columbus asked or needed was three small vessels and
their stores and crews. The largest ships engaged were little
larger than the large yachts, whose races every summer delight
the people of America. The Gallega and the Pinta were the two
largest. They were called caravels, a name then given to the
smallest three-masted vessels. Columbus once uses it for a vessel
of forty tons; but it generally applied in Portuguese or Spanish
use to a vessel, ranging one hundred and twenty to one hundred
and forty Spanish "toneles." This word represents a capacity
about one-tenth larger than that expressed by our English "ton."
The reader should remember that most of the commerce of the time
was the coasting commerce of the Mediterranean, and that it was
not well that the ships should draw much water. The fleet of
Columbus, as it sailed, consisted of the Gallega (the Galician),
of which he changed the name to the Santa Maria, and of the Pinta
and the Nina. Of these the first two were of a tonnage which we
should rate as about one hundred and thirty tons. The Nina was
much smaller, not more than fifty tons. One writer says that they
were all without full decks, that is, that such decks as they had
did not extend from stem to stern. But the other authorities
speak as if the Nina only was an open vessel, and the two larger
were decked. Columbus himself took command of the Santa Maria,
Martin Alonso Pinzon of the Pinta, and his brothers, Francis
Martin and Vicente Yanez, of the Nina. The whole company in all
three ships numbered one hundred and twenty men.
Mr. Harrisse shows that the expense to the crown amounted to
1,140,000 maravedis. This, as he counts it, is about sixty-four
thousand dollars of our money. To this Columbus was to add
one-eighth of the cost. His friends, the Pinzons, seem to have
advanced this, and to have been afterwards repaid. Las Casas and
Herrera both say that the sum thus added was much more than
one-eighth of the cost and amounted to half a million maravedis.
CHAPTER III. THE GREAT VOYAGE.
THE SQUADRON SAILS--REFITS AT CANARY ISLANDS--HOPES AND FEARS OF
THE VOYAGE--THE DOUBTS OF THE CREW--LAND DISCOVERED.
At last all was ready. That is to say, the fleet was so far ready
that Columbus was ready to start. The vessels were small, as we
think of vessels, but he was not dissatisfied. He says in the
beginning of his journal, "I armed three vessels very fit for
such an enterprise." He had left Grenada as late as the twelfth
of May. He had crossed Spain to Palos,[*] and in less than three
months had fitted out the ships and was ready for sea.
[*] Palos is now so insignificant a place that on some important
maps of Spain it will not be found. It is on the east side of the
Tinto river; and Huelva, on the west side, has taken its place.
The harbor of Palos is now ruined. Mud and gravel, brought down
by the River Tinto, have filled up the bay, so that even small
boats cannot approach the shore. The traveler finds, however, the
island of Saltes, quite outside the bay, much as Columbus left
it. It is a small spit of sand, covered with shells and with a
few seashore herbs. His own account of the great voyage begins
with the words:
"Friday, August 3, 1492. Set sail from the bar of Saltes at 8
o'clock, and proceeded with a strong breeze till sunset sixty
miles, or fifteen leagues south, afterward southwest and south by
west, which is in the direction of the Canaries."
It appears, therefore, that the great voyage, the most important
and successful ever made, began on Friday, the day which is said
to be so much disliked by sailors. Columbus never alludes to this
superstition.
He had always meant to sail first for the Canaries, which were
the most western land then known in the latitude of his voyage.
From Lisbon to the famous city of "Quisay," or "Quinsay," in
Asia, Toscanelli, his learned correspondent, supposed the
distance to be less than one thousand leagues westward. From the
Canary islands, on that supposition, the distance would be ten
degrees less. The distance to Cipango, or Japan, would be much
less.
As it proved, the squadron had to make some stay at the Canaries.
The rudder of the Pinta was disabled, and she proved leaky. It
was suspected that the owners, from whom she had been forcibly
taken, had intentionally disabled her, or that possibly the crew
had injured her. But Columbus says in his journal that Martin
Alonso Pinzon, captain of the Pinta, was a man of capacity and
courage, and that this quieted his apprehensions. From the ninth
of August to the second of September, nearly four weeks were
spent by the Pinta and her crew at the Grand Canary island, and
she was repaired. She proved afterwards a serviceable vessel, the
fastest of the fleet. At the Canaries they heard stories of lands
seen to the westward, to which Columbus refers in his journal. On
the sixth of September they sailed from Gomera and on the eighth
they lost sight of land. Nor did they see land again for
thirty-three days. Such was the length of the great voyage. All
the time, most naturally, they were wishing for signs, not of
land perhaps, but which might show whether this great ocean were
really different from other seas. On the whole the voyage was not
a dangerous one.
According to the Admiral's reckoning--and in his own journal
Columbus always calls himself the Admiral--its length was one
thousand and eighty-nine leagues. This was not far from right,
the real distance being, in a direct line, three thousand one
hundred and forty nautical miles, or three thousand six hundred
and twenty statute miles.[*] It would not be considered a very
long voyage for small vessels now. In general the course was
west. Sometimes, for special reasons, they sailed south of west.
If they had sailed precisely west they would have struck the
shore of the United States a little north of the spot where St.
Augustine now is, about the northern line of Florida.
[*] The computations from Santa Cruz, in the Canaries, to San
Salvador give this result, as kindly made for us by Lieutenant
Mozer, of the United States navy.
Had the coast of Asia been, indeed, as near as Toscanelli and
Columbus supposed, this latitude of the Canary islands would have
been quite near the mouth of the Yang-tse-Kiang river, in China,
which was what Columbus was seeking. For nearly a generation
afterwards he and his followers supposed that the coast of that
region was what they had found.
It was on Saturday, the eighth of September, that they lost sight
of Teneriffe. On the eleventh they saw a large piece of the mast
of a ship afloat. On the fourteenth they saw a "tropic-bird,"
which the sailors thought was never seen more than twenty-five
leagues from land; but it must be remembered, that, outside of
the Mediterranean, few of the sailors had ever been farther
themselves. On the sixteenth they began to meet "large patches of
weeds, very green, which appeared to have been recently washed
away from land." This was their first knowledge of the "Sargasso
sea," a curious tract in mid-Atlantic which is always green with
floating seaweeds. "The continent we shall find farther on,"
wrote the confident Admiral.
An observation of the sun on the seventeenth proved what had been
suspected before, that the needles of the compasses were not
pointing precisely to the north. The variation of the needle,
since that time, has been a recognized fact. But this observation
at so critical a time first disclosed it. The crew were naturally
alarmed. Here was evidence that, in the great ocean, common laws
were not to be relied upon. But they had great respect for
Columbus's knowledge of such subjects. He told them that it was
not the north which had changed, nor the needle, which was true
to the north, but the polar star revolved, like other stars, and
for the time they were satisfied.
The same day they saw weeds which he was sure were land weeds.
From them he took a living crab, whose unintentional voyage
eastward was a great encouragement to the bolder adventurer
westward. Columbus kept the crab, saying that such were never
found eighty leagues from land. In fact this poor crab was at
least nine hundred and seventy leagues from the Bahamas, as this
same journal proves. On the eighteenth the Pinta ran ahead of the
other vessels, Martin Alonso was so sure that he should reach
land that night. But it was not to come so soon.
Columbus every day announced to his crew a less distance as the
result of the day than they had really sailed. For he was afraid
of their distrust, and did not dare let them know how far they
were from home. The private journal, therefore, has such entries
as this, "Sailed more than fifty-five leagues, wrote down only
forty-eight." That is, he wrote on the daily log, which was open
to inspection, a distance some leagues less than they had really
made.
On the twentieth pelicans are spoken of, on the twenty-first
"such abundance of weeds that the ocean seemed covered with
them," "the sea smooth as a river, and the finest air in the
world. Saw a whale, an indication of land, as they always keep
near the coast." To later times, this note, also, shows how
ignorant Columbus then was of mid-ocean.
On the twenty-second, to the Admiral's relief, there was a head
wind; for the crew began to think that with perpetual east winds
they would never return to Spain. They had been in what are known
as the trade winds. On the twenty-third the smoother water gave
place to a rough sea, and he writes that this "was favorable to
me, as it happened formerly to Moses when he led the Jews from
Egypt."
The next day, thanks to the headwinds, their progress was less.
On the twenty-fifth, Pinzon, of the Pinta, felt sure that they
were near the outer islands of Asia as they appeared on the
Toscanelli map, and at sunset called out with joy that he saw
land, claiming a reward for such news. The crews of both vessels
sang "Glory to God in the highest," and the crew of the little
Nina were sure that the bank was land. On this occasion they
changed from a western course to the southwest. But alas! the
land was a fog-bank and the reward never came to Martin Pinzon.
On the twenty-sixth, again "the sea was like a river." This was
Wednesday. In three days they sailed sixty-nine leagues. Saturday
was calm. They saw a bird called "Rabihorcado," which never
alights at sea, nor goes twenty leagues from land," wrote the
confident Columbus; "Nothing is wanting but the singing of the
nightingale," he says.
Sunday, the thirtieth, brought "tropic-birds" again, "a very
clear sign of land." Monday the journal shows them seven hundred
and seven leagues from Ferro. Tuesday a white gull was the only
visitor. Wednesday they had pardelas and great quantities of
seaweed. Columbus began to be sure that they had passed "the
islands" and were nearing the continent of Asia. Thursday they
had a flock of pardelas, two pelicans, a rabihorcado and a gull.
Friday, the fifth of October, brought pardelas and flying-fishes.
We have copied these simple intimations from the journal to show
how constantly Columbus supposed that he was near the coast of
Asia. On the sixth of October Pinzon asked that the course might
be changed to the southwest. But Columbus held on. On the seventh
the Nina was ahead, and fired a gun and hoisted her flag in token
that she saw land. But again they were disappointed. Columbus
gave directions to keep close order at sunrise and sunset. The
next day he did change the course to west southwest, following
flights of birds from the north which went in that direction. On
the eighth "the sea was like the river at Seville," the weeds
were very few and they took land birds on board the ships. On the
ninth they sailed southwest five leagues, and then with a change
of wind went west by north. All night they heard the birds of
passage passing.
On the tenth of October the men made remonstrance, which has been
exaggerated in history into a revolt. It is said, in books of
authority, that Columbus begged them to sail west only three days
more. But in the private journal of the tenth he says simply:
"The seamen complained of the length of the voyage. They did not
wish to go any farther. The Admiral did his best to renew their
courage, and reminded them of the profits which would come to
them. He added, boldly, that no complaints would change his
purpose, that he had set out to go to the Indies, and that with
the Lord's assistance he should keep on until he came there."
This is the only passage in the journal which has any resemblance
to the account of the mutiny.
If it happened, as Oviedo says, three days before the discovery,
it would have been on the eighth of October. On that day the
entry is, "Steered west southwest, and sailed day and night
eleven or twelve leagues--at times, during the night, fifteen
miles an hour--if the log can be relied upon. Found the sea like
the river at Seville, thanks to God. The air was as soft as that
of Seville in April, and so fragrant that it was delicious to
breathe it. The weeds appeared very fresh. Many land birds, one
of which they took, flying towards the southwest, also grajaos,
ducks and a pelican were seen."
This is not the account of a mutiny. And the discovery of
Columbus's own journal makes that certain, which was probable
before, that the romantic account of the despair of the crews was
embroidered on the narrative after the event, and by people who
wanted to improve the story. It was, perhaps, borrowed from a
story of Diaz's voyage. We have followed the daily record to show
how constantly they supposed, on the other hand, that they were
always nearing land.
With the eleventh of October, came certainty. The eleventh is
sometimes spoken of as the day of discovery, and sometimes the
twelfth, when they landed on the first island of the new world.
The whole original record of the discovery is this: "Oct. 11,
course to west and southwest. Heavier sea than they had known,
pardelas and a green branch near the caravel of the Admiral. From
the Pinta they see a branch of a tree, a stake and a smaller
stake, which they draw in, and which appears to have been cut
with iron, and a piece of cane. Besides these, there is a land
shrub and a little bit of board. The crew of the Nina saw other
signs of land and a branch covered with thorns and flowers. With
these tokens every-one breathes again and is delighted. They sail
twenty-seven leagues on this course.
"The Admiral orders that they shall resume a westerly course at
sunset. They make twelve miles each hour; up till two hours after
midnight they made ninety miles.
"The Pinta, the best sailer of the three, was ahead. She makes
signals, already agreed upon, that she has discovered land. A
sailor named Rodrigo de Triana was the first to see this land.
For the Admiral being on the castle of the poop of the ship at
ten at night really saw a light, but it was so shut in by
darkness that he did not like to say that it was a sign of land.
Still he called up Pedro Gutierrez, the king's chamberlain, and
said to him that there seemed to be a light, and asked him to
look. He did so and saw it. He said the same to Rodrigo Sanchez
of Segovia, who had been sent by the king and queen as inspector
in the fleet, but he saw nothing, being indeed in a place where
he could see nothing.
"After the Admiral spoke of it, the light was seen once or twice.
It was like a wax candle, raised and lowered, which would appear
to few to be a sign of land. But the Admiral was certain that it
was a sign of land. Therefore when they said the "Salve," which
all the sailors are used to say and sing in their fashion, the
Admiral ordered them to look out well from the forecastle, and he
would give at once a silk jacket to the man who first saw land,
besides the other rewards which the sovereigns had ordered, which
were 10,000 maravedis, to be paid as an annuity forever to the
man who saw it first.
"At two hours after midnight land appeared, from which they were
about two leagues off."
This is the one account of the discovery written at the time. It
is worth copying and reading at full in its little details, for
it contrasts curiously with the embellished accounts which appear
in the next generation. Thus the historian Oviedo says, in a
dramatic way:
"One of the ship boys on the largest ship, a native of Lepe,
cried 'Fire!' 'Land!' Immediately a servant of Columbus replied,
'The Admiral had said that already.' Soon after, Columbus said,
'I said so some time ago, and that I saw that fire on the land.'
" And so indeed it happened that Thursday, at two hours after
midnight, the Admiral called a gentleman named Escobedos, officer
of the wardrobe of the king, and told him that he saw fire. And
at the break of day, at the time Columbus had predicted the day
before, they saw from the largest ship the island which the
Indians call Guanahani to the north of them.
"And the first man to see the land, when day came, was Rodrigo of
Triana, on the eleventh day of October, 1492." Nothing is more
certain than that this was really on the twelfth.
The reward for first seeing land was eventually awarded to
Columbus, and it was regularly paid him through his life. It was
the annual payment of 10,000 maravedis. A maravedi was then a
little less than six cents of our currency. The annuity was,
therefore, about six hundred dollars a year.
The worth of a maravedi varied, from time to time, so that the
calculations of the value of any number of maravedis are very
confusing. Before the coin went out of use it was worth only half
a cent.
CHAPTER IV.
THE LANDING ON THE TWELFTH OF OCTOBER--THE NATIVES AND THEIR
NEIGHBORS--SEARCH FOR GOLD--CUBA DISCOVERED--COLUMBUS COASTS
ALONG ITS SHORES.
It was on Friday, the twelfth of October, that they saw this
island, which was an island of the Lucayos group, called, says
Las Casas, "in the tongue of the Indians, Guanahani." Soon they
saw people naked, and the Admiral went ashore in the armed boat,
with Martin Alonzo Pinzon and, Vicente Yanez, his brother, who
was captain of the Nina. The Admiral unfurled the Royal Standard,
and the captain's two standards of the Greek Cross, which the
Admiral raised on all the ships as a sign, with an F. and a Y.;
over each letter a crown; one on one side of the {"iron cross
symbol"} and the other on the other. When they were ashore they
saw very green trees and much water, and fruits of different
kinds.
"The Admiral called the two captains and the others who went
ashore, and Rodrigo Descovedo, Notary of the whole fleet, and
Rodrigo Sanchez of Segovia, and he said that they must give him
their faith and witness how he took possession before all others,
as in fact he did take possession of the said island for the king
and the queen, his lord and lady. . . . Soon many people of the
island assembled. These which follow are the very words of the
Admiral, in his book of his first navigation and discovery of
these Indies."
October 11-12. "So that they may feel great friendship for us,
and because I knew that they were a people who would be better
delivered and converted to our Holy Faith by love than by force,
I gave to some of them red caps and glass bells which they put
round their necks, and many other things of little value, in
which they took much pleasure, and they remained so friendly to
us that it was wonderful.
"Afterwards they came swimming to the ship's boats where we were.
And they brought us parrots and cotton-thread in skeins, and
javelins and many other things. And they bartered them with us
for other things, which we gave them, such as little glass beads
and little bells. In short, they took everything, and gave of
what they had with good will. But it seemed to me that they were
a people very destitute of everything.
"They all went as naked as their mothers bore them, and the women
as well, although I only saw one who was really young. And all
the men I saw were young, for I saw none more than thirty years
of age; very well made, with very handsome persons, and very good
faces; their hair thick like the hairs of horses' tails, and cut
short. They bring their hair above their eyebrows, except a
little behind, which they wear long, and never cut. Some of them
paint themselves blackish (and they are of the color of the
inhabitants of the Canaries, neither black nor white), and some
paint themselves white, and some red, and some with whatever they
can get. And some of them paint their faces, and some all their
bodies, and some only the eyes, and some only the nose.
"They do not bear arms nor do they know them, for I showed them
swords and they took them by the edge, and they cut themselves
through ignorance. They have no iron at all; their javelins are
rods without iron, and some of them have a fish's tooth at the
end, and some of them other things. They are all of good stature,
and good graceful appearance, well made. I saw some who had scars
of wounds in their bodies, and I made signs to them [to ask] what
that was, and they showed me how people came there from other
islands which lay around, and tried to take them captive and they
defended themselves. And I believed, and I [still] believe, that
they came there from the mainland to take them for captives.
"They would be good servants, and of good disposition, for I see
that they repeat very quickly everything which is said to them.
And I believe that they could easily be made Christians, for it
seems to me that they have no belief. I, if it please our Lord,
will take six of them to your Highnesses at the time of my
departure, so that they may learn to talk. No wild creature of
any sort have I seen, except parrots, in this island."
All these are the words of the Admiral, says Las Casas. The
journal of the next day is in these words:
Saturday, October 13. "As soon as the day broke, many of these
men came to the beach, all young, as I have said, and all of good
stature, a very handsome race. Their hair is not woolly, but
straight and coarse, like horse hair, and all with much wider
foreheads and heads than any other people I have seen up to this
time. And their eyes are very fine and not small, and they are
not black at all, but of the color of the Canary Islanders. And
nothing else could be expected, since it is on one line of
latitude with the Island of Ferro, in the Canaries.
"They came to the ship with almadias,[*] which are made of the
trunk of a tree, like a long boat, and all of one piece--and made
in a very wonderful manner in the fashion of the country--and
large enough for some of them to hold forty or forty-five men.
And others are smaller, down to such as hold one man alone. They
row with a shovel like a baker's, and it goes wonderfully well.
And if it overturns, immediately they all go to swimming and they
right it, and bale it with calabashes which they carry.
[*] Arabic word for raft or float; here it means canoes.
"They brought skeins of spun cotton, and parrots, and javelins,
and other little things which it would be wearisome to write
down, and they gave everything for whatever was given to them.
"And I strove attentively to learn whether there were gold. And I
saw that some of them had a little piece of gold hung in a hole
which they have in their noses. And by signs I was able to
understand that going to the south, or going round the island to
the southward, there was a king there who had great vessels of
it, and had very much of it. I tried to persuade them to go
there; and afterward I saw that they did not understand about
going.[*]
[*] To this first found land, called by the natives Guanahani,
Columbus gave the name of San Salvador. There is, however, great
doubt whether this is the island known by that name on the maps.
Of late years the impression has generally been that the island
thus discovered is that now known as Watling's island. In 1860
Admiral Fox, of the United States navy, visited all these
islands, and studied the whole question anew, visiting the
islands himself and working backwards to the account of
Columbus's subsequent voyage, so as to fix the spot from which
that voyage began. Admiral Fox decides that the island of
discovery was neither San Salvador nor Watling's island, but the
Samana island of the same group. The subject is so curious that
we copy his results at more length in the appendix.
"I determined to wait till the next afternoon, and then to start
for the southwest, for many of them told me that there was land
to the south and southwest and northwest, and that those from the
northwest came often to fight with them, and so to go on to the
southwest to seek gold and precious stones.
"This island is very large and very flat and with very green
trees, and many waters, and a very large lake in the midst,
without any mountain. And all of it is green, so that it is a
pleasure to see it. And these people are so gentle, and desirous
to have our articles and thinking that nothing can be given them
unless they give something and do not keep it back. They take
what they can, and at once jump [into the water] and swim [away].
But all that they have they give for whatever is given them. For
they barter even for pieces of porringus, and of broken glass
cups, so that I saw sixteen skeins of cotton given for three
Portuguese centis, that is a blanca of Castile, and there was
more than twenty-five pounds of spun cotton in them. This I shall
forbid, and not let anyone take [it]; but I shall have it all
taken for your Highnesses, if there is any quantity of it.
"It grows here in this island, but for a short time I could not
believe it at all. And there is found here also the gold which
they wear hanging to their noses; but so as not to lose time I
mean to go to see whether I can reach the island of Cipango.
"Now as it was night they all went ashore with their almadias."
Sunday, October 14. "At daybreak I had the ship's boat and the
boats of the caravels made ready, and I sailed along the island,
toward the north-northeast, to see the other port, * * * * what
there was [there], and also to see the towns, and I soon saw two
or three, and the people, who all were coming to the shore,
calling us and giving thanks to God. Some brought us water,
others things to eat. Others, when they saw that I did not care
to go ashore, threw themselves into the sea and came swimming,
and we understood that they asked us if we had come from heaven.
And an old man came into the boat, and others called all [the
rest] men and women, with a loud voice: 'Come and see the men who
have come from heaven; bring them food and drink.'
"There came many of them and many women, each one with something,
giving thanks to God, casting themselves on the ground, and
raising their heads toward heaven. And afterwards they called us
with shouts to come ashore.
"But I feared [to do so], for I saw a great reef of rocks which
encircles all that island. And in it there is bottom and harbor
for as many ships as there are in all Christendom, and its
entrance very narrow. It is true that there are some shallows
inside this ring, but the sea is no rougher than in a well.
"And I was moved to see all this, this morning, so that I might
be able to give an account of it all to your Highnesses, and also
[to find out] where I might make a fortress. And I saw a piece of
land formed like an island, although it is not one, in which
there were six houses, which could be cut off in two days so as
to become an island; although I do not see that it is necessary,
as this people is very ignorant of arms, as your Highnesses will
see from seven whom I had taken, to carry them off to learn our
speech and to bring them back again. But your Highnesses, when
you direct, can take them all to Castile, or keep them captives
in this same island, for with fifty men you can keep them all
subjected, and make them do whatever you like.
"And close to the said islet are groves of trees, the most
beautiful I have seen, and as green and full of leaves as those
of Castile in the months of April and May, and much water.
"I looked at all that harbor and then I returned to the ship and
set sail, and I saw so many islands that I could not decide to
which I should go first. And those men whom I had taken said to
me by signs that there were so very many that they were without
number, and they repeated by name more than a hundred. At last I
set sail for the largest one, and there I determined to go. And
so I am doing, and it will be five leagues from the island of San
Salvador, and farther from some of the rest, nearer to others.
They all are very flat, without mountains and very fertile, and
all inhabited. And they make war upon each other although they
are very simple, and [they are] very beautifully formed."
Monday, October 15, Columbus, on arriving at the island for which
he had set sail, went on to a cape, near which he anchored at
about sunset. He gave the island the name of Santa Maria de la
Concepcion.[*]
[*] This is supposed to be Caico del Norte.
"At about sunset I anchored near the said cape to know if there
were gold there, for the men whom I had taken at the Island of
San Salvador told me that there they wore very large rings of
gold on their legs and arms. I think that all they said was for a
trick, in order to make their escape. However, I did not wish to
pass by any island without taking possession of it.
"And I anchored, and was there till today, Tuesday, when at the
break of day I went ashore with the armed boats, and landed.
"They [the inhabitants], who were many, as naked and in the same
condition as those of San Salvador, let us land on the island,
and gave us what we asked of them.
* * * "I set out for the ship. And there was a large almadia
which had come to board the caravel Nina, and one of the men from
we Island of San Salvador threw himself into the sea, took this
boat, and made off; and the night before, at midnight, another
jumped out. And the almadia went back so fast that there never
was a boat which could come up with her, although we had a
considerable advantage. It reached the shore, and they left the
almadia, and some of my company landed after them, and they all
fled like hens.
"And the almadia, which they had left, we took to the caravel
Nina, to which from another headland there was coming another
little almadia, with a man who came to barter a skein of cotton.
And some of the sailors threw themselves into the sea, because he
did not wish to enter the caravel, and took him. And I, who was
on the stern of the ship, and saw it all, sent for him and gave
him a red cap and some little green glass beads which I put on
his arm, and two small bells which I put at his ears, and I had
his almadia returned, * * * and sent him ashore.
And I set sail at once to go to the other large island which I
saw at the west, and commanded the other almadia to be set
adrift, which the caravel Nina was towing astern. And then I saw
on land, when the man landed, to whom I had given the above
mentioned things (and I had not consented to take the skein of
cotton, though he wished to give it to me), all the others went
to him and thought it a great wonder, and it seemed to them that
we were good people, and that the other man, who had fled, had
done us some harm, and that therefore we were carrying him off.
And this was why I treated the other man as I did, commanding him
to be released, and gave him the said things, so that they might
have this opinion of us, and so that another time, when your
Highnesses send here again, they may be well disposed. And all
that I gave him was not worth four maravedis."
Columbus had set sail at ten o'clock for a "large island" he
mentions, which he called Fernandina, where, from the tales of
the Indian captives, he expected to find gold. Half way between
this island and Santa Maria, he met with "a man alone in an
almadia which was passing" [from one island to the other], "and
he was carrying a little of their bread, as big as one's fist,
and a calabash of water and a piece of red earth made into dust,
and then kneaded, and some dry leaves, which must be a thing much
valued among them, since at San Salvador they brought them to me
as a present.[*] And he had a little basket of their sort, in
which he had a string of little glass bells and two blancas, by
which I knew that he came from the Island of San Salvador. * * *
He came to the ship; I took him on board, for so he asked, and
made him put his almadia in the ship, and keep all he was
carrying. And I commanded to give him bread and honey to eat, and
something to drink.
[*] Was this perhaps tobacco?
"And thus I will take him over to Fernandina, and I will give him
all his property so that he may give good accounts of us, so
that, if it please our Lord, when your Highnesses send there,
those who come may receive honor, and they may give us of all
they have."
Columbus continued sailing for the island he named Fernandina,
now called Inagua Chica. There was a calm all day and he did not
arrive in time to anchor safely before dark. He therefore waited
till morning, and anchored near a town. Here the man had gone,
who had been picked up the day before, and he had given such good
accounts that all night long the ship had been boarded by
almadias, bringing supplies. Columbus directed some trifle to be
given to each of the islanders, and that they should be given
"honey of sugar" to eat. He sent the ship's boat ashore for water
and the inhabitants not only pointed it out but helped to put the
water-casks on board.
