Narrative of a Voyage to the West Indies and Mexico Part 9

There is also an Indian, who is as the fiscal of the village,[87] and he has another and similar list; and on the Sunday, when the priest wishes to say ma.s.s, all the said Indians are obliged to present themselves to hear it; and before the priest begins the ma.s.s, he takes his list, and calls them all by their names and surnames; and should any of them be absent, he is marked upon the list, and the ma.s.s being said, the priest charges the Indian who serves as fiscal, to inquire privately where the defaulters are, and to bring them to the church; in which, being brought before the priest, he asks them the reason why they did not come to the divine service, for which they allege some excuse, if they can find any; and if the excuses are not found to be true or reasonable, the said priest orders the fiscal to give the said defaulters thirty or forty blows with a stick, outside the church, and before all the people.

[87] Indian Fiscal. "According to the size of the village, the church will have a certain number of singers, of trumpeters and players of the hautbois, over whom the priest appoints a certain officer, whom they call the fiscal, who walks before them with a white staff in his hand, having a cross of silver at the top, to show that he is an officer of the church. On the Sundays and feast days he is obliged to a.s.semble the young men and girls at the church, before and after the service."--Gage's _Voyage_.

This is the system which is maintained to keep them in religion, in which they remain, partly from fear of being beaten. It is nevertheless true, that if they have some just reason which prevents them coming to the ma.s.s, they are excused.

All these Indians are of a very melancholy humour, but have nevertheless very quick intelligence, and understand in a short time, whatever may be shewn to them, and do not become irritated, whatever action or abuse may be done or said to them. I have figured in this page and the next, what may well represent that which I have discoursed above.

The greater part of these Indians have strange habitations, and are without any fixed residence; for they have a kind of caravan or cart, which is covered with the bark of trees, and drawn by horses, mules or oxen; they have their wives and children in the said caravans, and remain a month or two in one spot, and then remove to another, and are thus continually wandering about the country.

There is another cla.s.s of Indians who build their dwellings and live in certain villages which belong to n.o.bles or merchants, and cultivate the soil.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PUNISHMENT OF THE INDIANS FOR NOT ATTENDING CHURCH.]

Now to return to the discourse of my voyage.

After having remained an entire month at Mechique, I returned to St.

Jean de Luz, at which place I embarked in a patache, for Porto-bello, from which it is four or five hundred leagues. We were three weeks at sea before arriving at the said Porto-bello, when I found a great change of country; for, instead of the very good and fertile land, which I had seen in New Spain, as I have related above, I found a very bad country; this place of Porto-bello being the most evil and pitiful residence in the world. It rains there almost always, and if the rain ceases for an hour, the heat is so great, that the water becomes quite infected, and renders the air contagious, so that the greater part of the newly arrived soldiers and mariners die. The country is very mountainous, covered with forests of fir, in which there are such quant.i.ties of monkeys, that it is wonderful to behold. Nevertheless, the said harbour of Porto-bello is very good; there are two castles at the entrance, which are tolerably strong, where there are three hundred soldiers in garrison. Adjoining the said port, where the fortresses are, there is another, which is not at all commanded by them, and where an army might land safely. The king of Spain esteems this port a place of consequence, being near to Peru, there being only seventeen leagues to Panama, which is on the south coast.

This port of Panama, which is on the sea of the (south), is very good; there is good anchorage, and the town is very mercantile.

In this place of Panama is collected all the gold and silver which comes from Peru, and where it is embarked, with other riches, upon a little river, which rises in the mountains, and descends to Porto-bello; which river is four leagues from Panama, from whence all the gold, silver, and merchandise must be conveyed on mules: and being embarked on the said river, there are but eighteen leagues to Porto-bello.

One may judge that, if the four leagues of land which there are from Panama to this river were cut through, one might pa.s.s from the south sea to the ocean on the other side, and thus shorten the route by more than fifteen hundred leagues;[88] and from Panama to the Straits of Magellan, would be an island, and from Panama to the New-foundlands would be another island, so that the whole of America would be in two islands.

[88] Isthmus of Panama. The junction of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, through the Isthmus of Panama, is not therefore by any means a modern idea. Champlain has, perhaps, the merit of being the first to promulgate it.

