1492 Part 33

The Admiral gazed, and I saw the salt tears blind his eyes. His son was beside him. He put his hand upon the youth's shoulder. "Fernando, there it is--I found and named it Hispaniola!"

The weather hung perilously still, the sea gla.s.s. It was so clear above, below, around, that we seemed to see by added light, and yet there was no more sunlight. All the air had thinned, it seemed, away. Every sail fell slack. Colors were slightly altered. The Admiral said, "There is coming a great storm."

The boy Fernando laughed. "Why, father!"

"Stillness before the leap," said the Admiral. "Quiet at home because the legions have gone to muster."

It was hard to think it, but too often had it been proved that he was in the secret of water and air. Now Bartholomew Fiesco the Genoese said.

"Aye, aye! They say on the ships at Genoa that when it came to weather, even when you were a youngster, you were fair necromancer!"

The sky rested blue, but the sea became green oil. That night there were all around us fields of phosph.o.r.escence. About midnight these vanished; it was very black for all the stars, and we seemed to hear a sighing as from a giant leagues away. This pa.s.sed, and the morning broke, silent and tranquil, azure sky and azure sea, and not so sharply clear as yesterday. The great calm wind again pushed us.

Hispaniola! Hispaniola! Her mountains and her palms before us.

We coasted to the river Hayna and the Spanish city of San Domingo. Three hours from sunset down in harbor plunged our anchors, down rattled our sails.

The _Consolacion's_ long boat danced by her side. The Admiral would send to land but one boat, and in it for envoy Pedro de Terreros, a well-speaking man and known to Don Nicholas de Ovando. Terreros was envoy, but with him the Admiral sent Juan Lepe, who through the years in Hispaniola had tried to heal the sick, no matter what their faction.

The Admiral stayed upon the _Consolacion_, the Adelantado upon the _Margarita_.

The harbor was filled with ships. We counted eighteen. We guessed that they were preparing for sailing, the little boats so came and went between. And our entry had caused excitement. Ship and small boat hailed us, but to them we did not answer. Then came toward us from the sh.o.r.e a long boat with the flag of Spain and in it an official.

Our wharf! Juan Lepe had left it something more than a year and a half ago. San Domingo was grown, many Spaniards having sailed for the west in that time. I saw strangers and strangers, though of Spanish blood.

Walking with the officer and his people to the Governor's house gave time for observation and swift thought. Throng was forming. One had early cried from out it, "That's the doctor, Juan Lepe! 'Tis the Admiral out there!" That it was the Admiral seemed to spread. San Domingo buzzed like the air about a hive the first spring day. Farther on, out pushed a known voice. "Welcome, welcome, Doctor!" I looked, and that was Sancho.

Luis Torres was in Spain. I had seen him in Cadiz. The crowd was thickening--men came running--there was cry and query. Suddenly rose a cheer. "The Admiral and the Adelantado in their little ships!" At once came a counter-shout. "The Genoese! The Traitors!"

I saw--I saw--I saw that there was some wisdom in King Ferdinand!

The Governor's house that used to be the Viceroy's house. State--state!

They had cried out upon the Genoese's keeping it--but Don Nicholas de Ovando kept more. While we waited in the antechamber I saw, out of window and the tail of my eye, files of soldiery go by. Ovando would not have riot and disturbance if twenty Admirals hung in the offing! He kept us waiting. He would be cool and distant and impregnable behind the royal word. Juan Lepe saw plainly that that lavish and magnanimous person aboard the _Consolacion_ would not meet here his twin. The Adelantado must still, I thought, sail the _Margarita_. And yet, looking at all things, that exchange of ships should have been made. A Spaniard, wheresoever found, should have cried "Aye!" to it.

The Governor's officer who still kept by us was not averse to talk. All those preparing ships in the harbor? Why, they were the returning fleet that brought Don Nicholas in. Sailing to-morrow--hence the hubbub on land and water. They had a lading now! He gazed a moment at us, and as we seemed sober folk, saw no reason why we should not have the public news. Forth it came like water out of bottle. Bobadilla was returning.