"This people," he says, "is like those of the aforesaid islands,
and has the same speech and the same customs, except that these
seem to me a somewhat more domestic race, and more intelligent. *
* * And I saw also in this island cotton cloths made like
mantles. * * *
"It is a very green island and flat and very fertile, and I have
no doubt that all the year through they sow panizo (panic-grass)
and harvest it, and so with everything else. And I saw many
trees, of very different form from ours, and many of them which
had branches of many sorts, and all on one trunk. And one branch
is of one sort and one of another, and so different that it is
the greatest wonder in the world. * * * One branch has its leaves
like canes, and another like the lentisk; and so on one tree five
or six of these kinds; and all so different. Nor are they
grafted, for it might be said that grafting does it, but they
grow on the mountains, nor do these people care for them. * * *
"Here the fishes are so different from ours that it is wonderful.
There are some like cocks of the finest colors in the world,
blue, yellow, red and of all colors, and others painted in a
thousand ways. And the colors are so fine that there is no man
who does not wonder at them and take great pleasure in seeing
them. Also, there are whales. As for wild creatures on shore, I
saw none of any sort, except parrots and lizards; a boy told me
that he saw a great snake. Neither sheep nor goats nor any other
animal did I see; although I have been here a very short time,
that is, half a day, but if there had been any I could not have
failed to see some of them." * * *
Wednesday, October 17. He left the town at noon and prepared to
sail round the island. He had meant to go by the south and
southeast. But as Martin Alonzo Pinzon, captain of the Pinta, had
heard, from one of the Indians he had on board, that it would be
quicker to start by the northwest, and as the wind was favorable
for this course, Columbus took it. He found a fine harbor two
leagues further on, where he found some friendly Indians, and
sent a party ashore for water. "During this time," he says, "I
went [to look at] these trees, which were the most beautiful
things to see which have been seen; there was as much verdure in
the same degree as in the month of May in Andalusia, and all the
trees were as different from ours as the day from the night. And
so [were] the fruits, and the herbs, and the stones and
everything. The truth is that some trees had a resemblance to
others which there are in Castile, but there was a very great
difference. And other trees of other sorts were such that there
is no one who could * * * liken them to others of Castile. * * *
"The others who went for water told me how they had been in their
houses, and that they were very well swept and clean, and their
beds and furniture [made] of things which are like nets of
cotton.[*] Their houses are all like pavilions, and very high and
good chimneys.[**]
[*] They are called Hamacas.
[**] Las Casas says they were not meant for smoke but as a crown,
for they have no opening below for the smoke.
"But I did not see, among many towns which I saw, any of more
than twelve or fifteen houses. * * * And there they had dogs. * *
* And there they found one man who had on his nose a piece of
gold which was like half a castellano, on which there were cut
letters.[*] I blamed them for not bargaining for it, and giving
as much as was asked, to see what it was, and whose coin it was;
and they answered me that they did not dare to barter it."
[*] A castellano was a piece of gold, money, weighing about
one-sixth of an ounce.
He continued towards the northwest, then turned his course to the
east-southeast, east and southeast. The weather being thick and
heavy, and "threatening immediate rain. So all these days since I
have been in these Indies it has rained little or much."
Friday, October 19. Columbus, who had not landed the day before,
now sent two caravels, one to the east and southeast and the
other to the south-southeast, while he himself, with the Santa
Maria, the SHIP, as he calls it, went to the southeast. He
ordered the caravels to keep their courses till noon, and then
join him. This they did, at an island to the east, which he named
Isabella, the Indians whom he had with him calling it Saomete. It
has been supposed to be the island now called Inagua Grande.
"All this coast," says the Admiral, "and the part of the island
which I saw, is all nearly flat, and the island the most
beautiful thing I ever saw, for if the others are very beautiful
this one is more so." He anchored at a cape which was so
beautiful that he named it Cabo Fermoso, the Beautiful Cape, "so
green and so beautiful," he says, "like all the other things and
lands of these islands, that I do not know where to go first, nor
can I weary my eyes with seeing such beautiful verdure and so
different from ours. And I believe that there are in them many
herbs and many trees, which are of great value in Spain for dyes
[or tinctures] and for medicines of spicery. But I do not know
them, which I greatly regret. And as I came here to this cape
there came such a good and sweet odor of flowers or trees from
the land that it was the sweetest thing in the world."
He heard that there was a king in the interior who wore clothes
and much gold, and though, as he says, the Indians had so little
gold that whatever small quantity of it the king wore it would
appear large to them, he decided to visit him the next day. He
did not do so, however, as he found the water too shallow in his
immediate neighborhood, and then had not enough wind to go on,
except at night.
Sunday morning, October 21, he anchored, apparently more to the
west, and after having dined, landed. He found but one house,
from which the inhabitants were absent; he directed that nothing
in it should be touched. He speaks again of the great beauty of
the island, even greater than that of the others he had seen.
"The singing of the birds," he says, "seems as if a man would
never seek to leave this place, and the flocks of parrots which
darken the sun, and fowls and birds of so many kinds and so
different from ours that it is wonderful. And then there are
trees of a thousand sorts, and all with fruit of their kinds. And
all have such an odor that it is wonderful, so that I am the most
afflicted man in the world not to know them."
They killed a serpent in one of the lakes upon this island, which
Las Casas says is the Guana, or what we call the Iguana.
In seeking for good water, the Spaniards found a town, from which
the inhabitants were going to fly. But some of them rallied, and
one of them approached the visitors. Columbus gave him some
little bells and glass beads, with which he was much pleased. The
Admiral asked him for water, and they brought it gladly to the
shore in calabashes.
He still wished to see the king of whom the Indians had spoken,
but meant afterward to go to "another very great island, which I
believe must be Cipango, which they call Colba." This is probably
a mistake in the manuscript for Cuba, which is what is meant. It
continues, "and to that other island which they call Bosio"
(probably Bohio) "and the others which are on the way, I will see
these in passing. * * * But still, I am determined to go to the
mainland and to the city of Quisay and to give your Highnesses'
letters to the Grand Khan, and seek a reply and come back with
it."
He remained at this island during the twenty-second and
twenty-third of October, waiting first for the king, who did not
appear, and then for a favorable wind. "To sail round these
islands," he says, "one needs many sorts of wind, and it does not
blow as men would like." At midnight, between the twenty-third
and twenty-fourth, he weighed anchor in order to start for Cuba.
"I have heard these people say that it was very large and of
great traffic," he says, "and that there were in it gold and
spices, and great ships and merchants. And they showed me that I
should go to it by the west-southwest, and I think so. For I
think that if I may trust the signs which all the Indians of
these islands have made me, and those whom I am carrying in the
ships, for by the tongue I do not understand them, it (Cuba) is
the Island of Cipango,[*] of which wonderful things are told, and
on the globes which I have seen and in the painted maps, it is in
this district."
[*] This was the name the old geographers gave to Japan.
The next day they saw seven or eight islands, which are supposed
to be the eastern and southern keys of the Grand Bank of Bahama.
He anchored to the south of them on the twenty-sixth of October,
and on the next day sailed once more for Cuba.
On Sunday, October 28, he arrived there, in what is now called
the Puerto de Nipe; he named it the Puerto de San Salvador. Here,
as he went on, he was again charmed by the beautiful country. He
found palms "of another sort," says Las Casas, "from those of
Guinea, and from ours." He found the island the "most beautiful
which eyes have seen, full of very good ports and deep rivers,"
and that apparently the sea is never rough there, as the grass
grows down to the water's edge. This greenness to the sea's edge
is still observed there. "Up till that time," says Las Casas, ,he
had not experienced in all these islands that the sea was rough."
He had occasion to learn about it later. He mentions also that
the island is mountainous.
CHAPTER V.
LANDING ON CUBA--THE CIGAR AND TOBACCO--CIPANGO AND THE GREAT
KHAN--FROM CUBA TO HAYTI--ITS SHORES AND HARBORS.
When Columbus landed, at some distance farther along the coast,
he found the best houses he had yet seen, very large, like
pavilions, and very neat within; not in streets but set about
here and there. They were all built of palm branches. Here were
dogs which never barked (supposed to be the almiqui), wild birds
tamed in the houses and "wonderful arrangements of nets,[*] and
fish-hooks and fishing apparatus. There were also carved masks
and other images. Not a thing was touched." The inhabitants had
fled.
[*] These were probably hammocks.
He went on to the northwest, and saw a cape which he named Cabo
de Palmas. The Indians on board the Pinta said that beyond this
cape was a river and that at four days' journey from this was
what they called "Cuba." Now they had been coasting along the
Island of Cuba for two or three days. But Martin Pinzon, the
captain of the Pinta, understood this Cuba to be a city, and that
this land was the mainland, running far to the north. Columbus
until he died believed that it was the mainland.
Martin Pinzon also understood that the king of that land was at
war with the Grand Khan, whom they called Cami. The Admiral
determined to go to the river the Indians mentioned, and to send
to the king the letter of the sovereigns. He meant to send with
it a sailor who had been to Guinea, and some of the Guanahani
Indians. He was encouraged, probably, by the name of Carni, in
thinking that he was really near the Grand Khan.
He did not, however, send off these messengers at once, as the
wind and the nature of the coast proved unfit for his going up
the river the Indians had spoken of. He went back to the town
where he had been two days before.
Once more he found that the people had fled, but "after a good
while a man appeared," and the Admiral sent ashore one of the
Indians he had with him. This man shouted to the Indians on shore
that they must not be afraid, as these were good people, and did
harm to no man, nor did they belong to the Grand Khan, but they
gave, of what they had, in many islands where they had been. He
now jumped into the sea and swam ashore, and two of the
inhabitants took him in their arms and brought him to a house
where they asked him questions. When he had reassured them, they
began to come out to the ships in their canoes, with "spun cotton
and others of their little things." But the Admiral commanded
that nothing should be taken from them, so that they might know
that he was seeking nothing but gold, or, as they called it,
nucay.
He saw no gold here, but one of them had a piece of wrought
silver hanging to his nose. They made signs, that before three
days many merchants would come from the inland country to trade
with the Spaniards, and that they would bring news from the king,
who, according to their signs, was four days' journey away. "And
it is certain" says the Admiral, "that this is the mainland, and
that I am before Zayto and Quinsay, a hundred leagues more or
less from both of them, and this is clearly shown by the tide,
which comes in a different manner from that in which it has done
up to this time; and yesterday when I went to the northwest I
found that it was cold."
Always supposing that he was near Japan, which they called
Cipango, Columbus continued to sail along the northern coast of
Cuba and explored about half that shore. He then returned to the
east, governed by the assurances of the natives that on an island
named Babegue he would find men who used hammers with which to
beat gold into ingots. This gold, as he understood them, was
collected on the shore at night, while the people lighted up the
darkness with candles.
At the point where he turned back, he had hauled his ships up on
the shore to repair them. From this point, on the second of
November, he sent two officers inland, one of whom was a Jew, who
knew Chaldee, Hebrew and a little Arabic, in the hope that they
should find some one who could speak these languages. With them
went one of the Guanahani Indians, and one from the neighborhood.
They returned on the night between the fifth and sixth of
November. Twelve leagues off they had found a village of about
fifty large houses, made in the form of tents. This village had
about a thousand inhabitants, according to the explorers. They
had received the ambassadors with cordial kindness, believing
that they had descended from heaven.
They even took them in their arms and thus carried them to the
finest house of all. They gave them seats, and then sat round
them on the ground in a circle. They kissed their feet and hands,
and touched them, to make sure whether they were really men of
flesh and bone.
It was on this expedition that the first observation was made of
that gift of America to the world, which has worked its way so
deep and far into general use. They met men and women who
"carried live coals, so as to draw into their mouths the smoke of
burning herbs." This was the account of the first observers. But
Las Casas says that the dry herbs were wrapped in another leaf as
dry. He says that "they lighted one end of the little stick thus
formed, and sucked in or absorbed the smoke by the other, with
which," he says, "they put their flesh to sleep, and it nearly
intoxicates them, and thus they say that they feel no fatigue.
These mosquetes, as we should call them, they call tobacos. I
knew Spaniards on this Island of Hispaniola who were accustomed
to take them, who, on being reproved for it as a vice, replied
that it was not in their power (in their hand) to leave off
taking them. I do not know what savour or profit they found in
them." This is clearly a cigar.
The third or fourth of November, then, 1892, with the addition of
nine days to change the style from old to new, may be taken by
lovers of tobacco as the fourth centennial of the day when
Europeans first learned the use of the cigar.
On the eleventh of November the repairs were completed.
He says that the Sunday before, November 11 it had seemed to him
that it would be good to take some persons, from those of that
river, to carry to the sovereigns, so that "they might learn our
tongue, so as to know what there is in the country, and so that
when they come back they may be tongues to the Christians, and
receive our customs and the things of the faith. Because I saw
and know," says the Admiral, "that this people has no religion
(secta) nor are they idolaters, but very mild and without knowing
what evil is, nor how to kill others, nor how to take them, and
without arms, and so timorous that from one of our men ten of
them fly, although they do sport with them, and ready to believe
and knowing that there is a God in heaven, and sure that we have
come from heaven; and very ready at any prayer which we tell them
to repeat, and they make the sign of the cross.
"So your Highnesses should determine to make them Christians, for
I believe that if they begin, in a short time they will have
accomplished converting to our holy faith a multitude of towns."
"Without doubt there are in these lands the greatest quantities
of gold, for not without cause do these Indians whom I am
bringing say that there are places in these isles where they dig
out gold and wear it on their necks, in their ears and on their
arms and legs, and the bracelets are very thick.
"And also there are stones and precious pearls, and unnumbered
spices. And in this Rio de Mares, from which I departed last
night, without doubt there is the greatest quantity of mastic,
and there might be more if more were desired. For the trees, if
planted, take root, and there are many of them and very great and
they have the leaf like a lentisk, and their fruit, except that
the trees and the fruit are larger, is such as Pliny describes,
and I have seen in the Island of Chios in the Archipelago.
"And I had many of these trees tapped to see if they would send
out resin, so as to draw it out. And as it rained all the time I
was at the said river, I could not get any of it, except a very
little which I am bringing to your Highnesses. And besides, it
may be that it is not the, time to tap them, for I believe that
this should be done at the time when the trees begin to leave out
from the winter and seek to send out their flowers, and now they
have the fruit nearly ripe.
"And also here there might be had a great store of cotton, and I
believe that it might be sold very well here without taking it to
Spain, in the great cities of the Great Khan, which will
doubtless be discovered, and many others of other lords, who will
then have to serve your Highnesses. And here will be given them
other things from Spain, from the lands of the East, since these
are ours in the West.
"And here there is also aloes everywhere, although this is not a
thing to make great account of, but the mastic should be well
considered, because it is not found except in the said island of
Chios, and I believe that they get from it quite 50,000 ducats if
I remember aright. And this is the best harbor which I have seen
thus far--deep and easy of access, so that this would be a good
place for a large town."
The notes in Columbus's journals are of the more interest and
value, because they show his impressions at the moment when he
wrote. However mistaken those impressions, he never corrects them
afterwards. Although, while he was in Cuba, he never found the
Grand Khan, he never recalls the hopes which he has expressed.
He had discovered the island on its northern side by sailing
southwest from the Lucayos or Bahamas. From the eleventh of
November until the sixth of December he was occupied in coasting
along the northern shore, eventually returning eastward, when he
crossed the channel which parts Cuba from Hayti.
The first course was east, a quarter southeast, and on the
sixteenth, they entered Port-au-Prince, and took possession,
raising a cross there. At Port-au-Prince, to his surprise, he
found on a point of rock two large logs, mortised into each other
in the shape of a cross, so "that you would have said a carpenter
could not have proportioned them better."
On the nineteenth the course was north-northeast; on the
twenty-first they took a course south, a quarter southwest,
seeking in these changes the island of "Babeque," which the
Indians had spoken of as rich with gold. On the day last named
Pinzon left the Admiral in the Pinta, and they did not meet again
for more than a month.
Columbus touched at various points on Cuba and the neighboring
islands. He sought, without success, for pearls, and always
pressed his inquiries for gold. He was determined to find the
island of Bohio, greatly to the terror of the poor Indians, whom
he had on board: they said that its natives had but one eye, in
the middle of their foreheads, and that they were well armed and
ate their prisoners.
He landed in the bay of Moa, and then, keeping near the coast,
sailed towards the Capo del Pico, now called Cape Vacz. At Puerto
Santo he was detained some days by bad weather. On the fourth of
December he continued his eastward voyage, and on the next day
saw far off the mountains of Hayti, which was the Bohio he sought
for.
CHAPTER VI.
DISCOVERY OF HAYTI OR HISPANIOLA--THE SEARCH FOR
GOLD--HOSPITALITY AND INTELLIGENCE OF THE NATIVES--CHRISTMAS
DAY--A SHIPWRECK--COLONY TO BE FOUNDED--COLUMBUS SAILS EAST AND
MEETS MARTIN PINZON--THE TWO VESSELS RETURN TO EUROPE
--STORM--THE AZORES--PORTUGAL--HOME.
On the sixth of December they crossed from the eastern cape of
Cuba to the northwestern point of the island, which we call Hayti
or San Domingo. He says he gave it this name because "the plains
appeared to him almost exactly like those of Castile, but yet
more beautiful."
He coasted eastward along the northern side of the island, hoping
that it might be the continent, and always inquiring for gold
when he landed; but the Indians, as before, referred him to yet
another land, still further south, which they still called Bohio.
It was not surrounded by water, they said. The word "caniba,"
which is the origin of our word "cannibal," and refers to the
fierce Caribs, came often into their talk. The sound of the
syllable can made Columbus more sure that he was now approaching
the dominions of the Grand Khan of eastern Asia, of whom Marco
Polo had informed Europe so fully.
On the twelfth of the month, after a landing in which a cross had
been erected, three sailors went inland, pursuing the Indians.
They captured a young woman whom they brought to the fleet. She
wore a large ring of gold in her nose. She was able to understand
the other Indians whom they had on board. Columbus dressed her,
gave her some imitation pearls, rings and other finery, and then
put her on shore with three Indians and three of his own men.
The men returned the next day without going to the Indian
village. Columbus then sent out nine men, with an Indian, who
found a town of a thousand huts about four and a half leagues
from the ship. They thought the population was three thousand.
The village in Cuba is spoken of as having twenty people to a
house. Here the houses were smaller or the count of the numbers
extravagant. The people approached the explorers carefully, and
with tokens of respect. Soon they gained confidence and brought
out food for them: fish, and bread made from roots, "which tasted
exactly as if it were made of chestnuts."
In the midst of this festival, the woman, who had been sent back
from the ship so graciously, appeared borne on the shoulders of
men who were led by her husband.
The Spaniards thought these natives of St. Domingo much whiter
than those of the other islands. Columbus says that two of the
women, if dressed in Castilian costume, would be counted to be
Spaniards. He says that the heat of the country is intense, and
that if these people lived in a cooler region they would be of
lighter color.
On the fourteenth of December he continued his voyage eastward,
and on the fifteenth landed on the little island north of Hayti,
which he called Tortuga, or Turtle island. At midnight on the
sixteenth he sailed, and landed on Hispaniola again. Five hundred
Indians met him, accompanied by their king, a fine young man of
about twenty years of age. He had around him several counselors,
one of whom appeared to be his tutor. To the steady questions
where gold could be found, the reply as steady was made that it
was in "the Island of Babeque." This island, they said, was only
two days off, and they pointed out the route. The interview ended
in an offer by the king to the Admiral of all that he had. The
explorers never found this mysterious Babeque, unless, as Bishop
Las Casas guessed, Babeque and Jamaica be the same.
The king visited Columbus on his ship in the evening, and
Columbus entertained him with European food. With so cordial a
beginning of intimacy, it was natural that the visitors should
spend two or three days with these people. The king would not
believe that any sovereigns of Castile could be more powerful
than the men he saw. He and those around him all believed that
they came direct from heaven.
Columbus was always asking for gold. He gave strict orders that
it should always be paid for, when it was taken. To the islanders
it was merely a matter of ornament, and they gladly exchanged it
for the glass beads, the rings or the bells, which seemed to them
more ornamental. One of the caciques or chiefs, evidently a man
of distinction and authority, had little bits of gold which he
exchanged for pieces of glass. It proved that he had clipped them
off from a larger piece, and he went back into his cabin, cut
that to pieces, and then exchanged all those in trade for the
white man's commodities. Well pleased with his bargain, he then
told the Spaniards that he would go and get much more and would
come and trade with them again.
On the eighteenth of December, the wind not serving well, they
waited the return of the chief whom they had first seen. In the
afternoon he appeared, seated in a palanquin, which was carried
by four men, and escorted by more than two hundred of his people.
He was accompanied by a counselor and preceptor who did not leave
him. He came on board the ship when Columbus was at table. He
would not permit him to leave his place, and readily took a seat
at his side, when it was offered. Columbus offered him European
food and drink; he tasted of each, and then gave what was offered
to his attendants. The ceremonious Spaniards found a remarkable
dignity in his air and gestures. After the repast, one of his
servants brought a handsome belt, elegantly wrought, which he
presented to Columbus, with two small pieces of gold, also
delicately wrought.
Columbus observed that this cacique looked with interest on the
hangings of his ship-bed, and made a present of them to him, in
return for his offering, with some amber beads from his own neck,
some red shoes and a flask of orange flower water.
On the nineteenth, after these agreeable hospitalities, the
squadron sailed again, and on the twentieth arrived at a harbor
which Columbus pronounced the finest he had ever seen. The
reception he met here and the impressions he formed of Hispaniola
determined him to make a colony on that island. It may be said
that on this determination the course of his after life turned.
This harbor is now known as the Bay of Azul.
The men, whom he sent on shore, found a large village not far
from the shore, where they were most cordially received. The
natives begged the Europeans to stay with them, and as it proved,
Columbus accepted the invitation for a part of his crew. On the
first day three different chiefs came to visit him, in a friendly
way, with their retinues. The next day more than a hundred and
twenty canoes visited the ship, bringing with them such presents
as the people thought would be acceptable. Among these were bread
from the cassava root, fish, water in earthen jars, and the seeds
of spices. These spices they would stir in with water to make a
drink which they thought healthful.
On the same day Columbus sent an embassy of six men to a large
town in the interior. The chief by giving his hand "to the
secretary" pledged himself for their safe return.
The twenty-third was Sunday. It was spent as the day before had
been, in mutual civilities. The natives would offer their
presents, and say "take, take," in their own language. Five
chiefs were among the visitors of the day. From their accounts
Columbus was satisfied that there was much gold in the island, as
indeed, to the misery and destruction of its inhabitants, there
proved to be. He thought it was larger than England. But he was
mistaken. In his journal of the next day he mentions Civao, a
land to the west, where they told him that there was gold, and
again he thought he was approaching Cipango, or Japan.
The next day he left these hospitable people, raising anchor in
the morning, and with a light land wind continued towards the
west. At eleven in the evening Columbus retired to rest. While he
slept, on Christmas Day, there occurred an accident which changed
all plans for the expedition so far as any had been formed, and
from which there followed the establishment of the ill-fated
first colony. The evening was calm when Columbus himself retired
to sleep, and the master of the vessel followed his example,
entrusting the helm to one of the boys. Every person on the ship,
excepting this boy, was asleep, and he seems to have been awake
to little purpose.
The young steersman let the ship drift upon a ridge of rock,
although, as Columbus says, indignantly, there were breakers
abundant to show the danger. So soon as she struck, the boy cried
out, and Columbus was the first to wake. He says, by way of
apology for himself, that for thirty-six hours he had not slept
until now. The master of the ship followed him. But it was too
late. The tide, such as there was, was ebbing, and the Santa
Maria was hopelessly aground. Columbus ordered the masts cut
away, but this did not relieve her.
He sent out his boat with directions to carry aft an anchor and
cable, but its crew escaped to the Nina with their tale of
disaster. The Nina's people would not receive them, reproached
them as traitors, and in their own vessel came to the scene of
danger. Columbus was obliged to transfer to her the crew of the
Santa Maria.
So soon as it was day, their friendly ally, Guacanagari, came on
board. With tears in his eyes, he made the kindest and most
judicious offers of assistance. He saw Columbus's dejection, and
tried to relieve him by expressions of his sympathy. He set aside
on shore two large houses to receive the stores that were on the
Santa Maria, and appointed as many large canoes as could be used
to remove these stores to the land. He assured Columbus that not
a bit of the cargo or stores should be lost, and this loyal
promise was fulfilled to the letter.
The weather continued favorable. The sea was so light that
everything on board the Santa Maria was removed safely. Then it
was that Columbus, tempted by the beauty of the place, by the
friendship of the natives, and by the evident wishes of his men,
determined to leave a colony, which should be supported by the
stores of the Santa Maria, until the rest of the party could go
back to Spain and bring or send reinforcements. The king was well
pleased with this suggestion, and promised all assistance for the
plan. A vault was dug and built, in which the stores could be
placed, and on this a house was built for the home of the
colonists, so far as they cared to live within doors.
The chief sent a canoe in search of Martin Pinzon and the Pinta,
to tell them of the disaster. But the messengers returned without
finding them. At the camp, which was to be a city, all was
industriously pressed, with the assistance of the friendly
natives. Columbus, having no vessel but the little Nina left,
determined to return to Europe with the news of his discovery,
and to leave nearly forty men ashore.
It would appear that the men, themselves, were eager to stay. The
luxury of the climate and the friendly overtures of the people
delighted them, They had no need to build substantial houses. So
far as houses were needed, those of the natives were sufficient.
All the preparations which Columbus thought necessary were made
in the week between the twenty-sixth of December and the second
of January. On that day he expected to sail eastward, but
unfavorable winds prevented.
He landed his men again, and by the exhibition of a pretended
battle with European arms, he showed the natives the military
force of their new neighbors. He fired a shot from an arquebuse
against the wreck of the Santa Maria, so that the Indians might
see the power of his artillery. The Indian chief expressed his
regret at the approaching departure, and the Spaniards thought
that one of his courtiers said that the chief had ordered him to
make a statue of pure gold as large as the Admiral.
Columbus explained to the friendly chief that with such arms as
the sovereigns of Castile commanded they could readily destroy
the dreaded Caribs. And he thought he had made such an impression
that the islanders would be the firm friends of the colonists.
"I have bidden them build a solid tower and defense, over a
vault. Not that I think this necessary against the natives, for I
am satisfied that with a handful of people I could conquer the
whole island, were it necessary, although it is, as far as I can
judge, larger than Portugal, and twice as thickly peopled." In
this cheerful estimate of the people Columbus was wholly wrong,
as the sad events proved before the year had gone by.
He left thirty-nine men to be the garrison of this fort; and the
colony which was to discover the mine of gold. In command he
placed Diego da Arana, Pedro Gutierres and Rodrigo de Segovia. To
us, who have more experience of colonies and colonists than he
had had, it does not seem to promise well that Rodrigo was "the
king's chamberlain and an officer of the first lord of the
household." Of these three, Diego da Arana was to be the
governor, and the other two his lieutenants. The rest were all
sailors, but among them there were Columbus's secretary, an
alguazil, or person commissioned in the civil service at home, an
"arquebusier," who was also a good engineer, a tailor, a ship
carpenter, a cooper and a physician. So the little colony had its
share of artificers and men of practical skill. They all staid
willingly, delighted with the prospects of their new home.
