CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS

 AND THE NEW WORLD OF HIS DISCOVERY

 A NARRATIVE BY FILSON YOUNG

 TO THE RIGHT HON. SIR HORACE PLUNKETT, K. C. V. O. , D. C. L. , F. R. S. 

MY DEAR HORACE, Often while I have been studying the records of colonisation in the NewWorld I have thought of you and your difficult work in Ireland; and Ihave said to myself, "What a time he would have had if he had beenViceroy of the Indies in 1493!" There, if ever, was the chance for aDepartment such as yours; and there, if anywhere, was the place for theEconomic Man. Alas! there war only one of him; William Ires or Eyre, byname, from the county Galway; and though he fertilised the soil he did itwith his blood and bones. A wonderful chance; and yet you see what cameof it all. It would perhaps be stretching truth too far to say that youare trying to undo some of Columbus's work, and to stop up the hole hemade in Ireland when he found a channel into which so much of what wasbest in the Old Country war destined to flow; for you and he have eachyour places in the great circle of Time and Compensation, and though youmay seem to oppose one another across the centuries you are reallyanswering the same call and working in the same vineyard. For we all setout to discover new worlds; and they are wise who realise early thathuman nature has roots that spread beneath the ocean bed, that neitherlatitude nor longitude nor time itself can change it to anything richeror stranger than what it is, and that furrows ploughed in it are furrowsploughed in the sea sand. Columbus tried to pour the wine ofcivilisation into very old bottles; you, more wisely, are trying to pourthe old wine of our country into new bottles. Yet there is no greatunlikeness between the two tasks: it is all a matter of bottling; thevintage is the same, infinite, inexhaustible, and as punctual as the sunand the seasons. It was Columbus's weakness as an administrator that hethought the bottle was everything; it is your strength that you care forthe vintage, and labour to preserve its flavour and soft fire. 

 Yours, FILSON YOUNG. RUAN MINOR, September 1906. 

 PREFACE

The writing of historical biography is properly a work of partnership, towhich public credit is awarded too often in an inverse proportion to thelabours expended. One group of historians, labouring in the obscurestdepths, dig and prepare the ground, searching and sifting the documentarysoil with infinite labour and over an area immensely wide. They arefollowed by those scholars and specialists in history who give theirlives to the study of a single period, and who sow literature in thefurrows of research prepared by those who have preceded them. Last ofall comes the essayist, or writer pure and simple, who reaps the harvestso laboriously prepared. The material lies all before him; the documentshave been arranged, the immense contemporary fields of record andknowledge examined and searched for stray seeds of significance that mayhave blown over into them; the perspective is cleared for him, therelation of his facts to time and space and the march of humancivilisation duly established; he has nothing to do but reap the field ofharvest where it suits him, grind it in the wheels of whatever machineryhis art is equipped with, and come before the public with the finishedproduct. And invariably in this unequal partnership he reaps most richlywho reaps latest. 

I am far from putting this narrative forward as the fine and ultimateproduct of all the immense labour and research of the historians ofColumbus; but I am anxious to excuse myself for my apparent presumptionin venturing into a field which might more properly be occupied by theexpert historian. It would appear that the double work of acquiring thefacts of a piece of human history and of presenting them through themedium of literature can hardly ever be performed by one and the sameman. A lifetime must be devoted to the one, a year or two may sufficefor the other; and an entirely different set of qualities must beemployed in the two tasks. I cannot make it too clear that I make noclaim to have added one iota of information or one fragment of originalresearch to the expert knowledge regarding the life of ChristopherColumbus; and when I add that the chief collection of facts and documentsrelating to the subject, the 'Raccolta Columbiana, '--[Raccolta diDocumenti e Studi Publicati dalla R. Commissione Colombiana, &c. Auspiceil Ministero della Publica Istruzione. Rome, 1892-4. ]--is a workconsisting of more than thirty folio volumes, the general reader will bethe more indulgent to me. But when a purely human interest led me sometime ago to look into the literature of Columbus, I was amazed to findwhat seemed to me a striking disproportion between the extent of themodern historians' work on that subject and the knowledge or interest init displayed by what we call the general reading public. I am surprisedto find how many well-informed people there are whose knowledge ofColumbus is comprised within two beliefs, one of them erroneous and theother doubtful: that he discovered America, and performed a trick withan egg. Americans, I think, are a little better informed on the subjectthan the English; perhaps because the greater part of modern criticalresearch on the subject of Columbus has been the work of Americans. It is to bridge the immense gap existing between the labours of thehistorians and the indifference of the modern reader, between theRaccolta Columbiana, in fact, and the story of the egg, that I havewritten my narrative. 

It is customary and proper to preface a work which is based entirely onthe labours of other people with an acknowledgment of the sources whenceit is drawn; and yet in the case of Columbus I do not know where tobegin. In one way I am indebted to every serious writer who has evenremotely concerned himself with the subject, from Columbus himself andLas Casas down to the editors of the Raccolta. The chain of historianshas been so unbroken, the apostolic succession, so to speak, has passedwith its heritage so intact from generation to generation, that thelatest historian enshrines in his work the labours of all the rest. Yet there are necessarily some men whose work stands out as being moreimmediately seizable than that of others; in the period of whose care thelamp of inspiration has seemed to burn more brightly. In a matter ofthis kind I cannot pretend to be a judge, but only to state my ownexperience and indebtedness; and in my work I have been chiefly helped byLas Casas, indirectly of course by Ferdinand Columbus, Herrera, Oviedo, Bernaldez, Navarrete, Asensio, Mr. Payne, Mr. Harrisse, Mr. Vignaud, Mr. Winsor, Mr. Thacher, Sir Clements Markham, Professor de Lollis, and S. Salvagnini. It is thus not among the dusty archives of Seville, Genoa, or San Domingo that I have searched, but in the archive formed bythe writings of modern workers. To have myself gone back to originalsources, even if I had been competent to do so, would have been in thecase of Columbian research but a waste of time and a doing over againwhat has been done already with patience, diligence, and knowledge. Thehistorians have been committed to the austere task of finding out andexamining every fact and document in connection with their subject; andmany of these facts and documents are entirely without human interestexcept in so far as they help to establish a date, a name, or a sum ofmoney. It has been my agreeable and lighter task to test and assay themasses of bed-rock fact thus excavated by the historians for traces ofthe particular ore which I have been seeking. In fact I have tried todiscover, from a reverent examination of all these monographs, essays, histories, memoirs, and controversies concerning what ChristopherColumbus did, what Christopher Columbus was; believing as I do that anylabour by which he can be made to live again, and from the dust of morethan four hundred years be brought visibly to the mind's eye, will not beentirely without use and interest. Whether I have succeeded in doing soor not I cannot be the judge; I can only say that the labour ofresuscitating a man so long buried beneath mountains of untruth andcontroversy has some times been so formidable as to have seemed hopeless. And yet one is always tempted back by the knowledge that ChristopherColumbus is not only a name, but that the human being whom we so describedid actually once live and walk in the world; did actually sail and lookupon seas where we may also sail and look; did stir with his feet theindestructible dust of this old Earth, and centre in himself, as we alldo, the whole interest and meaning of the Universe. Truly the mostcommonplace fact, yet none the less amazing; and often when in the dustof documents he has seemed most dead and unreal to me I have foundcourage from the entertainment of some deep or absurd reflection; such asthat he did once undoubtedly, like other mortals, blink and cough andblow his nose. And if my readers could realise that fact throughoutevery page of this book, I should say that I had succeeded in my task. 

To be more particular in my acknowledgments. In common with every modernwriter on Columbus--and modern research on the history of Columbus isonly thirty years old--I owe to the labours of Mr. Henry Harrisse, thechief of modern Columbian historians, the indebtedness of the gold-minerto the gold-mine. In the matters of the Toscanelli correspondence andthe early years of Columbus I have followed more closely Mr. HenryVignaud, whose work may be regarded as a continuation and reexamination--in some cases destructive--of that of Mr. Harrisse. Mr. Vignaud's workis happily not yet completed; we all look forward eagerly to thecompletion of that part of his 'Etudes Critiques' dealing with the secondhalf of the Admiral's life; and Mr. Vignaud seems to me to stand higherthan all modern workers in this field in the patient and fearlessdiscovery of the truth regarding certain very controversial matters, and also in ability to give a sound and reasonable interpretation tothose obscurer facts or deductions in Columbus's life that seem doomednever to be settled by the aid of documents alone. It may be unseemly inme not to acknowledge indebtedness to Washington Irving, but I cannotconscientiously do so. If I had been writing ten or fifteen years ago Imight have taken his work seriously; but it is impossible that anythingso one-sided, so inaccurate, so untrue to life, and so profoundly dullcould continue to exist save in the absence of any critical knowledge orlight on the subject. All that can be said for him is that he kept thelamp of interest in Columbus alive for English readers during the periodthat preceded the advent of modern critical research. Mr. Major'sedition' of Columbus's letters has been freely consulted by me, as itmust be by any one interested in the subject. Professor Justin Winsor'swork has provided an invaluable store of ripe scholarship in matters ofcosmography and geographical detail; Sir Clements Markham's book, by farthe most trustworthy of modern English works on the subject, and avaluable record of the established facts in Columbus's life, has proved asound guide in nautical matters; while the monograph of Mr. Elton, whichapparently did not promise much at first, since the author has followedsome untrustworthy leaders as regards his facts, proved to be full of afragrant charm produced by the writer's knowledge of and interest insub-tropical vegetation; and it is delightfully filled with the names ofgums and spices. To Mr. Vignaud I owe special thanks, not only for thebenefits of his research and of his admirable works on Columbus, but alsofor personal help and encouragement. Equally cordial thanks are due toMr. John Boyd Thacher, whose work, giving as it does so large aselection of the Columbus documents both in facsimile, transliteration, and translation, is of the greatest service to every English writer onthe subject of Columbus. It is the more to be regretted, since thedocumentary part of Mr. Thacher's work is so excellent, that in hiscritical studies he should have seemed to ignore some of the moreimportant results of modern research. I am further particularly indebtedto Mr. Thacher and to his publishers, Messrs. Putnam's Sons, forpermission to reproduce certain illustrations in his work, and to availmyself also of his copies and translations of original Spanish andItalian documents. I have to thank Commendatore Guido Biagi, the keeperof the Laurentian Library in Florence, for his very kind help and lettersof introduction to Italian librarians; Mr. Raymond Beazley, of MertonCollege, Oxford, for his most helpful correspondence; and Lord Dunravenfor so kindly bringing, in the interests of my readers, his practicalknowledge of navigation and seamanship to bear on the first voyage ofColumbus. Finally my work has been helped and made possible by manyintimate and personal kindnesses which, although they are not specified, are not the less deeply acknowledged. 

September 1906. 

 CONTENTS

THE INNER LIGHT

I THE STREAM OF THE WORLD

II THE HOME IN GENOA

III YOUNG CHRISTOPHER

IV DOMENICO

V SEA THOUGHTS

VI IN PORTUGAL

VII ADVENTURES BODILY AND SPIRITUAL

VIII THE FIRE KINDLES

IX WANDERINGS WITH AN IDEA

X OUR LADY OF LA RABIDA

XI THE CONSENT OF SPAIN

XII THE PREPARATIONS AT PALOS

XIII EVENTS OF THE FIRST VOYAGE

XIV LANDFALL

THE NEW WORLD

I THE ENCHANTED ISLANDS

II THE EARTHLY PARADISE

III THE VOYAGE HOME

IV THE HOUR OF TRIUMPH

V GREAT EXPECTATIONS

VI THE SECOND VOYAGE

VII THE EARTHLY PARADISE REVISITED

DESPERATE REMEDIES

I THE VOYAGE TO CUBA

II THE CONQUEST OF ESPANOLA

III UPS AND DOWNS

IV IN SPAIN AGAIN

V THE THIRD VOYAGE

VI AN INTERLUDE

VII THE THIRD VOYAGE (continued)

TOWARDS THE SUNSET

I DEGRADATION

II CRISIS IN THE ADMIRAL'S LIFE

III THE LAST VOYAGE

IV HEROIC ADVENTURES BY LAND AND SEA

V THE ECLIPSE OF THE MOON

VI RELIEF OF THE ADMIRAL

VII THE HERITAGE OF HATRED

VIII THE ADMIRAL COMES HOME

IX THE LAST DAYS

X THE MAN COLUMBUS

 THY WAY IS THE SEA, AND THY PATH IN THE GREAT WATERS, AND THY FOOTSTEPS ARE NOT KNOWN. 

THE INNER LIGHT

BOOK I. 

CHAPTER I

THE STREAM OF THE WORLD

A man standing on the sea-shore is perhaps as ancient and as primitive asymbol of wonder as the mind can conceive. Beneath his feet are thestones and grasses of an element that is his own, natural to him, in somedegree belonging to him, at any rate accepted by him. He has place andcondition there. Above him arches a world of immense void, fleecysailing clouds, infinite clear blueness, shapes that change and dissolve;his day comes out of it, his source of light and warmth marches acrossit, night falls from it; showers and dews also, and the quiet influenceof stars. Strange that impalpable element must be, and for everunattainable by him; yet with its gifts of sun and shower, its furnitureof winged life that inhabits also on the friendly soil, it has links andpartnerships with life as he knows it and is a complement of earthlyconditions. But at his feet there lies the fringe of another element, another condition, of a vaster and more simple unity than earth or air, which the primitive man of our picture knows to be not his at all. It isfluent and unstable, yet to be touched and felt; it rises and falls, moves and frets about his very feet, as though it had a life and entityof its own, and was engaged upon some mysterious business. Unlike thesilent earth and the dreaming clouds it has a voice that fills his worldand, now low, now loud, echoes throughout his waking and sleeping life. Earth with her sprouting fruits behind and beneath him; sky, and larkssinging, above him; before him, an eternal alien, the sea: he standsthere upon the shore, arrested, wondering. He lives, --this man of ourfigure; he proceeds, as all must proceed, with the task and burden oflife. One by one its miracles are unfolded to him; miracles of fire andcold, and pain and pleasure; the seizure of love, the terrible magic ofreproduction, the sad miracle of death. He fights and lusts and endures;and, no more troubled by any wonder, sleeps at last. But throughout thedays of his life, in the very act of his rude existence, this greattumultuous presence of the sea troubles and overbears him. Sometimes inits bellowing rage it terrifies him, sometimes in its tranquillity itallures him; but whatever he is doing, grubbing for roots, chippingexperimentally with bones and stones, he has an eye upon it; and in hispassage by the shore he pauses, looks, and wonders. His eye is led fromthe crumbling snow at his feet, past the clear green of the shallows, beyond the furrows of the nearer waves, to the calm blue of the distance;and in his glance there shines again that wonder, as in his breast stirsthe vague longing and unrest that is the life-force of the world. 

What is there beyond? It is the eternal question asked by the finite ofthe infinite, by the mortal of the immortal; answer to it there is nonesave in the unending preoccupation of life and labour. And if this oldquestion was in truth first asked upon the sea-shore, it was asked mostoften and with the most painful wonder upon western shores, whence thejourneying sun was seen to go down and quench himself in the sea. Thegenerations that followed our primitive man grew fast in knowledge, andperhaps for a time wondered the less as they knew the more; but we may besure they never ceased to wonder at what might lie beyond the sea. Howmuch more must they have wondered if they looked west upon the waters, and saw the sun of each succeeding day sink upon a couch of glory wherethey could not follow? All pain aspires to oblivion, all toil to rest, all troubled discontent with what is present to what is unfamiliar andfar away; and no power of knowledge and scientific fact will ever preventhuman unhappiness from reaching out towards some land of dreams of whichthe burning brightness of a sea sunset is an image. Is it very hard tobelieve, then, that in that yearning towards the miracle of a sunquenched in sea distance, felt and felt again in human hearts throughcountless generations, the westward stream of human activity on thisplanet had its rise? Is it unreasonable to picture, on an earth spinningeastward, a treadmill rush of feet to follow the sinking light? Thehistory of man's life in this world does not, at any rate, contradict us. Wisdom, discovery, art, commerce, science, civilisation have all movedwest across our world; have all in their cycles followed the sun; haveall, in their day of power, risen in the East and set in the West. 

This stream of life has grown in force and volume with the passage ofages. It has always set from shore to sea in countless currents ofadventure and speculation; but it has set most strongly from East toWest. On its broad bosom the seeds of life and knowledge have beencarried throughout the world. It brought the people of Tyre and Carthageto the coasts and oceans of distant worlds; it carried the English fromJutland across cold and stormy waters to the islands of their conquest;it carried the Romans across half the world; it bore the civilisation ofthe far East to new life and virgin western soils; it carried the newWest to the old East, and is in our day bringing back again the new Eastto the old West. Religions, arts, tradings, philosophies, vices and lawshave been borne, a strange flotsam, upon its unchanging flood. It hashad its springs and neaps, its trembling high-water marks, its hour ofaffluence, when the world has been flooded with golden humanity; its ebband effluence also, when it has seemed to shrink and desert the kingdomsset upon its shores. The fifteenth century in Western Europe found it ata pause in its movements: it had brought the trade and the learning ofthe East to the verge of the Old World, filling the harbours of theMediterranean with ships and the monasteries of Italy and Spain withwisdom; and in the subsequent and punctual decadence that followed thisflood, there gathered in the returning tide a greater energy and volumewhich was to carry the Old World bodily across the ocean. And yet, forall their wisdom and power, the Spanish and Portuguese were still in theattitude of our primitive man, standing on the sea-shore and looking outin wonder across the sea. 

The flood of the life-stream began to set again, and little by little torise and inundate Western Europe, floating off the galleys and caravelsof King Alphonso of Portugal, and sending them to feel their way alongthe coasts of Africa; a little later drawing the mind of Prince Henry theNavigator to devote his life to the conquest and possession of theunknown. In his great castle on the promontory of Sagres, with the voiceof the Atlantic thundering in his ears, and its mists and sprays boundinghis vision, he felt the full force of the stream, and stretched his armsto the mysterious West. But the inner light was not yet so brightlykindled that he dared to follow his heart; his ships went south and southagain, to brave on each voyage the dangers and terrors that lay along theunknown African coast, until at length his captains saw the Cape of GoodHope. South and West and East were in those days confusing terms; for itwas the East that men were thinking of when they set their faces to thesetting sun, and it was a new road to the East that they sought when theyfelt their way southward along the edge of the world. But the risingtide of discovery was working in that moment, engaging the brains ofinnumerable sages, stirring the wonder of innumerable mariners; reachingalso, little by little, to quarters less immediately concerned with thebusiness of discovery. Ships carried the strange tidings of new coastsand new islands from port to port throughout the Mediterranean; Venetianson the lagoons, Ligurians on the busy trading wharves of Genoa, werediscussing the great subject; and as the tide rose and spread, it floatedone ship of life after another that was destined for the great businessof adventure. Some it inspired to dream and speculate, and to do no morethan that; many a heart also to brave efforts and determinations thatwere doomed to come to nothing and to end only in failure. And amongothers who felt the force and was swayed and lifted by the prevailinginfluence, there lived, some four and a half centuries ago, a little boyplaying about the wharves of Genoa, well known to his companions asChristoforo, son of Domenico the wool-weaver, who lived in the VicoDritto di Ponticello. 

CHAPTER II

THE HOME IN GENOA

It is often hard to know how far back we should go in the ancestry of aman whose life and character we are trying to reconstruct. The life thatis in him is not his own, but is mysteriously transmitted through thelife of his parents; to the common stock of his family, flesh of theirflesh, bone of their bone, character of their character, he has but addedhis own personality. However far back we go in his ancestry, there issomething of him to be traced, could we but trace it; and although itsoon becomes so widely scattered that no separate fraction of it seems tobe recognisable, we know that, generations back, we may come upon somesympathetic fact, some reservoir of the essence that was him, in which wecan find the source of many of his actions, and the clue, perhaps, to hischaracter. 

In the case of Columbus we are spared this dilemma. The past is reticentenough about the man himself; and about his ancestors it is almostsilent. We know that he had a father and grandfather, as all grandsonsof Adam have had; but we can be certain of very little more than that. He came of a race of Italian yeomen inhabiting the Apennine valleys; andin the vale of Fontanabuona, that runs up into the hills behind Genoa, the two streams of family from which he sprang were united. His fatherfrom one hamlet, his mother from another; the towering hills behind, theMediterranean shining in front; love and marriage in the valley; and alittle boy to come of it whose doings were to shake the world. 

His family tree begins for us with his grandfather, Giovanni Colombo ofTerra-Rossa, one of the hamlets in the valley--concerning whom many humanfacts may be inferred, but only three are certainly known; that he lived, begot children, and died. Lived, first at Terra Rossa, and afterwardsupon the sea-shore at Quinto; begot children in number three--Antonio, Battestina, and Domenico, the father of our Christopher; and died, because one of the two facts in his history is that in the year 1444 hewas not alive, being referred to in a legal document as quondam, or, aswe should say, "the late. " Of his wife, Christopher's grandmother, sinceshe never bought or sold or witnessed anything requiring the record oflegal document, history speaks no word; although doubtless some pleasantand picturesque old lady, or lady other than pleasant and picturesque, had place in the experience or imagination of young Christopher. Of thepair, old Quondam Giovanni alone survives the obliterating drift ofgenerations, which the shores and brown slopes of Quinto al Mare, wherehe sat in the sun and looked about him, have also survived. Doubtlessold Quondam could have told us many things about Domenico, and hisover-sanguine buyings and sellings; have perhaps told us something aboutChristopher's environment, and cleared up our doubts concerning his firsthome; but he does not. He will sit in the sun there at Quinto, and siphis wine, and say his Hail Marys, and watch the sails of the feluccasleaning over the blue floor of the Mediterranean as long as you please;but of information about son or family, not a word. He is content tohave survived, and triumphantly twinkles his two dates at us across thenight of time. 1440, alive; 1444, not alive any longer: and so hail andfarewell, Grandfather John. 

Of Antonio and Battestina, the uncle and aunt of Columbus, we know nextto nothing. Uncle Antonio inherited the estate of Terra-Rossa, AuntBattestina was married in the valley; and so no more of either of them;except that Antonio, who also married, had sons, cousins of Columbus, whoin after years, when he became famous, made themselves unpleasant, aspoor relations will, by recalling themselves to his remembrance andsuggesting that something might be done for them. I have a belief, supported by no historical fact or document, that between the families ofDomenico and Antonio there was a mild cousinly feud. I believe they didnot like each other. Domenico, as we shall see presently, was sanguineand venturesome, a great buyer and seller, a maker of bargains in whichhe generally came off second best. Antonio, who settled in Terra-Rossa, the paternal property, doubtless looked askance at these enterprises fromhis vantage-ground of a settled income; doubtless also, on the occasionof visits exchanged between the two families, he would comment upon theunfortunate enterprises of his brother; and as the children of bothbrothers grew up, they would inherit and exaggerate, as children will, this settled difference between their respective parents. This, ofcourse, may be entirely untrue, but I think it possible, and even likely;for Columbus in after life displayed a very tender regard for members ofhis family, but never to our knowledge makes any reference to thesecousins of his, till they send emissaries to him in his hour of triumph. At any rate, among the influences that surrounded him at Genoa we mayreckon this uncle and aunt and their children--dim ghosts to us, but tohim real people, who walked and spoke, and blinked their eyes and movedtheir limbs, like the men and women of our own time. Less of a ghost tous, though still a very shadowy and doubtful figure, is Domenico himself, Christopher's father. He at least is a man in whom we can feel a warminterest, as the one who actually begat and reared the man of our story. We shall see him later, and chiefly in difficulties; executing deeds andleases, and striking a great variety of legal attitudes, to thewitnessing of which various members of his family were called in. Littleenough good did they to him at the time, poor Domenico; but he was abenefactor to posterity without knowing it, and in these grave notarialdocuments preserved almost the only evidence that we have as to the earlydays of his illustrious son. A kind, sanguine man, this Domenico, who, if he failed to make a good deal of money in his various enterprises, at least had some enjoyment of them, as the man who buys and sells andstrikes legal attitudes in every age desires and has. He was awool-carder by trade, but that was not enough for him; he must buylittle bits of estates here and there; must even keep a tavern, where heand his wife could entertain the foreign sailors and hear the news ofthe world; where also, although perhaps they did not guess it, a sharppair of ears were also listening, and a pair of round eyes gazing, andan inquisitive face set in astonishment at the strange tales that wentabout. 

There is one fragment of fact about this Domenico that greatly enlargesour knowledge of him. He was a wool-weaver, as we know; he also kept atavern, and no doubt justified the adventure on the plea that it wouldbring him customers for his woollen cloth; for your buyer and sellernever lacks a reason either for his selling or buying. Presently he isbuying again; this time, still with striking of legal attitudes, callingtogether of relations, and accompaniments of crabbed Latin notarialdocuments, a piece of ground in the suburbs of Genoa, consisting of scruband undergrowth, which cannot have been of any earthly use to him. Butalso, according to the documents, there went some old wine-vats with theland. Domenico, taking a walk after Mass on some feast-day, sees theland and the wine-vats; thinks dimly but hopefully how old wine-vats, ifof no use to any other human creature, should at least be of use to atavern-keeper; hurries back, overpowers the perfunctory objections of hiscomplaisant wife, and on the morrow of the feast is off to the notary'soffice. We may be sure the wine-vats lay and rotted there, and furnishedno monetary profit to the wool-weaving tavern-keeper; but doubtless theyfurnished him a rich profit of another kind when he walked about hisnewly-acquired property, and explained what he was going to do with thewine-vats. 

And besides the weaving of wool and pouring of wine and buying andselling of land, there were more human occupations, which Domenico wasnot the man to neglect. He had married, about the year 1450, oneSusanna, a daughter of Giacomo of Fontana-Rossa, a silk weaver who livedin the hamlet near to Terra-Rossa. Domenico's father was of the moreconsequence of the two, for he had, as well as his home in the valley, ahouse at Quinto, where he probably kept a felucca for purposes of tradewith Alexandria and the Islands. Perhaps the young people were marriedat Quinto, but if so they did not live there long, moving soon intoGenoa, where Domenico could more conveniently work at his trade. Thewool-weavers at that time lived in a quarter outside the old city walls, between them and the outer borders of the city, which is now occupied bythe park and public gardens. Here they had their dwellings andworkshops, their schools and institutions, receiving every protection andencouragement from the Signoria, who recognised the importance of thewool trade and its allied industries to Genoa. Cloth-weavers, blanket-makers, silk-weavers, and velvet-makers all lived in thisquarter, and held their houses under the neighbouring abbey of SanStefano. There are two houses mentioned in documents which seem to havebeen in the possession of Domenico at different times. One was in thesuburbs outside the Olive Gate; the other was farther in, by St. Andrew's Gate, and quite near to the sea. The house outside the OliveGate has disappeared; and it was probably here that our Christopherfirst saw the light, and pleased Domenico's heart with his little criesand struggles. Neither the day nor even the year is certainly known, butthere is most reason to believe that it was in the year 1451. They musthave moved soon afterwards to the house in the Vico Dritto diPonticello, No. 37, in which most of Christopher's childhood wascertainly passed. This is a house close to St. Andrew's Gate, whichgate still stands in a beautiful and ruinous condition. 

From the new part of Genoa, and from the Via XX Settembre, you turn intothe little Piazza di Ponticello just opposite the church of San Stefano. In a moment you are in old Genoa, which is to-day in appearance virtuallythe same as the place in which Christopher and his little brothers andsisters made the first steps of their pilgrimage through this world. Ifthe Italian, sun has been shining fiercely upon you, in the great modernthoroughfare, you will turn into this quarter of narrow streets and highhouses with grateful relief. The past seems to meet you there; and fromthe Piazza, gay with its little provision-shops and fruit stalls, youwalk up the slope of the Vico Dritto di Ponticello, leaving the sunlightbehind you, and entering the narrow street like a traveller entering amountain gorge. 

It is a very curious street this; I suppose there is no street in theworld that has more character. Genoa invented sky-scrapers long beforeColumbus had discovered America, or America had invented steel frames forhigh building; but although many of the houses in the Vico Dritto diPonticello are seven and eight storeys high, the width of the street fromhouse-wall to house-wall does not average more than nine feet. Thestreet is not straight, moreover; it winds a little in its ascent to theold city wall and St. Andrew's Gate, so that you do not even see the skymuch as you look forward and upwards. The jutting cornices of the roofs, often beautifully decorated, come together in a medley of angles andcorners that practically roof the street over; and only here and there doyou see a triangle or a parallelogram of the vivid brilliant blue that isthe sky. Besides being seven or eight storeys high, the houses are thenarrowest in the world; I should think that their average width on thestreet front is ten feet. So as you walk up this street where youngChristopher lived you must think of it in these three dimensions toweringslices of houses, ten or twelve feet in width: a street often not morethan eight and seldom more than fifteen feet in width; and the walls ofthe houses themselves, painted in every colour, green and pink and greyand white, and trellised with the inevitable green window-shutters of theSouth, standing like cliffs on each side of you seven or eight roomshigh. There being so little horizontal space for the people to livethere, what little there is is most economically used; and all across thetops of the houses, high above your head, the cliffs are joined by wiresand clothes-lines from which thousands of brightly-dyed garments arealways hanging and fluttering; higher still, where the top storeys of thehouses become merged in roof, there are little patches of garden andgreenery, where geraniums and delicious tangling creepers uphold thushigh above the ground the fertile tradition of earth. You walk slowly upthe paved street. One of its characteristics, which it shares with theold streets of most Italian towns, is that it is only used byfoot-passengers, being of course too narrow for wheels; and it is pavedacross with flagstones from door to door, so that the feet and thevoices echo pleasantly in it, and make a music of their own. Withoutexception the ground floor of every house is a shop--the gayest, busiestmost industrious little shops in the world. There are shops forprovisions, where the delightful macaroni lies in its various bins, andall kinds of frugal and nourishing foods are offered for sale. Thereare shops for clothes and dyed finery; there are shops for boots, whereboots hang in festoons like onions outside the window--I have never seenso many boot-shops at once in my life as I saw in the streetssurrounding the house of Columbus. And every shop that is not aprovision-shop or a clothes-shop or a boot-shop, is a wine-shop--or atleast you would think so, until you remember, after you have walkedthrough the street, what a lot of other kinds of shops you have seen onyour way. There are shops for newspapers and tobacco, for cheapjewellery, for brushes, for chairs and tables and articles of wood;there are shops with great stacks and piles of crockery; there are shopsfor cheese and butter and milk--indeed from this one little street inGenoa you could supply every necessary and every luxury of a humblelife. 

As you still go up, the street takes a slight bend; and immediatelybefore you, you see it spanned by the lofty crumbled arch of St. Andrew's Gate, with its two mighty towers one on each side. Just as yousee it you are at Columbus's house. The number is thirty-seven; it islike any of the other houses, tall and narrow; and there is a slab builtinto the wall above the first storey, on which is written thisinscription:--

 NVLLA DOMVS TITVLO DIGNIOR HEIC PATERNIS IN AEDIBV CHRISTOPHORVS COLVMBVS PVERITIAM PRIMAMQVE IVVENTAM TRANSEGIT

You stop and look at it; and presently you become conscious of adifference between it and all the other houses. They are all alert, busy, noisy, crowded with life in every storey, oozing vitality fromevery window; but of all the narrow vertical strips that make up thehouses of the street, this strip numbered thirty-seven is empty, silent, and dead. The shutters veil its windows; within it is dark, empty offurniture, and inhabited only by a memory and a spirit. It is a strangeplace in which to stand and to think of all that has happened since theman of our thoughts looked forth from these windows, a common little boy. The world is very much alive in the Vico Dritto di Ponticello; the littlefreshet of life that flows there flows loud and incessant; and yet intowhat oceans of death and silence has it not poured since it carried forthChristopher on its stream! One thinks of the continent of that New Worldthat he discovered, and all the teeming millions of human lives that havesprung up and died down, and sprung up again, and spread and increasedthere; all the ploughs that have driven into its soil, the harvests thathave ripened, the waving acres and miles of grain that have answered thecall of Spring and Autumn since first the bow of his boat grated on theshore of Guanahani. And yet of the two scenes this narrow shutteredhouse in a bye-street of Genoa is at once the more wonderful and morecredible; for it contains the elements of the other. Walls and floorsand a roof, a place to eat and sleep in, a place to work and found afamily, and give tangible environment to a human soul--there is all humanenterprise and discovery, effort, adventure, and life in that. 

If Christopher wanted to go down to the sea he would have to pass underthe Gate of St. Andrew, with the old prison, now pulled down to make roomfor the modern buildings, on his right, and go down the Salita delPrione, which is a continuation of the Vico Dritto di Ponticello. Itslopes downwards from the Gate as the first street sloped upwards to it;and it contains the same assortment of shops and of houses, the samemixture of handicrafts and industries, as were seen in the Vico Dritto diPonticello. Presently he would come to the Piazza dell' Erbe, wherethere is no grass, but only a pleasant circle of little houses and shops, with already a smack of the sea in them, chiefly suggested by the shopsof instrument-makers, where to-day there are compasses and sextants andchronometers. Out of the Piazza you come down the Via di San Donato andinto the Piazza of that name, where for over nine centuries the church ofSan Donato has faced the sun and the weather. From there Christopher'syoung feet would follow the winding Via di San Bernato, a street alsoinhabited by craftsmen and workers in wood and metal; and at the lastturn of it, a gash of blue between the two cliffwalls of houses, you seethe Mediterranean. 

Here, then, between the narrow little house by the Gate and the clamourand business of the sea-front, our Christopher's feet carried him dailyduring some part of his childish life. What else he did, what he thoughtand felt, what little reflections he had, are but matters of conjecture. Genoa will tell you nothing more. You may walk over the very spot wherehe was born; you may unconsciously tread in the track of his vanishedfeet; you may wander about the wharves of the city, and see the shipsloading and unloading--different ships, but still trafficking incommodities not greatly different from those of his day; you may climbthe heights behind Genoa, and look out upon the great curving Gulf fromPorto Fino to where the Cape of the western Riviera dips into the sea;you may walk along the coast to Savona, where Domenico had one of hismany habitations, where he kept the tavern, and whither Christopher'syoung feet must also have walked; and you may come back and search againin the harbour, from the old Mole and the Bank of St. George to where theport and quays stretch away to the medley of sailing-ships and steamers;but you will not find any sign or trace of Christopher. No echo of thelittle voice that shrilled in the narrow street sounds in the VicoDritto; the houses stand gaunt and straight, with a brilliant strip ofblue sky between their roofs and the cool street beneath; but they giveyou nothing of what you seek. If you see a little figure running towardsyou in a blue smock, the head fair-haired, the face blue-eyed and alittle freckled with the strong sunshine, it is not a real figure; it isa child of your dreams and a ghost of the past. You may chase him whilehe runs about the wharves and stumbles over the ropes, but you will nevercatch him. He runs before you, zigzagging over the cobbles, up the sunnystreet, into the narrow house; out again, running now towards the Duomo, hiding in the porch of San Stefano, where the weavers held theirmeetings; back again along the wharves; surely he is hiding behind thatmooring-post! But you look, and he is not there--nothing but the oldharbour dust that the wind stirs into a little eddy while you look. Forhe belongs not to you or me, this child; he is not yet enslaved to thegreat purpose, not yet caught up into the machinery of life. His eye hasnot yet caught the fire of the sun setting on a western sea; he is stillfree and happy, and belongs only to those who love him. Father andmother, brothers Bartolomeo and Giacomo, sister Biancinetta, aunts, uncles, and cousins possibly, and possibly for a little while an oldgrandmother at Quinto--these were the people to whom that child belonged. The little life of his first decade, unviolated by documents or history, lives happily in our dreams, as blank as sunshine. 

CHAPTER III

YOUNG CHRISTOPHER

Christopher was fourteen years old when he first went to sea. Thatis his own statement, and it is one of the few of his autobiographicalutterances that we need not doubt. From it, and from a knowledge ofcertain other dates, we are able to construct some vague picture of hisdoings before he left Italy and settled in Portugal. Already in hisyoung heart he was feeling the influence that was to direct and shapehis destiny; already, towards his home in Genoa, long ripples from thecommotion of maritime adventure in the West were beginning to spread. At the age of ten he was apprenticed to his father, who undertook, according to the indentures, to provide him with board and lodging, ablue gabardine and a pair of good shoes, and various other matters inreturn for his service. But there is no reason to suppose that he everoccupied himself very much with wool-weaving. He had a vocation quiteother than that, and if he ever did make any cloth there must have beensome strange thoughts and imaginings woven into it, as he plied theshuttle. Most of his biographers, relying upon a doubtful statement inthe life of him written by his son Ferdinand, would have us send him atthe age of twelve to the distant University of Pavia, there, poor mite, to sit at the feet of learned professors studying Latin, mathematics, andcosmography; but fortunately it is not necessary to believe so improbablea statement. What is much more likely about his education--for educationhe had, although not of the superior kind with which he has beencredited--is that in the blank, sunny time of his childhood he was sentto one of the excellent schools established by the weavers in their ownquarter, and that there or afterwards he came under some influence, bothreligious and learned, which stamped him the practical visionary that heremained throughout his life. Thereafter, between his sea voyagings andexpeditions about the Mediterranean coasts, he no doubt acquiredknowledge in the only really practical way that it can be acquired; thatis to say, he received it as and when he needed it. What we know is thathe had in later life some knowledge of the works of Aristotle, JuliusCaesar, Seneca, Pliny, and Ptolemy; of Ahmet-Ben-Kothair the Arabicastronomer, Rochid the Arabian, and the Rabbi Samuel the Jew; of Isadorethe Spaniard, and Bede and Scotus the Britons; of Strabo the German, Gerson the Frenchman, and Nicolaus de Lira the Italian. These namescover a wide range, but they do not imply university education. Some ofthem merely suggest acquaintance with the 'Imago Mundi'; others implythat selective faculty, the power of choosing what can help a man'spurpose and of rejecting what is useless to it, that is one of the marksof genius, and an outward sign of the inner light. 

We must think of him, then, at school in Genoa, grinding out the tasksthat are the common heritage of all small boys; working a little at theweaving, interestedly enough at first, no doubt, while the importance ofhaving a loom appealed to him, but also no doubt rapidly cooling off inhis enthusiasm as the pastime became a task, and the restriction ofindoor life began to be felt. For if ever there was a little boy wholoved to idle about the wharves and docks, here was that little boy. It was here, while he wandered about the crowded quays and listened tothe medley of talk among the foreign sailors, and looked beyond the mastsof the ships into the blue distance of the sea, that the desire to wanderand go abroad upon the face of the waters must first have stirred in hisheart. The wharves of Genoa in those days combined in themselves all therichness of romance and adventure, buccaneering, trading, andtreasure-snatching, that has ever crowded the pages of romance. Therewere galleys and caravels, barques and feluccas, pinnaces and caraccas. There were slaves in the galleys, and bowmen to keep the slaves insubjection. There were dark-bearded Spaniards, fair-haired Englishmen;there were Greeks, and Indians, and Portuguese. The bales of goods onthe harbour-side were eloquent of distant lands, and furnished objectlessons in the only geography that young Christopher was likely to belearning. There was cotton from Egypt, and tin and lead fromSouthampton. There were butts of Malmsey from Candia; aloes and cassiaand spices from Socotra; rhubarb from Persia; silk from India; wool fromDamascus, raw wool also from Calais and Norwich. No wonder if thelittle house in the Vico Dritto di Ponticello became too narrow for theboy; and no wonder that at the age of fourteen he was able to have hisway, and go to sea. One can imagine him gradually acquiring aninfluence over his father, Domenico, as his will grew stronger andfirmer--he with one grand object in life, Domenico with none; he with asingle clear purpose, and Domenico with innumerable cloudy ones. Andso, on some day in the distant past, there were farewells and anxioushearts in the weaver's house, and Christopher, member of the crew ofsome trading caravel or felucca, a diminishing object to the wet eyesof his mother, sailed away, and faded into the blue distance. 

They had lost him, although perhaps they did not realise it; from themoment of his first voyage the sea claimed him as her own. Wideninghorizons, slatting of cords and sails in the wind, storms and stars andstrange landfalls and long idle calms, thunder of surges, tingle ofspray, and eternal labouring and threshing and cleaving of infinitewaters--these were to be his portion and true home hereafter. Attendances at Court, conferences with learned monks and bishops, sojourns on lonely islands, love under stars in the gay, sun-smittenSpanish towns, governings and parleyings in distant, undreamed-of lands--these were to be but incidents in his true life, which was to befulfilled in the solitude of sea watches. 

When he left his home on this first voyage, he took with him one otherthing besides the restless longing to escape beyond the line of sea andsky. Let us mark well this possession of his, for it was his companionand guiding-star throughout a long and difficult life, his chart andcompass, astrolabe and anchor, in one. Religion has in our days falleninto decay among men of intellect and achievement. The world has thrownit, like a worn garment or an old skin, from off its body, the thingitself being no longer real and alive, and in harmony with the life ofan age that struggles towards a different kind of truth. It is hard, therefore, for us to understand exactly how the religion of Columbusentered so deeply into his life and brooded so widely over his thoughts. 

Hardest of all is it for people whose only experience of religion is ofPuritan inheritance to comprehend how, in the fifteenth century, thestrong intellect was strengthened, and the stout heart fortified, by thethought of hosts of saints and angels hovering above a man's incomingsand outgoings to guide and protect him. Yet in an age that really hadthe gift of faith, in which religion was real and vital, and part of thebusiness of every man's daily life; in which it stood honoured in theworld, loaded with riches, crowned with learning, wielding governmentboth temporal and spiritual, it was a very brave panoply for the soul ofman. The little boy in Genoa, with the fair hair and blue eyes and gravefreckled face that made him remarkable among his dark companions, had nodoubt early received and accepted the vast mysteries of the Christianfaith; and as that other mystery began to grow in his mind, and that ideaof worlds that might lie beyond the sea-line began to take shape in histhoughts, he found in the holy wisdom of the prophets, and the inspiredwritings of the fathers, a continual confirmation of his faith. The fullconviction of these things belongs to a later period of his life; butprobably, during his first voyagings in the Mediterranean, there hung inhis mind echoes of psalms and prophecies that had to do with thingsbeyond the world of his vision and experience. The sun, whose goingforth is to the end of heaven, his circuit back to the end of it, andfrom whose heat there is nothing hid; the truth, holy and prevailing, that knows no speech nor language where its voice is not heard; the greatand wide sea, with its creeping things innumerable, and beasts small andgreat--no wonder if these things impressed him, and if gradually, as hisway fell clearer before him, and the inner light began to shine moresteadily, he came to believe that he had a special mission to carry thetorch of the faith across the Sea of Darkness, and be himself the bearerof a truth that was to go through all the earth, and of words that wereto travel to the world's end. 

In this faith, then, and with this equipment, and about the year 1465, Christopher Columbus began his sea travels. His voyages would bedoubtless at first much along the coasts, and across to Alexandria andthe Islands. There would be returnings to Genoa, and glad welcomings bythe little household in the narrow street; in 1472 and 1473 he was withhis father at Savona, helping with the wool-weaving and tavern-keeping;possibly also there were interviews with Benincasa, who was at that timeliving in Genoa, and making his famous sea-charts. Perhaps it was in hisstudio that Christopher first saw a chart, and first fell in love withthe magic that can transfer the shapes of oceans and continents to apiece of paper. Then he would be off again in another ship, to theGolden Horn perhaps, or the Black Sea, for the Genoese had a greatCrimean trade. This is all conjecture, but very reasonable conjecture;what we know for a fact is that he saw the white gum drawn from thelentiscus shrubs in Chio at the time of their flowering; that fragrantmemory is preserved long afterwards in his own writings, evoked by someincident in the newly-discovered islands of the West. There are vaguerumours and stories of his having been engaged in various expeditions--among them one fitted out in Genoa by John of Anjou to recover thekingdom of Naples for King Rene of Provence; but there is no reason tobelieve these rumours: good reason to disbelieve them, rather. 

The lives that the sea absorbs are passed in a great variety of adventureand experience, but so far as the world is concerned they are passed in aprofound obscurity; and we need not wonder that of all the mariners whoused those seas, and passed up and down, and held their course by thestars, and reefed their sails before the sudden squalls that came downfrom the mountains, and shook them out again in the calm sunshine thatfollowed, there is no record of the one among their number who wasafterwards to reef and steer and hold his course to such mighty purpose. For this period, then, we must leave him to the sea, and to the vastanonymity of sea life. 

CHAPTER IV

DOMENICO

Christopher is gone, vanished over that blue horizon; and the tale oflife in Genoa goes on without him very much as before, except thatDomenico has one apprentice less, and, a matter becoming of someimportance in the narrow condition of his finances, one boy less to feedand clothe. For good Domenico, alas! is no economist. Those hardyadventures of his in the buying and selling line do not prosper him; thetavern does not pay; perhaps the tavern-keeper is too hospitable; at anyrate, things are not going well. And yet Domenico had a good start; ashis brother Antonio has doubtless often told him, he had the best of oldGiovanni's inheritance; he had the property at Quinto, and other propertyat Ginestreto, and some ground rents at Pradella; a tavern at Savona, ashop there and at Genoa--really, Domenico has no excuse for hisdifficulties. In 1445 he was selling land at Quinto, presumably with theconsent of old Giovanni, if he was still alive; and if he was not living, then immediately after his death, in the first pride of possession. 

In 1450 he bought a pleasant house at Quarto, a village on the sea-shoreabout a mile to the west of Quinto and about five miles to the east ofGenoa. It was probably a pure speculation, as he immediately leased thehouse for two years, and never lived in it himself, although it was apleasant place, with an orchard of olives and figs and various othertrees--'arboratum olivis ficubus et aliis diversis arboribus'. His nextrecorded transaction is in 1466, when he went security for a friend, doubtless with disastrous results. In 1473 he sold the house at theOlive Gate, that suburban dwelling where probably Christopher was born, and in 1474 he invested the proceeds of that sale in a piece of landwhich I have referred to before, situated in the suburbs of Savona, withwhich were sold those agreeable and useless wine-vats. Domenico wasliving at Savona then, and the property which he so fatuously acquiredconsisted of two large pieces of land on the Via Valcalda, containing afew vines, a plantation of fruit-trees, and a large area of shrub andunderwood. The price, however, was never paid in full, and was the causeof a lawsuit which dragged on for forty years, and was finally settled byDon Diego Columbus, Christopher's son, who sent a special authority fromHispaniola. 

Owing, no doubt, to the difficulties that this un fortunate purchaseplunged him into, Domenico was obliged to mortgage his house at St. Andrew's Gate in the year 1477; and in 1489 he finally gave it up toJacob Baverelus, the cheese-monger, his son-in-law. Susanna, who hadbeen the witness of his melancholy transactions for so many years, andpossibly the mainstay of that declining household, died in 1494; but not, we may hope, before she had heard of the fame of her son Christopher. Domenico, in receipt of a pension from the famous Admiral of the Ocean, and no doubt talking with a deal of pride and inaccuracy about thediscovery of the New World, lived on until 1498; when he died also, andvanished out of this world. He had fulfilled a noble destiny in beingthe father of Christopher Columbus. 

CHAPTER V

SEA THOUGHTS

The long years that Christopher Columbus spent at sea in making voyagesto and from his home in Genoa, years so blank to us, but to him who livedthem so full of life and active growth, were most certainly fruitful intraining and equipping him for that future career of which as yet, perhaps, he did not dream. The long undulating waves of theMediterranean, with land appearing and dissolving away in the morning andevening mists, the business of ship life, harsh and rough in detail, butnot too absorbing to the mind of a common mariner to prevent any thoughtshe might have finding room to grow and take shape; sea breezes, seastorms, sea calms; these were the setting of his knowledge and experienceas he fared from port to port and from sea to sea. He is a very elusivefigure in that environment of misty blue, very hard to hold and identify, very shy of our scrutiny, and inaccessible even to our speculation. Ifwe would come up with him, and place ourselves in some kind of sympathywith the thoughts that were forming in his brain, it is necessary that weshould, for the moment, forget much of what we know of the world, andassume the imperfect knowledge of the globe that man possessed in thoseyears when Columbus was sailing the Mediterranean. 

That the earth was a round globe of land and water was a fact that, aftermany contradictions and uncertainties, intelligent men had by this timeaccepted. A conscious knowledge of the world as a whole had been a partof human thought for many hundreds of years; and the sphericity of theearth had been a theory in the sixth century before Christ. In thefourth century Aristotle had watched the stars and eclipses; in the thirdcentury Eratosthenes had measured a degree of latitude, and measured itwrong;--[Not so very wrong. D. W. ]--in the second century thephilosopher Crates had constructed a rude sort of globe, on which weremarked the known kingdoms of the earth, and some also unknown. With thecoming of the Christian era the theory of the roundness of the earthbegan to be denied; and as knowledge and learning became gathered intothe hands of the Church they lost something of their clarity andsingleness, and began to be used arbitrarily as evidence for or againstother and less material theories. St. Chrysostom opposed the theory ofthe earth's roundness; St. Isidore taught it; and so also did St. Augustine, as we might expect from a man of his wisdom who lived so longin a monastery that looked out to sea from a high point, and who wrotethe words 'Ubi magnitudo, ibi veritas'. In the sixth century of theChristian era Bishop Cosmas gave much thought to this matter of a roundworld, and found a new argument which to his mind (poor Cosmas!) disposedof it very clearly; for he argued that, if the world were round, thepeople dwelling at the antipodes could not see Christ at His coming, andthat therefore the earth was not round. But Bede, in the eighth century, established it finally as a part of human knowledge that the earth andall the heavenly bodies were spheres, and after that the fact was notagain seriously disputed. 

What lay beyond the frontier of the known was a speculation inseparablefrom the spirit of exploration. Children, and people who do not travel, are generally content, when their thoughts stray beyond the paths troddenby their feet, to believe that the greater world is but a continuation onevery side of their own environment; indeed, without the help of sight orsuggestion, it is almost impossible to believe anything else. If youstand on an eminence in a great plain and think of the unseen countrythat lies beyond the horizon, trying to visualise it and imagine that yousee it, the eye of imagination can only see the continuance or projectionof what is seen by the bodily sight. If you think, you can occupy theinvisible space with a landscape made up from your own memory andknowledge: you may think of mountain chains and rivers, although thereare none visible to your sight, or you may imagine vast seas and islands, oceans and continents. This, however, is thought, not pure imagination;and even so, with every advantage of thought and knowledge, you will notbe able to imagine beyond your horizon a space of sea so wide that thefarther shore is invisible, and yet imagine the farther shore also. Youwill see America across the Atlantic and Japan across the Pacific; butyou cannot see, in one single effort of the imagination, an Atlantic ofempty blue water stretching to an empty horizon, another beyond thatequally vast and empty, another beyond that, and so on until you havespanned the thousand horizons that lie between England and America. Themind, that is to say, works in steps and spans corresponding to the spansof physical sight; it cannot clear itself enough from the body, or risehigh enough beyond experience, to comprehend spaces so much vaster thananything ever seen by the eye of man. So also with the stretching of thehorizon which bounded human knowledge of the earth. It moved step bystep; if one of Prince Henry's captains, creeping down the west coast ofAfrica, discovered a cape a hundred miles south of the known world, themost he could probably do was to imagine that there might lie, stillanother hundred miles farther south, another cape; to sail for it infaith and hope, to find it, and to imagine another possibility yetanother hundred miles away. So far as experience went back, faith couldlook forward. It is thus with the common run of mankind; yesterday'smarch is the measure of to-morrow's; as much as they have done once, theymay do again; they fear it will be not much more; they hope it may be notmuch less. 

The history of the exploration of the world up to the day when Columbusset sail from Palos is just such a history of steps. The Phoenicianscoasting from harbour to harbour through the Mediterranean; the Romansmarching from camp to camp, from country to country; the Jutes venturingin their frail craft into the stormy northern seas, making voyages alittle longer and more daring every time, until they reached England; thecaptains of Prince Henry of Portugal feeling their way from voyage tovoyage down the coast of Africa--there are no bold flights into theincredible here, but patient and business-like progress from onestepping-stone to another. Dangers and hardships there were, and bravefollowings of the faint will-o'-the-wisp of faith in what lay beyond; butthere were no great launchings into space. They but followed a line thatwas the continuance or projection of the line they had hitherto followed;what they did was brave and glorious, but it was reasonable. WhatColumbus did, on the contrary, was, as we shall see later, against allreason and knowledge. It was a leap in the dark towards some starinvisible to all but him; for he who sets forth across the desert sand orsea must have a brighter sun to guide him than that which sets and riseson the day of the small man. 

Our familiarity with maps and atlases makes it difficult for us to thinkof the world in other terms than those of map and diagram; knowledge andscience have focussed things for us, and our imagination has inconsequence shrunk. It is almost impossible, when thinking of the earthas a whole, to think about it except as a picture drawn, or as a smallglobe with maps traced upon it. I am sure that our imagination has a farnarrower angle--to borrow a term from the science of lenses--than theimagination of men who lived in the fifteenth century. They thought ofthe world in its actual terms--seas, islands, continents, gulfs, rivers, oceans. Columbus had seen maps and charts--among them the famous'portolani' of Benincasa at Genoa; but I think it unlikely that he was sofamiliar with them as to have adopted their terms in his thoughts aboutthe earth. He had seen the Mediterranean and sailed upon it before hehad seen a chart of it; he knew a good deal of the world itself before hehad seen a map of it. He had more knowledge of the actual earth and seathan he had of pictures or drawings of them; and therefore, if we are tokeep in sympathetic touch with him, we must not think too closely ofmaps, but of land and sea themselves. 

The world that Columbus had heard about as being within the knowledge ofmen extended on the north to Iceland and Scandinavia, on the south to acape one hundred miles south of the Equator, and to the east as far asChina and Japan. North and South were not important to the spirit ofthat time; it was East and West that men thought of when they thought ofthe expansion and the discovery of the world. And although they admittedthat the earth was a sphere, I think it likely that they imagined(although the imagination was contrary to their knowledge) that the lineof West and East was far longer, and full of vaster possibilities, thanthat of North and South. North was familiar ground to them--one voyageto England, another to Iceland, another to Scandinavia; there was nothingimpossible about that. Southward was another matter; but even here therewas no ambition to discover the limit of the world. It is an errorcontinually made by the biographers of Columbus that the purpose ofPrince Henry's explorations down the coast of Africa was to find a searoad to the West Indies by way of the East. It was nothing of the kind. There was no idea in the minds of the Portuguese of the land whichColumbus discovered, and which we now know as the West Indies. Mr. Vignaud contends that the confusion arose from the very loose way inwhich the term India was applied in the Middle Ages. Several Indias wererecognised. There was an India beyond the Ganges; a Middle India betweenthe Ganges and the Indus; and a Lesser India, in which were includedArabia, Abyssinia, and the countries about the Red Sea. These divisionswere, however, quite vague, and varied in different periods. In the timeof Columbus the word India meant the kingdom of Prester John, thatfabulous monarch who had been the subject of persistent legends since thetwelfth century; and it was this India to which the Portuguese sought asea road. They had no idea of a barrier cape far to the south, thedoubling of which would open a road for them to the west; nor were they, as Mr. Vignaud believes, trying to open a route for the spice trade withthe Orient. They had no great spice trade, and did not seek more; whatthey did seek was an extension of their ordinary trade with Guinea andthe African coast. To the maritime world of the fifteenth century, then, the South as a geographical region and as a possible point of discoveryhad no attractions. 

To the west stretched what was known as the Sea of Darkness, about whicheven the cool knowledge of the geographers and astronomers could notthink steadily. Nothing was known about it, it did not lead anywhere, there were no people there, there was no trade in that direction. Thetides of history and of life avoided it; only now and then some terrifiedmariner, blown far out of his course, came back with tales of seamonsters and enchanted disappearing islands, and shores that receded, andcoasts upon which no one could make a landfall. The farthest land knownto the west was the Azores; beyond that stretched a vague and impossibleocean of terror and darkness, of which the Arabian writer Xerif alEdrisi, whose countrymen were the sea-kings of the Middle Ages, wrote asfollows:

 "The ocean encircles the ultimate bounds of the inhabited earth, and all beyond it is unknown. No one has been able to verify anything concerning it, on account of its difficult and perilous navigation, its great obscurity, its profound depth, and frequent tempests; through fear of its mighty fishes and its haughty winds; yet there are many islands in it, some peopled, others uninhabited. There is no mariner who dares to enter into its deep waters; or if any have done so, they have merely kept along its coasts, fearful of departing from them. The waves of this ocean, although they roll as high as mountains, yet maintain themselves without breaking; for if they broke it would be impossible for a ship to plough them. "

It is another illustration of the way in which discovery and imaginationhad hitherto gone by steps and not by flights, that geographicalknowledge reached the islands of the Atlantic (none of which were at avery great distance from the coast of Europe or from each other) at acomparatively early date, and stopped there until in Columbus there wasfound a man with faith strong enough to make the long flight beyond themto the unknown West. And yet the philosophers, and later thecartographers, true to their instinct for this pedestrian kind ofimagination, put mythical lands and islands to the westward of the knownislands as though they were really trying to make a way, to sink steppingstones into the deep sea that would lead their thoughts across theunknown space. In the Catalan map of the world, which was the standardexample of cosmography in the early days of Columbus, most of thesemythical islands are marked. There was the island of Antilia, which wasplaced in 25 deg. 35' W. , and was said to have been discovered by DonRoderick, the last of the Gothic kings of Spain, who fled there afterhis defeat by the Moors. There was the island of the Seven Cities, which is sometimes identified with this Antilia, and was the object of apersistent belief or superstition on the part of the inhabitants of theCanary Islands. They saw, or thought they saw, about ninety leagues tothe westward, an island with high peaks and deep valleys. The vision wasintermittent; it was only seen in very clear weather, on some of thosepure, serene days of the tropics when in the clear atmosphere distantobjects appear to be close at hand. In cloudy, and often in clearweather also, it was not to be seen at all; but the inhabitants of theCanaries, who always saw it in the same place, were so convinced of itsreality that they petitioned the King of Portugal to allow them to go andtake possession of it; and several expeditions were in fact despatched, but none ever came up with that fairy land. It was called the island ofthe Seven Cities from a legend of seven bishops who had fled from Spainat the time of the Moorish conquest, and, landing upon this island, hadfounded there seven splendid cities. There was the island of St. Brandan, called after the Saint who set out from Ireland in the sixthcentury in search of an island which always receded before his ships;this island was placed several hundred miles to the west of the Canarieson maps and charts through out the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. There was the island of Brazil, to the west of Cape St. Vincent; theislands of Royllo, San Giorgio, and Isola di Mam; but they were allislands of dreams, seen by the eyes of many mariners in that imaginativetime, but never trodden by any foot of man. To Columbus, however, andthe mariners of his day, they were all real places, which a man mightreach by special good fortune or heroism, but which, all thingsconsidered, it was not quite worth the while of any man to attempt toreach. They have all disappeared from our charts, like the Atlantis ofPlato, that was once charted to the westward of the Straits of Gibraltar, and of which the Canaries were believed to be the last peaks unsubmerged. 

Sea myths and legends are strange things, and do not as a rule persist inthe minds of men unless they have had some ghostly foundation; so it ispossible that these fabled islands of the West were lands that hadactually been seen by living eyes, although their position could never beproperly laid down nor their identity assured. Of all the wanderingseamen who talked in the wayside taverns of Atlantic seaports, some musthave had strange tales to tell; tales which sometimes may have been true, but were never believed. Vague rumours hung about those shores, likespray and mist about a headland, of lands seen and lost again in theunknown and uncharted ocean. Doubtless the lamp of faith, the innerlight, burned in some of these storm-tossed men; but all they had was aglimpse here and there, seen for a moment and lost again; not the clearsight of faith by which Columbus steered his westward course. 

The actual outposts of western occupation, then, were the Azores, whichwere discovered by Genoese sailors in the pay of Portugal early in thefourteenth century; the Canaries, which had been continuously discoveredand rediscovered since the Phoenicians occupied them and Pliny chose themfor his Hesperides; and Madeira, which is believed to have beendiscovered by an Englishman under the following very romantic and movingcircumstances. 

In the reign of Edward the Third a young man named Robert Machin fell inlove with a beautiful girl, his superior in rank, Anne Dorset or d'Urfeyby name. She loved him also, but her relations did not love him; andtherefore they had Machin imprisoned upon some pretext or other, andforcibly married the young lady to a nobleman who had a castle on theshores of the Bristol Channel. 

The marriage being accomplished, and the girl carried away by herbridegroom to his seat in the West, it was thought safe to releaseMachin. Whereupon he collected several friends, and they followed thenewly-married couple to Bristol and laid their plans for an abduction. One of the friends got himself engaged as a groom in the service of theunhappy bride, and found her love unchanged, and if possible increased bythe present misery she was in. An escape was planned; and one day, whenthe girl and her groom were riding in the park, they set spurs to theirhorses, and galloped off to a place on the shores of the Bristol Channelwhere young Robert had a boat on the beach and a ship in the offing. They set sail immediately, intending to make for France, where thereunited lovers hoped to live happily; but it came on to blow when theywere off the Lizard, and a southerly gale, which lasted for thirteendays, drove them far out of their course. 

The bride, from her joy and relief, fell into a state of the gloomiestdespondency, believing that the hand of God was turned against her, and that their love would never be enjoyed. The tempest fell on thefourteenth day, and at the break of morning the sea-worn company sawtrees and land ahead of them. In the sunrise they landed upon an islandfull of noble trees, about which flights of singing birds were hovering, and in which the sweetest fruits, the most lovely flowers, and the purestand most limpid waters abounded. Machin and his bride and their friendsmade an encampment on a flowery meadow in a sheltered valley, where forthree days they enjoyed the sweetness and rest of the shore and thecompanionship of all kinds of birds and beasts, which showed no signs offear at their presence. On the third day a storm arose, and raged for anight over the island; and in the morning the adventurers found thattheir ship was nowhere to be seen. The despair of the little company wasextreme, and was increased by the condition of poor Anne, upon whomterror and remorse again fell, and so preyed upon her mind that in threedays she was dead. Her lover, who had braved so much and won her sogallantly, was turned to stone by this misfortune. Remorse and achingdesolation oppressed him; from the moment of her death he scarcely atenor spoke; and in five days he also was dead, surely of a broken heart. They buried him beside his mistress under a spreading tree, and put up awooden cross there, with a prayer that any Christians who might come tothe island would build a chapel to Jesus the Saviour. The rest of theparty then repaired their little boat and put to sea; were cast upon thecoast of Morocco, captured by the Moors, and thrown into prison. Withthem in prison was a Spanish pilot named Juan de Morales, who listenedattentively to all they could tell him about the situation and conditionof the island, and who after his release communicated what he knew toPrince Henry of Portugal. The island of Madeira was thus rediscovered in1418, and in 1425 was colonised by Prince Henry, who appointed asGovernor Bartolomeo de Perestrello, whose daughter was afterwards tobecome the wife of Columbus. 

So much for the outposts of the Old World. Of the New World, about thepossibility of which Columbus is beginning to dream as he sails theMediterranean, there was no knowledge and hardly any thought. Though newin the thoughts of Columbus, it was very old in itself; generations ofmen had lived and walked and spoken and toiled there, ever since men cameupon the earth; sun and shower, the thrill of the seasons, birth and lifeand death, had been visiting it for centuries and centuries. And it isquite possible that, long before even the civilisation that producedColumbus was in its dawn, men from the Old World had journeyed there. There are two very old fragments of knowledge which indicate at least thepossibility of a Western World of which the ancients had knowledge. There is a fragment, preserved from the fourth century before Christ, ofa conversation between Silenus and Midas, King of Phrygia, in whichSilenus correctly describes the Old World--Europe, Asia, and Africa--asbeing surrounded by the sea, but also describes, far to the west of it, ahuge island, which had its own civilisation and its own laws, where theanimals and the men were of twice our stature, and lived for twice ouryears. There is also the story told by Plato of the island of Atlantis, which was larger than Africa and Asia together, and which in anearthquake disappeared beneath the waves, producing such a slime upon thesurface that no ship was able to navigate the sea in that place. This isthe story which the priests of Sais told to Solon, and which was embodiedin the sacred inscriptions in their temples. It is strange that any oneshould think of this theory of the slime who had not seen or heard of theSargasso Sea--that great bank of floating seaweed that the ocean currentscollect and retain in the middle of the basin of the North Atlantic. 

The Egyptians, the Tartars, the Canaanites, the Chinese, the Arabians, the Welsh, and the Scandinavians have all been credited with thecolonisation of America; but the only race from the Old World which hadalmost certainly been there were the Scandinavians. In the year 983 thecoast of Greenland was visited by Eric the Red, the son of a Norwegiannoble, who was banished for the crime of murder. Some fifteen yearslater Eric's son Lief made an expedition with thirty-five men and a shipin the direction of the new land. They came to a coast where there werenothing but ice mountains having the appearance of slate; this countrythey named Helluland--that is, Land of Slate. This country is ourNewfoundland. Standing out to sea again, they reached a level woodedcountry with white sandy cliffs, which they called Markland, or Land ofWood, which is our Nova Scotia. Next they reached an island east ofMarkland, where they passed the winter, and as one of their number whohad wandered some distance inland had found vines and grapes, Lief namedthe country Vinland or Vine Land, which is the country we call NewEngland. The Scandinavians continued to make voyages to the West andSouth; and finally Thorfinn Karlsefne, an Icelander, made a greatexpedition in the spring of 1007 with ships and material forcolonisation. He made much progress to the southwards, and the Icelandicaccounts of the climate and soil and characteristics of the country leaveno doubt that Greenland and Nova Scotia were discovered and colonised atthis time. 

It must be remembered, however, that then and in the lifetime of ColumbusGreenland was supposed to--be a promontory of the coast of Europe, andwas not connected in men's minds with a western continent. Its earlydiscovery has no bearing on the significance of Columbus's achievement, the greatness of which depends not on his having been the first man fromthe Old World to set foot upon the shores of the New, but on the factthat by pure faith and belief in his own purpose he did set out for andarrive in a world where no man of his era or civilisation had ever beforeset foot, or from which no wanderer who may have been blown there everreturned. It is enough to claim for him the merit of discovery in thetrue sense of the word. The New World was covered from the Old by a veilof distance, of time and space, of absence, invisibility, virtualnon-existence; and he discovered it. 

CHAPTER VI

IN PORTUGAL

There is no reason to believe that before his twenty-fifth year Columbuswas anything more than a merchant or mariner, sailing before the mast, and joining one ship after another as opportunities for good voyagesoffered themselves. A change took place later, probably after hismarriage, when he began to adapt himself rapidly to a new set ofsurroundings, and to show his intrinsic qualities; but all the attemptsthat have been made to glorify him socially--attempts, it must beremembered, in which he himself and his sons were in after years theleaders--are entirely mistaken. That strange instinct for consistencywhich makes people desire to see the outward man correspond, in terms ofmomentary and arbitrary credit, with the inner and hidden man of theheart, has in truth led to more biographical injustice than is fullyrealised. If Columbus had been the man some of his biographers wouldlike to make him out--the nephew or descendant of a famous FrenchAdmiral, educated at the University of Pavia, belonging to a family ofnoble birth and high social esteem in Genoa, chosen by King Rene to bethe commander of naval expeditions, learned in scientific lore, in theclassics, in astronomy and in cosmography, the friend and correspondentof Toscanelli and other learned scientists--we should find it hard indeedto forgive him the shifts and deceits that he practised. It is far moreinteresting to think of him as a common craftsman, of a lowly conditionand poor circumstances, who had to earn his living during the formativeperiod of his life by the simplest and hardest labour of the hand. Thequalities that made him what he was were of a very simple kind, and hischaracter owed its strength, not to any complexity or subtlety oftraining and education, but rather to that very bareness and simplicityof circumstance that made him a man of single rather than manifold ideas. He was not capable of seeing both sides of a question; he saw only oneside. But he came of a great race; and it was the qualities of his race, combined with this simplicity and even perhaps vacancy of mind, that gaveto his idea, when once the seed of it had lodged in his mind, so muchvigour in growth and room for expansion. Think of him, then, at the ageof twenty-five as a typical plebeian Genoese, bearing all thecharacteristic traits of his century and people--the spirit of adventure, the love of gold and of power, a spirit of mysticism, and more than atouch of crafty and elaborate dissimulation, when that should benecessary. 

He had been at sea for ten or eleven years, making voyages to and fromGenoa, with an occasional spell ashore and plunge into the paternalaffairs, when in the year 1476 he found himself on board a Genoese vesselwhich formed one of a convoy going, to Lisbon. This convoy was attackedoff Cape St. Vincent by Colombo, or Colomb, the famous French corsair, ofwhom Christopher himself has quite falsely been called a relative. Onlytwo of the Genoese vessels escaped, and one of these two was the shipwhich carried Columbus. It arrived at Lisbon, where Columbus went ashoreand took up his abode. 

This, so far as can be ascertained, is the truth about the arrival ofColumbus in Portugal. The early years of an obscure man who leaps intofame late in life are nearly always difficult to gather knowledge about, because not only are the annals of the poor short and simple and in mostcases altogether unrecorded, but there is always that instinct, to whichI have already referred, to make out that the circumstances of a man wholate in life becomes great and remarkable were always, at every point inhis career, remarkable also. We love to trace the hand of destinyguiding her chosen people, protecting them from dangers, and preservingthem for their great moment. It is a pleasant study, and one to whichthe facts often lend themselves, but it leads to a vicious method ofbiography which obscures the truth with legends and pretences that haveafterwards laboriously to be cleared away. It was so in the case ofColumbus. Before his departure on his first voyage of discovery there isabsolutely no temporary record of him except a few dates in notarialregisters. The circumstances of his life and his previous conditionswere supplied afterwards by himself and his contemporaries; and both heand they saw the past in the light of the present, and did their best tomake it fit a present so wonderful and miraculous. The whole trend ofrecent research on the subject of Columbus has been unfortunately in thedirection of proving the complete insincerity of his own speech andwritings about his early life, and the inaccuracy of Las Casas writingshis contemporary biographer, and the first historian of the West Indies. Those of my readers, then, who are inclined to be impatient with themeagreness of the facts with which I am presenting them, and thedisproportionate amount of theory to fact with regard to these earlyyears of Columbus, must remember three things. First, that the onlyrecord of the early years of Columbus was written long after those yearshad passed away, and in circumstances which did not harmonise with them;second, that there is evidence, both substantive and presumptive, thatmuch of those records, even though it came from the hands of Columbus andhis friends, is false and must be discarded; and third, that the only wayin which anything like the truth can be arrived at is by circumstantialand presumptive evidence with regard to dates, names, places, and eventsupon which the obscure life of Columbus impinged. Columbus is known tohave written much about himself, but very little of it exists or remainsin his own handwriting. It remains in the form of quotation by others, all of whom had their reasons for not representing quite accurately whatwas, it must be feared, not even itself a candid and accurate record. The evidence for these very serious statements is the subject ofnumberless volumes and monographs, which cannot be quoted here; for it ismy privilege to reap the results, and not to reproduce the material, ofthe immense research and investigation to which in the last fifty yearsthe life of Columbus has been subjected. 

We shall come to facts enough presently; in the meantime we have but thevaguest knowledge of what Columbus did in Lisbon. The one technicalpossession which he obviously had was knowledge of the sea; he had also ahead on his shoulders, and plenty of judgment and common sense; he hadlikely picked up some knowledge of cartography in his years at Genoa, since (having abandoned wool-weaving) he probably wished to make progressin the profession of the sea; and it is, therefore, believed that hepicked up a living in Lisbon by drawing charts and maps. Such a livingwould only be intermittent; a fact that is indicated by his periodicexcursions to sea again, presumably when funds were exhausted. Therewere other Genoese in Lisbon, and his own brother Bartholomew was withhim there for a time. He may actually have been there when Columbusarrived, but it was more probable that Columbus, the pioneer of thefamily, seeing a better field for his brother's talent in Lisbon than inGenoa, sent for him when he himself was established there. ThisBartholomew, of whom we shall see a good deal in the future, is merely anoutline at this stage of the story; an outline that will later be filledup with human features and fitted with a human character; at present heis but a brother of Christopher, with a rather bookish taste, a betterknowledge of cartography than Christopher possessed, and some littleexperience of the book-selling trade. He too made charts in Lisbon, andsold books also, and no doubt between them the efforts of the brothers, supplemented by the occasional voyages of Christopher, obtained them asufficient livelihood. The social change, in the one case from thesociety of Genoese wool-weavers, and in the other from the company ofmerchant sailors, must have been very great; for there is evidence thatthey began to make friends and acquaintances among a rather differentclass than had been formerly accessible to them. The change to a newcountry also and to a new language makes a deep impression at the age oftwenty-five; and although Columbus in his sea-farings had been in manyports, and had probably picked up a knowledge both of Portuguese and ofSpanish, his establishment in the Portuguese capital could not fail toenlarge his outlook upon life. 

There is absolutely no record of his circumstances in the first year ofhis life at Lisbon, so we may look once more into the glass ofimagination and try to find a picture there. It is very dim, veryminute, very, very far away. There is the little shop in a steep Lisbonstreet, somewhere near the harbour we may be sure, with the shadows ofthe houses lying sharp on the white sunlight of the street; the cooldarkness of the shop, with its odour of vellum and parchment, its rollsof maps and charts; and somewhere near by the sounds and commotion of thewharves and the shipping. Often, when there was a purchaser in the shop, there would be talk of the sea, of the best course from this place tothat, of the entrance to this harbour and the other; talk of the westernislands too, of the western ocean, of the new astrolabe which the GermanMuller of Konigsberg, or Regiomontanus, as they called him in Portugal, had modified and improved. And if there was sometimes an evening walk, it would surely be towards the coast or on a hill above the harbour, witha view of the sun being quenched in the sea and travelling down into theunknown, uncharted West. 

CHAPTER VII

ADVENTURES BODILY AND SPIRITUAL

Columbus had not been long in Portugal before he was off again to sea, this time on a longer voyage than any he had yet undertaken. Ourknowledge of it depends on his own words as reported by Las Casas, and, like so much other knowledge similarly recorded, is not to be receivedwith absolute certainty; but on the whole the balance of probability isin favour of its truth. The words in which this voyage is recorded aregiven as a quotation from a letter of Columbus, and, stripped of certainobvious interpolations of the historian, are as follows:--

 "In the month of February, and in the year 1477, I navigated as far as the island of Tile [Thule], a hundred leagues; and to this island, which is as large as England, the English, especially those of Bristol, go with merchandise; and when I was there the sea was not frozen over, although there were very high tides, so much so that in some parts the sea rose twenty-five 'brazas', and went down as much, twice during the day. "

The reasons for doubting that this voyage took place are due simply toColumbus's habit of being untruthful in regard to his own past doings, and his propensity for drawing the long bow; and the reason that has beenaccepted by most of his biographers who have denied the truth of thisstatement is that, in the year 1492, when Columbus was addressing theKing and Queen of Spain on his qualifications as a navigator, and when hewished to set forth his experience in a formidable light, he said nothingabout this voyage, but merely described his explorations as havingextended from Guinea on the south to England on the north. A shrewdestimate of Columbus's character makes it indeed seem incredible that, if he had really been in Iceland, he should not have mentioned the facton this occasion; and yet there is just one reason, also quitecharacteristic of Columbus, that would account for the suppression. It is just possible that when he was at Thule, by which he meant Iceland, he may have heard of the explorations in the direction of Greenland andNewfoundland; and that, although by other navigators these lands wereregarded as a part of the continent of Europe, he may have had someglimmerings of an idea that they were part of land and islands in theWest; and he was much too jealous of his own reputation as the great andonly originator of the project for voyaging to the West, to give away anyhints that he was not the only person to whom such ideas had occurred. There is deception and untruth somewhere; and one must make one's choicebetween regarding the story in the first place as a lie, or accepting itas truth, and putting down Columbus's silence about it on a lateroccasion to a rare instinct of judicious suppression. There are otherfacts in his life, to which, we shall come later, that are in accordancewith this theory. There is no doubt, moreover, that Columbus had a verygreat experience of the sea, and was one of the greatest practicalseamen, if not the greatest, that has ever lived; and it would be foolishto deny, except for the greatest reasons, that he made a voyage to thefar North, which was neither unusual at the time nor a very greatachievement for a seaman of his experience. 

Christopher returned from these voyages, of which we know nothing exceptthe facts that he has given us, towards the end of 1477; and it wasprobably in the next year that an event very important in his life andcareer took place. Hitherto there has been no whisper of love in thatarduous career of wool-weaving, sailoring, and map-making; and it is notunlikely that his marriage represents the first inspiration of love inhis life, for he was, in spite of his southern birth, a cool-blooded man, for whom affairs of the heart had never a very serious interest. But atLisbon, where he began to find himself with some footing and place in theworld, and where the prospect of at least a livelihood began to open outbefore him, his thoughts took that turn towards domesticity and familylife which marks a moment in the development of almost every man. Andnow, since he has at last to emerge from the misty environment ofsea-spray that has veiled him so long from our intimate sight, we maytake a close look at him as he was in this year 1478. 

Unlike the southern Italians, he was fair in colouring; a man ratherabove the middle height, large limbed, of a shapely breadth andproportion, and of a grave and dignified demeanour. His face was ruddy, and inclined to be freckled under the exposure to the sun, his hair atthis age still fair and reddish, although in a few years later it turnedgrey, and became white while he was still a young man. His nose wasslightly aquiline, his face long and rather full; his eyes of a clearblue, with sharply defined eyebrows--seamen's eyes, which get anunmistakable light in them from long staring into the sea distances. Altogether a handsome and distinguished-looking young man, noticeableanywhere, and especially among a crowd of swarthy Portuguese. He was nota lively young man; on the contrary, his manner was rather heavy, andeven at times inclined to be pompous; he had a very good opinion ofhimself, had the clear calculating head and tidy intellectual methods ofthe able mariner; was shrewd and cautious--in a word, took himself andthe world very seriously. A strictly conventional man, as theconventions of his time and race went; probably some of his gayer andlighter-hearted contemporaries thought him a dull enough dog, who wouldnot join in a carouse or a gallant adventure, but would probably get thebetter of you if he could in any commercial deal. He was a greatstickler for the observances of religion; and never a Sunday or feast-daypassed, when he was ashore, without finding him, like the dutiful son ofthe Church that he was, hearing Mass and attending at Benediction. Not, indeed, a very attractive or inspiring figure of a man; not the man whosecompany one would likely have sought very much, or whose conversation onewould have found very interesting. A man rather whose character was castin a large and plain mould, without those many facets which add so muchto the brightness of human intercourse, and which attract and reflect thelight from other minds; a man who must be tried in large circumstances, and placed in a big setting, if his qualities are to be seen to advantage. . . . I seem to see him walking up from the shop near the harbourat Lisbon towards the convent of Saints; walking gravely and firmly, witha dignified demeanour, with his best clothes on, and glad, for themoment, to be free of his sea acquaintances, and to be walking in thedirection of that upper-class world after which he has a secret hankeringin his heart. There are a great many churches in Lisbon nearer his housewhere he might hear Mass on Sundays; but he prefers to walk up to therich and fashionable convent of Saints, where everybody is well dressed, and where those kindling eyes of his may indulge a cool taste forfeminine beauty. 

While the chapel bell is ringing other people are hurrying through thesunny Lisbon streets to Mass at the convent. Among the fashionablethrong are two ladies, one young, one middle-aged; they separate at thechurch door, and the younger one leaves her mother and takes her place inthe convent choir. This is Philippa Moniz, who lives alone with hermother in Lisbon, and amuses herself with her privileges as a cavaliera, or dame, in one of the knightly orders attached to the rich convent ofSaints. Perhaps she has noticed the tall figure of the young Genoese inthe strangers' part of the convent, perhaps not; but his roving blue eyehas noticed her, and much is to come of it. The young Genoese continueshis regular and exemplary attendance at the divine Office, the young ladyis zealous in observing her duties in the choir; some kind friendintroduces them; the audacious young man makes his proposals, and, in spite of the melancholy protests of the young lady's exceedinglyrespectable and highly-connected relatives, the young people arebetrothed and actually married before the elders have time to recoverbreath from their first shock at the absurdity of the suggestion. 

There is a very curious fact in connection with his marriage that isworthy of our consideration. In all his voluminous writings, letters, memoirs, and journals, Columbus never once mentions his wife. His solereference to her is in his will, made at Valladolid many years later, long after her death; and is contained in the two words "my wife. "He ordains that a chapel shall be erected and masses said for the reposeof the souls of his father, his mother, and his wife. He who wrote somuch, did not write of her; he who boasted so much, never boasted of her;he who bemoaned so much, never bemoaned her. There is a blank silenceon his part about everything connected with his marriage and his wife. I like to think that it was because this marriage, which incidentallyfurnished him with one of the great impulses of his career, was in itselfplacid and uneventful, and belongs to that mass of happy days that do notmake history. Columbus was not a passionate man. I think that love hada very small place in his life, and that the fever of passion was withhim brief and soon finished with; but I am sure he was affectionate, andgrateful for any affection and tenderness that were bestowed upon him. He was much away too, at first on his voyages to Guinea and afterwards onthe business of his petitions to the Portuguese and Spanish Courts; andone need not be a cynic to believe that these absences did nothing tolessen the affection between him and his wife. Finally, their marriedlife was a short one; she died within ten years, and I am sure did notoutlive his affections; so that there may be something solemn, somesecret memories of the aching joy and sorrow that her coming into hislife and passing out of it brought him, in this silence of Columbusconcerning his wife. 

This marriage was, in the vulgar idiom of to-day, a great thing forColumbus. It not only brought him a wife; it brought him a home, society, recognition, and a connection with maritime knowledge andadventure that was of the greatest importance to him. Philippa MonizPerestrello was the daughter of Bartolomeo Perestrello, who had beenappointed hereditary governor of the island of Porto Santo on itscolonisation by Prince Henry in 1425 and who had died there in 1457. Her grandfather was Gil Ayres Moniz, who was secretary to the famousConstable Pereira in the reign of John I, and is chiefly interesting tous because he founded the chapel of the "Piedad" in the CarmeliteMonastery at Lisbon, in which the Moniz family had the right of intermentfor ever, and in which the body of Philippa, after her brief pilgrimagein this world was over, duly rested; and whence her son ordered itsdisinterment and re-burial in the church of Santa Clara in San Domingo. Philippa's mother, Isabel Moniz, was the second or third wife ofPerestrello; and after her husband's death she had come to live inLisbon. She had another daughter, Violante by name, who had married oneMulier, or Muliartes, in Huelva; and a son named Bartolomeo, who was theheir to the governorship of Porto Santo; but as he was only a little boyat the time of his father's death his mother ceded the governorship toPedro Correa da Cunha, who had married Iseult, the daughter of oldBartolomeo by his first wife. The governorship was thus kept in thefamily during the minority of Bartolomeo, who resumed it later when hecame of age. 

This Isabel, mother of Philippa, was a very important acquaintance indeedfor Columbus. It must be noted that he left the shop and poorBartholomew to take care of themselves or each other, and went to live inthe house of his mother-in-law. This was a great social step for thewool-weaver of Genoa; and it was probably the result of a kind ofcompromise with his wife's horrified relatives at the time of hermarriage. It was doubtless thought impossible for her to go and liveover the chart-maker's shop; and as you can make charts in one house aswell as another, it was decided that Columbus should live with hismother-in-law, and follow his trade under her roof. Columbus, in fact, seems to have been fortunate in securing the favour of his femalerelatives-in-law, and it was probably owing to the championship ofPhilippa's mother that a marriage so much to his advantage ever tookplace at all. His wife had many distinguished relatives in theneighbourhood of Lisbon; her cousin was archbishop at this very time;but I can neither find that their marriage was celebrated with thearchiepiscopal blessing or that he ever got much help or countenance fromthe male members of the Moniz family. Archbishops even today do not muchlike their pretty cousins marrying a man of Columbus's position, whetheryou call him a woolweaver, a sailor, a map-maker, or a bookseller. "Adventurer" is perhaps the truest description of him; and the word wasas much distrusted in the best circles in Lisbon in the fifteenth centuryas it is to-day. 

Those of his new relatives, however, who did get to know him soon beganto see that Philippa had not made such a bad bargain after all. With theconfidence and added belief in himself that the recognition andencouragement of those kind women brought him, Columbus's mind andimagination expanded; and I think it was probably now that he began towonder if all his knowledge and seamanship, his quite useful smatteringof cartography and cosmography, his real love of adventure, and all hisdreams and speculations concerning the unknown and uncharted seas, couldnot be turned to some practical account. His wife's step-sister Iseultand her husband had, moreover, only lately returned to Lisbon from theirlong residence in Porto Santo; young Bartolomeo Perestrello, her brother, was reigning there in their stead, and no doubt sending home interestingaccounts of ships and navigators that put in at Madeira; and all thecircumstances would tend to fan the spark of Columbus's desire to havesome adventure and glory of his own on the high seas. He would wishto show all these grandees, with whom his marriage had broughthim acquainted, that you did not need to be born a Perestrello--or Pallastrelli, as the name was in its original Italian form--to makea name in the world. Donna Isabel, moreover, was never tired of talkingabout Porto Santo and her dead husband, and of all the voyages and seaadventures that had filled his life. She was obviously a good teller oftales, and had all the old history and traditions of Madeira at herfingers' ends; the story of Robert Machin and Anne Dorset; the story ofthe isle of Seven Cities; and the black cloud on the horizon that turnedout in the end to be Madeira. She told Christopher how her husband, whenhe had first gone to Porto Santo, had taken there a litter of rabbits, and how the rabbits had so increased that in two seasons they had eatenup everything on the island, and rendered it uninhabitable for some time. 

She brought out her husband's sea-charts, memoranda, and log-books, the sight of which still farther inflamed Christopher's curiosity andambition. The great thing in those days was to discover something, if itwas only a cape down the African coast or a rock in the Atlantic. Thekey to fame, which later took the form of mechanical invention, and laterstill of discovery in the region of science, took the form then of actualdiscovery of parts of the earth's surface. The thing was in the air;news was coming in every day of something new seen, something newcharted. If others had done so much, and the field was still halfunexplored, could not he do something also? It was not an unlikelythought to occur to the mind of a student of sea charts and horizons. 

CHAPTER VIII

THE FIRE KINDLES

The next step in Columbus's career was a move to Porto Santo, whichprobably took place very soon after his marriage--that is to say, in theyear 1479. It is likely that he had the chance of making a voyage there;perhaps even of commanding a ship, for his experience of the sea andskill as a navigator must by this time have raised him above the rank ofan ordinary seaman; and in that case nothing would be more natural thanthat he should take his young wife with him to visit her brotherBartolomeo, and to see the family property. It is one of the charms ofthe seaman's profession that he travels free all over the world; and ifhe has no house or other fixed possessions that need to be looked afterhe has the freedom of the world, and can go where he likes free of cost. Porto Santo and Madeira, lying in the track of the busiest trade on theAtlantic coast, would provide Columbus with an excellent base from whichto make other voyages; so it was probably with a heart full of eageranticipation for the future, and sense of quiet happiness in the present, that in the year 1479 Signor Cristoforo Colombo (for he did not yet callhimself Senor Cristoval Colon) set out for Porto Santo--a lonely rocksome miles north of Madeira. Its southern shore is a long sweeping bayof white sand, with a huddle of sand-hills beyond, and cliffs and peaksof basalt streaked with lava fringing the other shores. When Columbusand his bride arrived there the place was almost as bare as it is to-day. There were the governor's house; the settlement of Portuguese who workedin the mills and sugar-fields; the mills themselves, with the cultivatedsugar-fields behind them; and the vineyards, with the dwarf Malmsey vinespegged down to the ground, which Prince Henry had imported from Candiafifty years before. The forest of dragon-trees that had once covered theisland was nearly all gone. The wood had all been used either forbuilding, making boats, or for fuel; and on the fruit of the few treesthat were left a herd of pigs was fattened. There was frequentcommunication by boat with Madeira, which was the chief of all theAtlantic islands, and the headquarters of the sugar trade; and PortoSanto itself was a favourite place of call for passing ships. So that itwas by no means lonely for Christopher Columbus and his wife, even ifthey had not had the society of the governor and his settlement. 