"A prisoner?" "Why, hardly that! Roldan, too." "A prisoner?" "Why, not precisely so." Many of the old regime--Bobadilla's regime--were returning and Roldan men likewise. Invited to go, in fact, though with no other harsh treatment. One of the ships would be packed with Indian rebels, Gwarionex among them. Chained, all these. The notable thing about the fleet, after all that, was the gold that was going! A treasure fleet! Bobadilla _had_ gathered gold for the crown. He was taking, they said, a sultan's ransom. He had one piece that weighed, they said, five thousand castellanos. Roldan too had gold. And the Governor was sending no man knew how much. More than that-- He looked at us, then, being a kindly soul, quoth, "Why shouldn't the Admiral know? Alonso de Carvajal has put on board the _Santa Clara_ for the Admiral's agent in Cadiz five thousand pieces--fully due, as the Governor had allowed."

Door was opened. "His Excellency the Governor will see you now."

Why tarry over a short story? Don Nicholas de Ovando pleaded smoothly the Sovereign's most strict command which _in any_ to disobey were plain malfeasance! As he spoke he looked dreamily toward blue harbor and the _Consolacion_. And as to a ship! Every ship, except two or three, old and crippled and in the hands of the menders, no whit better it was certain than the _Margarita_, was laded and on the point of sailing.

Literally he had none, absolutely not one! He understood that Jamaica was expressly named to the Admiral for resting and overhauling. Careen the _Margarita_ there and rectify the wrong--which he trusted was not great. If ships had been idle and plentiful--but he could not splinter any from the fleet that was sailing to-morrow. He was sorry--and trusted that the Admiral was in health?

Terreros said, "His ship is worse off than you think, Excellency. He has great things to do, confided into his hands by the Sovereigns who treasure him who found all. Here is emergency. May we carry to him invitation to enter San Domingo for an hour and himself present his case?"

But no--but no--but no! Thrice that!

The Governor rose. Audience was over.

For the rest he was courteous--asked of the voyage--and of the Admiral's notion of the Strait. "A great man!" he said. "A Thinker, a Seer." He sent him messages of courtesy three-piled. And so we parted.

This was the Governor of whom one said long afterwards,

"He was a good governor for white men, but not for Indians."

As life and destiny would have it, in the place without the Governor's house I met him who was to say it. Terreros and I with the same escort were for the water side, the _Consolacion's_ long boat. The crowd kept with us, but His Excellency's soldiers held it orderly. Yet there were shouts and messages for the Admiral, and for this one and that one aboard our ships. Then came a young man, said a word to the officer with us, and put out his hand to mine. It was that Bartolome de Las Casas with whom I had walked the white road, under moon, before the inn between Seville and Cordova.

CHAPTER x.x.xIX

THE Admiral took it with some Italian words under breath. Then he wheeled and left the cabin. A minute later I heard the master from the _Consolacion_ hail the _Margarita_ that lay close by. "_Margarita_, ahoy! Orders! Clap on sail and follow!" The trumpet cried to the Juana and the _San Sebastian_, "Make ready and follow!"

Our mariners ran to make sail. But the long boat waited for some final word that they said was going ash.o.r.e. Terreros would take it. We were so close that we saw the yet watching crowd, wharf and water side, and the sun glinting upon Ovando's order-keeping soldiery. The Admiral called me to him. I read the letter to the Governor, Terreros would deliver to our old officer, probably waiting on the wharf to see us quite away. The letter--there was naught in it but the sincerest, gravest warning that a hurricane was at hand. A great one; he knew the signs. It might strike this sh.o.r.e late to-morrow or the next day or the next. Wherefore he begged his Excellency the Governor to tarry the fleet's sailing. Let it wait at least three days and see if his words came not true! Else there would be scattering of ships and destruction--and he rested his Excellency's servant. _El Almirante_.

Terreros went, delivered that letter, and returned to the _Juana_. And our sails were made and our anchors lifted, and it was sunset and clear and smooth, and every palm frond of San Domingo showed. Eighteen ships in harbor, and fifteen, they said, going to Spain, and around and upon them all bustle of preparation. One saw in fancy Bobadilla and Roldan and Gwarionex and the much gold, including that piece of virgin ore weighing five thousand castellanos. Fifteen ships preparing for Spain, and San Domingo, of which the Adelantado had laid first stone, and a strange, green, sunset sky. And the _Consolacion_, the _Margarita_, the Juana and the _San Sebastian_ away to the west, to the sound of music, for the Admiral cried to our musicians, "Play, play in G.o.d's name!"