On the third of January Columbus sailed for Europe in the little
Nina. With her own crew and the addition she received from the
Santa Maria, she must have been badly crowded. Fortunately for
all parties, on Sunday, the third day of the voyage, while they
were still in sight of land, the Pinta came in sight. Martin
Pinzon came on board the Nina and offered excuses for his
absence. Columbus was not really satisfied with them, but he
affected to be, as this was no moment for a quarrel. He believed
that Pinzon had left him, that, in the Pinta, he might be alone
when he discovered the rich gold-bearing island of Babeque or
Baneque. Although the determination was made to return, another
week was spent in slow coasting, or in waiting for wind. It
brought frequent opportunities for meeting the natives, in one of
which they showed a desire to take some of their visitors
captive. This would only have been a return for a capture made by
Pinzon of several of their number, whom Columbus, on his meeting
Pinzon, had freed. In this encounter two of the Indians were
wounded, one by a sword, one by an arrow. It would seem that he
did not show them the power of firearms.
This was in the Bay of Samana, which Columbus called "The Bay of
Arrows," from the skirmish or quarrel which took place there.
They then sailed sixty-four miles cast, a quarter northeast, and
thought they saw the land of the Caribs, which he was seeking.
But here, at length, his authority over his crew failed. The men
were eager to go home;--did not, perhaps, like the idea of fight
with the man-eating Caribs. There was a good western wind, and on
the evening of the sixteenth of January Columbus gave way and
they bore away for home.
Columbus had satisfied himself in this week that there were many
islands east of him which he had not hit upon, and that to the
easternmost of these, from the Canaries, the distance would prove
not more than four hundred leagues. In this supposition he was
wholly wrong, though a chain of islands does extend to the
southeast.
He seems to have observed the singular regularity by which the
trade winds bore him steadily westward as he came over. He had no
wish to visit the Canary Islands again, and with more wisdom than
could have been expected, from his slight knowledge of the
Atlantic winds, he bore north. Until the fourteenth of February
the voyage was prosperous and uneventful. One day the captive
Indians amused the sailors by swimming. There is frequent mention
of the green growth of the Sargasso sea. But on the fourteenth
all this changed. The simple journal thus describes the terrible
tempest which endangered the two vessels, and seemed, at the
moment, to cut off the hope of their return to Europe.
"Monday, February 14.--This night the wind increased still more;
the waves were terrible. Coming from two opposite directions,
they crossed each other, and stopped the progress of the vessel,
which could neither proceed nor get out from among them; and as
they began continually to break over the ship, the Admiral caused
the main-sail to be lowered. She proceeded thus during three
hours, and made twenty miles. The sea became heavier and heavier,
and the wind more and more violent. Seeing the danger imminent,
he allowed himself to drift in whatever direction the wind took
him, because he could do nothing else. Then the Pinta, of which
Martin Alonzo Pinzon was the commander, began to drift also; but
she disappeared very soon, although all through the night the
Admiral made signals with lights to her, and she answered as long
as she could, till she was prevented, probably by the force of
the tempest, and by her deviation from the course which the
Admiral followed." Columbus did not see the Pinta again until she
arrived at Palos. He was himself driven fifty-four miles towards
the northeast.
The journal continues. "After sunrise the strength of the wind
increased, and the sea became still more terrible. The Admiral
all this time kept his mainsail lowered, so that the vessel might
rise from among the waves which washed over it, and which
threatened to sink it. The Admiral followed, at first, the
direction of east-northeast, and afterwards due northeast. He
sailed about six hours in this direction, and thus made seven
leagues and a half. He gave orders that every sailor should draw
lots as to who should make a pilgrimage to Santa Maria of
Guadeloupe, to carry her a five-pound wax candle. And each one
took a vow that he to whom the lot fell should make the
pilgrimage.
"For this purpose, he gave orders to take as many dry peas as
there were persons in the ship, and to cut, with a knife, a cross
upon one of them, and to put them all into a cap, and to shake
them up well. The first who put his hand in was the Admiral. He
drew out the dry pea marked with the cross; so it was upon him
that the lot fell, and he regarded himself, after that, as a
pilgrim, obliged to carry into effect the vow which he had thus
taken. They drew lots a second time, to select a person to go as
pilgrim to Our Lady of Lorette, which is within the boundaries of
Ancona, making a part of the States of the Church: it is a place
where the Holy Virgin has worked and continues to work many and
great miracles. The lot having fallen this time upon a sailor of
the harbor of Santa Maria, named Pedro de Villa, the Admiral
promised to give him all the money necessary for the expenses. He
decided that a third pilgrim should be sent to watch one night at
Santa Clara of Moguer, and to have a mass said there. For this
purpose, they again shook up the dry peas, not forgetting that
one which was marked with the cross, and the lot fell once again
to the Admiral himself. He then took, as did all his crew, the
vow that, on the first shore which they might reach, they would
go in their shirts, in a procession, to make a prayer in some
church in invocation of Our Lady."
"Besides the general vows, or those taken by all in common, each
man made his own special vow, because nobody expected to escape.
The storm which they experienced was so terrible, that all
regarded themselves as lost; what increased the danger was the
circumstance that the vessel lacked ballast, because the
consumption of food, water and wine had greatly diminished her
load. The hope of the continuance of weather as fine as that
which they had experienced in all the islands, was the reason why
the Admiral had not provided his vessel with the proper amount of
ballast. Moreover, his plan had been to ballast it in the Women's
Island, whither he had from the first determined to go. The
remedy which the Admiral employed was to fill with sea water, as
soon as possible, all the empty barrels which had previously held
either wine or fresh water. In this way the difficulty was
remedied.
"The Admiral tells here the reasons for fearing that our Saviour
would allow him to become the victim of this tempest, and other
reasons which made him hope that God would come to his
assistance, and cause him to arrive safe and sound, so that
intelligence such as that which he was conveying to the king and
queen would not perish with him. The strong desire which he had
to be the bearer of intelligence so important, and to prove the
truth of all which he had said, and that all which he had tried
to discover had really been discovered, seemed to contribute
precisely to inspire him with the greatest fear that he could not
succeed. He confessed, himself, that every mosquito that passed
before his eyes was enough to annoy and trouble him. He
attributed this to his little faith, and his lack of confidence
in Divine Providence. On the other hand, he was re-animated by
the favors which God had shown him in granting to him so great a
triumph as that which he had achieved, in all his discoveries, in
fulfilling all his wishes, and in granting that, after having
experienced in Castile so many rebuffs and disappointments, all
his hopes should at last be more than surpassed. In one word, as
the sovereign master of the universe, had, in the outset,
distinguished him in granting all his requests, before he had
carried out his expedition for God's greatest glory, and before
it had succeeded, he was compelled to believe now that God would
preserve him to complete the work which he had begun." Such is
Las Casas's abridgment of Columbus's words.
"For which reasons he said he ought to have had no fear of the
tempest that was raging. But his weakness and anguish did not
leave him a moment's calm. He also said that his greatest grief
was the thought of leaving his two boys orphans. They were at
Cordova, at their studies. What would become of them in a strange
land, without father or mother? for the king and queen, being
ignorant of the services he had rendered them in this voyage, and
of the good news which he was bringing to them, would not be
bound by any consideration to serve as their protectors.
"Full of this thought, he sought, even in the storm, some means
of apprising their highnesses of the victory which the Lord had
granted him, in permitting him to discover in the Indies all
which he had sought in his voyage, and to let them know that
these coasts were free from storms, which is proved, he said, by
the growth of herbage and trees even to the edge of the sea. With
this purpose, that, if he perished in this tempest, the king and
queen might have some news of his voyage, he took a parchment and
wrote on it all that he could of his discoveries, and urgently
begged that whoever found it would carry it to the king and
queen. He rolled up this parchment in a piece of waxed linen,
closed this parcel tightly, and tied it up securely; he had
brought to him a large wooden barrel, within which he placed it,
without anybody's knowing what it was. Everybody thought the
proceeding was some act of devotion. He then caused it to be
thrown into the sea."[*]
[*] Within a few months, in the summer of 1890, a well known
English publisher has issued an interesting and ingenious
edition, of what pretended to be a fac simile of this document.
The reader is asked to believe that the lost barrel has just now
been found on the western coast of England. But publishers and
purchasers know alike that this is only an amusing suggestion of
what might have been.
The sudden and heavy showers, and the squalls which followed some
time afterwards, changed the wind, which turned to the west. They
had the wind thus abaft, and he sailed thus during five hours
with the foresail only, having always the troubled sea, and made
at once two leagues and a half towards the northeast. He had
lowered the main topmast lest a wave might carry it away.
With a heavy wind astern, so that the sea frequently broke over
the little Nina, she made eastward rapidly, and at daybreak on
the fifteenth they saw land. The Admiral knew that he had made
the Azores, he had been steadily directing the course that way;
some of the seamen thought they were at Madeira, and some hopeful
ones thought they saw the rock of Cintra in Portugal. Columbus
did not land till the eighteenth, when he sent some men on shore,
upon the island of Santa Maria. His news of discovery was at
first received with enthusiasm.
But there followed a period of disagreeable negotiation with
Castaneda, the governor of the Azores. Pretending great courtesy
and hospitality, but really acting upon the orders of the king of
Portugal, he did his best to disable Columbus and even seized
some of his crew and kept them prisoners for some days. When
Columbus once had them on board again, he gave up his plans for
taking ballast and water on these inhospitable islands, and
sailed for Europe.
He had again a stormy passage. Again they were in imminent
danger. "But God was good enough to save him. He caused the crew
to draw lots to send to Notre Dame de la Cintra, at the island of
Huelva, a pilgrim who should come there in his shirt. The lot
fell upon himself. All the crew, including the Admiral, vowed to
fast on bread and water on the first Saturday which should come
after the arrival of the vessel. He had proceeded sixty miles
before the sails were torn; then they went under masts and
shrouds on account of the unusual strength of the wind, and the
roughness of the sea, which pressed them almost on all sides.
They saw indications of the nearness of the land; they were in
fact, very near Lisbon."
At Lisbon, after a reception which was at first cordial, the
Portuguese officers showed an inhospitality like that of
Castaneda at the Azores. But the king himself showed more dignity
and courtesy. He received the storm-tossed Admiral with
distinction, and permitted him to refit his shattered vessel with
all he needed. Columbus took this occasion to write to his own
sovereigns.
On the thirteenth he sailed again, and on the fifteenth entered
the bay and harbor of Palos, which he had left six months and a
half before. He had sailed on Friday. He had discovered America
on Friday. And on Friday he safely returned to his home.
His journal of the voyage ends with these words: "I see by this
voyage that God has wonderfully proved what I say, as anybody may
convince himself, by reading this narrative, by the signal
wonders which he has worked during the course of my voyage, and
in favor of myself, who have been for so long a time at the court
of your Highnesses in opposition and contrary to the opinions of
so many distinguished personages of your household, who all
opposed me, treating my project as a dream, and my undertaking as
a chimera. And I hope still, nevertheless, in our Lord, this
voyage will bring the greatest honor to Christianity, although it
has been performed with so much ease."
CHAPTER VII.
COLUMBUS IS CALLED TO MEET THE KING AND QUEEN--HIS MAGNIFICENT
RECEPTION--NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE POPE AND WITH THE KING OF
PORTUGAL--SECOND EXPEDITION ORDERED--FONSECA--THE PREPARATIONS AT
CADIZ.
The letter which Columbus sent from Lisbon to the king and queen
was everywhere published. It excited the enthusiasm first of
Spain and then of the world. This letter found in the earlier
editions is now one of the most choice curiosities of libraries.
Well it may be, for it is the first public announcement of the
greatest event of modern history.
Ferdinand and Isabella directed him to wait upon them at once at
court. It happened that they were then residing at Barcelona, on
the eastern coast of Spain, so that the journey required to
fulfill their wishes carried him quite across the kingdom. It was
a journey of triumph. The people came together in throngs to meet
this peaceful conqueror who brought with him such amazing
illustrations of his discovery.
The letter bearing instructions for him to proceed to Barcelona
was addressed "To Don Christopher Columbus, our Admiral of the
Ocean Sea, Viceroy and Governor of the islands discovered in the
Indies." So far was he now raised above the rank of a poor
adventurer, who had for seven years attended the court in its
movements, seeking an opportunity to explain his proposals.
As he approached Barcelona he was met by a large company of
people, including many persons of rank. A little procession was
formed of the party of the Admiral. Six Indians of the islands
who had survived the voyage, led the way. They were painted
according to their custom in various colors, and ornamented with
the fatal gold of their countries, which had given to the
discovery such interest in the eyes of those who looked on.
Columbus had brought ten Indians away with him, but one had died
on the voyage and he had left three sick at Palos. Those whom he
brought to Barcelona, were baptized in presence of the king and
queen.
After the Indians, were brought many curious objects which had
come from the islands, such as stuffed birds and beasts and
living paroquets, which perhaps spoke in the language of their
own country, and rare plants, so different from those of Spain.
Ornaments of gold were displayed, which would give the people
some idea of the wealth of the islands. Last of all came
Columbus, elegantly mounted and surrounded by a brilliant
cavalcade of young Spaniards. The crowd of wondering people
pressed around them. Balconies and windows were crowded with
women looking on. Even the roofs were crowded with spectators.
The king and queen awaited Columbus in a large hall, where they
were seated on a rich dais covered with gold brocade. It was in
the palace known as the "Casa de la Deputacion" which the kings
of Aragon made their residence when they were in Barcelona. A
body of the most distinguished lords and ladies of Spain were in
attendance. As Columbus entered the hall the king and queen
arose. He fell on his knee that he might kiss their hands but
they bade him rise and then sit and give an account of his
voyage.
Columbus spoke with dignity and simplicity which commanded
respect, while all listened with sympathy. He showed some of the
treasures he had brought, and spoke with certainty of the
discoveries which had been made, as only precursors of those yet
to come. When his short narrative was ended, all the company
knelt and united in chanting the "Te Deum," "We Praise Thee, O
God." Las Casas, describing the joy and hope of that occasion
says, "it seems as if they had a foretaste of the joys of
paradise."
It would seem as if those whose duty it is to prepare fit
celebrations of the periods of the great discovery, could hardly
do better than to produce on the twenty-fourth of April, 1893, a
reproduction of the solemn pageant in which, in Barcelona, four
centuries before, the Spanish court commemorated the great
discovery.
From this time, for several weeks, a series of pageants and
festivities surrounded him. At no other period of his life were
such honors paid to him. It was at one of the banquets, at which
he was present, that the incident of the egg, so often told in
connection with the great discovery, took place. A flippant
courtier--of that large class of people who stay at home when
great deeds are done, and afterwards depreciate the doers of
them--had the impertinence to ask Columbus, if the adventure so
much praised was not, after all, a very simple matter. He
probably said "a short voyage of four or five weeks; was it
anything more?" Columbus replied by giving him an egg which was
on the table, and asking him if he could stand it on one end. He
said he could not, and the other guests said that they could not.
Columbus tapped it on the table so as to break the end of the
shell, and the egg stood erect. "It is easy enough," he said,
"when any one has shown you how."
It is well to remember, that if after years showed that the ruler
of Spain wearied in his gratitude, Columbus was, at the time,
welcomed with the enthusiasm which he deserved. From the very
grains of gold brought home in this first triumph, the queen,
Isabella, had the golden illumination wrought of a most beautiful
missal-book.
Distinguished artists decorated the book, and the portraits of
sovereigns then on the throne appear as the representations of
King David, King Solomon, the Queen of Sheba and other royal
personages. This book she gave afterwards to her grandson,
Charles V, of whom it has been said that perhaps no man in modern
times has done the world more harm.
This precious book, bearing on its gilded leaves the first fruits
of America, is now preserved in the Royal Library at Madrid.
The time was not occupied merely in shows and banquets. There was
no difficulty now, about funds for a second expedition.
Directions were given that it might be set forward as quickly as
possible, and on an imposing scale. For it was feared at court
that King John of Portugal, the successful rival of Spain, thus
far, in maritime adventure, might anticipate further discovery.
The sovereigns at once sent an embassy to the pope, not simply to
announce the discovery, but to obtain from him a decree
confirming similar discoveries in the same direction. There was
at least one precedent for such action. A former pope had granted
to Portugal all the lands it might discover in Africa, south of
Cape Bojador, and the Spanish crown had assented by treaty to
this arrangement. Ferdinand and Isabella could now refer to this
precedent, in asking for a grant to them of their discoveries on
the western side of the Atlantic. The pope now reigning was
Alexander II. He had not long filled the papal chair. He was an
ambitious and prudent sovereign--a native of Spain--and, although
he would gladly have pleased the king of Portugal, he was quite
unwilling to displease the Spanish sovereigns. The Roman court
received with respect the request made to them. The pope
expressed his joy at the hopes thrown out for the conversion of
the heathen, which the Spanish sovereigns had expressed, as
Columbus had always done. And so prompt were the Spanish
requests, and so ready the pope's answer, that as early as May 3,
1493, a papal bull was issued to meet the wishes of Spain.
This bull determined for Spain and for Portugal, that all
discoveries made west of a meridian line one hundred leagues west
of the Azores should belong to Spain. All discoveries east of
that line should belong to Portugal. No reference was made to
other maritime powers, and it does not seem to have been supposed
that other states had any rights in such matters. The line thus
arranged for the two nations was changed by their own agreement,
in 1494, for a north and south line three hundred and fifty
leagues west of the Cape de Verde Islands. The difference between
the two lines was not supposed to be important.
The decision thus made was long respected. Under a mistaken
impression as to the longitude of the Philippine Islands in the
East Indies, Spain has held those islands, under this line of
division, ever since their discovery by Magellan. She considered
herself entitled to all the islands and lands between the
meridian thus drawn in the Atlantic and the similar meridian one
hundred and eighty degrees away, on exactly the other side of the
world.
Under the same line of division, Portugal held, for three
centuries and more, Brazil, which projects so far eastward into
the Atlantic as to cross this line of division.
Fearful, all the time, that neither the pope's decree, nor any
diplomacy would prevent the king of Portugal from attempting to
seize lands at the west, the Spanish court pressed with eagerness
arrangements for a second expedition. It was to be on a large and
generous scale and to take out a thousand men. For this was the
first plan, though the number afterwards was increased to fifteen
hundred. To give efficiency to all the measures of colonization,
what we should call a new department of administration was
formed, and at the head of it was placed Juan Rodriguez de
Fonseca.
Fonseca held this high and responsible position for thirty years.
He early conceived a great dislike of Columbus, who, in some
transactions before this expedition sailed, appealed to the
sovereigns to set aside a decision of Fonseca's, and succeeded.
For all the period while he managed the Indian affairs of Spain,
Fonseca kept his own interests in sight more closely than those
of Spain or of the colonists; and not Columbus only, but every
other official of Spain in the West Indies, had reason to regret
the appointment.
The king of Portugal and the sovereigns of Spain began
complicated and suspicious negotiations with each other regarding
the new discoveries. Eventually, as has been said, they acceded
to the pope's proposal and decree. But, at first, distrusting
each other, and concealing their real purposes, in the worst
style of the diplomacy of that time, they attempted treaties for
the adjustment between themselves of the right to lands not yet
discovered by either. Of these negotiations, the important result
was that which has been named,--the change of the meridian of
division from that proposed by the pope. It is curious now to see
that the king of Portugal proposed a line of division, which
would run east and west, so that Spain should have the new
territories north of the latitude of the Grand Canary, and
Portugal all to the south.
In the midst of negotiation, the king and queen and Columbus knew
that whoever was first on the ground of discovery would have the
great advantage. There was a rumor in Spain that Portugal had
already sent out vessels to the west. Everything was pressed with
alacrity at Cadiz. The expedition was to be under Columbus's
absolute command. Seamen of reputation were engaged to serve
under him. Seventeen vessels were to take out a colony. Horses as
well as cattle and other domestic animals were provided. Seeds
and plants of different kinds were sent out, and to this first
colonization by Spain, America owes the sugar-cane, and perhaps
some other of her tropical productions.
Columbus remained in Barcelona until the twenty-third of May. But
before that time, the important orders for the expedition had
been given. He then went to Cadiz himself, and gave his personal
attention to the preparations. Applications were eagerly pressed,
from all quarters, for permission to go. Young men of high family
were eager to try the great adventure. It was necessary to
enlarge the number from that at first proposed. The increase of
expense, ordered as the plans enlarged, did not please Fonseca.
To quarrels between him and Columbus at this time have been
referred the persecutions which Columbus afterwards suffered. In
this case the king sustained Columbus in all his requisitions,
and Fonseca was obliged to answer them.
So rapidly were all these preparations made, that, in a little
more than a year from the sailing of the first expedition, the
second, on a scale so much larger, was ready for sea.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE SECOND EXPEDITION SAILS FROM CADIZ AT CANARY
ISLANDS--DISCOVERY OF DOMINICA AND GUADELOUPE--SKIRMISHES WITH
THE CARIBS--PORTO RICO DISCOVERED--HISPANIOLA--THE FATE OF THE
COLONY AT LA NAVIDAD.
There is not in history a sharper contrast, or one more dramatic,
than that between the first voyage of Columbus and the second. In
the first voyage, three little ships left the port of Palos, most
of the men of their crews unwilling, after infinite difficulty in
preparation, and in the midst of the fears of all who stayed
behind.
In the second voyage, a magnificent fleet, equipped with all that
the royal service could command, crowded with eager adventurers
who are excited by expectations of romance and of success, goes
on the very same adventure.
In the first voyage, Columbus has but just turned the corner
after the struggles and failures of eight years. He is a
penniless adventurer who has staked all his reputation on a
scheme in which he has hardly any support. In the second case,
Columbus is the governor-general, for aught he knows, of half the
world, of all the countries he is to discover; and he knows
enough, and all men around him know enough, to see that his
domain may be a principality indeed.
Success brings with it its disadvantages. The world has learned
since, if it did not know it then, that one hundred and fifty
sailors, used to the hard work and deprivations of a seafaring
life, would be a much more efficient force for purposes of
discovery, than a thousand and more courtiers who have left the
presence of the king and queen in the hope of personal
advancement or of romantic adventure. Those dainty people, who
would have been soldiers if there were no gunpowder, are not men
to found states; and the men who have lived in the ante-chambers
of courts are not people who co-operate sympathetically with an
experienced man of affairs like Columbus.
From this time forward this is to be but a sad history, and the
sadness, nay, the cruelty of the story, results largely from the
composition of the body of men whom Columbus took with him on
this occasion. It is no longer coopers and blacksmiths and
boatswains and sailmakers who surround him. These were officers
of court, whose titles even cannot be translated into modern
language, so artificial were their habits and so conventional the
duties to which they had been accustomed. Such men it was, who
made poor Columbus endless trouble. Such men it was, who, at the
last, dragged him down from his noble position, so that he died
unhonored, dispirited and poor. To the same misfortune, probably,
do we owe it that, for a history of this voyage, we have no
longer authority so charming as the simple, gossipy journal which
Columbus kept through the first voyage, of which the greater part
has happily been preserved. It may be that he was too much
pressed by his varied duties to keep up such a journal. For it is
alas! an unfortunate condition of human life, that men are most
apt to write journals when they have nothing to tell, and that in
the midst of high activity, the record of that activity is not
made by the actor. In the present case, a certain Doctor Chanca,
a native of Seville, had been taken on board Columbus's ship,
perhaps with the wish that he should be the historian of the
expedition. It may be that in the fact that his journal was sent
home is the reason why the Admiral's, if he kept one, has never
been preserved. Doctor Chanca's narrative is our principal
contemporary account of the voyage. From later authorities much
can be added to it, but all of them put together are not, for the
purposes of history, equal to the simple contemporaneous
statement which we could have had, had Columbus's own journal
been preserved.
The great fleet sailed from Cadiz on the twenty-fifth day of
September, in the year 1493, rather more than thirteen months
after the sailing of the little fleet from Palos of the year
before. They touched at the Grand Canary as before, but at this
time their vessels were in good condition and there was no
dissatisfaction among the crews. From this time the voyage across
the ocean was short. On the third day of November, 11 the Sunday
after All Saints Day had dawned, a pilot on the ship cried out to
the captain that he saw land. So great was the joy among the
people, that it was marvellous to hear the shouts of pleasure on
all hands. And for this there was much reason because the people
were so much fatigued by the hard life and by the water which
they drank that they all hoped for land with much desire."
The reader will see that this is the ejaculation of a tired
landsman; one might say, of a tired scholar, who was glad that
even the short voyage was at an end. Some of the pilots supposed
that the distance which they had run was eight hundred leagues
from Ferro; others thought it was seven hundred and eighty. As
the light increased, there were two islands in sight the first
was mountainous, being the island of "Dominica," which still
retains that name, of the Sunday when it was discovered; the
other, the island of Maria Galante, is more level, but like the
first, as it is described by Dr. Chanca, it was well wooded. The
island received its name from the ship that Columbus commanded.
In all, they discovered six islands on this day.
Finding no harbor which satisfied him in Dominica, Columbus
landed on the island of Maria Galante, and took possession of it
in the name of the king and queen. Dr. Chanca expresses the
amazement which everyone had felt on the other voyage, at the
immense variety of trees, of fruits and of flowers, which to this
hour is the joy of the traveller in the West Indies.
"In this island was such thickness of forest that it was
wonderful, and such a variety of trees, unknown to anyone, that
it was terrible, some with fruit, some with flowers, so that
everything was green. * * * There were wild fruits of different
sorts, which some not very wise men tried, and, on merely tasting
them, touching them with their tongues, their faces swelled and
they had such great burning and pain that they seemed to rage (or
to have hydrophobia). They were cured with cold things." This
fruit is supposed to have been the manchireel, which is known to
produce such effects.
They found no inhabitants on this island and went on to another,
now called Guadeloupe. It received this name from its resemblance
to a province of the same name in Spain. They drew near a
mountain upon it which "seemed to be trying to reach the sky,"
upon which was a beautiful waterfall, so white with foam that at
a distance some of the sailors thought it was not water, but
white rocks. The Admiral sent a light caravel to coast along and
find harbor. This vessel discovered some houses, and the captain
went ashore and found the inhabitants in them. They fled at once,
and he entered the houses. There he found that they had taken
nothing away. There was much cotton, "spun and to be spun," and
other goods of theirs, and he took a little of everything, among
other things, two parrots, larger and different from what had
been seen before. He also took four or five bones of the legs and
arms of men. This last discovery made the Spaniards suppose that
these islands were those of Caribs, inhabited by the cannibals of
whom they had heard in the first voyage.
They went on along the coast, passing by some little villages,
from which the inhabitants fled, "as soon as they saw the sails."
The Admiral decided to send ashore to make investigations, and
next morning "certain captains" landed. At dinnertime some of
them returned, bringing with them a boy of fourteen, who said
that he was one of the captives of the people of the island. The
others divided, and one party "took a little boy and brought him
on board." Another party took a number of women, some of them
natives of the island, and others captives, who came of their own
accord. One captain, Diego Marquez, with his men, went off from
the others and lost his way with his party. After four days he
came out on the coast, and by following that, he succeeded in
coming to the fleet. Their friends supposed them to have been
killed and eaten by the Caribs, as, since some of them were
pilots and able to set their course by the pole-star, it seemed
impossible that they should lose themselves.
During the first day Columbus spent here, many men and women came
to the water's edge, "looking at the fleet and wondering at such
a new thing; and when any boat came ashore to talk with them,
saying, 'tayno, tayno,' which means good. But they were all ready
to run when they seemed in danger, so that of the men only two
could be taken by force or free-will. There were taken more than
twenty women of the captives, and of their free-will came other
women, born in other islands, who were stolen away and taken by
force. Certain captive boys came to us. In this harbor we were
eight days on account of the loss of the said captain."