We can allow him about three years in Porto Santo, although for a part ofthis time at least he must have been at sea. I think it not unlikelythat it was the happiest time of his life. He was removed from theuncomfortable environment of people who looked down upon him because ofhis obscure birth; he was in an exquisite climate; and living by thesea-shore, as a sailor loves to do; he got on well with Bartolomeo, whowas no doubt glad enough of the company of this grave sailor who hadseen so much and had visited so many countries; above all he had hiswife there, his beautiful, dear, proud Philippa, all to himself, and outof reach of those abominable Portuguese noblemen who paid so muchattention to her and so little to him, and made him so jealous; andthere was a whispered promise of some one who was coming to make himhappier still. It is a splendid setting, this, for the sea adventurer;a charming picture that one has of him there so long ago, walking on thewhite shores of the great sweeping bay, with the glorious purpleAtlantic sparkling and thundering on the sands, as it sparkles andthunders to-day. A place empty and vivid, swept by the mellow winds;silent, but for the continuous roar of the sea; still, but for thescuttling of the rabbits among the sand-hills and the occasional passageof a figure from the mills up to the sugar-fields; but brilliant withsunshine and colour and the bright environment of the sea. It was uponsuch scenes that he looked during this happy pause in his life; theywere the setting of Philippa's dreams and anxieties as the time ofmotherhood drew near; and it was upon them that their little son firstopened his eyes, and with the boom of the Atlantic breakers that hefirst mingled his small voice. 

It is but a moment of rest and happiness; for Christopher the scene issoon changed, and he must set forth upon a voyage again, while Philippais left, with a new light in her eyes, to watch over the atom that wakesand weeps and twists and struggles and mews, and sleeps again, in hercharge. Sleep well, little son! Yet a little while, and you too shallmake voyages and conquests; new worlds lie waiting for you, who are sogreatly astonished at this Old World; far journeys by land and sea, andthe company of courtiers and kings; and much honour from the name anddeeds of him who looked into your eyes with a laugh and, a sob, and wasso very large and overshadowing! But with her who quietly sings to you, whose hands soothe and caress you, in whose eyes shines that wonderfullight of mother's love--only a little while longer. 

While Diego, as this son was christened, was yet only a baby in hiscradle, Columbus made an important voyage to the, coast of Guinea as allthe western part of the African continent was then called. His solid andpractical qualities were by this time beginning to be recognised even byPhilippa's haughty family, and it was possibly through the interest ofher uncle, Pedro Noronhas, a distinguished minister of the King ofPortugal, that he got the command of a caravel in the expedition whichset out for Guinea in December 1481. A few miles from Cape Coast Castle, and on the borders of the Dutch colony, there are to-day the ruinedremains of a fort; and it is this fort, the fortress of St. George, thatthe expedition was sent out to erect. On the 11th of December the littlefleet set sail for [from? D. W. ] Lisbon--ten caravels, and two barges orlighters laden with the necessary masonry and timber-work for the fort. Columbus was in command of one of the caravels, and the whole fleet wascommanded by the Portuguese Admiral Azumbaga. They would certainly seePorto Santo and Madeira on their way south, although they did not callthere; and Philippa was no doubt looking out for them, and watching fromthe sand-hills the fleet of twelve ships going by in the offing. Theycalled at Cape Verde, where the Admiral was commissioned to present oneof the negro kings with some horses and hawks, and incidentally to obtainhis assent to a treaty. On the 19th of January 1482, having made a verygood voyage, they, landed just beyond the Cape of the Three Points, andimmediately set about the business of the expedition. 

There was a state reception, with Admiral Azumbaga walking in front inscarlet and brocade, followed by his captains, Columbus among them, dressed in gorgeous tunics and cloaks with golden collars and, wellhidden beneath their finery, good serviceable cuirasses. The banner ofPortugal was ceremoniously unfurled and dis played from the top of a talltree. An altar was erected and consecrated by the chaplain to theexpedition, and a mass was sung for the repose of the soul of PrinceHenry. The Portugal contingent were then met by Caramansa, the king ofthe country, who came, surrounded by a great guard of blacks armed withassegais, their bodies scantily decorated with monkey fur and palmleaves. The black monarch must have presented a handsome appearance, for his arms and legs were decked with gold bracelets and rings, he hada kind of dog-collar fitted with bells round his neck, and some pieces ofgold were daintily twisted into his beard. With these aids to diplomacy, and doubtless also with the help of a dram or two of spirits or of thewine of Oporto, the treaty was soon concluded, and a very shrewd strokeof business accomplished for the King of Portugal; for it gave him thesole right of exchanging gaudy rubbish from Portugal for the preciousgold of Ethiopia. When the contents of the two freight-ships had beenunloaded they were beached and broken up by the orders of King John, whowished it to be thought that they had been destroyed in the whirlpools ofthat dangerous sea, and that the navigation of those rough waters wasonly safe for the caravels of the Navy. The fort was built in twentydays, and the expedition returned, laden with gold and ivory; AdmiralAzumbaga remained behind in command of the garrison. 

This voyage, which was a bold and adventurous one for the time, may beregarded as the first recognition of Columbus as a man of importance, for the expedition was manned and commanded by picked men; so it was forall reasons a very fortunate one for him, although the possession of thedangerous secret as to the whereabouts of this valuable territory mighthave proved to be not very convenient to him in the future. 

Columbus went back to Porto Santo with his ambitions thoroughly kindled. He had been given a definite command in the Portuguese Navy; he had beensailing with a fleet; he had been down to the mysterious coast of Africa;he had been trafficking with strange tribes; he had been engaged in adifficult piece of navigation such as he loved; and on the long dreamydays of the voyage home, the caravels furrowing the blue Atlantic beforethe steady trade-wind, he determined that he would find some way ofputting his knowledge to use, and of earning distinction for himself. Living, as he had been lately, in Atlantic seaports overlooking thewestern ocean it is certain that the idea of discovering something inthat direction occupied him more and more. What it was that he was todiscover was probably very vague in his mind, and was likely notdesignated by any name more exact than "lands. " In after years he triedto show that it was a logical and scientific deduction which led him togo and seek the eastern shore of the Indian continent by sailing west;but we may be almost certain that at this time he thought of no suchthing. He had no exact scientific knowledge at this date. His mapmaking had taught him something, and naturally he had kept his ears open, and knew all the gossip and hearsay about the islands of the West; andthere gradually grew in his mind the intuition or conviction--I refuse tocall it an opinion--that, over that blue verge of the West, there wasland to be found. How this seed of conviction first lodged in his mindit would be impossible to say; in any one of the steps through which wehave followed him, it might have taken its root; but there it was, beginning to occupy his mind very seriously indeed; and he began to lookout, as all men do who wish to act upon faith or conviction which theycannot demonstrate to another person, for some proofs that his convictionwas a sound one. 

And now, just at the moment when he needs it most, comes an incidentthat, to a man of his religious and superstitious habit, seems like thepointing finger of Providence. The story of the shipwrecked pilot hasbeen discredited by nearly all the modern biographers of Columbus, chiefly because it does not fit in with their theory of his scientificstudies and the alleged bearing of these on his great discovery; but itis given by Las Casas, who says that it was commonly believed byColumbus's entourage at Hispaniola. Moreover, amid all the tangles oftheory and argument in which the achievement of Columbus has beeninvolved, this original story of shipwrecked mariners stands out with astrength and simplicity that cannot be entirely disregarded by thehistorian who permits himself some light of imagination by which to work. It is more true to life and to nature that Columbus should have receivedhis last impulse, the little push that was to set his accumulated energyand determination in motion, from a thing of pure chance, than that heshould have built his achievement up in a logical superstructure restingon a basis of profound and elaborate theory. 

In the year following Columbus's return from Guinea, then, he, andprobably his family, had gone over to Madeira from Porto Santo, and werestaying there. While they were there a small ship put in to Madeira, much battered by storms and bad weather, and manned by a crew of fivesick mariners. Columbus, who was probably never far from the shore atFunchal when a ship came into the harbour, happened to see them. Struckby their appearance, and finding them in a quite destitute and grievouslyinvalid condition, he entertained them in his house until some otherprovision could be made for them. But they were quite worn out. One byone they succumbed to weakness and illness, until one only, a pilot fromHuelva, was left. He also was sinking, and when it was obvious that hisend was near at hand, he beckoned his good host to his bedside, and, ingratitude for all his kindness, imparted to him some singular knowledgewhich he had acquired, and with which, if he had lived, he had hoped towin distinction for himself. 

The pilot's story, in so far as it has been preserved, and taking themean of four contemporary accounts of it, was as follows. This man, whose name is doubtful, but is given as Alonso Sanchez, was sailing on avoyage from one of the Spanish ports to England or Flanders. He had acrew of seventeen men. When they had got well out to sea a severeeasterly gale sprung up, which drove the vessel before it to thewestward. Day after day and week after week, for twenty-eight days, thisgale continued. The islands were all left far behind, and the ship wascarried into a region far beyond the limits of the ocean marked on thecharts. At last they sighted some islands, upon one of which they landedand took in wood and water. The pilot took the bearings of the island, in so far as he was able, and made some observations, the only one ofwhich that has remained being that the natives went naked; and, the windhaving changed, set forth on his homeward voyage. This voyage was longand painful. The wind did not hold steady from the west; the pilot andhis crew had a very hazy notion of where they were; their dead reckoningwas confused; their provisions fell short; and one by one the crewsickened and died until they were reduced to five or six--the ones who, worn out by sickness and famine, and the labours of working the shipshort-handed and in their enfeebled condition, at last made the island ofMadeira, and cast anchor in the beautiful bay of Funchal, only to diethere. All these things we may imagine the dying man relating insnatches to his absorbed listener; who felt himself to be receiving apearl of knowledge to be guarded and used, now that its finder mustdepart upon the last and longest voyage of human discovery. Suchobservations as he had made--probably a few figures giving the bearingsof stars, an account of dead reckoning, and a quite useless andinaccurate chart or map--the pilot gave to his host; then, havingdelivered his soul of its secret, he died. This is the story; not animpossible or improbable one in its main outlines. Whether the pilotreally landed on one of the Antilles is extremely doubtful, although itis possible. Superstitious and storm-tossed sailors in those days wereonly too ready to believe that they saw some of the fabled islands of theAtlantic; and it is quite possible that the pilot simply announced thathe had seen land, and that the details as to his having actually set footupon it were added later. That does not seem to me important in so faras it concerns Columbus. Whether it were true or not, the man obviouslybelieved it; and to the mind of Columbus, possessed with an idea and ablind faith in something which could not be seen, the whole incidentwould appear in the light of a supernatural sign. The bit of paper orparchment with the rude drawing on it, even although it were the drawingof a thing imagined and not of a thing seen, would still have for him akind of authority that he would find it hard to ignore. It seemsunnecessary to disbelieve this story. It is obviously absurd to regardit as the sole origin of Columbus's great idea; it probably belongs tothat order of accidents, small and unimportant in themselves, which areso often associated with the beginnings of mighty events. Walking on theshore at Madeira or Porto Santo, his mind brooding on the great andgrowing idea, Columbus would remember one or two other instances which, in the light of his growing conviction and know ledge, began to take on asignificant hue. He remembered that his wife's relative, Pedro Correa, who had come back from Porto Santo while Columbus was living in Lisbon, had told him about some strange flotsam that came in upon the shores ofthe island. He had seen a piece of wood of a very dark colour curiouslycarved, but not with any tool of metal; and some great canes had alsocome ashore, so big that, every joint would hold a gallon of wine. Thesecanes, which were utterly unlike any thing known in Europe or the islandsof the Atlantic, had been looked upon as such curiosities that they hadbeen sent to the King at Lisbon, where they remained, and where Columbushimself afterwards saw them. Two other stories, which he heard also atthis time, went to strengthen his convictions. One was the tale ofMartin Vincenti, a pilot in the Portuguese Navy, who had found in thesea, four hundred and twenty leagues to the west of Cape St. Vincent, another piece of wood, curiously carved, that had evidently not beenlaboured with an iron instrument. Columbus also remembered that theinhabitants of the Azores had more than once found upon their coasts thetrunks of huge pine-trees, and strangely shaped canoes carved out ofsingle logs; and, most significant of all, the people of Flares had takenfrom the water the bodies of two dead men, whose faces were of a strangebroad shape, and whose features differed from those of any known race ofmankind. All these objects, it was supposed, were brought by westerlywinds to the shores of Europe; it was not till long afterwards, when thecurrents of the Atlantic came to be studied, that the presence of suchflotsam came to be attributed to the ocean currents, deflected by theCape of Good Hope and gathered in the Gulf of Mexico, which are sprayedout across the Atlantic. 

The idea once fixed in his mind that there was land at a not impossibledistance to the west, and perhaps a sea-road to the shores of Asiaitself, the next thing to be done, was to go and discover it. Rather aformidable task for a man without money, a foreigner in a strangeland, among people who looked down upon him because of his obscure birth, and with no equipment except a knowledge of the sea, a great mastery ofthe art and craft of seamanship, a fearless spirit of adventure, and aninner light! Some one else would have to be convinced before anythingcould be done; somebody who would provide ships and men and money andprovisions. Altogether rather a large order; for it was not an unusualthing in those days for master mariners, tired of the shore, to suggestto some grandee or other the desirability of fitting out a ship or two togo in search of the isle of St. Brandon, or to look up Antilia, or theisland of the Seven Cities. It was very hard to get an audience even forsuch a reasonable scheme as that; but to suggest taking a flotillastraight out to the west and into the Sea of Darkness, down that curvinghill of the sea which it might be easy enough to slide down, but up whichit was known that no ship could ever climb again, was a thing that hardlyany serious or well-informed person would listen to. A young man fromGenoa, without a knowledge either of the classics or of the Fathers, andwith no other argument except his own fixed belief and some vague talkabout bits of wood and shipwrecked mariners, was not the person toinspire the capitalists of Portugal. Yet the thing had to be done. Obviously it could not be done at Porto Santo, where there were no shipsand no money. Influence must be used; and Columbus knew that hisproposals, if they were to have even a chance of being listened to, mustbe presented in some high-flown and elaborate form, giving reasons andoffering inducements and quoting authorities. He would have to get someone to help him in that; he would have to get up some scientific facts;his brother Bartholomew could help him, and some of those disagreeablerelatives-in-law must also be pressed into the service of the Idea. Obviously the first thing was to go back to Lisbon; which accordinglyColumbus did, about the year 1483. 

CHAPTER IX

WANDERINGS WITH AN IDEA

The man to whom Columbus proposed to address his request for means withwhich to make a voyage of discovery was no less a person than the newKing of Portugal. Columbus was never a man of petty or small ideas; ifhe were going to do a thing at all, he went about it in a large andcomprehensive way; and all his life he had a way of going to thefountainhead, and of making flights and leaps where other men would onlyclimb or walk, that had much to do with his ultimate success. King John, moreover, had shown himself thoroughly sympathetic to the spirit ofdiscovery; Columbus, as we have seen, had already been employed in atrusted capacity in one of the royal expeditions; and he rightly thoughtthat, since he had to ask the help of some one in his enterprise, hemight as well try to enlist the Crown itself in the service of his greatIdea. He was not prepared, however, to go directly to the King and askfor ships; his proposal would have to be put in a way that would appealto the royal ambition, and would also satisfy the King that there wasreally a destination in view for the expedition. In other words Columbushad to propose to go somewhere; it would not do to say that he was goingwest into the Atlantic Ocean to look about him. He therefore devoted allhis energies to putting his proposal on what is called a businessfooting, and expressing his vague, sublime Idea in common and practicalterms. 

The people who probably helped him most in this were his brotherBartholomew and Martin Behaim, the great authority on scientificnavigation, who had been living in Lisbon for some time and with whomColumbus was acquainted. Behaim, who was at this time about forty eightyears of age, was born at Nuremberg, and was a pupil of Regiomontanus, the great German astronomer. A very interesting man, this, if we coulddecipher his features and character; no mere star-gazing visionary, but aman of the world, whose scientific lore was combined with a wide andliberal experience of life. He was not only learned in cosmography andastronomy, but he had a genius for mechanics and made beautifulinstruments; he was a merchant also, and combined a little business withhis scientific travels. He had been employed at Lisbon in adapting theastrolabe of Regiomontanus for the use of sailors at sea; and in theselabours he was assisted by two people who were destined to have a weightyinfluence on the career of Columbus--Doctors Rodrigo and Joseph, physicians or advisers to the King, and men of great academic reputation. There was nothing known about cosmography or astronomy that Behaim didnot know; and he had just come back from an expedition on which he hadbeen despatched, with Rodrigo and Joseph, to take the altitude of the sunin Guinea. 

Columbus was not the man to neglect his opportunities, and there can beno doubt that as soon as his purpose had established itself in his mindhe made use of every opportunity that presented itself for improving hismeagre scientific knowledge, in order that his proposal might be setforth in a plausible form. In other words, he got up the subject. Thewhole of his geographical reading with regard to the Indies up to thistime had been in the travels of Marco Polo; the others--whose works hequoted from so freely in later years were then known to him only by name, if at all. Behaim, however, could tell him a good deal about thesupposed circumference of the earth, the extent of the Asiatic continent, and so on. Every new fact that Columbus heard he seized and pressed intothe service of his Idea; where there was a choice of facts, or adifference of opinion between scientists, he chose the facts that weremost convenient, and the opinions that fitted best with his own beliefs. The very word "Indies" was synonymous with unbounded wealth; therecertainly would be riches to tempt the King with; and Columbus, being areligious man, hit also on the happy idea of setting forth the spiritualglory of carrying the light of faith across the Sea of Darkness, andmaking of the heathen a heritage for the Christian Church. So that, whatwith one thing and another, he soon had his proposals formally arranged. 

Imagine him, then, actually at Court, and having an audience of the King, who could scarcely believe his ears. Here was a man, of whom he knewnothing but that his conduct of a caravel had been well spoken of in therecent expedition to Guinea, actually proposing to sail out west into theAtlantic and to cross the unknown part of the world. Certainly hisproposals seemed plausible, but still--. The earth was round, saidColumbus, and therefore there was a way from East to West and from Westto East. The prophet Esdras, a scientific authority that even HisMajesty would hardly venture to doubt, had laid it down that onlyone-seventh of the earth was covered by waters. From this fact Columbusdeduced that the maritime space extending westward between the shores ofEurope and eastern coast of Asia could not be large; and by sailingwestward he proposed to reach certain lands of which he claimed to haveknowledge. The sailors' tales, the logs of driftwood, the dead bodies, were all brought into the proposals; in short, if His Majesty would grantsome ships, and consent to making Columbus Admiral over all the islandsthat he might discover, with full viceregal state, authority, and profit, he would go and discover them. 

There are two different accounts of what the King said when this proposalwas made to him. According to some authorities, John was impressed byColumbus's proposals, and inclined to provide him with the necessaryships, but he could not assent to all the titles and rewards whichColumbus demanded as a price for his services. Barros, the Portuguesehistorian, on the other hand, represents that the whole idea was toofantastic to be seriously entertained by the King for a moment, and thatalthough he at once made up his mind to refuse the request he preferredto delegate his refusal to a commission. Whatever may be the truth as toKing John's opinions, the commission was certainly appointed, andconsisted of three persons, to wit: Master Rodrigo, Master Joseph theJew, and the Right Reverend Cazadilla, Bishop of Ceuta. 

Before these three learned men must Columbus now appear, a little lesshappy in his mind, and wishing that he knew more Latin. Master Rodrigo, Master Joseph the Jew, the Right Reverend Cazadilla: three pairs of coldeyes turned rather haughtily on the Genoese adventurer; three brains muchsteeped in learning, directed in judgment on the Idea of a man with nolearning at all. The Right Reverend Cazadilla, being the King'sconfessor, and a bishop into the bargain, could speak on that matter ofconverting the heathen; and he was of opinion that it could not be done. Joseph the Jew, having made voyages, and worked with Behaim at theastrolabe, was surely an authority on navigation; and he was of opinionthat it could not be done. Rodrigo, being also a very learned man, hadread many books which Columbus had not read; and he was of opinion thatit could not be done. Three learned opinions against one Idea; the Ideais bound to go. They would no doubt question Columbus on the scientificaspect of the matter, and would soon discover his grievous lack ofacademic knowledge. They would quote fluently passages from writers thathe had not heard of; if he had not heard of them, they seemed to imply, no wonder he made such foolish proposals. Poor Columbus stands therepuzzled, dissatisfied, tongue-tied. He cannot answer these wiseacres intheir own learned lingo; what they say, or what they quote, may be trueor it may not; but it has nothing to do with his Idea. If he opens hismouth to justify himself, they refute him with arguments that he does notunderstand; there is a wall between them. More than a wall; there is aworld between them! It is his 'credo' against their 'ignoro'; it is, his'expecto' against their 'non video'. Yet in his 'credo' there lies apower of which they do not dream; and it rings out in a trumpet noteacross the centuries, saluting the life force that opposes itsirresistible "I will" to the feeble "Thou canst not" of the worldly-wise. Thus, in about the year 1483, did three learned men sit in judgment uponour ignorant Christopher. Three learned men: Doctors Rodrigo, Joseph theJew, and the Right Reverend Cazadilla, Bishop of Ceuta; three risen, stuffed to the eyes and ears with learning; stuffed so full indeed thateyes and ears are closed with it. And three men, it would appear, whollydestitute of mother-wit. 

After all his preparations this rebuff must have been a serious blow toColumbus. It was not his only trouble, moreover. During the last yearhe had been earning nothing; he was already in imagination the Admiral ofthe Ocean Seas; and in the anticipation of the much higher duties towhich he hoped to be devoted it is not likely that he would continue athis humble task of making maps and charts. The result was that he gotinto debt, and it was absolutely necessary that something should be done. But a darker trouble had also almost certainly come to him about thistime. Neither the day nor the year of Philippa's death is known;but it is likely that it occurred soon after Columbus's failure at thePortuguese Court, and immediately before his departure into Spain. Thatanonymous life, fulfilling itself so obscurely in companionship andmotherhood, as softly as it floated upon the page of history, as softlyfades from it again. Those kind eyes, that encouraging voice, thathelping hand and friendly human soul are with him no longer; and afterthe interval of peace and restful growth that they afforded Christophermust strike his tent and go forth upon another stage of his pilgrimagewith a heavier and sterner heart. 

Two things are left to him: his son Diego, now an articulate littlecreature with character and personality of his own, and with strange, heart-breaking reminiscences of his mother in voice and countenance andmanner--that is one possession; the other is his Idea. Two things aliveand satisfactory, amid the ruin and loss of other possessions; tworeasons for living and prevailing. And these two possessions Columbustook with him when he set out for Spain in the year 1485. 

His first care was to take little Diego to the town of Huelva, wherethere lived a sister of Philippa's who had married a Spaniard namedMuliartes. This done, he was able to devote himself solely to thefurtherance of his Idea. For this purpose he went to Seville, where heattached himself for a little while to a group of his countrymen who weresettled there, among them Antonio and Alessandro Geraldini, and made suchmomentary living as was possible to him by his old trade. But the Ideawould not sleep. He talked of nothing else; and as men do who talk of anidea that possesses them wholly, and springs from the inner light offaith, he interested and impressed many of his hearers. Some of themsuggested one thing, some another; but every one was agreed that it wouldbe a good thing if he could enlist the services of the great Count(afterwards Duke) of Medini Celi, who had a palace at Rota, near Cadiz. 

This nobleman was one of the most famous of the grandees of Spain, andlived in mighty state upon his territory along the sea-shore, serving theCrown in its wars and expeditions with the power and dignity of an allyrather than of a subject. His domestic establishment was on a princelyscale, filled with chamberlains, gentlemen-at-arms, knights, retainers, and all the panoply of social dignity; and there was also place in hishousehold for persons of merit and in need of protection. To this greatman came Columbus with his Idea. It attracted the Count, who was a judgeof men and perhaps of ideas also; and Columbus, finding some hope at lastin his attitude, accepted the hospitality offered to him, and remained atRota through the winter of 1485-86. He had not been very hopeful when hearrived there, and had told the Count that he had thought of going to theKing of France and asking for help from him; but the Count, who foundsomething respectable and worthy of consideration in the Idea of a manwho thought nothing of a journey in its service from one country toanother and one sovereign to another, detained him, and played with theIdea himself. Three or four caravels were nothing to the Count of MedinaEeli; but on the other hand the man was a grandee and a diplomat, with anice sense of etiquette and of what was due to a reigning house. Eitherthere was nothing in this Idea, in which case his caravels would beemployed to no purpose, or there was so much in it that it was anundertaking, not merely for the Count of Medina Celi, but for the Crownof Castile. Lands across the ocean, and untold gold and riches of theIndies, suggested complications with foreign Powers, and transactionswith the Pope himself, that would probably be a little too much even forthe good Count; therefore with a curious mixture of far-sightedgenerosity and shrewd security he wrote to Queen Isabella, recommendingColumbus to her, and asking her to consider his Idea; asking her also, in case anything should come of it, to remember him (the Count), and tolet him have a finger in the pie. Thus, with much literary circumstanceand elaboration of politeness, the Count of Medina Celi to QueenIsabella. 

Follows an interval of suspense, the beginning of a long discipline ofsuspense to which Columbus was to be subjected; and presently comes afavourable reply from the Queen, commanding that Columbus should be sentto her. Early in 1486 he set out for Cordova, where the Court was thenestablished, bearing another letter from the Count in which his ownprivate requests were repeated, and perhaps a little emphasised. Columbus was lodged in the house of Alonso de Quintanilla, Treasurer tothe Crown of Castile, there to await an audience with Queen Isabella. 

While he is waiting, and getting accustomed to his new surroundings, letus consider these two monarchs in whose presence he is soon to appear, and upon whose decision hangs some part of the world's destiny. Isabellafirst; for in that strange duet of government it is her womanly sopranothat rings most clearly down the corridors of Time. We discern in her avery busy woman, living a difficult life with much tact and judgment, andexercising to some purpose that amiable taste for "doing good" that marksthe virtuous lady of station in every age. This, however, was a womanwho took risks with her eyes open, and steered herself cleverly inperilous situations, and guided others with a firm hand also, and inother ways made good her claim to be a ruler. The consent and the willof her people were her great strength; by them she dethroned her nieceand ascended the throne of Castile. She had the misfortune to be atvariance with her husband in almost every matter of policy dear to hisheart; she opposed the expulsion of the Jews and the establishment of theInquisition; but when she failed to get her way, she was still able topreserve her affectionate relations with her husband without disagreementand with happiness. If she had a fault it was the common one of beingtoo much under the influence of her confessors; but it was a fault thatwas rarely allowed to disturb the balance of her judgment. She likedclever people also; surrounded herself with men of letters and ofscience, fostered all learned institutions, and delighted in the detailsof civil administration. A very dignified and graceful figure, thatcould equally adorn a Court drawing-room or a field of battle; for sheactually went into the field, and wore armour as becomingly as silk andermine. Firm, constant, clever, alert, a little given to fussinessperhaps, but sympathetic and charming, with some claims to genius andsome approach to grandeur of soul: so much we may say truly of her innerself. Outwardly she was a woman well formed, of medium height, a verydignified and graceful carriage, eyes of a clear summer blue, and the redand gold of autumn in her hair--these last inherited from her Englishgrandmother. 

Ferdinand of Aragon appears not quite so favourably in our pages, for henever thought well of Columbus or of his proposals; and when he finallyconsented to the expedition he did so with only half a heart, and againsthis judgment. He was an extremely enterprising, extremely subtle, extremely courageous, and according to our modern notions, an extremelydishonest man; that is to say, his standards of honour were not thosewhich we can accept nowadays. He thought nothing of going back on apromise, provided he got a priestly dispensation to do so; he juggledwith his cabinets, and stopped at nothing in order to get his way; he hada craving ambition, and was lacking in magnanimity; he loved dominion, and cared very little for glory. A very capable man; so capable that inspite of his defects he was regarded by his subjects as wise and prudent;so capable that he used his weaknesses of character to strengthen andfurther the purposes of his reign. A very cold man also, quick and surein his judgments, of wide understanding and grasp of affairs; simple andaustere in dress and diet, as austerity was counted in that period ofsplendour; extremely industrious, and close in his observations andjudgments of men. To the bodily eye he appeared as a man of middle size, sturdy and athletic, face burned a brick red with exposure to the sun andopen air; hair and eyebrows of a bright chestnut; a well-formed and notunkindly mouth; a voice sharp and unmelodious, issuing in quick fluentspeech. This was the man that earned from the Pope, for himself and hissuccessors, the title of "Most Catholic Majesty. "

The Queen was very busy indeed with military preparations; but in themidst of her interviews with nobles and officers, contractors and stateofficials, she snatched a moment to receive the person ChristopherColumbus. With that extreme mental agility which is characteristic ofbusy sovereigns all the force of this clever woman's mind was turned fora moment on Christopher, whose Idea had by this time invested him with adignity which no amount of regal state could abash. There was verylittle time. The Queen heard what Columbus had to say, cutting himshort, it is likely, with kindly tact, and suppressing his tendency tolaunch out into long-winded speeches. What she saw she liked; and, beingtoo busy to give to this proposal the attention that it obviouslymerited, she told Columbus that the matter would be fully gone into andthat in the meantime he must regard himself as the guest of the Court. And so, in the countenance of a smile and a promise, Columbus bowshimself out. For the present he must wait a little and his hot heartmust contain itself while other affairs, looming infinitely larger thanhis Idea on the royal horizon, receive the attention of the Court. 

It was not the happiest moment, indeed, in which to talk of ships andcharts, and lonely sea-roads, and faraway undiscovered shores. Things athome were very real and lively in those spring days at Cordova. The waragainst the Moors had reached a critical stage; King Ferdinand was awaylaying siege to the city of Loxa, and though the Queen was at Cordova shewas entirely occupied with the business of collecting and forwardingtroops and supplies to his aid. The streets were full of soldiers;nobles and grandees from all over the country were arriving daily withtheir retinues; glitter and splendour, and the pomp of warlikepreparation, filled the city. Early in June the Queen herself went tothe front and joined her husband in the siege of Moclin; and when thiswas victoriously ended, and they had returned in triumph to Cordova, theyhad to set out again for Gallicia to suppress a rebellion there. Whenthat was over they did not come back to Cordova at all, but repaired atonce to Salamanca to spend the winter there. 

At the house of Alonso de Quintanilla, however, Columbus was notaltogether wasting his time. He met there some of the great persons ofthe Court, among them the celebrated Pedro Gonzalez de Mendoza, Archbishop of Toledo and Grand Cardinal of Spain. This was far too greata man to be at this time anything like a friend of Columbus; but Columbushad been presented to him; the Cardinal would know his name, and what hisbusiness was; and that is always a step towards consideration. Cabrero, the royal Chamberlain, was also often a fellow-guest at the Treasurer'stable; and with him Columbus contracted something like a friendship. Every one who met him liked him; his dignity, his simplicity of thoughtand manner, his experience of the sea, and his calm certainty andconviction about the stupendous thing which he proposed to do, couldnot fail to attract the liking and admiration of those with whom he camein contact. In the meantime a committee appointed by the Queen sat uponhis proposals. The committee met under the presidentship of Hernando deTalavera, the prior of the monastery of Santa Maria del Prado, nearValladolid, a pious ecclesiastic, who had the rare quality of honesty, and who was therefore a favourite with Queen Isabella; she afterwardscreated him Archbishop of Granada. He was not, however, poor honestsoul! quite the man to grasp and grapple with this wild scheme for avoyage across the ocean. Once more Columbus, as in Portugal, set forthhis views with eloquence and conviction; and once more, at the tribunalof learning, his unlearned proposals were examined and condemned. Notonly was Columbus's Idea regarded as scientifically impossible, but itwas also held to come perilously near to heresy, in its assumption of astate of affairs that was clearly at variance with the writings of theFathers and the sacred Scriptures themselves. 

This new disappointment, bitter though it was, did not find Columbus insuch friendless and unhappy circumstances as those in which he leftPortugal. He had important friends now, who were willing and anxious tohelp him, and among them was one to whom he turned, in his profounddepression, for religious and friendly consolation. This was Diego deDEA, prior of the Dominican convent of San Estevan at Salamanca, who wasalso professor of theology in the university there and tutor to the youngPrince Juan. Of all those who came in contact with Columbus at this timethis man seems to have understood him best, and to have realised wherehis difficulty lay. Like many others who are consumed with a burningidea Columbus was very probably at this time in danger of becomingpossessed with it like a monomaniac; and his new friends saw that if hewere to make any impression upon the conservative learning of the time towhich a decision in such matters was always referred he must have someopportunity for friendly discussion with learned men who were notinimical to him, and who were not in the position of judges examining aman arraigned before them and pleading for benefits. 

When the Court went to Salamanca at the end of 1486, DEA arranged thatColumbus should go there too, and he lodged him in a country farm calledValcuebo, which belonged to his convent and was equi-distant from it andthe city. Here the good Dominican fathers came and visited him, bringingwith them professors from the university, who discussed patiently withColumbus his theories and ambitions, and, himself all conscious, communicated new knowledge to him, and quietly put him right on many ascientific point. There were professors of cosmography and astronomy inthe university, familiar with the works of Alfraganus and Regiomontanus. It is likely that it was at this time that Columbus became possessed ofd'Ailly's 'Imago Mundi', which little volume contained a popular resumeof the scientific views of Strabo, Pliny, Ptolemy, and others, and wasfrom this time forth Columbus's constant companion. 

Here at Valcuebo and later, when winter came, in the great hall of theDominican convent at Salamanca, known as the "De Profundis" hall, wherethe monks received guests and held discussions, the Idea of Columbus wasventilated and examined. He heard what friendly sceptics had to sayabout it; he saw the kind of argument that he would have to oppose to theexisting scientific and philosophical knowledge on cosmography. There isno doubt that he learnt a good deal at this time; and more important eventhan this, he got his project known and talked about; and he madepowerful friends, who were afterwards to be of great use to him. TheMarquesa de Moya, wife of his friend Cabrera, took a great liking to him;and as she was one of the oldest and closest friends of the Queen, it islikely that she spoke many a good word for Columbus in Isabella's ear. 

By the time the Court moved to Cordova early in 1487, Columbus was oncemore hopeful of getting a favourable hearing. He followed the Court toCordova, where he received a gracious message from the Queen to theeffect that she had not forgotten him, and that as soon as her militarypreoccupations permitted it, she would go once more, and more fully, intohis proposals. In the meantime he was attached to the Court, andreceived a quarterly payment of 3000 maravedis. It seemed as though theunfavourable decision of Talavera's committee had been forgotten. 

In the meantime he was to have a change of scene. Isabella followedFerdinand to the siege of Malaga, where the Court was established; and asthere were intervals in which other than military business might betransacted, Columbus was ordered to follow them in case his affairsshould come up for consideration. They did not; but the man himself hadan experience that may have helped to keep his thoughts from brooding toomuch on his unfulfilled ambition. Years afterwards, when far away onlonely seas, amid the squalor of a little ship and the staggering buffetsof a gale, there would surely sometimes leap into his memory a brightlycoloured picture of this scene in the fertile valley of Malaga: thesilken pavilions of the Court, the great encampment of nobility with itsarms and banners extending in a semicircle to the seashore, allglistening and moving in the bright sunshine. There was added excitementat this time at an attempt to assassinate Ferdinand and Isabella, afanatic Moor having crept up to one of the pavilions and aimed a blow attwo people whom he mistook for the King and Queen. They turned out to beDon Alvaro de Portugal, who was dangerously wounded, and Columbus'sfriend, the Marquesa de Moya, who was unhurt; but it was felt that theKing and Queen had had a narrow escape. The siege was raised on the 18thof August, and the sovereigns went to spend the winter at Zaragoza; andColumbus, once more condemned to wait, went back to Cordova. 

It was here that he contracted his second and, so far as we know, hislast romantic attachment. The long idle days of summer and autumn atCordova, empty of all serious occupation, gave nature an opportunity forindulging her passion for life and continuity. Among Christopher'sfriends at Cordova was the family of Arana, friendly hospitable souls, by some accounts noble and by others not noble, and certainly in somewhatpoor circumstances, who had welcomed him to their house, listened to hisplans with enthusiasm, and formed a life-long friendship with him. Threemembers of this family are known to us--two brothers, Diego and Pedro, both of whom commanded ships in Columbus's expeditions, and a sisterBeatriz. Columbus was now a man of six-and-thirty, while she was littlemore than a girl; he was handsome and winning, distinguished by thedaring and importance of his scheme, full of thrilling and romantic talkof distant lands; a very interesting companion, we may be sure. Nowonder she fell in love with Christopher; no wonder that he, feelinglonely and depressed by the many postponements of his suit at Court, andin need of sympathy and encouragement, fell in these blank summer daysinto an intimacy that flamed into a brief but happy passion. WhyColumbus never married Beatriz de Arana we cannot be sure, for it isalmost certain that his first wife had died some time before. Perhaps hefeared to involve himself in any new or embarrassing ties; perhaps heloved unwillingly, and against his reason; perhaps--although thesuggestion is not a happy one--he by this time did not think poor Beatrizgood enough for the Admiral-elect of the Ocean Seas; perhaps (and moreprobably) Beatriz was already married and deserted, for she bore thesurname of Enriquez; and in that case, there being no such thing as adivorce in the Catholic Church, she must either sin or be celibate. Buthowever that may be, there was an uncanonical alliance between them whichevidently did not in the least scandalise her brothers and which resultedin the birth of Ferdinand Columbus in the following year. Christopher, so communicative and discursive upon some of his affairs, is as reticentabout Beatriz as he was about Philippa. Beatriz shares with hislegitimate wife the curious distinction of being spoken of by Columbus toposterity only in his will, which was executed at Valladolid the daybefore he died. In the dry ink and vellum of that ancient legal documentis his only record of these two passions. The reference to Beatriz is asfollows:

 "And I direct him [Diego] to make provision for Beatriz Enriquez, mother of D. Fernando, my son, that she may be able to live honestly, being a person to whom I am under very great obligation. And this shall be done for the satisfaction of my conscience, because this matter weighs heavily upon my soul. The reason for which it is not fitting to write here. "

About the condition of Beatriz, temporal and spiritual, there has beenmuch controversy; but where the facts are all so buried and inaccessibleit is unseemly to agitate a veil which we cannot lift, and behind whichColumbus himself sheltered this incident of his life. "Acquainted withpoverty" is one fragment of fact concerning her that has come down to us;acquainted also with love and with happiness, it would seem, as many poorpersons undoubtedly are. Enough for us to know that in the city ofCordova there lived a woman, rich or poor, gentle or humble, married ornot married, who brought for a time love and friendly companionship intothe life of Columbus; that she gave what she had for giving, withoutstint or reserve, and that she became the mother of a son who inheritedmuch of what was best in his father, and but for whom the world would bein even greater darkness than it is on the subject of Christopherhimself. And so no more of Beatriz Enriquez de Arana, whom "God has inhis keeping"--and has had now these many centuries of Time. 

Thus passed the summer and autumn of 1487; precious months, preciousyears slipping by, and the great purpose as yet unfulfilled and seeminglyno nearer to fulfilment. It is likely that Columbus kept up hisapplications to the Court, and received polite and delaying replies. The next year came, and the Court migrated from Zaragoza to Murcia, fromMurcia to Valladolid, from Valladolid to Medina del Campo. Columbusattended it in one or other of these places, but without result. InAugust Beatriz gave birth to a son, who was christened Ferdinand, and wholived to be a great comfort to his father, if not to her also. But themiracle of paternity was not now so new and wonderful as it had been; thebattle of life, with its crosses and difficulties, was thick about him;and perhaps he looked into this new-comer's small face with conflictingthoughts, and memories of the long white beach and the crashing surf atPorto Santo, and regret for things lost--so strangely mingled andinconsistent are the threads of human thought. At last he decided toturn his face elsewhere. In September 1488 he went to Lisbon, for whatpurpose it is not certain; possibly in connection with the affairs of hisdead wife; and probably also in the expectation of seeing his brotherBartholomew, to whom we may now turn our attention for a moment. 

After the failure of Columbus's proposals to the King of Portugal in1486, and the break-up of his home there, Bartholomew had also leftLisbon. Bartholomew Diaz, a famous Portuguese navigator, was leaving forthe African coast in August, and Bartholomew Columbus is said to havejoined his small expedition of three caravels. As they neared thelatitude of the Cape which he was trying to make, he ran into a galewhich drove him a long way out of his course, west and south. 

The wind veered round from north-east to north-west, and he did notstrike the land again until May 1487. When he did so his crew insistedupon his returning, as they declined to go any further south. Hetherefore turned to the west, and then made the startling discovery thatin the course of the tempest he had been blown round the Cape, and thatthe land he had made was to the eastward of it; and he therefore roundedit on his way home. He arrived back in Lisbon in December 1488, whenColumbus met his brother again, and was present at the reception of Diazby the King of Portugal. They had a great deal to tell each other, thesetwo brothers; in the two years and a half that had gone since they hadparted a great deal had happened to them; and they both knew a good dealmore about the great question in which they, were interested than theyhad known when last they talked. 

It is to this period that I attribute the inception, if not theexecution, of the forgery of the Toscanelli correspondence, if, as Ibelieve, it was a forgery. Christopher's unpleasant experiences beforelearned committees and commissions had convinced him that unless he werearmed with some authoritative and documentary support for his theoriesthey had little chance of acceptance by the learned. The, Idea wasright; he knew that; but before he could convince the academic mind, hefelt that it must have the imprimatur of a mind whose learning could notbe impugned. Therefore it is not an unfair guess--and it can be nothingmore than a guess--that Christopher and Bartholomew at this point laidtheir heads together, and decided that the next time Christopher had toappear before a commission he would, so to speak, have something "up hissleeve. " It was a risky thing to do, and must in any case be used onlyas a very last resource; which would account for the fact that theToscanelli correspondence was never used at all, and is not mentioned inany document known to men written until long after Columbus's death. 

But these summers and winters of suspense are at last drawing to a close, and we must follow Christopher rapidly through them until the hour of histriumph. He was back in Spain in the spring of 1489, his travellingexpenses being defrayed out of the royal purse; and a little later he wasonce more amid scenes of war at the siege of Baza, and, if report istrue, taking a hand himself, not without distinction. It was there thathe saw the two friars from the convent of the Holy Sepulchre atJerusalem, who brought a message from the Grand Soldan of Egypt, threatening the destruction of the Sepulchre if the Spanish sovereignsdid not desist from the war against Granada; and it was there that in hissimple and pious mind he formed the resolve that if ever his effortsshould be crowned with success, and he himself become rich and powerful, he would send a crusade for the rescue of the Holy Sepulchre. And it wasthere that, on the 22nd of December, he saw Boabdil, the elder of the tworival Kings of Granada, surrender all his rights and claims to Spain. Surely now there will be a chance for him? No; there is anotherinterruption, this time occasioned by the royal preparations for themarriage of the Princess Isabella to the heir of Portugal. PoorColumbus, sickened and disappointed by these continual delays, irritatedby a sense of the waste of his precious time, follows the Court aboutfrom one place to another, raising a smile here and a scoff there, andpointed at by children in the street. There, is nothing so ludicrous asan Idea to those who do not share it. 

Another summer, another winter, lost out of a life made up of a limitednumber of summers and winters; a few more winters and summers, thinksChristopher, and I shall be in a world where Ideas are not needed, andwhere there is nothing left to discover! Something had to be done. Inthe beginning of 1491 there was only one thing spoken of at Court--thepreparations for the siege of Granada, which did not interest Columbus atall. The camp of King Ferdinand was situated at Santa Fe, a few miles tothe westward of Granada, and Columbus came here late in the year, determined to get a final answer one way or the other to his question. He made his application, and the busy monarchs once more adopted theirusual polite tactics. They appointed a junta, which was presided over byno less a person than the Cardinal of Spain, Gonzales de Mendoza: Oncemore the weary business was gone through, but Columbus must have had somehopes of success, since he did not produce his forged Toscanellicorrespondence. It was no scruple of conscience that held him back, wemay be sure; the crafty Genoese knew nothing about such scruples in theattainment of a great object; he would not have hesitated to adopt anymeans to secure an end which he felt to be so desirable. So it isprobable that either he was not quite sure of his ground and his couragefailed him, or that he had hopes, owing to his friendship with so many ofthe members of the junta, that a favourable decision would at last bearrived at. In this he was mistaken. The Spanish prelates again quotedthe Fathers of the Church, and disposed of his proposals simply on theground that they were heretical. Much talk, and much wagging of learnedheads; and still no mother-wit or gleam of light on this obscurity oflearning. The junta decided against the proposals, and reported itsdecision to the King and Queen. The monarchs, true to their somewhathedging methods when there was anything to be gained by hedging, informedColumbus that at present they were too much occupied with the war togrant his requests; but that, when the preoccupations and expenses of thecampaign were a thing of the past, they might again turn their attentionto his very interesting suggestion. 

It was at this point that the patience of Columbus broke down. Too manypromises had been made to him, and hope had been held out to him toooften for him to believe any more in it. Spain, he decided, was useless;he would try France; at least he would be no worse off there. But he hadfirst of all to settle his affairs as well as possible. Diego, now agrowing boy nearly eleven years old, had been staying with Beatriz atCordova, and going to school there; Christopher would take him back tohis aunt's at Huelva before he went away. He set out with a heavy heart, but with purpose and determination unimpaired. 

CHAPTER X

OUR LADY OF LA RABIDA

It is a long road from Santa Fe to Huelva, a long journey to make onfoot, and the company of a sad heart and a little talking boy, prone tosudden weariness and the asking of innumerable difficult questions, wouldnot make it very much shorter. Every step that Christopher took carriedhim farther away from the glittering scene where his hopes had once beenso bright, and were now fallen to the dust; and every step brought himnearer that unknown destiny as to which he was in great darkness of mind, and certain only that there was some small next thing constantly to bedone: the putting down of one foot after another, the request for foodand lodging at the end of each short day's march, the setting out againin the morning. That walk from Santa Fe, so real and painful andwearisome and long a thing to Christopher and Diego, is utterly blank andobliterated for us. What he thought and felt and suffered are thingsquite dead; what he did-namely, to go and do the immediate thing that itseemed possible and right for him to do--is a living fact to-day, for itbrought him, as all brave and honest doing will, a little nearer to hisdestiny, a little nearer to the truthful realisation of what was in him. 

At about a day's journey from Huelva, where the general slope of the landbegins to fall towards the sea, two small rivers, the Odiel and theTinto, which have hitherto been making music each for itself through thepleasant valleys and vineyards of Andalusia, join forces, and run with adeeper stream towards the sea at Palos. The town of Palos lay on thebanks of the river; a little to the south of it, and on the brow of arocky promontory dark with pine trees, there stood the convent of OurLady of La Rabida. Stood, on this November evening in the year 1491;had stood in some form or other, and used for varying purposes, for manyyears and centuries before that, even to the time of the Romans; andstill stands, a silent and neglected place, yet to be visited and seen bysuch as are curious. To the door of this place comes Christopher asdarkness falls, urged thereto by the plight of Diego, who is tired andhungry. Christopher rings the bell, and asks the porter for a littlebread and water for the child, and a lodging for them both. There issome talk at the door; the Franciscan lay brother being given, at alltimes in the history of his order, to the pleasant indulgence ofgossiping conversation, when that is lawful; and the presence of astranger, who speaks with a foreign accent, being at all times a incidentof interest and even of excitement in the quiet life of a monastery. Themoment is one big with import to the human race; it marks a period in thehistory of our man; the scene is worth calling up. Dark night, with seabreezes moaning in the pine trees, outside; raying light from withinfalling on the lay brother leaning in the doorway and on the two figuresstanding without: on Christopher, grave, subdued, weary, yet now asalways of pleasant and impressive address, and on the small boy whostands beside him round-eyed and expectant, his fatigue for the momentforgotten in curiosity and anticipation. 

While they are talking comes no less a person than the Prior of themonastery, Friar Juan Perez, bustling round, good-natured busybody thathe is, to see what is all this talk at the door. The Prior, as is thehabit of monks, begins by asking questions. What is the stranger's name?Where does he come from? Where is he going to? What is his business?Is the little boy his son? He has actually come from Santa Fe? ThePrior, loving talk after the manner of his kind, sees in this grave andsmooth-spoken stranger rich possibilities of talk; possibilities thatcannot possibly be exhausted to-night, it being now hard on the hour ofCompline; the stranger must come in and rest for tonight at least, andpossibly for several nights. There is much bustle and preparation; thetravellers are welcomed with monkish hospitality; Christopher, we may besure, goes and hears the convent singing Compline, and offers up devoutprayers for a quiet night and for safe conduct through this vale oftears; and goes thankfully to bed with the plainsong echoing in his ears, and some stoic sense that all days, however hard, have an evening, andall journeys an end. 

Next morning the talk begins in earnest, and Christopher, never a veryreserved man, finds in the friendly curiosity of the monks abundantencouragement to talk; and before very long he is in full swing with hisoft-told story. The Prior is delighted with it; he has not heardanything so interesting for a long time. Moreover, he has not alwaysbeen in a convent; he was not so long ago confessor to Queen Isabellaherself, and has much to communicate and ask concerning that lady. Columbus's proposal does not strike him as being unreasonable at all;but he has a friend in Palos, a very learned man indeed, Doctor GarciaHernandez, who often comes and has a talk with him; he knows all aboutastronomy and cosmography; the Prior will send for him. And meanwhilethere must be no word of Columbus's departure for a few days at any rate. 

Presently Doctor Garcia Hernandez arrives, and the whole story is goneover again. They go at it hammer and tongs, arguments andcounter-arguments, reasons for and against, encouragements, andobjections. The result is that Doctor Garcia Hernandez, whose learningseems not yet quite to have blinded or deafened him, thinks well of thescheme; thinks so well of it that he protests it will be a thousandpities if the chance of carrying it out is lost to Spain. The worthyPrior, who has been somewhat out of it while the talk about degrees andlatitudes has been going on, here strikes in again; he will use hisinfluence. Perhaps the good man, living up here among the pine treesand the sea winds, and involved in the monotonous round of Prime, Lauds, Nones, Vespers, has a regretful thought or two of the time when he movedin the splendid intricacy of Court life; at any rate he is not sorry tohave an opportunity of recalling himself to the attention of HerMajesty, for the spiritual safety of whose soul he was once responsible;perhaps, being (in spite of his Nones and Vespers) a human soul, he isglad of an opportunity of opposing the counsels of his successor, Talavera. In a word, he will use his Influence. Then follow muchdrafting of letters, and laying of heads together, and clatter ofmonkish tongues; the upshot of which is that a letter is written inwhich Perez urges his daughter in the Lord in the strongest possibleterms not to let slip so glorious an opportunity, not only of fame andincrement to her kingdom, but of service to the Church and the kingdomof Heaven itself. He assures her that Columbus is indeed about todepart from the country, but that he (Perez) will detain him at LaRabida until he has an answer from the Queen. 

A messenger to carry the letter was found in the person of SebastianRodriguez, a pilot of the port, who immediately set off to Santa Fe. It is not likely that Columbus, after so many rebuffs, was very hopeful;but in the meantime, here he was amid the pious surroundings in which thereligious part of him delighted, and in a haven of rest after all histurmoils and trials. He could look out to sea over the flecked waters ofthat Atlantic whose secrets he longed to discover; or he could look downinto the busy little port of Palos, and watch the ships sailing in andout across the bar of Saltes. He could let his soul, much battered andtorn of late by trials and disappointments, rest for a time on the rockof religion; he could snuff the incense in the chapel to his heart'scontent, and mingle his rough top-gallant voice with the harsh croak ofthe monks in the daily cycle of prayer and praise. He could walk withDiego through the sandy roads beneath the pine trees, or through thefields and vineyards below; and above all he could talk to the companythat good Perez invited to meet him--among them merchants and sailorsfrom Palos, of whom the chief was Martin Alonso Pinzon, a wealthylandowner and navigator, whose family lived then at Palos, owning thevineyards round about, and whose descendants live there to this day. Pinzon was a listener after Columbus's own heart; he not only believed inhis project, but offered to assist it with money, and even to accompanythe expedition himself. Altogether a happy and peaceful time, in whichhopes revived, and the inner light that, although it had now and thenflickered, had never gone out, burned up again in a bright and steadyflame. 

At the end of a fortnight, and much sooner than had been expected, theworthy pilot returned with a letter from the Queen. Eager hands seizedit and opened it; delight beamed from the eyes of the good Prior. TheQueen was most cordial to him, thanked him for his intervention, wasready to listen to him and even to be convinced by him; and in themeantime commanded his immediate appearance at the Court, asking thatColumbus would be so good as to wait at La Rabida until he should hearfurther from her. Then followed such a fussing and fuming, such arunning hither and thither, and giving and taking of instructions andclatter of tongues as even the convent of La Rabida had probably neverknown. Nothing will serve the good old busybody, although it is now nearmidnight, but that he must depart at once. He will not wait fordaylight; he will not, the good honest soul! wait at all. He must be offat once; he must have this, he must have that; he will take this, hewill leave that behind; or no, he will take that, and leave this behind. He must have a mule, for his old feet will not bear him fast enough;ex-confessors of Her Majesty, moreover, do not travel on foot; and aftermore fussing and running hither and thither a mule is borrowed from oneJuan Rodriguez Cabezudo of Moguer; and with a God-speed from the groupstanding round the lighted doorway, the old monk sets forth into thenight. 

It is a strange thing to consider what unimportant flotsam sometimesfloats visibly upon the stream of history, while the gravest events aresunk deep beneath its flood. We would give a king's ransom to knowevents that must have taken place in any one of twenty years in the lifeof Columbus, but there is no sign of them on the surface of the stream, nor will any fishing bring them to light. Yet here, bobbing up like acork, comes the name of Juan Rodriguez Cabezudo of Moguer, doubtless agood worthy soul, but, since he has been dead these four centuries andmore, of no interest or importance to any human being; yet of whose lifeone trivial act, surviving the flood of time which has engulfed all elsethat he thought important, falls here to be recorded: that he did, towards midnight of a day late in December 1491 lend a mule to Friar JuanPerez. 

Of that heroic mule journey we have no record; but it brought resultsenough to compensate the good Prior for all his aching bones andrheumatic joints. He was welcomed by the Queen, who had never quite losther belief in Columbus, but who had hitherto deferred to the apathy ofFerdinand and the disapproval--of her learned advisers. Now, however, the matter was reopened. She, who sometimes listened to priests withresults other than good, heard this worthy priest to good purpose. Thefeminine friends of Columbus who remembered him at Court also spoke upfor him, among them the Marquesa de Moya, with whom he had always been afavourite; and it was decided that his request should be granted andthree vessels equipped for the expedition, "that he might go and makediscoveries and prove true the words he had spoken. "--Moreover, themachinery that had been so hard to move before, turned swiftly now. Diego Prieto, one of the magistrates of Palos, was sent to Columbus at LaRabida, bearing 20, 000 maravedis with which he was to buy a mule anddecent clothing for himself, and repair immediately to the Court at SantaFe. Old Perez was in high feather, and busy with his pen. He wrote toDoctor Garcia Hernandez, and also to Columbus, in whose letter thefollowing pleasant passage occurs:

 "Our Lord has listened to the prayers of His servant. The wise and virtuous Isabella, touched by the grace of Heaven, gave a favourable hearing to the words of this poor monk. All has turned out well. Far from despising your project, she has adopted it from this time, and she has summoned you to Court to propose the means which seem best to you for the execution of the designs of Providence. My heart swims in a sea of comfort, and my spirit leaps with joy in the Lord. Start at once, for the Queen waits for you, and I much more than she. Commend me to the prayers of my brethren, and of your little Diego. The grace of God be with you, and may Our Lady of La Rabida accompany you. "

The news of that day must have come upon Columbus like a burst ofsunshine after rain. I like to think how bright must have seemed to himthe broad view of land and sea, how deeply the solemn words of the lastoffice which he attended must have sunk into his soul, how great and glada thing life must have been to him, and how lightly the miles must havepassed beneath the feet of his mule as he jogged out on the long road toSanta Fe. 

CHAPTER XI

THE CONSENT OF SPAIN

Once more; in the last days of the year 1491, Columbus rode into thebrilliant camp which he had quitted a few weeks before with so heavy aheart. Things were changed now. Instead of being a suitor, making anuisance of himself, and forcing his affairs on the attention ofunwilling officials, he was now an invited and honoured guest; much morethan that, he was in the position of one who believed that he had a greatservice to render to the Crown, and who was at last to be permitted torender it. 

Even now, at the eleventh hour, there was one more brief interruption. On the 1st of January 1492 the last of the Moorish kings sent in hissurrender to King Ferdinand, whom he invited to come and take possessionof the city of Granada; and on the next day the Spanish army marched intothat city, where, in front of the Alhambra, King Ferdinand received thekeys of the castle and the homage of the Moorish king. The wars of eightcenturies were at an end, and the Christian banner of Spain floated atlast over the whole land. Victory and success were in the air, and thehumble Genoese adventurer was to have his share in them. Negotiations ofa practical nature were now begun; old friends--Talavera, Luis deSantangel, and the Grand Cardinal himself--were all brought intoconsultation with the result that matters soon got to the documentarystage. Here, however, there was a slight hitch. It was not simply amatter of granting two, or three ships. The Genoese was making abargain, and asking an impossible price. Even the great grandees andCourt officials, accustomed to the glitter and dignity of titles, rubbedtheir eyes with astonishment, when they saw what Columbus was demanding. He who had been suing for privileges was now making conditions. And whatconditions! He must be created Admiral of all the Ocean Seas and of thenew lands, with equal privileges and prerogatives as those appertainingto the High Admiral of Castile, the supreme naval officer of Spain. Not content with sea dignities, he was also to be Viceroy andGovernor-General in all islands or mainlands that he might acquire; hewanted a tenth part of the profits resulting from his discoveries, inperpetuity; and he must have the permanent right of contributing aneighth part of the cost of the equipment and have an additional eighthpart of the profits; and all his heirs and descendants for ever were tohave the same privileges. These conditions were on such a scale as nosovereign could readily approve. Columbus's lack of pedigree, and thefact also that he was a foreigner, made them seem the more preposterous;for although he might receive kindness and even friendship from some ofthe grand Spaniards with whom he associated, that friendship andkindness were given condescendingly and with a smile. He was delightfulwhen he was merely proposing as a mariner to confer additional grandeurand glory on the Crown; but when it came to demanding titles andprivileges which would make him rank with the highest grandees in, theland, the matter took on quite a different colour. It was nonsense; itcould not be allowed; and many were the friendly hints that Columbusdoubtless received at this time to relinquish his wild demands and notto overreach himself. 

But to the surprise and dismay of his friends, who really wished him tohave a chance of distinguishing himself, and were shocked at theimpediments he was now putting in his own way, the man from Genoa stoodfirm. What he proposed to do, he said, was worthy of the rewards that heasked; they were due to the importance and grandeur of his scheme, and soon. Nor did he fail to point out that the bestowal of them was a matteraltogether contingent on results; if there were no results, there wouldbe no rewards; if there were results, they would be worthy of therewards. This action of Columbus's deserves close study. He had come toa turning-point in his life. He had been asking, asking, asking, for sixyears; he had been put off and refused over and over again; people werebeginning to laugh at him for a madman; and now, when a combination oflucky chances had brought him to the very door of success, he stoodoutside the threshold bargaining for a preposterous price before he wouldcome in. It seemed like the densest stupidity. What is the explanationof it?

The only explanation of it is to be found in the character of Columbus. We must try to see him as he is in this forty-second year of his life, bargaining with notaries, bishops, and treasurers; we must try to seewhere these forty years have brought him, and what they have made of him. Remember the little boy that played in the Vico Dritto di Ponticello, acquainted with poverty, but with a soul in him that could rise beyond itand acquire something of the dignity of that Genoa, arrogant, splendidand devout, which surrounded him during his early years. Remember hislong life of obscurity at sea, and the slow kindling of the light offaith in something beyond the familiar horizons; remember the socialinequality of his marriage, his long struggle with poverty, his longfamiliarity with the position of one who asked and did not receive; themany rebuffs and indignities which his Ligurian pride must have receivedat the hands of all those Spanish dignitaries and grandees--remember allthis, and then you will perhaps not wonder so much that Columbus, who wasbeginning to believe himself appointed by Heaven to this task ofdiscovery, felt that he had much to pay himself back for. One mustrecognise him frankly for what he was, and for no conventional hero ofromance; a man who would reconcile his conscience with anything, andwould stop at nothing in the furtherance of what he deemed a good object;and a man at the same time who had a conscience to reconcile, and would, whenever it was necessary, laboriously and elaborately perform the act ofreconciliation. When he made these huge demands in Granada he wasgambling with his chances; but he was a calculating gambler, just aboutas cunning and crafty in the weighing of one chance against another as agambler with a conscience can be; and he evidently realised that his ownvaluation of the services he proposed to render would not be without itsinfluence on his sovereign's estimate of them. At any rate he wasjustified by the results, for on the 17th of April 1492, after a deal oftalk and bargaining, but apparently without any yielding on Columbus'spart, articles of capitulation were drawn up in which the followingprovisions were made:--

First, that Columbus and his heirs for ever should have the title andoffice of Admiral in all the islands and continents of the ocean that heor they might discover, with similar honours and prerogatives to thoseenjoyed by the High Admiral of Castile. 

Second, that he and his heirs should be Viceroys and Governors-Generalover all the said lands and continents, with the right of nominatingthree candidates for the governing of each island or province, one ofwhom should be appointed by the Crown. 

Third, that he end his heirs should be entitled to one-tenth of allprecious stones, metals, spices, and other merchandises, howeveracquired, within his Admiralty, the cost of acquisition being firstdeducted. 

Fourth, that he or his lieutenants in their districts, and the HighAdmiral of Castile in his district, should be the sole judge in alldisputes arising out of traffic between Spain and the new countries. 

Fifth, that he now, and he and his heirs at all times, should have theright to contribute the eighth part of the expense of fitting outexpeditions, and receive the eighth part of the profits. 

In addition to these articles there was another document drawn up on the30th of April, which after an infinite preamble about the nature of theHoly Trinity, of the Apostle Saint James, and of the Saints of Godgenerally in their relations to Princes, and with a splendid trailing ofgorgeous Spanish names and titles across the page, confers upon ourhitherto humble Christopher the right to call himself "Don, " and finallyraises him, in his own estimation at any rate, to a social level with hisproud Spanish friends. It is probably from this time that he adopted theSpanish form of his name, Christoval Colon; but in this narrative I shallretain the more universal form in which it has become familiar to theEnglish-speaking world. 

He was now upon a Pisgah height, from which in imagination he could lookforth and see his Land of Promise. We also may climb up with him, andstand beside him as he looks westward. We shall not see so clearly as hesees, for we have not his inner light; and it is probable that even hedoes not see the road at all, but only the goal, a single point of lightshining across a gulf of darkness. But from Pisgah there is a viewbackward as well as forward, and, we may look back for a moment on thislast period of Christopher's life in Spain, inwardly to him so full oftrouble and difficulty and disappointment, outwardly so brave andglittering, musical with high-sounding names and the clash of arms; gaywith sun and shine and colour. The brilliant Court moving from camp tocamp with its gorgeous retinues and silken pavilions and uniforms anddresses and armours; the excitement of war, the intrigues of theantechamber--these are the bright fabric of the latter years; and againstit, as against a background, stand out the beautiful names of the Spanishassociates of Columbus at this time--Medina Celi, Alonso de Quintanilla, Cabrero, Arana, DEA, Hernando de Talavera, Gonzales de Mendoza, Alonso deCardenas, Perez, Hernandez, Luis de Santangel, and Rodriguez deMaldonado--names that now, in his hour of triumph, are like bannersstreaming in the wind against a summer sky. 

CHAPTER XII

THE PREPARATIONS AT PALOS

The Palos that witnessed the fitting out of the ships of Columbus existsno longer. The soul is gone from it; the trade that in those days madeit great and busy has floated away from it into other channels; and ithas dwindled and shrunk, until to-day it consists of nothing but a doublestreet of poor white houses, such almost as you may see in any sea-coastvillage in Ireland. The slow salt tides of the Atlantic come flooding inover the Manto bank, across the bar of Saltes, and, dividing at thetongue of land that separates the two rivers, creep up the mud banks ofthe Tinto and the Odiel until they lie deep beside the wharves of Huelvaand Palos; but although Huelva still has a trade the tides bring nothingto Palos, and take nothing away with them again. From La Rabida now youcan no longer see, as Columbus saw, fleets of caravels lying-to andstanding off and on outside the bar waiting for the flood tide; only afew poor boats fishing for tunny in the empty sunny waters, or the smokeof a steamer standing on her course for the Guadalquiver or Cadiz. 

But in those spring days of 1492 there was a great stir and bustle ofpreparation in Palos. As soon as the legal documents had been signedColumbus returned there and, taking up his quarters at La Rabida, setabout fitting out his expedition. The reason Palos was chosen was aneconomical one. The port, for some misdemeanour, had lately beencondemned to provide two caravels for the service of the Crown for aperiod of twelve months; and in the impoverished state of the royalexchequer this free service came in very usefully in fitting out theexpedition of discovery. Columbus was quite satisfied, since he had suchgood friends at Palos; and he immediately set about choosing the ships. 

This, however, did not prove to be quite such a straightforward businessas might have been expected. The truth is that, whatever a few monks andphysicians may have thought of it, the proposed expedition terrified theordinary seafaring population of Palos. It was thought to be the wildestand maddest scheme that any one had ever heard of. All that was knownabout the Atlantic west of the Azores was that it was a sea of darkness, inhabited by monsters and furrowed by enormous waves, and that it felldown the slope of the world so steeply that no ship having once gone downcould ever climb up it again. And not only was there reluctance on thepart of mariners to engage themselves for the expedition, but also agreat shyness on the part of ship-owners to provide ships. Thisreluctance proved so formidable an impediment that Columbus had tocommunicate with the King and Queen; with the result that on the 23rd ofMay the population was summoned to the church of Saint George, where theNotary Public read aloud to them the letter from the sovereignscommanding the port to furnish ships and men, and an additional ordersummoning the town to obey it immediately. An inducement was provided inthe offer of a free pardon to all criminals and persons under sentencewho chose to enlist. 

Still the thing hung fire; and on June 20 a new and peremptory order wasissued by the Crown authorising Columbus to impress the vessels and crewif necessary. Time was slipping away; and in his difficulty Columbusturned to Martin Alonso Pinzon, upon whose influence and power in thetown he could count. There were three brothers then in thisfamily--Martin Alonso, Vincenti Yanez, and Francisco Martin, all pilotsthemselves and owners of ships. These three brothers saw some hope ofprofit out of the enterprise, and they exerted themselves onChristopher's behalf so thoroughly that, not only did they afford himhelp in the obtaining of ships, men, and supplies, but they all threedecided to go with him. 

There was one more financial question to be settled--a question thatremains for us in considerable obscurity, but was in all probabilitypartly settled by the aid of these brothers. The total cost of theexpedition, consisting of three ships, wages of the crew, stores andprovisions, was 1, 167, 542 maravedis, about L950(in 1900). After allthese years of pleading at Court, all the disappointments and deferredhopes and sacrifices made by Columbus, the smallness of this sum cannotbut strike us with amazement. Many a nobleman that Columbus must haverubbed shoulders with in his years at Court could have furnished thewhole sum out of his pocket and never missed it; yet Columbus had to waityears and years before he could get it from the Crown. Still moreamazing, this sum was not all provided by the Crown; 167, 000 maravediswere found by Columbus, and the Crown only contributed one millionmaravedis. One can only assume that Columbus's pertinacity inpetitioning the King and Queen to undertake the expedition, when hecould with comparative ease have got the money from some of his nobleacquaintance, was due to three things--his faith and belief in his Idea, his personal ambition, and his personal greed. He believed in his Ideaso thoroughly that he knew he was going to find something across theAtlantic. Continents and islands cannot for long remain in thepossession of private persons; they are the currency of crowns; and hedid not want to be left in the lurch if the land he hoped to discovershould be seized or captured by Spain or Portugal. The result of hisdiscoveries, he was convinced, was going to be far too large a thing tobe retained and controlled by any machinery less powerful than that of akingdom; therefore he was unwilling to accept either preliminaryassistance or subsequent rewards from any but the same powerful hand. Admiralties, moreover, and Governor-Generalships and Viceroyships cannotbe conferred by counts and dukes, however powerful; the very title Doncould only be conferred by one power in Spain; and all the other titlesand dignities that Columbus craved with all his Genoese soul were to behad from the hands of kings, and not from plutocrats. It wascharacteristic of him all his life never to deal with subordinates, butalways to go direct to the head man; and when the whole purpose andambition of his life was to be put to the test it was only consistent inhim, since he could not be independent, to go forth under the protectionof the united Crown of Aragon and Castile. Where or how he raised hisshare of the cost is not known; it is possible that his old friend theDuke of Medina Celi came to his help, or that the Pinzon family, whobelieved enough in the expedition to risk their lives in it, lent some ofthe necessary money. 

Ever since ships were in danger of going to sea short-handed methods ofrecruiting and manning them have been very much the same; and there musthave been some hot work about the harbour of Palos in the summer of 1492. The place was in a panic. It is highly probable that many of thevolunteers were a ruffianly riff-raff from the prisons, to whom personalfreedom meant nothing but a chance of plunder; and the recruiting officein Palos must have seen many a picturesque scoundrel coming and takingthe oath and making his mark. The presence of these adventurers, many ofthem entirely ignorant of the sea, would not be exactly an encouragementto the ordinary seaman. It is here very likely that the influence of thePinzon family was usefully applied. I call it influence, since that is apolite term which covers the application of force in varying degrees;and it was an awkward thing for a Palos sailor to offend the Pinzons, who owned and controlled so much of the shipping in the port. Little bylittle the preparations went on. In the purchasing of provisions andstores the Pinzons were most helpful to Columbus and, it is notimprobable, to themselves also. They also procured the ships;altogether, in the whole history of the fitting out of expeditions, I know nothing since the voyage of the Ark which was so well kept withinone family. Moreover it is interesting to notice, since we know thenames and places of residence of all the members of the expedition, that the Pinzons, who personally commanded two of the caravels, had themalmost exclusively manned by sailors from Palos, while the Admiral's shipwas manned by a miscellaneous crew from other places. To be sure theygave the Admiral the biggest ship, but (in his own words) it proved "adull sailer and unfit for discovery"; while they commanded the twocaravels, small and open, but much faster and handier. Clearly thesePinzons will take no harm from a little watching. They may be honestsouls enough, but their conduct is just a little suspicious, and wecannot be too careful. 

Three vessels were at last secured. The first, named the Santa Maria, was the largest, and was chosen to be the flagship of Columbus. She wasof about one hundred tons burden, and would be about ninety feet inlength by twenty feet beam. She was decked over, and had a high poopastern and a high forecastle in the bows. She had three masts, two ofthem square-rigged, with a latine sail on the mizzen mast; and shecarried a crew of fifty-two persons. Where and how they all stowedthemselves away is a matter upon which we can only make wonderingguesses; for this ship was about the size of an ordinary small coastingschooner, such as is worked about the coasts of these islands with a crewof six or eight men. The next largest ship was the Pinta, which wascommanded by Martin Alonso Pinzon, who took his brother Francisco withhim as sailing-master. The Pinta was of fifty tons burden, decked onlyat the bow and stern, and the fastest of the three ships; she also hadthree masts. The third ship was a caravel of forty tons and called theNina; she belonged to Juan Nino of Palos. She was commanded by VincentiPinzon, and had a complement of eighteen men. Among the crew of theflagship, whose names and places of residence are to be found in theAppendix, were an Englishman and an Irishman. The Englishman is enteredas Tallarte de Lajes (Ingles), who has been ingeniously identified with apossible Allard or AEthelwald of Winchelsea, there having been severalgenerations of Allards who were sailors of Winchelsea in the fifteenthcentury. Sir Clements Markham thinks that this Allard may have beentrading to Coruna and have married and settled down at Lajes. There isalso Guillermo Ires, an Irishman from Galway. 

Allard and William, shuffling into the recruiting office in Palos, doubtless think that this is a strange place for them to meet, and rathera wild business that they are embarked upon, among all these bloodySpaniards. Some how I feel more confidence in Allard than in William, knowing, as I do so well, this William of Galway, whether on his nativeheath or in the strange and distant parts of the world to which hissanguine temperament leads him. Alas, William, you are but the first ofa mighty stream that will leave the Old Country for the New World; theworld destined to be good for the fortunes of many from the Old Country, but for the Old Country itself not good. Little does he know, drunkenWilliam, willing to be on hand where there is adventure brewing, and tobe after going with the boys and getting his health on the salt water, what a path of hope for those who go, and of heaviness for those who staybehind, he is opening up . . . . Farewell, William; I hope you werenot one of those whom they let out of gaol. 

June slid into July, and still the preparations were not complete. Downon the mud banks of the Tinto, where at low water the vessels were lefthigh and dry, and where the caulking and refitting were in hand, therewas trouble with the workmen. Gomaz Rascon and Christoval Quintero, theowners of the Pinta, who had resented her being pressed into the service, were at the bottom of a good deal of it. Things could not be found; gearmysteriously gave way after it had been set up; the caulking was found tohave been carelessly and imperfectly done; and when the caulkers werecommanded to do it over again they decamped. Even the few volunteers, the picked hands upon whom Columbus was relying, gave trouble. In thosedays of waiting there was too much opportunity for talk in the shore-sidewine-shops; some of the volunteers repented and tried to cry off theirbargains; others were dissuaded by their relatives, and deserted and hidthemselves. No mild measures were of any use; a reign of terror had tobe established; and nothing short of the influence of the Pinzons wassevere enough to hold the company together. To these vigorous measures, however, all opposition gradually yielded. By the end of July theprovisions and stores were on board, the whole complement of eighty-sevenpersons collected and enlisted, and only the finishing touches left forColumbus. It is a sign of the distrust and fear evinced with regard tothis expedition, that no priest accompanied it--something of a sorrow topious Christopher, who would have liked his chaplain. There were twosurgeons, or barbers, and a physician; there were an overseer, asecretary, a master-at-arms; there was an interpreter to speak to thenatives of the new lands in Hebrew, Greek, German, Chaldean or Arabic;and there was an assayer and silversmith to test the quality of theprecious metals that they were sure to find. Up at La Rabida, with thebusy and affectionate assistance of the old Prior, Columbus made hisfinal preparations. Ferdinand was to stay at Cordova with Beatriz, andto go to school there; while Diego was already embarked upon his life'svoyage, having been appointed a page to the Queen's son, Prince Juan, andhanded over to the care of some of the Court ladies. The course to besailed was talked over and over again; the bearings and notes of thepilot at Porto Santo consulted and discussed; and a chart was made byColumbus himself, and copied with his own hands for use on the threeships. 

On the 2nd of August everything was ready; the ships moored out in thestream, the last stragglers of the crew on board, the last sack of flourand barrel of beef stowed away. Columbus confessed himself to the Priorof La Rabida--a solemn moment for him in the little chapel up on thepine-clad hill. His last evening ashore would certainly be spent at themonastery, and his last counsels taken with Perez and Doctor Hernandez. We can hardly realise the feelings of Christopher on the eve of hisdeparture from the land where all his roots were, to a land of mere faithand conjecture. Even today, when the ocean is furrowed by crowdedhighways, and the earth is girdled with speaking wires, and distances areso divided and reduced that the traveller need never be very long out oftouch with his home, few people can set out on a long voyage without someemotional disturbance, however slight it may be; and to Columbus on thisnight the little town upon which he looked down from the monastery, whichhad been the scene of so many delays and difficulties and vexations, musthave seemed suddenly dear and familiar to him as he realised that afterto-morrow its busy and well-known scenes might be for ever a thing of thepast to him. Behind him, living or dead, lay all he humanly loved andcared for; before him lay a voyage full of certain difficulties anddangers; dangers from the ships, dangers from the crews, dangers fromthe weather, dangers from the unknown path itself; and beyond them, atwinkling star on the horizon of his hopes, lay the land of his belief. That he meant to arrive there and to get back again was beyond all doubthis firm intention; and in the simple grandeur of that determination theweaknesses of character that were grouped about it seem unimportant. Inthis starlit hour among the pine woods his life came to its meridian;everything that was him was at its best and greatest there. Beneath him, on the talking tide of the river, lay the ships and equipment thatrepresented years of steady effort and persistence; before him lay thepathless ocean which he meant to cross by the inner light of his faith. What he had suffered, he had suffered by himself; what he had won, he hadwon by himself; what he was to finish, he would finish by himself. 

But the time for meditations grows short. Lights are moving about in thetown beneath; there is an unwonted midnight stir and bustle; the wholepopulation is up and about, running hither and thither with lamps andtorches through the starlit night. The tide is flowing; it will be highwater before dawn; and with the first of the ebb the little fleet is toset sail. The stream of hurrying sailors and townspeople sets towardsthe church of Saint George, where mass is to be said and the Sacramentadministered to the voyagers. The calls and shouts die away; the bellstops ringing; and the low muttering voice of the priest is heardbeginning the Office. The light of the candles shines upon the gaudyroof, and over the altar upon the wooden image of Saint Georgevanquishing the dragon, upon which the eyes of Christopher rested duringsome part of the service, and where to-day your eyes may rest also if youmake that pilgrimage. The moment approaches; the bread and the wine areconsecrated; there is a shuffling of knees and feet; and then a pause. The clear notes of the bell ring out upon the warm dusky silence--once, twice, thrice; the living God and the cold presence of dawn enter thechurch together. Every head is bowed; and for once at least every heartof that company beats in unison with the rest. And then the Office goeson, and the dark-skinned congregation streams up to the sanctuary andreceives the Communion, while the blue light of dawn increases and thecandles pale before the coming day. And then out again to the boats withshoutings and farewells, for the tide has now turned; hoisting of sailsand tripping of anchors and breaking out of gorgeous ensigns; and theships are moving! The Maria leads, with the sign of the Redemptionpainted on her mainsail and the standard of Castile flying at her mizzen;and there is cheering from ships and from shore, and a faint sound ofbells from the town of Huelva. 

Thus, the sea being--calm, and a fresh breeze blowing off the land, didChristopher Columbus set sail from Palos at sunrise on Friday the 3rd ofAugust 1492. 

CHAPTER XIII

EVENTS OF THE FIRST VOYAGE

 "In nomine D. N. Jesu Christi--Friday, August 3, 1492, at eight o'clock we started from the bar of Saltes. We went with a strong sea breeze sixty miles, --[Columbus reckoned in Italian miles, of which four = one league. ]--which are fifteen leagues, towards the south, until sunset: afterwards to the south-west and to the south, quarter south-west, which was the way to the Canaries. "

 [The account of Columbus's first voyage is taken from a Journal written by himself, but which in its original form does not exist. Las Casas had it in his possession, but as he regarded it (no doubt with justice) as too voluminous and discursive to be interesting, he made an abridged edition, in which the exact words of Columbus were sometimes quoted, but which for the most part is condensed into a narrative in the third person. This abridged Journal, consisting of seventy-six closely written folios, was first published by Navarrette in 1825. When Las Casas wrote his 'Historie, ' however, he appears here and there to have restored sections of the original Journal into the abridged one; and many of these restorations are of importance. If the whole account of his voyage written by Columbus himself were available in its exact form I would print it here; but as it is not, I think it better to continue my narrative, simply using the Journal of Las Casas as a document. ]

With these rousing words the Journal of Columbus's voyage begins; andthey sound a salt and mighty chord which contains the true diapason ofthe symphony of his voyages. There could not have been a more fortunatebeginning, with clear weather and a calm sea, and the wind in exactlythe right quarter. On Saturday and Sunday the same conditions held, sothere was time and opportunity for the three very miscellaneous ships'companies to shake down into something like order, and for all theelaborate discipline of sea life to be arranged and established; and wemay employ the interval by noting what aids to navigation Columbus hadat his disposal. 

The chief instrument was the astrolabe, which was an improvement on theprimitive quadrant then in use for taking the altitude of the sun. Theastrolabe, it will be remembered, had been greatly improved, by MartinBehaim and the Portuguese Commission in 1840--[1440 D. W. ]; and it wasthis instrument, a simplification of the astrolabe used in astronomyashore, that Columbus chiefly used in getting his solar altitudes. Aswill be seen from the illustration, its broad principle was that of ametal circle with a graduated circumference and two arms pivoted in thecentre. It was made as heavy as possible; and in using it the observersat on deck with his back against the mainmast and with his left handheld up the instrument by the ring at the top. The long arm was movedround until the two sights fixed upon it were on with the sun. The pointwhere the other arm then cut the circle gave the altitude. Inconjunction with this instrument were used the tables of solardeclination compiled by Regiomontanus, and covering the sun's declinationbetween the years 1475 and 1566. 

The compass in Columbus's day existed, so far as all essentials areconcerned, as it exists to-day. Although it lacked the refinementsintroduced by Lord Kelvin it was swung in double-cradles, and had thethirty-two points painted upon a card. The discovery of the compass, andeven of the lodestone, are things wrapt in obscurity; but the lodestonehad been known since at least the eleventh century, and the compasscertainly since the thirteenth. With the compass were used the seacharts, which were simply maps on a rather larger and more exact scalethan the land maps of the period. There were no soundings or currentsmarked on the old charts, which were drawn on a plane projection; andthey can have been of little--practical use to navigators except in thecase of coasts which were elaborately charted on a large scale. Thechart of Columbus, in so far as it was concerned with the ocean westwardof the Azores, can of course have contained nothing except theconjectured islands or lands which he hoped to find; possibly the landseen by the shipwrecked pilot may have been marked on it, and his failureto find that land may have been the reason why, as we shall see, hechanged his course to the southward on the 7th of October. It must beremembered that Columbus's conception of the world was that of thePortuguese Mappemonde of 1490, a sketch of which is here reproduced. This conception of the world excluded the Pacific Ocean and the continentof North and South America, and made it reasonable to suppose that anyone who sailed westward long enough from Spain would ultimately reachCathay and the Indies. Behaim's globe, which was completed in the year1492, represented the farthest point that geographical knowledge hadreached previous to the discoveries of Columbus, and on it is shown theisland of Cipango or Japan. 

By far the most important element in the navigation of Columbus, in sofar as estimating his position was concerned, was what is known as"dead-reckoning" that is to say, the computation of the distancetravelled by the ship through the water. At present this distance ismeasured by a patent log, which in its commonest form is apropeller-shaped instrument trailed through the water at the end of along wire or cord the inboard end of which is attached to a registeringclock. On being dragged through the water the propeller spins round andthe twisting action is communicated by the cord to the clock-workmachinery which counts the miles. In the case of powerful steamers andin ordinary weather dead-reckoning is very accurately calculated by thenumber of revolutions of the propellers recorded in the engine-room; anda device not unlike this was known to the Romans in the time of theRepublic. They attached small wheels about four feet in diameter to thesides of their ships; the passage of the water turned the wheels, and avery simple gearing was arranged which threw a pebble into a tallypot ateach revolution. This device, however, seems to have been abandoned orforgotten in Columbus's day, when there was no more exact method ofestimating dead-reckoning than the primitive one of spitting over theside in calm weather, or at other times throwing some object into thewater and estimating the rate of progress by its speed in passing theship's side. The hour-glass, which was used to get the multiple forlong distances, was of course the only portable time measurer availablefor Columbus. These, with a rough knowledge of astronomy, and thetaking of the altitude of the polar star, were the only known means forascertaining the position of his ship at sea. 

The first mishap occurred on Monday, August 6th, when the Pinta carriedaway her rudder. The Pinta, it will be remembered, was commanded byMartin Alonso Pinzon, and was owned by Gomaz Rascon and ChristovalQuintero, who had been at the bottom of some of the troubles ashore; andit was thought highly probable that these two rascals had something to dowith the mishap, which they had engineered in the hope that their vesselwould be left behind at the Canaries. Martin Alonso, however, proved aman of resource, and rigged up a sort of steering gear with ropes. Therewas a choppy sea, and Columbus could not bring his own vessel near enoughto render any assistance, though he doubtless bawled his directions toPinzon, and looked with a troubled eye on the commotion going on on boardthe Pinta. On the next day the jury-rigged rudder carried away again, and was again repaired, but it was decided to try and make the island ofLanzarote in the Canaries, and to get another caravel to replace thePinta. All through the next day the Santa Maria and the Nina had toshorten sail in order not to leave the damaged Pinta behind; the threecaptains had a discussion and difference of opinion as to where theywere; but Columbus, who was a genius at dead-reckoning, proved to beright in his surmise, and they came in sight of the Canaries on Thursdaymorning, August 9th. 

Columbus left Pinzon on the Grand Canary with orders to try to obtain acaravel there, while he sailed on to Gomera, which he reached on Sundaynight, with a similar purpose. As he was unsuccessful he sent a messageby a boat that was going back to tell Pinzon to beach the Pinta andrepair her rudder; and having spent more days in fruitless search for avessel, he started back to join Pinzon on August 23rd. During the nighthe passed the Peak of Teneriffe, which was then in eruption. The repairsto the Pinta, doubtless in no way expedited by Messrs. Rascon andQuintera, took longer than had been expected; it was found necessary tomake an entirely new rudder for her; and advantage was taken of the delayto make some alterations in the rig of the Nina, which was changed from alatine rig to a square rig, so that she might be better able to keep upwith the others. September had come before these two jobs werecompleted; and on the 2nd of September the three ships sailed for Gomera, the most westerly of the islands, where they anchored in the north-eastbay. The Admiral was in a great hurry to get away from the islands andfrom the track of merchant ships, for he had none too much confidence inthe integrity of his crews, which were already murmuring and findingevery mishap a warning sign from God. He therefore only stayed longenough at Gomera to take in wood and water and provisions, and set sailfrom that island on the 6th of September. 

The wind fell lighter and lighter, and on Friday the little fleet laybecalmed within sight of Ferro. But on Saturday evening north-east airssprang up again, and they were able to make nine leagues of westing. OnSunday they had lost sight of land; and at thus finding their ships threelonely specks in the waste of ocean the crew lost heart and began tolament. There was something like a panic, many of the sailors burstinginto tears and imploring Columbus to take them home again. To us it mayseem a rather childish exhibition; but it must be remembered that thesesailors were unwillingly embarked upon a voyage which they believed wouldonly lead to death and disaster. The bravest of us to-day, if he foundhimself press-ganged on board a balloon and embarked upon a journey, theobject of which was to land upon Mars or the moon, might find itdifficult to preserve his composure on losing sight of the earth; and theparallel is not too extreme to indicate the light in which their presententerprise must have appeared to many of the Admiral's crew. 

Columbus gave orders to the captains of the other two ships that, in caseof separation, they were to sail westward for 700 leagues-that being thedistance at which he evidently expected to find land--and there to lie-tofrom midnight until morning. On this day also, seeing the temper of thesailors, he began one of the crafty stratagems upon which he pridedhimself, and which were often undoubtedly of great use to him; he kepttwo reckonings, one a true one, which he entered in his log, and one afalse one, by means of which the distance run was made out to be lessthan what it actually was, so that in case he could not make land as soonas he hoped the crew would not be unduly discouraged. In other words, hewished to have a margin at the other end, for he did not want a mutinywhen he was perhaps within a few leagues of his destination. On this dayhe notes that the raw and inexperienced seamen were giving trouble inother ways, and steering very badly, continually letting the ship'shead fall off to the north; and many must have been the angry remonstrancesfrom the captain to the man at the wheel. Altogether rather a trying dayfor Christopher, who surely has about as much on his hands as ever mortalhad; but he knows how to handle ships and how to handle sailors, and solong as this ten-knot breeze lasts, he can walk the high poop of theSanta Maria with serenity, and snap his fingers at the dirty rabblebelow. 