If an enemy of the king of Spain should hold the said Porto-bello, he could prevent any thing leaving Peru, except with great difficulty and risk, and at more expense than profit. Drac[89] went to the said Porto-bello, in order to surprise it, but he failed in his enterprise, having been discovered; in consequence of which, he died from disappointment, and ordered, in dying, that they should put him in a coffin of lead, and throw him into the sea, between an island and the said Porto-bello.

[89] Sir Francis Drake, after his unsuccessful attempt on Porto-rico, pursued his voyage to Nombre-de-Dios, where, having landed his men, he attempted to pa.s.s forward to Panama with a view of plundering that place, or if he found such a scheme practicable, of keeping and fortifying it, but he met not with the same facility which had attended his first enterprises in those parts. The Spaniards had fortified the pa.s.ses, and stationed troops in the woods, who so infested the English with continual alarms and skirmishes, that they were obliged to return without effecting anything. Drake himself, from the intemperance of the climate, the fatigues of his journey and the vexation of his disappointment, was seized with a distemper of which he soon after died. (See Hume's "Hist. of England," ann. 1597. Drake died on the 30th of December, 1596, old style, 9th of January, 1597, MS.,) and his body was disposed of in the manner mentioned by Champlain.

Having remained a month at the said Porto-bello, I returned to St. Jean de Luz, where we sojourned fifteen days, waiting while our ships were careened, to go to the Havanna, to the rendezvous of the armies and fleets; and for that purpose, having left the said St. Jean de Luz, when we were twenty leagues at sea, a hurricane took us with such fury, with a north wind, that we thought all was lost, and were so separated one from the other, that we could only rally at the Havanna. On the other hand, our ship made so much water, that we thought we could not avoid the peril; for if we took half an hour's repose, without pumping out the water, we were obliged to work for two hours without ceasing; and had we not met with a patache, which set us in our route again, we should have been lost on the coast of Campesche.

On this coast of Campesche, there are quant.i.ties of salt, which is made and procured without artificial means, by reservoirs of water, which remain after the high tides, where it crystallizes in the sun.

Our pilot had lost all knowledge of the navigation, but the grace of G.o.d sent us this meeting with the patache.

Arrived at the Havanna, we found our general, but our admiral had not yet arrived, which made us think that he was lost; however, he came in soon after, with the remainder of the ships. Eighteen days after our arrival, I embarked in a vessel which was going to Cartagena, and we were fifteen days making the voyage. This place is a good port, where there is a fine entrance, sheltered from all winds, save from the north-north-west, which blows into the harbour, in which there are three islands. The king of Spain keeps two galleys here. The said place is in the country called terra-firma, which is very good, very fertile, as well in corn and fruits as in other things necessary to life; but not in such abundance as in New Spain; but in recompense, there is a greater quant.i.ty of silver drawn from the said country of terra-firma.

I remained a month and a half at the town of Cartagena, and took a portrait of the town and of the harbour.

Leaving the said port of Cartagena, I returned to the Havanna, to meet our general, who gave me a very good reception, having visited by his command the places where I had been.

The said port of Havanna is one of the finest that I have seen in all the Indies. The entrance is very narrow, very good, and well furnished with all that is necessary to defend it; and from one fort to the other there is an iron chain, which traverses the entry of the port. The garrison of the said fortresses consists of six hundred soldiers; that is to say, in one, named the Moro, on the eastern side, four hundred; and in the other fort, which is called the new fort, and is in the town, two hundred. Inside the said harbour there is a bay, which is more than six leagues round, being more than one league wide, where in every part ships can anchor in three, four, six, eight, ten, fifteen, and sixteen fathoms water, and a great number of vessels can remain there; the town is very good and mercantile.

The island, in which are the fort and city of Havanna, is called Cuba, and is very mountainous; there are no mines of gold or silver, but many mines of metal, of which pieces of artillery are made for the town of Havanna.

Neither corn nor wine grows on the said island; that which is consumed comes from New Spain, so that sometimes they are very dear.

In this island there are quant.i.ties of very good fruits; among others one which is called pines,[90] which perfectly resembles in shape the pine (cones) with us. The skin is removed, then it is cut in half like apples; it has a very good taste, and is very sweet, like sugar.

[90] Pine-apple. Pina de Indias (Span.) anana.