They found great quantities of human bones on shore, and skulls
hanging like pots or cups about the houses. They saw few men. The
women said that this was because ten canoes had gone on a robbing
or kidnapping expedition to other islands. "This people," says
Doctor Chanca, "appeared to us more polite than those who live in
the other islands we have seen, though they all have straw
houses." But he goes on to say that these houses are better made
and provided, and that more of both men's and women's work
appeared in them. They had not only plenty of spun and unspun
cotton, but many cotton mantles, "so well woven that they yield
in nothing (or owe nothing) to those of our country."
When the women, who had been found captives, were asked who the
people of the island were, they replied that they were Caribs.
When they heard that we abhorred such people for their evil use
of eating men's flesh, they rejoiced much." But even in the
captivity which all shared, they showed fear of their old
masters.
"The customs of this people, the Caribs," says Dr. Chanca, "are
beastly;" and it would be difficult not to agree with him, in
spite of the "politeness" and comparative civilization he has
spoken of.
They occupied three islands, and lived in harmony with each
other, but made war in their canoes on all the other islands in
the neighborhood. They used arrows in warfare, but had no iron.
Some of them used arrow-heads of tortoise shell, others sharply
toothed fish-bones, which could do a good deal of damage among
unarmed men. "But for people of our nation, they are not arms to
be feared much."
These Caribs carried off both men and women on their robbing
expeditions. They slaughtered and ate the men, and kept the women
as slaves; they were, in short, incredibly cruel. Three of the
captive boys ran away and joined the Spaniards.
They had twice sent out expeditions after the lost captain, Diego
Marquez, and another party had returned without news of him, on
the very day on which he and his men came in. They brought with
them ten captives, boys and women. They were received with great
joy. "He and those that were with him, arrived so DESTROYED BY
THE MOUNTAIN, that it was pitiful to see them. When they were
asked how they had lost themselves, they said that it was the
thickness of the trees, so great that they could not see the sky,
and that some of them, who were mariners, had climbed up the
trees to look at the star (the Pole-star) and that they never
could see it."
One of the accounts of this voyage[*] relates that the captive
women, who had taken refuge with the Spaniards, were persuaded by
them to entice some of the Caribs to the beach. "But these men,
when they had seen our people, all struck by terror, or the
consciousness of their evil deeds, looking at each other,
suddenly drew together, and very lightly, like a flight of birds,
fled away to the valleys of the woods. Our men then, not having
succeeded in taking any cannibals, retired to the ships and broke
the Indians' canoes."
[*] That of Peter Martyr.
They left Guadeloupe on Sunday, the tenth of November. They
passed several islands, but stopped at none of them, as they were
in haste to arrive at the settlement of La Navidad in Hispaniola,
made on the first voyage. They did, however, make some stay at an
island which seemed well populated. This was that of San Martin.
The Admiral sent a boat ashore to ask what people lived on the
island, and to ask his way, although, as he afterwards found, his
own calculations were so correct that he did not need any help.
The boat's crew took some captives, and as it was going back to
the ships, a canoe came up in which were four men, two women and
a boy. They were so astonished at seeing the fleet, that they
remained, wondering what it could be, "two Lombard-shot from the
ship," and did not see the boat till it was close to them. They
now tried to get off, but were so pressed by the boat that they
could not. "The Caribs, as soon as they saw that flight did not
profit them, with much boldness laid hands on their bows, the
women as well as the men. And I say with much boldness, because
they were no more than four men and two women, and ours more than
twenty-five, of whom they wounded two. To one they gave two
arrow-shots in the breast, and to the other one in the ribs. And
if we had not had shields and tablachutas, and had not come up
quickly with the boat and overturned their canoe, they would have
shot the most of our men with their arrows. And after their canoe
was overturned, they remained in the water swimming, and at times
getting foothold, for there were some shallow places there. And
our men had much ado to take them, for they still kept on
shooting as they could. And with all this, not one of them could
be taken, except one badly wounded with a lance-thrust, who died,
whom thus wounded they carried to the ships."
Another account of this fight says that the canoe was commanded
by one of the women, who seemed to be a queen, who had a son "of
cruel look, robust, with a lion's face, who followed her." This
account represents the queen's son to have been wounded, as well
as the man who died. "The Caribs differed from the other Indians
in having long hair; the others wore theirs braided and a hundred
thousand differences made in their heads, with crosses and other
paintings of different sorts, each one as he desires, which they
do with sharp canes." The Indians, both the Caribs and the
others, were beardless, unless by a great exception. The Caribs,
who had been taken prisoners here, had their eyes and eyebrows
blackened, "which, it seems to me, they do as an ornament, and
with that they appear more frightful." They heard from these
prisoners of much gold at an island called Cayre.
They left San Martin on the same day, and passed the island of
Santa Cruz, and the next day (November 15) they saw a great
number of islands, which the Admiral named Santa Ursula and the
Eleven Thousand Virgins. This seemed "a country fit for metals,"
but the fleet made no stay there. They did stop for two days at
an island called Burenquen. The Admiral named it San Juan
Bautista (Saint John Baptist). It is what we now call Porto Rico.
He was not able to communicate with any of the inhabitants, as
they lived in such fear of the Caribs that they all fled. All
these islands were new to the Admiral and all "very beautiful and
of very good land, but this one seemed better than all of them."
On Friday, the twenty-second of November, they landed at the
island of Hispaniola or Hayti which they so much desired. None of
the party who had made the first voyage were acquainted with this
part of the island; but they conjectured what it was, from what
the Indian captive women told them.
The part of the island where they arrived was called Hayti,
another part Xamana, and the third Bohio. "It is a very singular
country," says Dr. Chanca, "where there are numberless great
rivers and great mountain ridges and great level valleys. I think
the grass never dries in the whole year. I do not think that
there is any winter in this (island) nor in the others, for at
Christmas are found many birds' nests, some with birds, and some
with eggs." The only four-footed animals found in these islands
were what Dr. Chanca calls dogs of various colors, and one animal
like a young rabbit, which climbed trees. Many persons ate these
last and said they were very good. There were many small snakes,
and few lizards, because the Indians were so fond of eating them.
"They made as much of a feast of them as we would do of
pheasants."
"There are in this island and the others numberless birds, of
those of our country, and many others which never were seen
there. Of our domestic birds, none have ever been seen here,
except that in Zuruquia there were some ducks in the houses, most
of them white as snow, and others black."
They coasted along this island for several days, to the place
where the Admiral had left his settlement. While passing the
region of Xamana, they set ashore one of the Indians whom they
had carried off on the first voyage. They "gave him some little
things which the Admiral had commanded him to give away." Another
account adds that of the ten Indian men who had been carried off
on the first voyage, seven had already died on account of the
change of air and food. Two of the three whom the Admiral was
bringing back, swam ashore at night. "The Admiral cared for this
but little, thinking that he should have enough interpreters
among those whom he had left in the island, and whom he hoped to
find there again." It seems certain that one Indian remained
faithful to the Spaniards; he was named Diego Colon, after the
Admiral's brother.
On the day that the captive Indian was set ashore, a Biscayan
sailor died, who had been wounded by the Caribs in the fight
between the boat's crew and the canoe. A boat's crew was sent
ashore to bury him, and as they came to land there came out "many
Indians, of whom some wore gold at the neck and at the ears. They
sought to come with the christians to the ships, and they did not
like to bring them, because they had not had permission from the
Admiral." The Indians then sent two of their number in a little
canoe to one of the caravels, where they were received kindly,
and sent to speak with the Admiral."
"They said, through an interpreter, that a certain king sent them
to know what people we were, and to ask that we might be kind
enough to land, as they had much gold and would give it to him,
and of what they had to eat. The Admiral commanded silken shirts
and caps and other little things to be given them, and told them
that as he was going where Guacanagari was, he could not stop,
that another time he would be able to see him. And with that,
they (the Indians) went away."
They stopped two days at a harbor which they called Monte
Christi, to see if it were a suitable place for a town, for the
Admiral did not feel altogether satisfied with the place where
the settlement of La Navidad had been made on the first voyage.
This Monte Christi was near "a great river of very good water"
(the Santiago). But it is all an inundated region, and very unfit
to live in.
"As they were going along, viewing the river and land, some of
our men found, in a place close by the river, two dead men, one
with: a cord (lazo) around his neck, and the other with one
around his foot. This was the first day. On the next day
following, they found two other dead men farther on than these
others. One of these was in such a position that it could be
known that he had a plentiful beard. Some of our men suspected
more ill than good, and with reason, as the Indians are all
beardless, as I have said."
This port was not far from the port where the Spanish settlement
had been made on the first voyage, so that there was great reason
for these anxieties. They set sail once more for the settlement,
and arrived opposite the harbor of La Navidad on the
twenty-seventh of November. As they were approaching the harbor,
a canoe came towards them, with five or six Indians on board,
but, as the Admiral kept on his course without waiting for them,
they went back.
The Spaniards arrived outside the port of La Navidad so late that
they did not dare to enter it that night. "The Admiral commanded
two Lombards to be fired, to see if the christians replied, who
had been left with the said Guacanagari, (this was the friendly
cacique Guacanagari of the first voyage), for they too had
Lombards," "They never replied, nor did fires nor signs of houses
appear in that place, at which the people were much discouraged,
and they had the suspicion that was natural in such a case."
"Being thus all very sad, when four or five hours of the night
had passed, there came the same canoe which they had seen the
evening before. The Indians in it asked for the Admiral and the
captain of one of the caravels of the first voyage. They were
taken to the Admiral's ship, but would not come on board until
they had "spoken with him and seen him." They asked for a light,
and as soon as they knew him, they entered the ship. They came
from Guacanagari, and one of them was his cousin.
They brought with them golden masks, one for the Admiral and
another for one of the captains who had been with him on the
first voyage, probably Vicente Yanez Pinzon. Such masks were much
valued among the Indians, and are thought to have been meant to
put upon idols, so that they were given to the Spaniards as
tokens of great respect. The Indian party remained on board for
three hours, conversing with the Admiral and apparently very glad
to see him again. When they were asked about the colonists of La
Navidad, they said that they were all well, but that some of them
had died from sickness, and that others had been killed in
quarrels among themselves. Their own cacique, Guacanagari, had
been attacked by two other chiefs, Caonabo and Mayreni. They had
burned his village, and he had been wounded in the leg, so that
he could not come to meet the Spaniards that night. As the
Indians went away, however, they promised that they would bring
him to visit them the next day. So the explorers remained
"consoled for that night."
Next day, however, events were less reassuring. None of last
night's party came back and nothing was seen of the cacique. The
Spaniards, however, thought that the Indians might have been
accidentally overturned in their canoe, as it was a small one,
and as wine had been given them several times during their visit.
While he was still waiting for them, the Admiral sent some of his
men to the place where La Navidad had stood. They found that the
strong fort with a palisade was burned down and demolished. They
also found some cloaks and other clothes which had been carried
off by the Indians, who seemed uneasy, and at first would not
come near the party.
"This did not appear well" to the Spaniards, as the Admiral had
told them how many canoes had come out to visit him in that very
place on the other voyage. They tried to make friends, however,
threw out to them some bells, beads and other presents, and
finally a relation of the cacique and three others ventured to
the boat, and were taken on board ship.
These men frankly admitted that the "christians" were all dead.
The Spaniards had been told so the night before by their Indian
interpreter, but they had refused to believe him. They were now
told that the King of Canoaboa[*] and the King Mayreni had killed
them and burned the village.
[*] "Canoaboa" was thought to mean "Land of Gold."
They said, as the others had done, that Guacanagari was wounded
in the thigh and they, like the others, said they would go and
summon him. The Spaniards made them some presents, and they, too,
disappeared.
Early the next morning the Admiral himself, with a party,
including Dr. Chanca, went ashore.
"And we went where the town used to be, which we saw all burnt,
and the clothes of the christians were found on the grass there.
At that time we saw no dead body. There were among us many
different opinions, some suspecting that Guacanagari himself was
(concerned) in the betrayal or death of the christians, and to
others it did not appear so, as his town was burnt, so that the
thing was very doubtful."
The Admiral directed the whole place to be searched for gold, as
he had left orders that if any quantity of it were found, it
should be buried. While this search was being made, he and a few
others went to look for a suitable place for a new settlement.
They arrived at a village of seven or eight houses, which the
inhabitants deserted at once. Here they found many things
belonging to the christians, such as stockings, pieces of cloth,
and "a very pretty mantle which had not been unfolded since it
was brought from Castile." These, the Spaniards thought, could
not have been obtained by barter. There was also one of the
anchors of the ship which had gone ashore on the first voyage.
When they returned to the site of La Navidad they found many
Indians, who had become bold enough to come to barter gold. They
had shown the place where the bodies of eleven Spaniards lay
"covered already by the grass which had grown over them." They
all "with one voice" said that Canoaboa and Mayreni had killed
them. But as, at the same time, they complained that some of the
christians had taken three Indian wives, and some four, it seemed
likely that a just resentment on the part of the islanders had
had something to do with their death.
The next day the Admiral sent out a caravel to seek for a
suitable place for a town, and he himself went out to look for
one in a different direction. He found a secure harbor and a good
place for a settlement, But he thought it too far from the place
where he expected to find a gold mine. On his return, he found
the caravel he had sent out. As it was coasting along the island,
a canoe had come out to it, with two Indians on board, one of
whom was a brother of Guacanagari. This man begged the party to
come and visit the cacique. The "principal men" accordingly went
on shore, and found him in bed, apparently suffering from his
wounded thigh, which he showed them in bandages. They judged from
appearances that he was telling them the truth.
He said to them, "by signs as best be could," that since he was
thus wounded, they were to invite the Admiral to come to visit
him. As they were going away, he gave each of them a golden
jewel, as each "appeared to him to deserve it." "This gold," says
Dr. Chanca, "is made in very delicate sheets, like our gold leaf,
because they use it for making masks and to plate upon bitumen.
They also wear it on the head and for earrings and nose-rings,
and therefore they beat it very thin as they only wear it for its
beauty and not for its value."
The Admiral decided to go to the cacique on the next day. He was
visited early in the day by his brother, who hurried on the
visit.
The Admiral went on shore and all the best people (gente de pro)
with him, handsomely dressed, as would be suitable in a capital
city." They carried presents. with them, as they had already
received gold from him.
"When we arrived, we found him lying in his bed, according to
their custom, hanging in the air, the bed being made of cotton
like a net. He did not rise, but from the bed made a semblance of
courtesy, as best he knew how. He showed much feeling, with tears
in his eyes, at the death of the christians, and began to talk of
it, showing, as best he could, how some died of sickness, and how
others had gone to Canoaboa to seek for the gold mine, and that
they had been killed there, and how the others had been killed in
their town."
He presented to the Admiral some gold and precious stones. One of
the accounts says that there were eight hundred beads of a stone
called ciba, one hundred of gold, a golden coronet, and three
small calabashes filled with gold dust. Columbus, in return, made
him a present.
"I and a navy surgeon were there," says Dr. Chanca. "The Admiral
now said that we were learned in the infirmities of men, and
asked if he would show us the wound. He replied that it pleased
him to do so. I said that it would be necessary, if he could, for
him to go out of the house, since with the multitudes of people
it was dark, and we could not see well. He did it immediately, as
I believe, more from timidity than from choice. The surgeon came
to him and began to take off the bandage. Then he said to the
Admiral that the injury was caused by ciba, that is, by a stone.
When it was unbandaged we managed to examine it. It is certain
that he was no more injured in that leg than in the other,
although he pretended that it was very painful."
The Spaniards did not know what to believe. But it seemed certain
that an attack of some enemy upon these Indians had taken place,
and the Admiral determined to continue upon good terms with them.
Nor did he change this policy toward Guacanagari. How far that
chief had tried to prevent the massacre will never be known. The
detail of the story was never fully drawn from the natives. The
Spaniards had been cruel and licentious in their dealing with the
Indians. They had quarrelled among themselves, and the indignant
natives, in revenge, had destroyed them all.
CHAPTER IX.
THE NEW COLONY--EXPEDITIONS OF DISCOVERY--GUACANAGARI --SEARCH
FOR GOLD--MUTINY IN THE COLONY--THE VESSELS SENT HOME--COLUMBUS
MARCHES INLAND--COLLECTION OF GOLD--FORTRESS OF ST. THOMAS--A NEW
VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY--JAMAICA VISITED--THE SOUTH SHORE OF CUBA
EXPLORED--RETURN --EVANGELISTA DISCOVERED--COLUMBUS FALLS
SICK--RETURN TO ISABELLA.
Columbus had hoped, with reason, to send back a part of the
vessels which made up his large squadron, with gold collected in
the year by the colonists at La Navidad. In truth, when, in 1501,
the system of gold-washing-had been developed, the colony yielded
twelve hundred pounds of gold in one year. The search for gold,
from the beginning, broke up all intelligent plans for
geographical discovery or for colonization. In this case, it was
almost too clear that there was nothing but bad news to send back
to Spain. Columbus went forward, however, as well as he could,
with the establishment of a new colony, and with the search for
gold.
He sent out expeditions of discovery to open relations with the
natives, and to find the best places for washing and mining for
gold. Melchior Meldonado commanded three hundred men, in the
first of these expeditions. They came to a good harbor at the
mouth of a river, where they saw a fine house, which they
supposed might be the home of Guacanagari. They met an armed
party of one hundred Indians; but these men put away their
weapons when signals of peace were made, and brought presents in
token of good-will.
The house to which they went was round, with a hemispherical roof
or dome. It was thirty-two paces in diameter, divided by wicker
work into different rooms. Smaller houses, for persons of rank
lower than the chiefs, surrounded it. The natives told the
explorers that Guacanagari himself had retired to the hills.
On receiving the report of these explorers Columbus sent out
Ojeda with a hundred men, and Corvalan with a similar party in
different directions. These officers, in their report, described
the operation of gold-washing, much as it is known to explorers
in mining regions to-day. The natives made a deep ditch into
which the gold bearing sand should settle. For more important
work they had flat baskets in which they shook the sand and
parted it from the gold. With the left hand they dipped up sand,
handled this skilfully or "dextrously" with the right hand, so
that in a few minutes they could give grains of gold to the
gratified explorers. Ojeda brought home to Columbus one nugget
which weighed nine ounces.
They also brought tidings of the King of Canoaboa, of whom they
had heard before, and he is called by the name of Caunebo
himself.[*] He was afterwards carried, as a prisoner or as a
hostage, on the way to Spain; but died on the passage.
[*] The name is spelled in many different ways.
Columbus was able to dispatch the returning ships, with the
encouraging reports brought in by Meldonado and Ojeda, but with
very little gold. But he was obliged to ask for fresh supplies of
food for the colony--even in the midst of the plenty which he
described; for he had found already what all such leaders find,
the difficulty of training men to use food to which they were not
accustomed. He sent also his Carib prisoners, begging that they
might be trained to a knowledge of the christian religion and of
the Spanish language. He saw, already, how much he should need
interpreters. The fleet sailed on the second of February, and its
reports were, on the whole, favorably received.
Columbus chose for the new city an elevation, ten leagues east of
Monte Christi, and at first gave to his colony the name of
Martha. It is the Isabella of the subsequent history.
The colonists were delighted with the fertility of the soil under
the tropical climate. Andalusia itself had not prepared them for
it. They planted seeds of peas, beans, lettuces, cabbages and
other vegetables, and declared that they grew more in eight days
than they would have grown in twenty at home. They had fresh
vegetables in sixteen days after they planted them; but for
melons, pumpkins and other fruits of that sort, they are generous
enough to allow thirty days.
They had carried out roots and suckers of the sugar-cane. In
fifteen days the shoots were a cubit high. A farmer who had
planted wheat in the beginning of February had ripe grain in the
beginning of April; so that they were sure of, at least, two
crops in a year.
But the fertility of the soil was the only favorable token which
the island first exhibited. The climate was enervating and
sickly. The labor on the new city was hard and discouraging.
Columbus found that his colonists were badly fitted for their
duty, or not fitted for it at all. Court gentlemen did not want
to work. Priests expected to be put on better diet than any other
people. Columbus--though he lost his own popularity--insisted on
putting all on equal fare, in sharing the supplies he had brought
from Spain. It did not require a long time to prove that the
selection of the site of the colony was unfortunate. Columbus
himself gave way to the general disease. While he was ill, a
mutiny broke out which he had to suppress by strong measures.
Bornal Diaz, who ranked as comptroller of the expedition, and
Fermin Cedo, an assayer, made a plot for seizing the remaining
ships and sailing for Europe. News of the mutiny was brought to
Columbus. He found a document in the writing of Diaz, drawn as a
memorial, accusing Columbus himself of grave crimes. He confined
Diaz on board a ship to be sent to Spain with the memorial. He
punished the mutineers of lower rank. He took the guns and naval
munitions from four of the vessels, and entrusted them all to a
person in whom he had absolute confidence.
On the report of the exploring parties, four names were given to
as many divisions of the island. Junna was the most western,
Attibunia the most eastern, Jachen the northern and Naiba the
southern. Columbus himself, seeing the fortifications of the city
well begun, undertook, in March, an exploration, of the island,
with a force of five hundred men.
It was in the course of this exploration that one of the natives
brought in a gold-bearing stone which weighed an ounce. He was
satisfied with a little bell in exchange. He was surprised at the
wonder expressed by the Spaniards, and showing a stone as large
as a pomegranate, he said that he had nuggets of gold as large as
this at his home. Other Indians brought in gold-bearing stones
which weighed more than an ounce. At their homes, also, but not
in sight, alas, was a block of gold as large as an infant's head.
Columbus himself thought it best to take as many men as he could
into the mountain region. He left the new city under the care of
his brother, Diego, and with all the force of healthy men which
he could muster, making a little army of nearly five hundred men,
he marched away from the sickly seaboard into the interior. The
simple natives were astonished by the display of cavalry and
other men in armor. After a few days of a delightful march, in
the beauty of spring in that country, he entered upon the long
sought Cibao. He relinquished his first idea of founding another
city here, but did build a fortress called St. Thomas, in joking
reference to Cedo and others, who had asserted that these regions
produced no gold. While building this fortress, as it was proudly
called, he sent a young cavalier named Luxan for further
exploration.
Luxan returned with stories even greater than they had heard of
before, but with no gold, "because he had no orders to do so." He
had found ripe grapes. And at last they had found a region called
Cipangi, cipan signifying stone. This name recalled the memory of
Cipango, or Japan. With tidings as encouraging as this, Columbus
returned to his city. He appointed his brother and Pedro
Margarita governors of the city, and left with three ships for
the further exploration of Cuba, which he had left only partly
examined in his first voyage. He believed that it was the
mainland of Asia. And as has been said, such was his belief till
he died, and that of his countrymen. Cuba was not known to be an
island for many years afterwards. He was now again in the career
which pleased him, and for which he was fitted. He was always ill
at ease in administering a colony, or ruling the men who were
engaged in it. He was happy and contented when he was
discovering. He had been eager to follow the southern coast of
Cuba, as he had followed the north in his first voyage. And now
he had his opportunity. Having commissioned his brother Diego and
Margarita and appointed also a council of four other gentlemen,
he sailed to explore new coasts, on the twenty-fourth of April.
He was soon tempted from his western course that he might examine
Jamaica, of which he saw the distant lines on the south. "This
island," says the account of the time, "is larger than Sicily. It
has only one mountain, which rises from the coast on every side,
little by little, until you come to the middle of the island and
the ascent is so gradual that, whether you rise or descend, you
hardly know whether you are rising or descending." Columbus found
the island well peopled, and from what he saw of the natives,
thought them more ingenious, and better artificers, than any
Indians he had seen before. But when he proposed to land, they
generally showed themselves prepared to resist him. He therefore
deferred a full examination of the island to his return, and,
with the first favorable wind, pressed on toward the southern
coast of Cuba. He insisted on calling this the "Golden
Chersonesus" of the East. This name had been given by the old
geographers to the peninsula now known as Malacca.
Crossing the narrow channel between Jamaica and Cuba, he began
coasting that island westward. If the reader will examine the
map, he will find many small keys and islands south of Cuba,
which, before any survey had been made, seriously retarded his
westward course. In every case he was obliged to make a separate
examination to be sure where the real coast of the island was,
all the time believing it was the continent of Asia. One of the
narratives says, with a pardonable exaggeration, that in all this
voyage he thus discovered seven hundred islands. His own estimate
was that he sailed two hundred and twenty-two leagues westward in
the exploration which now engaged him.
The month of May and the beginning of June were occupied with
such explorations. The natives proved friendly, as the natives of
the northern side of Cuba had proved two years before. They had,
in general, heard of the visit of the Spaniards ; but their
wonder and admiration seem to have been none the less now that
they saw the reality.
On one occasion the hopes of all the party, that they should find
themselves at the court of the Grand Khan, were greatly
quickened. A Spaniard had gone into a forest alone, hunting.
Suddenly he saw a man clothed in white, or thought he did, whom
he supposed to be a friar of the order of Saint Mary de Mercedes,
who was with the expedition. But, almost immediately, ten other
friars dressed in the same costume, appeared, and then as many as
thirty. The Spaniard was frightened at the multiplication of
their number, it hardly appears why, as they were all men of
peace, or should have been, whatever their number. He called out
to his companions, and bade them escape. But the men in white
called out to him, and waved their hands, as if to assure him
that there was no danger. He did not trust them, however, but
rushed back to the shore and the ship, as fast as he could, to
report what he had seen to the Admiral.
Here, at last, was reason for hope that they had found one of the
Asiatic missions of the Church. Columbus at once landed a party,
instructing them to go forty miles inland, if necessary, to find
people. But this party found neither path nor roadway, although
the country was rich and fertile. Another party brought back rich
bunches of grapes, and other native fruits. But neither party saw
any friars of the order of Saint Mary. And it is now supposed
that the Spaniard saw a peaceful flock of white cranes. The
traveller Humboldt describes one occasion, in which the town of
Angostura was put to alarm by the appearance of a flock of cranes
known as soldados, or "soldiers," which were, as people supposed,
a band of Indians.
In his interviews with the natives at one point and another, upon
the coast, Columbus was delighted with their simplicity, their
hospitality, and their kindly dealing with each other. On one
occasion, when the Mass was celebrated, a large number of them
were present, and joined in the service, as well as they could,
with respect and devotion. An old man as much as eighty years
old, as the Spaniards thought, brought to the Admiral a basket
full of fruit, as a present. Then he said, by an interpreter:
"We have heard how you have enveloped, by your power, all these
countries, and how much afraid of you the people have been. But I
have to exhort you, and to tell you that there are two ways when
men leave this body. One is dark and dismal; it is for those who
have injured the race of men. The other is delightful and
pleasant; it is for those who, while alive, have loved peace and
the repose of mankind. If, then, you remember that you are
mortal, and what these retributions are, you will do no harm to
any one."
Columbus told him in reply that he had known of the two roads
after death, and that he was well pleased to find that the
natives of these lands knew of them; for he had not expected
this. He said that the king and queen of Spain had sent him with
the express mission of bringing these tidings to them. In
particular, that he was charged with the duty of punishing the
Caribs and all other men of impure life, and of rewarding and
honoring all pure and innocent men. This statement so delighted
the old prophet that he was eager to accompany Columbus on a
mission so noble, and it was only by the urgent entreaty of his
wife and children that he stayed with them. He found it hard to
believe that Columbus was inferior in rank or command to any
other sovereign.