On Monday they made sixty leagues, the Admiral duly announcingforty-eight; on Tuesday twenty leagues, published as sixteen; and onthis day they saw a large piece of a mast which had evidently belongedto a ship of at least 120 tons burden. This was not an altogethercheerful sight for the eighteen souls on board the little Nina, whowondered ruefully what was going to happen to them of forty tons whenships three times their size had evidently been unable to live in thisabominable sea!

On Thursday, September 13th, when Columbus took his observations, he madea great scientific discovery, although he did not know it at the time. He noticed that the needle of the compass was declining to the west ofnorth instead of having a slight declination to the east of north, as allmariners knew it to have. In other words, he had passed the line of truenorth and of no variation, and must therefore have been in latitude28 deg. N. And longitude 29 deg. 37' W. Of Greenwich. With his usualsecrecy he said nothing about it; perhaps he was waiting to see if thepilots on the other ships had noticed it, but apparently they were not soexact in their observations as he was. On the next day, Friday, the windfalling a little lighter, they, made only twenty leagues. "Here thepersons on the caravel Nina said they had seen a jay and a ringtail, andthese birds never come more than twenty-five leagues from land at most. "--Unhappy "persons on the Nina"! Nineteen souls, including the captain, afloat in a very small boat, and arguing God knows what from the factthat a jay and a ringtail never went more than twenty-five leagues fromland!--The next day also was not without its incident; for on Saturdayevening they saw a meteor, or "marvellous branch of fire" falling fromthe serene violet of the sky into the sea. 

They were now well within the influence of the trade-wind, which in thesemonths blows steadily from the east, and maintains an exquisite and balmyclimate. Even the Admiral, never very communicative about hissensations, deigns to mention them here, and is reported to have saidthat "it was a great pleasure to enjoy the morning; that nothing waslacking except to hear the nightingales, and that the weather was likeApril in Andalusia. " On this day they saw some green grasses, which theAdmiral considered must have floated off from some island; "not thecontinent, " says the Admiral, whose theories are not to be disturbed by apiece of grass, "because I make the continental land farther onward. "The crew, ready to take the most depressing and pessimistic view ofeverything, considered that the lumps of grass belonged to rocks orsubmerged lands, and murmured disparaging things about the Admiral. As a matter of fact these grasses were masses of seaweed detached fromthe Sargasso Sea, which they were soon to enter. 

On Monday, September 17th, four days after Columbus had noted it, theother pilots noted the declination of the needle, which they had found ontaking the position of the North star. They did not like it; andColumbus, whose knowledge of astronomy came to his aid, ordered them totake the position of the North star at dawn again, which they did, andfound that the needles were true. He evidently thought it useless tocommunicate to them his scientific speculations, so he explained to themthat it was the North star which was moving in its circle, and not thecompass. One is compelled to admit that in these little matters ofdeceit the Admiral always shone. To-day, among the seaweed on the ship'sside, he picked up a little crayfish, which he kept for several days, presumably in a bottle in his cabin; and perhaps afterwards ate. 

So for several days this calm and serene progress westward wasmaintained. The trade-wind blew steady and true, balmy and warm also;the sky was cloudless, except at morning and evening dusk; and there werefor scenery those dazzling expanses of sea and sky, and those gorgeoushues of dawn and sunset, which are only to be found in the happylatitudes. The things that happened to them, the bits of seaweed andfishes that they saw in the water, the birds that flew around them, wereobserved with a wondering attention and wistful yearning after theirmeaning such as is known only to children and to sailors adventuring onuncharted seas. The breezes were milder even than those of the Canaries, and the waters always less salt; and the men, forgetting their fears ofthe monsters of the Sea of Darkness, would bathe alongside in the limpidblue. The little crayfish was a "sure indication of land"; a tunny fish, killed by the company on the Nina, was taken to be an indication from thewest, "where I hope in that exalted God, in whose hands are allvictories, that land will very soon appear"; they saw another ringtail, "which is not accustomed to sleep on the sea"; two pelicans came to theship, "which was an indication that land was near"; a large dark cloudappeared to the north, "which is a sign that land is near"; they saw oneday a great deal of grass, "although the previous day they had not seenany"; they took a bird with their hands which was like a jay; "it was ariver bird and not a sea bird"; they saw a whale, "which is an indicationthat they are near land, because they always remain near it"; afterwardsa pelican came from the west-north-west and went to the south-east, "which was an indication that it left land to the west-north-west, because these birds sleep on land and in the morning they come to the seain search of food, and do not go twenty leagues from land. " And "at dawntwo or three small land birds came singing to the ships; and afterwardsdisappeared before sunrise. "

Such beautiful signs, interpreted by the light of their wishes, were theevents of this part of the voyage. In the meantime, they have theirlittle differences. Martin Alonso Pinzon, on Tuesday, September 18th, speaks from the Pinta to the Santa Maria, and says that he will not waitfor the others, but will go and make the land, since it is so near; butapparently he does not get very far out of the way, the wind which waftshim wafting also the Santa Maria and the Nina. 

On September the 19th there was a comparison of dead-reckonings. TheNina's pilot made it 440 leagues from the Canaries, the Pinta's 420leagues, and the Admiral's pilot, doubtless instructed by the Admiral, made it 400. On Sunday the 23rd they were getting into the seaweed andfinding crayfish again; and there being no reasonable cause for complainta scare was got up among the crew on an exceedingly ingenious point. Thewind having blown steadily from the east for a matter of three weeks, they said that it would never blow in any other direction, and that theywould never be able to get back to Spain; but later in the afternoon thesea got up from the westward, as though in answer to their fears, and asif to prove that somewhere or other ahead of them there was a west windblowing; and the Admiral remarks that "the high sea was very necessary tome, as it came to pass once before in the time when the Jews went out ofEgypt with Moses, who took them from captivity. " And indeed there wassomething of Moses in this man, who thus led his little rabble from aSpanish seaport out across the salt wilderness of the ocean, andinterpreted the signs for them, and stood between them and the powers ofvengeance and terror that were set about their uncharted path. 

But it appears that the good Admiral had gone just a little too far ininterpreting everything they saw as a sign that they were approachingland; for his miserable crew, instead of being comforted by this fact, now took the opportunity to be angry because the signs were notfulfilled. The more the signs pointed to their nearness to land, themore they began to murmur and complain because they did not see it. Theybegan to form together in little groups--always an ominous sign at sea--and even at night those who were not on deck got together in murmuringcompanies. Some, of the things that they said, indeed, were not very farfrom the truth; among others, that it was "a great madness on their partto venture their lives in following out the madness of a foreigner who tomake himself a great lord had risked his life, and now saw himself andall of them in great exigency and was deceiving so many people. " Theyremembered that his proposition, or "dream" as they not inaptly call it, had been contradicted by many great and lettered men; and then followedsome very ominous words indeed. They held

 [The substance of these murmurings is not in the abridged Journal, but is given by Las Casas under the date of September 24. ]

that "it was enough to excuse them from whatever might be done in thematter that they had arrived where man had never dared to navigate, andthat they were not obliged to go to the end of the world, especially as, if they delayed more, they would not be able to have provisions toreturn. " In short, the best thing would be to throw him into the seasome night, and make a story that he had fallen, into the water whiletaking the position of a star with his astrolabe; and no one would askany questions, as he was a foreigner. They carried this talk to thePinzons, who listened to them; after all, we have not had to wait longfor trouble with the Pinzons! "Of these Pinzons Christopher Columbuscomplains greatly, and of the trouble they had given him. "

There is only one method of keeping down mutiny at sea, and of preservingdiscipline. It is hard enough where the mutineers are all on one shipand the commander's officers are loyal to him; but when they aredistributed over three ships, the captains of two of which are willing tolisten to them, the problem becomes grave indeed. We have no details ofhow Columbus quieted them; but it is probable that his strong personalityawed them, while his clever and plausible words persuaded them. He wasthe best sailor of them all and they knew it; and in a matter of thiskind the best and strongest man always wins, and can only in a pass ofthis kind maintain his authority by proving his absolute right to it. So he talked and persuaded and bullied and encouraged and cheered them;"laughing with them, " as Las Casas says, "while he was weeping at heart. "

Probably as a result of this unpleasantness there was on the followingday, Tuesday, September 25th, a consultation between: Martin AlonsoPinzon and the Admiral. The Santa Maria closed up with the Pinta, and achart was passed over on a cord. There were islands marked on the chartin this region, possibly the islands reported by the shipwrecked pilot, possibly the island of Antilla; and Pinzon said he thought that they weresomewhere in the region of them, and the Admiral said that he thought sotoo. There was a deal of talk and pricking of positions on charts; andthen, just as the sun was setting, Martin Alonso, standing on the sternof the Pinta, raised a shout and said that he saw land; asking(business-like Martin) at the same time for the reward which had beenpromised to the first one who should see land: They all saw it, a lowcloud to the southwest, apparently about twenty-five leagues distant;and honest Christopher, in the emotion of the moment, fell on his kneesin gratitude to God. The crimson sunset of that evening saw the riggingof the three ships black with eager figures, and on the quiet air wereborne the sounds of the Gloria in Excelsis, which was repeated by eachship's company. 

The course was altered to the south-west, and they sailed in thatdirection seventeen leagues during the night; but in the morning therewas no land to be seen. The sunset clouds that had so often deceived thedwellers in the Canaries and the Azores, and that in some form or otherhover at times upon all eagerly scanned horizons, had also deceivedColumbus and every one of his people; but they created a diversion whichwas of help to the Admiral in getting things quiet again, for which inhis devout soul he thanked the merciful providence of God. 

And so they sailed on again on a westward course. They were still in theSargasso Sea, and could watch the beautiful golden floating mass of thegulf-weed, covered with berries and showing, a little way under the clearwater, bright green leaves. The sea was as smooth as the river inSeville; there were frigate pelicans flying about, and John Dorys in thewater; several gulls were seen; and a youth on board the Nina killed apelican with a stone. On Monday, October 1st, there was a heavy showerof rain; and Juan de la Cosa, Columbus's pilot, came up to him with thedoleful information that they had run 578 leagues from the island ofFerro. According to Christopher's doctored reckoning the distancepublished was 584 leagues; but his true reckoning, about which he saidnothing to a soul, showed that they had gone 707 leagues. The breezestill kept steady and the sea calm; and day after day, with the temper ofthe crews getting uglier and uglier, the three little vessels forgedwestward through the blue, weed-strewn waters, their tracks lyingundisturbed far behind them. On Saturday, October 6th, the Admiral wassignalled by Alonso Pinzon, who wanted to change the course to thesouth-west. It appears that, having failed to find the, islands of theshipwrecked pilot, they were now making for the island of Cipango, andthat this request of Pinzon had something to do with some theory of histhat they had better turn to the south to reach that island; whileColumbus's idea now evidently was--to push straight on to the mainland ofCathay. Columbus had his way; but the grumbling and murmuring in creasedamong the crew. 

On the next day, Sunday, and perhaps just in time to avert anotheroutbreak, there was heard the sound of a gun, and the watchers on theSanta Maria and the Pinta saw a puff of smoke coming from the Nina, whichwas sailing ahead, and hoisting a flag on her masthead. This was thesignal agreed upon for the discovery of land, and it seemed as thoughtheir search was at last at an end. But it was a mistake. In theafternoon the land that the people of the Nina thought they had seen haddisappeared, and the horizon was empty except for a great flight of birdsthat was seen passing from the north to the south-west. The Admiral, remembering how often birds had guided the Portuguese in the islands intheir possessions, argued that the birds were either going to sleep onland or were perhaps flying from winter, which he assumed to beapproaching in the land from whence they came. He therefore altered. His course from west to west-south-west. This course was entered upon anhour before sunset and continued throughout the night and the next day. "The sea was like the river of Seville, " says the Admiral; "the breezesas soft as at Seville in April, and very fragrant. " More birds were tobe seen, and there were many signs of land; but the crew, so oftendisappointed in their hopeful interpretations of the phenomenasurrounding them, kept on murmuring and complaining. On Tuesday, October9th, the wind chopped round a little and the course was altered, first tosouth-west and then at evening to a point north of west; and the journalrecords that "all night they heard birds passing. " The next day Columbusresumed the west-southwesterly course and made a run of fifty-nineleagues; but the mariners broke out afresh in their discontent, anddeclined to go any farther. They complained of the long voyage, andexpressed their views strongly to the commander. But they had to dealwith a man who was determined to begin with, and who saw in the manysigns of land that they had met with only an additional inducement to goon. He told them firmly that with or without their consent he intendedto go on until he had found the land he had come to seek. 

The next day, Thursday, October 11th, was destined to be for evermemorable in the history of the world. It began ordinarily enough, witha west-south-west wind blowing fresh, and on a sea rather rougher thanthey had had lately. The people on the Santa Maria saw some petrels anda green branch in the water; the Pinta saw a reed and two small stickscarved with iron, and one or two other pieces of reeds and grasses thathad been grown on shore, as well as a small board. Most wonderful ofall, the people of the Nina saw "a little branch full of dog roses"; andit would be hard to estimate the sweet significance of this fragment of awild plant from land to the senses of men who had been so long upon a seafrom which they had thought never to land alive. The day drew to itsclose; and after nightfall, according to their custom, the crew of theships repeated the Salve Regina. Afterwards the Admiral addressed thepeople and sailors of his ship, "very merry and pleasant, " reminding themof the favours God had shown them with regard to the weather, and beggingthem, as they hoped to see land very soon, within an hour or so, to keepan extra good look-out that night from the forward forecastle; and addingto the reward of an annuity of 10, 000 maravedis, offered by the Queen towhoever should sight land first, a gift on his own account of a silkdoublet. 

The moon was in its third quarter, and did not rise until eleven o'clock. The first part of the night was dark, and there was only a faintstarlight into which the anxious eyes of the look-out men peered from theforecastles of the three ships. At ten o'clock Columbus was walking onthe poop of his vessel, when he suddenly saw a light right ahead. Thelight seemed to rise and fall as though it were a candle or a lanternheld in some one's hand and waved up and down. The Admiral called PedroGutierrez to him and asked him whether he saw anything; and he also sawthe light. Then he sent for Rodrigo Sanchez and asked him if he saw thelight; but he did not, perhaps because from where he was standing it wasocculted. But the others were left in no doubt, for the light was seenonce or twice more, and to the eyes of the anxious little group standingon the high stern deck of the Santa Maria it appeared unmistakably. TheNina was not close at hand, and the Pinta had gone on in front hoping tomake good her mistake; but there was no doubt on board the Santa Mariathat the light which they had seen was a light like a candle or a torchwaved slowly up and down. They lost the light again; and as the hours inthat night stole away and the moon rose slowly in the sky the seamen onthe Santa Maria must have almost held their breath. 

At about two o'clock in the morning the sound of a gun was heard from thePinta, who could be seen hoisting her flags; Rodrigo de Triana, thelook-out on board of her, having reported land in sight; and there sureenough in the dim light lay the low shores of an island a few miles aheadof them. 

Immediately all sails were lowered, except a small trysail which enabledthe ships to lie-to and stand slowly off and on, waiting for thedaylight. I suppose there was never a longer night than that; but dawncame at last, flooding the sky with lemon and saffron and scarlet andorange, until at last the pure gold of the sun glittered on the water. And when it rose it showed the sea-weary mariners an island lying in theblue sea ahead of them: the island of Guanahani; San Salvador, as it waschristened by Columbus; or, to give it its modern name, Watling's Island. 

CHAPTER XIV

LANDFALL

During the night the ships had drifted a little with the current, andbefore the north-east wind. When the look-out man on the Pinta firstreported land in sight it was probably the north-east corner of theisland, where the land rises to a height of 120 feet, that he saw. Theactual anchorage of Columbus was most likely to the westward of theisland; for there was a strong north-easterly breeze, and as the whole ofthe eastern coast is fringed by a barrier reef, he would not risk hisships on a lee shore. Finding himself off the north end of the island atsunrise, the most natural thing for him to do, on making sail again, would be to stand southward along the west side of the island looking foran anchorage. The first few miles of the shore have rocky exposedpoints, and the bank where there is shoal water only extends half a milefrom the shore. Immediately beyond that the bottom shelves rapidly downto a depth of 2000 fathoms, so that if Columbus was sounding as he camesouth he would find no bottom there. Below what are called the RidingsRocks, however, the land sweeps to the south and east in a long shelteredbay, and to the south of these rocks there is good anchorage and firmholding-ground in about eight fathoms of water. 

We may picture them, therefore, approaching this land in the brightsunshine of the early morning, their ears, that had so long heard nothingbut the slat of canvas and the rush and bubble of water under the prows, filled at last with the great resounding roar of the breakers on thecoral reef; their eyes, that had so long looked upon blue emptiness andthe star-spangled violet arch of night, feasting upon the living green ofthe foliage ashore; and the easterly breeze carrying to their eagernostrils the perfumes of land. Amid an excitement and joyfulanticipation that it is exhilarating even to think about the cables weregot up and served and coiled on deck, and the anchors, which some of themhad thought would never grip the bottom again, unstopped and cleared. The leadsman of the Santa Maria, who has been finding no bottom with hisforty-fathom line, suddenly gets a sounding; the water shoals rapidlyuntil the nine-fathom mark is unwetted, and the lead comes up with itsbottom covered with brown ooze. Sail is shortened; one after another thegreat ungainly sheets of canvas are clewed up or lowered down on deck;one after another the three helms are starboarded, and the three shipsbrought up to the wind. Then with three mighty splashes that send thesea birds whirling and screaming above the rocks the anchors go down; andthe Admiral stands on his high poop-deck, and looks long and searchinglyat the fragment of earth, rock-rimmed, surf-fringed, and tree-crowned, ofwhich he is Viceroy and Governor-General. 

Watling's Island, as it is now called, or San Salvador, as Columbus namedit, or Guanahani, as it was known to the aborigines, is situated inlatitude 24 deg. 6' N. , and longitude 74 deg 26' W. , and is anirregularly shaped white sandstone islet in about the middle of the greatBahama Bank. The space occupied by the whole group is shaped like anirregular triangle extending from the Navidad Bank in the Caribbean Seaat the south-east corner, to Bahama Island in Florida Strait on thenorth, about 200 miles. The south side trends west by north for 600miles, and the north side north-west by north 720 miles. Most of theislands and small rocks in this group, called Keys or Cays, are very low, and rise only a few feet above the sea; the highest is about 400 feethigh. They are generally situated on the edge of coral and sand banks, some of which are of a very dangerous character. They are thinly wooded, except in the case of one or two of the larger islands which containtimber of moderate dimensions. The climate of the Bahamas is mild andtemperate, with refreshing sea breezes in the hottest months; and thereis a mean temperature of 75 deg. From November to April. Watling'sIsland is about twelve miles in length by six in breadth, with rockyshores slightly indented. The greater part of its area is occupied bysalt-water lagoons, separated from one another by small wooded hills fromtoo to 140 feet high. There is plenty of grass; indeed the island is nowconsidered to be the most fertile in the Bahamas, and raises an excellentbreed of cattle and sheep. In common with the other islands of the groupit was originally settled by the Spaniards, and afterwards by the British, who were driven from the Bahamas again by the Spanish in the year 1641. After a great deal of changing hands they were ceded to Great Britain in1783, and have remained in her possession ever since. In 1897 thepopulation of the whole group was estimated at 52, 000 the whites being inthe proportion of one to six of the coloured population. Watling'sIsland contains about 600 inhabitants scattered over the surface, with asmall settlement called Cockburn Town on the west side, nearly oppositethe landfall of Columbus. The seat of the local government is in theisland of New Providence, and the inhabitants of Watling's Island and ofRum Cay unite in sending one representative to the House of Assembly. Itis high water, full and change, at Watling's Island at 7 h. 40 m. , as itwas in the days of Columbus; and these facts form about the sum of theworld's knowledge of and interest in Watling's Island to-day. 

But it was a different matter on Friday morning, October 12, 1492, when, all having been made snug on board the Santa Maria, the Admiral of theOcean Seas put on his armour and his scarlet cloak over it and preparedto go ashore. 

 [This date is reckoned in the old style. The true astronomical date would be October 21st, which is the modern anniversary of the discovery]

The boat was lowered and manned by a crew well armed, and Columbus tookwith him Rodrigo de Escovedo, the secretary to the expedition, andRodrigo Sanchez his overseer; they also took on board Martin AlonsoPinzon and Vincenti Yanez Pinzon, the captains of the other two ships. As they rowed towards the shore they saw a few naked inhabitants, whohid themselves at their approach. Columbus carried with him the royalstandard, and the two captains each had a banner of the expedition, which was a square flag with an "F" and a "Y" upon either side, eachletter being surmounted by the crown of the sovereigns and a green crosscovering the whole. Columbus assembled his little band around him andcalled upon them to bear witness that in the presence of them all he wastaking possession of the island for the King and Queen of Spain; dulymaking depositions in writing on the spot, and having them signed andwitnessed. Then he gave the name of San Salvador to the island and saida prayer; and while this solemn little ceremony was in progress, theastonished natives crept out of their hiding and surrounded the strangewhite men. They gesticulated and grovelled and pointed upwards, as though this gang of armed and bearded Spaniards, with the tallwhite-bearded Italian in the midst of them, had fallen from the skies. 

The first interest of the voyagers was in the inhabitants of thisdelightful land. They found them well built, athletic-looking men, mostof them young, with handsome bodies and intelligent faces. Columbus, eager to begin his missionary work, gave them some red caps and someglass beads, with which he found them so delighted that he had good hopesof making converts, and from which he argued that "they were a people whowould better be freed and converted to our Holy Faith by love than byforce, " which sentence of his contains within itself the whole missionaryspirit of the time. These natives, who were the freest people in theworld, were to be "freed"; freed or saved from the darkness of theirhappy innocence and brought to the light of a religion that had justevolved the Inquisition; freed by love if possible, and by red caps andglass beads; if not possible, then freed by force and with guns; butfreed they were to be at all costs. It is a tragic thought that, at thevery first impact of the Old World upon this Eden of the West, thisdismal error was set on foot and the first links in the chain of slaveryforged. But for the moment nothing of it was perceptible; nothing butred caps and glass beads, and trinkets and toys, and freeing by love. The sword that Columbus held out to them, in order to find out if theyknew the use of weapons, they innocently grasped by the blade and so cuttheir fingers; and that sword, extended with knowledge and grasped withfearless ignorance, is surely an emblem of the spread of civilisation andof its doubtful blessings in the early stages. Let us hear Columbushimself, as he recorded his first impression of Guanahani:

 "Further, it appeared to me that they were a very poor people, in everything. They all go naked as their mothers gave them birth, and the women also, although I only saw one of the latter who was very young, and all those whom I saw were young men, none more than thirty years of age. They were very well built with very handsome bodies, and very good faces. Their hair was almost as coarse as horses' tails, and short, and they wear it over the eyebrows, except a small quantity behind, which they wear long and never cut. Some paint themselves blackish, and they are of the colour of the inhabitants of the Canaries, neither black nor white, and some paint themselves white, some red, some whatever colour they find: and some paint their faces, some all the body, some only the eyes, and some only the nose. They do not carry arms nor know what they are, because I showed them swords and they took them by the edge and ignorantly cut themselves. They have no iron: their spears are sticks without iron, and some of them have a fish's tooth at the end and others have other things. They are all generally of good height, of pleasing appearance and well built: I saw some who had indications of wounds on their bodies, and I asked them by signs if it was that, and they showed me that other people came there from other islands near by and wished to capture them and they defended themselves: and I believed and believe, that they come here from the continental land to take them captive. They must be good servants and intelligent, as I see that they very quickly say all that is said to them, and I believe that they would easily become Christians, as it appeared to me that they had no sect. If it please our Lord, at the time of my departure, I will take six of them from here to your Highnesses that they may learn to speak. I saw no beast of any kind except parrots on this island. "

They very quickly say all that is said to them, and they will very easilybecome good slaves; good Christians also it appears, since the Admiral'sresearch does not reveal the trace of any religious sect. And finally"I will take six of them"; ostensibly that they may learn to speak thelanguage, but really that they may form the vanguard of cargo after cargoof slaves ravished from their happy islands of dreams and sunshine andplenty to learn the blessings of Christianity under the whip and thesword. It is all, alas, inevitable; was inevitable from the moment thatthe keel of Columbus's boat grated upon the shingle of Guanahani. Thegreater must prey upon the less, the stronger must absorb and dominatethe weaker; and the happy gardens of the Golden Cyclades must be spoiledand wasted for the pleasure and enrichment of a corrupting civilisation. But while we recognise the inevitable, and enter into the joy and prideof Columbus and his followers on this first happy morning of theirlanding, we may give a moment's remembrance to the other side of thepicture, and admit that for this generation of innocents the discoverythat was to be all gain for the Old World was to be all loss to them. In the meantime, decrees the Admiral, they are to be freed and converted;and "I will take six of them that they may learn to speak. "

There are no paths or footprints left in the sea, and the water furrowedon that morning more than four hundred years ago by the keels ofColumbus's little fleet is as smooth and trackless as it was before theyclove it. Yet if you approach Guanahani from the east during the hoursof darkness you also will see a light that waxes and wanes on thehorizon. What the light was that Columbus saw is not certain; it wasprobably the light from a torch held by some native woman from the doorof her hut; but the light that you will see is from the lighthouse onDixon Hill, where a tower of coral holds a lamp one hundred and sixtyfeet above the sea at the north-east point of the island. It was erectedin no sentimental spirit, but for very practical purposes, and at a datewhen Watling's Island had not been identified with the Guanahani ofColumbus's landfall; and yet of all the monuments that have been raisedto him I can think of nothing more appropriate than this lonely towerthat stands by day amid the bright sunshine in the track of the tradewind, and by night throws its powerful double flash every half-minuteacross the dark lonely sea. For it was by a light, although not of man'skindling, that Columbus was guided upon his lonely voyage and through hismany difficulties; amid all his trials and disappointments, dimly as itmust have burned sometimes, it never quite went out. Darkness was thename of the sea across which he took his way; darkness, from hisreligious point of view, was the state of the lands to which hejourneyed; and, whatever its subsequent worth may have been, it was aburning fragment from the living torch of the Christian religion that hecarried across the world with him, and by which he sought to kindle thefire of faith in the lands of his discovery. So that there is a profoundsymbolism in those raying beams that now, night after night, month bymonth, and year after year, shine out across the sea from Watling'sIsland in the direction of the Old World. 

In the preparations for this voyage, and in the conduct andaccomplishment of it, the personality of the man Columbus stands clearlyrevealed. He was seen at his best, as all men are who have a chance ofdoing the thing for which they are best fitted. The singleness of aimthat can accomplish so much is made manifest in his dogged search formeans with which to make his voyage; and his Italian quality ofunscrupulousness in the means employed to attain a good end was exercisedto the full. The, practical seaman in him carried him through theeasiest part of his task, which was the actual sailing of his ships fromPalos to Guanahani; Martin Alonso Pinzon could have done as much as that. But no Martin Alonso Pinzon or any other man of that time known tohistory had the necessary combination of defective and effectivequalities that made Columbus, once he had conceived his glorious hazyidea, spend the best years of his life, first in acquiring the positionthat would make him listened to by people powerful enough to help him, and then in besieging them in the face of every rebuff anddiscouragement. Another man, proposing to venture across the unknownocean to unknown lands, would have required a fleet for his conveyance, and an army for his protection; but Columbus asked for what he thought hehad some chance of getting, and for the barest equipment that would carryhim across the water. Another man would at least have had a bodyguard;but Columbus relied upon himself, and alone held his motley crew in thebonds of discipline. A Pinzon could have navigated the fleet from Palosto Guanahani; but only a Columbus, only a man burning with belief ishimself and in his quest, could have kept that superstitious crowd ofloafers and malefactors and gaol-birds to their duties, and bent them tohis will. He was destined in after years for situations which werebeyond his power to deal with, and for problems that were beyond hisgrasp; but here at least he was supreme, master of himself and of hismaterial, and a ruler over circumstances. The supreme thing that he hadprofessed to be able to do and which he had guaranteed to do was, in thesublime simplicity of his own phrase, "to discover new lands, " and luckor no luck, help or hindrance, he did it at the very first attempt and inthe space of thirty-five days. And although it was from the Pinta thatthe gun was fired, and the first loom of the actual land seen in theearly morning, I am glad to think that, of all the number of eagerwatching men, it was Columbus who first saw the dim tossing light thattold him his journey was at an end. 

THE NEW WORLD

CHAPTER I

THE ENCHANTED ISLANDS

Columbus did not intend to remain long at San Salvador. His landfallthere, although it signified the realisation of one part of his dream, was only the starting-point of his explorations in the New World. Nowthat he had made good his undertaking to "discover new lands, " he had tomake good his assurance that they were full of wealth and would swell therevenues of the King and Queen of Spain. A brief survey of this firstisland was all he could afford time for; and after the first exquisiteimpression of the white beach, and the blue curve of the bay sparkling inthe sunshine, and the soft prismatic colours of the acanthus beneath thegreen wall of the woods had been savoured and enjoyed, he was anxious topush on to the rich lands of the Orient of which he believed this islandto be only an outpost. 

On the morning after his arrival the natives came crowding down to thebeach and got down their canoes, which were dug out of the trunk of asingle tree, and some of which were large enough to contain forty orforty-five men: They came paddling out to the ship, sometimes, in thecase of the smaller canoes which only held one man, being upset by thesurf, and swimming gaily round and righting their canoes again andbailing them out with gourds. They brought balls of spun cotton, andparrots and spears. All their possessions, indeed, were represented inthe offerings they made to the strangers. Columbus, whose eye was nowvery steadily fixed on the main chance, tried to find out if they had anygold, for he noticed that some of them wore in their noses a ring thatlooked as though it were made of that metal; and by making signs he askedthem if there was any more of it to be had. He understood them to saythat to the south of the island there dwelt a king who had large vesselsof gold, and a great many of them; he tried to suggest that some of thenatives should come and show him the way, but he "saw that they were notinterested in going. "

The story of the Rheingold was to be enacted over again, and the whole ofthe evils that followed in its glittering train to be exemplified in thisvoyage of discovery. To the natives of these islands, who guarded theyellow metal and loved it merely for its shining beauty, it was harmlessand powerless; they could not buy anything with it, nor did they seek byits aid to secure any other enjoyments but the happiness of looking at itand admiring it. As soon as the gold was ravished from their keeping, however, began the reign of lust and cruelty that always has attended andalways will attend the knowledge that things can be bought with it. Inall its history, since first it was brought up from the dark bowels ofthe earth to glitter in the light of day, there is no more significantscene than this that took place on the bright sands of San Salvador solong ago--Columbus attentively examining the ring in the nose of a happysavage, and trying to persuade him to show him the place that it wasbrought from; and the savage "not interested in going. "

From his sign-conversation with the natives Columbus understood thatthere was land to the south or the south-west, and also to thenorth-west, and that the people from the north-west went to thesouth-west in search of gold and precious stones. In the meantime hedetermined to spend the Sunday in making a survey of the island, whilethe rest of Saturday was passed in barterings with the natives, who werevery happy and curious to see all the strange things belonging to thevoyagers; and so innocent were their ideas of value that "they give allthey have for whatever thing may be given them. " Columbus, however, whowas busy making calculations, would not allow the members of the crew totake anything more on their own account, ordering that where any articleof commerce existed in quantity it was to be acquired for the sovereignsand taken home to Spain. 

Early on Sunday morning a boat was prepared from each ship, and a littleexpedition began to row north about the island. As they coasted thewhite rocky shores people came running to the beach and calling to them;"giving thanks to God, " says Columbus, although this is probably a flightof fancy. When they saw that the boats were not coming to land theythrew themselves into the water and came swimming out to them, bringingfood and drink. Columbus noticed a tongue of land lying between thenorth-west arm of the internal lagoon and the sea, and saw that bycutting a canal through it entrance could be secured to a harbour thatwould float "as many ships as there are in Christendom. " He did not, apparently, make a complete circuit of the island, but returned in theafternoon to the ships, having first collected seven natives to take withhim, and got under way again; and before night had fallen San Salvadorhad disappeared below the north-west horizon. 

About midday he reached another island to the southeast. He sailed alongthe coast until evening, when he saw yet another island in the distanceto the south-west; and he therefore lay-to for the night. At dawn thenext morning he landed on the island and took formal possession of it, naming it Santa Maria de la Concepcion, which is the Rum Cay of themodern charts. As the wind chopped round and he found himself on alee-shore he did not stay there, but sailed again before night. Twoof the unhappy prisoners from Guanahani at this point made good theirescape by swimming to a large canoe which one of the natives of the newisland had rowed out--a circumstance which worried Columbus not alittle; since he feared it would give him a bad name with the natives. He tried to counteract it by loading with presents another native whocame to barter balls of cotton, and sending him away again. 

The effect of all that he was seeing, of the bridge of islands thatseemed to be stretching towards the south-west and leading him to theregion of untold wealth, was evidently very stimulating and exciting toColumbus. His Journal is almost incoherent where he attempts to set downall he has got to say. Let us listen to him for a moment:

 "These islands are very green and fertile, and the breezes are very soft, and there may be many things which I do not know, because I did not wish to stop, in order to discover and search many islands to find gold. And since these people make signs thus, that they wear gold on their arms and legs, --and it is gold, because I showed them some pieces which I have, --I cannot fail, with the aid of our Lord, in finding it where it is native. And being in the middle of the gulf between these two islands, that is to say, the island of Santa Maria and this large one, which I named Fernandina, I found a man alone in a canoe who was going from the island of Santa Maria to Fernandina, and was carrying a little of his bread which might have been about as large as the fist, and a gourd of water, and a piece of reddish earth reduced to dust and afterwards kneaded, and some dry leaves--[Tobacco]--which must be a thing very much appreciated among them, because they had already brought me some of them as a present at San Salvador: and he was carrying a small basket of their kind, in which he had a string of small glass beads and two blancas, by which I knew that he came from the island of San Salvador, and had gone from there to Santa Maria and was going to Fernandina. He came to the ship: I caused him to enter it, as he asked to do so, and I had his canoe placed on the ship and had everything which he was carrying guarded and I ordered that bread and honey be given him to eat and something to drink. And I will go to Fernandina thus and will give him everything, which belongs to him, that he may give good reports of us. So that, when your Highnesses send here, our Lord pleasing, those who come may receive honour and the Indians will give them of everything which they have. "

This hurried gabbling about gold and the aid of our Lord, interlardedwith fragments of natural and geographical observation, sounds strangelyacross the gulf of time and impresses one with a disagreeable sense ofbewildered greed--like that of a dog gulping at the delicacies in hisplatter and unwilling to do justice to one for fear the others shouldescape him; and yet it is a natural bewilderment, and one with which wemust do our best to sympathise. 

Fernandina was the name which Columbus had already given to Long Islandwhen he sighted it from Santa Maria; and he reached it in the evening ofTuesday, October 16th. The man in the canoe had arrived before him; andthe astute Admiral had the satisfaction of finding that once more hiscleverness had been rewarded, and that the man in the canoe had givensuch glowing accounts of his generosity that there was no difficultyabout his getting water and supplies. While the barrels of water werebeing filled he landed and strolled about in the pleasant groves, observing the islanders and their customs, and finding them on the wholea little more sophisticated than those of San Salvador. The women woremantillas on their heads and "little pieces of cotton" round theirloins-a sufficiently odd costume; and they appeared to Columbus to be alittle more astute than the other islanders, for though they broughtcotton in quantities to the ships they exacted payment of beads for it. In the charm and wonder of his walk in this enchanted land he was ablefor a moment to forget his hunger for gold and to admire the greatbranching palm-trees, and the fish that

 "are here so different from ours that it is wonderful. There are some formed like cocks of the finest colours in the world, blue, yellow, red and of all colours, and others tinted in a thousand manners: and the colours are so fine, that there is not a man who does not wonder at them, and who does not take great pleasure in seeing them. Also, there are whales. I saw no beasts on land of any kind except parrots and lizards. A boy told me that he saw a large snake. I did not see sheep nor goats, nor any other beast; although I have been here a very short time, as it is midday, still if there had been any, I could not have missed seeing some. "

Columbus was not a very good descriptive writer, and he has but twomethods of comparison; either a thing is like Spain, or it is not likeSpain. The verdure was "in such condition as it is in the month of Mayin Andalusia; and the trees were all as different from ours as day fromnight, and also the fruits and grasses and the stones and all thethings. " The essay written by a cockney child after a day at the seasideor in the country, is not greatly different from some of the verbatimpassages of this journal; and there is a charm in that fact too, for itgives us a picture of Columbus, in spite of his hunt for gold andprecious stones, wandering, still a child at heart, in the wonders of theenchanted world to which he had come. 

There was trouble on this day, because some of the crew had found anIndian with a piece of gold in his nose, and they got a scolding fromColumbus for not detaining him and bartering with him for it. There wasbad weather also, with heavy rain and a threatening of tempest; there wasa difference of opinion with Martin Alonso Pinzon about which way theyshould go round the island: but the next day the weather cleared, and thewind settled the direction of their course for them. Columbus, whose eyenever missed anything of interest to the sailor and navigator, notes thusearly a fact which appears in every book of sailing directions for theBahama Islands--that the water is so clear and limpid that the bottom canbe seen at a great depth; and that navigation is thus possible and evensafe among the rockstrewn coasts of the islands, when thus performed bysight and with the sun behind the ship. He was also keenly alive tonatural charm and beauty in the new lands that he was visiting, and thereare unmistakable fragments of himself in the journal that speakeloquently of his first impressions. "The singing of the little birds issuch that it appears a man would wish never to leave here, and the flocksof parrots obscure the sun. "

But life, even to the discoverer of a New World, does not consist ofwandering in the groves, and listening to the singing birds, and smellingthe flowers, and remembering the May nights of Andalusia. There was goldto be found and the mainland of Cathay to be discovered, and a letter, written by the sovereigns at his earnest request, to be delivered to theGreat Khan. The natives had told him of an island called Samoete to thesouthward, which was said to contain a quantity of gold. He sailedthither on the 19th, and called it Isabella; its modern name is CrookedIsland. He anchored here and found it to be but another step in theascending scale of his delight; it was greener and more beautiful thanany of the islands he had yet seen. He spent some time looking for thegold, but could not find any; although he heard of the island of Cuba, which he took to be the veritable Cipango. He weighed anchor on October24th and sailed south-west, encountering some bad weather on the way; buton Sunday the 28th he came up with the north coast of Cuba and enteredthe mouth of a river which is the modern Nuevitas. To the island of Cubahe gave the name of Juana in honour of the young prince to whom his sonDiego had been appointed a page. 

If the other islands had seemed beautiful to him, Cuba seemed like heavenitself. The mountains grandly rising in the interior, the noble riversand long sweeping plains, the headlands melting into the clear water, andthe gorgeous colours and flowers and birds and insects on land acted likea charm on Columbus and his sailors. As they entered the river theylowered a boat in order to go ahead and sound for an anchorage; and twonative canoes put off from the shore, but, when they saw the boatapproaching, fled again. The Admiral landed and found two empty housescontaining nets and hooks and fishing-lines, and one of the strangesilent dogs, such as they had encountered on the other island--dogs thatpricked their ears and wagged their tails, but that never barked. TheAdmiral, in spite of his greed for gold and his anxiety to "free" thepeople of the island, was now acting much more discreetly, and with thegenuine good sense which he always possessed and which was only sometimesobscured. He would not allow anything in the empty houses to bedisturbed or taken away, and whenever he saw the natives he tried to showthem that he intended to do them no harm, and to win their good will bymaking them presents of beads and toys for which he would take no return. As he went on up the river the scenery became more and more enchanting, so that he felt quite unhappy at not being able to express all thewonders and beauties that he saw. In the pure air and under the sereneblue of the sky those matchless hues of blossom and foliage threw arainbow-coloured garment on either bank of the river; the flamingoes, theparrots and woodpeckers and humming-birds calling to one another andflying among the tree-tops, made the upper air also seem alive and shotwith all the colours of the rainbow. Humble Christopher, walking amidthese gorgeous scenes, awed and solemnised by the strangeness andmagnificence of nature around him, tries to identify something that heknows; and thinks, that amid all these strange chorusings of unknownbirds, he hears the familiar note of a nightingale. Amid all hisraptures, however, the main chance is not forgotten; everything that hesees he translates into some terms of practical utility. Just as on thevoyage out every seaweed or fish or flying bird that he saw was hailed byhim as a sign that land was near, so amid the beauty of this virgin worldeverything that he sees is taken to indicate either that he is close uponthe track of the gold, or that he must be in Cipango, or that the nativeswill be easy to convert to Christianity. In the fragrance of the woodsof Cuba, Columbus thought that he smelled Oriental spices, which MarcoPolo had described as abounding in Cipango; when he walked by the shoreand saw the shells of pearl oysters, he believed the island to be loadedwith pearls and precious stones; when he saw a scrap of tinsel or brightmetal adorning a native, he argued that there was a gold mine close athand. And so he went on in an increasing whirl of bewilderingenchantment from anchorage to anchorage and from island to island, alwaysbeing led on by that yellow will o'-the-wisp, gold, and always believingthat the wealth of the Orient would be his on the morrow. As he coastedalong towards the west he entered the river which he called Rio de Mares. He found a large village here full of palm-branch houses furnished withchairs and hammocks and adorned with wooden masks and statues; but inspite of his gentleness and offer of gifts the inhabitants all fled tothe mountains, while he and his men walked curiously through the desertedhouses. 

On Tuesday, October 30th, Martin Alonso Pinzon, whose communications theAdmiral was by this time beginning to dread, came with some excitingnews. It seemed that the Indians from San Salvador who were on board thePinta had told him that beyond the promontory, named by Columbus the Capeof Palms, there was a river, four days' journey upon which would bringone to the city of Cuba, which was very rich and large and abounded withgold; and that the king of that country was at war with a monarch whomthey called Cami, and whom Pinzon identified with the Great Khan. Morethan this, these natives assured him that the land they were on atpresent was the mainland itself, and that they could not be very far fromCathay. Columbus for once found himself in agreement with Martin Alonso. The well-thumbed copy of Marco Polo was doubtless brought out, andabundant evidence found in it; and it was decided to despatch a littleembassy to this city in order to gain information about its position andwealth. When they continued their course, however, and rounded the cape, no river appeared; they sailed on, and yet promontory after promontorywas opened ahead of them; and as the wind turned against them and theweather was very threatening they decided to turn back and anchor againin the Rio de Mares. 

Columbus was now, as he thought, hot upon the track of the Great Khanhimself; and on the first of November he sent boats ashore and told thesailors to get information from the houses; but the inhabitants fledshyly into the woods. Having once postulated the existence of the GreatKhan in this immediate territory Columbus, as his habit was, found thateverything fitted with the theory; and he actually took the flight of thenatives, although it had occurred on a dozen other occasions, as a proofthat they mistook his bands of men for marauding expeditions despatchedby the great monarch himself. He therefore recalled them, and sent aboat ashore with an Indian interpreter who, standing in the boat at theedge of the water, called upon the natives to draw near, and haranguedthem. He assured them of the peaceable intentions of the great Admiral, and that he had nothing whatever to do with the Great Khan; which cannotvery greatly have thrilled the Cubans, who knew no more about the GreatKhan than they did about Columbus. The interpreter then swam ashore andwas well received; so well, that in the evening some sixteen canoes cameoff to the ships bringing cotton yarn and spears for traffic. Columbus, with great astuteness, forbade any trading in cotton or indeed inanything at all except gold, hoping by this means to make the nativesproduce their treasures; and he would no doubt have been successful ifthe natives had possessed any gold, but as the poor wretches had nothingbut the naked skins they stood up in, and the few spears and pots androlls of cotton that they were offering, the Admiral's astuteness was foronce thrown away. There was one man, however, with a silver ring in hisnose, who was understood to say that the king lived four days' journey inthe interior, and that messengers had been sent to him to tell him of thearrival of the strange ships; which messengers would doubtless soonreturn bringing merchants with them to trade with the ships. If thisnative was lying he showed great ingenuity in inventing the kind of storythat his questioners wanted; but it is more likely that his utteranceswere interpreted by Columbus in the light of his own ardent beliefs. Atany rate it was decided to send at once a couple of envoys to this greatcity, and not to wait for the arrival of the merchants. Two Spaniards, Rodrigo de Jerez and Luis de Torres, the interpreter to the expedition--who had so far found little use for his Hebrew and Chaldean--were chosen;and with them were sent two Indians, one from San Salvador and the othera local native who went as guide. Red caps and beads and hawks' bellswere duly provided, and a message for the king was given to them tellinghim that Columbus was waiting with letters and presents from Spanishsovereigns, which he was to deliver personally. After the envoys haddeparted, Columbus, whose ships were anchored in a large basin of deepwater with a clean and steep beach, decided to take the opportunity ofhaving the vessels careened. Their hulls were covered with shell andweed; the caulking, which had been dishonestly done at Palos, had alsoto be attended to; so the ships were beached and hove down one at a time--an unnecessary precaution, as it turned out, for there was no sign oftreachery on the part of the natives. While the men were making fires toheat their tar they noticed that the burning wood sent forth a heavyodour which was like mastic; and the Admiral, now always busy withoptimistic calculations, reckoned that there was enough in that vicinityto furnish a thousand quintals every year. While the work on the shipswas going forward he employed himself in his usual way, going ashore, examining the trees and vegetables and fruits, and holding suchcommunication as he was able with the natives. He was up every morningat dawn, at one time directing the work of his men, at another goingashore after some birds that he had seen; and as dawn comes early inthose islands his day was probably a long one, and it is likely that hewas in bed soon after dark. On the day that he went shooting, MartinAlonso Pinzon was waiting for him on his return; this time not to makeany difficulties or independent proposals, but to show him two pieces ofcinnamon that one of his men had got from an Indian who was carrying aquantity of it. "Why did the man not get it all from him?" says greedyColumbus. "Because of the prohibition of the Admiral's that no oneshould do any trading, " says Martin Alonso, and conceives himself to havescored; for truly these two men do not love one another. The boatswainof the Pinta, adds Martin Alonso, has found whole trees of it. "TheAdmiral then went there and found that it was not cinnamon. " The Admiralwas omnipotent; if he had said that it was manna they would have had tomake it so, and as he chose to say that it was not cinnamon, we must takehis word for it, as Martin Alonso certainly had to do; so that it was theAdmiral who scored this time. Columbus, however, now on the track ofspices, showed some cinnamon and pepper to the natives; and the obligingcreatures "said by signs that there was a great deal of it towards thesouth-east. " Columbus then showed them some gold and pearls; and"certain old men" replied that in a place they called Bo-No there was anyamount of gold; the people wore it in their ears and on their arms andlegs, and there were pearls also, and large ships and merchandise--all tothe south-east. Finding this information, which was probably entirelyuntrue and merely a polite effort to do what was expected of them, wellreceived, the natives added that "a long distance from there, there weremen with one eye, and other men with dogs' snouts who ate men, and thatwhen they caught a man they beheaded him and drank his blood. " . . . Soon after this the Admiral went on board again and began to write up hisJournal, solemnly entering all these facts in it. It is the mostchildish nonsense; but after all, how interesting and credible it musthave been! To live thus smelling the most heavenly perfumes, breathingthe most balmy air, viewing the most lovely scenes, and to be always hotupon the track of gold and pearls and spices and wealth and dog-nosed, blood-drinking monstrosities--what an adventure, what a vivid piece ofliving!

After a few days--on Tuesday, November 6th--the two men who had been sentinland to the great and rich city came back again with their report. Alas for visions of the Great Khan! The city turned out to be a villageof fifty houses with twenty people in each house. The envoys had beenreceived with great solemnity; and all the men "as well as the women"came to see them, and lodged them in a fine house. The chief people inthe village came and kissed their hands and feet, hailing them asvisitors from the skies, and seating them in two chairs, while they satround on the floor. The native interpreter, doubtless according toinstructions, then told them "how the Christians lived and how they weregood people"; and I would give a great deal to have heard that briefaddress. Afterwards the men went out and the women came in, also kissingthe hands and feet of the visitors, and "trying them to see if they wereof flesh and of bone like themselves. " The results were evidently sosatisfactory that the strangers were implored to remain at least fivedays. The real business of the expedition was then broached. Had theyany gold or pearls? Had they any cinnamon or spices? Answer, as usual:"No, but they thought there was a great deal of it to the south-east. "The interest of the visitors then evaporated, and they set out for thecoast again; but they found that at least five hundred men and womenwanted to come with them, since they believed that they were returning toheaven. On their journey back the two Spaniards noticed many peoplesmoking, as the Admiral himself had done a few days before; and this isthe first known discovery of tobacco by Europeans. 

They saw a great many geese, and the strange dogs that did not bark, andthey saw potatoes also, although they did not know what they were. Columbus, having heard this report, and contemplating these gentleamiable creatures, so willing to give all they had in return for a scrapof rubbish, feels his heart lifted in a pious aspiration that they mightknow the benefits of the Christian religion. "I have to say, Most SerenePrinces, " he writes, "that by means of devout religious persons knowing their language well, all would soon become Christians: and thus I hope in our Lord that Your Highnesses will appoint such persons with great diligence in order to turn to the Church such great peoples, and that they will convert them, even as they have destroyed those who would not confess the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit: and after their days, as we are all mortal, they will leave their realms--in a very tranquil condition and freed from heresy and wickedness, and will be well received before the Eternal Creator, Whom may it please to give them a long life and a great increase of larger realms and dominions, and the will and disposition to spread the holy Christian religion, as they have done up to the present time, Amen. To-day I will launch the ship and make haste to start on Thursday, in the name of God, to go to the southeast and seek gold and spices, and discover land. " Thus Christopher Columbus, in the Name of God, November 11, 1492. 

CHAPTER II

THE EARTHLY PARADISE

When Columbus weighed anchor on the 12th of November he took with him sixcaptive Indians. It was his intention to go in search of the island ofBabeque, which the Indians alleged lay about thirty leagues to theeast-south-east, and where, they said, the people gathered gold out of thesand with candles at night, and afterwards made bars of it with a hammer. They told him this by signs; and we have only one more instance of theAdmiral's facility in interpreting signs in favour of his own beliefs. It is only a few days later that in the same Journal he says, "The peopleof these lands do not understand me, nor do I nor any other person I havewith me understand them; and these Indians I am taking with me, manytimes understand things contrary to what they are. " It was a fault atany rate not exclusively possessed by the Indians, who were doubtlessmade the subject of many philological experiments on the part of theinterpreter; all that they seemed to have learned at this time werecertain religious gestures, such as making the Sign of the Cross, whichthey did continually, greatly to the edification of the crew. 

In order to keep these six natives in a good temper Columbus kidnapped"seven women, large and small, and three children, " in order, he alleged, that the men might conduct themselves better in Spain because of havingtheir "wives" with them; although whether these assorted women wereindeed the wives of the kidnapped natives must at the best be a doubtfulmatter. The three children, fortunately, had their father and motherwith them; but that was only because the father, having seen his wife andchildren kidnapped, came and offered to go with them of his own accord. This taking of the women raises a question which must be in the mind ofany one who studies this extraordinary voyage--the question of thetreatment of native women by the Spaniards. Columbus is entirely silenton the subject; but taking into account the nature of the Spanish rabblethat formed his company, and his own views as to the right which he hadto possess the persons and goods of the native inhabitants, I am afraidthat there can be very little doubt that in this matter there is a goodreason, for his silence. So far as Columbus himself was concerned, it isprobable that he was innocent enough; he was not a sensualist by nature, and he was far too much interested and absorbed in the principal objectsof his expedition, and had too great a sense of his own personal dignity, to have indulged in excesses that would, thus sanctioned by him, haveproduced a very disastrous effect on the somewhat rickety discipline ofhis crew. He was too wise a master, however, to forbid anything that itwas not in his power to prevent; and it is probable that he shut his eyesto much that, if he did not tolerate it, he at any rate regarded as amatter of no very great importance. His crew had by this time learned toknow their commander well enough not to commit under his eyes offencesfor which he would have been sure to punish them. 

For two days they ran along the coast with a fair wind; but on the 14th ahead wind and heavy sea drove them into the shelter of a deep harbourcalled by Columbus Puerto del Principe, which is the modern Tanamo. Thenumber of islands off this part of the coast of Cuba confirmed Columbusin his profound geographical error; he took them to be "those innumerableislands which in the maps of the world are placed at the end of theeast. " He erected a great wooden cross on an eminence here, as he alwaysdid when he took possession of a new place, and made some boat excursionsamong the islands in the harbour. On the 17th of November two of the sixyouths whom he had taken on board the week before swam ashore andescaped. When he started again on his voyage he was greatlyinconvenienced by the wind, which veered about between the north andsouth of east, and was generally a foul wind for him. There is somedifference of opinion as to what point of the wind the ships ofColumbus's time would sail on; but there is no doubt that they wereextremely unhandy in anything approaching a head wind, and that they werepractically no good at all at beating to windward. The shape of theirhulls, the ungainly erections ahead and astern, and their comparativelylight hold on the water, would cause them to drift to leeward faster thanthey could work to windward. In this head wind, therefore, Columbusfound that he was making very little headway, although he stood out forlong distances to the northward. On Wednesday, November 21st, occurred amost disagreeable incident, which might easily have resulted in theAdmiral's never reaching Spain alive. Some time in the afternoon henoticed the Pinta standing away ahead of him in a direction which was notthe course which he was steering; and he signalled her to close up withhim. No answer, however, was made to his signal, which he repeated, butto which he failed to attract any response. He was standing south at thetime, the wind being well in the north-east; and Martin Alonso Pinzon, whose caravel pointed into the wind much better than the unhandy SantaMaria, was standing to the east. When evening fell he was still insight, at a distance of sixteen miles. Columbus was really concerned, and fired lombards and flew more signals of invitation; but there was noreply. In the evening he shortened sail and burned a torch all night, "because it appeared that Martin Alonso was returning to me; and thenight was very clear, and there was a nice little breeze by which to cometo me if he wished. " But he did not wish, and he did not come. 

Martin Alonso has in fact shown himself at last in his true colours. Hehas got the fastest ship, he has got a picked company of his own men fromPalos; he has got an Indian on board, moreover, who has guaranteed totake him straight to where the gold is; and he has a very agreeable planof going and getting it, and returning to Spain with the first news andthe first wealth. It is open mutiny, and as such cannot but be a matterof serious regret and trouble to the Admiral, who sits writing up hisJournal by the swinging lamp in his little cabin. To that friend andconfidant he pours out his troubles and his long list of grievancesagainst Martin Alonso; adding, "He has done and said many other thingsto me. " Up on deck the torch is burning to light the wanderer backagain, if only he will come; and there is "a nice little breeze" by whichto come if he wishes; but Martin Alonso has wishes quite other than that. 

The Pinta was out of sight the next morning, and the little Nina was allthat the Admiral had to rely upon for convoy. They were now near theeast end of the north coast of Cuba, and they stood in to a harbour whichthe Admiral called Santa Catalina, and which is now called Cayo de Moa. As the importance of the Nina to the expedition had been greatlyincreased by the defection of the Pinta, Columbus went on board andexamined her. He found that some of her spars were in danger of givingway; and as there was a forest of pine trees rising from the shore he wasable to procure a new mizzen mast and latine yard in case it should benecessary to replace those of the Nina. The next morning he weighedanchor at sunrise and continued east along the coast. He had now arrivedat the extreme end of Cuba, and was puzzled as to what course he shouldtake. Believing Cuba, as he did, to be the mainland of Cathay, he wouldhave liked to follow the coast in its trend to the south-west, in thehope of coming upon the rich city of Quinsay; but on the other hand therewas looming to the south-west some land which the natives with himassured him was Bohio, the place where all the gold was. He thereforeheld on his course; but when the Indians found that he was really goingto these islands they became very much alarmed, and made signs that thepeople would eat them if they went there; and, in order further todissuade the Admiral, they added that the people there had only one eye, and the faces, of dogs. As it did not suit Columbus to believe them hesaid that they were lying, and that he "felt" that the island must belongto the domain of the Great Khan. He therefore continued his course, seeing many beautiful and enchanting bays opening before him, and longingto go into them, but heroically stifling his curiosity, "because he wasdetained more than he desired by the pleasure and delight he felt inseeing and gazing on the beauty and freshness of those countries whereverhe entered, and because he did not wish to be delayed in prosecuting whathe was engaged upon; and for these reasons he remained that night beatingabout and standing off and on until day. " He could not trust himself, that is to say, to anchor in these beautiful harbours, for he knew hewould be tempted to go ashore and waste valuable time exploring thewoods; and so he remained instead, beating about in the open sea. 

As it was, what with contrary winds and his own indecision as to whichcourse he should pursue, it was December the 6th before he came up withthe beautiful island of Hayti, and having sent the Nina in front toexplore for a harbour, entered the Mole Saint Nicholas, which he calledPuerto Maria. Towards the east he saw an island shaped like a turtle, and this island he named Tortuga; and the harbour, which he entered thatevening on the hour of Vespers, he called Saint Nicholas, as it was thefeast of that saint. Once more his description flounders amongsuperlatives: he thought Cuba was perfect; but he finds the new islandmore perfect still. The climate is like May in Cordova; the tracts ofarable land and fertile valleys and high mountains are like those inCastile; he finds mullet like those of Castile; soles and other fish likethose in Castile; nightingales and other small birds like those inCastile; myrtle and other trees and grasses like those in Castile! Inshort, this new land is so like Spain, only more wonderful and beautiful, that he christens it Espanola. 

They stayed two days in the harbour of Saint Nicholas, and then began tocoast eastwards along the shores of Espaniola. Their best progress wasmade at dawn and sunset, when the land breeze blew off the island; andduring the day they encountered a good deal of colder weather andeasterly winds, which made their progress slow. Every day they put in atone or other of the natural harbours in which that beautiful coastabounds; every day they saw natives on the shores who generally fled attheir approach, but were often prevailed upon to return and to conversewith the natives on board the Admiral's ship, and to receive presents andbring parrots and bits of gold in exchange. On one day a party of menforaging ashore saw a beautiful young girl, who fled at their approach;and they chased her a long way through the woods, finally capturing herand bringing her on board. Columbus "caused her to be clothed"--doubtless a diverting occupation for Rodrigo, Juan, Garcia, Pedro, William, and the rest of them, although for the poor, shy, tremblingcaptive not diverting at all--and sent her ashore again loaded with beadsand brass rings--to act as a decoy. Having sown this good seed theAdmiral waited for a night, and then sent a party of men ashore, "wellprepared with arms and adapted for such an affair, " to have someconversation with the people. The innocent harvest was duly reaped; thenatives met the Spaniards with gifts of food and drink, and understandingthat the Admiral would like to have a parrot, they sent as many parrotsas were wanted. The husband of the girl who had been captured andclothed came back with her to the shore with a large body of natives, in order to thank the Admiral for his kindness and clemency; and theirconfidence was not misplaced, as the Admiral did not at that moment wishto do any more kidnapping. The Spaniards were more and more amazed andimpressed with the beauty and fertility of these islands. The lands weremore lovely than the finest land in Castile; the rivers were large andwide, the trees green and full of fruit, the grasses knee-deep andstarred with flowers; the birds sang sweetly all night; there were mastictrees and aloes and plantations of cotton. There was fishing in plenty;and if there were not any gold mines immediately at hand, they here sureto be round the next headland or, at the farthest, in the next island. The people, too, charmed and delighted the Admiral, who saw in them afuture glorious army of souls converted to the Christian religion. Theywere taller and handsomer than the inhabitants of the other islands, andthe women much fairer; indeed, if they had not been so much exposed tothe sun, and if they could only be clothed in the decent garments ofcivilisation, the Admiral thought that their skins would be as white asthose of the women of Spain--which was only another argument for bringingthem within the fold of the Holy Catholic Church. The men were powerfuland apparently harmless; they showed no truculent or suspicious spirit;they had no knowledge of arms; a thousand of them would not face threeChristians; and

 "so they are suitable to be governed and made to work and sow and do everything else that shall be necessary, and to build villages and be taught to wear clothing and observe our customs. "

At present, you see, they are but poor happy heathens, living in aparadise of their own, where the little birds sing all through the warmnights, and the rivers murmur through flowery meadows, and no one has anyknowledge of arms or desire of such knowledge, and every one goes nakedand unashamed. High time, indeed, that they should be taught to wearclothing and observe our customs. 

The local chief came on a visit of state to the ship; and the Admiralpaid him due honour, telling him that he came as an envoy from thegreatest sovereigns in the world. But this charming king, or cacique asthey called him, would not believe this; he thought that Columbus was, for reasons of modesty, speaking less than the truth--a new charge tobring against our Christopher! He believed that the Spaniards came fromheaven, and that the realms of the sovereigns of Castile were in theheavens and not in this world. He took some refreshment, as hiscouncillors did also, little dreaming, poor wretches, what in after yearswas to come to them through all this palavering and exchanging ofpresents. The immediate result of the interview, however, was to makeintercourse with the natives much freer and pleasanter even than it hadbeen before; and some of the sailors went fishing with the natives. It was then that they were shown some cane arrows with hardened points, which the natives said belonged to the people of 'Caniba', who, theyalleged, came to the island to capture and eat the natives. The Admiraldid not believe it; his sublime habit of rejecting everything that didnot fit in with his theory of the moment, and accepting everything thatdid, made him shake his head when this piece of news was brought to him. He could not get the Great Khan out of his head, and his present theorywas that this island, being close to the mainland of Cathay, was visitedby the armies of the Great Khan, and that it was his men who had used thearrows and made war upon the natives. It was no good for the natives toshow him some of their mutilated bodies, and to tell him that thecannibals ate them piecemeal; he had no use for such information. Hismind was like a sieve of which the size of the meshes could be adjustedat will; everything that was not germane to the idea of the moment fellthrough it, and only confirmative evidence remained; and at the moment hewas not believing any stories which did not prove that the Great Khanwas, so to speak, just round the corner. If they talked about gold hewould listen to them; and so the cacique brought him a piece of gold thesize of his hand and, breaking it into pieces, gave it to him a bit at atime. This the Admiral took to be sign of great intelligence. They toldhim there was gold at Tortuga, but he preferred to believe that it camefrom Babeque, which may have been Jamaica and may have been nothing atall. 

But his theory was that it existed on Espanola only in small piecesbecause that country was so rich that the natives had no need for it;an economic theory which one grows dizzy in pondering. At any rate"the Admiral believed that he was very near the fountainhead, and thatOur Lord was about to show him where the gold originates. "

On Tuesday, December 18th, the ships were all dressed in honour of areligious anniversary, and the cacique, hearing the firing of thelombards with which the festival was greeted, came down to the shore tosee what was the matter. As Columbus was sitting at dinner on deckbeneath the poop the cacique arrived with all his people; and the accountof his visit is preserved in Columbus's own words. 

 "As he entered the ship he found that I was eating at the table below the stern forecastle, and he came quickly to seat himself beside me, and would not allow me to go to meet him or get up from the table, but only that I should eat. I thought that he would like to eat some of our viands and I then ordered that things should be brought him to eat. And when he entered under the forecastle, he signed with his hand that all his people should remain without, and they did so with the greatest haste and respect in the world, and all seated themselves on the deck, except two men of mature age whom I took to be his counsellors and governors, and who came and seated themselves at his feet: and of the viands which I placed before him he took of each one as much as may be taken for a salutation, and then he sent the rest to his people and they all ate some of it, and he did the same with the drink, which he only touched to his mouth, and then gave it to the others in the same way, and it was all done in wonderful state and with very few words, and whatever he said, according to what I was able to understand, was very formal and prudent, and those two looked in his face and spoke for him and with him, and with great respect. 

 "After eating, a page brought a belt which is like those of Castile in shape, but of a different make, which he took and gave me, and also two wrought pieces of gold, which were very thin, as I believe they obtain very little of it here, although I consider they are very near the place where it has its home, and that there is a great deal of it. I saw that a drapery that I had upon my bed pleased him. I gave it to him, and some very good amber beads which I wore around my neck and some red shoes and a flask of orange-flower water, with which he was so pleased it was wonderful; and he and his governor and counsellors were very sorry that they did not understand me, nor I them. Nevertheless I understood that he told me that if anything from here would satisfy me that all the island was at my command. I sent for some beads of mine, where as a sign I have a 'excelente' of gold upon which the images of your Highnesses are engraved, and showed it to him, and again told him the same as yesterday, that your Highnesses command and rule over all the best part of the world, and that there are no other such great Princes: and I showed him the royal banners and the others with the cross, which he held in great estimation: and he said to his counsellors that your Highnesses must be great Lords, since you had sent me here from so far without fear: and many other things happened which I did not understand, except that I very well saw he considered everything as very wonderful. "

Later in the day Columbus got into talk with an old man who told him thatthere was a great quantity of gold to be found on some island about ahundred leagues away; that there was one island that was all gold; andthat in the others there was such a quantity that they natives gatheredit and sifted it with sieves and made it into bars. The old man pointedout vaguely the direction in which this wonderful country lay; and if hehad not been one of the principal persons belonging to the King Columbuswould have detained him and taken him with him; but he decided that hehad paid the cacique too much respect to make it right that he shouldkidnap one of his retinue. He determined, however, to go and look forthe gold. Before he left he had a great cross erected in the middle ofthe Indian village; and as he made sail out of the harbour that eveninghe could see the Indians kneeling round the cross and adoring it. Hesailed eastward, anchoring for a day in the Bay of Acul, which he calledCabo de Caribata, receiving something like an ovation from the natives, and making them presents and behaving very graciously and kindly to them. 

It was at this time that Columbus made the acquaintance of a man whosecharacter shines like a jewel amid the dismal scenes that afterwardsaccompanied the first bursting of the wave of civilisation on these happyshores. This was the king of that part of the island, a young man namedGuacanagari. This king sent out a large canoe full of people to theAdmiral's ship, with a request that Columbus would land in his country, and a promise that the chief would give him whatever he had. Theremust have been an Intelligence Department in the island, for the chiefseemed to know what would be most likely to attract the Admiral; and withhis messengers he sent out a belt with a large golden mask attached toit. Unfortunately the natives on board the Admiral's ship could notunderstand Guacanagari's messengers, and nearly the whole of the day waspassed in talking before the sense of their message was finally made outby means of signs. In the evening some Spaniards were sent ashore to seeif they could not get some gold; but Columbus, who had evidently had somerecent experience of their avariciousness, and who was anxious to keep ongood terms with the chiefs of the island, sent his secretary with them tosee that they did nothing unjust or unreasonable. He was scrupulous tosee that the natives got their bits of glass and beads in exchange forthe gold; and it is due to him to remember that now, as always, he wasrigid in regulating his conduct with other men in accordance with hisideas of justice and honour, however elastic those ideas may seem to havebeen. The ruffianly crew had in their minds only the immediatepossession of what they could get from the Indians; the Admiral had inhis mind the whole possession of the islands and the bodies and souls ofits inhabitants. If you take a piece of gold without giving a glass beadin exchange for it, it is called stealing; if you take a country and itsinhabitants, and steal their peace from them, and give them blood andservitude in exchange for it, it is called colonisation andEmpire-building. Every one understands the distinction; but so fewpeople see the difference that Columbus of all men may be excused forhis unconsciousness of it. 

Indeed Columbus was seeing yellow at this point in his career. The word"gold" is scattered throughout every page of his journal; he canunderstand nothing that the natives say to him except that there is agreat quantity of gold somewhere about. He is surrounded by nativespressing presents upon him, protesting their homage, and assuring him (sohe thinks) that there are any amount of gold mines; and no wonder thatthe yellow light blinds his eyes and confounds his senses, and thatsometimes, even when the sun has gone down and the natives have retiredto their villages and he sits alone in the seclusion of his cabin, theglittering motes still dance before his eyes and he becomes mad, maudlin, ecstatic . . . . The light flickers in the lamp as the ship swings alittle on the quiet tide and a night breeze steals through the cabindoor; the sound of voices ashore sounds dimly across the water; the brainof the Admiral, overfilled with wonders and promises and hopes, sends itsmessage to the trembling hand that holds the pen, and the incoherentwords stream out on the ink. "May our Lord in His mercy direct me untilI find this gold, I say this Mine, because I have many people here whosay that they know it. "

On Christmas Eve a serious misfortune befell Columbus. What with lookingfor gold, and trying to understand the people who talked about it, andlooking after his ships, and writing up his journal, he had hadpractically no sleep for two days and a night; and at eleven o'clock onthe 24th of December, the night being fine and his ship sailing along thecoast with a light land breeze, he decided to lie down to get some sleep. There were no difficulties in navigation to be feared, because the ship'sboats had been rowed the day before a distance of about ten miles aheadon the course which they were then steering and had seen that there wasopen water all the way. The wind fell calm; and the man at the helm, having nothing to do, and feeling sleepy, called a ship's boy to him, gave him the helm, and went off himself to lie down. This of course wasagainst all rules; but as the Admiral was in his cabin and there was noone to tell them otherwise the watch on deck thought it a very goodopportunity to rest. Suddenly the boy felt the rudder catch uponsomething, saw the ship swinging, and immediately afterwards heard thesound of tide ripples. He cried out; and in a moment Columbus, who wassleeping the light sleep of an anxious shipmaster, came tumbling up tosee what was the matter. The current, which flows in that place at aspeed of about two knots, had carried the ship on to a sand bank, but shetouched so quietly that it was hardly felt. Close on the heels of, Columbus came the master of the ship and the delinquent watch; and theAdmiral immediately ordered them to launch the ship's boat--and lay outan anchor astern so that they could warp her off. The wretches loweredthe boat, but instead of getting the anchor on board rowed off in thedirection of the Nina, which was lying a mile and a half to windward. As soon as Columbus saw what they were doing he ran to the side and, seeing that the tide was failing and that the ship had swung round acrossthe bank, ordered the remainder of the crew to cut away the mainmast andthrow the deck hamper overboard, in order to lighten the ship. This tooksome time; the tide was falling, and the ship beginning to heel over onher beam; and by the time it was done the Admiral saw that it would be ofno use, for the ship's seams had opened and she was filling. 

At this point the miserable crew in the ship's boat came back, the loyalpeople on the Nina having refused to receive them and sent them back tothe assistance of the Admiral. But it was now too late to do anything tosave the ship; and as he did not know but that she might break up, Columbus decided to tranship the people to the Nina, who had by this timesent her own boat. The whole company boarded the Nina, on which theAdmiral beat about miserably till morning in the vicinity of his doomedship. Then he sent Diego de Arana, the brother of Beatriz and a trustyfriend, ashore in a boat to beg the help of the King; and Guacanagariimmediately sent his people with large canoes to unload the wrecked ship, which was done with great efficiency and despatch, and the whole of hercargo and fittings stored on shore under a guard. And so farewell to theSanta Maria, whose bones were thenceforward to bleach upon the shores ofHayti, or incongruously adorn the dwellings of the natives. She may havebeen "a bad sailer and unfit for discovery"; but no seaman looks withoutemotion upon the wreck of a ship whose stem has cut the waters of home, which has carried him safely over thousands of uncharted miles, and whichhas for so long been his shelter and sanctuary. 

At sunrise the kind-hearted cacique came down to the Nina, where Columbushad taken up his quarters, and with tears in his eyes begged the Admiralnot to grieve at his losses, for that he, the cacique, would give himeverything that he possessed; that he had already given two large housesto the Spaniards from the Santa Maria who had been obliged to encamp onshore, and that he would provide more accommodation and help ifnecessary. In fact, the day which had been ushered in so disastrouslyturned into a very happy one; and before it was over Columbus had decidedthat, as he could not take the whole of his company home on the Nina, hewould establish a settlement on shore so that the men who were leftbehind could collect gold and store it until more ships could be sentfrom Spain. The natives came buzzing round anxious to barter whateverthey had for hawks' bells, which apparently were the most popular of thetoys that had been brought for bartering; "they shouted and showed thepieces of gold, saying chuq, chuq, for hawks' bells, as they are in alikely state to become crazy for them. " The cacique was delighted to seethat the Admiral was pleased with the gold that was brought to him, andhe cheered him up by telling him that there was any amount in Cibao, which Columbus of course took for Cipango. The cacique entertainedColumbus to a repast on shore, at which the monarch wore a shirt and apair of gloves that Columbus had given him; "and he rejoiced more overthe gloves than anything that had been given him. " Columbus was pleasedwith his clean and leisurely method of eating, and with his daintyrubbing of his hands with herbs after he had eaten. After the repastColumbus gave a little demonstration of bow-and-arrow shooting and thefiring of lombards and muskets, all of which astonished and impressed thenatives. 

The afternoon was spent in deciding on a site for the fortress which wasto be constructed; and Columbus had no difficulty in finding volunteersamong the crews to remain in the settlement. He promised to leave withthem provisions of bread and wine for a year, a ship's boat, seeds forsowing crops, and a carpenter, a caulker, a gunner, and a cooper. Beforethe day was out he was already figuring up the profit that would ariseout of his misfortune of the day before; and he decided that it was theact of God which had cast his ship away in order that this settlementshould be founded. He hoped that the settlers would have a ton of goldready for him when he came back from Castile, so that, as he had said inthe glittering camp of Santa Fe, where perhaps no one paid very much heedto him, there might be such a profit as would provide for the conquest ofJerusalem and the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre. After all, if he wasgreedy for gold, he had a pious purpose for its employment. 

The last days of the year were very busy ones for the members of theexpedition. Assisted by the natives they were building the fort which, in memory of the day on which it was founded, Columbus called LaVilla-de la Navidad. The Admiral spent much time with King Guacanagari, who "loved him so much that it was wonderful, " and wished to cover himall over with gold before he went away, and begged him not to go beforeit was done. On December 27th there was some good news; a caravel hadbeen seen entering a harbour a little further along the coast; and asthis could only mean that the Pinta had returned, Columbus borrowed acanoe from the king, and despatched a sailor in it to carry news of hiswhereabouts to the Pinta. While it was away Guacanagari collected allthe other kings and chiefs who were subject to him, and held a kind ofdurbar. They all wore their crowns; and Guacanagari took off his crownand placed it on Columbus's head; and the Admiral, not to be outdone, took from his own neck "a collar of good bloodstones and very beautifulbeads of fine colours; which appeared very good in all parts, and placedit upon the King; and he took off a cloak of fine scarlet cloth which hehad put on that day, and clothed the King with it; and he sent for somecoloured buskins which he made him put on, and placed upon his finger alarge silver ring"--all of which gives us a picturesque glimpse into thecontents of the Admiral's wardrobe, and a very agreeable picture of KingGuacanagari, whom we must now figure as clothed, in addition to hisshirt and gloves, in a pair of coloured buskins, a collar ofbloodstones, a scarlet cloak and a silver ring. 

But the time was running short; the Admiral, hampered as he was by thepossession of only one small ship, had now but one idea, which was to getback to Castile as quickly as possible, report the result of hisdiscoveries, and come back again with a larger and more efficientequipment. Before he departed he had an affectionate leave-taking withKing Guacanagari; he gave him another shirt, and also provided ademonstration of the effect of lombards by having one loaded, and firingat the old Santa Maria where she lay hove down on the sandbank. The shotwent clean through her hull and fell into the sea beyond, and producedwhat might be called a very strong moral effect, although an unnecessaryone, on the natives. He then set about the very delicate business oforganising the settlement. In all, forty-two men were to remain behind, with Diego de Arana in the responsible position of chief lieutenant, assisted by Pedro Gutierrez and Rodrigo de Escovedo, the nephew of FriarJuan Perez of La Rabida. To these three he delegated all his powers andauthority as Admiral and Viceroy; and then, having collected thecolonists, gave them a solemn address. First, he reminded them of thegoodness of God to them, and advised them to remain worthy of it byobeying the Divine command in all their actions. Second, he orderedthem, as a representative of the Sovereigns of Spain, to obey the captainwhom he had appointed for them as they would have obeyed himself. Third, he urged them to show respect and reverence towards King Guacanagari andhis chiefs, and to the inferior chiefs, and to avoid annoying them ortormenting them, since they were to remain in a land that was as yetunder native dominion; to "strive and watch by their soft and honestspeech to gain their good-will and keep their friendship and love, sothat he should find them as friendly and favourable and more so when hereturned. " Fourth, he commanded them "and begged them earnestly" to dono injury and use no force against any natives; to take nothing from themagainst their will; and especially to be on their guard to avoid injuryor violence to the women, "by which they would cause scandal and set abad example to the Indians and show the infamy of the Christians. "Fifth, he charged them not to scatter themselves or leave the place wherethey then were, but to remain together until he returned. Sixth, he"animated" them to suffer their solitude and exile cheerfully andbravely, since they had willingly chosen it. The seventh order was, thatthey should get help from the King to send boat expeditions in search ofthe gold mines; and lastly, he promised that he would petition theSovereigns to honour them with special favours and rewards. To this verymanly, wise and humane address the people listened with some emotion, assuring Columbus that they placed their hopes in him, "begging himearnestly to remember them always, and that as quickly as he could heshould give them the great joy which they anticipated from his comingagain. "

All of which things being done, the ships [ship--there was only the Nina]loaded and provisioned, and the Admiral's final directions given, hemakes his farewells and weighs anchor at sunrise on Friday, January 4. , 1493. Among the little crowd on the shore who watch the Nina growingsmaller in the distance are our old friends Allard and William, tired ofthe crazy confinement of a ship and anxious for shore adventures. Theyare to have their fill of them, as it happens; adventures that are tobring to the settlers a sudden cloud of blood and darkness, and for theislanders a brief return to their ancient peace. But death waits forAllard and William in the sunshine and silence of Espanola. 

CHAPTER III

THE VOYAGE HOME

Columbus did not stand out to sea on his homeward course immediately, butstill coasted along the shores of the island as though he were loth toleave it, and as though he might still at some bend of a bay or beyondsome verdant headland come upon the mines and jewels that he longed for. The mountain that he passed soon after starting he called Monte Christi, which name it bears to this day; and he saw many other mountains andcapes and bays, to all of which he gave names. And it was a fortunatechance which led him thus to stand along the coast of the island; for onJanuary 6th the sailor who was at the masthead, looking into the clearwater for shoals and rocks, reported that he saw the caravel Pinta rightahead. When she came up with him, as they were in very shallow water notsuitable for anchorage, Columbus returned to the bay of Monte Christi toanchor there. Presently Martin Alonso Pinzon came on board to reporthimself--a somewhat crestfallen Martin, we may be sure, for he had failedto find the gold the hope of which had led him to break his honour as aseaman. But the Martin Alonsos of this world, however sorry theirposition may be, will always find some kind of justification for it. Itmust have been a trying moment for Martin Alonso as his boat from thePinta drew near the Nina, and he saw the stalwart commanding figure ofthe white-haired Admiral walking the poop. He knew very well thataccording to the law and custom of the sea Columbus would have been wellwithin his right in shooting him or hanging him on the spot; but Martinputs on a bold face as, with a cold dread at his heart and (as likely asnot) an ingratiating smile upon his face he comes up over the side. Perhaps, being in some ways a cleverer man than Christopher, he knew theAdmiral's weak points; knew that he was kind-hearted, and would rememberthose days of preparation at Palos when Martin Alonso had been hisprincipal stay and help. Martin's story was that he had been separatedfrom the Admiral against his will; that the crew insisted upon it, andthat in any case they had only meant to go and find some gold and bringit back to the Admiral. Columbus did not believe him for a moment, buteither his wisdom or his weakness prevented him from saying so. Hereproached Martin Alonso for acting with pride and covetousness "thatnight when he went away and left him"; and Columbus could not think "fromwhence had come the haughty actions and dishonesty Martin had showntowards him on that voyage. " Martin had done a good trade and had got acertain amount of gold; and no doubt he knew well in what direction toturn the conversation when it was becoming unpleasant to himself. Hetold Columbus of an island to the south of Juana--[Cuba]--calledYamaye, --[Jamaica]--where pieces of gold were taken from the mines aslarge as kernels of wheat, and of another island towards the east whichwas inhabited only by women. 

The unpleasantness was passed over as soon as possible, although theAdmiral felt that the sooner he got home the better, since he waspractically at the mercy of the Pinzon brothers and their following fromPalos. He therefore had the Pinta beached and recaulked and took in woodand water, and continued his voyage on Tuesday, January 8th. He saysthat "this night in the name of our Lord he will start on his journeywithout delaying himself further for any matter, since he had found whathe had sought, and he did not wish to have more trouble with that MartinAlonso until their Highnesses learned the news of the voyage and what hehas done. " After that it will be another matter, and his turn will come;for then, he says, "I will not suffer the bad deeds of persons withoutvirtue, who, with little respect, presume to carry out their own wills inopposition to those who did them honour. " Indeed, for several days, thename of "that Martin Alonso" takes the place of gold in Columbus'sJournal. There were all kinds of gossip about the ill deeds of MartinAlonso, who had taken four Indian men and two young girls by force; theAdmiral releasing them immediately and sending them back to their homes. Martin Alonso, moreover, had made a rule that half the gold that wasfound was to be kept by himself; and he tried to get all the people ofhis ship to swear that he had been trading for only six days, but "hiswickedness was so public that he could not hide it. " It was a good thingthat Columbus had his journal to talk to, for he worked off a deal ofbitterness in it. On Sunday, January 13th, when he had sent a boatashore to collect some "ajes" or potatoes, a party of natives with theirfaces painted and with the plumes of parrots in their hair came andattacked the party from the boat; but on getting a slash or two with acutlass they took to flight and escaped from the anger of the Spaniards. Columbus thought that they were cannibals or caribs, and would like tohave taken some of them, but they did not come back, although afterwardshe collected four youths who came out to the caravel with cotton andarrows. 

Columbus was very curious about the island of Matinino, --[Martinique]--which was the one said to be inhabited only by women, and he wished verymuch to go there; but the caravels were leaking badly, the crews werecomplaining, and he was reluctantly compelled to shape his course forSpain. He sailed to the north-east, being anxious apparently to get intothe region of westerly winds which he correctly guessed would be found tothe north of the course he had sailed on his outward voyage. By the 17thof January he was in the vicinity of the Sargasso Sea again, which thistime had no terrors for him. From his journal the word "gold" suddenlydisappears; the Viceroy and Governor-General steps off the stage; and inhis place appears the sea captain, watching the frigate birds andpelicans, noting the golden gulf-weed in the sea, and smelling thebreezes that are once more as sweet as the breezes of Seville in May. Hehad a good deal of trouble with his dead-reckoning at this time, owing tothe changing winds and currents; but he made always from fifty to seventymiles a day in a direction between north-by-east and north-north-east. The Pinta was not sailing well, and he often had to wait for her to comeup with him; and he reflected in his journal that if Martin Alonso Pinzonhad taken as much pains to provide himself with a good mast in the Indiesas he had to separate himself from the Admiral, the Pinta would havesailed better. 

And so he went on for several days, with the wind veering always southand south-west, and pointing pretty steadily to the north-east. OnFebruary 4th he changed his course, and went as near due east as hecould. They now began to find themselves in considerable doubt as totheir position. The Admiral said he was seventy-five leagues to thesouth of Flores; Vincenti Pinzon and the pilots thought that they hadpassed the Azores and were in the neighbourhood of Madeira. In otherwords, there was a difference of 600 miles between their estimates, and the Admiral remarks that "the grace of God permitting, as soon asland is seen, it will be known who has calculated the surest. "

A great quantity of birds that began to fly about the ship made him thinkthat they were near land, but they turned out to be the harbingers of astorm. On Tuesday, February 12th, the sea and wind began to rise, and itcontinued to blow harder throughout that night and the next day. Thewind being aft he went under bare poles most of the night, and when daycame hoisted a little sail; but the sea was terrible, and if he had notbeen so sure of the staunch little Nina he would have felt himself indanger of being lost. The next day the sea, instead of going down, increased in roughness; there was a heavy cross sea which kept breakingright over the ship, and it became necessary to make a little sail inorder to run before the wind, and to prevent the vessel falling back intothe trough of the seas. All through Thursday he ran thus under the halfhoisted staysail, and he could see the Pinta running also before thewind, although since she presented more surface, and was able to carry alittle more sail than the Nina, she was soon lost to sight. The Admiralshowed lights through the night, and this time there was no lack ofresponse from Martin Alonso; and for some part of that dark and stormynight these two humanly freighted scraps of wood and cordage staggeredthrough the gale showing lights to each other; until at last the lightfrom the Pinta disappeared. When morning came she was no longer to beseen; and the wind and the sea had if anything increased. The Nina wasnow in the greatest danger. Any one wave of the heavy cross sea, if ithad broken fairly across her, would have sunk her; and she went swingingand staggering down into the great valleys and up into the hills, thesteersman's heart in his mouth, and the whole crew in an extremity offear. Columbus, who generally relied upon his seamanship, here invokedexternal aid, and began to offer bargains to the Almighty. He orderedthat lots should be cast, and that he upon whom the lot fell should makea vow to go on pilgrimage to Santa Maria de Guadaloupe carrying a whitecandle of five pounds weight. Same dried peas were brought, one forevery member of the crew, and on one of them a cross was marked with aknife; the peas were well shaken and were put into a cap. The first todraw was the Admiral; he drew the marked pea, and he made the vow. Lotswere again drawn, this time for a greater pilgrimage to Santa Maria deLoretto in Ancona; and the lot fell on a seaman named Pedro de Villa, --the expenses of whose pilgrimage Columbus promised to pay. Again lotswere drawn for a pilgrimage to the shrine of Santa Clara of Moguer, thepilgrim to watch and pray for one night there; and again the lot fell onColumbus. In addition to these, every one, since they took themselvesfor lost, made some special and private vow or bargain with God; andfinally they all made a vow together that at the first land they reachedthey would go in procession in their shirts to pray at an altar of OurLady. 

The scene thus conjured up is one peculiar to the time and condition ofthese people, and is eloquent and pathetic enough: the little shipstaggering and bounding along before the wind, and the frightened crew, who had gone through so many other dangers, huddled together under theforecastle, drawing peas out of a cap, crossing themselves, making vowsupon their knees, and seeking to hire the protection of the Virgin bytheir offers of candles and pilgrimages. Poor Christopher, standing inhis drenched oilskins and clinging to a piece of rigging, had his ownsearching of heart and examining of conscience. He was aware of thefeverish anxiety and impatience that he felt, now that he had beensuccessful in discovering a New World, to bring home the news and fruitsof it; his desire to prove true what he had promised was so great that, in his own graphic phrase, "it seemed to him that every gnat coulddisturb and impede it"; and he attributed this anxiety to his lack offaith in God. He comforted himself, like Robinson Crusoe in a similarextremity, by considering on the other hand what favours God had shownhim, and by remembering that it was to the glory of God that the fruitsof his discovery were to be dedicated. But in the meantime here he wasin a ship insufficiently ballasted (for she was now practically empty ofprovisions, and they had found it necessary to fill the wine and watercasks with salt water in order to trim her) and flying before a tempestsuch as he had never experienced in his life. As a last resource, and inorder to give his wonderful news a chance of reaching Spain in case theship were lost, he went into his cabin and somehow or other managed towrite on a piece of parchment a brief account of his discoveries, beggingany one who might find it to carry it to the Spanish Sovereigns. He tiedup the parchment in a waxed cloth, and put it into a large barrel withoutany one seeing him, and then ordered the barrel to be thrown into thesea, which the crew took to be some pious act of sacrifice or devotion. Then he went back on deck and watched the last of the daylight going andthe green seas swelling and thundering about his little ship, and thoughtanxiously of his two little boys at school in Cordova, and wondered whatwould become of them if he were lost. The next morning the wind hadchanged a little, though it was still very high; but he was able to hoistup the bonnet or topsail, and presently the sea began to go down alittle. When the sun rose they saw land to the east-north-east. Some ofthem thought it was Madeira, others the rock of Cintra in Portugal; thepilots said it was the coast of Spain, the Admiral thought it was theAzores; but at any rate it was land of some kind. The sun was shiningupon it and upon the tumbling sea; and although the waves were stillraging mast-high and the wind still blowing a hard gale, the miserablecrew were able to hope that, having lived through the night, they couldlive through the day also. They had to beat about to make the land, which was now ahead of them, now on the beam, and now astern; andalthough they had first sighted it at sunrise on Friday morning it wasearly on Monday morning, February 18th, before Columbus was able to castanchor off the northern coast of an island which he discovered to be theisland of Santa Maria in the Azores. On this day Columbus found time towrite a letter to Luis de Santangel, the royal Treasurer, giving a fullaccount of his voyage and discoveries; which letter he kept anddespatched on the 4th of March, after he had arrived in Lisbon. Since itcontained a postscript written at the last moment we shall read it atthat stage of our narrative. The inhabitants of Santa Maria received thevoyagers with astonishment, for they believed that nothing could havelived through the tempest that had been raging for the last fortnight. They were greatly excited by the story of the discoveries; and theAdmiral, who had now quite recovered command of himself, was able topride himself on the truth of his dead-reckoning, which had proved to beso much more accurate than that of the pilots. 