Night pa.s.sed. Morning broke. So light was the wind that the sh.o.r.e went by slowly. There gathered an impatience. "If we must to Jamaica, what use in following every curve of Hispaniola that is forbid us?" At noon the wind almost wholly failed, then after three hours of this rose with a pouncing suddenness to a good breeze. We rounded a point thronged with palms. Before us a similar point, and between the two that bent gently each to the other, slept a deep and narrow bight. "Enter here," said the Admiral.

We anch.o.r.ed. There was again a strange sunset, green and gold in the lower west, but above an arc of clouds dressed in saffron and red. And now we could hear, though from very far off, a deep and low murmur, and whether it was the forest or the sea or both we did not know. But now all the old mariners said there would be storm, and we were glad of the little bay between the protecting horns. The Admiral named it Bay of Comfort. The _Consolacion_ _Margarita_, _Juana_, _San Sebastian_, lay under bare masts, deep within the bight.

The next day, an hour before noon, arrived that king hurricane.

They are known now, these storms of Europe's west and Asia's east. Take all our Mediterranean storms and heap them into one!

Through the day our anchors held in our Bay of Comfort, and we blessed our Admiral. But at eve the _Margarita_, the _Juana_ and the _San Sebastian_ lost bottom, feared breaking against the rocky sh.o.r.e and stood out for sea room. The _Consolacion_ stayed fast, and at dawn was woe to see nothing at all of the three. In the howling tempest and the quarter light we knew not if they were sunk or saved.

With the second evening the hurricane sank; at dawn the seas, though running high, no longer pushed against us like white-maned horses of Death. We waited till noon, then the sea being less mountainous, quitted the Bay of Comfort and went to look for the three ships.

The _Juana_ and the _San Sebastian_ we presently sighted and rejoiced thereat. But the _Margarita_! We saw her nowhere, and the Admiral's face grew gray. His son Fernando pressed close to him. "My uncle is a bold man, and they say the second seaman in the world! Let's hope and hope--and hope!"

"Why, aye!" said the Admiral. "I'm a good scholar in hope. I told them in San Domingo the ship was not seaworthy. What cared they for that?

They were willing that all of my name should drown! G.o.d judge between us!"

The _Juana_ came close and shouted that at eve they had seen the Adelantado in great trouble, close to sh.o.r.e. Then came down the night and once or twice they thought they made out a light but they were not sure.

In this West the weather after a hurricane is weather of heaven. We coasted in a high sea, but with safety under a sky one sapphire, and with a right wind,--and suddenly, rounding a palmy headland, we saw the _Margarita_ riding safe in a little bay like the Bay of Comfort. The Admiral fell upon his knees.

The _Margarita_ was safe indeed but was so crazed a ship! The _San Sebastian_, too, was in bad case. Hispaniola truly, but some leagues from San Domingo, and a small, desert, lonely bay! We rested here because rest we must, and mended our ships. Days--three days--a week.

The Admiral and the Adelantado kept our people close to the ships.

There was no Indian village, but a party sent to gather fruit found two Indians biding, watching from a thicket. These, brought to the Admiral, proved to be from a village between us and San Domingo. They had been in that town after the hurricane. It had uprooted the great tree before the Governor's house and thrown down a part of the church.

"Had the fleet sailed?"

Yes, it seemed. The day before the storm. But these men knew nothing of its fortunes. He kept the Indians with us until we sailed, so as not to spread news of where we were, then gave them presents and let them go.

But on the day we set to sail we did not sail, for along the coast and into our bay came a small caravel, going with men to our fort in Xaragua. The captain--Ruy Lopez it was--met us as a wonder, San Domingo having held that the hurricane must have sunk us, the sea swallowed us up. He anch.o.r.ed, took his boat and came to the Admiral upon the _Consolacion_.

"Senor, I am glad to see you living!"

"Yes, I live, senor. Are you well in San Domingo?"

"Well in body, but sick at heart because of the fleet."