The Life of Columbus Part 8

Anxious to revisit the colony at La Navidad, the admiral proceeded north-westward as speedily as possible, and after pa.s.sing and naming Montserrat, Antigua, St. Martin, and Santa Cruz, arrived at a beautiful and fertile island which he called St. John, but which has since received the name of Porto Rico. Here were found houses and roads constructed after a civilized fashion; but proofs that the inhabitants were cannibals abounded everywhere. On the 22nd of November the admiral reached the eastern end of Hispaniola, and sailed along the northern sh.o.r.e toward La Navidad, where a profound disappointment awaited him. The little colony which he had founded had been entirely destroyed. The fort was razed to the ground. Not one of the settlers was alive to tell the tale.

LICENTIOUSNESS OF SETTLERS.

The account which Guacanagari gave to Columbus, and which there seems no reason to doubt, is, that the Spanish who had been left at La Navidad took to evil courses, quarrelled amongst themselves, straggled about the country, and finally were set upon, when weak and few in numbers, by a neighbouring Indian chief named Caonabo, who burned the tower and killed or dispersed the garrison, none of whom were ever discovered. It was in Caonabo's country that the gold mines were reported to exist, and it is probable that both the cupidity and the profligacy of the colonists were so gross as to draw down upon them the not unreasonable vengeance of the natives. Guacanagari, the friendly cacique, who had received the admiral amicably on his first voyage, declared that he and his tribe had done their utmost in defence of the Europeans, in proof of which he exhibited recent wounds which had evidently been inflicted by savage weapons. He was, naturally, scarcely so friendly as before, but communication with him was made easy by the aid of one of the Indians whom Columbus had taken to Spain, and who acted as interpreter. Guacanagari was willing that a second fort should be built on the site of the first, but the admiral thought it better to seek a new locality, both because the position of the old fort had been unhealthy, and because the disgusting licentiousness of the settlers had offended the Indians to such an extent that whereas they had at first regarded the white men as angels from heaven, now they considered them as debased profligates and disturbers of the peace, against whom they had to defend their honour and their lives.

COLONY FOUNDED AT ISABELLA.

Sailing along the coast of Hayti, Columbus selected a site for his projected settlement, about forty miles to the east of the present Cape Haytien. This he called Isabella, after his royal mistress. Here the ships of his squadron discharged their stores, and the Spaniards laboured actively in the construction of the first town built by Europeans in the New World. But the work did not progress prosperously. Diseases prevailed among the colonists. The fatigues and discomforts of a long sea voyage were not the best preparations for hard physical labour. The number of men which the admiral had brought out with him was disproportionate to his means of sustaining them. Provisions and medicines began to fail. And, worst of all, none of the golden dreams were realized, under the influence of which they had left Spain. Only small samples of the precious metal could be procured from the natives, and the vaguely indicated gold mines of Cibao had not been reached. Anxiety, responsibility, and labour began to tell upon the iron const.i.tution of the admiral, and for some time he was stretched upon a bed of sickness.

COLUMBUS DESPATCH TO THE COURT OF SPAIN.

Some idea of the difficulties which had to be encountered at this period may be conceived from an account of the state of his colony which Columbus sent home in January 1494. It is in the form of instructions to a certain Antonio de Torres, the Receiver of the Colony, who was to proceed to the court of Spain and inform the Monarchs of such things as were written in these instructions, and doubtless to elucidate them by discourse, as in the present day we send a despatch to be read by an amba.s.sador to the foreign minister of the power we are treating with.

There remains a copy, made at the time, of this doc.u.ment, and of the notes in the margin containing the resolutions of the sovereigns. The original, thus noted, was taken back to Columbus. It is a most valuable doc.u.ment, very ill.u.s.trative of the cautious and wise dealing of the catholic sovereigns.

The doc.u.ment begins with the usual strain of complimentary address to great personages, "Their Highnesses hold it for good service" is the marginal remark.

The next paragraph consists of a general statement of the discoveries that have been made. "Their Highnesses give much thanks to G.o.d, and hold as very honoured service all that the admiral has done."

Then follow the admiral's reasons why he has not been able to send home more gold. His people have been ill: it was necessary to keep guard, &c.

"He has done well" is in the margin.

He suggests the building of a fortress near the place where gold can be got. Their Highnesses approve; and the note in the margin is, "This is well, and so it must be done."

Then comes a paragraph about provisions, and a marginal order from the sovereigns, "that Juan de Fonseca is to provide for that matter."

Again, there comes another paragraph about provisions, complaining, amongst other things, that the casks, in which the wine for the armada had been put, were leaky. Their Highnesses make an order in the margin, "that Juan de Fonseca is to find out the persons who played this cheat with the wine casks, and to make good from their pockets the loss, and to see that the canes" (sugar canes for planting, possibly) "are good, and that all that is here asked for, be provided immediately."