The beauty of the island and the hospitality of the natives,
however, were not enough to dispose the crews to continue this
exploration further. They were all convinced that they were on
the coast of Asia. Columbus did not mean that afterwards any one
should accuse him of abandoning the discovery of that coast too
soon. Calling to their attention the distance they had sailed, he
sent round a written declaration for the signature of every
person on the ships. Every man and boy put his name to it. It
expressed their certainty that they were on the cape which made
the end of the eastern Indies, and that any one who chose could
proceed thence westward to Spain by land. This extraordinary
declaration was attested officially by a notary, and still
exists.
It was executed in a bay at the extreme southwestern corner of
Cuba. It has been remarked by Munoz, that at that moment, in that
place, a ship boy at the masthead could have looked over the
group of low islands and seen the open sea, which would have
shown that Cuba was an island.
The facts, which were controlling, were these, that the vessels
were leaky and the crews sick and discontented. On the thirteenth
of June, Columbus stood to the southeast. He discovered the
island now known as the Island of Pines. He called it
Evangelista. He anchored here and took in water. In an interview,
not unlike that described, in which the old Cuban expressed his
desire to return with Columbus, it is said that an Evangelistan
chief made the same offer, but was withheld by the remonstrances,
of his wife and children. A similar incident is reported in the
visit to Jamaica, which soon followed. Columbus made a careful
examination of that island. Then he crossed to Hispaniola, where,
from the Indians, he received such accounts from the new town of
Isabella as assured him that all was well there.
With his own indomitable zeal, he determined now to go to the
Carib islands and administer to them the vengeance he had ready.
But his own frame was not strong enough for his will. He sank
exhausted, in a sort of lethargy. The officers of his ship,
supposing he was dying, put about the vessels and the little
squadron arrived, none too soon as it proved, at Isabella.
He was as resolute as ever in his determination to crush the
Caribs, and prevent their incursions upon those innocent
islanders to whom he had made so many promises of protection. But
he fell ill, and for a short time at least was wholly
unconscious. The officers in command took occasion of his
illness, and of their right to manage the vessels, to turn back
to the city of Isabella. He arrived there "as one half dead," and
his explorations and discoveries for this voyage were thus
brought to an end. To his great delight he found there his
brother Bartholomew, whom he had not seen for eight years.
Bartholomew had accompanied Diaz in the famous voyage in which he
discovered the Cape of Good Hope. Returning to Europe in 1488 he
had gone to England, with a message from Christopher Columbus,
asking King Henry the Seventh to interest himself in the great
adventure he proposed.
The authorities differ as to the reception which Henry gave to
this great proposal. Up to the present time, no notice has been
found of his visit in the English archives. The earliest notice
of America, in the papers preserved there, is a note of a present
of ten pounds "to hym that found the new land," who was Cabot,
after his first voyage. Bartholomew Columbus was in England on
the tenth of February, 1488; how much later is not known.
Returning from England he staid in France, in the service of
Madama de Bourbon. This was either Anne of Beaujeu, or the widow
of the Admiral Louis de Bourbon. Bartholomew was living in Paris
when he heard of his brother's great discovery.
He had now been appointed by the Spanish sovereigns to command a
fleet of three vessels, which had been sent out to provision the
new colony. He had sailed from Cadiz on the thirtieth of April,
1494, and he arrived at Isabella on St. John's Day of the same
year.
Columbus welcomed him with delight, and immediately made him his
first-lieutenant in command of the colony. There needed a strong
hand for the management of the colony, for the quarrels which had
existed before Columbus went on his Cuban voyage had not
diminished in his absence. Pedro Margarita and Father Boil are
spoken of as those who had made the most trouble. They had come
determined to make a fortune rapidly, and they did not propose to
give up such a hope to the slow processes of ordinary
colonization. Columbus knew very well that those who had returned
to Spain had carried with them complaints as to his own course.
He would have been glad on some accounts to return, himself, at
once; but he did not think that the natives of the islands were
sufficiently under the power of the new colony to be left in
safety.
First of all he sent back four caravels, which had recently
arrived from Europe, with five hundred Indians whom he had taken
as slaves. He consigned them to Juan de Fonseca's care. He was
eager himself to say that he sent them out that they might be
converted, to Christianity, and that they might learn the Spanish
language and be of use as interpreters. But, at the same time, he
pointed out how easy it would be to make a source of revenue to
the Crown from such involuntary emigration. To Isabella's credit
it is to be said, that she protested against the whole thing
immediately; and so far as appears, no further shipments were
made in exactly the same way. But these poor wretches were not
sent back to the islands, as she perhaps thought they were.
Fonseca did not hesitate to sell them, or apprentice them, to use
our modern phrase, and it is said by Bernaldez that they all
died. His bitter phrase is that Fonseca took no more care of them
than if they had been wild animals.
Columbus did not recover his health, so as to take a very active
part in affairs for five months after his arrival at San Domingo.
He was well aware that the Indians were vigorously organized,
with the intention of driving his people from the island, or
treating the colony as they had treated the colony of Navidad. He
called the chief of the Cipangi, named Guarionexius, for
consultation. The interpreter Didacus, who had served them so
faithfully, married the king's sister, and it was hoped that this
would be a bond of amity between the two nations.
Columbus sent Ojeda into the gold mountains with fifty armed men
to make an alliance with Canabao. Canabao met this party with a
good deal of perplexity. He undoubtedly knew that he had given
the Spaniards good reason for doubting him. It is said that he
had put to death twenty Spaniards by treasonable means, but it is
to be remembered that this is the statement of his enemies. He,
however, came to Columbus with a large body of his people, all
armed. When he was asked why he brought so large a force with
him, he said that so great a king as he, could not go anywhere
without a fitting military escort. But Ojeda did not hesitate to
take him prisoner and carry him into Isabella, bound. As has been
said, he was eventually sent to Spain, but he died on the
passage.
Columbus made another fortress, or tower, on the border of King
Guarionexius's country, between his kingdom and Cipango. He gave
to this post the name of the "Tower of the Conception," and meant
it to be a rallying point for the miners and others, in case of
any uprising of the natives against them. This proved to be an
important centre for mining operations. From this place, what we
should call a nugget of gold, which one of the chiefs brought in,
was sent to Spain. It weighed twenty ounces. A good deal of
interest attached also to the discovery of amber, one mass of
which weighed three hundred pounds. Such discoveries renewed the
interest and hope which had been excited in Spain by the first
accounts of Hispaniola.
Columbus satisfied himself that he left the island really
subdued; and in this impression he was not mistaken. Certain that
his presence in Spain was needed, if he would maintain his own
character against the attacks of the disaffected Spaniards who
had gone before him, he set sail on the Nina on the tenth of
March, taking with him as a consort a caravel which had been
built at Isabella. He did not arrive in Cadiz till the eleventh
of June, having been absent from Spain two years and nine months.
His return to Spain at this time gave Isabella another
opportunity to show the firmness of her character, and the
determination to which alone belongs success.
The excitement and popularity which attended the return from the
first voyage had come to an end. Spain was in the period of
reaction. The disappointment which naturally follows undue
expectations and extravagant prophecies, was, in this instance,
confirmed by the return of discontented adventurers. Four hundred
years have accustomed the world to this reflex flow of
disappointed colonists, unable or unwilling to work, who come
back from a new land to say that its resources have been
exaggerated. In this case, where everything was measured by the
standard of gold, it was certainly true that the supply of gold
received from the islands was very small as compared with the
expenses of the expedition which had been sent out.
Five hundred Indians, who came to be taught the language,
entering Spain as slaves, were but a poor return for the expenses
in which the nation, not to say individuals, had been involved.
The people of Spain, therefore, so far as they could show their
feeling, were prejudiced against Columbus and those who
surrounded him. They heard with incredulity the accounts of Cuba
which he gave, and were quite indifferent to the geographical
theories by which he wanted to prove that it was a part of Asia.
He believed that the rich mines, which he had really found in
Hispaniola, were the same as those of Ophir. But after five years
of waiting, the Spanish public cared but little for such
conjectures.
As he arrived in Cadiz, he found three vessels, under Nino, about
to sail with supplies. These were much needed, for the relief of
the preceding year, sent out in four vessels, had been lost by
shipwreck. Columbus was able to add a letter of his own to the
governor of Isabella, begging him to conform to the wishes
expressed by the king and queen in the dispatches taken by Nino.
He recommended diligence in exploring the new mines, and that a
seaport should be founded in their neighborhood. At the same time
he received a gracious letter from the king and queen,
congratulating him on his return, and asking him to court as soon
as he should recover from his fatigue.
Columbus was encouraged by the tone of this letter. He had chosen
to act as if he were in disgrace, and dressed himself in humble
garb, as if he were a Franciscan monk, wearing his beard as the
brethren of those orders do. Perhaps this was in fulfillment of
one of those vows which, as we know, he frequently made in
periods of despondency.
He went to Burgos, where Ferdinand and Isabella were residing,
and on the way made such a display of treasure as he had done on
the celebrated march to Barcelona. Canabao, the fierce cacique of
Hispaniola, had died on the voyage, but his brother and nephew
still lived, and he took them to the king and queen, glittering
on state occasions with golden ornaments. One chain of gold which
the brother wore, is said to have been worth more than three
thousand dollars of our time. In the procession Columbus carried
various masks and other images, made by the Indians in fantastic
shapes, which attracted the curiosity which in all nations
surrounds the idols of a foreign creed.
The sovereigns received him cordially. No reference was made to
the complaints of the adventurers who had returned. However the
sovereigns may have been impressed by these, they were still
confident in Columbus and in his merits, and do not seem to have
wished to receive the partial accounts of his accusers. On his
part, he pressed the importance of a new expedition, in order
that they might annex to their dominions the eastern part of
Asia. He wanted for this purpose eight ships. He was willing to
leave two in the island of Hispaniola, and he hoped that he might
have six for a voyage of discovery. The sovereigns assented
readily to his proposal, and at the time probably intended to
carry out his wishes.
But Spain had something else to do than to annex Asia or to
discover America; and the fulfillment of the promises made so
cordially in 1496, was destined to await the exigencies of
European war and diplomacy. In fact, he did not sail upon the
third expedition for nearly two years after his arrival in Cadiz.
In the autumn of 1496, an order was given for a sum amounting to
nearly a hundred thousand dollars of our time, for the equipment
of the promised squadron. At the same time Columbus was relieved
from the necessity by which he was bound in his original
contract, to furnish at least one-eighth of the money necessary
in any of these expeditions. This burden was becoming too heavy
for him to bear. It was agreed, however, that in the event of any
profit resulting to the crown, he should be entitled to
one-eighth of it for three ensuing years. This concession must be
considered as an evidence that he was still in favor. At the end
of three years both parties were to fall back upon the original
contract.
But these noble promises, which must have been so encouraging to
him, could not be fulfilled, as it proved. For the exigencies of
war, the particular money which was to be advanced to Columbus
was used for the repair of a fortress upon the frontier. Instead
of this, Columbus was to receive his money from the gold brought
by Nino on his return. Alas, it proved that a report that he had
returned with so much gold, meant that he had Indian prisoners,
from the sale of whom he expected to realize this money. And poor
Columbus was virtually consigned to building and fitting out his
ship from the result of a slave-trade, which was condemned by
Isabella, and which he knew was wretchedly unprofitable.
A difficulty almost equally great resulted from the unpopularity
of the expedition. People did not volunteer eagerly, as they had
done, the minds of men being poisoned by the reports of
emigrants, who had gone out in high hope, and had returned
disappointed. It even became necessary to commute the sentences
of criminals who had been sentenced to banishment, so that they
might be transported into the new settlements, where they were to
work without pay. Even these expedients did not much hasten the
progress of the expedition.
Fonseca, the steady enemy of Columbus, was placed in command
again at this time. The queen was overwhelmed with affliction by
the death of Prince Juan; and it seemed to Columbus and his
friends that every petty difficulty was placed in the way of
preparation. When at length six vessels were fitted for sea, it
was only after the wear and tear of constant opposition from
officials in command; and the expedition, as it proved, was not
what Columbus had hoped for, for his purposes.
On the thirtieth of May, however, in 1498, he was able to sail.
As this was the period when the Catholic church celebrates the
mystery of the Trinity, he determined and promised that the first
land which he discovered should receive that sacred name. He was
well convinced of the existence of a continent farther south than
the islands among which he had cruised, and intended to strike
that continent, as in fact he did, in the outset of his voyage.
CHAPTER X. THE THIRD VOYAGE.
LETTER TO THE KING AND QUEEN--DISCOVERY OF TRINIDAD AND
PARIA--CURIOUS SPECULATION AS TO THE EARTHLY PARADISE--ARRIVAL AT
SAN DOMINGO--REBELLIONS AND MUTINIES IN THAT ISLAND--ROLDAN AND
HIS FOLLOWERS--OJEDA AND HIS EXPEDITION--ARRIVAL OF
BOBADILLA--COLUMBUS A PRISONER.
For the narrative of the third voyage, we are fortunate in having
once more a contemporary account by Columbus himself. The more
important part of his expedition was partly over when he was able
to write a careful letter to the king and queen, which is still
preserved. It is lighted up by bursts of the religious enthusiasm
which governed him from the beginning. All the more does it show
the character of the man, and it impresses upon us, what is never
to be forgotten, the mixture in his motive of the enthusiasm of a
discoverer, the eager religious feeling which might have
quickened a crusader, and the prospects of what we should call
business adventure, by which he tries to conciliate persons whose
views are less exalted than his own.
In addressing the king and queen, who are called "very high and
very powerful princes," he reminds them that his undertaking to
discover the West Indies began in the inspiration of the Holy
Spirit, which appointed him as a messenger for this enterprise.
He asks them to remember that he has always addressed them as
with that intention.
He reminds them of the seven or eight years in which he was
urging his cause and that it was not enough that he should have
showed the religious side of it, that he was obliged to argue for
the temporal view as well. But their decision, for which he
praises them indirectly, was made, he says, in the face of the
ridicule of all, excepting the two priests, Marcheza and the
Archbishop of Segovia. "And everything will pass away excepting
the word of God, who spoke so clearly of these lands by the voice
of Isaiah in so many places, affirming that His name should be
divulged to the nations from Spain." He goes on in a review of
the earlier voyages, and after this preface gives his account of
the voyage of 1498.
They sailed from Santa Lucca the thirtieth of May, and went down
to Madeira to avoid the hostile squadron of the French who were
awaiting him at Cape St. Vincent. In the history by Herrara, of
another generation, this squadron is said to be Portuguese. From
Maderia, they passed to the Canary Islands, from which, with one
ship and two caravels, he makes his voyage, sending the other
three vessels to Hispaniola. After making the Cape de Verde
Islands, he sailed southwest. He had very hot weather for eight
days, and in the hope of finding cooler weather changed his
course to the westward.
On the thirty-first of July, they made land, which proved to be
the cape now known as Galeota, the southeastern cape of the
island of Trinidad. The country was as green at this season as
the orchards of Valencia in March. Passing five leagues farther
on, he lands to refit his vessels and take on board wood and
water. The next day a large canoe from the east, with twenty-four
men, well armed, appeared.
The Admiral wished to communicate with them, but they refused,
although he showed them basins and other things which he thought
would attract them. Failing in this effort, he directed some of
the boys of the crew to dance and play a tambourine on the poop
of the ship. But this conciliatory measure had as little success
as the other. The natives strung their bows, took up their
shields and began to shoot the dancers. Columbus stopped the
entertainment, therefore, and ordered some balls shot at them,
upon which they left him. With the other vessel they opened more
friendly communication, but when the pilot went to Columbus and
asked leave to land with them, they went off, nor were any of
them or theirs seen again.
On his arrival at Punta de Icacocos, at the southern point of
Trinidad, he observes the very strong currents which are always
noticed by voyagers, running with as much fury as the
Guadalquiver in time of flood. In the night a terrible wave came
from the south, "a hill as high as a ship," so that even in
writing of it he feels fear. But no misfortune came from it.
Sailing the next day, he found the water comparatively fresh. He
is, in fact, in the current produced by the great river Orinoco,
which affects, in a remarkable way, all the tide-flow of those
seas. Sailing north, he passes different points of the Island of
Trinidad, and makes out the Punta de la Pena and the mainland. He
still observes the freshness of the water and the severity of the
currents.
As he sails farther westward, he observes fleets, and he sends
his people ashore. They find no inhabitants at first, but
eventually meet people who tell him the enemy of this country is
Paria. Of these he took on board four. The king sent him an
invitation to land, and numbers of the people came in canoes,
many of whom wore gold and pearls. These pearls came to them from
the north. Columbus did not venture to land here because the
provisions of his vessels were already failing him.
He describes the people, as of much the same color as those who
have been observed before, and were ready for intercourse, and of
good appearance. Two prominent persons came to meet them, whom he
thought to be father and son. The house to which the Spaniards
were led was large, with many seats. An entertainment was brought
forward, in which there were many sorts of fruits, and wine of
many kinds. It was not made from grapes, however, and he supposed
it must be made of different sorts of fruits.
A part of the entertainment was of maize, "which is a sort of
corn which grows here, with a spike like a spindle." The Indians
and their guests parted with regret that they could not
understand each other's conversation. All this passed in the
house of the elder Indian. The younger then took them to his
house, where a similar collation was served, and they then
returned to the ship, Columbus being in haste to press on, both
on account of his want of supplies and the failure of his own
health. He says he was still suffering from diseases which he had
contracted on the last voyage, and with blindness. "That then his
eyes did not give him as much pain, nor were they bloodshot as
much as they are now."
He describes the people whom they at first visited as of fine
stature, easy bearing, with long straight hair, and wearing
worked handkerchiefs on their heads. At a little distance it
seemed as if these were made of silk, like the gauze veil with
which the Spaniards were familiar, from Moorish usage.
"Others," he says, "wore larger handkerchiefs round their waists,
like the panete of the Spaniards." By this phrase he means a full
garment hanging over the knees, either trousers or petticoats.
These people were whiter in color than the Indians he had seen
before. They all wore something at the neck and arms, with many
pieces of gold at the neck. The canoes were much larger than he
had seen, better in build and lighter; they had a cabin in the
middle for the princes and their women.
He made many inquiries for gold, but was told he must go farther
on, but he was advised not to go there, because his men would be
in danger of being eaten. At first, Columbus supposed that this
meant that the inhabitants of the gold-bearing countries were
cannibals, but he satisfied himself afterwards that the natives
meant that they would be eaten by beasts. With regard to pearls,
also, he got some information that he should find them when he
had gone farther west and farther north.
After these agreeable courtesies, the little fleet raised its
anchors and sailed west. Columbus sent one caravel to investigate
the river. Finding that he should not succeed in that direction,
and that he had no available way either north or south, he leaves
by the same entrance by which he had entered. The water is still
very fresh, and he is satisfied, correctly as we know, that these
currents were caused by the entrance of the great river of water.
On the thirteenth of August he leaves the island by what he calls
the northern mouth of the river [Boca Grande], and begins to
strike salt water again.
At this part of Columbus's letter there is a very curious
discussion of temperature, which shows that this careful
observer, even at that time, made out the difference between what
are called isothermal curves and the curves of latitude. He
observes that he cannot make any estimate of what his temperature
will be on the American coast from what he has observed on the
coast of Africa.
He begins now to doubt whether the world is spherical, and is
disposed to believe that it is shaped like a pear, and he tries
to make a theory of the difference of temperature from this
suggestion. We hardly need to follow this now. We know he was
entirely wrong in his conjecture. "Pliny and others," he says,
"thought the world spherical, because on their part of it it was
a hemisphere." They were ignorant of the section over which he
was sailing, which he considers to be that of a pear cut in the
wrong way. His demonstration is, that in similar latitudes to the
eastward it is very hot and the people are black, while at
Trinidad or on the mainland it is comfortable and the people are
a fine race of men, whiter than any others whom he has seen in
the Indies. The sun in the constellation of the Virgin is over
their heads, and all this comes from their being higher up,
nearer the air than they would have been had they been on the
African coast.
With this curious speculation he unites some inferences from
Scripture, and goes back to the account in the Book of Genesis
and concludes that the earthly Paradise was in the distant east.
He says, however, that if he could go on, on the equinoctial
line, the air would grow more temperate, with greater changes in
the stars and in the water. He does not think it possible that
anyone can go to the extreme height of the mountain where the
earthly Paradise is to be found, for no one is to be permitted to
enter there but by the will of God, but he believes that in this
voyage he is approaching it.
Any reader who is interested in this curious speculation of
Columbus should refer to the "Divina Comedia" of Dante, where
Dante himself held a somewhat similar view, and describes his
entrance into the terrestrial paradise under the guidance of
Beatrice. It is a rather curious fact, which discoverers of the
last three centuries have established, that the point, on this
world, which is opposite the city of Jerusalem, where all these
enthusiasts supposed the terrestrial Paradise would be found, is
in truth in the Pacific Ocean not far from Pitcairn's Island, in
the very region where so many voyagers have thought that they
found the climate and soil which to the terrestrial Paradise
belong.
Columbus expresses his dissent from the recent theory, which was
that of Dante, supposing that the earthly Paradise was at the top
of a sharp mountain. On the other hand, he supposes that this
mountain rises gently, but yet that no person can go to the top.
This is his curious "excursion," made, perhaps, because Columbus
had the time to write it.
The journal now recurs to more earthly affairs. Passing out from
the mouth of the "Dragon," he found the sea running westward and
the wind gentle. He notices that the waters are swept westward as
the trade winds are. In this way he accounts for there being so
many islands in that part of the earth, the mainland having been
eaten away by the constant flow of the waves. He thinks their
very shape indicates this, they being narrow from north to south
and longer from east to west. Although some of the islands differ
in this, special reasons maybe given for the difference. He
brings in many of the old authorities to show, what we now know
to be entirely false, that there is much more land than water on
the surface of the globe.
All this curious speculation as to the make-up of the world
encourages him to beg their Highnesses to go on with the noble
work which they have begun. He explains to them that he plants
the cross on every cape and proclaims the sovereignty of their
Majesties and of the Christian religion. He prays that this may
continue. The only objection to it is the expense, but Columbus
begs their Highnesses to remember how much more money is spent
for the mere formalities of the elegancies of the court. He begs
them to consider the credit attaching to plans of discovery and
quickens their ambition by reference to the efforts of the
princes of Portugal.
This letter closes by the expression of his determination to go
on with his three ships for further discoveries.
This letter was written from San Domingo on the eighth of
October. He had already made the great discovery of the mainland
of South America, though he did not yet know that he had touched
the continent. He had intentionally gone farther south than
before, and had therefore struck the island of Trinidad, to
which, as he had promised, he gave the name which it still bears.
A sailor first saw the summits of three mountains, and gave the
cry of land. As the ships approached, it was seen that these
three mountains were united at the base. Columbus was delighted
by the omen, as he regarded it, which thus connected his
discovery with the vow which he had made on Trinity Sunday.
As the reader has seen, he first passed between this great island
and the mainland. The open gulf there described is now known as
the Gulf of Paria. The observation which he made as to the
freshness of the water caused by the flow of the Orinoco, has
been made by all navigators since. It may be said that he was
then really in the mouth of the Orinoco.
Young readers, at least, will be specially interested to remember
that it was in this region that Robinson Crusoe's island was
placed by Defoe; and if they will carefully read his life they
will find discussions there of the flow of the "great River
Orinoco." Crossing this gulf, Columbus had touched upon the coast
of Paria, and thus became the first discoverer of South America.
It is determined, by careful geographers, that the discovery of
the continent of North America, had been made before this time by
the Cabots, sailing under the orders of England.
Columbus was greatly encouraged by the discovery of fine pearls
among the natives of Paria. Here he found one more proof that he
was on the eastern coast of Asia, from which coast pearls had
been brought by the caravans on which, till now, Europe had
depended for its Asiatic supplies. He gave the name "Gulf of
Pearls" to the estuary which makes the mouth of the River Paria.
He would gladly have spent more time in exploring this region;
but the sea-stores of his vessel were exhausted, he was suffering
from a difficulty with his eyes, caused by overwatching, and was
also a cripple from gout. He resisted the temptation, therefore,
to make further explorations on the coast of Paria, and passed
westward and northwestward. He made many discoveries of islands
in the Caribbean Sea as he went northwest, and he arrived at the
colony of San Domingo, on the thirtieth of August. He had hoped
for rest after his difficult voyage; but he found the island in
confusion which seemed hopeless.
His brother Bartholomew, from all the accounts we have, would
seem to have administered its affairs with justice and decision;
but the problem he had in hand was one which could not be solved
so as to satisfy all the critics. Close around him he had a body
of adventurers, almost all of whom were nothing but adventurers.
With the help of these adventurers, he had to repress Indian
hostilities, and to keep in order the natives who had been
insulted and injured in every conceivable way by the settlers.
He was expected to send home gold to Spain with every vessel; he
knew perfectly well that Spain was clamoring with indignation
because he did not succeed in doing so. But on the island itself
he had to meet, from day to day, conspiracies of Spaniards and
what are called insurrections of natives. These insurrections
consisted simply in their assertion of such rights as they had to
the beautiful land which the Spaniards were taking away from
them.
At the moment when Columbus landed, there was an instant of
tranquility. But the natives, whom he remembered only six years
ago as so happy and cheerful and hospitable, had fled as far as
they could. They showed in every way their distrust of those who
were trying to become their masters. On the other hand, soldiers
and emigrants were eager to leave the island if they could. They
were near starvation, or if they did not starve they were using
food to which they were not accustomed. The eagerness with which,
in 1493, men had wished to rush to this land of promise, was
succeeded by an equal eagerness, in 1498, to go home from it.
As soon as he arrived, Columbus issued a proclamation, approving
of the measures of his brother in his absence, and denouncing the
rebels with whom Bartholomew had been contending. He found the
difficulties which surrounded him were of the most serious
character. He had not force enough to take up arms against the
rebels of different names. He offered pardon to them in the name
of the sovereigns, and that they refused.
Columbus was obliged, in order to maintain any show of authority,
to propose to the sovereigns that they should arbitrate between
his brother and Roldan, who was the chief of the rebel party. He
called to the minds of Ferdinand and Isabella his own eager
desire to return to San Domingo sooner, and ascribed the
difficulties which had arisen, in large measure, to his long
delay. He said he should send home the more worthless men by
every ship.
He asked that preachers might be sent out to convert the Indians
and to reform the dissolute Spaniards. He asked for officers of
revenue, and for a learned judge. He begged at the same time
that, for two years longer, the colony might be permitted to
employ the Indians as slaves, but he promised they would only use
such as they captured in war and insurrections.
By the same vessel the rebels sent out letters charging Columbus
and his brother with the grossest oppression and injustice. All
these letters came to court by one messenger. Columbus was then
left to manage as best he could, in the months which must pass,
before he could receive an answer.
He was not wholly without success. That is to say, no actual
battles took place between the parties before the answer
returned. But when it returned, it proved to be written by his
worst enemy, Fonseca. It was a genuine Spanish answer to a letter
which required immediate decision. That is to say, Columbus was
simply told that the whole matter must be left in suspense till
the sovereigns could make such an investigation as they wished.
The hope, therefore, of some help from home was wholly
disappointed.