On the Tuesday evening three men hailed them from the shore, and whenthey were brought off to the ship delivered a message from the PortugueseGovernor of the island, Juan de Castaneda, to the effect that he knew theAdmiral very well, and that he was delighted to hear of his wonderfulvoyage. The next morning Columbus, remembering the vow that had beenmade in the storm, sent half the crew ashore in their shirts to a littlehermitage, which was on the other side of a point a short distance away, and asked the Portuguese messenger to send a priest to say Mass for them. While the members of the crew were at their prayers, however, theyreceived a rude surprise. They were suddenly attacked by the islanders, who had come up on horses under the command of the treacherous Governor, and taken prisoners. Columbus waited unsuspectingly for the boat to comeback with them, in order that he and the other half of the crew could goand perform their vow. 

When the boat did not come back he began to fear that some accident musthave happened to it, and getting his anchor up he set sail for the pointbeyond which the hermitage was situated. No sooner had he rounded thepoint than he saw a band of horsemen, who dismounted, launched the boatwhich was drawn up on the beach, and began to row out, evidently with theintention of attacking the Admiral. When they came up to the Nina theman in command of them rose and asked Columbus to assure him of personalsafety; which assurance was wonderingly given; and the Admiral inquiredhow it was that none of his own people were in the boat? Columbussuspected treachery and tried to meet it with treachery also, endeavouring with smooth words to get the captain to come on board sothat he could seize him as a hostage. But as the Portuguese would notcome on board Columbus told them that they were acting very unwisely inaffronting his people; that in the land of the Sovereigns of Castile thePortuguese were treated with great honour and security; that he heldletters of recommendation from the Sovereigns addressed to every ruler inthe world, and added that he was their Admiral of the Ocean Seas andViceroy of the Indies, and could show the Portuguese his commission tothat effect; and finally, that if his people were not returned to him, hewould immediately make sail for Spain with the crew that was left to himand report this insult to the Spanish Sovereigns. To all of which thePortuguese captain replied that he did not know any Sovereigns ofCastile; that neither they nor their letters were of any account in thatisland; that they were not afraid of Columbus; and that they would havehim know that he had Portugal to deal with--edging away in the boat atthe same time to a convenient distance from the caravel. When he thoughthe was out of gunshot he shouted to Columbus, ordering him to take hiscaravel back to the harbour by command of the Governor of the island. Columbus answered by calling his crew to witness that he pledged his wordnot to descend from or leave his caravel until he had taken a hundredPortuguese to Castile, and had depopulated all their islands. Afterwhich explosion of words he returned to the harbour and anchored there, "as the weather and wind were very unfavourable for anything else. "

He was, however, in a very bad anchorage, with a rocky bottom whichpresently fouled his anchors; and on the Wednesday he had to make sailtowards the island of San Miguel if order to try and find a betteranchorage. 

But the wind and sea getting up again very badly he was obliged to beatabout all night in a very unpleasant situation, with only three sailorswho could be relied upon, and a rabble of gaol-birds and longshoremen whowere of little use in a tempest but to draw lots and vow pilgrimages. Finding himself unable to make the island of San Miguel he decided to goback to Santa Maria and make an attempt to recover his boat and his crewand the anchor and cables he had lost there. 

In his Journal for this day, and amid all his anxieties, he found time tonote down one of his curious visionary cosmographical reflections. Thisreturn to a region of storms and heavy seas reminded him of the longmonths he had spent in the balmy weather and calm waters of hisdiscovery; in which facts he found a confirmation of the theological ideathat the Eden, or Paradise, of earth was "at the end of the Orient, because it is a most temperate place. So that these lands which he hadnow discovered are at the end of the Orient. " Reflections such as these, which abound in his writings, ought in themselves to be a sufficientcondemnation of those who have endeavoured to prove that Columbus was aman of profound cosmographical learning and of a scientific mind. A manwho would believe that he had discovered the Orient because in the placewhere he had been he had found calm weather, and because the theologianssaid that the Garden of Eden must be in the Orient since it is atemperate place, would believe anything. 

Late on Thursday night, when he anchored again in the harbour of SanLorenzo at Santa Maria, a man hailed them from the rocks, and asked themnot to go away. Presently a boat containing five sailors, two priests, and a notary put off from the beach; and they asked for a guarantee ofsecurity in order that they might treat with the Admiral. They slept onboard that night, and in the morning asked him to show them his authorityfrom the Spanish Sovereigns, which the Admiral did, understanding thatthey had asked for this formality in order to save their dignity. Heshowed them his general letter from the King and Queen of Spain, addressed to "Princes and Lords of High Degree"; and being satisfied withthis they went ashore and released the Admiral's people, from whom helearned that what had been done had been done by command of the King ofPortugal, and that he had issued an order to the Governors of all thePortuguese islands that if Columbus landed there on his way home he wasto be taken prisoner. 

He sailed again on Sunday, February 24th, encountering heavy winds andseas, which troubled him greatly with fears lest some disaster shouldhappen at the eleventh hour to interfere with his, triumph. On Sunday, March 3rd, the wind rose to the force of a hurricane, and, on a suddengust of violent wind splitting all the sails, the unhappy crew gatheredtogether again and drew more lots and made more vows. This time thepilgrimage was to be to the shrine of Santa Maria at Huelva, the pilgrimto go as before in his shirt; and the lot fell to the Admiral. The restof them made a vow to fast on the next Saturday on bread and water; butas they all thought it extremely unlikely that by that time they would bein need of any bodily sustenance the sacrifice could hardly have been agreat one. They scudded along under bare poles and in a heavy cross seaall that night; but at dawn on Monday they saw land ahead of them, whichColumbus recognised as the rock of Cintra at Lisbon; and at Lisbon sureenough they landed some time during the morning. As soon as they wereinside the river the people came flocking down with stories of the galeand of all the wrecks that there had been on the coast. Columbus hurriedaway from the excited crowds to write a letter to the King of Portugal, asking him for a safe conduct to Spain, and assuring him that he had comefrom the Indies, and not from any of the forbidden regions of Guinea. 

The next day brought a visit from no less a person than Bartholomew Diaz. Columbus had probably met him before in 1486, when Diaz had been adistinguished man and Columbus a man not distinguished; but now thingswere changed. Diaz ordered Columbus to come on board his small vessel inorder to go and report himself to the King's officers; but Columbusreplied that he was the Admiral of the Sovereigns of Castile, "that hedid not render such account to such persons, " and that he declined toleave his ship. Diaz then ordered him to send the captain of the Nina;but Columbus refused to send either the captain or any other person, andotherwise gave himself airs as the Admiral of the Ocean Seas. Diaz thenmoderated his requests, and merely asked Columbus to show him his letterof authority, which Columbus did; and then Diaz went away and broughtback with him the captain of the Portuguese royal yacht, who came ingreat state on board the shabby little Nina, with kettle-drums andtrumpets and pipes, and placed himself at the disposal of Columbus. Itis a curious moment, this, in which the two great discoverers of theirtime, Diaz and Columbus, meet for an hour on the deck of a forty-toncaravel; a curious thing to consider that they who had performed suchgreat feats of skill and bravery, one to discover the southernmost pointof the old world and the other to voyage across an uncharted ocean to thediscovery of an entirely new world, could find nothing better to talkabout than their respective ranks and glories; and found no moreinteresting subject of discussion than the exact amount of state andprivilege which should be accorded to each. 

During the day or two in which Columbus waited in the port crowds ofpeople came down from Lisbon to see the little Nina, which was an objectof much admiration and astonishment; to see the Indians also, at whomthey greatly marvelled. It was probably at this time that the letteraddressed to Luis de Santangel, containing the first official account ofthe voyage, was despatched. 

 * ***** * *

 "Sir: As I am sure you will be pleased at the great victory which the Lord has given me in my voyage, I write this to inform you that in twenty' days I arrived in the Indies with the squadron which their Majesties had placed under my command. There I discovered many islands, inhabited by a numerous population, and took possession of them for their Highnesses, with public ceremony and the royal flag displayed, without molestation. 

 "The first that I discovered I named San Salvador, in remembrance of that Almighty Power which had so miraculously bestowed them. The Indians call it Guanahani. To the second I assigned the name of Santa Marie de Conception; to the third that of Fernandina; to the fourth that of Isabella; to the fifth Juana; and so on, to every one a new name. 

 "When I arrived at Juana, I followed the coast to the westward, and found it so extensive that I considered it must be a continent and a province of Cathay. And as I found no towns or villages by the seaside, excepting some small settlements, with the people of which I could not communicate because they all ran away, I continued my course to the westward, thinking I should not fail to find some large town and cities. After having coasted many leagues without finding any signs of them, and seeing that the coast took me to the northward, where I did not wish to go, as the winter was already set in, I considered it best to follow the coast to the south and the wind being also scant, I determined to lose no more time, and therefore returned to a certain port, from whence I sent two messengers into the country to ascertain whether there was any king there or any large city. 

 "They travelled for three days, finding an infinite number of small settlements and an innumerable population, but nothing like a city: on which account--they returned. I had tolerably well ascertained from some Indians whom I had taken that this land was only an island, so I followed the coast of it to the east 107 leagues, to its termination. And about eighteen leagues from this cape, to the east, there was another island, to which I shortly gave the name of Espanola. I went to it, and followed the north coast of it, as I had done that of Juana, for 178--[should be 188]--long leagues due east. 

 "This island is very fertile, as well, indeed, as all the rest. It possesses numerous harbours, far superior to any I know in Europe, and what is remarkable, plenty of large inlets. The land is high, and contains many lofty ridges and some very high mountains, without comparison of the island of Centrefrey;--[Tenerife]--all of them very handsome and of different forms; all of them accessible and abounding in trees of a thousand kinds, high, and appearing as if they would reach the skies. And I am assured that the latter never lose their fresh foliage, as far as I can understand, for I saw them as fresh and flourishing as those of Spain in the month of May. Some were in blossom, some bearing fruit, and others in other states, according to their nature. 

 "The nightingale and a thousand kinds of birds enliven the woods with their song, in the month of November, wherever I went. There are seven or eight kinds of palms, of various elegant forms, besides various other trees, fruits, and herbs. The pines of this island are magnificent. It has also extensive plains, honey, and a great variety of birds and fruits. It has many metal mines, and a population innumerable. 

 "Espanola is a wonderful island, with mountains, groves, plains, and the country generally beautiful and rich for planting and sowing, for rearing sheep and cattle of all kinds, and ready for towns and cities. The harbours must be seen to be appreciated; rivers are plentiful and large and of excellent water; the greater part of them contain gold. There is a great difference between the trees, fruits, and herbs of this island and those of Juana. In this island there are many spices, and large mines of gold and other metals. 

 "The people of this island and of all the others which I have discovered or heard of, both men and women, go naked as they were born, although some of the women wear leaves of herbs or a cotton covering made on purpose. They have no iron or steel, nor any weapons; not that they are not a well-disposed people and of fine stature, but they are timid to a degree. They have no other arms excepting spears made of cane, to which they fix at the end a sharp piece of wood, and then dare not use even these. Frequently I had occasion to send two or three of my men onshore to some settlement for information, where there would be multitudes of them; and as soon as they saw our people they would run away every soul, the father leaving his child; and this was not because any one had done them harm, for rather at every cape where I had landed and been able to communicate with them I have made them presents of cloth and many other things without receiving anything in return; but because they are so timid. Certainly, where they have confidence and forget their fears, they are so open-hearted and liberal with all they possess that it is scarcely to be believed without seeing it. If anything that they have is asked of them they never deny it; on the contrary, they will offer it. Their generosity is so great that they would give anything, whether it is costly or not, for anything of every kind that is offered them and be contented with it. I was obliged to prevent such worth less things being given them as pieces of broken basins, broken glass, and bits of shoe-latchets, although when they obtained them they esteemed them as if they had been the greatest of treasures. One of the seamen for a latchet received a piece of gold weighing two dollars and a half, and others, for other things of much less value, obtained more. Again, for new silver coin they would give everything they possessed, whether it was worth two or three doubloons or one or two balls of cotton. Even for pieces of broken pipe-tubes they would take them and give anything for them, until, when I thought it wrong, I prevented it. And I made them presents of thousands of things which I had, that I might win their esteem, and also that they might be made good Christians and be disposed to the service of Your Majesties and the whole Spanish nation, and help us to obtain the things which we require and of which there is abundance in their country. 

 "And these people appear to have neither religion nor idolatry, except that they believe that good and evil come from the skies; and they firmly believed that our ships and their crews, with myself, came from the skies, and with this persuasion, --after having lost their fears, they always received us. And yet this does not proceed from ignorance, for they are very ingenious, and some of them navigate their seas in a wonderful manner and give good account of things, but because they never saw people dressed or ships like ours. 

 "And as soon as I arrived in the Indies, at the first island at which I touched, I captured some of them, that we might learn from them and obtain intelligence of what there was in those parts. And as soon as we understood each other they were of great service to us; but yet, from frequent conversation which I had with them, they still believe we came from the skies. These were the first to express that idea, and others ran from house to house, and to the neighbouring villages, crying out, "Come and see the people from the skies. " And thus all of them, men and women, after satisfying themselves of their safety, came to us without reserve, great and small, bringing us something to eat and drink, and which they gave to us most affectionately. 

 "They have many canoes in those islands propelled by oars, some of them large and others small, and many of them with eight or ten paddles of a side, not very wide, but all of one trunk, and a boat cannot keep way with them by oars, for they are incredibly fast; and with these they navigate all the islands, which are innumerable, and obtain their articles of traffic. I have seen some of these canoes with sixty or eighty men in them, and each with a paddle. 

 "Among the islands I did not find much diversity of formation in the people, nor in their customs, nor their language. They all understand each other, which is remarkable; and I trust Your Highnesses will determine on their being converted to our faith, for which they are very well disposed. 

 "I have already said that I went 107 leagues along the coast of Juana, from east to west. Thus, according to my track, it is larger than England and Scotland together, for, besides these 107 leagues, there were further west two provinces to which I did not go, one of which is called Cibau, the people of which are born with tails; which provinces must be about fifty or sixty leagues long, according to what I can make out from the Indians I have with me, who know all the islands. The other island (Espanola) is larger in circuit than the whole of Spain, from the Straits of Gibralter (the Columns) to Fuentarabia in Biscay, as I sailed 138 long leagues in a direct line from west to east. Once known it must be desired, and once seen one desires never to leave it; and which, being taken possession of for their Highnesses, and the people being at present in a condition lower than I can possibly describe, the Sovereigns of Castile may dispose of it in any manner they please in the most convenient places. In this Espanola, and in the best district, where are gold mines, and, on the other side, from thence to terra firma, as well as from thence to the Great Khan, where everything is on a splendid scale--I have taken possession of a large town, to which I gave the name of La Navidad, and have built a fort in it, in every respect complete. And I have left sufficient people in it to take care of it, with artillery and provisions for more than a year; also a boat and coxswain with the equipments, in complete friendship with the King of the islands, to that degree that he delighted to call me and look on me as his brother. And should they fall out with these people, neither he nor his subjects know anything of weapons, and go naked, as I have said, and they are the most timorous people in the world. The few people left there are sufficient to conquer the country, and the island would thus remain without danger to them, they keeping order among themselves. 

 "In all these islands it appeared to me the men are contented with one wife, but to their governor or king they allow twenty. The women seem to work more than the men. I have not been able to discover whether they respect personal property, for it appeared to me things were common to all, especially in the particular of provisions. Hitherto I have not seen in any of these islands any monsters, as there were supposed to be; the people, on the contrary, are generally well formed, nor are they black like those of the Guinea, saving their hair, and they do not reside in places exposed to the sun's rays. It is true that the sun is most powerful there, and it is only twenty-six degrees from the equator. In this last winter those islands which were mountainous were cold, but they were accustomed to it, with good food and plenty of spices and hot nutriment. Thus I have found no monsters nor heard of any, except at an island which is the second in going to the Indies, and which is inhabited by a people who are considered in all the islands as ferocious, and who devour human flesh. These people have many canoes, which scour all the islands of India, and plunder all they can. They are not worse formed than the others, but they wear the hair long like women, and use bows and arrows of the same kind of cane, pointed with a piece of hard wood instead of iron, of which they have none. They are fierce compared with the other people, who are in general but sad cowards; but I do not consider them in any other way superior to them. These are they who trade in women, who inhabit the first island met with in going from Spain to the Indies, in which there are no men whatever. They have no effeminate exercise, but bows and arrows, as before said, of cane, with which they arm themselves, and use shields of copper, of which they have plenty. 

 "There is another island, I am told, larger than Espanola, the natives of which have no hair. In this there is gold without limit, and of this and the others I have Indians with me to witness. 

 "In conclusion, referring only to what has been effected by this voyage, which was made with so much haste, Your Highnesses may see that I shall find as much gold as desired with the very little assistance afforded to me; there is as much spice and cotton as can be wished for, and also gum, which hitherto has only been found in Greece, in the island of Chios, and they may sell it as they please, and the mastich, as much as may be desired, and slaves, also, who will be idolators. And I believe that I have rhubarb, and cinnamon, and a thousand other things I shall find, which will be discovered by those whom I have left behind, for I did not stop at any cape when the wind enabled me to navigate, except at the town of Navidad, where I was very safe and well taken care of. And in truth much more I should have done if the ships had served me as might have been expected. This is certain, that the Eternal God our Lord gives all things to those who obey Him, and the victory when it seems impossible, and this, evidently, is an instance of it, for although people have talked of these lands, all was conjecture unless proved by seeing them, for the greater part listened and judged more by hearsay than by anything else. 

 "Since, then, our Redeemer has given this victory to our illustrious King and Queen and celebrated their reigns by such a great thing, all Christendom should rejoice and make great festivals, and give solemn thanks to the Blessed Trinity, with solemn praises for the exaltation of so much people to our holy faith; and next for the temporal blessings which not only Spain but they will enjoy in becoming Christians, and which last may shortly be accomplished. 

 "Written in the caravel off Santa Maria; on the eighteenth of February, ninety-three. "

The following postscript was added to the letter before it wasdespatched:

 "After writing the above, being in the Castilian Sea (off the coast of Castile), I experienced so severe a wind from south and south-east that I have been obliged to run to-day into this port of Lisbon, and only by a miracle got safely in, from whence I intended to write to Your Highnesses. In all parts of the Indies I have found the weather like that of May, where I went in ninety-three days, and returned in seventy-eight, saving these thirteen days of bad weather that I have been detained beating about in this sea. Every seaman here says that never was so severe a winter, nor such loss of ships. "

On the Friday a messenger came from the King in the person of Don Martinde Noronha, a relative of Columbus by marriage, and one who had perhapslooked down upon him in the days when he attended the convent chapel atLisbon, but who was now the bearer of a royal invitation and in theposition of a mere envoy. Columbus repaired to Paraiso where the Kingwas, and where he was received with great honour. 

King John might well have been excused if he had felt some mortificationat this glorious and successful termination of a project which had beenoffered to him and which he had rejected; but he evidently behaved withdignity and a good grace, and did everything that he could to helpColumbus. It was extremely unlikely that he had anything to do with theinsult offered to Columbus at the Azores, for though he was bitterlydisappointed that the glory of this discovery belonged to Spain and notto Portugal, he was too much of a man to show it in this petty andrevengeful manner. He offered to convey Columbus by land into Spain; butthe Admiral, with a fine dramatic sense, preferred to arrive by sea onboard of all that was left of the fleet with which he had sailed. Hesailed for Seville on Wednesday, March 13th, but during the next day, when he was off Cape Saint Vincent, he evidently changed his mind anddecided to make for Palos. Sunrise on Friday saw him off the bar ofSaltes, with the white walls of La Rabida shining on the promontory amongthe dark fir-trees. During the hours in which he stood off and onwaiting for the tide he was able to recognise again all the old landmarksand the scenes which had been so familiar to him in those busy days ofpreparation nine months before; and at midday he sailed in with the floodtide and dropped his anchor again in the mud of the river by Palos. 

The caravel had been sighted some time before, probably when she wasstanding off, the bar waiting for the tide; she was flying the Admiral'sflag and there was no mistaking her identity; and we can imagine the newsspreading throughout the town of Palos, and reaching Huelva, and one byone the bells beginning to ring, and the places of business to be closed, and the people to come pouring out into the streets to be ready to greettheir friends. Some more impatient than the others would sail out infishing-boats to get the first news; and I should be surprised to knowthat a boat did not put off from the little pier beneath La Rabida, torow round the point and out to where the Nina was lying--to beyond theManto Bank. When the flood began to make over the bar and to cover thelong sandbank that stretches from the island of Saltes, the Nina camegliding in, greeted by every joyful sound and signal that the inhabitantsof the two seaports could make. Every one hurried down to Palos as thecaravel rounded the Convent Point. Hernando, Marchena, and good old JuanPerez were all there, we may be sure. Such excitements, such triumphs asthe bronzed, white-bearded Admiral steps ashore at last, and is seized bydozens of eager hands! Such excitements as all the wives and inamoratasof the Rodrigos and Juans and Franciscos rush to meet the swarthyvoyagers and cover them with embraces; such disappointments also, when itis realised that some two score of the company are still on a sunbakedisland infinitely far over the western horizon. 

Tears of joy and grief, shouts and feastings, firing of guns and flyingof flags, processions and receptions with these the deathless day isfilled; and the little Nina, her purpose staunchly fulfilled, swingsdeserted on the turning tide, the ripples of her native Tinto making afamiliar music under her bowsprit. 

And in the evening, with the last of the flood, another ship comesgliding round the point and up the estuary. The inhabitants of Paloshave all left the shore and are absorbed in the business of welcoming thegreat man; and there is no one left to notice or welcome the Pinta. Forit is she that, by a strange coincidence, and after many dangers anddistresses endured since she had parted company from the Nina in thestorm, now has made her native port on the very same day as the Nina. Our old friend Martin Alonso Pinzon is on board, all the fight andtreachery gone out of him, and anxious only to get home unobserved. For(according to the story) he had made the port of Bayona on the north-westcoast of Spain, and had written a letter from there to the Sovereignsannouncing his arrival and the discoveries that he had made; and it issaid that he had received an unpleasant letter in return, reproaching himfor not waiting for his commander and forbidding him to come to Court. This story is possible if his letter reached the Sovereigns after theletter from the Admiral; for it is probable that Columbus may havereported some of Martin's doings to them. 

Be that as it may, there are no flags and guns for him as he comescreeping in up the river; his one anxiety is to avoid the Admiral and toget home as quickly and quietly as he can. For he is ill, poor MartinAlonso; whether from a broken heart, as the early historians say, or frompure chagrin and disappointment, or, as is more likely, from some illnesscontracted on the voyage, it is impossible to say. He has endured histroubles and hardships like all the rest of them; no less skilfully thanColumbus has he won through that terrible tempest of February; and hisfoolish and dishonest conduct has deprived him not only of the rewardsthat he tried to steal, but of those which would otherwise have been hisby right. He creeps quietly ashore and to his home, where at any rate wemay hope that there is some welcome for him; takes to his bed, turns hisface to the wall; and dies in a few days. So farewell to Martin Alonso, who has borne us company thus far. He did not fail in the great mattersof pluck and endurance and nautical judgment, but only in the smallmatters of honesty and decent manly conduct. We will not weep for MartinAlonso; we will make our farewells in silence, and leave his deathbedundisturbed by any more accusations or reproaches. 

CHAPTER IV

THE HOUR OF TRIUMPH

From the moment when Columbus set foot on Spanish soil in the spring of1493 he was surrounded by a fame and glory which, although they weretransient, were of a splendour such as few other men can have everexperienced. He had not merely discovered a country, he had discovered aworld. He had not merely made a profitable expedition; he had broughtthe promise of untold wealth to the kingdom of Spain. He had not merelymade himself the master of savage tribes; he had conquered thesupernatural, and overcome for ever those powers of darkness that hadbeen thought to brood over the vast Atlantic. He had sailed away inobscurity, he had returned in fame; he had departed under a cloud ofscepticism and ridicule, he had come again in power and glory. He hadsailed from Palos as a seeker after hidden wealth, hidden knowledge; hereturned as teacher, discoverer, benefactor. The whole of Spain rangwith his fame, and the echoes of it spread to Portugal, France, England, Germany, and Italy; and it reached the ears of his own family, who hadnow left the Vico Dritto di Ponticello in Genoa and were living atSavona. 

His life ashore in the first weeks following his return was a successionof triumphs and ceremonials. His first care on landing had been to gowith the whole of his crew to the church of Saint George, where a Te Deumwas sung in honour of his return; and afterwards to perform those vowsthat he had made at sea in the hour of danger. There was a certainamount of business to transact at Palos in connection with the paying ofthe ships' crews, writing of reports to the Sovereigns, and so forth; andit is likely that he stayed with his friends at the monastery of LaRabida while this was being done. The Court was at Barcelona; and it wasprobably only a sense of his own great dignity and importance thatprevented Christopher from setting off on the long journey immediately. But he who had made so many pilgrimages to Court as a suitor could revelin a position that made it possible for him to hang back, and to bepressed and invited; and so when his business at Palos was finished hesent a messenger with his letters and reports to Barcelona, and himself, with his crew and his Indians and all his trophies, departed for Seville, where he arrived on Palm Sunday. 

His entrance into that city was only a foretaste of the glory in which hewas to move across the whole of Spain. He was met at the gates of thecity by a squadron of cavalry commanded by an envoy sent by QueenIsabella; and a procession was formed of members of the crew carryingparrots, alive and stuffed, fruits, vegetables, and various otherproducts of the New World. 

In a prominent place came the Indians, or rather four of them, for onehad died on the day they entered Palos and three were too ill to leavethat town; but the ones that took part in the procession got all the moreattention and admiration. The streets of Seville were crowded; crowdedalso were the windows, balconies, and roofs. The Admiral was entertainedat the house of the Count of Cifuentes, where his little museum of deadand live curiosities was also accommodated, and where certain favouredvisitors were admitted to view it. His two sons, Diego and Ferdinand, were sent from Cordova to join him; and perhaps he found time to visitBeatriz, although there is no record of his having been to Cordova or ofher having come to Seville. 

Meanwhile his letters and messengers to the King and Queen had producedtheir due effect. The almost incredible had come to pass, and they sawthemselves the monarchs not merely of Spain, but of a new Empire thatmight be as vast as Europe and Africa together. On the 30th of Marchthey despatched a special messenger with a letter to Columbus, whose eyesmust have sparkled and heart expanded when he read the superscription:"From the King and Queen to Don Christoval Colon, their Admiral of theOcean Seas and Viceroy and Governor of the Islands discovered in theIndies. " No lack of titles and dignities now! Their Majesties express aprofound sense of his ability and distinction, of the greatness of hisservices to them, to the Church, and to God Himself. They hope that hewill lose no time, but repair to Barcelona immediately, so that they canhave the pleasure of hearing from his own lips an account of hiswonderful expedition, and of discussing with him the preparations thatmust immediately be set on foot to fit out a new one. On receiving thisletter Christopher immediately drew up a list of what he thoughtnecessary for the new expedition and, collecting all his retinue and hismuseum of specimens, started by road for Barcelona. 

Every one in Spain had by this time heard more or less exaggeratedaccounts of the discoveries, and the excitement in the towns and villagesthrough which he passed was extreme. Wherever he went he was greeted andfeasted like a king returning from victorious wars; the people lined thestreets of the towns and villages, and hung out banners, and gazed theirfill at the Indians and at the strange sun-burned faces of the crew. AtBarcelona, where they arrived towards the end of April, the climax ofthese glittering dignities was reached. When the King and Queen heardthat Columbus was approaching the town they had their throne preparedunder a magnificent pavilion, and in the hot sunshine of that April daythey sat and waited the--coming of the great man. A glittering troop ofcavalry had been sent out to meet him, and at the gates of the town aprocession was formed similar to that at Seville. He had now six nativeswith him, who occupied an important place in the procession; sailorsalso, who carried baskets of fruit and vegetables from Espanola, withstuffed birds and animals, and a monstrous lizard held aloft on a stick. The Indians were duly decked out in all their paint and feathers; but ifthey were a wonder and marvel to the people of Spain, what must Spainhave been to them with its great buildings and cities, its carriages andhorses, its glittering dresses and armours, its splendour and luxury!We have no record of what the Indians thought, only of what the crowdthought who gaped upon them and upon the gaudy parrots that screeched andfluttered also in the procession. Columbus came riding on horseback, asbefitted a great Admiral and Viceroy, surrounded by his pilots andprincipal officers; and followed by men bearing golden belts, goldenmasks, nuggets of gold and dust of gold, and preceded by heralds, pursuivants, and mace-bearers. 

What a return for the man who three years before had been pointed at andlaughed to scorn in this same brilliant society! The crowds pressed soclosely that the procession could hardly get through the streets; thewhole population was there to witness it; and the windows and balconiesand roofs of the houses, as well as the streets themselves, were throngedwith a gaily dressed and wildly excited crowd. At length the processionreaches the presence of the King and Queen and, crowning andunprecedented honour! as the Admiral comes before them Ferdinand andIsabella rise to greet him. Under their own royal canopy a seat iswaiting for him; and when he has made his ceremonial greeting he isinvited to sit in their presence and give an account of his voyage. 

He is fully equal to the situation; settles down to do himself and hissubject justice; begins, we may be sure, with a preamble about theprovidence of God and its wisdom and consistency in preserving thenarrator and preparing his life for this great deed; putting in a deal ofscientific talk which had in truth nothing to do with the event, but wasalways applied to it in Columbus's writings from this date onwards; andgoing on to describe the voyage, the sea of weeds, the landfall, hisintercourse with the natives, their aptitude for labour and Christianity, and the hopes he has of their early conversion to the Catholic Church. And then follows a long description of the wonderful climate, "like Mayin Andalusia, " the noble rivers, and gorgeous scenery, the trees andfruits and flowers and singing birds; the spices and the cotton; andchief of all, the vast stores of gold and pearls of which the Admiral hadbrought home specimens. At various stages in his narrative he producesillustrations; now a root of rhubarb or allspice; now a raw nugget ofgold; now a piece of gold laboured into a mask or belt; now a nativedecorated with the barbaric ornaments that were the fashion in Espanola. These things, says Columbus, are mere first-fruits of the harvest that isto come; the things which he, like the dove that had flown across the seafrom the Ark and brought back an olive leaf in its mouth, has broughtback across the stormy seas to that Ark of civilisation from which he hadflown forth. 

It was to Columbus an opportunity of stretching his visionary wings andcreating with pompous words and images a great halo round himself ofdignity and wonder and divine distinction, --an opportunity such as heloved, and such as he never failed to make use of. 

The Sovereigns were delighted and profoundly impressed. Columbus woundup his address with an eloquent peroration concerning the glory toChristendom of these new discoveries; and there followed an impressivesilence, during which the Sovereigns sank on their knees and raised handsand tearful eyes to heaven, an example in which they were followed by thewhole of the assembly; and an appropriate gesture enough, seeing what wasto come of it all. The choir of the Chapel Royal sang a solemn Te Deumon the spot; and the Sovereigns and nobles, bishops, archbishops, grandees, hidalgos, chamberlains, treasurers, chancellors and othercourtiers, being exhausted by these emotions, retired to dinner. 

During his stay at Barcelona Columbus was the guest of theCardinal-Archbishop of Toledo, and moved thus in an atmosphere ofcombined temporal and spiritual dignity such as his soul loved. Veryagreeable indeed to him was the honour shown to him at this time. Deepdown in his heart there was a secret nerve of pride and vanity whichthroughout his life hitherto had been continually mortified and wounded;but he was able now to indulge his appetite for outward pomp and honouras much as he pleased. When King Ferdinand went out to ride Columbuswould be seen riding on one side of him, the young Prince John riding onthe other side; and everywhere, when he moved among the respectful andadmiring throng, his grave face was seen to be wreathed in complacentsmiles. His hair, which had turned white soon after he was thirty, gavehim a dignified and almost venerable appearance, although he was only inhis forty-third year; and combined with his handsome and commandingpresence to excite immense enthusiasm among the Spaniards. They forgotfor the moment what they had formerly remembered and were to rememberagain--that he was a foreigner, an Italian, a man of no family and ofpoor origin. They saw in him the figure-head of a new empire and a newglory, an emblem of power and riches, of the dominion which their proudsouls loved; and so there beamed upon him the brief fickle sunshine oftheir smiles and favour, which he in his delusion regarded as an earnestof their permanent honour and esteem. 

It is almost always thus with a man not born to such dignities, and whocomes by them through his own efforts and labours. No one would grudgehim the short-lived happiness of these summer weeks; but although hebelieved himself to be as happy as a man can be, he appears to quietlycontemplating eyes less happy and fortunate than when he stood alone onthe deck of his ship, surrounded by an untrustworthy crew, prevailing byhis own unaided efforts over the difficulties and dangers with which hewas surrounded. Court functions and processions, and the companionshipof kings and cardinals, are indeed no suitable reward for the kind ofwork that he did. Courtly dignities are suited to courtly services; butthey are no suitable crown for rough labour and hardship at sea, or forthe fulfilment of a man's self by lights within him; no suitable crownfor any solitary labour whatsoever, which must always be its own and onlyreward. 

It is to this period of splendour that the story of the egg, which is tosome people the only familiar incident in Columbian biography, isattributed. The story is that at a banquet given by the Cardinal-Archbishop the conversation ran, as it always did in those days when he waspresent, on the subject of the Admiral's discoveries; and that one of theguests remarked that it was all very well for Columbus to have done whathe did, but that in a country like Spain, where there were so many menlearned in science and cosmography, and many able mariners besides, someone else would certainly have been found who would have done the samething. Whereupon Columbus, calling for an egg, laid a wager that none ofthe company but him self could make it stand on its end without support. The egg was brought and passed round, and every one tried to make itstand on end, but without success. When it came to Columbus he crackedthe shell at one end, making a flat surface on which the egg stoodupright; thus demonstrating that a thing might be wonderful, not becauseit was difficult or impossible, but merely because no one had everthought of doing it before. A sufficiently inane story, and by no meanscertainly true; but there is enough character in this little feat, ponderous, deliberate, pompous, ostentatious, and at bottom a trick anddeceitful quibble, to make it accord with the grandiloquent public mannerof Columbus, and to make it easily believable of one who chose to showhimself in his speech and writings so much more meanly and pretentiouslythan he showed himself in the true acts and business of his life. 

But pomp and parade were not the only occupation of these Barcelona days. There were long consultations with Ferdinand and Isabella about thecolonisation of the new lands; there were intrigues, and parrying ofintrigues, between the Spanish and Portuguese Courts on the subject ofthe discoveries and of the representative rights of the two nations to bethe religious saviours of the New World. The Pope, to whose hands theheathen were entrusted by God to be handed for an inheritance to thehighest and most religious bidder, had at that time innocently dividedthem into two portions, to wit: heathen to the south of Spain andPortugal, and heathen to the west of those places. By the Bull of 1438, granted by Pope Martin V. , the heathen to the west had been given to theSpanish, and the heathen to the south to the Portuguese, and the twocrowns had in 1479 come to a working agreement. Now, however, theexistence of more heathen to the west of the Azores introduced a newcomplication, and Ferdinand sent a message to Pope Alexander VI. Prayingfor a confirmation of the Spanish title to the new discoveries. 

This Pope, who was a native of Aragon and had been a subject ofFerdinand, was a stolid, perverse, and stubborn being; so much isadvertised in his low forehead, impudent prominent nose, thick sensuallips, and stout bull neck. This Pope considers the matter; considers, by such lights as he has, to whom he shall entrust the souls of these newheathen; considers which country, Spain or Portugal, is most likely tohold and use the same for the increase of the Christian faith in general, the furtherance of the Holy Catholic Church in special, and theaggrandisement of Popes in particular; and shrewdly decides that thecountry in which the. Inquisition can flourish is the country to whomthe heathen souls should be entrusted. He therefore issues a Bull, datedMay 3, 1493, granting to the Spanish the possession of all lands, notoccupied by Christian powers, that lie west of a meridian drawn onehundred leagues to the westward of the Azores, and to the Portuguesepossession of all similar lands lying to the eastward of that line. Hesleeps upon this Bull, and has inspiration; and on the morrow, May 4th, issues another Bull, drawing a line from the arctic to the antarcticpole, and granting to Spain all heathen inheritance to the westward ofthe same. The Pope, having signed this Bull, considers itfurther-assisted, no doubt, by the Portuguese Ambassador at the Vatican, to whom it has been shown; realises that in the wording of the Bull aninjustice has been done to Portugal, since Spain is allowed to fix verymuch at her own convenience the point at which the line drawn from poleto pole shall cut the equator; and also because, although Spain is givenall the lands in existence within her territory, Portugal is only giventhe lands which she may actually have occupied. Even the legal mind ofthe Pope, although much drowsed and blunted by brutish excesses, discerns faultiness in this document; and consequently on the same dayissues a third Bull, in which the injustice to Portugal is redressed. Nothing so easy, thinks the Pope, as to issue Bulls; if you make amistake in one Bull, issue another; and, having issued three Bulls intwenty-four hours, he desists for the present, having divided theearthly globe. 

Thus easy it is for a Pope to draw lines from pole to pole, and acrossthe deep of the sea. Yet the poles sleep still in their icy virginalsanctity, and the blue waves through which that papal line passes shiftand shimmer and roll in their free salt loneliness, unaffected by hisdemarcation; the heathen also, it appears, since that distant day, havehad something to say to their disposition. If he had slept upon itanother night, poor Pope, it might have occurred to him that west andeast might meet on a meridian situated elsewhere on the globe than onehundred miles west of the Azores; and that the Portuguese, who for themoment had nothing heathen except Africa left to them, might according tohis demarcation strike a still richer vein of heathendom than thatgranted to Spain. But the holy Pontiff, bull neck, low forehead, impudent prominent nose, and sensual lips notwithstanding, is exhaustedby his cosmographical efforts, and he lets it rest at that. Later, whenSpain discovers that her privileges have been abated, he will have toissue another Bull; but not to-day. Sufficient unto the day are theBulls thereof. For the moment King proposes and Pope disposes; but thematter lies ultimately in the hands of the two eternal protagonists, manand God. 

In the meantime here are six heathen alive and well, or at any rate wellenough to support, willy-nilly, the rite of holy baptism. They must havebeen sufficiently dazed and bewildered by all that had happened to themsince they were taken on board the Admiral's ship, and God alone knowswhat they thought of it all, or whether they thought anything more thanthe parrots that screamed and fluttered and winked circular eyes in theprocession with them. Doubtless they were willing enough; and indeed, after all they had come through, a little cold water could not do themany harm. So baptized they were in Barcelona; pompously baptized withinfinite state and ceremony, the King and Queen and Prince Juanofficiating as sponsors. Queen Isabella, after the manner of queens, took a kindly feminine interest in these heathen, and in their brethrenacross the sea. She had seen a good deal of conquest, and knew herSpaniard pretty intimately; and doubtless her maternal heart had somemisgivings about the ultimate happiness of the gentle, handsome creatureswho lived in the sunshine in that distant place. She made their soulsher especial care, and honestly believed that by providing for theirspiritual conversion she was doing them the greatest service in herpower. She provided from her own private chapel vestments and altarfurniture for the mission church in Espanola; she had the six exiles inBarcelona instructed under her eye; and she gave Columbus special ordersto inflict severe punishments on any one who should offer the nativesviolence or injustice of any kind. It must be remembered to her creditthat in after days, when slavery and an intolerable bloody and brutishoppression had turned the paradise of Espanola into a shambles, shefought almost singlehanded, and with an ethical sense far in advance ofher day, against the system of slavery practised by Spain upon theinhabitants of the New World. 

The dignities that had been provisionally granted to Columbus before hisdeparture on the first voyage were now elaborately confirmed; and inaddition he was given another title--that of Captain-General of the largefleet which was to be fitted out to sail to the new colonies. He wasentrusted with the royal seal, which gave him the right to grant letterspatent, to issue commissions, and to Appoint deputies in the royal name. A coat-of-arms was also granted to him in which, in its original form, the lion and castle of Leon and Castile were quartered with islands ofthe sea or on a field azure, and five anchors or on a field azure. Thiswas changed from time to time, chiefly by Columbus himself, whoafterwards added a continent to the islands, and modified the blazonry ofthe lion and castle to agree with those on the royal arms--a piece ofignorance and childish arrogance which was quite characteristic of him. 

 [A motto has since been associated with the coat-of-arms, although it is not certain that Columbus adopted it in his lifetime. In one form it reads: "Por Castilla e por Leon Nueva Mundo hallo Colon. "]

 (For Castile and Leon Columbus found a New World. )

And in the other:

 "A Castilla y a Leon Nuevo Mundo dio Colon. "

 (To Castile and Leon Columbus gave a New World. )

Equally characteristic and less excusable was his acceptance of thepension of ten thousand maravedis which had been offered to the member ofthe expedition who should first sight land. Columbus was granted a verylarge gratuity on his arrival in Barcelona, and even taking the productof the islands at a tenth part of their value as estimated by him, hestill had every right to suppose himself one of the richest men in Spain. Yet he accepted this paltry pension of L8. 6s. 8d. In our modernmoney (of 1900), which, taking the increase in the purchasing power ofmoney at an extreme estimate, would not be more than the equivalent of$4000 now. Now Columbus had not been the first person to see land; hesaw the light, but it was Rodrigo de Triana, the look-out man on thePinta, who first saw the actual land. Columbus in his narrative to theKing and Queen would be sure to make much of the seeing of the light, andnot so much of the actual sighting of land; and he was on the spot, andthe reward was granted to him. Even if we assume that in strict equityColumbus was entitled to it, it was at least a matter capable ofargument, if only Rodrigo de Triana had been there to argue it; and whatare we to think of the Admiral of the Ocean Seas and Viceroy of theIndies who thus takes what can only be called a mean advantage of a poorseaman in his employ? It would have been a competence and a snug littlefortune to Rodrigo de Triana; it was a mere flea-bite to a man who wasthinking in eighth parts of continents. It may be true, as Oviedoalleges, that Columbus transferred it to Beatriz Enriquez; but he had noright to provide for her out of money that in all equity and decencyought to have gone to another and a poorer man. His biographers, some ofwhom have vied with his canonisers in insisting upon seeing virtue in hisevery action, have gone to all kinds of ridiculous extremes in accountingfor this piece of meanness. Irving says that it was "a subject in whichhis whole ambition was involved"; but a plain person will regard it as aninstance of greed and love of money. We must not shirk facts like thisif we wish to know the man as he really was. That he was capable ofkindness and generosity, and that he was in the main kind-hearted, wehave fortunately no reason to doubt; and if I dwell on some of his lessamiable characteristics it is with no desire to magnify them out of theirdue proportion. They are part of that side of him that lay in shadow, assome side of each one of us lies; for not all by light nor all by shade, but by light and shade combined, is the image of a man made visible tous. 

It is quite of a piece with the character of Columbus that while he waswriting a receipt for the look-out man's money and thinking what a prettygift it would make for Beatriz Enriquez he was planning a splendid andspectacular thank-offering for all the dignities to which he had beenraised; and, brooding upon the vast wealth that was now to be his, thathe should register a vow to furnish within seven years an expedition offour thousand horse and fifty thousand foot for the rescue of the HolySepulchre, and a similar force within five years after the first if itshould be necessary. It was probable that the vow was a provisional one, and that its performance was to be contingent on his actual receipt andpossession of the expected money; for as we know, there was no money andno expedition. The vow was in effect a kind of religious flourish muchbeloved by Columbus, undertaken seriously and piously enough, butbelonging rather to his public than to his private side. A much moresimple and truly pious act of his was, not the promising of visionary butthe sending of actual money to his old father in Savona, which he didimmediately after his arrival in Spain. The letter which he wrote withthat kindly remittance, not being couched in the pompous terms which hethought suitable for princes, and doubtless giving a brief homely accountof what he had done, would, if we could come by it, be a document beyondall price; but like every other record of his family life it has utterlyperished. 

He wrote also from Barcelona to his two brothers, Bartholomew andGiacomo, or James, since we may as well give him the English equivalentof his name. Bartholomew was in France, whither he had gone some timeafter his return from his memorable voyage with Bartholomew Diaz; he wasemployed as a map-maker at the court of Anne de Beaujeu, who was reigningin the temporary absence of her brother Charles VIII. Columbus's letterreached him, but much too late for him to be able to join in the secondexpedition; in fact he did not reach Seville until five months after ithad sailed. James, however, who was now twenty-five years old, was stillat Savona; he, like Columbus, had been apprenticed to his father, but hadapparently remained at home earning his living either as a wool-weaver ormerchant. He was a quiet, discreet young fellow, who never pushedhimself forward very much, wore very plain clothes, and was apparentlymuch overawed by the grandeur and dignity of his elder brother. He was, however, given a responsible post in the new expedition, and soon had hisfill of adventure. 

The business of preparing for the new expedition was now put in hand, andColumbus, having taken leave of Ferdinand and Isabella, went to Sevilleto superintend the preparations. All the ports in Andalusia were orderedto supply such vessels as might be required at a reasonable cost, and theold order empowering the Admiral to press mariners into the service wasrenewed. But this time it was unnecessary; the difficulty now was ratherto keep down the number of applicants for berths in the expedition, andto select from among the crowd of adventurers who offered themselvesthose most suitable for the purposes of the new colony. In this workColumbus was assisted by a commissioner whom the Sovereigns had appointedto superintend the fitting out of the expedition. This man was a cleric, Juan Rodriguez de Fonseca, Archdeacon of Seville, a person of excellentfamily and doubtless of high piety, and of a surpassing shrewdness forthis work. He was of a type very commonly produced in Spain at thisperiod; a very able organiser, crafty and competent, but not altogethertrustworthy on a point of honour. Like so many ecclesiastics of thisstamp, he lived for as much power and influence as he could achieve; andthough he was afterwards bishop of three sees successively, and becamePatriarch of the Indies, he never let go his hold on temporal affairs. He began by being jealous of Columbus, and by objecting to the personalretinue demanded by the Admiral; and in this, if I know anything of theAdmiral, he was probably justified. The matter was referred to theSovereigns, who ordered Fonseca to carry out the Admiral's wishes; andthe two were immediately at loggerheads. When the Council for the Indieswas afterwards formed Fonseca became head, of it, and had much power tomake things pleasant or otherwise for Columbus. 

It became necessary now to raise a considerable sum of money for the newexpedition. Two-thirds of the ecclesiastical tithes were appropriated, and a large proportion of the confiscated property of the Jews who hadbeen banished from Spain the year before; but this was not enough; andfive million maravedis were borrowed from the Duke of Medina Sidonia inorder to complete the financial supplies necessary for this very costlyexpedition. There was a treasurer, Francisco Pinelo, and an accountant, Juan de Soria, who had charge of all the financial arrangements; but thewhole of the preparations were conducted on a ruinously expensive scale, owing to the haste which the diplomatic relations with Portugal madenecessary. The provisioning was done by a Florentine merchant namedJuonato Beradi, who had an assistant named Amerigo Vespucci--who, by astrange accident, was afterwards to give his name to the continent of theNew World. 

While these preparations were going on the game of diplomacy was beingplayed between the Courts of Spain and Portugal. King John of Portugalhad the misfortune to be badly advised; and he was persuaded that, although he had lost the right to the New World through his rejection ofColumbus's services when they were first offered to him, he might stilldiscover it for himself, relying for protection on the vague wording ofthe papal Bulls. He immediately began to prepare a fleet, nominally togo to the coast of Africa, but really to visit the newly discovered landsin the west. Hearing of these preparations, King Ferdinand sent anAmbassador to the Portuguese Court; and King John agreed also to appointan Ambassador to discuss the whole matter of the line of demarcation, andin the meantime not to allow any of his ships to sail to the west for aperiod of sixty days after his Ambassador had reached Barcelona. Therefollowed a good deal of diplomatic sharp practice; the Portuguese bribingthe Spanish officials to give them information as to what was going on, and the Spaniards furnishing their envoys with double sets of letters anddocuments so that they could be prepared to counter any movement on thepart of King John. The idea of the Portuguese was that the line ofdemarcation should be a parallel rather than a meridian; and thateverything north of the Canaries should belong to Spain and everythingsouth to Portugal; but this would never do from the Spanish point ofview. The fact that a proposal had come from Portugal, however, gaveFerdinand an opportunity of delaying the diplomatic proceedings until hisown expedition was actually ready to set sail; and he wrote to Columbusrepeatedly, urging him to make all possible haste with his preparations. In the meantime he despatched a solemn embassy to Portugal, the purportof which, much beclouded and delayed by preliminary and impossibleproposals, was to submit the whole question to the Pope for arbitration. And all the time he was busy petitioning the Pope to restore to Spainthose concessions granted in the second Bull, but taken away again in thethird. 

This, being much egged on to it, the Pope ultimately did; waking up onSeptember 26th, the day after Columbus's departure, and issuing anotherBull in which the Spanish Sovereigns were given all lands and islands, discovered or not discovered, which might be found by sailing west andsouth. Four Bulls; and after puzzling over them for a year, the Kings ofSpain and Portugal decided to make their own Bull, and abide by it, which, having appointed commissioners, they did on June 7, 1494. , when bythe Treaty of Tordecillas the line of demarcation was finally fixed topass from north to south through a point 370 leagues west of the CapeVerde Islands. 

CHAPTER V

GREAT EXPECTATIONS

July, August, and September in the year 1493 were busy months forColumbus, who had to superintend the buying or building and fitting ofships, the choice and collection of stores, and the selection of hiscompany. There were fourteen caravels, some of them of low tonnage andlight draught, and suitable for the navigation of rivers; and three largecarracks, or ships of three to four hundred tons. The number ofvolunteers asked for was a thousand, but at least two thousand appliedfor permission to go with the expedition, and ultimately some fourteen orfifteen hundred did actually go, one hundred stowaways being included inthe number. Unfortunately these adventurers were of a class comparedwith whom even the cut-throats and gaol-birds of the humble littleexpedition that had sailed the year before from Palos were useful andefficient. The universal impression about the new lands in the West wasthat they were places where fortunes could be picked up like dirt, andwhere the very shores were strewn with gold and precious stones; andevery idle scamp in Spain who had a taste for adventure and a desire toget a great deal of money without working for it was anxious to visit thenew territory. The result was that instead of artisans, farmers, craftsmen, and colonists, Columbus took with him a company at least halfof which consisted of exceedingly well-bred young gentlemen who had nointention of doing any work, but who looked forward to a free and lawlessholiday and an early return crowned with wealth and fortune. Althoughthe expedition was primarily for the establishment of a colony, noSpanish women accompanied it; and this was but one of a succession ofmistakes and stupidities. 

The Admiral, however, was not to be so lonely a person as he had been onhis first voyage; friends of his own choice and of a rank that madeintimacy possible even with the Captain-General were to accompany him. There was James his brother; there was Friar Bernardo Buil, a Benedictinemonk chosen by the Pope to be his apostolic vicar in the New World; therewas Alonso de Ojeda, a handsome young aristocrat, cousin to theInquisitor of Spain, who was distinguished for his dash and strength andpluck; an ideal adventurer, the idol of his fellows, and one of whosedaring any number of credible and incredible tales were told. There wasPedro Margarite, a well-born Aragonese, who was destined afterwards tocause much trouble; there was Juan Ponce de Leon, the discoverer ofFlorida; there was Juan de La Cosa, Columbus's faithful pilot on theSanta Maria on his first voyage; there was Pedro de Las Casas, whose son, at this time a student in Seville, was afterwards to become the historianof the New World and the champion of decency and humanity there. Therewas also Doctor Chanca, a Court physician who accompanied the expeditionnot only in his professional capacity but also because his knowledge ofbotany would enable him to make, a valuable report on the vegetables andfruits of the New World; there was Antonio de Marchena, one of Columbus'soldest friends, who went as astronomer to the expedition. And there wasone Coma, who would have remained unknown to this day but that he wrotean exceedingly elegant letter to his friend Nicolo Syllacio in Italy, describing in flowery language the events of the second voyage; whichletter, and one written by Doctor Chanca, are the only records of theoutward voyage that exist. The journal kept by Columbus on this voyagehas been lost, and no copy of it remains. 

Columbus settled at Cadiz during the time in which he was engaged uponthe fitting out of the expedition. It was no light matter to superintendthe appointment of the crews and passengers, every one of whom wasprobably interviewed by Columbus himself, and at the same time to keeplevel with Archdeacon Fonseca. This official, it will be remembered, had a disagreement with Columbus as to the number of personal attendantshe was to be allowed; and on the matter being referred to the King andQueen they granted Columbus the ridiculous establishment of ten footmenand twenty other servants. 

Naturally Fonseca held up his hands and wondered where it would all end. It was no easy matter, moreover, on receipt of letters from the Queenabout small matters which occurred to her from time to time, to answerthem fully and satisfactorily, and at the same time to make out all thelists of things that would likely be required both for provisioning thevoyage and establishing a colony. The provisions carried in those dayswere not very different from the provisions carried on deep-sea vesselsat the present time--except that canned meat, for which, with its horrorsand conveniences, the world may hold Columbus responsible, had not thenbeen invented. Unmilled wheat, salted flour, and hard biscuit formed thebulk of the provisions; salted pork was the staple--of the meat supply, with an alternative of salted fish; while cheese, peas, lentils andbeans, oil and vinegar, were also carried, and honey and almonds andraisins for the cabin table. Besides water a large provision of roughwine in casks was taken, and the dietary scale would probably comparefavourably with that of the British and American mercantile service sixtyyears ago. In addition a great quantity of seeds of all kinds were takenfor planting in Espanola; sugar cane, rice, and vines also, and anequipment of agricultural implements, as well as a selection of horsesand other domestic animals for breeding purposes. Twenty mountedsoldiers were also carried, and the thousand and one impedimenta ofnaval, military, and domestic existence. 

In the middle of all these preparations news came that a Portuguesecaravel had set sail from Madeira in the direction of the new lands. Columbus immediately reported this to the King and Queen, and suggesteddetaching part of his fleet to pursue her; but instead King John wascommunicated with, and he declared that if the vessel had sailed asalleged it was without his knowledge and permission, and that he wouldsend three ships after her to recall her--an answer which had to beaccepted, although it opened up rather alarming possibilities of fourPortuguese vessels reaching the new islands instead of one. Whetherthese ships ever really sailed or not, or whether the rumour was merely arumour and an alarm, is not certain; but Columbus was ordered to push onhis preparations with the greatest possible speed, to avoid Portuguesewaters, but to capture any vessels which he might find in the part of theocean allotted to Spain, and to inflict summary punishment on the crews. As it turned out he never saw any Portuguese vessels, and before he hadreturned to Spain again the two nations had come to an amicable agreementquite independently of the Pope and his Bulls. Spain undertook to makeno discoveries to the east of the line of demarcation, and Portugal noneto the west of it; and so the matter remained until the inhabitants ofthe discovered lands began to have a voice in their own affairs. 

With all his occupations Columbus found time for some amenities, and hehad his two sons, Diego and Ferdinand, staying with him at Cadiz. Greatdays they must have been for these two boys; days filled with excitementand commotion, with the smell of tar and the loading of the innumerableand fascinating materials of life; and many a journey they must have madeon the calm waters of Cadiz harbour from ship to ship, dreaming of thedistant seas that these high, quaintly carven prows would soon betreading, and the wonderful bays and harbours far away across the worldinto the waters of which their anchors were to plunge. 

September 24th, the day before the fleet sailed, was observed as afestival; and in full ceremonial the blessing of God upon the enterprisewas invoked. The ships were hung with flags and with dyed silks andtapestries; every vessel flew the royal standard; and the waters of theharbour resounded with the music of trumpets and harps and pipes and thethunder of artillery. Some Venetian galleys happened to enter theharbour as the fleet was preparing to weigh, and they joined in thesalutes and demonstrations which signalled the departure. The Admiralhoisted his flag on the 'Marigalante', one of the largest of the ships;and somewhere among the smaller caravels the little Nina, re-caulked andre-fitted, was also preparing to brave again the dangers over which shehad so staunchly prevailed. At sunrise on the 25th the fleet weighedanchor, with all the circumstance and bustle and apparent confusion thataccompanies the business of sailing-ships getting under weigh. Up to thelast minute Columbus had his two sons on board with him, and it was notuntil the ripples were beginning to talk under the bow of the Marigalantethat he said good-bye to them and saw them rowed ashore. In brightweather, with a favourable breeze, in glory and dignity, and with highhopes in his heart, the Admiral set out once more on the long sea-road. 

CHAPTER VI

THE SECOND VOYAGE

The second voyage of Columbus, profoundly interesting as it must havebeen to him and to the numerous company to whom these waters were astrange and new region, has not the romantic interest for us that hisfirst voyage had. To the faith that guided him on his first ventureknowledge and certainty had now been added; he was going by a familiarroad; for to the mariner a road that he has once followed is a road thathe knows. As a matter of fact, however, this second voyage was a fargreater test of Columbus's skill as a navigator than the first voyage hadbeen. If his navigation had been more haphazard he might never havefound again the islands of his first discovery; and the fact that he madea landfall exactly where he wished to make it shows a high degree ofexactness in his method of ascertaining latitude, and is another instanceof his skill in estimating his dead-reckoning. If he had been equippedwith a modern quadrant and Greenwich chronometers he could not have madea quicker voyage nor a more exact landfall. 

It will be remembered that he had been obliged to hurry away fromEspanola without visiting the islands of the Caribs as he had wished todo. He knew that these islands lay to the south-east of Espanola, and onhis second voyage he therefore took a course rather more southerly inorder, to make them instead of Guanahani or Espanola. From the day theyleft Spain his ships had pleasant light airs from the east and north-eastwhich wafted them steadily but slowly on their course. In a week theyhad reached the Grand Canary, where they paused to make some repairs toone of the ships which, was leaking. Two days later they anchored atGomera, and loaded up with such supplies as could be procured therebetter than in Spain. Pigs, goats, sheep and cows were taken on board;domestic fowls also, and a variety of orchard plants and fruit seeds, aswell as a provision of oranges, lemons, and melons. They sailed fromGomera on the 7th of October, but the winds were so light that it was aweek later before they had passed Ferro and were once more in the openAtlantic. 

On setting his course from Ferro Columbus issued sealed instructions tothe captain of each ship which, in the event of the fleet becomingscattered, would guide them to the harbour of La Navidad in Espanola;but the captains had strict orders not to open these instructions unlesstheir ships became separated from the fleet, as Columbus still wished tohold for himself the secret of this mysterious road to the west. Therewere no disasters, however, and no separations. The trade wind blew softand steady, wafting them south and west; and because of the moresoutherly course steered on this voyage they did not even encounter theweed of the Sargasso Sea, which they left many leagues on their starboardhand. The only incident of the voyage was a sudden severe hurricane, abrief summer tempest which raged throughout one night and terrified agood many of the voyagers, whose superstitious fears were only allayedwhen they saw the lambent flames of the light of Saint Elmo playing aboutthe rigging of the Admiral's ship. It was just the Admiral's luck thatthis phenomenon should be observed over his ship and over none of theothers; it added to his prestige as a person peculiarly favoured by thedivine protection, and confirmed his own belief that he held a heavenlyas well as a royal commission. 

The water supply had been calculated a little too closely, and began torun low. The hurried preparation of the ships had resulted as usual inbad work; most of them were leaking, and the crew were constantly at workat the pumps; and there was the usual discontent. Columbus, however, knew by the signs as well as by his dead-reckoning that he was somewhereclose to land; and with a fine demonstration of confidence he increasedthe ration of water, instead of lowering it, assuring the crews that theywould be ashore in a day or two. On Saturday evening, November 2nd, although no land was in sight, Columbus was so sure of his position thathe ordered the fleet to take in sail and go on slowly until morning. Asthe Sunday dawned and the sky to the west was cleared of the morning bankof clouds the look-out on the Marigalante reported land ahead; and sureenough the first sunlight of that day showed them a green and verdantisland a few leagues away. 

As they approached it Columbus christened it Dominica in honour of theday on which it was discovered. He sailed round it; but as there was noharbour, and as another island was in sight to the north, he sailed on inthat direction. This little island he christened Marigalante; and goingashore with his retinue he hoisted the royal banner, and formally tookpossession of the whole group of six islands which were visible from thehigh ground. There were no inhabitants on the island, but the voyagersspent some hours wandering about its tangled woods and smelling the richodours of spice, and tasting new and unfamiliar fruits. They next sailedon to an island to the north which Columbus christened Guadaloupe as amemorial of the shrine in Estremadura to which he had made a piouspilgrimage. They landed on this island and remained a week there, in thecourse of which they made some very remarkable discoveries. 

The villagers were not altogether unfriendly, although they were shy atfirst; but red caps and hawks' bells had their usual effect. There weresigns of warfare, in the shape of bone-tipped arrows; there were tameparrots much larger than those of the northern islands; they foundpottery and rough wood carving, and the unmistakable stern timber of aEuropean vessel. But they discovered stranger things than that. Theyfound human skulls used as household utensils, and gruesome fragments ofhuman bodies, unmistakable remains of a feast; and they realised that atlast they were in the presence of a man-eating tribe. Later they came toknow, something of the habits of the islanders; how they made raidingexpeditions to the neighbouring islands, and carried off large numbers ofprisoners, retaining the women as concubines and eating the men. Theboys were mutilated and fattened like capons, being employed as labourersuntil they had arrived at years of discretion, at which point they werekilled and eaten, as these cannibal epicures did not care for the fleshof women and boys. There were a great number of women on the island, andmany of them were taken off to the ships--with their own consent, according to Doctor Chanca. The men, however, eluded the Spaniards andwould not come on board, having doubtless very clear views about theultimate destination of men who were taken prisoners. Some women from aneighbouring island, who had been captured by the cannibals, came toColumbus and begged to be taken on board his ship for protection; butinstead of receiving them he decked them with ornaments and sent themashore again. The cannibals artfully stripped off their ornaments andsent them back to get some more. 

The peculiar habits of the islanders added an unusual excitement to shoreleave, and there was as a rule no trouble in collecting the crews andbringing them off to the ships at nightfall. But on one evening it wasdiscovered that one of the captains and eight men had not returned. Anexploring party was sent of to search for them, but they came backwithout having found anything, except a village in the middle of theforest from which the inhabitants had fled at their approach, leavingbehind them in the cooking pots a half-cooked meal of human remains--anincident which gave the explorers a distaste for further search. YoungAlonso de Ojeda, however, had no fear of the cannibals; this was just thekind of occasion in which he revelled; and he offered to take a party offorty men into the interior to search for the missing men. He went rightacross the island, but was able to discover nothing except birds andfruits and unknown trees; and Columbus, in great distress of mind, had togive up his men for lost. He took in wood and water, and was on thepoint of weighing anchor when the missing men appeared on the shore andsignalled for a boat. It appeared that they had got lost in a tangledforest in the interior, that they had tried to climb the trees in orderto get their bearings by the stars, but without success; and that theyhad finally struck the sea-shore and followed it until they had arrivedopposite the anchorage. 

They brought some women and boys with them, and the fleet must now havehad a large number of these willing or unwilling captives. This was thefirst organised transaction of slavery on the part of Columbus, whosedesign was to send slaves regularly back to Spain in exchange for thecattle and supplies necessary for the colonies. There was not very muchsaid now about religious conversion, but only about exchanging thenatives for cattle. The fine point of Christopher's philosophy on thissubject had been rubbed off; he had taken the first step a year ago onthe beach at Guanahani, and after that the road opened out broad beforehim. Slaves for cattle, and cattle for the islands; and wealth fromcattle and islands for Spain, and payment from Spain for Columbus, andmoney from Columbus for the redemption of the Holy Sepulchre--these werethe links in the chain of hope that bound him to his pious idea. He hadseen the same thing done by the Portuguese on the Guinea coast, and itnever occurred to him that there was anything the matter with it. On thecontrary, at this time his idea was only to take slaves from among theCaribs and man-eating islanders as a punishment for their misdeeds; butthis, like his other fine ideas, soon had to give way before the tide ofgreed and conquest. 

The Admiral was now anxious to get back to La Navidad, and discover thecondition of the colony which he had left behind him there. He thereforesailed from Guadaloupe on November 20th and steered to the north-west. His captive islanders told him that the mainland lay to the south; and ifhe had listened to them and sailed south he would have probably landed onthe coast of South America in a fortnight. He shaped his course insteadto the north-west, passing many islands, but not pausing until the 14th, when he reached the island named by him Santa Cruz. He found more Caribshere, and his men had a brush with them, one of the crew being wounded bya poisoned arrow of which he died in a few days. The Carib Chiefs werecaptured and put in irons. They sailed again and passed a group ofislets which Columbus named after Saint Ursula and the Eleven ThousandVirgins; discovered Porto Rico also, in one of the beautiful harbours ofwhich they anchored and stayed for two days. Sailing now to the westthey made land again on the 22nd of November; and coasting along it theysoon sighted the mountain of Monte Christi, and Columbus recognised thathe was on the north coast of Espanola. 

CHAPTER VII

THE EARTHLY PARADISE REVISITED

On the 25th November 1493, Columbus once more dropped his anchor in theharbour of Monte Christi, and a party was sent ashore to prospect for asite suitable for the new town which he intended to build, for he was notsatisfied with the situation of La Navidad. There was a large riverclose by; and while the party was surveying the land they came suddenlyupon two dead bodies lying by the river-side, one with a rope round itsneck and the other with a rope round its feet. The bodies were too muchdecomposed to be recognisable; nevertheless to the party rambling aboutin the sunshine and stillness of that green place the discovery was avery gruesome one. They may have thought much, but they said little. They returned to the ship, and resumed their search on the next day, whenthey found two more corpses, one of which was seen to have a largequantity of beard. As all the natives were beardless this was a verysignificant and unpleasant discovery, and the explorers returned at onceand reported what they had seen to Columbus. He thereupon set sail forLa Navidad, but the navigation off that part of the coast was necessarilyslow because of the number of the shoals and banks, on one of which theAdmiral's ship had been lost the year before; and the short voyageoccupied three days. 

They arrived at La Navidad late on the evening of the 27th--too late tomake it advisable to land. Some natives came out in a canoe, rowed roundthe Admiral's ship, stopped and looked at it, and then rowed away again. When the fleet had anchored Columbus ordered two guns to be fired; butthere was no response except from the echoes that went rattling among theislands, and from the frightened birds that rose screaming and circlingfrom the shore. No guns and no signal fires; no sign of human habitationwhatever; and no sound out of the weird darkness except the lap of thewater and the call of the birds . . . . The night passed in anxietyand depression, and in a certain degree of nervous tension, which wasrelieved at two or three o'clock in the morning by the sound of paddlesand the looming of a canoe through the dusky starlight. Native voiceswere heard from the canoe asking in a loud voice for the Admiral; andwhen the visitors had been directed to the Marigalante they refused to goon board until Columbus himself had spoken to them, and they had seen bythe light of a lantern that it was the Admiral himself. The chief ofthem was a cousin of Guacanagari, who said that the King was ill of awound in his leg, or that he would certainly have come himself to welcomethe Admiral. The Spaniards? Yes, they were well, said the young chief;or rather, he added ominously, those that remained were well, but somehad died of illness, and some had been killed in quarrels that had arisenamong them. He added that the province had been invaded by twoneighbouring kings who had burned many of the native houses. This news, although grave, was a relief from the dreadful uncertainty that hadprevailed in the early part of the night, and the Admiral's company, somewhat consoled, took a little sleep. 

In the morning a party was sent ashore to La Navidad. Not a boat was insight, nor any native canoes; the harbour was silent and deserted. Whenthe party had landed and gone up to the place where the fort had beenbuilt they found no fort there; only the blackened and charred remains ofa fort. The whole thing had been burned level with the ground, and amidthe blackened ruins they found pieces of rag and clothing. The natives, instead of coming to greet them, lurked guiltily behind trees, and whenthey were seen fled away into the woods. All this was very disquietingindeed, and in significant contrast to their behaviour of the yearbefore. The party from the ship threw buttons and beads and bells to theretiring natives in order to try and induce them to come forward, butonly four approached, one of whom was a relation of Guacanagari. Thesefour consented to go into the boat and to be rowed out to the ship. Columbus then spoke to them through his interpreter; and they admittedwhat had been only too obvious to the party that went ashore--that theSpaniards were all dead, and that not one of the garrison remained. Itseemed that two neighbouring kings, Caonabo and Mayreni, had made anattack upon the fort, burned the buildings, and killed and wounded mostof the defenders; and that Guacanagari, who had been fighting on theirbehalf, had also been wounded and been obliged to retire. The nativesoffered to go and fetch Guacanagari himself, and departed with thatobject. 

In the greatest anxiety the Admiral and his company passed that day andnight waiting for the King to come. Early the next morning Columbushimself went ashore and visited the spot where the settlement had been. There he found destruction whole and complete, with nothing but a fewrags of clothing as an evidence that the place had ever been inhabited byhuman beings. As Guacanagari did not appear some of the Spaniards beganto suspect that he had had a hand in the matter, and proposed immediatereprisal; but Columbus, believing still in the man who had "loved him somuch that it was wonderful" did not take this view, and his belief inGuacanagari's loyalty was confirmed by the discovery that his owndwelling had also been burned down. 

Columbus set some of his party searching in the ditch of the fort in caseany treasure should have been buried there, as he had ordered it shouldbe in event of danger, and while this was going on he walked along thecoast for a few miles to visit a spot which he thought might be suitablefor the new settlement. At a distance of a mile or two he found avillage of seven or eight huts from which the inhabitants fled at hisapproach, carrying such of their goods as were portable, and leaving therest hidden in the grass. Here were found several things that hadbelonged to the Spaniards and which were not likely to have beenbartered; new Moorish mantles, stockings, bolts of cloth, and one of theAdmiral's lost anchors; other articles also, among them a dead man's headwrapped up with great care in a small basket. Shaking their own livingheads, Columbus and his party returned. Suddenly they came on somesuspicious-looking mounds of earth over which new grass was growing. Anexamination of these showed them to be the graves of eleven of theSpaniards, the remains of the clothing being quite sufficient to identifythem. Doctor Chanca, who examined them, thought that they had not beendead two months. Speculation came to an end in the face of this eloquentcertainty; there were the dead bodies of some of the colonists; and thevoyagers knelt round with bare heads while the bodies were replaced inthe grave and the ceremony of Christian burial performed over them. 

Little by little the dismal story was elicited from the natives, whobecame less timid when they saw that the Spaniards meant them no harm. It seemed that Columbus had no sooner gone away than the colonists beganto abandon themselves to every kind of excess. While the echo of theAdmiral's wise counsels was yet in their ears they began to disobey hisorders. Honest work they had no intention of doing, and although DiegoArana, their commander, did his best to keep order, and although one ortwo of the others were faithful to him and to Columbus, their authoritywas utterly insufficient to check the lawless folly of the rest. Insteadof searching for gold mines, they possessed themselves by force of everyounce of gold they could steal or seize from the natives, treating themwith both cruelty and contempt. More brutal excesses followed as amatter of course. Guacanagari, in his kindly indulgence and generosity, had allowed them to take three native wives apiece, although he himselfand his people were content with one. But of course the Spaniards hadthrown off all restraint, however mild, and ran amok among the nativeinhabitants, seizing their wives and seducing their daughters. Upon thisnaturally followed dissensions among themselves, jealousy coming hot uponthe heels of unlawful possession; and, in the words of Irving, "thenatives beheld with astonishment the beings whom they had worshipped asdescended from the skies abandoned to the grossest of earthly passionsand raging against each other with worse than brutal ferocity. "

Upon their strifes and dissensions followed another breach of theAdmiral's wise regulations; they no longer cared to remain together inthe fort, but split up into groups and went off with their women into thewoods, reverting to a savagery beside which the gentle existence of thenatives was high civilisation. There were squabbles and fights in whichone or two of the Spaniards were killed; and Pedro Gutierrez and Rodrigode Escovedo, whom Columbus had appointed as lieutenants to Arana, headeda faction of revolt against his authority, and took themselves off withnine other Spaniards and a great number of women. They had heard a greatdeal about the mines of Cibao, and they decided to go in search of themand secure their treasures for themselves. They went inland into aterritory which was under the rule of King Caonabo, a very fierce Caribwho was not a native of Espanola, but had come there as an adventurer andremained as a conqueror. Although he resented the intrusion of theSpaniards into the island he would not have dared to come and attack themthere if they had obeyed the Admiral's orders and remained in theterritory of Guacanagari; but when they came into his own country he hadthem in a trap, and it was easy for him to fall upon those foolishswaggering Spaniards and put them to death. He then decided to go andtake the fort. 

He formed an alliance with the neighbouring king, Mayreni, whose provincewas in the west of the island. Getting together a force of warriorsthese two kings marched rapidly and stealthily through the, forest forseveral days until they arrived at its northern border. They came in thedead of night to the neighbourhood of La Navidad, where the inhabitantsof the fortress, some ten in number, were fast asleep. Fast asleep werethe remaining dozen or so of the Spaniards who were living in houses orhuts in the neighbourhood; fast asleep also the gentle natives, notdreaming of troubles from any quarter but that close at hand. The sweetsilence of the tropical night was suddenly broken by frightful yells asCaonabo and his warriors rushed the fortress and butchered theinhabitants, setting fire to it and to the houses round about. As theirflimsy huts burst into flames the surprised Spaniards rushed out, only tobe fallen upon by the infuriated blacks. Eight of the Spaniards rushednaked into the sea and were drowned; the rest were butchered. Guacanagari manfully came to their assistance and with his own followersfought throughout the night; but his were a gentle and unwarlike people, and they were easily routed. The King himself was badly wounded in thethigh, but Caonabo's principal object seems to have been the destructionof the Spaniards, and when that was completed he and his warriors, ladenwith the spoils, retired. 

Thus Columbus, walking on the shore with his native interpreter, orsitting in his cabin listening with knitted brow to the accounts of theislanders, learns of the complete and utter failure of his first hopes. It has come to this. These are the real first-fruits of his gloriousconquest and discovery. The New World has served but as a virgin fieldfor the Old Adam. He who had sought to bring light and life to thesehappy islanders had brought darkness and death; they had innocentlyclasped the sword he had extended to them and cut themselves. TheChristian occupation of the New World had opened with vice, cruelty, anddestruction; the veil of innocence had been rent in twain, and couldnever be mended or joined again. And the Earthly Paradise in which lifehad gone so happily, of which sun and shower had been the true rulers, and the green sprouting harvests the only riches, had been turned into ashambles by the introduction of human rule and civilised standards ofwealth. Gold first and then women, things beautiful and innocent in thehappy native condition of the islands, had been the means of thedisintegration and death of this first colony. These are seriousconsiderations for any coloniser; solemn considerations for a discovererwho is only on the verge and beginning of his empire-making; mournfulconsiderations for Christopher as he surveys the blackened ruins of thefort, or stands bare-headed by the grass-covered graves. 

There seemed to be a certain hesitancy on the part of Guacanagari topresent himself; for though he kept announcing his intention of coming tovisit the Admiral he did not come. A couple of days after the discoveryof the remains, however, he sent a message to Columbus begging him tocome and see him, which the Admiral accordingly did, accompanied by aformal retinue and carrying with him the usual presents. Guacanagari wasin bed sure enough complaining of a wounded leg, and he told the story ofthe settlement very much as Columbus had already heard it from the othernatives. He pointed to his own wounded leg as a sign that he had beenloyal and faithful to his friendly promises; but when the leg wasexamined by the surgeon in order that it might be dressed no wound couldbe discovered, and it was obvious to Doctor Chanca that the skin had notbeen broken. This seemed odd; Friar Buil was so convinced that the wholestory was a deception that he wished the Admiral to execute Guacanagarion the spot. Columbus, although he was puzzled, was by no meansconvinced that Guacanagari had been unfaithful to him, and decided to donothing for the present. He invited the cacique to come on board theflagship; which he did, being greatly interested by some of the Caribprisoners, notably a handsome woman, named by the Spaniards DofiaCatalina, with whom he held a long conversation. 

Relations between the Admiral and the cacique, although outwardlycordial, were altogether different from what they had been in, the happydays after their first meeting; the man seemed to shrink from all theevidence of Spanish power, and when they proposed to hang a cross roundhis neck the native king, much as he loved trinkets and toys, expressed ahorror and fear of this jewel when he learned that it was an emblem ofthe Christian faith. He had seen a little too much of the Christianreligion; and Heaven only knows with what terror and depression theemblem of the cross inspired him. He went ashore; and when a messengerwas sent to search for him a few days afterwards, it was found that hehad moved his whole establishment into the interior of the island. Thebeautiful native woman Catalina escaped to shore and disappeared at thesame time; and the two events were connected in the minds of some of theSpaniards, and held, wrongly as it turned out, to be significant of adeep plot of native treachery. 

The most urgent need was to build the new settlement and lay out a town. Several small parties were sent out to reconnoitre the coast in bothdirections, but none of them found a suitable place; and on December 7ththe whole fleet sailed to the east in the hope of finding a betterposition. They were driven by adverse winds into a harbour some thirtymiles to the east of Monte Christi, and when they went ashore theydecided that this was as good a site as any for the new town. There wasabout a quarter of a mile of level sandy beach enclosed by headlands oneither side; there was any amount of rock and stones for building, andthere was a natural barrier of hills and mountains a mile or so inlandthat would protect a camp from that side. --The soil was very fertile, the vegetation luxuriant; and the mango swamps a little way inlanddrained into a basin or lake which provided an unlimited water supply. Columbus therefore set about establishing a little town, to which he gavethe name of Isabella. Streets and squares were laid out, and rows oftemporary buildings made of wood and thatched with grass were hastily runup for the accommodation of the members of the expedition, while thefoundations of three stone buildings were also marked out and theexcavations put in hand. These buildings were the church, thestorehouse, and a residence for Columbus as Governor-General. The storeswere landed, the horses and cattle accommodated ashore, the provisions, ammunition, and agricultural implements also. Labourers were set todigging out the foundations of the stone buildings, carpenters to cuttingdown trees and running up the light wooden houses that were to serve asbarracks for the present; masons were employed in hewing stones andbuilding landing-piers; and all the crowd of well-born adventurers wereset to work with their hands, much to their disgust. This was by nomeans the life they had imagined, and at the first sign of hard work theyturned sulky and discontented. There was, to be sure, some reason fortheir discontent. Things had not quite turned out as Columbus hadpromised they should; there was no store of gold, nor any sign of greatdesire on the part of the natives to bring any; and to add to their othertroubles, illness began to break out in the camp. The freshly-turnedrank soil had a bad effect on the health of the garrison; the lake, whichhad promised to be so pleasant a feature in the new town, gave offdangerous malarial vapours at night; and among the sufferers from thistrouble was Columbus himself, who endured for some weeks all the painsand lassitude of the disagreeable fever. 

The ships were now empty and ready for the return voyage, and as soon asColumbus was better he set to work to face the situation. After all hispromises it would never do to send them home empty or in ballast; a cargoof stones from the new-found Indies would not be well received in Spain. The natives had told him that somewhere in the island existed the goldmines of Cibao, and he determined to make an attempt to find these, sothat he could send his ships home laden with a cargo that would be someindemnity for the heavy cost of the expedition and some compensation forthe bad news he must write with regard to his first settlement. YoungOjeda was chosen to lead an expedition of fifteen picked men into theinterior; and as the gold mines were said to be in a part of the islandnot under the command of Guacanagari, but in the territory of the dreadedCaonabo, there was no little anxiety felt about the expedition. 

Ojeda started in the beginning of January 1494, and marched southwardsthrough dense forests until, having crossed a mountain range, he camedown into a beautiful and fertile valley, where they were hospitablyreceived by the natives. They saw plenty of gold in the sand of theriver that watered the valley, which sand the natives had a way ofwashing so that the gold was separated from it; and there seemed to be somuch wealth there that Ojeda hurried back to the new city of Isabella tomake his report to Columbus. The effect upon the discontented colonistswas remarkable. Once more everything was right; wealth beyond the dreamsof avarice was at their hand; and all they had to do was to stretch outtheir arms and take it. Columbus felt that he need no longer delay thedespatch of twelve of his ships on the homeward voyage. If he had notgot golden cargoes for them, at any rate he had got the next best thing, which was the certainty of gold; and it did not matter whether it was inthe ships or in his storehouse. He had news to send home at any rate, and a great variety of things to ask for in return, and he therefore setabout writing his report to the Sovereigns. Other people, as we know, were writing letters too; the reiterated promise of gold, and themarvellous anecdotes which these credulous settlers readily believed fromthe natives, such as that there was a rock close by out of which goldwould burst if you struck it with a club, raised greed and expectation inSpain to a fever pitch, and prepared the reaction which followed. 

We may now read the account of the New World as Columbus sent it home tothe King and Queen of Spain in the end of January 1494, and as they readit some weeks later. Their comments, written in the margin of theoriginal, are printed in italics at the end of each paragraph. It wasdrawn up in the form of a memorandum, and entrusted to Antonio de Torres, who was commanding the return expedition. 

"What you, Antonio de Torres, captain of the ship Marigalante and Alcaldeof the City of Isabella, are to say and supplicate on my part to the Kingand Queen, our Lords, is as follows:--

 "First. Having delivered the letters of credence which you carry from me for their Highnesses, you will kiss for me their Royal feet and hands and will recommend me to their Highnesses as to a King and Queen, my natural Lords, in whose service I desire to end my days: as you will be able to say this more fully to their Highnesses, according to what you have seen and known of me. 

 ["Their Highnesses hold him in their favour. ]

 "Item. Although by the letters I write to their Highnesses, and also the father Friar Buil and the Treasurer, they will be able to understand all that has been done here since our arrival, and this very minutely and extensively: nevertheless, you will say to their Highnesses on my part, that it has pleased God to give me such favour in their service, that up to the present time. I do not find less, nor has less been found in anything than what I wrote and said and affirmed to their Highnesses in the past: but rather, by the Grace of God, I hope that it will appear, by works much more clearly and very soon, because such signs and indications of spices have been found on the shores of the sea alone, without having gone inland, that there is reason that very much better results may be hoped for: and this also may be hoped for in the mines of gold, because by two persons only who went to investigate, each one on his own part, without remaining there because there was not many people, so many rivers have been discovered so filled with gold, that all who saw it and gathered specimens of it with the hands alone, came away so pleased and say such things in regard to its abundance, that I am timid about telling it and writing it to their Highnesses: but because Gorbalan, who was one of the discoverers, is going yonder, he will tell what he saw, although another named Hojeda remains here, a servant of the Duke of Medinaceli, a very discreet youth and very prudent, who without doubt and without comparison even, discovered much more according to the memorandum which he brought of the rivers, saying that there is an incredible quantity in each one of them for this their Highnesses may give thanks to God, since He has been so favourable to them in all their affairs. 

 ["Their Highnesses give many thanks to God for this, and consider as a very signal service all that the Admiral has done in this matter and is doing: because they know that after God they are indebted to him for all they have had, and will have in this affair: and as they are writing him more fully about this, they refer him to their letter. ]

 "Item. You will say to their Highnesses, although I already have written it to them, that I desired greatly to be able to send them a larger quantity of gold in this fleet, from that which it is hoped may be gathered here, but the greater part of our people who are here, have fallen suddenly ill: besides, this fleet cannot remain here longer, both on account of the great expense it occasions and because this time is suitable for those persons who are to bring the things which are greatly needed here, to go and be able to return: as, if they delay going away from here, those who are to return will not be able to do so by May: and besides this, if I wished to undertake to go to the mines or rivers now, with the well people who are here, both on the sea and in the settlement on land, I would have many difficulties and even dangers, because in order to go twenty-three or twenty-four leagues from here where there are harbours and rivers to cross, and in order to cover such a long route and reach there at the time which would be necessary to gather the gold, a large quantity of provisions would have to be carried, which cannot be carried on the shoulders, nor are there beasts of burden here which could be used for this purpose: nor are the roads and passes sufficiently prepared, although I have commenced to get them in readiness so as to be passable: and also it was very inconvenient to leave the sick here in an open place, in huts, with the provisions and supplies which are on land: for although these Indians may have shown themselves to the discoverers and show themselves every day, to be very simple and not malicious nevertheless, as they come here among us each day, it did not appear that it would be a good idea to risk losing these people and the supplies. This loss an Indian with a piece of burning wood would be able to cause by setting fire to the huts, because they are always going and coming by night and by day: on their account, we have guards in the camp, while the settlement is open and defenceless. 

 ["That he did well. ]

 "Moreover, as we have seen among those who went by land to make discoveries that the greater part fell sick after returning, and some of them even were obliged to turn back on the road, it was also reasonable to fear that the same thing would happen to those who are well, who would now go, and as a consequence they would run the risk of two dangers: the one, that of falling sick yonder, in the same work, where there is no house nor any defence against that cacique who is called Caonabb, who is a very bad man according to all accounts, and much more audacious and who, seeing us there, sick and in such disorder, would be able to undertake what he would not dare if we were well: and with this difficulty there is another--that of bringing here what gold we might obtain, because we must either bring a small quantity and go and come each day and undergo the risk of sickness, or it must be sent with some part of the people, incurring the same danger of losing it. 

 ["He did well. ]

 "So that, you will say to their Highnesses, that these are the causes why the fleet has not been at present detained, and why more gold than the specimens has not been sent them: but confiding in the mercy of God, who in everything and for everything has guided us as far as here, these people will quickly become convalescent, as they are already doing, because only certain places in the country suit them and they then recover; and it is certain that if they had some fresh meat in order to convalesce, all with the aid of God would very quickly be on foot, and even the greater part would already be convalescent at this time: nevertheless they will be re-established. With the few healthy ones who remain here, each day work is done toward enclosing the settlement and placing it in a state of some defence and the supplies in safety, which will be accomplished in a short time, because it is to be only a small dry wall. For the Indians are not a people to undertake anything unless they should find us sleeping, even though they might have thought of it in the manner in which they served the others who remained here. Only on account of their (the Spaniards') lack of caution--they being so few--and the great opportunities they gave the Indians to have and do what they did, they would never have dared to undertake to injure them if they had seen that they were cautious. And this work being finished, I will then undertake to go to the said rivers, either starting upon the road from here and seeking the best possible expedients, or going around the island by sea as far as that place from which it is said it cannot be more than six or seven leagues to the said rivers. In such a manner that the gold can be gathered and placed in security in some fortress or tower which can then be constructed there, in order to keep it securely until the time when the two caravels return here, and in order that then, with the first suitable weather for sailing this course, it may be sent to a place of safety. 