CASTILIAN INTERPRETERS.

So far, nothing can run more pleasantly with the main doc.u.ment than the notes in the margin. Columbus now touches upon a matter which intimately concerns the subject of slavery. He desires his agent to inform their Highnesses that he has sent home some Indians from the Cannibal Islands as slaves, to be taught Castilian, and to serve afterwards as interpreters, so that the work of conversion may go on. His arguments in support of this proceeding are weighty. He speaks of the good that it will be to take these people away from cannibalism and to have them baptized, for so they will gain their souls, as he expresses it. Then, too, with regard to the other Indians, he remarks, "we shall have great credit from them, seeing that we can capture and make slaves of these cannibals, of whom they (the peaceable Indians) entertain so great a fear." Such arguments must be allowed to have much force in them; and it may be questioned whether many of those persons who, in these days, are the strongest opponents of slavery, would then have had that perception of the impending danger of its introduction which the sovereigns appear to have entertained, from their answer to this part of the doc.u.ment. "This is very well, and so it must be done; but let the admiral see whether it could not be managed there" (i.e. in the Cannibal Islands) "that they should be brought to our Holy Catholic Faith, and the same thing with the Indians of those islands where he is."

SLAVERY PROPOSED.

The admiral's despatch goes much further: in the next paragraph he boldly suggests that, for the advantage of the souls of these cannibal Indians, the more of them that could be taken the better; and that, considering what quant.i.ties of live-stock and other things are required for the maintenance of the colony, a certain number of caravels should be sent each year with these necessary things, and the cargoes be paid for in slaves taken from amongst the cannibals. He touches again on the good that will be done to the cannibals themselves; alludes to the customs duties that their Highnesses may levy upon them; and concludes by desiring Antonio de Torres to send, or bring, an answer, "because the preparations here (for capturing these cannibals) may be carried on with more confidence, if the scheme seem good to their Highnesses."

THE PROPOSAL REJECTED.

At the same time that we must do Columbus the justice to believe that his motives were right in his own eyes, it must be admitted that a more distinct suggestion for the establishment of a slave-trade was never proposed. To their honour, Ferdinand and Isabella thus replied: "As regards this matter, it is suspended for the present, until there come some other way of doing it there, and let the admiral write what he thinks of this."

This is rather a confused answer, as often happens, when a proposition from a valued friend or servant is disapproved of, but has to be rejected kindly. The Catholic sovereigns would have been very glad to have received some money from the Indies: money was always welcome to King Ferdinand; the purchase of wine, seeds, and cattle for the colonists had hitherto proved anything but a profitable outlay; the prospect of conversion was probably dear to the hearts of both these princes, certainly to one of them: but still this proposition for the establishment of slavery was wisely and magnanimously set aside.

FORT ST. THOMAS FOUNDED.

While Antonio de Torres was absent from Hispaniola, laying these propositions before Los Reyes, Columbus was busy about the affairs of the colony, which were in a most distracted state. Scant fare and hard work were having their effect; sickness pervaded the whole armament; and men of all ranks and stations, hidalgoes, people of the court and ecclesiastics, were obliged to labour manually under regulations strictly enforced. The rage and vexation of these men, many of whom had come out with the notion of finding gold ready for them on the sea sh.o.r.e, may be imagined; and complaints of the admiral's harsh way of dealing with those under him (probably no harsher than was absolutely necessary to save them), now took their rise, and pursued him ever after to his ruin. A mutiny, headed by Bernal Diaz, a man high in authority, was detected and quelled before the mutineers could effect their intention of seizing the ships. Diaz was sent for trial to Spain. The colonists, however, were somewhat cheered after a time by hearing of gold mines, and seeing specimens of ore brought from thence; and the admiral went himself and founded the Fort of St. Thomas, in the mining district of Cibao. But the Spaniards gained very little real advantage from these gold mines, which they began to work before they had consolidated around them the means of living; in fact, dealing with the mines of Hispaniola as if they had been discovered in an old country, where the means of transit and, supplies of provisions can, with certainty, be procured.

DESIRE FOR DISCOVERY.

There was also another evil, besides that of inconsiderate mining, and, perhaps, quite as mischievous a one, which stood in the way of the steady improvement of these early Spanish colonies. The Catholic sovereigns had unfortunately impressed upon Columbus their wish that he should devote himself to further discovery, a wish but too readily adopted and furthered by his enterprising spirit. The hankering of the Spanish monarchs for further discovery was fostered by their jealousy of the Portuguese. The Portuguese were making their way towards India, going eastward. They, the Spaniards, thought they were discovering India, going westward. The more rapidly, therefore, each nation could advance and plant its standard, the more of much-coveted India it would hereafter be able to claim. Acting upon such views, Columbus now proceeded onwards, bent upon further discovery, notwithstanding that his little colonies at Isabella and St.