Roldan, the chief of the rebels, was encouraged by this news to
take higher ground than even he had ventured on before. He now
proposed that he should send fifteen of his company to Spain,
also that those who remained should not only be pardoned, but
should have lands granted them; third, that a public proclamation
should be made that all charges against him had been false; and
fourth, that he should hold the office of chief judge, which he
had held before the rebellion.
Columbus was obliged to accede to terms as insolent as these, and
the rebels even added a stipulation, that if he should fail in
fulfilling either of these articles, they might compel him to
comply, by force or any other means. Thus was he hampered in the
very position where, by the king's orders, and indeed, one would
say, by the right of discovery, he was the supreme master.
For himself, he determined to return with Bartholomew to Spain,
and he made some preparations to do so. But at this time he
learned, from the western part of the island, that four strange
ships had arrived there. He could not feel that it was safe to
leave the colony in such a condition of latent rebellion as he
knew it to be in; he wrote again to the sovereigns, and said
directly that his capitulation with the rebels had been extorted
by force, and that he did not consider that the sovereigns, or
that he himself, were bound by it. He pressed some of the
requests which he had made before, and asked that his son Diego,
who was no longer a boy, might be sent out to him.
It proved that the ships which had arrived at the west of the
island were under the command of Ojeda, who will be remembered as
a bold cavalier in the adventures of the second voyage. Acting
under a general permission which had been given for private
adventurers, Ojeda had brought out this squadron, and, when
Columbus communicated with him, was engaged in cutting dye-woods
and shipping slaves.
Columbus sent Roldan, who had been the head of the rebels, to
inquire on what ground he was there. Ojeda produced a license
signed by Fonseca, authorizing him to sail on a voyage of
discovery. It proved that Columbus's letters describing the
pearls of Paria had awakened curiosity and enthusiasm, and, while
the crown had passed them by so coldly, Ojeda and a body of
adventurers had obtained a license and had fitted out four ships
for adventure. The special interest of this voyage for us, is
that it is supposed that Vespucci, a Florentine merchant, made at
this time his first expedition to America.
Vespucci was not a professional seaman, but he was interested in
geography, and had made many voyages before this time. So soon as
it was announced that Ojeda was on the coast, the rebels of San
Domingo selected him as a new leader. He announced to Columbus,
rather coolly, that he could probably redress the grievances
which these men had. He undoubtedly knew that he had the
protection of Fonseca at home. Fortunately for Columbus, Roldan
did not mean to give up his place as "leader of the opposition;"
and it may be said that the difficulty between the two was a
certain advantage to Columbus in maintaining his authority.
Meanwhile, all wishes on his part to continue his discoveries
were futile, while he was engaged in the almost hopeless duty of
reconciling various adventurers and conciliating people who had
no interests but their own. In Spain, his enemies were doing
everything in their power to undermine his reputation. His
statements were read more and more coldly, and at last, on the
twenty-first and twenty-sixth of May, 1499, letters were written
to him instructing him to deliver into the hands of Bobadilla, a
new commandant, all the fortresses any ships, houses and other
royal property which he held, and to give faith and obedience to
any instructions given by Bobadilla. That is to say, Bobadilla
was sent out as a commander who was to take precedence of every
one on the spot. He was an officer of the royal household,
probably a favorite at court, and was selected for the difficult
task of reconciling all difficulties, and bringing the new colony
into loyal allegiance to the crown. He sailed for San Domingo in
the middle of July, 1500, and arrived on the twenty-third of
August.
On his arrival, he found that Columbus and his brother
Bartholomew were both absent from the city, being in fact engaged
in efforts to set what may be called the provinces in order. The
young Diego Columbus was commander in their absence. The morning
after he arrived, Bobadilla attended mass, and then, with the
people assembled around the door of the church, he directed that
his commission should be read. He was to investigate the
rebellion, he was to seize the persons of delinquents and punish
them with rigor, and he was to command the Admiral to assist him
in these duties.
He then bade Diego surrender to him certain prisoners, and
ordered that their accusers should appear before him. To this
Diego replied that his brother held superior powers to any which
Bobadilla could possess; he asked for a copy of the commission,
which was declined, until Columbus himself should arrive.
Bobadilla then took the oath of office, and produced, for the
first time, the order which has been described above, ordering
Columbus to deliver up all the royal property. He won the popular
favor by reading an order which directed him to pay all arrears
of wages due to all persons in the royal service.
But when he came before the fortress, he found that the commander
declined to surrender it. He said he held the fortress for the
king by the command of the Admiral, and would not deliver it
until he should arrive. Bobadilla, however, "assailed the
portal;" that is to say, he broke open the gate. No one offered
any opposition, and the commander and his first-lieutenant were
taken prisoners. He went farther, taking up his residence in
Columbus's house, and seizing his papers. So soon as Columbus
received account of Bobadilla's arrival, he wrote to him in
careful terms, welcoming him to the island. He cautioned him
against precipitate measures, told him that he himself was on the
point of going to Spain, and that he would soon leave him in
command, with everything explained. Bobadilla gave no answer to
these letters; and when Columbus received from the sovereigns the
letter of the twenty-sixth of May, he made no longer any
hesitation, but reported in person at the city of San Domingo.
He traveled without guards or retinue, but Bobadilla had made
hostile preparations, as if Columbus meant to come with military
force. Columbus preferred to show his own loyalty to the crown
and to remove suspicion. But no sooner did he arrive in the city
than Bobadilla gave orders that he should be put in irons and
confined in the fortress. Up to this moment, Bobadilla had been
sustained by the popular favor of those around him; but the
indignity, of placing chains upon Columbus, seems to have made a
change in the fickle impressions of the little town.
Columbus, himself, behaved with magnanimity, and made no
complaint. Bobadilla asked him to bid his brother return to San
Domingo, and he complied. He begged his brother to submit to the
authority of the sovereigns, and Bartholomew immediately did so.
On his arrival in San Domingo he was also put in irons, as his
brother Diego had been, and was confined on board a caravel. As
soon as a set of charges could be made up to send to Spain with
Columbus, the vessels, with the prisoners, set sail.
The master of the caravel, Martin, was profoundly grieved by the
severe treatment to which the great navigator was subjected. He
would gladly have taken off his irons, but Columbus would not
consent. "I was commanded by the king and queen," he said, "to
submit to whatever Bobadilla should order in their name. He has
put these chains on me by their authority. I will wear them until
the king and queen bid me take them off. I will preserve them
afterwards as relics and memorials of the reward of my services."
His son, Fernando, who tells this story, says that he did so,
that they were always hanging in his cabinet, and that he asked
that they might be buried with him when he died.
From this expression of Fernando Columbus, there has arisen, what
Mr. Harrisse calls, a "pure legend," that the chains were placed
in the coffin of Columbus. Mr. Harrisse shows good reason for
thinking that this was not so. "Although disposed to believe
that, in a moment of just indignation, Columbus expressed the
wish that these tokens of the ingratitude of which he had been
the victim should be buried, with him, I do not believe that they
were ever placed in his coffin."
It will thus be seen that the third voyage added to the knowledge
of the civilized world the information which Columbus had gained
regarding Paria and the island of Trinidad. For other purposes of
discovery, it was fruitless.
CHAPTER XI. SPAIN, 1500, 1501.
A CORDIAL RECEPTION IN SPAIN--COLUMBUS FAVORABLY RECEIVED AT
COURT--NEW INTEREST IN GEOGRAPHICAL DISCOVERY--HIS PLANS FOR THE
REDEMPTION OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE--PREPARATIONS FOR A FOURTH
EXPEDITION.
Columbus was right in insisting on wearing his chains. They
became rather an ornament than a disgrace. So soon as it was
announced in Spain that the great discoverer had been so treated
by Bobadilla, a wave of popular indignation swept through the
people and reached the court. Ferdinand and Isabella, themselves,
had never intended to give such powers to their favorite, that he
should disgrace a man so much his superior.
They instantly sent orders to Cadiz that Columbus should be
received with all honor. So soon as he arrived he had been able
to send, to Dona Juana de la Torre, a lady high in favor at
court, a private letter, in which he made a proud defense of
himself. This letter is still preserved, and it is of the first
interest, as showing his own character, and as showing what were
the real hardships which he had undergone.
The Lady Juana read this letter to Isabella. Her own indignation,
which probably had been kindled by the general news that Columbus
had been chained, rose to the highest. She received him,
therefore, when he arrived at court, with all the more
cordiality. Ferdinand was either obliged to pretend to join with
her in her indignation, or he had really felt distressed by the
behavior of his subordinate.
They did not wait for any documents from Bobadilla. As has been
said, they wrote cordially to Columbus; they also ordered that
two thousand ducats should be paid him for his expenses, and they
bade him appear at Grenada at court. He did appear there on the
seventeenth of December, attended by an honorable retinue, and in
the proper costume of a gentleman in favor with the king and
queen.
When the queen met him she was moved to tears, and Columbus,
finding himself so kindly received, threw himself upon his knees.
For some time he could not express himself except by tears and
sobs. His sovereigns raised him from the ground and encouraged
him by gracious words.
So soon as he recovered his self-possession he made such an
address as he had occasion to make more than once in his life,
and showed the eloquence which is possible to a man of affairs.
He could well boast of his loyalty to the Spanish crown; and he
might well say that, whether he were or were not experienced in
government, he had been surrounded by such difficulties in
administration as hardly any other man had had to go through. But
really, it was hardly necessary that he should vindicate himself.
The stupidity of his enemies, had injured their cause more than
any carelessness of Columbus could have done. The sovereigns
expressed their indignation at Bobadilla's proceedings, and,
indeed, declared at once that he should be dismissed from
command. They never took any public notice of the charges which
he had sent home; on the other hand, they received Columbus with
dignity and favor, and assured him that he should be reinstated
in all his privileges.
The time at which he arrived was, in a certain sense, favorable
for his future plans, so far as he had formed any. On the other
hand, the condition of affairs was wholly changed from what it
was when he began his great discoveries, and the changes were in
some degree unfavorable. Vasco da Gama had succeeded in the great
enterprise by which he had doubled the Cape of Good Hope, had
arrived at the Indies by the route of the Indian ocean, and his
squadron had successfully returned.
This great adventure, with the commercial and other results which
would certainly follow it, had quickened the mind of all Europe,
as the discovery by Columbus had quickened it eight years before.
So far, any plan for the discoveries over which Columbus was
always brooding, would be favorably received. But, on the other
hand, in eight years since the first voyage, a large body of
skillful adventurers had entered upon the career which then no
one chose to share with him. The Pinzon brothers were among
these; Ojeda, already known to the reader, was another; and
Vespucci, as the reader knows, an intelligent and wise student,
had engaged himself in such discoveries.
The rumors of the voyages of the Cabots, much farther north than
those made by Columbus, had gone through all Europe. In a word,
Columbus was now only one of several skilful pilots and voyagers,
and his plans were to be considered side by side with those which
were coming forward almost every day, for new discoveries, either
by the eastern route, of which Vasco da Gama had shown the
practicability, or by the western route, which Columbus himself
had first essayed.
It is to be remembered, as well, that Columbus was now an old
man, and, whatever were his successes as a discoverer, he had not
succeeded as a commander. There might have been reasons for his
failure; but failure is failure, and men do not accord to an
unsuccessful leader the honors which they are ready to give to a
successful discoverer. When, therefore, he offered his new plans
at court, he should have been well aware that they could not be
received, as if he were the only one who could make suggestions.
Probably he was aware of this. He was also obliged, whether he
would or would not, to give up the idea that he was to be the
commander of the regions which he discovered.
It had been easy enough to grant him this command before there
was so much as an inch of land known, over which it would make
him the master. But now that it was known that large islands, and
probably a part of the continent of Asia, were to be submitted to
his sway if he had it, there was every reason why the sovereigns
should be unwilling to maintain for him the broad rights which
they had been willing to give when a scratch of the pen was all
that was needful to give them.
Bobadilla was recalled; so far well. But neither Ferdinand nor
Isabella chose to place Columbus again in his command. They did
choose Don Nicola Ovando, a younger man, to take the place of
Bobadilla, to send him home, and to take the charge of the
colony.
From the colony itself, the worst accounts were received. If
Columbus and his brother had failed, Bobadilla had failed more
disgracefully. Indeed, he had begun by the policy of King Log, as
an improvement on the policy of King Stork. He had favored all
rebels, he had pardoned them, he had even paid them for the time
which they had spent in rebellion; and the natural result was
utter disorder and license.
It does not appear that he was a bad man; he was a man wholly
unused to command; he was an imprudent man, and was weak. He had
compromised the crown by the easy terms on which he had rented
and sold estates; he had been obliged, in order to maintain the
revenue, to work the natives with more severity than ever. He
knew very well that the system, under which he was working could
not last long. One of his maxims was, "Do the best with your
time," and he was constantly sacrificing future advantages for
such present results as he could achieve.
The Indians, who had been treated badly enough before, were worse
treated now. And during his short administration, if it may be
called an administration,--during the time when he was nominally
at the head of affairs--he was reducing the island to lower and
lower depths. He did succeed in obtaining a large product of
gold, but the abuses of his government were not atoned for by
such remittances. Worst of all, the wrongs of the natives touched
the sensitiveness of Isabella, and she was eager that his
successor should be appointed, and should sail, to put an end to
these calamities.
The preparations which were made for Ovando's expedition, for the
recall of Bobadilla, and for a reform, if it were possible, in
the administration of the colony, all set back any preparations
for a new expedition of discovery on the part of Columbus. He was
not forgotten; his accounts were to be examined and any
deficiencies made up to him; he was to receive the arrears of his
revenue; he was permitted to have an agent who should see that he
received his share in future. To this agency he appointed Alonzo
Sanchez de Carvajal, and the sovereigns gave orders that this
agent should be treated with respect.
Other preparations were made, so that Ovando might arrive with a
strong reinforcement for the colony. He sailed with thirty ships,
the size of these vessels ranging from one hundred and fifty
Spanish toneles to one bark of twenty-five. It will be remembered
that the Spanish tonele is larger by about ten per cent than our
English ton. Twenty-five hundred persons embarked as colonists in
the vessels, and, for the first time, men took their families
with them.
Everything was done to give dignity to the appointment of Ovando,
and it was hoped that by sending out families of respectable
character, who were to be distributed in four towns, there might
be a better basis given to the settlement. This measure had been
insisted upon by Columbus.
This fleet put to sea on the thirteenth of February, 1502. It
met, at the very outset, a terrible storm, and one hundred and
twenty of the passengers were lost by the foundering of a ship.
The impression was at first given in Spain that the whole fleet
had been lost; but this proved to be a mistake. The others
assembled at the Canaries, and arrived in San Domingo on the
fifteenth of April.
Columbus himself never lost confidence in his own star. He was
sure that he was divinely sent, and that his mission was to open
the way to the Indies, for the religious advancement of mankind.
If Vasco de Gama had discovered a shorter way than men knew
before, Christopher Columbus should discover one shorter still,
and this discovery should tend to the glory of God. It seemed to
him that the simplest way in which he could make men understand
this, was to show that the Holy Sepulchre might, now and thus, be
recovered from the infidel.
Far from urging geographical curiosity as an object, he proposed
rather the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre. That is, there was to
be a new and last crusade, and the money for this enterprise was
to be furnished from the gold of the farthest East. He was close
at the door of this farthest East; and as has been said, he
believed that Cuba was the Ophir of Solomon, and he supposed,
that a very little farther voyaging would open all the treasures
which Marco Polo had described, and would bring the territory,
which had made the Great Khan so rich, into the possession of the
king of Spain.
He showed to Ferdinand and Isabella that, if they would once more
let him go forward, on the adventure which had been checked
untimely by the cruelty of Bobadilla, this time they would have
wealth which would place them at the head of the Christian
sovereigns of the world.
While he was inactive at Seville, and the great squadron was
being prepared which Ovando was to command, he wrote what is
known as the "Book of Prophecies," in which he attempted to
convince the Catholic kings of the necessity of carrying forward
the enterprise which he proposed. He urged haste, because he
believed the world was only to last a hundred and fifty-five
years longer; and, with so much before them to be done, it was
necessary that they should begin.
He remembered an old vow that he had undertaken, that, within
seven years of the time of his discovery, he would furnish fifty
thousand foot soldiers and five thousand horsemen for the
recovery of the Holy Sepulchre. He now arranged in order
prophecies from the Holy Scripture, passages from the writings of
the Fathers, and whatever else suggested itself, mystical and
hopeful, as to the success of an enterprise by which the new
world could be used for the conversion of the Gentiles and for
the improvement of the Christianity of the old world.
He had the assistance of a Carthusian monk, who seems to have
been skilled in literary work, and the two arranged these
passages in order, illustrated them with poetry, and collected
them into a manuscript volume which was sent to the sovereigns.
Columbus accompanied the Book of Prophecies with one of his own
long letters, written with the utmost fervor. In this letter he
begins, as Peter the Hermit might do, by urging the sovereigns to
set on foot a crusade. If they are tempted to consider his advice
extravagant, he asks them how his first scheme of discovery was
treated. He shows that, as heaven had chosen him to discover the
new world, heaven has also chosen him to discover the Holy
Sepulchre. God himself had opened his eyes that he might make the
great discovery, which has reflected such honor upon them and
theirs.
"If his hopes had been answered," says a Catholic writer, the
modern question of holy places, which is the Gordian knot of the
religious politics of the future, would have been solved long ago
by the gold of the new world, or would have been cut by the sword
of its discoverer. We should not have seen nations which are
separated from the Roman communion, both Protestant and
Pantheistic governments, coming audaciously into contest for
privileges, which, by the rights of old possession, by the rights
of martyrdom and chivalry, belong to the Holy Catholic Church,
the Apostolic Church, the Roman Church, and after her to France,
her oldest daughter."
Columbus now supposed that the share of the western wealth which
would belong to him would be sufficient for him to equip and arm
a hundred thousand infantry and ten thousand horsemen.
At the moment when the Christian hero made this pious calculation
he had not enough of this revenue with which to buy a cloak,"
This is the remark of the enthusiastic biographer from whom we
have already quoted.
It is not literally true, but it is true that Columbus was living
in the most modest way at the time when he was pressing his
ambitious schemes upon the court. At the same time, he wrote a
poem with which he undertook to press the same great enterprise
upon his readers. It was called "The End of Man," "Memorare
novissima tua, et non peccabis in eternum."
In his letter to the king and queen he says, "Animated as by a
heavenly fire, I came to your Highnesses; all who heard of my
enterprise mocked it; all the sciences I had acquired profited me
as nothing; seven years did I pass in your royal court, disputing
the case with persons of great authority and learned in all the
arts, and in the end they decided that all was vain. In your
Highnesses alone remained faith and constancy. Who will doubt
that this light was from the Holy Scriptures, illumining you, as
well as myself, with rays of marvellous brightness."
It is probable that the king and queen were, to a certain extent,
influenced by his enthusiasm. It is certain that they knew that
something was due to their reputation and to his success. By
whatever motive led, they encouraged him with hopes that he might
be sent forward again, this time, not as commander of a colony,
but as a discoverer. Discovery was indeed the business which he
understood, and to which alone he should ever have been
commissioned.
It is to be remembered that the language of crusaders was not
then a matter of antiquity, and was not used as if it alluded to
bygone affairs. It was but a few years since the Saracens had
been driven out of Spain, and all men regarded them as being the
enemies of Christianity and of Europe, who could not be
neglected. More than this, Spain was beginning to receive very
large and important revenues from the islands.
It is said that the annual revenues from Hispaniola already
amounted to twelve millions of our dollars. It was not unnatural
that the king and queen, willing to throw off the disgrace which
they had incurred from Bobadilla's cruelty, should not only send
Ovando to replace him, but should, though in an humble fashion,
give to Columbus an opportunity to show that his plans were not
chimerical.
CHAPTER XII. FOURTH VOYAGE.
THE INSTRUCTIONS GIVEN FOR THE VOYAGE--HE IS TO GO TO THE
MAINLAND OF THE INDIES--A SHORT PASSAGE--OVANDO FORBIDS THE
ENTRANCE OF COLUMBUS INTO HARBOR--BOBADILLA'S SQUADRON AND ITS
FATE--COLUMBUS SAILS WESTWARD--DISCOVERS HONDURAS, AND COASTS
ALONG ITS SHORES--THE SEARCH FOR GOLD--COLONY ATTEMPTED AND
ABANDONED--THE VESSELS BECOME UNSEAWORTHY--REFUGE AT
JAMAICA--MUTINY LED BY THE BROTHERS PORRAS--MESSAGES TO SAN
DOMINGO--THE ECLIPSE--ARRIVAL OF RELIEF--COLUMBUS RETURNS TO SAN
DOMINGO, AND TO SPAIN.
It seems a pity now that, after his third voyage, Columbus did
not remain in Spain and enjoy, as an old man could, the honors
which he had earned and the respect which now waited upon him.
Had this been so, the world would have been spared the
mortification which attends the thought that the old man to whom
it owes so much suffered almost everything in one last effort,
failed in that effort, and died with the mortification of
failure. But it is to be remembered that Columbus was not a man
to cultivate the love of leisure. He had no love of leisure to
cultivate. His life had been an active one. He had attempted the
solution of a certain problem which he had not solved, and every
day of leisure, even every occasion of effort and every word of
flattery, must have quickened in him new wishes to take the prize
which seemed so near, and to achieve the possibility which had
thus far eluded him.
From time to time, therefore, he had addressed new memorials to
the sovereigns proposing a new expedition; and at last, by an
instruction which is dated on the fourteenth of March, in the
year 1502, a fourth voyage was set on foot at the charge of the
king and queen,--an instruction not to stop at Hispaniola, but,
for the saving of time, to pass by that island. This is a
graceful way of intimating to him that he is not to mix himself
up with the rights and wrongs of the new settlement.
The letter goes on to say, that the sovereigns have communicated
with the King of Portugal, and that they have explained to him
that Columbus is pressing his discoveries at the west. and will
not interfere with those of the Portuguese in the east. He is
instructed to regard the Portuguese explorers as his friends, and
to make no quarrel with them. He is instructed to take with him
his sons, Fernando and Diego. This is probably at his request.
The prime object of the instruction is still to strike the
mainland of the Indies. All the instructions are, "You will make
a direct voyage, if the weather does not prevent you, for
discovering the islands and the mainland of the Indies in that
part which belongs to us." He is to take possession of these
islands and of this mainland, and to inform the sovereigns in
regard to his discoveries, and the experience of former voyages
has taught them that great care must be taken to avoid private
speculation in "gold, silver, pearls, precious stones, spices and
other things of different quality." For this purpose special
instructions are given.
Of this voyage we have Columbus's own official account.
There were four vessels, three of which were rated as caravels.
The fourth was very small. The chief vessel was commanded by
Diego Tristan; the second, the Santiago, by Francisco de Porras;
the third, the Viscaina (Biscayan), by Bartholomew de Fiesco; and
the little Gallician by Pedro de Torreros. None of these vessels,
as the reader will see, was ever to return to Spain. From de
Porras and his brother, Columbus and the expedition were to
receive disastrous blows.
It must be observed that he is once more in his proper position
of a discoverer. He has no government or other charge of colonies
entrusted to him. His brother Bartholomew and his youngest son
Fernando, sail with him.
The little squadron sailed from the bay of Cadiz on the eleventh
of May, 1502. They touched at Sicilla,--a little port on the
coast of Morocco,--to relieve its people, a Portuguese garrison,
who had been besieged by the Moors. But finding them out of
danger, Columbus went at once to the Grand Canary island, and had
a favorable passage.
From the Grand Canary to the island which he calls "the first
island of the Indies," and which he named Martinino, his voyage
was only seventeen days long. This island was either the St.
Lucia or the Martinique of today. Hence he passed to Dominica,
and thence crossed to San Domingo, to make repairs, as he said.
For, as has been said, he had been especially ordered not to
interfere in the affairs of the settlement.
He did not disobey his orders. He says distinctly that he
intended to pass along the southern shore of San Domingo, and
thence take a departure for the continent. But he says, that his
principal vessel sailed very ill--could not carry much canvas,
and delayed the rest of the squadron. This weakness must have
increased after the voyage across the ocean. For this reason he
hoped to exchange it for another ship at San Domingo.
But he did not enter the harbor. He sent a letter to Ovando, now
the governor, and asked his permission. He added, to the request
he made, a statement that a tempest was at hand which he did not
like to meet in the offing. Ovando, however, refused any
permission to enter. He was, in fact, just dispatching a fleet to
Spain, with Bobadilla, Columbus's old enemy, whom Ovando had
replaced in his turn.
Columbus, in an eager wish to be of use, by a returning messenger
begged Ovando to delay this fleet till the gale had passed. But
the seamen ridiculed him and his gale, and begged Ovando to send
the fleet home.
He did so. Bobadilla and his fleet put to sea. In ten days a West
India hurricane struck them. The ship on which Columbus's
enemies, Bobadilla and Roldan, sailed, was sunk with them and the
gold accumulated for years. Of the whole fleet, only one vessel,
called the weakest of all, reached Spain. This ship carried four
thousand pieces of gold, which were the property of the Admiral.
Columbus's own little squadron, meanwhile--thanks probably to the
seamanship of himself and his brother--weathered the storm, and
he found refuge in the harbor which he had himself named "the
beautiful," El Hermoso, in the western part of San Domingo.
Another storm delayed him at a port which he called Port Brasil.
The word Brasil was the name which the Spaniards gave to the red
log-wood, so valuable in dyeing, and various places received that
name, where this wood was found. The name is derived from
"Brasas,"--coals,--in allusion, probably, to the bright red color
of the dye.
Sailing from this place, on Saturday, the sixteenth of June, they
made sight of the island of Jamaica, but he pressed on without
making any examination of the country, for four days sailing west
and south-west. He then changed his course, and sailed for two
days to the northwest and again two days to the north.
On Sunday, the twenty fourth of July, they saw land. This was the
key now known as Cuyago, and they were at last close upon the
mainland. After exploring this island they sailed again on
Wednesday, the twenty-seventh, southwest and quarter southwest
about ninety miles, and again they saw land, which is supposed to
be the island of Guanaja or Bonacca, near the coast of Honduras.
The Indians on this island had some gold and some pearls. They
had seen whites before. Columbus calls them men of good stature.
Sailing from this island, he struck the mainland near Truxillo,
about ten leagues from the island of Guanaja. He soon found the
harbor, which we still know as the harbor of Truxillo, and from
this point Columbus began a careful investigation of the coast.
He observed, what all navigators have since observed, the lack of
harbors. He passed along as far as the river now known as the
Tinto, where he took possession in the name of the sovereigns,
calling this river the River of Possession. He found the natives
savage, and the country of little account for his purposes. Still
passing southward, he passed what we call the Mosquito Coast, to
which he found the natives gave the name of Cariay.
These people were well disposed and willing to treat with them.
They had some cotton, they had some gold. They wore very little
clothing, and they painted their bodies, as most of the natives
of the islands had done. He saw what he thought to be pigs and
large mountain cats.
Still passing southward, running into such bays or other harbors
as they found, he entered the "Admiral's Bay," in a country which
had the name of Cerabaro, or Zerabora. Here an Indian brought a
plate of gold and some other pieces of gold, and Columbus was,
encouraged in his hopes of finding more.