 ["That this is well and must be done in this manner. ]

 "Item. You will say to their Highnesses, as has been said, that the cause of the general sicknesses common to all is the change of water and air, because we see that it extends to all conditions and few are in danger: consequently, for the preservation of health, after God, it is necessary that these people be provided with the provisions to which they are accustomed in Spain, because neither they, nor others who may come anew, will be able to serve their Highnesses if they are not well: and this provision must continue until a supply is accumulated here from what shall be sowed and planted here. I say wheat and barley, and vines, of which little has been done this year because a site for the town could not be selected before, and then when it was selected the few labourers who were here became sick, and they, even though they had been well, had so few and such lean and meagre beasts of burden, that they were able to do but little: nevertheless, they have sown something, more in order to try the soil which appears very wonderful, so that from it some relief may be hoped in our necessities. We are very sure, as the result makes it apparent to us, that in this country wheat as well as the vine will grow very well: but the fruit must be waited for, which, if it corresponds to the quickness with which the wheat grows and of some few vine-shoots which were planted, certainly will not cause regret here for the productions of Andalusia or Sicily: neither is it different with the sugar-canes according to the manner in which some few that were planted have grown. For it is certain that the sight of the land of these islands, as well of the mountains and sierras and waters as of the plains where there are rich rivers, is so beautiful, that no other land on which the sun shines can appear better or as beautiful. 

 ["Since the land is such, it must be managed that the greatest possible quantity of all things shall be sown, and Don Juan de Fonseca is to be written to send continually all that is necessary for this purpose. ]

 "Item. You will say that, inasmuch as much of the wine which the fleet brought was wasted on this journey, and this, according to what the greater number say, was because of the bad workmanship which the coopers did in Seville, the greatest necessity we feel here at the present time is for wines, and it is what we desire most to have and although we may have biscuit as well as wheat sufficient for a longer time, nevertheless it is necessary that a reasonable quantity should also be sent, because the journey is long and provision cannot be made each day and in the same manner some salted meat, I say bacon, and other salt meat better than that we brought on this journey. It is necessary that each time a caravel comes here, fresh meat shall be sent, and even more than that, lambs and little ewe lambs, more females than males, and some little yearling calves, male and female, and some he-asses and she-asses and some mares for labour and breeding, as there are none of these animals here of any value or which can be made use of by man. And because I apprehend that their Highnesses may not be, in Seville, and that the officials or ministers will not provide these things without their express order, and as it is necessary they should come at the first opportunity, and as in consultation and reply the time for the departure of the vessels-which must be here during all of Maywill be past: you will say to their Highnesses that I charged and commanded you to pledge the gold you are carrying yonder and place it in possession of some merchant in Seville, who will furnish therefor the necessary maravedis to load two caravels with wine and wheat and the other things of which you are taking a memorandum; which merchant will carry or send the said gold to their Highnesses that they may see it and receive it, and cause what shall have been expended for fitting out and loading of the said two caravels to be paid: and in order to comfort and strengthen these people remaining here, the utmost efforts must be made for the return of these caravels for all the month of May, that the people before commencing the summer may see and have some refreshment from these things, especially the invalids: the things of which we are already in great need here are such as raisins, sugar, almonds, honey and rice, which should have been sent in large quantities and very little was sent, and that which came is already used and consumed, and even the greater part of the medicines which were brought from there, on account of the multitude of sick people. You are carrying memoranda signed by my hand, as has been said, of things for the people in good health as well as for the sick. You will provide these things fully if the money is sufficient, or at least the things which it is most necessary to send at once, in order that the said two vessels can bring them, and you can arrange with their Highnesses, to have the remaining things sent by other vessels as quickly as possible. 

 ["Their Highnesses sent an order to Don Juan de Fonseca to obtain at once information about the persons who committed the fraud of the casks, and to cause all the damage to the wine to be recovered from them, with the costs: and he must see that the canes which are sent are of good quality, and that the other things mentioned here are provided at once. ]

 "Item. You will say to their Highnesses that as there is no language here by means of which these people can be made to understand our Holy Faith, as your Highnesses and also we who are here desire, although we will do all we can towards it--I am sending some of the cannibals in the vessels, men and women and male and female children, whom their Highnesses can order placed with persons from whom they can better learn the language, making use of them in service, and ordering that little by little more pains be taken with them than with other slaves, that they may learn one from the other: if they do not see or speak with each other until some time has passed, they will learn more quickly there than here, and will be better interpreters--although we will not cease to do as much as possible here. It is true that as there is little intercourse between these people from one island to another, there is some difference in their language, according to how far distant they are from each other. And as, of the other islands, those of the cannibals are very large and very well populated, it would appear best to take some of their men and women and send them yonder to Castile, because by taking them away, it may cause them to abandon at once that inhuman custom which they have of eating men: and by learning the language there in Castile, they will receive baptism much more quickly, and provide for the safety of their souls. Even among the peoples who are not cannibals we shall gain great credit, by their seeing that we can seize and take captive those from whom they are accustomed to receive injuries, and of whom they are in such terror that they are frightened by one man alone. You will certify to their Highnesses that the arrival here and sight of such a fine fleet all together has inspired very great authority here and assured very great security for future things: because all the people on this great island and in the other islands, seeing the good treatment which those who well behave receive, and the bad treatment given to those who behave ill, will very quickly render obedience, so that they can be considered as vassals of their Highnesses. And as now they not only do willingly whatever is required of them by our people, but further, they voluntarily undertake everything which they understand may please us, their Highnesses may also be certain that in many respects, as much for the present as for the future, the coming of this fleet has given them a great reputation, and not less yonder among the Christian princes: which their Highnesses will be better able to consider and understand than I can tell them. 

 ["That he is to be told what has befallen the cannibals who came here. That it is very well and must be done in this manner, but that he must try there as much as possible to bring them to our Holy Catholic faith and do the same with the inhabitants of the islands where he is. ]

 "Item. You will say to their Highnesses that the safety of the souls of the said cannibals, and further of those here, has inspired the thought that the more there are taken yonder, the better it will be, and their Highnesses can be served by it in this manner: having seen how necessary the flocks and beasts of burden are here, for the sustenance of the people who must be here, and even of all these islands, their Highnesses can give licence and permission to a sufficient number of caravels to come here each year, and bring the said flocks and other supplies and things to settle the country and make use of the land: and this at reasonable prices at the expense of those who bring them: and these things can be paid for in slaves from among these cannibals, a very proud and comely people, well proportioned and of good intelligence, who having been freed from that inhumanity, we believe will be better than any other slaves. They will be freed from this cruelty as soon as they are outside their country, and many of them can be taken with the row-boats which it is known how to build here: it being understood, however, that a trustworthy person shall be placed on each one of the caravels coming here, who shall forbid the said caravels to stop at any other place or island than this place, where the loading and unloading of all the merchandise must be done. And further, their Highnesses will be able to establish their rights over these slaves which are taken from here yonder to Spain. And you will bring or send a reply to this, in order that the necessary preparations may be made here with more confidence if it appears well to their Highnesses. 

 ["This project must be held in abeyance for the present until another method is suggested from there, and the Admiral may write what he thinks in regard to it. ]

 "Item. Also you will say to their Highnesses that it is more profitable and costs less to hire the vessels as the merchants hire them for Flanders, by tons, rather than in any other manner: therefore I charged you to hire the two caravels which you are to send here, in this manner: and all the others which their Highnesses send here can be hired thus, if they consider it for their service but I do not intend to say this of those vessels which are to come here with their licence, for the slave trade. 

 ["Their Highnesses order Don Juan de Fonseca to hire the caravels in this manner if it can be done. ]

 "Item. You will say to their Highnesses, that to avoid any further cost, I bought these caravels of which you are taking a memorandum in order to retain them here with these two ships: that is to say the Gallega and that other, the Capitana, of which I likewise purchased the three-eighths from the master of it, for the price given in the said memorandum which you are taking, signed by my hand. These ships not only will give authority and great security to the people who are obliged to remain inland and make arrangements with the Indians to gather the gold, but they will also be of service in any other dangerous matter which may arise with a strange people; besides the caravels are necessary for the discovery of the mainland and the other islands which lie between here and there: and you will entreat their Highnesses to order the maravedis which these ships cost, paid at the times which they have been promised, because without doubt they will soon receive what they cost, according to what I believe and hope in the mercy of God. 

 ["The Admiral has done well, and to tell him that the sum has been paid here to the one who sold the ship, and Don Juan de Fonseca has been ordered to pay for the two caravels which the Admiral bought. ]

 "Item. You will say to their Highnesses, and will supplicate on my part as humbly as possible, that it may please them to reflect on what they will learn most fully from the letters and other writings in regard to the peace and tranquillity and concord of those who are here: and that for the service of their Highnesses such persons may be selected as shall not be suspected, and who will give more attention to the matters for which they are sent than to their own interests: and since you saw and knew everything in regard to this matter, you will speak and will tell their Highnesses the truth about all the things as you understood them, and you will endeavour that the provision which their Highnesses make in regard to it shall come with the first ships if possible, in order that there may be no scandals here in a matter of so much importance in the service of their Highnesses. 

 ["Their Highnesses are well informed in regard to this matter, and suitable provision will be made for everything. ]

 "Item. You will tell their Highnesses of the situation of this city, and the beauty of the surrounding province as you saw and understood it, and how I made you its Alcade, by the powers which I have for same from their Highnesses: whom I humbly entreat to hold the said provision in part satisfaction of your services, as I hope from their Highnesses. 

 ["It pleases their Highnesses that you shall be Alcade. ]

 "Item. Because Mosen Pedro Margarite, servant of their Highnesses, has done good service, and I hope he will do the same henceforward in matters which are entrusted to him, I have been pleased to have him remain here, and also Gaspar and Beltran, because they are recognised servants of their Highnesses, in order to intrust them with matters of confidence. You will specialty entreat their Highnesses in regard to the said Mosen Pedro, who is married and has children, to provide him with some charge in the order of Santiago, whose habit he wears, that his wife and children may have the wherewith to live. In the same manner you will relate how well and diligently Juan Aguado, servant of their Highnesses, has rendered service in everything which he has been ordered to do, and that I supplicate their Highnesses to have him and the aforesaid persons in their charge and to reward them. 

 ["Their Highnesses order 30, 000 maravedis to be assigned to Mosen Pedro each year, and to Gaspar and Beltran, to each one, 15, 000 maravedis each year, from the present, August 15, 1494, henceforward: and thus the Admiral shall cause to be paid to them whatever must be paid yonder in the Indies, and Don Juan de Fonseca whatever must be paid here: and in regard to Juan Iguado, their Highnesses will hold him in remembrance. ]

 "Item. You will tell their Highnesses of the labour performed by Dr. Chanca, confronted with so many invalids, and still more because of the lack of provisions and nevertheless, he acts with great diligence and charity in everything pertaining to his office. And as their Highnesses referred to me the salary which he was to receive here, because, being here, it is certain that he cannot take or receive anything from any one, nor earn money by his office as he earned it in Castile, or would be able to earn it being at his ease and living in a different manner from the way he lives here; therefore, notwithstanding he swears that he earned more there, besides the salary which their Highnesses gave him, I did not wish to allow more than 50, 000 maravedis each year for the work he performs here while he remains here. This I entreat their Highnesses to order allowed to him with the salary from here, and that, because he says and affirms that all the physicians of their Highnesses who are employed in Royal affairs or things similar to this, are accustomed to have by right one day's wages in all the year from all the people. Nevertheless, I have been informed and they tell me, that however this may be, the custom is to give them a certain sum, fixed according to the will and command of their Highnesses in compensation for that day's wages. You will entreat their Highnesses to order provision made as well in the matter of the salary as of this custom, in such manner that the said Dr. Chanca may have reason to be satisfied. 

 ["Their Highnesses are pleased in regard to this matter of Dr. Chanca, and that he shall be paid what the Admiral has assigned him, together with his salary. "In regard to the day's wages of the physicians, they are not accustomed to receive it, save where the King, our Lord, may be in persona. ]

 "Item. You will say to their Highnesses that Coronel is a man for the service of their Highnesses in many things, and how much service he has rendered up to the present in all the most necessary matters, and the need we feel of him now that he is sick; and that rendering service in such a manner, it is reasonable that he should receive the fruit of his service, not only in future favours, but in his present salary, so that he and those who are here may feel that their service profits them; because, so great is the labour which must be performed here in gathering the gold that the persons who are so diligent are not to be held in small consideration; and as, for his skill, he was provided here by me with the office of Alguacil Mayor of these Indies; and since in the provision the salary is left blank, you will say that I supplicate their Highnesses to order it filled in with as large an amount as they may think right, considering his services, confirming to him the provision I have given him here, and assuring it to him annually. 

 ["Their Highnesses order that 15, 000 maravedis more than his salary shall be assigned him each year, and that it shall be paid to him with his salary. ]

 "In the same manner you will tell their Highnesses how the lawyer Gil Garcia came here for Alcalde Mayor and no salary has been named or assigned to him; and he is a capable person, well educated and diligent, and is very necessary here; that I entreat their Highnesses to order his salary named and assigned, so that he can sustain himself, and that it may be paid from the money allowed for salaries here. 

 "[Their Highnesses order 20, 000 maravedis besides his salary assigned to him each year, as long as he remains yonder, and that it shall be paid him when his salary is paid. ]

 "Item. You will say to their Highnesses, although it is already written in the letters, that I do not think it will be possible to go to make discoveries this year, until these rivers in which gold is found are placed in the most suitable condition for the service of their Highnesses, as afterwards it can be done much better. Because it is a thing which no one can do without my presence, according to my will or for the service of their Highnesses, however well it may be done, as it is doubtful what will be satisfactory to a man unless he is present. 

 ["Let him endeavour that the amount of this gold may be known as precisely as possible. ]

 "Item. You will say to their Highnesses that the Squires who came from Granada showed good horses in the review which took place at Seville, and afterward at the embarkation I did not see them because I was slightly unwell, and they replaced them with such horses that the best of them do not appear to be worth 2000 maravedis, as they sold the others and bought these; and this was done in the same way to many people as I very well saw yonder, in the reviews at Seville. It appears that Juan de Soria, after he had been given the money for the wages, for some interest of his own substituted others in place of those I expected to find here, and I found people whom I had never seen. In this matter he was guilty of great wickedness, so that I do not know if I should complain of him alone. On this account, having seen that the expenses of these Squires have been defrayed until now, besides their wages and also wages for their horses, and it is now being done: and they are persons who, when they are sick or when they do not desire to do so, will not allow any use to be made of their horses save by themselves: and their, Highnesses do not desire that these horses should be purchased of them, but that they should be used in the service of their Highnesses: and it does not appear to them that they should do anything or render any service except on horseback, which at the present time is not much to the purpose: on this account, it seems that it would be better to buy the horses from them, since they are of so little value, and not have these disagreements with them every day. Therefore their Highnesses may determine this as will best serve them. 

 ["Their Highnesses order Don Juan de Fonseca to inform himself in regard to this matter of the horses, and if it shall be found true that this fraud was committed, those persons shall be sent to their Highnesses to be punished: and also he is to inform himself in regard to what is said of the other people, and send the result in the examination to their Highnesses; and in regard to these Squires, their Highnesses command that they remain there and render service, since they belong to the guards and servants of their Highnesses: and their Highnesses order the Squires to give up the horses each time it is necessary and the Admiral orders it, and if the horses receive any injury through others using them, their Highnesses order that the damage shall be paid to them by means of the Admiral. ]

 "Item. You will say to their Highnesses that more than 200 persons have come here without wages, and there are some of them who render good service. And as it is ordered that the others rendering similar service should be paid: and as for these first three years it would be of great benefit to have 1000 men here to settle, and place this island and the rivers of gold in very great security, and even though there were 100 horsemen nothing would be lost, but rather it seems necessary, although their Highnesses will be able to do without these horsemen until gold is sent: nevertheless, their Highnesses must send to say whether wages shall be paid to these 200 persons, the same as to the others rendering good service, because they are certainly necessary, as I have said in the beginning of this memorandum. 

 ["In regard to these 200 persons, who are here said to have gone without wages, their Highnesses order that they shall take the places of those who went for wages, who have failed or shall fail to fulfil their engagements, if they are skilful and satisfactory to the Admiral. And their Highnesses order the Purser (Contador) to enrol them in place of those who fail to fulfil their engagements, as the Admiral shall instruct him. ]

 "Item. As the cost of these people can be in some degree lightened and the better part of the expense could be avoided by the same means employed by other Princes in other places: it appears, that it would be well to order brought in the ships, besides the other things which are for the common maintenance and the medicines, shoes and the skins from which to order the shoes made, common shirts and others, jackets, linen, sack-coats, trowsers and cloths suitable for wearing apparel, at reasonable prices: and other things like conserves which are not included in rations and are for the preservation of health, which things all the people here would willingly receive to apply on their wages and if these were purchased yonder in Spain by faithful Ministers who would act for the advantage of their Highnesses, something would be saved. Therefore you will learn the will of their Highnesses about this matter, and if it appears to them to be of benefit to them, then it must be placed in operation. 

 ["This arrangement is to be in abeyance until the Admiral writes more fully, and at another time they will send to order Don Juan de Fonseca with Jimeno de Bribiesca to make provision for the same. ]

 "Item. You will say to their Highnesses that inasmuch as yesterday in the review people were found who were without arms, which I think happened in part by that exchange which took place yonder in Seville, or in the harbour when those who presented themselves armed were left, and others were taken who gave something to those who made the exchange, it seems that it would be well to order 200 cuirasses sent, and 100 muskets and 100 crossbows, and a large quantity of arsenal supplies, which is what we need most, and all these arms can be given to those who are unarmed. 

 ["Already Don Juan de Fonseca has been written to make provision for this. ]

 "Item. Inasmuch as some artisans who came here, such as masons and other workmen, are married and have wives yonder in Spain, and would like to have what is owing them from their wages given to their wives or to the persons to whom they will send their requirements in order that they may buy for them the things which they need here I supplicate their Highnesses to order it paid to them, because it is for their benefit to have these persons provided for here. 

 ["Their Highnesses have already sent orders to Don Juan de Fonseca to make provision for this matter. ]

 "Item. Because, besides the other things which are asked for there according to the memoranda which you are carrying signed by my hand, for the maintenance of the persons in good health as well as for the sick ones, it would be very well to have fifty casks of molasses (miel de azucar) from the island of Madeira, as it is the best sustenance in the world and the most healthful, and it does not usually cost more than two ducats per cask, without the cask: and if their Highnesses order some caravel to stop there in returning, it can be purchased and also ten cases of sugar, which is very necessary; as this is the best season of the year to obtain it, I say between the present time and the month of April, and to obtain it at a reasonable price. If their Highnesses command it, the order could be given, and it would not be known there for what place it is wanted. 

 ["Let Don Juan de Fonseca make provision for this matter. ]

 "Item. You will say to their Highnesses that although the rivers contain gold in the quantity related by those who have seen it, yet it is certain that the gold is not engendered in the rivers but rather on the land, the waters of the rivers which flow by the mines bringing it enveloped in the sands: and as among these rivers which have been discovered there are some very large ones, there are others so small that they are fountains rather than rivers, which are not more than two fingers of water in depth, and then the source from which they spring may be found: for this reason not only labourers to gather it in the sand will be profitable, but others to dig for it in the earth, which will be the most particular operation and produce a great quantity. And for this, it will be well for their Highnesses to send labourers, and from among those who work yonder in Spain in the mines of Almaden, that the work may be done in both ways. Although we will not await them here, as with the labourers we have here we hope, with the aid of God, once the people are in good health, to amass a good quantity of gold to be sent on the first caravels which return. 

 ["This will be fully provided for in another manner. In the meantime their Highnesses order Don Yuan de Fonseca to send the best miners he can obtain; and to write to Almaden to have the greatest possible number taken from there and sent. ]

 "Item. You will entreat their Highnesses very humbly on my part, to consider Villacorta as speedily recommended to them, who, as their Highnesses know, has rendered great service in this business, and with a very good will, and as I know him, he is a diligent person and very devoted to their service: it will be a favour to me if he is given some confidential charge for which he is fitted, and where he can show his desire to serve them and his diligence: and this you will obtain in such a way that Villacorta may know by the result, that what he has done for me when I needed him profits him in this manner. 

 ["It will be done thus. ]

 "Item. That the said Mosen Pedro and Gaspar and Beltran and others who have remained here gave up the captainship of caravels, which have now returned, and are not receiving wages: but because they are persons who must be employed in important matters and of confidence, their compensation, which must be different from the others, has not been determined. You will entreat their Highnesses on my part to determine what is to be given them each year, or by the month, according to their service. 

 "Done in the city of Isabella, January 30, 1494. 

 ["This has already been replied to above, but as it is stated in the said item that they enjoy their salary, from the present time their Highnesses order that their wages shall be paid to all of them from the time they left their captainships. "]

This document is worth studying, written as it was in circumstances thatat one moment looked desperate and at another were all hope. Columbuswas struggling manfully with difficulties that were already beginning tobe too much for him. The Man from Genoa, with his guiding star of faithin some shore beyond the mist and radiance of the West--see into whatstrange places and to what strange occupations this star has led him!The blue visionary eyes, given to seeing things immediately beyond thepresent horizon, must fix themselves on accounts and requisitions, on theneeds of idle, aristocratic, grumbling Spaniards; must fix themselvesalso on that blank void in the bellies of his returning ships, where thegold ought to have been. The letter has its practical side; therequisitions are made with good sense and a grasp of the economicsituation; but they have a deeper significance than that. All this talkabout little ewe lambs, wine and bacon (better than the last lot, if itplease your Highnesses), little yearling calves, and fifty casks ofmolasses that can be bought a ducat or two cheaper in Madeira in themonths of April and May than at any other time or place, is only halfreal. Columbus fills his Sovereigns' ears with this clamour so that heshall not hear those embarrassing questions that will inevitably be askedabout the gold and the spices. He boldly begins his letter with the oldstory about "indications of spices" and gold "in incredible quantities, "with a great deal of "moreover" and "besides, " and a bold, pompous, pathetic "I will undertake"; and then he gets away from that subject bywordy deviations, so that to one reading his letter it really might seemas though the true business of the expedition was to provide Coronel, Mosen Pedro, Gaspar, Beltran, Gil Garcia, and the rest of them with workand wages. Everything that occurs to him, great or little, that makes itseem as though things were humming in the new settlement, he stuffs intothis document, shovelling words into the empty hulls of the ships, andtrying to fill those bottomless pits with a stream of talk. A system ofslavery is boldly and bluntly sketched; the writer, in the hurry andstress of the moment, giving to its economic advantages rather greaterprominence than to its religious glories. The memorandum, for all itscourageous attempt to be very cool and orderly and practical, gives us, if ever a human document did, a picture of a man struggling with animpossible situation which he will not squarely face, like one who shouldtry to dig up the sea-shore and keep his eyes shut the while. 

In the royal comments written against the document one seems to trace thehand of Isabella rather than of Ferdinand. Their tone is matter-of-fact, cool, and comforting, like the coolness of a woman's hand placed on afeverish brow. Isabella believed in him; perhaps she read between thelines of this document, and saw, as we can see, how much anxiety anddistress were written there; and her comments are steadying andencouraging. He has done well; what he asks is being attended to; theirHighnesses are well informed in regard to this and that matter; suitableprovision will be made for everything; but let him endeavour that theamount of this gold may be known as precisely as possible. There is noescaping from that. The Admiral (no one knows it better than himself)must make good his dazzling promises, and coin every boastful word into agolden excelente of Spain. Alas! he must no longer write about the lushgrasses, the shining rivers, the brightly coloured parrots, the gaudyflies and insects, the little singing birds, and the nights that are likeMay in Cordova. He must find out about the gold; for it has come to grimbusiness in the Earthly Paradise. 

DESPERATE REMEDIES

CHAPTER I

THE VOYAGE TO CUBA

The sight of the greater part of their fleet disappearing in thedirection of home threw back the unstable Spanish colony into doubt anddespondency. The brief encouragement afforded by Ojeda's report soondied away, and the actual discomforts of life in Isabella were moreimportant than visionary luxuries that seemed to recede into the distancewith the vanishing ships. The food supply was the cause of muchdiscomfort; the jobbery and dishonesty which seem inseparable from thefitting out of a large expedition had stored the ships with bad wine andimperfectly cured provisions; and these combined with the unhealthyclimate to produce a good deal of sickness. The feeling againstColumbus, never far below the Spanish surface, began to express itselfdefinitely in treacherous consultations and plots; and these werefomented by Bernal Diaz, the comptroller of the colony, who had access toColumbus's papers and had seen the letter sent by him to Spain. Columbuswas at this time prostrated by an attack of fever, and Diaz took theopportunity to work the growing discontent up to the point of action. Hetold the colonists that Columbus had painted their condition in far toofavourable terms; that he was deceiving them as well as the Sovereigns;and a plot was hatched to seize the ships that remained and sail forhome, leaving Columbus behind to enjoy the riches that he had falselyboasted about. They were ready to take alarm at anything, and to believeanything one way or the other; and as they had believed Ojeda when hecame back with his report of riches, now they believed Cado, the assayer, who said that even such gold as had been found was of a very poor andworthless quality. The mutiny developed fast; and a table of chargesagainst Columbus, which was to be produced in Spain as a justificationfor it, had actually been drawn up when the Admiral, recovering from hisillness, discovered what was on foot. He dealt promptly and firmly withit in his quarterdeck manner, which was always far more effective thanhis viceregal manner. Diaz was imprisoned and lodged in chains on boardone of the ships, to be sent to Spain for trial; and the otherringleaders were punished also according to their deserts. The guns andammunition were all stored together on one ship under a safe guard, andthe mutiny was stamped out. But the Spaniards did not love Columbus anythe better for it; did not any the more easily forgive him for being incommand of them and for being a foreigner. 

But it would never do for the colony to stagnate in Isabella, andColumbus decided to make a serious attempt, not merely to discover thegold of Cibao, but to get it. He therefore organised a militaryexpedition of about 400 men, including artificers, miners, and carriers, with the little cavalry force that had been brought out from Spain. Every one who had armour wore it, flags and banners were carried, drumsand trumpets were sounded; the horses were decked out in rich caparisons, and as glittering and formidable a show was made as possible. Leavinghis brother James in command of the settlement, Columbus set out on the12th of March to the interior of the island. Through the forest and upthe mountainside a road was cut by pioneers from among the aristocraticadventurers who had come with the party; which road, the first made inthe New World, was called El Puerto de los Hidalgos. The formidable, glittering cavalcade inspired the natives with terror and amazement; theyhad never seen horses before, and when one of the soldiers dismounted itseemed to them as though some terrifying two-headed, six-limbed beast hadcome asunder. What with their fright of the horses and their desire topossess the trinkets that were carried they were very friendly andhospitable, and supplied the expedition with plenty of food. At last, after passing mountain ranges that made their hearts faint, and richvalleys that made them hopeful again, the explorers came to the mountainsof Cibao, and passing over the first range found themselves in a littlevalley at the foot of the hills where a river wound round a fertile plainand there was ample accommodation for an encampment. There were theusual signs of gold, and Columbus saw in the brightly coloured stones ofthe river-bed evidence of unbounded wealth in precious stones. At lasthe had come to the place! He who had doubted so much, and whose faithhad wavered, had now been led to a place where he could touch and handlethe gold and jewels of his desire; and he therefore called the placeSaint Thomas. He built a fort here, leaving a garrison of fifty-six menunder the command of Pedro Margarite to collect gold from the natives, and himself returned to Isabella, which he reached at the end of March. 

Enforced absence from the thing he has organised is a great test ofefficiency in any man. The world is full of men who can do thingsthemselves; but those who can organise from the industry of their men amachine which will steadily perform the work whether the organiser isabsent or present are rare indeed. Columbus was one of the first class. His own power and personality generally gave him some kind of masteryover any circumstances in which he was immediately concerned; but let himbe absent for a little time, and his organisation went to pieces. No onewas better than he at conducting a one-man concern; and his conduct ofthe first voyage, so long as he had his company under his immediatecommand, was a model of efficiency. But when the material under hiscommand began to grow and to be divided into groups his life became asuccession of ups and downs. While he was settling and disciplining onegroup mutiny and disorder would attack the other; and when he went toattend to them, the first one immediately fell into confusion again. Hedealt with the discontent in Isabella, organising the better disposedpart of it in productive labour, and himself marching the malcontentsinto something like discipline and order, leaving them at Saint Thomas, as we have seen, usefully collecting gold. But while he was away thepeople at Isabella had got themselves into trouble again, and when hearrived there on the morning of March 29th he found the town in adeplorable condition. The lake beside which the city had been built, andwhich seemed so attractive and healthy a spot, turned out to be nothingbetter than a fever trap. Drained from the malarial marshes, its sicklyexhalations soon produced an epidemic that incapacitated more than halfthe colony and interrupted the building operations. The time of thosewho were well was entirely occupied with the care of those who were sick, and all productive work was at a standstill. The reeking virgin soil hadproduced crops in an incredibly short time, and the sowings of Januarywere ready for reaping in the beginning of April. But there was no oneto reap them, and the further cultivation of the ground had necessarilybeen neglected. 

The faint-hearted Spaniards, who never could meet any trouble withoutgrumbling, were now in the depths of despair and angry discontent;and it had not pleased them to be put on a short allowance of even theunwholesome provisions that remained from the original store. A coupleof rude hand-mills had been erected for the making of flour, and as foodwas the first necessity Columbus immediately put all the able-bodied menin the colony, whatever their rank, to the elementary manual work ofgrinding. Friar Buil and the twelve Benedictine brothers who were withhim thought this a wise order, assuming of course that as clerics theywould not be asked to work. But great was their astonishment, and loudand angry their criticism of the Admiral, when they found that they alsowere obliged to labour with their hands. But Columbus was firm; therewere absolutely no exceptions made; hidalgo and priest had to workalongside of sailor and labourer; and the curses of the living mingledwith those of the dying on the man whose boastful words had brought themto such a place and such a condition. 

It was only in the nature of things that news should now arrive oftrouble at Saint Thomas. Gold and women again; instead of bartering ordigging, the Spaniards had been stealing; and discipline had beenrelaxed, with the usual disastrous results with regard to the women ofthe adjacent native tribes. Pedro Margarite sent a nervous message toColumbus expressing his fear that Caonabo, the native king, should beexasperated to the point of attacking them again. Columbus thereforedespatched Ojeda in command of a force of 350 armed men to Saint Thomaswith instructions that he was to take over the command of that post, while Margarite was to take out an expedition in search of Caonabo whom, with his brothers, Margarite was instructed to capture at all costs. 

Having thus set things going in the interior, and once more restoredIsabella to something like order, he decided to take three ships andattempt to discover the coast of Cathay. The old Nina, the San Juan, andthe Cordera, three small caravels, were provisioned for six months andmanned by a company of fifty-two men. Francisco Nino went once more withthe Admiral as pilot, and the faithful Juan de la Cosa was taken to drawcharts; one of the monks also, to act as chaplain. The Admiral had asteward, a secretary, ten seamen and six boys to complete the company onthe Nina. The San Juan was commanded by Alonso Perez Roldan and theCordera by Christoval Nino. Diego was again left in command of thecolony, with four counsellors, Friar Buil, Fernandez Coronel, AlonsoSanchez Carvajal, and Juan de Luxan, to assist his authority. 

The Admiral sailed on April 24th, steering to the westward and touchingat La Navidad before he bore away to the island of Cuba, the southernshore of which it was now his intention to explore. At one of his firstanchorages he discovered a native feast going on, and when the boats fromhis ships pulled ashore the feasters fled in terror--the hungry Spaniardsfinishing their meal for them. Presently, however, the feasters wereinduced to come back, and Columbus with soft speeches made them acompensation for the food that had been taken, and produced a favourableimpression, as his habit was; with the result that all along the coast hewas kindly received by the natives, who supplied him with food and freshfruit in return for trinkets. At the harbour now known as Santiago deCuba, where he anchored on May 2nd, he had what seemed like authenticinformation of a great island to the southward which was alleged to bethe source of all the gold. The very compasses of Columbus's ships seemby this time to have become demagnetised, and to have pointed only togold; for no sooner had he heard this report than he bore away to thesouth in pursuit of that faint yellow glitter that had now quite takenthe place of the original inner light of faith. 

The low coast of Jamaica, hazy and blue at first, but afterwards warminginto a golden belt crowned by the paler and deeper greens of the foliage, was sighted first by Columbus on Sunday, May 4th; and he anchored thenext day in the beautiful harbour of Saint Anne, to which he gave thename of Santa Gloria. To the island itself he gave the name of Santiago, which however has never displaced its native name of Jamaica. The dimblue mountains and clumps of lofty trees about the bay were wonderfuleven to Columbus, whose eyes must by this time have been growingaccustomed to the beauty of the West Indies, and he lost his heart toJamaica from the first moment that his eyes rested on its green andgolden shores. Perhaps he was by this time a little out of conceit withHayti; but be that as it may he retracted all the superlatives he hadever used for the other lands of his discovery, and bestowed them in hisheart upon Jamaica. 

He was not humanly so well received as he had been on the other islands, for when he cast anchor the natives came out in canoes threateninghostilities and had to be appeased with red caps and hawks' bells. Nextday, however, Columbus wished to careen his ships, and sailed a little tothe west until he found a suitable beach at Puerto Bueno; and as heapproached the shore some large canoes filled with painted and featheredwarriors came out and attacked his ships, showering arrows and javelins, and whooping and screaming at the Spaniards. The guns were discharged, and an armed party sent ashore in a boat, and the natives were soon putto flight. There was no renewal of hostilities; the next day the localcacique came down offering provisions and help; presents were exchanged, and cordial relations established. Columbus noticed that the Jamaicansseemed to be a much more virile community than either the Cubans or thepeople of Espanola. They had enormous canoes hollowed out of singlemahogany trees, some of them 96 feet long and 8 feet broad, which theyhandled with the greatest ease and dexterity; they had a merry way withthem too, were quick of apprehension and clever at expressing theirmeaning, and in their domestic utensils and implements they showed anadvance in civilisation on the other islanders of the group. Columbusdid some trade with the islanders as he sailed along the coast, but hedoes not seem to have believed much in the gold story, for after sailingto the western point of the island he bore away to the north again andsighted the coast of Cuba on the 18th of May. 

The reason why Columbus kept returning to the coast of Cuba was that hebelieved it to be the mainland of Asia. The unlettered natives, who hadnever read Marco Polo, told him that it was an island, although no manhad ever seen the end of it; but Columbus did not believe them, andsailed westward in the belief that he would presently come upon thecountry and city of Cathay. Soon he found himself in the wonderfullabyrinth of islets and sandbanks off the south coast; and because of thewonderful colours of their flowers and climbing plants he called themJardin de la Reina or Queen's Garden. Dangerous as the navigationthrough these islands was, he preferred to risk the shoals and sandbanksrather than round them out at sea to the southward, for he believed themto be the islands which, according to Marco Polo, lay in masses along thecoast of Cathay. In this adventure he had a very hard time of it; thelead had to be used all the time, the ships often had to be towed, thewind veered round from every quarter of the compass, and there weresqualls and tempests, and currents that threatened to set them ashore. By great good fortune, however, they managed to get through theArchipelago without mishap. By June 3rd they were sailing along thecoast again, and Columbus had some conversation with an old cacique whotold him of a province called Mangon (or so Columbus understood him) thatlay to the west. Sir John Mandeville had described the province of Mangias being the richest in Cathay; and of course, thought the Admiral, thismust be the place. He went westward past the Gulf of Xagua and got intothe shallow sandy waters, now known as the Jardinillos Bank, where thesea was whitened with particles of sand. When he had got clear of thisshoal water he stood across a broad bay towards a native settlement wherehe was able to take in yams, fruit, fish, and fresh water. 

But this excitement and hard work were telling on the Admiral, and when anative told him that there was a tribe close by with long tails, hebelieved him; and later, when one of his men, coming back from a shoreexpedition, reported that he had seen some figures in a forest wearingwhite robes, Columbus believed that they were the people with the tails, who wore a long garment to conceal them. 

He was moving in a world of enchantment; the weather was like no weatherin any known part of the world; there were fogs, black and thick, whichblew down suddenly from the low marshy land, and blew away again assuddenly; the sea was sometimes white as milk, sometimes black as pitch, sometimes purple, sometimes green; scarlet cranes stood looking at themas they slid past the low sandbanks; the warm foggy air smelt of roses;shoals of turtles covered the waters, black butterflies circled in themist; and the fever that was beginning to work in the Admiral's bloodmounted to his brain, so that in this land of bad dreams his fixed ideasbegan to dominate all his other faculties, and he decided that he mustcertainly be on the coast of Cathay, in the magic land described by MarcoPolo. 

There is nothing which illustrates the arbitrary and despotic governmentof sea life so well as the nautical phrase "make it so. " The very hoursof the day, slipping westward under the keel of an east-going ship, are"made" by rigid decree; the captain takes his observation of sun orstars, and announces the position of the ship to be at a certain spot onthe surface of the globe; any errors of judgment or deficiencies ofmethod are covered by the words "make it so. " And in all the elusivephenomena surrounding him the fevered brain of the Admiral discernedevidence that he was really upon the coast of Asia, although there was nomethod by which he could place the matter beyond a doubt. The word Asiawas not printed upon the sands of Cuba, as it might be upon a map; thelines of longitude did not lie visibly across the surface of the sea;there was nothing but sea and land, the Admiral's charts, and his ownconviction. Therefore Columbus decided to "make it so. " If there was noother way of being sure that this was the coast of Cathay, he woulddecree it to be the coast of Cathay by a legal document and by oaths andaffidavits. He would force upon the members of his expedition aconviction at least equal to his own; and instead of pursuing any furtherthe coast that stretched interminably west and south-west, he decided tosay, in effect, and once and for all, "Let this be the mainland of Asia. "

He called his secretary to him and made him draw up a form of oath ortestament, to which every member of the expedition was required tosubscribe, affirming that the land off which they were then lying (12thJune 1494), was the mainland of the Indies and that it was possible toreturn to Spain by land from that place; and every officer who shouldever deny it in the future was laid under a penalty of ten thousandmaravedis, and every ship's boy or seaman under a penalty of one hundredlashes; and in addition, any member of the expedition denying it in thefuture was to have his tongue cut out. 

No one will pretend that this was the action of a sane man; neither willany one wonder that Columbus was something less than sane after all hehad gone through, and with the beginnings of a serious illness already inhis blood. His achievement was slipping from his grasp; the gold had notbeen found, the wonders of the East had not been discovered; and it washis instinct to secure something from the general wreck that seemed to befalling about him, and to force his own dreams to come true, that causedhim to cut this grim and fantastic legal caper off the coast of Cuba. Hethought it at the time unlikely, seeing the difficulties of navigationthat he had gone through, which he might be pardoned for regarding asinsuperable to a less skilful mariner, that any one should ever come thatway again; even he himself said that he would never risk his life againin such a place. He wished his journey, therefore, not to have been madein vain; and as he himself believed that he had stood on the mainland ofAsia he took care to take back with him the only kind of evidence thatwas possible namely, the sworn affidavits of the ships' crews. 

Perhaps in his madness he would really have gone on and tried to reachthe Golden Chersonesus of Ptolemy, which according to Marco Polo lay justbeyond, and so to steer homeward round Ceylon and the Cape of Good Hope;in which case he would either have been lost or would have discoveredMexico. The crews, however, would not hear of the voyage being continuedwestward. The ships were leaking and the salt water was spoiling thealready doubtful provisions and he was forced to turn back. He stood tothe south-east, and reached the Isle of Pines, to which he gave the nameof Evangelista, where the water-casks were filled, and from there hetried to sail back to the east. But he found himself surrounded byislands and banks in every direction, which made any straight courseimpossible. He sailed south and east and west and north, and foundhimself always back again in the middle of this charmed group of islands. He spent almost a month trying to escape from them, and once his shipwent ashore on a sandbank and was only warped off with the greatestdifficulty. On July 7th he was back again in the region of the "Queen'sGardens, " from which he stood across to the coast of Cuba. 

He anchored and landed there, and being in great distress and difficultyhe had a large cross erected on the mainland, and had mass said. Whenthe Spaniards rose from their knees they saw an old native man observingthem; and the old man came and sat down beside Columbus and talked to himthrough the interpreter. He told him that he had been in Jamaica andEspanola as well as in Cuba, and that the coming of the Spaniards hadcaused great distress to the people of the islands. 

He then spoke to Columbus about religion, and the gist of what he saidwas something like this: "The performance of your worship seems good tome. You believe that this life is not everything; so do we; and I knowthat when this life is over there are two places reserved for me, to oneof which I shall certainly go; one happy and beautiful, one dreadful andmiserable. Joy and kindness reign in the one place, which is good enoughfor the best of men; and they will go there who while they have lived onthe earth have loved peace and goodness, and who have never robbed orkilled or been unkind. The other place is evil and full of shadows, andis reserved for those who disturb and hurt the sons of men; how importantit is, therefore, that one should do no evil or injury in this world!"

Columbus replied with a brief statement of his own theological views, andadded that he had been sent to find out if there were any persons inthose islands who did evil to others, such as the Caribs or cannibals, and that if so he had come to punish them. The effect of this ingenuousspeech was heightened by a gift of hawks' bells and pieces of brokenglass; upon receiving which the good old man fell down on his knees, andsaid that the Spaniards must surely have come from heaven. 

A few days later the voyage to the, south-east was resumed, and someprogress was made along the coast. But contrary winds arose which madeit impossible for the ships to round Cape Cruz, and Columbus decided toemploy the time of waiting in completing his explorations in Jamaica. He therefore sailed due south until he once more sighted the beautifulnorthern coast of that island, following it to the west and landing, ashis custom was, whenever he saw a good harbour or anchorage. The windwas still from the east, and he spent a month beating to the eastwardalong the south coast of the island, fascinated by its beauty, andwilling to stay and explore it, but prevented by the discontent of hiscrews, who were only anxious to get back to Espanola. He had friendlyinterviews with many of the natives of Jamaica, and at almost the lastharbour at which he touched a cacique with his wife and family andcomplete retinue came off in canoes to the ship, begging Columbus to takehim and his household back to Spain. 

Columbus considers this family, and thinks wistfully how well they wouldlook in Barcelona. Father dressed in a cap of gold and green jewels, necklace and earrings of the same; mother decked out in similar regalia, with the addition of a small cotton apron; two sons and five brothersdressed principally in a feather or two; two daughters mother-naked, except that the elder, a handsome girl of eighteen, wears a jewelledgirdle from which depends a tablet as big as an ivy leaf, made of variouscoloured stones embroidered on cotton. What an exhibit for one of thetriumphal processions: "Native royal family, complete"! But Columbusthinks also of the scarcity of provisions on board his ships, and wondershow all these royalties would like to live on a pint of sour wine and arotten biscuit each per day. Alas! there is not sour wine and rottenbiscuit enough for his own people; it is still a long way to Espanola;and he is obliged to make polite excuses, and to say that he will comeback for his majesty another time. 

It was on the 20th of August that Columbus, having the day before seenthe last of the dim blue hills of Jamaica, sighted again the longpeninsula of Hayti, called by him Cape San Miguel, but known to us asCape Tiburon; although it was not until he was hailed by a cacique whocalled out to him "Almirante, Almirante, " that the seaworn marinersrealised with joy that the island must be Espanola. But they were a longway from Isabella yet. They sailed along the south coast, meetingcontrary winds, and at one point landing nine men who were to cross theisland, and try to reach Isabella by land. Week followed week, and theymade very poor progress. In the beginning of September they were caughtin a severe tempest, which separated the ships for a time, and held theAdmiral weather-bound for eight days. There was an eclipse of the moonduring this period, and he took advantage of it to make an observationfor longitude, by which he found himself to be 5 hrs. 23 min. , or 80 deg. 40', west of Cadiz. In this observation there is an error of eighteendegrees, the true longitude of the island of Saona, where the observationwas taken, being 62 deg. 20' west of Cadiz; and the error is accountedfor partly by the inaccuracy of the tables of Regiomontanus and partly bythe crudity and inexactness of the Admiral's methods. On the 24th ofSeptember they at last reached the easternmost point of Espanola, namedby Columbus San Rafael. They stood to the east a little longer, anddiscovered the little island of Mona, which lies between Espanola andPuerto Rico; and from thence shaped their course west-by-north forIsabella. And no sooner had the course been set for home than theAdmiral suddenly and completely collapsed; was carried unconscious to hiscabin; and lay there in such extremity that his companions gave him upfor lost. 

It is no ordinary strain to which poor Christopher has succumbed. He hasbeen five months at sea, sharing with the common sailors their bad foodand weary vigils, but bearing alone on his own shoulders a weight ofanxiety of which they knew nothing. Watch has relieved watch on hisships, but there has been no one to relieve him, or to lift the burdenfrom his mind. The eyes of a nation are upon him, watchful and jealouseyes that will not forgive him any failure; and to earn their approval hehas taken this voyage of five months, during which he has only been ableto forget his troubles in the brief hours of slumber. Strange unchartedseas, treacherous winds and currents, drenching surges have all donetheir part in bringing him to this pass; and his body, now starved onrotten biscuits, now glutted with unfamiliar fruits, has been preyed uponby the tortured mind as the mind itself has been shaken and loosened bythe weakness of the body. He lies there in his cabin in a deep stupor;memory, sight, and all sensation completely gone from him; dead but forthe heart that beats on faintly, and the breath that comes and goesthrough the parted lips. Nino, de la Cosa, and the others come and lookat him, shake their heads, and go away again. There is nothing to bedone; perhaps they will get him back to Isabella in time to bury himthere; perhaps not. 

And meanwhile they are back again in calm and safe waters, and coasting afamiliar shore; and the faithful little Nina, shaking out her wings inthe sunny breezes, trips under the guidance of unfamiliar hands towardsher moorings in the Bay of Isabella. It is a sad company that shecarries; for in the cabin, deaf and blind and unconscious, there lies theheart and guiding spirit of the New World. He does not hear the talkingof the waters past the Nina's timbers, does not hear the stamping on thedeck and shortening of sail and unstopping of cables and getting out ofgear; does not hear the splash of the anchor, nor the screams of birdsthat rise circling from the shore. Does not hear the greetings and thenews; does not see bending over him a kind, helpful, and well-belovedface. He sees and hears and knows nothing; and in that state of rest andabsence from the body they carry him, still living and breathing, ashore. 

CHAPTER II

THE CONQUEST OF ESPANOLA

We must now go back to the time when Columbus, having made whatarrangements he could for the safety of Espanola, left it under thecharge of his brother James. Ojeda had duly marched into the interiorand taken over the command of Fort St. Thomas, thus setting freeMargarite, according to his instructions, to lead an expedition forpurposes of reconnoitre and demonstration through the island. These, atany rate, were Margarite's orders, duly communicated to him by Ojeda; butMargarite will have none of them. Well born, well educated, well bred, he ought at least to have the spirit to carry out orders so agreeable toa gentleman of adventure; but unfortunately, although Margarite is agentleman by birth, he is a low and dishonest dog by nature. He cannottake the decent course, cannot even play the man, and take his share inthe military work of the colony. Instead of cutting paths through theforest, and exhibiting his military strength in an orderly and proper wayas the Admiral intended he should, he marches forth from St. Thomas, onhearing that Columbus has sailed away, and encamps no further off thanthe Vega Real, that pleasant place of green valleys and groves andmurmuring rivers. He encamps there, takes up his quarters there, willnot budge from there for any Admiral; and as for James Columbus and hiscounsellors, they may go to the devil for all Margarite cares. One ofthem at least, he knows--Friar Buil--is not such a fool as to sit downunder the command of that solemn-faced, uncouth young snip from Genoa;and doubtless when he is tired of the Vega Real he and Buil can arrangesomething between them. In the meantime, here is a very beautifulsunshiny place, abounding in all kinds of provisions; food for more thanone kind of appetite, as he has noticed when he has thrust his rude wayinto the native houses and seen the shapely daughters of the islanders. He has a little army of soldiers to forage for him; they can get him foodand gold, and they are useful also in those other marauding expeditionsdesigned to replenish the seraglio that he has established in his camp;and if they like to do a little marauding and woman-stealing on their ownaccount, it is no affair of his, and may keep the devils in a goodtemper. Thus Don Pedro Margarite to himself. 

The peaceable and gentle natives soon began to resent these gross doings. To robbery succeeded outrage, and to outrage murder--all three committedin the very houses of the natives; and they began to murmur, to withholdthat goodwill which the Spaniards had so sorely tried, and to develop athreatening attitude that was soon communicated to the natives in thevicinity of Isabella, and came under the notice of James Columbus and hiscouncil. Grave, bookish, wool-weaving young James, not used to militaryaffairs, and not at all comfortable in his command, can think of no otherexpedient than--to write a letter to Margarite remonstrating with him forhis licentious excesses and reminding him of the Admiral's instructions, which were being neglected. 

Margarite receives the letter and reads it with a contemptuous laugh. Heis not going to be ordered about by a family of Italian wool-weavers, andthe only change in his conduct is that he becomes more and more carelessand impudent, extending the area of his lawless operations, and makingfrequent visits to Isabella itself, swaggering under the very nose ofsolemn James, and soon deep in consultation with Friar Buil. 

At this moment, that is to say very soon after the departure ofChristopher on his voyage to Cuba and Jamaica, three ships dropped anchorin the Bay of Isabella. They were laden with the much-needed suppliesfrom Spain, and had been sent out under the command of BartholomewColumbus. It will be remembered that when Christopher reached Spainafter his first voyage one of his first cares had been to write toBartholomew, asking him to join him. The letter, doubtless after manywanderings, had found Bartholomew in France at the court of CharlesVIII. , by whom he was held in some esteem; in fact it was Charles whoprovided him with the necessary money for his journey to Spain, forBartholomew had not greatly prospered, in spite of his voyage with Diazto the Cape of Good Hope and of his having been in England makingexploration proposals at the court of Henry VII. He had arrived in Spainafter Columbus had sailed again, and had presented himself at court withhis two nephews, Ferdinand and Diego, both of whom were now in theservice of Prince Juan as pages. Ferdinand and Isabella seem to havereceived Bartholomew kindly. They liked this capable navigator, who hadmuch of Christopher's charm of manner, and was more a man of the worldthan he. Much more practical also; Ferdinand would be sure to like himbetter than he liked Christopher, whose pompous manner and long-windedspeeches bored him. Bartholomew was quick, alert, decisive andpractical; he was an accomplished navigator--almost as accomplished asColumbus, as it appeared. He was offered the command of the three shipswhich were being prepared to go to Espanola with supplies; and he dulyarrived there after a prosperous voyage. It will be remembered thatChristopher had, so far as we know, kept the secret of the road to thenew islands; and Bartholomew can have had nothing more to guide him thana rough chart showing the islands in a certain latitude, and the distanceto be run towards them by dead-reckoning. That he should have made anexact landfall and sailed into the Bay of Isabella, never having beenthere before, was a certificate of the highest skill in navigation. 

Unfortunately it was James who was in charge of the colony; Bartholomewhad no authority, for once his ships had arrived in port his mission wasaccomplished until Christopher should return and find him employment. He was therefore forced to sit still and watch his young brotherstruggling with the unruly Spaniards. His presence, however, was nodoubt a further exasperation to the malcontents. There existed inIsabella a little faction of some of the aristocrats who had never, forgiven Columbus for employing them in degrading manual labour; who hadnever forgiven him in fact for being there at all, and in command overthem. And now here was another woolweaver, or son of a wool-weaver, cometo put his finger in the pie that Christopher has apparently provided socarefully for himself and his family. 

Margarite and Buil and some others, treacherous scoundrels all of them, but clannish to their own race and class, decide that they will put upwith it no longer; they are tired of Espanola in any case, and Margarite, from too free indulgence among the native women, has contracted anunpleasant disease, and thinks that a sea voyage and the attentions of aSpanish doctor will be good for him. It is easy for them to put theirplot into execution. There are the ships; there is nothing, for them todo but take a couple of them, provision them, and set sail for Spain, where they trust to their own influence, and the story they will be ableto tell of the falseness of the Admiral's promises, to excuse theirbreach of discipline. And sail they do, snapping their fingers at thewool-weavers. 

James and Bartholomew were perhaps glad to be rid of them, but theirrelief was tempered with anxiety as to the result on Christopher'sreputation and favour when the malcontents should have made their falserepresentations at Court. The brothers were powerless to do anything inthat matter, however, and the state of affairs in Espanola demanded theirclose attention. Margarite's little army, finding itself without eventhe uncertain restraint of its commander, now openly mutinied andabandoned itself to the wildest excesses. It became scattered anddisbanded, and little groups of soldiers went wandering about thecountry, robbing and outraging and carrying cruelty and oppression amongthe natives. Long-suffering as these were, and patiently as they borewith the unspeakable barbarities of the Spanish soldiers, there came apoint beyond which their forbearance would not go. An aching spirit ofunforgiveness and revenge took the place of their former gentleness andcompliance; and here and there, when the Spaniards were more brutal andless cautious than was their brutal and incautious habit, the nativesfell upon them and took swift and bloody revenge. Small parties foundthemselves besieged and put to death whole villages, whose hospitalityhad been abused, cut off wandering groups of the marauders and burned thehouses where they lodged. The disaffection spread; and Caonabo, who hadnever abated his resentment at the Spanish intrusion into the island, thought the time had come to make another demonstration of native power. 

Fortunately for the Spaniards his object was the fort of St. Thomas, commanded by the alert Ojeda; and this young man, who was not easily tobe caught napping, had timely intelligence of his intention. WhenCaonabo, mustering ten thousand men, suddenly surrounded the fort andprepared to attack it, he found the fifty Spaniards of the garrison morethan ready for him, and his naked savages dared not advance within therange of the crossbows and arquebuses. Caonabo tried to besiege thestation, watching every gorge and road through which supplies could reachit, but Ojeda made sallies and raids upon the native force, under whichit became thinned and discouraged; and Caonabo had finally to withdraw tohis own territory. 

But he was not yet beaten. He decided upon another and much largerenterprise, which was to induce the other caciques of the island toco-operate with him in an attack upon Isabella, the population of whichhe knew would have been much thinned and weakened by disease. Theisland was divided into five native provinces. The northeastern part, named Marien, was under the rule of Guacanagari, whose headquarters werenear the abandoned La Navidad. The remaining eastern part of theisland, called Higuay, was under a chief named Cotabanama. The westernprovince was Xaragua, governed by one Behechio, whose sister, Anacaona, was the wife of Caonabo. The middle of the island was divided into twoprovinces-that which extended from the northern coast to the Cibaomountains and included the Vega Real being governed by Guarionex, andthat which extended from the Cibao mountains to the south being governedby Caonabo. All these rulers were more or less embittered by theoutrages and cruelties of the Spaniards, and all agreed to join withCaonabo except Guacanagari. That loyal soul, so faithful to what heknew of good, shocked and distressed as he was by outrages from whichhis own people had suffered no less than the others, could not bringhimself to commit what he regarded as a breach of the laws ofhospitality. It was upon his shores that Columbus had first landed; andalthough it was his own country and his own people whose wrongs were tobe avenged, he could not bring himself to turn traitor to the graveAdmiral with whom, in those happy days of the past, he had enjoyed somuch pleasant intercourse. His refusal to co-operate delayed the planof Caonabo, who directed the island coalition against Guacanagarihimself in order to bring him to reason. He was attacked by theneighbouring chiefs; one of his wives was killed and another captured;but still he would not swerve from his ideal of conduct. 

The first thing that Columbus recognised when he opened his eyes afterhis long period of lethargy and insensibility was the face of his brotherBartholomew bend-over him where he lay in bed in his own house atEspanola. Nothing could have been more welcome to him, sick, lonely anddiscouraged as he was, than the presence of that strong, helpful brother;and from the time when Bartholomew's friendly face first greeted him hebegan to get better. His first act, as soon as he was strong enough tosign a paper, was to appoint Bartholomew to the office of Adelantado, orLieutenant-Governor--an indiscreet and rather tactless proceeding which, although it was not outside his power as a bearer of the royal seal, wasafterwards resented by King Ferdinand as a piece of impudent encroachmentupon the royal prerogative. But Columbus was unable to transact businesshimself, and James was manifestly of little use; the action was naturalenough. 

In the early days of his convalescence he had another pleasantexperience, in the shape of a visit from Guacanagari, who came to expresshis concern at the Admiral's illness, and to tell him the story of whathad been going on in his absence. The gentle creature referred againwith tears to the massacre at La Navidad, and again asserted thatinnocence of any hand in it which Columbus had happily never doubted; andhe told him also of the secret league against Isabella, of his ownrefusal to join it, and of the attacks to which he had consequently beensubjected. It must have been an affecting meeting for these two, whorepresented the first friendship formed between the Old World and theNew, who were both of them destined to suffer in the impact ofcivilisation and savagery, and whose names and characters were happilydestined to survive that impact, and to triumph over the oblivion ofcenturies. 

So long as the native population remained hostile and unconquered bykindness or force, it was impossible to work securely at the developmentof the colony; and Columbus, however regretfully, had come to feel thatcircumstances more or less obliged him to use force. At first he did notquite realise the gravity of the position, and attempted to conquer orreconcile the natives in little groups. Guarionex, the cacique of theVega Real, was by gifts and smooth words soothed back into a friendshipwhich was consolidated by the marriage of his daughter with Columbus'snative interpreter. It was useless, how ever, to try and make friendswith Caonabo, that fierce irreconcilable; and it was felt that only bystratagem could he be secured. No sooner was this suggested than Ojedavolunteered for the service. Amid the somewhat slow-moving figures ofour story this man appears as lively as a flea; and he dances across ourpages in a sensation of intrepid feats of arms that make his greatpopularity among the Spaniards easily credible to us. He did not knowwhat fear was; he was always ready for a fight of any kind; a quarrel inthe streets of Madrid, a duel, a fight with a man or a wild beast, a brawl in a tavern or a military expedition, were all the same to him, if only they gave him an opportunity for fighting. He had a littlepicture of the Virgin hung round his neck, by which he swore, and towhich he prayed; he had never been so much as scratched in all hisaffrays, and he believed that he led a charmed life. Who would go outagainst Caonabo, the Goliath of the island? He, little David Ojeda, hewould go out and undertake to fetch the giant back with him; and all hewanted was ten men, a pair of handcuffs, a handful of trinkets, horsesfor the whole of his company, and his little image or picture of theVirgin. 

Columbus may have smiled at this proposal, but he knew his man; and Ojedaduly departed with his horses and his ten men. Plunging into the forest, he made his way through sixty leagues of dense undergrowth until hearrived in the very heart of Caonabo's territory and presented himself atthe chiefs house. The chief was at home, and, not unimpressed by thevalour of Ojeda, who represented himself as coming on a friendly mission, received him under conditions of truce. He had an eye for militaryprowess, this Caonabo, and something of the lion's heart in him; herecognised in Ojeda the little man who kept him so long at bay outsideFort St. Thomas; and, after the manner of lion-hearted people, liked himnone the worse for that. 

Ojeda proposes that the King should accompany him to Isabella to makepeace. No, says Caonabo. Then Ojeda tries another way. There is apoetical side to this big fighting savage, and often in more friendlydays, when the bell in the little chapel of Isabella has been ringing forVespers, the cacique has been observed sitting alone on some hilllistening, enchanted by the strange silver voice that floated to himacross the sunset. The bell has indeed become something of a personalityin the island: all the neighbouring savages listen to its voice with aweand fascination, pausing with inclined heads whenever it begins to speakfrom its turret. 

Ojeda talks to Caonabo about the bell, and tells him what a wonderfulthing it is; tells him also that if he will come with him to Isabella heshall have the bell for a present. Poetry and public policy struggletogether in Caonabo's heart, but poetry wins; the great powerful savage, urged thereto by his childish lion-heart, will come to Isabella if theywill give him the bell. He sets forth, accompanied by a native retinue, and by Ojeda and his ten horsemen. Presently they come to a river andOjeda produces his bright manacles; tells the King that they are royalornaments and that he has been instructed to bestow them upon Caonabo asa sign of honour. But first he must come alone to the river and bathe, which he does. Then he must sit with Ojeda upon his horse; which hedoes. Then he must have fitted on to him the shining silver trinkets;which he does, the great grinning giant, pleased with his toys. Then, toshow him what it is like to be on a horse, Ojeda canters gently round inwidening and ever widening circles; a turn of his spurred heels, and thecanter becomes a gallop, the circle becomes a straight line, and Caonabois on the road to Isabella. When they are well beyond reach of thenatives they pause and tie Caonabo securely into his place; and by thistreachery bring him into Isabella, where he is imprisoned in theAdmiral's house. 

The sulky giant, brought thus into captivity, refuses to bend his proud, stubborn heart into even a form of submission. He takes no notice ofColumbus, and pays him no honour, although honour is paid to himself asa captive king. He sits there behind his bars gnawing his fingers, listening to the voice of the bell that has lured him into captivity, and thinking of the free open life which he is to know no more. Thoughhe will pay no deference to the Admiral, will not even rise when heenters his presence, there is one person he holds in honour, and that isOjeda. He will not rise when the Admiral comes; but when Ojeda comes, small as he is, and without external state, the chief makes his obeisanceto him. The Admiral he sets at defiance, and boasts of his destructionof La Navidad, and of his plan to destroy Isabella; Ojeda he respects andholds in honour, as being the only man in the island brave enough to comeinto his house and carry him off a captive. There is a good deal of thesportsman in Caonabo. 

The immediate result of the capture of Caonabo was to rouse the islandersto further hostilities, and one of the brothers of the captive king led aforce of seven thousand men to the vicinity of St. Thomas, to whichOjeda, however, had in the meantime returned. His small force wasaugmented by some men despatched by Bartholomew Columbus on receipt of anurgent message; and in command of this force Ojeda sallied forth againstthe natives and attacked them furiously on horse and on foot, killing agreat part of them, taking others prisoner, and putting the rest toflight. This was the beginning of the end of the island resistance. Amonth or two later, when Columbus was better, he and Bartholomew togethermustered the whole of their available army and marched out in search ofthe native force, which he knew had been rallied and greatly augmented. 

The two forces met near the present town of Santiago, in the plain knownas the Savanna of Matanza. The Spanish force was divided into three maindivisions, under the command of Christopher and Bartholomew Columbus andOjeda respectively. These three divisions attacked the Indianssimultaneously from different points, Ojeda throwing his cavalry uponthem, riding them down, and cutting them to pieces. Drums were beatenand trumpets blown; the guns were fired from the cover of the trees; anda pack of bloodhounds, which had been sent out from Spain withBartholomew, were let loose upon the natives and tore their bodies topieces. It was an easy and horrible victory. The native force wasestimated by Columbus at one hundred thousand men, although we shallprobably be nearer the mark if we reduce that estimate by one half. 

The powers of hell were let loose that day into the Earthly Paradise. The guns mowed red lines of blood through the solid ranks of the natives;the great Spanish horses trod upon and crushed their writhing bodies, inwhich arrows and lances continually stuck and quivered; and the ferociousdogs, barking and growling, seized the naked Indians by the throat, dragged them to the ground, and tore out their very entrails . . . . Well for us that the horrible noises of that day are silent now; well forthe world that that place of bloodshed and horror has grown green again;better for us and for the world if those cries had never been heard, andthat quiet place had never received a stain that centuries of greensucceeding springtides can never wash away. 

It was some time before this final battle that the convalescence of theAdmiral was further assisted by the arrival of four ships commanded byAntonio Torres, who must have passed, out of sight and somewhere on thehigh seas, the ships bearing Buil and Margarite back to Spain. Hebrought with him a large supply of fresh provisions for the colony, and anumber of genuine colonists, such as fishermen, carpenters, farmers, mechanics, and millers. And better still he brought a letter from theSovereigns, dated the 16th of August 1494, which did much to cheer theshaken spirits of Columbus. The words with which he had freighted hisempty ships had not been in vain; and in this reply to them he was warmlycommended for his diligence, and reminded that he enjoyed the unshakenconfidence of the Sovereigns. They proposed that a caravel should sailevery month from Spain and from Isabella, bearing intelligence of thecolony and also, it was hoped, some of its products. In a general letteraddressed to the colony the settlers were reminded of the obedience theyowed to the Admiral, and were instructed to obey him in all things underthe penalty of heavy fines. They invited Columbus to come back if hecould in order to be present at the convention which was to establish theline of demarcation between Spanish and Portuguese possessions; or if hecould not come himself to send his brother Bartholomew. There werereasons, however, which made this difficult. Columbus wished to despatchthe ships back again as speedily as possible, in order that news of himmight help to counteract the evil rumours that he knew Buil and Margaritewould be spreading. He himself was as yet (February 1494) too ill totravel; and during his illness Bartholomew could not easily be spared. It was therefore decided to send home James, who could most easily bespared, and whose testimony as a member of the governing body during theabsence of the Admiral on his voyage to Cuba might be relied upon tocounteract the jealous accusations of Margarite and Buil. 

Unfortunately there was no golden cargo to send back with him. As muchgold as possible was scraped together, but it was very little. The usualassortment of samples of various island products was also sent; but stillthe vessels were practically empty. Columbus must have been painfullyconscious that the time for sending samples had more than expired, andthat the people in Spain might reasonably expect some of the actualriches of which there had been so many specimens and promises. Insomething approaching desperation, he decided to fill the empty holds ofthe ships with something which, if it was not actual money, could atleast be made to realise money. From their sunny dreaming life on theisland five hundred natives were taken and lodged in the dark holds ofthe caravels, to be sent to Spain and sold there for what they wouldfetch. Of course they were to be "freed" and converted to Christianityin the process; that was always part of the programme, but it did notinterfere with business. They were not man-eating Caribs or fiercemarauding savages from neighbouring islands, but were of the mild andpeaceable race that peopled Espanola. The wheels of civilisation werebeginning to turn in the New World. 

After the capture of Caonabo and the massacre of April 25th Columbusmarched through the island, receiving the surrender and submission of theterrified natives. At the approach of his force the caciques came outand sued for peace; and if here and there there was a momentaryresistance, a charge of cavalry soon put an end to it. One by one thekings surrendered and laid down their arms, until all the island rulershad capitulated with the exception of Behechio, into whose territoryColumbus did not march, and who sullenly retired to the south-westerncorner of the island. The terms of peace were harsh enough, and weresuggested by the dilemma of Columbus in his frantic desire to gettogether some gold at any cost. A tribute of gold-dust was laid uponevery adult native in the island. Every three months a hawk's bell fullof gold was to be brought to the treasury at Isabella, and in the case 39of caciques the measure was a calabash. A receipt in the form of a brassmedal was fastened to the neck of every Indian when he paid his tribute, and those who could not show the medal with the necessary number of markswere to be further fined and punished. In the districts where there wasno gold, 25 lbs. Of cotton was accepted instead. 

This levy was made in ignorance of the real conditions under which thenatives possessed themselves of the gold. What they had in many casesrepresented the store of years, and in all but one or two favoureddistricts it was quite impossible for them to keep up the amount of thetribute. Yet the hawks' bells, which once had been so eagerly covetedand were now becoming hated symbols of oppression, had to be filledsomehow; and as the day of payment drew near the wretched natives, whohad formerly only sought for gold when a little of it was wanted for apretty ornament, had now to work with frantic energy in the river sands;or in other cases, to toil through the heat of the day in the cottonfields which they had formerly only cultivated enough to furnish theirvery scant requirements of use and adornment. One or two caciques, knowing that their people could not possibly furnish the required amountof gold, begged that its value in grain might be accepted instead; butthat was not the kind of wealth that Columbus was seeking. It must begold or nothing; and rather than receive any other article from thegold-bearing districts, he consented to take half the amount. 

Thus step by step, and under the banner of the Holy Catholic religion, did dark and cruel misery march through the groves and glades of theisland and banish for ever its ancient peace. This long-vanished racethat was native to the island of Espanola seems to have had some of thehappiest and most lovable qualities known to dwellers on this planet. They had none of the brutalities of the African, the paralysing wisdom ofthe Asian, nor the tragic potentialities of the European peoples. Theirlife was from day to day, and from season to season, like the life offlowers and birds. They lived in such order and peaceable community asthe common sense of their own simple needs suggested; they craved nopleasures except those that came free from nature, and sought no wealthbut what the sun gave them. In their verdant island, near to the heartand source of light, surrounded by the murmur of the sea, and so enrichedby nature that the idea, of any other kind of riches never occurred tothem, their existence went to a happy dancing measure like that of thefauns and nymphs in whose charmed existence they believed. The sun andmoon were to them creatures of their island who had escaped from a cavernby the shore and now wandered free in the upper air, peopling it withhappy stars; and man himself they believed to have sprung from crevicesin the rocks, like the plants that grew tall and beautiful wherever therewas a handful of soil for their roots. Poor happy children! You are alldead a long while ago now, and have long been hushed in the great hummingsleep and silence of Time; the modern world has no time nor room forpeople like you, with so much kindness and so little ambition . . . . Yet their free pagan souls were given a chance to be penned within theChristian fold; the priest accompanied the gunner and the bloodhound, themissionary walked beside the slave-driver; and upon the bewilderedsun-bright surface of their minds the shadow of the cross was for a momentthrown. Verily to them the professors of Christ brought not peace, but asword. 

CHAPTER III

UPS AND DOWNS

While Columbus was toiling under the tropical sun to make good hispromises to the Crown, Margarite and Buil, having safely come home toSpain from across the seas, were busy setting forth their view of thevalue of his discoveries. It was a view entirely different from any thatFerdinand and Isabella had heard before, and coming as it did from twomen of position and importance who had actually been in Espanola, andwere loyal and religious subjects of the Crown, it could not fail toreceive, if not immediate and complete credence, at any rate graveattention. Hitherto the Sovereigns had only heard one side of thematter; an occasional jealous voice may have been raised from theneighbourhood of the Pinzons or some one else not entirely satisfied withhis own position in the affair; but such small cries of dissent hadnaturally had little chance against the dignified eloquence of theAdmiral. 

Now, however, the matter was different. People who were at least theequals of Columbus in intelligence, and his superiors by birth andeducation, had seen with their own eyes the things of which he hadspoken, and their account differed widely from his. They representedthings in Espanola as being in a very bad way indeed, which was trueenough; drew a dismal picture of an overcrowded colony ravaged withdisease and suffering from lack of provisions; and held forth at lengthupon the very doubtful quality of the gold with which the New World wassupposed to abound. More than this, they brought grave charges againstColumbus himself, representing him as unfit to govern a colony, given tofavouritism, and, worst of all, guilty of having deliberatelymisrepresented for his own ends the resources of the colony. This as weknow was not true. It was not for his own ends, or for any ends at allwithin the comprehension of men like Margarite and Buil, that poorChristopher had spoken so glowingly out of a heart full of faith in whathe had seen and done. Purposes, dim perhaps, but far greater and loftierthan any of which these two mean souls had understanding, animated himalike in his discoveries and in his account of them; although that doesnot alter the unpleasant fact that at the stage matters had now reachedit seemed as though there might have been serious misrepresentation. 

Ferdinand and Isabella, thus confronted with a rather difficultsituation, acted with great wisdom and good sense. How much or howlittle they believed we do not know, but it was obviously their duty, having heard such an account from responsible officers, to investigatematters for themselves without assuming either that the report was trueor untrue. They immediately had four caravels furnished with supplies, and decided to appoint an agent to accompany the expedition, investigatethe affairs of the colony, and make a report to them. If the Admiral wasstill absent when their agent reached the colony he was to be entrustedwith the distribution of the supplies which were being sent out; forColumbus's long absence from Espanola had given rise to some fears forhis safety. 

The Sovereigns had just come to this decision (April 1495) when a letterarrived from the Admiral himself, announcing his return to Espanola afterdiscovering the veritable mainland of Asia, as the notarial documentenclosed with the letter attested. Torres and James Columbus had arrivedin Spain, bearing the memorandum which some time ago we saw the Admiralwriting; and they were able to do something towards allaying the fears ofthe Sovereigns as to the condition of the colony. The King and Queen, nevertheless, wisely decided to carry out their original intention, andin appointing an agent they very handsomely chose one of the men whomColumbus had recommended to them in his letter--Juan Aguado. This actionshows a friendliness to Columbus and confidence in him that lead one tosuspect that the tales of Margarite and Buil had been taken with a grainof salt. 

At the same time the Sovereigns made one or two orders which could notbut be unwelcome to Columbus. A decree was issued making it lawful forall native-born Spaniards to make voyages of discovery, and to settle inEspanola itself if they liked. This was an infringement of the originalprivileges granted to the Admiral--privileges which were really absurd, and which can only have been granted in complete disbelief that anythingmuch would come of his discovery. It took Columbus two years to get thisorder modified, and in the meantime a great many Spanish adventurers, ourold friends the Pinzons among them, did actually make voyages and addedto the area explored by the Spaniards in Columbus's lifetime. Columbuswas bitterly jealous that any one should be admitted to the westernocean, which he regarded as his special preserve, except under hissupreme authority; and he is reported to have said that once the way tothe West had been pointed out "even the very tailors turned explorers. "There, surely, spoke the long dormant woolweaver in him. 

The commission given to Aguado was very brief, and so vaguely wordedthat it might mean much or little, according to the discretion of thecommissioner and the necessities of the case as viewed by him. "We sendto you Juan Aguada, our Groom of the Chambers, who will speak to you onour part. We command you to give him faith and credit. " A letter wasalso sent to Columbus in which he was instructed to reduce the number ofpeople dependent on the colony to five hundred instead of a thousand; andthe control of the mines was entrusted to one Pablo Belvis, who was sentout as chief metallurgist. As for the slaves that Columbus had senthome, Isabella forbade their sale until inquiry could be made into thecondition of their capture, and the fine moral point involved wasentrusted to the ecclesiastical authorities for examination and solution. Poor Christopher, knowing as he did that five hundred heretics were beingburned every year by the Grand Inquisitor, had not expected thishair-splitting over the fate of heathens who had rebelled against Spanishauthority; and it caused him some distress when he heard of it. Thetheologians, however, proved equal to the occasion, and the slaves wereduly sold in Seville market. 

Aguado sailed from Cadiz at the end of August 1495, and reached Espanolain October. James Columbus (who does not as yet seem to be in very greatdemand anywhere, and who doubtless conceals behind his grave visage muchhonest amazement at the amount of life that he is seeing) returned withhim. Aguado, on arriving at Isabella, found that Columbus was absentestablishing forts in the interior of the island, Bartholomew being leftin charge at Isabella. 

Aguado, who had apparently been found faithful in small matters, wasfound wanting in his use of the authority that had been entrusted to him. It seems to have turned his head; for instead of beginning quietly toinvestigate the affairs of the colony as he had been commanded to do hetook over from Bartholomew the actual government, and interpreted hiscommission as giving him the right to supersede the Admiral himself. Theunhappy colony, which had no doubt been enjoying some brief period ofpeace under the wise direction of Bartholomew, was again thrown intoconfusion by the doings of Aguado. He arrested this person, imprisonedthat; ordered that things should be done this way, which had formerlybeen done that way; and if they had formerly been done that way, then heordered that they should be done this way--in short he committed everymistake possible for a man in his situation armed with a little briefauthority. He did not hesitate to let it be known that he was there toexamine the conduct of the Admiral himself; and we may be quite sure thatevery one in the colony who had a grievance or an ill tale to carry, carried it to Aguado. His whole attitude was one of enmity anddisloyalty to the Admiral who had so handsomely recommended him to thenotice of the Sovereigns; and so undisguised was his attitude that eventhe Indians began to lodge their complaints and to see a chance by whichthey might escape from the intolerable burden of the gold tribute. 

It was at this point that Columbus returned and found Aguado ruling inthe place of Bartholomew, who had wisely made no protest against his owndeposition, but was quietly waiting for the Admiral to return. Columbusmight surely have been forgiven if he had betrayed extreme anger andannoyance at the doings of Aguado; and it is entirely to his credit thathe concealed such natural wrath as he may have felt, and greeted Aguadowith extreme courtesy and ceremony as a representative of the Sovereigns. He made no protest, but decided to return himself to Spain and confrontthe jealousy and ill-fame that were accumulating against him. 

Just as the ships were all ready to sail, one of the hurricanes whichoccur periodically in the West Indies burst upon the island, lashing thesea into a wall of advancing foam that destroyed everything before it. Among other things it destroyed three out of the four ships, dashing themon the beach and reducing them to complete wreckage. The only one thatheld to her anchor and, although much battered and damaged, rode out thegale, was the Nina, that staunch little friend that had remained faithfulto the Admiral through so many dangers and trials. There was nothing forit but to build a new ship out of the fragments of the wrecks, and tomake the journey home with two ships instead of with four. 

At this moment, while he was waiting for the ship to be completed, Columbus heard a piece of news of a kind that never failed to rouse hisinterest. There was a young Spaniard named Miguel Diaz who had got intodisgrace in Isabella some time before on account of a duel, and hadwandered into the island until he had come out on the south coast at themouth of the river Ozama, near the site of the present town of SantoDomingo. There he had fallen in love with a female cacique and had madehis home with her. She, knowing the Spanish taste, and anxious to pleaseher lover and to retain him in her territory, told him of some richgold-mines that there were in the neighbourhood, and suggested that heshould inform the Admiral, who would perhaps remove the settlement fromIsabella to the south coast. She provided him with guides and sent himoff to Isabella, where, hearing that his antagonist had recovered, andthat he himself was therefore in no danger of punishment, he presentedhimself with his story. 

Columbus immediately despatched Bartholomew with a party to examine themines; and sure enough they found in the river Hayna undoubted evidenceof a wealth far in excess of that contained in the Cibao gold-mines. Moreover, they had noticed two ancient excavations about which thenatives could tell them nothing, but which made them think that the mineshad once been worked. 

Columbus was never backward in fitting a story and a theory to whateverphenomena surrounded him; and in this case he was certain that theexcavations were the work of Solomon, and that he had discovered the goldof Ophir. "Sure enough, " thinks the Admiral, "I have hit it this time;and the ships came eastward from the Persian Gulf round the GoldenChersonesus, which I discovered this very last winter. " Immediately, ashis habit was, Columbus began to build castles in Spain. Here was a fineanswer to Buil and Margarite! Without waiting a week or two to get anyof the gold this extraordinary man decided to hurry off at once to Spainwith the news, not dreaming that Spain might, by this time, have had asurfeit of news, and might be in serious need of some simple, honestfacts. But he thought his two caravels sufficiently freighted with thisnew belief--the belief that he had discovered the Ophir of Solomon. 

The Admiral sailed on March 10th, 1496, carrying with him in chains thevanquished Caonabo and other natives. He touched at Marigalante and atGuadaloupe, where his people had an engagement with the natives, takingseveral prisoners, but releasing them all again with the exception of onewoman, a handsome creature who had fallen in love with Caonabo andrefused to go. But for Caonabo the joys of life and love were at an end;his heart and spirit were broken. He was not destined to be paraded as acaptive through the streets of Spain, and it was somewhere in the deepAtlantic that he paid the last tribute to the power that had captured andbroken him. He died on the voyage, which was longer and much more fullof hardships than usual. For some reason or other Columbus did not takethe northerly route going home, but sailed east from Gaudaloupe, encountering the easterly trade winds, which delayed him so much that thevoyage occupied three months instead of six weeks. 

Once more he exhibited his easy mastery of the art of navigation and hisextraordinary gift for estimating dead-reckoning. After having been outof sight of land for eight weeks, and while some of the sailors thoughtthey might be in the Bay of Biscay, and others that they were in theEnglish Channel, the Admiral suddenly announced that they were close toCape Saint Vincent. 

No land was in sight, but he ordered that sail should be shortened thatevening; and sure enough the next morning they sighted the land close byCape Saint Vincent. Columbus managed his landfalls with a fine dramaticsense as though they were conjuring tricks; and indeed they must haveseemed like conjuring tricks, except that they were almost alwayssuccessful. 

CHAPTER IV

IN SPAIN AGAIN

The loiterers about the harbour of Cadiz saw a curious sight on June11th, 1496, when the two battered ships, bearing back the voyagers fromthe Eldorado of the West, disembarked their passengers. There were some220 souls on board, including thirty Indians: and instead of leapingashore, flushed with health, and bringing the fortunes which they hadgone out to seek, they crawled miserably from the boats or were carriedashore, emaciated by starvation, yellow with disease, ragged and unkemptfrom poverty, and with practically no possessions other than the clothesthey stood up in. Even the Admiral, now in his forty-sixth year, hardlyhad the appearance that one would expect in a Viceroy of the Indies. Hiswhite hair and beard were rough and matted, his handsome face furrowed bycare and sunken by illness and exhaustion, and instead of the glitteringarmour and uniform of his office he wore the plain robe and girdle of theFranciscan order--this last probably in consequence of some vow or otherhe had made in an hour of peril on the voyage. 

One lucky coincidence marked his arrival. In the harbour, preparing toweigh anchor, was a fleet of three little caravels, commanded by PedroNino, about to set out for Espanola with supplies and despatches. Columbus hurried on board Nino's ship, and there read the letters fromthe Sovereigns which it had been designed he should receive in Espanola. The letters are not preserved, but one can make a fair guess at theircontents. Some searching questions would certainly be asked, kindassurances of continued confidence would doubtless be given, with manysuggestions for the betterment of affairs in the distant colony. Onlytheir result upon the Admiral is known to us. He sat down there and thenand wrote to Bartholomew, urging him to secure peace in the island byevery means in his power, to send home any caciques or natives who werelikely to give trouble, and most of all to push on with the building of asettlement on the south coast where the new mines were, and to have acargo of gold ready to send back with the next expedition. Havingwritten this letter, the Admiral saw the little fleet sail away on June17th, and himself prepared with mingled feelings to present himselfbefore his Sovereigns. 

While he was waiting for their summons at Los Palacios, a small town nearSeville, he was the guest of the curate of that place, Andrez Bernaldez, who had been chaplain to Christopher's old friend DEA, the Archbishop ofSeville. This good priest evidently proved a staunch friend to Columbusat this anxious period of his life, for the Admiral left many importantpapers in his charge when he again left Spain, and no small part of thescant contemporary information about Columbus that has come down to us iscontained in the 'Historia de los Reyes Catolicos', which Bernaldez wroteafter the death of Columbus. 

Fickle Spain had already forgotten its first sentimental enthusiasm overthe Admiral's discoveries, and now was only interested in their financialresults. People cannot be continually excited about a thing which theyhave not seen, and there were events much nearer home that absorbed thepublic interest. There was the trouble with France, the contemplatedalliance of the Crown Prince with Margaret of Austria, and of the SpanishPrincess Juana with Philip of Austria; and there were the designs ofFerdinand upon the kingdom of Naples, which was in his eyes a much moredesirable and valuable prize than any group of unknown islands beyond theocean. 

Columbus did his very best to work up enthusiasm again. He repeated theperformance that had been such a success after his first voyage--the kindof circus procession in which the natives were marched in columnsurrounded by specimens of the wealth of the Indies. But somehow it didnot work so well this time. Where there had formerly been acclamationsand crowds pressing forward to view the savages and their ornaments, there were now apathy and a dearth of spectators. And although Columbusdid his very best, and was careful to exhibit every scrap of gold that hehad brought, and to hang golden collars and ornaments about the necks ofthe marching Indians, his exhibition was received either in ominoussilence or, in some quarters, with something like derision. As I havesaid before, there comes a time when the best-disposed debtors do notregard themselves as being repaid by promises, and when the mostenthusiastic optimist desires to see something more than samples. It was only old Colon going round with his show again--flamingoes, macaws, seashells, dye-woods, gums and spices; some people laughed, and some were angry; but all were united in thinking that the New Worldwas not a very profitable speculation. 

Things were a little better, however, at Court. Isabella certainlybelieved still in Columbus; Ferdinand, although he had never beenenthusiastic, knew the Admiral too well to make the vulgar mistake ofbelieving him an impostor; and both were too polite and considerate toadd to his obvious mortification and distress by any discouragingcomments. Moreover, the man himself had lost neither his belief in thevalue of his discoveries nor his eloquence in talking of them; and whenhe told his story to the Sovereigns they could not help being impressed, not only with his sincerity but with his ability and single-heartednessalso. It was almost the same old story, of illimitable wealth that wasjust about to be acquired, and perhaps no one but Columbus could havemade it go down once more with success; but talking about his exploitswas never any trouble to him, and his astonishing conviction, the loftyand dignified manner in which he described both good and bad fortune, andthe impressive way in which he spoke of the wealth of the gold of Ophirand of the far-reaching importance of his supposed discovery of theGolden Chersonesus and the mainland of Asia, had their due effect on hishearers. 

It was always his way, plausible Christopher, to pass lightly over thepremises and to dwell with elaborate detail on the deductions. It was byno means proved that he had discovered the mines of King Solomon; he hadnever even seen the place which he identified with them; it was in factnothing more than an idea in his own head; but we may be sure that hetook it as an established fact that he had actually discovered the minesof Ophir, and confined his discussion to estimates of the wealth whichthey were likely to yield, and of what was to be done with the wealthwhen the mere details of conveying it from the mines to the ships hadbeen disposed of. So also with the Golden Chersonesus. The very namewas enough to stop the mouths of doubters; and here was the man himselfwho had actually been there, and here was a sworn affidavit from everymember of his crew to say that they had been there too. This kind oflogic is irresistible if you only grant the first little step; andColumbus had the art of making it seem an act of imbecility in any of hishearers to doubt the strength of the little link by which his greatgolden chains of argument were fastened to fact and truth. 

For Columbus everything depended upon his reception by the Sovereigns atthis time. Unless he could re-establish his hold upon them and move to astill more secure position in their confidence he was a ruined man andhis career was finished; and one cannot but sympathise with him as hesits there searching his mind for tempting and convincing arguments, andspeaking so calmly and gravely and confidently in spite of all the doubtsand flutterings in his heart. Like a tradesman setting out his wares, he brought forth every inducement he could think of to convince theSovereigns that the only way to make a success of what they had alreadydone was to do more; that the only way to make profitable the money thathad already been spent was to spend more; that the only way to prove thewisdom of their trust in him was to trust him more. One of histranscendent merits in a situation of this kind was that he always hadsomething new and interesting to propose. He did not spread out hishands and say, "This is what I have done: it is the best I can do; howare you going to treat me?" He said in effect, "This is what I havedone; you will see that it will all come right in time; do not worryabout it; but meanwhile I have something else to propose which I thinkyour Majesties will consider a good plan. "

His new demand was for a fleet of six ships, two of which were to conveysupplies to Espanola, and the other four to be entrusted to him for thepurpose of a voyage of discovery towards the mainland to the south ofEspanola, of which he had heard consistent rumours; which was said to berich in gold, and (a clever touch) to which the King of Portugal wasthinking of sending a fleet, as he thought that it might lie within thelimits of his domain of heathendom. And so well did he manage, and sodeeply did he impress the Sovereigns with his assurance that this timethe thing amounted to what is vulgarly called "a dead certainty, " thatthey promised him he should have his ships. 

But promise and performance, as no one knew better than Columbus, aredifferent things; and it was a long while before he got his ships. Therewas the usual scarcity of money, and the extensive military anddiplomatic operations in which the Crown was then engaged absorbed everymaravedi that Ferdinand could lay his hands on. There was an army to bemaintained under the Pyrenees to keep watch over France; fleets had to bekept patrolling both the Mediterranean and Atlantic seaboards; and therewas a whole armada required to convey the princesses of Spain and Austriato their respective husbands in connection with the double matrimonialalliance arranged between the two countries. And when at last, inOctober 1496, six million maravedis were provided wherewith Columbusmight equip his fleet, they were withdrawn again under very mortifyingcircumstances. The appropriation had just been made when a letterarrived from Pedro Nino, who had been to Espanola and come back again, and now wrote from Cadiz to the Sovereigns, saying that his ships werefull of gold. He did not present himself at Court, but went to visit hisfamily at Huelva; but the good news of his letter was accepted as anexcuse for this oversight. 