There is abundance of cattle, such as oxen, cows, and pigs, which are better meat than any other in this country, or in all the Indies. They keep a great number of oxen, more to have the hides than the flesh. To take them, negroes go on horseback after these oxen, and with astes,[91]

at the end of which is a very sharp crescent, cut the hamstrings of the oxen, which are immediately skinned, and the flesh so soon consumed, that, twenty-four hours after, none can be perceived, being devoured by great numbers of wild dogs and other animals which inhabit this country.

[91] Hasta (Lat.), lance or pole.

We were four months at the Havanna, and leaving it with the whole fleet of the Indies, which had a.s.sembled there from all parts, we proceeded to pa.s.s the channel of Bahan (Bahama), which is a pa.s.sage of consequence, and which must necessarily be pa.s.sed in returning from the Indies. On one side of the said pa.s.sage, to the north, lies the land of Florida, and on the other the Havanna. The sea flows into the said channel with great impetuosity. This channel is eighty leagues in length, and in width eight leagues, as it is figured hereafter, together with the land of Florida, at least such part of the coast as can be seen.

On quitting the said channel we came near to Bermuda, a mountainous island which it is difficult to approach on account of the dangers that surround it. It almost always rains there, and thunders so often, that it seems as if heaven and earth were about to come together. The sea is very tempestuous around the said island, and the waves high as mountains.[92]

[92] Bermuda. "The still vexed Bermoothes." Gage was nearly wrecked on the rocks of Bermuda. He says, "The Spaniards, instead of thanking G.o.d for having saved them from that peril, began to curse the English who inhabited the island, saying that they had enchanted it, and all the others in the neighbourhood, and that, by means of the devil, they caused storms to arise whenever a Spanish fleet pa.s.sed."

Having pa.s.sed the traverse of the said island, we saw such quant.i.ties of flying-fish that it was marvellous.[93] We took some which fell on board our ship. They have the shape like that of a herring; the fins much larger, and are very good to eat.

[93] Flying-fish. Exocetus volitans (Linn.)

There are certain fish as large as barrels, which are called "tribons,"[94] which follow the flying-fish to eat them; and when the flying-fish find that they cannot otherwise avoid them, they spring from the water and fly about five hundred paces, and by this means they save themselves from the said "tribon."

[94] Tiburon (Span.) Shark, probably confounded with the bonito, which with the dorade (sparus aurata) is the mortal enemy of the flying-fish.

I must also say that on the south-south-east side of the said channel of Bahan is seen the island of St. Domingo, of which I have before spoken, which is very fine and commercial in hides, ginger, and ca.s.se-tabac, which is otherwise called petun,[95] or the queen's herb, which is dried and then made into little cakes. Sailors, even the English, and other persons use it, and take the smoke of it in imitation of the savages.

[95] Most likely "cana.s.se," or canaster tobacco, or petun-nicotiana tabac.u.m (Linn.) Nicot, who first introduced tobacco in France, called it "herbe a la reine," or the queen's herb. The term "petuner" was often used formerly instead of "fumer," to smoke. "Ils" (the Indians) "ne font du feu que pour petuner."--Champlain's _Voyages en Nouvelle France_, 1632.

Although I have before represented the island of St. Domingo, I will nevertheless figure the coast towards the channel of Bahan.

I have spoken above of the land of Florida; I will also say that it is one of the best lands that can be desired; very fertile if it were cultivated, but the king of Spain does not care for it because there are no mines of gold or silver. There are great numbers of savages, who make war against the Spaniards, who have a fort on a point of the said land, where there is a harbour. The land is low, and for the most part very agreeable.

Four days after pa.s.sing Bermuda we had such a great tempest, that the whole of our armament was more than six days without being able to keep together. After the six days had pa.s.sed, the weather becoming finer and the sea more tranquil, we all rea.s.sembled, and had the wind favourable till we perceived the Acores. The island of Terceira is shown here.

All vessels returning from the Indies must of necessity approach the said islands of Acores to take their observations, otherwise they could not with surety finish their route.

Having pa.s.sed the isles of Acores, we came in sight of Cape St.

Vincent, where we captured two English ships which were armed for war; and we took them to the river of Seville from whence we had departed, and which was the termination of our voyage; which had occupied, since our leaving the river of Seville, as well on sea as on land, two (three) years and two months.