The natives told him that if he would keep on he would find
another bay which they called Arburarno, which is supposed to be
the Laguna Chiriqui. They said the people, of that country, lived
in the mountains. Here Columbus noticed the fact,--one which has
given to philologists one of their central difficulties for four
hundred years since,--that as he passed from one point to another
of the American shores, the Indians did not understand each
other's language. "Every ten or twenty leagues they did not
understand each other." In entering the river Veragua, the
Indians appeared armed with lances and arrows, some of them
having gold also. Here, also, the people did not live upon the
shore, but two or three leagues back in the interior, and they
only came to the sea by their canoes upon the rivers.
The next province was then called Cobraba, but Columbus made no
landing for want of a proper harbor. All his courses since he
struck the continent had been in a southeasterly direction. That
an expedition for westward discovery should be sailing eastward,
seemed in itself a contradiction. What irritated the crews still
more was, that the wind seemed always against them.
From the second to the ninth of November, 1502, the little fleet
lay at anchor in the spacious harbor, which he called Puerto
Bello, "the beautiful harbor." It is still known by that name. A
considerable Spanish city grew up there, which became well known
to the world in the last century by the attack upon it by the
English in the years 1739 and 1742.
The formation of the coast compelled them to pass eastward as
they went on. But the currents of the Gulf flow in the opposite
direction. Here there were steady winds from the east and the
northeast. The ships were pierced by the teredo, which eats
through thick timbers, and is so destructive that the seamen of
later times have learned to sheath the hulls of their vessels
with copper.
The seamen thought that they were under the malign influence of
some adverse spell. And after a month Columbus gave way to their
remonstrances, and abandoned his search for a channel to India.
He was the more ready to do this because he was satisfied that
the land by which he lay was connected with the coast which other
Spaniards had already discovered. He therefore sailed westward
again, retracing his course to explore the gold mines of Veragua.
But the winds could change as quickly as his purposes, and now
for nearly a fortnight they had to fight a tropical tempest. At
one moment they met with a water-spout, which seemed to advance
to them directly. The sailors, despairing of human help, shouted
passages from St. John, and to their efficacy ascribed their
escape. It was not until the seventeenth that they found
themselves safely in harbor. He gave to the whole coast the name
of "the coast of contrasts," to preserve the memory of his
disappointments.
The natives proved friendly, as he had found them before; but
they told him that he would find no more gold upon the coast;
that the mines were in the country of the Veragua. It was, on the
tenth day of January that, after some delay, Columbus entered
again the river of that name.
The people told him where he should find the mines, and were all
ready to send guides with his own people to point them out. He
gave to this river, the name of the River of Belen, and to the
port in which he anchored he gave the name of Santa Maria de
Belen, or Bethlehem.
His men discovered the mines, so called, at a distance of eight
leagues from the port. The country between was difficult, being
mountainous and crossed by many streams. They were obliged to
pass the river of Veragua thirty-nine times. The Indians
themselves were dexterous in taking out gold. Columbus added to
their number seventy-five men.
In one day's work, they obtained "two or three castellianos"
without much difficulty. A castelliano was a gold coin of the
time, and the meaning of the text is probably that each man
obtained this amount. It was one of the "placers," such as have
since proved so productive in different parts of the world.
Columbus satisfied himself that there was a much larger
population inland. He learned from the Indians that the cacique,
as he always calls the chief of these tribes, was a most
important monarch in that region. His houses were larger than
others, built handsomely of wood, covered with palm leaves.
The product of all the gold collected thus far is stated
precisely in the official register. There were two hundred and
twenty pieces of gold, large and small. Altogether they weighed
seventy-two ounces, seven-eighths of an ounce and one grain.
Besides these were twelve pieces, great and small, of an inferior
grade of gold, which weighed fourteen ounces, three-eighths of an
ounce, and six tomienes, a tomiene weighing one-third part of our
drachm. In round numbers then, we will say that the result in
gold of this cruising would be now worth $1,500.
Columbus collected gold in this way, to make his expedition
popular at home, and he had, indeed, mortgaged the voyage, so to
speak, by pledging the pecuniary results, as a fund to bear the
expense of a new crusade. But, for himself, the prime desire was
always discovery.
Eventually the Spaniards spent two months in that region,
pressing their explorations in search of gold. And so promising
did the tokens seem to him, that he determined to leave his
brother, to secure the country and work the mines, while he
should return to Spain, with the gold he had collected, and
obtain reinforcements and supplies. But all these fond hopes.
were disappointed.
The natives, under a leader named Quibian, rallied in large
numbers, probably intending to drive the colonists away. It was
only by the boldest measures that their plans were met. When
Columbus supposed that he had suppressed their enterprise, he
took leave of his brother, as he had intended, leaving him but
one of the four vessels.
Fortunately, as it proved, the wind did not serve. He sent back a
boat to communicate with the settlement, but it fell into the
hands of the savages. Doubtful as to the issue, a seaman, named
Ledesma, volunteered to swim through the surf, and communicate
with the settlement. The brave fellow succeeded. By passing
through the surf again, he brought back the news that the little
colony was closely besieged by the savages.
It seemed clear that the settlement must be abandoned, that
Columbus's brother and his people must be taken back to Spain.
This course was adopted. With infinite difficulty, the guns and
stores which had been left with the colony were embarked on the
vessels of the Admiral. The caravel which had been left for the
colony could not be taken from the river. She was completely
dismantled, and was left as the only memorial of this unfortunate
colony.
At Puerto Bello he was obliged to leave another vessel, for she
had been riddled by the teredo. The two which he had were in
wretched condition. "They were as full of holes as a honey-comb."
On the southern coast of Cuba, Columbus was obliged to supply
them with cassava bread. The leaks increased. The ships' pumps
were insufficient, and the men bailed out the water with buckets
and kettles. On the twentieth of June, they were thankful to put
into a harbor, called Puerto Bueno, on the coast of Jamaica,
where, as it proved, they eventually left their worthless
vessels, and where they were in exile from the world of
civilization for twelve months.
Nothing in history is more pathetic than the memory that such a
waste of a year, in the closing life of such a man as Columbus,
should have been permitted by the jealousy, the cruelty, or the
selfish ambition of inferior men.
He was not far from the colony at San Domingo. As the reader will
see, he was able to send a message to his countrymen there. But
those countrymen left him to take his chances against a strong
tribe of savages. Indeed, they would not have been sorry to know
that he was dead.
At first, however, he and his men welcomed the refuge of the
harbor. It was the port which he had called Santa Gloria, on his
first visit there. He was at once surrounded by Indians, ready to
barter with them and bring them provisions. The poor Spaniards
were hungry enough to be glad of this relief.
Mendez, a spirited sailor, had the oversight of this trade, and
in one negotiation, at some distance from the vessels, he bought
a good canoe of a friendly chief. For this he gave a brass basin,
one of his two shirts, and a short jacket. On this canoe turned
their after fortunes. Columbus refitted her, put on a false keel,
furnished her with a mast and sail.
With six Indians, whom the chief had lent him, Diego Mendez,
accompanied by only one Spanish companion, set sail in this
little craft for San Domingo. Columbus sent by them a letter to
the sovereigns, which gives the account of the voyage which the
reader has been following.
When Mendez was a hundred miles advanced on his journey, he met a
band of hostile savages. They had affected friendship until they
had the adventurers in their power, when they seized them all.
But while the savages were quarreling about the spoils, Mendez
succeeded in escaping to his canoe, and returned alone to his
master after fifteen days.
It was determined that the voyage should be renewed. But this
time, another canoe was sent with that under the command of
Mendez. He sailed again, storing his boats with cassava bread and
calabashes of water. Bartholomew Columbus, with his armed band,
marched along the coast, as the two canoes sailed along the
shore.
Waiting then for a clear day, Mendez struck northward, on the
passage, which was long for such frail craft, to San Domingo. It
was eight months before Columbus heard of them. Of those eight
months, the history is of dismal waiting, mutiny and civil war.
It is pathetic, indeed, that a little body of men, who had been,
once and again, saved from death in the most remarkable way,
could not live on a fertile island, in a beautiful climate,
without quarrelling with each other.
Two officers of Columbus, Porras and his brother, led the
sedition. They told the rest of the crew that the Admiral's hope
of relief from Mendez was a mere delusion. They said that he was
an exile from Spain, and that he did not dare return to
Hispaniola. In such ways they sought to rouse his people against
him and his brother. As for Columbus, he was sick on board his
vessel, while the two brothers Porras were working against him
among his men.
On the second of January, 1504, Francesco de Porras broke into
the cabin. He complained bitterly that they were kept to die in
that desolate place, and accused the Admiral as if it were his
fault. He told Columbus, that they had determined to go back to
Spain; and then, lifting his voice, he shouted, "I am for
Castile; who will follow me?" The mutinous crew instantly replied
that they would do so. Voices were heard which threatened
Columbus's life.
His brother, the Adelantado, persuaded Columbus to retire from
the crowd and himself assumed the whole weight of the assault.
The loyal part of the crew, however, persuaded him to put down
his weapon, and on the other hand, entreated Porras and his
companions to depart. It was clear enough that they had the
power, and they tried to carry out their plans.
They embarked in ten canoes, and thus the Admiral was abandoned
by forty-eight of his men. They followed, to the eastward, the
route which Mendez had taken. In their lawless way they robbed
the Indians of their provisions and of anything else that they
needed. As Mendez had done, they waited at the eastern extremity
of Jamaica for calm weather. They knew they could not manage the
canoes, and they had several Indians to help them.
When the sea was smooth they started; but they had hardly gone
four leagues from the land, when the waves began to rise under a
contrary wind. Immediately they turned for shore, the canoes were
overfreighted, and as the sea rose, frequently shipped water.
The frightened Spaniards threw overboard everything they could
spare, retaining their arms only, and a part of their provisions.
They even compelled the Indians to leap into the sea to lighten
the boats, but, though they were skillful swimmers, they could
not pretend to make land by swimming. They kept to the canoes,
therefore, and would occasionally seize them to recover breath.
The cruel Spaniards cut off their hands and stabbed them with
their swords. Thus eighteen of their Indian comrades died, and
they had none left, but such as were of most help in managing the
canoes. Once on land, they doubted whether to make another effort
or to return to Columbus.
Eventually they waited a month, for another opportunity to go to
Hispaniola; but this failed as before, and losing all patience,
they returned westward, to the commander whom they had insulted,
living on the island "by fair means or foul," according as they
found the natives friendly or unfriendly.
Columbus, meanwhile, with his half the crew, was waiting. He had
established as good order as he could between his men and the
natives, but he was obliged to keep a strict watch over such
European food as he still had, knowing how necessary it was for
the sick men in his number. On the other hand, the Indians,
wholly unused to regular work, found it difficult to supply the
food which so many men demanded.
The supplies fell off from day to day; the natives no longer
pressed down to the harbor; the trinkets, with which food had
been bought, had lost their charm; the Spaniards began to fear
that they should starve on the shore of an island which, when
Columbus discovered it, appeared to be the abode of plenty. It
was at this juncture, when the natives were becoming more and
more unfriendly, that Columbus justified himself by the tyrant's
plea of necessity, and made use of his astronomical science, to
obtain a supernatural power over his unfriendly allies.
He sent his interpreter to summon the principal caciques to a
conference. For this conference he appointed a day when he knew
that a total eclipse of the moon would take place. The chiefs met
as they were requested. He told them that he and his followers
worshipped a God who lived in the heavens; that that God favored
such as did well, but punished all who displeased him.
He asked them to remember how this God had protected Mendez and
his companions in their voyage, because they went obedient to the
orders which had been given them by their chief. He asked them to
remember that the same God had punished Porras and his companions
with all sorts of affliction, because they were rebels. He said
that now this great God was angry with the Indians, because they
refused to furnish food to his faithful worshippers; that he
proposed to chastise them with famine and pestilence.
He said that, lest they should disbelieve the warning which he
gave, a sign would be given, in the heavens that night, of the
anger of the great God. They would see that the moon would change
its color and would lose its light. They might take this as a
token of the punishment which awaited them.
The Indians had not that confidence in Columbus which they once
had. Some derided what he said, some were alarmed, all waited
with anxiety and curiosity. When the night came they saw a dark
shadow begin to steal over the moon. As the eclipse went forward,
their fears increased. At last the mysterious darkness covered
the face of the sky and of the world, when they knew that they
had a right to expect the glory of the full moon.
There were then no bounds to their terror. They, seized on all
the provisions that they had, they rushed to the ships, they
threw themselves at the feet of Columbus and begged him to
intercede with his God, to withhold the calamity which he had
threatened. Columbus would not receive them; he shut himself up
in his cabin and remained there while the eclipse increased,
hearing from within, as the narrator says, the howls and prayers
of the savages.
It was not until he knew the eclipse was about to diminish, that
he condescended to come forth, and told them that he had
interceded with God, who would pardon them if they would fulfil
their promises. In token of pardon, the darkness would be
withdrawn from the moon.
The Indians saw the fulfilment of the promise, as they had seen
the fulfilment of the threat. The moon reappeared in its
brilliancy. They thanked the Admiral eagerly for his
intercession, and repaired to their homes. From this time
forward, having proved that he knew on earth what was passing in
the heavens, they propitiated him with their gifts. The supplies
came in regularly, and from this time there was no longer any
want of provisions.
But no tales of eclipses would keep the Spaniards quiet. Another
conspiracy was formed, as the eight remaining months of exile
passed by, among the survivors. They meant to seize the remaining
canoes, and with them make their way to Hispaniola. But, at the
very point of the outbreak of the new mutiny, a sail was seen
standing toward the harbor.
The Spaniards could see that the vessel was small. She kept the
offing, but sent a boat on shore. As the boat drew near, those
who waited so eagerly recognized Escobar, who had been condemned
to death, in Isabella, when Columbus was in administration, and
was pardoned by his successor Bobadilla. To see this man
approaching for their relief was not hopeful, though he were
called a Christian, and was a countryman of their own.
Escobar drew up to the ships, on which the Spaniards still lived,
and gave them a letter from Ovando, the new governor of
Hispaniola, with some bacon and a barrel of wine, which were sent
as presents to the Admiral. He told Columbus, in a private
interview, that the governor had sent him to express his concern
at his misfortune, and his regret that he had not a vessel of
sufficient size to bring off all the people, but that he would
send one as soon as possible. He assured him that his concerns in
Hispaniola were attended to faithfully in his absence; he asked
him to write to the governor in reply, as he wished to return at
once.
This was but scant comfort for men who had been eight months
waiting to be relieved. But Escobar was master of the position.
Columbus wrote a reply at once to Ovando, pointed out that the
difficulties of his situation had been increased by the rebellion
of the brothers Porras. He, however, expressed his reliance on
his promise, and said he would remain patiently on his ships
until relief came. Escobar took the letter, returned to his
vessel, and she made sail at once, leaving the starving Spaniards
in dismay, to the same fate which hung over them before.
Columbus tried to reassure them. He professed himself satisfied
with the communications from Ovando, and told them that vessels
large enough for them would soon arrive. He said that they could
see that he believed this, because he had not himself taken
passage with Escobar, preferring to share their lot with them. He
had sent back the little vessel at once, so that no time might be
lost in sending the necessary ships.
With these assurances he cheered their hearts. In truth, however,
he was very indignant at Ovando's cool behavior. That he should
have left them for months in danger and uncertainty, with a mere
tantalizing message and a scanty present of food--all this
naturally made the great leader indignant. He believed that
Ovando hoped that he might perish on the island.
He supposed that Ovando thought that this would be favorable for
his own political prospects, and he believed that Escobar was
sent merely as a spy. This same impression is given by Las Casas,
the historian, who was then at San Domingo. He says that Escobar
was chosen simply because of his enmity to Columbus, and that he
was ordered not to land, nor to hold conversation with any of the
crew, nor to receive letters from any except the Admiral.
After Escobar's departure, Columbus sent an embassy on shore to
communicate with the rebel party, who were living on the island.
He offered to them free pardon, kind treatment, and a passage
with him in the ships which he expected from Ovando, and, as a
token of good will, he sent them a part of the bacon which
Escobar had brought them.
Francesco de Porras met these ambassadors, and replied that they
had no wish to return to the ships, but preferred living at
large. They offered to engage that they would be peaceable, if
the Admiral would promise them solemnly, that, in case two
vessels arrived, they should have one to depart in; that if only
one vessel arrived they should have half of it, and that the
Admiral would now share with them the stores and articles of
traffic, which he had left in the ship. But these demands
Columbus refused to accept.
Porras had spoken for the rebels, but they were not so well
satisfied with the answer. The incident gave occasion for what
was almost an outbreak among them. Porras attempted to hold them
in hand, by assuring them that there had been no real arrival of
Escobar. He told them that there had been no vessel in port; that
what had been seen was a mere phantasm conjured up by Columbus,
who was deeply versed in necromancy.
He reminded them that the vessel arrived just in the edge of the
evening; that it communicated with Columbus only, and then
disappeared in the night. Had it been a real vessel would he not
have embarked, with his brother and his son? Was it not clear
that it was only a phantom, which appeared for a moment and then
vanished?
Not satisfied, however, with his control over his men, he marched
them to a point near the ships, hoping to plunder the stores and
to take the Admiral prisoner. Columbus, however, had notice of
the approach of this marauding party, and his brother and fifty
followers, of whose loyalty he was sure, armed themselves and
marched to meet them. The Adelantado again sent ambassadors, the
same whom he had sent before with the offer of pardon, but Porras
and his companions would not permit them to approach.
They determined to offer battle to the fifty loyal men, thinking
to attack and kill the Adelantado himself. They rushed upon him
and his party, but at the first shock four or five of them were
killed.
The Adelantado, with his own hand, killed Sanchez, one of the
most powerful men among the rebels. Porras attacked him in turn,
and with his sword cut his buckler and wounded his hand. The
sword, however, was wedged in the shield, and before Porras could
withdraw it, the Adelantado closed upon him and made him
prisoner. When the rebels saw this result of the conflict, they
fled in confusion.
The Indians, meanwhile, amazed at this conflict among men who had
descended from heaven, gazed with wonder at the battle. When it
was over, they approached the field, and looked with amazement on
the dead bodies of the beings whom they had thought immortal. It
is said, however, that at the mere sound of a groan from one of
the wounded they fled in dismay.
The Adelantado returned in triumph to the ships. He brought with
him his prisoners. Only two of his party had been wounded,
himself and his steward. The next day the remaining fugitives
sent in a petition to the Admiral, confessing their misdeeds and
asking for pardon.
He saw that their union was broken; he granted their prayer, on
the single condition that Francesco de Porras should remain a
prisoner. He did not receive them on board the ships, but put
them under the command of a loyal officer, to whom he gave a
sufficient number of articles for trade, to purchase food of the
natives.
This battle, for it was such, was the last critical incident in
the long exile of the Spaniards, for, after a year of hope and
fear, two vessels were seen standing into the harbor. One of them
was a ship equipped, at Columbus's own expense, by the faithful
Mendez; the other had been fitted out afterwards by Ovando, but
had sailed in company with the first vessel of relief.
It would seem that the little public of Isabella had been made
indignant by Ovando's neglect, and that he had been compelled, by
public opinion to send another vessel as a companion to that sent
by Mendez. Mendez himself, having seen the ships depart, went to
Spain in the interest of the Admiral.
With the arrival at Puerto Bueno, in Jamaica, of the two relief
vessels, Columbus's chief sufferings and anxiety were over. The
responsibility, at least, was in other hands. But the passage to
San Domingo consumed six tedious weeks. When he arrived, however,
it was to meet one of his triumphs. He could hardly have expected
it.
But his sufferings, and the sense of wrong that he had suffered,
had, in truth, awakened the regard of the people of the colony.
Ovando took him as a guest to his house. The people received him
with distinction.
He found little to gratify him, however. Ovando, had ruled the
poor natives with a rod of iron, and they were wretched.
Columbus's own affairs had been neglected, and he could gain no
relief from the governor. He spent only a month on the island,
trying, as best he could, to bring some order into the
administration of his own property; and then, on the twelfth of
September, 1504, sailed for Spain.
Scarcely had the ship left harbor when she was dismasted in a
squall. He was obliged to cross to another ship, under command of
his brother, the Adelantado. She also was unfortunate. Her
mainmast was sprung in a storm, and she could not go on until the
mast was shortened.
In another gale the foremast was sprung, and it was only on the
seventh of November that the shattered and storm-pursued vessel
arrived at San Lucar. Columbus himself had been suffering,
through the voyage, from gout and his other maladies. The voyage
was, indeed, a harsh experience for a sick man, almost seventy
years old.
He went at once to Seville, to find such rest as he might, for
body and mind.
CHAPTER XIII.
TWO SAD YEARS--ISABELLA'S DEATH--COLUMBUS AT SEVILLE --HIS
ILLNESS--LETTERS TO THE KING--JOURNEYS TO SEGOVIA, SALAMANCA, AND
VALLADOLID--HIS SUIT THERE--PHILIP AND JUANA--COLUMBUS EXECUTES
HIS WILL--DIES--HIS BURIAL AND THE REMOVAL OF HIS BODY--HIS
PORTRAITS--HIS CHARACTER.
Columbus had been absent from Spain two years and six months. He
returned broken in health, and the remaining two years of his
life are only the sad history of his effort to relieve his name
from dishonor and to leave to his sons a fair opportunity to
carry forward his work in the world.
Isabella, alas, died on the twenty-sixth day of November, only a
short time after his arrival. Ferdinand, at the least, was cold
and hard toward him, and Ferdinand was now engaged in many
affairs other than those of discovery. He was satisfied that
Columbus did not know how to bring gold home from the colonies,
and the promises of the last voyage, that they should strike the
East, had not been fulfilled.
Isabella had testified her kindly memory of Columbus, even while
he was in exile at Jamaica, by making him one of the body-guard
of her oldest son, an honorary appointment which carried with it
a handsome annual salary. After the return to Spain of Diego
Mendez, the loyal friend who had cared for his interests so well
in San Domingo, she had raised him to noble rank.
It is clear, therefore, that among her last thoughts came in the
wish to do justice to him whom she had served so well. She had
well done her duty which had been given her to do. She had never
forgotten the new world to which it was her good fortune to send
the discoverer, and in her death that discoverer lost his best
friend.
On his arrival in Seville, where one might say he had a right to
rest himself and do nothing else, Columbus engaged at once in
efforts to see that the seamen who had accompanied him in this
last adventure should be properly paid. Many of these men had
been disloyal to him and unfaithful to their sovereign, but
Columbus, with his own magnanimity, represented eagerly at court
that they had endured great peril, that they brought great news,
and that the king ought to repay them all that they had earned.
He says, in a letter to his son written at this period, "I have
not a roof over my head in Castile. I have no place to eat nor to
sleep excepting a tavern, and there I am often too poor to pay my
scot." This passage has been quoted as if he were living as a
beggar at this time, and the world has been asked to believe that
a man who had a tenth of the revenue of the Indies due to him in
some fashion, was actually living from hand to mouth from day to
day. But this is a mere absurdity of exaggeration.
Undoubtedly, he was frequently pressed for ready money. He says
to his son, in another letter, "I only live by borrowing." Still
he had good credit with the Genoese bankers established in
Andalusia. In writing to his son he begs him to economize, but at
the same time he acknowledges the receipt of bills of exchange
and considerable sums of money.
In the month of December, there is a single transaction in
Hispaniola which amounts to five thousand dollars of our money.
We must not, therefore, take literally his statement that he was
too poor to pay for a night's lodging. On the other hand, it is
observed in the correspondence that, on the fifteenth of April,
1505, the king ordered that everything which belonged to Columbus
on account of his ten per cent should be carried to the royal
treasury as a security for certain debts contracted by the
Admiral.
The king had also given an order to the royal agent in Hispaniola
that everything which he owned there should be sold. All these
details have been carefully brought together by Mr. Harrisse, who
says truly that we cannot understand the last order.
When at last the official proceedings relating to the affairs in
Jamaica arrived in Europe, Columbus made an effort to go to
court. A litter was provided for him, and all the preparations
for his journey made. But he was obliged once more by his
weakness to give up this plan, and he could only write letters
pressing his claim. Of such letters the misfortune is, that the
longer they are, and the more of the detail they give, the less
likely are they to be read. Columbus could only write at night;
in the daytime he could not use his hands.
He took care to show Ferdinand that his interests had not been
properly attended to in the islands. He said that Ovando had been
careless as to the king's service, and he was not unwilling to
let it be understood that his own administration had been based
on a more intelligent policy than that of either of the men who
followed him.
But he was now an old man. He was unable to go to court in
person. He had not succeeded in that which he had sailed for--a
strait opening to the Southern Sea. He had discovered new gold
mines on the continent, but he had brought home but little
treasure. His answers from the court seemed to him formal and
unsatisfactory. At court, the stories of the Porras brothers were
told on the one side, while Diego Mendez and Carvajal represented
Columbus.
In this period of the fading life of Columbus, we have eleven
letters addressed by him to his son. These show that he was in
Seville as late as February, 1505. From the authority of Las
Casas, we know that he left that part of Spain to go to Segovia
in the next May, and from that place he followed the court to
Salamanca and Valladolid, although he was so weak and ill.
He was received, as he had always been, with professions of
kindness; but nothing followed important enough to show that
there was anything genuine in this cordiality. After a few days
Columbus begged that some action might be taken to indemnify him
for his losses, and to confirm the promises which had been made
to him before. The king replied that he was willing to refer all
points which had been discussed between them to an arbitration.
Columbus assented, and proposed the Archbishop Diego de Deza as
an arbiter.
The reader must remember that it was he who had assisted Columbus
in early days when the inquiry was made at Salamanca. The king
assented to the arbitration, but proposed that it should include
questions which Columbus would not consider as doubtful. One of
these was his restoration to his office of viceroy.
Now on the subject of his dignities Columbus was tenacious. He
regarded everything else as unimportant in comparison. He would
not admit that there was any question that he was the viceroy of
the Indies, and all this discussion ended in the postponement of
all consideration of his claims till, after his death, it was too
late for them to be considered.
All the documents, when read with the interest which we take in
his character and fortunes, are indeed pathetic; but they did not
seem so to the king, if indeed they ever met his eye.
In despair of obtaining justice for himself, Columbus asked that
his son Diego might be sent to Hispaniola in his place. The king
would promise nothing, but seems to have attempted to make
Columbus exchange the privileges which he enjoyed by the royal
promise for a seignory in a little town in the kingdom of Leon,
which is named not improperly "The Counts' Carrion."
It is interesting to see that one of the persons whom he
employed, in pressing his claim at the court and in the
management of his affairs, was Vespucci, the Florentine merchant,
who in early life had been known as Alberigo, but had now taken
the name of Americo.
The king was still engaged in the affairs of the islands. He
appointed bishops to take charge of the churches in the colonies,
but Columbus was not so much as consulted as to the persons who
should be sent. When Philip arrived from Flanders, with his wife
Juana, who was the heir of Isabella's fortunes and crown,
Columbus wished to pay his court to them, but was too weak to do
so in person.
There is a manly letter, written with dignity and pathos, in
which he presses his claims upon them. He commissioned his
brother, the Adelantado, to take this letter, and with it he went
to wait upon the young couple. They received him most cordially,
and gave flattering hopes that they would attend favorably to the
suit. But this was too late for Columbus himself. Immediately
after he had sent his brother away, his illness increased in
violence.