No one was better pleased than the Admiral. "What did I tell you?" hesays; "you see the mines of Hayna are paying already. " King Ferdinand, equally pleased, and having an urgent need of money in connection withhis operations against France, took the opportunity to cancel theappropriation of the six million maravedis, giving Columbus instead anorder for the amount to be paid out of the treasure brought home by Nino. Alas, the mariner's boast of gold had been a figure of speech. There wasno gold; there was only a cargo of slaves, which Nino deemed theequivalent of gold; and when Bartholomew's despatches came to be read hedescribed the affairs of Espanola as being in very much the samecondition as before. This incident produced a most unfortunateimpression. Even Columbus was obliged to keep quiet for a little while;and it is likely that the mention of six million maravedis was notwelcomed by him for some time afterwards. 

After the wedding of Prince Juan in March 1497, when Queen Isabella hadmore time to give to external affairs, the promise to Columbus was againremembered, and his position was considered in detail. An order was made(April 23rd, 1497), restoring to the Admiral the original privilegesbestowed upon him at Santa Fe. He was offered a large tract of land inEspanola, with the title of Duke; but much as he hankered after titularhonours, he was for once prudent enough to refuse this gift. His reasonwas that it would only further damage his influence, and give apparentjustification to those enemies who said that the whole enterprise hadbeen undertaken merely in his own interests; and it is possible also thathis many painful associations with Espanola, and the bloodshed andhorrors that he had witnessed there, had aroused in his superstitiousmind a distaste for possessions and titles in that devastated Paradise. Instead, he accepted a measure of relief from the obligations incurred byhis eighth share in the many unprofitable expeditions that had been sentout during the last three years, agreeing for the next three years toreceive an eighth share of the gross income, and a tenth of the netprofits, without contributing anything to the cost. His appointment ofBartholomew to the office of Adelantado, which had annoyed Ferdinand, wasnow confirmed; the universal license which had been granted to Spanishsubjects to settle in the new lands was revoked in so far as it infringedthe Admiral's privileges; and he was granted a force of 330 officers, soldiers, and artificers to be at his personal disposal in theprosecution of his next voyage. 

The death of Prince Juan in October 1497 once more distracted theattention of the Court from all but personal matters; and Columbusemployed the time of waiting in drafting a testamentary document in whichhe was permitted to create an entail on his title and estates in favourof his two sons and their heirs for ever. This did not represent hiscomplete or final testament, for he added codicils at various times, the latest being executed the day before his death. The document isworth studying; it reveals something of the laborious, painstaking mindreaching out down the rivers and streams of the future that were to flowfrom the fountain of his own greatness; it reveals also his tripleconception of the obligations of human life in this world--thecultivation and retention of temporal dignity, the performance of piousand charitable acts, and the recognition of duty to one's family. It wasin this document that Columbus formulated the curious cipher which healways now used in signing his name, and of which various readings aregiven in the Appendix. He also enjoined upon his heir the duty of usingthe simple title which he himself loved and used most--"The Admiral. "

After the death of Prince Juan, Queen Isabella honoured Columbus byattaching his two sons to her own person as pages; and her friendshipmust at this time have gone far to compensate him for the coolness showntowards him by the public at large. He might talk as much as he pleased, but he had nothing to show for all his talk except a few trinkets, acollection of interesting but valueless botanical specimens, and ahandful of miserable slaves. Lives and fortunes had been wrecked on theenterprise, which had so far brought nothing to Spain but the promise ofluxurious adventure that was not fulfilled and of a wealth and glory thathad not been realised. It must have been a very humiliating circumstanceto Columbus that in the preparations which he was now (February 1498)making for the equipment of his new expedition a great difficulty wasfound in procuring ships and men. Not even before the first voyage hadso much reluctance been shown to risk life and property in theenterprise. Merchants and sailors had then been frightened of dangerswhich they did not know; now, it seemed, the evils of which they did knowproved a still greater deterrent. The Admiral was at this time the guestof his friend Bernaldez, who has told us something of his difficulties;and the humiliating expedient of seizing ships under a royal order hadfinally to be adopted. But it would never have done to impress thecolonists also; that would have been too open a confession of failure forthe proud Admiral to tolerate. 

Instead he had recourse to the miserable plan of which he had made use inPalos; the prisons were opened, and criminals under sentence invited tocome forth and enjoy the blessings of colonial life. Even then there wasnot that rush from the prison doors that might have been expected, andsome desperate characters apparently preferred the mercies of a Spanishprison to what they had heard of the joys of the Earthly Paradise. Stilla number of criminals did doubtfully crawl forth and furnish a retinuefor the great Admiral and Viceroy. Trembling, suspicious, and with morethan half a mind to go back to their bonds, some part of the human verminof Spain was eventually cajoled and chivied on board the ships. 

The needs of the colony being urgent, and recruiting being slow, twocaravels laden with provisions were sent off in advance; but even forthis purpose there was a difficulty about money, and good Isabellafurnished the expense, at much inconvenience, from her private purse. 

Columbus had to supervise everything himself; and no wonder that by theend of May, when he was ready to sail, his patience and temper wereexhausted and his much-tried endurance broke down under the pettygnatlike irritations of Fonseca and his myrmidons. It was on the deck ofhis own ship, in the harbour of San Lucar, that he knocked down andsoundly kicked Ximeno de Breviesca, Fonseca's accountant, whose naggingrequisitions had driven the Admiral to fury. 

After all these years of gravity and restraint and endurance, thismomentary outbreak of the old Adam in our hero is like a breath of windthrough an open window. 

To the portraits of Columbus hanging in the gallery of one's imaginationthis must surely be added; in which Christopher, on the deck of his ship, with the royal standard and the Admiral's flag flying from his masthead, is observed to be soundly kicking a prostrate accountant. The incidentis worthy of a date, which is accordingly here given, as near as may be--May 29, 1498. 

CHAPTER V

THE THIRD VOYAGE

Columbus was at sea again; firm ground to him, although so treacherousand unstable to most of us; and as he saw the Spanish coast sinking downon the horizon he could shake himself free from his troubles, and feelthat once more he was in a situation of which he was master. He firsttouched at Porto Santo, where, if the story of his residence there betrue, there must have been potent memories for him in the sight of thelong white beach and the plantations, with the Governor's house beyond. He stayed there only a few hours and then crossed over to Madeira, anchoring in the Bay of Funchal, where he took in wood and water. As itwas really unnecessary for him to make a port so soon after leaving, there was probably some other reason for his visit to these islands;perhaps a family reason; perhaps nothing more historically important thanthe desire to look once more on scenes of bygone happiness, for even onthe page of history every event is not necessarily big with significance. From Madeira he took a southerly course to the Canary Islands, and onJune 16th anchored at Gomera, where he found a French warship with twoSpanish prizes, all of which put to sea as the Admiral's fleetapproached. On June 21st, when he sailed from Gomera, he divided hisfleet of six vessels into two squadrons. Three ships were despatcheddirect to Espanola, for the supplies which they carried were urgentlyneeded there. These three ships were commanded by trustworthy men: Pedrode Arana, a brother of Beatriz, Alonso Sanchez de Carvajal, and JuanAntonio Colombo--this last no other than a cousin of Christopher's fromGenoa. The sons of Domenico's provident younger brother had notprospered, while the sons of improvident Domenico were now all in highplaces; and these three poor cousins, hearing of Christopher's greatness, and deciding that use should be made of him, scraped together enoughmoney to send one of their number to Spain. The Admiral always had asound family feeling, and finding that cousin Antonio had sea experienceand knew how to handle a ship he gave him command of one of the caravelson this voyage--a command of which he proved capable and worthy. Fromthese three captains, after giving them full sailing directions forreaching Espanola, Columbus parted company off the island of Ferro. Hehimself stood on a southerly course towards the Cape Verde Islands. 

His plan on this voyage was to find the mainland to the southward, ofwhich he had heard rumours in Espanola. Before leaving Spain he hadreceived a letter from an eminent lapidary named Ferrer who had travelledmuch in the east, and who assured him that if he sought gold and preciousstones he must go to hot lands, and that the hotter the lands were, andthe blacker the inhabitants, the more likely he was to find riches there. This was just the kind of theory to suit Columbus, and as he sailedtowards the Cape Verde Islands he was already in imagination gatheringgold and pearls on the shores of the equatorial continent. 

He stayed for about a week at the Cape Verde Islands, getting inprovisions and cattle, and curiously observing the life of the Portugueselepers who came in numbers to the island of Buenavista to be cured thereby eating the flesh and bathing in the blood of turtles. It was not aninspiriting week which he spent in that dreary place and enervatingclimate, with nothing to see but the goats feeding among the scrub, theturtles crawling about the sand, and the lepers following the turtles. It began to tell on the health of the crew, so he weighed anchor on July5th and stood on a southwesterly course. 

This third voyage, which was destined to be the most important of all, and the material for which had cost him so much time and labour, wasundertaken in a very solemn and determined spirit. His health, which hehad hoped to recover in Spain, had been if anything damaged by hisworryings with officialdom there; and although he was only forty-sevenyears of age he was in some respects already an old man. He had entered, although happily he did not know it, on the last decade of his life; andwas already beginning to suffer from the two diseases, gout andophthalmia, which were soon to undermine his strength and endurance. Religion of a mystical fifteenth-century sort was deepening in him;he had undertaken this voyage in the name of the Holy Trinity; and tothat theological entity he had resolved to dedicate the first new landthat he should sight. 

For ten days light baffling winds impeded his progress; but at the end ofthat time the winds fell away altogether, and the voyagers foundthemselves in that flat equatorial calm known to mariners as theDoldrums. The vertical rays of the sun shone blisteringly down uponthem, making the seams of the ships gape and causing the unhappy crewsmental as well as bodily distress, for they began to fear that they hadreached that zone of fire which had always been said to exist in thesouthern ocean. 

Day after day the three ships lay motionless on the glassy water, withwood-work so hot as to burn the hands that touched it, with the meatputrefying in the casks below, and the water running from the loosenedcasks, and no one with courage and endurance enough to venture into thestifling hold even to save the provisions. And through all this theAdmiral, racked with gout, had to keep a cheerful face and assure hisprostrate crew that they would soon be out of it. 

There were showers of rain sometimes, but the moisture in that bakingatmosphere only added to its stifling and enervating effects. All thewhile, however, the great slow current of the Atlantic was movingwestward, and there came a day when a heavenly breeze, stirred in thetorrid air and the musical talk of ripples began to rise again from theweedy stems of the ships. They sailed due west, always into a cooler andfresher atmosphere; but still no land was sighted, although pelicansand smaller birds were continually seen passing from south-west tonorth-east. As provisions were beginning to run low, Columbus decidedon the 31st July to alter his course to north-by-east, in the hope ofreaching the island of Dominica. But at mid-day his servant AlonsoPerez, happening to go to the masthead, cried out that there was land insight; and sure enough to the westward there rose three peaks of landunited at the base. Here was the kind of coincidence which staggerseven the unbeliever. Columbus had promised to dedicate the first landhe saw to the Trinity; and here was the land, miraculously provided whenhe needed it most, three peaks in one peak, in due conformity with therequirements of the blessed Saint Athanasius. The Admiral was deeplyaffected; the God of his belief was indeed a good friend to him; and hewrote down his pious conviction that the event was a miracle, andsummoned all hands to sing the Salve Regina, with other hymns in praiseof God and the Virgin Mary. The island was duly christened La Trinidad. By the hour of Compline (9 o'clock in the evening) they had come up withthe south coast of the island, but it was the next day before theAdmiral found a harbour where he could take in water. No natives wereto be seen, although there were footprints on the shore and other signsof human habitation. 

He continued all day to sail slowly along the shore of the island, thegreen luxuriance of which astonished him; and sometimes he stood out fromthe coast to the southward as he made a long board to round this or thatpoint. It must have been while reaching out in this way to the southwardthat he saw a low shore on his port hand some sixty miles to the south ofTrinidad, and that his sight, although he did not know it, rested for thefirst time on the mainland of South America. The land seen was the lowcoast to the west of the Orinoco, and thinking that it was an island hegave it the name of Isla Sancta. 

On the 2nd of August they were off the south-west of Trinidad, and sawthe first inhabitants in the shape of a canoe full of armed natives, whoapproached the ships with threatening gestures. Columbus had brought outsome musicians with him, possibly for the purpose of impressing thenatives, and perhaps with the idea of making things a little morecheerful in Espanola; and the musicians were now duly called upon to givea performance, a tambourine-player standing on the forecastle and beatingthe rhythm for the ships' boys to dance to. The effect was other thanwas anticipated, for the natives immediately discharged a thick flight ofarrows at the musicians, and the music and dancing abruptly ceased. Eventually the Indians were prevailed upon to come on board the twosmaller ships and to receive gifts, after which they departed and wereseen no more. Columbus landed and made some observations of thevegetation and climate of Trinidad, noticing that the fruits and-treeswere similar to those of Espanola, and that oysters abounded, as well as"very large, infinite fish, and parrots as large as hens. "

He saw another peak of the mainland to the northwest, which was thepeninsula of Paria, and to which Columbus, taking it to be anotherisland, gave the name of Isla de Gracia. Between him and this land lay anarrow channel through which a mighty current was flowing--that press ofwaters which, sweeping across the Atlantic from Africa, enters theCaribbean Sea, sprays round the Gulf of Mexico, and turns north again inthe current known as the Gulf Stream. While his ships were anchored atthe entrance to this channel and Columbus was wondering how he shouldcross it, a mighty flood of water suddenly came down with a roar, sendinga great surging wave in front of it. The vessels were lifted up asthough by magic; two of them dragged their anchors from the bottom, andthe other one broke her cable. This flood was probably caused by asudden flush of fresh water from one of the many mouths of the Orinoco;but to Columbus, who had no thought of rivers in his mind, it was veryalarming. Apparently, however, there was nothing for it but to getthrough the channel, and having sent boats on in front to take soundingsand see that there was clear water he eventually piloted his littlesquadron through, with his heart in his mouth and his eyes fixed on theswinging eddies and surging circles of the channel. Once beyond it hewas in the smooth water of the Gulf of Paria. He followed the westerlycoast of Trinidad to the north until he came to a second channel narrowerthan the first, through which the current boiled with still greaterviolence, and to which he gave the name of Dragon's Mouth. This is thechannel between the northwesterly point of Trinidad and the easternpromontory of Paria. Columbus now began to be bewildered, for hediscovered that the water over the ship's side was fresh water, and hecould not make out where it came from. Thinking that the peninsula ofParia was an island, and not wishing to attempt the dangerous passage ofthe Dragon's Mouth, he decided to coast along the southern shore of theland opposite, hoping to be able to turn north round its westernextremity. 

Sweeter blew the breezes, fresher grew the water, milder and more balmythe air, greener and deeper the vegetation of this beautiful region. TheAdmiral was ill with the gout, and suffering such pain from his eyes thathe was sometimes blinded by it; but the excitement of the strangephenomena surrounding him kept him up, and his powers of observation, always acute, suffered no diminution. There were no inhabitants to beseen as they sailed along the coast, but monkeys climbed and chattered inthe trees by the shore, and oysters were found clinging to the branchesthat dipped into the water. At last, in a bay where they anchored totake in water, a native canoe containing three, men was seen cautiouslyapproaching; and the men, who were shy, were captured by the device of asailor jumping on to the gunwale of the canoe and overturning it, thenatives being easily caught in the water, and afterwards soothed andcaptivated by the unfailing attraction of hawks' bells. They were tallmen with long hair, and they told Columbus that the name of their countrywas Paria; and when they were asked about other inhabitants they pointedto the west and signified that there was a great population in thatdirection. 

On the 10th of August 1498 a party landed on this coast and formally tookpossession of it in the name of the Sovereigns of Spain. By an unluckychance Columbus himself did not land. His eyes were troubling him somuch that he was obliged to lie down in his cabin, and the formal act ofpossession was performed by a deputy. If he had only known! If he couldbut have guessed that this was indeed the mainland of a New World thatdid not exist even in his dreams, what agonies he would have sufferedrather than permit any one else to pronounce the words of annexation!But he lay there in pain and suffering, his curious mystical mindoccupied with a conception very remote indeed from the truth. 

For in that fertile hotbed of imagination, the Admiral's brain, a new andstaggering theory had gradually been taking shape. As his ships had beenwafted into this delicious region, as the airs had become sweeter, thevegetation more luxuriant, and the water of the sea fresher, --he hadsolemnly arrived at the conclusion that he was approaching the region ofthe true terrestrial Paradise: the Garden of Eden that some of theFathers had declared to be situated in the extreme east of the Old World, and in a region so high that the flood had not overwhelmed it. Columbus, thinking hard in his cabin, blood and brain a little fevered, comes tothe conclusion that the world is not round but pear-shaped. He knowsthat all this fresh water in the sea must come from a great distance andfrom no ordinary river; and he decides that its volume and direction havebeen acquired in its fall from the apex of the pear, from the very top ofthe world, from the Garden of Eden itself. It was a most beautifulconception; a theory worthy to be fitted to all the sweet sights andsounds in the world about him; but it led him farther and farther awayfrom the truth, and blinded him to knowledge and understanding of what hehad actually accomplished. 

He had thought the coast of Cuba the mainland, and he now began toconsider it at least possible that the peninsula of Paria was mainlandalso--another part of the same continent. That was the truth--Paria wasthe mainland--and if he had not been so bemused by his dreams andtheories he might have had some inkling of the real wonder andsignificance of his discovery. But no; in his profoundly unscientificmind there was little of that patience which holds men back fromtheorising and keeps them ready to receive the truth. He was patientenough in doing, but in thinking he was not patient at all. No soonerhad he observed a fact than he must find a theory which would bring itinto relation with the whole of his knowledge; and if the facts would notharmonise of themselves he invented a scheme of things by which they wereforced into harmony. He was indeed a Darwinian before his time, an adeptin the art of inventing causes to fit facts, and then proving that thefacts sprang from the causes; but his origins were tangible, immovablethings of rock and soil that could be seen and visited by other men, andtheir true relation to the terrestrial phenomena accurately established;so that his very proofs were monumental, and became themselves theadvertisements of his profound misjudgment. But meanwhile he is theAdmiral of the Ocean Seas, and can "make it so"; and accordingly, in astate of mental instability, he makes the Gulf of Paria to be a slope ofearth immediately below the Garden of Eden, although fortunately he doesnot this time provide a sworn affidavit of trembling ships' boys toconfirm his discovery. 

Meanwhile also here were pearls; the native women wore ropes of them allover their bodies, and a fair store of them were bartered for pieces ofbroken crockery. Asked as usual about the pearls the natives, also asusual, pointed vaguely to the west and south-west, and explained thatthere were more pearls in that direction. But the Admiral would nottarry. Although he believed that he was within reach of Eden and pearls, he was more anxious to get back to Espanola and send the thrilling newsto Spain than he was to push on a little farther and really assurehimself of the truth. How like Christopher that was! Ideas to him wereof more value than facts, as indeed they are to the world at large; butone is sometimes led to wonder whether he did not sometimes hesitate toturn his ideas into facts for very fear that they should turn out to beonly ideas. Was he, in his relations with Spain and the world, a traderin the names rather than the substance of things? We have seen him goinghome to Spain and announcing the discovery of the Golden Chersonesus, although he had only discovered what he erroneously supposed to be anindication of it; proclaiming the discovery of the Ophir of Solomonwithout taking the trouble to test for himself so tremendous anassumption; and we now see him hurrying away to dazzle Spain with thestory that he has discovered the Garden of Eden, without even trying topush on for a few days more to secure so much as a cutting from the Treeof Life. 

These are grave considerations; for although happily the Tree of Life isnow of no importance to any human being, the doings of AdmiralChristopher were of great importance to himself and to his fellow-men atthat time, and are still to-day, through the infinite channels in whichhuman thought and action run and continue thoughout the world, of graveimportance to us. Perhaps this is not quite the moment, now that thepoor Admiral is lying in pain and weakness and not quite master of hisown mind, to consider fully how he stands in this matter of honesty; wewill leave it for the present until he is well again, or better still, until his tale of life and action is complete, and comes as a wholebefore the bar of human judgment. 

On August 11th Columbus turned east again after having given up theattempt to find a passage to the north round Paria. There were practicalconsiderations that brought him to this action. As the water was growingshoaler and shoaler he had sent a caravel of light draft some way furtherto the westward, and she reported that there lay ahead of her a greatinner bay or gulf consisting of almost entirely fresh water. Provisions, moreover, were running short, and were, as usual, turning bad; theAdmiral's health made vigorous action of any kind impossible for him; hewas anxious about the condition of Espanola--anxious also, as we haveseen, to send this great news home; and he therefore turned back anddecided to risk the passage of the Dragon's Mouth. He anchored in theneighbouring harbour until the wind was in the right quarter, and withsome trepidation put his ships into the boiling tideway. When they werein the middle of the passage the wind fell to a dead calm, and the ships, with their sails hanging loose, were borne on the dizzy surface ofeddies, overfalls, and whirls of the tide. Fortunately there was deepwater in the passage, and the strength of the current carried them safelythrough. Once outside they bore away to the northward, sighting theislands of Tobago and Grenada and, turning westward again, came to theislands of Cubagua and Margarita, where three pounds of pearls werebartered from the natives. A week after the passage of the Dragon'sMouth Columbus sighted the south coast of Espanola, which coast he madeat a point a long way to the east of the new settlement that he hadinstructed Bartholomew to found; and as the winds were contrary, and hefeared it might take him a long time to beat up against them, he sent aboat ashore with a letter which was to be delivered by a native messengerto the Adelantado. The letter was delivered; a few days later a caravelwas sighted which contained Bartholomew himself; and once more, after along separation, these two friends and brothers were united. 

The see-saw motion of all affairs with which Columbus had to do was infull swing. We have seen him patching up matters in Espanola; hurryingto Spain just in time to rescue his damaged reputation and do somethingto restore it; and now when he had come back it was but a sorry tale thatBartholomew had to tell him. A fortress had been built at the Haynagold-mines, but provisions had been so scarce that there had beensomething like a famine among the workmen there; no digging had beendone, no planting, no making of the place fit for human occupation andindustry. Bartholomew had been kept busy in collecting the nativetribute, and in planning out the beginnings of the settlement at themouth of the river Ozema, which was at first called the New Isabella, butwas afterwards named San Domingo in honour of old Domenico at Savona. The cacique Behechio had been giving trouble; had indeed marched out withan army against Bartholomew, but had been more or less reconciled by theintervention of his sister Anacaona, widow of the late Caonabo, who hadapparently transferred her affections to Governor Bartholomew. Thebattle was turned into a friendly pagan festival--one of the last everheld on that once happy island--in which native girls danced in a greengrove, with the beautiful Anacaona, dressed only in garlands, carried ona litter in their midst. 

But in the Vega Real, where a chapel had been built by the priests of theneighbouring settlement who were beginning to make converts, trouble hadarisen in consequence of an outrage on the wife of the cacique Guarionex. The chapel was raided, the shrine destroyed, and the sacred vesselscarried off. The Spaniards seized a number of Indians whom theysuspected of having had a hand in the desecration, and burned them at thestake in the most approved manner of the Inquisition--a hideouspunishment that fanned the remaining embers of the native spirit intoflame, and produced a hostile combination of Guarionex and several othercaciques, whose rebellion it took the Adelantado some trouble and displayof arms to quench. 

But the worst news of all was the treacherous revolt of Francisco Roldan, a Spaniard who had once been a servant of the Admiral's, and who had beenraised by him to the office of judge in the island--an able creature, but, like too many recipients of Christopher's favour, a treacherousrascal at bottom. As soon as the Admiral's back was turned Roldan hadbegun to make mischief, stirring up the discontent that was never farbelow the surface of life in the colony, and getting together a largeband of rebellious ruffians. He had a plan to murder BartholomewColumbus and place himself at the head of the colony, but this fellthrough. Then, in Bartholomew's absence, he had a passage with JamesColumbus, who had now returned to the island and had resumed his. Official duties at Isabella. Bartholomew, who was at another part of thecoast collecting tribute, had sent a caravel laden with cotton toIsabella, and well-meaning James had her drawn up on the beach. Roldantook the opportunity to represent this innocent action as a sign of theintolerable autocracy of the Columbus family, who did not even wish avessel to be in a condition to sail for Spain with news of theirmisdeeds. Insolent Roldan formally asks James to send the caravel toSpain with supplies; poor James refuses and, perhaps being at bottomafraid of Roldan and his insolences, despatches him to the Vega Real witha force to bring to order some caciques who had been giving trouble. Possibly to his surprise, although not to ours, Roldan departs withalacrity at the head of seventy armed men. Honest, zealous James, nodoubt; but also, we begin to fear, stupid James. 

The Vega Real was the most attractive part of the colony, and the sceneof infinite idleness and debauchery in the early days of the Spanishsettlement. As Margarite and other mutineers had acted, so did Roldanand his soldiers now act, making sallies against several of the chain offorts that stretched across the island, and even upon Isabella itself;and returning to the Vega to the enjoyment of primitive wild pleasures. Roldan and Bartholomew Columbus stalked each other about the island witharmed forces for several months, Roldan besieging Bartholomew in thefortress at the Vega, which he had occupied in Roldan's absence, andtrying to starve him out there. The arrival in February 1498 of the twoships which had been sent out from Spain in advance, and which broughtalso the news of the Admiral's undamaged favour at Court, and of theroyal confirmation of Bartholomew's title, produced for the moment a goodmoral effect; Roldan went and sulked in the mountains, refusing to haveany parley or communication with the Adelantado, declining indeed totreat with any one until the Admiral himself should return. In themeantime his influence with the natives was strong enough to produce anative revolt, which Bartholomew had only just succeeded in suppressingwhen Christopher arrived on August 30th. 

The Admiral was not a little distressed to find that the three ships fromwhich he had parted company at Ferro had not yet arrived. His own voyageought to have taken far longer than theirs; they had now been nine weeksat sea, and there was nothing to account for their long delay. When atlast they did appear, however they brought with them only a newcomplication. They had lost their way among the islands and had beensearching about for Espanola, finally making a landfall there on thecoast of Xaragua, the south-western province of the island, where Roldanand his followers were established. Roldan had received them and, concealing the fact of his treachery, procured a large store ofprovisions from them, his followers being meanwhile busy among the crewsof the ships inciting them to mutiny and telling them of the oppressionof the Admiral's rule and the joys of a lawless life. The gaol-birdswere nothing loth; after eight weeks at sea a spell ashore in thispleasant land, with all kinds of indulgences which did not come withinthe ordinary regimen of convicts and sailors, greatly appealing to them. The result was that more than half of the crews mutinied and joinedRoldan, and the captains were obliged to put to sea with their smallloyal remnant. Carvajal remained behind in order to try to persuadeRoldan to give himself up; but Roldan had no such idea, and Carvajal hadto make his way by land to San Domingo, where he made his report to theAdmiral. Roldan has in fact delivered a kind of ultimatum. He willsurrender to no one but the Admiral, and that only on condition that hegets a free pardon. If negotiations are opened, Roldan will treat withno one but Carvajal. The Admiral, whose grip of the situation is gettingweaker and weaker, finds himself in a difficulty. His loyal army is onlysome seventy strong, while Roldan has, of disloyal settlers, gaol-birds, and sailors, much more than that. The Admiral, since he cannot reducehis enemy's force by capturing them, seeks to do it by bribing them; andthe greatest bribe that he can think of to offer to these malcontents isthat any who like may have a free passage home in the five caravels whichare now waiting to return to Spain. To such a pass have things come inthe paradise of Espanola! But the rabble finds life pleasant enough inXaragua, where they are busy with indescribable pleasures; and for themoment there is no great response to this invitation to be gone. Columbus therefore despatches his ships, with such rabble of colonists, gaol-birds, and mariners as have already had their fill both of pain andpleasure, and writes his usual letter to the Sovereigns--half full of theglories of the new discoveries he has made, the other half setting forththe evil doings of Roldan, and begging that he may be summoned to Spainfor trial there. Incidentally, also, he requests a further licence fortwo years for the capture and despatch of slaves to Spain. So thevessels sail back on October 18, 1498, and the Admiral turns wearily tothe task of disentangling the web of difficulty that has woven itselfabout him. 

Carvajal and Ballester--another loyal captain--were sent with a letter toRoldan urging him to come to terms, and Carvajal and Ballester addedtheir own honest persuasions. But Roldan was firm; he wished to be quitof the Admiral and his rule, and to live independently in the island; andof his followers, although some here and there showed signs ofsubmission, the greater number were so much in love with anarchy thatthey could not be counted upon. For two months negotiations of a sortwere continued, Roldan even presenting himself under a guarantee ofsafety at San Domingo, where he had a fruitless conference with theAdmiral; where also he had an opportunity of observing what a sorry stateaffairs in the capital were in, and what a mess Columbus was making of itall. Roldan, being a simple man, though a rascal, had only to remainfirm in order to get his way against a mind like the Admiral's, and gethis way he ultimately did. The Admiral made terms of a kind mosthumiliating to him, and utterly subversive of his influence andauthority. The mutineers were not only to receive a pardon but acertificate (good Heavens!) of good conduct. Caravels were to be sent toconvey them to Spain; and they were to be permitted to carry with themall the slaves that they had collected and all the native young womenwhom they had ravished from their homes. 

Columbus signs this document on the 21st of November, and promises thatthe ships shall be ready in fifty days; and then, at his wits' end, andhearing of irregularities in the interior of the island, sets off withBartholomew to inspect the posts and restore them to order. In hisabsence the see-saw, in due obedience to the laws that govern allsee-saws, gives a lurch to the other side, and things go all wrong againin San Domingo. The preparations for the despatch of the caravels areneglected as soon as his back is turned; not fifty days, but nearly onehundred days elapse before they are ready to sail from San Domingo toXaragua. Even then they are delayed by storms and head-winds; and whenthey do arrive Roldan and his company will not embark in them. Theagreement has been broken; a new one must be made. Columbus, returningto San Domingo after long and harassing struggles on the other end ofthe see-saw, gets news of this deadlock, and at the same time has newsfrom Fonseca in Spain of a far from agreeable character. His complaintsagainst the people under him have been received by the Sovereigns andwill be duly considered, but their Majesties have not time at the momentto go into them. That is the gist of it, and very cold cheer it is forthe Admiral, balancing himself on this turbulent see-saw with anxiouseyes turned to Spain for encouragement and approval. 

In the depression that followed the receipt of this letter he was nomatch for Roldan. He even himself took a caravel and sailed towardsXaragua, where he was met by Roldan, who boarded his ship and made hisnew proposals. Their impudence is astounding; and when we consider thatthe Admiral had in theory absolute powers in the island, the fact thatsuch proposals could be made, not to say accepted, shows how far out ofrelation were his actual with his nominal powers. Roldan proposed thathe should be allowed to give a number of his friends a free passage toSpain; that to all who should remain free grants of land should be given;and (a free pardon and certificate of good conduct contenting him nolonger) that a proclamation should be made throughout the islandadmitting that all the charges of disloyalty and mutiny which had beenbrought against him and his followers were without foundation; and, finally, that he should be restored to his office of Alcalde Mayor orchief magistrate. 

Here was a bolus for Christopher to swallow; a bolus compounded of hisown words, his own acts, his hope, dignity, supremacy. In dismalhumiliation he accepted the terms, with the addition of a clause morescandalous still--to the effect that the mutineers reserved the right, in case the Admiral should fail in the exact performance of any of hispromises, to enforce them by compulsion of arms or any other method theymight think fit. This precious document was signed on September 28, 1499just twelve months after the agreement which it was intended to replace;and the Admiral, sailing dismally back to San Domingo, ruefully ponderedon the fruits of a year's delay. Even then he was trying to make excusesfor himself, such as he made afterwards to the Sovereigns when he triedto explain that this shameful capitulation was invalid. That he signedunder compulsion; that he was on board a ship, and so was not on hisviceregal territory; that the rebels had already been tried, and that hehad not the power to revoke a sentence which bore the authority of theCrown; that he had not the power to dispose of the Crown property--desperate, agonised shuffling of pride and self-esteem in the coils oftrial and difficulty. Enough of it. 

CHAPTER VI

AN INTERLUDE

A breath of salt air again will do us no harm as a relief from theseperilous balancings of Columbus on the see-saw at Espanola. His truework in this world had indeed already been accomplished. When he smotethe rock of western discovery many springs flowed from it, and some weredestined to run in mightier channels than that which he himself followed. Among other men stirred by the news of Columbus's first voyage there wasone walking the streets of Bristol in 1496 who was fired to a similarenterprise--a man of Venice, in boyhood named Zuan Caboto, but now knownin England, where he has some time been settled, as Captain John Cabot. A sailor and trader who has travelled much through the known sea-roadsof this world, and has a desire to travel upon others not so well known. He has been in the East, has seen the caravans of Mecca and the goodsthey carried, and, like Columbus, has conceived in his mind the roundnessof the world as a practical fact rather than a mere mathematical theory. Hearing of Columbus's success Cabot sets what machinery in England he hasaccess to in motion to secure for him patents from King Henry VII. ; whichpatents he receives on March 5, 1496. After spending a long time inpreparation, and being perhaps a little delayed by diplomatic protestsfrom the Spanish Ambassador in London, he sails from Bristol in May 1497. 

After sailing west two thousand leagues Cabot found land in theneighbourhood of Cape Breton, and was thus in all probability the firstdiscoverer, since the Icelanders, of the mainland of the New World. Heturned northward, sailed through the strait of Belle Isle, and came homeagain, having accomplished his task in three months. Cabot, likeColumbus, believed he had seen the territory of the Great Khan, of whomhe told the interested population of Bristol some strange things. Hefurther told them of the probable riches of this new land if it werefollowed in a southerly direction; told them some lies also, it appears, since he said that the waters there were so dense with fish that hisvessels could hardly move in them. He received a gratuity of L10 and apension, and made a great sensation in Bristol by walking about the citydressed in fine silk garments. He took other voyages also with his sonSebastian, who followed with him the rapid widening stream of discoveryand became Pilot Major of Spain, and President of the Congress appointedin 1524 to settle the conflicting pretensions of various discoverers; butso far as our narrative is concerned, having sailed across from Bristoland discovered the mainland of the New World some years before Columbusdiscovered it, John Cabot sails into oblivion. 

Another great conquest of the salt unknown taken place a few days beforeColumbus sailed on his third voyage. The accidental discovery of theCape by Bartholomew Diaz in 1486 had not been neglected by Portugal; andthe achievements of Columbus, while they cut off Portuguese enterprisefrom the western ocean, had only stimulated it to greater activity withinits own spheres. Vasco da Gama sailed from Lisbon in July 1497; by theend of November he had rounded the Cape of Good Hope; and in May 1498, after a long voyage full of interest, peril, and hardship he had landedat Calicut on the shores of the true India. He came back in 1499 with abattered remnant, his crew disabled by sickness and exhaustion, and halfhis ships lost; but he had in fact discovered a road for trade andadventure to the East that was not paved with promises, dreams, or madaffidavits, but was a real and tangible achievement, bringing its rewardin commerce and wealth for Portugal. At that very moment Columbus wasgroping round the mainland of South America, thinking it to be the coastof Cathay, and the Garden of Eden, and God knows what othercosmographical--theological abstractions; and Portugal, busy with herarrangements for making money, could afford for the moment to look onundismayed at the development of the mine of promises discovered by theSpanish Admiral. 

The anxiety of Columbus to communicate the names of things before he hadmade sure of their substance received another rude chastisement in theevents that followed the receipt in Spain of his letter announcing thediscovery of the Garden of Eden and the land of pearls. People in Spainwere not greatly interested in his theories of the terrestrial Paradise;but more than one adventurer pricked up his ears at the name of pearls, and among the first was our old friend Alonso de Ojeda, who had returnedsome time before from Espanola and was living in Spain. His position asa member of Columbus's force on the second voyage and the distinction hehad gained there gave him special opportunities of access to the lettersand papers sent home by Columbus; and he found no difficulty in gettingFonseca to show him the maps and charts of the coast of Paria sent backby the Admiral, the veritable pearls which had been gathered, and theenthusiastic descriptions of the wealth of this new coast. Knowingsomething of Espanola, and of the Admiral also, and reading in thedespatches of the turbulent condition of the colony, he had a shrewd ideathat Columbus's hands would be kept pretty full in Espanola itself, andthat he would have no opportunity for some time to make any more voyagesof discovery. He therefore represented to Fonseca what a pity it wouldbe if all this revenue should remain untapped just because one man hadnot time to attend to it, and he proposed that he should take out anexpedition at his own cost and share the profits with the Crown. 

This proposal was too tempting to be refused; unlike the expeditions ofColumbus, which were all expenditure and no revenue, it promised a chanceof revenue without any expenditure at all. The Paria coast, having beendiscovered subsequent to the agreement made with Columbus, was consideredby Fonseca to be open to private enterprise; and he therefore grantedOjeda a licence to go and explore it. Among those who went with him wereAmerigo Vespucci and Columbus's old pilot, Juan de la Cosa, as well assome of the sailors who had been with the Admiral on the coast of Pariaand had returned in the caravels which had brought his account of it backto Spain. Ojeda sailed on May 20, 1499; made a landfall some hundreds ofmiles to the eastward of the Orinoco, coasted thence as far as the islandof Trinidad, and sailed along the northern coast of the peninsula ofParia until he came to a country where the natives built their hots onpiles in the water, and to which he gave the name of Venezuela. It wasby his accidental presence on this voyage that Vespucci, themeat-contractor, came to give his name to America--a curious story ofinternational jealousies, intrigues, lawsuits, and lies which we have notthe space to deal with here. After collecting a considerable quantity ofpearls Ojeda, who was beginning to run short of provisions, turnedeastward again and sought the coast of Espanola, where we shall presentlymeet with him again. 

And Ojeda was not the only person in Spain who was enticed by Columbus'sglowing descriptions to go and look for the pearls of Paria. There wasin fact quite a reunion of old friends of his and ours in the westernocean, though they went thither in a spirit far different from that ofancient friendship. Pedro Alonso Nino, who had also been on the Pariacoast with Columbus, who had come home with the returning ships, andwhose patience (for he was an exceedingly practical man) had perhaps beentried by the strange doings of the Admiral in the Gulf of Paria, decidedthat he as well as any one else might go and find some pearls. Nino is apoor man, having worked hard in all his voyagings backwards and forwardsacross the Atlantic; but he has a friend with money, one Luis Guerra, whoprovides him with the funds necessary for fitting out a small caravelabout the size of his old ship the Nifta. Guerra, who has the money, also has a brother Christoval; and his conditions are that Christovalshall be given the command of the caravel. Practical Niflo does not careso long as he reaches the place where the pearls are. He also applies toFonseca for licence to make discoveries; and, duly receiving it, sailsfrom Palos in the beginning of June 1499, hot upon the track of Ojeda. 

They did a little quiet discovery, principally in the domain of humannature, caroused with the friendly natives, but attended to business allthe time; with the result that in the following April they were back inSpain with a treasure of pearls out of which, after Nifio had been madeindependent for life and Guerra, Christoval, and the rest of them hadtheir shares, there remained a handsome sum for the Crown. An extremelypractical, businesslike voyage this; full of lessons for our poorChristopher, could he but have known and learned them. 

Yet another of our old friends profited by the Admiral's discovery. WhatVincenti Yafiez Pinzon has been doing all these years we have no record;living at Palos, perhaps, doing a little of his ordinary coastingbusiness, administering the estates of his brother Martin Alonso, and, almost for a certainty, talking pretty big about who it was that reallydid all the work in the discovery of the New World. Out of the obscurityof conjecture he emerges into fact in December 1499, when he is found atPalos fitting out four caravels for the purpose of exploring fartheralong the coast of the southern mainland. That he also was after pearlsis pretty certain; but on the other hand he was more of a sailor than anadventurer, was a discoverer at heart, and had no small share of thefamily taste for sea travel. He took a more southerly course than any ofthe others and struck the coast of America south of the equator onJanuary 20, 1500. He sailed north past the mouths of the Amazon andOrinoco through the Gulf of Paria, and reached Espanola in June 1500. He only paused there to take in provisions, and sailed to the west insearch of further discoveries; but he lost two of his caravels in a galeand had to put back to Espanola. 

He sailed thence for Palos, and reached home in September 1500, havingadded no inconsiderable share to the mass of new geographical knowledgethat was being accumulated. In later years he took a high place in themaritime world of Spain. 

And finally, to complete the account of the chief minor discoveries ofthese two busy years, we must mention Pedro Alvarez Cabral of Portugal, who was despatched in March 1, 1500 from Lisbon to verify the discoveriesof Da Gama. He reached Calicut six months later, losing on the voyagefour of his caravels and most of his company. Among the lost wasBartholomew Diaz, the first discoverer of the Cape of Good Hope, who wason this voyage in a subordinate capacity, and whose bones were left todissolve in the stormy waters that beat round the Cape whose barrier hewas the first to pass. The chief event of this voyage, however, was notthe reaching of Calicut nor the drowning of Diaz (which was chiefly ofimportance to himself, poor soul!) but the discovery of Brazil, whichCabral made in following the southerly course too far to the west. He landed there, in the Bay of Porto Seguro, on May 1, 1500, and tookformal possession of the land for the Crown of Portugal, naming it VeraCruz, or the Land of the True Cross. 

In the assumption of Columbus and his contemporaries all these doingswere held to detract from the glory of his own achievements, and were thesubject of endless affidavits, depositions, quarrels, arguments, proofsand claims in the great lawsuit that was in after years carried onbetween the Crown of Spain and the heirs of Columbus concerning histitles and revenues. We, however, may take a different view. With theexception of the discoveries of the Cape of Good Hope and the coast ofBrazil all these enterprises were directly traceable to Columbus's ownachievements and were inspired by his example. The things that a man cando in his own person are limited by the laws of time and space; it isonly example and influence that are infinite and illimitable, and inwhich the spirit of any achievement can find true immortality. 

CHAPTER VII

THE THIRD VOYAGE-(continued)

It may perhaps be wearisome to the reader to return to the tangled anddepressing situation in Espanola, but it cannot be half so wearisome asit was for Columbus, whom we left enveloped in that dark cloud of errorand surrender in which he sacrificed his dignity and good faith to theimpudent demands of a mutinous servant. To his other troubles in SanDomingo the presence of this Roldan was now added; and the reinstatedAlcalde was not long in making use of the victory he had gained. He borehimself with intolerable arrogance and insolence, discharging one ofColumbus's personal bodyguard on the ground that no one should hold anyoffice on the island except with his consent. He demanded grants of landfor himself and his followers, which Columbus held himself obliged toconcede; and the Admiral, further to pacify him, invented a verydisastrous system of repartimientos, under which certain chiefs wererelieved from paying tribute on condition of furnishing feudal service tothe settlers--a system which rapidly developed into the most cruel andoppressive kind of slavery. The Admiral at this time also, in despair ofkeeping things quiet by his old methods of peace and conciliation, created a kind of police force which roamed about the island, exactingtribute and meting out summary punishment to all defaulters. Among otherconcessions weakly made to Roldan at this time was the gift of the Crownestate of Esperanza, situated in the Vega Real, whither he betook himselfand embarked on what was nothing more nor less than a despotic reign, entirely ignoring the regulations and prerogatives of the Admiral, andtaking prisoners and administering punishment just as he pleased. TheAdmiral was helpless, and thought of going back to Spain, but thecondition of the island was such that he did not dare to leave it. Instead, he wrote a long letter to the Sovereigns, full of complaintsagainst other people and justifications of himself, in the course ofwhich he set forth those quibbling excuses for his capitulation to Roldanwhich we have already heard. And there was a pathetic request at the endof the letter that his son Diego might be sent out to him. As I havesaid, Columbus was by this time a prematurely old man, and feeling theclouds gathering about him, and the loneliness and friendlessness of hisposition at Espanola, he instinctively looked to the next generation forhelp, and to the presence of his own son for sympathy and comfort. 

It was at this moment (September 5, 1499) that a diversion arose in therumour that four caravels had been seen off the western end of Espanolaand duly reported to the Admiral; and this announcement was soon followedby the news that they were commanded by Ojeda, who was collectingdye-wood in the island forests. Columbus, although he had so far as weknow had no previous difficulties with Ojeda, had little cause now tocredit any adventurer with kindness towards himself; and Ojeda's secrecyin not reporting himself at San Domingo, and, in fact, his presence onthe island at all without the knowledge of the Admiral, were sufficientevidence that he was there to serve his own ends. Some gleam ofChristopher's old cleverness in handling men was--now shown by hisinstructing Roldan to sally forth and bring Ojeda to order. It was acase of setting a thief to catch a thief and, as it turned out, was nota bad stroke. Roldan, nothing loth, sailed round to that part of thecoast where Ojeda's ships were anchored, and asked to see his licence;which was duly shown to him and rather took the wind out of his sails. He heard a little gossip from Ojeda, moreover, which had its ownsignificance for him. The Queen was ill; Columbus was in disgrace;there was talk of superseding him. Ojeda promised to sail round to SanDomingo and report himself; but instead, he sailed to the east along thecoast of Xaragua, where he got into communication with some discontentedSpanish settlers and concocted a scheme for leading them to San Domingoto demand redress for their imagined grievances. Roldan, however, whohad come to look for Ojeda, discovered him at this point; and thereensued some very pretty play between the two rascals, chiefly intrickery and treachery, such as capturing each other's boats andemissaries, laying traps for one another, and taking prisoner oneanother's crews. The end of it was that Ojeda left the island withouthaving reported himself to Columbus, but not before he had completed hisbusiness--which was that of provisioning his ships and collectingdye-wood and slaves. 

And so exit Ojeda from the Columbian drama. Of his own drama only onemore act remained to be played; which, for the sake of our past interestin him, we will mention here. Chiefly on account of his intimacy withFonseca he was some years later given a governorship in the neighbourhoodof the Gulf of Darien; Juan de la Cosa accompanying him as unofficialpartner. Ojeda has no sooner landed there than he is fighting thenatives; natives too many for him this time; Ojeda forced to hide in theforest, where he finds the body of de la Cosa, who has come by a shockingdeath. Ojeda afterwards tries to govern his colony, but is no good atthat; cannot govern his own temper, poor fellow. Quarrels with his crew, is put in irons, carried to Espanola, and dies there (1515) in greatpoverty and eclipse. One of the many, evidently, who need a strongguiding hand, and perish without it. 

It really began to seem as though Roldan, having had his fling andsecured the excessive privileges that he coveted, had decided thatloyalty to Christopher was for the present the most profitable policy;but the mutinous spirit that he had cultivated in his followers for hisown ends could not be so readily converted into this cheap loyalty. Moretrouble was yet to come of this rebellion. There was in the island ayoung Spanish aristocrat, Fernando de Guevara by name, one of the manywho had come out in the hope of enjoying himself and making a fortunequickly, whose more than outrageously dissolute life in San Domingo hadcaused Columbus to banish him thence; and he was now living near Xaraguawith a cousin of his, Adrian de Moxeca, who had been one of theringleaders in Roldan's conspiracy. Within this pleasant province ofXaragua lived, as we have seen, Anacaona, the sister of Caonabo, the Lordof the House of Gold. She herself was a beautiful woman, called by hersubjects Bloom of the Gold; and she had a still more beautiful daughter, Higuamota, who appears in history, like so many other women, on accountof her charms and what came of them. 

Of pretty Higuamota, who once lived like a dryad among the groves ofEspanola and has been dead now for so long, we know nothing except thatshe was beautiful, which, although she doubtless did not think so whileshe lived, turns out to have been the most important thing about her. Young Guevara, coming to stay with his cousin Adrian, becomes a visitorat the house of Anacaona; sees the pretty daughter and falls in love withher. Other people also, it appears, have been in a similar state, butHiguamota is not very accessible; a fact which of course adds to theinterest of the chase, and turns dissolute Fernando's idle preferenceinto something like a passion. Roldan, who has also had an eye upon her, and apparently no more than an eye, discovers that Fernando, in order togratify his passion, is proposing to go the absurd length of marrying theyoung woman, and has sent for a priest for that purpose. Roldan, instigated thereto by primitive forces, thinks it would be impolitic fora Spanish grandee to marry with a heathen; very well, then, Fernando willhave her baptized--nothing simpler when water and a priest are handy. Roldan, seeing that the young man is serious, becomes peremptory, andorders him to leave Xaragua. Fernando ostentatiously departs, but isdiscovered a little later actually living in the house of Anacaona, whoapparently is sympathetic to Love's young dream. Once more ordered away, this time with anger and threats, Guevara changes his tune and imploresRoldan to let him stay, promising that he will give up the marriageproject and also, no doubt, the no-marriage project. But Guevara hassympathisers. The mutineers have not forgiven Roldan for deserting themand becoming a lawful instead of an unlawful ruler. They are all on theside of Guevara, who accordingly moves to the next stage of islandprocedure, and sets on foot some kind of plot to kill Roldan and theAdmiral. Fortunately where there is treachery it generally works bothways; this plot came to the ears of the authorities; the conspiratorswere arrested and sent to San Domingo. 

This action came near to bringing the whole island about Columbus's ears. Adrian de Moxeca was furious at what he conceived to be the treachery ofRoldan, for Roldan was in such a pass that the barest act of duty wasnecessarily one of treachery to his friends. Moxeca took the place ofchief rebel that Roldan had vacated; rallied the mutineers round him, andwas on the point of starting for Concepcion, one of the chain of fortsacross the island where Columbus was at present staying, when the Admiraldiscovered his plan. All that was strongest and bravest in him rose upat this menace. His weakness and cowardice were forgotten; and with thespirit of an old sea-lion he sallied forth against the mutineers. He hadonly a dozen men on whom he could rely, but he armed them well andmarched secretly and swiftly under cloud of night to the place whereMoxeca and his followers were encamped in fond security, and theresuddenly fell upon them, capturing Moxeca and the chief ringleaders. Therest scattered in terror and escaped. Moxeca was hurried off to thebattlements of San Domingo and there, in the very midst of a longdrawntrembling confession to the priest in attendance, was swung off theramparts and hanged. The others, although also condemned to death, werekept in irons in the fortress, while Christopher and Bartholomew, rousedat last to vigorous action, scoured the island hunting down theremainder, killing some who resisted, hanging others on the spot, andimprisoning the remainder at San Domingo. 

After these prompt measures peace reigned for a time in the island, andColumbus was perhaps surprised to see what wholesome effects could beproduced by a little exemplary severity. The natives, who under theweakness of his former rule had been discontented and troublesome, nowsettled down submissively to their yoke; the Spaniards began to work inearnest on their farms; and there descended upon island affairs a briefSt. Martin's Summer of peace before the final winter of blight and deathset in. The Admiral, however, was obviously in precarious health; hisophthalmia became worse, and the stability of his mind suffered. He haddreams and visions of divine help and comfort, much needed by him, poorsoul, in all his tribulations and adversities. Even yet the cup was notfull. 

We must now turn back to Spain and try to form some idea of the way inwhich the doings of Columbus were being regarded there if we are tounderstand the extraordinary calamity that was soon to befall him. Itmust be remembered first of all that his enterprise had never really beenpopular from the first. It was carried out entirely by the energy andconfidence of Queen Isabella, who almost alone of those in power believedin it as a thing which was certain to bring ultimate glory, as well asriches and dominion, to Spain and the Catholic faith. As we have seen, there had been a brief ebullition of popular favour when Columbusreturned from his first voyage, but it was a popularity excited solely bythe promises of great wealth that Columbus was continually holding forth. When those promises were not immediately fulfilled popular favoursubsided; and when the adventurers who had gone out to the new islands onthe strength of those promises had returned with shattered health andempty pockets there was less chance than ever of the matter beingregarded in its proper light by the people of Spain. Columbus had eitherfound a gold mine or he had found nothing--that was the way in which thematter was popularly regarded. Those who really understood thesignificance of his discoveries and appreciated their scientificimportance did not merely stay at home in Spain and raise a clamour; theywent out in the Admiral's footsteps and continued the work that he hadbegun. Even King Ferdinand, for all his cleverness, had never understoodthe real lines on which the colony should have been developed. His eyeswere fixed upon Europe; he saw in the discoveries of Columbus a meansrather than an end; and looked to them simply as a source of revenue withthe help of which he could carry on his ambitious schemes. And when, asother captains made voyages confirming and extending the work ofColumbus, he did begin to understand the significance of what had beendone, he realised too late that the Admiral had been given powers far inexcess of what was prudent or sensible. 

During all the time that Columbus and his brothers were struggling withthe impossible situation at Espanola there was but one influence at workin Spain, and that was entirely destructive to the Admiral. Everycaravel that came from the New World brought two things. It brought acrowd of discontented colonists, many of whom had grave reasons for theirdiscontent; and it brought letters from the Admiral in which more andmore promises were held out, but in which also querulous complaintsagainst this and that person, and against the Spanish settlers generally, were set forth at wearisome length. It is not remarkable that the peopleof Spain, even those who were well disposed towards Columbus, began towonder if these two things were not cause and effect. The settlers mayhave been a poor lot, but they were the material with which Columbus hadto deal; he had powers enough, Heaven knew, powers of life and death; andthe problem began to resolve itself in the minds of those at the head ofaffairs in Spain in the following terms. Given an island, rich andluxuriant beyond the dreams of man; given a native population easilysubdued; given settlers of one kind or another; and given a Viceroy withunlimited powers--could he or could he not govern the island? It was aby no means unfair way of putting the case, and there is little justicein the wild abuse that has been hurled at Ferdinand and Isabella on thisground. Columbus may have been the greatest genius in the world; verypossibly they admitted it; but in the meanwhile Spain was resounding withthe cries of the impoverished colonists who had returned from his oceanParadise. No doubt the Sovereigns ignored them as much as they possiblycould; but when it came to ragged emaciated beggars coming in batches offifty at a time and sitting in the very courts of the Alhambra, exhibiting bunches of grapes and saying that that was all they couldafford to live upon since they had come back from the New World, somenotice had to be taken of it. Even young Diego and Ferdinand, theAdmiral's sons, came in for the obloquy with which his name wasassociated; the colonial vagabonds hung round the portals of the palaceand cried out upon them as they passed so that they began to dislikegoing out. Columbus, as we know, had plenty of enemies who had access tothe King and Queen; and never had enemies an easier case to urge. Moneywas continually being spent on ships and supplies; where was the returnfor it? What about the Ophir of Solomon? What about the Land of Spices?What about the pearls? And if you want to add a touch of absurdity, whatabout the Garden of Eden and the Great Khan?

To the most impartial eyes it began to appear as though Columbus wereeither an impostor or a fool. There is no evidence that Ferdinand andIsabella thought that he was an impostor or that he had wilfully deceivedthem; but there is some evidence that they began to have an inkling as towhat kind of a man he really was, and as to his unfitness for governing acolony. Once more something had to be done. The sending out of acommissioner had not been a great success before, but in the difficultiesof the situation it seemed the only thing. Still there was a good dealof hesitation, and it is probable that Isabella was not yet fullyconvinced of the necessity for this grave step. This hesitation wasbrought to an end by the arrival from Espanola of the ships bearing thefollowers of Roldan, who had been sent back under the terms of Columbus'sfeeble capitulation. The same ships brought a great quantity of slaves, which the colonists were able to show had been brought by the permissionof the Admiral; they carried native girls also, many of them pregnant, many with new-born babies; and these also came with the permission of theAdmiral. The ships further carried the Admiral's letter complaining ofthe conspiracy of Roldan and containing the unfortunate request for afurther licence to extend the slave trade. These circumstances wereprobably enough to turn the scale of Isabella's opinion against theAdmiral's administration. The presence of the slaves particularlyangered her kind womanly heart. "What right has he to give away myvassals?" she exclaimed, and ordered that they should all be sent back, and that in addition all the other slaves who had come home should betraced and sent back; although of course it was impossible to carry outthis last order. 

At any rate there was no longer any hesitation about sending out acommissioner, and the Sovereigns chose one Francisco de Bobadilla, anofficial of the royal household, for the performance of this difficultmission. As far as we can decipher him he was a very ordinary officialpersonage; prejudiced, it is possible, against an administration that hadproduced such disastrous results and which offended his orderly officialsusceptibilities; otherwise to be regarded as a man exactly honest in theperformance of what he conceived to be his duties, and entirelyindisposed to allow sentiment or any other extraneous matter to interferewith such due performance. We shall have need to remember, when we seehim at work in Espanola, that he was not sent out to judge betweenColumbus and his Sovereigns or between Columbus and the world, but toinvestigate the condition of the colony and to take what action hethought necessary. The commission which he bore to the Admiral was inthe following terms:

 "The King and the Queen: Don Christopher Columbus, our Admiral of the Ocean-sea. We have directed Francisco de Bobadilla, the bearer of this, to speak to you for us of certain things which he will mention: we request you to give him faith and credence and to obey him. From Madrid, May 26, '99. I THE KING. I THE QUEEN. By their command. Miguel Perez de Almazan. "

In addition Bobadilla bore with him papers and authorities giving himcomplete control and possession of all the forts, arms, and royalproperty in the island, in case it should be necessary for him to usethem; and he also had a number of blank warrants which were signed, butthe substance of which was not filled in. This may seem very dreadful tous, with our friendship for the poor Admiral; but considering the gravestate of affairs as represented to the King and Queen, who had theirduties to their colonial subjects as well as to Columbus, there wasnothing excessive in it. If they were to send out a commissioner at all, and if they were satisfied, as presumably they were, that the man theyhad chosen was trustworthy, it was only right to make his authorityabsolute. Thus equipped Francisco de Bobadilla sailed from Spain in July1500. 

TOWARDS THE SUNSET

CHAPTER I

DEGRADATION

The first things seen by Francisco de Bobadilla when he entered theharbour of San Domingo on the morning of the 23rd of August 1500 were thebodies of several Spaniards, hanging from a gibbet near the water-side--a grim confirmation of what he had heard about the troubled state of theisland. While he was waiting for the tide so that he might enter theharbour a boat put off from shore to ascertain who was on board thecaravels; and it was thus informally that Bobadilla first announced thathe had come to examine into the state of the island. Columbus was not atSan Domingo, but was occupied in settling the affairs of the Vega Real;Bartholomew also was absent, stamping out the last smouldering embers ofrebellion in Xaragua; and only James was in command to deal with thisawkward situation. 

Bobadilla did not go ashore the first day, but remained on board his shipreceiving the visits of various discontented colonists who, getting earlywind of the purpose of his visit, lost no time in currying favour withhim, Probably he heard enough that first day to have damned theadministration of a dozen islands; but also we must allow him someinterest in the wonderful and strange sights that he was seeing; forEspanola, which has perhaps grown wearisome to us, was new to him. Hehad brought with him an armed body-guard of twenty-five men, and in theother caravel were the returned slaves, babies and all, under the chargeof six friars. On the day following his arrival Bobadilla landed andheard mass in state, afterwards reading out his commission to theassembled people. Evidently he had received a shocking impression of thestate of affairs in the island; that is the only explanation of theaction suddenly taken by him, for his first public act was to demand fromJames the release of all the prisoners in the fortress, in order thatthey and their accusers should appear before him. 

James is in a difficulty; and, mule-like, since he does not know whichway to turn, stands stock still. He can do nothing, he says, without theAdmiral's consent. The next day Bobadilla, again hearing mass in state, causes further documents to be read showing that a still greater degreeof power had been entrusted to his hands. Mule-like, James still standsstock still; the greatest power on earth known to him is his eldestbrother, and he will not, positively dare not, be moved by anything lessthan that. He refuses to give up the prisoners on any groundswhatsoever, and Bobadilla has to take the fortress by assault--an easyenough matter since the resistance is but formal. 

The next act of Bobadilla's is not quite so easy to understand. Hequartered himself in Columbus's house; that perhaps was reasonable enoughsince there may not have been another house in the settlement fit toreceive him; but he also, we are told, took possession of all his papers, public and private, and also seized the Admiral's store of money andbegan to pay his debts with it for him, greatly to the satisfaction ofSan Domingo. There is an element of the comic in this interpretation ofa commissioner's powers; and it seemed as though he meant to wind up thewhole Columbus business, lock, stock, and barrel. It would not be inaccordance with our modern ideas of honour that a man's private papersshould be seized unless he were suspected of treachery or some criminalact; but apparently Bobadilla regarded it as necessary. We must rememberthat although he had only heard one side of the case it was evidently sopositive, and the fruits of misgovernment were there so visibly beforehis eyes, that no amount of evidence in favour of Columbus would make himchange his mind as to his fitness to govern. Poor James, witnessingthese things and unable to do anything to prevent them, finds himselfsuddenly relieved from the tension of the situation. Since inaction ishis note, he shall be indulged in it; and he is clapped in irons and castinto prison. James can hardly believe the evidence of his senses. Hehas been studying theology lately, it appears, with a view to enteringthe Church and perhaps being some day made Bishop of Espanola, but thisnew turn of affairs looks as though there were to be an end of allcareers for him, military and ecclesiastical alike. 

Christopher at Fort Concepcion had early news of the arrival ofBobadilla, but in the hazy state of his mind he did not regard it as anevent of sufficient importance to make his immediate presence at SanDomingo advisable. The name of Bobadilla conveyed nothing to him; andwhen he heard that he had come to investigate, he thought that he cameto set right some disputed questions between the Admiral and othernavigators as to the right of visiting Espanola and the Paria coast. As the days went on, however, he heard more disquieting rumours; grew atlast uneasy, and moved to a fort nearer San Domingo in case it should benecessary for him to go there. An officer met him on the road bearingthe proclamations issued by Bobadilla, but not the message from theSovereigns requiring the Admiral's obedience to the commissioner. Columbus wrote to the commissioner a curious letter, which is notpreserved, in which he sought to gain time; excusing himself fromresponsibility for the condition of the island, and assuring Bobadillathat, as he intended to return to Spain almost immediately, he(Bobadilla) would have ample opportunity for exercising his command inhis absence. He also wrote to the Franciscan friars who had accompaniedBobadilla asking them to use their influence--the Admiral having somevague connection with the Franciscan order since his days at La Rabida. 

No reply came to any of these letters, and Columbus sent word that hestill regarded his authority as paramount in the island. For reply tothis he received the Sovereigns' message to him which we have seen, commanding him to put himself under the direction of Bobadilla. Therewas no mistaking this; there was the order in plain words; and with Iknow not what sinkings of heart Columbus at last set out for San Domingo. Bobadilla had expected resistance, but the Admiral, whatever his faults, knew how to behave with, dignity in a humiliating position; and he cameinto the city unattended on August 23, 1500. On the outskirts of thetown he was met by Bobadilla's guards, arrested, put in chains, andlodged in the fortress, the tower of which exists to this day. He seemedto himself to be the victim of a particularly petty and galling kind oftreachery, for it was his own cook, a man called Espinoza, who rivetedhis gyves upon him. 

There remained Bartholomew to be dealt with, and he, being at large andin command of the army, might not have proved such an easy conquest, butthat Christopher, at Bobadilla's request, wrote and advised him to submitto arrest without any resistance. Whether Bartholomew acquiesced or notis uncertain; what is certain is that he also was captured and placed inirons, and imprisoned on one of the caravels. James in one caravel, Bartholomew in another, and Christopher in the fortress, and all inchains--this is what it has come to with the three sons of old Domenico. 

The trial was now begun, if trial that can be called which takes place inthe absence of the culprit or his representative. It was rather thehearing of charges against Christopher and his brothers; and we may besure that every discontented feeling in the island found voice and wasformulated into some incriminating charge. Columbus was accused ofoppressing the Spanish settlers by making them work at harsh andunnecessary labour; of cutting down their allowance of food, andrestricting their liberty; of punishing them cruelly and unduly; ofwaging wars unjustly with the natives; of interfering with the conversionof the natives by hastily collecting them and sending them home asslaves; of having secreted treasures which should have been delivered tothe Sovereigns--this last charge, like some of the others, true. He hadan accumulation of pearls of which he had given no account to Fonseca, and the possession of which he excused by the queer statement that he waswaiting to announce it until he could match it with an equal amount ofgold! He was accused of hating the Spaniards, who were represented ashaving risen in the late rebellion in order to protect the natives andavenge their own wrongs--, and generally of having abused his office inorder to enrich his own family and gratify his own feelings. Bobadillaappeared to believe all these charges; or perhaps he recognised theirnature, and yet saw that there was a sufficient degree of truth in themto disqualify the Admiral in his position as Viceroy. In all theseaffairs his right-hand man was Roldan, whose loyalty to Columbus, as weforesaw, had been short-lived. Roldan collects evidence; Roldan knowswhere he can lay his hands on this witness; Roldan produces this and thatproof; Roldan is here, there, and everywhere--never had Bobadilla foundsuch a useful, obliging man as Roldan. With his help Bobadilla sooncollected a sufficient weight of evidence to justify in his own mind hissending Columbus home to Spain, and remaining himself in command of theisland. 

The caravels having been made ready, and all the evidence drawn up anddocumented, it only remained to embark the prisoners and despatch them toSpain. Columbus, sitting in his dungeon, suffering from gout andophthalmic as well as from misery and humiliation, had heard no news;but he had heard the shouting of the people in the streets, the beatingof drums and blowing of horns, and his own name and that of his brothersuttered in derision; and he made sure that he was going to be executed. Alonso de Villegio, a nephew of Bishop Fonseca's, had been appointed totake charge of the ships returning to Spain; and when he came into theprison the Admiral thought his last hour had come. 

"Villegio, " he asked sadly, "where are you taking me?"

"I am taking you to the ship, your Excellency, to embark, " replied theother. 

"To embark?" repeated the Admiral incredulously. "Villegio! are youspeaking the truth?"

"By the life of your Excellency what I say is true, " was the reply, andthe news came with a wave of relief to the panic-stricken heart of theAdmiral. 

In the middle of October the caravels sailed from San Domingo, and thelast sounds heard by Columbus from the land of his discovery were thehoots and jeers and curses hurled after him by the treacherous, triumphant rabble on the shore. Villegio treated him and his brotherswith as much kindness as possible, and offered, when they had got wellclear of Espanola, to take off the Admiral's chains. But Columbus, witha fine counterstroke of picturesque dignity, refused to have themremoved. Already, perhaps, he had realised that his subjection to thiscruel and quite unnecessary indignity would be one of the strongestthings in his favour when he got to Spain, and he decided to suffer asmuch of it as he could. "My Sovereigns commanded me to submit to whatBobadilla should order. By his authority I wear these chains, and Ishall continue to wear them until they are removed by order of theSovereigns; and I will keep them afterwards as reminders of the reward Ihave received for my services. " Thus the Admiral, beginning to pick uphis spirits again, and to feel the better for the sea air. 

The voyage home was a favourable one and in the course of it Columbuswrote the following letter to a friend of his at Court, Dona Juana de laTorre, who had been nurse to Prince Juan and was known by him to be afavourite of the Queen:

 "MOST VIRTUOUS LADY, --Though my complaint of the world is new, its habit of ill-using is very ancient. I have had a thousand struggles with it, and have thus far withstood them all, but now neither arms nor counsels avail me, and it cruelly keeps me under water. Hope in the Creator of all men sustains me: His help was always very ready; on another occasion, and not long ago, when I was still more overwhelmed, He raised me with His right arm, saying, 'O man of little faith, arise: it is I; be not afraid. '

 "I came with so much cordial affection to serve these Princes, and have served them with such service, as has never been heard of or seen. 

 "Of the new heaven and earth which our Lord made, when Saint John was writing the Apocalypse, after what was spoken by the mouth of Isaiah, He made me the messenger, and showed me where it lay. In all men there was disbelief, but to the Queen, my Lady, He gave the spirit of understanding, and great courage, and made her heiress of all, as a dear and much loved daughter. I went to take possession of all this in her royal name. They sought to make amends to her for the ignorance they had all shown by passing over their little knowledge and talking of obstacles and expenses. Her Highness, on the other hand, approved of it, and supported it as far as she was able. 

 "Seven years passed in discussion and nine in execution. During this time very remarkable and noteworthy things occurred whereof no idea at all had been formed. I have arrived at, and am in, such a condition that there is no person so vile but thinks he may insult me: he shall be reckoned in the world as valour itself who is courageous enough not to consent to it. 

 "If I were to steal the Indies or the land which lies towards them, of which I am now speaking, from the altar of Saint Peter, and give them to the Moors, they could not show greater enmity towards me in Spain. Who would believe such a thing where there was always so much magnanimity?

 "I should have much desired to free myself from this affair had it been honourable towards my Queen to do so. The support of our Lord and of her Highness made me persevere: and to alleviate in some measure the sorrows which death had caused her, I undertook a fresh voyage to the new heaven and earth which up to that time had remained hidden; and if it is not held there in esteem like the other voyages to the Indies, that is no wonder, because it came to be looked upon as my work. 

 "The Holy Spirit inflamed Saint Peter and twelve others with him, and they all contended here below, and their toils and hardships were many, but last of all they gained the victory. 

 "This voyage to Paria I thought would somewhat appease them on account of the pearls, and of the discovery of gold in Espanola. I ordered the pearls to be collected and fished for by people with whom an arrangement was made that I should return for them, and, as I understood, they were to be measured by the bushel. If I did not write about this to their Highnesses, it was because I wished to have first of all done the same thing with the gold. 

 "The result to me in this has been the same as in many other things; I should not have lost them nor my honour, if I had sought my own advantage, and had allowed Espanola to be ruined, or if my privileges and contracts had been observed. And I say just the same about the gold which I had then collected, and [for] which with such great afflictions and toils I have, by divine power, almost perfected [the arrangements]. 

 "When I went from Paria I found almost half the people from Espanola in revolt, and they have waged war against me until now, as against a Moor; and the Indians on the other side grievously [harassed me]. At this time Hojeda arrived and tried to put the finishing stroke: he said that their Highnesses had sent him with promises of gifts, franchises and pay: he gathered together a great band, for in the whole of Espanola there are very few save vagabonds, and not one with wife and children. This Hojeda gave me great trouble; he was obliged to depart, and left word that he would soon return with more ships and people, and that he had left the Royal person of the Queen, our Lady, at the point of death. Then Vincente Yanez arrived with four caravels; there was disturbance and mistrust but no mischief: the Indians talked of many others at the Cannibals [Caribbee Islands] and in Paria; and afterwards spread the news of six other caravels, which were brought by a brother of the Alcalde, but it was with malicious intent. This occurred at the very last, when the hope that their Highnesses would ever send any ships to the Indies was almost abandoned, nor did we expect them; and it was commonly reported that her Highness was dead. 

 "A certain Adrian about this time endeavoured to rise in rebellion again, as he had done previously, but our Lord did not permit his evil purpose to succeed. I had purposed in myself never to touch a hair of anybody's head, but I lament to say that with this man, owing to his ingratitude, it was not possible to keep that resolve as I had intended: I should not have done less to my brother, if he had sought to kill me, and steal the dominion which my King and Queen had given me in trust. 

 "This Adrian, as it appears, had sent Don Ferdinand to Xaragua to collect some of his followers, and there a dispute arose with the Alcalde from which a deadly contest ensued, and he [Adrian] did not effect his purpose. The Alcalde seized him and a part of his band, and the fact was that he would have executed them if I had not prevented it; they were kept prisoners awaiting a caravel in which they might depart. The news of Hojeda which I told them made them lose the hope that he would now come again. 

 "For six months I had been prepared to return to their Highnesses with the good news of the gold, and to escape from governing a dissolute people Who fear neither God nor their King and Queen, being full of vices and wickedness. 

 "I could have paid the people in full with six hundred thousand, and for this purpose I had four millions of tenths and somewhat more, besides the third of the gold. 

 "Before my departure I many times begged their Highnesses to send there, at my expense, some one to take charge of the administration of justice; and after finding the Alcalde in arms I renewed my supplications to have either some troops or at least some servant of theirs with letters patent; for my reputation is such that even if I build churches and hospitals, they will always be called dens of thieves. 

 "They did indeed make provision at last, but it was the very contrary of what the matter demanded: it may be successful, since it was according to their good pleasure. 

 "I was there for two years without being able to gain a decree of favour for myself or for those who went there, yet this man brought a coffer full: whether they will all redound to their [Highnesses] service, God knows. Indeed, to begin with, there are exemptions for twenty years, which is a man's lifetime; and gold is collected to such an extent that there was one person who became worth five marks in four hours; whereof I will speak more fully later on. 

 "If it would please their Highnesses to remove the grounds of a common saying of those who know my labours, that the calumny of the people has done me more harm than much service and the maintenance of their [Highnesses] property and dominion has done me good, it would be a charity, and I should be re-established in my honour, and it would be talked about all over the world: for the undertaking is of such a nature that it must daily become more famous and in higher esteem. 

 "When the Commander Bobadilla came to Santo Domingo, I was at La Vega, and the Adelantado at Xaragua, where that Adrian had made a stand, but then all was quiet, and the land rich and all men at peace. On the second day after his arrival, he created himself Governor, and appointed officers and made executions, and proclaimed immunities of gold and tenths and in general of everything else for twenty years, which is a man's lifetime, and that he came to pay everybody in full up to that day, even though they had not rendered service; and he publicly gave notice that, as for me, he had charge to send me in irons, and my brothers likewise, as he has done, and that I should nevermore return thither, nor any other of my family: alleging a thousand disgraceful and discourteous things about me. All this took place on the second day after his arrival, as I have said, and while I was absent at a distance, without my knowing either of him or of his arrival. 

 "Some letters of their Highnesses signed in blank, of which he brought a number, he filled up and sent to the Alcalde and to his company with favours and commendations: to me he never sent either letter or messenger, nor has he done so to this day. Imagine what any one holding my office would think when one who endeavoured to rob their Highnesses, and who has done so much evil and mischief, is honoured and favoured, while he who maintained it at such risks is degraded. 

 "When I heard this I thought that this affair would be like that of Hojeda or one of the others, but I restrained myself when I learnt for certain from the friars that their Highnesses had sent him. I wrote to him that his arrival was welcome, and that I was prepared to go to the Court and had sold all I possessed by auction; and that with respect to the immunities he should not be hasty, for both that matter and the government I would hand over to him immediately as smooth as my palm. And I wrote to the same effect to the friars, but neither he nor they gave me any answer. On the contrary, he put himself in a warlike attitude, and compelled all who went there to take an oath to him as Governor; and they told me that it was for twenty years. 

 "Directly I knew of those immunities, I thought that I would repair such a great error and that he would be pleased, for he gave them without the need or occasion necessary in so vast a matter: and he gave to vagabond people what would have been excessive for a man who had brought wife and children. So I announced by word and letters that he could not use his patents because mine were those in force; and I showed them the immunities which John Aguado brought. 

 "All this was done by me in order to gain time, so that their Highnesses might be informed of the condition of the country, and that they might have an opportunity of issuing fresh commands as to what would best promote their service in that respect. 

 "It is useless to publish such immunities in the Indies: to the settlers who have taken up residence it is a pure gain, for the best lands are given to them, and at a low valuation they will be worth two-hundred thousand at the end of the four years when the period of residence is ended, without their digging a spadeful in them. I would not speak thus if the settlers were married, but there are not six among them all who are not on the look-out to gather what they can and depart speedily. It would be a good thing if they should go from Castile, and also if it were known who and what they are, and if the country could be settled with honest people. 

 "I had agreed with those settlers that they should pay the third of the gold, and the tenths, and this at their own request; and they received it as a great favour from their Highnesses. I reproved them when I heard that they ceased to do this, and hoped that the Commander would do likewise, and he did the contrary. 

 "He incensed them against me by saying that I wanted to deprive them of what their Highnesses had given them; and he endeavoured to set them at variance with me, and did so; and he induced them to write to their Highnesses that they should never again send me back to the government, and I likewise make the same supplication to them for myself and for my whole family, as long as there are not different inhabitants. And he together with them ordered inquisitions concerning me for wickednesses the like whereof were never known in hell. Our Lord, who rescued Daniel and the three children, is present with the same wisdom and power as He had then, and with the same means, if it should please Him and be in accordance with His will. 

 "I should know how to remedy all this, and the rest of what has been said and has taken place since I have been in the Indies, if my disposition would allow me to seek my own advantage, and if it seemed honourable to me to do so, but the maintenance of justice and the extension of the dominion of her Highness has hitherto kept me down. Now that so much gold is found, a dispute arises as to which brings more profit, whether to go about robbing or to go to the mines. A hundred castellanos are as easily obtained for a woman as for a farm, and it is very general, and there are plenty of dealers who go about looking for girls: those from nine to ten are now in demand, and for all ages a good price must be paid. 

 "I assert that the violence of the calumny of turbulent persons has injured me more than my services have profited me; which is a bad example for the present and for the future. I take my oath that a number of men have gone to the Indies who did not deserve water in the sight of God and of the world; and now they are returning thither, and leave is granted them. 

 "I assert that when I declared that the Commander could not grant immunities, I did what he desired, although I told him that it was to cause delay until their Highnesses should, receive information from the country, and should command anew what might be for their service. 

 "He excited their enmity against me, and he seems, from what took place and from his behaviour, to have come as my enemy and as a very vehement one; or else the report is true that he has spent much to obtain this employment. I do not know more about it than what I hear. I never heard of an inquisitor gathering rebels together and accepting them, and others devoid of credit and unworthy of it, as witnesses against their Governor. 

 "If their Highnesses were to make a general inquisition there, I assure you that they would look upon it as a great wonder that the island does not founder. 

 "I think your Ladyship will remember that when, after losing my sails, I was driven into Lisbon by a tempest, I was falsely accused of having gone there to the King in order to give him the Indies. Their Highnesses afterwards learned the contrary, and that it was entirely malicious. 

 "Although I may know but little, I do not think any one considers me so stupid as not to know that even if the Indies were mine I could not uphold myself without the help of some Prince. 

 "If this be so, where could I find better support and security than in the King and Queen, our Lords, who have raised me from nothing to such great honour, and are the most exalted Princes of the world on sea and on land, and who consider that I have rendered them service, and who preserve to me my privileges and rewards: and if any one infringes them, their Highnesses increase them still more, as was seen in the case of John Aguado; and they order great honour to be conferred upon me, and, as I have already said, their Highnesses have received service from me, and keep my sons in their household; all which could by no means happen with another prince, for where there is no affection, everything else fails. 

 "I have now spoken thus in reply to a malicious slander, but against my will, as it is a thing which should not recur to memory even in dreams; for the Commander Bobadilla maliciously seeks in this way to set his own conduct and actions in a brighter light; but I shall easily show him that his small knowledge and great cowardice, together with his inordinate cupidity, have caused him to fail therein. 

 "I have already said that I wrote to him and to the friars, and immediately set out, as I told him, almost alone, because all the people were with the Adelantado, and likewise in order to prevent suspicion on his part. When he heard this, he seized Don Diego and sent him on board a caravel loaded with irons, and did the same to me upon my arrival, and afterwards to the Adelantado when he came; nor did I speak to him any more, nor to this day has he allowed any one to speak to me; and I take my oath that I cannot understand why I am made a prisoner. 

 "He made it his first business to seize the gold, which he did without measuring or weighing it and in my absence; he said that he wanted it to pay the people, and according to what I hear he assigned the chief part to himself and sent fresh exchangers for the exchanges. Of this gold I had put aside certain specimens, very big lumps, like the eggs of geese, hens, and pullets, and of many other shapes, which some persons had collected in a short space of time, in order that their Highnesses might be gladdened, and might comprehend the business upon seeing a quantity of large stones full of gold. This collection was the first to be given away, with malicious intent, so that their Highnesses should not hold the matter in any account until he has feathered his nest, which he is in great haste to do. Gold which is for melting diminishes at the fire: some chains which would weigh about twenty marks have never been seen again. 

 "I have been more distressed about this matter of the gold than even about the pearls, because I have not brought it to her Highness. 

 "The Commander at once set to work upon anything which he thought would injure me. I have already said that with six hundred thousand I could pay every one without defrauding anybody, and that I had more than four millions of tenths and constabulary [dues] without touching the gold. He made some free gifts which are ridiculous, though I believe that he began by assigning the chief part to himself. Their Highnesses will find it out when they order an account to be obtained from him, especially if I should be present thereat. He does nothing but reiterate that a large sum is owing, and it is what I have said, and even less. I have been much distressed that there should be sent concerning me an inquisitor who is aware that if the inquisition which he returns is very grave he will remain in possession of the government. 

 "Would that it had pleased our Lord that their Highnesses had sent him or some one else two years ago, for I know that I should now be free from scandal and infamy, and that my honour would not be taken from me, nor should I lose it. God is just, and will make known the why and the wherefore. 

 "They judge me over there as they would a governor who had gone to Sicily, or to a city or town placed under regular government, and where the laws can be observed in their entirety without fear of ruining everything; and I am greatly injured thereby. 

 "I ought to be judged as a captain who went from Spain to the Indies to conquer a numerous and warlike people, whose customs and religion are very contrary to ours; who live in rocks and mountains, without fixed settlements, and not like ourselves: and where, by the Divine Will, I have placed under the dominion of the King and Queen, our Sovereigns, a second world, through which Spain, which was reckoned a poor country, has become the richest. 

 "I ought to be judged as a captain who for such a long time up to this day has borne arms without laying them aside for an hour, and by gentlemen adventurers and by custom, and not by letters, unless they were from Greeks or Romans or others of modern times of whom there are so many and such noble examples in Spain; or otherwise I receive great injury, because in the Indies there is neither town nor settlement. 

 "The gate to the gold and pearls is now open, and plenty of everything--precious stones, spices and a thousand other things--may be surely expected, and never could a worse misfortune befall me: for by the name of our Lord the first voyage would yield them just as much as would the traffic of Arabia Felix as far as Mecca, as I wrote to their Highnesses by Antonio de Tomes in my reply respecting the repartition of the sea and land with the Portuguese; and afterwards it would equal that of Calicut, as I told them and put in writing at the monastery of the Mejorada. 

 "The news of the gold that I said I would give is, that on the day of the Nativity, while I was much tormented, being harassed by wicked Christians and by Indians, and when I was on the point of giving up everything, and if possible escaping from life, our Lord miraculously comforted me and said, 'Fear not violence, I will provide for all things: the seven years of the term of the gold have not elapsed, and in that and in everything else I will afford thee a remedy. '

 "On that day I learned that there were eighty leagues of land with mines at every point thereof. The opinion now is that it is all one. Some have collected a hundred and twenty castellanos in one day, and others ninety, and even the number of two hundred and fifty has been reached. From fifty to seventy, and in many more cases from fifteen to fifty, is considered a good day's work, and many carry it on. The usual quantity is from six to twelve, and any one obtaining less than this is not satisfied. It seems to me that these mines are like others, and do not yield equally every day. The mines are new, and so are the workers: it is the opinion of everybody that even if all Castile were to go there, every individual, however inexpert he might be, would not obtain less than one or two castellanos daily, and now it is only commencing. It is true that they keep Indians, but the business is in the hands of the Christians. Behold what discernment Bobadilla had, when he gave up everything for nothing, and four millions of tenths, without any reason or even being requested, and without first notifying it to their Highnesses. And this is not the only loss. 

 "I know that my errors have not been committed with the intention of doing evil, and I believe that their Highnesses regard the matter just as I state it: and I know and see that they deal mercifully even with those who maliciously act to their disservice. I believe and consider it very certain that their clemency will be both greater and more abundant towards me, for I fell therein through ignorance and the force of circumstances, as they will know fully hereafter; and I indeed am their creature, and they will look upon my services, and will acknowledge day by day that they are much profited. They will place everything in the balance, even as Holy Scripture tells us good and evil will be at the day of judgment. 

 "If, however, they command that another person do judge me, which I cannot believe, and that it be by inquisition in the Indies, I very humbly beseech them to send thither two conscientious and honourable persons at my expense, who I believe will easily, now that gold is discovered, find five marks in four hours. In either case it is needful for them to provide for this matter. 

 "The Commander on his arrival at San Domingo took up his abode in my house, and just as he found it so he appropriated everything to himself. Well and good; perhaps he was in want of it. A pirate never acted thus towards a merchant. About my papers I have a greater grievance, for he has so completely deprived me of them that I have never been able to obtain a single one from him; and those that would have been most useful in my exculpation are precisely those which he has kept most concealed. Behold the just and honest inquisitor! Whatever he may have done, they tell me that there has been an end to justice, except in an arbitrary form. God, our Lord, is present with His strength and wisdom, as of old, and always punishes in the end, especially ingratitude and injuries. "

We must keep in mind the circumstances in which this letter was writtenif we are to judge it and the writer wisely. It is a sad example ofquerulous complaint, in which everything but the writer's personal pointof view is ignored. No one indeed is more terrible in this world thanthe Man with a Grievance. How rarely will human nature in suchcircumstances retire into the stronghold of silence! Columbus is askingfor pity; but as we read his letter we incline to pity him on groundsquite different from those which he represented. He complains that thepeople he was sent to govern have waged war against him as against aMoor; he complains of Ojeda and of Vincenti Yanez Pinzon; of Adrian deMoxeca, and of every other person whom it was his business to govern andhold in restraint. He complains of the colonists--the very people, someof them, whom he himself took and impressed from the gaols and purlieusof Cadiz; and then he mingles pious talk about Saint Peter and Daniel inthe den of lions with notes on the current price of little girls and biglumps of gold like the eggs of geese, hens, and pullets. He complainsthat he is judged as a man would be judged who had been sent out togovern a ready-made colony, and represents instead that he went out toconquer a numerous and warlike people "whose custom and religion are verycontrary to ours, and who lived in rocks and mountains"; forgetting thatwhen it suited him for different purposes he described the natives as sopeaceable and unwarlike that a thousand of them would not stand againstone Christian, and that in any case he was sent out to create aconstitution and not merely to administer one. Very sore indeed isChristopher as he reveals himself in this letter, appealing now to hiscorrespondent, now to the King and Queen, now to that God who is alwayson the side of the complainant. "God our Lord is present with Hisstrength and wisdom, as of old, and always punishes in the end, especially ingratitude and injuries. " Not boastfulness and weakness, letus hope, or our poor Admiral will come off badly. 

CHAPTER II

CRISIS IN THE ADMIRAL'S LIFE

Columbus was not far wrong in his estimate of the effect likely to beproduced by his manacles, and when the ships of Villegio arrived at Cadizin October, the spectacle of an Admiral in chains produced a degree ofcommiseration which must have exceeded his highest hopes. He was now inhis fiftieth year and of an extremely venerable appearance, his kindlingeye looking forth from under brows of white, his hair and beardsnow-white, his face lined and spiritualised with suffering and sorrow. It must be remembered that before the Spanish people he had alwaysappeared in more or less state. They had not that intimacy with him, anintimacy which perhaps brought contempt, which the people in Espanolaenjoyed; and in Spain, therefore, the contrast between his formergrandeur and this condition of shame and degradation was the morestriking. It was a fact that the people of Spain could not neglect. Ittouched their sense of the dramatic and picturesque, touched theirhearts also perhaps--hearts quick to burn, quick to forget. They hadforgotten him before, now they burned with indignation at the picture ofthis venerable and much-suffering man arriving in disgrace. 