Thomas must have needed all his sagacity to protect them, and all his authority to restrain them.

A COUNCIL APPOINTED.

He nominated a council to manage the government during his absence, with his brother Don Diego as president of it; he appointed a certain Don Pedro Margarite as captain-general; and then put to sea on the 24th of April, 1494.

CHAPTER VII.

In the course of the voyage that then ensued, the admiral made many important discoveries, amongst them Jamaica, and the cl.u.s.ter of little islands called the "Garden of the Queen." The navigation amongst these islands was so difficult, that the admiral is said to have been thirty-two days without sleeping. Certain it is, that after he had left the island called La Mona, and when he was approaching the island of San Juan, a drowsiness, which Las Casas calls "pestilential," but which might reasonably be attributed to the privations, cares, and anxieties which the admiral had now undergone for many months, seized upon him, and entirely deprived him for a time of the use of his senses.

The object in going to San Juan was to capture cannibals there, and Las Casas looks upon this lethargical attack as a judgment upon the admiral for so unjust a manner of endeavouring to introduce Christianity. The mariners turned the fleet homewards to Isabella, where they arrived the 29th of September, 1494, bearing with them their helpless commander.

ILLNESS OF COLUMBUS.

On Columbus's arrival at Isabella, where he remained ill for five months, he found his brother, Bartholomew Columbus, whose presence gladdened him exceedingly. His brothers were very dear to the admiral, as may be gathered from a letter to his eldest son Diego, in which he bids him make much of his brother Ferdinand, the son of Beatrice, "for," says he, "ten brothers would not be too many for you. I have never found better friends, on my right hand and on my left, than my brothers." Afterwards came Antonio de Torres with provisions, and all things needful for the colony.

But nothing, we are told, delighted the admiral so much as the despatches from court, for he was a faithful, loyal man, who loved to do his duty to those who employed him, and to have his faithfulness recognized.

DISORGANIZATION OF THE COLONY.

Peace or delight, however, was not at any time to be long enjoyed by Columbus. He found his colony in a sad state of disorganization: the Indians were in arms against the Spaniards; and Father Buil, Don Pedro Margarite, and other princ.i.p.al persons had gone home to Spain in the ship which had brought Bartholomew Columbus.

The admiral, before his departure, had given a most injudicious command to Margarite, namely, to put himself at the head of four hundred men and go through the country, with the twofold object of impressing upon the natives a respect for the power of the Spaniards, and of freeing the colony from supporting these four hundred men. The instructions to Margarite were, to observe the people and the natural productions of the country through which he should pa.s.s; to do rigorous justice, so that the Spaniards should be prevented from injuring the Indians, or the Indians the Spaniards; to treat the Indians kindly; to obtain provisions by purchase, if possible, if not, by any other means; and to capture Caonabo and his brothers, either by force or artifice.

OPPRESSION OF INDIANS.

The proceedings of the men under Margarite were similar to those of the Spaniards formerly left at La Navidad. They went straggling over the country: they consumed the provisions of the poor Indians, astonishing them by their voracious appet.i.tes; waste, rapine, injury and insult followed in their steps; and from henceforth there was but little hope of the two races living peaceably together in those parts, at least upon equal terms. The Indians were now swarming about the Spaniards with hostile intent: as a modern historian describes the situation, "they had pa.s.sed from terror to despair;" and but for the opportune arrival of the admiral, the Spanish settlements in Hispaniola might again have been entirely swept away.

Caonabo, the cacique who, in former days, had put to death the garrison at La Navidad, was now threatening that of St. Thomas, the fort which the admiral had caused to be built in the mining district of Cibao.

Guatignana, the cacique of Macorix, who had killed eight Spanish soldiers and set fire to a house where there were forty ill, was now within two days' march of Isabella, besieging the fort of Magdalena. Columbus started up forthwith, went off to Magdalena, engaged the Indians, and routed them utterly.

TRANSMISSION OF SLAVES,

He took a large part of them for slaves, and reduced to obedience the whole of the province of Macorix. Returning to Isabella, he sent back, on the 24th of February, 1495, the four ships which Antonio de Torres had brought out, chiefly laden with Indian slaves. It is rather remarkable that the very ships which brought that admirable reply from Ferdinand and Isabella to Columbus, begging him to seek some other way to Christianity than through slavery, even for wild man-devouring Caribs, should come back full of slaves taken from amongst the wild islanders of Hispaniola.