The time for petitions and for answers to petitions had come to
an end. His health failed steadily, and in the month of May he
knew that he was approaching his death. The king and the court
had gone to Villafranca de Valcacar.
On the nineteenth of May Columbus executed his will, which had
been prepared at Segovia a year before. In this will he directs
his son and his successors, acting as administrators, always to
maintain "in the city of Genoa, some person of our line, who
shall have a house and a wife in that place, who shall receive a
sufficient income to live honorably, as being one of our
relatives, having foot and root in the said city, as a native;
since he will be able to receive from this city aid in favor of
the things of his service; because from that city I came forth
and in that city I was born." This clause became the subject of
much litigation as the century went on.
Another clause which was much contested was his direction to his
son Diego to take care of Beatriz Enriquez, the mother of
Fernando. Diego is instructed to provide for her an honorable
subsistence "as being a person to whom I have great obligation.
What I do in this matter is to relieve my conscience, for this
weighs much upon my mind. The reason of this cannot be written
here."
The history of the litigation which followed upon this will and
upon other documents which bear upon the fortunes of Columbus is
curious, but scarcely interesting. The present representative of
Columbus is Don Cristobal Colon de la Cerda, Duke of Veragua and
of La Vega, a grandee of Spain of the first class, Marquis of
Jamaica, Admiral and Seneschal Major of the Indies, who lives at
Madrid.
Two days after the authentication of the will he died, on the
twenty first of May, 1506, which was the day of Ascension. His
last words were those of his Saviour, expressed in the language
of the Latin Testament, "In manus tuas, Pater, commendo spiritum
meum,"--"Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." The absence
of the court from Valladolid took with it, perhaps, the
historians and annalists. For this or for some other reason,
there is no mention whatever of Columbus's funeral in any of the
documents of the time.
The body was laid in the convent of San Francisco at Valladolid.
Such at least is the supposition of Navarrete, who has collected
the original documents relating to Columbus. He supposes that the
funeral services were conducted in the church of the parish of
Santa Maria de la Antigua. From the church of Saint Francis, not
many months after, the body was removed to Seville. A new chapel
had lately been built there, called Santa Maria de las Cuevas. In
this chapel was the body of Columbus entombed. In a curious
discussion of the subject, which has occupied much more space
than it is worth, it is supposed that this was in the year 1513,
but Mr. Harrisse has proved that this date is not accurate.
For at least twenty-eight years, the body was permitted to remain
under the vaults of this chapel. Then a petition was sent to
Charles V, for leave to carry the coffin and the body to San
Domingo, that it might be buried in the larger chapel of the
cathedral of that city. To this the emperor consented, in a
decree signed June 2, 1537. It is not known how soon the removal
to San Domingo was really made, but it took place before many
years.
Mr. Harrisse quotes from a manuscript authority to show, that
when William Penn besieged the city of San Domingo in 1655, all
the bodies buried under the cathedral were withdrawn from view,
lest the heretics should profane them, and that "the old
Admiral's" body was treated like the rest.
Mr. Harrisse calls to mind the fact that the earthquake of the
nineteenth of May, 1673, demolished the cathedral in part, and
the tombs which it contained. He says, "the ruin of the colony,
the climate, weather, and carelessness all contributed to the
loss from sight and the forgetfulness of the bones of Columbus,
mingled with the dust of his descendants"; and Mr. Harrisse does
not believe that any vestige of them was ever found afterwards,
in San Domingo or anywhere else. This remark, from the person who
has given such large attention to the subject, is interesting.
For it is generally stated and believed that the bones were
afterwards removed to Havana in the island of Cuba. The opinion
of Mr. Harrisse, as it has been quoted, is entitled to very great
respect and authority.
A very curious question has arisen in later times as to the
actual place where the remains now are. On this question there is
great discussion among historians, and many reports, official and
unofficial, have been published with regard to it.
In the year 1867, the proposal was made to the Holy Father at
Rome, that Columbus should receive the honors known in the Roman
Catholic Church as the honors of beatification. In 1877, De
Lorgues, the enthusiastic biographer of Columbus, represents that
the inquiry had gone so far that these honors had been determined
on. One who reads his book would be led to suppose that Columbus
had already been recognized as on the way to be made a saint of
the Church. But, in truth, though some such inquiry was set on
foot, he never received the formal honors of beatification.
--------
We have one account by a contemporary of the appearance of
Columbus.[*] We are told that he was a robust man, quite tall, of
florid complexion, with a long face."
[*] In the first Decade of Peter Martyr.
In the next generation, Oviedo says Columbus was "of good aspect,
and above the middle stature. His limbs were strong, his eyes
quick, and all the parts of his body well proportioned. His hair
was decidedly reddish, and the complexion of his face quite
florid and marked with spots of red."
Bishop Las Casas knew the admiral personally, and describes him
in these terms: "He was above the middle stature, his face was
long and striking, his nose was aquiline, his eyes clear blue,
his complexion light, tending towards a distinct florid
expression, his beard and hair blonde in his youth, but they were
blanched at an early age by care.
Las Casas says in another place, he was rude in bearing, and
careless as to his language. He was, however, gracious when he
chose to be, but he was angry when he was annoyed."
Mr. Harrisse, who has collected these particulars from the
different writers, says that this physical type may be frequently
met now in the city and neighborhood of Genoa. He adds, "as for
the portraits, whether painted, engraved, or in sculpture, which
appear in collections, in private places, or as prints, there is
not one which is authentic. They are all purely imaginary."
For the purpose of the illustration of this volume, we have used
that which is best known, and for many reasons most interesting.
It is preserved in the city of Florence, but neither the name of
the artist nor the date of the picture is known. It is generally
spoken of as the "Florentine portrait." The engraving follows an
excellent copy, made by the order of Thomas Jefferson, and now in
the possession of the Massachusetts Historical Society. We are
indebted to the government of this society for permission to use
it.[*]
[*] The whole subject of the portraits of Columbus is carefully
discussed in a learned paper presented to the Wisconsin
Historical Society by Dr. James Davie Butler, and published in
the Collections of that Society, Vol. IX, pp. 79-96.
A picture ascribed to Titian, and engraved and circulated by the
geographer, Jomard, resembles closely the portraits of Philip
III. The costume is one which Columbus never wore.
In his youth Columbus was affiliated with a religious
brotherhood, that of Saint Catherine, in Genoa. In after times,
on many occasions when it would have been supposed that he would
be richly clothed, he appeared in a grave dress which recalled
the recollections of the frock of the religious order of Saint
Francis. According to Diego Columbus, he died, "dressed in the
frock of this order, to which he had always been attached."
--------
The reader who has carefully followed the fortunes of the great
discoverer understands from the history the character of the man.
He would not have succeeded in his long suit at the court of
Ferdinand and Isabella, had he not been a person of single
purpose and iron will.
From the moment when he was in command of the first expedition,
that expedition went prosperously to its great success, in
precisely the way which he had foreseen and determined. True, he
did not discover Asia, as he had hoped, but this was because
America was in the way. He showed in that voyage all the
attributes of a great discoverer; he deserved the honors which
were paid to him on his return.
As has been said, however, this does not mean that he was a great
organizer of cities, or that he was the right person to put in
charge of a newly founded colony. It has happened more than once
in the history of nations that a great general, who can conquer
armies and can obtain peace, has not succeeded in establishing a
colony or in governing a city.
On the other hand, it is fair to say that Columbus never had a
chance to show what he would have been in the direction of his
colonies had they been really left in his charge. This is true,
that his heart was always on discovery; all the time that he
spent in the wretched detail of the arrangement of a new-built
town was time which really seemed to him wasted.
The great problem was always before him, how he should connect
his discoveries with the knowledge which Europe had before of the
coast of Asia. Always it seemed to him that the dominions of the
Great Khan were within his reach. Always he was eager for that
happy moment when he should find himself in personal
communication with that great monarch, who had been so long the
monarch of the East--who, as he thought, would prove to be the
monarch of the West.
Columbus died with the idea that he had come close to Asia. Even
a generation after his death, the companions of Cortes gave to
the peninsula of California that name because it was the name
given in romance to the farthest island of the eastern Indies.
Columbus met with many reverses, and died, one might almost say,
a broken-hearted man. But history has been just to him, and has
placed him in the foremost rank of the men who have set the world
forward. And, outside of the technical study of history, those
who like to trace the laws on which human progress advances have
been proud and glad to see that here is a noble example of the
triumph of faith.
The life of Columbus is an illustration constantly brought
forward of the success which God gives to those who, having
conceived of a great idea, bravely determine to carry it through.
His singleness of purpose, his unselfishness, his determination
to succeed, have been cited for four centuries, and will be cited
for centuries more, among the noblest illustrations which history
has given, of success wrought out by the courage of one man.
APPENDIX A.
[The following passages, from Admiral Fox's report, give his
reasons for believing that Samana, or Atwood's Key, is the island
where Columbus first touched land. The interest which attaches to
this subject at the moment of the centennial, when many voyages
will be made by persons following Columbus, induces me to copy
Admiral Fox's reasonings in detail. I believe his conclusion to
be correct.]
This method of applying Columbus's words in detail to refute each
of the alleged tracks, and the study that I gave to the subject
in the winter of 1878-79 in the Bahamas, which has been familiar
cruising ground to me, has resulted in the selection of Samana or
Atwood's Key for the first landing place.
It is a little island 8.8 miles east and west; 1.6 extreme
breadth, and averaging 1.2 north and south. It has 8.6 square
miles. The east end is in latitude 23 degrees 5' N.; longitude 73
degrees 37' west of Greenwich. The reef on which it lies is 15 by
2 1/2 miles.
On the southeast this reef stretches half a mile from the land,
on the east four miles, on the west two, along the north shore
one-quarter to one-half mile, and on the southwest scarcely
one-quarter. Turk is smaller than Samana, and Cat very much
larger.
The selection of two so unlike in size show that dimension has
not been considered essential in choosing an island for the first
landfall.[*]
[*] I am indebted to T. J. McLain, Esq., United States consul at
Nassau, for the following information given to him by the
captains of this port, who visit Samana or Atwood's Key. The
sub-sketch on this chart is substantially correct: Good water is
only obtained by sinking wells. The two keys to the east are
covered with guano; white boobies hold the larger one, and black
boobies the other; neither intermingles.
The island is now uninhabited, but arrow heads and stone hatchets
are sometimes found; and in places there are piles of stones
supposed to have been made by the aborigines. Most of the growth
is scrubby, with a few scattered trees.
The Nassau vessels enter an opening through the reef on the south
side of the island and find a very comfortable little harbor with
from two to two and a half fathoms of water. From here they send
their boats on shore to "strip" guano, and cut satin, dye woods
and bark.
When Columbus discovered Guanahani, the journal called it a
"little island." After landing he speaks of it as "bien grande,"
"very large," which some translate, tolerably, or pretty large.
November 20, 1492 (Navarette, first edition, p. 61), the journal
refers to Isabella, a larger island than Guanahani, as "little
island," and the fifth of January following (p. 125) San Salvador
is again called "little island."
The Bahamas have an area of about 37,000 square miles, six per
cent of which may be land, enumerated as 36 islands, 687 keys,
and 2,414 rocks. The submarine bank upon which these rest
underlies Florida also. But this peninsula is wave-formed upon
living corals, whose growth and gradual stretch toward the south
has been made known by Agassiz.
I had an unsuccessful search for a similar story of the Bahamas,
to learn whether there were any probable changes within so recent
a period as four hundred years.
The common mind can see that all the rock there is coral, none of
which is in position. The surface, the caves, the chinks, and the
numerous pot-holes are compact limestone, often quite
crystalline, while beneath it is oolitic, either friable or hard
enough to be used for buildings. The hills are sand-blown, not
upheaved. On a majority of the maps of the sixteenth century
there were islands on Mouchoir, and on Silver Banks, where now
are rocks "awash;" and the Dutch and the Severn Shoals, which lay
to the east, have disappeared.
It is difficult to resist the impression that the shoal banks,
and the reefs of the Bahamas, were formerly covered with land;
and that for a geological age waste has been going on, and,
perhaps, subsidence. The coral polyp seems to be doing only
desultory work, and that mostly on the northeast or Atlantic side
of the islands; everywhere else it has abandoned the field to the
erosive action of the waves.
Columbus said that Guanahani had abundance of water and a very
large lagoon in the middle of it. He used the word
laguna--lagoon, not lago--lake. His arrival in the Bahamas was at
the height of the rainy season. Governor Rawson's Report on the
Bahamas, 1864, page 92, Appendix 4, gives the annual rainfall at
Nassau for ten years, 1855--'64, as sixty-four inches. From May
1, to November 1 is the wet season, during which 44.7 inches
fall; the other six months 19.3 only. The most is in October, 8.5
inches.
Andros, the largest island, 1,600 square miles, is the only one
that has a stream of water. The subdivision of the land into so
many islands and keys, the absence of mountains, the showery
characteristic of the rainfall, the porosity of the rock, and the
great heat reflected from the white coral, are the chief causes
for the want of running water. During the rainy season the
"abundance of water" collects in the low places, making ponds and
lagoons, that afterward are soaked up by the rock and evaporated
by the sun.
Turk and Watling have lagoons of a more permanent condition,
because they are maintained from the ocean by permeation. The
lagoon which Columbus found at Guanahani had certainly
undrinkable water, or he would have gotten some for his vessels,
instead of putting it off until he reached the third island.
There is nothing in the journal to indicate that the lagoon at
Guanahani was aught but the flooding of the low grounds by
excessive rains; and even if it was one communicating with the
ocean, its absence now may be referred to the effect of those
agencies which are working incessantly to reshape the soft
structure of the Bahamas.
Samana has a range of hills on the southwest side about one
hundred feet high, and on the northeast another, lower. Between
them, and also along the north shore, the land is low, and during
the season of rains there is a row of ponds parallel to the
shore. On the south side a conspicuous white bluff looks to the
southward and eastward.
The two keys, lying respectively half a mile and three miles east
of the island, and possibly the outer breaker, which is four
miles, all might have been connected with each other, and with
the island, four hundred years ago. In that event the most
convenient place for Columbus to anchor in the strong northeast
trade-wind, was where I have put an anchor on the sub-sketch of
Samana.
[In a subsequent passage Admiral Fox says:--]
There is a common belief that the first landing place is settled
by one or another of the authors cited here. Nevertheless, I
trust to have shown, paragraph by paragraph, wherein their
several tracks are contrary to the journal, inconsistent with the
true cartography of the neighborhood, and to the discredit,
measurably, both of Columbus and of Las Casas. The obscurity and
the carelessness which appear in part of the diary through the
Bahamas offer no obstacle to this demonstration, provided that
they do not extend to the "log," or nautical part.
Columbus went to sea when he was fourteen years of age, and
served there almost continuously for twenty-three years. The
strain of a sea-faring life, from so tender an age, is not
conducive to literary exactness. Still, for the very reason of
this sea experience, the "log" should be correct.
This is composed of the courses steered, distances sailed over,
bearings of islands from one another, trend of shores, etc. The
recording of these is the daily business of seamen, and here the
entries were by Columbus himself, chiefly to enable him, on his
return to Spain, to construct that nautical map, which is
promised in the prologue of the first voyage.
In crossing the Atlantic the Admiral understated to the crew each
day's run, so that they should not know how far they had gone
into an unknown ocean. Las Casas was aware of this counterfeit
"log," but his abridgment is from that one which Columbus kept
for his own use.
If the complicated courses and distances in this were originally
wrong, or if the copy of them is false, it is obvious that they
cannot be "plotted " upon a correct chart. Conversely, if they
ARE made to conform to a succession of islands among which he is
known to have sailed, it is evident that this is a genuine
transcript of the authentic "log" of Columbus, and, reciprocally,
that we have the true track, the beginning of which is the
eventful landfall of October 12, 1492.
The student or critical reader, and the seaman, will have to
determine whether the writer has established this conformity. The
public, probably, desires to have the question settled, but it
will hardly take any interest in a discussion that has no
practical bearing, and which, for its elucidation, leans so much
upon the jargon or the sea.
It is not flattering to the English or Spanish speaking peoples
that the four hundredth anniversary of this great event draws
nigh, and is likely to catch us still floundering, touching the
first landing place.
SUMMARY.
First. There is no objection to Samana in respect to size,
position or shape. That it is a little island, lying east and
west, is in its favor. The erosion at the east end, by which
islets have been formed, recalls the assertion of Columbus that
there it could be cut off in two days and made into an island.
The Nassau vessels still find a snug anchorage here during the
northeast trades. These blew half a gale of wind at the time of
the landfall; yet Navarette, Varnhagen, and Captain Becher
anchored the squadron on the windward sides of the coral reefs of
their respective islands, a "lee shore."
The absence of permanent lagoons at Samana I have tried to
explain.
Second. The course from Samana to Crooked is to the southwest,
which is the direction that the Admiral said be should steer
"tomorrow evening." The distance given by him corresponds with
the chart.
Third. The second island, Santa Maria, is described as having two
sides which made a right angle, and the length of each is given.
This points directly to Crooked and Acklin. Both form one island,
so fitted to the words of the journal as cannot be done with any
other land of the Bahamas.
Fourth. The course and distance from Crooked to Long Island is
that which the Admiral gives from Santa Maria to Fernandina.
Fifth. Long Island, the third, is accurately described. The trend
of the shores, "north-northwest and south-southeast;" the
"marvelous port" and the "coast which runs east [and] west," can
nowhere be found except at the southeast part of Long Island.
Sixth. The journal is obscure in regard to the fourth island. The
best way to find it is to "plot" the courses FORWARD from the
third island and the courses and distances BACKWARD from the
fifth. These lead to Fortune for the fourth.
Seventh. The Ragged Islands are the fifth. These he named las
islas de Arena--Sand Islands.
They lie west-southwest from the fourth, and this is the course
the Admiral adhered to. He did not "log" all the run made between
these islands; in consequence the "log" falls short of the true
distance, as it ought to. These "seven or eight islands, all
extending from north to south," and having shoal water "six
leagues to the south" of them, are seen on the chart at a glance.
Eighth. The course and distance from these to Port Padre, in
Cuba, is reasonable. The westerly current, the depth of water at
the entrance of Padre, and the general description, are free of
difficulties. The true distance is greater than the "logged,"
because Columbus again omits part of his run. It would be awkward
if the true distances from the fourth to the fifth islands, and
from the latter to Padre, had fallen short of the "log," since it
would make the unexplainable situation which occurs in Irving's
course and distance from Mucaras Reef to Boca de Caravela.
From end to end of the Samana track there are but three
discrepancies. At the third island, two leagues ought to be two
miles. At the fourth island twelve leagues ought to be twelve
miles. The bearing between the third and fourth islands is not
quite as the chart has it, nor does it agree with the courses he
steered. These three are fairly explained, and I think that no
others can be mustered to disturb the concord between this track
and the journal. --------
Rev. Mr. Cronan, in his recent voyage, discovered a cave at
Watling's island, where were many skeletons of the natives. It is
thought that a study of the bones in these skeletons will give
some new ethnological information as to the race which Columbus
found, which is now, thanks to Spanish cruelty, entirely extinct.
APPENDIX B.
The letter to the Lady Juana, which gives Columbus's own
statement of the indignities put upon him in San Domingo, is
written in his most crabbed Spanish. He never wrote the Spanish
language accurately, and the letter, as printed from his own
manuscript, is even curious in its infelicities. It is so
striking an illustration of the character of the man that we
print here an abstract of it, with some passages translated
directly from his own language.
Columbus writes, towards the end of the year 1500, to the former
nurse of Don Juan, an account of the treatment he has received.
"If my complaint of the world is new, its method of abuse is very
old," he says. "God has made me a messenger of the new heaven and
the new earth which is spoken of in the Apocalypse by the mouth
of St. John, after having been spoken of by Isaiah, and he showed
me the place where it was." Everybody was incredulous, but the
queen alone gave the spirit of intelligence and zeal to the
undertaking. Then the people talked of obstacles and expense.
Columbus says "seven years passed in talk, and nine in executing
some noted acts which are worthy of remembrance," but he returned
reviled by all.
"If I had stolen the Indies and had given them to the Moors I
could not have had greater enmity shown to me in Spain." Columbus
would have liked then to give up the business if he could have
come before the queen. However he persisted, and he says he
"undertook a new voyage to the new heaven and the new earth which
before had been hidden, and if it is not appreciated in Spain as
much as the other countries of India it is not surprising,
because it is all owing to my industry." He "had believed that
the voyage to Paria would reconcile all because of the pearls and
gold in the islands of Espanola." He says, "I caused those of our
people whom I had left there to come together and fish for
pearls, and arranged that I should return and take from them what
had been collected, as I understood, in measure a fanega (about a
bushel). If I have not written this to their Highnesses it is
because I wished also to have as much of gold. But that fled
before me, as all other things; I would not have lost them and
with them my honor, if I could have busied myself with my own
affairs.
"When I went to San Domingo I found almost half of the colony
uprising, and they made war upon me as a Moor, and the Indians on
the other side were no less cruel.
"Hojida came and he tried to make order, and he said that their
Highnesses had sent him with promises of gifts and grants and
money. He made up a large company, for in all Espanola there were
few men who were not vagabonds, and no one lived there who had
wife or children." Hojida retired with threats.
"Then Vincente Ganez came with four ships. There were outbreaks
and suspicions but no damage." He reported that six other ships
under a brother of the Alcalde would arrive, and also the death
of the queen, but these were rumors without foundation.
"Adrian (Mogica) attempted to go away as before, but our Lord did
not permit him to carry out his bad plan." Here Columbus regrets
that he was obliged to use force or ill-treat Adrian, but says he
would have done the same had his brother wished to kill him or
wrest from him the government which the king and queen had given
him to guard.
"For six months I was ready to leave to take to their Highnesses
the good news of the gold and to stop governing a dissolute
people who feared neither king nor queen, full of meanness and
malice. I would have been able to pay all the people with six
hundred thousand maravedis and for that there were more than four
millions of tithes without counting the third part of the gold."
Columbus says that be begged before his departure that they would
send some one at his expense to take command, and yet again a
subject with letters, for he says bitterly that he has such a
singular reputation that if he "were building churches and
hospitals they would say they were cells for stolen goods."
Then Bobadilla came to Santo Domingo while Columbus was at LaVega
and the Adelantado at Jaragua. "The second day of his arrival he
declared himself governor, created magistrates, made offices,
published grants for gold and tithes, and everything else for a
term of twenty years." He said he had come to pay the people, and
declared he would send Columbus home in irons. Columbus was away.
Letters with favors were sent to others, but none to him.
Columbus resorted to methods to gain time so that their
Highnesses could understand the state of things. But he was
constantly maligned and persecuted by those who were jealous of
him. He says:
"I think that you will remember that when the tempest threw me
into the port of Lisbon, after having lost my sails, I was
accused of having the intention to give India to that country.
Afterwards their Highnesses knew to the contrary. Although I know
but little, I cannot conceive that any one would suppose me so
stupid as not to know that though India might belong to me, yet I
could not keep it without the help of a prince."
Columbus complains that he has been judged as a governor who has
been sent to a peaceful, well-regulated province. He says, "I
ought to be judged as a captain sent from Spain to the Indies to
conquer a warlike people, whose custom and religion are all
opposed to ours, where the people live in the mountains without
regular houses for themselves, and where, by the will of God, I
have placed under the rule of the king and queen another world,
and by which Spain, which calls itself poor, is today the richest
empire. I ought to be judged as a captain who for many years
bears arms incessantly.
"I know well that the errors that I have committed have not been
with bad intentions, and I think that their Highnesses will
believe what I say; but I know and see that they use pity for
those who work against them."
"If, nevertheless, their Highnesses order that another shall
judge me, which I hope will not be, and this ought to be on an
examination made in India, I humbly beg of them to send there two
conscientious and respectable people, at my expense, which may
know easily that one finds five marcs of gold in four hours.
However that may be, it is very necessary that they should go
there." --------
APPENDIX C.
It would have been so natural to give the name of Columbus to the
new world which he gave to Castile and Leon, that much wonder has
been expressed that America was not called Columbia, and many
efforts have been made to give to the continent this name. The
District of Columbia was so named at a time when American writers
of poetry, were determined that "Columbia" should be the name of
the continent. The ship Columbia, from which the great river of
the West takes that name, had received this name under the same
circumstances about the same time. The city of Columbia, which is
the capital of South Carolina, was named with the same wish to do
justice to the great navigator.
Side by side with the discussion as to the name, and sometimes
making a part of it, is the question whether Columbus himself was
really the first discoverer of the mainland. The reader has seen
that he first saw the mainland of South America in the beginning
of August, 1498. It was on the fifth, sixth or seventh day,
according to Mr. Harrisse's accurate study of the letters. Was
this the first discovery by a European of the mainland?
It is known that Ojeda, with whom the reader is familiar, also
saw this coast. With him, as passenger on his vessel, was
Alberico Vespucci, and at one time it was supposed that Vespucci
had made some claim to be the discoverer of the continent, on
account of this voyage. But in truth Ojeda himself says that
before he sailed he had seen the map of the Gulf of Paria which
Columbus had sent home to the sovereigns after he made that
discovery. It also seems to be proved that Alberico Vespucci, as
he was then called, never made for himself any claim to the great
discovery.
Another question, of a certain interest to people proud of
English maritime science, is the question whether the Cabots did
not see the mainland before Columbus. It is admitted on all hands
that they did not make their first voyage till they knew of
Columbus's first discoveries; but it is supposed that in the
first or second voyage of the Cabots, they saw the mainland of
North America. The dates of the Cabots' voyages are unfortunately
badly entangled. One of them is as early as 1494, but this is
generally rejected. It is more probable that the king's letters
patent, authorizing John Cabot and his three sons to go, with
five vessels, under the English flag, for the discovery of
islands and countries yet unknown," was dated the fifth of March,
1496. Whether, however, they sailed in that year or in the next
year is a question. The first record of a discovery is in the
account-book of the privy purse of Henry VII, in the words,
"August 10th, 1497. To him who discovered the new island, ten
pounds." This is clearly not a claim on which the discovery of
the mainland can be based.
A manuscript known as the Cotton Manuscript says that John Cabot
had sailed, but had not returned, at the moment when the
manuscript was written. This period was "the thirteenth year of
Henry VII." The thirteenth year of Henry began on the
twenty-second of August, 1497, and ended in 1498. On the third of
February, 1498, Henry VII granted permission to Cabot to take six
English ships "to the lands and islands recently found by the
said Cabot, in the name of the king and by his orders." Strictly
speaking, this would mean that the mainland had then been
discovered; but it is impossible to establish the claim of
England on these terms.
What is, however, more to the point, is a letter from Pasqualigo,
a Venetian merchant, who says, writing to Venice, on the
twenty-third of August, 1497, that Cabot had discovered the
mainland at seven hundred leagues to the west, and had sailed
along it for a coast of three hundred leagues. He says the voyage
was three months in length. It was made, then, between May and
August, 1497. The evidence of this letter seems to show that the
mainland of North America was really first discovered by Cabot.
The discussion, however, does not in the least detract from the
merit due to Columbus for the great discovery. Whether he saw an
island or whether he saw the mainland, was a mere matter of what
has been called landfall by the seamen. It is admitted on all
hands that he was the leader in all these enterprises, and that
it was on his success in the first voyage that all such
enterprises followed.
End of the Project Gutenberg etext of The Life of Christopher
Columbus from his own Letters and Journals, by Edward Everett Hale