His letter to Dofia Juana, hastily despatched by him, probably throughthe office of some friendly soul on board, immediately on his arrival atCadiz, was the first news from the ship received by the King and Queen, and naturally it caused them a shock of surprise. It was followed by thedespatches from Bobadilla and by a letter from the Alcalde of Cadizannouncing that Columbus and his brothers were in his custody awaitingthe royal orders. Perhaps Ferdinand and Isabella had already repentedtheir drastic action and had entertained some misgivings as to itsresults; but it is more probable that they had put it out of their headsaltogether, and that their hasty action now was prompted as much by theshock of being recalled to a consciousness of the troubled state ofaffairs in the New World as by any real regret for what they had done. Moreover they had sent out Bobadilla to quiet things down; and the firstresult of it was that Spain was ringing with the scandal of the Admiral'streatment. In that Spanish world, unsteadfast and unstable, when one endof the see-saw was up the other must be down; and it was Columbus who nowfound himself high up in the heavens of favour, and Bobadilla who wasseated in the dust. Equipoise any kind was apparently a thingimpossible; if one man was right the other man must be wrong; no excusesfor Bobadilla; every excuse for the Admiral. 

The first official act, therefore, was an order for the immediate releaseof the Admiral and his brothers, followed by an invitation for him toproceed without delay to the Court at Granada, and an order for theimmediate payment to him of the sum of 2000 ducats [perhaps $250, 000 inthe year 2000 D. W. ] this last no ungenerous gift to a Viceroy whosepearl accounts were in something less than order. Perhaps Columbus hadcherished the idea of appearing dramatically before the very Court in hisrags and chains; but the cordiality of their letter as well as the giftof money made this impossible. Instead, not being a man to do things byhalves, he equipped himself in his richest and most splendid garments, got together the requisite number of squires and pages, and dulypresented himself at Granada in his full dignity. The meeting was anaffecting one, touched with a humanity which has survived the interveningcenturies, as a touch of true humanity will when details of mere paradeand etiquette have long perished. Perhaps the Admiral, inspired with adeep sense of his wrongs, meant to preserve a very stiff and colddemeanour at the beginning of this interview; but when he looked into thekind eyes of Isabella and saw them suffused with tears at the thought ofhis sorrows all his dignity broke down; the tears came to his own eyes, and he wept there naturally like a child. Ferdinand looking on kind butuncomfortable; Isabella unaffectedly touched and weeping; the Admiral, inspite of his scarlet cloak and golden collar and jewelled sword, in spiteof equerries, squires, pages and attendants, sobbing on his knees like achild or an old man-these were the scenes and kindly emotions of thishistoric moment. 

The tears were staunched by kindly royal words and handkerchiefs suppliedby attendant pages; sobbings breaking out again, but on the whole soonquieted; King and Queen raising the gouty Christopher from his knees, filling the air with kind words of sympathy, praise, and encouragement;the lonely worn heart, somewhat arid of late, and parched from want ofhuman sympathy, much refreshed by this dew of kindness. The Admiral wassoon himself again, and he would not have been himself if upon recoveringhe had not launched out into what some historians call a "lofty anddignified vindication of his loyalty and zeal. " No one, indeed, isbetter than the Admiral at such lofty and dignified vindications. Hegoes into the whole matter and sets forth an account of affairs atEspanola from his own point of view; and can even (so high is thethermometer of favour) safely indulge in a little judiciousself-depreciation, saying that if he has erred it has not been from wantof zeal but from want of experience in dealing with the kind of materialhe has been set to govern. All this is very human, natural, andunderstandable; product of that warm emotional atmosphere, bedewed withtears, in which the Admiral finds himself; and it is not long before theKing and Queen, also moved to it by the emotional temperature, areexpressing their unbroken and unbounded confidence in him andrepudiating the acts of Bobadilla, which they declare to have beencontrary to their instructions; undertaking also that he shall beimmediately dismissed from his post. Poor Bobadilla is not here in thewarm emotional atmosphere; he had his turn of it six months ago, when nopowers were too high or too delicate to be entrusted to him; he is outin the cold at the other end of the see-saw, which has let him down tothe ground with a somewhat sudden thump. 

Columbus, relying on the influence of these emotions, made bold to askthat his property in the island should be restored to him, which wasimmediately granted; and also to request that he should be reinstated inhis office of Viceroy and allowed to return at once in triumph toEspanola. But emotions are unstable things; they present a yieldingsurface which will give to any extent, but which, when it has hardenedagain after the tears have evaporated, is often found to be in much thesame condition as before. At first promises were made that the wholematter should be fully gone into; but when it came to cold fact, Ferdinand was obliged to recognise that this whole business of discoveryand colonisation had become a very different thing to what it had beenwhen Columbus was the only discoverer; and he was obviously of opinionthat, as Columbus's office had once been conveniently withdrawn from him, it would only be disastrous to reinstate him in it. Of course he did notsay so at once; but reasons were given for judicious delay in theAdmiral's reappointment. It was represented to him that the colony, being in an extremely unsettled state, should be given a short period ofrest, and also that it would be as well for him to wait until the peoplewho had given him so much trouble in the island could be quietly andgradually removed. Two years was the time mentioned as suitable for aninterregnum, and it is probable that it was the intention of Isabella, although not of Ferdinand, to restore Columbus to his office at the endof that time. 

In the meantime it became necessary to appoint some one to supersedeBobadilla; for the news that arrived periodically from Espanola duringthe year showed that he had entirely failed in his task of reducing theisland to order. For the wholesome if unequal rigours of ColumbusBobadilla had substituted laxness and indulgence, with the result thatthe whole colony was rapidly reduced to a state of the wildest disorder. Vice and cruelty were rampant; in fact the barbarities practised upon thenatives were so scandalous that even Spanish opinion, which was neververy sympathetic to heathen suffering, was thoroughly shocked andalarmed. The Sovereigns therefore appointed Nicholas de Ovando to go outand take over the command, with instructions to use very drastic meansfor bringing the colony to order. How he did it we shall presently see;in the meantime all that was known of him (the man not having been triedyet) was that he was a poor knight of Calatrava, a man respected in royalcircles for the performance of minor official duties, but no very popularfavourite; honest according to his lights--lights turned rather low anddim, as was often the case in those days. A narrow-minded man also, without sympathy or imagination, capable of cruelty; a tough, stiff-necked stock of a man, fit to deal with Bobadilla perhaps, buthardly fit to deal with the colony. Spain in those days was not anursery of administration. Of all the people who were sent outsuccessively to govern Espanola and supersede one another, the only onewho really seems to have had the necessary natural ability, had he butbeen given the power, was Bartholomew Columbus; but unfortunately thingswere in such a state that the very name of Columbus was enough to bar aman from acceptance as a governor of Espanola. 

It was not for any lack of powers and equipment that this procession ofgovernors failed in their duties. We have seen with what authorityBobadilia had been entrusted; and Ovando had even greater advantages. The instructions he received showed that the needs of the new colonieswere understood by Ferdinand and Isabella, if by no one else. Ovando wasnot merely appointed Governor of Espanola but of the whole of the newterritory discovered in the west, his seat of government being SanDomingo. He was given the necessary free hand in the matters ofpunishment, confiscation, and allotment of lands. He was to revoke theorders which had been made by Bobadilla reducing the proportion of goldpayable to the Crown, and was empowered to take over one-third of the. Gold that was stored on the island, and one-half of what might be foundin the future. The Crown was to have a monopoly of all trade, andordinary supplies were only to be procured through the Crown agent. On the other hand, the natives were to be released from slavery, andalthough forced to work in the mines, were to be paid for their labour--a distinction which in the working out did not produce much difference. A body of Franciscan monks accompanied Ovando for the purpose of tacklingthe religious question with the necessary energy; and every regulationthat the kind heart of Isabella could think of was made for the happinessand contentment of the Indians. 

Unhappily the real mischief had already been done. The natives, who hadnever been accustomed to hard and regular work under the conditions ofcommerce and greed, but had only toiled for the satisfaction of their ownsimple wants, were suffering cruelly under the hard labour in the mines, and the severe driving of their Spanish masters. Under these unnaturalconditions the native population was rapidly dying off, and there wassome likelihood that there would soon be a scarcity of native labour. These were the circumstances in which the idea of importing black Africanlabour to the New World was first conceived--a plan which was destined tohave results so tremendous that we have probably not yet seen their fulland ghastly development. There were a great number of African negroslaves at that time in Spain; a whole generation of them had been born inslavery in Spain itself; and this generation was bodily imported toEspanola to relieve and assist the native labour. 

These preparations were not made all at once; and it was more than a yearafter the return of Columbus before Ovando was ready to sail. In themeantime Columbus was living in Granada, and looking on with no verysatisfied eye at the plans which were being made to supersede him, andabout which he was probably not very much consulted; feeling very soreindeed, and dividing his attention between the nursing of his grievancesand other even less wholesome occupations. There was any amount ofsmiling kindness for him at Court, but very little of the satisfactionthat his vanity and ambition craved; and in the absence of practicalemployment he fell back on visionary speculations. He made great friendsat this time with a monk named Gaspar Gorricio, with whose assistance hebegan to make some kind of a study of such utterances of the Prophets andthe Fathers as he conceived to have a bearing on his own career. 

Columbus was in fact in a very queer way at this time; and what with hisreadings and his meditatings and his grievances, and his visits to hismonkish friend in the convent of Las Cuevas, he fell into a kind ofintellectual stupor, of which the work called 'Libro de las Profecias, 'or Book of the Prophecies, in which he wrote down such considerations asoccurred to him in his stupor, was the result. The manuscript of thiswork is in existence, although no human being has ever ventured toreprint the whole of it; and we would willingly abstain from mentioningit here if it were not an undeniable act of Columbus's life. TheAdmiral, fallen into theological stupor, puts down certain figures uponpaper; discovers that St. Augustine said that the world would only lastfor 7000 years; finds that some other genius had calculated that beforethe birth of Christ it had existed for 5343 years and 318 days; adds 1501years from the birth of Christ to his own time; adds up, and finds thatthe total is 6844 years; subtracts, and discovers that this earthly globecan only last 155 years longer. He remembers also that, still accordingto the Prophets, certain things must happen before the end of the world;Holy Sepulchre restored to Christianity, heathen converted, second comingof Christ; and decides that he himself is the man appointed by God andpromised by the Prophets to perform these works. Good Heavens! in whatan entirely dark and sordid stupor is our Christopher now sunk--averitable slough and quag of stupor out of which, if he does not manageto flounder himself, no human hand can pull him. 

But amid his wallowings in this slough of stupor, when all else, in himhad been well-nigh submerged by it, two dim lights were preserved towardswhich, although foundered up to the chin, he began to struggle; and bysuperhuman efforts did at last extricate himself from the theologicalstupor and get himself blown clean again by the salt winds before hedied. One light was his religion; not to be confounded with theologicalstupor, but quite separate from it in my belief; a certain steadfast andconsuming faith in a Power that could see and understand and guide him tothe accomplishment of his purpose. This faith had been too often a goodfriend and help to Christopher for him to forget it very long, even whilehe was staggering in the quag with Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the Fathers; andgradually, as I say, he worked himself out into the region of activityagain. First, thinking it a pity that his flounderings in the sloughshould be entirely wasted, he had a copy of his precious theological workmade and presented it to the Sovereigns, with a letter urging them (sincehe himself was unable to do it) to undertake a crusade for the recoveryof the Holy Sepulchre--not an altogether wild proposal in those days. But Ferdinand had other uses for his men and his money, and contentedhimself with despatching Peter Martyr on a pacific mission to the GrandSoldan of Egypt. 

The other light left unquenched in Columbus led him back to the firmground of maritime enterprise; he began to long for the sea again, andfor a chance of doing something to restore his reputation. An infinitelybetter and more wholesome frame of mind this; by all means let him mendhis reputation by achievement, instead of by writing books in atheological trance or stupor, and attempting to prove that he was chosenby the Almighty. He now addressed himself to the better task of gettinghimself chosen by men to do something which should raise him again intheir esteem. 

His maritime ambition was no doubt stimulated at this time by witnessingthe departure of Ovando, in February 1502, with a fleet of thirty-fiveships and a company of 2500 people. It was not in the Admiral's natureto look on without envy at an equipment the like of which he himself hadnever been provided with, and he did not restrain his sarcasms at itspomp and grandeur, nor at the ease with which men could follow a roadwhich had once been pointed out to them. Ovando had a great body-guardsuch as Columbus had never had; and he also carried with him a greatnumber of picked married men with their families, all with knowledge ofsome trade or craft, whose presence in the colony would be a guaranteeof permanence and steadiness. He perhaps remembered his own crowd ofruffians and gaol-birds, and realised the bitterness of his own mistakes. It was a very painful moment for him, and he was only partiallyreconciled to it by the issue of a royal order to Ovando under which hewas required to see to the restoration of the Admiral's property. If ithad been devoted to public purposes it was to be repaid him from theroyal funds; but if it had been merely distributed among the colonistsBobadilla was to be made responsible for it. The Admiral was alsoallowed to send out an agent to represent him and look after hisinterests; and he appointed Alonso de Carvajal to this office. 

Ovando once gone, the Admiral could turn again to his own affairs. It is true there were rumours that the whole fleet had perished, for itencountered a gale very soon after leaving Cadiz, and a great quantity ofthe deck hamper was thrown overboard and was washed on the shores ofSpain; and the Sovereigns were so bitterly distressed that, as it issaid, they shut them selves up for eight days. News eventually came, however, that only one ship had been lost and that the rest had proceededsafely to San Domingo. Columbus, much recovered in body and mind, nowbegan to apply for a fleet for himself. He had heard of the discovery bythe Portuguese of the southern route to India; no doubt he had heard alsomuch gossip of the results of the many private voyages of discovery thatwere sailing from Spain at this time; and he began to think seriouslyabout his own discoveries and the way in which they might best beextended. He thought much of his voyage to the west of Trinidad and ofthe strange pent-up seas and currents that he had discovered there. Heremembered the continual westward trend of the current, and how all theislands in that sea had their greatest length east and west, as thoughtheir shores had been worn into that shape by the constant flowing of thecurrent; and it was not an unnatural conclusion for him to suppose thatthere was a channel far to the west through which these seas poured andwhich would lead him to the Golden Chersonesus. He put away from himthat nightmare madness that he transacted on the coast of Cuba. He knewvery well that he had not yet found the Golden Chersonesus and the roadto India; but he became convinced that the western current would lead himthere if only he followed it long enough. There was nothing insane aboutthis theory; it was in fact a very well-observed and well-reasonedargument; and the fact that it happened to be entirely wrong is noreflection on the Admiral's judgment. The great Atlantic currents atthat time had not been studied; and how could he know that the westernstream of water was the northern half of a great ocean current whichsweeps through the Caribbean Sea, into and round the Gulf of Mexico, andflows out northward past Florida in the Gulf Stream?

His applications for a fleet were favourably received by the King andQueen, but much frowned upon by certain high officials of the Court. They were beginning to regard Columbus as a dangerous adventurer who, although he happened to have discovered the western islands, had broughtthe Spanish colony there to a dreadful state of disorder; and had also, they alleged, proved himself rather less than trustworthy in matters oftreasure. Still in the summer days of 1501 he was making himself verytroublesome at Court with constant petitions and letters about his rightsand privileges; and Ferdinand was far from unwilling to adopt a plan bywhich they would at least get rid of him and keep him safely occupied atthe other side of the world at the cost of a few caravels. There was, besides, always an element of uncertainty. His voyage might come tonothing, but on the other hand the Admiral was no novice at this game ofdiscovery, and one could not tell but that something big might come ofit. After some consideration permission was given to him to fit out afleet of four ships, and he proceeded to Seville in the autumn of 1501to get his little fleet ready. Bartholomew was to come with him, and hisson Ferdinand also, who seems to have much endeared himself to theAdmiral in these dark days, and who would surely be a great comfort tohim on the voyage. Beatriz Enriquez seems to have passed out of hislife; certainly he was not living with her either now or on his lastvisit to Spain; one way or another, that business is at an end for him. Perhaps poor Beatriz, seeing her son in such a high place at Court, haseffaced herself for his sake; perhaps the appointment was given oncondition of such effacement; we do not know. 

Columbus was in no hurry over his preparations. In the midst of them hefound time to collect a whole series of documents relating to his titlesand dignities, which he had copied and made into a great book which hecalled his "Book of Privileges, " and the copies of which were dulyattested before a notary at Seville on January 5, 1502. He wrote manyletters to various friends of his, chiefly in relation to theseprivileges; not interesting or illuminating letters to us, although veryimportant to busy Christopher when he wrote them. Here is one written toNicolo Oderigo, a Genoese Ambassador who came to Spain on a brief missionin the spring of 1502, and who, with certain other residents in Spain, issaid to have helped Columbus in his preparations for his fourth voyage:

 "Sir, --The loneliness in which you have left us cannot be described. I gave the book containing my writings to Francisco de Rivarol that he may send it to you with another copy of letters containing instructions. I beg you to be so kind as to write Don Diego in regard to the place of security in which you put them. Duplicates of everything will be completed and sent to you in the same manner and by the same Francisco. Among them you will find a new document. Their Highnesses promised to give all that belongs to me and to place Don Diego in possession of everything, as you will see. I wrote to Senor Juan Luis and to Sefora Catalina. The letter accompanies this one. I am ready to start in the name of the Holy Trinity as soon as the weather is good. I am well provided with everything. If Jeronimo de Santi Esteban is coming, he must await me and not embarrass himself with anything, for they will take away from him all they can and silently leave him. Let him come here and the King and the Queen will receive him until I come. May our Lord have you in His holy keeping. 

 "Done at Seville, March 21, 1502. "At your command. 

 . S. . S. A. S. Xpo FERENS. "

His delays were not pleasing to Ferdinand, who wanted to get rid of him, and he was invited to hurry his departure; but he still continued to godeliberately about his affairs, which he tried to put in order as far ashe was able, since he thought it not unlikely that he might never seeSpain again. Thinking thus of his worldly duties, and his thoughtsturning to his native Genoa, it occurred to him to make some benefactionout of the riches that were coming to him by which his name might beremembered and held in honour there. This was a piece of practicalkindness the record of which is most precious to us; for it shows theAdmiral in a truer and more human light than he often allowed to shineupon him. The tone of the letter is nothing; he could not forbearletting the people of Genoa see how great he was. The devotion of hislegacy to the reduction of the tax on simple provisions was a genuinecharity, much to be appreciated by the dwellers in the Vico Dritto diPonticello, where wine and provision shops were so very necessary tolife. The letter was written to the Directors of the famous Bank ofSaint George at Genoa. 

 "VERY NOBLE LORDS, --Although my body is here, my heart is continually yonder. Our Lord has granted me the greatest favour he has granted any one since the time of David. The results of my undertaking already shine, and they would make a great light if the obscurity of the Government did not conceal them. I shall go again to the Indies in the name of the Holy Trinity, to return immediately. And as I am mortal, I desire my son Don Diego to give to you each year, for ever, the tenth part of all the income received, in payment of the tax on wheat, wine, and other provisions. If this tenth amounts to anything, receive it, and if not, receive my will for the deed. I beg you as a favour to have this son of mine in your charge. Nicolo de Oderigo knows more about my affairs than I myself. I have sent him the copy of my privileges and letters, that he may place them in safe keeping. I would be glad if you could see them. The King and the Queen, my Lords, now wish to honour me more than ever. May the Holy Trinity guard your noble persons, and increase the importance of your very magnificent office. "Done in Seville, April a, 1502. 

 "The High-Admiral of the Ocean-Sea and Viceroy and Governor-General of the islands and mainland of Asia and the Indies, belonging to the King and Queen, my Lords, and the Captain-General of the Sea, and a Member of their Council. 

 . S. . S. A. S. X M Y Xpo FERENS. "

Columbus was anxious to touch at Espanola on his voyage to the West; buthe was expressly forbidden to do so, as it was known that his presencethere could not make for anything but confusion; he was to be permitted, however, to touch there on his return journey. The Great Khan was notout of his mind yet; much in it apparently, for he took an Arabianinterpreter with him so that he could converse with that monarch. Infact he did not hesitate to announce that very big results indeed were tocome of this voyage of his; among other things he expected tocircumnavigate the globe, and made no secret of his expectation. In themeantime he was expected to find some pearls in order to pay for theequipment of his fleet; and in consideration of what had happened to thelast lot of pearls collected by him, an agent named Diego de Porras wassent along with him to keep an account of the gold and precious stoneswhich might be discovered. Special instructions were issued to Columbusabout the disposal of these commodities. He does not seem to have mindedthese somewhat humiliating precautions; he had a way of rising abovepetty indignities and refusing to recognise them which must have been ofgreat assistance to his self-respect in certain troubled moments in hislife. 

His delays, however, were so many that in March 1502 the Sovereigns wereobliged to order him to depart without any more waiting. PoorChristopher, who once had to sue for the means with which to go, whosedepartures were once the occasion of so much state and ceremony, has nowto be hustled forth and asked to go away. Still he does not seem tomind; once more, as of old, his gaze is fixed beyond the horizon and hismind is filled with one idea. They may not think much of him in Spainnow, but they will when he comes back; and he can afford to wait. Completing his preparations without undignified haste he despatchedBartholomew with his four little vessels from Seville to Cadiz, where theAdmiral was to join them. He took farewell of his son Diego and of hisbrother James; good friendly James, who had done his best in a difficultposition, but had seen quite enough of the wild life of the seas and wasnow settled in Seville studying hard for the Church. It had always beenhis ambition, poor James; and, studying hard in Seville, he did in timeduly enter the sacred pale and become a priest--by which we may see thatif our ambitions are only modest enough we may in time encompass them. Sometimes I think that James, enveloped in priestly vestments, nodding inthe sanctuary, lulled by the muttering murmur of the psalms or dozingthrough a long credo, may have thought himself back amid the brilliantsunshine and strange perfumes of Espanola; and from a dream of some nymphhiding in the sweet groves of the Vega may have awakened with a sigh tothe strident Alleluias of his brother priests. At any rate, farewell toJames, safely seated beneath the Gospel light, and continuing to sitthere until, in the year 1515, death interrupts him. We are not any moreconcerned with James in his priestly shelter, but with those elderbrothers of his who are making ready again to face the sun and thesurges. 

Columbus's ships were on the point of sailing when word came that theMoors were besieging a Portuguese post on the coast of Morocco, and, ascivility was now the order of the day between Spain and Portugal, theAdmiral was instructed to call on his way there and afford some relief. This he did, sailing from Cadiz on the 9th or 10th of May to Ercilla onthe Morocco coast, where he anchored on the 13th. But the Moors had alldeparted and the siege was over; so Columbus, having sent Bartholomew andsome of his officers ashore on a civil visit, which was duly returned, set out the same day on his last voyage. 

CHAPTER III

THE LAST VOYAGE

The four ships that made up the Admiral's fleet on his fourth and lastvoyage were all small caravels, the largest only of seventy tons and thesmallest only of fifty. Columbus chose for his flagship the Capitana, seventy tons, appointing Diego Tristan to be his captain. The next bestship was the Santiago de Palos under the command of Francisco Porras;Porras and his brother Diego having been more or less foisted on toColumbus by Morales, the Royal Treasurer, who wished to find berths forthese two brothers-in-law of his. We shall hear more of the Porrasbrothers. The third ship was the Gallega, sixty tons, a very bad sailerindeed, and on that account entrusted to Bartholomew Columbus, whoseskill in navigation, it was hoped, might make up for her bad sailingqualities. Bartholomew had, to tell the truth, had quite enough of theNew World, but he was too loyal to Christopher to let him go alone, knowing as he did his precarious state of health and his tendency todespondency. The captain of the Gallega was Pedro de Terreros, who hadsailed with the Admiral as steward on all his other voyages and was nowpromoted to a command. The fourth ship was called the Vizcaina, fiftytons, and was commanded by Bartolome Fieschi, a friend of Columbus's fromGenoa, and a very sound, honourable man. There were altogether 143 soulson board the four caravels. 

The fleet as usual made the Canary Islands, where they arrived on the20th of May, and stopped for five days taking in wood and water and freshprovisions. Columbus was himself again--always more himself at sea thananywhere else; he was following a now familiar road that had nodifficulties or dangers for him; and there is no record of the voyage outexcept that it was quick and prosperous, with the trade wind blowing sosteadily that from the time they left the Canaries until they made landtwenty days later they had hardly to touch a sheet or a halliard. Thefirst land they made was the island of Martinique, where wood and waterwere taken in and the men sent ashore to wash their linen. To youngFerdinand, but fourteen years old, this voyage was like a fairy tale cometrue, and his delight in everything that he saw must have added greatlyto Christopher's pleasure and interest in the voyage. They only stayed afew days at Martinique and then sailed westward along the chain ofislands until they came to Porto Rico, where they put in to the sunnyharbour which they had discovered on a former voyage. 

It was at this point that Columbus determined, contrary to his preciseorders, to stand across to Espanola. The place attracted him like amagnet; he could not keep away from it; and although he had a good enoughexcuse for touching there, it is probable that his real reason was a verynatural curiosity to see how things were faring with his old enemyBobadilla. The excuse was that the Gallega, Bartholomew's ship, was sounseaworthy as to be a drag on the progress of the rest of the fleet anda danger to her own crew. In the slightest sea-way she rolled almostgunwale under, and would not carry her sail; and Columbus's plan was toexchange her for a vessel out of the great fleet which he knew had bythis time reached Espanola and discharged its passengers. 

He arrived off the harbour of San Domingo on the 29th of June in verythreatening weather, and immediately sent Pedro de Terreros ashore with amessage to Ovando, asking to be allowed to purchase or exchange one ofthe vessels that were riding in the harbour, and also leave to shelterhis own vessels there during the hurricane which he believed to beapproaching. A message came back that he was neither permitted to buy aship nor to enter the harbour; warning him off from San Domingo, in fact. 

With this unfavourable message Terreros also brought back the news of theisland. Ovando had been in San Domingo since the 15th of April, and hadfound the island in a shocking state, the Spanish population having to aman devoted itself to idleness, profligacy, and slave-driving. The onlything that had prospered was the gold-mining; for owing to the licencethat Bobadilla had given to the Spaniards to employ native labour to anunlimited extent there had been an immense amount of gold taken from themines. But in no other respect had island affairs prospered, and Ovandoimmediately began the usual investigation. The fickle Spaniards, alwaysunfaithful to whoever was in authority over them, were by this time tiredof Bobadilla, in spite of his leniency, and they hailed the coming ofOvando and his numerous equipment with enthusiasm. Bobadilla had also bythis time, we may suppose, had enough of the joys of office; at any ratehe showed no resentment at the coming of the new Governor, and handedover the island with due ceremony. The result of the investigation ofOvando, however, was to discover a state of things requiring exemplarytreatment; friend Roldan was arrested, with several of his allies, andput on board one of the ships to be sent back to Spain for trial. Thecacique Guarionex, who had been languishing in San Domingo in chains fora long time, was also embarked on one of the returning ships; and abouteighteen hundred-weights of gold which had been collected were alsostowed into cases and embarked. Among this gold there was a nuggetweighing 35 lbs. Which had been found by a native woman in a river, andwhich Ovando was sending home as a personal offering to his Sovereigns;and some further 40 lbs. Of gold belonging to Columbus, which Carvajalhad recovered and placed in a caravel to be taken to Spain for theAdmiral. The ships were all ready to sail, and were anchored off themouth of the river when Columbus arrived in San Domingo. 

When he found that he was not to be allowed to enter the harbour himselfColumbus sent a message to Ovando warning him that a hurricane was comingon, and begging him to take measures for the safety of his large fleet. This, however, was not done, and the fleet put to sea that evening. Ithad only got so far as the eastern end of Espanola when the hurricane, aspredicted by Columbus, duly came down in the manner of West Indianhurricanes, a solid wall of wind and an advancing wave of the sea whichsubmerged everything in its path. Columbus's little fleet, findingshelter denied them, had moved a little way along the coast, the Admiralstanding close in shore, the others working to the south for sea-room;and although they survived the hurricane they were scattered, and onlymet several days later, in an extremely battered condition, at thewesterly end of the island. But the large home-going fleet had notsurvived. The hurricane, which was probably from the north-east, struckthem just as they lost the lee of the island, and many of them, includingthe ships with the treasure of gold and the caravels bearing Roldan, Bobadilla, and Guarionex, all went down at once and were never seen orheard of again. Other ships survived for a little while only to founderin the end; a few, much shattered, crept back to the shelter of SanDomingo; but only one, it is said, survived the hurricane so well as tobe able to proceed to Spain; and that was the one which carried Carvajaland Columbus's little property of gold. The Admiral's luck again; or theintervention of the Holy Trinity--whichever you like. 

After the shattering experience of the storm, Columbus, although he didnot return to San Domingo, remained for some time on the coast ofEspanola repairing his ships and resting his exhausted crews. There werethreatenings of another storm which delayed them still further, and itwas not until the middle of July that the Admiral was able to depart onthe real purpose of his voyage. His object was to strike the mainlandfar to the westward of the Gulf of Paria, and so by following it backeastward to find the passage which he believed to exist. But the windsand currents were very baffling; he was four days out of sight of landafter touching at an island north of Jamaica; and finally, in somebewilderment, he altered his course more and more northerly until hefound his whereabouts by coming in sight of the archipelago off thesouth-western end of Cuba which he had called the Gardens. From here hetook a departure south-west, and on the 30th of July came in sight of asmall island off the northern coast of Honduras which he called Isla dePinos, and from which he could see the hills of the mainland. At thisisland he found a canoe of immense size with a sort of house or caboosebuilt amidships, in which was established a cacique with his family anddependents; and the people in the canoe showed signs of more advancedcivilisation than any seen by Columbus before in these waters. They woreclothing, they had copper hatchets, and bells, and palm-wood swords inthe edges of which were set sharp blades of flint. They had a fermentedliquor, a kind of maize beer which looked like English ale; they had somekind of money or medium of exchange also, and they told the Admiral thatthere was land to the west where all these things existed and many more. It is strange and almost inexplicable that he did not follow this trailto the westward; if he had done so he would have discovered Mexico. Butone thing at a time always occupied him to the exclusion of everythingelse; his thoughts were now turned to the eastward, where he supposed theStraits were; and the significance of this canoe full of natives was lostupon him. 

They crossed over to the mainland of Honduras on August 15th, Bartholomewlanding and attending mass on the beach as the Admiral himself was tooill to go ashore. Three days later the cross and banner of Castile wereduly erected on the shores of the Rio Tinto and the country was formallyannexed. The natives were friendly, and supplied the ships withprovisions; but they were very black and ugly, and Columbus readilybelieved the assertion of his native guide that they were cannibals. They continued their course to the eastward, but as the gulf narrowed theforce of the west-going current was felt more severely. Columbus, believing that the strait which he sought lay to the eastward, labouredagainst the current, and his difficulties were increased by the badweather which he now encountered. There were squalls and hurricanes, tempests and cross-currents that knocked his frail ships about and almostswamped them. Anchors and gear were lost, the sails were torn out of thebolt-ropes, timbers were strained; and for six weeks this state ofaffairs went on to an accompaniment of thunder and lightning which addedto the terror and discomfort of the mariners. 

This was in August and the first half of September--six weeks of theworst weather that Columbus had ever experienced. It was the moreunfortunate that his illness made it impossible for him to get activelyabout the ship; and he had to have a small cabin or tent rigged up ondeck, in which he could lie and direct the navigation. It is bad enoughto be as ill as he was in a comfortable bed ashore; it is a thousandtimes worse amid the discomforts of a small boat at sea; but what must ithave been thus to have one's sick-bed on the deck of a cockle-shell whichwas being buffeted and smashed in unknown seas, and to have to think andact not for oneself alone but for the whole of a suffering little fleet!No wonder the Admiral's distress of mind was great; but oddly enough hisanxieties, as he recorded them in a letter, were not so much on his ownaccount as on behalf of others. The terrified seamen making vows to theVirgin and promises of pilgrimages between their mad rushes to the sheetsand furious clinging and hauling; his son Ferdinand, who was onlyfourteen, but who had to endure the same pain and fatigue as the rest ofthem, and who was enduring it with such pluck that "it was as if he hadbeen at sea eighty years"; the dangers of Bartholomew, who had not wantedto come on this voyage at all, but was now in the thick of it in theworst ship of the squadron, and fighting for his life amid tempests andtreacherous seas; Diego at home, likely to be left an orphan and at themercy of fickle and doubtful friends--these were the chief causes of theAdmiral's anxiety. All he said about himself was that "by my misfortunethe twenty years of service which I gave with so much fatigue and dangerhave profited me so little that to-day I have in Castile no roof, and ifI wished to dine or sup or sleep I have only the tavern for my lastrefuge, and for that, most of the time, I would be unable to pay thescore. " Not cheerful reflections, these, to add to the pangs of acutegout and the consuming anxieties of seamanship under such circumstances. Dreadful to him, these things, but not dreadful to us; for they show usan Admiral restored to his true temper and vocation, something of the oldsea hero breaking out in him at last through all these misfortunes, likethe sun through the hurrying clouds of a stormy afternoon. 

Forty days of passage through this wilderness of water were enduredbefore the sea-worn mariners, rounding a cape on September 12th, sawstretching before them to the southward a long coast of plain andmountain which they were able to follow with a fair wind. Gradually thesea went down; the current which had opposed them here aided them, andthey were able to recover a little from the terrible strain of the lastsix weeks. The cape was called by Columbus 'Gracios de Dios'; and on the16th of September they landed at the entrance to a river to take inwater. The boat which was sent ashore, however, capsized on the sandybar of the entrance, two men being drowned, and the river was given thename of Rio de Desastre. They found a better anchorage, where theyrested for ten days, overhauled their stores, and had some intercoursewith the natives and exploration on shore. Some incidents occurred whichcan best be described in the Admiral's own language as he recorded themin his letter to the Sovereigns. 

 " . . . When I reached there, they immediately sent me two young girls dressed in rich garments. The older one might not have been more than eleven years of age and the other seven; both with so much experience, so much manner, and so much appearance as would have been sufficient if they had been public women for twenty years. They bore with them magic powder and other things belonging to their art. When they arrived I gave orders that they should be adorned with our things and sent them immediately ashore. There I saw a tomb within the mountain as large as a house and finely worked with great artifice, and a corpse stood thereon uncovered, and, looking within it, it seemed as if he stood upright. Of the other arts they told me that there was excellence. Great and little animals are there in quantities, and very different from ours; among which I saw boars of frightful form so that a dog of the Irish breed dared not face them. With a cross-bow I had wounded an animal which exactly resembles a baboon only that it was much larger and has a face like a human being. I had pierced it with an arrow from one side to the other, entering in the breast and going out near the tail, and because it was very ferocious I cut off one of the fore feet which rather seemed to be a hand, and one of the hind feet. The boars seeing this commenced to set up their bristles and fled with great fear, seeing the blood of the other animal. When I saw this I caused to be thrown them the 'uegare, '--[Peccary]--certain animals they call so, where it stood, and approaching him, near as he was to death, and the arrow still sticking in his body, he wound his tail around his snout and held it fast, and with the other hand which remained free, seized him by the neck as an enemy. This act, so magnificent and novel, together with the fine country and hunting of wild beasts, made me write this to your Majesties. "

The natives at this anchorage of Cariari were rather suspicious, butColumbus seized two of them to act as guides in his journey further downthe coast. Weighing anchor on October 5th he worked along the Costa Ricashore, which here turns to the eastward again, and soon found a tribe ofnatives who wore large ornaments of gold. They were reluctant to partwith the gold, but as usual pointed down the coast and said that therewas much more gold there; they even gave a name to the place where thegold could be found--Veragua; and for once this country was found to havea real existence. The fleet anchored there on October 17th, beinggreeted by defiant blasts of conch shells and splashing of water from theindignant natives. Business was done, however: seventeen gold discs inexchange for three hawks' bells. 

Still Columbus went on in pursuit of his geographical chimera; even goldhad no power to detain him from the earnest search for this imaginarystrait. Here and there along the coast he saw increasing signs ofcivilisation--once a wall built of mud and stone, which made him think ofCathay again. He now got it into his head that the region he was in wasten days' journey from the Ganges, and that it was surrounded by water;which if it means anything means that he thought he was on a large islandten days' sail to the eastward of the coast of India. Altogether at seaas to the facts, poor Admiral, but with heart and purpose steadfast andright enough. 

They sailed a little farther along the coast, now between narrow islandsthat were like the streets of Genoa, where the boughs of trees on eitherhand brushed the shrouds of the ships; now past harbours where there werenative fairs and markets, and where natives were to be seen mounted onhorses and armed with swords; now by long, lonely stretches of the coastwhere there was nothing to be seen but the low green shore with themountains behind and the alligators basking at the river mouths. At last(November 2nd) they arrived at the cape known as Nombre de Dios, whichOjeda had reached some time before in his voyage to the West. 

The coast of the mainland had thus been explored from the Bay of Hondurasto Brazil, and Columbus was obliged to admit that there was no strait. Having satisfied himself of that he decided to turn back to Veragua, where he had seen the natives smelting gold, in order to make somearrangement for establishing a colony there. The wind, however, whichhad headed him almost all the way on his easterly voyage, headed himagain now and began to blow steadily from the west. He started on hisreturn journey on the 5th of December, and immediately fell into almostworse troubles than he had been in before. The wood of the ships hadbeen bored through and through by seaworms, so that they leaked verybadly; the crews were sick, provisions were spoilt, biscuits rotten. Young Ferdinand Columbus, if he did not actually make notes of thisvoyage at the time, preserved a very lively recollection of it, and it isto his Historie, which in its earlier passages is of doubtfulauthenticity, that we owe some of the most human touches of descriptionrelating to this voyage. Any passage in his work relating to food oranimals at this time has the true ring of boyish interest andobservation, and is in sharp contrast to the second-hand and artificialtone of the earlier chapters of his book. About the incident of thehowling monkey, which the Admiral's Irish hound would not face, Ferdinandremarks that it "frighted a good dog that we had, but frighted one of ourwild boars a great deal more"; and as to the condition of the biscuitswhen they turned westward again, he says that they were "so full ofweevils that, as God shall help me, I saw many that stayed till night toeat their sop for fear of seeing them. "

After experiencing some terrible weather, in the course of which they hadbeen obliged to catch sharks for food and had once been nearlyoverwhelmed by a waterspout, they entered a harbour where, in the wordsof young Ferdinand, "we saw the people living like birds in the tops ofthe trees, laying sticks across from bough to bough and building theirhuts upon them; and though we knew not the reason of the custom weguessed that it was done for fear of their enemies, or of the griffinsthat are in this island. " After further experiences of bad weather theymade what looked like a suitable harbour on the coast of Veragua, whichharbour, as they entered it on the day of the Epiphany (January 9, 1503), they named Belem or Bethlehem. The river in the mouth of which they wereanchored, however, was subject to sudden spouts and gushes of water fromthe hills, one of which occurred on January 24th and nearly swamped thecaravels. This spout of water was caused by the rainy season, which hadbegun in the mountains and presently came down to the coast, where itrained continuously until the 14th of February. They had made friendswith the Quibian or chief of the country, and he had offered to conductthem to the place where the gold mines were; so Bartholomew was sent offin the rain with a boat party to find this territory. It turned outafterwards that the cunning Quibian had taken them out of his own countryand showed them the gold mined of a neighbouring chief, which were not sorich as his own. 

Columbus, left idle in the absence of Bartholomew, listening to thecontinuous drip and patter of the rain on the leaves and the water, begins to dream again--to dream of gold and geography. Remembers thatDavid left three thousand quintals of gold from the Indies to Solomon forthe decoration of the Temple; remembers that Josephus said it came fromthe Golden Chersonesus; decides that enough gold could never have beengot from the mines of Hayna in Espanola; and concludes that the Ophir ofSolomon must be here in Veragua and not there in Espanola. It was alwayshere and now with Columbus; and as he moved on his weary sea pilgrimagesthese mythical lands with their glittering promise moved about with him, like a pillar of fire leading him through the dark night of his quest. 

The rain came to an end, however, the sun shone out again, and activitytook the place of dreams with Columbus and with his crew. He decided tofound a settlement in this place, and to make preparations for seizingand working the gold mines. It was decided to leave a garrison of eightymen, and the business of unloading the necessary arms and provisions andbuilding houses ashore was immediately begun. Hawks' bells and othertrifles were widely distributed among the natives, with special toys anddelicacies for the Quibian, in order that friendly relations might beestablished from the beginning; and special regulations were framed toprevent the possibility of any recurrence of the disasters that overtookthe settlers of Isabella. 

Such are the orderly plans of Columbus; but the Quibian has his planstoo, which are found to be of quite a different nature. The Quibian doesnot like intruders, though he likes their hawks' bells well enough; he isnot quite so innocent as poor Guacanagari and the rest of them were; heknows that gold is a thing coveted by people to whom it does not belong, and that trouble follows in its train. Quibian therefore decides thatColumbus and his followers shall be exterminated--news of which intentionfortunately came to the ears of Columbus in time, Diego Mendez andRodrigo de Escobar having boldly advanced into the Quibian's village andseen the warlike preparations. Bartholomew, returning from his visit tothe gold mines, was informed of this state of affairs. Always quick tostrike, Bartholomew immediately started with an armed force, and advancedupon the village so rapidly that the savages were taken by surprise, their headquarters surrounded, and the Quibian and fifty of his warriorscaptured. Bartholomew triumphantly marched the prisoners back, theQuibian being entrusted to the charge of Juan Sanchez, who was rowing himin a little boat. The Quibian complained that his bonds were hurtinghim, and foolish Sanchez eased them a little; Quibian, with a quickmovement, wriggled overboard and dived to the bottom; came up againsomewhere and reached home alive. No one saw him come up, however, andthey thought had had been drowned. 

Columbus now made ready to depart, and the caravels having been got overthe shallow bar, their loading was completed and they were ready to sail. On April 6th Diego Tristan was sent in charge of a boat with a message toBartholomew, who was to be left in command of the settlement; but whenTristan had rounded the point at the entrance to the river and come insight of the shore he had an unpleasant surprise; the settlement wasbeing savagely attacked by the resurrected Quibian and his followers. The fight had lasted for three hours, and had been going badly againstthe Spaniards, when Bartholomew and Diego Mendes rallied a little forceround them and, calling to Columbus's Irish dog which had been left withthem, made a rush upon the savages and so terrified them that theyscattered. Bartholomew with eight of the other Spaniards was wounded, and one was killed; and it was at this point that Tristan's boat arrivedat the settlement. Having seen the fight safely over, he went on up theriver to get water, although he was warned that it was not safe; and sureenough, at a point a little farther up the river, beyond some low greenarm of the shore, he met with a sudden and bloody death. A cloud ofyelling savages surrounded his boat hurling javelins and arrows, and onlyone seaman, who managed to dive into the water and crawl ashore, escapedto bring the evil tidings. 

The Spaniards under Bartholomew's command broke into a panic, and takingadvantage of his wounded condition they tried to make sail on theircaravel and join the ships of Columbus outside; but since the time of therains the river had so much gone down that she was stuck fast in thesand. They could not even get a boat over the bar, for there was a heavycross sea breaking on it; and in the meantime here they were, trappedinside this river, the air resounding with dismal blasts of the natives'conch-shells, and the natives themselves dancing round and threatening torush their position; while the bodies of Tristan and his little crew wereto be seen floating down the stream, feasted upon by a screaming cloud ofbirds. The position of the shore party was desperate, and it was only bythe greatest efforts that the wounded Adelantado managed to rally hiscrew and get them to remove their little camp to an open place on theshore, where a kind of stockade was made of chests, casks, spars, and thecaravel's boat. With this for cover, the Spanish fire-arms, so long asthere was ammunition for them, were enough to keep the natives at bay. 

Outside the bar, in his anchorage beyond the green wooded point, theAdmiral meanwhile was having an anxious time. One supposes the entranceto the river to have been complicated by shoals and patches of brokenwater extending some considerable distance, so that the Admiral'sanchorage would be ten or twelve miles away from the camp ashore, and ofcourse entirely hidden from it. As day after day passed and DiegoTristan did not return, the Admiral's anxiety increased. Among the threecaravels that now formed his little squadron there was only one boatremaining, the others, not counting one taken by Tristan and one leftwith Bartholomew, having all been smashed in the late hurricanes. In theheavy sea that was running on the bar the Admiral dared not risk his lastremaining boat; but in the mean time he was cut off from all news of theshore party and deprived of any means of finding out what had happened toTristan. And presently to these anxieties was added a further disaster. It will be remembered that when the Quibian had been captured fiftynatives had been taken with him; and these were confined in theforecastle of the Capitana and covered by a large hatch, on which most ofthe crew slept at night. But one night the natives collected a heap ofbig stones from the ballast of the ship, and piled them up to a kind ofplatform beneath the hatch; some of the strongest of them got upon theplatform and set their backs horizontally against the hatch, gave a greatheave and, lifted it off. In the confusion that followed, a great manyof the prisoners escaped into the sea, and swam ashore; the rest werecaptured and thrust back under the hatch, which was chained down; butwhen on the following morning the Spaniards went to attend to thisremnant it was found that they had all hanged themselves. 

This was a great disaster, since it increased the danger of the garrisonashore, and destroyed all hope of friendship with the natives. There wassomething terrible and powerful, too, in the spirit of people who couldthus to a man make up their minds either to escape or die; and theAdmiral must have felt that he was in the presence of strange, powerfulelements that were far beyond his control. At any moment, moreover, thewind might change and put him on a lee shore, or force him to seek safetyin sea-room; in which case the position of Bartholomew would be a verycritical one. It was while things were at this apparent deadlock that abrave fellow, Pedro Ledesma, offered to attempt to swim through the surfif the boat would take him to the edge of it. Brave Pedro, his offeraccepted, makes the attempt; plunges into the boiling surf, and withmighty efforts succeeds in reaching the shore; and after an interval isseen by his comrades, who are waiting with their boat swinging on theedge of the surf, to be returning to them; plunges into the sea, comessafely through the surf again, and is safely hauled on board, havingaccomplished a very real and satisfactory bit of service. 

The story he had to tell the Admiral was as we know not a pleasant one--Tristan and his men dead, several of Bartholomew's force, including theAdelantado himself, wounded, and all in a state of panic and fear at thehostile natives. The Spaniards would do nothing to make the littlefortress safer, and were bent only on escaping from the place of horror. Some of them were preparing canoes in which to come out to the ships whenthe sea should go down, as their one small boat was insufficient; andthey swore that if the Admiral would not take them they would seize theirown caravel and sail out themselves into the unknown sea as soon as theycould get her floated over the bar, rather than remain in such a dreadfulsituation. Columbus was in a very bad way. He could not desertBartholomew, as that would expose him to the treachery of his own menand the hostility of the savages. He could not reinforce him, except byremaining himself with the whole of his company; and in that case therewould be no means of sending the news of his rich discovery to Spain. There was nothing for it, therefore, but to break up the settlement andreturn some other time with a stronger force sufficient to occupy thecountry. And even this course had its difficulties; for the weathercontinued bad, the wind was blowing on to the shore, the sea was--sorough as to make the passage of the bar impossible, and any change forthe worse in the weather would probably drive his own crazy ships ashoreand cut off all hope of escape. 

The Admiral, whose health was now permanently broken, and who only hadrespite from his sufferings in fine weather and when he was relieved froma burden of anxieties such as had been continually pressing on him nowfor three months, fell into his old state of sleeplessness, feverishness, and consequent depression; and it, these circumstances it is notwonderful that the firm ground of fact began to give a little beneath himand that his feet began to sink again into the mire or quag of stupor. Of these further flounderings in the quag he himself wrote an account tothe King and Queen, so we may as well have it in his own words. 

 "I mounted to the top of the ship crying out with a weak voice, weeping bitterly, to the commanders of your Majesties' army, and calling again to the four winds to help; but they did not answer me. Tired out, I fell asleep and sighing I heard a voice very full of pity which spoke these words: O fool! and slow to believe and to serve Him, thy God and the God of all. What did He more for Moses? and for David His servant? Since thou wast born He had always so great care for thee. When He saw thee in an age with which He was content He made thy name sound marvellously through the world. The Indies, which are so rich apart of the world, He has given to thee as thine. Thou hast distributed them wherever it has pleased thee; He gave thee power so to do. Of the bonds of the ocean which were locked with so strong chains He gave thee the keys, and thou wast obeyed in all the land, and among the Christians thou hast acquired a good and honourable reputation. What did He more for the people of Israel when He brought them out of Egypt? or yet for David, whom from being a shepherd He made King of Judea? Turn to Him and recognise thine error, for His mercy is infinite. Thine old age will be no hindrance to all great things. Many very great inheritances are in His power. Abraham was more than one hundred years old when he begat Isaac and also Sarah was not young. Thou art calling for uncertain aid. Answer me, who has afflicted thee so much and so many times--God or the world? The privileges and promises which God makes He never breaks to any one; nor does He say after having received the service that His intention was not so and it is to be understood in another manner: nor imposes martyrdom to give proof of His power. He abides by the letter of His word. All that He promises He abundantly accomplishes. This is His way. I have told thee what the Creator hath done for thee and does for all. Now He shows me the reward and payment of thy suffering and which thou hast passed in the service of others. And thus half dead, I heard everything; but I could never find an answer to make to words so certain, and only I wept for my errors. He, who ever he might be, finished speaking, saying: Trust and fear not, for thy tribulations are written in marble and not without reason. "

Mere darkness of stupor; not much to be deciphered from it, nor anyprofitable comment to be made on it, except that it was our poorChristopher's way of crying out his great suffering and misery. We mustnot notice it, much as we should like to hold out a hand of sympathy andcomfort to him; must not pay much attention to this dark eloquentnonsense--merely words, in which the Admiral never does himself justice. Acts are his true conversation; and when he speaks in that language allmen must listen. 

CHAPTER IV

HEROIC ADVENTURES BY LAND AND SEA

No man ever had a better excuse for his superstitions than the Admiral;no sooner had he got done with his Vision than the wind dropped, the suncame out, the sea fell, and communication with the land was restored. While he had been sick and dreaming one of his crew, Diego Mendez, hadbeen busy with practical efforts in preparation for this day of fineweather; he had made a great raft out of Indian canoes lashed together, with mighty sacks of sail cloth into which the provisions might bebundled; and as soon as the sea had become calm enough he took this raftin over the bar to the settlement ashore, and began the business ofembarking the whole of the stores and ammunition of Bartholomew'sgarrison. By this practical method the whole establishment wastransferred from the shore to the ships in the space of two days, andnothing was left but the caravel, which it was found impossible to floatagain. It was heavy work towing the raft constantly backwards andforwards from the ships to the shore, but Diego Mendez had thesatisfaction of being the last man to embark from the desertedsettlement, and to see that not an ounce of stores or ammunition had beenlost. 

Columbus, always quick to reward the services of a good man, kissed DiegoMendez publicly--on both cheeks, and (what doubtless pleased him muchbetter) gave him command of the caravel of which poor Tristan had beenthe captain. 

With a favourable wind they sailed from this accursed shore at the end ofApril 1503. It is strange, as Winsor points out, that in the name ofthis coast should be preserved the only territorial remembrance ofColumbus, and that his descendant the Duke of Veragua should in his titlecommemorate one of the most unfortunate of the Admiral's adventures. Andif any one should desire a proof of the utterly misleading nature of mostof Columbus's writings about himself, let him know that a few monthslater he solemnly wrote to the Sovereigns concerning this very place that"there is not in the world a country whose inhabitants are more timid;and the whole place is capable of being easily put into a state ofdefence. Your people that may come here, if they should wish to becomemasters of the products of other lands, will have to take them by forceor retire empty-handed. In this country they will simply have to trusttheir persons in the hands of the savages. " The facts being that theinhabitants were extremely fierce and warlike and irreconcilably hostile;that the river was a trap out of which in the dry season there was noescape, and the harbour outside a mere shelterless lee shore; that itwould require an army and an armada to hold the place against thenatives, and that any one who trusted himself in their hands wouldshare the fate of the unhappy Diego Tristan. One may choose betweenbelieving that the Admiral's memory had entirely failed him (although hehad not been backward in making a minute record, of all his sufferings)or that he was craftily attempting to deceive the Sovereigns. My ownbelief is that he was neither trying to deceive anybody nor that he hadforgotten anything, but that he was simply incapable of uttering the baretruth when he had a pen in his hand. 

From their position on the coast of Veragua Espanola bore almost duenorth; but Columbus was too good a seaman to attempt to make the islandby sailing straight for it. He knew that the steady west-going currentwould set him far down on his course, and he therefore decided to work upthe coast a long way to the eastward before standing across for Espanola. The crew grumbled very much at this proceeding, which they did notunderstand; in fact they argued from it that the Admiral was makingstraight for Spain, and this, in the crazy condition of the vessels, naturally alarmed them. But in his old high-handed, secret way theAdmiral told them nothing; he even took away from the other captains allthe charts that they had made of this coast, so that no one but himselfwould be able to find the way back to it; and he took a kind of pleasurein the complete mystification thus produced on his fellow-voyagers. "None of them could explain whither I went nor whence I came; they didnot know the way to return thither, " he writes, somewhat childishly. 

But he was not back in Espanola yet, and his means for getting there werecrumbling away beneath his feet. One of the three remaining caravels wasentirely riddled by seaworms and had to be abandoned at the harbourcalled Puerto Bello; and the company was crowded on to two ships. Themen now became more than ever discontented at the easterly course, and onMay 1st, when he had come as far east as the Gulf of Darien, Columbusfelt obliged to bear away to the north, although as it turned out he hadnot nearly made enough easting. He stood on this course, for nine days, the west-going current setting him down all the time; and the first landthat he made, on May 10th, was the group of islands off the western endof Cuba which he had called the Queen's Gardens. 

He anchored for six days here, as the crews were completely exhausted;the ships' stores were reduced to biscuits, oil, and vinegar; the vesselsleaked like sieves, and the pumps had to be kept going continually. Andno sooner had they anchored than a hurricane came on, and brought up asea so heavy that the Admiral was convinced that his ships could not livewithin it. We have got so accustomed to reading of storms and tempeststhat it seems useless to try and drive home the horror and terror ofthem; but here were these two rotten ships alone at the end of the world, far beyond the help of man, the great seas roaring up under them in theblack night, parting their worn cables, snatching away their anchors fromthem, and finally driving them one upon the other to grind and strain andprey upon each other, as though the external conspiracy of the elementsagainst them both were not sufficient! One writes or reads the words, but what does it mean to us? and can we by any conceivable effort ofimagination realise what it meant to this group of human beings who livedthrough that night so many hundred years ago--men like ourselves withhearts to sink and faint, capable of fear and hunger, capable of misery, pain, and endurance? Bruised and battered, wet by the terrifying surges, and entirely uncomforted by food or drink, they did somehow endure thesemiseries; and were to endure worse too before they were done with it. 

Their six days' sojourn amid the Queen's Gardens, then, was not a greatsuccess; and as soon as they were able they set sail again, standingeastward when the wind permitted them. But wind and current were againstthem and all through the month of May and the early part of June theystruggled along the south coast of Cuba, their ships as full of holes asa honeycomb, pumps going incessantly, and in addition the worn-out seamendoing heroic labour at baling with buckets and kettles. Lee helm! Downgo the buckets and kettles and out run the wretched scarecrows of seamento the weary business of tacking ship, letting go, brailing up, haulingin, and making fast for the thousandth time; and then back to the pumpsand kettles again. No human being could endure this for an indefinitetime; and though their diet of worms represented by the rotten biscuitwas varied with cassava bread supplied by friendly natives, the Admiralcould not make his way eastward further than Cape Cruz. Round that capehis leaking, strained vessels could not be made to look against the windand the tide. Could hardly indeed be made to float or swim upon thewater at all; and the Admiral had now to consider, not whether he couldsail on a particular point of the compass, but whether he could by anymeans avoid another course which the fates now proposed to him--namely, aperpendicular course to the bottom of the sea. It was a race between thewater and the ships, and the only thing the Admiral could think of was toturn southward across to Jamaica, which he did on June 23rd, putting intoPuerto Bueno, now called Dry Harbour. But there was no food there, andas his ships were settling deeper and deeper in the water he had to makesail again and drive eastwards as far as Puerto Santa Gloria, now calledDon Christopher's Cove. He was just in time. The ships were run ashoreside by side on a sandy beach, the pumps were abandoned, and in one tidethe ships were full of water. The remaining anchor cables were used tolash the two ships together so that they would not move; although therewas little fear of that, seeing the weight of water that was in them. Everything that could be saved was brought up on deck, and a kind ofcabin or platform which could be fortified was rigged on the highest partof the ships. And so no doubt for some days, although their food wasalmost finished, the wretched and exhausted voyagers could stretch theircramped limbs, and rest in the warm sun, and listen, from their safehaven on the firm sands, to the hated voice of the sea. 

Thanks to careful regulations made by the Admiral, governing theintercourse between the Spaniards and the natives ashore, friendlyrelations were soon established, and the crews were supplied with cassavabread and fruit in abundance. Two officials superintended every purchaseof provisions to avoid the possibility of any dispute, for in the eventof even a momentary hostility the thatched-roof structures on the shipscould easily have been set on fire, and the position of the Spaniards, without shelter amid a hostile population, would have been a desperateone. This disaster, however, was avoided; but the Admiral soon began tobe anxious about the supply of provisions from the immediateneighbourhood, which after the first few days began to be irregular. There were a large number of Spaniards to be fed, the natives never keptany great store of provisions for themselves, and the Spaniards wereentirely at their mercy for, provisions from day to day. Diego Mendez, always ready for active and practical service, now offered to take threemen and make a journey through the island to arrange for the purchase ofprovisions from different villages, so that the men on the ships wouldnot be dependent upon any one source. This offer was gratefullyaccepted; and Mendez, with his lieutenants well supplied with toys andtrinkets, started eastward along the north coast of Jamaica. He made nomistakes; he was quick and clever at ingratiating himself with thecaciques, and he succeeded in arranging with three separate potentates tosend regular supplies of provisions to the men on the ships. At eachplace where he made this arrangement he detached one of his assistantsand sent him back with the first load of provisions, so that the regularline of carriage might be the more quickly established; and when they hadall gone he borrowed a couple of natives and pushed on by himself untilhe reached the eastern end of the island. He made friends here with apowerful cacique named Amerro, from whom he bought a large canoe, andpaid for it with some of the clothing off his back. With the canoe werefurnished six Indians to row it, and Mendez made a triumphant journeyback by sea, touching at the places where his depots had been establishedand seeing that his commissariat arrangements were working properly. Hewas warmly received on his return to the ships, and the result of hisefforts was soon visible in the daily supplies of food that now regularlyarrived. 

Thus was one difficulty overcome; but it was not likely that eitherColumbus himself or any of his people would be content to remain for everon the beach of Jamaica. It was necessary to establish communicationwith Espanola, and thence with Spain; but how to do it in the absence ofships or even boats? Columbus, pondering much upon this matter, one daycalls Diego Mendez aside; walks him off, most likely, under the greatrustling trees beyond the beach, and there tells him his difficulty. "My son, " says he, "you and I understand the difficulties and dangers ofour position here better than any one else. We are few; the Indians aremany; we know how fickle and easily irritated they are, and how afire-brand thrown into our thatched cabins would set the whole thingablaze. It is quite true that you have very cleverly established aprovision supply, but it is dependent entirely upon the good nature ofthe natives and it might cease to-morrow. Here is my plan: you have agood canoe; why should some one not go over to Espanola in it and sendback a ship for us?"

Diego Mendez, knowing very well what is meant, looks down upon theground. His spoken opinion is that such a journey is not merelydifficult but impossible journey in a frail native canoe across onehundred and fifty miles of open and rough sea; although his privateopinion is other than that. No, he cannot imagine such a thing beingdone; cannot think who would be able to do it. 

Long silence from the Admiral; eloquent silence, accompanied by looks noless eloquent. 

"Admiral, " says Mendez again, "you know very well that I have risked mylife for you and the people before and would do it again. But there areothers who have at least as good a right to this great honour and perilas I have; let me beg of you, therefore, to summon all the companytogether, make this proposal to them, and see if any one will undertakeit. If not, I will once more risk my life. "

The proposal being duly made to the assembled crews, every one, ascunning Mendez had thought, declares it impossible; every one hangs back. Upon which Diego Mendez with a fine gesture comes forward and volunteers;makes his little dramatic effect and has his little ovation. ThoroughlySpanish this, significant of that mixture of vanity and bravery, ofswagger and fearlessness, which is characteristic of the best in Spain. It was a desperately brave thing to venture upon, this voyage fromJamaica to Espanola in a native canoe and across a sea visited bydreadful hurricanes; and the volunteer was entitled to his little pieceof heroic drama. 

While Mendez was making his preparations, putting a false keel on thecanoe and fixing weather boards along its gunwales to prevent itsshipping seas, fitting a mast and sail and giving it a coat of tar, theAdmiral retired into his cabin and busied himself with his pen. He wroteone letter to Ovando briefly describing his circumstances and requestingthat a ship should be sent for his relief; and another to the Sovereigns, in which a long rambling account was given of the events of the voyage, and much other matter besides, dismally eloquent of his floundering inthe quag. Much in it--about Solomon and Josephus, of the Abbot Joachim, of Saint Jerome and the Great Khan; more about the Holy Sepulchre and theintentions of the Almighty in that matter; with some serious practicalconcern for the rich land of Veragua which he had discovered, lest itshould share the fate of his other discoveries and be eaten up by idleadventurers. "Veragua, " he says, "is not a little son which may be givento a stepmother to nurse. Of Espanola and Paria and all the other landsI never think without the tears falling from my eyes; I believe that theexample of these ought to serve for the others. " And then this passage:

 "The good and sound purpose which I always had to serve your Majesties, and the dishonour and unmerited ingratitude, will not suffer the soul to be silent although I wished it, therefore I ask pardon of your Majesties. I have been so lost and undone; until now I have wept for others that your Majesties might have compassion on them; and now may the heavens weep for me and the earth weep for me in temporal affairs; I have not a farthing to make as an offering in spiritual affairs. I have remained here on the Indian islands in the manner I have before said in great pain and infirmity, expecting every day death, surrounded by innumerable savages full of cruelty and by our enemies, and so far from the sacraments of the Holy Mother Church that I believe the soul will be forgotten when it leaves the body. Let them weep for me who have charity, truth and justice. I did not undertake this voyage of navigation to gain honour or material things, that is certain, because the hope already was entirely lost; but I did come to serve your Majesties with honest intention and with good charitable zeal, and I do not lie. "

Poor old heart, older than its years, thus wailing out its sorrows toears none too sympathetic; sad old voice, uplifted from the bright shoresof that lonely island in the midst of strange seas! It will not comeclear to the head alone; the echoes of this cry must reverberate in theheart if they are to reach and animate the understanding. 

At this time also the Admiral wrote to his friend Gaspar Gorricio. Forthe benefit of those who may be interested I give the letter in English. 

 REVEREND AND VERY DEVOUT FATHER:

 "If my voyage should be as conducive to my personal health and the repose of my house as it seems likely to be conducive to the aggrandisement of the royal Crown of the King and Queen, my Lords, I might hope to live more than a hundred years. I have not time to write more at length. I hope that the bearer of this letter may be a person of my house who will tell you verbally more than can be told in a thousand papers, and also Don Diego will supply information. I beg as a favour of the Father Prior and all the members of your religious house, that they remember me in all their prayers. 

 "Done on the island of Jamaica, July 7, 1503. "I am at the command of your Reverence. 

 . S. . S. A. S. XMY Xpo FERENS. "

Diego Mendez found some one among the Spaniards to accompany him, but hisname is not recorded. The six Indians were taken to row the canoe. Theyhad to make their way at first against the strong currents along thenorthern coast of Jamaica, so as to reach its eastern extremity beforestriking across to Espanola. At one point they met a flotilla of Indiancanoes, which chased them and captured them, but they escaped. When theyarrived at the end of the easterly point of Jamaica, now known as MorantPoint, they had to wait two or three days for calm weather and afavourable wind to waft them across to Espanola, and while thus waitingthey were suddenly surrounded and captured by a tribe of hostile natives, who carried them off some nine or ten miles into the island, andsignified their intention of killing them. 

But they began to quarrel among themselves as to how they should dividethe spoils which they had captured with the canoe, and decided that theonly way of settling the dispute was by some elaborate trial of hazardwhich they used. While they were busy with their trial Diego Mendezmanaged to escape, got back to the canoe, and worked his way back in italone to the harbour where the Spaniards were encamped. The otherSpaniard who was with him probably perished, for there is no record ofwhat became of him--an obscure life lost in a brave enterprise. 

One would have thought that Mendez now had enough of canoe voyages, buthe had no sooner got back than he offered to set out again, onlystipulating that an armed force should march along the coast by land tosecure his safety until he could stand across to Espanola. BartholomewColumbus immediately put himself at the head of a large and well-armedparty for this purpose, and Bartolomeo Fieschi, the Genoese captain ofone of the lost caravels, volunteered to accompany Mendez in a secondcanoe. Each canoe was now manned by six Spanish volunteers and tenIndians to row; Fieschi, as soon as they had reached the coast ofEspanola, was to bring the good news to the Admiral; while Mendez must goon to San Domingo, procure a ship, and himself proceed to Spain with theAdmiral's letters. The canoes were provisioned with water, cassavabread, and fish; and they departed on this enterprise some time in August1503. 

Their passage along the coast was protected by Bartholomew Columbus, whomarched along with them on the shore. They waited a few days at the endof the island for favourable weather, and finally said farewell to thegood Adelantado, who we may be sure stood watching them until they werewell out of sight. 

There was not a cloud in the sky when the canoes stood out to sea; thewater was calm, and reflected the blistering heat of the sun. It was nota pleasant situation for people in an open boat; and Mendez and Fieschiwere kept busy, as Irving says, "animating the Indians who navigatedtheir canoes, and who frequently paused at their labour. " The poorIndians, evidently much in need of such animation, would often jump intothe water to escape the intolerable heat, and after a short immersionthere would return to their task. Things were better when the sun wentdown, and the cool night came on; half the Indians then slept and halfrowed, while half of the Spaniards also slept and the other half, Isuppose, "animated. " Irving also says that the animating half "keptguard with their weapons in hand, ready to defend themselves in the caseof any perfidy on the part of their savage companions"; such perfidybeing far enough from the thoughts of the savage companions, we mayimagine, whose energies were entirely occupied with the oars. 

The next day was the same: savage companions rowing, Spaniards animating;Spaniards and savage companions alike drinking water copiously withoutregard for the smallness of their store. The second night was very hot, and the savage companions finished the water, with the result that on thethird day the thirst became a torment, and at mid-day the poor companionsstruck work. Artful Mendez, however, had concealed two small kegs ofwater in his canoe, the contents of which he now administered in smalldoses, so that the poor Indians were enabled to take to their oars again, though with vigour much abated. Presumably the Spaniards had put uptheir weapons by this time, for the only perfidy shown on the part of thesavage companions was that one of them died in the following night andhad to be thrown overboard, while others lay panting on the bottom of thecanoes; and the Spaniards had to take their turn at the oars, althoughthey were if anything in a worse case than the Indians. 

Late in the night, however, the moon rose, and Mendez had the joy ofseeing its lower disc cut by a jagged line which proved to be the littleislet or rock of Navassa, which lies off the westerly end of Espanola. New hope now animated the sufferers, and they pushed on until they wereable to land on this rock, which proved to be without any vegetationwhatsoever, but on the surface of which there were found some preciouspools of rain-water. Mendez was able to restrain the frantic appetitesof his fellow-countrymen, but the savage companions were less wise, anddrank their fill; so that some of them died in torment on the spot, andothers became seriously ill. The Spaniards were able to make a fire ofdriftwood, and boil some shell-fish, which they found on shore, and theywisely spent the heat of the day crouching in the shade of the rocks, andput off their departure until the evening. It was then a comparativelyeasy journey for them to cross the dozen miles that separated them fromEspanola, and they landed the next day in a pleasant harbour near CapeTiburon. Fieschi, true to his promise, was then ready to start back forJamaica with news of the safe accomplishment of the voyage; but theremnant of the crews, Spaniards and savage companions alike, had hadenough of it, and no threats or persuasions would induce them to embarkagain. Mendez, therefore, left his friends to enjoy some little reposebefore continuing their journey to San Domingo, and, taking six nativesof Espanola to row his canoe; set off along the coast towards thecapital. He had not gone half-way when he learned that Ovando was notthere, but was in Xaragua, so he left his canoe and struck northwardthrough the forest until he arrived at the Governor's camp. 

Ovando welcomed Mendez cordially, praised him for his plucky voyage, andexpressed the greatest concern at the plight of the Admiral; but he wasvery busy at the moment, and was on the point of transacting a piece ofbusiness that furnished a dismal proof of the deterioration which hadtaken place in him. Anacaona--the lady with the daughter whom weremember--was now ruling over the province of Xaragua, her brother havingdied; and as perhaps her native subjects had been giving a little troubleto the Governor, he had come to exert his authority. The narrow officialmind, brought into contact with native life, never develops in thedirection of humanity; and Ovando had now for some time made the greatdiscovery that it was less trouble to kill people than to try to ruleover them wisely. There had evidently always been a streak of Spanishcruelty in him, which had been much developed by his residence inEspanola; and to cruelty and narrow officialdom he now added treachery ofa very monstrous and horrible kind. 

He announced his intention of paying a state visit to Anacaona, whothereupon summoned all her tributary chiefs to a kind of levee held inhis honour. In the midst of the levee, at a given signal, Ovando'ssoldiers rushed in, seized the caciques, fastened them to the woodenpillars of the house, and set the whole thing on fire; the caciques beingthus miserably roasted alive. While this was going on the atrocious workwas completed by the soldiers massacring every native they could see--children, women, and old men included--and Anacaona herself was takenand hanged. 

All these things Diego Mendez had to witness; and when they were over, Ovando still had excuses for not hurrying to the relief of the Admiral. He had embarked on a campaign of extermination against the natives, andhe followed up his atrocities at Xaragua by an expedition to the easternend of Espanola, where very much the same kind of business wastransacted. Weeks and months passed in this bloody cruelty, and therewas always an excuse for putting off Mendez. Now it was because of theoperations which he dignified by the name of wars, and now because he hadno ship suitable for sending to Jamaica; but the truth was that Ovando, the springs of whose humanity had been entirely dried up during hisdisastrous reign in Espanola, did not want Columbus to see with his owneyes the terrible state of the island, and was callous enough to leavehim either to perish or to find his own way back to the world. It wasonly when news came that a fleet of caravels was expected from Spain thatOvando could no longer prevent Mendez from going to San Domingo and, purchasing one of them. 

Ovando had indeed lost all but the outer semblance of a man; the soul oranimating part of him had entirely gone to corruption. He had nointerest in rescuing the Admiral; he had, on the contrary, great interestin leaving him unrescued; but curiosity as to his fate, and fear as tohis actions in case he should return to Espanola, induced the Governor tomake some effort towards spying cut his condition. He had a number oftrained rascals under his command--among them Diego de Escobar, one ofRoldan's bright brigade; and Ovando had no sooner seen Mendez depart onhis journey to San Domingo than he sent this Escobar to embark in a smallcaravel on a visit to Jamaica in order to see if the Admiral was stillalive. The caravel had to be small, so that there could be no chance ofbringing off the 130 men who had been left to perish there; and variousastute instructions were given to Escobar in order to prevent his arrivalbeing of any comfort or assistance to the shipwrecked ones. And soEscobar sailed; and so, in the month of March 1504, eight months afterthe vanishing of Mendez below the eastern horizon, the miserable companyencamped on the two decaying ships on the sands at Puerto Santa Gloriadescried with joyful excitement the sails of a Spanish caravel standingin to the shore. 

CHAPTER V

THE ECLIPSE OF THE MOON

We must now return to the little settlement on the coast of Jamaica--those two wornout caravels, lashed together with ropes and bridged by anerection of wood and thatch, in which the forlorn little company wasestablished. In all communities of men so situated there are alternateperiods of action and reaction, and after the excitement incidental tothe departure of Mendez, and the return of Bartholomew with the news thathe had got safely away, there followed a time of reaction, in which theSpaniards looked dismally out across the empty sea and wondered when, ifever, their salvation would come. Columbus himself was now a confirmedinvalid, and could hardly ever leave his bed under the thatch; and in hisown condition of pain and depression his influence on the rest of thecrew must inevitably have been less inspiriting than it had formerlybeen. The men themselves, moreover, began to grow sickly, chiefly onaccount of the soft vegetable food, to which they were not accustomed, and partly because of their cramped quarters and the moist, unhealthyclimate, which was the very opposite of what they needed after their longperiod of suffering and hardship at sea. 

As the days and weeks passed, with no occupation save the daily businessof collecting food that gradually became more and more nauseous to them, and of straining their eyes across the empty blue of the sea in ananxious search for the returning canoes of Fieschi, the spirits of thecastaways sank lower and lower. Inevitably their discontent becamearticulate and broke out into murmurings. The usual remedy for thisstate of affairs is to keep the men employed at some hard work; but therewas no work for them to do, and the spirit of dissatisfaction had ampleopportunity to spread. As usual it soon took the form of hostility tothe Admiral. They seem to have borne him no love or gratitude for hismasterly guiding of them through so many dangers; and now when he lay illand in suffering his treacherous followers must needs fasten upon him theresponsibility for their condition. After a month or two had passed, andit became certain that Fieschi was not coming back, the castaways couldonly suppose that he and Mendez had either been captured by natives orhad perished at sea, and that their fellow-countrymen must still bewithout news of the Admiral's predicament. They began to say also thatthe Admiral was banished from Spain; that there was no desire orintention on the part of the Sovereigns to send an expedition to hisrelief; even if they had known of his condition; and that in any casethey must long ago have given him up for lost. 

When the pot boils the scum rises to the surface, and the first result ofthese disloyal murmurings and agitations was to bring into prominence thetwo brothers, Francisco and Diego de Porras, who, it will be remembered, owed their presence with the expedition entirely to the Admiral's goodnature in complying with the request of their brother-in-law Morales, whohad apparently wished to find some distant occupation for them. They hadbeen given honourable posts as officers, in which they had not provedcompetent; but the Admiral had always treated them with kindness andcourtesy, regarding them more as guests than as servants. Who or whatthese Porras brothers were, where they came from, who were their fatherand mother, or what was their training, I do not know; it is enough forus to know that the result of it all had been the production of a coupleof very mean scoundrels, who now found an opportunity to exercise theirscoundrelism. 

When they discovered the nature of the murmuring and discontent among thecrew they immediately set them to work it up into open mutiny. Theyrepresented that, as Mendez had undoubtedly perished, there was no hopeof relief from Espanola; that the Admiral did not even expect suchrelief, knowing that the island was forbidden ground to him. Theyinsinuated that he was as well content to remain in Jamaica as anywhereelse, since he had to undergo a period of banishment until his friends atCourt could procure his forgiveness. They were all, said the Porrasbrothers, being made tools for the Admiral's convenience; as he did notwish to leave Jamaica himself, he was keeping them all there, to perishas likely as not, and in the meantime to form a bodyguard, and establisha service for himself. The Porras brothers suggested that, under thesecircumstances, it would be as well to take a fleet of native canoes fromthe Indians and make their own way to Espanola; the Admiral would neverundertake the voyage himself, being too helpless from the gout; but itwould be absurd if the whole company were to be allowed to perish becauseof the infirmities of one man. They reminded the murmurers that theywould not be the first people who had rebelled with success against thedespotic rule of Columbus, and that the conduct of the Sovereigns on aformer occasion afforded them some promise that those who rebelled againwould receive something quite different from punishment. 

Christmas passed, the old year went out in this strange, unhomelikeplace, and the new year came in. The Admiral, as we have seen, was nowalmost entirely crippled and confined to his bed; and he was lying alonein his cabin on the second day of the year when Francisco de Porrasabruptly entered. Something very odd and flurried about Porras; he jerksand stammers, and suddenly breaks out into a flood of agitated speech, inwhich the Admiral distinguishes a stream of bitter reproach andimpertinence. The thing forms itself into nothing more or less than ahurried, gabbling complaint; the people are dissatisfied at being kepthere week after week with no hope of relief; they accuse the Admiral ofneglecting their interests; and so on. Columbus, raising himself in hisbed, tries to pacify Porras; gives him reasons why it is impossible forthem to depart in canoes; makes every endeavour, in short, to bring thismiserable fellow back to his duties. He is watching Porras's eye all thetime; sees that he is too excited to be pacified by reason, and suspectsthat he has considerable support behind him; and suggests that the crewhad better all be assembled and a consultation held as to the best courseto pursue. 

It is no good to reason with mutineers; and the Admiral has no soonermade this suggestion than he sees that it was a mistake. Porras scoffsat it; action, not consultation, is what he demands; in short he presentsan ultimatum to the Admiral--either to embark with the whole company atonce, or stay behind in Jamaica at his own pleasure. And then, turninghis back on Columbus and raising his voice, he calls out, "I am forCastile; those who choose may follow me!"

The shout was a signal, and immediately from every part of the vesselresounded the voices of the Spaniards, crying out that they would followPorras. In the midst of the confusion Columbus hobbled out of his bedand staggered on to the deck; Bartholomew seized his weapons and preparedfor action; but the whole of the crew was not mutinous, and there was alarge enough loyal remnant to make it unwise for the chicken-heartedmutineers to do more for the moment than shout: Some of them, it is true, were heard threatening the life of the Admiral, but he was hurried backto his bed by a few of the faithful ones, and others of them rushed up tothe fierce Bartholomew, and with great difficulty persuaded him to drophis lance and retire to Christopher's cabin with him while they dealtwith the offenders. They begged Columbus to let the scoundrels go ifthey wished to, as the condition of those who remained would be improvedrather than hurt by their absence, and they would be a good riddance. They then went back to the deck and told Porras and his followers thatthe sooner they went the better, and that nobody would interfere withtheir going as long as they offered no one any violence. 

The Admiral had some time before purchased some good canoes from thenatives, and the mutineers seized ten of these and loaded them withnative provisions. Every effort was made to add to the number of thedisloyal ones; and when they saw their friends making ready to departseveral of these did actually join. There were forty-eight who finallyembarked with the brothers Porras; and there would have been more, butthat so many of them were sick and unable to face the exposure of thevoyage. As it was, those who remained witnessed with no very cheerfulemotions the departure of their companions, and even in some cases fellto tears and lamentations. The poor old Admiral struggled out of his bedagain, went round among the sick and the loyal, cheering them andcomforting them, and promising to use every effort of the power left tohim to secure an adequate reward for their loyalty when he should returnto Spain. 

We need only follow the career of Porras and his deserters for thepresent far enough to see them safely off the premises and out of the wayof the Admiral and our narrative. They coasted along the shore ofJamaica to the eastward as Mendez had done, landing whenever they had amind to, and robbing and outraging the natives; and they took aparticularly mean and dirty revenge on the Admiral by committing alltheir robbings and outragings as though under his authority, assuring theoffended Indians that what they did they did by his command and that whatthey took he would pay for; so that as they went along they sowed seedsof grievance and hostility against the Admiral. They told the natives, moreover, that Columbus was an enemy of all Indians, and that they wouldbe very well advised to kill him and get him out of the way. 

They had not managed very well with the navigation of the canoes; andwhile they were waiting for fine weather at the eastern end of the islandthey collected a number of natives to act as oarsmen. When they thoughtthe weather suitable they put to sea in the direction of Espanola. Theywere only about fifteen miles from the shore, however, when the windbegan to head them and to send up something of a sea; not rough, butenough to make the crank and overloaded canoes roll heavily, for they hadnot been prepared, as those of Mendez were, with false keels andweather-boards. The Spaniards got frightened and turned back toJamaica; but the sea became rougher, the canoes rolled more and more, they often shipped a quantity of water, and the situation began to lookserious. All their belongings except arms and provisions were thrownoverboard; but still, as the wind rose and the sea with it, it becameobvious that unless the canoes were further lightened they would notreach the shore in safety. Under these circumstances the Spaniardsforced the natives to leap into the water, where they swam about likerats as well as they could, and then came back to the canoes in order tohold on and rest themselves. When they did this the Spaniards slashed atthem with their swords or cut off their hands, so that one by one theyfell back and, still swimming about feebly as well as they could withtheir bleeding hands or stumps of arms, the miserable wretches perishedand sank at last. 

By this dreadful expedient the Spaniards managed to reach Jamaica again, and when they landed they immediately fell to quarrelling as to what theyshould do next. Some were for trying to make the island of Cuba, thewind being favourable for that direction; others were for returning andmaking their submission to the Admiral; others for going back and seizingthe remainder of his arms and stores; others for staying where they werefor the present, and making another attempt to reach Espanola when theweather should be more favourable. This last plan, being the counsel ofpresent inaction, was adopted by the majority of the rabble; so theysettled themselves at a neighbouring Indian village, behaving in: themanner with which we are familiar. A little later, when the weather wascalm, they made another attempt at the voyage, but were driven back inthe same way; and being by this time sick of canoe voyages, theyabandoned the attempt, and began to wander back westward through theisland, maltreating the natives as before, and sowing seeds of bitterrancour and hostility against the Admiral; in whose neighbourhood weshall unfortunately hear of them again. 

In the meantime their departure had somewhat relieved the condition ofaffairs on board the hulks. There were more provisions and there wasmore peace; the Admiral, rising above his own infirmities to thenecessities of the occasion, moved unweariedly among the sick, cheeringthem and nursing them back into health and good humour, so that graduallythe condition of the little colony was brought into better order andhealth than it had enjoyed since its establishment. 

But now unfortunately the evil harvest sown by the Porras gang in theirjourney to the east of the island began to ripen. The supplies ofprovisions, which had hitherto been regularly brought by the natives, began to appear with less punctuality, and to fall off both in quantityand quality. The trinkets with which they were purchased had now beendistributed in such quantities that they began to lose their novelty andvalue; sometimes the natives demanded a much higher price for theprovisions they brought, and (having by this time acquired the art ofbargaining) would take their stores away again if they did not get theprice they asked. 

But even of this device they soon grew weary; from being irregular, thesupplies of provisions from some quarters ceased altogether, and thepossibilities of famine began to stare the unhappy castaways in the face. It must be remembered that they were in a very weak physical condition, and that among the so-called loyal remnant there were very few who werenot invalids; and they were unable to get out into the island and foragefor themselves. If the able-bodied handful were to sally forth in searchof provisions, the hulks would be left defenceless and at the mercy ofthe natives, of whose growing hostility the Admiral had by this timediscovered abundant evidence. Thus little by little the food supplydiminished until there was practically nothing left, and the miserablecompany of invalids were confronted with the alternative of either dyingof starvation or desperately attempting a canoe voyage. 

It was from this critical situation that the spirit and resource ofColumbus once more furnished a way of escape, and in these circumstancesthat he invented and worked a device that has since become famous--thegreat Eclipse Trick. Among his small library in the cabin of the shipwas the book containing the astronomical tables of Regiomontanus; andfrom his study of this work he was aware that an eclipse of the moon wasdue on a certain date near at hand. He sent his Indian interpreter tovisit the neighbouring caciques, summoning them to a great conference tobe held on the evening of the eclipse, as the Admiral had matters ofgreat importance to reveal to them. They duly arrived on the eveningappointed; not the caciques alone, but large numbers of the nativepopulation, well prepared for whatever might take place. Columbus thenaddressed them through his interpreter, informing him that he was underthe protection of a God who dwelt in the skies and who rewarded all whoassisted him and punished all his enemies. He made an effective use ofthe adventures of Mendez and Porras, pointing out that Mendez, who tookhis voyage by the Admiral's orders, had got away in safety, but thatPorras and his followers, who had departed in disobedience and mutiny, had been prevented by the heavenly power from achieving their object. Hetold them that his God was angry with them for their hostility and fortheir neglect to supply him with provisions; and that in token of hisanger he was going to send them a dreadful punishment, as a sign of whichthey would presently see the moon change colour and lose its light, andthe earth become dark. 

This address was spun out as long as possible; but even so it wasfollowed by an interval in which, we may be sure, Columbus anxiously eyedthe serene orb of night, and doubtless prayed that Regiomontanus mightnot have made a mistake in his calculations. Some of the Indians werealarmed, some of them contemptuous; but it was pretty clearly realised onboth sides that matters between them had come to a head; and probably ifRegiomontanus, who had worked out these tables of figures andcalculations so many years ago in his German home, had done his workcarelessly or made a mistake, Columbus and his followers would have beenmassacred on the spot. But Regiomontanus, God bless him! had made nomistake. Sure enough, and punctually to the appointed time, the darkshadow began to steal over the moon's disc; its light gradually faded, and a ghostly darkness crept over the face of the world. Columbus, having seen that all was right with the celestial machinery, had retiredto his cabin; and presently he found himself besieged there in the darknight by crowds of natives frantically bringing what provisions they hadand protesting their intention of continuing to bring them for the restof their lives. If only the Admiral would ask his God to forgive them, there was no limit to the amount of provisions that he might have! TheAdmiral, piously thankful, and perhaps beginning to enjoy the situation alittle, kept himself shut up in his cabin as though communing with theimplacable deity, while the darkness deepened over the land and the shoreresounded with the howling and sobbing of the terrified natives. He kepta look-out on the sky; and when he saw that the eclipse was about to passaway, he came out and informed the natives that God had decided to pardonthem on condition of their remaining faithful in the matter ofprovisions, and that as a sign of His mercy He would restore the light. The beautiful miracle went on through its changing phases; and, watchingin the darkness, the terrified natives saw the silver edge of the moonappearing again, the curtain that had obscured it gradually rolling away, and land and sea lying visible to them and once more steeped in theserene light which they worshipped. It is likely that Christopher sleptmore soundly that night than he had slept for many nights before. 

CHAPTER VI

RELIEF OF THE ADMIRAL

There was no further difficulty about provisions, which were punctuallybrought by the natives on the old terms; but the familiar, spirit ofsedition began to work again among the unhappy Spaniards, and once more amutiny, led this time by the apothecary Bernardo, took form--theintention being to seize the remaining canoes and attempt to reachEspanola. This was the point at which matters had arrived, in March1504, when as the twilight was falling one evening a cry was raised thatthere was a ship in sight; and presently a small caravel was seenstanding in towards the shore. All ideas of mutiny were forgotten, andthe crew assembled in joyful anticipation to await, as they thought, thecoming of their deliverers. The caravel came on with the evening breeze;but while it was yet a long way off the shore it was seen to be lying to;a boat was lowered and rowed towards the harbour. 

As the boat drew near Columbus could recognise in it Diego de Escobar, whom he remembered having condemned to death for his share in therebellion of Roldan. He was not the man whom Columbus would have mostwished to see at that moment. The boat came alongside the hulks, and abarrel of wine and a side of bacon, the sea-compliment customary on suchoccasions, was handed up. Greatly to the Admiral's surprise, however, Escobar did not come on board, but pushed his boat off and began to speakto Columbus from a little distance. He told him that Ovando was greatlydistressed at the Admiral's misfortunes; that he had been much occupiedby wars in Espanola, and had not been able to send a message to himbefore; that he greatly regretted he had no ship at present large enoughto bring off the Admiral and his people, but that he would send one assoon as he had it. In the meantime the Admiral was to be assured thatall his affairs in Espanola were being attended to faithfully, and thatEscobar was instructed to bring back at once any letters which theAdmiral might wish to write. 

The coolness and unexpectedness of this message completely took awaythe breath of the unhappy Spaniards, who doubtless stood looking inbewilderment from Escobar to Columbus, unable to believe that the caravelhad not been sent for their relief. Columbus, however, with aself-restraint which cannot be too highly praised, realised that Escobarmeant what he said, and that by protesting against his action or tryingto interfere with it he would only be putting himself in the wrong. Hetherefore retired immediately to his cabin and wrote a letter to Ovando, in which he drew a vivid picture of the distress of his people, reportedthe rebellion of the Porras brothers, and reminded Ovando that he reliedupon the fulfilment of his promise to send relief. The letter washanded over to Escobar, who rowed back with it to his caravel andimmediately sailed away with it into the night. 

Before he could retire to commune with his own thoughts or to talk withhis faithful brother, Columbus had the painful duty of speaking to hispeople, whose puzzled and disappointed faces must have cost him someextra pangs. He told them that he was quite satisfied with the messagefrom Ovando, that it was a sign of kindness on his part thus to send themnews in advance that relief was coming, that their situation was nowknown in San Domingo, and that vessels would soon be here to take themaway. He added that he himself was so sure of these things that he hadrefused to go back with Escobar, but had preferred to remain with themand share their lot until relief should come. This had the desiredeffect of cheering the Spaniards; but it was far from representing thereal sentiments of Columbus on the subject. The fact that Escobar hadbeen chosen to convey this strange empty message of sympathy seemed tohim suspicious, and with his profound distrust of Ovando Columbus beganto wonder whether some further scheme might not be on foot to damage himin the eyes of the Sovereigns. He was convinced that Ovando had meant tolet him starve on the island, and that the real purpose of Escobar'svisit had been to find out what condition the Admiral was in, so thatOvando might know how to act. It is very hard to get at the truth ofwhat these two men thought of each other. They were both suspicious, each was playing for his own hand, and Ovando was only a little moreunscrupulous than Columbus; but there can be no doubt that whatever hismotives may have been Ovando acted with abominable treachery and crueltyin leaving the Admiral unrelieved for nearly nine months. 

Columbus now tried to make use of the visit of Escobar to restore toallegiance the band of rebels that were wandering about in theneighbourhood under the leadership of the Porras brothers. Why he shouldhave wished to bring them back to the ships is not clear, for by allaccounts he was very well rid of them; but probably his pride as acommander was hurt by the thought that half of his company had defied hisauthority and were in a state of mutiny. At any rate he sent out anambassador to Porras, offering to receive the mutineers back without anypunishment, and to give them a free passage to Espanola in the vesselswhich were shortly expected, if they would return to their allegiancewith him. 

The folly of this overture was made manifest by the treatment which itreceived. It was bad enough to make advances to the Porras brothers, butit was still worse to have those advances repulsed, and that is whathappened. The Porras brothers, being themselves incapable of anysingle-mindedness, affected not to believe in the sincerity of theAdmiral's offer; they feared that he was laying some kind of trap forthem; moreover, they were doing very well in their lawless way, andliving very comfortably on the natives; so they told Columbus'sambassadors that his offer was declined. At the same time theyundertook to conduct themselves in an amicable and orderly manner oncondition that, when the vessels arrived, one of them should beapportioned to the exclusive use of the mutineers; and that in themeantime the Admiral should share with them his store of provisionsand trinkets, as theirs were exhausted. 

This was the impertinent decision of the Porras brothers; but it did notquite commend itself to their followers, who were fearful of the possibleresults if they should persist in their mutinous conduct. They were verymuch afraid of being left behind in the island, and in any case, havingattempted and failed in the main object of their mutiny, they saw noreason why they should refuse a free pardon. But the Porras brotherslied busily. They said that the Admiral was merely laying a trap inorder to get them into his power, and that he would send them home toSpain in chains; and they even went so far as to assure theirfellow-rebels that the story of a caravel having arrived was not reallytrue; but that Columbus, who was an adept in the arts of necromancy, hadreally made his people believe that they had seen a caravel in the dusk;and that if one had really arrived it would not have gone away sosuddenly, nor would the Admiral and his brother and son have failed totake their passage in it. 

To consolidate the effect of these remarkable statements on the stillwavering mutineers, the Porras brothers decided to commit them to an openact of violence which would successfully alienate them from the Admiral. They formed them, therefore, into an armed expedition, with the idea ofseizing the stores remaining on the wreck and taking the Admiralpersonally. Columbus fortunately got news of this, as he nearly alwaysdid when there was treachery in the wind; and he sent Bartholomew to tryto persuade them once more to return to their duty--a vain and foolishmission, the vanity and folly of which were fully apparent toBartholomew. He duly set out upon it; but instead of mild words he tookwith him fifty armed men--the whole available able-bodied force, infact--and drew near to the position occupied by the rebels. 

The exhortation of the Porras brothers had meanwhile produced its effect, and it was decided that six of the strongest men among the mutineersshould make for Bartholomew himself and try to capture or kill him. Thefierce Adelantado, finding himself surrounded by six assailants, whoseemed to be directing their whole effort against his life, swung hissword in a berserk rage and slashed about him, to such good purpose thatfour or five of his assailants soon lay round him killed or wounded. Atthis point Francisco de Porras rushed in and cleft the shield held byBartholomew, severely wounding the hand that held it; but the sword. Stuck in the shield, and while Porras was endeavouring to draw it outBartholomew and some others closed upon him, and after a sharp struggletook him prisoner. The battle, which was a short one, had been meanwhileraging fiercely among the rest of the forces; but when the mutineers sawtheir leader taken prisoner, and many of their number lying dead orwounded, they scattered and fled, but not before Bartholomew's force hadtaken several prisoners. It was then found that, although the rebels hadsuffered heavily, none of Bartholomew's men were killed, and only oneother besides himself was wounded. The next day the mutineers all camein to surrender, submitting an abject oath of allegiance; and Columbus, always strangely magnanimous to rebels and insurgents, pardoned them allwith the exception of Francisco de Porras, who, one is glad to know, wasconfined in irons to be sent to Spain for trial. 

This submission, which was due to the prompt action of Bartholomew ratherthan to the somewhat feeble diplomacy of the Admiral, took place on March20th, and proved somewhat embarrassing to Columbus. He could put nofaith in the oaths and protestations of the mutineers; and he was verydoubtful about the wisdom of establishing them once more on the wreckswith the hitherto orderly remnant. He therefore divided them up intoseveral bands, and placing each under the command of an officer whom hecould trust, he supplied them with trinkets and despatched them todifferent parts of the island, for the purpose of collecting provisionsand carrying on barter with the natives. By this means the last month ortwo of this most trying and exciting sojourn on the island of Jamaicawere passed in some measure of peace; and towards the end of June it wasbrought to an end by the arrival of two caravels. One of them was theship purchased by Diego Mendez out of the three which had arrived fromSpain; and the other had been despatched by Ovando in deference, it issaid, to public feeling in San Domingo, which had been so influenced byMendez's account of the Admiral's heroic adventures that Ovando dared notneglect him any longer. Moreover, if it had ever been his hope that theAdmiral would perish on the island of Jamaica, that hope was now doomedto frustration, and, as he was to be rescued in spite of all, Ovando nodoubt thought that he might as well, for the sake of appearances, have ahand in the rescue. 

The two caravels, laden with what was worth saving from the two abandonedhulks, and carrying what was left of the Admiral's company, sailed fromJamaica on June 28, 1504. Columbus's joy, as we may imagine, was deepand heartfelt. He said afterwards to Mendez that it was the happiest dayof his life, for that he had never hoped to leave the place alive. 

The mission of Mendez, then, had been successful, although he had had towait for eight months to fulfil it. He himself, in accordance withColumbus's instructions, had gone to Spain in another caravel of thefleet out of which he had purchased the relieving ship; and as he passesout of our narrative we may now take our farewell of him. Among the manymen employed in the Admiral's service no figure stands out so brightly asthat of Diego Mendez; and his record, almost alone of those whose serviceof the Admiral earned them office and distinction, is unblotted by anystain of crime or treachery. He was as brave as a lion and as faithfulas a dog, and throughout his life remained true to his ideal of serviceto the Admiral and his descendants. He was rewarded by King Ferdinandfor his distinguished services, and allowed to bear a canoe on hiscoat-of-arms; he was with the Admiral at his death-bed at Valladolid, and when he himself came to die thirty years afterwards in the sameplace he made a will in which he incorporated a brief record of theevents of the adventurous voyage in which he had borne the principalpart, and also enshrined his devotion to the name and family ofColumbus. His demands for himself were very modest, although there isreason to fear that they were never properly fulfilled. He wascuriously anxious to be remembered chiefly by his plucky canoe voyage;and in giving directions for his tomb, and ordering that a stone shouldbe placed over his remains, he wrote: "In the centre of the said stonelet a canoe be carved, which is a piece of wood hollowed out in whichthe Indians navigate, because in such a boat I navigated three hundredleagues, and let some letters be placed above it saying: Canoa. " Theepitaph that he chose for himself was in the following sense:

 Here lies the Honourable Gentleman

 DIEGO MENDEZ

 He greatly served the royal crown of Spain in the discovery and conquest of the Indies with the Admiral Don Christopher Columbus of glorious memory who discovered them, and afterwards by himself, with his own ships, at his own expense. He died, etc. He begs from charity a PATERNOSTER and an AVE MARIA. 

Surely he deserves them, if ever an honourable gentleman did. 

CHAPTER VII

THE HERITAGE OF HATRED

Although the journey from Jamaica to Espanola had been accomplished infour days by Mendez in his canoe, the caravels conveying the partyrescued from Puerto Santa Gloria were seven weary weeks on this shortvoyage; a strong north-west wind combining with the west-going current tomake their progress to the north-west impossible for weeks at a time. Itwas not until the 13th of August 1503 that they anchored in the harbourof San Domingo, and Columbus once more set foot, after an absence of morethan two years, on the territory from the governorship of which he hadbeen deposed. 

He was well enough received by Ovando, who came down in state to meethim, lodged him in his own house, and saw that he was treated with thedistinction suitable to his high station. The Spanish colony, moreover, seemed to have made something of a hero of Columbus during his longabsence, and they received him with enthusiasm. But his satisfaction inbeing in San Domingo ended with that. He was constantly made to feelthat it was Ovando and not he who was the ruler there;--and Ovandoemphasised the difference between them by numerous acts of highhandedauthority, some of them of a kind calculated to be extremely mortifyingto the Admiral. Among these things he insisted upon releasing Porras, whom Columbus had confined in chains; and he talked of punishing thosefaithful followers of Columbus who had taken part in the battle betweenBartholomew and the rebels, because in this fight some of the followersof Porras had been killed. Acts like these produced weary bickerings andarguments between Ovando and Columbus, unprofitable to them, unprofitableto us. The Admiral seems now to have relapsed into a condition in whichhe cared only for two things, his honours and his emoluments. Over everyauthoritative act of Ovando's there was a weary squabble between him andthe Admiral, Ovando claiming his right of jurisdiction over the wholeterritory of the New World, including Jamaica, and Columbus insistingthat by his commission and letters of authority he had been placed insole charge of the members of his own expedition. 

And then, as regards his emoluments, the Admiral considered himself (andnot without justice) to have been treated most unfairly. By theextravagant terms of his original agreement he was, as we know, entitledto a share of all rents and dues, as well as of the gold collected; butit had been no one's business to collect these for him, and every one'sbusiness to neglect them. No one had cared; no one had kept any accountsof what was due to the Admiral; he could not find out what had been paidand what had not been paid. He accused Ovando of having impeded hisagent Carvajal in his duty of collecting the Admiral's revenues, and ofdisobeying the express orders of Queen Isabella in that matter; and soon-a state of affairs the most wearisome, sordid, and unprofitable inwhich any man could be involved. 

And if Columbus turned his eyes from the office in San Domingo inland tothat Paradise which he had entered twelve years before, what change andruin, dreary, horrible and complete, did he not discover! The birdsstill sang, and the nights were still like May in Cordova; but upon thathappy harmony the sound of piteous cries and shrieks had long sincebroken, and along and black December night of misery had spread its pallover the island. Wherever he went, Columbus found the same evidence ofruin and desolation. Where once innumerable handsome natives hadthronged the forests and the villages, there were now silence and smokingruin, and the few natives that he met were emaciated, terrified, dying. Did he reflect, I wonder, that some part of the responsibility of allthis horror rested on him? That many a system of island government, themachinery of which was now fed by a steady stream of human lives, hadbeen set going by him in ignorance, or greed of quick commercial returns?It is probable that he did not; for he now permanently regarded himselfas a much-injured man, and was far too much occupied with his own wrongsto realise that they were as nothing compared with the monstrous streamof wrong and suffering that he had unwittingly sent flowing into theworld. 

In the island under Ovando's rule Columbus saw the logical results of hisown original principles of government, which had recognised the right ofthe Christians to possess the persons and labours of the heathen natives. Las Casas, who was living in Espanola as a young priest at this time, andwas destined by long residence there and in the West Indies to qualifyhimself as their first historian, saw what Columbus saw, and saw also theeven worse things that happened in after years in Cuba and Jamaica; andit is to him that we owe our knowledge of the condition of island affairsat this time. The colonists whom Ovando had brought out had come verymuch in the spirit that in our own day characterised the rush to thenorth-western goldfields of America. They brought only the slightestequipment, and were no sooner landed at San Domingo than they set outinto the island like so many picnic parties, being more careful to carryvessels in which to bring back the gold they were to find than properprovisions and equipment to support them in the labour of finding it. The roads, says Las Casas, swarmed like ant-hills with these adventurersrushing forth to the mines, which were about twenty-five miles distantfrom San Domingo; they were in the highest spirits, and they made it akind of race as to who should get there first. They thought they hadnothing to do but to pick up shining lumps of gold; and when they foundthat they had to dig and delve in the hard earth, and to digsystematically and continuously, with a great deal of digging for verylittle gold, their spirits fell. They were not used to dig; and ithappened that most of them began in an unprofitable spot, where theydigged for eight days without finding any gold. Their provisions weresoon exhausted; and in a week they were back again in San Domingo, tired, famished, and bitterly disappointed. They had no genius for steadylabour; most of them were virtually without means; and although theylived in San Domingo, on what they had as long as possible, they weresoon starving there, and selling the clothes off their backs to procurefood. Some of them took situations with the other settlers, more fellvictims to the climate of the island and their own imprudences anddistresses; and a thousand of them had died within two years. 

Ovando had revived the enthusiasm for mining by two enactments. Hereduced the share of discovered gold payable to the Crown, and hedeveloped Columbus's system of forced labour to such an extent that themines were entirely worked by it. To each Spaniard, whether mining orfarming, so many natives were allotted. It was not called slavery; thenatives were supposed to be paid a minute sum, and their employers werealso expected to teach them the Christian religion. That was the plan. The way in which it worked was that, a body of native men being allottedto a Spanish settler for a period, say, of six or eight months--for theenactment was precise in putting a period to the term of slavery--thenatives would be marched off, probably many days' journey from theirhomes and families, and set to work under a Spanish foreman. The work, as we have already seen, was infinitely harder than that to which theywere accustomed; and most serious of all, it was done under conditionsthat took all the heart out of the labour. A man will toil in his owngarden or in tilling his own land with interest and happiness, notcounting the hours which he spends there; knowing in fact that his workis worth doing, because he is doing it for a good reason. But put thesame man to work in a gang merely for the aggrandisement of some otherover-man; and the heart and cheerfulness will soon die out of him. 

It was so with these children of the sun. They were put to work tentimes harder than any they had ever done before, and they were put to itunder the lash. The light diet of their habit had been sufficient tosupport them in their former existence of happy idleness and dalliance, and they had not wanted anything more than their cassava bread and alittle fish and fruit; now, however, they were put to work at a pressurewhich made a very different kind of feeding necessary to them, and thisthey did not get. Now and then a handful of pork would be divided amonga dozen of them, but they were literally starved, and were accustomed toscramble like dogs for the bones that were thrown from the tables of theSpaniards, which bones they ground up and mixed with their, bread so thatno portion of them might be lost. They died in numbers under these hardconditions, and, compared with their lives, their deaths must often havebeen happy. When the time came for them to go home they were generallyutterly worn out and crippled, and had to face a long journey of manydays with no food to support them but what they could get on the journey;and the roads were strewn with the dead bodies of those who fell by theway. 

And far worse things happened to them than labour and exhaustion. Itbecame the custom among the Spaniards to regard the lives of the nativesas of far less value than those of the dogs that were sometimes set uponthem in sport. A Spaniard riding along would make a wager with hisfellow that he would cut the head off a native with one stroke of hissword; and many attempts would be laughingly made, and many living bodieshideously mutilated and destroyed, before the feat would be accomplished. Another sport was one similar to pigsticking as it is practised in India, except that instead of pigs native women and children were stuck with thelances. There was no kind of mutilation and monstrous cruelty that wasnot practised. If there be any powers of hell, they stalked at largethrough the forests and valleys of Espanola. Lust and bloody cruelty, ofa kind not merely indescribable but unrealisable by sane men and women, drenched the once happy island with anguish and terror. And in paymentfor it the Spaniards undertook to teach the heathen the Christianreligion. 

The five chiefs who had ruled with justice and wisdom over the island ofEspanola in the early days of Columbus were all dead, wiped out by thewave of wild death and cruelty that had swept over the island. Thegentle Guacanagari, when he saw the desolation that was beginning tooverwhelm human existence, had fled into the mountains, hiding his facein shame from the sons of men, and had miserably died there. Caonabo, Lord of the House of Gold, fiercest and bravest of them all, who firstrealised that the Spaniards were enemies to the native peace, afterlanguishing in prison in the house of Columbus at Isabella for some time, had died in captivity during the voyage to Spain. Anacaona his wife, theBloom of the Gold, that brave and beautiful woman, whose admiration ofthe Spaniards had by their bloody cruelties been turned into detestation, had been shamefully betrayed and ignominiously hanged. Behechio, herbrother, the only cacique who did not sue for peace after the firstconquest of the island by Christopher and Bartholomew Columbus, was deadlong ago of wounds and sorrow. Guarionex, the Lord of the Vega Real, whohad once been friendly enough, who had danced to the Spanish pipe andlearned the Paternoster and Ave Maria, and whose progress in conversionto Christianity the seduction of his wives by those who were convertinghim had interrupted, after wandering in the mountains of Ciguay had beenimprisoned in chains, and drowned in the hurricane of June 30, 1502. 

The fifth chief, Cotabanama, Lord of the province of Higua, made the laststand against Ovando in defence of the native right to existence, and wasonly defeated after severe battles and dreadful slaughters. Histerritory was among the mountains, and his last insurrection was caused, as so many others had been, by the intolerable conduct of the Spaniardstowards the wives and daughters of the Indians. Collecting all hiswarriors, Cotabanama attacked the Spanish posts in his neighbourhood. At every engagement his troops were defeated and dispersed, but only tocollect again, fight again with even greater fury, be defeated anddispersed again, and rally again against the Spaniards. They literallyfought to the death. After every battle the Spaniards made a massacre ofall the natives they could find, old men, children, and pregnant womenbeing alike put to the sword or burned in their houses. When theircompanions fell beside them, instead of being frightened they became morefurious; and when they were wounded they would pluck the arrows out oftheir bodies and hurl them back at the Spaniards, falling dead in thevery act. After one such severe defeat and massacre the nativesscattered for many months, hiding among the mountains and trying tocollect and succour their decimated families; but the Spaniards, who withtheir dogs grew skilful at tracking the Indians and found it pleasantsport, came upon them in the places of refuge where little groups of themwere sheltering their women and children, and there slowly and cruellyslaughtered them, often with the addition of tortures and torments inorder to induce them to reveal the whereabouts of other bands. When itwas possible the Spaniards sometimes hanged thirteen of them in a row incommemoration of their Blessed Saviour and the Twelve Apostles; and whilethey were hanging, and before they had quite died, they would hack atthem with their swords in order to test the edge of the steel. At thelast stand, when the fierceness and bitterness of the contest rose to aheight on both sides, Cotabanama was captured and a plan made to broilhim slowly to death; but for some reason this plan was not carried out, and the brave chief was taken to San Domingo and publicly hanged like athief. 

After that there was never any more resistance; it was simply a case ofextermination, which the Spaniards easily accomplished by cutting of theheads of women as they passed by, and impaling infants and littlechildren on their lances as they rode through the villages. Thus, in thetwelve years since the discovery of Columbus, between half a million anda million natives, perished; and as the Spanish colonisation spreadafterwards from island to island, and the banner of civilisation andChristianity was borne farther abroad throughout the Indies, the samehideous process was continued. In Cuba, in Jamaica, throughout theAntilles, the cross and the sword, the whip-lash and the Gospel advancedtogether; wherever the Host was consecrated, hideous cries of agony andsuffering broke forth; until happily, in the fulness of time, the direbusiness was complete, and the whole of the people who had inhabited thisgarden of the world were exterminated and their blood and race wiped fromthe face of the earth . . . . Unless, indeed, blood and race and hatredbe imperishable things; unless the faithful Earth that bred and rearedthe race still keeps in her soil, and in the waving branches of the treesand the green grasses, the sacred essences of its blood and hatred;unless in the full cycle of Time, when that suffering flesh and bloodshall have gone through all the changes of substance and condition, fromcorruption and dust through flowers and grasses and trees and animalsback into the living body of mankind again, it shall one day rise upterribly to avenge that horror of the past. Unless Earth and Timeremember, O Children of the Sun! for men have forgotten, and on the soilof your Paradise the African negro, learned in the vices of Europe, erects his monstrous effigy of civilisation and his grotesque mockery offreedom; unless it be through his brutish body, into which the blood andhatred with which the soil of Espanola was soaked have now passed, thatthey shall dreadfully strike at the world again. 

CHAPTER VIII

THE ADMIRAL COMES HOME

On September 12, 1504. , Christopher Columbus did many things for the lasttime. He who had so often occupied himself in ports and harbours withthe fitting out of ships and preparations for a voyage now completed atSan Domingo the simple preparations for the last voyage he was to take. The ship he had come in from Jamaica had been refitted and placed underthe command of Bartholomew, and he had bought another small caravel inwhich he and his son were to sail. For the last time he superintendedthose details of fitting out and provisioning which were now so familiarto him; for the last time he walked in the streets of San Domingo andmingled with the direful activities of his colony; he looked his lastupon the place where the vital scenes of his life had been set, for thelast time weighed anchor, and took his last farewell of the seas andislands of his discovery. A little steadfast looking, a little strainingof the eyes, a little heart-aching no doubt, and Espanola has sunk downinto the sea behind the white wake of the ships; and with its fading awaythe span of active life allotted to this man shuts down, and his powerfulopportunities for good or evil are withdrawn. 

There was something great and heroic about the Admiral's last voyage. Wind and sea rose up as though to make a last bitter attack upon the manwho had disclosed their mysteries and betrayed their secrets. He hadhardly cleared the island before the first gale came down upon him anddismasted his ship, so that he was obliged to transfer himself and hisson to Bartholomew's caravel and send the disabled vessel back toEspanola. The shouting sea, as though encouraged by this triumph, hurledtempest after tempest upon the one lonely small ship that was staggeringon its way to Spain; and the duel between this great seaman and the vastelemental power that he had so often outwitted began in earnest. Onelittle ship, one enfeebled man to be destroyed by the power of the sea:that was the problem, and there were thousands of miles of sea-room, andtwo months of time to solve it in! Tempest after tempest rose and droveunceasingly against the ship. A mast was sprung and had to be cut away;another, and the woodwork from the forecastles and high stern works hadto be stripped and lashed round the crazy mainmast to preserve it fromwholesale destruction. Another gale, and the mast had to be shortened, for even reinforced as it was it would not bear the strain; and socrippled, so buffeted, this very small ship leapt and staggered on herway across the Atlantic, keeping her bowsprit pointed to that region ofthe foamy emptiness where Spain was. 

The Admiral lay crippled in his cabin listening to the rush and bubble ofthe water, feeling the blows and recoils of the unending battle, hearkening anxiously to the straining of the timbers and the vessel'sagonised complainings under the pounding of the seas. We do not knowwhat his thoughts were; but we may guess that they looked backward ratherthan forward, and that often they must have been prayers that the presentmisery would come somehow or other to an end. Up on deck brotherBartholomew, who has developed some grievous complaint of the jaws andteeth--complaint not known to us more particularly, but dreadful enoughfrom that description--does his duty also, with that heroic manfulnessthat has marked his whole career; and somewhere in the ship youngFerdinand is sheltering from the sprays and breaking seas, finding hisworld of adventure grown somewhat gloomy and sordid of late, and feelingthat he has now had his fill of the sea . . . . Shut your eyes andlet the illusions of time and place fade from you; be with them for amoment on this last voyage; hear that eternal foaming and crashing ofgreat waves, the shrieking of wind in cordage, the cracking and slattingof the sails, the mad lashing of loose ropes; the painful swinging, andclimbing up and diving down, and sinking and staggering and helplessstrivings of the small ship in the waste of water. The sea is as emptyas chaos, nothing for days and weeks but that infinite tumbling surfaceand heaven of grey storm-clouds; a world of salt surges encircled byhorizons of dim foam. Time and place are nothing; the agony and pain ofsuch moments are eternal. 

But the two brothers, grim and gigantic in their sea power, subtle as thewind itself in their sea wit, win the battle. Over the thousands ofmiles of angry surges they urge that small ship towards calm and safety;until one day the sea begins to abate a little, and through the spray andtumult of waters the dim loom of land is seen. The sea falls backdisappointed and finally conquered by Christopher Columbus, whose ship, battered, crippled, and strained, comes back out of the wilderness ofwaters and glides quietly into the smooth harbour of San Lucar, November7, 1504. There were no guns or bells to greet the Admiral; his onlysalute was in the thunder of the conquered seas; and he was carriedashore to San Lucar, and thence to Seville, a sick and broken man. 

CHAPTER IX

THE LAST DAYS

Columbus, for whom rest and quiet were the first essentials, remained inSeville from November 1504 to May 1505, when he joined the Court atSegovia and afterwards at Salamanca and Valladolid, where he remainedtill his death in May 1506. During this last period, when all otheractivities were practically impossible to him, he fell into a state ofletter-writing--for the most part long, wearisome complainings andexplainings in which he poured out a copious flood of tears and self-pityfor the loss of his gold. 

It has generally been claimed that Columbus was in bitter penury and wantof money, but a close examination of the letters and other documentsrelating to this time show that in his last days he was not poor in anytrue sense of the word. He was probably a hundred times richer than anyof his ancestors had ever been; he had, money to give and money to spend;the banks honoured his drafts; his credit was apparently indisputable. But compared with the fabulous wealth to which he would by this time havebeen entitled if his original agreement with the Crown of Spain had beenfaithfully carried out he was no doubt poor. There is no evidence thathe lacked any comfort or alleviation that money could buy; indeed henever had any great craving for the things that money can buy--only formoney itself. There must have been many rich people in Spain who wouldgladly have entertained him in luxury and dignity; but he was not thekind of man to set much store by such things except in so far as theywere a decoration and advertisement of his position as a great man. Hehad set himself to the single task of securing what he called his rights;and in these days of sunset he seems to have been illumined by someglimmer of the early glory of his first inspiration. He wanted thepayment of his dues now, not so much for his own enrichment, but as asign to the world that his great position as Admiral and Viceroy wasrecognised, so that his dignities and estates might be established andconsolidated in a form which he would be able to transmit to his remoteposterity. 

Since he wrote so copiously and so constantly in these last days, thebest picture of his mood and condition is afforded in his letters to hisson Diego; letters which, in spite of their infinitely wearisomerecapitulation and querulous complaint, should be carefully read by thosewho wish to keep in touch with the Admiral to the end. 

 Letter written by CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS to DON DIEGO, his Son, November 21, 1504. 

 "VERY DEAR SON, --I received your letter by the courier. You did well in remaining yonder to remedy our affairs somewhat and to employ yourself now in our business. Ever since I came to Castile, the Lord Bishop of Palencia has shown me favour and has desired that I should be honoured. Now he must be entreated that it may please him to occupy himself in remedying my many grievances and in ordering that the agreement and letters of concession which their Highnesses gave me be fulfilled, and that I be indemnified for so many damages. And he may be certain that if their Highnesses do this, their estate and greatness will be multiplied to them in an incredible degree. And it must not appear to him that forty thousand pesos in gold is more than a representation of it; because they might have had a much greater quantity if Satan had not hindered it by impeding my design; for, when I was taken away from the Indies, I was prepared to give them a sum of gold incomparable to forty thousand pesos. I make oath, and this may be for thee alone, that the damage to me in the matter of the concessions their Highnesses have made to me, amounts to ten millions each year, and never can be made good. You see what will be, or is, the injury to their Highnesses in what belongs to them, and they do not perceive it. I write at their disposal and will strive to start yonder. My arrival and the rest is in the hands of our Lord. His mercy is infinite. What is done and is to be done, St. Augustine says is already done before the creation of the world. I write also to these other Lords named in the letter of Diego Mendez. Commend me to their mercy and tell them of my going as I have said above. For certainly I feel great fear, as the cold is so inimical to this, my infirmity, that I may have to remain on the road. 

 "I was very much pleased to hear the contents of your letter and what the King our Lord said, for which you kissed his royal hands. It is certain that I have served their Highnesses with as much diligence and love as though it had been to gain Paradise, and more, and if I have been at fault in anything it has been because it was impossible or because my knowledge and strength were not sufficient. God, our Lord, in such a case, does not require more from persons than the will. 

 "At the request of the Treasurer Morales, I left two brothers in the Indies, who are called Porras. The one was captain and the other auditor. Both were without capacity for these positions: and I was confident that they could fill them, because of love for the person who sent them to me. They both became more vain than they had been. I forgave them many incivilities, more than I would do with a relation, and their offences were such that they merited another punishment than a verbal reprimand. Finally they reached such a point that even had I desired, I could not have avoided doing what I did. The records of the case will prove whether I lie or not. They rebelled on the island of Jamaica, at which I was as much astonished as I would be if the sun's rays should cast darkness. I was at the point of death, and they martyrised me with extreme cruelty during five months and without cause. Finally I took them all prisoners, and immediately set them free, except the captain, whom I was bringing as a prisoner to their Highnesses. A petition which they made to me under oath, and which I send you with this letter, will inform you at length in regard to this matter, although the records of the case explain it fully. These records and the Notary are coming on another vessel, which I am expecting from day to day. The Governor in Santo Domingo took this prisoner. --His courtesy constrained him to do this. I had a chapter in my instructions in which their Highnesses ordered all to obey me, and that I should exercise civil and criminal justice over all those who were with me: but this was of no avail with the Governor, who said that it was not understood as applying in his territory. He sent the prisoner to these Lords who have charge of the Indies without inquiry or record or writing. They did not receive him, and both brothers go free. It is not wonderful to me that our Lord punishes. They went there with shameless faces. Such wickedness or such cruel treason were never heard of. I wrote to their Highnesses about this matter in the other letter, and said that it was not right for them to consent to this offence. I also wrote to the Lord Treasurer that I begged him as a favour not to pass sentence on the testimony given by these men until he heard me. Now it will be well for you to remind him of it anew. I do, not know how they dare to go before him with such an undertaking. I have written to him about it again and have sent him the copy of the oath, the same as I send to you and likewise to Doctor Angulo and the Licentiate Zapata. I commend myself to the mercy of all, with the information that my departure yonder will take place in a short time. 

 "I would be glad to receive a letter from their Highnesses and to know what they order. You must procure such a letter if you see the means of so doing. I also commend myself to the Lord Bishop and to Juan Lopez, with the reminder of illness and of the reward for my services. 

 "You must read the letters which go with this one in order to act in conformity with what they say. Acknowledge the receipt of his letter to Diego Mendez. I do not write him as he will learn everything from you, and also because my illness prevents it. 

 "It would be well for Carbajal and Jeronimo--[Jeronimo de Aguero, a landowner in Espanola and a friend of Columbus]--to be at the-Court at this time, and talk of our affairs with these Lords and with the Secretary. 

 "Done in Seville, November 21. 

 "Your father who loves you more than himself. 

 . S. . S. A. S. XMY Xpo FERENS. "

 "I wrote again to their Highnesses entreating them to order that these people who went with me should be paid, because they are poor and it is three years since they left their homes. The news which they bring is more than extraordinary. They have endured infinite dangers and hardships. I did not wish to rob the country, so as not to cause scandal, because reason advises its being populated, and then gold will be obtained freely without scandal. Speak of this to the Secretary and to the Lord Bishop and to Juan Lopez and to whomever you think it advisable to do so. "

The Bishop of Palencia referred to in this letter is probably BishopFonseca--probably, because it is known that he did become Bishop ofPalencia, although there is a difference of opinion among historians asto whether the date of his translation to that see was before or afterthis letter. No matter, except that one is glad to think that an oldenemy--for Fonseca and Columbus had bitter disagreements over the fittingout of various expeditions--had shown himself friendly at last. 

 Letter written by CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS to DON DIEGO, November 28, 1504. 

 "VERY DEAR SON, --I received your letters of the 15th of this month. It is eight days since I wrote you and sent the letter by a courier. I enclosed unsealed letters to many other persons, in order that you might see them, and having read them, seal and deliver them. Although this illness of mine troubles me greatly, I am preparing for my departure in every way. I would very much like to receive the reply from their Highnesses and wish you might procure it: and also I wish that their Highnesses would provide for the payment of these poor people, who have passed through incredible hardships and have brought them such great news that infinite thanks should be given to God, our Lord, and they should rejoice greatly over it. If I [lie ?] the 'Paralipomenon'--[ The Book of Chronicles]--and the Book of Kings and the Antiquities of Josephus, with very many others, will tell what they know of this. I hope in our Lord to depart this coming week, but you must not write less often on that account. I have not heard from Carbajal and Jeronimo. If they are there, commend me to them. The time is such that both Carbajals ought to be at Court, if illness does not prevent them. My regards to Diego Mendez. 

 "I believe that his truth and efforts will be worth as much as the lies of the Porras brothers. The bearer of this letter is Martin de Gamboa. I am sending by him a letter to Juan Lopez and a letter of credit. Read the letter to Lopez and then give it to him. If you write me, send the letters to Luis de Soria that he may send them wherever I am, because if I go in a litter, I believe it will be by La Plata. --[The old Roman road from Merida to Salamanca. ]--May our Lord have you in His holy keeping. Your uncle has been very sick and is now, from trouble with his jaws and his teeth. 

 "Done in Seville, November 28. 

 "Your father who loves you more than himself. 

 . S. . S. A. S. XMY Xpo FERENS. "

Bartholomew Columbus and Ferdinand were remaining with Christopher atSeville; Bartholomew probably very nearly as ill as the Admiral, althoughwe do not hear so many complaints about it. At any rate Diego, being ayCourt, was the great mainstay of his father; and you can see the sick mansitting there alone with his grievances, and looking to the nextgeneration for help in getting them redressed. Diego, it is to befeared, did not receive these letters with so much patience and attentionas he might have shown, nor did he write back to his invalid father withthe fulness and regularity which the old man craved. It is a faultcommon to sons. Those who are sons will know that it does notnecessarily imply lack of affection on Diego's part; those who arefathers will realise how much Christopher longed for verbal assurance ofinterest and affection, even though he did not doubt their reality. Newsof the serious illness of Queen Isabella had evidently reached Columbus, and was the chief topic of public interest. 

 Letter written by CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS to DON DIEGO, his Son, December 1, 1504. 

 "VERY DEAR SON, --Since I received your letter of November 15 I have heard nothing from you. I wish that you would write me more frequently. I would like to receive a letter from you each hour. Reason must tell you that now I have no other repose. Many couriers come each day, and the news is of such a nature and so abundant that on hearing it all my hair stands on end; it is so contrary to what my soul desires. May it please the Holy Trinity to give health to the Queen, our Lady, that she may settle what has already been placed under discussion. I wrote you by another courier Thursday, eight days ago. The courier must already be on his way back here. I told you in that letter that my departure was certain, but that the hope of my arrival there, according to experience, was very uncertain, because my sickness is so bad, and the cold is so well suited to aggravate it, that I could not well avoid remaining in some inn on the road. The litter and everything were ready. The weather became so violent that it appeared impossible to every one to start when it was getting so bad, and that it was better for so well-known a person as myself to take care of myself and try to regain my health rather than place myself in danger. I told you in those letters what I now say, that you decided well in remaining there (at such a time), and that it was right to commence occupying yourself with our affairs; and reason strongly urges this. It appears to me that a good copy should be made of the chapter of that letter which their Highnesses wrote me where they say they will fulfil their promises to me and will place you in possession of everything: and that this copy should be given to them with another writing telling of my sickness, and that it is now impossible for me to go and kiss their Royal feet and hands, and that the Indies are being lost, and are on fire in a thousand places, and that I have received nothing, and am receiving nothing, from the revenues derived from them, and that no one dares to accept or demand anything there for me, and I am living upon borrowed funds. I spent the money which I got there in bringing those people who went with me back to their homes, for it would be a great burden upon my conscience to have left them there and to have abandoned them. This must be made known to the Lord Bishop of Palencia, in whose favour I have so much confidence, and also to the Lord Chamberlain. I believed that Carbajal and Jeronimo would be there at such a time. Our Lord is there, and He will order everything as He knows it to be best for us. 

 "Carbajal reached here yesterday. I wished to send him immediately with this same order, but he excused himself profusely, saying that his wife was at the point of death. I shall see that he goes, because he knows a great deal about these affairs. I will also endeavour to have your brother and your uncle go to kiss the hands of Their Highnesses, and give them an account of the voyage if my letters are not sufficient. Take good care of your brother. He has a good disposition, and is no longer a boy. Ten brothers would not be too many for you. I never found better friends to right or to left than my brothers. We must strive to obtain the government of the Indies and then the adjustment of the revenues. I gave you a memorandum which told you what part of them belongs to me. What they gave to Carbajal was nothing and has turned to nothing. Whoever desires to do so takes merchandise there, and so the eighth is nothing, because, without contributing the eighth, I could send to trade there without rendering account or going in company with any one. I said a great many times in the past that the contribution of the eighth would come to nothing. The eighth and the rest belongs to me by reason of the concession which their Highnesses made to me, as set forth in the book of my Privileges, and also the third and the tenth. Of the tenth I received nothing, except the tenth of what their Highnesses receive; and it must be the tenth of all the gold and other things which are found and obtained, in whatever manner it may be, within this Admiralship, and the tenth of all the merchandise which goes and comes from there, after the expenses are deducted. I have already said that in the Book of Privileges the reason for this and for the rest which is before the Tribunal of the Indies here in Seville, is clearly set forth. 

 "We must strive to obtain a reply to my letter from their Highnesses, and to have them order that these people be paid. I wrote in regard to this subject four days ago, and sent the letter by Martin de Gamboa, and you must have seen the letter of Juan Lopez with your own. 

 "It is said here that it has been ordered that three or four Bishops of the Indies shall be sent or created, and that this matter is referred to the Lord Bishop of Palencia. After having commended me to his Worship, tell him that I believe it will best serve their Highnesses for me to talk with him before this matter is settled. 

 "Commend me to Diego Mendez, and show him this letter. My illness permits me to write only at night, because in the daytime my hands are deprived of strength. I believe that a son of Francisco Pinelo will carry this letter. Entertain him well, because he does everything for me that he can, with much love and a cheerful goodwill. The caravel which broke her mast in starting from Santo Domingo has arrived in the Algarves. She brings the records of the case of the Porras brothers. Such ugly things and such grievous cruelty as appear in this matter never were seen. If their Highnesses do not punish it, I do not know who will dare to go out in their service with people. 

 "To-day is Monday. I will endeavour to have your uncle and brother start to-morrow. Remember to write me very often, and tell Diego Mendez to write at length. Each day messengers go from here yonder. May our Lord have you in His Holy keeping. 

 "Done in Seville, December 1. 

 "Your father who loves you as himself. 

 . S. . S. A. S. XMY Xpo FERENS. "

The gout from which the Admiral suffered made riding impossible to him, and he had arranged to have himself carried to Court on a litter when hewas able to move. There is a grim and dismal significance in theparticular litter that had been chosen: it was no other than the funeralbier which belonged to the Cathedral of Seville and had been built forCardinal Mendoza. A minute of the Cathedral Chapter records the grantingto Columbus of the use of this strange conveyance; but one is glad tothink that he ultimately made his journey in a less grim though morehumble method. But what are we to think of the taste of a man who wouldrather travel in a bier, so long as it had been associated with thesplendid obsequies of a cardinal, than in the ordinary litter ofevery-day use? It is but the old passion for state and splendour thusdismally breaking out again. 

He speaks of living on borrowed funds and of having devoted all hisresources to the payment of his crew; but that may be taken as anexaggeration. He may have borrowed, but the man who can borrow easilyfrom banks cannot be regarded as a poor man. One is neverthelessgrateful for these references, since they commemorate the Admiral'sunfailing loyalty to those who shared his hardships, and his unweariedefforts to see that they received what was due to them. Pleasant alsoare the evidences of warm family affection in those simple words ofbrotherly love, and the affecting advice to Diego that he should love hisbrother Ferdinand as Christopher loved Bartholomew. It is a pleasantoasis in this dreary, sordid wailing after thirds and tenths and eighths. Good Diego Mendez, that honourable gentleman, was evidently also at Courtat this time, honestly striving, we may be sure, to say a good word forthe Admiral. 

Some time after this letter was written, and before the writing of thenext, news reached Seville of the death of Queen Isabella. For ten yearsher kind heart had been wrung by many sorrows. Her mother had died in1496; the next year her only son and heir to the crown had followed; andwithin yet another year had died her favourite daughter, the Queen ofPortugal. Her other children were all scattered with the exception ofJuana, whose semi-imbecile condition caused her parents an anxietygreater even than that caused by death. As Isabella's life thus closedsombrely in, she applied herself more closely and more narrowly to suchpious consolations as were available. News from Flanders of thescandalous scenes between Philip and Juana in the summer of 1504 broughton an illness from which she really never recovered, a kind of feverishdistress of mind and body in which her only alleviation was thetransaction of such business as was possible for her in the direction ofhumanity and enlightenment. She still received men of intellect andrenown, especially travellers. But she knew that her end was near, andas early as October she had made her will, in which her wishes as to thesuccession and government of Castile were clearly laid down. There wasno mention of Columbus in this will, which afterwards greatly mortifiedhim; but it is possible that the poor Queen had by this time, evenagainst her wish, come to share the opinions of her advisers that therule of Columbus in the West Indies had not brought the most humane andhappy results possible to the people there. 

During October and November her life thus beat itself away in asuccession of duties faithfully performed, tasks duly finished, preparations for the great change duly made. She died, as she would havewished to die, surrounded by friends who loved and admired her, andfortified by the last rites of the Church for her journey into theunknown. Date, November 26, 1504, in the fifty-fourth year of her age. 

Columbus had evidently received the news from a public source, and feltmortified that Diego should not have written him a special letter. 

 Letter written by CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS to DON DIEGO, his Son, December 3, 1504. 

 "VERY DEAR SON, --I wrote you at length day before yesterday and sent it by Francisco Pinelo, and with this letter I send you a very full memorandum. I am very much astonished not to receive a letter from you or from any one else, and this astonishment is shared by all who know me. Every one here has letters, and I, who have more reason to expect them, have none. Great care should be taken about this matter. The memorandum of which I have spoken above says enough, and on this account I do not speak more at length here. Your brother and your uncle and Carbajal are going yonder. You will learn from them what is not said here. May our Lord have you in His Holy keeping. 

 "Done in Seville, December 3. 

 "Your father who loves you more than himself. 

 . S. . S. A. S. XMY Xpo FERENS. "

 Document of COLUMBUS addressed to his Son, DIEGO, and intended to accompany the preceding letter. 

 "A memorandum for you, my very dear son, Don Diego, of what occurs to me at the present time which must be done:--The principal thing is, affectionately and with great devotion to commend the soul of the Queen, our Lady, to God. Her life was always Catholic and Holy and ready for all the things of His holy service, and for this reason it must be believed that she is in His holy glory and beyond the desires of this rough and wearisome world. Then the next thing is to be watchful and exert one's self in the service of the King, our Lord, and to strive to keep him from being troubled. His Highness is the head of Christendom. See the proverb which says that when the head aches, all the members ache. So that all good Christians should entreat that he may have long life and health: and those of us who are obliged to serve him more than others must join in this supplication with great earnestness and diligence. This reason prompts me now with my severe illness to write you what I am writing here, that his Highness may dispose matters for his service: and for the better fulfilment I am sending your brother there, who, although he is a child in days, is not a child in understanding; and I am sending your uncle and Carbajal, so that if this, my writing, is not sufficient, they, together with yourself, can furnish verbal evidence. In my opinion there is nothing so necessary for the service of his Highness as the disposition and remedying of the affair of the Indies. 

 "His Highness must now have there more than 40, 000 or 50, 000 gold pieces. I learned when I was there that the Governor had no desire to send it to him. It is believed among the other people as well that there will be 150, 000 pesos more, and the mines are very rich and productive. Most of the people there are common and ignorant, and care very little for the circumstances. The Governor is very much hated by all of them, and it is to be feared that they may at some time rebel. If this should occur, which God forbid, the remedy for the matter would then be difficult: and so it would be if injustice were used toward them, either here or in other places, with the great fame of the gold. My opinion is that his Highness should investigate this affair quickly and by means of a person who is interested and who can go there with 150 or 200 people well equipped, and remain there until it is well settled and without suspicion, which cannot be done in less than three months: and that an endeavour be made to raise two or three forces there. The gold there is exposed to great risk, as there are very few people to protect it. I say that there is a proverb here which says that the presence of the owner makes the horse fat. Here and wherever I may be, I shall serve their Highnesses with joy, until my soul leaves this body. 

 "Above I said that his Highness is the head of the Christians, and that it is necessary for him to occupy himself in preserving them and their lands. For this reason people say that he cannot thus provide a good government for all these Indies, and that they are being lost and do not yield a profit, neither are they being handled in a reasonable manner. In my opinion it would serve him to intrust this matter to some one who is distressed over the bad treatment of his subjects. 

 "I wrote a very long letter to his Highness as soon as I arrived here, fully stating the evils which require a prompt and efficient remedy at once. I have received no reply, nor have I seen any provision made in the matter. Some vessels are detained in San Lucar by the weather. I have told these gentlemen of the Board of Trade that they must order them held until the King, our Lord, makes provision in the matter, either by some person with other people, or by writing. This is very necessary and I know what I say. It is necessary that the authorities should order all the ports searched diligently, to see that no one goes yonder to the Indies without licence. I have already said that there is a great deal of gold collected in straw houses without any means of defence, and there are many disorderly people in the country, and that the Governor is hated, and that little punishment is inflicted and has been inflicted upon those who have committed crimes and have come out with their treasonable conduct approved. 

 "If his Highness decides to make some provision, it must be done at once, so that these vessels may not be injured. 

 "I have heard that three Bishops are to be elected and sent to Espanola. If it pleases his Highness to hear me before concluding this matter, I will tell in what manner God our Lord may be well served and his Highness served and satisfied. 

 "I have given lengthy consideration to the provision for Espanola:"

Yes, the Queen is in His Holy Glory, and beyond the desires of this roughand wearisome world; but we are not; we are still in a world where fiftythousand gold pieces can be of use to us, and where a word spoken inseason, even in such a season of darkness, may have its effect with theKing. A strange time to talk to the King about gold; and perhaps Diegowas wiser and kinder than his father thought in not immediately takingthis strange document to King Ferdinand. 

 Letter written by CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS to DON DIEGO, his Son, December 13, 1504

 "VERY DEAR SON, --It is now eight days since your uncle and your brother and Carbajal left here together, to kiss the royal hands of his Highness, and to give an account of the voyage, and also to aid you in the negotiation of whatever may prove to be necessary there. 

 "Don Ferdinand took from here 150 ducats to be expended at his discretion. He will have to spend some of it, but he will give you what he has remaining. He also carries a letter of credit for these merchants. You will see that it is very necessary to be careful in dealing with them, because I had trouble there with the Governor, as every one told me that I had there 11, 000 or 12, 000 castellanos, and I had only 4000. He wished to charge me with things for which I am not indebted, and I, confiding in the promise of their Highnesses, who ordered everything restored to me, decided to leave these charges in the hope of calling him to account for them. If any one has money there, they do not dare ask for it, on account of his haughtiness. I very well know that after my departure he must have received more than 5000 castellanos. If it were possible for you to obtain from his Highness an authoritative letter to the Governor, ordering him to send the money without delay and a full account of what belongs to me, by the person I might send there with my power of attorney, it would be well; because he will not give it in any other manner, neither to my friend Diaz or Velasquez, and they dare not even speak of it to him. Carbajal will very well know how this must be done. Let him see this letter. The 150 ducats which Luis de Soria sent you when I came are paid according to his desire. 

 "I wrote you at length and sent the letter by Don Ferdinand, also a memorandum. Now that I have thought over the matter further, I say that, since at the time of my departure their Highnesses said over their signature and verbally, that they would give me all that belongs to me, according to my privileges--that the claim for the third or the tenth and eighth mentioned in the memorandum must be relinquished, and instead the chapter of their letter must be shown where they write what I have said, and all that belongs to me must be required, as you have it in writing in the Book of Privileges, in which is also set forth the reason for my receiving the third, eighth, and tenth; as there is always an opportunity to reduce the sum desired by a person, although his Highness says in his letter that he wishes to give me all that belongs to me. Carbajal will understand me very well if he sees this letter, and every one else as well, as it is very clear. I also wrote to his Highness and finally reminded him that he must provide at once for this affair of the Indies, that the people there may not be disturbed, and also reminding him of the promise stated above. You ought to see the letter. 

 "With this letter I send you another letter of credit for the said merchants. I have already explained to you the reasons why expenses should be moderated. Show your uncle due respect, and treat your brother as an elder brother should treat a younger. You have no other brother, and praised be our Lord, he is such a one as you need very much. He has proved and proves to be very intelligent. Honour Carbajal and Jeronimo and Diego Mendez. Commend me to them all. I do not write them as there is nothing to write and this messenger is in haste. It is frequently rumoured here that the Queen, whom God has, has left an order that I be restored to the possession of the Indies. On arrival, the notary of the fleet will send you the records and the original of the case of the Porras brothers. I have received no news from your uncle and brother since they left. The water has been so high here that the river entered the city. 

 "If Agostin Italian and Francisco de Grimaldo do not wish to give you the money you need, look for others there who are willing to give it to you. On the arrival here of your signature I will at once pay them all that you have received: for at present there is not a person here by whom I can send you money. 

 "Done to-day, Friday, December 13, 1504

 "Your father who loves you more than himself. 

 . S. . S. A. S. XMY Xpo FERENS. "

 Letter written by CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS to his Son, DON DIEGO, December 21, 1504. 

 "VERY DEAR SON, The Lord Adelantado and your brother and Carbajal left here sixteen days ago to go to the Court. They have not written me since. Don Ferdinand carried 150 ducats. He must spend what is necessary, and he carries a letter, that the merchants may furnish you with money. I have sent you another letter since, with the endorsement of Francisco de Ribarol, by Zamora, the courier, and told you that if you had made provision for yourself by means of my letter, not to use that of Francisco de Ribarol. I say the same now in regard to another letter which I send you with this one, for Francisco Doria, which letter I send you for greater security that you may not fail to be provided with money. I have already told you how necessary it is to be careful in the expenditure of the money, until their Highnesses give us law and justice. I also told you that I had spent 1200 castellanos in bringing these people to Castile, of which his Highness owes me the greater part, and I wrote him in regard to it asking him to order the account settled. 

 "If possible I should like to receive letters here each day. I complain of Diego Mendez and of Jeronimo, as they do not write me: and then of the others who do not write when they arrive there. We must strive to learn whether the Queen, whom God has in His keeping, said anything about me in her will, and we must hurry the Lord Bishop of Palencia, who caused the possession of the Indies by their Highnesses and my remaining in Castile, for I was already on my way to leave it. And the Lord Chamberlain of his Highness must also be hurried. If by chance the affair comes to discussion, you must strive to have them see the writing which is in the Book of Privileges, which shows the reason why the third, eighth, and tenth are owing me, as I told you in another letter. 

 "I have written to the Holy Father in regard to my voyage, as he complained of me because I did not write him. I send you a copy of the letter. I would like to have the King, our Lord, or the Lord Bishop of Palencia see it before I send the letter, in order to avoid false representations. 

 "Camacho has told a thousand falsehoods about me. To my regret I ordered him arrested. He is in the church. He says that after the Holidays are past, he will go there if he is able. If I owe him, he must show by what reason; for I make oath that I do not know it, nor is it true. 

 "If without importunity a licence can be procured for me to go on mule-back, I will try to leave for the Court after January, and I will even go without this licence. But haste must be made that the loss of the Indies, which is now imminent, may not take place. May our Lord have you in His keeping. 

 "Done to-day, December 21. 

 "Your father who loves you more than himself. 

 . S. . S. A. S. XMY Xpo FERENS. "

 "This tenth which they give me is not the tenth which was promised me. The Privileges tell what it is, and there is also due me the tenth of the profit derived from merchandise and from all other things, of which I have received nothing. Carbajal understands me well. Also remind Carbajal to obtain a letter from his Highness for the Governor, directing him to send his accounts and the money I have there, at once. And it would be well that a Repostero of his Highness should go there to receive this money, as there must be a large amount due me. I will strive to have these gentlemen of the Board of Trade send also to say to the Governor that he must send my share together with the gold belonging to their Highnesses. But the remedy for the other matter must not be neglected there on this account. I say that 7000 or 8000 pesos must have passed to my credit there, which sum has been received since I left, besides the other money which was not given to me. 

 "To my very dear son Don Diego at the Court. "

All this struggling for the due payment of eighths and tenths makeswearisome reading, and we need not follow the Admiral into hisdistinctions between one kind of tenth and another. There is somethingto be said on his side, it must be remembered; the man had not receivedwhat was due to him; and although he was not in actual poverty, his onlyproperty in this world consisted of these very thirds and eighths andtenths. But if we are inclined to think poorly of the Admiral for hisdismal pertinacity, what are we to think of the people who took advantageof their high position to ignore consistently the just claims made uponthem?

There is no end to the Admiral's letter-writing at this time. Fortunately for us his letter to the Pope has been lost, or else weshould have to insert it here; and we have had quite enough of histheological stupors. As for the Queen's will, there was no mention ofthe Admiral in it; and her only reference to the Indies showed that shehad begun to realise some of the disasters following his rule there, forthe provisions that are concerned with the New World refer exclusively tothe treatment of the natives, to whose succour, long after they were pastsuccour, the hand of Isabella was stretched out from the grave. Thelicence to travel on mule-back which the Admiral asked for was madenecessary by a law which had been passed forbidding the use of mules forthis purpose throughout Spain. There had been a scarcity of horses formounting the royal cavalry, and it was thought that the breeding ofhorses had been neglected on account of the greater cheapness and utilityof mules. It was to encourage the use and breeding of horses that aninterdict was laid on the use of mules, and only the very highest personsin the land were allowed to employ them. 

Letter written by CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS to his Son, DON DIEGO, December 29, 1504. 

 "VERY DEAR SON, --I wrote you at length and sent it by Don Ferdinand, who left to go yonder twenty-three days ago to-day, with the Lord Adelantado and Carbajal, from whom I have since heard nothing. Sixteen days ago to-day I wrote you and sent it by Zamora, the courier, and I sent you a letter of credit for these merchants endorsed by Francisco de Ribarol, telling them to give you the money you might ask for. And then, about eight days ago, I sent you by another courier a letter endorsed by Francisco Soria, and these letters are directed to Pantaleon and Agostin Italian, that they may give it to you. And with these letters goes a copy of a letter which I wrote to the Holy Father in regard to the affairs of the Indies, that he might not complain of me any more. I sent this copy for his Highness to see, or the Lord Bishop of Palencia, so as to avoid false representations. The payment of the people who went with me has been delayed. I have provided for them here what I have been able. They are poor and obliged to go in order to earn a living. They decided to go yonder. They have been told here that they will be dealt with as favourably as possible, and this is right, although among them there are some who merit punishment more than favours. This is said of the rebels. I gave these people a letter for the Lord Bishop of Palencia. Read it, and if it is necessary for them to go and petition his Highness, urge your uncle and brother and Carbajal to read it also, so that you can all help them as much as possible. It is right and a work of mercy, for no one ever earned money with so many dangers and hardships and no one has ever rendered such great service as these people. It is said that Camacho and Master Bernal wish to go there--two creatures for whom God works few miracles: but if they go, it will be to do harm rather than good. They can do little because the truth always prevails, as it did in Espanola, from which wicked people by means of falsehoods have prevented any profit being received up to the present time. It is said that this Master Bernal was the beginning of the treason. He was taken and accused of many misdemeanours, for each one of which he deserved to be quartered. At the request of your uncle and of others he was pardoned, on condition that if he ever said the least word against me and my state the pardon should be revoked and he should be under condemnation. I send you a copy of the case in this letter. I send you a legal document about Camacho. For more than eight days he has not left the church on account of his rash statements and falsehoods. He has a will made by Terreros, and other relatives of the latter have another will of more recent date, which renders the first will null, as far as the inheritance is concerned: and I am entreated to enforce the latter will, so that Camacho will be obliged to restore what he has received. I shall order a legal document drawn up and served upon him, because I believe it is a work of mercy to punish him, as he is so unbridled in his speech that some one must punish him without the rod: and it will not be so much against the conscience of the chastiser, and will injure him more. Diego Mendez knows Master Bernal and his works very well. The Governor wished to imprison him at Espanola and left him to my consideration. It is said that he killed two men there with medicines in revenge for something of less account than three beans. I would be glad of the licence to travel on muleback and of a good mule, if they can be obtained without difficulty. Consult all about our affairs, and tell them that I do not write them in particular on account of the great pain I feel when writing. I do not say that they must do the same, but that each one must write me and very often, for I feel great sorrow that all the world should have letters from there each day, and I have nothing, when I have so many people there. Commend me to the Lord Adelantado in his favour, and give my regards to your brother and to all the others. 

 "Done at Seville, December 29. 

 "Your father who loves you more than himself. 

 . S. . S. A. S. XMY Xpo FERENS. "

"I say further that if our affairs are to be settled according toconscience, that the chapter of the letter which their Highnesses wroteme when I departed, in which they say they will order you placed inpossession, must be shown; and the writing must also be shown which is inthe Book of Privileges, which shows how in reason and in justice thethird and eighth and the tenth are mine. There will always beopportunity to make reductions from this amount. "

Columbus's requests were not all for himself; nothing could be moresincere or generous than the spirit in which he always strove to securethe just payment of his mariners. 

Otherwise he is still concerned with the favour shown to those who weretreasonable to him. Camacho was still hiding in a church, probably fromthe wrath of Bartholomew Columbus; but Christopher has more subtle waysof punishment. A legal document, he considers, will be better than arod; "it will not be so much against the conscience of the chastiser, andwill injure him (the chastised) more. "

 Letter written by CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS to DON DIEGO, his Son, January 18, 1505. 

 "VERY DEAR SON, --I wrote you at length by the courier who will arrive there to-day, and sent you a letter for the Lord Chamberlain. I intended to inclose in it a copy of that chapter of the letter from their Highnesses in which they say they will order you placed in possession; but I forgot to do it here. Zamora, the courier, came. I read your letter and also those of your uncle and brother and Carbajal, and felt great pleasure in learning that they had arrived well, as I had been very anxious about them. Diego Mendez will leave here in three or four days with the order of payment prepared. He will take a long statement of everything and I will write to Juan Velasquez. I desire his friendship and service. I believe that he is a very honourable gentleman. If the Lord Bishop of Palencia has come, or comes, tell him how much pleased I have been with his prosperity, and that if I go there I must stop with his Worship even if he does not wish it, and that we must return to our first fraternal love. And that he could not refuse it because my service will force him to have it thus. I said that the letter for the Holy Father was sent that his Worship might see it if he was there, and also the Lord Archbishop of Seville, as the King might not have opportunity to read it. I have already told you that the petition to their Highnesses must be for the fulfilment of what they wrote me about the possession and of the rest which was promised me. I said that this chapter of the letter must be shown them and said that it must not be delayed, and that this is advisable for an infinite number of reasons. His Highness may believe that, however much he gives me, the increase of his exalted dominions and revenue will be in the proportion of 100 to 1, and that there is no comparison between what has been done and what is to be done. The sending of a Bishop to Espanola must be delayed until I speak to his Highness. It must not be as in the other cases when it was thought to mend matters and they were spoiled. There have been some cold days here and they have caused me great fatigue and fatigue me now. Commend me to the favour of the Lord Adelantado. May our Lord guard and bless you and your brother. Give my regards to Carbajal and Jeronimo. Diego Mendez will carry a full pouch there. I believe that the affair of which you wrote can be very easily managed. The vessels from the Indies have not arrived from Lisbon. They brought a great deal of gold, and none for me. So great a mockery was never seen, for I left there 60, 000 pesos smelted. His Highness should not allow so great an affair to be ruined, as is now taking place. He now sends to the Governor a new provision. I do not know what it is about. I expect letters each day. Be very careful about expenditures, for it is necessary. 

 "Done January 18. "Your father who loves you more than himself. 

There is playful reference here to Fonseca, with whom Columbus wasevidently now reconciled; and he was to be buttonholed and made to readthe Admiral's letter to the Pope. Diego Mendez is about to start, and isto make a "long statement"; and in the meantime the Admiral will write asmany long letters as he has time for. Was there no friend at hand, Iwonder, with wit enough to tell the Admiral that every word he wroteabout his grievances was sealing his doom, so far as the King wasconcerned? No human being could have endured with patience thiscontinuous heavy firing at long range to which the Admiral subjected hisfriends at Court; every post that arrived was loaded with a shrapnel ofgrievances, the dull echo of which must have made the ears of those whoheard it echo with weariness. Things were evidently humming in Espanola;large cargoes of negroes had been sent out to take the place of the deadnatives, and under the harsh driving of Ovando the mines were producingheavily. The vessels that arrived from the Indies brought a great dealof gold; "but none for me. "

 Letter written by CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS to his Son, DON DIEGO, February 5, 1505. 

 "VERY DEAR SON, --Diego Mendez left here Monday, the 3rd of this month. After his departure I talked with Amerigo Vespucci, the bearer of this letter, who is going yonder, where he is called in regard to matters of navigation. He was always desirous of pleasing me. He is a very honourable man. Fortune has been adverse to him as it has been to many others. His labours have not profited him as much as reason demands. He goes for me, and is very desirous of doing something to benefit me if it is in his power. I do not know of anything in which I can instruct him to my benefit, because I do not know what is wanted of him there. He is going with the determination to do everything for me in his power. See what he can do to profit me there, and strive to have him do it; for he will do everything, and will speak and will place it in operation: and it must all be done secretly so that there may be no suspicion. 

 "I have told him all that could be told regarding this matter, and have informed him of the payment which has been made to me and is being made. This letter is for the Lord Adelantado also, that he may see how Amerigo Vespucci can be useful, and advise him about it. His Highness may believe that his ships went to the best and richest of the Indies, and if anything remains to be learned more than has been told, I will give the information yonder verbally, because it is impossible to give it in writing. May our Lord have you in his Holy keeping. 

 "Done in Seville, February 5. 

 "Your father who loves you more than himself. 

This letter has a significance which raises it out of the ruck of thiscomplaining correspondence. Amerigo Vespucci had just returned from hislong voyage in the West, when he had navigated along an immense stretchof the coast of America, both north and south, and had laid thefoundations of a fame which was, for a time at least, to eclipse that ofColumbus. Probably neither of the two men realised it at this interview, or Columbus would hardly have felt so cordially towards the man who wasdestined to rob him of so much glory. As a matter of fact the practicalSpaniards were now judging entirely by results; and a year or two later, when the fame of Columbus had sunk to insignificance, he was merelyreferred to as the discoverer of certain islands, while Vespucci, whoafter all had only followed in his lead, was hailed as the discoverer ofa great continent. Vespucci has been unjustly blamed for this state ofaffairs, although he could no more control the public estimate of hisservices than Columbus could. He was a more practical man than Columbus, and he made a much better impression on really wise and intelligent men;and his discoveries were immediately associated with trade and colonialdevelopment, while Columbus had little to show for his discoveries duringhis lifetime but a handful of gold dust and a few cargoes of slaves. Atany rate it was a graceful act on the part of Vespucci, whose star was inthe ascendant, to go and seek out the Admiral, whose day was fast vergingto night; it was one of those disinterested actions that live and have avalue of their own, and that shine out happily amid the surrounding murkand confusion. 

 Letter signed by CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS to DON DIEGO, his Son, February 25, 1505. 

 "VERY DEAR SON, --The Licientiate de Zea is a person whom I desire to honour. He has in his charge two men who are under prosecution at the hands of justice, as shown by the information which is inclosed in this letter. See that Diego Mendez places the said petition with the others, that they may be given to his Highness during Holy Week for pardon. If the pardon is granted, it is well, and if not, look for some other manner of obtaining it. May our Lord have you in His Holy keeping. Done in Seville, February 25, 1505. I wrote you and sent it by Amerigo Vespucci. See that he sends you the letter unless you have already received it. 

 "Your father. Xpo FERENS. //"

This is the last letter of Columbus known to us otherwise an entirelyunimportant document, dealing with the most transient affairs. With itwe gladly bring to an end this exposure of a greedy and querulous period, which speaks so eloquently for itself that the less we say and comment onit the better. 

In the month of May the Admiral was well enough at last to undertake thejourney to Segovia. He travelled on a mule, and was accompanied by hisbrother Bartholomew and his son Ferdinand. When he reached the Court hefound the King civil and outwardly attentive to his recitals, butapparently content with a show of civility and outward attention. Columbus was becoming really a nuisance; that is the melancholy truth. The King had his own affairs to attend to; he was already meditating asecond marriage, and thinking of the young bride he was to bring home tothe vacant place of Isabella; and the very iteration of Columbus'scomplaints and demands had made them lose all significance for the King. He waved them aside with polite and empty promises, as people do thedemands of importunate children; and finally, to appease the Admiral andto get rid of the intolerable nuisance of his applications, he referredthe whole question, first to Archbishop DEA, and then to the body ofcouncillors which had been appointed to interpret Queen Isabella's will. The whole question at issue was whether or not the original agreementwith Columbus, which had been made before his discoveries, should becarried out. The King, who had foolishly subscribed to it simply as amatter of form, never believing that anything much could come of it, wasdetermined that it should not be carried out, as it would give Columbus awealth and power to which no mere subject of a crown was entitled. TheAdmiral held fast to his privileges; the only thing that he would consentto submit to arbitration was the question of his revenues; but his titlesand territorial authorities he absolutely stuck to. Of course thecouncil did exactly what the King had done. They talked about the thinga great deal, but they did nothing. Columbus was an invalid and brokenman, who might die any day, and it was obviously to their interest togain time by discussion and delay--a cruel game for our Christopher, whoknew his days on earth to be numbered, and who struggled in that web oftime in which mortals try to hurry the events of the present and delaythe events of the future. Meanwhile Philip of Austria and his wifeJuana, Isabella's daughter, had arrived from Flanders to assume the crownof Castile, which Isabella had bequeathed to them. Columbus saw a chancefor himself in this coming change, and he sent Bartholomew as an envoy togreet the new Sovereigns, and to enlist their services on the Admiral'sbehalf. Bartholomew was very well received, but he was too late to be ofuse to the Admiral, whom he never saw again; and this is our farewell toBartholomew, who passes out of our narrative here. He went to Rome afterChristopher's death on a mission to the Pope concerning some freshvoyages of discovery; and in 1508 he made, so far as we know, his oneexcursion into romance, when he assisted at the production of anillegitimate little girl--his only descendant. He returned to Espanolaunder the governorship of his nephew Diego, and died there in 1514--stern, valiant, brotherly soul, whose devotion to Christopher must befor ever remembered and honoured with the name of the Admiral. 

From Segovia Columbus followed the Court to Salamanca and thence toValladolid, where his increasing illness kept him a prisoner after theCourt had left to greet Philip and Juana. He had been in attendance uponit for nearly a year, and without any results: and now, as his infirmityincreased, he turned to the settling of his own affairs, and drawing upof wills and codicils--all very elaborate and precise. In theseoccupations his worldly affairs were duly rounded off; and on May 19, 1506, having finally ratified a will which he had made in Segovia a yearbefore, in which the descent of his honours was entailed upon Diego andhis heirs, or failing him Ferdinand and his heirs, or failing himBartholomew and his heirs, he turned to the settlement of his soul. 

His illness had increased gradually but surely, and he must have knownthat he was dying. He was not without friends, among them the faithfulDiego Mendez, his son Ferdinand, and a few others. His lodging was in asmall house in an unimportant street of Valladolid, now called the "Callede Colon"; the house, . No. 7, still standing, and to be seen by curiouseyes. As the end approached, the Admiral, who was being attended byFranciscan monks, had himself clothed in a Franciscan habit; and so, onthe 20th May 1506, he lay upon his bed, breathing out his life. 

 . . . And as strange thoughts Grow with a certain humming in my ears, About the life before I lived this life, And this life too, Popes, Cardinals, and priests, Your tall pale mother with her talking eyes And new-found agate urns fresh as day . . . 

. . . We do not know what his thoughts were, as the shadows grewdeeper about him, as the sounds of the world, the noises from the sunnystreet, grew fainter, and the images and sounds of memory clearer andlouder. Perhaps as he lay there with closed eyes he remembered thingslong forgotten, as dying people do; sounds and smells of the Vico Drittodi Ponticelli, and the feel of the hot paving-stones down which hischildish feet used to run to the sea; noises of the sea also, thedrowning swish of waters and sudden roar of breakers sounding toanxiously strained ears in the still night; bright sunlit pictures offaraway tropical shores, with handsome olive figures glistening in thesun; the sight of strange faces, the sound of strange speech, the smellof a strange land; the glitter of gold; the sudden death-shriek breakingthe stillness of some sylvan glade; the sight of blood on the grass. . . The Admiral's face undergoes a change; there is a stir in theroom; some one signs to the priest Gaspar, who brings forth his sacredwafer and holy oils and administers the last sacraments. The wrinkledeyelids flutter open, the sea-worn voice feebly frames the responses;the dying eyes are fixed on the crucifix; and--"In manus tuas Dominecommendo spiritum meum. " The Admiral is dead. 

He was in his fifty-sixth year, already an old man in body and mind; andhis death went entirely unmarked except by his immediate circle offriends. Even Peter Martyr, who was in Valladolid just before and justafter it, and who was writing a series of letters to variouscorrespondents giving all the news of his day, never thought it worthwhile to mention that Christopher Columbus was dead. His life flickeredout in the completest obscurity. It is not even known where he was firstburied; but probably it was in the Franciscan convent at Valladolid. This, however, was only a temporary resting-place; and a few years laterhis body was formally interred in the choir of the monastery of LasCuevas at Seville, there to lie for thirty years surrounded by continualchauntings. After that it was translated to the cathedral in SanDomingo; rested there for 250 years, and then, on the cession of thatpart of the island to France, the body was removed to Cuba. But theAdmiral was by this time nothing but a box of bones and dust, as alsowere brother Bartholomew and son Diego, and Diego's son, all collectedtogether in that place. There were various examinations of thebone-boxes; one, supposed to be the Admiral's, was taken to Cuba andsolemnly buried there; and lately, after the conquest of the island inthe Spanish-American War, this box of bones was elaborately conveyed toSeville, where it now rests. 

But in the meanwhile the Chapter of the cathedral in San Domingo had madenew discoveries and examinations; had found another box of bones, whichbore to them authentic signs that the dust it contained was the Admiral'sand not his grandson's; and in spite of the Academy of History at Madrid, it is indeed far from unlikely that the Admiral's dust does not lie inSpain or Cuba, but in San Domingo still. Whole books have been writtenabout these boxes of bones; learned societies have argued about them, experts have examined the bones and the boxes with microscopes; andmeantime the dust of Columbus, if we take the view that an error wascommitted in the transference to Cuba, is not even collected all in onebox. A sacrilegious official acquired some of it when the boxes wereopened, and distributed it among various curiosity-hunters, who havepreserved it in caskets of crystal and silver. Thus a bit of him is wornby an American lady in a crystal locket; a pinch of him liesin a glass vial in a New York mansion; other pinches in the LennoxLibrary, New York, in the Vatican, and in the University of Pavia. Insuch places, if the Admiral should fail to appear at the first note oftheir trumpets, must the Angels of the Resurrection make search. 

CHAPTER X

THE MAN COLUMBUS

It is not in any leaden box or crystal vase that we must search for thetrue remains of Christopher Columbus. Through these pages we havetraced, so far as has been possible, the course of his life, and followedhim in what he did; all of which is but preparation for our search forthe true man, and just estimate of what he was. We have seen, dimly, what his youth was; that he came of poor people who were of no importanceto the world at large; that he earned his living as a working man; thathe became possessed of an Idea; that he fought manfully and diligentlyuntil he had realised it; and that then he found himself in a positionbeyond his powers to deal with, not being a strong enough swimmer to holdhis own in the rapid tide of events which he himself had set flowing; andwe have seen him sinking at last in that tide, weighed down by the verythings for which he had bargained and stipulated. If these pages hadbeen devoted to a critical examination of the historical documents onwhich his life-story is based we should also have found that hecontinually told lies about himself, and misrepresented facts when thetruth proved inconvenient to him; that he was vain and boastful to adegree that can only excite our compassion. He was naturally andsincerely pious, and drew from his religion much strength and spiritualnourishment; but he was also capable of hypocrisy, and of using theself-same religion as a cloak for his greed and cruelty. What is thefinal image that remains in our minds of such a man? To answer thisquestion we must examine his life in three dimensions. There was itsgreat outline of rise, zenith, and decline; there was its outwardhistory in minute detail, and its conduct in varying circumstances; andthere was the inner life of the man's soul, which was perhaps simplerthan some of us think. And first, as to his life as a single thing. Itrose in poverty, it reached a brief and dazzling zenith of glory, it setin clouds and darkness; the fame of it suffered a long night of eclipse, from which it was rescued and raised again to a height of glory whichunfortunately was in sufficiently founded on fact; and as a reactionfrom this, it has been in danger of becoming entirely discredited, andthe man himself denounced as a fraud. The reason for these surprisingchanges is that in those fifty-five years granted to Columbus for themaking of his life he did not consistently listen to that inner voicewhich alone can hold a man on any constructive path. He listened to itat intervals, and he drew his inspiration from it; but he shut his earswhen it had served him, when it had brought him what he wanted. In hismoments of success he guided himself by outward things; and thus he wasat one moment a seer and ready to be a martyr, and at the next moment hewas an opportunist, watching to see which way the wind would blow, andready to trim his sails in the necessary direction. Such conduct of aman's life does not make for single light or for true greatness; ratherfor dim, confused lights, and lofty heights obscured in cloud. 

If we examine his life in detail we find this alternating principle ofconduct revealed throughout it. He was by nature clever, kind-hearted, rather large-souled, affectionate, and not very honest; all the actsprompted by his nature bear the stamp of these qualities. To them hisearly years had probably added little except piety, sharp practice, andthat uncomfortable sense, often bred amid narrow and poor surroundings, that one must keep a sharp look-out for oneself if one is to get a shareof the world's good things. Something in his blood, moreover, craved fordignity and the splendour of high-sounding titles; craved for power also, and the fulfilment of an arrogant pride. All these things were in hisLigurian blood, and he breathed them in with the very air of Genoa. Hismind was of the receptive rather than of the constructive kind, and itwas probably through those long years spent between sea voyages and briefsojourns with his family in Genoa or Savona that he conceived that vagueIdea which, as I have tried to show, formed the impulse of his lifeduring its brief initiative period. Having once received this Idea ofdiscovery and like all other great ideas, it was in the air at the timeand was bound to take shape in some human brain--he had all his nativeand personal qualities to bring to its support. The patience to awaitits course he had learned from his humble and subordinate life. Theambition to work for great rewards was in his blood and race; and tobelief in himself, his curious vein of mystical piety was able to add thesupport of a ready belief in divine selection. This very time of waitingand endurance of disappointments also helped to cultivate in hischaracter two separate qualities--an endurance or ability to withstandinfinite hardship and disappointment; and also a greedy pride thatpromised itself great rewards for whatever should be endured. 

In all active matters Columbus was what we call a lucky man. It was luckthat brought him to Guanahani; and throughout his life this element ofgood luck continually helped him. He was lucky, that is to say, in hisrelation with inanimate things; but in his relations with men he wasalmost as consistently unlucky. First of all he was probably a bad judgeof men. His humble origin and his lack of education naturally made himdistrustful. He trusted people whom he should have regarded withsuspicion, and he was suspicious of those whom he ought to have known hecould trust. If people pleased him, he elevated them with absurdrapidity to stations far beyond their power to fill, and then wonderedthat they sometimes turned upon him; if they committed crimes againsthim, he either sought to regain their favour by forgiving them, or elsedogged them with a nagging, sulky resentment, and expected every one elseto punish them also. He could manage men if he were in the midst ofthem; there was something winning as well as commanding about his actualpresence, and those who were devoted to him would have served him to thedeath. But when he was not on the spot all his machineries and affairswent to pieces; he had no true organising ability; no sooner did he takehis hand off any affair for which he was responsible than it immediatelycame to confusion. All these defects are to be attributed to his lack ofeducation and knowledge of the world. Mental discipline is absolutelynecessary for a man who would discipline others; and knowledge of theworld is essential for one who would successfully deal with men, anddistinguish those whom he can from those whom he cannot trust. Defectsof this nature, which sometimes seem like flaws in the man's character, may be set down to this one disability--that he was not educated and wasnot by habit a man of the world. 

All his sins of misgovernment, then, may be condoned on the ground thatgoverning is a science, and that Columbus had never learned it. What wedo find, however, is that the inner light that had led him across theseas never burned clearly for him again, and was never his guide in thelater part of his life. Its radiance was quenched by the gleam of gold;for there is no doubt that Columbus was a victim of that balefulinfluence which has caused so much misery in this world. He was greedyof gold for himself undoubtedly; but he was still more greedy of it forSpain. It was his ambition to be the means of filling the coffers of theSpanish Sovereigns and so acquiring immense dignity and glory forhimself. He believed that gold was in itself a very precious andestimable thing; he knew that masses and candles could be bought for it, and very real spiritual privileges; and as he made blunder after blunder, and saw evil after evil heaping itself on his record in the New World, hebecame the more eager and frantic to acquire such a treasure of gold thatit would wipe out the other evils of his administration. And onceinvolved in that circle, there was no help for him. 

The man himself was a simple man; capable, when the whole of his variousqualities were directed upon one single thing, of that greatness which isthe crown of simplicity. Ambition was the keynote of his life; not anunworthy keynote, by any means, if only the ambition be sound; but oneserious defect of Columbus's ambition was that it was retrospectiverather than perspective. He may have had, before he sailed from Palos, an ambition to be the discoverer of a New World; but I do not think hehad. He believed there were islands or land to be discovered in the Westif only he pushed on far enough; and he was ambitious to find them andvindicate his belief. Afterwards, when he had read a little more, andwhen he conceived the plan of pretending that he had all along meant todiscover the Indies and a new road to the East, he acted in accordancewith that pretence; he tried to make his acts appear retrospectively asthough they had been prompted by a design quite different from that bywhich they had really been prompted. When he found that his discoverywas regarded as a great scientific feat, he made haste to pretend that ithad all along been meant as such, and was in fact the outcome of anelaborate scientific theory. In all this there is nothing for praise oradmiration. It indicates the presence of moral disease; but fortunatelyit is functional rather than organic disease. He was right and sound atheart; but he spread his sails too readily to the great winds of popularfavour, and the result was instability to himself, and often danger ofshipwreck to his soul. 

The ultimate test of a man's character is how he behaves in certaincircumstances when there is no great audience to watch him, and whenthere is no sovereign close at hand with bounties and rewards to offer. In a word, what matters most is a man's behaviour, not as an admiral, ora discoverer, or a viceroy, or a courtier, but as a man. In this respectColumbus's character rings true. If he was little on little occasions, he was also great on great occasions. The inner history of his fourthvoyage, if we could but know it and could take all the circumstances intoaccount, would probably reveal a degree of heroic endurance that hasnever been surpassed in the history of mankind. Put him as a man face toface with a difficulty, with nothing but his wits to devise with and histwo hands to act with, and he is never found wanting. And that is thekind of man of whom discoverers are made. The mere mathematician maywork out the facts with the greatest accuracy and prove the existence ofland at a certain point; but there is great danger that he may be knockeddown by a club on his first landing on the beach, and never bring homeany news of his discovery. The great courtier may do well for himselfand keep smooth and politic relations with kings; the great administratormay found a wonderful colony; but it is the man with the wits and thehands, and some bigness of heart to tide him over daunting passages, thatwins through the first elementary risks of any great discovery. Properlyconsidered, Columbus's fame should rest simply on the answer to thesingle question, "Did he discover new lands as he said he would?" Thatwas the greatest thing he could do, and the fact that he failed to do agreat many other things afterwards, failed the more conspicuously becausehis attempts were so conspicuous, should have no effect on our estimateof his achievement. The fame of it could no more be destroyed by himselfthan it can be destroyed by us. 

True understanding of a man and estimate of his character can only bearrived at by methods at once more comprehensive and more subtle thanthose commonly employed among men. Everything that he sees, does, andsuffers has its influence on the moulding of his character; and he mustbe considered in relation to his physical environment, no less than tohis race and ancestry. Christopher Columbus spent a great part of hisactive life on the sea; it was sea-life which inspired him with his greatIdea, it was by the conquest of the sea that he realised it; it was onthe sea that all his real triumphs over circumstance and his own weakerself were won. The influences at work upon a man whose life is spent onthe sea are as different from those at work upon one who lives on thefields as the environment of a gannet is different from the environmentof a skylark: and yet how often do we really attempt to make dueallowance for this great factor and try to estimate the extent of itsmoulding influence?

To live within sound or sight of the sea is to be conscious of a voice orcountenance that holds you in unyielding bonds. The voice, beingcontinuous, creeps into the very pulses and becomes part of the pervadingsound or silence of a man's environment; and the face, although it neverregards him, holds him with its changes and occupies his mind with itseverlasting riddle. Its profound inattention to man is part of its powerover his imagination; for although it is so absorbed and busy, and hasregard for sun and stars and a melancholy frowning concentration upon thefoot of cliffs, it is never face to face with man: he can never comewithin the focus of its great glancing vision. It is somewhere beyondtime and space that the mighty perspective of those focal rays comes toits point; and they are so wide and eternal in their sweep that we shouldfind their end, could we but trace them, in a condition far differentfrom that in which our finite views and ethics have place. In the manwho lives much on the sea we always find, if he be articulate, somethingof the dreamer and the mystic; that very condition of mind, indeed, whichwe have traced in Columbus, which sometimes led him to such heights, andsometimes brought him to such variance with the human code. 

A face that will not look upon you can never give up its secret to you;and the face of the sea is like the face of a picture or a statue roundwhich you may circle, looking at it from this point and from that, butwhose regard is fixed on something beyond and invisible to you; or it islike the face of a person well known to you in life, a face which youoften see in various surroundings, from different angles, nowunconscious, now in animated and smiling intercourse with some one else, but which never turns upon you the light of friendly knowledge andrecognition; in a word, it is unconscious of you, like all elementalthings. In the legend of the Creation it is written that when God sawthe gathering together of the waters which he called the Seas, he sawthat it was good; and he perhaps had the right to say so. But the manwho uses the sea and whose life's pathway is laid on its unstable surfacecan hardly sum up his impressions of it so simply as to say that it isgood. It is indeed to him neither good nor bad; it is utterly beyond andoutside all he knows or invents of good and bad, and can never have anyconcern with his good or his bad. It remains the pathway and territoryof powers and mysteries, thoughts and energies on a gigantic andelemental scale; and that is why the mind of man can never grapple withthe unconsciousness of the sea or his eye meet its eye. Yet it is themariner's chief associate, whether as adversary or as ally; his attitudeto things outside himself is beyond all doubt influenced by his attitudetowards it; and a true comprehension of the man Columbus must include arecognition of this constant influence on him, and of whatever effectlifelong association with so profound and mysterious an element may havehad on his conduct in the world of men. Better than many documents as anaid to our understanding of him would be intimate association with thesea, and prolonged contemplation of that face with which he was sofamiliar. We can never know the heart of it, but we can at least lookupon the face, turned from us though it is, upon which he looked. Cloudshadows following a shimmer of sunlit ripples; lines and runes traced onthe surface of a blank calm; salt laughter of purple furrows with thefoam whipping off them; tides and eddies, whirls, overfalls, ripples, breakers, seas mountains high-they are but movements and changingexpressions on an eternal countenance that once held his gaze and wonder, as it will always hold the gaze and wonder of those who follow the sea. 

So much of the man Christopher Columbus, who once was and no longer is;perished, to the last bone and fibre of him, off the face of the earth, and living now only by virtue of such truth as there was in him; who oncemanfully, according to the light that he had, bore Christ on hisshoulders across stormy seas, and found him often, in that dim light, aheavy and troublesome burden; who dropped light and burden together onthe shores of his discovery, and set going in that place of peace such aconflagration as mankind is not likely to see again for many ageneration, if indeed ever again, in this much-tortured world, suchancient peace find place. 

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A man standing on the sea-shoreAbsent for a little time, and his organisation went to piecesAll days, however hard, have an evening, and all journeys an endAmerigo VespucciAnd every one goes naked and unashamedAt last extricate himself from the theological stuporAttempts that have been made to glorify him sociallyBede, in the eighth century, established it finally (sphericity)Began to offer bargains to the AlmightyBelieved that the Spaniards came from heavenBiography which obscures the truth with legends and pretencesCannibal epicures did not care for the flesh of women and boysChristian era denied the theory of the roundness of the earthColumbus, calling for an egg, laid a wagerColumbus never once mentions his wifeColumbus's habit of being untruthful in regard to his own pastCooling off in his enthusiasm as the pastime became a taskDesire to get a great deal of money without working for itDiminishing object to the wet eyes of his mother, sailed awayDogs wagged their tails, but that never barkedEstablishment of ten footmen and twenty other servantsExchanging the natives for cattleFirst known discovery of tobacco by EuropeansFirst organised transaction of slavery on the part of ColumbusFreed by force and with gunsHaving issued three Bulls in twenty-four hours, he desistedHe had a way of rising above petty indignitiesHe was a great stickler for the observances of religionHearts quick to burn, quick to forgetHeretics were being burned every year by the Grand InquisitorHigh time, indeed, that they should be taught to wear clothingIdea of importing black African labour to the New WorldIdeas to him were of more value than factsIf there were no results, there would be no rewardsInclined to be pompousIrving: so inaccurate, so untrue to life, and so profoundly dullIslands in that sea had their greatest length east and westJuan Ponce de Leon, the discoverer of FloridaLearn the blessings of Christianity under the whipLives happily in our dreams, as blank as sunshineLogic is irresistible if you only grant the first little stepLoose way in which the term India was applied in the Middle AgesMan with a GrievanceMan of single rather than manifold ideasMore than a touch of crafty and elaborate dissimulationNautical phrase "make it so. "Never to deal with subordinatesNo more troubled by any wonder, sleeps at lastNo Spanish women accompanied it (2d expedition)Nothing so ludicrous as an Idea to those who do not share itOnly confirmative evidence remainedPatience which holds men back from theorisingPresence of the owner makes the horse fatProfessors of Christ brought not peace, but a swordReligion has in our days fallen into decaySaw potatoes also, although they did not know what they wereSea of DarknessSeeking to hire the protection of the VirginShe must either sin or be celibateShifts and deceits that he practisedSpaniards sometimes hanged thirteen of them in a rowSpaniards undertook to teach the heathen the Christian religionSt. Chrysostom opposed the theory of the earth's roundnessStayed till night to eat their sop for fear of seeing (weevils)Stuffed so full indeed that eyes and ears are closedTasks that are the common heritage of all small boysTerror and amazement; they had never seen horses beforeThe cross and the sword, the whip-lash and the GospelThe great thing in those days was to discover somethingThe missionary walked beside the slave-driverThe terrified seamen making vows to the VirginTheologians, however, proved equal to the occasionThere is deception and untruth somewhereThey saw the past in the light of the presentTook himself and the world very seriouslyVague longing and unrest that is the life-force of the worldWhen the pot boils the scum rises to the surfaceWho never could meet any trouble without grumbling